The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - Live From The Table: LIVE! Calls Ins, Comedy Cellar Costs and the Problem with Mearsheimer

Episode Date: January 9, 2026

Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are in-studio and taking calls. Is Dan disparaging the show? Should we cancel it entirely? Will Noam raise prices? A caller lecture us on pronunciation and Noam eviscerates John Mearsheimer.

This is live from the table, the official podcast of the world famous comedy seller, available wherever you get your podcast. Dan Natterman here. We got a skeleton crew today. We got Noam Dorman, owner of the comedy seller. Here I am. And Perry Al-Ashan brand is here. Hola.

And we're going to take some calls, and we're live. And before we do that, a interesting piece of news, apparently on TrivAdvisor, comedy seller is the number four top things to do in New York City. Is that correct, no? That's correct, David. You want to hear with the number one, two, three are? Oh, go ahead. I lost the page.

I'll find it in a second. Oh, number, okay. So number, first, why tell people why we're doing a call with that? Well, because we had a guest that was going to talk about anti-Semitism in Canada. Yeah, but we knew that you couldn't stomach another show because you've been disparaging the show and you put such a bad... I didn't disparage anything. Cariel, can we go to the judges? Disparage.

No, I didn't disparage the show. The show is quite good. It's just that I serve no purpose. You can't stomach it. I can't stomach it fine, except I can't. Number one in New York City is Spiscape. Specialty Museum, you know, have heard of Spyscape. I have.

I've taken my child there. It's fantastic. And number two is Rise, New York, Gaming Entertainment Center, History, Museums. I don't know what's... Never been. A soaring journey through New York City. Sounds like a bakery, RISEN. Immersive Game Box, the Lower East Side.

I just want to really go on record here, and I know you're going to disagree with me. I was going to say that even though we're number four, we have twice as many listings. We have 1,077 listings. The other ones have like 500, 400, so. Okay. So, first of all, I would arguably put the seller above all of those things. The fact that the MoMA is not. Why do you say arguably?

Because there's an argument against it. You said, I would put the seller above all. I would put the seller above all of those. I think it is a scandal that like the MoMA is not number one on those things. Oh, God. I know you hate you. It's a character flaw on your part. You're, how much you dislike museums.

Does anybody really like the museum? Yes. I assume TripAdvisor in making their listings a lot of it's to do with how many reviews. It was New York City attractions. There was a nightlife listing too. Okay, go ahead. Okay. I just want to say that the,

First of all, I think that the calls are really killing it. People seem to be really enjoying them. Most of all, you know. But the first comment. Nightlife were number two. Well, you should be number one. Behind the stand. Behind the Delancey rooftop.

Well, that's ridiculous. The first time... Well, those are kind of apples and oranges, but anyway. Yeah, but they might also, like, be ringers. Like, you know, sometimes these clubs know how to gin up there reviews the way like people gin up their Twitter followers and stuff. Go ahead. I'd really like to sort out this housekeeping issue that we're having because our first

comment is longtime listener here. Dan, you are essential all capital letters to the pod. Make no mistake about it. Yeah, but that was my comment. But is there a but? The calls are fun. Please keep them. Also great back and forth between a vote.

Whatever. I read the important part. I don't know if that's a majority opinion, but the fact is... Well, call in and tell us, guys. Noam is... This is not a disparaging comment. Noam is amazing at what he does. But what he does is not what I do. I'm not passionate about what he's passionate about.

And nor am I anywhere nearly as knowledgeable about what he's knowledge about. Okay, but Dan, you're such a downer sometimes. It's like, okay, here are the comedy. We're going to show about something. I really have no interested in it. No, I didn't say. that I said we've discussed Jewish issues. And what did not all we discuss?

Even that was, we were discussing Israel a lot because it happened to be the hottest topic in the world. And then we're discussing the Candace Homes-Meghan Kelly thing also a very, very hot topic in the world. And wait a second. What did I say to you, Dan? What was my, what did I say to you? What did you say?

What did you say? I said that you can find ways to participate in ways that you shine. and that Nome would be very amenable. Maybe, but, you know, or maybe. I would arguably be amenable. Maybe it's just, it's just not a good fit. No, you're... Okay, what would you like to talk about, Dan?

Well, what I, I send guest ideas. And my guest ideas focus more on science. For example, nuclear fusion, and where things are at with that. Dan, there's already three top 10 nuclear fusion podcasts. Go ahead, go ahead. I'm kidding. Outer space. Outer space is interesting.

Life in outer space. Astrobiology. I have a question if you about outer space. And also the guy I wanted that's trying to bring supersonic air travel back. Okay. So first of all, we, whenever you send me guests, I reach out to them the same way that I reach out to Noam's guests. But what I'm saying is, is that for every show, we could do something that you are interested in.

And in my opinion, I think that Noam would be very amenable. Arguably, I'd be amenable. You're making fun of me. It's like hurting cats with the two of you sometimes. I have a question about outer space for it take calls. Maybe you know this. I asked my son this, my... Well, I did one more thing I wanted to bring up, if I could,

regarding the comedy seller being number four. She wanted to do that before or after my question? After your question. So I asked my 12-year-old son. He did know the answer to this, but... I understand a solar system. All the planets revolve around the sun. I'm sorry.

Solar system. What holds a galaxy together? What is the delineation of a galaxy as opposed to a solar system? Well, I assume gravity like everything else. Yes, that's right. So as the universe expands, galaxies cling together. Because I think Mandy says like this because of black holes or quarks, I don't even know these stuff.

Dark matter. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Maybe it's dark. That's quite interesting, right? And it's also interesting that we knew this. I mean, as long as I've been alive, they had a concept of galaxies. So with all, you know, pre-computer technology, basically, you know, good, well-ground glass, right?

They were able to figure this out. It's pretty remarkable to me. Yes, indeed. Even before they went to the moon, they knew about this stuff. Like, even before they had a telescope in space even. Yeah, I guess. It's remarkable. This is the sort of thing you can expect from our outer space.

Well, if we had a guess, if we had a guess, if we had a guess, this is the EDUCD conversation. We had a guess, we would ask them. How did they ascertain that galaxies exist? Okay. And why do galaxies exist? But I certainly don't have the answer to those questions at the tip of my fingers. Maybe chat EBT could elucidate.

That's another thing. You know, we have the answer to every. Number four on the trip advisor list. Now, as you know, audience people, the comedy sellers opening up another room. I guess in February or I don't know where that's it. Sounds like March to me. Now it's March. Liz is over here.

Okay, go ahead. So does this put your mind at ease somewhat or do you think it's irrelevant in terms of being able to fill that new room? We will fill the new room at peak hours for sure. Like I have the data to be basically 100% certain of that. Being that you know how many reservations? We turn away. We turn away. Like, you know, weekend shows, all three, not the latest weekend show maybe,

but all three main primetime shows, I think Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, should be no problem. The question is, right, Liz? Yeah, but the question is, you should get Liz's a microphone. The problem is, not the problem, but what we don't know is what will happen on, like, late shows on early weeknights, winter, when it's cold, things like that. But on the other hand, this other room may become its own, create its own solar system because it may be a center of gravity because it's going to allow us to do other things

and maybe create a life of its own. So we don't know. Well, what other things you have in mind? Like doing this podcast live, for example? Like people may want to do screenings there. They may want to do live podcasts. They may want to do more headlining shows there. It's, you know, I don't want to jinx it.

How much wood can I? But it's shaping up to be a really unusual. room. And what's, how do you mean? What do you mean? Is this interesting to people? I think, I think, quite interesting. I mean, it's the number fourth more, most interesting thing in New York to people.

Would you rather hear about this or the sex I had last night? This. Okay. It would, because it's two levels and there's, it's some beautiful architectural features and the way we're imagining it with the lighting and just, it should be very, um, it should be very, um, kind of like a throwback. What would you say, Liz? Give her a mic. Give her a mic there?

I think it sort of reminds me of like the Shakespearean Globe theater. If you've ever seen any pictures of that or illustrations, it sort of has that feeling. But you could also say like a New Orleans brothel theater? Maybe. That too. But you know, like two levels and a railing and you look over and it's right across the stage. The brickwork on the outside is quite beautiful.

Yeah, the brickwork. Everything should be nice. So we'll see how to close. That was your, Mishigas. I'm 100% sure. There's no Jewish words today. Right. Did you, I just noticed that that you, it's like built out a little bit.

That was. Yeah, because I want to put the sign inside. That's so you. Permission to speak freely now? Really? So you did mention. Have we been getting the, the, built her Dan, up until now? We had a discussion.

And you were agreeable to it on condition that the new club was. More spots for you? No. Okay, go. No, because that's a foregone conclusion. I don't think that's going to happen. No, the, the comedian inflation relief act of 2026, meaning perhaps a higher cover and higher spot pay.

Dan's mic on? Yeah, yeah, maybe. Liz, Liz? Maybe. Yes, absolutely. If everything goes well, we have a, so I'm funny because I'm looking at something here that when I first proposed opening in Vegas, in 2014, I sent them like a little package about the comedy seller trying to sell them on the idea. And our cover charge then was $24, Liz.

What is it now? 25. This is 11 years ago or 12 years ago, depending on when. That's not much of an increase. No. That's tremendous, right? But since then, I'm looking at the numbers I told them. I'll open more rooms.

Our business has Quintoupled since 2014. What does that mean? I'm just kidding. I know. It means five times. So what's your conclusion regarding the cover? You're going to raise the cover in Vegas? Well, you know, since correlation is always causation, the conclusion is that keeping

the prices low had business go up. But yes, once the new club is open, we'll definitely raise it a little bit. We'll see. You're like the owner of Arizona iced tea who, who says. still charges only 99 cents for his giant can of ice tea. Do you know that? It's like the Costco hot dog? Yeah.

Well, that's interesting because the Costco hot dog or the Costco like rotisserie chicken, that's a lost leader. People come to the store for that and, of course, they buy a million other things. Is that true? Yeah, I mean, I assume. That chicken's supposed to be really bad for you, by the way. All right, but rotissory chicken? That rotissory chicken.

But why would Arizona iced tea? because he says he's making enough money and he doesn't he wants people to keep being able to afford to buy the tea and he's making So not only we're not having a Jewish-oriented show today We're just actually drive the Jews crazy They can't even bear to listen

I can't listen to no Go ahead, Dan Okay, so I know you were worried about You know, price elasticity And whether or not You know how much the customers would tolerate an increase in cover. Listen, my feeling, I mean, this is sound corny.

Everything is fine for me. Like, I don't need to make, and this is it sound like it's because I'm making a fortune. It's not because I'm making a fortune. It's because I'm, I, the amount of money that I make affords me, basically everything I want. I don't, I don't need a Rolls Royce. I don't need, like, if I want to take a vacation, I can take vacation. Any restaurant I want to go to, I can go to. I can go to.

If I want to buy a pair of sneakers, like whatever I need. If the boiler in my house breaks, I'll get a new boiler. You know, like, like I don't have any of these anxieties. My kids are in new clothes. My daughter has enough money for her cosmetics.

Like everything I have, I need. You know what you have. Yeah, everything I have, I need. Everything I need I have. And so then every raising of prices in some way risks that. It's like the goose is laying the golden eggs

and I'm going to fuck with the goose now a little bit to have more money. More money for what? Well, I guess it's more money because you're supposed to maximize your profit. You're supposed to do that, right? Keep it in the black.

Like George Collin used to say, I'm supposed to maximize my profit. But, you know, with maximizing your profit, you can mess things up. So like, why would I want to risk messing things up? The money is not going to be enjoyed by me. The money is going to be put away in the bank. Well, they would be partly enjoyed by the comedians who would be forever grateful. And yes, right. So, so, yeah, other than a meager raise to, well, I wasn't thinking meager, necessarily. To raise, reager raise in price in order

to go away. We don't raise a comedian paid $25 of a spot or something like that. Um, we're already We're already still the highest paying club. I know. I know. Yeah. You know. So that's just, that's just how I think about things.

And, and what we can, what we can make more money by, you know, increasing seats by opening more rooms. That seems like a much safer way to make more money than raising prices. Liz,

any comment on that? No. Okay. So we have any. And as, yeah. So, so,

so, so, well, also, comedians can get more spots. So, I mean, I recognize that's a, a,

potential. I'm going to go back and say what I've been telling you for so long, which is, like, you can also do, like, your own show in the new room and generate your own thing. Shut up, Periel. Why? Nobody offered him his own show in the new room. I'm just using. What is the matter with you? Maybe it's nothing Juanita would say.

I'm, first of all, I have no authority to offer. That's, yes, that's my point. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about this in theoretical. where... Arguably. Then you didn't say arguably. Well, I'm not going to say anything then.

I'm trying to be encouraging and giving Dan like ideas. Look, I may be out of this club. I'm fighting for the comedians here because there's nothing to do with me. I'm being shunned at aside. Altruistic. That's altruistic. Magnanimous. Arguably.

Anyway, so are we ready for calls? I don't know. Anything else want to talk about? What about what are you thinking about Venezuela? Yeah, crazy. Riba. Did you guys see... Did you see Ami Kossack's video as...

Ami Kossack and I have been having it out. His video? It's a video where him and... He pretends to be... He does Trump as Maduro's... He's very good with his impression. Dad. It's up to like two and a half million...

Well, musicians... There might be a correlation between... Because you're actually pretty good at impression. No, I'm not. Well, you do a good Edith Bunk. That's the only one? That's my only impression. But I do wonder whether there's a correlation,

because he's a musician on me, Cozac, and I wonder whether there's some correlation between musicality and impressions. You're fighting with him? John Pod Horace actually said the same thing one time. There's coincidence that he's Jewish. I'm fighting with him and everybody because... Because they won't condemn their own.

Because they're making these crazy excuses for, you know, J.D. Vance and not somebody. Megan Kelly, but just like the whole, the whole culture that's going on. I just don't get it. And it, it strikes me as these trembling knees, you know, like, it just strikes me as like, you're afraid to make waves. Like, I get it. You don't want to cry wolf about this stuff. But this is not edge cases of interpreting bigotry. This is like, it's so clear what's going on, right? Anyway, um, uh, so you want to take calls? We have calls, Liz?

He has one. Okay. I hope it's not a Kevin Brennan. Is it Kevin Brennan? I can't hear you without the mic. So you got it yet. Neil Barr. Neal Barr. He just left. Oh, Neil Barr. Neil, are you there? Dan, why don't you tweet out that you're taking calls? I don't have that many followers. He's the why. Do you tweet it on the seller, Liz? Okay. So where's this guy? He's here, Neil.

Neil? I might have to kick him out and ask him to come. come back because I don't see him. All right. So let's talk about what we want the show to be, Dan. Well, I think that you're doing fine. You're building a... No, even I've had enough of the Israel stuff. Well, the Israel and the Candace and all the other things.

Yeah. But what else is there to talk about? Well, there's the stuff that I had mentioned. The science stuff. The philosophy. But what makes a successful show? Like... The host.

It's being compelling and interesting. Well, I think nowadays what makes a successful show is taking an extreme position. At least that's one formula, not the only formula, but the people that are very extreme, conspiracy theorists. That's right. Or people on the other side that are, you know, far left or far right. And also clips, if I could God help me put in a bid to be making these clips, which Steve will help me do. Let's look at the top ten podcasts. Is it Hock Tua?

No, that's not a podcast. It was. She had like the number one podcast for a minute. Okay, so there's like the Joe Rogan experience, a daily crime junkie. We can't do that. We could have, I've tried to convince you to get some cereal.

Maybe we just need to pack it in. Like, we had a good run with the war. Unfortunately, the war's over. Unfortunately. I mean, you know,

uh, uh, no, and, um, keep going. What are the top 10 podcasts? That doesn't matter.

So, so like New York Times. Like, we can't compete. We can't compete with these, the rogue and stuff. I'm tired of watching, reading the news. What are you talking about? There are, what about, hold on. Maybe just go back to being like an unambitious podcast. I just interviews like, like dancing, like niche, like people.

You're really stressing me out. What about there's, um, not. Actually, what I wouldn't mind doing is just doing a live show. Not skinny, but not fat. She has 923,000 followers, new episodes every Tuesday. She's awesome. Yeah, this is what women, is it like my weight or something? Why do you have to be like that?

Because I don't think there's any straight men watching not skinny, not fat. Well, I would like to break it to you that straight men don't have to be the only target market for this podcast. And you don't have to talk about weight. She doesn't talk about just weight. Jesus Christ, your husband's a second. Well, you were about to say that you wouldn't mind doing and then Perry, I'll kind of interrupted. I'm just saying maybe just do like a niche podcast again. Just like, you know, like, we used to see an article that's interesting,

invite the president and talk about. I never used to pay attention to how many people listened. And I met a lot of good friends that way. You know, you can, you can have your guests. Or we could just stop. No, and we have Lucas here. Lucas. Lucas, okay.

Yeah, hey there. Hello, Lucas. How you doing? Very well. Where are you calling? from? Montreal. Why we get a lot of Canadians?

Yeah, I don't know. That's interesting. You speak French? Maybe he was tuning in because he was tuning in for that other guy that's Canadian. Dan, speak French. Go ahead. I don't feel like it. Come on.

Well, Lucas is an anglophone. Am I correct? Yes, yes. So French is his second language. Dan learned French alone in a room with a book. Dan is true. Well, with videos and with movies and books and all. he taught himself French.

It's an extremely hard language to learn. Honestly, one of the harder languages because there's so many like tenses and different ways of speaking and then masculine and feminine, like a table is a feminine word.

A tabla. A lot of languages have that. But the vocabulary is easy compared to even Spanish. It's easier than Spanish vocabulary-wise. All right, Lucas. What's on your mind, Lucas? So I just want, like, I was listening to your podcast with Ami Kossack.

I didn't manage to catch it live. And part of, so look, for the most part, generally on things I've been listening to your podcast since, yeah, since the war broke out. I think part of the reason you get people from Montreal is that we do have a big Jewish community here. So most likely you're getting listeners who, I appreciate your perspective. because it was relatively neutral. So moving that to this discussion, I think part of what kind of ekes me, looking from the outside at the rhetoric in these politics

is the fact that I think by allowing realistically, and I know the whole Trump-Darrangement syndrome idea, whatever, But by allowing this administration to essentially recreate reality with no consequence and reshape reality. And people like him will just essentially go with that. It turns into not being able to address your own side's issues because you're so stuck in this reality where they could not possibly do something wrong. And I think that does come from both sides, but it was clear that he's just so stuck in this world. Lucas, you got to get to the point. What's the question?

So I guess my question is, or my thought the whole time was, when it comes to these discussions, I think the root is the fact that reality kind of can be reshaped. And what do you think is the way to combat that? Or do you agree with that? Reality can be what shaped? Reshaped. Reshaped. Like look at the January 6th stuff from yesterday that went up. Just completely lies, not even remotely true.

But they put it on the White House website with no. consequence. Yeah. That allows for zero accountability. What's interesting to me, and therefore breathe this personality. I don't have a good answer to that, but I mean, I could try, Dan could try, but what's interesting to me is that Canadians are so interested in our domestic politics and our January 6th and this and that, but we have zero interest in your domestic politics. We like, Danes, we don't know if you have a president, the prime minister. I don't know if you have a A legislature? I have no. Like, we have, like, Dan. Well, yeah, I mean, that's my joke. But, you know, we're a pretty important country.

I mean, we're the center. You know, isn't Justin Trudeau dating Katie? Yeah, that we, that people know. Oh, that's important. You know, that's interesting. You guys have a long line of prime ministers who date rock stars. Well, didn't, I think his father dated. Linda Ronstadt. Was it Lina Ruther? P. Pierre Trudeau, dated Litton. And wasn't there some scandal? And Mar, and Margaret Trudeau dated Mick Jagger, I think. Who's Margaret Trudeau?

Yeah, I think so. That was his... Really? That's an amazing country you have there. A lot of good comments, too. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, go ahead.

Well, the Canadians have a separatist movement up in Quebec. I don't know if it's still active. That's probably the most interesting thing about Canada is every now and again. The French speakers in Quebec threatened to declare independence from the rest of Canada. I don't know. Is that dead, Lucas? No, honestly, I expect that to happen again in the next couple of years. years like an actual referendum on that.

The Quebec government, the way we live here is very, look, I know, Dan, I know you've been here. I don't know if all of you have been there. My parents,

my parents are actually Montreal. They're English speaking Montreal is when I've been there hundreds of times. Half my family. I make a joke, half my family is buried in Montreal and the other half is living in Toronto, and I don't know what's worse. Oh,

brother. Anyway. Yeah. Well, that's it. Anyway. Oh, and your,

and your, and your, And your prime minister, Perriot wants me to tell you, was also wore blackface, which is, gives you a, gives you a, ex-prim minister, but yeah, yeah, exactly. Give you a connection to Megan Kelly. In any case, listen, this is the truth, this is the truth, Lucas, you're right. Nothing bothers me more than people reshaping the reality and not getting their facts right. It's been a thing of mine since I was a kid.

I've said on the show before, when the more. movie, JFK came out, the Oliver Stone movie, it made me viscerally upset because it wasn't true. And I just knew, well, this is going to pass into the culture as history, you know. And, you know, in the age of the internet, it's more important than ever. Things need to be true. And I, you know, I'm correcting people on the other side all the time. And then lately, I've been really turning my spotlight on people supposedly are kind of on my side because they've just been out of control. all. And I don't know else to say. January 6 is the worst thing that Trump did is pardoning all the January 6

rioters, you know, willy-nilly, blanketly. But you know, in the end, you come back to what the alternative was, Kamala Harris. We don't know. Oh, there's Lucas. We can see his face. Wait, you can actually. Well, we can see his lower, the lower half is. Why can't we see him? That doesn't make any sense. That's a picture, I think. It's a Harry Potter picture. It's moving. I don't think it's me.

No, we're queued up the next person probably. Okay, no, it's not me. Oh, that's somebody else? Yeah. Who's waving? The next guy? Yeah, the next. Yeah.

Okay, on deck. So anyway, Lucas, but I agree with you. And I just wish, you know, it's hard at first. It's hard actually at first to just say, no, that's not right, you know, and look like you're not loyal to your cause or something like that. But then it becomes liberating. And then, hopefully, it becomes a deterrent. And it becomes an incentive for people to take a few seconds before they retweet something,

before they tweet out a quote that they could look up and just, you know, clean up your act a little bit because, as we all know, when the other side does it, We just say, how dare they? Oh, my God. What a bunch of liars. And then people on our side go around. And I'm using their side and our side for either side. You could be on either side of their side and our side.

Just as a general comment on the way human beings act. And, you know, garbage in, garbage out. Okay, Lucas, thank you for calling. I appreciate it. How do you say? A tutelieu. Well, yeah, bonsoire. Bonsoire.

Okay. Who is the next guy, the guy waving? That is name. Nate. Nate. Oh, hey, I just saw the Zoom link and I joined because I was watching on YouTube. This is amazing. Hey, do, Nate.

Love the podcast. Thank you, sir. What can we do for you? Well, I didn't really have anything in line. I just joined the Zoom because I thought the Zoom was better to join. I love the show. I love the debates that are on the show. I recommend it as one of the most interesting political podcasts that I know of.

Now, how do you account for the fact that not, By the way, I agree with you. Okay. How do you account for the fact that it's not a bigger podcast? Do you think that reasonable, just meticulous argumentation is not in vogue? So I think a lot of people don't like to argue about things they really care about deeply. So personally with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I know a lot of people who care very deeply on either side about it

and nobody really wants to talk about in detail. Are you Canadian too, by the... You have a bit of an accent of some sort. Where are you from? So I am American. I lived in Switzerland a long time, and now I live in the UK. I'm currently in Spain.

Because it filters in there, you know. All right, well, Nate says... I've been told I speak funny, so... Do you have anything you want to say about Venezuela, for instance? It's interesting. So my parents are massive Trump supporters and they've gone from being non-intervigionist to completely pro-invading sovereign nations because Trump has decided that that is something that the country should be doing. Whether or not it's good for the I hope it ends up being a good thing for the Venezuelan people like I think everybody does. I don't think this is an action that U.S. should be taking by any measure. I think it's outrageous. And if you rewind a long time ago, what got me away from the Republican Party was the invasion of Iraq when I was a college student.

And nobody wanted to talk about it. Everybody was pro-war in my sphere. And then after it was, once it was clear that it was a disaster, everybody told me, you know, just get over it. Why are you talking about the past? And I feel now like this is maybe a repeat of that situation. Well, let's talk about your parents. Well, yeah. Why do they blow on the wind so easily towards Trump?

You know, I think... Do you fight with them about it? Well, I used to. I don't so much anymore. I mean, but I think like, I used to be a physicist. Do you know the phrase adiabatic expansion? There's an idea in physics that if you do something slowly, then kind of nothing happened. Like, things can magically switch places.

And I think with conservative... and liberals, what you can often do is if you change the underlying beliefs slow enough, you could totally switch places just because it's more a team sport than about what you believe in. It's a lot of things. You know, it's funny because I made an analogy like this one time on Twitter and nobody seemed to like it. But I said that- That aligns right with my- But I said that often politics is like quantum entanglement.

Where you have because you have these two, I don't know how to explain it, but like if this one, it's binary. If this one goes that way, the other one automatically goes the other way, it's somewhere else in the universe. And people are like, oh, if he's for that, I'm against it. But you were four, yes, it doesn't matter. And this is, you know, it's like connected. I think something interesting in American politics is that I forgot like, I think that the rules of elections and the rules of political systems will kind of dictate how many. parties there are. So there's an argument that the reason there's two U.S. parties is because of the system it's in. And then you have other places which have many more parties. You know, Australia has

a bunch of like smaller parties. I think the two party thing is probably pretty good. But anyway, I just just give you my quick thing of it as well. I don't know if you got to have any thing. Yes, of course, Iraq has had a lot of problems, right? But it's a sample size of of, of, of one. And, well, I mean, you know, then there's not the only sample size, but if you just want to talk about Iraq, then you're talking about a sample size of one. But of course, we got rid of Milosevic in Kosovo, and that worked out, as far as I know pretty well. And, you know, Korea is doing South Korea, we're very happy that South Korea is not part of North Korea. And, you know, like, as I said to some other day, if we had a hundred of these various scenarios, a certain number of them would turn out

well, a certain number of them would turn out disaster, a certain number of them would be ambiguous. So, you know, you don't want to be reflexive about this stuff. But that's not necessarily relevant to what's just according to international law. Well, leaving international law aside for a second, because international law is really kind of a joke, right? I mean, international law has become a shield for bad guys to say, you can't do anything about it. I can do whatever I want. I can hide behind civilians. I can dig in a tunnel. But theoretically, there are principles out there somewhere. So let's talk about it. about that then. The most fundamental principle we have as Americans, it's in a Declaration of

Appendants, is that, you know, we have inalienable rights, and government is, sovereignty is based on consent of the governed. This is our basic principle that we believe in sovereignty, consent of the governed, and there's something that should strike every person the wrong way, is the notion that sovereignty of the United States, based on consent of the government and an election and all this stuff, is interchangeable with the sovereignty of a guy like Maduro who stole an election outrageously and holds power at the end of a gun. And if international law means that he has the same rights to terrorize his people, one third of that country left, that is how bad it is. Can you what it means for one third of a population of a nation to up and leave? You can just imagine the

privation of what's going on in Venezuela. So this notion that, well, but international law means he has a sovereign right to terrorize those people. He has a sovereign right to fix elections. It's his right. Just like we wouldn't want them coming into our country. This is bullshit. It's fucking bullshit. Everybody knows it's bullshit. It's the, it is the bulletproof vest of the despots international law. So that's why I feel about it. Now, that doesn't mean that international law as an idea is bad,

but that that particular international, like in other words, perhaps a principle could be established wherein some sovereignties are more sacrosanct than others. No, I'll tell you why it can't, and then I'll let it look at it can't because, you know,

we have trouble enough getting a Supreme Court that we feel is fair-minded with their biases. International law in the end is enforced by, let's say, the Security Council in the UN, that will never be a good faith deliberative body. China and Russia, and maybe the United States, only vote on their self-interest.

They are not actually going to do what's right if it's against the national interest. So there will never be any enforcement. Yes, we should, on our own, control our own behavior to the high ideals of international law. but to me that means consent of the governed. We cannot start treating a bunch of tin horn dictators in our backyard as these hands-off sovereign entities

no matter what they do. I just don't see that. I just don't see that. And it's not going to encourage China to take Taiwan because China is going to take Taiwan if China thinks they can do it. That's the only reason China will or will not take Taiwan is can we.

get away with it. The only reason Putin went into Ukraine is because he thought he could do it. They are not bound by international law. Go ahead. Sorry. Yeah. So really interesting points. I think it brings up the question then who's next, you know? And what what I would personally like is is a system of rules. It's not that the U.S. president decides which country we should take over next or if and when we should replace a dictator because, you know, whether we do something in Iran, whether we do something in North Korea, who decides this? There's no good answer to that. But obviously, if international law were real, as soon as Maduro refused to cede power after

he clearly lost the election, the international enforcers were coming. I'm sorry, Mr. Maduro, but you have to go. This is illegal, right? That's the joke of it all. that's the law that was really broken was that he controls that nation even though he has no sovereignty, he has no consent of the governed. And then we pretend it doesn't matter as long as you can use enough force to stay in power. How dare we question it?

And this makes me sick. Like, I'm not, it's not that I don't understand that your question is well taken, that nothing is perfect and there's a consequence for having no rules and for openly stating there are no rules. I get that. But the sanctimony, the fact that people actually in their heart seem to believe that an injustice is being done to Maduro. Like, how, look what we've done to this guy. No, we haven't done anything to this guy. No more than somebody, when somebody rapes your daughter and the jury lets him go.

and then somebody goes and fucking kicks a shit out of him and says, look, how, what happened to him? He was found innocent. No, we know he raped your daughter. He got off on a technicality, you know? Who are we kidding here? You can't, now you can't have a system where people can go take

the law into their old hands, into their own hands. But nobody's like crying about a little, you know, justice, a little street justice. I want to clarify, I don't have a daughter. I have a dog. But if you want to break there, even better. It would also, you know.

But I do think, like, are we doing injustice to the Venezuelan people is a question, right? But we'll see, hopefully not. If we say we're going to take their oil and U.S. companies. I don't think Trump actually said we're going to take their oil. I think that was once again, them taking his words and kind of. But all right. I love the show. I'll leave it to someone else.

Okay. Anybody else that is? Thank you guys. I can't hear you guys talking to Mike. Matthew. Matthew. Matthew. Matthew.

Matthew. Matthew. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, Matthew. Yeah. Hi. So I had a question for all of you.

So there's been a lot of talk about the rise in anti-Semitism over the last few years. I'm curious, have you guys experienced this in your real lives, like outside of the internet? Like, basically, if you didn't have social media and you didn't watch the news, is this something that you would have noticed? Or is it something that's kind of all online? Because just personally, I've never heard anyone in the real world talk the way that some of these provocateurs and such do online. And I'm just curious your perspective on the distinction between the online world and the real world. Well, that's a good question.

I believe Ari Shafir, he said that it's all bullshit that he travels the country and he doesn't see. I travel too. And I'm not, you know, and I assume people know I'm Jewish, even though I don't talk about it explicitly in my act. I was in South Dakota a few years ago and somebody said to me, are you a Jew after the show? But I don't think they meant it in a bad way. I just think that they couldn't believe it. I just think that they, you know, we're curious, even though they phrased it inelegantly. And I said yes.

And they said, really? They only Jews they knew, I guess, were Seinfeld and, you know, and people on TV. But I have not, though, the short-hand. William Shatner. What's that? William Shatner, they knew Captain Kirk. Yeah, but people don't know he's Jewish necessarily. I didn't know he's just.

I think that it's amplified online. for sure, but I also think that there are real incidents going on all over the world in a way that was not happening prior to October 7th. I mean, I just read something, and I know that like I'm sensitive to it, and I'm looking for it, and I know so it's louder than it is in real life. I do acknowledge that. Thank God for now. But like there was just a group of people like harassing Israelis trying to get on a plane in Milan. And I've heard a lot of stories like this. So I definitely think that, and it happens in New York also, right?

Well, Israelis, you know, people might say, well, there is, it's not defending. It's okay to harass Israelis, but that could be because they're Israeli. So what? They're getting on a plane to fly back to L.A. Getting on an L.A. flight, like, what do they have to do with anything? It's not like they were like a delegate. of the government. Yeah.

But the question, all right. So my answer, where do you live, Matthew? Did you tell us right? North Carolina. North Carolina. So, you know, we live in New York where people are pretty used to Jews.

And I would say, no, I haven't had any direct experience. And it's a very important question. But there is more and more data out there showing attitudes about Jews in polling. That's very, very clear. number one, number two, on Twitter, more and more, I see people going online and saying, you know,

I didn't really believe this was happening, but then yesterday I was hanging out with some people and somebody came out with this remark, but it's more often non-Jewish people who are reporting that someone said something to them because they thought it was okay to say it because there's no Jews around who were offended by it. You've told me your kids are sensitive to this now.

that my kids are sensitive to what we're all talking about because everybody's talking about it. I don't know that anybody said anything anti-Semitic to any of my kids. So my answer to Matthew would be it's probably not as bad as we think it is, but I don't think it's not real. What do you think, Matthew? Again, I just, it just seems like such a stark distinction between what you see online and what you see in real life. I almost wonder if most of these people on Twitter are just like language model bots arguing back and forth. because it's so different. There are some people that I, you know, that I know personally that have said some crazy shit.

Well, you know, that's right. We have like comedians. And, you know, everybody's sophisticated. So they confine everything they say to be about Israel. But as long as they say those magic words that they're talking about Israel, the venom and the obsession and the harshness with which they talk about the Zionists, right, it does feel tinged with a little bit more than a foreign policy concern in the sense that in my entire life, having lived through, you know,

genocides and atrocities and all sorts of horrible things that have gone on in the world, I have never experienced people talking about, country that they've never been to with such hatred, just never seen it. And they will say, well, we don't give $4 billion a year to, you know, Tahiti or whatever it is. Tahiti. I'm just some faraway place. But, or, you know, what's a good example? What was Richard Gear all about? Tibet. Tibet or something. But that's not really fooling anybody. Is it, Does anybody actually think when the aid to Israel stops that everybody's going to say, oh, we don't care.

Who cares what goes on in Israel? I don't think anybody believes that. But Matthew, I don't know what you think. No, I mean, that's, I don't know what to believe sometimes. I know that it's good that you're thinking out loud about it, you know. I know college kids who I know, including my niece and other kids who have been at Ivy League schools have reported back. Oh, yeah. That's right.

Like horrible. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Perrault made a good play. At colleges, we do hear reports of- Stop the show. Real things. All right, Matthew, thanks for calling.

You say North Carolina? Yeah, North Carolina. Yeah. Well, you must, you must, I mean, if you don't hear anti-Semitism down there, it must not exist. It's not true. They have a very good college down there that a lot of people are stopping sending their kids

to, like, some of the places where they used to send them, and they're sending them to... Yeah, that was actually a bigoted thing for me to say. Sorry about that, Matthew. Elon, right? Elon University? Is in North Carolina? Yeah.

Yeah. All right, Matthew. Anything else? Quick. We have another call, Liz? Oh, that was my question. So thank you for taking the time. Okay.

Thank you, Matthew. That was Matthew. Liz, next. Hey. How are you guys? That's Hamad again from New Jersey. Ah, Hamid is back. Oh, well, you remember where I'm from.

Now, is Hamid short from Muhammad? No, it's a, it's, it comes, okay, so if you want to know, it comes from the same, it comes from the same root word, but different phrase, I guess you could say. But it's not short from a Hamid Tanthi. So Hamid is your full name? Yeah. Like Hamid Karzai? No, like Hamid, that's it.

No, no. Wasn't Hamid Karzai the head of Afghanistan or something? I'm not Afghani, but I guess that's. What's the root word? Hamid, which means praise. Okay, it's a Hamid Karzai with H-A-M-I-D. Now, this is very interesting because, like, my name is Noam. Believe me, every time somebody's named Noam, I'm aware of it.

Now, my name was Hamid, and there was a, you know, the head of a country was named Hamid or Hamid, which I'm pretty sure it's the same name. But Hamid is a different, that's not related. Hamid is different than Hamid. Ah, okay. All right, well, okay, I stand corrected. He was lauded for being very well-dressed. So it's not Muhammad, and it's not Hamid. Go ahead. Hamid, what's up, Hamid?

But you are, but you are, but you are, you are, you are Arabic? No, I'm Persian. Persian. Ah, oh, this is interesting. So can you give us anything? Do you have any, like, inside information, but what's going on in Iran? Um, not, I don't know any more or any less than you. You don't know. I thought maybe you, you have family there or anything?

Yeah. And, well, is there, are there channels of communication open where they can report what's going on? Yeah. So then you would know more than me. Yeah, but whatever you're seeing is whatever they're telling me as well. Okay. So, okay, so let's, let's say, I think for some reason you think I'm giving you a hard time.

I'm not. What, what is, I don't think that. Okay. What is your feeling about what's going on? Is this actually a regime teetering on the edge or is this just, you know, another round of protests, which will be disposed of? This is another round of protests, but hopefully it'll end up with more economic stability. The protests right now are about high inflation costs.

So ideally, ideally, like if we want to stop the protest or if we want to like, well, it depends on what you want. Would you like to increase, if you want to see an increase in protests and increase in stability, then you want to up the sanctions. But if you want to like have peace in the region so that the $92 million. Iranians in Iran can live peacefully, then you want to decrease the sanctions so that the currency can stabilize. Because I hear a lot from them, like, I'm really, I'm really Americanized. Like, I don't know euros. I don't know any other currency but dollars.

So I tell them everything, tell it to me like, I'm an idiot that only knows American dollars. So they're like, well, the price of chicken today for a whole chicken will be $100. But tomorrow, it'll be $120. Right. And they have to like prep that. And I'm like, well, first of all, how do you even like know what the price? Like you have to like kind of like guess the market. Like when is the price of chicken going to go up or when is the cost of eggs in it?

That's what they're basically complaining about. It's how the currency isn't stabilized. And they're saying it's due to the sanctions. So it's not, they're not fed up with the Islamic fundamentalist regime. They're not fed up with the whatever. the rules there are like sharia type rules things like that yeah this is an interesting part what do you think goes on in iran that makes them so uh fundamentalist islamically i i don't know anything about it so why do you have that please have positions because i read the israeli

papers i'm kidding okay because because i see that i see the twitter feed of the iotaolo Chlomani and I and I He's dead. Well, I told a Chalmeny passed away in like the... I told him hominy and then Plumini, yeah, that's the one he died in the... What's the one? What's the one called now? Comini, isn't it? So you don't know the difference

you don't know the difference between the two. No, I know the difference. Obviously, I don't have to pronounce the difference clearly enough for you to pick up on it. Khomeini was when I was again. There's hominy or something. What's it? Plamini. Okay, okay. Okay. Come on. Jesus Christ. Hamid.

With all the respect. There's a big difference. There's a big difference between the two. I understand that, but I'm just an American boy. I don't know how to pronounce. Me too. Me too. I know that I know that they're spelled very similarly too.

I mispronounce it, but I am completely aware. No, they're not spelled similarly at all. If one of them is three syllables, the other one is four syllables as well. There's an extra syllable in there as well. Okay. But I mean, they're spelled almost identically. I mean, but he was also giving you a hard time between. Hamid so fair enough

here well that wasn't a hard time just a simple correction what was it what was your original purpose of the call okay so no so call I had but yeah just so you know just so you know why so the Ayatollah is spelled Ayatollah and both and then what does Ayatollah mean hold on a second don't don't start quizzing me out things like so hold on come any was K-H-O-M-E-I-N-I correct And Khamani, even though you say there's an extra...

Chahmeni, oh, I don't see the extra syllable in the writing, but I guess there is in a pronunciation, is K-H, same beginning, A instead of all, then the fourth letter is M, the fifth letter is E, then one has an I, the other one has an N, and then the one at E. They're similarly spelled, okay? They're not identically spelled.

Oh, I agree they're similarly spelled. I agree with their similarly spelled. That's because you're reading it in English, but if you, like, were to read it in Arabic or Persian, you'd notice a big difference between you. Okay. Well, anyway, I've seen various, you know, reports of women who were complaining about having to cover themselves,

and I've seen Twitter feeds of women or, like, defiantly, like, showing their cleavage and things. I see this. And their hair? I don't know how to interpret it. That's why I asked you. Have you been to Iran? Yes, many times.

Okay, first of all, Of course not. First of all, let's slow down here. My mother-in-law is from Iran. And so are all of her sisters and that entire side of the family. Yes. And to answer your question, it's a religious leader in Iran is what the Ayatollah means. And it sounds like just from your...

But break down the word. They just break down the word. What is an ayah? And what is Allah obviously is God, but what is an Ayah? An angry old man? I don't know. Why you, Hamid,

you must understand that, well, you're putting it to our bases. I can start asking, obviously you're, you're testing on stuff

you can't expect me to know and not because I'm an uneducated person. It's not like I, it's not like I generalized. I say, I don't know. Tell me,

that's what I'm asking you. But you're also making it sounds like like we're foolish for insinuating that there's a very serious oppression of women going on in Iran.

And that that's not like a... I didn't see me with that at all. I, I, I, in, no, she didn't. I'm saying that. You're, you're making it like, that's like a ridiculous thing for Noam to ask. All right. Hamid, before we, before we go,

you have a question for us? Well, yeah, yeah, I did. I wanted to ask, if you saw, I think, I believe it was in Florida, Bibi went to a synagogue. Wait, did you say Bibi? Yeah, Benjamin. Is that how you pronounce it?

Did you think it's pronounced BB? No, I just say it for short. I just say it for short. Go ahead, go ahead. Netanyahu went to a synagogue and he was celebrated in Florida. Oh, I did see that. Right. I just want you to close your eyes, please, and I want to paint a picture in your mind.

Just for a moment, please. Just so you understand maybe the other side. Pretend it September 12, 2002. And Osama bin Laden goes to a moment. mosque in New York. And he is celebrated and everyone in that mosque is cheering him on. Now, how would that make you feel as a New Yorker? By the way, I was born and raised right outside, like right outside New York.

No, he's actually is closing his eyes. I see him. No, I see that. I see that. Now, can you want to think he's doing it mockingly, but nonetheless. No, I, I'm guessing. I'm guessing the image of one bin Laden being allowed to enter America. would annoy you after September 11.

Seeing the Muslims in America celebrate him would annoy you outside. You know, you would have a level of distrust. Maybe you would hate Islam more than you already do or maybe you'd hate Muslims as well. Now, for the moment, can you understand why a Palestinian-American, for example, would look at that image and say, look, there's been a genocide going on. And you don't have to use fun. Let me retract that.

I don't want to get into it. No, no, you're speaking from their point of view. You don't need to retract it. Okay. I'll say the word ethnic cleansing because I don't think there's any doubt about that. There's an ethnic cleansing going on right now of the Palestinian people. I'm a Palestinian-American, for example, and I'm seeing the- I think I know where this question is going.

Yeah, but the question is, is- why do you think the question's going? The question is- How would I feel of the sure we're on the other foot? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Well, actually, no. Well, that's the first part.

The second part would be, well, let's get to the first. Can you, this is the more important point. Can you understand why a Palestinian would be pissed off? Let him go to. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. It's going right back to the previous question, and that's what, it's perfect that I come on at this time. Can you see a rise or a reason?

I'm not trying to justify it, but I'm trying to give an explanation. Okay. Can I see why there's a rise in anti-Semitism? I'm not justified. I condemn that, but can you understand why? Okay, it's a very long question. First of all, you said I don't like Muslims. I don't know where.

That was tongue in cheap. Oh, okay, all right. Good. Okay, so, yes, I completely understand that when you hate or you have tremendous resentment towards the people you perceive as the murderers of your people, that it's going to sicken you to see them all cheering their accomplishment

when they gather wherever it is that they gather. That is the way life works. And you know, one of the things that really fueled Israelis right after October 7th was the cheering

not just about what went on, but literally as they carried hostages back on the back of pickup trucks and everybody came out into the streets or crowds came out onto the streets and we're cheering with exalted and ecstatic and, you know,

just, you know, orgasmic almost. So, you know, that's very difficult to take. Obviously, Israel fought a war and the war ended and people who support Israel cheered the prime minister of that country. Now, do I see why that would cause anti-Semitism? No.

I don't see why that would cause anti-Semitism because by definition, it's like saying, you know, that if black people behave in a way you don't like, do you see now why I hate the N-words? Like, no. If you want to justify your hatred of black people because you saw some black people

gathering and doing something you don't like in their meeting, you're a fucking racist. and you're trying to cover it up. If you think that, like, you could hate Jews because... For two seconds, real quick. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, so I'm granting full well that if on my first hypothetical, if on September 12, 2000,

September 12, 2001, bin Laden was in America, and American Muslims were celebrating him. I as an American Muslim would denounce my Islam and I would become, like, the biggest Islamophote. Right? That's with me with all sincerity. cheer we saw not Islam bin Laden but we saw cheering

for September 11th all over the Muslim world where where did a single you can Google it you can Google it Iran Iran Iran Iran did you see what Iran did they had a whole candle of a vigil for I don't know it happened Iran but I know I know

there was some footage of the I think the West Bank or maybe it was Gaza that's right the Palestinians were cheering how many I would have to see I'd have to see I'd have to There was video. I mean, how many was it? I don't know, but it was some number. What you're saying, I mean, this is, you know, obviously America supports Israel in this war.

We armed them. So obviously we support them. Have you read Mearsheimer's book? Because I think it'd be good to have Meersheimer on as well. I've tried to get Mearsheimer on many, many times. But, you know, Mearsheimer has really discredited himself lately because he believes that Trump is being blackmailed. by Netanyahu because of Epstein. He believes that Israel killed most of the people on October 7th.

He believes that. He never said that. Be fair, he's never said that. Yes, he did. He said a good number. He said a good number, but not many. No, he made it. He said a good number.

But the phraseology meant to imply most. And I don't think he's, no, I saw, because let me just come, I directly saw, I'll tell you the exact channel and who it was with. It was on the Katie Halper Show, who I think you should have on. It was John Mearsheimer and Susan Abul-Hawap, who was the Palestinian poet. There was good pronunciation. Well, yeah, thank you. And then they specifically asked about this.

And Mirshimer, and I quote, I remember directly, he said that Israel killed many, but not to the point of most. No, he did not say that. he said a significant number but did not say most i didn't say he i didn't say he said most he said he the totality of his words we can find it later implied let's say a significant number i think i'm being very fair to him when he made it sound like it was the overwhelming number of people but none of this is based on any facts yes there was obviously some friendly fire some small number the hannibal directive no that's the hannibal but even that's different because they what's the hannibal directive that it's Israel's policy that if in order,

they would rather kill their own civilians to not allow, Hamid, not allow them to be taking, let me, I'm answering your question, to not allow them being taken as hostage so that they don't have to negotiate for their lives in the future. So who do,

so who do they fire on? They fire indiscriminately to prevent both the top. No. That's not what it is. You can Google it in two seconds to see what it is. But in any case, and I spoke to on the podcast I spoke to the former heads of the Mossad about this

of the shinbet about this specifically about the Hannibal directive in any case Mirschimer permits himself to say things that go beyond the factual record. Then at Venezuela he said that we would never go into Venezuela we would be a debacle if we tried to get Maduro

so he's got said a lot of things and then I'm also reading this book. We're going to have this guy Mazarin about Iraq. I'm reading a very thorough book about the Iraq War and everything Mirschimer says is undermined by the facts in this book. And I've reached out to him multiple times and he never gets back to me. Oh, Mirshammer? Or maybe you can bring on Walt. Stephen Walt goes off and goes under the radar as well. Um, that she co-authored the book. And again, I've seen, because they've been, I mean, the good thing about YouTube is that you can literally just like see that the historical record. they give the same talk at different universities from like the early from the moment the book was published

and it's always the same they don't make it seem like it's some cabal or some conspiracy theory and in the book itself they make it seem like there's nothing un-American or they're like they're disproving the whole dual loyalty um trope they're literally um they're making it seem like it's something that they believe is in its best interest and their argument is that this is neither in israel's best interest nor the america's best interest and i don't see a way you can argue against that so tell me how is the occupation and apartheid in the west bank for example so israel's best interest so they rushed i'm your sorry they rushed in with massive firepower and use that firepower to attack hamas and the other Palestinian forces uh that had moved into israel proper and they had

killed a significant number of people, not with the Hannibal Doctrine, but just with all that firepower that was brought to bear against Hamas and other Palestinians who were intermingled with all sorts of Israelis. Then there's the whole issue of the Hannibal doctrine. Because as we know, the Palestinians were bent on taking many of the... I mean, the close captions, of the captured Israelis back to Gaza, and the Hannibal Doctrine calls for killing those people before they get there. That's not true. So some Israelis were killed as a result of the Hannibal Doctrine,

and then you want to remember, on top of all that, it's consistent with international law for Hamas to try to break out of the concentration camp and to engage Israel. So, you know, this is, but the way he says that that Hannibal Doctrine means to kill their civil, though the Hannibal Doctrine means that you fire on the terrorist who's taking the civilian across the line. Right, which inevitably will lead to the civilians being killed too.

Well, it's a, it's a, yes, but it's a, that's his point. Hold on. No, no, no, no, but it's not, but that's not, but that's not. No, that's not his point. That's not his point. And this will be the last thing we say. It's really not his point. I'll tell you why.

Where do you say that, by the way? Sorry. Katie Halper. Katie Hopper, I just read you the directing from Katie Halper. This is why it's not his point. And this is very, very serious to me. He portrays the Hannibal Doctrine as some sort of amoral, like, bloodthirsty policy

on the part of the Israelis. And they kill their own people, as if this is the point. With all due respect, I don't agree, though. I can tell you why. Let me just talk, please. Sure, go for it. The fact is that Israel, this is an agonizing impossible moral situation, like a trolley problem that Israel has to deal with where they don't know what to do when somebody's being taken hostage. And the Hannibal doctrine, by the way, it goes in and out, whatever it is, because they absolutely recognize that if they don't attempt to stop these hostages being taken,

Number one, the hostages face a future that may be worse than death. And number two, it just encourages more hostage-taking because what they don't want to happen is that a terrorist knows, once I have my hand on an Israeli, they can't touch me. And this kind of perverse incentive is an impossible situation for any civilized people to deal with. and Meersheimer, rather than showing a scintilla of sympathy, fucking sympathy for the situation that the Israelis find themselves in,

where they have to have a whole doctrine to figure out how to deal with an endemic problem of their people being taken hostages, he sneers at it as if he were in charge, he would have the answer. Oh, if John Meersheimer were in charge of Israel, he'd have this policy that worked out just perfectly, right? He would know exactly how to handle this situation if his people would be. So, fuck John Mearsheimer. All right.

Well, I understand why you say that. And in response, just to defend him, if you allow me to, he clearly does show sympathy for October 7th. But again, Noam, I do think you have to contend. And again, you know, he's called the Hannibal Doctrine murder. And he said, and I just read it to you what he said here. It says the doctrine where they kill their own people. They don't kill their own people. Right.

But that's a lie. But you know, you're not talking about a lie or a misstatement from Perry L. here. We're talking about a liar misdainment from a fucking university of Chicago professor of international law. And you know what? People on that level don't say such things unless they're filled with hate. You've listened to me. I don't say things like that. I don't get things wrong like that.

I don't characterize things that people I don't like. do in ways that aren't fair to them. But he does it all the time. I wouldn't speculate that somebody was being blackmailed by Trump because I didn't like their policy. And I'm not a fucking university Chicago professor. It's an outrage. I get that.

Do you get it or you're just saying that? No, I actually do, come on. I actually do get where you're coming from, right? And I understand why from your perspective, this is a, from my perspective or from an objective perspective? from an objective perspective I see this as semantics because whether he's

you're right he's wrong let me tell you why we got to move on you can call next year we got we have somebody hold on hold on I won't control I'm not going to cut you up

hold on Liz we have somebody else waiting yeah we have Oliver he's been waiting for a while okay you got you got 30 seconds of it good no problem I'll say what I want for the last 30 seconds

here's the question and I'm going to pose it to as Benny Morris posed in the 2004 Harris interview how many more Palestinians need to be transferred for Israel to be safe. Okay, I can't ask it. I don't think they're transferring anybody,

but you mean transferring going back to 1948, you mean? No, no, no, because again... Well, they didn't transfer anybody out of Gaza. Well, no, but you are transferring them out of the West Bank right now, for example. Transming to where? Well, by transfer, what does Benny Morris mean? No, where are you saying they're being transferred to? Well, right now in the West Bank, do you not see all the settler violence?

Yes, but that's not transfer. Well, okay, what does transfer mean? Transfer would mean they move them out of Israel into another country or move them out of Gaza into Egypt or out of the West Bank into Jordan. That would be transfer. No, transfer just means I take you from point A and I put you to point B. If I was to come to your home and you have to move to your neighbor's home, that's still transfer. Okay, okay, we can take this up another time. That's still transfer.

Okay, but that's not what people mean when they say, transfer, but that's fine. Maybe you're right. Maybe you're right. I don't know. We'll talk again. Bye, Hamid. Go ahead. It's my turn. Is this Kevin Brennan? Okay, Oliver. Go ahead. Yeah, thanks. Noah. First of all, I want to thank you and your entire team. Parole and Dan, you guys are awesome. Thank you. Yeah. So I listened to your pod with Josh Hammer and Ami Kozek and agree with you regarding

how allowing the people engaging conspiracies to be allowed into the movement as a problem. My question is specifically with Dinasia Suza. Are you saying that we made a mistake a few years ago or are you specifically saying that we should attack him now? And my follow-up question to that is- Are we saying what? I'm a little deaf. That you made a mistake, that we made a mistake a few years ago or the- Yeah, I mean, in the past, we made, our mistake was that, you know, I guess the Republican's mistake was that they allowed him to be in the mainstream.

They didn't build Buckley him. But my question to you now is right now, we have so many enemies. And we really have to pick our battles. So are you saying that we should attack him now? Yeah, I think he discredited. Who you're talking, Dinesh D'Souza? Yeah. Yeah, I think he's, if the only one, I mean, forgive me, world, Jewish people, you know, we're not idiots, right?

If the only person we can muster to make the very basic arguments on behalf of the Jewish people is Dinesh D'Souza, then we should just throw in the towel. There's got to be someone else besides this huckster, this known con man, this conspiracy theorist, there's got to be somebody else who can make these arguments because anybody who knows who they're listening to is not going to take them seriously. They say, oh, I'm supposed to listen to you on Israel. You just told me that January 6th this or you told me that, you know, whatever it is that you told me that 2000 mules. I just, I have no stomach for it. agree, but are you prescribing to people that they should focus their attention on him? Or should we focus our attention on Tucker, Candace, and... Okay, you know what, it got worse.

So when I spoke to Josh Hammer, I was only asking him about whether he regretted all the conspiracy theories that he let go by. And Dinesh D'Souza was somebody I mentioned. I didn't know that they had a relationship. you know, he, Dinesh is a friend of mine. I didn't know any of that. So I didn't,

it became about Dinesh D'Souza. That's just, you know, happenstance. I had zero knowledge of that. But since then, since the fight with Josh Hammer, Deneh D'Suzza tweeted out

this disgusting, uh, AI animated thing of, you know, mocking the look of Somalians. You saw that, right? Yeah.

Yeah. And I, you discussed that with Ami. Yeah. Yeah. And, I'm sorry, with Ammi.

and at this point, absolutely. He has to be out. We cannot have people like that representing us. What don't people get? What the fuck is so hard to understand about this? He has to be thrown out. You cannot have that kind of racist, vile stuff coming out of the mouth of somebody who's trying to fight racism.

Duh. Right. I hear you. Can I just make a second point regarding a different manner? Yeah. Yeah, well, I just felt with this guy, he's really blurring the lines between the Hannibal directive and friendly fire. The Hannibal is not even about civilians. It's about soldiers.

So I don't know where this guy got from that it was about civilians. It's about preventing the capture of soldiers. It was used in a few places on October 7. But the problem is when these guys bring it up, we really have to attack them because the whole thing is a red herring. meaning I could go through each specific situation where Hannibal did happen and Friendly Fire did happen and at most we're talking about 40 people

killed from Friendly Fire in Hannibal. What they're trying to do by bringing this into the discussion like what you were saying specifically trying to say... Oliver, I'm sorry, I have to... Oliver, you're fantastic. I have to stop you because my daughter

just texted me that she won third place at the regionals of her business club that she goes do and she's going to the state competition. Wow. My daughter. Congratulations. Thank you very much.

Now, you know what I'm saying? Because she she crammed for this last night. What is it? The business. Deca, I think it's called. Oh, my God. Okay. I'm sorry.

So go ahead, Oliver. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah, no. All I was saying was that them bringing the Hannibal directive into the discussion is a red herring because they're trying to say that, Hamas wasn't really trying to kill people or wasn't trying to, you know, cause a mass casualty event.

But just even if you take all the people that were killed by either the Hannibal or by friendly friar, it amounts like around 40 people. Oliver, Oliver. And it's, it's worse than that because normally in a situation where the police are forced to open fire because of. of a situation caused by criminals that has, has, you know, gotten so dangerous that the police have no choice, those deaths are charged to the criminals, meaning that the, the, it's, the, consideration is always whether or not the police properly used their weapons.

And if they did, if civilians are killed, this all goes on the charges of the people committing the crime. And the fact that this, I mean, he is really a fucking piece of shit, Mir Sharmer. The fact that this guy doesn't even weigh in his consideration the fact that Hamas obviously has at least some culpability here. It's not like Israel wasn't doing target practice, right? There's some urgency, some exigent circumstance there that led to this friendly fire or the Hannibal or whatever it is that he's talking about.

This is just, it's a clear window into his soul. It's despicable. And I don't understand. I truly believe if the shoe were on the other foot, I mean, you guys know me well. I would understand that argument from the Palestinian point of view. I absolutely would. Like what I, you know, if some settlers in Israel are up to their, up to no good as they often are.

And then a firefight broke out and some settlers and some Palestinians ended up killing their own people. But I was aware that the Israelis had brought about the entire incident. I would not find it hard to understand that, yes, it's terrible. But, you know, the Jews caused that, right? Like, you're the one who forced them to start firing guns. And now you're going to blame them for the fact they ended up killing some of their own. This is insane.

Yes, and in that situation, what you would call people who blamed it on the Palestinians, you would say you're gas lighters. And by the way, and he says they have the right to break out of the concentration camp. Now, so what he's saying is that they were breakout implies to freedom, right? Break out of prison. It's not to break out into the cell next door. They broke out into Israel. Break out into Egypt. Like that would actually look like a breakout.

for freedom. This was not a breakout. It was an attack. I mean, you know, listen, in every one of these issues, I'm ready to entertain the idea that there is a nuance from the other point of view that's worth pausing on and discussing. Is it a concentration, you know, is it, is it, is it a concentration camp? Are they, are they occupied? All that stuff. But, but the, the way Mearsheimer talks about it, juxtaposed to his credentials as an academic thinker is so repulsive, so repulsive to me, of course he's not going to come on our show.

Oh, he would never. Yeah. All right, Oliver, anything else? Oliver, Oliver. I guess that's it. Do you want more, Oliver? Would you like some more? Very good.

Say, please, sir, I'd like some more. Well, that guy before was really trying to, give you a Tucker Carlson Ted Cruz moment. Do you know the comedy and comedy? Oliver, you don't know the joke? You never saw the movie Oliver? Oliver Twist. Oh, years ago.

Sorry. You don't know, please sir, I'd like some more. Okay, that slipped right by me. But now that I meant. It's another generation. How could have you another generation? This is Dickens. Anyway.

Look, I tried to. I've seen that maybe 10 years ago. So, okay. I'm going to go now. Mark is taking away. I'm sorry, Oliver. Thank you for calling on. No, no, don't be sorry.

You guys are awesome. Where are you from, Oliver? From New York. From New York. Okay. Next, Periel. Are you there by a comedy seller? Like, by regular night shows?

What do you ask? By regular comedy show on, let's say, Saturday night. Are you in the building normally? Yeah, I'm there. You can come say hi. Yeah, I'll have to come say hello. Yeah, please do. Okay.

Email me first, just to double check. I'm here like, you know, nine out of ten Saturdays. Go ahead. Marcus is, Marcus is here. No, Kevin Brennan? Okay. Unfortunately not. Okay.

Well, Marcus could be a Kevin. We should wind this up, so. Go ahead. Kevin's not going to call him, but an operative might. Marcus. Wow. Thanks for, thanks for letting me call in. This is my first call since I called Jim Rome at 10 years old, staying up late.

But I've listened to your sort of podcast over the last two years, three years. And I'm keen to hear what your take is on. sort of the growing, I guess, incapable nature of all pundits on pro-Palestinian, right, left, pro-Israel, to even take a sort of have a shred of decency with regard to hearing someone else's point. It really feels like we're going into a direction where everyone from a Josh Hammer to, you know, insert someone on the other side is doing so much more harm to their argument to people like myself who maybe don't have a huge stake in this, but it's on the news. And it just can't, it doesn't seem to me as if this is going to trend in a positive direction in any way for anybody and will only lead to

more hate, more divisiveness. And people by and large just not being able to come to the table. Well, yeah, I generally agree with you. I don't know if you want to say anything, Dan. I generally agree with you. I do feel like, um, Now, this might just be my bias talking, but I do feel like there's quite a few more Israeli voices, like Javier Retagor and, you know, Benny Morris and all the people who write in Ha'Aritz and, and Dan Cienor and who, you know, not to mention people like Mate and Finglestade. No, I'm saying, well, there's certainly more of, you know, I think there's probably a dearth of representation there. And that's, you know, not a problem at all.

But I didn't get... I would agree. No, I feel like there's many more Israeli voices who don't speak and address and attack the pro-Israel position with this kind of venomous, one-sided lack of empathetic posture that you're describing. I guess another way to put it is, I don't know of any pro-Palestinian. voice, except for this guy, Ahmed al-Qatim. There's also a guy, Inat Wilf was on the show,

and she said that there were four, to her knowledge, that would fit that categorization, one of which is a guy named John Aziz. The other one is the person you just mentioned. And there were two others. At least by her count, there were four.

It is hard to find a pro-Palestinian voice who speaks with any attempt or any apparent attempt to put themselves in the shoes of, you know, Israelis who were born in Israel. You know, like you can say all you want about 1948 that happened to everybody's ancestors, but, you know, everybody's born innocent, whatever. There's a million ways to look at it.

So, but yes, when I hear there's quite a few pro-Israeli people, I hear, there's quite a few pro-Israeli people, I hear speak and I and I shudder you know it's like like I would say I would say you're not helping you're not helping but you know it is it is also very human that when you see your own people dying and they and they've seen many more of their own people dying even than we we have the Jews so you know I cut them some slack in a way I do feel like you would you know I'm not going to say you would agree with me but you hear someone like a David Rubin had this conversation with Pierce Morgan where he sort of starts off the question, well, you would posture that, you know, Israel hasn't done anything wrong. And Pierce Morgan's like, well, no, I wouldn't necessarily say that.

And there's just sort of this incredulity in the way people react when they don't get the answer, or when they don't get the response they're looking for. And it's almost a refusal to, it's really a refusal. We're at the stage where it's a refusal to acknowledge the other side in any way. and you just shore up your own side as a result. I mean, I agree with you. I'll let, I'll let you guys go. I really appreciate this. I grew up in New York, you know, went to enough bar mitzvahs,

Bob Mitz was where I had to cancel some to go to others. And, you know, lo and behold, I am able to have an insight into this meeting, a Zoom meeting, probably October 10th, this rabbi of an ex-girlfriend invited me. And I'm sure you would probably know him, but I won't say his name publicly. And we go into this Zoom and you're going to have this. This might be boring.

You might have to wrap this up. Wrap it up. We are running an entertainment product here. Deal, deal, deal. Okay. You can email me. Why do you think we would know the rabbi? Because I only know one rabbi.

So it's got to be rabbi. Well, I don't know. He's got a Wikipedia page. You know what? You guys are great. Thanks so much. Even if I don't agree with all the stuff you say. You don't have to go.

I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Okay. Are we done? Liz, anybody else? we're done that's it i i like taking calls yeah those were good no kevin brennan there was no are we doing anything to actively weed out the kevin brennan people or we just got like we are actively weeding out the kevin brendan people as we can kevin unfortunately was not interested

in this podcast today he was he had someone else on his podcast or maybe he got tired of i wouldn't mind speaking to kevin breton i so want to speak to him when i have a guest on or something that's all yeah he's he was busy on his podcast with his own guest today. All right. Well, please send us your comments. Send right now. Send us a comment to podcast at comedyseller.com and tell us what you think.

You know, I'm associated with the two-way network, which is, this is not on the two-way network, but I'm friends with the guys who are running the two-way network who are doing like Mark Halperin's show. And they do, they're trying to do, you know, have people calling in and stuff like that. So that gave me the idea that I wanted to try to do it myself so I could kind of like get the kinks out of it in my own mind so I could actually offer, you know, good opinions to how they should be doing things. But I think we're learning a lot, right? Yeah, sure. I think so. Yeah. Okay. All right. I'm so glad we had this time. We need a theme song. Well, why don't you?

Well, do you ask AI to write us a theme song? I have one. I have one, actually. Did you write it or did AI write? Yeah, I wrote it. Okay. I have one. I will play it. We'll play it next week again. That's a great idea. Yeah. Actually, hold you. You want to play it right now? Yes. Stephen, it's not let the love flow.

I'm going to text it to you. I'm going to, um, a second. I'm going to, uh, one second. Okay, I am forwarding to your email address, Stephen? Yeah. Yeah. Um, I'm not sure which version this is, but it'll definitely, uh, be good enough. Hold on.

Steve Garden tone? Yeah. Okay. Oh shit. Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuck me. Fuck me.

Do it again. I tried to... Okay. I think I might have deleted the attachment. That's what we just double check. No. Okay. And send.

Message sent. It still has the undo option. No, you would think that undoing... If you click the view, it'll skip the undo. That's what I do. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay, so you're going to hear the theme song I wrote for the comedy seller podcast

when it was supposed to be just a comedy podcast. And I'll tell you, this is written and produced by me. I remember this. Did the drawing there fell during the show? Oh, shit. But I got upset about the Hannibal doctrine. Like that would be a great clip. That the drawing fell?

No. Oh, you can say you have me saying fuck Mearsheimer? Yes. Yeah, fuck Mearsheimer. You can sit. You can clip that out. Okay, go ahead. All right.

You got it? Yes. We have it. Okay. Okay. Make sure it's loud. Okay. Ladies a gentleman, here comes our outro.

Coming. Ladies and gentlemen, here comes our outro. A Tale of Two Titties Ladies and gentlemen Thank you for joining us at the comedy seller And here is our outro Yeah, I've heard this

Oh, you cut off, you cut off the ending Yeah, go da-da-na-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-oh, it doesn't matter It's great Oh, that maysarr one version There's a diminished thing I'll find the best version. Okay, all right What do you think?

Okay, good night everybody. Yeah, that's not the last version.