5/13/26: Trump Says He Doesn't Care About Americans Finances, Male Employment Craters, Israel Most Hated Country On Earth In New Poll

24:46Right. And reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which was open on the very day of the war. So yeah, ours are on the very day that we started the war and where we have no potential deal on the horizon. So in terms of this, I mean, look, Trump, again, not to tease the China stuff too much, he has to fold to China. And what I mean by that is abandon every pretense about bringing back manufacturing. We are going to strike a Japan-style deal with China where, yes, we will allow their goods in our market, but they have to build them here. Any pretense about IP or anything, it's gone. They're going to do some massive investment.

25:26Why else are you taking Elon and Jensen and Wang with you? Why do you think? You think that the Micron CEO and Tim Cook and all these other people are on board Air Force One to tell the Chinese, we're not going to let you make anything anymore? Or is it the opposite? And say, all right, let's all come to an understanding. This entire era of competition and all that, it's over. Which means we're going to abandon any pretense of manufacturing. So in other words, I guess we should all just learn to code. All right, let's move on. No, I think we should. I think, Sagar, we should learn to nurse. Men in particular.

25:59We had all those girls who code. Now we need boys who nurse. That's right. Yeah, good transition. Mercy's, justice for mercy's. All right, let's move on. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Keir Gaines. and in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough because people scoreboard watch.

26:41Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you're here on earth? Are you a good person because you're free? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way. Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Learn the Hard Way, and listen now. The story I've told myself about love or relationships can then shape my behavior and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection.

27:23This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast Deeply Well with Debbie Brown and explore the journey of healing, self-discovery and returning to yourself. We explore higher consciousness, emotional well-being, and the practices that help you find clarity, peace, and self-mastery in a world that can feel overwhelming. The world is becoming lonelier. We're not becoming more social and connected. We're becoming more individualized. But we actually need people in connection. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more.

28:02Listen to Deeply Well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're watching the latest season of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, you already know there's a lot to break down. Norsha accusing Kelly of sleeping with a married man. They holding K. Michelle back from fighting Drew. Pinky has financial issues. I like the bougie style of Housewives show. I think it looks like it's going to be interesting. On the podcast, Reality with the King, I, Carlos King, recap the biggest moments from your favorite reality shows, including the Real Housewives franchise, the drama, the alliances, and the tea everybody's talking about.

28:45As an executive producer in reality television, I'm not just watching it. I understand the game. As somebody who creates shows, I'll even say this. At the end of the day, when people are at home, they want entertainment. To hear this and more, listen to Reality with the King on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a very good preview of exactly what we're talking about. Let's put this up here on the screen. A changing job market leans against men from the Wall Street Journal. What we see is that industries that heavily employ men are losing jobs and the share of men working has flatlined.

29:26So jobs held by women skyrocketed in the cumulative change in non-farm jobs since December of 2024. You can actually see it, several hundred thousand. Whereas jobs held by men are on a modest increase but remain near baseline from 2025. Over the past year, nearly all net job growth has come from healthcare and social assistance, a sector with the dearth of men. Sectors with heavily male workforces have been losing jobs, and the post-pandemic period has seen an influx of women in their prime working years into employment. The share of men working has actually flatlined. The divergent path will widen in the years ahead as the needs of an aging population stack up.

30:05Occupations that men have historically been loathe to enter, such as home health care aides and medical assistance, will play a bigger role in the labor market. A growing educational divide is also part of the equation. Women now earn bachelor's degrees at a substantially higher rate than men, and employment rates among people who are college-educated are substantially higher than those who are not. So, in other words, this is literally the opposite of what I think a lot of men who voted for Trump in particular wanted, a lot of young men. I think a lot of them could see it on the horizon. Remember, for many years we covered on this show the college dropout phenomenon.

30:38A lot of men were like, screw it, I'm not going to college. I just don't think the wage premium exists anymore. A lot of that is built also on the falsity of the promise of taking out this hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt before eventually graduating, being able to earn it back. But that also was backstopped by this belief that by working in the trades or in manufacturing anything, you'd also be able to attain something. Well, it's not panned out now. And I think as a result, actually, of a lot of government policy under the Biden administration or the Trump administration. And what we've seen basically is 25 years it took us really to get to this point.

31:10But this is the crisis point. The crisis point is that we are becoming Japan or Korea where we have this inverted age triangle and with this age triangle makes it so that the people at the top not only have all the money but they own all the property, which means that they're going to attract the newer workforce basically to care for them, which is why it is the highest growing profession in the United States. At the same time, the backstop, the stuff that actually makes the country run and everything, you're seeing an overall decrease in net overall employment. Again, literally the opposite of what you wanted to set out.

31:48And, I mean, we cover this social trend now for many, many years, but it doesn't make it better to see it all affirmed in the charts. And I mean, what, it doesn't take a genius sociologically to say unemployed young men will often over a period of time will cause major societal problems and change, which you only need to read recent history of the last 100 years to figure out. And if you go back a few hundred years, you'll only see even more data points to look at. Or just like use your brain and common sense. You don't even have to know any history to just think this through and how it's going to go.

32:24So I will say the Biden administration, there was not enough done, but actually there was a manufacturing renaissance that occurred out of every modern era recession prior to the COVID era recession. Manufacturing jobs that were lost basically stayed lost. This was the first time under the Biden administration that they were actually increasing the number of manufacturing jobs above and beyond what was lost during the recession. And it was a result of government policy. You had the CHIPS Act, you had other provisions, the infrastructure bill that were affirmatively trying to rebuild a manufacturing base in key strategic sectors.

33:01And again, I'm not going to say that it was all like magic and rainbows, but it was one of the things the Biden administration actually did quite well, and it was working. And Trump, because of how foolishly he has governed, first of all, he ripped apart a lot of the programs that were actually working under the Biden administration, just more or less out of spite during Doge. Also, he hates renewable energy, just has like a vendetta against it. So anything in that sector, which those jobs are also largely male jobs, that all was out the window. And then with the tariffs, even though the one of the many rationales for the tariffs was that this was going to bring back manufacturing, it really hobbled and hindered manufacturing because of the foolish way that it was put together.

33:41So quite to the contrary of how he campaigned, which was all about the bros, you know, it was going on Rogan's podcast. It was having, you know, it was having pro wrestlers come out at rallies. It was very masculine focused, almost to a campy, ridiculous degree. And he talks from the time he entered onto the political arena really back in 2015. He always talked about industries that were heavily male industries, whether it was coal mining, whether it was factory jobs, whether it was the auto industry. This is where he really focused a lot of his rhetoric on who he was going to pay attention to and the type of jobs that he was going to bring.

34:20So to see these numbers so starkly that not only has he failed to deliver, he's reversed some of the modest gains that were made under the Biden administration is really, to me, quite striking. You know, on the health care piece, this is really becoming one of the remaining aspirational paths for Americans who grow up either, you know, in poverty or working class parents or, you know, relatively low income or lower middle class where you can if you, you know, you go, you work hard, you get the nursing degree. You can go and you can find a job that is going to be sustainable and going there are going to be plenty of opportunities.

34:59I've seen this with my daughter's friends in particular, some of who grew up, you know, in real difficult circumstances, that this is one of the trajectories that's still open to you. But because historically the care professions are very much associated with the feminine, it's there are very few still male nurses. Most of them are dominant in like, you know, the ICU sort of more intense situations. And maybe that's a mentality that's going to have to change. The other thing that I was so I'm only partially joking about the like boys who nurse, you know. Those are the opportunities that are available, then we need to perhaps change some of our societal thinking about who should be in those industries and who should be doing that work.

35:37The other thing, Saga, that I was thinking about is a lot of the stock market is being buoyed by, of course, the data center build out and the whole bet on AI. And these data centers are being built everywhere. And a lot of that work, it's construction jobs and it's a lot of electrical workers. those are dominant male, you know, those are mostly men who are doing that work. And yet it hasn't been enough to offset this overall trend, which was also frankly, a little bit surprising to me because of how much that industry has expanded. Yeah, it is interesting, you know, to the broader societal point, I got nothing against nurses and guys.

36:12I've had some great male nurses, even had some in the NICU shout out to some of those people. So any, any dude, you know, who's like, Oh, you know, it's above me. Shut up. All right. Let's put that aside. But, and I think this is to your point about earlier, it shouldn't be, you know, it's just a sick society when the only thing that you can make money doing is caring for other sick people, right? And especially old sick people because you should be able to make money doing all kinds of different things. And so you talked there about manufacturing. Okay, so I'm not, you know, some big green energy.

36:42I have nothing against green energy. You know, I'm a nuclear energy person. I still believe that we're going to have a lot of oil. All right, so what do we need to do then? What do I talk about here all the time? We haven't built a new oil refinery since 1977. Where's all the new oil refineries? Where are they? They don't, nothing, zero. Nothing is being financed by the administration. Okay, it's great the oil companies themselves are making bank right now. However, have we also seen a major increase in like a new highway bill to re-industrialize or to re-change and widen all of the interstate highways, make them, you know, some sort of CCC type program to beautify or to increase National Park Service and modernize them.

37:25No, none of that. In fact, we actually cut some of those things in favor of expanding, in favor of expanding. Now, to bring it to the China piece, let's put B3 up here on the screen. So the stock market, remember, is hitting absolute all-time highs, like record highs. How does that happen? So you were talking there about data centers. It's not just data centers, though. It's just the sheer valuation of these magnificent seven companies. We talked about this with Derek Thompson yesterday, who are, by all accounts, making absolute shitpots of money. But what does that actually mean in terms of distribution?

38:01So what Derek said, which has really resonated with me, is that all of these guys, these several hundred people or so who work at OpenAI and at Anthropic, we are about to see the minting of more billionaires in a single period through their IPOs than at any time because of the valuation of these things. But the actual distributed effects of that is going to skew dramatically to these few hundred people. This is tech. Technology is the story of power loss. That's how you have the Zuckerbergs, the Elons, and others become worth several hundred billion dollars. But that does not mean that these stock gains are going to be equally distributed.

38:39Now, no stock market, in particular in a capitalist system, is going to have, quote, equal distribution. But the general valuation and the way that it makes it so that the ownership class versus the working stiff has never been more stark, really, than it is today. It's a parallel reality of whether you own assets or whether you're mostly a W-2 wage earner. And that is just not sustainable whenever you only have, like, 5%, 10 % in the former category and over 90 % there, especially when we talk about rising prospects and the thought about with AI, with men and skilled trades. These were something that it's really important, I think, to highlight.

39:21You also, in terms of politics, bringing it back to Trump, is they're flailing around trying to get a few different things passed through the House of Representatives. So this one in particular, Let's go B4, please. This is from the vice president and a truth social post by Trump. As I said in the State of the Union, the American dream of home ownership is under attack. He talks about there a woman who placed a bid on some homes and lost them to gigantic investment firms. He says stories like this are why I signed an executive order to ban Wall Street investment firms or buying single family homes.

39:56However, that's not really enforceable. So he goes on. I called for Congress to save the American dream and ban these types of purchases. Senators Bernie Moreno and Tim Scott have worked to ensure this call becomes a reality, and a bill has passed the Senate with nearly 90 votes. So it passed in the Senate. However, they still need to get somebody in the House of Representatives, not just introduce it, but to actually pass it, either that or through unanimous consent. But here's the thing. This is not front-page news because Iran is happening, inflation. The focus of the administration is on trying to save and have some major PR move on their trip to China and to get themselves out of the mess they created with Iran.

40:38So how many people are really going to know about it outside, let's say, of the listeners here on the show where it's the fourth element in a segment in the second block right here of what we're talking about? Because also, do we really have a ton of confidence that this is going to happen? I hope it does happen, to be very, very clear. However, are we really absolutely confident? And in and of itself, is it actually going to do anything? That's something that a lot of the YIMBYs talk about. They're like, look, okay, whatever, But you still have to build new housing. Like it's kind of scratching around on the edges.

41:05And if that's the best that can be done, then absolutely nothing is going to change from what I can tell. I would appreciate it as almost like a symbolic strike against capital. Like, no, you have to follow some. We're going to, you know, absolutely. But the other thing is, how many times are we going to be like taken for a ride by Trump where he floats all the, oh, we're going to do that. We're going to cap the interest rates on credit cards. Elizabeth Warren said, OK, great. Let's work together. Silence. so okay he supports it that's great is he going to put in the political work to pressure uh you know intransigent republicans to come on board with this and actually support it unlikely i'll believe it when i see it how about i say that but you know to your point is this going to solve the problem at this point no because it will require a massive rethinking of housing a massive surge of building it will require some direct federal government involvement which look no one would be better suited to do than Donald Trump, who literally made his first money in real estate and knows something about that industry.

42:04But he's not focused on that. He's focused on the ballroom. He's focused on the reflecting pool. He's focused on this Iran war that he would like to get himself out of, but is now trapped himself into. So that's where the energy is going to ultimately go. One more point on this men versus women in the economy piece, because I asked Emily, I know you and Emily were supposed to originally cover this, and then you got short with time because you were having such a great interview with Derek. And so I said, oh, are there any points that you would want made? And one of the things that she also pointed to was, again, on immigration, she said, look, 9 out of 10 deportees were actually male.

42:39So again, you would think, OK, then that creates more openings in the economy in traditionally male-dominated industries. So to still have this level of decline where the net job increase in those male-dominated industries is literally zero is, again, pretty astonishing to see those numbers in spite of the fact that, again, on the immigration promises, he did the thing that he said he was going to do that in their theory should have benefited people overall economically, should have benefited men specifically since it's men who are by and large being deported. And again, you don't see that in the data working out.

43:16And just to address that, you need carrots and sticks. So yes, you need that. You also need to make sure that these companies are either mandated, forced, or have to comply with paying more wages. That's just the truth. I mean, you can't just rely on supply and demand. You have to also, in some cases, have direct intervention. And, you know, let's even remember in terms of deportation, because this is an important thing. The Trump administration specifically exempted some of these jobs exactly like what you're talking about. They exempted, in many cases, at the request of CEOs, not deporting people either in farms or in the service sector.

43:54In fact, Trump actually endorsed some sort of migrant guest worker program whenever it came to farming. Same with hotels and other places in the service industry. So there was an explicit either exemption. Workplace raids, remember, were dramatically declined, actually, as Trump began to get all of these calls from the people who were actually paying many of these people under the table. So there was more of a scattershot approach and sometimes even just a blue state targeting as opposed to explicitly trying to enact a policy that was going to have an overnight – or not overnight effect but dramatic effect in terms of the workplace.

44:27But on top of that, you're also just frankly going to have to force and mandate increased wages whenever it comes to some of these jobs because the market demand alone of supply is not going to change everything overnight. So, yes, you know, which turns out I'm not a libertarian, but, you know, maybe to the shock of some of these people, I have no problems whatsoever. And a lot of these trades and other jobs, I don't believe that there's any job in the world that people won't do if they're not paid well enough. We just have to make it so that they have to be paid. Yeah. Well, and that's the thing, too, is especially when you're talking about farm workers, they should be paid much better.

45:01I mean, it's one of the most abused and exploited industries on the planet. very likely those costs are passed through to consumers. And at a time when people are getting screwed and inflation is high and wages are low and, you know, what you have extra to be able to afford that at the grocery store. So it's a, you know, it's a terrible economic picture. Overall, Trump is created for everyone, let alone the people that he promised directly that he would do more for. I should have put this in the A block, but I don't know if you saw this. We're actually lowering the tariff on beef so that we can increase the imports of beef, like either from our, I'm like, okay, yeah.

45:33I mean, that's one way to reduce the price. Great. Just get a bunch of foreign beef. I'm sure that that's what that's the American dream. And then it even gets doesn't it get labeled American made or something like that? The late. Remember, we've covered this before. I know they the ranchers have a lot of issues with the country of origin labeling, which can be very deceptive. That's what it is. It's packaged in America. That's the way it's like, you know, when you open your Apple laptop and it says designed in California, that's that's what what I mean, designed in California, not made in California, designed.

46:03Well, it's the same thing with beef is packaged here in the United States. They're able to label it for country of origin, when really a lot of it is from Argentina. So we need to dramatically revise that. Oh wait, haven't done any of that actually more recently either. Okay, let's get to Israel. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Keir Gaines. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark.

46:36Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you're here on Earth, or are you a good person because you're free? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way.

47:16Open your free iHeartRadio app, Search Learn the Hard Way and listen now. If you're watching the latest season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, you already know there's a lot to break down. Marcia accusing Kelly of sleeping with a married man. They holding K. Michelle back from fighting Drew. Pinky has financial issues. I like the bougie style of Housewives show. I think it looks like it's going to be interesting. On the podcast, Reality with the King, I, Carlos King, recap the biggest moments from your favorite reality shows, including the Real Housewives franchise, the drama, the alliances, and the tea everybody's talking about.

47:54As an executive producer in reality television, I'm not just watching it. I understand the game. As somebody who creates shows, I'll even say this. At the end of the day, when people are at home, they want entertainment. To hear this and more, listen to Reality with the King on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jared Ardano. You might know me as that loud guy who yells out, Help! on the internet! Help! Somebody! Please! But there's so much more to me than that. I'm an actor. I'm a comedian. And recently, I've become quite the helper myself. And on my new podcast, Hope from a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives!

48:36Helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions. Psych! I'm a comedian! I'm not qualified to give good advice! Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, and recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to man. If I'm calling you, even if you're on your phone, let it ring twice. One ring is too scary. Cream of chicken soup. Hey, cream. Cream of chicken soup. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from a Hypocrite as part of the My Cultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

49:18So we now have some new global polling on how residents of the world feel about various countries. Let's put this up on the screen. You will not be surprised, I think, viewers of the show to learn that the most hated country in the entire world beating out North Korea, actually by a pretty hefty margin here, is the nation state of Israel. Although is it even a nation state when it doesn't really seem to have borders and continually expands and attacks whoever they want, whenever they want? It's a question for another day. In any case, they are the most hated hated national entity in the world.

49:54North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran. And then we are just narrowly by one point there liked better than Iran. Our standing has apparently plummeted quite significantly in the democracy perception index. And, you know, I don't know all the methodology, Sagar, of this polling, but it does not surprise me whatsoever that Israel is not exactly held in high regard. When you look at the way that they act like cry bullies in the world, when you look at the way that they attack all of their neighbors routinely when you consider the fact that not just us, but the entire globe has watched the barbarism in their timelines of Israel committing a genocide and bragging about it and celebrating it.

50:35So, you know, the country that we hold out as our great ally and the most moral army in the world and the only democracy in the Middle East, blah, blah, blah. Turns out they have the lowest global perception of literally any place on the planet. Yeah. You know, it's actually is interesting when you pair this with how Americans perceive other countries in the world. So I forgot to add this in, but I will send it along so we can put it in post. When you ask Americans how the influence of other countries is growing, and this fits very much with the theme of our show now, number one is China. And this was a poll just taken a few days ago.

51:11And number two is Israel, actually. So who is getting stronger? The percent of American adults who say each country is getting stronger. China, 62 percent. Israel, 45 percent. Russia, 34 percent. U.S., 34 percent. So the U.S. is actually number four. So it's not really just the globe. I think it's that other countries are intuiting who has the upper hand in geopolitics. And what's actually fascinating to me is that Americans themselves are actually seeing through the own propaganda of their own media. Now, in many countries, India, for example, they have a vibrant, thriving press. They will talk all day long about the declining influence of the United States, about how India stands alone, about how they can assess both with Israel, with Russia, and with the US.

52:00They can look at things pretty easily. But when you look at other Asian countries, especially the more allied countries, they're usually pretty good, often, about not showing in their media, let's say, something that's so detrimental to the United States with Israel and all that. They didn't ever particularly care. But we've already paired this now with not only a lot of the outrage over how they conduct themselves in Gaza, but whenever this Iran war happened, they also were like, wow, now their belligerence is directly affecting us. And I think when you pair those two things together with the United States, with Israel, I mean, even with the U.S., let's say with our operation in Venezuela, one of the reasons I so opposed it was that obviously between this and the Iran war, North Korea is never, ever giving up their nuclear weapons.

52:51Now, they probably weren't ever before that, but when you fly into another nation and capture their head of state because he doesn't have a nuke, and then you also launch a preemptive war to prevent another country from getting a nuke and you can't even do that, you've erased U.S. deterrence to any country which you're trying to do diplomacy with probably for the next 20 years. Well, you also, I mean, just imagine the outrage in any neutral or even quasi-allied country. They're like, wait, they did that to them. They could do this to us. And so that level of hatred, I mean, it's probably akin to the Iraq War.

53:27I remember I traveled a lot during the Iraq War. I was a teenager, I was living abroad, too. I mean, I don't particularly care all that much what like a Belgian thinks of the United States. But suffice it to say, it was not a lot. You know, it's not very, very well received, the Iraq war. And it wasn't just them. It was like everybody, like wherever you went, people were really mad. And when you add Israel in on top of this and then the alliance, you know, bipartisan alliance really between Biden and between Trump over these last few years, people really, really have a negative view. I also think in Europe, it's not just Israel.

54:03It's also probably Ukraine, if I had to guess. Obviously, they're a lot more attached to the war in Ukraine than a lot of Americans are. And for them, they had these very antiquated, idealized view of NATO. But for them, that's also a wake-up call. The fact is that Russia is going to have at least a portion of Ukraine. So I think you just put all these things together from Asia to Europe and across the world. The way they're feeling about Israel, the way they're feeling about the United States, and the assessment of who's getting stronger and having the upper hand, it all points in a very, very bad direction for American primacy.

54:34if that's something you ever cared about. And I certainly did. Go ahead. I was just going to say, it's also, I mean, just think of our self-conception as always like the good guys in the world, you know, and then you look at this and you're like, you're ranked the same as Iran. Congratulations. And Iran supposedly, you know, in our conception, on the axis of evil, et cetera, et cetera. And I suspect that most of this polling was done before the Iran war. I'm going to make a prediction here that the view of Iran in the world is going to surge because they've come off looking much more like the reasonable party in this war.

55:06I mean, they were the ones who were attacked. They were not the aggressive offender in this regard. And they've been very effective with their propaganda campaign, you know, the Lego videos and the new minion videos and all these things that are coming out that are appealing to an American audience are appealing to a global audience. So, you know, I think that alone, given our sense of American exceptionalism and that we're the shining beacon on the Hill and all this sort of thing. To see us ranking there with Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, and then our great ally Israel should be pretty stunning wake-up call, I think, for a lot of Americans about how we are viewed at this point injustifiably, not the account of envy or blah, blah, blah, but because of the way that we have conducted ourselves in the world, certainly in this Trump administration, but as you point to the Iraq war going back further.

55:56Let's jump ahead here for a moment to C5 because this ties directly into Israel's view in the world and the way they've tried to manipulate the perception of Israel on the global stage. So there's this contest called Eurovision where countries compete with a pop star and they have a song. I've never actually watched it. I've only seen some clips online. This is more of a European thing. I have seen the movie Eurovision with Will Ferrell. That's as close as I get to Eurovision. Okay, there you go. Is it worth seeing? It's a funny movie. It's actually funny. OK. All right. So anyway, you can check that out for a little bit of a tutorial on what exactly Eurovision is.

56:34In any case, Israel found this to be really important as they were conducting this genocide. They're like, if we win the Eurovision contest, then people will stop thinking that everyone in the world hates us. So New York Times did this somewhat belated, but, you know, kind of significant investigation into whether or not Israel manipulated the voting so that their star that they had representing their country would come out on top. That person actually ended up getting second place. But they went and they looked and they're like, you know, in these countries like Spain, where people really, really hate Israel and are very pro-Palestine, somehow the Israeli artist won overwhelmingly in Spain.

57:15There were other countries that they looked at that would be small countries where only a few hundred votes would be required to like sway the vote in one direction or the other, where lo and behold, they voted overwhelmingly for Israel. It is known that Israel spent, you know, had a significant budget to promote their Eurovision contender and to get people to vote. Netanyahu himself posted a graphic that was like, vote 20 times for our superstar. So in any case, the concerns that this contest was not above board, these deep suspicions that Israel had in fact manipulated the vote outcome seemed to have been completely vindicated here.

57:53And it's just kind of a wild thing, a wild insight into the way that they think. They're like, well, if we are hated, rather than changing our behavior so that maybe we're not seen as complete barbaric monsters, instead we're just gonna rig the vote totals because that's totally gonna work and that's totally gonna change people's minds about who we are and what we're up to and how they feel about us. Yeah, it really is. It's amusing, but it's revealing, right? It's one of those things where, and by the way, at the time, like you said, everybody kind of knew something was going on. But the investigation about all of these diplomats, I mean, the level of seriousness which they took this is pretty crazy.

58:35Like imagine U.S. diplomats at the secretary of state level going around trying to rig a vote for like a game show abroad. It's unthinkable, honestly. Well, and it's ripping Eurovision apart because there's a big push to get Israel banned. There was supposed to be a vote on it. Then the vote was pulled. So you have a lot of countries that are unilaterally pulling out. And I think you have to like pay money to participate. And that's part of their business model. So it actually threatens the entire Eurovision enterprise because of Israel and their participation and their rigging of the results here.

59:12How did they get into Eurovision in the first place? You know, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Like, I'm just like, you know, look, no offense to them, but it's like you're clearly not in Europe. So what exactly is going on here? Apparently they competed in Europe since 1973. Okay. I didn't even know that. But again, I'm not so familiar with the show, but are other non-European nations in Eurovision? Like, is this a common thing? And if so, what's the point? I don't know the answer to that question, actually. What's the point of calling it Eurovision? Is Turkey in Eurovision? Because that would make actually more sense.

59:43But probably not. Just my guess, my guess. I don't know. A ton but Christopher. I genuinely don't know the answer to this question. While you set up the next one, I'm going to look. Okay. All right. We can get to the bottom of this Eurovision situation. So we had some updates for you. You covered with Emily yesterday the Nick Kristof column detailing the allegations of mass rape of Palestinian hostages being held by the Israelis. And obviously, this is a topic we've covered in the past based on reporting from the UN, reporting from B'Tselem, the video that we all watched of a Palestinian hostage being gang raped and then those rapists being celebrated as national heroes, while the whistleblower who published the video was penalized and punished.

1:00:32So in any case, Nick Kristof puts out this column, which is extensively documented. He has some, I think, 14 either eyewitnesses or victims themselves. He uses that previous research by human rights organizations, the UN, Metzellum, which is an Israeli organization, to flesh out a picture that paints very compellingly once again that this is a systematic abuse mechanism within Israeli prisons. And there was obviously a huge Zionist backlash. And then there was a rumor that was started by David Schuster, who said that he had heard that within the New York Times, there was such a backlash that they were going to retract this column because it had so many problems.

1:01:20That appears to not have been true whatsoever. It could put C2 up on the screen. This is Kristoff replying to Schuster. Schuster's tweet originally said, hearing from longtime friends, New York Times, there There are already discussions, including up the mass head, about retracting the Nick Kristof column. Issues with source credibility and lack of evidence. No indications that Kristof sourcing mistakes were deliberate, still problematic. Kristof replies, sorry, but your tweet is completely untrue. Then following that, we could put C3 up on the screen. The New York Times also came out and said, there is no truth to this at all.

1:01:54Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who's reported on sexual violence for decades, is widely regarded as one of the world's best on the ground reporters documenting bearing witness to sexual abuse experienced by women and men in war and conflict zones. He traveled to the region to report firsthand on the stories of Palestinians who suffered abuse. His article collects accounts in the victim's own words backed by independent studies. So that was from a spokesperson for the New York Times. So this idea that it was, oh, it was so problematic and there were all sorts of issues with it and it's going to get retracted, it appears to be completely bunk.

1:02:29And all you need to know of it, go and read Adam Johnson's book, including the part called How to Sell a Genocide, especially the part about what an important role the New York Times played in buying time among liberals for Biden to work hand in hand with Netanyahu to proceed forward with this genocide, to see the way that the New York Times has covered Israeli actions in Gaza. If you really take that in, you will understand what was certainly an extraordinarily high level of evidence that they required for this particular column to get published. There is no doubt in my mind that the bar was very, very high, as again evidenced by the fact that he had so many victims, so many witnesses who went, you know, who were on the record, albeit anonymously, to back up the assertions that were made in his story.

1:03:23But Sagar, nevertheless, we had a total Zionist freakout. We can put the, this Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of course, called it a blood libel. This is C3B, chose the New York Times, chose to publish one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press. Again, guys, we have all seen the video of a Palestinian being gang-raped on camera, who suffered grave wounds that he was treated for, and the way that those rapists were turned into national heroes. So you don't even believe this. You don't even believe this yet, you know, for the Western world here, for the American public, this is what they're trying to sell.

1:04:06Let's go and put C3D out. Of course, predictably, the free press doing their job here, anonymous sources, pro-Hamas activists, and shoddy biology all fed into a dubious New York Times report. So we can put this one in the category of their famine denial and some of their other efforts to absolve Israel, some of the crimes that they have committed. We've got Scott Jennings here also getting in on the action, saying the New York Times article in quotes about Israel is such a journalistic atrocity that I actually feel stupid reading it out loud. If everyone at the New York Times who's responsible for this is not fired, then the publication will lose whatever shred of credibility it has left.

1:04:45It is so wild to see these people inveigh and pretend that there's some pro-Palestine bias at the New York Times of all places. The evidence is just as clear as it could possibly be that Israeli crimes were consistently downplayed. Palestinian crimes were consistently emphasized and in certain instances invented, as in the beheaded babies hoax or the babies baked in the oven hoax. And yet people like him and other Zionists will tell you with a straight face that it's Israel that is treated unfairly and poorly in the Western press. Yeah. I would be very willing to believe, you know, oh, you know, in terms of the clamor about journalistic standards, that maybe this was in good faith if they'd also done that for other previous hoaxes.

1:05:32And yet that's not the case whatsoever. It's like they demand – look, I said it yesterday. There's more evidence for this than there was for that. It's just – it's open and shut. You can quibble a little bit with trying to understand how something happened based on firsthand accounts. I get that. But a lot of the character assassination and the freakout over this does not apply whatsoever when it's the claims they're making about what happened on October 7th. Just keep that in mind whenever you're looking at all of this. And the fact that it hasn't been retracted despite this immense amount of pressure, which you know is at a massive governmental level, just demonstrates, I think, again, how – and I said it yesterday.

1:06:13Sue them then. If it's fake, the Israeli government can sue. And then they can open up their discovery process for how they really do conduct business, how what really happened, and the guards and everybody can be deposed, and the dogs. If it's truly fake, then just prove it. That's easy, right? It's always in the opinion column. It has to be fake. Do it then. No one's stopping you. You guys have unlimited resources. So that should also be very, very telling whenever they threaten, but they don't do anything.

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