
Loading summary
A
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
B
Hi, I'm Steph and I work at UnitedHealthcare. When I think about UnitedHealthcare's members, I think of my own family. My niece was diagnosed with an ultra rare genetic disorder. I know how hard it is for families at UnitedHealthcare. We can make it easier.
A
I'm Brian. I care because I know what it's like to not speak the language. It's not easy. Health insurance is complicated. I would say our job is to make everything easy for our UHC members. I work for UnitedHealthcare.
C
I'm committed to care.
A
What if you could get more from what you already do when you're a Shell Fuel Rewards member, you can.
B
When you join, you'll save $0.10 per gallon on your first fill, $0.20 per gallon on your second, $0.30 per gallon on your third, and more savings on
A
every fill after that. Join the Shell Fuel Rewards program in the Shell app on your phone and
B
enjoy life with more.
A
Your nearest Shell station is closer than you think. This is Myles Gray from Ain't It Footy.
D
How can you stay winning during the
A
FIFA World Cup 2026?
D
Well, the active cash Visa credit card from Wells Fargo scores unlimited 2% cash
A
rewards on all types of fanfare purchases. That's cash rewards on tickets, merch and game day snacks. I call that a win, win, win because unlimited 2% cash rewards earned means unlimited bragging rights won terms apply. Visit Wells Fargo.com ActiveCash Visa Worldwide Partner of the FIFA World Cup 2026 hey
E
guys, Sagar and Kristal here.
B
Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election and we are so excited about what that means for the future of the show.
E
This is the only place where you
A
can find honest perspectives from the left
E
and the right that simply does not exist and anywhere else.
B
So if that is something that's important to you, please go to breaking points.com Become a member today and you'll get access to our full shows unedited ad free and all put together for you every morning in your inbox.
E
We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see you@breaking points.com New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced New York will become the first state to impose a data center of north moratorium yesterday. Let's take a listen here to Governor Hochul's press conference.
B
These hyperscale AI data centers consume enormous amounts of power, truly threatening to outpace our grids capacity and they drive up costs for local ratepayers And I refuse to let those costs be passed on to New Yorkers who already paid too much for their utility bills. These data centers require millions of gallons of water, straining the local supplies. And when powered by fossil fuels, they drive up our carbon footprint. They occupy massive amounts of land, potentially displacing agricultural space and open spaces. The bottom line is progress shouldn't arrive with a higher utility bill, deleted water supply or noise pollution. So we have no choice but to address these challenges created by these massive facilities. That is why today I'll be signing the nation's first ever statewide moratorium on hyperscale data centers.
E
There you have it. The political sprint to out anti data center other politicians is afoot. I think that's fairly obvious, but Kathy Hochul obviously is a Democrat. Now let's look at John Fetterman, Democratic senator from neighboring Pennsylvania, who responded to a headline about Hochul's decision with China wins taking the Silicon Valley talking point just at face value. That entirely surprising from Fetterman, of course. But why is this happening? Obviously here on the show we've been covering the data center politics and substance for a while, but I want to now put up this other headline, the next element. A majority of Americans now support seizing wealth from the AI industry. So polling. This is a 1700 adult poll. 69% of US employees support forcing AI companies to transfer 50% of their stock into a public wealth fund. That is the Bernie Sanders idea. This was a poll done by Veracite, a national poll done by Vera site to. So obviously the politics of this are pretty clear. I don't know if John Fetterman cares too much, Ryan, about the people of Pennsylvania think on the data center moratorium question. But Kathy Hochul, who, to be honest, I'm not fully sure what her ideological commitment actually is on this, but she's very clearly reading the signs from the public at this point.
A
We talked a couple weeks ago about that really fascinating rant that Alex Karp, the Palantir said CEO had had on cnbc where tucked into the middle of it, he said what you guys don't understand by hyping up the potential of AI to have this revolutionary disruptive capacity and to basically eliminate labor, which is, which is the goal of, you know, which is effectively the goal of this industry. What you guys are doing is you are creating in the public the appetite to rewrite the entire social contract. And what he said in particular is that you're going to give us a wealth tax. You're going to get us slammed with one The Washington Post had an article yesterday which owned by a billionaire, kind of warning that the left sees an opportunity to push forward with a wealth tax. And that is, they are correct and Alex Karp is correct. It's not just a wealth tax, to your point, it's the Sanders idea of which to me is a little bit half baked. I'm all for it. Like, I'm all for the discussion of it. Whenever we start talking about social and public ownership of the kind of direction of the economy, as somebody who believes in democracy, I think that's a good thing. But you start to then think, well, why stop there? Trump was like, hey, if the US is going to help intel, we want 10% of Intel. Okay, yeah, Trump. Trump makes a good point. And what's interesting about the. And I'm curious for, you know, how you're, how you're thinking on this entire idea of a sovereign wealth fund. But so, yeah, like, I'll stop there before I ramble on. But, yeah, where, where are you on this? Kind of just on the principle, the idea of kind of an American sovereign wealth fund. Right now they're talking about fuel, you know, fueling it with, with AI companies. But Trump, of course, is like, like I was saying, has like, know, seized pieces of other companies. And AI companies aren't necessarily profitable anyway at this point, but obviously they could be, you know, in the not too distant future.
E
You know, I see sovereign wealth funds as basically elite slush funds. And so I know that's not what Sanders is envisioning, obviously. I just think it's so easy for them to become that, especially in this environment where American politics are flush with so much special interest cash. We just have a system where our politics have been so easily corrupted by some of the same people that would find ways to benefit from a sovereign wealth fund. I don't particularly like the idea just because I feel like I know what it would become very quickly. But at the same time, I mean, I'm eager to your point to hear ideas about guardrails, about how something like that would work. I don't know. I just have a hard time seeing it working in a way that would not just have these same oligarchs find ways to benefit themselves over and over again. But something needs to be done because that's where you have someone who's been seen as sort of moderate centrist, like Kathy Hochul, obviously cozying up to New York City Mayor Mamdani after she saw the massive political success that he had both in the primary, the general election against Andrew Cuomo. And now as governor, he's very popular, and I think she's picking up on that. And Republicans are nowhere to be seen, really, in this conversation, unless they're sounding like John Fetterman, which is, we have to do that, this to defeat China and going full Mr. Wonderful Kevin O' Leary and making that argument. Otherwise, they just don't really want to talk about it. The problem for Republicans, Fetterman's of the world and the Alex Karps of the world, as he points out, this experiment is being run in communities around the country right now as we hyperscale, which was initiated by the Trump administration when he came in and did what was it called? Operation Stargate Project Stargate, like day two of his presidency. And as the experiment is being run, people are saying, no, we don't like this. It is not good for us. And so the opinion is either Fetterman style, carp style, we know what's best for you. You are reacting poorly to something that's actually to your benefit, but we know, we know the truth. Or to do what, hopefully.
A
And to me, a sovereign wealth fund is a bit of an accounting and a bureaucratic gimmick. But if you need that gimmick to get the public excited about it, then, okay, I get it. You've got Norway, you got Qatar, uae, Saudi Arabia, Alaska. If you need that gimmick to tell Alaskans, hey, look, our oil resources are going to go into this wealth fund, and then the wealth fund is going to be used precisely for this. And in Alaska, it's basically rebates that goes out to people. And that direct, observable connection between 1, 2 and 3 produces public trust that allows it to be created.
E
That's a good point.
A
So I get it. That's worth it. But what a sovereign wealth fund basically is the government. It is taxation. And then you're taxing the money and then you're investing it and spending it. That it's the same thing. But people don't really kind of trust the government to do that. You know, they think.
E
Right. Because you'd be investing it and spending it in places where your donors are going to benefit or in places where, you know, for Trump, I mean, that's pretty obvious. It's kind of what he's already sort of operating a sovereign wealth at some point.
A
Yeah. And I think people believe that a sovereign wealth fund is a little bit easier to keep their eye on than the entire behemoth of the federal government. And so if we need that layer of Separation to start to get people excited about the idea. The bigger problem to me is just the wealth overall. As Western economies are growing at about 1% a year and oligarch wealth is growing at somewhere between 5 and 20% a year, the wealth that they are accumulating has to come from somewhere. If it's not coming from economic growth and that somewhere is everybody else. And the way that exponential returns work, it's not long before they go from top 0.01% owning 10% to 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%. And then basically we're just renting from them. And we've reproduced feudalism. And we're like, oh, that whole democratic thing that we did for that was a short experiment. We're actually right back to where we were for thousands, thousands of years.
E
Yeah, no, I think that's a good way to look at it. Or it's. I mean, not a good way to look at it, but it's a plausible way to look at it. But that's the thing. To me, it's not even just the wealth that's the problem. It's the distribution of it. I think that's probably the case with you as well, Ryan. And people also are wondering. This is one of the things that tech guys don't get. We talked about this a couple weeks ago. They want to know why the wealth has to come from something that seems so ridiculous, right? Like why is the wealth? And we may learn this from the markets actually sooner rather than later. And tragically, probably in some cases, we want to know why the wealth has to be generated all based on these data centers and the transmission of so much people want to unplug. If you look at polling, they want to unplug not completely, but more and more. And so it just feels like it's not a fair system to people to end up having their bills in localities spike for something they're not bought in on in the first place.
A
And meanwhile, this is coming. While the New York grid has been massively disinvested from put up D4, Mamdani keeps warning people, hey, guys, thermostats at 78, please. Which continues to produce. Kind of a freak out on Twitter from people who are like, how dare you tell me. It's like, guys, it's not an order. It's just we're all in this together and if the grid goes down, you're not going to have AC either. So let's all do the best we can to unplug what we don't need to have plugged in and to push our thermostats up as high as we can comfortably withstand it so that the grid does not collapse.
E
It's not in order yet. Collapse.
A
It's not in order yet.
C
It's not in order yet.
A
A lot of people are like, ah, socialism doesn't work. As if like Mamdani should have like rebuilt the grid in like January of the first year of his term.
E
Now that would have been impressive. That would be a generational political dub.
A
Yeah. While he was shoveling the snow. All right, well, Emily, thank you so much and happy travels.
E
Thanks, Ryan. And thanks to everybody for helping out while I was dealing with family stuff. Appreciate it.
A
You got it. If you want all of your data in one place, you need the Intuit erp. I'm Damon John and I run my growing business on Intuit Enterprise Suite. Learn more@intuit.com ERP A lot of wellness
F
routines start with motivation and end somewhere between week two and a half. Use supplement drawer Groons was created to make daily nutrition simpler. Instead of pills or chalky green drinks, groons packs over 20 essential vitamins and minerals, greens and prebiotics into a snack pack of delicious gummies. It feels approachable and not demanding. The convenient comprehensive formula supports gut health, beauty, energy immunity, recovery, cognition in one daily habit. Grooms contain 6 grams of fiber, which is more than 2 cups of broccoli. And the ingredients in Groons are backed by 35,000 research publications, which is part of what makes the formula so intentional. Grooms is vegan, gluten free, dairy free, nut free and made without artificial colors or flavours. Plus it's methylated. So key nutrients like B12 and folate are in forms your body can actually use. It's comprehensive nutrition designed for routines you can actually stick with. Get up to 52% off with code Cry at Grunds Co. That's code cryo.
G
I have friends who own rental properties. They're not real estate moguls. They're regular people who found a smarter way in. Every month the rent comes in, covers their mortgage and they keep adding more. I found out how they got started. True Hole Financial Smart investors know the biggest obstacle to rental property is qualifying. Traditional lenders put your personal income and debt to income ratio under a microscope. Truehole Financial is different. They qualify. You get this based on the rental property income the property is expected to generate. And unlike online lenders that simply tell you yes or no, Truehole Financial takes a concierge style approach. So the question stops being, do I earn enough and becomes what's the smartest way to grow my portfolio? Truehole Financial doesn't just hold open the rental property door. They help you decide which door to walk through. Call 1-888-521-4787 or visit truehold financial.com to get started. Truehold Financial, NMLS Number 2740541. Equal housing lender subject to approval. Details@Truehole.com
A
Representative Ro Khanna joined our dropsite news live stream yesterday morning and wanted to roll some of the more interesting parts of the conversation between him and Jeremy Scahill.
D
Give me another example where you say it's okay to continue any level of support for an openly genocidal society that has mass murdered 80,000 people, more than 300 media workers, has invaded Lebanon, has bombed Iran, and you're saying, oh, but we need to protect civilians. This isn't about protecting civilians. The greatest threat to their civilians is their policy. And so I don't understand why you have even one qualified shred of support for a sniper mass murderer masquerading as the only democracy in the Middle East.
C
Well, but I don't.
H
I'm not saying that the United States should be supporting the funding for Iron Dome, just so we're clear. I'm saying that we shouldn't be restricting Israel from being able to get the Iron Dome or be able to develop the Iron Dome technology.
D
Why stop there? Everything else you're saying makes so much sense. Why do you stop there? It feels to me like you're trying to have it both ways on this issue so you can say, well, I actually support, you know, defending the Israeli civilians. You're not defending Israeli civilians with that policy. You're defending the sniper's ability to keep killing because it won't face the ultimate accountability, which is a total embargo on all support for an apartheid state. Seventh, did Palestinians have a right to attack Israeli military bases in the Gaza envelope? Yes or no?
H
I mean, I, I think October 7th attack was a terrorist attack. So I don't.
D
Was it a terrorist attack when they. The first targets that were hit on the morning of October 7th were multiple military bases. Did Palestinian forces have a right to attack those military bases?
H
I am not for violent violence again, in any way. I mean, I am for making sure that we end the right to do it.
D
Congressman, do they have a right to attack Israeli soldiers?
H
No, I'm not, I'm not going to say that Hamas had a right to attack Israeli soldiers or is, or kill Israelis like, I don't. I Don't think that advances peace or, or, or advances Palestinian statehood.
D
Did Israel, does Israel have a right to drop a single bomb in Gaza in response to October 7?
H
I believe Israel had the right to get, get people who killed the civilians, but not in the way they went about it, which is I, which, which I've said is genocide.
D
But the Palestinians don't have a right to attack the very military bases that are running the killing operations on 10-6-20. 10-5-2023. It's a double standard you're afraid of pro Hamas. That's, that's what this is boils down to. Because I bet if, if we were talking off the record privately and I said this to you, you would acknowledge that people around the world have a right to resistance by all means necessary.
H
I've always been for peaceful resistance.
D
And you're saying that there is no condition under which a Palestinian has a right to kill soldiers who are posted at military bases enforcing by murder and forced starvation and deprivation an illegal occupation of Gaza. That's what doesn't make sense to me. I don't see how you reconcile those
H
two positions because I think that the, the, the armed resistance is, is only going to be ineffective given the power differentials. It's similar to what Gandhi thought in terms of how he took on the British Empire and that having a moral force of civil resistance and appealing to the world's conscience is going to be much better chance of getting dignity.
D
Peace 2019 the Palestinians organized the Great March of Return which was a mass non violent mobilization at the gates of the concentration camp walls and fence in Gaza. And you know what Israeli soldiers did? Representative? They had a competition to who could shoot the most kneecaps of Palestinians. People around the world have a right to resistance by all means necessary.
H
Well, I've always been for peaceful resistance.
D
You know, how is peaceful resistance saying the Israelis?
H
You know, I mean, just like it's under segregation. I wouldn't have said that. Go kill people who are engaged in segregation against you. I mean I'm much more Dr. King than Malcolm X.
D
Are you? Much more. Slave rebellions were justified against people that were raping, hanging, murdering Africans who had been kidnapped. I mean, I'm sorry, I spend most of my day and night talking with Palestinians, working with Palestinians. My colleague Hossam Shabbat was, by the way, most of Palestinians, Most of the
H
Palestinians I met, most of the Palestinians I met and maybe a few days are not talking about the kind of armed resistance that you are. They just want to live their lives in dignity and peace and not have the Israeli settlers oppress them.
D
But you're a member of the United States Congress who is justifying, albeit you've been very critical of Israel's war against Gaza, but you seem to be drawing a line that says that there are some cases in which Israel is justified to attack Palestinians, but only those responsible for October 7th. But you can't find a shred of justification for any Palestinian to attack the very armed forces operating under a nation state flag that is backed by the United States. And you're saying that there is no condition under which a Palestinian has a right to kill soldiers who are posted at military bases enforcing by murder and forced starvation and deprivation an illegal occupation of Gaza. That's what doesn't make sense to me. I don't see how you reconcile those two positions.
A
So I highly recommend actually watching the entire back and forth which you can find over on the page there. But essentially there are two different conversations going on here. And one of them I think comes or sort of spells out why it is that there's been so much resistance to identifying what's happening in Gaza and as a genocide. Now some of it is of course the psychological element of the historical connotations that it has, but I think that is a kind of much over indexed part of it. In fact, I think what's really driving it is that once you acknowledge that what's happening is in fact a genocide, an ongoing genocide which has somewhat abated in its violence, but has not abated in a strategic direction, you are then pushed into policy positions that as an American politician you wouldn't necessarily want to take. And two of those are resistance to genocide obviously is legitimate. And any support for an entity carrying out a genocide is obviously beyond the pale. And the only, the only kind of legitimate responses to that would be actual kind of international military intervention or sanctions. And that I think is at the heart of why there's so much hesitation among so many who recognize that legally what we're talking about is a genocide, that they don't want to go all the way and say it because it pushes you into a logical space where you have to go to a place where an American politician doesn't want to go. And I thought Jeremy did a great job kind of pinning down the essence of the question here. Why is it okay for one side to carry out what is Khan and others acknowledge is a genocide, but it is not okay for the other side to fight back? And if we believe that one side is carrying out a genocide, how is it okay to give any aid and support or even to allow other countries to offer aid and support to that nation. So thought that was a very helpful conversation and credit to Ro Khanna for showing up for those types of debates. There are very few members of Congress who are willing to be pushed on issues like this. As I believe he was here Monday. This comes after, of course, gun toting paramilitary settlers held up his delegation in the west bank, at which point the IDF came out and sided for a long time kind of with those settlers and not letting them pass, and then subsequently lied and said, oh, this is a closed military zone. It wouldn't have happened to you if you would have coordinated, which by itself, think about that. Like, in order for you not to get held up at gunpoint by illegal militias in the west bank, you have to coordinate all of your travel with the US Embassy. Obviously that's not a sustainable practice as there are millions of people who live there and who are not members of Congress. And so this has led to a lot of pressure on, on Democrats to follow through on their logical commitments. Now, one of those is Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. Julian Andreoni, my colleague over at Dropsite News, caught up with her outside the Capitol and pushed her on this question of what about, okay, you've said you don't want to subsidize American sales and you wouldn't support the transfer of some weapons to Israel. What about a broad embargo, which the definition of which is somewhat malleable but can include, we won't allow anybody to trade weapons with, to, or to send weapons to Israel. So let's listen to this exchange between Julian and AOC Congresswoman, would you support an arms embargo? I know that you support stopping sending offensive and defensive military aid to Israel. Would you support an embargo?
B
What do you. I mean, I consider both of those things to be stopping the sale of
A
arms to Israel, stopping other countries from selling to them.
B
I don't. Well, other, actually other countries, I don't know where we have jurisdiction over. But I think in terms of us, I do not support any transfer of
A
weapon sale or aid.
B
You know, I think. Well, here's one thing that I will say, like the actual ways that these things work is that, is that they have to go. So anything that I have a vote for, here's what I'll say, okay, Anything I have a vote for, I will not, I would not authorize that transfer. And I haven't, you know, I never have. I've never voted to my Knowledge, I don't believe I've ever voted for SFOPs. I don't. I've never voted for, for the military NDAA budget. So in terms of my vote and what I have control over, I always vote no on weapons transfers.
A
Would you consider taking a trip like the one that Congressman Khanna took to the West Bank?
B
Oh, of course, of course. You know, I think many years ago Netanyahu prevented Congresswoman Tlaib and Omar from entering. And so I had stated years ago that as long as they were opposing entry to them, but I certainly would be open to visiting and would be happy to. You know, I've never taken an APAC funded trip and I don't take.
A
Seems fun though.
B
Yeah, I mean, I don't know about that, but you know, I've never taken like those kinds of funded trips. Yeah, but which is probably another reason why I haven't gone. But in terms of visiting, I would be more than happy to.
D
You think there needs to be action
A
taken after they detained him, especially the idf, playing a role in taking the
D
side of the settlers? Do you think there should be sanctions, anything like that?
B
I think there should be sanctions. And then beyond, you know, of course what happened to Congressman Khanna is unacceptable. And also we need answers on the murders of many U.S. citizens at the hands of settlers and the Israeli government. You know, we still do not have accountability on US journalists and other people. And so I think absolutely, absolutely, we need to, we needed to have been instituting these sanctions in a much harsher way for a very long time.
A
So there was a very interesting moment there in that exchange where Julian asks if she'd be willing to take a similar Palestinian led trip to the west bank, similar to the one that Ro Khanna just took. And she brought up how the Israelis had blocked Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from traveling there. I believe it was in 2019. And at the time she had said as long as they were blocked from going, that in solidarity she would also refuse to go. But she's now saying, as you saw there, that she would be willing to go on a Palestinian led trip to the west bank, which I expect now that she has made that pledge, we're going to see that. And as more members of Congress take that trip and see for themselves kind of what the apartheid like conditions are on the ground, I think you're going to continue to see American policy among Democrats, you know, slide further and further in a more skeptical and hostile direction when it comes to supporting Israel. And I think one Test of that is going to be today in the House of Representatives. Thomas Massie, who was ousted by AIPAC in a primary, is still, you know, is still serving out the rest of his term and has put forward an amendment which would. Is a very blunt amendment that will get a vote on the House floor which would block all aid to Israel, military and otherwise. And so yesterday you had Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, come out and say that he opposes it because he said it's too blunt and it would affect transfers to humanitarian aid to Palestinians and such. And either way, it's not going through the Senate. So it's really just a kind of symbolic vote to see where members of Congress are. But importantly, Jeffrey said that he was voting against it, but he understood if other Democrats voted for it. That's what they call a vote of conscience on Capitol Hill, where you're not required to vote party line. I mean, obviously not required. You report only to your constituents. But if you break with the party on a vote where they're whipping, it's going to then come with consequences from the party leadership. And what Jeffries is saying here is that there would be no consequences for members who either vote present, vote or vote yes, although he said he personally is going to be voting no. J Street, the liberal Zionist organization, put out a statement saying the same thing, that they oppose the amendment, but they also understand that this is an unusual opportunity for members of Congress to go on record against military aid to Israel. And so they will. They will support members who vote yes on it. And that support ends up being helpful, can be helpful in primary campaigns. Now, at the same time, if a Democratic member of Congress votes no on this or votes present, what they're doing is they're putting themselves on a list of people who are going to be researched to be primaried by populist progressive organizations like Justice Democrats, DSA and others who are trying to figure out who are the ones who are with us, who are the ones are against us, who are the ones that are vulnerable. And so I think there's some reporting that you could see a huge number of Democrats kind of swing and end up supporting this Massie amendment. Meanwhile, we can put up E3. The NDAA, which includes the provision which would fuse elements of the Israeli and American militaries, was blocked in the United States Senate by Democrats. Now, it was, you know, some Democrats in the Senate spoke out about the provision that merged the Israeli and American militaries over overall, what. What they were objecting to here was the restarting of the Iran war, which by the way is completely illegal. Like the Congress has passed a war powers resolution that says the president cannot engage in war with Iran. He's just doing it illegally anyway. And so we'll be tracking the debate and the vote on the House floor, and I'm sure Kristol and Sager will be covering that yesterday, tomorrow when they're here. Up next, we've got congressional candidate Donovan McKinney running in Detroit. If you want all of your data in one place, you need the Intuit ERP I'm Daymond John and I run my growing business on Intuit Enterprise Suite. Learn more@intuit.com ERP this is Radhi Devluka
F
from A really Good Cry A lot of wellness routines start with motivation and end somewhere between week two and a half. Used supplement drawer Groons was created to make daily nutrition simpler. Instead of pills or chalky green drinks, groons packs over 20 essential vitamins and minerals, greens and prebiotics into a snack pack of delicious gummies. It feels approachable and not demanding. The convenient comprehensive formula supports gut health, beauty, energy, immunity, recovery and cognition in one daily habit. Groons contain 6 grams of fiber, which is more than 2 cups of broccoli. And the ingredients in Groons are backed by 35,000 research publications, which is part of what makes the formula so intentional. Groons is vegan, gluten free, dairy free, nut free and made without artificial colors or flavours. Plus it's methylated, so key nutrients like B12 and folate are in forms your body can actually use. It's comprehensive nutrition designed for routines you can actually stick with. Get up to 52% off with code CRY@GROONSCO. That's code CRY.
G
I have friends who own rental properties. They're not real estate moguls, they're regular people who found a smarter way in. Every month the rent comes in, covers their mortgage and they keep adding more. I found out how they got started. True Hole Financial Smart investors know the biggest obstacle to rental property is qualifying. Traditional lenders put your personal income and debt to income ratio under a microscope. Truehole Financial is different. They qualify. You get this based on the rental property income the property is expected to generate. And unlike online lenders that simply tell you yes or no, Truehole Financial takes a concierge style approach. So the question stops being do I earn enough? And becomes what's the smartest way to grow my portfolio? Truehold Financial doesn't just hold open the rental property door, they help you decide which door. To walk through, call 1-888-521-4787 or visit trueholefinancial.com to get started. Truehold Financial, NMLS Number 2740541. Equal housing lender subject to approval. Details@truehold.com
A
so in 2018, a man named Sri Thanadar, who had made his fortune in some quite curious ways, which we'll talk about in a moment, met with a group of Republican consultants telling them that he wanted to run for governor. And he had a very unusual question for them. What party should I run in? The consultants, and we wrote about this at the Intercept back at the time, the consultants said back to him, well, what party are you in? And he said, well, isn't that you guys are the consultants? Like, you tell me, like. And they're very confused. Well, what do you believe? And he's like, what do you mean, what do I believe? Like, you're the political consultants. You tell me what I believe and then I run for governor. They eventually told him, look, we've never heard of anything like this from a political candidate before. I don't think this is a good fit for you and us. Eventually he decided that he was a Democrat and he was going to run for governor as a Democrat. He was leading in the polls for some time until that story emerged. Plus a story about some beagle abuse, which we'll get into in a moment, also came out. So in 2022, he spent his considerable fortune instead running for Congress. He was challenged at the time by aipac, who saw this Sri Thanadar coming onto the scene and they were concerned that maybe this guy is anti Israel. We don't really know. So they spent millions of dollars against him. He spent millions of his own money and he won. Afterwards, he became one of AIPAC's biggest allies in Congress. Now he's being challenged by State Representative Donovan McKinney, who has the backing of DSA as well as Justice Democrats. And so State Representative McKinney, thank you for joining us. I want to run through a bunch of this today. It's one of the strangest political journeys I think I've ever seen. That's just the tip of the iceberg. What did I miss about Congressman Thanedar here?
C
No, Eric, I just appreciate you and inviting us on your show. I'm a big fan of Breaking Points.
A
Oh, I love to hear it.
C
But, like, what? Sheree, it's. He's a conundrum of all sorts. He's voted to thank ICE last year. He's Increased the Department of ICE budget multiple times. Sitting on that committee as a sitting legislator, as well as he tried to introduce legislation to abolish ICE just a few months later because we're gaining steam in our campaign. And so he's trying to do some things that are politically feasible. He's taking money from ICE contractors to our utility companies. Monopoly utility, DTE to apac. Crypto. Funny story about him, Eric. He's the first congressional member in the history of Congress to invest campaign money into cryptocurrency. And so, you know, he's representing one of the poorest districts in the country. And we need somebody that is going to put the people of this district top of mind. And that's why we decided to run and take a shot at it so we can bring some real representation back to Michigan's 13th district.
A
Yeah, his connection to the beagle testing lab was one of the, you know, among all the crazy things about the guys, one of the craziest.
E
Let's. Let's.
A
I want to play F1 because this is one of the things you've been using to. To. To go after him. Let's do F1, please.
C
I'm Donovan McKinney and I approve this message.
A
We have new information now on Sri Tandadar.
C
He's a Democrat running to be Michigan's
H
next parent of Life.
C
Sri Tandar tested drugs on dogs, then left them to die. Look, I love animals. The allegations involved mistreatment of dogs and
D
monkeys used for testing.
A
The dogs were found abandoned without food and water.
B
Employees had to break into the building to save them.
A
Billionaire pharma executive Sri Tandar left 100 beagles to die. Shree Tandar.
C
One sick puppy.
A
So this was something that did come up in the 2018 campaign. So tell us what happened with these abandoned beagles.
C
So he owned a pharmaceutical company. He sold half of it. And so it's actually, he made probably double the money back because it actually increased in value, like doubled in value. So he made the money back and then some. But the pharmaceutical company tested drugs on dogs and animals, and pretty much when he sold half of it and closed up shops at a lot of facilities, he just left all these animals abandoned. Over 100 beagles, some monkeys. Just terrible all around human being for doing that. And so, you know, think about this. If he's willing to abandon those dogs, just imagine what he's doing in the seat of Congress. He's abandoning the people of the 13th district here in Michigan.
E
Yeah.
A
And it was kind of one of those pump and Dump scan schemes where you kind of take the company, you drive up the fake value of it, you take your piece of it and then you bankrupt the thing.
E
And then.
A
Yeah, when he bankrupts it, just walk away. And whatever it's doing. Yeah, exactly. Just keeps unfolding. I want people to get a sense of him himself. Let's roll. F2. This is when he became allies with APAC, deeply thanking them for, for the help.
D
Hi, this is Congressman Shri Tanidar, proudly representing Detroit and the Michigan's 13th district.
A
Here I am a whole week in Israel learning about this little country that
D
is surrounded by terrorism and how it's
A
important that United States and Israel must have a strong relationship. But more importantly also that I, as an entrepreneur, I met many young innovators,
D
entrepreneurs, and I'm talking to them about
A
collaborating with City of Detroit and working with the rich culture of Detroit and the innovation and entrepreneurship in Israel to make better things for both countries and
E
the people of my district and the people of Israel.
A
My sense is that SRI was hoping that enough AIPAC support plus his own money, plus then a divided field of opponents would be enough for him to be able to continue to get reelected in Detroit. How did you, your political operation and the community more broadly avoid that trap of having, you know, if you have three or four credible good candidates who are all better than the incumbent, thanedar voters are like, well what do I do? Who do I pick to beat him? But now it's pretty much a one on one race. How did you get to that place?
C
So we started off so how he ended up in Congress in the first place, he won in a nine way primary.
A
Right, exactly.
C
And this is one of the only, if not the only majority black congressional district in the current country not represented by a black person. And so, you know, it was nine black or eight black people in the race plus him. So the vote got really split and he won with I believe 28% of votes, something like that, with like just a couple thousand votes or so, a couple percentage points. And the second time around in the 24 election there was a, you know, couple of women, black women on the, on the ballot, but they didn't have the money. And some of them had a lot of baggage that he exploited with APAC money and his own money because he's also a self funder, he's a multi millionaire. That left a lot of bad taste in a lot of people's mouth. This time around a bunch of folks tried to do it. We had conversations initially and people either decided to drop out to, to support our candidacy or got kicked off the ballot because it's crazy because the incumbent, Sharee, he's the one who challenged a lot of people's signatures and got it kicked off. So it's like a catch 22 in a sense because he literally dug his own grave. And because of that we have a great opportunity of winning the seat. And we're building, Eric, we're building the biggest and baddest coalition in the country. We have over 150 plus endorsements from congressional members on a federal, state, local, county and local levels to faith leaders, to all the unions, metro, the Michigan afl, cio. I come out the SEIU movement. I'm a labor organizer. I got uaw, you name it, to all the progressive organizations on the ground, faith leaders. We are building a big unit and a big coalition to take him out, to take him and his money out. Because organized people can be organized money every time. And that's what we're looking to do. In less than three weeks away from the election day, August 4th.
A
Tell us a little bit about yourself. I know you grew up poor and was it northern Detroit? Like what was your northeast Detroit? Yeah. So what was your upbringing like? And like how did you become political? Like do you remember a moment where you realized that you're, that you recognized the power of kind of organizing and people power to do something about the conditions facing your community? Was that a gradual thing? Like how. Yeah, like what brought you here?
C
Yeah. No. Good question. And I grew up with my mom, my brother and my grandmother. We moved around over 13 times across the city of Detroit. Spent the vast majority of my life in northeast Detroit. But there was times we lived in cars, shelters, sometimes on the street. There were days where we didn't know where our next meal was going to come from. But I remember what the principles my grand, my grandmother raised me on. And one of them is no matter what happens in your life, there will always be people worse off than you. There will always be people better off than you. But to never fight the urge to give. Never fight the urge to give, Eric. And I put that, I put her quote on my first piece of literature when I ever ran for State House. And I still live by that principle today. And it led me to a life of public service, to helping people, understanding that we're no better than anyone else and vice versa. But we all have to utilize our God given talents and abilities to serve people. And at the end of the day, so many folks are struggling. They need folks to be their most authentic selves. But they need people who are going to rise to the occasion and meet the urgency of this moment. I got seniors on fixed income, Eric, that literally make, you know, receive $900 a month from Social Security every month. Literally. Their rent is $800. Right. Their food assistance from the federal government just got cut down to less than $30 a month and their out of pocket costs to do doctor visits and for prescription drugs has skyrocketed. And so every few weeks they have to make a conscious decision. Either I'm going to have food at the table, I'm going to be able to eat, I'm going to be able to pay my rent, or I'm going to have to figure out ways to have some dollars for my life saving medicine. These are the conditions of our district and people are going through. Folks are working two, three jobs, not even making ends meet anymore, Eric. And so for me, this is deeper than politics. This is about adhering to the moment and the needs of the people in the district. Not sending money for bombs and weapons to kill families and children overseas and not for any type of foreign influence or special interest. We're running a grassroots campaign, not taking any corporate PAC money, APAC money at all. We raised over a million dollars so far, Eric. The average donation of our campaign is $30. And so when people are looking at this nationwide movement and when people are looking for leaders to step up, to not only meet the moment, but to be present and fight for them and what they care about, that's why we're running and that's why a lot of people are grabbing towards our campaign and that's how we're going to win. On Tuesday, August 4th.
A
Yeah, you were endorsed by Bernie Sanders. Early on you were endorsed by Justice Democrats. And last month, kind of metro Detroit, DSA endorsed your campaign. And I know that when it happened there was, there was an argument internally they're like, well, he's not been a long time kind of DSA member but, but he support, he supports everything that we believe in. So you know, the argument carried the day to say like let's, let's get behind him. There's also been this national pushback from the right about DSA saying that it's a bunch of white gentrifiers, which is kind of ironic to hear Republicans complaining that something's white. But anyway, we'll, we'll let them have their fun over there. But so I'm curious, when it comes to dsa, I think DSA desperately wants to have More people who grew up poor in Northeast Detroit organizing behind democratic socialism. So what's your relationship been like with them? And what advice do you have to DSA chapters both in Detroit and also around the country, about how they can be more resonant in neighborhoods like the ones that you grew up in and kind of push back against some of that criticism that they get for being kind of white outsiders coming in to put, like, a fancy democratic socialism label on their politics, on their gentrifying politics.
C
No, I would say listen, this is not about labels in particular. This is about the issues that are impacting the everyday life and the quality of life of our residents and community members. And I preach about it all the time. But we have to. If the Democratic Party wants to continue to act like, or at least claim that the party of the people, then we need to act like it, and we need to ensure that we deliver on the resources as much as possible. How defined politics is the redistribution of resources, Eric. If you're in these powerful positions of influence and you're at the table deciding these things, you need to bring back home resources when people are struggling to make ends meet. And so, you know, to dsa, to all democratic socialists, talk about the issues, right? The fact that people have to, like, decide if they're going to get health care or not, Their premiums are skyrocketing. More importantly, these corporations get to decide who gets health care or not, who gets to live or not based off if they have a preexisting condition or not. Right? We have so many. We live in the wealthiest country in the world, but we got so many people who are unhoused right now, even our veterans. Is that. Is that right? No. Free making sure that we have opportunities for our kids to grow up in higher education, Free college, abolishing ice, stop sending money overseas for genocide. Like, these are the simple issues that people care about. Living in the world where our kids can be able to breathe clean air and drink clean water, that's something in my district that is near and dear to every resident of mine. So this is not necessarily about who's more socialist than whoever, but these socialist ideas, these are common sense ideas, Eric. And it makes sense when you break it down to people and you talk to them and you realize, damn, we all care about the same things. For the most part, 80% of us pretty much want the same thing. We might differ on the execution of it and how to get there and achieve it, but in reality, most folks want to be able to work one job, to not Only make ends meet, have some disposable income, maybe take your family trip once in a while, have benefits to take care of their family and a retirement to look forward to. That's what probably the most. That's the American dream. But right now that is being wasted. There's no longer that, that thing that people can capture and hold on to. And so we got to fight like hell for it. And I'm a proud DSA member, but also I need DSA to stop over talking people and really talk to the issues at heart and what people care about day in and day out.
A
Also wanted to get your take on the Michigan Senate race. You've endorsed Abdul Al Said. And that race may be decided in Detroit. There's been some controversy in the state lately because Haley Stevens, with support from her outside super pacs, has been very strongly suggesting that Barack Obama is actually supporting her campaign. Which is not, which is not true.
C
They're running ads like crazy. I just, right before I hopped on, I saw four ads from I think APAC's funnel group about how Haley is, you know, getting the support of Obama is great.
A
Let me show, let me show one of those ads because yes, I think they're over $50 million at this point and we're not. It's August 4th, so we've got a ways to go. They may spend 60, 70 million dollars in one state by the end of this. Let's, let's roll. F3.
C
My husband worked at Ford for 41 years. My father worked with General Motors for 30 years.
E
And when they came for our auto
A
jobs, Hayley Stevens stood up.
C
She was chief of staff to President Obama's auto rescue. And Haley Stevens, by the way, she
A
was a critical part of my team
C
that helped the American auto industry come roaring back.
E
That saved 200,000 Michigan jobs.
C
She helped save jobs for my own family.
A
If President Obama trusts her, so do I. Stronger Michigan is responsible for the content of this ad. So sorry to make you watch that again. You've probably seen it a thousand, thousand times at this point. So strongly suggesting that she's got the auto worker support too. By the way, at the beginning of that, UAW has in fact endorsed Abdul El Sayed. Obama has not endorsed at all. But it seems like these ads are breaking through and that the public is starting to believe that Obama does support Stevens. A new poll has her up seven now against El Sayed. And I think it was a Detroit News sponsored poll on the ground. Like, is that accurate? Like, are you meeting people who are like, yeah, I'm with Stevens because Obama's behind him, behind her.
C
I've met a few folks on the doors at different events who have heard this propaganda and have started to believe it. But I will say Abdullah has a great ground game and I think it closed that gap. People kind of see through that propaganda, so to speak. But we have to listen. We're going to get outspent. They're going to run more ads, they're going to try to run more attacks against Abdul as well as myself, because we are the progressive candidates, the working family candidates, UAW endorsed, Bernie endorsed, I mean, you name it. And so we have to combat that through people power. And so we're making these phone calls, we're knocking on the doors, we're showing up to events where people normally show up to. And that's how you try to figure out how to combat that and bridge the gap and bring people together to understand our message. But it's sad that we got to spend so much money in our politics. That's why me and Abdul, we both support Indian Citizens United getting all corporate money out of our politics. I've led it at the state level here in Michigan to taking back our power legislation, which we couldn't get a hearing on in Atlanta. But guess what? The people on the ground and organizations on the ground decided to take our legislation, create a ballot initiative, collected over 600,000 signatures, and we'll know in a few weeks that the State Board of Campus is going to approve it to put it on this year's November ballot. And Eric, if it gets on this year's November ballot, I guarantee it's going to pass with 80% of the vote. You want to know why? Because Democrats, Republicans, Independents alike understand that corporate influence in our politics is just too much. And we got to level the playing field to ensure that the people's voices are heard and can be ring true.
A
I also wanted to get you to respond to another controversy that's going on in Michigan in a different race that's kind of fascinating in the way it's been been unfolding. And this is Will Lawrence, who's running against kind of two centrist candidates, has had some of his comments from a podcast with Curry Peterson Smith, who describes himself kind of as a black internationalist, twisted to say that he's like a racist guy. I want to roll the actual comments so that people can hear what he said and then get your reaction to it, because I think what he's actually probing at is an interesting conversation. So let's roll F4 here, that is
D
a contested space that we need to show up to.
C
I mean, how do you feel? What do you think is the trajectory as a millennial black leftist? It's not something I can talk too much about because I'm white and it's not my struggle. That being said, the extent to which the older generation of black political leadership are such a pillar, frankly, for establishment capitalist, imperialist American power through their role, you know, as this kind of traditionalist, establishmentist pillar of the Democratic Party, it's a big problem. It's a big problem for left politics in this country. And, and, and it gets us every single time. And it really defangs the white left and puts us in, you know, impossible positions. Really, it's very effective politically. And so, I don't know, I'm curious, but we're also seeing, you know, now that unfortunately don't want anyone to vote for Trump. But like young black people are falling away from the Democratic Party and the support is not showing up in the same way.
D
We'll see what happens in November.
C
I'm curious where you think this is headed and what the younger black left needs to do in order to change this dynamic.
D
Yeah, totally. I mean, just to start again with a kind of like internationalist answer of a kind is this is a question that is faced in different places around the world where the centrist parties and the kind of, you know, and some center left parties have just failed.
A
I mean, have failed to.
D
Well, I shouldn't say failed.
A
I'm curious for your. Obviously it's a lot more nuanced than it got portrayed in the headlines. I'm curious when. What you thought when you saw the headlines, but then also where you are on kind of Will Lawrence and the general idea he's talking about there.
C
You know, I've met Will and known Will for some years now. And on the environmental justice side of things, he comes out the sunrise movement. I came on the seiu. SEIU was the first union to sign onto the Green New Deal. And so, you know, our agenda lies around environmental justice. When I first saw the headlines, I was, I was a little taken back, I'm not going to lie. But I actually listened to it and I'm like, man, actually he's not totally wrong there, right? Like me as a young black man, husband and father of three young children, ages 4 and younger. Like, I think about my upbringing and I think about, and I give you three examples, Eric, of what has happened that has disappointed me and not want me to even engage in the political process. What I have to. Because I do believe that's part of changing the landscape of not only the now, but the future. What happened in the 2008 recession and housing bubble? What did the Democratic Party do at that particular time? We ended up bailing out the banks instead of the people that were going through the housing crisis. Like Michigan, in particular, the city of Detroit in my district, we had the largest home ownership rate, 82% at the time, in the early 2000s, out of any city in America. And now we're plummeted. Now we're a majority renter city right now because of the policies back then. The Democratic establishment decided to bail out the corporations instead of the people that needed those resources the most. Another thing, what happened with the George Floyd movement and the Black Lives Matter. Right, the George Floyd justice and Policing act, we had two black men in the U.S. senate trying to figure out how to hash out a deal with that legislation. You had Tim Scott, Republican out of South Carolina, Cory Booker, a Democrat out of New Jersey, discussing and trying to figure out how to make it happen, but to no avail. They couldn't get it done. And that let down a lot of black people, and particularly a lot of people of color and young people, millennials especially, to be, not necessarily be hopeful in the democratic process and into politics. Another thing that let us down and just recently happened, the Voting Rights act, the overturning of the Voting Rights act, how the Supreme Court just got it just a few weeks ago. And under Democratic leadership, under Biden, we could have got the John Lewis Voting Rights and Advancement act done, but just couldn't. And so where are we meeting the moment in terms of Democratic Party? We're tired of the establishment. We're tired of the status quo. We're tired of people just giving us the platitudes, the talking points, just to tell us what we want to hear. Eric, we want leaders and fighters that are going to adhere to the urgency and the issues at hand. And that's why people are excited about Will. That's why they're excited about Abdul. That's why they're excited about us and our candidacy for Congress in Michigan's 13th district.
A
Yeah, it's August 4th, all those primaries, and Kyle Blonquist over in. Somewhere else in Michigan.
C
Yeah, Kyle. Yeah, yeah. He's in District 1. So that's Northern Michigan and then the entire Upper Peninsula.
A
Yeah, it's, you know, it's a kind of coalition of four candidates coming from different places, but headed in the same direction. And in interesting ways. So Donovan McKinney, August 4th is the primary. Thanks so much for being here. That'll do it for us today. As always, BreakingPoints.com, sign up for our new newsletter. Become a premium subscriber so you can support what we're doing. Kristel and Sagar will be back here tomorrow. They'll see you then. He's dribbling the ball with everything on the line. He's driving down the pitch. He's facing price hikes and cuts past him. Carrier contracts, tries to block him. Oh, he leaves him in the dark. He's at the edge of the box. He cuts past the non stop group chat trash talk. He clears on goal. He shoots Go unlimited data for $25 a month forever. Visit your local Boost Mobile store today to get unlimited data with a price that never changes. Boost mobile after 30gb, customers may experience lower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as long as they remain active on the Boost $25 unlimited plan.
C
This is Hoda Kotb from Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb.
A
You know when you walk in a
C
room and you take a big whiff
E
and it sort of smells like home? Well, cleaning isn't just about making a house look clean. It's about how a home feels afterward. And fragrance can change the energy in a room. Fabuloso is known for that bold, unmistakable fragrance. A fresh smelling home can feel more
C
vibrant, joyful and welcoming.
E
There's something so satisfying about walking back
C
into a room after you've cleaned it
E
and noticing the scent make your world more Fabuloso.
B
Are you really buying a car online
E
on Autotrader right now?
F
Really?
B
At a playground? Yeah, really.
E
Look at these listings from dealers.
B
Wow, your search can really get that specific. Really? And you just put in your info and boom. Cars in your budget.
A
Mom needs a second, honey.
B
You can really have it delivered.
E
Really?
B
Or I can pick it up at the dealership.
A
One second, sweetie.
B
Mommy's buying a car. Mommy, look. I think your kid is walking up the slide.
C
Kyle Again?
B
Really? Autotrader?
C
Buy your car online?
A
Really?
C
This is an I heart podcast.
A
Guaranteed human.
Podcast Episode Summary
This episode of Breaking Points explores three major stories: New York’s groundbreaking moratorium on hyperscale data centers and the surrounding politics of AI wealth redistribution, a heated debate between Jeremy Scahill and Rep. Ro Khanna about Palestinian resistance and US support for Israel, and a deep-dive into Michigan primary elections, highlighting insurgent progressive candidates. The hosts provide critical analysis, tough interviews, and behind-the-scenes political insight, maintaining their signature blend of cross-partisan, anti-establishment perspective.
Jeremy Scahill criticizes Rep. Ro Khanna for supporting some aid to Israel while calling Gaza a genocide.
Scahill pushes for clarity on whether Palestinians have a right to armed resistance, especially against military targets, paralleling historical US-backed resistance movements.
This episode delivers sharp reporting and debate on the intersection of tech regulation, progressive foreign policy, and shifting electoral politics. It spotlights growing grassroots momentum against establishment candidates in Michigan, exposes the tangled logic of Washington’s Middle East policy, and demonstrates growing public anger at unaccountable wealth and monopoly power—from datacenters to Congress itself.
For listeners seeking political analysis, campaign strategy insight, and real-time debate on transformative policy questions, this episode is both comprehensive and unflinching.