On 23 April, Tim had Rep. Randy Fine, a notably
pro-Netanyahu,
pro-Israel, &
anti-Palestine Republican congressman from Florida's 6th district; & Lydia Moynihan, a
New York Post columnist, as the guest.
Ian, & Libby, were the co-hosts.
Clip Collection:
-Tim brings up the high rate of first, & second, cousin marriages in Somalia. Randy says "This is the difference between a family tree & a helix", calling out how inbreeding leads to more negative traits emerging. Which is funny, because both Jews & Somalis could bond over their
shared history of
consanguinity.
-Tim denigrates Republicans for failing to stand up & fight. Puffing out his chest, the beanie boy declares how much better he would be, dealing with the inaction. Add this to the
long list of times
Tim fantasises about holding power, but
never doing anything to actually take it. I can at least respect venal politicians for campaigning & risking a loss, instead of hunkering away in a remote compound impotently whinging into a microphone:
-The beanie boy explains that he is not willing to run for Congress, because his current representative, Riley Moore, is doing well. When Libby asks about running for state-level office, Tim says he sees no point. Which is funny, considering how much of
a tantrum he threw over West Virginia tax laws, a ways back. & as to moving elsewhere to run for office, Tim says he is unwilling to relocate for that sole purpose. No mention is made of attempting a Senate run, which would also represent his locale at the federal level, which Tim sees as more valuable. What irks me the most is that Tim could have afforded to mount a mostly self-funded campaign for
the U.S. Senate, or
House, in 2024. But instead, the beanie boy chooses to
spend millions of dollars making an indoor skate park for his compound. As usual, Tim refuses to actually put himself out there, just complain about it online, until someone else does the work for him:
-Randy complains that Congress is focused on helping Haitians when the U.S. is in trillions of dollars of debt. Just imagine a congressman
prioritising foreigners,
spending hard-earned American tax dollars on them:
-As Randy complains about the rules of the Congress, Ian decides to put his thinking cap on, asking if the kosher congressman is part of the body, he can work to change things. Randy demurs, saying he is but one of many, & has no control over the rules, but is fighting to change them:
Tim segues into talk about a ceasefire between Israel & Lebanon, where the kosher congressman says extremists are unified not in hating Israel, but despising Jews. He contends that it is foreign money driving the rise in this talk, & the Jewish State is America's greatest ally, because "we don't give Israel any money". Randy finagles this by saying the U.S. pays American weapons manufacturers to build, or ship, products to Israel. Tim chimes in to discuss people with "Israel Derangement Syndrome" (IDS), because any conversation on the topic would be incomplete without him mentioning the term he minted:
But the beanie boy does say "my libertarian friends" are citing serious issues, like West Bank settlers attacking Palestinians, which counts as legitimate criticism of Israel to him. Randy says denouncing the settlers is okay, but it shows hypocrisy & anti-semitism to not call out attacks against the Druze in Syria with the same fervour. Lydia & Randy bring up
the case of an IDF soldier desecrating a Crucifix in southern Lebanon, & how Israel swiftly condemned this, replacing the cross, straight away. This is partly wrong, because it was
Italian UN peacekeepers which did the replacing, though they are correct
PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he would take swift action over the incident. The kosher congressman even brings up how no one cares that the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque in the same way people did about this crucifix, as another what-aboutism:
This rounds back to Tim denigrating prior guest, Leonarda Jonie, over her claims that Jews placed Vladimir Zelenskyy in Ukraine to gain control over it. When it goes back to West Bank settlers being a genuine point of criticism, Randy downplays it & says that Hamas are the real villains. By putting people in jeopardy, it is them, not Israel, to blame for the civilian death toll in the recent conflict. The beanie boy keeps lambasting people uneducated on the Middle East, blaming Israel for everything going on in the world. Which is backed by strawmen of the arguments made on prior shows. Tim is boggled as to why young people, across the political spectrum, care so much about Israel's actions:
Again, Ian makes an inciteful point, the U.S. gifts weapons to Israel, which are being used in the Gaza strikes, & for that people can be upset. Tim agrees that is an acceptable argument to him, but not the IDS positions. Randy says that is fine to say, but argues that because Christianity originates in the lands of Israel, the Jewish State is protecting "what it means to be Christian" by maintaining secure holy sites. Tim asks why leftists hate Israel, if it is
holding a large homosexual pride event near the site of Sodom & Gomorrah. Randy credits this to them having a pathological hatred of the Jewish State:
-As Randy & Tim commiserate over people's derangement about Israel, & joke about how poorly Jews are controlling the media; Ian steps in to ask if there are Jews trying to build the Third Temple, to usher in the End Times. Randy denies that it is anyone in Israel's government pushing such a thing, but there is a minority in the Jewish State that would like to see it happen. Our Graphene Guy asks why Jews would want to usher in the return of Christ, because it means wiping out any non-believers, including unrepentant Jews. Randy deflects, saying he is not Israeli, & never went there prior to taking office, so he cannot speak for them. But the kosher congressman does say that anti-semitism is "the canary in the coalmine", & societies that embrace it fall due to "brain-rot".
Which has not really been the case, if you look across history for spikes in anti-semitism & declines, eg the English post-expulsion, Spain after the Reconquista ended, etc.:
-Tim tries to get Ian to say that there is more money in being anti-Jew than pro-Jew, because there are far more Muslims in the world. Our Graphene Guy asks whom is printing the money, which is the real question. After that based remark, the beanie boy's counter is that if all 1.2 billion Muslims gave $1 it would be more than if all 16 million Jews did the same, & thinks Ian is stupid for not seeing that. Randy argues that racism & anti-semitism are perfectly useful terms, but islamophobia is bunk, used as a cudgel to suppress genuine criticism:
-Ian seems to be doing his best to ask all the funny questions, tonight. This time he asks Randy about
Greater Israel, which Tim immediately jumps in to call a conspiracy theory. Despite
the current U.S. ambassador to Israel endorsing such an expansion of the Jewish State. Randy claims that Israel has consistently traded territory for treaties, citing withdrawals from the Sinai peninsula & Gaza. Ian notes one theory, that removing the Jews from Gaza, & elevating Hamas, permitted aggressive action to remove all the Palestinians without risk to Jews. The kosher congressman disagrees with those assertions. Tim decides to ask his hypothetical about what would happed if the border barriers between Gaza & Israel disappeared, with the natural answer being 7 October. Ian admits that peace may have been possible before, but cannot say specifically when as he is unlearned enough about the year-by-year specifics. Randy, unsurprisingly, says that it would never have been possible, as Palestinians only want a one-state solution. Tim goes on about how ambivalent he is about Israel-Palestine, but sees the Jewish State's opponents as pushing for complete destruction. Ian tries to argue that destroying Israel does not mean killing all the Jews, but the panel rejects this. Libby & Randy both note how after Israel was created, Muslim states banished their Jewish populations, & no one cares about that: