2/26/24: Nikki Loses To Trump In SC, Trump Endorses IVF, Biden Donors Horrified At Notecard Reliance, Michigan Voters Stun MSNBC, Zelensky Lies About Troop Deaths, US Airman Self-Immolates, Bibi Freaks During Critical Interview, Woke Google AI Dystopia, And Taylor Lorenz Vs LibsOfTiktok - podcast episode cover

2/26/24: Nikki Loses To Trump In SC, Trump Endorses IVF, Biden Donors Horrified At Notecard Reliance, Michigan Voters Stun MSNBC, Zelensky Lies About Troop Deaths, US Airman Self-Immolates, Bibi Freaks During Critical Interview, Woke Google AI Dystopia, And Taylor Lorenz Vs LibsOfTiktok

Feb 26, 20242 hr 42 min
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Episode description

Krystal and Saagar discuss Koch pulls Nikki funding after SC loss, Trump panics endorsing IVF, Biden donors horrified at reliance on notecards, Michigan voters stun MSNBC on Biden criticism, Zelensky blatantly lies about Ukrainian troop losses, US airman self immolates outside of Israeli embassy to protest Gaza war, Bibi freaks during critical interview as Israel crushes protests, woke Google AI reveals PC dystopia, Krystal and Saagar react to Taylor Lorenz vs LibsOfTikTok.

 

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Transcript

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 2

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Coverage that is possible.

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If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support.

Speaker 3

But enough with that, let's get to the show.

Speaker 2

Good morning, everybody, Happy Monday. We have an amazing show for everybody today.

Speaker 1

What do we have, Crystal, Indeed, we do lots to get to this morning. So we've got results out of South Carolina. Nikki Haley losing her home stage chocked, not surprised, but there are some interesting poll numbers from the exit poles that we want to dig into see if there's anything to be gleaned from that with regards to Trump's

chances in the general election. We also have Republicans sort of panicked over this whole Alabama IVF situation, trying to figure out where they stand there, so we'll break that down for you. A new report about concerns about Biden's age and ability, this time actually coming from the donor class, saying they are very concerned at his lackluster performances behind the scenes at these fundraisers.

Speaker 4

We'll get through that as well. Of course, we just had the two year.

Speaker 1

Anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and close to that anniversary, who has Zelenski putting forward a claim about the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed that doesn't really pass.

Speaker 3

The sniff test. Strange belief strains.

Speaker 1

Credulity for sure, to say the least, So we'll break that down for you and where we are in that war in general. We have some horrible breaking news to bring you this morning. A US airman, it appears now, has died after self immolating in front of the Israeli embassy here in DC for his protest over genocide in Gaza and his sense that he was complicit in that genocide. He died crying free Palestine. So we'll bring you that news as well as some updates from what is happening

on the ground in Israel. And with the possibility of a temporary ceasefire and hostile to deal exchange, Soccer is taking a look at Ai with the future may hold for all of us it's not good and we are going to react to the Taylor Lorenz meets Kaya Raishchik, the libs of TikTok Tiktalk Lady extraordinary video here that we definitely have some things to say about.

Speaker 2

Yes, we certainly do, and we'll have We're going to be handling that a different way, So stay tuned in that video. If you can go ahead and help us out breakingpoints dot Com, you're going to access to all of our premium benefits.

Speaker 3

More importantly, you're going to be helping cover for our election.

Speaker 2

And don't forget we've got our State of the Union live stream, including a private live stream that we'll be doing for subscribers.

Speaker 3

Afterwards.

Speaker 2

We'll be able to submit questions live and we will answer them, but only available to our premium members. So breakingpoints dot Com, as we mentioned, but let's go ahead and get to the big news out of South Carolina. Big or expected. Nikki Haley has officially lost in her own home state, Donald Trump absolutely crushing her in terms of the electoral results. He immediately took the stage after the networks called it for him at seven oh one pm, a minute after the polls closed in the state of

South Carolina. He didn't want to be upstaged again by Nikki Haley. So we have a few of their two comments. Keep in mind, with Trump, some of this is going to be his electoral speech afterwards, but also some of the remarks from the preceding days just because they're hilarious and we want to talk about them.

Speaker 3

So let's take a listen to the two.

Speaker 5

I was just informed that we got double the number of votes that has ever been received.

Speaker 6

In the great state of South Carolina.

Speaker 3

So that's pretty good.

Speaker 5

So it's a record times too. And I just want to say that I have never seen the Republican Party so unified.

Speaker 3

As it is right there, never been like that.

Speaker 7

I said earlier this week that no matter what happens in South Carolina, I would continue to run for property.

Speaker 4

I'm a woman of my.

Speaker 3

Words, continuing to run on the whole woman thing.

Speaker 2

Okay, you know, in general, Crystal, it is a rule that you're supposed to drop out if you can't lose your own homes, if you're going to lose your own home state. Marco Rubio dropped out after the Florida primary, and in fact, many people forget ted Cruz did win the state of Texas in that Texas primary after Super Tuesday, one of the reasons why he felt like he could stay in the race. Similar to John Kasick, who mounted that campaign against Trump, he won the state of Ohio,

and I think that's legitimate. If you can win your own home state and your people support you over somebody else, I think there's a little bit of a case to remain in here. But here we have a case where if we have the results, guys, let's put this up there please.

Speaker 3

I mean, it wasn't even close.

Speaker 2

We have fifty nine point eight percent for Trump and we have thirty nine point five for Nikki Haley. Don't get me wrong, you know she didn't do terribly, but she's still lost by twenty points. And it's like when we're talking about a twenty point loss, and especially when we're talking about the fact as we go into the crossed tabs as to how Trump absolutely dominated amongst actual Republicans.

And if you can just look at the map, I mean, it's the populated areas which are more urban, which are disproportionately more highly educated, not in the traditional Republican coalition. There's just not a lot left here to know what's going to happen in a major primary, and this was again the most favorable territory that could possibly exist.

Speaker 3

It's already been endorsed, you.

Speaker 2

Know, by all the other people who've been dropped out of the race, Crystal, and in Super Tuesday, how can she possibly compete even to the level where she did in her own home state. She spent six weeks or something here on the ground campaigning and barnstorming the entire place.

Speaker 4

I mean, it's her right to stay in the right can say once. But I don't really understand what she's doing at this.

Speaker 3

Point, you know.

Speaker 1

I mean, she's she claims, she's saying now she's going to stay in through Super Tuesday. I'm a woman over my worry, that's what that's her line. Now, she won't tell reporters whether she plans to stay in longer than that, which you couple that with the news that the Coke backed Americans for Prosperity are pulling their funding. They're no longer going to be putting their millions behind her. I think the writing is more than on the wall for Nikki Haley at this point. To be honestly, the she

did a little bit better than I expect. I thought she'd be in the thirties. She managed to get basically to forty forty sixty. But I mean, it's your home state, you were governor, and this is best you could do. You can see where things are headed. There was a she once again performed the best with independence, and there was a small percentage of four or five percent or something of Democrats who also participate in the primary.

Speaker 4

She did very well with them.

Speaker 1

But you know, in terms of Republican voters, she's getting her butt kicked by Donald Trump in every state that she can test, and the expectation is that will be absolutely the same on Super Tuesday. The only thing I can think, Sager, is that there's some theory of maybe if she stays in, she'll weaken Donald Trump. Maybe something crazy will happen and he'll drop down, and then her three delegates she got here will matter, and the fact that she's like they're in the race, she'll be the

logical second choice. So even that I don't think would really work out. Even if something crazy happened and he was out of the race, I don't know that she would be the one that would end up in the position.

Speaker 4

But that's the only thing I can figure it.

Speaker 3

You're exactly correct.

Speaker 2

You could have made that case if you were round to Santis, because there's credibly, I think, enough of a chance for crossover and for Trump delegates. Let's say in this convention scenario where he's either dead or he's in prison, or some scenario where he's not allowed to run, well, then credibly those people, because remember it's up to those delegates after the second ballot, they're leaders where they're allowed to go.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I could see them going. They're not going back.

Speaker 2

Nikki Haley, she's decided to, you know, permanently plant a flag as anti Trump. At this point, I saw a good column which is basically congratulations on winning the never Trump primary. The problem is you didn't actually win anything. Now, the takeaway that I've had after this, and I think this is definitely again where you agree, is that we are seeing some warning signs for Trump that has nothing to do with Nikki Haley but has to do with the anti Trump coalition.

Speaker 3

So let's put this up there on the screen.

Speaker 2

As we can see here for the pole prediction of where things were for the Iowa caucuses, the poll prediction was Trump thirty seven points over Ron DeSantis.

Speaker 3

The final results had Trump at plus thirty.

Speaker 2

For the New Hampshire primary, the five thirty eight average of polls had Trump plus eighteen.

Speaker 3

The final result was Trump plus eleven.

Speaker 2

And then for the South Carolina primary, if we can go to the next one, what we saw is that the final third five thirty eight average was Trump plus twenty eight, and the estimated result here is Trump plus twenty. What we can see there is a consistent underperformance within

the polls. Now, the Trump cope, if I will offer it, is that especially in New Hampshire and in South Carolina, we saw a decent amount of the electorate, some thirty percent or so that was encompassing independence and a small number of Democrats. Those people overwhelmingly coming and supporting Nicki Haley in the primary. But they're making a primary case. If we are to extrapolate this to the general election,

it's a problem. He has a significant issue here with all of the independent voters that have voted so far in a Republican primary. But of course there's a lot of self section bias. Those are people probably disportionately more anti Trump and who want to see, you know, anti somebody who's not Biden and not named Trump who is on the ticket. Those people may go to RFK Junior or something if he's able to get on the ballot, or some other independent.

Speaker 3

They may not vote period. What I do see is there's a.

Speaker 2

Problem here with the independent voters, and to what extent, Honestly, I don't know.

Speaker 3

There's a lot of people.

Speaker 2

I just read a very interesting analysis of American non voters, and it turns out that American non voters are very much likely to decide this election in terms of very infrequent people will come out.

Speaker 3

Every once in a while.

Speaker 2

They never vote in primaries or any other thing, but they may come out to vote for Trump and or for Biden. They're roughly fifty to fifty in terms of who they support. But the question is, are those people, you know, in the same vein as some of these independence there's a lot of you know, external analysis that's being done here.

Speaker 1

Yeah, So when you couple Trump's under performance in each of these primary and caucus states with what we've seen, consider instantly in special elections where Republicans are underperformed.

Speaker 4

Pretty much across the board.

Speaker 1

Especially when you talk about ballot initiatives, that have anything to do with abortion. And we'll talk more about abortion and actually about IVF here in a moment. But when you put those two pieces together, it's a worrying sign for Republicans. Now, what you could say, and I think this is a reasonable argument to make, is that when you're talking about primaries and you're talking about special elections, there is a bias towards college educated voters showing up.

When you talk about a general election, that's when you get in your infrequent voters and those at this point this is a recent year's realignment switch. But now you're talking about those infrequent voters being more likely to be Republican.

And so I do think that's a reasonable case to make here why a general election for Trump could look different than these primary results could look different from the special election results, But that is no guarantee because the flip side of that is these are early indications of who is motivated to come out, and as much as we've talked about, and you know, with good reason, the young people and progressives and Arab Americans and African Americans

who are disgusted with Joe Biden over Israel and also over a variety of other issues and who may be open to third party, etc. There are some indications that Trump may have some problems with a Republican base, and especially, like you said Zagera, with independents who tend to lean Republicans.

Speaker 4

So let's put this up on the screen.

Speaker 1

This is some of the exit poll results among Nicki Haley voters. And again she got forty percent of the vote year, so this wasn't some tiny sliver of the electorate in South Carolina. So they asked, Okay, what's your feeling if Trump wins the nomination?

Speaker 4

Again?

Speaker 1

Among Nicki Haley voters, seventy eight percent said they would be dissatisfied. They also asked if Trump would be fit for the presidency if he is convicted of a crime. Eighty two percent said no. Now, again, people are very bad at predicting how they're going to feel about some hypothetical event in the future when it has not happened yet, because you know all the context, the circumstances, which trial is it, what happens, how does it all go down?

Those things all matter, and so would I take that, you know as locked in? Eighty two percent say he wouldn't be fit for the presidency and they're not going.

Speaker 4

To vote for him.

Speaker 1

No, But again, this is a pretty significant warning sign for Trump in a Republican primary, especially among independent voters.

Speaker 2

I see it the same way, yeah, which is if these people were going to vote that Trump's strength in twenty sixteen was not only bringing out the traditional Republican coalition which came out from Mitt Romney, but it was also bringing out all of these people from the woodwork on top of people not coming out.

Speaker 3

To vote for Hillary. It was a multifaceted victory.

Speaker 2

Same thing basically in twenty twenty, kept on the traditional Republican coalition, added a bunch of traditional non voters who were very animated around the issues that were going on at that time. If he can, if he's going to strip out a decent percentage, let's say, twenty thirty percent traditional Republican voters, you got to make that up somewhere else. Now, it's certainly possible. It's certainly possible with people who are going.

Speaker 3

To come out.

Speaker 2

It's possible with gains amongst Latino men, black men, or whatever. You know, you don't need margins to shift all that much. But you can't bet on that going in. So looking at these numbers right now, I do see you certainly say some danger sign for Trump where Biden and the Democrats specifically, not just Biden have had a hidden underperformance very much in the same way that Republicans had back in twenty sixteen and in a lot of the general

election polls for twenty twenty. It's one of those where it flips the mind in many ways where you have to and all of our analysis you can hear a lot of hedging because you genuinely don't know what's going to happen. Yeah, there's recent history and then there's not, you know, still a reason but only seven years ago. Both of those are countervailing whenever we're looking at what's going to happen.

Speaker 1

I mean, we have two candidates who are historically extremely weak yes and hate it, and the American public is disgusted that they have this choice. And yet this is the choice that's in front of them. So for me, it's almost like whichever candidate I'm thinking the most about that day is the one that I'm like, Oh, there's no way that dude could win. But they both have things going significantly going against them. But to go back

to this electoral trend. I mean it really starts with the midterms when Republicans dramatically underperform, and the cope then for Trump is okay, but Trump wasn't on the ballot. Sure, a lot of his extremism and stuff, the steal and it was his hand pit candidates, et cetera, but Trump wasn't on the ballot to really, you know, get his basic site and get them out, and it's like, okay, you know, it's a midterm that that kind of holds some water.

Speaker 4

I could see that.

Speaker 1

Then you have this whole string of special elections that they're just consistently going for Democrats and Republicans are consistently underperforming their typical performance in these districts, oftentimes underperforming the polls in these districts. And you're going, okay, well those are special elections, but those.

Speaker 4

Are a little weird.

Speaker 1

Now you do have Trump's name on the ballot, and you have some of the same warning signs showing up.

Speaker 4

In the electoral results here. So what does it mean.

Speaker 1

I mean, we'll all have to wait and find out whether this is enough to overcome you know, the extraordinary weakness and concerns that you have on the Joe Biden side of the Ledger. But the last thing I'll say about this is Trump is sort of famous for outperforming his poles. Y.

Speaker 4

You know, back in.

Speaker 1

Twenty sixteen, there was all this talk of like the shy Trump voter, the person who really liked him and voted for him, but they were like embarrassed to admit it. Is it possible there's a dynamic in the other direction now where actually in the Republican Party it has become like verboted to say you're not with Donald Trump. And so you can have people who feel like, oh, I should be with Trump, and I'm going to claim I'm with Trump, but actually I'm kind of ready to move

on from this whole era. I have no idea. That's speculation. I don't have any data.

Speaker 4

To back it up.

Speaker 1

But we have seen the way that some of these polls have undercounted certain dynamics before, and we're now starting to see a consistent pattern where they are overestimating Republican and Trump support and underestimating Democratic support.

Speaker 4

And that's something we have to take note of.

Speaker 2

Trump because he is, you know, probably the most electorally attuned Republican is definitely taking a position, which is vary against what I think a lot of the pro life community would like him to see.

Speaker 3

Let's put this up there on the screen.

Speaker 2

Immediately after that Alabama Supreme Court decision on embryos being classified as person, Trump put out this truth. Under my leadership, the Republican will always support the creation of strong, thriving, healthy American families. We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder. That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every

state in America. Like the overwhelming majority all caps, including the vast majority of Republicans, Conservatives, Christians, and pro life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby. Today, I am calling on the Alabama Legislature to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF and Alabama. The Republican Party should always be on the side of the miracle of life, the side of mothers, fathers, and

of their beautiful babies. IVF is an important part of that. Our great Republican Party will always be with you in your quest for the ultimate joy in life. So very politically attuned message there, and it's one where look five ten years ago, especially in the Bush era, you know, twenty years ago, you could not imagine something like this.

Speaker 3

This was a country.

Speaker 2

Locked in the debate which seems crazy now about stem cell research. I mean, remember these were huge things that Terry Schaivo case. I mean, these are captured the imagination.

Speaker 3

Now.

Speaker 2

Not only do you have the Republican candidate for president or likely presumed you.

Speaker 3

Also have the NRSC.

Speaker 2

This is the National Coalition to re elect Republican Senators putting out a memo which was immediately leaked to the press.

Speaker 3

Let's put this up there.

Speaker 2

They say that the NRSC is specifically instructing its candidates to reject clearly and concisely all government attempts to restrict IVF. Key messages I will read here express support for IVF. Clearly state your support of IVF and fertility rated services, blessings for those seeking to have children. Highlight the importance of these treatments and fulfilling the dreams of countless families to conceive.

Speaker 3

Oppose restrictions on IVF.

Speaker 2

Publicly, oppose any effort to restrict access to IVF and other fertility treatment framing such opposition as of defense of family values and individual freedom and campaign on increasing access actually to fertility treatments, including insurance coverage and support services. So I, you know, I definitely get behind that crystal, but it does show really some of the Pandora's box that was opened up by Roe versus Wade. And I mean, I have a couple of minds of this, which is certain.

I agree with all this obviously, the bort IVF and all that. But I was talking with some very conservative Christian friends of mine and one of the points they made, which is that you know, if you really are a believer, like if you are you know, pro life in the scriptural sense, like you're not supposed to make concessions. Like the whole point of that movement is, we don't make concessions. We don't make political concessions, like we wholly believe in

this movement. And even if it's unpopular or whatever. They spent some forty odd years crawling over broken glass to vote for people Trump, to get the Supreme Court to reverse their decisions, so they're not exactly of the mind to make concessions for their beliefs, especially when they basically won one of the craziest victories in modern American politics.

So I guess I have sympathy with them in that, you know, the Republicans were definitely willing to use them for their votes, but now when it's very unpopular, they're being thrown under the bus per se. But obviously, like I don't agree with them in the first place, So it's one of the best where I don't feel bad for them. At the same time, Well, it's just the pickle that they're in by signing a deal with these people.

Speaker 1

If life begins at conception, right exactly, and you know, which is what many of these Republicans have said they believe, then how are you going to have a carve ount for IVS exactly?

Speaker 3

You know, I agree with it.

Speaker 1

If it begins at conception. It begins at conception. And the problem is, yeah, they've opened Pandora's box. They haven't thought through the consequences. It was all find and good to say things like life begins at conception when there were no actual stakes, There were no women and families who were you know, trying to conceive and using IVF something that is incredibly you know, normal and regular and accepted and popular.

Speaker 4

In American society.

Speaker 1

Back when there were no stakes, it was okay to say things like that. Now they're having to deal with the logical outcomes of the positions that they have claned to support over years, and so, you know, when you have politicians like I saw Kerry Lake put out a similar statement of like, oh I support IVF.

Speaker 4

You look at the.

Speaker 1

Comments below that there are a lot of pissed off conservative activists who I think justifiably are like that is inconsistent with what you people have been saying for years and years and years. Again, this is just the logical outcome of what they have claimed to believe. And it doesn't take a genius to see how wildly unpopular this position is.

Speaker 4

Put this up on the screen. This is a poll. You know.

Speaker 1

Some of the polling was actually outlined in that NRSC memo. It's not like it takes a political g here, but this poll says that only seven percent of Americans believe that IVF should be more difficult, only ten percent of Republicans, by the way, five percent of Democrats, six percent of independence. This is as fringe a position as you could possibly find.

Yet because the pro life activist community has been so active, so organized, so influential in the Republican Party, incredibly fringe extremist positions of it like this have found widespread support among Republican politicians.

Speaker 4

So you actually have.

Speaker 1

If we can put I believe it's the ninth element here in this block, guys A nine up on the screen from Business Insider, you actually have one hundred and twenty five House Republicans who have backed a life at Conception bill that does not have any car mount for IVF or anything else that would again have the same

impact nationwide as this Alabama court ruling. So now Mike Johnson's oh I support ivyah, No, you don't, because you're signed on to this bill that would have the exact same implications.

Speaker 4

They are the dog that caught the car.

Speaker 1

Now that they actually have to deal with the consequences of their positions, they're running away as quickly as they possibly can.

Speaker 4

But you know, this is this is kind.

Speaker 1

Of out of their hands at this point because you have this, you know, happening in courts across the country. The courts are ruling in line.

Speaker 4

With what the legislatures passed before. Roe versus Wade.

Speaker 1

Was overturned and you know, enacting the logical extension of what these insane fringe policies ultimately were with Really, and I don't want to lose sight of this. This isn't just about political games with really horrifying and traumatic results for women and families across the country.

Speaker 2

Yeah, let's put a eleven out there just to show everybody the consequences, at least so far. You know, you have the major embryo shipping company is halting it's all of its business in Alabama. The three clinics which are in the state have all paused their care as they evaluate what the ruling means for their patients and for

their legal liability. Now, as I understand it, what it comes down to is that the store of embryos and the legal liability that the clinics may incur as a result of this ruling make it such that doing business or operating it in the state could leave them potentially open in the event of an accident or something like that, in addition to storage to like a literal manslaughter charge, meaning of course that they don't want to be going through it. I mean, I'm especially horrified it some of

the people were probably going through this right now. I mean, as you know, Crystal, it ain't like peachy and easy, you know from what I've read so far, Like you got women who are plugged up full of hormones and all of a sudden probably expecting treatments and medical procedures, and now they have to rebook and it's nightmare.

Speaker 3

I can't even literally imagine it.

Speaker 2

The import tire purpose though, in the point of the bill is where I again have a lot of frustration, where now some of the pro life community are politically pragmatic, they're like, well, you know, sometimes obviously this one doesn't ness. It's like, guys, you either believe it or you don't. And it's like, and you said you did and you wouldn't make any compromises, even though it's the most historically unpopular thing that's ever happened to the Republicans in modern history.

You believe it then, but now you're willing to make some concession. And then the problem again with the concession is that then you're just opening yourself up to the same practical understanding of all of this issue that all Americans are, even secular ones. Whenever it comes to the issue of abortion, and that, you know, is really what it really bothers me in terms of how it all works. You have of course, you know, for the ones who are consistent the Catholic Church is straight up against IVF.

You know, it's like, so which one is it, you know, or whenever in terms of what's consistent with the teachings and not. Once you open up your door to the political pragmatism, then you're in the same boat as people who are quote unquote reluctantly pro choice, just because they understand that when you live in a dynamic society and all that in terms of having choice and restrict access, et cetera, it's not always one that you can be one hundred percent adherent to your principle.

Speaker 3

So anyway, that's kind of my major.

Speaker 2

Analysis of how here they're willing to be pragmatic yea, but other times never.

Speaker 4

Some of them.

Speaker 1

Anyway, did you see Tubberville getting asked about.

Speaker 2

This, say, I know, he didn't have a response basically like short circuit.

Speaker 1

And I think this is emblematic of the fact that again, if you say life begins.

Speaker 3

At conception, yes, I agree, yes, then this.

Speaker 1

Is the logical outcome of that belief, and so he was really sort of trapped by that situation. Also, I think was like confused about what had actually happened. But having impost asked him his reaction, and initially he said that he was quote all for it.

Speaker 4

I was all for it.

Speaker 1

Then they told him, you know, women are losing access to IVF treatments. Health clinics have stopped IVF treatments. Then he insisted that people need to have access. Then he started to try to backtrack and he's like, ah, it's this is really hard again. You want people to have that opportunity. We need more kids. I'd have to look at the entire bill, how it's written. I have not seen it. Of course, this isn't a bill, it's court ruling.

So he just had no idea how to navigate, like, oh, I'm supposed to be pro life, I'm supposed to support things like this, but then on the other hand, IVF this is really unpopular. And then he just sort of bails on the conversation altogether, saying, oh, well, I haven't seen the bill.

Speaker 4

You know, it's just one.

Speaker 1

More indication of where Republicans actually are on this issue, and how you know what they're claiming now of oh, of course we support IVF doesn't match up with where they've actually staked their ground politically across years and years. Tammy Duckworth actually has a bill that would guarantee access to protect IVF nationwide. She's been looking for Republican support and has apparently not had any success finding it.

Speaker 4

Let's take a listen what she had to say.

Speaker 8

If I can get personal, I know that you turned to IVF to for your daughters, aage nine and five. What was your reaction when you saw the Supreme Court decision in Alabama?

Speaker 3

Not at all surprise?

Speaker 9

Unfortunately, I've been talking about this twenty eighteen, when it was very clear that Republicans were working to eliminate women's reproductive rights. Well, the decision is very clear that a fertilized eggs a child is a human being, which means that, for example, in my case, when we had five fertilized eggs and three were non viable, when my doctor discarded those with my consent, that woululd be considered potentially manslaughter

or murder. Basically, Republicans have put the rights of a fertilized egg over the rights of the woman and that is not something that I think the American.

Speaker 3

People agree with.

Speaker 8

You introduced a bill west month to safeguard IVF access nationally. The National Republican Senate Campaign ARM is instructing their candidates to quote, clearly and concisely reject efforts by the government to restrict IVF. So do you think you can now get Republican support to pasture bill?

Speaker 9

It's been crickets is the Alabama ruling. And let's make it clear. Republicans will say whatever they need to say to try to cover themselves on this, but they've been clear and Donald Trump has been the guy leading this effort to eliminate women's reproductive rights and reproductive choice. And so this is the next step. And by the way, not a single Republican has reached out to me on the bill. I've introduced a bill multiple times now, multiple Congresses.

But frankly, you know, let's see if they vote for it when we when we bring it to the floor.

Speaker 3

So, very great question, I group. By the way, everyone please vote for that.

Speaker 2

Also, what they talked about insurance, Yeah, we should cover that obviously, especially you know, I support for tillity, I support I want our birth right.

Speaker 3

You know, right, and all that to increase.

Speaker 2

How do you think that's going to happen in an age where people are waiting way later to get married and people, you know, look, there's all kinds of hormone problems and all this other stuff. This is a very you know, obvious option for a lot of people. It should not be purely accessible to the wealthy. And that's actually what a winning position, you know, on something like this looks like. But don't leave it to them to square themselves up by Yeah.

Speaker 1

Well, and the last thing I'll say on this is, I think we're publicans had sort of hoped that after ro versus way is overturned, after the Dabbs decision, that you know, eventually things will kind of calm down, people would move on. I mean, we're probably going to have

more rulings like this, more situations like there. Certainly, this conversation about IVF is far from over at this point when women in Alabama basically have already lost access to this procedure, and there are other states around the country with very similar legislation on the books claiming that you know, life begins at conception with the very same uh, you know,

potential outcomes here. So this conversation is far from over, and Republicans are dramatically on the wrong side of publican opinion in a way that I mean, I don't think people can really wrap their heads.

Speaker 3

I mean, this is like defund the police and awesome.

Speaker 4

Maybe it's actually worse. I mean seven percent.

Speaker 1

You're on the side of seven percent who want to make IVF more difficult.

Speaker 4

That's where you are.

Speaker 3

Good luck.

Speaker 1

All right, Speaking of good luck, let's i'll talk about some of Joe Biden's problems.

Speaker 4

They cover both sides of s here.

Speaker 1

So a new remarkable report coming out of the donor class that they also are a little worried about Joseph Robin at Biden.

Speaker 4

Here.

Speaker 1

Let's put this up on the screen. This is from Axios headline. Here is Biden's cheat sheets at fundraisers.

Speaker 4

Worry donors.

Speaker 1

President Biden has apparently been using note cards and closed door fundraisers, calling on pre screen donors, then consulting his notes to provide detailed answers, corning people familiar with the routine. Most of Biden's conversations with donors are shielded from public view. The president gets his remarks with reporters but not TV cameras in the room's frequently a teleprompter to help him

stay on track. After his opening comments at fundraisers, reporters are then ushered out before donors are allowed to ask two or three questions vetted by the president's staff. So, just to sum up here, he's doing these fundraisers, he's obviously not accessible with American people at all, done far fewer interviews prose aveils than basically any other president in the modern era.

Speaker 4

Okay, so there's that.

Speaker 1

But even when he gets behind closed doors at these fundraisers, he reads from the teleprompter his comments while the reporters are there, ushers them out, and then can't even handle three pre screened questions without note cards and cheat sheets.

Speaker 4

So that's where we're at.

Speaker 1

Even behind closed doors, he is not freelancing here whatsoever, not able to speak off the cuff whatsoever. His aids clearly have no confidence in his ability to speak extemporaneously on any issue.

Speaker 4

Again, even with.

Speaker 1

Two or three pre screened, pre scripted questions.

Speaker 4

I don't know us wild.

Speaker 2

It's just funny, Crystal, when I see the standards that we hold these people to like. For example, we both do this for a living and sometimes whenever you interview people, they will ask you for a list of questions that are you know beforehand for people what they're going to be in an interview. My rule is I will never participate in that. And in general, unless you're like somebody who was like tangentially involved.

Speaker 3

And now we're in the public realm.

Speaker 2

If you are a podcaster or something like that, and you can't just show up extemporaneously and speak, I'm talking about an actual list of the questions, you don't belong in this business, period, right, And that is what we do, which is like the lowest possible stakes.

Speaker 3

Yes, now he's we have the president higher.

Speaker 1

Standards for random run of the middle podcaster than we do for the president of the United States.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that's my standard for a guy with like two hundred thousand YouTube subscribers as something like not the president who's in charge of running the entire country. And I mean it's trite, but it's like a daily reminder with this man of he's just not fit for the job.

Speaker 3

Period. You can't.

Speaker 2

He was in public life for four fifty years. Ask him twenty years ago if he would have allowed anybody like this to be president. I mean, I've seen him speak off the cuff, you know, ten twelve years ago. It was something that a lot of these people actually pride themselves on the ability to do it, to have a spontaneous moment.

Speaker 3

I've seen it, you know, at a campaign rally and all this.

Speaker 2

That's the mark of a sharp politician, somebody who really belongs in public life. And this is the most friendly audience that exists. And yet he's relying on this and enough that they're leaking it and being like, hey, this is a real problem, and they are dragging him across and at this point, like we're almost entering like criminal territory, at least morally for me, for the people who are

shielding the public from this, like we need to see this. Yeah, it's FDR fourth term level stuff where he's drooling out of his mouth and they're dragging him, you know, across, just because they want to still list.

Speaker 1

After I was doing some good shit and I had a whole program and people behind him.

Speaker 3

It was just a different deal.

Speaker 2

It was very anti democratic at that time, and this is the closest analogous that we have gotten to.

Speaker 3

Something like it.

Speaker 1

I mean, it's very similar to the Diane Feinstein situation. Is he as far gone as Diane Finestein? You know, I don't think we would put him quite in that category.

Speaker 3

Yeah, he's only ten years young.

Speaker 1

Yet, but we've still got, you know, if he gets re elected, we got four plus more years to watch this decline.

Speaker 4

That was one of the things that struck me.

Speaker 1

I don't remember it was Azracline or Neat Silver in their analysis of why they thought he should drop out, who pointed not to him as vice president, you know, back a decade plus ago or whatever. They pointed to his announcement speech when he ran for president back in twenty you know, the announcement speech was in twenty nineteen, not long ago, and said, look at this difference, Like, look at the decline in just this short period of time. What is this going to look like over the next

number of years? What does it look like now? When you already know that he cannot handle the very basics of campaigning. He can't even handle the fundraising circuit right, let alone campaign rallies, let alone any sort of remotely contentious interview.

Speaker 4

He can't do any of it.

Speaker 1

That's why he says no this Super Bowl interview because he can't do any of it, and his aides have no confidence that he could do any of it. But to go back to the Feinstein thing, you know, some of the cope that I see from Democrats is like, oh, well, if there was a real problem, we'd know it. There's all kinds of reporters in this town I would love to report on Joe Biden's decline, ETC's Oh really, how long was Diane Feinstein in grave decline before we ever heard a word of any of that?

Speaker 4

And many of.

Speaker 1

These reporters knew exactly what was going on, but they thought it was a little uncouth, disrespectful, et cetera for the American people to know the truth. So do I put it past any of these people to lie and obscure and cover up the reality of the situation here with regard to Joe Biden, of course not. These are the very same people who covered up how far gone Diane Feinstein was, and we really only got a glimpse of it when she was practically on her deathback.

Speaker 2

You would have to have a stroke on camera for them to even really take it serious. I'm serious, or you'd have to be hospitalized and you know you found this, Crystal. I feel gross even setting this up. But there's been a more recent leak from Biden to show how virile and strong he is. Let's put this up there on the screen. It's exclusive to The Daily Mail from an expert of a new book leaked by staff. Biden eighty one see's the Key to his marriage is good sex.

How Joe Biden infuriates Jill, his wife of forty seven years, with a very risky joke to staff about their private life, even though they aren't shy about their PDA. I mean, it's pretty clear apparently I like many presidents apparently before him, John F.

Speaker 3

Kennedy, Lyndon B.

Speaker 2

Johnson, many others who've occupied the Oval Office, Bill Clinton, he likes to brag about his sexual virility to his staff. Imagine having to work for this old man who could barely put a sentence together, which I guess probably fits with some nursing home behavior, and sit there and just just be like, oh sure, mister president, like very uncomfortably like.

Speaker 3

Laugh at the jokes.

Speaker 2

I feel bad for them other people who are subjected to this, But I think it was very clearly leaked in an evidence as you said to show like, Nah, he's fine, he's just you know, he's like a big Oh he's still look like he's still got it. He's like al Pacino. He's fathering a kid at eighty three years old. Tiro, you know, eighty is the new twenty. Yeah.

Speaker 1

No, that's very much the clear intent of this league of like, well, he can't he can't even sit for like a basic interview with a friendly reporter. But look at this, Look at what a manny is behind the scenes, making his wife uncomfortable with his riscade jokes about his sex life, like oh, please stop, I feel that's not he's not helping your case. No one wants to hear about this. Absolutely, those are not the only issues that Joe Biden has. Though obviously there are concerns about his age.

There's also concerns about the way that he has destroyed his previous winning coalition out of you absolute fealty and unconditional support for Israel in their assault on the Gaza Strip. John Fetterman, though unshaken in his support for Joe Biden and saying that anyone who would criticize the man, and by criticize, I mean just like literally describe his policies or his current condition as evidence by what all of us can see and hear with our own eyes and ears.

Anyone who would criticize him should just go ahead and fly the Maga flag, put the Maga hat on.

Speaker 4

Let's take a listen.

Speaker 10

The president is going to win here in Pennsylvania. And I've always believed that whoever wins Pennsylvania is going to be the next president as well too. And this is going to be It's going to be difficult, and we all have to lean in on that. And we also have to start having in all kinds of Democrats criticizing the president too publicly. I don't understand why. I don't know what's in it for you to do that, whether you're just chasing clout or you want to make it

in the news or anything like that. But if you're not willing to just support the president now and say these kinds of things, you might as well just get your mega head, because you now are helping up with this.

Speaker 1

Love Yeah, love Amiga holds herself on as a journal Oh yeah. If you're not just engaged in complete propaganda and denial of the reality in front of all of us, then you might as well put your maga hat on like they These are the same people who loved including John Ftterman loves to talk about democracy.

Speaker 3

Yeah, could you be I mean?

Speaker 1

And this is North Korea style propaganda. This is like you cannot question or say one critical.

Speaker 4

Word of the dear leader, or you know, you are an enemy of the state. That's basically the position here.

Speaker 3

That's what he says.

Speaker 2

And you know, we have an MSNBC panel. They actually did a focused group of voters in Michigan. Many of them Muslim Americans, are activists around Gaza and you know these are not Maga people, folks, but they are just democrats. They're very upset with Biden, and they've got some choice words for him. And I think for the John Fetterman's of the world, let's take a lesson.

Speaker 11

Is there a pathway forward for you with Biden? Oh?

Speaker 3

Absolutely not.

Speaker 12

You cannot keep killing people with our money and just keep thinking that, oh, we are stupid enough to elect you again, because we'll fall in line, You'll forget.

Speaker 11

How can you?

Speaker 12

How can like this is an insult to me as a word for you?

Speaker 3

Biden has a pathway forward.

Speaker 13

Biden has a pathway forward is not what does that look like? That is him calling for a permanent immediacy inspire. The straightforward, simple answer for the Biden administration is presureci spire, stop aiding Israel in their war crimes, and I guarantee you there are enough people who would be willing to

deal with it and vote for the man. It is, in so many words, insane to me to have the Democratic Party in the Biden administration sit here and essentially say if Trump happens, it's your fault.

Speaker 12

If you don't want a Trump presidency, then are you not worried about what he could do domestically to this country?

Speaker 6

I am, you know, it's luck a vaccine. I'm willing to take short term pain for a long term gain. I'm willing to let go of Jewel and oppose Joe Biden, make him a one term president. Punish Joe Biden by making him a one term president and pairing his loss with the genocide in Gaza.

Speaker 7

Why does our democracy? Why is having a Trump president and see more important than those people's lives? Why is our democracy more important than thousands of men, women and children being killed?

Speaker 3

Woof all right, I don't know, Crystal, I don't see a lot of those.

Speaker 2

Well, okay, that one guy he said, He's like, yeah, I could, I could see a pathway back to him. But you know, one of the points that some of the other voters made, and I think you've made this one too, some of the political prices of this is baked in period, and it's like a lot of these people they may never come back, you know, even at this point if there is some change in US policy, just because of the initial actions in the first one hundred days or so.

Speaker 3

So I am increasingly convinced this is going to be a problem.

Speaker 2

And I think it's not just because of Michigan. I think it really is an overall depressive effect of chaos, a weakening of the coalition across the board. In the same way that Biden's decline really happened in the polls after Afghanistan. It wasn't really just because of Afghanistan. It was because nine different things all hit it once. But it was a precipitating factor. I think Gaza and Israel has now entered territory.

Speaker 11

Yeah.

Speaker 1

I mean, for a lot of people who see this as a crime against humanity, and as Joe Biden, you know, facilitating being directly complicit spending our tax dollars on these, you know, bombs to kill children, the Gaza strip, Like it is a moral red line. And so the consequence of oh, but you might you might elect Trump, It's like, that's not on me, that's on it, that's on you. That is on you and what you have done, you know, in our name and with our support and backing from

the previous election campaigns. So I think a lot of people this is just a red line beyond which they will not cross. And you know, even for the gentleman who said I could see my way back to him, the series of policy changes he laid out are things that are not going to happen.

Speaker 4

So, I mean, even for him, I think.

Speaker 1

It's very unlikely that he's able to be persuaded at the end of the day to come back to Joe Biden. But you know, there's a much more immediate question right now this week, which is how many votes is uncommitted going to get in this mission Chigan primary, which is on Tuesday. I mean, Joe Biden at this point, you know, obviously he's going to be the Democratic nominee unless he drops out, her dies or his thorn.

Speaker 4

Prisoner or whatever.

Speaker 1

The black Swan events that are on the table for him are same as Trump. He's going to be the Democratic nominee. But there is a quite organized and effort, with now quite a bit of relatively mainstream support to register a protest against Joe Biden by voting uncommitted. Actually, one of the most telling things I saw Soccer was Grushian Whitmer has been sent out to the Sunday shows, the CNN and wherever to try to make the case to affirmatively vote for Joe Biden in Michigan.

Speaker 4

I believe it was in an interview with Dana.

Speaker 1

Bash where she was very she would not say if she would not set any expectations for how she thought Joe Biden would do in the state against uncommitted, which showed me a level of nervousness that I was frankly a bit surprised by. But one of the latest supporters of the uncommitted campaign is lifelong Michigan resident Michael Moore, who whatevery thing about Michael Moore. He has been very prescient in his political analysis, especially in the state of Michigan.

He's had his finger on the pulls of how people are thinking there, and he went on m SMEBC and a variety of other places to explain why he is backing the effort to vote uncommitted.

Speaker 4

Let's take a listen to that.

Speaker 14

I guess I'm a recovering Catholic at this point, but Joe Biden is He's one of the few presidents in my lifetime that actually when they went to church like he means it. You know, Jimmy Carter was like that. I think, you know, very few presidents. I think I think he does mean it. And I'm just if I had a chance to talk to Jill Biden, the first thing I want to ask him is, what do you still go to mass? I mean, what's going on here?

Why are you participating something that's killing civilians and children and thirty thousand now dead. He's going to cost himself the election. He's going to you know, if Trump has any chance, it's that the decision that he's made to embrace slaughter, carpet bond, incubator babies and incubators dead because they cut off the electricity, on and on.

Speaker 1

And on, so explaining they're his horror and how Joe Biden is responsible for potentially getting Trump reelected.

Speaker 4

Michael Moore someone who has the.

Speaker 1

Most maximalist views of the potential danger of another Trump presidency, and that's important to keep in mind, as well as some of the people who are saying they're going to vote Uncommitted in Michigan or are supporting that campaign, or people who you really believe in the harm of a Donald Trump presidency of him getting reelected, feel it is very existential, but also feel that Joe Biden himself is imperiling his reelection chances. This one surprised the hell out

of me. Put this next one up on the screen, guys. Beta O'Rourke, blast from the Past, is supporting the Uncommitted campaign in Michigan's Tuesday presidential primary. He says he agrees with the aims and the goals. We should have a ceasefire. There should be a return of each and every single one of those hostages. There should be an end of this war, and there should be a negotiated solution of palsting in statehood. All of that needs to happen, and I share that concern that the US is not doing

close to enough to bring those things to pass. He goes on, he lays out some history here in his thinking.

Speaker 4

He says the.

Speaker 1

Campaign to vote uncommitted is not without precedent. When Martin Luther King Junior and Andrew Young first approached Lyndon Vane Johnson about passing the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty four, President told him he didn't have the political power to get it past. King and Young spent the weeks and

months that followed organizing to get Johnson that mandate. It culminates in John Lewis leading that march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in March of nineteen sixty five, almost being beaten to death in the process and really galvanizing the conscience of the country. Within eight days, Johnson convenes a joint session of Congress and by that summer has passed and signed into law the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five. I know that Joe Biden is a good man.

I don't know that, but anyway, who's saying that. I know that he wants to do the right thing. Also don't know that sometimes split up pressure helps a president get there, and that may be what's needed now. So that is Beto's thinking here, and Sager Many people have commented on the extraordinary turn of events that has Bernie Sanders endorsing Joe Biden, including in the Michigan primary, and Beta O'Rourke coming out for a ceasefire and for voting uncommitted.

Speaker 2

I didn't know that he endorsement in the Michigan primary. That's pretty that's crazy. He did remember he won Michigan back in twenty sixteen. That was a big deal.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Wow, that that I have to have to toy with that.

Speaker 4

One of mine did not see that.

Speaker 2

We certainly did not see that one coming. Like I said, I think Biden is probably going to win. It's really just a question of whether they're going to get a decent amount there on the ballot. If they can crack anywhere between what do you think ten percent?

Speaker 3

It's extraordinary. Ten percent would be a lot.

Speaker 1

I think what I heard from the organizer is that their original.

Speaker 4

Goal was ten thousand votes. Okay, ten thousand votes.

Speaker 1

I don't know what that would be as a percentage, but I would think that they're I don't know, but I would think they're in line. I mean, given the level of national attention and support, given the number of college towns in the state of Michigan, given the sizeable Arab American population. You know, had the mayor of Dearborn come out and say vote uncommitted. I saw a Detroit

councilwoman come out and say vote uncommitted. You got Rasheta to leave, You've got Michael Moore, You've not cut Beto Verborg.

Speaker 4

So it's got some momentum.

Speaker 1

What does it amount to, I don't know, but you know it's at least in an attempt to send some kind of a democratic vessage to Joe Biden. Whether or not he is concerned by that or heeds their calls to change policy is another question altogether.

Speaker 2

Absolutely, the two year anniversary of the war in Ukraine has now come and gone. President Zelenski of Ukraine giving a landmark speech in which he pleaded for more Western aed, but in which he also made a comment which we simply can't just let pass by because it really demonstrates the level of delusion right now inside the Ukrainian government and really the wilful life are being propagated to the American people. Let's put this up there then on the screen.

In the speech, President Zelenski claimed, with a straight phrase, Crystal that the tally of a number of Ukrainian soldiers who've been killed is thirty one thousand now as even the New York Times remarks quote US officials have said

that the number is closer to seventy thousand. I would say that both of those estimates are dramatically underestimating the number of people who have been killed in the conflict, because if we square it with everything that we know, even in terms of past estimates, in terms of the amputation numbers, in terms of the fact if you've only had thirty one thousand people who are killed, then why is the average agent side of the Ukrainian military fifty

years old? Why are you kidnapping disabled people off the street who are like forty five with one leg or whatever, have been previously dismissed and allowing them to serve. Why have six hundred and fifty thousand You know, prime age males have also fled the country, and that's how we know that the remainder of the population is not there. So if we know the fleeing estimate, and if we know the previous population of Ukraine, the number is very

likely in the hundreds of thousands. That is far more likely of an estimate. I would just put this up there from the New York Times, again only a few months ago, which they seem to have forgotten even according to US officials, the death toll, and well, they include death and injuries. This was back in August of twenty twenty three, so there have been several probably thousands, tens

of thousands since then. Was near five hundred thousand. Now they're claiming, you know, a little bit more for the Russians. That's probably likely in terms of what the overall number is, but we don't know what it is. We don't know if it's three hundred thousand, which is what the Ukrainians claim. But at the very least, Crystal, the reason why I felt so compelled that we had to cover this is that there are people in this country who believe that,

including I mean the Times, the media. People are people are pointing to this some sort of evidence of victory by the Ukrainian forces. Like again they are claiming with the straight face, Crystal, that they have had thirty one thousand killed and the Russians have had three hundred thousand.

So either they are the greatest defensive force like known to men, or they're lying, and that's unfortunate because they're pleading for more weapons and for more support when they are barely able to recruit fifty something your people who are old. They have people who are seventy in the Ukrainian armed forces who are on the front line, many of whom just mass surrendered in one of their biggest

strategic defeats in years on the battlefield. It's like the reality on the ground and the propaganda narrative is diverging at a historic level, and yet a lot of people in the establishment of this country, including the media, are buying a hook line and sinker.

Speaker 15

Yeah.

Speaker 4

I mean even again to underscore, the.

Speaker 1

US official assessment is more than double what Zelenski is claiming here, and I think most estimates are that the Russians have more killed on their side. They out number Ukrainians on the battlefield almost three to one. They also have a massively larger population in order to refill their ranks, so you know, yes, they have probably suffered more casualties. They're also in a better position to continue the fight and send more soldiers to the front line.

Speaker 4

I mean, the manpower.

Speaker 1

Issue for Ukraine is just as critical as the ammunition shortage is for Ukraine, if not more at this point. I think the reason why it's important to talk about just like the brazen nature of this lie, is because it's consistent with some of the domestic criticism that Zelensky has faced, including from some of his own military commanders, about this propaganda bubble that he has created and persisted with.

Speaker 4

So it's one thing.

Speaker 1

Look, you're in wartime trying to you know, trying to prop up the population, keep them positive, you know, showcase whatever victories you're having on the battlefield, keep morale up, etc. I mean, I think anyone would acceptect any country to do that. It's another thing to just out and out lie about the reality of what's happening on the ground and the defeats that are being suffered and the level

of suffering that occurs. I can't imagine that. I mean, Ukrainians are the ones who know the people who are dying and being killed, know the people who are coming back with limbs lost, know the men who are having to flee the country to avoid getting scooped up, know the people with intellectual disabilities that are being sent to the front.

Speaker 4

Lines, etc.

Speaker 1

I can't imagine that they buy this crap either. So that to me is what's so noteworthy, is just how even the New York Times can't take this with a straight face because it is such a brazen lie and so at odds with the realities that actually exists.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and that's the US estimate, which again is dramatically undercounted. Let's put this up here again, which is on the screen, because I feel really compelled if Zelenski's not going to to speak to the reality of the situation in Ukraine, the amputations. This was in August of twenty twenty three. The number of Ukrainians who had lost limbs had already reached the levels that four years of the First World War had incurred for Germans and Britons who went through

the entire four and a half year war. This is a war which where we learned about the devastating effects of artillery, of modern machinery, machine guns, and this is what they incurred in just a year and a half. It's been six months or so since this piece came out. How many more tens of thousands have been suffered amputations?

Speaker 3

It just does it.

Speaker 2

It flies completely in the course like its strains credulity, as you said in our beginning that we could have First World War level amputation and tend to have more than what's half the number who have been killed in action. Not even the most strenuous Ukraine believers would privately admit anything like this, and yet that's what they want us

to believe. And the reason why, again we're spending so much time on this is that they are in pure desperation right now, peers, that we are going to enable that with some of the most devastating consequences. Let's put

this up there please on the screen. And the very same time that Zelensky is giving this speech, then Secretary General of NATO John Stoltenberg is now hinting that Ukraine this is from a Ukrainian outlet, is hinting that Ukraine could use F sixteens for strikes on military targets inside

of Russia. So let's make very clear that President Biden allegedly extracted a promise from the Ukrainians that they would not do that, and yet here's the NATO Secretary General who is saying that he would endorse such a policy. We have also seen in recent months crystal the use of US weapons by the Ukrainian forces deep inside of uncontested Russian territory, for example, in places like Rostov. Well, they claim it's a military depot, and yet they're using

the exact same tactics of the Russians. They're hitting civilian infrastructure and they're killing kids in some instances, not saying that, you know, they're on the same level or whatever. But if you're going to drag yourself down into that, and you you know, the last gambles as you're losing these major battles on the battlefield, are going to be throwing things out like that, that's probably the scenario most likely to lead to some sort of war. And then on

top of it's like I can't stop. We have more inclinations that people want to. Like the new candidates for NATO Secretary General because this man is outgoing, many of them are committing to a policy that a Ukraine will eventually be in NATO. And President Putin gave a speech just yesterday He's like, let's be very clear, if that happens.

Speaker 3

We will be in a full blown nuclear war. I mean it. And you know, maybe he's lying. I'd rather not find out.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that's one of those we just have to be real here in terms of the manpower situation, the ammunition situation, and desperate people often resort to desperate things, which I don't blame them.

Speaker 3

I probably would too, But.

Speaker 2

If you know, just like in the Israel situation, if we're going to co sign, we're going to give you the weapons to do it, then we could be considered an active combatant the same thing.

Speaker 4

No, that's absolutely right, that's absolutely right.

Speaker 1

And I think part of why Selensky felt the need to put out there such a brazen live at even the New York Times isn't buying at this point, is because he needs to for the US audience, mask the incredible suffering of his own people, because I think if people really understood what the costs have been of prosecuting and continuing to prosecute this war, that raises some very uncomfortable questions for the continued level of support going forward.

Which doesn't mean that people don't have sympathy for the Ukrainian cause, that doesn't mean that is justifying Russian actions.

But you know, this is the other cost of having a president who is so infirm and unintelligible that he can't sit for a single basic interview is there is no accounting of how they think this is all going to end, how they think this is going, where they think this is going, what the you know, ultimate endgame is we used to have some theory of the gal the spring offensive and they're handibly strained, and then maybe they'll.

Speaker 4

Come to what is the theory?

Speaker 1

Now, what would this additional aid package? What is that going to get us? What is that going to get the Ukrainians? Where is that going to put us all at the end of the day. So, I mean, that's the piece that has long been missing here is you may hate the idea of a negotiated settlement that would include some sort of you know, giving up some portion of the previous you know, the Ukrainian land to Russia. You may absolutely hate that idea. I think that it

is incredibly unjust. I'm not claiming that it is. But what's the alternative. What's the alternative at this point? What is the theory of the case for how you're going to get to a solution that you find to be better, that you find to be superior. And that's how I mean, that's the logic soccer of how these wars always continue in definitely, it.

Speaker 4

Was the same thing.

Speaker 1

That's why we ended up staying in Afghanistan forever. These other presidents weren't stupid. They knew that it was not a good sugutuation. They knew that if we left, it was not going to be a good situation, and so they just the easy logices are, we'll just keep it going, We'll just pass the buck, rather than actually try to bring this thing to some sort of a conclusion, ugly or not.

Speaker 2

Well, the tragedy is that, as a result of the policy of the West and enabling Zelenski's literal egotism, fanaticism and now delusion, is that they are in a way worse position today than they were at the beginning.

Speaker 3

Of the war, no doubt.

Speaker 2

Now they have lost their entire generation of Ukrainian men. I just saw a video today of a single local recruitment person in Ukraine.

Speaker 3

They pulled a million.

Speaker 2

Dollars out of shoe boxes that he had in his apartment because he was taking bribes to let people out of the draft. I mean, this is one guy in one depot inside Ukraine, and they're.

Speaker 3

All us dollars too.

Speaker 2

Just so we're all aware in terms of where that currency is coming from.

Speaker 3

That's just one guy. The grift, the graft.

Speaker 2

It is extraordinary to a degree that you can barely understand. And on top of all of that, our major Russian battlefield victories are a Russian you know, moving away from conscription, successfully backfilling all of the three hundred thousand people that have either been killed and or injured. They've had a very successful program by basically bribing people in the caucus regions to come and join the military, very willing. It peers to be fight and to use attrition style warfare

in terms of navalny and all that. He basically, you know, somebody died his major political opponent.

Speaker 3

He's never been more in control of Russia.

Speaker 2

They are going to produce four point five million artillery shells in twenty twenty four. According to the Estonians, it could actually be even higher. Our best estimate for Europe and the United States couple hundred thousand. It's like between the man power between the power and balance between the will.

Speaker 3

It's a devastating situation.

Speaker 2

The longer they keep this going, they're going to lose even more of their country, and they're going to lose even more of their people.

Speaker 3

To be killed. It will actually put them in a position where Putin.

Speaker 2

Is the least likely to negotiate if he's you know, has breakthroughs on Like I was reading one military analyst that compared some of these recent breakthroughs that have already happened to the initial opening gambles that led the Germans to capitulate in the First World War. Just to put it into perspective, you know, many of the gains from their original counter offensive of that have been now won

back by the Russians. And you can't blame it just on artillery because we don't even have the ammunition to deliver if we wanted it, which would only lead to F sixteens missiles and other things being launched into Russia, which would only bring us all into a worse situation. So bleak situation that's happening over there.

Speaker 1

We have some horrifying breaking news this morning. A US airman by the name of Aaron Bush now self immolated in front of the Israeli embassy as an act of protest.

Speaker 4

He streamed this live.

Speaker 1

He said in part he did not want to be complicit in genocide, and as he was on fire, he was screaming Free Palestine. His family wanted the video to be released. Obviously Aarin is this, you know, as part of what he was doing, wanted people to see what he had to say. We're going to show you a little bit of the video so you can hear his words. We're going to cut it off before he begins to douse himself and set himself a light.

Speaker 4

But just a warning.

Speaker 1

Even this portion is very disturbing, so only watch if you want to see this.

Speaker 4

Let's take a look.

Speaker 16

Is Aaron Bush now, I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I'm about to engage in an extreme active protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine had the hands of their colonizers, it's not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided.

Speaker 14

Will be normal.

Speaker 1

So he then goes ahead and sets himself on fire. Paramedics Russian as well as I don't know it's cup or some sort of law enforcement or Israeli embassy security who is pointing a gun at him as he is potentially burning to death. There are conflicting reports this morning. Some outlets say that he has died from those injuries.

Speaker 4

Others say that he is.

Speaker 1

In critical condition, in very very bad shape. A few things that we have learned. First of all, it has been confirmed he is in fact a current active US airman. We also know, and this is crazy to me, that we had no idea about this. This is actually the second act of self immolation in this country. There was another individual who set themselves on fire for very similar reasons outside of the Israeli embassy in Atlanta, I believe so. I'm not sure how that got covered up and we

didn't hear about any of this. We can put some of the details here up on the screen again, disturbing image of Aaron here on fire. The breaking news headline here from marinofall is an active duty member of the US Air Force set himself on fire in front of Israeli embassy in Washington.

Speaker 3

Quote.

Speaker 4

I will no longer be complicit in genocide.

Speaker 1

While on fire, he repeatedly yells, free Palestine. I don't even know what to say about this. The media, of course, fell down completely on the job here in reporting exactly what happened. We could put this up on the screen. New York Times and other major outlets. First of all, took them long time to cover it at all. Second of all, in their headlines, they don't explain the reason why Aaron gave for committing what he described as an extreme active protest and likely ending in at least critical

critical injuries and very possibly in his death. We can see these headlines here New York Times a man set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy and Washington. The police said US airman sets himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy. Active duty airman sets himself on fire, US araman sets himself on fire. Again, nothing about his stated reasons for why he did this. Sager, It's just it's horrifying to watch. It's just horrifying.

Speaker 3

Yes, it's horrible.

Speaker 2

I really recommend people do not watch that video, the full video of it, unless you really like you need to know exactly what you're getting yourself into. And it's just one of those where headspace and all of that. As you said, this fits with the second one, which again I did not know about, about the Atlanta the US Air Force confirming that the active duty US airmen was involved in the incident.

Speaker 3

We're not yet sure as to his condition in the hospital.

Speaker 2

There have been sustained protests outside of the Israeli embassy here in Washington, as well as many as there Israelly consulates and other diplomatic outposts around the world.

Speaker 3

But yeah, it's just horrifying to the entire.

Speaker 2

Situation is just devastating, especially to think he seems to be a very young man. As you said, apparently his family wanted the video and all that released.

Speaker 3

But it's certainly, I.

Speaker 2

Mean, this is reminiscent of the I'm very likely why the act of protest was taken, the monk who set himself on fire in protests of the Vietnam War, which became one of the most iconic images of that time. So very likely trying to recreate something like that. But I don't want to glorify or you know, anything like this, just because you know, this man very likely is going to lose his life as a result of.

Speaker 1

This, yeah, if he hasn't already, or you know, the fruit seller in Tunisia, that's right, another you know extreme act taken, their desperate act taken, which had massive geopolitical consequences, And as you said, Saga, I'm sure that's what Aaron who was clearly desperately trying to do something to stop what he sees and what I see and what much of the world sees as a genocide, and as an active duty service member, feeling that he was being made

to be complicit in that genocide. You know, our thoughts are certainly with his family. I hope that he and his family are able to find peace and comfort in her horrifying time, horrific situation. All right, let's go ahead and move on to the very latest from bb net Yahoo. He was on one of our Sunday shows over the weekend, Margaret Brennan pressing him pretty aggressively on whether he is losing support of the United States.

Speaker 4

Let's take a listen to how he responded.

Speaker 17

The IDF has only destroyed thirty percent of HAMAS leadership, and that the amount of tunnels that Hamas uses have really only been tiny in terms of what has been destroyed by the IDF. There is growing distrust of you personally, So you know this in the US Congress and within the Biden White House. When your closest ally is telling you things like this and telling you that you need to reconsider a strategy, isn't it worth considering Look.

Speaker 18

I think that the US agrees with us on the goal of destroying Comas, yes, and on the goal of releasing the hostages. The decisions of how to do that are left with us and with me and the elected cabinet of Israel, and we're doing that. A lot of things that you that we were told by the best of friends initially turned out not to be true. They said, you can't enter the ground war without having enormous complications. They said, you cannot fight, you can't enter Gaza City,

you can't go into the tunnels there. It will be a terrible bloodbath. All of that turned out to be not true.

Speaker 3

Sure, but the former.

Speaker 17

Head of Central Command was on this program just a few weeks ago and said, basically, you have not articulated any specific end game here. So but putting that aside, I want to come back to a few different things to Margaret.

Speaker 18

Margaret, hold on, you love these these grenades at me and you keep on moving. Well, first of all, you say there's no confidence, meet, Well, there's really public has confidence in me.

Speaker 17

Last week there were massive protests throughout Israel yesterday.

Speaker 18

Of course, we have protests. We have protests as well as democracy that protest.

Speaker 17

What Hamas has done is horrific. But President Biden has said, your actions, sir, are over the top. Aren't you concerned that Israel is creating more risks than it is killing?

Speaker 18

What would America do? What would America do? Margaret? If you face the equivalent of twenty nine elevens fifty thousand Americans slaughtered in one day, ten thousand Americans, including mothers and children held hostage, would you not be doing what Israel is doing? You'd be doing a hell of a lot more. And all Americans that I talked to nearly all say.

Speaker 2

That, I'm sure the Americans he talks he does say that that's certainly right. I'm just so this man is living in a delusion, like in a pyramid of his own construction. He's like, the Israeli public supports me. How in a straight face can you possibly say that you know the other part of this thing, Crystal. He continues to do only interviews with US based media outlets. He won't face his own people in Hebrew to face any

critical challenge. Go and sit with your own media outlets who will actually ask you very detailed questions.

Speaker 3

They're not nearly as afraid as our people are. I mean, look at that. It's the most tepid.

Speaker 2

Like, hey, you know, some people say President Biden in you know, Haretz and many Israeli journalists and others that we have covered here are far more critical than net On Yahoo government than most of the people in our own country.

Speaker 3

So that was my big takeaway.

Speaker 1

I thought she did a decent job of pressing him, but you know, the Biden administration gives him every out because first of all, their criticism of him is so tapid. Oh Biden said it was over the top. Oh my gosh, Wow, that's unbelievable. It's so tapid, it's so lame. It doesn't come with any sort of pressure. And you have multiple US fokespeople who have now repeated basically what Boebe says

there of like, hey, it's their country. They can do what they want, Okay, but we don't have to ship them the weapons of their genocide and of their atrocities.

Speaker 4

Okay. We don't have to ship them the funding.

Speaker 1

We don't have to provide them diplomatic cover both at the UN and at the ICJ, like we have done over and over and over again.

Speaker 4

We don't have to block and.

Speaker 1

Veto multiple ceasefire resolutions, as we have done now.

Speaker 4

So it just is so it's the peak.

Speaker 1

Of gas slighting to pretend like, oh, it's just up to them and we've got nothing to do with it. Bullshit, you don't want to use the leverage that you have. And so Bbe feels perfectly comfortable to go on American television.

Speaker 4

Say oh, they've been Americans.

Speaker 1

Yeah, they've they've pressed us on some things, but ultimately, actually they've been wrong about all of the criticisms that they've lobbied a US or all of the suggestions that they made about how we should conduct this offensive. I mean, he said, oh, they told us it would be a terrible bloodbath if we want. It has been a terrible bloodbath. It has been a terrible blood bath. No one was

wrong about that. Now, did the US actually, you know, fully express those concerns that we've been willing to do anything about that?

Speaker 3

No?

Speaker 4

Absolutely not.

Speaker 1

But you know, it's just another humiliation for the Biden administration to have BB on our television basically like throwing in their face any sort of concerns or objections they have. And BB getting a little bit testy there with Margaret Brennan, because as you said, Soccer, he's not used to being challenge or subjecting himself to anything approaching a critical interview. We're going to get to the protests and Tel Aviv in just a minute, because as you said, it is he's not delusional.

Speaker 4

He knows he's just a shameless liar.

Speaker 1

He knows how precarious his domestic political situation is. That has driven a lot of his war making decision making, is how precarious his political standing is.

Speaker 4

I mean, you have an overwhelming.

Speaker 1

Majority of Israelis, for a variety of reasons, most of which don't match my discuss with bab nine Yaho, but for a variety of reasons, want early elections and want him gone. So insane and delusional and just a flat out lie to claim otherwise. But let me just also update you on we've been telling you there have been ongoing negotiations about a potential new temporary cease fire. This was the reason the US gave for the most recent blocking of a resolution in favor of a permanent immediate

cease fires. Oh well, we can't do that because we need to negotiate this other temporary potential ceasefire here's the framework as best we know it that is being worked on.

I don't know how close they are to actually securing this deal, but reportedly the updated US framework includes the release of several hundred Palaestinian prisoners in exchanged the release of thirty five to forty Israeli hostages, including civilian women, female soldiers, men over fifty in hostages in serious medical condition. The number of Palestinian prisoners released for each.

Speaker 4

Of the female.

Speaker 1

Soldiers will be higher than for the other abductees that will be released at this stage.

Speaker 4

For each hostage.

Speaker 1

Who is released, Israel will agree to a day of ceasefire, when in total, in the first phase of the deal it will be possible to reach six weeks of ceasefire. The number I saw floated was potentially like sixty days. The US framework includes an initial and limited return of Palestinian citizens to the north of the Gaza Strip that will start during the implementation of this stage of the deal, under conditions that will be defined during the detailed negotiations.

Of course, there's next to nothing to go back to in the north of the Gaza Strip, which has been utterly destroyed. The US framework also includes a significant increase in the scope of humanitarian aid that enters Gaza Strip well. Previous frameworks have called for that as well to no avail.

We'll get more on that in a moment. And the next phases in the deal that focus on release of soldiers in exchange of bodies were left very general as in the previous framework, So no clue if they are actually close to securing this deal, although there seems to be serious efforts to engage with this framework, although BB also making clear that even if they do agree to something approaching this framework and this temporary cease fire, he's

still fully one hundred percent intends to continue the war after that, including going into Rafa, something that the Biden administration has also expressed concerns over, and our own spokespeople and national security advisors like Jake Sullivan have said that they have not received any plan for keeping civilians in Rafa safe. One point three million Palestinians have been pushed

into Rafa. Also with regards to, you know, provision of aid, that is where the overwhelming majority of humanitarian aid flows through. You already have people dying of starvation, incredibly desperate circumstances, So that's where we are in terms of this potential hostage deal and BB's intention to continue the war that has already encouraged such an unbelievable cost on Palestinian civilians after that deal's conclusion.

Speaker 2

Yeah, so the hostage deal, I think the major headline out of it really was not only in terms of the upcoming rough operation which could be delayed, but it was the unwillingness, at least on the part of the Israeli side, not yet clear really on the Palestinian side, that they're like, this has to be a time limited

hostage deal that doesn't leave it open ended. That said, the framework, as you know, what we have first six weeks or something like that, we did see a resumption of hostilities after the last one.

Speaker 3

It is certainly possible there could be.

Speaker 2

Some sort of diplomatic opening though whatever in the interim that would either delay or significantly change because you can just imagine, Crystal, if you have six weeks weeks of you know, no headlines and a change in the diplomatic situation, of a release of the hostage, continuing deteriorating domestic political conditions for bebe inside of Israel, and if they double down on their military operation.

Speaker 3

It could change.

Speaker 2

I mean that doesn't mean I don't think it's not likely. I think it's probably the most likely course. But if there is some sort of framework in general, when the guns stopped firing and there's some sort of release, that's not positive for everybody who's involved.

Speaker 1

Yeah, the only time that there's been significant hostage exchange was in the previous short cease fire. I mean, the people of Gaza, the Palestinians are suffering so so much so you have to cheer for even a temporary ceasefire. But Bbe at least is making it pretty clear right now that he fully intends to go into Rafa. And you know, this also does get to his domestic political standing.

Because they haven't come anywhere close to eradicating Hamas, they haven't even been able to take out the top leaders that have been on their target list. He has every incentive to hold on to power by continuing this assault on the Gaza strip and going into Rafa.

Speaker 4

So I fully expect that will be the case.

Speaker 1

You know, as evidence of just what shaky political ground he is in Tel Aviv experiencing some really wild protests and met with a violent police reaction, we.

Speaker 4

Can Put this on the screen. You can see the.

Speaker 1

Size of the protests here, the number of people on the streets in Tel Aviv. These are protests directly against net Nyahuo, people who have a variety of criticisms of him, also concerns about the failure to secure release of the hostages. You can see some of the police response here, which again very violent, very aggressive. Here you see a water

cannon being shot at people. There are some incidents from the police here that are already being investigated, So those are that's a reaction to the protests that are going against Beebe. Now let's take a look at the protests that have been going on now for some time that have been actually very successful at starving the Palestinian people by further blocking AID from going into the Gaza strip.

Put this up on the screen. Oh, look at these folks milling around, blowing up a bouncy castle and you know, celebrating, dancing, waving the flag. I don't see that same aggressive response here. And you can see on the screen all of the AID trucks that are backed up at this crossing, unable to pass because of these protesters desire to starve Palestinians. More than they're already starving, and make no mistake, they

are already starving to death. Of course, it will be the youngest, the weakest, the infirm who's succumb to starvation first. And again, very difficult video to watch, but let's put this up on the screen. This is a two month old baby. So this baby was born after October seventh, and here he is. His name is Mahmud Fatu breathing some of his last breaths before dying because of starvation. That is the direct result of the US administration's policy of unconditional support.

Speaker 4

That is a direct result of bib Natyahu and his government.

Speaker 1

That is a direct result of those protesters blocking AID from getting into the Gaza strip and imposing collective punishment on the entire population, including this baby that never saw a day, that wasn't comprised of this horrifying assault on the people of Gaza.

Speaker 3

Yeah, it's terrifying.

Speaker 2

The hospital said that he died of acute malnutrition. The reason that really what comes through in terms of the Israeli government is that they loved and you would even notice interviews like, of course we have protests, we're a democracy.

Speaker 3

I'm like yeah, dude, but you're spraying those people.

Speaker 2

In it's called Democracy Square actually in Tel Aviv, of these protesters.

Speaker 3

But then the people who are blocking food trucks you're.

Speaker 2

Building, you know, you let them have bouncy cans castles. Not only that they're being visited by cabinet members, including the Defense Minister of the government. That's disparate treatment of people who are protesting. Remember, the official position of the government is that those people are not supposed to be there, and the AA trucks are allowed to let in according to their framework negotiated with the United States and with

the United Nations. And it's like, well, well, okay, if all protesters are treated the same, I actually had no issue with that.

Speaker 3

But you're not treating all protests is the same.

Speaker 2

You're selectively allowing some and then selectively suppressing others with the ruining ruling coalition to keep a lid on how unbelievably unpopular were And what's even crazier is what you know, Israeli media is reporting some of the people here who were sprayed and who were in the Democracy Square were the families.

Speaker 3

Of hostages who are being held in Gaza.

Speaker 2

These people look obviously we're all the same and all that, but their voices, I would, you know, given the Israeli public, those are some pretty important people.

Speaker 3

We don't spray them in the face.

Speaker 2

But you know, these pro these pro war like, anti food people who are just allowed total impunity, and that's basically the policy of their government. They're held hostage by the most fringe elements of their society. They're green living settlements and all this other stuff. And if you protest against it, which again, let's be clear, not a lot not.

Speaker 3

All Israeli support this stuff.

Speaker 2

I know plenty of them who do not, and would cringe and are horrified specifically by the settlements and all that in the West Bank. What are they going to do if they take this street so the governments can throw their asses in jail and spray them in the middle of the square.

Speaker 4

Yeah, unreal, That is exactly right.

Speaker 1

The Washington Post actually had a very good report on those protests, blocking food, blocking the food trucks, the ones

with the bouncy castle and the dancing and whatever. And they reported on how you know, there were IDF soldiers present or police president and they just let it continue, let it continue, even as those age rugs are backed up, even as that little baby boy is starving to death, and there are more and more report reports every day of people who are dying of starvation at this point, again as the direct result of all of this. And so you know, you look at things like that, you

look at the settlement policy the Biden administration. Oh, they they've put sanctions on four settlers. Oh my gosh. It's an attempt to frame it as it's as if it is the actions of a few fringe extremists versus the explicit policy of this government. And not just this government, by the way, I mean, the settlements have expanded under

every Israeli government since the seventies, every one. So to pretend like this is some fringe project project or it's just coming out of the net Yahoo administration even is really inaccurate. This is the explicit aim of the Israeli government has been for years and years and years, you know, as long.

Speaker 4

As Joe Biden has been in Washington.

Speaker 1

This has been the policy of the Israeli government, and to tend otherwise is incredibly incredibly dishonest. You know, if the Israelis didn't want those food trucks to be blocked. If they wanted those food trucks to get into those starving gosins, you can damn well bet they would be there.

Speaker 2

Well yeah, I mean then that's the other thing is you have a cabinet minister who openly goes to war with his own government and supports these people for protesting. It's just a he's an incredibly weak prime minister. Every act of his is weakness, and it's just to bolster his coalition. And you're basically allowing eight to ten percent really of the population to hold hostage the entire country.

Speaker 3

I honestly, this is an intolerable situation. I don't know how people there.

Speaker 2

Aren't protesting even more against the government for something like especially if you want to see the hostage release, you should be out there, you know, in major force, which is you know, supposedly allegedly you know what the vast majority of that population actually does believe whenever it comes to this deal.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I mean, the overwhelming bulk of the Israeli population believes very much in this war, thinks it should be incredibly aggressive. When we saw those poles early on saying oh the IDF if anything isn't going far enough, there was only I think one point eight percent that said they had gone too far. So we shouldn't delude ourselves about what it is that the population supports. But there is genuine friction with regards specifically to the efforts to

secure hostages. At least one poll showed a majority of Israeli's thought that should be the primary goal of the war. And of course what we've seen is that Israel has killed more hostages than they were able to rescue in the course of this offensive, end that the only time that there was significant hostage release was during the ceasefire.

Speaker 4

That's where the pressure to secure some sort of a deal comes from.

Speaker 1

And so we'll see if this temporary ceasefire framework that the US is pushing rather than a permanent ceasefire, they've decided they want this temporary ceasefire be be very likely to go in.

Speaker 4

After the conclusion of that.

Speaker 1

If that is to come to pass, we'll see if that's able to come together.

Speaker 3

There you go, We'll keep you guys updated.

Speaker 4

All right, Sagar, are we looking at well?

Speaker 2

Last week we had a fun segment about Google's Gemini AI image generator. By this point you've probably seen it, but just so I can have a laugh too. Let's relive that saga. The basics of it are that Google's AI generator on launch day seemed genuinely incapable of creating an image of a white person, even when it was actually called for, like with prompts about America's founding fathers Polish soldiers in World War Two, it injects Asian or black people into images of what a European family was

supposed to look like. The images took over social media in a matter of hours. They quickly prompted an apology from Google, whose then halted the product as it updated its software, and even we're shuddering it for some time. This prompts two very important questions. First, how does this happen? The second, what are the actual stakes here at play? And then, if we accept those steaks, what if anything should be done about it? So I'm going to answer

all those. Let's start with the first, how does something like this happen? If you watched our original segment, we got in some of the basics that Google is a bureaucratic nightmare of an organization infected by political correctness. The way that a product like this gets shipped is that people are too afraid to say something like hey, why can't the image generator produce white people?

Speaker 3

It would rather embarrass the.

Speaker 2

Company in front of the eyes of the world than flag it internally and face some problems. Quickly after this, entire freakis became to light. Videos began to surface of some talks from Jen jen I. She is an Irish technology executive at Google who heads up the quote Responsible Innovation Team for Artificial Intelligence and is responsible for programming in the social parameters at Google.

Speaker 3

Let's take a listen to some of her HR philosophy in the past.

Speaker 19

We do work together day to day to try and advance the technology and understanding around responsible AI.

Speaker 6

So today I.

Speaker 19

Won't be speaking as much from the Google perspective, but from my own experience. I have worked at Google for over fourteen years. I've led about six different teas, mostly in the user research, the user experience area, and now in the ethical user impact area.

Speaker 11

So I'll be.

Speaker 19

Sharing some of my learnings from across that time, but also some my failures and challenges. I think it's okay to talk about things that you've made mistakes in because we will make mistakes when we're trying to be good allies. When we're trying to be anti racists, we will make mistakes. The point is, though, to keep trying to keep educating yourself and getting better.

Speaker 3

Day to day.

Speaker 2

Okay, not surprising anti racism DEIHR gobbledygook speech.

Speaker 3

If you're a right wing internet pundit, most of the analysis.

Speaker 2

It stops right there. You'll laugh for these woke idiots and you move on. But I would urge others to not think about AI images, which don't really matter all that much, and instead thinking about the lurking assumptions in the text models that we are missing and what a future with these hanging over our heads will look like. For that to happen, we have to close our eyes and envision a future. A future of AI does not necessarily mean replacement. It more is an alter of our

total interaction with machines. Instead of typing something and respung getting response, we may use our voice. Instead of asking for a definitive response, we will ask for aggregated recommendations. As we all know, good recommendations are derivative of our knowledge base and assumptions programmed in, and.

Speaker 3

That is where the danger lies.

Speaker 2

As Brian Chu has deciphered in a substack newsletter from the New World. The Google paper itself demonstrates the nefarious principles that are programmed into the model. Humans explicitly filter data fed into the Gemini to comply with the diversity standards at Google, and quote unquote harm reduction is programmed in when the AI is considering questions. Finally, the model itself has a rule I'm not kidding where stereotypes should be opposed, whether.

Speaker 3

Those stereotypes are true or not.

Speaker 2

So the stereotype rule is that one responsible for generating the ridiculous image, but it demonstrates how dangerous language.

Speaker 3

Of this type itself is.

Speaker 2

The model is designed for image and techs to do his best to preduce false information, let's say, on racial stereotypes, even if they are literally true, like in the case of skin color. You can imagine a myriad other ways that this could manifest itself, for questions around affirmative action, test scores, crime statistics, and more. But this is where

we reach a crossroads of how do we fix this problem? First, if we accept as a problem I think it is, I think people v allscripe should Yes, the examples I've

highlighted are very coded right wing. But you should be terrified of the principle of a future where information presented to you as fact is explicitly curated to comply with political correctness in vogue at the time, especially if these are models and systems through which we will solely interact with the digital world and which will have a huge impact in teaching our children of the future. Second, if we accept that problem, we have to grapple with the

system design itself effectively. What we have here is an AI arms race, the sheer cost of servers.

Speaker 3

Chips, and staff. Have only the biggest.

Speaker 2

Players right now that are open AI, which is backed by Microsoft. You have Google, you have Amazon, you have Meta Apple.

Speaker 3

Sometime in the future.

Speaker 2

There are multi trillion dollars of money and market cap and investment with little ability right now for startup entries to meaningfully enter into the space right now. So if we accept then that there's this path to fixing this, the first preferred solution of the establishment is going to make the same mistake that we did when it came

to social media. We let massive monopolies arise, and then when the problems began to arise, we created a censorship industrial complex, through which the government, the NGOs, and ideology individually pressure these companies to censor their enemies.

Speaker 3

The counter argument that comes back, they.

Speaker 2

Say, no, no, no, don't censor us, censor our enemies, and then we enter a natural race to the bottom where government becomes all powerful and it works with just.

Speaker 3

A few of these entities.

Speaker 2

The other way is to declare now that we should not repeat the same mistake of the past. The way to get there is through decentralization and open source.

Speaker 3

Currently, the reason why quote unquote woke Google, woke.

Speaker 2

Chat, EPT and all these others are bad is because they are inside a controlled system models that are controlled by Sam Altman, CEO of Microsoft. The DEI to turn a team at Google the future AI team at Facebook.

Speaker 3

When you have an open.

Speaker 2

Source version of this, however, none of them are actually cutting edge themselves. Open source AI instead would allow for these models that become available to everyone, So instead of guessing as to whether something is programmed to be bad, you can know by simply looking at the code.

Speaker 3

It can be audited, It can then be tweaked by another.

Speaker 2

Open source would allow a first principles approach where we start from democratic grounds and we would build from there rather than allow mass centralization and jockey over who gets to pressure the oligarchs. It is genuinely vital that we act soon, or the exact same network effects that took place with Facebook and Google in the early days of the web will happen again with all the attendant massive social costs. Worst, if the AI optimists are right, it

will replace a huge part of our digital life. It is the same current tech monopolies that will become stronger and more intrusive into our daily life than ever before. We will have to play catch up and only further and further get away from the dreams of the early Internet, which was a more connected, a more democratically informed, empowered society rather than a subjugated one. We know what our elites would prefer, which is why we should have to

take it into our own hands. That's something that I spent a lot of time kind of thinking about this Crystal, and.

Speaker 1

If you want to hear my reaction to Sager's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at breakingpoints dot com, all right.

Speaker 2

At the same time, we had to put something fun in the show just to give us all a smile.

Speaker 3

A friend of the show, Taylor.

Speaker 2

Laron'z, a great journalist of course, probably a great admirer of this program, had a sit down interview with Chaia Raichik. She is the founder and the person who runs the libs of TikTok account on Twitter, previously of TikTok and of social media fame, which of course both of these

individuals have become lightning rods on social media. And so there was a great summit between the two which occurred with some interesting moments which I think revealed something about the two of these people who are, for better or worse, central to our online politics debate and all of that.

Speaker 3

We've pulled some of this.

Speaker 2

We will be gating some of our reaction for our premium subscribers. So if you want to hear fully what we have to say Breakingpoints dot Com. With all of that, let's watch the video and we'll react on the other side.

Speaker 15

If you eradicate transgenderism, which I believe you suggested in a post today, I.

Speaker 11

Never suggested those.

Speaker 15

Oh okay, you reposted a post that was advocating for that. What would happen to the people that have already medically socially completely transitioned and or leading happy lives.

Speaker 11

What would happen to them? I mean, what's your plan for that?

Speaker 15

If transgenderinism doesn't exist, which it seems like you're that's what you believe. What happens to all the people living happy lives as trans people?

Speaker 20

Well, first of all, the whole trends is it's based on a lot. You can't change your you can't change your gender trunks, okay, But so they could go live their life. I mean, I can't tell someone what to do in their in their house.

Speaker 11

Sounds like you do want to tell people what to do in their house.

Speaker 3

I never said that.

Speaker 15

So you're totally okay with people being trands, just not as long as they're in public.

Speaker 20

No, I never said that they could. It's the whole thing is based off of a lie. And I think that the fact this lie cannot be mainstream in our in our society.

Speaker 11

It's just it's a lie. And what harm is it causing? Do you believe? I like the truth?

Speaker 15

I like truth, right, but I'm saying, what what's the what's the harm of people expressing their gender identity differently than you believe it to be? What?

Speaker 11

What harm are they causing. Like I said, we are a nation of truth, and I'm I seek the truth.

Speaker 15

But that's but I'm asking about the harm. What's the harm? You might believe it to be possible.

Speaker 20

The harm is that there's a lie that is very mainstream as being abouted into every institution.

Speaker 15

I guess I'm wondering what the material harm is, aside from it's maybe something that you disagree with, is in your version of the truth is different than their version.

Speaker 11

Of the truth.

Speaker 15

What is the material harm of them living in their life as a woman or man or gender that you don't have.

Speaker 20

Not anything that's wrong. Is there a material harm necessarily so there's no harm? I didn't say that.

Speaker 2

Who Okay, I have a lot to say about this. So it's funny because I think I said this to you. I think that the most midwit like right wing gen Z poster on Twitter could have given a better articulation of the quote unquote case against transgenderism than apparently the lives of TikTok founder could have.

Speaker 3

It's for a.

Speaker 2

Person who spends all day aggregating and pushing out all of these videos to not have apparently better formed views about this is genuinely stunning. I don't know what it takes really to make Taylor Lorenz look like intellectual in this entire discussion. So Christal, I don't know. I'm genuinely stunned by this interview. And we watched the full thing

just so we're clear. None of that was edited or at least that was put out by them and hasn't been disputed yet, you know, by either of the parties that were involved. So I truly produced these two people deserve each other. That's that's my general take.

Speaker 1

I mean, for Kya to not be able to, i know, even articulate what her view even is.

Speaker 3

She keep saying I'm for freedom, It's like, what does that mean?

Speaker 1

She keeps saying, well, okay, so if you want to eradicate transgenderism, like you you know you liked or reposted I didn't say that, Okay, well do then you're fine with it?

Speaker 4

If you I didn't say, I mean, so what do you actually even believe?

Speaker 1

Let's start there, and then you can't articulate the basics of why you believe that. And to your points, Soccer like, this woman is obsessed with trans people.

Speaker 3

It's like her number one, this is her whole shit.

Speaker 1

She's doing this all day, every day and apparently won't even fully articulate what her views are, which, by the way, I mean so the initial you know, moral outrage panic on the right about transfel was very focused on kids, right, and this was like, what's what's being taught to kids in schools and what procedures that are open to them, and you know, that's that's our focus, that's what we're

concerned about. And in the beginning there is a very clear attempt to say grown ups can live your lives, do what you want.

Speaker 3

And I believe that to be clear.

Speaker 1

But as things have progressed, now you've got people like the Matt Walsh's of the world and others who know, we also want to impose our view of how you should act out your gender roles on all of the country, including you know, consenting adults just living their lives however

they want to live their lives. I think that part of why Kaya has a hard time even saying what she even thinks is she knows that that piece is like very extreme and wildly unpopular with Americans who will instantly have revulsion to you trying to tell an adult how they should be and what they should do, and what decisions they should make in their own lives and

with their own bodies. And so she's stumbling over that, and so can't even articulate the basics of our position, let alone how those adults living their lives create any sort of quote unquote material harm to other people in the world. So that's how you end up with this just embarrassing, incoherent display in which and that's the other thing. Taylors are not asking a hard questions.

Speaker 3

Yeah, these are the most basic, easy questions.

Speaker 1

I could explain your philosophy, that's it, basically, and she can't.

Speaker 4

She can't do it.

Speaker 3

She keeps asking how the material of harm? That's the easiest question on earth.

Speaker 2

We could talk clearly about the detransitioners, about people and all of that who have identified as transgender, underwent life altering surgery and then now find themselves in an irreversible position, and they believe they were victims of social ideology.

Speaker 1

Which is a tiny tiny of the population.

Speaker 3

First of all, it's a brand new phenomenon. So that's it.

Speaker 2

And even if it is harm reduction quote unquote, as the Europeans have found, have found that that means that it's not necessarily something that you should just cavalierly come through with.

Speaker 3

We have a massive explosion of all.

Speaker 4

Kinds of decisions.

Speaker 1

I agree that they regret in their lives, and we don't ban them for doing that.

Speaker 2

I agree, if you were eighteen years old and you want to fundamentally alter your body chemistry, be my guest.

Speaker 3

Honestly you could do what you want. I don't think tax dollars should pay for it.

Speaker 2

And if you find yourself, you know, on the other side literally sexually dysfunctional, that's your fault. That's like people will get tattoos and then come to regret them later on. But if you're under the age of eighteen, I think there should be a total and complete.

Speaker 3

Ban on it now. Also in terms of any.

Speaker 2

Puberty blockers, I've basically become convinced of that just because of the irreparable harm.

Speaker 1

Should we've ban puberty blockers for girls who have early onset menstruation. That has been used in that context for decades.

Speaker 2

That's not to thing that's not the same. But it's being used No, but it's being used for medical first. No, but it's not chemically castrating those.

Speaker 1

It does have the same irrevocable harm because it's the same chemt okay.

Speaker 2

But that's a decision that can be made based upon a medical decision, not one based on a social explosion, where we see three hundred thousand years you have.

Speaker 1

Is more likely to litigate the medical decision gender politicians and kaya reischik or doctors and medical professionals in conjunction with families.

Speaker 2

I believe that the most of these decisions should remain within the family. When I said it here is that within the context of a social ideology and explosion. For three hundred thousand people now between the ages of thirteen and seventeen identifying as transgender, which has been some one thousand percent increase in the span of just ten years. It is so obviously a social ideology that is coming and being pushed I think by some elements of our society.

Speaker 1

But you completely discount also though, that there's increased acceptance which can lead to more people.

Speaker 3

I guess a thousand you think it's one thousand percent.

Speaker 1

You can also you also are ignoring the fact that the vast majority of people who identify as non binary or transgender don't go through with either the you know, hormonal true any sort of medical treatment, it's just more in how they present to the world, which Hya and others like her seem to have a problem with even that, which was something that in another part of this, Taylor was trying to press her on that piece of like right, well,

where do you draw the line? And what if someone says, like the way that you're expressing your womanhood isn't appropriate? Like where do you draw the line on these things? Which is another thing that she just had no answer for us. Again, 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.

Speaker 2

We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio ad staff, give you, guys, the best independent coverage.

Speaker 3

That is possible.

Speaker 2

If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support.

Speaker 3

But enough with that, we will see you guys later.

Speaker 9

The k

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