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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: when we have Crystal. Indeed, we do lots of big

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Speaker 1: stories breaking this morning. We are going to start this

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Speaker 1: morning with the Biden presser that happened yesterday. Lots of

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Speaker 1: gems dropped there to discuss I'm Kamala Harris on Ukraine

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Speaker 1: on build back better, so we'll tell you about that. Also,

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Speaker 1: Trump twenty twenty four is looking increasingly like it will

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Speaker 1: be a thing because investigations into him and his family

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Speaker 1: and potential financial improprieties continue, so that gives him an

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Speaker 1: incentive to run and avoid any of those investigations or

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Speaker 1: penalties for actual wrongdoing. There's new video of that drone

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Speaker 1: strike in Afghanistan. We have brought you the details of

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Speaker 1: that before. On Biden's way out in order to appear

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Speaker 1: tough for the media that was flying him for you know,

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Speaker 1: finally getting us out of that war. They executed a

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Speaker 1: drone strike they claimed was on isis K militants. That

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Speaker 1: story fell apart almost instantly, come to find out it

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Speaker 1: was ten civilians. Of course, zero accountability. We have some

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Speaker 1: footage of that strike that came from the New York

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Speaker 1: Times their foyer request. It is disturbing to watch, but

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Speaker 1: I think it's important that we sit with it and

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Speaker 1: take a look at it. People need to watch it

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Speaker 1: exactly that and talk about the bigger context here. Really

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Speaker 1: interesting podcast between Mary and Williamson and Andrew Yang, kind

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Speaker 1: of debating third party efforts a La Andrew Yang's Ford

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Speaker 1: Party and potential primary of Biden in what might be

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Speaker 1: most effective in effectuating change. We also have to bring

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Speaker 1: in the details incredible story NPR reporting with great certainty

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Speaker 1: that Chief Justice John Roberts had asked Justice Gorsach to

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Speaker 1: wear a mask because Sonya Sodo mayor has comorbidities that

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Speaker 1: make her more vulnerable to COVID, and that he refused,

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Speaker 1: And this was the whole thing about what a jerk

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Speaker 1: he is. They are totally shooting down that story. NPR

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Speaker 1: is still bizarrely, we standing by why they're reporting. Like

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Speaker 1: the people involved us said, you're full of it. So

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Speaker 1: very interesting details there. We've also got Stolar in the

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Speaker 1: show to talk about antitrust as it applies to the

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Speaker 1: video game industry. But we did want to start Zaga

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Speaker 1: with that big Biden press Yeah, this Biden press conference

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Speaker 1: was I don't even know, guys, it was truly bonkers.

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Speaker 1: Although it was the longest press conference of a modern

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Speaker 1: American president. Yes that he gets there, Trump beatrip longer

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Speaker 1: than Barack Obama. And apparently George W. Bush as well,

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Speaker 1: So quite interesting an hour and fifty minutes. I feel

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Speaker 1: for the people who were in the room. Lexmis lay

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Speaker 1: the ground for this at the top, which is that

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Speaker 1: voters are pretty concerned about Joe Biden and his health.

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Speaker 1: Let's put this up there on the screen. In focus groups,

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Speaker 1: people are basically saying that Biden and his personal health

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Speaker 1: do not look so good. This is from Josh Krashauer,

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Speaker 1: who is quoting from a CNN study. Focus groups are

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Speaker 1: giving party operatives nightmares. Biden is a comic across as

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Speaker 1: old and absent, they say and perceive. Fumbles play into

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Speaker 1: fears that he is not up to the job and

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Speaker 1: Democrats are incompetent. So that was likely the context as

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Speaker 1: to why he decided to stay out there for an

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Speaker 1: hour and fifty minutes. Can I just paused for one

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Speaker 1: second before before you throw to the clips? How many

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Speaker 1: times did we say during the Democratic primary, guys, this

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Speaker 1: is a real problem, something that you should and it was, oh,

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Speaker 1: you're able list and he just has a stutter and

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Speaker 1: you're being ridiculous, and how can you attack him for this? No,

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Speaker 1: this is not about someone who overcame a stutter as

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Speaker 1: a young child. This is someone who has to appear

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Speaker 1: competent and in command for the American people, and it's

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Speaker 1: not going to go well if he can't and lo

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Speaker 1: and behold. Now even mainstream elite legacy media journalists are

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Speaker 1: having to admit that, yeah, there are some problems. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: three years later, Crystal, I don't know. People really need

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Speaker 1: to remember we were viciously attacked on our show for

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Speaker 1: pointing out some of his stumbles and just very clearly saying, look,

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Speaker 1: we are not denigrating the man for his age. We

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Speaker 1: are simply saying that they're is a straw. Look, anybody

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Speaker 1: knows you look at an old person, they're not the

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Speaker 1: way that they used to be. I personally and you

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Speaker 1: did as well. Had seen Joe Biden speak in the

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Speaker 1: flesh ten years ago versus now. Not the same guy.

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Speaker 1: I was at that debate where he destroyed Paul Ryan.

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Speaker 1: He's the supposed wonder boy of the Republican I saw

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Speaker 1: her at a rally literally the exact same year. It

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Speaker 1: is not even close to the same person who you

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Speaker 1: see standing in front of you today. And that was

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Speaker 1: just very full on display, possibly igniting an international crisis.

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Speaker 1: We'll start with Kamala Harris, where he decided to put

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Speaker 1: two things to rest. He said he is going to

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Speaker 1: run in twenty twenty four and Kamala will be his

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Speaker 1: vice presidential nominee. Let's take a listen here. You put

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Speaker 1: Vice President Harris in charge of voting rights. Are you

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Speaker 1: satisfied with her work on this issue? And can you guarantee?

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Speaker 1: Do you commit that she will be your running mate

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Speaker 1: in twenty four provided that you run again? Yes? And yes? Okay,

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Speaker 1: you don't care to expand? Pardon me? Do you care

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Speaker 1: to expand? I'm gonna know if there's no need to.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I asked you question. She's gonna be my

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Speaker 1: running meete number one and number two, I did twitter

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Speaker 1: in charge. I think she's doing a good job. Well,

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Speaker 1: I don't know about the good job part, but he

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Speaker 1: is standing by her at least. Now. The real thing

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Speaker 1: the news, and we have several clips here that we

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Speaker 1: want to play you. The next one is single handedly

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Speaker 1: the biggest piece of news out of this. Biden was

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Speaker 1: pressed specifically on Ukraine and he asked, He's like, do

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Speaker 1: you think that Putin is going to invade? What is

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Speaker 1: the broader Russia? NATO alliance and look, as we laid

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Speaker 1: out yesterday, our views on this are not typical neo

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Speaker 1: Khan mainstream, Like I'm not buying some of the CIA

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Speaker 1: propaganda about what exactly is happening. But even I can

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Speaker 1: look at this and say this is probably a pretty

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Speaker 1: bad answer. If anything, he was telling it being too

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Speaker 1: honest and telling the truth and possibly igniting some response

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Speaker 1: from the Russians. Just take a listen when he was

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Speaker 1: asked about Ukraine and what exactly he expects Putin to do. Oh,

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Speaker 1: I think what you're going to see is that Russia

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Speaker 1: will be held accountable if it invades, and it depends

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Speaker 1: on what it does. It's one thing if it's a

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Speaker 1: minor incursion, and then we end up having to fight

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Speaker 1: about what to do and not do, et cetera. Uh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's one thing if it's a minor incursion. The tipsy Yeah,

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Speaker 1: just the tip literally. But for international relation, here's the issue, right,

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Speaker 1: which is that he's basically going towards the endgame and saying, yes,

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Speaker 1: I expect the Putin will do it. If it's one thing.

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Speaker 1: If he does this, it's another thing if it's a

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Speaker 1: full blown thing. All of that is obviously true. People

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Speaker 1: were also very upset for him for correctly telling the truth,

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Speaker 1: which is that NATO is divided over this, specifically Germany,

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Speaker 1: which is addicted to Russian gas because they've nuked their

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Speaker 1: nuclear program and so they desperately need it, and they

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Speaker 1: are not willing to do any sort of arming of

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Speaker 1: Ukraine or many of the sanctions. Remember also, they were

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Speaker 1: the ones who drew back many of the sanctions twenty

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Speaker 1: fifteen twenty sixteen on the original Crimean invasion. But all

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Speaker 1: of this doesn't present a united front. And b this

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Speaker 1: is what drives me crazy about this type of policy.

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Speaker 1: Pick one either say Ukraine is Ukraine, and at the

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Speaker 1: end of the day, you will get economic sanctions if

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Speaker 1: you cross that border, but we're not gonna defend it.

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Speaker 1: You decide what you want to do, but don't go

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Speaker 1: out there and say Russia's gonna pay a price. But

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Speaker 1: maybe you know variable if it's just the tip, and

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Speaker 1: maybe it's okay. But I stand by Ukraine. NATO is united,

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Speaker 1: but NATO is also divided. This is the chaos that

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Speaker 1: we've talked about. I remember I did that monologue on

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Speaker 1: Taiwan and strategic ambiguity. He was like, no, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: defend Taiwan, and then his administration would come out with

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Speaker 1: a statement saying, well, US policy hasn't changed. Well, which

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Speaker 1: one is it, because you know there's nuclear powers here

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Speaker 1: at stake, and it's the same thing here, which is

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Speaker 1: that the lack of clarity has caused a huge amount

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Speaker 1: of confusion in Kiev, in Moscow, Washington, where the White

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Speaker 1: House had to put out a statement cleaning it up

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Speaker 1: just this morning saying Jensaki being like, to be clear,

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Speaker 1: any invasion will result in massive economic sanctions or whatever

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Speaker 1: on the Russians. I don't believe that this is forty

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Speaker 1: chest crystal. I think this guy's is old and is confused.

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Speaker 1: You know I was talking about it's a very trumpy

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Speaker 1: and result. You can see what's going on here very clearly.

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Speaker 1: He's got the talking points that they prepared for him

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Speaker 1: in his briefing. Here's what you say. There will be consequences,

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Speaker 1: and NATO is united. But he can't help but actually

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Speaker 1: just sort of meander into what the reality of the

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Speaker 1: situation is, which is, if they do a little incursion,

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Speaker 1: they can have a little incursion as a treat I guess,

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Speaker 1: and then we got to talk about you know, how

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Speaker 1: serious is this? How much do we want to commit ourselves?

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Speaker 1: And you're just divided? What are you going to do?

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Speaker 1: So a couple of things to tie the two first

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Speaker 1: stots together, they set Kamala out on the morning shows.

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Speaker 1: I think she's on three different morning shows. She's doing

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Speaker 1: a trifecta of morning shows and trying to make clear,

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Speaker 1: you know, there will be consequences and they will be strong,

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Speaker 1: et cetera, et cetera. I guess I don't hate this

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Speaker 1: answer as much as a lot of the media does,

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Speaker 1: because you know, they're just bloodthirsty. Four Like the more

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Speaker 1: aggressive hawkish ramping up of tensions with Russia that he went,

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Speaker 1: the more he would be applauded. And the fact that

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Speaker 1: he leaves the door open for you know, if it's

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Speaker 1: not anything too crazy, we might not actually massively escalate,

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Speaker 1: and they just, you know, they just destroy him for it.

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Speaker 1: This was by far the clip that they went after

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Speaker 1: him the hardest for it. I would prefer these sort

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Speaker 1: of confused double speak with the little bit of the

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Speaker 1: truth slipping in here and tensions going down, versus him

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Speaker 1: beating his chest and giving the media ultimately what they

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Speaker 1: want so was it a great answer? No? Could it

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Speaker 1: have been worse? In my opinion, yes, And I was

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Speaker 1: actually very fearful that it would have been much more

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Speaker 1: in the hawkish ratcheting up of tensions leading us further

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Speaker 1: and closer to the brink of war direction than what

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Speaker 1: we ultimately I agree. And my problem and fear here

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Speaker 1: is that the president may feel one thing, but it's

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Speaker 1: also very clear that you know, depending on who's really

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Speaker 1: in charge, I mean, who's actually running the State Department

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Speaker 1: in the policy, because we continue to put out these

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Speaker 1: statements and then you know one thing or the other.

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Speaker 1: The lack of clarity, and that like again the ambiguity

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Speaker 1: whenever it comes to this, that is where you have

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Speaker 1: real conflict. So the president may feel one way, but

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Speaker 1: then what if he gets dragged towards some chest beating

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Speaker 1: type thing if it actually does come down to it,

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Speaker 1: I mean, is he in charge here or not depending

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Speaker 1: on how he feels it. That's the part where I

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Speaker 1: just don't know what to think and why I'm you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm really afraid because whenever you have somebody like this,

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Speaker 1: clarity is the most important thing. Either say, look, NATO

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Speaker 1: stands united. We've agreed on economic sanctions putin, it's up

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Speaker 1: to you. Well, just the tip you come in. Maybe

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Speaker 1: NATO's divided. What kind of message are you sending? I mean,

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Speaker 1: and I'm not standing for Ukraine. I'm not standing for

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Speaker 1: Moscow either. I'm saying that chaos in the international system

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Speaker 1: is bad. One thing we learn from the twentieth century

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Speaker 1: is that the escalation ladder on these things is escalation

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Speaker 1: lader goes very very quickly, and once it's out of

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Speaker 1: the bag, it's very hard in order to put it

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Speaker 1: back in. The one number one lesson of the First

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Speaker 1: World War is be clear about what your actual international

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Speaker 1: lines are. Don't have the president say one thing, the

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Speaker 1: vice president say another, put another statement out. If this

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Speaker 1: was actual administration policy, I would support it, but b

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Speaker 1: I would be happy. I'd be like great, Putin knows

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Speaker 1: exactly what can be done, et cetera, But now nobody knows.

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Speaker 1: And same in Kiev. Look, Keev now has our javelin missiles? Okay,

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Speaker 1: are they going to use those against Moscow? I mean,

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Speaker 1: that is a real urgent force. That's a real question,

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Speaker 1: and that's not good for us to have to lay in.

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Speaker 1: We need actual direction from the president. This is one

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Speaker 1: of those instances where we're like being clear, having a

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Speaker 1: lucid president is extremely important. So even on the policy

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Speaker 1: like I agree it probably agree way more with Biden.

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Speaker 1: With the little bit of incursion doddering element of this

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Speaker 1: is where I the most. Yeah, no, I mean that's

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Speaker 1: that's very fair. The other thing I will say about this, look,

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Speaker 1: obviously the media is like very upset that he wasn't

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Speaker 1: more hawkish and more aggressive and etc. Etc. Oh you're

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Speaker 1: hanging the Ukrainians doun to dry all of that. But

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Speaker 1: just imagine if Trump, if this was Trump, they would

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Speaker 1: lose it. Oh, it would be you know what does

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Speaker 1: Putin have on him? And they'd be calling for his

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Speaker 1: impeachment again over in their words, green lighting a Russian

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Speaker 1: incursion into invasion of Ukraine. I mean you can just

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Speaker 1: imagine the like fire alarm level freak out that would

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Speaker 1: have occurred if this was Trump, and we'd be going

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Speaker 1: back to you know what if he was a Russian

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Speaker 1: agent since nineteen eighty seven and where's the p tape

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Speaker 1: and all that stuff. I mean, they impeached the guy

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Speaker 1: because he wouldn't didn't want to arm Ukraine. I mean,

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Speaker 1: well and he did. Obama didn't armed Ukraine and they

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Speaker 1: were cool with it. Then he does armed Ukraine, much

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Speaker 1: more aggressive stance towards Russia. But because he's verbally like,

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Speaker 1: you know, playing foot seat with Putin, they don't pay it.

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Speaker 1: You know, they can ignore all of the actual more

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Speaker 1: hawkish militant actions versus Russia. Excluded Chris by the way,

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Speaker 1: after a correction k yesterday, I said that the US

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Speaker 1: armed Ukrainian rebels. That was incorrect. Said it meant that

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Speaker 1: the US armed Ukrainian government. The rebels are the people

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Speaker 1: in eastern Ukraine who are on the Russian side. So

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Speaker 1: I apologize for that, and that's just me correcting my statement.

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Speaker 1: The other major piece of news that came out of

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Speaker 1: this from the so called Domestic Agenda, Biden saying that

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Speaker 1: they will have to break up the Build Back Better Act,

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Speaker 1: not specifying actually though, which parts are going to be forward.

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Speaker 1: Take a listen. I think we can break the package up,

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Speaker 1: get as much as we can now, come back and

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Speaker 1: fight for the rest later. So interesting there Crystal saying

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Speaker 1: I'm going to break it up. This came after news

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Speaker 1: that Bill Clinton had apparently called Biden and told him

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Speaker 1: to break up the package and see exactly what could

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Speaker 1: get on there. But I'm quite doubtful. Look it's January twentieth,

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Speaker 1: you know, they technically have a couple of months before

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Speaker 1: the midterms really start to ramp up. Senate floor time

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Speaker 1: is a very precious thing. Nobody knows which pieces people

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Speaker 1: actually agree upon, and also the White House. It's not

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Speaker 1: like they're deploying a full fledged effort on Okay, let's

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Speaker 1: get the child task credit. You know why because Joe

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Speaker 1: Manstin opposes a child task credit. They're not going full

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Speaker 1: board and saying, okay, let's do prescription drug pricing. Why

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Speaker 1: because Kirsten Cinema opposes the chriscription dug pricing. So what

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Speaker 1: do they agree on? Expanding the pelgrant program? Yeah, okay,

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Speaker 1: great mid term agenda. YEO like that. I don't want

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Speaker 1: to deigraate it. Pel grants are good for you know,

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Speaker 1: poor kids and all that, but that ain't no transformative

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Speaker 1: piece of legislation. This is the part where the sad

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Speaker 1: part that people need to understand is the things that

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Speaker 1: they all do agree on all fifty are the most

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Speaker 1: mealy mouthed nothing type programs which would make him look

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Speaker 1: like an idiot for spending so much of the country's

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Speaker 1: time and political capital on that, I still expect very

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Speaker 1: little to get done. Question. Yeah, well, and and if

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Speaker 1: they're just using it as like a messaging tool for

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Speaker 1: the midterms, obviously that's pathetic. What you really need to

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Speaker 1: do is to be willing to put Joe Manchin in

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Speaker 1: a tough spot where he's on the wrong side of

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Speaker 1: an issue that in his own state is an eighty

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Speaker 1: twenty issue, or put Karson Cinema on the wrong side

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Speaker 1: of an issue that in her state is an eighty

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Speaker 1: twenty issue like prescription drug reform is a perfect example.

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Speaker 1: But they're too afraid to stand up to these two

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Speaker 1: individuals or anyone else in the caucus and actually do

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Speaker 1: the muscling and the hard work to get these things past.

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Speaker 1: Let's be clear, I mean the strategy of breaking it

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Speaker 1: up and making things uncomfortable and making people take really

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Speaker 1: difficult votes. That would have been a much better strategy

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Speaker 1: from the beginning. Either that or going all the way

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Speaker 1: back to the beginning of the administration. They should have

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Speaker 1: had some of these things in the must pass Relief bill,

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Speaker 1: some things that you know would have persisted and not

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Speaker 1: expired after just one year, or they should have kept

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Speaker 1: together the infrastructure piece and the build back better piece

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Speaker 1: because that was the only leverage that they actually had

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Speaker 1: over those people, and then maybe you would have had

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Speaker 1: a better shot at it. Barring that, the next best

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Speaker 1: strategy would have been to from the beginning go with

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Speaker 1: these super popular and some of them quite transformational agenda items.

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Speaker 1: I mean, something the President has talked about repeatedly is

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Speaker 1: how much he cares about free community college. That would

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Speaker 1: be really significant, but that's opposed by Cinema. But it

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Speaker 1: makes it divides the Democratic caucus a little bit. It

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Speaker 1: puts people on the spot, it makes them, you know,

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Speaker 1: puts them in odds with their donors. And you haven't

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Speaker 1: seen any willingness from the White House or from congressional

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Speaker 1: leadership to make these corporate backed individuals uncomfortable. So, while

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Speaker 1: the strategy is a better one, and Bill Clinton is

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Speaker 1: many things, but he's not a dummy when it comes

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Speaker 1: to political strategy. The strategy is definitely a better one,

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Speaker 1: but it depends on what pieces are you going to

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Speaker 1: put up and are you actually willing to make people

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Speaker 1: like Cinema, Mansion and Warner and the others who are

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Speaker 1: hiding behind them uncomfortable with regards to their social circles

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Speaker 1: and their donor bases. That's the question. So it just

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Speaker 1: matters a lot what the execution is. And at this

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Speaker 1: point in turn, if they think this is going to

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Speaker 1: save them from the measures, I don't even think they

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Speaker 1: delude themselves in that regard. And the other thing we'll

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Speaker 1: probably talk about this on Monday. That CNN article that

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Speaker 1: we led with where the operatives are like, oh god,

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Speaker 1: he's old and absent. The bulk of that article is

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Speaker 1: about how the Biden administration is so incompetent. They just

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Speaker 1: they don't even have a political operation. All of these

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Speaker 1: members of Congress. It's different from Obama. They actually do

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Speaker 1: want Biden to campaign for him. He isn't that level

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Speaker 1: of toxic that Obama was. But they're just completely absent,

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Speaker 1: completely onto lunch, no strategy, no muscle. This is not surprising,

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Speaker 1: by the way, for anyone who has actually followed Biden

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Speaker 1: in his career. After his very first election to the Senate,

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Speaker 1: he hasn't really had a tough election since then. You know,

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Speaker 1: as vice president that was all Barack Obama's political operation,

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Speaker 1: and as vice president he had a very dysfunctional sort

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Speaker 1: of dynamic within his office where he micro manages everything,

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Speaker 1: but he can't make decisions, so things just get bottlenecked

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Speaker 1: and you end up with the level of mismanagement and

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Speaker 1: incompetence that is the polar opposite of what people thought

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Speaker 1: they were voting for when they vote of Joe Biden

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Speaker 1: into office. Absolutely right, and finally we had to do

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Speaker 1: this with the GOP. You flagged this one, Crystal. Biden's

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Speaker 1: surprised Republicans aren't working with him. Interesting, take a listen.

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Speaker 1: I did not anticipate that there'd be such a stalwart

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Speaker 1: effort to make sure that the most important thing was

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Speaker 1: that President Biden didn't get anything done. Think about this,

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Speaker 1: What are Republicans for? What are they for? Maybe one

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Speaker 1: thing they're for? And so the problem here is that

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Speaker 1: I think, which happens. What I have to do in

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Speaker 1: the the change and the tactic, if you will, I

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Speaker 1: have to make clear to the American people what we

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Speaker 1: are for. We've passed a lot, we passed a lot

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Speaker 1: of things that people don't even understand what's all that's

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Speaker 1: in it? Understandably so funny Chrystol, He's like, what are

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Speaker 1: Republicans for? I didn't anticipate this little I'm like, dude,

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Speaker 1: did you live through your own vice presidency? Where were you?

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Speaker 1: What's happening? I have to say I actually was kind

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Speaker 1: of surprised that Republicans even gave him the infrastructure package.

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Speaker 1: That's a good point. That's because the Chamber of Commerce

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Speaker 1: and this worst. Yeah, the business people all wanted it,

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Speaker 1: and they pushed him to do it. But that's as

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Speaker 1: far as you're going to get, Like, where have you

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Speaker 1: been for the past two decades? This is obviously they

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Speaker 1: were not gonna hand you your agenda and let's throw

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Speaker 1: this tear next hair sheet up on the screen. I

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Speaker 1: went back and looked, because remember during the primary covers

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Speaker 1: from this, he kept insisting, oh Trump goes it was

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Speaker 1: like the fever's gonna break. Remember how to Barack Obamas.

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Speaker 1: He kept saying that. He said that Republicans once Trump

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Speaker 1: is gone, they're going to have an epiphany. Things will

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Speaker 1: fundamentally change with Donald Trump on on the White House.

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Speaker 1: He said, not a joke. You'll see an epiphany occur

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Speaker 1: among many of my Republican friends. It's already beginning in

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Speaker 1: the House. Now. If we can't change, we're in trouble.

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Speaker 1: This nation can't function without generating consensus. It can't do it.

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Speaker 1: And so this man has been in Washington for how

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Speaker 1: many years? Thirty five, forty, it's like fifty years that

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Speaker 1: this man has been here. I mean he's almost eighty

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Speaker 1: and he showed up when he was thirty. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's been in Washington for like fifty years, and you

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Speaker 1: couldn't see just the most basic political dynamic that any

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Speaker 1: moron who just exists in this country. No, they're not

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Speaker 1: going to work with you. Whatever bipartisan era that you

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Speaker 1: came from forty years ago is long dead and gone.

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Speaker 1: So it just shows you how apparently this man learned

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Speaker 1: nothing from his experience during the vice presidency. For all

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Speaker 1: his talk about how you know, and his aides would

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Speaker 1: pay all we're going to do things different and it's

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Speaker 1: going to be the FDR and all this stuff, like

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Speaker 1: you have no idea what you were doing in this town,

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Speaker 1: and the American people are suffering for it. Like I

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Speaker 1: don't even care about your political prospects, the political prospects

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Speaker 1: of the Democratic Party, but this is a time of

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Speaker 1: crisis and chaos and deef uncertainty, and you have nothing

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Speaker 1: to say you're unable to execute on even the basics

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Speaker 1: of your vision. He got asked at the end, are

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Speaker 1: you gonna Hey, you've made a promise to cancel some

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Speaker 1: student debt. You're gonna do that? No answer, So don't

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Speaker 1: give me this. Oh, it's all the fault of man

428
00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:34,400
Speaker 1: oh the phil but oh the parliamentary, all the Republicans,

429
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:37,119
Speaker 1: they're so mean. There are things in your power that

430
00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:39,800
Speaker 1: you could do right now. And by the way, that

431
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:43,000
Speaker 1: if you executed your administration with the competent strategy and

432
00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:46,159
Speaker 1: tactics from the beginning, you could have accomplished way way more. So,

433
00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:48,360
Speaker 1: don't give me this. Your hands are tied, and all

434
00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:52,520
Speaker 1: your excuses this first year you have to say, looking

435
00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:54,200
Speaker 1: at it and yesterday, that's why you did this prosper

436
00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:56,480
Speaker 1: It's a one year anniversary of his term in office.

437
00:22:56,480 --> 00:23:01,440
Speaker 1: It's a failure, yep, complete disaster. And speaking of his predecessor,

438
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:07,879
Speaker 1: his possible successor, Kiah the ones future. Very interesting piece

439
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:11,399
Speaker 1: of evidence here pointing towards why he might be running again.

440
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:13,399
Speaker 1: Let's put this up there on the screen. The New

441
00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:17,200
Speaker 1: York Attorney General Letitia James says that Trump's company misled

442
00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:20,240
Speaker 1: banks and tax officials. The Attorney General says that her

443
00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:24,720
Speaker 1: investigation has uncovered evidence that Trump's company used quote, fraudulent

444
00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:28,520
Speaker 1: or misleading valuations on its golf clubs, skyscrapers, and other

445
00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:32,280
Speaker 1: property to get loans and tax benefits. So the lawyers

446
00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:34,520
Speaker 1: told a judge that they have not decided yet to

447
00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,000
Speaker 1: whether we're bring a lawsuit in connection with the allegations,

448
00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:39,600
Speaker 1: but that investigators should be allowed to continue to question

449
00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:43,240
Speaker 1: Trump and his two eldest children under oath as part

450
00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:47,280
Speaker 1: of a civil probe. Trump organization called the investigation baseless.

451
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,439
Speaker 1: All of that. So the most accounting of it really

452
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,600
Speaker 1: is that this has been a longstanding New York Attorney

453
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:57,360
Speaker 1: General thing into both Trump's wealth, into the organization, into

454
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:01,720
Speaker 1: how exactly they conducted themselves during business. So look, I mean,

455
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:03,680
Speaker 1: I don't think a single person who voted for Trump

456
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:05,600
Speaker 1: is going to defend the man and say, yeah, he's

457
00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:09,320
Speaker 1: definitely a guy who paid his tax with regards to yeah,

458
00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:12,480
Speaker 1: one hundred percent, you did, you know, the best businessman

459
00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:14,760
Speaker 1: the world has ever seen. I don't know if you

460
00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:18,240
Speaker 1: really believe that. I don't really know what to tell you. Obviously,

461
00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:21,719
Speaker 1: it's massively politically charged on both sides, just some more

462
00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:23,880
Speaker 1: of the details. Put this up there. The New York

463
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:26,760
Speaker 1: Attorney General says that they found one hundred and fifty

464
00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:30,160
Speaker 1: thousand dollars initiation fees into golf clubs that were never collected,

465
00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:33,440
Speaker 1: into mansions that had not even been built, and twenty

466
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,399
Speaker 1: thousand square feet in his Trump Tower triplex that did

467
00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:39,040
Speaker 1: not exist. So these are all things that we're going

468
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:42,160
Speaker 1: to be seeing in open court. But why it matters, Crystal,

469
00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:45,880
Speaker 1: is that you will remember that whenever you are the president,

470
00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:50,200
Speaker 1: you are immune from criminal prosecution. And so let's put

471
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,280
Speaker 1: this up there. Maggie Haberman of The New York Times observes, quote,

472
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:56,119
Speaker 1: any question of whether Trump runs seems to have been

473
00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:59,239
Speaker 1: answered this morning. His aids have always signaled if the

474
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:03,040
Speaker 1: investigations progressed, he would run for president again. And I

475
00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:05,800
Speaker 1: think that this is the thing that matters the most.

476
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,960
Speaker 1: Somebody responded, have they indicated will he run if he's

477
00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:13,320
Speaker 1: personally indicted? She responded, same answer, because even though you're

478
00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:16,960
Speaker 1: under indictment doesn't actually stop you from being a massident sourced.

479
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:19,600
Speaker 1: She is very well sourced. I mean, look, I don't

480
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:22,199
Speaker 1: think it takes a genius to see that from a

481
00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:24,399
Speaker 1: personal level. One of the best things that you can

482
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,480
Speaker 1: have about the presidency is that you're immune from criminal prosecution.

483
00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:29,960
Speaker 1: And then you have the what do we just talk

484
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,760
Speaker 1: about one of the most unpopular presidents in modern American history,

485
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:36,240
Speaker 1: who already in head to head matchups, is not doing

486
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 1: so well against Trump. Trump is off social media. A

487
00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:41,480
Speaker 1: lot of people have forgotten exactly what it was like

488
00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:44,359
Speaker 1: under them. Things under Biden are awful, and so you

489
00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:46,520
Speaker 1: could easily see a world where he could get re

490
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:50,359
Speaker 1: elected very easily. And then you have a massive personal

491
00:25:50,359 --> 00:25:52,919
Speaker 1: incentive from him as to why he would want to

492
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:57,359
Speaker 1: run again in order to forestall these investigations. So, look,

493
00:25:57,400 --> 00:25:59,440
Speaker 1: maybe the best thing the New York Attorney General could

494
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,640
Speaker 1: do is the case if she didn't want him to run.

495
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:05,920
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I don't really I don't really buy

496
00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:08,680
Speaker 1: into the logic of like, well, let's try to placate

497
00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:10,760
Speaker 1: him by not going after him, and maybe that'll pursuade

498
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:12,439
Speaker 1: him to not run for president, because frankly, I think

499
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:14,960
Speaker 1: he's gonna run either way, because you see the way

500
00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:16,600
Speaker 1: I mean, even in the way he's trying to clip

501
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:20,640
Speaker 1: round Santis's wings right now. If he was looking it's

502
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:23,080
Speaker 1: a lot about ego, but it's also about you know,

503
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 1: if he was thinking about DeSantis, maybe my success or,

504
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:30,800
Speaker 1: he'd have a different orientation towards him. However, on the

505
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:32,639
Speaker 1: on the merits of the charges, I mean, first of all,

506
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:36,040
Speaker 1: let's say, uh, I think Attorney General Letitia James has

507
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:38,480
Speaker 1: been a very serious person. She's the one who really

508
00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:41,840
Speaker 1: took Cuomo out and which gives her some sort of

509
00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:45,720
Speaker 1: like nonpartisan cred even though obviously as a Democrat there's

510
00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 1: a lot of political incentive to go after Trump. There's

511
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:51,400
Speaker 1: just no doubt about that. She's also gone after Amazon,

512
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,760
Speaker 1: She's gone, She's joined some of these big tech suits.

513
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:58,000
Speaker 1: So I do think she's been a very serious person

514
00:26:58,040 --> 00:27:00,600
Speaker 1: in terms of how she's executed the duties of her office.

515
00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:04,560
Speaker 1: I you know, don't think that anyone would be shocked

516
00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:09,639
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump was inflating his assets and you know,

517
00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:12,639
Speaker 1: projecting him to be much wealthier than he actually was

518
00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:15,680
Speaker 1: and a much greater businessman than he actually was, not

519
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:19,159
Speaker 1: just to the public. But what she is alleging that

520
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,479
Speaker 1: they found is that there were some just blatant lies

521
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:25,760
Speaker 1: that were told to you know, lenders banks when he's

522
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:27,840
Speaker 1: trying to get loans and those sorts of things, and

523
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:33,040
Speaker 1: also potentially to tax authorities which gave him significant tax breaks.

524
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:35,160
Speaker 1: So that's what's being alleged here. Again, I don't think

525
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:38,640
Speaker 1: anybody in the public would find those allegations, if they

526
00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 1: turn out to be correct, to be shocking. I do

527
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:44,359
Speaker 1: also want to say that, you know, from the right

528
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:46,480
Speaker 1: there there's been a lot of fixation on like the

529
00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:49,919
Speaker 1: shady business dealings of Hunter Biden and Joe Biden and

530
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 1: his brother and all those sorts of things, which I

531
00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:53,919
Speaker 1: totally you know, we've talked about as well, and I

532
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:56,919
Speaker 1: think those things are important. They won't care at all

533
00:27:56,960 --> 00:27:59,119
Speaker 1: about this though, if this was Joe Biden, if the

534
00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:00,800
Speaker 1: shoe was on the other but, they would be up

535
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:03,879
Speaker 1: at arms about how shady and what a liar and

536
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:06,119
Speaker 1: a tax cheat and all that stuff. So let's just

537
00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:08,360
Speaker 1: be clear that if the shoe was on the other foot,

538
00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:10,520
Speaker 1: the reaction from the right here would be very, very

539
00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,600
Speaker 1: differently in terms of the political landscape, I don't see

540
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:16,040
Speaker 1: why he wouldn't run. He's got a pretty clear shot

541
00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:19,360
Speaker 1: at it right now. And the Democrats, for all their

542
00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:22,439
Speaker 1: talk about the existential threats facing the country and the

543
00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:26,000
Speaker 1: end of Democracy. David wrote a great piece that was like,

544
00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:28,959
Speaker 1: are they trying to lose? Like, are you trying to

545
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,440
Speaker 1: bathe the path right back to Donald Trump? Because that

546
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:35,160
Speaker 1: sure is how what it feels like right now. It's

547
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:39,360
Speaker 1: pathetic that you know, here a year into this administration,

548
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 1: where a lot of things have gone your way. You know,

549
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 1: you could be in a place where people were feeling optimistic.

550
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:47,320
Speaker 1: You could be in a place where people were focused

551
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:49,840
Speaker 1: on the fact that you do have a tight labor market,

552
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:53,160
Speaker 1: you do have wage games being made. Instead, people feel

553
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: deeply pessimistic about the direction of the country, deeply pessimistic

554
00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:01,560
Speaker 1: about your failed leadership, deeply pessimistic that you have any

555
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:05,120
Speaker 1: plan or ability to deliver for them something other than

556
00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:10,280
Speaker 1: just like, you know, a kind of mushy chaos. So yeah,

557
00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:13,080
Speaker 1: if you wanted to help re elect Trump, this pretty

558
00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:15,160
Speaker 1: good state of affairs. And as you point out, I'm

559
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:17,800
Speaker 1: not sure they really did themselves any favor by pushing

560
00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:21,960
Speaker 1: Twitter to get him off the platform, because it has

561
00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:24,840
Speaker 1: memories are short, and people have forgotten what to just

562
00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:28,400
Speaker 1: like daily obnoxious asshole and terrible presence in their lives.

563
00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:30,120
Speaker 1: He was over the course of four years. I think

564
00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:31,560
Speaker 1: he's the best thing that ever happened to him. I

565
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:34,040
Speaker 1: know it's controversial, but I think his deep platform means

566
00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 1: absolutely the best thing that ever happened to him. Initially

567
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:40,120
Speaker 1: it reduced his public opinion or his public consciousness, but

568
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:43,080
Speaker 1: that was a conversely, is a very good thing. It's

569
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:48,320
Speaker 1: where people you know, memory is short. People remember. People say, hey,

570
00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:51,440
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, life was good. Trump was president. You know, Look,

571
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:53,880
Speaker 1: that's just how people are in terms of the associational

572
00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:55,920
Speaker 1: thinking that they make. Most people don't spend a lot

573
00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:58,400
Speaker 1: of time thinking about politics. They just simply think about

574
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:01,440
Speaker 1: the conditions of their lives. Biden's single failure is that

575
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:04,600
Speaker 1: most people lives are chaotic and they're miserable. And if

576
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 1: you can't make that go away, you're going to suffer,

577
00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:09,920
Speaker 1: and or at the very least you can't seem to

578
00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:13,240
Speaker 1: be appear to trying to make those things go away,

579
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 1: you're especially going to do badly. So I do think

580
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 1: Maggie's right. There probably is no question that being said,

581
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:21,720
Speaker 1: I had heard, you know, some of his advisors will

582
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:25,600
Speaker 1: say things like his health permitting, But look, honestly, it

583
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:27,960
Speaker 1: looks pretty good. You know, he looks a lot better.

584
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:33,480
Speaker 1: He's loss of weight, more vigorous. You know. Joe Rogan,

585
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 1: you know, observed something about Trump which I found fascinating.

586
00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 1: Every president in history has aged dramatically in the job,

587
00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:42,440
Speaker 1: except for him. He was exactly the same. Yeah, it

588
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:46,360
Speaker 1: didn't weigh on him care Yeah, I mean that's probably right.

589
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:48,280
Speaker 1: You know, look at Obama's face, look at George W.

590
00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 1: Bush's face, or that I've seen this if anybody's ever

591
00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:52,440
Speaker 1: here in DC, go to the portrait gallery and you

592
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:55,920
Speaker 1: can see the death mask of Abraham Lincoln and as

593
00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:58,840
Speaker 1: opposed to have maskally made in eighteen sixty, the Civil

594
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:02,120
Speaker 1: War lines in his face unbelievable. Yeah, it's in the

595
00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:05,800
Speaker 1: National Portrait Gallery in the presidential section. But with Trump,

596
00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:09,240
Speaker 1: he looks better post presidency that he did actually while

597
00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:11,560
Speaker 1: he was in it. So look, I would say, if

598
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:13,000
Speaker 1: I was a betting man, I think he's gonna run

599
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:15,880
Speaker 1: a yah, And Biden said Kamala would be on the

600
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 1: ticket with him, and he has said he's gonna run again,

601
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:22,320
Speaker 1: you know, assuming he's he's able. But I don't think

602
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 1: that anyone in this town is gonna stop sort of

603
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:27,040
Speaker 1: jockeying and wondering whether he really will be the nominee

604
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 1: next time around because of exactly you know what these

605
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:33,000
Speaker 1: focus groups are saying, like, he already looks like he's

606
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:35,680
Speaker 1: not really up to the job. So the props for

607
00:31:35,760 --> 00:31:39,040
Speaker 1: them though. The problem for them though, is like, all right,

608
00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:41,080
Speaker 1: who else are you gonna put in? You know, I

609
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 1: mean Kamala Harris? Good luck? They they dream that Pete

610
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:49,600
Speaker 1: would be their savior. Billionaires love Pete, obsessed with this guy,

611
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:52,960
Speaker 1: but it's you know, he's not going to be any

612
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 1: stronger of a performer, significantly stronger of a performer than

613
00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:58,920
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris. He is so hard to see who they

614
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:00,800
Speaker 1: could even replace by and with it would be a

615
00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:05,880
Speaker 1: better butt for them at this point. Huh. All right, guys,

616
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:08,120
Speaker 1: we wanted to bring you this footage that The New

617
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:11,240
Speaker 1: York Times was able to obtain from the government through

618
00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:13,400
Speaker 1: a Foyer request, And I have to say, like, the

619
00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:16,720
Speaker 1: fact that the government tries to hide the initial fact

620
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 1: that this happened is of course the most shameful. Then

621
00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 1: the fact that they try to hide the footage of

622
00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:23,760
Speaker 1: it so we can't see in real time the horrific

623
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,040
Speaker 1: civilian toll is an added shame on top of that.

624
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:30,480
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and talk about this drone strike. So

625
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:34,080
Speaker 1: this was you recall at the end of our occupation

626
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:38,400
Speaker 1: of Afghanistan, Biden wanted to project strength. They said that

627
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:43,040
Speaker 1: they had drone striked a isis K militant. Of course,

628
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:45,240
Speaker 1: that story fell apart very quickly. And so what you're

629
00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:50,880
Speaker 1: looking here at is drone footage. And there you see

630
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:58,200
Speaker 1: the explosion in this residential neighborhood in Cobble, which we

631
00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:01,400
Speaker 1: pretty quickly found out. Thanks I have to give credit

632
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:03,720
Speaker 1: to the dogged reporting of the New York Times. Here

633
00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 1: killed ten civilians, basically took out an entire Afghan family,

634
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:15,840
Speaker 1: including little babies. The man that they thought was an

635
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:19,560
Speaker 1: isis K militant, it turns out he was an aid

636
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:24,640
Speaker 1: worker for a charity based in California, Okay. And to

637
00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:29,320
Speaker 1: make matters worse, the Pentagon did a whole investigation. All

638
00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:33,160
Speaker 1: mistakes were made. Is there going to be any accountability none? Yeah,

639
00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:36,000
Speaker 1: they said, no one will be fired over this, none whatsoever.

640
00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:40,600
Speaker 1: No one will be fired, zero accountability. It's absolutely insane.

641
00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:42,240
Speaker 1: And then let's go ahead and put this next hair

642
00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:45,240
Speaker 1: sheet up on the screen that accompanied the drone strike footage.

643
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:48,240
Speaker 1: And by the way, they had two different videos as

644
00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:50,440
Speaker 1: part of this article. The one that we showed you,

645
00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:53,280
Speaker 1: which is sort of further overhead, there's one that's a

646
00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:57,560
Speaker 1: little bit closer up. Just they both give you different angles.

647
00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:00,000
Speaker 1: It's very difficult to watch, but I think it's important

648
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:03,800
Speaker 1: that we actually grapple with the toll of the actions

649
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 1: of our governments. And and this isn't just Biden, of course,

650
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:09,640
Speaker 1: this is Trump and this is Obama as well, who've

651
00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:13,680
Speaker 1: engaged in these drone strikes. The family wants to be

652
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:18,920
Speaker 1: relocated to the US, they haven't been the government. Our

653
00:34:18,960 --> 00:34:22,279
Speaker 1: government has said they're going to give them money as compensation.

654
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:25,840
Speaker 1: Nothing can possibly compensate for the loss of your entire family,

655
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:28,920
Speaker 1: including your children and the breadwinner of the family. That

656
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:32,359
Speaker 1: money has yet to come through. So we did this,

657
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:40,320
Speaker 1: committed this absolute war crime. No compensation, no relocation, no accountability.

658
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:43,000
Speaker 1: And that's where things stand today. I do want to say,

659
00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:45,240
Speaker 1: you know, just to give the sort of fuller picture,

660
00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:49,920
Speaker 1: the number of drone strikes under Biden is way fewer

661
00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:54,840
Speaker 1: than his predecessors. Obama, of course, famously had pretty aggressive

662
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:57,360
Speaker 1: and you know, he had a very large drone program.

663
00:34:57,400 --> 00:35:01,239
Speaker 1: Trump expanded that even further and took even some of

664
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:05,680
Speaker 1: the limited checks off of the process, so that there

665
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:09,600
Speaker 1: was you know, even less concern for civilian life when

666
00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:13,760
Speaker 1: we were engaged in these sorts of things. Biden Jeremy Skahill.

667
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:15,719
Speaker 1: I read his piece in the Intercept about this. So

668
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:19,800
Speaker 1: Biden has almost totally halted the program, while he says

669
00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:23,240
Speaker 1: he's going to undergo a review of what those rules

670
00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:25,759
Speaker 1: of engagement and how they get authorized and all of

671
00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:30,040
Speaker 1: that is. But there's some fear that he's not planning

672
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:34,040
Speaker 1: on really significantly reforming the program and that he may

673
00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:37,759
Speaker 1: not even go back to as stringent quote unquote a

674
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:40,719
Speaker 1: process as Obama had in place. So that remains to

675
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:42,560
Speaker 1: be seen. But I do just want to say that

676
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:47,200
Speaker 1: under Biden, the number of US drone strikes has plummeted,

677
00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:51,719
Speaker 1: but they have exacted a horrific civilian toll in instances

678
00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:54,759
Speaker 1: like this that just shocked the conscience. And the military

679
00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:57,200
Speaker 1: is brazen about how, you know, no one's going to

680
00:35:57,200 --> 00:36:01,720
Speaker 1: be punished for what is ultimately you know, the killing

681
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:03,919
Speaker 1: and murder of a civilian family. Yeah, they don't care.

682
00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:06,719
Speaker 1: And this is a bigger symbol for the entire war

683
00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:09,200
Speaker 1: because you don't even know how many of these things

684
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:12,080
Speaker 1: happened in the past. We have no idea and the

685
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:14,680
Speaker 1: people in charge, can you think of something better for

686
00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:16,759
Speaker 1: the way that the military handled this, They're like, We're

687
00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:18,960
Speaker 1: going to go out and get the guys who killed

688
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:22,640
Speaker 1: our soldiers. Screwed up the drone strike, screwed up the intel,

689
00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:27,960
Speaker 1: didn't fire anybody as opposed to this. They acknowledge it

690
00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:30,239
Speaker 1: for weeks in this residential neighborhood. I mean, you can

691
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:33,319
Speaker 1: see how close these are family homes. They don't care

692
00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:37,200
Speaker 1: closer together. Even if if this wasn't isis k militten

693
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:39,960
Speaker 1: They had to know they were running tremendous risk of

694
00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 1: loss of civilian life because they're right there in this

695
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:47,759
Speaker 1: residential neighborhood of closely packed in houses. And look, once again,

696
00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 1: how much of this is par for the course? Is

697
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:51,920
Speaker 1: this standard operating and procedure in the US military? How

698
00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:55,239
Speaker 1: come nobody was fired on this? Where somebody ever reprimanded

699
00:36:55,239 --> 00:36:58,520
Speaker 1: for this? There has not been any answer to these questions.

700
00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:00,799
Speaker 1: All of the generals in charge to lied to the

701
00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:03,120
Speaker 1: face of the American people about the capacity of the

702
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:05,600
Speaker 1: Afghan forces, about the drone war, about all that they

703
00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:08,600
Speaker 1: still remain either in power or they're sitting on lockey

704
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:12,600
Speaker 1: Martin and Raytheon's board today. I mean, everybody off of

705
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:16,240
Speaker 1: this either got rich, got promoted, got careers made these

706
00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:20,759
Speaker 1: people as kids in this case also died. Our soldiers,

707
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:23,720
Speaker 1: you know, think about it. We wanted to avenge their debts.

708
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:26,799
Speaker 1: Where's that killer? I haven't heard anything. Where is he

709
00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:28,440
Speaker 1: you said you were going to go get him? Or

710
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:31,080
Speaker 1: where are they? I haven't heard nothing yet. So we

711
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:34,600
Speaker 1: have what thirteen soldiers who were killed in that horrific

712
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:37,760
Speaker 1: suicide bomb, who also haven't been properly avenged. If anything,

713
00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:41,120
Speaker 1: it's a shame, you know, on their memory that we

714
00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:43,640
Speaker 1: would try to do that, we would do this horrific

715
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:46,640
Speaker 1: act in response with him. It's a crapshoot all the

716
00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:50,080
Speaker 1: way around. Nobody won out of this thing, and I

717
00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:53,040
Speaker 1: just think the lack of accountability is a symbol for

718
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:55,600
Speaker 1: the war itself and for the worst people who are

719
00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:57,439
Speaker 1: in charge here. Well, and there's a few other things

720
00:37:57,480 --> 00:38:00,600
Speaker 1: to say about this. I mean, first of all, if

721
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:05,160
Speaker 1: the stories are immediately that were coming from the government

722
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:09,200
Speaker 1: were sketchy, they weren't. They wouldn't identify, you know, anytime

723
00:38:09,239 --> 00:38:13,560
Speaker 1: they actually get a terrorist, somebody who they consider to be,

724
00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:15,960
Speaker 1: you know, a militant Isis or al Qaedra or whatever

725
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:18,759
Speaker 1: they got names. They tell you what they did, where

726
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:22,239
Speaker 1: all this stuff. They are very vague here, right. The

727
00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 1: only reason we even learned the truth about this, and

728
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:28,160
Speaker 1: it wasn't just some like you know, online rumor that

729
00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:30,400
Speaker 1: gets dismissed as oh, you know these AFGA they just

730
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:33,160
Speaker 1: complained and they just make stories up or whatever, is

731
00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:35,640
Speaker 1: because New York Times was able to dig in and

732
00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:40,200
Speaker 1: get surveillance video of the individual going about his day,

733
00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:44,040
Speaker 1: going to his workplace, getting a jug of water, filling

734
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:46,719
Speaker 1: it up, bringing it home, like they were able to

735
00:38:47,120 --> 00:38:49,400
Speaker 1: be on the ground and piece all of this together.

736
00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 1: That's the only reason we found out the truth of

737
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:55,080
Speaker 1: this situation, which obviously raises the question of how many

738
00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:58,600
Speaker 1: more fit this exact same pattern. And New York Times

739
00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:03,920
Speaker 1: has also done very good reporting into atrocities in Syria

740
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:08,359
Speaker 1: that were equally covered up. A drone strike there that

741
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:13,359
Speaker 1: killed scores of civilians that there was in fact an

742
00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:16,480
Speaker 1: Inspector General report into it that was so sanitized, and

743
00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:18,680
Speaker 1: they bulldozed the area so you couldn't gather any of it.

744
00:39:18,680 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 1: It's so sanitized it didn't even mention like the place

745
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:23,839
Speaker 1: or that there was a drug strip by the time

746
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:26,040
Speaker 1: it went all the way through the process. And there

747
00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:30,040
Speaker 1: were these sort of unaccountable elite teams that could go

748
00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:33,160
Speaker 1: over the head of even the ordinary military chain of

749
00:39:33,200 --> 00:39:37,440
Speaker 1: command and execute these strikes on the flimsiest and in

750
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:43,400
Speaker 1: certain instances, according to the Times reporting, just completely invented circumstances.

751
00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:45,880
Speaker 1: So this is not a one off, this is a

752
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,920
Speaker 1: pattern of behavior. It just happens in this one instance

753
00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:50,640
Speaker 1: they were able to get caught. And then the last

754
00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:53,400
Speaker 1: thing I'll say about this is, you know, right now,

755
00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:56,360
Speaker 1: after we got out of Afghanistan, which you and I

756
00:39:56,400 --> 00:39:59,120
Speaker 1: were both very supportive of, and I give a lot

757
00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:01,879
Speaker 1: of credits to Biden or having Stones to actually get

758
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:05,480
Speaker 1: it done. But now because they froze the assets of

759
00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:09,359
Speaker 1: the Central Bank, people are starving to death. You have

760
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:12,640
Speaker 1: some Democrats who are pushing the administration to unfreeze at

761
00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:15,440
Speaker 1: least some of those assets so people don't dye a

762
00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:20,520
Speaker 1: mass and children of famine during this winter. And so

763
00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:23,000
Speaker 1: far they've thrown a few you know, oh well, throw

764
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:27,239
Speaker 1: three hundred million dollars at the problem or whatever. It's woefully,

765
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:32,719
Speaker 1: woefully insufficient, and you know, we're complicit and effectively a

766
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:37,160
Speaker 1: mass famine right now. It's completely morally inexcusable. Yeah, I

767
00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:39,840
Speaker 1: mean I read a story yesterday that Afghans are turning

768
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:42,759
Speaker 1: to bitcoin because they literally don't have any money, I

769
00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:45,839
Speaker 1: mean because of the central bank removal that they've had,

770
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:47,960
Speaker 1: that been pulled out from underneath, and are having to

771
00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:52,280
Speaker 1: use crypto in order to try and buy international goods. Look,

772
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:54,640
Speaker 1: it's not the Afghan people's fault that we occupied them

773
00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:57,359
Speaker 1: for twenty years, screwed up their country, destroyed it, and then,

774
00:40:57,400 --> 00:41:00,200
Speaker 1: by the way, spend what one hundred billion dollars trying

775
00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:02,879
Speaker 1: to rebuild their military and it collapsed within a matter

776
00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:05,600
Speaker 1: of days. This isn't it about helping the Taliban? Yeah

777
00:41:05,719 --> 00:41:07,759
Speaker 1: or whatever. And if, by the way, if we let

778
00:41:07,840 --> 00:41:10,319
Speaker 1: them starve and they all, you know, die in a

779
00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:14,239
Speaker 1: mass famine, that only helps and strengthen the are going

780
00:41:14,239 --> 00:41:16,200
Speaker 1: to get them out of it. Actually it only will

781
00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:17,839
Speaker 1: help them. They'll be a like goo get the US

782
00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:21,560
Speaker 1: into our country. Totally totally accurate. And let's also be clear,

783
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:24,680
Speaker 1: there is one reason that the Taliban is in control

784
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:29,239
Speaker 1: right now, and that's because of our own mistakes in Afghanistan.

785
00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:32,400
Speaker 1: I mean, they tried to surrender and come up with

786
00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:35,080
Speaker 1: a deal at the beginning of the war. So the

787
00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:37,840
Speaker 1: fact that the Taliban is in charge in Afghanistan is

788
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:41,120
Speaker 1: on us. But there they are, and now they're the

789
00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:44,600
Speaker 1: rightful government. We're going to starve the people because you know,

790
00:41:44,719 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 1: Biden wants to appear tough and not have the talking

791
00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:50,800
Speaker 1: point that he's funding terrorists. Okay, it's a disgraceful situation.

792
00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:54,520
Speaker 1: It really is. All right. On a somewhat lighter note,

793
00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:57,200
Speaker 1: but I think appropriate to some of the conversations we're

794
00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:02,400
Speaker 1: having this morning, there is growing interest in some sort

795
00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:07,880
Speaker 1: of a challenge to Biden, either through a primary of

796
00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:11,239
Speaker 1: someone who has left, or through a sort of third

797
00:42:11,280 --> 00:42:14,720
Speaker 1: party effort to break up the two party do woppily.

798
00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:19,360
Speaker 1: Two people that we have had respect for marian Williamson

799
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:23,080
Speaker 1: and Andrew Yang. Mariann went on Yang's podcast and they

800
00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:25,200
Speaker 1: had a whole discussion about this and how it could

801
00:42:25,239 --> 00:42:27,120
Speaker 1: play out. I thought it was very thoughtful. I thought

802
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:31,120
Speaker 1: it was very interesting, engaged conversation. Andrew, of course, has

803
00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:35,280
Speaker 1: started the Forward Party, focused a lot on democracy reform,

804
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:37,440
Speaker 1: things like rank choice voting. They're going to have an

805
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:42,719
Speaker 1: open primary process for the presidential election. Mariann has been

806
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:44,960
Speaker 1: more interested in the direction of, Hey, what if somebody

807
00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:47,640
Speaker 1: challenged Biden in the primary in twenty twenty four, if

808
00:42:47,640 --> 00:42:49,680
Speaker 1: it even is Biden who's running on the ticket, or

809
00:42:49,719 --> 00:42:52,560
Speaker 1: challenge Kamala Harris or whoever their pete mutagen or whoever

810
00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:56,239
Speaker 1: their anointed successor is. And so they had an exchange

811
00:42:56,440 --> 00:42:59,319
Speaker 1: on what they think the right direction is. Here's a

812
00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:02,759
Speaker 1: little piece of how that conversation went. Political parties are

813
00:43:02,760 --> 00:43:06,640
Speaker 1: not even mentioned in the Constitution. George Washington warned us

814
00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:10,239
Speaker 1: against them in his farewell address. John Adams said that

815
00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:13,880
Speaker 1: they represented the greatest threat to democracy, this idea that

816
00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:16,640
Speaker 1: they get to be the gatekeepers they are when in court,

817
00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:20,080
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party argued that they don't owe it to

818
00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:22,640
Speaker 1: people to let the person who got the most votes win.

819
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:26,680
Speaker 1: We have to call the duopolistic system on what it is.

820
00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:29,719
Speaker 1: And let's remember the duopoly is actually a monopoly. You know,

821
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:31,799
Speaker 1: we talk like how divided we are, they are not

822
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:35,200
Speaker 1: all that divided. Because the bottom line is the military

823
00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:38,160
Speaker 1: industrial complex will get what they want on that we

824
00:43:38,200 --> 00:43:42,839
Speaker 1: are not divided. Oil companies more than not more than

825
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:44,759
Speaker 1: not will continue to do what they want to do.

826
00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:48,200
Speaker 1: On that we are not divided, big pharmaceutical companies will

827
00:43:48,239 --> 00:43:52,359
Speaker 1: continue to obstruct any chance of universal health care. On

828
00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:55,560
Speaker 1: that we are not divided, they divide us so that

829
00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:58,799
Speaker 1: we don't recognize how undivided they are in some very

830
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:02,239
Speaker 1: essential ways. So one of the things Marion said in

831
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:04,799
Speaker 1: that conversation, which I thought was a good way to

832
00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:08,040
Speaker 1: frame it, on the question of third party effort versus

833
00:44:08,120 --> 00:44:11,719
Speaker 1: a primary challenge to Biden. And you know, neither one

834
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:15,040
Speaker 1: of these is an easy feat. Obviously, the deck is

835
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:18,800
Speaker 1: almost completely stacked against any sort of a third party effort.

836
00:44:18,920 --> 00:44:21,760
Speaker 1: Even the most successful third party efforts in modern history

837
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:24,879
Speaker 1: have fallen dramatically short. But you also have the way

838
00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:27,160
Speaker 1: that the DNC plays their cards and the rigging we

839
00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:29,759
Speaker 1: saw against Bernie Sanders and the way they treated, you know,

840
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:33,000
Speaker 1: Mike Gravel and Tulci Gabbert and Mary and Williamson and

841
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:36,520
Speaker 1: Andrew Yang very unfairly through that process. But Marian put

842
00:44:36,520 --> 00:44:38,360
Speaker 1: it this way, she said, you know, a third party,

843
00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:43,080
Speaker 1: that's really what you're after, is to influence the conversation.

844
00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:45,040
Speaker 1: I'm kind of paraphrasing here. It's like, Okay, I can

845
00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:47,799
Speaker 1: push them, I can influence the conversation when what you

846
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:50,840
Speaker 1: really need to do is replace these people. And I

847
00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 1: thought that was a pretty compelling argument that she made there.

848
00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:58,600
Speaker 1: Look ultimately, and we've talked about this on this show before,

849
00:44:58,640 --> 00:45:00,000
Speaker 1: and I think you and I are both more like

850
00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:04,520
Speaker 1: of the same mind about this. I don't like denigrate

851
00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:07,640
Speaker 1: third party efforts. I think they have been important throughout

852
00:45:07,719 --> 00:45:11,160
Speaker 1: history to push the major parties to adopt the morally

853
00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:15,480
Speaker 1: correct and more populist position. But in terms of actually

854
00:45:15,680 --> 00:45:19,480
Speaker 1: overturning the apple cart and having a shot at taking

855
00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:21,960
Speaker 1: over a party and doing something different, the only examples

856
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:24,400
Speaker 1: we have of that in modern times is by running

857
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:28,040
Speaker 1: through one of the two major parties and Donald Trump,

858
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:31,160
Speaker 1: even though we ended up being effectively just like all

859
00:45:31,200 --> 00:45:35,359
Speaker 1: the other Republicans, just with more bombasted and obnoxiousness, they

860
00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:38,480
Speaker 1: didn't want him to win the Republican nomination. Elites were

861
00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:41,040
Speaker 1: very uncertain about this guy and where he was ultimately

862
00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:43,839
Speaker 1: going to take things, and they tried, in their own

863
00:45:43,840 --> 00:45:47,720
Speaker 1: way on the Republican side to stop him from ultimately winning,

864
00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:49,719
Speaker 1: and he was able to do it fully took over

865
00:45:49,760 --> 00:45:53,239
Speaker 1: the Republican Party. Of course, now he's just made it

866
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:56,200
Speaker 1: all about himself and the same old like Paul Ryan's

867
00:45:56,480 --> 00:45:59,120
Speaker 1: chamber of converse friendly policies, the Republican Party has been

868
00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:01,239
Speaker 1: about for decades. If you had a different person there,

869
00:46:01,280 --> 00:46:03,320
Speaker 1: it didn't have to go that way. No, of course,

870
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:05,480
Speaker 1: it was more of a matter of personalities. One of

871
00:46:05,480 --> 00:46:08,279
Speaker 1: the posters I have right there right behind me you

872
00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:10,759
Speaker 1: can see down at the bottom, is of William Jennings Bryan.

873
00:46:10,840 --> 00:46:13,560
Speaker 1: And the reason why is because William Jennings Bryan is

874
00:46:13,640 --> 00:46:16,520
Speaker 1: exactly the person who did what you're discussing. The Cross

875
00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:18,960
Speaker 1: of Gold speech put him on the map in such

876
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:21,440
Speaker 1: a big way. He was the presidential nominee of the

877
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:25,520
Speaker 1: Democratic Party eighteen ninety six, nineteen hundred and nineteen oh eight.

878
00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:28,640
Speaker 1: And this is the thing about Brian. He was a nobody,

879
00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:32,080
Speaker 1: nothing congressman who then comes out and in a single

880
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:36,520
Speaker 1: speech takes over the entire Democratic Party apparatus, which is

881
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:41,400
Speaker 1: this baass Gilded Age nothingness, transforms it into a force

882
00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:45,200
Speaker 1: that eventually takes the presidency under Woodrow Wilson that would

883
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:48,279
Speaker 1: never happen under him. The whole Great Commoner and the

884
00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:51,960
Speaker 1: populism of that was a takeover of that party, and

885
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:54,799
Speaker 1: originally some of that energy had been concentrated on something

886
00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:57,840
Speaker 1: called the People's Party, which was like a grarian populist

887
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:01,200
Speaker 1: force of the eighteen nineties. But eventually what happened is

888
00:47:01,239 --> 00:47:04,640
Speaker 1: that by getting subsumed in the Democratic Party, it changed

889
00:47:04,680 --> 00:47:07,800
Speaker 1: the party apparatus. It changed the coalition more than anything.

890
00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:11,120
Speaker 1: This is the thing about brittle parties, and this is why. Look,

891
00:47:11,160 --> 00:47:13,480
Speaker 1: things are bleak right now, don't get me wrong, But

892
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:17,360
Speaker 1: in times of bleakness and when everything is crumbling, you

893
00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:20,840
Speaker 1: have the opportunity to really break everything apart and rise

894
00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:23,319
Speaker 1: from the ashes. So that's why I think a third

895
00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:25,520
Speaker 1: party right now? Fine, you know, I think it's okay,

896
00:47:25,719 --> 00:47:27,880
Speaker 1: and it pushes things in the right direction. But taking

897
00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:30,640
Speaker 1: over the existing party apparatus, as we saw that Trump

898
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:33,600
Speaker 1: destroyed these people all within what it took a matter

899
00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:36,480
Speaker 1: of six months. I remember Republican elite saying there's no

900
00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:38,480
Speaker 1: way this guy can win. Next thing, you know, he

901
00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:42,080
Speaker 1: is the party's nominee at the convention in twenty sixteen.

902
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:44,920
Speaker 1: The same thing could be done in the Democratic Party today.

903
00:47:45,040 --> 00:47:48,800
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris is the least unpopular successor in modern history.

904
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:52,960
Speaker 1: Biden is incredibly unpopular. Who's left Hillary? I mean who's

905
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:56,480
Speaker 1: on the bench. Seriously, if I were a betting man, honestly,

906
00:47:56,719 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 1: I would look at the total type of outside candidates,

907
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:02,600
Speaker 1: people like Eric Adams, Jared Polis, who you talked about.

908
00:48:02,760 --> 00:48:05,600
Speaker 1: Those types of people are deferent contenders, but also from

909
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:08,120
Speaker 1: the more left side, like a Mary Anne Williamson. The

910
00:48:08,160 --> 00:48:10,520
Speaker 1: real thing is is that the currency in the Republican

911
00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:12,600
Speaker 1: Party is you have to be hated by the elites

912
00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:14,400
Speaker 1: and hated by the media. That is the only thing

913
00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:17,240
Speaker 1: that the base cares about. It's a little less clear

914
00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:20,400
Speaker 1: what exactly that the Democratic base wants under Trump. They

915
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:22,879
Speaker 1: just wanted one thing. Don't we want Trump gone? Yeah,

916
00:48:22,880 --> 00:48:25,040
Speaker 1: that's why they were willing to go with Biden. But

917
00:48:25,120 --> 00:48:28,640
Speaker 1: I think enough of them have seen with Biden. Oh

918
00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:30,879
Speaker 1: that's actually not enough. We need somebody who can win.

919
00:48:31,440 --> 00:48:33,520
Speaker 1: And from that point of view, I think when you

920
00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:37,320
Speaker 1: scramble somebody's brain like that, anything is possible. Yeah. I mean, listen,

921
00:48:37,640 --> 00:48:41,439
Speaker 1: if Biden is the incumbent and he runs again, that's

922
00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:45,800
Speaker 1: a very tall mountain to klid. There's no guarantees about

923
00:48:45,800 --> 00:48:48,840
Speaker 1: that though, And if he is not running, then that

924
00:48:48,920 --> 00:48:51,279
Speaker 1: field is wide open. What I will say is, though,

925
00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:54,760
Speaker 1: even in the instance where he is the incumbent running

926
00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:58,440
Speaker 1: for reelection. There is so much dissatisfaction with him that

927
00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:01,879
Speaker 1: I think, you know, somebody who played their cards right

928
00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:04,560
Speaker 1: and ran a savvy campaign, I think there'd be a

929
00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:08,680
Speaker 1: lot of energy behind that person and would be able

930
00:49:08,719 --> 00:49:12,160
Speaker 1: to garner a significant chunk of the vote and really

931
00:49:12,239 --> 00:49:16,760
Speaker 1: forcefully challenged them. As far as the Forward Party effort,

932
00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:19,440
Speaker 1: which you know, when I interviewed Andrew, I kind of

933
00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:21,080
Speaker 1: pushed him a little bit on what his plan was

934
00:49:21,120 --> 00:49:22,920
Speaker 1: and how this was all going to work out. He's

935
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:27,319
Speaker 1: focused on these sorts of democracy reform agenda items which

936
00:49:27,360 --> 00:49:30,879
Speaker 1: I am one hundred percent in favor of and totally support.

937
00:49:31,040 --> 00:49:35,960
Speaker 1: But I think without a sort of domestic agenda and

938
00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:41,239
Speaker 1: a foreign policy agenda that really challenges corporate power and

939
00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:44,520
Speaker 1: establish entrenched interests, I think you could end up with

940
00:49:44,560 --> 00:49:47,319
Speaker 1: a lot of these sort of like enlightened centrists, like

941
00:49:47,440 --> 00:49:51,759
Speaker 1: no labelsy type that kind of gravitate towards it. So

942
00:49:51,840 --> 00:49:54,520
Speaker 1: that's my fear with the direction that that party could

943
00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:57,080
Speaker 1: ultimately go in. But we'll see. I mean, again, like

944
00:49:57,239 --> 00:50:00,319
Speaker 1: I'm for war democracy not less so if there are

945
00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:03,360
Speaker 1: people who are running in that primary who are interesting,

946
00:50:03,440 --> 00:50:06,160
Speaker 1: I mean, we'll certainly cover it here with great interest

947
00:50:06,280 --> 00:50:08,080
Speaker 1: and see where it ends up going and if it

948
00:50:08,200 --> 00:50:11,440
Speaker 1: ends up The great thing Andrew did in the Democratic

949
00:50:11,440 --> 00:50:15,880
Speaker 1: primary was putting universal basic income on the tables dramatically unpopular.

950
00:50:16,040 --> 00:50:19,399
Speaker 1: It was unknown and unpopular when he started. Now it's

951
00:50:19,400 --> 00:50:23,480
Speaker 1: in the mainstream of American conversation, it's broadly supported. It

952
00:50:23,560 --> 00:50:25,800
Speaker 1: ended up being acted on in the form of direct

953
00:50:25,920 --> 00:50:28,319
Speaker 1: checks to the American people under both Trump and then

954
00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:30,960
Speaker 1: also under Biden. So if he's able to have a

955
00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:34,279
Speaker 1: similar impact with things like ranked choice voting, that would

956
00:50:34,320 --> 00:50:39,759
Speaker 1: be a tremendous service and improvement ultimately for the American people. Yeah,

957
00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:41,880
Speaker 1: there we go. Okay, let's move on one of my

958
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:45,279
Speaker 1: favorite fake news scandals that we've seen in quite some time.

959
00:50:45,440 --> 00:50:49,160
Speaker 1: So a little inside baseball, but actually ended up blowing

960
00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:52,960
Speaker 1: up on Twitter. NPR reported, let's put this up there

961
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:56,359
Speaker 1: on the screen, that Justice Gorsich did not wear a

962
00:50:56,400 --> 00:51:01,200
Speaker 1: mask despite Soda my Oor's COVID worries leading her to telework.

963
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:04,520
Speaker 1: So it goes something like this, Basically that Chief Justice

964
00:51:04,600 --> 00:51:07,040
Speaker 1: Roberts had told everybody on the bench that they had

965
00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:09,520
Speaker 1: to wear a mask. Justice Gorcich then refused to wear

966
00:51:09,560 --> 00:51:12,040
Speaker 1: a mask. Justice Soda my Or because she has diabetes

967
00:51:12,080 --> 00:51:15,120
Speaker 1: and is worried about getting COVID. Said that she would

968
00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:18,319
Speaker 1: then choose to participate in a microphone set up in

969
00:51:18,320 --> 00:51:20,640
Speaker 1: her chambers via telework because she didn't want to come

970
00:51:20,640 --> 00:51:24,840
Speaker 1: into contact with other justices. People got pretty upset about this,

971
00:51:24,920 --> 00:51:27,680
Speaker 1: and oh my god, Justice Gorsich, how do you not

972
00:51:27,760 --> 00:51:30,640
Speaker 1: respect somebody like this? He's such an you know, you know,

973
00:51:30,680 --> 00:51:33,279
Speaker 1: he's a pos like all this stuff. Right, So they're

974
00:51:33,320 --> 00:51:36,440
Speaker 1: getting very upset with Justice Gorsich. It becomes a huge

975
00:51:36,480 --> 00:51:38,960
Speaker 1: thing on Twitter. It blows up, you know, some tens

976
00:51:38,960 --> 00:51:42,120
Speaker 1: of thousands of retweets in terms of that reporting. Well,

977
00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:45,040
Speaker 1: the next day, let's put this up there on the screen.

978
00:51:45,520 --> 00:51:50,520
Speaker 1: The joint statement was put out by Justice's Gorsic and

979
00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:54,680
Speaker 1: so toa my Ore saying quote reporting that Justice Soda

980
00:51:54,680 --> 00:51:58,359
Speaker 1: my Ore asked Justice Gorcich to wear a mask, surprised us.

981
00:51:58,760 --> 00:52:02,319
Speaker 1: It is false. While we may sometimes disagree about the law,

982
00:52:02,560 --> 00:52:05,560
Speaker 1: we are warm colleagues and friends. Now here's what's important.

983
00:52:06,239 --> 00:52:09,879
Speaker 1: The kopium after this crystal, the cope for those who

984
00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:12,440
Speaker 1: are not as online as I am, was well, the

985
00:52:12,560 --> 00:52:16,960
Speaker 1: report said Justice Roberts asked them to wear a mask,

986
00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:21,359
Speaker 1: so technically the story is still true. And so in

987
00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:25,000
Speaker 1: reaction to that, Justice Roberts puts out a statement, let's

988
00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:28,520
Speaker 1: put this one up there very shortly after to make

989
00:52:28,560 --> 00:52:34,840
Speaker 1: things crystal clear. Quote, I did not request Justice Gorsic

990
00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:40,359
Speaker 1: or any other justice to wear a mask on the bench. So,

991
00:52:40,719 --> 00:52:43,760
Speaker 1: like the Scotis blog is making clear, Justice is Gorsic.

992
00:52:44,040 --> 00:52:46,960
Speaker 1: So Domior and Roberts, all three of the people who

993
00:52:46,960 --> 00:52:50,279
Speaker 1: are involved in this story say it is complete and

994
00:52:50,320 --> 00:52:56,160
Speaker 1: total BS. So why does that matter? NPR today is

995
00:52:56,239 --> 00:53:01,000
Speaker 1: standing by the story. Nina Totenberg, the longtime correspondent, says, quote,

996
00:53:01,280 --> 00:53:05,200
Speaker 1: NPR stands by my reporting. How do they stand by

997
00:53:05,239 --> 00:53:11,600
Speaker 1: it that all parties involved, says this is happen? Yeah, well,

998
00:53:11,640 --> 00:53:16,240
Speaker 1: and so in this there's further copium yes within this piece.

999
00:53:16,880 --> 00:53:21,640
Speaker 1: Expanding upon how they can still support this reporting, they say, quote.

1000
00:53:21,719 --> 00:53:25,640
Speaker 1: On Tuesday, NPR reported that Justice Sody Sodo Mayor, a

1001
00:53:25,640 --> 00:53:29,240
Speaker 1: longtime diabetic, had indicated to Chief Justice John Roberts because

1002
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:31,399
Speaker 1: of the omicron serge she did not feel safe being

1003
00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:33,440
Speaker 1: in a room with people who are unmasked, and that

1004
00:53:33,520 --> 00:53:37,120
Speaker 1: the Chief Justice quote in some form, asked the other

1005
00:53:37,320 --> 00:53:41,320
Speaker 1: justices to mask up. On Wednesday, Soda Mayor and Gorsic

1006
00:53:41,480 --> 00:53:43,560
Speaker 1: issued a statement saying that she did not ask him

1007
00:53:43,560 --> 00:53:46,000
Speaker 1: to wear a mask. NPR's report did not say that

1008
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:49,480
Speaker 1: she did. Then, the Chief Justice issued a statement saying

1009
00:53:49,520 --> 00:53:52,800
Speaker 1: he did not request Justice Gorsic or any other justice

1010
00:53:52,800 --> 00:53:55,720
Speaker 1: to wear a mask on the bench. The NPR report

1011
00:53:55,800 --> 00:53:59,520
Speaker 1: said the chief Justices asked the justices had come in

1012
00:53:59,560 --> 00:54:03,600
Speaker 1: some form. Oh my god, that's what they're hanging it on.

1013
00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:05,799
Speaker 1: Is the fact that they said, put the straight in

1014
00:54:05,840 --> 00:54:11,000
Speaker 1: her veins in some form what what like what he

1015
00:54:11,040 --> 00:54:14,239
Speaker 1: did like smoke signals or something. I mean, this is

1016
00:54:14,440 --> 00:54:17,800
Speaker 1: it's just like they directly as clearly as they could

1017
00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:22,759
Speaker 1: directly contradicted NPR's reportage, and they're still hanging onto this thin,

1018
00:54:23,040 --> 00:54:26,040
Speaker 1: thin shred of like no what we said, it's still

1019
00:54:26,200 --> 00:54:29,920
Speaker 1: somehow magically in some form correct. So here is an

1020
00:54:29,920 --> 00:54:33,680
Speaker 1: interesting theory, uh that I saw online from pra Deep Shankar,

1021
00:54:33,880 --> 00:54:36,799
Speaker 1: which is that the reason NPR is standing by this

1022
00:54:36,920 --> 00:54:39,480
Speaker 1: is pure conjecture. So please you know, forgive me. But

1023
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:42,080
Speaker 1: the conjecture is the reason NPR is standing by it

1024
00:54:42,120 --> 00:54:44,279
Speaker 1: is because they think that the source was probably so

1025
00:54:44,360 --> 00:54:47,760
Speaker 1: to my on background, and that her or her staff

1026
00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:50,400
Speaker 1: thought that they could get away with leaking something like

1027
00:54:50,440 --> 00:54:53,280
Speaker 1: this and it wouldn't be directly repudiated by the Bench.

1028
00:54:53,600 --> 00:54:57,040
Speaker 1: But then whenever it became a huge national story and

1029
00:54:57,239 --> 00:55:00,640
Speaker 1: uproar on Twitter and people were asked getting the court

1030
00:55:00,760 --> 00:55:04,200
Speaker 1: for statements and all that, she had to backtrack and say, actually,

1031
00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:06,960
Speaker 1: you know it didn't happen, because it didn't happen. And

1032
00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:09,640
Speaker 1: then Justice Drawbarts came out and said that I would

1033
00:55:09,680 --> 00:55:12,719
Speaker 1: only speculate as to why they would continue to stand

1034
00:55:12,719 --> 00:55:15,560
Speaker 1: by that reporting. And in general, when you report something

1035
00:55:15,600 --> 00:55:18,480
Speaker 1: of this magnitude, you should be very confident in your source.

1036
00:55:18,480 --> 00:55:20,600
Speaker 1: And one of the way that people are very confident

1037
00:55:20,719 --> 00:55:24,160
Speaker 1: is a person with knowledge is sometimes the Justice themselves

1038
00:55:24,680 --> 00:55:28,799
Speaker 1: again or other total total conjecture. On my part, I'm

1039
00:55:28,800 --> 00:55:30,799
Speaker 1: just speculating as to why this might have happened. There

1040
00:55:30,800 --> 00:55:34,440
Speaker 1: were other outlets that said they confirmed this story too,

1041
00:55:36,320 --> 00:55:38,799
Speaker 1: But I mean that is very talent because you see

1042
00:55:38,800 --> 00:55:41,360
Speaker 1: this happen a lot where once one outlet gets a

1043
00:55:41,400 --> 00:55:44,440
Speaker 1: story and then like a bunch of other outlets are

1044
00:55:44,480 --> 00:55:48,640
Speaker 1: able to ffirm it, and it usually is the same

1045
00:55:48,680 --> 00:55:51,359
Speaker 1: group of people peddling the same story in a lot

1046
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:54,880
Speaker 1: of different people. So if that initial source is lying,

1047
00:55:55,280 --> 00:55:58,239
Speaker 1: then just because then NBC News confirms or whatever, well,

1048
00:55:58,239 --> 00:56:00,759
Speaker 1: they're still talking like the same life, are the same

1049
00:56:00,760 --> 00:56:02,680
Speaker 1: person with you know, some kind of dog in the

1050
00:56:02,719 --> 00:56:05,200
Speaker 1: fight in terms of the story, So the fact that

1051
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:08,799
Speaker 1: you see a lot of outlets confirm something doesn't necessarily

1052
00:56:08,880 --> 00:56:11,360
Speaker 1: make it any more likely to ultimately be Remember that

1053
00:56:11,400 --> 00:56:15,160
Speaker 1: Atlantic story about Trump called the World War One Dead

1054
00:56:15,280 --> 00:56:18,879
Speaker 1: or something like Suckers and Losers that conveniently came out

1055
00:56:19,000 --> 00:56:20,839
Speaker 1: right around the time he wanted to sign a peace

1056
00:56:20,880 --> 00:56:23,680
Speaker 1: deal with the Taliban, shocking out. It's a year long

1057
00:56:23,680 --> 00:56:26,120
Speaker 1: industry or a year long incident just happens to pop

1058
00:56:26,200 --> 00:56:28,160
Speaker 1: up in the Atlantic, right whenever We're going to have

1059
00:56:28,160 --> 00:56:31,279
Speaker 1: a major peace deal with the Taliban, wild right, Well,

1060
00:56:31,360 --> 00:56:34,160
Speaker 1: I remember it came out and immediately all these Pentagon

1061
00:56:34,200 --> 00:56:38,040
Speaker 1: correspondents start confirming it. Nobody will tell you who said it,

1062
00:56:38,120 --> 00:56:41,440
Speaker 1: who heard it, or whatever, and it became a massive

1063
00:56:41,480 --> 00:56:44,080
Speaker 1: story that the Atlantic, by their own admission, netted like

1064
00:56:44,120 --> 00:56:47,839
Speaker 1: ten thousand yearly subscriptions or whatever off of this thing.

1065
00:56:47,880 --> 00:56:50,759
Speaker 1: And then Biden goes out and be you know, attacking

1066
00:56:50,840 --> 00:56:55,279
Speaker 1: Trump or whatever's total manufactured bs But that was a

1067
00:56:55,360 --> 00:56:57,880
Speaker 1: true and clear window I hope for all of you

1068
00:56:58,160 --> 00:57:01,399
Speaker 1: and to see how when you confirm story, it only

1069
00:57:01,440 --> 00:57:03,760
Speaker 1: depends you can confirm it by talking to the same liar.

1070
00:57:03,800 --> 00:57:06,040
Speaker 1: How do you know that they're not lying to you?

1071
00:57:06,320 --> 00:57:09,400
Speaker 1: Their standards are rock bottom. So this is the fakest

1072
00:57:09,440 --> 00:57:12,080
Speaker 1: of fake news that you could ever see. And the

1073
00:57:12,120 --> 00:57:16,040
Speaker 1: fact that NPR, a government funded institution, is standing by

1074
00:57:16,040 --> 00:57:19,720
Speaker 1: the story is outrageous. But it's it's very convenient. Remember

1075
00:57:19,760 --> 00:57:21,680
Speaker 1: they put that statement out about the lab leak theory.

1076
00:57:21,800 --> 00:57:23,520
Speaker 1: They're like, we're not going to investigate it because it

1077
00:57:23,560 --> 00:57:27,360
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. And it's like, what wait, what I mean,

1078
00:57:27,440 --> 00:57:31,240
Speaker 1: what is happening here watching this institution which I grew

1079
00:57:31,320 --> 00:57:34,160
Speaker 1: up listening to. I mean, you know, go down, go

1080
00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:36,480
Speaker 1: down the drain. In terms of woke politics, they have

1081
00:57:36,560 --> 00:57:39,520
Speaker 1: some internal podcast though I will say maybe Visibilia. I

1082
00:57:39,560 --> 00:57:42,280
Speaker 1: don't even listen anymore. It's pathetic. I mean, I remember,

1083
00:57:42,320 --> 00:57:44,200
Speaker 1: you know, this American life, all this, so the invented

1084
00:57:44,400 --> 00:57:47,040
Speaker 1: entire tonic truly iconic. I don't even know if we

1085
00:57:47,040 --> 00:57:48,880
Speaker 1: would be doing this format without them. I mean, in

1086
00:57:48,920 --> 00:57:51,280
Speaker 1: a way, they were some of the Godfather's long form

1087
00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:54,200
Speaker 1: podcasting and discussion. It's worth saying too. Part of why

1088
00:57:54,440 --> 00:57:57,240
Speaker 1: is because they don't have such a direct profit incentive,

1089
00:57:57,320 --> 00:57:59,840
Speaker 1: so they were able to experiment with things like longer

1090
00:58:00,160 --> 00:58:02,800
Speaker 1: or in deeper dives, and hey, let's talk about human

1091
00:58:02,800 --> 00:58:04,840
Speaker 1: beings and their stories and stuff, which never would have

1092
00:58:04,880 --> 00:58:08,920
Speaker 1: flown in just straight up corporate media. So yeah, it's

1093
00:58:08,960 --> 00:58:11,600
Speaker 1: sad to see things leap so very pathetic. So NPR,

1094
00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:16,560
Speaker 1: you are fake news, Crystal, what are you taking a

1095
00:58:16,600 --> 00:58:19,840
Speaker 1: look at? Well, guys, let's cut straight to the chase here.

1096
00:58:19,920 --> 00:58:22,200
Speaker 1: There is something being obscured in the media right now

1097
00:58:22,200 --> 00:58:24,920
Speaker 1: that we need to get one percent crystal clear on

1098
00:58:25,760 --> 00:58:28,760
Speaker 1: we were right those of us economic leftists who said

1099
00:58:28,800 --> 00:58:31,720
Speaker 1: that putting the neoliberals back in charge would be wildly

1100
00:58:31,760 --> 00:58:33,919
Speaker 1: inadequate for the moment and result in paving the way

1101
00:58:33,960 --> 00:58:37,280
Speaker 1: back to Trump or worse. We were totally one hundred

1102
00:58:37,320 --> 00:58:41,080
Speaker 1: percent correct those of us who said, even if all

1103
00:58:41,120 --> 00:58:45,160
Speaker 1: you care about is winning Democrats, getting behind Joe Biden,

1104
00:58:45,520 --> 00:58:48,720
Speaker 1: a man who has been wrong on nearly every substantive

1105
00:58:48,720 --> 00:58:50,960
Speaker 1: issue of his lifetime as a member of the Senate,

1106
00:58:51,240 --> 00:58:54,920
Speaker 1: would be a disastrous mistake. Yeah, he eked out a

1107
00:58:55,040 --> 00:58:57,760
Speaker 1: nail biting victory over Donald Trump, a man who had

1108
00:58:57,800 --> 00:59:02,240
Speaker 1: just spent months making it abundantly clear just how wildly irresponsible, dangerous,

1109
00:59:02,240 --> 00:59:06,200
Speaker 1: and dishonest he really was. But now Democrats, having followed

1110
00:59:06,200 --> 00:59:10,840
Speaker 1: the Biden neoliberal DC establishment playbook to at are poised

1111
00:59:10,840 --> 00:59:15,520
Speaker 1: for historic and preventable losses. This is not because Biden

1112
00:59:15,560 --> 00:59:17,880
Speaker 1: went too far left or did too much, or, as

1113
00:59:17,880 --> 00:59:22,040
Speaker 1: Paul Bogalla suggested, because Democrats have bad followers. It's because

1114
00:59:22,080 --> 00:59:26,840
Speaker 1: neoliberalism is a hollow, rotten shell that has been rejected

1115
00:59:27,040 --> 00:59:31,080
Speaker 1: repeatedly by voters, but like a zombie, continues to rise

1116
00:59:31,120 --> 00:59:34,240
Speaker 1: from the dead and ruin every institution of note in

1117
00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:37,880
Speaker 1: this country. I need you and everyone else to understand

1118
00:59:37,960 --> 00:59:41,040
Speaker 1: that whatever excuses the media and democratic elites want to make,

1119
00:59:41,320 --> 00:59:43,760
Speaker 1: the failures we are living through right now are the

1120
00:59:43,880 --> 00:59:48,280
Speaker 1: direct result of the pathologies and failures of neoliberalism. The

1121
00:59:48,320 --> 00:59:50,560
Speaker 1: news item in particular that led me to feel the

1122
00:59:50,600 --> 00:59:53,520
Speaker 1: need to make this clear is this one Tiger Beat

1123
00:59:53,560 --> 00:59:55,880
Speaker 1: on the Potomac, also known as Politico, is tracking how

1124
00:59:55,920 --> 00:59:59,200
Speaker 1: some of Biden's most reliable media boosters have turned on him.

1125
00:59:59,480 --> 01:00:01,760
Speaker 1: And you'll our guess what. Many of our brilliant minds

1126
01:00:01,760 --> 01:00:05,080
Speaker 1: and legacy media have identified as the cause of Biden's problems.

1127
01:00:05,400 --> 01:00:08,840
Speaker 1: It's the left. Leftists in general and Bernie in particular,

1128
01:00:08,920 --> 01:00:12,280
Speaker 1: are ruining what would have otherwise been a glorious neoliberal

1129
01:00:12,320 --> 01:00:15,640
Speaker 1: era of milk and honey. Tom Friedman says that Biden

1130
01:00:15,680 --> 01:00:19,840
Speaker 1: can right the ship by running alongside Liz Cheney. In

1131
01:00:19,880 --> 01:00:23,280
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, Chris Matthews returned from exile to send

1132
01:00:23,360 --> 01:00:26,480
Speaker 1: out this oddly spaced old man tweet. I want hardball

1133
01:00:26,520 --> 01:00:28,640
Speaker 1: fans to know how I appreciate your faith in me.

1134
01:00:28,840 --> 01:00:31,160
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty two could be a great time to show

1135
01:00:31,200 --> 01:00:34,160
Speaker 1: what we've learned. I tried to warn we were headed

1136
01:00:34,200 --> 01:00:37,080
Speaker 1: too far left. No word on mother. He still fears

1137
01:00:37,080 --> 01:00:39,440
Speaker 1: being rounded up and executed in Central Park for his

1138
01:00:39,520 --> 01:00:43,640
Speaker 1: capitalist beliefs. Chris blink twice if you're okay, But taking

1139
01:00:43,640 --> 01:00:46,240
Speaker 1: the cake for bad analysis was this New York Times

1140
01:00:46,320 --> 01:00:49,560
Speaker 1: own David Brooks, who tweeted, today is the day for

1141
01:00:49,600 --> 01:00:53,080
Speaker 1: Biden to begin revamping his presidency in a war centrist direction.

1142
01:00:53,320 --> 01:00:58,520
Speaker 1: There is no pathboard for a leftish agenda. A leftish agenda,

1143
01:00:59,240 --> 01:01:02,680
Speaker 1: What in God's name are you talking about? The only

1144
01:01:03,120 --> 01:01:06,160
Speaker 1: left ish things that Biden actually did those were all

1145
01:01:06,200 --> 01:01:08,280
Speaker 1: at the beginning of his administration, back when he passed

1146
01:01:08,280 --> 01:01:10,240
Speaker 1: a relief bill with direct checks and signed a few

1147
01:01:10,320 --> 01:01:13,640
Speaker 1: moderately beneficial executive orders to do things like lift wages

1148
01:01:13,680 --> 01:01:16,440
Speaker 1: of federal government employees, re enter the Paris Climate Accords,

1149
01:01:16,440 --> 01:01:19,400
Speaker 1: and make things here in the US. And back when

1150
01:01:19,400 --> 01:01:23,000
Speaker 1: Biden was doing those left ish things, he had an

1151
01:01:23,040 --> 01:01:26,920
Speaker 1: approval rating of fifty five percent versus the forty percent

1152
01:01:27,200 --> 01:01:30,200
Speaker 1: that he has now. On a good day, he went

1153
01:01:30,240 --> 01:01:33,600
Speaker 1: from positive net twelve to being underwater by almost exactly

1154
01:01:33,640 --> 01:01:37,280
Speaker 1: the same amount. Seems to me there's no viable political

1155
01:01:37,320 --> 01:01:41,600
Speaker 1: path forward for a centrist or corporatist agenda. The idea

1156
01:01:41,640 --> 01:01:44,600
Speaker 1: that there's no way Biden could accomplish a leftish agenda

1157
01:01:44,680 --> 01:01:47,680
Speaker 1: is similarly ridiculous. Biden could sign an executive order to

1158
01:01:47,880 --> 01:01:50,920
Speaker 1: day canceling debt. He could expand Medicare. He could legalize

1159
01:01:50,960 --> 01:01:53,720
Speaker 1: weed tomorrow if he wanted to. He could also actually

1160
01:01:53,760 --> 01:01:56,520
Speaker 1: put some muscle behind one of the myriad of leftish

1161
01:01:56,680 --> 01:02:00,800
Speaker 1: economic agenda items with massive popular support and shame folks

1162
01:02:00,840 --> 01:02:03,800
Speaker 1: into either voting yes or justifying to the American people

1163
01:02:03,960 --> 01:02:07,600
Speaker 1: their corrupt no votes. So I don't want to hear

1164
01:02:07,640 --> 01:02:10,760
Speaker 1: it with your preposterous version of events. You all got

1165
01:02:10,800 --> 01:02:13,920
Speaker 1: the guy that you wanted. You got the meaningless theatrical

1166
01:02:13,960 --> 01:02:17,320
Speaker 1: displays instead of governing you wanted, and he has executed

1167
01:02:17,400 --> 01:02:21,160
Speaker 1: on the strategy that you wanted. He promised you that

1168
01:02:21,240 --> 01:02:24,920
Speaker 1: nothing will fundamentally change, and guess what he's fully delivered.

1169
01:02:25,360 --> 01:02:28,440
Speaker 1: While we're at it, let's dispel some rumors about Bernie's

1170
01:02:28,440 --> 01:02:30,640
Speaker 1: influence on Build Back Better, because that is a key

1171
01:02:30,680 --> 01:02:33,320
Speaker 1: talking point among the Biden went too far left crowd.

1172
01:02:33,760 --> 01:02:35,800
Speaker 1: The problem for Biden right now isn't that he did

1173
01:02:35,840 --> 01:02:38,080
Speaker 1: too much, is that he failed to deliver on really

1174
01:02:38,160 --> 01:02:41,080
Speaker 1: much of anything, and that failure is a direct result

1175
01:02:41,240 --> 01:02:45,280
Speaker 1: of Joe Biden's strategy. Bernie didn't want to waste months

1176
01:02:45,320 --> 01:02:47,280
Speaker 1: of time trying to get a few Republicans on board

1177
01:02:47,320 --> 01:02:49,920
Speaker 1: with a corporate infrastructure package that was a wish list

1178
01:02:49,960 --> 01:02:53,880
Speaker 1: for Wall Street. That strategy killed momentum and killed the

1179
01:02:53,960 --> 01:02:56,160
Speaker 1: little bit of leverage you had with the corporate to

1180
01:02:56,240 --> 01:02:57,800
Speaker 1: send him a mansion and the others who like to

1181
01:02:57,840 --> 01:03:01,360
Speaker 1: hide behind them. What's more, the original six trillion dollar

1182
01:03:01,400 --> 01:03:03,600
Speaker 1: Build Back Better bill was nowhere close to the Green

1183
01:03:03,640 --> 01:03:06,040
Speaker 1: New deal in Medicare for all that Bernie did campaign on.

1184
01:03:06,360 --> 01:03:08,560
Speaker 1: It was a massive compromise to start with, so it

1185
01:03:08,600 --> 01:03:12,200
Speaker 1: wasn't Bernie's bill, but it was the opposite end. It

1186
01:03:12,320 --> 01:03:15,560
Speaker 1: was the opposite of Bernie's strategy. But in fairness, the

1187
01:03:15,560 --> 01:03:18,120
Speaker 1: provisions in it could fairly be called a leftish agenda.

1188
01:03:18,320 --> 01:03:21,440
Speaker 1: And guess what. Polling shows that every one of the

1189
01:03:21,480 --> 01:03:25,560
Speaker 1: elements of that compromised leftish agenda are in fact wildly popular.

1190
01:03:26,360 --> 01:03:30,280
Speaker 1: They're roughly a gajillion times more popular than Biden, Kamala

1191
01:03:30,360 --> 01:03:34,880
Speaker 1: and the failing Times. Eldercare, hearing coverage, clean energy jobs,

1192
01:03:35,080 --> 01:03:39,120
Speaker 1: universal peak, pre K paid leave all have a significant

1193
01:03:39,240 --> 01:03:41,680
Speaker 1: margin of net support. And even after all this time

1194
01:03:41,960 --> 01:03:45,880
Speaker 1: corporate fear mongering and democratic bungling, Build Back Better overall

1195
01:03:45,960 --> 01:03:50,320
Speaker 1: still Garners majority support from the American public. But leftish

1196
01:03:50,720 --> 01:03:54,360
Speaker 1: is not leftist, and build Back Better was also undercut

1197
01:03:54,440 --> 01:03:59,160
Speaker 1: by another key neoliberal failing their obsession with making every

1198
01:03:59,240 --> 01:04:03,080
Speaker 1: single thing they propose so damn complicated that no one

1199
01:04:03,120 --> 01:04:06,080
Speaker 1: can even understand who benefits and why they couldn't just

1200
01:04:06,120 --> 01:04:08,120
Speaker 1: send a child tax credit to everyone. No, it's got

1201
01:04:08,160 --> 01:04:09,720
Speaker 1: to have an income cut off, and it's got to

1202
01:04:09,760 --> 01:04:12,640
Speaker 1: have a phase out. They couldn't just have actual universal

1203
01:04:12,640 --> 01:04:14,760
Speaker 1: pre K, you have to propose a block grant with

1204
01:04:14,800 --> 01:04:17,680
Speaker 1: only a short term and wofully inadequate funding mechanism, and

1205
01:04:17,720 --> 01:04:20,520
Speaker 1: no way to ensure consistent quality. This has made the

1206
01:04:20,520 --> 01:04:23,320
Speaker 1: agenda so weddled and confusing that there is no mass

1207
01:04:23,320 --> 01:04:25,640
Speaker 1: public pressure on Mansion or Cinema or anyone else to

1208
01:04:25,640 --> 01:04:28,040
Speaker 1: actually get it done, and that is a big reason

1209
01:04:28,160 --> 01:04:31,000
Speaker 1: that Build Back Better ultimately failed. It's also a big

1210
01:04:31,040 --> 01:04:33,680
Speaker 1: reason why the child tax credit just expired with barely

1211
01:04:33,720 --> 01:04:36,320
Speaker 1: a whimper. So, for those of you keeping score at home,

1212
01:04:36,600 --> 01:04:38,840
Speaker 1: you got a president who has hobbled his own agenda

1213
01:04:39,000 --> 01:04:42,440
Speaker 1: by obsessing over rules and norms, who further destroyed his

1214
01:04:42,520 --> 01:04:47,160
Speaker 1: agenda by chasing that longtime DC fetish of elite bipartisanship,

1215
01:04:47,440 --> 01:04:50,800
Speaker 1: a president who has thoroughly rejected the left ideal of

1216
01:04:50,920 --> 01:04:54,520
Speaker 1: universality in favor of the neoliberal obsession with markets and

1217
01:04:54,600 --> 01:04:57,880
Speaker 1: means testing, who has only made the barest nods to

1218
01:04:57,920 --> 01:05:00,840
Speaker 1: the labor struggles that are unfolding across the country, taking

1219
01:05:00,880 --> 01:05:03,880
Speaker 1: no positive actions to actually strengthen their hand or to

1220
01:05:04,000 --> 01:05:07,320
Speaker 1: shame the greedy plutocrats who were involved. In other words,

1221
01:05:07,680 --> 01:05:12,320
Speaker 1: this administration is a pure distillation of late stage neoliberalism.

1222
01:05:12,760 --> 01:05:16,160
Speaker 1: Exactly what all of you legacy media pundits who are

1223
01:05:16,160 --> 01:05:20,920
Speaker 1: handing now said that you wanted breathe it in, let

1224
01:05:20,960 --> 01:05:23,520
Speaker 1: it flow over you, pump it through your veins. How

1225
01:05:23,520 --> 01:05:25,680
Speaker 1: does it feel. How's it working out for you in

1226
01:05:25,760 --> 01:05:28,560
Speaker 1: terms of voters having any interest in handing you power again?

1227
01:05:28,760 --> 01:05:30,680
Speaker 1: How's it going for you all? Assuming you actually have

1228
01:05:30,720 --> 01:05:33,480
Speaker 1: a sincere desire to not let Trump return to the

1229
01:05:33,480 --> 01:05:37,360
Speaker 1: White House? What are the mounting tolls of inequality and

1230
01:05:37,440 --> 01:05:41,040
Speaker 1: death of despair mean for preserving America as an entity

1231
01:05:41,080 --> 01:05:44,520
Speaker 1: that we can even pretend is a democracy. We try

1232
01:05:44,560 --> 01:05:48,880
Speaker 1: to warn you you own this disaster. Your ideology is bankrupt,

1233
01:05:48,960 --> 01:05:52,720
Speaker 1: and yet you steadfastly bar the gates, blocking any new

1234
01:05:52,760 --> 01:05:55,840
Speaker 1: direction which might be good and might be hopeful. And

1235
01:05:55,880 --> 01:05:58,760
Speaker 1: what is most pathetic here is that an answer to

1236
01:05:58,840 --> 01:06:01,840
Speaker 1: all of these failures, you get nothing to say except

1237
01:06:01,920 --> 01:06:05,040
Speaker 1: vomit up the same analysis that has been failing us

1238
01:06:05,160 --> 01:06:10,280
Speaker 1: for forty years. Biden Cheney twenty twenty four. You should

1239
01:06:10,360 --> 01:06:12,960
Speaker 1: only get behind that idea if you're ready for Don

1240
01:06:13,080 --> 01:06:16,640
Speaker 1: Junior twenty twenty eight. This has been driving me nuts.

1241
01:06:17,120 --> 01:06:20,080
Speaker 1: This administration is exactly and if you want to hear

1242
01:06:20,200 --> 01:06:23,640
Speaker 1: my reaction to Crystal's monologue become a premium subscriber today

1243
01:06:23,680 --> 01:06:28,680
Speaker 1: at Breakingpoints dot Com. All right, Sager, what are you

1244
01:06:28,680 --> 01:06:31,040
Speaker 1: looking at? Well, it's hard to look at politics today

1245
01:06:31,080 --> 01:06:35,320
Speaker 1: and be heartened about something. Biden sucks. Obviously, Washington is

1246
01:06:35,400 --> 01:06:37,800
Speaker 1: more useless than usual. It seems the Republican Party is

1247
01:06:37,840 --> 01:06:40,520
Speaker 1: cringe and the Democrats are cringe too. Every once in

1248
01:06:40,560 --> 01:06:42,960
Speaker 1: a while, I am surprised and reminded though, of why

1249
01:06:43,000 --> 01:06:45,720
Speaker 1: we keep slogging away at this business, Because every once

1250
01:06:45,720 --> 01:06:48,440
Speaker 1: in a while something breaks through to the masses. Because

1251
01:06:48,480 --> 01:06:51,400
Speaker 1: of the Internet, millions of people slowly get red pilled

1252
01:06:51,440 --> 01:06:53,800
Speaker 1: as to how rigged the system is. The first sign

1253
01:06:53,880 --> 01:06:56,240
Speaker 1: of this I saw in the post Trump era was GameStop,

1254
01:06:56,480 --> 01:06:59,240
Speaker 1: the war of retail versus the hedge funds. But to me,

1255
01:06:59,480 --> 01:07:01,760
Speaker 1: one of the most interesting backlashes that we saw in

1256
01:07:01,800 --> 01:07:05,400
Speaker 1: modern memory was the backlash against Blackrock and other Wall

1257
01:07:05,440 --> 01:07:08,560
Speaker 1: Street firms which seek to buy as much single family

1258
01:07:08,600 --> 01:07:12,520
Speaker 1: housing as possible to turn America into a nation of renters.

1259
01:07:12,800 --> 01:07:15,000
Speaker 1: In short, they want to take the last thing in

1260
01:07:15,000 --> 01:07:17,040
Speaker 1: your life that you own and sell it to you

1261
01:07:17,320 --> 01:07:20,560
Speaker 1: on a temporary basis. They have their enforcers in the media,

1262
01:07:20,640 --> 01:07:22,800
Speaker 1: the literal bug men who think that it's fair to

1263
01:07:22,800 --> 01:07:25,560
Speaker 1: be penniless as long as your technical needs are met

1264
01:07:25,680 --> 01:07:27,960
Speaker 1: with a closet of an apartment and a job that

1265
01:07:27,960 --> 01:07:31,240
Speaker 1: pays you just enough. It's a war on the middle class,

1266
01:07:31,280 --> 01:07:33,960
Speaker 1: and it has continued since that outrage over about six

1267
01:07:34,000 --> 01:07:36,120
Speaker 1: months ago. But I've got bad news for all of you.

1268
01:07:36,400 --> 01:07:39,440
Speaker 1: It's getting even worse than before. So let's take a listen.

1269
01:07:39,800 --> 01:07:42,880
Speaker 1: Wall Street is pouring a massive money into the single

1270
01:07:42,880 --> 01:07:45,880
Speaker 1: family real estate market. Blackrock is buying Home Partners of

1271
01:07:45,920 --> 01:07:48,880
Speaker 1: America for six billion dollars. But what's worse is the

1272
01:07:48,920 --> 01:07:52,280
Speaker 1: government actually helped them do so. Throughout the first half

1273
01:07:52,320 --> 01:07:55,440
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty one, the Federal Housing Authority ordered government

1274
01:07:55,440 --> 01:07:58,520
Speaker 1: sponsored Freddie Mack and Fanny May to actually limit loans

1275
01:07:58,560 --> 01:08:02,320
Speaker 1: secured by investment property. So since mom and pop landlords

1276
01:08:02,320 --> 01:08:05,600
Speaker 1: have loans from Fanny and Freddy to finance property purchases,

1277
01:08:05,720 --> 01:08:09,600
Speaker 1: they were obviously hurt. So Meanwhile, as the Motley Fool describes,

1278
01:08:09,840 --> 01:08:12,400
Speaker 1: big boys like Black Rock and American Homes for Rent

1279
01:08:12,400 --> 01:08:14,919
Speaker 1: had big legs up on capital and they were able

1280
01:08:14,960 --> 01:08:17,400
Speaker 1: to raise money to go big and buy as much

1281
01:08:17,439 --> 01:08:20,360
Speaker 1: as possible in real estate. This happened as the limiting

1282
01:08:20,400 --> 01:08:22,800
Speaker 1: the playing field at the height of the real estate

1283
01:08:22,800 --> 01:08:25,400
Speaker 1: boom six months ago, and it gave them a months

1284
01:08:25,439 --> 01:08:28,759
Speaker 1: long headed start. Just as we predicted here on breaking points,

1285
01:08:28,960 --> 01:08:32,639
Speaker 1: the more controlled that these ghouls have over your housing situation,

1286
01:08:32,960 --> 01:08:35,680
Speaker 1: the more miserable your life is going to be. The

1287
01:08:35,720 --> 01:08:39,360
Speaker 1: Financial Times just completed an investigation into how black Stone,

1288
01:08:39,520 --> 01:08:42,920
Speaker 1: another large real estate firm, has moved into housing in

1289
01:08:43,000 --> 01:08:45,360
Speaker 1: a big way and how it treats its tenants. The

1290
01:08:45,439 --> 01:08:47,920
Speaker 1: innovation that they claim is called rent to buy, in

1291
01:08:47,920 --> 01:08:50,920
Speaker 1: which tenants rent a property with an option to purchase

1292
01:08:51,000 --> 01:08:53,320
Speaker 1: from the company. It sold as a way for people

1293
01:08:53,360 --> 01:08:56,280
Speaker 1: to be able to get housing without the onerous process,

1294
01:08:56,400 --> 01:08:58,800
Speaker 1: and it lowers the friction and transaction costs of a

1295
01:08:58,840 --> 01:09:02,040
Speaker 1: real estate search. There's just one problem. The Financial Times

1296
01:09:02,080 --> 01:09:05,000
Speaker 1: identified nine hundred and sixty seven homes in Orlando that

1297
01:09:05,040 --> 01:09:09,160
Speaker 1: were purchased by Blackstone affiliated home partners, but only one

1298
01:09:09,280 --> 01:09:11,759
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty five of those houses were actually sold

1299
01:09:11,880 --> 01:09:16,360
Speaker 1: to homeowners. By comparison, home Partners actually evicted one hundred

1300
01:09:16,400 --> 01:09:19,240
Speaker 1: and eighty five tenants during that time, so, in other words,

1301
01:09:19,320 --> 01:09:22,080
Speaker 1: they ended up evicting more people from their houses than

1302
01:09:22,120 --> 01:09:25,120
Speaker 1: actually fulfilling the stated promise of selling more houses as

1303
01:09:25,200 --> 01:09:28,120
Speaker 1: for their project to make home ownership more accessible to

1304
01:09:28,120 --> 01:09:29,880
Speaker 1: the middle class. That's what they claim from the beginning.

1305
01:09:30,160 --> 01:09:32,640
Speaker 1: It's almost like anything that Wall Street touches when it

1306
01:09:32,680 --> 01:09:35,720
Speaker 1: comes to housing ruins it forever. Two thousand and eight,

1307
01:09:35,840 --> 01:09:38,439
Speaker 1: they messed up. You lost your house. Twenty twenty, you

1308
01:09:38,479 --> 01:09:41,639
Speaker 1: probably lost money. They got richer then during the largest

1309
01:09:41,680 --> 01:09:44,840
Speaker 1: real estate boom in modern memory in twenty twenty two.

1310
01:09:45,120 --> 01:09:48,920
Speaker 1: The average middle class worker has no chance of buying

1311
01:09:48,920 --> 01:09:52,160
Speaker 1: a normal house. Ever. So let's say that you're a striver,

1312
01:09:52,439 --> 01:09:54,320
Speaker 1: you're an American, and you want to buy a house.

1313
01:09:54,479 --> 01:09:56,720
Speaker 1: Maybe you'll invest your time in actually fixing it up.

1314
01:09:56,760 --> 01:09:59,200
Speaker 1: That's the one advantage that you have. Right Well, I've

1315
01:09:59,200 --> 01:10:01,559
Speaker 1: got bad news for you. Websites like Zillo and other

1316
01:10:01,600 --> 01:10:04,680
Speaker 1: online buyers of houses are selling thousands of homes to

1317
01:10:04,760 --> 01:10:10,120
Speaker 1: landlords backed by Wall Street firms like KKR, Cerebis Capital Management, Blackstone,

1318
01:10:10,160 --> 01:10:12,840
Speaker 1: and other big boys. The real rub, though, is that

1319
01:10:12,880 --> 01:10:15,800
Speaker 1: the houses were never listed. They were simply bought in

1320
01:10:15,920 --> 01:10:19,479
Speaker 1: behind the door transactions between the tech real estate companies

1321
01:10:19,600 --> 01:10:23,200
Speaker 1: and the Wall Street firms, meaning most Americans never got

1322
01:10:23,200 --> 01:10:26,400
Speaker 1: the chance to bid for that property. This means that

1323
01:10:26,439 --> 01:10:29,240
Speaker 1: the big boys can buy the houses at rock bottom prices,

1324
01:10:29,320 --> 01:10:31,160
Speaker 1: they can fix them up, and then they can sell

1325
01:10:31,160 --> 01:10:34,120
Speaker 1: it to you for an enormous profit. In fact, a

1326
01:10:34,200 --> 01:10:37,160
Speaker 1: full twenty percent of houses sold by tech firms went

1327
01:10:37,200 --> 01:10:40,559
Speaker 1: to investors and other similar entities. But in areas like

1328
01:10:40,600 --> 01:10:42,720
Speaker 1: the Sun Belt, which is the largest growing area of

1329
01:10:42,720 --> 01:10:45,639
Speaker 1: the United States by population, that number is a full

1330
01:10:45,920 --> 01:10:49,360
Speaker 1: forty percent, which means that in the new frontier of America,

1331
01:10:49,439 --> 01:10:53,120
Speaker 1: the limitless opportunity is held by Wall Street, not by you.

1332
01:10:53,560 --> 01:10:55,800
Speaker 1: I am not talking about a few homes. In the

1333
01:10:55,840 --> 01:10:58,880
Speaker 1: third quarter of twenty twenty one, investors accounted for one

1334
01:10:58,920 --> 01:11:02,200
Speaker 1: in five US homes. Else everything in American life is

1335
01:11:02,200 --> 01:11:05,439
Speaker 1: becoming financialized. The more financialized it is, the less power

1336
01:11:05,560 --> 01:11:08,280
Speaker 1: you as a citizen have to actualize and to live

1337
01:11:08,320 --> 01:11:10,320
Speaker 1: freely and to have a general say in how your

1338
01:11:10,360 --> 01:11:13,320
Speaker 1: life is going. There's a lot of theorizing right now

1339
01:11:13,400 --> 01:11:16,160
Speaker 1: about why Joe Biden is unpopular, but the answer is simple.

1340
01:11:16,439 --> 01:11:18,920
Speaker 1: You actually need to have freedom. Living in America is

1341
01:11:18,960 --> 01:11:22,559
Speaker 1: hard for most people, and they realize it's getting worse. Look,

1342
01:11:22,720 --> 01:11:25,519
Speaker 1: things have not always been perfect, but most people can

1343
01:11:25,520 --> 01:11:28,800
Speaker 1: remember a time when a responsible adult could purchase a house.

1344
01:11:29,040 --> 01:11:31,120
Speaker 1: That is just not in the cards. For the vast

1345
01:11:31,120 --> 01:11:34,799
Speaker 1: majority of people today, upward mobility seems like a fantasy,

1346
01:11:34,920 --> 01:11:38,760
Speaker 1: attainable only through either the technology industry or selling your

1347
01:11:38,760 --> 01:11:42,200
Speaker 1: life to the professional managerial elite. There does not seem

1348
01:11:42,200 --> 01:11:44,120
Speaker 1: to be a way out. The less that we take

1349
01:11:44,200 --> 01:11:46,639
Speaker 1: from the people, the angrier that they are going to get,

1350
01:11:46,720 --> 01:11:48,800
Speaker 1: and they should be. I mean, Crystal, this is the

1351
01:11:48,800 --> 01:11:50,640
Speaker 1: story I've been wanting to follow up on for a

1352
01:11:50,680 --> 01:11:54,320
Speaker 1: long time. What it incited me to write it? And

1353
01:11:54,360 --> 01:11:57,080
Speaker 1: if you want to hear my reaction to Sager's monologue.

1354
01:11:57,120 --> 01:12:03,439
Speaker 1: Become a premium subscriber today at Breakingpoints dot Com. Joining

1355
01:12:03,520 --> 01:12:05,280
Speaker 1: us now a great friend of the show, Matt Stoer.

1356
01:12:05,280 --> 01:12:08,080
Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking about the ftc antitrust, big tech,

1357
01:12:08,120 --> 01:12:10,360
Speaker 1: and gaming, all of that. Matt. It's great to see you. Man.

1358
01:12:10,400 --> 01:12:12,240
Speaker 1: It's a lot going on in your world right now.

1359
01:12:12,360 --> 01:12:15,920
Speaker 1: Yeahs all happening. Yeah, it's happening. So Microsoft announced yesterday

1360
01:12:15,920 --> 01:12:19,439
Speaker 1: they're going to be buying Activision for like seventy billion dollars.

1361
01:12:19,920 --> 01:12:21,320
Speaker 1: What do you think about this, Matt? I mean, we

1362
01:12:21,360 --> 01:12:24,000
Speaker 1: see a lot of consolidation here in the gaming industry.

1363
01:12:24,080 --> 01:12:26,240
Speaker 1: A lot of our audience probably are gamers. YouTube is

1364
01:12:26,240 --> 01:12:28,760
Speaker 1: a big place for gaming people. This is something the

1365
01:12:28,800 --> 01:12:30,800
Speaker 1: mainstream media doesn't really look at, but this is a

1366
01:12:30,800 --> 01:12:32,519
Speaker 1: massive market and has a huge impact for a lot

1367
01:12:32,560 --> 01:12:35,160
Speaker 1: of people's lives. Yeah, gaming is I mean, it's huge.

1368
01:12:35,240 --> 01:12:39,240
Speaker 1: I'm not a gamer, but it's like it's a It's

1369
01:12:39,280 --> 01:12:42,240
Speaker 1: an industry where you've traditionally had a you've had a

1370
01:12:42,240 --> 01:12:45,640
Speaker 1: lot of independent game publishers. But what is happening now

1371
01:12:45,720 --> 01:12:49,360
Speaker 1: as you're seeing a kind of attempt at there's been consolidation,

1372
01:12:49,400 --> 01:12:51,320
Speaker 1: but this is an attempt to kind of turn gaming

1373
01:12:51,439 --> 01:12:54,679
Speaker 1: into a series of walled gardens, which is fairly similar

1374
01:12:54,680 --> 01:12:56,880
Speaker 1: to what happened with Hollywood and streaming over the last

1375
01:12:57,240 --> 01:13:00,400
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen years. So Microsoft is buying act Vision

1376
01:13:00,800 --> 01:13:02,960
Speaker 1: and what they're trying to do, I mean gamers all

1377
01:13:03,200 --> 01:13:06,080
Speaker 1: you know, everyone knows game Pass. Yes, it's and it's

1378
01:13:06,160 --> 01:13:10,400
Speaker 1: essentially it's a subsidized it's a subsidized kind of Netflix

1379
01:13:10,520 --> 01:13:13,240
Speaker 1: like service. And I say subsidized because Microsoft doesn't make

1380
01:13:13,280 --> 01:13:15,160
Speaker 1: money on it, and then they just you know, they

1381
01:13:15,640 --> 01:13:18,960
Speaker 1: they use their other profit streams which are massive to

1382
01:13:19,560 --> 01:13:24,200
Speaker 1: you know, effectively try to do to give lower prices

1383
01:13:24,240 --> 01:13:27,400
Speaker 1: than anyone else could afford to attract people into their system,

1384
01:13:27,439 --> 01:13:29,720
Speaker 1: and then they'll eventually like try to raise prices later on.

1385
01:13:31,280 --> 01:13:33,760
Speaker 1: This is a really big merger, the purchase of Activision.

1386
01:13:33,760 --> 01:13:37,320
Speaker 1: It's a sixty nine billion dollar merger, but for Microsoft

1387
01:13:37,400 --> 01:13:39,120
Speaker 1: it's almost nothing. I don't want to say it's a

1388
01:13:39,160 --> 01:13:41,679
Speaker 1: rounding error, but it's it's like two to three percent

1389
01:13:41,800 --> 01:13:45,479
Speaker 1: of their entire market capitalization, right, so they're still making

1390
01:13:45,720 --> 01:13:48,519
Speaker 1: you know, twenty billion dollars ten twenty billion dollars a

1391
01:13:48,600 --> 01:13:53,400
Speaker 1: year on Windows and office. You know, their their cloud,

1392
01:13:54,560 --> 01:13:57,240
Speaker 1: it's a yeah, it's there. They're are two to three

1393
01:13:57,280 --> 01:14:01,400
Speaker 1: trillion dollar corporation, So a sixty nine billion dollar purchase

1394
01:14:01,479 --> 01:14:05,360
Speaker 1: isn't isn't that significant? However, there is an open question

1395
01:14:05,439 --> 01:14:07,760
Speaker 1: as to whether this purchase will go through because of

1396
01:14:07,920 --> 01:14:12,720
Speaker 1: increased antitrust scrutiny, and the stock is trading or was

1397
01:14:12,760 --> 01:14:15,880
Speaker 1: trading yesterday at about eighty three dollars. It went way up,

1398
01:14:16,080 --> 01:14:20,240
Speaker 1: but Microsoft's offer is ninety five dollars, and that spread

1399
01:14:20,479 --> 01:14:24,519
Speaker 1: means that investors don't actually think that the deal is

1400
01:14:24,600 --> 01:14:26,719
Speaker 1: certain to go through. There's a little bit of risk

1401
01:14:27,120 --> 01:14:30,080
Speaker 1: and at the same time as you saw Activision stock

1402
01:14:30,160 --> 01:14:34,000
Speaker 1: go up, you saw Sony stock crash went down by

1403
01:14:34,040 --> 01:14:37,360
Speaker 1: about twelve percent. And the reason is because when you're

1404
01:14:37,439 --> 01:14:40,920
Speaker 1: up against a competitor who has endless amounts of money

1405
01:14:41,000 --> 01:14:44,960
Speaker 1: to destroy your business, then it's really dangerous. So the

1406
01:14:45,160 --> 01:14:49,840
Speaker 1: theory here is Microsoft will will buy Activision and then

1407
01:14:49,920 --> 01:14:54,559
Speaker 1: we'll pull a game popular games off of the off

1408
01:14:54,560 --> 01:15:00,000
Speaker 1: of Sony's platforms and make them exclusive to Microsoft platforms.

1409
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:02,120
Speaker 1: That's what that sort of fight is about. And the

1410
01:15:02,200 --> 01:15:05,360
Speaker 1: interesting thing about Microsoft is that it is one of,

1411
01:15:05,360 --> 01:15:08,439
Speaker 1: if not the biggest company in the world, but it

1412
01:15:08,520 --> 01:15:14,000
Speaker 1: has largely escaped anti trust scrutiny, unlike Apple, Google, Facebook,

1413
01:15:14,280 --> 01:15:18,120
Speaker 1: or Amazon. And it obviously was. There was a huge

1414
01:15:18,160 --> 01:15:21,439
Speaker 1: anti trust suit against Microsoft in the nineteen nineties, but

1415
01:15:21,720 --> 01:15:24,479
Speaker 1: since then Microsoft has kind of gotten a kind of

1416
01:15:25,120 --> 01:15:28,800
Speaker 1: you know, the good guy reputation. Yeah they got ugly, Yeah, yeah,

1417
01:15:28,800 --> 01:15:33,120
Speaker 1: they're like a friendly neighborhood trillion dollar corpate right, yeah,

1418
01:15:33,240 --> 01:15:35,000
Speaker 1: Well it is interesting. I mean, you have a piece,

1419
01:15:35,000 --> 01:15:37,280
Speaker 1: by the way, on your substack big that people should

1420
01:15:37,320 --> 01:15:39,679
Speaker 1: both subscribe to and then go read the piece because

1421
01:15:39,680 --> 01:15:44,040
Speaker 1: you're doing phenomenal work there. I'm subscriber stopping, Well, it

1422
01:15:44,120 --> 01:15:47,800
Speaker 1: is true, but you write about this. I mean, first

1423
01:15:47,800 --> 01:15:49,599
Speaker 1: of all, there's a lot of interesting stuff in there

1424
01:15:49,640 --> 01:15:52,720
Speaker 1: about just Bill Gates and this in the nineties, he's

1425
01:15:52,760 --> 01:15:55,439
Speaker 1: this villain. Yeah, he's just capitalist. He is getting called

1426
01:15:55,479 --> 01:15:58,479
Speaker 1: he's meaning Dragonfork all this stuff, and then he's you know,

1427
01:15:58,640 --> 01:16:01,240
Speaker 1: makes his wealth play and he's formed and now he's

1428
01:16:01,280 --> 01:16:04,639
Speaker 1: the good billionaire. And that sort of tracks with how

1429
01:16:04,800 --> 01:16:08,200
Speaker 1: Microsoft has in an era when tech has faced a

1430
01:16:08,200 --> 01:16:11,080
Speaker 1: lot of scrutiny at this point from Democrats and Republicans,

1431
01:16:11,479 --> 01:16:14,599
Speaker 1: Microsoft has kind of skated by. And what you say

1432
01:16:14,600 --> 01:16:17,080
Speaker 1: with regard to this particular purchase, and this is reading

1433
01:16:17,160 --> 01:16:19,640
Speaker 1: directly from your piece now, is you say that Microsoft's

1434
01:16:19,640 --> 01:16:22,920
Speaker 1: purchase of Activision wouldn't normally raise a lot of fuss

1435
01:16:22,960 --> 01:16:25,720
Speaker 1: in anti trust circles because there are still competitors in

1436
01:16:25,760 --> 01:16:29,679
Speaker 1: the game publishing market. As Microsoft gaming head Phil Spencer noted,

1437
01:16:29,720 --> 01:16:32,320
Speaker 1: the firm will be number three in gaming, and gaming

1438
01:16:32,520 --> 01:16:35,400
Speaker 1: is not a place where Microsoft has a unique capability,

1439
01:16:35,800 --> 01:16:39,440
Speaker 1: but that is only under the old anti trust the framework,

1440
01:16:39,640 --> 01:16:42,640
Speaker 1: As Jonathan Canter noted, with digital markets and stacks of

1441
01:16:42,720 --> 01:16:46,439
Speaker 1: products creating ecosystems that have locked in such a narrow

1442
01:16:46,560 --> 01:16:51,120
Speaker 1: lens does not make sense. So explain that concept, because yeah,

1443
01:16:51,120 --> 01:16:53,919
Speaker 1: you can see Microsoft saying we're number three in gaming monopoly.

1444
01:16:53,960 --> 01:16:56,280
Speaker 1: What are you talking about? But it's you have to

1445
01:16:56,320 --> 01:16:58,880
Speaker 1: look at the whole ecosystem and all of the things

1446
01:16:58,920 --> 01:17:02,840
Speaker 1: that they're doing to see how they have ability for

1447
01:17:02,880 --> 01:17:05,920
Speaker 1: anti competitive behavior here. Yeah, so this gets to the

1448
01:17:05,960 --> 01:17:08,200
Speaker 1: second big thing. Well, there's so much happening this week.

1449
01:17:08,720 --> 01:17:12,400
Speaker 1: It's all happening. But so a couple of days ago,

1450
01:17:13,000 --> 01:17:16,200
Speaker 1: Lena Kon, who runs the Federal Trade Commission, and Jonathan Canter,

1451
01:17:16,360 --> 01:17:19,479
Speaker 1: who runs the Department of Justice Anti Trust Division, which

1452
01:17:19,520 --> 01:17:23,320
Speaker 1: are the two main enforcers of fair competition laws, they

1453
01:17:23,360 --> 01:17:29,040
Speaker 1: came out with an ask for information for merger guidelines.

1454
01:17:29,080 --> 01:17:32,240
Speaker 1: Now this sounds really nerdy, but it's actually all the

1455
01:17:32,280 --> 01:17:36,160
Speaker 1: money and power in the world, okay, because companies structure

1456
01:17:36,160 --> 01:17:38,640
Speaker 1: the economy by choosing how to merge and how not

1457
01:17:38,680 --> 01:17:42,120
Speaker 1: to merge. And since the nineteen eighties or so, we've

1458
01:17:42,120 --> 01:17:45,400
Speaker 1: had a really lax way of understanding merger policy. So

1459
01:17:45,840 --> 01:17:49,840
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two, Reagan's Anti trust chief Bill Baxter said,

1460
01:17:50,600 --> 01:17:53,320
Speaker 1: you know, there's a law against illegal mergers or against

1461
01:17:53,320 --> 01:17:56,120
Speaker 1: mergers that create monopolies. It's called the Klayton Act, but

1462
01:17:56,160 --> 01:17:59,000
Speaker 1: we're not really going to enforce it anymore. If a

1463
01:17:59,040 --> 01:18:01,640
Speaker 1: company is big, you know, they used to think. We

1464
01:18:01,720 --> 01:18:03,559
Speaker 1: used to think in America that if a company was big,

1465
01:18:03,600 --> 01:18:06,240
Speaker 1: it was probably because it was doing anti competitive things,

1466
01:18:06,439 --> 01:18:09,680
Speaker 1: not always, but often, and so the enforcers would be

1467
01:18:09,720 --> 01:18:13,400
Speaker 1: really scrutinized big companies. The nineteen eighties, Baxter, you know,

1468
01:18:13,439 --> 01:18:15,240
Speaker 1: prompted by Reagan and Robert Pork and a whole bunch

1469
01:18:15,240 --> 01:18:16,880
Speaker 1: of others, said no, No No, if a company is big,

1470
01:18:16,920 --> 01:18:20,000
Speaker 1: it's because it's good at what it does. And why

1471
01:18:20,000 --> 01:18:23,400
Speaker 1: would you want to stop mergers that businessmen know what

1472
01:18:24,040 --> 01:18:25,760
Speaker 1: is good for their companies, and if they want to merch,

1473
01:18:25,800 --> 01:18:27,639
Speaker 1: who are we to stop them? And so you saw

1474
01:18:27,760 --> 01:18:29,760
Speaker 1: roll ups across the economy. And that's why you have

1475
01:18:29,880 --> 01:18:34,080
Speaker 1: firms like Microsoft and like Apple and Google and CBS

1476
01:18:34,120 --> 01:18:36,519
Speaker 1: and a whole bunch of you know, the private equities.

1477
01:18:37,000 --> 01:18:41,559
Speaker 1: So that what Lenacon and Jonathan Hendrick did on Tuesday,

1478
01:18:41,560 --> 01:18:44,280
Speaker 1: as they said, we're going to rewrite the merger guidelines, right,

1479
01:18:44,800 --> 01:18:46,759
Speaker 1: we are no longer going to take a very narrow

1480
01:18:46,840 --> 01:18:49,600
Speaker 1: lens where we said, okay, only if there's if you

1481
01:18:49,640 --> 01:18:52,320
Speaker 1: could prove an inefficiency, or if there's just some changes

1482
01:18:52,360 --> 01:18:55,720
Speaker 1: in prices. Basically, the evil nerds who control the world,

1483
01:18:55,840 --> 01:18:57,519
Speaker 1: we're not going to listen to them anymore. That that

1484
01:18:57,560 --> 01:19:01,000
Speaker 1: would be like the economists who say bigger, basically bigger

1485
01:19:01,040 --> 01:19:04,960
Speaker 1: is better. And we want to hear from people who

1486
01:19:05,040 --> 01:19:07,040
Speaker 1: have been through mergers. We want to hear from farmers,

1487
01:19:07,080 --> 01:19:09,000
Speaker 1: we want to hear from entrepreneurs, we want to hear

1488
01:19:09,040 --> 01:19:12,280
Speaker 1: from workers. Tell us what you think we should be

1489
01:19:12,280 --> 01:19:14,760
Speaker 1: doing with mergers. And they asked the whole set of

1490
01:19:14,760 --> 01:19:18,120
Speaker 1: detailed questions and they laid out basically a different philosophy

1491
01:19:18,160 --> 01:19:20,680
Speaker 1: of how to think about corporate power. And one of

1492
01:19:20,720 --> 01:19:23,479
Speaker 1: the things I think the important thing that Jonathan Canter

1493
01:19:23,600 --> 01:19:26,400
Speaker 1: said was, you know, we are now and we have

1494
01:19:26,439 --> 01:19:29,720
Speaker 1: these digital markets, and it's not just about whether you

1495
01:19:29,920 --> 01:19:32,200
Speaker 1: make one video game and you're competing with someone else

1496
01:19:32,200 --> 01:19:35,160
Speaker 1: who makes a different video game. It's also about the platforms.

1497
01:19:35,360 --> 01:19:38,680
Speaker 1: It's also about the subscription services, it's about you know,

1498
01:19:38,720 --> 01:19:41,479
Speaker 1: a whole series, a kind of an ecosystem, and we

1499
01:19:41,560 --> 01:19:44,680
Speaker 1: can't think about just sort of very narrow lenses of competition.

1500
01:19:44,760 --> 01:19:48,559
Speaker 1: We have to understand the broader platform question. And this

1501
01:19:48,600 --> 01:19:51,920
Speaker 1: applies to, you know, kind of everything that's going on

1502
01:19:51,960 --> 01:19:55,160
Speaker 1: in our digital economy, and so that's what the why

1503
01:19:55,200 --> 01:19:58,120
Speaker 1: that matters. A merger like this would traditionally not be

1504
01:19:58,160 --> 01:20:00,000
Speaker 1: a big deal. They just kind of wave it through.

1505
01:20:00,479 --> 01:20:03,040
Speaker 1: But now when we're thinking, well, do we want the

1506
01:20:03,160 --> 01:20:05,759
Speaker 1: video gaming industry to be a series of walled gardens,

1507
01:20:06,160 --> 01:20:08,040
Speaker 1: that's a different question that can you explain to people

1508
01:20:08,080 --> 01:20:11,280
Speaker 1: what that term means? Yeah, so a walled garden, I

1509
01:20:11,280 --> 01:20:15,080
Speaker 1: guess it came from a web one term. Yeah, yeah,

1510
01:20:15,160 --> 01:20:19,120
Speaker 1: Yahoo News, get AOL right, you know, AOL dial up right,

1511
01:20:19,200 --> 01:20:21,600
Speaker 1: Like the idea is that you get to go in

1512
01:20:21,880 --> 01:20:24,920
Speaker 1: and experience sort of the Internet, that is that is

1513
01:20:24,960 --> 01:20:29,080
Speaker 1: delivered to you by a corporation, so AOL back when,

1514
01:20:29,600 --> 01:20:33,320
Speaker 1: back when you had the dial up internet, email on

1515
01:20:33,400 --> 01:20:35,840
Speaker 1: AOL and got your news there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they

1516
01:20:36,120 --> 01:20:37,880
Speaker 1: basically you didn't have a browser to the rest of

1517
01:20:37,880 --> 01:20:40,120
Speaker 1: the web or like there was there was the AOL

1518
01:20:40,200 --> 01:20:42,360
Speaker 1: service and they gave you, you know, your news and

1519
01:20:42,400 --> 01:20:45,519
Speaker 1: your everything else that you wanted or that they gave you.

1520
01:20:45,600 --> 01:20:47,639
Speaker 1: And then if you wanted to go onto the web,

1521
01:20:47,680 --> 01:20:49,800
Speaker 1: the open web, you know, eventually they would give you

1522
01:20:49,840 --> 01:20:51,479
Speaker 1: a browser to do that. But a walled garden. Is

1523
01:20:51,520 --> 01:20:53,920
Speaker 1: the idea that that it's like, it's like kind of

1524
01:20:53,960 --> 01:20:56,800
Speaker 1: cable cable, right, you can only choose a certain you know,

1525
01:20:56,880 --> 01:20:59,600
Speaker 1: a certain number of channels, and and it's it's a

1526
01:20:59,600 --> 01:21:04,360
Speaker 1: little bit one way. So what what these really the

1527
01:21:04,360 --> 01:21:06,000
Speaker 1: goal of a lot of firms when they look at

1528
01:21:06,080 --> 01:21:08,519
Speaker 1: an open system like that like the Internet, is they're like, well,

1529
01:21:08,520 --> 01:21:12,240
Speaker 1: how can we create artificial scarcity and how can we

1530
01:21:12,439 --> 01:21:15,559
Speaker 1: deliver to the consumer and not allow the consumer to

1531
01:21:15,640 --> 01:21:19,439
Speaker 1: sort of organize or talk back. That's, uh, that's what

1532
01:21:19,840 --> 01:21:22,519
Speaker 1: the strategy is. And to do that, you know, one

1533
01:21:22,920 --> 01:21:24,280
Speaker 1: of the best things that you can do if you're

1534
01:21:24,760 --> 01:21:27,840
Speaker 1: an attempted monopolist is you create a kind of walled

1535
01:21:27,840 --> 01:21:31,040
Speaker 1: garden where you control all the content. So like a

1536
01:21:31,120 --> 01:21:34,200
Speaker 1: Netflix would be an example where you know, that's not

1537
01:21:34,240 --> 01:21:36,200
Speaker 1: really that's not an open system at all, right, just

1538
01:21:36,240 --> 01:21:38,680
Speaker 1: whatever the Netflix wants to give you whatever you you know,

1539
01:21:38,960 --> 01:21:40,559
Speaker 1: so that that's what they want to do, is they

1540
01:21:40,600 --> 01:21:43,280
Speaker 1: want to they want to turn kind of these open

1541
01:21:43,280 --> 01:21:45,760
Speaker 1: systems into kind of more capabilized versions of the world.

1542
01:21:45,880 --> 01:21:47,240
Speaker 1: This is another thing I want to ask on the

1543
01:21:47,400 --> 01:21:49,479
Speaker 1: gaming front, which is that I did not know this,

1544
01:21:49,600 --> 01:21:53,000
Speaker 1: but Microsoft already owns Bethesda Games, which is itself a

1545
01:21:53,240 --> 01:21:56,320
Speaker 1: large portion of the gaming market. So at what point

1546
01:21:56,320 --> 01:21:59,240
Speaker 1: would Microsoft then have one of the largest controlling stakes

1547
01:21:59,240 --> 01:22:01,519
Speaker 1: in gaming if this merger were to go through. Yeah,

1548
01:22:01,560 --> 01:22:04,760
Speaker 1: so Microsoft has I think something like thirty studios that

1549
01:22:04,800 --> 01:22:08,160
Speaker 1: they've been buying up, and Activision itself is a merger

1550
01:22:08,240 --> 01:22:12,920
Speaker 1: of I believe it. The Blizzard was yes in two

1551
01:22:12,960 --> 01:22:15,680
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, but they were itself a roll up

1552
01:22:15,680 --> 01:22:18,640
Speaker 1: in the nineties, so they have about twenty five different studios,

1553
01:22:19,160 --> 01:22:22,759
Speaker 1: and so this is this is a merger of mergers.

1554
01:22:23,000 --> 01:22:28,560
Speaker 1: It's I think Microsoft will have one of the largest portfolios,

1555
01:22:28,600 --> 01:22:31,320
Speaker 1: not not necessarily the largest, but one of the things

1556
01:22:31,320 --> 01:22:33,960
Speaker 1: I think is important here is to recognize that with

1557
01:22:34,000 --> 01:22:37,080
Speaker 1: these mergers and these corporations is that the people that

1558
01:22:37,160 --> 01:22:40,040
Speaker 1: are doing the work, that are making these games are

1559
01:22:40,040 --> 01:22:43,519
Speaker 1: not the ones that are in control. So Activism, you know,

1560
01:22:43,600 --> 01:22:47,080
Speaker 1: he the guy, the CEO I think was it's Bobby,

1561
01:22:47,479 --> 01:22:50,519
Speaker 1: Bobby Kotech I think is his name. You know, he's

1562
01:22:50,640 --> 01:22:54,320
Speaker 1: just a financier, like a roll up artist I say artists,

1563
01:22:54,320 --> 01:22:57,480
Speaker 1: I mean, and he's had really serious like sexual misconduct

1564
01:22:57,479 --> 01:22:59,760
Speaker 1: scandals at the company, like alleged rapes all sorts of

1565
01:22:59,760 --> 01:23:03,960
Speaker 1: really terrible stuff. But he's also just fundamentally really bad

1566
01:23:04,120 --> 01:23:08,080
Speaker 1: at managing games. I mean it's they've been milking their

1567
01:23:08,200 --> 01:23:14,800
Speaker 1: existing portfolio to just you know, drag profit out of Marvel. Yeah, yeah,

1568
01:23:14,840 --> 01:23:16,880
Speaker 1: except they're not making good they're just kind of like

1569
01:23:16,920 --> 01:23:20,080
Speaker 1: people like the games. And then they got what Candy Crush,

1570
01:23:20,280 --> 01:23:24,320
Speaker 1: and I think Call of Duty and I'm not I'm

1571
01:23:24,360 --> 01:23:25,599
Speaker 1: not a gamer, so I know I'm going to say

1572
01:23:25,600 --> 01:23:32,160
Speaker 1: something like a little bit like we're for you don't

1573
01:23:32,200 --> 01:23:36,479
Speaker 1: get that map, Like, yeah, I dedicate my nerd energy

1574
01:23:36,520 --> 01:23:39,200
Speaker 1: to one. Yeah, different old. I do understand roadblocks a

1575
01:23:39,240 --> 01:23:41,200
Speaker 1: little bit and a little bit of Minecraft. That's about it.

1576
01:23:41,240 --> 01:23:43,160
Speaker 1: I think. Don't they have Minecraft too? Yeah? They have

1577
01:23:43,160 --> 01:23:45,719
Speaker 1: mine gapt Yeah, but the other Actually, there's another interesting

1578
01:23:45,760 --> 01:23:49,160
Speaker 1: angle here, which is that a lot of the fight

1579
01:23:49,200 --> 01:23:52,320
Speaker 1: over gaming it is is over sort of which walled

1580
01:23:52,320 --> 01:23:55,760
Speaker 1: Garden gets to dominate, and it's the mobile platforms are

1581
01:23:55,800 --> 01:23:59,320
Speaker 1: where Microsoft doesn't have access to mobile platforms. They have

1582
01:23:59,360 --> 01:24:01,600
Speaker 1: to go through Apple or Google. So part of what

1583
01:24:01,640 --> 01:24:04,960
Speaker 1: they're trying to do is gain bargaining power against them

1584
01:24:05,000 --> 01:24:08,559
Speaker 1: by by buying firms buying games like Candy Crush, and

1585
01:24:08,600 --> 01:24:11,679
Speaker 1: then trying to negotiate more aggressively with Apple or Google

1586
01:24:11,760 --> 01:24:16,000
Speaker 1: to get into their app store and you know, without

1587
01:24:16,040 --> 01:24:20,160
Speaker 1: the thirty percent take or without certain provisions. And so

1588
01:24:20,320 --> 01:24:23,200
Speaker 1: the idea there is is, well, Google and Apple are

1589
01:24:23,200 --> 01:24:26,920
Speaker 1: trying to you know, they have effectively a lot of

1590
01:24:26,920 --> 01:24:31,240
Speaker 1: control over mobile gaming, and Microsoft is trying to bulk

1591
01:24:31,320 --> 01:24:33,400
Speaker 1: up so they can negotiate with them. I mean, ultimately,

1592
01:24:33,439 --> 01:24:36,280
Speaker 1: it's all ridiculous. Like what we should have is rules

1593
01:24:36,280 --> 01:24:38,840
Speaker 1: that say public rules like I don't know the law

1594
01:24:39,160 --> 01:24:43,599
Speaker 1: that say that you can't you can't monopolize, right, I mean,

1595
01:24:43,600 --> 01:24:46,559
Speaker 1: we actually theoretically have rules that say that, yeah, they're

1596
01:24:46,600 --> 01:24:50,479
Speaker 1: just not right. And that's to get back to Canter

1597
01:24:51,240 --> 01:24:53,760
Speaker 1: and con like they are actually saying we are going

1598
01:24:53,840 --> 01:24:55,559
Speaker 1: to start enforcing these I know. One of the things

1599
01:24:55,600 --> 01:24:57,800
Speaker 1: that I think is really hard about antitrust and it's

1600
01:24:57,840 --> 01:25:00,800
Speaker 1: it's weird, but there's actually a lot of good things

1601
01:25:00,800 --> 01:25:03,400
Speaker 1: going on, Like it's an area where we're rebuilding the

1602
01:25:03,439 --> 01:25:07,880
Speaker 1: capacity for the law, and people just don't believe it.

1603
01:25:08,400 --> 01:25:09,920
Speaker 1: They just they're just like they don't have any faith

1604
01:25:09,960 --> 01:25:13,000
Speaker 1: that it's actually gone. It matter. So I'm looking at

1605
01:25:13,040 --> 01:25:17,160
Speaker 1: the CNBC headline might go to news source, the Senate

1606
01:25:17,200 --> 01:25:18,760
Speaker 1: will get they have all the best people, they have

1607
01:25:18,800 --> 01:25:21,920
Speaker 1: voice of capital. The Senate will get its best shot

1608
01:25:22,000 --> 01:25:25,080
Speaker 1: at regulating big tech, and Apple, Google and Amazon are

1609
01:25:25,120 --> 01:25:28,400
Speaker 1: already playing defense. So what do people need to know

1610
01:25:28,439 --> 01:25:30,960
Speaker 1: about what's going on in Congress this week? Yeah, so

1611
01:25:31,400 --> 01:25:35,320
Speaker 1: it's a good question. So there's a there's a hearing

1612
01:25:37,160 --> 01:25:40,880
Speaker 1: or yeah, it's today Actually the Senate, Actually it's right now.

1613
01:25:41,320 --> 01:25:46,120
Speaker 1: The Senate is the Judiciary committee which writes the anti

1614
01:25:46,120 --> 01:25:49,320
Speaker 1: trust rules. They are taking up a two bills on

1615
01:25:50,840 --> 01:25:54,559
Speaker 1: that would put some mild constraints on dominant tech firms.

1616
01:25:54,560 --> 01:25:57,519
Speaker 1: So just those basically those four Microsoft might get wrapped

1617
01:25:57,520 --> 01:26:02,200
Speaker 1: in but probably not. And the bill that they're taking

1618
01:26:02,280 --> 01:26:06,160
Speaker 1: up today is it's a bill that bans self preferencing.

1619
01:26:06,439 --> 01:26:08,960
Speaker 1: So it says Amazon, you know, they have their Amazon

1620
01:26:09,000 --> 01:26:12,439
Speaker 1: Basics platforms or Basics products, right, and they will if

1621
01:26:12,439 --> 01:26:15,760
Speaker 1: you do a search on Amazon for you know, for

1622
01:26:15,880 --> 01:26:18,080
Speaker 1: socks or whatever, they if they if Amazon has its

1623
01:26:18,120 --> 01:26:20,560
Speaker 1: own brand of socks, they might stick bad ahead of

1624
01:26:20,600 --> 01:26:24,160
Speaker 1: everybody else's. This bill would say you can't do that

1625
01:26:25,080 --> 01:26:27,599
Speaker 1: unless you know you're you have to treat everybody equally.

1626
01:26:27,600 --> 01:26:29,240
Speaker 1: If you own a platform, you can't treat your own

1627
01:26:29,240 --> 01:26:32,320
Speaker 1: stuff better. And you know, this is a problem for

1628
01:26:32,439 --> 01:26:36,040
Speaker 1: firms like Yelp, it's a it's a problem for firms

1629
01:26:36,040 --> 01:26:38,360
Speaker 1: like trip Advisor or you know, and it's a problem

1630
01:26:38,360 --> 01:26:40,600
Speaker 1: for consumers because if you go to Google and you

1631
01:26:40,640 --> 01:26:44,160
Speaker 1: look up say a doctor, right, Google's going to stick

1632
01:26:44,200 --> 01:26:49,240
Speaker 1: its reviews of doctors on Google Maps ahead of you know,

1633
01:26:49,400 --> 01:26:53,719
Speaker 1: other potential sites that maybe have better reviews of doctors.

1634
01:26:54,000 --> 01:26:56,800
Speaker 1: And like, it's bad if you go and you get

1635
01:26:57,040 --> 01:27:01,320
Speaker 1: worse reviews of doctors, right, because doctors are important, I'm told.

1636
01:27:01,960 --> 01:27:07,200
Speaker 1: And so that's the kind of fight today. But this

1637
01:27:07,280 --> 01:27:10,719
Speaker 1: has been a fight for many years, and it all

1638
01:27:10,760 --> 01:27:15,280
Speaker 1: came out of an anti trust investigation in twenty nineteen

1639
01:27:15,360 --> 01:27:19,760
Speaker 1: and twenty twenty in the House side where David Cicillini

1640
01:27:19,840 --> 01:27:23,560
Speaker 1: and Ken Buck, who I know you guys have they

1641
01:27:23,640 --> 01:27:26,400
Speaker 1: spearheaded a bipartisan investigation where they went through millions of

1642
01:27:26,400 --> 01:27:30,639
Speaker 1: documents and brought the big tech CEOs and grilled them

1643
01:27:30,640 --> 01:27:32,800
Speaker 1: and didn't look like fools. Actually, they actually looked like

1644
01:27:32,800 --> 01:27:34,720
Speaker 1: they knew what they were doing and said, you know,

1645
01:27:34,800 --> 01:27:37,439
Speaker 1: tell us about your business. And then what they found

1646
01:27:37,760 --> 01:27:40,960
Speaker 1: a series of problems, conflicts of interest, monopolization. They just

1647
01:27:41,000 --> 01:27:43,360
Speaker 1: looked into these markets, and so out of that came

1648
01:27:43,400 --> 01:27:46,920
Speaker 1: a series of bills, and a bunch of them passed

1649
01:27:46,960 --> 01:27:50,519
Speaker 1: the House committee, and now the Senate is going to

1650
01:27:50,520 --> 01:27:52,880
Speaker 1: take up one of them, which is the self preferencing one.

1651
01:27:53,160 --> 01:27:56,240
Speaker 1: Not that big a deal kind of in terms of

1652
01:27:56,280 --> 01:28:00,000
Speaker 1: like restructuring the world, but politically it really matters because

1653
01:28:00,080 --> 01:28:02,519
Speaker 1: this is the moment where people are saying, well, is

1654
01:28:02,560 --> 01:28:05,680
Speaker 1: there actually the political will to write a bill? And

1655
01:28:05,720 --> 01:28:08,160
Speaker 1: if it passes out of the Senate Judiciary Committee the

1656
01:28:08,200 --> 01:28:11,519
Speaker 1: answer is yes, then it's kind of open season. A

1657
01:28:11,520 --> 01:28:14,280
Speaker 1: lot of stuff becomes possible, and if it doesn't, then

1658
01:28:14,720 --> 01:28:16,560
Speaker 1: we'll probably get delayed for a few more years in

1659
01:28:16,600 --> 01:28:18,439
Speaker 1: terms of writing legislation. So it's kind of a put

1660
01:28:18,520 --> 01:28:22,200
Speaker 1: up or shut up moment in terms of, Okay, are

1661
01:28:22,240 --> 01:28:24,720
Speaker 1: you all Democrats and Republicans just happy to go on

1662
01:28:24,880 --> 01:28:28,479
Speaker 1: chess beat for your like pet pauses with regards to tech,

1663
01:28:28,680 --> 01:28:32,439
Speaker 1: or actually you actually serious about regulating this market and

1664
01:28:32,479 --> 01:28:34,599
Speaker 1: so we'll get a clue to that or a little

1665
01:28:34,600 --> 01:28:36,160
Speaker 1: bit of an answer to that this week. That's right,

1666
01:28:36,160 --> 01:28:38,320
Speaker 1: that's right, Okay, good, well, you'll keep us updated, Matt.

1667
01:28:38,360 --> 01:28:40,840
Speaker 1: It's been really fascinating. I hope some people got something

1668
01:28:40,840 --> 01:28:42,840
Speaker 1: out of this and it will help you understand if

1669
01:28:42,880 --> 01:28:45,080
Speaker 1: you are a gamer some of the meta big forces

1670
01:28:45,080 --> 01:28:46,479
Speaker 1: and also if you're not. You know, this is a

1671
01:28:46,560 --> 01:28:49,160
Speaker 1: huge portion now of the economy. So there we go.

1672
01:28:49,200 --> 01:28:51,240
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us, man, thanks thanks

1673
01:28:51,280 --> 01:28:53,080
Speaker 1: for having me. Of course, thank you guys so much

1674
01:28:53,080 --> 01:28:55,880
Speaker 1: for watching. We really appreciate it, you know, in terms

1675
01:28:55,880 --> 01:28:58,160
Speaker 1: of your support. It means the world, you know, Crystal.

1676
01:28:58,280 --> 01:29:00,960
Speaker 1: Yesterday our a block mysterious was just not able to

1677
01:29:00,960 --> 01:29:03,280
Speaker 1: be played on the YouTube app, which I have yet

1678
01:29:03,320 --> 01:29:07,439
Speaker 1: to receive a proper responsor to it. Yesterday Democrats saying

1679
01:29:07,520 --> 01:29:11,200
Speaker 1: that what was a cult following Paul followers. Yeah, so

1680
01:29:11,280 --> 01:29:14,240
Speaker 1: mysteriously everybody who's watching it on YouTube on their phone,

1681
01:29:14,320 --> 01:29:16,920
Speaker 1: like fifty percent of the market, you know whatever, unable

1682
01:29:16,920 --> 01:29:18,960
Speaker 1: to watch it. Look, as we said, that's why I

1683
01:29:19,040 --> 01:29:21,400
Speaker 1: rely on all of you. Premium link is their in description.

1684
01:29:21,640 --> 01:29:23,960
Speaker 1: We deeply appreciate it. We're just one, you know, move

1685
01:29:24,000 --> 01:29:26,400
Speaker 1: away from them destroying us. Yeah. I reminded of that

1686
01:29:26,479 --> 01:29:29,960
Speaker 1: every day. They are monopolists, as Matt Stoller will definitely

1687
01:29:30,040 --> 01:29:32,080
Speaker 1: tell you, and they have a lot more power than

1688
01:29:32,120 --> 01:29:34,800
Speaker 1: we do. So your support enables us to not have

1689
01:29:34,880 --> 01:29:37,080
Speaker 1: to live in fear of the every move of the

1690
01:29:37,080 --> 01:29:39,800
Speaker 1: YouTube algorithm. So thank you guys. We love you all.

1691
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Speaker 1: We got some great content for you to post this weekend,

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Speaker 1: and we'll see you back here next week. See you

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Speaker 1: next week.