Chapter 1: What are the recent developments in the Iran conflict?
And Ahmed Baba and I are back. Two brothers talking. Let's talk about this girl school thing. This is turning into a real quagmire because the new, they, look, we know, we talked about, there's no justification for this war. Every word, every time it comes out of their mouths, it's some different excuse.
When this girl school hit, which was like the first or the second day that we were in this Iran. From what I'm seeing from the New York Times reporting, apparently was around the same time as a Supreme Leader strike. Okay. And so you had these 175 people killed at this school, but mostly, pardon me, mostly elementary school girls.
And now the new Supreme Leader, who is even more of a hardliner than his father who was killed, is saying he's going to avenge their deaths. And this is going to be one of the main points of revenge. This is a quagmire. It's a quagmire. It's an atrocity. It's inexcusable because, you know, like you said right at the top, the war had no justification.
Chapter 2: What atrocities are emerging from the war with Iran?
They have all these shifting justifications. They talk about an intermittent threat. They shifted all of it. And then right out the gate, You have all these military analysts talking about how successful this strike was because it took out the Supreme Leader and those levels of leadership. Within that same period of time, they struck that school and they used 10 years outdated
data was not updated. The school had been changed to a school 10 years ago, right? And they did not update that data. So we need to know what broke down here. And this comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth has said, no more rules of engagement. No more, he says, you know, we need more lethality, not tepid legality, right? So what happened here that made them make this atrocious error?
And why isn't there more universal pushback? Because this is something that There's no excuse and everyone should be up in arms about it. Well, it's... And at every single turn, the distraction that Trump sets up from the Epstein files becomes something else. Everything is a distraction from the distraction from the distraction from a distraction.
But they just keep going because I think that he's neutered the media. He's trying to kill independent journalists, right? Jail independent journalists like me. And because we can't be bought. And so a free press should not be able to be bought or should be concerned about ramifications coming from the powers that be. It's supposed to be a check on the powers that be, not stenographers.
Chapter 3: How does the new Supreme Leader's stance affect the war?
No, exactly. And that's, I actually had this question for you later. We can get back to the strike in a second. But like, I wanted to see, you were an anchor at the highest level. You've covered every big story that you could imagine. How do you think mainstream media should be covering this atrocity and this war generally? Like, how do you think everybody should be approaching it?
I think everyone is approaching it as if these are normal times and they're about, you know, what the justification was. There is no justification for this war. We know what it is. We know that it's wag the dog. We know that all the intelligence, there was no intelligence that said that there was an imminent threat to Israel or an imminent threat to the United States.
We do not have intercontinental, I mean, excuse me, Iran does not have intercontinental ballistic missiles that will reach the United States. And the last intelligence that we got, or at least the Trump administration said, which was just a couple months ago, that they had annihilated and destroyed Iran's ability to even create a nuclear weapon.
And then you're going to come back just a couple months later and say, oh my gosh, it was imminent. I think Marco Rubio gave it away when he said, we did it because Israel was going to strike and then they were going to retaliate and we didn't want that to happen. Then how about stopping Israel from striking rather than striking Iran?
Because what you're saying is that the imminent threat was Israel. That's what you're saying, whether that's true...
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Chapter 4: What errors led to the tragic school strike in Iran?
I guess that's what they say. That's what it is. That's what it is. That's what it is. I mean, look, look at his chummy relationship with Bibi Netanyahu. Exactly. That Bibi Netanyahu should be pardoned for everything. And so, yeah, that's what this is. So how should they be covering it from that aspect? But they're afraid to.
They're afraid to do it because people are afraid of as someone who's part of a black Jewish alliance. People are nervous about criticizing the government and the military, the IDF of Israel, because they don't want to be called antisemitic.
We've got to stop this whole thing that if you criticize and if you analyze what's happening overseas, especially as it relates to the Middle East and Israel, that any criticism of Israel is antisemitism. It is not. Now, is there some antisemitism in there? Absolutely. Is anti-Semitism on the rise? Yes. And it is horrific and it should stop. But let's just call it for what it is.
So the news media should be doing that. They should be having more open conversations about that and challenging the powers that be, the power structure. Look at what's happening with, and I'm speaking of what's happening with CBS and Paramount, and which will soon own CNN. They're Trump allies. They're extremely pro-Israel. They're one of the biggest donors to Israel, which is fine.
Fine, but that should not trickle down into the newsroom and to the journalists, and it should not be affected, or there should be no bias about that. There should be no influence about that. Any ideology, whether it is Judaism, Christianity— Islam, it should not be affecting what journalists have to say or should be saying in the news. That's how we should be covering it.
Honest conversations, productive conversations, not booking people just to sit around tables and fight. It is unproductive, untoward, and embarrassing. So there's my answer. That's a great answer, man. And you're right. I mean, I think, like, the media is afraid to be accused of anti-Semitism, but, you know, criticizing Netanyahu and his far-right coalition is not anti-Semitism.
I'm married into a Jewish family myself. They hate Netanyahu before I even did. Before I even, like, it's like... No, the Jewish people I know hate Netanyahu more than the Netanyahu non-Jewish hater. Exactly. And with Netanyahu, like, what's not being covered here, I've been looking, you know, Netanyahu has an election later this year.
You know, Netanyahu has every reason to have started this war. He has an election coming up this year. Trump also has an election coming up this year. What ended up happening was Trump's desperation level finally met that of Netanyahu and he finally agreed. Trump had disagreed with the strike in April, apparently, reportedly.
And then Netanyahu went and did it on his own with the 12 day war in June. And then basically Trump, from what I've heard and what I've seen reported, Trump liked the way it played on Fox News, the June strikes from Israel and then joined. So now this time he got high on Venezuela and then now he wants to do this.
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Chapter 5: Why is there a lack of universal pushback against the war?
So I think that aspect about Netanyahu's desperation politically, he needs war. to survive politically. He needs, he thinks this war will help him ahead of the election this year. No, I think that that aspect needs to be covered.
And honestly, when it comes to this, this, this atrocity, this, this children, this children massacre, basically that happened here based off old intelligence, this error. If I keep using this analogy, like people are making excuse. Oh, it was near a military base. All right. So, OK, I grew up in Virginia. Quantico has schools in and around the base. Right.
If Iran had striked a school in a military base in the U.S., we would be in World War Three immediately. This would be Pearl Harbor, be bigger than Pearl Harbor. And we're just supposed to discount these Iranian lives because they're brown girls in a far off land. Their lives don't matter. It's just a casualty of war. I think the American people are seeing through this now.
And there's a new frame about how we're looking at war. And those NATSEC people that go on TV and talk about how successful the strike is, you can't tell me that a successful strike involved killing 165 girls and up to 175 people with their teachers. That was a very astute question when you asked me how should the news media be covering this.
And because I think that the girls' school should be breaking news. That should be the lead story, breaking news, the Epstein cover-up, and, you know, obviously gas prices. That should be the breaking news. If you imagine, let me just take you, imagine if there was a girls' school here in the United States that that happened to.
right imagine if it was in the uk if that had happened to anywhere in any european country imagine if it was as we were talking about israel imagine if it happened in israel Imagine if it happened in any other place besides, you know, in Iran. What would happen? It would be they would be calling for war tribunals and investigations and be court-martialing, all kinds of things.
But for some reason, I mean, I don't think it's even the top story, but certainly the new supreme leader, Khamenei, No, it's not Ali. What is his name? Maktaba? Is it Maktaba? Yeah. Yeah. Harmony. He's saying we're going to avenge that, and that's going to be the main thing. And now I'm worried. I'm worried, as are many people.
that it may come to American shores because of that awful, one reason is because of that awful strike. They can deal with the other military stuff, but if it was not for that girl's school, I don't think it would be as personal for him, even though his dad and his wife died in those strikes, by the way. His dad's wife and apparently one of his sons, you know?
So it's like, you now have, what did you achieve? You replaced one extreme leader who had previously agreed to the JCPOA with a more extreme leader. I can tell you what he achieved. A hornet's nest. That's what he did. Yes. He went in and like there was a nest of bees or wasps and he took a broomstick and hit it. And now they're buzzing around. That's it.
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Chapter 6: How should mainstream media cover the Iran conflict?
It's like, wait a minute. How are you going to tell me short term pain for long term gain when I can't even afford the gas prices as they are now when I can't wait to get my next paycheck so that I can pay off the things that I didn't pay off on my last paycheck? Do you know what I mean? Yeah. And B for Violet is right in the comments. The next leader is always more extreme.
Right on, B. You win the gold star for comments of the day. Yeah, appreciate you guys being in the comments, by the way. Smash that like button. Boost the video on the algorithm. It'll boost the post afterwards. And you already know, subscribe. You don't got to be told, but you know, subscribe to Don Lemon. Hit me up too. Last week, I hit the top.
You know, you're already in the rising sub stacks, top 100. Yeah. I hit that last week. Appreciate y'all. you know, subscribe, support independent journalism. But, but yeah, man, like it's just, that's why independent journalism is necessary. Cause we're having these conversations. We're having the real talk.
We're talking about what mainstream media, you know, I have been seeing them ramp up the coverage. Fortunately, the New York times actually, uh, They're the reason why we know about this because they did that first visual investigation. So we have seen some some good things. And, you know, I just really think that we need we need to we need to make the moral case.
Like, I think Democratic leadership should not be talking about process or talking about like, oh, we need approval. OK, you need approval. But also the war is wrong. The war is morally wrong. There you go. Yeah.
It's just like I said, some things are objectively bad and some things are just wrong and you don't have to have, well, let's have some balance and we have to have this side on to hear that. And it was like, what are you talking about? What are you doing? And that's why, look, injecting This far right-wing or MAGA ideology into the mainstream of media is what is going on now. Yes.
And so we cannot, as journalists, fall into the trap of false equivalence or normalizing this because then it just becomes normal. And you're like, okay, well, you know. Maybe there was a reason for the war. And it's like, no, there's no reason for this right now. So, yeah. Ahmed Baba. Thank you, sir. Good to join you, man. Take it easy. I appreciate you.
And congratulations on making the top 100. Appreciate you, man. You're always up there. I'm just catching up to you. Appreciate you always doing these lives, man. Keep hustling. Keep doing what you're doing. Thank you. I'll see you soon. See you next week.
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Chapter 7: What political motivations might influence the war's continuation?
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