Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 1/29/24: Neocons Demand Iran War, Biden Cuts UNRWA Funding, Pelosi Says Ceasefire Protests Are Putin Puppets, Michigan Mayor Torches Biden On Israel, Taylor Swift Deepfake AI Outrage, And Young Men Rightwing Realignment

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

Krystal and Saagar discuss neocons demanding war after US troops killed in Jordan, Biden cuts UNRWA Gaza aid, Pelosi says ceasefire protests are doing Putin's bidding, Dearborn Mayor torches Biden on Israel, outrage over Taylor Swift deepfake AI, and realignment of young men globally to the right.   To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.supercast.com/   Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

I'm Michael Kasson, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your guide on good company, the podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi. We dive into the competitive world of streaming. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. There are so many stories out there. And if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, Ready or Not 2024 is here, and we here at Breaking Points are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election.

We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio, add staff, give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that. Let's get to the show. Good morning, everybody. Happy Monday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. Extra amazing because Crystal is back. It's great to see you, Crystal. What do we have today? It is great to be back. Thank you so much, Sagar, by the way, for covering for me and the team and Ryan and everybody who filled in. We have a lot to get to this morning, though. As Sagar

covered for you yesterday, three U.S. service members are dead after a suicide drone attack in Jordan. What are they even doing there? What does that mean for broader conflagrations in the Middle East? A lot to talk about there. We're also following the U.S. cut funding for a critical U.N. aid agency dedicated to Palestinians. This, of course, comes as the ICJ ruled that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. Break that down for you. Nancy Pelosi floating a wild new Russiagate conspiracy. Gotta hear this one to believe it. Truly astonishing. The mayor of Dearborn, Michigan is actually going to join us. So he refused to meet with Biden campaign officials,

this in spite of the fact that he is a longtime Democrat over Biden's unconditional support for Israel. So we're going to talk to him about that and how he is thinking about the general election matchup likely between Biden and Trump. Taylor Swift, AI nudes causing a whole fracas all the way up to the White House. Massive debate about what to do about this, if anything should be done about this, etc. So we'll talk about that. And Sagar is looking at the political divide between young men and young women, which seems to only be widening. Yes, that's right, Crystal. Before we do get to that, though, we want to say thank you also to our premium subscribers helping us for gearing up for election season. We've got the discount going on right now. We have our RFK Junior focus group, which will be coming to

everybody next week. We're really excited to bring everybody that. Actually, it turns out, while the delay was not something that we wanted due to the snow, that there's quite a lot of relevance with RFK Junior right now. And we're're gonna have a lot to cover tomorrow as well, lots of domestic stories, the border situation, all that. But we wanted to make sure we cover our bases with foreign policy today just because of the tragic death of those service members. And unfortunately, Crystal, even worse, calls for war with Iran pervading the bipartisan consensus here in Washington. Yeah, that's exactly right. So let's start with that news, which is certainly the top story of the day with potentially massive and terrifying implications. Let's put this up on the screen. As I said, three U.S. troops killed and up to 34 injured in Jordan. This due to a

so-called suicide drone strike that the Biden administration is linking to these Iranian-backed militias. I can read you from a little bit of this story. Biden's response, he says, have no doubt we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing. Iran's mission to the UN said in a statement that Tehran was not involved in the attack. Iran had no connection, had nothing to do with the attack on the US base. According to that mission, they added there is a conflict between U.S. forces and resistance groups in the region which reciprocate retaliatory attacks. We could go ahead and put up on the screen a map so that you get a sense of where exactly these attacks were happening. You can see they're right on the border here of Jordan and Syria.

Apparently, this facility that was targeted is referred to as Tower 22, very, very close to that Jordan-Syria border. I mean, Sagar, there's so much to say about this. First of all, you know, anytime our service members are attacked in this region, I'm sure plenty of Americans are going, what are they even doing in this region? Like, why are they even there to be sitting ducks for these types of attacks? Number two, sadly, this was entirely predictable result of Biden's policy vis-a-vis Israel. Since October 7th, and we can put this up on the screen, this map, you know, you guys haven't heard that much about these in the news, even though you should have. There have been well over 150 of these types of attacks. And tragically, it was only a matter of time before one of the attacks broke through and

claimed the lives of U.S. service members. So there is no doubt in my mind, this is very likely linked directly to the Biden administration's policy vis-a-vis Israel. Part of how we know that is because during the time when there was a brief ceasefire, these attacks completely stopped. And so it once again raises the question of what the hell are we doing here? Even if you don't care about the moral outrage of what is happening in Gaza, the Biden policy has put our service members at risk and is directly in contravention of our own national security interests. And to me, that's what is really

underscored by these unbelievably tragic deaths and avoidable deaths in the end. Yeah, I'm really outraged by this because it was so predictable. We're sitting here for weeks just saying, listen, it's only a matter of time. It only takes one. It only takes this. And then we see tit for tat. We go up, we go up, Something gets fired at a ship. And now this is a really horrible situation because these guys, by all accounts, were literally sleeping. So it was in the middle of the night, and a suicide drone appears to have attacked their barracks because we also saw that the number of wounded rose significantly from yesterday. It now stands at 34, but very likely to go even higher. Unfortunately, many of the men who were wounded actually remain in critical condition and had to be airlifted out of Jordan to a nearby hospital. That also reminds us of why are 3,000 American soldiers

or service members in Jordan in the first place? The ostensible purpose of this base is part of the anti-ISIS mission. I mean, when's the last time that we heard anything about what was going on with US operations in Syria and in ISIS? Don't forget that belies the fact that there are a number of US troops in Syria, again, with no authorization from Congress, and they have been there now for years in near permanent installations. There's a bigger defense question here, too, really about the use of these suicide drones and U.S. air defense systems. There had long been promises, you know, and both to the troops and others that we had adequate force protection for our service members who are so forward deployed in Syria and elsewhere, saying we had all of these advanced air defense systems that were in place to make sure that something like this would happen. Obviously, it completely failed in this regard. And now three of our service members are dead and more than three dozen nearly have been wounded and some critically who have been injured. And who knows what the prognosis remains for them?

It is a bigger, major strategic question about what are our service members doing here? Don't forget either, Crystal, in the initial statement, President Biden blamed Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and in Syria. So that raises questions there about what exact groups that these are, whether they're in Iraq. Don't forget this. If we're going to respond, quote, hard and heavy or whatever it is that the Lindsey Graham and all those want us to do, there is a very dangerous and diplomatic talk going on right now with Iraq. Many of the Iraqis do not want us to stay there. Our troops, the Biden administration is fighting to make sure that our troops can remain inside of the country ostensibly for this anti-ISIS mission, more likely to do with forward posture against Iran. Regardless,

this is going to affect that if there is some sort of major retaliation inside of Iraq, which very likely could invite domestic political pushback on top of who the hell knows what goes on in Syria. But what scares me more than anything is the total unwillingness to just throw caution to the wind right now amongst the Washington establishment. And you see direct calls, bipartisan calls right now to strike Iranian territory, not to wipe out or even retaliate against these Iraqi and Syrian groups would directly go to the source. And that's what we're seeing from all across the aisle immediately in the aftermath of the attack. Yeah, so we could put some of that up on the screen. The Republicans largely jumped in

most aggressively. Of course, many of these same people use any and every excuse to push for war with Iran. You've got Senator John Cornyn, target Tehran. Lindsey Graham, hit Iran now, hit them hard. Tom Cotton, my statement following the Iran-backed attacks in Jordan that killed three U.S. service members and injured 25. The TLDR there is also war with Iran. Tim Scott, enough is enough. Biden administration's appeasement of Iran must end. Time for clear and decisive action. Chuck Grassley, will President Biden finally take decisive action against Iran?

So, I mean, first of all, I think it's important to say a couple things about this. Like, obviously, this is psychotic, the idea that we should just jump into a full-scale war with Iran, you know, is not something that the American people want. It is a disastrous, absolutely insane idea that goes almost without saying. I also think it's worth noting, you know, the media always, it's almost like a verbal tick. They use this phrase like Iran-backed militias.

And it is true. Obviously, they're linked, they're funded, there's, you know, affiliations there. But you can get the impression that they're just acting 100% as puppets of Iran, and they're just doing like whatever their actions are, they're directed, you know, directly from Tehran. And that is not the case. You know, these groups have their own impetus, they have their own motivations, they have their own goals, they're capable of planning their own attacks. So when Iran says it wasn't us, maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. But I just want people to understand that these groups are not Iran. They are linked to Iran, yes. But that doesn't mean that they are directly taking their orders from Tehran. The most critical piece here, I think, Sagar, is you see once again the way that the logic of escalation only ever goes in one direction. It has never been more clear that

the reason these attacks are happening is directly because of our unconditional support for Israel, because of the fact that we have been a primary, you know, we've been a primary blockade to any sort of ceasefire or longer truce. And when there was a brief ceasefire, these attacks stopped. So all of this trouble in the Middle East, the Red Sea, the Houthis, you know, we had two Navy SEALs who also are dead because of our actions in the Middle East. They didn't come under direct fire, but as a result of our operations in the Red Sea, they too are dead. All of this is happening because of our policy vis-a-vis Israel. So instead of reassessing that policy and saying there's a very clear answer and solution to all of these problems,

which by the way, would also be in the best interest of humanity in the Gaza Strip. Instead, it's always, we have to escalate, we have to hit them harder, we have to escalate to de-escalate, etc., etc. It's what the media pushes, it's what the political class pushes, and it always only goes in one direction. The logic is also nonsensical. I mean, we are currently funding to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars the war in Ukraine, which has killed probably between

three to 350,000 Russian soldiers. So by this logic, let's say that Russia were to use this logic. What could they say? They're like, well, the US-backed, US-linked Ukrainian government is killing our soldiers with their weapons. Actually, the link is probably even more direct because the Pentagon quite literally runs the Ukrainian military ops. And in a similar situation, we can't control everything the Ukrainian military does. Or maybe we can. But let's say that we can't, at least in that instance, as we have seen them conduct attacks deep inside of Russian territory, elsewhere terrorist attacks, assassinations inside of Moscow. What does that mean? Under that logic, they could bomb us. They could nuke us. And that's what the most

belligerent people inside of the Russian government are saying. They're like, how can we do this? We're not going after the source. Think about the logic of that. That means then that we would be liable for every single one of our allied governments that we supply with weapons for direct retaliation against us. And in fact, that appears to be the exact logic that these Iranian-backed groups and the Houthis and others have been using to attack the US military vis-a-vis its support for Israel. So I, again, would just urge people, and everybody loves to talk about Reagan, and let's take a step back and think about what happened after the Beirut bombing against several number of our US service members were killed there

under his administration. You know what he did? He pulled out. He said, at the end of the day, it's not worth it. And there were a lot more people who were killed in that attack in the 1980s than there were today. People do forget some of the strategic actual fortitude that Reagan occasionally did have in his foreign policy because he understood and assessed that if I were to get into a deeper conflict here, it would not be in our direct interest. We had a direct guiding foreign policy at that time, which was confrontation with the Soviet Union and with rollback. And he determined that this was going to draw away from that goal. And he had the fortitude to be able to understand that even in America's height of its military power, that we cannot just simply have projection of force

everywhere. And we're a lot weaker today than they were in the 1980s. And yet here in Washington, that is an anathema. Even Reagan's greatest defenders, they kind of like to write off what happened in Lebanon. But in this particular case, I would say, let us call upon the wisdom of Reagan, who understood that just because US service members have been killed in this instance, it does not require us to put even more in harm's way and to pour even more, basically chasing, throwing bad money after good money. You can actually understand the root of the conflict, where things are going, and very quickly surmise that what's happening in Israel and Gaza is the center of gravity in this conflict, and now directly has pulled American service members. The other thing that

we forgot to mention, Crystal, is you're right that the two US Navy SEALs were killed. But Michael Tracy actually reminded us this morning, don't forget, five Americans were also killed in a training exercise that was directly linked to what was happening. And we can't forget their deaths either. They would not have been in that area and conducting these kinds of training operations. This was one of our most advanced elite air units, presumably either training for hostage rescue or for some sort of conflict in the region. And they died in a nighttime exercise, right, very, very nearby.

So we have 10 now, basically, who can be ascribed to this. We have at least five who have been directly killed now in combat. And we cannot forget that and just use that as an excuse to ratchet up operations. And I just love these GOP politicians.

It's like, all right, we struck Tehran. Now what? What, you think that everything's just gonna go away? I mean, what's gonna happen? You know, way more. And we just saw our air defense systems just failed in Jordan. Don't forget, the Patriots did not shoot down

all those ballistic missiles inside of Iraq. You are consigning dozens, perhaps even hundreds more Americans to their death in the immediate term as a result of this policy. And nobody even talks about it. Yeah, so a few other things I want to say about this. I mean, first of all, just keep in mind that some of these psychos, even immediately after October 7th, they were already itching for war with Iran and beating the war drums. They will use literally any excuse, whether it's this or anything else, to call for direct war with Iran. Number two,

it's also worth keeping in mind that a broader Middle East conflagration that we are directly involved in very much serves the interests of Netanyahu specifically, who, as we've discussed, ad nauseum is, you know, on a very short leash politically, domestically. He's basically hated almost universally in Israel at this point. The only chance he has of holding onto his grip on power is to extend the war as long as possible, to expand the war in order to try to claim more military victories, since, if we're being honest, their war on Hamas has been basically a failure.

I mean, they haven't gotten the top leadership. There was a Wall Street Journal report that they have something like 80% of even the tunnel network in the Gaza Strip is still intact. The number of fighters that they've been able to take out is woefully small compared to the total number of Hamas fighters that are there in the Gaza Strip. All they've been able to do is effectively, you know, destroy civilian life and make life a living hell for every one of the 2.2 million human beings who live in the Gaza Strip. So he needs military victories.

That's why they're looking towards Lebanon. That's why they're looking towards this broader war because not only his interests, but as a fantastic Haaretz analysis went through, the interest of everyone who was in power on October 7th and oversaw the security intelligence failures that led to this horrific attack going forward and the failed response, all of their political heads are on the chopping block. So every one of them has even the so-called moderates that are part of this coalition have an interest in keeping this thing going and expanding it and drawing us directly into it.

It's always important to keep in mind the motivations that these key players say before we move on to Trump's statement is, sadly, just as this attack and the deaths of these US service members were both predictable and preventable, if we continue in this direction, there will be more deaths. I mean, the number of attacks that have already occurred. There was a previous incident, an attack on barracks in Iraq, that we were incredibly fortunate that basically like the munition didn't explode. And so those service members, you know, got off with relatively minor injuries, which by the way, you know, the US government has been dramatically downplayed. Oh, it's just a little traumatic brain injury. Don't worry about it, as if that's no big deal. But we are incredibly fortunate up to this point

that there weren't more lives lost of U.S. service members. So sadly, there's just no doubt, even if we continue in this direction of unconditional support for Israel and this little tit for tat without going directly at Iran, there will almost certainly be more U.S. service members who lose their lives as a result of Joe Biden not wanting to stand up to Israel

and fully, fully, unconditionally backing what they are doing in the Gaza Strip, shipping the bombs, expediting the bombs, providing them with diplomatic cover, et cetera. Let me go ahead and put up on the screen Trump's reaction. Of course, he's jumping on this and taking full advantage as he possibly can politically in a very Trumpian statement. This is like, it was a three-part thread on True Social. This was the second part, which was sort of the most interesting or critical.

He says, three years ago, Iran was weak, broke, and totally under control. Thanks to my maximum pressure policy, the Iranian regime could barely scrape $2 together to fund their terrorist proxies. Then Joe Biden came in and gave Iran billions of dollars, which the regime has used to spread bloodshed and carnage throughout the Middle East. This attack would never have happened if I was president, not even a chance. Just like the Iranian-backed Hamas attack on Israel would never have happened, the war in Ukraine would never have happened, and we would right now have peace throughout the world. Instead, we are on the brink of World War III. Talk about alternative facts and alternative history. I mean, very likely Trump's policy vis-a-vis Israel would be basically identical

to Joe Biden, perhaps without the moral hand hand wringing, the feckless moral hand wringing that you get occasionally from the Biden administration. So the idea that we wouldn't be still facing these attacks from various militias in the region, I think is pretty fanciful. I will at least give Trump this. He didn't call for war with Iran, so I'm gonna call it a net benefit for me. At least he hasn't come to that. And I've seen Vivek Ramaswamy, Tucker Carlson, and others issue very forceful criticism of some of the people who are calling for it. I will say, politically, I've always said this, it is the greatest talking point in the world for him to just be like, it didn't happen under me, and it's happening under Biden. So you can definitely

be assured that that will be featured in debates, campaign commercials, and others for a return to normalcy. Even if it may not be true, even if what he would have done if he were in the White House or not, but he can have the statement of, well, it would never have happened if I was still the president. So anyway, yeah, I wanted to flag that in particular because electorally, let's say that foreign policy does become a deciding factor in the election. Or instead of foreign policy, think of it like the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The withdrawal from Afghanistan, nobody really voted on the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Nobody would even particularly say that's the number one reason. But there was a feeling of chaos,

malaise, and things being out of control under Biden that led to the initial approval rating that he had over 50% dip below. So with this, I could see Trump trying to make this as part of an overall case. The problem is, of course, if he's like, well, return to normal, is that he can't himself be trying to instill chaos. But it could be a potent talking point if Biden finds himself deep enough. Listen, Biden's support for Israel, as we're going to talk to the mayor of Dearborn, who's a Democrat, who wouldn't even meet with his campaign team because he's disgusted over Biden's support for what he describes and what the ICJ has now said is plausibly a genocide

that we are very much complicit in. So I just saw a poll that came out, Biden's approval rating among 18 to 29 year olds is 27%, 27%. So already, this is an electoral disaster. I mean, that's the least of our concerns right now, but it's already an electoral disaster. You continue with the escalations, you continue allowing US service members to be killed in their beds in the Middle East, in countries that the American people don't even know we still have service members in. Yeah, it's absolutely, it's absolutely a disaster. The last thing before we move on to what's going on with UNRWA aid suspension, I just want to give people the numbers so you understand what I say. This is directly linked to the policy with Israel.

These attacks are directly correlated to it because we can see in the numbers, this was highlighted by a friend of the show, Dr. Trita Parsi, who said there were about 60 attacks by these type of militias against U.S. troops between January 2021 and March 2023. So that's over basically a two-year period. After the Gaza war, just since October 7th, there have been more than 160 attacks, except during the six days when there was a ceasefire in Gaza, then the attacks completely stopped. We know what the answer is to bring safety and security to our service members in the region, not to mention to, you know, to deal with the humanity of people in Gaza. And by the way, also the ultimate long-term security of citizens of Israel. We know what the answer is, but our insane foreign policy, completely unmoored from reality, leads them to take actions that they don't even think are going to succeed. You know, that's what I, the other thing I keep thinking about, so I were like, we have them admitting, Biden admitting,

that he knew the, you know, Red Sea attacks on the Houthi rebels. He knew they weren't going to work, but they were going to continue anyway. It's like, then what the hell are we doing? We have Tony Blinken admitting there's no military solution to Hamas. Then what the hell are we supporting? And it's the same thing. It doesn't need a logic. They just escalate because they think that's the thing that people expect them to do. And when you've got psychos like Lindsey Graham and co out there pushing them to go to war with Iran, it is an unbelievably dangerous situation. Absolutely right. Over the past six

years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Catherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her and it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try.

She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think everything that might have dropped in 95 has been labeled the golden years of hip hop. It's Black Music Month, and We Need To Talk is tapping in. I'm Nyla Simone, breaking down lyrics, amplifying voices, and digging into the culture

that shaped the soundtrack of our lives. My favorite line on there was, my son and my daughter gonna be proud when they hear my old tapes. Now I'm curious, do they like rap along now? Yeah, cause I bring him on tour with me, and he's getting older now too. So his friends are starting to understand what that type of music is. And they're starting to be like, Do they like rap along now? Yeah, because I bring him on tour with me and he's getting older now too.

So his friends are starting to understand what that type of music is. And they're starting to be like, yo, your dad's like really the GOAT. Like he's a legend. So he gets it. What does it mean to leave behind a music legacy for your family? It means a lot to me. Just having a good catalog and just being able to make people feel good. Like that's what's really important, and that's what stands out,

is that our music changes people's lives for the better. So the fact that my kids get to benefit off of that, I'm really happy, or my family in general. Let's talk about the music that moves us. To hear this and more on how music and culture collide, listen to We Need to Talk from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is your girl, T.S. Madison, and I'm coming to you loud, live, and in color from the Outlaws podcast. Let me tell you something. I broke the internet with a 22-inch weave. My superpower?

I've got the voice. My kryptonite don't exist. Get a job. My podcast, the one they never saw coming. Each week, I sit down with the culture creators and scroll stoppers. Tina knows. Lil Nas X. Will we ever see a dating show for the love of Lil Nas X? Let's do a show with all my exes. X marks the spot.

No, here it is. My next ex. That's actually cute, though. Laverne Cox. I have a core group of girlfriends that, like, they taught me how to love. And Chapel Rome. I was dropped in 2020, working the drive-thru, and here we are now. We turn side-eye into sermons, pain into punchline,

and grief, we turn those into galaxies. Listen, make sure you tell Beyonce, I'm going right on the phone right now and call her. Listen to Outlaws with T.S. Madison on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, honey. All right, let's go ahead and move on to another huge story here. So on the very day that the ICJ ruled, Israel is plausibly committing a genocide in the Gaza Strip and compelled them to take actions to end those assaults which are contributing to the potential

genocide conditions. On that very day, and that timing is not an accident. Israel released intelligence to the U.S. that 12 employees of the UNRWA, that's a UN refugee agency that deals with Palestinian aid, were involved in some way in the October 7th attacks. Let's put this up on the screen. This allegation, the details of which have not been released to the public, by the way, and maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but we certainly know the Israeli government has

been caught lying many times in the past, including in the context of October 7th. Those allegations have led eight countries and the US, so nine countries total, to stop funding that critical UN aid agency in Gaza. The numbers I saw, there's something like 13,000 UNRWA staffers in Gaza. 12 of them are accused of being somehow involved in October 7th. Put this next one up on the screen, actually. Those who were accused have actually already been fired by the UNRWA. In addition, I think two of the dozen who were accused have actually already been fired by the UNRWA. In addition, I think two of the dozen who were accused have actually already been killed, but the others have been let go.

And so at the very moment, Sagar, when the ICJ is saying, you have to allow in more humanitarian aid, Gazans are starving, you have to end the conditions that could be contributing to a genocide. On that very day, the response from the U.S. is to cut the funding to the most essential aid organization in the Gaza Strip, thereby further denying Palestinians access to the basics of life that they are required, all because of the allegations against a tiny, tiny, tiny, minuscule fraction of the staffers there who are on the ground. Yeah, Israel and the UNRWA have always had, let's say, a bad relationship, especially most recently between the UN and the Human Rights Organization. Their general

allegation is about those 12. There was also an interesting new piece. It literally just broke this morning. So I was just reading it right now, Crystal, from the Wall Street Journal, where they estimate the Israelis shared with the journal and claim that about 10% of its Gaza staff, quote, have ties to Islamist militant groups. The thing is, though, is that as I began reading, much of this came down to like guilt by association. They say that 1,200 to 12,000 of the 1,200 employees, quote, have links. And by links, they just say that they have close relatives who belong to the militant groups. This is part of the problem that I have with a lot of this is that, look, look, you can,

if these 12 people were involved in the attack, obviously, horrible. You should be fired, etc. But in general, there seems to be like a lack of reality about who was governing the Gaza Strip. It's obviously Hamas. Also, guys, you can't be a member of a rival party in the Gaza Strip under the Hamas leadership and not be targeted for death. It's kind of the same thing that we could have said whenever we invited Iraq and we're like, oh, well, they were belonging to the Ba'ath Party. It's like, yeah, but you had to belong to the Ba'ath Party if you wanted to do the most basics of civil government. Now, this is, again, according to the Israeli intelligence estimate and more, I think it's probably and almost certainly an attempt to try and to cut off, because the UNRWA has been such a vocal and potent critic of Israel.

And any time you can try and to diminish the organization, especially in the eyes of the West, the bigger problem that I see here is that we just seem to be taking the Israelis' word for it themselves. Because the US in its statement did not immediately say whether it had its own intelligence to that effect. Furthermore, as I said with this Wall Street Journal report, it is relying entirely on Israeli military estimates, which certainly could be true. But they need to declassify the intelligence, share it with the world. I mean, if you're going to be going after the people who are the only ones who are actually delivering humanitarian aid, well, then you need to provide some evidence, you know, really to that effect. So this is actually a very tried and true strategy that we saw during the Iraq war and more. And we're seeing the Israelis play it out here again.

And obviously it's to their domestic political benefit. Like, let's not forget that. Yeah. So I think there's a few things going on here. First of all, there's that high level, like philosophical conflict between Israel and the UNRWA. The full name of that agency is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

And so their contention is basically like, by allowing Palestinians who were, you know, kicked off their land and multi-generations of Palestinians to continue to see themselves as refugees. It keeps them from integrating into the surrounding

communities and basically like giving up their, you know, claim to any sort of a state. So that's the, especially on the right, the philosophical opposition to the UNRWA. So they're always looking for a way to attack them, undercut them, et cetera. There's also the level of, again, it's not an accident that these allegations were put out there and the US funding cut on the very day of the ICJ ruling. It's a classic distraction tactic as well. And, you know, the U.S. news media immediately took it up. You know, the ICJ ruling, which is incredibly consequential, you know, which basically sided with South Africa on every piece, but did stop short of calling directly for a ceasefire, although it did say, hey, you got to stop doing the things that are

creating the conditions that could plausibly be a genocide. That incredibly consequential ruling got buried in the Western press by these allegations about the UNRWA. And it also fits, you know, hand in glove with the strategy they use. It's a meme at this point of like anyone who disagrees with them or that they don't like is Hamas. You know, the UN is Hamas. The hospital workers are Hamas.'t like is Hamas. You know, the UN is Hamas. The hospital workers are Hamas. The schools are Hamas.

The premature babies that were left to die are apparently Hamas. So anyone that South Africa was they at the ICJ argued South Africa is basically Hamas or doing Hamas's bidding. So that is their, you know, their strategy. And listen, again, I don't put it totally out of the question that with a large agency of 13,000 people, that there aren't a few that had some hand in October 7th. I don't put that out of the question.

That's right. The answer to that isn't if that is indeed what happened, which we should not take the Israelis at their word on anything. But if that is indeed something that happened, okay. You fire them, you weed out the bad apples, and you move forward because the mission of the UNRWA has never been more critical than right now.

When you have half of all people in the Gaza Strip starving, when you have 80% going regularly without a single meal a day, you have effectively the entire population completely displaced, living in squalor, communicable diseases spreading like wildfire, no sanitation, no clean drinking water, no basic medical supplies. Okay, their mission has never been more critical. And so again, to see the response of the U.S. on the day when this ICJ says

they may be committing a genocide and pointing routinely to the humanitarian conditions, this was really at the center of that ruling, pointing routinely to the humanitarian conditions facing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. And our response is, let's make those humanitarian conditions facing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. And our response is, let's make those humanitarian conditions even worse because of some allegations that the Israelis have put in front of us. I mean, it's just, it's outrageous. It's absolutely outrageous.

There's no other word for it. Yeah. And Chrisley, you flagged one of our producers, an interesting segment that came from within the Israeli government that kind of specifically talked about targeting UNRWA only days ago. So earlier this month, just on January 4th, a former Israeli official was basically testifying in front of the Knesset. And we can put this up on the screen. I'll just paraphrase what she's saying here in Hebrew. But she directly targets the UNRWA and says it will be impossible to win the war if the UNRWA is not destroyed. And her point is basically sort of like what I was saying. Oh, well, they create and propagate this idea that leads to the creation

of more and more terrorists. Well, what is that idea? The idea is that Palestinians have legitimate rights and legitimate rights to statehood, whereas people like this and many others ideologically believe that even the sort of theoretical concept of the UNRWA leads Palestinians to continue to hold out hope that they want to see them lose. They want to see them abandon that hope. And so it's very noteworthy that you have just earlier this month, not very long ago, this official testifying before the Israeli parliament saying, we have to destroy the UNRWA. And then lo and behold, they roll out these allegations that lead to the US and a bunch of other countries cutting the funding and very much threatening the future survival of the UNRWA against Agra at a time when its mission has never been more vital and never been more critical.

There's also been some major domestic turmoil inside of Israel, where there's a group of protesters who are actually blocking any humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip. Let's put this up there on the screen. This is from the Times of Israel. They say, for a second day in a row, protesters are blocking aid reaching Gaza from Israel, including some families of hostages at the Karam Shalom border crossing, urging the government to not allow any supplies in until captives held by the terrorists are freed. So it's interesting to me, Crystal, because there are ceasefire protesters in Israel who I've watched get cracked down upon almost immediately. But these protesters who have been blocking aid

have been very much allowed. And I think it obviously fits with the general orientation of the Netanyahu government and of the different, you know, ways in which they're pulled, where if you're against the war, or even really if you're against a war strategy, not even against the war itself, then they are very willing to crack down, to use the state, to throw you in jail and to break it up. But if you are, I wouldn't even say pro-war, but if you were like pro the aims of the right-wing government, which does certainly advance them, then they allow it to happen. It's one of the most classic examples of like using the law selectively that we watch happen domestically.

And it is clear too about which message that they want to allow to propagate inside of their media for their domestic populace. Yeah, that's absolutely correct. So some of the family members of hostages were involved in these protests to cut off aid. Others, as I know you guys covered last week, stormed the Knesset and are furious because it has become incredibly apparent and undeniable that the aims of the war are inconsistent with the aims of bringing the hostages home. I mean, it's just sort of basic logic that if you're bombing the hell out of a place,

you're putting all the people who are there at risk. The only time they have had any success at bringing hostages back was during that brief ceasefire, those six days of a brief ceasefire. That was the only time. And in fact, you know, of course they murdered some of their own hostages because they thought they were Palestinians in spite of the fact that they were, you know, trying to surrender and had their shirts off to show they weren't a threat, et cetera, et cetera. So the capability of having the intelligence or the ability or the wherewithal or whatever to go in and militarily get these hostages out,

that has not worked whatsoever. So that continues to be a pressure point for the Netanyahu government. I'm sure you saw, Sagar, there's some new supposed potential hostage deal and there's a potential two-month long ceasefire that is being in some stages of negotiation. We'll see whether that comes to fruition or not. But I think part of the reason why that would even be on the table is certainly because of the domestic upset within

Israel. I also think that the ICJ ruling, I do think that is putting pressure on the Israeli government because they could become a pariah state the way that South Africa did. This is the first time that the word genocide by any sort of international body has even been associated with Israel whatsoever. You have seen the way that some of their comments have been at times moderated. We're hearing less, for example, about all the ethnic cleansing plans, although we're starting to hear more about it as they see that the U.S. is going to back them no matter what. But also critically, some of the countries that they were reportedly going to,

like the Congo, to say, hey, will you take in these Palestinian refugees? They're now saying absolutely not because they don't want to aid and abet what has been deemed plausibly genocide by an international body. So those are some of the pressure points that are leading to maybe some sort of renewed deal with regard to the hostages and some temporary cessation of their assault on Gaza. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder.

I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband. It's a cold case. They've never found her. And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there.

Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never got any kind of answers for.

If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think everything that might have dropped in 95 has been labeled the golden years of hip-hop. It's Black Music Month, and We Need to Talk is tapping in. I'm Nyla Simone, breaking down lyrics, amplifying voices, and digging into the culture that shaped the soundtrack of our lives.

My favorite line on there was, my son and my daughter gonna be proud when they hear my old tapes. Now I'm curious, do they like rap along now? Yeah, because I bring him on tour with with me and he's getting older now too so his friends are starting to understand what that type of music is and they're starting to be like yo your dad's like really the goat like he's a legend so he gets it what does it mean to leave behind a music legacy for your family it means a lot to me just having a good catalog and just being able to make people feel good. Like, that's what's really important and that's

what stands out, is that our music changes people's lives for the better. So, the fact that my kids get to benefit off of that, I'm really happy. Or my family in general. Let's talk about the music that moves us. To hear this and more on how music and culture collide, listen to We Need to Talk from the Black Effect Podcast Network

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This Pride Month, we are not just celebrating. We're fighting back. I'm George M. Johnson, and my book, All Boys Aren't Blue, was just named the most banned book in America.

If the culture wars have taught me anything, it's that pride is protest. And on my podcast, Fighting Words, we talk to people who use their voices to resist, disrupt, and make our community stronger. This year, we are showing up and showing out. You need people being like, no, you're not going to tell us what to do. This regime is coming down on us. And I don't want to just survive. I want to do. This regime is coming down on us. And I don't want to just survive. I want to thrive.

You'll hear from trailblazers like Bob the Drag Queen. To freedom! Angelica Ross. We ready to fight? I'm ready to fight. And Gabrielle Yoon. Hi, George. And storytellers with wisdom to spare. Listen on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

With regard to the response from the U.S. to the ICJ's ruling, I mean, it's just, they continue to completely gaslight about what the International Court of Justice even said. Let's take a listen to, this is John Kirby, who has, you know, really won some awards here in terms of his shameless level of propaganda, getting asked about that ruling and the U.S. response. Let's take a listen to some of that. Our disagreement over the founding claim of the allegation causes any permanent damage to the bilateral relationship with South Africa. We just happen to disagree on that point. But we're also going to keep working on that relationship as we do many others. So you fundamentally believe the U.S.

They claim that the U.S. is supporting a genocidal state. That is not going to impact relations with South Africa. I don't believe I heard that from South Africa. South Africa filed a case based on allegations that they believe genocide was being conducted by Israel in Gaza. I don't believe it was directed at us at all. We simply have said consistently we find that that claim is unfounded. And, you know, the court also did not find Israel guilty of genocide. The court did not find Israel guilty of genocide. The court did not find Israel guilty of genocide, he says there, which is incredible gaslighting because they were not ruling on the merits at this point, something he surely knows. That decision will take years of evaluating the evidence.

However, in that ruling, which I read every word of, they basically cited with South Africa on every critical claim, including citing some specific language of top Israeli officials, including President Herzog, as being potential incitement to genocide. And so, you know, even though the U.S. is not directly named in this case at the ICJ, it's very clear our direct complicity, which creates, let's just put it mildly, some challenges for U.S. officials and certainly for, you know, propaganda spin masters like John Kirby in terms of how we approach it. Because this is an administration, soccer, as you know, that has loved to talk a big game

about the quote unquote international rules of, you know, international rules-based order when it serves their interests and when it goes against the batty countries like Russia that we don't like. But suddenly we see,

not that this was any surprise and not that we've been, you know, consistent in the past, but there is a giant Israel-shaped exception to any sort of international rules-based order as backed by the United States of America. Yeah, I mean, they push it against Putin. They're like, oh, we want to make him an international pariah. Now all of that is completely out the window. It is embarrassing for them, almost certainly. And you're right, you know, in terms of the way that they

parse the language. They want international institutions to be convenient for their foreign policy whenever it aligns, but then disregard it. It's like, guys, that's not how it's supposed to work. Like, you either agree or not, especially in this case, because the US is party to the ICJ. But yeah, Ryan did a great job, by the way, for breaking it down for everybody with the treat or parsi, the actual thing. I encourage people to go watch that if you're interested in the details. Any last thoughts on the ICJ, Crystal, before we go on to Pelosi? Yeah, the last thing I'll say is when it's interesting the way that the U.S. media spun the ICJ ruling, because I think you and I both would be curious your thoughts as well. When we first were reading the U.S. media reports before we actually could read the text of the ruling,

I was like, and I tried to, you know, sort of like have it both ways. Kind of a win for Israel. It's kind of a win for South Africa. They're clearly, you know, politically trying to maintain their legitimacy. When I actually read through the text, of course, I wanted to see them go further

and call for a full and complete ceasefire. But it was a much more dramatic loss for Israel than I would have thought based on the US media reports. Because as I said, as they go through claim by claim from South Africa, I mean, first of all, on all the technical legal matters, do they have standing? Is there a dispute, et cetera? They agree with South Africa. In terms of concern for the humanitarian situation and buying Israel's BS about, oh, we're shipping in plenty of aid, et cetera, et cetera.

They don't buy that. And then as I mentioned, they cite specific comments from Yoav Galant, the defense minister, the ones about, you know, it's a siege, we're dealing with human animals, we'll treat them as such. Those comments from him. They cite the words of Israeli President Isaac Herzog saying there are no uninvolved civilians. And they cite another Israeli

minister in a post that he put on Twitter that hadn't even really come to my attention before, but also spoke to the sort of complete siege conditions that they were subjecting all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to. So as you go through, it seems very much that they gave a lot more credence to the South African side. And for them to say, yes, we do believe plausibly

that these conditions could be contributing to genocide. I saw one analysis that said, it would be difficult for them to call for a ceasefire because they have no power over Hamas. Hamas isn't a state actor. They're not party to the ICJ and the Genocide Convention. So all they can do is compel Israeli actions. And they're telling them to stop all of the things that are creating these conditions of plausible genocide. So it does go a bit further than I initially

thought based on the media reports. And the other thing is Netanyahu is clearly furious about the ruling and attacked it in all the ways you would think and say anti-Semitic, blah, blah, blah. But also, you know, as they move forward, if they continue to prosecute this war in this fashion, they do find themselves at risk of it'll take a while, years down the road, but actually having been found to be committing genocide. The last thing that, Sagar, I found incredibly significant is just how nearly unanimous it was. There is no way in hell I thought the American judge was going to go along with a ruling like this. No way in hell. You even had the Israeli ad hoc judge that they chose going along with pieces of this ruling. And there was just one judge from Uganda, which I don't know what was going on with her, but who objected to the whole thing. Everybody else was pretty much unanimous. So that's the other reason I thought

this was actually quite significant because I figured they'd just play politics. I figured they'd find some technical loophole. Like I said, there's no way I thought the American judge would go along with the ruling saying, yes, they're plausibly committing genocide, but that's exactly what we saw. So it actually is kind of astonishing. Yeah, I actually agree with that. I actually thought that the ruling was good because what the ruling did is it said that war is acceptable. We are not going to call on the ability to not wage war. What we're saying is that the way you are waging war is contravening to the articles that we have under

the ICJ. And they cite specific instances. And they also were like, you can continue to conduct war. It falls in line with the general theory of you have a right to self-defense, you have a right to go after people who have attacked you, but that there are lines within that, the general conduct of nations that are party to the ICJ. And then let's even take the ICJ out of it and just see the general Western consensus whenever you have an advanced Western-style military that's going after a paramilitary group, a terrorist organization, or insurgent group in the way that you could even compare how different Israel's military response has been from the way that the United States conducted itself during the counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just the level

of care for humanitarian, for civilians and others. I'm not going to say we're perfect, but I think you could compare the two and say they're dramatically different. My point only just being there that what the ICJ ruling said is you have a right to conduct war. You have a right to defend yourself. The way that you have done this combined with the statements of many of your gubernatorial ministers has been such that it seems you plausibly could be committing ethnic cleansing and or genocide. And so if you want to avoid such charges, you should change the way that you conduct the war. So in that, I, again, look, I generally believe international law and all that is fake because, as you said, how can they enforce it? Also, Hamas is a non-governmental organization. It's a non-state actor. It literally is not party to any of this. So any of it doesn't

matter per se. But if we understand it just in the way that Western militaries behave and have behaved in the post-World War II era and such, the ICJ, Geneva Conventions, and all of those were agreed upon amongst each other about this is kind of the way that we're going to conduct war. Yes, total war is a different story like we used to be in. And if we ever find ourselves in one such again, then they probably won't be abiding this. But within this general framework, this is how we act. And so the US held the Russian military, for example, to the standard whenever they were conducting war in Ukraine.

Then we can see clearly this is outside of that realm. So within that, I thought it was actually quite a good ruling. And I also think to bolster what you said, Crystal, is that this is going to dramatically increase pressure for that ceasefire. Because Netanyahu and the rest of the Israeli public are not stupid. They are a small country. They rely upon the behest of international trade. And if you reduce the amount of international trade that you're able to conduct, and you've got all these great technology companies in Tel Aviv and all that, you've got to sell it to somebody. You've got to license it to somebody. That's

largely the backbone of the entire Israeli economy on top of all of the imports that make Tel Aviv and Israel function as a nation state. If you reduce that even by 15 percent, imagine. Imagine if the U.S. economy contracted by 15 percent or our imports went down by 15. It would be a catastrophe for the way that we live our overall life. I think this will dramatically increase pressure for a two-month ceasefire. I talked about it a bit last time with Ryan too, and I was like, look, I think at this stage in the game, especially given the inability for them so far to achieve their military aims and others, if the guns stop firing for two months, it is very likely they're not turning on in the same way again. I'm not gonna say there'll be no military action, but the same way that they conduct themselves, just given the amount of international pressure and other, the sigh of relief from the West and others and the eventual pressure that would build up to that point, it's extraordinarily unlikely that they could continue. But maybe that's why they don't wanna agree. They just wanna muscle

through and just keep going. I'm not sure what they're gonna do. I'm not sure either. Just a couple more points on that. Ryan made a really good point about the no enforcement mechanism piece, which is true, which we've said a number of times, which is accurate. But I mean, it's the same thing as our Supreme Court doesn't have an enforcement mechanism, which is kind of a live issue right now with what's going on at the border. But the reason it has power is because people give it credence and power. And so that's the whole idea of legitimacy of the ICJ and these other international bodies is do people pay attention to the rulings? Do they abide by them or do they thumb their nose?

Because, yeah, if the U.S. and our European allies and Israel thumbs our nose and says, OK, you think that they're plausibly committing genocide and you compelled them to do all these certain things to prevent those conditions. And also, by the way, to go after some of these ministers who are inciting genocide. If we just say no, then yeah, there's no enforcement mechanism.

There's no legitimacy. It's the exact same thing with our Supreme Court. The thing that gives it legitimacy is that we all agree it has legitimacy and we pay attention to its rulings. So I think it's important to keep that in mind with regard to the quote unquote lack of enforcement mechanism. There's going to be a UN Security Council likely vote on this this week. We'll see what the US does. But you know, everybody should be incredibly discouraged by the fact that our immediate reaction was to cut the very aid that the ICJ says should be increasing.

Our response was, how about we cut the funding and actually decrease the amount of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in this moment of absolute crisis? And then the last thing that all, well, two other things. Russia was sort of set up. They had sort of planned the contingency plan for if we become a pariah state, we'll have our economy and our government set up to be able to deal with that. And, you know, alternative world powers, including, you know, a close relationship with China to be able to cope with that. And so it hasn't been painless, but they've been able to get through it. Israel is not set up like that. Israel is incredibly dependent on foreign direct investment, on capital flowing into the country. They're very dependent on this global tech sector, which is really both a source of economic prosperity and also incredible

national pride. So they are not prepared economically to be that pariah state. And the last thing I will say on this is, you know, the U.S., we pick and choose when we feel like listening to international law, when we don't, you know, we have been complete hypocrites on this basically since the beginning.

We just decide when and how we're going to pay attention to this. But Europe has approached this in a more consistent way. And so it will be a much more difficult thing for the EU and the constituent European nations to go against what the ICJ is saying here and what they continue to say going forward, because this isn't over. They will also be assessing whether Israel is meeting their obligations that have now been set forth by the International Court of Justice. So, and the EU is a huge trading partner, or is one of their top trading partners for Israel. So the stakes, you know, the stakes do exist. It's not nothing. And I think you could already see

in some Israeli actions, the way that this has mattered. An absolutely stunning moment on CNN when CNN's Dana Bash had on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to ask her about ceasefire protesters, in which Pelosi intimated that these ceasefire protesters are actually doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin. Here's what she had to say. They're in front of my house all the time. So I have a feeling for what feelings they have. But we have to think about what we're doing. And what we have to do is try to stop the suffering and gossip.

This is women and children, people who don't have a place to go. So let's address that. But for them to call for a ceasefire is Mr. Putin's message. Mr. Putin's message. Make no mistake, this is directly connected to what he would like to see. Same thing with Ukraine. It's about Putin's message. I think some of these protesters are spontaneous and organic and sincere.

Some, I think, are connected to Russia. And I say that having looked at this for a long time now, as you know. You think some of these protests are Russian plants? I don't think they're plants. I think some financing should be investigated. And I want to ask the FBI to investigate that. But apart from that, let's just say it's all spontaneous and sincere. Let's say it's all spontaneous and sincere.

Young people care about the right to choose. They care about LGBTQ issues. They care about preserving the planet. They care about gun violence prevention. That's what they tell us. They care about our democracy and the freedoms that are contained in some of what I said. So they're going to have to make a decision. Okay, there's a lot to go into there. First of all, it's pretty wild to say that they're Russian-back Second though, notice immediately what she calls for. I want the FBI to investigate that. So this is like 1960s level calls. And what's crazy to me is that this is not

an immediate national scandal. I'm curious what you think, Crystal. I mean, I don't know if her brain is so broken that she can always just go back to Putin, but she genuinely does seem to believe this. Russiagate is so rotted her brain that, you know, the Russia is the first thing that she can reach for. FBI, you know, investigating Americans seems to be the second thing that she wants to reach for here. But, I mean, this is truly stunning. This is one of the most powerful Democrats in the entire country. I mean, she's certainly old enough to go back to those COINTELPRO days. So I guess she's just reaching back into her history from the old bag of tricks.

But not that that ever really fully stopped. in the country would call for the FBI to investigate ceasefire protesters, the vast majority of whom, by the way, are the Democratic Party's base. I mean, the Democratic Party base is wildly at odds with where Biden and Pelosi are on this issue. I mean, among 2020 Biden voters, I think we may even have this. 50% actually think that Israel is committing a genocide and another 30% aren't too sure. So you've got 80% of people who voted for Joe Biden who say, you know, either they are committing a genocide or they may be committing a genocide against Palestinian civilians. And Joe Biden obviously has backed them with that 110 percent, expediting the weapons shipments. So it is very rare to see an issue where the elites of the party are so dramatically

at odds and directly antagonistic with their own voting base of support. So that's one thing I would say. In terms of where this comes from, I mean, I think that these Democrats, the top leadership, are so out of touch that they just can't fathom that young people actually genuinely, wildly disagree with their policy and are intelligent enough to have formulated their own opinions outside of the Democratic Party media propaganda machine. And they do not agree with what you're doing. And it didn't take Vladimir Putin or Russian financing or anything else for them to come to this position.

It wasn't the TikTok algorithms. It's not because they're Russian plants. It's because they think you are aiding and embedding a genocide. And they got a little bit of a problem with that. The other thing that I would say, that I found very noteworthy at the beginning of her comments,

you probably took note of this as well, is that the first thing out of her mouth is like, yeah, they're outside of my house all the time. And I do think that's where some of the personal animus and the rub comes from. Because it's again, it's at odds with her own self-conception. I think she sees herself as this liberal feminist trailblazer. She thinks that young people should be yes-queening her. And if they're not, it's not because of something she did or something the Democratic Party did. It must be some problem

with them, or it must not be truly reflective of how they really feel about her or really feel about these policy issues. So what does she go for? She goes for the easiest sugar high, the biggest source of derangement of the Democratic Party over the course of these past eight years or so, the Russiagate conspiracy, to try to conceptualize how these young people could possibly disagree with her, liberal queen Nancy Pelosi. Yeah, no, I mean, there's just so much egotism behind the comments. But it also just reminds me of something that really was normalized under the Russiagate era, where you could just plausibly say? It's not like, hold on a second, what single scrap of evidence do you have to back that up? And it goes back to, for example, Hillary Clinton accusing Tulsi Gabbard of being a Russian asset and all these things.

These just became normalized such that it's like you are literally saying that people are committing treason or they are agents of foreign governments. These are prosecutable crimes. And then beyond the rhetoric of that, you're actually arguing for the FBI to immediately come in and step in to investigate, said American citizens. This has been so normalized now from the Russiagate era and then extended during the whole January 6th investigation such that it extends to everybody. It's like a blanket security threat, really, from the top where the former House Speaker, most powerful Democrat in the entire country can just go on national television. And the host just doesn't even seem like she needs to follow up

beyond just reiterating the claim just to make sure that she said it. I was actually more stunned by that even more, not just the comment, but by the casualness, which was greeted by the CNN host. Who knows better? She should know better than to just let that fly. Yeah, absolutely. And to your point about no evidence, you know, she loves to do this thing. And remember, Adam Schiff was like the king of doing this during the height of the Russiagate era, where he would intimate that he has some special knowledge about what's going on because he's been read in by the intel community or he has some secret information that he can just hint at, but he can't really fully put out to the public. And she pulls that same trick here. She says like something to the effect of, well, I've been

looking into this for a long time. And based on what I've seen, we need to investigate the financing. I'm going to ask for the FBI to investigate the financing. She offers nothing in the way of evidence or support. It's just an appeal to this potential secret knowledge that she may have, I guess, because the protesters show up at her house and it irritates her that they disagree with her on this policy. The other thing that I just have to say is I find it so incredibly patronizing and deeply offensive when she says calling for a ceasefire is, quote,

Mr. Putin's message. Because again, it takes all the agency away from the, by the way, overwhelming majority of Americans, not just Democrats, but Americans who want a ceasefire. Because in spite of all the media propaganda, they still see some of these images of children under the rubble and babies dying and getting bombed.

And they say, this is horrible. And I want it to stop. To think that that can only come from some sort of nefarious place, I just find it so deeply insulting and offensive that you could even formulate those words. Yeah, no, I think you're right. That's a perfect transition, actually,

to the Dearborn, Michigan mayor, Mr. Abdullah Hamoud, who's actually on standby waiting to join us. Let's get to it. Joining us now is the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, Abdullah Hamoud, who's actually on standby waiting to join us. Let's get to it. Joining us now is the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, Abdullah Hamoud. Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. So you came to our attention recently. Let's put this up there on the screen, where you have canceled with a Biden campaign manager meeting over the unconditional support

by the president for Israel. Given that you are the mayor of one of the most prominent Arab American towns in the United States with a large population, we wanted you to join us and to tell us a little bit about your decision not to meet with the Biden campaign and some of the electoral politics that inform that. You know, from our perspective, we believe just that, that this is actually not a moment for electoral politics. If we want to talk about Palestinians and what's unfolding in Gaza,

this is not an issue of campaigning and poll numbers. This is an issue that is before us through a lens of humanity. And so if we want to have a conversation about changing course for this White House administration, about how they move forward,

I don't have that conversation with campaign staffers. I have that conversation with policymakers. I see. So you would be open, for example, to speaking with the president or his advisors directly. It was more the idea that they would reach out from a campaign and electoral perspective that you found, I don't know if you'd say offensive. How would you describe that? I mean, this is day 113 or 114 now. And up until this point, there has not been a single member of the administration that's made it out to the city of Dearborn to have a conversation about what's happening. And so for us, it's extremely dehumanizing that the first time this actually occurs is when you send out your campaign manager. Yes, we would be open to have a conversation with any individual that wants to have a constructive dialogue about how to move things forward.

But if you want to have a photo op, if you want to say that you listened or spoke to the Arab American community just to have that talking point, that's not a conversation that we're going to give in on or a conversation we want to be a part of. Yeah. Mr. Mayor, we've watched with some interest around the dynamics within this. As you said, you know, you didn't want this to be part of electoral politics. Almost certainly why they reached out to you. Some previous data, for example, we can put up here on the screen shows just how critical the Arab American vote was in the state of Michigan for 2020. What would you say then to President Biden? You know, electoral politics can be downstream then of policy. What would you say if you were to be able to meet with him about the concerns that you have amongst your constituents?

I think immediately I would say is we have set a very low bar as a community. We want to back a president that does not support a genocide. We want to back a president who believes in a value principle that I hope all Americans believe in. There's no justification for the killing of any innocent man, woman, or child. That is a very simple statement. And if you oppose that statement or disagree with that statement or try to add an asterisk to that statement or a qualifier, that says more about your moral compass than it says about anything else. And so that's what I would tell the president.

We're here. We want to have meaningful dialogue. We want to immediately demand a ceasefire to end the onslaught and the killing of innocent men, women, and children. But we have to have a constructive pathway moving forward. The argument of the lesser of two evils, the idea that Trump will destroy American democracy, that is a question that needs to be put back into the hands and the laps of the current president. What will you do to avoid the American democracy from being threatened by a Trump re-election?

How are you navigating that question? And what are you hearing from your constituents? Because as you know, and you've probably been told directly, basically the Biden camp thinks they'll get over it. When they think about Trump on the other side, you know, as their other choice on the ticket, who's called for a Muslim ban and would probably also be fully backing the genocide,

they'll come to their senses in their view and they'll vote for Joe Biden once again. What are you hearing from your constituents about how they're navigating that question? And how are you thinking about that question with your own moral compass? You know, we have residents who have had loved ones buried under the rubble in their residential towers

after being bombed by Israeli fighter jets. We have had loved ones who have lost 12 plus family members. That is not something you ever forget about. Not now and not in a matter of a few hundred days before an election season, something that you just move past. I've run for office four times now, previously as a state representative and now as mayor. And each time the question falls on the candidate, what will they do to earn the vote and the trust of the constituency that they're

trying to represent? It's not a question you put back on the community of how dare you potentially allow somebody to threaten our democracy back into office. The candidate has to win over the residents of the country they're trying to serve. And really that question has to be put back to the president. You know, people have tried to come to us and say this is, you know, strictly an Arab American issue or a Muslim American issue. And I also disagree with that notion. Over 80% of Democrats believe a ceasefire is the right pathway forward. Heck, the majority of Republicans believe that a ceasefire is the right pathway forward. Heck, the majority of Republicans believe that a ceasefire is the right path forward. And so I think it's time for the White House and for our congressional leaders

to hear what Americans are asking for and to deliver on the promise of being decent human beings and bringing decency back to that White House. Let me ask you this, Mr. Mayor. The undertone of a lot of what you're saying is that some people are not necessarily gonna vote for Biden just because he tells them to say so. So we had a organizer for the ceasefire of New Hampshire here on the show. And we asked him

explicitly, he said, okay, like, what is the goal of this? Is it just to send a message to President Biden? Or is it to actually threaten, you know, his ability to potentially get reelected? And he said solely, it was just trying to get a message to President Biden, who he remains and who he supports. So where do you stand kind of in that heuristic of looking at this issue? You know, our primary elections are in about, you know, less than 30 days. And we are, you know, I am not at this point committed to voting for Joe Biden. I'm not committed to voting for President Joe Biden in November. I think what you're going to see is a majority of my community, majority of Durbanites sit this presidential election out. And more than just the presidential election, it's also the U.S. Senate. We don't have a front-running candidate who's also called for a ceasefire. And so I think what the Democrats risk is not only losing the

White House, but also flipping the U.S. Senate back to Republican stronghold. And so for us, that's what's at risk. And if you believe that being attached to Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government is worth that sacrifice, then by all means move forward and you'll see the consequences in November. Mayor, what would you need to see from this president for him to earn your support? You know, it's hard to even come up with a list of things of what would it take to earn support. I think for me, it's what would it take for even for us to begin to have a dialogue along that pathway. And the immediate

thing again is to call for the ceasefire. You know, we can't continually read about nearly 200 people being murdered each and every single day that we wake up. For Dearborn, for us, this is very much real, right? These are our parents' villages that are being bombed, our parents' villages that are being ethnically cleansed, our family members that are buried under the rubble. And so for us, we need decency. We need to be dignified and respected for the human beings that we are, and not only political calculations that are taken into account whenever elections come around. covered a moment ago, Nancy Pelosi's comments basically saying that the ceasefire protesters are being funded by Russia, that this is Vladimir Putin's message. What is your response to that? The Democratic leadership is in disarray. I cannot believe that in a moment in 2024 and 2023,

the word ceasefire has become the most controversial term. And somehow Vladimir Putin is actually the one who wants to lead with diplomatic efforts. The idea that our Pope would renew calls for a ceasefire might potentially be a Russian operative. I think this is an opportunity for us to really have a conversation about what's happening with the Democratic Party because we have to hold them accountable.

Well, we really appreciate you taking the time, sir. And we appreciate what you had to say today. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast hell and gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders.

I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her, and it haunts me to this day. begging for help with unsolved murders. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never got any kind of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think everything that might have dropped in 95 has been labeled the golden years of hip-hop. It's Black Music Month, and We Need to Talk is tapping in. I'm Nyla Simone, breaking down lyrics, amplifying voices, and digging into the culture that shaped the soundtrack of our lives. My favorite line on there was, my son and my daughter gonna be proud when they hear my old tapes. Now I'm curious, do they like rap along now? My favorite line on there was, My son and my daughter gonna be proud when they hear my old tapes. Now I'm curious, do they like rap along now? Yeah, because I bring him on tour with me and he's getting older now too.

So his friends are starting to understand what that type of music is. And they're starting to be like, yo, your dad's like really the GOAT. Like he's a legend. So he gets it. What does it mean to leave behind a music legacy for your family? It means a lot to me. Just having a good catalog and just being able to make people feel good. Like that's what's really important and that's what stands out is that our music changes people's lives for the better.

So the fact that my kids get to benefit off of that, I'm really happy. Or my family in general. Let's talk about the music that moves us. To hear this and more on how music and culture collide, listen to We Need to Talk from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This Pride Month, we are not just celebrating. We're fighting back. I'm George M. Johnson, and my book, All Boys Aren't Blue, was just named the most banned book in America.

If the culture wars have taught me anything, it's that pride is protest. And on my podcast, Fighting Words, we talk to people who use their voices to resist, disrupt, and make our community stronger. This year, we are showing up and showing out. You need people being like, no, you're not going to tell us what to do. This regime is coming down on us.

And I don't want to just survive. I want to thrive. You'll hear from trailblazers like Bob the Drag Queen. To freedom! Angelica Ross. We ready to fight? I'm ready to fight. And Gabrielle Yoon. Hi, George.

And storytellers with wisdom to spare. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. to save on that front for the future. This is about a craze which has swept the media, elevated all the way to the White House, and is a genuinely divisive issue where I'm not even sure where either Crystal or I stand, so I'm, it's gonna be fun to discuss it. There have been AI deep fake nude images of Taylor Swift and many other celebrities that have been circulating online. Now it's not necessarily something new, it's something that's actually existed for a long time. And yet there has somehow now been a Streisand effect such that some of the most senior leaders, both in AI and in the nation, are now being asked

about this as if it's some sort of national security issue. Bubbled to the surface whenever Lester Holt of NBC News sat down with the Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to ask him specifically what he was going to do about this and what guardrails are in place for AI such that such so-called deepfake nude images and others do not circulate. As we get closer to some even more advanced AI technology, here's what they had to say. The internet is exploding with fake, and I emphasize fake, sexually explicit images of Taylor Swift. What does that tell you about this technology and whether we could ever get the toothpaste back in the tube? I'd say two things. One is, again, I go back to, I think, what's our responsibility, which is all of the guardrails that we need to place around the

technology so that there's more safe content that's being produced and there's a lot to be done there and a lot being done there. And we can do, especially when you have law and law enforcement and tech platforms that can come together. I think we can govern a lot more than we think we give ourselves credit for.

Does it set alarm bell off in terms of what can be done? You're Microsoft. You've got a high social, you know, corporate responsibility. There are other players in this game who may not have that same benefit. I think, first of all, absolutely. This is alarming and terrible. And so therefore, yes, we have to act.

So, Crystal, okay, I'm curious what you think, because this has become now a national issue, such that even the White House is being asked about this, okay? Let's put this up there on the screen. They were specifically asked, they said, they were asked, what are you going to do about it? Should Congress take legislative action to address fake, abusive images online? We are alarmed by the circulation of the false images, Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

So I have to try and separate this, where I think, look, I think it's terrible that it happens to anybody. And yet, for some reason, it becomes a national issue. Legislatively, it seems like it should probably be dealt with, like with deepfakes. But also, there seems to be some sort of weird Streisand effect going on here, where I didn't even know that these existed until I started seeing the NBC News Lester Holt interview, then the White House getting asked about this, now Congress having deliberative action. And then we'll get to what Twitter has done in their response. But anyway, your reaction. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I have to say I feel a little bit complicated about it. I guess in terms of Taylor Swift, I actually have the least sympathy for her because I sort of feel like, you know, not that I think this is great.

I don't think it's good at all. I think it's bad. I think it's invasive. I can understand how she feels about it. But I do sort of feel like when you're a famous person, you kind of expect you're going to get some kind of shit like this. And, you know, you get all the benefits of fame and fortune and, you know, the eyeballs on you and success and stardom and all that stuff, which is really nice and which many people would love to have.

And it does come with some downsides. And again, I'm not like normalizing or saying that that's fine. But I feel more like she can deal with it when it's Taylor Swift and she's got a legal team and they're going to go after whoever created this and whatever. The bigger questions for me are actually around quote unquote normal people who aren't famous. Because it's not like the generation of these images is going to be solely confined to Taylor Swift or other, you know,

stars and icons? You know, what if it's an underage girl that these fake AI nudes are being created of? I was a little busy last week dealing with my child's health issue, which, by the way,

she's doing much better. Thank you for all the well wishes. So I didn't actually look up the photos, but I am told they are very clearly fake. Yes. But I think that's another piece of this is, you know, it seems to me not only with this, but with other deep fakes,

it's really, really important that we have a way of knowing what's real and what's not real, both because of these instances where there's deep invasion of privacy and sort of intended humiliation, but also instances where there's an intent to deceive in some sort of significant way.

It could be with regard to news that's occurring or what's going on, et cetera. And we've seen a bunch of those as well. So I wouldn't say that, you know, this is just like, oh, who cares? It's Taylor Swift, like wave your hand. I do think it raises some real issues that we've already been confronting

about the AI era and how to regulate that and how to deal with that without stifling creativity, without going down the path of censorship, et cetera, without like shutting down innovation and without shutting down the path of censorship, et cetera, without shutting down innovation and without shutting down free speech. I think it raises and heightens some of those questions. But do I particularly see it as a crisis because it happened to Taylor Swift?

No. That's kind of what I wanted to get to, is I'm getting really annoyed because everyone's acting as if this is the worst. By the way, I like Taylor Swift. I tried to get tickets to the Heiress tour just so everybody knows I was sitting there with the waiting line and all of that. I'm a fan. Okay. So like, let's be very clear. That said, I can recognize like a moral panic whenever I see one. And given what Twitter did, let's put this

up there. By the way, thank you, Elon, for doing this. Twitter or X blocked Taylor Swift searches after those fake AI videos were going viral. They literally did not allow you for a period of time to search the name Taylor Swift in the search bar so you could find this. This is particularly dumb because this happened at the exact same time as the Chiefs game yesterday when many people, probably teenage girls, were searching it because they wanted to see her kiss Travis Kelsey or to hug, what's the lady's name? Mahomes, whatever. Okay, Brittany, I think that's it. Brittany Mahomes.

They wanted to see their reaction in the box. Okay, so it's like you have now created, now people are going to be like, hey, why can't I search Taylor Swift? And now, as you said, too, the victim here or potential actual victims that we should really be worried about are teenagers. We've seen a rise in teenage boys in particular killing themselves through some sort of like ensnarement, entrapment things where people will entice them for nude images. We've covered it here on the show before. We've talked about teenage girls, normal women. That's actually the real victims, you know, in many cases of some of these revenge forms are normal women, are people with jobs and others who are either facing being fired like teachers and others who are facing reputational damage.

And they don't have a legal team, the police, resources, NBC News and the CEO of Microsoft on their side. Most people just don't care about them at all. So anyway, I think that there was a major Streisand effect going on here. And there is also a, I'm just going to say this again, as somebody who likes Taylor, I am so annoyed by the NFL and even the New York Times and others just blatantly putting her name in headlines to get engagement. So let me give you a perfect example. The front page of the New York Times political section right now is inside Biden's anti-Trump battle plan

and where Taylor Swift fits in. Come on. I'm sorry, I looked into it. Taylor is in the 10th graph. Graph, by the way, means paragraph in reporter speak. They barely have a throwaway mention. They're like, yeah, we would love to get her endorsement. And she's in that, it's like, stop, all right? Like everyone is, and by the way, there's a would love to get her endorsement. And she's in that. It's like, stop. All right. Like everyone is. And but there's a whole right wing backlash as well. They're like they're trying to turn Taylor into a Biden plant and all of this, which may be true. Now, this article has now come out. But my point is just like the amount of engagement farming that's going on off this woman's name is driving me nuts.

So it's a very long way of saying I'm rooting for the 49ers. I'm pro Brock Purdy. We need a total and complete shutdown of this shit until we can figure out what the hell is going on. I haven't dug in enough to really understand why there's been so much upset about Taylor's affiliation with the Chiefs and why people are so,

it became such a thing. I just haven't done enough research. I haven't cared enough to even understand what the energy is about. I don't watch football, but poor my friends who do. Here's what it is. They love the NFL. They love football. They're getting very annoyed because basically whenever there's a Chiefs game, every time Travis Kelsey scores a touchdown or does something good, they just pan the box to Taylor Swift and it's like the Taylor cam. And there has been a massive influx of people who are now watching and engaging with the NFL purely for Taylor Swift content and or memes.

These are people who genuinely love the game. They would be watching anyways. I understand it to a certain extent. That said, if you're the NFL, who cares? You know, your NFL— It's good for them. Yeah, well, but then there are some allegations, some people are saying, that the NFL is actively rooting and intervening to try and rig it so that the Chiefs would win the Super Bowl because they know. There's actually a new study that just came out yesterday that Taylor Swift has added $330 million in brand equity to the NFL and to ratings just in the time since she began dating Travis Kelsey. That's how powerful

the brand is. Kelsey himself, I believe, is now one of the most followed people in the entire NFL on Instagram. It's tough, too, because most people don't even know. Most people don't even know. He's actually incredibly good at his position. He's one of the all-time greats. Then him and his brother monetizing this, and he's appearing in a Pfizer commercial. So I do get why it's annoying. If you're in the NFL, I get why it's annoying. If you love the game and you just love the game for its sake. See, the attention and getting new fans in or whatever, to me, that's only like, okay, you're expanding the love of the sport, whatever. When you get into, I definitely don't put it past them to basically have the reps throwing the games as much as they can for the Chiefs to keep the Taylor gravy train going.

That's another matter. So I could see that point. But I also think, to me, part of this is Taylor Swift occupies this strange place in our political landscape. Because for a long time, and she came up, you know, she was initially like this country music pop star. And for a long time, and she came up, you know, she was initially like this country music pop star. And for a long time, she was completely silent on politics, probably because she was extremely young, right?

So she was just like, and in country music, especially, just like, let's just not talk about it. And then there was this whole fantasy on the right that maybe she was like secretly Republican, secretly like really conservative or even alt-right. Remember when there was some like alt-right message board that thought they named her Kat or something like crazy like that? Because she has that kind of like, you know, trad look. And she didn't wear super skimpy clothes. And so there was this whole invented fantasy that perhaps secretly she's a conservative.

And then during one of the elections, she came out against one of the senators who's running in Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn. She came out for the Democrat and it kind of was like her political coming out as just like the most basic resistance liberal that you could possibly imagine. And so I think that the crushed hopes that had been placed on Taylor also add to the upset of her involvement in any sort of cultural thing that some people on the right may be involved with. Because it seems like most of the anti-Taylor energy is coming from the right, if I'm not mistaken. It is now because she did endorse Biden

and there's some photo of her holding Biden cookies. I will say if she does endorse Biden and she appears with him, she's gonna to fulfill these people's wildest dreams. Because a lot of them have been saying they're like, she's a Biden plant and all. I think I saw the big thing. I mean, that's not the secret. Like she is just a basic Democrat. A basic, like since liberal Democrat.

I don't think that's a surprise to anyone. Absolutely right. In fact, I think her genuine appeal is that she's like as normal as it gets. And I don't mean in terms of like fame or whatever, I mean, in terms of her like tastes. She's one of the most classic millennials. She still uses Gandalf references, just to everyone be as clear, in a more recent interview that she did with Time Magazine. So anyway, we've given you as much Taylor news, as we said, as I said, you know, much of the chagrin of our crew, one of whom is a diehard Chiefs fan.

I'm going for the 49ers now. I can't handle the Taylor. I can't handle a Taylor media cycle from the Super Bowl. I just can't. And I won't be able to. You won't be able to shake it off. I will not be able to shake it off. It's going to be some trouble for you, Sokka. It'll be some of my wildest dreams. I'm sorry. There you go. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders.

I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her. And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try.

She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never got any kind of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line

at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think everything that might have dropped in 95 has been labeled the golden years of hip-hop.

It's Black Music Month, and We Need to Talk is tapping in. I'm Nyla Simone, breaking down lyrics, amplifying voices, and digging into the culture that shaped the soundtrack of our lives. My favorite line on there was, my son and my daughter gonna be proud when they hear my old tapes. Now I'm curious, do they like rap along now? Yeah, because I bring him on tour with me, and he's getting older now too.

So his friends are starting to understand what that type of music is. And they're starting to be like, yo, your dad's like really the GOAT. Like he's a legend. So he gets it. What does it mean to leave behind a music legacy for your family? It means a lot to me. Just having a good catalog and just being able to make people feel good. Like that's what's really important and

that's what stands out is that our music changes people's lives for the better so the fact that my kids get to benefit off of that i'm really happy or my family in general let's talk about the music that moves us to hear this and more on how music and culture collide listen to we need to talk from the black effect podcast network on the iheart Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This Pride Month, we are not just celebrating. We're fighting back. I'm George M. Johnson. And my book, All Boys Aren't Blue, was just named the most banned book in America.

If the culture wars have taught me anything, it's that pride is protest. And on my podcast, Fighting Words, we talk to people who use their voices to resist, disrupt, and make our community stronger. This year, we are showing up and showing out. You need people being like, no, you're not what you tell us what to do. This regime is coming down

on us, and I don't want to just survive. I want to thrive. You'll hear from trailblazers like Bob the Drag Queen. To freedom! Angelica Ross. We ready to fight? I'm ready to fight.

And Gabrielle Yoon. Hi, George. And storytellers with wisdom to spare. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, Sagar.

What are you looking at? Well, several years ago, I was having dinner with some of my friends, almost immediately after Trump was elected in 2016. Washington was still in a haze, and people couldn't quite believe what had happened. We did, however, have enough data to see some pretty profound shifts in the American electorate. And someone asked the table what strategy that they would pursue to make sure the GOP won every election going forward. Because I had just looked at the gender voting numbers for Trump, noting especially his increase, slight at that time, strength amongst black and Hispanic men, I just joked,

the GOP should just become a party of non-college educated men. Over the years, I'm reminded more and more of that comment because so much data is now showing that genuinely might be the best long-term strategy they have, not just for the GOP, but really for right-wing movements across the world. I couldn't even get this data out of my head when pursuing some new ones compiled by the Financial Times. It shows a global realignment of young men across the world, far more conservative than their female peers, and becoming so. Consider that in the US, in the UK, and Germany, there is now a nearly 20% spread between Gen Z men and women in conservative versus liberal identification. In other developed countries like

South Korea, for reference, the split is even more pronounced, as those of you can see. Data not included in the chart, though, shows that the same holds true in places like Poland, Tunisia, and China. So in other words, it's a global trend encompassing the West and the East. All of this makes sense in the flattened cultural environment that we live in today. Trump was not just America's president, he was a global figure on which politics and culture bifurcated. The key catalyst identified by the Financial Times is the 2017 Me Too movement for global politics. It's worth actually teasing that out and considering the major effect that male realignment is having on politics in the US. In the 2020 election, for example, Trump increased his vote share of every single demographic

group in the country, except with one. College-educated white men. He won much larger percentages of votes with Latino men and black men. So much so, he was actually able to switch large swaths of counties in South Texas and of course turn the tide in Florida. Now, don't get me wrong. He still lost the majority Latino male vote and the black male vote. But as Democratic strategists will admit privately, winning the black vote by 75 points as opposed to 90 points is actually make or break in the entire electoral college.

Now, let's actually start to look to the future. Combine Gen Z data from the Financial Times with some important social trends that we see a picture of some actually bad politics ahead. I've said ad nauseum, the single best predictor of how you voted in 2020 is whether you have a four-year college degree or not. In the past, college degrees were equally-ish split amongst genders, but the future data tells us that is not the case. Over the last five years, female enrollment in college has either spiked or stayed the same, while male college enrollment has plummeted. There are a variety of factors behind why perhaps the main one is that men just feel increasingly unwelcome in college-educated, politically correct environments.

The problem for our future politics is that the four-year college degree is not just an education, it is mostly a cultural finishing school. People who go to college have vastly different priorities and interests than those who do not. Neither is better, it's just different. As female college enrollment is now trending in the direction of a two-to-one ratio, you can see how this is going to split electorally. On the other side of the spectrum, you have many men who are eschewing college and who are pursuing a very different track economically. This is where policy fights and others could manifest themselves in the future. For example, already today, women outnumber men amongst a college-educated workforce.

This is predominantly white-collar, meaning their concerns over worker protection, rights, and general conception of economic life is going to be vastly different than those who are in the trades, in the service industry, or those who run a small business. Perhaps even more importantly, I really fear for our culture demographic trends. Already today, the vast majority of young men are single, with younger women who are deciding to simply date men who are older than them for a variety of reasons, most likely economic ones.

The more our economy, culture, and politics are splitting amongst gender lines, the more we drive each other apart at a most human of levels. Couple that actually with a loneliness crisis amongst men, and I'm foreseeing a future of single angry men who are driving one party and single angry women in another.

That's not really a future that I want to live in. More and more though, it seems to be very likely. I'm curious what you think, Crystal. And if you want to hear my reaction to Cypress Monologue, become a premium subscriber today at BreakingPoints.com. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend.

I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her. And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try.

She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never got any kind of answers for.

If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think everything that might have dropped in 95 has been labeled the golden years of hip-hop. It's Black Music Month, and We Need to Talk is tapping in. I'm Nyla Simone, breaking down lyrics, amplifying voices, and digging into the culture that shaped the soundtrack of our lives. My favorite line on there was, my son and my daughter gonna be proud when they hear my old tapes. Yeah. Now I'm curious, do they like rap along now? Yeah, because I bring him on tour with me

and he's getting older now too. So his friends are starting to understand what that type of music is. And they're starting to be like, yo, your dad's like really the GOAT. Like he's a legend. So he gets it. What does it mean to leave behind

a music legacy for your family? It means a lot to me. Just having a good catalog and just being able to make people feel good. Like that's what's really important and that's what stands out is that our music changes people's lives for the better. So the fact that my kids get to benefit off of that, I'm really happy. Or my family in general. Let's talk about the music that moves us. To hear this and more on how music and culture collide, listen to We Need to Talk from the Black Effect Podcast Network

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This Pride Month, we are not just celebrating. We're fighting back. I'm George M. Johnson, and my book, All Boys Aren't Blue, was just named the most banned book in America. If the culture wars have taught me anything, it's that pride is protest. And on my podcast, Fighting Words,

we talk to people who use their voices to resist, disrupt, and make our community stronger. This year, we are showing up and showing out. You need people being like, no, you're not going to tell us what to do. This regime is coming down on us. And I don't want to just survive. I want to thrive. You'll hear from trailblazers like Bob the Drag Queen.

To freedom! Angelica Ross. We ready to fight? I'm ready to fight. And Gabrielle Yoon. Hi, George. And storytellers with wisdom to spare. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, we really enjoyed the show today.

Crystal, I believe you're going to be remote tomorrow as well as your kids continue to recuperate, but they are doing the mend and we've gotten a lot of well wishes for you. So we want to thank everybody for that. Yeah, absolutely. I've really appreciated those well wishes. As you said, Sagar,

we are on the mend. Everybody's going to be good. So that's the most important thing. And I will be remote tomorrow, but we will have a regular show and we will see you guys then. All right. We'll see you later.

I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes.

We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The O.G.'s of uncensored motherhood are back and badder than ever. I'm Erica.

And I'm Mila. And we're the hosts of the Good Moms, Bad Choices podcast, brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday. Yeah, we're moms. But not your mommy. Historically, men talk too much. And women have quietly listened. And all that stops here.

If you like witty women, then this is your tribe. Listen to the Good Moms, Bad Choices podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you go to find your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.