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Speaker 1: Hey, guys, thanks for listening to Breaking Points with Crystal

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Speaker 1: and Sager. We're gonna be totally upfront with you. We

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Speaker 1: took a big risk going independent to make this work.

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Speaker 1: We need your support to beat the corporate media CNN, Fox, MSNBC.

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Speaker 1: They are ripping this country apart. They are making millions

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Speaker 1: of dollars doing it. To help support our mission of

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Speaker 1: hour early before everyone else. You get to hear our

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Speaker 1: reactions to each other's monologues. You get to participate and

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Speaker 1: weekly ask me any things, and you don't need to

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Speaker 1: hear our annoying voices pitching you like I am right now,

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Speaker 1: com become a Premium member today, which is available in

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Speaker 1: the show notes. Enjoy the show, guys, Good morning, everybody,

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Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday. We have an amazing show for everybody today.

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Speaker 1: What do we have, Crystal, Indeed we do. We've got

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Speaker 1: a bunch of really fascinating stories this morning. So Amazon

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Speaker 1: was caught destroying out one warehouse over one hundred and

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Speaker 1: thirty thousand items per week. We're going to dig into that,

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Speaker 1: some really fascinating rulings from the Supreme Court, including on

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Speaker 1: the NCAA, and then I'm also focused on my monologue

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Speaker 1: on one regarding Goldman Sachs. Everybody coming together to let

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Speaker 1: them off the hook. Good old fashioned bipartisanship. Gotta love

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Speaker 1: that Sager's taking a look at the rise of barstool conservatives.

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Speaker 1: Today is New York City's mayoral race primary, and like

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Speaker 1: the worst political contest of all time. Ross Barkana is

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Speaker 1: going to dig into all of the dynamics there and

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Speaker 1: what to expect. But we wanted to start with American

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Speaker 1: Airlines canceling a whole bunch of flights and basically blaming

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Speaker 1: their workers. This is a huge story that actually ABC News,

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Speaker 1: mainstream media actually does a decent job enough at least

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Speaker 1: in order to sum up the situation. Let's take a listen,

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Speaker 1: we'll dissect it on the other side. This morning, the

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Speaker 1: cancelation of hundreds of flights is being partially blamed on

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Speaker 1: a staffing crunch, as a record number of travelers returned

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Speaker 1: to the skies. American Airlines canceling one hundred and twenty

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Speaker 1: three flights on Saturday, one hundred and seventy eight on Sunday,

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Speaker 1: and today more than one hundred flights are canceled already,

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Speaker 1: the airline blaming significant staffing shortages and maintenance issues. American

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Speaker 1: says it will continue to cancel at least fifty to

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Speaker 1: sixty flights a day for the rest of June and

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Speaker 1: fifty to eighty flights per day in July. So there's

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Speaker 1: a lot going on here, Chris. We'll obviously people look

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Speaker 1: at that and say, hey, what's going on here? Do

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Speaker 1: we have a labor shortage? All of that? Well, you know,

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Speaker 1: it just turns out though that if you dig a

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Speaker 1: little bit deeper, you might remember about a year and

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Speaker 1: a half ago, whenever we designed a custom bailout for

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Speaker 1: the airline industry, which I was fine with. We had

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Speaker 1: Sarah Nelson on the show who was talking about how

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Speaker 1: vital it was in order to make sure flight attendants

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Speaker 1: got paid, and because the airline industry itself like if

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Speaker 1: you let it bottom out, you're completely screwed. Part of

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Speaker 1: the thing, though, is if you're going to bail them out,

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Speaker 1: you would say, oh, maybe we're gonna put some restrictions

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Speaker 1: on that money. Well, let's take a trip down memory lane.

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Speaker 1: Shall we put it up there on the screen. In

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Speaker 1: terms of how exactly we designed this thing ten point

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Speaker 1: six million dollars in compensation the CEO received last year

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Speaker 1: and still forced thousands of workers into leave early retirement

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Speaker 1: and furloughs. Now blaming labor shortages. Go ahead and throw

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Speaker 1: the next one up there. In terms of how we

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Speaker 1: exactly designed this bailout, five point eight billion dollars in

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Speaker 1: pandemic assistance from the Department of Treasury. Four point one

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Speaker 1: billion of that was a grant. It wasn't even alone.

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Speaker 1: Only one point seven billion of that was actually the loan.

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Speaker 1: And yet today they are canceling now one percent of

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Speaker 1: their total flights. And it's not me saying boohoo for

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Speaker 1: you know, commercial airline passengers. There are freight concerns, but

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Speaker 1: really what it is is that these companies took literally

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Speaker 1: billions of dollars in pandemic bailout, and now they spent

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Speaker 1: that time furloughing people, firing people, reducing their labor, and

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Speaker 1: now they can't keep up with the demand and they're

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Speaker 1: trying to create some artificial story about, oh, we have

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Speaker 1: the labor shortage or whatever. We gave you literally billions

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Speaker 1: and billions and billions of dollars, and now you're crippling

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Speaker 1: the US economy once again, and you're making it seem

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Speaker 1: as if this entire thing was a total joke in

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Speaker 1: the first place. It really is terrible what they've done here,

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Speaker 1: and I do feel bad for people who maybe this

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Speaker 1: is like their first vacation, their first venture out after

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Speaker 1: business pandemic. For those people like the regular families who've

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Speaker 1: saved up their money to go somewhere after the pandemic

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Speaker 1: and it's like their first time. I do feel really

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Speaker 1: bad for these people where it turns into a total

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Speaker 1: might marry, your entire trip might be ruined. And I

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Speaker 1: love that they don't give any context for oh, it's

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Speaker 1: a labor shortage. Well, why do you have a labor shortage.

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Speaker 1: We bailed you out with the express provision in the

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Speaker 1: original bailout package that this money should go to keeping

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Speaker 1: your workforce. So what happened They took the money, They

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Speaker 1: kept those workers until the date that we said okay,

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Speaker 1: after September thirty. If I think was the last day.

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Speaker 1: Then you can do whatever you want after those bailout

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Speaker 1: provisions expire and they want ahead and laid off, furloughed

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Speaker 1: or forced down thirty thousand of their workers. So it's

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Speaker 1: not like just oh, boo hooo, we have a labor

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Speaker 1: shortage and there's nothing we can do about it. You're

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Speaker 1: the one that created that labor shortage, and somehow that

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Speaker 1: context is wildly missing for most of the mainstream coverage.

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Speaker 1: I took a look at I was actually perusing CNBC yesterday.

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Speaker 1: I need to watch them more often because it is

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Speaker 1: incredible the type of content they put on. I jumped

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Speaker 1: right from a segment. The headline of the segment was

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Speaker 1: Jim Kramer weighs in on like American airlines layoffs, but

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Speaker 1: it was even worse than He didn't even say anything about.

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Speaker 1: It was just him complaining about like lazy millennials not

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Speaker 1: wanting to come to the office. And then the next

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Speaker 1: one up with some dude who was like trashing redditors

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Speaker 1: for not respecting the fundamentals anyway, this is how CNBC

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Speaker 1: covered the American airline situation, just framing it as a

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Speaker 1: labor shortage, just coming dropping out of the sky with

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Speaker 1: absolutely zero context. Let's take a listen. CBC dot com

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Speaker 1: airline reporter Leslie Josephs is covering the story for US.

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Speaker 1: She joins us, Now, Leslie, why is it American in

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Speaker 1: particular that can't seem to get workers? So what American

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Speaker 1: is dealing with now they have packed their schedule a

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Speaker 1: little bit fuller than some of their competitors or closest

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Speaker 1: competitors like Delta and United. And what they're finding is

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Speaker 1: there are a shortage of workers during the middle of

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Speaker 1: training pilots that might have been idled during the pandemic.

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Speaker 1: I mean, remember, think back to a year ago, we

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Speaker 1: were retiring planes. Airlines were telling employees to please, please

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Speaker 1: please take an early retirement or a bio package. So

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Speaker 1: their focus has switched entirely. So that's why they're seeing

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Speaker 1: a little bit of this strain. Add to that a

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Speaker 1: little bit of seasonal weather, and this is the recipe

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Speaker 1: for what we're seeing right now. It's amazing. Nothing about

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Speaker 1: nothing about the bailout provisions, nothing about how they laid

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Speaker 1: off thirty thousand workers. Just like well, you know, they're

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Speaker 1: ramping up a little different than everybody. They got to

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Speaker 1: get these pilots back online. Ridiculous. No, it's terrible. And

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Speaker 1: this is actually this maybe is a little bit of

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Speaker 1: a corollary to I've talked about how in many ways

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Speaker 1: I think the labor shortage is just revenge for Americans

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Speaker 1: bad policy, which is that at the beginning of the pandemic,

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Speaker 1: we made the choice to force people onto unemployment. What

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Speaker 1: we should have done is actually what we did for

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Speaker 1: the airline industry in the very first place, which was say, hey,

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Speaker 1: we're going to pay you billions and billions of dollars fine,

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Speaker 1: and in exchange, you have to use that money in

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Speaker 1: order to keep people on your workflaw on your in workplace,

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Speaker 1: because the airline industry is critical to the way we

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Speaker 1: function freight and all that. Actually, I think every industry

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Speaker 1: should have been declared critical, and that's how we should

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Speaker 1: have done everything. But what did I forget, which is

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Speaker 1: that in the United States, what they did is they

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Speaker 1: wrote in these ridiculous provisions making it so oh until

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Speaker 1: September thirtieth. I actually remember covering it at Rising. It

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Speaker 1: was maybe David Dane or somebody else there who's like, listen, guys,

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Speaker 1: like come September or not September thirty. First, what August

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Speaker 1: or whatever comes back October? Okay, there we go October.

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Speaker 1: Come October first. He's like, everyone's going to get fired,

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Speaker 1: everyone's going to get furloughed. And I was like, oh

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Speaker 1: my god, he's totally right, and that is exactly what happened.

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Speaker 1: And now here we are, sixteen seventeen months now into

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Speaker 1: the pandemic. These people have been laid off. Travel demand

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Speaker 1: is actually surged. A lot of people have savings, like

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Speaker 1: you were saying, people who bought flights that want to

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Speaker 1: take their first vacation, and now there's a fake labor

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Speaker 1: shortage in terms of American airlines. We actually did everything

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Speaker 1: that we were supposed to do in terms of designing

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Speaker 1: that program. We just wrote it so that they get billions.

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Speaker 1: Then they didn't actually have that much restrictions on the

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Speaker 1: way that they were going to spend the money, and

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Speaker 1: then made it so that they created their own fake

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Speaker 1: labor shortage. And what also grinds my gears is if

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Speaker 1: you were a small business in your paycheck production program

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Speaker 1: and you got alone like this, you did not have

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Speaker 1: the ability to fire people at all. You had to

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Speaker 1: use all that money to keep people on payroll again

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Speaker 1: a provision I support. So if you were a small business,

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Speaker 1: you had all these restrictions on how you got your money.

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Speaker 1: You did get some custom bailout from the Fed. You

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Speaker 1: didn't get some post bailout from Congress. You had to

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Speaker 1: apply to the bank. And even then the bank like

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Speaker 1: put you in whatever order they want. Limited pool airline

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Speaker 1: gets a specially cut and tailor designed bailout and they

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Speaker 1: get all this money, and then in the end, at

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Speaker 1: the end of the day, what's going on. They didn't

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Speaker 1: even use it in the way that we told them to.

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Speaker 1: It's fundamentally unfair the way that we did this entirety.

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Speaker 1: So this whole episode with the airlines, and as I

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Speaker 1: was thinking about this yesterday, has actually kind of changed

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Speaker 1: my mindset over what we should have done at the

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Speaker 1: beginning of the pandemic. I'll tell you why in just

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Speaker 1: a second. So I was reading Andrew ross Orkin when

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Speaker 1: these bailout programs were being contemplated a while back, wrote

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Speaker 1: a piece about does the airline industry really need this bailout?

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Speaker 1: And what he wrote is no other industry affected by

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Speaker 1: the pandemic received more from the government. There was no

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Speaker 1: special program for hotels, for restaurants, for travel agencies. Companies

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Speaker 1: in those industries had to line up for the Small

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Speaker 1: Business Focus paycheck protection program and prey the largest loan

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Speaker 1: in the program could make was ten million dollars, as

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Speaker 1: opposed to the five billion that the airline industry received.

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Speaker 1: And so what I realized here is that you're right.

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Speaker 1: We actually sort of held this up and we talked

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Speaker 1: to Sarah Nelson as the model of what they should

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Speaker 1: have done for other industries. Well, you know what, it

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Speaker 1: turns out, actually the most effective part of the program,

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Speaker 1: of all the different relief programs that we had in place,

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Speaker 1: was just given people cash, just straight giving people cash.

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Speaker 1: The addition of the child tax credit, the unemployments insurance system,

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Speaker 1: Yeah it was clunky, but that also just putting cash

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Speaker 1: straight in people's pockets, if that worked more effectively, those

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Speaker 1: were the pieces that lowered poverty. And actually now are

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Speaker 1: giving workers a tiny bit of cushion so that they

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Speaker 1: can say, like, screw you, I'm not going back to

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Speaker 1: work on the frontlines for seven to twenty five. Screw y,

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Speaker 1: I'm not working for tips at whatever what is it,

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Speaker 1: two dollars and whatever. So I actually think we have

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Speaker 1: so much of a mindset in this country that like, oh,

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Speaker 1: we have to be skeptical every time we're handing out

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Speaker 1: cash directly to people. Maybe they're going to be lazy,

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Speaker 1: maybe they're not going to spend it in the right way,

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Speaker 1: maybe they're going to be irresponsible for this money. But

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Speaker 1: the reality is actually the individual human beings use the

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Speaker 1: money in far more efficient and productive ways than these

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Speaker 1: giant companies. So even this program, which again was kind

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Speaker 1: of the best of the best in terms of it

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Speaker 1: required that you kept the employees on. Of course, the

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Speaker 1: minute that they can lay them off, the minute those

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Speaker 1: provisions expire, they go ahead and do that. They give

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Speaker 1: their CEO ten million dollar pay compensation so that he

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Speaker 1: can apparently like completely fail on the other side kind

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Speaker 1: of the pandemic. So even in the best case scenario,

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Speaker 1: we were better off just straight giving cash to people.

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Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, that's something our federal government,

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Speaker 1: which is capacity has been stripped down over years and

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Speaker 1: years and decades and decades, something that they were able

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Speaker 1: to do very efficiently and very effectively. Yeah, actually it's

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Speaker 1: more of a matter of timeline. I agree with you. Look,

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I want people to

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Speaker 1: have the money. I think at the time the reason

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Speaker 1: I was arguing for it was because people's bank account

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Speaker 1: information already existed with their employers and we didn't. We

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Speaker 1: had some initial implementation problems around the stimulus checks. I

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Speaker 1: want to say, I think we own that. Just didn't

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Speaker 1: think it was likely that the American political system would

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Speaker 1: be like, instead, let's just hand out large amounts of cash. Yes,

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Speaker 1: this was more like a pree Overton window. I was like,

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Speaker 1: look like, we got to give people money we need

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Speaker 1: as soon as humanly possible. And the way I was

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Speaker 1: thinking about it was that, look, people are already attached

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Speaker 1: their payroll. And also, if you think about it from

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Speaker 1: a business concerned perspective, like the businesses are like we

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Speaker 1: can't find anyone, etc. I actually understand that. I sympathize,

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Speaker 1: especially if you're one of the smallest businesses or one

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Speaker 1: of those people who truly can't compete, or you didn't

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Speaker 1: get a PPP loan or any of these things. The

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Speaker 1: problem that we had, again is that Washington basically kicked

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Speaker 1: people off onto unemployment then left them to dry and

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Speaker 1: screwed around with the plus ups. Did we not have

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Speaker 1: any plus up in terms of like extra cash for

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Speaker 1: months on end while Congress was getting its act together,

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Speaker 1: and then people because of these like crazy lockdown procedures,

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Speaker 1: some people were on unemployment, went off unemployment back on,

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Speaker 1: but that takes months, so that those systems were total

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Speaker 1: are totally regular. We're a total disaster. I've heard from

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Speaker 1: many of you actually telling me about how often how

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Speaker 1: difficult it was in order to get your unemployment, and

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Speaker 1: so I was saying, like, look, the easiest way thing

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Speaker 1: to do this is the payroll. But all the retconning

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Speaker 1: of like what we should have done, et cetera. It's

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Speaker 1: just so disgusting to watch this company who got billions

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Speaker 1: of dollars and to come out and now say they

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Speaker 1: have some labor shortage. It was like, what was the point?

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Speaker 1: Why did we bail you out? It gave you billillions

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Speaker 1: and billions to make sure your industry remained robust. And

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Speaker 1: again fair airlines are we need airlines. The country needs

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Speaker 1: it in order to move freight passengers. Is critical, even

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Speaker 1: at the height of the pandemic. We had it all

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Speaker 1: for a reason. But it really pisses me off watching

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Speaker 1: them come out and make these fake excuses, and it

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Speaker 1: just makes you think, like, can we do anything fairly

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Speaker 1: in this country anymore? Yeah, what are you supposed to

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Speaker 1: think if you can't catch a flight because of this?

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Speaker 1: And you see how much money that these people got

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Speaker 1: in the pandemic. So this is also for Andrew Ross

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Speaker 1: Sorkin again about like how we could have used the

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Speaker 1: money in a better fashion. So the money that we

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Speaker 1: gave the airlines likely saved about seventy five thousand jobs,

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Speaker 1: really significant, right, critical for those people at a cost

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Speaker 1: of three hundred thousand dollars per job. Wow, those people

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Speaker 1: are not making three hundred thousand dollars by the way.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, some of the pilot's flight attendants,

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Speaker 1: like these are good middle class jobs or flight attendants,

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Speaker 1: but they're not making three hundred k a year. So

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Speaker 1: we spent that much money. It's just wildly inefficient, right

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Speaker 1: give it. I really have come to believe that individual

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Speaker 1: human beings can be trusted with direct cash infusions to

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Speaker 1: a far greater extent than any of these businesses that

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Speaker 1: are always, always, always looking for every way to cheat

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Speaker 1: suck up that money for themselves, like buy back their

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Speaker 1: stock all of that stuff. And that's the other piece

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Speaker 1: of this if we even go back before the pandemic,

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Speaker 1: why were the airlines so close to the wall that

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Speaker 1: the minute there was a drop in their revenue and

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Speaker 1: their passengers who were flying they were totally screwed. Well,

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Speaker 1: it's because they spent all that the corporate tax cut

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Speaker 1: money from Trump. They spent that on stock buybacks so

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Speaker 1: that they could enrich themselves and enrich their shareholders, rather

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Speaker 1: than investing in their business and making sure that they

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Speaker 1: had that resiliency if there was a downturn. So again,

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Speaker 1: as I look at this kind of my big takeaway

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Speaker 1: is we should just trust people and working Americans way

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Speaker 1: way way before we trust these idiots who find every

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Speaker 1: way they possibly can to fail and then just expect

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Speaker 1: that they're going to be bailed out no matter how

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Speaker 1: uncomfortable they're Actually, this is the thing. These people don't

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Speaker 1: get people. I don't know, how often do you think

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Speaker 1: you can get away with this, like in terms, we

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Speaker 1: had it on two thousand and eight Wall Street bailout,

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Speaker 1: give everybody bonuses AIG. I mean, that was probably as

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Speaker 1: close to the biggest popular outrage that we saw on

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Speaker 1: something economically in a long time. Obviously that faded, but

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Speaker 1: then you see this American Airlines story next time around,

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Speaker 1: How are you, like, do you think you're going to

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Speaker 1: get bailed out? Do you really think so? Maybe? Now,

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Speaker 1: maybe you will because the government did all that congressional

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Speaker 1: system is there, but like this all has to break

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Speaker 1: at some point. And so look, I've I mean American

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Speaker 1: Airlines yesterday it was like trending. It was one of

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Speaker 1: the biggest stories in the country. And coincidentally, I didn't

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Speaker 1: see very much coverage of it, Like yes, you know,

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Speaker 1: CNBC goes and covers it for about thirty seconds with

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Speaker 1: some thirty seconds or the American Airlines pr tells us

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Speaker 1: and they're like, and now let's happen to you. You're

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Speaker 1: on to explain why he can't get any workers and

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Speaker 1: didn't misspend five billion dollars. Same thing though, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I saw it trending all across the country in terms

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Speaker 1: of the Internet outrage. People were contacting us about it

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Speaker 1: and more, but the actual mainstream coverage of it wasn't there.

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Speaker 1: So it just seems to me like one of those

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Speaker 1: mainstream backlashes again sorry, a backlash against the mainstream and

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Speaker 1: very popular outrage around this type of story because people

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Speaker 1: understood and saw that while they were waiting for a check,

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Speaker 1: while they were waiting for extra unemployment, while they wanted

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Speaker 1: the lockdowns to end, while they wanted some proper information

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Speaker 1: that these people were getting bailed out to the tune

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Speaker 1: of billions. And we remember some of the initial bailout

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Speaker 1: outrage whenever people understood I think it was David Dayan

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Speaker 1: talking about the trillions of dollars a federal reserve and

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Speaker 1: all that were shooting, which would have been fine if

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Speaker 1: you had reciprocal programs for people who were working, and

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Speaker 1: that just faded off as time went. Now we're at

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Speaker 1: this strange time, like people do have money in the bank,

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Speaker 1: two hundred million Americans or so or not. I mean,

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Speaker 1: they're not like a you know, they're like still a

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Speaker 1: paycheck away from bankruptcy. But you know, that's a little

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Speaker 1: bit better apparently than where things were before. And yet

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Speaker 1: the memory has not faded around how people remember this

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Speaker 1: type of stuff. And I suspect that the next time

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Speaker 1: around that it made things be different. Although you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe I should be more cynical. Our political class doesn't

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Speaker 1: respond to popular will. I mean, that's just the reality

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Speaker 1: and so, and especially when you have a situation like

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Speaker 1: maybe you're in Atlanta or what's is it Houston that's

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Speaker 1: the big hub in Texas where there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: jobs at stake and the airlines kind of oh, well,

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Speaker 1: your economy is going to crash if you don't get

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Speaker 1: the bailout. It's very compelling case. You know, your point

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Speaker 1: about media, I think is really important, really interesting because

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Speaker 1: why does this not get coverage because there's not a

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Speaker 1: Trump angle and there's not a Biden angle, So because

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Speaker 1: you can't fit it neatly into this like Democrats are

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Speaker 1: bad or Republican are bad. Narrative, they're just like, eh,

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Speaker 1: we don't really care, even though it, you know, is

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Speaker 1: something that says so much, not just about this current moment,

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Speaker 1: but there's so many lessons to be taken from it

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Speaker 1: about how we approach this entire situation to start with.

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Speaker 1: And if you don't think that we're going to find

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Speaker 1: ourselves in another downturn, pandemic, collapse, crash where we're faced

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Speaker 1: with these kinds of questions again, you're fooling yourself. And

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Speaker 1: actually to that point, and it's not just Democrats bad,

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Speaker 1: Republicans bad. Everybody was complicit in this. The White House

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Speaker 1: at all parties, I mean a past ninety nine. Oh,

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Speaker 1: if I recall through the US Senate, this is what happens,

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Speaker 1: you know, when you have total and complete bipartisanship. And

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Speaker 1: I think it's an important lesson to remember exactly how

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Speaker 1: these things play out. Speaking of corporate mouthfeasans, we get

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Speaker 1: another good one for you from Amazon. Yeah, okay, this

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Speaker 1: is probably one of the craziest things I've ever seen.

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Speaker 1: So ITV news out of the UK has caught Amazon

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Speaker 1: destroying millions of dollars worth of merchandise for no discernible reason.

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Speaker 1: And I'll explain why they say that they do so,

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Speaker 1: but let's watch this video first because it's totally nuts.

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Speaker 1: Let's take a listen. So from a Friday to a Friday,

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Speaker 1: our target was approximately one hundred and thirty thousand items

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Speaker 1: a week. The target to destroy from one center was

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Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty thousand items. Yes, okay, So let

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Speaker 1: me explain this to you, which is that what they

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Speaker 1: caught there with the guy who was on camera, was

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Speaker 1: that Amazon is destroying millions of items of unsold stock

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Speaker 1: in just one of its UK warehouses every single year,

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Speaker 1: and that this is indicative of a company wide policy.

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Speaker 1: So what they found is that they are destroying one

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Speaker 1: hundred and thirty thousand items a week, and we're talking

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Speaker 1: about brand new stuff, dice and fans, hoover vacuums, the

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Speaker 1: occasional MacBook and iPad. The other day, twenty thousand face

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Speaker 1: masks still in their wrappers. Here's what he said. Overall,

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Speaker 1: fifty percent of all items are unopened, still in their

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Speaker 1: shrink wrap. The other half are returns and in good condition.

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Speaker 1: Staff have become numb in terms of what they are

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Speaker 1: asking to do. So you might ask why exactly is

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Speaker 1: all of this happening, Well, what's happening is that because

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Speaker 1: of their business model, they have it such that they

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Speaker 1: store with stuff inside of their warehouse. It's called fulfilled

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Speaker 1: by Amazon. It's actually one of the most profitable parts

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Speaker 1: of their business, which is that you're a third party seller.

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Speaker 1: But in order to take advantage of Amazon's distribution, you can.

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Speaker 1: Amazon will list your goods on its website obviously, and

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Speaker 1: then when I buy it, Amazon will fulfill the order

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Speaker 1: because they have the third party goods inside of their warehouse.

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Speaker 1: But then the question arises, like what exactly do you

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Speaker 1: do whenever you have extra stuff, and it turns out

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Speaker 1: that the actual physical policy at least look at least

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Speaker 1: in the UK in terms of what's happening, is that

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Speaker 1: they are destroying it. They're not even going in trying

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Speaker 1: to donate it to anybody, They're not making any efforts.

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Speaker 1: They're literally incinerating and destroying hundreds of millions of dollars

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Speaker 1: worth of goods. And this is so insane it's actually

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Speaker 1: royaling UK politics. Even Boris Johnson weighed in on this,

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Speaker 1: but I thought this was important enough, Christel, because are

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Speaker 1: they doing the same stuff here? We should ask a

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Speaker 1: lot of questions because if they are, I think there's

431
00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:40,119
Speaker 1: a lot of people out there who could view some

432
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:42,880
Speaker 1: of this stuff and it's just totally unopened and they're

433
00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:46,760
Speaker 1: just destroying it. It's insane. It is completely nuts. And

434
00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:49,960
Speaker 1: your question is the right one because just to emphasize again,

435
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:56,040
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty thousand items from one warehouse every

436
00:22:56,480 --> 00:23:00,720
Speaker 1: single week. Yeah, like think about that. Well, you think

437
00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:03,920
Speaker 1: their policies are different here. Do you see Amazon giving

438
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,080
Speaker 1: out goods to the needy across America? No, we don't,

439
00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:10,119
Speaker 1: So what's happening to those goods? It's an excellent question

440
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:11,920
Speaker 1: and could us them for doing the reporting here they

441
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:14,920
Speaker 1: got basically a whistleblower inside the warehouse. They were able

442
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:19,200
Speaker 1: to film undercover footage revealing how this was taking place.

443
00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:22,080
Speaker 1: They even had footage of them like taking these electronics

444
00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:25,800
Speaker 1: to essentially the dump for them to be destroyed. You know,

445
00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:27,800
Speaker 1: I got to give it to and Boris Johnson actually

446
00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:30,120
Speaker 1: made a pretty good josh about it. He said, this

447
00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:33,960
Speaker 1: is an indictment of a consumerist society, so as much

448
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:37,679
Speaker 1: of it as it's an indictment of Amazon and their practices,

449
00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:40,119
Speaker 1: and how gross it is that I mean, basically, the

450
00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:42,800
Speaker 1: bottom line is why would they do this. It's because

451
00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:45,760
Speaker 1: they have to keep the prices for all these goods high.

452
00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:48,239
Speaker 1: So they can't just be given stuff away because then

453
00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:50,320
Speaker 1: people won't want to buy stuff as much, right, so

454
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:53,320
Speaker 1: it would depress demand for the other stuff that they're

455
00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:55,280
Speaker 1: trying to sell. So rather than giving it to people

456
00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:57,640
Speaker 1: who need these goods, who can't afford these goods, they

457
00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 1: rather just destroy it in order to protect their profit margins.

458
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:04,800
Speaker 1: So certainly an indictment of Amazon and their practices. And also,

459
00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:06,240
Speaker 1: by the way, there are a lot of questions over

460
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:09,600
Speaker 1: whether they've been lying about exactly what they do, because

461
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:12,920
Speaker 1: apparently they've been asked before, like how much of your

462
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:16,440
Speaker 1: goods are destroyed? And they're like almost nothing, next to nothing,

463
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:20,320
Speaker 1: very very little is your definition of very very little?

464
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:24,840
Speaker 1: One hundred and thirty thousand items at one warehouse every

465
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:26,960
Speaker 1: single week. I don't think that would be a reasonable

466
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:31,159
Speaker 1: person's definition of very little. So Amazon totally culpable. But

467
00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,720
Speaker 1: it does just show, you know, how gross it is

468
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:38,440
Speaker 1: the fact that we've all had drilled into us in

469
00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:42,400
Speaker 1: American society, Western society ri at large, like this religion

470
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:46,440
Speaker 1: around consumerism, Like we're always sold this bill of goods

471
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,560
Speaker 1: that like the next item, the next purchase, the next whatever,

472
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:51,359
Speaker 1: is going to make us happy, it's going to make

473
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:54,159
Speaker 1: us popular, it's going to make us beautiful, it's going

474
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:57,720
Speaker 1: to make us fulfilled, when the reality is anything but.

475
00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:00,400
Speaker 1: And at the same time, it's just it's such an

476
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:06,840
Speaker 1: incredibly wasteful it's like grotesquely wasteful. So while we're at

477
00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:09,600
Speaker 1: the same time, at the individual level, like trying in

478
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 1: different ways to be responsible, let me see if I

479
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:13,680
Speaker 1: can recycle a little more. Let me see if I

480
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:15,320
Speaker 1: can you know, use a little bit more of the

481
00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:18,760
Speaker 1: food run and throwing it out. These giant corporations are

482
00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:24,919
Speaker 1: just incredibly abusive with the resources of the world. Just

483
00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:28,639
Speaker 1: you know, all of these manufactured goods that create tremendous

484
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:32,880
Speaker 1: pollution and tremendous waste then just being tossed aside into

485
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:36,760
Speaker 1: a landfill to compose over hundreds and hundreds of years.

486
00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:40,440
Speaker 1: It really is a sort of like grotesque picture of

487
00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:43,240
Speaker 1: exactly what we're doing here as a society. Yeah, and

488
00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:45,560
Speaker 1: what's crazy to me too, is it just shows how

489
00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:47,200
Speaker 1: full of it they are and how much they've bought

490
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:49,800
Speaker 1: the political system. Because yes, while Boris Johnson may have

491
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:52,160
Speaker 1: said that, yeah, I love this and it's just good

492
00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:54,720
Speaker 1: to see that all Western societies are the same. The

493
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:58,440
Speaker 1: business secretary told ITV news this is in the UK.

494
00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:01,159
Speaker 1: M hm. It was very surprise about the findings of

495
00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 1: our investigation and said he wanted to get to the bottom.

496
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 1: But he adds, I know Amazon is committed to net zero.

497
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:11,000
Speaker 1: They've committed huge amounts of investment to the rainforest to

498
00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:14,240
Speaker 1: keep the rainforest going. I'm surprised. I haven't read the report,

499
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:16,120
Speaker 1: so I'll have to take a look at the response

500
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:19,480
Speaker 1: is But what's funny is if you read Amazon's statement,

501
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:22,720
Speaker 1: they basically use the same They use the same language.

502
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:25,639
Speaker 1: We are working towards a goal of zero product disposal.

503
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:29,280
Speaker 1: Our priority is to resale, donate to charitable organizations, or

504
00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:32,640
Speaker 1: recycle unsold products. No items are sent to the landfall

505
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,120
Speaker 1: in the UK. As a last resort, we will send

506
00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:38,119
Speaker 1: items to energy recovery. But we are working hard to

507
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:40,720
Speaker 1: drive the number of times as happens down to zero.

508
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:43,000
Speaker 1: So it's like we're a little harder guy. The same

509
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:47,320
Speaker 1: language that Amazon uses baking like, we're working hard to

510
00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:49,440
Speaker 1: get zero. And you know they talk about net zero

511
00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,280
Speaker 1: climate and all this stuff is the same stuff that

512
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:54,680
Speaker 1: comes out of the mouth of the I think it's

513
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,880
Speaker 1: the equivalent of our commerce secretary in the UK. Amazing

514
00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:01,240
Speaker 1: even Amazon runs stuff over in the UK. I didn't

515
00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:03,040
Speaker 1: even know, of course, And this is the amazing thing.

516
00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:05,800
Speaker 1: If they're throwing away millions of things in the UK,

517
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:08,159
Speaker 1: which has a population I think like one sixth or

518
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:11,040
Speaker 1: like one seventh the size of the US, what the

519
00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:13,400
Speaker 1: hell is going on over here in terms of what's

520
00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:16,880
Speaker 1: going on in our warehouses and what exactly is being done,

521
00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:19,080
Speaker 1: because not just in terms of the way they treat

522
00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:22,959
Speaker 1: their workforce, but the physical goods inside of these inside

523
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:25,960
Speaker 1: of these warehouses that could be used for so many

524
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:29,320
Speaker 1: better purposes. I think it just reveals again and it's true,

525
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:32,000
Speaker 1: which is that we were talking yesterday about widget brain

526
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 1: around housing, where people are like, oh, look, when you're

527
00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:37,880
Speaker 1: a widget, you're just better off if you know renting

528
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:42,080
Speaker 1: and you know, disregarding any of the social benefits of housing.

529
00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:44,760
Speaker 1: This is the same thing. They're like, look, we need

530
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:48,040
Speaker 1: thirty percent more warehouse space. The fastest way to get

531
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:50,440
Speaker 1: of that warehouse space is just a junket. I mean,

532
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 1: in one of these pictures is a Samsung q LED TV.

533
00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:58,280
Speaker 1: It's like a three thousand dollars TV. It's complex's nuts

534
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:01,760
Speaker 1: in terms of what who could imagine like a nursing

535
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:03,760
Speaker 1: home or like, I don't know, a kid's home. There

536
00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:06,159
Speaker 1: are so many people out there UK too. They're not

537
00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:08,760
Speaker 1: actually that rich of a country in terms of what

538
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:11,040
Speaker 1: some of the people over there could use it. So

539
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:14,160
Speaker 1: I just think it's a really gross indictment of everything.

540
00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:16,920
Speaker 1: I am very glad that ITV did this investigation. Yeah,

541
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:19,480
Speaker 1: and you're right to say, like, let's not give Boris

542
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:21,959
Speaker 1: Johnson too much credit here. You made a nice comment,

543
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:24,160
Speaker 1: but you know, you have power to do a lot

544
00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:26,119
Speaker 1: more than make a nice comment. And it is also

545
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:29,399
Speaker 1: interesting that his focus is not he says this is

546
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,440
Speaker 1: an indictment of a consumer society, rather than like, this

547
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:34,239
Speaker 1: is an indictment of Amazon, and we're going to get

548
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:36,480
Speaker 1: to the bottom of what have in here? Right, So, yeah,

549
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: that's a good point. That's one point there. Hey, So

550
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:42,280
Speaker 1: remember how we told you how awesome premium membership was. Well,

551
00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:44,480
Speaker 1: here we are again to remind you that becoming a

552
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: premium member means you don't have to listen to our

553
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:50,040
Speaker 1: constant please for you to subscribe. So what are you

554
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:52,640
Speaker 1: waiting for? Become a premium member today by going to

555
00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:55,080
Speaker 1: Breakingpoints dot com, which you can click on in the

556
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:58,120
Speaker 1: show notes. Okay, we have an update for you on

557
00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 1: the bipartisan instructure negotiations that have been ongoing. I mean,

558
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 1: the bottom line here is this whole attempt at a

559
00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:12,240
Speaker 1: bipartisan package is pretty much a hot mess. One good

560
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 1: thing did happen. Biden came out. Remember one of the

561
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:17,760
Speaker 1: pay fors that they've been floating with. This is a

562
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 1: guest to x, which is absurd, absurd that you're going

563
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:24,760
Speaker 1: to make the working class of this country long suffering

564
00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:27,720
Speaker 1: and with the least ability to pay that you're going

565
00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:31,080
Speaker 1: to put the infrastructure price tag on their back. So

566
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 1: Biden did come out and rule that out, and they're

567
00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 1: framing it, and I mean he is on these sorts

568
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:39,480
Speaker 1: of things. He has pretty good political instincts, I think,

569
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:42,880
Speaker 1: and he also sees it as would be breaking his

570
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 1: pledge not to raise taxes on anyone making less than

571
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:47,720
Speaker 1: four hundred thousand dollars a year, which I think is true.

572
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:49,880
Speaker 1: We could throw this tweet up on the screen showing

573
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 1: what Biden had to say there. So this was Jensaki

574
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:55,400
Speaker 1: to CBS this morning said Biden is a hard no

575
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 1: on the gas tax. An idea that's been floating around

576
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:00,880
Speaker 1: that certainly the President would not support is a gas

577
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:03,200
Speaker 1: tax which would raise taxes on people making less than

578
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:05,440
Speaker 1: four hundred k a year. We're not going to stand

579
00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:08,840
Speaker 1: for that. So very clear language, very unequivocal. At least

580
00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:10,760
Speaker 1: someone has half a brain over there, because a gas

581
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:13,040
Speaker 1: tax is like the dumbest idea that is ever. It's

582
00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:16,400
Speaker 1: politically dumb, and it's also the wrong thing to do,

583
00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:19,000
Speaker 1: just like on every level, it would be a bad

584
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:20,840
Speaker 1: direction to go in. Okay, So that's off the table.

585
00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:24,640
Speaker 1: So what are the other payfors that are being proposed

586
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:29,360
Speaker 1: in this bipartisan infrastructure deal. Well, David dan who always

587
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:31,480
Speaker 1: always follow what this guy is doing, he's one of

588
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 1: the few that really digs into the details and gets

589
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,240
Speaker 1: down to the nitty gritty of what's actually being proposed.

590
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:39,840
Speaker 1: And it turns out, remember when Trump was proposing his

591
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:42,640
Speaker 1: infrastructure deal time and time again, and a lot of

592
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:46,120
Speaker 1: liberals and a lot of progressives were rightfully very exercised

593
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:49,600
Speaker 1: that this was like basically, it was a privatization of infrastructures,

594
00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:52,920
Speaker 1: give away to the private sector, and the payfors there

595
00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:56,840
Speaker 1: were very uncomfortable. Well, a lot of those same mechanisms

596
00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:00,480
Speaker 1: are being included in this bipartisan deals. So let's throw

597
00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:03,920
Speaker 1: David Dayan's tear sheet up here on the screen. He says,

598
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:08,280
Speaker 1: Bipartisan Senate Infrastructure Plan is a stocking horse for privatization.

599
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 1: The scheme would fund new infrastructure by selling off old infrastructure.

600
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:16,680
Speaker 1: And by the way, Trump proposed the same thing. So

601
00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:20,000
Speaker 1: here's some of the details. Let me just read you

602
00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:21,640
Speaker 1: a little bit from the piece. He says, the really

603
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:24,240
Speaker 1: scary piece in terms of the pay force is labeled

604
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 1: public private partnerships, private activity bonds, and asset recycling. Okay,

605
00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:33,480
Speaker 1: in the name of building world class infrastructure, these lawmakers

606
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:36,960
Speaker 1: will sell it off in fire sales to private financiers.

607
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:40,560
Speaker 1: We have lots of experience with infrastructure privatization that strongly

608
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:44,120
Speaker 1: suggest it should be avoided. Those first two things. Public

609
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:47,440
Speaker 1: private partnerships, you can imagine what that is. That's basically

610
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:49,560
Speaker 1: like toll roads, that sort of thing where you're like, hey,

611
00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 1: private company, why don't you build our infrastructure, and then

612
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:54,680
Speaker 1: you can charge user fees, again largely to work in

613
00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:58,440
Speaker 1: class people to pay for it. You have private activity

614
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:03,320
Speaker 1: bonds that's just like debt by another name, an asset recycling,

615
00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:05,200
Speaker 1: which is one of these terms that you'd read and

616
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:08,440
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, recycling, that sounds good, right, Like, what's

617
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 1: going that sounds crazy? What's going on there? What they

618
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:15,160
Speaker 1: mean is we're going to take our existing port or whatever,

619
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 1: sell it off and then use that money to build

620
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:22,440
Speaker 1: some other thing. This has been tried here, It was tried,

621
00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:25,480
Speaker 1: he points out. It was tried notably in Australia, total failure,

622
00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:30,320
Speaker 1: total disaster. Oftentimes, the projects that they sell off were

623
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:34,360
Speaker 1: actually good public works. Projects that the public was benefiting

624
00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:37,240
Speaker 1: from the government was receiving tax revenue from, like a

625
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:39,520
Speaker 1: port is a good example of that. And then the

626
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:42,920
Speaker 1: things that they build, the asset that they're I guess

627
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 1: recycling this into turned out to be sort of like

628
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:49,360
Speaker 1: hair brained and useless and not particularly well done. The

629
00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:52,160
Speaker 1: other bottom line piece here is we talked about this

630
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:54,560
Speaker 1: a little bit yesterday. There's always this assumption that's like

631
00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:59,520
Speaker 1: baked into the American economic political ethos that, oh, the

632
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:02,960
Speaker 1: privatesctor must be more efficient, they must do a better job,

633
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:05,880
Speaker 1: they must do it in lower costs and all of

634
00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 1: that and a shorter timeframe. But it's really not the

635
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:11,240
Speaker 1: case because, I mean, for a very obvious reason, the

636
00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:15,960
Speaker 1: private sector has to build in profit margins into whatever

637
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:19,120
Speaker 1: it is they're doing. So we've seen time after time

638
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:22,240
Speaker 1: that you should not assume that relying more on the

639
00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:24,520
Speaker 1: private sector is going to get you into a better place.

640
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:26,480
Speaker 1: But it's just it's interesting because a lot of the

641
00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:30,320
Speaker 1: criticism of the infrastructure package, the bipartisan infrastructure package this far,

642
00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:33,440
Speaker 1: has been around it's not enough money, something we've talked

643
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:36,760
Speaker 1: about here also from the left, like this isn't dealing

644
00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:40,600
Speaker 1: with climate change whatsoever, both totally in my view, legitimate criticisms.

645
00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,280
Speaker 1: But this piece has gotten it has been ignored until

646
00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:45,720
Speaker 1: David Day and pointed out. And it's also really super important.

647
00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:47,760
Speaker 1: It's super important. And also he just shows how many

648
00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: Democrats are full of it. I mean, I love this line.

649
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:52,280
Speaker 1: There was a time when Democrats oppose such schemes. It

650
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 1: was during the Trumps, it was any years talks exactly

651
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:59,120
Speaker 1: about how Democrats rightfully and loudly objected to giving up

652
00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:02,520
Speaker 1: public access to investors because the biggest money makers would

653
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:06,080
Speaker 1: be forward, it would be favored. But so why would

654
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:08,879
Speaker 1: he I love this, Why would Democrats entertain going down

655
00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:12,399
Speaker 1: the exact same road under Biden until despite the fact

656
00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:14,759
Speaker 1: that they rebuffed it under Trump. And I think that

657
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:16,840
Speaker 1: we all know what the answer to this is. And

658
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:20,040
Speaker 1: it actually is a decent example of like uniparty whenever

659
00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:23,000
Speaker 1: it comes to the economic proposals that we put forward.

660
00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:26,400
Speaker 1: And I agree, this is a terrible, absolutely terrible idea.

661
00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:29,359
Speaker 1: And the Australia part I actually didn't know. I looked

662
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:31,080
Speaker 1: a little bit into it, and he's totally right, which

663
00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:34,359
Speaker 1: is that we borrowed this from a previous scheme and

664
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:36,279
Speaker 1: in that case of what happened in Australia, there was

665
00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:38,360
Speaker 1: actually a lot of outrage over some of the things

666
00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:41,440
Speaker 1: that were auctioned off that were actually quite not profitable

667
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:44,040
Speaker 1: but net positive or whatever in terms of Jack's revenue.

668
00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:48,000
Speaker 1: And I've said this a million times instead of faking

669
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:50,799
Speaker 1: all these pay fors. If there is one thing on

670
00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 1: Earth that you deficit spend, it's called infrastructure, because we

671
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:59,560
Speaker 1: all know that the social and economic benefits explode whenever

672
00:34:59,600 --> 00:35:03,560
Speaker 1: you have infrastructure. It can open up new areas of commerce,

673
00:35:03,719 --> 00:35:06,200
Speaker 1: it can open up new business lines, it can open

674
00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:08,719
Speaker 1: up all sorts of different things, and that you will

675
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:11,800
Speaker 1: more than recoup it in terms of tax revenue, benefit

676
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:15,520
Speaker 1: to the community and more. Infrastructure is by definition, the

677
00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:18,040
Speaker 1: type of thing that you're supposed to deficit spend for.

678
00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:22,320
Speaker 1: And instead we're playing all these like kabuki theater games

679
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:26,400
Speaker 1: in DC around auctioning things off that we already have,

680
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:30,879
Speaker 1: around raising the private bonds or whatever. Reading like why

681
00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:33,680
Speaker 1: is any of this necessary? Go out and ask people

682
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:37,200
Speaker 1: do you care about how the infrastructure package is paid for?

683
00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:40,640
Speaker 1: In the most intuitive thing, even people who have businesses

684
00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:42,640
Speaker 1: and more understand that the type of things that you

685
00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:45,440
Speaker 1: deficit spend for are investments which are going to pay

686
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:48,120
Speaker 1: out ten x longer in the long run, so you

687
00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:50,480
Speaker 1: put the money down. Well, when you're a government, this

688
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,520
Speaker 1: is one of the few times that the business whatever

689
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:55,960
Speaker 1: example actually does apply. You should do the exact same thing.

690
00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:58,319
Speaker 1: And so I think the politics around this are just

691
00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:02,880
Speaker 1: so farcical generally, and that the David Dayan piece reveals

692
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:06,479
Speaker 1: how in a way people use deficit politics and pay

693
00:36:06,520 --> 00:36:08,879
Speaker 1: force in order to just cover up for a lot

694
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:12,560
Speaker 1: of corporate giveaways. Yeah, that's what social mightyological agenda. That's right.

695
00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:15,480
Speaker 1: And actually I think I think if you ask people,

696
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 1: and we've seen some of the polling on this, how

697
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:19,120
Speaker 1: they want it to be paid for, they do have

698
00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:22,480
Speaker 1: a preference. They want rich people in corporate right to

699
00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:25,360
Speaker 1: be taxed. That's what they want. I mean, we saw

700
00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:28,760
Speaker 1: in some of the polling that just the infrastructure package

701
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:30,279
Speaker 1: on its own, like oh, we're going to invest in

702
00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:33,359
Speaker 1: roads and bridges, et cetera, et cetera pretty popular. You

703
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:35,279
Speaker 1: add to that like oh, and we're going to pay

704
00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:37,279
Speaker 1: for it by taxing rich people, and they're like, oh,

705
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:40,439
Speaker 1: hell yeah, I'm in The polling numbers actually jump up,

706
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:43,600
Speaker 1: so it says everything. Just I think that's really important

707
00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:46,960
Speaker 1: to keep in mind as you're watching these negotiations play out,

708
00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:51,040
Speaker 1: because oftentimes the way that they're portrayed in mainstream media

709
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:53,719
Speaker 1: is like, oh, the bipartisan deal. They have to make

710
00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:57,360
Speaker 1: these trade offs to make it politically palatable for frontline

711
00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 1: Democrats in the midterms, et cetera, et cetera. No, No,

712
00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,520
Speaker 1: you're actually proposing a plan that is less popular because

713
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:05,919
Speaker 1: you're trying to pair it initially with a gas tax,

714
00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 1: which is ridiculous, but now with these various privatization schemes

715
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:15,040
Speaker 1: which are also unpopular, versus what is a clearly extremely

716
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:19,359
Speaker 1: popular position of paying for it with increased taxes on

717
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:24,040
Speaker 1: people who got tremendously wealthy during the pandemic, whether it's

718
00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:27,960
Speaker 1: wealthy individuals or corporations. That is what the American people

719
00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:31,520
Speaker 1: actually want. And so the fact that the political class

720
00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:35,400
Speaker 1: is so nervous and unsure and basically putting off the

721
00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:39,080
Speaker 1: table any of that tells you something. This isn't about

722
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:41,879
Speaker 1: them wanting the good politics of it. It's about them

723
00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 1: protecting their donors and protecting their friends in their social circle.

724
00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:48,279
Speaker 1: And that's exactly how you end up with these hair

725
00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:51,319
Speaker 1: brain schemes of like let's sell off a port in

726
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:53,880
Speaker 1: order to build a new bridge. Watching this thing become

727
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:56,600
Speaker 1: Obamacare two point zero has been really sad to show

728
00:37:56,600 --> 00:37:59,680
Speaker 1: that Biden and them actually just learned nothing. Obama'scare ended

729
00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:03,040
Speaker 1: up becoming a corporate nightmare mess. It became the political

730
00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:06,360
Speaker 1: albatross that hung around his neck. Now it's June twenty second.

731
00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:11,760
Speaker 1: Remember that they've already said they cannot hit the September deadline. Okay,

732
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:13,359
Speaker 1: I think the exact same thing is going to happen.

733
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,040
Speaker 1: Republicans are going to filbuster. It's going to go all

734
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:19,960
Speaker 1: the way up until like Thanksgiving or Christmas Day or whatever.

735
00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:21,560
Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, it's going to

736
00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:23,600
Speaker 1: be a BS bill which actually doesn't even do very much,

737
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:26,480
Speaker 1: probably like a trillion dollars or whatever in new spending.

738
00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:29,560
Speaker 1: It won't be forcefully felt in many different communities, and

739
00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:32,640
Speaker 1: there'll be some like Windmill Package, which will become the

740
00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:36,239
Speaker 1: bane of every single Democrat running in the mid terms

741
00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:38,840
Speaker 1: because of a bunch of attack ads. And what do

742
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:40,839
Speaker 1: we get from all of this? I think maybe what

743
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:43,720
Speaker 1: a modest tax increase on people who are wealthy. Maybe

744
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:46,440
Speaker 1: even then, I don't actually think that's going to pass

745
00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:48,680
Speaker 1: at all. So yeah, actually the only thing that might

746
00:38:48,719 --> 00:38:50,800
Speaker 1: pass is some sort of fake gas tax. So he

747
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:53,319
Speaker 1: may have ruled it out now, but I won't hold

748
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:56,440
Speaker 1: my breath understanding how these things are moving through Congress.

749
00:38:56,600 --> 00:38:59,239
Speaker 1: It's a huge political failure for the Biden administration in

750
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:04,240
Speaker 1: my opinion. Yeah, and again a totally unnecessary one. Totally unnecessary,

751
00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:07,120
Speaker 1: and I just think I'll say it again, I think

752
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,720
Speaker 1: it says everything about the sort of failed state nature

753
00:39:09,719 --> 00:39:13,319
Speaker 1: of this country that just the least controversial thing you

754
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:17,239
Speaker 1: could possibly do, like fixing a damn bridge, you can't

755
00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:20,799
Speaker 1: even get your act together to do that. The basics

756
00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:24,640
Speaker 1: of providing not just an investment for you know, jobs

757
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:27,560
Speaker 1: and business community, et cetera. But part of why these

758
00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:31,399
Speaker 1: privatization schemes are such a problem is there's a lot

759
00:39:31,440 --> 00:39:35,440
Speaker 1: of basic infrastructure that provides for safe quality of life

760
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:40,000
Speaker 1: water systems, wastewater treatment plans. As I covered yesterday in

761
00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:43,720
Speaker 1: large parts of West Virginia, other rural communities across the country,

762
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:46,799
Speaker 1: they don't even have clean drinking water Like that's never

763
00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:49,439
Speaker 1: going to turn a profit for a company, of course,

764
00:39:49,640 --> 00:39:52,880
Speaker 1: so we can't be in the business of only doing

765
00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:55,000
Speaker 1: projects that are you're going to be able to, like

766
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:57,840
Speaker 1: charge enough toll fees to turn a profit on or

767
00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:00,759
Speaker 1: charge enough user fees to turn a profit. You're not

768
00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:04,759
Speaker 1: going to make money building a wastewater treatment plan or

769
00:40:05,239 --> 00:40:09,359
Speaker 1: a new water system in McDowell County, West Virginia. So

770
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:12,520
Speaker 1: what and that's basically what's happened is anything that hasn't

771
00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:16,360
Speaker 1: been profitable for the private sector hasn't gotten done. And

772
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:19,480
Speaker 1: so you've got parts of the country that are reverting

773
00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:24,520
Speaker 1: back to like pre New Deal era conditions, reverting back

774
00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:28,359
Speaker 1: to like developing world conditions because we don't put any

775
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:33,399
Speaker 1: sort of a priority on people having the basic standards

776
00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:38,120
Speaker 1: for like the basic level quality of living. Everything is

777
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:41,960
Speaker 1: about profit profit profit, and apparently that ethos has thoroughly

778
00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:46,560
Speaker 1: pervaded this new bipartisan infrastructure efforts. Really sad to see,

779
00:40:46,719 --> 00:40:48,840
Speaker 1: very sad story. But I think we have some good news.

780
00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:53,120
Speaker 1: Slightly sorry, it's yeah, good news. I would temper my

781
00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:56,200
Speaker 1: enthusiasm for this a little bit more than what some

782
00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:58,200
Speaker 1: of the media coverage has been. So we got a

783
00:40:58,239 --> 00:41:03,080
Speaker 1: couple of Supreme Court notable court decisions yesterday. I'm covering

784
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:06,439
Speaker 1: one of them in my monologue, which is everybody coming

785
00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:08,319
Speaker 1: together to give away the store to Golden Sex and

786
00:41:08,360 --> 00:41:10,680
Speaker 1: make sure they can't be held accountable for any of

787
00:41:10,760 --> 00:41:13,000
Speaker 1: their crimes. So the during the financial crisis will get

788
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:15,280
Speaker 1: into that one in a second. They did do something

789
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:19,640
Speaker 1: modestly good here, though, in a case involving the nc DOUBLEA.

790
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:21,680
Speaker 1: So I'm sure a lot of you have been following

791
00:41:21,680 --> 00:41:23,840
Speaker 1: the sort of back and forth of n CUBLEA is

792
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:28,080
Speaker 1: basically like a racket and a monopoly that completely abuses

793
00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:31,840
Speaker 1: their workers, which are the players, right, especially in lucrative

794
00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:36,480
Speaker 1: sports like basketball and football, NCUBLEA breaking in billions and

795
00:41:36,680 --> 00:41:40,279
Speaker 1: viewership fees to the television networks. And meanwhile, you know

796
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:42,719
Speaker 1: they're very adamant about, oh, we have to protect the

797
00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:46,319
Speaker 1: purity integrity of the sport and amateur competition, as if

798
00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:48,719
Speaker 1: this is some virtuous thing that they're doing, even though

799
00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:52,040
Speaker 1: they themselves can't really even define what it means to

800
00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:54,520
Speaker 1: be an amateur. They've changed the definition over the years.

801
00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:58,160
Speaker 1: So I'm going to read here a little bit from Vox. Yesterday.

802
00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:02,040
Speaker 1: The Supreme Court handed down a caveat in victory for

803
00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:04,920
Speaker 1: elite college athletes on Monday. The immediate impact of the

804
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:09,240
Speaker 1: Court's unanimous decision nine to nothing in NCAA versus Alston

805
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:13,440
Speaker 1: is that many elite student athletes will receive additional education

806
00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:17,359
Speaker 1: related compensations, such as additional scholarship money. But the case

807
00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:21,239
Speaker 1: could have broader implications and could eventually lead to these

808
00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:24,160
Speaker 1: athletes being paid salary. So let me break down for

809
00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:27,719
Speaker 1: you what that means. The question in this case that

810
00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:31,120
Speaker 1: they decided to rule on was not whether these athletes

811
00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:35,319
Speaker 1: could be compensated for playing their sport. The question was

812
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:38,719
Speaker 1: this one that they made very narrow around this question

813
00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:43,120
Speaker 1: of additional educational scholarship limited benefits. Right, So this was again,

814
00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:45,799
Speaker 1: this isn't about receiving payment. This was about sort of

815
00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:51,759
Speaker 1: like scholarships and educational scholarships essentially. And this is one

816
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:55,319
Speaker 1: of the hallmarks of the Roberts Court in this era

817
00:42:55,760 --> 00:42:59,520
Speaker 1: is he has really tried to sort of cabin these

818
00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:04,120
Speaker 1: decisions to be as narrow as possible because I think

819
00:43:04,160 --> 00:43:06,400
Speaker 1: what a lot of court watchers feel is that he

820
00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:09,720
Speaker 1: recognizes the credibility of the Supreme Court and the structure

821
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:11,839
Speaker 1: of the Supreme Court as it stands is very much

822
00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:14,359
Speaker 1: at risk right now. So he's trying not to make

823
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:16,480
Speaker 1: a lot of waves and he's trying to have as

824
00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:19,560
Speaker 1: many decisions as possible where it's not just the conservatives

825
00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:22,240
Speaker 1: overwriting the liberals. So that's how you get a decision

826
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:25,719
Speaker 1: like this where they very narrowly rule on this very

827
00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:31,919
Speaker 1: specific question about education scholarships, but it's unanimous. And what's

828
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:35,880
Speaker 1: giving people hope that this could lead to more dramatic

829
00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 1: changes is in the opinion as it was written, I

830
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:41,680
Speaker 1: think by Gorsicch. Actually he essentially said, look, we're not

831
00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:44,960
Speaker 1: ruling on the larger compensation piece because you didn't specifically

832
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,440
Speaker 1: ask us to, but maybe you should try again and

833
00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:50,479
Speaker 1: see what happens. Actually, So what's other also interesting here

834
00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:53,520
Speaker 1: was Justice Kavanaugh. Here's what he wrote. Quote Nowhere else

835
00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:57,640
Speaker 1: in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to

836
00:43:57,719 --> 00:44:00,680
Speaker 1: pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory

837
00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:04,480
Speaker 1: that the product is defined by not paying their workers

838
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:08,880
Speaker 1: a fair market rate. Adding quote and under ordinary principles

839
00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:12,560
Speaker 1: of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports

840
00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:17,880
Speaker 1: should be any different. The NCAA is not above the law,

841
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:20,960
Speaker 1: and so just to recoup, remember what they have said

842
00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:24,440
Speaker 1: is that the students who play sports as amateurs should

843
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,520
Speaker 1: not be getting paid because they should not should not

844
00:44:27,560 --> 00:44:30,760
Speaker 1: be getting paid because the amateur nature of the sport,

845
00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:34,440
Speaker 1: which would corrupt it and make it so that these rules,

846
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:37,280
Speaker 1: you know, are cross subsidized, and it would make it unfair,

847
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:40,520
Speaker 1: et cetera. Now, maybe there was something to that in

848
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:45,239
Speaker 1: like nineteen sixty, but right now it's totally ridiculous. Just

849
00:44:45,239 --> 00:44:47,680
Speaker 1: to give you guys insight, Like, I'm from College Station, Texas,

850
00:44:47,719 --> 00:44:51,040
Speaker 1: where Texas A and M IS. Football is the lifeblood

851
00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:54,080
Speaker 1: of that town. Whenever they moved to the SEC, I

852
00:44:54,120 --> 00:44:57,280
Speaker 1: think over a billion dollars of new revenue came in

853
00:44:57,280 --> 00:44:59,960
Speaker 1: to College Station, and I remember Johnny football and Johnny

854
00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:02,759
Speaker 1: selling all that. The guy single handedly, I think, brought

855
00:45:02,760 --> 00:45:05,560
Speaker 1: in hundreds of millions of dollars into the town itself,

856
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:07,920
Speaker 1: and he wasn't making in time. Many of the stars

857
00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:10,279
Speaker 1: that I've seen come through Collegs Station in my entire

858
00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:13,200
Speaker 1: lifetime were not compensated until at least some of them

859
00:45:13,239 --> 00:45:16,359
Speaker 1: went to the NFL. Some of them, like Johnny, didn't

860
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:18,719
Speaker 1: end up doing so well even when they got there.

861
00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:21,480
Speaker 1: But the point is that their time and the amount

862
00:45:21,520 --> 00:45:24,560
Speaker 1: of economic and social benefit that they were bringing to

863
00:45:24,640 --> 00:45:28,640
Speaker 1: the towns was immense, and they were being profited off

864
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:31,440
Speaker 1: of by the NCAA and by many of these schools

865
00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:36,799
Speaker 1: who can sell merchandise and who can see huge additions

866
00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:39,280
Speaker 1: to their endowments, to their bottom lines if they invest

867
00:45:39,280 --> 00:45:41,920
Speaker 1: in the stadiums and like all this other stuff, but

868
00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:44,440
Speaker 1: which the students don't get any of. And it's just

869
00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:46,759
Speaker 1: a fundamental question of fairness. So we've seen in like

870
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:50,120
Speaker 1: the video games industry in terms of how their likenesses

871
00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:53,200
Speaker 1: are used in terms of how much they're profited off of.

872
00:45:53,520 --> 00:45:56,640
Speaker 1: It is just totally unfair. And I think the fact

873
00:45:56,680 --> 00:46:00,400
Speaker 1: that Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Gorsich both put in like

874
00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:03,560
Speaker 1: little caveats there inviting it. That's kind of the more

875
00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:06,239
Speaker 1: interesting part here. I think what a lot of the

876
00:46:06,239 --> 00:46:08,680
Speaker 1: court watchers saw, and this was the lead in the

877
00:46:08,719 --> 00:46:11,920
Speaker 1: New York Times story as well, is that it underscored

878
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:16,520
Speaker 1: that the band it basically invited a new case. Right,

879
00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:19,080
Speaker 1: So it may take a couple of years, but at

880
00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:21,600
Speaker 1: least in the current composition of the court, I would

881
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:24,719
Speaker 1: say that things are looking pretty good for college athletes,

882
00:46:24,960 --> 00:46:26,279
Speaker 1: and I think that's the way that it should be.

883
00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:28,840
Speaker 1: It's not fair to let these schools make billions of

884
00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:30,879
Speaker 1: dollars on the backs of these kids and they don't

885
00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:33,960
Speaker 1: get to make a dime again, I would. I'll believe

886
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:35,560
Speaker 1: it when I see it. Yeah right. I mean, we've

887
00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:38,319
Speaker 1: had all these big decisions over the years that people thought,

888
00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:40,200
Speaker 1: we're definitely going to go this way, We're definitely going

889
00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:42,560
Speaker 1: to go that way, and oh, you know ACB is

890
00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:45,200
Speaker 1: definitely going to rule against Obamacare because she said this

891
00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:47,319
Speaker 1: or that in the past, or you know, I mean,

892
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:49,879
Speaker 1: how long have people who really care a lot about

893
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:52,160
Speaker 1: abortion rights on either side of that debate or they're

894
00:46:52,200 --> 00:46:54,440
Speaker 1: pro or against, how long have they thought this is

895
00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:55,960
Speaker 1: going to be the one and we're reading the tea

896
00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:59,480
Speaker 1: leaves and it doesn't come to fruition Roberts. The hallmark

897
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:04,279
Speaker 1: of Robert has been to be extremely, extremely cautious and

898
00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:10,680
Speaker 1: not to make any big sweeping decisions with massive ramifications,

899
00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:13,640
Speaker 1: which is what we're talking about here, but to talk

900
00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:17,080
Speaker 1: about like the morality of it and the actual you know,

901
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:21,120
Speaker 1: situation that college athletes are facing. They not only they

902
00:47:21,200 --> 00:47:23,279
Speaker 1: should they be compensated, they should also be able to

903
00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:25,680
Speaker 1: unionize because this is this is the other thing. And

904
00:47:25,719 --> 00:47:27,560
Speaker 1: I mean I was a college athlete as I was

905
00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:29,439
Speaker 1: a swimmer, though wasn't like one of these sports where

906
00:47:29,719 --> 00:47:33,640
Speaker 1: there's actually lucrative and money money involved. So, but I

907
00:47:33,719 --> 00:47:36,760
Speaker 1: did have a firsthand experience of just how much control

908
00:47:36,840 --> 00:47:39,120
Speaker 1: they have over your life, right, I mean, you're there

909
00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:43,520
Speaker 1: supposedly as a student first, but your sport really controls

910
00:47:43,640 --> 00:47:46,839
Speaker 1: every aspect of your day. They have entire control over

911
00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:49,960
Speaker 1: like you know, even what times you're studying and whether

912
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:52,399
Speaker 1: you're required to go to study hall. You have these

913
00:47:52,440 --> 00:47:56,400
Speaker 1: like academic counselors, but obviously your schedule in terms of

914
00:47:56,440 --> 00:47:58,600
Speaker 1: when you're at the gym and what your training regimen

915
00:47:58,680 --> 00:48:01,040
Speaker 1: looks like and all of those things even when you

916
00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:04,520
Speaker 1: can have classes and when you can't have classes. Much

917
00:48:04,560 --> 00:48:08,160
Speaker 1: more control over your life when you're an NC double

918
00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:11,400
Speaker 1: a athlete than I would say almost any other certainly

919
00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:15,399
Speaker 1: like profession, because they truly have rules that govern every

920
00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:18,799
Speaker 1: single aspect of your life. So to me, it's not

921
00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:22,160
Speaker 1: just about the compensation. It's also like players should be

922
00:48:22,200 --> 00:48:25,080
Speaker 1: able to have a say and what those rules are

923
00:48:25,120 --> 00:48:27,799
Speaker 1: and what the limitations are, and how their days and

924
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:30,799
Speaker 1: their schedules are governed, because again, you know, if you're

925
00:48:30,800 --> 00:48:34,840
Speaker 1: trying to balance a rigorous academic schedule with your sport,

926
00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:38,839
Speaker 1: sometimes that's made nearly impossible by the requirements that they

927
00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:41,279
Speaker 1: that they put on top of you. So I think

928
00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:44,680
Speaker 1: that pieces also needs to not be overlooked the fact

929
00:48:44,719 --> 00:48:48,120
Speaker 1: that it's not just about players should be profiting off

930
00:48:48,160 --> 00:48:50,680
Speaker 1: of their skills and their talents, that the NC double

931
00:48:50,719 --> 00:48:54,680
Speaker 1: A is exploiting for massive, massive profits, but they also

932
00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:59,000
Speaker 1: should have a say in what their employment looks like,

933
00:48:59,360 --> 00:49:02,200
Speaker 1: essentially from on a day to day basis. Actually, this

934
00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:05,000
Speaker 1: reminds me there's actually currently a bill in Congress which

935
00:49:05,080 --> 00:49:08,080
Speaker 1: was introduced by Bernie and by Chris Murphy. I remember

936
00:49:08,120 --> 00:49:11,200
Speaker 1: reading about this at the time, which would actually allow

937
00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:15,719
Speaker 1: college athletes to form unions and become employees. Coincidentally, of course,

938
00:49:15,719 --> 00:49:18,440
Speaker 1: the NC DOUBLEA has been lobbying hard against it. And

939
00:49:18,440 --> 00:49:21,000
Speaker 1: this is actually something which how they have tried to

940
00:49:21,040 --> 00:49:24,719
Speaker 1: push through several times, and college football players, I know

941
00:49:25,080 --> 00:49:28,319
Speaker 1: a last year in particular, were really beginning to talk

942
00:49:28,360 --> 00:49:30,759
Speaker 1: a little bit about this, and there's at least a

943
00:49:30,800 --> 00:49:33,480
Speaker 1: little bit of momentum behind it. But of course the

944
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:37,120
Speaker 1: NC double A is throwing everything they possibly can against this.

945
00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:39,520
Speaker 1: They really are a cartel. I mean, whenever the way

946
00:49:39,640 --> 00:49:41,759
Speaker 1: Justice Kavanaugh was writing about it, It's true, it's like yeah,

947
00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:44,440
Speaker 1: you can't define your industry as one which makes money

948
00:49:44,440 --> 00:49:49,400
Speaker 1: by not paying his employees. It's bs and yeah, it's

949
00:49:49,480 --> 00:49:52,760
Speaker 1: basically what it is. Right, let's boil it down. Imagine

950
00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:56,239
Speaker 1: Amazon being they just for the love of the warehouse work,

951
00:49:56,360 --> 00:49:59,760
Speaker 1: they're getting trained. This is apprenticeship. It's like slate, you know, literally,

952
00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:03,480
Speaker 1: that's it's like modern modern forms of obviously not the

953
00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:06,239
Speaker 1: same thing as chattel slavery. Okay, so don't anybody go

954
00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:09,359
Speaker 1: and quote that. But indentured servitude and all of that

955
00:50:09,440 --> 00:50:12,120
Speaker 1: had its own very ugly parts in early American history

956
00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:14,160
Speaker 1: and in Europe. And I think that there's a lot

957
00:50:14,200 --> 00:50:16,279
Speaker 1: to be said about what you have. And by the way,

958
00:50:16,600 --> 00:50:20,000
Speaker 1: like we always focus on the stars who then go

959
00:50:20,080 --> 00:50:22,480
Speaker 1: on to the NBA, go on to the NFL, the

960
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:25,799
Speaker 1: overwhelming majority of these athletes are not going to be

961
00:50:25,840 --> 00:50:27,560
Speaker 1: making it to the next level. This is it for them.

962
00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:30,000
Speaker 1: I think it's like three percent. Yeah, this is it

963
00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:33,040
Speaker 1: for them in terms of their career. Are their athletic

964
00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:36,400
Speaker 1: career and they deserve to be paid commensurate with the

965
00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:38,839
Speaker 1: profits that are being made off of them for their

966
00:50:38,880 --> 00:50:41,239
Speaker 1: skills in their labor. Wow, you guys must really like

967
00:50:41,280 --> 00:50:43,240
Speaker 1: listening to our voices. Well, I know this is annoying,

968
00:50:43,280 --> 00:50:45,879
Speaker 1: instead of making you listen to a Viagric commercial. When

969
00:50:45,920 --> 00:50:48,040
Speaker 1: you're done, check out the other podcast I do with

970
00:50:48,080 --> 00:50:50,640
Speaker 1: Marshall Kassoff called The Realignment. We talk a lot about

971
00:50:50,680 --> 00:50:54,080
Speaker 1: the deeper issues that are changing, realigning in American society.

972
00:50:54,200 --> 00:50:56,520
Speaker 1: You always need more Crystal and soag in your daily lives.

973
00:50:56,600 --> 00:50:58,759
Speaker 1: Take care guys. All right, Crystal, what are your breaking

974
00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:03,120
Speaker 1: points today? Well, right now, the Trump administration and Senate

975
00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:06,560
Speaker 1: Republicans are urging the Supreme Court to strike down the

976
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:10,879
Speaker 1: entire Affordable Care Act and all of its patient protections.

977
00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:15,919
Speaker 1: Republicans are scrambling to confirm this nominee as fast as

978
00:51:16,040 --> 00:51:20,480
Speaker 1: possible because they need one more Trump judge on the

979
00:51:20,520 --> 00:51:25,040
Speaker 1: bench before November tenth to win and strike down the

980
00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:30,680
Speaker 1: entire Affordable Care Act. This is not hyperbole, This is

981
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:35,799
Speaker 1: not a hypothetical on This is happening. That was then

982
00:51:35,840 --> 00:51:39,240
Speaker 1: Senator Kamala Harris during confirmation hearings for Amy Cony Barrett,

983
00:51:39,280 --> 00:51:42,040
Speaker 1: asserting that Barrett's edition to the Court would almost certainly

984
00:51:42,080 --> 00:51:44,600
Speaker 1: be the end of the Affordable Care Act. This is

985
00:51:44,640 --> 00:51:48,640
Speaker 1: not hyperbole, she said, this is happening. Of course, Senator

986
00:51:48,719 --> 00:51:51,279
Speaker 1: Harris and every other Democrat confidently predicting the demise of

987
00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:53,760
Speaker 1: Obamacare turned out to be wrong. Last week, the majority

988
00:51:53,880 --> 00:51:56,719
Speaker 1: ruled that plaintiffs in the case did not have standing,

989
00:51:56,960 --> 00:52:01,600
Speaker 1: leaving the ACA ultimately unscathed. AC joined the majority in

990
00:52:01,760 --> 00:52:05,720
Speaker 1: protecting that law. Now, this outcome was predictable, and in fact,

991
00:52:05,840 --> 00:52:08,200
Speaker 1: we've predicted it at the time. That's not to say, though,

992
00:52:08,239 --> 00:52:10,720
Speaker 1: that from a left perspective, this court poses no threat

993
00:52:10,719 --> 00:52:14,279
Speaker 1: to galitarian values or the quality of life of ordinary Americans.

994
00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:17,160
Speaker 1: On the contrary, the problem is when it comes to

995
00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:19,960
Speaker 1: Supreme Court, the media seems to only know how to

996
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:23,880
Speaker 1: cover culture things like LGBTQ rights, abortion, guns, and I

997
00:52:23,880 --> 00:52:27,279
Speaker 1: would submit Obamacare's achieved full culture war status. Now, I'm

998
00:52:27,320 --> 00:52:30,359
Speaker 1: not saying these issues are not important, but covering them

999
00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:34,320
Speaker 1: and obsessing over them exclusively can create a false impression

1000
00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:36,960
Speaker 1: of the Court and can also mask the profound way

1001
00:52:36,960 --> 00:52:40,120
Speaker 1: that the Court has transformed the nation into a corporatocracy.

1002
00:52:40,600 --> 00:52:43,200
Speaker 1: It also makes it easy for Chief Justice John Roberts

1003
00:52:43,239 --> 00:52:46,200
Speaker 1: and the other conservative justices to confuse the public into

1004
00:52:46,200 --> 00:52:49,359
Speaker 1: thinking the Court isn't really so regressive. Throw a bone

1005
00:52:49,400 --> 00:52:52,640
Speaker 1: to the liberals on Obamacare, and everyone immediately goes, golly gee,

1006
00:52:52,640 --> 00:52:55,799
Speaker 1: maybe we're wrong about ACB and Kavanaugh, Gorsich. Maybe the

1007
00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:59,040
Speaker 1: Court isn't so bad after all. On the other hand,

1008
00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:02,719
Speaker 1: you're much like likely to hear about this opinion, which

1009
00:53:02,760 --> 00:53:06,560
Speaker 1: came down yesterday. The US Supreme Court on Monday handed

1010
00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:09,640
Speaker 1: a victory to Goldman's Sachs in its bid to avoid

1011
00:53:09,640 --> 00:53:12,720
Speaker 1: an investor class action lawsuit accusing the bank of hiding

1012
00:53:12,760 --> 00:53:16,680
Speaker 1: conflicts of interest when creating risky subprime securities before the

1013
00:53:16,680 --> 00:53:20,480
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight financial crisis. So, in a decision

1014
00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:23,799
Speaker 1: that was authored by Amy Cony Barrett, the court threw

1015
00:53:23,840 --> 00:53:25,840
Speaker 1: on a decision by the Second US Circuit Court of

1016
00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:29,359
Speaker 1: Appeals that would have allowed that class action lawsuit to

1017
00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:32,400
Speaker 1: move forward. Essentially, what happened is this rewind back to

1018
00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:34,880
Speaker 1: the two thousand and eight financial crisis. One of the

1019
00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:39,040
Speaker 1: things we learned about Goldman's outrageously criminal behavior was at

1020
00:53:39,040 --> 00:53:41,960
Speaker 1: the very same time they were selling certain securities to

1021
00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:46,160
Speaker 1: their clients, they were also betting against those same securities

1022
00:53:46,440 --> 00:53:50,680
Speaker 1: with full knowledge that they were total and complete garbage. So,

1023
00:53:50,880 --> 00:53:54,399
Speaker 1: just to restate, Goldman knew they were selling crap, they

1024
00:53:54,400 --> 00:53:58,000
Speaker 1: were betting against that crap, and they stood to benefit

1025
00:53:58,080 --> 00:54:00,520
Speaker 1: by having their own clients bid up the price of

1026
00:54:00,560 --> 00:54:02,800
Speaker 1: the crop so that their gains in the inevitable crash

1027
00:54:02,840 --> 00:54:05,719
Speaker 1: would be more spectacular. David Serrot, I want to give

1028
00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:07,640
Speaker 1: him credit here. He flagged the story for me and

1029
00:54:07,680 --> 00:54:11,319
Speaker 1: reminded me of this memorable exchange between a Goldman executive

1030
00:54:11,600 --> 00:54:14,800
Speaker 1: and Senator Carl Levin of Michigan about the shitty deals.

1031
00:54:14,880 --> 00:54:18,200
Speaker 1: His words, Goldman was pushing on their clients. Look what

1032
00:54:18,280 --> 00:54:24,480
Speaker 1: your sales team was saying about Timberwolf, boy, That Timberwolf

1033
00:54:24,640 --> 00:54:32,759
Speaker 1: was one shitty deal. They sold that, mister Naman. This

1034
00:54:32,840 --> 00:54:36,399
Speaker 1: email was from the head of the division, not the salesforce.

1035
00:54:36,760 --> 00:54:39,160
Speaker 1: Whatever it was it was. It's an internal It's an

1036
00:54:39,160 --> 00:54:43,000
Speaker 1: internal Goldman document. This was an email to me in

1037
00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:46,759
Speaker 1: late June. Right, and you sold Timberwolf action. No, No,

1038
00:54:46,880 --> 00:54:52,120
Speaker 1: you sold Timberwolf after as well. We did trades after that, yeah, okay,

1039
00:54:52,200 --> 00:54:55,760
Speaker 1: and the trades after some contexts, Yeah, might be helpful.

1040
00:54:56,239 --> 00:54:58,839
Speaker 1: The context. Let me tell you, the context is mighty clear.

1041
00:54:59,320 --> 00:55:03,360
Speaker 1: June twenty two is the date of this email. Boy,

1042
00:55:03,880 --> 00:55:08,640
Speaker 1: that Timberwolf was one shitty deal. How much of that

1043
00:55:08,880 --> 00:55:12,880
Speaker 1: shitty deal did you sell to your clients after June

1044
00:55:12,880 --> 00:55:17,480
Speaker 1: twenty two, two thousand and seven. The answer to the

1045
00:55:17,480 --> 00:55:20,200
Speaker 1: Cenator's question was, hundreds of millions of dollars of that

1046
00:55:20,239 --> 00:55:23,640
Speaker 1: shitty deal was sold after that email was sent. And

1047
00:55:23,640 --> 00:55:25,759
Speaker 1: by the way, it's not just some nameless, faceless ridge

1048
00:55:25,760 --> 00:55:28,480
Speaker 1: ghule that's getting hurt by this type of fraud. Obviously,

1049
00:55:28,520 --> 00:55:31,600
Speaker 1: the entire economy was rocked by the cumulative weight of

1050
00:55:31,640 --> 00:55:35,320
Speaker 1: Wall Street's crimes, but in this specific instance with Golden Sacks,

1051
00:55:35,680 --> 00:55:38,719
Speaker 1: some of the institutional investors fleeced in these schemes are

1052
00:55:38,800 --> 00:55:42,360
Speaker 1: rather important to working class Americans. For example, the Arkansas

1053
00:55:42,440 --> 00:55:46,440
Speaker 1: Teacher Retirement System, relying on Goldman's lives about how they

1054
00:55:46,480 --> 00:55:49,839
Speaker 1: always put the client first, they were hurt greatly by

1055
00:55:49,840 --> 00:55:53,040
Speaker 1: their investments in Goldman Sacks. In fact, the Arkansas Teacher

1056
00:55:53,040 --> 00:55:55,880
Speaker 1: Retirement System, they were part of this class action lawsuit

1057
00:55:56,080 --> 00:55:59,200
Speaker 1: that led ultimately to this ruling by the Supreme Court.

1058
00:55:59,640 --> 00:56:03,200
Speaker 1: With this decision for Goldman, ACB is doing what she

1059
00:56:03,480 --> 00:56:05,960
Speaker 1: was really put on the court to do, which was

1060
00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:09,759
Speaker 1: to protect the American plutocracy. She's not alone, though. Her

1061
00:56:09,800 --> 00:56:13,120
Speaker 1: majority opinion handing a win to Goldman Sacks wasn't just

1062
00:56:13,160 --> 00:56:16,840
Speaker 1: the work of Trump's evil justices, liberals Kagan and Bryer.

1063
00:56:17,040 --> 00:56:19,960
Speaker 1: They both signed on to the opinion agreeing that Goldman

1064
00:56:20,040 --> 00:56:23,799
Speaker 1: Sachs should be protected from accountability. Don't you just love

1065
00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:27,160
Speaker 1: to see that by partisanship in action, guys. In this way,

1066
00:56:27,280 --> 00:56:30,040
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court is kind of like every other institution

1067
00:56:30,120 --> 00:56:32,480
Speaker 1: in this country. They play to the crowd and whatever

1068
00:56:32,520 --> 00:56:36,279
Speaker 1: their perceived interests are on culture war issues, allowing them

1069
00:56:36,320 --> 00:56:39,600
Speaker 1: to quietly hand more and more power to corporations and

1070
00:56:39,640 --> 00:56:43,000
Speaker 1: away from workers without anyone really even noticing. The media

1071
00:56:43,080 --> 00:56:45,960
Speaker 1: typically plays along, creating a conversation and perception of the

1072
00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:49,480
Speaker 1: Court that is a funhouse mirror distortion of its true intent.

1073
00:56:50,080 --> 00:56:52,840
Speaker 1: Chief Justice Roberts He's a savvy operator. He knows the

1074
00:56:52,880 --> 00:56:56,080
Speaker 1: credibility and makeup of the Court is in serious peril. So,

1075
00:56:56,320 --> 00:56:59,799
Speaker 1: unlike Republican politicians, whose incentives are to be ever more

1076
00:57:00,120 --> 00:57:03,200
Speaker 1: radical on the right wing culture war, Roberts sees his

1077
00:57:03,360 --> 00:57:06,640
Speaker 1: interest in mollifying liberals, not rocking the boat too much,

1078
00:57:06,719 --> 00:57:08,879
Speaker 1: so that efforts to reform the Court into a more

1079
00:57:08,920 --> 00:57:12,040
Speaker 1: representative and frankly less awful institution don't pick up too

1080
00:57:12,080 --> 00:57:14,200
Speaker 1: much steam. New York Times is out with a pretty

1081
00:57:14,200 --> 00:57:16,439
Speaker 1: interesting piece on how the Court appears to be very

1082
00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:19,680
Speaker 1: intentionally issuing opinions that can keep it from facing full

1083
00:57:19,800 --> 00:57:23,600
Speaker 1: liberal iyre and backlash on culture war issues. Roberts has

1084
00:57:23,600 --> 00:57:27,760
Speaker 1: been pushing extremely narrow rulings on the most hot button

1085
00:57:27,800 --> 00:57:31,160
Speaker 1: cultural issues, things like gay rights and Obamacare, getting majorities,

1086
00:57:31,280 --> 00:57:34,200
Speaker 1: including some liberals, to agree on these small and very

1087
00:57:34,240 --> 00:57:36,800
Speaker 1: technical opinions that have very little in the way of

1088
00:57:36,800 --> 00:57:40,360
Speaker 1: broader implications. In other words, they know that while there

1089
00:57:40,360 --> 00:57:42,480
Speaker 1: would be hell to pay for a major ruling on

1090
00:57:42,560 --> 00:57:44,920
Speaker 1: gay rights, they can give a store away to Goldman

1091
00:57:45,000 --> 00:57:48,240
Speaker 1: Sachson barely anyone will even notice. As Saga and Rachel

1092
00:57:48,280 --> 00:57:51,120
Speaker 1: Beauvart have as well have long pointed out, this is

1093
00:57:51,160 --> 00:57:53,280
Speaker 1: also part of a shell game of manipulation of the

1094
00:57:53,320 --> 00:57:57,240
Speaker 1: religious right. The federalist society, bankrolled by wealthy business interests,

1095
00:57:57,320 --> 00:57:59,959
Speaker 1: turns out nominee after nominee pledging to be a true

1096
00:58:00,240 --> 00:58:03,680
Speaker 1: believing social conservative, But what those business interests are really

1097
00:58:03,720 --> 00:58:05,960
Speaker 1: paying for is to make sure the nominees are not

1098
00:58:06,200 --> 00:58:08,960
Speaker 1: going to give workers power or hold business or Wall

1099
00:58:08,960 --> 00:58:12,160
Speaker 1: Street to account. Ever so, in the same way democrats

1100
00:58:12,240 --> 00:58:14,480
Speaker 1: lie to their voters about the threat to Obamacare in

1101
00:58:14,560 --> 00:58:18,040
Speaker 1: order to gin up votes, Republicans routinely lie to their

1102
00:58:18,120 --> 00:58:21,320
Speaker 1: voters about nominating justices who will roll back abortion rights

1103
00:58:21,440 --> 00:58:24,120
Speaker 1: and protect wedding cake bakers or whatever the issue du

1104
00:58:24,200 --> 00:58:27,880
Speaker 1: jour is. Meanwhile, in court after court, the big money

1105
00:58:27,880 --> 00:58:31,440
Speaker 1: interests rack up win after win after win. Just another

1106
00:58:31,520 --> 00:58:35,080
Speaker 1: front in the class war that America's plutocrats are relentlessly pursuing,

1107
00:58:35,560 --> 00:58:39,480
Speaker 1: even as they aggressively pretend it does not exist. And Sager,

1108
00:58:39,560 --> 00:58:42,160
Speaker 1: we talked about the NCUA. One more thing, I promise.

1109
00:58:42,520 --> 00:58:44,720
Speaker 1: Just wanted to make sure you knew about my podcast

1110
00:58:44,720 --> 00:58:47,560
Speaker 1: with Kyle Kolinski. It's called Crystal, Kyle and Friends, where

1111
00:58:47,560 --> 00:58:50,320
Speaker 1: we do long form interviews with people like Noam Chomsky,

1112
00:58:50,440 --> 00:58:53,720
Speaker 1: Cornell West, and Glenn Greenwald. You can listen on any

1113
00:58:53,760 --> 00:58:57,160
Speaker 1: podcast platform, or you can subscribe over on substack to

1114
00:58:57,160 --> 00:58:59,160
Speaker 1: get the video a day early. We're going to stop

1115
00:58:59,160 --> 00:59:01,680
Speaker 1: bugging you now. Enjoy all right, Zacer, what are you

1116
00:59:01,720 --> 00:59:04,040
Speaker 1: looking at? Well? I mean, one of my favorite things

1117
00:59:04,080 --> 00:59:06,160
Speaker 1: to do is I say I told you so. It's

1118
00:59:06,200 --> 00:59:09,160
Speaker 1: a natural human inclination. I'm not above it. I love

1119
00:59:09,200 --> 00:59:11,280
Speaker 1: being right, or at very least one of the first

1120
00:59:11,280 --> 00:59:14,080
Speaker 1: to popularize an idea. Some of you may have noticed,

1121
00:59:14,080 --> 00:59:16,400
Speaker 1: but Chrystial and I were recently on Joe Rogan's podcast.

1122
00:59:16,640 --> 00:59:19,880
Speaker 1: Joe asked me an interesting question about social conservatism, how

1123
00:59:19,920 --> 00:59:22,360
Speaker 1: it applies to both my views and to the right generally.

1124
00:59:22,600 --> 00:59:25,080
Speaker 1: I turned the tables. I actually explained to Joe I

1125
00:59:25,160 --> 00:59:27,920
Speaker 1: thought the new social issues of our time have nothing

1126
00:59:27,960 --> 00:59:29,760
Speaker 1: to do with many of the fights of the past,

1127
00:59:30,080 --> 00:59:33,440
Speaker 1: And in my explanation I named Dave Portnoy as the

1128
00:59:33,480 --> 00:59:36,520
Speaker 1: current largest conservative icon in the country. Let's review for

1129
00:59:36,560 --> 00:59:40,840
Speaker 1: those who missed it. I think Social Conservatism today is

1130
00:59:41,000 --> 00:59:42,920
Speaker 1: actually one of the best pieces I read on this

1131
00:59:42,960 --> 00:59:45,360
Speaker 1: shout out to Matthew Walther is called Rise of the

1132
00:59:45,440 --> 00:59:48,200
Speaker 1: Barstool Conservatives. So if you were to ask me who

1133
00:59:48,240 --> 00:59:51,440
Speaker 1: I think like the most the biggest right wing social

1134
00:59:51,640 --> 00:59:54,520
Speaker 1: icon in America right now twenty five years ago, I

1135
00:59:54,520 --> 00:59:56,720
Speaker 1: would have said, like Franklin Graham or something like that,

1136
00:59:56,760 --> 00:59:59,560
Speaker 1: I think it's Dave Portnoy. I really think it is

1137
00:59:59,600 --> 01:00:05,560
Speaker 1: somebody like Portnoy who is anti PC. The current social conservatism,

1138
01:00:05,640 --> 01:00:07,520
Speaker 1: or at least the way that I think things are

1139
01:00:07,640 --> 01:00:11,800
Speaker 1: moving forward, is anti woke, anti PC, and that is

1140
01:00:11,840 --> 01:00:14,600
Speaker 1: where I think the emerging fights are. I didn't invent

1141
01:00:14,640 --> 01:00:17,040
Speaker 1: the thesis. As I said, I stole it from Matthew Walter,

1142
01:00:17,240 --> 01:00:20,400
Speaker 1: who is a columnist over at the Week. But interestingly enough,

1143
01:00:20,600 --> 01:00:23,080
Speaker 1: someone else appears to have taken notice and added to

1144
01:00:23,120 --> 01:00:27,040
Speaker 1: the discourse, with Politico Magazine writing a new piece titled quote,

1145
01:00:27,120 --> 01:00:31,000
Speaker 1: how Republicans became the barstool Party. Now this might confuse

1146
01:00:31,040 --> 01:00:34,920
Speaker 1: some casual observers of politics because the question even arises,

1147
01:00:35,160 --> 01:00:39,280
Speaker 1: is Dave Portnoyd conservative by his account? Not really if

1148
01:00:39,280 --> 01:00:41,600
Speaker 1: you're thinking in terms of old ways of doing business.

1149
01:00:41,920 --> 01:00:45,040
Speaker 1: Dave is pro choice, He's had multiple sex tapes released,

1150
01:00:45,040 --> 01:00:48,240
Speaker 1: which he's proud of. He's pro gay marriage. So what

1151
01:00:48,400 --> 01:00:52,040
Speaker 1: conservative thing is about him? Well, look, he's conservative in

1152
01:00:52,080 --> 01:00:54,440
Speaker 1: the way that Trump kind of was. He just refuses

1153
01:00:54,480 --> 01:00:57,000
Speaker 1: to bow to the liberal intelligentsia, and he likes to

1154
01:00:57,040 --> 01:01:00,720
Speaker 1: drive them crazy. Portnoy refuses to apologize for past jokes.

1155
01:01:00,800 --> 01:01:03,360
Speaker 1: He basically holds up a middle finger up to the elite.

1156
01:01:03,400 --> 01:01:05,880
Speaker 1: He was one of the most prominent people against lockdowns

1157
01:01:06,040 --> 01:01:08,600
Speaker 1: and look to his eternal credit, he raised tens of

1158
01:01:08,640 --> 01:01:11,920
Speaker 1: millions of dollars for small businesses. Every time he tells

1159
01:01:11,960 --> 01:01:15,800
Speaker 1: the liberal media fu he gets richer and more popular.

1160
01:01:16,120 --> 01:01:20,960
Speaker 1: Walter describes of Trump and of Portinoy, describing the phenomenon

1161
01:01:21,000 --> 01:01:25,800
Speaker 1: this way, quote Trump recognized there are millions of Americans

1162
01:01:25,960 --> 01:01:29,360
Speaker 1: who do not oppose or even care about abortion or

1163
01:01:30,280 --> 01:01:34,080
Speaker 1: same sex marriage, much less stem cell research or any

1164
01:01:34,200 --> 01:01:37,720
Speaker 1: of the other causes that had animated traditional conservatives. He

1165
01:01:37,800 --> 01:01:42,560
Speaker 1: adds quote Instead, he correctly intuited the new culture war

1166
01:01:42,760 --> 01:01:46,000
Speaker 1: would be fought over very different and very more nebulous issues.

1167
01:01:46,360 --> 01:01:51,760
Speaker 1: Vague concerns about political correctness, sjw's opposition to the popularization

1168
01:01:51,840 --> 01:01:55,520
Speaker 1: of critical race theory, sentimentality about the American flag and

1169
01:01:55,560 --> 01:01:59,080
Speaker 1: the military, the rights of mail undergraduates to engage in

1170
01:01:59,120 --> 01:02:02,960
Speaker 1: fornication while in intoxicated without fear of the title ten mafia.

1171
01:02:03,080 --> 01:02:06,040
Speaker 1: That's basically it right there. That's port NOI's appeal and

1172
01:02:06,080 --> 01:02:08,840
Speaker 1: the direction of the new American right. The fights of

1173
01:02:08,880 --> 01:02:11,480
Speaker 1: the past are in the past. The fights of the

1174
01:02:11,480 --> 01:02:13,760
Speaker 1: future are How do we teach our kid's history? Is

1175
01:02:13,760 --> 01:02:16,800
Speaker 1: it okay to be outspokenly patriotic in popular culture and

1176
01:02:16,840 --> 01:02:20,040
Speaker 1: in elite circles? Do we say Merry Christmas? Again? Can

1177
01:02:20,120 --> 01:02:23,480
Speaker 1: we say quote unquote problematic words? Can we roll our

1178
01:02:23,560 --> 01:02:26,200
Speaker 1: eyes at people's pronouns and their email signatures without being

1179
01:02:26,240 --> 01:02:29,280
Speaker 1: called homophobic. Now, look, I know none of these seem

1180
01:02:29,360 --> 01:02:32,080
Speaker 1: that important, but let's be real. This is what gets

1181
01:02:32,080 --> 01:02:34,360
Speaker 1: people going in America, whether you like it or not.

1182
01:02:35,200 --> 01:02:38,280
Speaker 1: This is how Trump won ten million more votes in

1183
01:02:38,320 --> 01:02:41,320
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, and I suspect if the GOP ever wins

1184
01:02:41,320 --> 01:02:44,240
Speaker 1: a popular vote margin in the future again, it's gonna

1185
01:02:44,240 --> 01:02:47,560
Speaker 1: look like Dave Portnoy's fan base. Pretty diverse, pretty male,

1186
01:02:47,960 --> 01:02:51,200
Speaker 1: a huge base of support outside of its traditional voting space.

1187
01:02:51,520 --> 01:02:54,320
Speaker 1: I call it grill dad conservatism. I actually think it's

1188
01:02:54,320 --> 01:02:57,680
Speaker 1: the future. And look already in the twenty twenty data,

1189
01:02:57,880 --> 01:03:01,240
Speaker 1: you can see signs of this everywhere. Hispanic males voted

1190
01:03:01,240 --> 01:03:03,560
Speaker 1: for Trump at a higher rate than anyone else compared

1191
01:03:03,560 --> 01:03:07,280
Speaker 1: to twenty sixteen, and cited Trump's opposition to woke shibbaltz

1192
01:03:07,440 --> 01:03:10,320
Speaker 1: like defund the police and lockdowns as a number one

1193
01:03:10,360 --> 01:03:12,480
Speaker 1: reason they voted for him. You see the same thing

1194
01:03:12,480 --> 01:03:14,960
Speaker 1: in the modest but soill noticeable increase in black men

1195
01:03:15,160 --> 01:03:17,920
Speaker 1: voted for Trump, and ironically, the only group who voted

1196
01:03:17,920 --> 01:03:19,960
Speaker 1: for him at a lower rate was white men, which

1197
01:03:20,040 --> 01:03:22,720
Speaker 1: I will find eternally funny. But look, I don't want

1198
01:03:22,720 --> 01:03:26,320
Speaker 1: to fully sing the praises of barstool conservatism, because if

1199
01:03:26,320 --> 01:03:29,800
Speaker 1: I have one great worry, it's this. The barstoolification of

1200
01:03:29,840 --> 01:03:33,720
Speaker 1: the GOP can easily win, but economically things aren't going

1201
01:03:33,800 --> 01:03:37,240
Speaker 1: to be too great. As Walter writes, quote, where will

1202
01:03:37,360 --> 01:03:41,040
Speaker 1: barstool conservatism leave what remains of the old conservative movement?

1203
01:03:41,360 --> 01:03:44,280
Speaker 1: In the case of free market dogmatists, I believe there's

1204
01:03:44,400 --> 01:03:47,800
Speaker 1: almost zero daylight between them. The policy papers on why

1205
01:03:47,840 --> 01:03:51,200
Speaker 1: blockchain enabled future markets in organ donation, brought to you

1206
01:03:51,240 --> 01:03:55,120
Speaker 1: by Manscape, will revitalized Dayton, Ohio is going to rite itself.

1207
01:03:55,600 --> 01:03:59,440
Speaker 1: Part of Portnoy's core ethos is an economic libertarianism, and

1208
01:03:59,480 --> 01:04:02,200
Speaker 1: look I mean and served him quite well. It's obviously

1209
01:04:02,240 --> 01:04:05,800
Speaker 1: evident in his stand for retail investors during GameStop and more.

1210
01:04:06,120 --> 01:04:09,000
Speaker 1: But when you translate that to public policy, you actually

1211
01:04:09,000 --> 01:04:11,280
Speaker 1: get a lot of the same old Paul Ryan stuff

1212
01:04:11,360 --> 01:04:14,440
Speaker 1: with a new flare on it. Barstool and Conservatism could

1213
01:04:14,520 --> 01:04:17,200
Speaker 1: easily end up being the new cover album for the

1214
01:04:17,240 --> 01:04:19,840
Speaker 1: tax cut GOP of old. All of this, I guess

1215
01:04:19,960 --> 01:04:21,840
Speaker 1: is to say, is if you want to keep on

1216
01:04:21,960 --> 01:04:25,080
Speaker 1: your eye on where things are headed, look to our culture.

1217
01:04:25,280 --> 01:04:28,160
Speaker 1: For people who are anti PC and anti woke. That's

1218
01:04:28,200 --> 01:04:30,920
Speaker 1: where the new conservative movement is and what it actually

1219
01:04:31,000 --> 01:04:33,440
Speaker 1: probably could win and who will likely be in charge

1220
01:04:33,520 --> 01:04:36,240
Speaker 1: a decade from now. It's interesting, Crystal, there's a lot

1221
01:04:36,240 --> 01:04:39,880
Speaker 1: of debate. Joining us now to talk about the mess

1222
01:04:40,000 --> 01:04:42,760
Speaker 1: that is the New York City mayor roal race this

1223
01:04:42,880 --> 01:04:45,720
Speaker 1: year is Ross Barkin. He is a contributor to the Nation,

1224
01:04:45,880 --> 01:04:47,840
Speaker 1: wrote a fantastic piece there we're going to talk about.

1225
01:04:48,000 --> 01:04:51,640
Speaker 1: He's also author of a brand new book out today,

1226
01:04:52,040 --> 01:04:56,200
Speaker 1: The Prince Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus and the Fall of New

1227
01:04:56,280 --> 01:05:00,120
Speaker 1: York timely stuff. Congrats on the book, Roscard, to see you, Yes,

1228
01:05:01,160 --> 01:05:03,520
Speaker 1: thank you, and thank you for having me a very

1229
01:05:03,600 --> 01:05:06,400
Speaker 1: crazy day in New York City and also the release

1230
01:05:06,440 --> 01:05:11,480
Speaker 1: of my books for you that perfect day to make

1231
01:05:11,520 --> 01:05:13,160
Speaker 1: sure I dropped on a low key day where you

1232
01:05:13,200 --> 01:05:16,240
Speaker 1: could really focus on it. So good job there. I

1233
01:05:16,240 --> 01:05:17,959
Speaker 1: want to ask you about the book actually, but first

1234
01:05:18,000 --> 01:05:21,000
Speaker 1: just break down for us for people who haven't been

1235
01:05:21,160 --> 01:05:24,680
Speaker 1: immersed in the details of this mayor's race, which has

1236
01:05:24,720 --> 01:05:28,200
Speaker 1: like completely gone off the rails. Who are the main players,

1237
01:05:28,600 --> 01:05:31,200
Speaker 1: what's the state of the race, who's the front runner,

1238
01:05:31,320 --> 01:05:35,040
Speaker 1: what have the contours been like? Sure, so right now,

1239
01:05:35,080 --> 01:05:39,400
Speaker 1: there are four Democrats who all have some shot at winning.

1240
01:05:39,440 --> 01:05:42,120
Speaker 1: The front runner in the pools last month has been

1241
01:05:42,640 --> 01:05:46,640
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Burger president Eric Adams, and he's been followed

1242
01:05:46,640 --> 01:05:51,200
Speaker 1: by different candidates at different times. Originally Andrew Gang the

1243
01:05:52,120 --> 01:05:56,960
Speaker 1: celebrity for presidential candidate, then he no longer is. You

1244
01:05:57,040 --> 01:06:01,920
Speaker 1: have Maya Wiley, who's the Plasio's former council an MSNBC pundit,

1245
01:06:02,080 --> 01:06:05,440
Speaker 1: and you have Kathlin Garcia, who is the Blasio's former

1246
01:06:05,520 --> 01:06:08,920
Speaker 1: sanitation commissioner. And there was a fifth candidate who was

1247
01:06:09,040 --> 01:06:13,120
Speaker 1: once one of the top contenders, Scott Stringer, but he

1248
01:06:13,320 --> 01:06:17,240
Speaker 1: was accused of sexual assault. The allegation was never substantiated,

1249
01:06:17,240 --> 01:06:20,760
Speaker 1: but that really deroulds his campaign. So there's really four contenders.

1250
01:06:21,080 --> 01:06:25,080
Speaker 1: Adams is the favorite. Three of them are running explicitly

1251
01:06:25,120 --> 01:06:28,560
Speaker 1: I would define them as moderates, and one Wiley, is

1252
01:06:28,640 --> 01:06:32,640
Speaker 1: kind of occupying this left liberal lane. But certainly most

1253
01:06:32,640 --> 01:06:36,480
Speaker 1: of the candidates are talking about issues like crime, public safety,

1254
01:06:37,120 --> 01:06:41,440
Speaker 1: are pro charter school, and have come out explicitly against

1255
01:06:41,440 --> 01:06:44,160
Speaker 1: the funding of Please. So very interesting race coming off

1256
01:06:44,200 --> 01:06:47,880
Speaker 1: of what happened in twenty twenty. Yeah, and so Ross,

1257
01:06:48,040 --> 01:06:49,640
Speaker 1: you wrote this piece let's put it up there on

1258
01:06:49,680 --> 01:06:52,880
Speaker 1: the screen in the Nation, which I saw get some play.

1259
01:06:53,160 --> 01:06:55,640
Speaker 1: We were talking a little bit about how Eric Adams

1260
01:06:55,680 --> 01:06:58,480
Speaker 1: in particular, who has been really kind of a strange

1261
01:06:58,520 --> 01:07:02,520
Speaker 1: figure who uses identity politics in order to cover for

1262
01:07:02,640 --> 01:07:05,040
Speaker 1: some of these corporate things that he's doing. Could you

1263
01:07:05,080 --> 01:07:09,360
Speaker 1: just explain that a bit. Yeah, So Eric Adams, he

1264
01:07:09,680 --> 01:07:12,840
Speaker 1: is fascinating political history. He was a police captain for

1265
01:07:12,880 --> 01:07:15,000
Speaker 1: a long time. He was in the transit police and

1266
01:07:15,080 --> 01:07:18,080
Speaker 1: the NYPD. He's elected to the state Senate and then

1267
01:07:18,160 --> 01:07:22,720
Speaker 1: to the relatively powerless perchaur president. He would be the

1268
01:07:22,880 --> 01:07:26,680
Speaker 1: bur of the city's second black mayor. And he is

1269
01:07:26,680 --> 01:07:29,880
Speaker 1: someone who is both very anti woke, I would say,

1270
01:07:29,880 --> 01:07:33,000
Speaker 1: in terms of he talks a lot about, you know,

1271
01:07:33,120 --> 01:07:35,800
Speaker 1: public safety and crime and being tough on crime. He

1272
01:07:35,840 --> 01:07:39,520
Speaker 1: said he carried gun on him if he was elected

1273
01:07:39,560 --> 01:07:42,320
Speaker 1: mayor because he can legally do that. He has a

1274
01:07:42,400 --> 01:07:45,920
Speaker 1: history of making very incendiary statements. He once told the

1275
01:07:46,160 --> 01:07:49,440
Speaker 1: people who are from out of the town, so called gentrifiers,

1276
01:07:49,480 --> 01:07:53,200
Speaker 1: to go back to Iowa. At the same time, welc

1277
01:07:54,280 --> 01:07:56,960
Speaker 1: identity politics. So I don't know if if that's like

1278
01:07:57,000 --> 01:07:59,200
Speaker 1: the little look side of him or it's more just

1279
01:07:59,280 --> 01:08:02,640
Speaker 1: kind of a classic cynical ploy but repeatedly throughout this

1280
01:08:02,800 --> 01:08:06,440
Speaker 1: campaign and throughout his political career, his youth race as

1281
01:08:06,480 --> 01:08:11,280
Speaker 1: a way to deflect whether talking about tenant protections as

1282
01:08:11,280 --> 01:08:14,680
Speaker 1: an attack on black wealth even though real estate developers

1283
01:08:14,680 --> 01:08:20,800
Speaker 1: and landlords are almost exclusively very wealthy white people, or

1284
01:08:20,880 --> 01:08:24,120
Speaker 1: these kind of large corporate firms, and also you know,

1285
01:08:24,240 --> 01:08:28,160
Speaker 1: saying he can, you know, illegally use these parking PLACU

1286
01:08:28,160 --> 01:08:30,920
Speaker 1: cards because the last former president got to do it

1287
01:08:30,960 --> 01:08:33,559
Speaker 1: and he was white, So you can't have corruption for

1288
01:08:33,600 --> 01:08:35,680
Speaker 1: the white guy, not the black guy. So he's a

1289
01:08:35,760 --> 01:08:40,200
Speaker 1: very handy and incendiary figure, a little bit like Rudy Giuliani,

1290
01:08:40,320 --> 01:08:45,040
Speaker 1: maybe more left wing Rudy, and even tiny shades of Trump.

1291
01:08:45,240 --> 01:08:47,639
Speaker 1: I don't like to liken anyone to Trump, but he's

1292
01:08:47,640 --> 01:08:50,640
Speaker 1: definitely someone who makes a lot of outrageous statements and

1293
01:08:50,680 --> 01:08:52,679
Speaker 1: it can be very hard to keep track of all

1294
01:08:52,680 --> 01:08:55,519
Speaker 1: of them. I mean, he's really weaponized race and what

1295
01:08:55,640 --> 01:08:59,479
Speaker 1: is a disgraceful manner in this campaign, and it's been

1296
01:08:59,520 --> 01:09:02,720
Speaker 1: called out by you know, Maya Wiley, and certainly some

1297
01:09:02,800 --> 01:09:05,920
Speaker 1: of his attacks have been on Yang and Catherine Garcina,

1298
01:09:05,960 --> 01:09:09,880
Speaker 1: who kind of teamed up together, the campaigned together, including

1299
01:09:09,960 --> 01:09:13,559
Speaker 1: on June teenth, Eric Adams tried to pretend like that

1300
01:09:13,680 --> 01:09:16,560
Speaker 1: was some racial affront and they were trying to disenfranchise

1301
01:09:16,600 --> 01:09:20,479
Speaker 1: black voters. He likened it to horrific legacy, the Jim

1302
01:09:20,479 --> 01:09:24,120
Speaker 1: Crow South and poll taxes. I mean, that's how aggressive

1303
01:09:24,160 --> 01:09:30,000
Speaker 1: he's been in essentially using these identity politics terms and

1304
01:09:30,080 --> 01:09:32,840
Speaker 1: the very real scourge of racism to cover for what

1305
01:09:32,920 --> 01:09:36,600
Speaker 1: is essentially a like corporate police state agenda. You have

1306
01:09:36,680 --> 01:09:38,800
Speaker 1: this paragraph in your piece that I think is really

1307
01:09:38,800 --> 01:09:40,760
Speaker 1: important because it takes it out of the context of

1308
01:09:40,960 --> 01:09:43,479
Speaker 1: just the New York City mayor's race and poses a

1309
01:09:43,560 --> 01:09:46,559
Speaker 1: larger question for the left. You say, for a long time,

1310
01:09:46,560 --> 01:09:49,760
Speaker 1: many on the left have favored in identitarian politics over

1311
01:09:49,840 --> 01:09:53,880
Speaker 1: one that aligns class with race. If identity is elevated

1312
01:09:53,920 --> 01:09:58,360
Speaker 1: above class and critiques of capitalism no longer matter, politicians

1313
01:09:58,520 --> 01:10:01,400
Speaker 1: like Adams will be in. As a black man, he's

1314
01:10:01,439 --> 01:10:04,559
Speaker 1: been able to effectively denounce calls for greater tenant protections

1315
01:10:04,560 --> 01:10:07,920
Speaker 1: on the grounds they would adversely affect minority landlords, while

1316
01:10:07,920 --> 01:10:13,200
Speaker 1: rebuking all criticism criticism of himself as a racist as racist.

1317
01:10:13,240 --> 01:10:15,720
Speaker 1: So he's basically saying like, if you're critiquing May, then

1318
01:10:15,720 --> 01:10:18,360
Speaker 1: you must be racist, no matter how legitimate the critique is.

1319
01:10:18,720 --> 01:10:23,519
Speaker 1: His supporters have attacked rank choice voting itself erroneously, claiming

1320
01:10:23,560 --> 01:10:26,559
Speaker 1: that it weakens the power of non white voters. So again,

1321
01:10:26,760 --> 01:10:30,080
Speaker 1: this is a guy who is basically cynically exploiting some

1322
01:10:30,160 --> 01:10:34,200
Speaker 1: of the well intentioned proclivities of a lot of people

1323
01:10:34,240 --> 01:10:38,160
Speaker 1: on the left to position himself as a progressive, while

1324
01:10:38,240 --> 01:10:42,800
Speaker 1: his ideals and what he stands for is anything but Yes.

1325
01:10:42,920 --> 01:10:45,960
Speaker 1: So I think Adams supposes a unique danger to the

1326
01:10:46,080 --> 01:10:49,200
Speaker 1: left if he wins, and it looks like he may

1327
01:10:49,320 --> 01:10:52,519
Speaker 1: very well win because he has a lot of the

1328
01:10:52,600 --> 01:10:55,600
Speaker 1: populist rhetoric, and he's someone who'd come in with a

1329
01:10:55,640 --> 01:10:59,960
Speaker 1: real populist coalition working class blacks and Latinos labor union.

1330
01:11:00,200 --> 01:11:02,720
Speaker 1: Is he's kind of dying out of borough political machines,

1331
01:11:03,120 --> 01:11:05,320
Speaker 1: and he could say, on one hand, incredibly I was

1332
01:11:05,320 --> 01:11:07,880
Speaker 1: elected by the people. But unlike sort of you know,

1333
01:11:08,280 --> 01:11:13,760
Speaker 1: left populist type politicians, there will be no large redistributive agenda. Right.

1334
01:11:14,200 --> 01:11:17,719
Speaker 1: Eric Adams is backed by like Andrew Yang is supported

1335
01:11:17,720 --> 01:11:22,920
Speaker 1: by you know, billionaire charter school supporters, billionaire real estate developers.

1336
01:11:23,160 --> 01:11:26,200
Speaker 1: The city's power elite are very excited about Eric at

1337
01:11:26,640 --> 01:11:29,080
Speaker 1: they might be a bit weary because he is unpredictable

1338
01:11:29,120 --> 01:11:32,439
Speaker 1: in the scendiary. They prefer someone like Michael Bloomberg, who

1339
01:11:32,840 --> 01:11:36,000
Speaker 1: you know very much fit in a box. Whereas Adams

1340
01:11:36,160 --> 01:11:38,200
Speaker 1: used to be a Republican now is a Democrat. He's

1341
01:11:38,200 --> 01:11:41,639
Speaker 1: all over the place, but fundamentally he's not a challenge

1342
01:11:41,680 --> 01:11:43,879
Speaker 1: to capital. He's not a challenge to the power elite.

1343
01:11:44,040 --> 01:11:46,879
Speaker 1: At the same time, he's very a depth at invoking

1344
01:11:47,000 --> 01:11:50,559
Speaker 1: race and making it seem like he himself is some

1345
01:11:50,760 --> 01:11:54,240
Speaker 1: kind of underdog or some kind of populist, like a

1346
01:11:54,280 --> 01:11:59,639
Speaker 1: lot of candy politicians. So challenging him, organizing against him

1347
01:12:00,120 --> 01:12:03,160
Speaker 1: will be difficult in my eyes, because he has a

1348
01:12:03,200 --> 01:12:07,400
Speaker 1: strong coalition and he's very good at using these weapons

1349
01:12:07,400 --> 01:12:10,200
Speaker 1: of identity against the left. That's why I'm always warning

1350
01:12:10,200 --> 01:12:12,559
Speaker 1: my friends in the left, you really have to pair

1351
01:12:12,760 --> 01:12:16,200
Speaker 1: the class critique with race, otherwise you get this kind

1352
01:12:16,240 --> 01:12:20,480
Speaker 1: of woke capitalism, which is what Eric Adams ultimately represents.

1353
01:12:20,840 --> 01:12:23,760
Speaker 1: So ross have New York City progressive is how are

1354
01:12:23,760 --> 01:12:27,040
Speaker 1: they going to square that working class blacks are likely

1355
01:12:27,080 --> 01:12:29,559
Speaker 1: to elect a black mayor who wants more cops and

1356
01:12:29,560 --> 01:12:31,600
Speaker 1: doesn't want to defund the police. I just feel like

1357
01:12:31,640 --> 01:12:33,640
Speaker 1: this has to be one of the biggest reckonings for

1358
01:12:33,720 --> 01:12:37,000
Speaker 1: what's happening with left politics in New York City right now.

1359
01:12:37,040 --> 01:12:39,479
Speaker 1: I'm curious for your thoughts on that. Yeah, I mean,

1360
01:12:39,600 --> 01:12:41,760
Speaker 1: I would like to see that reckoning. So after the

1361
01:12:41,800 --> 01:12:44,719
Speaker 1: twenty twenty election, you know, I and some other people

1362
01:12:44,720 --> 01:12:46,880
Speaker 1: on left were saying, look, you know New York City,

1363
01:12:47,560 --> 01:12:51,480
Speaker 1: Trump threw his vote share in working class Latino neighborhoods

1364
01:12:51,520 --> 01:12:54,640
Speaker 1: and then to a lesser extent in working class Black neighborhoods.

1365
01:12:54,760 --> 01:12:57,080
Speaker 1: He did not really grow a share in white neighborhoods.

1366
01:12:57,080 --> 01:12:59,920
Speaker 1: And this was true nationally. This really followed national trends

1367
01:13:00,200 --> 01:13:04,040
Speaker 1: that waiting for like the professional left reckoning with that,

1368
01:13:04,720 --> 01:13:07,960
Speaker 1: and it just never came. I think unfortunately a lot

1369
01:13:08,000 --> 01:13:10,559
Speaker 1: of these kind of NGO type groups, you know, they

1370
01:13:10,720 --> 01:13:14,720
Speaker 1: really have incentive to ignore what's going on. So you

1371
01:13:14,760 --> 01:13:19,320
Speaker 1: have you have these weird scenarios where you know, a

1372
01:13:19,360 --> 01:13:23,320
Speaker 1: nonprofit NGO organization will say we speak for the working class.

1373
01:13:23,640 --> 01:13:27,000
Speaker 1: Meanwhile the working class is booting a certain way. I

1374
01:13:27,040 --> 01:13:30,200
Speaker 1: think there are smarter, cannier groups like the ESA, but

1375
01:13:30,320 --> 01:13:35,160
Speaker 1: still there is this disconnect and the reckoning has not come. Yeah,

1376
01:13:35,200 --> 01:13:38,120
Speaker 1: and even the like left candidate in the race now

1377
01:13:38,240 --> 01:13:42,400
Speaker 1: Maya whiley the only marginally progressive person who has a shot.

1378
01:13:42,560 --> 01:13:45,200
Speaker 1: I mean, she was like on MSNBC every day opposed

1379
01:13:45,200 --> 01:13:48,519
Speaker 1: to Bernie Sanders. So and Scott Stringer, who was the

1380
01:13:48,560 --> 01:13:50,839
Speaker 1: other one, was also like, you know, a Hillary Clinton

1381
01:13:50,920 --> 01:13:55,280
Speaker 1: type progressive I guess. So the left really didn't have

1382
01:13:55,439 --> 01:13:57,160
Speaker 1: much of a showing in this race or anyone to

1383
01:13:57,240 --> 01:14:00,800
Speaker 1: root for whatsoever. Look, we don't what's going to happen,

1384
01:14:00,840 --> 01:14:04,559
Speaker 1: and ranked choice makes this very dicey in order in

1385
01:14:04,680 --> 01:14:06,920
Speaker 1: order to effectively predict what's going to happen in this

1386
01:14:07,040 --> 01:14:09,599
Speaker 1: race first time having ranked choice voting in New York

1387
01:14:09,680 --> 01:14:13,640
Speaker 1: City mayor oal primary. But Andrew Yang was once solidly

1388
01:14:13,680 --> 01:14:16,360
Speaker 1: at the top of this field and has really fallen

1389
01:14:16,400 --> 01:14:18,800
Speaker 1: off to where you know, I think if he were

1390
01:14:18,840 --> 01:14:21,280
Speaker 1: to win at this point, it would be a tremendous comeback.

1391
01:14:21,320 --> 01:14:24,600
Speaker 1: He's a large underdog at this point. What happened that

1392
01:14:24,680 --> 01:14:26,600
Speaker 1: caused him to fall off in the polls to that

1393
01:14:26,680 --> 01:14:33,719
Speaker 1: significant amount? So my theory is Andrew Yang really lost

1394
01:14:34,080 --> 01:14:39,160
Speaker 1: educated liberal voters. Unlike the national Democratic electorate, the left

1395
01:14:39,240 --> 01:14:42,439
Speaker 1: liberal PMC. Part of the Democratic electorate in New York

1396
01:14:42,479 --> 01:14:45,439
Speaker 1: City is a lot bigger. So, you know, Elizabeth Warren

1397
01:14:45,760 --> 01:14:48,919
Speaker 1: flopped on the national stage right, I think an Elizabeth

1398
01:14:48,960 --> 01:14:51,000
Speaker 1: Warren type candidate could do a lot better in New

1399
01:14:51,080 --> 01:14:54,679
Speaker 1: York City just because this kind of you know, wealthyre,

1400
01:14:54,800 --> 01:14:59,400
Speaker 1: affluent type democrat who consumes a lot of news and

1401
01:14:59,760 --> 01:15:03,479
Speaker 1: has as a graduate degree matters. Right, You really can't

1402
01:15:03,520 --> 01:15:07,679
Speaker 1: win the mayoralty being entirely shut out by them. And

1403
01:15:07,880 --> 01:15:11,240
Speaker 1: my theory so far is that despite their revulsion towards

1404
01:15:11,320 --> 01:15:14,400
Speaker 1: Eric Adams, they're more accepting of Eric Adams because he's

1405
01:15:14,439 --> 01:15:17,960
Speaker 1: been an elected official, his gaps take on a different quality.

1406
01:15:18,320 --> 01:15:20,320
Speaker 1: Andrew Yang really came in with a lot of energy

1407
01:15:20,320 --> 01:15:23,639
Speaker 1: and excitement. He just has shown a real knowledge gap

1408
01:15:23,680 --> 01:15:26,360
Speaker 1: around certain issues. He's gotten a lot of media scrup me.

1409
01:15:27,400 --> 01:15:30,400
Speaker 1: Eric Adams did not really get any media scrutiny until

1410
01:15:30,400 --> 01:15:34,280
Speaker 1: I would say around May of twenty twenty one, and

1411
01:15:34,320 --> 01:15:37,080
Speaker 1: it's almost entirely absent from the media. It's very strange

1412
01:15:37,080 --> 01:15:40,200
Speaker 1: to even see this. Whereas Andrew Yang wall to wall coverage,

1413
01:15:40,240 --> 01:15:42,760
Speaker 1: I think ultimately that hurt him. I think if Eric

1414
01:15:42,800 --> 01:15:45,600
Speaker 1: Adams got the level to scrutin me Yang did, he

1415
01:15:45,640 --> 01:15:48,880
Speaker 1: would not be so high in the pools. That being said,

1416
01:15:48,960 --> 01:15:52,400
Speaker 1: I think Andrew Yang did a really poor job of

1417
01:15:52,560 --> 01:15:57,320
Speaker 1: mitigating the fears of progressives and also at least trying

1418
01:15:57,360 --> 01:16:02,439
Speaker 1: to assuage some of this kind of educated liberal voter base,

1419
01:16:02,840 --> 01:16:06,760
Speaker 1: which does matter Lasio one with educated liberals, one with

1420
01:16:06,880 --> 01:16:10,040
Speaker 1: working class black voters. Eric Adams will not do well

1421
01:16:10,240 --> 01:16:14,160
Speaker 1: educated liberals, But my own sense is he's probably better

1422
01:16:14,200 --> 01:16:17,240
Speaker 1: positioned in ranking choice voting to show up on their

1423
01:16:17,320 --> 01:16:23,439
Speaker 1: ballots more than Ye'll get to listen to those Yang

1424
01:16:23,520 --> 01:16:26,719
Speaker 1: listen to those consultant, those Bloomberg consultants a little too much,

1425
01:16:26,840 --> 01:16:30,120
Speaker 1: I think. Tell us about the book, congrats on it

1426
01:16:30,120 --> 01:16:32,559
Speaker 1: coming out today again. It's called The Prince Andrew Cuomo

1427
01:16:32,600 --> 01:16:35,040
Speaker 1: Coronavirus in the Fall of New York. We've certainly been

1428
01:16:35,080 --> 01:16:37,400
Speaker 1: talking to you about these topics for a while. What

1429
01:16:37,479 --> 01:16:39,160
Speaker 1: is it that you wanted to dig into in this

1430
01:16:39,200 --> 01:16:41,920
Speaker 1: book and expose about Andrew Cuomo and his reign as

1431
01:16:42,000 --> 01:16:45,640
Speaker 1: governor there? So I really see this book as a

1432
01:16:45,680 --> 01:16:48,920
Speaker 1: rejoinder to the propaganda memoir he put out last year

1433
01:16:49,000 --> 01:16:52,439
Speaker 1: the focus of late mayor's race. But Andrew Cuomo is

1434
01:16:52,479 --> 01:16:54,719
Speaker 1: still the King of New York. He has not resigned.

1435
01:16:54,760 --> 01:16:58,439
Speaker 1: He's inordantly powerful. He wants to run for fourth term.

1436
01:16:58,479 --> 01:17:00,760
Speaker 1: So this is a book about the horrible year of

1437
01:17:00,800 --> 01:17:03,799
Speaker 1: COVID in New York State. It's about how Andrew Culomo

1438
01:17:04,000 --> 01:17:07,280
Speaker 1: failed in New York, how he downplayed COVID, compared it

1439
01:17:07,320 --> 01:17:10,480
Speaker 1: to the flu like Donald Trump did, was late to respond,

1440
01:17:10,880 --> 01:17:14,920
Speaker 1: mismanaged nursing homes, courted scandal and controversy. And it's also

1441
01:17:14,960 --> 01:17:17,439
Speaker 1: about its political history. So if an interest in kind

1442
01:17:17,479 --> 01:17:20,040
Speaker 1: of how Clomo came to be who he is, how

1443
01:17:20,080 --> 01:17:23,280
Speaker 1: he betrayed the left Oprah and over again, and really

1444
01:17:23,320 --> 01:17:26,320
Speaker 1: a work to foil the ambitions of democrats, this is

1445
01:17:26,360 --> 01:17:29,200
Speaker 1: definitely a book for you. It's pretty, it's very readable,

1446
01:17:29,280 --> 01:17:31,519
Speaker 1: it's fairly short, and if you really you know, you

1447
01:17:31,560 --> 01:17:34,240
Speaker 1: read the memoir last year or ignored the memoir last year,

1448
01:17:34,280 --> 01:17:36,280
Speaker 1: and you want to really find out what happened with

1449
01:17:36,320 --> 01:17:39,160
Speaker 1: Andrew Clomo, what happened with COVID, Who is this guy?

1450
01:17:39,320 --> 01:17:42,519
Speaker 1: Why is he so powerful? I really think this is

1451
01:17:42,520 --> 01:17:44,439
Speaker 1: a book you will enjoy and you should go buy

1452
01:17:44,439 --> 01:17:47,040
Speaker 1: it from four Books. Today, I'm going to go ahead

1453
01:17:47,040 --> 01:17:49,040
Speaker 1: and a say in our audience did not read the

1454
01:17:49,080 --> 01:17:53,080
Speaker 1: Andrew Cuomo memoir. However, they should read your book because

1455
01:17:53,240 --> 01:17:56,479
Speaker 1: you have been the most astute observer, one of the

1456
01:17:56,479 --> 01:18:00,760
Speaker 1: most street observers, certainly of Cuomo and his failures. From

1457
01:18:00,760 --> 01:18:03,639
Speaker 1: the very beginning. You weren't buying into the media hype.

1458
01:18:04,280 --> 01:18:07,720
Speaker 1: You've had already a lot of journalistic revelations that have

1459
01:18:07,760 --> 01:18:09,840
Speaker 1: been important, and you're incredible writer. Everybody. We're going to

1460
01:18:09,920 --> 01:18:12,599
Speaker 1: put the information for the book down in the description

1461
01:18:12,680 --> 01:18:15,400
Speaker 1: so you can find it. Definitely check it out again. Ross,

1462
01:18:15,400 --> 01:18:17,120
Speaker 1: great to have you, Thanks for joining us on this

1463
01:18:17,280 --> 01:18:20,720
Speaker 1: spectacularly busy day for you. Thank you, Ross, Thank you

1464
01:18:20,760 --> 01:18:25,080
Speaker 1: for having me. Of course, thanks everybody for watching, guys,

1465
01:18:25,080 --> 01:18:27,840
Speaker 1: we really appreciate it. As a reminder, if you want

1466
01:18:27,840 --> 01:18:30,240
Speaker 1: to watch the full show, completely uncut, you can become

1467
01:18:30,280 --> 01:18:32,519
Speaker 1: a Premium member today. You get to listen to it

1468
01:18:32,560 --> 01:18:35,040
Speaker 1: as a full audio show as well, and you get

1469
01:18:35,080 --> 01:18:37,360
Speaker 1: to help support our work here. We're one hundred percent

1470
01:18:37,479 --> 01:18:40,720
Speaker 1: powered by Supercast. We love them. It's an awesome partnership

1471
01:18:40,720 --> 01:18:42,760
Speaker 1: and we will see you all on Thursday. Have a

1472
01:18:42,760 --> 01:18:59,599
Speaker 1: great day, guys, We'll see you back here on Thursday. Enjoy.

1473
01:19:00,000 --> 01:19:02,280
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the show. Guys, we really appreciate it.

1474
01:19:02,280 --> 01:19:04,280
Speaker 1: To help other people find the show, Go ahead and

1475
01:19:04,360 --> 01:19:07,200
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1476
01:19:07,240 --> 01:19:10,439
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1477
01:19:10,560 --> 01:19:14,080
Speaker 1: the show as always special thank you to Supercast for

1478
01:19:14,200 --> 01:19:17,080
Speaker 1: powering our premium membership. If you want to find out more,

1479
01:19:17,200 --> 01:19:19,360
Speaker 1: go to Crystalansager dot com