Child Tax Credit
A-aron from WA here, Love the show and look forward to the next year of BP heading into the election. I wanted to know if you had any information on the CTC bill that was big in the news a few months ago and disappeared from the headlines when it reached the Senate. It seems like it was a good bill and I imagine has a lot of support but now i haven't heard anything new about it.
Recognition of Israel: Topic Titles
Howdy all! Ry here! Long-time listener from Texas (yeehaw!) I appreciate the work you two, Ryan, and Emily all do. Thanks for keeping my mind open to what’s going on in the world. Hearing y’all’s’ opinions on it all is invaluable. Now, onto the question: Israel is committing genocide. For decades, they've disregarded international law and boundaries, leading to ongoing atrocities, and the land they occupy was stolen. Not Jewish, but I spent a few months in Israel in 2018. When I told an American friend I was going, his face dropped. Very coldly said, “I don’t recognize Israel.” At the time I didn't understand what he meant or why he said it, but in recent years, I've come to understand his stance. You both (and Ryan and Emily) all do a good job of calling things what they are and what they appear to be. That is, you all do not shy away from calling this a genocide, something I (and many others) appreciate. That said, regarding the topic labels, could we shift the on-screen titles during these segments from "Israel" to either "Gaza" or "genocide"? It's a small change, and it may seem silly or petty, but it's one more way to keep the focus on the severity of the situation. Thanks again for all that you do- you make a difference. Best, Ry
Long Term Demographic Effects of Leftist vs Rightist Movements
Hello, Can you please discuss the long term effects on the demography of the US of both movements? There is a ton of dialogue akin to the following: The left doesn't have nearly as many kids, are more likely to be LGBT, and so on and therefore in a generation most parents will be centrist or conservative. This will trickle down etc. Furthermore, this will lead to serious political divisions between a conservative/centrist parent class and a single/childless more left administrative class. I thought this ridiculous at first but there are a surprisingly large amount of statistics that contribute to this worldview and plenty of anecdotal evidence across the board. I am curious what you both think about this. J
Krystal on Colman Hughes
Hi guys, At one point in your analysis of Colman's argument, you imply that he is being dishonest and ignoring facts. While I think he is very obviously on the pro Israel side of this argument, to the point where I would agree he is, at a minimum, reading precision and discipline in to situations where the opposite is occurring, I think calling him dishonest is a character attack when you seem to also be ignoring things that he said, and you are selectively picking the weakest moments of his discussion with Joe: 1. In terms of the hospital discussion: They are clearly talking about the most recent hospital raid, which even though there were many civilian casualties, it is undeniable that there were at least dozens of militants present as well who were captured or killed. You point to the claim of the command node as disproof (which I agree is dubious at best) but he (Colman) is not making that case here. 2. More importantly, you left out his most credible comment on the difficulty of the urban warfare that is (seemingly) unique to the Israel/ Gaza war: the fact that Hamas has imbedded itself so well into the population and was able to dig hundreds of miles of tunnels under Gaza. That type of insurgency (especially given the fact that they have pretty large popular support in Gaza) makes fighting Hamas all the more difficult. I believe Saagar has even addressed this point and pointed out the difference between fighting an organization like Hamas vs ISIS. None of this is to justify the obvious war crimes that have been committed, or moralize the situation in favor of one side or the other. I am primarily bringing the two comments above up to inquire about your own selection biases. I don't believe these choices were deliberate, but especially on this topic (Israel/ Gaza) there seems to be a level of selection bias being made that I do not see on other topics. Again, thank you guys for everything you do, and I watch your show daily (and will continue to) even though I have disagreements. Thanks!