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Okay, So a lot going on, a lot that's very disturbing. We're going to get to that with regard to the latest Israeli strike on Gaza, but wanted to start with this.
You can put this up on the screen.
Latest numbers are that sixty seven people were wounded. These were all soldiers wounded Sunday after a drone struck an IDF base in Israel. This was a Heswula drone strike. You also had a number of people four who I believe were killed. So you've had a significant number of
casualties here. And part of what is so significant here is that this drone was able to get through their you know, extensive anti anti missile defense systems, so iron Dome failed and they're looking into why that happened and how this was able to get through. Apparently there was another drone that attempted to get through as well. They were able to intercept that one, but this one was successful.
The army, they say, is investigating why no sirns are sound and why interception attempts failed as well as the drone's route. In addition, earlier in that same day, twenty eight IDF soldiers were wounded by anti tank fire in two separate incidents in Lebanon. We can put up on the screen this image of the cross border attacks because I just don't want people to get a false impression here. So obviously Heswela has been firing back, but it's still
a very one sided conflict. Overall, it's very, you know, very unbalanced towards the Israeli side. You have twelve thousand roughly combined cross border attacks. Eight hundred and ninety one of those were Israeli attacks on Lebanin. You've had two one hundred and sixty three which were HESBLA and others attacks on Israel. Total combined desks one thousand, five hundred and sixty two of those, almost all of them were Lebanese people one thy five hundred and twenty nine, just
thirty three Israelis killed in these cross order attacks. Nevertheless, are obviously incredibly significant in terms of Israeli's sense of security. They've been sold by their leadership class that the way for them to be safe and to be able to return to northern Israel towns that have been evacuated since October seventh is through war, is through bullets and guns and missiles and drones and bombs.
And they also, you know, I.
Think really thought they degraded Hesbla to the point that the it was probably just going to kind of fall apart. Sata assassinated in Esralla, you had that massage, massive pager and walkie talkie attack, and Hezbela showing here that they still have a lot of fighting power and still have an ability to strike within Israel.
Important though, I really want.
To emphasize the fact that you know, Hesbla here striking a legitimate military target. And I think a lot of people should ponder the fact that the military that we're backing, which we're about to count to talk about in a minute, the IDF, the one that worshipping the bombs for just attacked a hospital with a tense city of refugees filled with patients, you know, and children and women, and the ones that we call terrorists are attacking legitimate military targets and going after soldiers.
Well, what I think it highlights is more the lack of security and the ability for them to actually penetrate IDF defenses. And it just is the same thing where look, yes, you can wipe out Inncerala and all that, but everything kept saying here Hasbola is a much more capable force. Also, I want everybody to understand how much that this is the preview of what warfare looks like in the twenty
first century. This drone hitting a cafeteria, This is been going on in Ukraine now for three straight years, and that's exactly how they've been able to kill a ton of Ukrainians, to kill over a ton of Russians. There are so many horrible drone videos out there of them just following people. So the point is that this type of warfare is exactly the way that they're trying to get around traditional weapon systems, rockets, missiles and all that penetrate it very very small and still be able to
really you know, cause significant amounts of damage. This is one of a very deadly incident inside of Israel for the IDEF.
Another one is.
Let's underscore the US commitment to this. Not nearly enough people are understanding the gravity of what has now been announced by the Biden administration. Let's put this up there on the screen. US is going to deploy one hundred troops to operate an advanced anti missile system in Israel amidst high tensions. What we are talking about is the THAD missile defense system, the Terminal high Altitude Area Defense. I was actually pretty familiar with that. I covered a
lot of it with respect to South Korea. It is one of our most advanced missile anti missile defense technologies, and it is one of those that is you can see it actually in front of you on the mobile trucks and makes it very easy to deploy and all of that. But the point is is that if you think about this system and why it's so important, is it is physically incapable to run it without American soldiers
on the ground. It's one of the reasons why the Ukrainians have been begging America for a bad system for the begin basically since the beginning of the war, and we're like, no, we're not going to do it because we'd have to put our own guys on the ground. But now think about this, Not only would we have our guys operating an anti missile defense system, but what do you think the number one target of a drone or any of these other places is going to be?
Is that?
And so that means we're putting our people in an extremely high risk situation, and nobody in the US political establishment is saying a damn word about it. Joe Biden promised there will be no troops that boots on the ground, you know, for the defense of Israel. Well, already that
was a lie with the whole Gaza peer situation. It was a lie previously whenever three of our guys were killed in that Jordanian Syria insane raid, which are in the drone attack, which still nobody's ever answered any questions about. But this is the most direct intervention by the United States.
It also just increases It also shows you, you know, the Israelis brag about Arrow three and Arrow two and all of that, but when it comes down to it, and there's some worries with Iran, what are they doing and they're like, hey, we need fat What does that tell you? It shows you that their missile defense technology, which we pay for and build, is still not all that operable and they need some of the highest level
of US defense to keep them where they're at. But worse, I think is that it gives them the ability they can do whatever they want. Now you know, you can go and hit a nuclear site if you want to. Now you've got big Daddy America and one hundred US soldiers who are defending you. And this is basically an insurance policy for the coming massive strike on Iran.
That's right, that will happen.
And that's why I'm scared, because there are now our people are the ones who are in danger.
That's exactly right, And you're so right to point out to that.
Listen, our boots are already on the ground because we have forty thousand people in the region and it's a regional war. And if you think it's not, just look at all of the countries that are being bombed right now. Like you're deluding yourself if you don't think that those
soldiers are already at risk. But with regard to this move specifically, you know, we're getting these reports that Biden talked to Bob and he doesn't want them to strike Iranian oil infrastructure, that he doesn't want him to strike Iranian nuclear sites. But then you're giving him all the protection in the world so that he can operate with impunity and not bear any of the cost. So again, obviously Bbe is going to do exactly what he wants because you are not using any leverage. In fact, you're
doing the opposite of that. You are enabling this behavior because they will not bear any of the cost. Instead, we're putting our soldiers' lives at risk and putting this, you know, expensive system into the region. It's just from a policy perspective, it's utterly, utterly insane. But you know,
that's that's where we are. And the total lack of any discussion, debate, controversy around this is astonishing, you know, it's utterly astonishing what we stand on the precipice of and how little care concerned discussion debate there is in the United States Congress or certainly on the cable news airwaves.
You At the same time, we wanted to make sure and bring you this the Israelis struck un peacekeepers, These Irish peacekeepers who you know this, This UN peacekeeping force has been in southern Lebanon for quite a long time, and the Israelis told them, you need to leave, and they said, no, we're going to hold our posts like we have an important mission. You don't get to tell us when we're going to leave, so we're going to stay. So Benjamin attiaw you can put this up on the screen.
It was in Hebrew, so I'll just read some of the translation here. He demanded that these forces be evacuated from removed from South Lebanon immediately. He says that they're going to be used as human shields by Hesbola. He says, specifically, I appeal to the UN Secretary General. Your refusal to evacuate UNIFIL soldiers has turned them into hostages of Hesbola. So we all know when the Israelis break out that
human shield language, that means you're a target. That means we are not going to care whether you live or die. In fact, if anything, we're happy for you to die. It wasn't long before we got this I troops quote accounted for after reported Lebanon strike, UN sources told Reuters that Israeli troops open fire at three positions held by UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Thursday. You know this is this United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon has been
there since nineteen seventy eight. It's meant to monitor hostilities, helps to ensure humanitarian access to civilians.
And they put on a.
Long thread on Twitter on Thursday mornings saying that two peacekeepers were injured after an idea of tank fired its weapon towards an observation and tower at their headquarters, directly hitting it and causing them to fall. It said their injuries are not serious, but they do remain in the hospital. They also fired IDF soldiers on a UN position in another town, hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers
were sheltering and damaging vehicles in a communication system. An IDF drone was observed flying inside the UN position up to the bunker, and in addition, peacekeepers at that position reported the firing of several rounds which emitted smoke. Despite putting on protective mass, fifteen of those peacekeepers suffered effects including skin irritation and gas intestinal reactions after the smoke
entered the camp. The peacekeepers are receiving treatment, so IDF is firing on and gassing apparently un peacekeepers now, and the silence from the United States of America and the rest of the supposedly committed to human rights West is absolutely deafening.
Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous, isn't it.
And it's also just funny because if you think about the way that we would respond, let's say, if this was a country called Russia, well then things fall apart, now, don't they.
Can you imagine?
Of course I can. I already know because we are. We've seen it.
You know, look at all these look at the number of times but way Biden and all of them talk about, oh, the United Nations is spoken out against the Ukraine invasion.
And all that.
So if you're Russia, also, what's the lesson from this? You're like, yeah, we can just do whatever we want. They're like, they don't mean anything. If you're China, if you're any of these people, you're like, look at these is this people are a joke. They're like, all these international institutions mean nothing. I mean, the entire basis of their theory of the international rules based order and all of that is being undermined here. Also, again I just
can't get away from the cost. You know, that costs a billion dollars plus we have one hundred dollars one hundred people who are put in harm's way. The general back in the Napkin math is it takes one million dollars per year per soldier to keep them deployed abroad.
So that's one hundred mil. And then you to add in another bill.
They're like, okay, you know, one point one billion here just to make sure that they can do whatever they want to. Iran not to mention the billion dollars we just fired off, and more like what is who's why should we pay this bill? Why is this worth it? For what possible reason? And then the damage to the overall US image is just ridiculous now at this point.
Oh, I mean it's what can you even say at this point, Like there's things that we're about to talk about this, Things that would have been a controversy a year ago now just happened and no one even noticed this. I mean, remember there was a whole propaganda campaign around justifying the invasion of one hospital. Now hospitals just get bombed,
schools just get bombed. Refugee shelters just get bombed un peacekeepers. Okay, and now we're in, you know, bombing the hell on a bay route and you know, dropping eighty six two thousand pounds bunker buster bombs to get one dude, slaughtering civilians who are not Hamas, have nothing to do with Hamas, et.
Cetera, et cetera. And it's just like a shoulder shrug. I don't know.
I mean, it's it's so incredibly, so incredibly dark. And it is also totally clear that the most nihilistic, most cynical analysis of Israeli plans for genocide, ethnic cleansing, regional war with Iran dragging us into it, the most cynical analysis that occurred on you know, October eighth, turned out to be one hundred percent correct, if not sort of
understating where we'd ultimately had. I've previewed this absolute trigger warning for the images I'm about to show you, But there is a horrific IDF strike on a hospital in the Gaza Strip. Because while this is all going on with HASWLA, they continue to completely annihilate the Gaza Strip and you know, extreminate so many people there. We have no idea what the death toll is at this point.
And in the course of attacking this hospital, they lit on fire a tent camp filled with refugees, including many you know, innocent men, women and children and patients who were hooked up to ivs, many of whom had just fled and were trying to get treatment from a school that was bombed, that was being used as a shelter, that was recently bombed by the IDs. So let's kind of put these images up on the screen. So again,
these images profoundly disturbing. Here you can see the strike on the hospital complex.
And the resulting fire.
You know, it was a real judgment call whether it include the images you're about to see in the show, because they are so horrifying. These are people who you know, are being burned alive inside their tents, suffering severe burns and injuries. But you know, we felt like it was important to show what your taxpayer dollars are funding. Drop
Site actually pulled out some of these images. This is someone being engulfed in flames who is hooked up to an IV As I said before, for this is a hospital where many people were receiving treatment after an Israeli bombing of a school uh turned shelter. I'll go ahead and tell you the Israelis claimed that this was you know, a Hamas command and control center, a justification of course, that they've used for destroying effectively the entire Gaza Strip.
At this point, we also know that they have told everyone to leave Northern Gaza, but then also are firing upon people who were trying.
To leave Northern Gaza.
So there's just literally nowhere that is safe in the Gaza Strip. Of course, we know many times that there, you know, people have gone to the supposed safe zones only to be bombed, drone struck, all of those things. So just the latest horror that you know, like I said before, I think early in the conflict, this would have ignited a news cycle, would have you know, caused a significant discussion debate. Israelis would have had to come on and spin and do their whole full haspara.
Now you know, New York Times mentioned it, but that's about it.
That's about as far as it will go, and these scenes of daily horror just sort of fade into the background at this point. In addition, we can put D eight up on the screen as well, we've got just more images of the destruction in Northern Gaza, just to you know, add to the point of this. This is what is ongoing, so supposedly, you know Northern Gaza, this was where they originally had invaded, and you know, massive devastation.
These are families that are sheltering and in the background you can actually hear bombs being dropped or tanks firing. You can hear the violence outside and these children are cowering and wondering if they're gonna escape with their lives. Let's put the next piece up on the screen here.
In addition to the violence, no food has entered northern this month, So in all of October it's now October fourteenth, no food has entered whatsoever Ciena no pines, putting one million people at risk of starvation, and of course Israel's blocking this aid from coming in. They track that in August you had about seven hundred AID trucks out in
Northern Gaza, already wildly insufficient. In September only four hundred, and now in October, according to the World Food Program, no food trucks have entered Northern Gaza, and bib At Yahoo is actively floating, starving that population in order to try to starve Hamas like this is as blatantly, you know, horrific and atrocity as you can possibly imagine. It's the definition of collective punishment. And none of us can claim we didn't know, because it's happening all in front of
our eyes. Many of the bakeries in northern Gaza have been shut down for days at this point because they have no food, no fuel, no flower, no ability to produce bread, which has become like the staple food item for Palestinians in Gaza. So even as we continue to watch what's happening with Hesbla and with Iran and all these other things, the atrocities in Gaza just continue a pace and if anything escalate.
Yeah, what the Israelis have decided to do is basically like declare war on all fronts. So you have Hesba Lah, you have Lebanon, you also have the Gaza stuff that is ramping up. But really what you're watching is the total survival of bb Netchanngahu and also of explicitly ditching any sort of mentioning of the remaining hostages inside of Israel, which I'm still waiting just to see if there will
be any sort of domestic pushback. We have that story about those IDF soldiers who are like, we won't fight if it's not about the hostages. But I think he's pretty successfully moved it now from this and when you move past the hostages, then nothing really is restraining you from doing whatever you want, either in Gaza, in Lebanon or anywhere else, because now it's about some bigger project.
And remember we still have not yet seen the Israeli retaliation on Iran, which people's say could come any day now. And I would be a fool if I didn't think it would be politically calculated as well, you know, to come at the maximum point of impact for politics here in the United States.
Yeah, And I mean now they're just openly talking about ethnic cleansing, like it's not even hitten below the surface, Like it's just openly floating plans of effectively a final solution here, because they've decided that there is no possibility of peaceful coexistence. They've decided absolutely any ends is justified.
They've decided that their own safety and security can be secured through bombing and guns and starvation and annihilation and weapons and you know, I don't think that that's true, even if you don't care about the human costs, which is, you know, moral outrage of unconscionable levels. I don't think you secure safety and security by breeding hatred for your state and your government and your people throughout the entire region that you're going to continue to.
Have to live in.
So in any case, that's the latest horror for you. And you know, I'm sorry in a sense to have to show you those images, But as I said before, I think it's important that we continue to look at what our government and our taxpayers, what is being done in our name.
Make no mistake about it.
Those horrific images of patients being burned alive in tents. That's being done with the United States of America's name written all over it. So horrifying, just utterly horrifying, brutal.
We're going to turn down to some domestic politics. So Crystal, what are you taking a look at?
Well?
In Jade Vance's recent interview with The New York Times, he refused on five separate occasions to say that Trump lost the twenty twenty election. This, of course, comes on the heels of his similar refusal to admit that Trump lost on the debate stage when he was asked directly by Tim Walls. Both times, he claimed that tech company's handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story rendered that election unfair and invalid.
Let's take a listen to what he had to say in the debate.
You were asked to clarify if you believe Trump lost the twenty twenty election. Do you believe he lost the twenty twenty election?
I think that Donald Trump and I have both raised a number of issues with the twenty twenty election, but were focused on the future. I think there's an obsession here with focusing on twenty twenty. I'm much more worried about what happened after twenty twenty, which is a wide open border, groceries that are unaffordable.
And look, Senator yes or no? Did Donald Trump lose the twenty twenty elections?
Let me ask you a question. Is it okay that big technology companies censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, which independent analysis have said cost Donald Trump millions of votes?
Senator Vance, I'm going to ask you again, did Donald Trump lose the twenty twenty election?
Did big technology companies censor a story that independent studies have suggest us that would have cost Trump millions of votes.
And that's the question I'm going to ask you again, did Donald Trump lose the twenty.
Nine I've answered your question with another question. You answer my question, and all answer yours.
Now, this is a wild answer to begin with. Of course, I say this as someone, by the way, who objected to the censorship of the Hunter laptop story still does object to the censorship of the Hunter laptop story.
You can go back and roll.
The tapes if you want to check that that is true. The notion though, that because a tech company didn't handle something the way you wanted it to, an entire election is null and void and the votes of over one hundred and fifty million people rendered invalid. That is frankly insane. But that's the marker that JD. Vans and many others have laid down. So what do we make now of this?
The New York Times is reporting that the Trump campaign coordinated with billionaire Elon Musk to censor reporting on the JD. Vans vetting dossier on Twitter and to suspend the account of journalist Ken Clippenstein on that platform. Now, Twitter justified this suspension by claiming that Ken had i leaded the rules of the platform by failing to redact personal details like jd Vance's address. It was always pretty clear, though, the real motivations here, where political, had nothing to do
with this supposed doxing. First of all, Can actually sought to comply by going ahead and redacting those personal details and re uploading the dossier, but to no avail. More to the point, though, one of the primary complaints that Elon had about the previous Twitter management, and part of his rationale for buying the company, was their censorship of
the Hunter Biden laptop story. However, that story had far more personal details of private individuals, by the way, including credit card details nude photos, than the jd vance dossio, which only included a few easily googleable items. In other words, there is no consistent standard by which the Hunter Biden info would be allowed, but the jdvance info would be blocked. The motivation was politics, pure and simple, as is now
confirmed by the New York Times. Now, since that New York Times reporting, Musk actually reinstated Ken, potentially due to legal concerns actually, but the underlying material continues to suppressed. So to everyone on the right who cried foul on the laptop, and especially to those who claim that it's censorship constituted election interference sufficient to nullify the results of twenty twenty. What say you now, is this also disqualifying
election fraud? Is it also a constitution ending threat to
free speech? Because the irony here is that the thing that they accused Jack Dorsey and prior Twitter management of which was running the platform in a way that favored Democrats, that is now being done openly and explicitly by Musk, one of the richest men in the world, except not for Democrats this time, but for Republicans, not only by suspending Ken and banning links to the jd Vance dossier, but by engineering Twitter's algorithm to boost pro Trump messaging,
and by using Elon's own account, which is in everyone's feed, whether they followim or not, to promote right wing propaganda and sometimes derange conspiracy theories. But Musk's election and influence goes far beyond Kenklippenstein, and even far beyond Twitter. Elon is, after all, Donald Trump's largest supporter by dot figures and by campaign involvement. Now we don't fully know how much money Musk has put in, but Trump is bragging that the number is around five hundred million dollars half a
billion dollars. But that is actually even that just the beginning of Musk's support. We all know he jumped for Joy at a Trump rally and Butler Pennsylvania. What you may not know, though, is that he has effectively moved to Pennsylvania full time to run a turnout operation on
behalf of Trump in the critical swing state. According to The New York Times, Musk is quote personally steering the actions of a super pack that he has funded with tens of millions of dollars to turn out the vote from mister Trump, not just in Pennsylvania but across the country. He's even proposed taking a campaign bus tour across Pennsylvania and knocking on doors himself, in part to see how
his money is being used. They went on to quote a historian of the ultra rich saying that the level of funding and the direct involvement here from Musk is without precedent in modern history. In Musk, of course, he's no disinterested actor. His company profit to the tune of tens of billions of dollars from federal government contracts. In fact, according to Politico, he is among the largest Pentagon contractors. Tesla and SpaceX alone received over fifteen billion dollars of
our tax dollars just last year. In other words, Musk is one of the deep state's top beneficiaries and allies. Elon also happens to be at war right now with the federal government on a wide variety of fronts. So SpaceX is fighting with aviation regulators to.
Loosen their rules.
It's also at war with the nation's body governing labor relations that's the NLRB, over the illegal firing of workers. In fact, contrary to Trump's new union careerious approach, Elon is seeking to have the entire National Labor Relations Board deemed unconstitutional and dismantled, an outcome which would be tantamount to.
A death sentence for unions.
SpaceX is also in conflict with the EPA over wastewater discharges in Texas. Meanwhile, Tesla has been sued for discrimination by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission overclaims of racism and a legal retaliation for Trump to win, Elon could well be in a position to influence these regulatory and enforcement decisions. After all, Trump has already promised him a plum government gig should the former president return to the White House.
Trump has said he would.
Put Elon on top of a government efficiency task force, which would give him potentially all sorts of power to squeeze his competitors and further faten his own coffers.
There's a lot of fat in government that you would want to So what agencies would you want to shut down?
Well, let me have you asked another person that, because I'm going to have Elon Musk. He's he is dying to do this. You know, he's a great business guy. Actually you think of him for science and rockets. And every time I think he's telling me about a new screw was developed, he's developed a new screw. Screws of difficult and it's made out of titanium and it's so exciting. But you know what, he's a great business guy. And
he's a great cost cutter. You've seen that. And he said I could cut cost without affecting anybody.
So he will be in the cabinet.
Not in the cabinet. He doesn't want to be in the cab He just wants to be in charge of cost cutting, who have a new position, Secretary of cost cutting. Okay, Elon wants to do that, and we have incredible people. He's running a big business. You know, he can't just say, oh, I think I'll go into the cabinet. You know, other people can.
He can't.
But Elon's a little bit different in that sense, and besays that I wanted to send the rocket up to Mars. He said, He's made me a promise he'll get to Mars before the end of my administration, which will be long before hopefully China or Russia.
So that's the official campaign position that's been floated, not to say nothing of the favors that Elon could curry with Trump himself or the giant tax breaks that Trump is promising to all billionaires. As the wealthiest man in the world with business interests across a range of industries, maybe no one stands to gain or lose more depending on the administration in power than Elon Musk, a point he actually joked about recently with Tucker Carlson, remarking that
if Trump loses, he is screwed. It goes without saying the billionaires buying government to protect their class interests is exactly the sort of thing that anyone actually committed to democracy should strenuously oppose, regardless of partisan affiliation. Billionaire political influence, after all, is nothing new. It knows no political party. Kamala Harris has already raised a billion dollars in less
than three months on the trail. Mark Cuban and Reid Hoffman, among others, are using their influence right now to try to shape a future Harris administration's anti trust and sec enforcement strategies, with Lena Khan firmly in their cross hairs,
something we have covered multiple times on this show. But when you put it all together, no exaggeration to say that Musk is single handedly testing the limits of how far one billionaire can go to buy an election and remake the government to suit himself and his business's needs. You can only imagine the level of freak out on the right if this situation was reversed.
Now.
Probably the closest equivalent to Elon on the harriside is Reied Hoffman. That is, the LinkedIn billionaire has become its democratic donor. Donations are not fully transparent in the American political system, so we can't say exactly how much Hoffman or Musk have given, But the latest numbers suggest Hoffman has given seven million.
To Harris affiliated packs.
That's a lot of money, but it is pennies compared to the five hundred million Musk is supposedly throwing in on Trump's side. Hoffman also doesn't have substantial government contracts. He doesn't run an entire social media platform to benefit Kamala Harris. There is truly no parallel for the influence of a single individual on the Democratic side that comes anywhere close to the staggering influence this election of Elon Musk. Now, back in twenty sixteen, you'll recall Trump ran on draining
the swamp. He ran against the corruption of money and politics, famously held himself out as uncorruptible because of his own personal wealth, claiming that he alone could dismantle this corrupt influence pedaling scheme because as a wealthy donor himself, he knew all too well how all of this favor trading works.
Now he's openly celebrating when the world's richest men funneling him five hundred million dollars, directing crucial components of his campaign and running a social media giant on his behalf Musk claims that if Trump doesn't win this election, democracy will be over. Kind of a preposterous claim given the guy who's backing literally tried to overturn our democratic results and blot the peaceful transfer of power last time around.
But in truth, even considering the disgrace of January sixth and the fake elector scheme, I actually think it's fair to say Musk himself might represent a more dire threat
to democracy. The politics he's pursuing puts the whims of one billionaire oligarch, his ideology, his business interests over the will of the people, putting him in position to run the federal government with the bias and impunity with which he runs X. In such a system where money is power, no matter which candidate wins, the people of the country.
Will always lose. And I really think there's been two little.
Spirit And if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at Breakingpoints dot com. There was also Alius incident that we wanted to spotlight. I'm not sure exactly what it shows us about America, but certainly something. Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan participating in a TikTok trend that was weird. Some might say, let's take a listen. Okay, so what you saw there that was what's your name, Liz playing That's right, Liz Plank.
She's a feminist whatever, activist, journalist, except influencer who was participating in TikTok video. There where Gretchen Whitmer is feeding her at Dorrito a la, somebody who was participating in communion.
This of course.
Invited a huge backlash from a Catholic community, requiring Whitmer to issue an apology. Let's put this up there on the screen, she says, over twenty five years in public service, I would never do anything to denigrate someone's faith. I have used my platform to stand up for people's rights to hold a practice a person of reallyious believe. My
team has spoken can to the Michigan Catholic Conference. What was supposed to be a video about the importance of the Chips Act to Michigan jobs has been construed as something it was never intended to be, and I apologize for that. So that somehow was about the Chips Act building semiconductors in a state of mission.
I'm not even sure how they got there.
I don't get, I don't understand.
Maybe I'm just old, I don't know. Apparently this is like a.
TikTok this was a trend. Yeah.
But the other thing.
Is I think the chips AC thing might be in like after the fact rationalization.
I think you're right.
I think because when Liz initially posted the video on her Instagram for disclosure, I know Liz I used to work with her, et cetera, et cetera, she didn't.
Say anything about the chips Act.
She said something like if he won't, she will or something like that. I was like, I don't know, and people in the comments were like, what is this? What does this mean? And then once there started to be this backlash, then she either editor repot hosted it with something about the chips Act. So I feel like that may have been like an attempt to clean it up after the fact.
But I don't know.
I have no idea you actually told me. I didn't realize this that crushing Wimer is kind of big on TikTok.
Yes, No, she's very very she is TikTok pilled, like beyond anyone. Yeah, she might be the most like in touch slash on TikTok National Democratic politician, as I understand, but she does all of these boards.
I guess.
I guess the thing is this was like being in touch with TikTok.
Yeah, in a way that puts you way out of touch with what anyone else would perceive in watching this video. So I don't know, Liza, I'm not religious, so the communion thing didn't honestly come to mind.
For me when I first watched. I just thought, like, what the hell is this?
I've only been knew.
I think I've been to a Catholic mass twice as an attendee, just funerals or.
Weddings or whatever. And even I was like, oh man, I was like.
So.
The caption, by the way, actually did try and play into the Chips Act.
It said, chips aren't just delicious.
The Chips Act is a game changer for US tank and manufacturing, boosting domestic production of semiconductors to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers. Donald Trump would put that at risk, is what the caption reads. So I have again no idea why that you would participate in this, especially for a quote unquote chipsack.
Thing for abortion.
Look like taking my cringe factor out of it, Like, when I see these politicians doing these, how do you say that the apple dance or whatever?
Is that brat is that Charlie? It's the extra chap. I forget whatever's Charlie a charge.
So when they do the apple dance, I'm cringing, but I'm like, okay, well they're talking an abortion, like you know, it's whatever.
Not for me, it's clearly to somebody else.
When I see Josh Shapiro, he does a ton of tiktoks about again about abortion with like the blinking eyes thing where he's like when Republicans want to take abortion away, it's like blank blank again. I think it's cringe, but I understand and like the formulation this, I don't get it. I'm like, how did you get here? It also shows the danger of being I guess too online well from the Democratic side, and so that's why it's also worth there because.
We've seen that many times on the Republican side, I guess. I mean, this is the era we live in now, right, I mean, it does go perfectly with the conversation we're just having about like podcasts and rogan and how like if you want to reach this demographic. In some ways, the Republican side has sort of leaned into Twitter, like Elon's Twitter, as their sort of vibe and energy, and Democrats have sort of leaned into like TikTok as their vibe and energy this election. And you know this is
some of the fallout of that. I guess that's the most substanctive point I could make.
Well said, all right, we'll see you guys later.