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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But enough with that, let's get to the show. Good morning, everybody, Happy Tuesday. We have an amazing show for everybody today, Extra amazing. Crystal, you're back.
Yes, it's nice to be back. And I'll be in for Ryan on Counterpoints tomorrow. So you're getting the full dose of Crystal this week, whether you want to run not.
All right.
So in the show today, we have Nate Silver joining the chorus of insiders calling on Biden to drop out.
Is that actually going to happen? We will talk about.
That an FBI informant was indicted for lying about Biden. This is someone that the Republicans and Fox News have really been relying on for their allegations against him. So that's an interesting one. Trump launched a sneaker line, and Sager has some startor commentary that was really important to get into the show. I don't know if you guys have checked out the capabilities of this AI text to video generator called Sora, but it is pretty mind blowing.
Especially the progress your over year.
Is just like it's astounding.
It is insane. It's insane. A lot going on with regard to Israel. The US is actually proposing a temporary cease fire resolution to try to pass through the UN Security Council, So that is noteworthy, and it calls for them not to invade Rafa, at least not right now, so we'll take a look at that. I'm also reviewing the ICJ hearings yesterday with regard to Israel's illegal occupation, and Sager is taking on a list of presidential rankings that he vehemently disagrees with.
So a lot to get into this one.
I was so angry about this I spontaneously sat down and roade a monologue.
So anyway, you guys.
Want to the things that trigger you are interested.
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All right, so let's talk about what is going on in some elite circles with regard to our current president, Joseph Robinet Biden Nate Silver.
He's independent now, but he's still.
Very much an insidery respected kind of a guy, that's right, very much respected in insidery circle. So quite noteworthy that he joined as reclined and we'll get to that in a moment. In actively calling on Biden to drop out because primarily of concerns over his age. Let's put this up on the screen. Nate wrote down a lengthy piece explaining his thinking and explaining how his thinking has changed with regards to Biden and the need for him to
drop out of the race completely. So he writes in part personally, I crossed the rubicon in November, concluding that Biden should stand down if he wasn't going to be able to run a normal reelection campaign, meaning things like conduct a Super Bowl interview. Yes, it's a huge risk, and yes Biden can still win, go on to the next part. But he's losing now and there's no plan to fix the problems other than hoping that the polls are wrong or the voters look at the race differently
when they have more time to focus on it. He concludes, put this up on the screen. The only option now is for Biden to step aside, perhaps in response to peer pressure from Democratic leaders and people inside the White House. This is a real option. However, don't let anyone gaslight
you into believing otherwise. The Democratic Convention is not until August. Second, this is an option that Biden, the White House, and Democratic leaders need to seriously consider as I mentioned before, this was in response to a podcast essay that Ezra Kline released Azracline now being a calumnist at the New York Times or I guess a podcaster for the New York Times, as we're also having a lot of sway and influence in elite circles, especially from his perch at
the New York Times. Let's take a listen to a little bit of the argument that he made with regards to why Joe Biden should drop out of the race.
I think one reason Democrats react so defensively to critiques of Biden is that they've come to a kind of fatalism. They believe it is too late to do anything else. And if it is too late to do anything else, then to even talk about Biden's age is to contribute to Donald Trump's victory. But that's absurd. It is February fatalism, This far before the election is ridiculous. Yeah, it's too late to throw this to primaries, but it's not too
late to do something. So then what step one, unfortunately is convincing Biden should not run again, that he does not want to risk being Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a heroic brilliant public servant who causes the outcome she feared most because she didn't retire early enough that in stepping aside, he would be able to finish out his term as a strong and focused president and people would see the honor in what he did in putting his country over
his ambitions. The people who Biden listens to Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, Mike Donollan, Ron Klay, Nancy Pelosi, Anita Done, they need to get him to see this. Biden may come to see it himself. I take nothing away from how hard that is, how much Biden wants to finish the job he has started, keep doing the good he believes he can do. Retirement can be often is a trauma, but losing to Donald Trump would be far worse.
So it's very interesting because Ezra is like the ultimate neoliberal. I mean he was, you know, came to prominence as like the Obama guy. He's at the New York Times making this argument. If you listen to the whole, which I recommend because it's interesting the reasoning he lays out, he goes out of his way to spend like a third of the essay, being like Biden is great, and he's done amazing things, and I think he's fantastic, and you know, as a president, and I really think he's delivered,
and I think he could continue to deliver. My issue is if he's not able to run a normal campaign, if he's not able to sit for interviews and he goes through the metrics of how few interviews and how few press avails, Joe Biden has actually done that. He worries he won't be able to beat Trump. And also I thought not worthy and important here, Sager, is that he doesn't just leave it up to like a hope and a prayer. He lays out specifically, Okay, here's what
would need to happen. You would need people like Nancy Pelosi, Ron Klean and needed done whoever to convince Biden to drop out. Then it goes to the convention at the DNC, and we've had in the past. It's not in either of our lifetimes, but in the past, these things were decided at the convention. There is a process for picking a candidate on the convention floor, and they could do that at the DNC, and that could work out and would make for a lot or compelling and interesting campaign.
TV than just the anointment of this These are my words. Now, tired old man that everyone you know is concerned about can't even make it through another four years.
No, it's very well.
I mean, look when I say well argued, I just mean not the parts about how Biden is fantastic.
He knows his audience.
You're right, But I mean it's interesting to me that both Silver and Ezra both point to the Super Bowl as such a massive jump off point. They're like, how in good conscience and you, as a sitting president of the United States pass up the opportunity to speak to one hundred and twelve million people. You know, we had the ratings afterwards, Crystal, it was the most watched event in the United States since the Apollo Moonlander.
That's that's the truth. I've said it before.
The very last thing that unites this country at all is the Super Bowl and football specifically.
Why would you not go out of your way.
The point that he also makes is that Biden has given fewer than one hundred interviews.
Quote, most of them are softballs.
He'll go on Conan O'Brien's podcast or Ave Shetty's mindfulness. The Biden team says they need a political voters, the ones who are not listening to political media. You know, a great way to reach a political voters the super Bowl. But if you do that, you have to go sit down with face the nation. You got to be asked questions about Israel. The other thing that he points to, which is just so obvious, and again it's just bears mentioning is quote. Go watch a speech he gave in
Pennsylvania kicking off his campaign in twenty nineteen. Yeah, now, go give a speech he gave last month. It's not close. There's no comparison. They're on YouTube and you can see it. The way he moves, the energy in his voice. Democrats denying his decline are only fooling themselves.
He's right. And yet why is it that what lone Voice Silver can say whatever he wants. He no longer works for ABC.
It's true, you know, to a certain extent, it took some courage to say something like this. But I just want to underscore exactly what you said. The modern campaign as we know it really was born throughout the nineteen sixties, specifically nineteen sixty eight or so.
With Hubert Humphrey and Robert F.
Kennedy and the way that the primary system as we kind of currently know it really stemmed really from the JFK campaign. Prior to that, we had a very similar system through which he lays out here. In many cases, Crystal, we would not even know who was really running for president until the convention.
I mean, think about it was only six weeks out or whatever.
Yeah, from election day, these two year long elections, I mean, in some cases it really is only eight you know, the Iowa caucus battles that began a year before that. How recent, you know, the current insanity really seems for all of us. So there's no reason, you know, given his age, where we can't revert a little bit back to tradition.
Yeah, I mean, listen, I never thought I'd be in a position where I'd be cheering for the DNC to just like take control and pick.
A candidate at the convention. But that's where we are.
So I think it is very noteworthy for this case to be made publicly in the pages of the New York Times, given how much elite circles pay attention to what is written at the New York Times and what is said at the New York Times. I mean, I wonder what you think, So, like, do you think there's a chance that he does drop out, that these people, do you know, have some sort of come to Jesus moment and really put pressure on him to leave the race, and that he's ultimately persuaded.
By that absence a major health event. And I'm not talking on like a stroke something debilitating. He's running, That's what I think.
I think that.
I mean, look, the party system is also very weak. He is the commander in chief, he's the executive. The people around him have been in Biden indoctrinated. They've been preaching the tune that he's completely fine. You can't just flip on a dime. Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, like, they've all given their shibbletz about how he's the smartest, you know, most sharp man's ever lived in the Oval office.
How can you reverse you look like an idiot. So this, this is all played out.
This system, the architecture and all that would be needed for something like this, it just doesn't exist. Yeah, really what it is And it comes back to, and he even points to this, is at the end of the day, the candidate is the person who matters the most. Biden is an egomaniac and arrogant. And if anything, what do we always know about age? It only makes you.
More of what you already are. Yeah, he was stubborn in eighty eight. He's gonna you think he's gonna be less stuborn when he's old.
I don't know a single old person who became less stubborn with age, especially, you know, one of the most common characteristics is they cling to what they can control as they get older and older. That's where he is, and he's decided to put all of our fates with him. Like you said, it can sound mean and all of this, but most people who are his age are in very peaceful retirement who are hanging out with their grandchildren and others.
And to the extent that he feels any responsibility to the American people, he's decided that he's the sole judge of his character and he'll leave.
It up to the voters.
So, yeah, it's up to him.
I did think it was noteworthy that as are appointed not to You know, here's the performance of Biden when he was vice president. But here's just a few years ago when he was launching this campaign, and how much he's declined like notably clearly declined, and they both basically made the case that the reason he's not doing these interviews is because is actually rational, Like from his campaign team's perspective, from his aid's perspective, it is their best possible bet because they think.
The performance would be bad.
And you know, I mean that was demonstrated in the press conference that he attempted to give to try to assuage concerns that he was old and basically losing it, and then mixes up Mexico in Egypt within the.
Course of fifteen minutes.
And as we've said before, it'd be one thing if it's a one off, like everybody misspeaks sometimes it happens regularly, but the fact that it happens in this way basically every time he's in front of a camera is pretty telling. And obviously the American people have already decided eighty six percent of them have already decided this man is too old to be able to really run and serve.
Again.
The other issue that I can't remember one or both of them got into it, But part of the challenge for those around Biden too is they don't have confidence in Kamala Harris and she is the next most likely person to take up the mantle. I mean, if Biden were to drop, she would have the inside track to
replace him as the Democratic nominee. And the fact that her approval ratings have consistently been below his, and she has not proven herself to be an able campaign or she hasn't She herself has not done all that many interviews and has not been all that comfortable in front of the camera either, and has a tendency to say like weird, rambling nonsensical word salady, mumbo jumbo. So I think that's another reason why people around Biden have convinced
themselves that he is the best bet. There was an interesting piece over at CNN, though, I'm curious what you think about this one that I think this one was, you know, very much planted by Kamala's team about how she understands that there are problems with the campaign and she's trying to ride to the rescue.
She's trying to work it out.
She's having all these meetings behind the scenes, trying to save this campaign and a just course and make it better, make it responsive to voters, et cetera.
Put this up on the screen.
They interviewed two dozen sources CNN did, and they said that Harris has been gathering information to help her penetrate what she sometimes refers to as the bubble of Biden campaign thinking, telling people she's aiming to use that intelligence to push for changes in strategy and tactics that she hopes will put the ticket in better shape.
There were some specific.
Concerns from prominent politicians that were mentioned here. The fact that they had these specific concerns on the record was kind of interesting, So they said. Representative Debbie Dingle has pushed Kamala repeatedly to get the White House to take more seriously how hard Biden's response to the Gaza wars
hitting Arab Americans in our home state of Michigan. Steve Horsford, the Nevada congressman and Congressional Black Caucus Chair, urged Harris to get the administration to talk more about housing affordability rather than the triumphant and often disconnected talk about Biden nomics.
At a session around Harris's dining table last Saturday with six Democratic governors and their chiefs of staff, According multiple people who were there, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer slammed the way the president of the campaign have been talking about abortion. Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker hammered Biden's response to migrant crisis and insisted they need to quickly get much more aggressive about attacking Republicans and Trump for tanking the bipartisan
immigration bill. Maryland Governor Wesmore complained that the campaign has been failing to get through to voters under thirty five years old. So interesting that all these concerns are being made known.
But you know, the one thing that you.
Like, you could adjust your strategy or what you're doing on any range of number of issues. But you aren't going to be able to change Biden's cognitive abilities or you know his age and how old he will be if he.
Is once against warned as president.
Right, And that's what they're like, talk about housing affordability. It's like this is all the ship is sailed on this stuff years and years ago. How many people can go rule the tape.
How many discussions persons we have in twenty twenty one about you need to be active about fighting inflation.
If you let it just continue, then you're going to lose the narrative.
You're going to show people that you don't particularly care, and then they just caught up when they're like, no, everything is actually fine. They want people to just you know, erase their eyes and not realize that there's been a twenty something percent year over year inflation from twenty nineteen to where we are right now. That's insane, one fifth price increase. People don't just look quarterback quarter. They experience
their life, you know, on a very different timeline. So there's so many things within this that are just stupid. But the real one and we just can't go away from, is people hate Comma even more than they hate Biden. So it's one of those where how are you supposed to save anything? On an interpersonal level, people cannot stand you. It's not like they're waiting for you to come in
as a savior. That's also, by the way, a huge part of how we have a very weak Democratic Party where you don't have the ability for someone like Gavin Newsom, who look, I'm not a Gavin Newsom fan, you cannot deny he's very politically talented. He's very politically talented, and more importantly, he loves the fight.
He's itching to be able to get into the ring.
He just simply is constrained both by media and the criticism that he'd be usurping a black woman and the most successful president or whatever. And that's actually a sign of tremendous weakness in the American political system to not allow somebody to come in the other way, especially when the base. The thing is about Trump is Trump is strong.
The base likes him.
Now the rest of the country may not, but as a party, it shows that he is in control. The Democrats don't like Biden, and yet he's still somehow in control.
That's actually nuts.
They have affection for him.
Yes, they do not want him to be the nominee or the president again, they would like to have other options, you know, just to play sort of like political fantasy football. Here for a minute, I do think if it came down to convention because of the reasons that you just cited.
With Gavin Newsom, I mean, he is like the ultimate political animal, not only in terms of his capabilities demonstrating like his debate versus Ronda Santis, his comfort going into you know, difficult spaces, etc. But also he is the ultimate you know, behind the scenes backslapper and networker. I guarantee you, many of the DNC delegates feel like they
know him personally, have had some interaction with him. He's the type who has been for years and years and years at this point, flying around the country to go to different Democratic dinners and make sure he's pressing in
the flesh with whoever the key. You know, state party chairs are in different places, and so if it did come down to that, and especially since he's from the same state as Kamala Harris, you know, if it was looking like the California delegation is going for Gavin over Kamala, which I think they would.
If he had the balls to do it right.
Over you know, over the historic first black woman vice president. If he had the balls to do it, I do think the California delegation would go with him, and that would be a pretty devastating blow to Kamala Harris. But I mean, we're getting way over our skis now just imagining all of these things. But I can't help but think about how this could potentially all play out. The other thing that I would say about that Kamala Harris writing to the Rescue Piece, which, as I said, you know,
paints her in a very favorable light. And I think was very much planned by her or her team, et cetera. You know, I think she is also trying to burnish her image as a credible alternative if something was to happen to Biden or he was to drop. So I also see this as a little bit of shadow maneuvering from Kamala to try to rehab her image so that people feel more comfortable if Biden was to step aside with go ahead and you know, pick the next in line vice president as the next Democratic nominee.
So I read a little bit into that.
You know.
The other thing that was interesting that we wanted to touch on here from the New York Times is this piece about how resistance liberals are feeling, how they described as crisis out. They're exhausted after all these years of Trump and the existential threat and you know, every single election being completely existential and the energy they put into that now for you know, a long time. They are feeling very burned out, which is not a great thing.
That even the most faithful of the Democratic Party base are feeling kind of exhausted.
Put this up on the screen.
The headline here from the Times, anti Trump burnout, the resistance says it's exhausted bracing for yet another election against Donald Trump. Mayer because liberals are feeling the fatigue. Quote, We're kind of like crisist out, one Democrat said, let me read you the lead of this piece. They say in twenty seventeen, they donned pink hats to march on Washington, registering their fury with Donald Trump at the hundreds of thousands.
Then they fliped the House from Republican control, won the presidency, and secured a surprisingly strong showing the twenty twenty two midterm elections. Dalvanized by their conviction that mister Trump and his allies constituted a national emergency. This year, anti Trump voters are grappling with another powerful sentiment, exhaustion.
Quote.
Some folks are burned out on outrage, said Rebecca Leefunk, the Washington based founder of The Outrage, a progressive activism group and a purveyor of resistance era apparel.
Lol. People are tired.
I think last election, we were desperate to get Trump out of office, and folks were willing to rally around that singular call to action, and this election feels different. We're kind of like crisist out, said Shannon Casper, thirty six, of security guard in Pittsburgh, who called the prospect of a Trump Biden rematch a dumpster fire. She added, it
is crisis fatigue for sure. They have some poll numbers here to back up the anecdot total comments from the people that they interviewed, indicating that there are more Democrats saying they are exhausted by the political process and sort of dispirited by the whole situation. Then Republicans, you know, that could be a problem for them come election day. Although I have to say, you know, these people, these people are going to vote for Joe Biden. They're not
going to stay home. They're certainly not voting for Donald Trump. The question is more, you know that activist energy. Are they going to get out there? Are they going to knocked doors? Are they going to organize? Are they going to send in their ten bucks, et cetera. I think that's more the issue here. And if you have a base that's like dispirited, depressed, exhausted, not excited about the candidate and crisis dount, that's obviously not a great thing.
What do I ask hilarious about it is that in twenty seventeen, when they were the most activated. It just compare that to the Trump of today. Ask yourself, which should you be more worried about. Shouldn't you be more of a resistance person, like post January sixth or not?
If anything, they.
Kind of blew arough, you know it early on when they conjured up this like hitlarian image which wasn't real, and then it became like this cartoonish whatever you want to call it right now, but unironically unlinked at least from whatever forces were who are keeping him moored. At the time, you should probably if you were a resistance person, you should be way more afraid of Trump too than you should be if Trump won.
But they've been exhausted.
They tapped their coffers, you know, as much as they could back in what was it, the twenty eighteen that was like peak resistance, I think for the election now that said, I don't want to underestimate it. Even if they're exhausted, doesn't mean that you won't come out and vote on election day. I will not ever sit here and you know, or underestimate the actual power of an anti Trump vote. It doesn't just have to be resistance. A lot of people who are not resistance of people
will not vote for him. They may come to the ballot, or they may still hold their nose and vote for Biden. But as Stilver put it, at the very beginning of this block, what a risk, What a risk for the whole country? Yeah, you're putting us all through, That's right.
You know, it's like, what are you doing? What are you doing to us? Yeah?
No, I think that's I think that's exactly it. So, you know, fascinating a lot these matchinage.
I agree with you.
I think it is highly unlikely that at this point Biden is actually convinced to step aside. But you know, you do see some some sort of palace intrigue, little bit of you know, behind the scenes drama with regards to Kamala Harris trying to bolster her image, with regards to a variety of insiders actually coming out and saying all right, you need to drop out, and here's what the path looks like. So, you know, we'll wait and
see if there are additional developments. But I also am not hopeful that anything will actually change.
Yeah, no, I think you're right.
Let's move on to the next part in terms of the election and what could have been a major turning point the FBI waited specifically to cover with this with you, Crystal has now charged the same prosecutor who charged Hunter Biden with tax evasion with the gun charge, has now began prosecuting actually or charge and will and intends to prosecute a witness that came forward and alleged that the Biden family had approached the Ukrainians for a quote ten
million dollars bribe. If you are familiar with this, this was subject of a Chuck Grassley letter that was leaked about last year that came forward from an alleged witness that had all of this incriminating information. I actually covered it also at the time, although unlike Fox News, have not been clinging it to it for over a year now as evidence of quote unquote.
Biden family corruption.
And while there certainly may be some this particular instance, this man has now been charged with lying, which is a bit of a problem for some people over at Fox News, which have been beating the drum on this.
Let's take a listen to the credience that they gave this gentleman.
A veteran FBI informant alleging both the President and Hunter Biden each.
Took five million dollars in bribes. Details come from an FBI informant who is very trusted, the highly reliable informant that has always checked out all the information he's ever given us as checked out.
We have determined that whatsleblower is extremely credible.
This is a very crucial piece of our investigation.
Confidential human source that had been reliable previously to the FBI, A confidential informat that they had on the payroll. Documented allegations of bribery from a trusted FBI confidential human source has now finally been released. Now its contents are devastating.
So as you could see, didn't work out so well for them. Let's put this up there on the screen. After the news leaked quote unquote GOP lawmakers used to claim him to President Joe Biden's corrupt FBI source now charged for allegedly providing false information on Biden's which was
then cited by Republicans. We're talking about Russian individual Alexander Smirnov one count of making a false statement and one kind of creating a quote false and fictitious record related to statements that he made to the FBI on a
Form ten twenty three. The charging documents say that we approached the FBI as an alleged confidential source, but fabricated and provided false information to the FBI, which was then leaked, specifically to Senator Chuck Grassley, who took the step of then releasing that claim several years ago, as we said, to say that a Ukrainian oligarch had pushed the president the Biden family aid approaches Ukrainian oligarch to pay them
ten million dollars. Now, this was a key part of the Ukraine corruption story that was kind of ancillary to Barisma and some of the other verified claims there crystal, but nonetheless, I mean, it's a terrible look because they're hanging all of their.
Hat on this.
And while it was not, you know, the central part of the prosecution, you still that's exactly why you are supposed to not be totally credulous about all this. One of the reasons I feel credulous quote unquote about Barisma is a hunter admitted it, and you know, the money is verified.
It's right there.
We could literally see it in wire transfers that have been verified now by the IRS, the FBI House investigators et cetera. With this one, all you ever had was the claim of this single individual, right, which is the problem from the very beginning.
Well, they're trying desperately to.
Make a connection between the money that Hunter was receiving and money received directly by Joe Biden, because rightly, people say, Okay, yes, what Hunter did was corrupt trading on the Biden family name. It's very clear he's doing that. It's very clear that Biden's brother has done that, and we're talking about over decades that this has been long standing Biden family practice.
But that doesn't directly implicate Joe Biden. And also, I mean, honestly that like pales in comparison to what Kushner and Trump himself are doing in terms of cashing in on the position they're named, the presidency, et cetera. So they really really wanted to make this direct monetary connection, and so that's why they relied so heavily on what was just basically an unvetted allegation made at the FBI, which if I recall correctly, you covered as such at the time.
The irony here is that, I mean, that's exactly what the quote unquote Steele dossier was it was someone who had been an FBI in format in the past, as had this individual, and that's part of why they gave him crudence, as like, oh, well, he's said stuff that was true to the FBI in the past, so this must also be true. Well, the same could be said
of Michael Steele. And of course they spent years rightfully lambasting Democrats for completely hanging their hat on this one dude and the stuff that he you know, clearly like made up out of thin air. And now they're in
the same situation. Now, the people who are leading the Biden impeachment over this allegation and other allegations of corruption, they claim the House Republicans Jamie Comer at all that, oh no, this wasn't really central to the impeachment, but that's a lie, Like clearly they had hung a lot on this allegation.
True, yeah, exactly.
And Comer himself went on Fox News no fewer than two hundred times to talk up this story with this dude's claims at the center of what he was saying, Sean Hannity was a primary culprit of like relying wholesale on what this individual had to say. And you know, it turns out, and the evidence is pretty compelling that he.
Just made it up. It was just a lie. He hates Joe Biden.
He had like an ax to grind, and you decided to try to push this claim and see where he could get with it. And it looks like where he's going to get is probably some prison time.
Right Yeah, I mean, look, he should go to jail. People who you know, lead people on goose chases and all of that, and also we should do at the Steele dossier point is fantastic and it's also very important. They're also something we wanted to kind of roll into this because it does kind of thematically fit.
Let's put this up there on the screen. There has been.
A massive wave actually of high profile Republicans who are quitting the House GOP, and kind of what it comes down to is that the vast majority of these people who are leaving, it's almost unheard of to leave whenever you have the majority and whenever you are likely projected to continue the majority, whenever you are the chairman in many cases of you know, the Energy and Commerce Committee, or you have a high high profile position on the
US China Committee like Mike Gallagher who recently just announced that he would retire.
You have Mike Penn, his brother, who said he would retire.
Many of the people who are announcing their retirement were people who had not only decades long careers left in the House, but in the immediate term, would have had power in the committee system. And one of the reasons that they're leaving is like, listen, you know, we don't do anything. We don't pass any laws. We had all this Kevin McCarthy nonsense. We keep going down these impeachment or whatever rabbit holes. And that's fine, you know, as
long as we get to continue any serious work. But they just feel as if it's completely irrelevant, and they're like, why should I have to fly back and forth between Washington and my district or whatever just to come here and do fake votes that don't actually mean anything or matter at all. Even my committee work, for example, it's not like bills are being reported out of committee these days.
They just get they get drawn up by the leadership three days before they send it to you, and they're like, hey, you got to vote for this, or you're out of the Republican Party.
What do you do? I mean, it's a terrible job in many respects.
For a lot of these folks, most of them are rich, you know, so for them, they're like, why should I stay?
I I'll just.
Leave out lobbyist passion.
Yeah, I'll do it too if I was stuck in there.
I mean, let's be clear, almost all of what these people want to quote unquote accomplish and govern is bad. So it's not like I'm not mad at the House GOP dysfunction. But the thing that I also think is interesting. So just to give you some of the numbers, twenty three Republican lawmakers decided not to seek reelection or resigned early. That includes, and this is the part that is kind of astonishing, just based on history, five.
Committee chairs, right and crazy, you guys.
I mean, it's hard to explain how coveted these positions are. People work their entire careers to climb up the frickin' ladder to be, you know, in these various committee positions, and so at the point where they've actually like achieved the goal of their many years of ambition, they're like, it's not worth it. Like I'm just it's not worth it. None of this is worth it. And I think it is no worthy that. Listen, they can read the polls. They see it's very likely that Trump is going to
be back. And you would think in an ordinary political moment that the fact that you are going to have an ally back in the White House as president of the United States would make you more likely to stay because then you say, oh, well, then you know we're not far from being They have a very good shot
at taking back the Senate. They have a very good shot at holding onto the House, although it is precarious, I mean, their majority is bounced on a knife edge, but they have a very good shot of having the House, the Senate, and the presidency. And so to have that situation and have this many people, especial especially committee chairs being like I'm out, I think that is actually really quite extraordinary. And so it speaks to the fact that having Trump in the White House for a lot of
Republicans is not a benefit. It's a pain in the ass, right, because then what happens, I mean, they're still not governing. Everything they're getting asked is just questions about like the latest bullshit that Trump did or said, or you know, tweet truth that he's sent down or whatever, and they
just don't want to deal with it. So I think that part is also really fascinating that they are very they have a very good shot at having the trifecta of the House, the Senate, in the White House, and they're still like, in fact, because of the fact.
That Trump is likely to be back there.
That is part of the motivation for them wanting to get out of town and snag their corporate board board seats and lobbyist gigs while the getting is still good.
Like you just said, I mean, in the Trump era, when a Republican senator the vast and I know some of these people, but here's mostly what your job consisted of.
You do nothing while you're here.
While you walk down the hallway, you get accosted by these reporters and they're like, have you seen the latest Trump tweet on Mika Persinski's facelift?
Yes, And you're like.
Uh, well, I don't can know who the President says, but you know, i'll see him in November in my district.
Whatever.
It is absolutely humiliated.
I wouldn't do it either.
Yeah, So look, I do not begrudge them for leaving, but it is certainly I mean, whether it's a crisis or not.
I don't know.
I mean they will all be replaced, all of their jobs will continue.
That people replacing them probably believe the same things. And all these.
People are in safe Republican seats exactly, so it doesn't particularly further imperil the GOP majority. But it just is a very unusual situation to have people who were this many, people who were this highly placed, facing the prospect of a continued majority.
To be like, I'm out, I'm done, well said.
Speaking of Trump and some of the things that he imposes on the GOP, Trump made a surprise appearance at Sneakerhead Convention. He's declared himself a member of the community, and he is now unveiled for many of his supporters. One of the grail items a golden pair of Trump high tops that people literally wept in order to be his president.
They've paid thousands of.
Dollars to acquire a pair, so he certainly is still making money off of some of his supporters.
Take a lesson, Yo, check out these Trump ones. Four hundred dollars retail on these. Check these out. Check the box who says Trump and friends and family, And then when you open it, it comes with like a gold wrapping paper.
Make these.
These are crazy? Look how many Trumps and on the friends and family parents? He signed them to do that?
See, so what was your winning bed I about?
And let's see the signature? All right? Congratulations, you're all sneakerheads. You're sneaker heads.
Try does everybody in the room consider themselves a sneakerhead?
I think so?
Yes, Sweet Christian, he's a good, honest man. They're after here for no reason. Don't trap, He's a good man. Look at a good jets, a good cheese.
All right, So a lot of passion in the audience, snegaretts.
The shoes the never Surrender high Top cell retail for three hundred and nine and nine dollars. As you saw, that gentleman paid nine thousand dollars for a signed pair two along two of the low top sneakers actually also come with a ninety dollars bottle of Victory forty seven perfume and cologne was also available for sale on that website. Trumb says that he's been wanting to do this for a long time, and in a typical Trump fashion, he
actually did not manufacture the product. He simply registered the trademark to cic Ventures LLC.
In the way that he's done business there in the past.
So assuming he's getting a decent a little bit of a cut of something that's going on along with this, here's my issue with the sneakers, all right, So the high top sneakers in general. I don't really wear sneakers as much anymore. I've been trying to only wear traditional shoes. But if you're gonna wear a high top sneaker, I would genuine generally request it be a classic, like a Converse style of the Nike. I'm blanking on the name exactly for what they look like. These are gaudy. They
also crystal. You know, you remark this, they don't look very well made for four hundred dollars, like shit in every.
Way, think about what you could buy they're hitting.
One hundred bucks. Yeah, four hundred dollars is a lot of money.
You can buy a pair of Olden's for like boots for four hundred dollars. So this is not what I personally.
Would be spending my money on for somebody who's interested in shoes and in clothing for men, And yeah, I mean I cannot imagine a scenario where this would be appropriate maybe Walmart, you know, wearing something like this, even then, not really sure that's what I would want to be wearing in there. So yeah, I'm honestly flabbergasted by the entire thing. But guess what, they all sold out within hours, so it's not like it didn't work, just like its trading cards or whatever.
The NFTs.
I mean, a good sneaker design is a beautiful thing, like some of the jordanses you know are. I mean, they really put a lot of thought into the design and inspiration, and they truly are like art like pieces of art. This is some schlocky, ugly craft. And the gold ones are the worst ones. There are these other ones that are like red, white, and blue that are just sort of very standard but also just look kind of like cut and paste. Nothing special about them, nothing
like that really pops about them. They're just they again look like something you you know, that might get a Walmart. No offense Walmart, but I've I've purchased many shoes Walmart.
So no, my first I was a George.
But anyway, yeah, they're they're quite hideous, and I'm in the other context, obviously, this guy needs to make a buck apparently, because he's got facing an almost half a billion dollar judgment against him that he's got either pony up or you know, post enough collateral to be able to get a bond and get someone to agree to that.
So I guess he's in the market for new money making ventures and fool better to go to than to further squeeze and rip off your own fan base, which is exactly the people who will pay the four hundred dollars price for these hideous things.
Yeah, look, I mean, I guess it's part part of merch you know, fan merchant, all that stuff. I will say, you know, at least our merchandise union made, and it's actually.
It's actually nice, high quality. Our stuff is actually genuine, high quality.
I don't feel bad charging what we do because a it's made in America, it's made with the union labor, and it's nice.
It's actually nicer than most of the stuff.
But when you mark your stuff up by several hundred percent, and it's an inferior product, Like I said, So I looked up the names I was blanking on it. They're the Nike mid Blazers. That's a very classic shoe as you.
Can see here. Yeah, those are nice, very very classic. I actually own a pair. And then the Converse Chuck Taylor.
Obviously that's one of those, you know, the most classic designs in all of men's where you can mess around a little bit with some of the ancillary at details. Doesn't necessarily need be Converse, Nike or any of that. But really what you're going for is like a clean esthetic. That's something you can put together that is not going to draw too much attention down to the shoe.
All great outfits should draw attention to the face.
Part of the reason why wearing a gaudy pair of fox leather sneakers would violate some of the fundamental rules.
What do you think it could cost the goods on these monstrosities are.
It depends, I mean, it depends on how many he's made. If they're being made to order, it doesn't sound like they made all too many of them. Maybe twenty thirty bucks something like that unit costs whenever we're factoring in shipping and all of that, maybe forty something else messy, So it's a decent amount of pocket that's going into the for the big man. But hey, that one lady seemed really happy. The other guy at the same time,
you know what he paid nine thousand bucks. There's the trump there's a crazy trump boat guy out there who will buy some of those on stock X.
Like we know that they exist.
So from an investment point of view, he's not wrong per se.
To be helped to buy it.
I wonder what they are retailing for.
Let's look, I will look it up right now. Okay, So with some research on eBay, here's what we've got. We've got one pair going for a size nine chrystal going for.
Forty five thousand dollars.
Another one here with eleven watchers on eBay and fifty dollars in shipping the man. The galls on this guy twenty three thousand, five hundred dollars. Another one going for seventeen thousand. The cheapest gold pair that I can find on eBay right now is two thousand, five hundred bucks. And these are all oh eight thousand here. Yeah, so it looks like this man made a good trade. Good trade to him the assigned ones. If a basic pair can be listed for forty five k.
Imagine what's some weirdo out there is going.
To pay so I guess that dude that bought the nine thousand dollars pair.
I agree that, guys, wasn't a bad deal.
I was a good deal. It was a good deal.
Now you know, it's still risky, you never know, still questionable financial decision if I was his partner or somebody like that, but hey, you never know.
And good luck to the man in his eBay avengers. I certainly wish him luck.
What a world we live in?
All right, let's move on to the next part.
Speaking of what a world we live in, we wanted to cover this and just give a general reaction. We haven't been able to do that one yet. From Sora, the new product that is being released at least being red teamed currently by a select few that's been released by Open Ai. This is text to video in some of the most stunning imagery from AI that we have seen yet. We have a couple of prompts that we wanted to show everybody. The first one, let's put this
up there on the screen, is just amazing. This was where the first really one that they released. It says for those who are just listening, a beautiful, snowy Tokyo city is bustling The camera moves through the bustling city street, following several people enjoying the snowy weather shopping at nearby stalls. Gorgeous sakura petals are flying through the wind along with snowflakes.
I mean, it really does appear real. It's only whenever you get really close in crystal to some of their faces that you can tell that it's fake because it's a bit blurry and it's still in that uncanny valley. But if you are a decent enough away from their profile, it would pass the smell test. I think it's no longer really there. The next one, too, is quite a let's go and put this one up there. Two Golden
retrievers podcasting on top of a mountain. What gets me is the realistic way that that Golden retriever is panting. Now Here we have said. A white and orange tabby cat seen happily darting through a dense garden, chasing something. If eyes are wide and happy as it jogs forward, scanning the branch as flowers and leaves as it walks. The path is narrow as it makes its way between all the plants. The scene is captured from a ground level angle following the cat closely.
This one does appear to fake to me. I'm not sure about you.
Yeah, this one's in the Uncanny Valley for the for the cat. The other two they look real. The golden one is the most real.
I agree with you. And the thing with the dogs. First of all, they're adorable.
Yes, on their little red and white picnic blanket on the mountain, the little head phones on, and the way that the wind is rustling their furs, right, it's like, how do you do that? I mean, you know, And it's just based on that text prompt of two Golden Retrievers podcasting on a mountain, and you get the scenery
is beautiful. The thought of like putting them on this little blanket and the microphone looks in the headphones and the way that they're interacting with each other, it's it's pretty wild.
I mean it is incredible.
The number of scenes that I've seen, especially the ones that are like scenery or landscape, I mean, those seem very very real.
And very accurate. Crystal we can actually this is amazing.
This is actually if when it does come out, this is what I'm gonna use it most for, which is historical footage.
Let's put this one please up on the screen.
Historical footage of California during the gold Rush. What's amazing about this is not just like the dead wood style architecture, the horses and everything. Is also like the patina color on the camera as if.
It's old footage, and the landscape.
Reverting it back to where it was, the oxen, you know, people pulling just i mean, the shadows there like in the saloon. For me, that is just absolutely amazing. Again, you don't get in far enough to realize the uncanny valley here. Also, just to show everybody the progress that's been made, here's one from twenty twenty three of Will Smith that there was an original prompt. It was like show Will Smith eating spaghetti. Now compare it to where we are now. Look how awful you know, his features,
his eyes and never it's terrible. Yeah, I mean it's just it's his mouth, you know, barely opens. And then look at the realistic nature. I'm not sure what the prompt is on that other one, but it's like old man with a beard sitting in a cafe, people moving behind him.
I mean, it's it looks basic.
It's almost the only reason that we can tell it's not real is because his features are a little bit too perfect.
It's like things are.
Just a little bit too smooth. It's like if somebody hits airbrush or something.
But well, yeah, I agree, agree, But I do feel like, you know, we have the luxury of knowing that it was AI generated.
That's true.
I think that if I just saw that video and didn't know, I don't think that I would pick up on that because, like you said, it could just be it could easily just be a filter. It could just be the light, you know, good lighting making him look in you know, the most ideal way.
That he could possibly look.
So I do.
I mean, we have passed a significant rubicon now where it is not just rubes and people who aren't very sophisticated and people who don't have a good eye or whatever who can be completely one hundred percent tricked by these because especially depending on the prompt and depending on what you're talking about, I think the human beings are still the most challenging. But that old man, like I said,
I mean, that looks very real to me. We are in a new phase now, and there's a lot to say about I can't even wrap my head around all of the implications of not only where this technology is right now, but as you were just pointing out, the fact that it developed and progressed so quickly.
In one year is mind blowing.
It's extraordinary, and I also feel like it's kind of terrifying because I don't know what all the implications are, and neither do these people who are developing it and putting it out into the world, and certainly neither do our lawmakers have any sort of a grasp of what the risks.
And what the potential implications are.
So I am the camp in the camp that is amazed by this, but also very very unsettled by what it could mean.
Some of the implications so far that I've seen commercial application what you might see in our producer Griffin floats that all commercials may basically be over now, or you can get decent enough stock footage and other things that you can use in the past, you no longer have to hire actors. One of the immediate implications I thought of for people who work in film is think about
how much nicer it will be for storyboarding. An idea like, if you're working on a project and you want to just get to roughly what it should look like and your vision. You can use something like this instead of having cartoon artists and others sketch things out. Secondary is we can think about animated film. What's something that could look like the ways that you know Disney, Pixar and all the other magic that we've seen him.
This was revolutionary technology.
It's why Pixar was one of the most such a valuable part of Disney that Disney even purchased them.
It's a huge part of childhood.
You can think about, you know, using a product like this to dramatically lower the unit costs, move things over to YouTube in terms of voiceover and all that.
It just takes a lot of the work out of it because then you just.
Have to put that in there. You don't have to do any of the animation. Those are just things that immediately come to mind. Yeah, and I'm trying to think about circumstances that we may use it. So, from what we understand right now, our team will use AI stuff a mid journey I believe, for thumbnails, like in retrospect. So, but I'm trying to think about maybe a circumstance that if we want to recreate something that had happened and
explain it to our audience. Maybe we could type something in here, and especially if it gets good enough with politicians, you could create a scenario where somebody can literally have it come to life.
I'm just thinking out loud.
Imagine Gavin Newsom at the Democratic Contention giving his acceptance speech after he just vanquished Kamala Harris.
What what would it look like?
Yeah, I mean I struggle to really understand what the implications would be for us in particular. The thing that is very clear is just we're at a point now, guys where you just you.
Can't believe your eyes.
You know, just because you were seeing a video, a picture, whatever, audio and it looks real, it sounds real, it feels real, does not mean that it's real. And that is I think a very difficult thing for human beings to struggle with. I don't think we're ready for it. I don't think our politicians are ready for it. The most clear is you're pointing out sager implications in terms of industry and workers.
Is in Hollywood, as you guys know, because we covered it extensively at the time, both the actors and the writers and the director, they were all on strike and some of the key things that they were concerned about were implications of AI, and for the actors, this rapid development and technology has the largest implications. The contract that they just agreed to and signed does not have great protections in.
Terms of AI.
It has some provisions, but even at the time, there's a reason why many of these contract deals, once they're crafted, they get overwhelming like ninety eight percent support. This one had more reluctance associated with the rank and file, specifically because of concerns over AI protections. Wired had a good write up at the time, can put this up on
the screen. So one of the people who worked directly on the AI provisions and with sounding the alarms about some of the language in the agreement, she said that she was worried primarily about quote unquote synthetic performance performers or AIS that resemble humans.
Quote.
This gives the studios and streamers a green light to use human looking AI objects instead of hiring a human actor. It's one thing to use generative AI to make a King Kong or a flying serpent. It is another to have an AI object play a human character instead of a real actor.
So how do you regulate that.
And there are some provisions in here that's like, you can't just take Denzel Washington and AI generate him and put them in your thing. However, what if you take someone with a lot of the characteristics of Denzel Washington who's sort of giving Denzel Washington but isn't.
Actually exactly like Denzel Washington.
Where do you draw the line of where the boundaries are legally? But I feel like we see this already in some of the legislation, the lawsuits over music and whether or not some you know, beat or rhythm or part of a track was used illegally by another artist, and you have to go through the courtroom process of like is it similar enough to count as being a ripoff an.
Infringement or not.
So we're moving into a realm where that will have to be legislated in court too, like how close can you come to a known actor before you're over the
line and you're ripping off that person's likeness. The other thing that they expect is that this will further increase the sort of inequality in Hollywood in terms of the acting profession, because if you are an a list star, you have the money and you have the you know, brand awareness and the media attention, et cetera, to fight back if you and your likeness are being used in these ways that are potentially over the line. If you aren't that person, if you aren't the Denzel Washington, you
don't have the resources to fight back. You are expendable, and AI is very cheap, so they can render someone who looks very much like you and sounds very much like you and plug you into the background of films, plug you in as an extra, and you don't see a dime. So I do think for a lot of actors who aren't you know, the top, the top, the top, this is a quite an existential threat to their industry
and to their work. In the same way, and they make this parallel and the wired piece in the same way that automated truck driving is a threat to teamsters and professional truck drivers. This is already an existential threat to many acting professionals.
Absolutely, I certainly think it does. In terms of what we should do about it, I honestly don't know.
I'm still in a wait and see mode just because something I always talk about full self driving technology for Tesla and all that. Listen, you know, it can get you on the highway, but like if you're asking it to turn left or something in a crowded street, good luck, it's not there. And this is billions of dollars that have been thrown at everyone's like, Oh, this is going
to replace Hollywood. I just don't think so. I can't continue to come back to the nom Chonski op ed. Remember they wrote in the New York Times about how LMS fundamentally misunderstand the evolution of human language. A thought of creativity and look, Gnome, you can think whatever you want about his politics. I happen to agree with some of it, but he is a world renowned linguist. He kind of knows what he's talking about. And the point that he makes is that syntax, the construction of language
and all of that itself. Simply compiling that in the database just misses the deep human like evolution of language over what six million years now, Yeah, that's been happening. I happen to have some faith in that. That doesn't mean that this won't be a very very useful tool. I don't see it as replacement.
Maybe the AI will roll this and laugh at me ten years from now or whatever. But yeah, I could be wrong. We'll see.
Well, the thing is in a scriptive production, though you're not depending on the AI to generate the human like speech.
Yeah.
True, you have skeeek screenwriters, although I mean potentially they're heading in the direction of also using AI at least for first drafts or polishing or whatever. But you know, in terms of the video piece, I think the technology is already at a place where for extras it's done. Like if you have you know, your primary actors in the front of the scene, and you've got people behind you eating and walking and walking the dog and talking to.
Their kids or whatever.
This tech is already good enough that you could do that and no one would notice that these aren't actual real human beings.
And there's other stuff like that. I'm not a hun percent familiar.
I believe the term are like secondaries, like things that you film away from the main cast.
Sometimes you can be like tracking shots or extra stuff.
If you could use AI for that, you just save money on a drone, you save money on a helicopter.
You know, there's all kinds of scenery shots.
And then all the crew that would be responsible for filming that and editing that, et cetera. I mean there it would also impact their industry greatly as well. So, like I said, the fulsome implications. I don't think anyone can really wrap their head around what it's going to look like and where the technology is going to end up.
But I think.
Already there are clear huge implications for Hollywood in particular, and you know, I'm not sure that I don't feel like we are ready to grapple with the fallout for what this incredible technology is going to mean for that industry in particular, but more broadly as well.
I agree totally.
All right, guys, we have a lot of developments to get to with regard to Israel. First of all, just breaking really today. The first news came out yesterday, but fully being picked up by the process this morning. The US has decided to push its own version of a temporary ceasefire resolution through the UN Security Council. We can put this up on the screen. It has some of the details. This comes as Algeria had offered a separate
resolution that the US is intending to block. So the headline here from Reuter's is US proposals UN Security Council oppose RAFA assault back temporary Gaza ceasefire. We have proposed a rival draft UN Security Council resolution that will call for a temporary ceasefire in Israel Hamas war and oppose a major ground offensive by Israel in Rafa. According to text seen by Reuters, the move comes after the US signaled it would veto on Tuesday an Algerian drafted resolution
that would demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire over concerns. This is according to our people, that it could jeopardize talks between the US, Egypt, Israel and Cutter that seeks to broker a pause in the war the release of hostages held by Hamas. Until now, Washington has been averse to the word ceasefire in any UN action on the Israel Hamas war. But the US text echoes language that President Biden said he used last week in conversations with net Nyahu.
It would see the Security Council underscore its support for a temporary ceasefire. This is all in quotes right now in Gaza as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released and calls for lifting all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale. I also want to call your attention to what they're reporting. The proposed draft says specifically about Rafa. Because they don't say no, you can never do a ground offensive in Rafa.
They say that they have determined, under current circumstances, a major ground offensive into Rafa would result in for their harms of civilians and their further displacement, including potentially into neighboring countries. Let me go ahead and put this next piece up on the screen, because with regard to Raffa, this is incredibly critical. Israel is imminently threatening a full scale Rafa invasion for the first time. They set a specific deadline of the beginning of the Muslim holy day
of Ramadan, which starts on March tenth. That is, per Benny Gantz, who is a member of the Israeli War Cabinet, delivering effectively an ultimatum at a Sunday event, he said, and I quote, the world must know and Hamma's leaders must know that if by Ramada on the hostages are not home, then the fighting will continue, including in Rafa.
I don't have to tell you, guys, but I will remind you again that Palestinians have been pushed south multiple times until now you have the bulk of the population one point three million Palestinians who are clustered right up alongside the border with Egypt in the city of Rafa.
There is nowhere else for them to go.
The humanitarian conditions are already appalling. The bombing that was used as like a distraction while Israel rescued two of their hostages killed some sixty plus Palestinians. So it's not like Rafa is safe right now. But what they're talking about soccer would be another order of magnitude. So, I mean, listen, I don't know what to make of this US move.
It is noteworthy that they are going to allow something through the Security Council, that that something includes this forbidden word of ceasefire, that it at least expresses concern about a ground invasion of Rafa. But as always, the question is not just what are you going to say, but what are you going to do? What is going to be behind this Security Council resolution to actually try to get to Israel to stop the slaughter here.
Yeah, obviously the U and Security Crencil resolution has no authority or ability to enforce anything.
It comes down to the Member States of what's his name.
BB has said repeatedly, if you are saying that we can't go into Rafa, you're saying we can't defeat the enemy, you're saying that we cannot prosecute the war. So which is I mean, he's made it very clear that this is something that they're going to do.
At the same time, I'm not sure.
I mean, maybe this could have some move because it does show the first time that the US is saying no, you can't go into Rafa, or at the very least allowing a resolution or something like that to go through. Apparently the President told by Bebe that on the phone. This is a direct contradiction apparently of what the Israeli
war cabinet wants. In terms of the Wall Street Journal story that I know we've read about the Israeli plans to go into Gaza they say in the coming weeks, there does seem to be some ambiguity here about whether this is going to be allowed through. I was floating a theory with Ryan, I wonder what you think. Yeah, I'm wondering if the Israelis and the Egyptians are almost talking a bit behind the scenes as to why the Egyptians would have built that large fence around Rafa for
some sort of like refugee containment zone. It could be that they're waiting until something like that has occurred.
I genuinely don't know.
I haven't seen reporting or something like that to effect. I would not put it past the two governments to do something like that in response to this. So I don't know what all of the chess pieces here mean.
Yeah, I mean, I guess I'm skeptical of the US's here. I do pick up on the fact that they're not saying you can't go into Rafa. They're saying under current circumstances. Interesting, and you know BB is already they're already floating like, oh, you guys can build a tense city and you know, then I guess the circumstances would be different and then we could go ahead. So I see a lot of wiggle room here. I thought Ryan made a great point
in You Guys Show yesterday. He said, you know, they're pushing Palestinians up against the border, and there's all this pressure on Egypt to allow this Palestinian refugee population into
their country. And of course, you know that is it's an impossible situation that the Israelis had put everybody into because Egypt, first of all, is worried about political instability, second of all, is worried about participating in an ethnic cleansing Palestinans and Gaza obviously very fearful that if they left the Gaza Strip they would never be allowed to
return to their homes. You know, obvious solution is, okay, Israel, if you want to go into Rafa, you can have the tent city or you know, in Israel, and how's the civilian population, and then there wouldn't be the fear of you're not going to let us return to our homes in the Gaza Strip. Obviously, in that instance, they would allow you to return to your home in the
Gaza Strip because they don't want you in Israel. So the fact that they put that completely off the table tells you a whole lot about their actual care and concern for the Palestinian civilian population, which is not only none, but as we've documented here, I mean, the clear intent at this point is just devastation, annihilation, pain, suffering, collective
punishment of the Palestinian civilian population. And you know that has been very clear from the beginning of this offensive in the Gaza strip.
So you know, it's.
Interesting development, and I have no idea where things go from here. I really don't know if the ceasefire negotiations, the temporary ceasefire negotiations, have any real shot at coming to fruition. I can tell you the domestic pressure on Bbie continues to be in the direction of continue doing this thing indefinitely. There had previously been a pole soccer that we covered that Israeli citizens preferred the goal of
freeing the hostages over quote unquote defeating Hamas. I saw a new poll that had the opposite conclusion that they put the first priority of defeating Hamas. Bbe of course knows the war has to continue. For him to continue his hold on power, he needs to bring home some sort of victory, which they have not been able to manage thus far. And so that's where we are. Does this resolution really move the needle without also threatening you know, we're not going to send the weapons that you need
to engage in this offensive. There are going to be other consequences if you do these things that we are asking you not to do. I think that would probably be more consequential, but we haven't seen that yet yeah, that's right.
At the same.
Time, you know, speaking of pressure on bb and on the Israeli domestic society.
This was quite extraordinary. And put this up on the screen.
The Israeli economy on an annual basis shrank at a twenty percent rate in the final quarter of twenty twenty three. So if you extrapolate out the economic crash of the end of twenty twenty three to an entire year, you are talking about GDP shrinking by twenty percent. It is impossible to explain what a massive contraction that would ultimately be. I mean, we're talking about even beyond the level of things like COVID. No, it's nuts that, yeah, it is.
It is absolutely nuts. Let me give you a little bit of the explanation of what happened here. They say the sharp drop in that ftpiece was caused in part by the colup of three hundred thousand reservists who had to leave behind their workplaces and businesses. Other factors did the economy included the government sponsorship of housing for more than one hundred and twenty thousand Israelis who have been evacuated from the northern and southern borders following the October
seventh attack. I think this one is actually really critical. Israelin posts tough restrictions on the movement of Palestinian workers from the West Bank into the country. That move hit the construction sector, causing labor shortages that became an additional drag on economic growth. So they basically use Palestinians as like day laborers to do the jobs that Israeli citizens
don't want to do. And so for all of those workers to effectively be banned and not available for work, I mean, it's been devastating for Palestinians for the West Bank economy also has been really bad for the Israeli economy. In addition, they said imports of goods and services fell forty two percent while exports dropped eighteen percent. So you
have had this just massive collapse in economic activity. You also have a huge number of Israeli's estimates are around half a million who have just left the country and not clear whether or not they're going to come back. So the economic toll of this war on Israel has been really actually quite extraordinary, and this was worse. People knew there was going to be a drop in economic growth, They did not predict anything like twenty percent on an annual basis.
Well, the imports of the goods following forty two percent is also nuts because Israel obviously is a society that is deeply reliant on import export. Export's also dropping by eighteen percent. So they've got the high tech economy that
can save them in the future. That's you know, if sanctions and other things don't go through, but at the very basic level like what they need to subsist on and then basically becoming a completely backstopped by government spending, that's not a good situation to be in for their domestic economy. Losing all these people, and it just demonstrates too Look for the Israelis, you want peace, you cannot live this way.
You know, having one hundred thousand people or so, if you.
Guys go to war with Lebanon, you're gonna have a million people that you're gonna have to evacuate.
You're going to pay all their bills.
You've either got to ship them out of the country or you're gonna rehouse them, or some of the intellivision. You've got to pay that rent as we can see, which is bankrupting the government. Not to mention if you have to recall those three hundred thousand reservists, you've got to pay them, and you've got to try and replace them whenever there's a labor crisis and all this this will basically make you a total war economy. I was talking about this with Ryan yesterday, but one of the
things we were talking in the Russian context too. Something that is clear is that when you transition to this, coming out of it is immensely difficult, and you were signing yourselves up for years of inflation, of shortages, of labor disputes. Just look to our own history or any other economy that comes out of this. You want to exit as soon as humanly possible. But I don't think
people there have felt it yet. It could actually take a long time before people start to really feel it at that level.
But this goes to show that for years and years and years.
To come, they're going to be grappling with the decisions being made in these more than one hundred days.
No doubt about it.
And this is why I'm covering today in my monologue. There's multiple things happening at the ICJ this week. On Friday, Israel's facing a deadline to prove that they are complying with the injunctions issued by the ICJ with regard to them plausibly committing a genocide. I think they are very much flogging that desk. I'll talk more about that in amount long later this week. But they also are facing
these hearings over the illegal nature of their occupation. And you know, in ordinary times they could easily shrunk this off right and it wouldn't matter because for number one, a lot of the world wouldn't even be paying attention. You know this, this international institutions, they have no teeth. They you know, had an injunction against them, an advisory ruling go against them in two thousand and four. They
didn't care. They were supposed to. There's, you know, the barrier wall in the West Bank, they're supposed to take it down. Not only they not take it down, they actually expanded it. So it shows you how much care and concern they give and credence they give to these decisions they go against them. But you're now at a time where you know, the economy is incredibly dire shape, and so the more that these decisions go against you, and the more that you have effectively world pariah status.
I mean, this is you know, this is basically what the BDS movement was trying to accomplish all these years, and it's part of what put pressure on South Africa during apartheid as well.
Is this you know, global pariahs.
Status that was devastating to the country, to their world prestige, to their economy, et cetera. And so you know, you are inching closer and closer to that being a reality, which is why some of these things which may not ordinarily matter, like rulings at the ICJ, may have a little bit of a different implication at this particular moment, given the precarity that Netnyahu has has steered the Israeli economy and the Israeli society into for the first time ever.
In addition, credit rating agency downgraded Israel. This has never happened before.
This was Moody's. We can put this up on the screen. They downgraded Israel's credit rating.
This was a couple of weeks ago, citing material political and fiscal risks for the country from its war with Palestinian militant group ham Us. The impact of the conflict raises political risk and weakens Israel's executive and legislative institutions. It's fiscal strength for the FACI seeable future. Moody's had begun this review for a downgrade on October nineteenth, and this just came through in early February. The country's rating
was cut to a two. That is still five notches above investment grades, so it's still, like, you know, a solid credit rating, but it's the first down grade ever in history, and its credit outlook was kept negative by Moody's, meaning that a further downgrade is possible.
Babe was furious.
About this downgrade, and always, you know, his level of fury is indicative of how much he thinks these things may actually matter and what the consequences could be. Put this up on the screen, he said, the decision does not reflect the state of the country's economy.
It is entirely due to the fact that we are at war.
The rating will go back up as soon as we win the war. So he responded very strongly to this news. When this dropped a couple of weeks.
Back, well, obviously matters, like I said, for trade, for the your ability to conduct commerce expors imports is exactly why we freak out whenever our credit rating goes down, and they're not.
The world's reserve tu Sun loans, et cetera.
Yeah, they have way less.
Yeah, they have way more to worry about from an international financial system point of view than we do. So it's one of those where these are exactly all the long term concerns that we've laid out here before, which are remain ever present for the Israelis.
Speaking of long term concerns, you know, this war has long now spilled outside of the borders of the Gaza Strip, and we have continued tit for tat escalations between Israel and Lebanon, in particular.
It can put this up on the screen.
There was some you know, pretty wild imagery coming out of southern Lebanon here of Israeli airstrikes on a town here in southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli military and Lebanese state media. So let me go and read you a little bit about this Lebanese arm group. Has one Israel been exchanging your daily fire across the border since Israel launched its assault on Gaza in response to the
Hamas ledt on October seventh. In Israeli army spokesman said on Monday, we targeted Hesbela weapons depost near Saidan in response to explosion of an enemy craft whose wreckage we found near the Tiberius area this afternoon. Will continue to act forcefully in response to Hesbela attacks. On Friday, hesbel A Secretary General Hassan Usralla vowed that Israel would pay quote with blood for civilians it killed in Lebanon. He warned the group possesses missiles that could reach anywhere in Israel.
Heswela has reported around two hundred of its fighters have been killed since the cross border escalation started. That so, this continues to be an extraordinary area of risk for a broader conflagration, even more so than what we've already seen.
More so, yesterday, this was actually pretty interesting. Let's put this up there on the screen. The new attack on a ship by the Hoho Thies appears to have been their most damaging attack that's launched to date.
Quote.
The crew of a cargo ship was forced to abandon after it came under attack from Husti militia and Yemen who'd been firing missiles at the Red Sea. This ship was called the Ruby, appeared to be one of the who these most damage so far, most of the arm groups missiles and dronosault ships have failed to inflict serious damage.
These were two anti ship missiles that were launched from Yemen at nine to thirty times according to the US military, and they said that one of the missiles actually struck the ship quote, causing damage and making the ship have a distress call.
Don't know much about the ship actually right now.
It said that their management office was in Lebanon to confirm that it had attacked.
We don't know what a destination or any of that.
Was there, but it does demonstrate that this continues to happen and it's going to dramatically drop sea traffic. You know in the sus Canal Crystal you found this as well.
If please put this up there on the screen and it shows us how a significant hit Egypt has taken in just four hundred and twenty eight million dollars last month, which is nearly half of the eight four million dollars they took in the same period in twenty twenty three, causing major fiscal problems, but also just indicative of how bad, how bad the situation is right now for the SEUs Canal and for global shipping for the lost that the Europeans and US are all absorbing on behalf of this war.
Yeah, and obviously, like the US strategy here of hitting Hoo they targets and being more aggressive in the region has failed, and never had. Even the people who instituted this policy knew it was not going to work. They knew from the beginning it was not going to work, as Joe Biden himself admitted in his infamous comments are they working?
No?
Are they going to continue?
Yes.
The other thing that is noteworthy here, so number one noteworthy is in spite of our attacks unhoafy capabilities, they just launched their most damaging attack yet. So that's number one. Like again, more proof not working. Number two a new hoothy capability apparently just dropped. One of the things that we struck in our most recent bombing efforts was an underwater drone, so basically like an autonomous submarine. That's something that I don't think we were aware that the Houthis
had access to our capabilities with that ULPS. The ante once again, and you know, as I always do when we do these segments about the wider issue here, like the one answer to all of these issues to ratchet down the tensions and make sure we don't go any further in the direction of escalation.
Is the ceasefire. That is the core of the problem.
That is what is calling all of these attacks on our own service members, on shipping lanes, the tip for tat with Husblah, all of these things are because of what Israel is doing in Gaza, and until that ends, we can expect to be an incredibly, incredibly risky, fraud dangerous environment.
Yeah, that's right, Crystal.
It's pretty scary as we look at all of it, especially with what's happening with the who these the Israeli economy. I mean, all of this is it's a very precarious global situation and you never know where it's going to pop off. No nobody could have predicted it with the Red Sea also, you know with the Red Sea, you just think one wrong ship.
And the whole world is going to war. You have no idea.
You get one missile comes from i Ron, hits a US flag carrier, hits a US ship, and a couple of sailors die. You know, we saw large a preview in the Jordan attack.
We have no idea.
If you imagine if they sank a US ship, it would be insane and it would do I mean, that's it full blown. It's like fireworks are completely off. And that's not a situation that any of us want to be in Crystal. What are you taking a look at? It's a big week for Israel. At the International Court
of Justice. On Friday, Israel faces a deadline for demonstrating that they have adhered to the Court's demand that they cease all genocidal activities as they blockade, threaten an invasion of Rafa, and stand by as more than a dozen ministers attendant ethnic cleansing conference. I think it's fair to say Israel has not only failed to meet its obligations, but has in fact doubled down on the cruelty and incitement that led the Court to rule they are plausibly committing genocide.
More on that one though later this week. But yesterday another case began oral arguments in front of the ICJ an attempt to obtain an advisory opinion that Israel's occupation of Palestine is in breach of international law and is therefore illegal. Of course, the illegality of Israel's occupation in settlement policy is kind of hardly disputed at this point. That's why Israel and her defenders are mostly arguing against this court action on technical legal grounds rather than on
the merits. Israel has opted not to participate in the oral arguments at all, submitting only a written brief and denying the court's legitimacy on the question. Following Monday's hearings, a spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry released a statement saying, in part that the Palestinian authority was quote trying to turn a conflict that should be resolved through direct negotiations and without external impositions into a one sided and improper
legal process. They further called on Palestinians to settle the dispute through direct negotiations with Israel, rather than through an appeal to international law. Of course, this statement is rather nonsensical given that Nan Yahoo and his government have repeatedly made clear they have no interest in a negotiated settlement that would grant Palestinians their basic rights to self determination.
So over the course of three hours on Monday, the Palestinian team made the case that Israel's imposed on Palestinians the horrifying choice of quote ethnic cleansing, apartheid or genocide. Furthermore, Palestine argued that the Israeli occupation violated a core tenant of the law surrounding military occupation that it be temporary.
In reality, the Israelis have made quite clear to their own people, to the Palestinians, and to the world that they fully intend to permanently exercise full control of the entire area from the river to the sea. Palestinian Foreign Minister opened by using a series of maps to demonstrate this Israeli commitment to total permanent occupation and apartheid.
Allow me now to show you five maps. The first one is historic Palistine. This is the territory over which the Parician people should have been able to exercise their right to self determination. Instead, the General Assembly recommended the partition of Palistine, ignoring the will of our people, as shown in the second map, with an akaba that ensued. Over two thirds of our people were systematically unforcibly expelled by Israel, and three fourth of Palistine became Israel, as
shown in the third map. This was the start of the Napapa, the disposition, the displacement and replacement of our people, the denial of rights and discrimination that continues to this very day. In nineteen sixty seven, Israel then occupied the remainder of Palistine and from the first day of its occupation started colonizing and annexing the land with the aim
of making its occupation irreversible. It left us with the collection of disconnected pantustance preventing the independence of our state. As shown in Map four, Israel wanted the geography of Palistine of not its demography, so it's kept pushing our people out out of their homes, out of their land. Here is a fifth map. It was displayed by Israel's Prime Minister to the General Assembly last September. He called this the new Middle East. This is now the There
is no Palistine at all on this map. On Israel comprised of all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. This shows you what the prolonged continuous Israeli occupation of Palistine is intended to accomplish. The complete disappearance of Palistine and the destruction of the Plastinia people.
Netanyahu's infamous River to the Sea map displayed there is of course, backed up by official government policy across successive Israeli administrations. Every single year since nineteen seventy six, the number of illegal Israeli settlers.
In the West Bank has increased.
This project has been further accelerated by the current terrorists running the Israeli government. The number now stands at roughly seven hundred thousand settlers, all of whom have been promised by the Israeli government they can stay in these legal settlements forever, annexing Palestinian land.
What's more, twenty twenty.
Three was the deadliest year for settler violence in history, prompting even the Biden administration to take some actions to try to check the rampaging settlers, who face no accountability from their own government, which both tacitly and explicitly backs this entire project. In fact, part of why October seventh was so deadly in the Israeli military response so poor was because IDF soldiers had been moved from near Gaza in order to better aid and a bet these violent
Israeli settlers. The current hearing also comes at a critical time, as eleven Cabinet ministers and fifteen coalition members of the Kanesset have made plain their desire to wholly annex the Gaza Strip and ethnically cleanse the remaining Palestinians living there at a conference that was dedicated to this explicit aim.
One point three million Palestinians have already been pushed up against the border with Egypt as Israel bombs them and threatens a ground invasion, So the plans that are being made by these government ministers at the ethnic cleansing conference are hardly an idle threat. In fact, just as in the ICJ hearing on genocide, the statements explicit statements of numerous Israeli politicians featured prominently in the Palestinian presentation.
As Israel's Cabinet secretary wrote in June of last year, quote, Judea and Samaria were not seized from a sovereign state recognized by international law, and the State of Israel has a right to impose its sovereignty over these areas as they comprise the cradle of history of the Jewish people and are an inseparable part of the land of Israel.
As purported legal authority, the.
Cabinet secretary invoked the first Book of Maccabee's written in the year one hundred BC fifteen, verse thirty three. It is not a foreign land. We have taken, nor have we seized the property of foreigners, but only our ancestral heritage, which for a time had been unjustly occupied by our enemies. This was followed in August of last year by a message broadcast on Israel Army Radio by Israel's Heritage Minister, sovereignty.
Sovereignty must be extended within the borders of the West Bank and the most prudent way to create international recognition that this place is ours. There is no green line. It is a fictitious line that creates a distorted reality and must be erased. In September twenty twenty three, Israel's Prime Minister literally erased the green line in its presentation
to the United Nations General Assembly. As you saw earlier, he depicted the state of Israel as extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, eliminating not only the green line but all traces of Palestine. This was no oversight. It was an act of the head of government with all the attribution that it implies. The same message was delivered by Israel's Finance minister in Paris six months earlier, when he denied the existence of Palestine and declared that
Palestinians do not constitute people. Previously, he said, quote, we are here to stay. We will make it clear that our national ambition for a Jewish state from the river to the sea is an accomplished fact, a fact not open to discussion or negotiation. This has been Israel's consistent position. Here is the map of Israel, produced by its armed forces and published by the government in twenty twenty one. One state Israel from the river to the sea. There
is no green line. There is no Palestine. Instead, Palestine has been replaced by Judea and Samaria, which, according to Israel's highest officials, are now integral parts of the.
State of Israel.
As these official statements and maps demonstrate, Israel makes no secret of its intention to retain permanently the entire area east of the green line.
Whole lot of people on there who rightly gafad at Putin's attempt to justify the illegal invasion of Ukraine by a one thousand year historical exegesis well nonetheless takes seriously claims about quote unquote Judaea and Samaria based on religious texts written in one hundred BC. Now these hearings are set to continue all week and we'll see a record fifty two countries assert claims and counterclaims. The US is once again more or less on an island alongside the
literal island of Fiji when it comes to Israel. Of the thirty five states in international organizations which submitted written statements with regard to this case, only the US and Fiji backed Israel. After this week's hearings, the Court will take some time weeks if not months, to deliberate before rendering a decision. Should be noted that if they do rule against Israel, would not be the first time. Back in two thousand and four, they found that Israel's West
Bank barrier wall was illegal and should be dismantled. Not only did Israel ignore the ruling, but has since expanded that wall. So what difference would this ruling make since Israel will certainly ignore the court once again with the full backing of the United States of America. Once senior Palestinian official explained that quote, politically, this will help in achieving a two state solution. We are using the platform
of the largest judicial body to advance our cause. In the hearing, Palestine's legal representative explain the importance of the ruling.
Thusly, silence is not an option.
As the immortal Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish wrote, in silence, we become accomplices. But he assured us when we speak, every word has the power to change the world. Mister President, members of the Court, your words have such power. By upholding international law, which is all the State of Palestine has to you to do, your powerful words will change the world.
The hearings are a timely reminder that history did not begin on October seventh, and it will not end after the current annihilation of Gaza is complete. This is inconvenient, to say the least for those who attempt to defend Israel's indefensible actions by pretending that nothing happened before the atrocities of October seventh and that those atrocities justify everything up to and including a genocide.
The Palestinians who were murdered.
By IDF backed settlers prior to October seventh destroy the myth that there was peace prior to October seventh, and only Hamas destroyed that peace. In addition, the hearings put the US in an awkward position, since we theoretically accept the international consensus that these settlements are in fact illegal, but nonetheless consistently provide the diplomatic umbrella under which Israel continues its policy and the weapons.
It uses to enforce it.
It also is possible that, at this moment of increasing Israeli isolation from the world and the waning influence of the United States, these ICJ rulings could hit a little bit different. Even as they attempt to appear big and bad with their devastation of Gaza, the realities that Israel has never been more precarious on the world stage.
Remember, as we just.
Covered, the Israeli economy just shrank by twenty percent on an annual basis. They were just hit with a credit downgrade and negative outlook by Moody's. A reported half a million Israelis have left the country already, a devastating blow for the demographics obsessed nation. Even the US in Britain
are considering unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. And while the US political class largely uniformly backs Israel in all things, they have lost massive ground among the actual American people. A majority of Democrats now except that Israel is in fact committing genocide. Another thirty percent are not sure global public opinion has been fully galvanized behind the Palestinian cause.
Even the fully self interested MBS of Saudi Arabia has felt compelled to make clear there will be no normalization of relations with Israel without a Palestinian state.
So while the ICJ may not.
Have the enforcement power to actually end Israel's illegal actions, their judgment could still have some teeth. And for the US, as we steadily undermine the very international institutions and rules base order that we endeavor to establish post World War Two, our global influence and power continues to wane falls to the rest of the world to pick up the mantle. Looking into Lula and South Africa. Soccer, what did you make.
And if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at Breakingpoints dot Com.
All right, soccer, what you're looking at?
Well, if there's one thing that really grinds my gears, it is bad use of history, from constant invoking of Hitler for anything we don't like or foreign policy move that we want to smear as appeasement, to the invocation of Jim Crow when talking about a local racially inflammatory incident.
The reason it makes me upset is it erases.
The magnitude of genuinely horrible things that happened in history. It insults their memory by drawing a false comparison. This latest incident that inspired this monologue is especially egregious. The so called best social science experts in the world have decided that our current president, Joseph robin At Biden Junior, is the fourteenth best president in American history.
This assessed puts Biden.
Before American president's Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, hero of the Republic, Ulysses S.
Grant.
Now I have major differences with Woodrow Wilson, with Ronald Reagan, even Grant, who was one of my personal heroes. I will admit he did not cover himself in glory at all times in the White House. But to say that Biden is in any way a better president than these world historical figures is literal blasphemy. More so, if you read these idiot experts justification, it is some of the
dumbest historical analysis that I have ever seen. They write, quote, Biden's most important achievement may be that he rescued the presidency from Trump, he resumed a more traditional style of leadership and is gearing up to keep the office out of his predecessor's hands this fall. In other words, he is in the top third of America's presidents because he beat Trump. So not anything that he did, but because he beat Trump and is not.
Running against him. That's how low.
The bar is for these professional historians to try and find some other so called accomplishments for Biden. This is what the New York Times says, quote, he has claims to history legacy by managing the end of the COVID pandemic, rebuilding the nation's roads, bridges and other infrastructure, and leading an international coalition against Russian aggression. Yeah, because his response to COVID was such a success. Failed Russia policy that too.
As for infrastructure, time will tell, But I think it is nothing compared to let's say, the Eisenhower bills of the past, which actually do deserve historical mention. On Trump too, the assessment is crazy. The historians say that Trump is the worst president in American history by far, according to them. These people say the presidents Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and
Andrew Johnson were actually better than Trump. Keep in mind, Pierce and Buchanan, at least in my estimation, should have been plausibly shot for treason in their aid to the South before the Civil War, and that Johnson single handedly destroyed reconstruction and likely is the reason that Jim Crow lasted until the nineteen sixties.
Sorry, mean, tweets in.
January sixth are not even in the same universe as any of that. And if you believe that you're an idiot, that's putting it kindly. I mean, even pegging Trump against the insanity of the Civil War period is a dumb exercise. If you want to ask me who the single worst president of the modern era is, it's not a difficult answer. It's not Biden or Trump. His name was George W.
Bush. He took this country to war under false pretenses.
He's responsible for millions of debts in the Middle East, tens of thousands of wounded or dead American servicemen, squandered seven trillion dollars abroad, and blew the financial crisis. Yet these historians go right past this. They actually ranked George W. Bush nineteenth ahead of presidents who we can barely name, which is something that I wish was true of that man. The Biden and Trump ranking show how completely bankruptcy establishment mind is when it comes to assessing Trump. Biden is
good for beating him and for running against him. Nothing on Israel, Russia, COVID, the economy is considered at all things that affect billions of people, not to mention the actual daily lives of the people that Biden is supposed to serve. Trump too, the worst president in American history for being main and for January sixth. Really, what are these historians doing. They are erasing the stakes of real history, and they are lowering the bar of our expectations of greatness.
Abraham Lincoln was one of our great presidents because he rose to the occasion. He used astounding brilliance and wisdom navigating a task that would likely have ended in total disaster if he was not there. Franklin Roosevelt, too, willed this country out of the Great Depression and expertly guided us through the Second World War. They were titanic men who would have, honestly, we would have been screwed without, just as we were screwed when we had the wrong.
Men like Buchanan and Pearce and Johnson. All were proven either great or awful because of their actions, not just for simply existing or for saying the wrong thing. None of this, of course, will stop the Biden team from crowing about this ranking. Already, his favorite TV show, Morning Joe favorably covered the ranking, and if that's what helps him get through his day when he's lucid, then I
guess it's cool. But in Americans themselves, we'll get the verdict to them in November, but they don't seem to all agree with these professional historians.
I mean, Crystal, come on, I mean, we're gonna.
Put Georgian and if you want to hear my reaction to Sager's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at breakingpoints dot com.
Thank you guys so much for watching shing. We really appreciate you.
If Counterpoints will have a great show for everyone tomorrow because Chrystal will be honest, will be extra great. Brian's at a fish concert.
Doing whatever that is. He's in Mexico at a fish con him.
I was like, okay, all right, I mean that's interesting when people choose to do with their free time.
All right, We'll see you guys later