Latest / Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps / What Israeli Election?

Transcript

What Israeli Election? · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

0:03
Hello and welcome.
0:04
Yael Bartur is with us.
0:05
So we're not talking about the Israeli election, but we are talking about everything else that happens to be going on in the world right now, especially here in New York City.
0:12
We could talk about the Israeli election.
0:15
Okay, let's start by not talking about the Israeli election, by talking about the Israeli election.
0:18
So you had Nadav Ayal on your show.
0:22
Yes.
0:22
Oh, by the way, Mazel Tov on your show.
0:25
My colleague, Nadav Ayal.
0:27
Exactly.
0:28
You and Khayal Ayal do a very entertaining show, did a very entertaining show called Ask a Jew.
0:34
And now that show has been rebranded, snapped up, has entered the big league by joining a podcast network.
0:42
And it's called now...
0:43
Chosen People Problems.
0:45
Don't give a shit about the name.
0:46
We're still getting used to it, too, but it's fine.
0:50
But the great thing is that the show really hasn't changed.
0:54
The good folks at Arc Media are kind of letting us do our thing.
0:59
So it's been fun.
1:00
We're just kind of like testing the waters a little bit, seeing how uncomfortable we can make people.
1:04
Yes, good.
1:05
So far, so good.
1:05
And it's still just basically the two of you talking shit.
1:07
It's the two of us talking shit.
1:09
My co-host, so for people who don't know, I'm...
1:11
secular Israeli.
1:13
My host is Hasidic.
1:15
She's got like a bunch of children.
1:16
She swears like a sailor, even though she's a very holy, devout woman.
1:20
You should see the stuff that she texts me.
1:21
I'll show you later.
1:24
And we're, you know, we talk about Jewy stuff, but we actually ran a survey and we found that about a third of our listeners aren't Jewish.
1:33
Right.
1:33
Yeah.
1:34
So it's like a lot of like cultural, political.
1:38
I mean, the Goyim always like co-opting the Jewish sense of humor and sensibility.
1:44
So this is probably what's happening.
1:46
I'm all for cultural appropriation with us, the Jews, because we just want to be liked and belong.
1:50
Yeah.
1:51
So if you want to like take our stuff and enjoy it and claim it for yourself.
1:54
OK, so Nadav is also part of ARK Media or founded, who founded ARK Media?
2:00
media is founded by dancing or dancing yes look at you or the camera look at me never done this you've never done an actual television thing where you're like I mean I mean it's true here's the little secret about a lot of these things people have gotten so used during COVID to like doing webcam things yeah you stare down the barrel of the camera like you're a hostage in a jihadist yeah
2:25
I also just watched You Can See Everything.
2:27
So now I'm so aware of like how close we're sitting.
2:30
Yeah.
2:31
And like looking you in the eye.
2:32
Wasn't that amazing?
2:33
So here's a brief aside about this.
2:35
I don't know if the documentary is out in Australia yet, but in the States, it opened last week, which is Nathan.
2:41
So yes, you can look at me.
2:42
That's the permission you have to look at me.
2:44
I would never lie to you, Josh.
2:47
This is Nathan Fielder's documentary who did Nathan for you and the rehearsal.
2:50
By the way, do we think he's attractive?
2:52
I couldn't tell.
2:53
Nathan Fielder?
2:53
Yeah.
2:53
No.
2:54
Yeah, I was leaning towards no, but I bet you there are a lot of women who find him attractive.
3:00
If you like the nebuchadnezzar clever Jew, the nebuchadnezzar wily clever Jew, then yes, he's attractive.
3:08
So he's done this three-hour-long documentary about Elizabeth Holmes.
3:13
Because Elizabeth Holmes, you know, the fraudulent founder of Theranos, and just weeks before she was heading to jail, she and her husband invited Nathan.
3:23
He was a total shitbag, by the way.
3:25
Well, that's sort of the, let's not spoil the movie, but that's sort of the revelation of the movie.
3:30
But you can tell within the first few seconds, just that he talks like a tech bro douchebag.
3:38
He's like, let's put a pin in this.
3:39
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
3:40
There's a lot of double clicking on things.
3:43
Circling back.
3:44
Yeah, circling back.
3:46
He's a very particular type of white.
3:47
I mean, he sort of exemplifies white California bro privilege.
3:52
Yes.
3:52
And I was like, I really hope he's not Jewish.
3:54
Did you like the shot of him in the shower where his penis is flopping out?
3:58
What was up with that?
3:59
Why?
3:59
I guess you can see everything is like...
4:02
But he must have given a hearty yes to that.
4:05
Yes.
4:06
Because I'm sure they didn't just like, oh, let's like, you know, what is he going to do?
4:10
Sue us?
4:10
I'm sure they were like, are you sure this is okay?
4:13
I think that's the point of the shot.
4:15
Yeah.
4:16
I think so, too.
4:16
I think the point of the shot is to say this man is so vain that he's allowing us to shoot his penis.
4:20
I didn't like it.
4:21
The penis.
4:22
The penis shot.
4:23
No, the penis itself.
4:24
Oh, really?
4:24
It wasn't appealing to me.
4:25
Oh, okay.
4:25
Yeah.
4:27
I thought it was fine.
4:28
It was just an average penis.
4:29
It was fine.
4:30
Yeah.
4:30
Yeah.
4:30
What didn't you like about it?
4:34
How many... Are there comments here?
4:36
Can we, like, talk... Yeah, but you can't see them on the... Oh, great.
4:39
No, no, you can't...
4:40
I'm going through another thing that goes to the thing.
4:42
Subscribe to ARK+.
4:43
Yes, and you will hear all about... We will have Dan Ciner on.
4:47
Disgusting.
4:47
And Dabayal, and we'll tell you what I didn't like about these.
4:50
I don't know.
4:50
Just at first glance, it didn't feel like appetizing to me.
4:54
Mm-hmm.
4:54
You know?
4:56
I'm sorry, appetizing.
4:58
Okay.
4:59
Okay, that's not...
5:01
That's not the adjective I normally associate with genitals, but sure.
5:04
Yeah, I mean...
5:05
Okay, so a non-appetizing penis, but anyway, the point... That was an alternate title for this episode, I think, right?
5:11
This is what happens when Chayala isn't on.
5:14
I know, I know.
5:16
So the movie has been released.
5:18
It's become wildly successful, one of the most successful documentary films.
5:22
Like my mom in Israel knows about it.
5:23
Yes.
5:24
And the point was that Nathan was supposed to just be essentially living with them for a few weeks before Elizabeth went to jail.
5:34
Mm-hmm.
5:37
And instead, he goes on a traditional Nathan Field, a madcap adventure.
5:42
Something's pinging.
5:45
Jesse's single is ruining everything.
5:47
Jesse's single texting me.
5:49
Oh, God.
5:50
This is so incestuous, this city.
5:52
It is.
5:53
It's not this city.
5:54
It's us.
5:55
Is it?
5:55
It's like 200 people.
5:56
Yeah, that's true.
5:57
And every time I'm here, people are like...
6:01
Oh, I'm getting drinks.
6:02
Actually, this is an aside with some people this afternoon.
6:04
I mean, you should come to that if you're free.
6:06
Okay.
6:06
Let's talk about it now.
6:08
No, let's talk about it now.
6:09
Yeah, let's talk about exactly where we're going to be.
6:11
Let's talk about exactly where we're going to be.
6:14
It's insensuous because like when you talk to other people who aren't in this world and you're like, oh my God, did you see what like...
6:23
Colin Wright wrote about Barry Weiss, they'll be like, who the fuck are you talking about?
6:27
Yeah, I know.
6:28
Yeah, I know.
6:29
I caught up with Andrew Sullivan last weekend.
6:32
I don't think he would mind my saying.
6:34
Not for the show, just socially.
6:36
And then the following day, I came up to New York and I was talking to someone who's loosely in our circles about it.
6:41
And they were like, Andrew, who?
6:42
And I was like,
6:44
In my world, he's a god.
6:46
There's Andrew Sullivan lore from the fifth column.
6:50
Do you know that?
6:50
No.
6:50
About the tide pools?
6:52
No.
6:52
Okay.
6:54
What's the law?
6:54
I don't know if it's very, this is like, like 20% of the people in your audience are jumping for joy and the other 80% are like, who is this crazy bitch?
7:01
Yeah, that's okay.
7:02
They think I'm a crazy guy as well.
7:03
So the, the, for people who don't know, Andrew Sullivan was one of the founders of the gay rights sort of movement 2.0 and helped to bring about gay marriage and was very influential.
7:13
He's a Catholic conservative, but he's pro-gay.
7:15
And the fifth column, almost everyone will know of Michael Moynihan and Matt Welch and Camille Foster doing a sort of libertarian-ish spin on American politics twice a week.
7:24
Yeah.
7:25
And there's an old episode with him where he talks.
7:29
I'm sorry.
7:29
Like, I don't know why we keep going back to genitals.
7:32
Okay.
7:32
Let's talk about eating genitals again.
7:34
But he talks.
7:35
No, he talks about where he lives in...
7:39
off the coast of Massachusetts.
7:40
I don't know if I'm supposed to.
7:41
Yeah, I think everyone knows that he lives in there.
7:42
Everybody knows.
7:44
It splits his time between there and Jesus.
7:45
In the gay part of Cape Cod.
7:47
Yeah.
7:48
And that he likes to sit in the tide pools and just have them wash over his balls.
7:54
Right.
7:55
And this is not, now that I'm hearing myself tell this story, it's really not as interesting as I remembered it.
8:01
But...
8:02
So was the point that he's naked?
8:06
I don't know, but it became like a meme in fifth column world.
8:10
Right, okay.
8:11
Andrew Sullivan's title.
8:12
Like right after we're done, I'm going to go to the fifth column chat.
8:14
I'm going to be like, remember Andrew Sullivan and his balls.
8:17
And they're going to be like, don't worry, that was a hilarious thing to raise on Dr. Show, even though Dr. had no idea why you were talking about it.
8:22
Exactly.
8:22
And also it was the second time that you were talking about it.
8:24
About male genitals In eight minutes Should we make a promise That for the rest of the show We only talk about male genitals I mean I want to talk about The Israeli election And male genitals So Nadav Ael's balls Does he or does he not like To lie in a tidal pool Nadav and Amit are And Dan are Are holy men Yes And
8:43
they don't i love them all by the way and i think what i mean dan's show is one of the best if you just want to if you're a non-jew who's not interested in like jewy stuff and israel and stuff but just want to understand where i think the center of gravity of mainstream yeah diaspora jewish thought is uh dan's show is called call me back place to go like and subscribe they don't need our help why does it call me back i don't know okay i think it was called post corona at first
9:13
Post-Corona?
9:13
Yeah, when they were, like, it was right during COVID.
9:16
Oh, okay.
9:17
Both of those are terrible names.
9:19
Yeah.
9:19
Did he also name, change the name of your show?
9:22
No, he didn't.
9:23
No, Call Me Back is a pretty good name.
9:25
I don't like it.
9:26
No?
9:26
Great show.
9:27
I just saw they have merch coming out.
9:29
Okay.
9:29
And the merch is brilliant because when you wear a hat that says Call Me Back, it also works just like as a hat.
9:34
That's true, yes.
9:35
Yeah.
9:36
Okay, so was there anything else to say about the Theranos documentary?
9:39
Oh, so much.
9:41
Everybody was awful in it, I think.
9:43
Yes.
9:43
Except for, but maybe also the babies.
9:47
But the babies were fine because they didn't really have a chance to express themselves.
9:50
All babies were awful just by definition.
9:53
Yeah, they were pretty cute babies.
9:54
Yeah.
9:55
But I thought, I kind of thought everybody was not a villain.
9:59
Yeah.
9:59
But I didn't like anybody in it.
10:03
I love that as well.
10:04
And I don't want to spoil too much.
10:06
No, I don't want to.
10:06
Exactly.
10:06
Let's not spoil it.
10:07
But there's, yes, I agree.
10:09
And I think the masterstroke is that you also aren't sure whether to like Nathan.
10:14
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:16
Either.
10:17
Or respect him.
10:17
It's definitely worth watching.
10:18
I would also say watch it in the theater.
10:20
Yeah.
10:20
Because it's fun to see people's reactions.
10:23
Like there's a lot of laughing at moments where you don't think- Yes.
10:26
You're supposed to laugh.
10:27
A, it's fun to see people's reactions and B, I'm a big fan of going to the- When the penis came on, everybody was like, that is not a good looking penis.
10:33
No, they didn't say that.
10:34
They laughed at the- Three people that yelled it was not appetizing.
10:38
And that's why it's in my head.
10:40
Three, two, one, not appetizing.
10:43
No, the other thing, I'm a big fan of going to see a movie at the motion picture theater because the thing is- The movie house.
10:49
The movie house, the talkies.
10:51
You can't get up and like faff around and you can't pull out your phone and- In Australia, did you have intermissions in movies?
10:58
In Israel, we had those.
10:59
Back in the day.
11:01
Not in my lifetime, no.
11:02
No, in Israel we had intermissions.
11:04
Really?
11:04
And you want to hear something cute?
11:05
In Israel also, it says at the beginning that, like, there's going to be a siren in the movie and that if – don't worry.
11:13
It's not an alien.
11:14
If it's a real siren, an usher will come and tell you.
11:17
Oh, God, that's so dark, isn't it?
11:19
It's dark.
11:19
It's like –
11:20
What a poor country.
11:21
They have to do a trigger warning for sirens.
11:24
There was a Beyonce song, I forget which one, that had a lot of whooping in the background.
11:28
And I'm like, please don't ever play this on the radio again when I'm driving.
11:32
Yeah, yeah, I understand.
11:34
No, we didn't have intermissions because it's not the Eisenhower administration.
11:38
in Australia.
11:39
We grew out of that.
11:40
Wait, did you also, did it also take like three months for the movies to come to Australia?
11:45
Yes, that was quite recent.
11:46
Like my cousins in, they were living in Connecticut at the time, I remember like they would have watched like the Ninja Turtles already.
11:54
Yeah, exactly.
11:55
Up until the streaming and torrenting revolution, when it became easier to pirate things and the theatrical release window got shorter and shorter as all these streaming companies wanted to release things sooner, studios used to be able to do a US release and then a staggered release.
12:12
And they would sell the rights to local distributors to do the European release and the Asia-Pacific release.
12:18
And I'm sure that Israel and Australia were somewhere down the list.
12:21
Yeah.
12:21
Yeah, or not a huge market.
12:23
Exactly.
12:24
But now that the theatrical window is shorter and there's much more opportunity for, like, what do you call it?
12:30
Piracy.
12:31
Yeah.
12:32
They mostly do things, like all the big ones are simultaneous now.
12:37
But I wouldn't be surprised if the smaller things, sometimes there are indie films that I read about in the States that I just can't see on the screen in Australia.
12:43
Yeah, or there's something that, like...
12:46
It's playing in Israel, but it hasn't even come out yet in the US, like an American film.
12:50
Really?
12:50
Yeah, there's just like weird things.
12:52
That's just Jews being nice to each other and conspiratorial.
12:56
Probably.
12:57
Yeah.
12:57
Or profiting also.
12:58
Okay.
12:59
Should we get to the thing that we're not ostentatiously talking about?
13:02
We're talking about piracy.
13:04
Do you know we have a pirate party that's running in the elections?
13:07
Oh really?
13:08
Yeah.
13:08
Like an army meeting.
13:10
Yes.
13:10
Yeah.
13:11
Not like the piracy, not like the BitTorrent party.
13:14
Right.
13:14
It's the actual like pirates.
13:16
But that's because we have like 30 something, I don't know, a lot of parties.
13:21
It is amazing that a country that only ever elects people from two parties has such a plethora of parties.
13:28
Us?
13:29
Yeah.
13:30
What?
13:30
We have a different party every election.
13:32
In America.
13:33
Oh, in America.
13:34
Yes.
13:35
Yeah, yeah.
13:35
Talking about the United States.
13:36
Oh, there's a pirate party in Israel.
13:38
In Israel, yeah.
13:38
Oh, okay.
13:38
I thought you knew there was a pirate party here in the United States.
13:41
But there are also two elections that we are not talking about.
13:44
Yes, we're not.
13:44
There's the Israeli one on Tuesday.
13:46
Yeah.
13:46
And then there's, why do Israelis vote on Tuesday?
13:50
I thought that was a stupid American thing.
13:52
That's a great question.
13:52
I thought everyone else had the common sense to vote on a weekend.
13:54
I mean, unless you're intentionally trying to disenfranchise people who are working stiffs.
13:59
That's a great question.
14:00
I don't know why it's Tuesday.
14:01
Why is it Tuesday in the US?
14:02
I think it's some ancient thing about how, like, in order for the ballots to physically be taken on horseback, back to, like, from the regions, back to the counting station in...
14:11
capital cities it was scheduled around farming days and like the harvest and shit it was all like you know it was like you couldn't do it on a sunday because it's the lord's day and you can you know you would have been harvesting on the saturday and then you had to like yeah it's some stupid reason but obviously it should be on a saturday maybe it's maybe it's on tuesday as a
14:30
Yes, to America.
14:31
To America, I'm sure.
14:33
The mini Satan and the great Satan.
14:34
Yes.
14:35
In a cozy relationship.
14:37
Baby Satan.
14:38
So do you agree with my sense that all of our attempts to distance, to criticize criticism of Zionism,
14:50
as being unfounded and anti-Jewish and an exaggerated version of what should actually be a criticism of the Netanyahu government will become a lot harder to prosecute if Netanyahu's returned to power.
15:07
Can we talk about that guy Billy's penis again?
15:11
I'm kidding.
15:14
It will...
15:16
First of all, do we know what is the latest on what's going to happen?
15:19
Have you seen any?
15:20
Yeah.
15:20
So there's a lot of polling and polling in Israel, like in the U.S., is always kind of up for surprises.
15:26
Right.
15:26
But it seems right now, as things stand right now, that neither party, neither.
15:31
So in Israel, it works in blocks.
15:32
Right.
15:33
Like you need to create a block to have at least 61 percent or 61 seats in the government.
15:39
Meaning a coalition of coalition of parties.
15:41
Yeah.
15:41
And 61 is a very, very narrow.
15:43
You want more than 61, ideally.
15:44
Yeah.
15:45
Um, right now it seems like neither of the, of the blocks have a, have like that 61 majority.
15:54
Neither of the blocks or neither of the parties?
15:55
Neither of the, well, definitely neither of the parties, but also neither of the blocks.
15:58
Okay.
15:59
So do the blocks come pre-made?
16:01
No, no.
16:02
That's what I mean.
16:03
What do you mean by the...
16:04
I thought that whoever gets the largest number of seats in the house then goes around to all the other parties and goes, hey, you want to dance with me?
16:11
Yeah, but it's kind of already known because people are running on whether or not they'll join a government with the Haredes or whether or not...
16:20
So it's kind of a given that Netanyahu will be with the Haredes and with Ben Gvear and Smutrich and them.
16:29
And then the other opposition bloc is Bennett, Eisenkot, and the left-wing party and a few other parties.
16:39
And Eisenkot would be the leader of that government?
16:42
Eisenkot right now is kind of...
16:46
polling a little higher than Netanyahu, but even if he gets more seats than Netanyahu, he still needs to form his own position.
16:51
No, I understand, but what I mean is if Netanyahu doesn't, if the Netanyahu block doesn't prevail, then the alternative, the de facto opposition leader would be Eisenhower.
17:01
Yes, but it doesn't mean he'll be prime minister because he will need to form a coalition.
17:05
And then in that coalition, he might have to grant or kind of come with a political deal so that Naftali Bennett or even a Victor Lieberman could potentially be prime minister, even though they got a lot less seats.
17:18
But it's part of the deal.
17:19
They're like, I'll join you.
17:21
But you've got to make me the top dog.
17:23
So it's a real shit show.
17:26
It's like if it wasn't my life, it would be like really fun and interesting.
17:29
I'd be like because you can go on the websites in Israel and play this game where you have to put together a coalition.
17:35
And you're like, OK, this one with this one.
17:36
But then you get a like a pop up and it said, well, actually, this one said in 2024 that he would never sit with that one.
17:42
You still want to do it.
17:45
It seems like there is a majority for the anti Netanyahu camp.
17:51
The question is, will they be able to form a government?
17:55
Do they have first...
17:57
In a British parliamentary system, the party that gets the largest number of seats has first dibs, and the head of state is obliged to give some deference to the party with the largest number of seats and some patience as they try to assemble a coalition if they have a minority government.
18:15
Does that exist?
18:16
Does the president of Israel basically have to...
18:19
He has to grant it, but I don't know, and I don't want to misspeak.
18:23
I think that's probably true in Israel.
18:27
Like, somebody with eight seats can't come up to him and be like, first, like, I'm here first, and I'm going to form the coalition.
18:33
But what I mean is, like, if, suppose...
18:36
Netanyahu gets slightly fewer seats than what's the alternative party the labor party what uh no it's uh Eisenkopf's party it's uh I don't even know what they're called they're like a shallow maybe or straight and they all have the same name they're all like yeah advance forward together yeah happiness yeah milk and honey pirates yeah yeah
18:58
uh so if the i guess my question is what i'll be looking for on i'm probably naive to think that i can look for anything on election night well what you should look for on election night is go to arc plus there'll be a live stream i'll get zero money from it but there will be a live stream um
19:15
It is.
19:15
No, but here's what I, let me just finish that thought.
19:17
So what I would normally look for would be if he doesn't, if Netanyahu doesn't get the largest number of seats, if his party, not the bloc, if his actual party doesn't get the largest number of seats, I would have thought that it's then the president's,
19:32
duty to overlook any clever Netanyahu shenanigans about cobbling together some big block and then going, see, I prevail, and rather to give deference to the party with the largest number of seats and say, we're going to give you time.
19:45
Unless neither of them can come to 61.
19:47
Yeah.
19:49
At least.
19:49
Right.
19:50
At the minimum.
19:50
Surely they'll get to.
19:51
Well.
19:52
I mean, there's something that you could give a minor party.
19:54
Because you have the Arab parties that have a block of, oh God, people are going to yell at me if I don't get this right, maybe 10 to 12 seats.
20:04
And.
20:04
How big's the house?
20:06
120.
20:08
So there are two Arab parties.
20:09
One is like the Communist Party, like the Muslim Brotherhood Party.
20:12
It's all very crazy, but they have sat in the government before and people are concerned about it.
20:18
I would say I definitely understand why.
20:21
But the leader of one of the Arab parties is considered...
20:25
pragmatic.
20:26
I don't want to say moderate, but very, very pragmatic and very much like you know, okay, I want to make things better.
20:31
They have a big crime problem in the Arab community.
20:34
You know what's really funny?
20:36
In the crime problem in the Arab community?
20:37
Yeah, talk to me about the hilarity of the crime problem in the Arab community in the Middle East.
20:42
You know how here in America, like, over-policing is considered racist, and like, if you go in to like, you know, black neighborhoods or Hispanic neighborhoods, a lot of crime people, like activists, would be like...
20:53
Yeah, I mean, white middle class activists think it's racist.
20:56
Exactly, yeah.
20:56
The black people who are getting shot don't think it's racist.
20:58
I've never in my life sat at a...
21:01
I've been to many, many police community council meetings in bad neighborhoods, and nobody ever raises their hand and says, like, we need less cops here.
21:08
Yeah, yeah.
21:08
But in Israel, the lack of policing,
21:13
in these communities is considered racist.
21:15
Yeah, right.
21:15
Because like, oh, you don't care about the Arabs that are dying?
21:18
Well, that makes sense.
21:19
Yeah, so it's just interesting.
21:22
But the big question is, you know, will like, will Eisencott or Bennett need to include the Arab parties in the coalition?
21:32
I mean, numbers wise, it seems like they would.
21:35
Right.
21:36
Unless they have people, oh, because we can also defect from parties, which is also going to be really fun.
21:40
After they've been elected.
21:40
Yeah.
21:41
Yeah.
21:41
Okay.
21:42
That's a bit sneaky.
21:43
I personally have no opposition to a government with Arab parties.
21:49
I don't think I would want to put an Arab minister in charge of national security, maybe.
21:55
And by the way, I just want to say these are Arab parties, not Arab members.
21:59
So there are plenty of Arab and Muslim and Christian members of all parties, by the way, Likud too.
22:05
But like a party that's like, we are the Muslim Brotherhood Party.
22:07
Maybe I don't want them to oversee the IDF.
22:09
Right.
22:10
But if, you know, if they want to have a say in like how we run.
22:16
Yeah.
22:16
You know, services as a country.
22:17
They want to be like the housing minister or something.
22:18
Yeah, of course.
22:19
Of course.
22:20
And it doesn't scare me.
22:21
Yeah.
22:35
how am I going to say it?
22:36
Like, just like bring it, dragging us all down with them.
22:39
And I say, this is somebody who does not hate Netanyahu.
22:42
I think he's done a lot of really good things for the country.
22:45
He's done a lot of really bad things for the country and I'm ready for the bad things to be over.
22:49
Yeah.
22:50
Well,
22:50
From your lips to Yahweh's ears, as they say.
22:53
Inshallah, as we say.
22:54
That's right.
22:56
And the other funny thing about the election is that it can take a long time to even figure out, right?
23:01
It's not like just the counting of the votes.
23:03
Like Americans are like, oh, yeah, our elections sometimes take a while.
23:07
But it's not just that.
23:08
It's like once the votes are counted, then you have to figure out what the deals are.
23:11
And I think we'll have a good idea.
23:15
on Tuesday evening.
23:16
Okay.
23:16
But it doesn't mean we'll have a government and we'll know kind of who can form a government.
23:20
Yeah.
23:21
I don't know.
23:22
I talked to a lot of people the last few weeks in Israel, like, who are you voting for?
23:26
What are you doing?
23:26
And everybody's as expected.
23:29
I don't know that people have necessarily shifted a lot.
23:33
I haven't spoken to many people in the Netanyahu camp who are not going to vote for him.
23:39
And I haven't spoken to people in the anti-Netanyahu camp who are like, you know what, maybe I will stay with Netanyahu.
23:45
And how much, like here I feel like negative partisanship is the main driving force in the States.
23:51
I mean, in the midterms especially, the energy on the anti-Trump side is much stronger than the energy on the pro-Democrat side per se.
24:01
Is that true in Israel?
24:02
And what do pro Netanyahu people, how do pro Netanyahu people talk to you about their perspective on his presiding over the worst security incidents in Israeli history and probably having had warning signs that he should have paid attention to beforehand?
24:17
So 20 years ago, I would have told you it's not a big partisanship is not a huge deal.
24:23
I mean, it's a huge deal, but it's not like people in the same family have like partisan differences and here too, by the way, like now two people in the same family can have partisan differences.
24:34
And in fact,
24:35
Are you using family metaphorically, meaning potty or like an actual... No, no, no.
24:39
Like you can be like your brother-in-law could, you know, love the guy you hate and vice versa.
24:44
And you'll still have dinner together.
24:45
You won't be like... Less and less here, right?
24:47
There won't be like a horror story about how you should cut them off.
24:50
Right, right.
24:51
Um...
24:51
By the way, Naftali Bennett had a brilliant campaign last week, I think, where he said, Israel, do you guys do WhatsApp in Australia, like, as a way of life?
25:00
I mean, no, not as a way of life the way you do in Europe and Israel.
25:03
In Israel, you do everything on WhatsApp, like schools, even IDF.
25:06
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:07
I mean, I guess we do, yes.
25:08
Like, the school, yeah, you know, my, like, kids, little athletics and stuff is all in a WhatsApp group.
25:12
Because Americans will send me like a group text message.
25:15
I know.
25:15
It's awful.
25:16
Why would they do that?
25:17
I'm not going to be offensive towards Americans.
25:19
Yeah.
25:19
But after having been here for a little while.
25:21
We just did the national anthem.
25:23
Let me just say it is true what they say, that America is the most developed developing country or the least developed country.
25:33
developed really by far i've never heard that yeah it's like israel is more developing like we're still yeah israel too but again little satan great satan same same deal but like if you compare just the functioning of things yeah in i don't know belgium and australia in comparison to the states the states is much more like a sort of a south american like you know fail slightly failing state it's the best bureaucracy do you mean
25:59
the bureaucracy the behavior the um the inf the the public infrastructure the crumbling bridges the sort of European mindset and go back to France I mean I love it I love the energy of it but I just mean well also I just think it has such a large gravitational pull that it takes a while for things to change because there's so many people so like the elephant's feet as they say
26:24
That's right.
26:25
The most recent, is that something they say in Israel?
26:27
Because no English speaker has ever said you have to move the elephant.
26:30
Really?
26:30
That's a quote from somebody that said that to me once.
26:34
It sounds a little bit like those sort of... Oh, wait, no, turn the battleship around.
26:39
That's a big one too, right?
26:40
Yes, you do have to turn a ship around.
26:43
That's a thing.
26:44
The elephant's feet sounds a little bit like, you know when they translate, when they'll be a foreign minister of some Arab state and they'll translate it directly into English and you'll be like, that just doesn't...
26:54
It'll be like, we will repel the invaders before the gates of... We will send them fleeing like a camel...
27:01
fleas through a needle of a pin or something and you're like that okay i understand what you're getting at but that's just not the way we'd phrase it in english uh so anyway wait we were we were talking about naftali bennett's whatsapp hang on just let me just finish the aside about the yes yes so i just want to i just want to be able to justify what i'm saying
27:21
It's a couple of years since I've carried a wallet anywhere apart from America because everything's on my phone.
27:26
I can tap everything on my phone.
27:28
Yeah.
27:28
My driver's license.
27:29
Because you live in a surveillance state.
27:30
That's right.
27:31
That's right.
27:31
I live in a communist totalitarian dictatorship.
27:35
You know, the driver's license has gone onto the government app.
27:38
So everything is like on my phone now.
27:40
And here.
27:41
You're not wrong.
27:42
Americans will constantly claim that they have people bringing around the little tappy things at a cafe or a restaurant.
27:49
That's kind of new, though.
27:50
But it's, yeah, it's a 50-50.
27:52
Half the time, the fact that I don't have a physical credit card means that I have to follow the server into a basement somewhere where they rummage around and try to find a tap machine for me that they have to boot up.
28:05
It's like, remember back in the day, you go in Chinatown and they would ask you if you want a Louis Vuitton?
28:10
And you'd be like, yes.
28:11
And then you'd have to follow them into... Yeah, exactly.
28:13
That's right.
28:14
Yeah, that's right.
28:14
And it would definitely have to be cash.
28:16
Yeah.
28:17
And, you know, like, it took longer for the MTA to get rid of actual physical, like, special cards and just do a tap your credit card thing.
28:25
No, no, you're actually right.
28:26
Checks are still, like, checks were a thing for much longer here.
28:30
And, like, electronic auto payments and things like that took longer.
28:33
Israel is a lot more, like, the bureaucracy is, I feel like, a lot more advanced in Israel than it is here.
28:38
Yeah.
28:39
Which is not saying a lot because it is kind of...
28:42
You know, when I was, because we didn't talk about my NYPD days yet, but when I joined, I was at the NYPD, I came in at 20, in 2011 as an intern.
28:51
And there was still a woman, God bless her, Leslie, who was using a typewriter.
28:57
Wow.
28:58
Yeah.
28:58
In 2011.
28:59
Yeah.
29:01
She's probably dead now.
29:02
When I, God bless, God bless Leslie.
29:06
When the... Oh, that's great.
29:08
My computer is about to die.
29:09
Oh, no.
29:10
That's all right.
29:10
Don't worry.
29:11
Can we see what people are saying?
29:13
Are people like, oh my God, I love your... No, I don't think we can because I'm feeding into Substack through another platform.
29:18
Okay.
29:19
But they're chattering.
29:20
Are they saying nice things, do you think?
29:21
Who knows?
29:22
Okay.
29:23
Probably still talking about the penis.
29:25
Yeah, yeah.
29:26
We want to hear from you.
29:27
What do you think about the penis in the shower?
29:30
I love that this is the most talked about movie ever, but that's the thing that we're talking about.
29:35
We also don't want to spoil it.
29:38
When I moved to the States back in, I guess, the late 2000s, mid to late 2000s, in Australia I would just pay my rent automatically.
29:50
It would come out of my bank account and into my landlord's bank account.
29:54
Because your government controls your bank account.
29:57
I'm kidding.
29:57
I actually don't have a...
29:59
I'm just ribbing you.
30:00
I don't have an opinion about this.
30:01
I got here and the landlord was like, okay, you're going to have to give me a check before like the 30th of each month or something.
30:09
And I was like, well, I've never really written a check.
30:12
That seems that's something my grandfather would have done.
30:15
Can I do the...
30:16
He's like, oh, I don't know if you can do the auto pay.
30:18
So I call the bank and they say, yeah, you can absolutely do an electronic payment.
30:24
Here's how you do it.
30:25
So I go on and set up...
30:27
Well, I set up the electronic payment at the back end.
30:29
Next month, landlord calls me.
30:32
Where's my money?
30:33
So I go into a branch and I say the money didn't arrive.
30:36
And they say, oh, yeah, you need to allow time because when you do the electronic payment online, what happens is it sends a message to the local bank branch, which then prints a check for you, puts it in an envelope.
30:50
I believe it.
30:50
And mails the check, yeah, to your landlord so that he can cash it.
30:54
And that's what an e-transfer was.
30:57
I feel it.
30:58
I used to think that's how money worked.
31:00
When you, like, when I, like, you know, you know, you go to an ATM and you'd pull out money.
31:06
And I thought, like, somebody goes into my, like, box and bank where all my money is.
31:10
And takes them out and gives it to me from my box.
31:12
That's because you're Jewish and you're used to thinking about gold.
31:15
No, I should know how money works if I'm Jewish.
31:18
Oh, that's true.
31:18
Yeah.
31:19
Yeah.
31:20
But so Naftali Bennett's WhatsApp group.
31:22
Oh, Naftali Bennett's WhatsApp group.
31:23
So he put out, he started this campaign the other day where he was, like...
31:27
Do you have a cousin?
31:29
Do you have a, you know, does your father want to vote for Ben Gvir?
31:32
Does your cousin, whatever, want to vote for baby?
31:36
Add me to your family WhatsApp group and I'll talk to them.
31:39
Oh.
31:39
And then I heard somebody say, oh, it sounds like really cute.
31:42
Somebody said, no, no.
31:43
Like a political analyst was like, this is real.
31:46
Like it's not a campaign staffer.
31:48
It's not AI.
31:48
I'm sure he's not responding to everyone.
31:50
But he had like his phone number up there.
31:52
Like this is his actual phone number.
31:54
So that's not possible.
31:55
I'm sure it's like he's maybe answering like 10 people.
31:58
Like he's not going to.
31:59
And he's probably doing voice notes because I don't see him like typing.
32:02
Hang on.
32:02
There are how many people, 6 million people in Israel?
32:04
More.
32:05
Yeah.
32:05
But how many, you know, he must get, even if only 1% of them reply.
32:09
I mean, it's a campaign.
32:10
It's a PR thing, but it's a pretty good one.
32:12
I like it.
32:12
But I mean, surely it's an AI bot or something.
32:15
No, I mean, they're saying it's not.
32:17
So, and they never lie.
32:19
No, exactly.
32:19
The Israeli...
32:21
No one in any Israeli position of power has ever lied.
32:27
Okay, so we'll put a pin on that.
32:29
Oh, the negative partisanship.
32:30
Do you want to circle back?
32:31
Let's circle back to it.
32:32
I want to double click.
32:33
The negative partisanship thing I think is interesting because I can't imagine a positive reason.
32:40
I mean, I'm obviously partisan here because I think Netanyahu is a corrupt little hack who has done untold damage.
32:47
But I can't imagine what the argument would be
32:51
for giving him another shot.
32:55
But I can imagine people summoning demons of feckless lefties who are going to sell Israelis out and undermine their God-given rights.
33:06
So, yeah, what's the steel man?
33:07
I can steal my little tanyao argument.
33:10
The economy is...
33:12
Well, who knows where it's going to be, but economy is pretty good and has been throughout the war.
33:18
And I just read this book called Inside the War Room.
33:22
Have you heard of it?
33:22
I have heard of it.
33:23
Elliot Kaufman and somebody else's name, I don't remember.
33:27
But it's a book where it just like, it's kind of starts October 6th at night and ends around early 2026.
33:35
And it goes through every single decision that was made through the war, like step by step.
33:40
And he interviewed Netanyahu, Gallant, Eisencott, but you know, every single person who played a role in this as well as people from both Trump and Biden administrations.
33:50
It's very,
33:52
I found it very interesting because it didn't have a lot of commentary in it.
33:56
It was more like this.
33:57
It was kind of like a play.
33:58
It was like, this guy said this.
33:59
Right.
33:59
I can't wait to.
34:00
Yeah.
34:01
Well, I was going to say read it, but I'll probably listen to the audio.
34:02
Yeah.
34:03
Yeah.
34:03
I actually, I got the copy and then I listened to the audio book.
34:07
And it was, I liked it better as an audio book.
34:09
Right.
34:10
But it wasn't, you know.
34:13
The people who wrote it, I don't know their politics, but they're serious journalists.
34:17
They're not exactly like pro-Netanyahu, let's say.
34:20
And the book has a lot of things that are not flattering to Netanyahu, but there are also a lot of decisions that he made during the war that he turned out to be correct about.
34:34
That said, the Israeli election, this might surprise people, is not really about security.
34:39
No.
34:40
It's really not about security.
34:41
Most people think that like, I think like Eisenkot or Bennett or Lieberman are not going to, it's not like they're going to be like, oh, we're not going to invest in security anymore.
34:50
Yeah.
34:51
Or, you know.
34:52
And nobody is running on like, give the Palestinians a state and let's start the peace process again.
34:56
So that's off the table anyway, right?
34:58
It's just like, it is what it is.
35:00
But I don't understand.
35:00
But nobody's running in the Palestinian Authority to begin with, so there's not really a person to have a state with.
35:06
But there's not really, the peace process is not front and center, although hope, I think, is, which I think with Israelis come.
35:17
Israelis are very big believers in peace, but not maybe the way we think about it.
35:22
They're like, peace to us means, like, leave us alone.
35:26
Like, and... Is that true?
35:28
Yes.
35:29
Leave us alone.
35:30
I mean...
35:32
The Netanyahu government has been very proactive about projecting power regionally.
35:37
It's not just been like... Yeah, but what does Netanyahu want more than anything?
35:41
Lebanon and Syria and everything is not...
35:43
Most international observers would not say that Israeli foreign policy is just about leave us alone.
35:48
It's about ensuring a level of security for Israel.
35:50
Yeah, which could lead to peace.
35:53
The reason Netanyahu has such a boner, and frankly, the whole country has a boner for a deal with Saudi Arabia is because...
36:01
were looking for that normalization.
36:03
Now, that doesn't mean people are hippies and peace and love and let everybody, because we were there in the 90s.
36:09
more so i was there uh didn't really work out you mean you were on the peace and love israelis were largely on the peace and love train in the 90s and then had their naivete disabused by uh but buses blowing up exactly but i think even netanyahu voters aside from the people who are who are a minor troubling minority who are like expansionists who want to like settle gaza want to
36:33
have oversized influence and frankly need to shut the fuck up.
36:38
Like people are just like, we just wanna live in peace.
36:42
Some people think that us living in peace, well, I would say most people think that us living in peace means that we have to be fight off our enemies.
36:51
Yeah.
36:52
I mean, I think it's a generous reading to say that it's just about living in peace, because when people are fearful and traumatized, then their interpretation of what is necessary in order to secure their peace can look to other people like aggression.
37:08
Right?
37:08
Relentless building of settlements and like, you know, aggression towards one's neighbors as a precondition for security within Israel proper is a position, but it's not a pacifistic position.
37:23
It's not a pacifistic position, but let's talk, like, let's break that down.
37:26
Let's talk border by border.
37:27
Okay?
37:28
So if we're looking at Gaza and Lebanon, pushing back Hamas and Hezbollah, if that means...
37:36
you know, removing or displacing people that live close to the border because there are Hamas and Hezbollah between them.
37:45
It's not an easy choice, but it's one that Israelis are willing to make right now because we understandably don't want terrorists close to our borders.
37:54
What's happening on the West Bank is a different story because in this, I think a lot of people are thinking about the elections.
38:00
You have...
38:02
You have expansion of settlements, which is one thing.
38:04
It's more of a government thing.
38:06
You also have these batshit crazy terrorists, Jewish terrorists.
38:11
By the way, also plenty of Palestinian terrorists attacking them as well.
38:15
But you have Jewish terrorists who...
38:18
I don't see them as like a part of the policy.
38:21
I see the lack of enforcement very troubling and possibly part of a policy.
38:27
So that is something that's very worrying to Israelis right now, but it's not a strategic, it's a, I don't know how to explain it.
38:35
Like it's not like Israel is strategically saying, yeah, let's let these crazy terrorists loose because it will be better for our security.
38:41
I think everybody understands that in the long run, even people who support it, in the long run, this is not gonna be good for our security.
38:49
I don't think that's true of the people who are on board with turning a blind eye to settler violence.
38:56
I think the far right understands exactly what it's doing and wants to create conditions on the ground that are unlivable for the Arabs who are there.
39:06
And eventually would like to annex it and would love it if they just spilled over into Jordan or got the hell out of there some other way.
39:13
That's probably true of the far right.
39:15
Yeah.
39:16
The question is, you know, how much will they...
39:19
be able to dictate the policy.
39:21
And it's very front and center in Israel.
39:23
Like every day I open the news and I listen to the morning show every morning in Israel.
39:28
It is like top of the news what's happening.
39:30
What's that love violence?
39:31
Yeah.
39:32
Really?
39:32
Yeah.
39:32
Okay.
39:33
That's reassuring.
39:34
Yeah.
39:34
And, and also, by the way, there was a, you know, and vice versa, there were two soldiers who were killed.
39:39
They found two Palestinians with a truckload of weapons that were on their way to,
39:44
probably to Israel proper to create like some mass casualty event.
39:49
And two soldiers were killed in a gunfire.
39:51
So nobody is perfect or perfect.
39:56
It's the right word.
39:57
There's, there's agitators on both sides.
40:00
Yeah.
40:00
I care about,
40:02
I'll quote Brett Stevens said this the other day.
40:07
He was like, you know, saying Israel needs to curb the settlers because of the Palestinians.
40:12
Israel needs to curb the settlers because Americans are getting mad.
40:14
And he's like, no, Israel needs to curb the settlers for Israel.
40:17
Like we need to be like not in our house.
40:20
You know, we don't play like that.
40:22
I mean, I've always felt that way about all of my criticisms of Israel, that it comes from a place of goodwill towards what I think Israel could be.
40:30
It's just that Israelis think that that perspective is naive because you don't understand the region the way that we understand the region.
40:37
You don't understand our security needs, which is, of course, true.
40:40
But it's also possible that the people who are in the soup are also blinded by the heat of it in a way that people outside.
40:48
That is a term I've never heard before.
40:49
That's because I landed up.
40:50
Did you put the elephant in the soup?
40:52
I put the elephant...
40:54
I put the camel through the needle of the elephant's foot in the soup.
40:57
I was...
40:59
If you're in the flame, then maybe it's too bright to be able to see the context.
41:04
I think Jewish critics of Israel and Jewish supporters of Israel each have something in common, where they kind of see us as something...
41:17
I don't know, like something a little mythical maybe.
41:20
And I'm like, it's a shit show.
41:22
It's like every place a shit show.
41:24
We're doing the best we can.
41:26
And if Netanyahu wins and forms the exact same coalition, it will be absolutely heartbreaking for me.
41:33
But I'm not going to be like less Israeli.
41:35
You know what I mean?
41:36
No, sure.
41:36
I'm not going to be less proud of my people, but I'm going to fight.
41:40
Well, won't you be a bit less proud of your people?
41:42
I was a bit less proud of...
41:44
Australians when you know it has done when you know it made corrupt deals with like the Indonesian government to oppress the East Timorese or of America that's adorable that you have like those are your problems yeah Guantanamo Bay or whatever like I think Americans I think Americans are ashamed of America under Trump
42:05
Yeah, but I don't know.
42:08
I have a hard time with that because to me, it's like patriotism shouldn't be dependent on...
42:16
who is in power.
42:17
And of course you can be ashamed of your president or you could be, you can fight it, but I don't think it should make people less proud of like what people have created and built here.
42:28
And Israeli society is a very, like I was in Israel on October 7th and I kind of saw the mobilization, right?
42:34
And I saw people kind of completely by themselves without anybody telling them like, just get together in a town square, which ironically a week earlier had been the source of
42:46
a fight between Orthodox and secular Jews that we thought, like it really felt like, oh no, we're falling apart because there's this Yom Kippur event at this specific square in Tel Aviv and the secularists and the Orthodox are fighting and we're never gonna make it.
43:01
A week later on October 8th,
43:04
people had gathered there by themselves, like giant cardboard boxes.
43:08
And like, I'm collecting food.
43:09
Okay.
43:10
I need, you know, toilet paper and just getting in their private cars under fire and just like driving out to people.
43:16
Those are people and some of those people will vote for Bibi.
43:19
And some of those people will vote for Yael Golan, who's like super duper left.
43:25
But I don't know.
43:26
I don't.
43:27
I get it.
43:27
I mean, that's an emotional moment, but.
43:31
Again, as an outside observer, I hear this all the time in every country where after 9-11 New Yorkers are like, you know, they might attack us, but what you saw after 9-11 in terms of Americans coming together, that's the true America.
43:47
And in France, after the Vatican attacks, people say, like, you know, people coming together, that's the true France.
43:52
The reality is human beings come together in times of crisis generally to help each other.
43:56
They really, I don't think there is a country.
43:58
But we're still in a crisis, so we're still there.
44:00
No, but what I'm saying is, like, a bunch of jihadists will also come together to help a bunch of other, you know, their colleagues after there's been, you know, like, I mean, even the Taliban are coming together to help each other.
44:09
It doesn't matter.
44:10
By the way, I'm not saying Israelis are unique in that sense.
44:12
I'm saying we're in a unique country.
44:14
I think situation where there's the people who went to on October 7, who woke up in the morning and looked at their phone and put on their flip flops and drove right into the line of fire.
44:28
they weren't doing it for God or they weren't doing it for like Ben Gurion's like founding ideals.
44:34
They were doing it because there are other people that need help.
44:36
Yes.
44:37
And we're still there.
44:38
I think, you know, if we're if we have peace for 10 years in Israel, God help us, because then we'll really tear each other apart like everybody else.
44:47
I mean, I do.
44:48
That sounds like a conspiracy theory that I can get.
44:50
Yeah, exactly.
44:51
I can understand that Israel is in a unique position in terms of patriotism towards Israel because so many people in the world question the country's legitimacy.
45:00
So it's like you are right that like after Nazism or during Nazism,
45:07
Nobody was saying like, you know, maybe Germany is not a legitimate place You know, it was still understood that there's Germany and then there's this government doing all this shit Somebody said on Twitter the other day to me Israel is a made-up country and I'm like all countries are made up Yes, that's true.
45:24
Also, isn't it true that the majority of countries in the world are younger than Israel?
45:28
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was amazing to me.
45:31
I think people are like well, it happened so recently and
45:33
If anything, they're probably more like people who are descendants of people who live there for generations than there are in like, I don't know, Slovakia.
45:42
But it doesn't make Slovakia any less legitimate.
45:45
Although Slovaks probably have been in Slovakia for a long time.
45:48
But maybe like... No, but they're like, you know, like all these European countries, so many people moved around and population transfers.
45:56
Yeah, screw Macedonia.
45:57
I was, well, I mean, it's a Eurovision country.
46:01
It's, yeah, that's true.
46:02
The only thing I know about it is Eurovision.
46:04
Well, so is Australia.
46:05
This is true, yeah.
46:06
I mean, which doesn't make any lick of sense.
46:07
Do you get defensive when people say Australia shouldn't be in Eurovision?
46:10
No.
46:11
Okay.
46:11
Why would I?
46:12
Do I get, do you think I would be pro or anti?
46:14
Because we're part of the European broadcasting system.
46:17
No, I really, I couldn't care less about that.
46:20
I'm very pro-European.
46:21
I am a little bit jealous that Canada is apparently negotiating observer status at the European Union.
46:28
Or not observer status, it's like associate, it's going to be an associate member of the EU, Canada?
46:33
Yeah.
46:33
I think that's cool.
46:34
We, like, Australia should do that, but then I'll bet the EU is going to be like, well, if we let you both in, then we're going to have to open a business to everybody.
46:40
Yeah, exactly.
46:41
Exactly.
46:42
But they can have each other, Canada and Europe.
46:45
Before we...
46:47
Before we talk about that guy's penis.
46:49
Before we talk about the guy's penis again, I am also interested in your time at the NYPD because you mentioned it in passing with the old lady with the typewriter in 2011.
46:59
Leslie.
47:00
But didn't you run the social media?
47:02
They did.
47:03
For the NYPD, basically, like through the lead up to wokeness and like anti-
47:09
it was 20 police stuff yeah it was 2014 or no yeah 2014 to 2020 i was an intern in 2011 but 2014 to 2020 i was working there and when did like black lives matter and he found the police and everything 16 17 yeah right uh we had uh eric garner here in new york um
47:28
So he was the selling, selling cigarettes in Staten Island and got the knee on the neck and choked or something or?
47:36
Not exactly.
47:36
He got put in a choke hold and then they went through the window and he died of cardiac arrest actually on the operating table.
47:46
Right.
47:47
But the prevailing thing that people say was he was choked to death, which I mean, not to be like pedantic, but it's not exactly what happened.
47:56
But it sparked this whole conversation about like small, like, you know, broken windows, policing, smaller crimes.
48:02
You know, why should you be choked to death for selling loose cigarettes when, you know, in reality, it's more complicated because there is a guy who owned the store where you sell cigarettes legally.
48:12
And he kept calling the police and saying, you know, this guy out here is.
48:16
Selling illegal cigarettes.
48:17
Yeah, and you come to him all the time, and every time he says he doesn't go.
48:21
So anyway, it sparked a whole big conversation in the city, which of course was not rooted in like, let's look at the facts and talk about it, but more like in the emotions that it stirred out with people.
48:36
We weren't super popular then.
48:37
Also, the bike lane people really hated us.
48:41
And every time we would- Because you were what?
48:44
Were you policing bike lanes?
48:45
Because bike lane people are crazy.
48:46
The pro bike lane people or the anti bike lane people?
48:48
No, no, the pro bike lane people.
48:50
Oh, OK.
48:50
They're crazy.
48:52
And they didn't like the NYPD.
48:53
Why?
48:53
Like if you were an alien and you came and they're like, I wonder what this like New York city policing, like what's the status of crime there?
49:00
Let me look on social media and be like, wow, their number one issues are cars parked in bike lanes.
49:05
Oh, cars parked there.
49:06
Yeah.
49:07
I get it.
49:07
Yeah.
49:07
Yeah.
49:08
So, but it was fun because it was also like social media was still fun back then.
49:14
I don't remember.
49:15
We did like mannequin challenges.
49:17
Well, maybe pre 2016, 2012 to 2015 social media was fun.
49:23
Yeah, no, but we had some fun before my friend would say before we got defund.
49:27
and they took away the fun.
49:29
Defund the police, rub the fun.
49:31
I get it.
49:32
But it was very exciting.
49:34
I got to oversee giving every precinct in the city their own Twitter and then their own Facebook.
49:40
Oh, wow.
49:40
And they could connect with people.
49:41
So we had, at some point, over 120 social media accounts.
49:45
And then my big problem was every stupid unit were like, you know, were the whatever, Brooklyn South, Brooklyn.
49:55
car robbery squad task force we want a Twitter and I'm like nobody cares no yeah so you're gonna get a lot of tweets that you don't that are targeted to you it's gonna be someone from the rather precinct they're gonna be like there's a bird standing on top of my car and I did a poo and you have to come and rescue but we have a lot of fun this the precinct right here right across from where you're staying not to blow up your spot no um they used to have I guess they don't have it now anymore they used to have the craziest haunted house
50:22
Oh.
50:23
Every year.
50:24
At Halloween?
50:25
Yeah.
50:26
And you could come in and the police... Would like an NYPD officer jump out at you in a Halloween mask?
50:31
Yeah, it was really fun.
50:32
Did they ever shoot anyone in the Halloween house by accident?
50:35
No.
50:36
Okay.
50:36
But I wonder why they stopped.
50:38
Yeah.
50:39
I think they stopped because the commanding officer got transferred and it was kind of his baby.
50:44
Oh.
50:45
But yeah, it was a good haunted house.
50:47
And then it was a fun...
50:48
The cops got to work it.
50:49
They enjoyed it.
50:50
The kids came around and...
50:52
I love all the community stuff they do here.
50:54
I was just in Manhattan Beach in California, which is a suburb of Los Angeles, basically.
51:00
And they were having like a, it was almost like a bake sale that the Manhattan police, I don't know if they are underfunded or what, but like they had- It sounds illegal.
51:09
You should have reported that.
51:10
They brought out- The federal government.
51:11
They brought out one of their vehicles, which looks like a military tank, right, basically.
51:15
Was it now or was it August?
51:17
uh it was last month it was in september okay uh and it was like a military tank kind of and there was a guy in SWAT gear in front of it with his canine uh doggy and my kids got the photo with the you know the guy who looks like uh yes they get well it was a little sticker yeah and then my daughter bought a little slump stuffed canine from the canine unit and i was like this is excellent propaganda
51:41
to try to copaganda to indoctrinate young people into the necessity of having military style policing on the streets of Los Angeles speaking of which what did you think during the whole gun or like defund the cops thing about I don't know if you've read Malcolm Gladwell's latest book about guns
52:01
No, he's not super interesting.
52:03
I listened to the audiobook of it, and it's actually very good.
52:06
He was very interesting to me when I was 19, and I thought he was the height of intellectualism.
52:13
Not to say he's not incredibly talented communicator.
52:15
Well, I am not a Malcolm Gladwell completist.
52:18
He is no Nathan Fielder in Josh Sepps' mind.
52:20
Do you think he's hot, though?
52:22
Wait, I have something.
52:24
I'll tell you later, because I heard something about him.
52:26
Oh, really?
52:27
Yes, don't say that on the TV.
52:28
please.
52:29
And so he has new book because he's good at podcasts.
52:34
He does this familiar with the format with the audio format.
52:37
His new book has instead of him just like reading out the transcripts of interviews and stuff.
52:42
He actually makes it like into a podcast type thing.
52:45
And he has so it's very audio rich.
52:47
So it feels like you're listening to a radio show.
52:52
And it's one of the best things I've ever read or heard about guns in America.
52:58
about the problem of violence in America.
53:00
And he has three basic points.
53:03
One of which, in passing, is that the problem that America has is not a problem of crime, it's a problem of violence.
53:11
And Americans are confused about the solution because they're confusing violence with crime.
53:16
I don't disagree.
53:17
And the other point that was interesting is that Americans are deluded about the extent to which they're policed.
53:23
They're actually under policed there.
53:26
If you look at the number of cops, for example, in LA per capita.
53:30
Yeah.
53:30
It's significantly lower than other big, big cities.
53:34
Yeah.
53:34
And when you have too few police, they become more aggressive and, you know, need to, they're stretched thinner.
53:41
In other words, they can do less community policing, less building of trust.
53:45
Yeah.
53:46
You know.
53:46
I don't disagree with any of that.
53:47
Yeah.
53:48
So I thought that was interesting.
53:49
Crime is very concentrated.
53:51
like, you know, they're called like hot spots.
53:53
Like they know and it's really block to block in New York.
53:57
Like you could live in one place and it will be absolutely fine.
53:59
But like, don't go two blocks east next to the projects because there are shootings there.
54:04
And I'll never forget, I like a legendary youth crime guy in New York once told me like this Irish guy.
54:12
And he's like, we used to do the exact same thing they're doing when we were kids, but we did it with our fists.
54:17
And now they're doing it with guns.
54:18
Yeah.
54:20
And some of these guns are legal.
54:22
Some of them are a lot legal.
54:24
And social media plays a part in it too because it starts a lot of fights.
54:29
But yeah, I think there's more violence than if we're looking at violence versus crime.
54:36
And it's very concentrated.
54:37
It also affects a small number of people.
54:40
But the problem is, I mean, one of the problems is a lot of the activism hasn't been very useful.
54:45
So there's, have you ever heard of ShotSpotter?
54:48
Is that where they hear a gunshot and then they triangulate where it is and so the police can go to it?
54:54
Yeah, and they alert the police to it.
54:55
And activists are fighting it like crazy.
54:58
And it's...
54:59
The activists don't want the police alerted when there's a gunshot.
55:03
Yeah, no.
55:04
Because there could be a mistake or blah, blah, blah.
55:06
But like I said, I've never been to a community council meeting where people asked for less police.
55:10
People are always asking for more enforcement.
55:12
Isn't the basic problem that the types of people who go to community meetings are fuckwits?
55:16
No, not necessarily.
55:17
I mean, it depends where.
55:18
But people are asking... Who has the time to care so much that they go to a meeting?
55:21
Both ladies.
55:22
Yeah, that's what I mean.
55:23
Yeah, like in two years, that's all I'm going to do, I think.
55:27
I remember once I went to my first community council meeting and there was this guy.
55:31
And then I went to another community council meeting.
55:34
uptown in Washington Heights, and he was there again.
55:37
And I thought to myself, oh, he must, like, maybe he lives here and works there.
55:41
Yeah, right.
55:42
No, he just goes to all of them.
55:43
He goes to all the meetings and he has his voice heard.
55:45
And he ends up representing probably a million New Yorkers because, like, that's the impact that someone can have at a community meeting.
55:52
Yeah, but it's the same thing with...
55:54
Community meetings are fascinating and I really highly recommend everybody go to them just to like, same way I recommend people go to the post office.
56:00
Like you just have to experience.
56:02
Oh God.
56:03
There's another way in which America is the most developed, developing country.
56:07
You go to a post office and see the pace of.
56:10
If you go to the post office and you don't leave there with sympathy for police officers, which is what they have to deal with every day in terms of like random people, then you're doing something wrong.
56:20
I was thinking more about the staff at the post office.
56:22
Yeah.
56:23
Oh, yeah.
56:23
Like I didn't know it was possible.
56:25
I love when they fight with each other.
56:26
Do you ever see that?
56:26
Yes.
56:27
And I also, but it's very, I don't, didn't know that human beings could move as slowly.
56:32
I like that.
56:33
As if you have, if you get like one of those slips that says, you know, you weren't home and we need to, you know, you need to sign for a package or something and you take it to the post office and you wait for 40 minutes and then you hand it to the person.
56:43
And then you feel like an idiot.
56:44
And then they're like, they just turn around and they start shuffling away at like so slowly they're almost going backwards.
56:52
By the way, who do you think are civilians that work for the NYPD are?
56:56
You know, it's the same.
56:58
It's the same people.
56:58
But it's funny because like my my second least favorite place after the post office is the Apple store.
57:04
Oh, what about the DMV?
57:06
I haven't been there in a while and I went there.
57:08
It was very scary.
57:09
But the Apple store, they don't make you feel like an idiot when you're like, oh, my computer isn't working.
57:14
I feel like the other day I went to the post office and I made my little package and I gave it to the lady and she looked at me like I was fucking stupid for not just putting it in the box.
57:25
And I'm like, I'm sorry that I'm not well-versed in the U.S.
57:29
Postal Service.
57:30
I know.
57:30
It's the same with the TSA or something when you're...
57:34
The person's barking orders at people at the TSA about what you have to take out of your bags.
57:38
I like the ones that are sassy.
57:39
Yeah, that's good.
57:40
I think there's a, like, I always want to say to them, you know that this is a new batch of people you're talking to than you were talking to a half hour ago, right?
57:48
That's right.
57:49
I told you.
57:50
I've heard it before because I fly a lot.
57:51
But the old lady who you're yelling at as if she's been told a million times, this is the new old lady.
57:57
The last one was a different person.
57:59
Do you follow them on Instagram?
58:01
No.
58:01
Oh, they have the best.
58:02
TSA has the best Instagram.
58:04
Oh, that's right.
58:05
I think I've seen...
58:06
Anyway, our live stream is about to run out of battery.
58:09
So I want to wrap up here.
58:10
Was there any other point that you wanted to make about Eric Garner and policing?
58:15
Um, no.
58:16
I felt like I might have cut you off and then gone down a rabbit hole about... Um...
58:21
No, just be nice to cops.
58:23
Be nice to each other.
58:25
Don't be nice to Nathan Fielder.
58:28
No, I'm kidding.
58:28
But definitely watch the movie.
58:30
Also, don't be nice to Elizabeth Holmes' husband if you happen to come across his penis in a title pool.
58:37
Give it a slap.
58:38
Don't touch it.
58:38
Thank you, Yael.
58:40
We'll be crossing fingers and holding our breath throughout the week.
58:44
And if not, hopefully we'll still be friends.
58:46
Yes, we will still be friends regardless of what you could have been about this month.
58:50
See ya.