4/18/24: Billions To Ukraine & Israel After Tax Day, Bibi Preps Iran Response, Kari Lake Total Abortion Ban, US Caught Hiding Israel War Crimes, Boeing Whistleblower Describes Criminal Coverup, UAW Expands In The South, Bob Menendez Blames Wife For Corruption, Trump Juror Drops Out

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, guys, ready or not, twenty twenty four is here,
and we here at breaking points, are already thinking of
ways we can up our game for this critical election.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
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Speaker 3 (00:15):
Coverage that is possible.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
If you like what we're all about, it just means
the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that,
let's get to the show. Good morning, everybody, Happy Thursday.
We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do
we have for Saul?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Indeed, we do many things percolating here in Washington, DC.
We're going to start off by taking a look at
this gigantic foreign aid package they are trying to shove
down all of our throats, the very latest, and what
its prospects are for passage or failure. Just really great
stuff there. We also have new developments in terms of
the political fallout in Arizona, specifically over that eighteen hundreds

(00:51):
era abortion ban, how Republicans are reacting to it, the
chances that that changes the Senate prospects. A lot going
on there. We've got a new report that detail's torture
of Palestinian detainees and how the US is responding to that.
We also have some blockbuster testimony yesterday in two separate
hearings from Boeing whistleblowers who are making some stunning and

(01:15):
frankly terrifying allegations against that company. So we'll break that
down for you. Also have some big news at Volkswagen.
Once again, workers are voting on whether or not they
want to join the UAW. This could be a huge
deal in terms of unionizing foreign automakers in the United States,
and the UAW seems to feel pretty good about how

(01:35):
it's going to go this time around, so we'll break
that down for you. Stunning developments also with Bob Menendez.
You remember he's been indicted for some pretty wild corruption
allegations involving gold bars and many other things. We're getting
a sneak peek at what his planned defense is and
basically he's going to throw his own wife under the bus.
Really just just a stand up guy there, really really

(01:58):
great guy. Unbelievable. And we've got a first look at
some of the Trump jurors who have been selected in
that hush money trial up in New York City. And yeah,
I mean It's just interesting to think about how anyone
of this country at this point could be unbiased about
Donald Trump. I don't envy them this task that is
set before them, but you know, we'll take a look

(02:20):
at who they are and what that may indicate about
how this trial is going to.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Go for them.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
Yes, that's right.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
We will get into all of that before we get
to that, though. Thank you to everybody who's been subscribing
to the show. We finally got to show off our
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(02:47):
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Speaker 3 (02:53):
Dollar on that. Or if you can help us out
breakingpoints dot com.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
And by the way, thanks everybody checked out Sager's moderation
on The Bigdom eight last night. I watched it was
fun best. You did a great job. It's not an
easy task with so many people. First, that's a lot
of people. It's a lot of people, and you know,
all of them big personalities, and all of you did
an excellent job, you know, being neutral and controlling things
and keeping it more or less.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
We streamed it on our channel. It was a zero
heady debate on Israel. It was Dave Smith, jenk Uger
versus Dennis Praeger and Batcha or I can never say
your fun I'm gonna go with batya botya anyway, so
you can watch it. We haven't streamed on our channel.
I think we may release it as a podcast. Maybe
any reflections, Well, I'll tell.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
You what it was interesting. I thought that the exchanges.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Were the real thing that I took away from it
is that sometimes even when we're quote unquote debating, is
that even trying to define the clarity the terms was very,
very difficult because the resolution was about how Israel should
respond after October seventh. And I actually thought one of
the key differences was that Dave and Jank, I mean,
they're not defined just by October seventh.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
They were trying to go to.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
The bigger picture context where they were talking about occupation.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
They were talking about Gaza.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
They were talking about the formation of Israel, about what
the future needs to look like, peace deal, whereas the
other two were not as engaged on that question necessarily,
And so that is part of the problem with quote
unquote debating this and how much context you're even allowed
to bring in. But it was two hours, which I still,
I honestly didn't even think was long enough.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
It probably need to go to it.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Flew by, yeah, I mean, especially with that number of
people and all of them having a lot to say.
But I thought everybody behaved themselves. Well, I mean, obviously
I thought David chanked and fantastic. You're not gonna be
surprised to learn. But you know, I enjoyed the exchanges,
and it's just interesting to see at this point, you know,
I think it's difficult to defend the things that people

(04:44):
are seeing on the ground, So how are some of
the war equipped Israel supporters going about mounting that defense
at this point? Is always interesting.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Take a look, Yeah, watch it for yourself. You can
hear it.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
I try my best. Let them all speak, So take look.
It's on our channel and we'll release it sometime later.
All right, let's go ahead and talk about foreign aid,
which is very germane to the topic.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Now I get to actually voice.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
My opinions that for me would have been hard. There's
no way I have kept the mouse the.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Way my tongue a couple of times make sure that
the camera wasn't on me, and I was like, wow,
that's that's wild thing. You know, it's not me saying it.
Let's go ahead and begin with Speaker Mike Johnson, who,
in my opinion, is currently undertaking one of the greatest
betrayals of his own caucus in quite a long time.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
And I will get into some of the historical context.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
This is a man who came into his job after
the whole speaker fracas when Kevin McCarthy is kicked out.
The right flank says that they're okay with him. He
starts getting wishy washy on Ukraine Aid. He's like, yeah, maybe,
and then the start the Hawks start to go after him,
and then we start to see some signs Crystal. We
start to see a little bit of rhetoric about oh,
we got to stand up to Russia and we're like, okay,

(05:57):
that's well, what does that mean? And then we see
him flip flop on Faiza, and when he flip flops,
he says, well, if you hadn't gotten the classified briefing
I'd gotten, then you would flip flop too. That's how
you always know. That's how you know that the ICEE,
the intelligence community that got the little knife in you,
and the starting to twist and the money starts coming in.
Now you're responsible for fundraising, and now all of a sudden,

(06:19):
this man, who had a very different record on Ukraine
whenever he was a normal congressman, is starting to talk
like he's Ronald Reagan in nineteen eighty two. Perfect example. Actually,
honestly worse than nineteen eighty two. The level of grandeur
you have to have to say what he said, which
we're about to play for you, is insane.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Let's take a listen.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
We are an unprecedented times. Okay, we're in dangerous times.
This has been articulated here around the world and here
at home. We need steady leadership, We need steady hands
at the wheel. Look, I regard myself as a as
a wartime speaker.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
I mean, in a literal sense, we are.

Speaker 4 (06:52):
I knew that when I took the gabble, I didn't
anticipate that this would be an easy path. Former speaker
Nuke gingridg posted a couple of days ago on his
social media that this is the hardest challenge that's face
to speaker probably in the history of the country and
the moment we're in right now. He said, arguably maybe
comparable to the Civil War, but maybe worse.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Right, maybe comparable to the Civil War, Yeah, or maybe worse.
You're just like Schuyler Coofax. My dude, that's exactly what
I mean.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
It's practically Abraham Lincoln.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, yeah, definitely, Sam Reeburn and all those other guys
during the Great Depression and during the World War Two,
they never face anything like who do you think you are?
Wartime speaker? America is not at war except if you
were one of these people. Now apparently we are. Now,
Oh it's we're fighting in Ukraine. We're the ones who

(07:40):
are fighting in Israel. That is one of the best
views into the minds of these grules that I've ever seen. America,
which is not at war, shouldn't be either involved in
either of these conflicts. And look at the level of
passion the way that this man talks to Crystal about
two foreign nations and the way that he sees his
role in propping this up. And some of the details

(08:02):
here on this package are out, I mean just outrageous.
Let's go and put this up there, please on the screen,
and I'm just gonna read you, guys. The top line
numbers the legislation that Speaker Johnson is pushing sixty billion
dollars for Ukraine.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
We've gotten through this.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
This completely depletes US military assets, US military stockpiles. It
is a gift to the military industrial complex. It will
not change a single iota on the ground in Ukraine
except allowing the government to kidnap more people who are
mentally disabled and physically disabled and throw them at a
Russian bullet.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
Even with this, the Russians will.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Still outproduce and outmatch the Ukrainians whenever it comes to ammunition.
Two twenty six billion dollars for Israel and humanitarian aid
for civilians in Gaza. Now, who wants to guess the
ratio of military to civilian aid there? Crystol Right, okay,
and then finally quote unquote eight billion for the Indo
Pacific as a real time, so insulted by this because

(09:01):
it's actually a stack of the least priority for American
interest gets the most money, the middle priority for American
interest gets the second most amount of money, and the
region of the world, which matters the single most of
the US economy gets the least amount of money. And
then that doesn't even bly the question of what the
hell is all this money going to do?

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Anyway. I mean, this is strategic insand yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
I mean with the Israel piece, it's once again, you
guys have probably seen these photos where there's literal bombs
dropping on Gaza as these little pitoly food packages are
dropping as well. You know, it just makes me sick,
and it is so tired and cliche at this point,
but I cannot help a note. They move heaven and frickin' earth. Yes,

(09:46):
when it comes to making sure the military industrial complex
is fed, making sure a pack is fed, making sure
we keep these conflicts going endlessly because there is so
much money at stake, they will come together in a
bipartisan way. Joe Biden, writing an op ed backing the

(10:09):
Republican Speaker Mike Johnson, they will do whatever they need
to do from a legislative perspective, using all these procedural
tricks of the trade to try to steamroll this thing through.
When it comes to forever war, when it comes to healthcare,
lifting the minimum wage, dealing with homelessness, any other domestic priority,

(10:34):
we can't. Sorry, it's not our priority. We tried, it's
too hard, We're divided, et cetera, et cetera. It is disgusting.
It's such an emblem of just how rotten and corrupt
and out of touch and what a bubble these people
are in and how misplaced their priorities are in the

(10:54):
most corrupt way imaginal.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
That is very well said in Look, this is sometimes
a trite thing, but it's April eighteen. How many of
us are self employed and just had to pay our
taxes on April fifteenth, had to wire the irs, had
money taken out of our bank accounts.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
For what and this look what's going on, And this
is what we are.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Paying for billions and billions of dollars, not a single
change iota of change on the ground in Ukraine doing nothing.
We are funding the deaths of not even young Ukrainian
men at this point, middle aged Ukrainians. I hope we
will enjoy the pictures of Ukrainian grandfathers who are missing
their limbs, and that the young men who are partying

(11:32):
in Vienna and in Budapest and all across of Central Europe,
while we're the ones who are paying for the ammunition.
So that the people who are too poor, too dumb
to stay in the country and who don't even want
to fight are the ones who are thrown into this
on the Israel packages.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
So what are we paying for? Exactly?

Speaker 2 (11:48):
So we are assuming all of the costs of Israel's
military actions abroad, and now they're about to go and
strike Iran. Whose military do you think is going to
be funding that bill? And like I said too, Taiwan,
Indo Pacific, these are regions of the country, Japan and others.
They actually of the world. They matter, they actually matter.
They're actually being short changed in terms of what would

(12:10):
genuinely be militarily useful to them for these conflicts which
mean nothing to all of us. And the craziest part
is this is a total uniparty takeover. Let's put this
up there on the screen, speaker, Mike Johnson's plan relies
entirely on Democrats. Let me be very clear here, this
is a GOP and democratic plan to let this go through.

(12:35):
It's a little bit convoluted, so please stick with me. Basically,
what Speaker Johnson has done is he's taking these four packages.
It's going to be Ukraine, it's going to be Israel,
Indo Pacific, and there's a fourth bill which is not
yet out, which is some pay for some of Okay,
So let's let's just be very clear here. It's they're
not together. They're going to pass them each individually. What

(12:57):
he is doing is sending them to the House Rules Committee.
The House Rules Committee, by tradition decades of procedure, basically
says that the ruling party is the one who is
supposed to pass the rule to allow the advance of
the vote. Okay, well, currently the Rules Committee. One of
the deals that was struck within the Republican Party was

(13:18):
that the Rules Committee would have powerful members of the
Freedom Caucus and others who would nix the Ukraine aid
in even the Israelid in some cases here that would
be of their makeup. What Johnson is doing is explicitly
screwing over his own party members, working with Democrats and
Haakim Jeffries to advance this foreign aid to the floor

(13:40):
and then allow votes where both parties and this is
another very key thing I want to make clear.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
What with Ukraine.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
For example, a sizeable part of the GOP caucus is
going to vote against Ukraine AID. A sizeable part of
the Democratic caucus is going to vote against Israel AID.
What they're doing is a corrupt bargain where they both
work for each other, and then they allow majority votes
to come together, and then they throw the little Taiwan
Pitdley thing on the third. There is an excellent scholar

(14:07):
of congressional procedure, Josh Huter, and he wrote this this morning.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
I'm gonna read it to you. Quote.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
He says, rather than simply allow members to sign a
discharge petition or vote for a parliamentary question or other maneuver,
Johnson has raised the specter of forming a procedural coalition
with Democrats to overrun GOP opposition, potentially the most grievous
betrayal of partisan politics in the modern era. This is

(14:34):
a step further than the sins of John Bahner and
Paul Ryan, who will run out of office just for
using Democrats to pass spending bills. Johnson will now work
with Democrats to snuff out opposition from his GOP colleagues,
reverse that as well. Democrats do not bail out Republicans
when they don't have votes on the rule. They are

(14:54):
doing it for this one instance, Crystal, so they can
fund Ukraine, and so they can fund Israel. We are
this is a color revolution, This is a uniparty war
exception takeover of all of our governmental procedure so we
can send eighty billion.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Dollars to foreign countries.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Right, Yeah, your.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Tax dollars going to put a gun in the hand
of a mentally disabled Ukrainian who doesn't want to fight,
thank you, and to bomb babies. It really does make
me very sympathetic to our libertarian brothers and sisters. So, David,
I mean felt this way about taxes before when I
sent in my tax check, where you know, normally I
don't mind paying my taxes, I don't mind paying my

(15:33):
fair share whatsoever. But when it's so naked, this is
going to fund more bombs to be dropped on a
refugee camp, or more bullets to massacre gosins who are
seeking aid desperately trying to get flour. No, it's it's disgusting.
And if the American people had a say in this,
they would say no. But you have so much corrupting

(15:57):
influence of money. You have, yes, the deep State using
all of their scare tactics to try to force some
sort of unanimity. Whatever that they did to Mike Johnson
got him to flip on a dime. Yeah, And I
really think with him part of it too is he
is so fervently ideologically and religiously committed to Israel that

(16:21):
in order to get the Israel Aid through, which is
so important to him, he was basically willing to do
whatever else he needed to do. And this is what
the whatever else looks like. So since you had him
on Israel, it only took a little turn of the
screw to get him on Faiza apparently, and to get
him on Ukraine as well. And now you know this

(16:43):
is where we are.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Yeah. I mean Dave Smith and Jank both yesterday.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Jank in particular, he's like, if a single American goes
to fight in this war, I'm going to stop paying
taxes and I'm going to rally the people. By the way, Jank,
I will be in the streets with you. Dave made
a joke as a libertarian, He's like, Hey, why don't
we all just start now?

Speaker 3 (17:00):
I agree with you.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
I am very rarely the you know, online libertarian poster.
I am so hopin mad about this one, because once again,
if we were sticking with the way that our government
functions anytime, let's say, what are our services, Crystal that
you or I or any others. Let's everybody just take
a moment and think about a service in your life
that's a healthcare maybe something like that, where you would

(17:24):
like the federal government to move heaven and earth to
make it easier for you. Maybe buying a house, your wage,
how that we're working conditions, getting married tax credits.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
I could go on forever. They are not doing any
of that for you.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
They're doing it for a foreign country, and they're using
our money to do it, and they won't even use
our money to actually pay for anything inside of this country.
It genuinely makes me sick.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Any Israel is a wealthy, advanced nay talk about it
all the time. They have universal health care. We don't.
They do, and we're sending billions to them. It's just
it's so it's preposterous on that level, and then it's
so outrageously im moral on the level of what we've
seen unfold. And you hear the Biden administration, you know,

(18:09):
worried about civilian life, etc. Etc. You can't take them
seriously when this is their number one priority. We can
actually put up there. The other thing that's astonishing is
some of the arguments that they're making in front of this.
Put a five this Wall Street Journal tear sheet up
on the screen. This is the Biden op ed that
he published here, Moment of truth on Ukraine and Israel.

(18:29):
Both countries urgently need usaid to defend themselves against brazen
adversaries that seek their annihilation. One of the arguments that
he makes here is directly about how this will help
to fund and finance the American war machine military industrial complex.
He says, if Congress passes military aid for Ukraine and Israel,

(18:52):
we won't write blank checks. We'd send military equipment from
our own stockpiles, then use the money authorized by Congress
and replenish those stockpiles by buying from American suppliers. Oh
Boeing raytheon, They'll be so happy, and includes Patriot missiles
made in Arizona, Javelin missiles may now Alabama, artillery shells
made in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas. It's just astonishing to

(19:13):
me that they are affirmatively leaning into the pitch that
guess what, guys, this is going to go to our
great military industrial complex suppliers. So it's not like the
money even leaves within like fifty miles of where we
sit right now. It's so naked and it's so incredibly
manipulative and disgusting.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah, by the way, a quote just came across my dad.
I love this from Mike Johnson. Here's why you decided
to flip flop. Listen to this quote.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
I really believe the intel and the briefings that we've gotten.
I believe she, Vladimir Putin and Iron are the axis
of evil.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
Oh jeez, they are in court. Jesus Christ. What year
are we a Yeah?

Speaker 2 (19:54):
What year? I feel live? Jumonji meme? What year is it?
What year is it? It's in nineteen seventy two. This
is madness. It's complete madness. We have a video here
of some of the House Republicans who rightfully are furious
about this. They were interviewed by CNN's mon Roju Let's
take a listen for.

Speaker 5 (20:12):
Hours last night and proposed different paths for the speaker.
That would have avoided the abjects surrender represented by his
strategic choice here. There's no other way to describe it.
It's surrender. It's disappointing. I won't support it. It's disappointing.
It's completely detached from what our base wants, what our
voters want.

Speaker 6 (20:33):
This strategy is not to try I think the strategy
is to fall on East Sword.

Speaker 7 (20:38):
So when I asked a Congressman Chip Roy about whether
or not it was time for him to oust Mike
Johnson from the speakership, and he said that this is
you said. He went right up to the line, Dana
and didn't go across there that line, perhaps because he
needs to talk with the speaker, which is happening right
now now. The question is will the numbers add up
to Aliston from the speakership because Democrats, as you mentioned,

(20:59):
could step been to save him because of what he's
doing here on Ukraine. So this is a different situation
than the fall when Karthy was ousted from the speakership,
But no doubt about it, Mike Johnson opening up a
revolt on the far right with his conference with this move.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Here, So yeah, I mean screwing over your own party
it's just incredible. And finally we have the word from Speaker.
Johnson himself went on CNN's Jake Tapper Show, of all
places to make the case for this.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Just listen to his own words. Look at the way
that this man talks right now.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
And let's also not leave Trump out of this, because,
as Ryan and I covered, he was singularly important in
making sure that this happened. Let's take a listen.

Speaker 4 (21:36):
Look, we know what the timetable is. We know the
urgency in Ukraine and in Israel, and we're going to
stand by Israel, our close ally and dear friend, and
we were going to stand for freedom and make sure
that Vladimir Putin doesn't march through Europe. These are important responsibilities.
A strong America is good for the entire world. Since
World War Two, really, really the responsibility for the free

(21:57):
world has been shifted onto our shoulders, and we accept
that role. We're an exceptional nation. We're the greatest nation
on the planet, and we have to act like and
we have to project to Putin and g and Iran
and North Korea and anybody else that we will defend freedom.
It doesn't mean boots on the ground. We're not the
world's policeman. But we're going to do the right thing.
And I did tell the President the plan on all

(22:17):
of this, and I think he clearly understands why we're
running display and why we.

Speaker 8 (22:21):
Need to do this.

Speaker 4 (22:22):
I think this sets up the next election, the next administration,
the next president, and I believe he's going to win
in a better position.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
So Trump endorsed the plan, spoke with Mike Johnson.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
He's an idiot. So when he hears from Lindsay Graham,
where he hits from Lindsay Graham, it's a loan.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Trump is like a love loans, Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
And so now we're doing a fake loan to the
most corrupt government on the planet. The AID actually allows
you to cancel the AID, to cancel the loan, if
you're the president.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
What do you think Biden's going to do on day one?
After this passes, We're never gonna.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
We're never get paid back, whether it's technically dead or alone.
Of course, it's not going to have Yeah, I mean, listen,
I never want to hear from a single soul ever
again that Trump is some anti war president. It's always
been preposterous. If you looked at his record last time around.
I mean he was actually very hawkish towards Russia. In
spite of the rhetoric and the Russia Gate, you know,

(23:17):
phenomenon and obsession and derangement and whatever, it was, actually
in his policy quite hawkish towards Russia. He was consistently
rolled by the deep state, by the intel community in
the same way that Mike Johnson is here and you know,
standing right beside Mike Johnson on the same thing. The
last thing I want to make clear to people is

(23:38):
there are really two reasons why this is happening right
now as far as I can see. Number one is
Israel's provocation viz a vi Iran bombing their embassy and
then the inevitable retaliation. That is part of what gave
this thing momentum right now. So once again bb playing

(23:58):
us like a fiddle, getting his way, getting the a
that has been hung up until now. So that's number one.
And number two is what you just heard there, Donald
Trump giving it the go ahead and you know, putting
his hands on this and saying basically, yes, this has
my blessing. He's incredibly influential with the Republican Caucus. They
basically follow his lead on many things, and so I

(24:20):
think the fact that it had his buy in was
essential to creating this moment. Sotta write a question for you,
which is, you know, is this a fade, a complete
or is there any chance that Democrats don't want to
go along that they're nervous Because I know there's some
nervousness from some Democrats about our if we pass the
rule that puts this in their hands. We don't know
if we're going to get the humanitarian aid that we

(24:41):
need to pretend like we care about civilians being massacred
in Gaza. Do you think there's any chance that this
gets blocked?

Speaker 2 (24:47):
There is, So there's several things. The vote is going
to happen on Saturday night. It's a long time from
now till Saturday. Somehow shenanigans. It's possible that the motion
to vacate comes up that would require the whole speakership thing. However,
there's been some indications currently the Democrats, at least some Democrats,
would save Mike Johnson's speakership just to make sure that

(25:08):
there is no more chaos in the House. Josh Gottheimer
in particular, wants to fund Israel. That's right, you guessed it,
and that's one of the reasons why he's.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Decided to do that, Guy Moscowitz.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
So these individuals there, look, I mean, there is enough
room here to work with where I would say it
is likelier than not. This is based upon the sources
that I've spoken to. Keep in mind my sources, at
least the people will talk to me. These are the
people who don't want this stuff to pass. So when
they tell me, I know it's actually likely on this one,
I believe them because their analysis of the situation and

(25:39):
the coalitions and all of that involved are that because
you've got the Dems willing to work on Ukraine and
the Republicans willing to work so hard on Israel that
it is allowing the corrupt bargain to go through without
enough objection. You've also basically bought off the progressives with
this pitily humanitarian aid and giving them enough, say the

(26:00):
Congressional Progressive Caucus and others, a decent portion of them
are going to vote for it because does include humanitarian
aid for Gaza, and also that gives an out to
the Senate Democrats should that whenever this moves over to
the Senate, even the people like Chris van Holland and
all others they've indicated they would vote for Israel aid
and one of the ways they can do it is, yeah,

(26:20):
it sends weapons, would send humanitarian aid too, which is
there is something sick right about paying for the wounds
of the people who are are people who are wounded
by bombs that are also sing yeah, you.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
Bomb, and then you send them a loaf of bread.
The other thing is the problem in Gaza in terms
of the humanitarian situation isn't a lack of availability of aid.
There's hundreds of trucks that are still backed up at
the borders. The problem is our great ally Israel blocking

(26:50):
food and fuel and water from being able to come in.
And there are a lot of indications that in spite
of their claims that they're improving the humanitarian situation, that
they're certainly not living up to the pledges that they
made and what's getting in is still wildly insufficient. So
you know, the humanitarian aid is ass covering so that

(27:11):
people like Chris van Holland, who has made a big
show of saying some really important things with regard to Gaza,
can point to that to justify shipping more bombs to
massacre women, children. I mean, some of the reports coming
out about this is the largest cohort of children who
have had amputations that we've ever seen. Are going to

(27:33):
be made for life, the trauma that they're going to experience,
and you're gonna ship more bombs to create more death, destruction, annihilation, trauma,
et cetera. But don't worry, we'll send you a loaf
of bread as well. That'll make it better.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
Yeah. Look, it's total chaos, and it is.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
It is certainly possible that this may not pass, but
right now I would bet on it passing. And honestly,
I should have never gotten my hopes up. We only
got a three month reprieve. I should have known that
they will.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
Now.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
They always win in the end, every time, the military
industrial complex, the neo cons. No matter what you or
I think, no matter the fact that the vast majority
of the American people are not for any of this
aid to Ukraine and to Israel, it doesn't matter. And
it's just up days after tax Day, just a little
bit too on the nose.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
Let's move on.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Let's talk a little bit about Israel, as we just
talked about, and where some of this money may be going,
and who's going to be funding and what exactly they're
going to do about it. So here we have Benjamin
Netanyahu who is speaking about the striking Iran in retaliation.
We can go ahead and play it, and I'm going
to read they say they also have some objections. I
appreciate it, but I want to clarify. He says that

(28:43):
we will make our own decisions. He's talking here about
the United States. He says, the State of Israel will
do everything necessary to defend itself. Today, the Cabinet will
approve a plan to rebuild the settlements of the Gaza Strip.
We will invest a very low some of shekels to
make the settlements of Gaza available to generations. We will

(29:04):
invest in housing, infrastructure, education and employment. So he's talking
there about two things. He's talking about striking Iran, the
State of Israel, we will do whatever we want to do.
And he's also talking about using money, US money, presumably right,
some of these shekels, where do you think exactly they're
coming from.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
Shechel, by the way, is the currency of the State
of Israel.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
In case people didn't know that, using that to build
settlements in the Godstrap and complete contravention of US policy.
And we will get to some of the changes in
US policy and all that in a little bit. But
this comes as the entire world, the Western world, is
trying to descend upon Israel, begging them, please, please don't

(29:45):
get us into a war with Iran, and yet they
continue to walk away, being told by their benefit, being
told straight to the face of their own benefactors, that
they are.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
Going to do it. Anyway.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
Let's put this up there on the screen. This is
from the Times of Israel. You could take it. You've
got After meeting with President Herzog of Israel, David Cameron,
the UK Foreign Minister says, quote it is now clear
that Israel will respond to the Iran attack. The British
Foreign Minister quote, Hope's retaliation will not further escalating tensions,
calls for the G seven to sanction Iran, and the

(30:17):
visiting German Foreign Minister also says all parties must act
prudently and responsibility. So you have Tony Blinken, who is
pressuring them President Biden here, You've got the freaking British
Foreign Minister, a huge supporter of the State of Israel.
You've got the German Foreign Minister, all of these people
descending there. Apparently Prime Minister Netanyau even put a call
off for several hours with the Prime Minister of the UK,

(30:38):
where the Prime Minister was like, hey, man, like, maybe
just keep us out of this one, because it would
just be easier for all of us if we didn't
have to shoot down missiles for you. And yet that's
not what this is. A government acting in complete impunity.
We've seen this many many times. But again, let's just
play it for the whole world, for all of us,
since we're the ones who are funding this.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
And here's the thing. You know, things were getting a
little out for Nan Yahoo. There was a little bit
of scrutiny about what was going on in Gaza. The
Americans were going to increasingly uncomfortable. It was becoming increasingly untenable.
How much has the horrific annihilation and humanitarian disaster, the
famine in northern Gaza, how much has that fallen out

(31:18):
of the news As everybody starts beating the war drums
and getting all hyped up about this conflict with Iran.
There were these reports acer I don't know if you
buy these or not, because it was from a like
not totally certain news source that the US back channeled Iran.
Was like, how much you let Israel do a little
bit of a retaliatory attack and just let it be?

(31:40):
Like can you imagine if we were directly attack? Can
you imagine if our embassy was attacked how we would respond? Yesterday,
Emily and I played this exchange with Matt Miller. I
don't know if you saw Matt Lee pressing him on
all right, because their dodge is well, we don't know
if it was really a consulate building that Israel hit.

(32:01):
We're investigating, we haven't really figured that out yet. That's
their dodge to avoid condemning Israel for starting this whole
terrifying chain of escalation that risks dragging us directly into
conflict with Iran, even though I genuinely think that the
Biden administration actually wants to avoid this direct conflict, but

(32:22):
they haven't done a single thing to try to forestall
that eventuality. So yeah, BB and Israel they act like,
you know, toddlers who haven't been disciplined, who know they
can get away with whatever the hell they want to
get away with, because they always do. Because we'll do
things like, you know, pretend we're having an investigation into
whether or not they really hit an embassy. Trust me,

(32:45):
if they didn't hit an embassy or consulate building, we
would have said it right away. The fact that we're
out here pretending like we've got to do some months
long investigation to figure that out tells you everything you
need to know about what actually unfolded here. But we
will deny my reality. We will lie, we will cover up,
and we will continue moving heaven and earth to ship
them their bombs, to continue doing whatever the hell they

(33:08):
want to do. Our interest and the safety of our
service members and our people be damned.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
Yeah, this is America last, its finest. Let's put this
up there on the screen. Just I want to reiterate
again how many world leaders are quote urging restraint. You
again have the war cabinet and the far right who
are all saying that we need to have swift action.
But then you have basically every leader of a G
seven nation who is urging restraint, who is even rhetorically
backing up Israel, but is reaching out and urging caution

(33:37):
and not to have retaliation. It is just virtual certainty
this is going to lead for some sort of tit
for tat escalation. The United States will be involved. We
already know that because we already were involved. We shot
down the majority of the missiles. If there is more
of an escalation then will be even more involved in
shooting that down.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
And BB has one of the BOBE has wanted this decades,
urged us to.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
Do this for years.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yesterday on the zero Hedge Debate, we played a clip
of him advocating for the overthrow of the Iranian regime
in two thousand and two before Congress. This is on tape.
It's literally right there out in the open. He has
urged every president from George W. Bush onward to overthrow
the Iranian regime and to bomb Iran. He tried to

(34:21):
get Trump to do it. He tried to get Obama
to do it. There's a whole interesting Atlantic series. You
guys can go read it if you want. Jeffrey Goldberg
sat there and let BB spout a bs about why
America should go to war. He came to our soil
against our own president of the United States and spoke
against the Iran deal.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
He tried to get up. He tried to get George W.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
Bush, As I said, multiple times after Iraq, and he
had many supporters in the cabinet. The only thing that
saved us from going to war with Iran is that
the Iraq War was such a disaster, because if it
had gone even remotely well, then he could have convinced
Condoleeza Rice and all these other idiots to do that
as well. Absolutely, let's just keep in mind exactly who
we're dealing with. He says all these things out in

(35:03):
the opening. It feels totally comfortable. Yeah, any last things
for the movie.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Yeah, I mean, even though it's utterly psychotic, Like I
genuinely can't wrap my head around the psychopathy that it
requires to just like casually flirt with this gigantic war.
You can see why he did it, because now the
frame of conversation isn't oh my god, here's a baby
who you're starving to death in Gaza. Now the frame

(35:28):
of conversation is freaking Mike Johnson out there talking about
the access of evil. That's much stronger ground for bb
net Yahu with the political class here, certainly with the
Democrats who are in power here. And you know, frankly,
it's just a much better conversation for him to take
the focus off the suffering of Palestinians at their hands

(35:50):
and at our hands. That completely shifts the frame in
a way that is much more favorable for him. And also,
by the way, you know, it's not an accident that
this is right at the moment when there was Haretz
op ed saying listen, we got to face it. This
has been a disaster. We have lost on every reasonable
metric of success in Gaza. So he also has to
shift the frame domestically to some other victory that he

(36:12):
can chase after. So the logic of it is sick,
but you can see exactly how he made this calculation
and decided to thrust all of us into this incredible chaos.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
All right, let's move on to Arizona. This is very,
very impactful in terms of the electoral news. So just
yesterday there was major breaking in terms of after the
Arizona Supreme Court upheld a Civil War era law which
banned abortion across the board in the entire state. There
has been now an intra GOP fight on whether to

(36:47):
try and repeal that law or not.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
Well, let's put this up there on the screen.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Just yesterday, the state Senate introduced a bill to repeal
that abortion band. And by the way, by repeal, I
just mean adding for rape incests and.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
The life of the mother.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
But the House actually blocked the effort to do so,
showing that the House Republican leadership quote shows no signs
of relenting despite pressure from prominent Republicans, including Trump, to
toss the ban that many voters quote view as extreme
and archaic.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
I think that that's a reasonable way to put it.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Well, the House Republican Leader, the House Speaker, the House
Legislature was controlled by the Republicans in Arizona. They just
seem content on throwing this entire election. And it is
astounding because this is a position that is not held
by even a majority of the minority I guess of
the people who are pro life, and yet that's the

(37:43):
current law on the books in a critical battleground state.
What's even more astounding to me is how the politicians
there are navigating it. So Carrie Lake, somebody who is
the Arizona Senate candidate, previously on tape saying she was
completely fine with the ban. Then after the ban came out,
she said, well, yeah, we should have some sort of repeal.
We need to come sort of a consensus, but I

(38:06):
support exceptions for the life and the mother. Well here
she is just yesterday in an interview in local Arizona
media where now she's changing her tune a little bit.
She does support the band. She says something else, which
you'll listen out for him. We'll flag it after we listen.
Let's take a listen.

Speaker 9 (38:21):
Can you explain your shift on abortion from civil war
law to now.

Speaker 6 (38:28):
No federal ban on abortion, because I believe that, truly,
that's something that people do want to hear from what
we've heard this past.

Speaker 10 (38:35):
Well, first of all, I've never shifted from the no
federal ban. You know, if you're my age or older,
you've been on this planet for more than fifty years.
Roby Wade was was the law of the land, even
though both sides knew it was unconstitutional, and the Supreme
Court struck that down and brought the decision back to
the state. So we're going to have fifty different state laws.
So we need to find some common sense approach. I'm

(38:56):
never going to apologize for wanting to say babies and
being pro life, but I also realize the world that
we're living in, even if we have a restrictive law here,
you can go three hours that way, three hours that way,
and you're gonna be able to have an abortion. We
have to start working in the minds and hearts of women.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yeah. One of the ways to win over the minds
and hearts of women, Crystal is to say, yeah, I know,
in our state, the state that you live in, and
that you pay taxes in voting, I know, I know,
that's really tough. And that's why it's okay that you
have to get into a car and you can drive
three hours that way or three hours that way. Also,
depending on where you live in Arizona, it may be
several hours. And also you may have to get on

(39:34):
a plane. So it's actually gonna cost you some money
as opposed to being able to pursue what you want
to do in your own home state. That sounds really
comforting to a lot of the voters who are concerned
about this.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
What are these people? Are they living in an alternative reality?

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Right? Well?

Speaker 3 (39:48):
What is happening here? Am I losing my mind here?

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Yeah, So the line is basically, oh, it's no big
deal because you can just like go over state lines
and still do the same thing. She's framing it in
terms of like, that's a bad thing, but the subtimes
here is like, yeah, don't freak out, because you know
there are other states around that aren't using eighteen sixty
four laws passed by settler pedophiles, that you can avail
yourself of the rights that you previously enjoyed in our state,

(40:13):
you know, just to help people understand why the Republicans
in the House in Arizona may have made what seems
on its face to be this sort of like politically
insane decision of making sure that this law stays as
it is on the books. And it's because of the
power of organized minority groups, and this is what is

(40:34):
long driven abortion politics really, and in particular, you know
you have it is especially now a minority position to
have this effectively absolute ban. But for people that vote
on that issue in the Republican Party in particular, they
are the ones who support such things. So if you're

(40:56):
doing the calculus of like, I don't want to face
a Republican primary next time around, if you have a
lot of people who are organized that hold this fringe
view in terms of the American people, that can end
up being a real political threat to you. And you
know the other thing is you're gonna have to deal
with the situation that Carrie Lake is dealing with of

(41:18):
wait a second, voters looking at you and going, wait
a second. Previously you said you love the S band.
Previously you said you believed in you know, heartbeat bills
and fetal personhood and all this stuff. So why the change?
Why suddenly is there this incredible world flip flop? And
listen to be fair to that position. If you are
a person who genuinely believes that abortion is murder, if

(41:41):
that's your principal position, then this like leave it up
to the states, and it's cool if they have murder
in California. And actually I want to allow a little
bit more murder here in Arizona because I'm doing this
political calculus and it doesn't look good to me, Like
I think it's fair for people who hold that moral
position and believed you when you were all all in
with them when there were no consequences, are disgusted with
the flip flop?

Speaker 3 (42:01):
No, it should be.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Yeah, if you're very pro life, you should be repulsed
also by people who are basically willing to use you
as upon And if your pro choice. You should just
look at this and be like, Wow, this is freaking crazy. Yeah, electorally,
we already know what's going to happen here Lo and behold,
let's put this up there on the screen.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
What do we got?

Speaker 2 (42:18):
A key change in the way that the Arizona Senate
race is being rated in terms of which way it's
going to go, it has now gone from toss up
to Lean's Democratic, and in terms of the House rating,
same thing in the Arizona sixth district, Lean's Republican to
toss up so est safe seat, easy seat one that
you're supposed to be a checkbox Leans Republican.

Speaker 3 (42:39):
It's Arizona, for God's sake, right, Nope, not anymore.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
And now Carrie Lake, i mean carry had all kinds
of problems already with stop the steal, with abortion, healthcare,
we can all go on forever. So it's her highlight
reel was going to be a problem for her no
matter what, especially in a state where we've had multiple
races now both presidential and statewide, where Democrats did better
than expected. But this is just the gift to Democrats.

(43:05):
This is the greatest gift you could ever get. You
have one of the most extreme abortion laws in the
whole country. And now you got a lady who used
to support it is on tape and now is like
kind of wishy washy on where things could go.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
Good luck.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
You know, Republicans, you know you're taking some of the
best headwinds in a presidential election and you're just throwing
it away on an issue where you're not even going
to win in the first place, I've seen.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
Somebody, actually, I think it was Mike Cernovich you said this.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
He was like, hey, pro lifers, I'm not sure if
you know this, but there's actually been a net increase
in abortion in the United States since Roe versus Wade.
So you guys are drawing your red lines and saying
you won't vote for Trump and causing all these problems electorally.
And not only are you going to cause future electoral losses,
you didn't even win the fight, you know that you
allegedly set out to do. So it's just been it's
just ridiculous all the way around.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
Yeah, and just so you know, it's not an accident
that these ratings changes come right now. The Cook Political
actually pointed specifically to this eighteen sixty four abortion ban
and also the fact, by the way, remember there's likely
to be a ballot initiative on the ballot in November
that will allow voters to repeal that ban, which is
very motivating obviously for people who are even remotely on

(44:12):
the pro choice side of the ledger. And also the fact,
and this is something we'll have to cover another time,
that Republican fundraising is dramatically lagging behind Democratic fundraising. And
that's actually not just an Arizona phenomenon. That's almost across
the board. And you know, there could be a lot
of reasons for that. I think Donald Trump is a
big reason for He is like just sucked dry the

(44:35):
Republican donor base. There's also a report that he's now
demanding any Republican candidate that uses his name in a
fundraising pitch, he's demanding that they give him a five
percent kickback of whatever they raise off of it. So
I mean, he's sort of single handedly undermining Republicans' ability
to fundraise. And I also think that abortion plays into

(44:57):
the fundraising piece too here, because it's very motivating issue
for Democratic aligned individuals and specifically donors and Republicans are
kind of like demoralized around the way that all of
this has unfolded. Just to show you to this data
for Progress poll demonstrating just how unpopular the Arizona abortion

(45:18):
ban actually is, they ask the question, let's put this
up on the screen. So sixty six percent of voters
two thirds of the country disapprove of the Arizona Supreme
Court's near total ban on abortion. And that includes eighty
two percent of Democrats, sixty six percent of Independence and
Republicans even basically split fifty to fifty. Forty nine percent

(45:40):
of Republicans even disapprove of that ban. So just to
give you a sense of just how toxic this particular
iteration of abortion bans really is. And you know, Republicans
can't really run away from it at this point because
they spent so many years establishing them in this very

(46:01):
hard line position that you can't try to pull a
Kerry Lake and just you know, do a one to
eighty and pretend like you didn't say the things that
you said in the past, because we can all roll
the tape.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
You're exactly right, Crystal, And just by the way, you know,
in terms of more messaging from Republicans sees not exactly
helpful here, we have Senator Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee
where she says that Griswold versus Connecticut is constitutionally unsound. Griswold,
for those of you who don't know, is the one

(46:30):
that legalized birth control.

Speaker 11 (46:32):
Let's take a listen constitutionally unsound rulings like Griswold versus Connecticut,
Kila versus City of New London, and n FIB versus
Sibilius confused Tennesseeans and left Congress wondering who gave the
court permission to bypass our system of checks and balances?

Speaker 3 (46:53):
Okay, good luck.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
Now we're against the case that legalized birth control, all right,
unless you got are literally going to pass a law
almost immediately after so that gets repealed.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
I don't even know.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Yeah, how's that gone with IVF? I know, you know,
I mean the Republicans are blocking at the federal level.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Yeah, there's at least a pro life case for IVF.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
Right, Absolutely, more babies if your family values you want
more babies, like IVF is an important part of that.
So yeah, you can see, you know, even when they
recognize this is politically disastrous, like in Arizona, Kerry Lake
trying to backtrack Donald Trump like, oh, of course we
support IVF et cetera, et cetera. When it comes down
to how they actually vote, they just can't do it

(47:35):
because there's still so much influence from the very organized
pro life crowd, which has been able over decades. I mean, listen,
you have to give it to them in terms of
their sticktuitiveness, in terms of their determination, in terms of
like the savvy tactics that they used, but to basically
force a minority fringe position on the entire country. And

(47:57):
the part that they failed on though, was having any
sort of plan for what happens next. So in that way,
they really are the dog that caught the car with
regards to Roe being overturned and the Dobs decision, And
it's it's wild, wildwist out.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
There, that's all I'll say, exactly right.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
So we don't want to lose sight of some of
the updates that are coming out of Israel, including a
bombshell doing report from UNRA. Now, as we head into
the segment, I just want you to keep in mind
as a context that our government just officially certified that
they have no evidence Israel is violating international humanitarian law. Okay,

(48:36):
keep that in mind as we move forward. Let's put
this latest report from UNRA on detainees Palestinine detainees being
held by Israel being tortured. This matches up, by the way,
with a number of prior media accounts, but I want
to give you some of the specifics here because they
really matter. So first of all, let me read a

(48:57):
little bit from this report. They say ill treatment of
detainees was reported to have occurred primarily while in the
barracks and to have intensified in advance of interrogation sessions.
This included being subjected to beatings while made to lie
on a thin mattress on top of rubble for hours
without food, water, or access to a toilet, with their
legs and hands bound with plastic ties. As a side note,

(49:20):
there are doctors who came out and said that amputations
of limbs because of handcuffing procedures was commonplace in these facilities.
The report goes on to say several detainees reported being
forced into cages and attacked by dogs. Some release detainees,
including a childhead dog bite wounds on their body. Detainees

(49:40):
were threatened with prolonged detention, injury or the killing of
family members if they did not provide requested information. One
detainee said, and this is difficult to hear, so warning there,
but this is their quote. They made me sit on
something like a hot metal stick and it felt like

(50:00):
I have burns in the anus. The soldiers hit me
with their shoes on my chest and use something like
a metal stick that had a small nail on the side.
They asked us to drink from the toilet and made
the dogs attack us. There were people who were detained
and killed, maybe nine of them. One of them died
after they put the electric stick up his anus. He

(50:21):
got so sick we saw worms coming out of his
body and then he died. That was an adult male
detainee who was aged forty one years. There have been
thousands of Palestinians that we know who have been detained
by the Israelis since October seventh. In addition, in Sager,
this is very significant to the US and our policy
because you'll recall we led the charge in terms of

(50:45):
defunding UNRA ANRA being the number one aid organization on
the ground in Gaza. That is part of what has
contributed to these disastrous humanitarian conditions and turning, including mass
epidemic of starvation and children literally star sarving to death.
So we led the charge on that our Congress has
now passed legislation that requires we continue the defunding of

(51:08):
UNRA through at least twenty twenty five WILL. And this
was all based on these allegations that some Unrestaffed members
participated in some way, some small number of unrestaff members
this was the allegation participate in some way alongside HAMAS
on October seven.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
Well.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
In addition, what this report says is that unrestaff members
reported being interrogated about the work performed by UNRA and
the specific functions they perform on behalf of UNRA. They
also reported being subjected to threats and coercion while in
detention and being pressured to make forced confessions against the agency,
including that the agency has affiliations with HAMAS and the

(51:48):
Unrestaffed took part in the October seventh attacks against Israel.
So what this report indicates is that those supposed confessions
were obtained under torture. This, again, Sager, is something that
had been previously reported in the press, but confirmation here
coming from a un body of the outright torture being

(52:08):
committed routinely against Palestinian detainees being held by Israel. We
got some statement from the State Department of like, you know,
we want to answers from Israel. I'm sure we'll never
get those.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Yeah, that's it's ironic, right, And it's also one of
those interesting point that Dave brought up last night at
the zero Hedge debate is he kept saying, like, one
of the reasons that we're able to have hostage swaps
is He's like, because Israel has a bunch of hostages,
excuse me, prisoners, And it was one of those things
where I was thinking, like, yeah, you know what, that
really doesn't get a lot more attention about who exactly

(52:40):
some of these prisoners are and in terms of the
way not only that they're treated, but in terms of
the way that they're like disparately viewed. And I think
that that is part of the issue overall with US policy.
We focused a lot on one group, we completely obscure
the actions of another group. And the real issue from
what I really, you know, came home to me yesterday

(53:00):
is that for the pro Israel side, moral relativism itself
is the enemy and that enemy of that, and I
understand that to a certain extent. But the issue is
that whenever we're talking here, specifically about the government, a
third party actor allegedly for the US and our disparate
treatment in the way that we view one group and

(53:22):
not the other group, I think that's where everything just
completely falls apart, because we're not even talking about our
interests here, we're just like blindly supporting, yeah, another group.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
Well, there's just a blanket assumption that if it's the
actions of israelis if they do something wrong, which comes
with a lot well, I don't know who said that,
and we need proof and whatever, and maybe it's just
Hamas made this up or you're antisemitic, that's why you're
saying this. But if they, in some rare instance did
something wrong, it was always with the best of intentions.

(53:50):
Whereas if it was a Palestinian and certainly if it
was Hamas that did something wrong, well the worst possible
intentions are assumed. And so you can you know, some
of the comments that were made with a straight face
about like, well, Israel doesn't intentionally target civilians. It's like,
have you been watching the same war that we have,
where they literally announce a complete siege that definitionly targets

(54:14):
literally every civilian in the Gaza strip. Not to mention
the revelations that just came out about this AI software
Where's Daddy, where they're intentionally waiting for militants to go
home so that they are killed alongside their wives, children,
other relatives, any other civilian who happens to be around.
There's something else that is very disturbing about the way

(54:37):
that Israelis have talked about and conducted this assault, which
is they've just made the blanket assumption that any man
who is even proximately fighting age is a terrorist. And
that's been sort of accepted by the media. And I
get it in terms of when we're looking at how
many people have been killed, you know for sure if

(54:57):
it's a woman or a child, Okay, there's a civilian,
so we'll count them. And then you just sort of
assume then that every man who's being slaughtered deserved to
be killed, or deserved to be detained and tortured and
had a metal rod shoved up their ass. There's like
an actual war on men and assumption that they are

(55:19):
inherently guilty if they happen to be a fighting age
that I find to be very deeply, deeply disturbing. At
the same time, we're getting another bombshell report about our
own government, which again remember the context of the segment,
just certified so that we can continue to ship Israel
weapons that Israel is not violating international humanitarian law or

(55:44):
committing war crimes. Okay, put this up on the screen.
So Secretary of State Tony blaken is sitting on staff
recommendations to sanction certain Israeli military units which were linked
to killings or rapes. This is a pro public a report.
Let me read you a little bit of this. A
special State Department panel recommended months ago that Tony Blinkeln

(56:08):
disqualified multiple Israeli military and police units from receiving US
AID after reviewing allegations they committed serious human rights abuses,
but Blinkn has failed to act on the proposal in
the face of growing international criticisms of the Israeli military's
conduct in Gaza. The incidents under review mostly took place
in the West Bank and occurred before October seventh. They

(56:31):
include reports of extra judicial killings by the Israeli Border
police an incident in which a battalion gagged, handcuffed, and
left an elderly Palestinian American man for dead. And an
allegation that interrogators tortured and raped a teenager who had
been accused of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails. And part

(56:52):
of that torture was attempting to obtain a confession from
this teenager who they allegedly raped with an object and
tortured in a variety of other ways. So let me
just underscore for you. Number one, this was before October seventh.
So this idea that everything was all hunky dory and

(57:13):
peaceful and there was a ceasefire and whatever before October seventh,
clearly nonsense. This was the Westmink. This wasn't even Gaza.
So you can't do buttoms with any of this. And
second of all, when the State Department came out and
said we have no evidence that they've committed human rights abuses,
it's a lie. It's just a lie. Your own your

(57:34):
own state department panel told you they were committing human
rights abuses. You have the report, it's sitting in your
briefcase or in your desk, or in your email file
or wherever you have it. So when you say we
have no evidence of that, you are just directly bold
faced lying, which isn't a surprise, but it's still important

(57:57):
to have this direct confirmation from pro public.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean, well, the reason why it matters,
I think, just to reiterate, is that if you find
them officially in violation, then you can't give them any
aid because of the Leahy Law. We have laws on
the books that are designed specifically for this purpose as
but I will also say they have always found a way.
And like I said, one of the first stories that

(58:20):
I chased hard here in Washington is that the US
government had direct evidence that the Afghan military, who we
were funding very similar cases, were raping little boys straight up,
and that our money was directly supporting the warlords who
were participating in this. And in fact, one of the

(58:41):
sources that I had told me that in some cases
US military equipment humbies and others provided to the Afghans
are actually being used to transport some of these children.
And what ended up having all of this, by the way,
is sitting in a vault. It's in Congress. They just
won't let you and I see it there's an unclassified
version that was eventually some of it was released, some
of it was leaked to the Washington Post. But because

(59:02):
if they released those findings, we would have to shut
off the whole war in Afghanistan. And this was while
we were still involved in that. So what do you
think they did? They just classified the entire thing, and
then they also started doing all kinds of other things
where certain casualty numbers and others would ended up being released.
That's when we could tell how badly the Afghan military
was doing. So what they would do is they would
just classify the number of dead for the first time

(59:24):
in nineteen years or whatever of our experience in Afghanistan.
And this is textbook the ways that you get around
laws like this, and it is just this is the
real deep state right here.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
This is the deep state.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
You know. There have been a few State Department officials
employees who have resigned out of horror at the Biden
administration's policy vis of the Israel. And one of the
things they point to is that Israel gets this special treatment.
You know, if it was another country, certainly anyone who
was remotely adversarial. Okay, we've got our process we had

(59:57):
our panel. This panel specifically is exists to look at
potential human rights abuses with regards to Israel specifically, Like,
that's the whole point in the panel. Any other country
has that panel, they make their recommendations, actions are generally taken.
You're making a good point about how there are other
exceptions as well, but that Israel is treated unlike other nation,

(01:00:18):
And it really turns on the head, you know, the
thing that gets thrown at people who are especially trying
to support Palestinian rights, or who are deeply concerned about
this conflict, or or saying, hey, I'm going to vote
based on Joe Biden's facilitation of the slaughter of Palestinians.
Here is why are you singling out Israel? Why are
you just picking on Israel? And it really turns that

(01:00:39):
on its head, because what you can see is actually
the US government singles out Israel time and time again
for special treatment and allows our own you know, our
own government to flout laws put in place to constrain
behavior and to make sure that we aren't shipping the
bombs that get dropped on refugee camps as one example.

(01:01:01):
But when it comes to Israel, all of that gets buried,
it gets pushed aside. There is a special procedure that's
different from when it comes to other countries, and so
you see it very clearly in this instance. I'm curious
to see how Matt Miller or whoever's at the podium
today in the State Department briefing, if they have one,
how they deal with this latest very inconvenient fact. It'll

(01:01:22):
be some version of like, we're investigating, we are investigating.
I haven't seen the rapport. We'll look into it, we'll
get back to you. We take it seriously, of course,
but they're always investigating and they're never coming to any
conclusions when it comes to Israel.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
Yep, that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
All right. Let's go ahead to another important issue that
we did not want to miss, which is yesterday they're
actually two separate Senate hearings into what the hell is
going on over at Boeing. There were two different Boeing
whistleblowers who raised extraordinary concerns about what they reportedly saw
when they were in Boeing's employ Here is a snippet

(01:02:02):
of one of the whistleblowers. This is Ed Pearson, who says,
in no uncertain terms, Boeing is engaged in a criminal
cover up with regard to safety violations. Let's take a listen.

Speaker 12 (01:02:13):
Boeing routinely states that their airplanes meet or exceed all
safety standards. This is untrue and misrepresents the safety of
the airplanes. The company illegally removed thousands of quality control
inspections on individual airplanes without the FA's knowledge and without
the knowledge of the airlines. Although many of these inspections
have been reinstated, hundreds of airplanes have left Boeing factories

(01:02:34):
without those thousands of inspections. My last point is that
Department of Justice and FBI relied on the slanted results
of the first Max accident investigation to develop an illegal
and unjust deferred prosecution agreement. The NTSP chair reiterated Congress
last week that Boeing has said there are no records
documenting the removal of the Alaska Airlines store. I'm not

(01:02:56):
going to sugarcoat this. This is a criminal cover up.
Records do in fact exists. I know this because I've
personally passed him to the FBI.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
Now, I want to underscore what he's saying right there,
because these hearings are of course directly about that Alaska
Airlines door plug which came out in mid flight, terrifying.
Thank god, no one was injured, you know, really, by
the grace of God, it could have been that everyone
on board that aircraft was deceased. And in the context
of that investigation, Boeing said, oh, some of these safety records.

(01:03:26):
I don't know what happened to him. We misplaced them. Oops. Oops,
just an honest mistake here, And he's saying very directly, no, no, no,
you didn't misplace them. Those records existed. And I know,
and I'm calling this a criminal cover up directly because
I handed those records to the federal government. So an

(01:03:48):
extraordinary claim their sager. There was another whistleblower, Sam Salapor,
a Boeing quality engineer, who testified to Josh Holly their
planes are not safe, and he claims he was threatened
and silenced by the company as well as to listen
to a little bit of what he had to say.

Speaker 8 (01:04:07):
Are these planes safe right now?

Speaker 13 (01:04:10):
I would not. You know, it's like an earthquake, you know,
the big air quokes is coming. But when that hits
the building that you know you let's say, if you're
talking of a building have to be prepared to accommodate
that type of well, let's say, shake up. You know,
it has to be built properly. Right now, from what
I've seen, the airplanes are not being built perspect and

(01:04:33):
per requirement.

Speaker 8 (01:04:34):
So your testimony is the seven eighty seventh line and
the seven Triple seven, the Triple seven line, or you think,
are not well.

Speaker 13 (01:04:43):
They are doing stuff that increases the risk factors. Okay,
when you increase the risk factors, you know it's not
just one. You are doing stress concentrations. That those stress
concentrations like you know, breaking a paper clip. You know
you do it so or twice, it doesn't break, but
it breaks at some time as the plane gets older.

(01:05:04):
You know, all of these things that you know you took.
You know, you said it's not a safety issue. It
becomes a safety issue.

Speaker 8 (01:05:11):
And the company's response to you was to threaten you.

Speaker 13 (01:05:16):
Threaten you, sideline you, you know, transfer you.

Speaker 8 (01:05:21):
You raise concerns about the seven eighty seven, and so
they transferred you, transferred you to the seven Triple seven.

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
Right.

Speaker 13 (01:05:26):
Well, yes, initially they just cut me off of all
the meetings. They took my name out, and then so
I was just doing nothing. I wasn't informed of what.
Then they transferred me, and they do it pretty stealthy.
Oh we have a job over here, we want to
go over there, so they move you down there. And
you know, I come from like forty years of engineering background,

(01:05:46):
so when I see and I've taken a lot of
stress class, stress classes, even though I'm not done a
specialist on that. But when there's a problematic area that
you see, you can recognize.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
So another, let's put this last hair sheet up on
the screen. He made an additional comment that really jumped out,
and man, I'm sure you'll find it noteworthy as well. Sager.
He said, quote in regards to retaliation, I was sidelined,
I was told to shut up. I received physical threats.
My boss said I would have killed someone who said
what you said. In that meeting. Senator Richard Blumenthal in addition,

(01:06:21):
asked about hey, what about the FAA. What if we
hired more inspectors? Would that help? And one of these individuals,
who was a former FAA engineer, said yeah, that would help.
But the attitude right now at the FAA is that
Boeing dictates to the FAA. So I mean, these are
deep seated problems here, and the consistent issue that comes

(01:06:44):
up very clearly over and over again is it was
about profits over safety. They were willing to cut corners.
There are some horrifying examples about employees who were jumping
on plane parts to try to bend them so they
would fit in. And now you think you're going to
be safe on that airplane. That they have completely lost

(01:07:06):
their way, and the FAA has become really captured by
this corporation and effectively has outsourced their own regulatory capabilities
to the company itself.

Speaker 14 (01:07:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:07:18):
He says that Boeing should ground every single seven eighty
seven Dreamliner which is in the sky. He says one
thousand Boeing planes are currently in a danger of structural
failure because of premature fatigue. On the seven eighty seven. Specifically,
he says that tiny gaps and plane parts have not
yet been properly filled. According to him, they have not
been properly addressed ninety eight point seven percent of the time,

(01:07:40):
and that debris is now lodged in eighty percent of
these unfilled gaps, which could easily result in a fire.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
He claims, as you said, that people are.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
Literally using their feet to jump on top of pieces
of the airplane to get them to align, and that
none of the stress testing which is happening, which is
leaving catastrophic gaps of error. Combine that with the criminal
cover up safety documents that the other gentleman said that
he's given to the FBI, and it's like, what more evidence.

Speaker 3 (01:08:09):
Do we need here?

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
We need a complete national takeover of Boeing until we
can figure out what the hell is going on, especially
because we are the ones. You know, back to the
tax situation, Yes, bowe makes a lot of money in
their private business. They also wouldn't survive without the US government.
We've built this company out a million times since its inception,
and recently in twenty twenty, we fund huge portions of

(01:08:32):
their business through the military industrial complex. You know, it's
not just passengers which are unsafe, it's our service members.
And then look at the F thirty five program, which
was a complete nightmare, not Boeing, but still it's a
similar situation. My point is just that commercial aviation, there's
one hundred million Americans who step foot on a plane
at some point in a year on a yearly basis.

(01:08:54):
That's one third of the entire country, and there's a
great shot that you're stepping on a Boeing aircraft. I've
been counting recently, seven out of the ten last planes
that I've been on, we're Boeing. And it's like in
every single one of these. You just look at that
and you're like, well, you know, I hope it works out.
And yes, commercial aviation is very safe statistically and all

(01:09:14):
of that, but the catastrophic failures which we see today
were not ever part of commercial aviation before. And this
is all a result of the pursuit of profit, the
sacrifice of safety, lack of government regulation, and just a
complete criminal cover up. Now at this point, because lives
are not just at stake, lives have been lost. Hundreds
of people died as a result of Boeing's mistake, not

(01:09:37):
just that long ago, and now this is the second
instance in just a matter of five years where people's
lives directly put at risk as a result of a failure.

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
At this point, and the number of safety instances that
are stacking up at this point, I mean, it has
been essential to the commercial airline industry that they have
this pristine safety record because guess what, people feel little
nervous getting on an airplane and flying so high up
there and thinking about what could happen. And the only
reason that prospect works is because you can look at

(01:10:05):
it statistically and say, I'm actually more at risk when
I get in my car. Well, what if that calculus
starts to change, and then you know, to your tax
point a modest proposal, how about you send our tax
dollars instead of going to bomb babies. How about you
send our tax dollars to have a real FAA that
has the capability to actually regulate and not just say hey, hey, Boeing,

(01:10:27):
are you doing a good job. Okay, great work, keep
it up, because that's what we have right now. And
by the way, this is a problem across the board
with regulatory agencies. This was a whole sort of like
neoliberal ideological project of we're effectively going to gut these agencies.
They're not going to have the technical know how to
even you know, credibly regulate these complex industries, let alone

(01:10:50):
the manpower or the funding. So this is that's part
of why this story is so important. It's important on
its own just because of how significant this one company
is and how entangled it is with the American taxpayer
and all of our lives. But it's also important because
it's so symbolic of a deeper rot that really exists
in almost every industry that you care to dig into.

(01:11:13):
So extraordinarily significant testimony that we heard yesterday, and of
course we can't forget about the prior whistleblower who raised similar,
very significant concerns about a lack of attention to detail,
about taking parts that had been discarded as these are defective,
pulling them out of the heap and putting them into airplanes.

(01:11:36):
And then lo and behold, while he's in the middle
of testifying, he is quote unquote found dead, and at
least some of his coworkers do not believe that he
committed suicide. Still a lot of questions around what the
hell happened there. So kudos to these two men who
know that their safety is at risk. There's no doubt
about it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
As he said, he literally said to his boss, said
that he would have killed somebody who said what he said.
So I guess we should just state for the record
neither of these men are suicidal.

Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
And I hope that they have some records and.

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
All of that ready, and that their families and all
of that are prepared for their safety as well.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
Yeah, indeed, we wanted to track a really important labor story.
Of course, we covered extensively the United Auto Worker negotiations
with the Big Three, which netted a significant contract improvement
for all of the workers there. That seems to have
sparked quite a bit of momentum in terms of unionizing
more auto workers around the country, including at foreign automakers,

(01:12:27):
and the uaw's new president, Sean Fain, very aggressively going
after these new organizing drives. And one of the big
places where they are laying their claim is in a
Tennessee Volkswagen plan which has previously they've previously attempted to
unionize this workforce and it got voted down twice before,

(01:12:47):
but they feel really good about their prospects this time
around for a variety of reasons I'll get into. Put
this up on the screen from Bloomberg headline here how
the UAW is winning over new plants starting with Volkswagen.
So this factory is actually voting right now on whether
to become the only foreign commercial carmaker that is unionized
in the United States. Would also be the first plant

(01:13:09):
to join the UAW since that strike last fall that
we covered so extensively. One of the members of the
organizing committed committee, one of the workers there at the
Tennessee factory, says, quote, We're going to be the first
domino to fall and encourage these other plans to get
out there with us. As I referenced before, there were
two prior attempts. Now, the South is notoriously difficult in

(01:13:32):
terms of unionizing. They have right to work laws quote
unquote right to work laws and a genuine general anti
union climate. There was a lot of sort of political
involvement from the governor at the time, effectively threatening these
workers that if they do decide to unionize then the
plant is going to be shut down. Now that is
illegal to do, but there was of course no accountability.

(01:13:55):
So you know, this time around they have gotten a
super much authority of workers to sign the card indicating
they would like to unionize. So that's significant. They really
have made it a very local worker, ground up movement
to try to unionize this time. And I think the
two other things I would point to here why they

(01:14:16):
feel so good about this is that Number one, you have,
as opposed to twenty nineteen under Trump, you have a
much more pro union president, much more pro union NLARB.
So you've got a friendlier climate in terms of some
of the decisions that could come from the NLRB in
terms of unionizing. But the big thing is this momentum
from UAW. You know, you look at you look at

(01:14:39):
what they were able to achieve, and these workers are saying, hey,
I'm doing literally the same job and I'm not getting
nearly what they're getting. So that's an incredibly powerful motivator
as well. You've got some Republican politicians in Tennessee and
in other states that UAW also has their eyes has
their eyeset on trying to trash this and undermine this effort.

(01:15:02):
A Tennessee state senator said, voting against the UAW is
protecting Tennessee's values. In Alabama, the UAW is making inroads
at a Hyundai plant. The governor there, Kivys, denounced the
union as a threat from Detroit, warned that the Alabama
model for economic successes under attack, and Sean Faine, the
president UAW, replied to that She's damn right, it is.

(01:15:23):
It's under attack because workers are fed up with getting screwed.
So yeah, interesting there.

Speaker 2 (01:15:29):
It is actually especially because so much of what's going
on in the South. One of the things I'm really
watching is how politics are changing down in the South
and in the sun Belt. We've had a huge population influx.
The economies of these states are booming manufacturing, but they're
still controlled by older red state ideology, despite the fact

(01:15:49):
that their voters have significantly changed. So, for example, this
is happening in the state of Tennessee. Tennessee is not
that many people. They have had a huge influx, specifically
in the city of Nashville, the rich suburbs of Franklin,
and others from California, from all over New York, et cetera.
The question now is that, in the combination also with
a lot of the economic growth, is are they going

(01:16:11):
to stick to some of this right to work policy
and other things that they traditionally have now for right now,
it does seem like that is the direction. But with
the change in voters, but also what I think is
going to be a change in their economy. I mean,
no offense, Georgia, you weren't exactly an economic powerhouse, but
nowadays like you really are becoming one. Florida, Alabama, Tennessee,

(01:16:31):
there's a ton of manufacturing that is down there from BMW,
Toyota and all these other Volkswagen et cetera. And they're
going to have to grapple and kind of change with
some of the new updates to their population and to
their economies as well. So yeah, I think that this
is actually a preview of what I expect big big
fights in the Sunbelt article.

Speaker 1 (01:16:51):
It's a real test case of whether or not you know.
And it's very symbolic too, since the vote failed here twice.
If they can off, it really does show that it's
a new day, that it's a new climate. The other
factor I forgot to mention is just unions are way
more popular than they used to be. You know, they're
sort of a historic high in terms of popularity and receptivity.

(01:17:12):
I saw this quote. I was trying to find it
specifically from a worker, but who said, you know, they
looked at the UAW contract and they said, I want
my life to be more like what they've got. Nothing
could be more powerful than seeing that model of success.
And that is a one point eighty from what has
been happening our entire lives with regard to the labor movement,
where every contract is concessionary, and they're having to take

(01:17:34):
cuts and cuts and cuts, and so yeah, rationally, if
you're a worker, you look at that and you're like, Eh,
this is risky, And they're telling me they're going to
shut down the plant. And it's not even looking like
they're getting that good of a deal over there, So
why should I stick my neck out? Now that calculation
has really flipped. UAW has their site on, as I said,
this Hyundai plant in Alabama. They also are looking at Tesla.

(01:17:56):
I mean, they really want to make a push kind
of across the board. And there's no place that's more
important or more difficult to organize than these auto plants
in the South, which specifically located in these states in
part because of their anti union politics. They want to
get away with paying their workers less than giving them
less benefits, etc.

Speaker 11 (01:18:15):
More.

Speaker 1 (01:18:15):
Perfect Union has been doing a characteristic great job covering
this union drive. They spoke to a worker there named
Robert about why he thinks this time is going to
be different and why some of the intimidation tactics are
not going to work this time around. Let's listen at
what he had to say.

Speaker 9 (01:18:33):
The loudest voices of the anti union. They keep trying
to press this notion that if we unionize Volkswags and
shuts down, they're going to close their factory. They're not
going to pull it out just because four thousand employees
out of six hundred thousand want to be organized, not
to mention the fact that all of their other factories
are organized. So the US is a huge market for

(01:18:54):
any auto manufacturer. They all want in this place. Really,
it boils down to if you have a bad union,
it's bad leaderships. It has nothing to do with the
philosophy of unions or what unions can gain as a whole.
So there's really not really great meat to sink your
teeth into when it comes to trying to tear the
idea of a union apart, and so they use the

(01:19:15):
the old reliables like it's going to shut your union down.

Speaker 1 (01:19:19):
The other thing to note here, Sakar is a Volkswagen
because they work with unions in other countries. I'm not
going to say that they've been like, you know, open
arms the union drive. I'm sure the organizers on the
ground could point to some nefarious dealings, but they have
not been as aggressively anti union as some other you know,
like Starbucks and other Amazon and other corporate giants that

(01:19:42):
have been the last thing. Put this last element up
on the screen referred to the anti union climate and
where this goes next. So after this vote, there's an
organizing drive happening in that Alabama Hundai plant, and lawmakers
are there are really trying to go after any companies
that would even be like receptive to unions. So they

(01:20:03):
are working on a bill that would bar any sort
of state incentives to companies that voluntarily recognize unions. So
what this means is, you know, theoretically they used to
work more like this. Once you have a majority of
workers in the bargaining unit who sign a cards and yeah,
I want to unionize, employers can say, okay, great, we

(01:20:24):
voluntarily recognize it. That's it. You have a union and
not go through the strawa. Okay, now we have to
vote blah blah blah, And there's this battle going on
at the workplace, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, we got
a majority here, they want to be in the union. There,
it's a done deal. So companies have that option, and
Alabama lawmakers are effectively not that a lot of companies
avail themselves of that option, but Alabama lawmakers are trying

(01:20:45):
to take that option off the table altogether. And you
can imagine saga that at this point, if you do
have a victory at Volkswagen after some of the other
victors that we've seen, how companies may calculate that it's
better for them to build goodwill for their employees if
they see the writing on the wall that union is
definitely coming in, that the workers are almost definitely going

(01:21:05):
to win, that they can avoid all of that, save
the expense and just voluntarily recognize the union. Move from there,
Alabama trying to undermine that direction.

Speaker 2 (01:21:13):
The other thing about unionization is even if it's not successful.
For example, Costco leadership put out this statement which I
thought was fantastic, where some Costco shop decided to unionize
and the executives put out a statement they said, hey,
you guys voted to unionize. Clearly we're doing something wrong,
and I want to hear what you guys want, and

(01:21:34):
I want to make sure that all my employees in
this entire country are so well taken care of they
don't feel like they have to do this now.

Speaker 3 (01:21:39):
I mean, obviously he's got an incentive to do so, but.

Speaker 2 (01:21:41):
The mea act of it was enough for them to
be like, Okay, I guess.

Speaker 3 (01:21:44):
We got to pay people more. Yeah, I guess we
got to pay people a lot more.

Speaker 1 (01:21:47):
That's such an important point. It's such an important point
because the rise of unionism doesn't just benefit those workers
who happen to be in a union, which is still
a pitily percentage of the American workforce. We've seen this
in the auto industry. Other automakers, including Tesla Jacky, had
to increase their wages because they could see the writing

(01:22:08):
on the wall Amazon. After the Amazon Labor Union had
that historic success on the organizing the Staten Island warehouse,
they had to lift some of their wages. They felt
the pressure that even though it was just this one warehouse,
now you've got drives going on across the country. You've
got not only ALU, you've got the teamsters look going
to organize Amazon as well. And so they're under pressure feeling,

(01:22:31):
all right, we got to do something to try to
make our employees, employees happier so that they don't choose
to unionize, because we still want to have a total
top down control of what we've got going on here.
So it isn't just the wages and benefits of union
workers that are at stake here. It really does sort
of set the pace for the entire industry, in the

(01:22:52):
entire economy.

Speaker 3 (01:22:52):
Yes, that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:22:56):
All right, let's turn to our favorite politician, Senator Robert Menenda.
You said, scumbag could not be a better word to
describe this individual. Okay, you'll recall he's under indictment for
a variety of alleged corrupt dealings, including the notorious gold
bars that were found in his closet. I mean, we're

(01:23:16):
poor allegedly taking cash and other gifts and favors from
foreign businessmen and then using that and doing favors for
them in return and for their countries in return. Disgusting
abuse of power, allegedly. All right, put this up on
the screen. So as if that's not bad enough. Now
we got a little sneak peek and how he's going

(01:23:36):
to approach this in court, And according to court documents
that his lawyers filed, he is planning to basically throw
his wife under the bus and say that she kept
the truth from him. She was the one getting the
money she was hiding what was really going on and
misleading poor innocent Robert Mendez into thinking that the gold

(01:24:02):
bars in his closet were there and it was all
on the up and up. Pretty extraordinary. Can put this
next piece up on the screen. The reason he's able
to do this is because his legal team was able
to successfully split his case from his wife's. Apparently she's
having some sort of surgery and has some sort of
medical issue. I don't really know the details of that.

(01:24:24):
His trial's beginning in May, her trial's beginning in July.
So the thought is he can use this defense for himself,
throw his wife under the bus, and not really impact
the way her case is separately adjudicated since they were
successful in splitting these two. But just the idea of

(01:24:45):
you're going to blame your wife and the details of this,
I don't know if you guys recall the way they
describe it here. They say they were accused of accepting
tens of thousands in cash and gold bars from three
businessmen and what prosecutors described as a wide ranging bribery
scheme in exchange. The Center stands acused of trying to
help secure overseas business deals, as well as interfere with

(01:25:06):
separate criminal investigations related to two of the businessmen. There
was also like a luxury car involved all kinds of
stuff like that. And if you think this man didn't
know exactly what was going on and what he was doing,
I've got a bridge to side.

Speaker 2 (01:25:20):
Well we know it because gold and dollars were found
in items of clothing bearing his name.

Speaker 3 (01:25:26):
How can you possibly claim that you didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (01:25:29):
It literally has his name ascribed on the jacket and
money that is tucked in the same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:25:34):
I think my name is actually here on this.

Speaker 1 (01:25:36):
Imagine you got gold bars in there.

Speaker 2 (01:25:38):
My name is right here, Soccer and Jedty. Okay, you
can read it very clearly, and there were one hundred
dollars bills in here. But yeah, it was it was
my wife who put that she not touching your suits?
What are you talking about? So look, this is totally ridiculous.
And as I said to scum behavior, you know, at
this point, let's say if he isn't true, it's like, dude,

(01:25:58):
if you're a real man, you would eat yourself and
you make sure your poor wife didn't have to go
to Jim and instead he's so power hungry he's going
to throw it. By the way, this is a new marriage.
You know, they were just married in twenty twenty, and
some of the behavior actually happened before they were even
officially married, and he was her fiance. So in this
new marriage, you have so little dedication and love for

(01:26:20):
your wife, you're literally going to blame her publicly as
an official, just so you can try and hang on
to power. You know, in the United States Senate. You
you are the absolute scum of the earth. I don't
think there is like, honestly, this is more shameful and
worse than the corruption charges. Yeah, to do something like
this as a man like, it's pathetic and it's disgusting.

Speaker 1 (01:26:42):
It is truly shameful. Like, I can think of fewer
things that would be less manly in the you know,
traditional sense than throwing your loved one, your wife under
the bus for your corrupt dealings. Also, by the way,
she's not the senator who can you know, get them
interfering the criminal investigation and you know, help them with

(01:27:04):
their international business deals. She's not the one who can
do that. So I'm very curious to see how they
attempt to spin this, you know, in terms of his
political career that is already over. The only thing he's
hanging on to is like, you know, whatever the remainder
of his term is. They already are, you know, filling
his seat. They've already had the Democratic primary New Jersey voters.
To their credit, he initially was kind of trying to

(01:27:27):
ride this down. And then they started taking polls Democratic
primary polls of him versus you know, potential opponents, and
he was at like eight percent. I mean, just immediately
people were like, you are disgusting and we do not
want you representing us. So the good people of New
Jersey not putting up with this corruption saga.

Speaker 3 (01:27:44):
I certainly hope, so.

Speaker 1 (01:27:45):
Going against type there in terms of New Jersey politics.

Speaker 3 (01:27:48):
This is such scum behavior. It's also crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:27:52):
You know, his kids, His freaking son is a congressman,
his daughter is an MSNBC anchor. It's like the nepotism
that exists in this world is just so ridiculous and
so and of course neither of them has a freaking
comment about their disgusting father's behavior. So he's gonna blame
his wife, Okay, I mean I hope he just like

(01:28:12):
I really am praying that he gets convicted, but I
still don't yet have faith because the previous case was
so ironclad and he still somehow got away with it.

Speaker 1 (01:28:22):
Well, I'm glad you raised that also, because the Supreme
Court has made the bar of what is corruption so
high that you almost literally have to be like taking
the gold bar and saying, I will exchange do these
favors for you. So that's how Bob McDonald got out
of his right problems. He was convicted in the Supreme courts.
I know, we don't think that this is actually a corruption.

(01:28:44):
And there was a similar thing of he also kind
of threw his wife under the bus there a little bit.
It was sort of like, oh, she wants to live
the high life. We couldn't afford it for anyway. Yeah, Anyway,
the Supreme Court has made it very difficult to actually,
you know, to secure these convictions behind them guilty. So
we'll see how the all unfold. But it's not a
done deal. Maybe his little gambit here is going to
work out disgustingly. All right, So we have a little

(01:29:06):
bit of a look at who some of the Trump
jurors are, and you know, I, first of all, I
want to make sure we're staying on top of these
cases because I do think that they're very politically significant.
Obviously they're important to you know, American people, regardless of
how you feel about them. And also because it's just
wild to imagine trying to be unbiased with regard to

(01:29:29):
Donald Trump, like literally anybody, because he has single handedly,
you know, one of the things that he has done
to this country, which is honestly terrible, he's made politics
and culture like the same. So one of the things
that I immediately noted that I lived in Kentucky at
the time when he was elected is the like swim

(01:29:50):
team moms and soccer moms that I was around, who
used to never want to talk politics, where it was like,
you know, if I even brought up I was doing
anything in politics, that got kind of like, now, suddenly
this was what everybody wanted to talk about, and everybody
had an opinion about Donald Trump, pro con whatever. So
it's very difficult to imagine assembling an actually unbiased jury,

(01:30:12):
although I do think people genuinely, you know, having I
served on a grand jury when I was actually lived
in New York, it was an interesting experience. And my
experience was that the people that were there were genuinely
trying to take their civic duty seriously and do the
best that they possibly could. So I do want to
say that, but just take a few offense of how
difficult it is to find these individuals. The media interviewed
a potential juror who had said I think I could

(01:30:35):
be unbiased. Now she's not on the jury because of
a scheduling conflict, but take a listen to how she
described her feelings about Donald Trump.

Speaker 14 (01:30:44):
Can you share your opinion of the former president and
why you felt that you could be unbiased.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
I'm not a fan.

Speaker 14 (01:30:55):
I during COVID nineteen, I lived with someone who was,
you know how depised, and I think his scandling of
COVID nineteen was.

Speaker 2 (01:31:05):
Abase.

Speaker 14 (01:31:06):
I also, I have assostory who has adopted from China,
and the comments he made about China when he was
running for president made her very anxious and therefore made
me angry. There policies he's supported it regarded women and

(01:31:31):
reductive health that I do not agree with, and.

Speaker 1 (01:31:38):
I think all of that.

Speaker 5 (01:31:40):
Needs to be addressed.

Speaker 1 (01:31:41):
So, you know, like she's clear that infinianed people are
dragging her. I don't know. I mean, listen, you're not
gonna find she's being honest.

Speaker 2 (01:31:48):
You're not going to find on a camera she's not
honest in the bout or wherever in the jury, whatever
it's got. You've been through this, I haven't been what
she said she was unbiased, whichever she was asked by
the court. It's only after she's dismissed that she's like, no,
I can't stand like twelve different things that he did.

Speaker 1 (01:32:04):
I mean, but listen, she could make the argument like,
but that has nothing to do with the specific case, right,
because everyone is going to have something he did they like,
they don't like his personnel whatever, Like every person who
is on this jury that's claiming they're holy and completely unbiased. Like,
there's no way, there's no way you don't have some
prior opinion about him. The best you can do is

(01:32:25):
try to put that aside and just look at the
specifics of the case. The other thing that was kind
of funny that unfolded in the core room is to try,
you know, the judge trying to get at like, all right,
who is really the most unbiased and what does your
social media presence look? Like? They were reading all of
these like posts that had been made by some of
the perspective jurors about Trump. And here's one snippet of

(01:32:48):
an exchange her he can put this up on the screen.
So they're asking this perspective juror, you know about his
social media, what do you think? What do you do?
And they say, well, how about you start? You use
any websites or any Facebook. And the prospective juror says, well,
I'm a repost king.

Speaker 2 (01:33:06):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (01:33:07):
So I'll see something that I thought was interesting and
I'll repost it. I do the Google thing and YouTube.
I can control what I watch and I can look
at the thumbnails and decide if I'm going to watch
it or not. And they reply that makes sense, and
then continue on. But there was a lot of this
going on and digging into like the social media habits,
the news gathering habits of these individuals. You know, in

(01:33:29):
terms of the right, there's already an effort to kind
of like seize on their bios and say, listen, this
is it can't possibly be an unbiased jury. Although I
will say on the other side of things, people were
noting there were two lawyers who have already been picked.
The jury hasn't been fully filled on I think they
have seven jurors, and by the way, they're in court
today again trying to complete this jury selection process. They

(01:33:51):
picked two lawyers, and there were some analysts who were
saying that might actually be a good thing for Trump
because they are more skilled, old at like looking at
the specifics of the case or considering these potential technicalities.
So I don't know if that's true or not. I'm
just telling you what some animals were saying about some
of these potential jurors. In any case, Jesse Waters was

(01:34:12):
going through the list and not liking what he was
finding about these individuals based on the characteristics that were
described as take a listen as a bit of that.

Speaker 6 (01:34:19):
A nurse from the Upper East Side with a master's degree.
She's not married, has no kids, and lives with her
fiance who works in finance. She gets her news from
the New York Times, Google and CNN. She said two
things that really stuck out. One quote, I don't really
have an opinion of Trump and quote no one is

(01:34:41):
above the law. I'm not so sure about Jeron number soo.

Speaker 1 (01:34:46):
So currently saying no one is above the laws, disqualifying potentially.

Speaker 3 (01:34:51):
Those like liberal Shibbalitz, Right.

Speaker 2 (01:34:53):
So it's like one of those things when it's like
when you know, when people like chant Israel has a
result right to defend itself. Yeah, it's not like bad
per se. But whenever you hear someone say that, you're like,
I do actually know a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:35:05):
It's liberal coded. Yeah, it's liberal coded.

Speaker 2 (01:35:07):
Like no one is above the law, but it is
panting that, you know, to the end of it.

Speaker 1 (01:35:10):
It's also funny that that would be something that becomes
liberal coded. Sure, yeah, I mean you're supposed to be
the law and order people over there.

Speaker 2 (01:35:16):
I see you both ways. As I was showing you.
As I was showing you, one of the jurors actually
just dropped out because she said she was like, you
know what, screw this. Publicly available details of her BIO
had apparently informed family and friends that she was on
the jury.

Speaker 3 (01:35:32):
She said, I don't want to deal it.

Speaker 1 (01:35:33):
I actually wonder, I wonder if it was this person.
I mean, it's very po you got you know, one
and seven chants and it's a woman that dropped out,
so it's actually even you know, more likely, so it
is possible. And I was thinking about that. I mean,
if you are on this jury. You were signing up
to be a public figure, to be smeared, be attacked.

(01:35:54):
It's I don't I feel for them. It's not a job, no, no, no,
that you should sign up for. Were lightly We do
have some of those.

Speaker 3 (01:36:02):
Details, Ystal. It just came out.

Speaker 2 (01:36:05):
It was the oncology nurse that was it. Wow, Wow,
it just got the news. Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:36:09):
Okay, well, no one's above the law. I guess that's
what I did her. And so last we've got this
tear sheet of who the first seven jurors now six
were four male, three females, now two females. Some of
the details here that I found interesting, just to give
you a sense of who these people are, because I
do think it's kind of kind of interesting. You've got

(01:36:31):
German number one as a middle aged salesman from Ireland.
He's going to be the cases foreman lives in West Harlem,
said he normally gets his news from listen to this list,
New York Times, Daily Mail, Fox News and I'm assem BC.

Speaker 2 (01:36:46):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:36:47):
That's a rare one. That's yeah, that's a rare one,
he says. In a spare time, he enjoys doing anything
out Doorsy once worked as a waiter but has worked
in sales for the last three decades. When asked if
he was aware of Trump's other criminal cases, he responded,
I've heard of some of them, and if you go
down the list, you got to mix bag in terms
of the like news sources, and most of them are

(01:37:08):
sort of claiming like and I don't really follow the
news that closely, so I mean express embarrassment that they
don't know more of the details of the case, which
I find believable. People are busy living their lives. You
can certainly find some jurors who are just not following
things closely. That's probably your best bet in terms of
finding and actually, like quote unquote unbiastcury.

Speaker 2 (01:37:26):
If I'm Trump, you know who I want. I want
people who don't read the news. I want people who
are actually the least informed because they will not have
preconceived opinions. I want people who watch TV, go to
the game, care about sports, living their lives, and I
want them to be able to come in with a
relatively open side, so you could say, yeah, I think
something about Trump, you know, based on whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:37:45):
Like you know, I vote every once in a while.
My uncle votes, he tells me. That's what I want.

Speaker 2 (01:37:50):
People who are hardcore ideological and almost like too.

Speaker 3 (01:37:53):
Informed to a certain extent in a certain.

Speaker 2 (01:37:56):
Way, like you're going to have very very well founded
opinions about this, which are you're not going to be
able to be unbiased whenever you come to the jury box.
So if I was Trump, I actually think things are
going in a direction which may be better for him.
That's really his only prayer.

Speaker 14 (01:38:11):
Any of this.

Speaker 1 (01:38:12):
Let me give you a little bit about juror number four,
because I thought this one was interesting. He said he
finds the form of president to be quote fascinating and mysterious. True,
he walks into a room, he sets people off one
way or another. The juror said, I find that really interesting. Really,
this one guy can do all of this. Wow, that's
what I think. So originally from Puerto Rico, has lived
in the Lower East Side for the last four years.
Self employed IT consultant, has attended one year of college,

(01:38:34):
been married for a long Time's two grandkids. He says,
I have no spare time when answering the question questionnaire,
my hobby is my family. So previously served on a
jury trial, but it was a long time ago. Normally
gets his news from Daily News, New York Times and Google.
A lot of them saying they get their news from Google.
What does that mean.

Speaker 2 (01:38:52):
I think they mean Google News. That's my like, that's
got to be it, right, Like a Google news reader
or something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:39:00):
I like, automatically serve you. It's like that Apple News.

Speaker 2 (01:39:06):
I've deleted that a long time ago. I don't use
any of that, but I think.

Speaker 1 (01:39:09):
They serve me or insulting sometimes.

Speaker 3 (01:39:12):
I don't even know. It's like pop culture crap or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:39:15):
So in my experience, the way that a lot of
normal people engage with the news is exactly like you said,
Apple News, news reader, something like that.

Speaker 3 (01:39:23):
iPads are usually involved.

Speaker 2 (01:39:28):
I don't understand, true, I will never understand the iPad thing.
But they love to read news on their iPad, specifically
in the Apple News app. So I guess they're being
well and form very true.

Speaker 1 (01:39:38):
But you know, and sometimes my mom will get one
of those Apple News alerts and she'll bring up something
to me that I had missed. So now that she's retired,
he's been helping me with my that's good. So anyway,
good luck and godspeed to these jurors. Is I don't
don't envy them this task and every word that they utter,
everything they've done in their life is about to be

(01:39:59):
scrutinized and used against.

Speaker 2 (01:40:00):
I would absolutely not do it, but anyway, all right,
We will see you guys later. Thank you guys so
much for watching. We had a guest but unfortunately didn't
work out. We are working on rescheduling them. Really appreciate
everybody who watched the show today, who supports us. Who
watch check out the debate. We'll post it later to
maybe tomorrow or something like that on our podcast feed,
and if you can help us out breakingpoints dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:40:21):
We'll see you later.

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