The Young Turks - Tower of Terror

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

President Biden stated that the New Orleans attacker had created videos indicating ISIS inspiration before killing 15 people. A Tesla Cybertruck explosion at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas is being investigated as a potential terrorist act. Biden allegedly considered bombing Iran's nuclear sites. Israel's assault on Gaza contributed to making 2024 one of the deadliest years on record for journalists. Elon Musk demonetizes the accounts of people criticizing his take on H-1B visas." HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian) 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. Live from the Polymarket Studio in L.A. It's the Young Turks. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and Jank Yugar is out today. So you'll be getting a solo hour with me in the first hour. And in the second hour, Lombray will be joining us to talk about other news, including some of the stories that

we will not be getting to in the first hour. First hour is jam packed with some of the big stories that happened over the holiday break, including the terror attack that took place in New Orleans and another attack that took place in Las Vegas in front of Trump Tower. So we'll be getting into all the updates and details on those two stories. And then we have a possible explosive story regarding foreign policy, Biden's foreign policy, in the next segment. So definitely stick around for that. It appears that some in Biden's circle have been trying to persuade him to do attacks on Iran, including the nuclear sites in Iran. So we'll give you the details on that. Don't miss it. But as always, I'd like you to either like or share the stream. If you're interested

in supporting the show, you can also become a member by going to t-y-t. And by the way, happy new year. Okay, so it's 2025. I can't believe I'm saying that. And I hope the new year brings you all good memories, fortune, happiness. I hope you're all thriving. I hope you're all healthy. And thank you so much for all the support that you guys have shown us over the years.

We really appreciate it. All right. Now, unfortunately, we have to move on to some devastating news that occurred on New Year's Day. It's the early hours of New Year's Day and a white pickup truck is stuck in traffic. The streets are busy with revelers in the French Quarter, the most famous tourist destination in New Orleans. The truck passes a police car and it suddenly turns right, ploughing into people. In this security camera video, you can see how fast it's going and how escaping its path is just a matter of split-second timing or luck.

You just watched footage from a devastating terror attack that took place in New Orleans over New Year's Day. 14 people were killed and 35 more were injured in this horrific attack in New Orleans amid New Year's celebrations. Now, there is still a lot to be learned about this attack. Authorities, of course, are investigating various aspects of this, including whether or not this individual acted alone. and what the real motive was behind the attack.

But here is what we know so far. So the man who carried out the attack was identified as 42-year-old Shamsuddin Jabbar, who's a U.S.-born citizen from Houston. Now, he was also a veteran, and we have some other interesting information about him. So take a look at his mugshot or a photo of him, I should say. He served in the Army for more than a decade as a human resource specialist. and Information Technology Specialist. He was on active duty between March of 2007 and January of 2015 and deployed to Afghanistan

once from February of 2009 to January of 2010. Now, after leaving active duty in January of 2015, Jabar served as an Army Reserve or part of the Army Reserve until July of 2020. And at that point, he left the service as a staff sergeant. Now, law enforcement has described the incident as a terror attack, and Jabar has been killed after he crashed his truck, which he had rented, he emerged from the vehicle and then started to shoot at law enforcement. And at that point, law enforcement shot and killed him. Now, while the FBI is still investigating whether others were involved in this attack, so far they believe that he acted alone. And we're also learning more about his possible motive. Now, I mentioned that he is a U.S.-born citizen. Jabar, though, drove from Houston to New Orleans on Tuesday evening and posted several videos online proclaiming his support for ISIS and mentioning he joined ISIS before this summer.

And that's according to Christopher Raya of the FBI. Now, in fact, his truck had an ISIS flag, but authorities still do not know if he was merely inspired by ISIS or if he was taking direction from ISIS members, if he was working with ISIS members to carry out that attack. That is still being investigated, although so far from what authorities have learned, they do not believe he was acting with anyone else involved. But we'll see if anything else develops from that. Now, Jabbar was hellbent on killing as many people as possible, driving a pickup truck onto the sidewalk around a parked police car serving as a barricade to plow into pedestrians, officials said. Jabar then exited the damaged vehicle and began shooting at authorities with his assault rifle.

Police say that he was also in possession of a handgun and two officers in that shootout or in that incident were injured, one by gunfire and the other was actually pinned by the truck that Jabbar used to carry out the attack. Now, the suspect drove a rented truck through crowds on Bourbon Street and was also caught on surveillance prior to doing that attack, essentially placing or planting explosive devices in the area. Surveillance footage showed Jabbar placing two improvised explosive devices in coolers in the Bourbon Street area. Quote, those are the only two devices that we've been able to recover that were functional. Both devices were rendered safe on scene, according to the FBI Deputy Assistant Director.

Christopher Reya. Now, the middle school and high school classmate of Jabars actually ended up speaking to CNN today about his religious influences, his, you know, how he became a little more radicalized in his faith. And I think it's important to hear from him. So again, this was a former classmate of Jabars from both middle school and high school. Take a look. Up until the last, you know, a few times I had spoke with him, he had become really, you know, enthralled in his faith and pretty much every conversation we had or post that he was he was making at that time in some way should perform it. It all, you know, resorted back to his Muslim faith. Were you having, you know, respectful exchanges? It was, it was very respectful. And it wasn't anything like he was upset or mad at anybody. Every post and every conversation I ever had with him. he was never mad at anything. He never talked about overthrowing the government or being mad at a particular race or religion or anything like that. So while his classmate noticed that he'd

become more religious, he didn't see any red flags or warning signs about it. But what I also think is really fascinating is we're learning about his past marriages, issues that he had with the law and issues that he had with his own personal finances. And that could give us some signs. in regard to what might have motivated his attack. So before we get to that, though,

let's just talk a little more about what CNN is reporting about Jabbar's online videos. So he made reference in the videos to his divorce and how he had at first plan to gather his family for a celebration with the intention of killing them. But Jabbar said in the videos, he changed his plans because he wanted news headlines to focus on the war between believers and the disbelievers, making reference to his support of ISIS. He stated that he had joined ISIS before the summer,

and Jabbar had divorced twice, according to court records. So his first wife sued him back in 2012 over child support soon after he filed for divorce. And the court ordered him to pay amounts that increased over the years as his income also increased. The case was then dismissed in 2022. But that was his first divorce. He went through a second divorce in 2020. And at that point, a Texas judge granted Jabbar's second wife a restraining order against him during their divorce case. The order mandated Jabbar to refrain from threats, physical harm, or other stipulated behavior against his ex-wife and either of their children. And when it comes to his financial issues, he was in debt. And so in a January 2020,

two email filed as part of his divorce case. He wrote that he could not afford a mortgage payment on his house, which he said was more than $27,000 past due and in danger of foreclosure if his divorce settlement was further delayed. And he also stated in the email that a business that he had formed called Blue Meadow Properties, a real estate business, had lost money about $28,000 the prior year, and that other businesses he formed weren't worth any. money. He added that he had incurred about $16,000 in credit card debt. Now, he also had some run-ins with the law. You know, there's one case back in 2000. It was like a petty theft case. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor as a result of that. And then in 2025, he was arrested for

driving under the influence. He had a blood alcohol level that was too high to be behind the wheel. But those were really the only other, you know, issues that he's had in his past. So it gives you a little sense of some of the trouble he had in the past. I don't know how much of that motivated his decision to carry out a horrific and vicious terrorist attack on New Year's Day. 14 people have been killed as a result, 35 innocent people injured. And critics are also very furious at the lack of safety precautions that were taken by authorities ahead of New Year's Day. Because think about it. This is Bourbon Street.

You're going to have a ton of people celebrating, coming together. And so simply having police cars as barricades clearly wasn't enough. And so there were a lot of questions about these so-called security bollards. And so those are essentially like these steel or metal, you know, little pillars almost in order to barricade an area and prevent someone from causing the kind of damage that Jabar did here. But the authorities claim that they are in the process of being replaced for next month's Super Bowl. And so that's the reason why they didn't have those security bollards up, which I get wanting to have enhanced security for the Super Bowl, but maybe also have some enhanced security for a big celebratory event like New Year's Day on Bourbon Street. And so I'm sure we're going to be learning more about this story as it develops.

It's hard to have any, you know, strong definitive commentary on it when we don't know all the details. We don't know what the motive was. And it's just so incredibly disgusting to know that someone would feel the need to rob dozens of other people of their health, of their safety, of their lives because of whatever they're going through. And these types of attacks, you know, whether it's with a firearm or with a vehicle, happens way too often. And again, I just feel, I'm sad to say this, but I just feel that whenever it comes to big events, whenever it comes to some day that people are coming together to celebrate, there needs to be precaution taken by the authorities. They need to make sure that there are no excuses when it comes to the barricades or the ballards. They need to make sure that they're doing everything

they can to keep the public safe. And I don't feel like that happened in this instance. and, you know, we'll see what we learn more as this story develops, but that's all we know for now. about. So let's get to that story. This was the scene from inside the lobby of the Trump International Hotel just after 8.30 Wednesday morning. A 2024 Tesla cyber truck engulfed in flames at the valet area just outside the main doors. We saw sparks. It was pretty fast. This surveillance video caught the moment that cyber truck exploded. Well, as you just saw from that footage, a Tesla cyber truck exploded right in front of Trump Tower in Las Vegas, killing the occupant

and injuring seven others on New Year's Day. Now, miraculously, despite how horrific that scene was, only one person, the occupant of the vehicle, died. So who carried this out? What was the motive? And why was Elon Musk bragging? Well, we'll get to Elon Musk and the bragging in just a minute, but first, the important details to this story. So surveillance video shows a driver passing by the Trump Hotel in Vegas about an hour before the car explodes, and then circling back near the end of that hour and stopping in front of the hotel where the car explodes several seconds later, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. So here's Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMill, basically explained

what they found in the truck? The fire initially, they covered it with the tarp to try to get it to go out. Once the fire went out through the suppression efforts of the fire department, you'll see some of the evidence in the back of the vehicle. So those are gasoline canisters. They are camp fuel canisters and large firework mortars. So seven people, as I mentioned earlier in that area, unfortunately injured, but luckily all of them are in stable condition. And remarkably,

none of the glass at Trump Tower broke, and only that driver was killed. So, I mean, I'm sad about the seven people who were injured. I'm glad that they are in stable condition, but it is pretty miraculous that the only person who died was the person in the vehicle. And again, we don't know for sure what motivated this attack. I mean, obviously, I don't think It's a coincidence that he was in a cyber truck. So Elon Musk, of course, very close with Donald Trump at the moment. And this attack happened, or this explosion happened right in front of Trump Tower. So I'm very curious about what was behind this attack and it is being investigated right now.

Here's what we know for sure for now. So the man who rented the cyber truck has been identified as Matthew Leibensberger. He's a 37-year-old member of the Army's 11th. elite special forces units from Colorado Springs. Now, earlier we were talking about the terror attack that took place on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and the U.S. born citizen who carried out that attack was also an army veteran. So that's really interesting. And the U.S. Army said in regard to the Las Vegas attack on Thursday that Livelyberger

was an active duty soldier from 2006 to 2011 before transferring to the National Guard. and then the army reserves. He rejoined the army in 2012 and was a special operations soldier. U.S. Special Operations Command confirmed that he was assigned to the command and on leave at the time of his death. So he wasn't a veteran.

He was still in active duty, but nonetheless, the two individuals that were talking about today who carried out two separate attacks, you know, had affiliations with the military. And we don't know at the moment whether there's any connection to the two attacks. So far, authorities do not believe so, but they're still investigating it.

Officials, again, haven't definitively confirmed yet whether he was the man in the vehicle at the time of the explosion. But today, investigators said that IDs and tattoos on the body gave them strong indication that he was the guy. And they also revealed that the man had shot himself in the head with a handgun before the explosion. took place and had another gun in the vehicle as well. Here's what else we know. So the FBI is still trying to determine whether this was an act of terrorism. I don't begrudge anyone for making the assumption that it was meant to be an act of terror, considering where it took place, you know, especially in this highly charged political time.

They're also investigating whether the cyper drug explosion is related to the attack in New Orleans. So again, there's some similarities. We've already gone over that. But as of this morning, the FBI is making clear that they have found no connection. So let's take a look at that. We are following up in all potential leads and not ruling everything out. However, at this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas. And again, I'll preface as I close.

I'll preface everything with what I started with in the beginning, which was this is very early in an investigation. like this. It is very early in the investigation. And, you know, even though a motive hasn't been determined, a lot of people obviously are speculating that it has to do with politics. And in fact, that includes the Vegas sheriff himself, who was quoted as saying, it's a Tesla truck. And we know that Elon Musk is working with President Elect Trump. And it's the Trump tower. So there's obviously things to be concerned about there. And speaking of Elon Musk, Shortly after the attack, you know, he used this as an opportunity to give himself a pat on the back for producing vehicles that are as durable, I guess, as the cyber truck.

So let's start with Elon fanboy Ian Miles. Ian Miles Chong. He wrote on X the following. Elon's decision to build a cyber truck like a tank may have saved many lives in Vegas today. Imagine how much worse the explosion would have been for all those in the vicinity if it was any other vehicle. And I'm sure Trump, I'm sure Musk love that. He responded by saying, Cybertruck is the worst possible choice for a car bomb, as its stainless steel armor will contain the blast better than any other commercial vehicle. Look, I don't know if that's true about it being more durable than any other commercial vehicle, but it is true that given the explosion, it is, we're very lucky that only the person in the vehicle died. Let's just put it

that way. But I just feel like maybe don't use this as an opportunity to brag at the moment. Just like, let it go for the moment, okay? Especially considering how scary the situation is and must have been for people on the scene there. And look, to be fair to Elon, he wasn't the only one giving the cyber truck some credit for containing the blast. The sheriff did so too, saying the fact that this was a cyber truck really limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet because it had most of the blast go up through the truck and out. But again, I'm not going to speculate on what the motive was here. I have no idea, and it would be irresponsible to just assume that it was meant to be some sort of anti-Trump terror attack. Someone related to the individual

in the vehicle claim that he was not in any way against Trump. was in favor of Trump. I don't know how true that is. And I wouldn't take that at face value, right? Take that with a grain of salt. Let the authorities do the investigation and hopefully we'll learn more soon. But incredibly scary situation. I'm lucky, we're all lucky that no one else got hurt seriously. No one else died as a result of this. And it's just terrible that, you know, New Year's Day was riddled with these type of horrible stories, these acts of violence. So we'll keep you updated as we learn more about it. But for now, we're going to take a break. And when we come back, we'll talk about how some people in Biden's circle had been trying to persuade him to

do a U.S. attack on Iran, you know, with a very limited amount of time before the next president gets inaugurated. It is insane. I can't wait to share the details of that story with you when we come back. Don't miss it. Welcome back to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian. And Axios had a story today that was concerning to say the least and kind of gives us some insight into who is kind of calling the shots or at least having some influence and sway. over President Joe Biden, even as he clearly suffers from cognitive decline and should not be in the position that he's currently in, especially when it comes to life and death situations like the one I'm about to describe. So without further ado, let's get into the details here.

Axios is reporting that White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan actually presented President Joe Biden with options for a potential U.S. attack on U.S. attack on U.S. Iran's nuclear facilities. So let me just pause to make sure you guys absorb that. Okay. Jake Sullivan was presenting Joe Biden options for the United States military to carry out strikes against Iran, specifically Iran's nuclear facilities, if the Iranians, you know, move toward building nuclear weapons before January 20th.

Okay, so let's just pause for a second and take in how. unbelievably absurd that would be, okay? You've got weeks left in your administration. Imagine if the United States, under the last few weeks that Biden is in power, decides to carry out military activity against Iran. And essentially, you know, I mean, that's an exhalation of epic proportions. Okay, the U.S. at that point would be in a hot war with Iran. And then Donald Trump takes over. Jake Sullivan is one of the people that I am very happy to not have to hear from for a while until the next corporate Democrat gets elected, I'm sure.

They'll have some role because it's always the same people over and over again. But the irresponsible nature of this really does blow my mind. So let me give you some more details about it. So basically, during Donald Trump's first term, he made what I believe is a mistake because of something that Benjamin Netanyahu urged him to do, which is to rip up the Iran nuclear deal. The Iran nuclear deal, which was a deal involving several countries, the United States, Iran, and several of our European allies

agreed that there would be, you know, an effort to check in on Iran and make sure that they're not building nuclear weapons. Netanyahu didn't like that deal. Even though it had safeguards, even though Iran allowed, individuals to go into their country to make sure they're not building nuclear weapons. The reason why Netanyahu didn't like that deal is because that hindered the possibility of the United States going to war with Iran. And to be sure, the far right members of Israel's government, including Benjamin Netanyahu, he's on the record on this, have been trying to egg

the U.S. on in attacking Iran, essentially having the United States fight Israel's war on their behalf. Luckily, so far, the U.S. has resisted those calls. But if the United States government is concerned about Iran building nuclear weapons, we could have reentered the Iran nuclear deal after Trump made the mistake of ripping it up. Biden, in fact, ran on the promise of reinstating the Iran nuclear deal, but he didn't do that, did he? And so what does that mean? When you have more and more aggression from Israel and Iran feels like, okay, well, they're going to come for us. There's some possibility that they're actually going to start building nuclear weapons. Now, we have no confirmation of that. And up until a few months ago, Iran was denying that they

were building any nuclear weapons. But over the last few months, some of the politicians there, some of the officials there started talking publicly about maybe we really should enrich uranium to 90% in order to build nuclear weapons. Because let's keep a real, folks. If you're a nuclear country, if you have nuclear weapons, the likelihood of other countries attacking you is diminished to some extent. And so Jake Sullivan takes these public statements, knocks on Joe Biden's door and says,

yo, I've got some possibilities for you if you're interested in the US military carrying out strikes against their nuclear facilities. Now, luckily, there was no commitment from Biden to do any of this. But it is concerning that the president, on one hand, is a man with cognitive decline. And all these people around him, including Jake Sullivan, seem to be the ones calling the shots. What if Joe Biden decided to greenlight an incredibly irresponsible thing to do? That's the fear here. And imagine Biden greenlighting that, like weeks before Trump goes into office, weeks before he's inaugurated as the new president.

So Axios reports that behind the scene, some of Biden's top aides have argued internally that two trends, the acceleration of Iran's nuclear program and the weakening of Iran and its proxies in their war with Israel, together give Biden an imperative and a an opportunity to strike. The sources said some of Biden's aides, including Sullivan, think that the degrading of Iran's air defenses and missile capabilities, along with the significant weakening of Iran's regional proxies, would improve the odds of a successful strike and decrease the risk of Iranian retaliation. Okay. We all remember what a disaster Iraq was.

Now consider the military capabilities of Iran, because Iran's military capabilities are far more superior than anything the U.S. experienced with Iraq. How is this a good idea at all? And how would the U.S. benefit from this at all? I understand how some Israeli officials are trying to go the U.S. into doing this. But how exactly would this be beneficial to the United States? how would it be beneficial to the Middle East? I mean, Jake Sullivan's going into this with the assumption that like, oh, yeah, we're totally going to get them.

They're weakened. Iran has shown an insane level of restraint. We actually don't know what they're fully capable of at this moment. Because they know if they carry out the kind of attack that you would expect from Iran, right? that's when the U.S. would get involved militarily. And it might not bode well for them. But if anyone in the United States government thinks that it would be a cakewalk to defeat Iran, I mean, they really have another thing coming.

But it might actually lead to a drawn out, lengthy, brutal war. Or the only individuals that really benefit are the military contractors, right? The military industrial complex. and all of those executives and shareholders that literally make money off war. So I'm going to give you some more from Sullivan because this guy is unbelievable. This is a direct quote. You can look at the public statements of Iranian officials which have changed in the last few months as they have been dealt with strategic blow, says Sullivan. To raise the question, do we have to change our doctrine at some point?

The fact that that's coming out publicly is something that has to be looked at extremely carefully, Sullivan said. And this was at a conference in New York two weeks ago. At the same event, according to Axios, Sullivan suggested the blows Iran and its proxies had received over the last year could push Tehran to seek a nuclear weapon. It generates choices for that adversary that can be quite dangerous. And that's something we have to remain extremely vigilant about as we go forward. Biden didn't commit to anything. He didn't say yes or no. And I got to be honest, this is Barack Reveed's reporting. And it's a little wishy-washy for my taste. Because on one hand, he's like, but you know, Sullivan wasn't trying to encourage Biden to do

this. I just read you his quotes. I just read you his quotes. It sounds like encouragement to strike Iran's nuclear facilities. I mean, I understand you want access to your sources, but you've got to call a spade a spade. The quotes speak for themselves. The idea that Sullivan wasn't trying to persuade Biden to do this incredibly irresponsible attack is like ludicrous. It's like it's laughable. So look, Iran allegedly has increased its uranium enrichment to 60%. Close enough to the 90% level, according to Ravid's reporting, needed to produce a nuclear weapon that Iran's advanced centrifuges could accomplish in a matter of days. 60% is not that close to 90%.

And the idea of doing an attack and treating this as if it's an imminent threat is laughable. and incredibly irresponsible thinking. If you want to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons, I don't know, maybe go back to something Obama did correctly, which was entering a nuclear deal with Iran, along with our European allies who ensured that there were checks involved to prevent Iran from actually building nuclear weapons, to prevent them from enriching uranium.

That was the right way to go about it. But now there's no discussion about any deal. And by the way, when Biden was first elected, Iran wanted to meet with him. They wanted to have conversations and negotiations about reentering the Iran nuclear deal. When Trump ripped up the Iran nuclear deal, Iran actually continued following it for some number of months, hoping that the United States would come to its senses because our allies were also part of the deal, were urging the U.S. to reenter the deal. So really, the U.S. government has one of two choices.

They could either continue escalating toward a hot war with Iran on behalf of Israel, which would benefit the United States 0%. Or they can, I don't know, maybe think about peaceful diplomatic solutions. But people don't really make money from the peaceful diplomatic solutions, do they? And our precious ally Israel wouldn't be happy with a peaceful option here. So I'm glad that Biden didn't commit to doing this. I don't know how Trump would behave or how he would respond to, you know, Iran. He did not handle Iran well, in my opinion, in his first term.

I think what he did with the Iran nuclear deal was a massive mistake. So we'll see what happens. But the idea that an outgoing president would escalate toward a hot war with a foreign country right before the new president is inaugurated is insane. to me. Absolutely insane. All right. We got to take a break. When we come back, I want to talk a little bit about the latest reporting in regard to journalists who have been killed in this war on Gaza.

The reports are just absolutely brutal. And international journalists are not allowed to be on the ground to report on what's happening. So the journalists who are already there on the ground are slowly but surely all getting slaughtered. I wonder why. We'll grab back. What's up, everyone?

Welcome back to the show. Stinky Stinky Feet in our super chat section, writes in and says, Anna, I hope your holiday went well, saw you and your husband playing top golf on IG. That's hilarious. Oh, my God. I can't believe he posted that video. It's so embarrassing. How's your swing?

Okay, it was great. Everything was great. We had fun. I did not expect him to post that video on Instagram. Hanging with my Prometheus says, Happy New Year, Anna. Wow, what a start of the year. Two attacks in one night feels like the end of the beginning. Hang tight for next four years because we are heading to crazy years ahead. God help us.

I feel like we've been in crazy years. I mean, everything just feels very chaotic. But we've got each other. So I don't know, man. I don't know if it's an age thing. It probably is. But if you're healthy, you have your loved ones, they're healthy. Just be appreciative of everything you have in life.

Hug your loved ones, a little tighter, and be thankful for everyone and everything you have. Because, you know, I mean, just imagine losing a family member in this horrific way. They're celebrating. It's New Year's Day and some unhinged maniac, you know, drives his truck, his rented truck through the crowd. It's just so horrible in every way. So even though it's a terrible story and it makes me feel really bad, at the same time, I try to focus on the things that make life worthwhile, all the wonderful things that make my life wonderful. And so, you know, I guess it's a coping mechanism, but it's also true. We're all fortunate in different ways. So just be cognizant of that and mindful of that. Okay, well, I wanted to talk about something that has really been bothering me, especially because usually when you hear about stories of journalists getting killed, it's a big deal, except in one of these contexts, right? In one specific context, literally hundreds of journalists getting slaughtered doesn't seem to make news quite the same way.

But I want to give attention to it. So let's get into it. Just last Thursday, an Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside Al-Ada hospital in the New Sadat refugee camp in central Gaza. One of those five journalists in their car that was clearly marked press was waiting for his first child to be born inside the hospital. Those journalists aren't the only ones who have been killed by the Israeli defense forces. This is a story we've been focusing on, staying on, because it's important. Without journalists on the ground, we wouldn't know what's happening in Gaza. Now, per report by the International Federation of Journalists, or IFJ,

64 journalists in Gaza were killed, or Palestine, because this also includes the West Bank, were killed last year alone, making 2024 one of the deadliest years on record for those working in the profession. So the same report found that 122 journalists and media workers were killed in total last year. They also estimated that since the start of the war, which of course was October of 2023, a total of 147 journalists in Palestinian territory have been killed. And look, that might actually be an incredibly conservative estimate. So I'll give you some of the numbers that have come out from other organizations as well. For instance, Al Jazeera has counted 217, journalists killed since October 7, 2023.

And just between December 14th and 26, nine journalists have been killed in Gaza, according to the committee to protect journalists or CPJ. So, look, death obviously isn't the only risk. especially if these reporters are operating out of the Gaza Strip, which has been leveled in the north, which continues to be bombarded with IDF bombs that have been supplied by the United States. So the CPJ just reported that in Gaza and the West Bank, since the start of the war, there have been 75 arrests as well as numerous assaults, threats, cyber attacks, and censorship. As of January 2nd of 2025, meaning today,

CPJ's records show that 45 of these journalists were still, still under arrest. And look, we've shared stories about Palestinian civilians who have been detained without any charges, without any trial, without any reason for their detainment. Some of them have been raped. Some of them have been beaten and abused to death. That is what's currently transpiring right now.

And we are arming the individuals who are carrying out this brutality. We are arming the military and the government that's carrying out this brutality against journalists and innocent civilians. For the most part, Israel, by the way, does not allow foreign reporters to enter Gaza. I wonder if it's because maybe they want to dominate the narrative out of Gaza. But satellite imagery shows how much of the Gaza Strip has been leveled, how there's no operating hospital left in the northern region. I mean, at this point, Israeli officials feel so emboldened that they just publicly say exactly what they intend to do.

I mean, they made clear that they intended to level the northern half of Gaza, essentially kill anyone who refused to evacuate, because they'll consider them an enemy combatant and that they're going to occupy the northern half of the Gaza Strip. And by the way, they're also going to build settlements there. They've been open about that.

And when it comes to the southern part of the Gaza Strip, they're going to occupy that as well, similarly to how they've been occupying the West Bank illegally. Last year, the Israeli government closed local Al Jazeera offices. And just today, the Palestinian Authority

shut down Al Jazeera's office in the West Bank. It's a great way of censoring news media so the public doesn't know what's going on or what the IDF is currently carrying out. The Qatar-based channel was accused of broadcasting inciting materials that were deceiving and stirring strife according to international media reports which cited the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. By the way, I just, I want to make clear that all. Oftentimes, you know, when we cover this type of story and either I will say or Jank will say something about how important it is to protect civilians on both sides. And that includes Israeli civilians. Inevitably, we'll get backlash from some people, not everybody, but we'll get backlash from people who are like, oh, but if you look at this polling, it shows that the vast majority of Israeli civilians are in favor of what the IDF is carrying out. But my retort, my response to that is, okay, but

When you consider the censorious nature of the Israeli government here, are we really certain that the Israeli public is fully informed about what's being carried out in the Gaza Strip? And let's also be clear. We know what the Israeli settlers are like, but they are not representative of the entire civilian population in Israel. These are extremists. These are extremists that are oftentimes condemned by most Israeli civilians. So I just want people to be careful with immediately condemning an entire population of people because honestly, at the end of the day, the people I blame the most for all of this

is the far-right Israeli government, their efforts to censor any information coming out of the Gaza Strip, their efforts in killing journalists on the ground there. And I mean, look at this. They're shutting down offices, news offices that are reporting news that they don't like. And propaganda is a powerful thing, man. It really, really is. And you know, you have Heretz. And I know that Heretz has been targeted by the Israeli government in recent months as well.

These are Israeli journalists who just want to tell the truth about what's happening in Gaza and the West Bank. And I really do commend them for that. So look, all of these factors make it extraordinarily difficult to be a journalist in Gaza or the West Bank. So as for the five journalists who were killed last week, and yeah, you just heard that correctly, five journalists were killed last week alone. The Israeli military said its air force had struck a vehicle with a terrorist cell from the militant group Palestinian Islamic jihad inside. They always say the same thing. I mean, it's always the same thing. Oh, we bombed a vehicle with humanitarian workers in it and killed seven of them. We believe that there was a terrorist cell. Is that all you need to do? We

believe that there was a terrorist cell? The media office of Gaza's Hamas-run government said five journalists from Al-Quds today, a Palestinian television channel, were killed in an Israeli strike on their broadcast vehicle. The channel has regularly featured Islamic jihad leaders and promoted the group's ideology. Meanwhile, the devastation in Gaza continues because, of course, it does. As much as people want us to pretend like this isn't happening, it is happening. the public should know about it, especially American citizens who are bankrolling this tragedy. Israeli airstrikes killed at least 43 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip today, including

11 people in the sprawling Al-Mawesi tent encampment designated as a humanitarian safe zone for civilians. Medics said, the 11 people killed included women and children because, of course, it did. Of course. And it's not just Israeli airstrikes that are killing children in Gaza, according to UNRah, six newborns have died of hypothermia in the past two weeks. They're literally freezing to death. No shelter, no safety, no humanitarian aid. What else would you expect? And if Israel has its way, pretty soon, no media reporting

out of the Gaza Strip. And I do believe that's what the Israeli government currently wants. They can't stand the criticism. They want to be able to slaughter without any critique. I mean, are they asking for too much? Elon Musk has now officially stripped his critics of monetization on X, thus some, you know, reneging on his free speech. absoluteism. And look, while I certainly think this is wrong to do, I really do hope that some of

the individuals who are celebrating his purchase of X now realize that, yeah, maybe having a billionaire have this much power over a platform that we love, a platform where we want to share our ideas or our criticisms, isn't such a great idea. So before we get to his self-defense of essentially demonetizing people who have criticized him or, you know, essentially robbing them of their, you know, verification badges. Let's just do a refresh on why one faction of MAGA is now at war with Elon Musk. So, Musk actually ended up budding heads with some Trump supporters recently after he had shared his love for H-1B visas. We covered this in detail recently. So the visas have absolutely been abused by Silicon Valley Tech Bros, who essentially want to hire high-skilled

foreign workers to replace American workers and pay them far less. It's an easy way to maximize profits. Anyone in the tech industry who's claiming that H-1B visas aren't being abused is lying to you. Now, my view on this is incredibly nuanced because I think Americans, especially Americans who did the work, went to college, got a degree, did everything right and are qualified for these jobs, should be first in being considered for these jobs. They should fill these jobs, period. But I don't want to completely scrap H-1B visas, because if there is an instance where there's a shortage of workers in a particular field that is high-skilled, I want that to be an option. Okay, I don't have a problem with foreign high-skilled workers.

I have a problem with them replacing American workers so companies can maximize their profits by paying those foreign workers less. That is my issue with it. So with that in mind, the disagreement about H-1B visas between Trump supporters and Elon Musk really blew up recently. And that led to salty criticism toward Elon Musk, who again is very favorable toward H-1B visas. Tesla, for instance, has certainly made use of H-1B visas. And so when Trump allies like Laura Lumer went after him, for instance, he decided to demonetize her. And she was understandably furious about it. Look, I'm not a fan of Laura Lumer, but at the same time, she's right in that Elon Musk, you know,

he talks a big talk when it comes to protecting free speech. unless it's speech he doesn't like. And look, to be fair to Elon Musk, I think pretty much everyone is full of crap when it comes to their free speech absolutism. I think a lot of people like to say they're in favor of free speech when they want their own speech protected.

But when it comes to speech they don't like, oftentimes they'll find pathetic justifications for essentially censoring that speech. So in addition to all of this, Musk also suspended several lower profile accounts. And why don't we put up Bernie Sanders' tweet real quick? Because before we get to Elon Musk's defense of his censorious nature on X, I just want you to hear from Senator Bernie Sanders because I agree with his take on this.

He also took a jab at Elon Musk for good reason, because these visas are absolutely being overused. and abused to the detriment of American workers. He wrote, Elon Musk is wrong. The main function of the H-1B visa program is not to hire the best and the brightest, but rather to replace good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad. The cheaper, the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make. He's absolutely right about that. And by the way, when he says indentured servants, what I think he's referring to is the fact that these are foreign workers who know, that they don't have as much leverage as American citizens do.

And so Elon Musk is on the record about how he expects his workers to be like workhorses, you know, work long hours, so much so that you're almost like sleeping at the office. And so if you're an American worker who's not worried about having your visa revoked, you might push back on that a little bit. But if you're a foreign worker who might have your visa revoked, you're not going to have as much leverage. Let's put it that way. So, Musk responded to one of his supporters on the platform confirming that he did, in fact, punish ex-users for using speech that he didn't like, namely speech that criticized him.

To be fair, there was also some pretty gross, you know, racist speech, anti-Indian speech that I am not at all in favor of. I find it disgusting. But if you guys have noticed, X has had a lot of racist rhetoric, a lot of hate, hateful rhetoric. That's really been exacerbated under Elon Musk's watch, and he kind of made justifications for that by saying, well, yeah, this is free speech. I'm allowing it, right? I'm not going to be as censorious as, you know, Twitter was under the old guard. But now all of a sudden you don't like racist speech? Hmm.

Is it really about that, or is it because you don't like that people disagree with your take on H-1B visas? So one of his supporters, Nicole Benham, wrote that people getting demonetized for their inexcusable behavior, then complaining about free speech is hilarious to me. You can say whatever you want. You just can't get paid for it. Hope this helps. Well, I just want to remind you that when it comes to the low profile ex-users, some of them did get suspended.

So that is a violation of Elon Musk's purported values. But he responded to that by saying, exactly, the first amendment is protection for free speech, not paid speech, for F's sake. Those were similar arguments that were being made prior to Elon Musk purchasing Twitter and turning it into X. And they weren't buying those arguments. So it is interesting that now suddenly the same arguments that were used in response to people like Elon Musk under the old guard, are now being used by Elon Musk himself. These are arguments that he rejected previously. Then there was another example featuring Nick Fuentes,

complaining about Elon's punitive measures against ex-users who disagree with him. So he had written Twitter censorship is back, free speech is dead. Seth Dillon had quote tweeted that and said, 1.6 million views isn't censorship. Elon Musk responded, claiming censorship while simultaneously getting millions of views is the clear possible evidence that Fuentes has poop for brains. Okay.

Look, I think that in a lot of ways, Nick Fuentes does have poop for brains, but in this case, he is bringing up a legitimate point. He's bringing up a point. I mean, yes, okay, his tweet got a lot of views. But the whole notion of free speech isn't just about being able to say whatever you want. First of all, obviously, this is a private company owned by Elon Musk.

It's not protected by the Constitution, right? But that's beside the point. Put that, put that away for a second. Elon Musk made the argument that this platform should be the type of platform where people are free to say what they want to say without punishment. Demonitizing accounts because they are criticizing you specifically is punishment. So if I say something negative about the government, I mean, I just did a story about how much I disliked, in Biden's administration. If Biden turned around and somehow sanctioned me or somehow punished me for that speech, that would be a violation of the First Amendment, even if millions of people heard me say it.

So in reality, it seems as though Elon Musk really has thin skin. He really does. It's kind of amazing, right? It doesn't matter how many billions of dollars you have. It doesn't matter how powerful you are. It doesn't matter if the president of the United States, who famously is not very friendly toward immigration, suddenly is very much in agreement with you

when it comes to H-1B visas. He's still easily hurt. So here's what has happened. So must continue to receive even more backlash after he doubled down on his support for H-1B visas, endorsing a post which suggested Americans were to, and they used the R-word, to be hired for skilled positions and warning his critics in an expletive-laden rant.

Take a big step back and F yourself in the face, Musk told critics of the H-1B visa. I will go to war on this issue, the likes of which you cannot comprehend. I guess for him going to war just means suspending the lesser-known, low-profile accounts who disagree with him. And then when it comes to the high-profile accounts, it's going to look bad if he suspends them. But maybe he can just demonetize them and get away with it. The point is, he was full of crap when it came to his free speech, absolutism, but a lot of people are.

People don't like others disagreeing with them. The knee-jerk reaction to censor, I think, lives in a lot of people. And it is amazing that, like, the most insidious, terrible, harassing, like racist statements on X were untouched by Elon Musk until now all of a sudden, I don't like that people are disagreeing with me and criticizing me pretty viciously. So demonetize, suspend, I'm still allegedly in favor of free speech. People aren't buying it. Sorry. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, Wozni Lombray joins us for the second hour and you don't want to miss it. We'll see you there.

I'm gonna be Bhopin'i, and Bhopin'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n' Thank you.