10/22/25: Graham Platner Accused Of Nazi Tattoo, KJP Covers Up Biden Age, Energy Price Spike, New Irish President

28:24I saw every day a really ugly assault on someone who had 50 plus years of experience and who, again, objectively had done a good job as president of the United States. And it was heartbreaking to see that type of behavior. I think all of that, everything you're saying, I cannot fault the factual basis of what you're saying or your feelings about it. But what happened was the debate performance. Everything is downstream of that. And no one is saying that the debate performance wasn't shocking, wasn't a disappointment. No one is saying that. Disappointment is such a light term. I use your words.

29:10It was harrowing. I use your words. Okay, look, listen, we're never going to agree on this. We're not. And she also appeared on CBS Sunday Morning and with Tim Miller with Throll E3. You even write, Corrine, that you were on the plane with him going to the debate and you didn't see anything. Well, when we were on the Air Force One going on the going to the debate, you got to remember his campaign. People were on the team. His family was on the team. I actually was one of those rare trips that I didn't really see him until after the debate, even though I was on the plane. So really, I take I want everybody to know that I take this question incredibly seriously.

29:49I do. I was his White House press secretary, which means I had a role that saw him practically every day and traveled with him. And you saw more than 95 percent. We've always said we're not going to say, oh, he didn't age. He aged and he poked fun at it. We always owned up. And with age comes what happens when you get older, which is what I what I. But when we talk about the mental acuity and again, I take this very, very seriously. I never saw anyone who wasn't there. I saw someone who was always engaged. I saw someone who understood policy, pushed us on the policy and also understood history.

30:28And he didn't talk about him that well, though. He couldn't talk about him. First of all, first of all, he did talk about them, whether it broke through or not. He did. Tim, he did talk about He talked way less to the press than Donald Trump does, way less and he wasn't out there at all, he wasn't good off the cuff he wasn't doing press conferences let's just be real, he didn't do the paid events Tim, that's not true Tim, you're conflating all of it I'm not No, first you're telling me he didn't talk well about it then you're telling me he didn't talk at all He didn't do either, he didn't talk very often and when he did it wasn't very good Maybe you weren't paying attention to what we were doing at the White House I paid attention.

31:08I'm with you on the policies. I'm talking about his performance. For KJP to try to tell the American public or to tell the American public through Tim Miller that he addressed the press frequently and did so with a plum. Incredible. She does not take this seriously, despite her claims repeatedly to the contrary. Does she think she takes it seriously? I mean, that's like what's does she think anybody is buying this? What is the market for this that she thinks exists? It's like actually really impossible to imagine. The only reason, by the way, she's getting tough questions now, I actually think this might explain some of it, is she doesn't expect to be treated this way by the media because she really never was when she had any power, right?

31:49When she was in charge of the Biden White House's communications, everyone was bullied out of covering Biden's health. Every single network that is now acting as though she's the worst person in the world was intimidated by her because she said, we aren't giving you access if you report on this. We're not like, listen to what Alex Thompson has said about this. That's how people who tried to cover that story were treated by the Biden White House. Now that she has no power because she is so attached to the Biden legacy and the Biden brand, which is out of favor in the Democratic Party. The Bidens no longer have power in the Democratic Party.

32:23It's only then that people in the media turn on her. And I don't think she was expecting it. I don't think she is used to being treated this way by the media. In fact, in one of those interviews, she clutches, it was a morning joke, she clutches to the side, she goes, I'm a black queer woman. And people like me get taken for granted as though it would be her shield from tough criticism. But Biden's are out of power. They don't have any clout left in the Dem party. So she's like actually not being treated with kid gloves and withering under it. Yeah, the theme of the book is that the party betrayed Joe Biden.

32:57But I think you're right that she feels a sense of betrayal as well, or maybe primarily. And it also that entire theme raises a question of entitlement. Like, why is Joe Biden entitled to a second term when he didn't even he he he betrayed the American people by suggesting to them that he was going to be a bridge to the next generation? he was going to be a one-term candidate and then barreled ahead trying to run. If there was a betrayal, he's the one that carried out the betrayal. But the idea that of a betrayal requires the public owing him something. And no politician is owed anything. So the whole premise kind of falls apart there.

33:48I think that has to, I mean, that's the only way that I can explain what's happening with Karine Jean-Pierre. So I'm glad he looked up the book sales. I was wondering how it was doing after seeing all of this. I just checked. Ken Vogel's book is doing better. Let's go. All right. Well, I'll get another reminder to tune in for our weekend interview with Ken Vogel. I was going to say we'll continue to follow the story in the future, but I doubt we won't. Let's hope that we don't. All right. Up next is John Powers, CEO of Clean Capital, to talk about why you're paying so much in your electric bill.

34:21Democrats are pushing back hard against the Trump administration for canceling billions of dollars worth of energy projects. If we can put up the first element on the screen here, Martin Heinrich, the top Democrat on the Energy Committee, is saying that as a result of the cancellation of over seven billion dollars worth of contracts, we're going to see staggering increases in energy prices for the American people. And he argues that they are canceled completely illegally because contracts, the money had already been appropriated by the Biden administration and contracts had already been reached on these projects.

34:57He also noted that coincidentally, 218 of the 233 projects ranging from battery storage to hydrogen solar were in states with Democratic governors. Shocking. Now, energy that's produced in blue states, by the way, does go out to red states. But whatever. Anyway, I put up this next element. This is on the heels of this. The Trump administration's cancellation of the largest what was going to be the largest solar facility in the country. It would produce 6.2 gigawatts of energy when it was finished. That's enough to power two million homes. This was out in the southwest, which is like everybody, energy starved.

35:46So to walk us through what all this means is John Powers. He's the CEO of Clean Capital, and he's joining us this morning. John, welcome to Breaking Points. Thank you. Thanks for having me. And so, John, can you talk to us a little bit about what the energy industry is facing broadly, but the clean energy industry in particular over the last year? Yeah, I mean, the last six months in particular have been incredibly challenging, really from an understanding of where we're going. You know, we have invested over a billion and a half dollars in over 27 states. We've built over half a gigawatt worth of projects and are selling to customers that want to buy our electricity, everyone from Fortune 100s to folks buying community solar.

36:36The reality is there's a massive demand for what we do. But the policy uncertainty that this administration is putting in front of us really has put huge roadblocks into getting projects built and financed. The reality is, though, that as electricity prices continue to rise in this country, and they are rising for a very simple reason. There's a growing demand like we've never seen before. The last 20 years, we've got a pretty steady state demand in this country. But because of data centers and other electrification of everything efforts, electricity prices are going up significantly. Here in Buffalo, where I am, they expect a 20 % rate hike next year.

37:13So what we're doing is adjusting to that new reality and looking to where we and how we can build projects. And which Biden bill was it? The IRA? I forget. I always mix up the IRA. BBB became IRA. Yeah, BBB became IRA. And then there's the OBBB of this administration. But tell us maybe a little bit about how with the IRA credits, there were some adaptations that had to be made afterwards to get stuff actually built and off of the ground. And that was in the process when the Trump administration came in and canceled a lot of this. So what is your maybe you can give us a sense of sort of the trajectory or the plateau might be a better word to use at this point.

37:55Yeah, hopefully it's not a plateau, first of all. And I think we have to even step back further than the Biden legislation from a few years ago and look at what's happened over the last decade in this industry. Really, it was a truly a nascent industry looking back as far as 2010. And what has happened as policy is aligned, technology has proven out, and finance has really moved behind this industry. We've seen it grow. And the demand for the power that we produce is significant. So when major corporations like Walmart or the tech companies and others are signing long-term power arrangements for electricity today, they never did that 15 years ago.

38:32They just bought from the utility. But they're seeing better ways to budget their electricity. When you think about things like solar, the input to the solar, the sun doesn't change. So you can really budget out your power over 20 years. Those economics have really proven themselves out. It's brought efficiency to our market. We've gotten better at being able to build these things and get them in the ground. As a result, our market has really flourished. And unfortunately, we were at a really amazing point literally at the beginning of this year where we went, for instance, from 14th in the world in solar manufacturing to third.

39:04Because incentives behind things like the IRA, we're getting manufacturing built, by the way, in many Republican districts. The governor of Georgia is a great example of someone who took wild advantage of this and went to an area in Georgia where it was literally dying. It was the carpet center of the world that was dying from manufacturing, attracted major solar manufacturers. And now we will be a net exporter of solar panels. We were at least on track to do that in the next two years. So those policies were working. This administration forecasted a year ago when Trump was in Houston and raised a billion dollars from the fossil fuel, or said to the fossil fuel executives, give me a billion dollars, I'm going to save your industry.

39:43put a fracking executive in charge of the Department of Energy, and now has been doing everything they can to slow the roll of what is in solar a$70 billion industry, right? So back to your question, we now have a new policy landscape to execute under. And from Clean Capital's perspective, we're looking at where and how we can invest and bring projects. Unfortunately, they've narrowed the scope of where we can go, but it doesn't mean we're not building projects. We just had a ribbon cutting yesterday here in Western New York. where we put solar on a brownfield that was at one point one of the most polluted parts of the entire country.

40:19So what Trump will say is that, look, wind and solar is a scam. Energy should be something that you make money from, not something that you have to subsidize. So what is the counterargument to his claim there? Well, first of all, they're wildly subsidized. Possible has been subsidized for 100 plus years. So the scam is actually the opposite, right? We have spent billions, if not trillions in fossil fuel subsidies. So let's just start off with, yeah, let's have a level playing field. And we are bringing infrastructure capital to grow things like solar and storage. That was not done 10 years ago, right?

40:59It was a high risk market, but this is growing worldwide. I would hold up my cell phone route and tell you, this is where the world's going in terms of mobile phones. If we try to go back to the phone that was connected to the wall, because that's what the president wanted to do, all of us would be up in arms, right? That's the transition that's happening right now in energy. And the question is, do we want to be the world leaders in this? Or do we want to go back to trying to get things done in a way that, and often, Ryan, I heard you talk about in the data center show a while back, you know, it takes seven to 10 years to build things like a natural gas plant or a nuclear plant.

41:35The demand we have is growing super fast. The cheapest, fastest way to do it is renewables. And we can bring all of those electrons to the grid regardless. So let us compete and we'll win. But they're putting handcuffs on us. You know, this BLM cancellation is a good example, right? They're looking at a project that has really taken probably hundreds of millions of dollars in investment ready to go. And they're cutting it off for purely political reasons. and that unfortunately is going to cost the electricity payers in that region significantly because that new power isn't going to come online and there's nothing to replace it in the near term yeah so can you talk a little bit about that the handcuffs there so i think that is the best push back to trump where he says hey you know no subsidies everybody should have to compete but taking a project that had hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and approvals or taking these 233 contracts that were doled out and just canceling them.

42:35That doesn't sound like a level playing field to me, but what else in a regulatory framework is happening that is making it not just that you're on a level playing field, but it's actively handicapping you against the fossil fuel industry? It's that uncertainty, right? And when we think about the way you invest in anything, whether it be renewable energy or a new technology or building real estate, right? The less uncertainty, the more capital will flow to that market. They've entered uncertainty around the tax credits, around how you're going to look at something called fiat, which is like where you're getting, it's a very in the weeds thing in the policy, but it's, you know, whether or not we can get any part of a system from China, right?

43:17You know, American manufacturing is ramped up significantly, but still within the supply chain, there's still bits that come from China. So how do we address that? And if you're going to put that handicap on us, let's also put it in the fossil fuel industry. Good luck building a natural gas plant today that no bit of that natural gas plant comes from China. Those are the type of handicaps that they're trying to implement. And the sector of energy knows what he's doing. He is an extremist who's come in to try to handicap this industry, and he's doing everything he can to do so. One thing I've heard often from people in the solar industry, and I'm curious if you can elaborate on this a bit, is that the technology is – advancements in the technology would surprise most people if they realize kind of the potential.

44:03And it's actually – I say this as somebody on the right who likes the idea of solar because it gets you off the grid, right? If you have your own solar capabilities, there's something independent about that if you're able to run your home on solar or something like that. But one of the things that I hear a lot is this is like leaps and bounds. When we're looking to the immediate future of solar, it's really, really promising in ways that maybe people don't recognize. Could you tell us a little bit about whether that's true? Yeah. So first in the technology piece, and I want to get to the political piece in a second because you raise a really interesting point.

44:38So the technology piece leaps and bounds forward. We are, for instance, we built solar in Alaska, right, recently. If you would have asked me when we started this company 10 years ago, if that was possible, no way, right? But now, for instance, the panels can not just take the sun from the top, but they take it as reflected from the bottom, really driving up efficiency. Energy storage has come such a long way and is being implemented across the grid and will really be a key piece of stabilizing the grid. You know, just in the last few years, that technology has accelerated to a point that it's being, you know, there's almost a lack of batteries right now because so many people need it to help stabilize the grid.

45:15But back to the political piece for a second. This should not be a Republican and Democratic issue. You know, I think one of the things that gets lost in the big, beautiful bill debate this summer, 22 House Republicans signed a letter saying, don't touch the tax credits. We need them. If this was a standalone energy bill, that would not have passed, right? The genius of the administration, I'll give them credit for this, was flooding the zone with salt, the state taxes, Medicaid, putting these folks in an uncomfortable position to decide how they're going to vote. We have to continue to build support on both sides, obviously, and the Republican side more right now to continue to show that this technology is proven.

45:56Texas is the fastest growing solar state in the nation. Why is it the fastest growing solar state in the nation? Two years ago, Popo froze to death because the grid was unstable, right? Recently, the head of the national group that manages the grid's reliability said, it's because of solar and storage that Texas's grid is back to being stable, right? Those are the leaders that we should be listening to in this debate, not some of the extremists that are pushing sort of anti-renewable policies instead of all the above policies and pragmatic energy policies that will move us forward. And so the bottom line seems to be that if you want to build nuclear or natural gas turbines, natural gas, you're looking at seven years.

46:39Nuclear, you'd be extremely lucky, given our track record, to get something online within seven years. So let's even say it's that. Whereas wind and solar, we're talking what? How long to get from starting to get it up? Yeah, 18 months to two years. I mean, for distributed solar, big utility projects like the one that got canceled sometimes could take four plus depending on transmission. But it's much quicker. And it's really a local game at that point on how to get it interconnected and where. You know, the transition that's happening to the grid is we're going from these massive centralized systems that provided power and it was distributed across the country to a much more distributed type of production.

47:23so we can move quicker, get those things plugged in closer to the end use of the power. That transition has been underway for about 15 or 20 years. Unfortunately, these guys are slowing that transition by trying to go back to that centralized system, which has proven unstable. We want stability. We need to move from, again, we're moving to this, from the telecon age of Ma Bell. And we have to continue that transition because the rest of the world is. And if we don't, we're going to be left behind. And so correct me if I'm wrong. The way that you end up getting your electric bill is a product of supply and demand, where the utility gauges what the supply is that they have now and what they forecast will be the supply in the future against the demand that they have now and the demand that they expect in the future.

48:15And then they go to their regulators and they say, here's what we need to charge to make this work. So the supply, the only way to bring new supply on with any quickness seems to be to rely on these clean energy technologies because they can move faster. On the demand side, we seem to be building data centers everywhere all the time. And so the demand is going through the roof. So it and and then tell me about the because you mentioned the tax credits. My understanding was that in the IRA, tax credits went something like 20, 30 years. Because as you mentioned, these projects take so long to get on.

48:56And if you're going to make a multi-billion dollar investment, this is something you care about for decades or maybe 15, 20 years. Whereas the one big, beautiful bill cut those credits and they cut off at what, 20, 30 or something like that. So how does that play in? Yeah. So first of all, in the utility question, you're right as a supply and demand issue. And right now, demand is far outstripping supply. That's why utilities are having to ask for rate heights. As you mentioned in a previous episode, the data centers are driving that. And we need every type of supply we can to counteract that.

49:33If we wait seven years for a natural gas plant, everyone's going to be paying. Electricity bills are a top political issue today. You're seeing it in New Jersey, the governor's race. It is going to be the egg prices of the midterms, right? And the Trump administration knows that that's why they're out blaming us when that's not the reality. But going back to your previous question on the tax credits, this is one of the things I was very active on Capitol Hill this spring because there's a lack of understanding of finance in the policymaking realm in Washington, right? The tax credits are something that are, you know, so as we build a project today, we can go to a taxpayer and they can get a credit to invest that money into this type of project.

50:15They can also do it for low-income housing and other things, right? This is a tool that's been used for decades to incentivize certain type of growth, right? What happens is, though, when we're building projects, when we're looking out to, you know, it takes us two years to get something built, but we're financing it today, right? So we are looking at it when those tax, when's that tax credit cliff comes because it highly affects the type of capital we're putting into a project. The reality is the reason those tax credits were put in is because it helps keep the price of electrons lower on the backside.

50:50So it's like how much does it cost to build equals how much you're paying for the power, right? We're now raising the price to build. It's going to raise the price for people are going to pay for electricity. The efficiency our market is getting, though, is helping to negate some of that, which is exciting. But the reality is it's still an issue for projects really 26 and beyond. And we are trying to figure out today, what does that look like? And how are we going to sort of build in finance? And the reality is where we're going to build in finance, because we are. The question is, where is it going to work?

51:23Well, John Powers, great last name, by the way. Nominal determinism. clean capital energy. Thanks for walking us through this. Really appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it. Well, as I mentioned earlier in the show, Ryan rambled in here off his bike this morning and said he apparently knows the future president of Ireland. And rather than just treat him as a crazy individual, I think we're going to indulge him. He has a claim. Once in a while, you got to just indulge those claims because they might be true. So Catherine Connolly is running for president of Ireland. The polls have her enormously ahead, and the election is on Friday.

52:06She is expected to be the next president of Ireland. When I was in Dublin over the summer, I met up with Abu Bakr Abed, my old, not my old, my colleague at DropSite. He was reported for us from Gaza. He's now in Ireland. He's a very young guy. Young guy. And we teamed up with The Ditch and Polly Doyle and did an event with the woman who had just launched her presidential campaign at the time, Catherine Connolly. And it was held at the in the basement of this this pub. And it was a really riveting conversation. And to see her in conversation with Abubakar was was quite interesting. you can see the entire we'll link to the entire thing down in the show notes we'll play you know about 15 minutes of it after this but after that she had a series of kind of controversies in in the presidential race where for instance she said she was asked to condemn Hamas and she said look Hamas is part of the fabric of Palestinian society who who are we as people who want our own liberation our own anti-colonial struggle to tell other people how to run their liberation struggle.

53:22And, you know, Irish elites were pretty like aghast at that comment. Irish voters were like, yeah, that tracks. And so she's on track to be the next president of Ireland. So let's roll a little bit of this clip. And so this starts with Catherine Connolly getting asked by Pauly Doyle, why there's this gap between what the Irish kind of public wants its government to do when it comes to relations with Israel and Palestine and what the Irish government actually does. And you guys are in the basement of a pub over the summer. So this would have been July or August? Yeah. Yes. And as you can see in there, she starts off by joking about how insanely hot It was like over 100 degrees.

54:10The room was, you know, it's absolutely packed, standing room only. And they don't have air conditioning over in Dublin. So you can see we are all sweating bullets in there. But it was very much worth it. And it was cool. We have a ton of drop sight and breaking points, viewers and readers in Dublin, which is also kind of cool to see. Unbelievable. So this is for y 'all. This is the first time I've been in a sauna with all my clothes on.

54:43A communal sauna at that point. I don't mean to be flippant.

54:52I don't know where to go with this really because it's so overwhelming to listen to yourself here. I don't know what words to follow. I don't know how we've come to the stage where we're hearing that description and tried to explain it. Something has gone horribly wrong with humanity, with the narrative. And you're asking me directly about the government. I actually think the government believes their own rhetoric to a certain extent. I think the government believes their rhetoric to a certain extent. I think they actually believe they're doing something and they're the best boys in the class or the best girls in the class.

55:28And they've told us that repeatedly. For fear, we didn't understand it the first time. And so we've reduced the world to them and us. We're really back to that, them and us. We're back to you're with us or again us. And it's frightening actually to watch it on a daily basis. And if we look at Palestine, well before the 6th of October in 2023, as it's been set out slaughter was going on one way or another and when Hamas went over the border we had to continuously every time we spoke condemn that like the refrain in the Rosary we had to say absolutely and give that refrain to legitimise what we were going to say some people were more courageous than I and said they wouldn't condemn it I actually had no difficulty condemning it because I was horrified at the violence, as I am with all violence.

56:33However, as we all know here, history did not begin on that day. But we were never allowed to give a context that was not permitted in the Dáil without over and over condemning the attack. And of course, context is very important. And so we're not allowed to do that. And we've struggled to do that. And I want to thank you because you have no idea the importance of your protest and all the protests that have taken place over the country. It's really, really important. You mightn't think it, but it is having an influence on politicians. However, I don't know how long we can keep on with a genocide going on in front of our eyes.

57:16The word ironic is not the right word, but just last week we had a minute's silence versus Rebbe Nietzsche, rightly so. But we made no connection with the ongoing genocide in Palestine. And so there's a disconnect all of the time. And you asked me, how do we move from the government's rhetoric? There's a complete disconnect on so many levels, so many levels between the government who think they're doing fantastic and the actual feeling on the ground. So in my time in the Dáil, Amnesty published their report and they said there was an apartheid regime being operated by Israel. And our government told us they were uncomfortable with the word apartheid.

57:59They actually said, we don't really want to talk about that, uncomfortable with that word. So we let that go. And then six human rights organisations were described and designated as terrorist organisations. We let that go. we waited for the evidence the government said but there's no evidence ever produced and then we watched the slaughter of men women and children of journalists and I don't need to say all of this but you know it's important to say it because we're actually watching the slaughter we're watching the UN being dismantled we're watching language becoming meaningless I never understood Kafka when I was doing German I wasn't able to I fully understand Kafka now I can tell you after my years and the dolls since 2016 things just happen things just happen you know things are just happening in Palestine has nothing to do with Israel really and and that so I struggle I struggle I've read everything I possibly can I came from a background of Leon Uris Exodus Mila 18 I think I wanted to go to the kibbutz let me say there isn't an anti-Semitic bone in my body.

59:11I wouldn't tolerate it. But that's the background I came from. And I've made a journey in trying to understand Palestine and read everything I can. The latest, I had the privilege of launching a book in Galway by Fintan Drury. I recommend it. So where am I going with this? We have no choice but to speak out. We're at a point in history where we really have to use our voices to make language mean something, to make our actions mean something. And when we try that, we're demonized, we're isolated, all the tricks of the book to do that with the help of a media that's colluding. So I thank you very much because it's not easy to provide an alternative media, but it's essential because we're not going to get it from the leadership and the doll and we're not going to get it.

1:00:02And I'll finish just maybe, you know, misinformation and disinformation And I tend to laugh nearly hysterically when I hear that about the government bringing in legislation or something to counter disinformation. In my experience, most disinformation comes from governments, from institutions, from institutions who protect themselves in a self-serving manner and a narrative all the time. And that consensus mentality to me is the greatest threat to democracy. And so if we go back and I'll finish on this, the banking inquiry, Nyberg did his banking inquiry and published his report. And what jumped off the page was the consensus mentality that allowed the banking crisis.

1:00:47And fast forward to the 2025 and the same mentality is evident in relation to the Children's Hospital, the various debacles in Dublin. And I sit on the Public Accounts Committee. I've read all the reports. And the biggest thing was the absence of questioning. That's what led to all of these very, very serious issues, neglect of children, the absence of questioning and a consensus mentality. So on one level, I don't wish to add to your despair in this sauna in here. We've learned nothing. On the other hand, I learn all the time because it's the only thing we have left is to keep learning, keep acting and using our voice because we have to give hope.

1:01:30We have to stand with the people of Palestine because if we let it happen, there's serious consequences for us as a nation and as for humanity. Where are we going if we let this happen? I think in my opinion, since I've arrived here, and just to let people know that the most well-known European country or Western country that Gazans know is Ireland, by the way. There is so much love to you, so much really hope in you from Gazans, and they're always talking about you. And this hasn't started since this genocide started in October, But it's always been durable for many, many, many years, and we're very well aware of that.

1:02:20But I think since I've arrived here, one thing the Irish government is quite worried about is that it is very pressured by you, by the protests, by what we're seeing every single day from protests, calls to end the apartheid regime, to pass the Occupied Territories Bill, and to cut the Israeli bonds and everything. I'm aware of that. But I think in my opinion, the only obstacle that the government has is America because it doesn't want to make America angry with it. And America, Israel controls America, not the other way around. So the Irish government is because there are a lot of investments here from Americans in this country.

1:03:04And we're all aware of that and I've seen that and I've read about it. But also this government doesn't like it. What it's all doing is just pleasing the United States and the U.S. administration. And that if we make the U.S. angry, we can't attack Israel or we can't do whatever we want. So we have to be really aware of what it means. I don't think any of you is happy that your aerospace is allowed to be used to transport fighter jets from America to Australia to kill, bomb children. I don't think any of you is happy with that. I don't think that those politicians were still voting for a genocide on for Israeli bombs or I'll say in mere platitudes.

1:03:50and particularly the Irish newspapers here, particularly the Irish Times and the RTE, are still producing stories justifying the ongoing slaughter that we're seeing every single day. No one should be allowed to accept this. So what Palestinians need from the government, because in the end there is hope in people who still care, there is hope in people who still have a heart, a pure heart about the plight of an entire population. And think about it, which part of this world is being bombed? Which part of this world is suffering? Which part of this world is being starved? Which part of this world is being exterminated every single day?

1:04:35It's only Gaza. So why are we not having just the mere rights of any human beings around the world? Why this Irish government, which knows the meaning of colonization, which knows the meaning of starvation, which knows the meaning of imperialism. It knows everything about this because it has been colonized by British, by Britain. So it knows everything. So why this government is still not acting? Because in the end, Gaza is the prologue and then everything will happen. And you know that Britain is funded this. Britain is the most complicit, probably country in this genocide after the US administration or after the United States.

1:05:16So what Palestinians need from the government, from this government, is just to listen to its people, as I told you. Like, pass the occupied territories, be-el-Qadr Israel-e-bond. It's not important. Like, it's not going to be the end of the world. And just listen to your people. It's enough. It's enough slaughter. So this complicity just to allow in the Shanigan airport, to allow fighting jets without even interrogating them, without even stopping them, without even asking them anything. but rather you will see people saluting them here, they're in the airports, and this is just absolutely not something that you really want.

1:05:54So what we all want from this government is just to listen to its people. Like, if you don't want to help, the least you can do, don't contribute to Kylianos. That's all we want as Palestinians.

1:06:14maybe Catherine you could speak to that question about the the role of the the U.S. and then if you did become president my understanding is a pretty ceremonial position but at in that in that ceremony there could be interactions with the vice president of the United States the president of the United States if there are meetings would would you take meetings like that Or how would you use the office to try to get the yoke of the U.S. off of Irish government so that it could have a more democratic connection to its public?

1:06:49Hello. Am I speaking from the diaphragm? It's quite a complex question. I'll do my best.

1:07:00Where do I go with this?

1:07:06I am who I am. I can't be, I can't pretend. My only strength is my honesty and what I feel. And I do my best to educate myself and speak, reflect and speak. So it seems to me I have no choice but to use my voice to speak out. I can't be presumptuous enough to jump ahead being president. I'm not trying to avoid your question. It certainly, let me take it before then. I think, as you've said, we're absolutely intricately bound up with America. They determine our policy. We're allowing the bullies to determine our policy. So we have a bully in America who changes his mind. But the problem didn't start with the bully in America who changes his mind every five minutes, every day.

1:08:00It started before that when the Democrats failed to see what was happening and when they failed to see people turning away from the Democrats and they failed to analyze it. If we come back here, the government is out of touch. They simply don't realize the strength of outrage on the ground, not just in relation to the genocide in Palestine, but in relation to war, the normalization of war, the normalisation of genocide, the normalisation of homelessness, of a housing crisis, all of which shouldn't be normal. And people are outraged on the ground and are crying out for solutions. And we have the solutions, but the narrative from the advisors and from the neoliberal ideology is very, very strong with the help of the press.

1:08:53So if we go back to Ireland, Ireland has done very well by its government in terms of the recognition of Palestine. However, I'm on record for saying they're recognizing Palestine when it's almost destroyed. So while they're clapping themselves on the back, in one sense, it's easy to understand them because they are top of the class compared with other countries, including Arab countries. They are top of the class. So they see themselves as doing very well. What we see is democracy in peril. Because we either agree with the narrative that we need to be very careful with America. And we heard the ambassador, I think the American ambassador to Israel, telling us we were intoxicated on our own narrative.

1:09:44But we need to stand up because we have everything to lose if we don't. whether I do that now as a candidate for the presidency and in the best way I can if I was president certainly and under the constitution the role of the president is set out and it's narrow enough the symbolism of is very important because as we know in this country from Northern Ireland as well symbols are powerful and they can be used so the symbolic role can be used and I must comply with my duties if I was there under the constitution and by law however one of the articles gives the president specific role in relation to the welfare of the people of Ireland and that's quite a broad a broad part in the constitution I the person becoming president takes a public vow absolutely a solemn promise to serve the people of Ireland and the welfare of Ireland and so I don't think the welfare of Ireland is served by us joining warmongers by adding to the military-industrial complex.

1:10:47I think we have everything to lose and nothing to gain by increasing the, of course, we need to look after our defence forces. So let me get that on the record. But joining in the boys club to back up the profit-driven arms industry is not in our interest. And we have everything to lose by doing that. We have to use our voice for peace. Will I do that if I was elected and had the privilege of being president? You couldn't stop me. You couldn't stop me using my voice for peace.

1:11:26You couldn't stop me as a mother of two children who were grown up and are two men now, so they're not around and they're not embarrassed by that. But once a mother, always a mother. I'm horrified that we would be using war as a way to achieve peace. It's back to front. So we should be working, and that's what I would do as a president, working to make the republic mean something, working towards the United Ireland with consent and recognising diversity and using my voice. But more importantly, acting as a role modeler, that's a bit pretentious, but enabling and empowering people on the ground to use their voices, whether that's for peace or to do what they want to do.

1:12:12It is vital. And as I said earlier on, we're at a turning point. So we need people to take courage in their hands and use their voices. Consensus is not healthy. Dissent is very good. And diversity and the cherishing of diversity, it's absolutely vital for a functioning, healthy democracy.

1:12:36Okay, that's it for us. And we'll see you on Friday, right? We'll see you on Friday. I did want to mention, I was referencing a report that was done by a conservative group on connections between like open society, tides funding, that sort of stuff going into groups that potentially are knowingly funding literal ruckus in this case. So I was trying to remember whose study it was. It was Capital Research Group or Capital Research Center, which is a conservative group. And they have a report that's pretty interesting. Ryan and I was talking just a little bit about it while we were between segments that they show Open Society has sent money into a group called the Ruckus Society, also something called the Center for Third World Organizing.

1:13:20You can check that out on your own, make your own decision. And those groups do direct action. They do. Yeah. I wouldn't call it violent at all, but they do direct action. So again, yeah, to just reiterate what we said in that segment, I'm not trying to make the case that there's a vast right wing, there's a vast left wing conspiracy, I should say, to send Soros money to like literal black box violence taking over America's cities. But you can go ahead and check out that study. We'll link it. We are not funded by liberal philanthropy. So go to breakingpoints.com, upgrade your to a premium subscription and make sure that we don't have to go with our tin cup to Soros and the Tides Foundation.

1:13:56That's right. Yeah, we are only 90 % funded by Soros. That's right. 0%. We're funded by you. We're funded by you. We're so grateful for that. So breakingpoints.com, you can get a premium subscription, which gets you access to the second half of the Friday show where we really have all the fun and do AMAs. And maybe Lyle will show up again sometime soon. We can hope. All right. We'll see you there. See ya.

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