The Young Turks - AIPAC’s Big L

Episode Date: May 23, 2024

Spain, Ireland and Norway will recognize a Palestinian state on May 28. Despite AIPAC cash flowing to his opponent’s campaign coffers, Rep. Thomas Massive wins his reelection bid. Huge news for someone who is rejecting more aid to Israel. Debunking Netanyahu's lies On CNN. Federal Reserve survey shows inflation made the financial lives “worse” for 65% of US households" HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Gettysburg, wow. Oh my God. The guy! Live from the Polymarket Studio in L.A. It's the Young Turks.

Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Casparian, and we have a bonkers show ahead for you today. Sometimes I don't want to use the word bonkers. It's a favorite of Dave Rubens. However, it is a good word, and we do have some bonkers stories in the rundown, including later in the second hour, actress Kate Blanchett at Cannes, reflecting on her own personal financial situation, which led to some backlash and some rage. But did she deserve it? We will adjudicate that case with John Iderola. Again, that'll be in the second hour of the show. We also have a whole host of stories prepared for you in the first hour of the show, including, well, something that has absolutely enraged the government of Israel. That's going to be at the top. Later, we're going to talk about a new federal reserve survey, which shows just how frustrated Americans feel about their personal finances and the state of the economy. What impact, if any, is that having on the Biden re-election campaign? So a whole lot of stories to get to. I don't want to waste a lot of time. But I do want to encourage you to like and share the stream if you're watching us live. You can also click on that little bell that you see when you're watching TYT.T. YouTube videos. That helps to ensure that you get notified whenever we update new content,

fresh content. You know, you want to stay in the no, don't you? And you can also become a member by going to t-y-t.com slash join, or you can hit that join button if you're watching us on YouTube. Members help to keep the show sustainable, independent of corporate influence. And more importantly, you get all sorts of perks that come along with membership, including our daily bonus episodes and special election coverage that we keep specifically for our members. With all that said, let's get to the story that has Israel fuming today. There can be no peace in the Middle East without recognition. That's the collective message from three European nations. Today, Ireland, Norway and Spain are announcing that we recognize

the state of Palestine. Each of us will now undertake whatever national steps are necessary to give effect to that decision. Well, at the moment, this is more a symbolic move than anything else. Israel is absolutely fuming over who you just heard. That's Ireland's Prime Minister, Simon Harris, declaring that Ireland officially recognizes a Palestinian state. Now, his country, along with Norway and Spain, have decided to officially recognize the state of Palestine. They plan to do so on May 28th.

So this is about an announcement about something that they're going to do on a later date next week on May 28th. Here's more on their decision and the reasoning behind it. The trio made coordinated announcements on Wednesday, making plain their intentions to officially view Palestine as a sovereign state. The time has come to move from word to action to tell the millions of innocent suffering Palestinians that we are with them. That there is hope. Norway's Prime Minister says it's the only way to keep the two-state solution alive.

The Palestinians have a fundamental, independent right to their own state. Both Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in peace in their respective states. There cannot be a two-state solution without a Palestinian state. And in other words, peace in the Middle East

requires a Palestinian state. Currently, large portions of, of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America already recognize the state of Palestine, but most major Western economies do not. And one of those Western economies that does not recognize the Palestinian state is, yes, of course, and unfortunately, the United States. The Biden administration released a statement today making clear that they are vehemently against the decision by our European allies. The United States government reiterated its position that recognizing a Palestinian state was premature

and must be the result of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. But as we all know, as long as you haven't bought into the gaslighting, Israel is very much against Palestinians having their own state. In fact, Benjamin Netanyahu, the current prime minister of Israel, has been on the record about this. In fact, he propped up Hamas in Gaza specifically to discredit the notion that Palestinians should be given a state. He funded them, he propped them up, and then now is using Hamas as justification for the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent civilians who are trapped in the Gaza Strip. Now, regardless, National Security Council spokeswoman Adrian Watson said the following, quote, the president, meaning Joe Biden, is a strong supporter

of a two-state solution. This is my addition, in words only, not through his actions. And has throughout his career, he believes a Palestinian state should be realized through direct negotiations between the parties, not through unilateral recognition. Well, look, as anyone with a brain understands, third parties like Ireland, Norway, and Spain, cannot wave a magic wand and get Israel to recognize the Palestinian state. So yes, to some extent, this is symbolic, but it does send a strong message, considering the fact that many Western countries that are allied with the United States

wouldn't dare cross the line that you saw Ireland, Norway, and Spain cross today. So while it is symbolic for sure, it also speaks volumes, that they were willing to kind of undercut the United States in announcing that they, their countries, recognize the Palestinian state. Now, the United States, again, really isn't in favor of a two-state solution. And I say that because all we ever get from the U.S., all we ever hear from our government is cheap talk, a lot of rhetoric. And they keep saying that the negotiations need to occur between Israel and the Palestinians, while the U.S. government knows full well that the Israeli government has no interest in allowing for the formation or establishment of a Palestinian

state. Now, as for the broader international community, we should note that more than 140 other countries around the world recognize a Palestinian state, but most are outside Europe. Before Wednesday's announcement, only a few countries in central and eastern Europe, as well as Sweden had formally recognized it. And I want to be very specific here, because with the addition of Ireland, Norway, and Spain, you now have 146 out of the 193 UN countries recognizing Palestine and the Palestinian state. And currently seven members of the 27 nation European Union officially recognize a Palestinian state. Five of them are former East Block countries who announced recognition in 1988, as did Cyprus before joining the

block. Sweden actually announced their recognition fairly recently about 10, 10 years ago in 2014. Now, a broader group of European nations has pressed for a two-state solution, one that includes the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state drawn on the borders as they were in 1967. You know, the idea of a demilitarized state is a fascinating one because can you really be considered a state if you don't have the capacity to defend yourself, if you don't have the capacity to protect your national security? I mean, would we as Americans feel like we have a secure state, a sovereign state, if we didn't have a military to defend it from outside actors? So, you know, the use of the word demilitarized, I understand it. It's because we're thinking of the current. leadership of Palestinians in Gaza, and of course that's Hamas, and a militarized Hamas is definitely not an ingredient for peace. But at the same time, I think in order to actually have a Palestinian state, in the long term, you would need to have the capacity to form a military specifically from national security purposes. Now, with that said, let's go to Israel's response,

because as I mentioned earlier, they're pretty furious about this. And they're used to the United States doing their bidding. For instance, the U.S. has used its veto power in the Security Council in the UN to block the Palestinian bid to become a full member of the United Nations. So usually the U.S. will come in and they'll find a way to stop what happened today from happening, stop Ireland, Norway, and Spain from declaring that they recognize the Palestinian state. They were unable to do that this time around. And so we were about to hear about how Israel had a bit of a temper tantrum today and decided to take their ball and go home from the countries that made their announcement today. Let's watch. The Palestinian presidency has welcomed the

decision, but Israel has responded furiously to the news. The country's finance minister says he'll withhold tax funds intended for the Palestinian Authority, and the government has already recalled its ambassadors to Norway, Ireland, and Spain. As you can imagine, Israel has reacted pretty furiously to the move by these countries and their decision to formally recognize a Palestinian state so angry that it's ordered back its ambassadors to Norway and Ireland and has called the plan, and I'm quoting here, a distorted step. There's so much to talk about here. Let me just start off with the notion of essentially stealing the taxes that Palestinian civilians in the West Bank

pay to the Palestinian authority, which of course governs them in the West Bank. So it's interesting because on one hand, you have the far right government of Israel saying, how dare you claim that we live in an apartheid state? What is an apartheid state? It's when you have a group of people who are treated as second class citizens who don't have the same rights and live under the thumb of the powerful group within that country. In this case, it would be Israel. But if the West Bank and Gaza isn't going to be considered part of a Palestinian state and is considered part of greater Israel and they're treated as second class citizens, that is what you call an apartheid state.

So you can't have your cake you need a two. They've got to make a decision. If they refuse to allow for the formation of a Palestinian state and instead have these territories be part of greater Israel and treat Palestinians as second class citizens, who do not have the same rights, who do not have the ability to vote in their elections. Yeah, that's an apartheid state. And so if you want an apartheid state, then own it and accept the fact that this is who you are and this is what you want. And that's, of course, what I'm saying to the Israeli government. And it's outrageous to just steal the resources and the taxes that Palestinian people in the West Bank are paying to the Palestinian Authority over what foreign countries have declared about

the Palestinian state. Understand what they're doing here. The Israeli government plans to punish Palestinians in the West Bank over this announcement by Ireland, Spain, and Norway. The other thing is, well, they did decide to take their ball and go home. As the Washington Post reported, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz ordered the immediate recall of the Israeli ambassadors to Spain, Ireland, and Norway. Quote, I am sending a clear message today. Israel will not be complacent against those who undermine its sovereignty and endanger its security. In other words, Israel is pretty much dead set on isolating itself from the international community. Going back to a point that I made on the show this week, I don't really think Israel is all that concerned about what the international community thinks about them as long as they have the backing of the United States, where they get 90% of their military weaponry.

And to be sure the Biden administration is fully on board with Israel, regardless of how much concern we hear about Biden feeling toward Palestinians who are losing their lives in Gaza. Itamar Ben-Gavir also pushed back against the three nations that have declared a Palestinian state today, saying, quote, we will not allow any surrender that would even include a declaration of a Palestinian state. And here's my personal favorite. Israel's finance minister, Basile Smotrich, said Israel should approve three new settlements in the occupied West Bank, one for each country that recognized a Palestinian state and cut funding for the Palestinian Authority. As if building illegal settlements was ever slowed down by this right wing land grabbing civilian slaughtering government. They're going to do it anyway. The settlers have been acting viciously and violently toward innocent Palestinians in the West Bank with impunity. So it seems like a bit of an empty threat because this is exactly what Israel's been doing anyway.

So solidarity with the governments of Spain, Norway, and Ireland. Doing this, of course, is leading to some backlash from the United States and Israel, but they were willing to do the right thing anyway, and I commend them for that. All right, why don't we actually take our first break? When we come back, we've got some more news to get to. I wanted to talk a little more about this topic, so don't miss it. We'll be right back. Actually, no, let me just note.

When you come back, I'm going to show you that A-PAC can, in fact, be defeated. There was a perfect example of that just yesterday. Don't miss it. Norway. Never in my life did I think I would be doing a segment on this show where I celebrate the electoral win of a congressional Republican. But here we are, even though this is a Republican I disagree with on probably most things, I have to say that I always respect people who are. grounded in their own values and principles. And Thomas Massey happens to be one of those individuals. So let's talk about how he was able to essentially defeat APEC in getting

reelected. The Israel lobby was unable to defeat Republican Congressman Thomas Massey in Kentucky, who beat not one, but two primary challengers despite AAC flooding his opponents with campaign cash. Now, massive, or I should say Massey, was the target of the powerful lobby over his unwillingness to vote in favor of funding Israel's war against Gaza. And he did so multiple times. He spoke out against it. And it was truly a sight to see. Now, he did so for reasons that differ from, let's say, progressives or, you know, self-identified Democrats who really do take issue with the way that Israel has prosecuted this war in Gaza. He did so because he is a genuine libertarian. He's not all talk. He walks the walk, and he doesn't feel that U.S. taxpayers should be

funding foreign wars. So not only did he vote against funding Israel's war against Gaza, he also voted against funding Ukraine in its defense against Russia. But as we all know, If you are unwilling to vociferously support Israel and provide all the funding that it asks for, you will draw the ire of the Israel lobby, of which APAC plays a huge role. And so the United Democracy Project, a political action committee arm of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee, unfurled a $328,675 television campaign assailing Massey as hostile to Israel, citing a handful of votes in April. Quote, Republicans are trying to help Israel, the ad says. But one Republican is standing in the way. It's Kentucky's Tom Massey.

Okay, let's just pause before I get to the election results and all of that, because I'm really curious if that kind of messaging works with America, like Americans across the board, across the political aisle. Like, if you watch a political ad and one of the candidates is being skewered over his unwillingness to help a foreign country, is that going to be persuasive enough for you to vote against the guy? Like, I just, I don't know. I mean, as you see a growing number of, you know, America first Republicans within the GOP electorate, I'm really curious of this kind of campaigning by. the Israel lobby is even going to be effective. I mean, obviously it's going to be effective with, you know, American Israelis or Israeli Americans, but I don't know how effective it's going to be with other individuals. So I guess we'll see. And we kind of saw with this case,

right, because Massey very easily won re-election. In a post on X celebrating his win, he wrote that APAC claims to have spent over $400,000 against me this election cycle. These were the results tonight. And then he did share the results with 98.1% of the votes having been counted. He won easily with 75.9% of the vote. It wasn't even close. And he doesn't have a Democratic challenger in the general. So he has effectively won. He will continue serving as a United States congressman out of the state of Kentucky. Now, weeks ago, Massey declared, I double down. I don't wake up in the morning saying, how can I tick off A-PAC? If they punch me, I'm punching back.

Okay, again, I must reiterate for anyone in the audience who's going to freak out about me being too complimentary toward a Republican. I disagree with him on many political issues, on many policy goals. But that level of strength, I admire that. I wish we saw more of that from our Democratic lawmakers, people who again are unafraid and are grounded in their values. Now, Massey voted against a GOP-sponsored bill designed to punish Democratic President Joe Biden for pausing approved weapon deliveries to Israel. He consistently votes against foreign aid, including U.S. assistance to Israel. He said the recent GOP bill was an attempt for House Speaker Mike Johnson to save face after pushing through a massive foreign aid package that became ensnared in Biden's evolving posture toward the war in Gaza. And Tuesday's primary is a referendum on thousands of independent votes, he says, that I have cast in Washington, D.C. on behalf of Kentucky's fourth district.

I've also fought against endless foreign wars, foreign aid, and inflationary policies, regardless of who is in the White House. Look, to me, despite his other policy positions that I disagree with, to me, the foundation of a United States congressperson should be that that congressperson puts the American people and their best interests first. What we're currently seeing is, I mean, countless members of our federal government doing the exact opposite. And that has been a major black pill for me, to be honest, to see politicians from both sides of the aisle, not putting Americans first, not even putting the lives of innocent civilians abroad first, but instead taking the legalized bribes from the Israel lobby and in turn

carrying out anything and everything the Israeli government demands of our government. And it's just hilarious to me when you see individuals who purport to be America first celebrating the U.S.'s unwavering, undying commitment to Israel, regardless of who makes up that government, what that government is up to, and what they've been doing and prosecuting this war in Gaza. So it's a huge contradiction in my mind. But I should note that APEC isn't done yet. McClatchy reports that the lobby commits to targeting Thomas Massey again in 26. Now remember, the representatives in the House have to run for re-election every two years.

Honestly, I think that should change because it leads to a situation in which all they do is fundraise. And I think that's a huge problem. But they do plan to target him again. United Democracy Project, again, that's the political wing of APAC, says their ad fight is not meant to impact his house primary election next Tuesday, where he's expected to romp to victory over Eric Dieter's. undermine his appeal to voters who may see him on a statewide ballot one day. So they're assuming that he is considering running for the United States Senate, which means that he would need to garner the support of most of the voters in the state,

as opposed to most of the voters in one district, which is district four in Kentucky. And so Patrick Dorton, who is a spokesperson for the United Democracy Project, says, who knows what office Tom Massey will run for in the future, but we want to make sure every voter in the state knows how bad he is on Israel. It is true that this is the lobby strategy. It's just that I don't think this strategy is going to work. So their spending plan, according to an investigation by McClatchy, shows that they did not purchase airtime in Massey's Northern Kentucky district covered by Cincinnati. And according to media, buying, which is an ad tracking firm, they noticed that, no, they didn't spend that much money

in Massey's district. They did spend the money in other districts in the state of Kentucky. So maybe this is their strategy, but I think it's an incredibly dumb strategy. Here's what Massey said about it. There's going to be a lot of people watching these ads scratching their heads saying, who is Thomas Massey? And they're not going to remember this in two years if I were to run statewide. It's funny that some outside super PAC is more convinced I'm going to run statewide than I am. But honestly, this makes me think he's probably going to run for a statewide election, either as governor or maybe for U.S. Senate.

We'll see what happens. But the tactic by the Israel lobby here was such a failure and was so, it was just so incredibly dumb. That doesn't mean that they're, you know, not going to spend money moving forward. I mean, it's not like they're going to stop spending money against Massey if they think they can defeat him in future elections. But for now, you have a man in the Republican Party who stood up against Israel, who stood up against the Israeli lobby, or Israel lobby, I should say, and he won. And that is something that I think is worthy of celebration because we should absolutely be supportive of politicians who are strong enough to defend their principles. and their values.

Let's move on to some of the other news today because I did want to talk a little bit about an interview that I caught live and it was in fear. to say the least because it wasn't really an interview. It was more of a, hmm. I think Jank likes to call it fluffing. So if you watch CNN yesterday, particularly Jake Tapper's show, there was a lot of fluffing going on. Here's what I'm talking about. I think these charges are exactly as President Biden called them. They're outrageous. That's like saying that, well, I'm issuing, you know, arrest warrants for FDR and Churchill, but also for Hitler. Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on CNN with host Jake Tapper and, well, lied repeatedly for nearly 15 minutes straight.

He even compared himself to FDR and Winston Churchill, as you just saw in the video clip that we aired. Here at TYT though, we've decided that we're going to do exactly what Jake Tapper refused to do during the interview. we're going to debunk the falsehoods that were uttered by Netanyahu during that interview. So we'll start with Beebe's claim that the International Criminal Court prosecutor, Kareem Khan, created this false equivalence between Hamas and Israel by seeking arrest warrants for the leadership of both entities. Let's watch. I think these charges are exactly as President Biden called them. They're outrageous.

They're beyond outrageous. This is a rogue prosecutor that has put false charges and created false symmetries that are both dangerous and false. And the first false symmetry is he quates the democratically elected leaders of Israel with the terrorist tyrants of Hamas. That's like saying that, well, I'm issuing arrest warrants for FDR and Churchill, but also for Hitler. Or I'm issuing arrest warrants for George Bush, George W. Bush, but also for for bin Laden. That's absurd. I think an arrest warrant for George W. Bush makes all the sense in the world. I would 100% support that as a United States citizen, as someone who was born in this country,

and as someone who lived through the war crimes that the Bush administration had carried out during the Bush administration. So yeah, that doesn't bother me at all. But I do think that it is absurd to say that the ICC created this false equivalence between Hamas and Israel, especially when you consider the fact that both parties are charged with different things. So for instance, when it comes to Hamas leadership, they stand accused of extermination, murder, taking hostages, rape, and sexual assault of those in detention. while Israeli leaders are charged with causing extermination, which is undeniable. I mean, are we really going to deny that?

Causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies. That's undeniable. That has been an issue since the very beginning of this war. And deliberately targeting civilians in conflict. And we're going to have the receipts about the deliberately targeting civilians in conflict in just a moment. So hold on tight for that. As you can see, the context of the warrants are pretty different.

And I also just want to note that, you know, on one hand, Israel and the international community treats Israel differently from Hamas as they should because Israel is supposed to have a higher standard in their behavior. Israel is supposed to be a democracy. It is supposed to be the type of Western ally that values international laws, that values the notion that you should not commit war crimes. Hamas has been recognized as a terrorist organization, right? And so, yeah, people have lower, like they don't expect much from Hamas, whereas they expect certain behavior from a democratically elected government that the West

aligns itself with. So it's just amazing to me when they're like, but we want to act poorly and we want the United States and all of our Western allies to provide cover for us. No, it doesn't work that way. And when you're carrying out war crimes, the idea that you should not face any criticism for said war crimes is insane to me. But let's keep going. Now let's move on to BB's next lie that Israel is trying really, really, really hard to allow aid into Gaza. We've put in 500,000 tons of trucks of food and medicine for this population.

We've taken 20,000 trucks. We've paved roads to put those trucks in. We've opened border crossings that Hamas closed down. I've had air drops that are facilitated sea route supplies. I mean, the whole thing is absurd. You should know this. I mean, the prices of food in Gaza has dropped by 80%. The markets don't lie. The price of food in Gaza has dropped by 80%. So like not only is it absurd to claim that like, oh, Israel's like working, they're working around the clock, man, right? They're doing everything in their power. Humanitarian aid drops.

You know, they're trying to do everything they can to get humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip, even as we just reported a story yesterday where the Guardian reviewed internal message is showing law enforcement and members of the idea of colluding with settlers on the location of humanitarian aid convoys so the settlers can attack the aid convoys and wouldn't be able to enter the Gaza Strip. They're doing everything they can, guys. They're doing everything they can. But the idea that the price of food has gone down in Gaza, I mean, look, simple supply demand, guys. Okay, so during the nine-day period between May 6th, when Israel began the Rafa offensive and May 15th, a total of 154 trucks carrying food and 156 carrying flour have entered

Gaza through three land crossings, UN deputy spokesperson Faron Haq said last week. So, wow, that sounds like a lot of aid, right? Except it's not. So that's between May 6th and May 15. Keep that in mind. So over the course of nine days. every day. So obviously not enough humanitarian aid. I should also note that the United States wouldn't feel the need to build a peer to circumvent Israel to get humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people if Israel was allowing for the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. Period. Period. I mean, come on. Now that the IDF is operating in Rafa, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have once again been displaced. They have fled the area. But this time,

there is not any one destination for them to go to, which makes it even more difficult to get whatever little humanitarian aid enters the strip to the Palestinians who need it. Getting aid to displace civilians has been hampered by closed and chaotic land crossings, as well as problems plaguing the U.S. military's new floating pier meant to provide an alternative sea route for aid to Gaza or into Gaza. The U.N. says some 1.1 million people in Gaza, nearly half the population, face catastrophic levels of hunger, and that the territory is on the brink of famine. And I should note that the World Food Program, in fact, John McCain's wife, Cindy McCain, has noted that there's already a full-blown famine.

in northern Gaza. And regarding Nanyahu's, honestly, outrageous claim that food prices have been falling in Gaza. I mean, the markets speak for themselves. Okay, sure, yeah, the markets speak for themselves. Let's look at the markets and see how much the cost of food really is. Against the backdrop of conflict, chaos and lawlessness, prices have obviously skyrocketed since the Rafa incursion goods in the market have gotten even more expensive. and that's because there's less supply in Gaza, supply and demand.

There's a lot of demand, very little supply, thus the little supply ends up having prices that are much higher. Sugar was recently sold in rafa markets for seven shekels, less than $2. Then the next day, Hamas fired more than a dozen rockets at Israeli forces near the Keremshalom border crossing between Gaza and Israel, leading to its closure. I remember talking about that. That was an incredibly stupid move by Hamas. In the hours after, the price went up to 25 shekels. The following day, the price of sugar went down to 20 shekels. So just because this is a different part of the world,

doesn't mean that the basics of supply and demand don't apply. Now, moving on to Beebe's next lie, he also laughably claimed that the IDF is doing a great job, limiting civilian casualties. Israel's gone out of its way, both in humanitarian aid and getting civilians out of harm's way with millions of text messages, millions of phone calls and leaflets that we've been dropping, giving up the element of surprise. The ratio, because of our actions, the ratio of civilians to combatants killed is the lowest in the history of urban warfare, and certainly dense urban warfare like this. It's about one to one. There are about 14,000 casualties. these 14 to 15,000 terrorists killed and an equal amount of civilians that were unfortunately

killed because that's what happens. No, it's not an equal amount of civilians who were killed. That is also a lie, and it's a lie that he has repeated over and over again. A report by our government here in the United States, which can't stop kissing Israel's ass regardless of what it does, even admitted that far more civilians have been slaughtered than Hamas militants and Anthony Blinken admitted as much during one of those Sunday morning political talk shows. And let's get into the specific number. So the Gaza health ministry, whose estimates have been repeatedly shown to be credible, updated the death toll in Gaza. At least 35,709 Palestinians

have been killed. And so let's just assume, let's just assume that what Netanyahu is saying is true. And 15,000 of those people were Hamas militants. It's still not a one-to-one ratio, clearly. Okay, two-thirds of the people killed in Gaza are women and children. And you should also note that Israel believes that every adult male that's been killed in Gaza is a member of Hamas. Oxfam International stated in January that Israel's military is killing Palestinians at an average rate of 250 people a day, which exceeds the daily death toll of any other major conflict of recent years, including Syria, which was 96.5 deaths per day. Sudan, 51.6. Iraq, 50.8 deaths per day. Ukraine, 43.9. Afghanistan,

23.8 and Yemen, 15.8. So really, the IDF's doing everything they can to keep civilians safe. How can you claim that when they have things like, you know, a system that they call Lavender? Lavender has played a central role in the unprecedented bombing of Palestinians, especially during the early stages of the war. In fact, according to the sources, its influence on the military's operations, was such that they essentially treated the outputs of the AI machine as if it were a human decision. for every junior Hamas operative that Lavender marked, it was permissible to kill up to 15 or 20 civilians.

In the past, the military did not authorize any collateral damage during assassinations of low-ranking militants. In the event that the target was a senior Hamas official with the rank of battalion or brigade commander, the army on several occasions authorized the killing of more than 100 civilians, in the assassination of a single commander. That's pretty bad, right? Well, it's about to get worse.

Additional automated systems, including one called Where's Daddy, also revealed here for the first time. This is 972 magazine, were used specifically to track the targeted individuals and carry out bombings when they had entered their family's residences. So when you hear Jank in one of his angry and justified rants mention, where's daddy? This is what he's referring to. He's referring to the intentional targeting of civilians, knowing that a lot of civilians are going to die, the family members of this individual that we're targeting, they're going to die, we know it,

and we don't care, we're going to do it anyway. And we'll also note that an NBC news investigation into seven deadly airstrikes has found Palestinians were killed in areas of southern Gaza that the Israeli military, had explicitly designated as safe zones. So telling Palestinians to flee to these safe zones and then proceeding to bomb those safe zones. It would have been nice if Jake Tapper, you know, debunked some of Beebe's lies in real time. Really sad to see that he was unwilling to do that. But I'm glad that I have the ability to do that here on this show, thanks to the support of our paying members and subscribers. You guys give us a voice. We wouldn't be able to do the work that we

do without you. So thank you for supporting us. Thank you for being members. And for anyone else who's interested in doing so, you can become a member by going to t-y-t.com slash join or hitting that join button if you're watching us on YouTube. All right, we're going to take a brief break when we come back. More news, including this Federal Reserve survey that gives us some insight into how Americans are feeling about the economic situation in America. One of the most important issues in the country right now is how voters feel about the economy, how the economy is treating them and how they're doing in their household income and personal finances. And the reason why it's such an important story is because I do believe that it's having an impact on the polling that we're seeing in regard to the general election. So with that in mind, let's give you the details. This is a group of people that's getting disenfranchised and the price of a meal at McDonald's has doubled. The price of their groceries has gone up 50%. And a bunch of people in that survey are saying things are fine because the reality is the majority of Americans have a home and a 401k. But for the third that don't, it has become borderline unlivable.

the cost of housing, being able to cover an emergency. This is the first time in a generation we have a group of people truly becoming disenfranchised. Which is a fascinating statement to hear on cable television when we keep hearing about how phenomenally the economy is doing. And look, to be fair, in some very narrow aspects, it is, but a brand new survey from the Federal Reserve is showing that the majority of Americans, Americans are still struggling to get by after years of inflation. And the inflation is impacting working Americans big time. I mean, you see it at the grocery store. You see it in other sectors of the economy. You certainly see it in housing. You see it in the cost of education.

It goes on and on and on. So on Tuesday, the Fed released its economic well-being of U.S. households report for 2023, examining the financial lives of U.S. adults. and their families. And I want to share some of the results with you. The report found that 72% of adults surveyed said that they were doing okay financially. That's a tick lower than last year, but well below the high of 78% in 2021 and still above the record low of 62% in 2013. Okay, so I want to stop here because Americans were doing way, or at least they report doing way better, okay, in 2021. And what I'm kind of concerned about is that some of the elements of the Trump

administration that American voters were unhappy with are the elements that are kind of starting to fade in their minds. And they're instead kind of thinking about how well their pocketbooks were doing during the Trump administration. There were still issues with the economy for ordinary working Americans, to be sure. But because of the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, because of supply chain disruptions, because of all these issues that we've had impacting the economy, honestly, some of which have nothing to do with the White House, I think a lot of Americans are like, can we just

go back to the Trump administration? We were doing better financially. So there is an element of fairness there for Biden, but I don't know. I just think Biden has to be better in acknowledging that this is what Americans are feeling, rather than attempting to gaslight Americans into thinking that their economic situation is actually fantastic. That actually leads to more resentment and frustration among voters. I should know because I feel it when I hear politicians talking about how wonderful the economy is. And then you see people in your community, people in your family, you yourself and your own household,

struggling with different elements of the economy, including inflation. And interest rates being high, that has nothing to do with Biden, but obviously that is leading to economic frustration among ordinary working Americans as well. Now, I'm going to make a prediction here. I think the Federal Reserve is going to lower interest rates maybe two months before the election. It's a little bit of a conspiracy theory for me. I admit it, but it might be them putting their thumb on the scale. We'll see. Now, inflation made the financial lives worse for 65% of U.S. households, according to the report, among those 19% said it was much worse. Plus, incomes grew healthfully in 2023, so that's where you see some silver linings to the economy. But so did spending. Monthly budgets remained tight, and more than half of adults didn't have money left over after paying their expenses. This was

especially true for lower income adults who reported higher instances of not having enough to eat, not being able to cover bills in full, and skipping medical care. If you are now spending more money on groceries and housing due to inflation, your wages rising isn't really going to be something you feel if your wages are not keeping up with that inflation or, more importantly, outpacing that inflation. And that's exactly what Americans are experiencing right now. Now, overall, 17% of reported that they could not pay all their bills in full in the month prior to the survey, which was conducted in October of 2023. And that doesn't surprise me. You know, there are other reports that really, I guess, complement the findings of this Federal Reserve study that

basically show consumer debt skyrocketing and also defaults on credit cards increasing, meaning 90 days or more late in making payments on credit cards. The number of Americans who are in that boat has increased in recent months. And only 63% of adults said that they're able to cover, well, actually, that's not so bad. The 63% of Americans said that they'd be able to cover a $400 emergency expense with cash on hand. So that's pretty similar to previous Fed Federal Reserve reports about $400 emergency. I'm actually happy to see that that number hasn't dipped even further. As for how people are perceiving the state of the economy more broadly,

just kind of looking at how the economy is doing even outside of their personal household, the report showed improvement in people's feelings about how their local economy fared, with 42% saying it was good or excellent versus 38% the year before. However, that share is a far cry from how people felt pre-pandemic. So this is going back to what I was saying about the happy feelings that people are suddenly having about Trump. In 2019, 63% felt their local economy was in good or excellent health. And when it comes to the national economy, similar story.

Okay, they found that people's perceptions improved from 2022. So 20, I'm sorry, 22% last year of, from 18%, but they remain well below the 50% share notched in 2019. And so media outlets and Democrats have been kind of mystified as to why so many Americans are still having such negative feelings about the economy despite what they say is inflation cooling. I'm gonna stop right there because I want to kind of add a little more clarity to that talking point. What they mean with inflation cooling, isn't that that they mean that the prices are going down. It's that the prices of products are still rising. It's just that

they're not rising as rapidly as before. I mean, you know what I mean? So the benchmark prices for things that we need, like groceries and housing, they've been set to a new level and the prices continue to rise slowly month after month. Okay. So in 2020, I'll give you the exact numbers. U.S. inflation hit 9.1%, which was the highest annual rate in more than 40 years. As of last month, it was 3.4%. So it's not that the prices have gone down. It's that rather than the prices going up another 9.1%, they went up another 3.4%. But it still means that prices are high, right? So including for things that people desperately need, stuff like food, gas, housing, and inflation does impact people in different socioeconomic

statuses. This should be common sense. If you're already struggling economically or if you're on the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder, you're going to feel the impact of inflation a lot more. Let's watch. We have, for example, low income households consuming a lot more food than high income households. If there's suddenly a lot of inflation in food, the low income households actually actually experience more inflate. So yes, the data show price hikes tapering, but not for everyone equally at Costa. We know there's inflation inequality

where the basket of goods that people consume will vastly shape the inflation experience. So I think this is very important to bear in mind when thinking about people's stress responses, reactions, lived experience that might just not well be captured by our official statistics. Which may help explain

why consumer sentiments sank in May. And by the way, let's talk a little bit about consumer sentiment and consumer spending. Because there's been a little bit of a paradox in the economy, right? There's a lot of focus on how consumer spending is up despite inflation and reports of economic distress. But University of Michigan, Professor Joanne Sue has an interesting and devastating theory as to why that might be. What we are seeing is a combination of negative attitudes and positive spending. And this positive spending is not a reflection of, you know, some sort of internalized secret sense of confidence that consumers have. And instead, my interpretation is that consumers see that a lot of aspirational goals that we talk about as part of the American dream, you know, homeownership, paying for college, paying for college for your kids, having a comfortable retirement with high prices and high interest rates right now.

Now, those aspirational goals just feel increasingly out of reach. And as a result, I think consumers are not really, they've kind of given up on saving for those things. And with strong labor markets, that enables them to spend now. And I think that's what we're seeing in the consumption patterns. I think that that theory is so on point, right? Because in the past, Americans felt that if they just diligently saved within a certain amount of years, if they budgeted, they'd be able to afford a down payment on a house. But now housing has become so out of reach for ordinary working Americans that I think rather than saving, they might just be spending

that money on other things that they desire to kind of lessen the blow of how awful the economy is for people who want to do basic things that previous generations were able to do relatively easily compared to what we're experiencing now. And so, look, whenever I'm critical of Biden. I get some angry members of our audience who are like, oh, yeah, if you don't want Biden to talk about how great the economy is, what do you suggest he does? I think it would be far more effective if Biden empathized and acknowledged the economic pain that Americans are feeling and laid out a plan for what he intends to do to lessen the blow. Gaslighting doesn't work. It infuriates people because regardless of how many times the Democratic Party or the Biden camp goes on. television or speaks at rallies and declares that the economy is actually doing great, they're going to be, ordinary Americans are going to be informed by their personal experiences and the lives that they're living. They know what's in their bank accounts, they know what they're paying for rent or for their mortgage, they know what they spend

on groceries, and they're upset. And I think that if Biden really wants to lean into the empathetic characteristics that he has, that could probably be a lot more effective than engaging in gas lighting. All right, we got to take a break when we come back. John Iderola will join us for the second hour of the show. We've got some devastating news out of Louisiana, but later we're going to have some fun news, so don't miss it.