9/9/25: Zohran Dominates Every Issue In NYC, Israel Strikes Qatar, GenZ Gender Divide

21:46That has been a breaking point for them is, wait a second, because we're not allowed to criticize this country? Why did this guy get deported? What he's talking about, he's trying to say, lop that off because you have the potential to completely realign the country. NatCon's disagree and say, no, you can realign the country while this is happening. But they haven't figured, no one has figured out the answer on this question. To me, that's a pretty healthy movement. This is unlike Democrats who bracket the conversation, don't want to talk about Israel at all in the 2024 election and are now splintered and fighting over it.

22:17This is, this I think was happening too, was we have the space and the power to say, let's air this out and figure this out before we start losing elections over it or we start going on campuses and getting yelled at because of our positions.

22:29Jeremy Scahill:Yeah, interesting. And then contrast that with Schumer, Jeffries, et cetera, who won't even endorse Zoran. I mean, they won't say exactly why, but certainly Israel is a part of that calculus there, why they find it so abhorrent to endorse the guy who won the Democratic nomination by 12 points. Dave, great to have you. Thank you so much, as always, for your insights. Thank you. I'm Manga Shatigular and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones, and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us.

23:09I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you and then we can test what draw is the best. for your brain, as opposed to his brain. Here's some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. Make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Michael Rappaport and my podcast, the I Am Rappaport Stereo Podcast, is unlike anyone you've ever heard.

23:57We're a variety show and if you're looking for strong opinions, funny opinions about sports, entertainment, politics, pop culture, and whatever else catches my attention, then subscribe now. This kid Jafar Jackson is as good as Rami Malek, as Freddie Mercury, and it's as good as Timothy Chamillai, as Bob Dylan. And I say that with love and respect for both of those actors. And I don't know how many Oscar nominations they give out. I don't know if it's five, six for best actor. 150 % this kid Jafar Jackson should absolutely positively get nominated for his portrayal as Michael Jackson. Listen to I Am Rappaport on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

24:44I Am Rappaport Podcast. In 2015, teenager Joy Morgan discovered strangely compelling YouTube sermons from the religious group Israel United in Christ, or IUIC. Her initial curiosity developed into devotion. She distanced herself from friends and family, embraced new identity, immersed herself in the IUIC, and believed she'd found the truth. IUIC is the best family that I've ever had. In fact, she had found what many called a cult. And on Boxing Day 2018, Joy disappeared forever. In the new six-part investigative podcast, The Missing Sister, Charlie Brinkhurst Cuff and Free Turn explore Joy's story, the family she left, and the religious group she found.

25:29You know when you get out of feed, I'm like, you just, I don't want to be here. I want to get out. I can't want to go home now. It's a story about truth, lies, a young woman yearning to belong, and a family still waiting for answers. All episodes available now to binge. Listen to The Missing Sister on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

25:51Jeremy Scahill:We've got a number of significant developments we are tracking with regard to Israel and Gaza, and we are joined this morning, fortunately, by Jeremy Scahill, of course, co-founder of DropSite News, alongside our own Ryan Grimm. Great to see you, Jeremy. Good to see you, man. Good to be with you guys. I wanted to start with these very nascent reports we're getting of some type of an explosion in Doha. There is some speculation. It could have been at the Hamas offices there. So, Jeremy, what can we say about the possibility of what's going on here? Well, without speculating on the particulars of it, because at this point we don't know anything factually other than there's reports of an explosion.

26:27And Israel has made clear for decades that it's willing to assassinate Palestinian political figures, resistance leaders, etc. But in recent weeks, the chief of staff of the Israeli army said quite explicitly that if Hamas does not surrender, it's not only going to obliterate and annihilate all of Gaza, but that it is going to target for assassination Hamas leaders abroad. Now, of course, most of the Hamas figures that are trying to negotiate these ceasefire deals and are essentially running the organization politically are outside of Gaza. And, you know, many of them are in Doha, in Qatar. And, of course, Israel last summer assassinated the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in a strike in Tehran, Iran.

27:21It also assassinated recently, or it's also assassinated much of the on-the-ground leadership of the Kassan Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, as well as the political leader in Gaza of Hamas, Yahya Senwar. So Israel has a long history of assassinating Palestinian political figures. In fact, many years ago, there was an incredible story that happened where Khaled Mashal, one of the leaders of Hamas, was in Jordan in the Middle East, and Israeli Mossad agents poisoned him. And it caused a huge diplomatic uproar between Jordan and Israel. And essentially, a Mossad agent had to fly on a plane with the antidote for this poison to resuscitate Khaled Mashal.

28:09So it's something out of a movie, but that actually happened. So, you know, we should be watching this very carefully because Donald Trump is, you know, put forward this vague ceasefire proposal that we're going to talk about. And it seems like any time there's the possibility of some form of negotiation, the Israelis not only escalate on the ground in Gaza, but then increase their threats like we're seeing now to potentially assassinate external leadership of Hamas. Right. I mean, Jeremy, we were talking a bit before the break, but it's very important to note there are hundreds of thousands of Americans present in Doha, not to mention all of the troops that are there.

28:43And it is, of course, been a way station for a lot of the diplomatic talks between the United States, between the world, Hamas and Israel. And so, of course, it would be sending a message just as previous Israeli assassinations like in Tehran and elsewhere did. We did want originally to talk to you about this ceasefire proposal. We can go ahead and put it up here on the screen just so you can give us some insight. It's a hundred word ceasefire proposal from Trump to Hamas. Can you break it down for us, the level of seriousness and what exactly it means? Well, I think first it's important to look at the broader context here.

29:17Right now, Israel is in the midst of a sort of final solution operation in Gaza City where they're just systematically targeting these massive high rise buildings where some of them have 100 or more apartments in them. And Netanyahu said last night that all of the residents, we're talking about a million people of Gaza City, need to leave immediately, or they're going to consider them Hamas combatants. So that's the backdrop of what's happening right now, is this intensification by Israel. Hamas, three weeks ago on August 18th, actually accepted what Qatari mediators said was 98 % of the terms of what was called the Whitcoff framework.

29:56This was the deal that's being negotiated for months that would have been a 60-day ceasefire where half of the Israeli living captives and half of the deceased captives would have been released in exchange for a large number of Palestinians held by Israel. And Hamas made massive concessions and agreed to this framework. And then Israel never responded to it. And what happened is that the Trump administration and the Israeli government said, oh, no, we don't want that deal anymore. We want now an all-in deal where Hamas immediately releases all Israeli captives living and dead. And so what we obtained was a 100-word summary of what Donald Trump has communicated to Hamas.

30:37And what it basically says is that within 48 hours of signing an agreement, Hamas would need to release every single Israeli that it's holding captive. and that a certain number of Palestinians, it doesn't specify how many, some of whom are serving life sentences, others who were snatched from Gaza after October 7th would be released. It says that there would be a 60-day ceasefire and that Donald Trump would take responsibility for ensuring that the ceasefire held while negotiations to formally end the war took place. What it also says is that there would need to be a new government installed in Gaza in order to even discuss Israeli troop withdrawals.

31:16It does say that there will be aid allowed into Gaza, but it doesn't specify how much aid, who would distribute the aid. So, you know, talking privately to officials from Hamas, they have compared this essentially to a surrender document. They suspect that it was written by Israel. The document was presented in Arabic was clumsy Arabic, strange word choices. So Hamas is speculating that it was written by Israel, and we know that that has happened in the past with U.S. proposals. But then Amir Sadal, one of the top propagandists for Netanyahu on Israeli public television, he himself came out and said that this is an Israeli proposal wrapped in fancy American cellophane.

31:58And he, you know, so he said the quiet part out loud. So what I think we're seeing here is, you know, Trump, I think, genuinely wants to wrap this up, so to speak, but he wants to do it on Israel's terms. So essentially what they're doing is saying, listen, accept this surrender order from Israel, and I'll see if I can do something about maybe ending the genocide. And there's no guarantees that Israel wouldn't just get its captives back and then continue with the war of annihilation. So I think it's extremely unlikely, if not flat out impossible, that Hamas would agree to to such a Jeremy while you're talking.

32:32Yeah, go ahead.

32:32Jeremy Scahill:We have an update from Barack Ravid tweeted from senior Israeli officials, quote, the explosion in Doha is an assassination operation against senior Hamas officials. So it would appear to be confirmation of what you and others suspected was going on there. Yeah. And again, I mean, there is a very long history of Israel assassinating Palestinian political figures, not just within the borders of historic Palestine, but externally. And again, Israel openly has said in recent days that if Hamas doesn't surrender and demilitarize and give up its arms and release the Israeli captives, that it was going to begin targeting the external leadership of Hamas.

33:14And remember, this presumably would mean that they are also attempting to assassinate the very people who would be negotiating a ceasefire. And Donald Trump just days ago submitted what he said is a new proposal for a ceasefire. So doing that and then turning around and assassinating the negotiators while they're deliberating a proposal from the president of the United States sends a message that the U.S. is backing Israel in just constantly choosing to murder Palestinians instead of using diplomatic roads when the Palestinians have said repeatedly they're open to an agreement either in phases to release half the Israeli captives within 60 days and the other half once a ceasefire is negotiated or to do an all for all deal.

33:58And again, Hamas made major concessions. And I think it's worth pointing out, among the concessions they made was allowing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to continue operating, despite the fact that upwards of 2 ,000 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid since May when they started. They backed off of their demand that there be a clear timeline for withdrawal of Israeli forces from the strategic Philadelphia corridor. They reduced the number of Palestinians that they were demanding be freed in return for Israeli captives. And they also agreed to allow an Israeli-enforced buffer zone to encircle the entirety of the Gaza Strip, at some points piercing 1 ,500 meters inside of Gaza.

34:37And Israel and the United States never formally responded to that offer. So, you know, this if this is true, then what they're doing beyond the fact that they're conducting assassinations on Qatari soil, which also houses U.S. CENTCOM, which also is the lead mediator in these talks, they are killing the very people that Donald Trump just sent a offer to to try to reach a ceasefire deal. Wow. Jeremy, this may be a dumb question, but it's pretty clear that Hamas or sorry that Israel and the U.S. are just seeking unconditional surrender. The terms that you just laid out effectively, I mean, would not only lead to a quote unquote new government, but is really continued occupation control of this so-called buffer zone.

35:23um what exactly does hamas see as the difference between that already you know pretty extraordinary concessions considering what they started out with as opposed to unconditional surrender like why don't they just take the unconditional surrender if they're effectively signing their own demise and their own control anyways well two things one is and hamas leaders have said this to me privately they don't want to be in control of gaza anymore um you know this is an albatross around the neck of Hamas, and it has been for many, many years. So they've said quite clearly they're willing to relinquish control.

35:56The issue, though, is that while we say Hamas, it's not just Hamas. There are many Palestinian political groups, including those opposed to Hamas or that are not allied with Hamas, including those that have no armed factions but are political parties that stand for elections, that also have been part of these negotiations. And what they all have said is that our right to bear arms in opposition to an illegal occupation by a colonial apartheid state is a legitimate right. And so while Hamas could say, OK, we step down from power, we're not going to exist anymore in this format, they're not going to sign a document that says, we agree to demilitarize the Gaza Strip.

36:35In fact, they've said, we don't have the right to do that, that that is a question for the Palestinian people. And consistently in public opinion polls, Palestinians support the right to armed resistance. I think at the end of the day, the direct answer to your question is that they view that not as a surrender of Hamas as a political entity or a movement, but that it would be them taking the outrageous action of surrendering the Palestinian cause of liberation. And whatever anyone thinks of Hamas, I think that's a true statement, given that Hamas is used as kind of the catch-all to describe Palestinian armed resistance right now.

37:08The fact is that the struggle, the armed struggle, far predates Hamas. And if Hamas surrenders itself and dismantles and no longer exists, another group of Palestinians are going to rise up under the same type of banner with the same aim to repel Israel's occupation and liberate Palestine by any means necessary, including armed force. So, you know, you have to look at this not in the context of October 7th, but in the context of 76 years of history. And I think that genuinely is how the Hamas negotiators view this.

37:39Jeremy Scahill:Jeremy, last question I have for you is, do you find it plausible that Israel could have gone forward with this assassination operation without at least in some way having been greenlit by the U.S.? You know, there were some reports that Donald Trump had relayed to Hamas that that was an option on the table. When I spoke to Hamas leaders over the past several days, none of them said that that was true. They didn't exactly say that it was false, but they said, not that I know of, not according to my information. It would surprise me if there wasn't some form of consultation with Donald Trump. And look, the guy just greenlit this strike on the boat off of Venezuela.

38:17There's still questions about who the people were that they killed. He greenlit an assassination of Qasem Soleimani in his first term, bombing him in a third country in Baghdad, Iraq. So, you know, do I know that Donald Trump was aware of this? no. Do I suspect it? Yes. I mean, Jeremy, as you laid out, CENTCOM is there. Nothing's flying in the airspace over there without U.S., at least my own personal speculation, just in terms of pure deconfliction for making sure that U.S. assets don't get confused. This is still an extraordinary message. That's actually my last question. How is the Gulf going to handle this?

38:58So if you are the UAE, if you're Saudi Arabia, and I know they have complicated relations themselves with Qatar, obviously. But I mean, for them, the answer has to be you can house U.S. troops, you can buy hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. arms, and you still may see basically, you know, explosions and attacks by a U.S. ally on your soil. I mean, doesn't it undermine a lot of their own security doctrine? I mean, first of all, you know, many Palestinians see the United Arab Emirates as basically now a self-declared suburb of Israel. You know, it was the lead figure in the Abraham Accords, but also is, you know, constantly taking Israel's side.

39:40But if you look at Qatar, this is a, you know, a different equation. I mean, you mentioned CENTCOM being there. But, you know, Trump also has these huge business deals going on, not just, you know, officially in his capacity as president and getting his airplane and all those things, but also his family businesses. So there's deep ties there. The cold hard fact at the end of the day is that what the U.S. and Israel have shown is that Israel can do whatever it wants in that region and not a single Arab country, particularly those in the Gulf, are going to do a thing about it. So Israel doesn't need these normalization agreements anymore.

40:14Israel has shown that it can do whatever it wants. It can strike wherever it wants and not a single one of these decrepit regimes are going to do a thing about it. And that's the cold fact at the end of the day.

40:26Jeremy Scahill:Yeah, you're right. I think that's well said. Jeremy, thank you so much. Great to have your insights as always. Thank you guys. I'm Munga Shatikula and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones, and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you, and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, as opposed to his brain. Here are some hard truths.

41:07I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. Make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

41:53This kid Jafar Jackson is as good as Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury. And it's as good as Timothy Chamolix as Bob Dylan. And I say that with love and respect for both of those actors. And I don't know how many Oscar nominations they give out. I don't know if it's five, six for best actor. 150 % this kid Jafar Jackson should absolutely positively get nominated for his portrayal as Michael Jackson. Listen to I Am Rappaport on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I Am Rappaport Podcast. In 2015, teenager Joy Morgan discovered strangely compelling YouTube sermons from the religious group Israel United in Christ, or IUIC.

42:42Her initial curiosity developed into devotion. She distanced herself from friends and family, embraced new identity, immersed herself in the IUIC, and believed she'd found the truth. IUIC is the best family that I've ever had. In fact, she had found what many called a cult. And on Boxing Day 2018, Joy disappeared forever. In the new six-part investigative podcast, The Missing Sister, Charlie Brinkhurst Cuff and Free Turn explore Joy's story, the family she left, and the religious group she found. You know when you get that freedom, I don't want to be here. I want to get out. I want to go home now.

43:19It's a story about truth, lies, a young woman yearning to belong, and a family still waiting for answers. All episodes available now to binge. Listen to The Missing Sister on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

43:35Jeremy Scahill:So some very interesting polling results that we wanted to dig into about Gen Z and the gender divide and the partisan divide in that particular generation. This comes courtesy of NBC News, as tweeted out by Steve Kornack, who put this first one up on the screen. So the question is, how do you define success? What is your personal definition of success? Which things here on this list are most important to that personal definition of success? So for Gen Z men who voted for Trump, number one is having children. For Gen Z women who voted for Harris, the very bottom of the list is having children.

44:15Jeremy Scahill:Similarly, being married comes in quite high for Gen Z men who voted for Trump. 29 % say that's important to their personal definition of success. Gen Z women being married is at the bottom with children at just 6%. Let me go through a few more of these because it's interesting. So just keep this up on the screen. So, you know, for both fulfilling job and career, pretty close to the top, like pretty important. For Gen Z men, financial independence, having money to do things you want, owning your own home, also, you know, pretty significant there. And being grounded spiritually, making family community proud.

44:54Jeremy Scahill:Lower on the list for Gen Z men is having emotional stability. Interesting. Able to retire early and using talents and resources to help others. Those ones were more important, in particular, the using talents and resources to help others and having emotional stability for Gen Z women who voted for Harris. We can go to the next one as well, which shows the women who voted for Trump. Also for them, you know, having children is not at the top of the list. It's kind of in the middle. And being married is towards the bottom. So again, even among those who voted for Trump, you see different views between men and women on what their personal definition of success is.

45:35Jeremy Scahill:And for men who vote for Harris, their list looks a bit more like the women who voted for Harris with being married and having children more towards the bottom of the list. So there's a lot that you could pull out of the differences here. But Sagar, what was kind of your top line takeaway of what the significance is here? Congratulations to Sheryl Sandberg. Total lean in victory. You won. Neoliberalism has officially won. And I think that the results are disastrous. And look, you know, people can do what they want to do. That's the point of the country. I think, though, this really is downstream to me of a lot of policy and also of culture and the culture over the last 15 years, particularly my generation.

46:18And so, you know, I guess Gen Z as well, who've been really inculcated in this even more so than people like me, has been if you work hard, you can get what you want and you can do whatever you want to do. And this is really driven by influencer culture as well. There's even a term for it like little treat culture where people, because the big things in life are so unaffordable, they're constantly chasing little luxuries like nice bags or a watch or any of this other stuff. And there's nothing wrong with any of that as long as you have your bigger bases covered. But the bigger bases are so unattainable that they don't even look or desire or even consider as important any of those things.

46:59And so they really focus a lot of their stuff on hyper consumerism, travel, Instagramification, etc. And so, yeah, I mean, without even making it like a political point, because I do think it's important to say, you know, even Gen Z women who voted for Trump, having children is down there at the bottom. Being married is only like 20 percent. Number one is still financial independence and fulfilling job career. All I can think is, yeah, it's just like total neolib economic utility victory. And I don't think it's how it should be. You know, I don't again, I'm not going to tell people how to live.

47:32There's a lot of data. Basically, it says if you get married and have children, you're going to be happier, going to live longer. you as an economic and family unit are actually going to be more successful. You're going to make more money. You're going to have a lot more fulfillment throughout your life generally. That's what all of the data tells us. But the kind of hyper individualism that we have chased with consumerism as a society has driven us here. I blame culture, but I really blame the economy as well, because these are the things that are rewarded, are debt structures. And we're turning into Japan.

48:00We're turning into Japan where everyone is an individual worker. Having children or being married is just very low on the totem pole. A lot of women there, because of the hyper patriarchal society, have no desire to be in a relationship because if they are, they'll just be told to stay at home. So they just don't get married. They don't want to have children. They view it much more as a burden. And that's how you end up a replacement rate of 1.2 % and stagnant growth, even though you're one of the greatest civilizations in the history of the world. So it's really sad to me actually, but there's a lot of people to blame for it.

48:31I wish it were to turn around.

48:32Jeremy Scahill:I want to, I want to temper your sadness a bit because I will say the way this is phrased, like, is this important to your personal definition of success? Right? Obviously I'm a mom, three kids. They're the most important thing in my life. If you were to ask me if like just the act of having kids is my definition of quote unquote success, I'd say No, right? Having kids that are, you know, having my kids like happy and thrive and doing well in the world, pursuing the things that I consider core to my personal definition of success. That's not a choice on this list though. Like anyone can get knocked up.

49:11Jeremy Scahill:It's not like, you know, congratulations, you're so successful if you do. And so I don't, to me, it's actually kind of weird to put having kids as like your personal definition of success, like something you have to accomplish. Now, maybe it's I don't know, maybe the lens from a male perspective is a little different because having kids from a male perspective kind of entails like, OK, then I've got the marriage. I've got the financial stability to be able to pull this off, et cetera. So I sort of feel like just that gender distinction is coming through here, too, in the way that this is phrased.

49:49Jeremy Scahill:So I'd say that. I mean, listen, we've covered before. Or there's certainly a big political divide in the values and views of Gen Z men versus women. And comes through even more when you talk about Gen Z men who voted for Trump versus Gen Z women who voted for Harris. But I also feel like some of that may be a bit overstated because we're seeing, you know, if you look across the generation, you see a lot of commonalities in values, for example, with regard to how they view Israel. You know, you see a lot of commonalities with regard to just kind of broad frustration discussed with the political system overall.

50:28Jeremy Scahill:You've seen there was there was a lot of triumphalism from the from, you know, from the Trump world and from the right about the number of Gen Z men who voted for Trump. Those are some of the groups that have shifted the most dramatically away from him and are, you know, where his approval rating has fallen the most dramatically off a cliff. So I feel like a lot of this, honestly, is still kind of shaking out with this generation as they're more searching for anything that is anyone who's going to deliver for them, anything that's going to make sense, anything that's going to shake up a status quo that is truly, truly stacked against them in a lot of ways.

51:01That's a great point. And look, a lot of this could be young bias, too. I mean, if I'm being honest, you know, when I was 22 and you asked me what my definition of success was, it definitely would not be that. You know, children would not have kids. Yeah. I would be totally transparent. Right. It took a while to kind of get there. So that's definitely part of it. I do think – I think broadly I still just see the forces of the economy behind all of this because it's like you said. If the ultimate highest and best consideration of success is having children, the vision that you have in your world with that is like owning a home and having a stable job and everything that confers kind of with that, which is probably why that is out there.

51:42And it also fits with what I know a lot of these guys are watching on social media and the hustle culture and Alex Hormozy and all of this, which I don't even think there's necessarily anything bad with all of that. It's just a lot of the downstream stuff that is supposed to support you does not exist. And so that's what I spend a lot of my time really worrying about. I do actually think this is more of an interesting question for millennials because once you're my age and you're in your 30s, these become very urgent questions actually about children, about getting married and much more. I would be curious to see this poll for millennial men who voted for Trump versus millennial women and others because millennial women at this point, you're like 29 to 35.

52:30You're well-established into your career. It's like, is it worth it? Did it get what you want? Like you can theoretically say you could achieve a total amount of success when you're 20, 20. When I'm 22, if you'd asked me where I am right now, I'd be like, oh my God, I made it. Like it's, it's, it's done. You know, it's like everything you could have possibly envisioned and wanted. Is that the most important thing in your life? No, obviously I'm married now. I have a child. Right. And so your priorities kind of become much more in view. So I would be curious to see how this shakes out in a millennial view.

52:59Jeremy Scahill:Yeah. And now that I'm talking to you, I don't know if pulling a 22-year-old is the right way. Literally, their brains aren't even developed. It's true. True. It's an interesting snapshot, though. I mean, I also would say, like, the language here, it says, fulfilling job and career. We're very lucky because we have that, right? And I think the reality is, in the system we live in, you do spend most of your life at your job. So for people to say, you know, that is important in terms of my view of success, I don't think that's so crazy because that is the structure of society. I mean, that kind of dovetails with your point of like this is downstream of policy and the economic structure that we have.

53:33Jeremy Scahill:Another piece, and this is maybe a little bit more tangential, but it's been something I'm thinking about with regard to, you know, women who not only have having children at the bottom of the list, also have being married at the bottom of the list. You have a lot of you have a whole ecosystem of online influencers set up to tell you basically like, you know, to treat women poorly and women suck and don't be their friends and whatever. So there's some of that messaging coming from that. And that's like, okay, fine. If you hate me, I don't need you. There's also an entire tech economy that is developing these AI chatbots to convince everyone that they don't need anyone, that you don't need human relationships.

54:13Jeremy Scahill:You can be best friends with ChatGPT or you can be best friends with Grok or you can be best friends with Meta's AI chatbots where you can invent them and create them and make them whatever you want. and they're never going to criticize you. They're not going to hurt your feelings. They're never going to like steal your man. You know, they're just going to be there to make you happy. And you don't need this messy world of human relations. So I think some of that is going on in the background of all of this as well. Absolutely. That's well said. And it is important, you know, at a structural level.

54:45I believe if you build it, they will come. So everything is downstream of availability. if the house is not available, if the child, you know, if, if, if, if it's too expensive, I think the average marriage in the U S costs like$25 ,000 right now, uh, for a wedding. I'm pretty sure that's right. I could be wrong. I haven't looked at the statistics in quite a long time. Uh, but you think about all the associated expected, et cetera. And you're just like, eh, you know, and if that's going to be so wildly out of reach, then what is available? It's like, okay, well getting a job, anyone can get a job.

55:17Uh, anyone can, you know, hustle or, or do anything. and that becomes more available. And so I believe that like the structure of what is available also determines the possibility of your imagination. And so that's what I would like to fix more than anything.

55:33Jeremy Scahill:I think that's true. We do have an interesting Harry Enten thought about Trump and his popularity and where he's losing ground with various groups. This is E4, guys. Let's take a look at this. Look at the aggregate of the polls and look how long Donald Trump's net approval rating has been negative. It has been every day since March 12th than the average opposed. We're talking about 181 days in a row in which Donald Trump has been underwater, swimming with the fishes. There is no good data for Donald Trump when looking at the aggregate and looking overall. He has been negative for a very long period of time, the vast majority of his second presidency.

56:09Look at this. These are all the key issues. Donald Trump is underwater on all of them. Trade, obviously tariffs have been a big thing at the bottom of your list, minus 17 points. The economy, which was the reason, the reason he was elected to a second term to fix the economy, way underwater at minus 14 points. Foreign policy, minus 12. And then I think, Mr. John Berman, the key two issues at the top, because these have been Donald Trump's strongest issues, crime and immigration. But get this, he is now underwater on both of these issues, if barely, but he's underwater on crime at minus two, immigration at minus three.

56:42On all the key issues, he is, again, swimming with the fishers. Consistency across the board. Two key groups that were so important to getting Donald Trump a second term. He did so much better than the traditional Republican among those under the age of 30. And Hispanics, look at this, in February, among those under the age of 30, his net approval rating coordinator CBS News, plus two points. Look at where we are now. Negative 30 points. That's a 32-point move in the wrong direction. And Hispanics, he was six points underwater. Look at this. Minus 34 points. That's a 28-point move since February.

57:13No wonder Donald Trump's in trouble. He's steady across the board. And since February, when he was last positive, he's only gotten significantly worse among two very key groups for his election back last year.

57:23Jeremy Scahill:I mean, it shows you voters really are up for grabs. The idea that people are just locked in and that's that for some people. Yeah, there's a good percentage of the country for which that is true. But these were really two of the key swing groups in this election. And they are not happy with what they're seeing. I agree. That is the most important. Look, elections change. They change all the time. It's one of the great lessons. One of the most exciting parts about covering this, and I try to drill it into people's heads every time before an election, is just look, 96 to 2000, 2000 to 2008, 2008 to 2016, 2016 to 2024.

57:59Look at those radical changes that can all happen. By the way, even 20, I think 2016 to 2020 was one of the craziest elections. If you'll remember, Crystal, when we were looking at some of those South Texas numbers, I'll never forget it, sitting at the desk and looking at Larray. I was like, I've never in my life could have imagined that South Texas Latinos would be flipping 50 points to Donald Trump. And it happened in three and a half years. So this is something that just all politicians should notice. You should fight because you never know what actually could happen. And I do think that we are going to find that out big time in the midterm elections.

58:36this time.

58:36Jeremy Scahill:Yeah, we will see. All right, guys, we're going to skip Tim Dillon for today. Sagar and Emily will cover that clip tomorrow because we talk too much about other things as per usual. But thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you for your support of the show. If you can become a premium subscriber, breakingpoints.com. We take no dark money, guys. There's no dark money packs funding us. We don't talk to advertisers. We really do try to keep it as like pure as we possibly can around here. And you guys enable that. So thank you so much. And Sagar and Emily, we'll see you guys tomorrow.

59:21I'm Mange Shatikular and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I talk to scientists, biopunks, curmudgeons, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. Make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Michael Rappaport and my podcast, the I Am Rappaport Stereo Podcast, is unlike anyone you've ever heard.

59:59If you're looking for strong opinions about sports, entertainment, politics, pop culture and whatever else catches my attention, then subscribe now. This kid Jafar Jackson should absolutely positively get nominated for his portrayal as Michael Jackson. Listen to I Am Rap Report on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

1:00:22Jeremy Scahill:Can superstars even exist the way they used to? 2016 was sort of that last era of monoculture where we still consume things in community. Everybody wanted to be Beyonce at that point. I don't think we'll ever see another Rihanna. What does it mean to be Black and eat in America? You will never make me feel bad for being a Black girl, for being a Black American girl, ever. From music to food to the conversations shaping Black culture right now, Therapy for Black Girls is bringing it all to the mic. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:00:58This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.