Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - Mini Show #47: NYC Nuclear Video, GOP Congress, Elon vs MSNBC, & Media Engagement Tanks!

Episode Date: July 21, 2022

Krystal and Saagar talk about the NYC Nuclear announcement, 2000 mules, Elon vs MSNBC, and media ratings tanking!To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.supercast.com/To listen to Breaking Points as a podcast, check them out on Apple and SpotifyApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-points-with-krystal-and-saagar/id1570045623 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Kbsy61zJSzPxNZZ3PKbXl Merch: https://breaking-points.myshopify.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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So what are you waiting for? Go to BreakingPoints.com to help us out. Well, guys, a very troubling sign of the times here. In New York City, they are running a PSA to tell residents how to prepare in the event of a nuclear attack. Let's take a listen. So there's been a nuclear attack. Don't ask me how or why. Just know that the big one has hit. Okay, so what do we do? There are three important steps that I want you to remember. Step one, get inside fast. You, your friends, your family, get inside. And no, staying in the car is not an option. You need to get into a building and move away from the windows. Step two, stay inside. Shut all doors and windows. Have a basement? Head there.

If you don't have one, get as far into the middle of the building as possible. If you were outside after the blast, get clean immediately. Remove and bag all outer clothing to keep radioactive dust or ash away from your body. Step 3. stay tuned. Follow media for more information. Don't forget to sign up for Notify NYC for official alerts and updates. And don't go outside until officials say it's safe.

All right, you've got this. I mean, for you and I, we did not grow up in the Cold War era. So this feels so strange and so foreign. But there, I mean, it's not an accident that this type of messaging to the public is coming at a time when we are in a proxy war with a nuclear arm superpower. And so it's not crazy for them to be putting this out there. I just love how she opens it. So there's been a nuclear attack. Don't ask me how.

I'm like, wait, I do have a lot of questions. The big one is fair. I'm like, how? Why? How long? You know, though, to the extent, I mean, I think, and I hate to say this, I'm also not a disaster expert.

From what I have read, a lot of this is cope. Like, for example, I live near the Pentagon. I live two miles from the Pentagon. If there's a nuclear attack, I'm done. I'm going to be dust. That's just how it goes. New York City, also, it's probably just, if you live in a- Could be one of those little tactical nuclear weapons, soccer, that they say are no big deal. Even a tactical nuke with their yield and all of that. I've looked into this. I've looked at the whole thing. Unless you live seven, eight miles away from a major metropolitan area from an obvious target like the White House, Pentagon, and all this other that we live around here, same in New York City. I guess if you live in the most outer of the

boroughs, sure, you can listen. But otherwise, it doesn't actually matter. So if you live in a non-metro area, yeah, I think this probably applies to you. But it is weird. I mean, I've never seen anything like this in my entire lifetime. Obviously, we both grew up in the post-Cold War era, really, in terms of our formative years. So this is just – this is something that you think about from the Barry Goldwater ad against LBJ. But now it's real. I mean, at the same time, I don't know how much of this is even necessary. I guess it's probably like a box-checking thing from a safety perspective that they have to put this out there.

Yeah, I don't know what the decision-making process was. They said – so this came from the New York City Emergency Management Department. And in their press release, they said, while the likelihood of nuclear weapon incident occurring in or near New York City is very low, it's important New Yorkers know the steps to stay safe. I mean, I think you're right. And oftentimes, I think a lot of these drills are sort of security theater. I mean, even you see it in like,

Uvalde and what happened there with those kids. Well, remember Hawaii? They had drilled, they had like planned and prepped and drilled and whatever, but hiding under a desk when there's a madman with an AR-15 and doesn't, is not gonna help you. Remember Hawaii when they got that false?

Yes. They thought they only had like 25 minutes or whatever. People were freaking out. Tulsi Gowder talked a lot about that. Yeah, but this is the thing. They had 25 minutes because they're in Hawaii, because they're in the middle of the ocean. I mean, for the rest of us, like flight time, you know, it's not that long. I also question, maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist.

I don't actually think they would tell us. I think they would just let it happen. Because, I mean, what's going to happen? You have mass panic for like nine minutes before everything goes. I think they would just let it happen. And whoever the highest decision makers or whatever would be rushed to the extent that's even possible would rush into a bunker or whatever strat com to contemplate i mean the i do not think they would tell us maybe i'm crazy i just don't think the life preservation would be obviously not in the

immediate blast zone but if you're you know in the area where you're on the borderline of whether the radiation is gonna kill you or not that's the area where like this kind the borderline of whether the radiation is going to kill you or not. That's the area where like this kind of advice of stay in the middle of the room and close the doors and, you know, cover the floor, like the cracks into the room and whatever, where that could ultimately save your life or prevent serious illness. But yeah. I encourage people to go and look at the photos of the Bikini Atoll site or any from the Soviet Union. I don't think people really understand what thermonuclear weapons look like,

like what those blast zones and the whole, like it's insane. Maybe we can put something in post-production. We can overlay this on top because people need to understand like what the hell we're talking about. And these bombs are more powerful than that one. The US government for decades covered up the footage, the historical

record of the bombs that we dropped in Japan of what that looked like and what that did to the populations. I mean, that is really quite recent that those videos and images have been made public at all. So, yeah, it's... I forget whose book I was reading. I think it was Annie Jacobson where she describes in detail what it was like for the guys who were at the nuclear test site because they were put inside a bunker to see what it would be like. It was insane. Also, there was some Japanese tanker or whatever which got vaporized

because they didn't know how big the bomb was going to be. And everybody on board just died as a result. Anyway, nuclear war is not a joke. I think it was, I think it might have been Chomsky who was talking about, you know, in this war with Russia, that he was concerned because you have a lot of young people who haven't had this, like, didn't grow up with this visceral fear and concern over nuclear war. But, you know, if you look at the polling on this, it's actually young people who are the most dovish and the most dissatisfied with the hawkish direction that the Biden administration has taken us in

with regard to that war. But yeah, I mean, these are this is something that our parents generation really thought about and dealt with and lived with in a visceral way that now, yeah, we do have to. Even as you say, I think a lot of this is like security theater and cope. It is a new reality and possibility that I think the news media needs to grapple with more seriously as we continue our disastrous policy in Ukraine. Yeah, I agree. All right, guys, getting a little bit of a preview of what GOP governance in Washington here might look like if they are able to win the House. Let's go ahead and throw this up on the screen. Congressman Andy Biggs wants to investigate the absurd claims that are made in Dinesh D'Souza's 2,000 Mules movie. Let me read to you from this letter

from this moronic person. By the way, I did a complete breakdown on the claims in that movie for you to check out. The bottom line is it's like the initial data is ridiculous to start with. Then they make all sorts of insinuations and allegations based on this ridiculous data. Then they show videos of people putting ballots in a mailbox, which there are perfectly legal and legitimate reasons why they may be doing that. They never show, because the allegation, oh, it's all these mules who are just ballot drop, ballot harvesting and ballot dropping. But they never actually show a single instance of the same person dropping off multiple times. The whole thing is based on nothing. Let's just keep it at that. So here's a bit of the letter. He says the committee on oversight and reform should immediately hold hearings to investigate the potential illegal

activities revealed in the documentary film 2000 Mules. The film exposes potentially widespread illegal activities related to the 2020 election by using geolocation information to identify thousands of individuals who delivered thousands of illegally harvested ballots to drop boxes in five states. He goes on to insinuate that you had 54,000 individuals delivering votes to at least five drop boxes each in these four states. This is all complete and total nonsense. But, you know, the Republican Party has indulged this sort of rhetoric and not tamped it down. You now have a majority of the Republican base that believes the election was stolen, some significant portion of which are bought into these, you into these insane claims made in

this ridiculous movie that is just about lining the pockets of Dinesh D'Souza ultimately. And so are they going to be able to easily tamp down these types of desire to go in this type of direction once they actually are in control of the house? You know what the funniest thing is, is that I actually think there should be, I think it should be a hearing. You know, let's see how,, we already know it's bullshit. Let's see how bullshit. Let's go. Honestly, it's not a bad idea. Just be like, okay, guys, let's take a face value. Let's call this cell phone data. And then based upon edited videos

of legal people dropping off ballots, fine, let's actually investigate. I'm actually a fan of that. Every one of these stupid ass audits, Arizona and forward, has only made the election system less safe. Also, the lasting impact of this, which I actually find troubling, is that ballot drop boxes are going to be illegal in some states, which is ridiculous. Like why? Again, it's totally legal. You could call me a squitch if you want. I know people from Oregon and other states where they have full mail-in voting. It works actually pretty well. And people like it there because it increases turnout. Anyway, there's a lot to be said for it. Also, there's no evidence that expanding voting to people who are traditional non-voters wouldn't actually outright help Republicans. So this is a deep idiocracy paranoia that is—

actually, I really do think should be engaged seriously almost. Sorry, I'm glad you did your monologue on 2,000 mules. People need to know how bullshit these claims are. Yes. Because they are so ridiculous. Well, like, there was a bit of an investigation in Georgia because a lot of the claims in 2,000 mules centers on Georgia. Right.

And, yeah, they have these videos of people. So in Georgia, quote unquote, ballot harvesting is illegal, except you can turn in ballots for family members and you can turn in ballots for people if you're like at a long term care facility, people are unable to get there and you're the caretaker, caregiver, you're allowed to do that as well. So there are these very clear instances where it's illegal to turn in multiple ballots. And there were a couple of these scenes of surveillance video that really went viral where people thought, oh, these people are acting weird or crazy, or that's a lot of ballots they're dropping off or whatever. Georgia investigated some of these individuals. And guess what? It was exactly what the legal provisions allow for. It was they have

a big family that they were turning in for. a big family that they were turning in for. They were caregivers that they were turning in for. So it was completely legitimate. But just, you know, the allegation was made completely wildly. The data that it's based on is so silly and ridiculous and absurd. I mean, Bill Barr even was making fun of this thing. He started laughing at it. As well, literally laughing and mocking it.

So you're right. Maybe they should investigate it. I think they should. I mean, not that people who are hardcore believers. It won't do anything. There's no evidence that will convince them. It won't do anything. But let's say 5%.

I think it's worth it. I think it's worth it. You know, look, people are swayed very easily by all kinds of stuff. So fine, take it seriously. I mean, we took every single one of those stupid-ass lawsuits seriously, which I didn't even want to, frankly, at the time. It took a lot of time. Such bullshit. A lot of effort.

Oh, in Michigan. But it's like, you know, we're like, okay, I respect people. You know, they think the thing was stolen. Like, let's go through it. But what I've learned after the two years is never enough. They believe it based on faith in Trump alone. Fine. There's nothing you can say in order to convince these people.

So I've honestly kind of written it off at a certain point. Like, I'm not saying that I, I'm not saying I won't keep trying to, like, reach out and convince otherwise, but it's exhausting at a certain point. It really is, just to see the conspiracy nonsense. At a certain point, I'm just like, look, I don't want to engage with this anymore because it's not even

useful. Like, you're not gonna, you only believe one thing because you believe it. Okay, that's fine. You know, but don't pretend otherwise. Well, it'll be interesting to see the Republican Party does sort of become the dog that catches the car and ends up in power. What they choose to do. I would like it. Yeah, I would love to see them. I'd love to see them grapple with, like, wait, there's no facts.

Now what do we do? Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah, good luck with that. A fun moment between Elon Musk and Stephanie Ruhle over at MSNBC. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. So Elon tweeted out a meme of Hunter Biden saying, Hunter Biden, anytime he does crack with a bunch of cameras around him. There is a mystifying amount of footage, by the way, from Hunter, which I don't

particularly understand. But anyway, he replies, she replies, quote, imagine the positive impact that you could have on the world if you use the extraordinary amount of influence and power you have to spread decency, kindness, and positivity. And he replied, imagine if MSNBC did that, which- True to both. True to both. True to both, indeed. And this is always a problem with the decency mongers, so quote unquote,

who think they are from CNN or MSNBC, whatever they try. They stoop to the lowest levels and bring utter trash to everybody else whenever it's to an ideology or somebody that they support. And yet if somebody else does it, then they go after them. It's like, guys, this is why all of it is bad. And they have no ground to stand on when they try and police other people's tone. I mean, from the P-tape network, like, shut up. Like, yeah, it's like, you're going to go after people. Oh, you're never trafficking in decency. I mean, look, I don't have no problem with Stephanie Ruhle personally outside of her Park Avenue comment, which I will.

That was a great moment. I worked my damn butt off at Deutsche Bank. Okay. with that one moment, I think, in general, that the network itself has no ground to stand on for promoting decent, Harvey Weinstein, man, Jeffrey, I can go down the list, you know, for all of this. I'm sure you could as well, having worked there. I don't live on Park Avenue, but I live pretty close,

and I worked my butt off to get there. It was like after Joe Biden said one halfway decent thing, and that was the thing that she was outraged about. Yeah, I mean, listen, I'm not an Elon Musk fan. Joe Biden said one halfway decent thing and that was the thing that she was outraged about. Yeah. I mean, listen, I'm not an Elon Musk fan. There's no I don't think anyone has any doubt about that at this point. It was a stupid meme. Like, why are you getting all pearl clutchy about it? That's the thing that's so irritating about these people is they're all full of moral righteousness and, you know, indignation and pearl clutching about all of these breaches of decorum and people not conducting themselves in the manner they see fit. But, yeah, they don't want to turn the lens back on themselves.

And think about the huge platform that they have, this gigantic channel with all kinds – well, it's gigantic in terms of the budget, and it doesn't seem to occur to them the way that they have failed to use that in a way that would benefit the country. Yeah, I completely agree. We'll update on something that we have been tracking, which is the fall off in news consumption of all sorts, but especially mainstream news consumption. These numbers are pretty extraordinary. Let's go and put this up on the screens. From Axios, our friend Sarah Fisher over there, as well as Neil Rothschild. Change in news engagement from the first half of 2021

to the first half of 2022. The first number is stunning. Social media interactions with news articles are down 50, five zero percent, dropped by half. Cable news primetime viewers down about 20 percent. News media app sessions down 16 percent. Who uses news media apps anyway? Unique visits to top five news sites down 18 percent. So basically, by every metric, people are engaging less with news. I mean, first of all, I think it's just depressing. The news is extremely depressing. War, inflation, societal decline, all of that. It's, I'm sure,

feels better to just kind of tune it down and bury your head in the sand, live your life, is one thing. But I mean, also this tracks with the continued decline in trust of any of these news organizations. So it's like, even if you want to ultimately get informed, you don't necessarily feel like in the cable news prime time, you're going to get what you need in order to be informed. Of course, absolutely. So the social media interaction being down 50%, cable down 19%, the news media and the unique visits to all those sites. Just so people know, we're actually doing better than ever here. I actually just checked our data. And I just think it, again, testifies to if you're going to focus on shit that people don't care,

not only don't care about, but are trying to force them to care about in lieu of very specific, concrete, hard problems in their lives, they're going to tune you out. Trump was a benefactor because he was such a spectacle that cable and others could draw you in because some people just couldn't look away. With Biden, that's gone. Now you actually really have to fight to figure out not even what people care about. What is the problem in your life? And when you do more packages, that's a cable word, on January 6th and all that than you do on inflation, you're a joke of a news company. Name another news organization outside of Fox, which is only doing it to dunk on Biden, that is talking as much as we do here about housing,

inflation, and systemic problems. Do we do fun segments? Yeah, for fun. But their fun segments are their whole shows. They don't really focus on anything. So it's not a surprise to me at all. And their fun segments are not very fun. Yeah, their fun segments aren't that fun. It's not even entertaining. That's the other issue. They don't have fun over there. They all hate each other. You know, they're all trying to like get the prime time slide. And then even once you get there, they're like pissed off. It is very doggy dog. I mean, that is one thing that is so much better in the digital media realm is it is much less of a zero sum game. It really is additive and a much better environment in that way.

It's funny. I was actually reading New York Times has a new breakdown of like how much voter apathy there is and how much voter disgust there is and distrust in our democracy and feeling like our institutions are failing and all of that. They interviewed this woman who they tried to make sound like a crank. She's Jacqueline Beck-Manheimer. She's an independent who's voted for third party candidates. They say that she, this is their quote, she said her news diet consisted of YouTube shows that presented stories they claim the mainstream media is ignoring, including the channel of Russell Brand, an actor who has become a prominent purveyor of coronavirus conspiracy theory. So that's the way they present it. And then they go on to to explain what her views are. And she has like the most accurate

view of American politics that you can imagine. She says she's upset about the Supreme Court's rollback of abortion rights. Members of Congress who took corporate campaign contributions and increased the size of the defense budget. Profits that pharma companies make in selling coronavirus vaccines to the federal government. She says the government's problem would be easier to solve if the news media were not invested in sowing division among Americans. Quote, it's the media who stokes the culture war. It's all a provocation to distract us from what's really going on. And what's really going on is nothing but big businesses and their money. So sounds to me like the YouTube diet is working out for her because that seems like a pretty accurate assessment.

Show me the lie, folks. And that's the view of the world that you are not going to get in any of those mainstream sources. So there's a reason why people are tuning them out because they're completely inadequate to actually explain the root causes of what is going on right now, the reasons we have this societal decline, the real bedrock reasons we have, inflation, how both parties got us into this place. And so they have nothing to offer that is actually relevant to people's lives right now. Very true. All right, guys. More for y'all later.

Over the years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned no town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've heard from hundreds of people across the country with an unsolved murder in their community. I was calling about the murder of my husband. The murderer is still out there. Each week, I investigate a new case. If there is a case we should hear about, call 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. High key.

Looking for your next obsession? Listen to High Key, a new weekly podcast hosted by Ben O'Keefe, Ryan Mitchell, and Evie Audley. We got a lot of things to get into. We're going to gush about the random stuff we can't stop thinking about. I am high key going to lose my mind over all things Cowboy Carter. I know. Girl, the way she about to yank my bank account. Correct.

And one thing I really love about this is that she's celebrating her daughter. Oh, I know. Listen to High Key on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.