Chapo Trap House - 872 - Crossing the Bosphorus feat. Alex Nichols (10/1/24)

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

Alex joins us to go in on now-indicted Mayor Eric Adams. We go through the many hilarious details of the unsealed indictment, the Turkish Connection, airline bribes, New York to Easter Island via Ankara travel, ice cream trickery, and windows literally falling off of Turkish buildings in NYC. We also look at Tablet magazines full-throated defense of Adams & the necessity for foreign bribes. ¡No Pasarán! Matt Christman's Spanish Civil War is available NOW along with a crop of new merch at https://chapotraphouse.store/ Tickets for our Election Eve live show with Episode 1 on Monday 11/4 in LA available now at: https://link.dice.fm/b1eb3de54f54

All I'm gonna do is hit a drop. All I'm gonna do is back at it. Me and Felix today are joined by Alex Nichols, returning champion, back again. We've got a lot to talk about today, but unlike most episodes, I'd like to dispense with some business at the top of the episode, some important reminders. First among them, by the time that you are listening to this show, No Pasaran, Matt Christman's Civil War will be available for purchase. Please get a copy of that book. You're not going to want to miss out on this. It's a beautiful book. It's a beautiful book

for our beautiful boy, Matt. Buy our beautiful boy, Matt. And it is on sale October 1st. So if you are listening to my voice right now, I command you to buy Matt Christman's Civil War. Following up on that, tickets for our live show, our Election Eve live show in Los Angeles with E1 will also be available in the show description. And as long as I got stuff to flog, I will also mention that there is a new Choppo Trap House merchandise available at choppotraphouse.store. So please go there for all your t- shirt and hat needs and like, yeah, read the book while wearing the Chapo hat and bring the book to the live show and we'll

send a copy for you. And most of it isn't in Spanish. Don't be fooled by the title. It is in English. Like I said, all proceeds from No Paso Ron, Matt Crispin Civil War will be going to fund our trip to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines business class only. We're bringing Matt to Istanbul. You have to pay for it? No, our listeners will be paying for it. Oh, okay.

Yeah. So we got those out of the way. I got some conduct some business at the top of the show. Oh dear, well, to kick things off this week, over the weekend we saw the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah in what is certainly a prelude to most certainly a full on Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, apocalyptic flooding

in the southeast and especially in North Carolina, daddy listeners in Asheville. I hope you have Wi-Fi to listen to this episode. But our thoughts and prayers are with you right now. And also the people of Georgia that are experiencing an airborne toxic event. Too much to talk about there. We'll probably have to get to those on future episodes.

But as promised from last week, there's much to discuss about my mayor, your mayor, America's mayor, Eric Adams. He's so cool. He's the best. He's the best and he is being unfairly persecuted. With Eric Adams, the first thing I thought when I saw that the story broke and I saw what he was being bribed with was that is very smart.

What is the hardest to trace least documented thing in the world? Airline tickets. The hardest thing to find. I mean, like our friend Michael, um, finds like 90% of flights in the world every day, just from some, some weird website for flight trackers I don't know what like how he could have possibly thought this would like work and like not get him caught But that and the fact that he was like no no no it's like too suspicious if you give it to me for free So like make me pay like

$900 for a flight from New York City to the Burbank Airport that has a layover in Ankara. The first thing I want to talk about with the Eric Adams indictments here, this is about a couple of his aides. I really love this story. This is from the New York Times headline. Top Adams aides get married as investigations swirls around them. And I love this because this is similar to the conceit of the film

Double Jeopardy. In that like it's a thing every stupid person thinks is a way out of doing crimes. That if you just marry the person you did the crimes with, then you can't be prosecuted. And I'm just gonna read it here. It says, at a wedding in Martha's Vineyard, key players in City Hall sought refuge this weekend from the several federal investigations playing Mayor Eric Adams' administration. A day after Mr. Adams pleaded not guilty to criminal charges, including bribery and fraud, Sheena Wright, Mr. Adams' first deputy mayor, and David C. Banks, the school's chancellor, married on the island in Massachusetts, according to three people familiar with their

plans. The marriage was said to have been planned for some time, and it followed years-long relationship during which they shared a home. But it might also allow Mr. Banks and Ms. Wright to claim spousal privilege, which gives them the right to decline to testify against each other in court, should that become necessary, the legal experts said. Probably not because they all have texts that are like, when does my bribe get here? Delete this, by the way.

Well, Alex, that's what I was thinking. It's like, I really don't think the federal government needs either one of them to testify against each other because like, I mean, they'll be testifying against Eric Adams. They should marry. So like the you alluded to it with the text, but like Eric Adams, he went into the FBI field office and presumably to complain about like his bribe not working. He was like, I'd like to lodge a complaint.

I tried to get on a Turkish Airlines flight to Izmir and they wouldn't let me. Who do I complain to? But like they asked him about just basically the investigation surrounding him and they were like uh... you know did you have contact with this person and he went no way can go to the bathroom and he goes to the bathroom and deletes all the tax on his phone which like Eric Adams was a cop for twenty two fucking

years he was a captain for 22 fucking years. He was a captain for like the last like fucking fourth of that time. And I don't, the NYPD probably works with federal law enforcement more than any other police department in America, certainly in the top five. And he thought he could just delete them. He thought that's the first thing they do is recover everything on your fucking phone if they're not already intercepting it Man just broke it

Like if he had literally like shoved it up his ass and yeah, I lost it That if I was the guy who had to like recover the data off the hard drive and I had his poop all over it I wouldn't want to deal with it. I would just say it's lost forever. Sorry. I couldn't recover the messages. That's the real reason drug traffickers put drugs up their ass. That's gross.

Even the dogs don't want to. Even the drug dogs, they're like, ugh, ugh. Just go through. Who cares? Yeah. That's it. It's exactly like spousal privilege. If your contraband is covered in your own feces,

it immediately becomes not contraband. It becomes your property. It's legal. It's called rectal privilege. You can't be prosecuted. Anything you put up there. Well, actually, in terms of things that you can't be prosecuted for, I did notice that as Eric Adams is pledging to fight these unjust, spurious charges, his lawyers are advancing, I think, a fairly novel defense of him.

This is from Gothamist. It says, in Monday's filing, Adams' lawyers mocked federal prosecutors for doing a makeover of a previous investigation that was limited by the Supreme Court's ruling in June, which allows government officials to accept gratuities for past acts. Gratuities are defined as gifts given to thank an official but not directly in exchange for their help or to curry favor without any specific request. Quote, gratuities are not federal crimes, Spiro told reporters on Monday. Courtesies to politicians are not federal crimes.

They do not violate federal rule. Congressman get upgrades. They get corner suites. They get better tables at restaurants. They get free appetizers. They have their iced tea filled up. That's just what happens. They have their iced tea filled up.

Is this what our politicians are getting up to? They're getting free refills on iced tea to curry favor with foreign governments? What a cheap day. That shouldn't win you that much favor. Like, where's that winning you favor at? Like, Cracker Barrel? They give me free refills as much as I want. They keep the bread coming at Olive Garden.

I have this special deal with them, the endless breadstick deal. And in return, in return, I give them special tax breaks. Well, yeah, gratuities are not crimes. They're just a nice thing that people want to do for a nice guy like Eric Adams. And there's no, there's no- It seems like all that shit just makes your life harder. Like having to fly to Turkey. Yeah. Having to take extra flights and shit. Like how does that, just give me money. I'd rather just have money. In Eric Adams' case, yeah, it's penny smart dollar short thinking or whatever the phrase

is. Penny wise and pound foolish. Right. Everywhere he flew since he's become mayor, presumably, it has to have a layover somewhere in Turkey, which at a certain point, you are adding at least a full day onto every trip. Yeah. And why doesn't he have hair plugs? Yes. He's there so often.

Why doesn't he have hair plugs? Well, I mean, that's how you get caught. What if he just came back and he had a beautiful head of hair? That's how you get caught instantly is if, yeah, you have a full head of hair. That's how you get caught instantly is if you have a full head of hair and those like the weird veneers that every person on TikTok has. Yeah. Yeah, you have to wear sunglasses when he smiles because it's so reflective. You should just come back like that.

Who cares? You're doing it anyway. He comes back from Turkey with a full head of hair. And knowing Eric Adams, he would probably try to say, this is what happens when I cut sugar out of my diet. My hair will grow back. Health is wealth. Health is wealth. It's the stress. It's the loss of stress on my vacation. I take a week off work and it all grows back.

This story is perfect fodder for us in a lot of ways. But like Chief Among Them is how intimately tie, how this whole thing circles around the Turkish government. Turkish airlines and the Turkish government. And what's so funny about this is as best I can tell for all of their gratuities to Mayor Adams, what the Turkish government received from the city government of New York is the ability to have a building that to Mayor Adams, what the Turkish government received from the city government of New York

is the ability to have a building that is not up to fire code and the mayor's commitment not to recognize the Armenian genocide. How much is that worth? What's the worst thing that would happen if New York City recognized the Armenian genocide? What would happen to Turkey? I don't know. Any port in a storeroom, I don't know. I guess that's their attitude.

I certainly see the advantages of not having a building up to fire code if you're like the Turkish consulate. They got to do their kebabs in the 18th floor bathroom or whatever they got going on. Do you think that part of the New York building code is like if someone asked for ice cream, you have to just give it to them? Yes, that is true. None of this fooling around shit and they're like, no, that's it. That's non-negotiable. Yeah, Felix, to your point, why all these bribes to get the mayor of New York not to

recognize the Armenian genocide? I don't think New York City even has that large of an Armenian population. That's why LA recognized the Armenian genocide. They should have been bribing Karen Bass. Yeah, I cannot, I don't know. Maybe it's like a practice run type thing. To work your way up to bribing defense contractors

and people at the State Department and shit You start out in like the the farm team before in bribery You start with like the the stupid one-term mayor of New York. Otherwise, I just there's just no I cannot discern any purpose and then I guess like another element of you know his cartoonish corruption is Another element of his cartoonish corruption is this idea that's being promulgated that these charges are lawfare. They're lawfare directed at Eric Adams. By the Democrats? Yeah, by the Democrats.

Yeah. Okay, for two reasons. I've seen a couple reasons, Proffert, here. Why this is lawfare or this investigation is some sort of political attack. Two reasons. One because Eric Adams strongly supports Israel. You know, unlike anyone else in the Democratic Party or New York City politics, they chose the one guy.

And what is he even doing for them? Yeah, all of them. How does having the mayor of New York on their side help them? Like he was he was going to send guns to the to Gaza. Well, I mean, they won him over at the last minute All he does is go like, you know, Israel has swagger. What does that do for them? That doesn't bring any of the tanks that they lost in Gaza back the same shit every mayor has ever said Yeah, and also I love the idea that like oh, yeah

Democrat the Democratic Party hates it when you're 7% more conservative than their national platforms. They do horrible things to you, like ask you to speak at the convention, give you $300 million of David Geffen's money, and let you run for reelection without endorsing the Democratic candidate for president. They really punish people like that. They're cracking down. They're cracking down. And the second aspect to this is this is one that's been

given voice to by Donald Trump himself. He says, Look, what's happened in New York, and they went after the mayor because he was saying we can't do this. They just indicted him. They just indicted him for long before he was mayor. And he also went on to say, he talked about how illegal migrants are hurting our city. I said, you know what? He'll be indicted within a year. And I was exactly right.

I wish him luck. I wish him well. Well, a lot of people said that Eric Adams would be indicted within a year. Because of how I mean, I the moment he was elected, I was like, he's going to prison. I didn't know that it would be this, but it's just like you listened to him talk. And this is the exact type of democratic mayor who the FBI dreams of. Yeah. You can just tie it to anything.

You can say it's because he played New York state of mind too many times. I knew when he played that song, they were going to go after him. You can just say it was whatever. I knew when he said that he made up that lie that he did the experiment where you boil a frog in water slowly in high school, when he said that, I knew he was going to get indicted. Alex, he said, it's a terrible experiment, really.

Yeah, if you think about it. If you think about it, it's a terrible experiment. It's like something I would make up as a joke, that you did that experiment in high school. It's so stupid. It doesn't even work. Like the frog would, you would just have frogs jumping all over a high school chemistry lab. They would immediately get out of the water. It doesn't, it's like a fake thing. What would you learn in that experiment that you can boil a frog?

Yeah. That like, you don't notice stuff if it happens slow enough. Okay Yeah, I guess so good point Well, I think you've learned that frogs actually tastes pretty good the French are not wrong about that Yeah, maybe they bribed him to do that Yeah If you're a mayor like, you know, why are these favors for Turkey? You should be doing favors for France and Italy. Those are nice places to visit. But I suppose there's a lot of nice stuff in Istanbul as well. All the cats.

All the cats? You should have come back on Turkish Air with like 30 cats. Just as long as you're talking about Eric Adams quotes, I mean the one that's been sort of rattling around my head for the last couple days is when he said, New York is there's only one of a kind. There's only one New York, anything can happen in New York. In New York, at any moment, someone could be starting a new business, or 9-11 could be happening.

Yeah. That's true. Yeah, sometimes the same person, the same person is doing 9-11 and starting a new business. And Alex, your point about the Alicia Keys song. On last Tuesday, like a week ago from today, right before the indictments dropped, he did this thing where he had a press conference at City Hall and he walked out to a new Eric Adams remix of Empire State of Mind that edited in his speeches to the

beginning of the song and he's walking out and it's like you know it's just like you can hear the music in the background and then you hear Eric Adams voice going like New York City is the Reykjavik is the New York City of America or Iceland. I don't know. And then he goes, then Alicia Keys just drops and goes from New York. She should sue him. She should get in on this. He should commission a new song.

Okay, let's go to highlights from the unsealed indictment. And I guess like out of all the charges he's facing, probably the biggest one is that he used New York City's matching funds program to receive more than 10 million dollars in public funds. Reading from the indictment here, it says, Eric Adams, the defendant, compounded his gains from the straw contributions by using them to defraud New York City and steal public funds. New York City has a matching funds program that matches small dollar contributions from individual city residents with up to eight times their amounts in public funds to give New Yorkers a greater voice in the election. Adams' campaign applied for matching

funds based on known straw donations, fraudulently obtaining as much as $2,000 in public funds for each illegal contribution. Adams and those working at his direction falsely certified compliance with applicable campaign finance regulations, despite Adams' repeated acceptance of straw donations, relying on the concealed nature of these illegal contributions and falsely portray his campaign as law-abiding. As a result of those false contributions, Adams' 2021 mayoral campaign received more than $10 million in public funds. That seems like a dumb program.

Yeah, I don't really get it. Yeah, what is the point of that? The taxpayers are forced to give money to candidates? Oh, so it only becomes illegal when it's a Turkish person donating money to New York's mayoral election? I mean, a Turkish donation is just as good as a New York contribution as far as I'm concerned, so.

What is it? Unless you're on Twitch. More lawfare. I really, I feel like there's a monkey's paw thing that happened. I said I would do anything to stop hearing the term crossing the Rubicon every fucking week, and my wish was granted and

they replaced that with the term lawfare, which just now refers to any time anyone gets arrested it's fucking lawfare. They did lawfare against Chris Watts when they arrested him for killing his family. You always have to ask the question though, isn't the timing a bit suspicious here? Isn't the timing a bit suspicious to charge someone with federal crimes in an election year? So like every other year you can't do it? Election years are like the purge for political crimes. You have to let people get away with them otherwise it's lawfare. Yeah, so like the Otherwise it's lawfare. Yeah, so like the night before, like everyone knew what this was about,

sight unseen, like Bill Ackman, all these people were like, I don't know what it's for, but it's probably bullshit, and it's because he went against the Democrats. And these were people who had never really thought or knew anything about Eric Adams before this. And it just like, what a pathetic horse to hit your ride to. Well, okay, here's Bill Smoke Crackman.

He says, I don't know whether Eric Adams is guilty or innocent. He does, however, deserve the presumption of innocence. I do know that Eric loudly spoke the truth on the migrant problem in NYC and what the consequences would be for New Yorkers in the country. Doing so required bravery, as sharing these views publicly as a Democratic mayor did not

win him any friends in the party or with the Biden-Harris administration. Having witnessed the weaponization of our country's prosecutorial resources, sadly, I have to say that I am much more skeptical when indictments are announced against someone whose views are not welcomed by the party in charge. One would hope that in our political system, indictments would only be brought in cases where the probability of conviction is very high, as it is beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty. Sadly, I am less confident that the system works that way anymore.

Which is really funny because- Oh, you mean like a case where you have text messages by the defendant where they're saying, hey, make sure to delete these because we're doing a crime here. A case like that's the only case where you should bring charges. He's saying in the same post that you should, people should have the presumption of innocence if they're indicted for a crime,

but also you should only indict people if you're 100% sure they're guilty. So should we presume they're innocent then if they have to already be guilty to be indicted? I don't know what you're asking for. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if Bill read the indictment before he fired off that post, but the indictment is unsealed.

I was just reading from it. And yeah, like Felix, like you said, most of it is just text messages that'll be like Adam Staffer. Are you sure you'd like to engage in these illegal federal crimes? Adams, yes, but please make sure to delete these messages as to cover up evidence of the crimes you're doing. This international bribery scheme has swagger. Make sure to delete this.

I just, yeah, he's being persecuted, folks. Now, next up from the unsealed indictment is, Felix, you've been mentioning the fact that every flight he's taken over the last, since he's been mayor, he is, uh, arranged to have a layover in, uh, Istanbul or Ankara. Uh, this is from the indictment here. It says, because Turkish Airlines provided free travel benefits worth tens of thousands of dollars to Eric Adams, the defendant, he flew Turkish Airline even when doing so was otherwise inconvenient. For example, during the July and August 2017 trip,

Adams' partner was surprised to learn that Adams was in Turkey when she had understood him to be flying from New York to France. Adams responded in a text message, "'Transferring here, you know first stop is always Istanbul.'" When Adams' partner later inquired about planning a trip to Easter Island, Chile, Adams repeatedly asked

whether her or whether Turkish airline could be used for their flights, requiring her to call Turkish airline to confirm that they did not have routes between New York and Chile. Why was he going to Easter Island? Just look at the heads. I guess that's kind of cool. Yeah, it's pretty cool. It was a long flight.

Yeah. Yeah. Make sure to call Turkish Airlines. Do they have a layover in Atlantis? I really want to see the underground, underwater city. It's too bad Turkey never had any Pacific colonies. They don't have any of those little islands because you could stop in France or the UK,

plenty of places you could get some graft along the way to Easter Island, but not Turkey. It's just like, did he, okay, Everyone knows basically like where the mayor of New York is traveling at any given time, more or less it is. If it's not like always a matter of public record, like someone, someone, somewhere will like say where they're going sooner or later. Did he not like, he thought he was going to probably be reelected and have two terms

mayor and for eight years or more, every single place he went, he was going to have a fucking layover in Turkey adding over the course of eight years, probably a full year unnecessarily of being in Turkish airports by the end of his life, probably a third of his life spent in Turkish airports and no one was going to notice. No one was ever going to notice that he's always, he's flying from fucking New York to Philadelphia, but he has a layover in Izmir. No one was going to notice that for years and years.

Yeah. And like to the point about lawfare and Bill Ackerman, this part of the indictment is referring to when he was Brooklyn Borough president when he was doing this shit back in 2017. So it's like the idea here is that they're just like, we'll file that away until he becomes mayor and supports Israel and speaks out against migrants. That thing that we know is going to happen in a couple of years time. It's called covering the bases. The thing that the president and the vice president are currently doing Yeah, all of the leaders of the Democratic Party like who is not moving to the right on migrants and

Backing Israel shouldn't they all be indicted. They should be yeah, I guess so or like I mean I guess like and another another Another facet of the lawfare argument that I've seen offered is this idea that, look, we all know that actually the system needs all politicians to have some dirt on them so that when they step out of line, they can be indicted. I think there's a veneer of credibility to that argument. The key word here is a little dirt on them. Eric Adams has nothing but dirt. He's like Pigpen. He's got Turkish airline tickets falling out of his pockets every time he gives a press conference. This and the Bob Menendez scandal, I think that like this is the last vestige of the

New Deal coalition. It's like a vestigial Oregon of like Tip O'Neill Democrats, everyone before the Atari Democrats, that Democratic corruption scandals are a stupid Democratic politician, you know, texting a guy in the Egyptian military or the Turkish consulate, like, can I have a sack of money, please? When Republican corruption scandals, besides Donald Trump. Yeah, I was about to say besides his sons who do the same kind of tax like that. Can I have some, can I have a bribe? Just kidding. That's why, that's why Trump and Clinton were perfect opponents for each other because Clinton, the Clintons do the Republican Mitch McConnell corruption schemes where it's like,

you know, they're like a Hans Gruber, there are 80 shell corporations and fucking bearer bonds and they're stealing kids from 80 and all this shit and Trump does the Democratic style ones where you're just getting a sack of money from a guy, but it yeah, I The Clintons really tried to you know, make everyone do more complex schemes in the party. It just never worked They'll never stop doing it this way Being first being of bags of money, this is once again from the Federal Indictment. As Brooklyn Borough President, Adams employed a scheduler, the Adams scheduler, who managed his appointments, meetings and other official

events. Despite her status as a New York City employee, the Adams scheduler was used by Adams to perform personal tasks for him, such as collecting rent at a Brooklyn property he owned. Adams also assigned the Adams scheduler was used by Adams to perform personal tasks for him, such as collecting rent at a Brooklyn property he owned. Adams also assigned the Adams scheduler to pay various personal expenses for him, after which Adams would reimburse the Adams scheduler in cash. In 2017, Adams sent a series of emails to the Adams scheduler directing the Adams scheduler to pay for the free 2017 flights he and his companions had already taken on the Turkish airline. But the emails provided inconsistent explanations, and some Adams suggested that the Adams scheduler

should pay by using Adams' credit card while others Adams claimed to have left cash in the envelope for the Adams scheduler to take to Turkish airlines. Like, that, in the 21st century, paying for airline tickets with cash in an envelope is so fucking funny. That is so awesome. I wish I could pay for airline tickets in cash. You just walk into the airport and just hand them an envelope of cash. One to Istanbul, please. Don't you instantly get put on a list if you do that?

You can't imagine. Yeah. Also, everyone working for his office is the tallest person in each village in upstate New York. And they're loyal only to him. They don't have family ties because they can't inherit property. The I-87 corridor in Albany in the surrounding area have been denuded of all boys over six feet tall Yeah, they line them up

Those are the only people that they're that are allowed to run like the Delta 8 shops in Manhattan They're in a special legal category And has She she is. I mean, like, it's just more more Turkish stuff here. Listen to this. In return for travel benefits, the Turkish official provided or arranged in or about 2015 and 2016. Eric Adams, the defendant granted a political request from the Turkish official. Prior to Adams, 2015 travel to Turkey, which Adams knew and disclosed to the COIB, had been funded among other entities, the Turkish

consulate, the Turkish airline, and three separate municipalities in Turkey. Adams had maintained a relationship with a Turkish community center in Brooklyn, quote, the community center. In or about 2016, the Turkish official told Adams that the Community Center was affiliated with a Turkish political movement that was hostile to Turkey's government. And then if Adams wished to continue receiving support from the Turkish government, Adams could no longer associate with the Community Center. Adams acquiesced. Now, this...

Eric Adams was, he was getting bribes from the Turkish government and just because he's the only guy this could happen to just in his regular course of doing business. He ends up finding the only Gulan is so cool club in New York. I if I was looking for that I couldn't find it But he just he wanders into it while already acting as an unregistered agent of Turkey I was gonna say Gulan is not mentioned in this indictment, but I mean one of the chances that Who else could it be who else could it be if it's not if it's not Gulan which like You know the only thing that can be described that way that as the presence in America, then it's like a Kamalist organization, which I don't think there are any of those in New York. I don't think you can. Are there any like mafia guys that like they go looking for like the the like Gambino family social clubs and they accidentally wander into like a Kamalist establishment.

The defendant Adams, Mayor Adams was asked to return the ceremonial fez granted him by the communist organization. He should have just worn one of those. That would he would look great. He would look great. I mean, I was in those amazing. Everyone looks good in a fez. Everyone looks like he had good opsec. You might as well get a free hat. He's got a New York Yankees fez. Oh, that would be sick. That would be. Oh my God. Yes.

Oh, wow. And that's the real Yankees with no brim. You know? But I was reading the reading the indictment about the Turkish Community Center that was, quote, hostile to the Turkish government and then reading everything in this indictment about the Turkish community center that was called hostile to the Turkish government and then reading everything in this indictment about Turkish airlines. Felix, this brought me back to like the fifth episode of the show we did, which was the Batman versus Superman movie, which

you interpreted as an elaborate analogy for Erdogan and Gulan. And then remember Ben Affleck did ads for Turkish airlines in conjunction to promote that movie. Yeah. It's all coming full circle. It really is good Well, I think that the East Coast is similar to how New York City is so important in the Highlander movies Yes, where the yeah, that's where it all goes down. It's a bit like there's a locus of power there I think the East Coast is like that for Turkish people and I think like Superman, like Superman away from the Turkish sun and subjected to the East Coast sun, Turkish people get superpowers and that's why

Gulan is all over Pennsylvania. That's why you know the Turks, the Erdogan side of things, they're deeply involved in New York politics. It's yeah, they are the Turkish quickening will happen in Central Park. There'll be an ice cream cone moving at the speed of light, and whoever gets it is the Turkish Highlander. There can be only one. It's the sword and the cone. Who would be the Turkish Kurgon in this scenario?

Erdogan? Is he that? He's the one pulling the strings? Erdogan would be like the Sean Connery character. Okay, yeah. Like, it would be same types of characters. There would be a guy in like the Scottish Highlands who like for some reason he's able to like

give himself hair plugs. He never goes bald even though all the other men in the village are going bald. And they exile him because of that. They're like what? Witchcraft. Witchcraft, yeah. And he doesn't understand it.

And then Erdogan, the Sean Connery character, like gives him, basically gives it, shows him the ropes of being Turkish. But the Kurgan is probably, it's probably either, no, it's Enis Cantor. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Enis Freedom Cantor. Yes. They'll, yeah, currently they'll, yeah, they're going to fight with each other under Madison

Square Garden. Here are some other highlights from the indictment. On June 22, 2018, the same day as the fundraising event just described, the Adams staffer and the promoter discussed by text message a possible trip by Adams to Turkey. The promoter stated in part, Fundraising in Turkey is not legal, but I think I can raise money for your campaign off the record." The Adam Staffer inquired, how will Adams declare that money here? The promoter responded, he won't declare it, or will make the donation to an American citizen

in the US, a Turk. I'll give cash to him in Turkey, or I'll send it to an American, he will make the donation to you. The Adam Staffer replied, I think he wouldn't get involved in such games. That might cause a big stink later on. But I'll ask anyway. The Adam Stafford then asked, how much do you think would come from you?

The promoter responded, max 100K. The Adam Stafford wrote, 100K? Do you have a chance to transfer that here? We can't do it while Eric is in Turkey. To which the promoter replied, let's think. After this conversation, the Adam Stafford asked Adams whether the Adam Stafford should pursue the unlawful foreign contributions offered by the promoter replied, let's think. After this conversation, the Adam Staffer asked Adams whether the Adam Staffer should pursue the unlawful foreign contributions offered by the promoter.

And contrary to the Adam Staffer's expectations, Adams directed that the Adam Staffer pursue the promoter's illegal scheme. So I love that. I don't think you would get involved in such games, but I'll ask anyway. This is the kind of, you always gotta check with the boss. Yeah, wow, this sounds really illegal and stupid.

I don't think he would be into it, but let's just make sure. Hey, 100K, that's 100 grand right there. Free money. I'll take any Turkish money if they're giving it away. And I feel like, I mean, you mentioned at the beginning of the show that Eric Adams was a cop for most of his career. I mean, it's baffling to me, like how many people still just

do shit over text and email that it's this legal. I mean, like at least over a phone call, they have to be tapping the phone already. Right. I mean, I think like the real explanation, even though it is like shockingly stupid, uh, and thinking, thinking that you can just delete the messages on your phone and no one will get them, especially the fucking FBI. When like most police departments have that capability is insane, but I think

the real reason is that like, I mean, have you ever heard of, uh, the Matthew Boynton case? No, I don't think so. What is that like, I mean, have you ever heard of the Matthew Boynton case? No, I don't think so. What is that? It's this really like awful story of this like shit head cop who, um, they said his wife attempted suicide by shooting herself in the back of the head. She was in a coma and she miraculously like survived with like, you know, not really too much damage to her cognition, but like, you know, obviously several effects. But anyway, she basically said that her husband, her ex-husband, Matthew Boynton, who is a

police officer, staged it to make it look like a suicide attempt and that he had been abusing her and that he was afraid she was gonna take the kids and all these things. And during the course of the investigation, Boynton made a lot of sloppy fucking mistakes and lied to investigators a lot. And he did ultimately get off, but the reason he lied isn't necessarily

because he thought like, you know, they wouldn't check. It's because like, if you're a cop for long enough, you think it's just, you correctly interpret that you won't get in trouble with other cops for this shit. Right. So Eric Adams probably thought that more or less extended to the FBI because like deleting texts off your phone probably works with like NYPD internal investigations. Yeah. The body didn't work. Yeah. It was

turned off. I don't know what happened. Exactly. Like that is enough. Like just saying, oh, I forgot is like enough. If you're a cop. Yeah, I guess it doesn't work that way with the feds. I mean, I mean, like, yeah, when you delete text messages, they're just like they're gone from your phone. It doesn't mean they're gone. They're still there somewhere Yeah, and I feel like most people who aren't cops know that at this point Here's a really another another really good one here. I really like this detail Eric Adams the defendant also unsolicited unlawful foreign campaign contributions while

in Istanbul in January 2019. I just love like year after year after year, he's just in Turkey all the fucking time, clogging money. This is just... How can it be that much money? Like there was the thing with the straw donors where he got what, $10 million? Yeah, $10 million in matching public funds. But like the Turkish donations were considerably less than, but like, as it

said, like you get lots more money in matching public donations, you get like 10 times the amount of money in public donations and public funds for each donation. Yeah. They shouldn't need bribes when they're already getting money from the taxpayer. As you're doing. Shouldn't they prevent that?

They need a hundred thousand dollars that bad. I guess it's just for the thrill of the game. At that point, yeah. You just like the idea of having bribes. It makes you feel cool. Makes you feel important. It says here, during Adam's trip, the promoter arranged for Adams to meet a wealthy Turkish businessman, referred to as Businessman 3. The Turkish official through the Adam Stafford discouraged Adams from meeting Business three who was then under suspicion of wrongdoing. Adams did so nonetheless. During their meeting, Adams and the promoter solicited campaign contributions from businessman three who as a Turkish national could not lawfully contribute to any US campaign. During the meeting, businessman three agreed to contribute $50,000 or more to the 2021 campaign, believing that Adams

might one day be president of the United States and hoping to gain influence with Adams. OK, I think I think we've we've actually kind of uncovered why they're giving him so much money. These Turks did not know what the fuck was going on. They did. Eric Adams, Eric Adams was like, I'm probably going to be president one day. And they were like, yeah, sure. These guys did not know anything.

Isn't that what Nate Silver predicted? Yes. I was going to say they were simply, yes, they were following the advice of Nate Silver and they were like, for 50 grand now, we're getting in on the ground floor of the future U S president, or perhaps they saw his title of Brooklyn borough president and they were like, well, that's just one rung away from being the president. He's already a president of Brooklyn. When are they going to abolish like the borough president roles?

Has anything ever like happened either positively or negatively because someone was a good or bad borough president? I mean, it just it just seems like a position that exists to take these kinds of bribes. I don't know what the point is. There should only be one president. Like under feudalism, you don't have all these different kings. You don't have like the king of the city and the king of the county and like you have a count and a duke.

You don't just have lines of presidents. There's one president. He was the duchy of Brooklyn. Yeah, it should be like that. of presidents, there's one president. He was the duchy of Brooklyn. Yeah, it should be like that. The Holy Adams Empire of New York carved up into five different boroughs ruled by various dukes.

I can't hear you. You are the Duke of New York. You are a number one. I love this exchange. On November 2nd, 2021, Adams is declared the winner of the 2021 mayoral election. The next day, Businessman 1 and the promoter exchanged the following messages. Promoter, Good morning. The president is our brother from now on, sir.

Businessman 1, Good morning. Promoter 1, May it be auspicious for all of us. We messaged each other. Businessman 1, Are the elections over? It was yesterday, sir. Everyone messaged me that he was elected. Congratulations messages. He is most likely going to assign me as a representative, sir.

I'm going to go and talk to our elders in Ankara now about how we can turn this into advantage for our country's lobby. Businessman one. That would be nice. Eric Adams' brother, sir. I just think it was like, I'm going to see how we can use this to the advantage of our country's lobby. What with the New York City mayor? OK, and then also it says here promoters also celebrated Adams prospects with additional people telling others, including Adams himself, that Adams would soon be the president of the United States. Similarly, the Turkish official wrote to the Adams staffer

that given Adams' increasing prominence, at this point the foreign minister of Turkey is personally paying attention to him and Adams should not bother with his other Turkish benefactors. This is... You're competing for him? Yeah.

Wow. God, like, it sort of reminds me of the soprano season four storyline where Johnny sack keeps telling Paulie like how much Carmine loves him. Yes. And how he can switch families. Like if this went on any longer. Eric Adams was going to go to like one of Erdogan's son's weddings and been like, it's so good to see you. I wanted to talk to you about switching families and becoming mayor of Ankara. And Erdogan's like, what? What's your name again?

Paulie Dottieri. Jersey? Your father was run over by a trolley, right? Are you, what? Are you my housekeeper's friend? What? Can I become the Pasha? Do you have an opening for a Pasha?

Felix, you mentioned the airline tickets. I love this exchange. Adam Stafford, how much does he owe? Please let them call me and I will make the payment. Airline manager, it's very expensive because it is the last minute. I'm working on a discount. Adam Stafford, okay, thank you. Airline manager, I'm going to charge $50. Adam Staffer. No. Airline manager.

That would work, wouldn't it? Adam Staffer. No, dear. $50? What? Quota proper price. Airline manager. How much should I charge? Adam Staffer. His every step is being watched right now. $1,000 or so. Let it be somewhat real. We don't want them to say he is flying for free now. $1,000 or so. Let it be somewhat real. We don't want them to say he is flying for free. At the moment, the media's attention is on Eric. I just love that. Somewhat real to like 1 17th of its actual price.

Oh, fucking last minute first class flight to fucking Ankara. That's like $15,000, $20,000. It still doesn't make sense. Why is he there? Whether it's free or he's paid like why? Even if he was paying for all those flights to Ankara, why is he doing that? He's the mayor of New York. He doesn't even, does he even speak Turkish?

No! Following up on this, Adam Stafford. He is also asking where else they can go in Turkey. Do you have a recommendation? Airline manager, four seasons. Adam Stafford, it's too expensive. Airline manager. Four seasons. Adam Staffer. It's too expensive. Airline manager. Why does he care? He is not going to pay. His name will not be on anything either. Adam Staffer. Super.

Why are we paying for those extra seasons? They don't have winter. You stay at the two seasons. You have to wet and the dry season. Why did he fit? So he thought this one guy alone is giving me a hundred thousand dollars and they're paying for this trip, but I have to provide my own lodging and I want to save money even though I'm getting like 20 grand in airfare for free. It's such a hassle. It's like so many arguments on the phone, like all this logistics, like how is this fun at all?

How does this benefit unless you just you like arguing with the airport? I think Eric Adams is like a weird enough person that he probably before all this happened, he was like for some reason he had like a layover in Turkey or he went to Turkey for something. And while he was there, when he was in the Ankara airport, he was like, man, this had swagger. This is my place. And he just decided he wanted to be in that airport

as much as humanly possible. And he got his wish because he's probably spent about, like, what, like one out of every five hours of his life in the Turkish airport. What if there's an ice cream guy there and he's he has like a pitched battle with that guy and he keeps trying to win the ice cream fight. He keeps trying to get the ice cream and the guys like, Nope, you got to go home. You're not going to get it

today. He's like, I'll be back in a year. I'll be back in five days. Yeah. I mean, it is like coming back to this idea of like, I guess I just like, I can't really conceive of how many trips he's taken to Turkey during his career as a New York politician. And like, as an example of that, in these endless negotiations with Turkish airlines, he was like, his staffers were calling to change a flight at the last minute from Pakistan to Ghana, but he made clear to the airline that he didn't want the complimentary Bosphorus straight boat tour because he said, quote, I've done the boat tour a few times

already. Yeah, that's for fucking tourists. That's for tourists. Veterans like me. Yeah. What a guy. It's a real crossing the Bosporus moment. But another another aspect of this is, as I mentioned, like,

what what did Turkey get in, you know, get in exchange for all of this this graph that they were funneling in the mayor's direction? So, it was basically that he fast-tracked fire department approval of a new building that the Turkish government wanted. And it says, the building was largely completed by May 2021. New York City building inspectors issued a violation to the building in mid-2021 after a glass panel fell 10 stories from the facade and just

before the building's official opening. Building inspectors reported that there were numerous major problems with key mechanical systems, such as the sprinklers and fans. Now, in addition to it being a fire trap that's you know, just shedding pleats of glass from the 10th story of this building onto the street below. In more recent news, the building was attacked by a Turkish man with a crowbar. This was in May 22nd, 2023. Reading here, it says multiple windows of the building were broken by a man named Recep Akbiyik. He attacked the building with a crowbar,

and this attack was condemned by US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. He was arrested by the New York City Police Department and in a statement from the accused he says, however, despite initially being released, Abyik was arrested last week due to the indictment prepared against him and is currently under arrest. Speaking to VOA Turkish shortly after his release from the hospital, Abyik said that he has problems with his brain and that he continues to have fainting spells since his release from the hospital, Akbiyak said that he has problems with his brain and that he continues to have fainting spells since his release from the hospital.

He says, quote, I am really devastated. Psychology is a very important thing and I don't have that. That's a beautiful way of putting it. Well, he says, he's believed that he has schizophrenia and he said, quote, I broke 10 plus two windows. I am not affiliated with any group. I planned it and did it myself. I planned it at 9 PM.

I did it at 314 AM. Of course, there was a two-year period behind this. There is a two-year period. I was poisoned. My family was poisoned. Cameras were installed in my house. Of course, my poisoning process was very different. Something was added to the water I drank at a place

when I went to Istia in Istanbul. Of course, I was put to sleep there. After I was put to sleep, a needle was injected into my body. Okay, so this is a Turkish targeted individual. Yep. That's what it sounds like. Well, why is Matthew Miller taking time out of his day

to condemn just a random insane Turkish guy? Like he might as well be condemning the people that DM me at this point. He should. He should. He'll be gritting whenever he says he'll be grinning when he says it. It's very funny that the windows are just falling off that building. Like the cost benefit of that is so weird. Like you're paying probably like $2 million to New York and bribes and it's to keep the

fire department from noticing that like the windows are put on with silly putty. Like how much would it cost to just have it done properly? It's not like the Empire State Building. All the fucking money they spent on his fucking trips to Turkey, they could have built a building that doesn't just shower glass onto the street below Why do you need windows? None of that would have happened if they didn't have windows and they're doing spy stuff in there So why do you want people to see? Well, obviously, look, as this case unfolds, there are some larger ramifications that touch on other events in the news.

We've already talked about lawfare. So I'd like to do a reading series today that deals with some of these broader implications. This comes courtesy of Leo Leibowitz writing for Tablet Mag, the headline, The Jews Should Stand with Eric Adams. This is one of my favorite types of tablet articles. We've talked a lot about Jewish identity magazines on the show and how most of the articles they write are like the Jewish side of Scooby Doo. And then, you know,

that Daphne was quite a Shiksa. Yeah. But the, the, um, other 30% of the articles are just like either insane racial invective or like, I would say most generously taking things from protocols of the elders of Zion and saying earnestly that we should do them. Well, you know, the category this one falls into. Yeah, this one is like, you'll see.

Yeah, you should back us. Yeah, no, if you back us, you should never get in trouble for anything. You should just get a free pass. Yeah. I mean, like at a time when, you know, the Jewish state and, you know, by extension, the Jewish people that they claim to be, you know, doing everything on behalf of is, you know, having a little bit of a PR crisis right now or like they would describe that as a rise in anti-Semitism.

It is very important to demand that all Jewish people stand with one of the most corrupt unpopular figures in America right now. Let's associate our brand with that as if we didn't have enough brand issues to begin with. So, Leo writes, we don't yet know the precise nature of the allegations against New York City Mayor Eric L. Adams. Editors note, we very much do. The indictments are unsealed. I just spent the last 40 minutes reading them. But it says here, who was indicted last night

by the federal government in an unprecedented step. I mean, like I know like a New York City mayor. It's pretty precedent. Yeah. I mean, this is the first time a New York City mayor has been indicted, but like it's certainly not the first time a politician has, you know, tripped over their own dick in a series of boonish crimes. I mean, Rudy's indicted. It wasn't while he was mayor, but he's not the first mayor to be in criminal proceedings.

Also like, indicting a stupid Democratic municipal politician is like the FBI special. That's their favorite thing to do. Yeah. And also, you'd think that from a right know, from a sort of a right wing perspective, a cartoonishly corrupt big city Democrat mayor gets indicted on dozens of federal charges would be an easy victory. That's an easy W you can run with. But no, I mean, because I guess he's such a staunch Israel defender, everything else must be sort of put to the side.

Not enough to go there every week, though. Maybe if he liked it so much, he would be at the airport in Tel Aviv every week. Maybe he meant, maybe he, you know how Adam said he was gonna retire to Golan Heights after he was done with politics? Maybe he meant after Turkey annexes it. What if he meant Gulan Heights? And it's a different place.

What if it's like a neighborhood in Philadelphia? Gulan Heights. Here it's a different place. What if it's like a neighborhood in Philadelphia called Gulan Heights? Here's what we do know. New York City is a big city with a colorful history of machine politics corruption. Dating back to the days of Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall. Not even Ed Koch, the city's larger than life three-term mayor who lived like a monk in a tiny $475 per month rent controlled apartment in Greenwich Village was immune to large scale corruption charges that eventually destroyed

his administration. That's because being the mayor of a city as big and wealthy and fractious as New York City, which is the second home of pretty much every nationality and subnational group of people on earth, requires that you have working connections to the city's neighborhoods. The city's neighborhoods are run by people who get stuff done, which means that being mayor requires at least the pretense of doing favors for the people who do favors for you. Then he goes on to talk about Jimmy Walker, Ed Koch, blah, blah, blah. This is a defense of him?

Yeah, yeah. So you pretty much have to do quid pro quo all the time. It's a long history. It's a long history of it. So it says prosecuting New York City mayors for their proximity to one form or another of local corruption is like prosecuting bartenders for their proximity to gin. But like, here's the thing, selling liquor when you're a bartender is legal. Doing corruption when you're a New York City mayor is not. So I mean, I just...

And well, yeah, selling the liquor in the bottle, like behind the bar for half price and then saying, oh, it just disappeared. I don't know. It's more akin, the analogy is looking for is like, it would be like if you arrested every bartender for like over serving, but in this case, it would be like instead of like over serving the bartender, like let the Turkish government use the bar for free for a $100,000 personal payment, I guess. It just, the analogy kind of falls apart when it's not like, you know, a scumbag

contractor or a construction guy, but the Turkish government, like what, what, how, how does it, were they, were they going to like fix the MTA? What does this have to fucking do with running New York? I mean, I guess he wrote it before he knew, he wrote it before he knew anything, but it's like, this is an opinion piece. It's not, you're, you're not reporting. You could have waited eight fucking hours to find out what the charges were before you wrote in unqualified defense of whatever it was. He was like, well, we don't really know what he's being accused of. But like, you know, was he doing crimes? Of course he was.

But like, should every crime be prosecuted? No, of course not. But it says here, yeah, of course, for all I know, Eric Adams actually has done something seriously criminal to deserve the public spectacle of a federal indictment complete with armed SWAT teams. Perhaps Adams has been using his public office to solicit multi-million dollar bribes from Ukrainian gas magnates and Chinese spies, or has been making millions by regularly trading on insider information gleaned from his legislative activities, or has been building a billion dollar fortune through sweetheart contracts with America's enemies while employing foreign spies in his office. If he has done any of those things, he surely deserves to be locked away. I don't think so, though, since all those crimes that federal prosecutors decline to prosecute on the grounds that they are too politically sensitive.

What is not politically sensitive, though, is to string up New York City's black mayor on charges of minor graft while letting the big fish swim free. That's not justice, it's lawfare. Meaning the weaponization of the law to serve a political agenda. That's a pretty big fish, the mayor of New York City. Yeah. Compared to a senator or something. Yeah. I think that's about on par really. More people voted. Like a real representative. Yeah. more like New York City's, the New York City mayor's office has a bigger budget and to win the election for New York City mayor requires you to win the votes of more people than most of the states in this country. Certainly more than Wyoming. Like New York City's budget

is bigger than Montana's and more people vote in the mayoral election than for like this, you know, Liz Cheney for Senator in Wyoming. If he's such a small fish, why are these countries bribing him? Obviously, he's important. Well, actually, not really. It doesn't really make sense what he could do for Turkey. None of it really checks out. But it did happen.

But I also I love the line where he says, it's not politically sensitive to string up New York City's black mayor. Like getting a little lynching reference in there as well. He's they're feeling themselves. Well, Well if it happened it would probably be under Kamala. So I don't know how that works out. And whose political agenda would that be? Well the same people who see Eric Adams refusal to welcome unlimited numbers of migrants to New York at the cost of collapsing city services as a moral and political embarrassment rather than as basic

common sense. The same people who can't stand the sight of a black ex-cop who knows that the police protect people far more often than they abuse their powers. The same people who think that preventing Zionist Jews from walking across campus or using the library at publicly funded universities like Columbia and NYU is a form of social justice work. That's why every Jew in New York City, and there are quite a few among tablet readers, should stand up right now and support our mayor loudly, passionately, and unreservedly. He protected us in some part when no one else in city government or the federal government bothered to lift a finger on our behalf. Now it's our turn to support him. I'm sorry, I

really can't take this insult to our federal government or just America at large, the idea that no one has ever lifted a finger for Israel other than Eric Adams. He's getting so much credit for just doing normal Democrat shit. Yeah. Every Democrat does. What more does Joe Biden need to do for the writers of Tablet Magazine to like, I don't know, not think that he's, he's opposed to Israel in any way. What like, I get that it's like, you know, everything is so completely polarized and everyone's dumber than ever. But like, I just don't know how with this straight face, you could be a writer for a Jewish identity magazine and go like, yeah, the Biden administration has sold out fucking Israel.

It's ridiculous with any American president of the last 30 or 40 or even 60 years, but at least with like a bungler, you could go, oh, he told them to stop building settlements. So that's interfering with Israel's fucking security or whatever. Biden has done nothing. All he's ever done is like, someone will leak to Barack Ravid that he's kind of mad and that he's going to do the exact same thing. He said to another $8.7 billion to them this weekend. And George HW Bush and Nixon were tougher on Israel.

George W. Bush was tougher. It gets gotten so much easier for them, especially since the guys senile. They haven't lifted a finger to help us. So Leo writes, should we care about the allegations against Adams if they turn out to be true? In theory, sure. The law is the law and it should favor no one. But all available, all available evidence suggests that it does. And all available evidence suggests that Mayor Adams is now the victim of a lawfare campaign

in which deliberately loose legislation is weaponized as a tool for settling scores with political foes. What's the score? But what is this legislation that's so vague and like loosely defined? He's just he stole 10 million dollars from the public. He just straight up like I'd be oh, I'd be lying if I said Mayor Adams wasn't wasn't doing crimes. How would it not be loose legislation like it has to have a specific person's name?

Like it's only if this one person does this. Like there has to be some openness to it for it to be legislation. If like this is the case and the Democratic party sends federal prosecutors after everyone who is most generously, let's say 4% more to the right of the national party on immigration or anything else for that matter. Why haven't they indicted John Tester, who's running for reelection in Montana and is not endorsing Kamala for the presidency? They're giving him like tens of millions of dollars for his reelection campaign. Just this idea that the Democrats run this like extremely like closed circle where everyone

fucking circles the wagon around the party and there's no deviation from the ranks is fucking insane. It's almost as insane as saying that Biden is like an enemy of fucking Israel. It's very weird how Eric Adams somehow got on that side of the culture war. All these people have this idea that he's like the one Democrat that's standing up for tradition. He's like one of the old style Democrats and the rest of them are all woke. Like every single other Democrat is AOC, all of them. But not Eric Adams, like Joe Biden is a left wing Marxist, but Eric Adams, he's based. I don't know how people think that. I don't know how that happened.

Well, he goes on, he writes, this, if you've paid any attention, is precisely what New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg, another Soros protege did to Donald Trump, inventing out of whole cloth a bafflingly unconstitutional theory of criminal liability, and instructing the jury in such fuzzy ways that a conviction was all but guaranteed. And now it's Eric Adams turn. Again, like the indictments on the jury, however you want.

If you're the prosecutor, like it's, it's fuzzy. What does that even mean? It goes here. The jury voted to convict him. What did the mayor do to make the powers that be so upset? Take your pick. He criticized the Biden White House for secretly flying tens of thousands of illegal migrants in New York City,

a move that has cost the city upward of $5 billion to date and threatens to smother an already overtaxed system of social services like shelters and schools. We need to mobilize the mayor stated as early as December urging New Yorkers to march on Washington, DC and tell the president they'll have none of his insane and reckless opening of our borders and flooding our cities with people we can

neither vet nor support. Yeah, that was a that was a huge political story that people missed was the two million New Yorker march on Washington, D.C. led by Mayor Eric Adams in December. Yeah, that was a media blackout. Just going down I-95 on the side like single file. Adams also struggled to fight crime as his party increasingly demand deemed the very act of policing inherently racist.

And he stood for New York's Jews as his party increasingly snuggled up to their pogromists. The federal government, which has the power to uphold laws and deport foreign students who support terrorism, say, are withdrawing funding for universities that coddle anti-Semitic mobs, many of which appear to have direct link to foreign terrorist organizations they support, did nothing. Mayor Adams on the other hand... It's insane you can just write that. Yeah, yeah. This is fucking insane.

He says... I mean, this is more blood libel than fucking anything I've seen directed at any Jewish American since fucking last year. Oh, the pogroms, Felix. Don't forget all the pogroms that happened in New York City. than fucking anything I've seen directed at any Jewish American since fucking last year. But you know. The pogroms Felix, don't forget all the pogroms that happened in New York City. This is like fucking saying that it's not safe

to be a German American in Wisconsin anymore. But besides that, need I remind Mr. Leibowitz, Eric Adams closed the tunnels. The actually most important thing to Jewish people, the Hasidic tunnels. Who closed them? Not Brandon, Eric Adams. He sent his New York City Gestapo

to close up that tunnel. The descendants of Pontius Pilate were sent to close the tunnel. It says, yeah, so they have direct links to foreign terrorist organizations they They support they did nothing Mayor Adams on the other hand sprung to action as soon as he could Breaking down the tentifada encampment at Columbia and repeatedly advocating for a zero tolerance approach to Hamas nix in our street Okay. Now we get now we get now we get to why that this guy's all his crimes need to be you know

We should all turn a turn away from them or all think this is unjust lawfare. It really just comes down to that he sent like 800 cops to raid Columbia of like 40 kids sitting in a building. Yeah, because it's like if Eric Adams had not done any of that shit, Leo Liebowitz would be the one calling to string him up. I mean, like this is the only thing I mean, is just like, once again, any port in a storm. It's just like any supporter of Israel. But like, again, the fact that he can be so pro Adams and then like, and then shit all over Biden is like just about the most ungrateful thing imaginable. What a cunt. Well, yeah, because like this view of the world, you can't actually like acknowledging for a second that like the president, both candidates for the presidency, both parties and like, you know, let's say 98, 99% of fucking Congress that they are completely in lockstep, like that there is no deviation and any suggestion of even conditioning weapons gets you screamed at, gets you primaried, gets you condemned as a fucking anti-Semite.

People can call you a member of Al-Qaeda if you're, God forbid you're a Muslim in politics and you say this. Any acknowledgement of the reality of this and just the You know, that's too dangerous for the rationale behind Zionism It has to be a fever pitch at all times America has to be fucking Germany in 1936 or people might start asking questions about why there needs to be a fucking ethno state That's bombing three of its fucking neighbors all the time. Leal goes on to write,

but even if you don't or can't see the workings of a machinery of power that has corrupted the foundations of our legal, political, and cultural system in these examples, and even if you don't find it peculiar that the one city official who stood up for law and order and safety and decency and the Jews is now being targeted. Again, he was not the only-

Crime went up under fucking Adams! He was not the only fucking- His shit didn't even work! It didn't even work! What was his plan? His plan was to go to like police precincts and be like, swag is back. It didn't do anything! He goes, you should still support Eric Adams with gusto because his party line successor, whoever that may be, is guaranteed to make the city considerably less safe for New Yorkers

in general. Bienvenidos, Venezuelan be, is guaranteed to make the city considerably less safe for New Yorkers in general. Bienvenidos, Venezuelan gangs, and Jews in particular. Alhán, we salon, Hezbollah enthusiasts. On that question, I have zero doubt. Adams may also be the canary in a very deep and very dark coal mine. For here is where the logic of this indictment is leading. Small scale donations by disfavored political players like Turks and Queens or Zionists.

You mean a member of NATO? Yeah, a member of fucking NATO? A disfavored political group. A member of NATO that practically gets to do whatever they want. The only major penalty against Turkey was kicking them out of the F-35 program, which was after they bought Russian air defense systems, after receiving 50 warnings and did it anyway, and we're still telling them that they can get back in if they just get rid of them. That's disfavored in Washington now, fucking Turkey?

Turks and queens or Zionist Jews who support APAC the ADL or Ben-A-Breath let alone those who have a nephew studying in a sheva in the West Bank. Yeah, because if there's one thing our one thing our entire political system is designed to prevent it's the Caesar of land in the West Bank so that some dickhead can study the Shiva in some sort of concrete fortress built on like an olive grove. Nephews in Israel are the only people that the American State Department treats with any fucking urgency. They're not even evacuating American citizens from Lebanon right now. I literally saw the State Department, they were like, yeah, commercial flights are still available. Maybe that's another kickback for Turkish Airlines.

Transfer us to this humble. Yeah, it's all through Turkish Airlines. Yeah. So, nephews studying in the Yeshiva in the West Bank will be criminalized with every donation subject to a suspicion of a violation of the fuzzy laws governing interactions with foreign governments. Once again, where does this idea come from that all these laws are so vague and fuzzy? The law is pretty clear that you cannot accept contributions from foreign nationals to

U.S. political elections. Why does anybody need to accept donations from foreign governments? Why is that that shouldn't be happening at all? Yeah and what he said he hasn't even like attempted to explain why that's necessary for running New York even though that's his central argument. The G line would collapse if he didn't accept $100,000 from Erdogan's friend. One might reasonably suspect that the sequel to the Adam's Horror Show will be an... A horror show! A horror show is what we're seeing here right now. Alright, because the follow-up to the Adam's horror show will be an investigation of major

Jewish organizations for bribing legislators with fact-finding trips to Israel and thereby acting as arms of the Israeli government, which will make anything connected to the Jewish lobby politically radioactive. At the same time, the giant sewer of corruption will continue to flood the Democratic Party with cash and pay for more violent migrants, less law enforcement officers, and other insane policies that have no impact on George Soros and his son, but have a very large and continuing impact on normal Americans. I think Lille is really, he's giving up the game a little too easy here because like the way he says, well, like, obviously the next step here is making

all the bribes that Israel gives to American politicians illegal. Yeah. Yeah. They're going to look into our innocent fact-finding mission. Why is that happening? Why are any of these people going anywhere? They're Americans.

They work here. They work for us. They don't work for Israel or Turkey. Stay here. Like, pay. It's the old cash for violent migrants program. Yeah, it's just the bribing legislators that will make, which will make anything connected to the Jewish lobby politically radioactive.

I think that's pretty much already happened. I mean, like, to the extent that being associated with the APAC is politically radioactive, it's entirely because of their own, you know, their bribes and the, you know, mass murder campaign that they're currently supporting. But close it out here, he says, so because I don't want to see the weapons of lawfare turned against the Jews. Oh, dear. Oh, my God. Oh, my fucking God. Oh, my God. If you're a Jew and lose at law fairs to Joe Biden, that's on you. You saw.

What are the demographics of the federal prosecutors? That is like, that is like the, you know, if the US. They're getting knocked out by Glass Joe. If the US Olympic team lost in basketball to fucking Granada, like that's on you. I don't care who cheated or what. That's your fault. Because I don't want to live in a third world swamp that prosecutes political enemies and rewards flunkies with impunity.

And because I don't want- What? Israel you fucking asshole? That's exactly what Israel is! Yeah. Or Turkey. And because I don't want gangs targeting my wife in Central Park or on the subway or savages chanting from the river to the sea outside my children in Central Park or on the subway or savages chanting

from the river to the sea outside my children's day school or my favorite kosher restaurant. Because of all of that and more, I stand with Mayor Eric L. Adams, a hero to Jews and New Yorkers. When he is reelected, thanks in part to the support of our community and all sane New Yorkers, I will proudly pass out squares of Turkish delight. So this guy's just fucking delusional I mean, this is like Felix like you talk about like, you know, it's like, you know, it's a Jewish identity magazine tablet And like he's couching as a George always a hero to the Jews

But like everything else he writes in this piece sounds like George Lincoln Rockwell wrote it Flooding our country with diseased migrants and rape gangs in Central Park. It's like they've taken everything people for taking everything like neo-Nazis say about Jewish people and they're just like applying it to everyone else. Yeah, no, it's the inverse of the Imperial Japanese who read protocols and were like, this is awesome. It's a Jewish guy reading protocols and being like, yep. It's weird to hear the phrase Jewish lobby used in a positive way. I feel like if anyone else was saying that, they would say it was anti-Semitic and sort

of reasonably. It's in the Jewish lobby and not like the Zionist lobby or the Israeli lobby or whatever. But he's just saying it's the ever the all-powerful Jewish lobby. Why are you saying that? We say we need the we need the all-powerful Jewish lobby to counter the all-powerful Columbia students lobby. Yeah. And also that like any any federal corruption laws are will immediately make the daily operations of the Jewish lobby unmanageable. They just can't do it if corruption is illegal. I mean, basically what he's saying here is that federal corruption charges shouldn't apply to anyone who supports Israel.

Yeah. I mean, like this is what this lawfare thing is just pure projection because he's he's listing like in the article all of the federal all the politicians that he does want to see prosecuted for things that he regards as you know, like that he finds distasteful Because they don't support Israel like I mean like he was he was just to prosecute George Soros He wants he just wants lawfare applied more across the board to opponents of Israel You know, you can't you can't prosecute one supporter of Israel unless you prosecute 10 critics

of Israel to make things fair. Yeah, the thing that like, besides just like nakedly saying like, we need we have a biological need as Jewish lobbyists to do corruption. The way that he describes everyone else is also just, you know, fucking der Stürmer shit. Like gangs of Venezuelan migrants are going to fucking abduct his wife. That's what most gang violence is. It's not like two gangs fighting each other for like territory or like control of like illegal markets. They're mostly just competing to see who could kill the most 62 year old Jewish

women on the Upper East Side. It's kind of a humble brag that they assume they wouldn't get him. Like they would get my wife. Not me. I would fight them off. All right. Let's let's wrap it up there for today. That does it for today's show. Just like to reiterate our plugs at the top of the episode. Matt Christman's book available for purchase now. No Posseuron, Matt Christman Civil War. Tickets to our LA show with E1 on sale as well and new merchandise available at ChapoTrapHouse.store. Everyone out there just please continue to support our mayor Eric Adams and fight this unjust prosecution against him. That's all I got for today. Thanks again to Alex for stopping by. And we will.

Thank you. I would be remiss before we end the show. Obviously much larger world events happened over this weekend with the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah and probably by the time this show goes out, the invasion of Lebanon by Israeli forces if it hasn't happened already We are going to dedicate Significantly more time to that in the coming week. All right, everyone till next time. Bye. Bye Istanbul was Constantinople now, it's Istanbul not Constantinople, now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople

Been a long time gone, old Constantinople still has Turkish delight on a moonlit night Every gal in Constantinople lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople So if you've a date in Constantinople, she'll be waiting in Istanbul Even old New York was once New Amsterdam