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Speaker 1: Out here they might have actually done. So let's put

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Speaker 1: this up there on the screen. So Tim Scott has

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Speaker 1: a new book out why exactly nobody knows it's a

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Speaker 1: third book in the last three years. Crystal. You can

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Speaker 1: surmise as to why. However, the book accidentally, according to

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Speaker 1: the publisher, has a line in it where it specifically

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Speaker 1: says that the book lays out his vision for a

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Speaker 1: presidential bid to be launched in twenty twenty two. Now

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Speaker 1: Scott is pleading innocent, saying he had no idea about

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Speaker 1: the line. He has no idea how the line even

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Speaker 1: got into the book. And again, this is Scott's third book.

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Speaker 1: The first was in twenty eighteen. The second one was

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Speaker 1: actually in twenty twenty called Opportunity Knocks How hard work,

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Speaker 1: community and business can improve lives and poverty. This one

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Speaker 1: is more of his life story. Now, look, I'll just

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Speaker 1: tell you the truth, which or the facts, which is

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Speaker 1: in the past. Almost every person who is running for president,

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Speaker 1: Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, many others have written books and

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Speaker 1: so called stories, so called memoirs ahead of launching a

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Speaker 1: presidential bid. He says, that's not what's happening here. He

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Speaker 1: has no idea how the text got into the book.

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Speaker 1: I mean, look, I think he's kind of crazy, because look,

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Speaker 1: how does this line end up in your book without

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Speaker 1: at least not approval necessarily. But maybe that was the

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Speaker 1: way he pitched it to them, and these things go

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Speaker 1: through a hell of a lot of scrutiny. It made

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Speaker 1: it all the way to the copyright page. I mean,

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Speaker 1: maybe that's the way he pitched it to the publisher

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Speaker 1: price and then they put it in so called accidentally.

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Speaker 1: But now he's claiming otherwise. There's still a lot of explanation. Yes,

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Speaker 1: how exactly this would even happen very weird, was super weird, Like,

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Speaker 1: I really genuinely want to know how you end up

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Speaker 1: with this, because maybe the book was scheduled for a

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Speaker 1: later release. He moved it up for some reason, and

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Speaker 1: so it was supposed to be in if it was

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Speaker 1: going to be the later release when he would be

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Speaker 1: launching this theoretical campaign. The other question I had for

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Speaker 1: you Saga is tho, Yeah, how has he sort of

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Speaker 1: like positioned himself with regards to Trump? Where does he

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Speaker 1: fall in the spectrum? How is he sort of carved

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Speaker 1: down a niche got endorsed by Trump? And got endorsed

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Speaker 1: by Trump for his reelection, so obviously that matters. He's

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Speaker 1: kind of an interesting guy. I mean's like a bit

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Speaker 1: of it, more of a happy warrior, very much still

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Speaker 1: like the free market Jack Kemp kind of capitalism school,

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Speaker 1: but squared the Trump years pretty well. I mean, he's

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Speaker 1: ultimately a guy who got criminal justice reform done. He

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Speaker 1: had a pretty good relationship with them. He also, you know,

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Speaker 1: has always been one of those guys who is his

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Speaker 1: happy demeanor and this is more about him as a politician,

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Speaker 1: has let him rise above some of the more nasty

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Speaker 1: GOP wars or like culture fights. So he articulates things

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Speaker 1: in a way that very palatable I think to a

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Speaker 1: lot of GOP voters, which I think is kind of interesting,

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Speaker 1: and he probably has more crossover. But I think Trump

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Speaker 1: people are skeptical of him just because he doesn't actually

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Speaker 1: support a lot of the stuff I'm talking about here

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Speaker 1: in Washington, but voters in particular. I mean, look, he's

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Speaker 1: pretty popular in the state of South Carolina, and he

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Speaker 1: did get the Trump endorsement. I think Trump sees the

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Speaker 1: power of Tim Scott not do I think you would

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Speaker 1: in a primary. No, I don't think so whatsoever for

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Speaker 1: many of the reasons that I just described. But you know,

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Speaker 1: as a politician, he's not bad. Well, I was just

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Speaker 1: looking and he, apparently not that long ago, was hinting

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Speaker 1: that he could be Trump's running me yes right, to

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Speaker 1: be the new vice presidential pick. And lord knows the

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Speaker 1: Republicans are not afraid to also dabbling in their own

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Speaker 1: identity politics. Of course, not like to do that as well.

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Speaker 1: I mean in terms of him backing any of the

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Speaker 1: fundamental tenets of supposed trump Ism back from twenty sixteen.

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Speaker 1: This guy is a very doctrinaire, like free market libertaire.

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Speaker 1: How he came into politics, old school, standard issue conservative type.

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Speaker 1: He definitely doesn't carry any of the original idea of

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Speaker 1: what trump Ism might be, but it also doesn't matter

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Speaker 1: at all anymore at this point. I wonder if he

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Speaker 1: would be willing to debase himself to the extent that

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Speaker 1: would be required, though, I mean, you would have to

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Speaker 1: go all in on like all the stop this deal stuff,

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Speaker 1: like that's all the trump Ism is at this point,

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Speaker 1: So I don't know if he'd be willing to possible

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Speaker 1: tow the line as hard as Mike Pence did for

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Speaker 1: as long as he did. I don't think he could

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Speaker 1: do it either. Yeah, but look, I mean here's what

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Speaker 1: Lyndon Johnson I think famously said. He's like, yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: a terrible job, but you know, it's like a one

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Speaker 1: in six chance of becoming president. So you know, Trump's eight,

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Speaker 1: he would be like eighty years old if this were

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Speaker 1: something that are materialized. It's not terrible odds. I'm speaking

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Speaker 1: in grim terms, but you know that's just simply the truth.

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Speaker 1: So who knows how to work out funny Nonetheless, yes,

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Speaker 1: very funny and interesting revelation there. So, guys, we have

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Speaker 1: mentioned a few times the Democrats are once again floating

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Speaker 1: a stock trading ban for members, their spouses, and their

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Speaker 1: top aids, with the idea being this would be fairly

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Speaker 1: far reaching, both in terms of who it would impact,

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Speaker 1: but also they would ban them from trading stocks or

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Speaker 1: even holding stocks, something that I think would be wonderful. However,

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Speaker 1: there is a lot of reason to be skeptical that

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Speaker 1: any of this will actually come to fruition and is

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Speaker 1: anything more than a sort of campaign political messaging tool.

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Speaker 1: New York Post is out with the newer article pouring

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Speaker 1: a lot of cold water on this idea. They say,

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Speaker 1: Congress will not self regulate their trades. Washington insiders say,

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Speaker 1: let me read you the lead to this piece. They say,

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Speaker 1: amid renewed chatter about the importance of cracking down on

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Speaker 1: legislative stock trades, high ranking staffers tell the Post, the

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Speaker 1: likelihood Congress will actually regulate itself is so low it

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Speaker 1: is laughable. Quote. You are not getting members of Congress

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Speaker 1: who self regulate the money they can or can't make.

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Speaker 1: A DC insider told the Post, why would they do

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Speaker 1: something that does not benefit them? On Thursday, report broke

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Speaker 1: in punch Bowl News that Democratic House members plan next

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Speaker 1: month to introduce the bill that would crack down on

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Speaker 1: stock trades by legislators and their family members. But senior

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Speaker 1: staffers were quick to suggest the report had more to

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Speaker 1: do with getting a positive headline less to do with

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Speaker 1: actually enacting serious reform. Quote. It is all performative. It

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Speaker 1: is not going anywhere. Hard to disagree with that analysis

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Speaker 1: of the state of play here. Sit issue is going

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Speaker 1: to be timing, because that's exactly what they point to,

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Speaker 1: which is that if they need this mansion Cinema thing

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Speaker 1: or so this mansion Schumer thing to go through it's

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Speaker 1: going to be. That's a lot of time that both

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Speaker 1: on the floor and also what the House of Representatives

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Speaker 1: has to do in reaction. Right now, Polsi is not

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Speaker 1: even near in the country, so is she going to

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Speaker 1: come back? Like also what about the recess? And then

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Speaker 1: after recess people need a nice long one because they

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Speaker 1: want to run for reelection. So are they just introducing

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Speaker 1: this to in doce it or are they actually going

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Speaker 1: to do it? And that's where I would also bet

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Speaker 1: on the cynicism, which they can just blame timing, like oh,

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Speaker 1: Republicans blocked this, this and this and didn't end up

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Speaker 1: going through. Everybody wants the headlines on these things, but

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Speaker 1: nobody actually wants them to follow through, and that's what

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Speaker 1: one wants. It definitely passed. Yeah, that's the death knell.

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Speaker 1: That was the death knell in the Senate. Whenever we

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Speaker 1: had all these Senate proposals, those didn't end up going anywhere.

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Speaker 1: Same thing here. Yeah, it really is a tragedy. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you could definitely see a situation where they

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Speaker 1: pass it through the House. So House Democrats are able

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Speaker 1: to say we did this and we voted for and

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Speaker 1: we passed it through here and then the Senate is

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Speaker 1: balked down in reconciliation and so ah, Senate just didn't

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Speaker 1: have the time to take it up. Darn next time,

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Speaker 1: put us back in power, vote for Democrats again and

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Speaker 1: we'll get this through. So yeah, you should probably, you

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Speaker 1: should probably partake in the cynical analysis. Unfortunately, far too

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Speaker 1: often is the correct analysis, especially on matters that involved

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Speaker 1: the bank accounts of members of Congress. All right, we've

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Speaker 1: got some North Korea level propaganda coming at you from

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Speaker 1: Newsmax visa VI President Trump. So just a little bit

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Speaker 1: of the background and play the clip. As we've been covering,

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Speaker 1: and as you've probably seen, Trump has gone all in

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Speaker 1: with live golf. This is the Saudi family's attempt to

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Speaker 1: reputation launder, and they've been throwing millions and millions of

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Speaker 1: dollars at top PGA golfers to get them to defect

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Speaker 1: and come over and play. Also for live golf. Trump

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Speaker 1: hosted a big tournament at one of his facilities in Bedminster,

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Speaker 1: New Jersey, and this was how one Newsmax host reacted

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Speaker 1: to Trump and his golf prowess. You know, you look

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Speaker 1: at Joe Biden struggling so hard and you see Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump on the first t yesterday, Tee Offen just hit

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Speaker 1: a stripe right down the middle. I mean, I'm always

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Speaker 1: fascinated by the aspects of soft power in politics, and

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Speaker 1: you know, Americans have to see this. Joe Biden's struggling

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Speaker 1: every day, He's hanging out with a bunch of losers,

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Speaker 1: and Donald Trump is out playing golf looking more presidential

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Speaker 1: than the current president. Now, I remember a time when

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Speaker 1: Republicans and ruling media figures would trash Obama for playing golf,

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Speaker 1: but now golf is presidential. He was more presidential than Biden.

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Speaker 1: I just don't really get what's going on over there.

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Speaker 1: I've never understood the whole of Newsmax project. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: just really pathetic and gross. I also just question does

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Speaker 1: this stuff really work for me? That's the one where

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Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, Newsmax ratings, you know, definitely down. They

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Speaker 1: went all in on Stop the Steal, but then because

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Speaker 1: of you know, lawsuits and more, they were forced to

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Speaker 1: retract some of that and they're not allowed to air

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Speaker 1: some of the most outrageous Stop the Steels conspiracy theories.

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Speaker 1: So now, like, what is the point of Newsmax that

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Speaker 1: you can't get over at Fox and even people who

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Speaker 1: love Trump, like, does this stuff really work? It's cringe.

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Speaker 1: When CNN does it, it's cringe. Remember on Biden's inauguration,

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Speaker 1: it was like Biden's arms surrounding the COT. I was like,

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Speaker 1: what is exactly like North Korean shit? In terms of

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Speaker 1: their propaganda. I just choose to believe that anybody who

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Speaker 1: is even fan of a politician, and even anybody watches

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Speaker 1: that is like this is this is gross? Yeah, what

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Speaker 1: is the market for it? Just like I don't get blatant,

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Speaker 1: grotesque levels of shameless propaganda. I don't know. These networks

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Speaker 1: seem to think that there's quite a big audience there

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Speaker 1: looking you know, anything he does, we're gonna say, it's

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Speaker 1: amazing that he's powerful as presidential. Look at Joe Biden

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Speaker 1: stumbling around President Trump out there on the golf course,

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Speaker 1: so presidential. I don't know. They seem to find an

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Speaker 1: audience for it. But is pretty silly for anyone watching

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Speaker 1: this with an objective view? Yeah, absolutely so. Nobel laureate

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Speaker 1: and New York Times op ed columnist Paul Krugman has

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Speaker 1: weighed in multiple times actually at this point about how

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Speaker 1: strong the economy is under Joe Biden, and he's been

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Speaker 1: talking up a quote Biden boom, for which he's apparently

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Speaker 1: received rightly, I would say, a lot of mockery. So

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Speaker 1: he's defending himself online and just making it way way worse.

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Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and put this up on the screen,

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Speaker 1: he says, since I get lots of mockery for having

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Speaker 1: talked about a Biden boom, I thought i'd share a chart,

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Speaker 1: And it's a chart of jobs added under Biden versus

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Speaker 1: under Trump. And then he says the problem may be

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Speaker 1: that the Biden economy boomed too much, feeding inflation, and

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Speaker 1: that it now needs to cool off, which might involve

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Speaker 1: a recession, but hasn't yet. He's got to get that

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Speaker 1: in there too, to make sure he's on board with

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Speaker 1: the talking points that there is no recession yet. And

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Speaker 1: he goes on to add this caveat and yes, I

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Speaker 1: know there are all kinds of issues about different starting points,

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Speaker 1: the roulete, federal policy, et cetera. But the basic fact

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Speaker 1: is that so far, the Biden economy's added nine million jobs,

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Speaker 1: so it has been a job's boom. Whatever else you

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Speaker 1: might say, that's probably the most honest part of it.

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Speaker 1: I don't think anyone is denied. Yes, coming out of COVID,

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Speaker 1: when you had the economy shut down, there was going

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Speaker 1: to be a job's boom, no doubt about it. And

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Speaker 1: it is true that we're in this really weird economic

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Speaker 1: moment where you have low unemployment, but you have high inflation,

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Speaker 1: so you have real wages getting cut and slashed every week,

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Speaker 1: week week, week week, and all these weird supply shortages.

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Speaker 1: And I mean, you know, we cover all the economic

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Speaker 1: issues on the show all the time, but the part

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Speaker 1: of it I also find quite extraordinary here Soger behind

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Speaker 1: the idea, aside from the idea that the Biden economy

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Speaker 1: boomed too much and that's the problem, is that now

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Speaker 1: you have to have a recession. That's the way to

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Speaker 1: deal with it. I mean, this is really this mindset,

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Speaker 1: it's sort of sociopathic mindset. From Larry Summers, from Jerome Palace,

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Speaker 1: the head of the Fed, from Krugman. You hear, you know,

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Speaker 1: people on the Wall Street networks talking routinely about how

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Speaker 1: we have to get wages down, how we have to

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Speaker 1: essentially risk triggering a recession, that that's the most important goal,

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Speaker 1: which is just grotesque and as we've discussed before, the

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Speaker 1: tools that they're using with FED policy to potentially spark

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Speaker 1: this I mean not potentially to spark this recession and

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Speaker 1: to hurt all of you. These are not even effective

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Speaker 1: tools to deal with the underlying causes of inflation. I

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Speaker 1: think that's the biggest one to me, which is that

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Speaker 1: it doesn't it doesn't work, Like, what is the point?

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Speaker 1: Which is that why even admitting in this framework. And

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Speaker 1: Krugman has embarrassed himself because he's also been one of

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Speaker 1: the people who's like trying to redefine recession. This stuff

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Speaker 1: drives me crazy. It all is just about cope from

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Speaker 1: the administration. The whole boom too much. They can never

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Speaker 1: just admit the underlying structure of the economy is bad,

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Speaker 1: it's not working. Let's figure out not only why, but

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Speaker 1: how to fix it. Instead, they try and focus and

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Speaker 1: argue backwards to redefine the narrative and then not do

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Speaker 1: anything on the front end. So this is all just

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Speaker 1: propaganda wars about the past. I don't think anybody cares honestly,

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Speaker 1: I mean sure to the limited extent of like what

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Speaker 1: it means that we should do in the future, But anyway,

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Speaker 1: I think it's totally ridiculous. Yeah, it's just another window

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Speaker 1: into the gross policy view and choices and level of

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Speaker 1: propaganda coming from economic elites who have a lot of

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Speaker 1: influence in this country. I mean, the FED has so

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Speaker 1: much power, totally undemocratic. You know, we've been told and

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Speaker 1: persuaded over a lot of years that we basically just

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Speaker 1: have to leave it up to them, and they know

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Speaker 1: better than we do, and we really shouldn't have any

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Speaker 1: say in it at all. No, Like, you know, there's

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Speaker 1: no sort of popular movements around trying to influm will.

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Speaker 1: I shouldn't say that, but there's been an effort to

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Speaker 1: persuade Americans not to have popular will around what happens

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Speaker 1: with the FED, even though it's the most powerful factor

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Speaker 1: in our economy ultimately. And so you have things like

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Speaker 1: this where it's just gaslighting. I mean, people know what

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Speaker 1: their lives are like, they know that they have a freedom.

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Speaker 1: In an article about how moms are having a police

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Speaker 1: how much shampoo their kids use, and you know, cutting

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Speaker 1: back on fresh fruits and vegetables, really unable to afford

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Speaker 1: it anymore. People are making these choices in real time.

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Speaker 1: They know what is going on in their lives, and

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Speaker 1: I can promise you that it does not feel like

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Speaker 1: the Biden economy quote boom too much, Yep, exactly. People

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Speaker 1: know they're smart enough to figure this out. Booming too much.

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Speaker 1: Tell that to the people who've been it's been over

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Speaker 1: a year. It's not like gas wasn't already high before

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Speaker 1: Russian Craine. We've had poor problems for sixteen seventeen months.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, boom too much? Okay, Thanks. Hi. I'm Maximilian Alvarez.

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Speaker 1: I'm the editor in chief of the Real News Network

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Speaker 1: and host of the podcast Working People and This is

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Speaker 1: the Art of Class War on Breaking Points twenty two

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Speaker 1: years ago. In February two thousand, the beginning of the

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Speaker 1: New Millennium, meat cutters working at a Walmart supercenter in Jacksonville,

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Speaker 1: Texas made history by becoming the first group of Walmart

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Speaker 1: employees in the US to vote to unionize. Seven out

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Speaker 1: of the ten workers who voted in the election voted

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Speaker 1: in favor of unionizing with the United Food and Commercial

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Speaker 1: Workers Local five point forty. Doug Doherty, who was the

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Speaker 1: president of the UFCW at the time, called it the

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Speaker 1: vote heard round the world. Quote this victory could open

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Speaker 1: the floodgates of pent up worker frustrateing ration at the

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Speaker 1: abusive treatment, low pay, and lousy benefits at Walmart, Dougherty

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Speaker 1: said after the election, workers at the Jacksonville store and

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Speaker 1: the labor movement in general, had a lot to be

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Speaker 1: excited about. At this point, Walmart was the largest private

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Speaker 1: employer in the country, and it still is, with two

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Speaker 1: point three million employees worldwide and one point three million

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Speaker 1: of those in the US. Walmart still beats out Amazon,

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Speaker 1: which has one point six million employees worldwide and one

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Speaker 1: point one million of them working in the US. And

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Speaker 1: like Amazon, Walmart has been notoriously and virulently anti union

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Speaker 1: from the very beginning, doing everything in its power to

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Speaker 1: dissuade or prevent workers from unionizing. Quote. I have always

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Speaker 1: believed strongly that we don't need unions at Walmart. Sam Walton,

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Speaker 1: founder of the company, famously wrote in his autobiography, Theoretically,

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Speaker 1: I understand the argument that unions try to make, that

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Speaker 1: the associates need someone to represent them, and so on.

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Speaker 1: But historically his unions have developed in this country, they

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Speaker 1: have mostly just been divisive end quote. Now Walmart has

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Speaker 1: been something like labour's white whale for many years, and

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Speaker 1: with the union victory in Jacksonville, it seemed like the

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Speaker 1: labor movement was finally advancing. Meat cutters at other Walmart locations,

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Speaker 1: including two in Texas and one in Florida, also petitioned

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Speaker 1: the National Labor Relations Board to hold their own union elections. Then,

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Speaker 1: later that same month, in a move that the company

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Speaker 1: spokespeople claimed had absolutely nothing to do with the union election,

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Speaker 1: Walmart suddenly announced it was shutting down its family butcher

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Speaker 1: style meat cutting operations in one hundred and eighty stores

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Speaker 1: across six states, and would be stalking its meat sections

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Speaker 1: with case ready beef and pork bought and prepackaged outside

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Speaker 1: of the stores. Because the election occurred before Walmart's devastating announcement,

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Speaker 1: the company was still bound by the National Labor Relations

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Speaker 1: Act to bargaining good faith with the union, but unsurprisingly

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Speaker 1: it refused to do so, claiming that the election hadn't

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Speaker 1: been fair. The company continued to delay bargaining and challenge

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Speaker 1: the results of the election until the new prepackaged meat

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Speaker 1: system was fully implemented at the Jacksonville store on July fifteenth,

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Speaker 1: two thousand. As soon as that happened, in a calculated

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Speaker 1: sleight of hand. Walmart changed its tune and claimed it

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Speaker 1: did not have to bargain with the meat cutters because

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Speaker 1: the changes within the store meant that a meat department

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Speaker 1: bargaining unit was functionally obsolete. After years of legal back

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Speaker 1: and forth, the meat cutters got some back pay and

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Speaker 1: some small concessions from Walmart, but they never got their union,

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Speaker 1: and Walmart, for its part, had succeeded in sending a

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Speaker 1: clear message to its hundreds of thousands of workers about

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Speaker 1: what could happen if they unionize in their stores. It

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Speaker 1: also gave other businesses a very clear lesson on how

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Speaker 1: they could undercut workers exercising their right to organize, and

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Speaker 1: how they could union bus by essentially jumping through the

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Speaker 1: gaping loopholes in US labor law. That, as you no

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Speaker 1: doubt have noticed, is a lesson that a lot of

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Speaker 1: companies are putting into practice right now in their gross, greedy, shitty,

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Speaker 1: and underhanded attempts to squash the burgeoning labor organizing movement

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Speaker 1: in this country. As we've discussed previously here on breaking Points,

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Speaker 1: Starbucks is undoubtedly leading the way right now as the

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Speaker 1: most blatant example of a company using extreme and almost

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Speaker 1: certainly illegal tactics to delay, demoralize, and destroy the union

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Speaker 1: wave surging in Starbucks stores throughout the country. Those tactics

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Speaker 1: range from firing pro union workers for bogus reasons, and

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Speaker 1: they'd done that a lot, to punitively understaffing and underscheduling

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Speaker 1: workers at pro union stores, refusing to recognize or bargain

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Speaker 1: with the union, to going nuclear and outright closing unionized stores,

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Speaker 1: which is illegal if it is done in retaliation for

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Speaker 1: organizing activity. Now, I played a clip for y'all recently

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Speaker 1: of my interview with Nadia VTech from the College Avenue

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Speaker 1: Starbucks in Ithaca, New York, which was closed in June

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Speaker 1: after workers unionized. After that, Starbucks announced sixteen more store closures,

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Speaker 1: including other stores that had already unionized or that were

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Speaker 1: starting to organize, like the Starbucks in Union Station here

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Speaker 1: in DC, about ten minutes from where I am currently sitting,

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Speaker 1: which was just closed last week. But other companies are

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Speaker 1: following suit, and that is a serious problem. In a

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Speaker 1: recent panel interview for The Real News, I spoke with Beck,

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Speaker 1: another worker organizer from the Ithaca Starbucks that was closed,

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Speaker 1: and I also spoke with Gami ray A barista and

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Speaker 1: worker organizer at Heine Brothers Coffee in Louisville, Kentucky, whose

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Speaker 1: pro union store was also abruptly and suspiciously closed. Listen

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Speaker 1: to Gami describe that experience at Douglas Sloop, the store

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Speaker 1: that I worked at. We it was the middle of

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Speaker 1: the day. We had been the most vocal Union store.

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Speaker 1: We had been the first to sign our petition. We

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Speaker 1: had our little Union stickers up around the store, you know,

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Speaker 1: and I had a lot of support from the community,

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Speaker 1: like the community was coming in and being vocal about it.

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Speaker 1: And then one day at two o'clock, as my shift

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Speaker 1: is coming to its end, I see multiple people from

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Speaker 1: headquarters who I had never seen set foot in our

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Speaker 1: store or who it was just not routine to be

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Speaker 1: in our store show up and they asked me to

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Speaker 1: start doing closing duties after I had just worked and

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Speaker 1: open to two, and as the next shift arrived, they

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Speaker 1: pulled us behind the counter, letting us know well before

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Speaker 1: the next shift had arrived they had asked us to

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Speaker 1: help ask customers to leave because we were closing for

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Speaker 1: the meeting, And so they came behind the counter after

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Speaker 1: second shift had gotten there. And we're very short with it.

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Speaker 1: They said, after much consideration, we are closing the Douglas

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Speaker 1: Sloop store effective immediately. Make sure that you have all

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Speaker 1: of your belongings because you won't be able to take

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Speaker 1: come back and get anything else. Make sure to leave

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Speaker 1: your key here as a packet with all the information

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Speaker 1: about the two options you have, which are severans leave

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Speaker 1: the company and receive severance, or receive a stipend and

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Speaker 1: stay with the company and transfer to one of the

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Speaker 1: other seventeen stores, which at the time we had no

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Speaker 1: idea that we were we were going to have no choice,

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Speaker 1: no deliberation on which story we were going to. I

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Speaker 1: specifically was transferred to a store sixteen minutes away from

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Speaker 1: my house. Douglas Loop is a fifteen minute walk. I

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Speaker 1: don't have a car, and a lot of us lived

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Speaker 1: really close to Douglas Loop, and we all got transferred

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Speaker 1: split up to different stores. But yeah, I mean, we

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Speaker 1: were all just stunned. If you're pissed now, I'm just

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Speaker 1: giving you fair warning, you're going to get more pissed

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Speaker 1: by the end of this segment. We're going to do

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Speaker 1: a full segment on this topic at some point in

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Speaker 1: the future. But I think It's important to note now

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Speaker 1: that Starbuck and Heine Brothers Coffee are not the only

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Speaker 1: union busting companies that have traditionally marketed themselves as progressive.

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Speaker 1: These companies have profited off their images as inclusive, caring,

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Speaker 1: socially conscious businesses that employ LGBTQ workers, workers of color,

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Speaker 1: and so on. But when those same workers choose to

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Speaker 1: exercise their right to organize, these companies show how progressive

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Speaker 1: they really are. In two episodes of my podcast Working People,

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Speaker 1: I spoke with former employees of the quote unquote progressive

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Speaker 1: vegan meat alternative company No Evil Foods about the company's

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00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:46,480
Speaker 1: union busting In twenty twenty, The company waged a relentless

429
00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 1: campaign to thwart workers' efforts to unionize with the UFCW,

430
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:56,919
Speaker 1: including holding mandatory captive audience meetings where workers were regularly

431
00:24:56,960 --> 00:25:04,159
Speaker 1: bombarded and scared with misinformation about unions. Then, last June,

432
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:07,400
Speaker 1: after successfully busting up the union drive at their production

433
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:12,400
Speaker 1: plant in Asheville, North Carolina, the company's faux progressive founders

434
00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:17,520
Speaker 1: suddenly announced that they were closing the plant. Operations were

435
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:21,120
Speaker 1: going to be moved to a co manufacturing facility in Illinois,

436
00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:26,160
Speaker 1: and workers who had sacrificed greatly during the pandemic. Four

437
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:31,680
Speaker 1: No Evil Foods were suddenly unemployed and received zero severance pay,

438
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 1: and because they did not have a union, workers did

439
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:38,920
Speaker 1: not get to bargain over the conditions of that closure

440
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:43,960
Speaker 1: or the layoffs. A horrible and eerily similar situation is

441
00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:48,760
Speaker 1: happening right now at another progressive vegetarian company, which is

442
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:54,080
Speaker 1: beloved by a loyal consumer base. Few frozen food brands

443
00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:57,120
Speaker 1: are as well known in the United States as Amy's Kitchen,

444
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:02,359
Speaker 1: a privately owned California based company that makes organic vegetarian

445
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:05,360
Speaker 1: meals that can be found in most frozen food aisles.

446
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:09,840
Speaker 1: But when workers at two Amy's production plants in California,

447
00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:14,439
Speaker 1: in Santa Rosa and San Jose, respectively, began to organize

448
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:18,119
Speaker 1: and to speak out about their brutal working conditions, the

449
00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:23,240
Speaker 1: company's progressive veneer started to crack. In February of this year,

450
00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:27,119
Speaker 1: for the Real News Network podcast, I spoke with Carmen

451
00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 1: Angiano and marikruz Mesa, two workers at the Santa Rosa plant.

452
00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:37,240
Speaker 1: They described to me hellacious breakneck work speeds to meet

453
00:26:37,359 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 1: absurd production quotas of twenty five thousand plates of food

454
00:26:42,359 --> 00:26:46,520
Speaker 1: in one eight hour shift. They told me about working

455
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 1: with torn tendons and chronic pain from repetitive motions and

456
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: insufficient COVID safety measures, and when workers spoke up about

457
00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:02,320
Speaker 1: these conditions, they faced hostile response is from management. At

458
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:06,240
Speaker 1: the Santa Rosa plant, workers like Carmen and Maricruz have

459
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:10,720
Speaker 1: been organizing with help from the Teamsters, whereas workers at

460
00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:13,840
Speaker 1: the San Jose plant had been working to organize with

461
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:18,359
Speaker 1: support from the union Unite here. But last month, the

462
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:22,480
Speaker 1: San Jose workers received the devastating news that Amy's was

463
00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 1: immediately closing the plant, with the company citing operational costs

464
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:31,639
Speaker 1: and supply chain disruptions to justify the closure and the

465
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:36,080
Speaker 1: loss of three hundred and thirty one jobs. On behalf

466
00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:39,159
Speaker 1: of breaking points, I reached out to workers there and

467
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:43,399
Speaker 1: received this heartbreaking statement from Ruby Luna, a now former

468
00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:48,600
Speaker 1: machine operator at the Amy's Kitchen plant in San Jose. Quote,

469
00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:52,640
Speaker 1: my co workers and I are completely shocked at the closure.

470
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:57,480
Speaker 1: We were lied to until the last minute. An hour

471
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:00,760
Speaker 1: after we clocked in, we were told our job were gone.

472
00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:05,479
Speaker 1: Amy's claims we are their family, but no one treats

473
00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:09,040
Speaker 1: their families this way. We are asking the public to

474
00:28:09,119 --> 00:28:12,920
Speaker 1: continue boycotting their products until they meet with our union

475
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:18,920
Speaker 1: to address our concerns and the devastating impact to our lives. Now,

476
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:24,159
Speaker 1: I could keep going because this shit keeps happening. But

477
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:28,400
Speaker 1: let's look at just one more example of this despicable trend.

478
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 1: On June twenty second of this year, workers at a

479
00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 1: Chipotle restaurant in Augusta, Maine, made history by becoming the

480
00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 1: first store in the US to file for a union

481
00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:45,080
Speaker 1: election with the NLRB. Then, on Tuesday, July nineteenth, Chipotle

482
00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:48,520
Speaker 1: announced that it would be permanently closing the Augusta location,

483
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:52,200
Speaker 1: as they always do. You may have noticed this trend.

484
00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:55,840
Speaker 1: Spokespeople for the company have denied that the closure is

485
00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:59,760
Speaker 1: related to union organizing activity, saying that it was in

486
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:03,520
Speaker 1: sea it's dead related to staffing challenges, But workers and

487
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:06,480
Speaker 1: their supporters say the drastic move is a clear act

488
00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 1: of retaliation and union busting one oh one by closing

489
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:15,000
Speaker 1: the Augusta store. Jeffrey Neil Young, a lawyer representing the

490
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:19,160
Speaker 1: Chipotle workers, told The New York Times quote, it's signaling

491
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:23,560
Speaker 1: to Chipotle workers elsewhere who are involved in or contemplating

492
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 1: nason organizational drives. That if you organize, you might be

493
00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 1: out of a job. End quote now on working people,

494
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:36,960
Speaker 1: I recently spoke to Brandy McNeice, a worker organizer at

495
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:41,720
Speaker 1: that AUGUSTA Chipotle location and a founding member of Chipotle United.

496
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:45,640
Speaker 1: Brandy used to be a manager at Chipotle before taking

497
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:49,760
Speaker 1: an office job that she unfortunately lost during the COVID pandemic.

498
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 1: After losing that job, she went back to work at

499
00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:57,680
Speaker 1: Chipotle as a certified staff trainer. Listen to her describe

500
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:01,440
Speaker 1: the experience of walking back into a Chippol after her

501
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:06,640
Speaker 1: time away. So all of my efforts to improve the

502
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:13,920
Speaker 1: store overall with the appropriate training were were on realized

503
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:22,640
Speaker 1: because it was so understaff. The other issue when I

504
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:25,800
Speaker 1: came back to the store, so I was gone, like

505
00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:28,120
Speaker 1: I said, for two years, and when I came back

506
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 1: in January, it was with the intent of helping the

507
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:35,280
Speaker 1: crew to get back to where they could be in

508
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:40,760
Speaker 1: terms of performance and food safety and staffing. But the

509
00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:42,920
Speaker 1: first thing that I noticed when I walked back in

510
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 1: was just the disrepair that the store had fallen into.

511
00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 1: It was not clean. Things were broken, like the equipment

512
00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:01,720
Speaker 1: was broken. We had a gas leak. We all worked

513
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:05,280
Speaker 1: through a gas leak for two weeks being told that's

514
00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:08,640
Speaker 1: not what it was, until the grill caught fire one

515
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:14,040
Speaker 1: day and the stovetop the same way. They very much

516
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:18,320
Speaker 1: had to well. They kept saying it's because we put

517
00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 1: it back together wrong, But there was three or four

518
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:27,080
Speaker 1: times that flames shot out of the stovetop two in

519
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:30,960
Speaker 1: the very first part of when I was there. The

520
00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:36,640
Speaker 1: grill and the stovetop and the rice cooker would intermittently fail.

521
00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:41,640
Speaker 1: So at one point we just removed all of the

522
00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:46,840
Speaker 1: grill items and all of the stovetop items from our

523
00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:51,880
Speaker 1: online ordering instead of just shutting it down. There were

524
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:54,480
Speaker 1: also times where it had to make online orders with

525
00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:58,600
Speaker 1: ingredients that called for ingredients that we didn't have because

526
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:01,800
Speaker 1: they didn't get them for us because nobody had been

527
00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:06,520
Speaker 1: trained on how to make orders correctly, and so we were,

528
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 1: in addition is struggling to keep up. We were taking

529
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:14,640
Speaker 1: the brunt of all of these failures, and we were

530
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:20,800
Speaker 1: asking for help and asking for help, and just everything

531
00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:24,400
Speaker 1: was falling on deaf ears. Brandy and her fellow workers

532
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 1: begged and begged Chipotle to send them the staff resources

533
00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:32,680
Speaker 1: and training that they needed to keep their jobs and

534
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:36,600
Speaker 1: keep their store running. At a safe, efficient, and healthy

535
00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:41,720
Speaker 1: level when those pleas went unanswered, instead of quitting one

536
00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:44,480
Speaker 1: by one and leaving their friends to deal with the

537
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:49,160
Speaker 1: mess on their own, they took that brave, terrifying step

538
00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:52,920
Speaker 1: to band together and to do something to improve their

539
00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:58,320
Speaker 1: working conditions. And Chipotle's response was to close the store.

540
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:05,440
Speaker 1: I can only imagine the fear, anger, anxiety, and disappointment

541
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:08,800
Speaker 1: that Brandy and her coworkers must be experiencing throughout all

542
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:11,480
Speaker 1: of this, But I want you to listen to her

543
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:15,120
Speaker 1: talk about why they are still carrying on the fight.

544
00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:20,880
Speaker 1: Everybody has a voice. Every single one of us is

545
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:28,320
Speaker 1: one of us, and it's not going to change unless

546
00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:32,959
Speaker 1: we can all say we're done being treated like this.

547
00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:36,240
Speaker 1: You know, everybody's like, oh, well, they'll close every Chipotle,

548
00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:39,360
Speaker 1: or they'll close every restaurant or every store. We have

549
00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:43,320
Speaker 1: proven through the pandemic that that's not true. They won't

550
00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 1: close us down because everybody needs us. But is everybody

551
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:51,120
Speaker 1: going to start cooking for themselves? Yeah? Right, you know

552
00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:55,880
Speaker 1: they need us, they need service workers, but they should

553
00:33:55,960 --> 00:34:01,320
Speaker 1: not be allowed to employ service and treat them so

554
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:07,240
Speaker 1: poorly while they're taking in profits hand over fists. If

555
00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:09,800
Speaker 1: you've been watching the art of class war from the beginning,

556
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:13,400
Speaker 1: then you know that this story hits nearly every single

557
00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:18,520
Speaker 1: topic that we focused on from the beginning. Chronic understaffing,

558
00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:24,280
Speaker 1: workers deciding to stay, fight and improve their workplaces instead

559
00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:30,160
Speaker 1: of leaving, engaging in protected concerted activities like union organizing

560
00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:35,319
Speaker 1: and walkouts over unsafe conditions, and what appears to be

561
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:40,680
Speaker 1: pretty obvious retaliation against workers for engaging in such activity.

562
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:44,360
Speaker 1: I want to end this segment by reminding all of

563
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:49,080
Speaker 1: us that we can and must do something about these

564
00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:53,760
Speaker 1: store closures, these firings, and all of the rampant union

565
00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:57,759
Speaker 1: busting that companies like Chipotle and Starbucks are engaging in

566
00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:02,920
Speaker 1: in broad daylight. Right now, listen, I need you to

567
00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:06,960
Speaker 1: get mad about this. Let these companies know what you

568
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:11,359
Speaker 1: think about them violating their employees' rights and tag them

569
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 1: on social media. Don't let them sweep anything under the rug.

570
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:20,600
Speaker 1: Write letters to their head offices and their executives. Sign

571
00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 1: petitions like the one that Chipotle United is asking people

572
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:28,640
Speaker 1: to sign right now. Ask local and national media outlets

573
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:32,160
Speaker 1: to cover these stories more. Or you know, if you

574
00:35:32,160 --> 00:35:35,960
Speaker 1: were so inclined, you could ask your political representatives why

575
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,920
Speaker 1: the vast majority of them haven't said jack shit about

576
00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:45,840
Speaker 1: any of this. Most importantly, if you are unsure about

577
00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:49,759
Speaker 1: what to do best to support workers, the answer is

578
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:54,520
Speaker 1: always listen to the workers themselves. You heard Ruby Luna

579
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:59,000
Speaker 1: call for customers to continue boycotting Amy's Kitchen in her statement,

580
00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 1: calling for a boycott is a powerful weapon that workers

581
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:06,719
Speaker 1: have but need to use strategically when they think it

582
00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:11,640
Speaker 1: will be most effective. So we use it collectively when

583
00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:15,280
Speaker 1: it's called for by the workers. But in the meantime,

584
00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:18,840
Speaker 1: if you want to withdraw your business and let the

585
00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 1: company know why, that's your call. As always, the single

586
00:36:24,760 --> 00:36:28,160
Speaker 1: best thing we can do right now for each other

587
00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:33,759
Speaker 1: is show up, show solidarity, and stay committed to these struggles.

588
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 1: As Howard Schultz and Starbucks escalate the war on their

589
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:43,120
Speaker 1: own workers, workers themselves are ramping up too, with strikes

590
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:50,319
Speaker 1: happening in Ithaca, Buffalo, Boston, Minneapolis, and beyond. Go to

591
00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:55,520
Speaker 1: those picket lines, show your support, Donate to strike funds

592
00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:58,520
Speaker 1: and hardship funds for fired workers because they are in

593
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:02,000
Speaker 1: dire straits right now and you have no idea how

594
00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:05,400
Speaker 1: much it means to show that little bit of solidarity.

595
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:10,440
Speaker 1: Labor laws in the US are already so ridiculously stacked

596
00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:14,040
Speaker 1: in favor of the bosses. But you know when workers

597
00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:18,319
Speaker 1: still manage to play by the rules, stick together, and

598
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:23,080
Speaker 1: when fare and square, billionaire and millionaire executives flip over

599
00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:28,440
Speaker 1: the chessboard, closed stores fire workers and they find whatever

600
00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:32,200
Speaker 1: bs excuse they need to to deny that it's union busting,

601
00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:35,920
Speaker 1: and they will rack up as many unfair labor practice

602
00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:40,520
Speaker 1: charges as they need to until they bully, intimidate, and

603
00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:43,920
Speaker 1: crush workers back into submission. That is what they are

604
00:37:43,960 --> 00:37:46,400
Speaker 1: doing right now. That is what they hope will happen.

605
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:52,440
Speaker 1: But businesses don't exist without people, and people have rights.

606
00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:56,040
Speaker 1: And if you want our business, you need to treat

607
00:37:56,080 --> 00:38:00,560
Speaker 1: people with some goddamn respect. And we, as can consumers,

608
00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:06,040
Speaker 1: as taxpayers, as community members, and fellow workers, are going

609
00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:11,359
Speaker 1: to show these companies what happens when they don't. Thank

610
00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:14,239
Speaker 1: you for watching this segment with breaking points, and be

611
00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:16,960
Speaker 1: sure to subscribe to my news outlet, The Real News

612
00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:20,080
Speaker 1: with links in the show description. See you for the

613
00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:23,520
Speaker 1: next edition of the Art of Class War. Take care

614
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:28,399
Speaker 1: of yourselves, take care of each other, Solidarity forever. Hey there,

615
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:30,600
Speaker 1: my name is James Lee. Welcome to another segment of

616
00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:34,920
Speaker 1: fifty one forty nine on breaking points. With the midterm

617
00:38:34,920 --> 00:38:37,439
Speaker 1: election season in full swing and as we look forward

618
00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:40,080
Speaker 1: to twenty twenty four, I'd like to take a moment

619
00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:43,399
Speaker 1: today to talk about a topic that inevitably will make

620
00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:46,960
Speaker 1: its rounds every two to four years, and that topic

621
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:51,840
Speaker 1: is third parties. Dozens of former Republican and Democratic officials

622
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:55,880
Speaker 1: are announcing a new national political third party called Forward

623
00:38:56,160 --> 00:38:58,719
Speaker 1: in an op ed in the Washington Post. Key members right.

624
00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:01,760
Speaker 1: Their goal is to quote bill, a new unified political

625
00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:04,680
Speaker 1: party for the majority of Americans who want to move

626
00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:09,440
Speaker 1: past divisiveness and reject extremism. Our next guest co wrote

627
00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:13,000
Speaker 1: the op ed Andrew Yang, former Democratic presidential candidate, and

628
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:16,800
Speaker 1: Christine Todd Whitman, former EPA administrator and the former Republican

629
00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:20,760
Speaker 1: governor of New Jersey, both with us Now, okay, Governor,

630
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:22,479
Speaker 1: to you first, and I'm going to challenge you guys

631
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:26,719
Speaker 1: on this because this so rarely works, So why will

632
00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:30,200
Speaker 1: your effort work? That CNN clip that we just watched

633
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:35,279
Speaker 1: together represents probably the most common corporate media and establishment

634
00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:40,400
Speaker 1: political attitude towards third parties. They don't work, They play spoiler.

635
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:45,120
Speaker 1: We don't need them, but that sentiment is not shared

636
00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:48,919
Speaker 1: by the majority of Americans. In a recent Gallup pull,

637
00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:52,040
Speaker 1: only thirty three percent of Americans feel that the Democratic

638
00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:55,320
Speaker 1: and Republican parties are doing an adequate job of representing

639
00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:59,160
Speaker 1: the American people, and sixty two percent of Americans responded

640
00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:01,919
Speaker 1: that the two major parties are doing such a poor

641
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:06,200
Speaker 1: job that the third party is needed. So it's clear,

642
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:08,520
Speaker 1: and it has been for a really long time, that

643
00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:12,439
Speaker 1: Americans want more choice in the electoral process. So why

644
00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:16,400
Speaker 1: do we keep getting told that we can't have it? Well,

645
00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:20,239
Speaker 1: the truth is nobody wants to share power, especially the

646
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:24,400
Speaker 1: institutional elites who already hold that power. Not many people

647
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:26,520
Speaker 1: remember this, but there was a period in time when

648
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:30,400
Speaker 1: there were significant third party movements looking to fundamentally alter

649
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:34,720
Speaker 1: the American political landscape. We all remember the Great Depression

650
00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:38,279
Speaker 1: right the year nineteen thirty two, unemployment was around twenty

651
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:41,280
Speaker 1: five percent, There was a sustained drought in a number

652
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:45,200
Speaker 1: of Midwest states, including Oklahoma and Texas. Businesses and families

653
00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:48,080
Speaker 1: were defaulting on loans and record numbers, and more than

654
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:51,279
Speaker 1: five thousand banks had failed. And from the ashes of

655
00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:56,840
Speaker 1: America's most epic economic collapse spread numerous third party victories.

656
00:40:57,239 --> 00:41:01,200
Speaker 1: For example, in California, Upton Sinclair's End Poverty in California

657
00:41:01,239 --> 00:41:05,040
Speaker 1: movement EPIC for short, won a majority in the nineteen

658
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:08,839
Speaker 1: thirty four Democratic gubernatorial primaries, and by nineteen thirty eight,

659
00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:12,480
Speaker 1: former EPIC leaders had captured the California governorship and the

660
00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:16,399
Speaker 1: US Senate seat. In North Dakota, the Non Partisan League

661
00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:20,160
Speaker 1: won the governorship, a US Senate seat, and both congressional

662
00:41:20,200 --> 00:41:22,839
Speaker 1: seats in nineteen thirty two, and continue to win other

663
00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:26,680
Speaker 1: elections throughout the decade. In Minnesota, the Farmer Labor Party

664
00:41:26,719 --> 00:41:31,160
Speaker 1: captured the governorship and five House seats. Wisconsin, too, witnessed

665
00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:35,799
Speaker 1: an electorally powerful Progressive Party led by the Lafallette family. Now,

666
00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:40,120
Speaker 1: despite all these great successes, we didn't see long lasting

667
00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:43,959
Speaker 1: third parties, in large part because the ruling party, which

668
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:46,400
Speaker 1: was the Democratic Party throughout most of the nineteen thirties,

669
00:41:46,760 --> 00:41:51,400
Speaker 1: were oftentimes more concerned about defeating in certain third parties

670
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:54,040
Speaker 1: than they were about the Republican Party. So throughout the

671
00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:57,880
Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, President Roosevelt worked behind the scenes to dramatically

672
00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:01,040
Speaker 1: weaken third party threats to the Democratic Party by a

673
00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:04,560
Speaker 1: co opting the rhetoric used by third parties and b

674
00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:08,880
Speaker 1: poaching opposition leaders to join his entourage. Citing an article

675
00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:12,480
Speaker 1: from the Hoover Institute in nineteen thirty seven, Philip Laffalette's

676
00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:17,000
Speaker 1: executive secretary told Daniel Hone, the socialist mayor of Milwaukee,

677
00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:19,759
Speaker 1: that a national third party would never be launched while

678
00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:23,120
Speaker 1: Roosevelt was in the saddle because Roosevelt had put so

679
00:42:23,239 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 1: many outstanding liberals on his payroll that any third party

680
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:29,719
Speaker 1: movement would lack sufficient leadership. And it worked. By the

681
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:32,360
Speaker 1: end of the decade, a resurgent Republican Party ended up

682
00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:34,920
Speaker 1: wiping out many of the gains made by third parties.

683
00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:38,839
Speaker 1: Both the Wisconsin Progressive Party and the Minnesota Farmer Labour

684
00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:42,560
Speaker 1: Party suffered crushing defeats, losing most of their congressional seats,

685
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:46,799
Speaker 1: and Republicans badly defeated both Philip Laffolette and Wisconsin. And

686
00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:49,480
Speaker 1: here's the telling quote the quiet part out loud. Although

687
00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:52,960
Speaker 1: unhappy about the Republicans gaining eighty one seats in the House,

688
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:56,680
Speaker 1: eight seats in the Senate, and thirteen governorships, the President

689
00:42:56,760 --> 00:42:59,440
Speaker 1: noted that some good things had occurred. Quote, we have

690
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:02,920
Speaker 1: on the positive side, eliminated Phil la Fillette and the

691
00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:06,000
Speaker 1: farmer labor people in the Northwest as a standing third

692
00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:10,040
Speaker 1: party threat. So yes, even the Great FDR put party

693
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:13,719
Speaker 1: over country, meaning that he actively worked to preserve the

694
00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:17,000
Speaker 1: Democratic Party's position of power by working behind the scenes

695
00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:21,040
Speaker 1: to destroy insurgent third parties, even if it meant losing

696
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:25,360
Speaker 1: seats to Republicans. And in that sense, the relationship between

697
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:28,440
Speaker 1: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party is simpatico. Each

698
00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:32,440
Speaker 1: are known quantities and provide for a comfortable and familiar

699
00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:35,160
Speaker 1: playbook against one another in elections, and I think that's

700
00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:39,160
Speaker 1: kind of what's going on today. What they desperately do

701
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:42,799
Speaker 1: not want is a third party capable of disrupting the

702
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:47,040
Speaker 1: two party duopoly, which is kind of why every recent

703
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:52,280
Speaker 1: election has been framed as being existential if you believe

704
00:43:52,320 --> 00:43:55,240
Speaker 1: the country is in an existential crisis, which I believe,

705
00:43:55,239 --> 00:43:58,239
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people share that view.

706
00:43:58,239 --> 00:44:01,319
Speaker 1: It's certainly what we believe in the Lincoln Project. This

707
00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:04,040
Speaker 1: idea of a third party is sort of an indulgence.

708
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:06,279
Speaker 1: It's like you're in the middle of a knife fight

709
00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:09,000
Speaker 1: and you decide that really your biggest problem is losing weight.

710
00:44:10,280 --> 00:44:12,239
Speaker 1: It's probably a good idea to lose weight, but they

711
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:14,799
Speaker 1: really are more impressing things like getting out of this night,

712
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:17,360
Speaker 1: fight alive. And that's just how the real world is,

713
00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:19,239
Speaker 1: and I think we ought to live in them. That's

714
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:20,960
Speaker 1: just how the real world is, and I think we

715
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:23,759
Speaker 1: ought to live in it. Kind of, I think implying

716
00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:27,680
Speaker 1: those who refuse to buy into a strict Republican or

717
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:33,160
Speaker 1: Democrat construct are naive and idealistic. Not condescending at all, right,

718
00:44:33,440 --> 00:44:36,040
Speaker 1: But the thing is, third parties can actually work, which

719
00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:40,120
Speaker 1: is why establishment elites are quick to dismiss any third

720
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:43,040
Speaker 1: party efforts because they know the only reason why it

721
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:45,920
Speaker 1: doesn't work is not because it can't work, but because

722
00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:48,960
Speaker 1: they tell people it doesn't work. Let's just take an

723
00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:52,600
Speaker 1: example from our neighbor to the north. Canada's electoral map

724
00:44:52,640 --> 00:44:55,400
Speaker 1: is currently divided into three hundred and thirty eight districts,

725
00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:58,640
Speaker 1: which are called writings, and the winner of each writing

726
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:01,360
Speaker 1: is determined through a first past the post system, which

727
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:04,320
Speaker 1: is the same as we have here in the United States. Basically,

728
00:45:04,400 --> 00:45:07,400
Speaker 1: the candidate with the most votes in a writing wins

729
00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:10,719
Speaker 1: that seat and represents the writing in the national legislature,

730
00:45:11,200 --> 00:45:13,440
Speaker 1: and the party with the most seats usually becomes a

731
00:45:13,480 --> 00:45:16,399
Speaker 1: ruling party. Same concept here in the US. There are

732
00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:18,520
Speaker 1: four hundred and thirty five seats in the House, so

733
00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:22,000
Speaker 1: two hundred eighteen is required to pass any legislation. The

734
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:25,280
Speaker 1: Senate has one hundred seats, so fifty one is required

735
00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:28,920
Speaker 1: to form a majority. There is, of course, the filibuster

736
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:32,160
Speaker 1: to deal with, but in general, what this means is

737
00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:35,120
Speaker 1: that in order to make an impact on legislation, a

738
00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:38,360
Speaker 1: third party doesn't need to win a majority or anywhere

739
00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:41,080
Speaker 1: close to that. They just need to win enough seats

740
00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:43,960
Speaker 1: to make it so that no other party has a majority,

741
00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:47,359
Speaker 1: and any seat a third party can pick up makes

742
00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:49,640
Speaker 1: it just that much harder for one of the big

743
00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:52,320
Speaker 1: parties to get to that magic number of fifty percent

744
00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:55,760
Speaker 1: plus one. Now back to the Canadian example. In addition

745
00:45:55,920 --> 00:45:58,879
Speaker 1: to the two major parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives,

746
00:45:59,239 --> 00:46:02,960
Speaker 1: they also have two smaller but not insignificant minority parties,

747
00:46:03,080 --> 00:46:07,400
Speaker 1: the Bloc Quebecqua and the New Democratic Party. The Bloc

748
00:46:07,880 --> 00:46:11,279
Speaker 1: is a regionally based party devoted to Quebec nationalism and

749
00:46:11,360 --> 00:46:14,359
Speaker 1: the promotion of Quebec sovereignty, and the NDP is a

750
00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:18,920
Speaker 1: social democratic party that advocates for issues such as LGBTQ rights,

751
00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:25,040
Speaker 1: international peace, and environmental stewardship. Now because Canadians have more choice. Oftentimes,

752
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:27,840
Speaker 1: what ends up happening is that the two large parties

753
00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:31,080
Speaker 1: don't have enough votes to form a majority government and

754
00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:34,680
Speaker 1: require a coalition with one of the smaller parties, the

755
00:46:34,719 --> 00:46:38,840
Speaker 1: Block or the NDP to effectively pass legislation. And what

756
00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:41,279
Speaker 1: ends up happening is that the two smaller parties have

757
00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:45,120
Speaker 1: leveraged this power to advocate for policies that their constituents

758
00:46:45,160 --> 00:46:48,040
Speaker 1: care about. For example, over the past several decades, the

759
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:51,480
Speaker 1: Block QUEBECQUA has successfully fought for the return of the

760
00:46:51,600 --> 00:46:55,120
Speaker 1: Quebec Skills Training program, stood up for farmers when the

761
00:46:55,200 --> 00:46:59,200
Speaker 1: Quebec agriculture model was threatened by international trade negotiation, and

762
00:46:59,320 --> 00:47:03,800
Speaker 1: help increase funding for Quebec's provincial government. Another more recent example,

763
00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:07,719
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, the NDP entered into a temporary

764
00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:11,319
Speaker 1: informal agreement to support the Liberal Party. Mister Singh, who

765
00:47:11,360 --> 00:47:13,560
Speaker 1: is the leader of the NDP, said that his party

766
00:47:13,640 --> 00:47:16,120
Speaker 1: views the agreement as the best way to help people,

767
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:19,439
Speaker 1: particularly when it comes to developing a national dental care

768
00:47:19,480 --> 00:47:23,560
Speaker 1: program for low income Canadians and a national prescription drug program,

769
00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:26,520
Speaker 1: and on issues like climate and housing. He said that

770
00:47:26,560 --> 00:47:29,839
Speaker 1: the NDP will continue to oppose mister Trudeau's government when

771
00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:33,040
Speaker 1: necessary and will be carefully tracking the results of the agreement.

772
00:47:33,719 --> 00:47:36,480
Speaker 1: If they the Liberals fall short on what we've agreed,

773
00:47:36,840 --> 00:47:39,520
Speaker 1: then the deal doesn't continue. He said to me, this

774
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:42,880
Speaker 1: type of politicking, an attempt to influence legislation, is a

775
00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:46,840
Speaker 1: sign of healthy political behavior. What we see in the

776
00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:51,120
Speaker 1: US is completely different and unhealthy. What we see instead

777
00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:55,200
Speaker 1: is a coordinated effort between the corporate media and entrenched

778
00:47:55,239 --> 00:47:58,200
Speaker 1: political elites for the sake of party preservation and the

779
00:47:58,239 --> 00:48:02,520
Speaker 1: perpetuation of the status quo, gaslighting Americans into thinking third

780
00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:06,480
Speaker 1: parties are silly, impractical, vanity projects. The point I'm trying

781
00:48:06,520 --> 00:48:08,600
Speaker 1: to make is that if we want to talk about

782
00:48:08,600 --> 00:48:12,480
Speaker 1: the real world, we can feel the dissatisfaction that people

783
00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:15,560
Speaker 1: have with the current political structure. We can see, through

784
00:48:15,640 --> 00:48:19,359
Speaker 1: legislation or oftentimes lack thereof, that the government is not

785
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:22,960
Speaker 1: working for the majority of Americans. You know, Republicans have

786
00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:25,719
Speaker 1: this notion that they don't do as well in high

787
00:48:25,719 --> 00:48:28,480
Speaker 1: turnout elections, and the Democrats, on the other hand, assume

788
00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:32,040
Speaker 1: that if more people vote, they will vote for them,

789
00:48:32,239 --> 00:48:36,040
Speaker 1: or more accurately, against Republicans. So it's no coincidence why

790
00:48:36,080 --> 00:48:39,000
Speaker 1: the Republican Party spends so much time passing these quote

791
00:48:39,080 --> 00:48:43,360
Speaker 1: unquote election integrity laws that make it harder for people

792
00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:46,440
Speaker 1: to vote. And it's also no coincidence why the Democratic

793
00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:51,480
Speaker 1: Party expends a great deal of effort limiting choices of

794
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:54,680
Speaker 1: candidates on the ballot by kicking off parties like the

795
00:48:54,719 --> 00:48:58,879
Speaker 1: Green Party. You see, their primary goal has always been

796
00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:02,960
Speaker 1: to preserve this atus quo and to preserve the party,

797
00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:07,600
Speaker 1: so change necessarily must come from the outside. An example

798
00:49:07,600 --> 00:49:10,439
Speaker 1: of this change in the last election cycle, candidates from

799
00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:13,279
Speaker 1: the Rhode Island Progressive co Op won eight seats in

800
00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:16,120
Speaker 1: the state legislature and two seats on the city Council,

801
00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:19,000
Speaker 1: and has since pass bills that raised the minimum wage

802
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:23,400
Speaker 1: to fifteen dollars and legalized recreational marijuana with automatic expungement

803
00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:28,480
Speaker 1: of past convictions. This was just one small example of

804
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:32,200
Speaker 1: a nascent third party movement proving success at the local level,

805
00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:35,360
Speaker 1: and the Democratic Party definitely feels very threatened by this

806
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:38,359
Speaker 1: success at Rhode Island and in this election cycle, going

807
00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:42,200
Speaker 1: so far as standing by a lawmaker who has been

808
00:49:42,920 --> 00:49:46,560
Speaker 1: charged with sexual assault and perjury. There's also backed a

809
00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:50,440
Speaker 1: former lawmaker who has been arrested several times, all in

810
00:49:50,480 --> 00:49:53,080
Speaker 1: an effort to oust the insurgent progressives in the state.

811
00:49:53,640 --> 00:49:57,560
Speaker 1: My point is the number one goal of entrenched legacy

812
00:49:57,600 --> 00:50:01,879
Speaker 1: parties is not representation, it's self. It always has been

813
00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:05,200
Speaker 1: and it always will be. So next time somebody talks

814
00:50:05,239 --> 00:50:09,200
Speaker 1: about a third party, just remember third parties can work,

815
00:50:09,400 --> 00:50:12,279
Speaker 1: and have worked in the past, and they can and

816
00:50:12,360 --> 00:50:15,759
Speaker 1: do deliver real results, which is why both established from

817
00:50:15,800 --> 00:50:19,800
Speaker 1: Democrats and Republicans, aided by their friends in the corporate media,

818
00:50:19,960 --> 00:50:23,640
Speaker 1: will go scorch earth on third parties because the goal

819
00:50:23,680 --> 00:50:27,480
Speaker 1: for them isn't more competition or a more vibrant democracy

820
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:30,239
Speaker 1: or better policy making. The only thing they want is

821
00:50:30,280 --> 00:50:34,120
Speaker 1: simply more power. That's all for me this time. I

822
00:50:34,160 --> 00:50:37,319
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed today's discussion about third parties. If you'd

823
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:39,640
Speaker 1: like this video looking for more, please head over to

824
00:50:39,680 --> 00:50:42,560
Speaker 1: my YouTube channel fifty one to forty nine with James Lee,

825
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:45,960
Speaker 1: where I release videos about topics relating to business, politics,

826
00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:49,200
Speaker 1: and society. Link will be in the description below. Also,

827
00:50:49,280 --> 00:50:52,359
Speaker 1: of course, don't forget to subscribe to Breaking Points and

828
00:50:52,400 --> 00:50:54,520
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time today,