The Young Turks - AOC's Weasle Words - August 11, 2026

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

Glenn Greenwald joins Cenk Uygur and Yasmin Aliya Khan to discuss this awesome slate of stories on The Young Turks today! Report: Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and other gulf states Scheming with Saudis To Build A New Pipeline? Snowflake Israel Firsters Literally Cancel Hasan Piker? AOC’s Fascinating Response To What “Woke” Debate Turned Into. How Do You Feel About AOC’s Comments On Wokeness & Hasan? Glenn Greenwald’s Substack Addresses AOC And ‘Wokeness.’ Watch: Tucker Calls Trump ‘Flamboyantly’ Corrupt. You Can’t Look Away From Tucker & Hunter’s One-On-One Interview. Poll: Republicans Don’t Think Trump Can Close Good Deal With Iran Here’s Who’s Worried About Democratic Frontrunner Francesca Hong. Trump Ran, Hid, Left Press As Decoy Amid Threat On Air Force One. Trump Flamed For Executive Order Changing Child Vaccines. Tech Execs Admit Data Centers Do Harm. New Law Fights Back. Plus, join #Teamjoy as Cenk & Yaz Share Viewer Reactions & Stories that bring them joy on Operation Joy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/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. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly, 19 plus to wager. Ontario only.

Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, Peace contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. We're joining me today's guest host Glenn Greenwald, everybody. So great to have him on, I believe. No, not yet.

Okay, fascinating. All right. So I find that out a little late as we into the studio here. Okay, so let me tell you what's on the show today and then we'll get going. So there's a secret reason why Israel does not mind straight of Hormuz being closed. So we'll talk about that. And should Hassan Piker be canceled? Yeah, we're still having that conversation.

So we'll explain. But especially vis-a-vis what AOC said yesterday about woke being crazy or on Sunday. And so we want to discuss that and hey, should we move on from that statement? Is that good enough? And is everybody happy with that? And then, I mean, as strange bedfellows continue as the world turns, Tucker Carlson and Hunter Biden now buddies, and they have reached some surprising agreements. So we'll get to all of that. But I think I'm going to get started with the first story.

All right, here we go. Israel has a secret reason why they don't mind the straight of Hormuz being blocked. So we, of course, minded greatly in America, but Israel has other reasons why they're kind of thrilled at how this war is going. Yes, they would have loved to have destroyed the entire regime and installed a puppet there by now. But the Iran war has helped cause a conflict between Iran and the Gulf countries. Israel believe that that drives them closer to Israel and away from Iran. It's done some significant damage to Iran, which they always enjoy.

They love their neighbors being damaged. It's also helped them with their Leviathan gas field that is now opened up and now a new source of energy that they're very proud of. But there is yet another reason. And that is actually about a pipeline that might be built that might go through Israel. So let me explain. The telegraph sets the whole picture for you. They say Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf energy producers have a major problem. The main shipping routes to export their barrels of oil and tanks of gas, the Bob El Mandab Strait and the Strait of Hormuz have become too dangerous to use. Iran has blocked Hormuz in the wake of U.S. Israeli strikes while exports through Babel Mandab and the Red Sea face constant attack from Houthi rebels. It has left Saudi Arabia as well as some of the region's other key oil producers searching for a solution, now many think that could come in the unlikeliest of places, Israel. Now actually, it's not that unlikely, and we'll talk to Glenn Greenwald about it in a second.

There's some chance that Israel was perfectly aware that the straight of Hormuz might get blocked, although they told Trump the opposite, and that this might lead to their pipeline becoming a lot more valuable. So that that makes it not unlikely, but literally, potentially part of a plan to get us into this war to help Israel in ways that we didn't even know about. So let me tell you a little bit more first. Telegraph explains the scheme would see a pipeline built across the Saudi desert to the Israeli border where a second pipeline built through Israel in the late 1960s would carry it north

to ports on the Mediterranean. If it worked, then it would create a new export route bypassing the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz. Now get a load of this, it's not like the telegraph is just guessing at this. Israeli officials have talked about it very openly and a lot of them. We just have two quotes for you for today and there are plenty, but the piece had many more. They explained brief details of the scheme have been released by Eli Cohen, Israel's energy Minister, quote, the Gulf countries do not want to be dependent on either Iran or the Houthis in Yemen

when it comes to their oil exports, which are the primary source of income. If you create a land route, you bypass both Iran and the Houthis. The best route is through the state of Israel. And here's a map so you see how it looks. So you got the oil coming out of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. And they need internal pipelines there and a pipeline to take it up to Israel. But voila, the last part of the pipeline goes straight through Israel and then pass the Strait of Hormuz, which is not necessary at that point, and into Europe.

Well, collagee, look at that lucky break Israel caught with this war, that it makes this a lot more likely. Now, if you're thinking, well, you know, sometimes the people who defend Israel here in America will say, oh, these are minor cabinet officials. They don't really speak for Netanyahu. It's absurd. They are all saying the same thing, but it doesn't matter in this case because Netanyahu himself has said it.

So they explain Israel is full of enthusiasm. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, said the pipeline could break Iran's grip on global energy. Quote, instead of going through the checkpoints of the Hormu Strait and the Babal-Mandeb Strait, we just have oil pipelines, gas pipelines, going through the west, through the Arabian Peninsula, right up to Israel, right up to our Mediterranean ports. You've just done away with the choke points forever, that is definitely possible. So before we get into more of the issues that help Israel in this war, but hurt us, let me bring in Glenn Greenwald here.

Glenn, do you think that this might have been one of the reasons that Israel wanted this war so bad? Well, it is kind of notable, as you suggested, that every foreign policy decision that the Trump administration takes just so happens coincidentally to result in massive benefits for Israel. Even the removal of Maduro from Venezuela took a government that had been vehemently anti-Israel, didn't even recognize Israel, was hostile to Israel, and now Israel has full run of Venezuela. We force the government leaders there to meet regularly with the Israelis, to send oil to Israel to give them whatever they want. Just a huge coincidence saying, yet again, Israel

benefiting from our foreign policy. And here you have seen over the past month, these Trump administration officials, Scott Benson, Mark Rubio, in kind of very cryptic ways. saying, look, the Strait of Harmuse is never going to go back to what it was. And the reason they're saying that is not because Iran has a grip on it, which they do, but because they're essentially insinuating that the Strait of Harmuz will no longer have geostrategic relevance, or at least not centrality the way it does now. And they're obviously referencing this plan that the Israelis have harbored for quite a long time to make themselves the indispensable country when it comes to the commercial trade in oil in the region.

And, you know, I do think that when we started the war, the Israeli goal, which is really the only goal that matter. The United States has no identifiable goal. And starting this war outside of what the Israelis wanted was to smash the Iranian state to basically keep it into chaos, sort of like Syria has been for a long time. So that the Israelis have full reign of the Middle East, including all of its assets and resources like oil. I don't think Trump is able to do that. I don't think he sees himself as being willing to do it. And this seems to be a very significant benefit long term for the Israelis to become the indispensable country when it comes to the trade of oil in the Middle East.

And that would obviously make Israel even significantly more powerful than they are right now. Yeah. So mission number one for Israel was regime change, install a puppet like they have in many Middle Eastern countries. Then if that didn't work, then civil war so that they're too distracted as Glenn explained. That's basically the Libya model. And they can't attack, in their mind, attack Israel. But really, it's not about attacking Israel. It's about protecting Palestinians and the Lebanese, which they don't want.

So now that's reason number one. Reason number two is they also have Leviathan and Netanyahu on tape has bragged about, well, now people are going to have to come to us now that we have a gas field offshore. And, you know, the other gas and oil can't get out of the Gulf. And also, by the way, they've also taken southern Lebanon and are now claiming that they have Lebanese waters off the shore, which just coincidentally happens to have another giant gas field. And this pipeline is potentially reason number three. And but Glenn, as part of it, it's not just that they, everybody else would have more incentives

to create this pipeline. But in order to do the pipeline, Saudi Arabia and Israel would have to have a peace agreement. And Saudi Arabia has in the past insisted that we get to a two-state solution and have a Palestinian state in order to get to that peace agreement. And Israel has said definitively they will never allow Palestinian state. So it seems like this also might hit a fourth bird for Israel, which is to pressure Saudi Arabia into betraying the Palestinians and doing a separate side deal with Israel, that would mean that the Palestinians might never get a state?

Yeah, I mean, we didn't lose very much at all, we being the world when Lindsey Graham died. But one of the things we did lose was that he was sort of the most reliable and in some ways, most careless reflection of what Netanyahu was saying that he wanted. We saw in those videos that he literally would call Netanyahu up and say, hey, do you want me to get Trump to send the U.S. military to help you bomb Lebanon and let that. And I was like, no, not right now. Lindsay, we're good in Lebanon. We just want to make sure the war in Iran continues like, you know, got it, sir, basically. And one of the priorities that Lindsey Graham had in the in the weeks and months before he died was basically badgering

Saudi Arabia to enter into a deal with with Israel. That was something that Lindsay Graham was becoming increasingly reckless and kind of agitated over to the point where it offended the Saudis. And the reason for that was because that is what Israel wants the most, because that will enable Israeli hegemony over oil. And they're happy to do it alongside the Saudis because the Saudis are incredibly compliant. The problem is not that the Saudis, not that Mohamed bin Salman cares about the Palestinians, it's that the people of those countries, although they're living under brutal dictatorship, I'm talking here about the U.S.'s closest allies, what are called our partners and friends that are allies in the region.

Even though their dictatorships, they still have to be concerned about what the people of those countries are willing to tolerate. And one thing they will not tolerate is a normalization of relations with Israel without there being a genuine Palestinian state. Certainly not while Gaza lays and ruins, certainly not while the West Bank continues to be annexed and stolen and brutalized. And this is why, you know, the United States' position has always been so strongly. we wanted to state solution, not because we cared either, our government about the Palestinian

people, but because we couldn't do business with the Arabs because it was always a blockade that we were forced to defend the Israelis. And the Arab states wouldn't really be, weren't able to do anything with the Israelis or with us, as long as that was the case. I do think there will be an attempt to force the Saudis to do it. They will be tempted to. But I think this is one case where popular opinion, even in a dictatorship, can be real constraints on the dictators who rule the country.

Yeah, and look, if it wasn't for the popular opinions in countries like Saudi Arabia, the Saudi leadership would have done a deal with Israel decades ago. Of course, of course. They don't care at all, right? But if they betray the Palestinians this thoroughly, as Glenn pointed out with Gaza and ruins, et cetera, they might have a real possibility of an internal revolt within their country. And that's the thing that they're most scared of, even more scared of that than of Israel, if you can believe that.

So on tape, Nanyahu also bragged in the middle of the war that this is going to make Israel a regional superpower and maybe even a global superpower because of all the extra leverage that they have gained from the war. Now, we, of course, in America, have done nothing but lose from this war. We'll come back to that in a second. But to give you a sense of what more that Israel has gained, Telegraph also talks about that. They say Israel's discovery of three major offshore natural gas fields has already made it a key regional exporter. Mubadala Energy, the United Everett's sovereign wealth unit invested $1 billion into Israel's Tamar gas field,

binding Gulf State capital directly to Israeli energy infrastructure. Side note, the UAE is tied to Israel in almost every way. they had, the morons had the Israelis installed their surveillance equipment in the UAE. So obviously Israel knows every single sex act within the UAE, including of their leaders, has infinite blackmail on them, and probably can blow up all of their security apparatus any second they want. But anyways, the thoughtfulness of the UAE leadership is not legendary. Let's put it that way. Anyways, the telegraph continues.

Egypt and Jordan are now reliant on Israeli gas, making future hostilities from them also unlikely. So Glenn, this looks like it's actually a pretty well hatched plan for Israel to certainly become a regional superpower if you wipe out the only other, you know, large country with a decent sized military and capabilities in the region, which Iran is the only one left. You've neutralized Egypt and Jordan by putting in dictators who are friendly to your interest that keep their population at bay, and you've now got them hooked on your gas fields. Now you're trying to incentivize Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and others in different ways.

And as we die for this war, and now Donald Trump talking about leaving without even getting any kind of nuclear deal, because it's been such an unmitigated disaster for us and cost us, I mean, at least $100 billion, 18 dead over 600 injured, it looks like Israel couldn't be happier with how this is gone as we wallow in our misery here in America. So the obvious question is, you know, we know that why we're doing this. I don't have to bother asking you how much Israel has control over our Congress, our presidents, our politicians. But I guess the question I'm leading to there, Glenn, is,

is all of mainstream media pretending not to see this? Are they still at this late juncture pretending this wars for America and that we have somehow gained from it? And go golly gee, this is Israel's a tiny little influence that had barely anything to do with this. I mean, how absurd can they be and how untenable is this for a tiny little country to constantly force the largest military and most powerful nation on earth to do every

bidding that it wants, no matter how much it costs us. Yeah, so let's just be totally honest about this because the time for stepping lately or sensitively at the expense of the truth, I think it has long passed. And as somebody who has been talking about this for a long time, and I know you have as well, there has been, there have been extremely positive changes in the ability of some people to speak more openly about the absolutely, the absolute stranglehold that Israel and its American loyalists in the United States have on U.S. foreign policy for all sorts of reasons that I know you've covered many times, and I have as well. Interestingly, when it comes to the media, however,

although they were willing to talk more so than before about, say, the brutality of Netanyahu, and I think that's because they see Netanyahu as this right-wing figure. And I also think a lot of have this tactic of trying to depict Israel as a fundamentally good country and their only problem is that they have Netanyahu as their leader and once Netanyahu is gone, which one way or another he has to be in the near future. You can go back to loving Israel again. I think that's more tactical than anything else. It is still the case that the people who run media, who own our media outlets, especially the largest corporations, the people who who manage it, who work inside of it, overwhelmingly are for one reason or another, extremely loyal to Israel,

talking about Israel in any fundamentally critical way or talking about the influence that it wields is still a huge taboo inside American media. And I think when you look at the hysteria, which I think we're going to get to, but the way in which the media continues to talk about your nephew, yourself, and then candidates, you know, the ones who won in New York, Abdul al-Said, I think it's motivated almost more than anything else, probably more than anything else by the fact that they are talking openly about the untoward impact of APEC and there's a lot of panic there. And you look at media ownership, you look at who works in these media outlets. Of course, this is something that they will never touch. The fact that Israel is the reason that we're at war with Iran,

because there is nothing that will ensure the collapse of support for Israel in the United States, far more so than it's already collapsed, other than a recognition of what's in front of everybody's faces, which is the fact that none of we go to war in Iran for Israel. We bombed Iran last year for Israel. We bombed Yemen right when Trump got inaugurated for Israel. We shut down TikTok because they were allowing too much Israel criticisms. We've imposed censorship. Hate speech codes Trump did on American universities in order to protect Israel and its supporters

in the United States as well. A whole panoply of rights that we're losing, of resources that were burning, of lives that we're losing that are all American and that are being done solely for the benefit of Israel and all to the detriment of the United States. This is still the great taboo in US media for reasons that are very obvious. Yeah, and so look guys, the bottom line here is all the things that Glenn just listed, all those bombings and obviously most spectacularly the Iran war has cost us a tremendous amount of money.

Now we're almost out of defensive missiles and some of our most sophisticated offensive munitions. And we pulled it from the rest of the bases we have in the world. So we're almost out, period. Our petroleum reserve is down to its lowest level since 1983. We've given hundreds of billions of dollars to Israel, started endless wars for them. This particular war has been an absolute unmitigated disaster for us, for Iran, for the entire Middle East, and for the whole world.

There's protests in South Korea, Spain, Ireland, and India, let alone many other places. So the entire globe has suffered because of this war. There's only one country that has gained, and that's Israel. And yet our media says they're just not good enough reporters to figure out super obvious facts that Glenn and I are talking about here. And they're all verifiable, you could check them all online, there's no question, and in fact, the Israelis themselves brag all the time, that's why we always go to Israeli press. They're actually very good, much better than American press.

And in the Israeli press, they brag about how they won from this war and they got America to do what they wanted. And I read you a story from last week where they're talking about, oh, yeah, you know, Israel should do a, get Morocco to do a migration rush into Spain. Oh, look at that, that's exactly what happened. And they brag about how they have the power and the leverage to be able to get a, you America to help them basically politically diplomatically attack Spain and to be able to pull off this maneuver.

So denying it is beyond absurd and it's basically a mask off moment for American media where you begin to see that they're not anywhere near objective. That is a comical lie that they have been saying throughout, oh, I'm the only objective one, anyone who disagrees with me or the government or Israel is biased by definition? No, by definition, that means you're not objective and you're making things up. So ignore those guys, they're lying you on purpose, and they lied to me, they lied to Glenn, they lied to all of us for our whole lives. And it's past time to realize that and stand up for American interests.

All right, we're gonna take a quick break here, and when we come back, we're gonna talk about what Glenn was referencing there. Hassan getting canceled from a speech at the University of Washington. And then we're gonna juxtapose it to AOC talking about how woke was crazy and is now apparently over, kind of. We'll explain when we return. Back on TYT, Krono Hop on Super Chat says, please, Jack and Glenn, support an internationally crowdfunded bounty for the capture and arrest of Netanyahu. Look, brother, I don't know how that's gonna work. And I don't wanna get it, you know, interfere with law and

Do I hope that he's brought to justice? So it's one of my greatest hopes. And that would be doing it the right way through the international criminal court. The idea, it was so funny when Mom Dani suggested arresting him. And everybody on TV again, they're like, should we take the mask off? Yeah, let's take it off, right? They're like, no, not our beloved net. You terrible, Mom Dani. How dare you suggest arresting a war crime at all in favor of justice. You're the bad guy. No, no. It's super weird how you are, you are. All of you in unison support a genocidal maniac. That's super weird. All right, the mean season says, keep of the good work, Jenk, Anna and the team. Even when she's on an Odysseus-like journey, Anna still gets credit, even though she's not here. All right, she deserves.

Rebecca Chicken Mama says, don't worry, we'll get plenty of oil from Greenland. Dr. Phil will see to it. I have to check in with my old friend there. A lot of disagreements lately. Sino Hoga Boom. What's that, fam? Got a question for you. media, exactly how many people have been killed by Hassan Piker? I believe the answer is zero.

How many killed by Netanyahu? Over a hundred thousand. But they claim that Hassan's the problem and not Netanyahu. Great point. Art guy says pretty sure Iran can still bomb pipelines, it's not a great plan. Yes, that actually is a huge downside of that plan. I love that we have the smartest audience in the world. Patience says, I've got to say I'm still hopeful and optimistic for unity, Jenk. Well, you've got the right day. We've got to Operation Joy today. All right, back on TYT, Jank Uyghur, Glenn Greenwald, with you guys. Also Rosa Roscoe, thank you for gifting a membership on YouTube. You're awesome.

And then I wanted to read one comment from a member on tyt.com. Winston Smith, too, said, I'm sure we'll pay for the pipeline. Of course, of course. What kind of anti-Semite would expect Israel to pay any of its own bills? Are you crazy? And if they need the technology, we can merge our energy technology. with them as well, or they could just steal it as they often do. All right, anyways, let's go to the next story.

So my nephew, Hassan Piker, has been now banned from the University of Washington. He was going to speak there, but they claimed that there was a huge problem, really? Let's figure it out. What was the issue here? The University of Washington is dedicated to the free exchange of ideas, they say. They're a curious way of showing it. They continue including on controversial topics and involving provocative speakers. After Asaam Piker was announced as a speaker for the 2026-27 speaker series, there was a review

of the process by which the event was planned. Oh, so we have a process problem. They explained it was determined that the process for organizing this event did not meet the necessary level of rigor for university hosted events in the speaker series. As a result, this event will not be held. Going forward, procedures will be updated to ensure the standards we have for the university hosted events like the speaker series are met, particularly so that. that we can help elevate the level of dialogue on divisive topics during our polarized

time in our country. So we have an explanation from the Israeli officer they've put inside the university who made the decision, let's keep it real, we'll come back to her in a second. If you don't know, there's like Israelis that run a lot of the organizations, including universities. They don't run the whole thing, but they have to check with them whenever it's related to Israel. and go, boss, what do you want to do? Oh, cancel this.

I'm sorry, Glenn, my bad, they said it was a problem with their process. Now you're gonna be shocked to find out, Glenn, that they did not clarify what that problem in the process was. So do you think this was really a process issue or perhaps Hassan's criticism of Israel? You know, it's funny, these process problems never result in the withdrawal or cancellation of invitations to like say an Applebaum or like Jeffrey Goldberg, you know, for some weird coincidence, these process problems only happen when it comes to speakers whose viewpoints they find disagreeable or uncomfortable. Isn't that strange? Like you would think process problems would,

you know, arbitrarily be distributed among everybody. You know, I think we haven't really fully appreciated the extent to which our discourse has been censored in the wake of October 7 for Israel to the extent that we should. I talked a little bit of those speech codes that I still think are one of the most undercover stories of the second Trump administration that they were screaming free speech and the evils of censorship and I was screening with them when when Biden was censoring under COVID and just the general woke censorship, ethos that that emerged in the wake of George Floyd, I think, but this is so much worse. This is them imposing speech going to college campuses. There was the closing of TikTok, not because of China, but because of Israel.

But one of the most secure jobs that you could possibly have, basically life tenure, had been being a president of an Ivy League university. People get into that position. They, are revered around the world. It's one of the most prestigious positions. They hold it for life. And after October 7, Israel supporters managed to get rid of four of them at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and two at Columbia, because they were supposedly insufficiently rigorous about cracking down on people who are protesting Israel. That's the power that this lobby has, even inside academia, which we're always supposed to believe is so left wing. So now you have this institution, which unlike the ones I named, is actually a public institution. It's a state-run

institution, the University of Washington, which means they have obligations under the First Amendment for free speech. And even though every time you turn on television, every time you open a newspaper or website, mainstream media is talking about Hassan Piker because they're trying to make him the face of the Democratic Party to demonize basically the growing criticism of Israel. That's the real reason that they find him so attractive in that way. Same with Abdul al-Said. They also have the benefit of having names and faces that people can say, oh, look, It's kind of this Arab vaguely Arab Muslim threat. That's obviously part of it as well.

But people are talking about him all the time, but he can't himself go and speak at a public university. The purpose of which universities is to have exactly those kinds of debates about the most polarizing and controversial issues. This is the sort of heavy-handed censorship that continues to demonstrate the genuinely alarming and I think very sinister power of the Israel lobby, even as public opinion polls continue to show that people hate the Israeli obdi, they hate US financing of Israel, they even hate Israel more and more. The people who wield this kind of power aren't wielding it for what democratic means. They're wielding it through money, through influence, and through power. And the fact that they can get anyone they want basically banned from speaking in a university, a state-run university, I think demonstrates how how much that power continues to increase,

not abate. Okay, so now let's explain who was behind the decision. So a critical decision maker at University of Washington apparently that they check with. is Miriam Elman. She is the executive director of the pro-Israel group of university educators and administrators called Academic Engagement Network. So they engage with academia, and what do they engage on banning anyone who criticizes Israel? Okay, it's a pro-Israel group. And University of Washington is like, yes, please tell us what to do. We have people who have, you know, violated the most sacred oath we have at a

America, which is to support Israel 100%, even if it's to our great detriment. What shall we do? Okay, although they have no control or influence if you listen to the morons in mainstream media. Anyways, Miriam explains, in general, universities shouldn't be in the business of canceling speakers, provided they are invited through the established processes, also very worried about processes. University officials should use their own voice to distance to school from hateful speech

and to reiterate school values. However, in this case, the university has alleged that protocols weren't followed properly in organizing the events. It's reassuring to hear that moving forward, the university will work to ensure that the standards for such university events are met, as clearly they weren't in this case. She says, look, even though she's so worried about the processes at the University of Washington, she's in a pro-Israel group. What are the processes at the University of Washington have anything to do with that?

But she does add this, in addition to tightening up standards and protocols for future guest speaker invitations, it's also important for university officials to get to the bottom of the invite itself. Who were the administrators and faculty who thought that Piker are a non-academic provocateur, who has repeatedly supported U.S. designated terror organizations engaged on Holocaust tribalization? Those things are not true. And vilified Jewish Zionist identity, also not Zionist, but not Jewish, so that was a trick. In other words, almost all of it a lie. Anyways, continues, would be the right speaker for this year's series. Guest speakers come and go. It's the faculty and staff who are the permanent stakeholders.

So Glenn, for those of us who are initiated in this kind of talk, we know what that means. That means we don't not, we not only want to ban Hassan on behalf of Israel from speaking at the University of Washington, But we're gonna try to root out who the faculty and staff that allowed this are and get them fired as well, right? Yeah, I mean, look at the liberties that they take with the truth, like the defamation and smear tactics that they use so freely. We're talking here about a university official when they talk about whoever they feel like demonizing. I mean, pretty much everything that that note says about Hassan is a complete lie. And let me just tell you, I'm somebody who has been pretty critical of Hassan over the past few years. He has been of me as well.

It's not like I'm defending Hassan because we're best friends or because they instinctively do so. But the smear campaign that's being directed at him and the attempt to basically use him as a proxy to delegitimize any kind of criticism of Israel as hateful is based on complete lies. Do you know how many times I've bashing? Like for anyone who wants to say that Hassan Piker is anti-Semitic, just give me your three best examples. You know, they will often use one example where he said that Orthodox Jews are inbred. He retracted that statement, apologize for it. Somebody, you know, streamed for eight hours over the course of however many years

you're going to say some things that you don't even, but I wouldn't even classify that anti-Semitism, but leave that aside. You know, everything is, you could only call him anti-Semitic by conflating Israel and Jewish people, which that note does exactly. He has criticized Zionism, which is an ideology and everybody has the absolute right to do that. And so in order to pretend that instead he's attacking Jewish people, she has to use that Jewish Zionist ideology when it's so offensive to suggest that a Zionist agenda is

necessarily linked to Jewish people because huge numbers of Jewish people, including myself, vehemently opposed the Zionist agenda. But so much of this is based on the liberty that they assigned to themselves, just absolutely lie about what people believe in what they say. And one of the ironies is I've wanted the criticism I've made of a facade during this Israel discourse is that he often goes out of his way to kind of draw what I think is too rigorous of a line where other people who criticize Israel, he often considers them anti-Semitic. And so I have always felt like he's too quick to call other people anti-Semitic. And now this exact sort of tactic is being used. And it's not just because of As I said, he's a very convenient vessel for a whole bunch of

different reasons in order to reclassify criticism of Israel, which in their mind has gotten completely out of control as a hate ideology. And from that conclusion, all sorts of other actions become justified, including censoring people, banning them, punishing them under hate speech laws. And that's what exactly what this attempt is about. Yeah. And two last notes. I'm on your side on the issue of calling people anti-Semites. So when people on the left say, oh yeah, even though Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Green, agree with us on the issue of Israel, the issue of war. And by the way, their words are nearly identical to ours, we think they're evil anti-Semites secretly.

While we say the same exact thing, and we also get called anti-Semites, we're not anti-Semites. That is deeply counterproductive. It's not true. It's stupid as a strategy. And it helps the establishment continue to divide us. It fortifies the weapon that's being used against him. But you know what? I'm almost at the point where, like, the discourse around Hassan has become so important

because of the very pernicious goals that it's designed to advance that I'm almost not even interesting critiquing Hassan at this point, you know, because almost, I almost feel like I'm doing the work of these scumbags if I were to do it. Like for me, the important thing is to, you know, kind of take a stand in defense of his right to continue to advance these positions that he's been quite effective in doing along with other people and insist on that right to be preserved and not have people smeared so casually as anti-Semites or bigots or racist or haters in order to delegitimize the ability to criticize this foreign country. Like I feel like when it comes to Hassan and other people who are being similarly targeted,

even though I have my difference with them, it's almost like now is not the time to sort of air them. Yeah, Glenn, I actually completely agree with you. And I know that a lot of people on left, right center will not agree with us. And they'll say, no, we want basically endless war on ideology, right? Including social issues, culture war issues, et cetera. But no, when someone is under a coordinated attack, I don't want to give examples, because each example will then be weaponized, right, by the establishment of media, et cetera.

But when they're under a coordinated attack, I refuse to engage in the substance of that. attack. So we first, if the mainstream media acknowledges, yes, obviously we're trying to eliminate Abdul al-Saeed because he's opposed to Israel, and we're using smear by proxy with Hassan, just like we did to Bernie Sanders in 2020. We did smear by proxy with you, Jank, right? When we said you were unacceptable and he had to withdraw his endorsement, we were trying to destroy Bernie Sanders. So if they acknowledge all those things that are definitely true, then maybe we can get to discussing whatever BS they want to talk about in regards if someone said something wrong in 1987 or when they were

13 or in the middle of a 28 hour stream or whatever, right? And I'd go further as well, which is, and this is what Glenn and I are now saying to the left as well as mainstream and right, which is, hey, we'll get to debating abortion and all those other things. Those are super important issues, we're not saying they're not important. But first, we have to get our democracy back. If we don't have sovereignty and we don't control our own country, our debate on abortion is irrelevant.

So, because neither one of us has a voice that matters. Oh, what should we do about Cuba? It doesn't matter because we don't have a voice. We have to regain our voice and our power before we go back to engaging in those debates. That's my sense of it. Glenn, last thoughts from you. Yeah, just you know really quickly, I mean, I hate when people praise Martin Luther King for for their own like kind of virtual signaling, but his speech that he gave at Riverside Church

a year exactly to the day before he was killed when he kind of came forth and said why he feels compelled to oppose the Vietnam War, even though he had stayed away from it for many years in order to focus on the domestic agenda of racial equality, was because he realized that as long as we're a country that's continuously at war, devoting our resources to killing and slaughtering and taking over and all of those things, we can never have any of these domestic goals achieved because the character nature of our country will be defined by these endless wars and all of our resources will go to them. So it's not like it's some sort of ancillary, luxurious side issue to be able to free ourselves of Israeli suffocating control and to end wars

on behalf of Israel and wars generally. It's something that is kind of a prerequisite to be able to accomplish anything else. Yeah, and I'll just note for the record, there are no sensors that any universities check with that work for Norway or Blanche or Blanche. Bolivia or Turkmenistan. Nigeria. There's only one country that gets to have sensors in Congress, in media, at all the universities. It's insane. And it feels like a gaslighting torture chamber when the rest of the media goes, nope, nope,

nope, I think they work for Norway. That's a frickin absurd. All right, now I'm going to transition to a related topic, and it's about AOC. So AOC went on ABCs this week over the weekend, and she declared that woke was crazy, super interesting. Let me show you the clip, and then I'm going to talk to Glenn ReWaunt about it. What do you make of those controversial statements? I'm sure you've seen. I mean, she's, you know, the Thanksgiving dust up.

She says she doesn't, you know, still believe that, but, you know, the abolished prisons, abolished police, which is also positions that have been taken by a lot of the progressive candidates who have won. I have a local city councilman that has this saying woke one was crazy. That was the fakes laugh I've seen since Kamala Harris. Okay, Glenn, we've got a lot more tapes where that came from, including her fascinating reason for why she believed in woke one. But let me start with an elementary question. What's woke one, what's woke two? Do we know which policies are in which?

And if woke one was crazy is woke two better. Yeah, I mean, that's one rather fundamental question, right? If we're going to talk about woke one, like when did woke one begin and what characterized it and which parts are we done with and which parts continue and which parts don't you like and think are crazy and which parts do you like? I think, though, that the question that she was responding to gives some insight, which is there were a lot of things that people said, even though it began with a very well-intentioned reaction to the George Floyd killing and anger over it and it's desired to do something about

police brutality that was race-based, that things very quickly went off the rails into areas that were completely unrelated to that original cause. And things like what Francisco Hong was saying about abolishing Thanksgiving because it's offensive to some folks, or even abolishing prisons, abolishing the police, were kinds of things that at the time might have seemed like they were pushing the Overton window. But in, In retrospect, obviously, the people who said them feel embarrassed by them, that's why AOC is trying to laugh them up. Now, I actually appreciate when a politician or anybody has a position that they previously held and then decides that it was in error and publicly acknowledges that. But that requires an actual serious discussion of what you got wrong and why.

Like, if AOC is saying that she embraced a bunch of ideas that she now considers to be not just wrong but crazy, then I want to know what is. about AOC that led her to embrace ideas that she herself now acknowledges were crazy. I mean, that's a pretty serious self-indictment. And how is she going, how are we going to know that under social pressure or similar kinds of political demands that she doesn't do that again? If, however, all she means is that, hey, there were a few excesses and we said some things like about Thanksgiving or even abolishing prisons that, of course, we didn't really mean and we don't really want to repeat, then she should explain what parts of the woke agenda

she continues to support. It was like a very kind of cowardly way of answering this, you know, almost too clever by half, which is why she angered people on both sides, people who still like the woke agenda that she was dismissing, but also people who really hated it like myself and others, who found it really repressive and think you can't just giggle it away. It just was a very ineffective response to what I consider to be a pretty serious issue, which was the climate that was created at that time that really destroyed and punished people who didn't immediately submit to the full panoply of not just ideological views, but even phrases

and word changes and a whole variety of other things that were imposed overnight by dictate. If AOC regrets supporting that grape, but then she needs to come clean and say that and not turn it into a kind of joke. Yeah, so I'm with you on let's take yes for an answer. So I think she's generally headed in the right direction there. could be in advance of a presidential election or candidacy or the New York Senate race. So all good. But I also agree with you on, yeah, but wait, what did you change on?

I mean, we gotta kind of know that, right? Otherwise we don't know what we're agreeing to. And to Glenn's point here, I'll give you an example for me, right? So I was against the phrase defund the police from day one. I thought it made no sense. In fact, I think the first time I ever heard about it, I put a post on what was then Twitter, and then I got a ton of blowback on the left. We had a bunch of debates, and then the moral police abuse kept happening.

And then I got so frustrated, and one day I tweeted out, maybe we should defund the police, because these guys are totally out of control, right? And then I came back and realized, now, it's defunding them, because of course isn't going to solve anything. That's why I hated the phrase in the first place. But okay, there was a little bit of a, like, you can call it mania or you can call it it justified rage at what the cops are doing across the country that led us to that moment. But there's an explanation of why I did that one tweet.

But then you see me on camera before, after having these debates and saying it's not the right phrase, it's not the right way to go. But you see why I said what I said and why it's genuine. So I think to Glenn's point, one of the core issues is here, is she being genuine? And for a candidate, that's really important in and of itself, no matter what you think of woke or not woke, right? So I want to skip ahead to B4 here. So in this video, she explains why, you know, John McHaw basically says weren't some of those your positions, right? And so she's going to have to explain why at the time she was, I guess, in her words, crazy woke.

So let's watch. I think that during this time and during, especially during COVID, there was a huge opening of the overtime window. We were shut down. There was some of the highest unemployment rates that we have seen because of those shutdowns. And I think that the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place. And I actually think that the discussions that were had in that time were quite, fruitful during lockdown. Of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today. Glenn, COVID made her woke. I literally don't understand what that means.

Yeah, sorry, that is just so, like, insulting to people's intelligence. I mean, this was happening, you know, three months into the COVID pandemic. Like, I do think people under lockdown for a year and a half went kind of crazy and might explain some behavior. We're talking about three months into COVID. And I just want to, you know, what you just did, what you just did, Jenkins explaining. I saw that, those, that statement of yours about defunding the police circulating on, on Twitter today in response to your claiming you always thought it was crazy. And you, you know, took the time to explain what you thought, what you meant, why you said certain things. That's exactly what she refuses to do. And just to underscore this point, she wasn't just somebody who once or twice chanted,

defund the police. When Bill de Blasio was socially and politically pressured to defund the police, response to the George Floyd and woke movement, he cut the New York City budget. He wanted to cut the NYPD budget by a billion dollars, which is like one-sixth of their overall budget. Like a cut that's so drastic, nobody would ever propose it any other time. And she came and said, no, sorry, defund the police means defund the police. It doesn't mean switch the money around. It doesn't mean reduce the budget. It means defund the police. So if that's a position that she took and now regrets, she should explain why. And this is, you know, the bottom line here is why I think it's important is because one of the worst traits that you can have in a politician, and you hinted at

this in your question, is the inability to resist kind of moral panics and political pressures. You know, if people are just so angry about what you're doing, you're going to immediately capitulate and start embracing ideas that you yourself acknowledge are crazy. So she needs to come clean and say, you know, I, I got swept away. by mob hysteria and I learned my lesson from that and I won't let it happen again and people can assess that or she can say, you know what, no, I still do believe in defund the police or I change my mind, whatever. But this attempt to kind of laugh and giggle it away and try and feed a little bit to everybody like, hey, there were some good ideas there. The debate was helpful,

but we went a little too far. That's the kind of thing that people can smell a mile away is a sort of just fakeness and pandering that people hate more than anything else in politicians and some politicians of immense political talent, you know, like a Bill Clinton or an Obama or maybe even a Trump can get away with that. She's not at that level of political talent. Maybe she never will be. It just stunk of, you know, kind of weasel words and it satisfied nobody. Yeah, I'm going to tell you guys why I care so much about this. And because Glenn and I probably agree on a bunch of things about what was considered woke back then and was right or wrong. but there's probably things we disagree on, right?

And there's a host of issues that go under the umbrella woke and somewhere, in my opinion, perfectly good things to be concerned about and to take action on. And some were absurd, right? And there's a giant range. But to me, what matters more, again, as Glenn and I have been talking about here, is can you trust this person if they win to actually do the things that they're saying they're going to do, right? And what are they saying that they're going to do? So I wanna go to B2 here because in this video, Jonathan Carl asked her about her change because she acknowledges, yes, I have changed.

So okay, and to Glenn's point earlier, for example, I've discussed how I changed from when I was a Republican when I was a kid to why I'm a Democrat now. And I've gone over that many times and explained issue by issue the awakening that I had. Oh, it turns out the Republicans are the ones that always start the wars. Oh my guy, it turns out they never balanced budgets and I can go on and on and it's easy thing for me to explain because I lived it There was a real reason why I came to those conclusions, right? So when she's asked why she changed I really want you to focus on our answer Concentrate on the words you're saying she you're gonna be forced to concentrate otherwise you won't understand the word salad But focus on what she's saying here because let's see if we could decipher it together watch

You've changed as well right how have you changed? changed since you came in as this insurgent rebel and odds with the democratic leadership. How have you changed? You know, I think life has a way of really weathering you and adding to your context and your experience. It humbles you, but it also emboldens you in a lot of ways. And I think it has been the greatest privilege of my life to be able to represent the working people of my congressional district. And I think some of the ways that it's changed me has been to be able to come in with so many aspirations for our country and then to have the remarkable opportunity to be in the arena and try to make the country a better place, challenges and all. And I love that it's hard.

I love that I have to, and I get to engage with people from all across the country, elected officials from all across the country, to try to actually fulfill our dreams to guarantee health care to every American. What in the world was that? Okay, so first she's humbled and emboldened. Okay, it's a great privilege to represent the working people. Okay, but how did you change? because she came in with so many aspirations and excited about the opportunity to be in the arena. So far, so good. How did you change? She then says that she loves that it's hard to get things done. I don't love that. I want Medicare for all to pass immediately and instantly.

I want it to be super easy. Paid family leave, higher minimum wage, end the endless wars, money and politics. I hate that it's so hard to get an amendment. Is this like a personal quest for her? And like are we in the middle of her Pilates or something? Like political Pilates exercise? What is this? What do you mean you like that it's hard?

And wait, how did all of this change you? Because it gave you the opportunity to engage with people, elected officials from across the country. But we didn't get anything done. So you engaged with them and got nothing done. But anyway, how did that change you? Glenn, can you make heads or tails of this? What is this? Everyone knows what he's asking, right?

Like I interviewed AOC in the primary when almost nobody knew her. You guys were covering her. A few other people were. Ryan Grim said to me, hey, there's this primary challenger who I think that even you'd like. Because I had really become very jaded about the Democratic Party. I interviewed her. And based on the things she told me she believes and wants to do, I actually got excited about her candidacy.

I recommended people support her, even donate money to her, something I've almost never done. And I can tell you all the ways that the AOC now that the Democratic Party, from the most centrist to the right wing of the party, adores and talks about how she's so mature and how she's become such a party player and a team player. That's what he's asking her. Like, you've clearly changed from this outsider who used to, you know, camp outside Nancy Pelosi's office and protest her to the ultimate party insider. Like, can you explain that trajectory? Like, what motivated that change? And she completely didn't answer it, talking instead about her journey of personal enlightenment. And this is the kind of thing I'm saying, Jenk, like, I think the worst political aspect of Kamala Harris is that you would hear her be asked a question and she would speak words in a like moderately coherent way that aligned with the rules of English.

But at the end, it would be so obvious that she just did everything but answer the question. And I do think AOC is a lot more politically talented than Kamala, that's for sure. But again, nobody who listens to that is going to think, oh, I got an answer to the question that I want to answer and that I know he was answering. And I don't know who's telling her that this is a winning path for her, but what she's trying to do is exactly what we see politicians doing and failing at these days all the time, which is trying to offend nobody by speaking words that don't mean anything to anybody and being so obviously inauthentic and afraid of their own shadow to speak.

And that was a perfect example of what I think is her biggest political failing. And if she continues to do that, whatever passion or excitement she continues to generate in some people who still haven't seen this in her, that's going to dissipate. This is what people hate more than anything in politics. Yeah, if anything, I should be super proud. I name Justice Democrats. I co-funded, founded just Democrats. Our beautiful, amazing, hopeful audience raised $2.5 million for just Democrats. and I should be bragging about it to no end.

But guys, we've been burned too many times by people pretending to be on our side and then not doing anything. I'm still burned from all the change in hope posters Obama had. If he said, oh, I meant pocket change, at least there would have been some degree of honesty to it. After Obamacare, he didn't try to do change anything for like six, seven long, brutal years. So when I see a fake laugh like that, he goes, oh, you were not allowed to comment on Now, yeah I am, if somebody asked me, hey, Jane, why did you change?

I don't go, what is that? That's so weird, right? And then Kamala Harris had that and Kamala Harris didn't stand for anything. And did we not live through Fetterman? What's going on here? So what is my core, core concern? That the point of people who were just as Democratic candidates, progressives, outsiders, poppians, whatever you want to call them, was that they were supposed to go in and challenge

The challenge the system, that once they were inside the gates, they were supposed to do battle within those gates, and they were supposed to try really hard to open the doors of the castle so that others could come into the gates. And instead, it appears by all accounts here and everything she's saying, and Glenn is right, also by the reaction of mainstream press, who used to hate her when she was an outsider, and now absolutely adore her. That was an incredibly soft interview. No other progressive ever gets that. So based on all that, including most importantly her own words, she has now changed to accepting the system as it is and making slight tweaks within the system maybe hopefully one day. No, I've seen that movie many, many times. So last question here, Glenn.

This doesn't look like a rebel or a revolutionary leader. I mean, she could say, hey, I'm a great and skilled politician and I came in this way and then I zigged and I zagged and I had all these great political calculations. But that's not a revolutionary leader. Yeah, and I mean, this I think ultimately was the mistake of people who put their faith in Obama and I was definitely one of them and being so badly burned, especially on the issues that I was focused on and caring about the most at that point, which was the war and terror and civil liberties, etc, that he violated every promise on and actually even went in the exact opposite direction.

You know, I think that it's not even that you need to have a revolutionary leader because I think people have come to accept that within our political system absent violent revolution, there are going to be serious limits on how much people can move the political system. I think what people want more than anything is to believe that what they're telling you they want to do and will do is actually what they will do. Not that they're going to always succeed, but that they're going to always succeed, but that they're They're authentic and genuine about the things that they think. And I do think, you know, there was that candidate in Colorado who just beat Diana

Jodhatt Caros, who ran on a platform of Israel's committing genocide, cut off all funds for Israel. She wins and she gives an interview. And the first interview is we have to center how we take care of our Jewish friends and supporters of Israel. And that's why people freaked out because they've been traumatized so many times by these politicians who tell them things they get their hopes up and then they're immediately crushed. And if AOC isn't careful, and obviously what she's trying to do is to placate the people who think she's too far to the left, she's going to lose her biggest political asset, which is the

political energy that she continues to create. Not as much she used to, but still does. And I think, you know, I've always thought for many years now that what she's doing is morphing into Nancy Pelosi. And I think that morphing is happening much more rapidly than even I thought a couple of years ago. Yeah, I want to be clear. I definitely want a revolutionary leader.

I don't mean a non-political revolution. I mean a political one and where we wholesale get rid of the incumbents get a completely different president. It could be within one of the stuff. Like what Bernie promised, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and by the, and what I mean by that is not radical positions like unpopular positions like abolishing prisons or weirdo things like that. No, I mean to get our democracy back, to get money out of politics so that the voters decide

elections and not the donors. That at this point requires a political reverend. Amendment amendments are political revolution. So that's the direction we need to go. Otherwise, it's gonna go in an ugly direction because this could only last so long. But finally on this, it just seems to me that she's not on the FDR track for that kind of political revolution. She looks like she's, and I feel bad saying this, but the Kirsten Cinema track, come in as

a progressive, then realize, oh, money and media decides your power within DC. shift over to money and media. Now cinema way over did it and had him, you know, took off every mask that she had until she was totally revealed. And I'm not saying she's at the end of the cinema track. But Glenn, this is definitely how the Krista Cinema track began. Well, Krista's cinema even began further to the left than AOC. She was in the Green Party. And look how far she went. You know, I think, like I was going to back to actually say this with Obama, you know the lesson that I learned with Obama is if you actually look at Obama's trajectory before entering politics or running for the Senate, there was absolutely nothing

about his life or his personality or his behavior that justified a belief that he was going to challenge in any way status quo power. His whole life was about getting into the most prestigious institutions, pleasing and kind of embodying what they wanted of him. There was nothing at all that lent any credence to the idea that he was going to come in and remember he was going to change the way politics works and for whom it was going to work. Nothing in AOC's past really ever suggested that either. And I do think so many people want so badly to believe that our political system can change positively and fundamentally without the need for violent revolution because the alternative is black pill nihilism and nobody really wants to embrace that.

And sometimes that hope can be exploited by people who can make you think and believe that they're the ones to do it, even though nothing about them suggests that they can. And I would put AOC definitely in that category. And I think people need to be very, very careful not to allow their hope to be exploited by charlatans who don't have any intention of falling through at all. Yeah. And obviously, time will tell which direction AOC goes. All right, I'm going to trash all the rules because I want to do another story with Glenn. Glenn, do you have time to stay a little longer? Absolutely, let's stay. All right. So we're going to go to the next. story here? Literally, I believe that everything that he has done, it contains not just a,

you know, an underlying current of how does it benefit him personally. It is the first thought of everything that he. Yeah, I think that's true. I watched a lot of crappy stuff happen in D.C. went over the 35 years I lived there and I didn't even recognize it as crappy at the time. And we're all kind of implicated in this. We've had a lot of bad leaders actually, or mediocre leaders. I don't know, we've had a flamboyantly corrupt leader. are like this and we haven't ever. That's true. Tucker Carlson and Hunter Biden got together.

Instantly, that's already amazing. And then they agreed on a whole bunch of stuff. That's also amazing. And if I told you two years ago, Glenn Greenwald, that Tucker Carlson was going to agree with Hunter Biden that Trump is flamboyantly corrupt, would you believe me? You know, as you know,

I have been friends with Tucker now for a good while, have always viewed him a lot more positively than most people because of my getting to know him. But even in the context of acknowledging that, no, I don't think this is a combination that I would have expected. But I think what Hunter Biden has done in the last three months, you know, because for so long we all talked about Hunter Biden. And as he said in the interview, which I really recommend highly that people go and watch, we never really talked about Hunter Biden. It was always the Hunter Biden laptop. And these kind of, you know, kind of images that took a small part of his life,

basically two years of very heavy active addiction, and turned it into a character of who this person was. And he couldn't speak before for political reasons and legal reasons. And now he's coming forward and speaking. And what's so interesting about him. And he talked about this as well is that he is basically a person who has been completely stripped down in public. Like no privacy, no secrets. Everything, you know, has been laid to bear. You know more about

Hunter Biden, have seen more about Hunter Biden than you do almost any other person in your life. And from that has come this kind of freedom where he's like almost internally at peace because there's nothing else left that can be done to him. And I think the power of this kind of, this kind of personal experience, along with the experience of having been a hardcore addict and then gone through recovery, which I think generally affects people in very positive ways, is enabling them to open up these kind of communication channels that most people would not have been able to open up. And the fact that Tucker and he can speak for two hours in not always agreeing on everything, but in this very kind of almost metapolitical way, I think illustrates the

opportunity of the moment that I know you also see where there is an opportunity to kind of come together in ways that we haven't previously come together that don't depend on the duopoly and they're very, you know, extensively shared ideology, but people who are very angry and disenchanted about the political establishment for very similar reasons who don't necessarily agree on everything, but are willing to deprioritize those in order to kind of do what you said earlier, like, reimpose democracy and like have our government work the way we were always taught it does because right now it just doesn't at all. And I think that conversation was a model for how that kind of thing can work. So let's show you more of the conversation. They had a stunning series

of Mia Kulpas. And then at the end, Tucker says something I did not know that is going to be controversial. I'm curious what Glenn thinks of it too. But first, here's more thoughts on Trump's corruption. Donald Trump is selling $100,000 early access to his true social tweets, which is just a front running for insider trading. Literally in the open, there's almost no arguing with your point that's true. Yeah. I would just say, I think it's been that way for a long time. And it's just open now. It's open. It's just obvious. If you're selling truth, social access. Yeah, of course, as a reference to him giving early information to people who give him $100,000 a pop, and then they get insider information they could trade on and basically screw over the rest of the

investors. That includes you guys. It is as brazen an act of corruption as you'll ever see. But we're in different times that, you know, I, Doug Grosson was a host on Fox News and he wouldn't, and he would tell you and he does tell you all the time these days that he wouldn't have said that on Fox News. So now honesty is broken out in a spectacular and an unexpected way. That also applies to Hunter Biden who had this me a call for.

When I took on Burisma, when my dad was vice president as client at the end of the year, It was a stupid thing to do. You know, because I wasn't fully aware of what a swamp it was. And the narrative that would be able to be spun. It was a horrible idea. Now, I had my reasons, okay, but they're not good enough. I own that. I own the idea that I do believe that there is this revolving door in Washington, D.C.,

that needs to be shut in which people come in and out of administrations. We know them all. They're trading on access. And they're not bad people that are trading on access. I did not trade on access. You can look through 22 years of my, but I know this. I know that I received incredible privileges that no one else in the world, including to the point of my pardon. No, literally there's no one else in the world that was in my position that their father happened to have the authority and the power to do it.

And I realize how privileged I am. But I think that there is a, I think that there needs to be a reckoning with, if I'm willing to do that. Yeah, some startling admissions that two years ago, we wouldn't have had from either side. So I really want to discuss this outbreak of honesty. It's just an amazing development. But first, one last one from Tucker Carlson on his apology for backing. Donald Trump, which led to war. Let's watch. I was really focused on this Iran thing, and I knew that both parties were for it. Schumer's

totally for it. Lindsay Graham's totally for it. They're all colluding against America to start this regime change war with Iran. And I was like, I'm going to single-mindedly focus on that. That's all I'm going to do with my life is I'm going to, and I knew a lot of people in the Middle East. And I thought, oh, man, I can do this. And I realized on February 28th, first of all, I had zero power, okay? But it was mostly vanity. I was like, I have a mission. I can do this. And it was, it was, I overstated my own influence, like dramatically in a very embarrassing way. And my own importance. And like, I thought I could do things that, like, I had no control over any of this stuff.

And I was humiliated correctly. I was humiliated in front of my wife. I was like, we're doing a good thing. And so, yeah, I was mad at Trump, but I was also really mad at myself. So I'm gonna save Tucker's shocking allegation for for to show you in a second. But Glenn, I have my own theory on this, but let me ask you first, why this shocking outbreak of honesty from both sides just in the last two years? Well, I think in the case of Hunter Biden, like I said, the process and experience that he had to confront was the one where you never get through that unless you're being completely honest. And, you know, why do we need Hunter Biden to be the one who stands up and says, yeah,

what I did was wrong. It at least created the perception of corruption when what the Trump kids are doing, what Jared Kushner is doing, what Trump himself are doing, isn't a completely different universe of corruption. We're talking about not $50,000 a month from Burisma, which I actually thought was kind of shady and improper. But we're talking about literally billions of dollars that are basically just bribes coming from Middle East countries like the Amarades and the Saudis into the coffers of the Trump family in exchange for incredible gifts that Trump is giving to those countries in return. And you think we're ever going to hear Don Jr. Eric Trump or Jared Kushner, any of them speak with this kind of honesty and willingness to just say, yeah, I was wrong.

I find this incredibly encouraging because it's what we're lacking more than anything. And I think part of it is as I said, the personal experience that Hunter Biden has that I think makes him an incredibly impressive person. But I also think that, you know, people realize that we're in a position in our country, in our political culture, and, you know, what the United States does, affects the whole world, where things need to change and change very radically and very fundamentally because if they don't, we're all going to get engulfed by this self-destructive venom that are our political culture is producing. And I think that produces a kind of more authentic and honest way of engaging with politics. Like you don't have this kind of ego and vanity that

you're kind of letting guide you and never admitting you're wrong and always wanting to be engaged in political combat. You're actually, especially as you get older, you have kids, you're looking for actual solutions. You're way more open to, okay, I went wrong here. I went wrong there. But let's kind of put that aside and figure out how we can move forward in a way that we can kind of pull our power and influence and resource and do it together so that it actually works. And I do think a lot of these conversations are being motivated by that kind of an authenticity. Yeah, my theory is that mainstream media, corporate media created an assembly line of talking points and lies, partly to get to what the establishment of the donors wanted and partly to divide us.

And then once people became unshackled from corporate media, they started appealing to their audience and they found out that their audience wants honesty. And I think that has changed the entire dynamic of our media landscape. Totally. And why were Glenn and I, look, you criticize Glenn and I on a million things you could disagree with our policy positions and we sometimes disagree with each other, obviously, right? But I think that we both have a reputation for, you know, maybe too much honesty, right? We're going to tell you what we think. And we've been saying it the entire time, why? Because we weren't in corporate media.

We were in online media and we were independent and we weren't shackled by the people who, the billionaires who run these companies. So I think freedom is kind of broken out. But I do want to get to that last clip because Tucker had a revelation I did not know. Let's watch that. Can I just say one thing, though, that this is what I experienced during that time. The allegation that there was abusive minors. Yeah.

That came from the Israelis. I'm just telling you that. They came to me with that. So I know that. And one of the things that enraged me about the statement from those sleazy intel guys is that they blame the Russians for it. Now, maybe the Russians had a hand in it. But it was the Israelis who were pushing that. Fact.

Fact. I mean, literally to me. I sent one of my producers out to go. meet with one of a guy who connected to Netanyahu they were behind that and I felt that everybody in D.C. knew that but there was so much

pressure never to criticize Israel in any way that they were just like, oh, it's the Russians, they're the ones penetrating our political system. It's like, you lie. Everyone knows what's actually happening. This was my perspective and it drove me insane. By the way, I didn't say

that on Fox News. I'll admit it. I didn't. Yeah. I didn't. You're right. I just want to say I was part of the problem also, but I knew it. These are startling admissions. And by the way, Glenn, that pattern is not unusual. We saw once DropSight News had emails from Ehud Barak and Larry Ellison, it was revealed that every international deal that Jeffrey Epstein did was in favor of Israel. And mainstream media ran with headlines about how it was Russia.

So what's going on here? Have they been like literally actively lying to us our whole lives? Well, remember, one of the thing that bothered me the most about the whole Hunter Biden episode was not the content of the laptop. I always said the stuff about his personal life, like has no relevance. We shouldn't even know about that. And if we do, we shouldn't care. It was, you know, the sleazier stuff about profiteering off the Biden influence. But I never thought it was such a big deal.

What bothered me the most was that the intelligence community that came out. letter explicitly lying and saying that it was Russian disinformation. The Russians were behind this. Nobody should use this laptop. And then ultimately I got prohibited at my own media outlet from using it on the grounds that it was, its authenticity was in question because it was pushed by the Russians. This was a complete lie from the very beginning. And I can tell you for sure that in so many of these instances, Israel or its loyalists in the United States use sexual blackmail like nobody else. Many of the most powerful surveillance and hacking technology are Israeli or are in the hands of people like Palantir who have complete loyalty to the Israelis. You can depict this

as, oh, an attempt to blame this tiny little country for everything that goes wrong. But the reality is, is that when it comes to these sorts of practices, nobody does them more effectively and more sociopathically than the Israelis. And yes, I mean, the way in which Israel has its hands in so many different things in our country has, like I said before, not only been, but continues to be the main taboo in media for all sorts of reasons. And I do think at the end of the day, the kind of extreme hysteria and backlash, yes, it's part of the fact that people don't like left-wing economic populism, don't like socialism, or protecting the capitalist class. But more than anything, they see it as a threat to Israel and its sovereignty and hegemony

in the United States. And there's, I don't know if you saw it, like Joe Scarborough almost had an aneurism online talking about Hassan and the Democratic Party's directional movement toward his his worldview. All of this is about Israel, but not, again, not just about Israel, but they have a huge army of loyalists in the United States who carry out the agenda of Israel in our foreign policy, even in our economics. These people are incredibly powerful and nobody wants to confront them because they are limitless and what they will do to you. And that's why even subconsciously, they may not even realize they're afraid of those forces, but that's why these people stay so firmly in line. Yeah, and they have no bounds, and they also attack Jewish

Americans as nothing to do with religion. It just has to do with nationalism. Yeah, and so, Glenn, I never got a chance to ask you this. But so there's a picture released of you that some people considered compromising. Again, private lives, I couldn't care less, right? Obviously, you criticize Israel, but you criticize a lot of countries and a lot of governments. So did you ever find out, you know, who was behind that? Yeah, I mean, we know the immediate people who acquired those videos and then release them, but still don't really fully have the complete picture of the agenda behind it, who actually paid them for it and the like.

And I'm a little bit restrained in what I can say because there is a criminal investigation and criminal proceedings ongoing. But yeah, that was an example of exactly the kind of thing that I'm talking about. I'm by far not the first person to whom that's happened. I definitely won't be the last. For me, it made no difference because I've always believed that people's private lives are their own. I obviously had a lot of experience, just being gay, for one thing, in having to develop

your own moral code about how you live your life. But there are a lot of people petrified of having their secrets exposed and they'll do anything literally to prevent it. And that is a much bigger factor in our media discourse. our political decision making than I think a lot of people realize. Yeah. All right, Glenn Greenwald, obviously a person of principle. No question about that.

We appreciate you joining us today. And where should people check you out, Glenn? I do all my work on Substack, where people can find my articles or also on YouTube, where I occasionally when I have things to say, do shows. So you can check on my work there. All right. Great to have you, brother. Great to be with you, Jenks. Thanks so much. Thank you.

All right, when we come back, Donald Trump is now in a world of trouble because now we're in, forget Democrats, that was never in question, forget independence. He lost them a while back. Oh my God, wait until you see the numbers he has now with Republicans. We'll show you when we come back. Hey, Andrew, what's up? Hey, Jank, you ready to make the switch? Yeah, I guess. I promise it's easy.

Universal, basic, and you get income. Yeah, you keep saying that. But you sure I'm going to have coverage? Of course you will. You think I would have bad service? I'm Andrew Yang. Of course I have good service. Alright, let's try. But I'm so bad at tech. So, wait. Should I do this thing of the hashtag business? Andrew, you're still on, right? Yep. Oh, I see it. You crazy. No, wait, I don't see. Oh, yeah, I do see it. Here we go. I actually did not realize that you'd be searching in real time, but I love it. How much do people actually normally say?

Yeah, the average American is going to save between $500 and $1,000 a year on Noble. Yeah, no. You know what I'm going to do, Andrew? Are you ready to become a Noble member? The two buttons are do it and go back. There's no going back. We're doing it. We're doing it.

Here we go, Noble Mobile. Oh, my gosh, I just called you and are you now on Noble and not Verizon? Why didn't you tell me it was going to be super easy? I know, man. Now you just stay away from your phone and watch the money roll in. I can do that. You can go phone, yeah. What?

Jank, you still there? Andrew? Oh, Prue. Well, at least I got an Oval Mo. It was really just one tape. The whole thing is wild. It's in my shoes. It's in my shoes.

Hi, I'm Brett Erlich with Breaking News with Brett Erlick. This is Breaking News with Brett Erlick. Hi. Red Erlick here. According to EPA head Scott Pruitt, climate change is not happening. He cited a meme on Facebook you saw. When pressed to back up this source,

he said it must be accurate. because the watermark said it was made by a scientist. So your move, truth. At TYT, our mission is to boldly pursue truth, challenge the establishment, and drive positive change. At a time when corporate capture of our media, our government, and our politics is nearly absolute. Everyday working people need a champion to fight for them

and a pushback against the powerful interests that threaten our democracy itself. At TYT, we're pulling. proudly progressive and call out corruption and duplicity wherever we see it from Republicans, Democrats, or anyone else. And unlike mainstream news media outlets, we're not beholden to corporate advertisers to defense contractors, to Wall Street, or to Big Pharma. We only have to answer to our audience, and for nearly two decades, we've accomplished that by delivering honest, timely, and insightful perspectives on the day's news without fear or favor or concern

for whose toes we might step on or which powerful elites we might offend. And while we're super serious about the news, we also manage to do it in a way that is fun and lighthearted. We can do this together and serve our audience. And yes, have fun doing it. People have died for us to have the chance to vote. This is just the beginning of a much bigger fight over the president's desire to interfere in the midterm elections.

He's deploying multiple strategies using every tool available and testing out each one of them. You're damn right. We're going to have ICE surround the polls come November. You're not pushed that me to the traffic. It's to stop people from voting. Let's go to our next story. We have seen how low the president's approval is on his handling of Iran. But it's not just that the numbers are low.

It's how far they have fallen. Seeing in chief data analyst, Harry Enton is here. There has been substantial movement over the years. So he's about deliver really bad news to Donald Trump, who of course won't accept it. I'll give you his comical statements at the end. But right now, let's let Harry show you how much trouble Trump is in in regards to the Iran war. Back in July of 2024, 53% of voters who said they were. extremely motivated to vote, said they were actually confident, confident that Trump would be able

to handle the situation in Iran. Look at where that number is now when it comes to his approval among the same group. Just 29% of those who are extremely motivated to vote in these midterm elections approve of the job that President Trump is doing on Iran. Just look at these. Okay, say U.S. will reach a good deal with Iran ultimately. Just 27% of all voters believe that. And get this, just 41% of Republicans believe it. We are seeing below 50% across the board on this issue. And this is the reason I think more than any other that folks disagree with Trump and Iran because they simply put, don't see what the point of it is.

They don't see a way out of it. I just have to give you context. I've never seen numbers that low. So if you don't remember, the Iraq war when it started was at 70% approval. It's and oftentimes higher. And why? Because they laid the groundwork. They did a lot of lying ahead of time about how misleading people into thinking that Iraq attacked us and had weapons of mass destruction.

And we were all going to die within 45 minutes. And back then there wasn't as much independent media. It was basically just the young Turks and the behemoth of mainstream media and democracy now on our side. And we obviously were tiny at the time. We couldn't make a difference. And it was lie after lying, 70% of the country believed that Saddam Hussein had personally attacked us on 9-11 when we went into that war. Trump did not do any of that lead-up. He just out of nowhere, he was like, yeah, Iran, even though we attacked it before and I said I destroyed all their nuclear facilities, I'm going to attack it again.

And gave us no real reasons why America should be in that war. You know why? Because there are no real reasons that America should be in that war. Marco Rubio, a couple of days later at the time, admitted, yeah, the Israel, Israelis pushed us into the war, then there was a series of articles even in the New York Times explaining, yes, Netanyahu and the head of Mossad came into the situation room, Netanyahu in person and head of Mossad over Zoom, and they convinced Trump to start this war. And obviously it was for the benefit of Israel, and we talked about it earlier in the show.

They gained so much from it, destroy a regional competitor, be able to take southern Lebanon, hold 70% of Gaza, try to get people to join their pipe. A pipeline is an alternate route to Strait of Hormuz, use more of their gas fields, including Leviathan. So Israel has won spectacularly from this war, but we have lost here in America. We've run out of defensive missiles. It's a real threat to our military. We're running out of our most sophisticated offensive munitions.

We're running out of the strategic oil reserve that we have. We're running out of patience in the markets on gas prices. Inflation is going up. You've got 18 dead Americans at a minimum over 600 injured, over $100 billion gone. It has been a super painful loss for us as Israel celebrates all these great, great things that are wonderful for them and a disaster for the rest of the world, including us. And since Trump never laid the groundwork and there was never real reason to go into war, and we've had nothing but pain from it, 27% of the country does not trust them on the war

Iran, that is an incredibly low number. There's and then I've always thought based on the polling that I've seen all the way back to the Bush era, through the Trump era, that there was a immovable 28% of the country. And that if you said, hey, this person is a Republican or right way or conservative, it didn't matter what they did. They were going to back that person. We're below the 28% barrier. I've never seen it cross before.

on any issue, almost on any issue, and it's crossed on this. And then independence are 23%, that is a miserable number, nearly eight out of ten independents opposed to him on what is the most important issue. It wasn't an important issue to us until Trump made it an important issue and started to just, you know, really damage our economy and let alone our military and our soldiers with this war. And my God, his GOP support is under a majority, previously thought unimaginable. Only 41% of Republicans support him on this war effort.

It just can't, it's, I'm not sure it could literally get any worse than that. And yet he still won't turn around because Israel has a stranglehold on us. And so now it's affecting not just Trump, but the Republican Party as well, and Harry is going to explain that. Party trust in more on wars, conflicts, and terrorism. Back in January of 2025, look at this. Republicans were ahead by 18 points. A tremendous advantage.

That advantage because the President Trump has turned into a disadvantage on a core key question that almost always favors Republicans. Now Democrats have a two-point edge. That is a 20-point move that we're seeing towards the Democrats. Down the Republicans go because down goes President Trump. Now that plus 18 should have never existed. So that unfortunately was built on lies. Who did the Iraq war?

Oh, right, the Republicans did. Who did the Iran war? Oh, right, the Republicans did. All my life are heard all peace through strength, right? But we never got the peace. All we got was war and more war and endless war. Venezuela out of nowhere, for what reason, right? And Reagan with the interventions into Latin America and George H.W. Bush into Panama.

war on top of war on top of war. No, they're not good at this. They suck at this. And I'm not defending the Democrats. They co-signed on so much of that. Oh, big, important Democratic leadership standing up for Democratic values. Really? Guess who said yes to the Iraq war?

Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Kerry. They always support the Republicans whenever they need more war, because they all work for the defense contractors and for Israel and for all the donors. But yes, the Republicans have been far, far worse. You've got to get your, look, if you trust the Democrat not to go to war, it's a 50-50 proposition. So sometimes they'll do Libya, oh, God, and the endless drone strikes and the endless help to Israel.

But did any of the Democratic presidents give in to Netanyahu's demands to attack Iran? They didn't. So maybe they're 50-50. On the Republican side, it's 100. And now that especially the Tom Massey loss, it's 100 to zero. So if they tell you they're not going to bring you to war, I guarantee you it is a lie. They will definitely start a war because they work for the donors. So now, here comes Israel first and the warhawks.

And they say, who cares what Americans want? We should go deeper into the war anyway. Watch. The greatest generation endured the severe economic scarcity of the Great Depression during their youth, followed by massive global combat and home front mobilization during World War II. Over 16 million Americans served in the military, facing intense physical danger, hundreds of thousands of casualties, strict civilian rationing of food, gas, and clothing. We sit here with a war in Iran against an enemy that has killed thousands of thousands of

Americans, maim thousands of Americans. I remember a time when America would say, let's go, let's destroy that country, destroy that government. You don't get to kill thousands of our fellow citizens, military or civilians. You don't get to try to assassinate our president. You don't get to threaten us with potential nuclear weapons either. Now it's a debate. Should we take them out, shouldn't we? Are you a neocon or a war monger? Is this a war of choice? We don't even have a draft. But the draft even work with young people today? I wonder, could we even fight World War II today?

We're whining about a dollar of gasoline. So it's your fault. How dare you whine about gas prices? That's helping Israel back into the war, you stupid American servant. We had hundreds of thousands killed in World War II. Why not do another World War? Why not have hundreds of thousands of Americans killed? Israel needs another war!

How dare you, insolent Americans not do exactly as Israel has ordered you? I mean, we've given you all of these lies. You remember when Iranians killed thousands of Americans right before the war? No, I don't remember that. You made that up. Well, I mean, there was a bombing back in 1983. Three, we're going to war because of something that happened in 1983. Israel has killed 10 of our citizens in the last three years.

Should we invade them? They murdered them and didn't arrest anyone. So that's their government going, Adam boy, way to kill those Americans. And did America get any justice for that? No. You better be careful what you're saying, Mark Levine. If you're talking about invading countries because they're murdering Americans, let alone raping American girls.

Tom Alexanderich is an Israeli government official who came here to do sexual tourism and try to rape a 15 year old American girl. We let him go back to Israel because Israel's so much more important than America. American girls are to be taking advantage of. Epstein worked for Israel. Every single international deal he did, including procuring cyber weapons for the Israelis, was for Israel. There was videos in the clean Xboxes. Who did they videotape?

Our press and our government says, oh, nobody at all. And Epstein and his allies in Israel would never do that wink. Why can't we ever find out who Epstein was associated with? I mean, we know it was Israel. But who does he have tapes on? Who else did the crimes? No, you can't ever know. You can't ever know, because Israel is allowed to do anything it wants to you.

Back into the war until hundreds of thousands die. And your gas prices are much higher because Mark Levin has told you, how dare you Americans object? So apparently Trump is not unpopular enough. But Trump lives in detached from reality. He thinks Mark Levin what represents right wingers more than Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, and almost all of their most popular hosts. But 13 people watch Mark Levin and they're all rabid Zionists. And they, in front of the TV screen, they're like foaming at the mouth, kill more Palestinians and Iranians and Lebanese.

Make the Americans pay for it. That's his audience. That's who he is. And Trump thinks that that's the leading right-wing host in America and that he's going to listen to that prick and get more Americans killed for Israel. So he says, no, it's okay. I'm sure that all the Israelis who surround him, which is almost the entire administration, Suzy Wiles worked for them. Marco Rubio got $5 million from Larry Ellison with a note that Ellison sent to the Israeli ambassador

that he'll now work for Israel. Pete Heggseth bragging about how the idea for should be all over our streets in his stupid book. Why do you think he's a secretary of defense when he was like a hobo three couple of years ago? But that's because he wrote in his book, I think Israel should take over America and they should rule our streets. And like, oh, good, good, make him secretary of defense. So all those guys are apparently telling Trump, no, your numbers aren't real. No, there's secret numbers where you're a magical unicorn and people love you. So he writes this on true social.

My real polling numbers, nothing's made up by the fake news media, are the best they've ever been. And why wouldn't they be with the biggest tax cuts and blah, blah, blah, and how he delivered for the rich and for Israel and for all of his donors? And he says, don't believe the radical left's fake poll numbers. They're crooked and corrupt just like the country destroying Democrats. This third grade are still doing insults like this. Are crooked and corrupt. Vote Republican for greatness in America.

If you'd like more endless wars, on and on, he goes. We have a president who is totally detached from reality and does not even represent this country. So why is an American president so unpopular? That's because at this point, the country's not even sure that he's American or serves American interests. I mean, he claims he's American, but he also claimed to be America first. And when is he ever represented us? All he's ever done is represent the oil companies, the defense contractors, everyone who bribed them, everyone who gave him money, and everyone who apparently has damaging information about

him. So we will stay in the war, no matter how unpopular it is, because Israel has ordered it. We'll be right back. All right, let's go to our members. Jenks left tricep of furies. How many former Palestinian homes were destroyed and lives killed to give Israel this land to build an effing pipeline? A lot, absolutely a lot. I talk about it all the time, but I'm so mad that they got me to believe the propaganda, including about 1948.

Yeah, the Palestinians went for a picnic. Yeah, no, they slaughtered them and drove them from their homes and literally stole the homes, stole the property, stole the olive gardens, stole everything they have, and the Chili's. I can't believe I'm joking in the middle of that. But anyways, yeah, yeah, special, wonderful, moral Israel. Okay, Zelda Symphony. I died a little inside when Piperts said he wasn't gay, so that's partially killing me. Okay, I like, I purposely picked these random comments.

Music Matters. TYT never, ever changed the theme song. I love it. I've been a TYT member for about 10 years. Just watch the clips online for many of you. years before that. The first time I watched the main show, I heard the theme song and thought, this network is for me, simply because the theme song rocks.

L.L.l kidding, but not kidding. Look, your handles, music matters. So it matters. So thank you for that compliment on the music. And we took a long time to pick that, and I feel good about the one we picked. So and Bart's been doing a great job. Boomer Dragon Cats says, I really like it when Glenn co-hosts. I agree.

And our Cal Gosser, in our YouTube member section, I like A.O. She did an interview with Jonathan Carmel on Sunday. He was pelting her with gotcha questions and she handled it like a pro. So Carol, you know we talked about that earlier and I don't fully agree with that assessment, but I love everybody that's got different opinions. So God bless if you liked her appearance on there. All right, we'll be right back. Back on TYYJ Cougar, Yasmin Olaea Khan, finally.

The Khan has arrived. So Yasmin, we're gonna get to a sec and we've got elections coming up. That's also part of our coverage. That's tonight, Minnesota and Wisconsin, very important. And then we've got Operation Joy coming out. We've got old school coming up, so a lot for our members and a lot for all of you. First, let me tell you real quick about something that I think can help you guys, and that's Outwork. Outwork is a one-stop platform to find, hire, and pay expert freelancers across the web and software development,

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All right. So let's go to our next story. I noticed you haven't yet endorsed in the Wisconsin governor's race. What's your thinking there and might you endorse? I don't think so. I met Francesca a couple of years ago. I was in Wisconsin. And it seems very, very nice.

But again, this is a race I just am not that familiar with. We have not gotten involved in many governors' races. did one in Maine with Troy Jackson. You know, obviously my major concern right now is seeing that we have a Senate and a house that is going to stand up to Trump. That's really where my focus is. So as of now, we've not been involved in that race. Interesting.

Francesca Hong is DSA, Democratic Socialists, and she's leading actually by a decent amount in the Wisconsin governor's race. But Bernie Sanders, AOC, and some of the other top progressives in the country don't want to touch that race. So that's very interesting and that's happening today. So Yasmin, tell us about it. Yeah, so that is, this is all happening in Wisconsin right now. So on the ballot in Wisconsin today, there's a few people that you might want to know about. There is Joel Brennan, who is a former secretary of the department of administration under incumbent Tony Evers. Tony Evers, by the way, is not seeking reelection. Then there is David Crowley, who is a Milwaukee County executive, who is

endorsed by Evers. We also have Kendall, I'm sorry, Kelda Roy's. It kind of sounds like Kendall Roy. Kelda Roy's, the state senator for Wisconsin's 26th district. And then there is, of course, Francesca Hong, who is a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. So Hong is a Democratic socialist, and she has been the frontrunner in most of the recent polling that we've seen. And she's running on policies such as universal child care, fully funded public school. Guaranteed paid leave, LGBTQ healthcare access and expanding Medicaid, affordable housing. It's a very solid progressive platform. And even Bernie Sanders agrees with that.

Let's watch. Democratic socialist Francesca Hong in Wisconsin is expected to win her Democratic primary. There's been some attention to some of her social media posts recently. But she has this platform of free childcare, state run grocery stores. more health care subsidies, she wants to raise income taxes on millionaires. Some of this does seem to align with your platform. So I'm wondering, you know, why don't you support her? Is some of what she supports too extreme for you?

No, but raising taxes on the rich, making sure that everybody in Wisconsin or America has health care as a right sounds quite reasonable to me. Yeah, so that sentiment seems to be echoed as well because reporting from political, Politico says that interviews with voters on the ground in Wisconsin, Shohong has been able to tap into voters' frustrations with party leaders and lean into local policies around cost of living to rally a strong enough base heading into Tuesday's primary. And she has received endorsements from people like Hassan Piker, Ilihan Omar, and Ro Kana. So why isn't she bringing in some of these big name backers like

Bernie Sanders or even AOC? Well, of course, According to Politico, a few have privately raised questions about the sharpness of Hong's messaging and electability as she navigates a series of controversies over her old social media posts advocating for canceling Thanksgiving and defunding the police comments she now calls bad takes that she says she has learned from. And others have just said that they're just unfamiliar with her. So Elizabeth Warren said, I don't know her, which is that's like what Mariah Carey said about Jalo. I don't know her, said in a brief hallway interview, two people close to Bernie Sanders

granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations, said that even as Hong has invoked Sanders' name and political ideology on the campaign trail, he does not know her personally. Sanders has acknowledged that he's met Hong before, but indicated that that is the extent of their relationship. And those two people added that Hong is less vetted and not as sharp on some of her messaging than other candidates presenting more of a risk for Sanders who has already been burdened by endorsing people like Graham Platner in the main Senate race. So it seems as though he's being a little bit more cautious with his endorsements as of late. AOC has also just stated that she wants to focus on the House and Senate races. That feels like something of a cop out to me.

And that's also what Bernie had said. But either way, that's not the main concern. Despite Right leading in the polls right now, many establishment Democrats are worried that she's going to lose the general election in November, which could potentially make it harder for other Democrats to win in their midterm elections. And according to the Wall Street Journal, Republicans have spent millions of dollars boosting Hong because they believe she will be easier to beat. So the general elections in the battleground state have been determined by extremely narrow margins in recent years. Trump won the battleground state in 2024 by just shy of 30,000 votes. Joe Biden wanted by fewer than 21,000 votes in 2020. So if Hong wins the primary today, she will be going up against a Trump-back candidate, Representative Tom Tiffany, and they will for sure use being a Democratic socialist

and her past comments on defunding the police and canceling Thanksgiving against her. All right? So the reporting says that former Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker put it this way when asked what things will look like Wednesday morning if his state wakes up to find Tiffany and Hong as the party nominees. Common sense versus dangerously crazy, he said. That said, it will be a close race. Okay. So a Marquette Law School poll also recently found that among all registered voters in Wisconsin, Democratic Socialists have. have a negative net favorability rating. And you can see it right there. The Democratic Socialist of America is up at the top. It has a negative 18 net favorability rating. But a good chunk of that is 32 people or percent say they haven't heard enough. So that could be an area of opportunity potentially.

When you look at it by party, among Republicans, 1% have a favorable view using the combined measure with 84% unfavorable and among independents, 13% are favorable with 52% unfavorable. 15% of Republicans say they have not heard enough, as do 31% of independence. And among Democrats, 54% have a favorable opinion of Democratic Socialists. 10% are unfavorable and 36% have not heard enough. But again, it's up to the voters to decide what it is that they want. Alan Minsky, the executive director of progressive Democrats of America, said this to Politico. He said if Francesca Hong is elected the governor of Wisconsin, people are going to see somebody working very, very rigorously as the governor, like Zoran Mamdani is as the mayor of New York, to pursue a set of policies that people are rapidly going to recognize are in their best interests.

And Hong is not deterred by this lack of endorsements. Here's what she has to say about that. Why do you think AOC and Senator Berg Sanders have not endorsed you? I have so much respect for the senator and the congresswoman, and they are working tirelessly to make sure that we can flip Congress and the Senate and get Democrats wins in the midterms. I look forward to conversations with them about that too. Does it show that they don't think you're able to win this battleground state? A gubernatorial race is different from federal elections, and I think that we are focused on making

sure to reach every single border that we can up until those polls closed. And that's what we're focusing on right now. Yeah, so Zoran Mamdani also was missing some key endorsements while he was running. He did have the support of people like AOC and Bernie, of course. But I know, Jank, you and Glenn were kind of talking about this in the first hour, the extended first hour, right? You guys were talking about how perhaps progressives kind of overshot the Overton window during the pandemic and maybe had to reel some of that back in. So do you think that that is something that's going to come back to hurt Francesca, not so much with Republicans, but amongst Democratic voters? So I'm in an interesting place here because I warned against some of these extreme policies like abolishing prisons and defunding the police and got into a lot of. debates with folks on the left over it.

And so here's the chickens coming home to roost. And so, and they're becoming such problem that AOC said that Woke was, being woke was crazy. And she's totally rejecting it now. I don't know if the people we debated now think that woke was also crazy because AOC said it, or if they're upset at AOC for saying it, I don't know. But so I would not have gone in that direction. And I'm not in DSA and I'm not a socialist, I'm a capitalist. Okay, so on the other hand, that's leading up to a giant on the other hand.

On the other hand, the thing that mainstream media never really clarifies for you all is, yes, but what are the priorities of a candidate? Like if Francesca wins and she's the governor of Wisconsin, is her first action going to be released all the prisoners? No. Is it going to be to cancel Thanksgiving? No, is it going to be to cancel the United States Senate? Pretty sure she won't have the power to do that and no. She very clearly laid out what her priorities are.

And universal childcare is number one on that list and public grocery stores. Again, you could say, hey, you know what, I'm not sure I want public grocery stores. Okay, no problem, but those are the things that she really, really wants to do, including guaranteed paid leave, affordable housing. So she has these super important things that she has prioritized. And by the way, do they ever ask themselves, why is she leading? Why has she been leading so much? Look, I really like Mandela Barnes, who's in that primary, and he dropped out.

And why did he drop out? I don't know, but my guess is that it's because Francesca had a depressingly large lead. How did she get that lead by trying to cancel Thanksgiving? No, because people are worried about affordability. And the second thing they're worried about, Yasmin, is a policy. who's not a BS artist, right? Who's gonna say, oh, yeah, I'm a smooth talking politician. Oh, I'm a Democrat, I'm in favor of these things.

But we all know they're not gonna do it, right? They almost never do it. So with upstarts, people who are beginning, who kind of look like revolutionaries like Francesca Hung does, it's actually giving Democratic voters more comfort that they might actually do something, they might try something. Like Mumdani is. And Mom Dani is trying a bunch of things in New York to be promised. And so far so good, people seem to like it.

So they're voting for something new and that I love. So to me, you know, somebody like Francesco who has a bunch of policies that I don't love but isn't going to do at all. But he's going to do a bunch of policies I do agree with versus a Democrat who will likely do nothing. Yeah, I get why she's winning. And, you know, I, to be fair to the other candidates, I don't know all the inner details of this race. But on the surface, I get why Francesca's message is so compelling.

And then in the general election, that's a no-brainer versus a Republican who's going to take away your rights, crush your ability to organize, especially in Wisconsin, work hard to, his main Republican promise in Wisconsin, you're going to be shocked. Is tax cuts for the rich? Of course, of course. That's a no-brainer. I'll take someone, I love Thanksgiving and I'll still take Francesca hung by a mile by a country mile over that. Yeah, and again, I know you guys talked about this a little bit on the first hour, so I don't want to beat a dead horse. But the whole thing that happened during the pandemic where there was some very, very progressive ideas that were being put out there. I, as a progressive identifying person, I didn't agree with everything that was being said by everyone out there. I try to be supportive. I never wanted to hurt anybody. I never wanted anyone

to feel as their life was less than what it was. But I didn't necessarily agree with every hot take that came out. But I didn't think that was a problem. I thought that was like normal. That was like normal political discourse. Like we're not all going to be so exacting in our our views and where we draw our own personal lines in the sand on things. Things like genocide, I think that's a pretty hard line in the sand that is difficult to move. But I think it makes sense that, you know, that messaging and that platform would kind of shift and evolve over the years and come back to a place where the American people need to see a platform that is actually going to make their life tangibly better than whatever the other party is offering.

The Democrats for too long, in my opinion, have run campaigns and elections on the idea that we are not as bad as the Republicans. And that is simply not good enough. And it hasn't been good enough for a long time. And a lot of people got mad at Democratic voters, at progressive voters, specifically for not voting for an OK Democrat in 2024, even though. that genocide line was very, very hard for a lot of us to cross. And the thing is, it just wasn't good enough anymore.

And people are starting to realize that. Also, when you're talking about Zoran Mamdani, something that he is doing that is so good, is he is very, very public, he's on social media, he is responding directly to the people. And the reason why that's so good is because, God, you know, I was reading about this earlier today, And I don't remember where, so I can't credit them or cite my source. But basically, the idea was that Zoran Mamdani is doing things. The way that Joe Biden actually did do things for the American people, the problem is that nobody knew what Joe Biden was up to.

He was doing all these things. And nobody knew what it was. Nobody felt better about their lives. And that is a difference. If you're a mayor of New York City, perhaps it's easier for you to do that because you have a smaller geographic area that you're managing. You have less people that you're managing. But whatever it is, he is successful because the people who live in his city feel better about their city. They feel better about the person who is leading them. Because as he pointed out, Jank, at least he's trying things. Not everything is going to work. Not everything is going to be successful. Not everything on his agenda will he be able to even attempt during his terms or terms in office. But the fact that he's trying is very, very comforting to a lot of people because we have simply had politicians in power for too long who don't even try anymore. They get into office and then they disappear.

They do whatever it is that they do and we don't hear from them. They vote in the big, the big votes, but that kind of stuff doesn't directly impact most people's lives. The problem is affordability. The problem is that people can't find jobs. The problem is wealth inequality in this country and we see things that this government is doing. And so much of it is making our lives worse and more expensive and not the opposite, despite the fact that all of these politicians have promised the exact opposite. So then why do you get into office? And it's not happening. Everything you're doing is making my life worse. So I would love to see what someone like Francesca Hong can do. I also love Thanksgiving. It's probably my favorite holiday because like the food is good

and I make a lot of pies and I'm not gonna stop doing that, you know. It has taken on its own meaning and I think that's okay. I think we can acknowledge and be respectful of the history, but still transform it into something else because this is a day when people get to be off from work and home with their families and let's just eat pie, you know what I mean? Yeah. So look, if we get into the, you know, history of all the holidays, you're all gonna be depressed. I mean, the original Santa Claus used to help poor people, but rich people got tired of that,

so they switched it to helping your own kids. Did you know that? Okay, so that's it. I hate Christmas. No, I love Christmas. And yeah, I know the history of America, and we don't have to celebrate all of it, but let us have turkey. And football.

And Thanksgiving. Okay, and by the way, she's disavowed that now. It doesn't matter. She can't cancel Thanksgiving, but she can't actually. to give your kids childcare. And elections are today, they have not closed the polls yet, not just in Wisconsin, but also in Minnesota where you, by the way, Peggy Flanagan is the progressive populist that's really interesting and then support little in the congressional race, little over

Bergen Klein. When we come back, Operation Joy for all of you. TYT, Jane Hugar, Yasmin Oliac Khan with you guys. Also Jennifer Agnew who just joined, you're awesome, Jennifer. She hit the join button below. I'm gonna start with a couple of comments left over from the show that has given us joy. And then I'm gonna go to your comments from our Joy board. And then if you've got anything in your Joy jar, there's a lot of things named after

joy. Let us know about it and write in while we're doing it. So Tom Formaz is a YouTube member and wrote in, yes, is an excellent host, we should see more of her. Couldn't agree more. Thank you. Not only here at the Young Turks, our flagship show, but also on our on Rebel HQ, check that out on YouTube and on many of our other shows as well.

And then Green New Dealer Dragon wrote it on Twitch, Rebel Khan Dragon. So lots of love out there. I like Rebel Con Dragon, that's super badass. Jonathan Ayala 2017, on the other hand, says, Jank Yuga 2028, vice president, Lego, Jank Ugar. Look, people are saying, it's, you know, there's just buzz in the streets, nothing I can do, about it. Okay, and some of you have started to write in your Operation Joy comments too. I love it, I'll get to those in a second. And Jump and Jenck Flash had this question,

so let me just answer it. You mean no Johnny two cups on election coverage tonight? Yeah, so we got a little burned by the mission coverage. It was great, and I loved it. We both loved it, but man, it took so much longer than we realized. And we have such limited resources here, guys. So I wish we could have done Minnesota and Wisconsin for you guys. But will I do a video about it once the elections are over and let you know either probably late tonight or early tomorrow morning? Of course. Of course I will.

All right. But meanwhile, let's spread joy in the world. So I'm going to read this one blind. It's from Trisha. She wrote in at tyt.com slash join where all of this lovely things happen. She writes, hi, TYT. I'm a long time listener and member. I found you on Air America and have been a fan ever since.

I thought this operation post would be mostly for Anna, but after Jenks booby bird stories, maybe not. Anyway, my sister gifted me a bird feeder with a camera for my birthday. I thought it was cool and fun, but I had no idea what this would do for my mood and mental health. Okay, so let me pause there. First of all, you don't talk about a long-time listener. You watched us or listened to us on Air America. You got that right, sister.

So that is a long time, and we love that. Thank you for being with us all this time. That gives me joy. Yes, Anna's not here today. She's like, did I mention earlier? I believe she's on an Odysseus-like journey. And obviously she's eating the locusts as we speak. So whenever she stops eating the locust and remembers that she works here, she should come back.

No, she's on a well-deserved vacation. But anyways, but yes, we love the birds as well, including my blue-footed boobies, red-footed boobies, NASCAR boobies, the albatross, all the things I learned about when I was at Galapagos. Okay, so Trisha continues. Seeing the birds up close and watching videos of them eating is fascinating. It identifies the birds, which is helpful, but it also sometimes hilariously wrong. It identifies a female common grackles as a dozen other birds. Oh, that cracks me up.

No, I have no idea what a grackle is. Okay, also squirrels, pigeons, and the best a chicken. I never knew what a common grackle was before feeder, BF, she explains. So there you go, me too, Tricia. They're known to be smart like crows and have natural ability to problem solve. They can also be a bit of a bully, which is not cool, but now I have other feeders, which helps. Yeah, what was the bullies that we saw? I forget which birds preyed on the other birds.

When I remember, I'll tell you, this was again in Galapagos. But okay, so you're having fun. I love this. She continues, the feeder sends an alert to my phone when a bird arrives. And I literally stop whatever I'm doing to watch the video or watch live. The simple act of observing a bird eating brings unexpected moments of joy throughout the day that I could have never imagined. It jolts me out of a bad mood, anxiety, worry, even if it's just for a moment, which is often all I need.

Are we gonna show you the pictures? Of course we are in a second, but one more comment. I'm leaving up through the winter to see what birds stick around. It can be harsh in northern Michigan, so any help I can give to these birds that bring me daily joy I'm down for. I'll try to post picks. Thanks for all you do, Trisha. So Trisha, thanks for sharing. And look at those beautiful pictures.

No wonder she's having the time of her life with it. Blue Jay on the left. Then you got a chickadee, which is a very fun name and a fun-looking bird. Northern Cardinal. Okay, that definitely looks like a cardinal. Then we got what appears to be a crow, but I don't know if that's aforementioned grackle or not. And then a house finch.

A lot of finches in Galapagos as well. So look, yes, I love that story because one, it's a great example of getting joy out of something unexpected and simple. And two, it's a matter of, it's a great story about how you could get more joy in your life than you're expected. Well, she now has just literally a higher quantity of joy. joy than she did before the bird feeder. So I love it. And maybe others to learn from it and induce either a bird feeder because that in and of itself might work for you guys or something

akin to that. And so I love these unexpected bursts of joy. Yeah. And you know what's so great about that is most of us are at home scrolling on our phones, looking at things. And as we're scrolling, we're getting all these unexpected moments of usually dread and despair, just like really shocking things that we're just so used to seeing on our phones as we're scrolling. So I love the idea that she's living her life and getting unexpected moments of joy instead of the exact opposite, which is what so many of us are used to. But that's not normal. Like we need to remember that that's not normal. The way that we live generally these days is not normal and we should be able to kind of like manage our time to where the scary stuff, you know,

when we're ready to engage with it, we can engage with it. But like joy, just like bring it in, you know, just like just be open to it and let it come in. And the bird thing, like you guys are so funny with your birds, but I also get it because we have our backyard here and my husband is a gardener, so he's always out there doing all this stuff with the garden. And what has happened now is all the birds and all the animals come to our yard because we have all the flowers and the veggies and everything like that. And this big giant tree just started growing in our backyard one day. And now we have this beautiful willow tree. And it shot up pretty quickly. And so there's a lot of birds in there. And it is funny because like I do find myself going outside, sitting under the shade because it's so hot

here in Texas and just watching the birds. And every once in a while we get hawks that will just come and sit on the fence, those are so cool. Like the hawks are so cool and you just sit there and watch them and they're not doing anything, but they're so cool to watch. Yeah, I saw a couple of badass hawks on a beach in Galapagos and they fly right next to you and they are so freaking cool. And so of course they gouge your eyes out. But I think that, you know, Anna became like a cause in the what community, the guys who dress up fluffers? Furries, that's it. Sorry, furries, not fluffers.

Fleppers is something else. There's a different community, okay. A lot of fluffers in DC. Shout out to the fluffers. But anyways, the fur, she might now become like a bird watching legend because now everybody's like watching, I'm more into bird watching since Anna got into it. You guys are and now your experiences are getting. getting us to be more bird watchers.

And apparently the birds bring all the boys to the yard. Or if you're there, Galapagos birds, the boobies bring the boys to the yard. I just get it in there somehow. All right, Black Cat Dragon just wrote in saying Operation Joy, it's Patch Day in World of Warcraft, time for a new game season. And yeah, folks who love those video games, they get super jazzed. My son the other day was like, I'm like, I need to watch like a half an hour of television. Can you please get up off the couch and let me watch something, right?

And he's like, but a new game drop today, Baba. And so that's a big deal. So I know that excitement. So God bless on that. All right. Now back to the motherboard. Vegan drummer girl says, my joy is successfully growing my own tea. Yes, I'm a weirdo.

I drink massive amounts of herb tea and matcha. Otherwise, I wouldn't hydrate enough. So I tried growing my own tea. I just dehydrated my first batch of anise high-sop tea and it's delicious. I didn't think it would work, so it's a happy surprise. So my daughter's super into matcha now, so we got that in common. The person who does not share your joy of tea is Ted Lassow, but a new season of Ted Lassow started, so that's joy for me. Okay, I'm connecting all these dots.

Joy for all. Joy for all. But vegan drummer girl, the main thing I wanted to say is about your weirdo comment. I was gonna say you're not a weirdo, but as I've said before, well, in a sense, you are and we are and we all are, right? So like lean into your inner weirdo, because that's what makes you unique. So I can't imagine somebody writes in one day, I am completely normal. Look, out of boy, okay, I guess, congrats.

I am completely average, congrats. Right, like, no, we're supposed to be weird. We're supposed to be different. We're all supposed to be different from each other. And that's actually what's a great thing for yourself and for society. Because if we were all the same, we would not be as productive. The fact that we're all different is what makes us so great. Remember in politics, we say diversity is our strength.

And that's also true in our social lives. in our real lives, in our personal lives. So whatever you think you're weird in, lean into it. Lean into it. Don't be shy about it or embarrassed about it. All right, now I'm going to go to Brad O'Donnell. He says, here's my joy. Local library millage I worked on in my conservative leaning town passed overwhelmingly.

And Brad's a retiring councilman. And then I checked the results. He wasn't kidding. Look at this. Yes, 82.2%. No, 19.8%. Crushed. Nice job, Brad. Okay. How's that for being involved? Imagine if that's how all democracy was. Imagine it was like that at the national level. Like you go and convince your fellow citizens and they're like, well, I think Brad's right. You know what? We're changing our position. Let's go for that. Okay, I bring you back in, yes, partly to ask you, what's a library millage? I don't know if you know, I don't know either.

I was literally Googling it when you asked me. So it is a localized property tax rate authorized by voters to fund public library operations, maintenance staff, and programs. So, yeah, it sounds like a very public funded endeavor. And if it saves the library, I'm 100% on board. That's so cool that you're able to pass. something like that. So that is, we all learned something today. We're all getting some more joy. We're learning things and that is joyful in and of itself. That's fun for me. But that's now even more impressive because I thought it was like a water mill in the back of

the library or something. I'm like, that is cute. Well, I thought it's like a flour mill. Because it's like my like my weird weird thing is like I, my next thing is like, I don't even bake bread, but I'm like, I need fresh milled flour. How do I? make that happen. So I'm like, should I just like start milling my own flour? So like that's where I'm at. But yeah, I don't I don't eat a lot of bread. I could, I could, you know. But I do drink a lot of tea, actually. And so I was very excited to hear about the viewer who was growing and then brewing their own tea, steeping tea actually. You brew coffee, you steep tea. But tea is like such a comfort for me in the world. Every single day I have to have a cup of tea and I'm very particular

about it. It has to be loose leaf black tea. If I'm in a mood, I'll like make a proper pot of chai, you know, with like my cinnamon and my cardamom and ginger and everything simmered over the stove. And it's so intentional and it's so extra, but it's so good. And like we deserve to treat ourselves nice every day, you know, not just on special occasions. And that's something that I've been working on too. But I think it's very easy to just like grab whatever a cup of coffee from, you know, Starbucks on your way into work or something like that. But like if you can just like sit and have your cup of coffee or your cup of tea, it's like it'll change your life. Honestly, it'll change your life. Yeah. So I'm not as mental about tea as you guys are.

But I like tea, you know why? Because I'm Turkish. So like Turks are known for- You guys have good coffee. Yeah, Turks are known for coffee, I was just gonna say. But if you go to Turkey, you'll know that Turks drink way more tea than coffee. Like it's not that they're not gonna have the Turkish coffee, they are, but throughout the day, chai, chai, chai, chai, chai, like 10, 12 cups, it's endless, okay?

And it's not cups like the big cups, like the little teacups that we have. I'm gonna tell you what my weirdo thing is, first of all, I hope you got time because this could take a while. Okay, but first back to Brad for a second. It's this thing that it's rolling around my head of him. But look at the thing on Brad. What is that? Bart, you got that.

That's what it is. Check out the big brain on Brad. Where's that from, Craig? Pulp Fiction, yes. Because in my mind, I was saying it in Samuel Jackson's voice. That's so funny. But Brad, I'm so freaking proud. I'm so freaking proud of you, brother.

You got extra taxes passed in a conservative district by 80 to 20 to support a library. You're like an American hero. I'm thinking you're making you turk of the year. Check out the big brain on Brad. Boom! And the big effort and the big heart on Brad. Way to spread that joy, Brad. Love it.

And you know how much I love libraries. So, okay, so look, if I had to tell you about all the things I'm a weirdo on, we'd be here all day. So I'll just pick one of them because as he as was telling her story, I was like, oh yeah, I bet I'm weird on some things. And then this giant list started running. So okay, the one I picked is introspection. So that might surprise you. But so I do a lot of introspection. I don't know if that would surprise you. But it might surprise you that it's on my weirdo list. So why? Because I used to think a lot of. lot even when I was a kid and and people shame you for it.

It's kind of funny. And so my dad did accidentally, he's a wonderful human being, he doesn't mean to, right? But he's a doer, right? And he's not much for pondering. My mom has the introspection gene, right? My dad, it's one of my favorite stories I've told a couple of times, but it shows you his mentality. Me and my friend Bora, we get drunk one night, we decided we're gonna mess with my dad,

We both love him to pieces, but we wanna see what he does. We came up with this crazy thing. I had all these little orange cones in the back of my car because we always play football and we use it to set the field back in the day. So we decided that we would line up the little cones around my dad's Ford, right? And we're like, we wonder what he's gonna do in the morning. Is he gonna come and wake us up and like, why are there orange cones around my car and only around my car and not anything else in the driveway, not the other car, not the other

not the driveway. What's going on? So we wake up at noon or whatever we got up. And my dad never woke us. So we go out to the driveway to see what happened. It's just a bunch of cones smashed. He just drove over them, right? And he comes home later in the day. We're like, dad, and he's kind of like a surrogate dad and a godfather for my for borr as well. And then we're like, dad, what happened? He's like, you know, when you saw the cones, what do you think? He's like, I didn't think anything. I think I had to go to work. So I went to work. That is how no nonsense my immigrant dad is.

Okay, there are cones in the way. I run them over. I have to go to work. Like, don't even bother picking that mob, wondering why they're there. No, I got to go rent some office space. So anyways, so when my dad sees me thinking, he's thinking, oh, poor son bitch, ain't going to do nothing. Thinking is a waste of time.

You take action, right? So that's the bias he grew up with, and that's how his brain is structured. So that got me a little like, like sometimes I'd be at work and my dad, his favorite thing was bust in, right? Just, and he's like, if you catch someone loafing one time, no big deal. If you catch him loafing twice, he's a loafer. So but not only when I'm working in construction, but later like I'd go to his office and I'd be working on a paper or homework or something.

and I'm thinking about something and he burst into the room and I'm thinking and he's like loafer. I'm like, God damn it, I got a loafer strike, right? But it's not just my dad. It's like whenever I sat down to think or walked around the block to think, whoever was around friends, acquaintances, neighbors were like, what are you doing? Or you're just thinking? That's weird. I don't know why everybody's reaction is always, that's weird.

Right and guess what? It turns out thinking things through a little bit better than not thinking them through. Okay, so lean into your weird, okay? Don't listen to people. You know why you shouldn't listen to other people? Because they're not you. How would they know what's good for you? They don't know a thing about you.

They barely know you. You know who knows you really well? You. Okay. All right, so I'm gonna read a couple of these that just came in and then we'll go back to the board in a second. Dr. No said, just got back from a Star Trek convention in Vegas. It was a great thing to be with a few thousand people who believe in a better world where we all get along.

Although I feel farther than ever from a Star Trek world, I still believe it's a future worth fighting for. Look, brother, I'm right there with you. I love that you went. I love Star Trek, one of my favorite shows of all time. Star Trek, the next generation, was my number one show for a long time. And then a million amazing shows happen, but still top 10. And it's because it's smart, it's thoughtful, it's kind. I wish we lived in the Star Trek world.

Funded by Lucille Ball, one of my heroes, Gene Roddenberry, the original progressive, along with Norman Lear on television, it's probably why Hollywood got the liberal tag in the first place, and I love him for it. So go on with a bad self. And appropriately, one of my favorite lines from Star Trek is, Khan! And Rebel Khan Dragon is with us. I was waiting for it.

So yes, how often do you get Khan? I get it a decent amount. I think my brothers get it more than I do, which I think is appropriate. You know, I never watched Star Trek. And maybe, perhaps I should. But there's a reason why I never watched it. And it's, I think I told this to John and he was like, what does that even mean? But I don't like future stuff.

Like, I don't like stuff in the future because a lot of times with Hollywood, especially when you're watching something that's set in the future, it's always dystopian. It's always a dystopian future. And it's always like some future that I don't want. And so I watch Lord of the Rings instead, you know, because it feels simpler. It's scary and there's no technology and things like that, but it's quiet and it just feels simpler and the connections there. But that's not to say that that's not going to be a thing in the future. And maybe I will watch Star Trek and see how I feel about it.

But it keeps like weird anxiety about it. But and also my namesake, you know, so I probably should know what that's about. So I'm going to make my kids do this. I think you should do it too. just watch Star Trek 2, The Wrath of Khan, okay? That's probably the best movie anyway, and it has that line in it. So it's kind of a good intro into Star Trek. And so, yeah, that's the way to go.

I can do that. I can and I will do that, yeah. And the Star Trek world, of course it's got its ups and downs. It needs the drama and all that. But the core of the future of humanity is actually really great in Star Trek. So that's why it's not a depressing one. Okay, yeah, that does sound better. You know, there's things like Dune and you're just like,

Dune is interesting. You know what, this is a John conversation and he likes to fight me on all this, on all of my bad takes, he calls them. But yeah, it's, when you're watching things, it's hard for me. I don't know if this is one of my weird things, but it's hard for me to watch something and not just like immediately, maybe because I do this job, but just like to immediately you want to contextualize it

and to pull things from here and be like, oh, this happened in history and this is happening right now. And this is a, this is parallel to this other thing, you know. And that's how I watch things. So it can be very exhausting sometimes. But, you know, these ideas turn up on my substack now. So I guess there's a reason why I do this job. And you can check out her and John talking about it on damage report. That's at 1 o'clock Eastern every day.

Okay, now, hot sauce drawing 22 says, my bit of joy today. We had storms today and my power is out. Just finished writing my wiring my generator outlet to my breaker panel. It works and I didn't burn down my house. Now to go do the same at my mom's house. Look brother, I totally get that. When I do anything technical and it works, I mean, it's something as simple as, oh, we're having trouble with the internet.

I have to unplug it and then plug it back in. But the minute it works, I'm like, bit of a hero. Not a big deal, but did I fix the internet? I did. I'm that guy, right? So I totally know how we, but I thought you were going on a different direction. I love storms. The storm is coming and so, so I thought you were just going to enjoy the storm with the power

being out, which kind of feels kind of cool too, but okay, fine, fine, you're putting, nice job on the generator. Okay, eclectic rodent for Team Joy today, I have one important word to, I have one important word to say, gubernatorial. Jake, I know you've said it's a fun word to say when it comes up. So if you read this, hopefully it brings you a little bit of joy. You saw me laugh right there. So you did it, you nailed it.

And if you want to pay it forward and bring Michael Schur some joy, you could work referenda into old school since he's mentioned he likes working in the plural form of referendum whenever he can. That's a good point, I'll try that. And old schools for the members, that's tonight at 930 p.m. Eastern so in about an hour so make sure you check that out. Good reason to become a member hit that join button below or t.com slash join. Let me go back to the board for a second. The one true coffee dragon says small joy today the magical words of free upgrade.

I've never had one of those before on our summer trip to the seaside. We were told that due to a mistake in booking they were upgrading us from a regular room to family cabins. It has a kitchen, patio and barbecue grill. I've never seen anything like it being one of the pores, but I'm not complaining. Children have already announced we're living here now. Can't complain about the morning view of the Japan Sea either. Is that blue I see? Oh, now you're getting going after my heart there. And for Anna, yesterday we stopped for a swim at Lake Bewa where we saw a ton of black kites fishing. Very cool. And then there's the view. Love it, yes. And God, guys, that's why I tell you, soak it in, so good in. So good

So free upgrades very, very, very rarely happen to me. Although these days, you know, people are recognizing me and sometimes like sneaking me stuff like at hotel reception, they might upgrade me to a little bit nicer room and I'm like, well, I'll take it, right? And so somebody came up to me the other day. It was really emotional and wonderful Palestinian guy ran into me at the airport, gave me a big hug and then he had this amazing necklace of Palestine and he took it off his neck and he gave it to me and he said no no no no no I want you to have it and I'm like no no brother

thank you but no this is yours and he's like no please and so that's beautiful and just when those gifts drop into your lap you know make sure you appreciate him and and that's amazing and now I tell you all the stories of when I got upgraded in airlines because God, I still sit on coach and I hate sitting in coach. I'm not hiding it, right? I don't fit in the seats as well. And but I don't have those stories. I never get upgraded.

I fly so much. How could I not be at a point where I get upgraded at this point? But all right, that's my frustration. There's a big one here that I want to squeeze in, Yazen, give you the last word. Illutium Q36 Dragon said, It might sound strange, but I've grown genuinely joyful about being average. Huh, look at that. I ask and then you write this, fascinating.

So I'm now very curious about the rest of this. I'm reading it blind. They say, I'm in my early 60s, still hustling a full-time job and a handful of niche side projects. I earn an average wage, live in an average house, and still manage to annoy my wife of 30 years. Our kids, 28 and 26, are launched and doing well. My ambition now is simple. Stay grounded, earn enough to enjoy a few good things, and keep my mind intact by working and learning something new every day. There was a time when I could have chased

a different path, one built on greed, power, and the usual trophies, but I chose to keep my soul in check, mythical or not, a focus on building a small, honest book of business that can provide predictable income when it's finally time to slow down. Average isn't a limitation, it's a life lived with intention. Oh, alitium, I love that too. So, So like if your weird onus is being average and that you chose to be that way, well, you're not an average person. You've chosen what you're describing as an average lifestyle, which is actually quite unusual to make that active conscious choice.

And hence the weirdo, sorry, I know you want to be average. But that's what makes you unique and amazing because I haven't seen a lot of people make that choice. I'll tell you, I've got a house in a tiny lot and it's not very big. I love it and we live in a beautiful location. So I've got a ton of upside there and I'm blessed about it. But I love how lived in that houses. I mean, you could barely take a step without tripping over the kids this or that, an art

project or pro's football helmet. And we lived in that small house and I love it. I love it. I wouldn't have added any other way. And you chose a path that makes sense for you. And you lived it beautifully and with it with intentionality and you nailed it. So I'm super proud of you. And I'll add one last thing.

So I get this Quora things and I started reading a couple of them and then they sent me way more. And then I got weirdly kind of into it. So that's a place where people ask questions and other people answer it and whoever has the best answers kind of gets upboated and yada. And they had this question about that I was like, huh, that's a weird interesting question. Why aren't a lot of more geniuses successful, right? And there was an answer to that. It turns out, well, there are a couple of reasons. One is, in a lot of places, they're not recognized as geniuses.

They're shunned as being different. And they never get word of opportunities. So maybe they could have been great in literature or physics or whatever field, but they never knew that they could go to a college where that that would blossom and be encouraged, et cetera. But there's a second reason why, and that's the one that I found to be really interesting, because they are successes. They're just not societely recognized as successes. In fact, apparently one of the smartest guys in the world, if not the smartest guy, is a mechanic in Norway. And they're like you have some ungodly IQ like 214 or something unimaginable, right? And he, they're like, he might even be smarter than some of the all-time geniuses,

at least in terms of abilities, right? And they're like, well, why come you're not a billionaire? Why are you a mechanic? His answer was simple, because I don't want to be a billionaire. I want to be a mechanic. That's a genius. And that's what you did, brother. So congrats.

I don't know if you knew you were a genius, but that's what a lot of geniuses do. So nice job on that. Yes, last thought. No, there is definitely something to be said about living a more simple life without. I don't think you have to be so ambitious. I think that in this country especially, we're told that we have to just like keep pushing for more, more, more, more. But when you have too much, sometimes that can become very much a burden that you have to carry with you. You have to figure out what to do with all this stuff you have, with all this money you have.

You have to protect it. You can't live a simple life, the more stuff you have. And so I think finding what works for you, you can still be ambitious in your life, though, right? I think he mentioned that he has a wife of over 30 years. That's incredible. That congratulations. That is something that so many people want. cannot have or don't have or don't have yet, maybe, that that's beautiful that you know where

your priorities are. But you can still be ambitious in your own life, you know, like I want to learn how to do pottery next probably. I know I already said that I wanted to mill flour and bake bread, but like whatever, like that's how I am ambitious, you know, big money things don't inspire me or get me excited. I like the money. I like having money. Don't get me wrong. it is nicer when you have you can't afford things like let's be real but that's not what excites me you know that's just about necessity and I think having that level of perspective is is very that that's special in and of itself that you're able to look at your life feel gratitude for it and be able to put your energy into the home that you already have and into the life that you've

already built and you know maybe tweak it here and there make it more you and then just be happy with that. And that is beautiful. And congratulations on having achieved that that level of Zen because isn't that all, isn't that what we all want after all? Yeah, 100%. And do not get obsessed with traditional view of success. That is for other people. Everyone is different. Success is different for you. You go find your own success, not what other people think is success. For me, for example, success is fantasy football championships. Oh, geez. Which I don't have enough of, so I need to work harder to get there.

But I'm working on it. All right, guys, much love. Michael Schur, who's also part of the TYT Fantasy Football League, will join me for Old School, and now under an hour at 9.30 p.m. Eastern. That's for the members. Hit the join button, t.com. We have nothing but fun on Old School. you love it. And maybe we'll sneak in a couple of election updates for you guys, including

on whether there's any referenda. And definitely on the gubernatorial contest in Wisconsin. All right, we got to go. Much love. Vertigo? By Alfred Hitchcock? It's not very good. Wrong, sir. Wrong.