Krystal and Saagar discuss Jeremy Scahill on the fall of Assad, CEO killer backpack found with Monopoly money, Bill Burr goes off on United CEO, bird flu milk scare.
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Hey guys, Saga and Crystal here.
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We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see you at Breakingpoints dot com. Good morning, everybody, Happy Monday. Have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal?
Indeed we do.
Lots of gigantic news unfolding. Basher Alisad's government in Siri has collapsed. He has fled the country to Moscow. Jerrescahill is going to join us to try to figure out what the hell is going on and what might come next, as best as anyone can possibly figure. Also, the manhunt for that killer of the healthcare CEO continues. Some interesting evidence has been located, and also the cultural reaction continues as well, and our own Ken Clippenstein got leaked. The CEO of that company is like the larger healthcare group his response, which is interesting as well. The FDA has announced a new sweeping testing regime of the nation's dairy supply amid fears of a new pandemic spark by bird flu, which has been ravaging dairy cowed herds across the western part of the country. So something definitely to keep an eye on there. Trump gave a wide ranging interview to Kristen Welker over at NBC News. Will bring you some of the highlights of that and a little bit of reaction. I'm taking a look at all of the billionaires in Trump's administration and what they might want. And we also had an update last evening. A civil lawsuit has been filed against Jay Z accusing him of raping a thirteen year old girl. He of course denies the charges, but we will tell you what we know about that as well.
Yeah, it's there's a lot going on there.
Yeah, this is linked to the Ditty allegations. So we actually had heard some of this from this you know at the time girl now woman, But jay Z hadn't been named. So now the new edition is that he has been named.
He's our named, He's fighting Matt hard Well, drama involving the lawyers, et cetera. We'll get to all of that, but thank you to all of our premium subscribers. We love you, We appreciate you, Thank you very much. We really, you know, just been we've been thinking just about how to build the show for the future and more, and it's just so thankful to have all of you, and also just to see the overwhelming number of people who came in.
After the election. It's great to have you.
As you said, we took a look at our Spotify rapped numbers and there's always some great surprises. The Vouch Dave Smith Debate is our number one shared episode of the year, which is amazing. Also is Counterpoints Debate literally, so that was thank thanks to our premusubscribers to be able to expand content. There's a lot of interesting stuff in those In terms of the amount of growth that we've received over after the election. Actually, you know, you would assume that our election coverage be the most downloaded, but it was actually our post election coverage which is the most really see that November twentieth, twenty twenty four is the largest day in the history of breaking points like by a mile, which is amazing, But I don't really nothing in particular, even like happened that day. Something went viral interesting so we could see that, you know, in terms of the numbers. But yes, thank you to there was seriously tens hundreds of thousands of people who joined the podcast and this just last year, so thanks very much. And if you can't become a premus describer, no worries. You can still help us out by liking the video on YouTube, sharing it, or if you're in the episode and you just literally just text it to somebody and share it with them.
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So that conversation Emily and Ryan did with the seeking arrangements Sugar Baby Late, actually that got a lot of interest, a lot of discussion around that.
When it those some people were not happy, but some people like that. Yeah, I like the cover.
I thought it was very interesting personally to hear.
So in any case, you guys make those that expansion of the show possible. We're actually having a big meeting today with our producers to think about next year and what we can do to continue to build. So thank you guys all so much for your support. All right, sagre, what is going on in Syria?
Oh my god? What is not going on in Syria?
We're going to start off with some video, so let's go ahead and play some of this for the audience.
I'm going to talk over it while.
It is just stunning scenes with the fall of Damascus to these quote unquote rebels. We'll tell you about those rebels in a little bit, but you can literally see, you know, scenes reminiscent of the fall of Baghdad, the destruction of Asad statues, both Bashar Assad and his own father who ruled the country from some fifty odd years. The most shocking scenes really are some of these that have been coming out of the secret and historic prison that was in Damascus that housed a lot of these political prisoners, you know, small children, lots of women, men who have been locked in these cells for what.
Some odd years now.
I saw some reports some of them literally didn't even know what a smartphone was, Crystal.
That's how long I'm locked up? Wow? I me yeah.
If you think it's the civil war has been going on since twenty twelve, maybe even with the brutal regime. You know a lot of these people who have been housing there for a long time. Some eyes also open for Austin Tice, the American citizen. The US government does believe he is alive, and he was being held by the Ouside regimes. We're hoping that he's returned sometimes soon. This is apparently is a bunch of rebels trying to figure out how to operate a helicopter. But here we have Al Jilani, the leader of HTS, the new presumptive leader I guess of Damascus, out of Syria, giving a speech of talking about quote, there's no house in Syria. The wars knocked down on Praise be to God. Today you are recovering God willing, Thank God, mister Jolani literally a wanted terrorist, you know, by the United States government, and that at one point we're offering a ten million dollar reward for his capture. His own history is a little bit shocking, and really, you know, from step by step is just failure of US policy after failure of a policy. This is a man who is radicalized by the Second Intafada, becomes a committed Jihatist, goes to fight in Iraq. He is held in the infamous kind of basically jihadi university prison by United States forces in two thousand and three. In two thousand and four, he's released. He joins Zarkawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq. There's eventually some drama and he splits off and goes to Syria. And he's been one of the most committed leaders of the al Qaeda offshoot in Syria.
Now, you know, the defenders.
Quote unquote will say, oh, well, he's distanced himself from al Qaeda. He's actually purged some of the elements of that. We'll see it really does remain. But I mean the truth is is, if you look at this man's history, he has been a committed jihadist who's been fighting either US forces, the West or frankly even some of the religious minorities inside of Syria now.
For over a decade.
So, yes, this is the final conclusion, it seems, of the Syrian Civil War, some fourteen years brutal civil war. One hundreds of thousands are dead. But there is no indication that this is it, right. I mean, there are still so many different religious minorities in Syria.
You have the Kurdish faction in the SDF.
You have ten percent of the country which is Christian, you have the Druze population as well, damaskets itself where Look, you could say a lot of things about Asad, but it actually was genuinely kind of diverse, quote unquote, a lot of those people did support the Asad regime.
Nobody knows now, you know, what's going to happen.
It's some indications in Aleppo that they haven't cracked down on religious minorities yet. You know, we don't know, but you know, there's going to be no cheering today on this show because they they're and I am a little heartened by this. At the very least, there is a heavy amount of realism I have seen, at least in some analysis, even at the mainstream level Crystal people are like, did.
We is this a good thing?
You know?
Did we win?
Is this a celebration of US policy? And don't you know, don't brainwash yourself. Yes, this war, a lot of it was fought by Syrians, a lot of it was fought by foreigners, a lot of it was funded by foreign dollars, including our foreign dollars. And President Biden's statement which we'll get to in a little bit is a full on celebration. But I am at least heartened by you know, the incoming vice president elect and a few others being like, are we sure that this is a good thing? You know, this this this may actually end up being like the fall of Gaddafi and unleashing hell for this country for another fourteen years.
So I don't know how you could live through Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and just feel like, yay, yay, they're not gonna go great agi or exactly living through all of the Arab spring. And so I think anyone who was sentient, who you know, observed those you know, moments of optimism turn into horror.
I don't think anyone.
Could watch that and just feel really super confident, especially given what we know about this faction, Rubbel faction that you know, is an offshoot of al Qaeda. And yeah, he's saying the right things about you know, commitment to religious and ethnic diversity within Syria, but this is a committed jihadis a commitment committed Islamist. So we shall see not to mention you already see, and we'll get into this with with Jeremy as well. You already see Israel making moves to annex territory and take advantage of the situation. Obviously there's going to be a vacuum. Obviously this is going to be a very weak government. This really came out of nowhere. I mean, I don't think this was really on anyone's radar until these rebels were able to so quickly take over Aleppo. The Syrian forces scattered, there was a realization the the you know, foreign government governments, whether it was Iran or Russia that had been backing this sad regime were no longer there to you know, to keep them in place, and very very very quickly things collapsed, and like that you have a new government in Syria. So with all of that setting of the table, let's go ahead and get to our guest, Jeremy Scahill, of course, co founder of drop site News, alongside our own Ryan Grimm, who is you know, a fantastic observer of this entire region and has a good bird's eye view.
Of how all of these pieces fit together. So let's get to that.
Joining us now is Jeremy Scahill is the co founder of drop site News and a great journalists.
Good to see sir, thank.
You, thanks for having me back.
Yeah, absolutely so, Jeremy.
We want to get your reaction to assume these rapid developments in Syria, but also in respect to what's happening with Israel and his current expansion of territory. First, let's get your reaction to this SoundBite put out by bab Net and Yahoo.
In reaction, let's take a lesson.
This is a historic day for the Middle East. The collapse of the Acid regime, the tyranny in Damascus, offers great opportunity, but also is fraught with significant dangers. This collapse is a direct result of our forceful action against Kibaala and Iran Asad's main supporters. It's set off a chain reaction of all those who want to free themselves from this tyranny and its suppression. But it also means we have to take action against possible threats. One of them is the collapse of the separation of forces agreement from nineteen seventy four between Israel and Syria. This agreement held for fifty years. Last night it collapsed. The Syrian army abandoned its positions. We gave the Israeli army the order to take over this positions to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel. This is a temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found. Equally, we send a hand of peace to all those beyond our border in Syria, to the Jews, to the Kurds, to the Christians, and to the Muslims who want to live in peace with Israel. We're going to follow events very carefully. If we can establish neighborly relations and a peaceful relations with the new forces emerging in Syria, that's our desire. But if we do not, we'll do whatever it takes to defend the state of Israel and the border of Israel.
Jeremy your reaction to that.
Let's remember that not long before October seventh, Netanyahu gave a speech at the United Nations in which he brandished a mapp of the Middle East that showed a total erasure of Palestine in any form whatsoever, and portrayed it as a greater Israel that was going to be the conduit that would connect the south and north of the world in the Eastern Hemisphere with sort of a great new Silk Road that would be heralded in by Israel, and Netnyaho has made very clear that he supports a dramatic expansion of the state of Israel. And so, you know, while he may be exaggerating Israel's role or the role that it played in the events in Syria, certainly Israel's actions in the Middle East did play a role, and Netnyaho now is trying to seize the moment to literally invade kilometers into Syria. Israel does not have a track record of seizing territory and then saying, oh, well, actually we were just doing this for our security.
We're going to back out of it.
I mean, look no further than the non ceasefire that the Biden administration broker in Lebanon, where Israel has repeatedly been violating. It still has its forces occupying. But there certainly is a discussion to be had about how the impact in Gaza and Lebanon and the broader war that Metnyahu is waging in the Middle East impacted events on the ground in Syria. But this is a multi dimensional conflict in Syria with a lot of foreign actors involved with it, as you alluded to earlier. So I think that on the one hand, we can examine Israel's role. On the other hand, we have to talk about the United States, Turkey, Gulf countries, Russia has belat Iran, and then the Syrian forces themselves on the ground.
Let's talk a little bit more about that.
Eric, if you could put a four up on the screen, this tear sheet from the Wall Street Journal that lays out some of those dynamics that you're discussing. The headline here as Asad's downfall marks a new realignment in the Middle East. You had Turkey backing the rebels, you had Russia previously backing Asad. Asad has now fled reportedly to Moscow. You know, questions about what various countries and factions in the region stand to benefit from these developments. I mean, what is your reaction overall to what has been a stunning chain of events and you know, total collapse of government in just a few days.
I think that there's several ways that we have to look at this, and we shouldn't strip Syrians themselves of their agency in this or their moment to sort of express relief at someone that many Syrians viewed as a butcher, a war criminal, their torturer, their main violator of human rights. You know, Crystal, I was in Iraq when Saddam Hussein emptied the Abu Grab prison shortly before the United States invaded Iraq, and there were people coming out of that Abu Grab prison who had been there for decades, and we saw some of the facilities that were used to torture people in Saddam's prison. And as I've seen some of the footage coming out of prisoners being released from Asad's per in Syria, it brought back memories for me of that. And I think, you know, if you're talking about people that are political prisoners, that have spent decades in a dungeon and have been tortured under heinous circumstances, everyone should be glad to see prisoners being liberated. So on the one hand, I fully understand why many Syrians are celebrating this day. On the other hand, the forces that are now taking control HTS and others have a track record of their own brutality, of their own killing of ethnic and religious minorities, of running their own torture prison operations, and the United States for many years, has had its hand in the dirty war in Syria.
I mean at one point, the United.
States was spending a billion dollars in CIA operations alone, training so called rebel forces. You have many nations that have had a role to play in this really dirty situation. And then on the Russia and Iran side, you know, well, Bashar Asad was a member of the so called Axis of Resistance, the Nation States and non state actors that had a common pledge to confront Israel in the region. Largely, what Asad's support for that axis consisted of was allowing passage through Syria of weapons, logistics personnel going into Lebanon and to resupply hesblah and others. But there's also a whole other part of this story, which is that at times both Israel and the United States worked with Bashar al Assad. One story that I know you guys are familiar with was that in two thousand and two, a Canadian Syrian named Mahar Rar was kidnapped at JFK Airport by the CIA and he was sent to Syria where he was tortured in those very prisons that were seeing footage of by the Asad regime's forces. Asad was on the verge of making some sort of a deal prior to the twenty eleven protests out and we haven't seen Syria launching air attacks at Israel over the past year. You know, Hesbola was doing that, Iran was doing that, even the Huthi's of Yemen were doing that. But Asad has sort of played all sides of the fence. But really, in the days leading up to HTS seizing Aleppo, Holmes, Hama and ultimately Damascus, net Yaho was starting to directly threaten Asad and say that if he didn't stop efforts to resupply Hesbilad during this so called ceasefire, that he would directly pay a price for it. Israel has been bombing the past couple of days targets around Syria. They claim that they're trying to degrade chemical weapons air defense systems, but Israel is certainly exploiting this opportunity to try to go in and preemptively strike all around Syria. No one should pretend that this is about self defense. No one should pretend that this is about humanitarian motives. Net Yahoo and the Israeli state have a very extreme agenda to seize Ara Bland, and I think that's a large part of what we're seeing right now.
Yeah, and Jeremy, we also have President Biden openly celebrating this. We have a three Please let's play that and we'll get his reaction.
Well, happened in the least after thirteen years a civil war in Syria more than half a century, brutal Afar turned rule by a sure a SOD has fathered before him. Rebel force is a forced Assad to resign his office and flee the country. We're not sure he is, but the word that he's in Moscow at long last the SOD regime has fallen.
So you can see that he's at long last it's fallen. He's celebrated it. So the United States will continue to participate. I mean, this is not a good look if we are to literally talking about an al Qaeda takeover of the country. So in context of the nets On Yahu statement and how here the United States president, what is the policy here that will shape what comes after?
Now that Asada is out, Well, you.
Can go back and find video of Joe Biden when he was Vice president really directly stating what many people are talking about right now, which is that you have Abu Muhammad al Jolani remains a wanted terrorist in the language of the United States, with a ten million dollar bounty on his head. Secretary of State Blincoln has not, to my knowledge, removed HTS from the list of foreign designated terrorist organizations. Jake Sullivan, the current National Security Advisor, we know from wikileage's cables, actually at one point acknowledged that al Qaeda was on the same side as the United States in Syria. All of this is very relevant and no one should be derided for raising what our factual, factual rendering of events and the history leading up to this. We're going to see now is an aggressive rebranding effort. This has been going on for a couple of years with HTS and Jolani, but I think you're going to see an intensification of this. Britain already is debating whether or not to remove them from their terror designation. The United Nations also has designated HTS as a terror organization. So you know, on the one hand, the United States is opportunistic. It's looking to try to ensure that it has its own resources protected. The United States is tremendously happy that Russia has had to withdraw from its naval and air base in Syria. The United States since going back to the nineteen fifties, wanted to prevent Russia from having any kind of a.
Foothold in the Middle East.
So, you know, while I think that we should focus on Syrians and their views of this, the geopolitical realities of this go back many decades. It's Cold War politics, it's the US wanting Russia out of it, It's the move toward trying.
To do regime change in Iran.
I think the Iranians are looking at this and saying we should accelerate our attempt to get a nuclear weapon because they're watching the dominoes fall in the Middle East right now. And you have a kind of a perfect storm that has been created by the Biden administration's policy, where now Donald Trump takes power, he's sending a total lunatic Mike Huckabee as the ambassador to Israel. You could have an attempt to actually destroy the al Akxamasque. You could have an attempt to do actual overt regime change in Iran and Syria falling I think has caused great nervousness in other Arab capitals, where despotic regimes are fearful that this will be contagious.
Talk a little bit more about the incoming Trump administration. What can we glean from his last time in office viz a VI his approached them, no least generally, but specifically towards Syria.
Well, you know, I mean, Trump put out a statement the other day that was a kind of you know, it was a mess. It had something for everyone to read into it. And you know, Trump is kind of a master at leaving the door open to interpretation. When it comes to Israel, he has openly pledged that he's going to give net and Yahu carte blanche. If you look on paper, it would seem that very ominous days are ahead for the region. But also when Trump was in power the first time, some of the bluster and rhetoric that he unloaded on the campaign trail, when he then became the commander in chief, there were moments when he was a president that embraced notions of restraint. We know that there were big battles between some of Trump's people and Trump himself and some of the neo cons like John Bolton, And then at the end of the day, I think ego plays a role in this. Does Donald Trump want to have when he enters office. Fires raging across the Middle East. Iran certainly put out indicators that they wanted to negotiate with Trump. It does seem like there may be some deal between Hamas and Israel that probably wouldn't have happened if Biden had another year in office and it wasn't Trump. So, you know, while I'm while I'm inclined to say that, I think, you know, Trump is an ultra militaristic guy. In some ways, he does have instincts that veer off the path of American Empire. And I think that if there's going to be any chance of the fires getting put out, it would be because of the quirky, strange nature of Donald Trump's approach to foreign policy.
Yeah, I think that's really well said, Jeremy. As we continue to watch all this, we're going to be relying heavily on drop side. So thank you so much for joining us man.
We appreciate you.
Thank you, guys.
So, meanwhile, the manhunt continues for the killer of that CEO of United Healthcare. Harry enton Over at CNN broke down some of the reasons why he has apparently been so difficult to find. Let's take a listen.
The number one thing that should stand out at Central Park is it's just freaking huge. I mean, that's the number one thing that should stand out. It makes up six percent of Manhattan. There are eight lakes and ponds, so you could potentially drop that backpack anywhere. There are seven hundred or more garbage cans as of twenty twenty one. Again, a lot of places that you might have to search in Central Park if you're trying to find somebody or find a backpack. But more than that, it's really easy to blend in in Central Park and escape there without people noticing. Why is that because get this, there are about fifty exits and entrances from Central Park, and more than that, there are about forty thousand winter weekday visitors. So you can get out of the park really easily, and you can really blend into the park quite easily. Erica Harry, please see the suspect also may have gotten out of the city by using the George Washington bus terminal. Yeah, so I have been to that bus terminal. It's actually fairly close to where I grew up. And what you should know about it, it's really busy on your average weekday they are about nine hundred plus buses that come in and out of the terminal daily. There are about ten thousand plus passengers who come either in or out of the terminal daily, and more than that, there are a ton of potential destinations from the George Washington Bus terminal. Look at this map right here. You can go all the way up. Look at this, go all the way up to Boston. You can go all the way down to Philadelphia, or you can go all away to western New York.
So what we know basically at this point is so we've all, you know, seen the footage, the security footage of the actual killing, and he hops on a bike, goes into Central Park, emerges somewhere upper West Side, hops in a cab. We actually have an image of him in the cab that just came out, which, by the way, a bunch of these pictures that they're saying, are you know, person Adventure is basically alleging as a suspect. They really do look like different people, but it's hard to tell because a lot of them are mask You can see him here.
So with his quality of the camera is not very high, So.
Yeah, with his mask. So this is the latest photo that has emerged. So anyway, gets in, this cab goes to the George Washington Bridge bus terminal. I mean, I haven't been to that particular bus terminal, but I've been to plenty of I've been to the main New York City bus terminal. And the number of buses coming in and out of these things, the number of people, I mean, it's just, you know, it's constant. So he goes in, he doesn't come out. So the presumption is, of course, that he took a bus somewhere to make his getaway, and they've only just recently found he apparently ditched his backpack in Central Park near the Merry Go Round. There's an image of that backpack, and based on what we know, it was apparently stuffed with his jacket and monopoly money.
So it seems like he fully intended.
I mean, this guy is the joker.
It's not about it's about strangling a message. Yeah, he sees the joker.
He intended them to find this backpack, and yet, by the way, still took the cops three days to find it in Central Park, knowing that it was likely somewhere in there. So I mean, that's effectively where we are right now. Eric Adams, mayor of New York City, is claiming that they have a name. We could put this up on the screen. This was at some holiday party. I believe he made these comments.
He says. The net is tightening on.
The CEO's suspected killer. He says, they have a name, but we don't want to release that now. If we do, we're basically giving a tip to the person worseeeki. We don't want to give him an upper hand at all. Let him continue to believe he can hide behind the masks. We revealed his face, We're going to reveal who he is, and we're going to bring him to justice personally. And I don't really believe him.
I don't know.
Maybe there's a strategic reason not to reveal the name, or maybe you don't want to get in legal trouble by implicating someone who you're not one hundred percent sure that it is. But if you're out there saying we know your name, then now the guy knows that you know his name.
But I don't know. I'm a little skeptical.
It seems like the more time goes on, like the trail has as best as the public knows effectively gone cold. And it is kind of wild given this was you know, early morning hours, but there were plenty of people out in New York City. It was in the most densely packed tourist area of New York City. Number of surveillance cameras all around are crazy. They even have drone surveillance now in New York City. And this guy was just able to effectively vanish without a trace and was able to be in the city for some ten days, but very careful about keeping his face hidden and keeping away from cameras, etc. So, based on what the public knows, seems like very very little that they are going on. New York City has twenty five thousand cameras at traffic intersections alone, and that drune surveillance initiative which began over Central.
Park and one billion dollars a year spent on a lot of this not to I mean, look, this is a good view, by the way, into how much all of us are surveiled all the time. And the justification for it is that, oh, it's so easy to stop terrorists and it's easy to catch killers. Well, it's been more than seventy two hours this man has been on the run. I mean, presumably even with the FEDS involved in all that, we still don't have him being apprehended. His name has not been released or even leaked. That is one reason why I'm really skeptical. The NYPD is massive, and you know, it leaks like a sieve. And I've covered these terrorism cases and others for a long time. When they have a name Tom Winters at NBC or whatever, it'll have it in like two seconds.
Yeah.
But even if they don't want to officially put it, Yeah, even.
When they don't want to put it out, it ends up leaking. This happens every time.
Well then, and there's also no indication that they've alert Like if you had a name, wouldn't you alert all the airport and at the border, et cetera, so that if that person shows up with their passport you know what to do.
But there's no indication that.
Yeah, I mean, and that actually raises even crazier questions, is like was he able to get out of the country? You know, was he able to I think it's very possible states. I mean, you know, you could take a bus pretty easy to upstate New York. Canada is not that far away, so there's there's a lot of indications, and then from there, you know, who knows you can get a blight to anywhere you can go to switch.
Do hanging out with the sun and Moscow right now, at.
Moscow, I think that's where I would head. I would head to Moscow.
But yeah, I mean when you when you read all of this, it is both terrifying in terms of how much we are surveilled, and then it also opens the door of like, well, what's the point of all this surveillance.
I mean, look, maybe it's me.
I think it's creepy that when you're in a cab you're on camera, you know, I mean I get it, you know, crime and people getting robbed and all of that, but it's weird. It's like every time you get into an uber, it's like you don't even think about it and you're just your face is being broadcast.
Who knows what this person is going to do to it.
You're in hostile if somebody videoing there, you're on the street, you know, you can track your you know your location everywhere.
This is an interesting I saw a funny analysis.
It just goes to show you that we're lucky that we live in a country where it's mostly like low IQ people who can make crime, because it turns out like if you if you want to get away with it, I mean, to a certain extent.
You kind of can.
I personally thought, I said, there's no way this guy's not in cups, just because I had maybe too much faith in the surveillance state. I'm like, yo, in this country. You know he had that one photo with his face down, Yeah, allegedly whatever.
I think it's him, you do, Yeah, I mean, you know why else would you release it?
Like it looks so different. He looks so different in the different photos that they really.
That's what I mean.
Look, maybe's marrying different he was there for ten days and marring different outfits.
I don't know.
The point is is, like I thought, you know who who. If you've flown recently, actually, in some airports, you don't even have a choice. They just you know, they take a photo of your face and it's facial recognition. You don't even give him your ID anymore. You just stand in front of the camera and it's like boom. I've boarded flights, particularly international flights, the couple of years.
You don't have a boarding pass.
You literally just go and they hit your face with facial recognition, and they're like, oh, Zager and Jedty, you know, twenty six e or something like that. So I'm in my head, I'm like, okay, well you just take that and you do facial recognition, you hit it across all of the different driver's license photos just in the United States or criminal database whatever. And I thought you'd be apprehended the name, you know. I thought i'd be out there within twenty four hours.
But I mean, I.
Guess maybe you know, either they do have that and they're not telling us, or you know, even that photo is not enough. You would assume too, that you would leave fingerprints somewhere in a hostel or wherever you are for ten days on a backpack, DNA, et cetera. But I guess all of that will take some time. I mean, I still remain like pretty, I still remain like pretty skeptical that you're genuinely going to do walk free like a member of the Weather Underground or something. I don't not get apprehended for thirty years. I mean, remember, they did get caught, you know, at the end of the day, all of them did get caught. It took a while, but I guess it could happen, you know, could happen.
The other thing is that, you know, the police really rely to a significant extent on public cooperation, and you know there has been some but like the hostel that that he stayed at that you know, provided security camera footage and like whatever, a lot of people are pissed off of them for I mean, I think, what are they gonna do like that?
You know you're gonna get a subpoena.
But I'm just saying, and there's all these communities on TikTok that are organized around, like you know, helping to sleuth out different crimes and like looking and trying to find the clues and whatever, and they're like, no, we're not helping with this one. So I'm sure that tip hotline they put out has been flooded with all kinds of nonsense, and you know which, if it's credible nonsense, you still got to track it down, you still got to chase it.
And so that.
Also makes it more difficult is to sort even if they got a legitimate tip that actually could help them, if it's also being flooded with you know a lot of people who are not interested in helping or interested in thwarting that can also make it much much more difficult. At the same time, obviously, the cultural reaction has really continued. It has been pretty astonishing how widespread the reaction to this killing was. Bill bur comedian Bill Burr Took had had his own commentary describing the CEO as effectively a gangster.
Let's take a listen to some of his take.
Oh, what's going on in New York?
We were just talking about that ceo got fucking whacked.
Oh my god, dude, you know what's funny.
I was gonna read an art. Cool guy. They like, oh my god, he's such a great guy.
You had a you know, wife and kids, and he's such a great guy. And then you find out he and the other guys he's working for are getting sued for one hundred and twenty one million dollars for dumping a stock and not letting the other people know. It's like, there's your motives. Nancy Pelosi just made nine million bucks on some shit. The gangsters, dude, fucking gangsters. And then one of them gets whacked or something.
They're like, oh, it look good. It was such a good guy.
It's a dirty game pull healthcare, healthcare dirty game.
It is a dirty game. Hikes very true. This was interesting too.
So there's been a corporate reaction also, a bunch of healthcare companies and other Fortune five hundred companies have been taking down their executive bio pages on a fear that their executives could be targeted. There's been a major upsurgeon interest in executive protection. I'm sure that business is thriving today and this was interesting. So in the wake of the killing of the CEO, people started sharing around the fact that Anthem Healthcare was planning this change. We could put this up on the screen, this tear sheet. They've been planning this change where they're going to put a time limit on anesthesia and for most patients, if the anesthesiologists went over the time limit, if your surgery so you're knocked out, you have nothing to do with it. If your surgery goes over how long they think it should take, then they were going to mass deny those claims. So, in the wake of this killing and more attention on the depravity of the United It State's healthcare system, this decision was something that people really picked up on and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield said Okay, never mind, we are not going to do this anymore. This plan was supposed to go into effect in several states.
It wasn't a.
Nationwide change, it was just in a number of states. And they've said, oh, well, there was disinformation spread about what we were planning. So because of this disinformation, we're going to back off of this particular change. But listen, this is what health insurers do. The more care they deny, the more money they make. So they seek all kinds of ways to limit what they're going to you know what claims they're going to accept, what they're going to pay out, because the more that they do that, the more that their profit margining creases.
That's just the fundamental dynamic.
I'm not going to white nighte for the healthcare company. But I also want people to understand that this is part of why the American healthcare system is so crappy, is because the anesthetl There is actually decent evidence of anesthesiologists being a It's a very.
High paid field, I'll put it that way.
Yeah, their ability to control that and then also what the government then reimburses them for as well as the insurance companies, it helps right. Turns out at most antitheologists are making like three hundred grand a year. So the justification from the UH and I'm sure I'm gonna get a ton of hate from the anesthesiologists, sorry, folks, but the truth is is that you guys are wildly overpaid, not just antheologists, all doctors. It's basically a cartel, and so the American Medical Association has actively lobbied, you know, to restrict the number of doctors there to artificially push up the price. That works in conjunction with our insane you know, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Anthem, almost other reimbursement. So you basically have a ton of people. This is like a mob war between two cartels. When, as you said, the patient is what is supposed to matter. The guy under the knife or the woman who is literally asleep should not be subject to is this doctor possibly keeping me under long enough just so he can make more money, or is you know, it's it up to the insurance company. It should literally just be about all of the health. So again I'm not white nighting for the insurance company. That was the justification though, that they had seen that this was a systematic problem costing them money. But the whole, you know, the whole insanity of it is is that the same procedure in so many other different countries, there is no profit consideration in.
The entire well the operation.
You just do whatever you have to do or that is the core of the problem. And the issue of course with the approach they were taking is that it ends up being the patient once again who gets screwed, yeah you know, and who gets their claims denis now stuck while they were under them and I had no say over any of this. This is all happening while they're literally knocked down, and now you're stuck with a multi thousand dollars bill because your claim has been denied because the surgery took longer than they expected. But you are one hundred percent correct that the profit motive for all of these actors, whether it's the hospitals or the health insurers, or the pharmaceutical companies or any of these different sort of mafia like cartels within our healthcare system, that really is the root of the problem. I might do a monologue on The New York Times had a good piece about these methodone clinics, and I mean, it's the same thing it's another part of our healthcare system, and the same profit motives are applied there where you know, they're supposed to be given counseling, they're buying large not they're falsifying records, they're giving methodone to people who should not be eligible to get methodone, who don't have who may have a meth addiction or a non opioid addiction. But you know, this is really meant for people who are suffering with opioid addiction. But it's just like a microcosm of the way that these disgusting profit motives should not be at the core of our healthcare and it leads to patients getting gouge and people getting sick, and us having a disastrous life expectancy. I mean, this really is kind of the root of the problem. So in any case, the you know, thing that was significant here with this particular decision was just how quickly they backed off of it, given the climate, given the scrutiny right now of the health insurance into story, and how the how overwhelming the reaction was to the killing of the CEO. Meanwhile, so United Health Group, the Brian Thompson.
Who is the CEO who was murdered. He was in charge of the insurance portion.
There's a broader United Health group whose CEO put on a series of videos for their internally. You could imagine if you're own employee of the health insurance company, like, what the hell is.
Going on right now?
So anyway, Ken Kleppenstein was leaked this video of the United CEO's reaction and his presentation to internally to employees where he's specifically here giving them some advice about how to handle media inquiries, and the TLDR is he's like, just avoid the media altogether.
Let's take a listen to how that went.
I'd like to give you a little bit of advice around the media. You've seen a lot of media interest in this situation, with a huge amount of misinformation and frankly offensive communication. My strong advice and request to everybody is just don't engage with the media. If you're approached, I would recommend not responding and if necessary, simply refer them to our own media organization. There's no value in engaging with the media, and as you've seen, people are writing things we simply don't recognize are aggressive, inappropriate, and disrespectful. We've created a management structure to navigate through the period that we're in, and that will focus on making sure that we continue to communicate within the organization, just.
Like I am now, so you know, don't talk to the media, don't communicate with them, etc. Ken has gotten some leaks from employees at United Healthcare about how they're processing all of this as well, and obviously was leaked this particular communication. But you know, it must be pretty shocking, Sager, if you are, especially an executive at one of these companies, to really sit with this reaction, like, it must be really quite a shocking thing to be held.
Well maybe, but also remember what his wife said. He's like, well, there were some threats over denied coverage. I mean, you and I don't see this, but you know, imagine being on their side, you probably get heartfelt emails and threats and stuff all the time. I mean, I know that I know peripheral people in the healthcare industry, nurses, doctors, et cetera. They rant about the insurance companies nonsolutely, But then imagine me and they kick up their complaints to their hospital administrators, who I'm assuming if they're not you know, in collaboration, we say sometimes are kicking some of that up to the insurance companies.
I don't know, I mean, if anything.
Again, like I just explained with the doctors, this thing is so screwed up that it's like so it's so multi faceted. It's the insurance companies, it's the PBMs, it's the drug companies, it's the doctors, it's the hospitals. And you know, everyone wants to believe their sweet old doctor is in their camp, and they probably are, but remember they work for somebody too. You know, a lot of these hospital companies, we covered a lot of this. Remember during COVID, a lot of them are going bankrupt. Well guess what happened. They all got rolled up into private equity and now all those people work for a single conglomerate.
Apparently Stiller's been tracking a budget. The anesthesiologists go back to that have been part of these pe private equity roll ups as well, which means you know, and those are you know, this is permanent capital is huge interest in just gouging get everything they possibly can out of these financial arrangements. And you know, it shouldn't be a financial arrangement like other people in different countries where they have single payer healthcare. I'm not saying it's perfect. I know there are things they complain about and whish were different as well. But they look at our system and they're like, this is absolutely insane. Like if you're sick, you just go to the doctor and you get the that you need. And so yeah, when you put a profit motive at the center of this, it becomes grotesque and what you get out of it is profit for a lot of like effectively leeches and people patients who suffer. The same recorded message from that United CEO's name is Andrew Whitty.
He also spoke to you know.
He was trying to pump up the reputation of United Healthcare, which we had showed you before. Of all the health insurers, they actually have the highest.
Claims denial rate.
They're being sued for using this algorithm, which according to the lawsuit has a ninety percent error rate. So again they're innovating in waste use technology to also deny claims that patients need, you know, to be filled so that they can get the care that they need. So in any case, here is the CEO trying to pump up their reputation and talk about what a great actor they are in the space.
Let's take a listen to that.
I'm sure everybody has been disturbed by the amount of negative and in many cases vitriolic media and commentary that has been produced over the last few days, particularly in the social media environment, and I want to reassure you of a few things. Firstly, we are going to continue to make sure that we put patients, consumers, and members first, as we always have done. The mission of this company is truly to make sure that we help the system improve by helping the experience for individuals get better and better. There was nobody who did more to try and advance that mission than Brian Thompson. And there are very few people in the history of the US healthcare industry who had a bigger positive effect on American healthcare than Brian. And we are going to make sure that we not only acknowledge and honor that legacy Brian, but will continue it. Our role is a critical role, and we make sure that care is safe, appropriate, and it's delivered when people need it, and we guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe care or for unnecessary care to be delivered in a way which makes the whole system to complex and ultimately unsustainable.
So kind of an interesting way of phrasing things there, he says, we guard against unnecessary care. And listen to your point, Sager, I'm sure there are instances where you know, doctors are incentivized to send you for a bunch of tasks that you don't necessarily need, or even a procedure that you don't.
Oh well, you can ask god Senator Rick Scott about that one.
But you know, they that's their sort of industry cope, is that they are these guardians against you getting quote unquote unnecessary care. But what he doesn't say is also swept up in this very generous mission is also a lot of actually necessary care that is also denied as much as they possibly can in order to boost.
Their own well care denial and then also artificially artificial price. Insulin is the best example. We talk about it here about what the exact same dose, But insulin is the easiest one to understand because a ton of people need it, and the price here is insane compared to the rest of the world. But it's the same for everything. Dialysis, constive heart failure. Something like forty percent of the entire federal budget is like not federal budget Medicare spending I think is literally just dialysis and congestive heart failure, which are obesity shocking, right, And it's like, oh, well, it's interesting how there are certain things where obesity prints hundreds of billions of dollars a year for a lot of these places. And it's like, oh, it's very convenient to keep the price up on dialysis and on a few of these other drugs just to make sure that you're printing on it.
It's just sick.
Well, there's no incentive for people to do well that healthy people are not particularly profit you know, if they don't have to seek care in these repeated treatments that they can price gouge you on the other thing, that somebody made this point online, which I thought was an interesting one. They were like, you know, there's a reason why these healthcare CEOs are not household names, why they kind of try to keep a low profile, unlike a lot of other sort of famous celebrity CEOs, including like the heads of wool Street Banks, that Jamie Diamonds of the world, et cetera, et cetera. And it speaks to what you were saying, saga that on some level, they do know that they are hated. They do know the villainous place that they occupy, making millions of dollars a year, profiting off of people's like illness, pain, bankruptcy, and death. So so maybe you're right, maybe those executives aren't totally shocked that this would be the mass public reaction. I mean, I had to say even I was surprised at like how widespread the reaction was.
And how significant it was.
And you know, I knew the amount of pain and the health insurance system and the healthcare system in general, but this, uh, this outpouring was quite something to see. But you know, maybe on some level they did understand.
What Yeah, I think are I mean, look, you know with this guy too, it's clear like he is the joker. I think he at a certain point, you know, he's what he's scrawling things on bullet lips, monopoly money, like he knew. I mean, maybe he was personally. In fact, he could also literally just be some mercenary believer.
You know.
Again, I'm not just buying any of this stuff, but like, uh, it's clear that there was something happening within all of this. And if he does get caught, you know, his trial. I think I said it before, like that is going to be the media event of the century in terms of you know, his own defense and what that would look like like you could you could see that becoming like an absolutely cultural sensation.
Trump, Oh my god, it would be insane.
It will be insane if they catch.
Me completely and you only need one dror to be like, I'm not right.
I saw Ryan say that.
He's like, if I were him, I would just turn myself in just like put myself on trial by I mean, I don't know the same time, like you even see people who are like parents of you know, parents of like rape victims will still get convicted whenever they acted. But I mean that jury instructions are very narrow. It's like did you commit the crime or not. It's not really up to like whether it was justified.
Well, I mean, Jerry, and nullification is a thing, so the power Like Nope, I'm not going along with this. But if I do think Rind's point, if he is, if he's truly what she seems like, committed to the cause, that would be the next way the narrative right forward, especially if he isn't just like you know, a vigilante out to avenge others, but has his own personal story of pain suffering, you know, debt, bankruptcy, whatever it is. Then yeah, you're right, it would be it would be something. It would be something.
Let's get to milk.
Yes, indeed, so there is a bird flu situation unfolding amidst our nation's dairy herds and a new development that is quite significant. So this story is important for a number of reasons. We could put this up on the screen, but the US Department of Agriculture just ordered testing across the nation's milk supply effectively. What has happened here, and part of why this is so important is we've known for a while now that bird flu had jumped to these dairy cow herds, started apparently in Texas. There was a push among a lot of experts at that point to quarantine and make sure these cows were not being shipped across state lines. But the USDA, and especially the current head of the USDA under Biden Vilsack's very close it used to be a lobbyist for the dairy industry, so there was a priority put on continuing dairy industry profits at the time, and Also, there were a lot of fears of talking about a new pandemic, which is a real present risk with the possibility of this bird flu mutating enough so that it can sign infect humans and travel through human to human contact. So nobody wanted to talk about another pandemic. Nobody wanted to disrupt the dairy industry profits, so they delayed, and they delayed, and they delayed. Now there is a massive spread of this flu, especially throughout the West coast. So let me just read you a little bit about this. So they say this flu virus has been raising alarm since it was detected in a.
Texas cow back in March.
Since then, the virus has spread to over seven hundred and ten dairy herds that we know of across fifteen states. California has the highest number of infections. You also have a number of people fifty eight who have been infected with bird flu. Now, the overwhelming majority of those it's because they've come in direct contact with these animals or with the milk. The new federal order is going to allow regulators to test the bulk milk pools before they're pasteurized, so they can get a better sense of which herds are infected and moved to quarantine and try to get this thing under control. The program's launching first in California and Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. Those are the states that have apparently been most impacted. They say the risks are not entirely clear, but scientists do say it's possible consuming infected milk could lead to an infection, but pasteurized milk remains safe to drink.
That's with regards to raw milk.
There was a raw milk batch that tested positive for bird flu which was recalled, and the bird flu virus stays in much larger and more significant quantities in the raw milk. There are no known cases that have been transmitted that way, but they're concerned that it could be possible, so that was the reason for issuing that mass recall. We could put this next piece up on the screen. This is about the risk of a potential pandemic. This is znap Tefecki writing The New York Times before this order was issued, which she has said has come.
Basically, you're too late.
They should have been doing this a lot earlier, to be a lot easier, a lot less onerous to stop the spread at this point among our nation's dairy cows. In any case, she says that this avian flu, having mutated its way across species, is already raging out of control. It's infected roughly a third of the dairy herds in California alone. Farm Workers have so far avoided tragedy as the virus has not yet acquired the genic tools to spread among humans, but seasonal flu will vastly increase the chances of that outcome as the colder weather drives. Is all endoors to our poorly ventilated houses and workplaces will be undertaking, and extraordinarily gamble that the nation is in no way prepared for. Some of the things that have been very concerning is there's an infected child in California who is not known to have come into contact with any sick animals at all. So there is a possibility that the virus is already spreading from human to humans since this child was not in contact with any sick animal. And then the last piece here, Sagarin gets your reaction is is we can put this up on the screen. So this is the raw milk brand that was recalled because bird flu.
Was found in it.
He might be picked for an FDA role they've asked him to apply as a quote raw milk advisor. He says that this recall is political, but you know, I'm convinced that the risks here of bird flu spreading significantly and mutating into a form where it could be passed and transmitted human to human is a significant enough risk that, you know, taking these precautions. Honestly, they should have been taken quite a while before so that they could have, you know, avoided this dangerous moment that we're in now.
Yeah, I mean so based on upon my reading and my general perusal, there's a lot of skepticism I would say within the raw milk community and in terms of the like ant Cavodi Antikavidians who are very skeptical of this. They think that it's like planned or whatever. I don't know enough to be honest, and like, this is part of the issue with the fallout from COVID. Is like anytime somebody's warning me about a pandemic, I'm like, well, so we'll see, let's see how it works out first, And you know, especially like, okay, so it's no human to human transmission right so far? What is it it's like four dairy cows, ten from poultry.
No, no, no, no, no, there's like seven hundred and ten herds. A third of the herds in California have been infected.
Oh, I apologize, this is old. This is from August ninth. I thought it was from December ninth, which is the day that we're talking about. That's right, seven hundred and twenty six herds here. It is seven hundred and twenty herds, fifteen different states. No one has yet been known to become ill from drinking raw milk. The virus has now been detected in these herds. Yeah, but now in terms of the quote unquote jump the human human transmission, the possible cases here with.
A child's that's right.
Yeah, And so the worry is, you know, there's no proof.
Or evidence that child it was a human in human transmission, but the child was not known to have come in contact with a sick animal, so that's where the concern raises. And there was also a pig that was infected, apparently because pigs are similar to humans, it's like less of a jump, et cetera. So I think the real story here is actually the opposite. They should have taken a lot more precautions more quickly, just in terms of doing the testing that they're doing now. You know, there was a decision that was made a while back. These cows are shipped across state lines all the time to you know, be milked or be bred or whatever, or be slaughtered. And there was a decision that was made quite a while ago after they knew that there was you.
Know, this was spreading.
This bird flu was spreading in dairy cows, which again it's a bird flu, so already it's made the leap into infecting cows and spreading wildly among cows. There was a decision that was made to say you can still ship these cows across state lines, and that is what fueled this broader spread, and of course the war spread, you have the more potential combinations. So because the USDA was too tied and too close to the dairy industry, they didn't take some of the things that could have just like nip this in the bud early on. So in any case, it's something to watch. I agree with your general point that like God for we have another actual pandemic because people are not going to believe anything because I mean, any of the like past you know, mistakes that were made, and also the way it just became this, you know, it became this mass cultural divide. So right now they're just basically hoping that the you know, the genetic recombination doesn't happen that allows it to significantly spread amongst humans, And it doesn't appear that that's happened yet, although the sick child is a reason for concern.
But yeah, there's weird.
In no way prepared to deal with another pandemic, either from a cultural or from a medical perspective.
Absolutely not zero, there's zero trial.
I mean even like my default position is like yeah, maybe you know, we'll I mean, that's the thing. I hate to say it, but based upon COVID and all the other things I want people to.
Think of, there was a mental exercise.
How many people, how many people would have to be proven sick for you to put on a mask again? For me, the numbers high, very high. For me to be flying sixteen hours on a plane with a mask again and getting tut tutted or whatever walking around outside like I will have to see.
You know, the mask whatever. I don't really.
Told what to do. The part that.
Would the part that I would be very, very very I think I would just resist is the shutting down of the school. Oh shutting down that was to me, you know, obviously in retrospect, that was the wrong call and was you know, really damaging to kids in terms of their learning outcomes, and especially with COVID, which we knew pretty quickly was not really infecting kids, or it was infecting kids, but it wasn't making them, you know, sick to the point of death in almost all cases. So you know, obviously contours of a different disease you have to evaluate what that looks like. But that's the one where I would be very, very reluctive on.
In fact, my SAT was actually canceled. I remember I was panicked because of H.
One N one, which is so is the different this is H five N one was also bird flu, if I recall or no, that was swine flu. That's where it was swind This was like.
To Obama Obama era. That was yeah, H five N one av in flu.
Okay, so yeah, H five and one has hit Asia before. I'm not sure we've ever had a full blown bird flu, and I think.
It's correct that this is the first time that we've seen it spread to cows is one of the things that I read. So in any case, I just wanted to highlight it as something that is out there that is a question mark for the future and could not have really any impact on all of our lives and could have agatical.
Because then also think about all of the chaos first six months of it in mission. I mean, that's what the conspiracy theorists say. They're like, oh, pandemic, just right on time to destroy Trump's presence.
Well, this has been but this has been spreading for a while.
I'm not saying I agree with you, but like, even if it's not called plandemic or whatever like, it still could be like a political catastrophe. Oh in terms of what and how people would have. Again, like my default on this is like prove it. You know, you need to prove that it's going to be on the shadow of a doubt if you want me to change my life like five percent, because as we learned last time, it's like, well, you start to give up a lot based upon a lot of shoddy in for me, and those things start to get it takes years to get pulled back, and there's no recriminations and how Fauci may g it apart in or whatever. I'm like, look hold on a second here, like you know, prove it. I don't necessarily disagree with what you said, Yeah, Phil Slack.
And thus I was going to say, I think the real conspiracy, that's the real conspiracy, is the open one of like we'd rather just keep the profits flowing and ignore this and do what the dairy producers want, then to nip it.
In the butt.
And if it does, if it does develop into you know, something that can spread human and human and becomes a significant impact, you know, even if it's not, even if it's relatively mine, it just means more people getting sick. When you have vulnerable people, you know, some percentage of them will become sick enough to.
Have their health run.
And in fact, there's already a Canadian who is you know, really quite ill, in serious critical condition from this. So in any case, even if it's just at that level, the decisions to point back to will be the ones made under the Biden administration to just kind of like letter rip rather than nipping it in the bud.
Early on, before there was any real risks.
So to mean, that's the out and the open conspiracy is around the profit a big egg and the profit margins and incentives there.
Sure definitely remember you have something in common with the raw milk people. They hate, they hate big agg just oh everybody else.
Yeah, they're they blame them for keeping them down. Can I just say a long time.
Let me just state my position. I think milk in general is disgusting. I don't drink I think milk is like, I think it's gross. I think it tastes gross. I think thinking about where it comes from is gross. Like I'm just not a milk person in general. So then the idea of we're going to make it even more like close to just like coming out of the cows.
Utter No, but that's more that's how you should drink it. So I say, I would flip it around on you. I don't want any of it. I think it's gross to like go to the grocery store and look at the additives for all this like.
Dh O mega three blah blah blah, all this other stuff in milk. I'm like, is it milk?
Like?
What? What? What is that? Like?
How does that even get to where we are now? I mean, look, I get it a typocritical. I'm sure I eat a lot of other things, a lot of different additives, but like milk in particular, whereas if it comes straight out of a copy way more likely to drink it.
I've had it straight from the goat.
Fallacy to think that just because it's like quote more natural, that it's better for.
You people are drink bought milk.
Yeah, I think it's a reasonable risk to take. It's probably it's probably less risky than eating like raw oysters and stuff.
If I had to guess, it's probably less risky than that.
And to your point, there's no proof that even drinking H five and one infected raw milk.
You're gonna get sick gives you Yeah, we'll.
Get you sick. Now, it's a risk. They're worried that it could, but there is no proof that it does at this point. There are no documented cases of that. So to your point, but yeah, I am just not really a milkerson.
Let me put in a word for goat milk. I actually think goat milk is good. I've had some raw goat milk and I've like, straight out of the goat.
It was good, man, it was I love dairy praut. Yeah, but the actual like just milk of any part.
I've had milk straight from the cow. It was I mean, it was not bad. You know.
It's interesting too because it doesn't come out cold, which is crazy thing to say, but most people are like, you know, used to drink cold milk from a fridge. When you drink milk from an animal, it's warm.
Actually. Anyway, I like goat milk. I like goat cheese.
I actually prefer more like goat based products than I do cow milk.
But that's a whole other.
The other thing, the other this is just random, but the other common American food product I find revolting as Ketchup.
Ketchup.
I hate Ketchup.
My kids ruined ketchup for me. I don't want the amount that they wanted to eat when they were little and like dip their apples in it, and someone's like, oh, oh, I can't.
I recommend leaving the United States and then try and ketchup, because what you understand is that our ketchup is basically sugar water like sugar and tomato. Where when you eat ketchup, like in India or any of these other Indian Ketchup it's good, it's it's spicy, and you know it has no sugar, which turns out it's like everything in our country has sugar.
But that's a whole other story.
In fact, though, people in Asia, though they go to McDonald's or other places just to be able to eat.
Hindz Amer because they think it tastes way better. I'm like, you have no idea.
See, when I was in India, it was before I developed my ketchup or Vulture, and I definitely wanted the Heinz ketchup.
Not that.
Yeah, well, I mean that's the points our hyper palette, you know, hyper palatable sugar and all this other crap. So anyway, live more like a live more like an Asian, you'll be better off.