3/21/24: Dems Fund MAGA Candidates, Fox Begs O'Leary To Bail Out Trump, US Happiness Plummets, Biden Impeachment Hearing Off The Rails, Israeli Gen Says War Over Without US Weapons, Bibi Gaza Port For Ethnic Cleansing, Trump Says Jewish Dems Hate Their Religion - podcast episode cover

3/21/24: Dems Fund MAGA Candidates, Fox Begs O'Leary To Bail Out Trump, US Happiness Plummets, Biden Impeachment Hearing Off The Rails, Israeli Gen Says War Over Without US Weapons, Bibi Gaza Port For Ethnic Cleansing, Trump Says Jewish Dems Hate Their Religion

Mar 21, 20242 hr 40 min
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Episode description

Krystal and Saagar discuss Dems spending millions to prop up MAGA candidates, Fox News begs O'Leary to bail out Trump, US happiness index plummets, Dem wears Putin mask to Congress as Biden hearing goes off the rails, Israeli general admits war over without US weapons, Bibi floats Gaza port for ethnic cleansing, Trump says Jewish Dems hate their religion. 

 

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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

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

Speaker 3

Coverage 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, let's get to the show. Good morning, everybody, Happy Thursday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal?

Speaker 1

Indeed, we do many interesting topics to get to you this morning. So we did have some primaries this week and some kind of interesting results that we want to go through. Both in terms of the presidential level. Nikki Haley stilly still pulling a fair number of votes even though she's not in the race anymore. We got some interesting polls for Biden. We've got some interesting candidates that are moving on to the general elections. We'll break all

of that down for you. We also have some innovative ideas being floated over on Fox News about how Trump may be able to foot that big five hundred million dollar bill that he Owes, so you definitely want to stay tuned for that. The United States is slipping big time in terms of the world happiness rankings, and it is apparently mostly attributable to young people who are not too happy about the direction of the country, their lives, et cetera. So we'll look into what may be going

on there. Some big Joe Biden impeachment hearings yesterday illustrating the absolutely farcical nature of our politics all the way around, so we'll show you some of the low lights from there. It was bade one of the most embarrassing moments I've ever seen in politics, to be honest with you, Well, you definitely want to hang in there for that one.

We also have the US with regards to Israel, reportedly torn the Biden administration over whether to continue selling weapons to Israel as it is increasingly undeniable that they're being used in illegal ways and increasingly undeniable that they are blocking humanitarian assistance. So we'll take a look at that debate that is playing out. Also, we've got bb floating using that temporary port where building for ethnic cleansing, so

that's really great. Playwright Tony Kushner also speaking out backing Jonathan Glazer and also calling out Israel's all out AsSalt on gods and very noteworthy comments there.

Speaker 3

Yeah, it's going to be interesting.

Speaker 2

Before we get to any of that, we want to thank everybody who's been signing up as we keep on teasing, and I do promise it's coming very soon. We have a big upgrade coming in our premium service where we really think everybody is going to enjoy it. You're going to want to get in now before we launch everything, so you get a fullsome first picture into what we're doing, and we're going to upgrade everything. We're going to make it a lot better and a lot easier. So go

ahead and sign up Breakingpoints dot com. In the meantime, by the way, the emails issue, I believe it's mostly solved. We are working on it and we will remain and keep you guys updated.

Speaker 3

So thank you to everybody.

Speaker 2

We're always thinking about you and about delivering the show. So let's go ahead and start, as Chrystal said, with the primary, we have some interesting results out of two very important states for the general election.

Speaker 3

Let's put it up there on the screen.

Speaker 2

First from Ohio, I guess a red state, but not that long ago it was a blue state, also considered Trump Country. Kind of the Trumpification of America really embodied in the flip of Ohio from blue to red under his leadership. And though, what do we see, well, a little bit of a warning sign and some of their

primary results. So, while Trump did win eight hundred and eighty nine thousand votes and racked up almost seventy nine percent of the vote taking all of the delegates, Nikki Haley still somehow was able to get some fourteen percent of the vote, racking up some sixteen So what you can see is that between Hailey, DeSantis, Christy and Ramaswami, you know, you had some about twenty percent or so people who voted in the GOP primary who decided not

to vote for Donald Trump. A friend of ours Ryan Gerdusky flags that this is roughly the same percentage that Trump was pulling in two thousand and sixteen, after all of the other candidates had dropped out in the primaries. The noteworthy thing, though, is that he's already been president, as opposed to the fact that he was a unknown entity last time around. The same results actually in the state of Florida.

Speaker 3

If we can go ahead and put that up there.

Speaker 2

What do we see, Well, Donald Trump again roughly same percentage, eighty one percent of the vote, but Nicki Haley fourteen, Ron DeSantis three percent, and if you look overall, you have about nineteen percent or so of people who decided to still come out and to vote against Trump. Some of the cope I've seen on this crystal is that because of mailing votes, some of these people may have sent in their ballots before Nicki Haley had dropped out

of the race. That seems plausible, too reasonable to me. That said a twenty percent, that a twenty percent margin, you're still winning overwhelmingly. It just gets to that question, are these people going to come out? Are they going to vote for Trump? In twenty twenty four now twenty

sixteen around this was a big question. A lot of those people did end up voting for Trump or they simply became Democrats, and then Trump was able to bring more white collar, white working class voters to come out who'd never voted before to solidify his election this time around.

I do feel though, as if some of the Democratic purge of a lot of these white college educated voters already happened So these are people who are still in the Republican Party, and it's a big question as to whether he can keep that coalition together and still bring out some of those non traditional voters that would put him across the finish line in November.

Speaker 1

I mean, I do think it's a warning sign in the same way that the sizeable uncommitted vote is a warning sign for Joe Biden. Like to the extent that these people hadn't shipped in mail in ballots early back when there was still an ongoing primary fight, while Nikki Haley was still in the race. The fact that you have people who turned up, like went through the trouble to show up on election day and vote for someone other than the guy who is already the presumptive nominee,

you have to see that as a form of protest. Now, yeah, the question remains, how many of these people are really even Republicans at this point. How many of these people have already basically shifted to the Democrats in a realignment that has been ongoing since twenty sixteen. I think that's a really open question. I saw some exit polls that suggested that about half of the Nikki Haley voters in these primaries said they're going to vote for Joe Biden.

Now those people who voted for Joe Biden last time around, or they'd be able to voted for Donald Trump last time around. It's very difficult to say, but I do think that it is a bit of a warning sign and something to pay attention to. Apparently it's not only Nicky Haley voters, though, who aren't so sure about Donald Trump's campaign. Is Own Life giving a very interesting response that was kind of amusing on the campaign trail when she was asked whether or not she was going to

be campaigning for Trump her husband this time around. The stigg list to a is this Trump?

Speaker 4

Are you going to return to your campaign trail with your husband?

Speaker 1

Stay tuned, Stay tuned. I'm gonna start using that, to be honestly, someone asked me something that I don't really want to commit.

Speaker 2

That was her classic when we covered the White House that she was the most impenetrable lady. We couldn't get anything out of her really. Well, yeah, even at the infamous be Best event, which I honestly I will never forget that being in the Rose Garden to watch that kickoff. And I think especially because It had come right after Trump had tweeted something about like Mika Brazinski's facelift God, and so everyone.

Speaker 3

In the White House Press Corps was like.

Speaker 2

Missus Trump, like, how do you square you know your anti bullying care with your husband something like that.

Speaker 3

She was so furious.

Speaker 2

I'll never forget it. It was one of the craziest moments that I was present for. But anyway, what can we learn from that? In terms of Missus Trump Milania, Well, she does not seem very enthused about getting back on the campaign trail. Reportedly, she did not necessarily want her husband to run again. I mean, look, I was there. She hated being first Lady. I honestly I felt bad for her. She never signed up for this. This is not like many politicis' wives. You know, they're with them

for years. To a certain extent, they know what they're getting into. She married him when he was a billionaire playboy. You know, she was there for the New York, Miami Palm beach lifestyle. She's like, I never signed up for all this secret service and all this. She's like, I don't want to do the White House Christmas trees or any of the other traditional first lady, you know, things that she was required to do when she was there.

So in a certain way I felt bad for from when we covered her at she did everything in her power not to be at the White House. She didn't want to move to Washington. She barely wanted to bring Baron you know, here. She wanted to stay in a private school. By all accounts, she wanted to stay in New York or she went to Florida as much as she possibly could. So she is not looking forward to being back in the White House if she does need

to be. And I'm not talking about politics, I'm saying purely on a person le she hated it.

Speaker 3

She truly hated me.

Speaker 1

I don't even know if she would this time around.

Speaker 3

Even she may not. She may just stay in Florida.

Speaker 1

I mean, especially like the first time around, you kind of got to keep up appearances because you've got to. You know, he's got a run for re election again, et cetera. This time, you don't know, and baronish eighteen. Yeah, and so he doesn't have to go to school, so she could just Saron's graduated high school. It's an adult now.

So yeah, I would not be surprised if she stays in Florida, and if we don't see a whole lot of her on the campaign trail, because she doesn't seem particularly enthusiastic about it, I can't really blame her on that one.

Speaker 2

Let's go to the next part though, about Biden and about the general election. So there were some interesting signs, and we always want to give the counter cases here because by all accounts, you know, I would say things look as if they're going well for Trump, but there have been some interesting movements in polls lately that we would be remiss not to flag. Let's put this up there please, on the screen. So this is a January

to February shift towards March. So in multiple different polling organizations, Emerson had Trump plus one in January February.

Speaker 3

Now it says Trump plus two.

Speaker 2

Keep in mind this is registered voters, not likely voters, where there is some interesting analysis about whether that's even correct. Then you have others here Trump plus two to Biden plus two ipsos. You had Biden and Trump tied, now it's Biden plus two. You had KFF Kaiser Family Foundation, Trump plus four, now Biden plus three. Civics, you had them tied Biden plus one, and then Florida Atlantic University it was Trump plus four, now Biden plus two. That

last one. Let's keep in mind that's actually likely voters. So that's actually probably the most noteworthy. Now what does this mean. I mean, it could mean anything. Trump is still overwhelmingly leading Biden in the RCP polling average, and I mean that in terms of the average of the last months or so of the polls. These are some more recent and interesting ones. But Chrystal, we have to always remember that per our most recent elections, the polls

dramatically underestimated Democratic support. So we have to think that even in these Trump numbers, and perhaps even in some of this movement, that there isn't you know, a non baked in factor of a lot of white collar or sorry, a lot of white collar democratic college educated voters who just come out and vote in numbers that we had not seen previously, that clearly polls were not able to catch up with in the same way that they underpolled

these white working class voters from twenty sixteen and in twenty twenty.

Speaker 1

I mean, if you dig into the polling data for what it's worth, there are some really interesting numbers about registered voters versus likely voters, non voter, people who haven't voted before, but who are saying I am going to vote this time around favor Trump by like twenty three points, right, So there's a huge question mark. First of all, is it accurate, because that's always worth that people say levels given the misses that we've seen.

Speaker 3

Right.

Speaker 1

Second of all, Okay, these are people that haven't voted, but are they actually going to vote this time around? Because when you look at the universe of people who have voted before, that universe tends to favor Joe Biden. And that's what you're sort of referencing, is these this group of voters, these like college educated, mostly white voters, they are like the most reliable, especially older, They're the most reliable voters. Like clockwork. They show up every single election.

You can really count on them, and they have overwhelmingly shifted into the Democratic parties camp, giving them an edge, especially in things like the special elections that we've been tracking, especially in like the midterms. Now, a presidential election cycle is very different because obviously you're going to have your highest level of turnout there, So who actually shows up?

What is the real universe of voters that we're going to be looking at on election day that polsters need to be tracking and you know, seeing what direction they're going in. So that's one piece. The reason why I wanted to highlight some of these numbers is because you know, you have to take any one poll with a grain of salt. This is not so much to look at the absolute overall, you know, towards Biden, but what is

the movement over the past month. And if you see a variety of polls that show some positive movement towards Biden, then you have to ask what's going on there, because it's unlikely that all of the polls have the same error in the direction of Biden over that time period. There's a few potential explanations. One is that you know, we've had more Trump legal news and it's reminding people of you know, all of the chaos, the things that

they really don't like about Donald Trump. That's one possibility. Another possibility is some of the improvement that we've seen in things like consumer sentiment that takes some time to filter through to the politics, is actually starting to filter through people While or nobody here is saying the economy is amazing I want to say that the sense that there's some improvement may be starting to show up and

reflect in Biden poll numbers. That's kind of the most hopeful outcome for him and his team, and I think it's plausible, certainly possible. The other possibility is that he did do himself at least some temporary favors with a not disaster stress state of the Union appearance, and that is helping to shift things in his direction. But you know, all of those things. It could be a combination of those things. It could be a one off fluke, it could be we're looking at a very different situation when

all posters move to likely voter models. There's a million question marks around this, but I did think it was enough of a trend to take note that at least over the past couple of months, there has been a little bit of movement towards Joe Bide that his team has to be like, you know, really cheering for and holding on to for all it's worth. At this point, let's go to the next one.

Speaker 2

This is also about the candidates, because this is going to be a big question actually in some of these candidates. You see the big tests of what the major issues will be so the AP police about Bernie Moreno. As we can see, Bernie Moreno was the Ohio victor of the GOP primary. He will go on to face Shared Brown in the general election. Now, Shared Brown has long

been kind of a what canary. I guess he's been very different than a lot of the other National Democratic parties, very pro union, a lot of people who do vote Trump always traditionally at higher approval rating in the state. What I think is going to be the big question mark about Moreno, who Trump backed as opposed to another candidate was endorsed by Ohio Governor Mike Dwine.

Speaker 3

It's about abortion.

Speaker 2

Because I was going back and I was looking so Bernie Moreno was still not exactly clear where he stands on abortion. He's made comments in the past it seemed to be he would be okay with a national abortion band. I think he's going to have to clarify that language with no exceptions exactly. Most importantly in terms of Ohio politics, remember Crystal, they had that referendum that came forward.

Speaker 3

That was one where both Moreno and.

Speaker 2

The Ohio Republican Party were on the wrong side of that winning issue. So we can see that shared Brown is going to lean heavily into abortion messaging. And I think that Brown himself is already a very strong candidate. This is a man who has you know, stood astride. Like a lot of national trends, he has been very pro union, very pro tariffs, for example on Chinese goods, pro worker in a much more traditional sense of the past. And he was able to set himself apart from the

National Democratic Party even on with Biden. You know, he's clashed with him a couple of times on several of these issues, kind of going aside on the issue of neoliberals. So he kind of has that going for I mean, he has a good image I think within the state

as I understand it. So then if you add on all of these voters who came out on abortion, I do think that this could be a real test for him, because we can't forget that while Ohio went Trump by some eight points in twenty twenty four, actually increased his vote margin there is that they still did come out for the pro host pro choice side in that latest referendum that happened to the state.

Speaker 1

You know, I need to go back and look at where Bernie Marino was and what he had to say about that referendum, because that could end up being significant into the context of this race. As you're bringing it up, you know, I just pulled up the polls that have Brown versus Marino head to head. They favor Brown at

this point plus four plus six, plus five plus two. Now, these are not overwhelming margins, and none of these polls is Shared Brown over fifty percent, which has to be a concern if you're a Democrat in a state that has increasingly trended towards the right. So I don't think there's any doubt Shared Brown has the fight of his life on his hands. Now, Democrats think they got the candidate they wanted in Bernie Moreno. In fact, Schumer's pack spent I believe millions of dollars.

Speaker 3

Yes, they did.

Speaker 1

Backing Bernie Moreno, running these ads that are like, oh, he's too conservative for a he he's too close to Trump, knowing that that could actually boost him in the context of a Republican primary. So they very much thought that he is the most beatable candidate. Is that the case, I genuinely don't know. I mean, the comments on abortion are probably the biggest issue for him. There's also this questionable report that came out just before the primary, like

literally the day before the primary. The ape you reported that in two thousand and eight, someone with access to his work email account created a profile on an adult website seeking men for one on one sex. The ap, though couldn't definitively confirm, is created by him himself. His lawyer set a former intern had created the account as a juvenile prank. So there's whatever that is going on.

But I agree with you, Zack. I think the bigger issue is his abortion comments and other somewhat extreme comments that he made in the context of trying to win a Republican primary. He's also not a politician, so we've seen the way that you know, he's he's sort of untested in that way. It's also possible Democrats have some additional dirt on him that we haven't learned about yet, and that's why they were so eager to push him forward as the candidate. But in other ways, I do

think he's kind of dangerous for them. I mean, he is cut from a similar cloth as Trump in terms of being this like, you know, not that Trump really was self made, but self made businessman image he does have this sort of populist positioning that, especially in a state like Ohio, could work out well. So in any case, Democrats placed a big bet. Two point seven million dollars I just saw was the amount that they spent to

elevate this guy. They got the candidate they wanted, Let's see how it works out for them.

Speaker 2

It was funny for me to watch because this is a time when you have Jay Vance and Trump on the same side as Chuck Schumer, both kind of thinking that they are he is the most selectable candidate. I do agree with you if I were them, you're playing with fire here. I mean, you don't know. Look, last time, I think they are all riding high. And this is the problem with politics. Everything is recency biased. They are all riding high off of backing the Doug Mastrianos of

the world and others from twenty twenty two. Now, don't get me wrong, it definitely worked out like that. They were right and I was wrong. I didn't think that was a very proven strategy. But you know, it's always a roll of the dice whenever it comes to people who are actually voting. So what if it ends up You know another thing, I was thinking about, is about the Senate Republican majority.

Speaker 3

Something that's come out of nowhere.

Speaker 2

Christle is Larry Hogan in Maryland who's running for Senate and he's actually leading in all the polls. That's a plus one in the GOP category. So let's say that Bernie Moreno here wins and takes out a Democrat, and then let's look around the map and listen Kerry Lake. She may have lost once, she could win again.

Speaker 3

We don't know.

Speaker 2

She could beat what's the same, Reuben Diego. It could come down to our percentage point. That's another Democratic seat, you know, or I guess independent, whatever cinema is today that goes in the Republican category. Now we're talking about fifty three, maybe fifty four, fifty five seats for the Republicans that are in the Senate. That is a very very very different governing coalition than any time that we

saw under Trump in his first term around. So these are all things where they should be very careful and considered. That said, because there's not a lot of daylight between a lot of the Ohio Republicans on abortion, I do think that any of them were going to get hit with this no matter what, and it'll be a great test actually for that abortion standard of twenty twenty two. And in some of the referendums Issue one, I did look it up. He was on the side of Issue one.

He came out pretty forcefully for the pro life side there and obviously they lost pretty big at the ballot box. Whether that's going to carry over into the general like we always say, who the hell.

Speaker 1

Knows problems for him? I think I'm also I mean, Sharon Brown is not a usually strong politician. He's probably one of the only Democrats that could credibly win the state at this point. That being sent again, it's different at a state level versus a federal level, and so is the fact his you know, the way people feel about him locally. Is that enough to overcome what has become a completely toxic Democratic brand in the state of Ohio.

I will also say that, you know, some of the Biden things that did get past, like the Chips Bill, the infrastructure bill, some of the push towards evs and you know, increase opening new manufacturing facilities. With regards to that, Ohio has been one of the states that has disproportionately benefited shared Brown is really running a campaign to tie

himself to that increase in jobs in the state. And also, I mean he's always been extremely pro labor, even when that was like not cool, he really stood by unions. That's very popular in the state of Ohio. It is very I used to live there. It is a very populous state and kind a little bit different than the more country club Republican brand that may dominate in other places. So we'll see. I think chery Brown is planning to run his campaign basically on abortion rights and jobs and

commitment to working people. That is a combination that has certainly worked well for him in the past. As I said, Democrats think that they got the right candidate that they have the best shot of beating, and.

Speaker 2

We will see what happens on a line that is hands down the best campaign he could run. I think he's the only guy who could possibly win, But as you said, it is still going to be a very, very tough election on the issue of candidates as well. Let's go to this next one, Mark Robinson. We talked about him previously. There was a question about whether he'd quoted what was it Hitler or not. I will defend him.

Having read the full context, of the quote. I do believe that he was neared by the media that said mister Robinson, I would in general epstein from quoting mister Hitler. That's just a general per piece of advice. As they right here. Mark Robinson has quote has a long history of inflammatory statements. He has called for waiving weaving conservative religious beliefs into the fabric of the government. Robinson has kind of been it's kind of hard to like a

firebrand almost. Yeah, like firebrand is probably the best way to say. I've been familiar with him for a while.

Speaker 3

Seem to kind of bubble up in the state. Yeah, just I always like to track like who's.

Speaker 2

Going viral amongst the right wing, the right wing kind of video ecosystem, because you know, they go on to win elections and then now our primaries and now he's going to face you know, and a major test in North Carolina. North Carolina is another very interesting one here because what we have is the gubernatorial race. Now North Carolina at the federal level has been largely.

Speaker 3

Willing to go Republican.

Speaker 2

We know, I think was Obama won the state in two thousand and eight, but at the gubernatorial the state level, the attorney general and all that, Crystal, they don't have really a problem, you know, electing democrats.

Speaker 1

The democratic governor right now, exactly so, And.

Speaker 2

What isn't he facing the state the attorney general in the right, I'm not sure, But my point is that at the state level they don't have a problem electing Democrats. So if that is where it will be a big question too, because you know, for all the talk here on the show about federal politics and all that, listen, I'm not saying it doesn't matter.

Speaker 3

It certainly does.

Speaker 2

But at a gubernatorial level, the state stuff, I mean, this all matters a lot too. Yeah, And so for North Carolina it's always been in that purplish category. And for Biden you need everything you can possibly get. And this is the case too, where like, okay, interesting are these people who are totally endorsed by mag and all that. How are they going to do in an actual election against a very cookie cutter, normal Democrat in the state.

Speaker 3

That's a question as well.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and how do the wildest characters that they nominate in these primaries translate over into the overall normal person impression of the Republican Party, Because in a lot of ways, This was the biggest problem in the twenty twenty two midterms.

It's not that the Democrats were so amazing or they were you know, voters were super excited about Joe Biden and his party, but they looked at characters like Doug Mastriano, and they looked at a lot of the other candidates that came out of those primaries, who, by the way, by and large, were backed by Donald Trump, and they were repulsed in many instances, so that seats like the ones in Pennsylvania, which were eminently winnable for Republicans, became,

you know, not to use what is apparently now a very controversial term bloodbath for.

Speaker 2

Republicans, Hey don't, don't go advocating for violence.

Speaker 1

Yeah. So, in any case, I think that's why these two individuals, Bernie Marino, but even more to the point Mark Robinson, who listen, you can say the other quotes were taken out of context. There's plenty to work with their for this man saying really wild and out of

the mainstream things. He also has extremely fringed positions visa the abortion, which he has worn on his sleeve and has no interest in walking away from, which will be anathema to a lot of people in a state like North Carolina where these issues you know, obviously, at the state level, this is an incredibly present and important issue

for a whole lot of voters. So that to me is the question is do Republicans once again do themselves in by nominating these types of candidates who not only impact those specific races that should be completely winnable for Republicans, but really stain the whole party in this sort of like these are a bunch of fringe wackos that we want nothing to do with.

Speaker 2

Kind of a way, the other thing I'm paying attention to, we don't have an alman for this Pennsylvania. Remember David McCormick, who was defeated by doctor Oz. He's very likely going to bet Hedge FUNDUS, former Hedge fund guy who worked for Ray Dalio, who's one of the biggest sellouts to China and American history.

Speaker 3

Secondary it certainly shouldn't be important.

Speaker 2

And my big test for him is he always said I could have beat John Fetterman, which I don't believe, and now he's going up against Bob Kay. So this is also a test on the other side of can the traditional normy Republican actually farewell against let's say a traditional normy Democrat like Bob Casey in the overall general elections.

Speaker 3

So I'm actually watching that race very closely.

Speaker 2

Yeah, because this is a non MAGA person and you know, his whole case was I'm a throwback to Mitt Romney type. It's like, well, can the Pat Toomey type Republicans still win in the state of Pennsylvania.

Speaker 3

That's gonna be a big question as well.

Speaker 1

And interestingly, Pennsylvania has been one of the swing states where Joe Biden has held up better for whatever reasons than other swing states according the Bowling. Thanks, Joe's got to prove for him, all right. We have some interesting

developments interesting on the Trump legal front. So, as we covered previously, Trump has been unable despite extraordinary efforts of going to thirty different insurance companies to secure the half a billion dollar bond that he needs to be able to put down in this case of his civil fraud suit and judgment that went against him for nearly that

amount of money. So this has led to a variety of Fox News personalities floating all kinds of ideas for how he could potentially come up with this money, and you know, I don't want to make light of it because obviously it's an extraordinary sum of money. It could genuinely lead to some of his premier New York properties being seized by the state because he does not have the cash in the bank, because who does to cover

half a billion dollars. So here we have to start with Larry Kudlow asking Kevin O'Leary if he might personally float this amount of money to Donald Trump with sigles into that.

Speaker 5

Kevin O'Leary, I think this is where it's going to go.

Speaker 4

Now.

Speaker 5

I was wondering, if he can't get to the Supreme Court, will you loan on the four hundred and sixty million, you know, just to help in order to protect America's name.

Speaker 3

Think about that would get.

Speaker 4

The bond he was able to get the ninety plus million from Chubb. Yeah, it's I don't know of a bok on more than ninety million.

Speaker 6

I don't recall one.

Speaker 4

And so you need cash to back up the bond insurance. And so now we're talking about the terminology of seizing assets that actually that's foreign language to an American investor. They want due process, they want the appeal that sounds like Venezuela, sounds like Cuba. It's a really bad look for New York. But I think it's going to beyond New York now. Bipartisan participants and financial services managers are

not okay with this and getting very uncomfortable. And I think, whether it's a Supreme Court that provides the adult supervision, whether it's somebody else we desperately need for this kid's party, for the adults to get home.

Speaker 1

So notably does not respond directly to Larry. I don't think he's good for that half a billion dollars.

Speaker 3

So no, I think he's probably good for it. I think he just don't well.

Speaker 1

I mean, I don't think he's going to pony it up, is what I mean.

Speaker 2

I got a soft spot for Kevin. He's got a great watch collection. He does a lot of good watch sho He's got a great He's got a lot of good watch content on YouTube, if you're interested.

Speaker 1

I don't know who really.

Speaker 3

Right.

Speaker 1

That's really all I know about it. I will come out hard for Trump recently. Is that the idea he's like a business guy.

Speaker 2

I like he was saying he's attacking it from the I've never seen a bond kind of thing he's he likes to speak out about, like, yeah, exactly like business finance. I know it has done a lot of business in New York. So I'm not gonna, you know, go after his analysis there or whatever. All I would say is, uh, I think it is interesting that even his richest and wealthiest I wouldn't call him a backer here. Also, I do think Kevin is Canadian, so that that's important.

Speaker 3

They though, are while they.

Speaker 2

Made to cry the decision, I've seen others Joe Lonsdale and others who are talking about this very very wealthy individuals.

Speaker 3

Nobody yet, though, is.

Speaker 2

Willing to actually pay the fine for the man, and that seems important.

Speaker 1

Yeah, And I would just say with regards to his analysis, you know, maybe we're not used to seeing people who are at that level of you know, the top point one percent of wealth, seeing that lians put on their accounts and assets sees. But this is a very common occurrence for you know, ordinary people who you know, get behind on jobs, aboard or bed behind.

Speaker 3

All taxes or where.

Speaker 1

I mean, that's very commonplace. So it's not like, oh my god, this has never happened before. This is venezuela tax, you know, back toaxes. All these sorts of things can result in lians being put on your accounts, or your pay being garnished, or your assets being seized, et cetera. So this is not that's true.

Speaker 2

You know, credit card companies garnish people wages all the time. All they have to do is take your take you to court and they can put Yeah they can literally it only takes them a year and they can actually take money out of your paycheck yeh, which is crazy in my opinion.

Speaker 3

Yeah, that's all of it.

Speaker 1

Indeed. Okay, So just to underscore what is actually going on here, because again I don't want to make light of it. It is a huge amount of money. It is really significant to Trump himself. Let's put this up on the screen from the AP. So this article goes into yes, it is a very real possibility on the table that New York could seize Trump's assets. They say, if Trump isn't able to pay, the state could levy and sell his assets. Lean is real property garnish anyone

who owes him money. According to a Syracuse University law professor, potential targets could include properties like his Trump Tower, Penthouse, Wall Street office building, and golf courses. Letitia James's office could also seek permission to drain Trump's bank accounts and investment portfolios, or sell off other assets like his planes, helicopters, or even his golf carts. They go on to say seizing assets is a common legal tactic when someone cannot

access enough cash to pay a civil penalty. Now, Trump does still have some avenues of appeal, and Letitia James has not yet indicated how aggressive she's going to be in moving to make good on this payment that is currently owed. So a lot of things that are up in the air there. Let's skip over the next one and go to our next Fox News personality with an innovative idea for how Trump may be able to pay

this judgment amount. Laura Ingram says, maybe he should crowdsource it and ask his supporters to fund this half a billion dollar judgment. Let's take a listen to that.

Speaker 7

A friend texted me today and said Trump should crowd fund this fine. Like if I think it's like one million supporters each gave him four hundred and fifty dollars that would cover the fine. But in the meantime, what are his options here in emergency to stay from a federal court?

Speaker 3

Where does he go?

Speaker 1

So what do you think of that? When Soger, should he go to his supporters to crowd fund this this judgment?

Speaker 3

This one.

Speaker 2

Look, I have no problem with people asking rich people for money, but asking Trump supporters for money that really.

Speaker 3

Pisses me off.

Speaker 2

And you know, especially these box news people. Laura herself is incredibly wealthy. I mean, she's been in the conservative like media complex for decades now. From what I heard, she's done very very well. It's like, okay, you shell it out then, Like, don't be asking grandma's and grandpa's on Social Security to pay for Trump's four hundred and

fifty million dollars pond. That actually makes me very upset because the problem is it goes back to stop the steal and all the money some two hundred and fifty million dollars that was raised on the backs of people.

Speaker 3

Listen, it is their money. They can do as they wish.

Speaker 2

But you know, Trump was like, the election was stolen, I need you to support me, and they gave him a quarter billion and he didn't spend any of it on his elections. He ended up spending it on his Save America pack and in some cases paying for his reelection.

Speaker 3

I legally, he can do as he pleases. I don't think that's right.

Speaker 2

I don't think it's right to be asking, you know, a bunch of boomers mailing in checks and all these who may believe in Donald Trump. And in this case, it wouldn't even be a campaign or election related. It would be literally related.

Speaker 3

To his own personal finances.

Speaker 2

And I understand the investigation and all that obviously is political, but to have it be his personal benefit, it's not right, you know. So look, you want to ask your wealthy people, fine, but don't be asking normal folks.

Speaker 1

Co stein completely and they really have been so exploited. Trump has tapped these people dry number one, to the to the extent that you know, other Republican candidates have really struggled with grassroots fundraising because Trump has just hit

these lists over and over and over again. And that's becoming a problem now for him increasingly, where there just isn't enough money among his sizeable grassroots base to continue to you know, fully fund his campaign, let alone the legal bills that he's been able to you know, pay with political money as well. And then you also have

you know, the build the Wall people. Oh yeah, people who are out there like raising money from Trump supporters, claiming they're investing in some currency that's going to come become legal tender when Trump is realized. I mean, so much nonsense and grift has been directed to these people.

This is the last thing that needs to happen. And I think your point as well said, if Laura wants to, you know, put up a few million towards Trump's legal bills, she and some of her rich friends should feelsolutely free to do that. Put the last element up here be five from the New York Post. It's the New York Post,

so take it for what it's worth. But they have some report from inside the Trump camp of how he is considering his options, and they said increasingly, one thing that they're you know, very seriously considering and maybe even leaning towards, is simply doing nothing, letting the deadline for posting this bond pass and putting the ball in New York Attorney General Letitia James's court to decide if she's going to actually seize Trump's bank accounts or buildings, including

Trump Tower, of course, Trump Tower famously where he declared his twenty sixteen presidential run, where he famously has his own personal penthouse. And the thinking is number one, again, you're sort of putting the onus on her. I think Trump probably it doesn't say this in the article, but probably feels he can use this to some sort of political effect, and then they feel confident that through the appeals process, this amount at least may get knocked down

and then he could regain those assets. Now there's actually no guarantees in that regard, because if Trump Tower, let's say, get seized and sold off in a fire sale, the state doesn't owe Trump Tower back to Trump. They just owe the amount of money that they obtain from Trump Tower back to Trump. But according to the New York Post, at least this is an avenue that he is seriously considering, which would be you know, a real wild development in

terms of politics. In this man's whole brand is based on his iconic brand, and you know, his name being plastered on these buildings, Trump Tower being the most famous of all his all of his properties. So that's why this truly is an extraordinary development that we're dragging here.

Speaker 3

Yeah, exactly, I mean if he does.

Speaker 2

If she does take it, it will be very politically and financially significant. For also, I think he lives there, or at least maintained. I mean, he has that famous penthouse.

Speaker 1

Mostly in Florida, now though I think I.

Speaker 2

Know he's a Florida resident. But you know, with these rich folks, they do six months in one day or whatever, the houses everywhere. From what I know, he had a penthouse apartment there, the famous one, like I said, with the gold toilet, the marble worthy.

Speaker 1

Of Well, that penthouse was probably what got him in trouble here too, because he wildly for some loan estimate inflated like the square footage and how much it would be were I mean, I'm talking bout a ridiculous factor. It wasn't even close. So this was one of the issues that they went after him for. Let's go and

put this last piece up on the screen. B three with regard to the Georgia case, So, as we told you previously, there had been a question over whether there was a disqualifying conflict of interest with Fanny Willis and her former at least lover who had been brought on as a special prosecutor and earned hundreds of thousands of

dollars with regards to the prosecution of this case. So the decision came down from this judge that, no, it didn't rise completely to the level of conflict of interest, but this was enough of a problem that one or the other of them needed to resign. He resigned. Fanny Willis is still in place, but Trump is now, according to this report, able to appeal that ruling. So I'll read you a little bit of what Acio says here.

They say, the judge overseeing former President Trump's Georgia election subversion case granted a pathway Wednesday for Trump to appeal his decision to allow Fulton County District Attorney Fanny Willis to remain at the helm of the prosecution. Why it matters, they say. By granted a certificate of immediate review, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee enabled Trump's lawyers to appeal the decision to the Georgia Court of Appeals before the start

of a trial. McAfee's granted the defense's requests for a review. Note in the court filing that other matters related to the case will go forward as planned, so it's not like everything stops while this review is being conducted. But nevertheless a win for Trump and another crack at being able to low or even completely undermine this case or get Also, Fanny willis removed from the case, so that is you know, significant development for him.

Speaker 2

Yeah, very because the appeal up a it takes more time be for Fanny Willis.

Speaker 3

This is going to kick it to the appellate court and all of this.

Speaker 2

Remember, even if Trump would eventually get convicted, this is all going to matter even more on appeal again, because it's not like Trump is going to run out of money. So from what I understand, this is just going to lengthen it, you know, even more significantly and publicly. It still remains a blow to her in the overall investigation. Not to mention the fact that even if she does survive this, don't forget, she still has to re grand jury six specific reco charges before she's able to bring

them in her trial against Trump. Specifically that one relating to the perfect phone. Well, I don't know how many perfect phone calls her up. This was one of the perfect phone, one of the most perfect.

Speaker 1

Let's talk about happiness.

Speaker 2

Let's talk about happiness and does it even exist in Moore here in the United States, and to what extent, let's go and pull this up there on the screen.

There was a very report here from Yahoo News, and it was a write up specifically about how the American dream now costs three point four million dollars, and the overall way that they arrived at that math was that between marriage, two kids, homes, healthcare, cars, and education and estimated three point four five million dollars over the course of a lifetime. A new Investipedia study has found this is from December of twenty twenty three, but has actually

been readjusted now at this point. They say that the cost of raising children, in particular just two to the age of eighteen now totals five hundred and seventy six eight hundred and ninety six dollars. That the lifetime costs currently with the ten percent down payment on average and a thirty year fixed rate mortgage of approximately seven percent, which is where we're at right now, is eight.

Speaker 3

Hundred thousand dollars.

Speaker 2

That's actually possibly the most stunning part to me because it really shows us where how the massive impact of interest rates can affect this car purchases lifetime on average, in how people are spending.

Speaker 3

It's about two.

Speaker 2

Hundred and seventy thousand dollars, another very very significant chunk. But let me tell you, guys, the one that hurts more than any of this in the breakdown is average family premium cost thirty nine years of annual for a family of four, nine hundred and thirty four thousand dollars out of cost ahurance, just for health insurance, out of pocket.

Speaker 3

And the craziest part.

Speaker 2

Is that doesn't even include the hospital birth that they list here at the top right, which is fifty seven hundred, because that's what people are paying out of their damn deductibles.

Speaker 1

Yeah, so that doesn't that doesn't actually include your medical That is just your premium.

Speaker 2

Yeah, just the premium, not medicalbuts so insane. It's funny because retirement in this is less than a lifetime health insurance cost. That is what outraged me actually most about this. The top line figure. You know, we can debate and spend some time on that, and a lot of this is fungible, like you can, you know, you can buy cheaper cars, you can buy a smaller house, you can choose to go to state college and all that, but you really can't choose to not have health insurance in

this country. That's one of the most fixed costs in this entire thing. It is the single biggest chunk of your overall lifetime of your overall lifetime expenses. And what do we know is that this currently is just based on twenty eighteen to twenty twenty costs. There's actually been an inflation, huge inflation in health insurance costs. Health insurance costs inflation far outstrips and normal CPI inflation. And I haven't even mentioned food and cost of living and all this,

so the likely number is probably higher. So the point of all this is just that the cost has gone significantly up from where it was previously. And then lo and behold, it turns out that the US has slid down on the ranking of overall national happiness. Let's go and put this up there on the screen Finland for some reason, we'll talk about this in a second. Let me focus on the US part at least right now. The US has now slipped from the top twenty of

nations in overall happiness. But what they is particularly noteworthy is that in side of the report, what we find is that it is largely attributable to young people. It's that the people who are over the age of thirty, their overall happiness ranking has not really gone and by

the way, this is all self reported. Their overall happiness ranking has either remained static or has gone up, but that the drop in the young happiness has actually slid all of the US below the top twenty for the first time in quite a long time.

Speaker 1

So they surveyed one hundred and forty three countries. The unhappiest country, by the way, is Afghanistan, which we obviously had a significant handan way to go, guys, the US ranked tenth for people who are sixty and older they still feel pretty good about things, but sixty second for people under thirty, sixty second for people under thirty. They quote an economist in one report who said, I have never seen such an extreme change talking about the drop

in happiness among younger people. This has all happened in the last ten years. It's mainly in English language countries. There isn't this drop among young people in the world as a whole. And this report I looked at also talk to a young person who was not feeling too happy, who said, listen, we have less to look forward to in the future, there's going to be climate change though

effect the way we live. There's less of a clear cut trajectory for our life paths because for so long it was so easy just to know you could get married, have your two point five kids, pay for your house. Now that path is a lot more closed. And going back to some of those components that make up the three point five million dollars that you need just to do the basics of the like you know, middle class American dream life. Have a house, go to college, get married,

have kids, be able to retire, have health insurance. Those pieces, those core components have go on up in price wildly over the past several decades. So you know, we've talked a lot about inflation in terms of near term cost

of living. Those things and obviously incredibly important. But part of why you see this overall trajectory of people saying we're on the wrong path, of people saying the American dream is no longer reality, of young people feeling so depressed about the current stage with their lives and their possibility for the future, is that long term massive price spike in education, healthcare, and housing that has made life so much more precarious for younger generations.

Speaker 3

Yeah, so again, I mean just to be sixty second.

Speaker 2

Some of the countries that beat us our Guatemala, Bulgaria, and Saudi Arabia, which is pretty crazy, especially Saudi Arabia, because if you're a female in Saudi Arabia, you don't even have any rights and it's like you're happier than people are here in America.

Speaker 3

That doesn't sound right.

Speaker 2

Well, look what we can glean from this is that I think almost all that comes back to housing, and that is one of those just because housing is the biggest expense you're going to make in your entire life. So if you're not able to make that, you're going to do well well, yes, whenever, So housing and healthcare, I guess housing because it's the biggest upfront costs you're going to make in your entire life, right in terms of the largest purchase. Unable to say for that. That

is what delays marriage people having kids. America is one of the very few countries in the world where people report having to having wanting more children than they're able to afford. In some countries like Japan and others, it's not like that they don't have the money to have kids.

They just genuinely don't want to have children. But America is one of those places where people want to have two point two between two point five kids, which is replacement rate, and so they just simply can't afford it. And we just read everybody the numbers there, and they feel it would be irresponsible or they wouldn't be able to have a reasonable quality of life if they were able to do so. I've always found that very very sad statistic, because it's one of those where that's the

exact reason why people are supposed to work hard. It's not supposed to can have nice cars or whatever. It's supposed to you know, be able to raise kids, have family. That's largely where you're going to derive the vast majority of happiness in your life.

Speaker 3

And there's reams of data to back all of that up.

Speaker 2

The problem that we can see inside of this is both from the very very early level, and this is where I'm curious too, what you Yeah, everyone keeps blaming social media, but I'm like, you know, I just think social media is a reflection of what people accurately feel. It's not TikTok, Instagram reels and other things that go

viral about people being unable to afford life. That's not a fake circumstance, like in my opinion, It goes viral and it gets shared because people can resonate with the themes and you know kind of what people are talking about. There's a big debate right now as to whether it's causal in terms of social media, but I still genuinely believe that it's very just reflective of what the actual living conditions are.

Speaker 1

I mean, when you look at the fact that young people around the world have social media yea all seeing this precipitous decline and how they feel about, you know, their life and level of happiness, I think is you know, pretty decent proof in your interaction. I mean, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that consistently places like Finland, the other Nordic countries, you know, Denmark, Iceland is another one that does well on these happiness rankings.

These are all social democracies where things like you're not going to be paying a million bucks over the course of your lifetime for health insurance. You're going to have healthcare universally, it's not going to be something that you worry about. They have more of a solid social safety net. We're subsidies in terms of you know, housing, making housing more affordable, and paying more attention to that as well.

So I don't think it's an accident that those are consistently the places where people self report the highest levels of happiness. I also think we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that part of this catastrophic decline for young people and self reparded happiness also coincides with COVID, and you know, we know that that had a tremendous impact on levels of anxiety and overall mental health for

young Americans. So you know, I don't think that I don't think we can ignore that piece as well, even as I do think that these long term economic trends are incredibly significant in terms of how people feel about the direction of their own lives in the direction of the country.

Speaker 8

Yeah.

Speaker 2

No, that's how a good point. I hadn't thought about that. I think you're absolutely right. Okay, this is the only thing about Finland. I've been in Finland, Man, Finland is dark as hell. People there are not smiling. I'm just not sure I buy it. Like, maybe they self report happiness, but from having traveled all the Nordic countries. These are some of the most like closed off folks that you

will ever see in your entire life. They even they joke about it about how Americans are too smiley and they talk all the time, and so I'm like, are you guys really that happy? Like, be honest, lave us in the comments. Also, the food, let's all be real, there's not a scrap of flavor in any of the food.

Speaker 1

That's the power of social democracy. What overcome bad food, oh terrible climate.

Speaker 3

Botten fish, goulash all day long in.

Speaker 1

The winter, That's how powerful social democracy is.

Speaker 2

At no I would say there is some argument about that though, Chrysal about whether we could even have So, I mean, this is a more important question kind.

Speaker 3

Of relates back to immigration.

Speaker 2

But you know, these are very highly homogenous societies where look, what are the real differences when you all look the same talk the same language.

Speaker 3

You have very very low levels of immigration in.

Speaker 2

Terms of their tax and capital, in terms of their innovation and all that. What's the last thing Finland really invented. So I'm not going to put it down and say that that's not a worthy model. The question is, can it ever actually succeed in a country of three hundred thirty million.

Speaker 1

Because we have social security. It's one of the most it is one of the most successful and popular universal

social safety net programs in history. And I would argue the exact counter that when you have the level of rapacious, predatory, state captured capitalism that creates this zero sum seeming game and high stakes, that's exactly what exacerbates and opens up an opportunity for unscrupulous, self serving politicians to stoke these divides, where if you have a social safety net where people feel more secure and more stable, then they're less susceptible

to those type of divide and conquer tactics which are so effective and so ever present in terms of our politics.

Speaker 2

I don't even disagree. It's more just a question of like what is America like? For example, the largest company in Finland by market cap is like forty two billion.

Speaker 3

Like that's a freaking joke, Like this.

Speaker 1

Is not a country's because they have free healthcare.

Speaker 2

No, I have no idea why. I don't even think it's necessarily because they have free healthcare. There's a lot of crappy European countries that also have very very little business. My only question is about America is a very dynamic country. Make a lot of money here. People like entrepreneurialism. It's a huge country. There's three hundred and thirty million people, people from all over the world. We have very different ideas,

we have very you know, finished politics. I'm not one hundred percent familiar, but as I understand it in general, the way that ours functions and the way that we kind of go at it like that, it doesn't really exist in the same way in a lot of these places. I don't know though, whether that's because of our economics or not. Right so, even in times of high economic prosperity.

I was looking this fascinating graph. The top earning cities in America in nineteen forty nine were like Cleveland, Detroit. It was all in the American heartland from industrial manufacturing from the post World War two era, and I was thinking about how different of a country it was whenever the richest people in America were also the people who actually produced stuff. This is all just kind of me trying to wrap my head around whether any of this is even possible in America.

Speaker 8

Like that.

Speaker 3

I lived in Denmark. It's a tiny ass little country. They don't have a lot of people there, I.

Speaker 1

Mean, but also ignorre in the fact that like the time period in American history when probably we had the highest levels of self reported happiness was during the New Deal and when you had you know, and partly this was just because of post World War two global circumstances

that we overwhelmingly benefited from. But you had a middle class that was expanded, expanding, you had people who felt like they were able to, you know, achieve the American dream, and this idea of we're able to work hard and we're able to get ahead was more present and seemed

more realistic. And you know, the numbers in terms of the cost of housing then versus now, the cost of healthcare then versus now, the cost of education then versus now also bear that out, not to mention the way that wages have not even come close to keeping up with the increased productivity of the American worker. So you know,

of course we can. That's why I'm not advocating. You're right that there's a balance, right, you don't want to lose that creative spark and that innovation that at its best, we all, you know, have so much pride in as Americans. You don't want to lose that. That's why I'm not

like out here asking for communists. That's why I think social democracy is, you know, has proven to be a good balance of some of those competing priorities of making sure our everybody's good, especially in a wealthy, prosperous society, but also allowing for innovation, creativity, and that like you know, fruitful hum that we again at our best get here in Amaya.

Speaker 3

That's her.

Speaker 2

One thing we should steal from the Fins is sauna. Finished saunas are awesome. I hate oh man, no, hey, everybody, anyway.

Speaker 1

I listen. I'm a sweaty person to start with. I don't need a frickingsonna. That's like my worst nightmare.

Speaker 3

So no, but the Finish model is great.

Speaker 2

So you get hot and you get cold, you get hot and you get cold again.

Speaker 3

It's a lot of fun. If you ever go to Finland, I highly recommend Fins.

Speaker 1

You can keep that, you can keep that out part to yourself.

Speaker 2

At the same time, yesterday there was a major hearing here in Washington about the Biden impeachment, and it pretty much went off the rails in every respect that you can possibly imagine the Democratic side on the Republican side, some of the things that we did not learn, but there were at least some good sound bites that we

could show you. First and foremost was Tony Bobolinski, the infamous Hunter Biden business is so see it testifying sparring with some of the members of Congress on the Democratic side.

Speaker 3

Let's take a listen at.

Speaker 9

The same people preaching this mantra know better they continue to lie directly to the American people without hesitation and remorse.

Speaker 3

Rep.

Speaker 9

Dan Goldman and Jamie Rasking, both lawyers, and mister Goldman, a former prosecutor with the SDN Y from New York, will continue to lie today in this yearing and then go straight to the media to tell more lies. Hunter Biden's defense attorney, Abbey Loll, weaponizes letters to Congress to try to smear my name, mister Chairman, the cold art facts, Miss Chairman. In an attempt to save his powerfully connected

client and his father. I challenged mister Lowell to make those claims on national television so he can be held accountable for his lies.

Speaker 10

God order uh, mister Bobski, mister Boblisky, please proceed place, proceed, apologize for the disruption from the minority.

Speaker 11

Okay, well me and mister chairman save his time. But he called members of this committee liars. And I just want to know whether the order and decorum requirements of House Rule eleven apply to witnesses appearing before the committee. Does it apply or does it not?

Speaker 10

There's decorum from the members We've asked for that. There's no language that I'm aware of pretending to a witness.

Speaker 8

Thank you.

Speaker 3

That was a good taste, Crystal what the whole day was like. But look, listen, Bubba Liskey.

Speaker 2

We've known about him since what twenty twenty he did the Tucker Cross an interview back in Fox if everybody wants to remember, his claims have been wide out there to see. This is part of the problem with this overall hearing is almost all the information has been publicly

available now for two years. And I'm not saying it's not even important, but they have not been able to prove from there and a smoking gun of a monetary connection between Hunter Biden and between Joe Biden, even with the subpoena power and all the others that have come to light. The best that they have been able to find are the irs whistleblowers that came forward that's resulted in tax investigation against Hunter, but they have not been able to put a name on a single wire transfer.

I mean, Crystal we were talking about, I mean in a certain sense too. Look, the information is there. Hunter is blatantly and outrageously corrupt. He benefited off of his father's name. Whether his dad profited or not, it's not one hundred percent certain. He definitely knew about it, and he definitely lied about some of his previous interactions.

Speaker 3

That seems to be the best that we're going to get out of this.

Speaker 8

Yeah.

Speaker 1

The other witness, by the way, was some dude who's serving time in Alabama prison for securities frauds. So that's what live honest was No. Jason galanis another former associate of Hunter Biden, you know, gives you a sense of the type of characters he was doing business with, which.

Speaker 3

Is bad as well. It's definitely bad.

Speaker 1

Which is that. I mean, Look, there's a lot going on here. No one would welcome a genuine investigation into corruption that goes across, you know, on both sides of

the aisle, more than myself. I entirely welcome the notion of taking serious the idea of corruption, even if because the Supreme Court has ruled that actual illegal corruption is so incredibly narrow, even if it doesn't meet that standard, it doesn't mean that we shouldn't know and care about the fact that Hunter Biden and James Biden these other characters were trading on the Biden name and basically, you know, promising Joe Biden access and giving Joe Biden access in

certain documented instances doesn't mean we shouldn't care about it. But a couple of things have happened here. I mean, first of all, the Republicans are always completely hypocrites because they don't care when it's Jared Kushner and Trump, or Trump and live golf for these other entanglements, or taking money into his hotel or whatever. They don't give a shit. So they're obviously hypocritical, and so they their claims don't have a lot of They don't feel particularly weighty when

the hypocrisy is so blatant. That's number one. Number two, because they made such extraordinary and unproven claims about Joe Biden directly getting cash that have never born out, they set the bar extremely high for themselves, and you know, even I think, by their own standards, are completely failing to meet that bar. Another thing that I would say here is, you know, I perhaps it would be a better world if this was the number one public concern

about Joe Biden. But this isn't even the top issue. That if Republicans are just looking at political gain to press means of you Joe Biden, like, you know what the problems are. You know that the biggest one of them is just that people feel like he's too freaking old and they're not sure that he can handle another four years. They're not really buying the idea that he's

the head of some elaborate, corrupt crime family. And it is a little dissonant with the other messaging about him being too old and too infirm, which I think lands more with what people are experiencing and their biggest concerns about Joe Biden. At this point, Let's just say if corruption was the number one issue in this campaign, I'm not sure that would go well for Donald Trump either. In addition to you know, all the rest of what I've laid out here, so it is kind of farcical.

I mean, I think, sorry you to tell me because you're more in touch with this. It seems like even the Republican base is kind of frustrated with the lack of their there in terms of these hearings and their lack of inability to actually directly prove those links and find that smoking gun given what was promised to them at the beginning of it.

Speaker 2

Well, I can play this out of order, guys, if we could go ahead and play D three, that kind of hits home what you're talking about. This is a Newsmax host who's getting very upset with Jim Jordan being like, hey, guys, when is this actually going to go somewhere.

Speaker 3

Let's take a listen.

Speaker 12

Is impeachment the next step or are you going to hold a vote on the House floor. I know it's up to Mike Johnson, but the Margins congressman you lost, Kevin McCarthy, ken Buck left last week, George Santos was ousted. Unless you get Democratic votes, this is going to be real tough. So it kind of seems like you're chasing your tail at this point because this is not going to go anywhere.

Speaker 10

No fair question, and we you know, we got a small majority. Everyone understands that not just on this issue, but on a host of issues. Our job is under the Constitution is to do oversight of the executive branch. We are doing that, We're going to continue to do that. There's no time limit in the Constitution on how long you can do an investigation.

Speaker 2

So as you can see, the Newsmax host was not very happy there with mister Jordan. He's like, hey, what's actually going on. I do think some of the Republican base feels that way, and this is part of the issue.

Speaker 3

I do think over promising was a big one.

Speaker 2

A lot of it comes back to I think a lot of it is just deep frustration that people are not willing to take the Hunter Biden laptop story more seriously.

Speaker 3

And look, I don't even necessarily disagree.

Speaker 2

I think it should have gotten its due, you know, at the time, in terms of actually talking about the corruption allegations. But the truth is that this has now been before the American people now for quite some time, and it seems, unfortunately, maybe because of the Trump factor, maybe because they haven't been able to prove a direct thing with Biden, that it has not been able to actually penetrate anything beyond kind of the Fox News ecosystem. On the other side of the coin, though, Crystal is

mister Jared Moskowitz. This is a Democratic congressman, and this is a continue strategy, right, is to tie any of these questions into Russigate, into trying to saying that you're some sort of Putin puppet. Here is the Democratic congressman who is donning a Vladimir Putin mask ahead of the hearing, trying to talk to reporters and saying that James Comber, the head of the committee, is in Putin's pocket.

Speaker 3

Let's take a listen.

Speaker 13

I just came to James Cohmer.

Speaker 2

For taking all of our intelligence and using it in the committee.

Speaker 8

Maybe he can come see the technology in our grocery stores.

Speaker 3

Thank you for Tosmans against two neighbors.

Speaker 8

Kind of mature.

Speaker 2

So he's got the Putin aller reed Max there, I hate everything.

Speaker 3

It's got to be one of the more humility things.

Speaker 1

What a healthscapers, What a healthscape of a political system? This is like, how embarrassing? This was why I was so like distraught the idea that Paul Manifort was going to be brought back onto Trump can be because it's just I mean, the russigates. It just never ends. Are you a child wearing a putin mask?

Speaker 3

What do you do?

Speaker 1

Even some of the mainstream reporters there were like, isn't this a little immature?

Speaker 2

Know anything, This is a little immature. I'm like, yeah, definitely. Anyway, So that was the main result. Doesn't seem like it's going to go much further. I know that there's been a vote or whatever on the impeachment investigation, I know within the House of Representatives, but unless they come up with someone soon, this is probably going to be the high water mark of the overall thing.

Speaker 1

All Right, We've got a lot of developments to get to with regard to Israel, and especially with regards to the Biden administration's response to Israel. So let's put this first piece up on the screen. A report from Haretz that the Biden administration is supposedly split on whether or not to suspend arm sales to Israel ahead of what

they're describing as a deadline on Sunday. Now that deadline has to do with this letter that the Biden administration was pressured into requiring Israel to sign certifying that they are going to use these weapons and are using these weapons in accordance with international law, and that they are

not blocking humanitarian aid. In other words, that it is actually legal for the US to send to continue these arm sales, because to do so if they are blocking humanitarian aid or if they are not, which we've all seen the reality of what's going on there, if they are not abiding by international law, that is illegal under our own laws. So they sent the letter from Yoav Gland,

the Defense Minister of Israel. They sent the letter saying, yes, of course, we're following the law as blah blah blah, and now the US has to certify that that is the case. So let me lead read you a little bit of this report. They say that Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln, who is planning to visit Israel tomorrow, has until Sunday to approve Israel's stance. That stance was delivered earlier this week to the US ambassador in Israel, Jack

lou Or. The US will immediately susp and weapons transfers to its close. Ally, we've already had some fallout around the world of other countries that have already suspended weapons shipments in different regards. So we had a group of Danish non governmental organizations that said last week they would sue Denmark in a bid to end that country's arms exports to Israel. They cited concerns about crimes against Palestine civilians.

Last month, a Dutch court ordered the Netherlands to stop exporting parts for F thirty five viighter jets to Israel, citing concerns the parts were being used to violate international law. Officials from three State Department bureaus Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Population, Refugees and Migration, and the Office of Global Criminal Justice, as well as USAID have all accordinated to this report expressed deep skepticism about the idea that Israel is in

fact in compliance. Israel's failure to allow surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, they say, despite repeated commitments, remain a key driver of pessimism. And they also have an interesting quote here from Schumer that I wanted to take note of. In an interview with The Times, he added that without US support, Israel's future could well be over, which I thought was kind of extraordinary, given you know, Schumer's overwhelming

past commitment to the state of Israel. So Sager, I don't know if this is real if there really is a schism here, if there really are people who are at a high level pushing for not certifying Israel's letter and commitment and actually suspending weapons sales. But if they did go in that direction, which again I will believe what I see because we've seen the unconditional support that's been provided thus far. But if they did go in that direction, there's no doubt that would be quite significant.

Speaker 2

I think what they would do, and this would be the smart play, is you would try to push for a ceasefire, and then you would do it post cease fire, after they don't necessarily need it, perhaps as a pressure valve to try and say that you should not recontinue hostilities. There was an interesting quote you found, Crystal in this mother Jones piece. I was actually really struck by it. If we can put it up there on the screen. It was actually a quote from a retired Israeli major general.

It's fuck Bricktel's Mother Jones quote. All of our missiles, the ammunition, the precision guided bombs, all the airplanes and bombs, it's all from the US. The minute they turn off the tap, you can't keep fighting. You have no capability. This is more significant than I had thought, because I had thought that the Israelis had more native capacity than

I had understood. But what they lay out is that while the Israelis do have let's say, artillery shells, unguided bombs and all of that, all of their precision munitions actually do come from the US, and that some of these dumb bombs in quote unquote largely their use has come either from running dry and not having yet been replenished by America's I didn't realize that so much of the high tech capacity of the IDF is actually backed

by America. I knew it was some, and I knew it was significant, but I didn't say didn't think it was quote all of our missiles, all of the ammunition, all of the bombs, all of the airplanes is all from the US.

Speaker 1

Yeah. And I mean, so the idea that oh, we can't really Israel's a sovereign country, even if we did cut off weapons shipments, it wouldn't really make that big of a difference. That's just not true. And even if it were true, it still would behoove us to try to put pressure on Israel to end this absolute onslaught that has killed at least thirty thousand Palestinians and has led to overwhelming levels of you know, imminent famine and actual deaths from starvation now in at least about two

dozen cases. And so that's what this administration is facing. They were sort of pressured by a group of senators into forcing Israel to issue this certification. And now in the face of we've been getting months, for months reports about you know, potential levels of famine, potential levels of starvation, et cetera. We've just gotten a few more that have gone into specifics about the way that Israel is using

starvation as a weapon of war. And we also have the images of young children and babies who are literally starving to death. Now and we've you know, come to this point of pathetic desperation where the US is now air dropping in aid as if into some hostile territory rather than territory that is basically you know, completely run by our supposed ally and floating this boondoggle port situation.

More on that in a moment, but you know, it's come to the point where even Sectuary of State Anthony Blincoln has to acknowledge the reality of the starvation that is unfolding on the ground. Take a listen to what he had to say recently.

Speaker 6

According to the most respected measure of these things, one hundred percent of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity. That's the first time an entire population has been so classified. We also see again according to in this case the United Nations, one hundred percent the totality of the population is in need of humanatranus.

Speaker 1

So how, Sagar, do you say something like that one hundred percent of the population Gauzes at severe levels of acute food insecurity. How can you possibly say and acknowledge that reality and then turn around and certify that, oh, Israel is allowing humanitarian aid and Israel's in compliance with our loss. They may well do it. Like I said, I'll believe it when I see it with regards them taking any real action against Israel versus just these rhetorical shifts.

But it seems to me that you know, it's very difficult to clean their incompliance with our laws and deserving of these weapons sales when you have an entire population for the first time that is at severe levels of acute food insecurity, and in certain instances actually starving to death.

Speaker 3

Yeah, it was interesting that this happened with Canada.

Speaker 2

Let's go and put this up there please on the screen where they say that Canadians will actually be stopping armsale, well, at least consideration. This is from the Foreign Minister. There was actually a non binding motion that had passed through parliament that called on them to do so. Very significant for a couple of reasons. Obviously, Canada is not Western European.

Most importantly, though NATO member somebody that, especially with the Trudeau administration, has cooperated pretty significantly with the Biden administration and does demonstrate as well kind of a split in the overall Western posture towards Israel. Even if there's some crazy anti Semitism laws or whatever on the books in Europe, those governments are handling this very very differently than we are.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it is noteworthy, not because of the overall amount of the arm sales coming from Canada. They're not that significant a player in that regard, but still that such a close ally of ours would basically, you know, look at the situations that we can't do this any longer. That is obviously noteworthy. So we'll see where that goes. I just also have to note that it's not like

we've just stood by while Israel does these things. I mean, we have helped them with the starvation policy, in particular by at their request, immediately defunding UNRA, which is the number one aid organization on the ground, and we did that on the day that the ICJ ruling came down, acknowledging, you know, it's plausible in South Africa as a decent enough case to continue this pursuit of whether or not

Israel is in fact committing genocide. So we haven't just been observers here, We've been active participants in this horror that's unfolding of using starvation as a weapon of war,

total collective punishment of the entire, entire civilian population. And by the way, since that ICJ ruling came down, which no did not call for a ceasefire, but called on Israel to cease any actions that are contributing to this finding a potential plausible genocide, that the number of AID trucks and the amount of AID entering has actually fallen dramatically.

And you also have now Israel, over the objections of the US, targeting some of the people who've been really key in distributing the aid on the ground, and specifically Gaza police officers. Now they'll say, oh, well they're Hamas. Yeah, because Hamas was the government. But the US had asked them to stop targeting these civil society workers who are critical for helping to distribute what little aid is getting in,

and that has not happened. In fact, if anything, they have stepped up the targeting of those individuals on top of of course, you know the massacres that we've seen, like the Flower massacre, of directly targeting starving Gazans who are going to try to obtain what aid they can. There was an extraordinary report in the Washington Post summed up you know, quite well, I think by Dave DeCamp

of anti war dot com. Great website by the way, like libertarian or right leaning anti war website that I highly recommend to you guys regards to where you are on the political spectrum. Let's go ahead and put this up on this screen, and I'll read Dave's assessment of

the Washington Post report, which really was quite stunning. So this Washing Post report attempted to go back to October seventh and basically look at how we ended up, the US ended up in the place it is now and at this point undeniable and manifest failures of the Biden

administration's policy to say nothing about its immorality. So Dave writes, Biden administration officials knew back in October October twenty seventh, to be specific, that Israel was bombing buildings in Gaza without having solid intelligence that they were military targets, and continue to provide full support for Israeli military operations anyway, So we knew October twenty seventh. We knew that Israel

was indiscriminately bombing without solid intelligence. And yet you remember the language and the rhetoric and the policy support that was Levy behind Israel at that point and continues to be to this day. Let me just continue reading this, guys, they say. The report said that a briefing took place at the White House on October twenty seventh, three weeks into that brutal Israeli military campaign, due to the Sheer Distry production in Gase, it was clear Israel was bombing

the strip indiscriminately. And a report that we covered extensively here from Plus nine seven to two magazine published in November revealed Israel was actually intentionally hitting civilian targets. Israeli intelligence sources told nine seven to two that Israel targeted what it called power targets, which includes civilian infrastructure such as high rise apartment buildings, banks, universities, other public buildings.

The sources said the Israeli military would also approve strikes that killed large numbers of civilians in an attempt to target one Hamas member. Biden officials also acknowledged during that October twenty seventh meeting that Israel had no clear plan on how to defeat Hamas. So think about that. They knew that this idea of while we're hunting Hamas was bullshit.

From the early days of this war. Quote, we never had a clear sense that the Israelis had a definable and achievable military objective, a source familiar with the meaning told the Post. Quote, from the very beginning, there's been a sense of US not knowing how the Israelis were going to do what they said they were going to do. US Intel has acknowledged since that Hamas is not going away.

The annual Threat Assessment that was released publicly by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that we also covered here on Breaking Points this month said Israel quote probably will face lingering armed resistance from Hamas four years to come. Despite the lack of a realistic goal and massive civilian casualties, President Biden still continues to provide unconditional military aid for the slaughter. Since October seventh, his administration

has approved over one hundred armstels for Israel. So bottom line, they knew, they knew the hunt for Hamas was bullshit. They knew civilians were being targeted from the very early days, and it did not stop them from shipping one hundred different times one hundred weapons sales, voting down vetoing UNC's fire resolutions, providing overwhelming diplomatic cover and support and rhetorical

support to Israel. And one last thing soccer that was not in that particular report about this Washington Post piece, but that was also very noteworthy with regard to the raid on Al Shifa that you'll recall the Biden administration greenlit and that very day when they came out and said, oh, we agree with the Israeli intelligence with regard to Al Shifa, and we think that there is this command and control Hamas node under the hospital that was the very day

that the first raid of Al Shifa occurred. Well, Senator Chris van Holland, in this Washington Post piece, who had received a classified briefing about that US intelligence on Al Shifa, said, quote there were important and subtle differences between what Biden officials were saying publicly and what the intelligence actually showed quote. I did find there to be some disconnect between the

administration's public statements and the classified findings. In other words, the Biden administration lied on behalf of Israel about what our intelligence said about that supposed never proven Hamas command and control in order to give Israel the green light to go ahead and bread that hospital. That has led to numerous this point, I couldn't even say how many hospital raids, including we've just had our fourth rate of Alshifa that we covered this week.

Speaker 2

I encourage people to go and read this entire thing. It's very well written. John Hudson, one of the reporters on there, is a very good guy. He covers the

State Department has for a long time. It's a very excellent piece because it outlines exactly why there's so much of a disconnect between public and private outside of the political the overall strategy that they are now acknowledging his failure is that the bear hug strategy allows you to be close if you back somebody up, and that will then let them listen to you because you're holding them close and you're actually sticking with them, as opposed to

if you criticize them from the outset, then they're going to they're not going to listen to you from the beginning. But what they demonstrate in the piece is that a step by step by step by step is that the bear hug, even with the bear hug, was being taken in advantage of by the Israeli side, but was not being listened to, and that in the end what happened is a Biden himself ends up looking foolish. One of the ways you can really see that right now is Netta,

who just losing it over Schumer. I mean, apparently it's been berating him behind the behind the scenes Netsa who actually addressed the Senate Republican conference this morning, which by the way, John Fetterman asked to sit in and on. But oh my god, that's a whole other separate conversations. In that meeting, he berated Chuck Schumer and allied himself even more with the Republican Party. And you know, let's be honest, it's not like Schumer called for anything substantively different.

So my only point is that the bear Hug strategy is met with the same contempt at an analytical policy level brass tacks as opposed to the same critical level and withholding the only thing they do seem at least, the only thing they really seem to understand is actual strength, which has not yet been tried by any administration, by any real political entity.

Speaker 1

In the US, not for a while anyway, not certainly not under this administration. Let's get to this next piece, which is incredibly significant with regard to this port boondoggle situation. Put this up on the screen, so Beebe is apparently floating, Hey, you know what, we could use that port for a

little ethnic cleansing so that Gozins could leave. Let me read this tweet specifically, Nott Yahoo in the Forid Affairs Committee in Israel said, we are looking at how to distribute the aid and gaza through non local entities because Hamas failed the attempts to distribute it through local entity. Of course, this is bullshit. But anyway, put that aside, private companies are also being investigated. This is all because

they are defunding unrun trying to destroy. As far as the State of Israel is concerned, there is no obstacle for the Gosins to leave. Maybe even the port they are building could be used for this, but there are no countries in the world that are ready to receive them yet, countries not super excited about participating in your

ethnic cleansing plan here. But Sager, this comes I don't know if you saw this, you probably did mis reports that as much as Biden floated this port situation as like his idea and this great humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian civilians, the idea actually came from the Israelis and

from Netanyahu himself. So this gives you some insight into why they were keen for us to build this temporary port which is going to take months, which is going to take somewhere around one thousand US service members who were going to put at risk untold amount of dollars and is not even going to come close to solving the problem, which is the fact that babies are starving to.

Speaker 3

Death right now today, that's what they want.

Speaker 2

They want us to take them, they want us to be responsible for occupying for.

Speaker 3

I mean, remember the Wall Street Journal.

Speaker 2

They wrote a whole article they were like, hey, America, you guys should take all these refugees from Gaza and then we'll figure it out.

Speaker 5

You know.

Speaker 2

You this are literal members of the Kanesset who wrote this openly and they said that we should occupy the place and that we should take responsibility for them.

Speaker 3

That's what pisses me off the most about this.

Speaker 2

It's not even humanitarian because, as he said, people are either starving, We're not helping in the future, we're footing a bill, our people are at risk. It's a boondoggle, and it's just helping at least in the interim, you know, kind of helping accomplish their overall strategy. So the whole thing is just totally ridiculous. And what again does it say about a prime minister who is willing to just say this out in the open, about how hey, maybe you guys can take them or you can facilitate her.

It's like, what, we're going to ship people out on US navy vessels to wear on your behalf, Like no, no, no, no, no, that's not how this is going to go.

Speaker 1

Well, well, but it may well.

Speaker 3

We're up to me, I would say, no.

Speaker 1

Yeah. At the same time, the level of contempt that's being telegraphed from this administration towards people who have who are many and who are a majority of Joe Biden's orders by the way, at this point, who have issues with their policy is really broad taking. Here's Koreean Jean Pierre.

Just look at her affect. Listen to the answer, but also look at her affect while she is fielding this question about people who have objections to Joe Biden's policy of unconditional support of Israel, Takalism.

Speaker 14

Stinnian American, Arab American, and Muslim organizations that the White House reached out to for a meeting this week rejected the invitation.

Speaker 1

So what is the White House strategy on this? And are there plans for the President to directly engage with these communities.

Speaker 14

So look, the President, as you know, has had an opportunity to meet with members of that community not too long ago, leaders of that community, the our American community, the Muslim American community, not too long ago. And so look what I will say is We understand that this is a difficult time, that this is a painful time.

We understand that the events of October seventh, that you know, that killed more than twelve hundred, twelve hundred souls, right, took more than twelve hundred souls in Israel and also took Helmas, the terrorist organization also as we know, took Costage more than two hundred people. And what that led to, that war that led to is incredibly pained.

Speaker 3

We understand that.

Speaker 1

So, I mean, this response was so bad on so many levels. First of all, she's practically rolling her eyes. And keep in mind, again, fifty percent of Joe Biden twenty twenty voters think this is a genocide. Fifty percent, okay, and that was, by the way, that poll is now, you know, at least a month old. I would be very curious what the numbers are at this point, given what we've seen unfold. She's flipping through the paper as she can barely be bothered. She looks bored, she's annoyed.

Like I said, she's practically rolling her eyes, and then she can't even offer anything about you know, how they take this series out, they're going to win people back? She can't offer anything even a word about Palestinian civilian death and that loss of life and how it's wholly unacceptable. So, like I said, the level of content that continues to be telegraphed here is just really wild.

Speaker 3

It's very odd. I think.

Speaker 2

Look, I think that the eye roll just comes from They're like they don't want to deal with this anymore.

Speaker 3

They're just like, we want this to go away.

Speaker 2

We don't want to talk about it, we don't want this to be a problem for us. And that's I think one thing that the Israelis and the Biden administration, all of them have underestimated is that these clips are not local, like they go viral, and that moment went.

Speaker 3

Very, very viral.

Speaker 2

I think for the exact reasons that you're talking. Part of the reason why we've highlighted here was because it was because of the indifference, and they just don't seem to understand where that disconnect is, especially for their voters, and that's where it's becoming a political problem.

Speaker 1

Yeah. Absolutely, So the last piece we wanted to put up here because this.

Speaker 3

Is relevant to this hilarious I want to this.

Speaker 1

Whole conversation about like Israel so upset about Chuck Schumer interv meddling in their domestic politics. All right, put this up on the screen. Hawret's reports on an Israeli influence operation that directly targeted US lawmakers with regards to Hamas and unrespecifically. The subhead here says, hundreds of fake accounts amplified three mysterious quote unquote news sites to advance Israeli interest.

Their target US Democratic lawmakers. The number one target, by the way of this influence operation apparently was Richie Torres. But you know, very interestingly, the majority of the posts were targeted not just at Democratic lawmakers or even just at you know, insane pro Israel acts like Richie Torres.

It was actually targeted very specifically at black democratic lawmakers because there was this, you know, the senses borne out by if you look at who was signed on to cease fire proposals, especially from early on, there's a disproportionate number of Black Democrats who were backing these proposals. You have a historic connection to the Palestinian cause among black communities and civil rights activists in particular, so that was a serious focus. They say that over five hundred different

avatars were found on three social networks. They pushed out posts with almost identical war wording links to what fake reporter call it. That's the outlet that actually originally identified this influence operation. The three main assets in this influence operation were these fake news websites, Unfold Magazine, Non Agenda,

and the Moral Alliance. There's a very strong suggestion in this report, though they don't come right out and say it that it was being run by the Israeli government directly. We don't have one hundred percent proof of that. But again, like I said, strong suggestion, and to the point of what I was saying, some eighty five percent of all the American politicians whose accounts were targeted with such content were Democrats. Ninety percent of them were African Americans according

to that analysis, and Richie Torres was targeted most. So very interesting. So oh, they would never meddle in our politics. Now, I want to say, like the posts they were making, I'm not saying they were particular.

Speaker 3

No, they weren't good, but they were doing.

Speaker 1

Effective or influential. Some of them even didn't even make sense. It'd be like an avatar with a white, middle aged looking dude who's like as a black woman, I feel blah blah blah. So it's not like it was like really well done or I think particularly impactful. But I

also would point to saga. Remember the ADL was having a meltdown, we played some of the audio that got leaked about their TikTok problem, and there's this whole freak out about social media and how the young people are you know, pro Palestine or in their words, quote unquote pro Haamas. So I do wonder if this was like a direct reaction to that to try to combat the you know, the pro Palestinian sense on social media, especially among young people.

Speaker 3

I think it's possible.

Speaker 2

I don't know necessarily though, If that's what they're I think it's just a classic influence op, and they're going after the people that think.

Speaker 3

What they do.

Speaker 2

Yeah, this is just what they Dosad Israelis, like I said, they're the most notorious spies and like internal metalers here in the US by an alleged US ally.

Speaker 3

So anyway, I think it falls in the traditional playbook.

Speaker 1

All Right, we have an update for you on those Jonathan Glazer comments at the Oscars that came in for quite a bit of controversy. Let's go and put this up on the screen. So in reaction to the Glazer comments, you know, he was the filmmaker made zone of interest that's actually about the Holocaust. He himself is Jewish, and he said that he rejected the weaponization of his Jewishness and of the Holocaust in order to justify, you know,

things that he believes should be unjustifiable. So they say, according to Variety, over one thousand Jewish creatives and professionals have now denounced Jonathan Glazers Zone Oscar speech in an open letter. Oh really, Well, it turns out that this open letter, it's just a form. It's a Google form, and you can see this in the community note, which is actually rather helpful. Here they say the letters a simple Google form. It does not confirm or ask for

proof that the signers are Jewish creatives or professionals. One of the signers listed by Variety is a sag after member named River to the Sea. So apparently, you know, the original version of this letter had something like four hun or fifty names after it. After it got some publicity suddenly and just shot up to over one thousand purported the Jewish creatives and professionals, but some significant doubts about whether these are actual people who had an actual problem,

and certainly whether they are Jewish creatives in Hollywood. Also, just as a note, apparently not a lot of big names signed on to this letter denouncing Jonathan Glazer, but I don't want to downplay the fact. I do think this could potentially his outspoken criticism which did become very controversial and was also lied about and misconstrued intentionally by a lot of dishonest actors. This could be a problem

for his career. I don't think there's any doubt about that in terms of what the future may hold for him. I'm sure he knew that going into making these comments as well, because we've seen people in Hollywood lose their jobs for speaking out on behalf of Palestipians.

Speaker 2

Yeah, Tony Kushner, our producer Griffin found this. If people aren't familiar, he wrote Lincoln, he wrote Munich. He's been a Spielberg kind of collaborator. He's one of the more high profile people. I saw him speak once actually in college. He's the playwright. He did Angels of America. He actually spoke out on Glazier's half, and some of the comments were interesting let's says.

Speaker 13

The idea that you know, in the blowback after Jonathan Glazer's really sort of unimpeachable, irrefutable statement at the.

Speaker 1

Oscars, you identified with what he said, of.

Speaker 13

Course, I mean, who doesn't. What he's saying is so simple. He's saying, jewishness, Jewish identity, Jewish history, the history of the Holocaust, the history of Jewish suffering, must not be used in a campaign as an excuse for a project of dehumanizing or slaughtering other people. This is a misappropriation of what it means to be a Jew, but the Holocaust meant and he rejects that. Who doesn't agree with that? What kind of person thinks that what's going on now

in Gaza is acceptable? And if you find yourself saying out loud and in public, oh, it's fine with me what they're doing because you feel that it's the only choice for you, because you're a Jew, is to defend everything that Israel does you know, Shame on you.

Speaker 2

I thought it was interesting just because he's a big he's a big player in Hollywood. So for him to come out and say something like this Spielberg collaborator and all that you're gonna have to pay attention.

Speaker 1

Yeah, Producer Griffin, he's like our most famous American playwright. We take.

Speaker 3

Like I said, I think he's an interesting guy. I saw. I went to go see him speak just because he wrote Lincoln, and he's.

Speaker 2

A very very very learning man, very well kind of crafted in his thoughts and the way he puts stuff down to paper.

Speaker 3

I've always found kind of an inspiration as a writer, he.

Speaker 1

Also said, and you could see that on the screen. He went on to say that what was happening in Gaza looked a lot like ethnic cleansing to him. So again, these are, you know, really noteworthy comments. And I think speaks to this conversation too about anti Semitism, because is you know, the idea that being a Jewish person requires you to support Israel, requires you to support everything Israel is doing and what Israel is all about. I think painting any sort of ethnic or religious group with that

brought a brush. I mean, that's inherently bigoted to say you have to associate yourself with this ethnic cleansing in his words that's being carried out here. You know, I think that is truly anti Semitic, and that gets to some comments that our former president Donald Trump had to make about Jewish people and how they should be viewing this conflict, dictating to them what should define their Jewishness. Let's take a listen to that.

Speaker 3

Why do the Democrats hate Biby and Netanyahu?

Speaker 8

I actually think they hate Israel. Yes, I don't think they hate it. I think they hite Israel. And the Democrat Party hates Israel. Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion, They hate everything of about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel would be destroyed.

Speaker 1

Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion. Think about that, and that's the polar opposite of what, For example, Tony Kushner was saying that his Jewishness requires him to speak out against what is being done to Palestinian civilians in the name of him and other Jewish people. So it reminded me so much of the Joe Biden. If you don't vote for me, then you ain't black.

It reminded me so much of that that Donald Trump thinks he can dictate to Jewish people what their religion is all about and how they if they vote for a Democrat then they must hate their religion. I mean that is disgusting.

Speaker 2

I mean, I don't think it's right, but it's actually become more of a popular talking point amongst a lot of conservative Jews. I've seen a lot of people like JPod John put Herrits, Josh Hammer and others who have kind of normal this within the conservative Jewish community where they are inextricably linking Israel, the war in Gaza, criticism of that and trying to not excommunicate per se.

Speaker 3

I don't think it exists in Judaism, but it's.

Speaker 2

More like you are not adhering to the tenets of like who we are and what is described in the religion if you don't, if you vote for the Democratic Party, I believe you. Hammer said that outright and explicitly. So I think that is where a lot of this is coming from for Trump, is they're like, hey, you should push this.

Speaker 3

And I've seen a lot of this internal.

Speaker 2

Policing, you know, in the Jewish community very recently where you know, Schumer his act was very controversial where it kind of split some of the way that they think and talk about Israel. And I think Trump is trying to like glom onto that and trying to bring some of that energy into the Republican Party. I mean, listen, on a rhetorical level, I think it's crazy and outrageous. Like,

you know, nobody. It is not the job of anyone except for people in their religion, and even then they don't as far as I understand it, there is no pope or whatever in duties.

Speaker 3

So you people figure that shit out for yourself. There's more my question.

Speaker 1

You know, there was a poll that found a majority of Jewish American support to cease fire, A majority of Jewish American support.

Speaker 3

Most Jewish Americans are libs.

Speaker 1

Like that's the I mean, here's the thing too. There's been obviously a very warranted conversation about anti Semitism. There's also been an unwarranted conversation about anti Semitism, you know, being invented in any criticism of Israel being considered an antismitic et cetera, et cetera, and anti Semitism is never justified,

It's never acceptable. I just want to you know that this is not to justify anything, but if you are requiring all Jews to be associated with what the Israeli government is doing right now, starving two million people ethnic wanting to ethnically cleanse those people, plausibly committing a genocide against those people, and you want to tie every Jew in the world to those policies and say that's what makes you Jewish, That's the defining character of your Jewishness

is to be associated with this state that is acting in the most morally outrageous ways you can possibly imagine. It is almost inevitable, again, not justifying, it is almost inevitable. That is going to lead to an increase in anti Semitism, that is going to make Jews around the world less safe. So that's part of why I find the reaction to Jonathan Glazers speech. So discussiing is part of why I find Donald Trump's comments here. So discussing this conflation of

Jewishness with unconditional support for Israel. I mean, this is not the way Israelis think about things, you know, you know, they certainly don't think that their Jewishness is defined by supporting friggin Benjamin Netanyato. I can tell you that much based on the polls now, there is a very high and very disturbing level of support for what is being

done in Gaza by the Israeli public. But to say that you were you are defined in your Jewishness by your level of support for whatever it is the Israeli government is going to do, or even commitment to the State of Israel, you know, in the Zionist project itself. I just find that absolutely disgusting, wrong, and like I said, I think inevitably actually makes Chews less safe and lifts the level of anti Semitism here in our real world.

Speaker 2

That's the point our friend Daryl Cooper has been making very consistently.

Speaker 3

He's like, listen, if you want it this way, well.

Speaker 2

Then you know you are going to be by and large actually increasing the amount of aggregate anti Semitism in the world. I would also say this, you know, you can't be saying dual loyalty is anti semitic if you also are accepting a frame of dual loyalty.

Speaker 1

That's true, demanding actually true, You're actually demanding it, right.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that's a whole other conversation, and that is why you know, I know it's controversial, but I think it is the most most poignant part and is one on the American right, which nobody wants to touch with a ten foot poll, and yet is so obvious with so many commentators. I'll just leave it at that that it is supposedly off bounds, but it's like they're the ones

also internally trying to enforce the exact same standard. So you can't call it anti semitic and then say it's anti semitic not to adhere to that standard in their own community.

Speaker 3

So anyway, that's a whole.

Speaker 2

Other conversation, I guess. Indeed, all right, thank you guys for watching. We really appreciate it. As we said, sign up for premium if you can. Breakingpoints dot Com big upgrade in the service. If anything breaks over the weekend, we'll bring it to you. Otherwise, we've got some content.

Speaker 3

We'll see you all next week.

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