Speaker 1: Hey, guys, ready or not, twenty twenty four is here
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Speaker 4: Everything.
Speaker 3: Good morning, everybody, Happy Tuesday.
Speaker 2: We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do
Speaker 2: we have, Crystal, Indeed, we.
Speaker 1: Do big, big, breaking news this morning. We have now
Speaker 1: in our hands the indictments against Donald Trump and eighteen
Speaker 1: other co conspirators alleged down in Fulton County, Georgia. So
Speaker 1: we're going to break all of that down on for
Speaker 1: you as best as we can. We've got an expert
Speaker 1: in to talk about the charges and what they mean,
Speaker 1: so we'll get into all of that. We also have
Speaker 1: updates for you on the ground in Hawaii. A lot
Speaker 1: of frustration there about the federal government and the local
Speaker 1: government response to what is the worst wildfire disaster in
Speaker 1: more than a century, so that is huge.
Speaker 5: We also have new details about what the hell is.
Speaker 1: Going on with Hunter Biden and the special counsel appointed
Speaker 1: there and the supposed plea deal that he had. We've
Speaker 1: got some really troubling numbers about suicide in this nation
Speaker 1: which has once again spiked. And we have pretty interesting
Speaker 1: exchange between Bill Maher and Mary and Williamson that we
Speaker 1: wanted to show you as well before we get to
Speaker 1: any of that, though, you know, with all of these indictments,
Speaker 1: this really does mark the official beginning, unfortunately, of the
Speaker 1: campaign season, and we do have some really big plans
Speaker 1: here at breaking points, new things that we've never done before.
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Speaker 2: Thank you enough, so breakingpoints dot com if you are
Speaker 2: able to. At the same time, the situation in Maui
Speaker 2: continues to get worse and there's a lot of questions
Speaker 2: around the federal government's response. So the FEMA director and
Speaker 2: the White House were pressed about this yesterday, both about
Speaker 2: what the damage on the ground actually looks like and
Speaker 2: whether President Biden will deign to visit Hawaii anytime soon.
Speaker 3: Let's take a listen to those responses.
Speaker 7: I did arrive here on the ground very early Saturday
Speaker 7: morning at the direction of the President, and it gave
Speaker 7: me the opportunity to spend two full days, one full
Speaker 7: day with Governor Green in the second full day with
Speaker 7: my staff as well as members of the governor's staff,
Speaker 7: to get a true understanding of what the impact is.
Speaker 7: As residents continue to mourn the loss of their friends,
Speaker 7: their loved ones, their neighbors, the loss of their homes
Speaker 7: and their way of life, we know and let them
Speaker 7: know that we are mourning with them. Nothing can prepare
Speaker 7: you for what I saw during my time here, and
Speaker 7: nothing can prepare them for the emotional tool of the
Speaker 7: impact that this severe event has taken on them. And
Speaker 7: as you heard, I have been in continuous communication with
Speaker 7: the President since these fires started. I have been giving
Speaker 7: him updates and his team updates, letting him know what
Speaker 7: the federal family is doing to support everything that Governor Green.
Speaker 3: Has asked for.
Speaker 7: FEMA has activated our Transitional Sheltering Assistance Program, which is
Speaker 7: now available for eligible residents who were displaced from their home.
Speaker 7: This is FEMA's hotel program, and this will allow them
Speaker 7: to move from shelters into pre identified hotels or motels
Speaker 7: temporarily as they develop their long term housing strategies.
Speaker 8: Does he want to travel there eventually deserving the damage
Speaker 8: of the survivors, So.
Speaker 4: Obviously I don't have anything to at this time. Look,
Speaker 4: we're going to continue to have conversations with the administrator,
Speaker 4: certainly the governor in Hawaii on what the opportunities might be,
Speaker 4: what that may look like for a trip, But right now,
Speaker 4: we just don't have anything to share.
Speaker 2: Nothing to share, Crystal, He's got nothing on the schedule.
Speaker 2: What they did have time to put out, though, was
Speaker 2: a tweet in which they wanted to assure the residents
Speaker 2: of Maui don't worry, guys, you will be getting a
Speaker 2: one time seven hundred dollars payment from the federal government
Speaker 2: as part of the disaster relief, and people couldn't help.
Speaker 2: But notice I'm basically doing my home monologue that came
Speaker 2: on the same day that we announced a two hundred
Speaker 2: million dollar routine distribution of military aid to Ukraine.
Speaker 3: Interesting.
Speaker 2: The other problem is that not only has President Biden
Speaker 2: offered now not a single word a public word about.
Speaker 3: What's going on.
Speaker 2: You can clearly see from the FEMA administrator, she's trying
Speaker 2: to be like I've talked to him every day.
Speaker 3: About this all this well, okay.
Speaker 2: At the same time, guys, can we please go ahead
Speaker 2: and put the B four up there on the screen.
Speaker 2: Biden announced literally on the same day that he will
Speaker 2: be going to Lake Tahoe for vacation next week, refusing
Speaker 2: to take any questions on this fire, as he said,
Speaker 2: one of the deadliest wildfires in over a century.
Speaker 3: And look, Lake Tahoe.
Speaker 2: I like Lake Tahoe. It's a nice place. Certainly sounds
Speaker 2: like a great place to take a week of vacation.
Speaker 2: But the crazy thing is he's announcing this after he
Speaker 2: just got off of a vacation Rehobd Beach in Delaware
Speaker 2: at his private home, where he again did not offer a.
Speaker 3: Single comment on what's going on in Hawaii.
Speaker 2: And ironically, yesterday I said, I was like, look, if
Speaker 2: Trump were smart, any of these people, they would say
Speaker 2: something about Maui and they would you know, they would
Speaker 2: travel to the state, same thing that they did in
Speaker 2: East Palestine. And Trump literally did that right before even
Speaker 2: got indicted, showing that he does certainly have some political skill.
Speaker 2: Here's what Trump had to say in criticism of Biden.
Speaker 9: The sad thing is it should never have happened. Our
Speaker 9: government was not prepared, and very importantly, the aftermath is
Speaker 9: going very poorly, with the governor of the island wanting
Speaker 9: to do nothing but blame it on global warming and
Speaker 9: other things that just happened to pop into his head.
Speaker 9: When asked about it today, as he was getting into
Speaker 9: a car, perhaps coming home from the beach where he
Speaker 9: has been spending a great deal of time, crooked Joe Biden,
Speaker 9: the most incompetent president of the history of our country,
Speaker 9: with a laugh and a smile, said he had no
Speaker 9: comment on the death and the tragedy. To say no
Speaker 9: comment is oftentimes fine, but to be smiling when you
Speaker 9: say it, especially against such a tragedy as this, is
Speaker 9: absolutely horrible and unacceptable. It is a disgraceful thing that
Speaker 9: Joe Biden refuses to help or comment on the tragedy
Speaker 9: in Maui, just as he refused to help or comment
Speaker 9: on the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio for a
Speaker 9: very very long time.
Speaker 2: So this is becoming a political problem for the Biden administration, Crystal,
Speaker 2: and it's just a continued same I don't know how
Speaker 2: they don't learn the lesson over and over again. East
Speaker 2: Palestine was a disaster here, I mean clearly after the
Speaker 2: single day of the no comment, like, why can't you
Speaker 2: take the podium and at least offer something. You've got
Speaker 2: to be able to show the American people who are
Speaker 2: actually doing something. It's particularly terrible. Look whenever you're shipping
Speaker 2: and asking for billions dollars more for what's going on
Speaker 2: in Ukraine literally for disaster humanitarian relief.
Speaker 1: You actually have two former presidents who are showing them
Speaker 1: up right now in this regard because of the Barack Obama,
Speaker 1: who you know, grew up in Hawaii and obviously cares
Speaker 1: about the area has been posting and talking about it
Speaker 1: and trying to raise funds. Beach et cetera. It's posting
Speaker 1: videos him and Michelle, et cetera. So I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: there's two pieces here. There's the reality, which is the
Speaker 1: most important piece. Are people getting the relief and the
Speaker 1: help that they need? Is there a massive effort being
Speaker 1: mobilized this disaster is it's hard to wrap your head around.
Speaker 1: I just took a look this morning. We've got ninety
Speaker 1: nine people confirmed dead. You still have estimates of over
Speaker 1: one thousand who are missing. That death told very much
Speaker 1: expected to rise. We have not had a fire that
Speaker 1: deadly in over one hundred years. This is devastating to
Speaker 1: this area. And I can't help but think. You know,
Speaker 1: if this happened to some part of the country that
Speaker 1: Joe Biden had more connection to, cared more about, there
Speaker 1: would be a totally different response from him.
Speaker 5: So there's the reality.
Speaker 1: And we played for you yesterday residents who were saying, no,
Speaker 1: we are not getting the help that we need. And
Speaker 1: I think we ought to take that seriously. Number two,
Speaker 1: there's the optics of that, and you could say that
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter whether he says the words or doesn't
Speaker 1: say the words. But when it's an American president and
Speaker 1: you have a national tragedy, of course it matters.
Speaker 5: That they say that they care, and that they.
Speaker 1: Don't just say no comment, and that they don't just
Speaker 1: then go on vacation. And I guarantee you that there
Speaker 1: would be a title wave of criticism of Trump. And
Speaker 1: there was a title wave of criticism of Trump when
Speaker 1: he similarly failed in the Puerto Rico response and the
Speaker 1: way he went there and cavalierly tossed you know, paper towels,
Speaker 1: et cetera. I have to say, you know, this is
Speaker 1: also not just a criticism that is coming from the right.
Speaker 1: I have seen some people who are Biden's supporters, including
Speaker 1: actually our guest today Bradley Moss, Yeah, who was critical
Speaker 1: of the fact that he's up and going on a
Speaker 1: fancy vacation while you have Americans that are still being
Speaker 1: pulled out of the water and you know, pulled out
Speaker 1: of the rubble in Hawaii. And Maddie Howson over on
Speaker 1: MSNBC also was critical of, you know, the fact like
Speaker 1: you can't. I am actually astonished that they aren't getting
Speaker 1: at least the optics of this right because How long
Speaker 1: has Joe Biden been in DC.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't remember, Katrina, how long was it?
Speaker 1: He was vice president for eight years. He's been president
Speaker 1: for senator for freaking forty years. And you don't know that.
Speaker 1: You need to get in front of the cameras and
Speaker 1: tell people we are doing everything we can. Care about
Speaker 1: your loss, care about your suffering. We're going to be
Speaker 1: there and not fly off to some ritzy Lake Tahoe vacation.
Speaker 5: I am actually at that, you know, the incompetence.
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised at, even though that is the worst
Speaker 1: of it, the cavalier disregard for what's going on there.
Speaker 5: I am actually shocked at.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And also we don't have a very good view into
Speaker 2: what's going on.
Speaker 3: I talked about this yesterday. There is not very good
Speaker 3: cell phone service in West Maui.
Speaker 2: Even Starlink has not yet been fully enabled on the island.
Speaker 2: This is a dispatch from Will Caine, he works over
Speaker 2: at Fox News. He says, quote, I'm in wes Maui.
Speaker 2: This stem this morning. Service is rough, hard to post.
Speaker 2: We are getting together in incredible stories of citizens stepping
Speaker 2: up where the government has failed.
Speaker 3: And at the plaza, someone from the.
Speaker 2: Mayor Richard Bison's office tries to shut me down, saying, quote,
Speaker 2: West Maui is a media free zone. No, sir, this
Speaker 2: is America right now. I am nowhere near Search and Rescue.
Speaker 2: I'm twelve miles from Lahina. How is the entire West
Speaker 2: side a media free zone? Is it no longer America?
Speaker 2: Has the constitution been suspended? Look, this is a single
Speaker 2: allegation that he's making here, but I've seen other people
Speaker 2: as well, and if that is true, I mean, what
Speaker 2: exactly is the cover up? The other problem that I've
Speaker 2: seen is that the incompetence of a lot of these
Speaker 2: local officials I talked about yesterday. Yeah, you've got this
Speaker 2: large military base. Apparently the guy's on base, like, hey,
Speaker 2: let's go, We're ready to roll. The problem is that
Speaker 2: the coordination around actually delivering some of the aid has been.
Speaker 3: A total nightmare.
Speaker 2: People are trying to organize on freaking Instagram and social
Speaker 2: media to bring propane. Nobody knows whether their loved ones
Speaker 2: are dead or alive. You've got an infrastructure nightmare. The
Speaker 2: other thing is is that there needs to be a
Speaker 2: serious accounting about what the hell happened. Let's go and
Speaker 2: put B five police up on the screen. You can
Speaker 2: see here as the inferno grew the Laina water system completely,
Speaker 2: collec firefighters who rushed to contain the wildfire found that
Speaker 2: the hydrants were running dry, forcing crews to embark instead
Speaker 2: on a perilous rescue mission. So these guys are rolling
Speaker 2: in here, their infrastructure collapses underneath their feet. Then it
Speaker 2: comes to a question of like, is nobody testing these things?
Speaker 2: What exactly is the city's job here? What about the state?
Speaker 3: Who knew? You know?
Speaker 2: I mean, if that's true, how many hundreds of people
Speaker 2: are now possibly dead as a result of the fact
Speaker 2: that the infrastructure collapse underneath which I can't help but say,
Speaker 2: you know, it's like, well, then maybe that's why they
Speaker 2: want to keep some journalists away from what's going on
Speaker 2: on the ground. So look, the FEDS at the very least,
Speaker 2: you know, they should have been in control for the
Speaker 2: last three days. I don't know what the hell the
Speaker 2: president is doing, like you said, from the optics perspective,
Speaker 2: and then media too. I mean, we've got to get
Speaker 2: some serious resources on the ground here in Maui because this, genuinely,
Speaker 2: this could be Katrina level screw up by local, state,
Speaker 2: and federal authorities.
Speaker 1: There is also an early warning system oh yeah, at
Speaker 1: all to sound. So there's a lot of questions, you know,
Speaker 1: for the days ahead. I mean, the immediate task is
Speaker 1: just relief recovery, being able to get people housed and
Speaker 1: you know, to the extent possible back in their homes
Speaker 1: and begin the process of rebuilding. Those the immediate questions,
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of longer term questions about
Speaker 1: the things that went wrong here. You know, I think
Speaker 1: to give the local official side of the story, they
Speaker 1: would say, we don't want the press there because we're
Speaker 1: just focused on recovery.
Speaker 5: We don't want any distractions.
Speaker 1: And even with the presidential visit, like I could see
Speaker 1: the argument, and I've heard other presidents and governors and
Speaker 1: whatever make this argument in the past of like, listen,
Speaker 1: right now, I would just be a distraction. There's nothing
Speaker 1: I can really do to help. Let's get the relief
Speaker 1: effort underway, and then when it's appropriate, then I will
Speaker 1: go and make a visit. So cree, John Pierre, like
Speaker 1: just say that say that, I mean, that's that is
Speaker 1: actually a reasonable response. But just to say, like I've
Speaker 1: got nothing for you on that and by the way,
Speaker 1: he's headed to Lake Tahoe.
Speaker 5: Just completely completely unacceptable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that killed Listen.
Speaker 2: You know, people don't know this, but Bush had a
Speaker 2: decent approval rating. It was hovering around fifty even in
Speaker 2: the depths of the Iraq War. Where he really lost
Speaker 2: the American people was Katrina. There's that famous photo that
Speaker 2: came out. It was like two thousand and five where
Speaker 2: they because for this reason, he didn't want to land
Speaker 2: in New Orleans, he decided to.
Speaker 3: Look out the window and got like vilified.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he was like on a helicopter or something.
Speaker 3: He was on Air Force one.
Speaker 2: But they did like a flyby of what was going
Speaker 2: on in New Orleans, and they.
Speaker 1: Took pictures of him looking They took a.
Speaker 3: Solemnly looking out the way. But really, I mean, that
Speaker 3: was a big problem for him at the time.
Speaker 1: I do wonder if people, because we have so many
Speaker 1: horrific disasters now, wildfires, floods, hurricanes, et cetera, if people
Speaker 1: are just becoming numb to this kind of tragedy.
Speaker 3: And I do think this one's striking a chord. Though.
Speaker 1: I do think this because I think part of why
Speaker 1: this one is striking accord is not only the tremendous
Speaker 1: loss of life, but you know, this is a place
Speaker 1: that people in their minds like this is paradise.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know what what place MAUI?
Speaker 1: What would be more associated with like literal paradise And
Speaker 1: then to see these dystopian scenes. I think it's been
Speaker 1: really disturbing to the American people. But I would just say,
Speaker 1: we can't become numb to these tragedies. And there's going
Speaker 1: to be, unfortunately, a lot more response that needs to
Speaker 1: come from federal and local and state officials as these
Speaker 1: kind of extreme events become more and more common. I
Speaker 1: talked yesterday about you know, whether or not this is
Speaker 1: climate change related. It's very difficult to say on any
Speaker 1: one particular event. There does seem to be an increased
Speaker 1: trend in recent years of more drought in Hawaii that
Speaker 1: could be related to climate change that help contribute to
Speaker 1: these conditions. The extreme winds that help spread the fire
Speaker 1: could have also been linked to climate change. But there's
Speaker 1: no doubt when you look at the overall picture, the
Speaker 1: number of extreme events is rising, and these types of
Speaker 1: relief efforts are going to have to get way more.
Speaker 1: We're just going to have to be way more aggressive,
Speaker 1: way more on top of it, and prepared to spend
Speaker 1: a lot of money to help people out in difficult situations.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Okay, let's go to the next one here on
Speaker 2: Hunter Biden. There's a lot going on. So over the
Speaker 2: weekend I brought everybody the breaking news segment about the
Speaker 2: special council being appointed. Basically, Merrick Garland allowed David Wise,
Speaker 2: who was the prosecutor the US attorney on the case
Speaker 2: against Hunter Biden, to be elevated to special prosecutor status.
Speaker 2: At first, it appeared as if the DOJ was taking
Speaker 2: the case more seriously and investing Weiss with some more power.
Speaker 2: But some new details that are actually being released from
Speaker 2: the Hunter Biden team themselves cast some doubt as to
Speaker 2: whether this was an overtly political move to basically cover
Speaker 2: up David Weiss from further scrutiny as he continues to
Speaker 2: operate on this case. Let's put this up there on
Speaker 2: the screen. This is from the Hunter Biden team, So
Speaker 2: you should certainly take this with a grain of salt,
Speaker 2: But if you read carefully, basically, what Hunter is saying
Speaker 2: is that the Justice Department genuinely was renegging on a
Speaker 2: major part of the deal that he had in principle
Speaker 2: with the government. That agreement, we should recall, was to
Speaker 2: enroll in a diversion program for gun offenders that he
Speaker 2: had signed and granted him quote broad immunity from future
Speaker 2: federal prosecutions that was included in a court filing by
Speaker 2: Hunter's lawyer, basically testifying and putting this forth before the court.
Speaker 3: So if they're lying.
Speaker 2: About it, you know, clearly they're actually going to face
Speaker 2: some penalty. They say that this dispute between Biden and
Speaker 2: Weiss happened last week after the implosion of the agreement.
Speaker 2: This actually adds quote growing uncertainty about the Biden investigation
Speaker 2: and how it's going to be resolved and why Weiss
Speaker 2: was appointed special counsel in the first place. And one
Speaker 2: thing that Republican officials and Republican officials and members of
Speaker 2: Congress have been pointing to Christal is that they were
Speaker 2: trying to call David Weiss for testimony before Congress to
Speaker 2: explain his actions.
Speaker 3: And the reason why they wanted to call him is.
Speaker 2: That we will recall, we had the irs whistleblowers who
Speaker 2: came forward and they're like, hey, Weiss wanted to prosecute
Speaker 2: this guy for felony tax defense. Then it didn't happen.
Speaker 2: He's getting a sweetheart deal. Now they wanted to ask
Speaker 2: him to like, look, is Hunter lying or not? Like
Speaker 2: did you really offer him broad immunity or are or
Speaker 2: is Hunter lying about that? And then that led to
Speaker 2: all this courtroom drama and then the judge throws out
Speaker 2: the pleague. I mean, even the water down agreement is
Speaker 2: extraordinary for the judge to throw it out and basically saying,
Speaker 2: I think this is too lenient. I've never seen anything
Speaker 2: like this in my entire term on the bench. So
Speaker 2: it does look now it's possible at least that special
Speaker 2: council status was given to Weiss in order to help
Speaker 2: him avoid current scrutiny, then have to issue a report
Speaker 2: and then only face testimony and scrutiny after the entire
Speaker 2: case has been resolved, Like what happened with Robert Muller.
Speaker 5: This whole thing is a muddle, and I'm very confused
Speaker 5: by all of it because right too, I mean, everything
Speaker 5: looked like all right.
Speaker 1: So first of all, it looked like Hunter got what
Speaker 1: I think anyone has to acknowledge it was a really
Speaker 1: a beautiful deal on his book, like he was should
Speaker 1: be very happy with right, and then they go to
Speaker 1: court and then the whole thing. There's disagreement immediately between
Speaker 1: his team and the government team of what the deal
Speaker 1: actually is, and that's where this dispute comes into play.
Speaker 1: And then the judge is basically like, listen, I'm not
Speaker 1: comfortable with this. You guys are going to have to
Speaker 1: take some more time. It looks like Hunter at this point,
Speaker 1: it looks like Hunter may actually go to trial because
Speaker 1: the deal sort of fell apart. You've got these allegations
Speaker 1: flying from his lawyers, and now you've got David Weiss
Speaker 1: accounted as special counsel appointed as special council. I mean,
Speaker 1: part of what is tough for Republicans is that you
Speaker 1: did have thirty Senate Republicans a while back calling not
Speaker 1: only for a special counsel in this investigation, but literally
Speaker 1: calling for David Weiss to be appointed special counsel in
Speaker 1: this investigation. So I know they would say like, oh,
Speaker 1: the things are different now, et cetera, etc. But it's
Speaker 1: pretty hard to have said something so clearly and then
Speaker 1: when it actually happens be like, no, no, we didn't
Speaker 1: actually want this. So they've got a difficult situation on
Speaker 1: their hands as well of why he was appointed.
Speaker 5: Now, what the goal was?
Speaker 1: I really am going to reserve judgment because I just
Speaker 1: to me, it's such a muddle and a mess and
Speaker 1: it's so confusing at this point. What was promised? What
Speaker 1: wasn't promised? You know what Hunter Biden's understanding was, What
Speaker 1: the government's understanding was. David Weiss has himself said confusion,
Speaker 1: confusing things, claiming he felt he had all the powers
Speaker 1: he needed. He didn't need special counsel powers.
Speaker 3: Why are you giving it to then?
Speaker 5: Why is getting them now?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 1: I to me, it's a muddle in a mess, and
Speaker 1: I'm reserving judgment. But it doesn't look good.
Speaker 3: No, it does not look good at all.
Speaker 2: Just to give you an example, Ted Cruz gave an
Speaker 2: explanation as how the Republicans are looking at this.
Speaker 3: Now, let's take a listen to what he said.
Speaker 10: Well, this appointment is camouflage and it's cover up. I
Speaker 10: think it's disgraceful. Listen. David Weiss was the US attorney
Speaker 10: handpicked to lead this investigation who spent the last five
Speaker 10: years covering it up. David Weiss, who was personally selected
Speaker 10: by the two Democrat senators from Delaware, Tom Carper and
Speaker 10: Chris Coons. For five years, the investigation has gone nowhere
Speaker 10: other than to protect Hunter Biden and Joe Biden. Not
Speaker 10: only that, David Weiss is the one that is subject
Speaker 10: to two whistleblower complaints from senior career IRS officials who
Speaker 10: came forward. They said they'd never seen an investigation like
Speaker 10: this in their entire time in law enforcement. They said
Speaker 10: that the Department of Justice lawyers working for David Weiss
Speaker 10: protected the Biden family.
Speaker 2: So that's the Republican view of it now. And I
Speaker 2: do think it's interesting, like you said, because originally some
Speaker 2: people did actually ask for special counsel.
Speaker 5: One of them for David Weiss to be pointed of
Speaker 5: special counsel.
Speaker 3: And then now though, yeah, I mean, it does come
Speaker 3: down to timing.
Speaker 2: It comes down to what exactly is going to look
Speaker 2: like and why this appointment was made.
Speaker 3: Is this case going to go to trial? Is a
Speaker 3: plea agreement actually going to happen?
Speaker 2: Actually, even the current case, it doesn't even concern me
Speaker 2: that much because I don't care as much about the
Speaker 2: tax charges.
Speaker 3: I want to know about all this money that's flowing
Speaker 3: in here.
Speaker 2: I care about what had money that tax was not
Speaker 2: paid on, where did it come from, why was it
Speaker 2: paid for what purpose? Some of that has been released now,
Speaker 2: the twenty million dollars or so that they've revealed in transactions,
Speaker 2: which is extraordinary for so called you know, like basically
Speaker 2: you know, Hunter wanting to avoid registering as a foreign agent.
Speaker 2: Those are the cases that I actually want to see
Speaker 2: and the actual investigation. So is he even going to
Speaker 2: go into that, because that's one thing Weiss floated before
Speaker 2: the judge was yeah, well, we may still explore an
Speaker 2: investigation or whatever into that. But then I've also seen
Speaker 2: that one of the criticisms of Weiss is that he's
Speaker 2: been waiting for some statues of limitations also to expire
Speaker 2: in some charges that could have been brought against Hunter,
Speaker 2: and he's been dragging his feet on this case now
Speaker 2: for almost four for several years that he's been in charge.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, the entire thing doesn't make any damn sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, listen, on the Republican side, they're going
Speaker 1: to criticize it. No matter what was done here, they're
Speaker 1: going to criticize. So, I mean it's pretty blatant when
Speaker 1: you literally ask for exactly this outcome, and then the
Speaker 1: outcome happens and you're up at arms. And I love
Speaker 1: how Ted Cruiz conveniently leaves that out when he's talking
Speaker 1: about is like five year cover up or whatever.
Speaker 5: Like if it was a five year cover.
Speaker 1: Up, then you know that was going on back when
Speaker 1: you were calling for this man to be a pointed
Speaker 1: special council.
Speaker 5: It sort of disregard the things that they say in terms.
Speaker 3: Of what we do.
Speaker 1: No, you know, I agree with you, Sager. These charges
Speaker 1: are directly about Hunter Biden. They are not accept tangentially
Speaker 1: about Joe Biden. But the political impact here is pretty clear.
Speaker 1: They thought they were going to have this thing done
Speaker 1: and dusted and it would be you know, a side
Speaker 1: note and in the rear view mirror in terms of
Speaker 1: the Biden campaign, and that is very clearly not happening.
Speaker 1: This is going to drag on, there may be a trial,
Speaker 1: This is going to hang over the Biden campaign probably
Speaker 1: throughout twenty twenty four. And so for them, it's it's
Speaker 1: definitely you know, it's definitely not ideal.
Speaker 2: No, certainly not, and we will continue to keep an
Speaker 2: eye on it. Okay, let's go to the next part here,
Speaker 2: This is some really terrible and some sad news. It's
Speaker 2: data that was actually just released recently by the CDC
Speaker 2: with demographic breakdown as well well, and unfortunately just really
Speaker 2: kind of continues a trend that we saw after COVID.
Speaker 2: So let's go and put this up there on the screen.
Speaker 2: We have the full chart here. Overall, the number of
Speaker 2: debts by suicide here in the United States actually increased
Speaker 2: two point six percent from twenty twenty one to twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two. They have an overall demographic breakdown here, and
Speaker 2: some of the trends are some things that we've been
Speaker 2: trying to highlight on the show now for quite some time.
Speaker 2: As you can see, the number of male suicides stood
Speaker 2: at some thirty nine thousand, two hundred and fifty five
Speaker 2: in the year twenty twenty two in the United States.
Speaker 2: Female suicide also increased, actually even more so at a
Speaker 2: higher rate, from NY eight hundred to ten thousand, one
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety four. When you look at the overall
Speaker 2: breakdown by race, you can see that you know, Native
Speaker 2: an African, American, Indian, and Alaskan natives, there was a
Speaker 2: slight decrease in the overall rate. The thing is, though,
Speaker 2: is that the numbers there are different so low in
Speaker 2: some respect that whatever you do see changes that will
Speaker 2: reflect differently in terms of the overall statistics. I think
Speaker 2: the important thing was to actually look at the age
Speaker 2: demographic and at some of the really troubling trends that
Speaker 2: we're beginning to see. So luckily, I guess, you know,
Speaker 2: the ten to twenty twenty ten to twenty four year
Speaker 2: suicide rate went down by eight point four percent. There
Speaker 2: is still some analysis about happening with young girls, young man,
Speaker 2: social media.
Speaker 3: And all that.
Speaker 2: That's a whole other discourse that we can step away from.
Speaker 2: The problem that you're really seeing here is that from
Speaker 2: forty five to sixty four years there was a six
Speaker 2: point sixty percent increase in the suicide rate, but over
Speaker 2: sixty five there was a eight point one percent increase
Speaker 2: in the suicide rate.
Speaker 3: Crystal.
Speaker 2: That is particularly troubling and underscores a lot of issues
Speaker 2: around Look, we talk a lot about boomers here on
Speaker 2: the show, about boomer wealth, about you know how in
Speaker 2: many respects the luckiest generation that set us all up
Speaker 2: for failure, But we also don't forget and I was
Speaker 2: just looking at some retirement data just yesterday, over fifty
Speaker 2: percent of people I have just don't have a single
Speaker 2: dollar and retirement saved.
Speaker 3: A lot of old people are in a real bad situation.
Speaker 2: They are blown tire away from bankruptcy and they literally
Speaker 2: only have a Social Security check to rely on, and
Speaker 2: in many respects that is not enough in order to
Speaker 2: make rent, make food. There's a loneliness crisis as well
Speaker 2: that has hit. There's also a big generational question around
Speaker 2: people who are elderly and whether you know, their relatives
Speaker 2: should care for.
Speaker 3: Them or they're going to just dump them in a home.
Speaker 2: And unfortunately, like you know, if you look at the
Speaker 2: discourse and all that, I think a lot of that
Speaker 2: is reflected in that over sixty five number.
Speaker 3: And one of the reasons why you.
Speaker 2: Should always care about the suicide rate, especially whenever it
Speaker 2: goes up, is you know, Andrew Yang said this during
Speaker 2: his campaign. I still think it is one of the
Speaker 2: most profound things you ever said. The most basic reflection
Speaker 2: of a society doing well or not is our people
Speaker 2: living or people dying. And we have a lot of
Speaker 2: debts right now. We have massive deaths of despair. Suicide
Speaker 2: rate is just part of that drug overdose and all
Speaker 2: that also went up in twenty twenty two to basically
Speaker 2: an entire Vietnam War of people killed. One of the
Speaker 2: number one causes of death accidental cause of de now
Speaker 2: is no longer car accidents for younger people. It's actually
Speaker 2: drug overdose, specifically bifentanyl. So these are all deeply interconnected
Speaker 2: around what we see and it is a deepening sign
Speaker 2: of overall sickness. Increases in the suicide rate now over
Speaker 2: the last several years are something that we are really
Speaker 2: beginning to see is an overall trend.
Speaker 3: And if you do need help, please seek it from.
Speaker 2: A friend, call the suicide hotline or any of that,
Speaker 2: because it's just it is a sign of deep sickness
Speaker 2: that we can see here.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Just to lay out some of the additional numbers of
Speaker 1: who is most impacted, both men and women saw and
Speaker 1: increase in the suicide rate year over year, but men
Speaker 1: continue to make up four times the rate of women
Speaker 1: in terms of suicide. So men are fifty percent of
Speaker 1: the population but nearly eighty percent of suicides. And to
Speaker 1: dig even more into the age numbers, the highest rate
Speaker 1: of suicide comes among those age eighty five plus. So
Speaker 1: soccer speaking to what you were saying about, you know,
Speaker 1: people who are towards the end of their life, who
Speaker 1: are worried about being put in homes, who don't have
Speaker 1: quality of life, whatever is going on, there is deeply
Speaker 1: tragic that our elders, to that large extent feel that
Speaker 1: they are no longer wanted, needed, et cetera.
Speaker 5: In this world.
Speaker 1: The third highest rate is actually among those age twenty
Speaker 1: five to thirty four, so people are kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: coming into their prime earning years. Who are you know,
Speaker 1: these are millennials and gen z who may be struggling with,
Speaker 1: you know, not being able to find purpose in life,
Speaker 1: not being able to get the kind of job that's
Speaker 1: going to give them any kind of stability. All those
Speaker 1: sorts of things play into this. One thing that I
Speaker 1: found remarkable is actually in twenty twenty there was a
Speaker 1: significant dip in the suicide rate, and then post pandemic
Speaker 1: is when it has really spiked. And listen, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of ways we could speculate about why that may
Speaker 1: be the case, but you know, we were looking at
Speaker 1: we're probably going to cover for this weekend numbers of
Speaker 1: homelessness that also dramatically declined during the pandemic because of
Speaker 1: some of the government supports that were put in place.
Speaker 1: So I wonder if some of those government financial supports
Speaker 1: that were in place during the pandemic didn't also help
Speaker 1: to curb the suicide rate.
Speaker 3: Because we know that's possible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we know when people are under severe economic stress
Speaker 1: is one of the times men in particular are more
Speaker 1: likely to commit suicide.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the one thing I really found whenever
Speaker 2: I went deep into guns, because everyone's always like, oh,
Speaker 2: mass shootings, mass shootings. Talked about this before, and I
Speaker 2: was like, okay, well, what is in mass shooting?
Speaker 3: Like, what does that even mean?
Speaker 2: The way that you and I would understand it is
Speaker 2: like a school shooter that's incredibly rare. Mass shooting is
Speaker 2: defined by the FEDS is three or more people who
Speaker 2: are killed. They dropped it down from before. So I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: what are these incidents gang violence? That's overwhelming, Let's put
Speaker 2: that aside. You know, the rest word I was telling
Speaker 2: you this, it's guys who killed themselves and they killed
Speaker 2: their whole families. And the majority of the reason almost
Speaker 2: every time, they're in crazy debt. A lot of these gamblers,
Speaker 2: people who didn't want to tell her why I can't
Speaker 2: live with the shame of being able to provide. They
Speaker 2: get twisted in their own heads and they think it's
Speaker 2: some sort of like weird altruistic move that they're doing
Speaker 2: by killing themselves and their whole families and departing. It
Speaker 2: sounds sick, I know, but this is the you know,
Speaker 2: you got to put try and understand the mindset of
Speaker 2: a deranged person who's in that state of affairs.
Speaker 3: But that is directly downstream.
Speaker 2: So I think you can understand then twenty twenty one
Speaker 2: and twenty twenty two, as you start to see some
Speaker 2: of the economic real issues that happen with COVID.
Speaker 3: We've also looked at this previously.
Speaker 2: You know, anytime somebody said what he says, like, oh
Speaker 2: I wish we had a recession or we just need
Speaker 2: a nice little recession. Do you know how many people
Speaker 2: kill themselves in two thousand and eight, as like that's
Speaker 2: one of those where everybody always moves past it.
Speaker 3: It's not just people lost their homes.
Speaker 2: A lot of people killed themselves in two thousand and
Speaker 2: nine and in twenty ten as a result of just
Speaker 2: being like I got no way out, I got no
Speaker 2: chance to live. It's either the st or it's this,
Speaker 2: and they choose that. And you know, it's a terrible
Speaker 2: situation that we find ourselves in here. And this is
Speaker 2: just one of the most stark, like flashing red lights.
Speaker 2: I just don't know when people are gonna start paying attention.
Speaker 2: We've had almost five six years of life expectancy drop,
Speaker 2: where the worst life expectancy drop in the United States
Speaker 2: since freaking World War One, over one hundred years. And
Speaker 2: everyone's like, oh, it's just COVID. If you look deeper,
Speaker 2: it's not. It's you know, COVID is it's part of
Speaker 2: the story, massive portion of the story. Best of despair, suicide,
Speaker 2: And when you really look at this by income spectrum,
Speaker 2: especially the people who commit suicide, and you also look
Speaker 2: at attempts and the reasons behind that same pair with
Speaker 2: drug overdose, we have this, you know, I mean, I
Speaker 2: don't know, it's sickness.
Speaker 3: It's one of those mass.
Speaker 2: Societal issues that everybody pretends to care about but nobody's
Speaker 2: actually doing anything about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I don't know, I don't know what the
Speaker 3: solution is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know when you look at the chart of
Speaker 1: the trend over years it's really starts to track upward
Speaker 1: right around the time at the financial crisis, actually a
Speaker 1: little bit before that, a couple of years before that,
Speaker 1: and it basically continues on an upward trajectory unimpeded, with
Speaker 1: the exception of during the pandemic, which again I think
Speaker 1: is really noteworthy, but it does speak to something that
Speaker 1: is deeply, deeply wrong at the core of our society.
Speaker 1: And when you put all of these things together, it
Speaker 1: is a dire picture that we seem to not have
Speaker 1: the political will or desire to.
Speaker 5: Really deal with.
Speaker 1: I mean, I will remember that Senator Sanders actually convened
Speaker 1: like a whole hearing on the detrate and you know,
Speaker 1: decrease life expectancy, et cetera, and preston cover it all. I
Speaker 1: mean didn't know, like barely any attention to what should
Speaker 1: be one of the gravest problems in society. So we'll
Speaker 1: certainly continue to keep an eye on it and you know,
Speaker 1: bring awareness to it and try to figure out what
Speaker 1: the solutions are, et cetera. Unfortunately, this is an appropriate
Speaker 1: segue to a conversation that happened on Bill Maher's podcast
Speaker 1: Club Random with presidential candidate Maryann Williamson. They got into
Speaker 1: a real debate about how is America actually doing? And
Speaker 1: this is a debate that you know, we've had a
Speaker 1: little bit on the show. You see it certainly playing
Speaker 1: out online where there's a certain group of people who's like,
Speaker 1: look at the unemployment rate, look at you know, inflation's
Speaker 1: going down. Actually, you know, modern America is wonderful and
Speaker 1: it's the best it's ever been, and people are doing
Speaker 1: great and all this, you know, suicide great, whatever, Like
Speaker 1: I'm not paying attention to that, and you have other
Speaker 1: people who are saying, look at the number of people
Speaker 1: who are food and secure, look at the suicide or
Speaker 1: look at the overdose rate, look at the number of
Speaker 1: people are shruggling. So anyway, that debate played out a
Speaker 1: bit between Marion and Bill Maher on.
Speaker 11: His show list Take listen, medicare, but dot Medicare for all. Unemployment,
Speaker 11: it's medicare, It's not Medicare for all.
Speaker 8: Well, Obamacare is very getting very close to Medicare for.
Speaker 11: We still have eighty five million Americans who are underinsured
Speaker 11: or uninsured, and you have to be really like kind
Speaker 11: of buffer emotionally if you think eighty five million people
Speaker 11: does not matter.
Speaker 8: I'm not the strong man who thinks eighty five.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying that you are.
Speaker 11: But I'm just saying when people say, oh, well, that
Speaker 11: doesn't matter.
Speaker 8: No. But I'm also saying that when you just ride around,
Speaker 8: you just see a country that does not look like
Speaker 8: it's falling apart. My eyes also matter. It matters what
Speaker 8: I read and what people tell me. It also matters
Speaker 8: that I just live in this world, and I travel
Speaker 8: a lot, and I'm out in the city a lot,
Speaker 8: and a lot of people are just living their best lives.
Speaker 8: And they're not all fucking rich. It's not all the
Speaker 8: top twenty percent. For all its horrible problems, this country
Speaker 8: still somehow how we got through the pandemic and didn't
Speaker 8: go broke, I don't know. I mean, we're probably will
Speaker 8: in the future. Maybe it's the inflation is part of
Speaker 8: that issue. But I just don't see a country where
Speaker 8: the people are just seething and unhappy when I'm out,
Speaker 8: and that has to count for something.
Speaker 11: You know where I was last night, I was speaking
Speaker 11: to teenagers on skid row. Do you know how many
Speaker 11: people are homeless in Los Angeles County on any given night?
Speaker 3: Seventies Okay, that's my point.
Speaker 11: You said you drive around, but where do you drive around?
Speaker 11: You don't drive too many miles?
Speaker 8: Of course, why would I go to skid road?
Speaker 11: Kind of my point. So you don't really you say,
Speaker 11: I don't see anybody going through that. That's right, you're
Speaker 11: driving right there, and people than underclass invisibilized.
Speaker 8: Yes, Field more than an underclass. It's an underclass. It's
Speaker 8: a large, a too large underclass that this country. That
Speaker 8: it's a scandal that we we certainly can't seem to
Speaker 8: address it.
Speaker 11: No, no, no, no, no, it's not that we can't
Speaker 11: address it. It's that in order to address it, you
Speaker 11: have to challenge the corporate bottom line.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that that moment there when Marianne's like, but.
Speaker 5: Where are you driving around? That kind of gets to
Speaker 5: the heart of it.
Speaker 1: There's I watched this whole podcast, which I think it's
Speaker 1: worth watching. There's, you know, very healthy exchange of ideas
Speaker 1: between the two of them. At one point, he makes
Speaker 1: a similar point. He's like, I was on Venice Beach
Speaker 1: and people are happy, people are doing great. Do you
Speaker 1: know I just looked up median price of a home
Speaker 1: in Venice Beach three point seven million dollars.
Speaker 5: Yeah, three point seven million dollars.
Speaker 2: Listen, life is great if you're on Venice, But I
Speaker 2: love Venice Beach. It's a pretty cool area. That wouldn't
Speaker 2: be my metric of whether society is doing well. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: if you drive around Beverly Hills, I'm sure that's what
Speaker 2: you think. That clip is actually one of the best
Speaker 2: illustrations of how class divide in this country really changes
Speaker 2: the way that we have a perception and why separation,
Speaker 2: in particular of enclaves of super zip codes have created
Speaker 2: alternative realities. So if you live in an area where
Speaker 2: you have a median household income, the Washington DC is
Speaker 2: the best example. We have one of the richest areas
Speaker 2: in the entire country. I think it's like four out
Speaker 2: of the five richest counties in the United States surround Washington,
Speaker 2: d C. So if you are in Bethesda County, where
Speaker 2: the average person has a master's degree, and you're at
Speaker 2: Whole Foods, yeah.
Speaker 3: Life seems great. Everybody you know genuinely is doing well
Speaker 3: if you do it in.
Speaker 2: Arlington County or Fairfax, certain areas of Fairfax loud In County,
Speaker 2: you know, particularly like Enclaves. That's obvious if you drive
Speaker 2: two hours south. We were talking about Richmond. North of Richmond.
Speaker 2: Let's say you drive two hours south to Farmville, Virginia.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's two hours, but.
Speaker 2: Something, Okay, if you drive a little bit, well, now
Speaker 2: you're living in a whole other world. And the irony
Speaker 2: actually is here around DC is in the same cities, counties.
Speaker 2: Actually you can go from actually like one of the
Speaker 2: wealthy suburbs in the entire country and you could cross
Speaker 2: the county line and you can be in the straight
Speaker 2: up ghetto. And that is exactly exactly the point that
Speaker 2: I think Marianne was trying to illustrate, and the divide
Speaker 2: and the separation causes people not to understand actually on
Speaker 2: a bigger macro level, what is really happening. And that's
Speaker 2: also why subjectively trying to try to judge your environment
Speaker 2: sometimes that's important, you know, but in many cases, like
Speaker 2: I think kind of what he's getting at, it's just
Speaker 2: not a good way of it's not a good way
Speaker 2: of trying to judge whether the country is doing well
Speaker 2: or not when you literally live in one of the
Speaker 2: richest cities in all of human history. Right, and probably
Speaker 2: one of the richest areas. I'm just gonna guess, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: He does.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, yeah, you don't have to go to Farmville, Virginia.
Speaker 5: I mean go to southwest dast c. I mean, it's
Speaker 5: not far away, you know.
Speaker 1: But the reality is, yeah, it's never been easier to
Speaker 1: isolate yourself in your own little bubble without even meaning
Speaker 1: to do it with it just as a you know,
Speaker 1: product of your class status and where you live, in
Speaker 1: the schools you choose to send your kids to. Bilmar
Speaker 1: doesn't have kids. So this is a generalization I'm talking
Speaker 1: about here, but the stores you shop at. I mean,
Speaker 1: for many upper class people or even upper middle class people,
Speaker 1: their only interaction with the working class is like when
Speaker 1: they're Uber eats is just delivered, or when they're you know,
Speaker 1: talking to their Uber driver to the extent that they
Speaker 1: deigned to do so, or when they're getting.
Speaker 5: Their Starbucks coffee.
Speaker 1: They don't live in the same neighborhoods, They oftentimes you know,
Speaker 1: don't share the same culture anymore. Their whole experience of
Speaker 1: the difficulty of living in America has so wildly diverged.
Speaker 1: And I do think that's the important piece that really
Speaker 1: comes out here. And so when Marianne says, you know,
Speaker 1: I do you know where I was last night?
Speaker 5: I was on skid row And he's like, well, why
Speaker 5: would you go there? I mean that kind of shows
Speaker 5: the whole thing.
Speaker 1: It becomes so easy to just avoid the unpleasantness. And
Speaker 1: you know, if you're not going to parts of the
Speaker 1: country also that have been devastated, that are in the struggle,
Speaker 1: and I get it. I mean, America is this weird?
Speaker 1: I mean this weird place right now. We have incredible
Speaker 1: affluence that's on display everywhere in all kinds of ways,
Speaker 1: and then you have just underneath the surface, rising insecurity
Speaker 1: every single month, the number of people who are relying
Speaker 1: on food banks, the number of people who can't make rent.
Speaker 1: In that state of calif Mornia sixteen only sixteen percent
Speaker 1: of people can even afford a home sixteen percent. So
Speaker 1: you have to be privileged just to like sniff the
Speaker 1: idea of becoming a homeowner. Not to mention the suicide
Speaker 1: rate we just talked about, not to mention the overdose
Speaker 1: and addiction rate, not to mention the you know, the
Speaker 1: vast suffering that has continued to creep up as pandemic
Speaker 1: error programs have been stripped away, A trillion dollars in
Speaker 1: credit card debt hanging over people's heads at this point.
Speaker 1: So but yeah, I do think that probably the most
Speaker 1: important takeaways you said Soccer is just how easy it
Speaker 1: is now for you to isolate yourself without intending to,
Speaker 1: without being a bad person, without trying to live in
Speaker 1: a bubble. People end up living in a bubble and
Speaker 1: they don't even realize.
Speaker 2: You have to understand you have to constantly check yourself
Speaker 2: if you are if you ever do find yourself in
Speaker 2: that type of situation. Otherwise, you know, I mean, this
Speaker 2: is why people literally out of touch is a very
Speaker 2: common phrase.
Speaker 3: That's how it happens. It's very simple, especially if you're.
Speaker 2: Somebody who's been kind of at the top of life
Speaker 2: now for almost twenty five years, like you're living in
Speaker 2: a different reality. I also would say one of the
Speaker 2: problems that we often assume is we're like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: that person looks like they're doing well well, yeah, because
Speaker 2: they might have two or three thousand dollars in credit
Speaker 2: card debt. They might have, you know, quarter of a
Speaker 2: million dollars a debt to their name. So in many
Speaker 2: cases I have found this is that you know, somebody
Speaker 2: appears to be doing well and then all of a
Speaker 2: sudden they disappear and you're like, wait, what happened. It's like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: you know, they were crazy in debt, they had to
Speaker 2: move home, lost this or that, and you're like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, like that's crazy because you realize that, you know,
Speaker 2: you can, this whole keeping up with the Joneses thing
Speaker 2: is basically financed on the back of the banks and.
Speaker 3: Then the credit card industry.
Speaker 2: So even if people do appear to be doing well,
Speaker 2: you have no idea what that actual balance sheet looks like.
Speaker 2: And you know, eventually bills do come do and you know,
Speaker 2: we have areas things like two thousand and eight and
Speaker 2: all of that that eventually kind of become clarifying moments,
Speaker 2: but they blow up a lot of people's lives, and
Speaker 2: then you really start to understand what was going on
Speaker 2: beneath the surface.
Speaker 1: The last thing I'll say is, you know, I've been
Speaker 1: talking a lot about how County, where Bill Maher lives,
Speaker 1: where that conversation was unfolding, is the hotbed right now
Speaker 1: of militant labor activity and strikes a majority of the strike.
Speaker 1: Activity that's happened in this country has happened in La County,
Speaker 1: and there's a reason for that.
Speaker 5: So he does it.
Speaker 1: He should just, you know, go talk to some of
Speaker 1: the hotel workers that are on strike, who are having
Speaker 1: to commute ninety minutes both ways and still struggling to
Speaker 1: make ends meet. Or you know, the gentleman who was
Speaker 1: homeless because he wasn't able to get into the industry
Speaker 1: and cobble together enough to be able to make rent
Speaker 1: even ninety minutes away. There's a lot of struggle out
Speaker 1: there if you know where to look and you choose
Speaker 1: to see it. But you know, if you're a person
Speaker 1: of means who lives in a certain you know, neighborhood
Speaker 1: in society, you actually have to actively choose to see
Speaker 1: it or else it will be completely invisible.
Speaker 3: To Crystal, what are you? Take a look at?
Speaker 1: An absolutely outrageous situation unfolded last week in Louisville, Kentucky,
Speaker 1: as kids went back to school. New busters designed with
Speaker 1: AI by Pricey consultants created such a catastrophe some kids
Speaker 1: did not arrive back home until nearly ten pm. Parents
Speaker 1: for hours had no idea where their children were. The
Speaker 1: horror stories are still trickling out and school continues to
Speaker 1: be canceled while they try to untangle this absolute disaster.
Speaker 1: Anyone hearing this story is going to be enraged, but
Speaker 1: I can tell you as a public school mom myself,
Speaker 1: I am beside myself over this one.
Speaker 5: So here's what happened.
Speaker 1: Jefferson County, where Louisville is located, is the largest school
Speaker 1: district in the state, with some ninety six thousand kids
Speaker 1: and sixty eight thousand bus riders. Like many school districts,
Speaker 1: Jefferson County has struggled to attract and retain bus drivers,
Speaker 1: leaving them short staffed and struggling to make the roots work.
Speaker 1: So in an attempt to solve the problem, they hired
Speaker 1: a company called Alpha Route, paying them hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of dollars to use AI to redesign busters to deal
Speaker 1: with that low staffing. Unfortunately, while the school consulted with
Speaker 1: Alpha Root, they did not consult with parents, who raise
Speaker 1: concerns about bus stop locations, safety, or with the bus
Speaker 1: drivers who were tasked with making this whole thing work.
Speaker 1: Those drivers were desperately sounding the alarm before school day
Speaker 1: one ever arrived. Here is John Stoveall, he's president of
Speaker 1: the union local that represents those bus drivers, speaking to
Speaker 1: a local news outlet about how the drivers tried to
Speaker 1: warn the school district.
Speaker 12: And when they were calling me in tears crying that
Speaker 12: this is not going to work and they were afraid
Speaker 12: they were going to get blamed.
Speaker 6: John Stoveall knows saying I told you so, won't do
Speaker 6: much at this point.
Speaker 12: No, because it doesn't really solve anything.
Speaker 6: His drivers had been practicing the routes before Wednesday and
Speaker 6: telling him the lefts and rights didn't add up. Also,
Speaker 6: they were going all the way across town.
Speaker 12: I've had like a driver drive out Willahoyd Compound, which
Speaker 12: is all the way out in the East end, all the
Speaker 12: way to Valley Station for one kid, and.
Speaker 5: Sure enough, absolute calamity ensued.
Speaker 1: Some buses never showed to pick kids up at all,
Speaker 1: Some were hours late. Some kids were not dropped off
Speaker 1: till nearly ten pm at night.
Speaker 5: They had to go.
Speaker 1: All those hours with no food, no water, and parents
Speaker 1: at home terrified having no idea where their kids were
Speaker 1: and when or if they were ever going to make
Speaker 1: it home. One parent told the AP that one of
Speaker 1: his young daughters was covered in urine when she finally
Speaker 1: arrived home at nine to fifteen pm. The horror stories too,
Speaker 1: continued to pour out on Facebook. One good smart and
Speaker 1: said he and his wife saw a little kid, maybe
Speaker 1: seven years old, dropped off on a busy road and
Speaker 1: Louisville at around seven pm at night. The kid looked distraught,
Speaker 1: so they went to check in with him, and it
Speaker 1: turns out he didn't really speak English, but they were
Speaker 1: able to figure out what school he went to. They
Speaker 1: called the school, turned out his mom was there frantically
Speaker 1: trying to locate her son. Apparently they'd put the wrong
Speaker 1: bus number on his backpack, so he goten dropped off
Speaker 1: in the completely wrong place, and he was wholly lost.
Speaker 1: According to the post, when his mother was finally reunited
Speaker 1: with him, mama runs up crying.
Speaker 5: Like a baby. She was scared to death.
Speaker 1: Thank god this couple was there to help this poor
Speaker 1: child who has to be traumatized by the situation. Another
Speaker 1: mom posted that her kid had been put on a
Speaker 1: bus when the kid was not even supposed to be
Speaker 1: on a bus at all. She spent the day with
Speaker 1: no idea where her baby was. I cannot imagine ever
Speaker 1: putting my kid on a school bus again. After such
Speaker 1: a horrifying failure, How are these kids going to feel
Speaker 1: the next time they have to get on a bus
Speaker 1: after going through hell and back last time? And as
Speaker 1: it turns out, this isn't the first time that the
Speaker 1: Alpha Route AI software failed a school district. In Columbus, Ohio,
Speaker 1: the school system paid one point five million dollars for
Speaker 1: Alpha Route to design a bus route system so poor
Speaker 1: that they had to scrap the entire thing midyear. In Boston,
Speaker 1: the school district had to backtrack over plans to implement
Speaker 1: an Alpha Route bus system after parents absolutely revolted. Jefferson
Speaker 1: County Public Schools has apparently paid them a quarter of
Speaker 1: a million dollars for services, including bus routes and bell
Speaker 1: schedules in a lot of ways. So the roote cause
Speaker 1: here was a shortage of bus drivers that school districts
Speaker 1: across the country are struggling with. As of last fall,
Speaker 1: sixty percent of school district said they were still trying
Speaker 1: to hire bus drivers at the beginning of the school year.
Speaker 1: And it makes sense why if you have a commercial
Speaker 1: driver's license, you got other opportunities to earn money in
Speaker 1: a full time, year round position. Consider the drivers on
Speaker 1: the new UPS contract can earn one hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: k per year. In Jefferson County, bus driver numbers fell
Speaker 1: from nine hundred to six hundred, leaving the county desperate
Speaker 1: for a quick fix to paper over that shortage. As
Speaker 1: Jason Bailey at the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy points out,
Speaker 1: as private sector employers up their wages, the public sector
Speaker 1: is going to have to find ways to compete or
Speaker 1: else these types of nightmare scenarios are going to become
Speaker 1: more and more common.
Speaker 5: In Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Specifically, the legislature has shirked their responsibility to fund school transportation,
Speaker 1: leaving the school district with no ability to offer the
Speaker 1: kind of pay that might lure more drivers to help
Speaker 1: ease the shortfall. According to Jason Bailey's calculations, the Kentucky
Speaker 1: General Assembly has shorted Jefferson County one hundred and four
Speaker 1: million dollars in transportation funds they were obligated to provide
Speaker 1: in the past four years alone. Just five years ago,
Speaker 1: Kentuckians joined a national strikewave of teachers demanding.
Speaker 5: The state do write by their public schools, kids, parents,
Speaker 5: and teachers.
Speaker 1: Those movements were actually concentrated in red states like Kentucky,
Speaker 1: where school budgets had been under assault by ideological opponents
Speaker 1: and austerity hawks alike. Listen, money is not going to
Speaker 1: fix everything in education. Let's be clear, but nothing should
Speaker 1: be more precious to us than the care of our
Speaker 1: nation's children. Please fire the AI consultants, fund the transportation budget,
Speaker 1: pay the dang bus drivers more, and for God's sake,
Speaker 1: do whatever it takes to make sure this mess never
Speaker 1: happens to another child again.
Speaker 5: This horrified me.
Speaker 2: Can you one and if you want to hear my
Speaker 2: reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at
Speaker 2: Breakingpoints dot Com.
Speaker 5: All right, Zachar, are you looking at well?
Speaker 2: One of the most dishonest tricks in Washington is tying
Speaker 2: an unpopular measure or law onto something that is broadly
Speaker 2: popular or inoffensive. The hope is always people won't notice,
Speaker 2: or that the consequences of not passing that particular legislation
Speaker 2: are so high that by allowing the unpopular rider onto it,
Speaker 2: people simply will not notice. It's the same way almost
Speaker 2: all of our bills move today. Everything is glommed together
Speaker 2: so that legislators cannot be held accountable for specific provisions.
Speaker 2: It is no mistake that the Biden administration then is
Speaker 2: using this dishonest trick to circumvent the will of the
Speaker 2: American people and ship billions of more dollars to the
Speaker 2: war in Ukraine. Quietly last week, the administration announced it
Speaker 2: will seek an additional twenty five billion dollars for the
Speaker 2: Ukrainian war effort. This request does not stand on its own. Instead,
Speaker 2: it will be dyed directly to disaster relief funds here
Speaker 2: in the US and for border enforcement. That is clearly
Speaker 2: to entice both Republicans and Democrats to vote for it.
Speaker 3: The request is not a mistake. It was made in
Speaker 3: the very same week.
Speaker 2: That the majority of Americans came out against increased military
Speaker 2: aid to Ukraine, and who think the historic one hundred
Speaker 2: billion dollars we've given them has been quite enough. The
Speaker 2: new funds, shockingly enough, are not even enough to quote
Speaker 2: get them over the hump or even the promised end
Speaker 2: of requests from the administration, officials tell reporters on background. Instead,
Speaker 2: the extra twenty five billion is simply the request for
Speaker 2: the first quarter of the fiscal year and forthcoming quarterly
Speaker 2: requests for future aid will continue. In other words, this
Speaker 2: is the most stark admission yet the funding requests will
Speaker 2: never end. Twenty five billion a quarter is now the standard,
Speaker 2: and the Biden administration expects the United States of America
Speaker 2: to pony up some one hundred billion dollars a year
Speaker 2: for the foreseeable future. The stunning admission by the administration
Speaker 2: reveals much about this conflict. First and foremost is this
Speaker 2: how much of a sweetheart deal Ukraine and Europeans are
Speaker 2: getting from Biden. To understand how historic USA to Ukraine
Speaker 2: already has been considered in this context, the Marshall Plan,
Speaker 2: which was the total commitment to all of non Soviet
Speaker 2: Europe to rebuild them after World War II, cost one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty billion dollars inflation adjusted for today, that
Speaker 2: is nearly approaching the sum the Biden administration was to
Speaker 2: send in just two years to Ukraine, a country of
Speaker 2: which we have no trade relationship and is insignificant to
Speaker 2: the affairs of the world and our economic future. I
Speaker 2: once again am forced to show you this chart, which
Speaker 2: shows that whenever it comes to who is bankrolling this endeavor,
Speaker 2: it is almost entirely the United States. The US has
Speaker 2: shelled out more than double what the entire European Union
Speaker 2: combined has. It is shelled out ten times what the
Speaker 2: UK has ten times Germany. Germany, the largest economy on
Speaker 2: the entire European continent, whose security is arguably most threatened
Speaker 2: amongst the great powers of Europe, tries to make a
Speaker 2: show after the US request. Here's what they will now consider.
Speaker 2: They will consider sending Ukraine five billion dollars of military
Speaker 2: aid to a year for the next five years.
Speaker 3: Five billion.
Speaker 2: So basically, they will consider sending Ukraine over a five
Speaker 2: year period what Biden wants us to send Ukraine for
Speaker 2: a single quarter of this year. This is outrageous considering
Speaker 2: two things, the massively declining importance of Europe to the
Speaker 2: American way of life, life and the global economy. Two,
Speaker 2: the actual effect of said military aid on the ability
Speaker 2: of Ukraine to actually achieve realistic victory and the associated
Speaker 2: costs to US defense readiness.
Speaker 3: I've done a whole monologue.
Speaker 2: Already on the question of Europe's declining importance to the
Speaker 2: United States, which I encourage you to go watch. But
Speaker 2: let's focus then on the latter part, and let's be
Speaker 2: really real. The US and the global community have provided
Speaker 2: Ukraine with enough military aid to hold off one of
Speaker 2: the largest militaries on Earth and hold nearly eighty percent
Speaker 2: of their own territory. That on its face is a
Speaker 2: tremendous victory, but because we have never defined terms, we
Speaker 2: are allowing Ukraine to hijack the debate instead of the
Speaker 2: story of their defense as a historic victory, which it
Speaker 2: is in context, they are refusing to accept any victory
Speaker 2: definition except for total restoration of their borders before the
Speaker 2: Russian invasion and reclaiming all of Crimea.
Speaker 9: Now.
Speaker 2: To accomplish this, they are expending thousands of their lives
Speaker 2: on the front line, requesting every weapon that the US
Speaker 2: and Europe has its disposal, and they're firing some ninety
Speaker 2: thousand shells per month.
Speaker 3: How has that worked out well? As you can see.
Speaker 2: Despite the billions of dollars that we have pumped into
Speaker 2: Ukraine ahead of the anticipated counter offensive, they have been
Speaker 2: able to take back a paltry area controlled by Russia.
Speaker 2: On a meaningful level, it is negligible. It basically looks
Speaker 2: like a battle line from the First World War. This
Speaker 2: is with the constant pressure on the front line, firing
Speaker 2: more shells in a month than the US is able
Speaker 2: to produce in four months, even with higher production quotas
Speaker 2: Ukraine firsters here in the United States are already changing
Speaker 2: their tune. They say, continued a to Ukraine. No, no, no,
Speaker 2: it's not about this year. Now they're riding off the
Speaker 2: counter offensive. Now it's about the next year. The Wall
Speaker 2: Street Journal lays out this view. Since Ukraine was unable
Speaker 2: to achieve this year, maybe they can do it next year.
Speaker 2: But only if we send them even more weapons, more
Speaker 2: advanced weapons systems like F sixteen's, more tanks.
Speaker 3: Maybe, just maybe that'll give them a chance.
Speaker 2: Then there will always be just one more weird trick
Speaker 2: that the Ukraine vers can come up with which may
Speaker 2: just turn the tide of battle. All it takes is
Speaker 2: a compliant population willing to watch as we ship hundreds
Speaker 2: of billions into a conflict zone that is grinding through
Speaker 2: conscripts on both sides and endangering global security over a
Speaker 2: matter again which does not matter.
Speaker 3: To us at all.
Speaker 2: The brutal truth is that an extra twenty five billion
Speaker 2: is not going to do a damn thing, considering how
Speaker 2: much they've already chewed through and the results that they
Speaker 2: themselves have to show for it. This is especially true
Speaker 2: when at Ukraine is directly cannibalizing actively available arms for
Speaker 2: the United States military and our allies which actually matter
Speaker 2: to our security in our economy, like Taiwan.
Speaker 3: It is time for Congress.
Speaker 2: To exercise its constitutional right and exert the influence that
Speaker 2: the founder is actually intended. They need to deny the
Speaker 2: administration request and force them to explore now a diplomatic
Speaker 2: solution to this conflict that ends the massive expenditure of
Speaker 2: American aid and it ends the rating of Pentagon on
Speaker 2: coffers and aligns American spending with actual American interests. Otherwise,
Speaker 2: Ukraine is going to be another Afghanistan or a rock.
Speaker 2: If it's not already, we will be fooled into a
Speaker 2: never ending conflict which bleeds us dry, it leaves us weaker,
Speaker 2: humiliated on the global stage. Unlike those we have a
Speaker 2: choice today to actually choose our fate. We need to
Speaker 2: make the right one, and we need to end this
Speaker 2: thing once and for all.
Speaker 3: I mean, it is how unbelievable is it.
Speaker 1: That they're like And if you want to hear my
Speaker 1: reaction to Cyber's monologue, become a premium subscriber. Today at
Speaker 1: breakingpoints dot com.
Speaker 2: All right, we have a lot going on today. We
Speaker 2: have some guests that we'll post later and all of that.
Speaker 2: So we're going to wrap the show as it is
Speaker 2: for right now. Stay tuned on our podcast feed, on
Speaker 2: our YouTube feed and all that. Shout out to all
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Speaker 2: a lot of work when there's a breaking news, but
Speaker 2: that's why we do what we do.
Speaker 3: It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: So if you can help us out breakingpoints dot com,
Speaker 2: Counterpoints gonna have a great show for everybody tomorrow.
Speaker 3: We will see everybody on Thursday, m