Dumb People Love Dictators

31:19You get to, and I do believe, because I remember demonizing the poor people. I remember comments in my home about what people bought with food stamps, like soda pop versus milk. I remember those comments so well. And now I realize it was all about victimizing poor people so we could have more. Yep. Yep. And I think that's I mean, that's the way that, you know, you justify exploiting people. That's the way you justify like sort of saying, you know, the Republicans today say like, well, you know, the people on Medicaid, they can go out into the in the fields and pick. We can, you know, train them.

31:56You know, they're just loafing around. Right. As if like there's people who like I'm not going to work so that I can get free health care at age 25 or something like that. It's just no one thinks that way. And to the extent that there are, you know, just because we live in a world where there's, you know, any there's a wide range of people to the extent that there are those people who would do that. Like, I'm not going to work. I'm just going to get Medicaid. it's you either have a choice of like some of those will get uh health care and uh versus we're going to kick uh kids or uh people who desperately need it off yeah and you know i mean for me you know we should have just universal health care we should have a single pair it's so you brought up paul ryan and i've been reminded a lot lately of the hot mic moment whoever recorded Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy talking about Donald Trump, and this is years ago, being on Putin's payroll, being compromised.

33:02And that was a pretty big moment. And these are Republicans talking to Republicans, asshole buddies on a break from being in the House. Somebody recorded it and leaked it. And I forget who the other guy that they said. The guy isn't in Congress anymore. It was a California congressman that they threw under the bus as well. And then at the end of it, Paul Ryan goes, hey, this is just friends. We're not going to share this. And then you see what has happened foreign policy wise with Steve Whitcoff, which by all accounts seems like a Russian asset. Jared Kushner, who has no business whatsoever doing any sort of negotiations with Vladimir Putin.

33:37And you see how Vladimir Putin is literally calling all of the shots who he's weakly positioned. He's not even paying his military right now. We're abandoning any support for Ukraine. And I think now that like I think it's safe to say that the entire Republican Party is pretty much compromised by Russia, that Putin has kind of taken it over. I don't know if I think that they are compromised outside of the fact that I think they're just I think they're just trying to enrich themselves. And I think like they I don't think that I think Whitcoff, to the extent that he's like not up to it, it's it's because we're projecting on to Whitcoff the idea that he's there trying to represent.

34:33Some some iteration of United States foreign policy, where I think what he's trying to do is make money. and um and i think that's what donald trump is trying to do and i think that's like and i don't think i think that is the i think that's it i i mean i think like a lot more stuff makes sense if you just assume they're there i mean you know if you live in a small town you sometimes you see this in terms of the politics there where it's like business people perceive local government as just an extension of their business you know like i'm gonna sit on this county board and I'm going to, when we get a grant from the state, I'm going to hand that over to my buddy.

35:18And my buddy is going to like come over and he's the one who's going to give me the contract to, to dig the, the ditches that he needs, Doug, or that he's, you know, doing for the school. And that's all it is. And I think Donald Trump has come in with that same sort of mentality. And he's basically saying to all these people, like, yeah, go for it. Just make sure I get a taste. And that's basically like, it's mafia. It's mafia. I mean, it's, it's, it's built on that sort of same, uh, mafia thing. Now I also, you know, I mean, I have different theories about like, you know, what, uh, uh, like what Donald Trump would not want to come out at different points.

36:01I mean, like, I think that it's just as likely the, uh, the Epstein stuff shows, uh, that he's, you know, maybe involved in like money laundering or financial stuff or was, you know. Blowing Bubba. Bubba. I think we talked about a different theory about that blowing Bubba, that it was a euphemism for something else. Yeah. About those pictures of him. But I think it's more likely that maybe he was in a position of a lot of money laundering. And I suspect you don't get away with that money laundering unless you were sort of working with different alphabet soups in the government that might have been using you as a way of tracing other things.

36:56I mean, I could go into a long thing, but there was a Wayne Barrett was the Village Voice reporter who did the most coverage of Donald Trump. He died on the day that Trump was inaugurated the first time of cancer. And I had interviewed him a couple of times. I had interviewed him for years and years, but a couple of times in the run up to that election. And he kept saying this guy, Felix Sater. And I don't know if you remember Felix Sater. He was a character in the Trump saga in the first Trump administration. But he worked for Trump at one point. He was a special whatever it was. He had a business card.

37:36His office was in Trump Tower. But he also was an asset for the CIA and the FBI.

37:45Loretta Lynch, was it? Maybe I'm saying her name wrong. But she wrote an affidavit in support of this guy, got him off of a charge of sticking somebody with a champagne flute in a bar fight. And he was supposedly the guy that maybe have gotten bin Laden's cell phone number. And he thought he was going to jail with the stone at one point. And then he just sort of disappeared. We never heard it from him again. But he was, I think, a conduit for money laundering. It would be my guess. Yeah. And this is just my opinion. It's totally speculative and, you know, not actionable in any way. But that's my guess.

38:25He was tied up in some stuff. And, you know, you don't get the phone number of bin Laden unless you're engaging in some international sort of stuff that is probably not. And so, I don't know. I grew up in the, you know, with Whitey Bulger up in Massachusetts. And I think that I think those type of things happen. Yeah. Okay. Okay. There's been a huge shift in the public's thoughts and polling around Israel, the country. You're Jewish. Yeah. And a lot of people that live in flyover states like pumps and I have the majority of our lives. You don't live around a large Jewish population. You certainly don't hardly live around any Palestinians or even any Arabs for that matter.

39:10And so if you live in a red state like we have, you're kind of more focused on local government that, you know, abortion and, you know, gay rights. And they're trying to put the Ten Commandments in schools and all this chicken shit, you know, horrible shit. Right. Well, then you start seeing these images, you know, that everybody's mad in the Middle East. And that's just generally from my adult life. I'm like, oh, yeah, they're always fighting over there. Yeah. I'm in Oklahoma fighting, you know, these Christian nationalists. I can't I can't take that on right now. And then you start seeing these images of what's happening in Palestine, and you find out that this military is bombing schools and hospitals.

39:45And then you hear reports, very valid ones, where children have been executed, bullets in the head or in the chest. And you keep hearing more and more and more. And then you find out that I kept reading and reading into it that Benjamin Netanyahu was funding Hamas to try to stay in power. And then you just are so outraged at the blank check from Joseph Robinette Biden all the way to Donald Trump. And then you start speaking out about it. And then, you know, and then people get on you, call you, you know, that you're anti-Semitic for speaking out against egregious war crimes and human rights violations.

40:24And it's something that has so been really traumatizing for me personally to realize, as I've had like Cory Booker and other politicians on, that I really love. Like as a person in a red state, I was like, well, this person is wonderful. What a wonderful politician this man is. And when you realize that AIPAC spent as much money as Elon Musk did to get Donald Trump elected. But they're controlling our opposition as well. I want to pull my hair out by my root one by one because it is just like, are you fucking kidding me? And then that poor Miss Rachel, who's the most darling Mr. Rogers of our time.

41:07They're calling her an anti-Semite. And so I have multiple questions for you. Number one, in very simple terms, what is a Zionist? And then number two, do you think these far right Jewish groups are deluding the dangers of what anti-Semitism is? And why are they seeking refuge? From my vantage point, I'm an atheist. I've never been indoctrinated in any religion. The most anti-Semitic things that I see are on the MAGA side, the Young Republican chat group, Elon Musk doing SIG Hiles. all of that far more than i see from azura on mom dining or anybody on the left so will you speak to that in terms that a lot of our listeners sam all across america these beautiful blue dots in blue states but a lot of blue dots in red states we don't know other than what corporate media has told us for decades regarding this so what's a zionist and then anti-semitism and how fucked are we?

42:09I mean, I think, you know, the most simplistic version of a Zionist is someone who believes that it is okay for there to be an ethno state, a Jewish ethno state in the land of Palestine.

42:34And I think what's problematic with it is that ultimately it leads to, well, there's two things. One, it's a colonial project in an era where much of the, much, not this country, but certainly colonial projects of that era have been largely decolonized. and that's part of that zionism and part of it is also that it leads to a um an apartheid system at best at best when you say ethno state for clarity this is kind of like jewish supremacy yeah yeah i mean jewish people i think i think would have premier rights over indigenous as Palestinians? Correct. And, um, and I mean, that's what it is in practice.

43:29Um, and you know, I think, um, there's, for me having grown up, uh, you know, I was, when I was, uh, bar mitzvahed, we were only, you know, 35 years out from, uh, the end of the Holocaust. Many of my Hebrew school teachers were Holocaust survivors. Uh, you know, much of like what we were taught in Hebrew school was about the Holocaust and sort of like that was the predicate. And then the way you'd end that was Israel. And so there was a lot of like, I think there's obviously a tremendous amount of trauma that comes out of the Holocaust. And the founding of the state, starting with the Balfour Declaration, was largely for the West to have some form of hegemony in that area, some form of some like beachhead in that area as oil becomes more important.

44:33And from a Jewish perspective, I mean, there was certainly like movements that were anti-Zionist within Judaism, not just like very religious, like the Saddamers, you know, ultra-Orthodox, who feel that you shouldn't have Israel until the Messiah returns. But there were also the Bundists who were also against Zionism as being racist and being sort of supremacist. And there were some prominent Zionists who sort of left Hannah Arendt and I I think Albert Einstein, who were like sort of Zionists at one point and then sort of left because they realized like this is going to lead to something bad. Were you kind of raised to be a Zionist?

45:22Was it set up? I don't think I was like I as a child, I never, you know, really used the word Zionist. Right. Like it wasn't something that was in the parlance, at least in my world. I was supportive of Israel and perceived Israel as like, you know, your extension of my Jewishness. I went there when I was 15 as part of like my confirmation class. And the beginning of my disillusion with Israel happened while I was there because we were in the northern part of Israel. and we saw like 30 attack helicopters go up low over the beach. And they ended up, those are the ones who had bombed Beirut. And later that - How old were you?

46:1215, you said? I was like 14 or 15. And I had a big argument with my rabbi at the time. I'm like, you know, we, and I would have said we at that point, we're not supposed to, we don't do that. We respond, you know, we respond to its defense forces. We respond to attacks, but we don't. And, you know, it wasn't until the 80s and I wasn't aware of it until like, you know, the into the aughts or maybe the late 90s that. There was a moment in Israeli history, which was akin to the moment in our history about the reconstruction. So you had something called the Dunning School in this country that taught that the reconstruction failed because black people were unable to be politicians and have a political class.

47:09And then Eric Foner comes around and a new breed of historians who look back and go, that's not what happened. There were programs like you had murders of politicians in South Carolina and people driven out and, you know, Oklahoma. I mean, you know, Tulsa massacres and et cetera, et cetera. Well, there's a similar thing in Israeli history in the 80s. A lot of documents were released or declassified for a small period of time. And there was a reinterpretation, a reunderstanding of what happened in the founding of Israel in 1948. And I had, you know, back when I was in my film days, I met a filmmaker named Benny Bruner who did a documentary called The Great Book Robbery, which showed that there was actually Palestinians living and had a culture and had a society.

47:57You know, because we were always told this is a land without a people for people without a land. But it turns out there were people there. And they call it the Nakba. The Nakba, which for them is a tragedy. Right. Because they got. Because they were dispossessed from their land. And, you know, so many Gaza exists in the way that it did is because so many of those people who were dispossessed of their land throughout what was Palestine at that point were essentially ghettoized in Gaza. and um and so uh i think like you know over the years uh since that was 14 or 15 you know and at different times i've engaged in it more than in others because at some points you find it intractable um but i think certainly in the past couple years it has become in the wake of uh October 7th, it has become really, I think, too hard for people to ignore.

48:56And, you know, we have,

49:01there's, and I think people were ignoring it for a long period of time. I mean, not everyone, but, you know, but. I was. Oh, but I think a lot of people, and certainly, listen, the mainstream media does not follow. I mean, the other day, Hillary Clinton was at Miriam Adelson, who gave Trump$120,$30 million this go around at a right-wing event. Condescending to Jews, but condescending to everyone. I mean, the idea that the reason why people's perspective on Israel has changed is simply because they've been hypnotized by TikTok is absurd. That would be like the functional equivalent of, you know, I don't know, William McNamara saying, hey, listen, what's going on in Vietnam is actually completely just.

49:58The problem is that now we let reporters film what's going on there. It's also another example. Another example that Sarah Horowitz, the Obama speech, she said, it's so hard to talk to young Jews about Israel with a wall of carnage, a wall of children. Wall of dead babies. Dead babies. The same thing I thought that could be said. Somebody could say it's really difficult to talk to other Europeans about our Jewish project through walls of concentration camps. It's the same fucking thing, Sam. It is insane. Here, explain this to me. I mean, the idea that you could actually hear yourself saying those words, like the thing that's making it hard for me to express how just what Israel is doing is all of the dead baby, the images of the dead babies.

50:49As if they're like, wait a second. It's not just the images are representation of actual real people who have died, real babies who have died. tens of thousands of children, tens of thousands of children. And it is,

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54:44Missing doses increases your HIV risk. Don't take APRITUDE if allergic to it or taking certain medicines that may interact. Tell your doctor about your medical conditions, liver problems, and mental health. Serious side effects include allergic reactions or rash, liver problems, and depression. If these occur, get medical help right away. The most common side effect is injection site reaction. Bring your A-game and talk to your doctor. Learn more at Apertude.com or call 1-888-240-0340. As a person that is, you know, descendant of, you know, Holocaust survivors, and I've studied World War II extensively because it just captivates you, the suffering and what happened.

55:34And I mean, I've read so many books about it. I've watched so many documentaries. It's been something that I've spent years and years studying about the Holocaust. And then to find out that the state that, you know, and you just described how it came to be, but it's supposed to promote safety and this will never happen again to anybody else. That they have now done the same thing to Palestinians that was done to them. Is that a byproduct of this Jewish supremacy that like the rules that are I mean, that's the part that I think is such a. I don't think they've done the same thing. I think they've done a different thing that is horrible and unjust and cruel and inhuman and a war crime and crimes against humanity.

56:28It's not the same, but it's also, you know, it is, but they have, Israel has become the oppressor and has been for decades. and is engaging now in an ethnic cleansing and in a genocide that it's not the same, but it's not better. Let's put it that way. I have a couple of theories about it. For me, it's very difficult as a Jew. First off, I think it's very, very dangerous to conflate anti-Semitism with anti-Israel or anti-Zionist perspective. I think it's very dangerous for Jews. And I think it's just a lie. I mean, it's just not true. I do think that as a Jew, I have a, I personally feel a greater moral obligation to fight against it than I might other horrors that are taking place in the world.

57:47In the same way that like I am more activated to fight ice in New York City than I would be in Chicago. Right, right. Like I have some close proximity or, you know. But I think it's a combination of trauma. I think it's a combination of, frankly, I would be interested if someone was to explore the idea of what happens with a lot of people who were oppressed in the Soviet Union, who were brought to Israel, and many of them end up being settlers and given land on the West Bank. I mean, I think you're coming from like an authoritarian society. And sometimes those lessons are hard to unlearn. And if you're in a position where you can, you're no longer the horse, you're the rider.

58:41I think that can impact people in very, very bad ways. And so there was, you know, were there opportunities in the course of Israel to sort of get off this path? and maybe not correct the reverse, the colonization, but to find a different way forward. I mean, it happened in South Africa. I think there were, but they were missed. And so, you know, it's a horror. It's a horror show. And I think, you know, hopefully we're moving into a place where to the extent that U.S. has leverage over Israel, which I think is quite great, actually, at this point. And I hope that Democratic candidates can be very clear eyed in criticism against the Israeli government and support for Jewish people and against anti-Semitism.

59:43Because both of those things. It's easy. That's easy. It's very easy. And you have the, you know, groups that Hillary Clinton was with that are weaponizing anti-Semitism to silence education in universities, which actually incubates anti-Semitism. 100 percent. OK, we have just a few minutes left and we're going to play our game. Had it or hit it? Oh, my God. Welcome to had it or hit it. I would hit it. Had it. Had it. I hit it every day, sometimes twice a day. Had it or hit it. Kids screen time. Oh, I had it. I've had it. I'll tell you, here's the thing. I have, my son is like cross platforms and I keep apps off his phone.

1:00:30And then like, but now his school is like he's doing his homework on his phone or his iPad or something. And then he's like, oh, I just want to do Duolingo. I'm learning Navajo. And I'm like, you're learning Navajo? That's amazing. But then is he really learning Navajo or is he just like – and so I have like 14 different ways in which I prevent him from using his devices and none of them work. Yeah, I've fallen into that trap too where you're grounded from your phone. Well, they only have, you know, online school. You only have books online. And I'm just like, is that bullshit? I know. But it's true.

1:01:07But then I'm also – when my kids were little, I was guilty of throwing that phone in front of them just to shut them up. I, I, I mean, I learned from my daughter, my daughter is, is 20. So she just sort of like, I learned it with what a mistake that was. Okay. Had it or hit it, Bill Maher? Oh, had it. I never, I never, I mean, Bill Maher has always been just a pompous ass and, um, his, he, uh, he's, he's a, he's a bit of a reactionary. I think he's just sort of dressed. He's always been a little bit like libertarian and libertarians i cannot stand yeah all right how did her hit it zoran mom donnie i'll hit it i mean i'm very um uh i'm incredibly excited uh for mom donnie uh what it means both for new york uh and what it could mean nationally for the democratic party for the democratic party and um and just you know i think it's new york is going to become i think a a much more fun place because he enjoys the city.

1:02:12He's cool. Well, he understands what makes the city great, which is that like you can walk. I mean, you must be experiencing this. Every day is a great day in New York. You walk down the street and you've seen people from countries you've never seen people from. You've interacted with people from places that you never even thought about. You've had food that you, you know, like I grew up from Worcester and it was like, oh you're gonna go get some Chinese food and you know like that like you know it's just your life is just richer a hundred percent the diversity that the city brings and that also has to be like a socio-economic as well because if only rich people can live here you don't get the art you don't get the sort of like the the the you know artists and young comedians and painters and And musicians, whatever it is, they don't have the margin of error to experiment and create new things.

1:03:14And so I think, you know, it's going to be a better place. And I think it's cool. Like he ran an impeccable campaign. He did such a good job up against all of the billionaire class. He did such a great job with all of the Islamophobic attacks on him and remaining calm, never being a victim. and standing up against anti-Semitism. But what he did that was so important for me to see that I've used a lot as we articulate to our podcast listeners when it comes to human rights, you have to link all of them. You cannot prioritize anti-Semitism as more important than Islamophobia, as more important than homophobia.

1:03:52They all have to be on the same stomping grounds, which is so unbelievable to me about Hillary Clinton. She always said women's rights are human rights. You know, her famous saying about connecting women's rights to human rights. And then to see her on that stage yesterday, I really, for the first time, I thought I really fucking regret voting for her in 2016. I should have voted for Bernie. I should have done it. You know, but it's a political evolution that I think people in the base are going through right now. And Pumps and I are representative of that, that you start evolving and you start getting more curious.

1:04:29because on the left, people are readers. You are curious. People haven't taken away your critical thinking. So when you see a politician trying to propagandize you, it doesn't work. It's harder now because there's a lot of negative to social media, but there's a lot more access to information. It makes it a little more challenging to sort of wade through to find out what stuff is bullshit. But there's enough diversity where it's you can't corner the truth the way that it was when there was just like three networks. Yes, I agree with that. I was a great MSNBC Democrat for a long time. OK, last one.

1:05:10Had it or hid it, United States of America? Well, I'd hid it. This is my home. And, you know, it doesn't mean it's perfect. it doesn't mean that it's even like I think we have a lot of improvement to do but this is my home and so I'd hit it as the kids would say you did it Sam okay thank you so much thank you this was really fun it's so awesome to be in person with you in New York City obviously the greatest city in the world and we'd love to have you back some other time I'd love to come to tell them we will see you next Tuesday and Thursday

1:05:52I'll tell you what I've had it with. Let's hear it. I've had it with that. Listen up, patriots, gaytriots, and natriots. We have a new podcast that has dropped. It's called iHip News. It's Monday through Friday, every day, 15 to 20 minute hot takes on the political landscape of the United States of America, always served with a side of petty grievances. We are on all the available platforms, Apple, Spotify, Google, whatever you get your podcast and YouTube. Please go rate, subscribe and review so that we will chart upwards with America's greatest legal mind. Pumps, what does an eagle say? Caw-caw!

1:06:34A little bit more enthusiasm. Caw-caw! That's it. That's the patriotism that this country needs right there.

1:06:48Thank you.