Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 8/15/23: Maui Death Toll Rises To 96, Hunter Special Counsel A Cover Up?, Increasing Suicide Deaths, Bill Maher Spars w/ Marianne Williamson, Kentucky AI Bus Disaster, New Ukraine Aid

Episode Date: August 15, 2023

Krystal and Saagar discuss the Maui wildfire disaster death count up to 96 people as searchers for missing continue, Maui residents worry that their rebuilt town will favor the wealthy, is the Hunter Biden special counsel a cover up?, an increasing number of Suicide deaths per year, Bill Maher argues with Marianne Williamson on the state of society collapse, Krystal looks into how Kentucky created new bus routes with AI that left kids in danger, and Saagar looks into Biden asking Congress for 25 billion in new Ukraine money.To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.supercast.com/Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Happy Tuesday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed we do. Big, big breaking news this morning. We have now in our hands the indictments against Donald Trump and 18 other co-conspirators alleged down in Fulton County, Georgia. So we're going to break all of that down for you as best as we can.

We've got an expert in to talk about the charges and what they mean. So we'll get into all of that. We also have updates for you on the ground in Hawaii. A lot of frustration there about the federal government and the local government response to what is the worst wildfire disaster in more than a century. So that is huge. We also have new details about what the hell is going on with Hunter Biden and the special counsel appointed there and the supposed plea deal that he had.

We've got some really troubling numbers about suicide in this nation, which has once again spiked. And we have a pretty interesting exchange between Bill Maher and Marianne Williamson that we wanted to show you as well. Before we get to any of that, though, you know, with all of these indictments, this really does mark the official beginning, unfortunately, of the campaign season. And we do have some really big plans here at breaking points, new things that we've never done before. And I just want to thank all the premium subscribers who are enabling that and helping to make that happen. Yes, that's right. I know. And I can't stress that enough. Whenever we have big breaking news, a lot of this stuff came out at 1 a.m. last night. Our team has to work a lot of extra hours. You guys are the ones. Shout out to Griffin. Shout out to our producer Griffin,

our graphics team, all the guys in the control room. We have to flex everything. That's part of what being a real news organization is. It costs a lot of money. So you guys are the ones who help fund all of that and we can't thank you enough. So breakingpoints.com if you are able to. At the same time, the situation in Maui continues to get worse and there's a lot of questions around the federal government's response. So the FEMA director and the White House were pressed about this yesterday, both about what the damage on the ground actually looks like and whether President Biden will deign to visit Hawaii anytime soon. Let's take a listen to those responses. I did arrive here on the ground very early, as well as members of the governor's staff, to get a true understanding of what the impact is. As residents continue to mourn the loss of their friends, their loved ones, their neighbors, the loss of their homes and their way of life, we know and let them know that we are mourning with them. Nothing can prepare you for what I saw during my time here.

And nothing can prepare them for the emotional toll of the impact that this severe event has taken on them. And as you heard, I have been in continuous communication with the President since these fires started. I have been giving him updates and his team updates, letting him know what the federal family is doing to support everything that Governor Green has asked for. FEMA has activated our Transitional Sheltering Assistance Program, which is now available for eligible residents who were displaced from their home. This is FEMA's hotel program, and this will allow them to move from shelters into pre-identified hotels or motels temporarily as they develop their long-term housing strategies.

Does he want to travel there eventually to survey the damage and meet survivors? So obviously, I don't have anything to announce at this time. Look, we're going to continue to have conversations with the administrator, certainly the governor in Hawaii, on what the opportunities might be, what that may look like for a trip. But right now, we just don't have anything to share. Nothing to share, Crystal. He's got nothing on the schedule. What they did have time to put out, though, was a tweet in which they wanted to assure the residents of Maui, don't worry, guys, you will be getting a one-time $700 payment from the federal government as part of the

disaster relief. And people couldn't help but notice, and I'm basically doing my whole monologue, that that came on the same day that we announced a $200 million routine distribution of military aid to Ukraine. Interesting. The other problem is that not only has President Biden offered now not a single word, a public word about what's going on. You can clearly see from the FEMA administrator, she's trying to be like, I've talked to him every day about this, all this. Well, OK. At the same time, guys, can we please go ahead and put the before up there on the same day that he will be going to Lake Tahoe for vacation next week, refusing to take any questions on this fire. As he said, one of the deadliest wildfires in over a century. And look, Lake Tahoe, I like Lake Tahoe. It's a nice place. Certainly sounds like a great place to take a week of vacation. But the crazy thing is he's

announcing this after he just got off of a vacation, Rehoboth Beach in Delaware at his private home, where he again did not offer a single comment on what's going on in Hawaii. And ironically, yesterday I said, I was like, look, if Trump were smart, any of these people, they would say something about Maui and they would, you know, they would travel to the state. Same thing that they did in East Palestine. And Trump literally did that right before he even got indicted,

showing that he does certainly have some political skill. Here's what Trump had to say in criticism of Biden. The sad thing is it should never have happened. Our government was not prepared. And very importantly, the aftermath is going very poorly with the governor of the island wanting to do nothing but blame it on global warming and other things that just happened to pop into his head. When asked about it today as he was getting into a car, perhaps coming home from the beach where he has been spending a great deal of time. Crooked Joe Biden, the most incompetent president in the history of our country, with a laugh and a smile, said he had

no comment on the death and the tragedy. To say no comment is oftentimes fine, but to be smiling when you say it, especially against such a tragedy as this, is absolutely horrible and unacceptable. It is a disgraceful thing that Joe Biden refuses to help or comment on the tragedy in Maui, just as he refused to help or comment on the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio for a very, very long time. So this is becoming a political problem for the Biden administration, Crystal. And it's just, you know, a continued same, I don't know how they don't learn the lesson over and over again. East Palestine was a disaster here. I mean, clearly after the single day of the no comment, like, why can't you take the podium and at least offer something? You've got to be able to show the American people who are actually doing something. It's

particularly terrible look whenever you're shipping and asking for billions of dollars more for what's going on in Ukraine, literally for disastrous humanitarian relief. You actually have two former presidents who are showing up right now in this regard, because Barack Obama, who grew up in Hawaii and obviously cares about the area, has been posting and talking about it and trying to raise funds for relief, et cetera. It's posting videos, him and Michelle, et cetera. So, I mean, listen, there's two pieces here. There's the reality, which is the most important piece. Are people getting the relief and the help that they need? Is there a massive effort being mobilized? This disaster is, it's hard to wrap your head around. I just took a look

this morning. We've got 99 people confirmed dead. You still have estimates of over a thousand who are missing. That death toll very much expected to rise. We have not had a fire that deadly in over a hundred years. This is devastating to this area. And I can't help but think, you know, if this happened to some part of the country that Joe Biden had more connection to, cared more about, there would be a totally different response from him. So there's the reality. And we played for you yesterday, residents who are saying, no, we are not getting the help that we need. And I think we ought to take that seriously. Number two, there's the optics of that. And you could say that it doesn't matter whether he says the words or doesn't say the words. But when it's an American president and you have a national tragedy, of course it matters that they say that they care and that they don't just say no comment and that they don't just then go on vacation.

And I guarantee you that there will be a tidal wave of criticism of Trump. And there was a tidal wave of criticism of Trump when he similarly failed in the Puerto Rico response and the way he went there and cavalierly tossed, you know, paper towels, et cetera. I have to say, you know, this is also not just a criticism that is coming from the right. I have seen some people who are Biden supporters, including actually our guest today, Bradley Moss, who was critical of the fact that he's up and going on a fancy vacation while you have Americans that are still being pulled out of the water and, you know, pulled out of the rubble in Hawaii. And Maddie Hassan over on MSNBC also was critical of, you know, the fact like you can't. I am actually astonished that they aren't getting at least the optics of this right,

because how long has Joe Biden been in D.C.? Yeah. You don't remember Katrina? How long? He was vice president for eight years. He's been president for a number of senators for friggin 40 years. And you don't know that you need to get in front of the cameras and tell people we are doing everything we can care about your loss, care about your suffering. We're going to be there and not fly off to some ritzy Lake Tahoe vacation. I am actually at that, you know, the incompetence I'm not surprised at, even though that is the worst of it. The cavalier disregard for what's going on there, I am actually shocked at. Yeah. And also, we don't have a very good view into what's going on. I talked about this

yesterday. There is not very good cell phone service in West Maui. Even Starlink has not yet been fully enabled on the island. This is a dispatch from Will Kane. He works over at Fox News. He says, quote, I'm in West Maui this morning. Service is rough, hard to post. We are getting together incredible stories of citizens stepping up where the government has failed. And at the plaza, someone from the Mayor Richard Bisson's office tries to shut me down, saying, quote, West Maui is a media-free zone. No, sir, this is America.

Right now, I am nowhere near search and rescue. I am 12 miles from Lahaina. How is the entire West Side a media-free zone? Is it no longer America? Has the Constitution been suspended? Look, this is a single, you know, allegation that he's making here, but I've seen other people as well.

And if that is true, I mean, what exactly is the cover-up? The other problem that I've seen is that the incompetence of a lot of these local officials I talked about yesterday. You've got this large military base. Apparently the guys on base are like, hey, let's go, we're ready to roll. The problem is that the coordination around actually delivering some of the aid has been a total nightmare. People are trying to

organize on freaking Instagram and social media to bring propane. Nobody knows whether their loved ones are dead or alive. You've got an infrastructure nightmare. The other thing is, is that there needs to be a serious accounting about what the hell happened. Let's go and put B5, please, up on the screen. You can see here, as the inferno grew, the Lahaina water system completely collapsed. Firefighters who rushed to contain the wildfire found that the hydrants were running dry, forcing crews to embark instead on a perilous rescue mission. So these guys are rolling in here. Their infrastructure collapses underneath their feet. Then it comes to a question of like, is nobody testing these things? What exactly is the city's job here? What about the

state? Who knew? You know, I mean, if that's true, how many hundreds of people are now possibly dead as a result of the fact that the infrastructure collapsed underneath? I can't help but say, it's like, well, then maybe that's why they want to keep some journalists away from what's going on on the ground. So look, the feds at the very least, they should have been in control for the last three days. I don't know what the hell the president is doing, like you said, from the optics perspective. And then media too. I mean, we've got to get some serious resources on the

ground here in Maui because this genuinely, this could be Katrina level screw up by local state and federal authorities. There was also an early warning system. Oh yeah, didn't go off. That failed to sound. So there's a lot of questions, you know, for the days ahead. I mean, the immediate task is just relief, recovery, being able to get people housed and, you know, to the extent possible back in their homes and begin the process of rebuilding. Those are the immediate questions. But there are a lot of longer term questions about the things that went wrong here. You know, I think to give the local official side of the story, they would say we don't want the press there because we're just focused on recovery. We don't want any distractions. And even with a presidential visit, like I could see the argument and I've heard other presidents and governors and whatever make this argument in the past of like, listen, right now I would just be a distraction.

There's nothing I can really do to help. Let's get the relief effort underway. And then when it's appropriate, then I will go and make a visit. So, Karine Jean-Pierre, like just say that. I mean, that is actually a reasonable response. But just to say like,ierre, like, just say that. Say that. I mean, that's that is actually a reasonable response. But just to say, like, I've got nothing for you on that. And by the way, he's headed to Lake Tahoe. Just completely, completely unacceptable. Yeah, that killed. Listen, I've you know, people don't know this, but Bush had a decent approval rating. It was

hovering around 50, even in the depths of the Iraq war where he really lost the American people was Katrina. There's that famous photo that came out. It was like 2005 where they, for this reason, he didn't want to land in New Orleans. He decided to look out the window and got vilified. Yeah, he was on a helicopter or something. He was on Air Force One, but they did like a flyby of what was going on in New Orleans.

And they took pictures of him looking solemn, looking out the window. They took a picture of him being solemnly looking out the window. Solemnly looking out the window. Really, I mean, that was a big problem for him at the time. I do wonder if people, because we have so many horrific disasters now, wildfires, floods, hurricanes, et cetera, if people are just becoming numb to this kind of tragedy.

It's possible. I do think this one's striking a chord, though. I do think this one, because I think part of why this one is striking a chord is not only the tremendous loss of life, but this is a place that people in their minds, like, this is paradise. What place, Maui, what would be more associated with literal paradise? And then to see these dystopian scenes, I think has been really disturbing to the American people. But I would just say we can't become numb to these tragedies. And there's going to be, unfortunately, a lot more response that needs to come from

federal and local and state officials as these kind of extreme events become more and more common. I talked yesterday about whether or not this is climate change related. It's very difficult to say on any one particular event. There does seem to be an increased trend in recent years of more drought in Hawaii that could be related to climate change that help contribute to these conditions. The extreme winds that help spread the fire could have also been linked to climate change. But there's no doubt when you look at the overall picture, the number of extreme events

is rising and these types of relief efforts are going to have to get way more, we're just going to have to be way more aggressive, way more on top of it and prepared to spend a lot of money to help people out in difficult situations. Absolutely. OK, let's go to the next one here on Hunter Biden. There's a lot going on. So over the weekend, I brought everybody the breaking news segment about the special counsel being appointed. Basically, Merrick Garland allowed David Weiss, who was the prosecutor, the U.S. attorney on the case against Hunter Biden, to be elevated to special prosecutor status. At first, it appeared as if the DOJ was taking the case more seriously and investing Weiss with some more power. But some new details that are actually being released from

the Hunter Biden team themselves cast some doubt as to whether this was an overtly political move to basically cover up David Weiss from further scrutiny as he continues to operate on this case. Let's put this up there on the screen. This is from the Hunter Biden team, so you should certainly take this with a grain of salt. But if you read carefully, basically what Hunter is saying is that the Justice Department genuinely was reneging on a major part of the deal that he had in principle with the government. That agreement, we should recall, was to enroll in a diversion program for gun offenders that he had signed and granted him, quote, broad immunity from future federal prosecutions. That was included in a court filing by Hunter's lawyer,

basically testifying and putting this forth before the court. So if they're lying about it, you know, clearly they're actually going to face some penalty. They say that this dispute between Biden and Weiss happened last week after the implosion of the agreement. This actually adds, quote, growing uncertainty about the Biden investigation and how it's going to be resolved and why Weiss was appointed special counsel in the first place. And one thing that Republican officials and Republican officials and members of Congress have been pointing to, Crystal, is that they were trying to call David

Weiss for testimony before Congress to explain his actions. And the reason why they wanted to call him is that we will recall we had the IRS whistleblowers who came forward and they're like, hey, Weiss wanted to prosecute this guy for felony tax offense. Then it didn't happen. He's getting a sweetheart deal. Now they wanted to ask him, they're like, look, is Hunter lying or not? Did you really offer him broad immunity or is Hunter lying about that? And then that led to all this courtroom drama. And then the judge throws out the plea agreement. Even the watered down agreement is extraordinary for the judge to throw it out and basically

saying, I think this is too lenient. I've never seen anything like this in my entire term on the bench. So it does look now, it's possible at least, that special counsel status was given to Weiss in order to help him avoid current scrutiny, then have to issue a report, and then only face testimony and scrutiny after the entire case has been resolved like what happened with Robert Mueller. This whole thing is a muddle and I'm very confused by all of it. I mean, everything looked like, all right. So first of all, it looked like Hunter got what I think anyone

has to acknowledge was a really beautiful deal on his, but like he was, should be very happy with, right. And then they go to court and then the whole thing, there's disagreement immediately between his team and the government team of what the deal actually is. And that's where this dispute comes into play. And then the judge is basically like, listen, I'm not comfortable with this. You guys are going to have to take some more time. It looks like Hunter, at this point, it looks like Hunter may actually go to trial because the deal sort of fell apart. You've got these allegations flying from his lawyers. And now you've got David Weiss appointed as special counsel.

I mean, part of what is tough for Republicans is that you did have 30 Senate Republicans a while back calling not only for a special counsel in this investigation, but literally calling for David Weiss to be appointed special counsel in this investigation. So I know they would say like, oh, the things are different now, et cetera, et cetera. But it's pretty hard to have said something so clearly. And then when it actually happens, be like, no, no, we didn't we didn't actually want this. So they've got a difficult situation on their hands as well. In terms of why he was appointed now, what the goal was, I really am going to reserve judgment because I just to me, it's such a muddle and a mess. And it's so confusing at this point. What was promised? What wasn't promised?

You know, what Hunter Biden's understanding was, what the government's understanding was. David Weiss has himself said confusing things, claiming he felt he had all the powers he needed. He didn't need special counsel powers. Right, so why are you giving it to him? Then why is he getting them now? To me, it's a muddle and a mess, and I'm reserving judgment, but it doesn't look good. No, it does not look good at all. Just to give an example, Ted Cruz gave an explanation as how the Republicans are looking at this now. Let's take a listen to what he said. Well, this appointment is camouflage

and it's cover up. I think it's disgraceful. Listen, David Weiss was the U.S. attorney hand picked to lead this investigation who spent the last five years covering it up. David Weiss, who was personally selected by the two Democrat senators from Delaware, Tom Carper and Chris Coons, for five years, the investigation has gone nowhere other than to protect Hunter Biden and Joe Biden. Not only that, David Weiss is the one that is subject to two whistleblower complaints from senior career IRS officials who came forward. They said they'd never seen an investigation like this in their entire time in law enforcement. They said that the Department of Justice, lawyers working for David Weiss, protected the Biden family.

So that's the Republican view of it now. And I do think it's interesting, like you said, because originally some people did actually ask for special counsel. Ted Cruz being one of them. Ted Cruz being one of them. Asked for David Weiss to be appointed as special counsel. Right. And then now though, yeah, I mean, it does come down to timing. It comes down to what exactly it's going to look like and why this appointment was made. Is this case going to go to trial? Is a plea agreement actually going to happen? And actually, even the current case, it doesn't even concern me that much because I don't care as much about the tax charges. I want to know about all this money that was flown in here. I care about

what said money that tax was not paid on. Where did it come from? Why was it paid? For what purpose? Some of that has been released. Now the $20 million or so that they've revealed in transactions, which is extraordinary for so-called, you know, like basically, you know, Hunter wanting to avoid registering as a foreign agent. Those are the cases that I actually want to see and the actual investigation. So is he even going to go into that? Because that's one thing Weiss floated before the judge was, yeah, well, we may still explore an investigation or whatever into that. But then I've also seen that one of the criticisms of Weiss is that he's been waiting for some statutes of limitations also to expire in some charges that could have been brought against Hunter. And he's been dragging his feet on this

case now for almost four, yeah, for several years that he's been in charge. So yeah, the entire thing doesn't make any damn sense. Yeah. I mean, listen, on the Republican side, they're going to criticize no matter what was done here, they're going to criticize. So, I mean, it's pretty blatant when you literally ask for exactly this outcome and then the outcome happens and you're up at arms. And I love how Ted Cruz conveniently leaves that out when he's talking about his like five-year coverup or whatever. Like if it was a five-year coverup, then, you know, that was going on back when you were calling for this man to be appointed special counsel. I sort of disregard the things that they say. In terms of what we do know, you know, I agree with you, Sagar. These charges are directly about Hunter Biden. They are not,

except tangentially, about Joe Biden. But the political impact here is pretty clear. They thought they were going to have this thing done and dusted, and it would be, you know, a side note and in the rearview mirror in terms of the Biden campaign. And that is very clearly not happening. This is going to drag on. There may be a trial. This is going to hang over the Biden campaign probably throughout 2024. And so for them, it's definitely, you know, it's definitely not ideal. No, certainly not. And we will continue to keep an eye on it. Okay, let's go to the next part here. This is some really terrible and some sad news.

It's data that was actually just released recently by the CDC with demographic breakdown as well. And unfortunately, just really kind of continues a trend that we saw after COVID. So let's go and put this up there on the screen. We have the full chart here. Overall, the number of deaths by suicide here in the United States actually increased 2.6% from 2021 to 2022. They have an overall demographic breakdown here. And some of the trends are some things that we've been trying to highlight on the show now for quite some time. As you can see, the number of male suicides stood at some 39,255 in the year 2022 in the United States. Female suicide also increased, actually even more so at a higher

rate from 9,800 to 10,194. When you look at the overall breakdown by race, you can see that Native and African, American Indian and Alaskan Natives, there was a slight decrease in the overall rate. The thing is, though, is that the numbers there are so low in some respect that whenever you do see changes, that it will reflect differently in terms of the overall statistics. I think the important thing was to actually look at the age demographic and at some of the really troubling trends that we're beginning to see. So luckily, I guess, the 10 to 24-year suicide rate went down by 8.4%. There is still some analysis about happening with young girls, young men, social media, and all that. That's a whole other discourse that we can step away from. The problem that

you're really seeing here is that from 45 to 64 years, there was a 6.6% increase in the suicide rate. But over 65, there was a 8.1% increase in the suicide rate, Crystal. That is particularly troubling and underscores a lot of issues around, look, we talk a lot about boomers here on the show, about boomer wealth, about how, in many respects, the luckiest generation that set us all up for failure.

But we also don't forget, and I was just looking at some retirement data just yesterday, over 50% of people don't have a single dollar in retirement saved. A lot of old people are in a real bad situation. They are blown tired away from bankruptcy, and they literally only have a social security check to rely on. And in many respects, that is not enough in order to make rent, make food. There's a loneliness crisis as well that has hit. There's also a big generational question around people who are elderly and whether their relatives should care for them or they're going to just dump them in a home. And unfortunately, if you look at the discourse and all that, I think a lot of that is reflected in that over 65 number.

And one of the reasons why you should always care about the suicide rate, especially whenever it goes up, is Andrew Yang said this during his campaign. I still think it's one of the most profound things he ever said. The most basic reflection of a society doing well or not is our people living or people dying. And we have a lot of deaths right now. We have massive deaths of despair. Suicide rate is just part of that. Drug overdose and all that also went up in 2022 to basically an entire Vietnam War of people killed. One of the number one causes of death, accidental cause of death now, is no longer

car accidents for younger people. It's actually drug overdose, specifically bifentanil. So these are all deeply interconnected around what we see, and it is a deepening sign of overall sickness. Increases in the suicide rate now over the last several years are something that we are really beginning to see is an overall trend. And if you do need help, please seek it from a friend, call the suicide hotline or any of that, because it's just a sign of deep sickness that we can see here. Yeah, absolutely. Just to lay out some of the additional numbers of who is most impacted, both men and women saw an increase in the suicide rate year over year, but men continue to make up four times the rate of women in terms of suicide. So men are 50% of the population,

but nearly 80% of suicides. And to dig even more into the age numbers, the highest rate of suicide comes among those age 85 plus. So Sagar, speaking to what you were saying about people who are towards the end of their life, who are worried about being put in homes, who don't have quality of life, whatever is going on there is deeply tragic that our elders to that large extent feel that they are no longer wanted, needed, et cetera, in this world. The third highest rate is actually among those age 25 to 34. So people are kind of coming into their prime earning years who are, you know, these are millennials and Gen Z who may be struggling with, you know, not being able to find purpose in life, not being able to get the kind of job that's going to give them any kind

of stability. All those sorts of things play into this. One thing that I found remarkable is actually in 2020, there was a significant dip in the suicide rate. And then post-pandemic is when it has really spiked. And listen, there's a lot of ways we could speculate about why that may be the case. But we were looking at, we're probably going to cover for this weekend, numbers of homelessness. That also dramatically declined during the pandemic because of some of the government supports that were put in place. So I wonder if some of those government financial supports that were in place during the pandemic didn't also help to curb the suicide rate because we know. That's possible. Yeah, we know when people are under severe economic stress is one of the times men in particular

are more likely to commit suicide. Yeah, I mean, that's the one thing I really found whenever I went deep into guns, because everyone's always like, oh, mass shootings, mass shootings. I've talked about this before. And I was like, okay, well, what is a mass shooting? Like, what does that even mean? The way that you and I would understand it is like a school shooter. That's incredibly rare. Mass shooting is defined by the feds is three or more people who are killed. They dropped it down from four. So I'm like, okay, what, what are these incidents? Gang violence, that's overwhelming, let's put that aside. You know what the rest were?

I was telling you this. It's guys who kill themselves and they kill their whole families. And the majority of the reason, almost every time, they're in crazy amount of debt. A lot of these guys, gamblers, people who didn't wanna tell their wife, can't live with the shame of being able to provide,

they get twisted in their own heads and they think it's some sort of like weird altruistic move that they're doing by killing themselves and their whole families and departing it. Sounds sick, I know, but this is the, you know, you gotta put, try and understand the mindset of a deranged person who's in that state of affairs, but that is directly downstream. So I think you can understand then 2021 and 2022, as you start to see some of the economic real issues that happen with COVID. We've also looked at this previously.

Anytime somebody says like, oh, I wish we had a recession or we just need a nice little recession. Do you know how many people killed themselves in 2008? That's one of those where everybody always moves past it. It's not just people lost their homes. A lot of people killed themselves in 2009 and in 2010 as a result of just being like, I got no way out. I got no chance to live. It's either the street or it's this. And they choose that. And you know, it's, it's a terrible situation that we find ourselves in here.

And this is just one of the most stark, like flashing red lights. I just don't know when people are gonna start paying attention. We've had almost five, six years of life expectancy drop with the worst life expectancy drop in the United States since freaking World War I, over a hundred years. And everyone's like, oh, it's just COVID. If you look deeper, it's not,

COVID is, it's part of the story. Massive portion of the story, deaths of despair, suicide. And when you really look at this by income spectrum, especially the people who commit suicide, and you also look at attempts and the reasons behind that same pair with drug overdose, we have this, you know, I mean, I don't know, it's sickness. It's one of those mass societal issues that everybody pretends to care about, but nobody's actually doing anything about. And I don't know. I don't know what the solution is. Yeah, I know. When you look at the chart of the trend over years, it really starts to track upward right around the time of the financial crisis, actually a little bit before that, a couple of years before that. And it basically continues on an upward trajectory, unimpeded, with the exception of during the pandemic, which, again, I think is really noteworthy.

But it does speak to something that is deeply, deeply wrong at the core of our society. And when you put all of these things together, it is a dire picture that we seem to not have the political will or desire to really deal with. I mean, I will remember that Senator Sanders actually convened like a whole hearing on the death rate and, you know, decreased life expectancy, et cetera. And Preston covered it all. I mean, didn't know like barely any attention to what should be one of the gravest problems in society. So we'll certainly continue to keep an eye on it and, you know, bring awareness to it and try to figure out what the solutions are, et cetera. Unfortunately, this is an appropriate segue to a conversation that

happened on Bill Maher's podcast Club Random with presidential candidate Marianne Williamson. They got into a real debate about how is America actually doing? And this is a debate that, you know, we've had a little bit on the show. You see it certainly playing out online where there's a certain group of people who's like, look at the unemployment rate. Look at, you know, inflation's going down. Actually, you know, modern America is wonderful and it's the best it's ever been. And people are doing great. And all this, you know, suicide rate, whatever, like I'm not paying attention to that. And you have other people who are saying, look at the number of people who are

food insecure. Look at the suicide rate. Look at the overdose rate. Look at the number of people are struggling. So anyway, that debate played out a bit between Marion and Bill Maher on his show. Let's take a listen. Medicare. But it's not Medicare for all. Unemployment. It's Medicare. It's not Medicare for all. Well, Obamacare is getting very close to Medicare for all. We still have 85 million Americans who are underinsured or uninsured. And you have to be really kind of buffered emotionally if you think 85 million people does not matter.

No, I'm not the straw man who thinks 85 million people. No, I'm not saying that you are. But I'm just saying when people say, oh, well, that doesn't matter. No, but I'm also saying that when you just ride around, you just see a country that does not look like it's falling apart. Bill... My eyes also matter. It matters what I read and what people tell me. It also matters that I just live in this world and I travel a lot and I'm out in the city a lot. And a lot of people are just living their best lives. And they're not all fucking rich. It's not all the top 20%. For all its horrible problems, this country still somehow,

how we got through the pandemic and didn't go broke, I don't know. I mean, we probably will in the future. Maybe it's the inflation is part of that issue. But I just don't see a country where the people are just seething and unhappy when I'm out. And that has to count for something. You know where I was last night? I was speaking to teenagers on Skid Row. Do you know how many people are homeless in Los Angeles County on any given night? 70, 80,000. If you go to Skid Row, you're going to... Okay. That's my point.

You say you drive around, but where do you drive around? Okay. You don't drive too many miles. Of course. Why would I go to Skid Row? That's kind of my point. So you don't really... You say, I don't see anybody going through that.

No, I don't. That's right. You're not driving there. And most people don't. They're more than an underclass. Yes. There's this invisibilized field of suffering out there. It's not more than an underclass. There's this invisibilized field of suffering out there. It's not more than an underclass.

It's an underclass. It's a large, a too large underclass that this country, that it's a scandal that we certainly can't seem to address it. No, no, no, no, no. It's not that we can't address it. It's that in order to address it, you have to challenge the corporate bottom line. Yeah. I think that moment there when Marianne's like, but where are you driving around?

That kind of gets to the heart of it. There's I watch this whole podcast, which I think it's worth watching. There's, you know, very healthy exchange of ideas between the two of them. At one point, he makes a similar point. He's like, I was on Venice Beach and people are happy. People are doing great. Do you know, I just looked up, median price of a home in Venice Beach, $3.7 million. Yeah, I was gonna say. $3.7 million. Listen, life is great if you're on Venice Beach. I love Venice Beach.

It's a pretty cool area. That wouldn't be my metric of whether society's doing well. It's like, yeah, if you drive around Beverly Hills, I'm sure that's what you think. That clip is actually one of the best illustrations of how class divide in this country really changes the way that we have a perception and why separation in particular of enclaves of super zip codes have created alternative realities. So if you live in an area where you have a median

household income, Washington, D.C. is the best example. We have one of the richest areas in the entire country. I think it's like four out of the five richest counties in the United States surround Washington, D.C. So if you are in Bethesda County, where the average person has a master's degree and you're at Whole Foods, yeah, life seems great. Everybody you know genuinely is doing well. If you do it in Arlington County or Fairfax, certain areas of Fairfax, Loudoun County, you know, particularly like enclaves, that's obvious. If you drive two hours south,

we were talking about Richmond, north of Richmond. If you, let's say you drive two hours south to Farmville, Virginia, I don't know if it's two hours, but something like that. It's further, but anyway. Okay, if you drive a little, well, now you're living in a whole other world. And the irony actually is here around DC

is in the same cities, counties actually, you can go from actually like one of the wealthiest suburbs in the entire country and you could cross a county line and you can be in the straight up ghetto. And that is exactly the point that I think Marianne was trying to illustrate. And the divide and the separation causes people not to understand actually on a bigger macro level what is really happening.

And that's also why subjectively trying to judge your environment, sometimes that's important, you know. But in many cases, like I think kind of what he's getting at, it's just not a good way of, it's not a good way of trying to judge whether the country is doing well or not when you literally live in one of the richest cities in all of human history. Right. And probably one of the richest areas. I'm just going to guess. Yeah. Yeah. He does. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to go to Farmville, Virginia. I mean, go to Southwest DC. I mean, it's not far away, you know, but the reality is, yeah, it's never been easier to isolate yourself in your own little bubble without even meaning to do it. Yeah, I know. It's not far away. I mean, for many upper class people or even upper middle class people, their only interaction with the working class is like when their Uber Eats is delivered or when they're talking to their Uber driver to the extent that they deign to do so or when they're getting their Starbucks coffee.

They don't live in the same neighborhoods. They oftentimes don't share the same culture anymore. Their whole experience of the difficulty of living in America has so wildly diverged. And I do think that's the important piece that really comes out here. And so when Marianne says, you know, do you know where I was last night? I was on Skid Row. And he's like, well, why would you go there? I mean, that kind of shows the whole thing. It becomes so easy to just avoid the unpleasantness. And, you know, if you're not going to parts of the country also that have been devastated,

that are in the struggle. And I get it. I mean, America is this weird, I mean, this weird place right now. We have incredible affluence that's on display everywhere in all kinds of ways. And then you have just underneath the surface, rising insecurity every single month. The number of people who are relying on food banks, the number of people who can't make rent. In that state of California, only 16% of people can even afford a home, 16%. So you have to be privileged just to like sniff the idea of becoming a homeowner, not to mention the suicide rate we just talked about, not to mention the overdose and addiction rate, not to mention the, you know, the vast suffering that has continued to creep up as

pandemic era programs have been stripped away, a trillion dollars in credit card debt hanging over people's heads at this point. So, but yeah, I do think that probably the most important takeaway, as you said, Sagar, is just how easy it is now for you to isolate yourself without intending to, without being a bad person, without trying to live in a bubble. People end up living in a bubble and they don't even realize it. You have to understand that you have to constantly check yourself if you are, if you ever do find yourself in that type of situation. Otherwise, you know, I mean, this is why people literally out of touch is a very common phrase. That's how it

happens. It's very simple, especially if you're somebody who's been kind of at the top of life now for almost 25 years. Like, you're living in a totally different reality. I also would say, one of the problems that we often assume is we're like, oh, well, that person looks like they're doing well. Well, yeah, because they might have $2,000 or $3,000 in credit card debt. They might have a quarter of a million dollars of debt to their name. So in many cases, I have found this, is that somebody appears to be doing well, and then all of a sudden they disappear. And you're like, wait, what happened?

It's like, oh, well, they were crazy in debt. They had to move home, lost this or that. And you're like, oh, my God, that's crazy. Because you realize that this whole keeping up with the Joneses thing is basically financed on the back of the banks and the credit card industry. So even if people do appear to be doing well, you have no idea what that actual balance sheet looks like. And, you know, eventually bills do come due. And, you know, we have areas, things like 2008 and all of that, that eventually kind of become clarifying moments, but they blow up a lot of people's lives. And then you really start

to understand what was going on beneath the surface. The last thing I'll say is, you know, I've been talking a lot about how LA County, where Bill Maher lives, where that conversation was unfolding, is the hotbed right now of militant labor activity and strikes. A majority of the strike activity that's happened in this country has happened in L.A. County, and there's a reason for that. So he should just go talk to some of the hotel workers that are on strike who are having to commute 90 minutes both ways and still struggling to make ends meet, or the gentleman who was homeless because he wasn't able to get into the industry and cobble together enough to be able to make rent even 90 minutes away. There's a lot of struggle out there if you know where to look and you choose to see it.

But, you know, if you're a person of means who lives in a certain, you know, neighborhood in society, you actually have to actively choose to see it or else it will be completely invisible to you. 100%. Crystal, what are you taking a look at? An absolutely outrageous situation unfolded last week in Louisville, Kentucky, as kids went back to school. New bus routes designed with AI by pricey consultants created such a catastrophe, some kids did not arrive back home until nearly 10 p.m. Parents, for hours, had no idea where their children were. The horror stories are still trickling out, and school continues to

be canceled while they try to untangle this absolute disaster. Anyone hearing this story is going to be enraged, but I can tell you as a public school mom myself, I am beside myself over this one. So here's what happened. Jefferson County, where Louisville is located, is the largest school district in the state with some 96,000 kids and 68,000 bus riders. Like many school districts, Jefferson County has struggled to attract and retain bus drivers,

leaving them short-staffed and struggling to make the routes work. So in an attempt to solve the problem, they hired a company called Alpharoot, paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars to use AI to redesign bus routes to deal with that low staffing. Unfortunately, while the school consulted with Alpharoot, they did not consult with parents who raised concerns about bus stop location safety or with the bus drivers who were tasked with making this whole thing work.

Those drivers were desperately sounding the alarm before school day one ever arrived. Here is John Stovall, he's president of the Union Local, that represents those bus drivers, speaking to a local news outlet about how the drivers tried to warn the school district. And when they were calling me in tears, crying that this is not going to work, and they were afraid they were going to get blamed. John Stovall knows saying, I told you so, won't do much at this point. No, because it doesn't really solve anything. His drivers had been practicing the routes before Wednesday and telling him the lefts and rights didn't add up.

Also, they were going all the way across town. I've had like a driver drive out Willow Hoyt Compound, which is all the way out in East End, all the way to Valley Station for one kid. And sure enough, absolute calamity ensued. Some buses never showed to pick kids up at all. Some were hours late. Some kids were not dropped off till nearly 10 p.m. at night. They had to go all those hours with no food, no water, and parents at home terrified, having no idea where their kids were

and when or if they were ever going to make it home. One parent told the AP that one of his young daughters was covered in urine when she finally arrived home at 9.15 p.m. The horror stories, too, continue to pour out. On Facebook, one Good Samaritan said he and his wife saw a little kid, maybe seven years old, dropped off on a busy road in Louisville at around 7 p.m. at night. The kid looked distraught, so they went to check in with him, and it turns out he didn't really speak English, but they were able to figure out what school he went to. They called the school. Turned out his mom was there frantically trying to locate her son. Apparently, they'd put the wrong bus number on his backpack, so he'd gotten dropped

off in the completely wrong place, and he was wholly lost. According to the Post, when his mother was finally reunited with him, mama runs up crying like a baby. She was scared to death. Thank God this couple was there to help this poor child who has to be traumatized by the situation. Another mom posted that her kid had been put on a bus when the kid was not even supposed to be on a bus at all. She spent the day with no idea where her baby was. I cannot imagine ever putting my kid on a school bus again after such a horrifying failure. How are these kids going to feel the next time they have to get on a bus after going through hell and back last time? And as it turns out, this isn't the first time that the AlphaRoute AI software failed

a school district. In Columbus, Ohio, the school system paid $1.5 million for AlphaRoute to design a bus route system so poor that they had to scrap the entire thing mid-year. In Boston, the school district had to backtrack over plans to implement an Alpharoute bus system after parents absolutely revolted. Jefferson County Public Schools has apparently paid them a quarter of a million dollars for services including bus routes and bell schedules. In a lot of ways, though, the root cause here was the shortage of bus drivers that school districts across the country are struggling with. As of last fall, 60% of school districts said they were still trying to hire bus drivers at the beginning of

the school year. And it makes sense why. If you have a commercial driver's license, you got other opportunities to earn money in a full-time, year-round position. Consider that drivers on the new UPS contract can earn $170K per year. In Jefferson County, bus driver numbers fell from 900 to 600, leaving the county desperate for a quick fix to paper over that shortage. As Jason Bailey at the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy points out, as private sector employers up their wages, the public sector is going to have to find ways to compete, or else these types of nightmare scenarios are going to become more and more common. In Kentucky specifically, the legislature has shirked their responsibility to fund school transportation, leaving the school district with no ability to offer the kind of pay that might

lure more drivers to help ease the shortfall. According to Jason Bailey's calculations, the Kentucky General Assembly has shorted Jefferson County $104 million in transportation funds they were obligated to provide in the past four years alone. Just five years ago, Kentuckians joined a national strike wave of teachers demanding the state do right by their public schools, kids, parents, and teachers. Those movements were actually concentrated in red states like Kentucky, where school budgets had been under assault by ideological opponents and austerity hawks alike. Listen, money is not going to fix everything in education, let's be clear. But nothing should be more precious to us than the care of our nation's children. Please fire the AI consultants, fund the

transportation budget, pay the dang bus drivers more, and for God's sake, do whatever it takes to make sure this mess never happens to another child again. This horrified me. Can you imagine? No. And if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at BreakingPoints.com. All right, Sagar, what are you looking at? Well, one of the most dishonest tricks in Washington is tying an unpopular measure or law onto something that is broadly popular or inoffensive. The hope is always people won't notice or that the consequences of not passing that particular legislation are so high that by allowing the unpopular rider onto it, people

simply will not notice. It's the same way almost all of our bills move today. Everything is glommed together so that legislators cannot be held accountable for specific provisions. It is no mistake that the Biden administration then is using this dishonest trick to circumvent the will of the American people and ship billions of more dollars to the war in Ukraine. Quietly last week, the administration announced it will seek an additional $25 billion for the Ukrainian war effort. This request does not stand on its own. Instead, it will be tied directly to disaster relief funds here in the U.S. and for border enforcement. That is clearly to entice both Republicans and Democrats to vote for it. The request is not a mistake. It was made in the very same week that the majority of Americans came out against increased

military aid to Ukraine and who think the historic $100 billion we've given them has been quite enough. The new funds, shockingly enough, are not even enough to, quote, get them over the hump or even the promised end of requests from the administration. Officials tell reporters on background instead the extra $25 billion is simply the request for the first quarter of the fiscal year, and forthcoming quarterly requests for future aid will continue. In other words, this is the most stark admission yet. The funding requests will never end.

$25 billion a quarter is now the standard, and the Biden administration expects the United States of America to pony up some $100 billion a year for the foreseeable future. The stunning admission by the administration reveals much about this conflict. First and foremost is this, how much of a sweetheart deal Ukraine and Europeans are getting from Biden. To understand how historic USA to Ukraine already has been, consider it in this context. The Marshall Plan, which was the total commitment to all of non-Soviet Europe to rebuild them after World War II, cost $150 billion inflation adjusted for today.

That is nearly approaching the sum the Biden administration wants to send in just two years to Ukraine, a country of which we have no trade relationship and is insignificant to the affairs of the world and our economic future. I once again am forced to show you this chart, which shows that whenever it comes to who's bankrolling this endeavor, it is almost entirely the United States. The U.S. has shelled out more than double what the entire European Union combined has. It has shelled out 10 times what the U.K. has, 10 times Germany. Germany, the largest economy on the entire European continent, whose security is arguably most threatened amongst the great powers of Europe, tries to make a show after the US request. Here's what they will now consider. They will consider sending Ukraine $5 billion of military aid a year for the next five years, 5 billion.

So basically, they will consider sending Ukraine over a five-year period what Biden wants us to send Ukraine for a single quarter of this year. This is outrageous, considering two things, the massively declining importance of Europe to the American way of life and the global economy. Two, the actual effect of said military aid on the ability of Ukraine to actually achieve realistic victory and the associated costs to U.S. defense readiness. I've done a whole monologue already on the question of Europe's declining importance to the United States, which I encourage you to go watch.

But let's focus then on the latter part. And let's be really real. The U.S. and the global community have provided Ukraine with enough military aid to hold off one of the largest militaries on Earth and hold nearly 80% of their own territory. That on its face is a tremendous victory. But because we have never defined terms, we are allowing Ukraine to hijack the debate. Instead of the story of their defense as a historic victory, which it is in context, they are refusing to accept any victory definition except for total restoration of their borders

before the Russian invasion and reclaiming all of Crimea. Now, to accomplish this, they are expending thousands of their lives on the front line, requesting every weapon that the U.S. and Europe has at its disposal, and are firing some 90,000 shells per month. How has that worked out? Well, as you can see, despite the billions of dollars that we have pumped into Ukraine ahead of the anticipated counteroffensive, they have been able to take back a paltry area controlled by Russia. On a meaningful level, it is negligible. It basically looks like a battle line from the First World War.

This is with the constant pressure on the front line, firing more shells in a month than the U.S. is able to produce in four months, even with higher production quotas. Ukraine firsters here in the United States are already changing their tune. They say, continue to aid to Ukraine. No, no, no. It's not about this year. Now they're riding off the counteroffensive. Now it's about the next year.

The Wall Street Journal lays out this view. Since Ukraine was unable to achieve this this year, maybe they can do it next year. But only if we send them even more weapons. More advanced weapons systems like F-16s, more tanks, maybe, just maybe, that'll give them a chance then. There will always be just one more weird trick that the Ukraine firsters can come up with, which may just turn the tide of battle. All it takes is a compliant population willing to watch as we ship hundreds of billions into

a conflict zone that is grinding through conscripts on both sides and endangering global security over a matter, again, which does not matter to us at all. The brutal truth is that an extra $25 billion is not going to do a damn thing, considering how much they've already chewed through and the results that they themselves have to show for it. This is especially true when AT Ukraine is directly cannibalizing actively available arms for the United States military and our allies, which actually matter to our security in our economy, like Taiwan. It is time for Congress to exercise its constitutional right and exert the influence that the founders actually intended. They need to deny the administration request and force them to explore now a diplomatic solution

to this conflict that ends the massive expenditure of American aid, and it ends the raiding of Pentagon coffers and aligns American spending with actual American interests. Otherwise, Ukraine is going to be another Afghanistan or Iraq, if it's not already. We will be fooled into a never-ending conflict, which bleeds us dry. It leaves us weaker, humiliated on the global stage. Unlike those, we have a choice today to actually choose our fate. We need to make the right one, and we need to end this thing once and for all. I mean, it is, how unbelievable is it that they're like this? And if you want to hear my reaction to Sagar's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at BreakingPoints.com.

All right. We have a lot going on today. We have some guests that we'll post later and all of that. So we're going to wrap the show as it is for right now. Stay tuned on our podcast feed, on our YouTube feed and all that. Shout out to all of our premium subscribers. We love you guys. You enable our nimble working here.

And, man, it's a hell of a lot of work when there's breaking news. But that's why we do what we do. It's a lot of fun. So if you can help us out, BreakingPoints.com. CounterPoint's going to have a great show for everybody tomorrow. We will see everybody on Thursday. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie.

Enter Camp Shame, an eight-part series examining the rise and fall of Camp Shane and the culture that fueled its decades-long success. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father?

Well, Sam, luckily, it's your Not the Father Week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, My father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. He's trying to give it to his irresponsible son, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. They could lose their family and millions of dollars.

Yep. Find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy,

but to me, voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.