Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 9/4/25: Trump Plot To Crush Zohran, Venezuela Regime Change, Tim Dillon Defends Saudi Cash Grab

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

Krystal and Saagar discuss Trump plot to crush Zohran, Venezuela regime change, Tim Dillon defends Saudi cash grab.   Juan Rojas: https://substack.com/@rojasrjuand    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.

This is an I-Heart podcast. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, terrorism. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System

On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want or gone. Hold up.

Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast and the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling.

The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70, million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tetherpapersealing.org. Brought to you by opportunity at work and the ad council. 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. All right, let's get to Zoran, shall we? Yeah, well, it ties together because obviously, you know, his campaign built on affordability and finding this, you know, sort of rock star status in New York City, coming out and nowhere to win the primary overwhelming. I don't know if you guys remember. We did the live stream that night. They were in, in New York and I, Emily and I were, you know, here, Griffin and Ryan were in New York and Emily and I were here remotely covering it. And when we went into, we're like, there's no way we find out because it's ranked choice voting. There's no way we actually know tonight who won. Like maybe we might know that Cuomo won, but we're not going to know whether or no. Wrong. Wrong. So we're unbeat the polls by like 20 points and totally remade the electorate. Really energized young people who, you know, were inspired by what he had going on. I'm going to get out there and vote in a way that I never have. So typically in New York City, when you win the Democratic primary, that's it.

It's a wrap. It's over because it's a very heavily blue Democratic city. Not so much this time around. You had Cuomo, who allegedly is a Democrat, who decided, no, I'm not going to actually just be a gracious loser here and say, well done, and I'll support you for the judge. No, he's going to run again. And Eric Adams, the corrupt and disgraced current mayor, who also is allegedly a Democrat, he's still in the race. And then you have the Republican, who, in my opinion, is the most dignified and respectable of the lot, Curtis Lewa.

I agree. Who is running because he's a Republican. He's like, I'm going to run as a Republican. That's what I've always planned to do. So, you know, the billionaire class got together and thought, oh, we can't have this guy like putting in public grocery stores or letting people, you know, get on the bus for free. That would be an absolute disaster. And now the billionaire in chief, Donald Trump, is getting directly involved in the race, trying to clear the field for Andrew Cuomo so that it would be a head-to-head Cuomo versus Zoron. Now, by the way, the polls say Zoran still probably wins in that circumstance, but Cuomo would have more of a shot than he does right now.

So we can put this up on the screen. This is reporting for the New York Times, which has really, they've done the best reporting about some of these inner workings. And basically the scoop they get here is that Trump advisors have directly discussed a job for Eric Adams if he quits the mayoral race. Adams has been kind of squirly when he's been asked about this. He refuses to say outright, whether he's committed to staying in the race the whole time. And let's be clear, he's polling very poorly. He's in like single digits or like very low double digits typically. People hate him in the city.

They think he's been terrible. He was, you know, he was indicted. He did this corrupt deal with the Trump administration. it appears, he denies that, but whatever, in order to get out of those charges. But New Yorkers are not happy with him as mayor of the city, as the lowest approval rating of any New York City mayor, like, since they've been doing polling. So it's not like he's polling well, but if you get him out, and then the article says they also were looking at a job for Curtis Slewa, then you just have Andrew Cuomo versus Zoran Mumtani. Now Slewa, I saw just this morning, this doesn't surprise

me because he said something similar in the past. Slewa has come out and said, absolutely not. I'm here for New York. I don't want a job in the Trump administration. This is what I'm doing. Period. End of story. I'm not even entertaining it. But it's pretty wild, soccer, to see Trump trying to get directly involved and really

putting some on the scales. And this is the strange bedfellows thing for Andrew Cuomo, which you recall in the first Trump administration during COVID, his greatest enemy. Cuomo was set up as this great foil to Trump and whatever. And meanwhile, Cuomo, behind the scenes, first of all, is reaching out to Trump. according to the New York Times, and it's telling business members in the community, oh, I have a good working relationship with him. We're going to be able to get along, et cetera.

So it just shows you how much of his posturing as some great, like, Trump, anti-Trump resistance figure was total and complete bullshit. Well, it doesn't make a lot of sense because if Zoron winning and being a disaster wouldn't be good for Trump, so you would actually want him to win. It's like an accelerationist philosophy. You're like, no, actually, you want somebody to do. If you think somebody's going to be bad, then you should let them, you know, actually go full rain and actually.

win the primary or sorry win the election so in one sense it doesn't really make sense but i think on the other hand uh with the trump obsession how much of this is that he's from new york and lived in new york forever and just doesn't like so on and wants to personally get involved that partially could be part of it but politically it makes no sense because if you come in and hand-fistedly help coomo new york democrats hate trump even if they might be open to coomo Why would you as Cuomo want Trump's support? Right. That's exactly the tacit, or that's exactly the line that Zoron is picking up correctly, by the way,

is you're like, hey, Trump is helping this guy. I'm the person against Trump. In a democratic environment right now, you don't want nothing to do with Donald Trump. Yeah. That's the part I just don't understand. Yeah. I think Trump is, I think in a sense he's like, he's kind of jealous of Zoran because he has this deep hole, this deep hole in himself that he was never like embraced and loved a New York

high society. You know, as an Alnerboro guy. And I think there's still this sort of like deep well of insecurity there. So you see this young, good-looking guys being treated like a rock star, people mobbing him on the street. He's this like political, I don't know where phenom. I think there is a level of just like personal jealousy that this city, that was his city, never embraced him in the same way. But you're right. Zoran, obviously the Cuomo people did not want this story to come up.

They don't want the Trump Association to be out there in the public. But now it is. And to your point, Zoran is. quite obviously, because it's the most obvious thing to do in political history, seizing on that to strengthen his own hand. Let's go ahead and play D2. I think there are many ethical issues with this news. We are talking about a mayor who was facing an indictment that was then dropped by this administration to ensure greater collaboration with the immigration directives of this administration, now being considered

for a job offer such that he would drop out of a race to represent this city because of the fact that they believe that would increase the odds of anyone being able to defeat me. Those are incredible ethical issues. And none of this has to do with New Yorkers. None of it has to do with the welfare of this city. It all has to do with power.

It all has to do with the audacity that we have here to believe that we could pick our own mayor. that we have to believe that the most pressing issues are not how to ensure that Donald Trump continues to have an ambassador in City Hall, but that New Yorkers can actually afford the place that they call home. He's got a great line about Cuomo. He says, Cuomo stayed in the race because he doesn't understand that no means no. It's his line on that.

But, yeah, I mean, I think Zoran is very well positioned. Even, let's say Eric Adams drops out and takes this position. Let's imagine this Leewa goes back on his word, which I genuinely don't think you will. And it's like, okay, I'm going to drop out of the race. Number one, you've got a mechanical issue because the ballots are like being printed right now. So even to get them off the ballot, I don't even know if it's possible at this point. I still think, based on the polling that I've seen, Zoran wins, even if it's a head-to-head against Andrew Cuomo.

It's not just Republicans, though, that are very upset about Zoran and his success. In New York City, you still have Democrats who are like, it's very perplexing to me at this point, who still don't want to support him, who are still upset with him, who still don't want to endorse him, including Hakeem Jeffries, including Chuck Schumer, where the writing is so clearly on the wall. And by the way, this is who your voters chose, right? Hakeem Jeffries. Zoran won your district by 12 points. Okay, so maybe you should be talking to him about getting some advice about how to fight and how you're position yourself, et cetera. This is New York Democratic Congressman Tom Swazi saying he doesn't even want Zoran in the same party as him.

This is D4. Let's take a listen. Zoran Mamdani and other Democratic socialists should create their own party because I don't want that in my party. It's unbelievable. This guy, I don't know if you are very familiar with him, Sagar. So he represents this, I think, Long Island District in New York. He ran against Kathy Hokel in the Democratic primary for governor and got walloped by her. So, like, it's not like he's some political phenom. You know, if you look at who's winning young men back, right? Who's building out? Who's rebuilding a working class coalition? Who has the highest level of popularity in New York? Tom Swazi is not on that list. Zoran certainly is.

Yeah, I don't know, though. At the same time, I kind of agree with him, only in the sense of I would like to see more political parties because that's kind of where, you know, he is the one he's in would really get destroyed. I totally agree. It's more, though, that, you know, in the big tent parties, part of the reason nothing gets done in Washington is because a lot of the big tents don't actually agree with each other at all. Primaries are very useful for this purpose because you can eventually take over a party. This is on a functional basis. But he's not wrong. Like, you know, that guy is basically a Republican, right? In a lot of senses. Or at least in, He should be in, like, the no labels party.

Right, it's no labels. Bingham and Godheimer and a bunch of the Republicans. There really should be parties like that. Cuomo should be in there. Right. And then it can be for, we can have like the French system or the Germans or any of these others with proportional representation, which allow people to battle out. And then coalitions and all those people can form in the way.

Who was that guy, Bradlander, right, who supported his own. That's important. Actually, these types of things are good. So anyway, that's my hot take. Yeah. But that's not the way he means. That's not the way they mean. That's not the way they mean.

But in a way, I think a lot of these people, it's, it's kind of, it's kind of like MAGA. Like MAGA is not Republican as become Republican, but a lot of the people who identify as MAGA don't actually consider themselves Republicans, which by the way was when one of their great assets because people don't like Republicans or Democrats, but like but a MAGA, you know. It's one of those things. I think DSA is very similar. That's why Zoran is popular. I agree. Because he doesn't seem like a Democratic party. He doesn't seem like a Democrat. He's run in the Democratic primary, but he's not a capital D. Dem who's like, you know, been going to Pete Buttigieg. It's like Pete Buttigieg just wanted to be president since he's like nine

years old. Yeah. That stuff comes across and it is important. It's the reason Bernie Sanders is one of the most popular politicians in the country because he critiques, he stands, he has his own brand separate and distinct from the Democratic Party in his, in critique of the Democratic Party. And that's the piece where most of them are just totally, they see that as an existential threat. Yes. You know, and actually they should. Yeah, I agree. I think it's great. And that's why traditional politicians in this day and age are not going to be doing so well, I hope so. We've got one, David Rojas, standing by. Let's get to it. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys.

Then, at 6.33 p.m., everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Apparently, the explosion actually emboats. Held, metal, glass. The injured were being loaded into ambulances, just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, and it was here to stay. Terrorism. Law and Order Criminal Justice System is back.

In season two, we're turning our focus to a threat that hides in plain sight. That's harder to predict and even harder to stop. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice. system on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Well, wait a minute, Sam, maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot.

He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now hold up, isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor and they're the same age. It's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him?

Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. My name is Ed. Everyone say, hello Ed. From a very rural background myself, my dad is a farmer and my mom is a cousin. So, like, it's not like... What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago.

I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. Well, 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app,

podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Very happy to be joined this morning by Juan David Rojas, a journalist with a great substack. You guys should all check out. You're going to love the name too. It's called Social Democracy with Populist characteristics. Great to see you, Juan. Thanks for having me on, guys.

So there are many things we could discuss with you. But today we have you joining us to help us understand what the hell we are doing vis-à-vis Venezuela. We can put this image up on the screen, this video that was released by the Trump administration, after, what you can see here is like this relatively small boat out there in the water, and either via a drone strike or an attack helicopter, we come in and blow this thing out of the water. Now, the Trump administration claims this was 11 Trendoragua drug smugglers.

Have they released any evidence of that? No, they have not. So, one, let me just first get your reaction to this development, the illegality of it, and why we should be very skeptical. of some of the claims here that are being made by the Trump administration? Yeah, I mean, I like to, you know, give people the benefit of the doubt. I tried to be as charitable as possible before with the Seekot deportations to El Salvador. And I'm pretty hawkish on immigration.

But, I mean, what we've seen time and time again with this government is that just their credibility is zero. And, I mean, it's sad because there are a lot of, like, professionals in like the DEA and you know Rubio claimed that the DEA was involved in this I strongly doubt that I mean I don't think that the DEA would sponsor like would sanction like extrajudicial killings of this kind but um I mean what I mean to say is that you know there's people in government that like know know things about Drendaragua and a lot of the people that we've been told in the government you know have like verified Drenadaawa members like they've said that you know it's because they have tattoos yeah of autism awareness like we ship people to El Salvador that had like an autism

awareness tattoo and dren daragua like they don't they're not the bloods in the crypts they're not ms 13 like there are gangs that use tattoos as like markers of affiliation that's not the case with drennawa similarly they have been known to deal drugs at like small scales on the street level in venezuela but across international borders it's not really their thing so honestly i think it's possible that these were drug runners of some kind maybe um to be charitable but what i can say for sure that it's extremely unlikely that it was Trindaragua. And the reason they probably are saying that is because they designated

it, you know, a foreign terrorist organization. And so they claim in the legality of this is still dubious that because it was designated a foreign terrorist organization, they have the authority to just, you know, extra you just really kill them as if, you know, they were like Al-Qaeda and Afghanistan.

It's a similar thing. It's kind of like we're bringing the war on terror home. Yeah, they may claim that authority. They don't really have that authority. I mean, I understand the war on terror designation has been, that authorization of the use of military force has already been stretched beyond recognition. But to then use it against a cartel is another, you know, extraordinary, we'll call it a legal leap, I think, is the most fair thing that you can ever, that you could say. And by the way, unless something has changed one, I have not actually even seen the administration

use that justification. The reporting I saw is they're still trying to figure out how they're going to claim that this was remotely justified? Yeah, and, you know, like, Rubio's changed his story. He said first that the boat was going to Trinidad, which is more plausible. I mean, that also seems kind of unlikely because if you know anything about, like, geography, Trinidad is right off the coast of Venezuela. And I doubt that, you know, the ships that we have in the Caribbean were, like, right between Trinidad and Venezuela.

Then he changed his story because Trump said that the boat was going to the U.S. which really, I mean, you're going to tell me that that thing was going to go all the way to the U.S. It's very unlikely, too. So, yeah, there's a lot of holes in this. There's also a question about, you know, the number of people on that boat, 11 people. Like, drug runners, you typically don't want to have that many people on a boat because you're trying to, you know, maximize the amount of, like, drug cargo that you're shipping. So, yeah, it's all very stupid.

Well, the thing is, Juan, this is what I'm worried about. I don't think anything has to do with drugs. I looked at the DEA's own estimates. 93% of all cocaine in the United States is trafficked via Colombia to Mexico to America, 93%. The rest of the 7% is like some Venezuela, whatever. All right. So we're dealing already with a not even tertiary. It's not even fair to say that, like the most side actor of side actor possible.

At the same time, Southcom and this huge U.S. military built up is coincided with this strike, a warning to Maduro and some $50 million bounty on his head. So this looks like a very convenient Noriega-style operation to basically, you know, for an excuse, of regime change in Venezuela. Is that how you see it? Hopefully not. I mean, you never know, but thankfully, you know, the amount of troops we have in the Caribbean right now, it's nowhere near the amount we would need for an actual, you know, regime change

operation. Yeah, but it could be destabilization. That's kind of what the way I say is like this is a shot at the bow of Maduro. Right, right. I like to think it's probably just saber rattling. And actually, I think that the timing of Rubio was just in Mexico. I think they're actually kind of trying to send the Mexicans a message that's like, hey, you guys don't cooperate with us as much as we want. And they have been cooperating a ton, but it seems to be enough.

But yeah, I think they're definitely sending a message, hey, you guys don't play ball. We might do this, you know, in or near Mexico. To that point, let's go ahead and take a listen to Pete Heggseth on Fox News saying basically, like, this is just the beginning. Let's take a listen to that. I watched it live. We knew exactly who was in that boat. We knew exactly what they were doing. And we knew exactly who they represented. And that was Trenda Raguay, a narco-terrorist organization designated by the United States trying to poison our country with illicit drugs. We're sealing the border. But President Trump is willing to go on offense in ways that others have not been. and to send that clear signal to Trende Aragua, cartel del Soles and others emanating from Venezuela, we're not going to allow this kind of activity. You're poisoning our people.

We've got incredible assets, and they are gathering in the region. And so you want to try to traffic drugs. It's a new day. It's a different day. And so those 11 drug traffickers are no longer with us, sending a very clear signal that this is an activity. The United States is not going to tolerate. So what do you make of those comments and what we may see as this government's policy going for?

And by the way, let's just make it clear what other administrations did is if you do have a boat that you suspect to be, you know, drug smugglers and to contain drugs as cargo, you interdict it. And that is, you know, that is the normal standard procedure. There's no indication they even tried to do that. And so now, apparently, the norm is just going to be we can just decide to blow random boats out of the water and you're just going to have to trust us that these are the people that we say that they are. yeah i mean uh it's just like the war on terror i mean we had all these cases of you know drone strikes that ended up killing civilians it said you know it was al qaeda whoever and that really wasn't the case or or ISIS and uh actually someone brought up that recently in uh you know with the huthies we ended up killing a bunch of civilians claimed it was you know uh rebels

but it wasn't the case uh and you know the genius the despicable genius of this is that you know You know, like, they claim that, you know, they intercepted, like, I mean, communications of the so-of-the-alleged traffickers, but, I mean, who knows if we'll ever see that, they might keep it as a state secret, just like with the C-Cod deportations. And, I mean, the 11 guys, the supposed 11 guys, they're all dead now. So, you know, how would we verify any of this on, like, a physical level, they're at the bottom of the ocean? So one of the things, Juan, that I saw was that this was potentially had something to do with the alien energy. Emmys Act, that by participating in a strike allegedly against Trennairagua, they can argue before the court as they continue to move through the legal process, that this is now actively a war, like a theater of war that the administration is in, to bolster their ability

to justify this before the Supreme Court and avoid judicial scrutiny. Have you seen any of that? I'm curious. Oh, yeah, I could see them trying to make that case. I think, you know, Emily said this yesterday. Like, their theory now is that, you know, Maduro is head of the so-called cartel of the Sons, which is kind of an informal, supposed cartel within the Venezuelan military. Actually predates Chavismo, and it's kind of just like a, you know, an informal term.

And so that through the cartel of the Sons, the Venezuelan military slash Maduro are really the head of Trindaragua, which is insane. I mean, don't get me wrong, Maduro is horrific. He's a horrific dictator, and Venezuela is a mafia state. But, I mean, you know, we're just like words of lost meaning in the way like we're trying to go about this. Yeah. Well, and talk a little bit more about Venezuela and how they are received. So you've got the bounty on Maduro's head. You have, you know, best case scenario, a lot of military saber rattling.

And now this, you know, bragging about blowing up this boat that we're claiming had Venezuelans on it. You know, how are they late? It all just feels like an intentional provocation. And that's what's deeply concerning about it, is it feels like they're looking for an excuse to do even more and, you know, potential deep stabilization, regime change, whatever that looks like. So how is Maduro responding? How do you expect him to respond? Yeah, you know, it's funny because after they did this prisoner swap with El Salvador, releasing like some Americans in Venezuelan dissidents in exchange for the, you know, 200 Venezuelans in El Salvador. and like days after that they actually restored Chevron's oil license

in Venezuela and so a lot of the Miami Neocons were furious about that so this is kind of their way of appeasing them and as far as how Maduro has reacted to this he loves this I mean you know like solidarity people it's kind of contradictory like all these regimes like yeah they want to remove

sanctions but they also secretly kind of don't because it gives them an excuse to crack down undescent you know diffuse like blame for all of their own like fuck-ups. So Maduro has said, oh, hey, Trump, don't fall for this. Rubio is trying to drag you into a war. And, you know, he might be right. But, you know, he gets to mobilize all of his militias. You know, he sent like 15,000 militiamen to the border with Colombia where, you know, he thinks like an invasion could occur. And it's great saber rattling for him. He loves this.

Yeah, exactly. See, that's always the part that they just, it's like other countries also have politics. You can be a dictator and have politics. That's just how it works. It's funny that you played the Rubio card. Yeah, I mean, I'm curious on Mexico because like we said, look, I mean, I cite these guys, they're like, oh, this is revenge for fentanyl. Again, I'm like, guys, like 99.9% of the fentanyl enters the United States. It comes from Mexico. The cartels with any power, they're in Mexico. You know what the tricky problem is? While Mexico and its government has a lot of links and corruption with all this to the cartels, Mexico's also a number one trading partner of the United States. So what are we going to do here? And so,

So broadly, you know, I'm curious, like you're talking about saber rattling and all of this. There's been so much talk. Oh, America's going to go after the cartels in Mexico. The one reason I've never thought that would actually happen is because of the NAFTA and trading. I was like there's just, you would genuinely nuke the U.S. economy if they shut down the border. I mean, I'm curious how, you know, because you're an expert on Shinebomb as well, how she is navigating all of this right now, especially with Rubio down in Mexico. But she's done really well and has deeply increased cooperation with the U.S. has also taken a very aggressive and smart security strategy.

Actually, you know, fentanyl seizures south of the border at record highs and north of the border are at record lows. So, you know, both of them were saying that, like, the cooperation is yielded fruit, and that's absolutely true. On the other hand, the question is whether it'll be enough for the White House. And, you know, the problem with this government, as you guys have pointed out, you know, like with the Iran strikes, a lot of it is vibes, a lot of it is symbolism. A lot of it is just showing we're doing something. So, like, with Iran, you know, we bombed Iran. Is that going to actually prevent them from getting nuclear weapons?

No, if anything, they're more likely to get them. So with Mexico, I can see them just, like, doing some kind of strike just because it makes the base feel good. Yeah, I totally agree. Similar with, yeah, because people don't use Google. I'm like, okay, so I'm Listen, I'm got no love for the drug cartels, all right? I got zero. I'm like, simple Google search. How much fentanyl comes from Venezuela? Zero. How much cocaine comes from Venezuela?

Not much. We're a $50 million bounty on Venezuela's leader's head, and we literally recognize a different government. And we have a government full of people who've been wanting to overthrow Venezuela now. And you just, a critical part of the Miami Coalition are literally expatriate Venezuelans who are trying to get the Secretary of State who used to represent them. to overthrow their government who once posted a video side by side of Maduro next to Gaddafi. So what are we doing here?

You know, it's like that is where I just see zero skepticism. Again, not even on the drug claims. It doesn't take a genius to draw this stuff together, not to mention the history of U.S. policy on Latin America to say, maybe there's something else going on here, you know? And I don't know. I'm scared, Juan. I'm scared about a sleeper regime change, destabilization, or any of this.

I don't think any of this has to do with drugs as of right now. Or maybe it does. You can correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah, I mean, in fairness, a lot of the cocaine that comes out of Columbia does go through Venezuela, especially like the coca fields near the Columbia-Venezuela border. But, yeah, and, you know, in the grand scheme of things, it's not that much. As far as regime change is concerned, I mean, look, Maduro is. horrific and I live in South Florida

I'm in Fort Lauderdale and I hate his guts too but like you know we have to think about this what are the consequences of like removing this guy Venezuela is a failed state is controlled by a bunch of different armed actors guerrillas you know a bunch of other criminal actors

like you remove this guy like and you know we're in some sort of prolonged Vietnam Iraq-esque war in our hemisphere like my God and what are the migratory consequences of Like, even more people would leave. Like, Venezuela is not going to get fixed overnight.

And most sober Venezuelans know this. Yep, you're exactly right. Absolutely right. Thanks for joining us, man. We always appreciate your analysis. Thanks, guys. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys.

Then, at 6.33 p.m., everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Apparently, the explosion actually impelled metal glass. The injured were being loaded into ambulances. Just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, and it was here to stay. Terrorism. Law and order, criminal justice system is,

Back. In season two, we're turning our focus to a threat that hides in plain sight. That's harder to predict and even harder to stop. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school. week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up.

Isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor, and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both the meats. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or

not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. My name is Ed. Everyone say, hello, Ed. From a very rural background myself, my dad is a farmer, and my mom is a cousin. So, like, it's not, like... What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. Well, 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family.

And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy. Comedy and Murder Take Center Stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Crystal, what are you taking a look at? Well, in just a few short weeks, a who's who of comedy will board international flights bound for Riyadh for Saudi Arabia's massive comedy festival.

Build as the largest comedy festival in the world, the star-studded lineup includes the likes of Dave Chappelle, Tim Dillon, Bill Burr, Ziz Ansari, Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson, Kevin Hart, and a whole lot more where those came from. You got your right-winger, you got your left-wingers, you got your relatively apolitical, all coming together in a shared appreciation for the shower of Saudi cash that lured them to this event in the first place. What about Saudis imposed starvation of Yemen? What about their authoritarian speech suppression and vicious approach to dissent? What about the brutal murder and dismembering of Jamal Khashoggi? their rampant abuse of migrant workers including allegations of human trafficking.

Well, as Tim Dillon makes plain, the payouts were enough to get everyone to look the other way. They're paying me $375,000 for one show. Now, a lot of other people are getting $1.6 million. That's not me. I'm not in that bracket. But they're giving me $375. Others are getting $150.

Why are they doing it? Here's the point. Here's the point. Okay? I am doing this because they're paying me a large sum of money. They're paying me enough money to look the other way. Do you understand? Look the other way.

That's a four-word sentence. People don't do anymore. Look the other way. If something bad is happening to your left, look to your right. If, for example, I'm at a breakfast, and I see someone get grabbed and they start hitting them with that, you know that big stick?

I don't know if it's bamboo or whatever it is. It's kind of a wood, but it kind of snaps back. It's perfect for a cane. If I see someone getting it, I will look the other way, okay? If I look the other way and I see someone being behanded,

meaning they're chopping a handoff. That might be interesting to just kind of see actually how they do it because I think they do it kind of a sanitary way. But from what I've heard, you know, if they're chopping hand I might look down and if I'm looking at the floor

and I see some eyeless beggar grabbing at me trying to get my money I will look up to the heavens and if the heavens I see a drone flying over I will look the other way because I'm being paid enough money to look the other way

what don't you understand? What is so complicated? I'm the only honest person just going to do it. Everyone else is going to have a million. They're going to go, well, actually, the Middle East is more progressive now. And he's trying to make some change. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm being paid a lot of money to not care about what they do in their country.

There you go. The Saudi Comedy Festival, of course, just the kingdom's latest effort in a long list of sports and cultural events, where they have doled out tens or hundreds of millions of dollars so that people will do exactly. what Tim suggests and look the other way. Probably their most discussed gambit from a U.S. perspective is the live golf tour, which came in as a direct competitor to the PGA tour, bought a bunch of the world's top players, partnered with Donald Trump to host events at his properties. We still don't know how much exactly the president is netting from his live golf deal. But yes, ladies and gentlemen, the president, too, is being paid to look the other way on any

Saudi doings that may conflict with American values or American interests. But there is, of course, so much more. The Saudis have made massive investments in soccer. They purchased an 80% stake in Premier League's Newcastle United. They spent lavishly to lure global soccer superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Namar to Saudi clubs. They've hosted heavyweight boxing matches, regular WWE events. They back Formula One and Formula E, which is apparently electric car racing, esports, women's tennis, music festivals, including stars like Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber. And they've also Lord artists for massive biennial art exhibitions. Now, some of these efforts by the Saudis to buy affection, they have been met with some protest, but none particularly significant or sustained

enough to stop the stars involved from making the exact same calculus that Tim Dillon explained. Take the money, look the other way, assume the blowback will be minimal, and keep it moving. That bet has paid off for them every time as best as I can tell. So this is where we are now, in whatever end state of capitalism we're in. Monies are God. The only end goal, apparently, that really matters, the only judge of meritor character, and with this false idol, we are witnessing a total and complete moral collapse. The comedians lining up to line their pockets are really just one very small example of it. I mean, it's barely worth mentioning in comparison to the decision to commit a full-on genocide and ethnic cleansing

in order to secure beachfront property development rights. Increasingly, we're falling into an ideology of utter and complete nihilism. The sense of our nation, as any sense of our nation as any sort of collective enterprise has been broken by decades of a neoliberal ideology that was so individualistic that many apparently forgot other human beings were even actual human beings at all and not just NPCs or non-playable characters. How else can you explain the muted reaction when a boat of human beings is blown on the water by the world's most powerful military or when Florida decides to end all childhood vaccine mandates putting your right to be an anti-vax crank over the health of the community, especially children, especially the elderly and the

vulnerable when we all watch every single day as a genocide is live streamed in our feeds. It may be that the only ones really worthy of being called human at this point are the doctors and the aid workers who rush into Gaza and the Palestinians themselves who have somehow still maintained their humanity in the face of the greatest barbarism imaginable. By the way, Tim Dillon actually had something to say about this as well. The niceties are gone, the pleasantries are gone, Israel is not disguising what they want to do. The motives are not. They don't matter. The narrative doesn't make sense. The stories don't add up. They do not care. They're not trying to make it make sense. They don't have the time.

It's the last bit of control that they can exert over the system before it blows up. It's my guess. It's what it feels like. Nobody's putting the time in to lie to you anymore. You should worry about that. you should worry about the fact that nobody's even trying to make the lies good they know it doesn't matter if you believe them they're going to try to dispose of you I'll be in Riyadh I'll be in Riyadh where my bread is buttered

go find where your bread is buttered go get your bread buttered go get your toast buttered go get your jelly your jam because the world is ending but it's true and it sounds rough. Go get your bread buttered because the world is ending.

Doesn't it actually feel like it captures a lot of the sentiment bubbling under the surface of our culture? When people talk endlessly about a vibe shift, is that the vibe? The world's ending and I don't believe anything, so I'm just going to go get mine or at least I'm going to try. I'm going to chase some crypto scam. I'm going to lionize the scummiest people on the internet. I'm going to embrace the basest of human pleasures, which is the same thing. sense of satisfaction that comes from watching someone in the out-group suffer? Is that the vibe we're talking about? After we relied into the Iraq war and the economy collapsed and the banksters were

rewarded and the effort at a collective renewal as represented by the burning campaign was snuffed down, is that what we're left with? Moral collapse, cash grabs, scammers, race to the bottom, and torture as a form of entertainment. And so a bunch of comedians with all sorts of supposed political ideologies, they're all going to go, and they're going to get their bread buttered from a totalitarian monarchy that hacked a dissident journalist apart because the royal family did not like his Washington Post columns. There is another way. I know I'm laying too much at Zoron's feet here, but there is something that I genuinely find so special and hopeful about his campaign. It's the tiniest glimmer. The possibility of a renewed sense of a collective spirit,

A glimmer of an expanded political vision that believes it is possible to make America's largest city workable for working people. 4,000, just think about this. Extremely earnest people came out for a Sunday scavenger hunt for this campaign. Young people snapped out of their TikTok on weed to completely remake the electorate and shock the world. Or for a more profound example, I would ask you to listen to Dr. Muhammad Mustafa, Palestinian refugee turned UK and Aussie Csie. citizen turned ER doctor who has gone twice to serve in Gaza. It's like this bizarre thing because, you know, Netanyahu at the start said, you know, we are the children of light fighting the children of darkness.

And I'm just like the irony of it is this the other way around, you know, the irony it's the other way around. It's those kids in Gaza that are the light. When you see those children, and I've seen them, when there's little food and, you know, a child might have a plate of food and the other child is, waiting in line and there's no more food left. And then that child who's hungry and emmanciated start scooping out food from his plate to put on that child's plate. You know, when we had COVID over here, you know, we had police officers guarding toilet paper because we had society had broken

down. We were fighting over toilet paper. And yet you have starving children who are traumatized who are sharing their food with each other. Just think about that. In Gaza, their world may literally be ending. Right now, the most powerful country on the planet is trying to wipe out the evidence that they ever even existed. And still, they stubbornly refuse to become the animals that we have been told that they are. They are doing so much more for one another than just trying to get their own bread buttered. In other words, maybe Tim Dillon, it's too soon to give up on the world. And Sagar, curious for your thoughts on a wide-ranging one there. Um, I hate to say it. I just think it's very, uh, you're too optimistic. I mean,

so you're in full-blown nihilism, get your bread buttered hood. I have been. I mean, if you just, I mean, look at, if you look at, uh, you know, I was, we need to talk about this on Monday. Yeah. But anti-tax sentiment is at the highest that it's ever been in the United States. Oh, I feel that. Yeah. Do you, why? Why? Because, for me, it's Gaza. Well, it's not just, but that's when it's multifaceted because it's not about federal. It's nothing works. Shit's too expensive. For me, I've got bums all over where I live. Crime is high. The prices are too high. Property tax is sky high. I don't feel like I get shit for what I pay, not to mention for what we're paying into the federal government system. All of it together, I'm like, fuck you. That's how

most people feel. I talked about the property tax thing. So the point is, is that all institutions are failing us at every level. So I think it's nice to believe a single... I understand the sentiment, right? But I actually don't think you behave like that in your normal life. Because we're not doing a cash grab. Like, we talked this week about the way that other creators are doing the total, like, cash grab, sell out. I'll take the Saudi cash. I'll take the dark money. I'll sell blue chew, whatever.

And that's not the path that you have chosen. You're totally right. I mean, I have personal integrity, but I'm more, like, I don't agree. I don't conduct myself that way. I would put that way. Yeah. But I don't, I understand it. I see exactly the way that it goes.

I individually, I am not naive enough to believe that I individually and this, you know, whatever example or whatever we do is going to influence the vast majority of people to change their behavior. If I look at the average behavior of the American citizen, the truth is, is that degeneracy, individualism is on the path forward. And you're kind of are a fool if you try to invest in anything really broadly at like a major societal level to make people not behave hyper individualistically. That is the country that we live in. You could blame the system. You could blame the people. I think it's kind of both. Basically at this point, we live in Vegas. Our president is literally a casino magnate. That's the country who we are. I told you earlier,

Fanduil is now sponsoring public infrastructure. We have no collective culture, no collective value, no collective society. So in that society, like, you kind of should ensure that you're protected and you're okay because nobody's looking out for you. The government's not looking out for you. And yeah, I mean, just broadly that's like the way that I feel is I have no civic faith that if something were to happen to me, that the city that I would live in would do shit for them is zero. And then for the government, oh my God.

It's like you better have the resources ready to fight. So I think I probably feel even more dark about the world in the country with the Trump administration than you do. Sure. So I understand, I understand the impulse, right? But I am not ready to hand society off to the Peter Thiel's of the world and the Donald Trumps of the world who would sell it off for parts. I'm not ready to succumb to a world that's just might makes right law the jungle, barbarism rules the day. And that's, that's my point is I think.

I think it's always been that way. And that's, no, it's, I mean. I really do. No, I don't because of as much as we're, as much as. were, as much as we are in this moment of decline, and as much as, yes, the Carnival Barker and the Trumpian thug and con artist is a deep part of American culture and history, like it is American as apple pie. There's no doubt about that. We are also the country that, you know, that ended slavery, that ended segregation. We are also the country that during

the New Deal built out, you know, incredible infrastructure and incredible manufacturing base. Like, we are also that country that has had that sense of collective and civic pride in the past. So that is also a part of the American tradition. And so, you know, the two examples that I cite here are very intentionally chosen because it would be very easy for, you know, New Yorkers to also engage in, like, a very cynical calculation. Forget it. Nothing's going to work. No one could change this city. It's a playground for the rich.

And yet still, they had enough faith in a collective project to like earnestly engage, come out to vote, totally remake the electorate, put their trust in someone who is untested and young and unproven. And so it's this little glimmer of possibility there. And then I really genuinely believe what, and this is what I've seen with, you know, covering Palestine, covering Gaza so so carefully. Dr. Mustafa talks about how Palestine will free the world. And what he and others mean by that is just think about how extraordinary it is that while we're all, you know, nihilism and everything, nothing matters, I'm going to get mine, et cetera, like that example he gives of a child who, you know, has experienced loss that we can't even imagine, who is trying to be murdered every day by the world's superpower and their little baby terror state. And still, still they find it in themselves to have a sense of a collective and have a sense of I'm going to share. this little bit that I have. And I find that profoundly inspiring.

There's nothing that has inspired me more in this moment than people, too, like Dr. Mustafa. He is an ER doc. He was actually a professional rugby player. He was very high-level jih-jitsu champion and is this extraordinary person. And yet he decided to put himself in harm's way twice in a war zone to go in and serve. Like, that is a level of a human spirit that I can't even wrap my mind around, which is why I'm not prepared to just give it and say, nothing matters. it's all shit. It can never get better. Like, it is what it is and we're just going to continue

on this steady decline as like a human race. I would say that I don't have faith that the political system will deliver the change that you're looking for. I don't believe any politician would be able to do it, at least currently. There's only two ways you and I are going to get the country that we want. Number one is a massive global financial crisis. We were talking about earlier. We actually had a shot in 2008. But see, that's where my skepticism comes in. The language you're using Mount Zoron, I heard it all in 2008. Obama, the young people, the internet, they came out there, well-meaning. And it's like, remember that commercial of taking the hope poster down? That's reality. I mean, it didn't work. It straight up was a failure.

He took, you know, the hopes and dreams of literally millions, and they crashed, and that's how you got Donald Trump. So reality tells us that it probably won't happen. So probably a global financial system, or it's going to be a massive war. That's another reason I was talking earlier about China. and the most likely scenario is that we are going, it's going to be just like the 1930s. We're going to have our thumb up our ass for years and everyone will be inter, so we'll be squabbling and then one day, 1914 or 1939,

the entire world will change in a single day. And from that point forward, that's when shit gets real. So that's where the Gazans, of course, have to come together and collect a solidarity because they are literally fighting a war of extinction. But in the absence of that, we are not. We are not fighting an existential. The only existential battle we're fighting is against ourselves, like internally and, you know,

basically like warding off all of the capitalistic endeavors to suck you dry of your entire soul. That's the war that we fight here. So without that external factor, I don't see it happen. And it pretty much never happened without that major external factor or a precipitating crisis. So you talked about, you talked about ending slavery. Yeah, I mean, it took a prolonged multi-year civil war of a massive crisis, 600,000 debts 2% of the U.S. population. And even then, at the time, it took the political genius of Lincoln to actually make it happen

because if we're all being honest and slavery was not all that popular at the time, even within the union. That's the truth. Segregation. Yes, it was great, you know, 1964 and all that. But it took about 25 years, you know, broadly. And what, Reagan just happened to announce his campaign in 1980, exactly in the spot where I'm not saying it's all feeling good.

Okay. So, you know. I mean, but yeah, I think that you may be correct that it does take that kind of a massive crisis. You know, I mean, that's basically the accelerationist position. I don't see any evidence that it can come. I'm not convinced of that, but I acknowledge that that is entirely possible. Luckily, I guess for us, recording any number of crises on a number of fronts. We'll probably get there.

Here we go. I sometimes feel like I'm broadcasting in the year like 1910 because there were a lot of British intellectual. I'm not calling myself intellectual, but I'm saying there were a lot of like British intellectuals. and others who were like, the storm is coming, the rise is coming. There's, you know, storm on the horizon. Yeah. And everyone was like, oh, oh, they're just, it's fine. You know, the number one story in July 1914 in Paris was about a lady who shot,

I think she shot her husband's mistress or something. That was the number one story in the city of Paris in France. Like, that's the level of bullshit that they were all dealing with. They lived in one of the richest, most prosperous, incredible places. I feel very similarly. Like, that's the tabloid level nonsense that we're all upset. with and it's like you can just see the storm on the horizon you know you have that you have that and then it's in a split screen with like and the military's occupying another american city you and i

see that right but most people are not they're just going about their day wondering about macdonalds putting the NFL on and betting on college football taylor swift endorsement or whatever taylor swift endorsement is the number one story in the country like be honest you know have you have you seen a level of uh you know how many videos are there of people finding out about taylor's and like collapsing in tears, you know, that's the country that we live in. And I mean, I take solace in the fact that it has kind of always been that way. I don't think it's particularly unique at this point. But yeah, to see the collectivization, the ditching of individualism and all that, it's going to be, it's going to take a lot. I think a lot.

That I will agree with you on. All right. Okay. Thanks guys for watching. We appreciate you. We'll see you later. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, terrorism. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Hold up.

Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe. Find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast and the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Smokey the Bears. Then you know why Smokey tells you when he sees you passing through. Remember, please be careful.

It's the least that you can do. Because it's what you desire. Don't play with matches. Don't play with fire. After 80 years of learning his wildfire prevention tips, Smokey Bear lives within us all. Learn more at Smokey Bear. Come, and remember, only you can prevent wildfires.

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