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♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪Hello, everybody. It's Monday, August 5th, and we've got Chapo coming at you.Joining us on today's show, joining Felix and myself today, is the Washington Post's Jeff Stein,who is here to talk about his new article or beginning of a series of articles about how the U.S. uses the policy of economic sanctionsand its effects on the world and the United States.But, Jeff, since we got you here, you're an economics reporter.I'd like to kick things off by asking, global financial collapse, is it happening?Is now the right time to launch the Chapo meme coin?Our listeners call their brokers.Haha, I kid. None of our listeners have brokers.But seriously, what's going on with the markets today, Jeff?I feel like this is my second Chapo appearance, and the last time I was on, there was another market panic, I'm pretty sure.So I feel like there's probably going to be an ETF now trading on my Chapo appearances.Like you're causing it.Every time I'm on.I was like, last night, I was going to bed last night, and they were like, everybody's scared about the Japanese.I was like, what's going on with the stock market?The Asian markets are cratering.What's going on with the markets today?Does this auger some sort of global economic collapse?Should we start investing in canned food and shotguns?Or what's going on right now?Yeah, I mean, I think the main thing that's happened, basically, is we got a very weak jobs report relative to what we've been getting.And for like months now, months and months and months, like the left has been yelling at the White House to like tell Jay Powell to cut rates.Because like the economy is weakening.But like when, just on the extremely boring mechanics of this, like when you have a signal that the economy is slowing down, people take money out of riskier assets that seem like they're going to not pay a high enough dividend.And then they put it in the really safe stuff, you know, like US Treasury.So we saw, man, this is too boring for the Chapo audience.No, no, no.Stick with me guys.We go with it.Come to our podcast for financial.Yeah, the Chapo Bloomberg heads.They basically pulled all the assets out of equities and put them into sort of the safe treasuries.And the like self-fulfilling part of that is that like now across the globe, every stock exchange is seeing people be like, I don't know, like maybe the US is about to slow down.Maybe that means other countries will slow down.Let me just put it in the safest thing possible.And so then that becomes like a very.Self-fulfilling prophecy.I was talking to someone in the government today who was like, yeah, I just think people are following everyone else and overreacting.And it's like, that's true.But it's also probably what someone said in like 1929.You know, like it's not really reassuring if everyone is thinking the same way.So I don't know.This is the kind of thing where it's like people have been texting me all week.Like, who's the VP pick going to be?And it's like, I'm not like just like sitting on.The answer just like waiting.You know, you work for The Washington Post.You know where all the money is.You know what the future holds.Jeff, this is this is what comes with your job.I would.You're behind the veil.You're in the rooms.I know people like, why do you work in mainstream media?It would be so much sicker if we got like those things like it would make the tradeoff makes much more sense to people.Well, we shall see if there's any synchronized swan dives out of windows on Wall Street later this afternoon when the market closes or maybe the market's already closed.I don't know.What time does the market close?Jeff?4 p.m.OK, so it's already.All right.Yeah, it's done.All right.The Chapo meme coin.We're going to wait.We're going to wait to roll that out until the markets have.I feel like the thing that I would do if I was like ethically allowed to that.It's like surprising to me that more people don't do this is you can make like a good amount of money on predicted.Just like looking at the like top political reporters, what they tweet about who the pick is going to be.And then buying.I read today.It's like.You can make up to 10 grand a year just doing this.Like you don't need the Pelosi ETF.You just have to follow like three reporters in Washington.Well, well, we're going to get to the veep stakes in a little bit, but I'm probably going to be announced tomorrow.I'll put my marker down now.I will be astonished if it is anyone other than Josh Shapiro.But we'll get into the reasons for that later.But, Jeff, the reason we have you on is that you had a very interesting piece in the Washington Post.The other week about basically the U.S. led like sanctions regime that has.I'm just going to read the first paragraph of it because it's pretty.It's pretty extraordinary.You and your co-author, Frederica Coca, right.Today, the United States imposes three times as many sanctions as any other country or international body targeting a third of all nations with some kind of financial penalty on people, properties or organization.They have become an almost reflexive weapon in perpetual economic warfare.And their overuse is recognized at the highest levels of government.But American presidents find this tool increasingly irresistible.So like a third of the world under some form of economic sanction by the United States government is fairly extraordinary.But just like in the simplest terms to begin this conversation, what are sanctions and how do they work?Like, for instance, if we see in the news that the United States is considering further sanctions on Venezuela or another round of sanctions on Venezuela, what do those sanctions entail and what does it mean?What does it mean for countries that are, you know, on the receiving end of them?Yeah. And thank you guys so much for the plug and the intro.I mean, the way sanctions work, it's a little technical, but I actually think it's really important to understand sort of the way this works in practice is basically the U.S.government has assumed virtually unlimited power where if it deems any foreign government, any foreign person, any foreign company, any foreign sector, it can.So it's like a little bit of aAnd if the Treasury Department reaches that determination, it can say that it's it's placing that entity on a list of sanctioned people, sanctioned entities.That list is now, as we report in the story, ballooned over 15,000.So it's a huge list with all these different governments, all these different countries, all these different people and companies.And interestingly, being sanctioned is not being accused of a crime.You're not able to go to court and say, hey, you accused me of doing this.In fact, I didn't do it.And I'm innocent.And here's the evidence why the U.S. can just sort of unilaterally accuse you of being a sanction, being a threat to one of these three criteria.And then you're sanctioned.So what does that mean if you're sanctioned?What it means is that.It is now a crime for anyone else, essentially, to do business with you, to transact with you.And what that essentially means is that you are cut out, excommunicated from the global financial system because to be part of the world economy, you need to have a bank account.And every almost every country around the world, with some exceptions, relies on sort of the U.S. dollar system, the U.S.dollar system.And so the U.S. dollar system, which is the U.S. dollar system, has been a kind of a global financial system.Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there's really been no alternative to the to the Western financial system through which the U.S. has its tentacles through the banking system that controls basically, you know, I don't know what the number is, but it's it's over half, maybe over 75 percent of the global banks in the world have a nexus with the U.S.So if you're, you know, in in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Syria, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if you're in Serbia, for instance, and you're sanctioned, what that means is that your bank to work with you, you're not going to be able to do business with you.So if large U.S. firms were sanctioned or prevented from, let's say, having access to foreign markets or foreign resources or cut out of a global financial system, I think we would take that as an act of war.And we'd probably go to war as a result of it.I hope you guys have me on for my next story in this series.That's all I can say to that.I don't want to preview too much.All right.Well, OK, I'd like I'd like this.I'd like to switch over now to the presidential election.And I want to talk about the the veep stakes for the Democrats.But before I get into that, Felix, I got to ask you, did you see the Trump interview with Aiden Ross today?Yes.Yeah, I was really.Well, I have complicated feelings on Aiden Ross.I like a lot of people.I was shocked to find out this was a Jewish man.I didn't.And I consider this.Ross.Jack.Well, yeah.Yeah.But you have to, like, look at him and listen to him.And my point is, this is like a Jackie Robinson type thing in reverse, perhaps.We're like, I didn't know we could have.Like guys named Aiden who like were white but tried to give themselves waves and like got addicted to stuff from the gas station and were this stupid.I thought like the dumbest Jewish kid that age is at least going to like Tish.For the record, the Washington Post doesn't endorse the Aiden Ross Jackie Robinson comparison.The Washington Post doesn't think this.They're not as they don't think about the world.The same way I do.But I think it's nice.Who is Aiden Ross?He's a gamer.Twitch guy.He's a gamer.Which guy?His his rise to fame was like he would pretend to be gay around his friends and like try to kiss them.And that was really big.But I, I think it's I think this will end anti-Semitism because it shows we're just white people.Like if we can be that we're just normal white people.And I think that's great.I think Trump is trying to put pressure on.Harris to pick Shapiro by like making a play for the Jewish vote.Yeah, we'll get there.We'll get that in a second.But the thing I wanted to highlight from the Aiden Ross Trump kick stream today is the footage of Aiden Ross gifting Donald Trump a personalized Tesla Cybertruck.This was like with with a screen like a wraparound print of the Trump like assassination photo where his fist is up.And he's like, here, I got you this.You could already see the gift.Yeah, I can.Wow.You can't miss it.That's an Elon.It is an Elon.Wow.Shout out to Mr.That's beautiful.And like, first of all, the idea of giving a presidential candidate a car or giving Donald Trump a car as a gift is so funny to me.But his reaction upon receiving this this gift was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.It was like it was like you when you're eight years old and you really want like PlayStation.But you get a like something's gift wrapped and you can feel you.There's no hard corners.It's all soft.And you're like.Sweater.Time to kill myself.This shit sucks.Like he was so, so disappointed.He was just like, yeah, it's great.Also, we know we have the image already of Trump in the truck like screaming.Yeah.Do you remember that?Real truck.Yeah.Cybertruck.That's what he likes.Trump literally in that exact interview.Shit talk.He hates.He literally said, I have to like you because Elon Musk gave me money.Yeah.He hates.He's here.So.Here's an EV with the like scariest moment of your life plastered on it.Were you almost died?Think how insane that would be for anyone to drive a vehicle around with an image of when you almost died.Just like you in the hospital bed.Like driving probably the most dangerous consumer model of car you can possibly drive.The car that is most deleterious to your life and health and safety.There is a cyber truck.Trump being about the cyber.The truck though.Right.Like.Well, in that it's.Yeah.Well, no, no.Like Jake from Pandejo time said the same thing.Like this is a terrible gift for Trump because Trump is pathologically afraid of death.Like he wants to live forever.So you're right.Like gifting him something that reminds him about the time he came that close to dying.Sure.And, you know, also someone who probably doesn't like driving cars to begin with unless they'rea golf cart.But what an amazing gift to give to a president.Here's this shitty car with.It's like giving Jackie.Oh, a fucking screen print of her on Dealey Plaza crawling over the roof of the fuckingLincoln Town car.This is amazing.I haven't seen this.It's like it's literally on the side of the car.Yeah.It's not a photo in the car.No, it's also like also like a cyber.Like, do you think Trump can't afford one?I know.It's like he's like when he when he and Ross's shithead friends would be thrilled with thatpresident.Not Donald Trump.The guy owns his own golf club.There's several of them, actually.Yeah.There are.Like.Hey.Literally, you stay at a hotel and it's his hotel to the point that, you know, if youorder a martini, there are grapes in it.He's well off.It's it.Yeah.It.You're dead on in that.Like, this would be a great gift for the other guys on kick like Mr.Base or any of those any of those guys.How do you think Trump feels when he is introduced to these like Twitch streamer guys?These aren't his people, right?Like the.He met he met Logan Paul and it was the happiest he's ever been.But he likes like Logan Paul is to him is like a boxer now.And he likes that.Like he likes fighters.He really enjoyed his time on the impulsive podcast.But they're like a little older.They're a little different than the streaming economy.I think he kind of understands it as much as like a man his age can in that it's like,you know, this is what we have instead of like reality.Yeah.Reality TV stars now.Like this is just like a public freak for all.I'm a Rosa.It's his old friend.I'm kind of imagining like Trump is looking at like internal poll numbers that are likehalf the country thinks your vice presidential pick is too weird.This is like your number one political liability.And then like the next thing his handlers drop him off at is a cyber truck with hisface having been shot.Well, he had J.D.Vance.Actually, he went on the Nelk Boys podcast.Oh, which is.It's a collection of like, I would say optimistic, but very stupid men.And it was.I don't know.It was.What do you even call like a good J.D.Vance outing?But they're but they're they're they have a very like, you know, young man's Internetfocused strategy.But like most of the audience for this shit are like kids.They're not even old enough to vote.I would.I would have.Eight.Ninth grade.Exactly.They're a ways off.From being able to vote.But yeah, I don't know.I mean, it's just like people speculate.Like, is this another Don Jr.Pick for the old man?Yeah.Yeah.All right.Well, speaking of another pick, I said at the top of the show that I mean, this is likelyto be announced tomorrow, if not by the time we get done recording here.But I will be astonished.I will be dumbfounded if Kamala picks anyone other than Josh Shapiro.And the reason I'm saying that is because, like, if he wasn't going to be the VP pickand if that.That wasn't already a done deal.We would not see dozens and I mean dozens of the same article being written about howif you don't like him, you're an anti-Semite.Quoting here from Joe Scarborough, the whisper campaigns against Josh Shapiro have dark undertones.Breaking news.He's Jewish.But just as Thatcher was identified as a game changing force in politics instead of a woman,Josh Shapiro's strengths and talents would easily transcend bigotry and identity politics.And like, OK, one more from Matthew Stroller.The attacks on Josh Shapiro for having the same views on Israel as everyone else is thepolitical class in the political class are noticeable.I think that's because he's an economic politic populist and the identity left hates that.How can you how can you say that he represents a break with identity politics and this assholevolunteer to serve the IDF?Yeah, and it's that his entire career fucking glazing Israel.Can you read that one more time?That's right.OK, the attacks on Josh Shapiro for having the same views on Israel as everyone else.In the political class are noticeable.I think it's because he's an economic public populist and the identity left hates that.Josh Shapiro.Josh Shapiro punished ice cream for doing very mild.Ben and Jerry's.Yeah.Yeah.Josh Shapiro went to war with ice cream, but he's going to stop identity politics.It's such a confusing tweet because like when you talk to Democrats in Washington, likethe Shapiro as an economic populist thing is like not what anyone would.Say, you know, because it's the bar of that tweet is wrong.It is like I don't know, maybe like Matt Stoller has a theory about that that I haven't seen.But like everyone I talk to is like we like Josh, like all the like the business friendlyDemocrats are like, we think Josh Shapiro will be like sympathetic to us.The bar for economic populist is so fucking low.It literally just say the words corporate greed in his speech.You're you're fucking you're fucking Wallace.Henry Wall.You're Henry Wallace.But like by the standards that by those standards by which Josh Shapiro is an economic populist,so is like Dick Gephardt.So it's like like like I'm sure that like Rick Scott has mentioned corporate greed ina fucking speech.I guess this Senate is 100 percent populist populist win incoming.I mean, the thing the thing with that, Felix, is that like now the Republicans can't doit.The Republicans can kind of play that game to, you know, like J.D. Vance gets lots ofcredit hours like he criticized Wall Street in his RNC convention speech.Like he's a populist to, you know, like God is a double edged sword for the party.John McCain did that in 2008.Like how fucking stupid are people?I am like, but it's a match point about how his position on Israel is no different thananyone else in the political class.I would say like, you know, that's not totally wrong, but like I mean, his the tenor of hiscomments certainly mark him apart from, let's say, I don't know, J.B. Pritzker or Tim Wallsor I don't know, Mark Kelly was clapping for Netanyahu.But the point is, like our good friend of the show, Don Hughes, said the other day thatlike all this has the tenor of arguing over who you want to be your high school principal,which is just like all these guys kind of suck.Like I like so I mean, but Shapiro seems to be absolutely the worst of the lot.And I just there's there's one one more I want to quote from.This is, of course, your your your Rosenberg writing in The Atlantic.The headline here is Who's Afraid of Josh Shapiro?And it ends here by saying it has become hard to escape the conclusion that some of theactivists imposing this inquisition have a problem not just with Israel or Zionism, butwith Jews who they assume are serving a foreign power, no matter what they've actually saidor done.Josh Shapiro did serve a foreign power.I'm sorry.Yeah, literally.So also you can't like you can't say.To say like they are motivated by like a specific racial animus to Jews, but not all of themwouldn't if you actually believe that you would name the ones that you think are doingthat, it would be important enough for you to go, OK, here are the ones that are virulentanti-Semitic Nazis and here are the ones who are doing it because they care about schoolvouchers.You wouldn't just go, oh, I get like some of them.I don't know.I don't know off the top of my head.Is it important or not?And like like like I said, this is this this is a done deal because, you know, like goingon the I have like 10 op eds here, including one from Mark Penn, who's closely associatedwith Democratic majority for Israel.Back.Yeah.Yeah.Mark Penn says he's by far the best choice.And like and I think more than anything, I just think that like the narrative has beenset that like the progressives really like Tim Walz because, you know, he seems likekind of a nice guy and, you know, like a little bit soft.You know, some of the issues that they care about.But I mean, I would say like what recommends Tim Walz over anyone else in this conversationis that he's never been a lawyer.And I really want to I want to shout out friend of the show, Chase Madar, who pointed outto something like every Democratic president for like for a long time now, pretty muchevery Democratic politician has gone to law school and like just just not having everbeen a lawyer would be a big breath of fresh air for the Democratic Party.But the narrative is set that like the the progressive left doesn't like Josh Shapiro.So that is exactly why he's going to be the VP nod, because this I think it has the partyhas to exercise discipline and they have to make it clear from the get go that nothingis going to change and you will still vote for this ticket.I don't know who the VP pick is going to be, but I do feel like it's like one of thosethings that reminds me very much of like the 2016 like people are being rude on the Internetdiscourse where it's like, oh, it's like the left is being unfair to Shapiro.It's like, who who are you talking about?Because like, I don't know, like, has Bernie Sanders or AOC or like Rashida Tlaib have likeany of I don't think any of them have been like we have huge problems with Shapiro overhis record in Israel.It's just like people on Twitter like doing jokes that you're like, well, yeah, I've gota problem with him.Like, what is like the mechanism by which you want to effectuate like, you know whatI mean?Like the I mean, the thing that drives me specifically the most crazy about this is this line that,like, well, he's he has the same position as anyone else.OK, I'm sorry.I didn't know that a fucking governor of one of the biggest states in the country who hasclear national ambitions.I didn't know he was so fucking shy about his foreign policy positions.I didn't know this was like a personal thing that he didn't like talking about, that it'sunfair to bring this up.Do you do you want people to take him seriously as a candidate or not?Well, then they're going to.They're going to interrogate his positions on.Yeah, exactly.And they're like, I saw some like argument being made that like, oh, like if you know,if it's just if he's just a Jewish guy whose beliefs are the same as every other Democratand like singling him out for not liking him bespeaks a certain kind of bigotry or justthe expectation that he has to be everything you want him to be is bespeak some sort ofbigotry or prejudice to which my attitude is like, well, if you're seeking my vote,I, in fact, would like you to be everything I want you to be and nothing short of that.So sorry, I guess I'm I guess I'm a purist.But, you know, you're asking me to vote for you and I'm assessing your record and findingit horrifically lacking.And one of the things I will say about Josh Shapiro's record and Jeff, I'd like your takeon this.To what extent will that murder slash suicide in Pennsylvania come back to haunt him?Should he be the nominee?Because I'm speaking about the case in which he his office as a prosecutor ruled the caseof a woman who had been stabbed in the back of the head like 20 times a suicide becauseI saw that crazy image on Twitter.Well, well-connected political family.Yeah, I have no idea.But I thought I saw you already.You heard it here first.The Washington Post.Jeff Stein said Josh Shapiro personally murdered a woman in Washington.Jeff Stein said, I have no idea.Yeah.OK.Josh Shapiro murderer.Got it.This woman was stabbed multiple times in the back of the head.Her fiance arrives in his version of events.The fiance arrives on the scene and sees her dead body.The first guy he calls is his uncle.Which if my fiance was dead, that would be the first.Uncle is my first call.As always.Yeah.Always call.Always call the closest uncle or old head that you know.But uncle does an uncle move and takes all the all his like devices, his laptop, hisfucking phone, all the shit.The corridor rules that this woman committed suicide by stabbing herself in the back ofthe head multiple times.Which like I guess if you do a lot of skull crushers and you have really goodhappen, I sense you could do that.Shapiro fought against as a G fought against getting it.The quarters report changed from suicide to obvious homicide.And he is very close with.Josh Shapiro is childhood friends with.So if he is like if this isn't corruption, if this isn't Shapiro getting this guyoff, getting nephew and uncle off, he's too stupid to drive a car.If he legitimately is like this woman killed herself, he shouldn't have kitchenknives.Oh, I was going to get the kitchen knife that was sticking out of her chest whenthe police found.Yeah.This is so criminal intent.Yeah.I wish Vincent was good.D'Onofrio is doing his head tilt.He's got him in the box.He's leaning in.Vincent.I was going to say I wish Vincent D'Onofrio was.Real.So we could get rid of this.All right.Well, so, you know, you're here first.It's going to be the murderer confirmed by The Washington Post.Josh Shapiro will be Kamala Harris's VP.But there's one last domestic political story I'd like to talk about before we get awaytoday.And that is, of course, the RFK Jr.Bear dumping story.Oh, my God.Folks are good.It's like if the stories of like this guy associated with dead animals just keeps gettingbetter and better.And the best part about this is that he he posted a video of himself talking to RoseanneBarr about this incident to like sort of get out ahead.Why is Roseanne Barr there?What is the backstory?Well, they're friends.They're friends.She's a supporter.So I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him in the back of my van becauseI was going to skin the bear.And it was very good condition.And I was going to put the meat in my refrigerator.And you can do that in New York City.You can get a bear tag for a roadkill bear.And this is this is the BBC's account of this story.There are so many details in this story that really are extraordinary.It says independent presidential candidate Robert F.Kennedy Jr.has posted a video on social media in which he admits that he dumped a dead bear cub ina New York City's Central Park in 2014.The clip posted to his ex account on Sunday shows him with controversial U.S.comedian Roseanne Barr as he describes bizarre circumstances that led to his death.an incident that mystified new yorkers 10 years ago mr kennedy said a woman had hit and killedthe bear with her car when he was driving behind her outside of the city and he put it in his vanwith the intention of skinning the animal and harvesting its meat it appears he shared theanecdote to get ahead of the story in the new yorker magazine published on monday accordingto the new yorker mr kennedy was tickled by the discover of the bear while on a falconry outingin upstate new york but he discovered like how bad it is to be if you're running for any officeto be involved and be the central figure of an event that baffledthat's death for most people most people can't get out of a baffling event and this isvery baffling when he discovered the bear he loaded it onto the back of his truck an imageincluded in the article shows mr kennedy grimacing with his hand inside the dead bear's bloody mouthciting an anonymousperson with knowledge of the incident the magazine reported that mr kennedy thought it would be funnyto make it look like an erin cyclist the video the account is broadly similar to the one provided bymr kennedy over the weekend in the video mr kennedy seated with a rolled up sleeves at atable covered with food tells ms bar that he was driving to meet a group of people to go falconingnear goshen new york 10 years ago when the bear was killed did anyone think it was a cyclist didanyone think that a single person have you know this is funny because i've actually done a uh araptor hunting excursion in goshen new york and i'm wondering if it's the same people that i wentwith have you seen the pic if you see the photo of me online with the owls that was taken ingoshen new york outside who could kill a bear with a bicycle like it would have to be like themountain would do that well like why was he trying to stitch up cyclists like what was the point ofthis it was like was it was this some sort of anti-bike lane false flag but the really weirdwork on anybody like there's not yeah no onecontemporaneous reports but like none of them were like cyclists suspected in bear and centralzero point zero people were like oh my god the cyclists are killing bears my favorite part ofthe tweet was let's see the new yorker try to spin that they don't need to spin anythingexact words on this you're like there's no spin needed here and it says here uh i was going toskin the bear and i'm like i'm gonna skin the bear and i'm gonna skin the bear and i'm gonna skinthe bear and it was in very good condition and i was going to put the meat in my refrigerator hesays and you can do that in new york state get a bear tag for a roadkill bear new york state doesallow people to take bears killed on roads but the law stipulates that a person has to notify lawenforcement or the state's environmental conference conservation to acquire such a tag mr kennedy doesnot appear to have done that instead another great sign another great sign when you're running foroffice and you clarify i followed all therules about finding meat on the roadno but here's the weird thing because he says he wanted to he wanted to skin itand put his meat in the freezer to have some you know bear sausage later but he says hereuh instead he continued to the falconing event which went late into the evening then went todinner at peter luger steakhouse in new york city about 70 miles 75 miles south of goshenat the end of the dinner it was late and i realized i couldn't go home mr kennedy saidi had to go to the airport and the bear was in my car and i didn't want to go homei didn't want to leave the bear in my car because that would have been bada dead animal has been in his car for probably seven hours at this pointso the meat is unusable at this point he has a moldering corpse of a rotting carcass in his carand then he was like oh i'm gonna go to the airport that's what's gonna leave it long-termparking or something he said that bear like they did with adriana's carhe says come here you fuckingi had to go to the airport and the bear was in my car that is when he says it occurred to himthat there had been a series of bicycle accidents in new york and that he had an old bicycle in hiscar what is his what is this guy's car like i remember olivia nuzzy had a piece about rfk jrthat mentioned how disgusting his car was and that it like it like it smelled like dog piss it waslike he has this car that's like where every seat is just like chewed by dogs and everything iscovered in hair and the smell of you know the bouquet of animal is quite strong i love thathis whole campaign is like we're gonna take on the elites you know at my falconry excursion yeahso there's one more piece i want to read from this he says uh he tells bar that he had theidea of staging a bike accident with the bear carcass in central park which several drunkpeople with him endorsed he emphasized that he had not been drinking so we did that and we thoughtit would be amusing for whoever found it or something i'm sorry why you are these this islike something the zodiac killer would do it's just like i just thought it'd be amusing to stagea dead bear accident in central park and maybe the person who found this dead bear would find itan amusing bit well to be fair i think he was you know in his 40s or 50s at this point rightyeah he was only like 61 he was pretty young i also like i have to say i have watched enoughvideos called like this disgusting murder will make you throwup um like i've the subtext here of like oh i just found this carcass and i thought it wouldbe funny to do this this is what everyone who like kills their wife does oh i like i foundher body and i thought it'd be funny if i put it in a barrel paging josh shapiroit was a bike accident in this guy's apartment that killed this fiance killed this the subtexthere is that he probably ran over this guy's apartment and he killed his fiance and he killedthis bear no he definitely killed the bear yeah like he killed the bear and was like oh no maybei can put it on a fucking grubhub driver oh no i'm late to my eyes wide shut truffle pig huntinghe left a business card with fidelio in the mouth of this dead bearbut no there's one more i'm sorry there's one there's one more amazing for thisthere's one more amazing he likes this he's gonna win after this felix i i i uh you know you knowmuslim tom on twitter he had a really good point for like uh as the joke can like he like he's theuh like the sort of the the the dummy candidate who's actually been too successful so like andand the two other candidates are so weak and so disliked that he has to keep yes it's gotten toofar so now his orders are keep telling the insane bear stories you need to tank your candidacyas thedummy candidate you've actually this has gone too far or rather it's just a knock-on effect of howunpopular trump and kamala are keep keep telling the weird bear stories and say hey there are moreme twos of me coming out so just get ready for those i did a lot of those there's one moreincredible uh aspect of this story because like people people discovered on twitter like thisstory from 2014 and people were like what the fuck a bear dead bear in central park and then the newyork times story was written by tatiana sloshberg the granddaughter of john f kennedy two two of themgot killed and we have let the rest of this family run riot for generations now and it has got to stopit is sometimes i feel like you like as a reporter you're like i can't believe i didn't get that storyfirst like it's your own family like no one told youuh well let's see the new yorker try to spin that honestly i love i love that i love thathey guys there's another story of me acting weirder than anyone has ever acted in being agross insane guy let me guess you're gonna say you're gonna say that i did exactly what i said idid did you guys see the story we had about how um it was a little written between the lines but thethe implication was thatkennedy came to trump and was like could i get a health and human services secretary type jobin exchange for an endorsement yeah vaccinations was like riding high you know and seems to havebeen like who is this weirdo like go away but if trump like the race has gotten tighter since thenand like i think it's pretty clear that rfk jr to the extent that anyone is going to vote for himwill only take away from donald trump's vote total not the democrats i texted a friend like after thatstory came outlike man i bet like if rfk is like the hhs secretary he would do something likecondition school funding on like not getting vaccines and then like a few days later trumpjust like said that exact same proposal yeah well uh i think that does it for today's showum yeah like robert f kennedy jr another let's let's see how the new yorker spins me behavinglike the sawyer family from texas chainsaw massacrejust a fun prank to do with a dead animal let's you know let's see what can i make out of thiswhat's a what's a fun prank i can do with this bear i ran over with my car and also like he wastrying he was gonna eat the roadkill meat come i mean i look you can do that but not if you alreadyhave brain worms okay maybe that's where he got the brain worms this guy has got to stop givingadvice on health okay he's got to stop giving advice on medicine and health shouldn't he likecyclists it's like outdoors it's organic i don't knownatural he's probably hit too many of them with his car all right all right gang uh that does itfor today's episode our thanks again to jeff stein for joining us today and please check out hisarticle or what will soon to be a series of articles in the washington post about u.seconomic sanctions jeff thanks for your time hey thanks so much for the plug guys really appreciateit yeah we'll have the link thank you article in the show description that does it for us todaytill next time everybody bye-byeyoubig bearhe's sweet as a bird but it smells like a hawkbig bear he's iron tough big bear he's got a chest like a rugbig bear he don't take no cuff he's big bearyou