184: What About Bobsled, with Moe Tkacik

Quick Overview

The hosts discuss the disqualification of the Israeli Olympic bobsled team for lying to officials to substitute a Druze teammate, linking the incident to broader themes of Israeli hasbara and PR failures, alongside a detailed investigation into documents found in the Epstein files concerning Mort Zuckerman and Robert Maxwell.

Key Points: The Israeli four-man bobsled team was disqualified from the Olympics after lying to the Olympic Committee of Israel (OCI) by faking an illness for athlete Yuri Zisman to allow alternate Ward Fawarsa Far Fars, who is Druze, to compete. Pilot AJ Edelman confirmed the withdrawal after placing 24th, stating, "circumstances under which we made the substitution did not meet the bar that allows a team to make a change and we withdrew from the final run." Host Matt Leeb tweeted that it is "physically impossible for an Israeli to follow international rules," leading Alon Levy to suggest the disqualification was poetic, implying they lied for a 'good reason' (wokeness). Investigations editor Moe Tkacik shared findings from the Epstein files indicating Mort Zuckerman was transferring millions to Epstein after an Alzheimer's diagnosis in 2013 to manage trusts, including assets from the New York Daily News. A document from James Hat, a British intelligence officer, claimed Robert Maxwell's missing £1.4 billion was hidden with Latvian-Bulgarian mobster Gregory Luchansky, and Ghislaine Maxwell was procuring individuals for Russian generals and Latvian businessmen. The hosts also noted that after the bobsled team's failure, Zionist media pivoted to celebrating USA Hockey's gold medal win where Jack Hughes scored, prompting commentary about Mike Huckabee's immediate tweet emphasizing Hughes' Jewish identity. The podcast hosts expressed pride in their listeners for duping one of them, 'Fool's' (Hal), twice with an AI-generated satirical pro-Israel song that was later swapped for an overtly genocidal, anti-Israel version.

Context: The podcast, Bad Hazbara, hosted by Matt Leeb and Daniel Mate, features an interview segment with Moe Tkacik, investigations editor at the American Prospect. The discussion ranges from current events, specifically the bizarre disqualification of the Israeli Olympic bobsled team, to deep dives into leaked documents, referencing the ongoing fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein case involving figures like Mort Zuckerman and the complex financial dealings surrounding Robert Maxwell's media empire.