The Connect- with Johnny Mitchell - Saagar Enjeti From Breaking Points GOES OFF On Israel, Reveals His Prediction For The U.S. Election

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

Saagar Enjeti from the hit news show "Breaking Points" gives his take on the upcoming U.S. elections and how that could affect the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. He talks about how early and mail-in voting is actually encouraged by both political parties and why he doesn't believe there will be any election disputes or political violence like there were in 2020. He also gave his opinion on America's relationship with Israel and explains why the current policy is bad for American interests. Check out Breaking Points: https://www.youtube.com/@UCDRIjKy6eZOvKtOELtTdeUA Breaking Points premium: https://breakingpoints.locals.com/support Follow Saagar on social media: https://www.instagram.com/esaagar/ Join The Patreon For Bonus Content! https://www.patreon.com/theconnectshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The quote unquote liberation and war of Iraq was the probably greatest disaster of my lifetime and probably the biggest foreign policy blunder in the history of the United States because it was an entirely unforced error. It cost us $6 trillion. And it's the main reason that a lot of us are the way that we are today. Iran would make that look like a cakewalk. The country of 10 million wants to beat a country of 90 million. Go for it. Let's see how it works out for you. Sager and Jetty, the only news that I watch, breaking points with Sager and Crystal and a couple of other drier white people who are great, but whose names I do not recall, Ryan and someone else. Ryan and Emily. Yeah, that's right.

Man, this is a get. We are so excited to have you here. So let's just open with some clickbait right now. We know that the polls are misleading, right? Like I think back to 2016 and how Hillary was a shoe in across the board in the mainstream media and the mainstream polls. So you deal with this stuff every day. What's really going on? Who's ahead right now?

And what's the mainstream media calling? And then what do you think? This is where I don't have a contrarian take, man. I actually do think it's 50-50. And I could make you the bull in the bare case for either. So, for example, I was just looking at some photo registration data today. Partisan identification for the GOP is higher than it's ever been before. So Republicans have more registered Republicans in many areas than previous Democrats,

specifically Pennsylvania, actually more today than Trump had in 2016. So you would be like, oh, he's going to win, right? Well, no, because in 2022, you had that exact same phenomenon, but all the independents went to Democrats, and that's why they ended up winning all of those races. So there's so many confounding variables. And this is a very weird election. Honestly, we just don't have enough data. A Kamala came in less than what, three months ago into the race.

Like that is a dynamic where I don't think we've had a modern situation like that. I'm trying to think it might be RFK back in 1968. But even then, Hubert Humphrey was in the race for longer than that. But it's been a long time since something like this happened. Like I said, I could give you the bull, the bear. I just don't know if there's enough. I know Trump is more popular than ever before. I think he has a better shot at winning the presidency today

than he did in 2016 and 2020. That doesn't mean that I think he won't win or that I think he will win. Well, he certainly dominates the internet, right? Yeah, of course. Because that is the contrarian point of view, which we're going to talk about it a little bit, that just like the mainstream media, but on the opposite end,

the way that you podcasts and news podcasts get ahead now is by being pro Trump, because they're neglected in the mainstream media. It's interesting that you can see that. A lot of people can't see that. It's funny because I could be a lot richer if I was willing to just say a lot of stupid shit and a lot more popular as well.

But, you know, it's okay. One thing I will say on this is I've been doing this for several years and there is a boom and bust. So for now, I think it might be that way. But come Election Day, we'll see. Because a lot of people ate a lot of shit back in 2022. Whenever they were like red wave, Trump is going to win. There's no way that Republicans are House, Senate, 55 seats.

And then they're like, oh, oops. It turns out we were misleading. And I've also been around long enough to have seen that phenomenon, 2016, 2020, 2020, and now. So sure, I'm sure there's a lot of free clicks out there. But we'll see. We'll see what happens. So, you know, I'm in the long- episode. Stick around to the end of this episode

where we name those names those shit, fawn media propaganda, fucking grifters. Well, absolutely. And that's kind of the anti-woke has been in vogue now for eight,

10 years, practically. So now it's becoming hack. So now when, you know, I hear comedians, for example, in the space I'm in, using like, talking about going after woke. That's not edgy to me. It's so boring, bro.

It's so the kids are going to become, I have faith in the younger generation that they're going to find a middle ground between anti-woke and woke. Yes, I agree with you. I see that in comedy as well. I'm lucky I've actually gotten to see a lot of comedy since, I mean, I didn't really enjoy it all that much.

I started becoming friends with comedians. But now that I've gotten to watch a lot of it, there is nothing worse than like open mic and or like whoever's who's the guy who opens a show I forget but anyway the person like two people before the headliner the MC. And when when they hit you with a trans joke like a minute in I'm like get the fuck out of here, man. This is so boring. It's terrible.

My favorite comedians are the people who just make extreme. They make observations which I would never put together and almost always has nothing to do with politics. Like my favorite Tim Dillon bet is a. about old women who make Wendy's. And it doesn't even sound funny when I say it. But like watching it, it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. Now, Sager, I do have a trans joke in my act.

But you can have one, but it has to be original. Oh, and it's a fucking, it's a doozy if I do say so myself. Okay. It's a pro trans joke. It's about how I'm doing so badly in dating and I love dudes and they're making trans so hot now. I'm thinking about it. Yeah, it's not bad. I like that.

Yeah. That's an angle. That's an angle. I got to come to you. Next time you're around, let me know. I'll come see you. When I'm in D.C., I'll be out there. Okay, great.

You'll come out. Okay, so, all right, so you don't have a contrarian taking the election. I agree. I think it's razor tight. I think the fact that the economy, we kind of missed a recession, long term, we're fucked. You know, our credit's getting downgraded. Our inflation is growing.

You know, the U.S. is going to be off. The world will be off the dollar reserve in our lifetime, I believe. but I think in the short term, which is the way that Americans think, I think Kamala is helped by the fact that we didn't go into a deep recession. Do you agree with that? Yeah, definitely. But here's the only thing. The economy's stupid thing is one of the enduring legacies of the 1992 campaign.

That was the slogan for Bill Clinton by James Carville. But the truth is that we have not had an economic only. election since 2016. Now, economics is definitely a part of it, but really it's more about class and it's actually about racial depolarization. So what I mean by that is that America is basically increasingly split along a single line. Do you have a four-year college degree or not? And the way I look at it is that we have two great irreconcilable questions in American politics today. Neither of them are economic. One is abortion and the other is immigration. Where you stand in your fore year college degree kind of determines where you usually are on that question. So if you are less

college educated, you almost certainly data-wise just bears out. You're more likely to care about mass immigration border and obviously how that feeds into economics, but not all of it is economic. A lot of it is demographic. And then second to that is that if you do have a four-year college degree, then you're a lot more likely to be more liberal capital L oriented and you're especially going to be very into like the new feminist movement and by translation abortion. So these are big cultural questions. That's what 2022 showed us. And this is weird because it's not supposed to be like this. Most people don't want to admit that it is this way. But I've just seen too much to convince me that it really does have anything to do with just like, oh, my wages are going to go up by

five percent or whatever under Kamala v. Trump. Outside of billionaires. And, And people who are very, very wealthy, who quite literally care about very discreet policies, like the salt tax. Actually, if you were, you live in California, right? Yeah. Yeah, it would be pissed about salt if I were you because you guys have very, you guys have high state taxes. But that's kind of what I mean. Outside of like very discreet tax credits and all of those things, people say they vote on

the economy, but there's not a lot of data that bears that out right now. I don't see it. I agree with you, actually. Like, the American economy kind of persists no matter what. government is in power. Don't you agree? To an extent, yes. To an extent. Yeah. Especially absent great shock

events. Now that is the thing though, and this is kind of what I would wish people would think about more is you should still think a lot more. People are always like, oh, gas was cheaper under Trump. I'm like, all right, you know, listen, you know, sorry to burst people's bubble. Like the president has about 5% to do with fucking gas prices. Maybe 10. Or they're like, oh, well, you know,

my state taxes went down. or whatever, we're up under Trump. I'm like, they don't have to do anything with that. What are you talking about? Same with Biden. Like, you know, in general, the way that the government can impact you is the federal tax rate. Unless you make over like 400 grand,

you really shouldn't really care about that because both parties have basically said that they'll cut taxes under that. Let's think about what else. They could care about like the salt thing, the deduction in terms of what you pay there. And then tax credits for businesses and for, various other industries if you happen to work in those industries. But yeah, we have a big fucking economy, like you said. Most of that is going to be determined by like local factors.

Now, you know, the national thing has a big, has a lot to do with that on some sense. But just people's perception of like, people's perception of economy very, very rarely can match reality. Like, for example, in the state of Arizona, people think that their economy is fantastic. But then under Biden, they said that the economy of the United States was a disaster. And then when Biden dropped out, their economic outlook change. I'm not putting them down because I don't think that they're wrong. Like, inflation is really, really bad. But just people's subjective way of saying why they vote is very rarely actually borne out in their actions.

And it's like the internet. If someone were to tell you, yeah, I want the internet to be a better place. Okay, but what do you actually engage with? You know, you and I do this for a living, Johnny. We know what actually gets clicked on. People say they want all kinds of things. It's not true. That's true in terms of their voting behavior as well.

In the thumbnail, we're literally going to put a phrase that you probably didn't say in this interview. Just for clicks. And I know you'll see it and approve of it. I don't give a shit. I don't even care. Come watch it. You know, welcome. We're glad to have you. But this is a kind of, this is the kind of nuance that only you're only getting with your show.

I'm telling you. I appreciate that. And we're going to get to that. But it's a lightning round. because I know you got to go soon. So let's talk about the worst case scenario, which I don't think you're that guy. I don't think you're like a doomsday kind of guy.

But, you know, I actually feel like this election is more turned down. Like the tension between right and left is much less than it was in 2020. I totally agree. Yeah, I agree. But, you know, there is contention. You know, Trump has said, despite what they try to put words in his, mouth, he has said that, you know, if I don't get reelected, then I'm not going to run again, right? Because it'll be, what, 82 or 83?

But what do you think happens after the election? Does the other side accept it? Do you see, like, violence flaring up? Who do you think it's going to be worse for if one side wins? If the Democrats win, if Kamala wins, is there going to be violence from the right? Is there going to be lawsuits and chaos from the right and vice versa? How do you see that plan? That actually would be on my contrarian takes is I think that the aftermath of this election will be much more common than the last time because who wants to go to jail?

You know, I was in D.C. on the morning of January 6th and there were a lot of people there. Some of them were feds. But just moving past that, the truth, you know, there's 1,300 people or whatever who went to jail. If you make, you know, show up for an armed thing and you're not 100% peaceful in terms of the way they're looking at it, then I'm not really sure. Like, I don't think that that can happen again is more. what I would say. And I think a lot of people correctly will probably have observed that. You know, there won't be controversy around the whole vice president thing because I forget the name of the legislation. I think it's called the Electoral Count Act, but the actual way that

the Electoral College is certified has changed since the 2020 election. Trump actually talks about that all the time. He's like, see, they changed it. So because Mike Pence could have done what I wanted him to do. And the reason that I know that is because they changed the law. All what I'm saying is like a lot of the stuff that people held on to, back in 2020. It's just not going to be there anymore. At least I think so. They've also, a lot of Republicans have been in charge in a lot of these states.

So they don't have a lot of the same things to hang their hat on like they did last time. Like Pennsylvania, Supreme Court changing mail-in balance. What you've already seen right now is that mail-in ballots has been majorly embraced by Republicans, which I think is a smart move. And then the Democrats have talked so much shit now for four years. Like how could you in good conscience? How could you, you know, change your personality? and try and challenge the election in tacit ways that they used to before.

So I think we'll be all right. Memorial Day weekend is almost here, and it's time to kick off summer right. When I'm getting ready for the first big weekend of summer, total wine and more is my go-to, especially when I'm firing up the grill with family. I'll grab refreshing beers, easy drinking wines, and some hard seltzers for the cooler. And with everything that goes into summer, it's nice knowing you're getting the lowest prices. Total wine and more. Your Memorial Day made easy.

Shop total wine and more in store or online. Spirits not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly must be 21. Interesting. Okay, so mail-in ballots is here to stay. That's going to be a thing. Oh, absolutely, yeah. I mean, people like mail-in ballots.

I think that's the truth. Like, if you look at people's preferences, people want it to be generally like easier and less of a pain in the ass to vote. vote. Republicans have campaigned against it. They've tried, I think, in some states to limit it. But if you look at it, after 2022, especially after Democratic wins, all of the major conservative activists have fully embraced both mail-in balloting. Not per se, as in they're like, we want to expand this, but they're like, okay, this is here to stay. Let's use it. And I mean, I use this stat all the time.

If just the number of people would vote in the Republican primary in 2020 by mail had voted in Georgia in the general election that, or no, sorry, in the special election, then the Republicans would have won, right? But it was only after 2020 that they lost both of those Senate seats to the Democrats because of Trump attacking, mail-in balloting in the status of the election. So he himself has not changed his position, but if you look at the grassroots, the actual conservative actors, people who were registering voters and they were trying to bank as many votes, like I live in Virginia, Yeah, I mean, Virginia GOP, even Democrats as well, they're trying to get as many people to the ballot box as early as possible. That was another big one, early voting.

People were against. There's been a lot of fights about that. But I think now people just generally accept, you know, the rules of where they are. I'm not saying there won't be more fights or 100% will be. And how bad can those get legislative-wise? Like, there won't be another January 6th probably, right? Like the state apparatus is too strong. But what about, yeah, like, I guess,

Sutterfuge or, you know, courts and people actually in government with power to, you know, Stonewall or what is the word I'm looking for? Like, hold up the results of elections or the political process. I guess theoretically possible, but again, I think if it was going to happen, it would have happened back in 2020. I mean, there were, what, 70-some odd cases of ballot challenges at the state level from Texas to Michigan to Wisconsin. There was lawsuits at the federal level as well. All of them were struck down. It's not like, also, even at that time, they're big pressure for that whole alternative electors thing that moved. I think it was in Pennsylvania and in the Michigan state legislature as well. Those were both defeated. I mean, like I said,

you know, at this point, you better be pretty committed because that whole electors thing, people literally went to jail for that. Their federal charges that Donald Trump is facing in a court of law. So if you don't dot your eyes and cross your teeth, which I'm not even sure, it's theoretically possible this time around. I personally am less worried about the aftermath after this election than a lot of the media and other people are. Now, I'm not saying the rhetoric won't be there, but in terms of what you're talking about, the real, like, substantive, like state behavior, I don't see it.

Also, Trump is not in charge of the government. Don't, you know, that's another big one. Worst people are. For the worst people than Trump are in charge of the government. That's the good news, folks. Yeah, I don't disagree with that. Yeah. Okay. So, wow, that's fascinating. So, so mail and balloting is here to stay, mail and voting. They're like, so political parties like, I'd rather, I'd rather not waste

my energy in trying to fight this and instead embrace. Yeah. Because I need as many votes as possible. I'd rather tell these, and Americans are so fat, I don't know why we're all on board for fucking mail and balloting. You know what I mean? I'd rather just click online. I'd rather vote online, you know? It's not maybe, you know? I mean, you know, that part of, I always say this too, people are always like, in Brazil or in India, they count the votes in one day. And I'm like, yeah, guys, they have federal elections. We have a federalist system. I kind of prefer it this way.

I'm not saying it's like, you know, the best. And yeah, it definitely takes a long time. But we have 50 states that all do their voting in a different way. I actually think it's good. It means there's less like ability for a Trump or a comma or whatever to actually put pressure on the electoral system. So I prefer the way that we have it. even if maybe it takes a little bit longer. Yeah, yeah.

They also like burn people alive in India. And there's, you know, gang violence. They're going to come for you on that one. They're going to come from me. Oh, yeah, dude. Dude, don't make me mention, I can't sit on that, Johnny. Don't make me mention gang rape. My Indian comedian friends are coming from you.

You're done, dude. I hope you never go. You're not even going to get a visa. Yeah, dude, I know. And that's a market that I'm trying to tap to. You should. By the way, you know YouTube is huge in India. YouTube is massive in India.

I think it might actually be their biggest market. Say you're a YouTuber there, people are like, holy shit. You're like Leo DiCaprio. Whoa. All right. Well, dude, fucking strap me to the rickshaw, man. I'm coming over there, bro. Well, Russell Peters is like the biggest.

He's like Paul McCartney over there. And G got on through YouTube. I know. I love Russell. I went to go see him, actually. He was awesome. He's a G, dude. He's one of the best.

Okay. So, wow. that's amazing. Here's something, let's turn to something that a president can actually affect immediately,

which are foreign wars. Like to me, that's the biggest, that's probably the biggest existential threat to America and the whole world right now is a greater war breaking out in the Middle East

and, you know, that turns into like a nuclear conflict. Sure. And, you know, the straight of Hormuz and all these things that cut off shipping. Like,

even if you don't care at all about what's going on over there, the, the conflict will fuck up your money if you're an American because all the supply chains will be disrupted. The price of oil will explode. I mean, it's all bad if it goes that way, right? Absolutely. So what do you think?

Next month, no matter who wins, are they making a call to Netanyahu? Are they picking up the phone and making a call to Zelensky saying, hey, funds over, party's over? Well, no. Unfortunately, no. I actually think both parties are lockstep whenever it comes to Iran and to Israel, like what you were just talking about. Both the Kamala and Trump have wholesale committed themselves to Israel's defense. They've endorsed the war. They basically endorse the Lebanese invasion. They've endorsed like the quote unquote right to self-defense, and AKA the expansion or the continuation of the war in terms of bombing Iranian oil facilities, nuclear facilities. Can we just dwell on that a little bit, by the way? everybody's like, oh, well, they're going to lessen the strike by not hitting nuclear facilities. By the way, hitting oil is worse because that's the backbone of the Iranian economy. And the Iranians said that they will expand those strikes from all the two other oil facilities, including Saudi Arabia, the United States, what you were just talking about with the Straits of Ormoos. So arguably, we may be worse off because, you know, oil prices will go through the roof.

And everyone knows what happens when you fuck with America. oil. On Ukraine, actually, I think this might be the only substantive difference between the two. And I know you have a wide audience, so I'll try and keep my views more neutral here and just keep it analytical. But generally speaking, Kamala is much more supportive of both the Ukrainian cause and of continuing funding the war in Ukraine, whereas Trump, Trump has frankly been all over the map and you could see it either direction. But he has said he wants to end the war ahead. of his present before the day he even takes office on January 20, 20th or whatever. The only person that we can look to for a serious individual is J.D. Vance, his running mate,

who has spoken extensively about the war in Ukraine and is not for continuing the war, especially the funneling of billions of dollars, the existential conflict that we could see there. So if you were to ask me, actually, the biggest substantive difference between the two on foreign policy, it comes down to Ukraine and also just about the Europe and our general orientation of the world. One of the reasons that Trump in 2016, especially after he won, and I really had to sit with everything I thought about the international system, something I really appeal to me is Trump is a lot like Henry Kissinger. And look, again, you can have controversial thoughts about this, but one of the things I appreciated about Henry Kissinger is that Kissinger understood that America

was an empire. Kissinger was explicitly a both realist and believed in balance of power by disregarding the quote unquote morality of the system, as in we need to support Ukraine because it's a democracy and a stand up against authoritarianism, where Trump is in many ways, he's like a mercantilist. Like he is somebody's like, we need a 20% national tariff. Oh, South Korea and I are allies. sure, but they're fucking us over on trade. Same with Japan and cars. Trump understands the exchange of goods and services as value neutral, no matter what that regime is. And frankly, that aligns a lot more with my worldview, whereas I think Kamala and a lot of Democrats and liberals and even progressives, honestly.

For them, it's a lot about like the morality of the system itself and whether it's for the goodness of mankind. Whereas like me, more people in that school would say, look, you know, other people's morality and other people's welfare is their business. All I care about really is the, you know, the welfare of the American people. Yeah, yeah, that's true. He's got a pragmatist mindset. Yes. I mean, he's got the mindset of a statesman. Like every politician should have in any country should be like, what is best for this country?

I mean, if you're speaking in a world that has nationalism, right? Yeah, that's right. City states, I think the problem with morality is kind of like racism. Like, yeah, it's good. Like, people's racism is in their hearts. But all it really matters is the law, right? Are we treating everybody equal? You can't really police what is in people's, you know, what's in their character, right?

So, yeah, I think with morality, kind of the same holds true. Although, you know, I guess World War II, you know, you've got these six million Jews being killed, but that's not even what got America to the war. I was going to say, though, but that's not what happened. Right? And like, you should think about that. And I think about, and I mean, that kind of gets to the core of the debate. And especially with America's superpower status, a lot of this comes back to the Rwandan genocide, actually. That was in the post-court.

I believe that was 1994, I want to say. afterwards, there was a very influential book written named by Samantha Power. She currently works for the Biden administration, and she was the UN ambassador under Barack Obama. She created a doctrine called Responsibility to Protect, where it's this idea that America as the moral superpower, the force for good, Bill Clinton called it the indispensable nation, had a responsibility no matter what interests that we had to intervene. I completely reject that. I think it's an idiotic and a stupid philosophy.

I think America's actions, and specifically its military hard power, should be used for one single purpose, and that is the economic welfare of the United States and of its citizens. So, like, you know, even on the Navy, and this is part of the whole thing, the Israel thing, it drives me crazy. We have two U.S. aircraft carriers in Israel protecting Israel. We've spent hundreds of billions of dollars protecting this nation just in the last calendar year.

We do maybe 50 billion in bilateral trade between the two of us. Sorry, what are we doing here? We do quadruple the amount of bilateral trade with Brazil. And I would never be like, yeah, let's send an aircraft carrier if Brazil and Argentina. Sorry, I'm going to be honest, I don't give a shit. You know, you guys figure it out. I'll buy my fucking coffee from Colombia. And like that's the thing.

When you start to put it that way, you're like, oh, wait, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Wait, so India, who we do X, you know, a trillion dollars with? I mean, frankly, there is a better case for Vietnam, which we literally fought a horrible war with. They're in our top 10 trading partners. We do a lot of business with Vietnam. I'm pro-Vietnam. I don't care if you don't give a shit if they're communists.

You know, Taiwan, number 10. A lot of these countries, the religious attachment, literally, to like the security of Israel, and even frankly to the whole Middle East, I'm like, look, this doesn't matter. I mean, yes, on oil, and you just made a good case, but Ukraine is the other one where I'm like, listen, who controls the eastern Donbos region of Ukraine? Like, I'm sorry. Like, that does not affect my life, your life, anybody who lives here, zero.

And yet, we all paid probably a trillion dollars more in gas just to, so that certain square miles of the Donbos can be in Ukrainian territory only for them to give it up like a, year later, was that really worth it? I mean, when you put it that way, it's a little different than we're standing up against authoritarianism. When you look at it from the math point of view, it makes absolutely no sense. And even if you think America's the guiding moral light that should be policing all this, it never works in practice either. Yeah, that's right. It fucks shit up even worse. Right. Yeah, it's very well said. That's right. The moral invade. We're going to bring democracy to Iraq. One million people died in Iraq. We unleashed a sectarian civil war. And, you know, it's important to be really brutally honest to about what you believe. When people are like,

oh, so you think Saddam should have been in power? I'm like, yeah, a guy who killed 150,000 people, yes, yes, I will say it. I'm willing to just say it. Most people are very dishonest about what a lot of this stuff looks like. How Iraq governs itself is not my problem. It's not. And also, when you make everybody richer, instead of undermining, overthrowing governments, putting sanctions on places like Iran, right, et cetera, you just prop up those regimes when you do that. Everybody knows that. Look at right now, you know, the Israelis and a lot of analysts here in Washington, they're like, Israel is going to liberate the Iranians. I'm like, liberate? Have we heard this before?

There's this crazy notion here in Washington where people seem to believe that the entire 90-months, million people in Iran is like imprisoned by the mullahs. Is there any governmental system on earth outside of North Korea where the citizenry is like in a spell underneath their government? Or do they maybe have a little bit of legitimacy over the last 50 years? Now, we may not like to admit that, but I've lived all over the Middle East, you know? And guess what? A lot of them, they like their monarchy or whatever. They want to live. in a religious ethno state. I'm like, okay, fine.

You know, I don't want to live there, but fucking do whatever you want. But also, even if they don't, right? Because there are some horrible things of the Iranian governments and autocracies, theocracies, like, especially run by Islam, it would be horrible to love over those governments. But if you make the citizens,

if you trade with those governments, over time and generations, everybody becomes wealthier. And so, and they become more educated. And those systems actually start to change. They start to become, more moderate. I'm not sure I believe that actually. That was the theory of China. That was the theory of trade liberalization to China. They actually got more authoritarian over time. So it doesn't really work.

With your points, with your breaking points. Okay. Well, I was just, you know who I point to? Saudi Arabia. Now, they are lopping off a lot of heads still. That is true. But at least the rhetoric towards like, what do their grandfathers say? What are the first oil people say? Death to Jews. Death to Jews. Death to Jews. now the third generation, they're like, damn, we're comfortable. Well, see, the thing is Saudi is different. See, no, but actually this kind of proves this is a lot of weird points here. The Saudi regime is very odd. The Saudi royal family, listen, I went to school in the Middle East.

I know these princelings. They don't give a shit about Islam, period. They like to hang out in London and casinos and drive lambos and drink. But, but, and this is the thing with the- Don't forget the hookers. Don't forget. You can say that. I won't say it.

But I've seen plenty of these Filipino ladies. Wonder where they come from. And by the way, hookers is a kind word for slaves. For virtual sex slaves. You're not wrong. I'm not going over there to do comedy. But the Saudis, the actual people are very religious. And they have a weird detente where the Saudi royal family, the House of Saud,

is allowed to basically remain in power up at the top as long as they fund the religious police, the mosque, and the source. and the spread of global Wahhabism. And so that's the thing, is Saudi, the government itself, a lot of these guys, they speak perfect English, we all went to the same schools, et cetera. But their actual population is very conservative and very Muslim. So there are a lot more restrained in some ways

than some people like to think. And part of the other problem is, like you just said, we'll look to the House of Saud and think that they're representative of the average Saudi citizen. It's just, it couldn't be farther from the truth. It's a hardcore Wahhabist population. I mean, that bears out in what the citizenry wants and why the government allows all of this, not even allows, funds it.

They do it basically to get them off their own back because the kingdom only cares about staying in power. They don't care about Wahhabism or whatever, and they'll pay off anybody who they need to, as long as they also don't issue fatwas or whatever against the House of South. So it's a complex system. that's fascinating. So there I go speaking with my like Western mindset, my Western driven mindset, I'm like, well, these people are suffering, but if we make everybody richer, they'll overthrow them. But what you're actually saying is no, actually the people at the top are not the radicals. It's the radicals, right? The religious conservatives, the, you know, maybe anti-Semitic, you know, Muslim first driven ideological people. It's the citizens. So those same could hold true for Iran. So maybe those dudes are just bending to the will of their own people. I don't know. My point is, you don't know, I don't know.

Iran is a closed-off system. My general theory is if a government's been in power for like 50 years, there's something going on there. You know, everyone always says the same thing about China. They're like, oh, in China, they yearn for democracy. I'm like, I don't think so. There's actually nothing in 3,000 years of Chinese history that tells me that that's true at all, actually.

I'm like, or even Russia. I mean, it's like, what is. the history of Russia. It is conquering autocracies that variously change their name between Bolshevik and Tsar. It's like, is Putin a president or is he a czar? He makes a lot more sense

if you just think of him as a straight up czar. It's not all that uncommon. He reminds me of like Napoleon III, who is a very modern dictator. Right. Yeah. So if the point is you don't know, our government doesn't know. They can barely keep their own

house. You're right. They can barely keep their own house together. Yes. So to assume that it's a good idea to give hundreds of billions of dollars to fund wars of liberation if you think, if you're dumb enough to think that's what Israel is doing. And by the way, they make it up, week by week, they come up with a new excuse. Now it's, we have to disarm the Iranians from getting a nuclear weapon. That's the new thing, right? So by the way, really quickly, before we get to our last question, what do you think about that, that argument for actually bombing Iran? So we can, Not, what do you think? If they want to do it and they want to deal with the consequences,

if a country of 10 million wants to beat a country of 90 million, go for it. Let's see how it works out for you. If it's going to involve us, then yeah, I'm totally against it. I mean, the quote unquote liberation and war of Iraq was the probably greatest disaster of my lifetime and probably the biggest foreign policy blunder in the history of the United States because it was an entirely unforced error. It costs a $6 trillion. and it's the main reason that a lot of us are the way that we are today.

Iran would make that look like a cakewalk because not only would it require more military assets, there are much more capable army, but what? We're just going to subjugate this people, rule this population with the same great wisdom that we did with Iraq. There is no scenario where Iran and Israel get into a war and the United States is not almost immediately involved. That is just literally not the case. So for me, I prefer to stay out of it. I prefer to spend our money here. I mean, you and I are talking before a massive hurricane is about to wipe, you know,

like destroy the city of Tampa. This can often get trite about like why do we spend billions for other countries and not spend it here at home. But it is kind of true, no? Like, you know, there is a basic truth to it. And, you know, it's like how many bitching and moaning sessions are we going to have over FEMA funding in the Congress where when Israel wants like, the most, you know, whatever new tranche of weapons, like, oh, what else can I do for you?

You want 10 million? Why don't I give you 12? Right. Yeah. So you don't see. So knowing that, knowing that if Israel goes all the way and starts firing rockets and bombing Tehran, the U.S. has to get involved. There's no way we won't.

Is, is, will either Kamala or Trump, is there any hope of them getting into office and saying, you're not, you're not leading us into war? and pulling the leash finally on the Lekud Party in Bibi Netanyahu. I don't think so. I don't see any political, by the way, this isn't a Kamala Trump problem. This is a bipartisan thing. I'm telling you, the entire Washington establishment is lockstep and barrel with they just get to do whatever they want.

And there will never be an affirmative decision made of, yeah, you should do it. It's like, well, if you do it, we of course have got your back. And, I mean, the real thing is, do you really trust these people to keep you out of war? Everyone says that, but what self-respecting nation could allow itself to get bombed and not retaliate? And then that would just, and this isn't an endorsement. I don't want it to go this way. But it's like then that will invite another response, which invites another. And I've just studied enough war and history to know that it only takes a single miscalculation

until something is a total fucking disaster. And by that time, you know, people get killed and we're neck deep in another war. I mean, you know, a lot of people forget this. this. Everyone claims they're against the Iraq war. It's not true. The vast majority of Americans supported it. It actually took over two years for people to turn against the war in Iraq, and it took four for something to substantively change on the ground. By that time, trillions had been lost. The entire thing was a nightmare. And even Obama didn't really fulfill or whatever he was going to do. So that's the reality. Once the money starts flowing,

turning off that tap, it's the most difficult task in the world. boy this interview turned dark I think we found our clickbait dude we found our fear porn okay so let me push back a little bit you know what I mean because you know I've recently found religion which I know you're a huge fan of

yikes I'm just a little more positive being out here in the sun all the time so this guy Tanasi Taanahisi Coats wow what a what a bigot I am Tanahisi Coates wrote the book.

I mean, he's all over the mainstream media. CSNBC, people that have been capping for Zionism since October 7th and long before it, right? So now they're having him on. I mean, they just corrected, they just corrected that guy from CSNBC that basically came at, I'm calling him, you know, Hamas, Apologist. So the heads of it, I mean, are not only giving them air time, but, you know, correcting their own when they try to spin him

into being some kind of like terrorist, right? So in my opinion, that is a sign that the machine, the man, is actually turning on the grip of Zionism. What do you think about that? Well, let me think. And that gives me hope, I guess, that we... Oh, really?

It does. Well, I think you shouldn't have hope. And I think the only reason that the only reason that that's happened is because, and look, I say it up front, I have a visceral hatred of Tonehisi Coates. Tanihesee Codes, I want people to understand this. He wrote a book, or sorry, he wrote an essay called The Case for Reparations in 2014 in Atlantic Magazine. That essay is one of the single most influential essays on race politics in America. That essay basically radicalized like white liberal women all across America to basically become BLM-style

nut job activists, which, is what led to Ferguson, which happened that year, if you remember, it was immediately after the Trayvon Martin trial. Obama was president, and Trayvon could have been his son. And then we had the 2015 incident, forget exactly. I think it was somewhere in Kentucky or whatever that incident was. And then, of course, 2016 election. Tanaisi Coates is like the godfather of anti-racism and of the 1619 project.

So this guy has been peddling anti-racist bullshit for, over a decade. And it's only because of his vaunted status as the voice of black America, aka why white people are all devils, that they bring in some DEI consultant to say, oh, how dare you question the great Tanahisi Cote. I do not believe it has anything to do with Israel, with Zionism, or whatever, but instead of his status as a protected class of being this multi-millionaire who loved selling America books about how racist white people were. So it's like a DEI thing. In my opinion, yes. In my opinion, yes.

Okay, let's take any other normal person and put them in that scenario. Do you think that the CBS would require them to sit with a DEI, literal like DEI trainer and be like, hey, why were you so mean to, you know, ex-normal person for espousing a pro-Palestinian view? whatever. So I think it has much more to do with the previous race regime in America as opposed to what you're talking about. I mean, look, maybe it nets out positive. I'm not really sure. And I guess that's why it's difficult for me. I had a huge fight with Crystal about this because she was like, yeah, but he's saying good stuff now. And I'm like, yeah, but for me, it's like that's original sin, that's just so, it was so bad what I think happened. Yeah, yeah. So he's kind of like a race slinger.

like he's a in my opinion yeah i mean look he's very smart he's written great he wrote this book between the world and me uh that you know was an international bestseller yeah wrote that book about obama we were eight years in power i mean this this guy is the modern father of the 1619 bullshit um that has just i i think that ruined the country yeah i agree i agree it set us back for sure and it's and that is the height of wokeism and and and and And people are right. Anti-Woke grifters are correct when they point to guys like this. However, I would just say my enemy's enemy is my friend.

I see what I mean? Do you see what I mean? Like, I am so enraged. And I mean, it's what makes me like not even want to give the government my tax money. You know what I mean? Because we're such in the grip of this treacherous, traitorous, foreign government that is Israel that wants to bring my country to its knees for their land grab,

because that's what it is. It's about land and radical Christianity. You know, it's actually backed by Christianity. Well, yeah, from here it is. For sure. Back by Christianity in the Judaism. So this guy's book about the apartheid state that is Israel, which is a fact, to me, you know,

it's if it comes out of a guy who's also a grifter in many ways. You're fine with it. Yeah. Well, we are, we're at where we're at, right? I totally see what. what you're saying. And look, I get it, man. I understand. I'm sure people are going to get mad that I even just sat there and I refuse to correct you for your, for your views. This is salacious, dude. This is what we want, dude. I think what you just said is an entirely legitimate point of

view that I often feel at the grips of either Israel or of Ukraine where, you know, look, I'm in a unique position. My parents came here from India and I have lived all over the world, which is a great gift, okay? I encourage people to experience that because that is why I love this place so much. And so to see it so in the enthrall of these ridiculous societies, which, again, are not important to us.

They're really not important. No. They're not important to the American way of life. You just stated, go look at, go rewind this to minute 35 and Saugger's math on what it costs us to support Israel versus what we take in from them. If anyone wants to check my math, it's published by the U.S. trade representative or by the CIA fact sheet or whatever.

So it's not me. You know, these are publicly available data. But that is what I would hope. What I want everybody to take away from this is not about electoral politics. Fuck all that. Is question, really question a lot of these foreign policy, you know, gambles. And ask yourself, why? Why am I being propagandized to what effect?

Is it to the effect or the benefit of somebody else of another nation? And then start to try and challenge yourself by seeking out people who are saying different things. You know, if you're a right winger and you're just instinctually really annoyed by what Johnny just said, I would really encourage you to go and to like listen to something from Palestinian activists. And then vice versa. If you're one of those pro-Palestine people, I've actually been to Israel. I spent a long time there. I like it there.

And I encourage you to, you know, those people to flip it around and see where are you. these people coming from? And then, most importantly, think for yourself as an American citizen, because that's what that word actually used to mean. Yeah. No, I agree. I agree completely. And breaking points, it's like, he just blew my mind on like two or three different facts that I thought we were just going to have a fun chat about. And you actually challenged me to think about it a little differently. It's really one of the only places I'm telling you what I discovered it two years ago whenever you guys uh whenever you got and by the way they made it you guys made it yourselves you you didn't get put on by a bigger podcast you didn't uh you you're not grifting you're not doing

right wing grifts like a couple of the people out there you know you didn't sell a multi-level marketing company and move your operation to south florida right and now you're oh now you're intellectual i don't even know what you're talking about i'm talking about patrick bet david and his cohort of syncophan retards. Vinny, that moron, that dumbass Adam. They only have one white nerd on there that actually has facts. They take a loss. They don't make money off their shit. They sold a huge scam of a company. Do you see what I mean? They don't make money off their shit. We make, we're podcasters who literally make a living from broadcasting. We're in the black. So, meaning there's a reason for that. It's because we're good at it.

and you bring and you are the best in your space right now. That is very kind. Just to everybody out there, subscribe to the Connect. I love the show. I've been following you for quite a long time. My personal favorite episode is Austin, Indiana. I wish I loved anything as much as that guy loves Austin, Indiana. Austin, Indiana, where everybody's moving.

Home of Joe Rogan now. Austin, Indiana. I was like, I wish I loved anywhere as much as this half Mexican white. drug dealer loves Austin. Yeah, Redneck loves Austin, Indiana. Next time I come, we got to debate marijuana, okay? Yeah, no, that was on here. Marijuana. We need a lot more time for that. I know, we need three hours. We'll do it again. We have pot and you're against gambling, too. This was on my sheet. No, not against gambling. I'm against online gambling. But, yeah, which I know you're, you, what, sorry prize picks. Sorry prize picks. No, no, no, I don't believe

it either. I give it all back to the streets. I'd rather give gambling back to the mob. I'd rather the good pot back to the drug dealers. So we'll talk about that. But I know you've got to go, buddy. Thank you. Sager and Jetti, thank you so much, dude. And let's do this again very soon. Check them out, sagabreakingpoints.com.

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