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.
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What do we have, Crystal.
Indeed, we do a lot of things that are breaking this morning. So as you guys probably already know, a horrific terror attack unfolded in Moscow, we've got the very latest about who may be behind it and what is going to happen next. It's also another big week for Trump with regard to his legal and personal financial situation, so it looks like today he's going to be getting a court date. He also maybe due for a big payday with regard to true Social potentially could bail him
out of some of his other issues. So we'll take a look at that big backlash at NBC after hiring former R and C chair Rona McDaniels, some very interesting commentary from Chuck Todd and others.
We will break down what we think about all of that.
A horrific Israeli drone attack caught on video on unarmed civilians that has led even Alex Jones now to call this a genocide, along with a number of other atrocities. We've had to sort of like pick the worst ones to tell you about today because there are so many unfolding. We also have a lot of big political news with regard to Israel. Their defense minister is coming to town this week and guess what he's bringing with him a long wish list of weapons that he would like to
be expedited. So a lot going on there. Soccer is going to take a look at yet another GOP retirement and what is happening with all of that, and that Stoller is going to join us in the studio to talk through this new Apple antitrust suit, which is very interesting. Of course, you could not have a better expert to break all of that down for us than Stoller.
Justice for Green Text Bubbles is the TLDR of the segment. Before we get to that, thank you to everybody who's been signing up. As we've been continuing to tease, in the next month or so, we are going to have a major up grid to our premium service. You're going to get a lot of extra content, some other things people have been asking for, as well as a major
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So let's go ahead and start with Moscow.
And this is a hard pivot, but to a horrific attack that occurred over the weekend in Moscow. Over one hundred and thirty seven now debt according to the Kremlin. We have some video that we can play here, just a warning, some of it may be disturbing. As you can see, this happened in the Circus city hall. There was a concert venue and there were a roving gunmen that were going through, reminiscent of the Mumbai and the Kenya attacks, people coming in and out and then also
just fleeing and absolute chaos inside of the venue. Of Reportedly many of the debts actually a result of smoke inhalations. Some of the video that you're seeing in front of you was released by AMAK News. For those of you who have been on the internet for a while, that will be familiar. It is the quote unquote official video service of ISIS the propaganda and this is the burning
actually that occurred afterwards Crystal. So there's been a lot of speculation around the who perpetrated these attacks.
Isis Korasan.
Isis K, which is based in the tribal regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, have claimed responsibility for the incident, as well as releasing that body camp footage. President Putin also making a response there. However, time perhaps according to him, some of this to the regime in Ukraine. Let's play some of the video here. He says, quote, they tried to hide and they were moving in the direction of Ukraine.
There.
According to the preliminary data, they had a crossing of the border that was prepared from the Ukrainian side, but Vladimer vadam Zelinski has now denied that Ukraine had nothing to do with the attack. This was backed up by the White House spokesperson John Kirby. Let's take a listen to what he had to say.
You might have also seen, hopefully you saw our State Department or embassy there put out a notice to all Americans in Moscow to avoid any large gathering, concerts, obviously, shopping malls, anything like that, just for their own safety. They should stay put where they are and stay plugged into the State Department for any additional updates and information.
Do you have any sense whether this could be linked to tool to the conflict in Ukraine.
There is no indication at this time that Ukraine or Ukrainians were involved in the shooting. But again, just bro We're taking a look at it, but I would disabuse you at this early hour of any connection to Ukraine and Crystal.
This comes amidst the news, if we could put here up on the screen that allegedly the United States actually warned both its own citizens and Moscow that an extremist attack had quote imminent plans to target large gatherings. This was issued on March seventh, a couple of weeks before the attack, so obviously the timing did not exactly match. But allegedly, from behind the scenes, the US government had shared some information here with the Russian authorities quote in
accordance with its long standing duty to warn policy. We're not exactly sure whether Moscow dismissed the warnings or not. According to Western officials, they did. Obviously the attack was perpetrated, but there's still some major questions here surrounding the attack. But nonetheless, it is horrific. You know, you have over one hundred people now have lost their lives.
Yeah, that's exactly right, and many more who were injured. I mean, listen, I don't know who was behind the attack. You might look at it and say, listen, Isa says they did it. They released bodycam footage. The US is saying isis did it, and that they had you know, they had this intelligence in advance that they were warning. The embassy put out a warning to our own citizens, and they also reportedly warned the Russian government as well. But you know, it's very hard to know what to
believe in this day and age. So I think what perhaps matters more in terms of what happens next is what the Russian people believe happened, and then what that leads to in terms of Putin's response.
And it's a very dangerous situation. I mean, first and.
Foremost, the carnage is horrific and heartbreaking. Second of all, what is the response, Because we've seen the way that our country, We've seen the way that Israel can dramatically overreact to a terror attack in a way that actually brings more harm not only to the world but to their own citizens. So you know, this is something we've been talking about for a long time with regard to the Ukraine War, is just what a dangerous situation it was, what type of escalation it could lead to.
You're hearing very.
I would say, like almost apocalyptic rhetoric, not just from Putin, but also from Medvedev in particular, who is known for using sort of very over the top I guess you would say rhetoric, but threatening direct retribution. So that's one big question is what happens from here, And I don't think any of us can really speculate. You know, the
other thing saga that I've been thinking that. There was actually a very thought provoking column in Haretz about the way that watching these horrors unfold in Israel has cheapened all of human life, and I think you kind of see it in this instance, because there's no taking away from the utter horror when you have innocent people who are there just attending a concert being slaughtered out right, being trapped in a burning building, etc.
And yet when you look at it, you're like, wow, that's the.
Number of people who are killed in Gaza every day in a smaller population, And it does show you the way that you know, these horrors that are being perpetrated, the impact of them and the psychological impact of them does not just stay in Gaza, does not just stay with regards to Israel and Palestine. That was something I was reflecting on here as well. And then the last thing that I think we can say with absolute certainty
is that this is a tremendous failure from Putin. I mean, all indications are he did have some sort of warning and obviously, you know, he was unable to protect his own citizens in terms of the you know, the the response after the fact. As Sager mentioned, reports are that a lot of the people who perished. It was actually not from gunfire, it was from fire and smoke inhalation because the h you know, they had a very difficult time finding the exits, and there weren't people on site
to assist in the immediate response. And so, you know, because this is such a really you know, security dramatic security failure and humiliation for him, that also, you know, leads to increased concerns about what the response may be so that he can rescue himself from his own humiliation.
By the way, you know, noteworthy and.
Well as well in terms of the political timing, this happened just days after he was quote unquote reelected, so certainly his you know, political position is secure. But again there are some echoes here of Bibi Netanyahu, who you know, October seventh. Obviously it's on hamas the atrocities they committed, but whole thing was, hey, I'm going to keep you safe,
this kind of strong man figure. There were dramatic security fillers and also echoes you know, nine to eleven same thing, warnings intel and completely ignored and disregarded by the Bush administration, leaving you know, our own citizens vulnerable.
Yeah, So to get to that so one of the attackers. There have been four actually attackers who have been charged, and many of their interrogation videos have been released by the Russians. So we have some video here. Just we've kept out anything that's too disturbing, but we're going to show you some of his own words, allegedly. Again, this is completely released by the Kremlin official state sanctioned propaganda. But here's what they've put out. So let's gohea and
put it up there on the screen. They asked one of these gunmen, where did you get the guns? They said they delivered them themselves. He says, I don't know who delivered them. It was on telegram. There was no first name, no last name, nothing. How did they find you? Did you look for them or did they find you? He says, no, they wrote to me. Why exactly did they write to you? He says, I don't know. I listened to the lessons there, referring to probably isis propaganda videos.
He says, how come you were just asked to kill people for no reason? No one is just asked to kill people. He says, no, I took a class that was on telegram. He continues, kind of expounding a little bit there. He says, what is on telegram? He says, the class I listened to a class. I listened to a preacher, And he continues, he is going to describe not only the preacher that he was kind of connected with. His quote unquote assistant then texted him. He's refusing to
give names. He claims that there was no first name, no last name, that he was sent in connection with all of these and that about a month ago, that is whenever he was connected to these attackers. He also claimed Crystal that he had been given some one million roubles and that he had flown to Moscow from Turkey on March fourth, which coincides March seventh, right around the time that the US authorities had delivered that warning allegedly again to the Russians. Now, I want to say there
are some weird conces inconsistencies that are happening here. First and foremost is that a number of the gunmen were captured alive. And almost every single one of these previous Isis attacks, they fight to the death and they're either killed by security forces or they blow themselves up. Many of the guys, for example, and the Paris attack on the Bata Klan and others were wired with suicide vests or either to perish.
Same in Mumbai.
If we think back to the Mumbai attacks, I think believe all but one of the gunmen actually died and the only reason that one of them was even captured alive is because he was wounded by the Indian security forces. I believe the same is the same when we think about the Mali attack, and we also think about Kenya. So all of these like gunmen AK forty seven style attacks are that they just flood the zone and they
basically just expect to perish. The other thing that kind of confused me, and this has been also noted by some terrorist analysts. As he said he was promised, for example, a million rubles, It's very unusual to be you know, quote unquote offered monetary recipient in exchange for this again because they expect you to perish.
Again.
I don't really know much about these individuals. Their name that have been released seemed to indicate that they are from the Caucus regions, So all of their last names are like are all of their last names indicate at least that they are from some of those regions. Previously in Central Asia, which I know for certain has long had an ISIS presence. A lot of the guys who were in Syria were of Chechni and Dagistani or whatever descent.
And it's not like it hasn't been a hotbed of Islamic terrorism, but I did want to know, you know, it is very unusual to capture a number of the gunment alive and.
For the dead.
I believe the individuals that they captured are Tajik. Yeah, there's pieces of the ISIS explanation that are confusing, right, I mean, first of all, if you take this individual at his word, like, it just seems insane.
Well, also, he's obviously under duress, clearly.
Yeah, and this was another thing that Jegor was noting to be. Actually, he found it very noteworthy that there were actual videos and images put out of the torture that was, you know, perpetrated against these individuals. He said, that's different from Russian history. He thinks that is part of the Putin response is like, let me put out these images basically of revenge to try to salvage myself
from my own humiliation and my own failure here. So, in terms of the ISIS piece, first of all, like I was saying, this story seems crazy, right, you are on telegram listening to some Isis propaganda preacher and someone who you don't even know is like, hey, I'll give you half a million dollars if you go shoot up this concert hall and then you just do it.
Like maybe.
But the other thing to note about isis K in particular is they seem to have a habit recently of really being into striking America's adversaries from Iran, Pakistan and now Russia.
So that's a little eyebrow raising.
On the other hand, you know, like I said, they claimed credit they're US is at least claiming they had intel supporting this. They put on the body cam footage, et cetera. And the other explanations possible. You know, theories out there don't entirely make sense or add up either.
So I don't know.
Like I said, I think maybe the most important thing is how Russians feel about how this happened, how Putin is explaining it, whether people are buying this or not. You know, he's floating that Ukrainians had something to do with it.
I don't.
I don't know that there's any evidence to actually back that up. But if the Russian people are persuaded that that is the case that has geopolitical ramifications, whether it is actually true or not.
Yeah.
So, actually I have here in front of me a direct translation of the weekly news show in Moscow that aired last night Sunday night. They say that the United States and Europe understand that any connection between Ukraine and the attack on this whole would be suicidal for Kiev
in the entire anti Russian alliance. So they Russian media, both the government and media organizations of the government friendly to Putin, have been pushing over the last twenty four to forty eight hours a Ukrainian connection, pushing back hard on any ISIS explanation. As you said, I mean, very well, may be ISIS even, you know, whenever we do a full investigation into the attack. But they have a direct incentive to say that it's not, because that would mean
absolve Putin of not you know, hearing any warning. So look, it's not like there's any exactly trustworthy actors between ISIS and the US government of Russian government.
Here it is always Yeahski, right, we should point out, I mean, there is definitely a beef that Isis has with Russia, I mean, especially with regard to Syria in particular, So it's not like it would be totally random and you know, oh why why do they have an issue with them?
So there is a logic to that.
But there are some other pieces here that, like I said, they're just they're just strange. There's a lot and they're not true, but there are eyebrow raising and they are strange.
There's a lot of all the hypotheses that are involved, Like the Isis theory obviously makes sense. They have long standing beef with the Russians. The Russians have been the major backer of Bashar Alastad and they killed a lot of people, you know, on in Isis in Syria as a result of that. The other one, I mean, this is all goes back to the conspiracy theory around the nineteen ninety nine apartment bombings which Putin used as a
pretext to start the Chechenian War. Given the fact that they're immediately blaming the Ukrainians, I mean, that one certainly seems plausible. I'm not saying it is the only explanation, which many you know, anti Putin people said, but it's relatively plausible. Then the other one is that you know, this is some fusion or something of the two. It could be just a Tajik It could be you know, localized Tajik militant group that somehow was also funded by ISIS,
may not be technically ISIS itself. So there's a lot of stuff, you know, that could be happening. But as you said, the real regardless of whatever it actually was, how Russians, the Russian government and them use it as a response and how they respond to that, that will be the major, major question, especially now that they've made
a habit of publishing some of these interrogation videos. If let's say they torture the hell out of these guys and get them to say that it's Ukraine or something on camera, I mean, you can already imagine how that would be used on their behalf. We'll continue to watch it very very closely, ended very much. Could be a major flashpoint here going forward. Trump appears to have found himself in a major financial windfall in one of the most hilarious circumstances of all time. Let's go ahead and
put this up there on the screen. It appears that Donald Trump is about to quote make a new fortune with the public listing of truth Social. According to the financial documents that are coming forward in a filing, Trump's investment in truth Social, which is held by in SPAC, is.
Worth roughly three billion dollars.
This is after investors in this SPAC have now approved a plan to take truth Social public, putting him quote one step closer to the three billion dollar windfall that could end a financial squeeze that is weighing on his presidential run. Truth Social quote, with few users and little revenue, is expected to start strading on the stock market next week at a staggering valuation of five billion dollars. Donald Trump self owns sixty percent of that, and the stock ticker.
Will be called DJT.
The vote it comes quote after two and a half years to take truth Social public, that included charges of insider trading, a fine to settle an SEC investigation. All
that has kept Trump on the platform. What they say is that this could be the financial windfall crystal that he needs, which is very likely why he was pushing for this public because he's got the four hundred and fifty million dollar judgment against him that remains there, and now he's got a stake that even though he's in a lock up period, you know, he could conceivably get a loan or something like that against his valuation. That is, if the stock actually holds at the value that they.
Do want to put forward. Should note that the amount of money they make is not a lot.
We'll say that, and they they actually they lose money in terms of profitability and revenue. They make a few million dollars a year. In terms of profit, they are losing tens of millions of dollars a year. So the idea that Truth Social is actually worth five point five billion dollars is ridiculous, right, But this is it's actually
a memes stock phenomenon. People who are supporters of Donald Trump, like they're really into it, and so they've bid up the price and he's trying to cash in on this popularity in the fact that this stockport I mean, listen, the economy of the stock market are fake anyway, but they have wildly inflated the valuation of Truth. So there's no no logical way is it possible that this is worth one billion or even like one million, given the fact that it is losing money consistently with no hope
of sort of turning things around. So nevertheless, this could serve to benefit Trump. But but there are some big caveats here. First of all, he is subject to a lock up agreement which would ordinarily require him to hold on to that stock, I believe, for six months before he could sell it. So that's number one. Now, apparently there are some sort of like deals that could be struck and legal ways that he could get out of that requirement and be able to sell off some stock.
But when you have that large of a stockholder and you have a you know, a meme stock that's like sort of artificially inflated, him selling significantly, it's probably going to trigger a lot of other people to sell significant quantities, and it could lead to a massive crash wherein obviously, your you know, three point five million dollars stake or whatever is now worth much much, much much less than
three point five million dollars. So it's not a sure thing that this is going to rescue him from his
financial difficulties. And we've discussed before obviously what the immediate financial difficulties are, which is primarily that he owes half a billion dollars that actual that deadline for that bond payment is today, and we're as we're about to discuss, Letitia James has already moved to begin the process to seize some of his New York assets in Westchester County in particular, in order to make good on that payment.
He and his legal team have apparently gone to thirty different insurers and they all said no, effectively, because you don't have enough cash and enough collater to back it, and they don't really count real estate holdings. So is this going to rescue him in the new year term. Don't know, but there are some challenges and some caveats with regard to this potential new fortune that he is coming into.
Here.
As you said, today is actually a pretty critical day for Trump. Let's put it up there on the screen. They say that his quote is expected to spend this morning actually while we're taping in the courtroom of the New York judge who will then soon preside presumably over his criminal trial quote and ultimately possibly throw him behind bars. That is not even the legal predicament that actually worries
Trump most this day. The hearing in which is the so called you know, the cover up of the Stormy Daniels thing, is coming at the exact same time that he's got to fend off the four hundred and fifty four million dollar judgment against him. The New York Attorney General, as he said, may begin collecting as soon as Monday.
Quote to avoid a mortal threat to the Trump organization, Trump then must persuade another company to post the bond on his behalf, promising it will then cover the judgment if he loses a pending appeal and fails to pay.
Trump's lawyers said that securing the bond would be a quote practical impossibility because he would need to pledge some five hundred and fifty million dollars in cash and liquid investment as collateral on the bond, and admission that laid bare the former president's cash crunch under the quote unless he strikes quote an eleventh hour deal that New York State can then freeze his bank accounts and began the long and complicated process of quote seizing some of his properties.
All of these are the quote the two twin threats that crystallize two of Trump's greatest and longest held fears, an actual criminal conviction and a public perception that he does not have as much cash as he claims.
On the cash front.
I'm not defending him, but there's almost nobody is worth billions of dollars. He's got five hundred million dollars in liquid.
Asset and interesting amount of money.
Okay, I don't know much about the high end financial system. It does seem a bit ridiculous to me that you have to have liquid investments worth the amount of the bond that you're supposed to pay, because like, okay, again again only from reading, but don't people often put up like their house or their mortgage or something in a bail bond type situation.
So why can't you use then the.
Collateral of your real estate, you know, holdings, even in the state of New York, which presuma we are going to be taken and held anyway.
I guess maybe maybe it's more of a higher risk profile.
Again I don't I don't understand bond law or bond financing, but it does seem crazy because if you were going to if you had the liquid cash, and why wouldn't you just pay the bond instead of having a bond there anyway and curse some of the interests.
I don't really understand.
Yeah, I don't either, I mean, the one thing I read said that they just they don't even like to like to do a bond of their size even is the problem. So they were willing to go as high as one hundred million dollars, but half a billion.
Was like, I don't know about that. So I don't know.
But apparently, for whatever reasons, they are not feeling super comfy fronting the cash for this bond. So it is a genuine question mark what's going to happen in court today and what moves Letitia James is going to make next. Like I said, she started the process in Westchester County, one of his golf courses there, to potentially seize that potentially fire or sail it.
So I don't know.
New York Posts had a report last week, for what it's worth, that Trump is thinking that maybe he's just not going to really take any action to try to solve this problem, put the ball in her court and try to make as much political hay out of it as he can, with the hopes that in the future, because this is a complicated process, it would take a while to seize as it's of course, it would take
even longer to fire sale assets et cetera. He's hoping that the judgment is sort of knocked down before that happens, and he can then reclaim these properties.
But who knows, who knows how? This is a lot?
Nobody has any idea. Let's go put this up there on the screen as well. From the ap this is probably actually the most important part is that Trump has now reached a new joint fundraising agreement with the RNC, which will direct donations to his campaign and a political action committee that pays the former president's legal bills before the RNC gets a cut at all.
Quote.
The unorthodox diversion of Save America pack makes it likely that Republican donors would see their money go to Trump's lawyers, who have now received seventy six million dollars over the last two years to defend him against four felony indictments and multiple civil cases. Some Republicans are already trouble that his takeover the RNC would short change the cash strap party. Trump has already began inviting high dollar donors to Palm
Beach for multiple fundraisers against Joe Biden and Quote. The invitation's fine print says that the donation to the Trump forty seven Committee will first be used to give the maximum amount allowed under federal law to the Trump campaign. Anything then left over will go towards a maximum contribution to Save America packed Anything then left over from that will go to the RNC, and only after the state political parties.
Noteworthy though, that.
The first three out of the four that are listed in the joint Funding his Agreement will all go towards paying Trump's legal bills first before any sort of campaign apparatus. And I mean, Crystal, I don't have to It doesn't take a genius to say this is probably bad for the RNC. But in some ways I almost just appreciate the brazenness of this because the RNC is Trump. Trump is the Republican Party, so you know, everything is enshrined totally with him. Even the campaign is more about him
than it is about anything. So yeah, if you're donating to the campaign or whatever you are, you're donating to Donald Trump's you know, personal interests. That's basically just the way it's been the entire time. So if anything, this is actually very ideological consistent with the Trump kind of takeover of the party.
I would say, and I.
Don't know, but I would suspect that a good number of the people who are giving money to Trump don't really have a problem a bottom with that, because I think they see part of this campaign as this like, you know, crusade for him personally and to get him out of his legal travails, et cetera. So you know,
they deserve transparency around what is going on here. But it is an astonishing situation where so many of the millions that are being raised are going directly to his personal benefit to try to, you know, get him out of this legal jeopardy that he's in, and his fundraising hasn't been going particularly well. I just pulled this up. These numbers actually just came out. So federal campaign finance filings that were released last week showed Trump's political operation
to serious disadvantage, struggling to catch up to Biden. This is from ABC News and the Democratic Party. Biden and the Dems raised fifty three million dollars last month, ended February with one hundred and fifty five million dollars cash on hand. Trump's campaign and his Save America Political Action Committee, to key groups in his political operation, reported raising a combined fifteen point nine million in February ended the month
with more than thirty seven million on hand. So a severe disparity between the Trump operation and between the Democratic Party and Joe Biden's operation. And then when you add to that the fact that they have to shoulder the burden not just of running a campaign but also of paying these massive legal bills on behalf of Donald Trump. Yeah, it puts him at a real cash disadvantage. Now how
much does that matter? Obviously money wasn't enough to save Hillary Clinton in twenty sixteen, even though she dramatically outfund raised Donald Trump. So you don't want to read too much into it, but certainly, if you're trying to campaign, you're trying to get the word out, you're trying to pay staff, you're trying to put your message out there in terms of AD dollars, which is what a lot of this money goes to. And it's a problem for you if you don't have a lot in the bank.
Yeh line, Absolutely, let's put the last element up there, please on the screen.
This was also very important.
Plans were actually recently scrapped for that Trump rally in Arizona. Two sources cited their desire to save money to attend a more politically advantageous event in Ohio last weekend. But that means that Trump's last trip to Arizona remains October ninth, twenty twenty two, pretty important because didn't exactly go so well for m last time in October nine, about twenty twenty two, whenever he was stumping for Kerry Lake. Presumably he will return to the state to stump for carry
Lake again. The question, though, remains, is this actually going to hinder the campaign? And I don't think we can't. It's complicated, I mean, to a certain extent, I do think it has overblown some of this, like investment in get out the vote technology and all this other stuff. A lot of it comes down to whether people are even interested in voting or not, which is mostly derivative
of the national news environment. We can't say it hurts either right to have this major investment in door knocking and in the software and then the actual machinery of getting people out there. But Trump has so much enthusiasm that it's not even necessarily that he needs money or not. I mean, if money really mattered, then Hillary would have beat Trump, you know, easily.
Back in twenty sixteen.
My theory when it comes to money and how much it matters in terms of any sort of political campaign is that the more local the races, the more the money actually matters.
And so since when you're.
Talking about a presidential contest, like who in America doesn't know who Joe Biden and Donald Trump are? Who in America doesn't have some sort of opinion about both of these two individuals, and who in America doesn't know like when the election of them is coming up, and how
the mechanics of that all work. I'm not going to say it doesn't matter at all, but I do think that the higher you go up the you know, the sort of food chain with regard to political campaigns, the less impactful it is because earned media and the national political climate just becomes so incredibly important. Now there are certain things like, for example, there's been this whole question of how the Trump campaign is going to deal with mail in voting this time around.
Are they going to fully embrace it?
Are they going to fully run that like mail in voting turnout campaign? If he had done that last time around, he may well be president right now. So he seems to still personally be kind of reluctant about it, but the people around him seem to have realized that it was a mistake to forego pushing mail in balloting. So you know, having that operation fully funded, that is the sort of thing that can make a difference on the margins.
And look, we're talking about election that is.
Probably going to come down to a very narrow margin. So in that way it is impactful. There's also something to say about the fact that previously Trump was a real fundraising juggernaut when it came to the grassroots, and there actually has been a bipartisan phenomenon recently of grassroots fundraising really sort of drying up.
I think there's just a lot of like apathy and you.
Know, discussed with the political system where people aren't feeling that hopeful, like, oh, there's you know something positive I can invest my money in, et cetera. And he has just tapped his people out too. I mean a number of times that he hits his fundraising list.
Over and over and over.
He really has tapped them out, not only for himself but for other Republicans as well. But it is, you know, it's also an indication of a sort of waning amount of grassroots enthusiasm that he's not still able to draw from that well to the extent that he was able to in the past.
I think that also is worth noting.
Keep his in mind too. Trump had tons of money in twenty twenty. We lost, so I mean he had more money in that campaign. I think more than almost double or something like that. They had the same joint fundraising game, agreeing with the RNC. But then remember what we learned in October that the huge amounts of the money they brought in was just spent trying to drive even more money. But from it was like Brad pars Scale, oh yeah, and Jared Kushner, they wasted billions and billions of dollars.
They're spent wildly right exactly.
So money, you know, it can be helpful.
Obviously no one's going to discount it, but a lot of it will come down to national trends as well. So just keep that in mind, and of course the media how they cover it, how people are feeling about the election, that's probably the single most important aspect. That's
a good transition to media. MSNBC a little bit of a meltdown over there over the recent hiring of our former RNC chairwoman Ron Romney, McDaniel, NBC hosts and Chuck Todd in particular openly lambasting their own bosses for hiring her.
Let's take a listen.
I'll be joined by former RNC chair Ron and McDaniel in her first interview since stepping down as party chair. In full disclosure to our viewers, this interview was scheduled weeks before it was announced that McDaniel would become a paid NBC News contributor. This will be a news interview and I was not involved in her hiring.
Let me do with the elephant in the room.
Yeah, I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation because I don't know what to believe.
She is now a paid contributor by NBC News.
Well, I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn't want to mess up her contract. When NBC made the decision to give her NBC News's credibility, you got to ask yourself.
What does she bring NBC News?
And when we make deals like this, and I've been at this company a long time, you're doing it for access, access to audience. Sometimes a Texas to an individual, and we can have a journalistic ethics debate about that, and.
I am willing to have that debate.
And if you told me we were hiring her as a technical advisor to the Republican Convention, I think that would be certainly defensible. You got put into an impossible situation booking this interview, and then all of a sudden, the rugs pull out from interview. You find actually being paid to show up. It's unfortunate for this program. It's unfortunate, Crystal. Now it's interesting.
Now there's a couple of things, because on one level, ethically, I don't disagree with him at all. That said, why are we not showing the same level of consternation about the number of other campaign officials that work at MSNBC. We have a list that we can show everybody in a little bit, but I want to hear what you have to say before we get in.
I mean, I think this practice, which is entirely commonplace and frankly has been for a while, of taking paid operatives from the political parties and putting them into quote unquote journalistic positions.
Is a scourge.
Yes, I agree, I think it's a scourge. When it happens if Fox New. I think it's a scourge when it happens at NBC. And you know, I don't think they're wrong to be upset about the hiring of Ronald McDaniel. And she, you know, from them, from an ideological perspective, she went along with all. She was in charge when all the stuff, this steel nonsense was unfolding, she went
along with it. Now, granted, the Trump people were mad that she didn't do more and didn't like blatantly just rig the Trump Republican primary in his favor and actually ran tried to run like a neutral primary. But from their perspective, yor like, we talk all day long about this threat to democracy and then you hire this person that was central to you know, what was going on during that time period. But you're right that obviously it's
very selective. They don't have an across the board concern about hiring Tansaki, about hiring Simone Sanders, about the fact that you know, reportedly Joe and Mika are on the phone of Biden all the time, and you know there's
a direct connect there. And so I think if you're going to be concerned about party tied bagandas being put in these roles that now they're supposed to be credible and we're supposed to believe what they have to say, and we're supposed to think that they don't have an agenda. I don't think you should be selective about it now. Like I said, I understand why they have an issue here. I just think that they have some ideological blinders on are unable to apply the principle.
Across And the ridiculous part of that is Simone Sanders, whose previous job at that net, before that network job, who was on the panel discussing McDaniel.
Was working for Kamala Harris in the administration. Guys, whimp would see three please up there on the screen.
This is what drives me crazy about all these people, of all just of the recent hires that these people have Jen Saki straight from the Biden podium over to MSNBC for her own television show. Simone Sanders is the exact same thing. I believe she has a show on Peacock. Would love to know the ratings on that one. Nicole Wallace, former Bush Press Secretary, Comm's director direct Pipeline to Television and now the host of a I think the four
to six pm hour or whatever. Joe Scarborough arguably the king of the network himself, who talks directly to Biden on the phone, former job US congressman, and then Michael Steele, former RNC chair. So let's be consistent people, And yeah, I think it's gross too. Every time you turn on Fox News, Dana Perino, what's her only previous job?
Comm's director or press secretary to George W. Bush? Ari Fleischer Comm's director to George W. Bush.
Kaylee Mcanenni, former press secretary to Donald Trump.
Yeah, the pipeline is gross.
These people whose only pipeline are only previous qualifications with lying to the American people on the half of the government, then seemingly getting hired by Fox. But we have to be consistent, you know, with our standard here, and for them, I think it's very obvious that they fall into a vision of It's like, oh, well, one is lying and the other one, you know, is directionally occasionally lied but
tried to steer the country in a good direction. And it's like, well, you know, people can see through this. It's like, you're freak out in all of this. It's not principled in any way, it doesn't, you know, have a foundation beyond anything, just like Republican bad or Democrat bad, you know, over on news AND's and that's why people have no trust, you know, in terms of any ethics things that they try to put forward, because.
See through it instantly, like just simone on the panel, Crystal.
Now, in fairness, I do seem to recall that there was some consternation when Jens Hoki was literally negotiating her ENVC.
It was a little bit only from the White House course pond.
There was a little bit of discomfort, if memory serves.
I think Kristen Welker may have even been one of the utiful White House one of the people who was asking questions about this and was like, I'm not sure about this because it was so blatant and so inappropriate for the person who was right now the paid propagandist for the White House to be negotiating her future contract with a quote unquote journalistic enterprise was really something And of course you still have to ask to this day, like with regard to all of those people that we
had up on the screen, the same questions that Chuck Todd was raising with regards to Ronald McDaniel, like, what is the reason that she is saying these things?
Is it because she's paid by us? Now?
Is it because she's still a propagandist for the Republican Party? You know, same thing with Jensaki. Is she saying the things and taking the perspective she's taking because guess what, she still has a lot of friends in the White House and she still wants to be part of that club. And she still wants as Chuck Tadd points out, this was part of what was so interesting about what he had to say. She still wants the access. Of course she does. So does Simone Sanders.
Of course she does.
So you know, we need to apply the same level of scrutiny and skepticism even when it's people who we
more often agree with. And I think that's really the blind spot here is because they usually agree with Jensaki, and they usually agree with Simone Sanders, they can't see them through that lens of No, these are also just propagandists who are you know, not clearly speaking for themselves and what they actually think is right, but still have these ties, still have these incentives to really care carry water for the Biden administration no matter what it is
that they are ultimately doing. I mean, listen, I can't say I'm a big consumer of MSNBC period. I'm not really not even sure the last time I turned on that channel. Occasionally, you know, we'll cover a media clip here or something that's not.
The extent of it Ornachy on Election Live. Sometimes I will tune it the gym as long as it's mostly.
Off and not on anybody else.
But I have not It has not come to my attention that either Jensaki or Simone Sanders has found a single place where they really disagree with the Biden ministry. Now I could be wrong, again, I don't Again, I don't have an exhaustive review here, but has not come to my attention that they have found, even in each of distance from the Biden administration position on really anything.
So you know, could take that for One of the biggest joke is when Jensaki interviews government officials on her show, I'm like, yeah, really, it's like your former freaking colleagues, and you're supposed to be interviewing them, insane whenever you're in a position of power. Okay, so let's put the C two though up on the screen. We briefly flashed it from Wall Street Journal just to get tie the bow on this. MSNBC currently says they have no plan
to have the x RNC chief on their network. She will solely be appearing on NBC News, I guess, on Meet the Press or whatever in their nightly news program. I definitely think it's a bit of a screw you though to them. This was according to the head of the MSNBC network, and that's in response to internal staff you know, consternation over this. But as I said, doesn't appear to stop at least the president from pulling Jensaki show, who has a premium like weekend slot or whatever, Simone Sanders,
and not to mention Nicole Wallace. I also saw people being like, well, you know, it's not like Jensaki, you know, stood by for a violent insurrection. I'm like, okay, well, even if you believe that or whatever. Nicole Wallace helped sell the worst modern war in American history? Why does she get a pass in anybody connected to the Iraq war?
That is ten times, not even ten times orders a magnitude in a way I can't even express properly in emotion and a rhetoric worse than whatever the hell happened on January sixth. But you know, if we're anti Trump, apparently that's all it takes over there.
How do you think Rana is going to position herself now that she's at NBC, because you know, during the Trump era, she dropped the Romney.
Part of her name.
Something disappeared, so she could, you know, try to align herself with the ascendant Trump portion of the Republican Party, try to keep him happy, you know, try to do the things that she thought that the base wanted her to do, even as you know, like I said before, she still didn't go far enough for them because they wanted her to overtly rig it in in Trump's favor in terms of the primary. But what do you expect her positioning will be now at NBC.
I don't know, to be honest, I think Rona was one of those people who this is one thing we're chucking. All of them are not wrong in the same way about Jensizen. They care about access more than anything. She's like a power broker, slash player. She'll probably be involved.
This isn't you know, this is there.
This isn't really their third act either, because they have all of these contracts that they can work as consultants, and you know, the NBC News thing is only.
Part of it.
She's probably gonna have a thriving, you know, consultancy business on the side.
People pay for play.
So I think she'll probably just continue to cozy up to Trump in the same way or be the Trump splainer as she always was when she was RNC chair, because that's where a lot of her career business and all that is going to go.
Yeah, I don't expect anything. That's the other thing.
You don't expect anything novel from these people, which you shouldn't hire them in the first place. The only good thing about hiring people in media is when they're actually willing to say something that is interesting, which by definition you can't if you're still inside of the system.
Yeah, I mean, there's no expectation that she's going to be some unmartaged truth teller because obviously her career is just about saying what she thinks is convenient in the moment. And so the real question that I'm asking you is like, what do you think will be convenient for her in the moment.
Not what does she actually think?
And it's entirely possible that she finds it now convenient in the moment to do a bit of a face turn and now be you know, a little bit of a Trump critic, you know, render herself more ecpstible to the NBC audience, make herself reclaim some of that Romney style mainstream polite society acceptability so that she can maximize her payday and corporate America through consulting, lobbying, gigs or whatever.
Yes, so, guys, we wanted to share.
With you a little bit of this absolutely horrifying drone footage that al Jazeer was able to obtain. In it, you can see four unarmed civilians who are murdered by and Israeli drone. You know, we had a lot of internal debate about how much of this to show you. Here you can see them walking and then very quickly you can you know, see them just strolling along this as near conunis. There is further footage that we chose not to show you where you can see their bodies
on the ground. You can see one individual who is crawling along the ground, you know, clearly struggling for their life before they are struck yet again. And you know it recalls Sagar a lot of things from the past, including glateral murder, which was the footage that was released by WikiLeaks during the Iraq War. This, if anything, I think is even more brazen and even more blatant of a war crime. Just to take you a little bit
behind the scenes. Were really debated how much of this to show you, because on the one hand, I think it's important for people to see directly some of the horrors and atrocities that are unfolding. On the other hand, you don't want to be too graphic. And in addition, in order for people to be able to see these things, you have to not have them completely suppressed by the
algorithm on YouTube, So that's another factor to balance. So, in any case, incredibly disturbing footage here, which I think in some ways, for whatever reason, seems to have represented a bit of a watershed moment in terms of how people are viewing what is being committed here. And as one example of that, I would offer you the commentary of one Alex Jones put this up on the screen, who shared this footage and quote tweeted it and said, quote, Israel has lost the high ground. This is not war.
It is robotic mass genocide. Section ten ninety one of Title eighteen United States Code for hibbits genocide, whether committed in time of peace or time of war. Genocide is defined in section ten ninety one and includes violent attacks with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. He goes on to say a reply to that and said, if you support Israel, you should not support the random killing of civilians.
Israel is committing suicide with actions like this. Use your effing brain, so you know, just an absolute, unjustifiable horror in saga. I think maybe part of why it seems like this was a bit of a watershed moment and made, you know, the horror of these atrocities undeniable for people who were kind of reluctant to go there is because number one, you can't you know, but you can't, oh
human shield this. And there's also just something so visceral about actually seeing that cold blooded massacre that is kind of undeniable.
Well, and there's also something even more dystopian. I think that's part of the reason why Alex did There's something I'm not saying it should be this way, but for some reason it is emotionally like the idea of somebody walking defenselessly, even not even knowing that they're being surveiled, and then being targeted, as opposed to let's say, being caught in a crossfire or you know, in a bombing, where as you said, there could be at least some
sort of plausible explanation. It was also interesting to me to see Alex kind of go back with some of the people who went against him, for example, and if you look at some of his replies, you know he says, like this is setting the stage for what they want to do domestically. That's part of the reason he's speaking out against drone coverage. For example. Someone says, I support neither side, but our tax money shouldn't be.
Funding any of this, Alex, that is my view.
He also specifically called out previously not wanting Israel to go into Gaza, because he said him and Steve Bannon where they were like it would be a total disaster, and he's like, and that's really what come to pass. And someone even said, quote, I'm surprised Alex is just figuring this out, and he says, I do not support October seven, but at the same time, I do not support killing random civilians.
You should kill the leaders of Hamas, not unarmed people.
And somebody you know replied calling saying that October sen was a war crime and should be met as such. And he again said, so a whole people need to die because of a few Where have I seen that type of logic and previously and finally, I think the most important thing that I think pushed a lot of people over the edge. Something says I would be very skeptical because this is coming from Al Jazeera. He says, it is all over Israeli TV. They are calling for this.
I am not anti Israel. This is out of control, but it must stop now. And I think that's you know, that's another thing too, I can say, you know, personally for the same thing.
I'm not, you know, anti Israel or whatever.
From the beginning, I was just like, I'm just listening to what these people have to say and looking at their actions, and you try and you know, look at it as dispassionately as possible, and so like with this,
you're like, okay, well, what is the possible explanation? There is none except for obviously giving orders and rules of engagement that basically don't exist whenever you're going after civilians, and in some cases possibly even in this one, it's like, what is the possible rationale for an attack like this if there is no Okham's razor to this? And the simplest explanation is that they were just ordered to the order to carry out these types of attacks, which does
not something I support. I don't think the I don't even think vast majority of pro Israel folks in the US would support this. They just probably deny that it exists, or just they either deny that exist or there's not going to engage with it, which I get. I mean that's what a lot of the quote unquote prolemas people to do too. But you got to be you've got to be grappling with this.
I mean there's two strategies effectively. One is just to deny reality. Oh there's no famine, there's no starvation. No, there's not any targeting of innocent civilians. They're all just being used as any civilians who are killed either are being used as human shields or it was you know, one bad apple, a few bad apples. No way could
this be a top down policy. But of course when you see the results and you see videos like this, When you see the way that most of the Gaza strip has been just reduced to complete rubble, when you see the collective punishment of the entire population and starvation being used as a weapon of war, becomes undeniable that it's a top down policy. Obviously, it's a top down policy. It was a top down policy that was announced from
the beginning. Alex Is phrasing here of robotic mass genocide also reminded me of some of the early reports that we covered from nine seven to two magazine about how they're and.
Other places too.
I think the Guardian had a report backing up nine seven to two's initial finding that they're using this algorithm to generate targets, you know, and it's just dramatically increasing the number of targets that they're able to obtain and the scale and the scope of the total annihilation that.
They're able to perpetrate here.
So, like I said, it seemed like something about this video, even though we've covered so many horrors and atrocities that have unfolded on a literal daily basis, it seemed like for some people this really finally broke through and rendered what was going on here actually undeniable. Another person who has been slow to come around to a realization of what is actually happening is aoc Your recall we actually
played here? I think, do we play it the video of her getting hounded by protesters who were demanding that she call it.
We never played it.
We didn't play it.
Okay, Well, I watched it, and imagine that we covered apparently that she was leaving a movie theater and they're saying, why don't you call it a genocide?
She refused to do it, got very upset about it. Well, she too.
I think perhaps it seems like the thing that really drove her to this place was the use of starvation as.
A weapon of war.
She is now also calling this out as a Genocidelet's take a listen to she gave a floor speechless take to listen to some of her comments.
In this moment.
One point one million innocence in Gaza are at famine's door, A famine that is being intentionally precipitated through the blocking of food and global humanitarian assistance by leaders in the Israeli government. This is a mass starvation of people, engineered and orchestrated following the killing of another thirty thousand, seventy percent of whom were women and children killed. If you want to know what an unfolding genocide looks like, open your eyes. It looks like the forced famine of one
point one million innocens. It looks like thousands of children eating grass at their bodies, consumed themselves while trucks of food are slowed and halted just miles away. It looks like good and decent people who do nothing or too little, too late.
To me that level of starvation, the intentional policy of starvation, which again was announced at the beginning. Now they have allowed in some aid, but we know it has been dramatically less than what is required. We know from multiple reports on the ground the way that they block and
hold up aid. We know the way that they turn trucks around, we know the way that they have actually at this point they've been targeting some of the civilian civil society personnel that was there to help distribute the aid. We know the way they've gone after unrun. And the bottom line is, you know, Israel Bear's responsibility for the fact that this population is literally starving to death at
this point. And that's not even to get to which will show you a little bit of in a moment, the way that they have tacitly backed these protesters who are endeavoring to block all AID from going into the Gaza strip. And so to me, the level of famine also is undeniable. That hey, it's not you know, because
of human shields or hamas or whatever. You're literally holding the entire two million, two point two million people in Gaza hostage and you know, making them pay for things that they had nothing to do with.
So apparently that was the thing that pushed AOC to.
Finally, you know, acknowledge what was happening in front of her eyes. So in addition to this core of this drone footage and of course the ongoing starvation and famine with no end in sight, we also have these new reports from Doctors Without Borders. Some of their medical personnel of course, have been in some of the Gaza hospitals doing the absolute best they can in absolutely hell escape like conditions.
S put this up on the.
Screen, we have yet another idf raid of al Shifa. And here's what Doctors Without Borders has to say. According to their staff, heavy air strikes by Israeli air force. By Israeli forces and fearce fighting continue around Al Shifa and Gaza City, endangering patients, medical staff and people trapped inside with very few supplies. According to public reports, hundreds of people have been killed in and around the hospital.
Bodies are lying in the street.
Access to the facility has been impossible for days. The surgical department has reportedly heavily damaged, leaving patients without care. Our staff in the area also say there are mass arrests of medical staff and other people in and around
the hospital. MSF, that's the other acronym Medicines on Frontiers or Doctors without Borders is deeply concerned for their safety due to recent reports, including from the UN and images of abuse of Gazen detainees by Israeli forces, and they conclude hostilities in and around Alshifa Hospital have been raging since March eighteenth, after Israeli forces announced they were conducting a military operation.
So just take that in.
You're talking about reports from Doctors without Borders. This is not HUMMAS, right, It's not Hummas aligned or anything of the like. Their doctors and other personnel on the ground saying that medical staff are being arrested and detained. We've had additional reports of horrors, including executions occurring at Al Shifa, mass executions. There have also been some reports, multiple reports at this point of idea of soldiers raping women in
Al Shifa. These are not things that are fully confirmed, but I think you have to take very seriously what Doctors without Borders is saying here about what is unfolding at Al Shifa. You'll recall this is the fourth raid on this hospital. It attracted a lot of scrutiny the first time around when the US basically greenlit the raid of this hospital, claiming there was some hummusk command and
control note underneath of it. Of course, they never offered any evidence to back up fully those claims, and now here we are on raid number four at least. And you know, these are the things that just continue to unfold.
Dagger Yeah, No, I mean it's absolutely crazy. The last and final one. Here is a video from the Gray Zone where they do interviews with some of the protesters who are blocking AID.
Let's take a lesson.
No, they don't deserve it. What I care?
Kill them?
I don't care.
Do you trust?
No?
I know all about them. I don't trust them, I don't I want them.
Out of here.
Do you think she happened to Gaza?
I wanted to our to be civilized with Jews from Israel.
We blew up houses of terrorists, mosque you and offices. I remember we got into some U N office that was in charge of helping families in Gaza that was affected by the war, and we destroyed it.
And the police and the head commander came to us and said, okay, you guys came and blocked. We don't want to fight, and he said to us, just look to the guy. You guys don't need to stand in the sun. We got we got lollipops, we got watermelon from the watermelon. Yeah, watermelons, and uh, what's great? What's great with them?
So, according to AM is being supported there directly by police, military. I'm not exactly sure the authorities that are involved here, but this is just very obvious that they are completely supported by the government, and the government has been crushing these protests in Tel Aviv calling for a sea spot or at the very least a hostage swap, including families of the Israeli hostages who were what sprayed with water cannons, and these people are getting watermelon and lollipops. Watermelon, if
you've never known, is a big Israel people. Israeli's love watermelon.
I don't really get watermelon.
It's okay, but these people are obsessed with watermelon to a degree that I really did not understand.
Everybody in Israel's even watermelon all the time.
I mean, that video really had it all.
Because you have the first lady who's like, yeah, I want them all to die. You have the next one who's admitting openly to war crimes in the Gaza strip. Hey, we found a UN office. They were there to, you know, help people have been displaced. We blew it up completely just I mean, no shame, because why would you because this is the policy of the government and broadly supported by society. And then you have the final one who's like, no, the police, the IDF, they're with us. They've been great.
You know, they helped us find some shade, they gave us lollipops and watermelon. They've been fine. This has been
clear by the way. I watching posts early on had a report about the way this was being supported by the IDF and was effectively official policy because if they wanted to remove these protesters, then they certainly would in the same way that they, you know, overwhelmingly cracked down on protesters in Tel Aviv and other places who are pushing for ceasefire negotiations to try to secure the release
of hostages. No problem cracking down on them. But these individuals are important part of the bb Netnahu coalitions, so they're allowed to persist. In fact, a majority of supporters of the Net Yahoo government support ethnic cleansing and resettlement of Gaza with Jewish settlers. So you know, that's the
landscape that you're dealing with here. And you know, like I said, we've sort of had to pick and choose which things we show for this segment because there were so many to choose from you cannot possibly cover them all. But this is part of the landscape that has made it, you know, impossible for even someone who was reluctant like Alex Jones perhaps or certainly someone who is reluctant like AOC as well, to call this a genocide and say
there is really no other explanation here. It's also part of why, and we're about to talk about more of the political dynamics that are unfolding why the Biden administration has found it necessary to at least pretend like they care about palace to being civilians and a lot of their upset that was, you know, leaked to the press. Oh they're having these hard conversations blah blah blah. And we've seen this in multiple reports as well. Is not
that there's so much upset about what's going on. It's like, come on, guys, give us a little bit of cover here, Like, give us a little bit of a pr you know, whitewash, so we can at least say with a straight face that you're not, you know, using drones to massacre people as they're just walking along, you know, near a destroyed city of communis that you're not collectively punishing the entire population of the Gaza Strip by literally starving them to death.
That you're not, you know, celebrating and fetting these protesters who are openly genocidal and trying to block aide, like
at least give us a little bit of help. And since the Israeli government has refused even to give them that like bullshit pr cover, then they've had to do this like pathetic, you know, impotent hand ringing and pretend like they care, while of course, you know, if they really cared, there are many things they could actually do, primarily stopping the aid, stopping the weapons sales in order
to force a change in the Israeli government position. But they don't actually have anything any interest in doing that outside of just rhetorical signaling. So speaking of some of the politics of what's unfolding, we have Israeli defense minister, you have Gallant who's coming to DC this week. And guess what he is bringing with him. Let's put this up on the screen. He is coming with his weapons wish list. He's got a whole like Christmas list of all the things that he wants to get from the
US government. He wants them to be expedited. It's according to two Israeli and US officials. Barack Revied reporting this for Axios. Let me read you a little bit of this. Galan is expected to arrive in Washington on Sunday for his first visit to the US since assuming office more than one year ago. He's going to meet with Lloyd Austin, Jake Sullivan, and other senior US officials. Behind the scenes, Glan and Austin spoke on the phone on Wednesday discussed
the minister's upcoming trip. The officials added, Galant told Austin he's coming with a list of specific weapons systems request. Senior Israeli officials said the request will not only include short term requests for the Warren Gozza, but also long term ones, including the option to purchase more F thirty five and F fifteen fighter jets. Israel wants to have the supply of the jets and other weapons systems expedited
as much as possible. According to this Israeli official, we also have some reporting we can share with you from Tony Blinken's visit to Israel. This happened next week. Allegedly, he warned Netanyahu and his wark cabinet in a meeting Friday that israel security and its place in the world are in peril over the failed Gaza strategy and quote
you might not realize it until it's too late. He said, according to this report, that on the current path, Hamas will stay in control of Gaza or there will be anarchy. We'll just create the conditions for more terrorism. According to the source, net Yaho said after Blanken's remarks, we will have our hands full for decades. So that was Blincoln's reported message to bb Again, does it come with any policy change, of course not. It's just, you know, a
warning to his friend that maybe they're making mistake. Of course, from Bbe's perspective, not only is a he an ideologue and has an ideological interest in the annihilation that they're committing in Gaza, but also he has a personal political interest in dragging this war out as long as humanly possible so that he can maintain his position on his grip on power, as he's incredibly unpopular within the israel domestic population.
Yeah, Gallant is actually going to be here today and probably will remain for several days. Apparently, Actually, Crystal, this is from the Times of Israel. They are asking for the options to purchase more F thirty five and F fifteen jets, which is included in those that would require a direct approval both by Congress and by the administration.
So let's stay tuned as to that.
The secondary thing about this is that the trip was actually at the behest of Pentagon Secretary Lloyd Austin. It's not like he asked to come. We are apparently the ones who invited him. Not exactly sure what any of that all means, but we do know it meant a moment of extraordinary tension allegedly with the Israeli government. For example,
the humiliation here is just completely outrageous. I mean, we have Bbe who greets Anthony Blincoln while he's on the ground with an explicit screw you message.
We literally have this.
We can put it up here on the screen from the Israeli News Cabinet where he says he was speaking in Hebrews, who we have the English translation. I met with Secretary of State Blncoln today. I told him I really appreciate the fact that more than five months later, we've been standing together in the war Maas. I also told him we need to recognize the need to evacuate the civilian population.
From the war zones and take care of humanitarian needs.
But I also said there is no way to defeat Hamas without going into Rafa and eliminating the rest of the battalions. I told him, I hope we will do it with the support of the USA, but if we have to, we will do it alone.
So clearly that's a screw you.
We're not going to do it I mean at this point too, the US administration has laid it all out on the table. Blinken has said it, Biden has said it, the Vice President has said it. So if they do it, that is is a explicit as a screw you as it could it possibly exist. Yeah, and will probably still ship on the weapons even if they do. That's a crazy part.
Absolutely, And we have covered previously. H How listen this idea that, oh, well, we couldn't do anything. Israel's his own sovereign country, they can do what they want anyway, That's just not true. If we stop supplying the munitions, they would run out pretty quickly. They would be in a real bind if we didn't continue to expedite these weapons. Sales over one hundred of them since October seventh, So there's a lot they could do other than these you know,
rhetorical gestures. And Biden kind of sort of saying, maybe Roth is a red line, but also, by the way, I'm never going to leave Israel, And so Bb feels this actually strengthens him politically, he thinks, because he can be shown as standing up for Israel and standing strong against the US and you know, making his own way, etc. When in reality it's it is just completely humiliating and impotent from the USI. And this was not the only
humiliation of the Biden administration. While Blinken was in the region, GOODD put this up on the screen. So Israel announcing the largest West Bank land seizure since nineteen ninety three during Blencoln's visit. So Smotrich, who is one of the most extreme members of the government at this point, he's actually in charge of this settlement policy, and he announced the seizure.
The illegal seizure.
I should add of ten square kilometers that's about three point eight square miles of Palestinian territory in the West Bank on Friday. As I mentioned before, that's the single largest land seizure since the nineteen ninety three Oslo Accords. That's according to Peace Now, a settlement watchdog group.
Here is his quote.
While there are those in Israel in the world who seek to undermine.
Our right over the Judea.
And Samaria area, that's the West Bank and the country in general, Smotritz said, we are promoting settlement through hard work and in a strategic manner all over the country. They go on to note in this piece that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under an international law. Still, Israel has used land orders like the one issued Friday to gain control over sixteen percent of Palestinine controlled lands in the West Bank.
And i've obviously.
Again total screw you, totally consistent also with the idea that they want to actually push Palestines out completely, not only of Gaza, but also using these sorts of tools out of the West Bank as well. This is the
one area that the Biden administration has been very vocal about. Weirdly, especially in the beginning, they were much less vocal about the atrocities being committed in Gaza, but they felt like, I think they had a stronger hand to play in the West Bank because you couldn't butt Hamas and excuse what was going on there. So that's why you got this policy of sanctions against a few violent quote unquote
violent settlers. And I use the quote because you know there's a lot of violence backed up also by the IDF. And that's the thing is they wanted to make it again like it's oh, it's just a few bad apples, it's just you know, the far right bbnan Yahoo regime. It's just these few bad apples in terms of the settlers, when it's very clear, you know, the overall settlement policy is a top down policy.
It is backed by this government.
It's been backed by every Israeli government for decades and decades. So to do this and throw this in their face while Blincoln is there on the ground is just astonishingly brazen and humiliating.
Well, the reason it's crazy, look in another world pre October seventh or any of that.
This would be massive news. And this is like world changing news since.
Nineteen ninety three because it would have invited major pushback from the Jordanians, with the Egyptians. It obviously would have been a UN resolution that would have had, you know, been remounted in response, because you know, since nineteen ninety three, it's been over thirty years, and this is a complete destruction of any post Oslo and post Camp David Accords theory and thesis and policy set forth by the US.
I'm not saying they haven't violated it since then in terms of settlement expansion, but to have the largest one to take place at this time is so explicit and different, and in another life would have invited a totally different reaction from the US political administration. Also marks the failure of the current Biden policy, the idea of the bear hug, which would constrain whereas opposed, what's really happened is really unleashed a whole new set of factors.
This may actually be one of the most most significant things that.
Has happened in the entire war, and it is not actually getting it's due because it shows an explicit linkage of the war to the expansion policy in West Bank, which could pressage what's going to happen in Kasa.
Yeah, I think that's absolutely right. And so what is the response from the US government while they had this, They had to pass this spending this budget bill. And let's take a look at some of the provisions of this bill that now was passed by Congress and been signed by Joe Biden. Well, number one, it cuts unrefunding
through next year, so through twenty twenty five. UNRA being the number one aid organization on the ground in Gaza, So cutting unrefunding means you are helping to facilitate the policy of mass starvation as a weapon of war.
So we did that.
We made sure to send Israel another three point eight billion dollars. And this is in some ways the most galling. It limits aid to the Palestinian authority if the Palestinians initiate or support an international criminal court investigation against Israel.
For human rights crimes.
So even as we have overwhelming evidence that Israel is committing war crimes, they're not punished for actually committing war crimes. We ship them there three point eight billion, no problem. We do their bidding by cutting funding to UNRA, something that even you know, based which was based just to remember, it was based on these allegations that were completely evidence free,
that a small number of UNRUN employees were involved. On October seventh, by the way, those employees have already been fired. And we also learned that some of the quote unquote confessions of these crimes were coerced by torture. So some of our allies went back and said, all right, there's nothing here. We've got to restore funding to UNRUN, not us. We're going to codify it and guarantee that UNRA remains unfunded at least through next year.
So you've got.
That, and then you also say, and hey, by the way, Palestinians. If you've got an issue with these war crimes that are being committed and you have any ideas about taking this to the International Criminal Court for investigation, We're going to cut your funding further. It's just gross and disgusting and also exposes the lie of the idea that the Biden administration is actually concerned about what's unfolding and actually
really wants to change course. Because these policies, these provisions in this bill could not possibly be more in line with exactly what bb net Nyahu would dictate to us as him wanting to see in terms of priorities from our government. So I think you know, the words are one thing, the rhetoric is one thing, but you can see from the actions where the policy actually is.
Yeah, and then if you want final confirmation about who we're run by, here is a great question at the Pentagon where they're like asking basic questions. So how is this aid peer thing? How is that going to work? Yeah, they have no idea. Let's take a listen.
And then on the peer the Benevitez set sail today.
So we've got the peer elements moving forward.
You've got the sailors and soldiers are starting to move forward. Yeah, what is what's going to be the Pentagon's role in kind of that final mile?
Are you letting contracts for contractors.
To then deliver that aid into Gaza?
What you know, what's kind of the final piece looking like.
So that's still something that's being worked out right now. And in terms of the distribution, that's not something that the US military will be involved in. We are, you know, the logistics setting up coordinating the movement of the humanitarian aid from either the floating peer or to that floating causeway. But that's something that in terms of how the distribution of aid is going to happen once it gets into Gaza, that's not something that you know, we're handling.
What is this like gobbledygook? I don't have that for you right now.
Well you probably should, you know, at some point, how's this going to work? Are these rarely screening it? How's the distribution of aid actually happening, where's it coming from? How much it's just this is this is why this is such a boondoggle, an idiot plan when we have all the only thing standing from the aid right now or those protesters that the government is allowing why does it make any sense to be pursuing any of this well.
And the government itself through through their policies, and I mean seems like kind of a critical detail of Okay, the aid has arrived at the port, what now, because we know the problem is not that there isn't sufficient aid available. The problem is not that there aren't sufficient crossings or you know it inlets into the Gaza strip available.
The problem is what the Israeli government is doing prohibiting this aid from coming in and getting where it needs to go, and not to mention and this is you know, one of the other things that unfolded. You had another flower massacre, killing starving Palestinians who were trying to go and secure this aid for themselves and their families.
So obviously those.
Are some key questions to resolve if you think this freaking stupid port, which apparently was Bbe's idea to begin with, if you think that this is going to help the aid situation whatsoever, and by the way, of course, it's going to take a while for this thing to be built and require a lot of our money and put our service members at risk. Remember when Lloyd Austin got asked about whether there was a risk to our service members.
He was like, yeah, they're you know, and they didn't have any plans for how to mitigate that risk either, or any guarantees that they're not going to be in harms right way, because of course, how could you get those guarantees when you're bringing them so close to an active war zone and doing everything right up to the
line of actually putting boots on the ground. You'll also recall that BB said himself that he thinks it's a good idea if that port is used to ship Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and facilitate his and his governments, you know, ultimate desires, fondest desires over many years to complete the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. So that's what we're really aiding a bet in a betting here.
And I think that's why those comments are so significant, because they really reveal that it's number one just pr and that they have not they actually have no plan in place to make sure that the aid gets where it needs to go and that it actually alleviates this crisis. Not to mention that there were people starving right now today and this doesn't come close to solving any of the issues that have you know, in any of the problems that have been put up by the Israeli government
that has led to the situation. Yeah, very sad, all right, Sacer, what are you looking at?
Well?
One of the memes that's arisen around me is that I care about dress code just for the sake of it. I know it's funny to go after politicians for dress and badly, but at its core, the reason that I do it is because I believe in this maxim the job of those in public service is to serve. No, a suit is not the most comfortable garment. The point is that those in positions of power, as we all do when we attend a wedding, you've done a garment as a sign of respect for those that we appear before.
Increasingly people in so called public service don't really believe in the service part at all. They've donned the garments of the upper middle class elite, who are capable of working from anywhere and comfort. They insist on rules in place that allow them to openly trade stocks while remaining privy to incredibly sensitive and private information. And now they increasingly don't even really believe in doing even the smallest.
Part of their job at all.
The slow death of Congress has not just been about its ability to get things done, but it's transformation into a body of open narcissism who view the office not as a place to do anything, but except to use their perch in public service to attain wealth and power after they serve. This is especially the case in recent days with the news of several high profile retirements in the House GOP caucus. This monologue was inspired by Congressman
Mike Gallagher. He's a man I've met, I've even interviewed him, respecting him at one point, but recently he announced that he was retiring from Congress. I have no problem with that. The news, though, that came next, is what set me off. Gallagher announced not only was he retiring from Congress and would not seek another term, but that he was abruptly resigning the office at the end of April. This is golling for two reasons. One, if Gallagher has any sense
of duty to his party. The House GOP now has just a majority of two hundred and seventeen votes in Congress, meaning that the Marjorie Taylor Greens of the world, and Matt Gates's and the Freedom Caucus members who all want to cause trouble have even more power. It also means that the sheer business of doing the most basic minimums of passing bills just got so much harder for the House GOP. But two is that Gallagher not decided not just to resign for no reason and to leave his
tom early. More so, it appears at his resignation date is specifically designed so that no special election can be held because it falls after the deadline, meaning his six hundred thousand constituents will not have anyone in Congress to do their basic bidding from April to November. But it gets even worse when you find out why he's leaving
his constituents high and dry. It's not just that he's quitting, but puck News reports that Gallagher appears to be resigning to take a high paying job at Pallantier, one of the largest defense contracting firms in the US. It's not a surprise. Gallagher was a leading defense hocke in Congress. I had serious disagreements with him, for example on Ukraine.
But it is his sheer brazenness going Congress where you were elected to do a job, you then resign early because the vibes are bad, and then you take a job where we can easily imagine him getting paid what at least a million bucks a year. Here's the thing I get it. I wouldn't want to be in Congress either with some of these jackasses. But I'm a private citizen. I have a YouTube show. I have more of a sense of duty to the people who pay for the
show than it seems like Mike Gallagher. For me, it's simple, it's a contract. Unless I'm very sick or there's a personal emergency, I show up to do the show because that's what people pay harder and money for. Is it so much to ask that same attitude for people who represent us in Congress and who pass our loss that they feel even remotely the same.
Apparently it is too much to ask. It's not just Gallagher.
Congressman Ken Buck, another man who's been on the show in the past, abruptly resigning from Congress after announcing he won't seek another term. At least he did so when they could still have a special election. By all accounts, there's no reason that he needed to quit. He just decided to, Except maybe the reporting that he set to become a CNN and contributor.
He denied it.
We'll see how it ends up. Kevin McCarthy. He also resigned late last year, at the end of twenty twenty three. He gave no reason. Yeah, I get it. He got booted from his speakership. That's embarrassing. That doesn't mean you can't still do and stay the basic your job, just constituent services.
He's a powerful man, not since.
Though he's left's been showing up on Capitol Hill. He's here in Washington right now, he's doing speeches all over TV. In other words, he resigned his job so he could actually do what he wanted to do, all the public profile, without any of the annoying serving the people part. In every case, we have people who are putting themselves and their preferences first first above the party that they supposedly care about, who have to run the house now, above
the people who elected them to serve. That is how they think about the job. It's just a way station on the way to wealth and power. When things get boring, it's wrong and we shouldn't accept this as normal. Some people might even say it's always been this way, and I think it has to some degree, but now it is so out in the open. They just want the paychecks, the power, the prestige, the fame.
That's it.
They don't care at all about serving you. Even the pretense doesn't matter anymore. We should hear them loud and clear, remember that too the next time that we cast our votes.
How crazy is this?
This man is resigned, And if you want to hear my reaction to Sagre's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at Breakingpoints dot com. Some big news on the Department of Justice last week where Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a antitrust lawsuit against Apple. Let's take a listen to a little bit of what he had to say.
The Supreme Court defines monopoly power as quote, the power to control prices or exclude competition, a set out in
our complaint. Apple has that power in the smartphone market. Now, having monopoly power does not itself violate the antitrust laws, but it does when a firm acquires or maintains monopoly power, not because it has a superior product or superior business acumen, but by engaging in exclusionary conduct, as set out in our complaint, Apple has maintained its power not because of its superiority, because of its unlawful exclusionary behavior.
So lucky for us, we have literally the perfect person to break down both what the suit means and the rationale behind it. At Stoller's, director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project, author of a fantastic book called Goliath, and also he writes at the substack big which let's go and put your piece.
Up on the screen.
Here, you guys can check this out, which has in depth breakdown of what is going on with this Apple anti trust suit and why you say it matters. Apple just got slapped with a major anti trust suit, you write, alleging a pattern of anti competitive behavior across all its product lines, and it lost one hundred and fourteen billion dollars in market cap in one day as a result.
Great to see you, my friend.
Hey, thanks for having to see you.
Man.
So what is the core of the argument here against Apple? Because as you lay out and then your piece, there are a number of people who are like, why are you picking on Apple? People actually like their products, right when there are a lot of other industries that you could be going after.
Yeah, and I love Apple products use that they're great, they work, they're seamless, So it's and I'm also believe in taking on monopoly. So it's kind of weird, right because you're like, well, why would you take on a monopoly of this company that has these great products. Well, the answer is because they they are thwarting innovation and
competition in the market. So things could be even better if they didn't do things like restrict rivals from coming into and coming to the markets and building products that might make it easier to switch from an iPhone. So just the simplest way to tell the story is that in China, where they allow these things called super apps, things like we Chat, where you can do a whole bunch of stuff on we Chat, like you can pay for stuff, you can talk to other people, you can
do lots of business. You can't do that here on the iPhone because Apple doesn't allow super apps. But in China, what it means is that the underlying phone system has been commodified and it's easier to switch from an iPhone fruitive phone. So in the US, when you buy a new phone, and basically the upgrade market is really the only market because everybody has a smartphone at this point,
except if you're really young. About ninety to ninety eight percent of people with an iPhone go to a new iPhone. In China it's about fifty percent. Because it's much easier to switch. And so the heart of the case is is that Apple has made it much, much, much harder than it should be to switch.
The result is people can't switch.
In China, they have to discount, they have to entice customers, and in the US they don't.
Right, that's the.
Heart of the case. That's a good point.
I hadn't thought about it, and they have a much more robust competition there because they not just have Sam, they have Huaweih and all this stuff. We don't have that for a variety of reasons. Right, The whole point is that it does make it easier to switch. One of the things that a lot of people are paying attention to, or some of the specific complaints, specifically the
green bubbles. So lay out some of the things in the complaint that people can look to the real world application of how Apple is supposedly acting as a monopoly.
The heart of the complaint is the smartphone, right, and it's a pattern of conduct, a pattern of saying you're making it harder to switch from the smartphone, from the Apple smartphone to rivals, and that actually degrades the quality of the smartphone, because, as I noted, you know, a messaging app on the smartphone that can do less than a messaging app that can do more makes the smartphone worse.
And Apple isn't intentionally doing that. But what I've also found really interesting about the complaint is that it's not just an allegation about the smartphone itself. The smartphone is the heart of it, but it's about the Apple ecosystem.
Right.
So there's a part in the complaint where Steve Jobs talks about the importance of the Apple, of the Apple ecosystem stickiness, right, and so it.
Goes to the top.
Right.
Steve Jobs was very clear that he is it wants to maintain market power, he doesn't want people to switch, and they want to erect artificial switching costs. But what they're also doing is they're trying to extend the Apple ecosystem into places you wouldn't expect, like banking. Right, So the tap to pay feature, the way that that Apple is actually they're actually starting to charge banks junk fees for using the tap to pay feature, and banks can't create their own app to use that chip. They can
you know elsewhere, but they can't do it here. But they're also trying to do it. And this is the most interesting thing in cars, right. So you know when you when you buy a car now it has to have access to CarPlay, right, which is the Apple software system for cars. You put your iPhone in the car and it shows you know, maps and the different you know apps and things like that that you that you
need to shows your iPhone on the screen. And car makers have to have CarPlay in their in their car or else a certain number of customers just won't buy
the car. So you must have if you're an automaker. Well, what Apple has told car makers next time is that the next version of CarPlay is going to include not just the stuff it has now, but also all the fuel gauges and every part of the car's operating system that you see has to be run by Apple or else you can't get car Play, right, so you have to put car Play in there.
But they're going to tie all this other stuff.
So Apple is literally going to take over is trying to take over the user experience for every automobile manufacturer now, and there is you know, with the exception of people who are going to use the Google Android.
Phone and they're probably going to do the same thing.
So there's this there's this extent of the Apple ecosystem into kind of as many parts of our experience as possible. And I love Apple, we all use Apple products, but the truth is there's only so many things that one company can do well, and you don't want a dictator over all parts of the economy. And that's what Apple is really trying to go for.
Yeah, well, especially when you get in the business not of the innovating great new products, but innovating new ways to basically toward the market. And one of the things you argue is that Apple isn't exactly the pioneering innovative company of yours. They've gone in the direction of Boeing
as you point out, and other company. I mean, this is a major trend in corporate America where it's more about financialization, more about manipulating the market than it is actually building incredible products that people are going to love.
That's one hundred percent right.
And one of the things that complain talked about is how internally they have these discussions about withholding better features on the on the iPhone because they're like the customers don't need them and they're expense But they also do twice as much stock buybacks as they do R and
D at this point. So I would love to see like a Think Different commercial and that includes like you know, Einstein and Gandhi and then the guy that like that was the engineer for the green bubble, right with like the green you know, and like the video with nineteen ninety six resolution, and it's like think Different, Right, That's what Apple is doing, not everywhere, Like the vision pro is amazing, right, and there are you know, their silicon
chips are great, but gradually you can see that power corrupts, and power has corrupted Apple, and it's going to affect the whole thing.
Yeah, there's a great book.
I think it's called After Steve or something like that, and that a New York Times reporter. I highly recommend it because I love Apple too. Part of the reason I was excited by Vision pros like they finally did something. It's been a decade, right, they actually crazy something interesting. But what the book details is that the vast majority of their profit comes from keeping people inside of the
ecosystem and charging fees. So I know a lot of app developers in particular have been excited about this, and I know you've tracked some of this in the past. Maybe break some of that down because as I understand that those fees, according to the app developers and some of the other people trying to build on the Apple platform, are just so prohibitive to be able to do business.
Yeah, So there's two things with the app store. One is it the ability to charge that thirty percent. So one definition of monopoly, and this is what Mark Carland lays out, is the ability to control prices. So if Apple can just set the price at thirty percent and people still have to pay it, or they can raise it or lower it, which they can do, that is
evidence of monopoly power. You can also do market shares, right, but there's lots of ways, like what is a monopoly or one way to understand do you have monopoly powers? If I can raise prices and you have no choice but to take it, that's monopoly power, right.
So the ability to charge.
That amount of money in an app store is evidence of monopoly power, and people who make apps are like, you know, oh, this is terrible, right because this is my business and they're taking a thirty percent tax. Moreover, if you actually make an app and it's just sort of part of a whole system, right, Like let's say you run a tutoring service, and like you have an online tutoring service or a hybrid tutoring service, and some
of it is on an app. Apple often will say, we don't care that you run a tutoring service that's mostly offline. We're going to take thirty percent of it. Right, So they're taxing increasingly large parts of the economy because more and more stuff needs an app. But the other part is that Apple actually can just exclude any app that has a service that they think might compete with part of the Apple ecosystem or make it easier to
switch off the Apple ecosystem. So this is you know, this is the I message thing, but you know there are lots of there are lots of examples of that, and so sort of to take a slightly different example, other than China, most of the rest of the world, the market share that Apple the smartphone the iPhone has is lower than it is in the US. One of the reasons is because the US is the is basically the only country that uses the SMS protocol. Right everywhere
else telecom networks charge they charge for a texting. We don't arch for texting. So people use that, they just do it over the telecom networks. But they use WhatsApp in other places. And so it's not a big as big a deal to switch from an iPhone to a different kind of phone. So Apple, the switching barrios aren't as high elsewhere in the world.
And so that's that's kind of what you're seeing. And that's the heart of the case.
How does this fit into the broader doj antitrust agenda?
It's a great question.
So, so this is the fourth suit against a trillion dollar plus corporation Trump brought to Biden has brought for But it also is part of a broader revolution in anti monopoly policy making. So it's not just big tech, right. I think most people would say, okay, well, if you make the iPhone like slightly better, okay, cool, but that's not that big a deal. Right, what about meat prices?
What about you know, airlines, what about rent all of these you know, bread and butter stuff, and I think one of the one of the things that's happening is people don't pay. There isn't as much reporting on what else the DOJ is doing, the anti trust agencies are doing, but they are taking on the bread and butter stuff.
So there is a big suit.
Against meat packing the price fixing there. There is a big suit against big landlords for price fixing. The dj is investigating ticket Master. They'll probably bring a case a bunch of big inhaler companies. Right, they just cut prices inhalers from a couple hundred dollars to thirty five dollars in response to FTC action, And so you see kind of like across the board, competition policy is working.
Now.
I don't want to this isn't like a broad I mean, the Bide administration is doing great work on competition policy. But competition policy is only part of the government. There's the rest of the government. And I think that there's a lot of work that they could be doing there that would be much better. But in terms of just the anti trust stuff, there is a lot of meat and potatoes and that's revolutionary as well. It's just the big tech stuff those are the kind of the pay
setters of the economy. And if you're in the boardroom of any company, it doesn't matter if it's waste management or food or tech. You're looking at Apple and Google and Amazon and saying, how can I be more like them? Because they're the most profitable, they're the biggest And so by taking on the pay setters, you're sending a message.
To corporate America.
That's actually a fantastic point.
Yeah.
And the business process is all taking this in stride very calmly.
They're like, oh, this makes a lot of sense.
Let's let's analyze this in good faith.
There is.
Especially Jim Jim Kramer, he's the the clown of the clown of capital.
Well, he's known for his cool head yeah, and incredible insights into the market.
Yeah, and his calm demeanor. That's the other thing is calmed emotional stability.
Yeah.
I mean, there's there's a you know, CNBC is very obviously they're very upset. And it's because monopolization is has been sort of the way that that people do business since the eighties almost and it's it's where modern Silicon Valley was born. I mean, Silicon Valley's name so Valley because it was semiconductors. They moved off of that. Now they just you know, they make software essentially, and monopolization
and IP to control markets. And that's just people are offended in that world because they're like, but this is how business is done. This is what we do, and you're saying we can't do that anymore. I mean at this point, like bankers don't really think that their business is lending money. They think their business is finding other banks to merge with, right, And they're like, why are you interfering with business? And it's like, that's not what
business is, right. So Apple, you know, the business of a company like Apple should be to innovate, to improve, and to compete on the merits with rivals. But they think of their business as finding ways of excluding rivals using the existing market power that they have. They're very offended. Wall Street's very offended. There's obviously a financial element to it. Wall Street bonuses are down, although big tech profits are not. But there's their self interest here. But I think it's
a lot of it is just ego. They're like, how dare our elected officials actually do something about market structure?
That's really well said I really appreciated this. We're going to put a link to the substack in the description. We always appreciate your analysis. Man, Thank you, Hey, thanks for having me, Matt. We'll see you guys later