7/10/25: Jon Stewart Rips Jeffries, AIPAC Exposed By Wine Moms, Bibi Records With NELK, Amazon Sales Plunge

24:01So it's probably like a marriage of the two on Israel, immigration, and any cultural issues in the future. People don't want like naked abandonment, which is kind of what I think you're talking about. But, you know, not every Democratic stage is going to be raising their – person on the Democratic stage is going to be raising their hand talking about decriminalized border crossings again, which is what happened back in 2019 during that primary. So I'm not so sure yet. She's a canary for me on the Israel issue. But, like, I don't think that's the path of the way things are going to be going. On Israel?

24:31No, no. On all issues. I think it's more – look at her as like, like what I'm saying is you should not look at the position that she's taking on all issues as kind of the way things are going to be going in the future. And that kind of what explains how you can support somebody like Jasmine Crockett and AOC. It's like, you don't actually have anything in common except for fighting Trump. The thing is the fighting Trump. And that's it. And that's also where something like, you know, transgender issues, where that comes and why that, why that clip of her with Rahm Emanuel, who's just such a like lousine piece of shit anyway.

25:00And he's like very punchable, you know, regardless of how you. Sure. where you are on any issue, why that resonated so much was not even so much about the particular issue. It was her willingness to say, like, you're just like adopting a Republican framing and this is bullshit and not to bend. And that's what's like the Democratic base. Previously, it was all about, oh, let's reach out and let's have bipartisanship and let's get along. That is over. And so I think that's more of what has been the response to her, the response to Hakeem Jeffries, the response to all of these, like, you know, legacy Democratic establishment leaders.

25:36And I actually think you're wrong on Israel-Gaza, especially because we're talking about, you know, a Democratic primary, presidential primary that's going to happen a couple years in the future. It already has become, among the Democratic base, very large majority believes this is a genocide, I can guarantee you. and when you have what's so important about Zoran's victory in New York City is that he supports BDS. Like he is anti-Zionist. He would not bend to their like, well, does Israel have a right to exist as a Jewish state? And he's like, as a state with equal rights. The fact you could do that in the city, in this country that has not just the largest Jewish population, but this is a very significant part of New York culture.

26:19I agree. You know, New York is very culturally like Jewish. These are important institutions. and that he could do that and not only get away with it, I actually think it ended up helping his campaign because people were so disgusted with the way that Cuomo tried to weaponize anti-Semitism. That is going to be a signal to so many Democrats who are looking at what they can say, how far they can go on this issue. And if AIPAC's already against you, what more can you throw at these people? So I do think there is going to be a sea change on this issue in the Democratic Party because you cannot sustain a situation where 80 % of your base feels one way and all of the Democratic leaders basically feel a totally different way.

27:01I'm totally willing to be wrong. I just think policy-wise, I don't think we're all that different. I think the policy is going to be very different. But in terms of the way that they talk about it, I do think they're probably going to settle on some sort of middle ground issue. I mean, even Zoran, he doesn't talk genocide. Even whenever he justifies BDS, he talks about it in terms of equal rights. It seems more like a moderate framing where if you're in the know, you're like, oh, shit, that's actually quite radical, at least for our current political project. That's the way I could see it becoming something at a major political level, which is undeniable.

27:32I agree, to be clear. Like I'm totally – I think that's a good thing. I wish that all politicians would speak that way. But I think it would be more politically accessible and also why it made the attacks on Zoran as anti-Semitic so preposterous. Because if you talk about it moderately and you're like, yes, a state with equal rights, people are like, well, yeah, I mean, what's wrong with that? How can you disagree with that? How would you be against that? You're against equal rights now? Or BDS. It's like, yeah, you know, we should be able to boycott or divest and not have laws on the books for any country, to anybody who we think is human rights.

28:03He had a whole news cycle about his defense of globalizing the Intifada. I remember. You know, like, I mean, he did say the things. Like he didn't center his campaign around that, but because those were all the attacks that were incoming, it became a very significant part of the campaign. You remember going on Colbert and like getting ass, you know, all that. That was crazy. So in any case, let me just play you one more clip of the I've had it ladies talking about Hakeem Jeffries because I think this is interesting as well. Again, as a signpost of how disgusted the normie liberal Democratic base is with their own leaders at this point.

28:35This is very different from previous eras in the Democratic Party. Let's take a listen. First of all, he has addressed the rise of anti-Semitism. And it's not performative. It's very, very real. And he understands that it's real. And he has the endorsement of other Jewish politicians that aren't propagandized by a corrupt Israeli government. This was your moment, Hakeem, to also stand up against Islamophobia. Because here's the thing about human rights, you guys. You don't get to cherry pick. If you're against anti-Semitism, then you have to be against Islamophobia, homophobia, racism, and down the line, also class warfare.

29:06And so this kind of cherry picking because of who donates to Hakeem Jeffries, AIPAC, AIPAC donates to Hakeem Jeffries. The people who preach against anti-Semitism should be joining Zoran Mondami and standing up against the Islamophobic attacks on him. He has not said anything disparaging about Jewish people. He stands with them in solidarity. And this type of crap is so disgusting to me. And it is a cancer within the Democratic Party. We lost these last two elections to an idiot because of these centrist policies and you're being beholden to special interests. And by God, it's not going to happen again.

29:38You can either be a part of the problem or a part of the solution. When we can clearly see with our eyes and clearly hear with our ears exactly what's happening with Israel and Gaza, we're not fucking stupid. Your base is smarter and y 'all are going to have to adapt or get the fuck out. I don't know. I love this lady. I love this lady. I'll confess, I don't get it. You know, it's not for me is the only way I would put it. What do you disagree with that, though? She's going in. She's cooking. Oh, the Democrats lost because of the centrist policy? Yeah, that's right. It was a centrist policy. to offer free Medicare to a bunch of illegal immigrants.

30:09No, the running around with Liz Cheney and Mark Cuban. That was a brilliant idea. Okay, listen, I understand that's the nice leftist critique. It's true. Kamala was never doing better than when she was talking about price gouging and she was getting attacked for price controls. Okay, well, you could cherry pick that as a lot if we want to ignore some of the border crossing stuff that she was complicit. Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in the country. Okay, again, we will see in the future. If a Democrat runs and wins on decriminalized border crossings and amnesty for everybody and bringing Leah Thomas and all those other people back.

30:41I will happily eat my words. I do not think that's ever going to happen. You're idiots if you think that it is, personally. But there's a difference between economic and cultural. Yeah, but you can't ignore that. That's why it's so important. But the reason that Bernie is so popular and the reason Zoran is so popular, the reason AOC's popularity is very high now at this point is because they have focused in on these economic issues and because they freaking stand for something. I mean, that's the thing. I was like, I think so much of the issue by issue checklist is the wrong way to look at politics.

31:11I don't disagree with you, to be clear. People liked Zoran because he stood for something and he was willing to fight for it, even when it was uncomfortable and even when it was like, oh, my God, you're going to get attacked over that. And that's what Trump understood. I mean, Trump ran—Trump is doing all kinds of stuff that is so unpopular, ran all kinds of stuff that is so unpopular, like pardoning the J6 rioters, polls at like 2%. Yeah, but that was an essential issue. But why does he get away with it? He gets away with it because people get the feeling, oh, he stands for something. Now, it's kind of bullshit because he's – whatever.

31:39We could put that aside. But that's what is so revolting about these, like, poll-tested centrists. Always the finger in the air. Always everything's got to be focus grouped. Everything is calculated and calibrated. That's what people are disgusted with. And I think, you know, that's – and that is the centrist way. There was a Morning Joe clip where he was asking Tom Swasey, who – I'm actually trying to get on the show. who I want to talk to, wrote an article in Wall Street Journal about Zoran, like anti-Zoran, whatever. But he was like, how come none of the centrists can be popular the way that Zoran and AOC and Bernie can?

32:13And this is why. It's not even so much about exactly where they are. They feel like they stand for something. Same thing with Jasmine Crockett, who I have all kinds of policy issues, but he feels like she's actually willing to fight for something. And that's what I'm talking about with the Democratic Party. I don't disagree with a word you said about that. I just think, I mean, we should not overread it into being like, no, actually, like trans swimmers or whatever. is popular. And I just think this is - But is that what Zoran ran on? No, I agree. And that's smart, right? You know, Mr. Zoran, who was wearing a chalwar kameez, pointing his middle finger up at Christopher Columbus in 2020, and Mr.

32:47Defund the Police put a suit on and stopped acting like an idiot. And I think that's actually a smart takeaway for a lot of future aspiring left politicians, is being a moron, you know, Twitch poster or whatever, and acting like that is actually not the way to get elected. Now, you can not disavow that. I think that's fine. You know, you shouldn't because then you look weak. But the emphasis on issues is actually pretty important while it's still, you know, supposedly standing for something. And I just think misreading kind of where that goes is an important probably lesson for the left. Like, you know, John Fetterman was held up as this, like, leftist, like, look where that all went.

33:24You know, this idea of, like, dirtbagism. I mean, he's, like, literally brain damaged and totally changed his ideology. sucker. He's not the same person at all. Right, but he was celebrated for this dirtbag identity. And it's like, no, the most popular left politician in the country put a suit on, acted like a normal guy, and spoke in very accessible language specifically around economic issues, also while not disavowing his ridiculous left past. That's an important lesson, and I think that also fits with how renegade politicians should actually look and act in the future. That's all I'm saying.

33:57I'm just saying with this woman or this whole what's left thing, I could see how that could also be read in completely the wrong direction by a lot of people who are trying to run for office. When in my opinion, you know, Zoran by looking and acting and speaking in a reasonable way, which are in some ways called unreasonable policies, made it so that he could become elected. I would also point out to Bernie, I mean, Bernie believes some really crazy shit, but he speaks in a different way and has always worn a suit. He's the consummate politician. And that's an important lesson. I would say AOC as well.

34:34The more that she has acted like more of a consummate politician and more of an elevated type figure, that has made her more popular amongst the Democratic base outside of the original Chapo trap house left. That's like acting like them, in my opinion, is not the way to any sort of electoral success. I think I hear your point. I think there's also a question of like what's authentic to you. You know, like Bernie is very like in his suit and rumpled in his hair all over the like that is Bernie, you know, and Zoran felt very authentic here. And I think you're right that the fact that he centered his campaign around affordability, which was clearly the right thing to do and made that the centerpiece when people are freaking out about, oh, my God, free buses.

35:12And you've got like 75 percent of New Yorkers who are like, yes, free buses. Smart. Yes, exactly. And so that is absolutely my theory of politics is that's why you should put those economic issues front and center. And because that is actually the center of the country, when you look at where the polling is, when you look at what people usually vote on. So, you know, it's critically important to have credibility on those issues. And I think people felt like he did and would at least fight for the things that he was talking about. Yeah, I think he's a good lesson for all renegade politicians, actually, is that to dress up and almost act more composed than your opponents.

35:47You know, when somebody else is talking about anti-Semitism and you're sitting there talking about New York City, You're wearing a suit. You don't seem all that unreasonable. That's actually how you win. That's the FDR story. I mean, if you really look at a lot of the people who came up from behind, like the way that they do it is specifically by kind of outclassing the competition. And so, yeah, I mean, I think it's a very important lesson for a lot of people. I do think he's going to win. And as long as he stays on that and if he actually governs in any remotely way like that, as difficult as it will be, I think he'll be quite successful.

36:15It's a pity for him. He's not born in America. I know. He'd be a great candidate. Yeah. I mean, if he won. within six months he should have announced and he would have been able to do it. Yeah. Hello, appliance fans. I'm here at Grand Appliance where Bill just bought a premium Bosch benchmark dishwasher. Talk about your experience, Bill. My salesperson was an appliance genius. She told me about their free install offer on benchmark appliances and it was a done deal for me. Wow, free install from the pros at Grand? That's a no-brainer. Agreed. They make it so easy. There you have it. Grand for the win.

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38:07BB9 Yahoo was in town this week for the third time, apparently Trump's favorite foreign leader come to visit again. And he did a couple interviews, including apparently a sit down with the Nelk boys. We'll get to that in a moment. But he was asked this question, this kind of interesting response about whether or not dealing with Trump is different than dealing with Biden, given that both of them were quite willing to fund and support a genocide. Let's go ahead and take a listen to his response. Did it feel very different dealing with President Trump as opposed to President Biden, as well as the Democrats?

38:39Is this a serious question? Yeah, it has been different. I think everybody said that they wanted to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. But it's not what you say. It's what you do. It's what you do. And ultimately, leaders are tested by what they do. And at this point, I think it's fair to say Trump has been different from Biden because he maybe wanted that attack on Iran under Biden. and he got it with Trump. So he has gotten more of what he wanted at this point under Donald Trump, which is why he nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, definitely. Well, I mean, it's all just a matter of gradations, right?

39:21Like Biden basically backed him to the hilt and always said, you know, I disagree with him privately, but bear hugged him in public. You know, BB at the same time is trying to recapture, you know, the Trump base and MAGA. Let's put this next one up on the screen. I mean, apparently we mentioned this. He chatted with the Nelk boys. Again, I'm calling on the Nelk boys to release their episode immediately. We can't just be having world leaders on and not release it. And also, you know, hopefully ask him maybe an interesting question or two. I actually do think this could be a problem for the Nelk boys because if they just let Bibi come on and blabber, like I think that would be a misreading of YouTube and of young Republicans.

40:00That's just me. True. That's my opinion. But they're probably going to just let him. No, that's I'm saying. Yeah. Obviously. Right. I mean, I'm not a milk boys consumer. By the way, neither am I, just to be clear. My understanding is they just sort of shoot the shit. Yeah, they mostly shoot the shit. Like I'm not expecting an adversarial interview. They had Trump on, you know. I remember, like, they were one of the first people to ever have Trump on. He talked for like three hours and had a stupid conversation. But what they don't seem to understand is if you look at every prominent right-wing YouTube creator, the vast majority are going to have a very different take on Israel than a traditional GOP politician.

40:35I can think of two exceptions, which are Ben Shapiro. I'll let that one speak for itself. Whose popularity has fallen off, by the way. Well, I mean, look, he's still a big show. We got to give it to him. He's one of the top 10 political podcasts. I'm not going to sit here and say he's a nobody, but he's got some competition. Dave Rubin, those two, that's basically it. Whose popularity has also fallen off. That one is obvious. But pretty much, if you look at, and if you look at the biggest ones, Tucker Carlson, I was just there. He let me go off on Israel. He basically agreed with me on everything.

41:04Candace, Tim Pool. Tim is complicated, I guess, on Israel, but he has people on, or at least who are critical. And so what I would point out - And Puntas is a rising force. Well, he's not on YouTube, but yeah, fair. In the online right ecosystem. It is more of a Twitter thing, in my opinion. But yeah, I mean, he's got somewhat of an audience. But my point is, if you look at all of those things kind of together, it points in a pretty clear direction. All the polling backs this up for young Republicans. If you look at the so-called podcast bros and all that, look at Theo Vaughn, look at Schultz, look at Rogan.

41:37I mean, not pro-Israel. Tim Dillon. Tim Dillon, right? So if you look at the audience and kind of the way that those people are all kind of trending, it's not in the direction of having a shoot-the-shit happy dad conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu. Yeah. That's the way I would put it. Yeah. Yeah. And that's why it's a big mistake, in my opinion, if you have him on and you just kind of let him get away with something like that. And it's in the context of Epstein, too. Again, you know, the Epstein story is a massive story online. Massive. It was an entree point for millions of people in the politics, as Ryan said.

42:11And if you don't ask him about something like that, I just think you look like a total joke. Now, I'm prejudging. I should make it clear. If they do, I'd be happy to say it. I'll play, you know, the clip here on the show. Steini, I'll sing your praises and the rest of you guys. But something tells me that at the very least, even if they did, they're probably not going to ask the requisite follow-ups if they should. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing. It's like it's not about like, oh, you shouldn't platform Netanyahu. No, actually, you should. I would love to. I would love to talk to him. In the same way, you should interview any world leader, especially one that has such a significant grip on our foreign policy.

42:41Absolutely. But then it's, OK, well, what do you do in that conversation? And so, yeah, if they approach it like they have their other interviews where it's just like, oh, we're going to like shoot the shit and basically like normalize and humanize. this genuine monster. I mean, it is, you would be hard pressed to find a bigger, absolute villain in my lifetime than Netanyahu. And so I think they're in some, you know, in some of these people's minds, there's an inability to distinguish from being like edgy and counter-cultural and going against cancel culture or whatever, and giving a platform to a genuine monster who is doing a genocide every single day.

43:27So that's the piece here that just, to me, it speaks to such a sick culture that this is even a possibility. We're going to talk about this with regard to the Trump administration sanctioning Francesca Albanese of the UN for her exposing and calling the carpet companies that are complicit in this genocide, et cetera. We've lost the ability to distinguish just basic right from wrong. That's what it feels like to me. And look, again, I'll look if they hold him, you know, me to the fire and when I OK, I'll I'll fine. I'll be happy to say good job, guys. Way to go. But I do feel like we're just in this up is down era where go ahead and put the D3 up on the screen.

44:09This is so sick to me. U.S. issues sanctions against U.N. investigator probing abuses in Gaza. So we've had Francesc Albanese on the show. She is a special rapporteur from the U.N. for the West Bank and Gaza. She has issued a number of reports about the ongoing genocide there that have been incredibly important. Her most recent one, I think, was in some ways the most provocative, because as I said before, she really called on the carpet all of the companies that are profiting from this. I mean, we're very familiar and very acquainted with the way in which wars are profitable. And there are many individuals who have become wildly rich off of war profiteering.

44:49Many of them live within, you know, 15 miles of where we sit right now. I don't know that people have thought as much about the way that this genocide is incredibly profitable. And she talks about Palantir, Lockheed Martin, Google, Amazon, IBM, Caterpillar, supplying those bulldozers that we've seen. And so she has really been one of the most principled and courageous actors, I think, out of this entire conflict. And so to sanction that individual because they dare, and the specific reason is because of her work exposing this and her support for the charges against Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, by the way, at the International Criminal Court.

45:33It's just incredibly, it's incredibly sick. And Sagar, Trita Parsi was pointing out that the same time we're sanctioning this person who was genuinely trying to stand up for innocence in the world. The U.S. is giving a total pass to the guy who was, you know, the Syrian leader and taking his former, you know, his terror organization off of the terror lift and granting them sanctions, relief, et cetera. And so this is one of the things that has been the most sort of like, I guess, spiritually disturbing to me at this time is the vilification of people who are trying to stand up for basic things like, hey, we shouldn't be complicit in a genocide.

46:10I mean, this connects the Zoran Mamdani conversation as well, and the celebration of genuine, an uplift of, like, genuine terrorist racist monsters. Well, I would just, look, for me, and this is the fundamental difference, is to me, why are we sanctioning somebody who is investigating Israel? It's like that's what the full force of the U.S. empire is being used at this point to go after Francesca Albanese for issuing reports about the Israeli government and or U.S. companies. I mean, that's fine, but it's one of those things where it's preposterous in this particular time to go after the U.S. I mean, by the way, just so that people understand what U.S.

46:47sanctions mean, it means you can't do business with any bank that does business with the United States. It's basically like being cut off from the financial system. Isn't she an Italian national? She's Italian, yeah. That's going to cause some serious issues. I don't even know if you can have a bank account at some of the places. You may not be able to have a credit card. You may not be able to have a phone plan. I'm talking just so people understand what it actually means to be sanctioned by the United States of America. It's a very, very serious thing. We're doing it basically to protect somebody who is going after the Israeli government.

47:17I mean, look, I like Francesca. I mean, she is going after us as well. Sure. Because we're so involved. Okay, fair. Yeah. I would just put it again as like a priorities thing for like this is really what deserves sanctions. When again, you know, we're going to point out the hypocrisy of U.S. support here now for the Israeli backed Al Qaeda leader in Syria. And just broadly, I mean, it's about the priorities. So, for example, you know, we're recently suing Harvard University for for more of these like anti-Semitism allegations. I actually have that. Can we put D5, please, up on the screen? the Trump administration is attacking Harvard's accreditation and a battle against the Ivy League school.

47:57And it's specifically about the indifference standard for the federal discrimination law, basically saying that they had indifference to the safety of Jewish students on campus. Why? Because they allowed people to protest the state of Israel. That is about a hijacking of the U.S. legal system. The only reason why, I mean, I just think a lot of the moralism and all the stuff around this, it doesn't hold up because this is America. We're a global empire. The Syria thing is a perfect example. We often back dictators and people who do horrible things around the world, like the idea we're only going to be doing business or whatever with moral countries.

48:29It's kind of ridiculous and preposterous. The point then is to just have some sort of a consistent standard about who we sanction or not. And it's obvious here that our sanctions regime is being used as a tool basically on behalf of a foreign country in addition to our federal government. And I think that is actually what is more of a bipartisan, not bipartisan, but It's an appeal that can really get to people. Whereas, I mean, and again, no offense to my friends on the left, but it's like this constant moralism. People don't necessarily want to hear that whenever they're – people don't necessarily want to approach international relations that way when it's obvious that it's not a realistic way to conduct relations with the entire world.

49:08I totally disagree with you. I mean that's the only thing that's popular on the left. No, no, no. Most people on the right are just upset that we're so obsessed with Israel. No, but – no, I don't think that's true. I do think it's true. I mean, I think that's part of it. I think it's also partly like just like a strain of Brace and anti-Semitism of the Nick Quintuses of the world, et cetera. It's true. I mean, you can't deny that that's an element of it. But let me say, let me say, your reading of the American public, I think is totally wrong. because the reason that the polling on Israel has shifted so dramatically is because even if the U.S.

49:43government is and has always been full of shit on any sort of concern for human rights, the American people were not full of shit. Like, they actually believed that we should be a force for good in the world. Like, they actually think, thought of this country as like, you know, oh yeah, we mess up, but in general, like, we're the good guys. We're the good guys. And so what has profoundly changed the American public's conception of Israel and of the Palestinians is seeing these atrocities day after day after day, where it's like, how can it be our tax dollars that are being used for these bombs to murder babies and women?

50:23But it doesn't sound like you're agreeing with me. What I'm agreeing with is the complicit in terms of us selling them the arms. If this was happening independently, I actually don't think it would be nearly as big of a thing here. Because, I mean, look, there's atrocities literally all over the world. I mean, was the Azerbaijan, you know, thing here a major thing? You're talking about that as like, you know, like it's the morals of it are just completely irrelevant. And saying that for most Americans, that's completely wrong. I don't think that's true at all. I think the morals are incredibly central because it's so at odds with what people want to believe about this country and the sense that, oh, you know, in general, we're like the good guys in the world.

51:00And so, yeah, I think the morality of just like mass murder of women and children and complete destruction, I think that is quite central to the way that public opinion has formed around us. What I'm trying to say is that if it weren't for the U.S. role in enabling it, I don't think it would be nearly as central of an issue here in the United States. And that's because I know for a fact that there are literal atrocities happening all over the world. And I would also caution people, this whole good guy narrative, that's what leads to Libya. Oh, we got to go and protect some Libyan civilians. Yeah, now we've collapsed the government and Gaddafi got killed.

51:33That's what leads to Saddam Hussein is a bad guy. Like acting in that way is actually a terrible, terrible foreign policy. That's what responsibility to protect and all of that is built around. It's led to some of the worst humanitarian disasters actually in terms of the fallout of acting on that way. So I would really caution people not to go down that path. That's actually even indicative in and of itself of the way that Americans think about these things because those like good instincts of like we should stop the Russians invasion. We should support women and girls in Afghanistan. We should make sure the Iranian people can be free or whatever.

52:08Those like deeply moral instincts are often weaponized to actually affect like create mass chaos, carnage, death and suffering. You know, there's no doubt that Afghanistan would be better if we never did any. Iraq, you know, certainly. Iran, absolutely, you know. And so I think that actually speaks to the desire of most Americans to be the good guy, to feel like, okay, we're a force generally like a benevolent force in the world and trying to be on the right side of history. And so you're right, that can absolutely be weaponized here. But, I mean, that is very much at the center of what has caused people to change their views on Israel is just seeing the horror and wanting it to stop.

52:53I agree. And not wanting to see in their timeline every day another, like, blown up baby that is, you know, blood on our hands and every taxpayer in the country. See, I agree. I just think that the outrage is, for me and just from what I've observed, comes down to tax dollars and then the diplomatic cover of the full force of the U.S. empire to enable this from happening. But let me just give a hypothetical. If this were happening without a single dollar of U.S. support, then what would it be? You know, I mean, like what? What would the implication of that be? It would lead to what I just described, what we're going to bomb Israel to something like that.

53:23I'd say, no, that's ridiculous. You know, that's not something that most people should do. We shouldn't do that on any country because that could lead you to the same Libya and type of destruction that the destruction that's happened in all these other places. To the extent here that the outrage from the American people, which is correct in my opinion, is that we're not only enabling but we're actively providing cover for, supplying, and in many cases encouraging something like this from happening. So that's kind of I think that the nuance is important there. And so, again, if I point to the right, I think a huge portion of the why the American right in particular has moved against us.

54:01And I still think this is part of the left critique of this as well. is look at the level of obsession and money and government policy that our government is being used on behalf of this foreign country, which also is enabling and committing these immoral acts on an uncivilized nature. But it is not because it's not, but all of it kind of traces back to the level of obsession and the support from us. It's not about the individual act itself, except in some rare cases. There are great humanitarians all over the world who are, you know, the Congo or South Sudan or Kosovo and all these other things.

54:37But for example, if we were to look back to the Serbian intervention from NATO, that was done under the exact same terms. It was a terrible idea. It didn't work, actually led to pushing Russia away. I would give that as a great example of why we should not get involved, in particular, if the United States is staying out of it. And yes, I understand that sounds callous, but look at Ukraine, look at Libya, look at Kosovo. Look, I mean, Kosovo, I mean, it's a disaster. Look at what happened with Serbia. Look at Iraq. Look at Afghanistan. Nobody's better off because of the great, you know, moral U.S.

55:12empire. So this is, I caution from talking in these types of terms because I've also seen it be weaponized. I don't know if you were here, but, you know, I talked about how Elie Wiesel's son went on Fox News and used his father's legacy to say that we should bomb Iran because he said, My father was always very upset that the United States never bombed the death camps. And that's why this genocidal regime, America has to come in. And it's like, whoa, hold on a second. We can't be putting that type of standard in terms of how the U.S. should operate. And so I just think defining the terms in terms of U.S.

55:50support, U.S. protecting these people, also obviously blatantly hypocritical on all of this, and trying to have some sort of consistent standard of, look, we do what's good for us. And, you know, yes, there's tragedy all around the world. But at the end of the day, we're just going to pursue our own interests. That seems to be the middle ground for a real American foreign policy that most people can't get behind. In the case of Israel specifically, that's also true that they just would not be able to do what they're doing. Yeah, that's also objectively correct. Very true. I mean, they couldn't fight a war on like six different fronts right now.

56:23Like, you can't do that. they are completely shielded from the consequences of their actions because of us. And so, yeah, I do think Americans are much more deeply invested in this particular economy. Number one, because the horror is just, you know, I do think it is the worst atrocity that we have seen in our lifetimes. But number two, certainly, because it's our bombs, it's our dollars, we are the baddies, we are the bad guys here. And I think that's why it's so deeply painful to so many people and why you've seen so much of a shift on the sort of normie liberal Democrats and also some, especially among young people on the right.

57:02Yeah, and let that be a good lesson because that's about how the most moral outcome can actually come from saying no. So, for example, if we didn't provide Israel all of the support, then they wouldn't do this. And it actually would lead to a better outcome in the region. They have to reckon with the realities of themselves as a small nation and in this region and trying to get along with your neighbors and not piss everybody off all the time. Look at Africa. They've got a bunch of small nations. Yeah, they fight each other sometimes. Mostly they have decent enough relations. Yeah, every once in a while a war breaks out.

57:31We don't go shipping weapons all around into the region. And they figure it out for themselves. So let them do that. There's nobody stopping. There will probably be better relations between Israel, Iran. There would probably be a two-state solution, especially if we push things in a more of a restraint-minded direction. And that, of course, would lead to a more moral outcome. That's all I'm saying. It's just I can see – I've seen this road go way too far under Samantha Powers, the responsibility to protect doctrine. And I do always worry about setting some standard from the United States as having to be the world's policeman for good abroad.

58:05And I've seen that hijacked in a really – in a horrible way in the past. So I want people to define their terms around Gaza and Israel very specifically to make sure that it's not hijacked by somebody sometime in the future because it can lead in a very, very dangerous direction. That's all I was trying to say. Hello, appliance fans. I'm here at Grand Appliance where Katie just bought a new Samsung laundry pair. Talk about your experience, Katie. My salesperson was amazing. He knew everything about appliances and was even able to get it on a delivery and install route for tomorrow. Wow, next day delivery?

58:42Yes, my laundry is piling up, so this is a lifesaver. There you have it, grand for the win. Check out grandappliance.com for full details.

59:04They train under the hood. They train down in the pit. 270 hours means their training's legit. It's the smart choice for smart folk who care for their steed. So trust the instant oil change that starts with Valvoline. Valvoline instant oil change. Change wisely. This is Jacob Goldstein from What's Your Problem? Running a business is hard enough. Don't make it harder with a dozen apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. That's software overload. Odoo is the all-in-one platform that replaces them all. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR.

59:44Fully integrated, easy to use, and built to grow with your business. Thousands have already made the switch. Why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's odoo.com. All right, let's talk about Amazon. Yeah, let's do it. This is the final thing that will end, which is very important for our economy. Let's put this up there on the screen. And Amazon Prime Day sales are now off 41 % on the first day, their brand advisor says. Needless to say, that's a little bit of a disaster there for the company. But it's actually kind of an interesting story if we think about what it means for e-commerce, tariffs, and also consumerism, which is unfortunately the backbone of the United States economy.

1:00:31What they point out here is that Amazon took a massive gamble this year by expanding Prime Day summer sales to four days from two, betting that the extension would give, quote, shoppers more time to navigate millions of the deals on its sprawling store. But the results right now are Grimm, raising the stakes for the next couple of days. Online sales are down some 41 % compared to the start of Prime Day just last year. The prolonged event has encouraged shoppers to actually do more treasure hunting, meaning that they're actually getting, in some cases, better deals for them, but not good for Amazon.

1:01:09Consumers are browsing and loading up shopping carts, but pulling the trigger in case better deals emerge. Shorter Prime Day sales actually generated more urgency from shoppers who were worried they were going to miss their discounts. And broadly, it shows a couple of things. Number one is that people, with the credit card balances where they are, with the spending and the problems in the economy and all that where they are right now, people are pulling back a little bit. It also shows that people are getting pretty desperate at a retail level to try and push inventory out the door. There's no other explanation for why they It would expand Prime Day or whatever by four days except for two days.

1:01:48So if you put those two things together, while, yes, we have some top-line numbers that look – you know, the job numbers look okay. The inflation numbers, they look okay. The stock market, I think NASDAQ yesterday hit an all-time high, mostly because of NVIDIA, which is now a$4 trillion market cap. But underneath the surface, all of those little things still seem to look precarious in that direction. And especially if we're speaking today, as we did earlier, about the tariffs that are coming back into place from the Trump administration and the level of uncertainty at a consumer level. So it's the two-track story of America where, like, earnings look good, NVIDIA looks good.

1:02:24But then there's all of these weird canaries that are around that kind of demonstrate some caution for both the American consumer and American business as to their actual health. And, you know, by the way, reminder, at a fundamental level, like the housing stuff is still a disaster, you know, and all of that too. Oh, yeah. I mean the affordability crisis continues to pace. And it is very real and it is shaping all of our politics here and other places around the world as well. Yeah, I thought one of the more telling statistics there was that people were loading up on the sort of lower purchase price to get, you know, Dawn dish soap or whatever it is.

1:02:59And so we're stocking up on that and not doing as much of the larger purchases I thought was an interesting indicator there. And it does track with – we can put E2 up on the screen. It does track with an overall slowdown in online shopping. So online shopping sees biggest slowdown in over a decade as tariffs disrupt e-commerce. This was a CNBC report from just a couple of days ago. So they describe this as the most disruptive period in more than a decade as a result of Trump's trade war and tariffs policy. Online purchases for home delivery experience double digit year over year declines across major categories, including office supplies down by 13 percentage points, sporting goods down 12 percentage points, cosmetics, furniture, home furnishings, large electronics, each falling by 10 percentage points.

1:03:46And this analyst says this is the first widespread pullback in the online category growth in over a decade. Groceries were the only real exception to the negative trend. So basically, since online shopping has become normalized, it's just been growing and growing and growing and growing. You're over here as more people switch from going to the store to purchasing from Amazon or wherever else. And so to see this pullback is quite a shift in trends. It is quite notable. and then, of course, fits with the Amazon Prime data as, again, a warning sign that people are kind of, you know, if there's a purchase they can put off, they're pushing it off into the future, wait and see what happens, you know, sort of be able to conserve their resources for in case there's an eventuality in the future in which they're really going to need it.

1:04:36Yeah, and actually right now, you know, again, it's always so difficult to tell. The travel numbers are actually pretty good, which usually means people are doing well. But actually, some of the stuff that I've seen is that even with travel doing well, a lot of it is debt finance. A lot of it is people putting stuff on credit cards. And unfortunately, these airline businesses are more credit card companies than they are actual airline companies. Almost half the revenue comes from credit cards and transactions. So it shows that that's not the best indicator. Gas actually is doing quite well as of right now, luckily, despite the fact that we had that Iran crisis.

1:05:10So there are indicators in almost every direction, but I still think that affordability stuff and canaries like this are important to look at for the economic data. Don't forget that – I mean Trump in some ways is correct about the Federal Reserve. It's insane that the rates continue to be where they are. I mean over 6 percent. I was looking today. The average mortgage I think for even 750 credit scores is like 7 percent, which is crazy high. And it's one of those where actually a couple of years ago in – what was it? When did the rates spike? 2022? Well, a bunch of people bought houses in 2022 hoping to refinance at lower rates.

1:05:49And they believed that the refi would come in maybe like one year or two years or something like that. But they've been sitting there chunking money away on a 6%, 7 % mortgage now for like three years, which is – I mean that's a ton of money in terms of the amount of interest that you're paying to the bank. And so a lot of these people who are hoping and kind of betting on a rate cut in the future in real estate are stuck basically with these huge mortgage payments. They either have to sell at a loss or, you know, crunch in other ways. So anyway, those are all things that I'm like looking at and being like, I wonder, I just always wonder like if and when this grand experiment is ever going to pop.

1:06:26Like something about it just seems crazy to me that the NASDAQ hit the all-time high yesterday. TSMC sales up 40 % with semiconductors. Nvidia,$4 trillion market cap. I mean that makes Nvidia more than like the entire United Kingdom stock market put together. Maybe even the European Union actually. I'd have to go back and look. But yeah, something about it doesn't seem quite right even with all this tariff uncertainty. And there's always just seems to be like some small thing that could push things over the edge. That's just what I'm personally worried about. The stock market seems particularly disconnected from reality.

1:07:00Yeah, it just doesn't seem right. You know, it does not seem right to me right now. And apparently some of the indicators are that the large institutional investors have pulled back from equities, but you have retail that's very enthusiastic. And so that's part of what has like propped up and continued the stock market growth. And then if you look at like the dollar, for example, or the treasury yield curve, you see a different story. You see sort of consistent increase in the treasury yield curve where you're having to basically pay higher interest in order to convince people that they should hold treasury bonds.

1:07:32And then you're seeing continued decline of the dollar again and again and again. So some of the analysts I've seen have said those may be the places to look for more of an indication of what's really going on versus the stock market, which seems just like disconnected. Yeah, you're right. You know, the retail thing is a very interesting story because retail people are buying the dip or buying the dip. Right. We'll see. Are buying into the market. But actually, a lot of institutional money are in money market funds. I just saw a chart today. It's like$7 trillion sitting in a money market just, you know, collecting for 5 % interest or whatever.

1:08:04So, I mean, you could read that two ways, which is that once the rates go down, they'll start buying back in. But I don't know. There's just a lot of weird stuff that is happening. We wanted to give you that update in terms of the economy, but I think that's it for today. Thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate you. We'll have a Friday show on for you all tomorrow, so we'll see you then. Hello, appliance fans. I'm here at Grand Appliance where Katie just bought a new Samsung laundry pair. Talk about your experience, Katie. My salesperson was amazing. He knew everything about appliances and was even able to get it on a delivery and install route for tomorrow.

1:08:42row. Wow, next day delivery? Yes, my laundry is piling up, so this is a lifesaver. There you have it. Grand for the win. Check out grandappliance.com for full details. This is Jacob Goldstein from What's Your Problem? Running a business is hard enough. Don't make it harder with a dozen apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. that software overload. Odoo is the all-in-one platform that replaces them all. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, fully integrated, easy to use, and built to grow with your business. Thousands have already made the switch.

1:09:23Why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's odoo.com. I think something that makes me well-studded to be a nurse is my empathy. Growing up with a big family, I think I've always kind of been a caregiver. When you care give, you get to know the family and the patient and you get really close and Rasmussen University, they did a very, very good job of giving us the resources that we need. So just being able to apply the knowledge that I've retained to my daily life has been so amazing. Learn more at rasmussen.edu This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.