4/28/26: Taxpayers To Pay For Ballroom, Congress Pushes Veteran Benefits For IDF, Hezbollah Drone Attacks, Ann Coulter On Trump And Iran

25:34You'll even see it with IDF casualties. They'll be like so-and-so of Connecticut. And you're like, what? What was that? Or, you know, remember, didn't we play an IDF spokesperson here? This guy is clearly from America, right? I mean, we were like, oh, we're like, interesting accent. What was that? I remember when I was in Israel, I would meet people, but like, oh, where are you from? Expecting them to say like, you know, Haifa. And they're like, oh, I'm from Boston. I was like, what? Like, okay. You know, I wasn't aware. There's over a million people who are citizens who live in the country. It's not that big of a country.

26:06So you could see very clearly, like there's a lot of Americans who are over there and there's a real culture of Americans going to serve in the IDF. That's fine if you want to make that choice. I think you should lose your citizenship immediately. I definitely think there's no such thing as dual citizenship. In my opinion, it should be abolished entirely. It kind of goes against the idea of citizenship in the first place. But connecting it to something bigger, this is more of the special exception policy that we've always made that extends now to the very basis of citizenship itself. So put the next one up here on the screen.

26:39I think this one is just crazy. in guidance now to immigration officers, the administration describes participating in any pro-Palestinian protests and criticizing Israel as overwhelmingly negative factors for any potential green card seeker here in the United States. So look, remember, like what should be extremely disqualifying as citizens? Should we all, can we not agree on things? Crystal, you may and I disagree. For me, what would be extremely disqualifying green card? You don't speak English? GTFO. You shouldn't be applying for a green card. Do you don't, or you aren't able to prove that you have a wage which is going to sustain you and make sure that you're not on welfare?

27:23Yeah, GTFO, otherwise. But views on Israel has no bearing on my life or your ability to contribute or be a good citizen whatsoever. And yet that's being included here as overwhelmingly negative as a factor. And remember, too, this is going to apply for the World Cup and for all of these foreign entrants to the United States because while this is for green card, they're also screening a lot of travelers who are coming into the country. And none of it has anything to do with us. That's the crazy part. Well, it will not surprise you to learn that my criteria for green card holders would be different and less stringent than yours.

27:58But in any case, what I think is noteworthy here. That's a good argument, though. Don't table that. All right? What is noteworthy here, though? And what's noteworthy with the previous story about extending veterans benefits to IDF soldiers is that this is the only country we treat this way. The only one. Like if you say nice things about like, you know, let's pick another official bad guy nation in the world about like North Korea. Yeah. That's not going to bar you. You know, you'll be fine. They're not even going to look for that. Right. They won't care. But if you have wrong think on Israel.

28:32Oh, well, now this is outrageous. wait, you believe in human rights for Palestinians? We can't have that. That goes against our Western civilizational values, this belief in universal human rights, including for Palestinians. Can't have that. And that's, I think, the thing that people are really picking up on, and it's driving them crazy. You know, it's something we've talked about, too, with all of the laws that have been passed that make it illegal to participate in a boycott of Israel. In that case, you know, you can boycott American companies but you can't, it's illegal to boycott this one country.

29:09That's absurd. It's a direct infringement on our rights as Americans. You know, some of the things that I actually really care about and appreciate about this country and think it's, you know, some of the best parts of what makes, you know, this nation something that you would be proud of. And with regard to the IDF service members things. Even Ukraine, we have Americans who have gone and flown to Ukraine to fight for the Ukrainians. They don't get these benefits either. So it really is just this one country. And why? It's because they're very well organized. You have this religious component where you've got a very fervent ideological push.

29:52And then you have a lot of organized funding that pushes in this direction. So Miriam Maddelson is oftentimes held out, but she's an important example of just how much money is in being pro-Israel and supporting whatever it is that Israel wants to do. So not only does it help push us into wars that most Americans don't support, and again, I've talked about how it's not all Israel. There are empire interests at stake here as well, or at least perceived empire interests as well, but that is a major factor. But it also then gets into infringing on our own rights. And I think that is something that Americans are increasingly aware of and just find the whole situation to be sort of insane and crazy making.

30:35Yeah, I just, I really don't, look, it's like you said, we can all have good and fine disagreements about what it means to be a US citizen. I just don't think it's, I think it's nuts for anybody who is so clearly loyal to a foreign country to allow that level of influence like Miriam Adel. I mean, Trump literally said it, don't believe me, where he's like, oh, does she love Israel or America? She didn't say. I think we know, what was the joke? I mean, he says it out loud in the open. And yet, if anybody else says it, you're an anti-Semite. It's like, well, Sheldon Adelson, her husband, deceased husband, didn't he literally say, I wish I had served in the IDF instead of the US Army?

31:12Yeah, I'm pretty sure he did. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he did. What are we doing here? These are real quotes. It's not just me. So anyway, that's legislation. Is it being denounced? No. Is there any of this, you know, even going to, is any of this going to come to fruition? I hope not. At this point, though, I'm not so sure I'd put it past him. And at the very least, we already know. Weren't there cases of, there was some guy who served in the IDF who came back here, and I think he was facing like some sort of threat. Not like a real threat. Like somebody, I forget exactly, but the Trump administration like freaked out and provided all of the security.

31:50It's kind of like you said about Ukraine. I mean, if you go and fight for Ukraine and some Russian guy is mad at you, I mean, that's on you, man. You know, it's like you're the one who chose to go to Ukraine and to go and to insert yourself into a foreign country. You asked me, you shouldn't even have citizenship, period. All right, you should get pulled the moment you're fighting in a foreign one. But okay, so you come back and then we're supposed to embroil ourselves on your side. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. At least not for me. Yeah, well, and I mean, this thing about the moral landscape here too, Like you're going to go and go be in Gaza and murder like women and children.

32:22And then we're going to celebrate you and give you benefits for that. It's just I mean, it's sick. It's sick for all the people who talk about Western civilization and values and blah, blah, blah. That that's the actual values that you're representing. And it's repressensible. I mean, for any anyone who wants to consider themselves civilized, I think that's a reprehensible moral landscape. There you go. All right. Let's get to let's get to Shiel Ben-Ephraim. He's standing by. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter, and on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world.

33:05I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more, to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believed that seed oils were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's T-W-O - % on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On a recent episode of the podcast Money and Wealth with John O 'Brien, I sit down with Tiffany, the budgetista aliche, to talk about what it really takes to take control of your money.

33:57What would that look like in our families if everyone was able to pass on wealth to the people when they're no longer here? We break down budgeting, financial discipline, and how to build real wealth, starting with the mindset shifts too many of us were never, ever taught. Financial education is not always about, like, I'm going to get rich. That's great. It's about creating an atmosphere for you to be able to take care of yourself and leave a strong financial legacy for your family. If you've ever felt you didn't get the memo on money, this conversation is for you to hear more. Listen to Money and Wealth with John O 'Brien from the Black Effect Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

34:45Hey, earners, what's up? Look, money is something we all deal with, but financial literacy is what helps turn income into real wealth. On each episode of the podcast, Earn Your Leisure, we break down the conversations you need to understand money, investing, and entrepreneurship. From stocks and real estate to credit, business, and generational wealth, we translate complex financial topics into real conversations everyone can understand. Because the truth is, most people were never taught how money really works. But once you understand a system, you can start to build within it. That means ownership, smarter investing, and creating opportunities not just for yourself, but for the next generation.

35:23If you want to learn how to build wealth, understand the markets, and think like an owner, Earn Your Leisure is the podcast for you. Listen to Earn Your Leisure on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

35:39Joining us now to talk about a little bit of Israeli domestic politics, what's going on with the quote unquote ceasefire in Lebanon, and also some very interesting comments from ADL's Jonathan Greenblatt is Shael Ben-Ephraim. He's a geopolitical analyst and host of Dispatches from Hell with Shael, which I recommend. I'm going to be checking out your video content there and also histories of the Holy Land. Great to see you. Good to see you, man. Always a pleasure. Yeah, so let's go ahead and throw this tear sheet up on the screen. and we're interested to get your analysis of whether or not this is significant.

36:10So two, quote unquote, opposition leaders, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, who no one would call really moderate. They also have very extreme views. But in any case, they are teaming up together in an attempt to oppose Netanyahu. We've got this new poll from Times of Israel showing that this Lapid-Bennett union is edging out Likud. That, of course, is Netanyahu's party as the largest party. Give us a little bit of background here and how people should be thinking about the significance of this development. Yeah, so the main importance of this regards the internal allocation of seats within the anti-Netanyahu block.

36:49It's really an ego personality thing. You had Gadi Eisenkot, who's a former general who has a lot of popularity. And then you had Yair Lapid and you have Naftali Bennett, and they were all fighting over who would be running this block. So this cements the dominance of Naftali Bennett, who was probably going to be getting the most seats anyway. So it matters in that sense. You mentioned that Bennett and Lapid are both quite extreme, but traditionally Lapid was much more moderate than Bennett. They've always had good personal relations, which is one of the reasons this happened. But on an ideological spectrum, Lapid is from Tel Aviv liberal elites.

37:44Naftali Bennett is more pro-settler. So they wouldn't be sitting together a few years ago. But today, the liberal Zionist movement doesn't really have any content to it because you can't be for a Palestinian state anymore. You can't be for dismantling settlements anymore, all things that Lapid has said in the past. So now his views are actually indistinguishable from Bennett's. So he has become extreme, but that's not where he comes from. And that has a lot of significance. As for their popularity vis-a-vis Netanyahu, I think the fact that there are only one mandate ahead of Likud, according to the latest poll I've seen, when they just got united and they had that early enthusiasm, quote unquote, is not a very good sign for this Bennett-Lapid union.

38:35I wouldn't be surprised that they end up getting fewer votes than Netanyahu, but their bloc will be larger than Netanyahu's bloc. But without cooperation with the Arab parties, which they seem to be against, especially Bennett said he wouldn't sit with the Arab parties, they may not have enough votes to unseat Netanyahu and may end up in a coalition with Netanyahu. So it's very cosmetic and very internal to the anti-Netanyahu bloc. Got it. So if we're keeping with what's going on, obviously trying to decipher this is very difficult. Let's go to the next one. This is the E1 Al Jazeera. The Israel's army chief says 2026 is likely to be the year of fighting on all fronts, adds urgent need for more soldiers.

39:22So, Shael, no matter who wins the election, from Yair Lapid to Naftali Bennett to Bibi Netanyahu, they do seem completely united in continuing the war on all fronts. Or am I looking at that incorrectly in conjunction with this army chief of staff statement? So it's very hard to answer that in advance. And on a very basic level, you're correct that whether it's Bennett, Lapid or Netanyahu, with the current viewpoint of Israeli society and the current geopolitical alignment, fighting will likely continue for a very long time. But I wouldn't take what the IDF chief of staff is saying too seriously in terms of politics, because keep in mind, 2026, we're already deep into it.

40:14And the elections, should they be held normally, Israel has its doubts, just like the United States has about the midterms, are going to be held in October. And then the new government won't be in until sometime in 2027. So this isn't really a comment on the next government. This is more a comment on Netanyahu. And there is a difference between Netanyahu and Bennett in terms of waging wars. Not so much that Bennett is a dove and Netanyahu is a hawk, because that's certainly not the case. Rather that Bennett wouldn't have that same structural need that Netanyahu has to have constant war in order to avoid an investigation of October 7th and in order to try to distract and end his criminal trials.

40:58Those aren't things that Bennett has. Bennett has more flexibility to come to a deal with whether it's Hamas, whether it's Hezbollah, whether it's Iran, that he thinks is beneficial for Israeli security. Netanyahu has an urge based on his legal and political troubles to keep escalating. So with Bennett, we might see fighting that's just as fierce as under Netanyahu, maybe even more so, but perhaps deals that will last longer than they currently do because he doesn't have that domestic political impetus to keep going. That's an interesting point. I also think there could be some American political ramifications because the remaining people here are trying to hold on to liberal Zionism as a coherent position.

41:46They like to point to like, oh, well, Netanyahu is just a bad guy. You know, I got to get him out of there and then everything will be fine. They lose that talking point if he is no longer prime minister of Israel. So it'd be interesting to see what new narrative they shift to and attempt to excuse the unexcusable coming from Israel and in collaboration with the United States. I also wanted to get, Shia, your view on what is going on in Lebanon, because I think you've been a very keen observer here. You know, you had this supposed ceasefire. I mean, that's completely over at this point. You've had Israel, you know, engaged in massive bombings.

42:19Hezbollah is bragging about some of their capabilities. They released this footage of drones successfully targeting IDF soldiers. And in fact, there have been a few IDF soldiers who have been killed in recent days by Hezbollah. And I know you've been talking about some of the technology that is being deployed here. But just give us a sense of the status on the ground and where you think this is headed. Yeah, so it's really been a bad few days for the IDF in Lebanon. So the first thing is they feel very constrained by this quote-unquote ceasefire. Now, it's not a ceasefire in the traditional term because the fire hasn't ceased.

42:58So it's a misnomer. But it doesn't mean that it's not significant because Trump has basically ordered Israel to stop advancing. And Israel is not advancing anymore. What they're doing is destroying everything where they are. And that matters a lot because the IDF soldiers are standing pat more or less in certain positions. This is allowing Hezbollah to use IEDs, as they always have. They've killed two soldiers that way, but also to use these kind of drones that are attached to Ethernet cables, which are impossible for the IDF to intercept or to identify before they make impact. That's what killed a soldier two days ago, and that's what injured several other soldiers yesterday.

43:44And really, they have no real solutions for, you know, Hezbollah learned a lot from what's happening in Ukraine and are using a lot of those relatively combined high tech, low tech solutions like these drones. And Israel hasn't learned enough from that, just like the United States hasn't learned enough from that, like we see in the war in Iran. And that's leading to loss of life. And then there's also the wider strategic question of what happens if Israel does achieve its goal of reaching the Latani. The IDF believes correctly that Hezbollah now has the ability to overshoot any security zone very easily with drones and missiles and will be able to continue to hit northern Israel.

44:30So there's so much frustration among the IDF and a lot of people are saying that it would have been much better to keep the previous ceasefire and that there's really nothing to be gained by this current operation. There's real fear that the IDF will do everything that they can in Lebanon and Hezbollah will still be able to shoot northern Israel. And this is very consequential because the people living in the towns in northern Israel, they've never really returned. And Israel's worried that they'll turn into ghost towns. And that would be a major strategic boon for Hezbollah if they're able to achieve this.

45:14And also on a political level, Hezbollah has gained a lot of power in Lebanon now that Israel is invading because that puts a lot of sympathy towards them when Israel is seen as the invader instead of in the past when Hezbollah was seen as sort of a troublemaker for no reason in Lebanon. So also on the political level, Israel is very concerned with how this is going. None of this is going well for him. While we have you, Shael, we wanted to get your reaction to a new statement from Jonathan Greenblatt over at the ADL and why and how the term of universalism and protecting Jews should be restricted only, in his view, to Jews.

45:55Let's take a listen. So we were founded original people. They wrote a charter that we still use today as our mission statement or words from it. That we exist. Our mission is to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment to all. I am not for myself who will be if I'm only for myself. What am I? Jews can only be safe when everyone is safe. So ADL for literally more than a century has focused on fighting for the Jewish people and fighting for all people who experience bigotry and hate. Why isn't the ADL just about anti-Semitism? It's interesting. So this was the founding kind of precept of the organization.

46:30It was predicated on this idea. But I think there's something to keep in mind. ADL's, you know, here I am and what kind of Jew are you? ADL's what is our mission statement. Like what we do. Stop the defamation of. But that's not our why. Our why. Our core purpose. Why we were founded. What was the reason to create it? Was not Jews are safe. That's the hypothesis of what we do. The why is to protect the Jewish people, to protect the Jews. That's why we exist. So we don't exist for some universalist ideal. We exist to protect the Jews. Because when Leo Frank was hanging from a rope, there was no one there to stop it from happening.

47:06When Jews were being slaughtered, there was no one there to stop it. So that's why we exist. Your reaction there? It's very distressing to hear him move away from the actual mission statement of the ADL. But it's also really not at all surprising. That's the direction the ADL has been going in since Trump was elected towards just focus on only Jews. and often supporting, and this is why he's saying it, supporting very violent Islamophobia and other forms of racism when it's deployed by people who are pro-Israel. And what's missing from this statement, of course, is the fact that he's not even, the mission statement of the ADL in reality isn't to protect the Jews either.

48:05It's to protect Israel and to protect pro-Israel activists. It's to protect the Zionist movement. There's an increasing number of Jews who are either anti-Zionist or not Zionist or very critical of Israel, at least. And Greenblad defines those Jews as anti-Semites and attacks on them. For example, protesters, Jewish protesters against the genocide in Gaza, he sees his anti-Semites and as enemies. And not only does he not protect those Jews, but also he demonizes those Jews and is happy to see them pay all sorts of consequences for expressing their rights. So even the fact that he's narrowing the mission of the ADL officially so much in such a distasteful way is actually still not an honest assessment of what the ADL is doing.

49:06They're protecting people who are pro-Israel, including Christian Zionists, and they're not protecting Jews who don't support genocide and don't support the horrific policies of the state of Israel. So the reality is actually more chilling than the disturbing things that Greenblatt just said. Yeah. And not only that, but, you know, he is one that insists on conflating all Jews and associating all Jews, including those like yourself who have been deeply critical of the genocide with the barbaric acts of the Israeli state. So, you know, far from combating any sort of anti-Semitism, you know, he probably is one of the leading purveyors of anti-Semitism in certainly American politics.

49:50Shiel, again, Dispatches from Hell. With Shiel, we're going to do the collaborate thing so people can find your channel. Really appreciate your analysis. I follow everything that you post out there really closely because I think you are such a keen observer on not only this, but also been following your AI posts as well. So we'll have you back sometime to talk about that too. Thanks for your time, man. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world.

50:27I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts and more to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's T-W-O percent on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On a recent episode of the podcast Money and Wealth with John O 'Brien, I sit down with Tiffany, the budgetnista aliche, to talk about what it really takes to take control of your money.

51:20What would that look like in our families if everyone was able to pass on wealth to the people when they're no longer here? We break down budgeting, financial discipline, and how to build real wealth, starting with the mindset shifts too many of us were never, ever taught. Financial education is not always about, like, I'm going to get rich. That's great. It's about creating an atmosphere for you to be able to take care of yourself and leave a strong financial legacy for your family. If you've ever felt you didn't get the memo on money, this conversation is for you to hear more. Listen to Money and Wealth with John O 'Brien from the Black Effect Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

52:08Hey, earners, what's up? Look, money is something we all deal with, but financial literacy is what helps turn income into real wealth. On each episode of the podcast, Earn Your Leisure, we break down the conversations you need to understand money, investing, and entrepreneurship. From stocks and real estate to credit, business, and generational wealth, we translate complex financial topics into real conversations everyone can understand. Because the truth is, most people were never taught how money really works. But once you understand a system, you can start to build within it. That means ownership, smarter investing, and creating opportunities not just for yourself, but for the next generation.

52:46If you want to learn how to build wealth, understand the markets, and think like an owner, Earn Your Leisure is the podcast for you. Listen to Earn Your Leisure on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

53:01Well, we're joined now by Ann Coulter, I guess, who really needs no introduction. But Ann has a sub stack now. You can go ahead and follow that. She's going to be doing a live rumble on Thursday. So she's, of course, the New York Times bestselling author of 13 books and has been speaking out against the war in Iran. So first, Ann, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate you being here. Thanks, Ann. Great to be here. Thanks for having me. Of course. Let's start with this post. This was after the White House Correspondence Center attempted assassination. You wrote on X, at this point, more California teachers have tried to assassinate Trump than Iranians have.

53:40I really wish he'd get back to domestic concerns and stop cleaning up the rest of the world. For you, have you been surprised that Trump went to war in Iran? I mean, you've sort of famously had a break with him over many years now. You wrote, what was the joke? You wrote still vote for him in 2016, if I'm remembering correctly. So is any of this surprising in Iran? Yes. And I wrote that after his immigration policy paper came out, written by the brilliant Stephen Miller. It's still, I think, should be the touchstone for any Republican running, for anything, any Republican in office. In any event, they're finally getting around to some of that.

54:23Second term, he sort of blew it off first term, thus my break with him. So it isn't the Trump supporters aren't entirely a personality cult. I always found his personality rather repulsive, but loved the stuff he was running on so I could overcome such superficialities. And yes, I think like most people, it's unbelievable that he started another pointless war without provocation. Let's just, you know, drop bombs on countries all over the world and see if we make friends that way. It really, I mean, every president, Paul Johnson wrote this in Modern Times. I think it's in Modern Times, the great British historian, that every U.S.

55:07president runs on not taking the country to war, and they almost always get us into war. For some reason, presidents seem to think that's what makes them great. This is turning out to be, as many of us suspected at the time, a much bigger quagmire that is going to turn out much worse than the status quo, Andy, certainly than Iraq. Iraq is at least better off. I was a big supporter of the Iraq war. They did hit us first, if we're talking about the craziness out of the Middle East. I mean, this has just been a disaster from beginning to end. And how do you think this keeps happening? Like you said, you supported that war with Iraq.

55:55I would say, yeah, I mean, Al Qaeda hit us first. I don't know if Saddam Hussein did. But in the interim, yeah, we can understand, I think, the fervor of the country, even if we think it was built on lies. But you were a key part, I think, with your book, Adios America, which I remember having read my first couple days over at The Daily Caller of the architect, really, of the move, I think, for immigration restriction in a reaction to the Romney and the Bush era. So you broke with Trump, really, over that. But one of the parts that we the old kind of thought was there, was a rejection of neoconservatism, specifically with the selection of the vice president and many of the other national security officials who work in the government.

56:38And yet we actually got something much worse this second time than even in the first. What's your assessment? How do you think this happened? Yeah, it's weird how I've always liked the neoconservatives. It's weird how that has just come to mean nothing but pointless wars these days. I mean, back when I was supporting the Iraq war, and I would again, I always sort of want to go back and argue that one and point out it was very different. Didn't want to stay there for 10 years. But I know that's kind of off the point. But they kept calling me a neoconservative back during those times. I had to point out, no, no, I'm not Jewish.

57:19The history of the neoconservatives were Jewish intellectuals who realized the Democratic Party was insane. And you had a lot of really smart, great people like Norman Podhorez coming out of that. So it's sort of unfortunate that the word has now come to be so closely associated with pointless wars around the world. And even if there were some point to this war, and I really don't think there is. I think there's a lot of fear-mongering, as always happens. I'm interviewing on my live sub-stack, or rather live rumble this Thursday, John Tierney was a longtime science reporter for the New York Times and now is at City Journal, and he's written a lot of brilliant books, one of which is The Power of Bad.

58:05Basically, punishment works better than reward, that sort of thing. But one of the things he says about the power of bad is countries always overestimate the threat when they're going into war, and they also overestimate the ease of their victory. And he talks about Germany before World War I and how it was so afraid and thought, oh, we'll just brush them aside. He talks about the Gulf War, talks about Iraq. And oh my gosh, did we see that in like three weeks time with the Iran war. Way overestimation of the threat. The only column I wrote about this was using the exact same arguments they use for Iran with like every other country in the world.

58:48Are we going to bomb any country where 40 years ago someone held a death to America saw and Trump did knock out their nuclear capacity last year? And as I said in recent, I usually at the end of the week do a five stories on my sub stack that either people have missed or they're missing some crucial part of it. My take on five stories. And one, I did three and a half this week. And one was, does anyone really believe that Iran, if it had a nuke, and I don't think it was on the verge of getting a nuke, would bomb Miami, would bomb Israel? I mean, if mutually assured destruction has worked for more than 50 years, a lot of awful countries have nukes.

59:36Start with North Korea. It's not like we're constantly living in terror. Is North Korea going to nuke us? Well, they could. They could right now. And they're an awful regime. They're a more evil regime than Iran. And why aren't we worried about it? Because if they did that, they would, to quote Trump from a few weeks ago, we would watch civilization die. The entire country would be destroyed. And even I think people like you and me would say, you nuked Miami. We're leveling the entire country. It's a horrible thing to say, but it works. This idea that Iran was desperate to get a nuke, so we're hitting New York City.

1:00:18Does anyone seriously believe that? When I wanted to ask about, we're now two months in just about to this war in Iran, and you've mentioned a couple of times that the way you see it, this is shaping up to be something worse than Iraq. And Professor Robert Pape has been on our show saying that it looks like it could potentially even be worse than Vietnam in some ways. So what are you seeing? I mean, as these peace negotiations go back and forth, Iran right now has reportedly said they would open the Strait of Hormuz if tabled, if there were negotiations over the nuclear material tabled. Trump has not taken that deal.

1:00:53So what do you make of where we are right now? Why is your sense that this could actually potentially put us in a worse situation than the Iraq war did? Well, I sort of wish everyone would stop reporting on the Iran war and just say, good job, Mr. President. Whoa, you've accomplished everything you wanted to. Because, I mean, we're just waiting for a way out for Trump to be able to save face thus far in the war. The claims were we wanted regime change. From what I understand, the new regime is same as the old regime, some say worse. We were going to destroy their capacity to build a nuclear weapon.

1:01:38Oh, and we were going to inspire the Iranian people to stand up and overthrow the mullahs. And it would suddenly be a functioning democracy, much like Connecticut. Well, no regime changed. They haven't risen up. And in fact, the bombing has turned, as I interviewed Jacob Heilbrunn recently, of the national interest. And he made the point, which I've heard before, but he's more intellectual than I am on these issues. He said, in fact, the attempt to demoralize civilizations by heavy bombings, like the Dresden bombings, does exactly the reverse. It gets even citizens who are, you know, opposed to a war with another country, you start bombing the civilians and they get their backs to the wall and suddenly, you know, they unite in patriotism behind whatever the regime is.

1:02:34So that has exactly the opposite effect of what it was supposed to do. And now we're basically down to our sole war objective is to open the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war started. Right. And I want to get your reaction to some rising tides in MAGA world. supporting Marco Rubio for 2028. Let's go ahead and put F2 guys up there on the screen. This is from Politico. They say White House insiders see Rubio on the rise as a potential 2028 pick. Marco Rubio, of course, famously, you know, failed in his 2016 primary, in large part, I think in support of amnesty and some of the work that he did in the Obama years.

1:03:14And yet he's kind of beloved by Trump right now for his work on Iran and the poster boy for the successful Venezuela operation. What do you make of this in context of Trump's heir in 2028? I don't want Marco Rubio within 10 miles of the White House. I will never, ever relent on that. He is Mr. Amnesty. It was, I mean, I've talked to Stephen Miller and a few others about this. When Rubio's amnesty bill was going through, and he had pushed for it in the Florida legislature, I should say. He lied to the voters. It was a big issue. Joyce Kaufman, big talk radio host in Florida, expressly made him promise when he was running as the Tea Party candidate for Senate in Florida, made him promise he would never push or vote for amnesty when he got to the U.S.

1:04:07Senate. He swore on his mother's life, swore up and down. He gets elected as a Tea Party candidate, gets to the United States Senate. And first bill, amnesty. And what was terrifying about it is, I mean, it's hard to sort of switch gears when you're so, so in favor of a Republican candidate running against the rhino. You just have it set in your head, much like it's happening with Trump right now. This is our savior. This is the guy who's standing up to the establishment and going to defeat the swamp. You couldn't get people to switch off of Rubio. Wait, now he's pushing amnesty. So who supported Rubio's amnesty?

1:04:46Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin. I remember hearing them all say - Not Mark Levin, the principled Mark Levin. I distinctly remember him saying, I mean, I almost crashed my car in the radio. what Rubio was saying to push it. We have de facto amnesty now, which has been an argument forever. Yeah. Okay. Let's deport them. In any event, Levin's saying, oh, I've never heard that argument before. So anyway, they all supported it. I didn't even know Stephen Miller then. We met soon thereafter. And we all thought that's it. I mean, of course, Rupert Murdoch was courting Rubio and taking him to lunch, and he is my candidate because he's pushing amnesty.

1:05:35I don't know what it is with Rupert Murdoch and open borders, but he loves them. And we were just thinking, wow, if this goes through, it's over. It's done. It's what George Bush said about terrorists. We have to win every time. They only have to win once. Same thing with amnesty. We We have to win every time. They win once. The country is so done. It is, it may be done now, but it is so done. So no, I'll never, I mean, yeah, he talks a good game now. Glad to have him aboard, but I will never, ever, ever trust him. Marco Rubio, that is. What do you think Republican voters do if they have a choice between Rubio and Vance?

1:06:20They've said that they wouldn't run together, but if that's the direction, where do you think Republican voters go? Well, let's hope there's a debate. You may recall Vance has a very high IQ and is very good in debates. Rubio, not so much. Remember his little exchange with Chris Christie. I mean, I will say I will give him credit for a few things. He has come around. He's good on amnesty and deportations now. Great. Glad to have him aboard. He's also very glib and he's a good talker when he's just giving a straight speech. I noticed this even when I hated him, when he was campaigning, when he's standing in front of a town hall.

1:06:59He'll give a good speech, but he is not quick on his feet. So I'd say after a debate or two, Vance will be the clear winner. I also think Vance, I mean, I don't know. He's part of this administration. He is really, really in a bind. I feel sorry for him, but everyone knows he was against this war. He's kind of kept his mouth shut. I don't know. I talked to Jacob Heilbrunn about this and said, should Vance come out and say he's against this war? Should he go on some some huge podcast and say this is a disaster? Well, it's betraying the president. Right. But perhaps saving his political career. And as between the two of them, I think it's pretty clear.

1:07:42Rubio was actually a strong supporter of the war. And Vance is keeping his mouth shut and just being a loyal vice president. And do you worry that in the way that the Iraq war kind of killed an entire generation of conservatism, do you think maybe that the Iran war and some of other Trump's more brazen stuff, corruption, I know you've highlighted that before with Steve Wyckoff or Jared Kushner, do you worry that it'll kill immigration politics forever in terms of immigration restriction or not forever, at least for a generation? I don't think so. I mean, for one thing, even now with Trump's poll numbers, just in the toilet on every issue, the one issue he's winning on is immigration.

1:08:21That is always popular. Yeah, it's his high zone. It's like chocolate ice cream. You can never go wrong. It's always a winner, immigration. And oh, my gosh, I wish he'd get back to that, not just because he would become popular again, but because that's what needs to be done. And from what I can tell, you people may be closer to the ground on these young people in Washington and political types. But I get the sense that, yeah, they're really ticked off at the war. But it seems like, and it is an utter aberration, that that's why we liked Trump. I mean, he attacked Jim Bush and called his brother a liar and took us into this.

1:09:03He was so aggressive against a more rational war, the war in Iraq, that who could have possibly seen this coming? I was at a Real Clear Politics salon a week ago, and there was a liberal there saying, surprisingly, everyone there but one person. I thought it was going to be me against the room. It was like 30 people, both conservative and liberal, and it was all off the record, so I can't mention any of them. I probably shouldn't even be saying what I'm saying now. But shockingly, I was I was in the majority. So anyway, a liberal yelled at us all not yelled at us, but taunted us and said, why didn't you see this coming?

1:09:46Yeah. And because he lied. How can you possibly see that coming? He could not have been clearer. I mean, it would be like Ronald Reagan getting elected and saying, oh, the heck with taxes. I'm hiking them through the roof. Right. And it's going to be total capitulation with the Soviet Union. All you can do is look at what people say. And unlike immigration, where every once in a while there's a little backsliding with Trump, there was never even any backsliding on the pointless wars. I mean, just before the election, I'm sorry, I'm rambling so much. No, no. Your viewers probably know this, but just before the war, there were all these tweets from people like Stephen Miller and J.D.

1:10:25Vance and, you know, being retweeted by Trump, Kamala will take you to war. If you don't want to go to war with Iran, vote Trump. I mean, every possible signal. Nobody could have seen this gigantic of a betrayal. I mean, I still think the immigration betrayal is bigger because it's more important. This is just, you know,$200 billion being wasted. We We could have built 17. We could have built 100 walls for that. But that's more important to saving the country, the immigration. And then I wanted to also ask you about the DOJ indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, given your legal background and also the fact that you have been following closely at the SPLC for many years.

1:11:09There are competing interpretations of what was in that grand jury indictment that was unveiled last week. There are clearly a lot of bank records showing what appears to be money from the SPLC to confidential informants who may have been then getting funneled to the government. We don't totally know that yet. But then into groups like, what is it, National Alliance, some Klan groups and the like. What was your takeaway from what we saw out of the DOJ last week? Well, a couple of things. The first thing is it's absolutely driving me crazy how many alleged conservatives, i.e. on Fox News, keep saying, oh, well, the Southern Poverty Law Center, they used to do good work.

1:11:53Oh, they started as a serious civil. No, they didn't. They never did good work. They're getting Southern Poverty Law Center. I assume this is the most generous interpretation. Confused with those two, the Student Nonviolent Organizing Committee, whatever it was called, and another one with very similar initials, Martin Luther King's organization. Southern Poverty Law Center, I just did one of my three and a half things free, no ad subs on this. It started in 1971. At that point, well, Richard Nixon had been in office for three years, And despite what liberals might have you believe, there was never a greater civil rights champion than Richard Nixon.

1:12:39In fact, that's why he chose Agnew as his vice president. He was just some little known Maryland politician. But Agnew had aggressively pushed fair housing laws so that black people couldn't be discriminated against in housing. He gave an inaugural speech. I wish I had the precise lines from it, but it was about how after all America had put black people through, no, we owed them a dividend now, something to that effect. There was more school desegregation under President Richard Nixon than before or after. It basically ended segregation. He ended segregation of the schools. So that had already been going on for three years.

1:13:24and then the Klan didn't even exist in 1971. And Morris Dees, the head of Southern Poverty Law Center, when he first got out of law school, had a client that was funded by the KKK. He defended white supremacists. Of course, he was famous in his office, Southern Poverty Law Center, for discriminating against black people for sexual harassment and eventually got moved out from that. It's a money laundering organization to hit up gullible, frightened liberals in New York City to say, Klan is rising, Klan is rising. And no, the Southern Poverty Law Center never did anything good. Even the ones who defended, the liberals who worked for it, realized it was utterly corrupt and left.

1:14:11They'll say, well, it did some good things. We fought to keep a Ten Commandments monument out of a courthouse. And thus was poverty ended. My last question for you, Anne, is just about populism in general. So you were an early supporter, 2016. You recognize those currents. It's worked out a little bit less than I think many of us would have hoped. We've seen titanic amounts of corruption with Jared Kushner, with Steve Witkoff. I saw you retweet this one. Let's put F3 up here on the screen, which is just like a perfect example, is some DHS counterterrorism official, allegedly, was under investigation for a sugar daddy complaint.

1:14:54You've got Kash Patel, guys like this who's a 41-year-old man with his Nashville girlfriend tweeting about how incredible she is. How do you think all this happened? These types of people who came into power under this administration? You're a competent, you're a very intelligent person. You've observed all this over the years. What happened here? Because I'm mystified too. Some of them, I think, were very, very poor choices. And I've made my opinion very clear on that from the beginning, like Kristi Noem, wasn't a huge fan of Pam Bondi. I mean, she did well in our hearing, I will say that, but I didn't really think that was attorney general material.

1:15:44I mean, he definitely wanted to choose people he could trust who would be loyal, who were not from the swamp. Some of them, I think, are quite, I mean, I like Tulsi Gabbard. I love the guy who's head of housing. I forget his name, but he's been doing great stuff. Obviously, I love Scott Bessent. There are others that are just fantastic. And I noticed that two of the worst ones. Well, I like I'll say I like Tulsi Gabbard to proceed what I'm about to say. Even the most retrograde right wing Republican, they still feel like they need diversity and got to hire the ladies. I gotta get the ladies. No, I promised you, President Trump, we would be so happy with the cabinet of nothing but white men.

1:16:38And when you say we, you mean Republican voters? Yes, we're the Republicans. We believe in competent white men. I mean, it's fine. I actually like, I like cash. I will say that. Really? Okay. He might be a little, little young for the job. and he's made a few errors. I don't believe the drunken stuff. I think they're gunning for him. He's done good work. Let's put a pause and see what else he does. I mean, he needed to clear out a lot of the FBI and I think he is doing that. And I think he's a good hater and I like that. But Republicans just generally, you gotta stop feeling like, oh, look, we have a woman.

1:17:22You know, to that, Sagar, one more thing on that. I see so much of it from my perspective, at least stems from Trump himself. Like it emanates from the way Trump has done business for so many years. And he surrounds himself with sort of the media circus intentionally because he can play the media like a fiddle. And that attracts people who will try to enrich themselves off of government service, political service. Is that your sense, too? I mean, even some of these folks like Scott Besson has done some interesting stuff with beef and his buddies down in South America. I don't know. I just wonder if some of it is the culture of Trump world, and that was always kind of there for us to see.

1:18:03It's just that some people had different priorities. That's interesting. I mean, you certainly don't get that vibe from J.D. Vance. Right. I feel very confident in his integrity. Nor, I think, Tulsi Gabb. The ones I like, I don't think you see that. And I don't know anything about what you're talking about with Basin. I'd be surprised he's already a very rich man. I mean, I think the ickiness you're describing,

1:18:33my guess is you see a lot more of that at Mar-a-Lago. The plastic surgery and the real housewives look, it's all just so tacky, which I would like to make clear, I was perfectly open about in my book, In Trump We Trust. There was no sugarcoating the tackiness. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, there we go. All right, Anne, we appreciate your time. Thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate it. We will see you all later.

1:19:46We'll be right back. Tickets are on sale now. Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.com. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and host of the podcast, A Slight Change of Plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. Listen to A Slight Change of Plans on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:20:31It's Financial Literacy Month, and the podcast Eating While Broke is bringing real conversations about money, growth, and building your future. This month, hear from top streamer Zoe Spencer and venture capitalist Lakeisha Landrum-Pierre as they share their journeys from starting out to leveling up. There's an economic component to community thriving. If there's not enough money and entrepreneurship happening in communities, they fail. Listen to Eating While Broke from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.

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