September 4, 2025 • 46 mins
Krystal and Saagar discuss Trump plot to crush Zohran, Venezuela regime change, Tim Dillon defends Saudi cash grab.
Juan Rojas: https://substack.com/@rojasrjuand
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 1 (00:30):
All right, let's get to Zoron, shall we.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, Well, it ties together because obviously, you know, his
campaign built on affordability and finding this you know, sort
of rockstar status in New York City coming out I
know where to win the primary overwhelmingly. I don't know
if you guys remember we did the live stream that night.
They were in New York and I, Emily and I
were you know here, Griffin and Ryan were in New
York and Emily and I were here remotely covering it.
(00:53):
And when we went into we're like there's no way
we find out because it's ranked choice voting. There's no
way we actually know tonight who won. Like make we
might know that Guomo won, but we're not going to
know whether or not. No wrong, wrong. So On beat
the polls by like twenty points and totally remade the electorate,
really energize young people who you know, were inspired by
what he had going on there. Okay, I'm going to
get out there and vote in a way that I
(01:15):
never have. So typically in New York City, when you
win the Democratic primary, that's it. It's a wrap, it's over,
because it's a very heavily blue Democratic city. Not so
much this time around. You had Cuomo, who allegedly is
a Democrat, who decided, now I'm not going to actually
just like be a gracious loser here and say well done,
(01:36):
and I'll support you for the general. Now he's going
to run again. And Eric Adams, the corrupt and disgraced
current mayor, who also is allegedly a Democrat, He's still
in the race. And then you have the Republican who,
in my opinion, is the most like, dignified and respectable
of the lot, Curtis Leewah I agree who is you know,
who is running because he's a Republican. Who's like, I'm
going to run as a Republican. That's what I've always
(01:56):
planned to do. So, you know, the billionaire class got
to get and thought, oh, we can't have this guy
like putting in public grocery stores or letting people, you know,
get on the bus for free. That would be an
absolute disaster. And now the billionaire in chief, Donald Trump,
is getting directly involved in the race, trying to clear
the field for Andrew Cuomo so that it would be
(02:18):
a head to head Cuomo versus Zora. Now, by the way,
the Poles say Zorn still probably wins in that circumstance,
but Cuomo would have more of a shot than he does.
Right now, so we can put this up on the screen.
This is reporting for the New York Times, which has
really they've done the best reporting about some of these
inner workings. And basically the scoop they get here is
(02:38):
that Trump advisors have directly discussed a job for Eric
Adams if he quits the mayoral race. Adams has been
kind of squarely when he's been asked about this. He
refuses to say outright whether he's committed to staying in
the race the whole time. And let's be clear, he's
pulling very poorly. He's in like sing you know, single
digits are like very low double digits. Typically people hate
(03:00):
him in the city. They think he's been terrible. You know,
he was indicted he did this corrupt deal with the
Trump administration in a pears. He denies that, but whatever
in order to get out of those charges. But New
Yorkers are not happy with him as mayor of the city,
as the lowest approval rating of any New York City
mayor like since they've been doing polling. So it's not
like he's pulling well. But if you get him out
(03:21):
and then the article says they also were looking at
a job for Curtis Sliwa, then you just have Andrew
Cuomo versus Zoron Momtani. Now Sleiwa I saw just this morning.
This doesn't surprise me because he said something similar in
the past. Sleiwa has come out and said absolutely not.
I'm here for New York. I don't want a job
in the Trump administration. This is what I'm doing, period,
end of story. I'm not even entertaining it. But it's
(03:43):
pretty wild Sogert to see Trump trying to get directly
involved and really putting some on the skills. And this
is the strange bedfellows thing for Andrew Cuomo, which you
recall in the first Trump administer during COVID, Cuomo was
set up. Is this great foil to Trump and whatever.
And meanwhile Cuomo behind the scenes, first of all, is
(04:04):
reaching out to Trump, according to the New York Times,
and it is telling business members and the communit oh,
I have a good working relationship with him, We're going
to be able to get along, et cetera. So it
just shows you how much of his posturing is some
great like Trump anti Trump resistance figure with total and
complete bullshit.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Well, it doesn't make a lot of sense because if
Zorn winning and being a disaster would be good for
wouldn't be good for Trump, so you would actually want
him to win. It's like an accelerationist philosophy. You're like, no,
actually you want somebody to do. If you think somebody's
gonna be bad, then you should let them, you know,
actually go full rain and actually win the primary or sorry,
win the election. So in one sense it doesn't really
make sense. But I think, on the other hand, with
(04:42):
the Trump obsession, how much of this is that he's
from New York and lived in New York forever and
just doesn't like Zoron and wants to personally get involved.
That partially could be part of it, But politically it
makes no sense because if you come in and ham
fistedly help Cuomo, New York Democrats hate Trump, even if
(05:03):
they might be open to Cuomo, why would you, as Coomo,
want Trump's support?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Right, That's exactly the tascit or that's exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
The line that Zoron is picking up correctly, by the way,
is you're like, hey, Trump is helping this guy. I'm
the person against Trump in a democratic environment right now.
You don't want nothing to do with Donald Trump. Yeah,
that's the part I just don't understand.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, I think Trump is I think in a sense
he's like he's kind of jealous of Zoron because he
has this deep hole, this deep hole in himself that
he was never like embraced and loved in New York
high society and as an Alner Burrow guy. And I
think there's still this sort of like deep well of
in security there. So you see this young, good looking
guy's being treated like a rocks. Are people momming him
on the street. He's this like political ouao or phenom.
(05:46):
I think there is a level of just like personal
jealousy that this city that was his city never embraced
him in the same way. But you're right, Zoran. Obviously
the Cooma people did not want this story to get out, right.
They don't want the Trump association to be out there
in the public. But now it is. And to your point,
Zoron is quite obviously because it's the most obvious thing
(06:08):
to do in political history, seizing on that to strengthen
his own hand. Let's go ahead and play D two.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
I think there are many ethical issues with this news.
We are talking about a mayor who was facing an
indictment that was then dropped by this administration to ensure
greater collaboration with the immigration directives of this administration, now
(06:34):
being considered for a job offer such that he would
drop out of a race to represent this city because
of the fact that they believe that would increase the
odds of anyone being able to defeat me.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
Those are incredible ethical issues, and none of this has
to do with New Yorkers. None of it has to
do with the welfare of this city. It all has
to do with power. It all has to do with
the audacity that we have here to believe that we
could pick our own mayor that we have to believe
that the most pressing issues are not how to ensure
(07:08):
that Donald Trump continues to have an ambassador in City Hall,
but that New Yorkers can actually afford the place that
they call home.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
He's got a great line about Quoma. He says, Quota
stay in the race because he doesn't understand that no
means no. It's his line on that. But yeah, I mean,
I think Zoron is very well. Even let's say Eric
Adams drops out and takes this position. Even let's imagine
this LEEWA goes back on its word, which I genuinely
don't think you will, and it's like, Okay, I'm going
to drop onto the race. Number One. You've got a
mechanical issue because the ballots are like being printed right now,
(07:34):
and so even to get them off the ballot, I
don't even know if it's possible at this point. I
still think based on the pulling that I've seen, Zoron
wins even if it's a head to head against Andrew Cuomo.
It's not just Republicans though, that are very upset about
Zoron and his success in New York City. You still
have Democrats who are like, like, it's very perplexing to
(07:55):
me at this point, who still don't want to support him,
who are still upset with him, who still I want
to endorse him, including Hakeem Jeffries, including Chuck Schumer. Where
the writing is so clearly on the wall. And by
the way, this is who your voters chose, right, Hikaeme Jeffries.
Zoron won your district by twelve points. Okay, so maybe
you should be talking to him about getting some advice
about how to fight and how your position yourself, et cetera.
(08:18):
This is a New York Democratic Congressman Tom Swazi saying
he doesn't even want Zoron in the same party as him.
This is D four. Let's take a listen, Zo Ran
Mamdani and other Democratic Socialist should create their own party
because I don't want that in my party. It's unbelievable
that this guy, I don't know if you are very
familiar with him, Sager, so he represents this I think
Long Island District in New York. He ran against Kathy
(08:40):
Hogel in the Democratic primary for governor and got walloped
by her. So it's not like he's some political phenom.
You know, if you look at who's winning young men
back right, who's building out, who's rebuilding a working class coalition,
who has the highest level of popularity in New York,
Tom Swazi is not on that list. Zoron certainly is.
Speaker 6 (08:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
I don't know though, at the same time I kind
of agree with him, only in the sense of I
would like to see more political parties because yeah, and
that's kind of where you know, he is the one
he's in.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, he would really get destroyed.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I totally agree.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, it's more though that you know, in the big
tent parties. Part of the reason nothing gets done in
Washington is because a lot of the big tents don't
actually agree with each.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Other at all.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Primaries are very useful for this purpose because you can
eventually take over a party.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
This is on a functional basis.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
But he's not wrong, like you know, that guy is
basically a Republican right in a lot of senses, or at.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Least in the Labels Party right gottheim should be the Republicans.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
There really should be parties like that.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
We should be in there right and then it can
be for we can have like the French system or
the Germans or any of these others with proportional representation
which allow people to battle out and then coalitions and
all those people can form in the way.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Who is that guy brad Lander right who supported is wrong?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
That's import Actually these types of things are good. So anyway,
that's my hot take.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
But that's not the way.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
He's not the way they mean. That's not the way.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
But in a way, I think a lot of these
people it's kind of like MAGA, Like Maga's not republican,
has become a Republican, But a lot of the people
who identify as MAGA don't actually consider themselves Republicans, which
by the way, was when one of their great assets,
because people don't like Republicans or Democrats, but like but
a Maga, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
It's one of the I think DSA is very similar.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
That's why Zorn is popular.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
I agree, because he does the democratic politician he does
it seem like a Demo crat. He run in the
Democratic primary, but he's not a capital d dem who's like,
you know, been going to Pete, but it's like Pete Bootage,
I just want to be president. He's like nine years old. Yeah,
that stuff comes across and it is important.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
It is the reason Bernie Sanders absolutely is one of
the most popular politicians in the country because he critiques,
he stands, he has his own brand separate in a
stink from the Democratic Party and is in critique of
the Democratic Party. And that's the piece where most of
them are just totally They see that as an existential threat. Yes,
you know, and actually they should.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
I think it's great and that's why traditional politicians in
this day and age are not going to be doing
so well, at least I hope.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
So we've got one David Rojas standing by. Let's get
to it.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Very happy to be joined this morning by one David Rojas,
a journalist with a great substack. You guys should all
check out. You're going to love the name too. It's
called social democracy with populist characteristics. Great to see you one.
Speaker 7 (11:19):
Thanks for having me on, guys.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
So there are many things we could discuss with you,
but today we have you joining us to help us
understand what the hell we are doing Visa vi Venezuela.
We can put this image jump on the screen, this
video that was released by the Trump administration after what
you can see here is like this relatively small boat
out there in the water and either via a drone
strike or an attack helicopter, we come in and blow
(11:43):
this thing out of the water. Now, the Trump administration
claims this was eleven trenda Ragua drug smugglers. Have they
released any evidence of that? No, they have not. So one,
let me just first get your reaction to this development,
the illegality of it, and why we should be very
skeptical of some of the claims here that are being
(12:04):
made by the Trump administration.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
Yeah, I mean I like to, you know, give people
the benefit of the doubt. I tried to be as
charitable as possible before with the Seacot deportations to El Salvador,
and I'm pretty hawkish on immigration, but uh, I mean,
what have you've seen time and time again with this
government is that they're just their credibility is zero. And uh,
(12:28):
I mean it's sad because there are a lot of
like professionals in like the DEA and you know, Rubio
claim that the DA was involved in this, I strongly
doubt that. I mean, I don't think that the DA
would sponsor, like would sanction like extra judicial killings of
this kind. But I mean either, what I mean to
say is that you know, there's people in government that
(12:48):
like know things about Drin that Agua and a lot
of the people that we've been told in the government,
you know, have like verified Therin that AGA members, like
they've said that, you know, it's because they have tattoos, yeah,
of autism, where like we should people the ould Salvador
that had like an autism awareness tattoo and trend that
Agua like, they don't.
Speaker 7 (13:06):
They're not the bloods in the crypts. They're not MS thirteen.
Like there are gangs that use tattoos as like markers
of affiliation. That's not the case with the that I was.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
Similarly, they have been known to deal with drugs at
like small scales on the street level in Venezuela, but
across international borders it's not really their thing. So honestly,
I think it's possible that these were drug runners of
some kind, maybe to be charitable, But what I can
say for sure is that it's extremely unlikely that it
(13:33):
was thread that aga. And the reason they probably are
saying that is because they designated it, you know, a
foreign terrorist organization, and so they claim in the legality
of this is still dubious that because it was designated
a foreign terrorist organization, they have the authority to just
you know, extrare you just really kill them as if
you know, they were like al Kaeda in Afghanistan.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
It's a similar thing the War on Terror.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah, they may claim that authority, they don't really have
that authority. I mean, I understand the War on Terror.
Designation has been that authorization of the use of military
force has already been stretched beyond recognition. But to then
use it against a cartel is another, you know, extraordinarily
we'll call it a legal leap. I think is the
(14:17):
most fair thing that you can ever that you could say.
And by the way, in lace less something has changed.
One I have not actually even seen the administration use
that justification. The reporting I saw is they're still trying
to figure out how they're going to claim that this
was remotely justified.
Speaker 7 (14:34):
Yeah, and you know, like Rubio has changed his story.
Speaker 6 (14:37):
He said first that the boat was going to Trinidad,
which is more plausible. I mean, that also seems kind
of unlikely because if you know anything about like geography,
Trinidad's right off the coast of Venezuela, and I doubt
that you know, the the ships that we have in
the Caribbean or were like right between Trinidad and Venezuela.
Then he changed his story because Trump said that the
(14:59):
boat was going to the which really, I mean, you're
going to tell me that that thing was going to
go all the way to the US very unlikely.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
Too, So yeah, you know, there's a lot of holes
in this.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
There's also a question about, you know, the number of
people on that boat, eleven people like drug runners. You
typically don't want to have that many people on a
boat because you're trying to, you know, maximize the amount
of like drug cargo that you're shipping.
Speaker 7 (15:20):
So yeah, it's it's.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Whole thing is one. This is what I'm worried about.
I don't think anything has to do with drugs. I looked,
I looked at the DEA Zone estimates ninety three percent
of all cocaine in the United States is trafficked via
Columbia to Mexico to America. Ninety three percent. The rest
of the seven percent is like some Venezuela whatever. All right,
(15:43):
so we're dealing already with a not even tertiary it's
not even fair to say that like the most side
actor of side actor possible. At the same time, Southcom
and this huge US military built up is coincided with
this strike, a warning to Maduro and some fifth million
dollar bounty on his head. So this looks like a
(16:04):
very convenient Noriega style operation to basically, you know, for
an excuse of regime change in Venezuela.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Is that how you see it?
Speaker 7 (16:13):
Uh? Hopefully not.
Speaker 6 (16:15):
I mean you never know, but thankfully you know, the
amount of troops we have in the Caribbean right now,
it's nowhere near the amount we would need for an actual,
you know, regime change operation.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
And then stabilization. That's kind of what the way I
s Yeah, yeah, like this, I like to Maduro right right.
Speaker 7 (16:31):
I like to think it's probably just saber rattling.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
And actually I think that the timing of because Rubio
was just in Mexico, I think they're actually kind of
trying to send the Mexicans a message that's like, hey,
you guys, don't cooperate with us as much as we want,
and they have been cooperating a ton, but never seems
to be enough. But yeah, I think they're definitely sending
a message say, hey, you guys, don't play ball.
Speaker 7 (16:51):
We might do this, you know, in or near Mexico.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
To that point, let's go ahead and take a listen
to Pete Headsath on Fox News saying basically, this is
just the beginning. Let's take a listen to that.
Speaker 8 (17:02):
I watched it live. We knew exactly who was in
that boat.
Speaker 9 (17:05):
We knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew
exactly who they represented, and that was Trendy Araguay, a
narco terrorist organization designated by the United States, trying to
poison our country with illicit drugs.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
We're stealing the border.
Speaker 9 (17:19):
But President Trump is willing to go on offense in
ways that others have not been and to send that
clear signal to Trende Aragua, Cartel del Souls and others
emanating from Venezuela. We're not going to allow this kind
of activity. You're poisoning our people. We've got incredible assets
and they are gathering in the region, and so you want.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
To try to traffic drugs. It's a new day, it's
a different day.
Speaker 9 (17:40):
And so those eleven drug traffickers are no longer with US,
sending a very clear signal that this is an activity
the United States is not going to tolerate.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
So what do you make of those comments and what
we may see as this government's policy going for And
by the way, let's just make it clear what other
administrations did is if you do have a boat that
you suspec act to be you know, drug smugglers and
to contain drugs's cargo, you interdict it. And that is,
you know, that is the normal standard procedure. There's no
(18:09):
indication they even tried to do that, And so now
apparently the norm is just going to be we can
just decide to blow random boats out of the water,
and you're just gonna have to trust us that these
are the people that we say that they are.
Speaker 7 (18:21):
Yeah, I mean, uh, it's just like the War on Terror.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
I mean, we had all these cases of you know,
drone strikes that ended up killing civilians that said that
you know, it was al Kader whoever, and that really
wasn't the case, or isis And actually someone brought up
that recently in uh, you know, with the hoo Thies,
we ended up killing a bunch of civilians. Claimed it
was you know, rebels, but it wasn't the case.
Speaker 10 (18:45):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
And you know, the genius, the despicable genius of this
is that you know, like they claim that, you know,
they intercepted like communications of the so of the alleged traffickers.
Speaker 7 (18:57):
But I mean, who knows if we'll ever see that.
Speaker 6 (18:59):
They might keep it as a state secret, just like
with the SEACUD deportations.
Speaker 7 (19:03):
And I mean the eleven.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Guys, the supposed eleven guys are all dead now, so
you know, how would we verify any of this?
Speaker 7 (19:11):
And on like a physical level, they're in the bottom
of the ocean.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
So one of the things one that I saw was
that this was potentially had something to do with the
Alien Enemies Act, that by participating in a strike allegedly
against Trenda or Agua, they can argue before the court
as they continue to move through the legal process, that
this is now actively a war, like a theater of
(19:35):
war that the administration is in to bolster their ability
to justify this before the Supreme Court and avoid judicial scrutiny.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Have you seen any of that. I'm curious.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
Uh yeah, I can see them trying to make that case.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
I think, you know, Emily said this yesterday.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
Like their theory now is that, you know, Maduro is
head of the so called Cartel of the Suns, which
is kind of an informal supposed to cartel with a
development military actually pre dates cho Vismo and it's kind
of just like a you know, an informal term. And
so that through the carteld of the Suns, the Venezuelan
(20:11):
military slash Maduro are really the head of the Nandaragua,
which is insane. I mean, don't get me wrong, Maduro
is horrific. He's a horrific dictator, and Venezuela is a
mafia state. But I mean, you know, we're just like
words of lost meaning in the way, like we're trying
to go about this.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah, well and talk a little bit more about Venezuela
and how they are. So you got the bounty on
Meduro's head, you have, you know, best case scenario, a
lot of military saber rattling and now this you know,
bragging about blowing up this this boat that we're claiming
had Venezuelan's on it. You know, how are they like
it all just feels like an intentional provocation. And that's
(20:48):
what's deeply concerning about it is it feels like they're
looking for an excuse to do even more and you know,
potential deep stabilization, regime change, whatever that looks like. So
how is Madua responding? How do you expect him to respond?
Speaker 6 (21:02):
Yeah, you know, it's funny because after they did this
prisoner swap with al Salvador releasing like some Americans in
Venezuelan dissidents in exchange for the you know, two hundred
Venezuelans and all Salvador and like days after that, they
actually restored Chevron's oil license in Venezuela and so a
lot of the Miami neocons were furious about that. So
(21:23):
this is kind of their way of appeasing them. And
as far as how Maduro has reacted to this, he
loves this. I mean, you know, like solidarity people, it's
kind of contradictory, like all these regimes like yeah, they
want to remove sanctions, but they also secretly kind of
don't because it gives them an excuse to crack down
and descend, you know, diffuse like blame for all of
(21:45):
their own like fuck ups. So Maduro has said, oh, hey, Trump,
don't fall for this. Ruby was trying to drag you
into the new a war. And you know he might
be right, but you know, he gets to mobilize all
of his militias. You know, he's sent like fifteen thousand militiamen,
chose border with Columbia where you know, he thinks like
an invasion could occur.
Speaker 7 (22:06):
Uh, And it's it's great saber rattling for him. He
loves this.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
See, that's that's always the part that they just It's
like other countries also have politics. You can be a
dictator and have politics. That's just how it works.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Funny they played the Rubio card.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah, I mean, I'm curious on Mexico because, like we said, look,
i mean I see these guys they're like, oh, this
is revenge for fentanyl.
Speaker 8 (22:25):
Again.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I'm like, guys, like ninety nine point nine percent of
the fentanyl enters the United States, it comes from Mexico.
The cartels with any power, they're in Mexico. You know
what the tricky problem is, while Mexico and its government
has a lot of links in corruption, with all this
the cartels. Mexico's also a number one trading partner of
the United States, So what are we gonna do here?
Speaker 6 (22:43):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (22:43):
And so broadly, you know, I'm curious, like you're talking
about saber rattling and all of this. There's been so
much talk, Oh America is going to go after the
cartels in Mexico. The one reason I've never thought that
would actually happen is because of the NAFTA and trading.
I was like, there's just you would genuinely nuke the
US economy if they shut down the border. I mean,
(23:04):
I'm curious how you know is you're an expert on
shine bomb as well. How she is navigating all of
this right now, especially with Rubio down in Mexico.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
Uh, She's done really well and has deeply increased cooperation
UH with the US. Has also taken a very aggressive
and smart security strategy. Actually, you know, fentanyl seizures south
of the border at record highs and north of the
border at record lows. So you know, both of them
were saying that, like the cooperation is yielded fruit, and
(23:34):
that's absolutely true. On the other hand, the question is
whether it'll be enough for the White House, and you
know the problem with this government is you guys have
pointed out, you know, like with the Orang strikes, it's
a lot of it is vibes, a lot of it
is symbolism, a lot a lot of it is just
showing we're doing something. So like with Iran, you know
we bombed her on is that gonna actually prevent them
(23:54):
from getting nuclear weapons? Know?
Speaker 7 (23:56):
If anything, they're more likely to get them.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
So with Mexico, so I can see them just like
doing some kind of strike just because it makes the
base feel good.
Speaker 7 (24:05):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Because people it's like, people don't use Google. I'm like, okay,
so listen, I've got no love for the drug cartels.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
All right, I got zero.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
I'm like simple Google search how much ventanol comes from Venezuela.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Zero? How much cocaine comes to Venezuela. Not much? With
fifty million dollars bounty on Venezuela's.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Leader's head, and we literally recognize a different government, and
we have a government full of people who've been wanting
to overthrow Venezuela now and you just a critical part
of the Miami Coalition are literally expatriate Venezuelan's who are
trying to get the Secretary of State who used to
represent them to overthrow their government, who once posted a
video side by side of Maduro next to Goadafi.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
So what are we doing here?
Speaker 11 (24:48):
You know?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
It's like that is where I just see zero skepticism again,
not even on the drug claims. It doesn't take a
genius to draw this stuff together, not to mention the
history of US police on Latin America. Say, maybe there's
something else going on here, you know, And I don't know.
I'm scared one. I'm scared about sleeper, regime change, destabilization
(25:10):
or any of this. I don't think anything any of
this has to do with drugs as of right now,
or maybe it does. You can correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
Yeah, I mean, in fairness, like a lot of the
cocaine that comes out of Columbia does go through Venezuela,
especially like the coca fields near the Columbia Venezuela border.
But yeah, and you know, in the grand scheme of things,
it's not that much as far as regime change is concerned.
I mean, look, Maduro is horrific. And you know I
(25:41):
live in South Florida. I'm in for Lauderdale and I
hate his guts too, but like, you know, we have
to think about this. What are the consequences of like
removing this guy. Venezuela is a failed state, is controlled
by a bunch of different armed actors, gorillas, you know,
a bunch of other criminal actors like you remove this guy,
like and you know, we're in some sort of prolonged
(26:03):
Vietnam at rock s war in our hemisphere, like, my god,
and what are the migratory consequences?
Speaker 10 (26:09):
Right?
Speaker 6 (26:10):
Even more people would leave, like Venezuela is not going
to get fixed overnight, and most sober Venezuelans know this.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, you're exactly right, absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Thanks for joining us, man. We always appreciate your analysis.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
Thanks us.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Crystal, what are you taking a look at?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Well? In just a few short weeks, a who's who
of comedy will board international flights bound for Riod for
Saudi Arabia's massive comedy festival, build as the largest comedy
festival in the world. The star studed lineup includes likes
of Dave Chappelle, Tim Dillon, Bill Burr, Zi's I'm Sorry,
Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson, Kevin Hart, and a whole lot
more where those came from. You got your right wingers,
(26:50):
you got your left wingers, you got your relatively apolitical,
all coming together in a shared appreciation for the shower
of Saudi cash that lured them to this event in
the first place. What about Saudi's imposed starvation of yenen.
What about their authoritarian speech, depression, and vicious approach to descent.
What about the brutal murder and dismembering of Jamalka Shogi,
their rampant abuse of migrant workers, including allegations of human trafficking. Well,
(27:13):
as Tim Dillon makes plain, the payouts were enough to
get everyone to look the other way.
Speaker 11 (27:18):
They're paying me three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars
for one show.
Speaker 8 (27:21):
Now, a lot of other people are getting one point
six million. That's not me.
Speaker 11 (27:25):
I'm not in that bracket. But they're giving me three
seventy five. Others have gotten one fifty. Why are they
doing it? Here's the point. Here's the point. Okay, I
am doing this because they're paying me a large sum
of money. They're paying me enough money to look the
other way? Do you understand look the other way? That's
(27:50):
a foreword sentence, and people don't do anymore. Look the
other way. If something bad is happening to your left,
look to your right.
Speaker 8 (28:01):
If, for example, I'm at a.
Speaker 11 (28:03):
Breakfast and I see someone get grabbed and they start
hitting them with that's you know, that that big stick.
I don't know if it's bamboo or whatever it is.
It's kind of a wood, but it kind of snaps back.
It's perfect for a cane. If I see someone getting it,
I will look the other way. Okay, if I look
the other way and I see someone being behanded, meaning
(28:24):
they're chopping a hand off, that might be interesting to
just kind of see actually how they do it, because
I think they do it kind of a sanitary way,
but from what I've heard, you know, if.
Speaker 8 (28:33):
They're chopping in I might look down.
Speaker 11 (28:36):
And if I'm looking at the floor and I see
some eyeless beggar grabbing at me trying to get my money,
I will look up to the heavens, and if in
the heavens I see a drone flying over, I will
look the other way because I'm being paid enough money
(28:56):
to look the other way. What don't you understand? What
is so complicated? I'm the only honest person just gonna do.
Everyone else is gonna have a million.
Speaker 8 (29:05):
They're gonna go.
Speaker 11 (29:06):
Well, actually, the Middle East is more progressive now, and
h he's trying to make some change.
Speaker 8 (29:12):
No no, no, no no no no no no no.
Speaker 11 (29:15):
I'm being paid a lot of money to not care
about what they do in their country.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
The Saudi Comedy Festival, of course, just the Kingdom's latest effort,
and a long list of sports and cultural events where
they have doled out tens or hundreds of millions of
dollars so that people will do exactly what Tim suggests
and look the other way. Probably their most discussed gambit
from a US perspective is the Live Golf Tour, which
came in as a direct competitor to the PGA Tour,
bought off a bunch of the world's top players, partnered
(29:43):
with Donald Trump to host events at his properties. We
still don't know how much exactly the President is netting
from his Live Golf deal, but yes, ladies and gentlemen,
the President too is being paid to look the other
way on any Saudi doings that may conflict with American
values or American interest. But there is, of course, so
much more. The Saudis have made massive investments in soccer.
(30:04):
They purchased an eighty percent stake in Premier League's Newcastle United.
They spent lavishly to lure global soccer superstars like Cristiano
Ronaldo and Neymar to Saudi clubs. They've hosted heavyweight boxing matches,
regular WWE events. They back Formula one and Formula E,
which is apparently electric car racing, E sports, women's tennis,
music festivals, including stars like Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber, and
(30:28):
they've also lured artists for massive biennial art exhibitions. Now,
some of these efforts by the Saudis to buy affection,
they have been met with some protest, but none particularly
significant or sustained enough to stop the stars involved from
making the exact same calculus that Tim Dillon explained. Take
the money, look the other way, assume the blowback will
(30:48):
be minimal, and keep it moving. That bet has paid
off for them every time, as best as I can tell.
So this is where we are now, in whatever end
state of capitalism were in. Money's are God the only
end goal apparently that really matters, the only judge of
merit or character. And with this false idol we are
witnessing a total and complete moral collapse. The comedians lining
(31:08):
up to line their pockets are really just one very
small example of it. I mean, it's barely worth mentioning
in comparison to the decision to commit a full on
genocide and ethnic cleansing in order to secure beachfront property
development rights. Increasingly, we're falling into an ideology of utter
and complete nihilism. The sense of our nation as any
(31:28):
sort of collective enterprise has been broken by decades of
a neoliberal ideology that was so individualistic that many apparently
forgot other human beings were even actual human beings at all,
and not just NPCs or non playable characters. How else
can you explain the muted reaction when a boat of
human beings is blown out the water by the world's
most powerful military, or when Florida decides end all childhood
(31:50):
vaccine mandates, putting your right to be an anti vax
crank over the healths of the community, especially children, especially
the elderly and the vulnerable. When we all watch every
single day as a genocide is live streamed in our feeds,
it may be that the only ones really worthy of
being called human at this point are the doctors, and
the aid workers who rush into Gaza, and the Palestinians themselves,
(32:12):
who have somehow still maintained their humanity in the face
of the greatest barbarism imaginable. By the way, Tim Dillon
actually had something to say about this as well.
Speaker 11 (32:22):
The niceties are gone, the pleasantries are gone. Israel's not
disguising what they want to do. The motives are not
They don't matter the narrative does it make sense. The
stories don't add up. They do not care. They're not
trying to make it make sense. They don't have the time.
It's the last bit of control that they can exert
(32:44):
over the system before it blows up.
Speaker 8 (32:48):
It's my guess. It's what it feels like.
Speaker 11 (32:52):
Nobody's putting the time into lie to you anymore. You
should worry about that. You should worry about the fact
that nobody's even trying to make the lie. They know
it doesn't matter if you believe them. They're going to
try to dispose of you. I'll be in Rehod. I'll
be in Rehod where my bread is buttered. Go find
where your bread is buttered. Go get your bread buttered,
(33:15):
Go get your toast buttered. Go get your y, go
jelly your jam because the world is ending. But it's
true and it sounds rough.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Go get your bread buttered because the world is ending?
Doesn't that actually feel like it captures a lot of
the sentiment bubbling under the surface of our culture when
people talk endlessly about a vibe shift. Is that the
vibe the world's ending, and I don't believe anything, So
I'm just gonna go get mine, or at least I'm
gonna try. I'm gonna chase some crypto scam. I'm gonna
lionize the scummiest people on the internet. I'm gonna embrace
(33:52):
the basest of human pleasures, which is a sense of
satisfaction that comes from watching someone in the out group suffer.
Is that the vibe we're talking about after we were
lied into the Iraq War and the economy collapsed and
the banksters were rewarded, and the effort at a collective
renewal as represented by the burning campaign was snuffed down,
is that what we're left with moral collapse, cash grabs, scammers,
(34:14):
race to the bottom, and torture as a form of entertainment.
And so a bunch of comedians with all sorts of
supposed political ideologies. They're all going to go and they're
going to get their bread buttered from a totalitarian monarchy
that hacked a dissident journalist apart because the Royal family
did not like his Washington Post columns. There is another way.
I don't land too much at Zoron's feed here, but
there is something that I genuinely find so special and
(34:37):
hopeful about his campaign. It's the tiniest glimmer the possibility
of a renewed sense of a collective spirit, a glimmer
of an expanded political vision that believes it is possible
to make America's largest city workable for working people. Four thousand.
Just think about this. Extremely earnest people came out for
a Sunday scavenger hunt for this campaign. Young people app
(35:00):
down of their TikTok on we to completely remake the
electorate and shock the world. Or for a more profound example,
I would ask you to listen to doctor Muhammed Mustafa,
Palestinian refugee turned uk and Ossi citizen turned er doctor
who has gone twice to serve in Gaza.
Speaker 10 (35:18):
It's like this bizarre thing because you know net Nyahu
at the start said you know, we are the children
of light fighting the children of darkness. And I'm just like,
the irony of it is this the other way around?
You know, the irony it's the other way around. It's
those kids in Gaza that are the light. When you
see those children, and I've seen them when there's little
(35:39):
food and you know, a child might have a plate
of food and the other child is waiting in line
and there's no more food left, and then that child
who's hungry and emanciated, starts scooping out food from his
plate to put on the child's plate. You know, when
we had COVID over here, you know, we had police
officers guarding toilet paper because we had society had broken down.
We were fighting over toilet papy. And then you have
(36:01):
starving children who are traumatized, who are sharing their food
with each other.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Just think about that. In Gaza, their world may literally
be ending right now. The most powerful country on the
planet is trying to wipe out the evidence that they
ever even existed, and still they stubbornly refuse to become
the animals that we have been told that they are.
They are doing so much more for one another than
(36:27):
just trying to get their own bread buttered. In other words,
maybe Tim Dillon, it's too soon to give up on
the world and sober curious for your your thoughts on
a wide ranging one there.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
I hate to say it.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
I just think it's very Uh, you're too optimistic.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
I mean, so you're in full blown nihilism. Get your
bread buttered.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
I mean if you just I mean, look, if you
look at you know, we need to talk about this
on Monday. Yeah, but anti tax sentiment is at the
highest that it's ever been in the United States.
Speaker 8 (36:58):
Oh I love that.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Why for me it's gaza.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Well it's not just.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
But that's when it's multifaceted, because it's not about federal
it's nothing works.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Shit's too expensive for me. I've got bums all over
where I live.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Crime is high, the prices are too high, property taxes
sky high. I don't feel like I get shit for
what I pay, not to mention for what we're paying
into the federal government system. All of it together, I'm like,
fuck you. That's how most people feel. I talked about
the property tax thing. So the point is is that
all institutions are failing us at every level.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
So I think it's nice to believe. I understand.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
I understand the sentiment. Yeah right, But I actually don't
think you behave like that in your normal life because
we're not doing a cash like we talked this week
about the way that other creators are doing the total
like cash grab, sell out. I'll take the Saudi cash,
I'll take the dark money, I'll sell blue chee whatever.
And that's not the path that you have chosen.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
You're totally right.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
I mean, I have personal integerity, but I'm more like,
I don't agree. I don't conduct myself that way. Would
put that way, yeah, but I don't I understand it.
I see exactly the way that it goes.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
I individually. I am not naive enough to believe that
I individually and this.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
You know, whatever example or whatever we do is going
to influence the vast majority of people to change the
short here.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
If I look at the average behavior of the American.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Citizen, the truth is is that degeneracy individualism is on
the path forward, and you're kind of are a fool
if you try to invest in anything really broadly, at
like a major societal level to make people not behave
hyper individualistically. That is the country that we live in.
You could blame the system, you could blame the people.
(38:39):
I think it's kind of both. Basically, at this point,
we live in Vegas. Our president is literally a casino magnate.
That's the country who we are. I told you earlier
FanDuel is now sponsoring public infrastructure. We have no collective culture,
no collective value, no collective society. So in that society,
like you kind of should ensure that you're protected and
(39:00):
you're okay because nobody's.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Looking out for you. The government's not looking out for you.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
And yeah, I mean just broadly, that's like the way
that I feel is I have no civic faith that
if something were to happen to me that the city
that I would live in would do shit for this
is zero. And then for the government, oh my god,
it's like you better have the resources.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
So I think I probably feel even more dark about
the world in the country with the Trump administration than
you do. So I understand, I understand the impulse, right,
but I am not ready to hand society off to
the Peter Teels of the world and the Donald Trump's
of the world, who would sell it off for parts.
(39:40):
I'm not ready to succumb to a world that's just
might makes right law. The jungle barbarism rules the day.
And that's that's my point. Is I think that way,
And that's.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
No, it's I mean, I really do.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
No, I don't think as much as we're as much
as we're as much as we are in this moment
of decline, and as much as yes, the Carnival Barker
and the trump the Trumpian thug and con artists is
a deep part of American culture and history, like it
is American as apple pie. There's no doubt about that.
(40:14):
We are also the country that you know, that ended slavery,
that ended segregation. We are also the country that, during
the New Deal, built out you know, incredible infrastructure, incredible
manufacturing based like we are also that country that has
had that sense of collective and civic pride in the past.
So that is also a part of the American tradition.
And so you know, the two examples that I cite
(40:37):
here are very intentionally chosen because it would be very
easy for you know, New Yorkers to also engage in
like a very cynical calculation forget it, nothing's going to work.
No one could change this city. It's a playground for
the rich. And yet still they had enough faith in
a collective project to like earnestly engage come out to
vote totally remake. They had electorate put their trust in
(41:00):
someone who is untested and young and unproven, and so
it's this little glimmer of possibility there and then I
really genuinely believe what and this is what I've seen
with you know, covering Palestine, covering Gaza so so carefully.
Doctor Mustapha talks about how Palestine will free the world,
and what he and others mean by that is just
(41:21):
think about how extraordinary it is that while we're all
you know, nihilism and everything nothing matters. I'm going to
get mine, et cetera. Like that example he gives of
a child who you know, has experienced loss that we
can't even imagine, who is trying to be murdered every
day by the world superpower and their little baby terror state.
And still still they find it in themselves to have
(41:45):
a sense of a collective and have a sense of
I'm going to share this little bit that I have
and I find that profoundly inspiring. There's nothing that has
inspired me more in this moment than people too, like
doctor Mustava. He is an er doc. He was actually
a professional player. He was very high level jiu jitsu
champion and is this extraordinary person, and yet he decided
(42:07):
to put himself in harms way twice in a war
zone to go in and sort of like that is
a level of a human spirit that I can't even
wrap my mind around, which is why I'm not prepared
to just give it and say nothing matters. It's all shit,
It can never get better, like it is what it is,
and we're just going to continue on this steady decline
as like a human race.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Actually, I would say that I don't have faith that
the political system will deliver the change that you're looking for.
I don't believe any politician would be able to do it,
un least currently. There's only two ways you and I
are going to get the.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Country that we want.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Number one is a massive global financial crisis we were
talking about earlier. We actually had a shot in eight.
But see that's where my skepticism comes in the language
you're using about Zoron. I heard it all in two
thousand and eight. Obama, the young people, the Internet, they
came out there, well, meaning. And it's like remember that
commercial of taking the hope poster down. That's reality. It
(42:56):
didn't work. It straight up was a failure. He took
we know, the hopes and dreams of literally millions, and
they crashed and that's how you got Donald Trump. So
reality tells us that probably won't happen. So probably a
global financial system or it's going to be a massive war.
That's another reason I was talking earlier about China. And
(43:16):
the most likely scenario is that we are going it's
going to be just like the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
We're going to have.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
Our thumb up our ass for years and everyone will
be inter so we'll be squabbling and then one day
nineteen fourteen or nineteen thirty nine, the entire world will
change in a single day. And from that point forward
that's when shit gets real. So that's where the gosins
of course have to come together and collect a solidarity
because they are literally fighting a war of extinction. But
in the absence of that, we are not. We are
(43:44):
not fighting an existential but the only existential battle we're
fighting is against ourselves, like internally, and you know, basically
like warding off all of the capitalistic endeavors to suck
your drive of your entire souls.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
That's the war that we fight here.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
So without that external factor, I don't see it happen,
and it pretty much never happened without that major external
factor or precipitating crisis.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
So you talked about you talk about ending slavery.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Yeah, I mean it took a prolonged, multi year civil
war of a massive crisis, six hundred thousand deaths, two
percent of the US population. And even then at the time,
it took the political genies of Lincoln to actually make
it happen, because if we're all being honest, ending slavery,
it was not all that popular at the time, even
within the Union, that's the truth.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Segregation.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Yes, it was great, you know, nineteen sixty four and
all that, but it took about twenty five years, you know, broadly,
and what Reagan just happened to announce his campaign in
nineteen eighty exactly in the spot where I'm gonna say,
I'm just like, okay, so you know.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
I mean, but yeah, I think that you may be
correct that it does take that kind of a massive crisis,
you know, I mean, that's basically the acceleration.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
I don't see any evidence that it can come about.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
I'm not convinced of that, but I acknowledge that that
is entirely possible. I guess for us recording any number
of crises on Universe runs.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
We'll probably get there.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
Here we go.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
I sometimes feel like I'm broadcasting in the year like
nineteen ten, because there were a lot of British intelects.
I'm not calling myself an electual, but I'm saying there
were a lot of like British intellectuals and others who
were like, the storm is coming, the rise is coming,
there's you know, storm on the horizon.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Yeah, and everyone's like, oh, it's fine. You know.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
The number one story in July nineteen fourteen in Paris
was about a lady who I think she shot her
husband's mistress or something. That was the number one story
in the city of Paris in France. Like, that's the
level of bullshit that they were all doing.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
They lived in one of the richest, most prosperous, incredible places.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
I feel very similarly like that's the tabloid level nonsense
that we're all obsessed with, and it's like you can
just see the storm on the.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Horizon you know, you have that, you have that, and
then it's in a split screen with like and the
militaries occupying you and I.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
You and I see that, right, But most people are not.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
They're just going about their day wondering about McDonald's putting
the NFL on betting on college football.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Taylor swift endorsement is the number one story in the country.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
Like, be honest, you know, have you seen a level
of you know, how many videos are there of people
finding out about Taylor's and like collapsing in tears.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
You know, that's the country that we live in.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
And I mean, I take stylis and the fact that
it has kind of always been that way.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
I don't think it's particularly unique at this point.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
But yeah, to see the collective is in the ditching
of individualism.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
And all that it's going to be.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
It's going to take a lot, I think a lot
that I will agree with you. All right, Okay, thanks
you guys for watching. We appreciate you. We'll see you later.
Hey, guys, Saga and Crystal here.
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Speaker 1 (00:30):
All right, let's get to Zoron, shall we.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, Well, it ties together because obviously, you know, his
campaign built on affordability and finding this you know, sort
of rockstar status in New York City coming out I
know where to win the primary overwhelmingly. I don't know
if you guys remember we did the live stream that night.
They were in New York and I, Emily and I
were you know here, Griffin and Ryan were in New
York and Emily and I were here remotely covering it.
(00:53):
And when we went into we're like there's no way
we find out because it's ranked choice voting. There's no
way we actually know tonight who won. Like make we
might know that Guomo won, but we're not going to
know whether or not. No wrong, wrong. So On beat
the polls by like twenty points and totally remade the electorate,
really energize young people who you know, were inspired by
what he had going on there. Okay, I'm going to
get out there and vote in a way that I
(01:15):
never have. So typically in New York City, when you
win the Democratic primary, that's it. It's a wrap, it's over,
because it's a very heavily blue Democratic city. Not so
much this time around. You had Cuomo, who allegedly is
a Democrat, who decided, now I'm not going to actually
just like be a gracious loser here and say well done,
(01:36):
and I'll support you for the general. Now he's going
to run again. And Eric Adams, the corrupt and disgraced
current mayor, who also is allegedly a Democrat, He's still
in the race. And then you have the Republican who,
in my opinion, is the most like, dignified and respectable
of the lot, Curtis Leewah I agree who is you know,
who is running because he's a Republican. Who's like, I'm
going to run as a Republican. That's what I've always
(01:56):
planned to do. So, you know, the billionaire class got
to get and thought, oh, we can't have this guy
like putting in public grocery stores or letting people, you know,
get on the bus for free. That would be an
absolute disaster. And now the billionaire in chief, Donald Trump,
is getting directly involved in the race, trying to clear
the field for Andrew Cuomo so that it would be
(02:18):
a head to head Cuomo versus Zora. Now, by the way,
the Poles say Zorn still probably wins in that circumstance,
but Cuomo would have more of a shot than he does.
Right now, so we can put this up on the screen.
This is reporting for the New York Times, which has
really they've done the best reporting about some of these
inner workings. And basically the scoop they get here is
(02:38):
that Trump advisors have directly discussed a job for Eric
Adams if he quits the mayoral race. Adams has been
kind of squarely when he's been asked about this. He
refuses to say outright whether he's committed to staying in
the race the whole time. And let's be clear, he's
pulling very poorly. He's in like sing you know, single
digits are like very low double digits. Typically people hate
(03:00):
him in the city. They think he's been terrible. You know,
he was indicted he did this corrupt deal with the
Trump administration in a pears. He denies that, but whatever
in order to get out of those charges. But New
Yorkers are not happy with him as mayor of the city,
as the lowest approval rating of any New York City
mayor like since they've been doing polling. So it's not
like he's pulling well. But if you get him out
(03:21):
and then the article says they also were looking at
a job for Curtis Sliwa, then you just have Andrew
Cuomo versus Zoron Momtani. Now Sleiwa I saw just this morning.
This doesn't surprise me because he said something similar in
the past. Sleiwa has come out and said absolutely not.
I'm here for New York. I don't want a job
in the Trump administration. This is what I'm doing, period,
end of story. I'm not even entertaining it. But it's
(03:43):
pretty wild Sogert to see Trump trying to get directly
involved and really putting some on the skills. And this
is the strange bedfellows thing for Andrew Cuomo, which you
recall in the first Trump administer during COVID, Cuomo was
set up. Is this great foil to Trump and whatever.
And meanwhile Cuomo behind the scenes, first of all, is
(04:04):
reaching out to Trump, according to the New York Times,
and it is telling business members and the communit oh,
I have a good working relationship with him, We're going
to be able to get along, et cetera. So it
just shows you how much of his posturing is some
great like Trump anti Trump resistance figure with total and
complete bullshit.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Well, it doesn't make a lot of sense because if
Zorn winning and being a disaster would be good for
wouldn't be good for Trump, so you would actually want
him to win. It's like an accelerationist philosophy. You're like, no,
actually you want somebody to do. If you think somebody's
gonna be bad, then you should let them, you know,
actually go full rain and actually win the primary or sorry,
win the election. So in one sense it doesn't really
make sense. But I think, on the other hand, with
(04:42):
the Trump obsession, how much of this is that he's
from New York and lived in New York forever and
just doesn't like Zoron and wants to personally get involved.
That partially could be part of it, But politically it
makes no sense because if you come in and ham
fistedly help Cuomo, New York Democrats hate Trump, even if
(05:03):
they might be open to Cuomo, why would you, as Coomo,
want Trump's support?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Right, That's exactly the tascit or that's exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
The line that Zoron is picking up correctly, by the way,
is you're like, hey, Trump is helping this guy. I'm
the person against Trump in a democratic environment right now.
You don't want nothing to do with Donald Trump. Yeah,
that's the part I just don't understand.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, I think Trump is I think in a sense
he's like he's kind of jealous of Zoron because he
has this deep hole, this deep hole in himself that
he was never like embraced and loved in New York
high society and as an Alner Burrow guy. And I
think there's still this sort of like deep well of
in security there. So you see this young, good looking
guy's being treated like a rocks. Are people momming him
on the street. He's this like political ouao or phenom.
(05:46):
I think there is a level of just like personal
jealousy that this city that was his city never embraced
him in the same way. But you're right, Zoran. Obviously
the Cooma people did not want this story to get out, right.
They don't want the Trump association to be out there
in the public. But now it is. And to your point,
Zoron is quite obviously because it's the most obvious thing
(06:08):
to do in political history, seizing on that to strengthen
his own hand. Let's go ahead and play D two.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
I think there are many ethical issues with this news.
We are talking about a mayor who was facing an
indictment that was then dropped by this administration to ensure
greater collaboration with the immigration directives of this administration, now
(06:34):
being considered for a job offer such that he would
drop out of a race to represent this city because
of the fact that they believe that would increase the
odds of anyone being able to defeat me.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
Those are incredible ethical issues, and none of this has
to do with New Yorkers. None of it has to
do with the welfare of this city. It all has
to do with power. It all has to do with
the audacity that we have here to believe that we
could pick our own mayor that we have to believe
that the most pressing issues are not how to ensure
(07:08):
that Donald Trump continues to have an ambassador in City Hall,
but that New Yorkers can actually afford the place that
they call home.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
He's got a great line about Quoma. He says, Quota
stay in the race because he doesn't understand that no
means no. It's his line on that. But yeah, I mean,
I think Zoron is very well. Even let's say Eric
Adams drops out and takes this position. Even let's imagine
this LEEWA goes back on its word, which I genuinely
don't think you will, and it's like, Okay, I'm going
to drop onto the race. Number One. You've got a
mechanical issue because the ballots are like being printed right now,
(07:34):
and so even to get them off the ballot, I
don't even know if it's possible at this point. I
still think based on the pulling that I've seen, Zoron
wins even if it's a head to head against Andrew Cuomo.
It's not just Republicans though, that are very upset about
Zoron and his success in New York City. You still
have Democrats who are like, like, it's very perplexing to
(07:55):
me at this point, who still don't want to support him,
who are still upset with him, who still I want
to endorse him, including Hakeem Jeffries, including Chuck Schumer. Where
the writing is so clearly on the wall. And by
the way, this is who your voters chose, right, Hikaeme Jeffries.
Zoron won your district by twelve points. Okay, so maybe
you should be talking to him about getting some advice
about how to fight and how your position yourself, et cetera.
(08:18):
This is a New York Democratic Congressman Tom Swazi saying
he doesn't even want Zoron in the same party as him.
This is D four. Let's take a listen, Zo Ran
Mamdani and other Democratic Socialist should create their own party
because I don't want that in my party. It's unbelievable
that this guy, I don't know if you are very
familiar with him, Sager, so he represents this I think
Long Island District in New York. He ran against Kathy
(08:40):
Hogel in the Democratic primary for governor and got walloped
by her. So it's not like he's some political phenom.
You know, if you look at who's winning young men
back right, who's building out, who's rebuilding a working class coalition,
who has the highest level of popularity in New York,
Tom Swazi is not on that list. Zoron certainly is.
Speaker 6 (08:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
I don't know though, at the same time I kind
of agree with him, only in the sense of I
would like to see more political parties because yeah, and
that's kind of where you know, he is the one
he's in.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, he would really get destroyed.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I totally agree.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, it's more though that you know, in the big
tent parties. Part of the reason nothing gets done in
Washington is because a lot of the big tents don't
actually agree with each.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Other at all.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Primaries are very useful for this purpose because you can
eventually take over a party.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
This is on a functional basis.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
But he's not wrong, like you know, that guy is
basically a Republican right in a lot of senses, or at.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Least in the Labels Party right gottheim should be the Republicans.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
There really should be parties like that.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
We should be in there right and then it can
be for we can have like the French system or
the Germans or any of these others with proportional representation
which allow people to battle out and then coalitions and
all those people can form in the way.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Who is that guy brad Lander right who supported is wrong?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
That's import Actually these types of things are good. So anyway,
that's my hot take.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
But that's not the way.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
He's not the way they mean. That's not the way.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
But in a way, I think a lot of these
people it's kind of like MAGA, Like Maga's not republican,
has become a Republican, But a lot of the people
who identify as MAGA don't actually consider themselves Republicans, which
by the way, was when one of their great assets,
because people don't like Republicans or Democrats, but like but
a Maga, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
It's one of the I think DSA is very similar.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
That's why Zorn is popular.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
I agree, because he does the democratic politician he does
it seem like a Demo crat. He run in the
Democratic primary, but he's not a capital d dem who's like,
you know, been going to Pete, but it's like Pete Bootage,
I just want to be president. He's like nine years old. Yeah,
that stuff comes across and it is important.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
It is the reason Bernie Sanders absolutely is one of
the most popular politicians in the country because he critiques,
he stands, he has his own brand separate in a
stink from the Democratic Party and is in critique of
the Democratic Party. And that's the piece where most of
them are just totally They see that as an existential threat. Yes,
you know, and actually they should.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
I think it's great and that's why traditional politicians in
this day and age are not going to be doing
so well, at least I hope.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
So we've got one David Rojas standing by. Let's get
to it.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Very happy to be joined this morning by one David Rojas,
a journalist with a great substack. You guys should all
check out. You're going to love the name too. It's
called social democracy with populist characteristics. Great to see you one.
Speaker 7 (11:19):
Thanks for having me on, guys.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
So there are many things we could discuss with you,
but today we have you joining us to help us
understand what the hell we are doing Visa vi Venezuela.
We can put this image jump on the screen, this
video that was released by the Trump administration after what
you can see here is like this relatively small boat
out there in the water and either via a drone
strike or an attack helicopter, we come in and blow
(11:43):
this thing out of the water. Now, the Trump administration
claims this was eleven trenda Ragua drug smugglers. Have they
released any evidence of that? No, they have not. So one,
let me just first get your reaction to this development,
the illegality of it, and why we should be very
skeptical of some of the claims here that are being
(12:04):
made by the Trump administration.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
Yeah, I mean I like to, you know, give people
the benefit of the doubt. I tried to be as
charitable as possible before with the Seacot deportations to El Salvador,
and I'm pretty hawkish on immigration, but uh, I mean,
what have you've seen time and time again with this
government is that they're just their credibility is zero. And uh,
(12:28):
I mean it's sad because there are a lot of
like professionals in like the DEA and you know, Rubio
claim that the DA was involved in this, I strongly
doubt that. I mean, I don't think that the DA
would sponsor, like would sanction like extra judicial killings of
this kind. But I mean either, what I mean to
say is that you know, there's people in government that
(12:48):
like know things about Drin that Agua and a lot
of the people that we've been told in the government,
you know, have like verified Therin that AGA members, like
they've said that, you know, it's because they have tattoos, yeah,
of autism, where like we should people the ould Salvador
that had like an autism awareness tattoo and trend that
Agua like, they don't.
Speaker 7 (13:06):
They're not the bloods in the crypts. They're not MS thirteen.
Like there are gangs that use tattoos as like markers
of affiliation. That's not the case with the that I was.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
Similarly, they have been known to deal with drugs at
like small scales on the street level in Venezuela, but
across international borders it's not really their thing. So honestly,
I think it's possible that these were drug runners of
some kind, maybe to be charitable, But what I can
say for sure is that it's extremely unlikely that it
(13:33):
was thread that aga. And the reason they probably are
saying that is because they designated it, you know, a
foreign terrorist organization, and so they claim in the legality
of this is still dubious that because it was designated
a foreign terrorist organization, they have the authority to just
you know, extrare you just really kill them as if
you know, they were like al Kaeda in Afghanistan.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
It's a similar thing the War on Terror.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah, they may claim that authority, they don't really have
that authority. I mean, I understand the War on Terror.
Designation has been that authorization of the use of military
force has already been stretched beyond recognition. But to then
use it against a cartel is another, you know, extraordinarily
we'll call it a legal leap. I think is the
(14:17):
most fair thing that you can ever that you could say.
And by the way, in lace less something has changed.
One I have not actually even seen the administration use
that justification. The reporting I saw is they're still trying
to figure out how they're going to claim that this
was remotely justified.
Speaker 7 (14:34):
Yeah, and you know, like Rubio has changed his story.
Speaker 6 (14:37):
He said first that the boat was going to Trinidad,
which is more plausible. I mean, that also seems kind
of unlikely because if you know anything about like geography,
Trinidad's right off the coast of Venezuela, and I doubt
that you know, the the ships that we have in
the Caribbean or were like right between Trinidad and Venezuela.
Then he changed his story because Trump said that the
(14:59):
boat was going to the which really, I mean, you're
going to tell me that that thing was going to
go all the way to the US very unlikely.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
Too, So yeah, you know, there's a lot of holes
in this.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
There's also a question about, you know, the number of
people on that boat, eleven people like drug runners. You
typically don't want to have that many people on a
boat because you're trying to, you know, maximize the amount
of like drug cargo that you're shipping.
Speaker 7 (15:20):
So yeah, it's it's.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Whole thing is one. This is what I'm worried about.
I don't think anything has to do with drugs. I looked,
I looked at the DEA Zone estimates ninety three percent
of all cocaine in the United States is trafficked via
Columbia to Mexico to America. Ninety three percent. The rest
of the seven percent is like some Venezuela whatever. All right,
(15:43):
so we're dealing already with a not even tertiary it's
not even fair to say that like the most side
actor of side actor possible. At the same time, Southcom
and this huge US military built up is coincided with
this strike, a warning to Maduro and some fifth million
dollar bounty on his head. So this looks like a
(16:04):
very convenient Noriega style operation to basically, you know, for
an excuse of regime change in Venezuela.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Is that how you see it?
Speaker 7 (16:13):
Uh? Hopefully not.
Speaker 6 (16:15):
I mean you never know, but thankfully you know, the
amount of troops we have in the Caribbean right now,
it's nowhere near the amount we would need for an actual,
you know, regime change operation.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
And then stabilization. That's kind of what the way I
s Yeah, yeah, like this, I like to Maduro right right.
Speaker 7 (16:31):
I like to think it's probably just saber rattling.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
And actually I think that the timing of because Rubio
was just in Mexico, I think they're actually kind of
trying to send the Mexicans a message that's like, hey,
you guys, don't cooperate with us as much as we want,
and they have been cooperating a ton, but never seems
to be enough. But yeah, I think they're definitely sending
a message say, hey, you guys, don't play ball.
Speaker 7 (16:51):
We might do this, you know, in or near Mexico.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
To that point, let's go ahead and take a listen
to Pete Headsath on Fox News saying basically, this is
just the beginning. Let's take a listen to that.
Speaker 8 (17:02):
I watched it live. We knew exactly who was in
that boat.
Speaker 9 (17:05):
We knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew
exactly who they represented, and that was Trendy Araguay, a
narco terrorist organization designated by the United States, trying to
poison our country with illicit drugs.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
We're stealing the border.
Speaker 9 (17:19):
But President Trump is willing to go on offense in
ways that others have not been and to send that
clear signal to Trende Aragua, Cartel del Souls and others
emanating from Venezuela. We're not going to allow this kind
of activity. You're poisoning our people. We've got incredible assets
and they are gathering in the region, and so you want.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
To try to traffic drugs. It's a new day, it's
a different day.
Speaker 9 (17:40):
And so those eleven drug traffickers are no longer with US,
sending a very clear signal that this is an activity
the United States is not going to tolerate.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
So what do you make of those comments and what
we may see as this government's policy going for And
by the way, let's just make it clear what other
administrations did is if you do have a boat that
you suspec act to be you know, drug smugglers and
to contain drugs's cargo, you interdict it. And that is,
you know, that is the normal standard procedure. There's no
(18:09):
indication they even tried to do that, And so now
apparently the norm is just going to be we can
just decide to blow random boats out of the water,
and you're just gonna have to trust us that these
are the people that we say that they are.
Speaker 7 (18:21):
Yeah, I mean, uh, it's just like the War on Terror.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
I mean, we had all these cases of you know,
drone strikes that ended up killing civilians that said that
you know, it was al Kader whoever, and that really
wasn't the case, or isis And actually someone brought up
that recently in uh, you know, with the hoo Thies,
we ended up killing a bunch of civilians. Claimed it
was you know, rebels, but it wasn't the case.
Speaker 10 (18:45):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
And you know, the genius, the despicable genius of this
is that you know, like they claim that, you know,
they intercepted like communications of the so of the alleged traffickers.
Speaker 7 (18:57):
But I mean, who knows if we'll ever see that.
Speaker 6 (18:59):
They might keep it as a state secret, just like
with the SEACUD deportations.
Speaker 7 (19:03):
And I mean the eleven.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Guys, the supposed eleven guys are all dead now, so
you know, how would we verify any of this?
Speaker 7 (19:11):
And on like a physical level, they're in the bottom
of the ocean.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
So one of the things one that I saw was
that this was potentially had something to do with the
Alien Enemies Act, that by participating in a strike allegedly
against Trenda or Agua, they can argue before the court
as they continue to move through the legal process, that
this is now actively a war, like a theater of
(19:35):
war that the administration is in to bolster their ability
to justify this before the Supreme Court and avoid judicial scrutiny.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Have you seen any of that. I'm curious.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
Uh yeah, I can see them trying to make that case.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
I think, you know, Emily said this yesterday.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
Like their theory now is that, you know, Maduro is
head of the so called Cartel of the Suns, which
is kind of an informal supposed to cartel with a
development military actually pre dates cho Vismo and it's kind
of just like a you know, an informal term. And
so that through the carteld of the Suns, the Venezuelan
(20:11):
military slash Maduro are really the head of the Nandaragua,
which is insane. I mean, don't get me wrong, Maduro
is horrific. He's a horrific dictator, and Venezuela is a
mafia state. But I mean, you know, we're just like
words of lost meaning in the way, like we're trying
to go about this.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah, well and talk a little bit more about Venezuela
and how they are. So you got the bounty on
Meduro's head, you have, you know, best case scenario, a
lot of military saber rattling and now this you know,
bragging about blowing up this this boat that we're claiming
had Venezuelan's on it. You know, how are they like
it all just feels like an intentional provocation. And that's
(20:48):
what's deeply concerning about it is it feels like they're
looking for an excuse to do even more and you know,
potential deep stabilization, regime change, whatever that looks like. So
how is Madua responding? How do you expect him to respond?
Speaker 6 (21:02):
Yeah, you know, it's funny because after they did this
prisoner swap with al Salvador releasing like some Americans in
Venezuelan dissidents in exchange for the you know, two hundred
Venezuelans and all Salvador and like days after that, they
actually restored Chevron's oil license in Venezuela and so a
lot of the Miami neocons were furious about that. So
(21:23):
this is kind of their way of appeasing them. And
as far as how Maduro has reacted to this, he
loves this. I mean, you know, like solidarity people, it's
kind of contradictory, like all these regimes like yeah, they
want to remove sanctions, but they also secretly kind of
don't because it gives them an excuse to crack down
and descend, you know, diffuse like blame for all of
(21:45):
their own like fuck ups. So Maduro has said, oh, hey, Trump,
don't fall for this. Ruby was trying to drag you
into the new a war. And you know he might
be right, but you know, he gets to mobilize all
of his militias. You know, he's sent like fifteen thousand militiamen,
chose border with Columbia where you know, he thinks like
an invasion could occur.
Speaker 7 (22:06):
Uh, And it's it's great saber rattling for him. He
loves this.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
See, that's that's always the part that they just It's
like other countries also have politics. You can be a
dictator and have politics. That's just how it works.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Funny they played the Rubio card.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah, I mean, I'm curious on Mexico because, like we said, look,
i mean I see these guys they're like, oh, this
is revenge for fentanyl.
Speaker 8 (22:25):
Again.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I'm like, guys, like ninety nine point nine percent of
the fentanyl enters the United States, it comes from Mexico.
The cartels with any power, they're in Mexico. You know
what the tricky problem is, while Mexico and its government
has a lot of links in corruption, with all this
the cartels. Mexico's also a number one trading partner of
the United States, So what are we gonna do here?
Speaker 6 (22:43):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (22:43):
And so broadly, you know, I'm curious, like you're talking
about saber rattling and all of this. There's been so
much talk, Oh America is going to go after the
cartels in Mexico. The one reason I've never thought that
would actually happen is because of the NAFTA and trading.
I was like, there's just you would genuinely nuke the
US economy if they shut down the border. I mean,
(23:04):
I'm curious how you know is you're an expert on
shine bomb as well. How she is navigating all of
this right now, especially with Rubio down in Mexico.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
Uh, She's done really well and has deeply increased cooperation
UH with the US. Has also taken a very aggressive
and smart security strategy. Actually, you know, fentanyl seizures south
of the border at record highs and north of the
border at record lows. So you know, both of them
were saying that, like the cooperation is yielded fruit, and
(23:34):
that's absolutely true. On the other hand, the question is
whether it'll be enough for the White House, and you
know the problem with this government is you guys have
pointed out, you know, like with the Orang strikes, it's
a lot of it is vibes, a lot of it
is symbolism, a lot a lot of it is just
showing we're doing something. So like with Iran, you know
we bombed her on is that gonna actually prevent them
(23:54):
from getting nuclear weapons? Know?
Speaker 7 (23:56):
If anything, they're more likely to get them.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
So with Mexico, so I can see them just like
doing some kind of strike just because it makes the
base feel good.
Speaker 7 (24:05):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Because people it's like, people don't use Google. I'm like, okay,
so listen, I've got no love for the drug cartels.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
All right, I got zero.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
I'm like simple Google search how much ventanol comes from Venezuela.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Zero? How much cocaine comes to Venezuela. Not much? With
fifty million dollars bounty on Venezuela's.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Leader's head, and we literally recognize a different government, and
we have a government full of people who've been wanting
to overthrow Venezuela now and you just a critical part
of the Miami Coalition are literally expatriate Venezuelan's who are
trying to get the Secretary of State who used to
represent them to overthrow their government, who once posted a
video side by side of Maduro next to Goadafi.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
So what are we doing here?
Speaker 11 (24:48):
You know?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
It's like that is where I just see zero skepticism again,
not even on the drug claims. It doesn't take a
genius to draw this stuff together, not to mention the
history of US police on Latin America. Say, maybe there's
something else going on here, you know, And I don't know.
I'm scared one. I'm scared about sleeper, regime change, destabilization
(25:10):
or any of this. I don't think anything any of
this has to do with drugs as of right now,
or maybe it does. You can correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
Yeah, I mean, in fairness, like a lot of the
cocaine that comes out of Columbia does go through Venezuela,
especially like the coca fields near the Columbia Venezuela border.
But yeah, and you know, in the grand scheme of things,
it's not that much as far as regime change is concerned.
I mean, look, Maduro is horrific. And you know I
(25:41):
live in South Florida. I'm in for Lauderdale and I
hate his guts too, but like, you know, we have
to think about this. What are the consequences of like
removing this guy. Venezuela is a failed state, is controlled
by a bunch of different armed actors, gorillas, you know,
a bunch of other criminal actors like you remove this guy,
like and you know, we're in some sort of prolonged
(26:03):
Vietnam at rock s war in our hemisphere, like, my god,
and what are the migratory consequences?
Speaker 10 (26:09):
Right?
Speaker 6 (26:10):
Even more people would leave, like Venezuela is not going
to get fixed overnight, and most sober Venezuelans know this.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, you're exactly right, absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Thanks for joining us, man. We always appreciate your analysis.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
Thanks us.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Crystal, what are you taking a look at?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Well? In just a few short weeks, a who's who
of comedy will board international flights bound for Riod for
Saudi Arabia's massive comedy festival, build as the largest comedy
festival in the world. The star studed lineup includes likes
of Dave Chappelle, Tim Dillon, Bill Burr, Zi's I'm Sorry,
Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson, Kevin Hart, and a whole lot
more where those came from. You got your right wingers,
(26:50):
you got your left wingers, you got your relatively apolitical,
all coming together in a shared appreciation for the shower
of Saudi cash that lured them to this event in
the first place. What about Saudi's imposed starvation of yenen.
What about their authoritarian speech, depression, and vicious approach to descent.
What about the brutal murder and dismembering of Jamalka Shogi,
their rampant abuse of migrant workers, including allegations of human trafficking. Well,
(27:13):
as Tim Dillon makes plain, the payouts were enough to
get everyone to look the other way.
Speaker 11 (27:18):
They're paying me three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars
for one show.
Speaker 8 (27:21):
Now, a lot of other people are getting one point
six million. That's not me.
Speaker 11 (27:25):
I'm not in that bracket. But they're giving me three
seventy five. Others have gotten one fifty. Why are they
doing it? Here's the point. Here's the point. Okay, I
am doing this because they're paying me a large sum
of money. They're paying me enough money to look the
other way? Do you understand look the other way? That's
(27:50):
a foreword sentence, and people don't do anymore. Look the
other way. If something bad is happening to your left,
look to your right.
Speaker 8 (28:01):
If, for example, I'm at a.
Speaker 11 (28:03):
Breakfast and I see someone get grabbed and they start
hitting them with that's you know, that that big stick.
I don't know if it's bamboo or whatever it is.
It's kind of a wood, but it kind of snaps back.
It's perfect for a cane. If I see someone getting it,
I will look the other way. Okay, if I look
the other way and I see someone being behanded, meaning
(28:24):
they're chopping a hand off, that might be interesting to
just kind of see actually how they do it, because
I think they do it kind of a sanitary way,
but from what I've heard, you know, if.
Speaker 8 (28:33):
They're chopping in I might look down.
Speaker 11 (28:36):
And if I'm looking at the floor and I see
some eyeless beggar grabbing at me trying to get my money,
I will look up to the heavens, and if in
the heavens I see a drone flying over, I will
look the other way because I'm being paid enough money
(28:56):
to look the other way. What don't you understand? What
is so complicated? I'm the only honest person just gonna do.
Everyone else is gonna have a million.
Speaker 8 (29:05):
They're gonna go.
Speaker 11 (29:06):
Well, actually, the Middle East is more progressive now, and
h he's trying to make some change.
Speaker 8 (29:12):
No no, no, no no no no no no no.
Speaker 11 (29:15):
I'm being paid a lot of money to not care
about what they do in their country.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
The Saudi Comedy Festival, of course, just the Kingdom's latest effort,
and a long list of sports and cultural events where
they have doled out tens or hundreds of millions of
dollars so that people will do exactly what Tim suggests
and look the other way. Probably their most discussed gambit
from a US perspective is the Live Golf Tour, which
came in as a direct competitor to the PGA Tour,
bought off a bunch of the world's top players, partnered
(29:43):
with Donald Trump to host events at his properties. We
still don't know how much exactly the President is netting
from his Live Golf deal, but yes, ladies and gentlemen,
the President too is being paid to look the other
way on any Saudi doings that may conflict with American
values or American interest. But there is, of course, so
much more. The Saudis have made massive investments in soccer.
(30:04):
They purchased an eighty percent stake in Premier League's Newcastle United.
They spent lavishly to lure global soccer superstars like Cristiano
Ronaldo and Neymar to Saudi clubs. They've hosted heavyweight boxing matches,
regular WWE events. They back Formula one and Formula E,
which is apparently electric car racing, E sports, women's tennis,
music festivals, including stars like Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber, and
(30:28):
they've also lured artists for massive biennial art exhibitions. Now,
some of these efforts by the Saudis to buy affection,
they have been met with some protest, but none particularly
significant or sustained enough to stop the stars involved from
making the exact same calculus that Tim Dillon explained. Take
the money, look the other way, assume the blowback will
(30:48):
be minimal, and keep it moving. That bet has paid
off for them every time, as best as I can tell.
So this is where we are now, in whatever end
state of capitalism were in. Money's are God the only
end goal apparently that really matters, the only judge of
merit or character. And with this false idol we are
witnessing a total and complete moral collapse. The comedians lining
(31:08):
up to line their pockets are really just one very
small example of it. I mean, it's barely worth mentioning
in comparison to the decision to commit a full on
genocide and ethnic cleansing in order to secure beachfront property
development rights. Increasingly, we're falling into an ideology of utter
and complete nihilism. The sense of our nation as any
(31:28):
sort of collective enterprise has been broken by decades of
a neoliberal ideology that was so individualistic that many apparently
forgot other human beings were even actual human beings at all,
and not just NPCs or non playable characters. How else
can you explain the muted reaction when a boat of
human beings is blown out the water by the world's
most powerful military, or when Florida decides end all childhood
(31:50):
vaccine mandates, putting your right to be an anti vax
crank over the healths of the community, especially children, especially
the elderly and the vulnerable. When we all watch every
single day as a genocide is live streamed in our feeds,
it may be that the only ones really worthy of
being called human at this point are the doctors, and
the aid workers who rush into Gaza, and the Palestinians themselves,
(32:12):
who have somehow still maintained their humanity in the face
of the greatest barbarism imaginable. By the way, Tim Dillon
actually had something to say about this as well.
Speaker 11 (32:22):
The niceties are gone, the pleasantries are gone. Israel's not
disguising what they want to do. The motives are not
They don't matter the narrative does it make sense. The
stories don't add up. They do not care. They're not
trying to make it make sense. They don't have the time.
It's the last bit of control that they can exert
(32:44):
over the system before it blows up.
Speaker 8 (32:48):
It's my guess. It's what it feels like.
Speaker 11 (32:52):
Nobody's putting the time into lie to you anymore. You
should worry about that. You should worry about the fact
that nobody's even trying to make the lie. They know
it doesn't matter if you believe them. They're going to
try to dispose of you. I'll be in Rehod. I'll
be in Rehod where my bread is buttered. Go find
where your bread is buttered. Go get your bread buttered,
(33:15):
Go get your toast buttered. Go get your y, go
jelly your jam because the world is ending. But it's
true and it sounds rough.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Go get your bread buttered because the world is ending?
Doesn't that actually feel like it captures a lot of
the sentiment bubbling under the surface of our culture when
people talk endlessly about a vibe shift. Is that the
vibe the world's ending, and I don't believe anything, So
I'm just gonna go get mine, or at least I'm
gonna try. I'm gonna chase some crypto scam. I'm gonna
lionize the scummiest people on the internet. I'm gonna embrace
(33:52):
the basest of human pleasures, which is a sense of
satisfaction that comes from watching someone in the out group suffer.
Is that the vibe we're talking about after we were
lied into the Iraq War and the economy collapsed and
the banksters were rewarded, and the effort at a collective
renewal as represented by the burning campaign was snuffed down,
is that what we're left with moral collapse, cash grabs, scammers,
(34:14):
race to the bottom, and torture as a form of entertainment.
And so a bunch of comedians with all sorts of
supposed political ideologies. They're all going to go and they're
going to get their bread buttered from a totalitarian monarchy
that hacked a dissident journalist apart because the Royal family
did not like his Washington Post columns. There is another way.
I don't land too much at Zoron's feed here, but
there is something that I genuinely find so special and
(34:37):
hopeful about his campaign. It's the tiniest glimmer the possibility
of a renewed sense of a collective spirit, a glimmer
of an expanded political vision that believes it is possible
to make America's largest city workable for working people. Four thousand.
Just think about this. Extremely earnest people came out for
a Sunday scavenger hunt for this campaign. Young people app
(35:00):
down of their TikTok on we to completely remake the
electorate and shock the world. Or for a more profound example,
I would ask you to listen to doctor Muhammed Mustafa,
Palestinian refugee turned uk and Ossi citizen turned er doctor
who has gone twice to serve in Gaza.
Speaker 10 (35:18):
It's like this bizarre thing because you know net Nyahu
at the start said you know, we are the children
of light fighting the children of darkness. And I'm just like,
the irony of it is this the other way around?
You know, the irony it's the other way around. It's
those kids in Gaza that are the light. When you
see those children, and I've seen them when there's little
(35:39):
food and you know, a child might have a plate
of food and the other child is waiting in line
and there's no more food left, and then that child
who's hungry and emanciated, starts scooping out food from his
plate to put on the child's plate. You know, when
we had COVID over here, you know, we had police
officers guarding toilet paper because we had society had broken down.
We were fighting over toilet papy. And then you have
(36:01):
starving children who are traumatized, who are sharing their food
with each other.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Just think about that. In Gaza, their world may literally
be ending right now. The most powerful country on the
planet is trying to wipe out the evidence that they
ever even existed, and still they stubbornly refuse to become
the animals that we have been told that they are.
They are doing so much more for one another than
(36:27):
just trying to get their own bread buttered. In other words,
maybe Tim Dillon, it's too soon to give up on
the world and sober curious for your your thoughts on
a wide ranging one there.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
I hate to say it.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
I just think it's very Uh, you're too optimistic.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
I mean, so you're in full blown nihilism. Get your
bread buttered.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
I mean if you just I mean, look, if you
look at you know, we need to talk about this
on Monday. Yeah, but anti tax sentiment is at the
highest that it's ever been in the United States.
Speaker 8 (36:58):
Oh I love that.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Why for me it's gaza.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Well it's not just.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
But that's when it's multifaceted, because it's not about federal
it's nothing works.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Shit's too expensive for me. I've got bums all over
where I live.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Crime is high, the prices are too high, property taxes
sky high. I don't feel like I get shit for
what I pay, not to mention for what we're paying
into the federal government system. All of it together, I'm like,
fuck you. That's how most people feel. I talked about
the property tax thing. So the point is is that
all institutions are failing us at every level.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
So I think it's nice to believe. I understand.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
I understand the sentiment. Yeah right, But I actually don't
think you behave like that in your normal life because
we're not doing a cash like we talked this week
about the way that other creators are doing the total
like cash grab, sell out. I'll take the Saudi cash,
I'll take the dark money, I'll sell blue chee whatever.
And that's not the path that you have chosen.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
You're totally right.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
I mean, I have personal integerity, but I'm more like,
I don't agree. I don't conduct myself that way. Would
put that way, yeah, but I don't I understand it.
I see exactly the way that it goes.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
I individually. I am not naive enough to believe that
I individually and this.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
You know, whatever example or whatever we do is going
to influence the vast majority of people to change the
short here.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
If I look at the average behavior of the American.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Citizen, the truth is is that degeneracy individualism is on
the path forward, and you're kind of are a fool
if you try to invest in anything really broadly, at
like a major societal level to make people not behave
hyper individualistically. That is the country that we live in.
You could blame the system, you could blame the people.
(38:39):
I think it's kind of both. Basically, at this point,
we live in Vegas. Our president is literally a casino magnate.
That's the country who we are. I told you earlier
FanDuel is now sponsoring public infrastructure. We have no collective culture,
no collective value, no collective society. So in that society,
like you kind of should ensure that you're protected and
(39:00):
you're okay because nobody's.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Looking out for you. The government's not looking out for you.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
And yeah, I mean just broadly, that's like the way
that I feel is I have no civic faith that
if something were to happen to me that the city
that I would live in would do shit for this
is zero. And then for the government, oh my god,
it's like you better have the resources.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
So I think I probably feel even more dark about
the world in the country with the Trump administration than
you do. So I understand, I understand the impulse, right,
but I am not ready to hand society off to
the Peter Teels of the world and the Donald Trump's
of the world, who would sell it off for parts.
(39:40):
I'm not ready to succumb to a world that's just
might makes right law. The jungle barbarism rules the day.
And that's that's my point. Is I think that way,
And that's.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
No, it's I mean, I really do.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
No, I don't think as much as we're as much
as we're as much as we are in this moment
of decline, and as much as yes, the Carnival Barker
and the trump the Trumpian thug and con artists is
a deep part of American culture and history, like it
is American as apple pie. There's no doubt about that.
(40:14):
We are also the country that you know, that ended slavery,
that ended segregation. We are also the country that, during
the New Deal, built out you know, incredible infrastructure, incredible
manufacturing based like we are also that country that has
had that sense of collective and civic pride in the past.
So that is also a part of the American tradition.
And so you know, the two examples that I cite
(40:37):
here are very intentionally chosen because it would be very
easy for you know, New Yorkers to also engage in
like a very cynical calculation forget it, nothing's going to work.
No one could change this city. It's a playground for
the rich. And yet still they had enough faith in
a collective project to like earnestly engage come out to
vote totally remake. They had electorate put their trust in
(41:00):
someone who is untested and young and unproven, and so
it's this little glimmer of possibility there and then I
really genuinely believe what and this is what I've seen
with you know, covering Palestine, covering Gaza so so carefully.
Doctor Mustapha talks about how Palestine will free the world,
and what he and others mean by that is just
(41:21):
think about how extraordinary it is that while we're all
you know, nihilism and everything nothing matters. I'm going to
get mine, et cetera. Like that example he gives of
a child who you know, has experienced loss that we
can't even imagine, who is trying to be murdered every
day by the world superpower and their little baby terror state.
And still still they find it in themselves to have
(41:45):
a sense of a collective and have a sense of
I'm going to share this little bit that I have
and I find that profoundly inspiring. There's nothing that has
inspired me more in this moment than people too, like
doctor Mustava. He is an er doc. He was actually
a professional player. He was very high level jiu jitsu
champion and is this extraordinary person, and yet he decided
(42:07):
to put himself in harms way twice in a war
zone to go in and sort of like that is
a level of a human spirit that I can't even
wrap my mind around, which is why I'm not prepared
to just give it and say nothing matters. It's all shit,
It can never get better, like it is what it is,
and we're just going to continue on this steady decline
as like a human race.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Actually, I would say that I don't have faith that
the political system will deliver the change that you're looking for.
I don't believe any politician would be able to do it,
un least currently. There's only two ways you and I
are going to get the.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Country that we want.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Number one is a massive global financial crisis we were
talking about earlier. We actually had a shot in eight.
But see that's where my skepticism comes in the language
you're using about Zoron. I heard it all in two
thousand and eight. Obama, the young people, the Internet, they
came out there, well, meaning. And it's like remember that
commercial of taking the hope poster down. That's reality. It
(42:56):
didn't work. It straight up was a failure. He took
we know, the hopes and dreams of literally millions, and
they crashed and that's how you got Donald Trump. So
reality tells us that probably won't happen. So probably a
global financial system or it's going to be a massive war.
That's another reason I was talking earlier about China. And
(43:16):
the most likely scenario is that we are going it's
going to be just like the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
We're going to have.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
Our thumb up our ass for years and everyone will
be inter so we'll be squabbling and then one day
nineteen fourteen or nineteen thirty nine, the entire world will
change in a single day. And from that point forward
that's when shit gets real. So that's where the gosins
of course have to come together and collect a solidarity
because they are literally fighting a war of extinction. But
in the absence of that, we are not. We are
(43:44):
not fighting an existential but the only existential battle we're
fighting is against ourselves, like internally, and you know, basically
like warding off all of the capitalistic endeavors to suck
your drive of your entire souls.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
That's the war that we fight here.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
So without that external factor, I don't see it happen,
and it pretty much never happened without that major external
factor or precipitating crisis.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
So you talked about you talk about ending slavery.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Yeah, I mean it took a prolonged, multi year civil
war of a massive crisis, six hundred thousand deaths, two
percent of the US population. And even then at the time,
it took the political genies of Lincoln to actually make
it happen, because if we're all being honest, ending slavery,
it was not all that popular at the time, even
within the Union, that's the truth.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Segregation.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Yes, it was great, you know, nineteen sixty four and
all that, but it took about twenty five years, you know, broadly,
and what Reagan just happened to announce his campaign in
nineteen eighty exactly in the spot where I'm gonna say,
I'm just like, okay, so you know.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
I mean, but yeah, I think that you may be
correct that it does take that kind of a massive crisis,
you know, I mean, that's basically the acceleration.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
I don't see any evidence that it can come about.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
I'm not convinced of that, but I acknowledge that that
is entirely possible. I guess for us recording any number
of crises on Universe runs.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
We'll probably get there.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
Here we go.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
I sometimes feel like I'm broadcasting in the year like
nineteen ten, because there were a lot of British intelects.
I'm not calling myself an electual, but I'm saying there
were a lot of like British intellectuals and others who
were like, the storm is coming, the rise is coming,
there's you know, storm on the horizon.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Yeah, and everyone's like, oh, it's fine. You know.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
The number one story in July nineteen fourteen in Paris
was about a lady who I think she shot her
husband's mistress or something. That was the number one story
in the city of Paris in France. Like, that's the
level of bullshit that they were all doing.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
They lived in one of the richest, most prosperous, incredible places.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
I feel very similarly like that's the tabloid level nonsense
that we're all obsessed with, and it's like you can
just see the storm on the.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Horizon you know, you have that, you have that, and
then it's in a split screen with like and the
militaries occupying you and I.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
You and I see that, right, But most people are not.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
They're just going about their day wondering about McDonald's putting
the NFL on betting on college football.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Taylor swift endorsement is the number one story in the country.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
Like, be honest, you know, have you seen a level
of you know, how many videos are there of people
finding out about Taylor's and like collapsing in tears.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
You know, that's the country that we live in.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
And I mean, I take stylis and the fact that
it has kind of always been that way.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
I don't think it's particularly unique at this point.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
But yeah, to see the collective is in the ditching
of individualism.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
And all that it's going to be.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
It's going to take a lot, I think a lot
that I will agree with you. All right, Okay, thanks
you guys for watching. We appreciate you. We'll see you later.
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