r/BreakingPoints

Breaking Points covered the tariff refunds the other day and how that money is not making it back to consumers. In the same episode they also mentioned how Trump wants to reduce the capital gsins tax which mostly benefits the wealthy. Corporations are reporting record profits this year while bankruptcies are rising. Between all the corruption like Trump's crypto coin and the pardoning of financial fraudsters, it seems like those in power are doing everything they can to take as much money as possible from the system. All this is happening while budgets are getting cut back on nearly everything that benefits the average citizen. Trump is basically advertising it's a free fire all in white collar crime.

Ive been watching these guys for about 2 years now very regularly. I'm starting to become full on nihilistic. I dont know how to not internalize all the horrible news and corruption. Anyways I canceled my sub and am going to take a break for awhile. Still love them

Source from Reuters:

[Moderna vaccine cuts recurrence and spread of high-risk melanoma, raising new treatment hope](https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/merck-moderna-say-melanoma-skin-cancer-vaccine-meets-goals-large-trial-2026-08-19/)

Public health & science has had a very rough decade. Grifters like Trump, Fauci & RFK Jr. have confused & misled so many Americans.

I think this is a moment where we can all come together and have a round of applause. Melanoma has much better treatments now & these personalized mRNA vaccines can be used as a prototype for other cancers.

Medicine, science & public health is a wonderful thing. Breaking Points has long discussed how Trump & Fauci did so much damage during covid.

Maybe now we will have better days ahead.

The El Sayed race is an interesting one, and according to recent polling he's around 4% behind Rogers. Would you support Sayed attempting to appeal to more moderate or centrist voters to make up the gap?

Obviously this was a common argument used for more moderates during rhe last election, that they needed to work for and appeal to more progressive voters. It's also cited as to why some lost. So, if sayed loses, will it similarly be because he failed to reach out to and give moderate voters a reason to vote for him?

I’m a new premium sub and I was looking for the link to the 8/18 AMA in the morning in my inbox .. and couldn’t find it. Also checked on supercast.

Then earlier this morning, I found it posted on Supercast. So where can I access the live AMA’s?

If its alright with everyone id like to split off Israel from this and discuss it in a later topic as I feel like if Israel is part of it it will be the only thing discussed.

If I were to simplify the position of DSA in this field it could be summed up into two things. First that the US empire should end and as a collorary to that the US should stop acting like the first of equals and instead join more multilateral organizations and bind itself to international law.

First of I dont necessarily have a problem with international treaties. If you think everyone to the right of DSA is Hitler well even he had international pacts with Japan and Italy and honored them for the most part. If anything its Japan who did not honor it by not declaring war on Russia.

The problem with the current international treaties is that it tries to bind you to things you did not agree to. Take the recent Iran deal. Iran agreed to get 300 bn in funds and to charge after 60 days. Trump says they agreed to open the straits but not the benefits. Take Oslo. Everyone says Israel agreed to give the Palestinians a state. When in reality all Oslo said is there would be negotiations. Take the JCPOA. Everyone thought it would be as binding as treaty when in reality every GOP president said they would leave it. Take even the Geneva Conventions. The US or Israel did not agree to the additional protocols but all of a sudden they are bound by it if the opponents agree to it.

People and nation states agree to what they agree to. The problem with international law is it constantly insists that you agreed to things you didnt. If were being honest if advocates of international law stopped trying to expand it to force nation states to bend to their will fewer people would have a problem with it.

On to the bigger thing which is the American Empire. Well discuss the benefits of Empire later on but first of lets talk about the aftermath. The DSA types seem to believe that there will be this multipolar utopia after the US empire breaks down where every nation is independent.

That is not true. After the US empire there will either be another empire in China or more likely a bi polar world with China and the US heading 2 co equal empires. Thats how it always happens historically. Rome did descend into the dark ages right away. First it split into Eastern and Western empires and then into multiple power centers in the dark ages. I would actually argue multiple co equal states is even more dangerous as that is what encourages wars since multiple states beleive they can win and start wars.

Be that as it may why should the US empire be preserved? In my opinion and I know many people will disagree with this is the anglo-saxon empires actually have a unique characteristic in that they constantly do altruistic things that empires in the past wouldnt have done.

The UK ended the trans atlantic slave trade. That was a major harm to its economy. It could have just looked the other way and moved on. The US protects international shipping for free. In the past this would never have happened. If you were a Spanish merchant you recieved protection from the Spanish Navy. If an English Ship saw you raided by pirates they would probably laugh at you. In exchange the Spanish merchant pays the Navy in the form of taxes etc. None of the thousands of ships transiting the world pay the US anything. That act alone massively drives down the cost for everyone. Theres no guarantee that future empires would do this.

Does the US act for itself and make other countries act to its benefit? Sure. But I contend any empire would do that. With the US you at least get some benefits to go along with it.

Maybe it’s just my busted algorithm but apparently all I see is GOP propaganda talking about Muslim take over of America, and an Islamo-leftist-facist-socialist-communist alliance that wants to take control of America and impose Sharia law, then you have propaganda attacking big bad scary Mamdani with his Muslim ideas like affordability and Abdul with his Sharia healthcare plans…crazy stuff..

Ummmmm Muslims are at most 1.5% of the US population so first of all idk who falls for this cheap propaganda.

Is it just me though? Or is anyone else noticing Muslims are the new “them” now?

Also if there’s a group that’s literally taking over the country it’s definitely not Muslims but let’s not go there

Krystal brought this up today when they talked about the state of the economy & Trump's plans to continue to cut taxes for the richest Americans.

Corporate profits as a percent of GDP are at an all time high & their taxes are at an all time low. With the knowledge that the government will bail them out if things go south.

President Trump is pushing aides for a meeting as soon as this fall with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, U.S. officials said, seeking to revive a dramatic diplomatic quest from his first term to convince Kim to abandon his country’s nuclear weapons program.

https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/trump-pushes-for-kim-jong-un-meeting-this-year-2a9f9ae0

I feel like this should be a big deal but isnt? Ive been told by anti war media that UAE is not being attacked as they are paying Iran off by delivering gold and frozen assets yet they are now cutting off trade?

How much trade can they do if the ports are blockaded?

I don't know if anyone here wants to do a full breakdown of all primary races this year so far of the youth vote, but thats where the real direction of the country indicator is at.

According to one post-election analysis, Thomas Massie took the 18-29 vote at 79 percent.

I guarantee we would see similar numbers for many Democrat primaries, even the ones in Florida today.

Any analysis other than the boomers saving the establishments ass is just cope. Especially when it comes from younger liberal political commentators who have a younger audience demographic. They think their ideas are winning but it's really just crusty old boomers who love Israel and want their property taxes eliminated.

I really enjoyed video and the epic rant that Saagar and Krystal let loose today on the real-time disintegration of the ability of the US to project power. Leaving Korea, Japan and Taiwan out to dry by first starting the war and then revealing weakness after weakness to China and the rest of the world is disastrous and on so many fronts. I agree with Saagar that when we look back upon this it'll probably marked as the worst foreign policy blunder in the nation's history and that it will have had tremendous geopolitical consequences.

This pretty much sets the starting gun for vast nuclear proliferation which countries will not let go of given that we will be heading for a multi-polar world.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/2026-08-16/ty-article-magazine/.premium/once-rejecting-israeli-citizenship-golan-druze-are-now-getting-ready-to-vote/000001a0-0a64-d88f-abbf-deedb15f0000

some good news from Israel. As most of you know the apartheid regime does not let the people from occupied territories vote. However for the first time in this election the formerly Syrian Druze from the Golan Heights have elected to take Israeli citizenship and will be voting this election!

It seems like they were targeted by Hezbollah in some attacks which changed their mind. Of course no proof was presented that these werent false flag attacks from Israel.

Did anyone else find this interview incredibly frustrating today? The race based worldview Elijah expressed to criticize Debbie Wasserman Schultz running in a historically Black district was mind numbing.

Setting aside the substance of her campaign (and the fact that she is generally a terrible person), I couldn’t believe how openly he framed his critique as her being a white person with the audacity to run in a “Black” district. That kind of rhetoric feels like vintage woke‑1.0 thinking that I thought Democrats learned to avoid.

I’m paraphrasing, but one of his main complaints was that she was a “white carpetbagger trying to take away one of the last Black opportunity districts.” I understand this touches on the Voting Rights Act and the debate over majority‑minority districts, but I cannot believe that a serious commentator expressed something so blatantly racist.

Beyond the explicit racism, implicit in his opinion is that black people need a black representative to have their voices heard, that a black representative will inherently represent the interests of black people, and most critically, that all black people share a common interest.

Reducing millions of individuals’ politics, priorities, and perspectives into one monolithic racial category is, quite literally, extremely racist.