Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 4/30/24: Young Voters Abandon Biden Over Israel, Biden Hits 70 Year Approval Low, Heated Campus Protest Debate, Israel Deems Men In Rafah Hamas, Mearsheimer Wrecks Piers Morgan, Professor Claims Campus Protests Due To No Sex, Jill Stein On Her 2024 Campaign

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

Krystal and Saagar discuss young voters abandoning Biden over Israel, Biden approval hits 70 year low, heated debate on campus protests, Israel deems all men in Rafah Hamas, John Mearsheimer wrecks Piers Morgan, professor claims Gaza protests are caused by lack of sex, and Jill Stein joins to discuss her 2024 campaign.   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.

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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 Tuesday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed, we do. There's a hell of a lot unfolding around the country as we speak. We're going to start the show with some additional exclusive polls here with JL Partners about how Israel may impact 2024. We've got it broken down by age demographic and it's a pretty fascinating look at

how different age groups are viewing this conflict. We've also got a look at a new bad poll, actually a couple new bad polls for Biden, both in terms of the overall general electorate and also in terms of the battleground states. We've been tracking some wild crackdowns. We've got some unbelievable video for you coming out of UT Austin. We also have at Columbia, student protesters have taken over the same campus building that they did back in 1968, obviously very intentional there. Also getting reports out of Virginia's VCU where they tear gassed protesters. So a lot unfolding there. We're also taking a look this morning at the housing market and a little bit of a helpful story. Some state and federal pushback on the trend of Wall Street buying up single family

housing and making it wildly unaffordable, something a little bit hopeful there. Something not so hopeful, though, Israel is reportedly preparing to install checkpoints to make sure that men are locked into Rafah when they begin their all-out assault. Take a look at that and also some recent comments from Tony Blinken and potential progress on ceasefire, ICC possible arrest warrants, a lot going on there. We also want to show you a notable exchange between Piers Morgan and John Mearsheimer. Very interesting. It's so good. Very divergent ideological views of America's role in the world.

So worth getting into that. I've got a monologue. I'm looking ahead. All of the people who are so very confused why anyone would protest their government helping to participate in genocide in the Gaza Strip. And big news, presidential candidate for the Green Party, Dr. Jill Stein, is going to join us. Very noteworthy for her to be here this week. We showed you yesterday she was arrested and assaulted by a police officer with a bike. Want to check in on how she's doing and what her goals are for her campaign.

So really honored to be joined by her this morning. Yeah, we got really lucky. We booked her a long time ago, and then it just so happened that this entire thing had happened. So we're going to debrief the incident with her. We appreciate everybody who's been signing up to support us. So we had that exclusive poll yesterday. We're going to debut even more of the information now today. We've got a candidate interview here with Jill Stein. So this is really what we're all about, which is doing something the mainstream media is physically incapable of, actually asking real questions, delving into their effect. We're showing everything that we've got to you. And with

Jill Stein, we're going to hear her out the way that we will hear out any independent candidate for president, given the fact that she's going to get ballot access most likely in many of these states, and of course was blamed for Hillary's loss in 2016. She was blamed. Obviously, it's complete BS. We are very proud to be able to give her a platform to hear her out and speak for democracy. So she will have a highly consequential role in this election, and we're going to give her the due that most people are not willing to do. So anyway, you can help us out at BreakingPoints.com.

We would really appreciate it. As Crystal said, though, we do have a lot more exclusive polling. Today, we're going a lot more exclusive polling. Today, we're gonna break it down in terms of how Americans feel about the Israel-Palestine conflict and we're also gonna break it down by age. So why don't we go ahead and start with our very first one. We can go and put this up there on the screen. These are the top line numbers, guys.

As a reminder, who do you most trust to handle foreign policy on the Israel-Palestine conflict? There's a bad number here for Joe Biden. Joe Biden, 31%. Donald Trump, 35%. Robert Kennedy Jr., 9%. Don't know at 25%. So obviously a little bit there up for grabs. But let's break it down by age now, if we can go to the next one, because this is the most consequential. And I'm just going to read for by age demographic as it is before you guys, so you understand. Again, the question is, who do you most trust to handle foreign policy on the Israel-Palestine conflict? So starting with the 18 to 29 demographic, Joe Biden, 21%. Donald Trump, 31%. Robert Kennedy Jr., 13%. Don't know, 36%. Now we're moving to the 30 to 49, 28% for Joe Biden, 34% for Donald Trump,

12% for Robert Kennedy Jr., 26% for don't know. For 50 to 64, we have 35% Joe Biden, 36% Donald Trump, 7% Robert Kennedy Jr., 22% for don't know. But then amongst boomers, this is where things get interesting. 65 plus, 39 percent for Joe Biden, 40 percent for Donald Trump, 5 percent for RFK Jr., 16 percent for don't know. So it is very clear here again, Crystal, that Joe Biden's best numbers on the who you trust for Israel-Palestine are amongst the 50 to 64 and the 65 plus demographic, relatively tied with Donald Trump in those two. But when you go actually to younger voters, it is Trump who leads presumably amongst younger Republicans, but Joe Biden has absolutely no trust amongst the younger demographic. Oh, yeah. Well, if you look at every single age demographic, I mean, many of these are within

the margin of error, especially among the older groups, but Trump edges them out in every category. So listen, the reality, of course, in terms of how they would handle this conflict, it's probably very similar. All three of these candidates are extremely pro-Israel, basically lockstep in their views. We're going to talk later about Trump truth that they need to stop the protest. So he's a little more like vociferous and clear in his language. But Joe Biden has been overseeing this authoritarian crackdown. Don't know what RFK Jr. would do. Haven't heard him comment on this specifically. Not that he hasn't said anything. I haven't seen him say anything. But they're basically aligned on the policy.

So there's not a lot here to dissent from. But in terms of the political impact, this continues to show that for young people in particular, there is a sizable minority. I'm not saying it's a majority, but a sizable minority for whom this is the number one issue. This is the issue they will vote or not vote on. And he's lost them. I don't think there's anything he could do at this point to make it up to them because it's been almost seven months now. They've watched these horrors unfold. They've seen the way they've been routinely smeared from the White House podium. And yeah, all of your cajoling is not going to do any good

when they're like, your guy is helping with the genocide and, by the way, smears us at every single chance that he gets. So it is a dire political situation for Joe Biden. Something I was thinking about, too, is that there's an honest pro-Israel support for Donald Trump because Trump doesn't even pretend. Whereas with Biden, he does basically have the same policy vis-a-vis Israel, but then rhetorically is, of course, trying to appease human rights concerns and others. RFK Jr. also is the same, much like Trump is just like, yeah, I support Israel, like 100%. So, you know, in a certain way, there's an honest, like at least representation, I think by both Trump and I guess RFK Jr. to a certain extent, whereas with Biden, you know, on a policy level,

anybody who's smart enough to pay attention to the conflict, they know. There's also about him having the power, like he actually has the power and he's enacted that. And I think that's the key part. That's it. That's it, is if you look at his overall approval ratings in other polls on Israel-Palestine, it is the worst area for him. Because you have people who are vehemently pro-Israel who are like, how dare you even suggest that Israel should rein things in or say that that's over the top their response. And then you have people who are like, this is a genocide, and I hate that you're overseeing a genocide. I mean, you know, I'm not alone in feeling like many of the things I was most terrified under Trump are coming true before my eyes under Joe Biden. So yeah, you are really not pleasing anyone at this point.

You're certainly not pleasing your own base, which is wildly at odds with what your policy has truly been. And the bottom line is, this isn't unfolding under Donald Trump. It isn't unfolding under RFK Jr. It's unfolding under your watch. And so people who are not happy with the direction of the policy in any direction, they're going to blame you. So it makes sense from that perspective that, you know, Donald Trump would edge him out. But it's not like he has a huge clear lead here on the conflict either, because I don't think people feel like he's particularly trustworthy when it comes to foreign affairs either. I think we can think of Israel like abortion. It is a very animating issue for some people. And amongst those people, they're going

to have real litmus tests. I'm talking more about in the pro-life community in particular. And so if we think about it that way, it actually makes sense electorally. You're going to see this in our next graphic. Let's go and put this up there on the screen because this illustrates a little bit of what we're talking about. How do you feel Joe Biden is handling the conflict? So doing well is 27%. Neither well or badly, 18%. Doing badly, 49%. Don't know, six. Let's go to the next part.

This again breaks it down by age. I'll start with the 18 to 29 demographic. For Joe Biden, doing well, 18%. Neither, 17%. Doing badly, 54%. Majority. 11% is don't know. Yeah, that's right. Majority of people. Now, actually, amongst the 30 to 49, you see similar numbers. 26% say he's doing well,

18% neither. Doing badly is 48%. That's 48% of people. That's a pretty decent amount. Definitely plurality within that age group. And then don't know at eight. 50 to 64, you see similar. 29% doing well. 21%, neither well or badly. 47% doing badly. 3% don't know. And then amongst boomers, this, again, there's some interesting numbers. 32% doing well. So definitely the highest percentage of people say it's doing well. 14% saying neither well or badly. So basically a wash. But you still got a full 50. 50% of people, boomers saying doing badly, probably more pro-Israel in the way that they think about it. And 4% say don't know. So interesting that the 50 plus demographic has more definite opinions on where he's doing

well or badly, but there is a sizable doing badly figure. Let's go to the next one because this is probably the most important. It's near majorities in every single age group. That's right. Even with the option of don't know, it's still near majorities in every age group that's like, you suck. Absolutely. Now, this is the key question, actually. Are you more or less likely to support a candidate that strongly supports Israel? More likely, 35%. Doesn't matter, 31%.

Less likely, 18%. Don't know, 16%. So it is not a majority. It's not even the biggest number by far in this. Israel is a wash for most people, and that makes sense. But again, amongst that fervor, let's break it down by age, because this is where it matters the most. Are you more or less likely to support a candidate

that strongly supports Israel? Amongst 18 to 29, here we see 24% more likely, 26% doesn't matter, but you've got a third who are saying 31% less likely, 18% don't know. Now amongst the rest of the age group, so like for example, 30 to 49, 27% more likely, 35% doesn't matter, 19% less likely, 20% don't know, 50 to 64, 35% more likely, 34% doesn't matter, 15% less likely. 16% don't know. But then here amongst boomers, you can actually see the switch. 56% say more likely to support somebody who strongly supports Israel. 27% don't know. Less likely 8 and 10 amongst the don't know figure for the boomers. So overall, you've got a pretty decent chunk there of 18 to 29-year-olds in the

less likely category. And then you've got a big chunk there there of 18 and 29-year-olds in the less likely category. And then you've got a big chunk there of boomers in the more likely category. So that is the big generational square off there, Crystal. Overall, again, I mean, nobody should pretend the entire election is going to be determined on this. The question is only about this, you know, again, the pro-lifers. Pro-lifers within the GOP, maybe 20%, 15%, you know, at best, but they rule the day for a reason because you needed them to get you over that finish line. So we should think about it as a minority which has sizable voting power and is a very important

part of the overall constituency because of young voters and their importance for turnout in a high turnout election. Well, that's the thing. No one's saying this is gonna be a top issue for everyone. Right. But given what is likely to be a very close election, it actually could be determinative. You only need a relatively small minority of people who are voting on this issue for it to be the determinative factor. I'm looking at, listen, anytime you look at these subsamples in one poll, take them with grains of salt, et cetera. But in the recent CNN poll, among voters age 18 to 35,

you've got Trump beating Biden by 11 points. Trump beating Biden among young voters by 11 points. As a reminder, back in April of 2020, heading into that election, Biden was up on Trump by 31 points in this same poll. So not all of that is Israel-Palestine, but some of it is because we know how we can see what's unfolding on college campuses around the country. We can see how important this issue is to a certain segment of young voters in particular. And so, in fact, it really could be determinative. We also asked that question the other way in terms of are you more or less likely

to support a candidate that strongly supports Palestine? I can put these numbers up on the screen. So here you've got the top line numbers and you've got 18% who are saying it's more likely and you've got 31% so plurality saying it's less likely. Another 31% say I don't really care. Let's put the age numbers up because once again, you see the divide. Among the youngest demographic, 36% say, hey, if that candidate strongly supports Palestine, that makes me more likely to want to vote for them. And the less likely category is

only 23%. Total reversal among the older you go up the demographic chain, you've got among 65 plus, only 7% say support for Palestine makes them more likely, and 48% say that it makes it less likely. And also keep in mind, we also broke out these poll numbers by media consumption habits. And it's exactly what you'd expect. Young voters are overwhelmingly, a majority, strong majority, I think it was like 59%, are getting their news from social media to include TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, whatever. And older voters are overwhelmingly getting their news from cable news. Now, part of that is those platforms because those are the demographics they're serving. They serve content that fits their preexisting views. And part of that is, I would say in particular when it comes to cable news, shaping their view of the conflict and really helping to reinforce and further strengthen this divide between the demographics.

But that's also an important part of what we're seeing here. And, you know, it also helps make sense why, like Joe Biden, for example, in spite of the fact the Democratic Party is not with him on this policy. Yes. But as you point out over and over again, I mean, young people, they vote, but it's not in the same numbers as the oldest demographics. Not to mention Joe Biden is 323 years old. So these are the people that he identifies with most and who shares their worldview. So it's both ideological and it's political. And then when you add in the influence of AIPAC money and the military industrial complex, that's how you end up with this very perplexing situation where you've got a Democratic president who seems to be willing to sacrifice his own reelection because in his political career, it has never politically been the wrong move to support Israel too strongly. No politician in his experience has ever paid a price for that. He may here be the first one, given how clearly animating this is

for young voters above all other demographics. It's very possible. Again, we have no idea what effect this will all have on the margins. But this is, and I have to put numbers here behind this because people get angry. They're like, what do you mean young people don't vote? Only about 52% of eligible voters between 18 to 29 voted in the 2020 election. And that was 8% higher than the 2016 election, just so people understand. So actually in 2016, the majority of young people didn't vote who were eligible to vote. Now, what do everybody think that the number is for the boomers? Age 65 plus, 70% of them voted in this 2016 election.

74% of them voted in the 2020 election. Now, if we're a high turnout, 2020 was a record high for turnout. There's actually no expectation that we should come even close to that. If we see changes, let's say, in vote by mail or in general, I mean, 2020 was just such a high tension political year. In a lot of respects, while people are upset, people feel a little bit more tuned out than ever from politics today. We know that, by the way, from data. There is tons of data out there that shows that news consumption, not our show necessarily, but like all for general

election news is at a record low for this time around. Yeah. That is very indicative of people tuning out, which means they're not going to vote. So if we have a lower turnout election, you have youth turnout at like 40, 50% again, but the boomer turnout remains steady at normal levels, let's say it normalizes to 70, again, you're going to see a big increase in the amount of people who are voting who are older. Now, look, there's a lot of changes to this, right? Abortion scrambled everything, so don't get me wrong.

If anything, I personally would bet on record high Democratic women turnout more than anything because of abortion. Now, those people, I don't know what they feel about Israel, but I know they definitely care about abortion more than anything else. So they're still gonna be coming out. I wouldn't write Biden off. I continue to see that though, Crystal. There are a lot of people out there who are like Biden is cooked and all that. But having sat in the studio for the 2022 election, it just been burned and seen too much with the referendums and all that. I refuse to discount any context of a surprise because of the abortion question, which I always want to lay out in these segments.

In my view, it's really 50-50. I agree with that. I really think it's 50-50. I mean, on the one hand, obviously, as we're talking about, Joe Biden has huge issues with young people. He does. Huge issues. If you look at his approval rating, I mean, this is supposed to be the core of the Democratic base. And they hate his guts.

I mean, his approval rating is at its lowest among that demographic. That should be the reverse. He should, judging by recent Democratic Party history, have his highest approval rating among young voters. And they despise him. Abortion is the other side of the coin, though. I mean, it's a disaster for the Republican Party, and it has specifically been a disaster, provably, in election after election for Republicans. So it's not just ballot initiatives.

It really has translated into strong Democratic performance when people actually have to show up and vote. On the other hand, those are special elections. The turnout is smaller. What happens in a general election? There are way too many factors and the polls are way too unreliable to actually say who is up, who is down, how this is all likely to unfold. And then you also have all the Trump courtroom drama, which God knows what that's going to do, if anything. So anyone who's telling you like for sure this person's going to win or for sure that person's going to win, they have no idea. They have no idea. We have no idea. All we can tell

you is some of the factors that are going into this mix. And it is a truly complicated brew. We are only trying to present you what most people don't. And this is my biggest problem with cable is that they are all about just single narratives. They don't prepare their audiences for, I mean, it would be the easiest thing in the world. Biden is cooked. That's the easy way to get views. We're not going to lie to you people because you're going to look like an idiot, you know. And that's a lot of people did look that way back in 2022. It's very important.

What we're trying to do here is present the whole picture for what everybody can take away. So thank you for supporting this polling because it really does, you know, help me at least understand like the effects of it and kind of wrap my head around it. And I hope it does the same for everybody too. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown, never let kids toys take over the house and never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store.

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and the Ad Council. The summer of 1993 was one of the best of my life. I'm journalist Jeff Perlman, and this is Rick Jervis. We were interns at the Nashville Tennessean, but the most unforgettable part? Our roommate, Reggie Payne, from Oakland, sports editor and aspiring rapper. And his stage name? Sexy Sweat. In 2020, I had a simple idea. Let's find Reggie. We searched everywhere, but Reggie was gone. In February 2020, Reggie was having a diabetic episode. His mom called 911. Police cuffed him face down.

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exists, maybe it's flawed, maybe it's not, it certainly shows Trump with a massive edge. Here is CNN admitting as such on their own program. Let's take a listen. Our new poll, which was conducted by SSRS, finds Trump is leading Biden, who has ample work to do with his base and with independent voters who are breaking to his GOP rival. In a head-to-head race, 49 percent of voters say they'd pick Trump for president, compared to 43 percent for Biden. That's a nine-point Trump advantage with independent voters. Add in third-party candidates, and Trump's lead jumps even more. He has 42 percent to Biden's 33 percent, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gets 16% of the vote.

Our poll also underscores the challenges of incumbency, and that voters, four years later, have a better view of Trump's presidency compared to Biden's. 55% say Trump's time in office was a success, with only 39% saying the same about Biden's presidency. So you can see that there's a huge disapproval there with Joe Biden. You can see Trump, well, almost a six-point lead outside the margin of error being admitted. And again, you know, the other confounding variable here for the Biden question is just about how people feel about him. Let's put this up there, please. I mean, this is just extraordinary. This is not something that you want as your headline that is going in to the election. Biden is the least popular president in 70 years below even Nixon and Jimmy Carter at this

point in his presidency. Trump, whenever he was in this part of his presidency, had a 46% approval rating ahead of the election. Keep in mind, that was during the COVID nightmare back in April of 2020. Think about how insane that period was. Even Nixon and Carter had 53 and 47% respectively. I mean, Eisenhower had a 73%. He was the highest there at this point in his presidency. But Biden really is in a league of his own in terms of low approval. Now, I want to say, this is the caveat, and I've been thinking about this a lot. There are two elections that this will turn out to be. It's either going to be 1968, which I did a whole monologue on, or it's going to be 1948. And let me explain. 1948 was Harry S. Truman. He went into the election historically unpopular. People were

fed up, union strikes, there was rapid inflation. But there was all this change after post-World War II. Korea, there was a crisis. The Berlin lift. Korea came a little bit later. But more what I'm saying is there's a lot of geopolitical consternation. And every poll that was out there, the Gallup polling, I think it was a major one at the time, was like, Truman is cooked. There's never going to happen. Truman ends up mounting kind of a run from behind campaign. The famous Dewey defeats Truman, which if he holds up, and he ends up winning based upon flogging the rest of the political establishment, saying that Thomas Dewey and the do-nothing Congress were the real ones that were responsible for the problem, not him. And he gets himself elected as a shock to the

entire country. The other inverse is, like I said, 1968. 1968, where you see a split of the Democratic coalition over Vietnam. You have all the chaos of RFK Jr., RFK Sr. They're dividing the coalition. Hubert Humphrey, he's unable to consolidate that. You have a third-party candidate like George Wallace gets about 13% of the vote in the South. Richard Nixon is able to carry it. Law and order message about 40 some percent of the vote for popular vote ends up winning a stunning electoral college victory. So one of those two is going to happen. If Biden wins, it's going to be 48. And if Biden loses, I think it's going to be 1968. Very interesting. Very interesting. I mean, I just keep thinking about like, what are the core reasons people voted for Joe Biden in the first place? Because they thought he was like a nice guy. Yeah. Because they wanted to end the chaos.

That's it. Yeah. Well, they don't think he's a nice guy anymore. He's not a nice guy. Regardless of what, you know, they said at the White House Correspondents Dinner about how decent he is, whatever. He's not a good guy. People don't feel that way about him anymore.

And number two, there's chaos. So you're not making an affirmative case for your presidency. You haven't bothered to tell anyone that you're even going to like try to do anything in particular with the second term. So why would, what is the affirmative case for Joe Biden this time around? On the other hand, people really freaking hate Donald Trump too. And they don't necessarily want to go back to that time period either. And the more that we get into the election cycle, you know, it's early. Like right now, yes, CNN's numbers say people have fond memories of the Trump time period. They think it was more successful than the Biden time period. You know, there's a little bit of rose colored glasses there and whatever. But as we get more into the election

cycle and people have to deal with Donald Trump in their face all day, every day in his courtroom antics and whatever the hell else he's going to say and do between now and Election Day. Does that change the feeling? Is abortion, is the rollback of rights that people had kind of taken for granted and the horror stories that we're seeing in state after state after state, does that end up being the determinative factor? Because it's certainly, you know, if we're looking at the election results so far, it really has been. And that in that way, the polls have actually been skewed against

Democrats. Democrats have been outperforming the polls in a lot of these places because they are not anticipating the surge of voters who are disgusted with extremist abortion policies in states and localities across the country. So that's the landscape we're looking at. And then, you know, there's a lot of questions about, obviously, they have poured gasoline on the fire, about to talk about some of the extraordinary, very 1968-esque scenes playing out in college campuses across the country. This really does divide the Democratic base. It also really pretends very ill for how the DNC is going to go

and the level of chaos that is going to be on display there as, you know, Joe Biden continues his unconditional support for Israel no matter what. We don't know what is about to happen with regards to Rafah and the additional horrors that could unfold there. So there's just, you know, there's a lot going on. And the bottom line is, this is the election that almost no one wanted. No one wanted this rematch. No one wanted it. But there was very little Democrat, there was basically democracy completely shut out on the Democratic side, the Republican base still very fond of Trump. And you know, very little contest ultimately there either. And so the overwhelming majority of Americans who are like, isn't there anyone else we could run? Aren't there any other choices from the two major

parties we could have? No. And that's why you see such low interest and excitement about this election cycle, because the people who are going to actually, you know, actually going to throw the selection one way or the other are the people who say, I don't like either of these dudes. I don't want either of them to be president. But I guess at the end of the day, I have to pick. So that's where we are as a country. It's not exactly an aspirational choice. No, it is not aspirational. That's why, you know, if I had to, it's so hard to pick. Obviously, I don't know what's going to happen. But part of the thing that did happen in 1968 is there also was not a lot of excitement. Remember, people knew Richard Nixon and they knew a lot about him and they didn't

necessarily like him all that much. People also knew a lot about Hubert Humphrey. His name may be dead today, but at the time, I mean, he was the vice president. He was a very known quantity. He was a star Democrat, but they didn't trust him because he was tarred by LBJ. There was not a lot of incitement. People really felt like under attack in 1968. And there was like a chaos in the middle of the chest, which is something that I would probably say is very analogous to today. Let's put the next one up there on the screen.

You can also see this too, which is what Crystal was talking about in terms of how tight things are gonna be. The latest CBS News poll out of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, the so-called, what is it, blue wall? Is that what they called it back in 2016?

I think we dropped that one in 2016. Well, what are the polls there show? Very, very tight race. Very tight race. Now, currently, what we see in Michigan, if you look at the current rating for how people say the state of the economy is, 38% in Michigan, 38% Pennsylvania, 42% Wisconsin. But then look at how people feel about Trump. Looking back during the Trump era, here was whether they think the economy was good. 62%, 61%, 62%. That is such a strong number that I just

can't get over. It was highly determinative. If you look at the in the years since the COVID pandemic, whether people think that things have gotten better. It's in the 20s for people in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. If you look at the people who say, understands people like me, for Biden, in August of 2020, it was at 44%. Today, it's 40. For Trump, it was 37%. Now, it's 42. So, but Trump is actually beating Biden in that category. So, this is an issue that Biden used to have that job. He doesn't anymore. That was one of the most important things about him. He is like, yeah, I know he says crazy stuff, but, but he seems like a nice guy and he feels like he understands me. And that's one of those two where if you look at each one of these states, how does Biden make you feel? Worried, number one

response in the state of Pennsylvania. Worried, number one response in the state of Pennsylvania. If you look at who you rate the state, basically if you just look at finances, where they're doing better, it's in the 20s in all three states. So it's like on all the pocketbook stuff, all the traditional rules of politics, like I said, Biden should be cooked. This should not even be a question.

He's Jimmy Carter and there's not a single thing. But Trump, I mean, the fact that it's still tight, he's got his own confounding variables there. And it is very possible that he could still lose. One of the things I looked at is also state-by-state Senate elections, which can be very predictive. Carrie Lake right now is down by like double digits in Arizona. Is she really? Yeah, it's a disaster. Same thing in Pennsylvania. Bob Casey is crushing David McCormick by like 10%. So that's another one you want to look at too, because you take Biden and Trump out of it, and you see a huge lead for the Democrat there. That's another sign sometimes, sometimes,

you know, split ticket voting in these days, very, very rare. So it could indicate some hidden Democratic strength. Interesting. That is very interesting. I mean, the irony is, I think if Democrats had chosen like, you know, random, relatively generic Democrat, I think they'd be beating Trump pretty easily. I think if Republicans had chosen random, relatively generic Democrat, I think they'd be beating Trump pretty easily. I think if Republicans had chosen random, relatively generic Republican, I think they'd be fighting, beating Biden very easily. It's like, you know, so they both put up their weakest possible contenders and yeah, we'll see who wins.

Yeah, I don't know. See how it all plays out. We'll see folks. It's gonna be a fun one. A lot of time between now and then. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown. Never let kids' toys take over the house. And never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule.

Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best. You'd say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. We have one aisle today. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. We have one aisle today. And aisle three.

So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. The summer of 1993 was one of the best of my life. I'm journalist Jeff Perlman, and this is Rick Jervis. We were interns at the Nashville Tennessean, but the most unforgettable part? Our roommate, Reggie Payne, from Oakland, sports editor and aspiring rapper. And his stage name? Sexy Sweat. In 2020,

I had a simple idea. Let's find Reggie. We searched everywhere, but Reggie was gone. In February 2020, Reggie was having a diabetic episode. His mom called 911. Police cuffed him face down. He slipped into a coma and died. I'm like thanking you. But then I see my son's not moving. No headlines, no outrage, just silence. So we started digging and uncovered city officials bent on protecting their own. Listen to Finding Sexy Sweat coming June 19th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Let's go ahead and get to some of what is unfolding around the country. Some extraordinary scenes. We want to start at Columbia University, which really has been kind of ground zero for these protests and for the crackdown on these protests. So we can put these images up on the screen. You're talking about the echoes of 1968.

So here we have protesters taking over Hamilton Hall on campus. That was one of the same buildings that 1968 anti-Vietnam War protesters took over at that time. You can see they have hung a flag that says Hins Hall. That's a reference to that little girl who, it was horrible. I did a whole monologue about it. She was in a car. Her family was killed by an IDF strike. She was still alive. She was able to call the Redologue about it. She was in a car. Her family was killed by an IDF strike. She was still alive. She was able to call the Red Crescent. She was begging for them to come and help her. They stayed on the line with her.

They got the route deconflicted so they could come and save her. And not only was she assassinated by the IDF, this little six-year-old adorable girl, but her would-be rescuers also assassinated by the IDF. And documented on the scene that that ambulance coming to save her was just a block away. So Hinn's Hall in honor of Hinn and her loss of life. So again, these echoes of 1968 now being very intentionally stoked and that connectivity very intentionally created by the protesters at Columbia. I'll give you some more updates on Columbia in a minute because I want to show you some of the scenes out of UT Austin where Texas Governor Greg Abbott has

decided to go full crackdown mode. Any of his pretend pretenses around free speech clearly gone. Here you can see police taking out someone, carrying them, their hands are bound. Here you see these officers coming in in what appears to be riot gear, approaching the student protesters. Here you see some cop beating the hell out of someone, fists flying there as the cops are pushing up against the protesters. Here we see people being sprayed, mace, I assume, as they try to clear out this area, this encampment. And then this is incredible. So after the police cleared the whole area, this is protesters coming back in and the police actually having to retreat.

And then this is my favorite. I don't know if you guys can hear this in the background, but they're chanting, you failed Uvalde. Because DPS was there on the scene at Uvalde. And while they're pretty courageous when it comes to beating up unarmed college kids, not so courageous when it came to rescuing these poor babies who were trapped and being murdered inside of that elementary school and ultimately bleeding out. So just extraordinary scenes there. I don't know how many arrests were made, but student protesters at UT Austin, very determined, even in spite of the crackdown, to come back in and reset up the encampment, restart the protest. Reportedly, Sagar, from the scenes on the ground, the protests have only grown

in size as a result of this attempted crackdown. So we can put Greg Abbott's tweet up on the screen. Like I said, all of his free speech commentary previously is now out the window. He says no encampments will be allowed. Instead, arrests are being made. Your thoughts on what is unfolding there? It does look like about 100 demonstrators. This is KVUE ABC. Got to give shout outs to the local media. They're saying at least 100 demonstrators there arrested.

Returning back to that Hamilton Hall, that monologue that I gave. Yeah. It's very significant. I mean, they obviously did it on purpose. So 1968, that building, Hamilton Hall, was actually occupied by the Vietnam War protesters and they barricaded themselves inside. I will say, maybe you'll disagree with me, Crystal. I think it was a mistake because one of the reasons, one of the things that they did is a significant amount of property destruction. They blew open the doors with metal and broke the glass and all of that.

You can think that's significant if you want, but once you cross into the line of straight-up property damage and we're no longer in the realm of camping on private property, which is university, and that obviously is very different. It's actual like destruction of property, that and barricading themselves inside, vandalization. You're setting yourself up for some sort of police demonstration. And so I'll be honest, I think it was a mistake what they did because destroying property and vandalizing. Now, at the same time, look, Colombia, you know, I don't really know what their deal is because Colombia says, the Colombia is like, you have until 2 p.m. And we were all prepared. We were like, OK, here we go Columbia is like, you have until 2 p.m. And we were all prepared. We were like, okay, here we go. Let's go. And then 2 p.m. comes and goes and nothing happens. And the Columbia University faculty are all there. And then they start getting

suspended. But there's no actual enforcement. So in a certain sense, it's like you're setting deadlines and then nothing is happening. So I feel like they've chosen the worst of all worlds. If you're going to have rules and you're going gonna enforce them, then enforce them. But if not, they're in this tricky situation. I will also say in the students' defense, one of the things that Columbia prides itself on is its history of student activism. And they sell themselves about like, listen, we are so sorry about what happened in 1968. And it was a huge mistake to go. It's on their website. They said it took us decades to recover from that. We're the next leaders of activists. So in a certain sense, Columbia does not have anybody

but itself to blame. But I do think it was a huge mistake to vandalize property and to break into the building because you're setting yourself up for a crackdown. And I've said this before, you know, as long as people are peaceful, I think it's fine. But you start breaking stuff, burning stuff, vandalizing stuff. I'm not going to have a lot of sympathy for you. Well, here's the thing in terms of Columbia's response, because they threw everything at these students for a wholly peaceful protest. In the beginning, you're right. In the beginning. Yes. They brought in the cops, they threatened the National Guard, they suspended students indiscriminately. And so when you throw the whole kitchen sink at them to begin with, well, you got nothing left.

They got nothing left to fear. I mean, this is something that I've, you know, come to realize as a parent in terms of, like, you know, disciplining children. It's your biggest fear is they realize that, like, you don't actually have any power over them. Careful, they might be listening to you. Ella, Ida, Lowell, don't watch this segment. But at a certain extent, like, you know, I can ground, I can take away the foot. Once you've done all the things, what else is there to do? And so that's what Colombia did here.

They're cracked out at the beginning. It was so aggressive. We're sending the cops, and it's going to be aggressive and we're going to threaten the National Guard and all these politicians are going to, they're going to smear you as anti-Semites. We're going to kick you out of school and you're never going to graduate. You're not allowed to set foot on campus. And when the students were like, all right, well, that's happened. What else is there left to be threatened with? I agree, which is what you're pointing to is, and this is why it was such a mistake to initially send in the NYPD

I'm so because initially this is a peaceful protest Yes, they're in violation of rules But it was they sent in the cops and then there was a huge backlash and then they tried Negotiation and that's a big mistake because as you said you're suspending people you're sending in the cops and you're kind of boxing people into a Corner, but then you're giving him deadlines You're not enforcing the deadlines because you're obviously, look, these people, they have no idea what to do. They're terrified of the headline

of sending in the NYPD, again, inviting a new backlash. And so they kind of ratcheted up the ante. I mean, if you think about it, this is a bad analogy, but it's like a prison, right? So it's like when you have good behavior and then you have a violation of that.

I just watched that whole unlocked thing on Netflix, but it's very instructive about how people feel. And like, like you were saying about enforcement and rules is okay. If you have a medium infraction, it should be met with a medium size, reasonable response. So the reasonable response at that time would have been to do what they did in the interim, which is meet with them and be like, okay guys, like what's going on here? Hey, we have commencement in two weeks. You're all going home. If you don't clear out, you're going to get suspended. It's going to be a problem. And you don't want that. You've paid all this money. We have all this going on. And I think we're talking about lowering tension. But they threw the cops in. That was a huge mistake. That said, now, though, by boxing

people into a corner and also kind of both throwing the cops and then backing down, they've set very unclear expectations. And now we have property damage and a wholesale, you know, occupation of the hall. And unfortunately, I do think it's going to end in some tear gas or something. There's no other. What are our options? They have there's no other way to clear people out. You're going to barricade yourself inside of the hall. Like, what are you going to do? And especially if they start vandalizing, which they already did, you know, to get in there. Well, you could just, you know, do what students want you to do, which is to divest. No, I mean, that's the other thing. I know. I know.

But that's not going to happen. But why not? But why not? Because there was a vote at Columbia Barnard, and it was overwhelming in favor of divestment. Yeah, but the students don't control the endowment. But, like, if you have faculty and students who are overwhelmingly like, just do this thing, then why not just do that thing? And then you won't have your hall occupied, and you won't have to send in the cops, etc.

But, you know, I think bottom line is, like I said, these students have already been kicked out of school and arrested, so they're not afraid. Well, some of them have. We don't really know. But I also would say this. Don't throw your future away for this. I know some of these protesters.

Please don't do this. Your parents spent a lot of money on this. I disagree with that. You want to get your ass expelled for like this? What are you going to do 20 years from now? These are people who have agency and who feel like they're standing against a genocide. And I can't, I'm proud of them. I think it's incredible to watch. 20 years from now, you'll be a footnote to history. You're going to be in some idiot on YouTube, giving a monologue, maybe talking about

you. You're not going to have a degree. You're going to throw away a bunch of money. There are more things to achieve in life than like getting your startup funded or getting hired by Wall Street. Yeah, they're going to know the only thing you do. You can be a teacher. You know, it's about these are. Yes, these are young people, but they're also adults and they're also perfectly capable of making their own decisions about what's important to them in their lives and the way that they want to live. They're not buying into this crap. This part of actually what's in my monologue. They're not buying into this crap about the only success that matters is success in terms of a capitalist marketplace.

They have values. Those values are important to them. They're willing to, I think it's incredibly admirable that they're willing to sacrifice in many instances for people they don't know and will never meet. Like that's extraordinary.

And I think it's brave. I think they're to be commended, not, you know, scolded for making the wrong life decisions. I'm not going to scold anybody. You are scolding them. I'm telling you, I wouldn't do it. And I'm sitting here as a 32 year old. That's fine. You're not doing it. You didn't do it. And that's fine. And I would promise you that 10 years ago, nobody remembers a fucking thing that I said. And there's a good reason for that. But you do. And I hope that they don't. But you do. No, I certainly do. You do. But I regret a lot of it too. And they will know when they're old and gray and they look back and everyone else is pretending to have been on the right side, they will know where they were and they will know what they can tell their kids about what they did in that moment. But that's not going to feed you or your kids. I mean, ask some

of these Vietnam War people how it all worked out for them in, what is it, 19, that's 20 years later, so 1988. We elected Reagan. We had Iran-Contra and all that. Did it really make a difference? What happened to a lot of those folks? Not much. Petered out. Nixon got elected. Law and order. Sky-high murder rates. Mostly backfired. Let's be real. It's such a cynical view of the world, though, to say basically nothing matters. No protest matters. You're genuine concern about this. You're protesting in the government. You're disrupting political speeches. Nothing you do matters. So just go out and get your bag. I think that's a really cynical and disturbing view of the world. Not nothing matters, but a very little does matter. Listen, here's the bottom line. We know what will happen if these protests don't proceed, if these kids don't risk the things that they're risking that, again, I think they should be absolutely commended for.

We know what will happen. Absolutely nothing. We don't know what will happen if they try. And we've seen at least that there has been some pressure placed on the administration, and I think that's important. And we see globally, this is another thing I have in my monologue, we see that the people in Gaza see them. These Palestinians in Gaza are being starved to death

and threatened with bombing and the entire male population in Rafah now basically threatened with execution and murder. They see these protests and it means something to them. I mean, that alone is, I think, significant and important. And you see the way that international, I mean, you see the way Netanyahu is kind of freaking out about the fact that there's international pressure

and these students are part of that larger movement. So yeah, there are no guarantees here. You're right. There was a backlash to the Vietnam War protesters. And you're right, that could happen again. But we know damn well what happens if these kids do nothing. And that is the status quo perseveres. Palestinians are probably kicked down in their land altogether, continue to be murdered, continue to be slaughtered. We know that's what happens if they don't protest. They think there's a chance they could change something

and I applaud them for doing it. They may be right. I think they're wrong. I think it's a misreading of history and of power and of how that all works. Now, again, I would take it back. I don't want to scold people. I would only give you some advice that when you're very young, it can be really easy to get caught up in whatever the current thing of the day is. I'm trying to think back from 2012 or whatever, whenever I was in college. DACA, that was a big one. All right, people marched for DACA. This was all over. Sorry. You know, look, it ended up

working out. Nothing. I'm just asking people to have a little bit of historical literacy and to be mindful that actions are going to have consequences. Now, you're an adult. You do whatever you want to do. And I support your right to do that. And I've spoken here openly. I support people's right to protest and all that. I would just caution folks to not get caught up into thinking, you know, this ain't 1966 and Selma, Alabama and all that. And there's too often, you know, lack of thinking about these consequences. Let's think back to BLM. I mean, people took to the streets.

They thought this was going to be a revolution. What's the actual lasting consequence? You almost got Donald Trump reelected. You have a sky-high murder rate. Nothing changed in terms of police action. So I hope you felt better, but that's pretty much it. And a bunch of grifters got to buy mansions in Los Angeles. You didn't change anything.

You're just arguing for give up. No, not give up. That is your view. Understand politics. That is what you're arguing. Give up. Don't try. Don't bother. If you care about something what you're arguing. Give up. Don't try. Don't bother.

If you care about something, you know what? Keep your mouth shut. Stay home and go get your bag. That's what you're arguing for. And I think, listen, the reality is we know how hard it is to have our democracy actually reflect what people want and the will of the people. But I don't know why you're even doing what you're doing here and caring about politics. If you think that nothing ever matters and nothing ever changes. Obviously we've had protest movements in our history that have mattered and have changed. We can look back at LGBTQ rights in the very recent past where there was an organized movement and there was protests and

guess what? Change came and it mattered and it happened. The Black Lives Matter protest situation, I think part of what happened there and led to a backlash that you're right, absolutely nothing changed is number one, the cooptation, as you said, by grifters. Number two, the lack of any sort of like organized specific demands. And number three, the fact that in direct contrast to these protests, you actually had real widespread violence and property destruction and damage. You have not had that here. No, I totally agree. And I commend these people. I said it from the beginning. I'll explain then, you know, why am I sitting here? Because I want to convince people and understand how power really works in this country and the ways in which it can change. So let's think about the civil rights era. There's a great series of books called The Parting of the Waters. It's three series. I highly

recommend people read it. A misreading of history is to think that Martin Luther King Jr. in the Selma, Alabama march is the only thing that mattered. And it's totally wrong. The NLACP working with Lyndon Johnson and with the US Senate over a period of 25 years in the legislative process, using and using the protest movement that then specifically co-opt and hit the powers of center that mattered actually resulted in the 1964 Civil Rights Act on top of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It was the perfect moment for it to be actually be able to come through. That's how it worked, right? So it's not just taking to the streets. Now, I'm not going to diminish the people who took the streets, but they're not actually the ones who really changed anything. It was LBJ and it was the

people in Hubert Humphrey and others. They were part of the cocktail. They didn't matter? I mean, come on, that's a preposterous view of history. They mattered a lot less than the NAACP and then Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, and the leaders themselves. But you're pretending like what's happening in Columbia is the only thing happening in the entire country. I mean, again, this movement has already won the argument. This movement has already dramatically changed public opinion, especially in terms of young people. This movement has made it so that for the first time,

candidates like Summer Lee can actually be out and out, oppositional to critical of Israel, and AIPAC didn't even try to defeat her because they knew she was too strong, she was going to win. For the first time, there is actual political weight on the side of the Palestinians where it's only been on one side previously. So those are all changes that are being made. And by the way, as I said, this is not the only thing that's happening. You also have organizations that are forming, that have formed, that are designed to put money on the other side of the equation, organize on the other side of the equation. You have unions that have gotten involved who have come out in favor of ceasefires and putting their organizational weight and might behind it. So to pretend like this is the only thing that's happening and so it's not going to

matter, to pretend that protests just haven't ever mattered in history, I just think that that is, I think it's preposterous, I think it's nihilistic, and I just think it's ahistorical. I don't think that it doesn't matter. I think that it is part of a broader whole. And I would urge people to not overestimate what part of one whole is and underestimate the other. I completely agree with you on the union part, on the Congress part. And you know, why do we spend so much time here? That shit really does matter.

Like who really votes for X, Y, you know, A to Ukraine. Why do you think we spend so much time here? Or I care so much about Congress and the way that Ukraine matters and explaining all this shit about parliamentary procedure, because that's the stuff that really governs our lives. Like me taking to the streets and if I started an anti-Ukraine war protest, which I would love to participate in, if anybody ever wants to let me know the next one that is happening. But why? It wouldn't matter. But that's my point. It wouldn't do anything. It actually wouldn't do anything. Now, if I spend some of my time here

and I win the argument and I try and work, you know, pressure lawmakers to actually do something, that's going to be a little bit different. And explaining to the people here about how some of that stuff works and to the limited extent that we actually have a check in our huge democratic system, that is a real understanding, I think, of kind of how the power works. Again, when you're 21 years old, you don't have any power regardless. So yeah, this is probably your best bet in terms of participating in the whole. I am only saying you should also think about your future and what it's like in the, you know, in a way, it's a little bit nihilistic to think that me getting expelled from school

over participating or, you know, breaking down a Hamilton Hall window is going to change the world. Like, I'm sorry. You know, the most likely outcome is that you're screwed 10 years from now. Nobody remembers. You don't have a degree. You got expelled. And now you're, what, $150,000 in debt. You know, I worry about those people, too. I mean, I'm certainly, how are they going to buy a house or whatever? Actually, the single worst situation you can be in is to have no degree and all of the attendant Ivy League school debt, which no wonder a lot of these people are going to be in. That's, you know, in a way that's nihilism as well. Thinking that this is the most important thing that's ever going to happen in your life. The truth is it's not, almost by a large. It's important to stand up for the things that you

believe in and you're willing to bear a cost and a consequence, I think is what we call like courage and is admirable. And yeah, they know that there is a potential price that they are paying. They're not stupid. They're quite aware of that. Their administration of Columbia has made them quite aware of that. The political elites, the media class have made them quite aware of that. And Bill Ackman threatening to keep them from ever being hired like that should already happen. Being doxed and smeared. Why do you think they all wear masks at the protests? That's why, okay? They're very well aware of the consequences and they're doing it anyway. And I think they deserve to be commended for that. If we can move on to the next element though, to update on what Columbia is actually doing.

So as Sagar mentioned previously, you had a 2 p.m. deadline issued to specifically the protesters that were in the encampment saying, listen, you need to clear out of here or we're going to clear you out effectively. In advance of that, you can put B3 up on the screen. You actually had very moving scenes of these people wearing the orange vest. These are all faculty in these designated vests so that they can be clearly identified as such. And you can see quite a number of Columbia University faculty who are linking arms here and surrounding the encampment to try to protect these students. You also had a march of at least 1,000 students, quite a number, who were encircling the encampment as well, also in an effort to protect the students who were encamped there. But, you know, we were watching closely. 2 p.m. came and went, and there was no visible action.

There were some reports of cops outside of the university just sort of standing by. But there were no actual police action to clear out the encampment as we had seen previously. But we did get this news, put this up on the screen from Axios. Reportedly, Columbia did then start, instead of using force to clear out the encampment, they just started suspending everyone. So Ben Chang, vice president for communications at Columbia, confirmed suspensions had begun at a press briefing at 5 p.m., three hours after the school had set that deadline. Didn't say how many students are going to be suspended, but confirmed they'll be unable to finish the semester, unable to graduate, and they're also going to be barred from entering any campus housing or academic buildings. So that is the Columbia response. I don't think it's probably going to do anything to tamp down the continued protests. Karine Jean-Pierre,

Biden's press secretary, was asked about free speech rights and had this to say. What is the administration's response specifically to the use of police force in some of these college campus protests? We saw this at Indiana University, Ohio State, and then UT Austin. Yeah, so again, I'm going to be really repetitive here. Americans have the right to peacefully protest within the law. That is really important here. Anti-Semitism is dangerous. I know I've seen, we've seen the videos that have pretty much gone viral out there. And I can't speak to that. We may have more to say about those videos once we look into that, once we'd have to look into them. Just don't have anything to share beyond that.

I mean, listen, regardless of what you think. But did you know anti-Semitism is bad? Thank you for that public service announcement. I really appreciate it. Think about this. Like, whether you think that these kids deserve to have their skulls cracked and thrown in prison, or whether you think that they are exercising their First Amendment rights and deserve to not be smeared as anti-Semitism. Like, this is unfolding at campuses across the country, and this is all you have to say about it?

It's so pathetic. And she basically says she's not aware. I mean, in a certain sense, I don't really want the White House to be involved in Columbia. Like, we can have it a couple of ways. The White House, in my opinion, the federal government should have nothing to say about what's going on in Columbia. That should be a matter at Columbia. It's a private university, and it's a private place. As long as the First Amendment rights are protected, I don't really give a shit.

You know, private university can do whatever they want. Now, at the same time, though, we live in the age where everybody has to have an opinion on everything. Well, they already weighed in. Right. And they weigh in all the time for, you know, like some random crime or wherever. If it's a trans person, right? They're like, oh, my God, this is like the greatest panic in the history of the world. Or something like that. Like trans policy at the University of Ohio. It's like,

well, if you're going to weigh in on that, then you can't really be saying, well, I'm not really aware, but anti-Semitism is bad. And no, on this particular one, I haven't seen the videos or whatever. It's like, it's very selective in the way that things are. So we can have it both ways. I prefer the former, but you guys have chosen this. Well, here's the thing. I mean, many of these institutions are public universities. It's not like it's only Columbia. We're talking about, you know, UT Austin. We're talking about Virginia Tech. We're talking about all sorts of public universities, state schools across the country where there are First Amendment rights have to be respected. So in that way, it really is a federal government issue.

And then also, it's so hypocritical with all their democracies on the ballot and Trump's an authoritarian or whatever, and you're watching this unfold. You cheered it. You provided cover for it with your bullshit statement smearing all these kids as anti-Semites. And now you've got nothing to say about them all being arrested and maced and tear gassed at VCU faculty, elderly faculty being thrown on the ground and assault. I mean, this is insane. And you're just like, yeah, I haven't seen it. I'm not really aware. Anyway, next question.

Right. Utterly. And it is bullshit, as you and I know, that these people haven't seen it because they're more online 10 times than we are. So it's like you saw it. Of course. Of course. Yeah. Meanwhile, you have Trump

making very, go to B7, you have Trump making very clear what he thinks about this. Any sort of like free speech pretense clearly over. He just says, stop the protests now. So him and Joe Biden, Green Jean-Pierre, all on the same page apparently on this one. No daylight between them. We didn't make up an element for this, but you have Senator Marsha Blackburn, who was another one who five seconds ago, oh, free speech and people have to be allowed to descend college campuses, blah, blah, blah. Now she's calling for the students to be put on a terrorist no-fly list. Okay, that's the sort of thing that's happening in the United States Congress right now, led in part by Speaker Mike Johnson,

who had this to say recently. We're looking at very seriously reducing or eliminating any federal funds at all to campuses who cannot maintain basic safety and security of Jewish students. I mean, it sounds ridiculous to say that this is what it's come to, but that's what we're looking at. We're looking at some other things as well. I mean, if you're a foreign student here and you're participating in this madness, you don't have a right to do that. Maybe your visa should not be extended. Maybe it should be revoked if you're going to threaten your own classmates here or come here for that purpose. So we've got yesterday we covered Richie Torres and Mike Lawler, the Columbia Act, they want to install anti-Semitism monitors to make sure no one is saying a rally chant that they don't like at schools and threaten their federal funding. If someone says something somewhere that is unacceptable to Benjamin Netanyahu. Now you've got Mike Johnson also threatening federal funding and student visas for any foreign students who are participating in protests that they don't like or participating in

in wrong think. And you've got Marsha Blackburn saying, put these kids on the no fly list. I mean, it's extraordinary. You know, I should have predicted it because we both knew both sides will posture about free speech like Republicans. We knew they were posturing about like, oh, pretending to care about as long as it didn't conflict with their values. It would take an issue like this where there is such elite bipartisan consensus. It's perfect, yes. For the full crackdown. It's exactly like, you know, post-Iraq war and Patriot Act.

It's when they agree and they use the full force of the federal government to enforce their elite consensus, that's when things get the ugliest. No, it's terrifying. The no-fly list in particular is nuts. I'm currently re-listening to, or listening to the latest season of Serial. I, it's terrifying. The no-fly list in particular is nuts. I'm currently listening to the latest season of Serial. I actually highly recommend it. It's about the Guantanamo Bay. And just putting myself back in time 15 years ago, you're like, oh yeah, this country lost its freaking mind. And this was wild stuff in terms of what we allowed, in terms of the Fourth Amendment

rights, and just so many ways in which we bridge that gap. We don't need to be going back there. No-fly lists are completely unconstitutional. They shouldn't even exist in the first place. The implementation of this was a huge disaster. And any U.S. citizen placed on a no-fly list for participating in a protest against foreign government is as un-American as it gets. The only thing I'll say is don't threaten me with a good time in terms of revoking federal

funding from Ivy League universities. Because if that's what it takes, then they're all going to burn to the ground and I'm not going to be all that upset about it. I do agree, though, Crystal, as we had talked about. If the impetus is that, and if federal funding is contingent on being Zionist enough, I mean, that's a bridge too far for me. All I want is to see these places burn to the ground anyways. But it is very clear that this is a carrot and a stick. And the big problem is that we all know they're not actually going to do it. And that Columbia will buckle. And that this will only lead to a more censorious environment in terms of all Ivy League universities, a strengthening of DEI, a decrease of the First

Amendment, a decrease really of civil rights and of equal protection for everybody. And that is why I'm going to oppose it, if that's the way that's going to be implemented. Because the precedent being set is we're going to use the full weight and force of the federal government to enforce a particular ideology on a school. That's right. And whether it's this ideology or another ideology that is endorsed by an elite consensus or by whatever party is in power, once you open that door, there is no walking back through it as it is with the Patriot Act. So anyway, that was our look at what's happening,

a little bit of what's happening around the country. And I think there are many more dramatic scenes to unfold between now and graduation day and certainly between now and the DNC. Yeah. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown, never let kids' toys take over the house, and never fill your feed with kid photos.

You'd never plan your life around their schedule, never lick your thumb to clean their face, and you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best. You'd say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car

and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. The summer of 1993 was one of the best of my life. I'm journalist Jeff Perlman, and this is Rick Jervis. We were interns at the Nashville Tennessean. But the most unforgettable part?

Our roommate, Reggie Payne, from Oakland, sports editor and aspiring rapper. And his stage name? Sexy Sweat. In 2020, I had a simple idea. Let's find Reggie. We searched everywhere, but Reggie was gone. In February 2020, Reggie was having a diabetic episode. His mom called 911.

Police cuffed him face down. He slipped into a coma and died. I'm like thanking you, but then I see my son's not moving. No headlines, no outrage, just silence. So we started digging and uncovered city officials bent on protecting their own. Listen to Finding Sexy Sweat coming June 19th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really really really bad listen to new episodes of absolute season one taser incorporated on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts binge episodes one two and three on may 21st and episodes four five and six on june 4th Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. All right, guys, thanks to Sacchar and I's little spirited, unplanned debate. We no longer have time to talk about housing today, so don't worry. We'll bring you that

story in the future. We want to make sure we get to Dr. Jill Stein on time. So let's go ahead and move on to the very latest with regards to Israel, because there is a whole lot that is consequential that is happening there. In particular, the possibility of a ceasefire deal, the imminent possibility of a Rafah invasion, and the imminent possibility of ICC arrest warrants. And these things may seem disconnected, but they actually are all connected. I'll get to that in a moment. But first of all, let's listen to how Secretary of State Tony Blinken is talking about this potential ceasefire deal. Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel.

And in this moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide and they have to decide quickly. Oh, an extraordinarily generous offer. Wow. Wow. Let's see what's in this extraordinarily generous offer that's been made. Put this up on the screen, from the New York Times. So the offer includes a 40-day ceasefire, that's it, 40 days in the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Israeli hostages. Apparently, the big concession is releasing, instead of releasing 40 hostages, the Israeli government is prepared to settle for only 33. And, you know, frankly, there's a lot of reports that many of the hostages have been killed. I mean, they've been in an active war zone for seven months now and subject to the same, you know, siege conditions as everyone else

in the Gaza Strip. So you have pretty wide distance between the Hamas position, which is not only we want a permanent ceasefire, not 40 days, a permanent ceasefire, and this is a critical piece too, they want people to be able to return to Northern Gaza, to whatever's left of Northern Gaza. And that's been something that the Israeli government has been adamantly opposed to. But a very one-sided framing here

of the whole problem is with Hamas. Obviously, these are negotiations. Both sides have to give and take. But to present this as like extraordinarily generous and the best offer and how could they possibly refuse, Sagar, I think, is very disingenuous. Yeah, it's just the key sticking point between them is that Israel says we're going to continue the war no matter what. And the ceasefire is just like a temporary thing on the way. And Hamas, of course, they're trying to use their leverage, which are hostages.

And they're like, no, if we're going to give up these hostages, then the war just needs to end, period. I mean, this is a huge problem in Israeli society too, because this is how they, they're really, what Israel wants is to have their cake and eat it too. They want to get their, they want the hostages out. There were huge pro, you know, it's funny, we cover protests in America. In Tel Aviv, they're lighting shit on fire in the middle of the street yesterday because there's a huge protest continuing around hostages, around the conduct of the war, and Netanyahu. So what they want to do is they want to release all the hostages, which releases the pressure valve in Israeli society, because then there won't be any more

pressure on the government to conduct the war differently. But they don't want to commit to ending the war at all. So this is obviously the key sticking point. If I had to guess what Blinken and the Biden administration's theory of the case here is, is that, and what I don't think is unreasonable, is once guns stop firing for 40 days, it's very difficult to restart the guns. Now that said, if I had to bet anybody who would do it, I think that the Israelis would. And that's part of the conundrum that we really face here is that Bibi and his coalition, and really Israeli society, I think we should all be honest, they want to go into Rafah and they want to destroy it and they want to level it.

America doesn't want that. Biden, for domestic reasons and for geopolitical reasons, is like, hey, the more violence that we have, the more problems I have here at home and abroad. So we're really stuck because we don't want this to happen, period. This is a delaying action with the hope that we can achieve some permanent ceasefire or whatever in the future. But unfortunately, I don't think it's possible with the current Israelis on the other side of the table. Well, and with the U.S. unwilling to actually use leverage to enforce any kind of outcome. I mean, just like asking Bibi nicely obviously isn't worked and it's not going to work. So you're absolutely right that there's no reason to expect that even if they do secure this 40-day ceasefire deal, Bibi has promised,

repeatedly just promised again, you were sending it to me, that we will go into Rafah. Whether there's a temporary ceasefire or not, we are going in. Another thing that I want to point out, which we talked about at the time, but for some reason, the mainstream media just, I know what reason, but they just chose to ignore the beginning, is that Hamas had offered almost immediately an all-for-all deal, all hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. And the family members of the hostages, they sort of just learned about this, at least some of them, and are realizing like, oh, you, Bibi Netanyahu, all of your talk about your concern for the hostages, this is all

bullshit. This has just been an emotional manipulation tactic because if they were actually your number one priority, they would have been returned already. So there's that. At the same point, they're trying to use, first of all, Rafah has taken on this horrifying symbolic importance, both in terms of Bibi's making the case that the reason they haven't achieved victory yet is because they haven't gone into Rafah. And you're right, Sagar, that I think the Israeli public overwhelmingly is in favor of continuing the annihilation into Rafah, where you have 1.3 million Palestinians who are sheltering right there along the border with Egypt. This is also being used as negotiating leverage, basically a threat of we're going to do more horrors and atrocities in Rafah if you don't secure this limited 40-day ceasefire deal. And we're getting some truly dystopian, horrifying indications of what exactly is planned for Rafah. Let's put this up on the screen.

So this is according to Middle East Eye. Israel is planning a ring of checkpoints around Rafah to prevent any men, quote unquote, military age men, from fleeing the Rafah assault. So they say here, the checkpoints are designed to allow some women and children to leave Rafah ahead of an expected Israeli offensive, but unarmed civilian Palestinian men will likely be separated from their families and remain trapped in Rafah during an expected Israeli assault. Previously unreported disclosure of Israel's construction of a ring of checkpoints around Rafah underscores how Israel is pushing ahead with plans to attack that city where over

one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in tents and makeshift camps. So, Sagar, this is directly a war on men that fits very much with the assumption that we've seen from the Israeli government official policy and frankly, media buy-in that if a man was killed, if even a 16-year-old boy was killed, they must inherently just because they're a, quote, man of military age, they must be a terrorist. Ergo, they're a legitimate target. That's the way they have been operating. But this is another level of codifying into their approach that if you are a man, any man within what we can colorably describe as military age, then you deserve to be tortured, kidnapped, bombed, and ultimately killed. Yeah, this has its roots in kind of counterinsurgency policy, except what they're missing is that they didn't have any effort to

separate non-terrorists from actual terrorists. I mean, this has been done in the past, for example, giving everybody opportunity to flee and then saying anybody who remains in the city will be considered, it's basically like a free fire zone. They did that in Gaza City. Right, exactly. But what they should do, what you really want to do is if you actually wanted to do this, you separate the male population from the terrorist population. Now, that sounds easy and it's not easy. It does require a lot of death, but it also requires actually using your military and

putting them at risk, which is something that, you know, it's been a while since we've seen the Israelis engage in active combat, like actually on the ground. They're just not willing to do it. They're just basically willing to take as many civilian casualties as possible while keeping their own men safe. Now, in theory, you would be like, well, why wouldn't anybody do that? Well, America didn't do that in the Iraq war and in Afghanistan. You can have plenty of criticisms of our military, but people, extraordinary measures in many American lives were lost specifically to try and prevent situations like this from happening, which is basically just everybody is declared, you know, free fire zone.

There may be very limited instances, but commanders and the overall ethos of the military is that is not the way that you can fight in a country which you're occupying with a huge, you know, millions and millions of people that are there, including millions of men. In this scenario, they're basically just putting all that aside and engaging in whatever they would want. And I think it's just going to be further evidence, you know, against them and their lack of, really in their lack of willingness to fight as a first world military. There is no first world military on earth that would ever fight this way, period. I feel very comfortable saying that. Many people are pointing out that part of what led

the ICJ to conclude that Srebrenica was a genocide was the all out slaughter of men, 8,000 men who were murdered. They're very similar, like they're men. So we're gonna kill them and we're just gonna assume their military age. There was also a motive of, quote, unquote, revenge that was offered as justification there. So a lot of historical echoes.

But, you know, this is deeply chilling. And the reason I say that the media has been complicit in allowing this framework is, I mean, both in terms of their just overall coverage, but the way they have assumed from the beginning that, okay, any casualties, any deaths outside of the women and children, we're just going to assume, according to the Israeli government, that these are Hamas militants who are legitimate targets by the, you know, allowance of the Israeli military to operate in such a way. I mean, this is part of why the IDF murdered their own hostages, both because they were men and because they were in this kill zone where they just assume anyone who's still there must be a Hamas militant. And so this is the part of the

way that you've ended up with these overwhelming civilian casualties. So in any case, Rafa is being used both as a political tool for Bibi to hold on to power and say victory awaits if we just go in and destroy RAFA. It's also being used as a bargaining chip in terms of these ceasefire negotiations. I wanted to just put this up on the screen so people know what's going on just in terms of how Hamas is positioning themselves. This is another thing that is unlikely to be covered by many mainstream outlets. So you have a Hamas official who was saying, actually, that they would lay down their arms,

they would demilitarize if you established a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders. This isn't the first time they're saying it, but, you know, you can think that they're not serious. I think that's entirely legitimate to be like, yeah, but you can't take their word for it. But you do have Benjamin Netanyahu very clearly like, we will never allow a Palestinian state, and I am opposed to it with every fiber of my being. And you do have the Hamas people saying, actually, we will lay down our arms and accept a two-state

solution, which is contrary to their more genocidal rhetoric from the past. So make of that what you will. Let me put this next piece up on the screen because this is also incredibly important and connects together potential cease fire, RAFA and ICC arrest warrants. Apparently the US and their allies are basically threatening the ICC that if they do issue arrest warrants for the Israelis, then we're going to blow up the peace. There's not going to be any kind of truce. There's not going to be any kind of even temporary ceasefire. So this is what was described as a quiet diplomatic effort. It's really just a threat. It's like basically threatening continued slaughter of Palestinians if they dare actually issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and

others. And Sagar, there's been obvious total hypocrisy with regard to the ICC, you know, and they're issuing arrest warrants for Russia. We were applauded. Oh, thank you. You're doing a great job. This is incredibly important. Now, when it's our great friends, the Israelis who have, listen, just by the numbers, the slaughter has been vastly greater from the Israelis vis-a-vis the Palestinians in a much shorter period of time. Now, oh, this is illegitimate. We have to take actions. And you've got members who are threatening, members of Congress who are threatening to

pass legislation to target the ICC and retaliation. You've got the Wall Street Journal editorial board threatening some sort of retaliation against the ICC and retaliation. You've got the Wall Street Journal editorial board threatening some sort of retaliation against the ICC. So very different response when it comes to Israel. Yeah, it didn't work out so well, did it? A year ago, it was genocide at Bucha whenever like 50 people were killed. But now they're like, oh no, we can't be used. It's just so ridiculous. Shows you the US policy, by the way, which I opposed these things in the first place. Let's go and put this up there on the screen. This is my personal favorite pet peeve.

The U.S. military pier in Gaza, you guys will remember, was supposed to have been built by now. It was supposed to cost about $150 million. Well, now it's actually scheduled to be built late, and it will cost about $320 million. Who could have predicted? $320 million, and pictures are now coming out. You know, I would note, Crystal, that the port of Baltimore is not yet fully functional, but apparently we have all the money in the world to build a humanitarian aid pier, which is going to put American troops at risk off the coast of Gaza, when the easiest thing

that you could do is just be like, hey, Israel, just let some of my aid in there, you know, by road. That seems like a lot cheaper and a lot easier for us. Thousands, miles and miles of trucks backed up at these ports. That's right. You don't need them. They did actually start construction on the pier, by the way. We did see some images. It started today.

Yeah. Yeah. We're already like basically at the deadline for when they said the thing would be complete. But yeah, the obvious answer is let in the trucks that are lined up at the border. You can use a little bit of U.S. pressure and leverage to make that happen instead of this whole peer debacle, which I think it's worth once again mentioning that Bibi floated, hey, maybe we'll use this peer to help with our ethnic cleansing program and help Palestinians, help them voluntarily migrate out of the territory that we utterly

bombed, decimated, destroyed, and left unfit to live in. Just ridiculous. Yeah. Totally ridiculous. Absolutely. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown, never let kids' toys take over the house, and never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule,

never lick your thumb to clean their face, and you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best. You'd say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it, never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car

and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. The summer of 1993 was one of the best of my life. I'm journalist Jeff Perlman, and this is Rick Jervis. We were interns at the Nashville Tennessean, but the most unforgettable part? Our roommate, Reggie Payne,

from Oakland, sports editor and aspiring rapper. And his stage name? Sexy Sweat. In 2020, I had a simple idea. Let's find Reggie. We searched everywhere, but Reggie was gone. In February 2020, Reggie was having a diabetic episode. His mom called 911. Police cuffed him face down. He slipped into a coma and died. I'm like thanking you. But then I see my son's not moving. No headlines, no outrage, just silence.

So we started digging and uncovered city officials bent on protecting their own. Listen to Finding Sexy Sweat coming June 19th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1,

Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. This is just some of the best TV that you can watch. Professor John Mearsheimer, who I've been trying to get on this show for quite a long time. So, Professor, if you do hear this, we would love to have you. A personal hero and inspiration of mine joined Piers Morgan for an interview. And there was a clash of ideologies like one that you've never seen. Here you basically see liberal neoconservatism personified in Piers Morgan versus John Mearsheimer with utter realism. And you tell me which comports more with reality.

Let's take a listen. You want to remember that if you look at what's happening in the conventional war, it looks like Putin's going to win. Despite the fact that we've now passed this large-scale arms package for Ukraine, Putin's going to win, despite the fact that we've now passed this large-scale arms package for Ukraine. Putin is likely to win. Why is that not a terrible thing for America and the West? Because you have to prioritize the threats that you face in the world. And the fact of the matter is that what happens in Ukraine does not matter that much to the United States. I know for people like you, this is a life and death matter. The thought of any country on the planet that the West defends losing is a major defeat and has

catastrophic consequences. I mean, you felt this way about us pulling out of Afghanistan. But I think that places like Afghanistan, even places like Ukraine, don't matter that much. Actually, on that, I didn't really. I felt with Afghanistan, America should have kept a small military presence there to maintain some kind of order. And I think I was justified in saying that, given what's happened since. I thought throwing the country back to the Taliban was a catastrophic error of

judgment. And it wouldn't have happened the way it's happened if America kept a couple of thousand troops there, as it does all around the world in endless bases. So it seemed to me, having done many, many years of hard work in Afghanistan as a response to 9-11, to then simply just overnight throw everybody out and leave the country to the Taliban, particularly for women's rights, never mind anything else, I thought was an abrogation of America's duty and the UK. Right, but this is your worldview, which is the United States has a responsibility to be everywhere and to never quit until it wins. Not everywhere, but it should certainly be preserving freedom and democracy.

Otherwise, why self-style yourself as leader of the free world? You either are leader of the free world, and America still has, I think, half the world's military firepower, obviously one of the biggest economies. You either are that entity, leader of the free world, or you're not. And if you are, then what comes with that is a responsibility to protect freedom and democracy when it comes under attack from totalitarian regimes, I would think. I think if you look at the history of American foreign policy, it's very hard to make the case that our principal goal has been to protect freedom and democracy. The United States has a rich history of overthrowing democracies around the world,

and we have a rich history of siding with some of the world's biggest dictators. So this idea that we're out there protecting freedom and democracy and it's our principal goal, in my opinion, doesn't mesh with reality. Very diplomatic with that. I love him so much. He is such an OG. He's been on it for years. You guys should read his books and his interviews. He's an incredible person. But what he does so effectively

there is watch it with peers on Afghanistan, right? He's like, you want to stay there forever. He's like, I don't, I didn't say that. I just thought we should stay a couple of thousand troops to protect women's rights. Forever. Forever. Right? And he's like, well, the fact is that what happened in Ukraine doesn't matter very much to the United States. And this is the thing that what John gets at the most is that this can sound cold-blooded, but in practice, it's more moral. Because when you don't cast yourself as the freedom and democracy defender and all of that, and you make choices that are actually in your interest in the long run, then you don't end up meddling in other countries and creating a goddamn mess for the people that are actually over there. Or like this Israel thing,

for example. Would any of this even have happened if America wasn't the total guarantor of Israel's security? Never in a million years. Not a chance. Because they would get checked by the Arab powers. Now, same in Ukraine and Russia. Would there really be this invasion? I already know the comment brigade is coming for me on this one. But I'll argue till I'm blue in the face that NATO expansion in the 1990s was a horrific disaster for the United States to encroach all the way up to all these Baltic states, which are utterly useless to American security. And then even just yesterday, Crystal, the US ambassador to NATO said Ukraine will be a part of NATO. The US ambassador is out there. But even if you don't accept that, right? even if you look at Putin's rhetoric, you're like, listen, he's an imperialist. He wants to conquer territory.

He certainly is. Okay. You know, even if you think that, without our intervention, I think it's 90% likely there would have been a deal at the beginning because the Ukrainians would have looked at this and like, we have no chance here. We have to settle. Like, it's not ideal, but we have to settle and we're going to have to give some things up, and it is what it is. And you wouldn't have, again, a war on men, a generation at least of Ukrainian men who have been sent to the slaughter, and horrors unfolding there. And they were dragged into it by us. So you and I have a different view of the world. I would like us to actually, like, stand up for the values we pretend to.

But to actually look at American history and think that we do, it's precious, right? It's precious to still hold on to that view. We literally fund, we arm 73% of the world's dictatorships. You're like freedom and democracy. Even Afghanistan, like the, you know, the women's rights. I support women's rights. Yeah. But then we've got our buddies, Saudi Arabia, not exactly like feminist icons over here. And we're happy to fund them. We're talking about, you know, Biden's like obsessed with this pipe dream of normalization. And we're going to provide them with security guarantees in exchange for them

normalizing relations with Israel. Like, get out of here with your idea that we're protecting freedom and democracy around the world. Okay. Yeah. I mean, it's just utterly preposterous. It's never been more preposterous than it is right now when you see what we're enabling and encouraging and funding and supplying the Israelis to do to the Palestinians in direct contravention of the international law that we pretended to support when it came to Russia. That's part of what I'm saying. That's why I don't even want to pretend anymore. I'll be like, America does what's good for America. You know why we care about Saudi Arabia and we deal with these barbarians is because we want oil. That's it, period. Let's

all be honest. Qatar, same deal. Natural gas, it's the second amount of natural gas. We're going to do trade with you, period, end of story. Let's just stop, because that's what opens up the gateway to, oh, now we've got to deploy US military assets to die so that girls in Kabul can go to school. Ridiculous. I mean, this is exactly what drove me crazy about the entire thing. When you don't pretend, as I mean, it's just, this is exactly what drove me crazy about the entire thing. When you don't pretend, as I said, it leads to better outcomes. I mean, look at what happened in Afghanistan. We propped people up and then it fell down. We wasted $100 billion. Ask the Afghan people if it worked out for them. It's been a terrible outcome. It would have been

better if we left it to them to sort it out for themselves. And same with the Israelis. If the Israelis actually have to deal with this Jewish homeland, you know, post 1978, that they have to defend against the Arabs, what do you think you're going to do? You're going to have diplomacy with your neighbors. Now, everyone says that that's completely impossible. People can deal with anything, even when they hate each other. Yes, sometimes it will lead to war. But the instinct of survival, whenever you have two relatively equal military powers, look at the Egyptians and the Israelis. It's lasted for decades. They're not stupid. Yeah, they don't like each other necessarily, but they're like, look, we don't want to kill each

other anymore. It's all good. Shake hands and we'll just divide this thing up. That's a model for how actual balance works. So this is my case for Professor Mearsheimer's view of the world. It's considered amoral, but I actually really believe it leads to a more stable international system. So anyway, I really enjoy the interview. I encourage people to go and to watch the whole thing. Yeah, absolutely. It's a very revealing and interesting exchange. Crystal, what are you taking a look at?

Well, liberal Zionists appear to be going through some things right now. They don't want to totally accept Bibi Netanyahu's framing of college kids as literal Nazis, but they can't just accept that perhaps these students protesting the murder of Palestinian civilians might have a little bit of a point. They're also not ready to 100% co-sign Jonathan Greenblatt of ADL's assertion that student protesters are Iranian proxies akin to Hezbollah or Hamas, but they would also like to try to undermine the protesters in their own special way. Because to admit that these are genuine humanitarian protesters would be to force a hard reckoning for these individuals who see themselves as virtuous and like to imagine that they would have stood alongside past protest movements against past

injustices. But the current protests can't really be against injustices, right? Can't be that college kids are genuinely horrified by kids being blown apart and crushed under rubble. Must be something else, right? But what could that something else be? That's where things get really interesting and the mental gymnastics get really wild. So let's start with this one. Professor Scott Galloway, Don Lemon, and Bill Maher, they got together last weekend to offer their insightful analysis of exactly what's going on here. Now, for Lemon and Maher, opposing genocide is just a fad that all the cool kids are into. Galloway had a bit of a more unique take, though. Take a listen. Part of the problem is young people aren't having enough sex, and so they go on the hunt for fake threats.

And the most popular threat throughout history, type into Google anti-Semitism and pick your century, and you're going to find it. A Jewish girl on her way to get a manicure is not your mortal enemy. Stop it for God's sake. So there you go. College kids, they're just not having enough sex. So they became rabid anti-Semites in response. Do you people realize how insane you sound? Yeah, I'm sure if they were just getting laid more often, they'd stop caring about babies who are starving to death. That must be the real issue here.

Galloway, by the way, seems to apply this sex analysis to all kinds of things that young people are into. I remember distinctly how he berated young men for bidding up GameStop rather than trying to get laid. Appears this is kind of a whole ideology for him and is deployed every time the youth do something that he can't quite explain or wrap his head around. Meanwhile,

CNN's Fareed Zakaria, he had a somewhat gentler version of Galloway's take, wrote an entire column for CNN wrestling with why it is that college campuses have become a center of protest. That's never happened before. For Fareed, it's not because students are horrified by their tax dollars being used to drop 2,000-pound bombs on refugee camps,

or because of a backlash through the authoritarian crackdown on those protesting these atrocities. It's really because these students are lonely. In a piece titled, Why the Gaza War Has Spun Campuses Into Chaos, he writes, It's difficult to know what to make of the turmoil on college campuses these days. The protests, polarization, intimidation, and general bitterness. In a revealing article in the Wall Street Journal, higher education reporter Douglas Belkin sets these events against a broader backdrop, the disappearance of a sense of community. He points to research demonstrating that college students today are lonelier, less resilient, and more disengaged than their predecessors. University communities they populate are socially fragmented,

diminished, and less vibrant. One wonders whether this loss of community has led to more distrust, sharper disagreements, and more anger. People are encountering one another at these protests, often for the first time, often as strangers. Sicario goes on to talk about RAs who are upset students went to Zoom into dorm meetings rather than go to them in person. And look, it's legitimate to talk about the erosion of community in America. We've done it too, in general and on campus specifically. But I find it baffling how difficult it is for so much of the liberal elite class to just accept many people are profoundly upset by children being starved and killed en masse.

I see this response actually all the time. Why are you so emotional? Why do you care about this so much? I don't know. Maybe because I've spent the last seven months seeing kids being amputated on without anesthetic, bodies buried alive still screaming, listening to the panicked call from a little girl named Hind, who watched her family murdered and was then assassinated alongside her would-be rescuers. What kind of a sick person we have to be to not be emotional about these things? And yes, it should be tense when you're interacting with those who would seek to justify those sorts of atrocities. To Mr. Zakaria, these tense and emotional reactions,

they're actually a sign of mental health, not dysfunction. They're a sign of humanity, not disconnect and indifference. We're not done yet. Nate Silver had a phenomenal contribution to this weird inability to understand that young people are horrified by horrors. Since his brand is being the rational data guy, he opined that these other more impressionable human beings are just responding to base tribal instincts. Silver's contribution was sparked by the music of Substack writer Philippe Lemoine, who wrote this on Twitter, quote, My basic model of student protest is that, in general, students don't know shit about what

they're protesting against. They do it because it's cool, makes them feel like they're part of something important, and they want to be with their friends. In the vast majority of cases, their beliefs on the topic are very superficial. They just repeat slogans they don't really understand. But that's not a problem for them because it's primarily about signaling group membership rather than loyalty to specific ideas. To which Silver replied, this is probably right. Most people don't form political opinions through deep examination of the issues or reasoning from first principles. It's more like picking some particular fashion label or way of dressing, especially for younger people who face more peer pressure. First of all, have any of you guys actually talked to these young people? Because

if you do, you'll find many are deeply informed. In fact, plenty have a direct connection to the conflict themselves. Perhaps you should speak, as Ryan and Emily did, to the young woman organizing at the Columbia encampment, who was both well-informed, well-adjusted, and quite insightful. Perhaps you should speak, as we did, to Motaz Salim, who has been confronting members of Congress on Capitol Hill and is now involved with GWU's campus protest. Motaz has lost 100-plus family members in Gaza. I would wager he knows a hell of a lot more about it than Nate Silver does. Here's the other thing, though.

Liberals love to use this, it's complicated and you just don't understand, as a dodge on Israel and Palestine. But it's actually not. Innocents are being slaughtered. You don't need a PhD in Middle Eastern studies to be a human being who thinks that's wrong and is, yes, quite emotional about that.

Posing genocide is not some cool, fashionable trend that kids are just jumping on to have fun and make friends. Do you understand, Nate Silver? These young people are taking tremendous risk. They're facing tremendous consequences. Their schools are putting snipers on the roof and sicking cops on them. They're being pursued by private investigators and they're being arrested.

Billionaires are doxing them and promising to end their careers before they even begin. But you think they're just risking it all for an in-group fad? Cool thing to do? Is your soul really so deadened? You can't even conceive of idealistic young people sincerely just opposing a genocide, even if you don't think it's a genocide. They do. And many scholars and international bodies, by the way, agree with them. But you can't fathom being outraged by such a thing. That says far more about you than it says

about them. But I couldn't end without one of my favorite contributions to this whole discourse came from this VC startup investor lady who professed that she was deeply confused by all of this campus activism. She wrote, can I ask, why do all these students from top schools want to be activists to begin with? Like, you got such high grades and SAT scores. I'm surprised so many of you apparently want to be MLK instead of lead some industry. Now, books could be written about the mindset and ideology that would lead to such a question and to such confusion. It's honestly pitch-perfect Gen X liberalism, from the fixation on the high grades and SATs to the deep befuddlement at smart students wanting to emulate MLK, literally one of the most consequential men

in all of American history. It speaks to a mind that has fully embraced the notion that the only achievements which are worthwhile are to be found in the capitalist marketplace. Get your startup funded, make enough money to become an angel investor, wrap it all up in a female empowerment narrative to put a nice virtuous bow on all of it. Do well by doing good, they said. She can't conceive of organizing a protest movement as legitimate achievement unless it's part of an Ivy League college admissions essay or a line in your well by doing good, they said. She can't conceive of organizing a protest movement as a legitimate achievement unless it's part of an Ivy League college admissions essay or a line in your bio for Forbes 30 under 30. By the way, after being relentlessly dragged, she did delete the tweet.

But you know who's having no trouble understanding and appreciating the college campus protest movement? Palestinians in Gaza. In what is a truly beautiful display, Palestinian children, young adults, and Rafah held a rally to show their appreciation for the American solidarity. Some even spray painted their tents with messages like the ones that you can see here. This says in part, thank you students in solidarity with Gaza. Your message has reached us. Another one directly said, thank you, Colombia. Yeah, thank you, Colombia. Thank you for risking your career futures in the hope that Palestinians might have a future at all. And Sagar, I couldn't even put into this monologue all of it. And if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue,

become a premium subscriber today at BreakingPoints.com. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown. Never let kids' toys take over the house. And never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best. You'd say you'd never put a

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Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Very honored to be joined this morning by Green Party presidential candidate and activist Dr. Jill Stein. It's so great to have you. Welcome. Great to see you, man. It's so great to be. Yes, really great to be with you both. Thanks, Crystal and Sagar. Yeah, of course. So I guess my first question for you is just actually, are you okay?

Because we watched, we can put this up on the screen. We watched some pretty extraordinary footage of you being assaulted with a police officer's bike here and ultimately being arrested as part of a campus protest. So maybe you could just tell us what happened and what the fallout was and if you're doing okay. So we were at an event, a campaign event at a public library just a couple blocks away and several students had attended

who were really inspirational, I have to say. And afterwards, one of the students asked us to come and support their encampment, which we said, of course, thank you so much. You're putting everything on the line here for all of us, for our right to free speech, our right to protest, and, you know, really expressing American public horror at this genocide that we are funding. So we went to show support. When we got there, I was asked, along with two of the elected officials for St. Louis, who were also there, two of the aldermen or older women, I guess you would say,

to go speak with the administration and to see if we could help deescalate. We tried. And they seemed to back off for a couple of hours. And then the students asked us to join their line at the front to see if the eyes of the world through a presidential candidate platform might discourage their worst abuses. And, you know, it didn't. And, you know, in some ways, I think we may have even been targeted. My campaign manager and deputy campaign manager were also there. And we were really assaulted with these bicycles. And what you see happening in that footage, while we're practically being pushed over onto our backs.

And as a person with osteoporosis, I was not anxious to be pushed over onto my neck and risk a neck fracture. Yeah, in that footage right there, they are trying to force us back onto the ground. The officer on the right there picks up one of my feet as we are just about to fall over backwards. He picks up one of my feet to further destabilize me.

And I, you know, in trying to maintain my balance, I struggled to get free. And then he yelled at me that I had just assaulted him because he was in the way of my foot as he was toppling me backwards onto my head. So I'm now accused not only of trespassing, I think we're all accused of resisting arrest, and I'm accused of assaulting a police officer.

They're charging you with assaulting a police officer. Is that hysterical or what? Oh my God. That's outrageous, absolutely outrageous. It's unbelievable. I can't believe it was pulled up in court, but that's the way they're starting. Right.

Well, let them test it out. If anything, it'll be good publicity, I think, for the campaign right now. Well, that's one of the things. We booked this before. One of the things, just zooming out a little bit, we want to hear from you is what are you hoping to get out of this campaign? What would your day one agenda be? Okay. what would your day one agenda be? Okay, so day one agenda is picking up the phone and calling Bibi Netanyahu and telling him that our support has ended, you know, until the occupation is over,

until the genocidal war on Gaza is over, and until the apartheid state is over, that Israel needs to comply with international law. So on day one, the flow of weapons stopped. It's actually illegal for the Congress to be appropriating and the president to be transferring weapons right now. It's a violation of US law. We should not be arming human rights abusers, and this is human rights abuse on steroids. So that's number one. Number two, the political prisoners like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, Leonard Peltier, etc., they go free. Also, amnesty to those who are serving prison time for the nonviolent, simple possession, use, and cultivation of cannabis. That's over. We instruct the drug enforcement agency to begin addressing substance use as a public health problem, not a criminal problem. Those things begin. Also, we declare an environmental emergency, a climate emergency, which in fact we have. And that enables us to

basically stop the construction of fossil fuel infrastructure, which needs to happen on an urgent basis. And it also unleashes hundreds of billions of dollars to basically create jobs in the renewable energy sector, in conservation efficiency, weatherization of homes and school buildings, government buildings, et cetera, it enables us to begin that transition that we urgently need to do because the climate crisis is, you know, by all signs is actually exploding. It's sort of off the radar right now because we're focused on, you know, the human rights emergency, you know, the blood on our screens right now. But we do have an ongoing climate emergency as well. So those are some of the very first things that we could do on day one,

even without the support and consent of the Congress. But in my view, you know, our administration would operate in a very different way from our predecessors. The president would not simply be the commander in chief. The president would be the organizer in chief, enabling people to achieve those things that we need urgently, like a Medicare for all system that would save us half a trillion dollars, by the way, just from reducing the waste and inefficiency, the paper pushing, the big CEO salaries, et cetera, in our current healthcare system that wastes one out of every three healthcare dollars instead of putting them into health. The overhead in our current system is 33%. With Medicare, it's 3%.

So there are enormous efficiencies. People across the political spectrum, you know, are experiencing this incredible crisis in our health care system. And that's something we can begin to meet on day one. Dr. Stein, you're obviously a veteran of many protest movements. And I know you are regularly talking to young people, young student organizers, etc. Are you surprised at the breadth of the protest movement? Are you surprised by the way that these kids watching the genocide that's unfolding with our taxpayer dollars, the way that this has struck a nerve and the extraordinary nature of their response?

It really is extraordinary. And they are, in fact, risking everything. You know, they're risking expulsion. They're risking homelessness. They are risking all that they've invested into their, you know, into their education and their degrees. I am really unbelievably impressed and inspired by how they are putting everything on the line, you know, both for our basic American values and our right to free speech and to protest. And they're, you know, standing against this horrific genocide. And they're standing up for, you know, what the majority of Americans feel, what nations around the world have expressed, what the International Court of Justice has expressed. They're really, I think, they're expressing our highest, you know, ideals

as, you know, as human beings who are ultimately part of the same civilization here. You know, and in our campaign, we, you know, we have a saying, which is that as Gaza goes, we all go. We're looking at the normalization of the torture and murder of children on an industrial scale. This should not be normalized. We're also looking at the destruction of international law and human rights. So, you know, all of us are incredibly at risk for what's going on right now. And it's just such a tribute to the, you know, the moral fiber and the courage of these students that they are willing to stand up and say it stops here because they are entirely, you know, in their rights to be doing this. You know, this is a critical issue that needs discussion. As

someone from the Jewish community myself, I am very aware of what a rude wake up it is to come to terms with what Zionism actually is. And, you know, and to reject Zionism is not anti-Semitic. And that is a really repressive mythology to imply as such. So the students are undertaking a discussion that has to be had. And this has to be had also on our campuses. As someone who grew up during the civil rights movement in the 60s, the same thing was going on. It was very hard for people in dominant white culture

to come to terms with essentially white racism that was part of all of our institutions. And there were enormous efforts made to criminalize people who were raising these issues of basic civil rights. And it was a very hard discussion, but it has to happen. And our universities should be supporting this discussion. It's a sad commentary on our universities that they are so dependent on the financial support and the contracts and so forth from, you know, from the war industry and, you know, Boeing, et cetera. You know, they have all these contracts that they're dependent on. You know, it reflects the degree to which we've become a war economy, a militarized economy,

and that has to be fixed as well. One of the things I wanted to get your take on, ma'am, is obviously you're not going to be the only non-bipartisan candidate, two-party system in the race. So what are your thoughts on Dr. Cornel West and Robert Kennedy Jr., who presumably you will be facing up against on the ballot across in November? That's right. You know, I think Americans deserve choices. You know, this should be a part of our system. We should also have ranked choice voting so that multiple candidates are not perceived as a threat. But the reality is our campaign is the only pro-worker, anti-war, anti-genocide campaign that is on track right now to be on the ballot as a choice across the country. Dr. West, you know, we have essentially

identical agendas, but Dr. West had you know, we have essentially identical agendas, but Dr. West had decided to go solo. In doing so, he gave up his ballot access. He gave up what was worth at the time some $5 million of ballot lines because the Greens have preserved and protect their ballot lines. So we began this race with almost 75% of the work done. He gave that up. And those costs have greatly inflated, I think, So we began this race with almost 75% of the work done.

He gave that up. And those costs have greatly inflated, I think, because of the number of independent candidates now seeking ballot status. So the cost of getting support has really gone up. Robert RFK will certainly be on the ballot, but we have a completely different agenda. I think, you know, in fact, there are going to be three pro-war, pro-genocide candidates on the ballot. I hope they will split the pro-war vote among them and our campaign will be the one anti-war,

anti-genocide choice that's on the ballot. We already have, as I said, more than 75% of the work done and we are well on our way to completing that. Dr. West, you know, has founded a new party. They are struggling to get on the ballot. They have a couple of lines, mainly going through other small parties, but, you know, they don't really have any realistic pathway forward to get on the ballot in California or Texas. One needs hundreds of thousands of

signatures. I don't think that's going to happen. It's very unlikely. And we have, you know, the majority of the difficult states are already behind us. New York is where we have a, you know, New York passed a very oppressive ballot access law, really as a hidden poison pill within a budget law in 2022, I think it was, where they tripled their

requirement. It's now probably the most difficult state in the country where the requirement is for 45,000 so-called valid signatures, meaning the signature has to match exactly the registration signature. So if your middle initial is Jane, but you put J period, your signature can be discounted. And people try to do that. So you can't just get 45,000 signatures. You have to try to get at least 80 or 90,000 signatures. And in six weeks, this is almost impossible. But, you know, we are full bore, you know, attempting to do this because this is just, you know, this is blatant political repression. It's an attempt to silence political competition, which is supposed to be the heart of our democracy. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's weird because Democrats run New York.

And I thought that they were saying they're pro-democracy and democracy was on the ballot. So it's very strange. We'll have to have to discuss with them what exactly is going on there. Speaking of what's going on with Democrats, I want to get your reaction to some interesting commentary from James Carville, who had some choice words for young people who may not be fully on board with another term of Joe Biden. Many young people, of course, see him as backing a genocide. Let's take a listen to what Mr. Carville had to say. We'll get your reaction on the other side. If they get a hold, there will be no government left. There'll be no rights left. You'll live under theocracy. You'll end up Christian nationalism. But that's all right, you little

fucking 26 year old. You don't feel like the election's important to me. They're not addressing the issues that I care about. So my advice to tell these young people to get off your motherfucking ass and go vote because you should vote like your entire future and the entire future of this United States depends on it because quite frankly, it does. And that's not an exaggeration. Your reaction there, Dr. Stein? Well, I do agree with him that we really should be voting like our lives depend on it, because in fact they do. But, you know, it's an extremely anti-democratic sentiment

to say that people shouldn't have choices, especially when people are clamoring for choices. That's nuts. And to say that people should continue to support the parties and the candidates that have essentially thrown them under the bus is absolutely nuts. You know, we say don't listen to what they say, listen to what they do. And what they do has been an unmitigated disaster for most working people. You know, some 63% are living paycheck to paycheck.

Half of all renters are economically strapped, you know, just distressed, trying to keep a roof over their head that is paying more than 30%, well over 30% in New York State. It's like 50% or 60% of your income just to keep a roof over your head. You know, polls of young people show that half of young people describe themselves as hopeless. One quarter of young people have considered doing harm to themselves within two weeks of the poll. You know, so these are really horrific indicators about the state of our world. If we just keep, you know, keep our heads down and take marching orders from the political and economic elites that are doing just fine, thank you very

much. You know, if we continue doing as they tell us, we will continue going in this direction, which is, you know, we are in a tailspin right now. It's like we're in the airplane and the engine has stopped and that airplane is going into a tailspin and people see what's happening. Whether you look at the crushing inequality, the impending ecological collapse across the board, Colorado River is about to run out of water. The Washington Post ran a, and why does Colorado River matter? Because it supplies the California agriculture system, which feeds half the fruits and vegetables in the country, are coming basically from the Colorado River. The Colorado River is

within one to two years of not making it out of Lake Mead because of persistent drought. And there is no plan B. The Washington Post ran a headline about a year ago that used the term, they described this as the doomsday scenario. We are in that day scenario right now in, you know, in several parameters. And, you know, there is no plan B. So we need a different way forward. We do need to vote like our lives depend on it. And anyone who suggests that they own your vote and that they are entitled to your vote should disqualify themselves right then and there from any consideration of receiving your vote. Well said.

Go ahead. I was just going to say, Dr. Stein, just to follow up on that and to sort of play devil's advocate here. You got blamed in 2016 wrongly for helping to elect Donald Trump. No doubt, if Donald Trump gets elected again, you're going to be part of the reason they said that they didn't win, that it was your fault. You're siphoning off votes that rightly should have gone to Joe Biden. And what is your response to that? What is your response to people who say, listen, you may like what Dr. Stein has to say, you may support her opposition to genocide as one example. But at the end of the day,

it's either going to be Biden or Trump. It's a binary choice. So if you're not voting for Joe Biden, you're de facto voting for Donald Trump or helping Donald Trump get back to the White House. Well, you know, to tell you the truth, I regard it as a badge of honor. You know, I consider myself very powerful to have determined the outcome of elections. And beyond that, you know, I actually don't waste my time because the majority of Americans are really hurting for something else.

You know, the numbers are off the charts right now. The Gallup does a poll every year and it's like 63% now, a record high, who want another choice, who want another candidate because they feel like they have been thrown under the bus quite enough. And I usually feel like people who are, you know, being good little boys and girls and parroting the propaganda of the DNC, I generally feel sorry for

them, like that they are in an abusive relationship. It's an abusive political relationship. And, you know, they need to break up with that abusive political partner. And I hope that they will come to that someday. But I don't feel like it's my responsibility to help them out of it. You know, and yes, I think Donald Trump would be a really scary president. And yes, I think that Joe Biden is a really scary president. I think fascism is here right now. We're seeing it, you know, rolling out on our campuses and, you know, around the country. Fascism is here. There is no greater trademark of fascism than genocide. I think we've got that now.

You know, we've got oodles of fascism around us. And I think the solution to fascism is democracy. It's not the suppression of our, you know, our political views and our political debates. We have to stand up and assert our democracy. It's not the suppression of our political views and our political debates. We have to stand up and assert our democracy. If people are concerned about vote splitting, which I must say is not supported by the facts. The facts suggest that nearly two-thirds of our votes are coming from people who otherwise won't vote. They just won't vote. And right now, that is off the charts. If you look at, for example, the New York State Democratic primary about three weeks ago, there was a 12% so-called uncommitted, but there was an 83% no-show, 83% relative to the numbers who came out for Joe Biden in 2020,

at a time when the race was already decided. It's not like's not like, oh, you know, it was an active race back then. No, it wasn't. It had already been settled. Joe Biden had been coronated, but people were participating in the Democratic Party. Now they are not, you know, now they are basically voting with their feet. So, you know, I think this is, we need to seize the moment here because we're all kind of going over the cliff right now, you know, in whatever dimension you want to look at. We're in really bad shape. And we need to take back the reins of our democracy, you know, take back the promise of our democracy and have debate and dialogue, you know, and to your credit, breaking points is one of the few places where that debate is had. This needs to be the norm, not the exception. We need antitrust laws

enacted against our corporate media. We need the internet and social media to be regulated as a public utility, not the playground for billionaires to kind of do what they want in collaboration with government security agencies behind the scenes, you know, censoring our discussion. We need to reestablish, you know, we need to get money out of politics and have publicly funded elections at a cost that could be massively reduced if we are, in fact, using the public airwaves for public purpose. We can have publicly funded elections without having this legal, you know, this legalized bribery, which is essentially how our elections are run right now, you know, and the money

pouring into our elections now, particularly through undisclosed vehicles using either super PACs or dark money, which can contribute to super PACs, you know, through the Democratic Party now or the Republicans using this institution called Victory Funds, which I think was started by the Clinton campaign in 2016, a single donor can write a check for over $600,000, a single donor. And it basically gets laundered and comes back to a single campaign and a single candidate, which enables, you know, single donors with deep pockets to have inordinate influence on our political institutions. This is, you know, this has everything to do with why they are completely sold out and incapable of serving

the American people. In the Green Party, we do not take corporate PACs. We don't take, we don't sanction super PACs. We don't countenance them. And we, you know, we disavow any super PAC. You know, we work by the rules. You know, we are a small donor campaign. I think our average donation is somewhere around $10 or $15. You know, that needs to be the norm and not the exception. So that, you know, we're in this situation.

Now we have the best democracy money can buy. And it is no democracy at all. Yeah. Well said, ma'am. uh we appreciate your void of vote of confidence and crystal stole my question so i think we're good to go and uh we want to appreciate you very much for joining us all candidates should and we hope to see you on every ballot in the country so thank you very much yeah thank you dr stein thank you for your time today we're grateful thank you so much good to be with you absolutely yeah it's our pleasure thank you guys so much for watching we really appreciate it if you could support us we'd help us out uh we have candidate interviews exclusive polling we're grateful. Thank you so much. Good to be with you. Absolutely. Yeah, it's our pleasure. Thank you guys so much for watching. We really appreciate it. If you could support us, we'd help us out. We have candidate interviews, exclusive polling. We're really working our way

up to the 2024 election. CounterPoint's got an awesome show for everybody tomorrow and an even better show for everybody on Friday. People are going to love this. So if you can, again, support us, breaking points. Otherwise, CounterPoints, we'll see you tomorrow. We'll see you on Thursday. 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. It's Tapping In. I'm Nyla Simone, breaking down lyrics, amplifying voices, and digging

into the culture that shaped the soundtrack of our lives. Like, that's what's really important and that's what stands out is that our music changes people's lives for the better. 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. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown. Never let kids' toys take over the house. And never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule.

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and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. This Pride Month, we are not just celebrating. We're fighting back. I'm George M. Johnson, author of the most banned book in America. On my podcast, Fighting Words,

I sit down with voices that spark resistance and inspire change. 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. Fighting Words is where courage meets conversation. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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