Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 8/12/25: Cuomo Crashes Out, "Shrinkflation" of prices at stores, Pete Buttigieg's pathetic answers on Israel

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

Krystal and Ryan discuss Pete Buttigieg's pathetic answers on Israel, Trump tapping an unqualified crony for Labor data, "Shrinkflation" of prices at stores, Cuomo attacking Zohran's rent controlled apartment, and the unsavory meme Don Jr. posted about the WNBA.   To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.comMerch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at breaking points.com. Let's go ahead and move to there's a lot of significant economic news, including, let's put this first element up on the screen. Trump has now nominated a new head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. One of many reasons why I hate Donald Trump is now I have to worry about who is the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So his name is E.J. Antony,

chief economist at Heritage Foundation, apparently a longtime critic of the agency's approach to collecting data. And, you know, I think he's basically exactly who you think he is. Justin Wolfer has tweeted, you know, in terms of his qualifications,

he finished grad school five years ago at Northern Illinois. No obvious distinction. His dissertation is meh. Involved no research on labor markets or data collection. He's never published a paper. His life work has earned him one citation.

This record would be insufficient to earn a job as a junior staffer at BLS. And so basically he's put in there because he is a Trump supporter and he is an ideologue. I mean, he's the kind of guy, Ryan, that's been interviewed on Steve Bannon's Warroom podcast. This is who we're talking about here. And, you know, it definitely raises questions about, you're one of the things that is truly different about the Trump administration, especially Trump 2.0, is even if the government has never been perfect at, you know, maintaining in these bureaucracies a sort of like political neutrality, there was an assumption that that should be the aspiration, that the head of

the BLS, for example, should just be really trying to compile the data in the best possible way and putting it out in the most neutral way possible. And that assumption has just been completely blown up. And this guy is the latest example of that. Yeah, I think there was some hope among Wall Street bigwigs that the pushback that they gave to the firing of the BLS chair would be enough to get Trump to put in another bureaucrat type of person. Like an academic who is, you know, just widely respected across the spectrum and is going to call, you know, economic balls and strikes, because that is really important to Wall Street.

You know, Wall Street considers it, Wall Street wants to continue to be the place where if you are a multinational corporation or you're a billionaire, you're an oligarch, that you trust that your money is not going to be stolen, that it's not a corrupt stock market. Like one of the biggest things holding China back, for instance, is this belief among the kind of international business community that they're not quite sure if the regulators are up to the task and if they're going to be fair when it comes to the stock market, whether the stock prices reflect reality, whether the numbers that are in the disclosures are made up or whether they connect to something on the ground. And whether or not, in particular, say, the jobless numbers and the growth and the economic growth numbers in China are accurate. You can agree or disagree with that critique, but it's an open critique, and it hampers China's ability to attract international investment and to grow on the world stage. They're doing quite well in spite of that, but it's a hiccup. The U.S. previously did not have that problem. Now they do. And Wall Street was hoping that, yeah, there would be somebody with credibility that would be brought into this position.

This is a worst case scenario for Wall Street because this is a pure ideologue who you simply cannot tell yourself with any honesty that you think that this guy's going to give you the straight numbers, whether they're good or bad for Trump. There's just nobody, nobody's going to believe that. So therefore, what do the numbers mean? Now you have to get into this guess is Kremlinology. Okay, the BLS says that the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.9% this month. Well, now we have to factor in 0.4% cushion. And then you might have, you know, Goldman might say that they think he's lying by 0.4%. J.P. Morgan's going to say they think he's lying by 0.6%.

Because they still want to try to figure out what the actual numbers are. And they're going to use his input as kind of one data point, but they're going to then color it with their skepticism that he's lying. And, you know, that that is, that's a drag on the American economy. Yeah. Well, maybe what it will mean is that people actually have to pay attention to how ordinary Americans feel about the economy. And I'm not sure that that will, you know, be a boon politically for the Trump administration because they feel incredibly squeezed and incredibly stressed. And if you look at, you know, levels of consumer debt all time high, housing prices still wildly unaffordable, you know, the sense that you can achieve middle class stability, obviously

that's been, you know, utterly decimating continues to be so as we also head into now the impacts of whatever is going on with the tariffs at any given moment. And let's put C1B up here on the screen. So there are ongoing negotiations with China. That tariff deadline, like what was supposed to happen was they were, the tariffs were supposed to snap back into place, like the really really 100 and whatever percent tariffs was just ridiculous. We're supposed to snap back in place. Trump has now extended that China tariff deadline by 90 days. So there are lower rates of tariffs, but still significant. I mean, we're still talking about sometimes, Ryan, it seems like, because we didn't do the 145 percent tariff or whatever it was supposed to be, that, oh, this is all

no big deal. But in fact, you are starting to see in the economic numbers, both in terms, terms of inflation, in terms of unemployment, in terms of business investment pullback, you are starting to see the impact of these tariff rates that have come into place. And consumer price, the CPI number for July is out today. And it has it rising at 2.7%, which is a little bit under, it was expected to rise at 2.8% by economists. And that has a lot to do with whether or not the Federal Reserve is going to, you know, is going to move. interest rates, but they also take into account, you know, BLS data. And so, uh, when Trump now in the future tells you that look at all of these great numbers, all Democrats have to do is

say, you're making those numbers up. How do you feel about the economy? Right. He's lying to you. How do you feel? It is a tremendous gift to Democrats, whether or not, whether they can make something of it, I don't know. Do you think, do you think Democrats understand what a gift this is to them? Uh, no, probably not. Because yeah, that's all they have to say. They're too busy fighting anti-Semitism. Like, how do you feel about the economy? And how you feel about the economy? Go with that because Trump is lying to you. He put in his stooges to lie to you about the numbers. So just, and then so for for Trump, he has to then make people feel good about the economy and, you know, good luck with that. Yeah. There's been no indication that he has any interest in actually making

people feel good about the economy, judging by his major accomplishment. at this point, which was the one big beautiful bill, quote, unquote, which is stripping health care away from millions in order to fund a tax get for the bridge, among other things. But that's kind of the big picture of what's going on there. I was always also curious, Ryan, to get your take on, put C2 up on the screen. So we've got a piece here from the Wall Street Journal about how the U.S. is marching towards state capitalism with American characteristics. President Trump is imitating the Chinese Communist Party by state.

sending political control ever deeper into the economy. And specifically, you know, what the jumping off point for this opinion piece is is Trump's demand that Intel's chief executive resigned, the 15% of certain chip sales to China that Nvidia and advanced microdevices will share with Washington. And he says the, quote, golden share Washington will get in U.S. steel as a condition of Nippon Steel's takeover. So, you know, it is a very, I mean, this is part, in a way of a shift back towards industrial policy that we saw under the Trump's first administration, continued under Biden's administration, and now a flavor of it in Trump's second administration. What I would say is, you know, the reason that the Chinese economy has been

truly a marvel. I mean, it really is extraordinary, the number of millions of people they've been able to lift out of poverty. And also, you know, the way that they've been incredibly strategic about investments in certain industries, the way they've intentionally gone about dealing with their own housing bubble, the way they've intentionally gone about making it so that not all the smart kids are just going into sort of like, you know, financial speculation is that there's been strategic, intelligent, long-term thinking that is not just about serving the needs, interests, political whims, and greed of one individual. Trump's version of it, I would say, looks quite a lot different from what is going on in China right now.

Yeah, I think that's right. If, yeah, and if Trump wants to start doing, you know, industrial policy and actually kind of directing the commanding heights of the economy, I think the left agrees with doing that in principle and saying, like, yeah, sure, allow the public a lot more involvement in the economy. in the economy so that it's it's not just left to you know scam artists on on wall street and silicon valley to just you know siphon money out of people's pockets but yeah it doesn't seem like he's doing it in the in the public interest it's kind of funny here nobody cares about the constitution but there is the export clause just looking it up article one section nine clause five no tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state unquote now you can you can tax income from exports and he'll maybe he's calling this voluntary but on its

face it seems like just blatantly unconstitutional but you know whatever who you know who it's not like the it's not a top 10 crime against the constitution from this administration so yeah no it barely ranks probably in the top 50 at this point so yeah it's but it is wild though I know but I feel like sometimes I'm so irritated with these people that turning me into like a Tea Party era conservative with my pocket constitution, you know, but some of these things are actually important, you know, some parts of the Constitution I do actually support and think make, you know, like freedom of speech, for example. I think a part of what do make this country unique and remarkable place, but what are you going to do, I guess? We're just throwing it all out. Yeah, I'm not going to the barricades for the export clause. Yeah.

And I might be more, you know, more excited about some of this constitutional trampling if I did have any face. that the Democrats would pick it up and be like, okay, well, we are going to do, like, you know, capitalism with Chinese care, whatever they called, you know, state capitalism with American characteristics, and we're going to do it and, like, really pursue an industrial policy. And we are going to go in and, you know, change these agencies in a way that actually delivers for people. But I just, I don't have a lot of confidence that they are going to actually seize the powers that have been laid out by this president. But I guess we will potentially find out in the future.

Get fired up, y'all. Season two of Good Game with Sarah Spain is underway. We just welcomed one of my favorite people and an incomparable soccer icon, Megan Rapino to the show, and we had a blast. We talked about her recent 40th birthday celebrations, co-hosting a podcast with her fiancé Sue Bird, watching former teammates retire and more. Never a dull moment with Pino.

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what we're left with, if you can't trust any of the economic statistics coming from this government and certainly from the BLS, what you are left with. is, you know, how people say they themselves are doing. But Bill Maher hosted George Will to say, you know, we really shouldn't trust that either. Let's go ahead and take a listen to that.

I keep reading things like half the country cannot survive like a $400 disaster in their life. Like they don't have $400 in the bank if something, if the car breaks or something. And the other half are buying Taylor Swift and Beyonce tickets for $1,800. Okay. And like I say, I pay every year more than half. The government makes more than half. Where does it go? If it's not helping in fixing the people who are one paycheck away from disaster, where is this money going?

First of all, that's probably a made-up statistic because it serves a political agenda to say that about people. Remember, Bill, this is a country people are literally dying to get into. So they're going to go to work. Just like the heights of being out of touch. I often have the opposite thought, which is like, given how low wages are and how expensive everything is, especially, you know, housing, education, health care, it's, it is mind boggling to me that as many people get by and make it work as they do. So to say, oh, like, I don't believe this thing about how many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck is just so utterly absurd to me, Ryan. Yeah, there's this whole cottage industry of actually dudes who really hate this statistic. And, you know, we'll try to present you all sorts of economic data to tell people that, that actually you're fine and you're not paycheck to paycheck.

And, you know, people feel like they are. And it, I don't know, I don't understand how, you know, kind of brow beating them otherwise is going to change that. And George Will's final argument there is also absurd. He's saying, like, this is a great country because people are beating down the bushes to get in. all that tells you is that it's much worse elsewhere, which is fair. Like, that is true. In a lot of other countries, things are worse. That doesn't mean things are great for, you know, 50 plus percent of the country here.

And in fact, if we wouldn't put up this next one, people are recognizing, you know, how this is going on around them. There have been a couple good TikToks that have gone viral pointing out the way that inflation creeps in by just shrinking the amount you get. have you noticed bacon is no longer in the one pound containers but they're selling most brands for 12 ounces they've shrunk by four ounces from 18 fluid ounces down to 15 fluid ounces but bigger size better value Kleenex is 160 sheets in a box to 144 20 fluid ounces difference between these two this one is 48 ounces this one is 28 ounces that is wild there's always some sticker saying new size. Like it's an exciting thing. This one is 250 grams down from 300 grams. This person said they went to the grocery store. Remember, they were running low on one of

their favorite decaf teas. They had changed the box, but didn't really think that much of it until they opened it up. The new box is not only have fewer tea bags. Used to have 15. Now there's 12. But these are also smaller. So there's 1.8 grams per tea bag versus 3.2 grams. They drank one, hoping it would be good, but it's very weak and not worth buying anymore, apparently. This container of Pringles was 200 grams compared to this one at 165 grams, in addition to the problem of them always having like this top half completely empty. So Americans getting served literal weak tea, C5 is a good one too. Let's roll C5.

They've been removing all the perforated price tags from the clothing and jacking the prices up, trying to keep the consumers from realizing how far if they went with the prices. And I was like, surely they're not doing that. Now, see all these price tags? See how all the preforated ones are gone? And this says these are $12.98. You see that? You see that?

But look, they missed one. Where to go? Right there. Look at that. They increase this. I'll show you. This is the same exact shirt on the same exact rack. That now says 1298.

They increased it $5. Yeah, and I saw one going around recently, too, where somebody, you know, because, you know, a lot of people have electronic records of, you know, their Walmart purchases from, you know, five, six years ago. You can go back and actually find them. We've been using the app. And so she went back and took just a random day's purchase from, like, 2020, 2019. And it came up to, like, I forget, $11 or something like that. And then just went into the website and bought all of those products again, and it was almost double. Wow.

Like what it, for the exact same products. And it was just a random day. It's like people, it's real. Like the, the prices are not coming down. And so this like, okay, this month, it's up 2.7% annually. So that's less than it was expected to go up and that's less than it was up before. It's still up. And so people are, people are noticing.

And so then, and Trump putting in the, putting in his cronies to rig the stats, it's not going to work for him. Yeah. No, I don't think that is going to persuade this lady who's at Walmart. Like, no. People know. Oh, no, actually, things are going, things are going great for me. The dear leader says that the numbers are perfect, so my life is going good.

I mean, I just think about it in this way. Like, Sager and I actually covered the way that wage growth has been produced. particularly stagnant in recent months and years for the lowest wage workers. And so when you think of that, obviously there, in many instances, is not keeping pace with inflation. So you have that. Then you have the cost of food, the cost of housing, the cost of health care, the cost of education. Like, we know these things. So I don't know why it would be at all surprising to people that there are tens of millions of Americans who are one, emergency away from complete and utter disaster because that is also just the basic mechanics

of how our economy has been set up to operate. Like that's not an accident. You know, that's the purpose of all of the union busting, for example, that's been going on for decades because business owners, like big corporations want you to be desperate so that you, you know, have no other choice than to work for poor wages and poor conditions. And oh, by the way, now we also can throw into the mix the threat of, you know, AI replacing you, not just some other desperate worker out there. I think this is a good segue to Cuomo because the question of whether or not Democrats are going to be able to capitalize on this comes down to whether or not Democratic Party leaders

really understand how the economy works and, you know, how the government can be used, you know, with people to make it better for those people. And Cuomo is considered to be one of the great talents of the Democratic Party. say, yeah, they acknowledged he got a little handsy and had to be pushed out, you know, amid the moral panic of me too, but, you know, but he's otherwise a political genius and really has his finger on the pulse, and he's got his fingers on other things, too. But so he's the guy, he's one of the guys that is supposed to be able to channel this kind of populist energy. And, you know, he phoned it in in the primary, and so, you know, that can be forgiven. But in

the general, he's really going to bring the heat. And he's going to show that the Democratic party establishment has lost, has not lost it. You know, they've still got it. They can still bring it. And that's why I think it's important to cover this back and forth that he's been having with Zoran Mamdani about rent control. You could put up, put up D1. You know, this, it started with, you know, Cuomo realizing or remembering from the debate or something that Mamdani had said that he lives in a one-bedroom efficiency in Queens that he pays 2,300 a month for and that it's rent-stabilized. And so he then adds together Mamdani's assembly salary plus his wife's salary, I think like a nonprofit, and suggest that they're making at least $200,000. So he calls him,

quote, a rich person. And then he says, you are actually very rich, which, you know, a A lot of Cuomo's donors probably made 200,000 plus and do not consider themselves rich in New York. So then he says, you know, basically he needs to move out of his apartment. Let's play D2 here. Rent-stabilized units when they're vacant should only be rented to people who need affordable housing. Not people like Zoran Mandami. You don't need to be renting rent-stabilized units to wealthy people. people. Otherwise, what you're doing is you're abusing the system. I'm going to propose not rent

that apartment by law except to a person who actually needs affordable housing. And I'm going to call it Zoran's law because it's an abuse of the system. So he wants to make this race about rent control and rent. And so he comes out with this Zoran's law. So let's put up D3 here. Under Cuomo's proposal, when a rent stabilized apartment becomes vacant, the incoming individual, income, would be capped so that the annual rent makes up at least 30% of that income. For example, if an apartment rents for $2,500 a month, the new tenant's income could not exceed $100,000. And so we can get to Mom Dini's great response in a moment. But Crystal, I used to live in New York and actually lived in a rent-stabilized apartment.

And one of the things you learn there is that the landlords want nothing more. than to get you out of the rent-stabilized apartment, because when they get you out, they can then bump the rental price to the market condition. In some cases, it stays rent-stabilized, but you have a new floor. Now it's the new market rate, and then it can only move by the slight percentage or zero

if Mamdani gets his rent-freeze-through. In other cases, it's taken out of rent-stabilization and becomes a pure market-rate apartment. So in either case, the landlord wins. And so they're constantly desperately trying to get people out of these apartments, and the renters are constantly playing a cat and mouse game of trying to stay in the apartments. Here comes Cuomo squarely on the side of the landlords saying that, you know, once, you know, that he's going to kick out people who don't meet these income requirements. And once it becomes vacant, there's going to be these onerous restrictions that you have to make, you know, very, you know, you have to, in New York, 100 grand. otherwise, you know, you're not eligible for this apartment.

What did you make of this? And we do want to get to Mamdani's clapback. What did you make of Cuomo's brilliant gambit here? Well, the irony is, as I read it, Zoran's law, quote unquote, wouldn't even apply to Zoran because when Zoran was able to obtain this apartment, he was only making $44,000 a year, so he would have qualified. And the law does not actually say, now we're going to kick out people who exceed this threshold because that would be politically insane like the number of you know because i mean just think

about what that would mean for your average person oh you do a little bit better you get a raise at your job and now you're getting kicked down to your apartment that's that's horrible that's absolutely horrible and now you're out there in market rate you know new york city and it's just you've taken a step forward in your career and like 10 backwards in terms of your living standards like that would be absolutely insane so somebody realized okay well we can't actually do that that would be really bad. And politically, it would be completely toxic. So instead, he wants to implement these new income standards that would essentially mandate that everyone who ends up in a rent-stabilized apartment is like rent-burdened, like officially rent-burdened. So it's ridiculous. It's utterly

ridiculous all the way around. And, you know, also highlights an issue, which is rent affordability and housing affordability that is one of Zoron's strongest possible issues. So there's that. I mean, there's also just like outside of this Zoron's law fiasco situation.

Cuomo is like melting down on Twitter. I don't know. There's all sorts of weird posting. There's speculation about they may be using bots to like automatically reply to people. He's clearly brought on a new consultant team that is trying to craft this new Twitter troll persona for Andrew Cuomo and actually I just saw a new poll in the

in the mayoral race and Zoran continues to win to lead by a healthy margin here. This is from Sienna. Zoran, this is with the five way race, Zoran at 44, Cuomo at 25, Sliwa at 12, Adams at seven. So you can see, you know, increasingly desperate tactics as we get closer and closer to election day and the polls don't really seem to be moving in Cuomo's favor and no one now seems to be dropping out. And even if they do, I mean, what the polls again reflect at this point is even if it was head to head, Zoron versus Cuomo, Zoron still wins in that scenario. So I guess that's why Cuomo's resorting to also desperate tactics like reportedly calling Trump and begging for him to

come in and offer some sort of assistance, which I don't think is going to go over too well in the heavily Democratic city of New York City. No. And as those polls consistently show, his disapproval numbers are so high. He's got a huge ceiling. So even if he could get this mystical, fantastical, one-on-one race with Mamdani and the general, get everybody else out. People don't like him. Like, a decent number of people don't like him. Too many people don't like him. And you've already got—

And a lot of people do like Zoron. Right. And he's at 44 already in a five-way race. So here's Mamdani responding to Cuomo's rent proposal. What Andrew Cuomo is— proposing, be it the rent control he cited, the rent stabilization he intends to speak about, is in many ways reflective of the fact that I live rent-free in his head. There are important conversations to be had about housing, but this is not what he's seeking

to lead. He's not looking to reflect on the fact that he eliminated more affordable housing than he created. He's not looking to reckon with his cutting of a voucher program that was then followed by a significant increase in homelessness in New York City. He's not looking to reckon with any of that. He's just looking to answer the question of how he lost.

I live rent-free in his head. That's perfect. You should have come up with that, Ryan. That was there for the taking. It was right there. It was right there. Zoran's law. Rent-free in your head. But, yeah, so he got him. I mean, I've been thinking about, you know,

in Buffalo, this tactic worked against India Walton where she won the Democratic primary. and then the guy that she had defeated, who was the mayoral incumbent, he comes in and runs third party in the general election. And it actually works. And I think it is a testament to a very different political climate now, for one, and a sort of more radicalized democratic base.

And I think it also is a testament to just Zoron's appeal. You know, in that poll I was just referencing, he's head and shoulders above any other candidate with independent voters too. So it's not just that Democrats are like, yeah, We like this guy. We don't really care what Hakeem Jeffries or Chuck Schumer has to say about it. We're going to vote for the Democratic nominee. You also have independent voters who are like, yeah, okay, rent affordability and focusing

on New York City instead of, say, for example, Israel. That seems like a pretty good, like, let's try that. Let's see how that works out for us. And then you also have the historic unpopularity of Eric Adams, the, you know, sort of run-of-the-mill Democratic establishment unpopularity of Andrew Cuomo. And you've, you know, got the likely. result that we're going to see here, regardless of whether Trump tries to pull some funny business or not.

And I wonder how you feel if you're Chuck Schumer, and who is the leader of the Senate, not just a New York senator, he's a leader of the Senate. And Hakeem Jeffries, who's not just a Brooklyn member of Congress, but the House Democratic leader, both of these guys standing in Mom Donnie's way, and he's just barreling them over. they have still refused to endorse him how do you think that how do you think they are reflecting on what what their position is with party voters at this point i don't know i don't see evidence that there's that kind of reflection that occurs like a new there's a new poll out that i saw this morning um it was asking about support for uh israel's war efforts uh the number among democrats

was 8%. There's not much that gets you down to 8%. And the gap between that and democratic leadership has to be the widest of any issue.

Get fired up, y'all. Season 2 of Good Game with Sarah Spain is underway. We just welcomed one of my favorite people and an incomparable soccer icon, Megan Rapino, to the show, and we had a blast. We talked about her recent 40th birthday celebrations, co-hosting a podcast with her fiancé Sue Bird,

watching former teammates retire and more. Never a dull moment with Pino. Take a listen. What do you miss the most about being a pro athlete? The final. The final. And the locker room. I really, really, like, you just, you can't replicate.

You can't get back. Showing up to locker room every morning just to shit talk. We've got more incredible guests like the legendary Candice Parker and college superstar A.Z. Fudd. I mean, seriously, y'all. The guest list is absolutely stacked for season two. And, you know, we're always going to keep you up to speed on all the news and happenings around the women's sports world as well.

So make sure you listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. I'm Noah. I'm 13. And as you might have seen from the news, I got a podcast. And I explain those fake headlines like y'all. uncle would. Like your cousin would if he actually did the research.

Honestly, adults don't ask the right questions. Now you know with Noah de Barroso is a show about influence. Who's got it, how they use it, and what it means for the rest of you. It's not the news. It's what the news should be if someone Gen Z or Gen Alpha made it. When I'm watching everything.

The majority of the youth, 18 through 24, say they trust Republicans more than Democrats from the economy. You kidding you. Politics is wild and I'm definitely not here to tame it, but I'm here to make sense of it. Just what's happening, why it matters,

and what it means for us. Bring your brain. Listen to Now You Know with Noah DeBarossa on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. When I became a journalist, I was the first Latina in the newsrooms where I worked. I'm Maria Inogosa.

I dreamt of having a place where voices that have been historically sidelined would instead be centered. For over 30 years now, Latino USA has been that place. This is Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and Cultura. As the longest running Latino news and culture show in the United States, Latino USA delivers the stories that truly matter to all of us. From sharp and deep analysis of the most pressing news, they're creating this narrative that immigrants are criminals.

This is about everyone's. freedom of speech. Nobody expected to popes from the American continent to stories about our cultures and our identities. When you do get a trans character like Emilio Perez, the trans community is going to push back on that. Colorism,

all of these things like exist in Mexican culture and Latino culture. You'll hear from people like Congresswoman, AOC. I don't want to give them my fear. I'm not going to give them my fear. Listen to Latino USA as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Available on the IHeart Radio app,

podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is what's crazy to me, Ryan, and I genuinely don't understand it. And actually, we could transition and talk about the Pete Podsave interview because I think this fits with this conversation and his response on some basic questions about where you stand on Israel and Palestine at this point. Like, if you're John Federman or you're Richie Torres and you're just like, I'm the APAC guy and I'm all about that life and I'm going to cape for Israel no matter what

and I'm going to make sure that money's coming in on my side. Okay, I think it's disgusting. I think it's morally atrocious. I hope history judges you quite harshly for that. But I can at least understand a political logic to that. The one that is perplexing to me is the people who will go halfway. You know, they'll vote, for example,

Bernie offered two amendments that you could vote, you know for blocking offensive weapons one of them was assault rifles and the other one was like bombs you had some democrats who would like vote for one and not the other what are you doing with that the israel lobby people they're going to hate you like apac is not going to support you if you diverge even one inch and people who see this correctly as a genocide being perpetrated with our tax dollars and are horrified by babies being starved to death are not going to be too impressed with you being like, well, you can't have the assault rifles, but you can have the bombs or this position that, you know, AOC and others have tried to to lay out of, well, we're going to support

the defensive weapons, but not the offensive weapons. People who are animated by this issue, which is increasingly, I think, a large driving factor within the Democratic base and completely one-sided at this point, as you're pointing out of the polls, in favor of, we have to stop this. Like, not only we have to stop funding this, like, we need to sanction it. is where we need a totally different approach to all of this. They're not going to be impressed with your like, well, the offensive weapons, no, but the defensive weapons, yes, and well, I'm concerned, but maybe it's not a genocide. And actually, it's just Netanyahu, and if we could just get them out of there, you know,

I just, I don't know who that is, like, who is that for? Who, who is, what is the, put it the morality aside. Like, what is the political benefit from trying to position yourself in this manner? And it just doesn't make any sense to me. And it's crazy to me that there's no obvious 2028 candidate for the Democrats who are just like occupying the Zoran lane of I'm in favor of BDS. I am an avowed anti-Zionist. I'm not afraid to talk about it. I think it's a genocide.

I think we should arrest Netanyahu if he comes to the country. It's mind boggling to me, Ryan, that there is no one who is occupying that lane at this point. Yeah, Rokana probably getting the closest to it. But yeah, you were referencing the Pete Buttigieg interview with Podsafe yesterday, which actually kind of dunked on him for. And Buttigieg was trending after this interview because it was so bad. So let's play, and we'll do a little trivia for viewers here. We'll play this clip, and you tell us what Pete Buttigieg thinks should be American policy towards Israel. This is B7.

sorry to be out of order here. More than half of Senate Democrats just voted to oppose the sale of over half a billion dollars worth of U.S. bombs and guns to Israel. Would you have voted to oppose sending those weapons? I think we need to insist that if American taxpayer funding is going to weaponry that is going to Israel, that that is not going to things that shock the conscience. And look, we see images every day that shock the conscience. So much of this is complicated. But what's not complicated is that if a child is starving because of a choice made by a government, that is unconscionable. And we, I think, especially including voices who care about Israel, who believe in Israel's right to exist, who have stood with Israel in response to the unbelievable cruelty and terrorism of October 7th, I think there's a reason why so many of those voices are speaking up now, too. because this is not just something that is on its face and in itself a moral catastrophe.

It is also a catastrophe for Israel for the long run. How do you think the next administration should handle our relationship with Israel? Do you think it should change based on what Netanyahu has done the last several years? Well, certainly Netanyahu can't be the only voice or kind of the only compass for what should happen in the U.S.-Israel relationship. And, you know, no matter how strongly, or especially because of how strongly you might believe in Israel's right to exist and defend itself, you don't have to make excuses for the choices that Netanyahu is making, especially because they are often made not only in the name of the Israeli people, but in the name of a U.S. alliance. I think that we as Israel's strongest ally and friend, you put your arm around your friend when there's something. like this going on and talk about what we're prepared to do together. And it cannot be, certainly cannot be what we see right now from this administration and this president talking

about beachfront property in Gaza before he's prepared to talk about human suffering in Gaza. So the question started, hey, Kat. So the question started with sending weapons to Israel. So a trivia question, pop quiz, how does Buttigieg feel about weapons to Israel? I mean, the truth is, I think we do know from the non-answer. I think if the answer was, yes, we should block the weapons. We would have gotten that answer. The truth is he wants to, he understands, because Pete's not a stupid guy, as we all know, he understands where the democratic basis and wants to sort of signal his empathy for that position without actually taking a position that would put him at odds with, you know,

where some of his donor base is. And you can only, you know, when I ask the question, like, who is this for? In Pete's example, we know exactly who it's for. This is donor maintenance. That's what he's doing here. And he thinks, because he's a very slippery operator, that at this point, he can get away with sort of like restating the question and evincing empathy for the position without actually explaining where he is.

And I think, I hope what he and I hope everybody else is learning is that is not going to cut it. And there's so much about his answer, Ryan, that just disgust me. First of all, Palestinians are being murdered every day and we still have to center what's good for Israel. Can we just care that babies are being starved to death and that our government is complicit? Can we just care about the fact that, you know, people are being massacred, just trying to seek aid every day in the Gaza Strip? Is that okay? Or do I need to worry first and foremost about how Israelis are feeling about this and what this means for the future of Israel. I find that posture to be morally grotesque at this point. Second of all, and it ties into

that, you know, moral atrocity, in my opinion, is this idea that it's just Netanyahu who's the problem. And he can't be the only voice here. Oh, really? Well, he's not the only voice. Every poll you look at says, you know what, Israeli society, they're on board with us. By and large, now there are some, okay, how should we approach the hostage, whatever? There is some dissent, but by and large, do they care about what is being done to Palestinians, by and large, the answer is no. Not to mention the people who are really driving the ship oftentimes in terms of Netanyanan's coalition are the most psycho extremist, Ben Gavir and Smotrich, not to mention the, you know, so-called opposition figures who are supposedly more moderate, say equally horrific and

genocidal things. Like this idea that liberals love to hold on to that, oh, it's just the fascist Netanyahu is the problem. If we just got him out of there, then every thing could revert to normal is a lie. I mean, I can't even say it's a fantasy because I don't believe that he believes that. It's just a total and complete lie that he thinks allows him to maintain what is now a completely untenable position of thinking that liberalism and Zionism can coexist. And to that point, in polls for the next Israeli government, of the top four, you got Netanyahu. and then the three below that,

the three below are to Netanyahu's right. So this idea that, like, you're going to moderate, that he doesn't represent the full spectrum is just not accurate. A bunch of things jumped out in that quote. One of them was this fear he has of naming Israel. Right. All this passive language.

One of his quotes was, if a child is starving because of a choice made by a government, a government. Which government? Which government is that? And I think I've seen you make this point and I'm seeing Normie Democrats who Gaza is not a top issue for them making it also, which is that they want to see somebody good on this issue because they don't want children starved. But more importantly, they want somebody who has moral fiber and they believe that this is a proxy that if they're willing to stand up against the special interests that are pushing them, to be bad on this issue. And they're still good on it. They're still willing to stand up. Then that means they're going to be willing to stand up for democracy.

They're going to be willing to stand up for people. Taunasi Coates had the great line that says, you know, if you can't draw the line of a genocide, why should I trust that you're actually going to stand up for democracy? And I think that... That's exactly right. When people hear him say, a child starving because of a choice made by a government, you sound scared. You sound weak.

and we don't want scared and weak people now. And your point about restating the question is a good one, too. And in the next clip, he does precisely that. I hadn't noticed that tick until you mentioned it. But here, let's play B7B, where he's asked about recognition of a Palestinian state. Do you think it's time to recognize a Palestinian state? I think that that's a profound question that arouses a lot of the biggest problem. that have happened with Israel's right to survival in the diplomatic scene.

And many of the people who have taken that step historically have done so for different reasons than what we see happening with European countries. I think we need to step back and we need to do whatever it takes to ensure that there is a real two-state solution and that no one, not even the likes of Netanyahu, can veto the international community's commitment to a two-state solution. where you have Palestinians and Israelis living with safety, with security, with rights. I believe that can happen, but we have to actually show some commitment to it. So that's a profound question.

My Pete hatred is so vindicated. It's so vindicated. Yeah, it's a profound question that arouses a lot of the biggest questions, Ryan. That's what that is. Cool, thanks. So Rokana, who has been floated as a 2020. candidate, did not appreciate that response. You can put up the next element. He says, I respect Pete, where he diverges from you there. He says, I respect Pete, but we need moral

clarity, not status quo. Yes, John Favro, Dems should have voted for the Sanders Amendment. So there's an answer to the question. Yes, Dems should join my letter recognizing a Palestinian state. Again, an answer to the question. Yes, Trump and Biden disastrously failed on Gaza, and we need a new human rights center division. So if you believe that Kana is testing the waters for 2028, he seems his political sensibilities are sensing here that there is a lane here, that you can go after Trump and Biden here,

you can stand up here, you can go after other Democrats, and that Democratic voters will be with you. You think he, and I can't think of anybody else who's kind of dipped their toes in these waters who's being more clear than him, which is kind of disturbing. Yeah. And, you know, and I think, I personally think Roe needs to go farther. I think he needs, I think he needs to acknowledge the international consensus that it's a genocide.

So even with him, you know, I think people, to your point, they don't want to see you tiptoeing around, right? They don't want to feel like they're getting weasly, slippery answers, which is what you get overwhelmingly with Pete and Roe is miles better like it's not even closer. I think you're right. He is leading in terms of the candidates who are positioning themselves for 2028 in his approach of this issue. It seems to have some understanding of the way that this is functioning as a moral litmus test even above and beyond the horrors that we see with Gaza. But you know, it also, I think what is notable in particular about Rose tweet is not just he directly answers the question.

That's kind of nice. But then he says it's true. Trump and Biden. And I do think part of the reason that some Democrats are tying themselves into knots and not wanting to, you know, take these votes or give direct answers or whatever is because they're implicated. And they don't, and they don't want to say, you know what, they were right. Biden and Harris were complicit in a genocide. I mean, that's a, that's a tough pill for them to swallow. And then they have to go back and look at, well, what votes did I take during that time period? And what is my responsibility to make right from my own complicity here? And I think that is, you know, separate and apart from the money and the influence of

that, which is obviously very, very real. I think there's also a lack of desire to look backwards, take accountability for one's actions and critically to have responsibility for ending this going forward. Because if you say it's a genocide, then that would indicate, as someone who is in an elected position of power, you have a lot of responsibility, especially given our government support for that genocide, to go above and beyond the call of duty to try to end these horrors. And I think that many of these Democrats don't want that responsibility on their shoulders, that historic weight, because that's what it is, to rest on their shoulders. And from a pure cynical, political perspective, the numbers make it not difficult.

I mentioned that 8% earlier. We can put up B9 here. Here's a tweet from Annel Chaline, who is one of the State Department, Resignese. She resigned in protest. So this is 32% of Americans approving of Israel's military actions. Among Democrats, the number is down to 8. And among independents, the number is 25%. And, you know, people who, among Republicans, it's 71%.

If you look at young Republicans, it's, you know, way, way down. Among that 25% of independence, you're going to have a decent number of people who are older Republicans, but call themselves independence. And pollsters understand this phenomenon. There's the same with Democrats. Like, there's a portion of people who call themselves independents who operate just like partisan Democrats and same with partisan. Republicans. So true independence, the number is going to be much less than 25%. But among Democrats, 8%, 8% support. That is, you know, politicians are always looking for 70, 30 issues or 80, 20 issues. It's rare they get a 92-8 issue where most of their opponents or their adversaries in the

primary are with the 8%. Yeah. This is a chance to be with the 92. chance of a lifetime for someone there's such a thing as political gravity that is going to bring this all down at some point i feel like that i do feel like that and you know there's a kind of a beltway conventional wisdom that oh foreign policy doesn't really matter people don't vote based on foreign policy i don't really know how you live through the fallout from the iraq war and continue to hold that view let alone i mean prior to our time the vietnam war and still feel oh, people don't really care about foreign policy because not only is it important in terms of, you know, international stability and young men in particular being sent off to fight and die in

these wars by, you know, mostly rich people sitting in Washington, D.C., but it does speak to these larger moral questions. And on the Democratic side, it really exposes the hypocrisy about a party that tries to position itself as the champion of democracy and liberal human rights, that you're still standing in lockstep with this rogue nation committing genocide and, you know, bombarding all of its neighbors in this hyper-aggressive fashion that we're actively, you know, supporting and participating in. And on the Republican side, it really exposes a hypocrisy of the idea that this administration would be America first and that American interests would be the priority first and foremost.

So, and in both, instances, it really serves as a litmus test for who is willing to have a shred of integrity or stand on principle, even when there is organized money and other, you know, social and cultural interests that are aligned against you. And, you know, so far, the overwhelming number of politicians in both parties at this point are failing that test. I'm Noah. I'm 13. And as you might have seen from the news, I got to podcast, and I explain those fake headlines like your uncle would, like your cousin would if he actually did the research.

Honestly, adults don't ask the right questions. Now you know with Noah DeBarrasso is a show about influence. Who's got it, how they use it, and what it means for the rest of the people. It's not the news. It's what the news should be if someone Gen Z or Gen Alpha made it when I'm watching everything. The majority of the youth 18 through 24 say they trust repulsions. Republicans more than Democrats differ on the economy.

You kidding. Politics is wild and I'm definitely not here to payment, but I'm here to make sense of it. Just what's happening, why it matters, and what it means for us. Bring your brain. Listen to Now You Know with Noah DeBarrosa on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Get fired up, y'all. Season 2 of Good Game with Sarah Spain is underway. We just welcomed one of of my favorite people and an incomparable soccer icon, Megan Rapino to the show, and we had a blast. We talked about her recent 40th birthday celebrations, co-hosting a podcast with her fiancé Sue Bird,

watching former teammates retire and more. Never a dull moment with Pino. Take a listen. What do you miss the most about being a pro athlete? The final. The final. And the locker room. I really, really, like, you just can't replicate, you can't get back.

Showing up to locker room every morning just to shi-talk. We've got more incredible guests like the legendary Candace Parker and college superstar AZ Fudd. I mean, seriously, y'all. The guest list is absolutely stacked for season two. And, you know, we're always going to keep you up to speed on all the news and happenings around the women's sports world as well. So make sure you listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. When I became a journalist, I was the first Latina in the newsrooms where I worked. I'm Maria Inojosa. I dreamt of having a place where voices that have been historically sidelined would instead be centered. For over 30 years now, Latino USA has been that place. This is Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and Cultura. As the longest running Latino news and culture show in the United States,

Latino USA delivers the stories that truly matter to all of us. from sharp and deep analysis of the most pressing news. They're creating this narrative that immigrants or criminals. This is about everyone's freedom of speech. Nobody expected two popes from the American continent to stories about our cultures and our identities. When you do get a trans character like Imidavidez, the trans community is going to push back on that.

Colorism, all of these things like exist in Mexican culture and Latino culture. You'll hear from people like Congresswoman, AOC. I don't want to give them my fear. I'm not going to give them my fear. Listen to Latino USA as part of the My Cultura Podcast Network, available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's skip forward to the much anticipated gender portion of the show in this WNBA situation, which I only recently became, I guess this has been going on for a while. So Ryan, I don't know if you follow this, but basically there's some crypto.

company that decided it would be a fun stunt to start throwing, by the way, content warning if there were kids watching this show. I don't really think kids should watch the show. But anyway, if they're kids watching the show, this is not really appropriate content for them. Anyway, this could be a fun stunt to get publicity for them by throwing dildos a very sporting events. And they claim that they did this at other sporting events as well. But the ones that got the most attention were when they started throwing these neon green, like Brat Summer colored dildos out at WNBA. games. This became a whole thing and, you know, became incredibly even more politically relevant when Don Jr. shared this meme of his dad standing on the Ruth of the White House, which was something he did recently, throwing one of these green dildos onto the floor of the WNBA game that is miraculously below the White House here. So, you know, I guess embrace ultimately here of the phenomena. And the reason I wanted to cover this is because, first of all, I think there's a lot going on that hasn't been discussed with gender dynamics on the right that I think are worth exploring. Second of all, as you pointed out earlier, you know, the Republican Party has really

wrapped itself around this idea that they're the champion of women's sports. So it's a little bit at odds with that. And third of all, there is a saga online betting angle of this as well, which you could put E3 up on the screen. You can now bet on what color dildo via polymarket gets thrown onto the WNBA court. You can bet on this. So, of course, people say, oh, well, why don't I just sneak? Why don't I just bet a lot of money on the purple dildo getting thrown out and sneak in a purple dildo and throw it onto the court? That is now a thing that is possible, which I think speaks to, obviously this is incredibly degrading for these professional.

athletes who are extraordinary, who for the first time are really getting, like, a lot of attention, you know, ticket sales to WNBA games are up. Like the WNBA is actually having a moment. This is obviously like extraordinary degrading to them and to have the president's son like embracing this. And then it's also like it's degrading to women's sports, but the betting aspect of it makes it clear like this is degrading to all sports. And in the same way that the BLS numbers rigging just sort of like makes you feel like, oh, well, I can't really take any of these numbers that are coming from the government seriously anymore. They're all just being like hyped to please Trump. It starts to feel like that about all of these sporting events

where it's like, all right, well, who's cashing in, who's being paid what, which refs are on the take to, you know, make this call or make this play or miss this free throw or whatever, because you can bet down to these individual outcomes. And it just really does degrade your sense that there's anything real about these sporting events at all. Yeah, and Trump at his press conference yesterday announcing that he's going to bring the National Guard out, by the way, he seemed a little off, like, even for him at that press conference. But even in that one, he veered off into, you know, his defense of women's sports and, you know, which are under threat from the transgender. So let's roll E2.

for that. That's why they want men playing in women's sports. That's why they want transgender for everybody, everybody transgender. So I genuinely don't think, I'm curious if you take, Crystal, in his mind that he actually sees the hypocrisy or a contradiction between, you know, his son, you know, posting this, this meme that encourages the debasement of women's sports with his constant invocation of his support for women's sports because I think in his mind he's not serious about the latter. And so therefore, it wouldn't even occur to him. Well, and that's not so that.

Like, I don't even know if Trump is aware that this meme got posted. Right, that's true. But certainly Don Jr. is also involved in all the hand-wringing about, you know, the integrity of women's sports. And it's also always been total and complete bullshit. Like, these would be the same people who would denigrate women athletes. It never shown any sort of interest in actual, like, female athletics. And I say this as a former, you know, female athlete, myself, Division I swimmer, myself. These are not people

who ever care. I mean, they always like, this would be the type who would complain about the requirements that women's sports receive equals funding to male sports at colleges and, um, and those sorts of things. So there's that. And then, you know, I, I wanted to also, I think that the other element here that deserves, you know, deserves discussion is the WNBA is overwhelmingly black women and it's overwhelmingly LGBTQ. So it's overwhelmingly like queer women, black women, and black queer women. And I think that's part of what makes them such a target by individuals like Don Jr. for derision where out of one side of their mouth, they can talk about, oh, the integrity of women's boards, blah, blah, blah. And at the other side outside of their mouth be incredibly

denigrating. And I just have to tell you, like, as a woman, I do feel like just outright hatred of women is becoming increasingly normalized. And I don't think that's just, you've got the whole manosphere direction. You have, you know, this like ideology that women should just be, which is coming both from the like degenerate right, like the Andrew Tate right, and from the, like evangelical Christian right that women should just be like controlled by men and it's a view just to make it you know clear i'm not just being sort of like delusional and hysterical about this it's a view that's being embraced by people who are at the highest levels of power in our government including defense secretary pete heggseth who recently who goes to a church that has very extreme

views on gender including apparently the head pastor believing that the that women should not really be able to vote. And Hegseth recently reposted and shared a segment from CNN of these people talking about how the 19th Amendment should be repealed and women should not be allowed to vote. Let's go ahead and listen to a portion of this segment that Hegseth shared and elevated. Wilson says in his vision of a Christian society, women as individuals, shouldn't be able to vote. His fellow pastors, Jared Longshore and Toby Sumter, agree. In my ideal society, we would vote as households. And I would ordinarily be the one that would cast the vote, but I would cast the vote, having discussed it with my household.

But what if your wife doesn't want to vote for the same person as you? Right. Well, then that's a great opportunity for a good discussion. There are some who have gone so far as to say that they want the 19th Amendment repealed. I would support that. And I'd support it on the basis that the atomization that comes with our current system is not good for humans. And we can see the way that attitudes are shifting culturally to, Ryan, if we put E6 up on the screen. So we can see in these surveys of 10th and 12th grade boys that there's a cultural shift away from just basic liberal views of gender equality.

One of the questions is a woman should have the same job opportunities as a man. You can see the dramatic decline here in the number of boys who agree with this. again, basic liberal sentiment and this other one that says men and women should be paid the same amount of money if they do the same work, also a significant decline, so that those levels are below where they were in 1990 when I was nine years old. This to me is very disturbing, Ryan. And I don't know what, you know, if you think about, you have daughters. Also, you just, you know, care about gender equality as a matter of principle as well, a wife that you care about who's extremely accomplished. Just like, I don't know, do you see this happening?

And where do you think this comes from? And what do you think it means? Yeah, I saw these numbers a couple days ago, and they are really stark. And I'll be a man in mansplained. You would said 10th and 12th just for the viewer 8th. That's 8th and 10th. Oh, sorry. Which is doesn't change the meaning here.

2018 seems to be this inflection point here, you know, where you see this real drop-off. less of a drop-off and so 2018 of course it's the height of the me too movement um and interestingly you see you don't see much um increase in like oftentimes if you're going to see a backlash like this first you'll see an increase in support um but you don't really see that like you see just an immediate fall-off. Let's put that element back up on the screen so people can see it again. You do see an increase in support for a woman should have the same job opportunities as a man, starting a little after 2010. This is the period of time they call it a great awokening. So while people are reconsidering, you know, gender and race and sexuality in

in the culture you see it you see an uptick there but but me to itself doesn't translate here to to any gains at all and instead um starts to starts to push the numbers off the cliff um it's and it's so it's you know this is also um around the time i guess that young men start drifting towards trump uh so yeah i think this these are really profound numbers and i think say a lot about our our politics, what's your thought on the, on the connection to 2018? I think it's a reasonable possibility. I point more to, you know, because you see this fall off and, like it's all one big bundle, but go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. And also, I mean, I think for everybody, but for men in particular where the cultural value proposition for men is

basically like, you know, what makes you a man is you can provide, right? You have the job. You can, you can provide for your family and buy the house. And that's been taken off the table, right, for so many people. And I think when you have a population that is very stressed economically, stressed about what the future looks like, which is not only economics, but, you know, the most clear cut example is like material conditions and possibilities, I think it makes it very easy to present a zero-sum picture and to scapegoat. And I think that scapegoating, you know, again, it connects to like the women's sports thing. We know who the scapegoats are. It's like trans people, it's immigrants, and it's women. So I think there is a zero-sum portrait of, well,

if these women are getting ahead, then you're, that's taking away from you. And if you have a population that's doing well, that's not going to hold a lot of water. That's not going to have a lot of appeal. But if you have a population that's really stressed, then they're going to be more open to those arguments of like, geez, the reason I can't get a decent job, the reason it's because all these women, you know, schools are designed for women and all these women go into college and, you know, women are instead of being where they should be in the house, they're taking the job that should rightfully be mine. I think it just makes people more open to that sort of zero-sum scapegoating, which again is not just expressed in terms of regressive views towards

women, but is also expressed in terms of, you know, immigrants in terms of trans people, in terms of anyone who could be portrayed as like an other who's taking away from, from you, something that you truly deserve. So that's sort of my larger analysis of what's going on there. And, you know, the Me Too backlash play into that. possible. But the reason I don't point my finger directly at that is because you see this trend across groups, not just with regard to women. And by the way, I see the attack on transgender people as also, you know, not just being about those individuals who are easy to portray as like different, weird, other degenerate and all these sorts of things. I also see that as an attack

on women and controlling like the bounds of what what you can be as what it looks like to be a woman. And we've seen examples of this where someone who doesn't present, you know, in the like classic feminine way is scrutinized as like, oh, you're not allowed to be in this bathroom. And it creates, you know, these tighter gender, prescribed gender roles when you go after trans people in this way as well. Yeah. And the questions here are just wild. Put the element back up on the screen if you have a second. Just to be clear, the two things that people are agree. and disagreeing with here, a woman should have the same job opportunities as a man.

And then the other one is men and women should be paid the same money if they do the same work. And, you know, for that latter one, only 57% of these 8th and 10th grade boys agree completely that men and women should be paid the same money if they do the same work. Now, somewhat agree gets you up to 8 and 10. Okay, good. But what's the somewhat here? Like what is the circumstance where a man does the job and gets paid more than a woman doing the job? And the same, a woman should have the same job opportunities as a man.

Agree completely, it's down to 45%. So you add somewhat, it gets you up to 72%. But what's the circumstance here in these kids' mind where the opposite should be the case? It's just, it's dark that this is where these boys are. Yeah. And I think it ties into this cultural sense I have that values that were kind of taken for granted, you know, that I thought were just like, we all kind of accepted are. And, you know, that the, you know, the women should be in the kitchen idea or whatever, like, or even just that it's good. to be humble. It's good to care about your fellow human. These things that I just thought

were sort of like baked into society at this point, more or less, you know, is like aspirational values, that they've just been in many instances turned on their head or that there's been tremendous backsliding. And that was, I guess what disturbed me the most about this chart is the fact that in 1990 we had young boys had better just like basic quality of gender. gender values than in the year 2025, that is profoundly disturbing to me because it just speaks to the possibility of like, okay, well, where does this end, you know? And that's why, again, to tie back to the Pete Hexat thing, when you see the Secretary of Defense being like pretty much co-signing the view that women should just not be allowed to

vote, it may seem preposterous, but a lot of things that I would have thought were preposterous have been put back on the table, which is why I'm trying to. to make a concerted effort to pay more attention to these um yeah you can't even call it a warning sign when it's the freaking secretary of defense who has a lot of sway over you know the way women are treated for example in the military and what possibilities and jobs are open to women in the military and whether they are being paid the same as a equally qualified man in that role so um so in any case i guess i'll just wrap it all in a bow and say i find it to be part of a larger cultural phenomenon of basic, you know, value and morality backsliding.

And I find it to be deeply disturbing because I don't know where the bottom is. Yeah, no, those numbers are pointing straight down. It'd be one thing if that's where they stopped. But, yeah, there's no indication that, you know, a year from now, that dot's not going to be significantly lower. Yeah, no, that's exactly right. All right, guys, well, thank you so much for hanging out with us today

as we had a very, I would say it was quite a widely varied show today, Ryan. That's how I would describe it. A lot going on. If there was too much commie takeover for you today, don't worry. The, what we affectionately tongue and cheek called the fascist takeover will come in tomorrow with Saga and Evely after the commie takeover today. So we discussed explicitly with them. They're going to cover the D.C. National Guard crime story as well. so you can sort of choose your own adventure with whether you want the lefty or the right-wing perspective on what's going on there.

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