8/13/25: Saagar Vs Trump Marijuana Rescheduling, Orthodox Nun Slams Israel With Tucker Carlson

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1:35Hey guys, Sagar and Crystal here. Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else. So if that is something that's important to you, please go to BreakingPoints.com, become a member today, and you'll get access to our full shows, unedited, ad-free, and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at BreakingPoints.com.

2:08It wouldn't be Breaking Points if we did not cover Donald Trump's now apparently current decision to reschedule marijuana from one to three. He confirmed it recently in a press conference. Let's take a listen. There is reporting that the administration is going to reclassify marijuana. Would that send mixed messages that if marijuana is OK, some drugs are OK, but we're trying to clean up crime? How do they go hand in hand? We're only looking at that. That's early. But, you know, somebody reported it, which is fine. We're looking at it. Some people like it. Some people hate it. Some people hate the whole concept of marijuana because if it does bad for the children, it does bad for people that are older than children.

2:45But we're looking at reclassification and we'll make a determination over the next, I would say, over the next few weeks. And that determination hopefully will be the right one. It's a very complicated subject, you know, the subject of marijuana. I've heard great things having to do with medical and I've had bad things having to do with just about everything else. But medical and, you know, for pain and various things, I've heard some pretty good things. But for other things, I've heard some pretty bad things. Now, you may be wondering who he's been hearing these great things from. And the answer would be the big pot companies, which are massively lobbying him to reschedule marijuana.

3:22So let's all talk about the issue, shall we? Look, I know everybody here knows my— Shall we? We don't have a choice. People may know my views, but just stick with me at the very least. Let's go and put—what is it? The next element, please, up on the screen. This is from the Wall Street Journal report about reclassifying marijuana as dangerous. Quote, this is how this has all come about, just so people understand. At a$1 million a plate fundraiser earlier this month, Trump told attendees he was interested in such a change. Why? Well, the guests included the chief executive of one of the largest marijuana companies in America who is encouraging Trump to pursue the change and, quote, expand medical marijuana research.

4:00Apparently, other executives there were the CEO of Pfizer, of Crypto, and others who have all supported the initiative. So you may be asking, you know, why would pharma and these companies, why do they care so much? It's just about the research. No, it's none of it has to do with research. The reason is because at the Schedule 1 status as it is right now, it means that these marijuana companies, which are printing money, selling high-potency THC to probably half the people who are watching this video, as well as half of America apparently, Well, they don't have as much access to the legitimate banking system as they would like.

4:41So this is pure pay-for-play corruption. They don't care one iota about, quote, studying weed. Millions of people use weed every single day. We know everything we need to know, and I will come back to that here in a little bit. This is entirely about expanding access to the banking system and turning the marijuana companies of today, which are already massive multi-billion dollar industries into a multi-trillion dollar industry a la big tobacco. This time around, it's the exact same playbook. You have capture every single one of these licensed pot shops and all these that are springing up across the country.

5:14It's all through the city, getting municipal license, deeply corrupt. All the money that's flowing in is from venture capital, from big pharma, and from others. And the amount of daily use has now surpassed alcohol in the United States. 17.7 million people as of 2022 smoke weed every single day. Apparently it's not addictive though, Emily, whenever you don't smoke, when you smoke something every single day. And it has become a major social issue in terms of just the way it's impacted social life, daily drug use, et cetera. So I just want people to know that even if you support this, it is because some major weed company wants to sell you your THC soda, unregulated, by the way, THC lollipop, THC high potency stuff, which your grandparents would never have dreamed of getting as high as many of these people are getting high on a daily basis.

6:11None of it factors in any of the proven deleterious effects of daily marijuana use or marijuana use in general. So I'm just laying it all out here in terms of this is a corrupt deal because the pot companies are bribing a bunch of conservative influencers to talk about rescheduling and research. They are going after the Trump administration because they think that this will expand their access to the banking system. And again, even if you use weed, I genuinely ask everybody to ask whether it is acceptable that right now you have daily use, which is not in any way treated the way that we look at somebody who's anybody who smokes cigarettes every day.

6:55They know that they're massively increasing their risk of cancer. And all of us socially are like, yeah, come on, man. What are we doing here? Uh, say if you drink every day, you're a fucking alcoholic. Okay. You are an alcoholic. If you drink every single day, everybody knows that if you smoke weed, it's chill. There's no problems. There's no addiction. It's like this, There's no social stigma on public weed use, on daily weed use. Everybody is just acting like there's no health risks or any of that whatsoever. And these pot companies don't have come anywhere close to the level of scrutiny that alcohol and tobacco companies.

7:30And everyone's like, oh, what about alcohol? Yeah, tax them. Did you know alcohol taxes are down 50 % from the 1980s? They should be way higher. Alcohol should be way more expensive. It's horrible for you. I don't drink alcohol. There's a reason for it. This is the problem, though, is that socially everybody just is accepting this like 1990s stoner propaganda that everything is chill and there's no problems or whatever. And now we have the results, like teenager psychosis problems. There's, in fact, doctors have had to invent new names for the problems when teenagers in particular use extremely high levels of THC.

8:06And then it causes vomiting. You can end up in the hospital. It actually gets stored in your fat cells. It's craziness. And this happens to babies as well from mothers who use cannabis, their favorite word, instead of weed, while they're pregnant. And it's the same thing. Everybody knows about fetal alcohol syndrome. But cannabis, oh, it's got health properties because one person with glycoma is using it. It's ridiculous. So anyway, that's the end of my rant. It's not the end of your rant. I'll continue. But you're like Woody. like you're like oh I can just keep going I can keep going but yeah um so but I actually had a question you're yeah you're saying that the rescheduling here is about access to banking yes tell us more about that because that's so so what happens when you reschedule and then with the as it pertains to the monies yeah like all right so right now this is crazy by the way is right now weed is federally illegal schedule one status but I didn't remember people working in the Biden White House, couldn't smoke marijuana that was legal in D.C.

9:08Do you really want potheads running our government? I don't, okay? I don't want daily drinkers running our government either, all right? So drug trust everybody. Be fine with me. So let's think about this. The Schedule 1 status means that the big banks in particular do not want to accept your business. It's also much more difficult for these pot companies to raise money, to gain access to, let's say, venture capital rounds, et cetera. A lot of called LPs and funds, they have vice clauses in there where they're like, we don't want to invest in anything that makes it risky for our investment. So that's the main problem.

9:41Now, this has caused issues because banking is access to credit markets and basically the ability to borrow. Yeah, exactly. And it costs them a lot of problems because they have all this cash on hand and they need to move it by armored trucks. It's all crazy. And they have to use – basically, it's like a shadow banking system, even though absolute oceans of money and all this are being made. What they want access to is the ability to basically become big tobacco. They want to be totally legitimized in the federal legal code. They want zero regulation, which, again, currently they don't have. Everyone always says, yeah, we need regulation.

10:15We're long past that, people. All right? This high-potency stuff and all that, the reality is it's not happening and it won't. People are already massively addicted to this high-potency THC, and nobody even really wants to acknowledge the problem. So to go to Schedule 3 status, it makes access to the banking system almost not immediate but much, much easier for these companies. It lets Goldman Sachs and all these venture capital funds pour as much money into these as possible. And it will massively increase the current lobbying in the same way that Big Tobacco had for years, right? They were able to hire all of these massive lobbyists.

10:51That's already part of the problem. These people have become so filthy rich that they're hiring all these conservative influencers and others. They're paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars, just so everybody understands. Let's get into this. Okay, so let's put D3 on the screen. This is Alex Brusilowicz. So if you're not on Twitter, you might not know the name Alex Brusilowicz, but the headline here in the drug report is Alex Brusilowicz's company took$300 ,000 from a pro weed pack days before he said he had, quote, no personal stake in rescheduling in the rescheduling fight, basically. So that's what Bruce would said on July 11th.

11:27It turns out his company, according to the drug report, was paid three hundred thousand dollars by the American Rights and Reform PAC, which has been, as Josh Dossie put it in The Wall Street Journal, seeded with money from the industry. And I believe that PAC also gave a million dollars to Trump's inaugural pack or campaign pack. I'll look it up while you talk. I have nothing personal against Alex. These may be his views, but the fact is, is that he and many others have obviously a financial incentive to be talking about this. And by the way, that fits with Matt Gaetz, who look, the guy, I'll give him credit.

12:02He actually has mostly held these views for quite a long time, many years. He's not bought and paid for marijuana. I don't think he's bought and paid for. It doesn't hurt, you know, having the support, because I also know that he's had a lot of money that flowed into him from these weed companies over the years. And they're now trying to frame this as some major populist decision. D4, please. Let's put it on the screen. It's populism meets practicality. Suddenly MAGA hats in line at the dispensary, patriots buying pre-rolls called 1776 Freedom Kush. Beautiful. Now, don't get me wrong. There are still people clutching their pearls, saying buying marijuana is a gateway drug.

12:37Yeah, so is drinking Mountain Dew if you consume enough of it. In reality, marijuana is more like a gateway to eating three sleeves of Oreos and having deep thoughts about how ceiling fans work. Yeah, I mean, I thought this was Maha. Is that what we want? We want people to eat two sleeves of Oreos. By the way, yeah, Mountain Dew is horrible for you. It's like, what are we sitting around and defending it? This stuff drives me crazy. But the point is, is that at the end of the day, I will acknowledge everything I'm saying is deeply unpopular. I get it. You know, people, you like to get high. Fine.

13:09But don't sit here and gaslight me about how because one child was helped by not getting a seizure, who, by the way, still has access to it if they want to. That means that it's healthy or that you need more study or for application or any of these. These big companies, they care about it for one reason. It's obviously highly – if you're all using it every single day, you're addicted. You're addicted to weed. and they're willing to sell it to you in the same way that these alcohol companies and these gambling companies who I go after are. These people are scum. They do it specifically because they know that they can peddle it to you and that you need it and you're a dependent customer.

13:45I think that's really gross. And I've even looked at other models that might work. The only one I could ever potentially support would be a highly regulated and a non-profit system. There's some areas in Canada actually which do this, which we remove the judicial problem, which by the way is fake. There's nobody who goes to jail for marijuana. You can fact check me if you want on that. Zero people go to jail for smoking marijuana or for possession of marijuana. They go for possession of drugs. And even then that's only 3.2 % of the entire state prison population. Zero inmates are currently federally incarcerated for possession of marijuana.

14:23The only marijuana related offenses are people who are high level cartel drug traffickers who are probably involved in a whole lot of a mess than just moving weed across the border. And also, oh, lo and behold, the cartel business here in America in the illegal weed market remains thriving, even in states of California where weed has been legal now for quite some time because they undercut the legitimate price. So my point just around the entire thing is that the road that we are on is unregulated, unchecked, massive addiction, the intersection between marijuana and big capitalism, which it is right now.

14:57And if that's what you want, okay, just say it though. Be honest about really the road that we're all leading down to. And everyone says, what about alcohol? The way alcohol is right now is horrible, horrible. Especially if you look at the way that people are, if you look at the drinking rates post COVID, it was a disaster. And the way that the taxes and everything continue to go low on it. And we have these like sin industries, which become massively extractive, nobody can sit here and tell me that it's a good thing. You know, there needs to be much more like deep thought. The gambling thing is another example around it, right?

15:32This is what I was just gonna say. I mean, so gambling to me, I'm as radical as you are on that. There's truly nothing else like app, online sports betting that exists right now. And that's what's complicated about the marijuana conversation because between alcohol, sugar, all kinds of these actual addictive substances, um marijuana can make an argument that these are also harmful in similar ways and i mean i i agree with that and that's sort of where i think the the maha conversation is an interesting one in the context of marijuana where it's just like we already have set the bar across the board for what we allow into our food system and what we tolerate you are consistent and you say that should all be different.

16:18But I don't think most people would agree that we should treat alcohol, as you were arguing, should be way higher taxes on alcohol. I don't think most people would agree with that. Yeah, I know. People like to drink. I get it, okay? I understand. I don't know what to say. Look at what it does to your body. You want more studies on alcohol? Well, yeah, but what they're saying is that look at what it does to your body. Sure, we know. But hey, I'm choosing to do it, and I'm an adult. So that's where I think for marijuana, it becomes genuinely, if you can consume as much sugar as you want, if you can consume as much alcohol as you want, that's where I see a difference between gambling and marijuana.

16:56I'm not saying, I'm like actually pretty ambivalent on this. I don't know what the right answer is, but it's difficult. But let's compare it then to cigarettes. So yeah, cigarettes are people. Do you know how much it costs? Griffin, text me and tell me how much is a pack of cigarettes in New York City today? What am I guessing? Like 19 bucks, maybe 17 i'm waiting for him to uh to tell me so let's so yeah 18 to 20 dollars if you go to north carolina a state which doesn't tax how much is a pack of cigarettes five bucks is that 15 extra bucks we're like hey you want to smoke okay fine it's gonna be massively taxed at the same time it is going to be paired with unending do not smoke smoking is bad for you in school from the time you're what, like four years old.

17:43If that was the social norm, I'd say, okay, fine. But that's not the social norm. The social norm is one where you have a modest tax on the marijuana and you have an entire society, which is basically things just like giggling, cheech and chong is the way this is all. It's like, no, that's not what's happening. By the way, oh, people are like, oh, what about alcohol? Yeah, add it to the schools. Nobody'd be happier than me if we educate people about what actually it does to your body or any of that. But what I am objecting to is not just the government policy and the corruption behind this entire decision.

18:15You're objecting to the social approach. The entire social conversation around this is one that acts like it has zero downside. Yes, very similar to alcohol. Most people have no idea until very, very recently what alcohol actually does to the body because of social stigma. Everyone's like, oh, it's totally fine. This is just part of our culture or whatever. And all of the studies, just like they've done on alcohol and marijuana, prove the deleterious effects. At the end of the day, sure, you can make your own decision, but government policy should be engineered around trying to actually get good outcomes.

18:47And that is the opposite of what we're having right now. So that's the end of my rant. If you made it this far. I'll also just add the lobbying is particularly gross in this space because it's just, I mean, the Josh Dossie story is worth reading. It's really similar to what happened with crypto, where people realize that if you can sit down across the table with Donald Trump and meet him, if you can make a smart argument, knowing what Trump wants to hear, which is according to the Dossie article, he wants to be on the 80 side of 80, 20 issues. And politically, part of Trump's genius there. And what happened is he got all this money from people associated with Trulieve and the PACs, and supported the legalization in Florida last year.

19:32And that's now happening at a federal scale. And it's very similar to what happened with Trump and crypto. You get in front of him, you make a clever argument that you know is along the lines of what he wants to hear. And he's pleased to be in negotiation, to have people come kiss the ring and make deals with him. And that's happening now with something that affects lots of kids and their lives too. And crypto does as well. I mean, crypto is going to affect people's, it's obviously currently affecting people's real lives. Yeah, like the 401k thing. By the way, update on the BlockFi. I have finally gotten all my money back.

20:04It only took three and a half years after the company went bankrupt. I really have no idea how they did it, but I did actually get it back. Wow. Yeah, I mean, it didn't grow, so the opportunity cost is high. But yeah, I got it back. I have no idea. Thank you to the bankruptcy attorneys. I recently got an email and I was like, wow, I thought this money was gone forever. It's back. Amazing news. Yeah. Amazing news. Okay, let's go to Tucker. My name is Arnold Bogarty, and prior to me, enrolled in Rasmussen to become a nurse. I spent 16 years in the military, 12 in Special Forces, as an Army Green Beret, and I was recommended to Rasmussen by a former student.

20:38She said she loved the culture. It was a family atmosphere. I went to visit the campus. The facilities were amazing. I knew before I left that that was the school that I was going to attend. Rasmussen University. Are you ready to be your own hero? online and on campus. Learn more at rasmussen.edu.

21:21Now, vacations, where your story starts. Ugh, 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. Grand Appliance, appliance experts since 1930. Tucker Carlson yesterday dropped an episode of his show, which featured George Stephanopoulos' sister, who's a nun who lived for a long time in the Holy Land.

22:08And the conversation was focused on the plight of Christians in the Holy Land, what it is like from this nun's perspective, mother Stephanopoulos, I suppose, to live as a Christian in the Holy Land. And it's gone massively viral, Saga. This just on YouTube alone is already at a million views and it's been up for about 24 hours and is definitely pinging around a lot in Christian circles. No surprise there. So let's just get a flavor of what this woman told Tucker Carlson. We can roll the first element here. What does the yellow license plate mean? Yellow plate is for people who live in the state of Israel and they can go on certain roads, all roads.

22:47And for Palestinians who have a Jerusalem ID are allowed to have a car with a yellow plate. And then Palestinians have green and white plates and they cannot use. So over that time that I've been here, as the settlements have grown, you build the infrastructure for it, the electricity, the roads, separate roads that are used only by people that have yellow plates. As a foreigner and part of a foreign church, we were entitled to have either those or they also have white, demonic, and religious plates that are there. So there's very much an apartheid system. So Mother Akapiya Stephanopoulos is a Russian Orthodox nun, the sister of George Stephanopoulos.

23:25They talk a little bit in their interview, actually, about what it's been like for her brother George Stephanopoulos to get heat over the years as she shared her perspective, mostly about Israel soccer. So that's where this is causing already predictable levels of controversy on the right because she's very, very anti-Israel in this episode and throughout her whole career. Her, yeah, look, her, the episode consistently I found valuable because she's like, look, I'm a nun. I live in the Holy Land. Here is my daily interaction with the Muslim population. Here is what it's like being a nun in my Orthodox Christian community.

24:04in doing ministry, in going to these churches in Gaza, and generally observing what things are like. And what she is talking about, the main criticism I've seen is that it's preposterous for Tucker to interview her about Christian destruction, because Christianity is growing in Israel. But everyone then ignored that she's talking about the West Bank. And what she's talking about is the separate system. And Gaza is what, by the way. And she's talking about the separate system. and the war on these settlers, on many of these communities, many of which are also Christian, and of the two-tiered, not even two-tiered system of justice.

24:42There's justice for one, and then there's not for other. And that's the part that is so annoying, is everybody, the Israeli defenders will say in one breath that the West Bank is in Israel, but that then they will cite the policies of the officially recognized Israel. And it's like, well, if you combine the two, things are a little bit different, no? It's like, yeah, Arab Israelis can vote in Israel. How does it work when she's talking about the yellow license plate? And also, the settler thing is a much more urgent question today because it used to actually be controversial in Israel. There were a lot of Israelis that were against it.

25:12There may still be. But it's part of the governing coalition now to not just support them, to arm them and to protect them. And it might be coming to Gaza. With military force, it's almost certainly coming to Gaza very soon. So then the question of how do they act outside of currently recognized Israel or what Israel calls itself Israel and in greater Israel, Well, that becomes the urgent question of that treatment, which she has now lived through for many years and why I thought her perspective was very valuable. She also – yeah, go ahead. Well, no, I mean it's just super interesting stuff. And we – it was a long conversation, so we have a selection of highlights.