On 22 May, Phil remained the host, & was joined by Scott Horton, editorial director of the Libertarian Institute, as the guest.
Elad & Mary were the co-hosts.
We were lucky to have only one rabid defender of Israel on-set to spar with Scott, & Elad certainly did his level best to make up for Tim's absence. It does not help that Scott has a shorter fuse than other guests.
Clip Collection:
-Elad tries to pin down Scott as being for a bad deal with Iran to end its nuclear programme. He opens by asking Scott what the Libertarian Institute's opinion on making a deal with Iran is, & includes a presupposition that it would end with the Persian state betraying it. Scott responds with how Iran has the ability to create nuclear weapons, already, & the fact they have not done so shows their willingness to negotiate. The libertarian brings up
a report from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, & alleged statements by Benjamin Netanyahu, to bolster his point, but Elad keeps asking how should the U.S. respond, if they do make a nuclear weapon:
Elad keeps interrupting, to ask why Iran even wants a nuclear programme. Scott argues this is for energy production, not a weapons project. The resident Zionist pipes in to say how Scott has not "thought this out", which Scott takes offense to, & both sides raising their voices. Phil tries to inteject, to rein in the situation, calling out Elad's claim that Scott is "weaseling around my questions":
-Scott brings up the situation in Gaza, comparing its scale to the Waco massacre, happening "every single day, for a year & a half" & how it lacks sovereignty, so 7 October is more akin to an attack from a reservation, not an independent state. He does reiterate that it was a terrible crime, but the response is not commensurate with it. Scott alleges that blowing the violence of 7 October out of proportion, citing Max Blumenthal's allegations, allows for Israel to justify committing actual atrocities against Gazans. Phil pushes back, calling into question Max's credibility, as he previously said how
the attendees of the Nova Music Festival were on drugs, & as a musician that works at music festivals, it rubbed him the wrong way. Scott runs defence for Max, stating he is "a good dude". He goes on to filibuster about how Palestinians are made out to be villians, when "they're exactly us":
Scott continues, but after a titch, Phil offers Elad a chance to respond. The Jewish affairs correspondent asks how Israel helped promote Hamas, focusing upon Qatari money being allowed in. Scott lays out a longer history, where the Israelis helped to plant the initial seeds for Hamas, as an opposing party to Fatah, which was in power, at the time. Elad argues that the Palestinians voted to support Hamas & strips the Palestinians of any agency, to which Scott responds that they only won "a bare plurality", years ago. Elad refuses to accept this explanation, & labels Scott as "deluding" himself that the Palestinians do not back Hamas. Scott starts to become heated, again, claiming that Gaza's people lack popular sovereignty & Hamas is more akin to a prison gang than a political party. Elad & Scott begin to go at it, again, but Phil cuts this off:
-Phil brings up the story of the Trump administration stripping Harvard University of its ability to enroll foreign students, under the argument that it failed to protect Jews, on campus. Scott agrees that is the reason, but people are upset at Israel's action, not Jews, but Phil disagrees, noting anti-American sentiment has long been present. Scott argues for their free speech rights & this is only because of criticism of Israel, but Phil uses Tim's argument that it is legal to deport people undermining U.S. foreign policy, & this can be used as leverage, to make Harvard comply with the Trump presidency's policies.
Mary finds this less than compelling, because nothing was done in the first Trump term, despite anti-Whiteness already being rife in academia. Phil responds that normies only became aware of it in 2020. Mary points out that the Trump administration's only explanation for revoking Harvard's ability to bring in international students has been the targeting of Jews, not what Phil is saying. Scott intervenes to claim this is simply "raping & torturing the term anti-semitism" to make this apply to criticisms of Israel. Phil says it is not so simple, citing Elias Rodriguez's writings as showing he was anti-American, as well. Scott brings up Rumeysa Ozturk as a counter, to which Phil concedes. But the manlet rocker keeps pushing back, to which Scott tries to argue that foreigners were the big opposition to George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. When Phil brings up different expectations for free speech by immigrants that become citizens versus non-citizens is important. Scott tries to claim that there is nothing to fear, because communists cannot win arguments & "are no threat to this country":
Phil brings up the LGBT movement, as an example of communist action, to which Scott responds that he wants total separation from government & schools, so they cannot do that. Elad comes in to the conversation, to share his lived experiences about the lives of Jews becoming more dangerous, thanks in part to the sorts of leftists protesting on campuses. Elad claims that the far left are attacking white MAGA supporters, via these actions, because Israel & Zionists are "right-wing, & white coded". Scott clarifies that there are leftists, like that, & targeting civilians is wrong. He uses this to bring up Israel's actions, that push more people towards the leftist camp. Scott goes on to claim he is inoculated against "collectivist...dehumanisation" & does not believe in groups. Atop this, Scott makes clear that the actions of Hamas, in not controlling the mobs that went in & violated Israelis was a big mistake, as it undermined their own cause:
-Thomas Massie comes up, so Elad just has to chirrup about how he is "a Trojan Horse for the left", by opposing the Big Beautiful Bill. Mary asks what happened, & Elad claims Thomas is so principled that he voted against Donald Trump. Phil jumps in to say that it was over the lack of any cuts in the recent spending bill. After a lengthy explanation of the reasons someone like Thomas would vote against the bill, Elad continues to critique him as making "the perfect the enemy of the good" & not voting for the bill:
Everyone but Elad expresses fondness for Thomas, but Elad still pooh-poohs him. Phil & Scott reiterate the need to address the debt, because it undercuts willingness to buy Treasury bonds, as a secure investment, & is leading to a crisis:
-A super-chatter brings up having "Palestine Fatigue", & Phil agrees. Scott says he does not care about the rest of the world, but the U.S. government's relationship makes it his issue. Elad ends up chiming in to say how libertarians are childish, in their outlooks. Phil mentions that being so combative is not going to win Elad anyone over. This does not deter him:
On 23 May, Tim returned & had two guests, James O'Keefe, & Damani Felder, a conservative social media personality.
Libby was the sole co-host.
Tim says he was away, in Los Angeles, talking with Bill Maher. So, we may expect an appearance on Bill Maher's podcast.
Clip Collection:
-When asked his opinion on Kashyap Patel & Dan Bongino's time at the FBI, Tim offers apologetics as to why they have not delivered tangible results yet, on cases like Jeffrey Epstein's associates. This starts with not wanting to compromise ongoing investigations, revealing information would damage U.S. foreign/trade relations, & not enough time has passed to expect results:
-James asks what does Tim think Dan is afraid of, to which Tim implies that there are threats against his children to keep him in line. James expressed upset over the probable cause document for raiding his studio, that was completely redacted. Tim says Attorney General Pam Bondi could order it unredacted, but James feels that asking for favours is inappropriate, because a regular person should expect documents from a false charge should be readable:
Tim is flabbergasted that Dan could be "compromised", & James retains little faith in the Justice Department under Donald Trump, if this is how it behaves. Damani mentions that a friend of theirs runs a show that talks with local residents of their community about what they they, & they found similar dissatisfaction with no real results being shown by the current administration. Tim tries to spin James' issue as being "just after Trump got in", so it is not his fault, but James adds that this was approved by an interim appointee U.S. attorney of Trump's. The beanie boy ends up stating that Kashyap, Dan, & Pam, are being hamstrung by "tens of thousands" of bad actors in the Justice Department:
-James has been working to
regain his position in Project Veritas, after being forced out. James credits the ne'er-do-wells' intent to jealousy over his success, & this gives Tim a chance to talk about his own experiences with bad actors in his organisation. The beanie boy claims old staffers & former friends plotted against him, & used prior ties for credibility to "start making up fake stories to try & get clout". The beanie boy links this to "leftists" not understanding his hard work ethic got him where he is, working "14 to 16 hours, every single day":
-I include this ad read, because it ties into Tim's claims of how hard he works. Tim states that the Branch Timidians use this sleep aid, & before they were only getting "5 to 6 hours" of sleep. Assuming Tim is telling the truth, that means he only had three to five hours of non-sleep/non-work time each day. & that is before factoring in additional sleep, via this "beam" product:
-Later, Tim gets a super-chat from a supposed brick layer, stating how Tim does not understand hard work & is "a terrible boss", which Tim rejects. The beanie boy claims that his job is far harder than any brick layer, because he "works 16 hour days, getting sued left & right, having people come to your house, threaten to murder you". & there is some merit to this, as the business owner, Tim does take on responsibilities & risks that the average worker does not. But this is undermined, due to the beanie boy saying all this in such a condescending tone. He even claims that the super-chatter's criticism is "communist" for arguing that he works harder than Tim, & that he understands manual labour from his time working as a luggage handler at Chicago's airport, for two years:
Damani pipes in to say how challenging it can be as a content creator, behind the scenes, which many people do not understand. He still works a regular job, in addition to content creation, as well. But Damani does append that it is even more challenging for people that do this full-time. Both James & Tim bemoan having to bear the burden of lawsuits, due to the actions of employees, & how "they're not strong enough" to endure what the two have. I can give James somewhat of a pass for these sorts of remarks, because at least he confronts people, in person, as opposed to the beanie boy daring someone to come to his remote compound realm to face off with him:
