8/11/25: Trump Putin Summit Set, Internet Personality Destruction, Israel Assassinates Al Jazeera Team, ADL CEO "Intermarriages", Gaetz Exposes AIPAC Congress Trips

23:38They've reversed some of them, but the point is that it was seen as a widely authoritarian law to cover up much of the corruption for allegedly this democratic haven in Europe, which not only was the most corrupt country in all of Europe before the outbreak of the war, but Zelensky himself, of course, has canceled elections. He has huge opposition actually inside of the country. And worst of all, actually, is that if you did want some sort of end to the war, is that back in 2022, Ukraine passed a piece of legislation through its parliament basically saying that any, quote, negotiation or surrender or whatever has to be approved by referendum.

24:19But of course, the circumstances of the referendum are up to the government and of course in the wording in the way that it would all go out. So the government and all of them have plenty of tools available to them to nix any sort of deal. And then what can they say? They're like, oh, we tried. Our people won't go for it. And then what's America going to do? Trump, at the end of the day, like you said, he's not going to cut them off. He just thinks it will be politically unpalatable. It probably will be, to be honest. And so that leads to what? Just the continuation of the war. And if you're actually horrified by the violence and the killing, well, then you actually want to bring it to an end.

24:50And that will require something actually quite unpalatable. We could get there if media had reported it properly and also if the government had had a consistent narrative from day one on Ukraine. But they haven't. They're all over the place. They are all over the place. So we'll watch it closely, see if there are any positive indications out of this. But there's not a lot of groundwork that has been laid to create the likelihood of a positive outcome is how I would put it. Afghanistan was the same way. I mean it's like it snuck up on everybody because nobody was paying attention. And everybody just assumed, ah, they'll kick the can down the road and they're not actually going to do it.

25:25Biden finally was like, no, I'm not going to do it. We're out. And, you know, we all saw how that worked. So it's not good. It's not good the way that this all works. And, of course, you know that if they have to give – if Ukraine has to give up even one scrap of eastern Ukraine, Fox News, CNN, and all these other people are going to be united in how this is the greatest travesty since Munich. And then what will that lead to? More boomer support and, of course, more pressure over at the White House from the guy who only watches Fox News to get his feeling on the pulse. And who put way too many neocons in his administration also.

25:56And who has no ideological core himself and is very much buffeted by whoever is in his ear at that moment. Absolutely. Shortly after I enrolled at Rasmussen, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was like a bomb had just been dropped in my life. I reached out to Rasmussen. They immediately were like, Rosa, take what time you need. You can come back when you're ready. We are cancer-free today, and I'm just so grateful for Rasmussen for all of their support throughout my journey and for my own village. Rasmussen University. Find your seat and start now at rasmussen.edu. Apple Vacations, where your story starts.

26:39The Summer Savings Event is here at Apple Vacations. It's the perfect time to bring everyone together for the getaway you've been dreaming about. Book between July 24th and August 27th and enjoy up to 55 % instant savings. From relaxing beach days to unforgettable moments with the people who matter most, your next vacation starts here. Travel through July 31st, 2027. Start your vacation today at applevacations.com or through your travel advisor. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. Ugh, hon, the ice cream has turned to soup. I think the fridge is finally dead. Hopping on grandappliance.com.

27:12Great idea. They were awesome with the Samsung Ranger microwave we bought last year. Oh, they have matching Samsung in stock and next day delivery. Let me see. Oh, yeah, that looks perfect. I hope we get the same delivery crew. Those guys were awesome. Agree. Total pros. Another crisis averted by the team at Grand Appliance, appliance experts since 1930. Let's get to society. So this is one we've been wanting to talk about for a while. There is a meme online. We live in a society. And so the question is, what kind of society do we live in? Seems like an important question to ponder. John Byrne Murdoch, who is one of the best journalists out there.

27:52He's like the data correspondent over at the Financial Times. What he does is he goes deep into survey data from all across the world and also here in America. And he's like, all right, well, how do people feel or have views about different things? He's talking about gender. This time he's talking about conscientiousness. So let's go and put this up there on the screen. This is how, quote, how young adults' personalities are changing with conscientiousness in freefall. Quote, values as expressed at percentiles of the full population distribution from how it stood in 2014 to today. So what he demonstrates is that younger Americans, and specifically people 16 to 39, have had a drop in conscientiousness from 2014, which was hovering around like 45 % or so, to sub-30.

28:36a dramatic and precipitous decline that includes both younger Americans and also 40 to 59-year-olds, so older millennials and Gen X. Boomers seem relatively flat. Neuroticism, however, has skyrocketed from above baseline in 2014 for younger Americans to sky-high levels of some 70%. Agreeableness has actually, again, amongst younger Americans, was already below baseline, continues to go down. And then similar dramatic drop in extroversion actually amongst all three age groups. So that is the COVID effect. That's technology. All of this together really just shows the consequences of people increasingly spending the vast majority of their time on the Internet.

29:15And let's go to the next one, please, shall we? Because you see this actually in the way that it's expressed in social outcomes. So here, for example, you have people making plans and following through. Massive drop in the 16 to 39 demographic. Perseveres until finished. Massive drop in the 16 to 39. quote, is easily distracted. Lo and behold, massive increase amongst the 1639 demographic. And then quote, can be careless, a similar increase. Now, people might ask how exactly you measure these things. It's a fair question. We'll get to that here in a second. But the very last part here about extroversion and about personality traits is fascinating.

29:57So this is about extroversion and trust are in major decline. If you classify outgoing, you actually see a massive drop amongst all three age demographics. You see an especially precipitous drop in, quote, is helpful to others, is trusting, massive decline, and then starts arguments. Actually, a major increase there for everybody. So the personality basically that is being encouraged by the internet, by COVID, by our economy, et cetera, it all comes together, is one that is largely singular, alone, spending a lot of time on the internet. In the neuroticism, you can see getting things that are kind of bad for your psychology and for your worldview served to you on an algorithmic basis.

30:40and then one which does not encourage social contact and specifically like good relations interpersonally. And I think that's probably the most important social story of the 2020s. Gasoline poured on the fire by COVID and the social isolation. Yeah, I think that's right. I think to me the internet is an accelerator of trends that were already pre-existing. Because if you look back, I mean, bowling alone, right, is the perfect example. Was that written in 94? Early 90s. Yeah, and Robert Putnam took a look at all of these metrics. I really still recommend that people read that book. Oh, it's a great book.

31:16Because it documents pre-internet how we were already coming apart in these ways where civic associations and community participation and the way we participate in politics went from being in-person, collective, to individualized and increasingly sort of on the sidelines, right? So that trend has just been accelerated and lit on fire by the social media age and our ability to be completely alone and still have this semblance of like we're doing something, like we're connecting with people. But we're not really connecting with people. And there's some more stats to back that up that we'll get to in just a moment.

31:57I think it speaks to a lot of things. I mean, I think it speaks to that is sort of the underlying ideology. I mean, not sort of. It is the underlying ideology really of our entire system, this very individualistic neoliberal era view of like yourself and your rights and your aspirations and your goals first. And so when you have that in the bloodstream of society for years and years and years and years, no one should be surprised when it's expressed in these sorts of outcomes. I think it also is a reflection of people's sense that the collective projects we've tried to engage in have sort of failed.

32:40Ryan and I have talked before. I think we've talked before, too, about how there are echoes of the early 70s. When you had these big social movements in the 60s, there's the sense that they don't amount to what they wanted them to amount to. And everybody, instead of continuing to engage in these collective projects, Then a lot of the counterculture gets subsumed by mass media, by mass advertisements, and people go back to the land into these little individualistic, like, let's go live on a commune project. And you can see echoes of this and, like, you know, there are similar sort of like back to the land, mostly on the right, actually, movements.

33:14Maha is kind of— I saw that. Maha is like an expression of that. Instead of we're not going for Medicare for all anymore, now we're just going to try to—we're going to, like, try to do these little individual changes. We're going to go into the like health influencer culture and make it all about the individual pursuit of, OK, well, what can I do since these collective pursuits have largely failed? So I think that sort of dovetails into these statistics as well. But, you know, it's not good. No, it's bad. Trying to raise kids and you being a new dad. You look at these trends and I listen to like some of the content that, you know, my son in particular is consuming on YouTube.

33:50And it's like, this is really pushing us in a very atomized, divided direction where you really don't even end up with a society at the end of the day. It's crazy. So I read a lot of books about early Washington and about how it all worked and even early social life. The amount of socialization that people did back in the day is crazy. I'm talking about five to six nights a week, which I can't even imagine right now having to host this show. But apparently the predecessors of the 1950s and 60s, they were hanging out all the time, all the time. And in fact, what you had was a scenario where the television, yes, it existed, but it was just three networks and the nightly news was only 30.

34:34Can you imagine all of the news in the world delivered in 30 minutes? So you had a lot of time to fill your day. People read a lot more and they also just talked a lot more. They would come together. People played cards. Bowling alone is a perfect example. But socialization was massive. and also intrasocialization in different neighborhoods. I literally don't even know my neighbor's name. I don't know him. But, I mean, he doesn't have any children. So it's like, well, do I even particularly need to know who he is? And then most of them are actually older. They're all like 65 plus. But my point broadly is just that you don't really have a scenario where you have either forced or encouraged social norms around polite conversation, around getting people to know each other.

35:13This is a painting with a very broad brush. I live in one of the most urban environments in the United States. So it's going to be very different than a suburb in, you know, Illinois or something like that. I'm sure some of it still exists. But broadly, you see it on the decline. Internet is an accelerant to it, like you said. Television was kind of Gen 1 of all of this. I remember reading a study. I think it's like in 98, people were watching 68 hours of TV per day. I mean, it's the same thing, though, is that anything that kind of keeps you from distraction or keeps you from going outside or engaging in different things is broadly going to encourage atomization.

35:45You know, another thing, I saw this fascinating new discussion around houses about how, you know, if you look at the houses most fetishized today, they're kind of the 2000s MTV, you know, what was it like? The Crib Show, I forget exactly what it's called. It was called Cribs. Cribs. Yeah, Cribs. All right. So at that time, though, these are the new McMansions, 5 ,500 square feet with a movie theater and a bar, backyard. And the point that somebody made was is that as America becomes more isolated, people take all the old social experiences and then want to put them in their own home so they never have to leave.

36:24I was like, wow, I never thought about that. But it actually seems very true is that we're taking all the stuff that people used to do on the outside and basically trying to put it on the inside. I understand on an interpersonal level why you may want all that because you don't want to leave. It's kind of annoying, especially it's also very expensive. But that's my point is just that like the culture is moving to moving much more away from polite conversation, from engaging in society. And of course the economy has a huge part to play in it. I was actually looking at movie ticket prices. It used to be quite affordable back in the 70s and in the 80s.

36:54Nowadays, forget about it. What is it? You know,$15,$20 just to see a single movie on top of popcorn or any of those other things. And the like luxury movie experience. Yeah. Oh, man. Elmo Draft House and all that. Very nice. Yeah, oh, it's nice. But also very expensive. Exactly. Yeah, when I was a kid growing up, we actually had a dollar movie theater maybe 30 minutes from my house. And it wasn't the new movies, but it was like, you know, ones that were like a season behind. And that's where we always went. And, you know, family of five, pay five bucks for tickets plus tax. Sneak in your Mike and I, steal your purse from the Dollar General store and you're good to go.

37:26And that, you know, that opportunity does not exist. In fact, the trend is all in the other direction because the people who have money are, you know, where advertisers, where companies want to serve to. And so increasingly, you know, it's consolidating the luxury end of the market because you want to tap the people who have the largest amount of wealth. You know, I think, too, about in terms of public policy, because some of this is culture, but some a lot of culture is driven from the top. And, you know, in the New Deal era, you did have this you had a collective project going on and you had so much building of like public parks.

38:01I mean, the parks that you and I still love and use, the national parks, you know, the state parks that were built up. Virginia has some fantastic state parks. Like so many of those public communal amenities were built in a previous era. And so, of course, if those like public facilities are not going to be, you know, provided for you in the community, then increasingly you're going to be turning to, OK, well, then I have to pay to go to this private, you know, private pool or I have to have it in my own house. and bring people in to my own or just engage in that on my own time. So I think those sorts of public policy choices also make a big difference.

38:39I actually went down a weird rabbit hole. They're building in Manhattan, I think it's in Manhattan, a pool that is on the river, uses the river water. It looks amazing. It's like an Olympic-sized pool. It's a really cool design. And they have this filtration system to clean the river water. So not only are you filling the pool, but then that clean water goes into the river to refurbish the river as well. And I went down this deep dive of they used to have tons of these pools in New York City. It was like a whole thing in the early 1900s of, you know, building pools in the river and building pools in general, like bathhouses.

39:14And there was this whole citywide project of we need to make sure we have public facilities for people to be able to use. And, you know, it was it was very successful in terms of providing people with resources. And again, we're still sort of like drawing on those resources to this day. And, you know, that's one area where I think we really need to reinvest in those sorts of publicly available facilities that actually do bring people together and that aren't expensive. In our town, the YMCA, which is, you know, it's not a state funded institution, but it's made to be lower cost and supported by donations and whatever, sort of serves that purpose.

39:52But there needs to be so much more of that to try to get people out of their homes and try to bring communities back together because it makes a big difference. I mean, I live in the same town where I grew up, and just over the course of that time, it still has that small-town vibe of you see the parents that are at your kid's school, and the school certainly serves as a hub of activity. But it isn't – it's larger, that's one thing, but it also – it doesn't have the same level of cohesiveness that it did when I was a kid where I literally knew, like, this person's in that house, this person's that.

40:24I know the kid. I know their brother. I know their parents, like the whole bit. It's just not quite the same as it was. It makes sense. I mean, that's where public safety also comes in, where we're bigger cities. You know, if you don't feel safe, then you're going to exit from a lot of these public spaces. They get taken over by the bottom 1%. So that's a big problem. You need higher trust in society. Let's go ahead and put this B5, please, up on the screen because this is indicative of the Internet portion of all of this. This is by far the biggest social Internet transformation of my lifetime, is that Meta says that most of the time on Facebook and Instagram is just spent watching videos.

40:59Only 7 % of the time on Instagram and 17 % of the time on Facebook involves consuming content from friends. Now, if you're old like me and you're 33, well, the Facebook of my youth was the news feed, which was just of your friends. The idea that anything not involving your friends on there, it would be preposterous. You would spend 100 % of your time engaging with your friends' content. Same with the early Instagram. It's just a way to share photos, the photo dumps on early Facebook, where people would upload hundreds of photos from the night before people would tag each other. It was actually like a real game.

41:31Even Facebook events and groups and other types of things were used as social things. You start parties, whatever. That is just not how people engage with social media anymore. It's not about content developed by your friends. It's about content developed by others, hence the rise of the so-called influencer culture. In some ways, it makes sense is that your friends are probably not very good at making engaging content. But if you take the entire world and you have them create content, the top 1 % will be consumed by the bottom 99%. That makes sense at an engagement level. It doesn't mean that it's good in terms of engaging with other people.

42:08It used to be a way to see what your friends are up to. And now it's just a way to continue watching short-form video on whatever platform of your choice. Or creating your own personal brand that you can monetize. brand. Yeah. I mean, I'm guilty of this, right? My Instagram account. This is our job. Exactly. My Instagram account used to be like my personal Instagram account. And now it's, you know, basically just for professional purposes. What do you got to do? You got to exist in the world. But it's still one of those, uh, watching the way that that has shifted over time is one, which at a societal wide level is really bad for just encouraging intrapersonal engagement.

42:42I don't really know how it looks, but what it actually just tells me, and I don't know if it's caught, Which way is causal? Is whether the social media use reflects personal preferences or personal preferences shaped by that. Is it at the end of the day, it discourages socialization. And that's bad. Yeah. No, I mean there's a literal monetary incentive to creating content that's not for – not just like interacting with friends but is for the world. And those incentives are created by the platform but I think also is an expression of this increasingly individualized society. and obsession with individual pursuits that, you know, the personality trends reflect as well.

43:20Totally agree. All right, let's get to the next part. My name is Tuba Nguyen and enrolling at Rasmussen University was essentially a handshake to a lifeline, a career, stability, and a future for myself. I found it important to be able to speak with instructors and staff outside of office hours and to have that support system was essential because they believed in me. Rasmussen University. Are you ready to rewrite your story online and on campus? Learn more at rasmussen.edu.

44:13July 31st, 2027. Start your vacation today at AppleVacations.com or through your travel advisor. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. Ugh, hon, the ice cream has turned to soup. I think the fridge is finally dead. Hopping on GrandAppliance.com. Great idea. They were awesome with the Samsung Ranger microwave we bought last year. Oh, they have matching Samsung in stock and next day delivery. Let me see. Oh, yeah, that looks perfect. I hope we get the same delivery crew. Those guys were awesome. Agree. Total pros. Another crisis averted by the team at Grand Appliance. Appliance experts since 1930.

44:54So we recently received the news that Israel murdered five Al Jazeera journalists, among them Anas Al-Sharif, who was a very well-known correspondent for Al Jazeera. Joining us now to discuss his work and this all-out assault on journalists is Sharif Abdel Kudus. He is the MENA editor for DropSite News. Great to see you, Sharif. Good to see you. Thank you for having me. Yeah, of course. So you interviewed Anas back several months back. I remember reading this piece. We can put this up on the screen actually about what it had been like for him covering this genocide. You say Israel's genocide in Gaza every day for 11 straight months.

45:32What was it like interacting with him? And what did you make of the comments he made at that time and his legacy that he's left behind? You know, there are no words. I don't know what to say anymore. You know, words aren't enough at this point. Action is required. Words did not save Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues. And there's a certain level of brazenness now that how Israel is killing these journalists. and I just want to tell people the other journalists' names. So Israel bombed a media tent opposite, just outside of Shifa Hospital, intentionally killing Anas al-Sharif and Mohamed Qareqa, who was also a correspondent for Al Jazeera, and camera operators Ibrahim Zahir, Moomin Alewa, and Mohamed Nufal.

46:23And there was a sixth journalist also killed who worked for an outlet called Sahat, who's Mohamed Al-Khaladi. You know, Enes, he was, at just 28 years old, he was probably the most prominent Palestinian journalist who was still alive and still in Gaza reporting, a face recognizable across the Arab world and internationally. He remained in the North throughout the entire 22-month genocidal assault, one of just a handful of journalists who never left the North. And he was a near constant presence on television, online, reporting almost every day on airstrikes, shelling, massacres, displacement, famine, death, dismemberment.

47:10government, and whenever he could on glimpses of hope and resilience, Palestinian resilience. And Israel assassinated him. Anas' last tweet to his more than 560 ,000 followers, just before he was killed, he said, relentless bombardment. For two hours, the Israeli aggression has intensified on Gaza City. And we know that Israel's security cabinet approved Netanyahu's plan to take control of Gaza City in the latest escalation of this genocide. Barely an hour earlier, before he was killed, he warned about this. He said Israel's planning a full-scale invasion of Gaza City. And I'm just going to quote, he said, If this madness does not end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins.

48:04Its people's voice is silenced, their faces erased, and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop. And he said silence is complicity. And barely an hour later, he's killed. And it's not just silence. I mean, the world's governments, corporations, media elites have not just stood by as Israel is committing these acts of genocide. They have enabled it. You know, there's now 238 journalists killed, according to the government media office in Gaza, 238. These journalists have been bombed. They've been shot. They've been burned alive. They've been decapitated.

48:45They've been taunted and targeted. and that's not to mention the journalists wounded, the journalists imprisoned, the journalists who made this impossible decision to leave Gaza because life was no longer sustainable there. And in a very, very real way, the only reason we know about what is happening in Gaza is because of Palestinian reporters who are performing the most heroic act of journalism we will see in our lifetimes. And they're being intentionally slaughtered and intentionally targeted for this. And the Israeli military, I have to remind people, Israeli military was openly and publicly threatening.

49:21And he said this in the interview I did with him, openly and publicly threatening Anastasia Sharif for months. Back in November of 2023, he reported receiving calls from Israeli officers, telling him to seize his coverage, telling him to leave the north and go south, getting location messages on his WhatsApp as threats. You know, they bombed his, after he got those location threats, they bombed his house in Jabalia, killing his 90-year-old father. And the threats only escalated from there. Last October, he was one of six Al Jazeera journalists that Israel put on what is essentially a hit list, saying that they're all militants and taunting them online.

50:07One of them was Hossem Shebet, who used to report for DropSite, and he was assassinated in March. and the Israeli military boasted about his killing and said, quote, don't let the press vest fool you. And then the Israeli military continued to openly threaten Enes, especially in the last couple of weeks. Enes himself repeatedly called on the world to do something. Just a couple of weeks ago, he posted that he was being threatened and he said this is an attempt to silence us, to cover up a genocide unfolding in real time. And he said, quote, I call on international officials, human rights defenders and global media to speak out and share this message.

50:46Your voice can help stop the targeting of journalists and protect the truth. Wow. Shereem, one of the things that has been hypothesized here is that Anas was killed largely because right now is when Israel is moving into Gaza City. And we also want to highlight what you said there about the number of journalists who have actually been killed. Can we put C4, please, up on the screen just to show everybody the context and the number of journalists who have been killed here in this conflict? And you can just see it's overwhelming in terms of the Gaza war compared to Ukraine, the war in Afghanistan, the Yugoslav wars in Vietnam.

51:22It's unprecedented in modern history and particularly by a so-called civilized nation. Yeah, I mean, I think Israel essentially yesterday wiped out Al Jazeera's Gaza City correspondence and crew and journalistic crew ahead of this, what is expected to be a horrific invasion of Gaza City to ethnically cleanse Gaza City and displace, forcibly displace everyone there again to the south. and and you know losing Enes and losing these other journalists we are going to know less about what is happening as this is unfolding and yeah there's something there's something also just so horrific that journalists like Enes and Hossem Shabbat who used to report for DropSite He pre-wrote a message anticipating his death that he knew would be published after he was killed.

52:26Can you imagine working in these circumstances? He's 28 years old. Knowing you're going to be killed and knowing that the world is likely not going to stop it. And in his message, he says some very important things. He says that he was born in Jabalia, the refugee camp. He reminds people that he dreamed that his family could return to their land and home that they were expelled from in 1948 in what is now at the Israeli town of Ashkelon or Majdal. He reminds people that most Palestinians in Gaza are not from Gaza, they're refugees. And then he writes of the suffering that he bore witness to and that he also endured.

53:06and he again you know kind of points the finger at the world that that watched this happen and is watching this happen and is allowing it to happen and those were those were his final words uh to the world and he said you know don't forget us and when i spoke to him and asked him you know um he sent like a 10 minute voice note response his voice was wary but firm and you know i asked him, why do you keep doing this? And he said, I'll also quote from him. I'm sorry I'm quoting so much from him, but I think his words are important. He said, maybe the world won't act. Maybe the world won't help us, but there might be a motive to stop this war.

53:47Every time I document a massacre or event or bombing, I think that maybe through this bombing or this image that the war could stop and this war could end. This drives us to continue in our coverage to our last breath. And he did it to his last breath. Well, and we know Israel considered him dangerous. That's why they, and the information he was sharing with the world, dangerous. That's why they assassinated him and his four colleagues working for Al Jazeera. And the other thing that's really disgusted me, Sharif, is the way that Western media has given Israel a pass. They have not stood in solidarity with these Palestinian journalists.

54:22There have been pieces, you know, pieces written about, well, do they even really count as journalists? You know, so much credence given to consistent Israeli claims that, oh, well, they're really Hamas, which is preposterous. Like you can see this guy out there doing his job literally every single day. At what point does he have time to go and be a Hamas militant alongside live streaming his own, you know, genocide and ultimately murder at the hands of the Israelis every single day? So that's been one of the things that's really disgusted me. And there's been a consistent drumbeat, too, of Israel needs to let in the Western journalists.

54:57And unfortunately, I think because of anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism, I do think that those images being shared by Western journalists may have more of an impact. But it shouldn't be that way. There are journalists in Palestine. There are journalists in Gaza. It just happens that most of them are Palestinian. So they're dismissed and their work is minimized or called into question as to their motives, oftentimes by liberal Western media figures. Look, I mean, I think international journalists should absolutely be allowed into Gaza, not because we can question at all the veracity and the strength of reporters in Palestine, in Gaza, who are doing this.

55:43But for two reasons. One is to shoulder the labor of covering this war. They are covering this genocide absolutely by themselves. And I think it's incumbent on international journalists to help them in this coverage. The second thing is, because of this racism, because of the way that Western media institutions and Western governments see Palestinian journalists, foreign journalists going in will act as a shield in a certain way, as a shield to people in Gaza, as a shield to Palestinian journalists. And I think that's why they need to go in. The reaction to Enes' killing, I'm still somehow shocked by it, even though I shouldn't be after so long, by Western media institutions.

56:27The National Press Club called for a thorough and transparent examination of the circumstances surrounding Enes' death. What on earth does that mean? They're putting out a boilerplate statement calling for an investigation. Israel openly publicly threatened him for months. They bombed the tent he was in and then they took credit for it and bragged about it. What investigation are you talking about? Reuters, the headline of Reuters is Israel kills Al Jazeera journalist, it says, was Hamas leader. And then it goes on to quote the Israeli military saying, you know, he was responsible for advancing rocket attacks or some of this, you know, preposterous claims.

57:10This is making this, it's enabling Israel to do this. And if we look, there's been a progression of brazenness of how Israel kills journalists in Palestine. In the beginning, they would deny that they killed them or they would say it's collateral damage or that there was some mistake. Then they started claiming that the journalists were in fact militants after they killed them. They did this with Hamza al-Dahdouh in January 2024. They produced some ridiculous documents claiming he's a Hamas militant or Islamic jihad, I don't remember. Then they continued to step it up. They created this hit list in October.

57:51And they put six Al Jazeera journalists and basically saying openly, we're going to kill them. And now they've killed two of them. You know, they went even further in April. They targeted one of the most prominent journalists in Gaza. His name was Hassan Islayah. They bombed him in a very similar way to the bombing they did yesterday. They bombed a media tent, but this one outside of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunus. They killed two journalists. One was burned alive and the other died. But the journalists they were trying to kill, Hassan, he was wounded very badly. He was burned. He lost two of his fingers.

58:22He was recovering inside the hospital. They bombed the hospital and killed him. They bombed an injured journalist a month later, barely a month later, and killed him. And then openly admitted to it. So they're becoming more brazen about it, openly admitted to it, because they know there will be zero consequences. No, that's what they do. They push the limit. They might get some words of condemnation, but the money, the weapons, the support, and the coverage by most Western media outlets will allow this to happen. That's right. No, that's what they do. They test the limits, and every time, what they found is they can get away with literally anything.

59:00Sharif, thank you so much. Thank you, Sharif. For joining us today. We really appreciate it. Appreciate it, man. Thank you for having me. 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.

1:00:02Apple Vacations, where your story starts. The washer won't start and the laundry's already piled to the ceiling. Hopping on grandappliance.com. Great idea. I heard they have next day delivery. Uh-huh. I'm seeing that too. And they have a bunch of GE options in stock. Oh, that's great. We've always had good luck with GE appliances. This one looks perfect. Scheduling for tomorrow. Gosh, Grand really makes it easy. Another crisis averted by the team at Grand Appliance. Visit grandappliance.com today.

1:00:40So the head of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, gave a couple of interviews, a long one with the New York Times, which caught a lot of attention. But the first clip we want to start with was actually from a different interview where he expresses concern over intermarriage. Let's take a listen to that. But like this is why we need a revolution in our community on so many levels. So look, the reality is, is that intermarriage rates continue to go up. assimilation continues apace. And look, I fight antisemitism. That is my job. But I worry a great deal about broader questions of Jewish identity, as I think we talked about over lunch.

1:01:16So, concerned about intermarriage, which is interesting, because if we put this next piece up on the screen, remember, ADL is supposed to be a civil rights organization. This is from their website, concerning over white supremacists who fear and hate the concept of multiracial couples, relationships, or families, believe that such relationships pollute the pure white race. As a result, a fairly common white supremacist symbol depicts a multiracial couple or family with a red circle or bar superimposed over the depiction, indicating that such relationships ought to be prohibited. So, yeah, I don't know what to tell you.

1:01:52My commentary on this was, I think it just should be abundantly clear at this point that if you are committed to sort of like basic liberal, classical liberal, classical liberal values, values, Zionism and classical liberal values cannot coexist. And that relationship has become increasingly untenable. And when you see comments like this, I think it underscores that fact. Well, I mean, there's so much to say about it, which is fascinating. So first of all, is it okay to say? That's actually a very interesting debate. And so I was talking about it with some Jewish friends and they're like, listen, even though it's green black, this is a very common sentiment in the Jewish community.

1:02:28And I was like, okay, so let's talk about that. Why? And it's like, well, we're concerned about Jewish identity and And we want to make sure that the Jewish story of the last 6 ,000 years gets carried on. I said, okay. I think that's entirely reasonable for, let's say, a Jewish rabbi or others to talk about. Now, even in terms of actualizing it in America, I think it's a big problem. But I'll return to that. But John Greenblatt is talking about this in the context of support for Israel. And actually, really what he's saying is that people who are half Jews or people who marry outside of their religion are not real Jews.

1:03:01and thus they are polluting support for Israel and America. And that's what I find actually deeply distasteful and really gross. Let's all be honest, this is a common sentiment amongst recent immigrant arrival communities in the United States. It was common amongst the Irish back in the 1900s, common amongst the Italians. Intermarriage between the two was seen as sacrilegious, especially with the Protestants, Lithuanian, Slovenians, Eastern Europeans, et cetera. Obviously, it took a while and everybody pretty much got over it. It's common today amongst the Indian community. It's common amongst the Muslim community.

1:03:35It's common, any ethnic subgroup, especially one which is like tightly controlled value, Chinese-Americans, I'm sure Japanese-Americans, I'm sure had the same story. And then, of course, over five, six generations, things kind of peter out. The problem that I find in it, and this is returning to your liberal story, is that it is one fundamentally which is talking about the preservation of like Jewish identity in his particular case, Zionism and support for Israel in the United States and not wanting to basically, quote, assimilate, which he says is a bad thing, into the broader American project and story.

1:04:09I think that's really bad. People have the right to do what they want. But in terms of what we should say is part of the so-called melting pot, et cetera, is not one which actively goes out of its way to say that ethnic subgroups, and in this particular one, one which he wants to preserve for loyalty and support for a foreign state, is quite literally the subversion that Theodore Roosevelt talked about, hyphenated American, in his speech on hyphenated Americanism back in the early 1900s. And that's the big problem that I have, broadly, with what he's saying. Because he is talking about it in the context of support for Israel.

1:04:45And that is one where, by the way, if you're Jewish, you should be so insulted by this. Because you're basically saying, hey, don't go and marry some filthy goy, you know, to make sure that your kids are going to grow up to be pro-Hamas. You know, it's like, well, you know, last I checked, the passport says American. That's the only thing that's supposed to matter. But, of course, that's not what they think. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if this is controversial at this point, but I am a big believer in the melting pot. And I think, like, intermarriage is actually a big part of that. Now, like, everybody can have their own individual preferences and desires for their own family and what they want to do in their own lives.

1:05:21But again, what makes it a big issue is when this is the head of a civil rights organization, an American civil rights organization decrying intermarriage. that to me is is problem and again exposes the tension between zionist values and liberal values of equality um let's go ahead to the next one so this was as part of an interview with um lulu i always forget her last name but over at the new york times they did a lengthy interview i actually would encourage you to go and listen to it because it is very interesting um in any case She presses him a bit on, okay, what do you say to people who say that what Israel is doing is a genocide?

1:06:06What do you think about that? And he claims he doesn't really know about it. He doesn't really know the definition. Shortly after talking about how clarity of words is so important as the head of the ADL, let's go ahead and take a listen to that. I do feel that my job requires me to have a kind of moral clarity. And on the use of words. On the use of words. I do think what's happening in Gaza is a terrible, catastrophic situation. I don't think it's a genocide. Because that's a legal definition, which means an intentional effort. And I don't have the dictionary in front of me, but an intentional effort.

1:06:41Okay, what does it say? I mean, it's a UN, right? We should say it's a legal definition. And it says, Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, such as killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. In fairness, I don't have that definition in front of me, right?

1:07:13And I haven't read it like you have before this. But what I'll simply say is that I don't believe the Israeli government is committing genocide. I mean, it's just incredible. At first, he's like, well, I haven't looked at the definition. OK, well, here's the definition. Yeah. Well, I don't have it in front of me. And I haven't really thought about it. It's like, yes, how could you have not thought about it? And then there's no, well, here's why I don't think the Israeli government. Here's why I don't. Here's what the definition. Here's why I don't think it fits. It's just, no, I don't believe that.

1:07:43Next question. Look, I mean, again, you know, it's one thing I think, you know, I've argued here before about the legitimacy of international law. I think it's fake, and that's part of why I think a lot of these terms are just not particularly useful. But Greenblatt, if your entire worldview is that the genocide, the Holocaust of the Jewish people is the foundation for why you need the ADL in America and the existence of the state of Israel, then, yeah, you probably should think quite a lot about the term genocide and what is or is not a genocide. I actually should go and check their record on the Armenian genocide or any of these – Rwandan genocide, right?

1:08:20I mean if you go – for example, if you go to the Holocaust Museum here in Washington, D.C., they literally sell like Never Again merch. And they have stuff which highlights the Rwandan genocide, the Armenian genocide, like the mass murder of ethnic subgroups of people. That's built into the Holocaust Museum here in Washington, D.C. So it's a ridiculous thing to say that the ADL or any of these prominent Jewish organizations have not thought about the term when they're the ones who invented the term, basically used the term as some sort of legal architecture from the UN Genocide Conventions in 1948 inventing the never again in the R2P doctrine of the 1990s which was born of the Rwandan genocide.

1:09:06So my point is just like for him to just sit there now all of a sudden want to like parse every little word. It's like, dude, you just sound you sound just like the people. It's like the Turks today who are arguing whether the Armenian genocide was a genocide or not. I'm like, OK, that's part of the reason, by the way, I find the term very tedious sometimes because it's like, OK, did you murder hundreds of thousands of them or not? Like, what are we talking about? You know, yes. The answer is yes. Just so everybody is clear. I'm sure this will clip by the Armenians. Yeah, we should. We should.

1:09:35You guys can go and watch Sagar and I's disagreements about genocide and why I think that term is actually really important and very consequential specifically in this context. But Greenblatt's answer here really actually relates back to his stance on intermarriage because Zionism is an ideology of Jewish supremacism. That's what it is. It says it justifies the idea that Jewish people in Israel should have different rights, should have more rights, should reign supreme in that state. and they should be able to directly apprise Palestinians both within the original Israeli borders and they've completely now subjugated people in both the West Bank and in Gaza.

1:10:13It is a Jewish supremacist ideology. So the prohibition on race mixing makes tons of sense in the context of a Jewish supremacist ideology. And it also is the truly, if he's speaking honestly, it is the real reason why he and others won't acknowledge that what Israel is doing is a genocide, because they believe that they, as a Jewish supremacist, that they basically get a pass to do whatever they want to do, and that nothing that they could do could ever constitute a genocide. And you hear this even in a more, I guess, diplomatic or more sort of liberal-coded answer from Jeremy Ben-Ami when he was debating Mehdi Hassan about the use of the term genocide.

1:11:02And it's basically like, well, it makes me feel bad. So I don't want to use that term because I don't like the way it makes me think about what Jewish Israelis are supporting and what this means for my whole ideology. And after the fact, apparently after reflection to his credit, he put on a sub stack basically saying like, you know what? I'm no longer going to object to the term. I'm not going to use the term because it still makes me feel bad. But I don't object to the term because I see that this is what is actually happening here. But I think that's truly where the denial comes from. It's because, no, it couldn't be us because he's so steeped in this Jewish supremacist ideology of Zionism that he thinks that it could never be that Israel is committing genocide.

1:11:43No matter, even if they nuked Gaza, he would still insist, No, I just don't believe that Israel is committing genocide in this instance. Well, let's talk about the intermarriage thing too. So in Israel, you cannot have interfaith marriage. It's not legal. Like, does anybody know that? For everybody, for all of the, oh, it's an equal country with equal rights. You literally cannot have an interfaith marriage in the state of Israel unless both people convert to the same religion. I'm just telling you the facts. The compromise is they will recognize legal marriage from outside of the country, but they will not perform them inside of the country.

1:12:23Okay. I mean, that's pretty crazy. Don't we all think? And I'm not even talking about in the West Bank where, like you just talked about, where we see this in action where if you murder somebody and you're Israeli or you're a settler, then you basically have two-tier systems of justice. And if you murder someone and you're a Palestinian, a soldier is going to shoot you in the face and there's no such thing as due process. And it's basically the opposite, where if you do murder a Palestinian, you're an Israeli settler. Not only do you get set free, you're basically a hero in the entire country.

1:12:50And you get free guns from the government. I'm just telling you what reality is. And so if you look at this, I mean, the fact that interfaith marriage is actually banned inside of the country basically emphasizes a lot of the core points that he is talking about. And a lot of this liberal democracy stuff, which they love to trot out. It's a Jewish ethnostate. And by the way, I think ethnostates broadly – I would look at it as more value neutral in terms of whether it's quote good or not and more in terms of should America tolerate ethnostates? Like we have ethnostates all over the world. OK, so be it.

1:13:24It's reality. But my point just about it is don't sit here and gaslight me about how you're just like us because you're actually not. So in their country, I could not have married my wife. That's fucking crazy. Don't tell me you live in a Western country. You don't. And I could do that in probably, I think, every European democracy, and I have a lot of problems with them, but don't put yourself on the same tier as the rest of us. Yeah. No, my kid's dad is Jewish. Yeah, there you go. And I was thinking about this. I was like, shit, my kid, typically, you know, the Jewish heritage comes from the mother in terms of most, you know, sects of Judaism, although reform is different.

1:14:02And so I was looking, I was like, do my kids have some kind of like a right to be able to like, right to return? And sure enough, they do. I'm like, that's insane that they have more right to live there than the Palestinians who've been. That just shows you how absolutely insane this state actually is and what our tax dollars are bolstering and supporting here. And it's been layered over with this idea that this is some liberal democracy, which is total and complete bullshit. Okay, speaking of total and complete bullshit, he also got pressed by Lulu about his equation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

1:14:40Doesn't have a lot of great responses here either. Let's take a listen. You have equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. It is. And I will say that in preparation for this conversation, I talked to a lot of different people. And one of the things I heard is that anti-Zionism for them is a desire to have the rights of Palestinians be equal to the rights of Jews in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The idea of sort of, I guess, the one state solution, if you will. Is that definition of anti-Zionism to you, anti-Semitic? Well, look, if you believe that only Jewish people don't have the right to self-determination, that's anti-Semitic because it's holding out Jews to a double standard you don't accord to other people.

1:15:32So if you believe my definition of Zionism, which is really not my definition, it's widely accepted, it's peculiar to me how anti-Zionism isn't the opposite of that, How people choose to interpret it, to embellish it, to sort of dress it up as something other than what it is. But the reality is, if you believe how I laid out Zionism, then anti-Zionism is pretty simple. I think the challenge is if someone defines their view of anti-Zionism in a way that allows for Jews to exist in a state of Israel but that grants Palestinians rights, but you're seeing that as anti-Semitic. And she brings up in this exchange, which is longer and I encourage you to read it.

1:16:22She actually brings up Ezra Klein's piece, which I think was an intelligent way to go about it because Ezra's very – first of all, he's Jewish. Right. He wrote this piece about the divide in the Jewish community and the way that Israel's genocide is, you know, sort of excising Israel from being a really central focus of Jewish life in America. And he says, I hope I'm not butchering this quote, basically like the question isn't does Israel have a right to exist? Israel does exist. The question is does Israel have a right to dominate? Yeah. And she puts that to him. And again, he just sort of like, well, you know, I think they're denying Jewish ability of self-determination.

1:16:57And so my definition is the one that counts. Therefore, that's how I'm defining it. Therefore, anyone who is anti-Zionist is also anti-Semitic. She also presses him at a certain point on like the statistics they compile of, you know, oh, anti-Semitic incidents are up a million percent year over year. And there is it is sort of revealing because he makes this comment. He says in the 10 years that I've been head of the ADL, anti-Semitic incidents are up some thousand percent or whatever it is. It's like, well, then aren't you kind of failing at your job? Isn't that your whole job is to bring down anti-Semitism?

1:17:31So, you know, maybe your approach is not really particularly working here. Have you thought about that? Well, it turns out that screaming anti-Semite all the time doesn't particularly do anything about anti-Semitism. It turns out also that really it's about concrete policy action. Most of the things that are branded as anti-Semitic are not anti-Semitic whatsoever and would be laughed at ridiculously, you know, in the context of any other country. But yeah, in particular, his thing about – I see – I love that point about it exists. And this – again, I know people don't like this, but this is my assault on the liberal democratic framework is there's no such thing as right to exist.

1:18:06There is just existence. There's no such thing as a right to – it's like we live in reality. Israel is a nation recognized by X number of states. Thus, it exists. So now what do we do about it? The Palestine was a state that was supposed to be – and now it, quote, doesn't exist. It's not about right to exist. It doesn't, and we probably should do something about it. There's no right or not in order to restore peace, which I think is good, right? That's all really the way that we should talk about these things. And they try to gaslight you into this right to exist question. It's like, what are you bitching about?

1:18:36You won already. Not only do you have your own country, you have it beyond the borders of which you originally set out. And actually, now you've annexed all this territory in, quote, greater Israel. Yeah, does Syria have a right to exist? Does Lebanon have a right to exist? Apparently not, according to Israelis. That's my point. And even those states are basically fake and drawn up by the British. We could go on forever, but in this rabbit hole. So the point is, it's like, no, Syria exists as a polity. Now, does it make sense? Probably not. If you really look at it from the past, should we do anything about it?

1:19:05Yeah, it's kind of more up to them. Should we let Israel dictate its neighbor's politics and cause problems for us? Let's again center ourselves in that equation. No, that's ridiculous. And it's the same for the entire region. That's the point. And actually it all comes back to the point around America and the way that we should think about this is it's not just the question about slaughtering of Palestinians and the strategic goal. It's about do we want to be wholly responsible for and alienate this entire region of which we are somewhat dependent on for oil and make it so that they can militarily dominate and conquer vast swaths around this.

1:19:44At the same time, we're going around the world preaching about how all borders are sacrosanct after World War II and we can't allow any domination or violation of liberal norms. What ground do we have to stand on with the Ukraine-Russia conflict when Gaza is going on? Yeah. It's ridiculous. That is so true. And there's another parallel with Russia, Ukraine as well, which is both our undying commitment to Israel no matter what, which we'll talk more about in the next segment, the Israel First segment, and our commitment to making Russia always and forever an enemy state. Yes. Both of these are like obsessive Cold War ideology.

1:20:26The reason we were so into Israel is because we saw them as an ally against Russia in the Cold War in an area where, you know, Russian communist like left wing ideology was ascendant. So that's why we were in love with Israel. The Cold War is over. At least that Cold War is over. And yet we still are hanging on to this. And so, you know, when you ask Alyssa Sluckin, like, why are they an ally? It's like, well, they just are. And it doesn't matter what use they serve or how much trouble it causes us or how much it costs us or how much it embroils this region. It's just they're an ally and that's it.

1:21:01And now I'm going to shut my brain off. And these ones are adversaries and that's it. And that can never change or, you know, is completely permanently immovable as well. Like who wants to view the world that way? I mean people should really go back and read history. A major reason that the state of Israel was even recognized by Harry Truman is because at one point he had a business partner in his haberdashery who was Jewish who connected him with a Zionist preacher who allowed to get himself an oval. I'm not joking. George Marshall, the architect of the Marshall Plan of the modern American empire, literally told Truman that he would not vote for him in the upcoming election if he recognized Israel because he thought it was a terrible idea.

1:21:37General Eisenhower, the victor of World War II. Yeah, he was. But General Eisenhower, the victor of World War II in the 1950s during the Suez Crisis and all of that, was very willing to be like, who the fuck do you think you are going around here with the British and the French trying to basically have some conquest here in Egypt? That's not happening. Like this modern cult, it did not exist back in the day to the point where many, many of the architects of the American empire thought that the recognition of the state of Israel was a disastrous idea that would be counter to American interests in the Middle East.

1:22:09You can read a book if you want to. It's all public record. Now, of course, they don't want everybody to really know the truth. They think this special bond has existed since time. But, I mean, yeah, if it weren't for Truman's Jewish haberdashery partner, we literally may not have the entire modern state. I wish I was joking. It's true. Well, and, you know, it's one thing when Israel is screwing up our foreign policy. But I think part of why there has been such a revolt against Israel on the entire Democratic side and increasingly among young Republicans as well is because of the way now Americans' rights and what we're allowed to say are being directly curtailed.

1:22:49And ADL's Jonathan Greenblatt gets asked about the censorship that this government is engaging in to quash any sort of pro-Palestine protest, deporting anyone who wrote an op-ed that they didn't approve of, etc. And he acknowledges that he worked with the Biden administration on those efforts and works now with the Trump administration on those efforts as well. Let's take a listen to that. I have worked with the prior education secretary and I've worked with this education secretary. And I credit the Biden administration for their national strategy to counter antisemitism, a really important document.

1:23:25No one had done what the Biden administration had done before in elevating antisemitism to a federal priority. And ADL, in full disclosure, worked with them on that. And they get a lot of credit for adopting the plan. And then I give credit to the Trump administration for actually implementing aspects of the plan and taking a strong view, again, in the face of real, not imagined, real acts of hate. real acts of discrimination. Again, we helped to write the national strategy to counter anti-Semitism released by the Biden administration. We were deeply involved in that. So again, this head of a quote unquote civil rights organization wants to trample on your rights in service of his Israel first Jewish supremacist ideology and is working aggressively with whatever, bipartisan, you know, Democrat, Republican, Trump has certainly taken it beyond anyone's, his wildest ambitions.

1:24:22He is happy to work with them in service of trying to crutch your ability to speak out against your tax dollars going to fund genocide. Yep. It's totally crazy. But look, I mean, I think one good thing is that people are starting to see this organization for what it is. For years, it was a heroic organization amongst the left because it called out white supremacy. It just rings a little hollow when you're also talking about intermarriage for yourselves. So don't be telling us and warning with the boogeyman when the boogeyman may be amongst us the entire time. I think something that makes me well-studied to be a nurse is my empathy.

1:24:59Growing 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. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. The Summer Savings Event is here at Apple Vacations. It's the perfect time to bring everyone together for the getaway you've been dreaming about. Book between July 24th and August 27th and enjoy up to 55 % instant savings.

1:25:39From relaxing beach days to unforgettable moments with the people who matter most, your next vacation starts here. Travel through July 31st, 2027. Start your vacation today at AppleVacations.com or through your travel advisor. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. The washer won't start and the laundry's already piled to the ceiling. Hopping on GrandAppliance.com. Great idea. I heard they have next day delivery. Uh-huh, I'm seeing that too. And they have a bunch of GE options in stock. Oh, that's great. We've always had good luck with GE appliances. This one looks perfect. Scheduling for tomorrow.

1:26:15Gosh, Grand really makes it easy. Another crisis averted by the team at Grand Appliance. Visit GrandAppliance.com today. Grand Appliance, appliance experts since 1930. All right, let's go ahead and get to, you know, like I said, dovetails well with what we were just talking about, the backlash to these Israel-first policies and the continued pushing by politicians of making sure that we prioritize Israel above all else. So let's start with this. There's a Wisconsin town hall, a Republican representative by the name of Brian Steele, who is just aggressively booed to the point, and people are outraged over his support for the genocide in Gaza, to the point that he has to actually leave the event, shut down the event and leave.

1:27:00Let's go and take a listen to a little bit of that. People have a right of free speech.

1:27:07What do you have to say about that, Brian? I have to say shut up. Two million people are starving. Two million people are starving. Do you have a heart? Do you have a heart? I want to have you address the question that was shouted about the starving children in Gaza. To me, the easy answer to address this crisis is for Hamas to surrender and release the hospital. That and for the world.

1:27:44Israel was unfairly unjustly attacked. Their civilians were killed and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists. Israel has a right to defend itself. It's genocide. You believe in genocide?

1:28:10We may disagree on this, that's fine.

1:28:21Thank you ladies and gentlemen for coming tonight. We're going to close it off here because there's no point in continuing. I appreciate everybody coming out tonight. That's a man that everyone, all of a great good thing. I know there's a lot of people. I thank you down here. And look forward to seeing everybody. Everybody have an absolutely wonderful night. Food the kids.

1:28:54So there you go. and I hope Senator Slotkin takes a look at that footage because she seemed to believe that people only protested Democrats when it came to this issue and I can tell you that's certainly not the case as evidenced by this town hall. But you know I hope all politicians are paying attention to this not that I think they're going to like you know have a heart and have a soul and like decide suddenly that they're going to do what's right but just in terms of a cynical political calculation like this issue has become much more important than ever even I would have thought and And it's because if you are still in, you know, August 11th, 2025, out here just going through the Israel has a right to defend itself and release the hostages and like saying the same things that you've been saying for almost two years at this point, the public is not buying it.

1:29:38Democrats certainly aren't. Independents certainly aren't. And increasingly, Republicans aren't either. And it has become a litmus test of whether you have a shred of integrity, whether you are willing to stand up to organize money, or whether you are just a stooge for donors. And that really is what it comes down to. Ryan is going to be in for Sagar tomorrow. He and I are probably going to cover Pete Buttigieg's comments where, look, 8 % of the Democratic Party, 8 % supports what Israel is doing. And still he can't find himself to have any answer. Yes, no, you know, up, down, should we recognize a Palestinian state?

1:30:12Any answer whatsoever. And you know why? It's clearly 100 % about donor maintenance because it is certainly not where the Democratic base is. And, you know, obviously this is a Republican in a Republican-leaning district. I have no idea what the demographics of this district are, how tough of a reelect he has or whatever. but it's obviously an animating issue for many people. And we saw this even in our focus groups of the AOC Trump voters, that it came up much more often than we expected it to at that point in time. I wouldn't claim that this is all that representative. As you and I know, people who go to town halls are the most politically - Activists, yeah, they're activists.

1:30:48The activists of the activists. But I remember in 2010, there was a lot of cope, like what I just said. Remember Arlen Specter and others were getting booed and shouted down by Republicans and the Democrats were like, that's just Republican coke-planted activists, and then boom, you have this gigantic GOP wave in 2010. So we can't sit here and say that it isn't indicative of something, especially in midterms. Midterms are all about who's the most animated and enthusiastic to vote, and if Democrats are jazzed up around a variety of issues, from Trump to Gaza to all that, well, then they're going to put pressure on their elected representatives.

1:31:25If you have a low turnout election, then of course you're going to have a big blowout for especially a lot of the Democrats. So the point remains that even if it is not representative, and I really don't think that it is, that amongst the activist class, as Iraq was back in 06 as well, would be remiss. I mean, unfortunately, a big portion of the country still supported the war in Iraq in 2006. They agreed that the war was going badly. But the activist base of the anti-war people all came out to vote in 06. and they delivered big victories for the Democrats. Well, and think of why Barack Obama ended up getting the nomination.

1:32:00I mean, the Iraq war ended up being incredibly central to our politics. Number one, because everyone forgets this. Iowa, what Obama did in Iowa still remains like the blueprint for all modern politicians because he changed the electorate. It was all college students. So, I mean, it's 2025. Look who's the most animated about Israel. Not only that, even just putting aside the like horse race politics. So much of our political like world that we exist on in now is downstream of the Iraq war. I mean, Trump also in part gets the nomination because he decides he's going to be opposed to the Iraq war.

1:32:37So, you know, I do dispute this idea that foreign policy never ends up. Vietnam was obviously incredibly impactful in terms of American politics. The Iraq war ends up being incredibly central to the point that we're still dealing with the fall on it today. And I think that this is such an issue because it does expose so much of the hypocrisy, the lies, the claims of concern about humanitarian issues. Or on the right, the claims that, oh, it's America first and we're just looking out for American interests. It really exposes the lies and hypocrisy of both parties, which is why it's such an explosive issue.

1:33:13Matt Gaetz, another thing people are becoming more aware of is the role of AIPAC and more broadly these Israel-aligned entities, with AIPAC being the sort of largest and most influential, I would say. Matt Gaetz revealed something pretty interesting about his experience when he went on one of these AIPAC trips to Israel. Let's take a listen to what he had to say. I went on that AIPAC trip. I went on subsequent trips. And there is an actual downward pressure from the leadership and even the committee chairs. Like if you're on the Foreign Affairs Committee, if you're on the Armed Services Committee, if you're on the Intelligence Committee, there's like an expectation that you go there and some sort of like congressional hodge.

1:33:52And I remember being at the – I'll never go back. I was at the King David Hotel and I rolled back to my room unexpectedly when the rest of the group was still on some planned activity. And there was some dude in my room. I'm like, hey, man, what are you doing here? And he acted like he was associated with the hotel and taking an inventory but had no clipboard. And so, yeah, there's a lot of reasons why they want members of Congress over there. And it is ideologically to steep them in this notion that the protection of Israel is of great import to people in America. But it's really not that important to voters.

1:34:29And that is becoming more clear on the right and left. So, Sagar, Kyle and I interviewed Jamal Bowman, who AIPAC spent millions of dollars to get that man out of office. And at that time, by the way, his critique of Israel was quite mild and moderate. Yeah, he didn't really go that hard, if I recall. No, not at the time. And so in any case, he shared with us that when he first was running for Congress, how aggressively AIPAC sought to get a meeting with him. And so first they called and he was like, I'm not interested. I know what they stand for. I'm not aligned. I'm not interested. Then they went through this respected in New York City organization, uplifting black men that was like well known and Jamal Bowman was familiar with their work, etc.

1:35:11And went through them to sort of strong arm Jamal into taking this meeting and, you know, ends up like he goes this coffee and it's like the APAC person and the person from this organization. But that's how aggressively they will seek to try to cultivate these relationships. And then, you know, there's all the propaganda that comes out. There's obviously the threat of millions of dollars, which Jamal Bowman did ultimately face and is probably the reason he's not in Congress now. The threat of all those millions of dollars being dropped on you. And then, Sokka, there's also just like the human sense of like, oh, but I know these people.

1:35:44And like Fred is going to be really disappointed in me if I vote against this anti-Semitism definition or whatever. And that can be very powerful as well for, you know, people who are who up to this point, there was no cost on the other side. You know, there was no cost to bear from just being lockstep with Israel every single step of the way. Well, also, you I mean, you just laid it out well. And I will reference the Harry Truman thing I was just talking about. It's a lot of his personal relationships. And AIPAC knows that. Let's go and put E3 up on the screen just to show you. This is all of the Republican congressmen in Israel with Prime Minister Netanyahu.

1:36:21The AIPAC trackers put all the money that they have received. Lest you believe that this is a singular partisan phenomenon. Should we go to the next slide? What do we see there? Oh, interesting. All of the House Democrats there who are—where are they, by the way? It's not like a military bunker? Yeah, I— Hamas tunnel? Not sure what's going on there. Also, I mean, look, you know, not to just cape too hard for Republicans, but at least the Republicans are wearing suits. What are these people doing here, you know, on vacation in Israel? They're a Hawaiian shirt. You're wearing your Aloha shirt while you're in Israel?

1:36:49Well, and let's just draw this out for one moment further. Okay, this is when they're on break, right, Congress? Yes. It's supposed to be in the district. Emergency break so that they could avoid voting on any Epstein stuff. Correct. Also ties back to Israel, by the way. And what you're supposed to do on those—you're supposed to actually go and do what Brian Steele was doing. Go to town halls. Hear from your constituents. You know, hear that they hate you for your view on supporting a genocide in Gaza. That's what you're supposed to be doing right now. And instead, at a moment when Netanyahu's security cabinet just voted for the complete invasion of Gaza and destruction and occupation of Gaza City in particular as part of a plan to fully and completely displace the population of the Gaza Strip, here you are on an AIPAC sponsored trip having a little smiley happy time in whatever this weird tunnel is while this is all going on.

1:37:41And you dare say that you're representing the American people. You dare say for the Democrat side that you care about human rights. Like no one should take these people seriously ever again. Every single one of them should be primaried. Every single one of them should be voted out of office because they do not care about you. Thanks for watching, guys. We'll see you all tomorrow. Ryan will be in for me, but then I'll be in for him on Wednesday. So we get an old switcheroo here on the show. So I'll see you then.

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