8/21/25: AI Bubble, Netanyahu On Triggernometry, Israel Invades Gaza City, Tim Dillon Shreds Trump DC Deployment

25:12This is Becca and Tanya from Scrubbing In with Becca Tilly and Tanya Rad. Becca, can I ask you a question? How do I convince myself I need something before I buy it? Oh, so we're doing that today. Well, I'll be shopping online and suddenly I'm like, well, technically this counts as self-care. You're definitely not alone there. That's why Klarna stands out. It's about smarter tools that help you feel more confident with your money. Klarna brings payments, cash back, and money management together in one place with flexible ways to pay. It helps you make smarter money moves without the stress. That's the goal, right?

25:47Having tools that make your money work with you. Download the Klarna app today or visit Klarna.com to learn more. California resident loans made or arranged pursuant to a California finance law license. NMLS number 1353190. Klarna balance account required to be eligible for cash back points. limitations, terms, and conditions apply.

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27:10All right, let's get to the next part. All right, so fresh off his blockbuster appearance with the Nelk Boys, Benjamin Netanyahu has now joined the gentleman of Trigonometry for an appearance. Admittedly, I haven't had a chance. This came out last night. I haven't had a chance to watch the whole thing. Producer Griffin pulled a couple clips that he thought were interesting. Let's go ahead and take a listen to this first one. And this is Constantine saying basically, listen, I don't think there's any peace possible with these people in Gaza because they are, quote unquote, Jew haters. Let's take a listen.

27:39And then you're going to say, and then we need a civilian government in Gaza that's not hostile to Israel. And that's where you lose me, Prime Minister, because I look at the opinion polls. I look at the people celebrating October the 7th in Gaza. I look at the fact that thousands of civilians crossed into Israel on October the 7th to commit the atrocities that were committed. and I go, these people hate you. They hate you, they hate Israel, and they hate Jews. How are you going to have a peaceful coexistence with those people, particularly given the fact that, as Francis mentioned earlier, they have been very heavily radicalized, not only through the education system, but through the fact that they've been on the receiving end on Israel's war effort?

28:22Well, I think what you're pointing out to is that you need also a program of de-radicalization. Now, has that been done in societies that have been conditioned to hate their adversaries? Yes, of course, it's been done in two places prominently, in Japan and in Germany. But it's also been done in the Middle East. I mean, there have been very noteworthy programs, successful programs of de-radicalization in some of the Gulf states, which are actually proving to break this prototype of Arab societies that cannot seize the future. I'm not saying they're model democracies, mind you. They're not. But they certainly want to seize modernity and not go back to the savage and early medievalism.

29:15Please tell me how Constantine is making Netanyahu sound more moderate than him. And like, yeah, just the idea that, okay, you know, these people hate you. Yeah, gee, I wonder why. Maybe it's because they've been like occupied and being starved and bombed to pieces for, you know. Yeah. And not even just post-October 7th. But also, Sagar, you can speak to this. How many times throughout history have we seen bitter enemies who hate each other? And guess what? When you're able to come up with some sort of a peace deal and have a coexistence, you know, that fades over. So we can see it with our own country.

29:47You know, we were bitter enemies, obviously, went to war with Germany and Japan, and now these are some of our closest allies. Well, you can see it inside of our own country, north and south. Yeah, true. Took a long time to shake out. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, I mean, that is the Israeli line, which drives me more insane than any other, is we can't be expected to live next to these people. No, actually, you can. If India has to live next to Pakistan, you can do it too, all right? Yeah, they both have nuclear weapons and mutually assured destruction. If Iran has to live next to Saudi Arabia, then so can you.

30:16I can go on forever. Northern Ireland and Ireland. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, how many of these have we now lived through? They're like, they actually, Israeli exception is that they want to be the only nation in the history of the world that actually is not required to live next to the people, quote, who hate them. Everybody else has to deal with it. And in fact, one of the normal, like, established things post-World War II, which we're told for why we have to support Ukraine in its war against Russia after they invaded, is, oh, well, we just simply can't allow, you know, gangster states to do as they please in their neighborhood based upon old, revanchist, revisionist history of pre-World War II.

30:58Like when Russia – when Putin starts talking about Ivan the Great and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, everybody in the Western political establishment rolls their eyes. But when these people are talking about 3 ,000 years ago – I mean, yeah, that's the other thing. So which one is more legitimate, 1789 of Crimea or 3 ,000 years ago, Judea, Samaria, and these ancient biblical texts promise us the land? They think that's legitimate. the western political establishment says that the latter is is legitimate but the former is a violation of post-world war ii norms no i mean you know which one and even if you disregard all of that i'm not a huge believer in the so-called western liberal democratic order or anything but you can look from south i think i can't think of a continent where people have not been forced to quote live next to the people who hate them that yes it is simply a fact of life because the alternative is basically the current Israeli strategy is mass displacement and killing, mass murder.

31:59I mean, I guess that is one which theoretically, you know, you could go down that road. Again, you know, supposedly one of the norms after World War I and World War II was, hey, actually, we don't allow that stuff to kind of happen. Or at the very least, we're not going to support it. Well, you know, again, we've flipped it on its head. So the premise of that is preposterous. And especially for somebody from the UK, who's one of the more recent Western nations, which quite literally had to force, you know, this entire, the troubles and all that. I mean, that happened in my parents' lifetime, if you even think about that.

32:31That's right. It was considered an intractable conflict, literally, from what, when was the first war of Irish independence? I'm thinking, I mean, hundreds of years. I don't even know the date off the top of my head. All the way to 1919 and then post-World War II and separation, the Northern Irish question, the troubles, the border, you know, all the way up to the EU. These are even today very sensitive issues after Brexit about the movement between the two borders. So again, you can't sit and tell me that you can't be expected. You can. Actually, you can. And you will because we should force you to.

33:04Yeah. I mean the better question is how Palestinians after this genocide of them could be expected to live next to the Israelis. But that's something we should expect of them too. We're like, listen, you got a shit deal, but you have to live here. That's exactly right. I mean that's the nature of humanity. That's the nature of being able to have some sort of an agreement. And yes, over time, not to say that there won't be continuing to be tensions as there are, you know, in Ireland and Northern Ireland, like there continue to be tensions. But the idea that, oh, no, you couldn't possibly live next to these is just preposterous and historically illiterate.

33:40There was another interesting section where the other host, Francis, is pressing Netanyahu a bit on some of the comments of, you know, the Smotrichs and the Ben Gavirs. Let's go ahead and take a listen to how that went down. There are critics of yours, Prime Minister, who will say, well, part of the reason that Israel is losing the propaganda war is when you have ministers like Shmaterik making incendiary or inflammatory comments, and there doesn't seem to be any particular pushback from your government to this. They go, well, what does a Prime Minister really believe? What I believe I say, in a parliamentary system, people are free to say.

34:20Sometimes they say things they don't quite mean. It happens all the time. You have a very active fringe. Prime Minister, forgive me, but these aren't parliamentarians. These are people who are part of your government. And they remain part of your government after they say these things that to many people, even your friends, sound a little bit like ethnic cleansing is being discussed. Well, we're not discussing ethnic cleansing. And to the extent that we have these conversations around the cabinet, the security cabinet, that is actually not being discussed by these people. But Prime Minister, may I just interrupt?

34:50When you have your finance minister making a speech and talking about occupying Gaza, and there doesn't seem to be any pushback within the government, people quite rightly, in my opinion, would say, well, surely aren't you condoning that type of rhetoric? No. And that is exacerbating Israel's PR problem. I disagree completely. When somebody says that, and I'm asked, is that your policy? And I say, no, it's not my policy. I don't intend to build settlements or communities in Gaza and not Israeli ones. I want a non-Israeli civilian governance after that is committed to living in peace with us. It is so unbelievably dishonest at this point to still pretend like that's not your policy and like you condemn it and you have nothing to do with it.

35:33But you also got to give me credit because I called that this would be exactly how he would answer. Because I asked personally yesterday. It's a democracy. Yes, we have a fringe, inflammatory rhetoric, blah, blah, blah. I was like, how is he going to square that? Because it's true. But I had not – I didn't put myself in the mind of Bibi to be like, yes, we have free speech. We have a vibrant society where we allow such things. But, I mean, to Francis' credit, he was like, no, this isn't – it would be like somebody else using Ilhan Omar's statements. I mean, yeah, you could say that. I'd be like, look, we have 435 members of Congress.

36:02One of them, Marjorie Taylor Greene or Ilhan, they say some crazy shit sometimes, whatever. But that is not the same whenever those people are actually in power, members of the government. And when the government policy reflects their desire. And then government policy reflects their desire to the point where they're handing out weapons in the West Bank and or U.S. dollars, which they then use to prop up their expansionist regime. Yeah. That's very different than, oh, we have free speech. Yeah. This is the thing about Bibi. He's the master. It's not like he has always in his perfect Philadelphia-born English.

36:40You know, he understands which parts are distasteful, you know, to the U.S. public. And so in English, he does not endorse any of this stuff. But again, in the age of Google Translate and AI, if I will, you can easily dub the stuff he says in Hebrew. And it's the same stuff. That's right. That's the stuff that drives me crazy too. Yeah, and that's part of what I think the framing of the question is. I have all kinds of issues with the framing of the question. First of all, the idea that Israel just has a PR problem is just disgusting, in my opinion, genocide. We're going to get to that with Meghan.

37:13She said that, too. She's like, the Palestinians are masters of propaganda. And that, you know, oh, the problem is just this incendiary rhetoric. And why don't you do more to condemn this incendiary rhetoric? Well, because he supports it. Because he is the one implementing and pushing forward the policy that they want to see. I mean, we're talking right now as Gaza City is being invaded. You had another security minister who said that Gaza City itself should be exactly like Rafa, which we turned into a city of ruins. Like, again, this is not some random fringe character. These are people in the security cabinet who have power.

37:54We also can talk about the moving forward of a critical number of settlements that will completely destroy the idea that there could ever be a two-state solution. So to frame this as like a rhetoric or a messaging issue at this point is frankly disgusting. But I mean, it is, at least he pushed him on something, you know, certainly was more prepared. You got to give the guy more than, yeah, the Nelk boys. More prepared than the Nelk boys. Right. They did set the bar like in the basement, but they were more prepared by the Nelk boys. But I don't know, Sagar, what can you get out of these type of interviews with Netanyahu.

38:28You know, because we know, we can predict his answers before he gives him. The American Western media is full of Israeli Hasbara propaganda. We know exactly what their line is all the time because we get it from every single news outlet. So I'm not sure what you really get new out of hearing Netanyahu for the thousandth time, you know, gaslight us about what's really going on and what his position really and truly is. I don't know. I mean, I still think it is worth it. There's a lot of issues with this. In general, part of the reason that Netanyahu agrees is because Constantine has just been so massively pro-Israel, as he displayed in his question.

39:11at the same time getting people on the record is good and actually asking them even about the word ethnic cleansing is good because what did he do? He denied ethnic cleansing. That's not even a question that has happened currently from the Western media and or inside of Israeli media because they're not going to push it because frankly a lot of them support it. And so at the very least, like you get it for the historical record, you're not going to change policy. That's a fantasy for most journalists. But you know, challenging, actually getting to the heart of it. I think he could have done a better job, but he did better than a lot of other people.

39:41So you got to give credit where it is due. You ask the question. Look, I mean, nobody's going to sit there and be like, you're a war criminal and be like, you know what? You're right. I am a war criminal. That's the fantasy. But at the end of the day, getting the reaction at the very least pressing on the security issue, it can make an impact. They could have made more. I mean, if they were better prepared, they could have specifically gone through the actual, because the challenge of the question is the premise was that it's Bibi's government and not Bibi himself. When it's like, no, actually, I mean, even if you compare his original answer on, quote, civilian government and occupation, it's like your government is currently engaged in a plan to force other nations to accept Palestinians.

40:21How is that non-ethnic cleansing? Right? And I'll be like, that's something you are doing. And even if you just want to stay in the lane of rhetoric, pull up Bibi's own comments. Oh, totally. Yeah, Amalek. Yeah. And what are the children of the darkness and all this other crap that he said. I mean, you can pull up direct statements from him that it's like, no, you're not really any. You may couch it more for, you know, English Western media, but you are on board. You sound very similar to how all of these guys sound. And his life mission has been to make sure that there is no Palestinian state.

40:53This is Becca and Tanya from Scrubbing In with Becca Tilly and Tanya Rad. Becca, can I ask you a question? How do I convince myself I need something before I buy it. Oh, so we're doing that today. Well, I'll be shopping online and suddenly I'm like, well, technically this counts as self-care. You're definitely not alone there. That's why Klarna stands out. It's about smarter tools that help you feel more confident with your money. Klarna brings payments, cashback and money management together in one place with flexible ways to pay. It helps you make smarter money moves without the stress. That's the goal, right?

41:29Having tools that make your money work with you. Download the Klarna app today or visit Klarna.com to learn more. California resident loans made or arranged pursuant to a California finance law license. NMLS number 1353190. Klarna balance account required to be eligible for cashback points. Limitations, terms, and conditions apply.

41:54The 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 percent 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.

42:45carbs per serving. With Hero Bread, there are no compromises, just flavor. There's none of the stiff baked goods you'd expect from Better For You brands. There's just the soft, fluffy bread you crave. Plus, small batch drops of indulgent favorites like the popular 2-gram net carb Hero croissant and 3-gram net carb Hero pen au chocolat. And right now, Hero Bread is offering 10 % off your order. Go to Hero.co and use code IHEART at checkout. That's code IHEART at H-E-R-O dot C-O. All figures for serving of Hero Bread. See nutrition facts on Hero.co. Let's go and get to the very latest with regard to what is going on.

43:26Let's put this image up on the screen just so everybody knows what we're talking about with Gaza City here. So this is the before and after. Already, Gaza City is, you know, so much of it is destroyed and just turned into rubble and unlivable by any reasonable standard. Nevertheless, the invasion of Gaza, the reinvasion of Gaza City has begun. The latest that I saw was that the Israeli army had reached the outskirts of Gaza City, which of course is the largest city in the Gaza Strip. You know, many hundreds of thousands, we don't know exactly how many, but many hundreds of thousands of people have returned now to Gaza City.

44:05You'll remember the way that this, their initial invasion occurred sort of went from north to south and people kept getting pushed further and further and further south until they were in Rafah. All eyes were on Rafah and then Rafah was utterly and completely destroyed. Now you have, as I said before, high level security minister in the security cabinet saying, hey, we want to do to Gaza City what we did to Rafah. Palestinians are trying to decide whether or not we can put the next element before up on the screen, guys, as well. Palestinians are trying to decide whether they're going to move yet again, be displaced yet again.

44:41Many of them have had to relocate some five, six, seven, eight different times. They're utterly exhausted. They have little resources in terms of food or money or anything else. Most of the structures in the entire Gaza Strip, not just in Gaza City, have been destroyed. So it's not like you can go and like rent an apartment. Everything is bombed to pieces. In fact, there's a drop site did a piece on the dystopian real estate market that has sprung up where people will rent even something that has been bombed, you know, and is effectively like a shell if it even has any sort of roof that is intact.

45:20That's what we're talking about. So, you know, I remember Senator Slotkin told us that the sort of conventional military attack had finished. That is very much not the case. It is escalating. There are already horrific images which are coming out. And so, you know, I mean, I think this dovetails well with the interview that was done here by the guys over at Trigger Anometry where Netanyahu is trying, oh, no, ethnic cleansing, I would never. We don't want to occupy, blah, blah, blah. And meanwhile, this is what's actually unfolding in the real world. Yeah, no, it is crazy, especially because we were saying, you know, we don't even have a lot of images from it.

45:58And there's kind of a reason why. A lot of it is because most of these journalists are dead. That was the— Yeah, that's right. Unfortunately, that really was the impetus. It appears behind some of these killings. That's what Ryan was emphasizing. Yeah, that's why they murdered that whole Al Jazeera crew because they were planning to stay and cover the re-invasion of Gaza City. That's right. And now they can't because they're dead. Yeah, and, you know, in continuing with the expansion on this settlement question, it is – by the way, we're going to have a very interesting interview hopefully soon.

46:25But there was a man who was a top press officer at the State Department who was just fired because he wanted to release a statement from the United States expressing condolences about the loss of life for journalists in Gaza. And he was fired for that. Now, keep in mind, not only was he fired just for that, but also because he pushed back and said that the United States State Department should not refer to the West Bank and Gaza as Judea and Samaria. And it appears that he was knifed by Mike Huckabee's most senior aide, David Milstein. And so, yeah, hopefully we're going to have an interview with this gentleman soon.

47:03But I just want people to see, too, about like that settlement question and about the adoption of their own language and rhetoric here in our government is now basically open for – it's open for business. That's right. Has been, I know, from a policy level. But look, this stuff still does matter how the U.S. government refers to the West Bank as Judea – and West Bank of Gaza, Judea and Samaria are not. That stuff matters. Yes, the ambassador says it. But when Maine state and the secretary of state says stuff like that, that's a declaration of policy at a government level. Yeah, that's right. And it seems like Milstein has been an important force behind the scenes.

47:37And he shouldn't be. He's just like an aide to the ambassador to Israel. But he is really taking control of a lot of the Israel policy. And he is extremely hard line. And to your point about like, yes, the U.S. obviously under bipartisan presence has always been very pro-Israel. No one is denying that. But there used to be, you know, the official line was that we support a two-state solution. and we are opposed to the illegal settlements. That's all out the window at this point. They don't even pretend. There's not even a pretense. And in fact, Ambassador Mike Huckabee went on Israel's Army Radio drop site, picked this up, and said that this new settlement plan, which is incredibly significant, it's called E-1.

48:22It's east of Jerusalem. The UN has long said for years that moving forward with construction of this particular settlement would, quote, drive a stake through the heart of a two-state solution because the way that it severs Palestinian communities in the West Bank. In any case, Mike Huckabee went on Israel's Army Radio and said that Washington does not oppose that plan. Let's go ahead and take a listen to a little of that. It is not a violation of law for Israelis to live in the land. And to say that they can't would be rather bizarre to say that anyone else could live in regions, but Israelis could not.

49:05Whether or not there should be a massive development in E1 is a decision for the government of Israel to make. And so we would not try to evaluate the good or the bad of that. So there you go. They're on board with it. No problem. I mean, this is, you know, And the minute that Huckabee was put in as ambassador, I mean, he is a religious zealot when it comes to Israel. You know, we knew that was an extraordinary, significant development. And our friend Jasper talks about how the annexation of the West Bank, which was Miriam Adelson's main priority with her investment in Trump, with her campaign contribution to Trump.

49:44That was her main goal. And it is effectively accomplished. So this is, you know, this is what she got for her money. Yeah, you're right. And those settlements are the ones that we've covered here extensively because they're the ones that historically were never pursued by any even right-wing Israeli government because it would block the establishment of a Palestinian state. So that's what the symbolism of this is. And, of course, it was approved by one of those cabinet members inside of Bibi. So just so everybody understands. Yeah, that's exactly right. Let's go put the next one up on the screen just about the State Department.

50:15This one is important. So they say that the U.S. State Department will now further number of sanctions in response to the ICC's, quote, ongoing threat to Americans and Israelis. So what they say is they are designating several members of the ICC. Now, why? It's because, quote, these individuals are foreign persons who are directly engaged in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel without the consent of their either nation. Now, let's make it very clear. It's about investigation, arrest, and detention of Israeli officials. It has nothing to do with American officials.

50:52And to the extent that it does, it's about support for Israel, just so we're all very clear. And of course, this decision has been hailed by the Israeli cabinet members and others, even some ex-cabinet members, who ironically are not right-wing enough for Bibi but still, you know, whatever, under arrest warrant by the ICC. And it's – I mean look, it's a classic case. the full force of the U.S. empire being used to protect the Israeli government. You can't make this shit up. It's like an anti-Semitic conspiracy. Yeah, no, truly. And let's jump forward to B8 because I know Sagar really enjoys this particular element and dynamic.

51:28You've got 225 new immigrants from the U.S. and Canada landing in Israel here, you know, going to— they won't renounce their U.S. citizenship, but they will become dual Israeli citizens here, Sagar. I know you love this. Yeah, absolutely, of course. Very patriotic Americans who have made Aliyah. More than 1 ,000 immigrants, quote, have arrived from North America, according to the Ministry of Aliyah and, quote, integration in Israel. Keep in mind that many of these people end up becoming the most psychotic and settler regime, like settlers, who end up occupying some of the areas inside of the West Bank.

52:04There's that famous video of that guy from Brooklyn berating a Palestinian woman. And he's like, if I don't steal your house, then somebody else will steal it. You know, I mean, it's something I actually noticed when I visited the Western Wall. And, you know, before you get there, there's these people who greet you. And I was talking to them and he's like, where are you from? And I was like, oh, I'm from, you know, Texas or whatever. He's like, oh, I'm from Boston. I was like, oh, OK. I was like, got it. I was like, do you live here? He's like, yeah, I live here. I was like, oh, all right. Well, you know, got it.

52:31So this is a common thing. He was an Orthodox, too. So there you go. Yeah, I told you. It's crazy to me. I looked it up. My kid's dad is Jewish. and typically the, you know, it passes through, it's supposed to be the mom that's Jewish, but in some reform Judaism, then it can be either. And sure enough, yeah, they could move there. They could become Israeli citizens. Palestinians aren't allowed to have rights there, but my kids who have no connection to it, I mean, it's just utterly, insanely preposterous. One more piece that I just found interesting that I wanted to flag for everybody, this again is DropSite B7.

53:06Let's put this up on the screen. Apparently, this Palestinian businessman, Samir Hulela, he's claiming the U.S. approached him to be the governor of Gaza. They describe him as a little-known Ramallah-based businessman and economist who's taken on various roles in the Palestinian Authority and as a cabinet secretary to the PA for several months in late 2005 and 2006. 2006. Anyway, he is alleging that he was approached about, you know, being sort of installed as a governor of Gaza. So I guess they have been doing some reach outs to find their Chalabi. He looks just like him. Right. And he also he spent some money on like a lobbyist here in D.C.

53:52because, you know, it doesn't matter what the Palestinian people want. It matters who you can convince here in this town, apparently, to rule the Gaza Stros. This is classic. If you've ever spent enough time in Washington, the suit with the quarter zip is a dead giveaway. That means something is not right here. It usually means somebody with too much money and bad taste, which is, of course, exactly who is welcomed here in the halls. Just look at the White House. Terrible combination. It's not a good combo, usually. And so, yeah, we have our Ahmed Chalabi for what the future may hold. We'll see.

54:26This is Becca and Tanya from Scrubbing In with Becca Tilly and Tanya Rad. Becca, can I ask you a question? How do I convince myself I need something before I buy it? Oh, so we're doing that today. Well, I'll be shopping online and suddenly I'm like, well, technically this counts as self-care. You're definitely not alone there. That's why Klarna stands out. It's about smarter tools that help you feel more confident with your money. Klarna brings payments, cash back, and money management together in one place with flexible ways to pay. It helps you make smarter money moves without the stress. That's the goal, right?

55:02Having tools that make your money work with you. Download the Klarna app today or visit Klarna.com to learn more. California resident loans made or arranged pursuant to a California finance law license. NMLS number 1353190. Klarna balance account required to be eligible for cash back points. limitations, terms, and conditions apply.

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56:30Plus, small batch drops of indulgent favorites, like the popular 2-gram net carb Hero Croissant and 3-gram net carb Hero Pen au Chocolat. And right now, Hero Bread is offering 10 % off your order. Go to Hero.co and use code IHEART at checkout. That's code IHEART at H-E-R-O dot C-O. All figures per serving of Hero Bread. See Nutrition Facts on Hero.co. All right, let's go ahead and get to what's going on here in D.C. So Tim Dillon has some thoughts about what's going on here in D.C. and around the country. Let's go ahead and take a listen. They've already got the cops on the street that are, I mean, that are not cops or that are the military.

57:08They've already got the National Guard on the street. They already have all your information in D.C. And now they just get to decide what is and isn't over the line. That should scare everybody. You're fucking nuts, dude. If this doesn't scare you, you're nuts. All of these things that Alex Jones, you know, and I've had Alex on, I like Alex, but all these things that Alex Jones was like worried about when I listened to him in the late 90s, early 2000s are coming to fruition. And he, you know, I don't know where he is on all of that stuff, but like, I know he's a big fan of Trump, but like, this is everything Alex Jones always talked about.

57:43Military in the street, the FEMA camp, the tech company that monitors everything, the surveillance, this is all of that. I mean, not to sound like a fucking nut, this is everything a crackhead. And I don't even mean a crackhead like crack, but a guy smoking weed in a room with a fucking blacklight. He'd be like, bro, bro, there's going to be military in the street. They're going to put you in jail for fucking your fucking thoughts, man. If you just say them, bro, you're going to be in fucking jail. There's going to be a fucking company that monitors everything you do, bro. Like, this is literally the wet dream of every conspiracy theorist that has ever lived.

58:34And it's happening now. Making a lot of good points there. I mean, the Alex Jones call in particular. It is so true that all of like sort of the wildest theorizing about what a government crackdown could look like. Like a lot of it is unfolding before us. You know, you have the kidnapping of people for wrong thought, wrong think on Israel and the, you know, the crackdown there was we're going to cover the fact that they're going to now screen everybody's social media before they come in the country for, quote unquote, anti-Semitism, using the Department of Education and HHS to make sure you're cracking down on that as well.

59:06The National Guard, six different states, national guards here in D.C. to like, you know, we actually put C4 up on the screen. You had an MRAP that T-boned a civilian regular vehicle here in D.C. It's something similar that happened in L.A., by the way, where you had, I think it was ICE agents in a regular vehicle that like T-boned somebody as they were speeding around the city. Just absolutely dystopian. Then you add in like the Palantir contract and what all of that is going to look like, the deportations with no deep process in a slave labor camp. And, you know, I mean, Alex Jones has expressed concerns about a few things, but you can imagine if this was being done by a Democrat, it would be complete hair on fire because it really is a lot of the conspiracy theorizing worst case scenario over the years just sort of playing out in front of us in real time.

59:57I think it's fair. And yeah, I mean, it pains me to say it, but I do think it is fair. And One, it is especially because if I think back to January 6th and the federal occupation of our city, which I thought was ridiculous. Yeah, we both said so at the time. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Yeah. And, you know, it's very hard because on the one hand, I cannot stand people talking about how, oh, D.C. is safe and it's great. No, sorry. Ridiculous. Like the violent crime is still bad. Yes, it's down. It's still much higher than it was five years ago. Union Station is a shithole. It has been a shithole.

1:00:31for five years. I've lived here since 2010, which by the way, in retrospect, was the best year to ever live here. It's the lowest of the violent crime rate has ever been. By 2014, it's gone downhill. There's a lot of reasons for that. The crime situation is bad. I used to live, I lived on the block, literally where Big Balls was assaulted or whatever. Somebody was murdered, shot in the head, innocent bystander, exactly one block away. The restaurant I took my parents to was the subject of a gunfight less than three days later where somebody was shot and almost killed, bullet holes that were sprayed in the way.

1:01:06So I'm not exaggerating. It's bad, and it's been bad. There are different ways to fix it, and this is generally not the competent way. And I think that's kind of been my, if you were to say my break with the Trump administration, it's that they have, in many cases, I think, points about illegal immigration, about crime in D.C., But what they choose is the showmanship versus the execution. And that's actually bad for two reasons, and I'll explain, which is it negatively polarizes the entire country about the point that you're actually trying to make. And the point that you make doesn't even get fixed.

1:01:42So you kind of pair those two things together where, yeah, it's fun to do your little press conference at Union Station. And what you do is you troll the liberals into trying to say that actually Union Station is safe. When in reality, it's like, look, if you live here, we have two huge problems here in Washington, D.C. Number one is juvenile offenders and basically lack of prosecution. That is a literal Biden policy that was adopted and led to widespread crime throughout the entire city, carjackings, et cetera. That is an attorney general problem, which is very easily solved. In fact, actually – and I'm curious because this is where the libertarian and everything aligns.

1:02:22Janine Pirro – is that her name? Janine Pirro? Judge Jeanine just announced yesterday that D.C. will no longer pursue firearms charges against people in the city. And I'm like, well, the libertarian in me who's like, yeah, good. But the other hand is like if we're all being honest, like gun charge is the easiest way to get most of these people off the streets. Well, that's what the black 2A advocates often say is that gun charges are the way that – Yeah, it's how you go federal. That's how the criminal justice system is. That's the entry point. Yes, it's the easiest way to get somebody locked up.

1:02:56Yeah, a bunch of people, disproportionately black people. And I mean, I do think part of, so zooming out from D.C., this country has much higher rates of violent crime in cities across the country than similarly situated, like developed nations. No question. No doubt about it. I think if you look at, you know, the differences between those countries, one of the things is we are awash in guns. That is a big part of that is not something that Republicans want to do anything about whatsoever. And like you said, Piro is going in the opposite direction here in D.C. in terms of actually cracking down on the firearms here.

1:03:31D.C. comparatively has relatively tight firearm restrictions. But obviously it's a city with Virginia on the other side. Virginia, you can get any gun you want basically any time with very few restrictions. But this is the D.C. has the strictest gun laws in the entire country. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. There's Virginia's right there. Sure. So it makes it. Yeah, but Maryland has some of the – Maryland has the same standards as California. So I guess – The country as a whole is awash in firearms. And that is certainly – now, it may not be all of it. I think the mass inequality, the fact that you have this entrenched underclass, very little social safety net, I think that is part of it as well.

1:04:05I'm not saying that it's one thing. But that's part of the conversation. But some of, to me, the most interesting reporting that's been going on – and I think you would share this sentiment – is the journalists who actually went into Anacostia, across the river. the neighborhoods that suffer the most from violent crime, truly. And talk to residents there. I'm like, how do you feel about this? And there's an openness. No, they're like, they're like, listen, we're open to it. Yeah, that's true. It's on the record. I mean, they're like, we would like to see more law. And we would love it if this would help.

1:04:37But there is zero. I mean, first of all, there's very little presence there at all. This has all been, you know, MRAPs on the mall and outside of Union Station and protecting Georgetown cupcakes or whatever, which is not to say there's zero crime in those places, but much less than in other parts of the city. So that's number one. But number two, if they were serious about wanting to get the - I mean, no, you just can't take them seriously. This is the same government that stripped a billion dollars in funding from the DC budget that is supposed to go to things like public safety. So lo and behold, we can put C5 up on the screen, they did a poll of D.C.

1:05:17residents, the people that this is supposedly meant to help, and 8 and 10 are like, no, of course we don't want this. 8 and 10 Washingtonians oppose Trump taking control of D.C.'s police and federal troops patrolling the streets. You have the question specifically is, do you support or oppose Trump ordering the federal government to take control of D.C., D.C.'s police department, and ordering the National Guard and FBI to patrol D.C.? 9 % strongly support, 8 % somewhat support, and then you have 79 % who either strongly oppose. And by the way, the strongly oppose is 69%. So really 70 % of the city is like absolutely not.

1:05:53And again, those are the people that they're posturing like they want to help and everyone can just see through it. And Sagar, the thing that I've struggled with in sort of like communicating about this administration or even intellectualizing this administration and really trying to like grapple with it in a way that's not hyperbolic or hysterical is on the one hand, you have these preposterously authoritarian shows of force that are just meant to demonstrate like, you know, military crackdown. And on the other hand, they're so like incompetent and buffoonish. And so it's hard to take seriously the, you know, authoritarian nature of what's being done when you call in National Guard from six surrounding states and, you know, MRAPs in the streets and all this crap.

1:06:37It's hard to take seriously that when, on the other hand, they're just, they're like a bunch of idiotic, incompetent, trolling clowns. I would say, that is the critique that I am most sympathetic to. And again, I think is also the one which is going to land the best because it's about the both. it's very again it's hard because the i i literally moved out here because of crime and i know a lot of other people who did it's bad and it's like i can't sit and be gaslit by people who are telling me that it's not good it's just it's horrible and i've lived here for so long i actually watched the decline it's quality of life crime and the general feeling of safety and sorry yes that's an actual feeling of safety which entails vagrancy and general just like the having to worry about getting stabbed by somebody mentally ill on the street is a real thing.

1:07:28Same in Union Station. You watched it go from a place of business people to bum showers in the span of two to three years, and it really still has not really returned to how it used to be. Now, there's a lot of reasons for that, COVID and all that one, but this is where I get frustrated with the Washington, D.C. residents. They don't actually want to do anything about it. That's part of the other problem. There, D.C. city council, the mayor may be pro-cop. The city council shoots down every single attempt to try and hire more MPD officers. The juvenile problem is the one that the city council members themselves are the ones who are fighting for more leniency, which is leading to all this truancy crisis.

1:08:04And by the way, this city spends more than every other public school per capita than any place in the country. And they have the highest truancy rate. Some 30, 30 % of DC students are truant. Something that Delano Esquire said on our show, which I look uncomfortable, but people always want to whitewash it. Like if you have a school district where 90 percent truant that's a parent problem it's true and people need to like no no no no we have to get real like if you are like 90 percent of you are what he said but i actually thought what he said was so silly though because he was like his answer was like the mayor should say parents should do a better job it's like what the fuck is that gonna do hold them that's actually a more pathetic answer than like what left okay but no hold them accountable it's the same way if your kid is 15 and they use your AR-15 to go and shoot up a school, you need to be prosecuted for that.

1:08:53I'm being serious. I agree with that. But his thing was just like, you know, wag your finger and I'm like, that's not going to do anything. It's not just, yeah, yeah. They need to go to jail. Like if your kid is out there carjacking and you have been, had multiple warnings from the school district and all of that, I'm sorry. You need to be held accountable. And the truth is, is that they have embraced all of these BLM Ferguson, like anti-crime policy or anti-police policies since 2014. Not an accident. That's the year that the city went to shit. But you do have to also acknowledge the crime rate has gone down a lot.

1:09:22It has gone down from the height of 2020. It's still way higher than 2010. I'm not an expert on D.C. politics, so I don't know what the city council has or hasn't done or whatever. They block every pro-police measure that the mayor tries. Especially in neighborhoods that suffer more from violence, residents are open to more law enforcement presence. I don't think there's any doubt about that. And in fact, it tends to be poor blacker neighborhoods where, and those two things obviously, unfortunately, America frequently go together, where there is more receptivity to law enforcement presence. So I don't think when you look at the poll, that's like 80 % are opposed to Trump.

1:09:58I don't think that's like, oh, we just don't want more law enforcement. No. They see this for the buffoonishness that it is. A lot of it is also negative. 90 % of the city voted for Congress. But they're right to see this as being ridiculous. And not to mention, if you care about law and order. Look, it goes without saying that this is the guy that pardoned, you know, all the January 6th rioters who were like beating up cops and whatever. So look, I'm with you. And it's a fair point. It's a fair point to make, especially because that happened in D.C. But in addition, you don't just have the National Guard.

1:10:28You also have all these FBI agents who are being pulled off. Like, aren't they supposed to be doing real work, not just standing around? I watched a video yesterday of some, I don't know what agency they're with because it's hard to tell in many instances, people just riding up and down the escalator at a metro station. Or picture people just like these guys just like bored standing around in an empty metro station. That actually was my old metro station. Safest one in the entire city. I mean, there you go. Thank you for protecting my fellow drunken GW students. I'm sure that they needed it. Look, I agree.

1:11:02It is buffoonish and the way that they execute it is preposterous. It's just about, but the problem has to be acknowledged. And like, that is the part where I can't move away from the city and its residents basically seem to be okay with crime. I will never understand it. It's why I left. I said, this place cannot be saved. Its own population basically is wedded to BLM signs over people not getting murdered. I don't know what it is. It's the sick psychology of the people who live here. But the thing is, and that's why exit was the only actual option. It's not like outstanding nationally in terms of the rate of violent crime.

1:11:37Well, there are, you know, in fact, red states, a number of red states have higher crime rates than blue states. I think it's Memphis and St. Louis. This is the worst that have the worst violent crime rates in the country. And while I'm sure individual policy decisions do make somewhat of a difference, you can also see that a lot of this is national trends. There was a huge national spike in crime coming in covid and coming out of covid. And there's been a similar national decline in crime in cities across the country. It was also BLM. Like, see, there is a total obfuscation of the role that BLM played in the massive spike on crime.

1:12:15The Ferguson effect is statistically proven. It's real, is that these BLM-style events, Trayvon Martin, Ferguson, led to the Ferguson effect, the cooling of crime enforcement. Same back in 2020, which led to an explosion in violent crime. The cooling of crime enforcement is mostly cops, like, not doing their job as much. Yes, because they're afraid. Now, listen, I look, I'm not some pro police fanatic. My response when the police pull up is lawyer. I don't have a fucking thing to say to you. Like, and that should be yours, too. Don't ever talk to them without a lawyer present. Zero. Even if it's a speeding ticket, don't acknowledge nothing.

1:12:47Just say lawyer, lawyer, lawyer. You don't have to say a word. Even if you pull out your ID, same thing. You can lawfully comply. You don't have to say anything. It can and will be used against you in a court of law. Look out for your own rights. I want to make that very clear. But it is also empirically clear that a systematic level lack of crime enforcement and specifically soft on crime do-gooder policies like, oh, these poor little juveniles has led to an explosion of carjackings here in Washington. It's a Washingtonian problem, and it's specifically because of the federal government. Joe Biden and a bunch of like BLM-style leftists said, oh, we can't prosecute these poor kids, and they wreaked havoc across the city.

1:13:25I just don't see how it can be a Washington-specific. I'm generally asking. I don't think it's a Washington-specific problem when you see a similar dynamic happening in cities across the country regardless of what their lives are supposed to. We have to disaggregate violent crime from quality of life crime. Carjacking is included in violent crime, but vagrancy is not. So San Francisco is a shithole. Can we all agree on that? At least major parts of it, the tenderloin, et cetera. San Francisco has a very low murder rate. They don't have a big murder problem. They have a high violent crime rate.

1:13:52But it is, in my opinion, the most unpleasant city in the United States to be in. Why? Because of violent, mentally ill drug addicts everywhere who are constantly harassing you. They may not kill you, but look, we can't just sit here and say it's acceptable. I mean, I recently had dinner in Washington in a place which I have been to. Even those stats are down in California as well. But again, you're talking about violent crime. I'm talking about quality of life. No, no, I'm talking about homelessness too, like public visible homelessness. Yeah, and part of that is because of the— Across the country as well.

1:14:22Part of that is the repeal of the Ninth Circuit in California, which basically allowed the California authorities to go in and clean up some of the areas. It's not just local. This, again, is soft on crime policy, which led to a massive explosion of the permissibility of fentanyl addicts being on every corner. I just can't live in a country where it's acceptable. So Baltimore is on track for – and Baltimore has historically been one of – in the modern era, one of the worst cities in the country in terms of specifically murders and violent crime. And I mean, The Wire we all watched, unfortunately, was too close to reality in Baltimore.

1:14:57And they're on track to have their lowest murder rate in documented history. And it wasn't just we're going to flood the zone with cops. It was a range of approaches, including more after-school activities and those sorts of things that might be stereotyped as soft on crime. So there was a model there that has been very successful that I think needs to be looked at as well. But I do also think like, you know, the national crime rate is much higher than other similar countries. And I think a good part of that has to do with guns. I think a good part of that has to do with inequality and socioeconomics.

1:15:34A good part of that has to be like a lack of social safety net. Good part of that has to do with upper lack of upward mobility. And then, you know, you have had these national trends. So, again, I'm not doubting I'm not an expert on D.C. politics. I don't know what's been done here specifically. I'm not doubting there aren't factors that have contributed to some of the specific dynamics here. But it seems like overall the more important dynamics have been like national, global trends, which have led to all of these cities moving in similar directions. See, I would agree. But my point is that the national trend is BLM.

1:16:04And like that was the singular most important thing in the history of crime. But how do you just aggregate that from COVID? I mean, that's part of it. Because the truancy rate, that to me is directly attributable to COVID. But those are two conjoined factors because it's not just truancy. It's the lack of enforcement and the do-gooder, oh, we shouldn't do anything about these poor children. And that's the – it's like that is the toxic empathy. But truancy rate is everywhere in the country. Yeah, absolutely. But D.C. is an outlier. That's my point. Out of COVID, truancy rate is up across the country because it just became like it used to be.

1:16:41You go to school every day. And then the message that was sent was basically like, well, it's kind of optional. and actually were doing this thing from home. And schools across the country have been struggling with this. Conservatives will be mad at me for saying this. We should take a lot of lessons from New York City. It is by far the safest, cleanest, and the most livable of the big cities in terms of quality of life. There's a lot of reasons for that. One is they don't tolerate this San Francisco, Los Angeles drug addiction. The vast, vast majority of people who are homeless are drug addicts.

1:17:13It is not a housing issue. That's one of those that I've probably switched on the most. In particular, watching it here in Washington, I watched it go from methamphetamine and like drunkenness to fentanyl. Fentanyl has wrecked this place. The fentanyl lean and what, you know, just look, anybody who doesn't know what I'm talking about, you can Google it. It's horrific. If you've ever been to Skid Row, San Francisco, it is entirely a fentanyl crisis, which has taken over these places, which leads to massive amounts of petty crime, massive quality of life problems, carjacking or car break-ins, breaking into cities.

1:17:47I mean, this stuff has like massive cooling effects on commerce, on the ability of people to have children. My own sister lived in San Francisco. I stayed in her apartment. I go out the door. This is a nice neighborhood. And there's a guy literally taking a shit on a stoop at 4 a.m. in the morning with a needle in his arm. I'm not joking. Like this is real stuff. And this is the stuff that happens every single day. That is an enforcement problem. Like clear and simple. New York does not tolerate that, even with all of their Democratic mayor, et cetera. New York also has a legal requirement to provide housing for everyone.

1:18:22But they don't accept drug addicts in their housing. That's an important part of it as well. And they also have a major crackdown on homes. You cannot walk your way out of this with right to housing. If you give, quote, right to housing to drug addicts, they'll rip it apart and they'll use it as a drug den. I hate to talk this way. But the other thing, Zagr, is that there's just not nearly sufficient rehab programs for people to go into. And I actually, maybe we'll agree on this. Like when Eric Adams shifted the criteria for the ability to, you know, deem someone like a threat to themselves or to others and to be able to put them into an institution, like institutionalize them and get treatment.

1:19:00And like, I actually support things like that because I do think that, you know, I, first and foremost, I care about those human beings who are unhoused, who are struggling with addiction, who are clearly living like really a miserable existence. And I do think sometimes they're in an effort to be, you know, empathetic and not to have like, often the right just wants to like criminalize or invisibilize or push out or whatever. And so in an attempt to push back on that, there's actually a lack of empathy for what that person is going through and the type of help that they need. And so, you know, I think I am in favor of more ability to, you know, get people help even when it is against their will.

1:19:47I know that's a controversial thing to say, but I think if you truly have compassion for people, like you wouldn't want someone that's your family member to be living in that state. And so in any case, this has gone kind of far afield. But it is important because it is about the show. But remember, you know, the Trump MAGA and all the support for this type of stuff and the reason why a lot of people even went along with it, you know, may be unpopular here. I need to see a nationwide polling. And yes, I'm not saying they've executed. It's unpopular nationally, too. It may be in terms of the – but like people in 2024, they were pretty fed up with a lot of this stuff.

1:20:24And I think I will never walk away from that is a good impetus. And even like what you were just talking about, the rehab and the confinement, that the most important shift that the left needs to make is to going from toxic empathy to paternalism. And yeah, you're going to hate me for saying it, but the countries you all revere like Portugal, your ass is going to jail. If you sit on a public street corner and you shut up, shoot up heroin, mandatory rehab or jail. We need to shift to that mentality. If you are in skid row and there's a needle in your arm and you're raping women, uh, trying to, you know, basically so that you can give them fentanyl, you are going to jail those fentanyl addicts who have been reduced to that horrific state.

1:21:08You're getting locked up for two years in a mandatory rehab, not some 90 day program, two years. If you look at the recidivism rate on heroin and fentanyl, it's already sky high. There needs to be a basic social contract agreement for all of us where it's like you have a problem. That problem is solvable. But it is one where we need to take away a lot of agency from you. And I'm sorry. And that is a huge problem because it conflicts with a lot of the current legal system. But this current system does not work. And it has destroyed them and it has destroyed taxpaying citizens, businesses, and others who deserve the right to live in a safe place.

1:21:46So that would be my main thing. It's like you have to embrace like the uncomfort of telling someone we are going to deprive you of your rights for quite a long time. And it's for your own good. It actually dovetails somewhat with the anti-eugenics monologue at the point. Okay, good. Because there was, you know, this progressive era push to institutionalize anybody and everybody who like, you know, were seen as basically based on poverty. You know, and sometimes it would be genuine mental illness or whatever. But there was this mass push towards institutional institutionalizing people. And then there was a backlash against that because it went way too far and you were just completely depriving people of rights.

1:22:24And again, it would be someone who just was, you know, their crime was being poor and then locked up for life and sterilized, by the way. And, you know, now you're at the point where, number one, I mean, our health care system is shit. There's not nearly enough rehab available, like people who want to get clean and sober. They don't have a place where they can go to try to avail themselves of those services. There are way too few psychiatric beds. There are way too few rehab beds, all of those sorts of things. But I do think we've also gone too far in the other direction of, you know, sometimes it genuinely is in a person's interest.

1:22:57And you have to have protections in there for civil liberties, et cetera. It's a difficult balance to strike. It's very hard. In any case, what Trump is doing is total and complete bullshit. He doesn't care about crime. It's like, you know, MRAPs T-boning cars in the streets. Way to go. Congratulations. And I think not just D.C. residents, but the polling I've seen is like the country sees through it. And you're right that just like with the, you know, the immigration backlash, there's also a backlash to this policy where people I mean, they saw what happened in L.A. too. Like most of what's happening here in terms of law enforcement is, you know, like DoorDash drivers getting like pulled off their mopeds is primarily what's going on.

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