Bill Maher Faceplants While Attacking Jimmy Dore & Joe Rogan!

Summary

---

The Jimmy Dore Show

Episode: Bill Maher Faceplants While Attacking Jimmy Dore & Joe Rogan!

Date: May 6, 2026
Host: Jimmy Dore
Guests/Co-hosts: Kurt, Political/Military Analyst, Mike McCrae (Bill Maher/Glenn Greenwald impressions)

Overview

This episode centers on Jimmy Dore's rebuttal to Bill Maher's dismissive critique of political concepts frequently discussed on alternative media platforms, particularly the "Overton Window." The show features Dore deconstructing Maher's attitude toward new political ideas and information, especially as it relates to the shifting boundaries of mainstream political debate. Dore further expands the discussion into broader themes of media ignorance, American foreign policy failures (particularly in the Middle East), and the unraveling of US global hegemony—highlighted by escalating military losses and a shifting global economic order. Notable segments include a critical playback and takedown of Bill Maher's recent monologue, an in-depth discussion of the US-Iran conflict, and analysis on the weakening of US sanctions power due to China's pushback.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Overton Window and Bill Maher’s Ignorance

• Jimmy Dore opens by defining the Overton Window as the spectrum of policies considered publicly acceptable at any given time (01:25).
• Dore highlights Bill Maher’s refusal to learn what the term means—a stance Maher airs during a “New Rule” segment, which Dore and co-host Kurt mock throughout the show.
• Quote:
  • ["If there's one thing Bill Maher is known for, it's his resistance to any new information of any kind, even when the new information is decades old." – Jimmy Dore, 06:55]

Notable Segment: Maher’s Monologue & Jimmy’s Roast

• Dore plays and parodies Maher’s segment where Maher states,
  • ["I really don't know what the Overton Window is, and I really don't want to know." – Bill Maher (impersonation by Mike McCrae), 07:13]
• Dore and Kurt point out the irony of a political talk show host boasting of—and applauded for—ignorance:
  • ["It's much easier being a smug, lazy sofa spud like his audience is—arrogance and ignorance dancing hand in hand." – Jimmy Dore, 14:31]
• They underscore that Maher’s willful ignorance is rewarded by his establishment media environment and audience (16:35).

---

2. The Legacy Media Bubble and Platform Jealousy

• Dore details his history of critiquing Maher, noting that Maher refused to be in the same building as him during a Joe Rogan taping, which highlights Maher’s aversion to substantive debate with critics (02:20).
• Both Dore and Kurt highlight the declining influence and relevance of Maher’s show compared to alternative platforms:
  • ["My show gets well over 33 million views a month. How many million views you think Bill Maher's show gets? Less than that, that's for sure." – Jimmy Dore, 10:32]

---

3. Dismissal and Misrepresentation of Vital Political Concepts

• The panel ridicules Maher’s ignorance not just of the Overton Window, but also critical concepts like WEF (World Economic Forum), MK Ultra, and more.
• Quote:
  • ["Too bad he doesn't understand what actually MK Ultra is and that it never went away, because it explains why the media uses those hypnotic moron phrases that he hates." – Jimmy Dore, 14:15]

---

4. Dore’s Critique of Bill Maher’s Show, Guests, and Foreign Policy Coverage

• Dore asserts Maher curates an echo chamber by only inviting establishment figures, and only rarely has on genuine critics (17:12).
• Replays a notable exchange from the last Glenn Greenwald appearance on Maher's show, where Greenwald excoriates US foreign policy and Maher deflects (17:41–19:42).
• Memorable Moment:
  • ["I'm never having someone on who's smart again, okay. It's always going to be pablum spewers, establishment hacks, and people who are so neoconservative that they make me look like a lefty." – Jimmy Dore, 19:49]
• Names Bret Stephens (a pro-Iraq War NYT columnist) and Gillian Tet (Financial Times) as representative Maher guests, emphasizing the pro-establishment slant (20:46).

---

5. Middle East: Military Losses and US Decline

CNN’s (Belated) Reporting

• Dore introduces new CNN reporting on the unprecedented destruction of US military installations in the Gulf following Iranian retaliatory strikes (25:10).
• Political/Military Analyst and David Pine corroborate that 13 of 19 bases were rendered unusable, challenging US and pro-Trump narratives of an easy victory (42:38–43:54).
• Dore details the massive cost and timeline for rebuilding the damaged bases, with estimates reaching up to a trillion dollars and ten years (40:35).
• Quote:
  • ["How could that have happened?" – Jimmy Dore, 42:52]
  • ["Iran is a tremendous, you know, it's essentially a missile regional power, even superpower. They have a vast number of missiles, likely a greater number of missiles even than the United States has in terms of ballistic missiles and cruise missiles and heavy combat drones." – David Pine, 43:04]

---

6. Sanctions, Global Power Shift, and China’s Pushback

• Dore explains China’s unprecedented legal move rejecting US extraterritorial sanctions on Chinese companies importing Iranian oil (45:32–51:53).
• He frames this as the collapse of dollar hegemony and the crumbling of American global dominance.
• Quote:
  • ["The US is quickly finding out there is a new superpower this century and its measures of unilateral bullying no longer are powerful enough to contain China. The global order has changed." – Jimmy Dore, 46:09]
• Discussion of BRICS’ ascendancy and the idea that US sanctions now lack enforceability (49:27–51:53).

---

7. Larger Consequences: US Economic Crash, Central Bank Digital Currency, and Oligarchy

• Dore and Kurt warn that de-dollarization and sanctions blowback will lead to an economic crash in the US, paving the way for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) regime with dystopian restrictions (55:16–55:58).
• Both rail against the US’s downward spiral, laying blame on the oligarchy, bipartisan corruption, and the collusion of media and corporate class.

---

8. Solutions: Class Uprising & the Limits of Electoral Politics

• Dore says meaningful change can’t occur through elections, but rather coordinated worker strikes (especially transportation/logistics workers) to bring public money out of politics (57:33–59:20).
• Emphasizes the need for determined, principled union leadership, and notes the inadequacy of prior protest movements with no tangible demands.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Bill Maher's Willful Ignorance:
  • ["I want to die not knowing what the Overton window is. Now, maybe it's awesome, but it just seems like the kind of pedantic bullshit that triggers me." – Bill Maher (impersonation), 07:52]
• Dore on Establishment Media:
  • ["If he actually knew anything, he wouldn't have that show. He'd be relegated to YouTube like we are, and like Glenn Greenwald is, and like the Gray Zone is, and everybody else in between." – Jimmy Dore, 21:09]
• Critique of US Foreign Policy:
  • ["How can you be a citizen of the United States, the country that has generated more violence and militarism in the world over the last five or six decades, and say, 'Look at those people over there. They are incredibly violent.' We play a significant role in what has been happening in the Middle East." – Glenn Greenwald, 17:41]

---

Important Timestamps

• 01:25 – Definition of the Overton Window.
• 03:52 – Dore on Maher's personal aversion to Dore.
• 05:00–10:30 – Play-by-play of Maher's dismissive segment; Dore/Kurt banter and commentary.
• 17:36 – Greenwald's legendary takedown of Maher on US foreign policy.
• 25:10 – CNN segment on devastating US military losses in the Middle East.
• 42:38–43:54 – David Pine confirms scale of US military destruction.
• 45:32–51:53 – China blocks US sanctions; Dore explains consequences for the global financial order.
• 55:16–55:58 – Discussion about upcoming Central Bank Digital Currency dystopia.
• 57:33–59:20 – Dore’s call for a mass strike as potential solution.

---

Final Thoughts

Jimmy Dore uses Bill Maher’s televised ignorance as a springboard to expose the failures and limitations of establishment media, highlight the shifting global power landscape, and argue for radical, non-electoral solutions to America’s deepening structural crises. The tone is irreverent, biting, and profane with a mix of dark humor and urgency, aimed at provoking listeners into skepticism of legacy institutions and consideration of direct class action.

---

Transcript

[Commercial Announcer]

Looking for the best place to shop this Mother's Day? Go with the brand that makes it easy to send something thoughtful to everyone on your list. 1-800-flowers.com right now at 1-800-flowers. Order one dozen roses and get another dozen free. More flowers mean more smiles. All backed by the quality, attention to detail and trusted delivery experience that make 1-800-flowers my top choice to send something beautiful mom will love. Make Mom's Day at 1-800-flowers.com podcast. That's 1-800-flowers.Com podcast.

[Debt Relief Advertiser]

Confronting high credit Card Debt Feel scary, But the good news is if you owe $10,000 or more in credit card debt, financial relief options are now available. National Debt Relief is currently offering debt relief designed to reduce what you owe and put you on the fast track to becoming debt free. If you qualify for debt relief, you may be able to pay back less than what you owe and save thousands of dollars. Just visit nationaldebtrelief.com Imagine only paying one low monthly program payment you can afford and saving money as you become debt free. National Debt Relief has already helped bring debt relief to over 550,000 DOL consumers, earning thousands of five star reviews and an A rating with the Better Business Bureau. You're stronger than your credit card debt. Let today be the day you start turning things around. Take the first step and visit nationaldebtrelief.com to see what debt relief you may qualify for. That's nationaldebtrelief.com

[Jimmy Dore]

Come see me on tour in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Atlanta, Raleigh, North Carolina, Spokane, Tacoma and Levittown, New York City. Go to jimmy door.com for a link for tickets. Establishment media sucks. All that slighting so good luck bullshit. We can't afford why he's fomenting this. Watch and see as his jack off the medium speeds and jumps the medium and hits them head on. It's the Chimney Door Show Just to let you know what the Overton Window is I think everyone knows what the Overton Window is. It's a very common phrase used almost exclusively in comedy. I mean in politics. So the Overton Window is a concept in a political science in political science, describing the range of ideas or policies that are considered acceptable or mainstream within public opinion at any given time. Policies inside the Window are seen as viable for politicians to support without risking their careers. Those outside it are viewed as too extreme, radical and unthinkable. In short, the Overton Window explains why certain ideas suddenly become normal while others remain taboo. It's about the boundaries of acceptable debate shifting over Time, for example, same sex marriage, right? There was a time when you couldn't before that and then there was a time you couldn't be against it. So the Aubergian window had shifted on that. Marijuana legalization, once radical and unthinkable, now everybody's for it. And economic policies like a 70 to 90% top marginal rate were within the window, the Overton window, in the mid 20th century. But now, you couldn't say that without sounding like a crazy Marxist, communist, fascist Covid era policies. Things like widespread lockdowns or vaccine mandates, those were once inside the Overton window. Now they're way outside of it. Okay, and so why do I bring this up? Because Bill Maher, now, he. I know he hates me and I know it bothers him that I make fun of his stupid take sometimes. And the reason I know that is because the last time, two times ago when I did Joe Rogan, he was the next guest and he wouldn't even come in the building until I had left the building. He sent his assistant in to scout to make sure I wasn't there. So we didn't have a confrontation or he didn't have to say hello to me or anything.

[Kurt]

Make sure Dunnigan's not in there either.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yes. So. So just to let you know, it's nice to know that I bother Bill Maher and he's afraid to meet me, but he's dumb enough to put me on his show, which is great advertising. I, again, it just, it just tickles me to no end that he put me on his show, but he was afraid to say my name, which even makes it better. So, yeah, he did it.

[Kurt]

I'm not saying your name.

[Jimmy Dore]

He did a new rule and he did it at the end. At the end of. He did it like in the middle of a rant where he's literally bragging about being dumb about stuff. It's. It's the stuff we used to think. I used to make fun of right wingers for like flat earthers and people didn't believe in evolution.

[Kurt]

Stuff like a Muslim cleric, he would be insulting for saying it's foolishness to learn more when you already know all the stuff. That's the thing. He would criticize in a Muslim, but here he is.

[Jimmy Dore]

It's the ultimate boomer take, right? It's the ultimate. So. So let's watch. And at about the three minute mark, he's going to come to me. Let's watch.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

Finally.

[Jimmy Dore]

No.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

Stop making me know stuff I don't want to know. Did you know that the human brain actually has an actual finite storage capacity. It's estimated to be about 2.5 million gigabytes. Impressive, but not infinite, by the way.

[Jimmy Dore]

Stop making me know stuff I don't want to know. That sounds like a title of. That should be the title of Bill's podcast Club Random. Sounds too much like he actually might learn some things.

[Kurt]

I don't want to do that.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, please don't make me know. I don't want to know about dead kids and Godza, I hate kids.

[Kurt]

Also a kid guy.

[Jimmy Dore]

Also, I don't need to know if my hooker has a penis. What, are we getting married? Just blow me and go. Okay, okay, okay. So here we go.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

That's why sometimes you just gotta say disc full.

[Jimmy Dore]

Now, these aren't horrible jokes, but just remember what these are all in aid of. These are in aid of defending ignorance about stuff you should know. Okay, here we go.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

Stop shoving things down my brain. Couple of weeks ago, on our overtime segment, one of my guests used the term the Overton window, which up until a year ago, I had heard only once every never. But lately I hear it everywhere.

[Jimmy Dore]

The Overton Window.

[Debt Relief Advertiser]

The Overton Window.

[Jimmy Dore]

The Overton Window.

[Political/Military Analyst]

The Overton Window.

[CNN Reporter]

Overton Window. The Overton Window.

[Jimmy Dore]

The Overton Window.

[Commercial Announcer]

The Overton Window.

[CNN Reporter]

The Overton Window.

[Jimmy Dore]

The Overton Window.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

Sorry, but I just couldn't hold my tongue anymore.

[Jimmy Dore]

Well, the Overton Window has opened up.

[Political/Military Analyst]

You know about.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

I don't know what that is, and I don't want to know what that is.

[Jimmy Dore]

Don't tell me. So if there's one thing Bill Maher is known for, it's his resistance to any new information of any kind, even when the new information is decades old. Which explains his audience. Okay, here we go.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

Yeah, I wasn't kidding. This isn't a bit. I really don't know what the Overton Window is, and I really don't want to know.

[Jimmy Dore]

It's a really basic thing. I just explained it at the top. Everybody who watches this show knows what it is and it's so easy to understand. People who watch CNN know what it is because they use it on there all the time, right?

[Kurt]

And even if you think it's a stupid. And I agree, it's an annoying term that annoying people going around a lot keep going. I agree. But you should know about it so you understand the thing you don't like. Shouldn't you. Shouldn't you learn as much things as possible?

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

It may be the only thing that's still on my bucket list. I want to die not knowing what the Overton window is. Now, maybe it's awesome, but it just seems like the kind of pedantic bullshit that triggers me. So if you try to. So if you try to tell me on the. I'll keep walking. Try to tell me on a plane, I'll jump out a real window. If you start to explain it to me, I'll stop you. If you write it, I won't read it. I didn't order it.

[Jimmy Dore]

You know what? Well, we didn't order the Iran war either, Bill, but that's what's for dinner now. Okay.

[Kurt]

Yeah,

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

and I don't think I need it because I'm a strong believer in the academic theory of. I kind of get it.

[Jimmy Dore]

He kinds of get. He kind of gets it, Kurt. So basically, he rewards ignorance and comfort over uncomfortable knowledge, which there's a. That's a network prerequisite, by the way, if you want to work anywhere close to that kind of money, because the money is made in no small part from the propagation of greater lies. Okay, here we go.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

Yeah, I kind of get it. The Overton Window. It's something bad we don't want to pass through. And Trump is just making it worse. And I'm sure he is, but that's enough for me. I don't need to chase every one of your manufactured buzzwords down the rabbit hole. Couple of.

[Jimmy Dore]

But rabbit hole is fine for him to use, no problem.

[Kurt]

Which is his joke. He's like, I learned rabbit hole. I'm not learning. This is what he's getting at, I think.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

A couple of years ago, Joe Rogan and his guest. Some Guy.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's me. How did he. He's calling me by my. My confirmation name. I'm James Patrick Some guy. Door.

[Kurt]

I thought he said some goy.

[Jimmy Dore]

Aha. Yeah, I'm just some goy.

[Kurt]

Who's that guy?

[Jimmy Dore]

Anyway, here we go. So there it is. I made it out of. So just. By the way, this is from several years ago. So don't think that this is. Hasn't been sticking in his craw for a long time. And what is sticking in his crawl? Well, he's going to show you. Watch this.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

Took me to task for not knowing what dub.

[Jimmy Dore]

By the way, my show gets more viewers in a month than yours does. My show gets well over 33 million views a month. How many million views you think Bill Marcho gets? Less than that, that's for sure. And we don't never know because HBO never releases their numbers. But anyway, just to let you know, ok, But I am some guy and I definitely am jealous of his platform because his platform actually gets to influence policy and the discussion, but so does mine.

[Kurt]

I don't think it does influence. I think it's the advertisement for what the policy is going to be based on the guests.

[Jimmy Dore]

You're probably right about that, Kur. But here we go.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

UEF or MK Ultra was.

[Political/Military Analyst]

He doesn't even know what the WF is all.

[Jimmy Dore]

He didn't even know MK Ultra was.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

Okay, guys, WEF is World Economic Forum, where the billionaires meet every year in Davos. Yes, I do know that. I just know.

[Jimmy Dore]

You didn't know that, which is why Joe Rogan brought it up several years ago. You didn't know what? You didn't know the WF was a thing. You didn't know about the Bilderbergs. You thought that was all some kind of crazy Alex Jones conspiracy stuff. Which is why Joe Rogan, who is infinitely more popular than you, which is. And said that on his own show. And why the. The last time you were on his show, you had to beg him to come on your show to prop up the numbers and he kept telling you no. I don't know if people remember that, but I do. He kept begging him no, because Joe's like, I don't want to be on there. Everybody talks over. He goes, no, you'll come out as my special guest. You don't want be. He's like, no, I'm not doing that. Come on, please, Joe, come on. My Joe said no. And it's still bothering him. And it still bothers him that I've made fun of him correctly for a long, long time, ok?

[Kurt]

And you don't support Israel and I

[Jimmy Dore]

don't support Israel, okay?

[Political/Military Analyst]

He doesn't even know what the WTF is all.

[Jimmy Dore]

He didn't even know what MKULTRA was. Now his audience is laughing because they also are ignorant of what MK Ultra actually is. And Bill Maher is going to try to pretend that. He tries to dismiss it as something that happened in the 60s. And it's as if the CIA would ever stop doing mind control. Anyway. Here we go.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

Okay, guys, WEF is World Economic Forum where the billionaires meet every year in Davos. Yes, I do know that. I just don't call it the wef.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's what they call it. Guess who calls it that? The wef.

[Kurt]

What does he call it? I call that Orgy I go to.

[Jimmy Dore]

What is that?

[Kurt]

I call it the orgy I go to. I didn't know we had A name for it.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

If I hear Joe Rogan say wef, I just assume it's some form of professional wrestling organization.

[Jimmy Dore]

Which also gets bigger numbers than your show. Okay, so this should be called the People Bill is annoyed and Jealous of segment. But here we go.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

And MK Ultra. Okay, the old CIA program where they experimented with lsd. Yes, I've read about it. I just don't use the decoder ring.

[Jimmy Dore]

So do you see how he tries to dismiss it as. Oh, that thing they did one time with lsd. That's not what MK Ultra was.

[Kurt]

Okay, what's the decoder ring thing? I don't get that at all.

[Jimmy Dore]

He's trying to make it look like whoever talks about MK Ultra is a conspiracy theorist who uses wears tinfoil hats and Dakota rings. That's what that. That's what that is. Okay.

[Kurt]

And okay, too bad.

[Jimmy Dore]

Too bad he doesn't understand what actually MK Ultra is and that it never went away because it explains why the media uses those hypnotic moron phrases that he hates.

[Kurt]

Yeah, he's going to get into watch what he does after. He's going to show Mockingbird to you.

[Jimmy Dore]

Let. So that's Bill Barr couldn't. I knew it. He the day was going to come when he put me on a show and the day came and there it is. And God forbid he should ever become a better citizen. It's my. You know, it's much easier being a smug lazy sofa spud like his audience is arrogance and ignorance dancing hand in hand without the dancing part because that's too much work. OK people, I don't need to know

[Kurt]

stuff, but I do have a show where I talk about foreign events.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right, yeah.

[Kurt]

Why would I need to know facts?

[Jimmy Dore]

It'd be one thing if you were Jimmy Fallon playing bear pong. You're a guy who's bringing on editorial writers from the New York Times and presidential candidates. People. Everybody wants to come on your show because it's legacy media and you don't care to know about stuff. That's who Bill Maher is. And that's which is why he stills on the side of Israel and gets his ass handed to him by anybody who got who's normal and what comes on his show. Like Glenn Greenwald and I'll show you that in a second. But here, let's watch this.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

I don't feel like I need to know everything. I'm sure.

[Jimmy Dore]

No, you need to know most things that you are talking about. Especially a term that has currently been used in political speak for at Least a decade.

[Kurt]

Just because you have a politics show. That's the only reason. I would say if you have a

[Jimmy Dore]

politics show, that's why you should know

[Kurt]

what the Overton Window is or something. I'd be like, keep it about fish, you know.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

Yeah, I was a better citizen. I would research all these things, MK Ultra and cognitive offloading and astroturfing and shittification and the shelling point. And I will, I promise I'll bone up on all of them, but not the fucking over to the window.

[Jimmy Dore]

So you hear his audience applaud like seals for ignorance. It's like he's telling. It's like he's in a room full of flat earthers saying that the world is not round. Yay. Yay. They're clapping like seals. And no wonder their opinions are all solidly locked around decades old data because they're deliberately training the audience to never move on and keep the old lies alive. Guess what, Bill, That's MK Ultra.

[Kurt]

Yeah, well, should I not go to a four year school to learn what the Overton Window is? It's a lot of work as you know.

[Jimmy Dore]

It is. It is a lot of work.

[Kurt]

This very minor concept of being the veal cage of the mind is so

[Jimmy Dore]

here I just want to remind people when, when Bill Maher does not bring on people who are smarter than him or have a critique of his stupidity. And here, and here's why, here was the last time Glenn Greenwald was ever invited on Bill Maher's show. And you tell me if you could, how has the Overton Window shifted? Here we go.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

It's not our fault what came out. We didn't go into Egypt. We wound up with a Muslim brother going to Egypt.

[Glenn Greenwald]

We were supporting and propping up Mubarak for 30 years even as we were cheering for all the Tahrir Square demonstrators, as though we were on their side. It was our government that kept Mubarak in power, just like we've done across the entire Muslim world. And it's amazing for you to say that. Well, look at all these Muslims. The minute you give them a little bit of freedom, they go wild and they start being all violent. How can you be a citizen of the United States, the country that has generated more violence and militarism in the world over the last five or six decades, and say, look at those people over there. They are incredibly violent. We play a, a significant role in what has been happening in the Middle east because we've been interfering and dominating that region in order to have access to their own.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

I wasn't talking about violence. I was talking about theocracy. That doesn't happen here.

[Jimmy Dore]

Oh, really?

[Glenn Greenwald]

Well, okay, that doesn't happen here. But at the same time, Iran isn't invading lots of other countries and occupying them for a decade. Nor are fundamentalist Muslim countries the way the United States is. So these things are interlinked because we are continuously interfering in that part of the world. And so to say it's all our fault. It's not all our fault. But when you send your military for six straight decades into other countries to bomb them, kill their children and women and innocent men pop out dictators. Yeah. You take responsibility for your actions and say to the extent of that region

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

that religion goes back a thousand years before our revolution. So I don't think we can take all the blame.

[Glenn Greenwald]

I don't think we should. I think we should take a lot of it. And there's lots of bodies and corpses that have been piled up in the name of Christianity and Judaism as well.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

Not recently have you heard of the

[Glenn Greenwald]

occupation of the west bank and Gaza for the last 50 years, motivated in part by extremist views of Judaism, or the wars in Europe, or the fact that there were generals in the United States saying we have to go and invade and destroy Iraq, a country of 26 million people because our God is bigger. Lots of religions, not just Islam, produce violence.

[CNN Reporter]

If I could just make one quick point about Egypt.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

It's a silly liberal view that all religions are alike because it makes you feel.

[Political/Military Analyst]

Feel good.

[Glenn Greenwald]

No, it makes you feel good to say our side is better than crown

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

on your head and say, I'm a good person. How do I.

[Glenn Greenwald]

You get to ignore the responsibility that your own government has for the violence and instability in the world by saying, look, it's that primitive religion over there that's to blame.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

All right, it's time for.

[Jimmy Dore]

All right. I'm never having someone on who's smart again, okay? It's always going to be pablum spewers, establishment hacks, and people who are so neoconservative that they make me look like a lefty. That's what's on his show. And whenever someone who actually is on the left or actually is not a neocon comes on his show, they destroy him. Just like that crystal ball was able to destroy him on his own show. Yeah, which is why he's not. Which is why she hasn't been back on.

[Kurt]

Oh, I guess you're the most moral person in the world. Oh, look at me. I Don't go to prostitutes constantly. I guess I'm Mr. Morals.

[Jimmy Dore]

So these, these are the kind of people. This is who he had on that show. These were his other guests so he could look like a progressive, hip, cool lefty. But he's not right. He's a neocon, right wing, Zionist maniac, Bloodthirsty maniac.

[Kurt]

Jimmy. I hate theocracy. Except for one.

[Jimmy Dore]

So here's the. Except for one. Here's the people who are on his show. Bret Stephens, he's a Pulitzer Prize winning opinion columnist for the New York Times. And Gillian Tet, she is a columnist for the Financial Times. You want to know the last article that Bret Stephens just wrote for the New York Times? 20 years on, I don't regret supporting the Iraq war. That's the kind of people he brings on his show. The other columnist says how bots could help revive democracy. These are the people he brings on his show so he could look like the hip, smart, cool person. Because he has to bring on cretins and neocons. So he does. So he doesn't look like the Neanderthal he actually is. That's Bill Maher's game. But Bill, thank you so much for putting me on your show and showing me. Talk about how dumb you are because you don't know what the wef is. You don't understand what globalism is. You don't know who actually runs the world because what you say is, well, I read the papers. Yeah, that's why you're so ignorant and misinformed. You know, the people who read the paper who don't read the papers are uninformed. People who do like you are misinformed even. He will always. He'll always quote. Well, it's not in the papers. I read the pad. Read three papers a day. I read the New York Times, the LA Times, the Washington Post. And that's what he thinks is news, ladies and gentlemen, which, which is why he has a show on establishment tv. Because if he actually knew anything, he wouldn't have that show. He'd be relegated to YouTube like we are, and like Glenn Greenwald is and like the Gray Zone is, and everybody else in between. What? Do you want to say something?

[Kurt]

I don't know what bots are, okay? I just know they would help democracy. I like the Bret Stevens guy. Why don't regret supporting the Iraq war 20 years later? Is the answer because you didn't lose a limb over it?

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, probably.

[Kurt]

That's probably why.

[Jimmy Dore]

So thank you again, Bill Maher. We have to Get. I wish I could talk about this all day, but let's see. We have to go. We have a guest coming on.

[Kurt]

I don't have enough room in my brain.

[Jimmy Dore]

Okay, okay. I don't have enough room in my brain to understand why. Oh, that. By the way, that video he did with Glenn Greenwell, he goes, yeah, well, not lately. We've been chalking up. Are you kidding? So that was right before Israel started doing a genocide. Well, it was about 10 years before.

[Kurt]

Not lately. He had a show complaining about how we were doing, that back when he sounded like he knew something, that back

[Jimmy Dore]

when they kicked him off abc, he got his mind right. And he'll never say anything honest about Muslims. He'll never say anything honest about what's happening in Israel, Palestine. The Greater Israel Project.

[Kurt]

Religion. Except one religion. For some reason. Some reason. And it's funny, it's because religion causes all the violence.

[Jimmy Dore]

Israel is. Their whole justification for Israel's existence is the Bible.

[Kurt]

But it keeps the Jews safe. You have to admit that.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah. Okay. All right, we got. Hey, you know, here's another great way you can help support the show is you become a premium member. We give you a couple of hours of premium bonus content every week. And it's a great way to help support the show. You can do it by going to jimmy dork.com clicking on join premium. It's the most affordable premium program in the business. And it's a great way to help put your thumb back in the eye of the bastards. Thanks for everybody who was already a premium member. And if you haven't, you're missing out. We give you lots of bonus content. Thanks for your support. So recently CNN has come out and actually done some reporting. Unfortunately, it's about 60 days late, but as Glenn Greenwald says, here's CNN. At least 15American military sites have been damaged and in the Iranian strikes, making up the majority of U.S. positions in the Middle East. That's May 1st. They came out. Right. And I'm gonna show you the video they put out in a second. Glenn says there's now good journalism on the major destruction imposed by Iran on most regional US Military bases using sophisticated and precise weapons. But again, those whose understanding of the Iran war comes from Fox and the White House and Trump influencers have no idea this is happening. So it took about 60 days for CNN to actually report this. And here's what they reported. And I want to get your reaction to this.

[CNN Reporter]

Camp buring Kuwait. American soldiers enjoying a karaoke night at one of the biggest US Military hubs in the Gulf, that was then. This is now. A once bustling American microcity in the desert, nearly empty and heavily damaged after a weeks long barrage of Iranian missiles and drones. One of many US Military facilities in the oil rich Arabian Peninsula targeted by Iran, even as the US And Israel pummeled the Islamic Republic's large arsenal. So what impact have Iran's strikes had on America's footprint in the Middle East? A CNN investigation found evidence of unprecedented destruction. We can reveal that strikes damaged at least 16 US installations across eight countries, according to our analysis. And sourcing. That's the majority of American military positions in the region and some of them are virtually unusable. Now a US Source familiar with the situation told us that they'd never seen anything like this at American bases. That these were rapid targeted strikes using advanced technology. Iran's main targets, multimillion dollar aircraft like this Boeing E3 Sentry, which gave the US a huge amount of visibility over the Gulf. It's out of production and in today's money it's worth nearly half a billion dollars. Critical communications equipment. Look at these giant golf balls. They're known as radomes and they protect satellite dishes vital for data transmission. In this space alone, Iran destroyed all but one of the radomes less than a month into the war. And crucially, radar systems. Highly sophisticated, expensive, difficult to replace and critical to air defense. A second US Source, this one a congressional aide familiar with damage assessments, described these as the most cost effective of the targets. Our radar systems, they said, are our most extensive and our most limited resource in the region. For U.S. allies in the region, there's a dilemma. In some ways, Iran's show of force makes the U.S. s presence in the region even more necessary to Gulf security. But there's a new reality here, which is that US Military installations previously seen as formidable fortresses have turned into sitting targets. As a Saudi source told me, the war has shown Saudi Arabia that some, the U.S. s longest standing Arab ally, that the alliance with the US Cannot be exclusive and it is not, in their words, impregnable. To get a sense of just how vulnerable US Facilities have become, have a look at this. It's the war room at Qatar's El Ardeid Air Base, the theater command and control hub for US air power across 21 nations struck not just once but twice and according to a US Source, causing significant damage. The base had been largely evacuated at this point and no casualties were reported. Iran's visibility over its targets has never been clearer. In 2024, according to the Financial Times, Tehran secretly acquired a Chinese satellite known as the Tee 01B, a massive upgrade from its own satellites. That means that Tehran went from looking at images of this quality to this. This is the first time America has fought an adversary with satellites that capture high res imagery almost as detailed as its own. As the scale of the damage comes into focus, many will wonder whether America's presence, once a protective shield in the Middle east, has turned into its Achilles heel.

[Jimmy Dore]

Let me just get your reaction to this. To my reaction is that of course the military lied about this and that this was a tried, they tried to cover it up. And it works because the news media in the United States is owned by the military industrial complex and the banks which do all the wars. But anyway. So what is your reaction to this report that came out 60 days too late?

[Political/Military Analyst]

Well, Jimmy, it's Iran's fault for placing its country right in the middle of all these US Military bases. I mean, let's face it, you know, I mean, if the President was not told that the Iranians were going to hit our bases if we attacked, he ought to get a new armed forces advisors. If he was not told that the Iranians would close the Strait of Hormuz, well, he's flying blind. I made a big mistake of applying logic to all this before the war started. And I reasoned that, oh my God, they have to know the clothes are straight. They have to know that these bases are vulnerable so they won't attack Iran. How wrong I was. Yeah, how wrong I was. And, you know, I could be wrong again. But I think maybe we're okay for the next couple of weeks for two reasons. Putin has weighed in very heavily. An hour and a half with the President just a couple of days ago in which he warned, look, this would be completely unacceptable if you continue on this road, particularly if you put ground troops in there. Completely unacceptable. The Russian words are the strongest you can use in diplomatic discourse. And number two, if Trump wants to go to China, which he does, you know, what's that, 10 days away, he's not going to go to China if he resumes this attack on. Now, there are firefights today, but I don't think the ceasefire has completely dissipated or ended, and I think that we may be safe for another two weeks. But that applies logic to Trump, and that's a big mistake, as I learned right at the beginning, before the attack on February 20. Let me add one other thing, Jimmy, that most people say, oh, my God, there was no plan, there was no real you know, no strategy. Well, yeah, there was a strategy. Do whatever Bibi Netanyahu tells you to do. I mean, it was explained by our Secretary of State, National Security Advisor Ubio, when he said, and I quote, the Israelis told us they were going to attack Iran and we thought that they would probably retaliate against us. And so we preemptively moved against them so that when they retaliated against us, we wouldn't suffer such terrible losses. Hello, Joe Kent. What did he say? He said there was no imminent threat. It was the Israelis, both in Israel and our guy, our Israeli supporters in Washington, that started this war. He's in a position to know these things. I admire his courage. So if Americans are kind of wondering what the strategy and all. There is no strategy because it's a knee jerk reaction to what Netanyahu sort of started. And I'm sure that it was prearranged, but he forced Trump's hand and it's going to come to a no good end, as the Chinese would say, unless somebody like maybe the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would talk some sense into Trump. This is a guy, and this is kind of a hopeful note, Tony Aguilar. I don't know if you've interviewed him.

[Jimmy Dore]

We know, we've had him on our show for sure.

[Political/Military Analyst]

Yeah. Well, just a couple of days ago he said, I know General Kaine. I worked with him every day.

[Jimmy Dore]

He's the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, right?

[Political/Military Analyst]

Yeah. He says, you know, there was one instance where Trump issued a truth social tweet and said, we're leaving, we're pulling out of Syria right now. And then he was going to send the Secretary of Defense into Syria to talk to the rest of us who were there in that one of those bases. And now he couldn't come. So Trump came himself and there's sort of a council of war around a table, all two star, three star generals. And then General Kaine, one star. Now, by prearrangement, Tony, Tony Aguilar and General Kaine had decided, well, look, you know, we gotta, we gotta make sure the President knows what's gonna happen if we just pull out of there. Okay. People get killed, a lot of us, a lot of our troops, and billions of dollars worth of. So they had a little plan and it was in General Cain's pocket. So after all these guys said, yes, sir, sounds like a great idea. Kaine pipes up and says, Mr. President, we know that you want to get out as quickly as possible. There's another way of doing this. We're really lessening these casualties and loss of material. And actually, I have. And the President says, oh, I'd like to hear about that. So he drags out this prearranged little sketch, and he said, you know, this week we could hear that. You know, just give us a couple more weeks and we won't suffer many casualties. President says, what's your name? Cain. And he says, yeah. What's your first name? Raisin. You mean like raisins that you eat? No, I'm a fighter pilot. Raisin Kane. Oh, man, did that impress Trump. Next thing you know, Kaine out of uniform, to be honest, here at Andrews Air Force Base, appears with a MAGA hat on. You know, talk about sealing your fate. He's promoted from a one star at 2.2 or three star. He's taken out of the National Guard into the regular Air Force, given another star, and all of a sudden, bending the rules, he becomes chairman of the Joint Caesar staff. I always thought that was highly irregular and probably bad. We have this example where he stood up and said to the President, look, we could do better. We could. We could do a better plan than this. So Tony agrees that this is a ray of hope that he knows by personal experience. Being there for a whole year with General Kane and seeing him face up with all these two stars and three stars, oh, outstanding idea. Were faced up to them. So I'm hopeful that he and the. And the military, the admiral who runs CENTCOM and his subordinate commands have to know how perilous this would be if they landed troops or even if they continued this damn war. So with the losses that we've already accepted or suffered because of the basis of everything else, I think Trump will huff and puff, and I'm in a minority here. I think he'll huff and puff. But if he wants to go to China and if he heeds the Russian warning. Now, the Russian warning was very strong. As a matter of fact, the Russians took the initiative and called him. That's rare. Usually when they talk, Trump initiates the conversation. And it went for an hour and a half. And the readout was very, very strong, saying, look, we warned the President, that is, the Russians warned the president that this would be a very, very bad idea. Very dangerous, not only to Iran, but. But to its neighbors. Oh, by the way, we're a neighbor. There's a little Caspian Sea between us, but we're our neighbor. We worry about Iran. So that business, plus the completely unacceptable phraseology, persuades me that Trump is going to have to Take this seriously, just as he did. You may remember this, Jimmy, in October of last year, remember, Ozelesski was coming and Trump was saying, we're going to give them Tomahawks for sure. We're going to give them Tomahawks unless Putin ends this damn thing in Ukraine. So what happens? Well, three days later, Putin calls Trump. He says, now this is really not a good idea. Really, really not a good idea. Tomahawks. And he hangs up. Two and a half hours that time, okay, and what happens? Zelensky comes the next day, 17th of October, and Trump says, sorry, but we really need those Tomahawks all by ourselves. You know, we're running short, so you're not going to get any Tomahawks. Now, that's a precedent for, I hope is having. Is going to obtain right now. Putin took the initiative, one and a half hours this time. Pretty tough readout of what he said. And then there were, you know, sweeteners like, oh, we really admire Melania, your wife, your good wife, who has such. Does such good work at putting displaced children and so forth together. And by the way, way to go dodging that bullet, another bullet. And, you know, so there were nice little things tucked in there. That's called diplomacy. And diplomacy specifically targeted to a guy like. Well, to a narcissist like Trump. They have a pretty decent relationship. Last thing I'll say is that they said, we did agree on Ukraine. We both agreed that the Europeans are the fly in the ointment. And of course, Zelensky is the worst, and they're supporting him. So you have the US and the Russians agreeing that Zelensky is the fly and the ointment and the Europeans supporting him. So, you know that these are realities. We used to read this, at least I used to read this stuff really carefully. And from the Soviet side and from the Russian side, I could discern these differences and make some sense out of them. Try to analyze or try to apply rules of logic to Trump is a fool's errand. That's why I thought that there would be this war.

[Jimmy Dore]

So would you agree with this? I saw this on Twitter today. So just going back to CNN's coverage of what Iran did at the start of the war, this is what it looked like. All the United States bases. I don't know, you know, the gall of Iran to put their country right in the middle of all our military bases, but this is what looked like after they wiped out most of that. That's pretty accurate. Would you agree or no?

[Political/Military Analyst]

Well, yeah. Well, yeah, that's what happened. And you know, the deal here, Jimmy, is that CNN reporting out of Israel has been great, Right? No. Has there been any?

[Jimmy Dore]

No.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

Why?

[Political/Military Analyst]

Because it's censored. Okay. What's happening as a result of the hypersonic missiles that Iran has shot already into Israel? And what should Israel expect with the sort of the big supply of such missiles that Iran could use? I think that the Russians and the Chinese are leaning hard on the Iranians. Look, don't obliterate, pardon the word Israel just now. They could resort to the Samson option. They could say in dire straits that they would. They could actually do it without even asking in the US So let's tamp this thing down, save those missiles for a while, see if we could talk some sense into Trump. Because. Because if Trump does finally lean on the Israelis, then there's some chance the Israelis, even in dire straits, will not do the worst. That's what I think they're really concerned about, that Netanyahu would resort to using some of those nuclear weapons.

[Jimmy Dore]

Well, here's how bad of a beating the United States took militarily at the beginning of the war. And the cost to our supply and to our bases. Present value and repair replacement costs based on 25 year outlays. It's going to cost us 44 to 74 billion dollars to fix the stuff that they blew up. This is, this is one of 16 bomb bases. THAAD and Patriot losses not included. Plenty of unknowns and assumptions. Qatar infrastructure, but not Runway status known. It's going to take 24 to 34 billion dollars and 5 years to rebuild. Also equipment 20 to 40 billion dollars, 5 to 8 years to rebuild. Classified NSA, NRO, CIA ground systems unknown. Total Qatar and USA 44 to 77 billion dollars and 10 years to rebuild. Bottom line, guesstimate a trillion dollars for all of those 16 bases. And they. And by the way, they ain't getting rebuilt. So that's how bad it was. And of course Hegseth and Trump and his administration did not want this publicized. They don't want people to know just how badly this war is going for the United States. Trump repeatedly says we hold all the cards. The cards are all held by Iran, are they not?

[Political/Military Analyst]

Yeah. And they've got us straight.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right. They've got a straight. And Trump's got a pair of deuces. Yeah. So I wanted to play this for you. This is David Pine. He's the Deputy Executive Director for the Task Force on National and Homeland Security. And here he's going to talk about the. Because I see a lot of people on Twitter and a lot of people everywhere who are supporting Trump in this war. They keep saying that Iran is done. They're out of missiles, they've got nothing. We wiped them out. We. Trump says we wipe them out militarily. Well, listen to what David Pine has to say.

[David Pine]

Well, we've heard that about 13 US out of 19 US military bases in the region have been destroyed or rendered unusable. I think that's likely accurate. So the cost to rebuild those would run into the several billion, if not tens of billions of dollars, and that would take years to rebuild.

[Jimmy Dore]

I mean, how could that have happened?

[Political/Military Analyst]

I mean, you know, a lot of people now saying they have a newfound

[Jimmy Dore]

respect for General Kane, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I mean, that's a 13 bases destroyed and rendered unusable.

[Political/Military Analyst]

Aren't you shocked?

[David Pine]

I'm not shocked at all. I mean, those bases were located, you know, pretty close to Iran. Iran is a tremendous, you know, it's essentially a missile regional power, even superpower. They have a vast number of missiles, likely a greater number of missiles even than the United States has in terms of ballistic missiles and cruise missiles and heavy combat drones. Certainly the US Has a lot of light to medium, shorter range drones. We have superiority over Iran in that area. But. But they have some of the best large combat drones in the world. And they were able to destroy some of our bases using combat drones because the US Drone defense capabilities are not what they should have been. And the US Prioritized air missile defense for Israel rather than our Gulf allies. So we showed that the US Military guarantee over our Gulf allies was really very shoddy and unreliable.

[Jimmy Dore]

So do you agree with that statement that Israel, that Iran has plenty of missiles left that they haven't used and that we totally screwed up?

[Political/Military Analyst]

Yes, yes. I mean, it's really pretty clear. The American people don't know this. I just hope Trump knows this, because the Iranians have an inexhaustible supply of these missiles. They create them. They produce them themselves underneath mountains, for God's sake. And so unless people come to their senses, the Iranians have the capability of sinking a carrier. I don't think they want to do that. That would force Trump's hand. Now, the facile answer on expenditures, of course, is no problem. We'll borrow that from the Chinese. No more. And the dollar is going down and gasoline is going up and all kinds of things are breaking out. There are no more oil shipments to Europe. For God's sake, there haven't been for five days. That's how long it takes for an oil shipment. So things are pretty bad. Whether Trump or wise up and say, well, this wasn't really good idea or not, I hope he does in time. But as I say, I've been real lousy in predicting what Trump can do. I think I know what the Russians are going to do if they're pushed beyond their patience.

[Jimmy Dore]

So guess what? China now is Blocking invokes blocking statute for the first time. China's Ministry of Commerce has for the first time activated its 2021 blocking rules ordering all Chinese firms and individuals not to comply with US Sanctions targeting five independent Chinese oil refineries accused of purchasing Iranian crude. So our power to sanction people around the world is just about going away now.

[Kurt]

Oh, cancel culture's ending for America to do. Cancel culture on people.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yes, because of this stupid war. Here we go. Beijing called the US Measures imposed under two executive orders and unjustified and improper use of extra territorial law. The move puts multinational companies operating in both markets in direct legal conflict. Compliance with the US Sanctions now risks violating Chinese law and vice versa. Global banks and firms with dollar exposure face secondary sanctions risk if they continue dealing with with the affected refineries. Analysts describe the order as a significant step towards competing legal frameworks for global trade, accelerating the path to potential economic decoupling between the two powers. China has blocked US Sanctions against five Chinese refineries which were sanctioned because of allegations that they bought oil from Iran. China's Commerce Ministry said it had issued a prohibition order stipulating that the sanctions shall not be recognized, enforced, or complied with. Calling the order a move to safeguard national sovereignty, security and developmental interests. China is now powerful enough to declare US Sanctions null and void and openly declare that it won't comply with them. Whoa. The biggest economy in the world just gave the middle finger to US Sanctions. The US Is quickly finding out there is a new superpower this century and its measures of unilateral bullying no longer are powerful enough to contain China. The global order has changed. China is now rejecting all US Sanctions on Iranian oil and says it won't comply. That's a direct refusal to follow the rules that Washington built its power on. Sanctions work on force and obedience, and when major economies stop recognizing them, that entire system disintegrates. Less compliance, less leverage, less control, less power, less influence. That this is what a global shift actually looks like. The end of an empire and the beginning of something new. BRICS is rising and Acting independently. Remember, that's Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Is that what that is? While the US struggles to enforce the rules it's once dictated, without question, we now live in a world where an American sanction is not game over. This isn't the world many of us were born into. It's something quite different. And here's Arnaud Bertrand. He says what China just did with the blocking statutes against U.S. extraterritorial sanctions sets quite a major precedent, probably the financial equivalent of what happened with Rare Earths last year, in the sense that this is China taking a major step to push back against US hostile measure as opposed to taking it on the chin. It's a little complex, but to start with, what many people ignore and will probably be surprised by is that by and large, Chinese companies and financial institutions have largely complied with extraterritorial U.S. sanctions.

[Kurt]

It's not surprising we do all our trading with them.

[Jimmy Dore]

What triggered it is not new sanctions by the U.S. but recent efforts under the so called Operation Economic Fury to dramatically ramp up enforcement of existing sanctions on Iran. The US notably issued at the end of April, alerts to financial institutions worldwide, including China, on the sanctions risks associated with independent teapot oil refineries in China, primarily in Shandong Province, given their continued role in importing and refining Iranian crude oil. Even more importantly, they also specifically went after Hengji Petrochemical Dailan, one of China's largest private refineries with 400,000 barrels per day capacity, and a parent company, the Hengdeeb Group, that's a Fortune Global 500 company. In effect, what the US extraterritorial sanctions mean is that Hengley and all the other Chinese teapot oil refineries being targeted is cut off from the dollar system. And any bank, insurer or trading partner anywhere in the world, including in China, that deals with them, risks being cut off too. Which is obviously a major hostile move by the United States against China and of course, Iran. Except that China this time around is not having it. Since 2021, they've had regulations, measures to prevent the improper extraterritorial application of foreign laws and measures that gives the Chinese government power to formally prohibit compliance with foreign sanctions and that since this April, are also extraterritorial in nature. In effect, what these regulations and their April addendum says is that if you comply with U.S. extraterritorial sanctions by cutting off a Chinese company, you are violating Chinese law. Any entity, Chinese or foreign, that refuses to deal with a sanctioned Chinese company because Washington told them they can be sued in Chinese courts, fined by mofcom and since April, placed on a malicious entity list with asset freezes and trade restrictions.

[Kurt]

Oh, that's new. That's fun.

[Jimmy Dore]

So in a nutshell, on one side you have the US saying cut them off or we cut you off. And now China says, well, if you do cut us off, we're going to be real nasty with you in China, and potentially beyond. These regulations were, until yesterday, purely theoretical. They've never actually been applied. But yesterday, China's mofcom made it crystal clear. This time is different. They used a statement with a triple negative saying, the US Sanctions shall not be recognized, shall not be enforced, and shall not be complied with. So in effect, you now have companies that are in the middle of this. For instance, financial institutions serving Hengly caught in quite a bind, face US or Chinese hostility. It's a no win. They need to choose a camp on this. Concretely speaking, given that the overwhelming majority of companies affected are operating inside China, they'll obviously choose the China side. The real question therefore is, is the United States ready to act on its threat and cut off Chinese banks or other institutions that keep servicing these refineries? Because that probably means sanctioning major Chinese financial institutions, which is a whole different level of escalation. The moment the United States designates a major Chinese bank for dealing with Hengly, this stops being about Iranian oil and becomes a direct financial confrontation between the two largest economies on earth, which is a much bigger deal with probable consequences for the entire global financial system. Here's the last slide on this. This or will the United States back off? Meaning China would have effectively called their bluff, showing that extraterritorial sanctions are a lot of bark, but not a lot of bite. We'll know in the next couple of weeks, I guess. One thing is sure though. Whatever happens with these refineries, the broader damage is done. China used to extend remarkable goodwill on sanctions compliance. Voluntarily cooperating with extraterritorial sanctions inside its own borders. And though it had no legal obligation to respect them, that goodwill has been spent. And from a US standpoint, a China with less goodwill via and visa vis the US financial hegemony is undoubtedly a far bigger issue than a few teapot refineries buying Iranian oil. So we talked about yesterday how Russia now says they're going to be selling their oil in Chinese Yuan, not US Dollars anymore. Holy shit. And now we have China saying afu and your US backed reserve currency and your sanctions. So this Iran war could not be going worse for Donald Trump and the United States, more importantly for the United

[Kurt]

States, because how does it affect Israel?

[Jimmy Dore]

Because once we're not the reserve currency of the world anymore, which it seems is going away, our economy crashes. And that's thanks to Donald Trump and Israel starting a war of choice for the Greater Israel Project.

[Kurt]

Gosh, I wonder if a kindly billionaire will suddenly unveil some new source of energy once that happens, Jimmy. And a new source of money and a new thing based on how much energy you use and that's your money and blah, blah, blah. Bet you it's going to go there.

[Jimmy Dore]

So that's what Kurt is talking about, is a central digital currency, banking digital currency, that has restrictions on how much energy you could use, how much gas you could use, how much natural gas you could. How much electricity you could use. And then they shut down your bank account if you reach your limit. That's what crude is talking about. And that's coming. That's what they want to do. That's the whole. That's the big point of Central of CBDCs. That's the whole point of it.

[Kurt]

Yeah. The intentional destruction of America by all your leaders. Because that's been. The goal is to get rid of America as a power for quite some time by people that are in here. These are all multinational corporations and oligarchs that don't give a shit about your dumb country you're from.

[Jimmy Dore]

They don't give their way.

[Kurt]

Yeah. And so now they've got to find a good way to demo demolish it. And by the way, fuck you.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right.

[Kurt]

That's their message to you. Go fuck yourself.

[Jimmy Dore]

So this is Donald Trump siding with the, with Israel and thinking he's siding with the global billionaires. But as Kurt said, they don't care about you and they're going to screw you and you're getting. It's going to get way worse. If you're upset about inflation, which people are. If you're upset about the rising gas prices, if you're upset about. It's only getting worse. Unless Donald Trump immediately stops his mania of war and sanctioning. I don't think he's going to. Because. Because he's got. Now his presidency is just about over. Believe me. They're going to impeach him because they're going to lose the midterms. He's going to be impeached and he might be convicted in the Senate.

[Political/Military Analyst]

Really.

[Jimmy Dore]

And that means he's. Oh, he's gone.

[Kurt]

I think they're gonna. I think he's gonna be the useful Tool of Israel. Then they're gonna bring in, everyone's gonna go, we need a change. And they're gonna fall for it again. They're gonna fall for like, this person's not going to do the same exact thing they've all John McCain does into every goddamn time. And then that person's going to finish what Israel wants. And that's how it works.

[Jimmy Dore]

And so, Jim, how do we get out of this? Who do we vote for? You can't vote your way out of this. What has to happen is something like all the railroad workers not show up for work for a couple of days and shut the that. Because that's the backbone of capitalism in America. And they have to have a demand. And demand has to be, you get all the money out of politics. We have publicly funded campaigns which saves everybody trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars. If we had people say, oh, we can't afford publicly. We can't afford to have billionaires completely financing our campaigns. Which means they are. We don't live in a democracy, you know, we live in an oligarchy.

[Kurt]

This isn't hard.

[Jimmy Dore]

And so. This isn't hard. So what we need is so for all the railroad workers not to show up, all the port workers not to show up for work, and they have to have a demand. Now the problem is the leaders of those unions are easily compromised. That's the problem. And when Joe Biden came in and the Democrats and they squashed the railroad strike that was about to happen a couple years ago, they should have struck anyway. They didn't because they have weak leadership at their unions. So that's what we need to have a couple of union leaders willing to go to prison and become martyrs and then become the leaders of the country. That's what we need to have happen. We need to follow like, look what just a handful of truckers did in Canada that freaked them out and shut down their country. That's what we need to do here. We need to have truckers, we need to have railroad workers, we need to have port workers, we need to have Amazon. What if all the Amazon workers and UPS drivers didn't go to work one day? This is what we need. It's only going to get worse.

[Kurt]

We need all the Indians pretending to be AI to not go into work also.

[Jimmy Dore]

So that's, that's what, that's where we're at. And it's going to, it's only going to get worse.

[Kurt]

Yeah, wait till you feel the squeeze a little bit. Then make up your Mind.

[Jimmy Dore]

I mean, half the country. Half the country right now, Kurt, can't afford a $500 emergency. 70, 80% of workers live paycheck to paycheck.

[Kurt]

Well, they didn't choose prosperity, Jimmy. Like Hamas.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Kurt]

I consider them Hamas's for being poor myself.

[Jimmy Dore]

Now they, now they lost their health care subsidies. Now they can't. Their kids can't afford houses. They're. They're stuck with. With student debt that they can never get rid of. It's a. We have had a oligarchy running this country that hates Americans.

[Kurt]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Dore]

And it's becoming the military. And so it's going to become even more evident to people. And hopefully that's the only thing that I'm telling you. That's the only thing. So when you hear people say general strike, this is a version of it. I don't think you'll ever get a general strike. But I think you can get railroad workers, you can get. But you need strong union leadership. And so it probably won't happen. But that's the only. That's the only thing that could save us. I'm not saying that's going to happen. I'm not saying it's easy to do. I'm saying it's the exact opposite. It's super hard to do. But we need people in the street to shut it down and take control. And they have to have a demand. You know, you had these no Kings rallies. There was no demand. The women's march, the no Kings rally, there's no demand. That's all performative. That's. That meant nothing, absolutely nothing. So what you need is to have those kind of things that actually shut down cities. And you have to have a demand. And that demand has to be all money out of politics, public financing of. Of elections. That's the only thing. Will that happen? I don't think it will. But I'm telling you, that's the only way out of this. And if you have a better idea on how to get out, you're not going to vote your way out of this. We got one guy, Thomas Massie in Kentucky, who's standing up to the AIPAC lobby, and Marjorie Taylor Greene quit. And that's it.

[Kurt]

You don't have a real country.

[Jimmy Dore]

Look, you don't have a real country.

[Kurt]

I don't know. There's no such thing as that. It's feudalism. It's always been feudalism. It's what the oligarchy wants. Pretty soon it's going to be AI governance, and you're going to subscribe to a government. If you got more money, you can have a nicer government. That's what they want. Yeah, the Venetian City states all over again. There it is.

[Jimmy Dore]

Hey, Become a premium member. Go to jimmy door comedy.com sign up. It's the most affordable premium program in the business. All the voices performed today are by the one and only, the inimitable Mike McCray. He can be found at mikemcrae.com that's it for this week. You be the best you can be and I'll keep being me. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Do not freak out. I'm not kidding. Do not. Do not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not.

[Glenn Greenwald]

I'm not.

[Bill Maher (Impersonation)]

I'm not.

[Kurt]

I'm not.

[Jimmy Dore]

Freak out. Do not freak out.

[To Covis Boot Store Announcer]

To Covis is the go to for premium handcrafted western boots. Stop by any store location for a warm welcome, a cold drink in hand and a truly one of a kind shopping experience. Let our friendly staff help you find your new go to boots. Whether your first pair or your 50th. Finish things off with a complimentary boot brand to make them extra special. Come for the boots. Stay for the good times. To Covis Forever West.