Trillbilly Worker's Party - Episode 464: Scranton Strong

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

This week we use all the latest news items regarding Israel and the war with Iran to talk about the late Biden administration's attempts to rehabilitate their complicity in the Gazan genocide, courtesy of an excerpt from a new memoir by former Biden national security advisor Brett McGurk Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Welcome to the show. It's the first day of October. And it's a very, very warm first day of October. Does not feel like fall in any way. Not in the slightest. But I've got some stuff to cover for you all today. I feel like. like the main topic of today's episode will be an old trailbilly hobby horse. Is that the correct

term? Something we like to get on and ride a lot. Yeah, where did that even come from? What's the origin of the hobby horse? Am I riding my hobby? You're riding like a trusty steed? Yes. You have a horse for a job to do and you have a horse for your hobby. Okay. Probably a better question for the Trilley spin-off show, HorsePod. A horse pod. But we'll tackle hobby horses on Horsepod. But the main topic I think of today's show will be Israel.

We're not really... I don't hobby horse of ours. the Zionist entity We've not really talked about Israel a lot in the last few weeks or months really I mean I guess

primarily because what has happened to Israel in American politics in the last really since it became clear that we were going to lose this war with Iran which was four days before it kicked off yeah I would say I would say honestly

40 years before it actually kicked off I would say usually I would say the tide started to turn or like the worm started to turn by about May June that's when it became obvious to everyone like this is not going to just take four to six weeks like

Trump and Rubio said we're stuck in this thing and there's several different overlapping trends that had been leading up to that for a while, one of which is the widespread voter anger with Israel on both sides, but primarily the Democratic side, but you can find plenty of conservatives too who also don't like that we're not putting America first. And as a result, the, you know, Israel lobby A-PAC,

they've had to, like, I remember in that Chicago election earlier this year, I don't even know what that was for. The one that like Kat Abugazala ran in. Like that, I don't even know if that was for a house seat. I think it was. Why are you laughing at me, talking? Is that her name of Bugazawa? Did I pronounce that wrong?

I'm sorry. I thought it ended in an I-R, like an abug-Zir, maybe. I don't know. No, I don't. think so let's just say well we know the race we're talking about okay yeah we know the race we know the characters the figures in that race something that came out that was notable was that was the degree to which Israel had poured money into it but through all these like front organizations called like public democracy program and you know um you know

accountability institution like these like cut out organizations with really bland names

um because moving forward moving yeah moving not backwards not backwards

but forward my new org onward tallyho yeah a direction in a direction You may not like it, but

But it's like, you know, obviously widely frowned upon to receive any money from Israel at this point. So like in the political realm, already like even leading up to the war, the Israel lobby had to really start kind of trying to scale back its operations, at least publicly. And then I think,

once the war started going very badly, you've kind of seen, in my opinion, a concerted effort to ignore the fact that a state called Israel even exists at all in American politics? Like, no one even talks about it except John Federman. Not even Israel stands, like Trump even talk about Israel anymore. Like, the only person really talking about it now is John Federman.

So you're saying brain damage people. I have to tell you what I was cackling about when I came on the stream was did you see that Trump was telling the story about the UAB plane crash and the Israeli plumber that saved the whole mission and kind of a ghosty. It is really plumber. Oh, you just made me think of Israeli Mario. Instead of a mentality plumber. he's a zionist he's a squat

portly zayist yeah on October 7th it was just yeah do do do do do instead of with instead of with

ducking cock those barrels doubt it to do you you have to avoid the parasillers yeah there's

Trump Trump said this is the headline Trump says Netanyahu told him that an Israeli plumb

or took over the controls and saved the fly Dubai plane from crashing. Oh my God. A guy that had never flown a plane before, but admits, I don't know if it's true, but that's the story I got from BB. It's like Trump and inveterate liars tell him that story, and then he's like,

there's just no way. To be fair, that is how I recite facts or quote news stories or headlines that I've heard. I'm not sure if it's true, but I saw this headline, though. I can go swear to it to it, but this is what they're saying.

This is what the streets are saying right now. Israeli Mario is just on fly Dubai and saves the night. Oh, shit, throwing barrels at the rave festival, man, that shit's,

like on top of the concert rig, like on top of the lights and shit throwing barrels down at like ravers. We had a 9-11s worth of barrel victims. You have to jump on the skulls. of IDF soldiers like a cooper. Until their gear pops off like the shell popping off. We had 1500 people meet their hand by turtle shell.

Israeli Mario implies the existence of Israeli Wario. Oh, no, that's just Israel. That's just Israel. Yeah. We're good. to do October 7th. There's been a few. It's like the massage or the little ghost that if you like look at them, they just like stay still.

But if you turn your back, they follow you. They're literally spooks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, man. Jesus. Yeah, oh, well, so that, okay, so like that has been a rare example. There have been two examples over the past two weeks where, like, Israel is kind of, you know, drifted back into the conversation.

Actually, there's been a several. There's been several. Actually, okay, that's the whole premise of this episode. Things are happening with Israel. I'm still recovering from sickness, so forgive me. probably even probably fortuitous in my feed is this morning

people selling concert t-shirts from Kanye's 2015 performance in Tel Aviv which I think people are just kind of wearing ironically but apparently like the aftermarket on these shirts is like through the roof like thousands of dollars if you can find them.

Jesus. I mean I guess it does market a specific time where like really up until October 7th. Israel was still able to you know

convince enough people that I mean I don't know the polling on Israel prior to October 7th but it was I don't know it was I want to say mostly positive but not mostly negative either like a lot of artists like fucking Paul Thomas Anderson was like in

Tel Aviv like giving lectures in like 2021 and stuff I don't know how he feels about Israel now, but like, that's inexcusable even in 2021, obviously, but like Kanye playing Tel Aviv and those shirts aftermarket going like really high probably indicates that 2015 through 27, to 2021 was probably the, um, the final period. The last gasp of like liberal Zionism. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, but, uh, but, uh, but yeah, no, I mean, it's been, it's been an interesting week. for Israeli news for news about Israel. I mean, like, Netanyahu came to the UN General Assembly last week, and the entire, like, room walked out when he started talking. Didn't he, like, hold up a pager or something? I feel like he did something completely... I'll do it. Get back in her, I'll do it.

Give me what I want or else. And everybody's like, yeah, they just walk out. Yeah, I'm good. He defended Israel's multi-front military campaigns, asserting that the strikes against Iran and regional adversary saved civilization. See, you can't be speaking in these terms. Like, be called yourself the good guy, yo. Uh-huh.

Well, but also you can't just like, I don't know how you go about saving civilization when you've been getting your ass handed to you. But okay. That's also true. But then something interesting happened, and I don't know if you'll covered it on Monday, on the Patreon. But last week, the New York Times finally decided after, what, almost three years now, they finally decided that Netanyahu actually had.

advanced knowledge of October 7th, the Hamas attack on October 7th. I mean, this had been reported in Harts in Israel, like, I don't know, pretty soon after October 7th, like in late 2023, I'm pretty sure, maybe early 24.

But the New York Times has now decided, like, okay. And it's several years later. Yeah. It's clear that the reason why is we've been pointing this out. Many people have pointed this out. you know, Israel is like gearing up for new elections.

It's clear that they want to, you know, basically, they're washing their hands, Pontius. So you mean, you mean they didn't let it, you mean they didn't let it happen because they didn't like electronic music? They were like, just fuck this festival. We hate these people. We hate this genre. I prefer folk music and a black Norwegian black metal.

Maybe a little bit of Scott, Zionist's got. A freak folk and folk punk was like, yeah. Netanyahu's into like 2000s-era folk punk. Like against me and shit. That's why they let it happen. This bill sucks. We need to give us a shot in the arm. There was one night where Tom and I went through like every band on the head,

like on the flyer for the Ray Festival on October 7th. Like, we played, like, every group on there. I love stuff when we're, like, finance guys in New York that just have, like, a DJ side project on band camp. They're not, they weren't even, like, big names. Well, and it's also, it's the, it's my least favorite kind of electronic music. I mean, I fucking love electronic music, right? Like, fans of the show and the music on the show will know I'm a big fan. But it's my least favorite, like,

I hate it when they try, like this is something only Israelis could do. Actually, this probably originated in America at Burning Man, but they tried to like put jam band shit into electronic shit. You know what I'm saying? Like to make it like sort of more psychedelic than it already kind of is. It's like, let's merge widespread panic and base nectar. Yes. That'll have good results.

Exactly. And that was every act on that rave festival fire. I wonder if there's like a contingent. of his fairly rave enthusiasts who are taking October 7th as a personal attack on brave and electronic music and how electronic music and rave music could have brought the world a little bit closer together. This is what we need. It would have been tight if Hamas rolled in there, like those guys on Mad Max Fury Road

where they've got the big drums and guitars, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, that would have been. Yeah, some guy was paraglid. with the guy strapped to his back playing a guitar. That was going to be fucking shit now. Yeah. Like, like, it was more than just a political statement. It's also like a cultural statement.

Like, we're bringing back rock and roll. We're bringing back fucking rock and roll. This is a rock fest now. I'm done with this pussy shit. But, um, New York Times decided that, uh, Nanyahu is actually. like Netanyahu knew about

the October 7th attacks what the report specifically was was that like the president of the UAE called Netanyahu and was like, yo they're definitely going to do some shit on October 7th and it's happening clearly like we've got some cables

yeah I thought whenever people's like we got some cables I'm like how you tap in these cables yeah and I've always wanted I've always wanted to know what a cable is like the rest of us just using like text message stuff, but apparently there's these cables that you get the good stuff. They make it seem like there's like a cable machine you go to. Yeah.

And like, like, chich, chich, ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, chit, ch, it makes them like that. It's like, telegrams, you know what I mean? Like, you know, like, in the old movies, they're just like, telegram for Mr. Whatever, telegram from Mr. Netanyahu. You got to wait for it. Got some humazs coming in by air.

Play in the rec shop. Say the hate face nectar. Harrison, you see. Heavy distortion on the guitars. Said they're going to make it a rock fest. A phaser pedal. In a distortion panel. Dresden, Riva, all kinds of Riva.

Um, the, it's clear like that Yahoo allowed October 7th to happen, um, probably for political reasons, but also because, just look at what they're doing in Gaza now. I'm also not willing to rule out that they just did October 7. Right, yeah. By the way. Yeah. I mean, like in the sense that the vast majority of killings, you think, took place by the idea.

Well, I mean, like, I mean, it's kind of, I mean, there's even footage of them, like, talking about, like, even our own people we've got to take out. You know, I don't know if that's referring to my standards or, I don't know. the F people that were there too, but in any case, they certainly did not care to crack a few eggs to make that omel. Yeah. Well, I mean, like,

I think, because I think Yaya Sinwar is perhaps one of the most admirable, or at least most interesting and shrewd historical figures of the last, like, 30 years.

I do think that, like, they carried out October 7th, Hamas did. That Israel knew about it in advance and just sort of like let it happen for political purposes and then like capitalized that on that and made sure that the death toll win as

far and wide as possible. But like I'm glad you brought up the airplane, like the Air Dubai thing or Fly Air Dubai, whatever the airline. Fly Dubai, yeah. Because I feel like two things happened this week that felt very much like Israeli false flags. And the first was the fly Dubai thing, which I don't know. I mean, like, I have no evidence for this whatsoever.

But it did seem just a little too, like, convenient. Primarily because it happened in the same week that five people were arrested in the UK for trying to bomb a U.S. air. force base and then we're released within like an hour of being arrested so it's like okay okay you have to detain them for a couple weeks anyway question them you can't just be like hey did you guys do nope okay even the even the financial time story that I read about this about the attempted bombing of that air force base um even they had to note that it was extremely bizarre and kind of unprecedented for five

people accused of terrorism who did get caught with explosives by the way Trump and I think some other people I think Andy Burnham is at the new prime minister of UK tried to say that they didn't have bombs on them but they did have like this I thought you about say Trump got caught with

explosives like he was in prayer I also thought she's talking about Phoebe Bridger's boyfriend for a son the Israelis would like you have a few debts to pay I was like, I'm like, God, damn. A lot of interesting characters surfacing in this episode. But it, like, the financial time said to note, like, it was very, it's very weird.

So these guys got caught with tons of fucking gasoline on them, not on their bodies, but like jugs of it. And, uh, running out with with lit lighters. Yeah. We're going to detain them for an hour and let them go. And then, like, so the State Department, you know, Rubio said, obviously Iran or a foreign actor was behind this and the UK government was saying basically the same. But it's just like, dude, it's just a little weird for those two events to happen in the same week. Like, I don't know. I mean, again, I have no evidence for any of this, but it just is a little strange.

Like, you know, especially like the air hijacking thing. Like that's old school, man. No one hijacks airplanes anymore. Like that's... Man, what is this? 84? Like, come on. What was the CIA airline?

Oh, that's a good question. CIA airline? There's just three letters. It has America in the title, I think. Air America. Air America. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's like, come on.

That's a throwback. That's old school. Air America. And like also Trump just kind of like just giving it the old at Netanyahu's official story is like telling too. He's like come on, that's not even remotely. Yeah, him saying like that's what he told me. I mean like that said he was swept out of the rubble of 9-11 by two buff firefighters. And even he ain't buying that shit.

He wants to believe it though, very bad. But, you know, what if like what if they were just kind of pulling out? the hijacking, the plane hijacking as a way to address our nostalgia for the 80s and the 2000s, you know? Yeah. They were like, yo, this is a throwback that people vibe with, you know,

and elections coming up. He's like, listen, man, everybody's into this electronic music from the 80s now. Let's go back to 80s style false flags and made up terrorists. Because I mean like, it's more clear than ever that there's no end in sight to this war with Iran. And there was a lot of speculation that Trump,

the Trump administration was going to sit down with the Iranians at the UN General Assembly and finally hash out a deal. And instead, wouldn't you know it, but Trump gets up there and he's like, we're going to utterly annihilate the Iranians. and um you know you know when people i just want to say when people believe in things like that you know the way that liberals talk about the left's ideals of like you know um health care and you know free college and all these things and they could say you know you went like puppies and rainbows i think puppies and rainbows is actually imagining that trump would have a sit down beating at the

u-n with the rod and come to a peace deal given what we've seen for the past fucking you know a year now or so well the iranians offered trump a basically just basically just to go back to the terms of the mow you um like and before the midterms too they offered him an off ramp like a week or two ago it was actually right at the general assembly they offered him an off ramp and trump turned it down and i would imagine that the reason why is because at this point it's pretty much it's probably too politically costly to eat shit this close to the elections. Because any deal they make with Iran, they're going to have to eat some shit. And so, like, their calculation is like, let's just keep kicking this can down the road.

The consequences would be worse if we actually signed a deal and we had to eat shit than if we just kept kicking it down the road. Which is kind of crazy because it kind of would be the exact opposite, I think. Like, I don't know. Is it better to look weaker? or is it better just to kind of like put this thing to beg because it's so wildly unpopular? I don't know. Yeah. Well, that's a

great point because I think it gets the choices facing the Trump administration right now which none of them are good. In the sense of like there's no easy way out here and that's why they're talking about diesel export bans and I will say

that the effect this is having on like global markets and global capitalism is pretty fascinating because again I read the I read the financial times I've been reading it for several years now

I have only just now in the last maybe month seen them seen a level of freakout over public debt like cut public governmental debt in the West I've only really seen a freak out to the degree that I'm seeing it now

well really not even after COVID. After COVID is kind of the opposite. After COVID, it was like, fuck it. Let's just pour as much like public money into the recovery as we can. And now, like, you are seeing widespread freak out about like the

United States $40 trillion debt. Various, you know, France, Germany, like all these other Western powers, like their debt. And I think the reason why, honestly, is because I think it's starting to become clear to a lot of global investors that when you're talking about public debt,

what you're essentially talking about is a country's ability to secure itself militarily, A, and B, to have any semblance of political stability. And so even during Trump 1 and Biden's administration, where you had two obviously senile morons running the show, there was still some political stability. But their decision to hit Iran and, like, close down the straight of Hormuz.

I think it's like so confusing to so many global investors. Like you're fucking up the bag this much. Yeah. That I think the question of public debt has now come back to the surface. And so I read this story in the Financial Times yesterday that was astonishing

because basically they're saying like there's this organization of global, I mean, I can't even remember the fucking name now. But like, ostensibly, the upshot is this. Global investors are now more concerned about Western governmental debt, public debt, than they are third world countries and developing countries. So, you know, the whole round of like restructuring and all this, like the IMF and the World Bank due on third world countries throughout the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, it is now basically starting to

happen. Who's a third world country now? Who's a shit hole country now? And the reason, and the reason is Israel. I mean, genuinely, it's not, I don't want to be too crude. Like, there's all kinds of different forces and developments flowing into that. But Israel is the thing that like, put them into the crisis zone to begin with. Go ahead here. Has there ever been, I mean, there's an obvious example, but has there ever been another, besides Nazi Germany, like country that was at the fulcrum of so many socio-political, economic like

developments. I mean, not to say that Israel was introduced these contradictions, but it just happens to be, you know, the eventual nominee to fuck shit up, you know? It is

genuinely kind of astonishing. But the thing is, is that none of, no one can really acknowledge it, at least not in the halls of power and on the pages of the financial press and whatnot. Like, no one can say that like Israel is kind of the... What is underwriting that power, though? Is it just blackmail? Is it just like, like, it seems like even if you're like bosom buddies, you know when to fold a shitty fucking hand.

You know what I mean? Like, yeah, yeah. They're carrying out the ultimate atrocity and we're still like, well, you know, our... I mean, I have to... Sometimes your friends mess up a little bit or whatever, you know, when they can even muster that much, you know, like in the case like Andy Bashir or something, and in the case of Federman, it's like,

what they're doing is not. And it's just, it just contort you into the most ridiculous position. I don't know. It's like, I don't understand, I guess, you know,

a lot of people could probably answer this because they're more versed in Israel than me. But like, I don't understand what there could be that would like underwrite this kind of, you know, honestly man I think I don't know

I think one big element of it like any right wing politics is just the racism you know in a stream like Islamophobia I'm not saying that's the only thing I'm sure there are not to say this isn't material but I'm sure there are the economic you know what I mean but that's maybe part of it too

but I just think it's just incredible racism and you know yeah I think listen I'm the target audience for racism like I could have we talked last week and I could have you're at the race war with the big phone figure

I could have slipped on a banana pill and become a clansman easy you know what I would it yeah yeah yeah

yeah and here's the thing I don't understand it's like at a certain point like you gotta let that go I'm like

okay hey I'm not even saying that in a woke way. I'm just saying like, like, motherfuckers will go to their grave, racist. Like, really, do you really hate somebody that much?

I can't, like, I can't wrap my head around that. You know? When do you put it in that way? Go to your grave racist? Am I, I'm annoyed by a certain group, sure, but like, I don't hate them. I'm not going to like, I'm not going to.

I mean, I'll be, go ahead, go to the turks, go. No, no. go ahead, sirs, please. I was just going to say, I think in the case of Israel, it's such a, it's such a society-wide, pervasive issue. Like, I was telling Tom the other day, like, I was reading about Shlomo Sand, the guy that wrote, the guy that wrote. Wait, we're not doing, we're not doing funny days now.

That's a real guy name. It's a real guy name. I'm just imagining the two Shlomohs and one's vile, and it's like the name suggests he's the bad Shlomo, and then Shlomo San's the good Shloma. like Superman and Bizarro yeah uh-huh

war well warri one's what is what is what is what is Israeli Mari

so I'm going to write that book the invention of the Jewish people which is a really fascinating book

I mean it's got an interesting thesis um actually I kind of agree with the general

you know thrust of the book which is that like the people in Israel the the people I agree with the general thrust

of the book, the Jewish people are made up the general thrust of the book is that the people who lived in ancient Israel are now the Palestinians. That like the people who lived in ancient Israel 2,000 years ago before the

destruction of the second temple and you know the Russian or the Russian Jesus fucking Christ, the Roman you know, you know, cracking down on the Jewish revolt movement there. Those people all just stayed in Palestine and then just slowly

probably converted to various other... They either stayed Jewish or they converted to other monotheisms or Christianity most likely Christianity and then a lot of them probably then converted to Islam. That's interesting because that's

not something you ever hear. You just hear it is you kind of people catch this and these this is why the whole like they've been fighting over there forever is like such bullshit because Islam is you know like 8 what 1,200 years after Christian Jesus? No it's a about 400

I thought it was like 800 but I brought this up sometimes somebody's like no it's more like 1200 but anyway no it's 6th century 6th centuries when Islam starts to emerge starts to murder okay so like a couple hundred years later at least like emerges like but that's

not anything you ever hear in the discussion is like how many people that might have been Jewish during when it was like Jewish Palestine or like Christian Palestine or whatever that later as Islam proliferated in the Middle East converted later on and might have been Jews or Christians at one point or whatever. A lot of them probably converted to Christianity and because Islam was seen as a correction to Christianity it seemed probably like the next logical progression right? That's what it is. They're like, we on that new shit. They're new new. I would love to meet the person, the,

that is in earnest as the ages went off, just tried out every abrahamic religion. They started out Jewish. They went Christian, you know, shortly thereafter. And then a couple hundred years later, their family became Muslim. They just really, they hit the hat trick of Abraham faiths.

Yeah. I've always, I think the strongest, I genuinely think the strongest argument in favor of Islam is the fact that they hate dogs, and think they're unclean? I can agree with that. I hate dogs. You don't think they clean?

Oh my God. This guy. Probably the most inflammatory thing you've ever said on the show. Right. Everybody just on the slide. They're like, we hate dogs too. Fuck it. But Shlomo's in.

Okay, where I was going with that was, you know, I've never read the book. But they, I'm familiar with the basic. argument and I read an interview with him where he was like he's like a boomer like a boomer anti-zionist and in the sense that he's got like a classically boomer take on Israel where he's like I don't think that that we should be talking about giving back land to Palestinians because it's impossible because the entire Israeli society is the most racist society ever exists to ever exists in history and so it's not even a reality to even consider

and I was like Jesus Christ man like that's grim that's really bleat and he said this back in like the 2000s I mean even when there were still some semblance of like you know labor Zionism like liberal Zionism like what I'm getting at is

racism is so endemic in Israeli society it is the Confederacy right it is just great up the fucking CSA yeah you just can't do anything because it's just it just James the years of anything that might could happen there.

So we were just talking about people like ally themselves and willing to contort themselves to ally with Israel. I mean it's just an extension of their own hatred, right? For Arabs, right? Yeah. And their own feeling of American superiority, right?

It's just been our basic thesis going back two years, right? Explaining the like, and I don't know. I mean, I've seen people critique that. I've seen people say, like, a purely ideological explanation of the U.S. Israeli relationship doesn't really hold. Like, but I think it explains a lot. Like, I think it explains Christian Zionism.

I think it explains the Israel lobby and a lot of American politics because America is also a settler state with a lot of, like, latent racism. And, like, but I don't know, right? Like, I don't, I don't claim to have any definitive answer as to. to why the as to why the U.S. Israeli relationship is so much of a blood packed essentially. You know what I mean?

But like where I was going with all this a second ago and the reason I brought up the fly Dubai thing and the UK base thing is that like it feels pretty obvious that you know Netanyahu's not going to get any victory

from this from the U.S. Iran war anything. time soon. The United States political establishment is soured on the fucking war and both the bases of Republicans and Democrats have soured on it. And so it seems very much like they're kind of like grasping at straws here. Like that would be my argument for why those two things were probably false flags, I guess because they need some last ditch effort to prove to people that like this war is necessary and needed. Right. But, but I mean, one of the things that they,

have been saying continuously as we must prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. But they're not even trying to doctor something up to shore up that rationale. You know what I mean? Yeah. You would think if you were going to do false flag attacks. Like maybe, maybe I don't know, maybe it isn't really sexy anymore. Although it could be a nostalgic callback to the 2000s by, you know, either having some scientists say that Israel is using this much. are harvesting this much plutonium or uranium,

maybe you would have, you know, somebody come in and, you know, show a little bottle of some super weapon, you know. Yellow cake. Yeah, the yellow cake. Yeah, bring something like that back. Yeah, they need to bring that back, yeah. What's this yellow cake?

You don't remember yellow cake? It was like, it was the, when the Bush administration was trying to say that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and they were like, and this guy who, worked for Iraq, went to Africa, and got yellow cake plutonium, which is how they

make their weapons. I think that was it. Maybe I'm getting it. I think they just went into the bathroom, to the White House bathroom. It's just like scraped off a little like kind of like mold off of what of the cornices. Air freshener thing, cake from

the journal. Yeah, yeah, from the toilet cake. Look at this. It's disgusting. But the guy that got that sample got paid a lot of overtime. You'd hope so. Well, speaking of nostalgia, I had something I want to read you guys today.

We haven't heard a whole lot from the old Biden crew since they left. The old Biden crew. We certainly haven't. Other than like the occasional, like, I think I saw Anthony Blinken saying something about the Iran war. Sometimes I see flashes of, I don't know if it's current Biden or recent Biden doing a speech somewhere or whether it's like just old footage. But he flashes across my cable TV screen like a corpse, you know? Like almost like the sort of demented wraith figure.

You know what I'm still here? I'm still here, Jack. Yeah. And for a minute, my head is shaking. Like, what the fuck? So a ghost when I was just Biden. Um, is there a more like nothing presidency in the United States? Like Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, I mean, who like who could rival Biden for just like inefficacy?

Yep. Calvin Cool it or not Coolidge. Who was the guy right before FDR who fucked up so badly in the Depression? No, it was Coolidge, right? Hoover. It was Hoover, Hoover, Hoover. Coolidge was the Teapot Dome scandal. I thought that was.

No, that's not teapot dome. No. Who's teapot dome? A guy from Ohio. Asshole. Orangey Harding. Orangey Hardy. Orangey Hardy.

Well, who was Cooney? Who was Calvin Coolidge? I think Coolidge was... Was he even a president? I think it went... I think it went Coolidge, FDR, Hoover. No, definitely not Coolidge, FDR, Hoover. Truman was after FDR.

Or I mean, Truman. Truman Yeah Not Hoover I get Truman and Hoover Mixed up The same way you might Like

Warren Ghart Chester Arthur and Grover Cleveland Or Gary Busey and Nick Nolte Seated by Calvin Coolidge And then the next

President was Hoover Oh yeah Was Harding Coolidge and Hoover Hoover It sounds like a law firm Harding Coolidge and Hoover

Yeah It does Dude, okay. All right. What am I doing? All right. Okay, so speaking of nostalgia, so, you know, you see these guys, I think Matthew Miller also made a statement recently. Like, you know, some mistakes were made. Oh, we slipped on a banana pill and allowed 100,000 people to get killed. Maybe closer to quarter million. I think I've seen John Kirby make some, these guys, like, kind of stay in the shadows and, and, pop out every now.

Matthew Miller's like like, uh, like, uh, genocidal Pete Campbell or something. Yeah. Don't talk shit about Pete Campbell.

People ride to Pete Campbell. It's because he had a hero's arc, man. He, he came out. I guess that's true. I guess that's a slanderous thing to call. Um,

uh, but another old Biden lackey who is like emerged from the shadows. to tell his story is, I don't know if you guys remember Brett McGirk, Dirk McGirk, Brett McGirk. Yeah, that's a name I'm not heard in a minute. Yeah.

He's got a new book at, like an airport book. Hopefully it was not being sold at the Fly Dubai airport. But the book is Brink inside the race to free the October 7th hostages. Oh my fucking God. They're really, like the Biden president, was such a nothing that like they're trying to like make this into like Biden's crowning like Cuban missile crisis for JFK type situation room thing.

I mean also. That is exactly right. Also, okay, the twist though is that your supposed ally is trying to kill those hostages just as hard as you're trying to save them. Yeah, yeah. So you're both working against each other? just countervailing forces they're supposed to be working together

so it's like that's a great point um and you're right Tom like this is their attempts to try to turn their bullshit nothing presidency into some sort of like

profiles and courage what's that profiles and courage profiles and courage exactly um but can I just what's go ahead I'm sorry I'm sorry

Ted's can I add though that what's so depraved about it is, of course, it's against the backdrop of what they would never call a genocide, you know. So it's like to save the lucky, fortunate few against, you know, the hundreds of thousands who've died, you know what I mean? It's just, I don't know. It's just gross. I think that's what Matthew Miller said when he came out a few months ago, maybe. He said that it was a genocide. That's a hell of a thing to say when you're coming out. I slayed. It was a genocide.

I've got some things get off my chest. One, it was genocide, two, I'm gay. Oh, God, dude. Jesus. I don't want to center me in this coming out, so I'll just say it. It was a genocide. So that is basically right, though, Tom. Like, they have had to resort to trying to turn this into a profiles and courage thing.

and what they have gone with because they know they can't plausibly say like we tried to stop a genocide they know no one will agree with that this is the most feeble thing since they tried to make the Boston Marathon bombing like Boston's 9-11 in that movie with

Mark Wahlberg Mark Wahlberg Yeah Boston Strong Um The The uh Where's Biden from

Scranton, PA. This is Scranton Strong. The title of this episode. I represented Delaware. Essentially a taxa. The title of this one will be Scranton strong. I'm sorry, but I just don't like the word Scranton. It just reminds me of Scrotum.

So when you keep saying that, I think it's Scrodom Strong. I mean, I got stranded in Scranton one time in the middle of a blizzard like 10 years ago. Sounds like Louvreed. So I'll go ahead. You what? It sounds like Lou Reed's song. I got stranded and Scrant during the blessing.

Dylan's. Yeah, maybe Dylan's. Um, okay. Uh, okay. Stranded and Scranton, the winner of 24.

Okay. So, but like the, you're, you're right, Tom, the, um,

they, the, the Biden administration, like the, the flunkies from, that experiment, they don't have anything that they can conceivably hang their hats on. Like I said, they know that like trying to actually launder or trying to actually convince people that they had done anything meaningfully to stop.

Like what was the AOC line working tirelessly to? Like no one, no one buys that. I guess they are trying to still make the, they are still trying to make some semblance of an argument that like Biden had. had a somewhat adversarial relationship to Netanyahu at times. But they didn't, they're not trying to say ever at any point that Biden tried to stop the genocide. What they are trying to say now is that Biden, it's in the Atlantic from, like I said, this is from Dirk McGirk's memoir, how Biden had averted a war with Iran.

In April 2024, the U.S. military helped avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East by working with Israel to defeat an Iranian missile attack. Listen, I'm going to just say this, man. Didn't Netanyahu bring like crates full of his dirty draws when he came to visit the White House so that the United States could wash his draws? And I don't think the Biden administration

even respond. Like, I mean, how do you respond to something like that? But that being said, I don't think, you know, you let something like that happening. You don't have a very adversarial relationship, you know? Yeah. I mean, yeah. You let a man roll up in his dirty-ass drawers and tell you to wash him. That ain't... That sounds like it's...

That's more of a cuck relationship. Yeah, you'd be willing to do anything, but, yeah, that's right. So I can't read this entire thing because it's extremely, extremely long. But, you know, I... Dirk-Mig's, like, riding style is... It's rough, man. He is very clearly angling for some, like, was it David Halberstam, like, smartest guys in the room type thing? Like, he's trying very much to, like, yes, give a blow by blow and to do it in like a prosaic or narratively compelling way.

And I'm not going to read the first part, so I'll just skip ahead. The first part is him talking about how he went to Egypt and this. the Egyptian head of intelligence was smoking cigarettes and he was like man maybe it's time I start taking up smoking cigarettes too it's you know he's like

tries to make it this like hard he'll make it look cool he's trying to make it like this hard boiled like almost noir type of story this is a guy who wished that he was really writing Tom Clancy novels but he doesn't have the creativity for it so he's just like okay I'm just going to write about

what I'm going to use you know creative narrative nonfiction you know if you think about an adult man well into his middle age like taking up smoking all of a sudden and he's like like i said the first part of this is takes place in like february and march of early 2024 and like the biden administration's like racing against time to get these hostages out and like he's laying out like the political context as well And he makes this comment that, like, back home, I'll read it here, Biden was undergoing political pressure mainly from within his own party, quote, to somehow force Israel to stop the war. So, like, he states up front that, like, there was nothing we could have done. We could not stop Israel to stop the war, but we could get the hostages out.

And so the entire narrative comes down on April 2024. And it's like the, you know, 10 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, like the way he, like, tried to set this up, like, April 2024, it was when it really all came to a head. Like, we almost went to war with Iran, like, you know, this kind of like Khrushchev, JFK type narrative thing. And so I'm just going to start writing here, reading here. On the morning of April 1st, a group of Israeli officials crowded into the White House situation room to lay out their humanitarian plans for the Rafa operation.

April fools. It's April fools, by the way. They were like, psych. Yeah, you're right. Like them going on April fools and being like, we're going to do humanitarian Rafa. You get it, right? Following Biden's comments, we had made clear that the operation should not begin

before civilians had the opportunity to leave the area. Before the meeting started, Israel's ambassador Michael Herzog and its military attache, Major General Hidai Zilberman, asked to speak with me outside the room so as to not be overheard. Zilberman said that Israel was about to conduct an air strike in Damascus. The target was Mohamed Reza Zahidi, a senior Iranian officer responsible for proxy operations across Syria and Lebanon, including Hezbollah. That was not particularly surprising. Zahidi was a very surprising. Zahidi was a senior Iranian officer responsible for proxy operations. a legitimate target for the Israelis given the ongoing Hezbollah attacks in northern Israel, I thanked Zilberman

for informing me. One more thing Zilberman said. He was a giant man with a shaved head resembling a heavyweight boxer and his large dome leaned toward mine. Ron, his head shaped like a penis. Look more like

the bailiff from not cord, if you ask me. The dome of his cock. I mean, his head, his head, is it? This is a real throbber we're talking about here. So keep in mind, keep in mind, the entire point of this article is that U.S. worked with Israel to stop an Iranian attack. Okay, right here, he admits, well, okay, so Israel started it, though. they hit a consulate in Syria first.

All right, but that's beside the point. He says, anyway, he's talking to this Zilberman guy. Zilberman says one more thing. Iran might claim that the building about to be attacked was a consulate, but it was not. I pressed him. Diplomatic facilities are protected under international law. If the target in Damascus was a consulate, it was off limits. Zilberman insisted that the Israelis had seen no evidence that that was the case.

Oh, okay. Well, that's good. That's good to know. Does he even add in, like, a bit or two about I pressed it further. He doesn't even have the foresight or the acumen to say that. Aaron, he can't even like, if these guys were actually concerned about, like, you know, covering their fucking asses, yes, he would be at least, like, I pressed him a little further just to make sure that this wasn't a consulate. I looked at him sternly and furred my brow. I looked on Google images.

It looked like it was indeed a consulate. And then I asked, are you sure? However, I wasn't thinking Israeli warlord would lie, but we'd be one to tell us out of school. Oh. By the time we got out of the meeting, the building had been flattened, and Zahidi and several of his associates were dead.

Iran cleared that it viewed the strike as an attack on Iranian territory and vowed to strike Israel and retaliation. We soon picked up reports that Iran was preparing for a missile attack against Israeli cities. Oh, no. It was hard to believe at first. For decades, Iran had fought using proxies, allowing itself some deniability and reducing the risk of retaliatory attacks inside its own borders.

But more reports came in showing preparations for a massive strike, a combination of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones aimed at hundreds of targets across Israel. Well, no fucking shit, you mor. You get a fucking consulate. it. You can also just say that sounds like incredible. Yeah, you did a war crime. You expected no retaliation. It also just sounds like a projection of what Israel does with the United States as proxies, you know, partners. I hope Iran starts doing like targeted killings in the same way. And it's like, yeah, I hope they like start getting into the habit of like flattening a city block. But it's,

they're like targeting Michael Rapaport. Just like, we had to get him. He was the ace of spades in our deck. Maybe they do something like every hour will kill a Shlomo until you could see to admit. Man, the campaign of 10,000 Shlomos? That'd be tough. In urgent consultations with the Israelis, we calculated how many defensive missile interceptors would be needed in a worst case scenario.

Israel has some of the world's most sophisticated air defenses, including aerosystems that target missiles at the edge of outer base and closer range defenses that take out lesser threats. Well, they don't work that too fucking well, as we've seen. Apparently. But based on what we are seeing, what we were seeing from Iran, even that capability might not be enough. Zilberman visited my offices with a formal request for U.S. military forces to help

defend Israeli territory. Airwings, destroyers, and missile defenses. The request was extraordinary, and it broke with Israel's traditional doctrine. We defend ourselves by ourselves. Oh, is that really the fucking official? doctrine phyllenotics yeah

not Biden when I told Biden's okay that's just fucking hilarious just I don't know man just like the fucking they don't really

believe this shit right like zero chance I don't I feel these like these type of like airport books where like

they just like this like it's just like this regurgitation of the official narrative but with like they add some like salacious details but still firmly within the contours of international law and so forth and whatever you know it's just like who's the audience for this shit

this is is there somebody out there that's like they consider themselves like a real war buff or something like that and they're like eating up this like obvious schlock and just like it's it's like boomer I'm not even trying to be like edgy or trying to do like ages of

or whatever. I'm saying like literally no one under the age of 65 believes this fantasy bullshit. I feel like maybe I've reading too much into it, but I feel like it's either one of two or maybe three things. Like one, it's like obviously you're capitalizing on something

that occurred with or without your knowledge, with your participation most likely, sorry. And you're cashing on it, right? Yeah. Because boomers, you know, want to read this shit and they want to, you know, they want to read the same slop that they listen to and watch on the news, right? But secondarily, I feel like

sometimes like Obama's books, for example, like I feel like the last one that I had read, I'd covered this with Jamie Peck on a podcast. And there were a lot of like pathetic, almost like admitting things that Obama had done or said, but I don't know for him if this was sort of like this absolution of guilt, you know? Yeah. But it almost feels like the literary version version of George H.W. Bush painting after committing genocide. You know what I mean? It's almost like, I don't know how else the human psyche could process these things, but to kind of put it on paper and on page to know that like, okay, like, I'm justified in what I did, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Now I can relax and make my money and tell my story and tell my truth, although, you know, maybe for a shred of like

a scintilla of a moment late at night. They scream in horror. Like something inside of them, like, Nikki and Obsession screams in horror. It's like, let me the fuck out, you know. But it just happens for a second, though. And then, you know, they go back to being the demons that they are. Right.

Maybe that's reading too much into it, but I'd like to believe that, you know. I think that's spot on. Is he writes here, when I told Biden's chief of staff, Jeff Zainzintz, Zainz, and other top White House aides that we might be about to see the largest ballistic missile attack in history with Israel as the target. They were visibly alarmed. That's hilarious. Like if someone had told me that, I'd be like,

yeah, bro. I'm tan, bro. Someone comes up to you and is like, we're about to see the largest ballistic missile attack in history with Israel as a target. Nice. Who else want? They were both visibly alarmed, both for the people who live there and how, it might affect the 2024 election.

Both for the people that live there. I got some insight on that now. The focus in the West Wing had shifted to the campaign and Biden's team wanted to appear strong and in command, not captive to events. Biden was... Strong and in command so they wheeled him out looking like the Crip Keep on national TV.

Biden was determined to defend his... Israel, but his frustration with the crisis and with Netanyahu was growing. The president was known for picking up the phone at all hours. He once called my mother out of the blue. That was probably not out of any concern for his murder. He probably thought he was calling, you know. Hey, Jill. Dominoes.

Come here and give me some leg. That's not your wife, Mr. President. But in the. But in the first quarter of 2024, he spoke with Natanyahu only a handful of times compared with the nearly 20 calls in the last quarter of 2023. Relations between the two leaders deteriorated further after Chuck Schumer called for Israel to hold elections and replaced Natanyahu. Netanyahu believed that Biden had put Schumer up to it. Biden denied this, but later called Schumer's remarks a good speech. Late in the day on April 1st, hours after Israel's attack in Damascus, an Israeli drone struck a conund. envoy in northern Gaza and killed seven aid workers affiliated with the World Central Kitchen,

a nonprofit led by the chief, by the chef Jose Andres. Remember this? Do you remember when this? Yeah, I remember the story. Yeah, I remember the story. The Israelis had welcomed Andres and his organization into Gaza. The strike was a tragedy and field calls for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. Biden was now being criticized from all sides. The left saw him as too weak to reign in Israel, while the right saw him as too weak to force him off.

to free the hostages and more broadly as having no articulable plan in the war. Or no articulat. Can I? No articulation. Can I also say that the way he just glosses over like intentional war crimes or this intentional just mass cruelty, you know, is saying that Israel welcomed the chef, you know, into the country and then bombed him. but it was a tragedy. Yeah. You know?

It's just like, it was more. That was when they were trying to like feed the people and they were just pecking them off as they were going to get like flower. Yeah. It wasn't just a tragedy. It was purposeful. It may have been a trap. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. Yeah. Well, yeah. And really what was so astonishing about it was the, I mean, fucking Jose Andre, himself was just like well I mean it's because it sucks it's like your own fucking people you can't

even stand up for your own fucking people because the Zionist entity must be appeased Malik must be fucking appeased. Dude it's like it's like journalists you know when you would think that their colleagues even if they're at another outlet you know like Al Jazeera

these people in CNN and fucking MSM now or political or the Washington Post New York Times they have nothing to fucking say about this one. And also dude think of all we've seen from Israel in the last six months, it seems like the fucking, the last vestiges of anything that would be considered like a norm against publicly advocating for mass genocide

of Palestinians has completely come off. I mean, I don't know how many times Ben Gavir gets out there and says, like, you know, kill them all. Something to that effect. Like, you know, finish the final solution. He even uses those literal words. and

these are the people that they were working with by the way the Ben Gavirs and the Smotritches and you know what I'm saying like these were not like liberal Zionists

who were the counterparts of the Biden people in Israeli governance these were out and out fucking genocidal maniacs so like it's just not flying but anyways I gotta do this part

the fucking words that they put in that he puts in Biden's mouth here the situation room connected the call with Netanyahu oh I'm sorry I skipped ahead just a little bit how the fuck did I get all the way how the fuck did I get all the way ahead here oh so Jose and Joe's against this backdrop

Biden and Netanyahu spoke on April 4th the all-out Middle East war that the U.S. had sought to avoid was fast approaching Iran had hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones aimed at Israel Israel was planning a counterattack the hostage talked with the mosque were dead the humanitarian crisis and gauza was worsening when i walked into the oval office that day biden's face with red was red like a beat i sat in front of his desk with a large me not not not a wan pale sallow sickly waxed liver spotted i mean i i do i believe he has enough blood it war-blooded to make him flush like that

i don't believe that i mean if you know like some older people who are like stroke victims. They can't get really like pissed off and you know what I mean like irritable and stuff. So I guess that is possible in this case. But Anthony Blinken was there, including Jeff Zinz. Everyone since the first time I'm here about the Zanes guy. Zaints. Zanes.

I don't remember the guy name of Zanes. Zanes. They're just like making up guys to pass the buck to after the fact. Everything bad. Everything bad. That was on Zanes. They're like, Bob Clark was there. William Hell, hell up in the...

Jonathan Baum. Nobody likes those guys. They were... Even President Biden and his wisdom was suspicious of him. Jonathan bought a big. Like, yeah, that's a big, right? Everyone sensed that something was about to give. What the fuck am I telling this guy, Biden asked.

There were different views. Dude, this is the fucking... This is the fucking part that, dude, keep in mind that just a second ago, in the opening portion of this fucking essay, this thing, Dirk McGurk says that the Democratic Party was calling on Biden to somehow end the war. Like it would be a fucking impossible ass. It would be impossible for him to do. Listen to this.

I don't even know if he realizes he says this here or if the editors caught this. This is absurd. He contradicts what he just said. He says there were different views. Some people advise the president to simply tell Netanyahu that the war was over. Like that that was an option. He says to hear that that was an option. That it wasn't outside of the realm of political possibility.

Everybody was on his ass to end the war and everybody's like, how could they do this? They're like, sir, option one, tell Netanyahu it's over. Exactly. What the fuck? If he refused, we'd cut Israel's support. That's what he says. He says that. Biden was hearing this sentiment on the campaign trail from parts of the Democratic Party,

but he asked what would happen if we cut military assistance while hostages remained in tunnels and the war continued with Israel. I guarantee Israel is not worried about the hostages at this point. He asked what would happen if they cut military assistance with Israel under attack from America. multiple directions. We're on the side of Iran, he asked rhetorically. Burns advised, he got Mr. Burns in there. Mr. Burns is in there, advised a hostage deal, that a hostage deal remained the only path to a ceasefire. That meant maintaining support for Israel while trying to restart negotiations with Hamas and easing the immense human suffering in Gaza as much as possible. I agreed with Mr. Burns, but chose not to say much. The hostage deal is the only way.

Taking in the scene and trying to read Biden, who seemed ready to blow his stack. Jake Sullivan. Who was ready to blow his warm load all over the situation room. Okay. Jake Sullivan, the National Security Advisor, discussed Israel's... By the way, Jake Sullivan is the guy who...

Do you remember that quote from him where he was like, he was like, there's someone, there's, there's another Jake Sullivan down the room, down the hall, uh, who's actually doing my job. Like he, it's like this weird admission that he has got like bad imposter syndrome and like none of them know what the fuck they're doing. Do you remember that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Very strange. It was from like 2023 or something like that.

Dick Sullivan the National Security Advisor discussed Israel's preparations for the missile attack and its request for U.S. military support. On Biden's desk were orders recommended by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for the emergency deployment of additional forces to the region. Biden said he approved them without hesitation. He then asked how we might return to the hostage deal. It seemed hopeless, but Byrne suggested that there might be an opportunity to use attack. Iran's attack to our advantage. If we help defeat it, Netanyahu would owe us, and Sinwar would see that even a direct attack by Iran could not improve Hamas's position. And if we don't defeat it, Biden asked, unconvinced, the answer was regional war.

Sir, the answer then is regional war. That'll require the hails. Israel had already. This is not Burns talking anywhere, though. It might be. We don't know. Oh, sorry. It doesn't say for sure who's talking at this point.

It's probably one of the nameless guys, John Johan Smith, that materialized to make sure that this didn't happen. The answer was regional war. Israel had already prepared a counterattack in the event that Iran's missiles caused Israeli casualties. By the way, note for the listeners, Aaron dropped off his power went out. we've not banned him. We've not banned him from speaking. Yeah.

He might jump back in. The situation room connected the call. Biden jumped in. Bebe, man, what the fuck are you doing? He gripped the phone tight. You think I'm Santa Claus?

No Santa and Israel, pal. I will say this. I will say this. I think this story is probably 100%. that made up. However, they do, they does capture Biden's essence there.

When Netanyahu asked what he meant, Biden said he could cut off military aid to Israel with the snap of a finger leaving the country on its own. This goes back to what I was saying a second ago. So I was like, so wait, this is an option? They said over and over again, this wasn't an option

that this could not be done just that easily. I don't get it. I really just don't get it. No, I love that. No, Santa and Israel, pal. Netanyahu retorted that Israel would defend itself even without the United States. Okay, so this is why I'm talking about like... No Senate and Israel, pal.

Biden probably then told a long-winded story about how, man, Santa Claus used to just bring us nuts and fruit and the worst candy anybody's ever made. And here he's bringing you billions in and bombs and military aid.

You get what I'm saying, Jack? Because like, okay, so like now at this point in the narrative, we're running up against like Dirk McGurk's like narrative powers. Like he can't really sustain. Also, also kind of funny because it's like, well, of course they don't have Santa in Israel. Because Santa's a Christian thing. He thought he was serving with that. Netanyahu was probably like, well, yeah.

Right. Then you probably asked him like, what do you mean by that? He's like, who the fuck is Santa? What's he talking about? well actually though but Netanyahu did grow up in America so he actually does know what I forgot he's America oh we forget that he's affecting

that whole thing right right the pretend he didn't know who Santa was this is a part in the story where like we run up against like Dirk McGreg's like what was I should have front loaded this story like who was Brent McGirk he was like a national security advisor right like he was

American diplomat he was he served in a national, a senior national security position under Joe Biden. He was the National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa under Joe Biden. So, yeah, just another. And if I remember correctly, he was one of the biggest, like, Israel, like, boosters in the administration. Yeah. So, but, like, not a great writer.

And like I said, we're running up against like the limitations of his writing style because as it's going to become clear, this conversation, if it took place, would have been better served? Like he clearly had to doctor it up because Biden probably made no sense. He was probably like, especially if this happened at night. You know, he's probably sundown. He's like, you know, supposed to be in bed five hours ago. Like, you know, he had to doctor this up. And that means that he had to rely on his own ability to like tell a convincing. like narrative or a story of an exchange, dialogue.

And so this obviously comes across as being very stilted and unreal because no Santa and Israel pal, okay, Biden may actually probably, he probably did say that. That sounds dead on a cute Santa. Netanyahu, but this now it starts to become like stilted and sort of mechanical. Netanyahu retorted that Israel would defend itself even without the United States. We later learned that he concluded from this call that we were cutting military supplies. Returning to his prepared points, Biden made specific requests regarding humanitarian aid and opening additional crossings into northern Gaza.

Nanyahu began to discuss Israel's preliminary assessment of the strike on the aid workers, claiming that it was more complicated than what was being reported in the news. Biden interrupted. I don't want to hear it, B.B. He said he'd helped defend Israel against Iran, but then the U.S. would move immediately to end the war and free the hostages. That's the deal, pal.

He hung up abruptly. It was a short call. It's like so boring. That's the deal, Jack. Once again, it's just so boring. Like, that's the deal, pal. I don't want to hear it. If not for the pending Iranian attack,

the U.S. might have taken irreversible measures against Israel at this juncture. My own mind wrestled with whether this might have been a better course. We all wanted to end the war. I'm just wondering if that would have proved more fruitful if we would have stopped Israel early on. It was a... Once again, I just keep coming back to that line at the beginning of this.

The unrealistic democratic base thought we could somehow end the war and wanted us to do that. And then he just lays out five easy off-ramps. Yeah. And again, I keep coming back to the AOC line, working tirelessly for a ceasefire, You admit it. You could have fucking done it at a Tuesday morning at 9 a.m.

It was fucking easily doable. Easy, easy. We all wanted the war to end. It was a sickening horror in every dimension. Was the means to that end, the hostage and ceasefire deal, the course we had been on, or simply telling Israel to stop, even as it was under attack on multiple fronts? Yes, you could have done all of those things. All of those.

If there was a better way to end the crisis, Biden would have taken it. This is what I'm talking about. there was a better way in the crisis that just say hey it's over man just stop that's what I'm talking about dude for them it came down to the hostages

and as Aaron just pointed out like Israel didn't give a fuck about their own hostages the only people who claimed to care about and were the Biden administration and Michael Rappaport and Michael Rappaport but there's no fucking there's no

I don't know like them, but to them, like, I don't know, to them, like, every, I guess, hostages life was worth, this actually does prove that to them every, actually, this is literal proof. To them, every hostage's life was worth at least like 10,000 Palestinians, like 10,000 gossans. Like, they're just openly admitting that, like, they could have stopped the war and stopped the genocide of upwards of maybe even a quarter million people. But seven hostages were more important than that.

Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, to them, it just blatantly spells out that the people math here is completely racist. Yeah, tens of thousands to one. Yeah. If there was a better way to end the crisis, Biden would have taken it. He had tried a UN resolution calling for an unconditional ceasefire. He had tried increasing public pressure. What?

Those steps only seem to make the situation where I don't remember any fucking public pressure from Joe goddamn Biden who like at some point was so high on his own supply he was like my dad was in a cabutz yeah jack I bet you didn't know we were Jewish there were multiple that week he was like

my uncle archibald got eaten by cannibals and my dad was on a cabots it's like Trump saying that he was pulled out of the rub the rubble from fucking 9-11 it's like just two senile asshole There were multiple belligerents in this conflict

increasing public pressure on Israel did not stop the war it seemed to encourage those fighting against it I'd never seen oh oh god I'd never seen Biden so frustrated spitting mad literally Sullivan took out a note card to draft the readout the official summary of the call we debated whether to publicly threatened to cut military aid to Israel Biden was not comfortable doing so at a moment when hundreds of Iranian

missiles were being ready for lunch The final readout warned that U.S. policy will be determined by our assessment of Israel's immediate action on, quote, specific concrete and measurable steps to have addressed civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This was the paradox. For all Biden's frustration with the situation and with Nadnahu, Israel was under attack from common enemies. Fueling Iran's confidence was the belief that Biden was under pressure to break with Israel. Iran seemed to believe that a missile attack against Israel might help push Biden over the end. edge. That proved to be a miscalculation. So, um, they're not this. Nothing. It's the fucking frustrating thing about all this,

among many frustrating things about this is they can't do anything good unless there is like a very public facing like political victory to it. Like they could have, stop. They could have saved hundreds of thousands of people from dying. Yeah. With very, just very like the click of a button, just the easiest shit. Has everybody been telling that, you know, forever? We're not doing this. Iran's out of question.

Oh, this kind of shit. And it seems like all they had to fucking do is snap their fingers, cut aid, and have some sort of diplomatic situation with Iran where it's like, hey, like, this is whatever. You know, like, it just feels like, instead they thought the proven. course was just the mass slaughter of a people. Yeah, I mean, Aaron's back in, to bring you up the speed, Aaron,

basically, they talk about like the Situation Room call where they all basically tell Biden, like, look, you can just stop this war today. And it all comes down to like, well, they don't want to because

hell no, I'm not letting BB get off that easy. They don't want to because Hamas still has the Israeli hostages. And like this is just a blatant admission that to them, to the Biden administration, like every Israeli hostage was worth at least 10 to

20,000 Palestinian lives. You know what I mean? Like that to them was more important. Didn't he say something like in 20, 23, perhaps? I think he had said something like one Israeli life is worth 15 American lives or something.

Like he chose like. He's like, he's like, Yeah, what he said was like this, he was like, this is like 10 or 9-11. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, and. No, it's like exactly one 9-11. Like the exact number of people died. You don't, you don't, you don't weigh tragedies per capita. Like, by the way, Netanyahu repeated that line verbatim at the UN General Assembly last week.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, totally, totally. After he made like these weird threats about, you know, bug people's phones and blackmailing stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Fucking great thing. I mean, this is us going wholeheartedly to the metric system, you know. Yeah. This is the system of measurement, you know what I mean?

The thing is, if they'd actually even game that out, is that even true? Like, if they had told Israel to stop doing a genocide and cut off military aid, precisely nothing would have happened to those hostages. Like, Khamas wasn't going to kill them because they were still useful in an exchange of, prisoners. So what the fuck? Like, that's why the whole thing is just... I still didn't kill them. Like, like, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's why, like, them saying, like, oh, we were still afraid about the hostages.

Like, how in any fucking world, would cutting off aid to Israel result in hostages getting killed? It just goes to show you, like, they are so racist to Palestinians. They couldn't even, like, see that from their point of view, there was a crude calculation at work here, right? Like, right, right. Or true calculation. You said this on the show, but there are. is like this element. I've always kind of viewed when you brought it up, Terrence. It's been a long time ago, but like, there is

almost this like, yeah, yeah, Simwar kind of has like, I don't know, some connective tissue with like Tecumse, where they're like very savvy, like political and military operators, but they don't get that same respect because of like their race or, you know, like what they come out of,

you know. Right, right. And I'm sure they will. My point is it's just like, yeah, like, they don't even view like Simwar or some guy they could even like talk with to negotiate with and talk yeah yeah exactly right exactly um so uh so we got here on saturday april 13th uh Biden took his seat at the head of the situation room um he'd come just come from his home in rehobith beach Delaware and had two shirt buttons undone beneath his check do we need to know about Biden's chest hair like his hoary his hoary chest air

Looking every bit. Looking like the last word in fashion. A scrantonate. I had been at the White House since early in the morning to help coordinate Israel's defense with other countries in the region. Iran's attack began around 3.30 p.m. with 200 drones, followed 90 minutes later by 30 cruise missiles. Those were all in the air and flying toward Israel by the time Biden arrived. the flight time for drones from Iran to Israel was three hours.

Blah, blah, blah. Earlier that day, Tehran had sent a message warning that if the U.S. helped defend Israel, it could no longer restrain militias in Iraq and Syria, which had not fired a shot against U.S. personnel since our airstrikes in February. Meanwhile, Herzog and Zulberman had visited my office to review Israel's potential response to an Iranian attack. It kind of sounds here. Like, Israeli military is just running the fucking show and telling you what to do with American hardware and soldiers.

Dude, I'll tell you what, Hollywood's got to get back online for as a matter of national security. I mean, we're making, we must have made some goddamn killer movies. The way they treat us after we've treated them off of there, like, God damn. Like, yeah, I know they did kill like two million people in Iraq, but they also made Citizen Kane. It's like, Jesus Christ, man.

Way too charitable to the Americans. So we've got seated in the situation room. Austin, Blinken, Sullivan, CQ. Brown. Who fucking CQ. Brown? Who are these guys? Chris Brown's alter ego. Hey. We got CQ Brown.

CQ Brown. The most diabolical leader. Dougie Wallace. Dougie Wallace. It's not a real day. Dougie was there He was in the situation room He saw you Dougie

We saw you Dougie We saw you Doug We know you was there not General Eric Carrilla Oversaying U.S. Eric Gorilla Eric Gorilla I got my man Corrilla in there

Biden With some big gorilla arms Biden asked about our preparations Over the previous 96 hours The U.S. had strengthened defenses in and around Israel deployed military assets and fighter squadrons and coordinated with a makeshift

coalition of Arab and European states good as we could do Austin said I'm a dude anyways where's BB Biden asked Netanyahu was in an underground command center in Israel where he planned to write out the attack and then determine how to respond Mr. Burns sketched out possible

scenarios if Iran's attacks killed Israelis Israel would launch a large air attack on Iran this would bring a state-on-state conflict to the Middle East for the first time in decades. Really? In decades, really? What's that?

No, I would just say in decades, really? That kind of warfare, I guess. Yeah. Depending on which wars you move with skirmishes and which proxy wars, you decide to skip over. Yeah. Patriot anti-missile batteries operated by the U.S. Army stood by across Middle East from Iraq to Jordan.

What's your worst case, Biden asked? Nobody knew for sure how many missiles the Iranians might shoot at once. So we just wait, Biden asks. The screen on the wall in front of me suddenly showed yellow streaks rising from Iran. Corilla opened his mic. Mr. President, we have confirmed ballistic missile launches. Okay, I don't believe it works like that. That sounds like a fucking movie.

I don't believe that when they fire that you look at the screen and you see, oh, oh, the parable of the missile. It's coming down. It's coming down, right? I don't believe that. 30 new launches, Mr. President. 30 new launches, Biden asked, Corrilla. That's a challenge, Austin said. Six minutes before defenses engaged, Karela said.

I had never felt so helpless in the room, the command center of the most powerful country on earth. I knew what interceptors we would fire first, the backups if they failed. Yet for the first time ever, while seated at that table, I bowed my head and prayed. More yellow lines rose from the digital map of Iran. Dude, now we know what it feels like. I know how this shit goes. You're sitting around drinking coffee and eating donuts and just like, there's not like, they're making it sound.

Yeah, it's so crazy. They're making it sound like the Hollywood version, which is what the book, this book is. A hundred percent. Defense is engaged. It's just more, it's literally just line after line of shit like that. Defense is engaged. Impacts Biden asked, we don't know straight away, Brown said. The door opened, a watch advisor, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

See, honestly, I think that if his whole entire goal was to get this turn into a Netflix, movie, he waited too long. Because I think nobody gives a shit. Nobody gives a shit. And also, also the other funny thing about it is like, you didn't avail anything with all this like exposition.

Nothing happens. Nothing happened. 300,000 people died and the hostages like, I don't know. Who the fuck knows what happened. That's true. That is true. There's no end of this.

There's no resolution. They didn't succeed on any of their fucking terms. No. Again, I just love the idea that in real time you see the missiles, the little yellow missiles coming up from Iran to hit Israel. Like it's Armaged. Yeah, yeah. Computer. Show us the trajectory of the missiles.

It's not Star Trek, bro. Biden nodded to Sullivan. Get BB on the line. What do you want to say to him? I asked. I just saved his ass. That's what. Get him out.

Cut this off here. Take the wind, Sullivan added. Outside the room, I connected with the Israelis in the bunker. Nanyahu. for 30 minutes before taking the poll, which further riled up Biden. Dude, he's just fucking punking Biden, and he's writing this in his book.

He makes him wait 30 minutes. Does he know we just saved his ass, Biden asked? This was the first time the U.S. military, let alone the U.S. military together with the coalition of European and Arab countries, had fought to defend Israel. Okay, let's get fucking real, brother. Yeah, let's be.

Let's keep it all the way of buck right now, my man. That is not true. that Sullivan recommended that we use the time to craft what Biden would say to Netanyahu. Go, the president said, hurry up. How is this even narratively compelling? Your fucking guy who's supposed to be the hero of the story just got his fucking as-ponked by the guy who just ostensibly saying. You're trying to make Biden look like this strong and capable leader.

Now you're just saying that he's not at the wheel at all. So finally, they get Netanyahu through, hi, Joe, quite a night here. looks like you've come out okay BB by this time only one casually had been confirmed I'm still apparently a young girl wounded by falling shrapnel in southern Israel

I'm still getting reports but yes the good news is the defense has worked our defenses BB Joe we work together our militaries and our teams it's historic unbelievable a coalition of militaries I know it but Joe The Biden reached out with his vainy heads

and pulled down BB's These trousers, it started stroking his spotted cock. You know, this very normal way that everybody talks. Yeah, but Joe, the lesson is that these maniacs are willing to fire hundreds of missiles at Israel. This has never been done before nowhere. The lesson was that Israel needed the United States, Biden pressed. Against these maniacs from Iran, they're your enemies too, Netanyahu said. Take the win, Biden said abruptly.

Take the one. Okay, Biden did not say take the win. That's a very like young person. Nanjahou said we need to teach these maniacs a lesson. Biden again pressed BB to take the win and work with his on a response. Let's have our teams discuss it, Netanyahu said. He heard you, Sullivan said. Austin said he'd work with Israelis on response options.

We soon received another message from Iran, warning us again not to support Israel. you should have fucking supported Iran. Look at who you fucking aligned with. Yeah, you picked the wrong horse, god damn. Yeah, they probably wouldn't fucking punk your ass and ignore you for 30 minutes after you saved them. The following morning, Biden spoke with the pilots and air commanders responsible for the defense,

including blah, blah, blah, blah. He expressed gratitude. He expressed glad to his right. That's how Biden referred to them in his brain. Oh, yeah, blah, blah, blah, yeah. I don't think you ever trained for last night, Biden said, there's never been anything like it. The only reason we're not in a major war right now is because of what you did.

I mean it, guys. Thank you. You saved the world. I mean it. God bless you. Actually, you didn't. You plunged the world in a fucking potential arm of more chaos. You probably should have let it happen.

You shouldn't let it happen or even turn the fucking guns on Israel itself. Then the world would be a much fucking safer place. I'd be like, I have much more. more fun narrative would be like if Biden turned his back on BB and the E2 Brutee kind of like I said Baby I'm sorry I had to do it had to do it

had to do it though had to do it that's the final that's the final line so you're just going to have to pick up that amazing book if you want to learn more about the brink yeah available anywhere you have to fly someplace else

to take a connector to you know what man I'm just thinking that like you know I used to watch the West Wing, right? And it's a terrible show. Our buddy Josh Olson could talk a lot about that, which he has on his old podcast, The West Wing Thing. But, like, there was some, like, if you're going to fictionalize these things,

there was some theatricality to it. It was interesting to watch, you know. Yeah. You know, even watching people talk while walking down hallways, this is boring as fuck. This book is not interesting at all. This book isn't fun. And it shouldn't be fun because it's about a horrible thing that these people are trying to cover up.

But still, man, you know, you work on your pros, brother. Yeah. Not, they're not sending their best. Like, you would at least, if you're going to try to do this story, you're right, Aaron. Like, send like Aaron Sorkin or some, you know, brain dead lib who at least knows how to write dialogue. That would at least make it a little better. And then Bibi said, and then Biden said, and then Bibi said, it's repetitive, motherfuckeruckers, it's annoying. Yeah.

It just doesn't even, yeah, no. Maybe do some Cormack McCarthy shouldn't start messing around with, you know, punctuation. Oh, that'd be tight. He doesn't put in, like, quotation marks, and it's just kind of like some run on. Like, it captures the stream of consciousness of Biden's brain.

The kids saw the orange, yellow lines on the screen. The black morass of the adivistic screens behind him screamed, bloody abyss. Biden started rhapsodizing about, Around the clock sex at gay bathhouses. We swore he bled tears. It was strange for the situation. Oh, man.

All right. Well, that's all for us today. I just need to, like, you know, I cannot let these assholes try to rehabilitate their fucking complicit. Their image. And that includes AOC. And it's why I will not be supporting her if she runs for fucking president in 2020. I cannot abide anybody trying to rehabilitate these assholes.

That's my red line. Not doing it. Not doing it. Can't do it. They're not doing it. Can't have it. Can't have it. But they're all, they're not really doing themselves any favors either by sending Dirk McGrath out there.

No. We find a good. picture of old dirty bastard uses the cover aren't we should have a cold episode Israeli Mario I'm thinking Scrant Strong or Scrant Strong

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