The Young Turks - Laws of Commotion - August 6, 2025

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month Shopify trial and start selling today at ⁠shopify.com/tyt Axios reports that Donald Trump will let Israel re-occupy Gaza. Sections 9 and 10 of Article I of the U.S. Constitution vanish from a government website, raising serious transparency questions. Robert Weissman joins to discuss the implications of Trump's economic policies. An IDF soldier’s testimony suggests Israel may have allowed the October 7th attack to happen. Hosts: Ana Kasparian SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞  https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK  ☞   https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER  ☞       https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM  ☞  https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK  ☞          https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH  ☞      https:/www.shoptyt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Searchlight Pictures presents The Roses, only in theaters, August 29th. From the director of Meet the Parents and the writer of Poor Things comes The Roses, starring Academy Award winner, Olivia Coleman, Academy Award nominee, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andy Sandberg, Kate McKinnon, and Allison Janney. A hilarious new comedy filled with drama, excitement, and a little bit of hatred, proving that marriage isn't always a bed of roses. See The Roses only in theaters, August 29th. Say, oh my God.

Well, hello. Welcome to TYT, I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and we have such a massive show ahead for you today. I really don't want to waste any time with any housekeeping. Later in the show, we're going to have an interview to give a broader look at our current economic situation. obviously updates on Israel and Gaza. We're going to talk about the official government website, erasing parts of our constitutional rights, including our right to habeas corpus.

Lots to get to. Jenkel joined me in the second hour, so stick around for that. But I want to begin with a story that someone very close to the Israeli government, who also happens to be a reporter over at Axios, has shared with us all in a piece. for Axios. And it doesn't make America look good, I'll put it that way. So without further ado, let's get to the details on what Barack Reveed is reporting over at Axios.

Barack Reveed, reporter over at Axios, is essentially sharing that the Trump administration does not intend on interfering with Israel in any way, shape, or form as they engage in conquest and land theft in the Gaza Strip. Now, this is based on two administration officials who spoke to Barack Ravid at Axios, and they made it clear that this new operation to occupy additional areas of central Gaza, including Gaza City, is expected to take at least several months and involve displacing around one million Palestinian civilians. These two U.S. officials tell Axios that Trump will not intervene in the Israeli decision-making around this new operation, as he calls it.

Operation, of course, is a euphemism for the genocide, ethnic cleansing, and land theft that the Israeli government will be carrying out in the Gaza Strip. Now Netanyahu and his aides claim that Hamas isn't interested in signing a comprehensive ceasefire and hostage deal on terms Israel can accept. Now, what terms does Israel want to accept? But first off, through the ceasefire negotiations, as we've all known, as we've been following very closely, Israel will be confronted with the fact that Hamas agrees to their terms, and then they'll change the terms to something that seems unbelievable, unacceptable.

So for instance, Hamas says, all right, we'll give up power in the Gaza Strip. We'll totally, you know, stop any effort to govern or take charge or control of Gaza. Okay, you guys can decide what the governance of the Gaza Strip will look like. But we want a permanent, permanent ceasefire. We will return all the hostages, but we want a permanent ceasefire. Israel said no, no, no, no, no. The situation becomes more and more dire on the ground. Hamas says, okay, fine, temporary ceasefire.

Just let the humanitarian aid come in. No, we change our minds. Now we want you to fully disarm, fully demilitarize the Gaza Strip. Now you tell me what does a demilitarized West Bank look like? The West Bank, which of course is a separate territory from the Gaza Strip, the West Bank which was governed by the PLO, not by Hamas, the West Bank, which is now dealing with Israel reigning terror on innocent Palestinians that had nothing to do with October 7 at all, at all.

But what we know, if you're smart enough to be paying attention and ignoring the ridiculous propaganda in American media, is that Israel just wants that land. At some point, if you're still kind of wavering, you don't know what's going on, maybe Israel's telling the truth, they're not, they're lying to you, they're lying to all of us. They've been wanting that land. That's why the construction of illegal settlements had continued, even under the Obama administration, even under the Biden administration, now under the Trump administration, 22 new illegal settlements in the West Bank, a separate territory from Gaza. But those Palestinian civilians

don't matter. All those innocent people, all those children don't matter. They don't matter. They're not even providing an excuse for doing what they're doing in the West Bank. For me, what's currently transpiring in the West Bank is all the evidence you need for it to be abundantly clear that for Israel, this wasn't about Hamas, it wasn't about terrorists, it was about about land theft and annexation for the Greater Israel Project, which I've talked about on the show before. That's what this is about. And to know that the United States government not only supports this,

not only AIDS and abets it, but pours our limited, finite resources into making it happen. Brings me so much shame is so embarrassing. Everything that this country purports to stand for, is complete and other, utter crap, because we don't stand for democracy and peace. We don't care about that at all, in our government at least. We're essentially aiding and abetting modern day Nazis. That's what the current Israeli government is. And for Germany, Germany feels a tremendous amount of guilt for what has happened to the Jewish people

as a result of Hitler, as a result of, you know, Germany in the 1930s, 1940s. And I understand that they were on the wrong side of history. But guess what? Germany's on the wrong side of history again, as they sheepishly shy away from any criticism over what the modern day Nazis are up to in Israel right now. Donald Trump is more than a disappointment. Donald Trump brings this country so much shame and embarrassment. And I would say the same thing if it was a Democratic president, as you guys should probably

know at this point, I have no loyalty to either party. My loyalty is to what is right. And what Trump is going to allow to happen to those poor innocent people in Gaza and the West Bank, disgust me. But hey, you know what, Miriam Adelson's check cleared, right? You damn whore. A hundred million dollars, who cares how many lives get lost, how many people get slaughtered, How many homes get absolutely destroyed by an evil government with an even more evil military? Absolutely disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. So there's more Netanyahu and his aides claim Hamas isn't interested in signing the ceasefire deal, right? We know that in reality, Israel has served as an obstacle to the ceasefire. Netanyahu has never wanted peace. And Netanyahu knows, his power is over, is over the second this war is done.

And for Netanyahu, his own power, his own needs, that's way more important than anything else, including making Israel a pariah state. And for any Israelis watching this right now, I want you to be clear. I want you to understand this, okay? Because others are very afraid. You know, I get the IDF sending me pictures of their weapons, talking about how they're going to slaughter me. I'm not afraid of you, not afraid of you, okay?

All the other cowards in American media, they can F off. They're not like me, I'm different. I'm not afraid of you, okay? So while you're cashing checks that are funded by my tax dollars and the tax dollars is my fellow Americans, I need you to understand something clearly. You are hated internationally, hated. Don't be mistaken based on the propaganda you hear in American media. That's not representative of how the American people feel about you, you're hated.

And it's not because you're Jewish, it's because you slaughter innocent people. It's because you think you're God's chosen people when you act like absolute demons. That's the reality. The whole international community loathes you. Young American citizens in this country, both left and right, loathe you. And eventually, these are the people who are going to come into power. So I think Israel's days are numbered as it pertains to America backing its disgusting loathsome behavior. It's war crimes, it's slaughter of innocent people. You know, coming into this

beginning on October 7th, I had absolutely no hatred toward Israel, none, not even a little bit. I mean, obviously, Israel has committed war crimes. They've committed all sorts of atrocities against the Palestinian people. But I was able to separate, you know, the entirety of a country from the acts of a government. Now I look at Israel and I just, I don't want Israel to be a U.S. ally. I think Israel drags us down, drags us into wars we shouldn't be fighting on its behalf, attracts animosity and hostility toward the United States and our military, Israel is a pariah state for a reason. And for any Israeli who's under this impression that they're special and

they're loved internationally, you're not, and again, has nothing to do with the fact that you're Jewish. Lots of Jews all across the globe have been protesting Israel from the very beginning. It has everything to do with the fact that you guys like to slaughter people and steal land. and you think you're better than everyone else, you think that you're entitled to everything, including our tax dollars. It's disgusting. And all it takes is a bunch of prostitutes in the U.S. government that can be easily bribed by the likes of a freaking weird looking wealthy woman like Miriam Adelson to essentially stand by and allow a pariah state to kill innocent people with our money.

That's America first, I guess, for Donald Trump. What an embarrassment. What an embarrassment. You know what's the one dish I make? I take sunny side up eggs and I plop spaghetti with butter on top of it. You can mix it. So as you can see, that's a bit of a disaster. So my family wanted me to try other things.

And luckily, it was Cook Unity. And they got me covered because they got professional Italian cuisine that we all love. Who doesn't love Italian? And they got award-winning chefs. It's super easy. So lately, my favorite dish has been Pesto pasta with turkey meatballs. The Pesto sauce is delish. The meatballs are cooked to perfection.

The dish features fresh summer squash and cherry tomatoes. Boom, you're bringing out the flavor and feeling healthy. Thanks to Cook Unity, my family and I. are finally enjoying the comforting flavors of Italian cuisine right at home. And with my crazy schedule, having the meals fully cooked and ready to eat in just a couple of minutes is just essential. And I bet it's true for you, too. I love that the ingredients are locally sourced, fresh, and made by award-winning chefs, including Food Network alums and James Beard award winners. I am not among them.

The menus are updated weekly, so there's always something new to try. You can filter by chef, protein, cuisine, or dietary need to find meals that satisfy your cravings and stick to your health goals. Their flexible commitment, free subscription starts at just $11 a month. Now, come on. That's too good. You can skip, pause, or cancel deliveries at any time. Get what you're craving. Try the freshest, best-tasting meal delivery made by your favorite celebrity chefs.

Go to cookunity.com slash t-y-t-free or enter. code TYT free before checkout for free premium meals for life. That's free premium meals for life by using code TYT free or going to cookunity.com slash TYT free. Terms and conditions apply. Go to cookunity.com for details. Grab a coffee and discover Vegas level excitement with BetMGM Casino, now introducing our hottest exclusive friends the one with multi-drop your favorite classic television show is being

reimagined into your favorite casino game featuring iconic images from the show spin our new exclusive because we're not on a break play friends the one with multi-drop exclusively at bet mgm casino want even more options pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games from blackjack to poker or head over to the arcade for nostalgic casino thrills Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. You don't want to miss out. 19 plus to wager, Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex 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. All right, well, let's move on to some other news. The law requires that every single person who is going to be deported gets a hearing first. Do you acknowledge that? I'll have to ask the lawyers about that. All I can say is this, if you're going to have 21 million people,

and if we have to get a lot of them out because they're criminals, we're going to have to Act fast. We can, do you think we can give 21 million trials? Let's say each trial takes two weeks. Is that what you want us to do? President Donald Trump questioned the right to due process back in April. That was the video that you just viewed. And the reason why I'm showing that to you now is because suddenly key sections of the U.S. Constitution have been deleted from the government's website. Now, which key parts am I talking about here? Let's take a look. So there are changes in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution with large parts of Section 8 removed. So let's put up this graphic, which shows you what I'm talking about. This was put together by TechCrunch, and the highlighted portion is the portion that was deleted from the government website. So sections 9 and 10 have also been deleted altogether from the government website. Now, what do those portions of our constitution indicate?

What kind of rights are we talking about? Well, as you can see, the archived version of the site on the way back machine on the left, and the current site on the right shows that text highlighted in yellow has been removed. So as tech crunch notes, some of the section's text appears missing as indicated by a trailing semicolon at the end of section 8, where text used to follow. Now, these sections are very relevant, okay, because they largely relate to the powers that Congress has and does not have, as well as limitations on the powers of individual states. The removal includes sections relating to habeas corpus, the powers that protect citizens from unlawful detention. Habeas corpus is one of the most important constitutional rights that Americans enjoy.

It allows us to question the government if we feel that we are wrongfully detained. Without habeas corpus, you have a government so powerful that they can accuse Americans of anything, detain them for any reason, with no evidence, no due process, no justice at all. and essentially allow that person or people to remain detained without a day in court, without the ability to challenge their detention or demand some answers in regard to what they're being detained for. Don't believe me? Well, there have been some instances in recent American history in which a former Republican

president suspended habeas corpus. And I'm going to give you the example in just a minute, but first some more details here. Now look, while changing the U.S. Constitution's text on a website doesn't magically erase our constitutional rights, this should still be very concerning, considering that, well, first of all, Stephen Miller had previously threatened to suspend habeas corpus. In fact, he did so earlier this year. Let's take a look at that. Well, the Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land,

that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion. So I would say that's an option we're actively looking at. Okay, well, the U.S. is not under an invasion, as the Trump administration has been bragging about. He has effectively closed the border. There are no more people trying to come in claim asylum at the border. So what invasion would they cite in an effort to claim that it is just for the president of the United States to unilaterally suspend habeas corpus. Again, habeas corpus is such an important constitutional right.

It wasn't an amendment to the constitution. habeas corpus was included in the original body of the United States constitution. It is one of the most important constitutional rights that the American people have. Why was that deleted from the official government website under the Trump administration, which on multiple occasions has questioned things like due process, our right to do process. It also doesn't help that our Department of Homeland Security Secretary, also known as Border Patrol Barbie, demonstrated that she doesn't even know what habeas corpus is. Take a look. So, Secretary, Gnome, what is habeas corpus?

Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country. It's to suspend their right to. Let me stop you, ma'am. Habeas corpus, excuse me, that's, that's incorrect. President Lincoln used it. Excuse me, habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people.

Maybe a little less time with the cosplay, a little more time. I don't know, reading our Constitution. You're serving in the United States government, in the federal government, and you don't know what habeas corpus is? You don't know what habeas corpus is. God, it's just this administration. But I mean, why would she know what habeas corpus is? Does she even care about the rights that American citizens enjoy thanks to our constitution?

Does she care? Of course she doesn't care. She's too busy, you know, irresponsibly pointing the barrel of a gun at border patrol agents for a photo op. embarrassing. In fact, our founding fathers again believed that the right to do process, the writ of habeas corpus was so important that it was, again, in the original body of our Constitution, not an amendment. And to be honest, in recent history, this country had a stain on its record as a result of

the Bush administration, which denied habeas corpus to do. detainees who were imprisoned over at Guantanamo Bay. So they were held indefinitely with no charges. So imagine, imagine the government. And I'm trying to reason with some of the Republican voters who might be watching right now, who have been fearful of a government that grows too large. Some of the libertarians who might be watching, who are definitely fearful of the government growing too large. This is a prime example of the government growing too large. This is a prime example of the

government having too much power, too much power being concentrated specifically in the executive branch, essentially allowing for the federal government, the administration to accuse anyone of anything, detain them with no charges indefinitely, and then strip them of the right to challenge their detention. That is what the Bush administration did. And that case went all the way to the Supreme Court. So what happened exactly? Well, as I mentioned, it was the detainees who were being held at Guantanamo Bay. Since they were denied habeas corpus, they were able, they were unable at the time to challenge their detention, but there were even American citizens.

Let me just be clear about that, because I think that's an important thing to clarify here. There were even American citizens detained at Guantanamo Bay. They hadn't been charged, they were being held indefinitely. The Bush administration just accused them of being enemy combatants. But they weren't even able to challenge that accusation at all, in any way, shape or form. That's what happens when habeas corpus is suspended. And that's what happened here. So here's an example from attorney and author John W. Whitehead, who has practiced in areas

of constitutional law and human rights. He details what happened in this case, which made its way to the Supreme Court. Take a look. We have two American citizens, Mohamed Munoff and Shaki Omar, who are captured in the Middle East, in Europe. And now they find themselves in a prison outside of Baghdad run by American soldiers. But these are American citizens, and the people who are controlling them are American soldiers, although it's called a multinational base. The Bush administration is saying these people have no rights at all. They can be subjected to a military commission where they can't put on the country.

defense that you wouldn't a civilian court. And that's what you usually do with prisoners of war and people who really are foreigners, if we want to put it in that vernacular. But these are American citizens, and that's the crucial issue here. Incredibly, the Bush administration, the President of the United States has said that American citizens that are abroad need to take what they get in terms of torture and abuse if they're basically stupid enough to be in a foreign country. Well, that goes against everything that our Constitution stands for. That does go against everything our Constitution stands for. And if the Trump administration is weighing the possibility of suspending habeas corpus,

that's government tyranny, essentially. It is. That allows for the federal government to accuse anyone of anything, detain them indefinitely, even with no charges, and strips that detainee of the right to challenge their detention. It doesn't get more authoritarian than that. And so the Bush administration was challenged on this, and the Supreme Court weighed in on a case that was known as Bumadine B. Bush. Oral arguments for that case began in December of 2007, and the court, luckily, ruled 5'4 that the administration's actions were unconstitutional.

Now, the ruling challenged the government's assertion of unchecked executive power, emphasizing that, that such authority cannot override the fundamental protections guaranteed by our Constitution. Now, there are cases in which theoretically the writ of habeas corpus could be suspended. Now, can the President of the United States do it unilaterally? No. Congress would need to act. And so during a national crisis or emergency, habeas corpus can be suspended through Congress. But again, the president cannot remove constitutional rights unilaterally, which is what brings me back to what was deleted in terms of our constitution, the text of our constitution on the government website.

Because as I mentioned earlier, they also deleted portions of the constitution pertaining to the separation of power, our checks and balances, how much power Congress has. So if you on the official government website start deleting texts pertaining to the power of Congress, and you know that Congress would need to vote in order to suspend habeas corpus, well I mean, you're kind of giving the game away, aren't you? You know, seeing what's happening in the West Bank with all of these unarmed Palestinian civilians getting terrorized, run out of their own homes by terrorist Israeli settlers, it's made me actually appreciate our Second Amendment rights more.

I know that some people are going to be upset about that, but if you're armed, at least you have a fighting shot, fighting chance. And the argument that we typically hear from Second Amendment absolutists is that our ability to bear arms checks government power, it protects us from tyranny. But I would argue that here's a perfect example of a massive red flag. that should get people to act before you even have to think about arming yourself or using violence. The federal government thought they could just erase this text, no one would notice and they'd get away with it. I think they're trying to get the ball rolling. Trump and that

administration doesn't give a damn about what the left has to say. That's not his base. But he does seem to care what his base says, what they're upset about, what they're angry about. He reversed course just this week after the Department of Homeland Security put out a notice indicating that FEMA funds would be denied to any state or municipality that engaged in a boycott of Israel or Israeli-based companies. There was so much fury among a portion of the MAGA base that they quietly reversed course on that, which gave me a shred of hope. So if you do worry about our government becoming too powerful, becoming tyrannical to the point where American citizens can be arrested with no due process and with the suspension of habeas corpus, please say something.

Please don't sit idly by and chalk this all up to, you have TDS. I don't have TDS. I hate both parties. I thought Biden was a terrible president. I love this country, and I want to protect whatever freedom we have left. And this is unacceptable. We've got to take a break. We'll be right back. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you,

no matter the size. Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget. After all, you're in your small space era. It's time to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca.

Welcome back to the show, everyone, Anna Casparian with you. And I figured it would be a good time to do a deep dive on what's currently happening with the U.S. economy. There's a lot of chaos, a lot of different news stories coming at us, whether it has to do with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the jobs reports. So let's get into it. Because President Donald Trump has threatened India, which of course is a major U.S. trading partner with an additional 25% tariff on all imports to the United States. States if they failed to reach a new deal with the U.S. Now that would bring the total tax that American consumers, of course, would pay on anything made in India and imported to the United States to a whopping 50%. Not only has inflation started to tick upward, partly due to Trump's trade policies, but recent jobs reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the economy is in fact slowing down with fewer job openings and slightly high. higher unemployment. So what did Trump do in response? Well, he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and accused her of cooking the numbers to make him look bad. Now, joining us to

talk about all of this chaos in our economy is Robert Weissman, the co-president of the nonprofit consumer advocacy group, Public Citizen. Thank you so much for joining us, Robert. Hey, it's great to be with you. So I have so much to ask you. I love looking into the economy, researching, figuring out what's going on. But I'm not an expert. And over at public citizen, you know, the work that you guys do is so important, kind of sheds light on what's actually happening. You know, you go deeper than the headlines and whatever drama is taking place between Trump and administration officials. Let's start with the firing of the commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The week began with Trump firing Dr. Erica McIntarfer. And, you know, it's due to the fact that the jobs reports from previous months had been revised pretty significantly. And the latest report for the month of July showed that, you know, there were fewer jobs added to the economy than expected about 75,000 when experts were expecting somewhere around 110,000 to 140,000. So first, let's talk a little bit about why the revisions were so significant. Like May's jobs total was revised lower to only 19,000 jobs. That was down from an initial estimate of 139,000. Then you take a look at June. The BLS said that the U.S. economy added just 14,000 jobs in June. And that was a revision from the initial number of 147,000. So talk to me about how usual or

unusual these types of revisions are. Revisions in these numbers are pretty common, actually. I think we're going to see, even apart from just firing and the new chaos that's going to comment the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we're going to see larger revisions over time. And most people, of course, don't file this stuff. But we're going to see bigger revisions normally because there aren't as many people working for the Bureau anymore due to Trump's cuts. And so they're just not going to get it as close to accurate on the first go-round.

But this is a nonpartisan agency. It's been around for forever. Everyone relies on the information in the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Everyone trusts it's the best you can get, or at least they did until Trump acted. And now we're looking at a problem way beyond just they don't have enough people to get as close to right as possible the first time. Now we're looking at someone new coming in and none of us can have any confidence at all that that person will lead an agency. based on merit facts and neutral fact finding instead of cowtowing to a president who may just miss them too if he doesn't like what the results they deliver show.

Yeah, I see two things happening simultaneously. I agree with the point that you're making about cuts to federal agencies, including BLS, which would make it more difficult to gather the accurate data and numbers to get the initial reports as accurate as possible. I agree with that. At the same time, though, you know, Trump wants to do this for political reasons. To me, that's very clear. He thinks everyone is out to get him. Everything is rigged against him. He's like the special victim of this country. And so I am worried about the political intentions of Donald Trump. But just real quick, putting that aside for a second, when it comes to the accuracy of these numbers, the initial jobs reports, I'm wondering if it makes any sense at all to have

some sort of regulation ensuring that businesses respond to these surveys, because this is how it's done, right? You have employees over at BLS gathering data from business owners, and it's kind of hard to get the business owners to even respond to them, and so that's the problem that they've been running into. We don't have any federal laws that mandate the business. owners respond to this agency. I know that in some states, they have some regulations, but do you think it makes sense to have a federal law to get them to respond to these surveys? That might not be a bad idea at all. I mean, there is a problem, which is they're trying to take these snapshots of the entire economy. And it's just too big to grab the whole thing it

was. So doing representative surveys, and there is inevitably going to be some inaccuracy. But you're Right, the inaccuracies are bigger when businesses don't reply to the survey information. If they were required to, we'd have higher levels of response and more accurate numbers. So let's talk a little bit about what your thoughts are in regard to why the economy is slowing down. You know, BLS will put these numbers out, but they don't really explain why there are fewer job openings each month. What do you think is leading to this slowdown? Yeah, I think we probably should be humble, right? It's easy to say there's a simple cause and effect.

The economy is more complicated than that. And I think that the discussion about tariffs should be a little bit complicated because there actually is a reasonable role for tariffs in an industrial policy and promoting manufacturing. But one thing is for sure, when you've got chaotic tariffs that no one can possibly rely on, you're not getting any of the benefits that you might get from a tariff policy. And you're getting all of the disadvantages. So business is as much as anything really uncertain as we all are about what comes next.

You just mentioned India as this one flashpoint for today. But that's for today. And it's going to be someone else tomorrow. There's no reason to believe that the tariffs in place are going to stay in place. So if you're trying to make investment decisions or hiring decisions, you really don't know what's going to happen. And if you don't know what's going to happen, you're not going to lean in on the economy. that slows things down and that's a bad cycle

that then can drive us towards recession that many believe is now imminent. Right, and you know, consumer sentiment is certainly going down. That's what the latest jobs report indicates. They're spending less money, people are very uncertain about the economy, and you're right to point out that, yeah, I mean, the threats against India indicate that we might be dealing

with 50% tariffs today. But, you know, Trump always has an out, you know, kind of baked into his threats. If you don't negotiate a better deal within the first, you know, 21 days of me making this statement, then we're going to implement these 50% tariffs. It's unlikely that that will be the outcome that we're actually going to deal with 50% tariffs on Indian imports. However, let's take a quick look at a few of the countries that have, you know, concluded their negotiations, they've reached an agreement. So for instance, Vietnam is another

major U.S. trading partner. And it turns out that following the negotiations and agreed upon essentially consumer taxes, all imports from Vietnam will be taxed at 20%. Anything that's been shipped to Vietnam and then imported to the United States will be tariffed at 40%. That is significantly higher than what we were dealing with previously. And I really fail to understand how this is a win for American consumers. So you might be able to argue it's a win in terms of increasing tariff revenue for the federal government. But isn't that basically an indirect additional tax on consumers at a time when we've cut taxes significantly for the wealthiest among us? I'm curious what you think. Yeah, and of course the concentration of

is the dominant story of what's really going on under this administration. But I think when we're thinking about these tariffs, just to go back to the jobs issue, that's what the Vietnam tariffs are right now. They may not be that in two weeks. So if you're an investor, an importer or somebody's thinking, oh, I'm going to invest here now because I don't want to import anymore from Vietnam, no matter what, you just can't make sensible plans. And if you can't make sensible plans. You can't invest. You can't invest. We don't have jobs. So that's the connection towards the downward spike and downward spiral and job creation. One reason a lot of people think explains the diminished numbers we saw from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The impact on consumers is a little bit uneven. For one thing, there's a ton of exceptions to all these top line tariffs as companies and industries are cutting different deals with the administration that aren't normally being reported, but are a big part of the corruption of this whole thing. So if you think your industry is about to be tariffed, the smartest thing you can do in Washington, D.C. is hired Ballard, which is the main Trump lobby firm. They have a special deal that will exempt you from whatever the tariffs are. So it's going to be uneven. Also, those top line numbers are misleading. Those aren't the prices that directly go to consumers. those are the tax rate on wholesale imports.

So then the retailers will absorb some of that cost. Profits may go down, but consumers will pay some. And these are very high level of tariffs by historic numbers. For better or worse, in general, with some important exceptions, tariffs coming into the United States pre-Trump and leaving China aside where he's changed the equation recently, tariffs coming to the United States are very close to zero generally. So when you're seeing your numbers like 20%, it's compared to like 2% before. They are big changes.

Again, tons of caveats because of all these exceptions. It doesn't apply exactly the way people think. But these are high levels of tariffs. And yeah, at the end of the day, consumers are going to pay some share of that. Again, if you had tariffs in the context of an industrial policy, you might say that makes sense because we're trying to do something that makes sense, which is shift manufacturing back to the United States. But this is not really a policy designed to do that at all. It's what he says, but it's not what it's really designed. It's primarily designed to show his dominance and also to extract concessions from other countries on things unrelated to manufacturing United States.

So for example, we're pressuring other countries to change their rules on big tech, and we're threatening tariffs on them if they don't remove restrictions on big tech. We're threatening countries to say, hey, you have to raise your pharmaceuticals. price and watch out for this because it's going to become a more of a headline story the next couple weeks. You have to raise your pharmaceutical prices or will increase tariffs on you. So what this is really about is dominance on the one hand and favoritism for select industries on the other. It's really not part of a sensible industrial policy, which is what it's being advertised as. Right. And this is the guy who ran an economic populist campaign purporting to want to look out for the little guy in the country. In the meantime, behind the scenes, he's looking out for

tech firm, Silicon Valley. The very people, by the way, his base had huge issues with in the lead up to the election. But I got to get you to elaborate a little more on the pharmaceutical drug point that you just made, because I personally haven't read anything about that. And I'm fascinated by it. Why exactly would Trump want other countries to raise their pharmaceutical drug prices? So Trump is campaign consistently, going back to running for office the first time, against high drug prices. And he says the U.S. shouldn't pay more than other countries. That is a position that we as a consumer group and probably the leading advocate on drug prices in the United States completely agree with. Except he's never done anything about it.

What pharma is trying to do is say, okay, we hear you. the problem isn't that prices are too high here. The problem is that they're too low in other rich countries. Wow. We're paying all the costs of research and development, they say, in the United States. And these other countries are free riding off of all the investments that were in expenses we're paying in the United States. So Trump is now aggressively telling other countries, you have to raise your pharmaceutical prices up towards the U.S. level. Theoretically, then the U.S. level will come down a little bit.

But the cutting edge of this policy is other countries must raise their drug prices. And he's speaking about this increasingly, and I think it's likely to come to the four in the next few weeks. I mean, that is, that is so incredible. And then it also gives him the talking point of, look, look at what I did. Look at our drug prices compared to the drug prices in other countries. We used to pay so much more. But instead of telling the whole story about how he forced other countries to pay more than they needed to, right? He's going to make it seem like- I don't think he can succeed on this one because if there's one thing people know, it's that they are paying way too much in drug prices. And you're not going to fool them by saying, well, England is paying more. They don't care. They want to pay less.

That is, that's, thank you for telling me about that. I hadn't heard about that. And I really hope that there's some good reporting on it because we want to cover it in depth. But I want to go to one final question to you, and it has to do with the Federal Reserve and the endless pressure that Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, has been dealing with when it comes to Donald Trump wanting lower interest rates. Now, the Federal Reserve comes in at a time of high inflation and decides to increase interest rates. The whole point was to honestly lead to a little bit of economic strife, right?

to increase unemployment, decrease demand when we have limited supply, and that's supposed to control inflation to some extent. So higher unemployment numbers would translate into something that you would assume Trump wants, which is lower interest rates. But in a recent CNBC interview, it seemed like he had some difficulty connecting the dots. I want to just go to that video real quick and get your thoughts on it. Which number do you believe at this point? Because if you noticed, suddenly the chances of what you've wanted for months and argued for months,

the chances of a rate cut soared because of these numbers. Do you not believe the current numbers? Because they're playing right into what you want the Fed and J. Powell to do. They're not horrible, as you said. But perhaps with the tariffs, some businesses delayed some spending. Some consumers may have been less certain about the future. So maybe we're seeing a slight slowdown in labor, but you're going to get exactly what you want based on these numbers. Which ones do you believe?

Do you not believe the revised numbers either? It's not what I want. I don't want that. I wanted it a year ago. I wanted it a long time ago. Jay Powell is highly political, and I think, you know, I call him too late. Jerome, too late Powell. Okay, so first thoughts on that whole exchange.

This puts me in an awkward position. I do not want to defend the Federal Reserve, and I do not want to defend the chair of the Federal Reserve who I think generally has done a bad job. He actually has been too slow pre-Trump to lower interest rates. He's failed to regulate the banking sector, which is loose starting to spin out of control. He's done nothing on the existential threat of climate and how it intersects with the financial sector, which he oversees. That said, the Fed is set up to be independent of exactly the kind of pressure.

that Trump is applying, which is outrageous, of course, we're used to Trump being outrageous, but this one makes a big difference. It's not how the Fed is supposed to work in our system, not supposed to be browed by the president like this or threatened with firing. The reason Powell won't lower the interest rates is because he's worried about the inflationary impact of the tariffs that Trump is pushing. There's zero mystery about this. And that's why Trump's so upset. It's also why Powell feels a little bit hamstrung when he probably otherwise would be lowering you just rates at this time. So the problem that Trump is complaining about is 100% of his own making. Okay, I agree with everything you just said. But I lied because I have one

more question for you. Because I see this situation developing right now where we could have high inflation, partly due to Trump's tariff policies. I mean, we have to wait and see. We don't know what's going to happen. That's the uncertainty. But we could have high inflation in addition to high unemployment. And in an environment like that, what exactly is the Federal Reserve supposed to do? That's a nightmare scenario, and it is entirely possible. It's entirely possible.

And if you step back a little bit from some of the kind of day-to-week things we're talking about and look at the big picture of what this administration is doing and has done, The primary thing it is done is past this reconciliation bill, which will strip health care, meaning impoverish 17 million Americans, and concentrate wealth with a tax cut for the super rich and billionaires. And that's a situation where we don't have broad demand because people don't have money. The rich don't spend that much of what they've got. Then people are just struggling, and we may actually get to this worst case scenario of stagflation. And in that scenario, neither the Federal Reserve nor anyone else has any great tools available. Wow. Robert Weissman, thank you so much for joining us.

Co-president of Public Citizen, thank you for being so generous with your time, and I hope you'll come back soon. Anytime. Thanks. All right, everyone. We're going to take a brief break, and we'll be right back. Welcome back to TYTM, your host, Anna Casparian, and this next story is the type of reporting, the type of story that should be on the front page of every paper in the United States, that should be covered all week by cable news, network news. But it's likely you haven't heard about this at all. It's being covered in Israeli media, funny enough.

And it has to do with what the Israeli government knew or didn't know on October 7th or leading up to October 7th. What kind of intelligence did they have? And did the Israeli government sit by and allow Hamas to commit atrocities? Well, I'm going to give you the evidence. You can decide for yourselves. The 7th of October was a date, you know, that they still have not been able to, and there's an investigation going on. And I've already heard from some of the soldiers that were told to stand down in the exact hours. So something bad happened.

And it was an inside thing. I have personally walked that border. I have been down at those areas. And I know I know the details of how the Israelis, one of the most secure borders in the world, how they do their operation. So I know that. So something broke down and it wasn't because of mistakes. Today, former U.S. national security advisor, Mike Flynn, stunned Steve Bannon with the statement that you just heard him make in regard to October 7th, the day that Hamas committed atrocities against the Israeli people, giving the Israeli government the excuse that it's always wanted

to essentially brutalize, terrorize the Palestinian people in Gaza. They also did so in the West Bank, even though the West Bank has nothing to do with October 7th. And now they're going to annex the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Now, reporting from the dissident, by the way, also sheds light on some new testimony from an IDF soldier who suggests that Israel may have intentionally allowed the October 7th attack to happen. This is an IDF soldier. This is reported by Israel's Channel 7 News and the dissident. Now, before we get to the latest reporting on this, let me just remind you all that dating all the way back, all the way back to November 30th of 2023, so almost two months after the

October 7th attacks, there was a piece written in the New York Times that definitely grabbed our attention. We covered it. The piece was titled Israel knew Hamas's attack plan more than a year ago. Again, this was published in 2023, meaning they knew a year prior to the actual attack. A blueprint reviewed by the Times laid out the attack in detail. Israeli officials dismissed it as aspirational and ignored specific warnings. Now this would also be a good time to remind you all that Benjamin Netanyahu, the current prime minister of Israel, is the one who facilitated the funding of Hamas. That can't be repeated enough, but somehow it never gets talked about in the US media. Now back to that New York Times piece, it indicated

that Israeli officials had obtained the detailed Hamas battle plan for October 7th, a year prior to the attack happening. The translated document, which was reviewed by the New York Times, did not set a date for the attack, but described a methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, take over Israeli cities, and storm key military bases, including a division headquarters. Hamas followed the blueprint with shocking precision. The document called for a barrage of rockets at the outset of the attack, drones to knock out these security cameras, and automated machine guns along the border, and gunmen to pour into Israel in mass, in paragliders, on motorcycles, and on foot, all of which happened on October 7th.

Again, the blueprint was discovered and was available for the Israeli authorities to view and to prepare for. But they didn't, more. The documents circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack on that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas's capabilities according to documents and officials. Now at the time that we covered this reporting from the Times and this huge bombshell report, really, it hadn't occurred to me at that moment that we're talking about, is Israel here. You know, the perpetual victims, the most neurotic and paranoid people on the

planet. They think everyone hates them. They think everyone's a terrorist. So you're telling me that the Israeli government and military had the blueprint for Hamas's October 7th attack a year in advance and didn't do anything to prepare for it. Really? Really. Interesting. Okay. And then in a story that was reported by Israeli paper Haretz in June of 2024, meaning last year, there was another piece of evidence that Israel knew about the attack before it happened. Report new evidence reveals IDF had detailed prior knowledge of Hamas plan to raid Israel. A never before seen IDF document surfaces startling new details of Hamas's operational plans to invade Israel. The report

outlines Hamas ordered orders to take between 200 and 250 Israeli hostages. Okay, wow. So weeks prior to the attack, the IDF had access to additional evidence that Hamas was planning this attack. Okay, so the report on this new document that the IDF obtained said the following. So this newly surfaced document reveals that Israeli defense forces and Israeli intelligence systems had detailed knowledge of Hamas's plan to raid Israel, including the number of hostages to be taken and specific instructions for their treatment while in captivity. The document, which is based on information from military intelligence's 8200 unit, began circulating on September 19th, less than three weeks before the October 7th massacre.

Its contents were brought to the attention of at least some senior intelligence officials, but apparently ignored. Why were they ignored? Why were they ignored? Is anyone asking these questions? Seriously, I'm curious why all of these powerful people in the Israeli military and the Israeli government had all these warnings, had the battle plan a year in advance, had another document detailing what was going to happen weeks in advance. And they didn't prepare for it? That's strange, isn't it? Okay, well, there's more, all right?

So the raid targets described in the document, which include IDF command and control headquarters, base synagogues, squadron headquarters, communications headquarters, and soldiers' quarters, closely mirrored the locations hit by Hamas forces during the early morning hours of October 7th. And again, that document detailed how many hostages Hamas was planning to take, to kidnap, to holding captivity in the Gaza Strip, between 200 to 250 hostages. And that was the number that they eventually kidnapped. So now we have this damning testimony from an IDF soldier who was on duty on October 7th. And this testimony is reported on in Channel 7 in Israel.

So Israeli media to some extent is covering this. No one in the U.S. seems to have any interest in covering it. The dissident has reported on it, but that hasn't gotten much attention. This was reported days ago. Luckily, I found this report and felt that it was important to share with you all. So Shalom Shidrit, who is a Golani fighter, who took part in the battles on October 7th, suggests that Israeli or Israel intentionally allowed the attack to happen. Well, that's a big accusation.

So the force at the Pega post where this IDF soldier was stationed was supposed to protect the kibbutz-Beri, which was one of the targets of the, you know, Hamas terrorists who showed up and killed innocent people. Reporting on the testimony, Israel's Channel 7 reported that at 5.20 a.m. on October 7th, this IDF soldier said, we were playing on the phone and suddenly a strange message came up from my deputy commander. And what he says on the radio is something like this, quote, I don't know why, but an order was given that there would be no patrols in the Gaza fence until 9 a.m. Okay, it gets even stranger. He says, and sure enough, this is a direct quote from the IDF soldier, and he's sharing his

identity. There's his name right there. And sure enough, an hour later at 6.30, suddenly sirens. Israel's Channel 7 also reported that every morning the platoon rises or raises alert. And in his estimation, there are no mornings in which there are no patrols on the Gaza fence because you are in an operational battalion and that is part of the matter. So it was unusual to not have IDF soldiers guarding that area. Every day there are IDF soldiers guarding that area.

But that morning, they were basically told, don't do that. They got that strange message, why? And why is this being reported for the first time now? I mean, it's absurd. So Channel 7 asked this IDF soldier, why so many IDF officials at posts near the Gaza border were sleeping when October 7th happened. To which the IDF soldier responds, I don't know how to answer it that way in our mortar platoon. We were on alert at dawn and we woke up. It is possible that the patrol wards

told them not to get up or wake up. I don't know. I don't know what to say. He also addressed the intel that was ignored, saying that it's not a failure on the part of the fighters on the ground, but on the part of the high levels in the army of people who went down to Eliat, even though we informed them a week in advance that there was intelligence information. What, our lives are not worth it? No, Shalom, your life isn't worth it, clearly. You think Netanyahu cares about your life? You think Netanyahu and this Israeli government cares about the hostages right now? You think the aerial bombardments, the three-month blockade on humanitarian aid wasn't going to impact the hostages that the Israeli government is pretending to care about? They knew, they don't care. How many of those hostages were actually killed by Israel's military activity?

We know at least three of them were shot to death by IDF soldiers. You, you think your government cares about you? How many IDF soldiers have died in this genocide that they're carrying out? Based on an attack that happened that could have been prevented. But for some reason, it seems like the Israeli government didn't want to prevent those atrocities from being committed in Israel. Seems like they saw a possible benefit, a political benefit, to these atrocities being committed against the Israeli people. But hey, at least Shalom's asking the right questions.

Maybe dig a little deeper, get to know your government, get to know what it's really about and what their real goals are. Also worth emphasizing that Jeremy Scahill's reporting about what Netanyahu was up to weeks Prior to the October 7th attack might shed some light on what the reality is of this entire situation. Just two weeks before the October 7th attacks, the Israeli leader delivered a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York, brandishing a map of what he promised could be the new Middle East. It depicted a state of Israel that stretched continuously from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Gaza and the West Bank, as Palestinian lands, were erased.

He was just giving us a little sneak peek, a little preview at what was to come. Who cares if innocent Israeli civilians die in the process? Who cares if IDF soldiers are forced to go carry out a genocide and slaughter countless women, children, elderly people, non-combatants? Hey, we get to have our land, the Greater Israel Project. That's what matters the most. You think they care about the hostages? Netanyahu has demonstrated over and over again that he cares about nothing but himself and conquest.

And unfortunately, he is getting what he wants because our government and our government officials, including our president, don't serve us, the American. people. They don't do what's right on behalf of the international community. They serve Netanyahu and the Israeli government like the dogs that they are. It's time to ask some serious questions for the Israeli people. Why is your prime minister or why did your prime minister facilitate the funding of Hamas? Why are you allowing him to remain in power? And do you really think he cares about the hostages? Because his actions prove otherwise. We got to take a break. Looking to get the money, time, and even better your points in miles.

I'm Chris Hutchins. I'm a lifelong optimizer, and I've sold two companies, racked up millions of points, and traveled the world to over 60 countries almost always for free. And I host all the hacks, an award-winning podcast trusted by more than a million listeners, that turns big ideas into quick tactical moves you can start using today to upgrade your life, money, and travel. Recent episodes have covered how to book business class seats for economy prices, how to make an easy $3,000 a month from online deals, and tiny habits that you can use to buy back hours of your time

each week. There's no fluff in the show. It's just proven playbooks to travel better, spend smarter, and design a life you're excited about. So search all the hacks. That's all the hacks in your podcast app. Hit follow and start upgrading your life today.