Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 6/20/24: CNN Biden Age Cope, Hezbollah Threatens Massive War, Boeing Victim Goes Off On CEO, Biden Gaza Pier Crumbles
Episode Date: June 20, 2024Krystal and Saagar discuss CNN blames fake videos for Biden age concern, Hezbollah threatens massive war, Boeing victim mom goes off on CEO, Biden Gaza pier crumbles. To become a Breaking Points Pr...emium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.com/ Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
This is an iHeart Podcast. is still out there. Each week, I investigate a new case. If there is a case we should hear about,
call 678-744-6145.
Listen to
Hell and Gone Murder Line
on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts,
or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Sometimes as dads,
I think we're too hard
on ourselves.
We get down on ourselves
on not being able to,
you know,
we're the providers,
but we also have to learn
to take care of ourselves.
A wrap-away, you got to pray for the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.
A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself.
Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth.
Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.
Find out more at fatherhood.gov.
Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council.
High Key. Looking for your next obsession? Brought to you by the U.S. the way she about to yank my bank account.
Correct.
And one thing I really love about this is that she's celebrating her daughter.
Oh, I know.
Listen to High Key on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Stay informed, empowered, and ahead of the curve
with the BIN News This Hour podcast.
Update it hourly to bring you the latest stories shaping the black community.
From breaking headlines to cultural milestones,
the Black Information Network delivers the facts, the voices,
and the perspectives that matter 24-7.
Because our stories deserve to be heard.
Listen to the BIN News This Hour podcast on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
What up, y'all?
This your main man Memphis Bleak right here, host of Rock Solid Podcast.
June is Black Music Month, so what better way to celebrate than listening to my exclusive conversation with my bro, Ja Rule.
The one thing that can't stop you or take away from you is knowledge.
So whatever I went through while I was down in prison for two years,
through that process, learn, learn from.
Check out this exclusive episode with Ja Rule on Rock Solid.
Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Rock Solid, and listen now.
Hey, guys.
Ready or Not 2024 is here, and we here at Breaking Points
are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election.
We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio, add staff, give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible.
If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support.
But enough with that. Let's get to the show.
Good morning, everybody. Happy Thursday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we
have, Crystal? Indeed, we do. Many interesting things to get to this morning. So we have all
known that Biden and his team are in a bubble, but now we have some astonishing new reporting
giving us some of the details, the color and the texture of that bubble that I think you'll find
very interesting. Also taking a look at what's going on with NVIDIA and asking the question, are we facing another crash a la the dot-com bubble burst? So we'll look at that. Also on
foreign policy, Russia making a new pact with North Korea. Where did this come from? What does
it mean? Quite an extraordinary move. Meanwhile, the IDF spokesperson, Daniel Higari, is rebuking
Bibi directly and admitting that it is impossible to defeat Hamas, which has been their purported goal all the way along.
So that's very interesting.
We also have a mother of a Boeing 737 MAX plane crash victim who went off on CNN against the Boeing CEO.
This woman is amazing, and she is incredibly correct about
everything she's saying. I'm taking a look at the vaunted humanitarian peer debacle. Sagar is
taking a look at the Zinn debacle. We got to it. It's a black day for many of us. Yes, indeed. So
lots to get to this morning. Yeah, that's right. Before we get to that, thank you to everybody
who's been signing up, premium subscriber.
Our interview or my interview with Candace Owens dropped early.
In general, that's what we do here.
We've got the debate that's come or not a debate.
What is it?
Counterpoints with Matt Taibbi that will come out early for premium subscribers today.
And then it will drop for the general public later on.
So if you can support us, breakingpoints.com.
We really appreciate it.
We do have a presidential debate coming up.
Oh my God. Yeah, that's right. Next week, we've got a presidential debate. So yeah,
if you want to participate, support us and our ability to do that, you're going to get
some special features, et cetera, breakingpoints.com. So there you go.
All right. Let's get to the very latest with the Biden campaign. We want to start with
CNN having their old pal, Brian Stelter, back on the air to provide us with a heaping dose of some Biden cope
about why the public is viewing him as an old man. Let's take a listen to that.
That's what we're seeing. That's what the Biden administration, the Biden campaign is so worried
about right now. But make no mistake, they are worried about this. This is a real problem. This
is not some made up fiction. The videos are oftentimes made up, but the problem is real
because some of us, Abby,
watch a 40 minute speech by Biden. We see the full context. Other people only watch a five second
clip. And that's going to be something that's going to, I suspect, follow Biden for the rest
of this campaign. You know, I've also watched to the extent that I can take watching a 40 minute
speech, typically Biden on double speed. I think the conclusion that people come away with is even more dire than the short clips that get pulled out.
This is just pure White House regurgitated propaganda.
And in fact, my friends who are on the White House press corps are the ones who are most concerned about Biden.
They're like, dude, you don't even know the half of it in terms of the stuff that doesn't make it to the clips.
This is something that you hear consistently from all of the people who are forced to.
And, yeah, you and I are probably in the top 0.1 percent of people who have to consume the vast majority of what this man does on a daily basis.
And, you know, even sticking with that, many of the things that make me cringe are not even the ones that go viral.
You're just like, oh, my, just watching this person on the stage.
But this is the new media regurgitation of the White House line about cheap fakes.
Quote unquote, a cheap fake is a video I don't like that happens to show Biden looking really,
really old, like wandering off in the middle of the G7, being led away by Barack Obama.
They can try and spin these things all they want. And it's really evident now that they're basically trying to imply that the videos themselves, as Stelter says, are fake. He wants you to believe
they are fake. No, they are real. At the very least, you could say they are edited out of
context. Show us the full context. We showed you the full context. It doesn't look good.
Yeah. No matter which way that you spin it. That's right. The one they really objected to
is the one where, you know, they're at the D-Day commigration and the parachuters are coming down. Is that what they're called? Parachuters. And everybody is like looking
at this one guy and Biden's like wandering off over here. Now, the clip of that that went viral
that the Republicans were pushing, it did zoom in on Biden. So you couldn't see there was anything
else going on over here. We showed you the full one so you could see. And I think you probably
also felt that it didn't look great, especially in the context of everything else.
And here's the other thing.
It's like, all right, if he's so with it, like, put him out.
Give him some interviews, you know.
Let him take questions from the press.
They very rarely do any of that.
So it tells you that his own circle realizes this is a problem, realizing he isn't ready to perform at that level. Although the level of delusion within that circle, the close circle of Biden aides,
is apparently astounding. Let's put this up on the screen. From Axios, top Dems, colon,
Biden has a losing strategy. Senior Democrats, including some of President Biden's aides,
are increasingly dubious about his theory for victory in November, which relies on voter concerns about January 6th, political violence, democracy, and Donald Trump's character.
But Biden's core inner circle has not lost faith in that approach, they write, the product of Biden and his longtime aide, Mike Donilon.
That puts them on an island within much of the party about what will decide the election, as polls show Biden tied or behind even after a slight bump following Trump's criminal conviction.
Some of the details here are really extraordinary. And just so you guys know, I mean,
it's no surprise Biden's been in politics a long time. And he has a very small handful of aides
and confidants who've been with him for like decades, who are the people he turns
to and trusts. If you aren't in that circle, then you basically, you don't matter. And you also get
from this that people are very nervous about bringing to Biden or that inner circle of aides
any sort of bad news or dissenting voices because they worry they'll get shut out and or potentially even,
you know, let go. They just don't want to hear it. They believe things are going to be fine.
The lessons they took from the midterms and also from Biden's own primary victory was to,
you know, ignore the doubters. We know what we're doing. And that has really helped to seal in
this very tight bubble. Let's put some of the quotes up here on the screen.
This is A3.
A Dem strategist in touch with the campaign told Axios,
it is unclear to many of us watching from the outside
whether the president and his core team realize
how dire the situation is right now
and whether they even have a plan to fix it.
That is scary.
Mike Donilon, who we just mentioned, who was one
of those top aides in the inner circle and has been for many, many years, he has reassured people
that voters will, quote, do the right thing by rejecting Trump, per a Biden aide who heard him
say it. Joe Biden is a great president and great presidents get reelected is another Biden, sorry, another common Donilon
refrain. So that's the level of analysis we're dealing with here is, don't worry, it's fine.
We don't need to change course. It's all good. I really don't even know what to say. I mean,
when you look at some of the things here, for example, Donilon has argued January 6th will affect the 2024 election as much as 9-11
was central to 2004. Quote, the Democratic Party didn't want to believe it was a 9-11 election.
I decided after the election I would never be part of a campaign that didn't figure out with clarity
what it wanted to say and stick to it. Well, you know, he's working for the Biden campaign.
What do you need to be smoking to believe that January 6th is relevant in any way like 9-11 was to the 2004 election?
It's also incredibly stupid to call it the 9-11 election.
It was not about 9-11.
It was about Iraq, and it was about all of the insane war on terror nonsense that led up to it, which was directly relevant. In 04, when Americans went
to the ballot box, American troops were dying in Iraq. We had a huge debate. What the hell are we
going to do? Now, John Kerry was not particularly great on the issue of Iraq, part of the reason I
think that he lost. But my point is just that, how is that possibly relevant in the same way
that it is now? It's not.
It's one where you could theoretically say democracy or whatever is at the top of the ballot.
And I don't want to watch that.
I think it's possible.
And more because Fox News just had a poll.
It came out last night making big waves.
It actually showed democracy, quote unquote, at the top of voter preference.
Now, I would be very curious to see what the age of the people who are surveyed and asked about that. So yeah, for old people, I'm not going to
deny that it's not important. But to say it is the important election where everyone from 18 to 85
is all on the same page, which we were in 04, not even close. Not even close.
Yeah, that's right. And one of the things that people are rightly pointing out in this Axios article is just that the Biden team really took the wrong lessons from both 2020 and from 2022.
So in 2020, Biden's able to win the primary, not because people are like, oh, he's got the right message and this is really our guy. there was a massive internal Democratic Party movement to coalesce around Biden as the only
person who could possibly stop Bernie Sanders at that time, orchestrated primarily by Barack Obama.
I mean, we all remember how that worked. If that hadn't happened, Biden was getting his ass kicked.
And that's pathetic, given you were the previous vice president under Barack Obama. You did have
this sort of like halo of goodwill around you. He was the logical successor. And if it wasn't for them, you know, Jim Clyburn coming
in and Barack Obama coming in and everybody dropping out except for Elizabeth Warren at the
right time in order to coalesce behind him, he was going to lose to Bernie Sanders, who they all
absolutely hated. So they, you know, instead of seeing that, he saw it and his aide saw it as like,
oh, we had the right message and voters chose us affirmatively. It's like, no, there were a lot of
forces at work that had nothing to do with that. And then in 2022, the, you know, campaign advisors
and political bigwigs or whoever they talked to for this article were saying, listen, the candidates
we were running in 2022 in the midterms, they were all running away from Biden. They were all trying
to distance themselves from Joe Biden. So to take credit for, you know, outperforming in the midterms
is preposterous because part of why we were able to be successful is to the extent that strategy
of being like that guy, we don't even barely know him.
We're going to be different from Joe Biden.
That's not our that's not our person.
That's part of what was successful in Democrats doing well in the midterms.
You can see that right now with the fact that Senate candidates are outperforming Joe Biden in every single contest, in every single swing state.
So they really got lucky with a lot of these things,
but they think that they engineered all of this. And so that has given them this insane level of
confidence that is absolutely crazy. You know, just speaking to the work environment here and
again, how they don't let in any dissenting voices from this consensus of like, it's all good and we
got this and Joe Biden's a great president. So of course he's going to get reelected.
They say in the article, people close to the president told Axios, they worry about
raising concerns in meetings because Biden's group of longtime loyal aides can exile dissenters.
Quote, even for those close to the center, there is a hesitance to raise skepticism or doubt about
the current path for fear of being viewed as disloyal, a person in Biden's orbit told
Axios. There is not a discussion that a change, of course, is needed. So not only have they decided
on this change, of course, they have committed to this course, they have committed to this course,
and they are locking the doors and sealing the gates to make sure that no other viewpoint gets
in whatsoever. It really is
pretty astonishing. Now, it's important to note the Fox News poll, which showed, as Sagar mentioned,
that, you know, democracy is a top concern there, even above, it was above the economy, right?
And the economy, I think, was number two after that. And something else, I was like, stability.
I have it in front of me. So future democracy, extremely important to 2020 votes, 68%. Economy
is 66%. Stability, normalcy, 58. Immigration, 52. Healthcare, 52. Then abortion and then guns.
So if we combine future democracy, stability and normalcy, look, I want everyone to be clear here
on this show. Nobody is like Biden is going to lose 100%. It's over. Nobody here on this show will ever say that.
Nobody will even allow anyone to say that unchallenged. And it's because of this X factor.
I will not erase it or look past it or undercount it after the 2022 election. And I want everybody
to have their eyes wide open going into this and create a reference accepted. My point is just that
whenever we look at what is happening here with the election,
if you were Biden, why would you not be doing everything in your power to actually get this
done? And he is betting it all very much in the same way they did 2020, very arrogantly
thinking he could. And he almost lost. I mean, we were Trump endorsing mail-in balloting a week
before the election away from him winning the entire election. We were Trump endorsing mail-in balloting a week before the election away from him winning the entire election.
We were Trump overriding Mitch McConnell and sending out those $2,000 stimulus checks from winning the entire election.
We can't just forget that things turn so, so sharply.
And he's just acting like that isn't happening right now.
Yeah, they act like they won in a landslide and it was because of some brilliant strategy when one of the quotes in here is,
Joe Biden didn't win in 2020. Donald Trump lost. Right.
And I think that is a much more accurate way to look at it through some really obvious and
devastating errors. I mean, the handling of COVID being the overarching theme, but you're right,
just on these couple of little decisions, the decision to reject mail-in balloting alone probably changed the results of that election. Last thing to put up on the screen
here. So on the one hand, you have the Fox News poll that actually shows not just that issue set
that looks good for Joe Biden, him surging into a small lead over Donald Trump for the first time
in a number of months in that poll. Significant shift in favor of him just vis-a-vis the Fox News
poll. Take that for what it's worth. On the other hand, put this last A5 up on the screen here,
Trump is currently beating Biden in a lot of the polls, and I think the average of polls,
despite the fact Trump's campaign has aired no ads in May, none. Well, Biden's campaign
has been flooding swing states with their ads.
So as of late May, they say Biden campaign was airing $13.6 million worth of ads.
Trump campaign had yet to spend a penny on TV spots, according to the Wesleyan Media Project.
Now, that doesn't mean there are no pro-Trump ads airing in the U.S.
Outside groups supportive of the candidate have bought $8 million in ads.
But even when you factor in such spending, pro-Biden ads have been outnumbering pro-Trump ads
by slightly more than two to one.
So even with what is still a significant fundraising advantage,
although that gap is rapidly closing,
even with a massive ad spend advantage at this point,
Biden is either tied or behind Donald Trump in national polls.
And certainly when you look at swing state polling, the position for Biden tends to look even worse.
So not a great place to be in as we head into like the summer and, you know, then into the really prime time part of this campaign.
Yeah, exactly. And look, how is it going to work out?
I don't want anyone to just say that either is in total favor. The 538 average right now is Trump wins 50 times out of 100 and Biden wins 49 out of 100. We're in a genuine.
What happens to that other one?
Let's see. Oh, less than one in 100 chance of no electoral college winner. I actually was looking at that. It would mean that.
They tie 270-270.
It would be 269-269.
So what it would be is Trump would win Georgia,
or he would lose, he would win Wisconsin,
he would win Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
He would lose Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada,
or no, he would win Nevada.
But Biden would somehow win that like-
The one congressional one in Omaha.
Or maybe Trump would have won it. But anyway, that would put it at 269 to 269. So I mean,
that'd be kind of fun because that would be thrown to the House of Representatives.
What was it called? Contingent election? Is that what we decided? Contingent election,
which we haven't seen in a very, very long time. I'm sure the history buff in you will go wild
with that one. I would need to read a lot of books. I think it's 1876, the corrupt bargain or whatever it was called with Rutherford B. Hayes. Anyway, it's been a long time
since we've seen anything like that. But as of things right now, it is a genuine toss up.
If I was Biden, there's no reason that I wouldn't be working to try and make it 60 out of 100. I
mean, remember, Hillary had a two thirds chance, according to the polls, of winning in 2016, and she lost.
A coin toss is not where I want to be if I'm running for president.
But when you're this old, that's probably the best you can do.
I mean, I think the thing with Biden that I'm increasingly realizing as we look at his domestic policy, as we look at his foreign policy,
I think this will be relevant when we talk about Russia and North Korea and the mistakes and the missteps that the Biden administration has made that have led us to this place.
He is locked in a paradigm of the world that is like 20, 30 years outdated.
And because of his age, that there's just no shifting it.
And it's also the case with how he runs his operation.
Like this is how he's been.
These are the people he's comfortable with.
This is the circle.
This is who he trusts.
This is who he's going to go to for guidance.
And there's just no changing that at this point.
It's ossified.
It's locked in.
And so I think that's reflected when you say, and by the way, a lot of these people that he really trusts are also pretty old.
Isn't Tom Donilon like 80 plus?
Or sorry, Mike Donilon.
Isn't he like 80 plus or something like that?
I don't know if he's quite.
Let me look.
Let me look.
Let's see.
He's not young.
All right.
What do we got?
Oh, he's 65.
Sorry.
Is he spring chicken?
Yeah, compared to these people.
What am I thinking?
He feels like he's been around forever.
He just qualified for Social Security.
I apologize, Mike.
It's not like you don't have 40-year-old children or whatever. Yeah. Okay. Well. In any case. Yeah. You just qualified for Social Security. I apologize, Mike.
It's not like you don't have 40-year-old children or whatever.
Yeah.
Okay.
In any case, so I think that is part of why there is such a stubborn reluctance to hear anything outside of everything's great.
We got this.
The polls are wrong.
Don't worry about it, sir.
You've been a great president.
I promise you, sir.
You've got no problems. Yeah, I really am just praying. I want a shake up so badly. And this is the problem with Trump.
You know, Trump, I saw him sit for a Time magazine interview and even some of his supporters were
like, why is he doing this? I'm like, guys, because he's literally a child of the 70s and
the 80s. Yeah. He also sat for a Time interview. They're like, oh, Time magazine. People like me
are like, what? A Time magazine? You mean the one that had the shitty time for kids in the 2000s and then went bankrupt or whatever?
But in their head, they're like, oh, Henry Luce, Light Magazine, Time Magazine.
That's the generation that they come from.
So that's what they revere.
If somebody come for me and let's say I was running for president like 10 years now or whatever,
and they're like, oh, the Nelk boys want to have you on.
I'm like, okay, all right.
That actually means something to me. That actually is like a huge platform or whatever. And they're like, oh, the NELC boys want to have you on. I'm like, okay, all right. Yeah, that actually means something to me. You know, I'm like, that
actually is like a huge platform or something like that. But these guys, they're just, they're
totally locked in. I guess Trump, to his credit, he will sit with Logan Paul or whatever, but you
know, the rest of them, he doesn't understand though the same power. He does it because his
advisors tell him to. He doesn't have the actual reverence. Yeah, he still has the love for the
New York Times. Yeah, they cannot get away from it.
I mean, think about Joe Biden and the columnists that he loves and trusts. Yeah, exactly. These
guys have been on TV or writing in politics and have been wrong since I was a small child. When
I was coming up, I used to read them and be like, these guys are idiots. And I'm thinking this when
I'm, what, 15 years old? And now it's been 20 years almost, and they're still doing the same job, and they're still wrong in the same positions.
And Biden is like, oh, like praying and inviting them to the White House.
What do you think, Fareed?
Tell me what to do.
Well, I mean, in fairness, he is crushing it with the, like, Mike Donilon age plus demographic.
So, you know, in terms of his campaign model that was honed in 1985, he's crushing it.
Yeah, that kills me.
Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing.
No town is too small for murder.
I'm Katherine Townsend.
I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders.
I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her,
and it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there.
Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case,
bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator
to ask the questions no one else is asking.
Police really didn't care to even try.
She was still somebody's mother.
She was still somebody's daughter.
She was still somebody's sister.
There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for.
If you have a case you'd like me to look into,
call the Hell and Gone Murder Line
at 678-744-6145.
Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line
on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The OGs of uncensored motherhood are back and badder than ever.
I'm Erica.
And I'm Mila.
And we're the hosts of the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast,
brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday.
Historically, men talk too much.
And women have quietly listened.
And all that stops here.
If you like witty women, then this is your tribe.
With guests like Corinne Stephens.
I've never seen so many women protect predatory men.
And then me too happened.
And then everybody else wanted to get pissed off because the white said it was okay.
Problem.
My oldest daughter, her first day in ninth grade, and I called to ask how I was doing.
She was like, oh dad, all they was doing was talking about your thing in class.
I ruined my baby's first day of high school.
And slumflower.
What turns me on is when a man sends me money.
Like, I feel the moisture between my legs when a man sends me money.
I'm like, oh, my God, it's go time.
You actually sent it?
Listen to the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast every Wednesday
on the Black Effect Podcast Network, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you go to find your podcasts.
I think everything that might have dropped in 95 has been labeled the golden years of hip hop.
It's Black Music Month and We Need to Talk is tapping in.
I'm Nyla Simone, breaking down lyrics, amplifying voices, and digging into the culture that shaped the soundtrack of our lives.
My favorite line on there was, my son and my daughter gonna be proud when they hear my old tapes.
Now I'm curious, do they like rap along now?
Yeah, because I bring him on tour with me and he's getting older now too.
So his friends are starting to understand what that type of music is
and they're starting to be like, yo, your dad's like really the GOAT.
Like he's a legend.
So he gets it.
What does it mean to leave behind a music legacy for your family?
It means a lot to me.
Just having a good catalog and just being able to make people feel good.
Like, that's what's really important and that's what stands out,
is that our music changes people's lives for the better.
So the fact that my kids get to benefit off of that, I'm really happy.
Or my family in general.
Let's talk about the music that moves us.
To hear this and more on how music
and culture collide.
Listen to,
we need to talk from the black effect podcast network on the I heart radio
app,
Apple podcast,
or wherever you get your podcast.
This is your girl T S Madison.
And I'm coming to you loud,
live and in color from the outlaws podcast.
Let me tell you something.
I broke the internet with a 22 inch weave.
My superpower. I've tell you something. I broke the internet with a 22-inch weave. My superpower?
I've got the voice.
My kryptonite? It don't exist.
My podcast?
The one they never saw coming.
Each week, I
sit down with the culture creators
and scroll stoppers. Tina knows.
Lil Nas X.
Will we ever see a dating show
for the love of Lil Nas X?
Let's do a show with all my exes.
X marks the spot.
No, here it is.
My next ex.
That's actually cute though.
Laverne Cox.
I have a core group of girlfriends
that like,
they taught me how to love.
And Chapel Rome.
I was dropped in 2020
working the drive-thru
and here we are now.
We turn side eye into sermons.
Pain into punchline. And grief, and here we are now. We turn side-eye into sermons, pain into punchline,
and grief, we turn those into galaxies.
Listen, make sure you tell Beyonce,
I'm going right on the phone right now, and call her.
Listen to Outlaws with T.S. Madison on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, honey.
My name is Brendan Patrick Hughes, host of Divine Intervention.
This is a story about radical nuns in combat boots and wild haired priests trading blows
with J. Edgar Hoover in a hell bent effort to sabotage a war. J. Edgar Hoover was furious.
Somebody violated the FBI and he wanted to bring the Catholic left to its knees. The FBI went around to all their
neighbors and said to them, do you think these people are good Americans? It's got heists,
tragedy, a trial of the century, and the goddamnedest love story you've ever heard.
I picked up the phone and my thought was, this is the most important phone call
I'll ever make in my life. I couldn't believe it. I mean, Brendan, it was divine intervention.
You can now binge all 10 episodes of Divine Intervention
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
It is looking increasingly likely that we could be facing an all-out war, huge escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.
Yesterday, Emily and I told you about some of the provocations from Israel, talking about all-out war, talking about how they've already developed a quote-unquote operational plan.
Now we have some new updates from the Hezbollah side. Let's put this up on the screen. So this is from a Reuters reporter who says,
these alerts are hitting Reuters wire right now. Lebanon's Hezbollah chief, Saeed Hassan Nasrallah,
says nowhere in Israel will be safe from groups attacks in case of war, including targets in the
Mediterranean. Hezbollah head also says if war is imposed on Lebanon,
the group will fight with no rules, no ceilings. And saying that Cyprus allowing Israel use of its
airports means that it has become a part of the war and that Hezbollah will deal with it as such
that, you know, potentially having the possibility of drawing a part of the EU into this war as well. And Sagar, I mean, we've been
seeing this potentially coming for a while because basically there aren't a lot of parts of the Gaza
Strip left to destroy. They started in the north. They moved down to the center. Now they're in the
south in Rafah. That annihilation will be complete imminently. And Bibi Netanyahu still has the same logic of
how do I keep this war going as long as I possibly can? He also has a secondary logic of how can I
also get the US directly involved on our side in this possible war against Hezbollah? And already
there's been back and forth sort of tit for tat attacks. You also had yesterday that
we brought you to Hezbollah released drone footage that they were able to obtain of sensitive
targets in Haifa in particular, sort of an acknowledgement of, hey, you think your Iron
Dome is so incredible? Well, guess what? We were able to get our drones past it. And if we can do that, guess what else we can do?
The U.S. had a somebody described as a senior advisor, but I'd never heard of this dude before.
Amos.
Amos Hochstein.
Have you?
Yes.
You know this person?
A little bit.
He's like a special envoy, quote unquote.
Anyway, they had him in the region to supposedly try to ratchet down the tensions and talk them out of this all out war that doesn't seem to have made a lick of difference.
You will be unsurprised to learn since Bibi has learned very well at this
point. Biden isn't actually going to do anything besides tough conversations and little, you know,
mean leaks to the press, et cetera. We'll have more on that in a moment. But Sagar,
what do you make of these recent developments? It's terrifying because for the Israelis, they are either delusional or their confidence
is far higher than it should be. Considering their performance in Gaza, a bunch of guys who
basically just bomb first, ask questions later, have shown no real actual tactical proficiency.
Not according to me.
You can go and speak to people who are actually experts about this stuff.
What in the world makes you think that you can take on Hezbollah,
which is a genuine paramilitary force,
which has been training and actually engaged in active combat,
probably in some cases since before many of these IDF reservists are even born.
They fought through the entire civil war.
They are strapped better today than they ever have been in all of their history.
Iran has every incentive to make sure that they have the most up-to-date weaponry.
If you consider their rockets, you know, like these Hamas rockets versus the actual stuff that they have, it's – you know, apples and oranges, totally different.
Their ability, I mean, already, even if you just look at death toll, there have been
proportionately way more Israeli soldiers who were killed already from Hezbollah fire than
compared to anything proportionally with respect to how vulnerable they are with Hamas. It's also
pretty clear here. Look, Hezbollah, they don't want to be involved in this. They said from the original October, after October 7th, they're like, look,
they're posturing, but Nasrallah was like, we're not getting involved in this.
Now, the tit for tat, we bomb one here, they fire here, and anti-tank missiles kill three
IDF soldiers. They kill 20 Hezbollah guys in an airstrike. Then there's more fire that's happening.
And now this war cabinet, you know, green lights.
Things are very, very dangerous because what does it mean?
I mean, is it the whole country of Lebanon?
It would almost certainly also draw Iran much further into the war.
I mean, they have – it's complicated, but they at least have an understanding of a lot of mutual support. Then, you know, U.S. targets, like you said, Cyprus, which thank God is not in NATO, at least for now.
All these idiots are in charge.
But it is in the European Union.
So that would obviously, you know, be very significant.
And I also shouldn't forget this, you know, this whole Houthi stuff.
I mean, look at what—the Houthis are probably less sophisticated than Hezbollah.
Yeah.
They have shut down the Red Sea.
Yeah. So are we just all going to forget about that? than Hezbollah. Yeah. They have shut down the Red Sea. Yeah.
So are we just all going to forget about that?
They just sank another ship.
Yes.
And 91% or whatever of Red Sea traffic is down from October 7th.
Yeah, it's all been rerouted.
This has been a total failure.
The U.S. mission to clear the Red Sea has not worked because, I think I even said this at the time,
if you actually want to do this, you need to militarily occupy Yemen and actually secure the ground. That's not going to happen.
Let's not do that.
Yeah, let's not. By the way, I don't think we should do that. I think we have a better option.
Well, the better option is to end Israel's assault on Gaza because that is the root of
all of these conflicts. It's the reason the Houthis are doing what they're doing. It's the reason that Hezbollah is doing what they're doing.
The reason Iran did what they did
is because of Israel's direct provocation
attacking their embassy in Damascus.
But all of these tensions and conflicts
stem from one issue and really from one imperative,
which has nothing to do with Israeli security at this point
and everything to do with Bibi Netanyahu and his political motives and incentives.
I should add to that also the incredible manifest weakness and capacity for incredible capacity for humiliation on Joe Biden's part specifically.
I mean, the Houthi thing, you recall, we played his comments when they asked him, hey, is this working?
Yeah, he said no.
He's like, no, but is it going to continue?
Yes.
It's like, what are we doing?
This is complete and utter insanity.
So do you have confidence that these weak-kneed idiots are going to be able to keep us out of a more direct engagement in this mess that has been created in the region?
I certainly don't have that confidence.
The other piece that contributes in as important context with all of this is, you'll recall,
we covered, Bibi put out that video where in spite of the bear hug, in spite of Biden giving him
everything he wants whenever he wants it, he stabs Biden in the back, puts out this video
attacking him, claiming he's not getting the
weapons and the ammo that he wants when he wants it. And the Biden administration is reportedly,
they're baffled, they're shocked by this, which is like, why are you shocked?
Bibi wants Trump in office. He's happy to knife you. He's only operating for his own interest.
You've demonstrated no capacity to check him whatsoever. So I don't know why you're surprised at this point. But even beyond that, now, instead of being like, well,
screw you, then maybe we are going to, if you're going to blame us for blocking shipments, like,
maybe we should go ahead and do that. Instead, we're, oh, no, no, we're sorry. We'll get you
everything you want, whenever you want it. Put this up on the screen. U.S. Ambassador to Israel,
Jack Lew, told Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday that ammo and weapons the PM referred to, they're in the process of being delivered to Israel. Don't worry, guys. We promise.
The other thing that is, I mean, I guess you either laugh or you cry, is there were these
typical reports, oh, there's tough conversations, and oh, the Biden administration is just so mad
about this video. They canceled a meeting that was going to happen. And it was like, oh,
you canceled a meeting. Well, now they're even denying that that happened. No, we would never
cancel a meeting. We would never do that to the Israelis. Put this up on the screen. It's so
embarrassing. Just from the Times of Israel, U.S. denies report. It canceled talks in D.C. over
Netanyahu's complaint of weapons holdup. Here's the White House official quote. They say, as we
said in the briefing
yesterday, we have no idea what the prime minister is talking about, but that's not a reason for
rescheduling a meeting. We would never do something so brazen and so audacious as reschedule a
meeting. It's just so pathetic. You literally can't even make it up at this point, Sagar.
It's crazy. They're like, we would never do that.
Outrageous.
It's like, wait, why not?
It was such a pathetic response.
Oh, you canceled a meeting.
Even if you did.
You're going to leave him on red on his text messages next time.
Do it.
You actually should.
It wouldn't be a bad idea just to show him who's boss.
I mean, that's part of the other thing, too. When you look at BB's video, on the one hand, you could be like, wow, you know, he's calling out America. He has all the strength because the U.S. immediately is like, no, we would never do that. On the other, he's like, hey, you need to give us the weapons to finish the job. What does that mean? They don of what the power relationship is? Who's paying for it?
Because if you can't finish the job without American weapons, well, you're kind of validating
a lot of the critics here in Washington, which is that this is bankrolled and almost 100% enabled
by the United States. So you, you know, for all of those of you who are out there, that's a very
critical thing in your rhetorical quiver. You're like, he said it. He admitted it on tape. We need the weapons. There's no other way to do it.
That is a great point because I'm sure you guys have heard this argument that's been made
throughout. Israel is a sovereign country. What could Joe Biden even really do? They're going to
do what they want to do. Oh, really? Turns out maybe we do have a little bit of power if we
would want to use them. But of course, we don't. Instead, we're we're apologizing. Oh, I'm sorry. Fine. Maybe upset you, Bibi. There was one shipment
of 500, 2000 pound palms that was delayed. OK, not even we're not going to send it delayed.
And this is the meltdown that you get. It's just it's insane. But Bibi, every time that he
seems to stand up to the U.S. domestically, he benefits from that.
So that's what he's doing here.
Also, don't forget, he's got his visit and his speech to Congress invited on a bipartisan basis that is upcoming.
It's like Democrats, this is the this is the guy you invited to come and have this high honor of speaking to to Congress.
Like, congratulations, because I don't
know who you thought Bibi Netanyahu was. Maybe you should go ask some Israelis who this man is
and what he is capable of, because you seem to be completely in the dark about that.
At the same time, this is extraordinary as well. Put this up on the screen. So
the IDF spokesman, I know you've seen this guy, Daniel Higari, he has rebuked Netanyahu.
He is admitting that defeating Hamas is impossible.
Let me read you a good bit of this.
He said in an interview with Channel 13 News on Wednesday in Israel that, quote,
the idea of destroying Hamas is simply throwing sand in the eyes of the public.
In other words, if we're anyone who's saying that you can destroy Hamas, you're lying to the public. It's not possible. He goes on to say, Hamas is an idea. Hamas is a political
party. It is rooted in the hearts of people. Whoever thinks we can eliminate Hamas is mistaken.
Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood. It's been around for many, many years. What can be done is to
develop something else to replace it, something that will make the population realize that someone
else is distributing the food,
someone else is taking care of public services
to really weaken Hamas.
This is the way.
Now, none of what he's saying here requires a genius to see.
This is very similar to things we've been saying
since October 7th, right,
about the way you should actually approach this and the idea
that you're going to completely eliminate and destroy Hamas and how that is completely impossible.
That supposed goal has simply been used as a pretext and as cover for the campaign of utter
devastation and destruction that has been wrought in the Gaza Strip. And I'm not trying to give
Daniel Higari here any flowers
for coming up with this notion at this point.
But to see the idea of spokesperson coming out
and this directly rebuking Bibi Netanyahu
is quite significant in terms of an Israeli domestic context.
It also echoes things that Benny Gantz and others
has said, Gantz, as he left the war cabinet government.
Let's go ahead and put the next piece up on the screen. This is Bibi's response. He said as he left the war cabinet government. Let's go and put the next piece
up on the screen. This is Bibi's response. He said on Wednesday that the security cabinet
defined one of the war's goals as the destruction of Hamas's military and governing capabilities,
and that the Israeli army is, of course, obligated to this. Daniel Higari then came out and said,
oh, yeah, of course, we're going to do whatever you want us to do. But what do you make of this acknowledgement in the Israeli press that Bibi's full of it?
There's no defeating Hamas, no complete elimination of Hamas.
That is not on the table. just utter destruction and not supporting any sort of, you know, aid delivery, certainly not
bolstering any other group that could fill in in the governing capacity that Hamas has been
fulfilling has been a dire mistake and a disaster. I mean, it doesn't really matter what I make of
it. The Israeli, as usual, like this stuff doesn't even cross like the blood brain barrier. It's like
it's just left. It's left over there on Israeli soil, even though they write it in English,
and then it's not even allowed to be discussed here.
And that's part of what drives me most insane about everything
is that when you read the Israeli press in general,
you almost get a more honest view of what is happening.
You can even cite their own sources,
but it won't matter because, what,
Pastor Hagee said something different.
I mean, that's the world we're living in, folks. It really is. Did Rabbi Shmuley sign off on these comments? I don't
know. Pastor Hagee, freaking, you know, like those are the folks that really, APAC, John Greenblatt
over at the ADL. Those are the folks who actually control all of our discourse around this foreign
country. So as long as that's the case, it doesn't even matter what I make of it. Obviously it's
real. I mean, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out, but it almost doesn't
matter. It almost doesn't matter at all. No, it is true. And it's such a great point that like,
you know, if you were, I say the whole, how could you, you're like Hamas talking points, blah, blah,
blah. But this is really press. Okay. And not just Israeli, but the spokesman of the IDF.
It doesn't matter. And in additional comments, he talked
about how in that same same interview, there is no military solution to getting the hostages back.
The only way to get the hostages back is through negotiations. Again, something that is completely
clear and apparent from anyone who is watching this conflict and being remotely honest with
themselves. But another thing that, you know, people here pretend in the media, pretend not to understand and not to acknowledge. And they just,
you know, use the hostages as emotional manipulation to pretend that the war has to go on
forever when the hostage families themselves are saying, no, we want a deal to end the war and get
our family and our loved ones back. We don't want them to be continually subjected, by the way,
to IDF bombing, which one of the rescued hostages said was the thing that he was most afraid of
when he was being held in captivity. So it's extraordinary to see the IDF spokesman admit
things that you were really not allowed to admit in the context of the Western media here in the
U.S. Very true. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing.
No town is too small for murder.
I'm Katherine Townsend.
I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders.
I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case.
They've never found her.
And it haunts me to this day.
The murderer is still out there.
Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case,
bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. daughter who is still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never got any kind
of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line
at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your Tribe. With guests like Corinne Stephens. I've never seen so many women protect predatory men.
And then me too happened.
And then everybody else wanted to get pissed off
because the white said it was okay.
Problem.
My oldest daughter, her first day in ninth grade,
and I called to ask how I was doing.
She was like, oh dad, all they was doing
was talking about your thing in class.
I ruined my baby's first day of high school.
And Slumflower.
What turns me on is when a man sends me money. Like I feel the moisture between on is when a man sends me money like i feel the moisture
between my legs when a man sends me money i'm like oh my god it's go time you actually sent it
listen to the good mom's bad choices podcast every wednesday on the black effect podcast
network the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you go to find your podcast
i think everything that might have dropped in 95 has been labeled the golden years of hip hop.
It's Black Music Month
and We Need To Talk
is tapping in.
I'm Nyla Simone
breaking down lyrics,
amplifying voices,
and digging into the culture
that shaped the soundtrack
of our lives.
My favorite line on there
was my son and my daughter
gonna be proud
when they hear my old tapes.
Yeah.
Now I'm curious,
do they like rap along now?
Yeah,
because I bring him
on tour with me
and he's getting older now too.
So his friends are starting to understand what that type of music is.
And they're starting to be like, yo, your dad's like really the GOAT.
Like he's a legend.
So he gets it.
What does it mean to leave behind a music legacy for your family?
It means a lot to me.
Just having a good catalog and just being able to make people feel good.
Like that's what's really important and that's
what stands out is that our music changes people's lives for the better so the fact that my kids get
to benefit off of that I'm really happy or my family in general let's talk about the music
that moves us to hear this and more on how music and culture collide listen to we need to talk from
the black effect podcast network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is your girl T.S. Madison, and I'm coming to you loud, live, and in color from the Outlaws Podcast.
Let me tell you something.
I broke the internet with a 22-inch weave.
22 inches.
My superpower?
I've got the voice.
My kryptonite?
It don't exist.
Get a job
My podcast
The one they never saw coming
Each week I
Sit down with the culture creators
And scroll stoppers
Tina knows
Lil Nas X
Will we ever see a dating show
For the love of Lil Nas X
This is gonna show all my exes
X marks the spot
No here it is
My next ex
That's actually cute, though.
Laverne Cox.
I have a core group of girlfriends that, like, they taught me how to love.
And Chapel Rome.
I was dropped in 2020, working the drive-thru, and here we are now.
We turn side eye into sermons, pain into punchline, and grief, we turn those into galaxies.
Listen, make sure you tell Beyonce, I'm going right on the phone right now
and call her. Listen to Outlaws with T.S. Madison on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts, honey. My name is Brendan Patrick Hughes, host of Divine Intervention.
This is a story about radical nuns in combat boots and wild-haired priests trading blows with J. Edgar Hoover in a hell-bent effort
to sabotage a war. J. Edgar Hoover was furious. Somebody violated the FBI and he wanted to
bring the Catholic left to its knees. The FBI went around to all their neighbors and said to them,
do you think these people are good Americans? It's got heists, tragedy, a trial
of the century, and the goddamnedest love story you've ever heard. I picked up the phone and my
thought was, this is the most important phone call I'll ever make in my life. I couldn't believe it.
I mean, Brendan, it was divine intervention. You can now binge all 10 episodes of Divine Intervention on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. the mother of a woman, her daughter died on that 2019 Boeing 737 MAX crash.
This is in the context of the Boeing CEO, John Calhoun, was just called to the carpet in Congress
testifying there, obviously Boeing in a heap of trouble of their own making for faulty designs and shoddy product and cutting corners at every
turn with deadly and disastrous results. Did not go well for Calhoun in that hearing. Both parties
really coming at him. Let's take a listen to CNN's setup here where you get a little taste
of that testimony. David Calhoun, he struggled to answer questions during a Senate hearing, and he started off by apologizing to families of victims who were seated behind him in the room.
They were holding up signs and pictures of their loved ones in those crashes.
I would like to apologize on behalf of all of our Boeing associates spread throughout the world, past and present,
for your losses.
They're gut-wrenching.
And I apologize for the grief that we have caused.
And I want you to know we are totally committed
in their memory
to work and focus on safety
for as long as we're employed by Boeing.
So again, I'm sorry.
So I said John Calhoun, it was David Calhoun.
Anyway, you can see there his apology.
I'm sure very heartfelt apology to the family members of victims of his company's faulty, disastrous products.
I don't think that they took that very well. And in fact, as I said before,
this mom who lost her daughter on one of these plane crashes, Nadia Milleran, she went on CNN
and she gave it to him in no uncertain terms, in an incredibly detailed way, even throws in there,
you know, hey, you're going to apologize for all the bombs you built that were dropped on
innocent kids in Gaza. Let's take a
listen to how that went. Nadia, I want to first say I'm so sorry for the loss of your daughter.
And I know that that loss is still fresh in your mind. You were there. You heard firsthand what
Calhoun had to say. What did you think of that apology? It wasn't a real apology. So what he was doing is he doesn't want us to know the details about how it happened.
So every time your loved one dies, especially in a crime, you deserve to know and you need to know how did it happen.
So it happened through production defects, not just through faulty design. So the AOA sensor on the outside of the plane had a faulty electrical component, which caused the AOA sensor not to feed the right information into MCAS, which caused the plane to dive into the ground.
So he doesn't want people to know that.
He doesn't want people to know that they cut corners on production.
They cut out inspectors.
And as a result, there are all these problems in these planes.
So the planes that were produced then, the planes that are being produced now,
they all have production defects.
And these are showing up in real problems that pilots are facing.
Do you think that he and others at Boeing should be criminally prosecuted?
Absolutely.
He lies constantly.
He was lying in the hearing today. So he said that he didn't know what happened to the supervisors
who were harassing whistleblowers. So for example, John Barnett's family was all there.
John Barnett supposedly committed suicide, but I definitely have a question about that.
He supposedly committed suicide after seven years of harassment by Boeing and the supervisors
around his whistleblowing.
It was a constant, horrible situation for that person trying to call attention to production
problems and defects.
And those supervisors are all fine. They all stayed in Boeing.
Some of them were promoted. He looked at me in the eye and he said, I am sorry. And I said,
you are sorry? Are you sorry for the bombs Boeing produced that killed innocent kids in Ratha?
Are you sorry for that too? Like, how can he sleep? This person is a psychopath. We cannot have people running
these companies that do not care about human life. We have to have responsible people running these
companies. God bless that woman, man. She let loose. I'm sure CNN after that, they were like,
okay. Gabby Phillips was like, oh, they're like, we got to cut out of this. Thanks for joining us.
Anyway. We're running out of time.
Yeah.
We got Brian Stelter on standby.
We were talking about your daughter.
Now we're talking about Gaza.
We got to move on.
But, you know, to hear that on CNN, I think it is a remarkable moment.
I mean, to hear her call him a psychopath.
Yeah.
To say, you're a liar.
And, yeah, you should be criminally prosecuted.
And, by the way, this isn't just about my daughter.
It's about your immorality for building the bombs
that get dropped on innocent kids in Rafah.
She's 100% correct in everything she said as well.
Because I thought the example she gave of,
you know, the man who killed himself,
allegedly killed himself,
which she says she has some questions about.
I think we all have some questions about.
But she says, hey, these supervisors,
who if you believe he killed himself, bullied him basically into killing himself, which she says she has some questions about. I think we all have some questions about, but she says, hey, these supervisors who, if you believe he killed himself, bullied him basically
into killing himself, like harassed him over years and years and years. You're pretending in your
testimony, oh, you don't know what happened to these. I'm sure that some of them have been
punished. No, they're fine. They're still alive and well and doing perfectly fine at your company.
And meanwhile, he's dead. So tell me what's going on there. Tell me about
your culture there. There's also a major situation happening right now. I'll have them add this in
post, but Boeing actually, I'm not sure if you're aware, transported its very first astronauts to
space. The problem is now they have to get them back. And oh, there's actually problems with the
spacecraft that are right now. So, I mean, I'm reading directly and I've been following this now.
There have been major, quote, helium leaks and thruster problems, which have caused issues on the Boeing Starliner
vehicle, which was supposed to compete with SpaceX. It was a major moment for the company.
Starliner just launched. They carry two astronauts. Officials, though, from Boeing now
say that the astronauts are supposed to return on June 26th, but that there are now a
major postponement that has had to happen. The astronauts will spend about 20 days now in space,
more than double the eight days that they had originally planned. Quote, Starliner is pinned
down by a series of helium leaks in the propulsion systems and now problems with several thrusters
that are used to maneuver the vehicle. NASA apparently had been studying those issues before they permitted Starliner
to attempt to leave the International Space Station with those two astronauts and return
them to Earth. But obviously, this is terrifying because this is the Boeing flagship space vehicle.
It was supposed to be the SpaceX competitor to carry them. It's a
major U.S. military industrial supplier. You know, obviously they get preferential contracts and all
of this. And we're looking here at an aircraft that's, you know, cost hundreds of billions of
dollars, all this taxpayer money, et cetera. And now two of our astronauts are literally stranded
in space and can't return.
And this is totally about, I know the media is totally asleep on this one. I don't know why
they're, I don't know why they're ignoring it. I've been following it now for a couple of days
in the space community. People are going wild over this. They're like, this is, this is a really bad
issue because this was already, they were under contract to do six more flights right now to the
international space station after this vehicle gets certified. But this is the very first flight of it actually carrying
astronauts, and it's already into a problem. When you have a culture, Rife, enabled and
encouraged throughout your company of profits first, safety last, cutting corners, time is
everything, don't slow down if you need to get a new part made because that one's faulty. Just put the faulty part in.
That's what the type of thing that many whistleblowers at this point have testified to.
You can't, even if they wanted to do this one right, your culture is set.
That is the environment that you've created.
And so, listen, personally, I'm afraid to get on a Boeing airplane.
I can't imagine trusting my life on a freaking Boeing space shuttle.
Are you kidding me?
And then I'm about to talk about this, you know, peer debacle and how we can't.
I mean, it's just a mess on every level.
It's only been operable for literally 10 days since it went into effect.
Boeing is a critical part of our defense industrial base.
And like, you know, we're trusting a lot to these people and we are giving
them an unbelievable amount of taxpayer dollars. So it's just a disaster on every single level.
It speaks to the culture and the enabling of an economy that's based around financialization,
where all of the motives are around that dude, David Calhoun, to juice his stocks because that's
what his compensation was, some $40 million plus a year, by the way, which has gone up over the
past couple of years, which is also mind-blowing. And he wouldn't answer a straight question when
Josh Hawley was asking about that. Yes, that's right.
And the testimony wouldn't say how much he actually earns. But all the incentives around juicing that man's compensation,
safety, public interest, anything else, be damned. Even the long-term interest of the company be
damned because he's not going to be there. He's actually leaving. And I'm sure he's got a nice,
tidy package as he heads out the door, basically being scapegoated. He deserves it. Don't get me
wrong. But the problem is a lot bigger than just
the CEO. It's an entire company wide board wide issue at Boeing that they haven't even come close
to scratching the surface of dealing with. Exactly right. Over the past six years of making my true
crime podcast hell and gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm
Catherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of
messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling
about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her and it haunts me to this
day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case,
bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even
try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's
sister. There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for. If you have a case
you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.
Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The OGs of uncensored motherhood are back and badder than ever.
I'm Erica.
And I'm Mila.
And we're the hosts of the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast, brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday.
Historically, men talk too much.
And women have quietly listened.
And all that stops here.
If you like witty women, then this is your tribe.
With guests like Corinne Steffens.
I've never seen so many women protect predatory men.
And then me too happened.
And then everybody else wanted to get pissed off because the white said it was okay.
Problem.
My oldest daughter, her first day in ninth grade, and I called to ask how I was doing.
She was like, oh, dad, all they was doing was talking about your thing in class.
I ruined my baby's first day of high school.
And slumflower.
What turns me on is when a man sends me money.
Like, I feel the moisture between my legs when a man sends me money.
I'm like, oh, my God, it's go time.
You actually sent it?
Listen to the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast
every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network,
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you go to find your podcasts.
I think everything that might've dropped in 95
has been labeled the golden years of hip hop.
It's Black Music Month and we need to talk is tapping in.
I'm Nyla Simone, breaking down lyrics,
amplifying voices,
and digging into the culture that shaped the soundtrack of our lives.
My favorite line on there was,
my son and my daughter gonna be proud when they hear my old tapes.
Now I'm curious, do they like rap along now?
Yeah, because I bring him on tour with me and he's getting older now too.
So his friends are starting to understand what that type of music is.
And they're starting to be like, yo, your dad's like really the GOAT.
Like, he's a legend.
So he gets it.
What does it mean to leave behind a music legacy for your family?
It means a lot to me.
Just having a good catalog and just being able to make people feel good.
Like, that's what's really important and that's what stands out,
is that our music changes people's lives for the better.
So the fact that my kids get to benefit off of that, I'm really happy.
Or my family in general.
Let's talk about the music that moves us.
To hear this and more on how music and culture collide,
listen to We Need to Talk from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is your girl T.S. Madison, and I'm coming to you loud loud, loud and in color from the Outlaws Podcast.
Let me tell you something. I broke
the internet with a 22 inch
weave.
My superpower? I've got
the voice. My kryptonite?
It don't exist.
My podcast?
The one they never saw coming.
Each week, I sit
down with the culture creators
and scroll stoppers.
Tina knows.
Lil Nas X.
Will we ever see a dating show for the love of Lil Nas X?
Let's do a show with all my exes.
X marks the spot.
No, here it is.
My next ex.
That's actually cute, though.
Laverne Cox.
I have a core group of girlfriends that, like,
they taught me how to love.
And Chapel Rome.
I was dropped in 2020 working the drive-thru, and here we are now.
We turn side-eye into sermons, pain into punchline, and grief, we turn those into galaxies.
Listen, make sure you tell Beyonce, I'm going right on the phone right now, and call her.
Listen to Outlaws with T.S. Madison on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, honey.
My name is Brendan Patrick Hughes, host of Divine Intervention.
This is a story about radical nuns in combat boots and wild-haired priests trading blows with J. Edgar Hoover in a hell-bent effort to sabotage a war.
J. Edgar Hoover was furious. Somebody violated the FBI,
and he wanted to bring the Catholic left to its knees.
The FBI went around to all their neighbors and said to them,
do you think these people are good Americans?
It's got heists, tragedy, a trial of the century,
and the goddamnedest love story you've ever heard.
I picked up the phone phone and my thought was,
this is the most important phone call I'll ever make in my life.
I couldn't believe it.
I mean, Brendan, it was divine intervention.
You can now binge all 10 episodes of Divine Intervention
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Crystal, what are you taking a look at?
Humanitarian theater. That is how former USAID official Jeremy Connendike described the now infamous temporary pier constructed by the Biden administration with the supposed goal of
increasing aid to starving Gazans. Aid that consistently sat at land border crossings
blocked by our great friends and allies, the Israelis.
But even as Potemkin Village-style theater,
the pier has been such a catastrophe
that it has even failed in the limited goal
of providing the Biden administration
with some sort of cover with liberals
to convince them that they actually care
even the tiniest bit about Palestinian lives.
The pier has fallen apart multiple times,
has led to injuries of service members charged with building and maintaining it.
Its proximity to hostilities has put aid workers at further risk.
And it has actually led to a decrease in the aid that is being delivered to starving Palestinians.
Instead of theater, it has ended up a perfect symbol of the Biden administration's unique
combination of incompetence, appetite for humiliation, and extraordinary evil.
So here's the very latest per the New York Times.
U.S. peer for Gaza aid is failing and could be dismantled early.
Now, in this article, they note that since its construction,
the pier has been operable a grand total of 10 days, 10 days.
The rest of the time they write,
it was being repaired after rough seas broke it apart,
detached to avoid further damage,
or paused because of security concerns.
In fact, the pier had to be dismantled once again this week
over fears of quote, rough waters. Didn't they know this thing was going to be dismantled once again this week over fears of, quote, rough waters.
Didn't they know this thing was going to be in the Mediterranean Sea?
Not that the pier has mattered much in the limited days that it has actually been in operation.
The administration had announced a goal of reaching 150 trucks of aid dispatched from the pier on a daily basis.
150 trucks, that was the goal.
Now, this amount, by the way, would still be insufficient, given the level of need across the Gaza Strip,
but they have not even come close to this sum.
You ready for this?
Apparently, seven trucks of aid have been able to move from the pier on average in the few days when it has actually been functioning.
Stephen Semler over at Responsible Statecraft has more specific details on this pathetic trickle of assistance.
Quote, hardly any food from the pier on the Gaza coast has actually reached starving Gazans since
it became operational on May 17. The World Food Program said only 15 trucks from the pier reached
its warehouse inside Gaza for distribution from May 17 and 18, and that no aid at all came from
the pier from May 19 through 21. The piece goes on to explain that the
administration will paint a different picture, but they're lying. They like to talk about the
tons of aid reaching the beach in Gaza, but they don't mention the fact that the overwhelming bulk
of that aid stays on the beach, rotting, with no distribution mechanism in place. In fact,
since the vaunted pier was constructed, aid distribution has dramatically plummeted to the lowest levels by far all year.
You can see in this image here, a mere 1,800 pallets of food were delivered via pier.
Meanwhile, Israel's attacks on Rafah have led to the closure of that crossing, a devastating blow as Rafah had served as a key distribution access point. So not only has Biden done nothing to reopen that Rafah crossing or to otherwise increase aid flow,
in truth, the peer serves to let the Israeli government off the hook.
Because if our amazing peer is magically solving the aid problem,
then the pressure is eased on Bibi to crack down on anti-aid protesters,
to reopen key crossings, and stop the outrageous bureaucratic
blocks that have intentionally left aid backed up at the borders. In addition, our involvement
in the Israeli hostage rescue mission slash massacre and the proximity of that operation
to the pier has exacerbated the problems with the pier and the problems with aid delivery in
particular. Now, the U.S. has acknowledged a role in that massacre, but denies their pier was used in the attack.
However, civilian vehicles were used in the course of the operation, which we aided in and celebrated,
increasing the risk for aid workers who have already been frequently targeted.
In addition, an IDF helicopter used in the massacre was photographed right next to the pier.
The concerns were grave next to the pier.
The concerns were grave enough that the U.S. felt the need to put out a statement chastising those engaged in what we called inaccurate social media allegations that the pier was
used for combat operations by the IDF. The World Food Program announced they would be
suspending aid distribution from the pier due to those security concerns. So thanks to U.S.
and Israeli idiocy and malevolence,
security concerns are becoming increasingly grave.
In fact, the Israeli government recently announced
they would limit fighting along a key road
in order to help with aid distribution,
but hasn't made a lick of difference
because Gaza, after months of war, annihilation,
destruction of government capacity,
is increasingly gripped by total
anarchy. Organized armed gangs attack and seize trucks with no police force in sight or other
security forces to stop them. This lawlessness, of course, is entirely predictable. New York Times
writes, quote, the Hamas-run police force that helped secure the passage of aid earlier in the
war melted away months ago after the Israeli military killed
several officers. The lack of any police or rule of law in the area has rendered the road
surrounding the crossing highly dangerous, said a UN spokesperson. In fact, you may remember that
second assault on al-Shifa hospital back in mid-March. In that raid, the IDF killed the head
of police operations in Gaza. That was the man who was responsible for coordinating aid distribution between UNRWA and Palestinian tribes.
Reports on the ground suggested other civil servants and police officers were also killed in that particular raid.
So border crossings are blocked and destroyed, the pier is a cruel joke, and the Israelis have successfully created an environment of lawlessness
that makes it impossible to deliver what aid actually does enter the strip.
Meanwhile, Palestinians are suffering to an unimaginable degree.
Dozens of kids that we know of have already died of starvation.
One hospital is treating 50 children right now as we speak for severe malnutrition.
According to Gaza's health ministry, as many as 3,500 children are currently
at risk of starving to death. I can scarcely imagine the pain of being unable to feed your own
child. So good riddance to the peer, which has done nothing but escalate this pain. At least we
can say that while the humans with power have been unwilling to act with morality,
the seas apparently conspired to mete out some modicum of justice on this cruel ploy of humanitarian cosplay.
Sagar, we knew that the pier was a- And if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue Gone, I've learned no town is too small for murder.
I'm Katherine Townsend.
I've heard from hundreds of people across the country with an unsolved murder in their community.
I was calling about the murder of my husband.
The murderer is still out there.
Each week, I investigate a new case.
If there is a case we should hear about, call 678-744-6145.
Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves.
We get down on ourselves on
not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.
A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget
yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad.
That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov.
Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council.
High key. Looking for your next obsession? Listen to High Key, a new weekly podcast hosted by Ben
O'Keefe, Ryan Mitchell, and Evie Audley. We got a lot of things to get into. We're going to gush
about the random stuff we can't stop thinking about. I am high key going to lose my mind over all things Cowboy Carter.
I know.
Girl, the way she about to yank my bank account.
Correct.
And one thing I really love about this is that she's celebrating her daughter.
Oh, I know.
Listen to High Key on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Stay informed, empowered, and ahead of the curve with the BIN News This Hour podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts. the perspectives that matter 24-7 because our stories deserve to be heard.
Listen to the BIN News This Hour podcast on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I also want to address the Tonys.
On a recent episode of Checking In with Michelle Williams,
I open up about feeling snubbed by the Tony Awards.
Do I? I was
never mad. I was disappointed because I had high hopes. To hear this and more on disappointment
and protecting your peace, listen to Checking In with Michelle Williams from the Black Effect
Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is an iHeart Podcast.