Hey, guys, ready or not, twenty twenty four is here and we here at breaking points, are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election.
We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio ad staff, give.
You, guys, the best independent coverage that is possible.
If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that, let's get to the show everything. Good morning, everybody, it is Thursday. We have a big show for today. What do we have today?
Yeah, there is a lot to get into.
We are going to update you on a horrific mass shooting out of Maine. We also have actually some good news UAW striking a tentative deal with Ford.
We're going to bring you that.
We also, of course, have a lot that is happening in Israel and with Gaza Biden down playing civilian deaths. A ground invasion does appear imminent, but some real questions remain there. We also do have a house speaker, boy has he said some things. We're going to get into who he is, what he might do, and what the landscape looks like there. We also have the new York Times going to war with US intel community over the reality of that hospital bombing.
Very interesting.
We'll bring you all of the details there and you can decide for yourself what's going on. Al Jazeera targeted both by Tony Blinkin on a policy level and also directly by Israeli bomb's horrific story. We'll bring you that one as well. And on a somewhat lighter note, Hollywood kind of melting down right now over exactly how to properly virtue signal Yes, with all of the atrocities being committed right now in Gaza and with Israeli civilians as well.
Yeah, we're excited to position in particular to talk about that one. Before we actually get to that, though, there's a piece of major breaking news we just wanted to update everybody on at the moment.
Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen.
Several people have been murdered in May Lewistown, Maine after a man who is likely Robert carrd who's been named as a person of interest. Photos released of that man in a mass shooting incident at a bar in Lewistown, Maine. As I mentioned, now, the details on this remain and still coming out. They show photos released by the Sheriff's office of him holding some sort of rifle of rampaging through and murdering people. That death toll, Crystal is unknown
right now. At this time, mister Robert Carr of Boden, Maine is the person of interest as I said, it was named by law enforcement. He is actually a firearms instructor and a former or as a US Army reservist as well. Some of the details also on the motivation unfortunately for mister Card. One document that's been circulated to law enforcement officials. Crystal said that Carr has been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the
summer of twenty twenty three. Did not provide details about his treatment, but said Card had reported at that time hearing voices and threats to shoot up a military base.
So, okay, that's what we know about him so far.
Has not yet been apprehended by law enforcement, but it does look like it is a horrific situation. We're not telling anybody with the death tollisks who don't know that's been cautioned yet from law enforcement.
But it's not small. It's fortunately horrific.
It looks like this occurred at multiple locations, both a bowling alley and a restaurant in this town of Lewiston, Maine. What the local paper is saying is that at least sixteen people were killed and perhaps as many as twenty two dozens more injured in multiple shootings. As Saber said, he is still on the loose, so this continues to be an unfolding tragedy and breaking new story. People residents in that area have been told to shelter in place.
He is considered to be armed and dangerous. They said this morning that they did find the vehicle that they thought that he had used basically abandoned, but they still don't know where this dude is according to what we have information that we have at this time, so a horrific situation. If these numbers, do you know, end up being accurate, this will be likely the worst mass shooting
in Maine history. Maine has not actually suffered with that many mass shootings as compared to the rest of the country. So our hearts break for the community there, for the people who have lost loved ones in yet another horrific mass shooting tragedy, And you know, a lot of questions here, of course, about the fact that he was known to
have mental health issues. He was reportedly known to have said that he was hearing voices that he wanted to shoot up a military base and somehow still this firearms instructor able to you know, be free have these kind of weapons and perpetrate this type of horrific mass strategy.
Yeah, that's going to be the big question about how the weapons were required in terms of so Maine does not have a red flag law as I understand it. However, you know, based on a lot of regulations, most state, local, and federal do require that if you do have it, you know, mental health event like that. Also questions around like whether he would still retain access to fire us from his job, whether he was cleared his army reserve status,
and what the military knew about all of this. So we know, we're not going to drop this one because in almost every single case you know, known to federal authorities is almost like a meme at this point, but unfortunately does remain true. So that's what we know about the situation so far. It's a terrible, terrible event. The people of Lewistown right now are sheltering in place nearby. Bates College students classes are canceled and they're anxiously awaiting.
You know, probably a lot of terrified parents out there. The advisory from law enforcements don't approach him. He's considered, as you said, armed and dangerous. That's basically we've got so far. Unfortunately, all right, we're going to move to Israel and palsign. There's a major breaking news yesterday from President Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing a date has been set for the invasion of Gaza.
And also coding it basically as a holy war.
I don't think there's any other way to describe some of the rhetoric. Here's what he had to say.
Our war against Hamas is a test for all of humanity. It is a struggle between the access of evil of Iran, Zabala and Hamas and the axis of a freedom and progress. We are the people of the light. They are the people of darkness, and light shall triumph over darkness. My role is to lead all Israelis, the State of Israel,
and the people of Israel to an overpowering victory. It is now a time to come together for one purpose, to storm ahead to achieve victory in joint with a joint forces and a profound belief in our justness, a profound belief in the eternity of the Jewish people. We shall realize the prophecy of Isaiah. There will no longer be stealing at your borders, and your gates will be of glory.
Together, we will fight together, we will win.
That translation there from I twenty four or Israeli news coming from them, just to be clear about how exactly what it was meant to be messaged and how it's interpreted and then distributed to the Israeli public. At the same time, Crystal, there has been some news overnight that we were just discussing, Israeli troops and tanks actually launched an hour's long ground raid into northern Gaza. This is
overnight on Thursday. The military set striking several military targets in order to quote prepare the battlefield before the widely expected ground invasion after two weeks now of devastating air strike.
So the pre invasion setting of the ground the use of the tanks going into northern Gaza following the announcement of a date being set, it appears to be imminent, although we will talk in a little bit about how imminent it is what exactly all of that looks like, but it does seem as at the next phase of this military campaign is going to begin at least sometime soon.
And then the preview also a framing into the Israeli public as a holy war in order to garner both domestic support, but I also think, you know, targeted at some audiences here in the United States, very clear in the rhetoric that he's trying to get, yes.
Including the new Speaker of the House, which we'll get in specifically with that reference to we will fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah. I'm not a big biblical scholar person, wasn't raised in any particular religion, So I reached out to some of my Jewish friends to say, when you hear this kind of language, what does it mean to you?
And this is caught up in the whole like End Times prophecy, but it also without coming out and directly saying it is an indication of the entire land from the river to the sea, as they said, should be our land. That is the undertones of what we're talking about when he says the prophecy of Isaiah. So that
is obviously very scary. The framing of this is so I mean, it's not just reminiscent of this is literally the same language coined by David from and the neocons to talk about our own battle post nine to eleven in the quote unquote Axis of Evil. Net Yahoo takes it one step further by reiterating he said this before, and they had to take down the tweet because there was such a backlash, But now he's doubling down on it. We are the people of the light and they are
the people of darkness. Think of how disturbing that is. Think of what sort of atrocities are justified if you truly believe you are on the side of God and they are on the side of evil, If you truly believe you are fighting a holy war against an evil people of darkness, you don't even have to guess what sort of atrocities that justifies, because you can see them unfolding before your eyes right now. And you know we're
about to play some of Biden's comments. This is the administration and the government the most extreme, the most right wing in history. That Netanya, who's not even the most extreme of this coalition. These are the people that we are giving Kart black much, that we are saying we want to send you more weapons, that we are saying you can do whatever you want with no holds barred.
And actually they just passed, you know, first at order of business in the House to just pass a resolution effectively backstopping green lighting whatever Israel wants to do in Gazan by the way, adding some belligerent rhetoric about Iran. Two. So let's be clear about the type of language and that is being used here and how seriously to take that in terms of their intentions and where this could go.
I also think it was not a mistake to put it in Hebrew in the speech, but then to delete the tweet that they put out in English like the actual literal translation.
Part of why we always tell light and people of darkness.
You always tell you, you know, you got to pay attention very closely what's being messages to us and what is being messaged to them. It's what's happening in different languages. Hamas does it to It's very important always to see that the information war.
Is huge, probably the biggest part of all of this.
On top of that, as you said, President Biden addressed the conflict and made a comment about civilian casualties about support for Israel more, let's take a listen to what he said yesterday.
And we will ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself against these terrorists. That's a guarantee. We also have to remember that Hamas does not represent we say it again, Hamas does not represent the vast majority of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip or anywhere else. Hamas is hiding behind Palestinian civilians and it's despicable and
not surprisingly cowardly as well. This also puts an added burden on Israel while they go after Hamas, but that does not lessen the need to operate in the line with the laws of war. For Israeli, it has to do everything in its power, Israel to everything his power, as difficult it is to protect innos and civilians. It's difficult. I continue to be alarmed about extremist settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank. That pouring gasoline on fire is
what it's like. This was a deal, the deal was made, and they're attacking Palestinians in places that they're entitled to be and it has to stop. They have to be held accountable and has to stop. Now Sydians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I'm sure innocence have been killed, and it's the price of equaging
the war. I think we should be incredibly careful. I think when that we, Israel should be incredibly careful to be sure that they're focusing on going after the folks that are propagating this war against Israel, and it's against their interest when that doesn't happen. But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using. But are these hostages in jeopardy if there is a ground in me, if you want to make a speech.
So the takeaway that we can get there from President Biden is clear, Number One, we support Israel. Number Two, trying to at least rhetorically talk about civilian casualties and about the expanding situation in the West Bank. We're going to try and flat We're going to talk about that in a little bit, just to make sure that people understand it. One of the reasons why is Hezbollah is not the only two front war that could happen in this the people in.
The West Bank.
They are very supportive of Hamas the last poll that came out of there showed the vast majority. If they're an election were held today there hasn't been an election to two thousand and five, they would probably elect them. And so that means that anything that's going on in Gaza is not going to be contained to Gaza. We've talked about the prospect of a wider war in Lebanon with Egypt, with Jordan, or with any of the Arab countries.
But you know, even we did not or have not flagged yet that it's very possible that a war inside the country itself, including the West Bank, the population there and a lot of weapons that are coming to the area, could also explode. That's part of the reason why probably President Biden made it a choice, you know, to deliberately flag this in the same speech the first time I believe that he has said anything to that effect.
There's a lot to say about what President Biden just said there. I mean, on this piece of Yeah, I'm sure some civilians have been killed, but that's the price of waging war. I want you to recall the correct and justified outrage when Israeli civilian deaths were dismissed in that same way. And now think about the most powerful man on the planet waving his hand.
Wow, that's just war.
Okay, now for all the people as oh, well, it's different because Israel doesn't target civilians.
First of all, I think.
That's bullshit, and I think we can see that by the indiscriminate bombing, the fact that forty two percent of Gaza has already been destroyed. Second of all, very hard to argue that when they're literally executing a complete siege on the entire civilian population, which when you were with Ryan and watch you Guys show, I thought it was
really very informative and sightful. He made a really I think key point, which is that in Obama's Obama being the quintessential lib right in his letter where he gently expresses some concerns about what's going on, the thing he honed in on is the siege because it's indefensible because there's no like, oh, you know, human shields, There's no like, oh, actually,
we're really trying hard to avoid hurting the civilian population. No, you are intentionally harming and keeping essential food, water, medicine, et cetera from the entire civilian population. So to look at that and handwave away and say, oh, well, we hope, we hope Israel follows international law. Well, we already know that they're not. But this has presented a real conundrum
for liberals democrats like Joe Biden. Neat Naho is not going to give them the face saving cover that perhaps previous Israeli administrations might, and so they're trying to come up with this what Adam Johnson calls like bombneiser language. Bernie Sanders going on the floor last night talking about, oh, let's have a humanitarian pause. Oh so you can have a couple hours break from having your family and your
towns blown up. That's what the quote unquote anti war senator is calling for at this point, this all this handering it we hope they follow international lunk, and you know already that they're not. So that's why all of this, you know, all of this virtue signaling language is completely without content or without import You can see how much the Israelis care about it by the way that they
are going forward and doing exactly what they want. And so what is more critical is that we have already said and we've already indicated, and with what's going on in the House right now, the resolution that was just passed and the you know, push to get more military weapons in their hands, that we'll back them really no matter what. That's the only message that they're really listening
to at this point. And I just want to make one more, you know, just to give you the numbers on the civilian death piece so we understand what we're talking about here. Yes, it's true the health ministry in Gaza is Hamas related, and so you can't take verbatim what they're saying, although I will point out the US government as recently as just a couple months ago was saying that their numbers tend to be accurate, and they tend to rely on them and find them to be relatively reasonable.
Relative reliable.
But even if you discount that, you're talking about thousands of Palestinians killed, the majority of them have been women, children, and the elderly. Do you know how many Hamas fighters have been confirmed killed by their own reports? Thirteen not thirteen percent, not thirteen hundred thirteen out of the thousands of Palestinians and Gaza who have been killed at this point. So when we're talking about civilian deaths, we're talking about
what's going on in Gaza. If your goal is rooting out Hamas, this indiscriminate bombing campaign that they've been engaged in has nothing very little to do with actually achieving that goal.
Yeah.
It actually just I think comes back to the Jocko point, and we will, I think spend a lot of time today talking about how exactly you can tactically even pull something like this off. Just to bring it back, we're teased about the West Bank. Let's put this up there on the screen. As you can all see here, weapons are now flooding into the West Bank, fueling fears of a new foref with Israel.
Quote.
Iran and its allies are operating a smuggling network that crosses hundreds of miles at least four borders as part of an effort to broaden Palestinian military capabilities beyond Hamas.
What they are talking about here is about avenues into the West Bank where they were able to bring weapons in and if a major war does break out inside of Gaza, where Hezbola may not necessarily have to draw forces away, but the West Bank itself don't forget also that there's significant tension inside the West Bank right now between Mahmudabas and the Palestinian authorities government as well as its own population, which is probably far more militant than
mister Abbas wants to admit. And that shows you why he's in great amount of difficulty and why he also canceled his meeting with President Biden.
Let's go to the next one.
Please here up on the screen, this shows you this is a past numbers. These are from the New York Times, which is sourcing it from the UN Office Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and also the Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank. Again to be clear, in the West Bank, so these are not Hamas controlled like Gaza Health Ministry.
What they are saying is that twenty twenty three already was one of the deadliest years, with several hundred Palestindians in the West Bank who had been killed and clashes with the Jewish settlers. But actually significant number have since been killed there after October seventh in a per recent spate where obviously tensions are very very high, and some of the Jewish settlers that they're talking about there have
been taking advantage. The one quote here is quote mass settlers shot and killed three Palestinians in the village of Kushka on October eleventh, according to the Palestinian health officials, at a funeral procession for the victims. The next day, settlers attacked again, killing two more Palestinians, a father and a son. That is exactly what President Biden there was referencing.
And I think it just comes back to the idea that this is widening and creating a lot more ethnic tension than is just confined to Israel and to Gaza West Bank itself.
We can't. I mean, there's a lot of people of Palestinian.
People who live there and they're in a direct border with Israel. Not only that, there's a huge Palestinian diaspora all in in Jordan and they're going to be watching, you know, some of the same scenes, and are they going to be flooding into the West Bank now, you know, wanting wanting to fight against Israel. It really does highlight like how precarious the situation is and how that's part of why the US is doing its best to draw drag Israel away as far away from any invasion as
possible because everybody with clear eyes can see it. Now, unfortunately, it doesn't seem like that's going to be possible, and so thus we've just accepted, like, oh, I guess we're all just going to be in a wider war.
We'll save that, you know, for a little bit.
But the scenes that are coming out of Gaza, as I said many times here now on the show, it it is, you know, people are not watching breaking points in the Arab world to be like, oh, that's what's happening there. They are getting this stuff direct from the source, in many cases from their relatives and others, getting direct video being sent to them on WhatsApp or on Arabic Twitter, or on Al Jazeera or the Telegram or many of the other places.
I mean.
The Internet and mobile phone data has revolutionized the way that people in the developing world get news. In my opinion, they actually get news in a more timely manner than most people in the United States. They are much more online per se, which means they are getting the completely unfiltered version of what is happening, and they happen to be related to them. So yeah, people really need to keep that in mind.
Many have direct connections. So it's not abstract, it's incredibly visceral. Just to go back to what you're saying about the West Bank and what a powder cake that is, recall that the reason part of the reason at least why there was such a dramatic failure in response initially to Moss's massacre of Israeli citizens they're outside of Gaza, is because the IDF had been redirected to the West Bank
to try to protect these Jewish settlers. There had been already a lot of IDF activity, but also Jewish settler attacks and reprisals from Palestinians. That's why those numbers of deaths in the West Bank this year were already some of the highest.
In recent memory.
Before you get to this place, you were talking about Mahmundobas and Palestinian authority. He is incredibly weak and the Palestinian authority is incredibly weak, and you're right that they have very little support because they are effectively rightly seen as collaborators and enforcing this you know, occupation and IDF
and Israeli regime inside of the West Bank. So that's why he has very little credibility, and he also has very little credibility because you know, they're just in terms of like basic security services, very much unable to deliver. I mean, most of the residents of the West Bank are effectively on their own when it comes to trying to fend off attacks from Jewish settlers or certainly from
the IDF et cetera. One of the lines that they mentioned in that Wall Street Journal article about why so many weapons are flowing into the West Bank, which you know, as Americans who are very much committed to the Second Amendment and right to self defense, et cetera, you may be able to relate to an arms dealer in the West Banks that he sells hundreds of weapons every month, mostly to people who are organizing to defend their villages
in the absence of coordinated Palestinian security. So you have, you know, a population that is increasingly armed, that have armed themselves to try to defend themselves in their own villages. You have this incredible, unchecked, unaccountable violence being perpetrated from Jewish settlers and also from the IDF. And you have the horrific atrocities that are being committed in Gaza that they are seeing every single day on their phones, on
their TVs. You know, however, they're getting their news, and yeah, you better believe this is an absolute powder cake. This is actually where Nyahu and his government and his coalition partners, they were more worried about spikes and violists out of the West Bank than they were out of Gaza. Now, they ended up obviously being wrong, but that doesn't mean there was nothing to their concerns because there have been so many provocations and so much escalating violence there already this year.
Yeah, that's right, And we have some of the footage out of Gaza, and you know, just a warning for everybody. It's very very graphic we could see here. This is actually one that was posted which showed major air strikes. This is obviously just a market area. I mean much of this just is very reminiscent of exactly.
What it looked like during the Iraq War.
This one is a supermarket where a bomb hit very close by and people began sprinting out with the security camera. This is one of the more difficult ones to watch. Just as a content warning. The person who's being pulled out here is actually a small child out of rubble, and scenes like this are you know, obviously repeating all across of Gaza. You have like a little boy there who is help being helped here at least out of the rubble. So unfortunately, this is just this is what
the reality of the life is like inside Gazi. You see a little child there again being carried. And I can just guarantee you that every single one of those is being shared, is being spread. It's on Facebook, it's on Twitter, and you know, think about our own politics. You know, one video of George Floyd set the whole country on fire.
This is like that. Time's very much.
And I just want to say again, this is before the entire invasion has begun. We had a little bit of we had a little bit of a taste from it yesterday with tanks and all that rolling in there. You know, think about it's like you have to reach back to almost a decade before of American combat forces to even preview what things are going to look like. It is literally going to be an appear in some cases like out of a movie or a video game, and not in a good way. So anyway, I think
that's a good understanding here of the forthcoming invasion. A lot of the things that are at play, We're going to turn. Now we're going to talk about the United States and it's role and how it expects its military to be engaged. Let's put this up there on the screen. This is from the Wall Street Journal, and this is a little bit of a conundrum. It's a difficult headline to work through. But as we come through some of the reporting, I think it'll all begin to make sense.
They say that Israel agrees to delay Gaza invasion to allow us to prepare defenses. So the subtext really of the article is that the United States, and we've brought you the discrete numbers, but we have sent now thousands of American troops and service members directly to the region. On top of that, we have surged two carrier strike groups, costing who knows untold amounts of.
Billions firepower to the region.
On top of that, we sent one of our most sophisticated anti missile defense systems to the region, the FAD missile battery. On top of that, we also sent extra patriot batteries. You don't do any of this if you expect to fight Hesbola. You don't especially don't do this if you expect to fight Hamas. You only do this if you expect to fight a advanced conventional military force where there is only one that wouldld potentially be involved
in this, and that's called Iran. They are almost certain at this point that something is going to pop off. Now is it going to be with the actual sovereign nation of Iran or is it going to be with Iranian proxies on the proxy front. We are already in a military combat situation with them.
We just don't even want to admit it. Let's put this up there on the screen.
The Pentagon has now admitted and held this information from US for days until it was leaked privately to journalists. Twenty four US troops have now been injured in attacks since the Gaza War began. The Biden administration has, they say, withheld these details about these incidents for days, even though they acknowledge that service members are under a heightened risk and Crystal just overnight, another US base in Syria was attacked. Of course, it bears a question of why we have
a thousand people in Syria. But my big one would be, if we're gonna have a thousand people, can we make sure that these people are safe? I mean, they're under at this point bombardment from drones, from rockets, and in some cases from missiles from god knows where are we sure that we have the requisent capabilities and stuff to deter that, because what we're really learning is how vulnerable our people are.
And these are in Iraq and in Syria.
Again, have not even mentioned the thousands of troops in Bahrain, the people in Kuwait, the people in Doha. I mean, we have soldiers all over the place in the Middle East and bases which two weeks ago they were hanging out and they had no clue that any of this was going to happen, And now they're on a footing where they could be attacked at any moment.
So this is really scary stuff.
With the carrier group, and again we've already had the USS Carney of the guided Missile destroyer which had hours long engagement shooting down freaking cruise missiles coming out of Yemen allegedly being headed over to Israel. All signs crystal point to US military engagement right now in the Middle East. The only question is is will it evolve into a full blown war with Iran or not? And I honestly
don't know. I think It's genuinely think it's a coin toss at this point considering what's going to happen.
Yeah, especially just given the like belligerence from the Nan Yahoo government, you know, his framing and belief that this is some sort of a holy war. You certainly have elements of that here within the US political class as well, Lindsay Graham coming out and saying the same thing. You know, I do think the Biden administration realizes how catastrophic it would be to get into a direct war with Iran.
You know, we brought you.
The graphic from the what's his name? We runs and Barton with our guest today, Darryl Cooper. Darryl I want to call him, Brett Darryl Cooper about how Look, we're talking about like a draft, we're talking about massive regional I mean, you were talking about World War three. When you're talking about war with Iran and along religious like holy war lines.
This is a catastrophe.
So I do believe that the Biden administration knows this would not be a good thing. They're not that dumb. But that doesn't mean that we won't end up there. There's a reason why they've tried to downplay and I actually sort of appreciate it. Tried to downplay the attacks on our troops in the region. First of all, it does raise the question among many Americans of like.
Wait, why are we there anyway?
Like did I grien what are our troops doing in these areas at this point anyway? So there's that, But also because they are very worried about the way that public sentiment, by the way that the war drums can start beating the interest that by the way defense contractors are admitting how excited they are about the possibility.
Of a broader war.
They're talking about this on earnings call, like yay, we'll get to make more money. There are a lot of forces beyond just the president of the United States that could push us in this direction. There's a couple of things to say about this possible ground invasion you mentioned there were you know, the tanks that went in and some kind of a raid overnight. It's like bulldozed paths and seemingly to ease the path of a ground invasion, you now have had multiple delays, effectively at the request
of the United States. First it was let's work on negotiating on the hostages. Now it's hey, give us some time to get defenses in the region in case this really pops off and we end up directly engaged. But there is also some indication here that Netnaho himself is interested in delaying, dragging out, and potentially limiting the ambition
and scope of this ultimate ground invasion. So Number one recalled that net and Yahoo, before all of this happened, was in serious political jeopardy, facing corruption charges, that Israel was at war with itself in terms of these judicial quote unquote reforms, trying to kneecap the independent judiciary, mass
nationwide protests, et cetera. And now he's even under war fire because some ninety percent of the Israeli public blames him in part for what was able to what Hamas was able to perpetrate, for the intelligence failures, for the military failures, etc. This is a man who built himself as quote unquote mister security and said that his one and only goal was to keep the Israeli people safe. So you can see how people are feeling about him given the manifest failures of what he said his primary
mission was as Prime Minister. So he has said that there needs to be an inquiry and questions need to be answered, even with regard to himself. But he says, after the war's hover so he has a political, major political motivation to drag his feet and drag things out as long as possible.
That's number one.
Number two, there seemed to be some indications that the American warnings about, Hey, you all don't really know what you're getting into here. This is not going to be easy, This is going to be extraordinarily difficult. You have no plan for what comes after. I would argue they actually do have a plan, but you don't seem to know what's going to come next. Do you really know what
you're getting yourself into. Combined with the fact that you had these intelligence and security failures on octob October seventh, could be could be giving nt Nyahu's some pause about going all in with the full ground invasion. Now it's very hard to tell what is real, what is misinformation? What's a fate to try to get you know, Hamas
to let down their guard in Gaza. This is all just speculation, but it is worth noting at this point that this ground invasion has now been delayed and delayed again and could could possibly be more limited than the initial full scale all in move that was being signaled early on.
Yeah, this is something I really want to talk about with Darryl on the POT whenever we talked to him, because he has said before that the IDF's military capability and track record in the more modern wars is not really the gold standard. Yeah, they're good at dropping bombs. In terms of like fighting urban combat, they have a pretty mixed record, so maybe they're realizing some of that. I really think the main thing that's holding any of this back at all is the prospect of a broader war.
Not only does pressure from the US, but pressure from inside the region. One way we can show people this is a recent interview with Queen Rania of Jordan. Queen Rania, you know, the wife of King Abdullah of Jordan. I mean, this is a figure who's definitely more described as like moderate inside of Jordanian society, and in this interview she very clearly blames Israel. It also is because inside of Jordan it's a powder keg. You give a massive Palestinian population,
the monarchy itself could be put at risk. But this, I believe is an instance of the monarchy responding to public sentiment inside of Jordan, which is outrage about the situation in Gaza. Here is a preview of what you know it looks like in the region and what she said in this interview on CNN.
Equally, I think the people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan, we are just shocked and disappointed by the world's reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen, you know, a glaring double standard in the world. When October seventh happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and it's try to defend itself and condemned the attacks that happened. But when we what we're seeing the last couple of
weeks we have, we're seeing silence in the world. You know, the countries have stopped just expressing concern or acknowledging the casualties, but always with the preface of declaration of support for Israel. And you know, are we being told that it is wrong to kill a family, an entire family at gunpoint, but it's okay to shell them to death. I mean, there is a glaring double standard here and it is
just shocking to the our world. This is the first time modern history that there is such human suffering and the world is not even calling for a ceasefire. So the silence is deafening and to many in our region, it makes the Western world complicit, you know, through their support and through the cover that they give Israel that it is just it's fright to defend itself. Many in our world are looking at the Western world is not just tolerating this, but as aiding and abtting it.
That is a very clear shot. Here at Washington.
Let me tell you that lady probably spends more time in Washington than she does back at home based upon everything I know. Also, though they want to keep their crown, they know what's going on. That is in my view right now, it's funny the Saudi government, for example, the Saudi government and the monarchy has put out an edict where they're like, hey, stop spreading some of these videos.
Around about what's going on in Gaza. You know why they don't want the population inflamed.
This is one of those situations where I really do not believe that people in the West are at least grappling with the level of like bottom up rage, which will eventually erupt into something who knows what it will look like. That interview is a good example of this.
Lady.
Her entire government, their whole regime is backed up by the United States and has been for a long time. So when she's going out there talking about the West and blaming the West like that is a clear message. Also, it was in English, again for a reason. It is
being minn clearly targeted. Agreed to directly to guys like Jake Sullivan, Anthony Blincoln and President Biden, just to be like, hey, just so you know, even your so called close allies, why do you think her husband canceled the meeting with Biden? You know, during all of that, there's there. While these places may not be democracies, it does not mean that like small d democratic like feeling is not bubbling up to the government.
The governments want to survive.
That's the story really of every regime in the Middle East, and they know where the power is right now and if right now, if anything, they are a restraining force on their population.
Yeah, there's a lot to say about that. I mean, first of all, it is worth noting she is herself Palestinian, and there are many Palestinian refugees in Jordan, and so as you say, even you know, in a place like Jordan or a place in Saudi Arabia, even in a monarchy, they are still concerned about, you know, their own population. She's also correct about the double standard here. She's also correct about how cowardly it is that there's not even an ability to sign onto resolution for a ceasefire.
And to me, the.
Most important part of what she said is how she said multiple times that watching this in the view of the Arab world, the Western world is complicit, that we in the US, and as you said, this is aimed directly at the Biden administration, no doubt about it, that we are complicit, that we are aiding and a betting.
What is happening there. And so as much as.
You like to keep your liberal, nice Internet nationalism humanitarian face in the world and all the beautiful things you said about democracy in Ukraine, et cetera, what is happening on the ground in Gaza will not be forgotten. And that you know, there is no controlling the rage that it is sparking throughout the region and really actually uniting a lot of very unlikely countries throughout the region in you know, in common cause against what is happening on
the ground in Gaza. So it really should be seen as like a warning shot at the US for what's unfolding here. And we're going to talk a little bit about Tony Blincoln going to Katar and trying to get them to rein in what Al Jazeera is doing. And you know, clearly the US is aware of how damaging these images are and how you know, volatile this situation is.
So look, this is a powder keg and it could create total chaos or are even chaotic situation, Let's be clear, but that chaos could easily spread and ignite way out of control. And even if the administration doesn't really want to find itself in a war with Iran, that doesn't mean that is any guarantee against it happening.
It's very much on the table right now. So we finally have a speaker. As we all teased, it happening. It only took what twenty nineteen days where the United States didn't have a speaker, in my opinion, didn't really change all that much.
But it is what it is.
Here is the moment that the vote happened, and that Mike Johnson, representative from Louisiana, became the next Speaker of the House.
Let's take a listen.
Well, Mike Johnson of the state of Louisiana has received two hundred and twenty votes.
There it is.
He got two hundred and twenty votes. All the Republicans actually united behind him. Honestly impressive feet after the multiple defeats and all those things that happened. But it bears the question, who is Mike Johnson?
Not?
The only ones asking people in Washington are like, who the hell is this Guy's barely been in Congress that long?
What's his track record?
Johnson, based on my research, is probably the most conservative like speaker aligned with the BASS since Newt gang Rich. I don't think there's another way to describe it. But Pastor Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, and you're a missing painter. These are all multi year creatures of the establishment, people
who had ties to the party. Sure they were swung, you know, by the base, but this person is someone I would really describe as a winger, not only just in terms of like Maga sympathies, but deeply embedded in the Capital C conservative movement for a long time, going all the way back to some of the gay marriage fights, which we will get into and just give you an idea here he's asked about his vote not to certify the twenty twenty election. Here's how he and his colleagues
handled that question. A couple of days ago. Let's take a listen. Election that was Virginia Fox the Congress, Zoman there at the top side. Shut up, but it doesn't derace I mean, it was a significant problem for Republicans in the twenty twenty two mid terms. Johnson quote recruited one hundred and twenty five Republicans to join him in signing in the US Supreme Court brief saying that January saying as much, and on January sixth, twenty twenty one,
that voted against certifying the elections. That brief was the one filed by the state of Texas. So he not only was a person who voted against certifying the results of the twenty twenty election, he actually took a pretty active role in getting some of his co workers to sign on to that. Do you want to comment on that before we move to entitlements and other things?
Yeah, I mean I was thinking about this. You used to used to talk about Josh Holly and high browse top the steal. This is very much he's kind of like that, and it sort of seems to typify his whole approach to politics. You know, people talk about the banality of evil. This is like the banality of extremism. He has this, and I think this is why he's
able to win the quote unquote moderates, and he won unanimously. Okay, every single even the most embattled Biden district Republicans voted for this man who holds incredibly extreme positions as we're about to get into. But moderates tend to not really focus that much on actual policy, and for them it's all about just like the decorum and the vibes and the.
Cordiality, etc.
So it's no surprise to me that in the end they were cowed by this message of just like this is embarrassing and it's messy, so we have to unite behind someone and it doesn't really matter who that someone ultimately is. So yeah, I think the fact that he holds so many and is a true believer hard right, you know, real right wing positions in the party. As you move into an election season where Republic paid dearly in the last midterms because of their extremism on stop
the Steal and abortion in particular. Yeah, I think this could be a real political.
Problem for them. The question is just how much Johnson is a real major political figure now obviously somebody like Nancy, how long even last, how long they last, whether or honestly anyone cares. I mean, it used to be Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan, John Bayinner. They were titans, not because of the control necessarily of the House. They raised a ton of money. I'm talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. Same with Nancy Pelosi. They did not live in Washington
or even their district. These were like warriors who were always on the plane, this fundraiser, that fundraiser.
Tuesday morning, I'm here in this city. Tuesday night, I'm in this city.
Wednesday morning, I'm in another city, and I have a reception at every single one. Every hour of their time is scheduled. It's around fundraising. Fundraising is the nexus of power, because that's why people listen to them in the first place.
Is he going to do that?
I mean, honestly, his fundraising track record is like a million dollars. He's got a three hundred x his return. I mean, do the big donors in New York and in California, like, do they even know who this guy is? Probably not, He's never been to any of those meetings. That is a Titanic like personal life burden that he's now got to bear on top of running the house, on top of is this the real ceter of policy? Ryan was a cetter of policy, There's no question about. Yeah,
he was a policy guy. Kevin he never cared about policy. He just decided to go with whatever. Gingrich though, was a real policy person, and Bayner kind of was also in his own way.
Who knows.
This is the big question of like, is he going to get dragged because he just doesn't want like drag to wherever the center of the party is and allow.
Other people to negotiate.
Probably or likely I think, but on his own positions. And this is where the big question is is will he become a national figure somebody that Democrats can run against. He certainly embodies, you know, much of the most unpopular parts of the Republican Party from the twenty twenty election, but also on entitle in programs. As I said, This is a very traditional conservative Republican.
Here's what he had to say in the past, the safety net programs.
But the reality is they're headed towards bankruptcy in just a few number of years. So security goes belly up, so does Medicare, Medicaid, all of these big spending programs, because we're drowning in debt, and so we've got to think about long term reforms to those programs.
Long term reforms all of that. I can guarantee you're going to see that in an ad somewhere. May not work obviously against him in Louisiana, but in my work in I don't.
Know, Michigan, someplace like that.
On top of that, though, and this really to me is the death now probably his single most unpopular position. Let's put this up there on the screen. In the past, you know, he has put out this is a tweet, for example, where he says, breaking late yesterday, the Louisiana Department of Health informed abortion facilities in our state. The right to life has now been restored. If you perform in an abortion and get imprisoned at hard labor for one to ten years and you re fined ten K
to a hundred kay. On top of that, signing on and directly endorsing a national abortion band. So that is probably the most salient one and probably the single most unpopular position that the man hell holds. I'm talking nationally, not necessarily in his district. Obviously, he got elected, has been re elected multiple times since twenty seventeen. But Johnson has been a conservative winger on cultural issues now for
honestly decades based upon my research. As I said, he very much comes from the traditional like Bush wing of the party in terms of his heavy activism on evangelical issues from the beginning, and then since being elevated to Congress in twenty seventeen, has also adopted kind of a maga flare to him. So, to be honest, I actually think he's a good choice to represent the Republican Party because I think, to be like, really, he has his finger on the pulse of a lot of maga stuff
from the twenty twenty election. On Ukraine as well, we can put this up there. For example, he has voted against every single Ukraine aid package since May of twenty twenty two.
Is it just ana of that picture looks like a totally awful picture.
I think he learned how to do his hair in the interim. But Mike Johnson has voted against Ukraine Aid, you know, for debt reasons and says we need to care about our border. He didn't vote to certify the election. Comes from the evangelical base of the party. He's like, as you said, he's somebody who holds like pretty traditional Republican positions but also is like traditional but unpopular for the general electorate. And also as like a nice affect
to him. He's got like multiple kids. He seems like a nice guy. The only thing going against him is five eight, which you know I got. I got some questions about it. No offense to the short guys.
As a five eight woman, I'm supportive of his height. But okay, let me give you a little bit more about this guy to see you get a full sense. He is a some may say true believer, others might say religious fanatic in terms of his social conservative views, longtime veteran of the you know, LGBTQ war on opposing any sort of rights for gay people, even going so far as when he was an attorney and spokesman for this religious right group called the Alliance Defense Fund, which
apparently is known today as the Alliance Defending Freedom. He authored an amicus brief opposing Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence versus Texas, which overturned state laws that criminalized gay sex between consenting adults. Okay, so if you ask the American public, overwhelmingly they do not think that what you do in the bedroom should be the subject.
Of state law.
He was on the other side of that, writing in part states have many legitimate grounds to proscribe same sex deviate sexual intercourse. He goes on to say, by closing these bedroom doors, they have open a Pandora's box. Okay, So those are some of the things that he was arguing, albeit in the early two thousands. He's still not just all in on like the anti trans stuff that's very popular in Republican circles these days. But he's also opposed to gay marriage. Like I said, he is a true
believer on that, on abortion, et cetera. And so, you know, do I think that Mike Johnson Trump is going to be the center of attention.
For the general election, There's no doubt about it.
But part of why Democrats had more success than they expected in the midterms is because they were successfully able to paint like, hey, it's not just Trump. All of these people are wacko. All of these people are way out there with incredibly unpopular positions that are unpalatable to the overwhelming majority of Americans. Mike Johnson very much helps Democrats to be able to make that case. And you know, Democrats are kind of bad at grabbing narratives and bad
at like, you know, pushing their messaging, et cetera. But I would not doubt that they try to use him to try to paint this broader picture, especially because again, every single Republican.
Voted for him.
So even a guy like Mike Lawler was in this you know, swing Biden district whatever, like, he is now tarred with this guy in all of his extreme positions. So as much as he may try to separate himself and I'm different than the Republicans, et cetera, et cetera, you voted for this guy who was against who wanted to criminalize gay sex and is against gay marriage and once a national abortion band from the moment of conception and was all in on stop this deal, et cetera, et cetera.
So good luck, guy.
I think that well, the question as I said, it remains is like, well, Johnson become a Nancy Pelosi type figure. The reason that Pelosi, even when Obama was president, was like the bug.
You know.
It's like everyone was like, oh my goodness, Pelosi. She's like a damon, and.
She was in every act, every Republican.
Yeah, actually I'm sure you know, I know, yeah, it was like she It's like she was the president.
Is he gonna become that? I don't think so.
Democrats in particular and even moderate it's like they hate Trump a lot more. The question is is like, what about in an after Trump world if that happens. Let's say Trump loses and this guy is still the speaker? Now what or what if he's still the Republican leader and then what tactics and all that is he going to use? Now?
Then what does it do for their ability to hold onto the House right which they have a very narrow margin.
That's another great question.
Is he going to raise money for people who are pro gay marriage or a Nancy So I forget what Nancy Mays actually believes on abortion. I honestly don't remember, but it's like, is she going to raise money for her to be run I think she's pro choice or like pro choice ish or something not in the mainstream of the Republican Party. Let's at least say that, Well, is he going to raise money based upon his beliefs or like his standard, like what litmus test is he
going to impose? This is why, you know, being ideologically flexible is actually a benefit whenever you're the leader. If you think about people like McConnell. McConnell does not care about basically anything except power and also funding foreign wars in Ukraine and in Israel now, so he flexes his muscle very very rarely whenever he actually wants something.
That's it.
I mean, he's conservative quote unquote on economic issues for big business and all of that, but he does that so that he can raise money so that he can elect more Republicans.
Chuck Schumer. Schumer does not believe anything.
This is a guy who at one point wrote a book about why we need a border wall and is now like the biggest illegal immigrant lobbyist in Washington. So it's like, you know why, because he wants to get elected in terms of Christian cinema. And then I don't know, Bernie Sanders, he looks at them as one and the same.
He like just wants his caucus to run.
Yeah, and actually, like as I said, there's a lot of good reasons for that whenever you're in leadership, because when you have a real agenda, it will obviously alienate other members in your party. How will Mike Johnson govern? We have no idea on Israel, though we do know this. This is probably one of the most pro Israel legislators to speakers, probably to ever occupy the chair. Here's what he had to say immediately upon taking the gavel. Let's take a listen.
Extraordinary crisis right now, and the world needs us to be strong. They need us to remember our creed and our admonition. Turmoil and violence of rock to Middle East and Eastern Europe. We all know what intentions continue to build in the Indo Pacific. The country demands strong leadership of this body and we must not waiver. Are our nation's greatest ally in the Middle East is under attack.
The first bill that I'm going to bring to this floor in just a little while, we'll be in support of our dear friend Israel, and we're overdue and getting that done.
Also courtesy of Chrystali actually found this one. This is from Haretz, Israeli newspaper. Let's put this up there on the screen. The new House speaker Mike Johnson, and evangelical Christian holds ties to Israel's far right. He described his twenty twenty visit to the Jerusalem Temple quote as the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy, and his election is one of the most significant victories to date for Evangelicals in DC.
I genuinely do think that is true.
Also, as I said, and I I had to explain here in the past, Evangelical Christians are more pro Israel in many cases than some people who are American Jews. And it's because it all ties to what we began our show with this whole like prophecy of Isaiah and end times for those who are Christians. I'm sorry, I didn't grow up Christian. You know, I don't know anything about the Bible.
Or the prophecy of Isaiah or whatever.
This is only based upon my understanding of like a biblical battle for the end times. It is why evangelical Christian groups often make pilgrimages to Israel, because it's described as like the final battleground. Actually when I was in Israel, encountered a lot of these people in Jerusalem, like from the Church of Memphis, Tennessee or whatever, and they're like, here's where it's all gonna happen. It's you know, the Soldiers of the East or whatever rule come from there.
I remember being like alongside and just be like, oh wow, this is kind of crazy. Anyway, this is one of those people who is very much subscribes to those beliefs, and so their fervor for Israel is on another level in some cases than even people like Joe Lieberman or other American Jews who serve We've been joking about this privately. To date, the only American congressman who has worn an IDF uniform to the US Congress, which is Brian mast is an evangelical Christian.
He is not even a Jew, but that his is a Yeah.
I mean, look, if you ask me, wearing the uniform of any foreign military probably should be legal for congressman.
But that's a whole other conversation.
I mean, yeah, the thing about basing your support for Israel on your religion is that's not negotiable.
Yeah, exactly, that's right.
You can't debate with this person.
You can't argue with them, you can't show them what's happening in Gaza, you can't persuade them with that right because this is foundational to their belief system.
So yeah, they don't care.
I mean the stuff Netna who was saying that we played of like, you know, the people of life versus the people of darkness, and you know, framing it as a holy war, and we have to fulfill the of Isaiah, and we will fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah and the access of via like he would be nodding along absolutely, and you know, he already made good on his promise that his first act as Speaker was to push through this resolution unconditionally affirming support for Israel and also, by
the way, and Michael Tracy was tweeting out some of these specific provisions with some very bellicose language towards the run, which I want to say was almost unanimously supported four twelve to ten. There were nine Democrats who voted no Rashida to leave, Corey Bush, Jamal Bowman, Andre Carson Green of Texas, AOC Summerly of Pennsylvania, Ramirez ilhan Omar. There was one Republican who voted no. Thomas Massey like a libertarian.
Well he votes no on like everything, so it's not necessarily a reflection of his views.
But I want to say, like, you know, I I would have actually felt differently about this resolution. That's just like affirming support for Israel, and Israel has a right to defend yourselves, et cetera, et cetera, if it had come right at the time when they had just suffered these attacks.
But now that we're into.
You know, the siege of Gaza and the indiscriment bond, more than seven thousand targets, forty two percent of Gaza destroyed, the overwhelming toll on civilians, the thousands of children dead, the hospitals that are no longer functioning, all of these things. When you support a resolution such as this with no language about any of that, you are giving total green light and carte blanche to what the Israeli government is doing.
So coming in this context at this moment, I mean, I think it's disgraceful and I want to applaud in particular, and we're about to talk about Jamal Bowman the fire alarm stuff, but I want to applaud him in particular because for a lot of the Democrats who voted no on this resolution, you know, their districts are such where
they're unlikely to pay a political price. It's relatively safe, not that it's ever totally safe, because you know, at these democratic packs that are extraordinarily pro Israel, that are there to enforce unanimous, you know, unanimous backing of Israel no matter what, they're still going to come in after them.
But they're a little bit safer. But Jamal Bowman is in a district where you know, this could be a real issue for him, and he voted no. And I just want to say, I think that took that took a lot of courage in order to be able to do that.
Yeah, I mean, I just think politically, I don't think there's any real price to be paid for just like being generically pro Israel. They're not looking at it in the same way. They're like, yeah, we were supposed to pass it on day one, but we couldn't because nothing happened, So yeah, we're just going to pass it now.
I mean, well, it's also like, again, all the problems that we have, like all of the issues that we have here in inflation, and the struggles in et cetera, and our priority is to once again, for the one million time reaffirm that Israel can do whatever they want, whenever they want. Seems like a very skewed priority system
to me as well. And in terms of the political piece, it was interesting hearing Ryan talking to Emily yesterday about John Fetterman, who has become this like extreme Israel hawk in all of this, and his analysis was basically, like Fetterman decided in his Senate primary that he would just do whatever the pro Israel Democrats, the Democratic majority for Israel people, which is this big pack that, like I said, tries to enforce like unanimity of opinion on being pro
Israel no matter what that he would just basically be like, whatever you all want me to.
Say, I'll say.
And so he's just like sticking to that. But there's lots of political incentive to you know, be to vote for this resolution, to say the right the right things, to as the ADLD and said, get the story right on Israel. There's and it's very difficult to talk about this without playing into anti Semitic troupes. It's true there's way more money in organization between being on that side
of the issue. There are basically zero dollars to be gotten in terms of campaign contributions, of speaking out for Palestinians or being you know, on the side of Palestinian civilian life. There is no political benefit to be gained whatsoever. And so yeah, that's why you get an incredibly lopsided result like this, because all of these people can see where the political power lies and where their personal political benefit is as well.
Let's move on to the next part that you teased, the story of the century.
Some are calling and let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen.
Jamal Bowman has now officially been charged with one count of false fire alarm in violation.
Of the DC Criminal Code.
This is according to documents which have now been filed in the District of Columbia. The Attorney General for the District of Columbia has now summoned Jamal Bowman sometime actually around right now when we're filming the show, I'm to court in order to answer for his crimes, to be.
Arraigned being charged with a misdemeanor count.
They say, you are hereby commanded to appear before the Criminal Division. All of this again is a violation of the DC Code for falsely pulling a fire alarm. The Capitol Police say that their investigation has been done for a while.
Quote.
Our agents gathered all the evidence, packaged it up, and sent the entire case with charges to prosecutors for their consideration. Obviously, the prosecutors have decided to go after him. We should put this up there on the screen as well. Let's just not forget all of this. His original explanation is that he pulled the fire alarm because it would help him open the door. Now, allegedly, according to some reports from the Capitol Police and their investigation on video, they
don't actually show him trying to open the door. So obviously I always thought he was completely full of it and he was lying. But the video evidence that we will likely hopefully hear a trial if he does contest it and stick to his original story, will vindicate that he was not telling the truth.
It is still a very bizarre situation.
I still because the context for why he would have pulled a fire alarm was to delay a vote, or.
Was to stop a vote.
I apologize about the speakership, but he did end up voting in that so I mean maybe like the jiu jitsu explanation in your mind is he pulled the fire alarm because he was late for the vote so that he could get to the vote.
So he wasn't delaying it to stop the vote.
He was delaying it so that he could get to the vote, although it didn't even work and he still did end up voting.
So no explanation does make a whole lot of sense.
But just to be clear about this, the false pulling a fire alarm, the code says that you willfully had to pull the fire alarm, So they believe they have to prove, and they believe that they have evidence beyond the shadow of a doubt, beyond reasonable doubt, that he did intentionally pull said fire alarm, not did it in an accidental manner.
That's it. That's as far as I understand it from the DC Criminal Code.
This feels like it happened eighty five years ago, and I have to say I barely cared about it at the time, and I one hundred percent don't care about it anymore.
And if Jamal Bowman.
Keeps taking courageous votes like what he just did, as far as I'm concerned, he can pull the fire alarm every damn day for the rest of his life.
I really don't care.
Well, he's a guy who believes so much in the law. He's always talking about, Oh, we got to abide by the law. We got to throw all these January six people, all all the people in jail. Like, come on, he can't be he can't be pulling fire alarms in order to delay votes.
You can say you appreciate the guy's vote, but you should be advocated for the guy to be pulling fire alarms.
I don't care. I mean, it's my official position.
There's like war and carnage going on, and I cannot possibly care about this story less. And like I said for me this week, I am one hundred percent team Jamal Bowman. I think he is one of the most courageous members in terms of this vote that he just took. He has a sizeable Jewish population in his district. For him to vote knowing this, he could actually face a political price. You know, he is likely to face a primary contender that is backed by this Democratic majority for Israel group.
So I'm pro Jamal.
I'll tell you what, if you care about Jamal, you should be telling him not to be lying and pulling fire alarms because I can guarantee you this.
Became a meme.
I still believe him. This became a meme national wie. Well, I mean, look, let's see the evidence. Let's see what he pleads at.
I want to see.
Are you gonna plead not guilty and stick to your little accidental story or are you going to admit that you lie?
Make our friends to pull a fire alarm in a different building to try to delay a vote that's happening in the like, that doesn't make any I agree.
It never made any sense. But I still think he did it. You know, he panicked it was in his mind and then he lied about it. So yeah, I mean, do we want people who were liars who are in Congress?
I think he's I think.
He's where it counted this week. He did the right thing, and so I give that. Can't be way more credit for that than this fire alarm.
SITU mean, I agree with you on a practical basis. That is mostly how we should analyze lawmakers. This's white people are like, did you see that somebody you should port like voted for this thing. I'm like, yeah, I don't care, because I care about even on this one on Mike Johnson, you know why, I don't care what he said about gay people twenty years ago. I don't want more aid to pass for Ukraine. This guy's voted
against everything for Ukraine. So for me, like, yeah, I don't care how Kevin McCarthy thought about gays in nineteen ninety. I care how he was going to bring a Ukraine vote.
In your house, speaker like that has in port and can impact the sort of led shirts that he brings.
We'll care about that done.
If he brings a national gay thing, you know, to the floor, which I don't think is going to happen, then sure, i'llso be like, hey, I don't do that. But on Ukraine, which is like a present clear thing, I'm like, look, this is the greatest thing that gonna happen at least for our side on this, in a long time.
So I will convinced that he is going to hold the line on that.
I'm not convinced either, But look, six billion is not forty billion, which is not one hundred billion.
So it's like, okay, but.
Look at how pro Israel he is. He's just gonna They're just going to tie him to get, it's.
Not the same thing. Yeah, well we don't know that.
I mean, there's a there's a thing that's high there's a bill right now in the Senate with multiple co sponsors from Republicans to strip the AID part. Mount Gate said yesterday that he would not that there's not majority support for dual Israel Ukraine AID.
So and like I said, even if they get, if they get two billion.
Or six billion, or even ten billion versus one hundred billion, I mean, that's a massive substance of difference than what would have likely happened. So look, I guess I'm talking myself into your own direction, which is I agree, you know, none of these people are angels and all of that. I still think it's amusing. And mister Bowman, I always believed was a liar, and now it appears to be vindicated.
Since you all undoubtedly recall there was that horrific explosion at Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza which killed some huge number of civilians. We still don't know exactly the toll numbers could be as high as five hundred. I've seen as low as one hundred, huge number of people, and there have been a lot of disputes over exactly what happened here. Was it Israel's fault? Was it a Palestinian
rocket that misfired? Both Israeli and US intelligence came down on the side of it was an Islamic jihad rocket which exploded midair and fell and landed in the hospital courtyard, igniting this blast explosion that killed all of these people. One of the key things that they based this assessment on was this particular video from the Al Jazeer live
coverage that evening. Okay, so we have a new development in the investigation into whatever the hell actually happened here, coming from the New York Times, directly disputing the analysis of both Israeli intelligence and critically US intelligence of what this video actually shows.
Let's put this up on the screen. So this is from journalist Eric Toller.
He says, Israeli and US intelligence officials believe that a projectile captured on videos shortly before the Ali Arab hospital explosion was a Palestinian rocket. New York Times visual investigations found that this object was actually launched from Israel and likely unrelated to the deadly blast. He goes on, I want to bring you all of this analysis here so
that you can have all of the details. So he goes on to say that an IDF spokesperson went on CNN and the BBC with a printed out screenshot from an Al Jazeera livestream showing this projectile, claiming it was the rocket that hit the hospital. We also believe that American officials are incorrectly assessing this to be a Palestinian rocket, and US officials did base did confirm to them that they believed that this was a rocket, and they used
this in their assessment. We geolocated five videos that showed this projectile launch from the north, southeast, and west. By drawing lines of perspective, three of which can be seen here, we assessed that this project was launched from near the Israeli city of nahl Us. We cannot say with confidence what exactly the projectile actually is, but we know that there is at least one iron dome launch site in nearly the same location that overlaps from the sitelines we
drew from the five videos. This site was still present in satellite imagery this year. This projectile may have been launched in reaction to barrages of rockets from Gaza. Here is the timeline one Palestinian rocket Brajes, followed shortly by two Israeli projectile launch three seventeen and a half seconds in air before the projective debtonates for explosion of the hospital.
Seven seconds later. The projectile launched from Israel detonates at least two miles away from the hospital, so not very close, and twenty five seconds passed from when the final Palestinian rocket was launched. In these videos and the hospital explosion they go on to save, the situation in the area around the hospital was chaotic that evening. The Al Jazeera livestream of the scene plus other videos we reviewed, shows at least two large explosions near the hospital in the
minute before the deadly bat blast. And he talks about and we had discussed before the fact that this very same hospital had actually been hit by a warning shell.
That part is more or less confirmed.
They had also been worn to evacuate in advance of whatever happened with this explosion. One other update here, Lamond also confirmed the newspaper. Lamond also confirmed that The New York Times, telling of what this video actually shows. Asked about the Times findings, a spokesman for the Office of the DNI said, The Times and American intelligence agencies different
interpretations of the video. So again, basically this video coupled with that, what I think is total bs alleged conversation between Hamas militants is what Israeli officials in particular were basing their assessment on, and what American intelligence was largely basing their assessment on. As far as we know based on what they've said publicly the New York Times directly disputing their analysis of this video.
What I think is interesting is that they're saying, and this actually explains a lot, because everyone was like, well, if it was Israel, and it would have had to be a jadem, it would have had to be a bomb, and if it was a bomb, then it would have caused a ton more damage in the hospital. Because it didn't end up anying hospital, It hit the parking lot and then a lot of the scorch marks that were
on top of it. Everyone was like, well, that's consistent with the rocket and with something that is fueled in particular by it basically has fuel and it gets on fire and it like sprays everywhere. According to their analysis, if it was then an iron dome interceptor, what was it intercepting they say. A possible answer is that by the IDF's own admission, there was a rocket incoming to nahalal Oz and saw it at the exact moment of this projectile launch, which would then strengthen their theory now
that this was actually an iron Dome missile. And the thing is is that again, if anybody doesn't even know, Iron Dome is the Israeli system which shoots down incoming or intercepts more importantly incoming rockets, like with their own missiles that were fired. There's a lot of software and technology that goes into that. The point though, is that that could be again could be consistent.
I guess. The big question though, is why did.
Hamas just scrub everything in the parking lot the day afterwards. They never released any of the photos. They were like, no, no, it's an Israeli strike. And remember even their story was that it wasn't an iron don interceptor. They blamed the
Israeli air strike. They specifically said air strike. So the confounding variable is the parking lot itself, Hamas's sketchiness and their immediate lies about the death toll, at least on a media basis, there's just no way they could have decided at that time be like, oh, five armed people died and you just know that, you know what, thirty minutes after this strike as impossible.
So anyway, independent estimates, which again journalists can't get and aza to verify, but are that hundreds were killed, but probably not the five hundred that the Health Ministry originally said. We still don't know exactly what the civilian what the death toll was, and we still have we still don't nominy definitive proof of what happened here.
The New York Times.
Investigation is basically saying this video that Israel and that the US were pointing to again is really like the bedrock piece of their evidence doesn't actually show anything that had anything to do with this hospital because based on first of all, it came from Israel, second of all, it was two miles away from the hospital, and the timing doesn't exactly match up either. So they're not saying, like, we know what happened, but they are saying there were
Israeli airstrikes right in the vicinity of the hospital. At the same time is really say, oh, but it wasn't close.
Enough to damage to the hospital. Maybe that's true, maybe it's not.
And they're saying this thing that the intelligence agencies are basing their assessment on doesn't show what they're purporting it to.
Uh that they say that it showed.
I think on the other side, what you point to is maybe the most critical piece against Hamas's version of the story, which is like, Okay, well, where's your avenue.
You have to take a picture of the dam the thing you want it and then send it to the world.
And I think I think it's important to say, like, there are other things that Israel could have used to bond the site other than jay Dance, sure right, and which would have have a smaller footprint and be more consistent with the type of creator that appears to have been, you know, in this parking lot, in this courtyard after the strike. But it's number one. I think it's just,
you know, adds to the level of uncertainty. It certainly calls into question the Israeli as I've never had any confidence that the Israelis or the American intelligence agencies would tell us the truth about what was.
Going on here.
They desperately needed at that time some evidence to say it wasn't us because Remember the context of this was number one, mass protests instantly break out. Number two Biden literally visiting Israel that morning, and he needed some kind of face saving something he could say and point to.
So you know, there was a real effort to muster this quote unquote evidence so that he could point to and say, oh no, no, no, it was the other team in his words, and New York Times and other news outlets, I would say, at this point, really calling that into question.
Yeah.
The reason why it's just so difficult is, you know, immediately came to me, I'm like, okay, I obviously I don't trust what Hama says.
Okay.
Then it was like, all right, well then this evidence comes out. And then for me, I didn't even care about the phone call. For me, it was the parking lot phone like, okay with parking lot. Protto is period, Like, it's not an air strike. So then it doesn't seem like there could have been an alternative explanation. But now there is an alternative explanation that considers it, and you're
not wrong, I mean, don't forget. The Times actually is the one who debunked the original store about the US airstrike on supposedly against the ISIS ring leader, which ended up killing like some random civilian and his kids in Afghanistan. If you'll remember that airstrike the water salesman or whatever, it was actually a ne York Time visual investigation that completely demunked that.
So anyway, look, I don't know.
And what's even more of a plot twist is the guy who's behind this he used to work for Bellingcat, which is like ties to the CIA. So I'm like, I don't know, man. I mean, it's like, you know, one case, a CIA says no, no, no, it was Israel. Now he's departing, but now he works than the New York Times. He's like, no, actually it might have been Israel. I have truly no clue. I'm just gonna come on
the side of or probably won't know. And it also just comes back to the side of why don't we let journalists into Gaza, because when you do, that's a hell of a lot easier. Somebody can go and bring an actual camera and maybe even a news crew to this hospital and look around moments after the strike and be like, all right, what's that?
What's that on the ground.
It's simple when otherwise we're constantly relying on all of this, although honestly, at this point the damage is done both ways, and it's just a great highlight of like, you know, you got to be careful with what the information that is coming out here, and that of several every pretty much every party who's involved, from the US press to the US intelligence community, to the Israeli military to Hamas, has all had proven track record of lying in the passer,
which makes it so difficult to actually even figure out what's happening.
Correct.
One thing I will say, just to rop up this story is there have been sixty two different health facilities just in this engagement that have been bombed during this quote unquote war against Hamas. So you know what happened at this hospital given the level of carnage is obviously
incredibly significant. There should be an independent investigation. By the way, the US is opposed to an independent investigation, which is another red flag in terms of their story, and you know what they want the world to believe, you know, just as it's a red flag on the Maas side that they won't muster their own proof and their own evidence, et cetera. But why would you be opposed to independent investigation anyway, there should be one.
We should know what happens.
Here, But of course it doesn't erase the massive, widespread damage and civilian casualties that we are seeing throughout Gaza, regardless of what happened in the specific incidents of this hospital. Your comment saga about the need for journalists on the ground in Gaza is unfortunately a perfect segue into another horrific, horrific story about a journalist's family which was just killed
in Israeli airstrikes. But before we even get to that, you know, Al Jazeera, the network that is funded by the Katari government, has really come under fire both from the US and are really from Israel, but also from the US. Let's put this up on the screen. In terms of Tony Blanket went to the Katari PM and asked him to rein in Al Jazeera's war coverage. Let me give you the details here, which I think are
kind of wild. He told a group of American Jewish Comunity leaders on Monday that he asked the Katari Prime Minister less than two weeks ago to tone down Al Jazeera's rhetoric about the war in Gaza. This according to
three people who attended the meeting. So you have official US policy trying to shape what international media outlets, which again backed by Qatar, so it is really important to keep that in mind in terms of their coverage, right, but trying to shape what this coverage looks like internationally so it more closely conforms, I guess, to the Western propaganda that we typically receive. And in addition, put this third third element. Guys up on the screen that Israeli
government banned all activities of Al Jazeera in Israel. So they out and out banned Al Jazeera, ordered the closing of all of their offices. The tower which was the hub of Al Jazeera and other pro Palace Syne media in Gaza has been demolished by Israel. And they go on to note that Richie Sunak, PM of the UK said today that Israel's exercising it's legitimate right to defend itself.
They man Israel in terms of a crack dawn on any kind of descent, like the stuff worst thing in here is child's play compared to their like arresting movie stars who are posting vaguely.
Pro Palestinian stuff.
They proposed this law that even if you were saying things that were true if they were against the quote unquote national interest, that they could arrest you at the discretion of this one dude. That hasn't gone through. But that's the sort of stuff that's being floated there. But this direct war on Al Jazeera is the backdrop for an absolute horde that there are no words for, which is the Gaza bureau chief of Al Jazeera, a guy
by the name of Whale Dadou. His wife, his son, and his daughter were all killed and his grandchild by the way, in an Israeli airstrike targeted a shelter house that they had fled to because remember people have been told okay, you got to leave the north of Gaza. They had left, they went to this house that they thought would be safer and they end up all of them being killed in an Israeli airstrike. He actually received the news while he was on air covering what was
happening on the ground in Gaza. Let's take a look at this. You can see him here just after having received the news, which as I said, he got on air. Here he is with his son weeping over the body of his son. And I know these images are very, very difficult to see. But again, so many questions, was this a deliberate target? Was this house with the family
of the Gaza bureau chief for Al Jazeera? With Al Jazeera coming under fire from Israel, being told to close its offices, the United States Secretary of State going and saying, hey, they need to turn down their coverage, and then immediately afterwards the family of the Gaza bureau chief is killed in this air strike.
A lot of questions here, Yeah, so any when others are actually killed in the separate instandent the Al Jazeera parent company, Media Network, they're the ones blaming the Israeli air strike. They're calling it, quote unquote a indiscriminate assault, saying that Al Jazeera is deeply concerned about the safety and the well being of our colleagues inside of Gaza.
I don't think I don't think it's in dispute at all that members of his family then were killed, and there has not yet been an alternative explanation or dispute yet by Israel. You can take that with what you will. The big question is about the number of journalists now who have died. It's at least twenty four that have been confirmed died since October seventh. Twenty of those actually
are Palestinian, since the hostilities in October seventh really began here. Yeah, I mean, it's just absolutely like it's a horrific thing to watch. Also, you know, in terms of the front on general with Al Jazeera, it is difficult, and they are basically directly controlled by the Qatari government. I've used to live in Qatar. By the way, I don't believe
in censorship. I do believe that they should be allowed to broadcast in Israel if you're is really actually you want that because you want to know exactly what these people are saying and reporting from there. Because we like it or not, the huge swats of the Arab world actually do watch Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera Arabic has been caught many times reporting absolute bullshit, especially whenever it came to the US in Iraq. So I'm not going to
sit here and stand for them. At the same time, it reflects I think a little bit of what we talked about previously about our broader war coverage Crystal, which is that Al Jazeera, the images and all of that that are flooding across the Arab world and Al Jazeer frankly is probably the tame version compared to what's being distributed on WhatsApp and on Twitter or on Telegram, is laying the base of the exact same media environment the United States found itself in in two thousand and four,
in two thousand and five, where Al Jazeer Arabic basically all day, every day was just broadcasting carnage of what was going on in Iraq and being like, this is America's fault, This is America's fault, this is America's fault, which you know, kind of was, and that it was the backdrop of the huge rise in the ji Hottist movement and which ignited a lot of terrorist attacks against the US. And it took a while, you know for that to start to materialize, but.
The London bombing happened.
Then you had multiple other, you know, major al Qaeda attacks that were attempted against the US.
That was also the beginning of.
Kind of the quote unquote lone wolf terror thing, which I mean what we lived with that for more than a decade. So I think we're just going right back to very familiar territory and that's what that's actually what scares the hell out of me. Is because I know that this is this is the backdrop of what every person in the Arab world is consuming on a daily basis. That's why Blincoln was like, hey, can you please tone
it down because we know how influential this is. But to be honest, I don't think it's going to do anything out there. These people are all online now. The zero doesn't matter.
Even if Al Jazero became CNN overnight, it wouldn't been right, It wouldn't matter. And also, I mean to state the obvious, like stop, rather than trying to curb the coverage of the atrocities, how about you just curb the atrocities, which the United the government, if they wanted to use their leverage, could very much, very much do and could get behind
a ceasefire to try to end. You know, I mean I already talked about the number of civilians that were killed here thousands and thirteen confirmed Hamas fighters killed, So you know, it's also worth mentioning, and we covered this here at the time as well. This isn't the first Al Jazeera journalist who has been killed by who's been
impacted by you know, Israeli strikes. You had Sharen Abu Akle, who originally Israel set out it was Palestinian fire that she got caught in the crossfire and was actually Palestinians who killed her. Well, it turns out once down the road after investigation, no, no, they had to admit because there was too much proof that it was the IDF that killed her. So you know, they're is putting aside this horror, absolute horror, and whether or not it was a direct target, which I think is very much an
open question here. It's clear that the Israeli government wants to try to curb the images that are coming out of Gaza, and the American government once you try to curb the images that are coming out of Gaza, because it is horrible, it's horrible, and they are very much afraid of these continued protests and the rage and the fury and what that could ultimately spiral out of control into. But as I said, the answer here isn't to try to change the coverage or curb the coverage or sanitize
the coverage. It's to actually get at the root cause of the war crimes that are being committed here. I mean, the siege part is you could potentially have some argument out human shields, etc. On the bombings, but the complete siege of all the civilians, this is collective punishment, like it's by international law, is really indisputable, and the US could do a lot about that.
They could, but they're not going to. Of course, the US political system.
They've made that very clear.
The US political system supports this action. I think we all also reconcile ourselves to that and just be prepared for what the fallout from that is going to be. At the same time, though, it is also having fallout elsewhere.
Hollywood. What a story here.
So you know, these actors and actresses, they've got their little brands.
They got to protect.
They want to be on the side of good things and against bad things. But of course, you know, this is a very difficult situation. People feel a lot of ways. And we're talking about you know, not just some like bullshit, not to totally dismiss it, but like diversity play or whatever. We're talking about life death, war piece, possible World War three hostages who are being held, et cetera.
And it has gotten very messy.
So we have two effectively rival letters being signed on to by Hollywood stars. This first one is I mean, it's almost just like it's very confused, and it's in my opinion, quite laughable.
Let's put this up on the screen.
Long list of Hollywood stars and executives signed on to this letter, thanking President Joe Biden for his leadership and asking to keep the focus on the hostages in Gaza. Thank you for your unshakeable moral conviction, leadership, and support for the Jewish people who have been terrorized by Hamas since the group's founding over thirty five years ago, and for the Palestinians who have also been terrorized a press and victimized by Hamas for the last seventeen years that
the group has been governing Gaza. We would urge everyone to not rest until all hostages are released.
So basically we can put this up on the screen.
The list of some of the stars here, We've got, you know, Highlighter, Jordan Peel, Olivia Wilde, John Hamm, John Watstean Kane. I don't know who most of these people are, but that's not because they're not. They're nobody's I just.
Don't know who anybody is that was the one so far.
Anyway, So this is one list that's being put out. Aaron Sorkin is on this one as well. And the reason I call it confused is like, why do you need to sign a letter. It's just like, good job, Joe Biden. Way to go, person with the most powerful, you know, position in the entire world, like we stand
with you. But they have to throw in this hostage piece to try to act like they're like rebellious and standing up to power, and really you're just completely co signing what the American government is already doing.
I was gonna say, it's like, why does he need a letter from you to be like, you know what, I'm gonna keep working to.
Get those hostages out.
It's just like shut up, like keep your you know, if you want to make a dumbass post on Instagram, like go for it.
Well good luck with that. Considering with Jamie Lee Curtis and all these other people.
But nobody asked for you, nobody cares, you know what you think this entire thing, like you said, it's confused because this is the policy of the government. No hostage can be left. Well, yeah, the Secretary of Status said it, so is the president. It'd be different if the president was like, you know what, you know, we're we're giving up or.
Something like that.
But like, okay, fine, then you can quote unquote speak out, but like, what does that even mean. It's also just so banal. We all want the same thing, freedom for Israelis and Pales needs to live side by side in peace. It's like, okay, thanks, you know, thank you Bradley Cooper and Courtney Cox or Chris Rock. I'm most surprised at Galgado is the one who signed off this because she's just straight up Israeli and so if she comes out and is like totally supportive of Israel, I mean, I
don't want to have a problem with that. She's from the country, So I just don't get it. I don't understand the point of this thing. She also did, I believe, was margining the Imagine song. Do you remember that whenever they all saying Imagine? Oh really?
So this is not the first foray for Muscado.
So producer Griffin flagged that at least one of the people on this letter is now coming out and saying, god, wait, I didn't I actually my agent put me on this, and I didn't actually want to sign on to this. I wanted to be on the other letter, which let's put this up on the screen. The other letter has a little more clarity of content here artists calling for ceasefire. Now, obviously this is in direct opposition to what the Biden
administration is pushing for. They say, we come together as artists and advocates, most importantly as human beings witnessing the devastating life, loss of lives, and unfolding horrors in Israel and Palestine. We ask that is President, the a us U, and the US Congress call for an immediate d escalation in ceasefire and Gaza and Israel before another life is lost. More than five thousand people have been killed in the last week and half, a number any person of conscience
knows as catastrophic. We believe all life is sacred, no matter faith or ethnicity, and we condemn the killing of Palaestinity and Israeli citizens. We urge your administration, Congress, all world leaders to honor all of the lives in the Holy Land and call for and facilitate a ceasefire without delay, and and the bombing of Gaza and the safe release of hostages.
So this one, you know, an.
Actual challenge to what the Biden administration is calling for and you know, Hollywood very much at war over how
to approach this issue. You also have the Writer's Guild, Yes, coming under fire because they didn't say anything, which, to be honest with you, you know, when you've got a union with a lot of members with different backgrounds and different views on this, not saying anything kind of seems to me like not the worst thing in the world, like just to you know, correcting to do, stay hon of it if you don't have a unity of opinion
among your members. That seems entirely appropriate to me. I mean, obviously I would love for them to call for ceasfar, I'd love for them to come down on the side of Palestinian humanity. But it's interesting to me that they're coming out of under significant fire from their membership just for being like, we're going to keep quiet.
Yeah.
I've seen this from the universities too. People are like, why has Harvard University not denounced the attack? I'm like, who gives a shit? The issue though, is that Harvard boxed itself into a corner where anytime the social justice caused d joure was happening, they're like, oh, we unequivocally stand with Black Lives Matter or trans whatever, and like you know, abortion Row versus Wade, or DACA or immigrant all these other things.
I'm like, well, you guys are the ones who dug your own grave.
I'm like, you want to weigh in every single time there's something going on, then, yeah, people are going to call you out when you don't say anything.
But I'm very much exactly of the same opinion of yours.
Is if you have an organization like the WGA, where they're obvious, I mean many of the people who just signed both of these letters are Remember how could you unequivocally come out and have a single position.
Then that's just the narcissism of leaders. It's not a true union.
And this is one of the in my opinion, big missteps that a lot of unions made in the eighties and nineties is explicitly aligning themselves with the machine art of the Democratic Party. While not majority, but some of its people coalition and others did not vote in the similar direction. It caused like a big split, and I think one of the benefits to a guy like Sean Faine, who has been a little political with Biden and all of that, but has also been willing to call him out.
Is that even the people who are in his union who support Trump, like for example, I don't think they could ever say for a second that the man would never put them first over loyalty to the Democratic Party.
That's what you have to do.
So anyway, I in some ways I don't have some sympathy because I'd have to go back and check to see what WGAO said about the last you know, BLM or whatever.
I'm sure they probably put out some BS statement.
So in some ways it's like this is why, like you don't have to weigh in on everything, you know, and if you do, then when something becomes so inconvenient and you don't have one hundred percent of people behind you and then you say nothing, people are going to call you out. So I'm a bit conflicted. I agree with the policy laid out, but I think you should be consistent.
I guess I would just say that it obviously matters a lot more what the president of the United States, what the people with power in the House and the Senate, you know, and you know, the people who are funding super PACs, and who are you know, really influential in terms of our public policy, Like it matters a lot more what they are saying than like whatever the Writer's Guild might put out, whatever Sarah Silverman thinks about them, you know, or Harvard or like, you know, some dumb
kids marching on some college campus. And it can be very easy when we see things we disagree with coming from groups that maybe we have antipathy for, to fixate on those things. But I would just keep our eyes on the price of the people who actually have power and what not, even what they're saying, what they're doing.
That's where all the real actions.
I think it comes to powerlessness.
Like you know, nothing that we say here on the show is going to impact us policy, and that's actually a very difficult thing to accept for a lot of people. Even And now imagine you're a billionaire. Now imagine you're an actor. What you can control if you're a billionaire donor to Harvard is, you know, nobody the White House is going to care what you think.
They'll care more of what you think.
Oh, if you're a.
Billion care, well ish, but probably not in a case like this.
But what you can control is Harvard University, who you donate ten million dollars a year you can control. If you're a student in particular, and I understand being a student, It's like you want to be righteous and you want to have an impact, but like nobody cares what you think.
So what do you do.
You march in or you you know, project some dumbass statement onto a wall, and you like embroil the institution and conflict because you're trying to be heard, You're trying to have agency. Again, I understand where that comes from, but that is why I think people get engaged in these fights just because ninety nine point nine percent of us will never have any impact on what Tony Blinken,
Jake Sullivan or President Biden have to say. However, you can have an impact and a more immediate fight in the WGA, in a letter or on campus something like that. It's like a way of acting out, and I do understand it. I do also mostly think is pointless. So anyway, I'm glad that you said that.
All right, so we do have a little bit of good news to bring you guys. Saga just mentioned Sean Payne in the United Auto Workers who have been obviously doing this stand up strike for I don't even know what account is, but number of weeks at this point
they've been escalating week by week. They actually have a ton of deal with Ford, so one of the Big three, with the idea being that if they come to this deal with Ford, which the membership still has to vote on, that'll put pressure on the other two to fall in line and also, you know, come to the table with sufficient concessions to be able to achieve similar results for
the membership. Here, let's take a listen to what Sean Fain and I think he's like the Vice President, I don't know he introduces him, but another UAW leadership member have to say about the deal and its contents.
UAW Family, I'm excited and honored to be joined today by Vice President Chuck Browning as we announced a major victory in the stand up strike. Today we reached a tentative agreement with Ford. For months, we've said that record profits mean record contracts, and UAW Family, our stand Up Strike has delivered. What started at three plants at midnight on September fifteenth has become a national movement. We knew we were getting close, but we also knew the companies
needed a major push. If we were gonna make sure we got every penny pop ussible in this agreement. So we took our strike to a new phase and hit the companies with maximum effect.
So when we say historic, we mean it. We have won a twenty five percent general wage increase over the course of this agreement with Cola. We expect the top wage rate to increase by over thirty percent to above forty dollars an hour. Our starting wage rate will rise sixty eight percent for decades temps at the Big Three have been abused and exploited. Over the life of the contract, temps will see raises of over one hundred and fifty percent.
Some of our lower tier members at Stirling Axel in Rossenville, we'll see an immediate eighty five percent raise upon ratification.
So those are some of the key provisions. Just to reiterate here, twenty five percent raised through April of twenty twenty eight, starting wages going out by sixty eight percent to twenty eight bucks an hour, reinstatement of cost of living adjustments that those had been lost in two thousand and nine, workers helped to bail out the automakers, a
right to strike over plant closures. That's actually a big deal that they're you know, if a plant is being threatened with closure, they can go out on strike and protest that move.
That's a big deal.
Abolishing two tiers, abolishing multi tiers at two major plants, top pay rises to forty bucks an hour. It's now at thirty two dollars an hour. New workers to reach the top wage after three years instead of eight, more retirement funding for retirees those with pensions, and four to oh one case. So, as I said, membership has to vote on it and see if they think that this
is sufficient. But it's also not a surprise to me soccer that Ford was the first one to be able to come to a deal, because the reporting I had seen is that Ford actually had the best relationship with the UAW and the CEO there had tried to maintain close relations and so it's not a surprise to me they're the first ones to come. And we'll see what
happens at the other two automakers. But you know, these already are huge CONCESSI huge victory, and I think really validates the strategy and the tactics that Sean Faine, their brand new president of the UAW, used in order to secure these games.
Yeah, I mean twenty five percent is nothing to sneeze at, and forty dollars an hour is good money. I just still think we all have to remember to annualize it because people forget. You know, at the top line, that's eighty three thousand dollars two hundred a year. I mean, yes, you also receive benefits like healthcare, pension four oh one K, so I'm not going to discount that. But on a cash basis, that puts you like solidly middle class in America.
It puts you in a place where you can afford like roughly a four hundred thousand dollars house, although you was still it's going to take you a while to come up with a down payment. And that's the wage of the top assembly line worker. There's still a twenty five percent bump, so I believe that brings somebody to around forty thousand dollars a year. Again, you get decent benefits. It's not like they gave them the remember the vaunted what is it four day a week? If that's not
included in the agreement. I always thought, I'm like, this guy's reached.
The Yeah, I get it.
I was like that's not actually gonna happen, you know, But it didn't happen. They agreed to this deal, as you said, let's see, I'm curious what the membership thinks of it. Although I mean to get costs of living adjustments back when they were suspended in two thousand and nine, that's pretty big in itself because it's not frozen in time.
You get the COLA adjustment, and that is really one of the reasons why they have not just suffered like lack of wage inflation, they actually suffered deflation over the last decade. So if it were me, I would take the deal. I think that's a pretty good deal.
The other and now the other two automakers kind of have a roadmap for like, okay, if we want this to be over and at this point, this strike is hitting some of their most profitable plants, Like if we want to end this, all right, this is what it would take. That's why there's you know, more likely than not that there'll be a lot of pressure on them and they'd be able to come to tentative agreement with those two other automakers as well in the near future.
Let's hope. The other thing here is you know.
There are a lot of workers across the country, not just autoworkers, but also auto workers at Tesla and other foreign automakers that have plants down south who are looking at these wages, who were looking at what was able to be secured here and are thinking like, why am I doing the same job for so much less money.
So between this, between what the.
Ups workers were able to secure, between what the actors were or the sorry the writers were able to secure in terms of their deal, there's a number of very clear demonstrations of what you can achieve with a union, with this type of collective bargaining, And so I think that that helps to spur and continues to spark an
increased interest and increase success throughout labor organizing. So from that perspective, it's also very exciting and much bigger than not to say just but much bigger than just this one industry, especially since the American auto industry is just such an iconic part of American life.
Yeah, one good thing is from GM's perspective, they actually just reported their earnings, and their earnings actually rose quarter over quarter if they did project a single quarter seven percent drop in profit, but they're still profitable as a company, so they've got the margin at least right now to negotiate from that, and now they have their roadmap. So hopefully this does show us that we're coming to an end, although you don't know, you know, it certainly could continue.
No way to say, all right, we'll see you guys later, Premium subs and everybody else. We're gonna have a separate interview with Darryl Cooper of the Martyr Made podcast is going to post later. We just didn't want to include it as part of the main show because we want to get this one out on time.
We'll post it as a separate podcast. You guys can look out for that.
Obviously, the premiums you guys will get that first, will be on standby should any breaking news or anything happen.
But otherwise we will see you all on Monday,