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I don't think it's hyperbolic to say, I mean we are truly poised on the brink of a massive regional, if not larger war. We can go ahead and put some images up on the screen here, not entirely unexpected, but still obviously dramatic and deeply disturbing. You had a barrage of missiles fired at Israel ap pearced to be at military sites within Israel across the entire country.
Just keep this footage rolling.
Some of those missiles, which were reportedly ballistic and hypersonic. Some of them were of course shot down by the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system. Some of them, though, were not. You can see some of those impacting the ground That may be the ones in Tel Aviv.
I'm not sure.
I know there were some in Tel Aviv, but really throughout the country. Still very much early hours in terms of assessing what the damage is. As far as we know, there was only one casualty. It was actually a Palestinian the West Bank, and I believe the reporting I saw on all of these things continue to be kind of murky, was that he was actually struck by the fallout from
one of those interceptor iron dome interceptor missiles. So obviously we've been tracking very closely this continued escalation and the continued provocations from Israel that led to this point, and also the continued abdication of duty from the Biden administration, which is incredibly consequential. Here you have this in response to a number of actions, including the assass targeted assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Hania in Iran's capital city of Tehran.
We've been kind of waiting for some sort of response there from Iran. They've been I have to say, very you know, sort of cautious and measured and seem very much not to want to get pulled into a further escalation.
And then of course you had the massive attacks on HESBLA, both with the pager and walkie talkie attacks and then with the assassination of Nosraala, along with the decimation using over eighty two thousand pound bombs of somewhere around one thousand Lebanese people as well quite a number of women and children among them. You now have the early phases of a ground invasion into Lebanon, so Iran saying that
these strikes are in retaliation for those actions. The latest we know is that it appears the US, of course standing strong with Israel. They have a right to defend themselves all the things you would expect them to say. Kamala Harris came out and gave a big speech thing, you know, everything you would expect her to say, nothing off script, and Israel threatening an aggressive response in reaction to this. And so you know, Ryan, I think this
is we were jokings like Dallas humor. This is like the least surprising October surprise of all time, because we have watched the way that Biebe has continued to want to escalate and expand this war.
And that's no surprise.
That's in his political interest, it's in his long term ideological interest. And Joe Biden has said from the beginning that avoiding what you're seeing on your screen right now, that this was his primary goal with respect to Israel and Palestine. And yet through his refusal to ever say no at any juncture and do anything other than, you know, leak to the problem.
My gosh, I'm so angry, I'm so upset, et cetera, et cetera.
This is the incredibly predictable, almost certain result of that inaction from the Biden administration.
Yeah, and we have. So the IRGC put out a statement which I think is really interesting if you parse it, where they say this was done quote in response to the assassination of Martyr Hania Sayad, Hassan Nostralla and sat
Our Nifo Raushan. We targeted important targets. So because the IRGC waited to respond at the behest of the United States, Israel kind of got a two for here, because they're responding at once to the assassination of Honeya in Tehran and then also to the assassination their top officials in Root plus of Nosralla. But then they say, and this is the key, this is the key detail. They say, if the Zionist regime responds to our attack, our next
attacks will be more devastating. And they note in their statement that they targeted three military bases nev Team which houses F thirty five aircraft nets, Aerim, which houses F fifteen jets used in the assassination assassination of Nosrella, and Tell NAV base near Tel Aviv. So they were very clear, we're not going after civilian targets, We're going after military targets. And they explained why they went after the military targets, and then they say, basically, if you don't strike back,
this is over. Like we had to save face. You did all of these things to us. Now we've done these things to you. We're even. The US has responded by calling it a brazen attack and saying that Iran must be punished Iran, you know, the US could come out and say, all right, you know what, you you actually did blow up a guy in Tehran, and you actually did blow up their generals in bay Rude well, and they responded.
Last time, reportedly, Biden urged Baby to say, listen, you shot down their missiles. Let's call it, call it even and stop there. No, obviously it didn't stop there, but but it.
Did, because that was a yes.
Well let's be clear though, in terms of the White House statement, you know, so far and everything I watched. I spent the entire day for you know, ri IP myself watching every like government press conference, State Department, Pentagon and that's.
The state got Were you there? I got discs No question.
Interesting, Well there you go. I'm sure you knew it was a good question.
The most important one to me was actually Jake Sullivan's statement, where in dig Sullivan's statement he said he saw it as an escalatory a quote significant escalation, and that we will work with Israel in their response, fantascitly basically greenlighting this. We should not forget what happened last time. So yes, the White House did put out a statement and saying, hey, you guys shouldn't do anything, but a lot of people
forget that. The Israelis remember struck that air defense system that's right outside an Iranian nuclear site, which was actually very militarily significant. Because if I pair it with some of the statements are coming out of the Israeli highest echelons, we are seeing open calls for a couple of things, one to wipe out Iranian oil refineries, Two is to wipe out Iranian nuclear facilities, which specifically that previous strike was like a warning. It's like, hey, we took out
the air defense. We can come back here if we want to, just to show you. Three is actually just straight up regime change. And I have been deeply concerned here because the most senior elements of the Israeli regime all from people inside and outside the government. You know, I was watching MSNBC actually to see if audal Mayor, who is criticized bb AT points, to see what he would say he was advocating for regime change in Iran.
We have enough.
Tolly Bennett, the previous Prime minister here theoretically who was in opposition.
He has a long statement out.
He says Israel has now the greatest opportunity in fifty years to change the face of the Middle East. The leadership blah blah blah made him a terrible mistake. He says, we must now remove this terrible threat to our children's future, which grant the Iranian people an opportunity to rise up and shake off the regime that tyrannizes it's women and
its daughter. So clearly now regime change is like the uniparty decision here that has been arrived at at the elites with Tel Aviv and at the top of the Israeli government. So when we combine that with what we previously saw from them, I don't think it is out of the question to say that we could see a full on IDF bombing of major targets all across Iran on top of a possible assassination of the Ayatola Hamiani.
So previously I was watching some senior military officials, former IDF and others who were on Fox News, and almost immediately after the strike, like minutes afterwards, they were saying, oh, well, the Ayatola is now somebody that we could see here. So it is very, very possible that in the next week or so we see an actual campaign of regime change that is potentially foisted or on Iran by Israel. But there's no question that any of US should have that this will not involve the United States.
We would give them the weapons to do so.
Two dozen interceptors were actually fired by US Navy assets.
I did the back of an.
African mac We are at one hundred million for today just today in terms of how much it costs to shoot down that the Iranians remembering some of the largest ballistic missile I believe one of the largest stocks in the entire world, quite cheaply preparing for this for quite a long time. Another big tell is that if you guys have seen a Israelis keep saying this was a very successful operation, it's not as success If some of the missiles get in, it's a failure. If a missile
frights your military assets, that is a huge failure. Also, what would the number be if America didn't fire twenty four of those one hundred and eighty out of the sky.
I think we actually know what the answer is.
And so you when you start to put all of these together, we actually saw a determ you know, part of these really responses they're like, we need to have deterrence restored. That's a tell because they keep saying it was an ineffective attack.
No, it's not an ineffective attack.
It struck military targets inside of Israel, didn't kill anyone, probably more by design on the Iranian side, Well, I.
Was gonna say, I mean it was this was intended to overwhelm the iron domes, the saturation ballistic missiles when you do that, you're specifically trying to overwhelm the Iron Dome.
Yes, so that's obviously what it was.
So that Yeah, and that's another thing. There's Iron Dome, there's Arrow three, and there's David Slings. So iron Dome typically used for rockets. I believe the ballistical missile defense Arrow three David Sling also was engaged. But anyways, I mean, and also who wants to know who sells each the part of all three events?
Yeah, you know, you're right, where do you think all those come from?
Everything is from the United States. So we are fully going to be involved. And if you think that there's going to be an Israeli attempt to overthrow how many people live in Iran? Tens of millions, a country of ten million can try and have regime change in a country of tens of millions of people, massive a traditional power center in the Middle East, Right, Okay, but you know that's not actually wouldn't wipe out this quote unquote the regime if they want full on type of regime change.
There's no question about who's actually going to be the person footing that bill. So we're in a very precarious moment America is basically tacitly green lighting, and it's really bombing of Iran, something Obama works tirelessly in an office to try to prevent.
I mean, I'm really shocking.
I don't even think you can say tacitly when you know tacitly backing it. Based on the public comments and also based on the report that we got that Brett McGirk and others in the White House we're privately encouraging the invasion and the attacks in Lebanon over the objections of the Department of Defense and the State Department. So they, you know, have bought into the philosophy of nen Yahoo and how much Biden's involved in that or not at this point, who.
The hell knows.
That's what's terrifying.
But they've they have bought into the philosophy the you know, first the escalate to de escalate. How's that working out for you? But now I think that at least the key officials like Brett McGirk, who seemed to be running the show, they have bought into this idea of this is our moment to remake the Middle East, this is our moment to strike the nuclear to strike to diminish the influence of Iran in the region. And so I
don't think it's I don't think it's tacit. I think it's an explicit support for continued spiraling escalation and Israeli.
You know, overwhelming response here to.
Sager's point about what we were here immediately from some ex military guys, people who are sort of in those ar orbits on Fox News and other channels, that was absolutely this is the time, if ever there is a time to strike the Iranian missiles stright, it's the Iranian missiles and nuclear program.
It is now.
There will not be a better opportunity. This is a time for regime change. It's the time for dramatic attacks on the nuclear program.
This is it.
You have to seize it.
And what I find to be completely terrifying is the disagreement that we've seen in the administration. When you have the Pentagon saying mmm, and then you have the Biden administration. We still don't know to what extent the President of the United States, who was so incapacitated that his own party didn't think that he could run on the ticket after millions of people had voted for him and he
had been nominated. He's that incapacitated. And right now we're engaged in a war where there are multiple nuclear powers. We're funding a proxy war with an ally that's a nuclear power in Ukraine. Right now, it's incredibly fragile, and Joe Biden isn't.
We don't even understand what he thinks about any of that. I've take cell it like I'm going nuts.
Like we have one hundred billion dollars of the weapons flowing into Ukraine. Our factories can barely keep up there. We've got you know, by the way, I heard a very talent comment from the Pentagon today at the press briefing if you listen closely, where they basically quasi confirmed that they had quote doubled the number of assets in the region for Israel. Well, we know the back of the Napkin math was forty thousand. So are we at eighty thousand people who are now in the middle eighty
thousand people. We have two aircraft carriers, we have multiple US Navy destroyers. The USS coal is one of those that fired today.
China's eager about that.
Well, and so there's a lot like I just like if the geopolitical situation we have never been more overstretched or less prepared actually for two massive wars. You know, even to just be funding it actually be physically impossible for us to even fund both Israel and Ukraine at the same time, let alone actually have to engage our own people.
You know.
Another point where I feel extremely black pilled is just on the uniform normity of the American political system. And if you read I have the commalist statement in front of me, Iran is a destabilizing, dangerous force in the Middle East. Today's on attack on Israel only further demonstrates that, as I have said, I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself against Iran and Iran back terrorists, militias.
My commitment to the security of Israel's unwavering. Let us be clear, is Iran is not only a threat to Israel. Iran is a threat to American personnel in the region.
Why are they there anyone want to say that American interests and the innocent civilians across the region who suffer at the hands of Iran based in Iran back to terrorist proxy that is the ex oh and then continuing we will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend US forces and interests and interests against Iran.
I mean, and Iran back terrorists. That's a Trump statement. If that's Biden's state.
If you read that statement, I would have no idea what it could be. Almost literally any outside of you know, we could name the few. You know it's not Rasha Thomas.
You've got a few on side of that. It could literally be any of them.
It's replacement.
In the real world. The statement only makes sense if you reverse the countries Iran and Israel, like who's who's the destabilizing influence in the region here? This week Jared Kushner, Uh, basically did you see this? He basically said, Now, he said what you were saying is people are saying after the strike, but before the strike. He was saying, now is the moment is a once in a generation opportunity.
There's no chance that they missed that in Iran, like as they're sitting around like wondering like when and whether they're going to they're going to respond. And then then Yahoo does his English language video to the Iranian people, which is like you think you think we're.
All stupid, why don't we play that we have a VV four.
Ready, everybody, Let's go ahead, Eric if you can, and we'll let us all take a listen.
I speak a lot about the leaders of Iran, yet at this pivotal moment, I want to address you, the people of Iran. I want to do so directly, without filters, without middlemen. Every day you see a regime that subjugates, you make fiery speeches about defending Lebanon, defending Gaza. Yet every day that regime plunges our region deeper into darkness and deeper into war. Every day their puppets are eliminated. As muhammadev Asnzuela, there is nowhere in the Middle East
Israel cannot reach. There's nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country.
With every passing.
Moment, the regime is bringing you, the noble Persian people, closer to the Abyss. The vast majority of Iranians know their regime doesn't care a whit about them.
I was just saying, incredible to hear him in one brass Iran's dragging the region into war and then in the next breath brag about all of the various bombs that they're dropping. But yeah, no, I mean this is laying the predicate for regime Gene.
This was before the Iran This wasfore.
That's exactly right, and it's very similar language to what we heard before Gaza are our war is not with the people of Gaza, even as they're saying there, we're going to treat them like animals, We're going to cut off the food, the.
Water, et cetera, et cetera.
Very similar language before they went into Lebanon. And now we see this language as they, you know, as they begin this escalation with Iran.
If you follow Yunis to Rawi or others who are reporting on Gaza, the slaughter there is just ramping up now that now that people are wondering like okay, what's the Israeli response going to be? And watching the Iranian attack and they're just unleashing all bloody hell.
What's hit by some of the missiles?
Toy I thought I was so, I mean, if we just zoom out right now, Israel is bombing Gaza, They've invaded the West Bank, they're bombing Yemen, they're bombed Syria, they're bombing Lebanon, and they're about to bomb are Run.
And it's also really important in all.
Of this not to lose sight of what this all comes back to. I mean, they, the Israeli officials set it quite plainly to NBC News. The reason they assassinated Nostralla, the reason they decided to assassinate him now, is because he would not decouple a deal with Israel from a ceasefire in Gaza. The you know, the missiles start from Hesbela after October seventh in what they see as defense of Gaza, and they have been consistent the whole time. Listen,
come to a ceasefire, this all ends. We know that that was true because when there was a ceasefire for a very short period of time, not only from Hesbela, but from the other Iranian backed militias in Iraq and Syrian elsewhere, they stopped firing missiles. The Hoosies stopped doing what they were doing during that period of ceasefire. So all of this could have been avoided, could have been avoided, and could be tomorrow, and could be.
Tomorrow if only tonight.
Obviously, Bibe's not gonna if only Joe Biden would say, I'm not shipping you arms like I'm done, i am not sending the weapons to continue this and they are wholly dependent on our weapons shipments, wholly dependent.
It could be over tomorrow and.
Then we'd have an interesting election on it. Go ahead, yeah, Boebe, take it to the American people.
And that's the other thing is, you know, I think we all know Bobe would prefer to have Trump in the White House.
I'm beginning to.
Wonder if Joe Biden would prefer to have Trump in the White House because it's sure as hell, seems like he's laying out the red carpet for him to come in. I mean, you know, not to turn it right to the horse race, but it will be interesting to hear what these two candidates have to say tonight. I imagine they'll be competing over who can be more hawkish, Yes, but it can be more aggressive.
Right, JD and Trump have the easier job of it never would have happened if we were in office.
And that's you know. I actually I saw an interesting I.
Think he's an Atlantic writer, Tyler Harper, very big Kamala, and he put out an interesting just like an observation. He's like, look for all of us out there, He's like, I think you significantly underestimate this Normy like anti war sentiment that a lot of people have with Trump. They don't follow the ins and outs and know that you know,
Trump bombed, killed Solimani or any of that. To them, they're like, well, there wasn't this going on when Trump was president, and now there's a lot of this stuff going on. Biden is president. Kamala, it sounds like she wants to continue the Biden policy. I don't like that, and then Biden or Trump and JD can very easily which the exact statement, the immediate statement from Trump that I saw that came out from the campaign. I don't even think it focused on oh Iran made a big mistake.
It was like Iran didn't do this while I was in office. Ukraine would never have happened. Iran never would have happened.
It's chaos. That's good for the income, right.
But there's like a there's like an there is an instinct of the sheer likes to simplicity of that observation that I actually do think could be potentially powerful. That is also the danger that we've talked about probably add an ausium now at this point on the show, is like the Kamala just clinging to the Biden policy is both crazy politically and I mean also you know, just strategically as well. Wants to escalate the war in Ukraine, wants to escalate the war with Gaza. What's basically back
in Israeli invasion of Iran? I mean, can we can we all just sit and appreciate that, like we are basically co signing a potential regime change operation in Iran? How did it go last time? He has one of this four decades? He said it on you know, he said it on a hot mic, he said it on an open mic. He said it up before Congress. This has been his ideological project. Also, we were just talking
about how Gaza is getting hit. You know, another thing, we're not even talking about the hostages, who the only sympathetic thing that potentially could have constrained that they don't care about them anymore. There you can kill them or they let them die. They don't care, you know, and they never had.
We always known that they never cared, because from day one, there was a deal on the table all for all, you release all our hostages, We release all your hostages.
There was also a deal on the table that they've talked about since then. They talked about this with Jeremy and some of his interviews within days. They said, look, this was a much bigger operation than we expected it
was going to be. We will give you all the civilians if you pledge not to just send ground troops into Gaza, all of them right now, and then from there you bomb us all you want, and we'll work out a deal for the for the military captives that we have, for hostages that you have, we'll trade them back and forth. Yeah, like that was it they put that deal on the table. No, well, no, it's.
Also worth I mean just thinking about when you have Israelis today hiding in bomb shelters and actual like craters Israeli territory.
What that is going to do?
I mean just psychologically to the politics in Israel. That's going to Yahoo responds to that. Obviously, his political future is important because his actual like freedom as a human being.
It's madam, very like it was either the Israel Twitter account or the idea of Twitter account. And you know they often will do these weird cringes off like what is this so the what is this tweet of their today? They wrote in all caps, this is not normal. Yeah, and there's so many layers to that, like what do you mean it's not normal? Like, do you guys not watch your own broadcasts? Do not read your own news? What has your military been doing for eleven straight months? If?
If this isn't normal, what they're saying is not normal is that they're shooting back at.
Them and hitting it and actually hitting.
And what they're also saying is that this is not normal for white people, Like there's something there's it's a message that's being sent to like the US and Europe, like we are your bastion of civilization. We should not have to live through this. These brown people, they're used to this, this violent environment that's normal for them. For us,
it's not normal times. Visrael has an interesting line. They say, the exact locations of such impacts and damage are barred from publication by the idea of sensor And.
You should note clearly a lot of those videos that initially put out were taken down. The most important videos that are coming out are those that were filmed in the West Bank or in Gaza. That's the only reason that we know for sure, and from live TV cameras rolling here in the United States that there were significant hits.
So do not believe the Israelis whenever they say, oh it was a one hundred, but whatever bullshit number they put out like they did last time, there were serious There was damage that was happened tonight, happened to military assets.
There was damage in April as well. Yes, that's been fleaked out, but there was complicity that everyone agreed to say. You know what, let's not admit how much damage there was because that reduces public pressure. So okay, you know what I was gonna get behind that there was no damage.
You want to say were fund But the thing.
Is we're news organizations that we're going to have to say that.
It also doesn't appear like sorry. It also doesn't appear like they are planning on de escalating or using this as an excuse to save face and avoid retaliatory response whatsoever.
So it's just incredibly dark and basically, you know.
This is the latest provocations that we described that the target assassination of Ismail Hania, the Taxon Haswala assassination of Nostralla. There's also a type top IRGC commander who was killed in those strikes as well. Those are just the most recent provocations. But Bibe has been spoiling for this fight the whole time. And the lap previous strikes in April from Iran, those were closely basically coordinated with the US. There was a heads up given through you know, through
these back channels. The types of they used, you know, older missiles and drones that could be more easily detected. It was of a different scale. It was intentionally designed. It appears to save some face but not really do a lot of significant damage. This is you know, this is Iran finally somewhat giving Babe what he wants because they were faced with the prospect of okay, so it looks like it doesn't matter whether we attack Israel or not,
They're going to attack us. So we can either just sit back and take that, or we can go out and try to do something and try to save some face in advance after these you know, extraordinary provocations. And so after all of this time, you know, this is Iran basically giving Babe what he wants that will give him the chips to work with to you know, get his bigger war and get the US on board.
And all of this.
I was singing on the way over here. It sort of reminds me of the like ropodope strategy that Kamala deployed so effectively. It's Donald Trump in the last debate. It's also predictable, like it's almost theater.
How many times have.
We been warning that this is worth thinking? Like, you know, we're smart people, but we're not geniuses, and we don't have access to internal communic again and intelligence and whatever. And it's like, don't you see what he wants? Don't you see where this is heading? And I don't know what they like. The answer is either they're the dumbest people on earth or they're just incredibly evil. And I'm really not sure that.
I mean, maybe this is a project. This is what they want, This is what Beebie wants. He knows that if he if they strike Iranian nuclear facility or if they kill the Ayatola, there is a one hundred percent chance of full blown US involvement in the war. It's impossible, it's quite little. So all you have to do is get things to that level. And now you're not fine. And then, by the way, those bombs, where do you think they're all coming from? Now when we're in it together,
and then the American people do everything. Look, the other thing I've really come to realize is not only are people not following this, but the level of propaganda is wild. So like I watch all three that works immediately on Fox, the very first thing you hear is like, we need regime change.
This is all Biden's fault. This we need regime change. It's all Biden's fault.
We need to have a full blown war. They didn't have a single guest on that didn't say that I saw. I don't have CNN through the plan or whatever. I okay, so I'll rely on you. Tooe on MSNBC, it was the same. It's like even aoudle Maher, the liberal former Israeli PM regime change. We need regime change in Iran. I'm watching this being like, look, the boomers who control all of our lives, like they believe this shit, Like they they will back a war with Iran. It would
take it will be like Iraq again. We will need three years of the disaster. The boomers will buy hook line and sinker until tens of thousands of Americans and others are either wounded or killed.
And then eventually people are like maybe with in such a bad idea this is potentially so much worse than a rock.
Just today, Jake Sullivan, Just today, Jake Sullivan posted a victory lap about the Biden administration's foreign policy. Was sort of just like how last year Jake Sullivan was talking about how the Middle East has never been this peaceful.
A week before October seventh.
Today he publishes this long essay in Foreign Affairs about how successful I'm sorry, this is Blinket, not Jake Sullivan. Yeah, Blinken publishes this long essay in Foreign Affairs about how successful the Biden administration.
Foreign policy has been.
One of his points, one of his points was literally that the relationship between the Brooks countries is superficial. It's not as rooted as a lot of people say it is, and the Biden administration is handling all of this. That is quite a bet to take in a situation like this where you're absolutely right, we are pulled into it no matter what, and we are currently there's a kinetic war between our ally that we are funding and Russia.
I mean, this is like insane.
Levels of geopolitical fragility and A we don't know where the commander in chief is and B that is that should terrify everyone because in recent days, the US has not had a heads up about Estralla the strike. They were not told in advance about the pagers, And I'm like, whatever you think about that. The point is, we are funding this war that has all of these different implications geopolitically, we are supporting this, We're backing it on the international stage.
And it's basically out of Biden's control. The other not that it's not his fault for how it's escalated, but like he does anyone have confidence that he's being listened to.
The irony too, I keep thinking about it is everyone always said, oh, well, we got to fund Ukraine so that China does invade time, Okay, we got a fund Israel so that China doesn't invade Taiwan. If America gets itself involved in two ground wars and is bogged down and selling weapons, what do you think the best possible timing to invade Taiwan is?
What are actually care? Yeah?
Are the US Navy is shooting down spending one hundred million dollars in one day, a billion dollars in a single day last time around, using all of our production facilities, and the only actual country matters to the United States will actually get taken out. It's like this is the the illogic of all of their arguments of like their whole d what is it de escalate through escalation?
What a nonsense.
It's going really well, that plan's going really especially with Biden.
I mean, you know, we can't. We have to linger. He's cooked, his brain is gone.
Whatever is left there is just like he's like, that's all we get from it, and we get slept Walk. I don't even know if it's slept walk, Like I said, I think it was an evil These Brett McGirk and other officials behind the scenes very clearly just hijacked the White House and the administration, possibly with his assent or not, regardless of his responsibility. He's the president and this is where we're here. And so and imagine this. If Biden loses Kama the election because of the mean Iran war,
how could they politically ever justify it. But if when they get the you know, the explanation afterwards, they won't. They wouldn't mention it once like it wasn't because of it, Rod, it was something else. That's what why she lost.
You were talking about the news coverage, and yeah, I was watching CNN.
Reminded me why I don't watch.
Does of Jake Taburn wolf Blitzer.
You know, it's just I know, I'm Pollyannish, I guess about this, But I think human lives matter. I think human lives, whether they're Israeli or Lebanese or Palestinian, like, I think they should all matter and we should care about them as equally as we can. And one thousand Lebanese people were slaughtered last week and they didn't care at all, not at all.
I Toy did this, and it's true.
I literally saw more Karen concern for inanimate objects in Tel Aviv today than I saw for a single slaughtered Lebanese person, let alone. The God only knows how many Palestinians have been killed at this point. And you know, I know people feel like this is all very far away right now. But I said this to you Emily when we were co hosting on Monday, like we're we're at a tipping point in terms of the international order.
There.
It's the era of the US soule superpower and the post World War two can sell it's gone, it's gone. What's happening right now is authoring the rules of the road going forward, and right now, those rules of the road look like, if you have the bombs, you can blow up schools, una agencies, embassies. You know, you can drop eighty five bombs on residential buildings to keep get one dude. You compare that to what we did with
Bin Laan. Not to say we're perfect, but compare that to what we did with Bin lan we're authoring eight today.
We would just bomb that entire town.
Yeah, we're authoring a new order where hey, if you can infiltrate a civilian supply chain and booby trap walkie talkies or cell phones or laptop computers and harm.
Your adversary, hey go do it.
But if you want to invade your next neighbor and create a quote unquote buffer zone.
Hey go ahead.
And you got the arms, you got the weapons, go ahead, it's your right. That's the world that we are authoring right now, because who which of our average like, what credibility would we have to complain about it going forward? When we're not just tacitly agreeing to it, we're encouraging it. We're shipping the bombs, we're providing the cover our politicians are going out and saying this is right and good
and it was a measure of justice. Like that's the world we're all going to have to live in that is being authored right now in this moment.
And doing it under the pretense of the rule space international order, right, Like, that's what's so wild about the way that the US has approached this conflict actually for years, not just since October seventh, wielding the so called rulespase international Order as a cudgel against other countries well then also sort of turning a.
Blind eye to it.
And it's that inconsistency that if you care, let's just say you're an America first realist, like let's say your team MAGA, not exactly Team Mega America America is realist. But this is actually, I'm not gonna speak for you, but this is actually kind of your perspective that like, you completely destroy the credibility of.
Your credibility was destroyed the day that we invaded Iraq. But okay, let's yes, let's but that's the thing.
Yes, what drives me crazy, Yes, when I have to hear about like.
Oh, Russia struck a single.
Ukrainian apartment building and then at the same time I watched, you know, the naz RelA apartment building get blown it apart with it, and I'm like, why should I care? Exactly like, we're okay with it here and we're not here, and so one is noble, the other is fine. Which is it? Which one is it? And it's like that's the maddening part of it. You're also very correct. I
really want to echo what you said. You know, you think America doesn't have the possibility capability to infiltrate a supply chain and blow people up?
Yeah, we do. Do you think that we don't have the capability.
To level like been luck we could have destroyed we could have wiped a bodabot off the map, the entire city.
However, there are many people Army academy.
We don't don't do it and didn't do it for a reason, which is where you're like, well, if you do this, we're opening up a whole can of worms and all that. And you know, if you are, what did Russia want to do in Ukraine?
They wanted to d not.
I mean, look at the language from naugh Tally Bennett and others about the Iranians.
I believe thed called them Nazis, and it's.
Like, okay, well we're normalizing the rhetoric here, and then we're you know, saying that the rhetoric over here is so horrible. Well, which one is it? And people in India they see the difference. People in Brazil they see the difference. The rising global powers see it completely differently than the way than the way that we do. And rogue nations all over the world can look at Israel
like Russia looking at Israel. Wow, they will laugh in our face whenever they say that they want to keep twenty percent of Ukraine and we say that that's somehow, some threat to democracy.
Look at the Armenia Azerbaijan situation.
A lot of people move past that that was not only used with Israeli weapons, but the pretext a lot of it was now, now is the right time to resolve all of these questions. So we have created this deeply unstable international system of which we no longer have the crutch of even the rhetoric of the rules based international order. And it does and this is the other key.
It makes America not only less safe because we're tied to this, but the global system is designed for the American way of life, Like look at these bombings in Yemen. You know this with the hoo thies and all those strikes as we're about to talk about with the ports, these people have tremendous you know, impact over all of our lives. The so called rules based international order was just a pretext for the American empire to make stuff cheap.
I actually kind of support.
That, but my point as long as they're all being honest about what it is.
But that's going to go away.
This is BacT.
Now we're all going to see what the reality of taking that away and enabling these types of things are. And that actually terrifies me more than anything, because America is already broke. Where things are right now, imagine twenty five thirty five, forty fifty sixty percent inflation. We're living in another world, I mean literally in another world. And our entire economic system is built on cheap capital and
cheap goods and debt. And so when you step to then turn around increased military GP and we we might have to have a draft like who god knows what, and this is not far fetched. If we get into a war with Iran, Iraq broke US, Yeah.
I also just want to mention I can't imagine being in issues of someone who's in like you know, near Asheville, North Carolina, and just had their empire like life destroyed and flooded and still no sell and no food and whatever, and it's like, oh, and here we go with another fucking war. Like you know or anyone anywhere in the country. It was like, you know, struggling and like the priorities to be because we did not vote for this.
We voted for the opposite of this many times.
Right.
You look at the polling on conditioning aid to Israel, on continuing ship weapons to is overwhelming. It's overwhelming, but the lockstep consensus out of Washington leaves none of us with any doubt no matter what happens in this election where this is all headed. I do want to get really quickly to the port strike. Yeah, let's do it, because you know, speaking of what's going on domestically and shipping, you gave us a good segue there, and I do want to, you know, spend some time preving in the
debate before the debate actually starts. But you've got forty five thousand port workers now on strike, you know, stretching from Maine all the way to Texas, and the president of that union being quite fiery in his rhetoric about what this means. Obviously, you know, if if the longshoremen are not working, goods are not moving in those ports, now what the economists and what the politicians are saying
is okay. Well, for a few days, businesses were kind of prepared for this, and they re routed goods to the West Coast, et cetera, et cetera. If it drags on, though, there will be significant impact. Let's take a listen to a little bit of what the president of the International Longshoreman's Union had to say.
These people today don't know what a shreike is.
Right when my men hit the streets from Maine to Texas, every single port a lockdown, you know what's gonna happen, I'll tell you.
First week be all over the news, every nine boom boom.
Second week, guys who sell casts can't sell costs because the cars ain't coming in off the ships. They get laid off. Third week, malls are closing down. They can't get the goods from China, they can't sell clothes, they can't do this.
Everything in the United.
States comes on a ship, they go out of business. Construction workers get laid off because the materials aren't coming in, the steel's not coming in, the lumber's not coming in.
They lose their job.
Everybody's hating the long showman now because now they realize how important our jobs are. Now I have the President screaming at me. I'm putting a taff Hartley on.
You go ahead, Ted, Folly means I have to go back to work for ninety days after cooling you off. Period.
Do you think when I go back for ninety days, those men are going to go to work on that pier.
It's going to cost the money, the company's money to pay the salaries.
Well, they go one from thirty moves and now and maybe the eight they're gonna be like this, who's gonna win here? In the long run, You're better off sitting down and let's get a contract and let's move on with this world.
And could today's world. I'll cripple you.
I will cripple you, and you'll have no idea what that means.
Nobody does.
So he clearly Ryan understands the power.
It would have been better if you would be better if he was a TikTok and he was in a passenger seat, yeah, talking into it.
Oh yeah, that would be the vibe.
Give us all you you really flag this and have been on top of this more than maybe anyone, So give us a sense of the history here, what they're asking for, etc.
I mean, they know that they have the choke points of the economy and.
The choke points of this election coming up too.
And with the election be coming up, Yes, but at the same time, they know there's going to be like he said, he's going to have the president yelling at him. He's going to have Mayor re Pete, no doubt yelling at him. Mayor Repete's been in the middle of this trying to get it to a deal. They're asking for five dollars an hour extra a year every year for their six for their six year contract, and they're fighting against automation.
Yeah.
Those are the two. Those are the two big things.
Yeah.
The automation piece seems to be a really significant part of it as well, which is something we've tracked with other strikes, in particular some of the Hollywood strikes previously, where the writers were really concerned and the actors were very concerned about the use of their likenesses.
Let's put the next one up on the screen, please, can we put up is it C two?
Because that actually has a map. This is kind of useful.
So what you see are all of the ports there along the East coast that are currently shut down. The port of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore is so significant in terms of the amount of trade.
This also comes.
Before retail is about to have its biggest quarter Q four, always the biggest one for retail December thanksgiving all of those sales. So I mean, it's very smartly timed on their part. It would I mean, in terms of the specifics of the contract, like Ryan was saying, they're asking
for that raise that would happen. What was it? The ISLA wants the base hourly rate for it to change to sixty nine dollars from a thirty nine dollars for hour, a seventy seven percent pay increase that would fit phase in over six years as a condition to sit down to talks with maritime employers. The kind of issue right now is that they rejected the previous one, the ISLA. But it wasn't just over wage issues. It was specifically
also about automation. Their response to everyone who's like, oh, that's ridiculous, like, well, first of all, it's over six years. But their real beef with them is about the amount of profit that ocean carriers had during COVID, so everyone will remember all of that have been cleaned up.
Yeah, and they raised prices.
Those the worst abusers in terms of corporate there.
Worst who was it. They're they're worse than the trains. Like remember we cover yeah, railway strikes. These people are filthy rich. So that's really where the where the actual sticking point is. I think the real question will actually about beat about media coverage because kind of like last time, the railway workers weren't able to get their message across really at all. Biden crushed them effectively and forced through
that deal. So this time kind of like he's saying, he's like, well, the media is going to blame us, but you know, if you actually explain the situation, look, without taking a side or whatever, if you explain the situation, it's reasonable in terms of the way the contract works
and all of that. Politically, I have seen criticism of them of like, hey, you guys are screwing over Biden and the Democrats like when they need you once, but if the contract comes up over every six years, what are you supposed to do?
Just wait another Like.
Yeah, like total nonsense, Like yeah, their contract was up. It's not like they timed it to coincide with the election. Now it happens to give them some a little digital.
Leverage, but puts the three up on the screen.
This will be interesting to see if there's a question tonight at the debate to JD Vance and Tim Walls.
About this strike.
So Biden so far has been pretty much on the side of the workers. He said, mister he was asking, mister present, will you intervene in the dock workers strike if they go on strike on Tuesday? He said no, And they said why not because there's collective bargaining and
I don't believe in TAFT hardly. So, without getting too much into the minutie, here and here you have Bernie Sanders saying President bideners right, and Biden put on another statement that you know, echoed and elaborated on this basic instinct. The railway workers are operate under a different set of specific laws that are specific to their industry, whereas the
dock workers are just broadly under a taft hardly. So you have Republicans, a lot of Republicans now who are like, use taff hardly to stop this strike that's going to be devastated the economy, et cetera, et cetera. And you've had Biden so far on the other side of that saying, know, there's a collective bargaining and you know collective bargaining is occurring, the the companies.
Need to do right by the workers, et cetera, et cetera.
So, given jadie Vance's positioning in particular, is trying to be more pro labor, trying to signal, you know, more friendliness towards unions, I'm curious how he would handle a question on this issue because most Republicans have been on the side of just like crush the workers and getting them back to.
Work, and you know, you have Trump out there.
I don't think it's unlike you never know.
I mean, they're.
Economic issue right right now, they.
Catch on that it's happening. Yeah, I don't know.
Do they watch counterpoints?
They should. It's happening now and a week from now, if it's still happening, it's all anybody's going to be talking.
About right, Yeah, no, that's exactly right, and it would be I'm curious to what Trump would say about it, because he.
Well, this guy is friends with Trump, apparently are there's photos of the.
But I think the Union did endorse Kamala that yes, well, so you know that's not unusual or in common in the labor world. But the Union is officially behind Kamala Harris. But you know, Trump Hill do these sort of like virtue signals towards labor. But then when it push comes to shove, he's there bragging with Elon about how cool it was that Elon was firing striking workers and complaining about how we never liked to pay overtime and would do whatever he could to get.
Out of it.
So you know what comes down to the specifics, it's not always there.
Well, and let's put this next element up on the screen because Ryan, I want to see if you agree with your former colleague Stampskin, who says this latest Biden statement on the potential strigglings heavily in favor of the long shortman demands. So Biden says collective bargain bargaining is the best way for workers to get the pay and
benefits they deserve. I have urged USMX, which represents a group of four NORN carriers, to come to the table and present a fair work offer to the workers of the International Long Shorman's Association that ensures they're paid appropriately aligned with their invaluable contribution. So we were just talking writing about the sort of unknown, the known unknown of Biden in foreign policy right now, Like we know that he's the president, we don't know what that means at
any given moment. How could that translate to potential negotiations here?
What are the tea leaves that you read from that?
Well when he was did you see the clip where he was getting off Air Force one or getting out of the motorcade and somebody said, you know, what do you what do you think of the port strike? And they were talking about Israel striking the port in Yemen. Yeah, he said, he said, I'm working. I've been on the phone with him. We're going to get a deal. And everybody like lost their minds. They had no idea that
there was a port strike coming. The only court strike they knew about was the one that Israel had launched on on Hoe data. So he has you know, he has been involved in this and you know he's carrying he's you know, he's facilitating the launch of a regional war now in the Middle East. At the same time, no other president has crapped on Taft haartly like that before. No other president commuting put out a statement.
That part was like, maybe we shouldn't have switched out Comma.
I wish we had more time so we could actually get into half heart the politics not fascinating. There was a time in this country where every single person knew the name.
It's probably been like when half the country were in.
Sixty seventy years and something like that.
Sixty percent of the country was in a union and people like it.
You know.
LBJ literally ran on the whole Taft Hartley thing back in nineteen forty eight.
But anyway, we don't have to we.
Don't have to take We can instead pivot down to the vice presidential debate, which of course is going to be starting here in about thirty six minutes.
Just so everybody understands, we will be streaming.
It will be uh, you'll see the sky shot of us like tiny little box down there, and maybe we'll interject from time to time so you can watch it with us. You can see our live reactions, which is also fun. And by the way, don't forget to take advantage of our election discount BP twenty twenty four at breaking points dot com. But did