Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 8/7/25: Indian TV Explodes Over Trump Tariffs, China Destroys US On Homeownership, Israeli Threatens Trump Over Epstein Files

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

Krystal and Saagar discuss Indian TV exploding over Trump tariffs, China destroys US in home ownership, Israeli rabbi threatens Trump over Epstein files.   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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welcomed one of my favorite people, an incomparable soccer icon, Megan Rapino, to the show, and we had a blast. Take a listen. Sue and I were like riding the lime bikes the other day, and we're like, we're like, people ride bikes because it's fun. We got more incredible guests like Megan in store, plus news of the day and more. So make sure you listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by Novartis, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports Network. Hey guys, Saga and Crystal here. Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, and we are so excited

about what that means for the future of this show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else. So if that is something that's important to you, please go to breakingpoints.com, become a member today, and you'll get access to our full shows, unedited, ad-free, and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at breakingpoints.com. Good morning, everybody. Happy Thursday. Have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed, we do. A lot of stuff we want to get to you today. So Indian Trade War heats up. So we will bring you the very latest there.

got a bunch of trade war updates, each more stupid and ridiculous than the last, in my personal opinion. I think yours is well, soccer. Oh, yeah, yeah. There's no disagreement here, but look, we'll give you the facts. You can make up your mind to yourself. Yes, that's right. We report, you decide. We also have that viral chart. I don't know if you guys saw this, exposing just sort of economic decline for ordinary people in America across the board, basically since the 90s. We're going to dig into that a little bit as it relates directly to housing, affordability, and home ownership. So important one to tackle. We've also got to the very latest for you with regard to Epstein. Trump just basically keeps digging the hole deeper.

So, and interestingly, they apparently want to try to get Joe Rogan to help them out of their bind. Let's see if Joe helps me. Whether he's amenable to that or not, I don't know. We'll find out. We also are taking a look at the GHF whistleblower, who we hosted here, Anthony Aguilar. He made another appearance with Tucker Carlson. This one for a longer interview in person. And there were some truly stunning moments there where he is exposing additional details about GHF and the way that they operate. And also what he anticipates is going to come next. So you definitely want to take a look at that. There's a lot happening in Israel today. They are voting. The security cabinet is voting on what is effectively a plan of outright annihilation. This is not

a secret anymore. It's not, you know, it's completely out in the open. Of course, it has been in a lot of ways, but now an official vote being taken on that. So we'll break that down for you. Sager's got a big UFO update. Many of our fans will think that it's, it's been too long, you know? It has been too long. My brothers have been asking me what's going on. And listen, I'm subject to the news, okay? So when policymakers start talking about it, perhaps we get some updates, we'll see. I am going to put out a page to the White House press court to ask some follow-up questions. So hopefully we'll get something. Okay. All right. We'll work on that. I have a complete guide to why Cory Booker is just the absolute worst.

And Christian Smalls, it has been a longtime front of ours. I think we're the first people ever to have him on back when he was organized in the Amazon Labor Union. So he is a well-known labor activist and organizer here. He was abused. by the Israelis attempting to get baby formula into the Gaza Strip. So he's going to join us to tell us all about his experience and the reason that he got involved in this fight to begin with. Yeah, I'm excited to talk to Christian about that. His story, you know, Greta Thunberg got a lot of coverage for what happened.

But, you know, he's criminally been undercovered in terms of that story and does tell us quite a lot about what's going on in the country. Before we get to that, thank you to everybody who's been subscribing, breakingpoints.com, if you're able to join us for a premium membership. And as we showed you all on Tuesday, we will apologize when we make mistakes here about the premium experience. And we deeply do are always working to make sure that it is better. If you can help us out, we would deeply appreciate it. If you can't, no worries, just go ahead.

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He says, quote, I determine that it is necessary and appropriate to oppose an additional ad valorem duty on duties imports of articles of India, which is directly or indirectly. importing Russian Federation oil. So let's explain what the hell is going on here. This has been a kind of a chief problem for the United States now, you know, a problem, I guess, of our own making since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, where the United States puts blanket tariffs

on all Russian oil imports, obviously here, as well as Russian sanctions for the entire banking system across Europe and elsewhere. The problem in that has always been, South Korea, China, India are very willing to buy Russian oil because they don't care necessarily about Ukraine, and, of course, being sold on a discount on their markets, as well as the ability to refine that oil and export it. By the way, much of that oil is exported across the world to many of the people who are also sanctioning Russian oil just to show you some of the problems in that.

The theory, crystal, is that by stopping India from buying Russian oil, which, by the way, is the second purchaser of Russian oil behind China, who has a lower tariff rate than India right now, make that one make sense. The problem is that their theory is that by chokeholding the Russian economy, they can finally get Russia to the peace deal table in Ukraine. Now, as I just mentioned, India is just the second largest purchaser of Russian oil. The Chinese are the first. The Chinese are not subject to any tariffs over this entire thing. And second, it still comes down to this theory of the chokehold being applied to Russia that will finally get it to stop in Ukraine.

There is not a single scrap of evidence to show that that is true. The Russian war machine is actually what's fueling the entire economy right now. It's like 20-something percent of their GDP. It's increased their overall GDP growth, their weapons manufacturing is exploding with help from, again, not just India, but China, North Korea and Iran, many other actors. It really just demonstrates the futility of our trade policy by trying to use it for purposes on Ukraine. And then there's also a bigger question here of what's actually important? Is it Israel and Ukraine? because that's the message being sent now from the Trump administration.

The Trump administration is thinking you or I should pay higher Canadian lumber prices because the Canadian government recognizes a state of Palestine, okay? I don't remember, you know, thinking anything about that whenever it was our trade war. And then second, with India, India is now subject to a 50% tariff. Now, again, just to explain how ridiculous it is just from geopolitical point of view, if you believe that China is your premier economic competitor, now what do you want to do? you want to make sure that you have good relations with all of the great powers in the rest of Asia. Well, that would include Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and India, namely India, which has always pursued

a policy of non-alignment. And so from the first Trump administration, including the second Trump administration, their theory was, hey, we'll have better economic relationship here with India because that will mean that this great power over 1.4 billion people, rising economic giant, will have closer ties there to make sure that nobody is going to fall into. the Chinese orbit and create kind of a strategic balance. We pressured companies like Apple who were about to get to move iPhone production to India, all of these other manufacturing problems. Now, look, I'll be fair. India's got a very closed-off economy. I mean, they have insane non-tariff barriers they have for a long time. Their theory, which, by the way, I think is

correct, is that allowing, you know, outside Western influence gives these countries too much control over their economy. Can't argue with that. I mean, it's true. I mean, you could look at where they are. That's fine. I mean, I'd be happy to punish them, quote, punish them or tariff them, if it had anything to do with, you know, protecting American manufacturing or any of that, while also considering the geostrategic implications. But this has nothing to do with that. It is literally just to try and pressure India and Ukraine, or India and Russia, on the war in Ukraine, which has not one scrap of evidence over the last two and a half years to show that it has actually worked. This is the Biden-Lindsay-Lindsay-Lindsay, literally Lindsey Graham policy, who's

beg for this from day one. And it's preposterous and actually could send the price of oil sky high if it allows to continue. Well, and also the fact that thus far India has chosen, you know, we're just going to stick to Russian oil is actually a testament to the effective nature of some of their protectionist policies, which helped to buffet them from, you know, the sanctions, or not the sanctions, but the terrorists that are being imposed. I mean, they are sort of like a sanction. They're basically functioning the same way. It's meant as a punishment for them not doing what we want them to do. So it is extraordinary. And I mean, it's also, there's a weirdness to it as well because ideologically, Modi and Trump have a lot of similarities, you know,

both sort of like authoritarian inclined, Modi is a Hindu nationalist. You know, you would think there would be this sort of like natural alliance between them. And instead, as we're going to play later in this block, I mean, you've just absolutely infuriated all of the Indians, you know, sort of across the board. And certainly the Hindu nationalists are disgusted with this attack on their sovereignty as they, as, you know, as any country would be. And that's what's been so foolish about this trade war from the beginning is there's no strategy to it. It's just let me literally piss off the entire world and never have a clear, coherent strategy about, you know, explain to anyone about what we're doing. And now as we get down to it, we see just how haphazard and counterproductive

it truly is. So in Brazil, we're punishing Brazil because we don't like what they're doing with a court case against Bolsonaro. With Canada, we're punishing them because we don't like them recognizing a state of Palestine while we're, you know, busy supporting a genocide there. With India, obviously, we don't like, oh, you're, you know, you're screwing with our ability to crush Russia and put pressure on them. By the way, you know, this is also the guy who promised to resolve that conflict before he even got into office or within 24 hours, depending on the day of when he got into office. How's that working out? It really is extraordinary to see the way that ordinary American people truly are basically being used as pawns here for Trump's vicissitudes

and for him to pursue whatever foreign policy he feels like in that day. And keep in mind, the people who predominantly pay the tariff price are consumers. When you go to the grocery store, when you go to make a purchase, that is predominantly because most of the costs get passed on to you. As I, we both said a million times, we are not opposed to some protectionist policy that makes a goddamn sense. But none of this does. Yeah. And look, again, that's my issue. here is what if we want high tariffs, it should be on China and China alone. And then you should make it dramatically attractive to make sure that you put all U.S. industry to push it out of

China on a five to 10 year plan that they would have to submit. And from that point forward, we can look at exclusions, plans, et cetera, that makes strategic sense for the United States. 50% of all GDP will be in Asia in just five years. That's why it makes no sense to punish one of the rising powers of Asia when it is for a war in Europe for a country that's not in NATO, that is what number 60 whatever in U.S. bilateral trade has no impact on the U.S. economy. India is the 10th largest trading partner of the United States. That's even with all of their crazy non-tariff trade barriers. I mean, that's a massive, I mean, that is literally, guys, I'm talking more than Brazil. I'm talking about probably more than any other, you know, partner that

has really come under scrutiny aside of Japan. India now joins Brazil with some of the highest tariffs in the world. So how is it that China, the number one producer of, the number one problem from an economic competitor level, by the way, the number one purchaser and client state, really the Russians, right? The Russians, what? You think India's the one who's selling them weapons or India's the one who's propping up their financial system? No, it's China. And so the Chinese are getting all these crazy exclusions. The whole thing is completely basque backwards. And here's CNBC talking specifically about the price of oil.

Let's take a listen. India and Russia now have to go look for, you know, basically the energy somewhere else. Let's just say they now have to go basically buy it from the United States or buy it from Saudi Arabia. Guess what? Oil price is going to go through the roof. I mean, last year alone, Asia basically imports something like almost four big, four million barrels per day of Russian production.

I mean, that is the kind of quantity that you just cannot switch off and decide to replace it, okay, where somebody else is basically oil. And I think that if Indians were to hold out, you know, they might, you know, basically find out for themselves that Trump will tackle on this issue because anything, Trump so far has had zero appetite for anything that can lead to a high oil price. So the question is, will Modi play this game of chicken with him? thinking that Trump is going to fall. And so there's been similar movement for other countries that have been subject to tariffs like this. Let's go and put this up there on the screen. This is from the president of Brazil, Lula, quote, I won't humiliate myself. Brazil's presidency's no point in tariff talks with Donald Trump's on 50% tariff on Brazilian goods that took effect on Wednesday.

In fact, I just saw a very interesting piece come across my screen, which is about the Brazilians and the Japanese striking a deal on food and beef specifically, because A lot of beef, especially like higher-end beef, will be purchased from Japan. And the Brazilians, one of the largest meat exporters in the world, have been trying to break into the Japanese market now for quite some time. But because of the way that the Japanese are now configured with this 15% baseline tariff and others from U.S. goods, they're like, yeah, you know, maybe we'll go elsewhere. I just read Toyota, Honda, and all these other companies are about to take a 15% haircut on most of their profits.

I don't have problems with a lot of this stuff per se. I'm not a defender of Toyota Honda's profits, but I'm saying, you know, what would you want to do? Instead of some baseline tariff where the Japanese are going to buy our filthy American rice, great for Japan, congratulations, you can have the same hormonal problems that we do. Instead, you know, we would want to encourage Toyota, Honda, and all this to continue the policy that they've been doing, which is building facilities here in America. This is my point about strategic tariffs and all of that. You know, China, again, is actually getting a more of a red carpet experience than all of the other countries. surrounding it, which the policy of some sort of pivot to Asia would make any damn sense. America right now is addicted to Europe and to the Middle East. It's like we can't get away

from it, can't take your eye off the ball. I've been hearing pivot to Asia in this town for 20 years now ever since the war in Iraq never, you know, get anything about it. Hey guys, it's AZ Fudd. You may know me as a gold medalist. You may know me as an NCAA national champion and recent most outstanding player. You may even know me as a People's Princess. but now you're also going to know me as your favorite host. Every week on my new podcast, Fud around and find out, I'll give you an inside look at everything happening in my crazy life as I try to balance it all.

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The whole thing really is preposterous. It continues to be whenever you look, continue down the line. with the way that these American companies are acting with, with Trump. I can't even believe this. It's unbelievable. Tim Cook went to the Oval Office yesterday to present Trump with literal gold. Like Trump is a Mongol king of all, like the great Khan Ogadai, and the Duke of Moscovy travels across the step to present him with tribute. That's basically what's happening.

I'm not making this shit up. Watch it for yourself. This box was made from the U.S. in California, and this glass comes off the morning line. It's engraved for President Trump. It's a unique unit of one, designed it for you. And the base comes from Utah and is 24-carat gold. Congratulations to President.

The great people of Kentucky. Great people of Kentucky. Listen, this is, again, this country is a joke. Do we want America, do we want companies like Apple to invest a lot more in America? Yes.

But the problem with this stuff is this all headline, you know, grabbing, it makes no sense. Put this up there on the screen. This is from the Wall Street Journal. Because of the way that Tim Cook and NVIDIAs, Jensen Wong, have kissed Trump's ass. They have now got themselves

exempt from a huge amount of the semi-conductor tariffs. NVIDIA, by the way, has pulled off the coup of the century in case anybody knows. There were previous chips, the H20 chips, which were not supposed to be exported to China, which got themselves an actual exemption from the Trump administration, basically after Jensen paid like $5 million or whatever to attend some Mar-a-Lago dinner. And he was actually at the White House just yesterday. But it's all because of this. Now, Apple, what they say here is like, oh, they're going to invest another $100 billion.

billion dollars, you know, to the United States. Well, if you look, you know, deeply, this was on top of a $500 billion investment plan that they had for America. Well, it was just repackaged spending plan that they'd already put in their public documents according to all of the industry analysts. So, look, is it great to have an extra 100 bill? Yeah, absolutely. But if you read a little bit further, quote, Apple has made similar announcements dating back. Its investment, though, in manufacturing, quote, pales next to its investments in China, India, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, where nearly all of its devices are made. The reason why he's holding up that glass as some sort of great thing is because that's going to be the only

part of the iPhone that actually comes from America. And even then, it's not even going to come from all the iPhones, okay? It's not like it's going to be the exclusive supplier of the glass for all of the globe. And then, you know, this is where, you know, the Trump people, they call you a hater and all these things, if you just read and you look a little bit deep into all of this.

And so people need to wonder, like, is this an acceptable way to be conducting our trade policies? Why I find it just so, like, maddeningly stupid. Yeah, absolutely. And this, like, that thing that you saw with, oh, here's your, here, sir. Here's your unique, you know,

personalized piece of glass and your 24-carat gold base and what I'm like this is the way our country is run now this that's it I mean not only did he get you know with the chips he's gotten his car bounce there there's actually consumer electronics car mount with the india tariffs as well which obviously mass I mean it probably benefits apple more than any other company and so this is why wall street has been okay with this because if you are a gigantic corporation or a billionaire you can pay the price of admission to get your little carve out and your goodies. I mean, when we talk about a captured oligarchy, that's what we're talking about. People who can be in the favored inner circle and they can get their needs met and as long

as they play by the rules of total and complete deference and going in and kissing his ass and doing all these sorts of things, then they're going to be the favored ones and they're going to amass a tremendous amount of wealth. And if you aren't in that inner circle, then who cares? you get screwed. I mean, the man is just completely for sale. And that means that our trade policy and our foreign policy, everything is completely for sale to the highest bidder. So when you see Tim Cook, Tim Apple going into the Oval Office and making this fawning display, when you see, you know, going back to the inauguration having all those billionaires, some of the richest people in the

world, standing behind Trump and doing similarly like slavish bootlicking displays, making these big and, oh, we're going to invest this much, we're going to invest that much. A bunch of the trade deals, too. It's the same thing. When you covered the EU trade deal, oh, we're going to invest $500 billion in the U.S. And it's like, well, I mean, we can't actually enforce that, but it's a nice idea.

He doesn't care. He doesn't care. He just wants the headline. That's all he wants. And these stupid mainstream reporters, it seems like never do they question it. They just get a press release from the White House and they take it as gospel,

and they've been taken for a ride. But how many times are you going to be taken for a ride? I mean, on all these trade deals, on all these big corporate announcements, never once do they look and go, oh, well, you know, maybe we should hold off a minute and see if this is actually real. They just run with the headline, and that's all he cares about. Look, I mean, to the extent that I'll defend them, it's that most of them are so dumb that they literally don't know how to read.

If you follow the Wall Street, it's embarrassing. If you just read the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, there are excellent trade of Bloomberg, you know, the financial press. They'll tell you all what's going on out in the open. Let me explain. I want to linger on the stock market part because this has been driving me nuts when everyone's like, people predicted that the stock market would go down. By the way, guys, if the tariffs are real, the stock market should plunge. I'm being honest. Yeah.

Like, if you're actually going to meaningfully change, meaningfully change the way that American companies do business, specifically with China and bring back manufacturing, margin and profit should be destroyed. That's, I'm just, I'm being real with everybody. That's part of the reason why you have to be, you know, careful whenever you implement this stuff and also message it in a proper way. The fact that the S&P, some 80% of S&P companies are beating earnings expectations for the first time since 2021. That should tell you something, is that, you know, they don't really have to do very much

and can continue their margin of business. Wall Street, as you just said, has factored in the ability for all of these major companies to at least maintain, quote, good relations, that's Wall Street speak, with the White House, and either get themselves an exemption or find themselves in a way where they can continue some sort of business as usual. The White House gets to claim some X billion a month that they're taking in in tariff revenue. Great, okay, but the point is that it will lead to marginal price increase, but not a fundamental way to change business. Just remember this. The Chinese stock market is flat to 2009 effectively. Why? Because they don't care about profit. They care about reinvestment, about manufacturing, and actually changing the way

making themselves autonomous at the end of the day. That's what they care about the most. They're real economy. So, yes, Shanghai stock market doesn't do all that well. That should tell you, Where our S&P, I don't even know what it would return from 09, even with all the blips and all of that, it's still, it's unbelievable the amount of returns that we have gotten here. But everyone needs to ask themselves, are you actually richer than you were in 2009? I would bet. We'll answer that question in a moment. Yes. Yeah. So with that, we'll give you the view. People liked when we pulled a clip last time. So we pulled one again from Republic TV. Arnaub Goswamy, the Arnaub Goswamy, he is the Tucker Carlson of India, nationalists over there, support. of the Modi government. Here is the view from India's one of the more popular television stations. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for the nation to really come on together, because it is now Donald Trump versus India.

Donald Trump is foolishly, continuously, and desperately announcing a trade war. Day after day, he keeps escalating it, and he's just announced about an hour back, about total of cumulatively 50% tariffs on India. on India. That's 25% that was already there and additional 25% because we are buying oil from Russia. So reciprocal and additional 50% MAGA Donald Trump tariffs for India. And we say tonight to Donald Trump, bring it on. Bring it on, ladies and gentlemen. And that's been our response. We've told them that you can't touch us. You can't really impact us. That's what they're saying there. All right. I mean, listen, are they going to cave? I don't know. So far, the Modi government

has put out statements basically saying, screw you, we don't care. We'll pay the tariff. And the line in India is, it's pretty ironic because you guys buy a bunch of hexafluoride and other products from Russia. And then you're coming to us and telling us not to take it. I mean, and by the way, here's the best part. Indian, so Russian oil refined in an Indian refinery is exempt from the tariffs if you export it to the United States. So if you are, if Indian companies export oil to America, they will be exempt from the tariff. Make it make sense. Incredible. Make it all make sense. Last update here on the Ukraine front. Let's put A7 please up on the screen. Trump's yesterday said that there was, quote, a good chance that he would meet with Vladimir Putin soon

about the war in Ukraine. Apparently, Putin is the one who initiated the meeting during a meeting with Steve Witkoff recently in Moscow. It would also have some sort of trilateral meeting allegedly. I don't know if this is, you know, all this still needs to be negotiated together with Putin and with Zelensky to try and bring an end to the war. I think it would be great if it's actually real, but, you know, there's a lot of problems for both countries. And Putin himself is basically called Trump's bluff at every single turn of this. Every time they say that we're going to have a 10-day deadline, 50-day deadline. Medvedev and the government are like, okay, fine. So same with the Indian government so far, same with the Brazilian government.

As I said, you know, Indian exports and all that, I'm not going to say it's going to be nothing. It's about 17% or so of their economies, exports to the United States. So 50% would be, you know, it would be devastating for a significant part of their import-export business. But just I recently saw that India will likely attend a meeting of the SCO with the the Chinese. They would be meeting with President Xi for the first time since 2019. Apparently, the Russian foreign minister and others are planning trips to New Delhi. So congratulations to our trade policy now so far. Most other countries have bent the knee to the U.S. I still would not put it past Modi and them. They're trying to play it cool, but they do think that eventually

they'll be able to come to some sort of agreement. They don't think this is really about Russia. Maybe they're right. I'm not so sure. But, you know, it is regardless. what you say publicly does still matter. India has politics as a democratic nation. Last time I went there, I was shocked at anti-U.S. sentiment for years, you know, the dream of coming to America and all of that was solid. But the browbeating they took from the Biden administration over the Ukraine conflict, they were furious, furious about it, really splintered a lot of relations. So I can't even imagine, you know, what this will do. Yeah. And this was a close relationship. Trump and Modi, they had an event the first term. It was called like howdy Modi down in tax.

I mean, this was like a major thing that was sold from the administration about this pivot to Asia, the cultivating of the Indian relationship, and he basically set it on fire in the span of a week. We'll see how it works. Hey, guys, it's AZ Fudd. You may know me as a gold medalist. You may know me as an NCAA national champion and recent most outstanding player. You may even know me as a people's princess, but now you're also going to know me as your favorite host. Every week on my new podcast, Fud around and find out. out, I'll give you an inside look at everything happening in my crazy light as I try to

balance it all. From my travels across the globe to preparing for another run at the Natty with my Yukon Huskies to just try to make it to my midterms on time. You'll get the inside scoop on everything. I'll be talking to some special guests about pop culture, basketball, and what it's like to be a professional athlete on and off the court. You'll even get to have some fun with the Fudd family. So if you follow me on social media or watch me on TV, you may think you know me. But this show is the only place where you can really fud around and find out. Listen to Fud Around and Find Out, a production of IHeart Women's Sports and partnership with Unanimous Media on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

The summer of 1993 was one of the best of my life. I'm journalist Jeff Perlman, and this is Rick Jervis. We were interns at the Nashville Tennessean, but the most unforgettable part are roommate, Reggie Payne, from Oakland. sports editor, and aspiring rapper. And his stage name, sexy sweat. In 2020, I had a simple idea. Let's find Reggie. We searched everywhere, but Reggie was gone. In February 2020, Reggie was having a diabetic episode.

His mom called 911. Police cuffed him face down. He slipped into a coma and died. I'm like thanking you, but then I see, my son's not moving. No headlines, no outrage, just silence. So we started digging and uncovered city officials bent on protecting their own. Listen to finding sexy sweat on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps, are short-term, highly regimented correctional programs that mimic military basic training. These programs aim to provide a shock of prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor, and rehabilitation programs.

Mark had one chance to complete this program and had no idea of the hell away him the next six months. The first night was so overwhelming, and you don't know who's next to you. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's go to this next one. We've been wanting to talk about this for a while.

Viral chart that has gone everywhere recently. And, you know, actually really does say a lot about the state of America today. This kind of gets to my point earlier. Are you richer than you were in the year 2009? If you have stocks, yes. If you have television, if you measure your ability to buy a nice flat screen LCD TV, yes. If you measure it in terms of your ability to afford an education, to afford a home, no, you're actually a lot poorer. Let's go and put this up there than on the screen. So this is a quote, estimated percent of 30-year-olds who are both married and homeowners. So as they point out, back in the year 1950, it was over 50 percent. up until the year 1990, it steadily was above 40%. 1990, where you basically had the total financialization of our economy in the unipolar moment. NAFTA, everything starts to come in. You see the precipitous decline from 1990, where you have some 40, what is it, 42, 43% of people who are married homeowners, it drops to 2010 to roughly 22%.

So, you know, basically halves in that time period. And then after 2010 to today, it is now less than 15%, probably somewhere between 7 and 8% of people who are estimated 30-year-olds, both married and homeowners. It makes sense. I mean, just take a look at all the data that surrounds this. So, for example, let's go ahead and put, what was this, A-11 please, up on the screen, because this is where it all kind of starts to come together. Here you have the median yearly wage right there, which is flat to 1970, basically flat. If you factor in inflation to 1979, take a look at the median home price, which again, this is all in real dollars.

Median home price was roughly around $250,000 back in 1979 in today's dollars and is now well over 350 to 400,000. Even that, by the way, has been fluctuating. The other problem is that that factors. in the entire country, which, in my opinion, isn't really the right way to look at it because we have such consolidation in the urban areas. If you look at the urban areas, like the top 10 most populous cities and their urban metro, it's roughly between $500,000 to a million dollars. And in the megacities, like Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles,

Austin, Texas, Atlanta, any of those places, good luck, you know, over the half a million dollar price range. You're going to be making some serious compromises, basically, no matter what, at that time period. Not to mention what the mortgages are right now, somewhere around 6.5% or something like that. If you have bad credit, it's going to be a lot higher. So you're paying double with a mortgage price that you would have just four years ago for a home price that is roughly either increased or at the same from that time. And yeah, I mean, it's just such a mystery then, You know, why people don't want to have children are putting off marriage and having any sort of ownership in your society. I actually think it's probably the most impactful statistic about the home ownership thing because it makes sense.

You put down roots. You have, you know, connections. If you're a rent, you're fundamentally at the mercy of bigger economic forces than yourself. You don't have ownership or stakes in society. And, I mean, I'm not going to say, it's painting with a broad brush, but it does mean something. And so as that all starts to decline, that's how you have Zoron. That's how you have Trump. That's how you have.

I mean, so many of our political, socioeconomic forces stem from that. And so that really does need to be the problem that needs to be attacked. Yeah, no. That's it. I mean, the core building blocks of middle class life just get more and more and more expensive and out of reach. And, you know, there's a lot that goes into that chart because you're talking about marriage age and you're talking about home ownership. And some of these elements are, you know, are very cultural, right? It's a trend across the developed world that, you know, people are getting married older.

Of course, women entering the workforce means they're, you know, they're going to college, they're starting careers, that puts off marriage, that puts off, you know, having kids. So those sorts of things play into it, too. But when you look at the really falling off a cliff in the 90s, you can't just blame the feminists for that one, because most of the introduction of women into the workforce had happened prior to the 90s. So then why does this metric fall off a cliff there? And yeah, it's not a mystery. It's because houses got really, really expensive. And so people couldn't afford it anymore. And it truly is devastating in terms of, you know, culturally, we place a very high value

in this country in particular on home ownership. That's not the case everywhere. Actually, the Nordic countries have more of a culture of like, of a rental, you know, sort of like that's typical and getting married later. That's kind of typical. And so the fact that you have this cultural desire to be a homeowner, and you have all kinds of government policy that really rewards homeownership. I mean, the, you know, mortgage interest deduction, being the, being the biggest one. Capital gains is a big one. Yeah, and as a renter, you know, economically, you're just like the way our society is structured, you're just getting screwed. And homeownership is also the way that most people build

any sort of wealth that they can then pass on to their kids that can give them some sense of stability. And so if this cornerstone bedrock piece of the American dream is just being pushed completely out of reach for people. They're having to wait till they're, you know, 40, 50 before they can even dream about it if they ever can at all living in one of these big cities. Yeah, you're going to have complete disillusionment with the whole bargain that is so the whole sort of social contract that is supposedly operating here in the U.S. So, you know, it's, I think it is, I think you're right to say that this truly is at the heart of what is going on with our politics. And it's extraordinary

that I feel like now is the first time where there's really any political grappling with it, you know? Even though how long have we've been talking about this? Seven years? Yeah, for sure. I mean, and just now, do you have politicians even saying anything about it? And I don't really hear anyone having like really great solutions

that are at scale to actually deal with the crisis. So, you know, it does make people feel less invested in the country. It makes them feel a sense of betrayal when you look at, what their parents were and their grandparents were able to achieve and at what age. And it just feels impossible for, you know, for younger generations. Yeah, I totally agree. Let's go ahead and put A9, please, up on the screen. Take a look at this. This is the unpaid number of student loans by age. So more than one in six Americans are now in serious delinquency rates. And the problem with that, thanks to Joe Biden, you can't

discharge any of that through bankruptcy proceedings, not exactly being. helped by a lot of the current administration. This is the problem. This is for the older millennial set. And I actually, you know, people often talk about this with the Zoron phenomenon. There's a lot of people who are like, why isn't educated liberals are becoming more radical? And it's like, well, in a way, and I'm not saying this to put down like working class Americans or anything. They, quote, did everything right. As in they went to college. Like what was the message? Go to college. You take out the debt. You'll be able to pay it off because of the wage premium. Wage premium obviously still exists. Going to college is still generally a good deal

if you don't factor in the debt. If you look broadly at all of these things, you'll move to a bigger city and you'll be able to have some sort of like moderately accessible life. No one's expecting to get filthy rich, but you know, they're like, I'll be able to do X, Y, and Z. And then, you know, I'm 33. So by the time, it's been 10 years up since, basically since you graduated from college. And so then you start to look around and you're like, I'm not seeing a whole lot of that, actually, for most of the people who are able to do that, even the very successful ones, people who are pulling $200,000 per year, are still, like, they might be able to buy a home, but it's not really the one that they want. It has a lot of trade-offs. Now, obviously,

you know, that's how it works sometimes, but that's not the dream that was sold. And especially in the Zoran context, I kept saying this, and I said this on The Flagrant Show, I don't know why everyone acting is acting like $100,000 in New York is in any way rich. Like $100,000 post-tax is roughly, what, $75,000, $78,000, something like New York City, state, local, and federal. So if you take that over 12 and then you look at the average rent price on a one or a two-bedroom apartment and anywhere on Manhattan or like reasonably commutable, you are rent poor. Like almost 50% of your income is being spent on rent, which has massively inflationary over the last couple of years. So yeah, of course people are going to be upset about that. And then you flip it on the working class side.

Their wages have been basically flat, as we showed there, since 1979. And then for a lot of them as well, as we've seen the remote work thing kind of spread wealth around the country, that makes home price even less accessible to them wherever they used to live. So Texas, where I'm from, I watched the city of Austin go from sleepy, not sleepy, but it was a college town. It was the capital. Okay, whatever. And now it's the destination of tech and all of us. And now there are places like Bastrop where Texans will know what I'm talking about, which is like 45 minutes out. And even there, it's apparently pretty expensive, dripping spring.

I never in my life would have imagined many of these places with $2 million houses that are apparently for sale with like luxury buildings and stuff. And so for those people, let's say you were born and raised there and let's say you work at your father's plumbing business and you're making $75,000 per year. are you moderately supposed to be able to compete with that at all? I hear the same about Atlanta, about Nashville, about South Carolina, any of these places, which are like lower tax havens for people who are like second tier wealthy in these places. And so that's kind of like a race to the bottom and it just raises the price for everybody. And I'm not even talking about California, the most populous state in the country, which is just, oh, bonkers in terms of its real estate. I don't even, I genuinely don't even know how people live in California. I don't.

If you make $100,000 a year in Los Angeles, I'm like, I don't even know what you're doing. Like if you look at the gas price, if you look at mortgages, your ability to buy anything, I don't know. You must have a two and a half hour commute. I can't think of another way. I mean, you'll see like, yeah, like a house like an hour out from San Francisco. Oh, that's this tiny, you know, should be starter home. Nothing special at all. And it's like, oh, this is $1.5 million.

Like insane. I mean, it's genuinely insane. And, you know, with the New York talking about Zorro. on, the knock on him is like, oh, you want to raise taxes on the wealth that you're going to chase all the billionaires out of the city. And his rejoinder, which I think is really worth thinking about is, you know who's actually leaving New York? It's not the billionaires. The people who are leaving New York are the working class, the middle class, the poor, like the ordinary people are the ones who are fleeing New York because they can't afford to live here. So how about

we have a policy that seeks to keep, you know, to make it possible for them to live in this great city again. And I think that apparently has a lot of appeal to a lot of New Yorkers of like, hey, how about I'm able to afford to live in the city instead of worrying about like catering to the whims of this, you know, elite billionaire class. The student loan debt, it is similar to the home ownership betrayal. It is another betrayal to your point of a sort of deal, social contract that was offered to be, okay, you're going to, you know, school's expensive, you're going to take out debt, you know, you're going to take these years to go further your education. But at the end of that, you're going to have that same kind of stable middle class life that, you know, your

parents' generation may have been able to achieve with like a union manufacturing or blue collar job. Now, this is the new economy, and that's how you achieve that. And for many people, that has not panned out to be the case. When you factor in how expensive health care is, how expensive housing is, the dwindling wage premium, still a wage premium, but dwindling wage premium from going to college, it doesn't pencil out the way that people were told that it pencils out. And so it does represent another betrayal of Americans who were promised one thing and, you know, were sold a false bill of goods. The last point I'll make, this is a point, shout out to Ben Norton made this, and I think it's

worth contemplating. You know, the original chart that we showed of like homeownership and marriage age, just falling off a cliff in terms of being able to achieve those things by the time that you're 30, it really starts to deteriorate rapidly in the 90s. And one of the things that happened in the 90s was the collapse of the Soviet. Union. And so, you know, the part of what enabled the New Deal and sort of kept capital in check was that you did have this threat from the left of this alternative economic system, which was alive and well in parts of the world. And so once you have, you know, the end of history,

as was being proclaimed at the time, and it's just sort of like Wild Wild West, off to the races, you see skyrocketing inequality. You see obviously skyrocketing housing prices, skyrocketing, you know, education, health care prices, all of those sorts of things. And you see the country being run increasingly more and more and more just for the wealthy, just for the 1%. And the meager social safety net, president after president after president, whether they're Democrat or Republican, chipping away at that meager social safety net. And even though the Cold War is over, right? Why are we still, you know, we were in this arms race? Okay, now the Cold War is over. Can we roll back some of the military industrial complex? No. More and more of our taxes.

sellers continue to go to support an ever-increasing, expanding Pentagon defense budget and funneling billions into that military industrial complex, in spite of the fact that our primary geopolitical foe was defeated. Yeah. So, you know, we could talk about the Iraq War. We could talk about the housing crisis. But, you know, I think it's worth contemplating why that point in the 90s seems to be a true turning point.

And I think, you know, NAFTA coming in at that time as well as- I think it's multiple things. It's NAFTA, it's immigration. and these are all stack on top of each other. It's NAFTA, immigration, financialization, the explosion of wealth, student loans is a huge part of it. All of that together. Nimbism is also like a major part of the story. And then globalization generally. I mean, I've talked about this before, but part of the reason that, you know, especially at the higher levels, if you look at the markets for like Los Angeles or New York, well, half of it's foreign owned. It's crazy. Like the

global super rich just come here. to park their money and make it massively expensive. And then you have all their slaves basically work for them as private chefs or gardeners or whatever. This stuff is real. Like it's literally like the Gilded Age if you think about the level of staff and other things that kind of spread out. And it actually amplifies if you start to think about Instacart and all these other different services that happen. Finally, though, we did want to emphasize that there is a different way of living. Let's go and put A10 please up on the screen.

This is from Carl Zah. He's like a Chinese propagandist. I'll admit, I hated Carl for a long time, but I have been forced to say that he is correct on many things. And here he points from a 2007 story, 2017 story, I apologize, in China, where they say, quote, the country where 70% of millennials are homeowners. China has one of the highest homeownership rates in the world, including among millennials. If you're age 19 to 36 and you don't own your home, you're probably not reading this in China, while young people around the world are struggling to get on the property ladder. HSBC found that 70% of Chinese millennials have achieved the milestone. In fact, I just saw a statistic that some 90% of people who live in a domicile in China are living in something that was built after 1990. Flip that around and think about that for America. Now, rapidly developing economy, it's a little bit different. We have legacy housing stock, et cetera. But the point being that the starter home is alive and well in China. And compare that to the stock market thing, like I was talking about earlier. So the actual building blocks of wealth, or educate anything in America is massively expensive,

whereas all of the bullshit is much, much cheaper. So it's the inverse of what you've become materially richer for. Whereas over there, it's the opposite. You know, their stock market is flat. Who cares? You have a, you know, home? You can get very cheap food. By the way, food delivery over there doesn't have to be expensive.

They got drone delivery as cheap as hell. They've got, you know, incredible public infrastructure. they have no crime. And so people here are always like, oh, the Chinese people yearn for democracy. I'm like, I don't think so. I'm like, I think the system's working pretty well over there. I mean, not if you're Uyghur or Hong Kong democracy activists or any of that, but that's the price that broadly they're willing to pay.

And so that's a lot of lessons, I think, for America. And by the way, they have the coolest cars in the world. That's true. It's true. They do. I still need to film my video soon to go drive some Chinese cars. Oh, yeah. Anyways. Hey guys, it's AZ Fud. You may know me as a gold medalist.

You may know me as an NCAA national champion and recent most outstanding player. You may even know me as a People's Princess. But now, you're also going to know me as your favorite host. Every week on my new podcast, Fud around and find out, I'll give you an inside look at everything happening in my crazy life as I try to balance it all. From my travels across the globe to preparing for another run at the Natty with my Yukon Huskies to just try to make it to my midterms on time.

You'll get the inside. scoop on everything. I'll be talking to some special guests about pop culture, basketball, and what it's like to be a professional athlete on and off the court. You'll even get to have some fun with the fud family. So if you follow me on social media or watch me on TV, you may think you know me. But this show is the only place where you can really fud around and find out. Listen to Fud Around and Find Out, a production of IHart Women's Sports and partnership with unanimous media on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. A foot washed up a shoe with some bones in it.

They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable. These are the coldest of cold cases, but everything is about to change. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA. Right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA. Using new scientific tools, they're finding clues. in evidence so tiny, you might just miss it.

He never thought he was going to get caught, and I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. On America's Crime Lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors, and you'll meet the team behind the scenes at Othrum, the Houston Lab that takes on the most hopeless cases, to finally solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The summer of 1993 was one of the best of my life. I'm journalist Jeff Perlman, and this is Rick Jervis. We were interns at the Nashville, Tennessean. But the most unforgettable part? Our roommate, Reggie Payne, from Oakland, sports editor and aspiring rapper. And his state's name, sexy sweat. In 2020, I had a simple idea.

Let's find Reggie. We searched everywhere, but Reggie was gone. In February 2020, Reggie was having a diabetic episode. His mom called 911. Police cuffed him face down. He slipped into a coma and died. I'm like thanking you.

But then I see, my son's not moving. No headlines, no outrage, just silence. So we started digging and uncovered city officials bent on protecting their own. Listen to finding sexy sweat on the I-heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's move on to Epstein, shall we? Let's turn over to the Epstein story. We've got a couple of new updates here. We have Trump reiterating the Epstein files.

It's a democratic hoax, and it's total bullshit. Let's take a listen. Mr. President, is Vice President Matt posting a gathering this evening to talk about how to respond to the Epstein situation? Is he working on what? Is he hosting some kind of gathering of top advisors this evening to talk about how to respond to the Epstein situation? I don't know.

I could ask you. that question. I don't know of it, but I think here's the man, right? I saw a report today and it's completely fake news. We're not meeting to talk about the Epstein situation. And I think the reporter who reported it needs to get better sources. Look, the whole thing is a hoax. It's put out by the Democrats because we've had the most successful six months in the history of our country. And that's just a way of trying to divert attention to something that's total bullshit. Total bullshit. That's his line. The Epstein files trying to defer attention. Apparently, that's the media and not the actions of the Trump administration. Okay. That was also, by the way, J.D. Vance is responding to a story, which we'll return to in a little bit, where there was some story reported by CNN that they were going to convene some grand Epstein meeting of the principles to figure out how they were going to handle it. But we couldn't help but flag this. From the Times of Israel, our friend Glenn Greenwald, was able to find it. Let's go and put this up there on the screen, shall we?

So here we have a rabbi, is a blogger for the Times of Israel. Yosef Yon-Oos, how would you say that? Yanoski? All right, we'll go with that. We'll go with that. Trump and his administration criticized Netanyahu and Israel, he writes. Quote, and now the Epstein files are haunting him. For a long time, the files had subsidized in the background, but they were considered to be a

march of more threat to Trump. All of a sudden, right after he started up with Israel, the files surfaced, and they seemed to be overwhelming him, he writes. He continues. Now some old files are threatening him. Perhaps Trump will realize that it really doesn't pay to start up with Israel. Because when by divine providence, things that were hidden become revealed, it enables people to correct their mistakes and to endeavor to live their lives properly the way God, with a dash, uh, wants them to. Okay. All right. Let's, um, listen. I mean, I sometimes, uh, appreciate, when people say things out loud. Incredible. All right, let's give the caveat. It's a blogger

in the Times of Israel. I will say I think it's crazy that they even publish it, just to be fair. I'd like to even to make that sort of accusation. What does he know? Well, it fits with a broader pattern of evidence. I know Ryan and Emily covered the photos from the Epstein story from the New York Times a couple of days ago, but there were some specific Israel connections in there that I think are very important. Let's go and put this next one, please. So this is from Ayud Barak, former prime Minister of Israel. I've talked a lot about his relationship there with Epstein, flew on the jet a number of times, stated Epstein's residence. Whenever he was photographed going into the Epstein residence, tried to cover up his face, received millions of dollars from Epstein via the Wexner Foundation,

as well as an investment into his defense startup company in 2015. Well, apparently Galane, or whatever, Epstein's staff, always would compile these birthday messages to Jeffrey Epstein. So here, 2016, so, you know, years. after Epstein is a registered sex offender. Here's what Aoud Barak writes in his birthday message to Epstein. Quote, There is no limit to your curiosity. You are like a closed book to many of them,

but you know everything about everyone. I would also be remiss if I didn't read this one from Mortimer Zuckerman, one of the most powerful media figures, who said, quote, suggested ingredients for a meal that would affect the culture of the mansion, a simple salad, and whatever else would enhance

Jeffrey's sexual performance. Next, apparently, let's go to the next one, please, B3. Well, Epstein apparently had a preserved map of Israel signed by Barack in his New York mansion. As I say here, apparently there was also a signed bill

from Bill Gates. There were literally visible cameras in the bedroom. A first edition copy of Lolita, which has got to be one of the creepiest things I've ever read. And then photos with some of the and most powerful people.

I would be also remiss if I didn't flag. There were a number of Israel firsters who were very mad at me for flagging the fact that he had a map of Israel. And they were like, why didn't you talk about his pictures with MBS, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, or some of the powerful,

one of the powerful shakes in the UAE. And I'm like, that's not the own that you think it is, because what it does is confirm the arms deal connections that I've talked about now and why it makes him a most assets. So you're actually proving my point. The fact that he had high-level connections to the

Saudis proves my point that he was connected to Adnan Khashoggi, and that verifies that he was somebody who was in dealing in shadowy arms trafficking networks and probably was involved in things like, or at very least, like tangentially knew the principal actors involved in Iran-Contra and in funneling weapons between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Oh, sorry, that's right. So not the own that you think it is. Not to mentally. These people never go. go and check and see if you've criticized Saudi Arabia. Yeah, that's right. As if we don't criticize Saudi Arabia here, as if you haven't criticized, like, Qatar and

UAE, like, go look at our coverage and be relieved. That don't worry, it's not only the Israelis that we criticize. But, Sagar, don't worry. We can put the next piece up on the screen because Galane Maxwell in her Queen for a Day limited immunity meeting, she says Trump did nothing wrong. Oh, okay. And she is a very trustworthy source, and I'm sure not at all just telling the Trump administration what they want to hear so that she can get her, you know, her move over to the club fed in Texas

and potential pardon down the road. I'm sure that's not what's going on here at all. I mean, it's just insane that they actually think, well, I shouldn't say that because, you know what, a lot of Trump's biggest supporters will actually believe it. Oh, yeah. They will actually take this as a look. See, Galane said it's fine. They're reportedly considering releasing the transcripts from the interview so that they can try to exonerate Trump. I mean, I would be for it, no matter what. I still think we need transparency in the case, but this is not, I've said it before, this is why

you need a special prosecutor behind the deal so that there's no obvious political influence on what she is or is not saying. It may be true, but you know, why would anyone actually trust what she has to say when she's genuinely gambling for a pardon and is already receiving special treatment? By the way, do you know what the current strategy apparently is for how to launder all of this. It's not to actually release the Epstein files. It's this. Let's go and put this next one. I love this. Senior Trump administration officials, quote, are reportedly looking at using Joe Rogan to help tackle the lingering fallout from the Epstein crisis. So they noticed that Joe said that the Epstein stuff was, quote, a line in the sand in terms of the way that they were,

in terms of the way that it was all being handled and covered up by the Trump administration. So their theory is to send the deputy attorney general on the show to go and basically talk about all of the handling. They would rather do that than release any of the Epstein files. Now, I actually am not so sure that Joe even have them on at this point without the release of the files because the Cash Patel thing was such a disaster. And he was like, I knew it was bullshit at the time. I didn't even really know what to say.

And he's like, in the way that it's all handled afterwards, he's like, this is just the most insane shit that I've ever seen. So maybe in some ways, here, let's agree to this. Todd Blanche can go on, bring on Dave Smith or somebody else. Yeah. Bring me a copy to anybody, all right? Have somebody else on who knows something about the case. Let them sit across and be like, okay, let's talk, you know, let's go.

Because as Cash was spinning his bullshit, I mean, it became an infamous moment. No doubt. And you could tell that Rogan was like, really? Wait, what? But then after the fact he made this comment, Rogan made this comment that was like, what was I supposed to do? pushback and it's like, well, yeah, you could do that. You could do that when he's sitting there. He probably just, it's, this is, it is such in the weeds that if you don't know, it's very easy to be bullshaded. And I mean this too from the FBI case and from the, from the, the way the

FBI handles it. And I've done this before, you know, going back and forward with the people who are skeptics or others. In general, they just don't know what they're talking about. I mean, I guess. No, I'm not defending. I think you should have pushed back. I agree with you. Rogan has covered this. Like, it's not like it's some side issue that he has. He doesn't thought about before. Totally. He does know a lot of details with regard to this. So in any case, I don't know that having, I don't know, even if they have Todd Blanche on with him.

Yes. And even if he doesn't bring in someone for backup, which I don't think they would agree to anyway. But even if he doesn't do that, like, I still don't know that that would go well for the Trump administration at this point because, like you've blown it. It's over. No one's going to trust you on this. It's done. People believe, rightfully so, that there's a cover up. I mean, we know the reporting.

His name was in the files. His name was flagged in the files. His name was redacted from the files. Like, we know it was there and know, like, oh, well, Calaisne Maxwell says that he's all clear, is going to assuage those concerns at this point. Like, basically, the ship has sailed, and probably politically, their best move is to just try to stop talking about it and try to change this. Oh, absolutely. And then they already apparently believe that it's, you know, it's, quote, dying down.

I would not. This is where I really believe Republicans have a Twitter problem. because it used to be the left had a Twitter problem, right? It was the echo chamber and people thought that that was representative. I now think the opposite

where people spend way too much time on Twitter, which is, I mean, the algorithm and everything MAGA except obviously dominates on the platform. It's like, spend some time

on some of the other social media platforms. All right, go type in Epstein on YouTube, which is way bigger than Twitter and used by billions of people.

I can even show our, I look at our demographics. A lot of the people who watch those videos, they're not foreigners. they're Americans. So I know that they're citizens at the very least. And guess what? There's a lot interest in the story. Not from me, not just from us, all over the internet, from Alex Jones to Coffeyzilla to anybody else. I mean, my episode with Tucker Carl's, the only person who's

beat me recently is Candace, apparently. So, you know, can't compete with, uh, you got to do a transvestigation. Yeah, I got to do a transvestigation. Um, yeah, but I'm just saying, you know, if you look at the number of views and other things for people who are informed and are skeptical on the case. I'm talking literally millions, tens of millions, if you count up just over the last couple of weeks. They recognize that in the election as supposedly, you know, powerful and all of that. But now, you know, they think it's dying down because they're MAGA activists or whatever on Twitter and aren't talking about it. Listen, guys, that is not even one, you know, iota representative of reality. I don't know if they even really believe that either, though, because, I mean, to me,

the fact, I know you and Ryan did a great job covering like the gerrymandering story. Yeah. That represents a freak out of like, oh, shit, we're going to lose. And the Democrats are going to have some subpoena power, and we could be hozed. Like, this could be actually bad for us because I don't think Trump really cares about Republican control outside of how it, like, directly personally impacts him. But with this story and with Democrats like Rokana and others smelling blood in the water, yeah, this could be a real problem for him. So to me, that was them pulling the fire alarm of like, oh, shit. How can we rig this election so that we don't end up with a large Democratic majority that can basically do whatever they want, you know, in terms of like subpoena power investigations, et cetera, after the midterms? So I think they on some level do recognize that they're in big trouble with this.

And then the other thing it assumes is that there are no more revelations, which is a big assumption because the media also smells blood and the water. And, you know, you may have whistleblowers inside of the federal government who are not too happy about the cover-up that's being effectuated. You never know what's going to come out of the woodwork. So if you're assuming there are going to be no more revelations, we've got this under control. And then the other big question is what do they ultimately do with Glein? Because if they give her a pardon, I mean, that is so disgusting. I just can't even – it's so disgusting. This is a horrific person.

The fact even that she got this move to Club Fed in Texas is just. disgusting. And apparently we could put B6 up on the screen here. NBC News saw some message from an ex-BOP official who said that this move to this cushy prison camp is a, quote, travesty of justice. One person wrote on the Bureau of Persons staff and retirees Facebook page, quote, as a retired BOP employee, this makes me sick. Since when are sex offenders allowed at the camp, another wrote, I don't care who she snitched on. She is a damned human trafficker. In the private Facebook group, a member who identified themselves as a staffer at the Florida facility, where Maxwell had been held, said they weren't going to miss her, however, quote, glad to be rid of her. She is an absolute pain in the ass. But this is their, what they're pointing to here is sex offenders are not supposed to be. Period. Period. At all federal prison camps. They're not supposed to be in federal prison camps. Where it's, I mean, listen, I'm sure being in prison sucks even at the nice prison. But it's a much better deal. You can roam around the grounds. There's not like the giant, you know, the barbed wire fences, like a lower fence.

It's also much less secure. So if she wants to get out or someone wants to get at her, she's much more vulnerable and exposed. There's a lot more programs available. There's a lot more sort of autonomy that's offered. Elizabeth Holmes is there. I mean, this is like where, you know, it's the type of place Martha Stewart would be sent to. You know, white collar type of criminals, that's who's typically there. Sex offenders are not supposed to be there.

So I think the other possible political fallout is if Trump continues to cater to Galane Maxwell and cater to her desire to get out of any prison at all, there will be political fallout from that as well because no one is buying that she's just exonerating him and there's nothing to see here. If he lets her out, if he gives her a pardon or the government drops their opposition to her appeal at the Supreme Court and she is set free, everyone is going to conclude. from that, it's because she had the goods on him and he had to cut a deal to make sure that she stayed quiet. So, you know, I think if they are diluting themselves to believe that this is over, this is quieted down, that they've handled it. Yeah, it's not at the sort of existential

fervor that it felt for a moment, but that can change on a dime like that. Yeah, I totally agree. Hey, guys, it's AZ Fudd. You may know me as a gold medalist. You may know me as an NCAA national champion. You may even know me as a people's princess. Every week on my new podcast, Fud Around and Find Out, I'll be talking to some special guests about pop culture, basketball, and what it's like to be a professional athlete

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