Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 5/15/24: Bill Burr Unleashes On Bill Maher Over Gaza Protests, American Nurses Trapped In Gaza, Biden Sends Additional Weapons To Israel, AIPAC Busted Smuggling Cash Into Election

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

Ryan and Emily discuss Bill Burr unleashes on Bill Maher, Canadian nurse speaks on horrors in Gaza, Biden sends another billion to Israel, and Ryan tracks AIPAC's hidden spending in US elections.   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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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. Let's move on to Bill Burr, who was on Club Random with Bill Maher. And they obviously, why not, got into a conversation about the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campuses around the country. Lest you think we weren't watching Aaron Rodgers on Tucker Carlson's show yesterday.

He did weigh in on the Cuba policy of Alan Dulles. And accurately, by the way, that was a historic first. I think the first former Green Bay Packers quarterback to go after Alan Dulles, a triumph for him. So the podcast universe is thriving. And Bill Burr is a part of that wonderful ecosystem. And Bill Maher, this went pretty viral. I think got kind of owned by Bill Burr here.

Let's take a watch. You don't realize that college campuses erupted with the kids demonstrating for Hamas? They are in with the terrorists? They were for the Palestinians. Well, it's sort of the same cause. Why, are you? I'm on the side of the kids. Yeah, that's easy to say. You know, no one wants to see kids dead. This is a war. That was very brave of you to say this. This is a war. No, I'm the one who's actually brave on this.

No, pat yourself on the back. It's easy to say, I'm for the kids. Who's not for the kids? It comes down to real hard-nosed decisions. No, stop talking like you're a general. A country got attacked. Israel got attacked. I'm not saying that they didn't have a right to go back. I'm just sitting there going like, how do I look at what— They're the only country in the world that they get attacked,

and then as soon as they counterattack, it's like, well, we've got to stop this shit now. Don't attack them. There's a very simple solution to all this problem in the Middle East. Stop attacking Israel. Hey, you just solved it. Stop attacking Israel. You just solved it.

I actually did. There you go. That's fantastic. Anyway. All right. We don't need to get onto that. Let's go to Russia and the Ukraine. How do you solve that one, Bill?

Let me hear your hard-nosed decision about that. Well, let me ask you a question. How is war still legal? All this shit that let me ask you a question how is war still legal with all the shit that's been canceled legal why is that still fucking legal would you like a real answer to that because to for something to be illegal you have to have the capacity to enforce it and you can't enforce against war or else you have to go to war with the country that's going to war and we don't want to go to war with the country that's going to war. And we don't want to go to war with Russia over Ukraine. What would be the sense of making it illegal? Oh, that's really going to stop Putin. No. To stop people from going to war, you have to also put

boots. You can't sit down and talk it out. Why can't Putin do a podcast with the head guy? Like, you just solved the Middle East on a podcast. Why can't they solve what they're doing on a podcast? This is why this is not your thing. Make some hard noise. It's not your thing. It is my thing. It isn't your thing. This is not your thing.

You're like that guy that has a fantasy football team and thinks he's a fucking GM. No. That's exactly what it is. Like, why am I fucking listening to you like you've done something? What have you done in Washington? Nothing. That is a great point. Bill Maher saying, this is my thing. That's your thing. You're just getting high and like mouthing off. I was going to say, yes, which is really your thing. But it would be like me saying that I'm some expert on this. It's absolutely ridiculous.

I mean, you regularly have covered that. You've been there, you've interviewed people. It qualifies. But I feel like Bill Maher here really has celebrity syndrome where he doesn't realize how poorly he's coming across when he's in this very patronizing way, like verbally patting Bill Burr on the head and saying, I got this. Don't worry about it. My thing. Your opinion counts as less because I'm a talk show host. There was an interesting window into Bill Burr's mind for a moment there where Bill Burr says, I'm with the kids. Bill Burr had just said the kids are supporting Hamas or whatever, and or whatever. Right. And they're protesting. He was, Bill Burr was referring to the college kids. Yeah. Because Bill Maher had just said the kids. Right. Bill Maher's mind, in his mind, he thinks, he's saying that I'm with the kids who

are being slaughtered by Israel. That's what I, yeah, that's how I interpreted it too. That Bill Maher's mind went to the kids being slaughtered. Right. And then said, I'm the courageous one because I'm okay with the kids being slaughtered because I understand in a hardheaded world that there is no other choice than slaughtering all these kids was fascinating and dark. Maybe it was just really high. Well, yeah, clearly, but that's a window into like, I mean, he's high most of the time. Yeah. So that's, it's like a philosophical question about which Bill Maher mind exists. And I would say if you're high more than half the time, then it's the high one. I also found that interesting because he was, they were in a conversation directly about

the kids on college campuses. They had both used the word kids in relation to the kids on college campuses. And as soon as Bill Burr said that, Bill Maher, like the switch flipped. And he jumped on Bill Burr from, oh, you say you're with the Palestinian children. But Bill Burr then going back and just driving the knife further with that last comment about what have you done in Washington? Why am I listening to you? It is a very good question. Like, why on earth? I mean, because it's funny, I guess, to watch these two people, hopefully. But yeah, like him pretending like he has, him saying like, this is my thing and it's not yours.

Get out of here. I actually think one of the great benefits of the podcast ecosystem, especially in comedy, has been the ascension of like the everyman take on politics. It's like amplified more than it had been in the past. Well, Aaron Rodgers and Joe Rogan yesterday, right? Tucker Carlson. But Aaron Rodgers is like a great everyman example. And he even kind of talked about that on the podcast. But it's, I mean, like, again, part of the problem with media is the excessive gatekeeping. It doesn't mean that, you know, comedians spouting off about politics or celebrities spouting off about politics. It doesn't mean that it's always right.

But sometimes those casual conversations are actually pretty interesting because you get Bill Maher then to like almost literally, like you could see he wanted to lean over. I think he did even lean over and like touch him, like pat him on the head and be like, it's okay, Bill, don't worry. I got this. I got this. And nobody's actually in their heart against gatekeeping. They just want to let different people through the gate. Like I want to let Bill Burr through and tell Bill Maher, sorry, you know, your card's been deactivated. You know, you can't come through this gate. So, yeah. I would say I'll let Aaron Rodgers through the gate if he wants to talk about Alan Dulles.

There you go. Come on through. Let's do it. We'll have that conversation. But anyway, it's occasionally very fun. It is. All right. Well, we're moving on now to an incredible interview that you set up, Ryan. I'm excited to talk to Monica Johnston.

Yeah, stick around. Monica's a Canadian nurse who now lives in Oregon. She's in a hospital in Canyun. It's called the European Hospital right now. She was supposed to leave on Monday, but because Israel has basically locked the doors, nobody's getting in and out. She and her mission are still trapped there. She's going to tell us what it's like in the European hospital. Stick around for that. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets.

Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and re-examining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. 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 call 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 bad. Listen to new

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And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content,

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We are joined now from the European Hospital in Conunis, Gaza, by Monica Johnston. Johnston is from Canada, currently lives in Oregon, but is in Conunis at the moment. Monica, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. So we reported earlier this week about the situation for you and others who are on the medical mission to Khan Yunus, Israel, by taking over the Rafah border and closing it completely.

No supplies have been able to get in and out, but also no people have been able to get in and out. I understand your mission was supposed to leave this week, has not been able to. Yesterday when we spoke, you said the UN was going to do a trial run where they were going to send staff members on that run. And if they were able to survive the trip from the hospital to Rafah, not be killed by the IDF, that then the next day medical staff would be able to start leaving. What is the circumstances with that plan? Yeah, that's exactly right how you said that. So the UN did make their trial run on Monday, and we were supposed to start trial runs with our teams yesterday. We got notified that the UN's convoy was successful, but then ours would not be able to take place yesterday. So as of now, we still have not heard when we will start those trial runs.

And you had also told me that they were going to do, you know, about two at a time, which is nowhere near the entire team, but that you guys were insisting that, you know, to be allowed in. So can you describe why that is and how do these missions work? Like, and why is it so important that new humanitarian aid workers be able to come in to replace you? Absolutely. I really don't understand the reasoning. I know there's multiple mission teams here. So splitting it up to allow for a few members from each team, I think, I'm not sure if it's the IDF or who's limiting the amount of people in each convoy, but, and then the prioritization so when we did get word

that our convoy was going to be leaving on when sorry it's hard to keep track of the days here this is why we need relief um on tuesday that none of our team members were selected for that convoy based on some kind of priorities that the WHO has, which we're not privy to. So the reason we do need that relief is because, you know, we're exhausted, but we can't just leave and abandon the people here. Many units are working with only nursing students. Many units are run by interns and residents. So we need the support of humanitarian workers to help keep things afloat. And speaking of the, you know, actually kind of shifting from the flow of people to the flow of supplies, as Ryan mentioned earlier, can you tell us a little bit about

your difficulties in getting what you need for medical treatment to you guys so that you can do your jobs and help people be safe and recover from instances in which they were not kept safe? Absolutely. So think of a hospital in America. They get daily shipments of supplies. Here, we brought in, our team brought in 300 suitcases for a two-week period. We went through almost all of those supplies in one week. So, you know, we're already coming to a depleted situation.

We, I guess, incorrectly expected certain things like hand soap and sanitizer, paper towels to be here. So we didn't prioritize those items in our 300 bags. And we get here to find no units have soap, no units have hand sanitizer. So some basic things that help save lives, help prevent infections. And that's what we're seeing, just a rampant infection rate and people are dying from this. So we're running out of antibiotics. We're running out of wound care supplies, pain medicine, medication that supports vital organs. We're running out of all of those things. So it's so desperately needed to reopen the borders. And so I noticed in a video that you had sent to us earlier that you had something, I don't know

the exact term for it. It's kind of a stent in your arm. I don't know if it's too personal to ask, but can you talk a little bit about what the situation is like for you and the other medical professionals that you're with? What's going on there? Is that dehydration or what are you facing? Many of us have just been hit with gastroenteritis. So whether it was something we ate or we had some water that wasn't purified. For the most part, we're drinking bottled water, but now we're a little nervous about that supply. So we've been starting to ration that a little bit more. So rationing that leads to dehydration.

It's warm here. I'm not used to this climate. I'm doing 20 dressing changes in four hours. You know, it's hard, strenuous work. So me and my roommate personally, we had gastroenteritis. So, you know, we're dehydrated from that. We both had IVs for two days. I received three and a half liters of fluid and continued to work as much as I could through that. Because, you know, you're here and the idea of being in bed sick, it was devastating. I'm here to help and I'm sick and I can't help. And it just wasn't acceptable. And what kind of wounds and illnesses are you guys seeing? Like, what's a rough breakdown just from your, having treated so many people now?

So lots of tragic amputations. So explosions, and they lose limbs at the site. And then extensive blast injuries with shrapnel that ends up causing a wound to need to be amputated later on. So we have those extensive blast injuries and then burns on top of that. Lots of head injuries with that. So if you imagine a blast and getting thrown out. One of my patients, she's an 11 year old. Oh, it's going to be tough. She lost her dad and she was found two houses over from their home. And her and her brother were brought to our hospital and her brother died in the emergency room. So she suffered a cut to her head, down to her skull, a fractured pelvis, a fractured leg, and extensive last injuries to the backside of her legs, where it's going to take months to heal if she doesn't get

infected here, and multiple grafts if she doesn't get infected. So, you know, this is, this is what we're seeing. The magnitude, I work at a level one trauma burn center, and I have not seen this magnitude at this frequency. At one point, we were getting, you know, five, six of these at a time. And, you know, level one trauma will struggle with that, let alone a place that has no, no resources. And correct me if I'm wrong to recover from, uh, injuries like that. You generally need more calories, more nutrition than, than average. Can you talk a little bit about what people are, what, what people have access to and what the effect of that is on their recovery? Um, very simply what they have access to is nothing,

you know, or near nothing. We're talking about maybe one can of Ensure for an entire day for one of these wound patients. No one can survive on that, let alone someone who has an extensive injury. Our patients back in America, you know, they fight with us and say, I can eat, I can eat, you know, and two days later, we're putting a feeding tube in them because you can, you just physically can't consume that amount of calories. So it's leading to infections, um, graft losses. If we ever get to that point, further amputations, um, just so many complications because of that.

And somebody from your mission sent us a video in the control room. If you can put up this VO. They sent us this video of the scene from a safe house that some of the medical staff were using. That's the trip from the safe house to the hospital. They were then told, don't go back to the safe house anymore. It's not safe. It's too close. We think the IDF might strike it even if they're deconflicting and giving them the coordinates. So I'm curious, did you spend any time in a safe house? And are you hearing shelling? What's the situation as we speak with regards to violence? So our team in particular has only been at the hospital, staying at the hospital. A couple of team members have ventured out to visit surrounding areas and they just speak of

the devastation, kind of like what you have shown. From inside the hospital, which is considered a green zone, we are hearing shelling all the time on stand world of the drones. This morning at 6.30 a.m. was the largest blast that I have ever heard. And it felt like it was in the next building over. It woke me out of a dead sleep and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest. And I just sat there and I kept waiting. I kept waiting for another one. And there were, but fortunately not for us this time. I assume that some of the medical staff who are Palestinian there were in some of the other hospitals that have been, you know, raided by the IDF. Have they given you any advice on how to handle doing this work in this war zone? And what have

they told you about their experience in other hospitals? So some of the other hospitals, you know, it's just infrastructure. I think at this point, seven, eight months out, the infrastructure is just gone. So some of the other hospitals were run a little bit more smoothly. This one, there's been just so much chaos, but I think it's, you know, you think of all the people who have displaced here and have been continually displaced. So I heard, I'm not sure if this is accurate, but at one point there was 13,000 people occupying our hospital corridors on this campus here. And, you know, when we came, you had just a small path to walk through the entire

hospital. And there were walls and walls of curtains and tarps housing off families, little living quarters. So yeah, other hospitals, I don't think quite, they had their own problems from what I hear. And obviously when they were invaded, absolutely had issues. But I don't think they had this mass displacement to here that just is leading to even more chaos. As you're thinking about the possibility of leaving, how do you balance the different factors? On the one hand, you've got the Palestinians who are in the hospital saying, you know, if Westerners leave, we're all going to be killed. On the other hand, you need people to replace you. Otherwise, the thing completely collapses.

But then on the third hand, you guys are rationing water and running out of supplies. I assume some are in, you know, facing significant health risks. How are people kind of thinking through the series of terrible options in front of you? This team has been so, so amazing. I cannot, cannot speak to the magnitude of how wonderful this team is. Everybody cares so much about the Palestinian people here. We're very adamant about the fact that we can't just leave without replacement. But that does mean replacement of not only personnel, but supplies.

We, you know, we've kind of learned from the Palestinians here, like to give, like you see them and they have nothing and they're constantly inviting you for tea and what little food they have, they're giving and giving. So as a volunteer here, it's hard not to want to do the same thing for these people. And the thought of leaving them and abandoning them is just, it's not on our minds. You had mentioned, by the way, that a child had opened what he thought was a can of tuna and had an arm blown off. Is that a cluster bomb that looks like a can of tuna? What are people finding, like, in the street there? I'm not quite certain about that, but I was called to the OR to help and I was told his story. You know, people are hungry.

They find stuff they want to eat. So, you know, there's potential that these things are getting placed in people's houses when the IOF is, you know, raiding homes and stuff, and then expecting people like children are finding them. And when you're hungry, you can't blame them. Right. Wow. That's dark. Can't blame them. That is dark. And any final thoughts?

Like, what is the understaffing doing? What's it like working in a hospital that is this understaffed? And any final thoughts people should know about what the situation is right now? So yeah, the understaff, we've gone into the ICU two mornings now and found patients in a state of rigor mortis. So that's meaning that they have been dead for some time. All their IV lines were still running. They were still hooked up to all the machines and it showed a flat line on the monitor, but there's just no staff to respond. You walk into the ICU and there's alarms 24 seven on every single patient. So, you know, I asked a nurse about this because I wanted to understand, like, are you exhausted? What is it? And I eventually

got out from her that when the patient comes in, they know who's going to live in and who's not. And, you know, you only have so many resources, which includes, you know, personal strength and resources. And to put that emotion and strength into somebody that you know is not going to make it is too much for them after such a long period of doing this. So, you know, people are dying, people are dying and things aren't getting caught. Just a lot of extra unneeded death, I think. Yeah. What portion do you think of people who are dying there would not die if they were in your trauma, in your facility back in Oregon? I mean, I don't know about specific numbers, but I mean, 80-90%

of these injuries are survivable. Right. Just with basic supplies and attention and calories. Exactly. And that's the hardest thing to sit back and not have any control over i know it

needs to be done but i have nothing to do it with what's the prospect for you before we let you go what's when when do you expect that you you and your team will be able to get out and get swapped in with a new mission um you know we we have our next team sitting in Egypt waiting. I personally have just kind of settled in. I don't know. You know, we're promised daily that tomorrow we'll get a convoy out. I can't think about that. You know, I'm just taking care of the people here

and taking care of my team and myself right now. Well, if and when you do get on that convoy, we all desperately hope that the IDF does not fire on it. And I hope that the attention that is finally being paid to this at least helps a little bit. Yeah. Well, Nurse Johnson, thank you so much for everything you're doing. Deeply appreciate it. Appreciate your time. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids,

promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series,

we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and reexamining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. 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 One. 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. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod.

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. All right, that was nurse Monica Johnson, who's volunteering at the European Hospital and stranded there by Israel's siege. Meanwhile, here in the United States, if you can put up this next element, the Wall Street Journal broke the news that President Joe Biden is moving forward with another billion dollars in new weapons for the very military that is besieging American medical staff in Gaza at the moment to be spent mostly on tank shells, mortars, and other offensive weapons, not just for Gaza, presumably, but also for the saber rattling that Israel is

doing in the north with Lebanon. So this comes after Biden and the White House made big news by saying that they were stopping a shipment of 3,500 bombs in retaliation, basically, for Netanyahu rebuffing every American public attempt. I say public attempt rather than private attempt to stop them from launching this RAFA invasion that is killing all of the people that Nurse Johnson just described to us. Afterwards, John Kirby said, look, Israel's getting all the weapons that it needs. I don't understand what everybody's so upset about because we stopped this one shipment of 3,500 bombs. There were other reports that Israel was saying, look, we already have all the weapons we need to invade Rafah. Now, doesn't mean it's not a symbolic shift, perhaps, but that doesn't help the people who are going to be on the receiving end of these tank shells, I don't think. Yeah, and so Axios has this warning as well that Netanyahu has been ranting that Israel,

quote, isn't a vassal state of the United States, which, uh. Yeah, we're the vassal state at this point. So he says, according to one of his aides, he said, we are not a vassal state of the United States, according to three people of his remarks, including, with knowledge of his remarks, including one of his aides. This was on a rant in a meeting with his security cabinet. So obviously, the relationship, as Axios put it here, is, quote, strained at the moment. And Biden is trying to deal with that in different ways that are amounting to, this is nothing new, but a completely inconsistent hodgepodge policy towards this war that makes absolutely no sense. And this is what I don't get. Okay, you're not a vassal state, fine. Then arm yourself.

Well, arm yourself and don't repeatedly say over and over again that we could not fight this war without the Americans. And so if you can't fight a war that is existential, and I agree. I think Israel faces existential threats from people around it, and we may disagree on that, but I think that's true. But Netanyahu, his security cabinet that said the stakes of this war are existential, and we can't do it without the Americans. Well, I mean, I think also, uh, destiny actually, uh, good point that he made in that debate that we had was it's no longer existential that they, they are an industrial economy. Like they're, they're powerful enough on their own that American support is not existential that, that in general, like Lebanon is not going to overrun them. Hamas

with whatever 10,000 fighters it's got left, is not going to overrun them. Jordan certainly isn't in any mood to go to war with. Egypt is not invading. Saudi Arabia and the UAE just want to do business. Their place is secure in that sense. It's not like 1973 where you have Arab states who are actually willing to launch a military invasion. That's over. That's done. Even without, I think, American military support anymore. And Hamas just doesn't have the potential.

And the Palestinian Authority is a subcontractor of the Israeli government. So there haven't been many subcontractors who have kind of taken over government. So that's unlikely. But yeah, tactical vehicles, mortar shells, tank shells, all of the weapons that they're using to just annihilate RAFA. And we're going to send a billion dollars more. Nice round number. Well, it's the same thing with the Biden administration. Do you care about what are defined internationally as war crimes or not? I mean, they care about it when it's Putin. They don't care about it. It's just, obviously, everyone

knows at this point that it's bullshit. But it's the Biden administration that continues to enforce these bullshit ideas about how the war is being prosecuted and what international law is supposed to look like when it's convenient. And again, not new in American politics, not new in world politics, but to maintain that posture and to have it, you know, informing armed shipments and very specific policy details in such an uneven and inconsistent way, just politically even for Biden, a disaster, let alone what it's actually doing in the war. Yeah. And the American medical mission is an interesting proxy on this. Hin Khadri and I over at The Intercept broke this news on Monday that this was happening.

And it's an interesting proxy, not in the sense that American lives are inherently worth more than Palestinian lives. They aren't. And I spoke previously with Nurse Johnson. She was saying the same thing, that she can tell just that politically that everybody just acknowledges that American lives are more valuable than Palestinian lives, including the Palestinians, that the Palestinians will say, we really hope that if you leave, that other Westerners come in and replace you, because otherwise we're all going to be slaughtered. Like we need, like those are actual human shields, like Americans shielding other civilians, because the thinking is that the IDF is not willing to kill in mass American citizens. Right. But that thinking is even being challenged. Like the UN convoy was

fired on Monday, killing a foreign driver of that vehicle. And now they're having intense difficulty. So we broke this on Monday, Washington Post, NBC, others have since followed up reporting. Yeah. So it's a global story at this point. People know that there are these American citizens and Canadian citizens trapped in this hospital. If Netanyahu cared, he could do, he could easily resolve this situation. They control this area. Okay, seven-minute drive from that hospital to Rafah. They control the border crossing. Monica could be out within the next hour if Netanyahu cared. And Netanyahu knows that they're trapped there, they don't have the supplies they need, that the American citizens, Canadian citizens are themselves facing serious health complications.

And instead, she's woken up by the biggest shelling that she's ever heard since being there at 6.30 this morning. He knows they're there and they're shelling right nearby anyway. They're being told to stay away from windows. And it really does upend this assumption that your American passport or your Canadian passport gives you any protection, even as we're wrapping this up, there are how many American hostages? About five American hostages that are still remaining and barely even talk about that. But, you know, speaking of on that point, producer Max sent a tweet from Dennis Ross yesterday where he says, one thing is clear. The fact that the IDF has to go back into Jabalia and other places and soon Khan Yunus actually speaking of what we were just talking about with Nurse Johnston, is a reminder that no plan existed for what would replace Hamas. Yes, Hamas is weakened, but without an alternative to it,

it will fill the vacuum and Israel needs an answer. So from the interest of the United States, the American hostages that are still being held, American aid workers that you've reported on. Being held hostage. Being held hostage. Being held hostage. More American hostages in that hospital than being held by Hamas now. And just from the pure perspective of, again, in the interests of actual Americans over there, how has Biden handled this situation? How has the Biden administration advanced American interests in this situation?

Pretty damning. Yeah, as Biden said, if you harm an American, we this situation. Pretty, pretty damning. Yeah, as Biden said, if you harm an American, we'll respond. Yeah. Terms and conditions apply. Yeah, exactly. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's

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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. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher.

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It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. All right, Ryan, you have some more reporting on AIPAC in the United States, in the campaign atmosphere as we're cutting into November. What have you got?

Yeah, well, I'm all worked up about this. Let's talk about AIPAC's influence in the third congressional district out in Oregon. About two weeks ago, two candidates in an Oregon congressional race held a rare joint press conference where they leveled a charge against a third candidate. Take a listen to the local news coverage. Moving on, we wanted to bring you an update now to a story we told you about last night, the heated three-way race for the 3rd Congressional District in Oregon. That's Earl Blumenauer's seat in Congress. Last week, two of the candidates, Shushila Jayapal and Eddie Morales,

held a press conference accusing the other candidate, Maxine Dexter, of taking dark money, washed through a super PAC called 314 Action. They claimed, without any evidence, that 314 Action could be a front for far-right donors looking to take them out of the race. The candidate getting all that dark bunny support is Maxine Dexter, a state representative and local doctor. At a debate, she was pressed by her opponent,

Eddie Morales, to name the source of the funding. Take a listen. I want to spend the last second of mine asking Maxine, Maxine, will you look at the camera and tell Action 315, 304 Action to disclose their donors before May 20th? Do you want me to go ahead? Yes, I mean, sure, answer the question. It is absolutely, they are legally obligated to disclose their- Before May 20th, before the day before the election. Eddie, you understand as well as I do. This is a public forum. You can tell them in public. It is a public forum. And I believe in discussion and deliberation and not demands. Is Big Pharma funding you? Absolutely not. I've never taken...

Okay. I have to stop you there. I need to let Maxine have a final word here. I will just say that this entire thing is frankly absurd. I have put my values on record. I have four years of voting records on progressive values. I have stood firm with people who have supported me and against people who have supported me. I took an oath of office, and I've taken an oath as a physician to keep people at the center and do no harm.

My integrity is frankly being questioned here, which is absolutely offensive. All right, well, we don't want to offend anybody. And of course, anybody accused of anything without evidence ought to have a chance to defend themselves. So let's take a closer look. And to be fair to our accusers, it did look off. Random state representatives don't generally find themselves

on the winning end of millions of dollars of super PAC spending for no reason. And Sushila Jayapal, the candidate in the middle there, is the older sister of Pramila Jayapal, one of APAC's most concerted adversaries on Capitol Hill and the powerful chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. APAC had been unsuccessfully recruiting a challenger to Pramila Jayapal in her Seattle district. Now, looking for clues as to who might be funding the dark money operation,

you could turn to the news outlet Jewish Insider, which does a great job covering congressional primaries through an Israel-Palestine prism. In early December, Jewish Insider flagged Sushila Jayapal's candidacy as alarming to Israel advocates, elevating the potential candidacy of Dexter as a strong opponent. So after a few days of reporting, I confirmed it was indeed AIPAC, and I found two sources who had knowledge of how specifically AIPAC had begun playing in the race without disclosing its role.

It was routing money indeed through the pro-science, quote-unquote, pro-science super PAC called 314 Action Fund. So I published that story on May 10th at The Intercept. Now here's our friends at the local TV station again with 314's response. But Jayapal and Morales are demanding that Dexter tell 314 Action to reveal the donors now. They say they think they could be related to pro-Israel group AIPAC. And some recent reporting from the news outlet The Intercept supports that claim. We reached out to 314 Action Group yesterday and they did respond to us.

We asked if MAGA Republicans are among their donors. They didn't outright say no, but they did say that they've spent tens of millions of dollars backing other Democrats to defeat mega Republicans in other states. They also said there's no evidence to support a claim that AIPAC is among their donors and that they disclose their donors every reporting cycle and follow the letter of the law. So again, not outright denying that AIPAC is involved, just there's no evidence there yet. So the Portland Mercury did some strong follow-up reporting on the race midweek, but Maxine Dexter continued to profess ignorance, even in the face of that reporting. But then

undeniable pieces of evidence began to emerge. While the super PACs aren't required to disclose their donors until the day before the election, the candidate herself has to disclose regularly down the campaign stretch. So she had to produce what's called a 48-hour report after a May 7th fundraiser. Now, at that fundraiser, of the nearly 80 donors who gave that day, nearly 90% are also donors to APAC. In other words, it was an APAC fundraiser, which you can find out just by searching the names of those donors on the site there. The next day, Dexter disclosed having raised nearly $600,000 in the month of April,

after raising just about $300,000 during her entire campaign before that. Doubling or tripling your fundraising in the last few weeks of the race is not typical. That is not normal. And inside that $600,000 were scores of additional APAC donors of the ones we checked. We gave up after a while because it was pointless. It was very obvious what was going on. But okay, maybe it's a huge coincidence that APAC donors are giving to her campaign, but it's not APAC donors who are behind the Super PAC spending. How do we know APAC actually organized all this? Well, I called one of the donors on the list and got through to her. This is Honay Dollisman. At first, she said she didn't remember giving to

Dexter at all. When I told her the $3,300 donation of hers was in the FEC records, it clicked for her. She said, quote, I give all of my contributions through APAC. Whenever I am asked to give to their endorsed candidates, I give. So Dexter is an endorsed candidate, even though that's not public. If that wasn't enough to put the pieces together, a staffer at 314 Action Fund, angry that a PAC ostensibly dedicated to electing candidates with a science background was having its mission distorted to support pro-Israel candidates, reached out to me to share inside information. They told me directly about

the nature of the APAC-driven operation. It was APAC. 314 took to Twitter to respond to my article, but did so four minutes before I even published it. And they accidentally denied the wrong thing. They wrote here, Ryan Grimm from The Intercept is once again making up stories out of thin air. His latest accusation that 314 action is a front group or that 314 will be spending against Representative Cori Bush is a complete fabrication. But I had not, in fact, reported that 314 action was expanding its campaign to target Bush directly. I reported that 314, with the heat on them, was planning to set up a shell pack they could funnel AIPAC money through. And so, Emily, I think what's going on here, so if you're trying, here's the question people would ask, like if you're trying to put together this plan that voters are not going to find out that it's AIPAC money until May 20th and the election is May 21st and Oregon is mail balloting,

so everybody basically will have voted by then. So that's late enough. Why would you schedule a May 7th fundraiser when you know you're going to have to disclose those donors 48 hours later? And from what I've heard from people involved in this is that they thought they would get a fundraiser when you know you're going to have to disclose those donors 48 hours later. And from what I've heard from people involved in this is that they thought they would get away with it. Yeah. That nobody would notice that it's Oregon. It's a small race. It's a small race. Who cares? Not even an incumbent. It's an incumbent sister, but it's not an incumbent. Presumably has nothing to do with foreign policy. Yeah. It's like the race is about homelessness,

basically. Like, that's the big issue that they're running their ads on, that the AIPAC-funded ads are hitting Jayapal because she was on the county commission. And the county commission did a legitimately terrible job when it comes to homelessness. So actually, that's a clean hit. It's just, let's not pretend that AIPAC cares. That's not their mission. Their mission is not to eradicate homelessness in Portland. Why does AIPAC care about this?

Seriously. From everything I've been able to gather, A, Jayapal supports an immediate ceasefire and is generally sympathetic with the Palestinian cause and critical of AIPAC. She said she doesn't want AIPAC money, etc. But it's to get at Pramila Jayapal. I see. Because Pramila— That makes more sense. So the squad are their most outspoken kind of opponents that are elevated in the press.

But Jayapal has more power in the caucus itself. 90 to 100 members of the Progressive Caucus. She chairs that caucus. She has a direct line to the White House. She can make things happen in ways that members of the squad can't. And according to my reporting, they very much tried to recruit an opponent to her. They ran polling in Seattle, trying to find ways that she would be soft. They would've been willing to spend, I'm sure,

many millions of dollars. They're spending 20 plus million to take out Jamal Bowman. They could spend millions to take out Jayapal, but they couldn't find a challenger. She got one challenger at the very last minute, but the person seems like a bit of a crank, like running in like four different races. Is the very outspoken pro-Israel person in that, but I don't think it's an AIPAC recruit. And so if you can't go after Jayapal directly in Seattle, hey,

here's her sister, who I should have played audio of her. You saw that she looks just like her. She also sounds just like her. You're like, there's no way that's a different person. It's got to be the same person. Once again, Ryan Grimm's sources are wrong. Ryan Grimm's sources are wrong. But I think the reason that they held the AIPAC fundraiser on the 7th is that they knew they'd have to disclose, but they didn't think anybody'd care by that point. Right. And then, okay, maybe somebody flags it by May 9th. At that point, it takes a week to report it out. Now it's basically election day.

Because you need the reporting early enough that the candidates can then get it out to voters. Because they're not all watching counterpoints and reading the intercept. They should be. They should be, but believe it or not, they're not. So there has to be local news has to pick it up, which is now starting to happen. The sheer amount of money being spent probably is enough to overwhelm and elect Dexter. It's a crazy amount. I mean, that's it. But it might blow back now that it's out and the local press is finally starting to cover it in a better way. You saw that one,

because that news outlet had done some dismissive reporting in the past saying like, oh, there's nothing to this. But now when they got 314's response, they're like, hmm. Maybe Ryan Grim's sources are right. Maybe they're right. This is actually not a denial because that's the funny thing. Just disclose your donor. Yeah, of course. And I think 314 went so aggressive in its public response because they didn't know that I had an internal source of theirs. So just a note for organizations, like wait until the article comes out or call me. Like I emailed them,

like gave my number, call me. Then you can find out what I've got. Right. And then you can shape your response. Instead, I've never seen a more desperate and guilty looking response. I like how they respond to the wrong thing too. Yeah. It's just great all around. Right. And the other reason they wouldn't endorse directly through 314 action with Bush is that Bush's opponent is this guy, Wesley Bell, who's a prosecutor. He's not a scientist. They're supposed to only endorse scientists and doctors, so they'd have to set up a different pack. There's one in Portland called Americans for Responsive Government. I hate shellpies. No, voters for responsive government. They registered it on April 1st, because if you

registered it on March 31st, then they would have to disclose by the end of the month. April 1st, because if you registered it on March 31st, then they would have to disclose by the end of the month. April 1st means they don't have to disclose until May 20th. Now, let's give AIPAC credit where it's due. They beat the Capitol Police Officer, Harry Dunn. They did. In Maryland's third district last night, for some reason, and people still to this day do not know why they decided to spend millions of dollars backing a local state legislator, Sarah Elfreth. Harry Dunn had never really said anything critical of Israel. Why they decided to make a January 6th Capitol Police officer, the guy that they spent millions to target is actually unknown at this point. They also tried to beat this Democrat, Dave Min, in a primary in California, who also had not said anything. Both of them, non-white. And there's some suspicion that like,

if you are non-white, AIPAC believes, AIPAC is suspicious of your politics when it comes to Palestinians until otherwise. Until proven otherwise. They've done a trip there and, you know, done your, I don't, would be nice if they would tell us. They don't tell us. But the most fun news out of Maryland, as we talked about at the top of the show, is that David Trone. Yeah, it was a good one. Lost to Angela, also Brooks. David Trone is the owner of Total Wine, which, great store, terrible person. He's famously spent something like $14 million trying to win Jamie Raskin's seat.

I thought it was more than that. It might have been. But this is a primary, a House primary. Not only did he lose to Raskin, he lost to Chris Matthews' wife, who got finished second, who is a famous local news anchor in her own right in DC. He finished third, not only spending the most money to lose a House primary in history, didn't even finish second. So then he switched and he moved out to Western Maryland. And John Delaney left office. So he was able to buy his way into that seat. Tried to spend 60 plus million dollars to win the Senate seat. Everybody thought it was his to win. But Angela also Brooks beat him. She won with basically Baltimore City, PG, and Charles County in Maryland.

But she also, take a little Kent County prerogative, she's currently tied. So I'm from Kent County. I was going to say, you should tell people. I went to Kent County High School. Kent County is a small county over on the, very rural small county over on the Eastern Shore. I haven't checked the very latest.

When I checked this morning, she was tied 722 to 722 in Kent County with Trone. So I don't even have to ask my mom. I'm sure she was also Brooks. What are we at now? 54 to 41.9, so 54 to 42 roughly overall. And then in Kent, it's 48, 48 right now. Do they have the vote totals? It was hilarious. About 1,500 total votes right now. Okay. Yeah.

So it's dead heat. It's high ballgame in Kent County. As a wise woman once said, right? There's no total wine in Kent County. Money can't buy you class. Money can't buy you class. It's true. It's awesome. It's great to see Trone beaten. It's always good to see money. Yes. Not win the day. The Stoller's anti-monopoly crowd went after Trone and a super PAC basically launched a campaign hitting him on antitrust stuff. An antitrust Super PAC.

Yeah, because Total Wine is engaged in all sorts of antitrust violations, allegedly, and is in the process of getting prosecuted, basically. And so, and Trone politically is like an anti-antitrust. He's a pro-trust. He'strust. He's a pro-trust. He's for trusts. He's a pro-trust. Because he is a trust owner. He owns a trust.

Allegedly. Basically, what total wine does is it punishes suppliers and it gets better deals on booze than the mom and pops do. And it was allegedly enforcing that in a pretty kind of ruthless way. And what's amazing is during this campaign, David Trone's company sued the Biden administration in relation to this fight that they're having. So a Democratic senator running for a Democratic Senate seat sued the Democratic president over antitrust policy while he was running for Senate. Democratic voters said no, so good for them. I was going to say that this segment was peak Portland, but it has now become peak Ryan Grim because what started as a deep investigation into the various meddling

of APAC turned into a rant about the pro-trust organization structurally of Total Wine. Yeah, I'm not sure how we got there, but- You didn't see it coming. No. That was a Shyamalan-style monologue, but here we are. But it's all about big money. All about big money. Yeah, that's the overhanging.

And so the election is May 21st in Portland. We'll see. Like, if they lose this, despite spending millions of dollars against Jayapal, that would be a huge blow to them. Because that would leave them with just Harry Dunn so far as the person they beat. They and the January 6th protesters are the only ones that have beaten Harry Dunn and nobody else. Well, best of luck to AIPAC going forward. And that does it for us on today's Wednesday edition of CounterPoints. But of course, we now do a wonderful Friday show, and that will be this week, a conversation with Beto O'Rourke. I imagine there'll be some debate back and forth. We haven't taped it yet, but a conversation with Beto O'Rourke on the border. And that's

really exciting. I really appreciate you setting that up, Ryan. Yeah, love Beto. I first interviewed Beto when he was a El Paso city councilman because he was pushing a pot legalization referendum in like, not a referendum, just a little resolution. In like 2009, I interviewed him for that and I interviewed the sitting congressman at the time. And the congressman said, if this passes the El Paso City Council, like, federal funding is going to be at risk. Beto took that as a threat, that how dare you threaten federal funds over my pot resolution. And Beto ran against him for Congress after reading that and beat him in the primary. He was a border patrol guard. So, he beat a border patrol guard to get to Congress. You guys are just Gen X brothers. We are.

Yeah. Brothers in the plant. Yeah, exactly. You've got like a clubhouse. It's a treehouse where you just like smoke weed and skateboard and listen to Nirvana. Yeah, we're not going to sell out, man. But really looking forward to that. All right.

So come back Thursday night, Friday for CounterPoints Friday with Beto O'Rourke. Otherwise, Crystal and Sagar will be here tomorrow. And stay tuned, of course, to your inbox for just updates on the greater Breaking Points universe going forward. And we'll see you next week. Ryan, we'll see you early next week. That's right. I'll be there Tuesday also. You get a lot of me next week. All right. See you guys later.

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