Live From The Table: Batya Ungar-Sargon - The Elites Betrayed the Working Class (and some Israel) 

Batya is such a breath of fresh air. Thank you for having her on the show!

I have grown to appreciate her voice! And I heard her interview in Hebrew with Gadi Taub.... I did not know she had lived in Israel!

More of these please.Enjoyable episode

Technical comment: color grade getting interesting, one click in the better direction on two of the angles, one click in the worse direction on the guest angle. Lenses still have a small aperture, rendering noisy quality (easy to fix).

Periel losing her mind in the background over The Fink 😅

21:35 This was the focus of a series in Tablet, _Ending U.S. Aid to Israel._ We derive a great deal more benefit from Israel's R&D and live testing than is commonly acknowledged; the "aid" is in large part a subsidy for our own MIC and it too often serves to keep Israel on a leash. And if Batya's optimism is unfounded, and at least some segment of our population really is growing more hostile to Israel, it would behoove the Israelis - for their own security - to be less dependent on the fickle sympathies of a Democrat who can't win without Michigan.

Place a border tax/tariff so that products reflect the costs/regulations that we place on domestic production. If another country/region can produce at a competitive price on a level playing field then great.

It is admirable and inspiring to hear Ungar-Sargon thinking about and dealing head on with opposing opinions coming from intelligent intelocutors. That said, many of the latter, delegitimize a Jewish nation that was conferred formally with its legal national status. One that was founded on the same principles that led to the creation of Bangladesh, Pakistan, East Timor (Timor-Leste) and others. Yet for them, Israel should be *at best*, converted to a one state for two people. Anyone with any historical knowledge of how Muslim Arab countries ethnically cleansed millions of Jews from their midst during the mid 20th century (check out the Jewish population in Bagdad - before and after 1950!), will agree that calling for such formulation suicidal for its intended Jewish population. This is why the prog-woke point of view is at best delusional, and at its worst anti semitic.

Excellent episode

9:37 Mehdi Hasan comes across as cynical. Hausdorf makes really compelling points.

I agree with her on immigration (the type that's going on today in that it's predominantly low skilled and poor as opposed to immigration that's spread out evenly among the 5 quintiles) and vocational ed but you have to be judicious when it comes to tariffs. For example (and as pointed out by Thomas Sowell), yes, the steel tariffs saved a lot of steel jobs BUT it also destroyed many more jobs in the steel USING industries. Same with sugar. Trump bitched about Nabisco moving a plant out of the U.S. but never once thought to consider that it might have something to do with the high cost of sugar due to the burdensome tariffs on that commodity. My suggestion to this nice lady would be to always ask the most important question in the world; then what?

I really enjoyed this conversation, great one

Excellent conversation. And all of Noam's debate predictions were 100% correct.

Fantastic!!! I love this podcast.

Y’all warm my frickn heart

She thinks tariffs on steel caused big pay increases for workers and smaller increases for rich.

What Batya said about poor people not liking handouts is 10000% true. I have volunteered with my homeless neighbors for decades and they are incredibly stubborn about insisting they can work. Sadly, most of them cannot, due to mental illness. Trying to get a disabled person on the street to cooperate with my attempts to get them signed up for disability was like banging my head against a solid block wall. Almost all of them insisted they could get a job. And many of them could get a job, but would quickly lose it (people suffering from paranoid schizophrenia often struggle with authority and the stress of customer service - I could tell you some hilarious stories) . Instead of paying people disability, we could have specially trained job coaches accompany mentally ill people to workplaces and assist them in both functioning and remaining employed (we could give companies tax breaks for employing mentally ill people). Our homeless neighbors are desperate for a sense of dignity, and an industry that enables mentally ill people to work, and to receive housing based on their labor, would be so healing for the most vulnerable. Even the most desperately poor and disabled people I've met find the concept of handouts degrading and insulting.

Finally someone says economists are wrong. I remember first thinking that was obvious in 1999.

19:38 This is the point of David Cole's essay, "Stop With the Golems, Already!"

She lost any credibility once she stated that Israel doesn't need US anymore cause it has new allies such as uae or the Saudis (which don't even have diplomatic relations with Israel). I almost choked on my coffee. I have no idea how well she's versed in the internal US affairs, but that was the stupidest thing I heard for some time

1:10:00 That is awful. That's a good argument for rent control

I am heavily libretarian but I will say Batya in many ways is very right on as I am working class and lives in the Bay Area and I see constantly in tech that snaobbery she talks about but several are in denial about it. I will say that I am not in favor of universal health care, sorry but someone always pays for it and at times even another country does as the US for prescription drugs for Europe and Canada. Arguably perhaps in my opinion at least the biggest problem now is inflation since the 70’s thanks in large part to the fed and big govt!

I disagree that Hispanic people in the US should think of Israel the same as of Egypt or Jordan. The former is a thriving democracy while the latter are failed states with terrible human rights records, women’s rights, and minority rights.

Norman Finkelstein is known to be extremely meticulous in his research. His integrity is impeccable.

Noam calling Dave Smith a leftist is just silly.

Finally, someone who supports Trump’s argument that he asserted in the debate with Biden about immigration and wages.

Douglas Murray won that debate in the opening statement. Anti-Zionism is anti-semitism because the facts that are made in support of the claims made by anti-Zionism are the same as those occurring elsewhere, without objection or simply not true: the so-called ethnic state (which is every country in the world but the United States), colonialism (which was really migration to avoid persecution, which is otherwise ok, except for the Jews, and apartheid (which is directly contradicted by the Arabs with full citizenship in Israel and, as respects Gaza and the West Bank, the need for security while at the same time trying to recognize, per int’l agreement, some autonomy). Therefore, there has to be an ulterior motive and the most likely, without being able to read one’s mind, is anti-semitism.

But everything points that 'from the river to the sea' would mean the death and persecution of Jews

Americans will NEVER give up zoning to increase housing.😊

Noam welcomes different points of view yet he seems anguished when anti zionists don’t agree with him. He takes it personally. At least not as personally as Periel, does.

Finally, someone intelligent who understands Trump and his policies.

Batya should be QUEEN. She's the best. Refreshingly original and smart. 💜

A labor union is a monopoly on an input to production - the only place they work is where the cost to move is prohibitive. We fight other monopolies, unions should not be different.

Dave Smith is also a great debater.

I saw a report that Israel trained dogs to grape palli hostages. Any truth to that?

This podcast is a study in the mind numbing art of discussing the exact same thing week after week after month after month etc etc.

Yes, Finkelstein is the best and most fair.

god batya is wrong about everything, particularly the embracing populism stuff she has been on about so often... but she is really so likable its hard to be mad..

I don't think she justified any of her economic claims

Noam welcomes different points of view yet he seems anguished when anti zionists don’t agree with him.

Dans illogical elitist liberal beliefs really came out in this episode. He normally hides them better.

Norman Finkelstein!

Norman Finkelstein is known to be extremely meticulous in his research. His integrity is impeccable.

Noam welcomes different points of view yet he seems anguished when anti zionists don’t agree with him. He takes it personally. At least not as personally as Periel, does.