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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: When do we have pristol? Indeed, we do some truly

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Speaker 1: dire poll results. If you are Joe Biden and the

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Speaker 1: Democrats some of the worst numbers, frankly, that we've seen yet.

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Speaker 1: We'll dig into those and look, it's one poll. It's

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Speaker 1: a little bit of an outlier at this point, but

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Speaker 1: it kind of tracks with some of where the trends

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Speaker 1: have been. So anyway, we'll get into what you should

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Speaker 1: do about that. Very troubling news about expansion of gain

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Speaker 1: and function research and seems to be no sort of

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Speaker 1: rethinking of the type of dangerous activities that scientists have

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Speaker 1: been engaged in that maybe sparked this first pandemic. So

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Speaker 1: we'll bring you the details of that. Also, a great

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Speaker 1: debunking of the latest deep state plot conspiracy theory that

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Speaker 1: has been foisted upon us by the media, this whole

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Speaker 1: Havana syndrome thing. Turns out there was an earlier report

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Speaker 1: that said it was probably just crickets that people were

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Speaker 1: hearing when they got these mysterious brain injuries, not microwave

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Speaker 1: lasers from Russians. But there's a new report that has

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Speaker 1: just been floid from high level sort of government advisors.

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Speaker 1: So we'll talk to you about that. John Stewart's new

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Speaker 1: show making Dennis McDonough, who's the head of the VA

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Speaker 1: very uncomfortable in an interview, pretty interesting to watch. Uh

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Speaker 1: So we'll get into that, but we wanted to start

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Speaker 1: this morning with the very latest in Washington, DC, and frankly,

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Speaker 1: pretty big surprise as far as I'm concerned. We've been

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Speaker 1: telling you how one of the many crises that we're

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Speaker 1: facing is they are heading quickly to the debt ceiling limit.

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Speaker 1: The debt ceiling is a totally stupid and arbitrary thing. However,

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Speaker 1: if you default on your debt, that is a very

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Speaker 1: real and very consequential and extraordinarily damaging thing. So we

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Speaker 1: were at this impasse. McConnell and the Republicans have long said, look, Democrats,

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Speaker 1: we're not going to help you out your bind. Democrats

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Speaker 1: didn't want to use the most obvious tool, which is

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Speaker 1: the reconciliation process where they don't need the Republican help,

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Speaker 1: because they didn't want to pullut a specific number on

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Speaker 1: how much they're increasing the debt, which I think is

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Speaker 1: a silly concern, but that's their sort of political concern

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Speaker 1: about it. They kind of ruled out minting the coin,

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Speaker 1: although I think that's still on the table. So it

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Speaker 1: was it was very unclear how this was ultimately all

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Speaker 1: going to play out. A couple things just changed. Number One,

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Speaker 1: Democrats had a pretty credible threat that they might actually

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Speaker 1: change some of the filibuster rules to allow the debt sealing,

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Speaker 1: suspension or increase to pass on a party line vote.

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Speaker 1: That's one thing. The other thing that happened, let's throw

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Speaker 1: this up on the screen, is bunch of Wall Street

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Speaker 1: dudes and CEOs from City Bank, Raytheon Nasdaq, Deloyde, JP, Morgan, Intel,

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Speaker 1: AARP and I don't actually know what is nar dot

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Speaker 1: reeltor I don't know what that is. But anyway, a

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Speaker 1: bunch of Wall Street execs and CEOs and those sorts

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Speaker 1: of folks started freaking out, came to town and probably

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Speaker 1: put some pressure on Republicans. This is a constituency that

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Speaker 1: Republicans tend to listen to and lo and behold again.

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Speaker 1: To my surprise, Mitch McConnell actually blinked. He didn't say

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Speaker 1: we're going to help you indefinitely suspend the debt ceiling

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Speaker 1: or lift it a profound amount, but he did say

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Speaker 1: that he will basically go along with Democrats lifting the

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Speaker 1: debt ceiling for a short period of time that would

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Speaker 1: give us a couple months, with the idea being, look,

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Speaker 1: this takes your concerns about reconciliation taking too long off

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Speaker 1: the table. Now you've got a little bit more time

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Speaker 1: you can go through the reconciliation process. You no longer

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Speaker 1: need is. Let's throw this next piece up on the

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Speaker 1: screen here so people can see it. So you've got

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Speaker 1: the filibuster threat, which was the other aspect of this.

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Speaker 1: So you've got the like Wall Street kind of starting

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Speaker 1: to freak out, and then you had Dems pretty credibly threatening, Hey,

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Speaker 1: we may change the filibuster. Koons, who's a top Biden

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Speaker 1: ally in the Senate, said that the likelihood of D's

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Speaker 1: using a filibuster Carbont to deal with the debt limit

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Speaker 1: is quote very strong if the GOP continues to block

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Speaker 1: the bill. He says, my hope is that after today's vote,

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Speaker 1: Republicans will rethink their approach. And apparently McConnell had with

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Speaker 1: both Cinema and Mansion, they're the two holdouts on the filibuster.

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Speaker 1: Shortly before he ultimately caved and gave Democrats a little

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Speaker 1: bit of breathing room. Let's put this last tweet up

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Speaker 1: on the screen. You can see some of the information there,

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Speaker 1: so apparently this is from Manu Raju at CNN. McConnell

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Speaker 1: told his colleagues he is concerned about pressure on Mansion

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Speaker 1: and Cinema to gut the filibuster in order to raise

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Speaker 1: the debt ceiling. I am told he pointed to this

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Speaker 1: as a reason why he is floating short term increase

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Speaker 1: in order to ease pressure on and push Democrats to

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Speaker 1: use reconciliation. So Wall Street start and freak out. Democrats

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Speaker 1: credibly threaten, hey, we might actually blow up the filibuster

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Speaker 1: over this. You're pushing Mansion in Cinema to a place

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Speaker 1: where they may actually go along with at least reform

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Speaker 1: on this one issue. And so you see McConnell come

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Speaker 1: in in surprise I think almost all observers, including his

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Speaker 1: own caucus, by giving Democrats this little bit of breathing room.

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Speaker 1: Not even what five hours before McConnell said that, Mitt

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Speaker 1: Romney came out and was like, Yeah, we're going to

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Speaker 1: filibuster the debt suling. They were hard lined. They everybody

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Speaker 1: was to go. They viewed it very much as causing

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Speaker 1: chaos with the Biden administration trying to force you know,

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Speaker 1: just general problems for the Democrats when they move through reconciliation.

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Speaker 1: I can't help but think, Crystal that those CEOs may

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Speaker 1: have had one of the bigger hidden hands in all

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Speaker 1: of this, because during actually that meeting with Biden debt time,

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Speaker 1: Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes apparently looked straight at the press

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Speaker 1: and says, why is Senator McConnell giving a strategic victory

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Speaker 1: to China by blocking the effort to resolve the debt limit? Now?

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Speaker 1: I would love if Rathion CEO actually cared about strategic

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Speaker 1: competition with China, cares a lot more about state of

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Speaker 1: the economy arms. All of that that being said, I

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Speaker 1: do think that this had a pretty significant impact. All

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Speaker 1: these guys here in Washington that always moves the table,

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Speaker 1: business roundtables, with the biggest lobby here here in the

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Speaker 1: DC area, they have the ability to have pull, and

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Speaker 1: I think that what happened here and it's fascinating because

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Speaker 1: I actually think didn't think they would blink. And I

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Speaker 1: guess in some ways we do have to give some

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Speaker 1: credit to Biden and Schumer and all those people a

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Speaker 1: very very incredibly small amount for saying that their idiotic

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Speaker 1: strategy eventually did work. Just because the other fella, you know,

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Speaker 1: they were eyeball eyeball, and the other fella did blink.

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Speaker 1: In this particular case, I think the reason for the

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Speaker 1: blink was that it started to become real. People were like, hey,

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Speaker 1: are you actually going to default on the debt? Because

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Speaker 1: the CEOs all these people in Washington were like, you

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Speaker 1: can't do that. You're really going to screw us over

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Speaker 1: and all of our employees on plus the federal government.

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Speaker 1: I thought, you know, McConnell just simply wouldn't care, and

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Speaker 1: he'd be willing to. But I forgot that the one

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Speaker 1: thing he might care more than Republican advantage is for

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Speaker 1: big business. So you know, I guess it's a win

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Speaker 1: for America. Well, in fairness, I mean, this happened, I

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Speaker 1: think a little faster than either of us. I thought

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Speaker 1: it would come all the way down to the wire.

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Speaker 1: There'd be some last minute whatever to keep us from

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Speaker 1: actually going over the cliff. But you are calling all along, Hey,

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Speaker 1: the one thing they might respond to is you said

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Speaker 1: the stock market. But like business, and so mcconald didn't

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Speaker 1: wait for the stock market to actually crash. It was

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Speaker 1: enough that these CEOs and raytheon and Wall Street and

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Speaker 1: whatever were like, listen, this is a real thing and

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Speaker 1: we're not happy about this. So he's giving Democrats a

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Speaker 1: little bit of wiggle room here, But this is far

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Speaker 1: from over. First of all, the deal has been floated,

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Speaker 1: it hasn't actually been totally locked in exactly how this

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Speaker 1: is going to work, how long, what the mechanics are.

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Speaker 1: All of those pieces still have to be ironed out

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Speaker 1: between Democrats and Republicans. The other thing is this is

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Speaker 1: a brief reprief It's a sort of stay of execution.

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Speaker 1: It's not like this whole battle and tension and friction

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Speaker 1: and impasse is actually over. Is just kicked down the road.

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Speaker 1: So are Democrats now going to start the process of reconciliation.

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Speaker 1: The parliamentarian said they could do a separate track so

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Speaker 1: they don't have to go back and start from scratch

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Speaker 1: with the big reconciliation process that they've already commenced. They

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Speaker 1: could do a separate track that's basically just lifting the

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Speaker 1: debt ceiling. Are they going to get over their political

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Speaker 1: concerns now that they have the time to do it,

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Speaker 1: or are they going to let this go down to

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Speaker 1: the wire again and hope that McConnell in this game

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Speaker 1: of chicken once against blinks. But I think we can

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Speaker 1: also say, which is an important piece of information, that

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Speaker 1: these credible threats around the filibuster do actually hold at

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Speaker 1: least some sway with mccona. I wouldn't say just some.

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Speaker 1: I would say it's probably fifty to fifty. It was

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Speaker 1: probably filibuster and CEO and you put that together at

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Speaker 1: the business community pressure. That's what, ultimately, I think pushed

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Speaker 1: him over the air. And it also is very telling

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Speaker 1: that he had just met with Mansion and Cinema, who,

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Speaker 1: of course publicly have both been extremely hardline. Nope, our

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Speaker 1: position is our position. We don't want to change the

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Speaker 1: filibuster whatsoever. They said something to him in that meeting

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Speaker 1: that made him a little bit nervous that their public

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Speaker 1: position could be changed. If you had a situation like

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Speaker 1: this where you know, I think they might have felt

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Speaker 1: like they could go to their constituencies and say, listen,

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Speaker 1: we aren't going to let the American you know, we're

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Speaker 1: not going to let a default occur. So we've been

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Speaker 1: backed into a corner. Yes, we would like to keep

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Speaker 1: the filibuster in place, but we're going to do this

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Speaker 1: little carve out that would give them a kind of

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Speaker 1: out from their previously very clearly publicly stated position. Yeah. Absolutely,

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Speaker 1: I still think we should just mint the coins. We

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Speaker 1: just never do this ever again. Butment the coin. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's an obvious get over it, it's an obvious answer.

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Speaker 1: It's a stupid problem, it's a stupid solution, but it

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Speaker 1: is legal. It doesn't lead to inflation. It's a just

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Speaker 1: accounting gimmick. And I do think once you kind of

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Speaker 1: break the seal on minting the coin, this thing is done.

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Speaker 1: Because once you do it once and there's no real

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Speaker 1: political consequence, which there's not going to be, then everybody

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Speaker 1: just does it a coin and then they're going to

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Speaker 1: move on with their daily lives. Right. Yeah, Like that

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Speaker 1: was weird anyway, back to like whether my kids can

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Speaker 1: go to school and whether I have a job or not,

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Speaker 1: things that I actually really care about. So I think

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Speaker 1: that we put this together now we have two months

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Speaker 1: breathing room all of that that actually I think is

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Speaker 1: probably bad if I were to say for any of

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Speaker 1: the hopes around negotiations with the Reconciliation Bill, because a

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Speaker 1: lot of the pressure that Democratic leadership had on mansions

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Speaker 1: they're like, we got to fix this. We got to

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Speaker 1: fix this because it was like three crises, it was

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Speaker 1: government spending, it was debt sealing, and it was reconciliation

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Speaker 1: all together combined with the fake deadline on the infrastructure bill.

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Speaker 1: But now we're going to have to have we got

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Speaker 1: mansion and his document which he claims, you know, like

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Speaker 1: his his demands. Everybody's throwing out numbers, and again, I

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Speaker 1: think the coverage of this is so silly because it's like,

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Speaker 1: what was you except one point five instead of one

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Speaker 1: point eight? Like what does that mean? I actually, what

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Speaker 1: are we talking about? Is it one point five? Listen

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Speaker 1: if it was one point five trillion of literally free

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Speaker 1: money to everybody. Okay, that's one thing. Uh. The other

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Speaker 1: side is like programs means testing. He wants me testing

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Speaker 1: on the child Task Credit, he wants lack of expansion.

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Speaker 1: That's the actual debate that we're having. And well that's

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Speaker 1: what we're seeing on Capitol right now. Yeah, And it's

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Speaker 1: been interesting to watch the evolution of Bernie Sanders' attitude

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Speaker 1: towards these folks, at least the way he's talking about

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Speaker 1: them publicly, because when I interviewed him, he was very

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Speaker 1: very careful to not say anything that might be critical

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Speaker 1: of Mansion or Cinema. The most he would say is like, look,

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Speaker 1: we have people with a lot of different views in

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Speaker 1: this caucus, and we got to get them all on board.

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Speaker 1: But clearly he was trying to play that role of

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Speaker 1: the diplomat, not wanting to rock the boat, not wanting

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Speaker 1: to piss people off. Yesterday the gloves officially came off.

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Speaker 1: Senator Sanders, in like a fifteen minute press conference just

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Speaker 1: kind of went at both Cinema and Mansion. I think

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Speaker 1: Mansion in particular because he's been making these extremely obnoxious

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Speaker 1: comments about like I don't want to have people to

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Speaker 1: have an entitlement mentality, when I mean, what a frickin hypocrite,

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Speaker 1: Like just look at the entitlement mentality that his daughter has,

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Speaker 1: who got her gigs, threw her dad and got a

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Speaker 1: fake NBA because her daddy was governor, and then got

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Speaker 1: a multimillion dollar golden parachute. She's price gouging people on EpiPens.

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Speaker 1: So you are in no position to lecture about an

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Speaker 1: entitlement mentality. Senator Sanders had a few things to say

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Speaker 1: about that as well. Here's a little bit of a

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Speaker 1: taste of what he said. The Senator mactuald believe that

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Speaker 1: we should be the only major country on Earth not

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Speaker 1: to guarantee paid family and medical leave, and that working

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Speaker 1: mothers should not be able to stay home with a

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Speaker 1: child who is sick. Our work is not entitled to

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Speaker 1: be able to do that. He had a whole long

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Speaker 1: riff about Mansion. He also had some choice comments about

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Speaker 1: Kirson Cinema. So he's clearly done. Sara being the nice

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Speaker 1: guy publicly putting some more pressure on feels like some

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Speaker 1: a little bit of vintage Bernie there. But you know,

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Speaker 1: as far as where these negotiations are very hard to say,

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Speaker 1: and how long they'll last, and where they'll ultimately end up,

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Speaker 1: and if anything even ultimately gets through, because as you

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Speaker 1: were porting out, the time pressure is now effectively off.

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Speaker 1: There are no more real hard deadlines in the near term,

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Speaker 1: so you're going to have these ongoing negotiations. I thought

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Speaker 1: saw the latest thing Mansion put out, like, hey, Procrassis,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna have to pick arbitrarily among these three things.

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Speaker 1: It was like child tax credit, affordable childcare, and paid

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Speaker 1: family leave. Why and who says you get to call

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Speaker 1: all of the shots. The media conversation has been really

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Speaker 1: obnoxious and stupid, fixating just on the price tag rather

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Speaker 1: than on the substance of the programs, as you're pointing out.

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Speaker 1: And I think it's very unclear today where we're ultimately

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Speaker 1: going to end up. No, I think that's exactly what

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Speaker 1: it is. And you know, Barnie actually made a pretty

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Speaker 1: good point where he said, He's like, look, I could

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Speaker 1: say I'm not going to vote for this unless Medicare

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Speaker 1: is all, Medicare four all is in the bill. He goes,

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Speaker 1: but I'm not going to do that because most of

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Speaker 1: their caucus doesn't agree with me. And I was like, hmm,

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Speaker 1: you know, in terms of of the demands that you make,

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's two ways. You could say, well, he

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Speaker 1: probably should do that. I know there's a large commentariat

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Speaker 1: out there but believes that. But also he was saying, like, look,

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to be pragmatic. He's like, you're not being

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Speaker 1: pragmatic in terms of where the rest of the caucus

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Speaker 1: tends to be. And I thought that was actually a

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Speaker 1: pretty excellent point in terms of how I would say

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Speaker 1: Cinema in particular has handled herself throughout these negotiations. It's

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Speaker 1: just no, it's more of a vibe. It has way

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Speaker 1: less to do with the actual policy. Mansion, to his credit,

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Speaker 1: has a whole you know, two page document one of them,

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Speaker 1: which has nothing to do with Congress. But look, you know,

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Speaker 1: the guy's a boomer. That's how. It's just like about FED.

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Speaker 1: It was like and quantitative easing, and it's like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: Chuck Schumer is going to get right on there. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: It's like why are you talking? Yeah, but you're right

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Speaker 1: at least Mansion, there's a sense that he's like engaged

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Speaker 1: in the debate. Cinema is just you know, just being obstinate,

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Speaker 1: but and won't respond to any questions, won't engage with

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Speaker 1: her constituents, nothing, So so it's impossible to know what

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Speaker 1: she even wants or is for. And as I keep

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Speaker 1: pointing out, they don't like to talk about the individual

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Speaker 1: programs because the individual programs are very popular. And even

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Speaker 1: with all of this, you know, there's now a sort

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Speaker 1: of hardened partisanship around this, and it's gotten a lot

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Speaker 1: of negative press social welfare spending and we're going to

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Speaker 1: get to that. Even with all of that, it continues

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Speaker 1: to pull really well and if you pull the individual pieces,

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Speaker 1: they pull even better than the package as a whole.

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Speaker 1: So it's hard to it's hard to understand if you

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Speaker 1: don't really get that the master Cinema and Mansion are

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Speaker 1: serving have nothing to do with their constituents, have nothing

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Speaker 1: to do with public opinion, and everything to do with

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Speaker 1: the pressure that they're getting from corporate donors and the

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Speaker 1: well paid gigs that they would like to get after

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Speaker 1: they exit the Senate. So there you go. Okay, let's

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Speaker 1: get to the polling element of this. We preview a

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Speaker 1: little bit of that. Things are not good for Joe

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Speaker 1: Biden and for the Democrats coming up in the midterm election.

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Speaker 1: So let's go ahead and put this up there on

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Speaker 1: the screen. This is the most star that we've seen

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Speaker 1: it so far. Do you approve of Joe Biden overall?

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Speaker 1: Thirty eight percent yes, fifty three percent no. Just to

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Speaker 1: give people context, that's a Trump level number in terms

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Speaker 1: of disapproval and of approval in terms of the hard

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Speaker 1: disapproval and the herd approval there So amongst independents it's

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Speaker 1: thirty two sixty. Then you look at other critical demographics,

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Speaker 1: white college fifty forty five. That's not nearly high enough

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Speaker 1: for where it needs to be considered. The new constituency

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Speaker 1: of the Democratic Party and especially of the swing vote

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Speaker 1: with suburban white non college is at twenty three sixty nine.

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Speaker 1: He won over thirty percent of white non college educated

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Speaker 1: voters in the election, so in a deficit there already

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Speaker 1: and again actually a critical group. And the Hispanic number

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Speaker 1: underwater there at forty two fifty one. So you've got

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Speaker 1: three distinct constituencies white college educated voters, white non college

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Speaker 1: educated voters, and Hispanics, all of which you are either

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Speaker 1: underwater or not even close to the level that you

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Speaker 1: actually need to be. And increasingly it just seems like

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Speaker 1: we're headed for another type of Obamacare situation, Crystal, because

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Speaker 1: the reconciliation package they pulled it. In this Quinnipiac poll

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Speaker 1: it says sixty two percent of American support the bipartisan

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Speaker 1: infrastructure bill, fifty seven percent support the three point five

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Speaker 1: trillion dollar only spending bill. But again, it reminds me

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Speaker 1: of the Obamacare thing. The White House at the time

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Speaker 1: would always say, well, see when you take Obama's name

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Speaker 1: out of it, it's popular, and it's like, yeah, but

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Speaker 1: Obama's name is on it. And in a hardened cultural

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Speaker 1: politico environment, it's going to be one of those things

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Speaker 1: where who benefited most, for example, from like Medicare expand

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Speaker 1: Medicaid expansion, it was Red states. It was like poor

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Speaker 1: people in Red States, and a lot of those people

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Speaker 1: still voted Republican because they're culturally conservative, watchbox whatever. And

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Speaker 1: you shouldn't blame them. It's more about the lack of

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Speaker 1: the ability to actually reach them. But you have to

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Speaker 1: consider this in a hardened cultural political ronment, and I

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Speaker 1: think that's exactly what's happening here. The White House has

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Speaker 1: just foolishly. I think let the conversation be well, one

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Speaker 1: point seven one point nine that means nothing to people.

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Speaker 1: A two hundred million dollar program could mean everything to

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Speaker 1: people if it meant you're going to be able to

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Speaker 1: get dental work or not right, Like, Hey, your kid

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Speaker 1: who's been suffering for like thirteen years might actually be

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Speaker 1: able to go like get braces like that. That's how

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Speaker 1: that's Biden seems to be every once in a while,

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Speaker 1: the rare times when he speaks and he's lucid, he

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Speaker 1: will pivot more in this direction. Sanders is definitely one

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Speaker 1: who speaks this way. Nobody else speaks in terms of

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Speaker 1: what's actually in this thing. So I do think it

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Speaker 1: is a political disaster right now. Because everybody at home

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Speaker 1: is worried about COVID, they don't particularly care about this

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Speaker 1: bill whatsoever because they don't know what's in it. And

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Speaker 1: they also get on top of that all this bs

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Speaker 1: Washington gridlock. So it's a disaster. Part of the reason

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Speaker 1: why they don't know what's in it is because Democrats

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Speaker 1: made a strategic choice. Joe Biden in particular, made a

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Speaker 1: strategic choice than ditching the filibuster and passing these programs individually,

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Speaker 1: which is what we used to do, so that there's

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Speaker 1: an individual debate, Hey are you for paid family medical leave?

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Speaker 1: Like that's massively popular, and then you got to put

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Speaker 1: people like Mansion and Cinema. You put them in the spotlight.

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Speaker 1: That makes it much more difficult to then you've got

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Speaker 1: to actually talk about the programs, and it actually puts

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Speaker 1: Republicans in a tougher position because again, some of these

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Speaker 1: things are what the Prescription Drug Reform eighty percent support,

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Speaker 1: but nobody's getting pressured over that because there's so many

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Speaker 1: things piled into one bill. So part of the reason

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Speaker 1: why there isn't energy, why there isn't pressure on Republicans

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Speaker 1: or Mansion or Cinema to pass these incredibly popular provisions,

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Speaker 1: is because it all gets lumped together and then the

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Speaker 1: media can just say, well, three and a half trillion, Oh,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of money. What if we did two trillion?

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Speaker 1: And what if we did one point five trillion instead,

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Speaker 1: and you keep from having to get into the details.

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Speaker 1: People don't realize what because they're busy and living lives,

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Speaker 1: and this whole process has been extraordinary complicated even for

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Speaker 1: us to follow, like all the ins and outs of

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Speaker 1: it is so inside Beltway, and you can't help but

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Speaker 1: talk about the process because the process is so integral

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Speaker 1: to whether any of this actually happens or not. So

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Speaker 1: people don't necessarily have a great grasp of how they

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Speaker 1: might benefit, what's at stake, whether what pieces are on

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Speaker 1: the chopping block, any of that. So there's a strategic

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Speaker 1: failure there in terms of, you know, failing to actually

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Speaker 1: get the point across about what these programs are and

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Speaker 1: how they would benefit benefit majority working class, middle class people.

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Speaker 1: And you also just have a country that doesn't feel

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Speaker 1: great about where we are, and some of that's Biden's fault.

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Speaker 1: Some of it's just, you know, the trajectory of COVID,

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Speaker 1: et cetera. But one of the things in this poll

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Speaker 1: is about three quarters of Americans say they're either somewhat

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Speaker 1: dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the way things are going

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Speaker 1: in the nation today. And so if people don't feel

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Speaker 1: good about their job prospects, they don't feel good about COVID,

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Speaker 1: they don't feel good about the situation with their kids

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Speaker 1: at school, or all of those things, then it's going

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Speaker 1: to reflect on the president. And some of this definitely

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Speaker 1: is his fault because he had that window at the beginning,

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Speaker 1: at a honeymoon period where people felt pretty good about him,

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Speaker 1: he had some momentum behind him, and then he allowed

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Speaker 1: his program to get completely bogged down. He made a

427
00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:20,280
Speaker 1: series of tactical and strategic errors which have led to

428
00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:25,760
Speaker 1: this very, very unpopular situation. And again caveats, this is

429
00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:29,040
Speaker 1: one poll. It is a bit of an outlier. Okay,

430
00:22:29,119 --> 00:22:32,200
Speaker 1: so his actual approval rating is probably a little better

431
00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:34,160
Speaker 1: than where we are, but there's no doubt that he's

432
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:39,160
Speaker 1: not in a great place. And I would rather have

433
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:41,919
Speaker 1: Trump type numbers, even though they were a little lower

434
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:44,119
Speaker 1: on the approval rating because the people that approved of

435
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:47,840
Speaker 1: Trump really loved that guy. The people who approve of Biden,

436
00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:51,560
Speaker 1: they're like, he's fine. You know, it's the people voted

437
00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:53,919
Speaker 1: for him did so explicitly they said the number one

438
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:56,200
Speaker 1: reason was that he wasn't Trump. Yeah, most people voted

439
00:22:56,240 --> 00:22:58,639
Speaker 1: for Trump were like, I love this guy. So when

440
00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:01,920
Speaker 1: you're thinking about a mid term election, which are historically

441
00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:05,080
Speaker 1: already extremely difficult for the party in power, you know,

442
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:08,720
Speaker 1: and you've got a group of you're already underwater, and

443
00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:11,200
Speaker 1: then the people who do support you're kind of like, Eh,

444
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:14,680
Speaker 1: he's fine. I guess he's doing okay. That's a really

445
00:23:14,760 --> 00:23:17,720
Speaker 1: bad situation to be and you would rather have the

446
00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:22,920
Speaker 1: super like slightly lower numbers but super energized hardcore enthusiasm

447
00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:25,280
Speaker 1: because those people are going to turn up, those people

448
00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:27,159
Speaker 1: are going to organize, those people are going to do

449
00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:30,080
Speaker 1: the work. So I think that's a problem. The other

450
00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:32,280
Speaker 1: thing that was to me very interesting in this poll

451
00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:37,439
Speaker 1: is Biden's strength in the Democratic primary in the general

452
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:40,200
Speaker 1: election was that people come out some warm fuzzies about

453
00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:45,080
Speaker 1: this guy. You know, they overlooked some glaring faults and

454
00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:49,680
Speaker 1: some potential you know, decline he's not young man anymore

455
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:53,119
Speaker 1: safe to say, because they felt like, this is a

456
00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:56,160
Speaker 1: good guy. You know, he's generally well intentioned. I think

457
00:23:56,200 --> 00:24:00,639
Speaker 1: he cares about me. Those numbers have also fallen really dramatically.

458
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:04,200
Speaker 1: So the percent that say he cares about average Americans.

459
00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:07,640
Speaker 1: Just back in April, it was fifty eight percent. Now

460
00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:11,280
Speaker 1: it's forty nine percent. That's a significant decline. The percent

461
00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 1: that says that he's honest. Back in April, it was

462
00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:15,919
Speaker 1: a majority. It was fifty one to forty two percent.

463
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:19,119
Speaker 1: Now he's underwater. On are you honest? It was forty

464
00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:22,480
Speaker 1: four percent yes, fifty percent no. Do you have good

465
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:26,040
Speaker 1: leadership skills? Used to be he had good numbers here

466
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 1: fifty two percent said yes, forty four percent said no.

467
00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:33,480
Speaker 1: And again just in April, now you've got forty one

468
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,000
Speaker 1: percent saying yes and fifty six percent saying no. So

469
00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:38,880
Speaker 1: you've got a reversal of all these numbers that used

470
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:41,400
Speaker 1: to be pretty solid for him, and we're even better

471
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: for him. At the beginning of his administration, April was

472
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:46,679
Speaker 1: already a few months in very solid for him and

473
00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:49,040
Speaker 1: allowed him to kind of get away with some things

474
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:52,680
Speaker 1: people no longer have that halo around them are those

475
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:54,800
Speaker 1: warm fuzzies, and that's a big problem. And that was

476
00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:58,280
Speaker 1: one of the things that kept Obama in office and

477
00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:01,880
Speaker 1: got them reelected, was that people just kind of liked him,

478
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:05,120
Speaker 1: you know that the Republican attacks the demonization of him.

479
00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:09,400
Speaker 1: Obviously it worked with a core base, but people generally

480
00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:11,560
Speaker 1: thought like, I kind of like this guy and enjoy

481
00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:13,919
Speaker 1: listening to him. He's kind of funny, like he's got

482
00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:16,600
Speaker 1: a good vibe to him, and so they forgave some

483
00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:19,160
Speaker 1: of the things that they weren't happy with and ultimately

484
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:22,080
Speaker 1: put him back in office. Biden losing an edge on

485
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:25,120
Speaker 1: these personal characteristics. Maybe it shouldn't matter, but it does

486
00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:27,480
Speaker 1: matter a lot. Oh, it matters incredibly, because you're right,

487
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:29,520
Speaker 1: most people who voted for Obama, a lot of people

488
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:32,320
Speaker 1: in twenty twelve were like, my personal situation is not

489
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:37,000
Speaker 1: improved whatsoever. The economy still not great. Great, Actually, the

490
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:40,320
Speaker 1: country seems even more on the cultural decline, and everything

491
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:43,480
Speaker 1: is bad. Romney, I don't really like that guy, seems

492
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:47,199
Speaker 1: pretty heartless. Obama, well, his heart seems to be in

493
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:49,640
Speaker 1: the right place. He literally seems like a good dude. Yeah,

494
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,680
Speaker 1: that was basically it. And remember I mean, he won,

495
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:54,920
Speaker 1: but he didn't win by all as much as he

496
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:57,440
Speaker 1: did in two thousand and eight, and frankly, it seems

497
00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:00,920
Speaker 1: even more eminently beatable. And like I said, I just

498
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,200
Speaker 1: keep looking at Obamacare, and I keep looking at what's

499
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 1: happening with Biden, and it just seems more clear what's happening.

500
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:08,679
Speaker 1: Josh Krashauer tweeted this, let's put this up there on

501
00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:11,680
Speaker 1: the screen. It's a screenshot from Politico's Morning Playbook Morning

502
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:14,840
Speaker 1: Console poll. The Dems who are hoping that three hundred

503
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,000
Speaker 1: dollars per child checks of the government has been putting

504
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,560
Speaker 1: out to families would be a winner. Fewer than half

505
00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:24,600
Speaker 1: of respondents gave congressional Democrats credit, fewer gave Joe Biden credit.

506
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:28,440
Speaker 1: Half of registered voters supported the payments, only thirty five

507
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:31,080
Speaker 1: percent wanted to make them permanent. So this is what

508
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: happens when the culture war actually runs into real policy,

509
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:36,879
Speaker 1: which is that I would bet you if you were

510
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 1: to ask people to this personally make a difference in

511
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:41,760
Speaker 1: your life, people would be like, oh, yeah, absolutely, they're

512
00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:44,000
Speaker 1: like you. But what about the Democrats who passed them, Like, oh,

513
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 1: I can't stand them. They want to XYZ whatever. And

514
00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:50,639
Speaker 1: again I'm not criticizing, I'm giving you an example of

515
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:53,800
Speaker 1: how difficult it is in order to enact policy and

516
00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:59,400
Speaker 1: any policy in an incredibly fractious political age, and especially

517
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:02,160
Speaker 1: with the politic choices like you said that Biden administration

518
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:05,600
Speaker 1: has made over the last couple of months, and letting

519
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,720
Speaker 1: it devolve into this morass. It just seems very clear

520
00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:12,560
Speaker 1: that even their signature legislative achievement is just going to

521
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 1: run into the buzzsaw of most people are like, I

522
00:27:15,119 --> 00:27:17,000
Speaker 1: do not have confidence in this man, and I do

523
00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 1: not have confidence in this party in order to not

524
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:23,800
Speaker 1: even deliver do anything of which I can understand one

525
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 1: point nine, one point two, two point eight. This doesn't

526
00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 1: mean anything to people, right, and frankly it shouldn't. I

527
00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:31,960
Speaker 1: don't think it should, right. And again that's partly the

528
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:36,239
Speaker 1: fault of incredibly shitty like worthless media, but it is

529
00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:40,359
Speaker 1: also the fault of Democrats who have chosen this tactical

530
00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:43,199
Speaker 1: direction of lumping a whole bunch of things together and

531
00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:46,000
Speaker 1: then passing them almost one through the more conciliation process,

532
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:48,800
Speaker 1: rather than nuking the filibuster and passing them one by

533
00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 1: one so that you have a debate about the individual provisions,

534
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:54,639
Speaker 1: because that's the real thing that stands out here is

535
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:57,400
Speaker 1: that people don't even a lot of people don't even

536
00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:00,600
Speaker 1: realize it was Democrats that did this for them, right.

537
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:03,359
Speaker 1: They don't get that this was a signature priority of

538
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:05,960
Speaker 1: the Democratic Caucus. And I don't blame them for that

539
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 1: because these things were all lumped together and it wasn't

540
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:11,159
Speaker 1: has been it was crazy, right. It hasn't been like

541
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:14,080
Speaker 1: a central focus of we did this and Republicans are

542
00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:16,920
Speaker 1: going to take it away. There hasn't been effective messaging

543
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:19,600
Speaker 1: around that. And you're kind of in the same place

544
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:21,680
Speaker 1: with the Reconciliation Bill. The one thing I dissent from

545
00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:25,680
Speaker 1: on your comparison to Obamacare is the Reconcilation Bill is

546
00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:28,719
Speaker 1: actually a lot more popular than Obamacare was. When by

547
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:31,320
Speaker 1: the time Obamacare actually passed, Yeah, and it had been

548
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 1: run I think, yeah, that's true, run through like the

549
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:41,520
Speaker 1: partisan buzzsaw it was, it was pretty split and fairly unpopular.

550
00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 1: I mean, here, you have a significant margin. You've got

551
00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 1: where are those numbers? Fifty seven percent in support and

552
00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 1: only forty percent against, So you've got a seventeen point

553
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: advantage for this bill. It's pretty good in such a

554
00:28:55,600 --> 00:29:00,160
Speaker 1: partisan environment. So it is popular. It's just that a

555
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:05,880
Speaker 1: couple things. I mean, the Obama got the health insurans

556
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:09,840
Speaker 1: they wanted Obamacare, so that helped get that thing through.

557
00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:13,640
Speaker 1: Because yeah, I mean, it mattered to the corporate Democrats

558
00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:17,040
Speaker 1: that corporate America was for it, and now you have

559
00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 1: corporate America against the reconciliation bill. So it really has

560
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:21,680
Speaker 1: nothing to do with whether it's publicly supported or not.

561
00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:24,960
Speaker 1: There we go, folks, that's politics today. Hey, so remember

562
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:28,040
Speaker 1: how we told you how awesome premium membership was. Well,

563
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:30,240
Speaker 1: here we are again to remind you that becoming a

564
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:32,960
Speaker 1: premium member means you don't have to listen to our

565
00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:35,840
Speaker 1: constant please for you to subscribe. So what are you

566
00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:38,440
Speaker 1: waiting for? Become a premium member today by going to

567
00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:40,880
Speaker 1: Breakingpoints dot com, which you can click on in the

568
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:45,000
Speaker 1: show notes. Okay, we have to get to another extremely

569
00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 1: troubling bit of news. This was flagged for us by

570
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:50,360
Speaker 1: friend of the show, Josh Rogan. So let's go ahead

571
00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 1: and put this up there on the screen. This is

572
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:57,080
Speaker 1: WSU Insider. What it shows that WSU is to lead

573
00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:00,480
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five million dollar USAID project to

574
00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:05,560
Speaker 1: detect emerging viruses. Now this is important because USAID is

575
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: a branch of the State Department. It's the International Development

576
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 1: Agency of the US State Department, which greenlits, which greenlights

577
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 1: AID granting projects all across the world, Africa, Ebola, all

578
00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:21,960
Speaker 1: of that. This is within the USAID Discovery and Exploration

579
00:30:22,080 --> 00:30:27,760
Speaker 1: of Emerging PATHIESENS or so called Deep VSN project. VSN

580
00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:32,120
Speaker 1: standing for Viral zoo Nooses For all of those virologists

581
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 1: out there, I'm sorry for my pronunciation. Now why does

582
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:41,640
Speaker 1: this matter? Now? You might remember that detect emerging viruses

583
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:48,320
Speaker 1: is code for gain of function research. And actually, when

584
00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:52,280
Speaker 1: you lead and read even deeper within this press release,

585
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:57,080
Speaker 1: they are announcing this grant to dig up eight thousand

586
00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 1: to twelve thousand novel virusruses all over the world, including

587
00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:10,240
Speaker 1: those like SARSKOV two aka coronavirus, including in China. So

588
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:14,600
Speaker 1: essentially we have learned nothing. The one hundred thousand dollars

589
00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 1: grand or whatever to Eco Health Alliance for Gain of

590
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:19,320
Speaker 1: function research I think was two hundred thousand dollars. This

591
00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 1: is one hundred and twenty five million for digging up

592
00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:28,360
Speaker 1: eight to twelve thousand novel viruses all over the world

593
00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:33,280
Speaker 1: in order to protect us against them, because they're going

594
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:37,480
Speaker 1: to go out discover the virus so supposedly create a cure,

595
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:39,360
Speaker 1: although how the hell did that work out this time?

596
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:43,200
Speaker 1: And then we'll all be safer, or so they say.

597
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:47,120
Speaker 1: There's no oversight on this crystal. There's no congressional outcry.

598
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:49,640
Speaker 1: From what I can tell, he's the only person who

599
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:53,240
Speaker 1: even flagged this thing. And here you have a university

600
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:57,480
Speaker 1: literally bragging about it. I mean, I know, yeah. I

601
00:31:57,480 --> 00:31:59,800
Speaker 1: think that's the part that it's out in the open

602
00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: shows you that nothing has been learned. Is that first

603
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:09,080
Speaker 1: of all, yeah, this barely got noticed totally. Second of all,

604
00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:12,640
Speaker 1: they're proud of it. Yeah, they're like Washington's this is

605
00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:15,760
Speaker 1: a big coup for Washington State. I'm like, go, whatever

606
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:22,400
Speaker 1: their mascot is, you know. And you know, I've long said, like, look,

607
00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:25,000
Speaker 1: it's not definitive that it leaked from the lab, but

608
00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:28,640
Speaker 1: evidence continues to mount, and even if you're not sure,

609
00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:31,920
Speaker 1: it's clearly a possibility that it leaves a lab, and

610
00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:35,640
Speaker 1: we know that lab leaks occur all the time. So

611
00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:39,280
Speaker 1: the fact that like, I don't even think we need

612
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:42,400
Speaker 1: to know definitively that it came from the lab for

613
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:46,240
Speaker 1: there to be a major rethinking of safety and science.

614
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:48,800
Speaker 1: Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should

615
00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 1: do something. And I haven't seen any of that conversation publicly.

616
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:56,440
Speaker 1: I don't see it happening within well, i'd see it

617
00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,160
Speaker 1: in some corners of the scientific community, but clearly not

618
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:02,040
Speaker 1: enough to break through to mainstream press covers like this

619
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:05,640
Speaker 1: should be a major topic of conversation for the public,

620
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 1: for members of Congress, so that we can come to

621
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:13,000
Speaker 1: some idea and some consensus about what is actually safe

622
00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:16,160
Speaker 1: moving forward. Given the lessons that we've learned from this

623
00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:19,720
Speaker 1: entire experience, and none of that has obviously occurred. This

624
00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:22,160
Speaker 1: is just terrifying the more that you learn about the details.

625
00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:24,200
Speaker 1: Let me read this quote. The project will focus on

626
00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:29,400
Speaker 1: finding previously unknown pathogens from three viral families have large

627
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:34,800
Speaker 1: potential for viral spillover from animals to humans. Coronaviruses the

628
00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:39,000
Speaker 1: family that include star Kobe two, such as Ebola virus

629
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:44,080
Speaker 1: para I can't pronounce this one. Paramoxi viruses, which include

630
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:48,520
Speaker 1: viruses that cause measles and nepa so Ebola, one of

631
00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 1: the deadliest viruses known to man, measles, one of the

632
00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:56,120
Speaker 1: worst plagues that humanity ever had to suffer under, and

633
00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 1: now coronavirus, the worst pandemic that we've had in about

634
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:02,720
Speaker 1: a one hundred years. The goals are ambitious. They say,

635
00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:06,040
Speaker 1: to collect eight hundred thousand samples in five years of

636
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:09,520
Speaker 1: the project, most of which will come to wildlife, then

637
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:13,160
Speaker 1: detect whether viruses from the families are present in the samples.

638
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:16,680
Speaker 1: When they are found, the researchers will determine the zoonotic

639
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:19,719
Speaker 1: potential of the virus or the ability to transfer from

640
00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:24,480
Speaker 1: animals to humans, and all of this, likewise said, they

641
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:29,680
Speaker 1: are digging up doing research on screening and sequencing. Now

642
00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:31,880
Speaker 1: the genomes of the ones that are going to pose

643
00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:35,520
Speaker 1: the most risk to animal humans and to animals and

644
00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:39,920
Speaker 1: human health. What's the safety protocol? Do we have any

645
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:44,160
Speaker 1: oversight of this whatsoever? Why is the Biden administration greenlighting

646
00:34:44,160 --> 00:34:47,320
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five million dollar grant to this project.

647
00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:49,680
Speaker 1: I think what this goes to show is that the

648
00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 1: fact that this was moved through the bureaucracy, and I'm

649
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 1: not saying I blame Biden or whatever for like explicitly

650
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:58,280
Speaker 1: being like go out and fund this somewhere up the chain,

651
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,080
Speaker 1: somebody has to check a box. And the fact that

652
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:03,759
Speaker 1: somebody in the State Department, somebody at the White House

653
00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:07,760
Speaker 1: and National Security Council, someone somewhere, this is how bureaucracy works,

654
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:10,799
Speaker 1: had to look at this and just say, okay, that

655
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,759
Speaker 1: he did not even enter their head. Hey, where they

656
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:18,080
Speaker 1: got this deadly pandemic? You know right now mounting evidence.

657
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:20,160
Speaker 1: I mean, in fact, if you were to look at

658
00:35:20,360 --> 00:35:23,040
Speaker 1: both sides of the scale and say natural origin versus

659
00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:27,240
Speaker 1: lab leak origin, it's overwhelmingly on the lab leak side,

660
00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:31,440
Speaker 1: and you don't even think, hey, maybe we shouldn't do this.

661
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:36,319
Speaker 1: And here's the worst part. Congress is so they are

662
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:39,919
Speaker 1: so heads are so far up you know where they're

663
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:45,280
Speaker 1: following about reconciliation there, you know, January sixth, they're still

664
00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:49,200
Speaker 1: issuing subpoenas. Every day I read about subpoenas being issued

665
00:35:49,239 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 1: to Steve Bannon. I'm like, oh, yeah, you're going to

666
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:53,680
Speaker 1: crack the case. You know, I cracked the case. Trump

667
00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:55,400
Speaker 1: said we're going to go down to the Capitol, and

668
00:35:55,400 --> 00:35:57,560
Speaker 1: they did it. The end of the story. You need

669
00:35:57,640 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 1: more of a commission. It's over. There are also some

670
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:02,040
Speaker 1: FEDS involved maybe get to the bottom of that one

671
00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:06,440
Speaker 1: down here in this one, we should be having a serious,

672
00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:10,440
Speaker 1: robust oversight commission. There are, from what I can tell,

673
00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:13,400
Speaker 1: three people in Congress who are actually concerned about this.

674
00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:16,000
Speaker 1: The only one I respect in any way is Mike Gallagher,

675
00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:19,560
Speaker 1: who is the congressman from Wisconsin. He is not taking

676
00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 1: much more of a partisan view of this and is

677
00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:23,440
Speaker 1: actually trying to get to and block gain and function

678
00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:26,160
Speaker 1: research Ran Paul. We all know why Ran Paul is

679
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:28,120
Speaker 1: doing what he's doing. That doesn't mean I respect I

680
00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:31,200
Speaker 1: don't respect it in terms of questioning Fauci and more.

681
00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:33,360
Speaker 1: But everybody else in Congress they just want to go

682
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:36,520
Speaker 1: after Fauci. That's it for a pandemic restriction, And okay,

683
00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:39,040
Speaker 1: I get it. I also can't stand Fauci. But now

684
00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:41,520
Speaker 1: you're in the realm of partisan politics. Nobody's having a

685
00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:45,399
Speaker 1: serious discussion about whether this is okay or not. It's

686
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:49,120
Speaker 1: increasingly clear where I think coronavirus came from, how it

687
00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:52,360
Speaker 1: came about, and the government, the US government had a

688
00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:54,399
Speaker 1: very big role in how all that came to play.

689
00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:57,080
Speaker 1: We were the leaders and pushers and funders of gain

690
00:36:57,120 --> 00:36:59,960
Speaker 1: and function research, and now they're doing these sax same things.

691
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:02,799
Speaker 1: Crystal one hundred and twenty five million dollar grant to

692
00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:05,880
Speaker 1: this project, including in China. I would love to know

693
00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 1: if the Wuhan Lab is going to be a recipient.

694
00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:09,759
Speaker 1: I wouldn't even put it past him at this point

695
00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:13,080
Speaker 1: to funnel money back to the lab. Be like, oh, doctor,

696
00:37:13,120 --> 00:37:16,000
Speaker 1: she she's a great virologist. What are you talking about. Yeah,

697
00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:18,520
Speaker 1: we're bat ladies. If you question it, that would be

698
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:21,880
Speaker 1: like you're racist. Yeah, you're a racist. She calls herself

699
00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:24,360
Speaker 1: the bat lady, by the way, not me. Yeah, it's

700
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:28,880
Speaker 1: just a really depressing state of failure in the country

701
00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:32,240
Speaker 1: that you know, there's no way that you could expect,

702
00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:35,120
Speaker 1: like I don't even want to call for congressional panels

703
00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:38,200
Speaker 1: to just because you won't do anything scientific protocols and

704
00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:41,600
Speaker 1: safety or anything, because it just be some obnoxious shit

705
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:44,400
Speaker 1: show of like I'm going to own Fuci, I'm going

706
00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:47,719
Speaker 1: to defend Fauci. That's right, And then you know, you

707
00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:50,120
Speaker 1: don't want to make it anywhere. So while they were

708
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 1: telling us that the Wuhan Lab leak, this was the conspiracy,

709
00:37:55,239 --> 00:37:57,719
Speaker 1: it's a good transition, they were actually I was workshopping

710
00:37:57,719 --> 00:38:02,800
Speaker 1: that this is the conspiracy theory the media was feeding

711
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:06,360
Speaker 1: us about how all of these diplomats around the world,

712
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:11,640
Speaker 1: first in Cuba, had been targeted by Russian microwave rays

713
00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:14,759
Speaker 1: and they heard this strange sound and then they came

714
00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:17,600
Speaker 1: down with these bizarre symptoms, and there were cases of

715
00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:20,480
Speaker 1: it popping up all over the world, and the media

716
00:38:20,719 --> 00:38:25,680
Speaker 1: is reporting this seemingly insane story straight faced. They've got

717
00:38:25,680 --> 00:38:28,560
Speaker 1: senior government officials who were giving them the details on

718
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:33,000
Speaker 1: all of this. And I've long been pretty skeptical of

719
00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:38,600
Speaker 1: the whole Russian microwave ray theory that was being pushed

720
00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:41,200
Speaker 1: in the media because obviously, you know, they have their

721
00:38:41,239 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 1: agenda and they have their own CIA handlers that they

722
00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:48,319
Speaker 1: like to uncritically do stenography for. So there had been

723
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:51,399
Speaker 1: an indicator before. And by the way, Glenn Greenwald covered

724
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:53,440
Speaker 1: this amazingly, you should check out his video on it

725
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:56,040
Speaker 1: because he breaks it all down incredibly. But there had

726
00:38:56,080 --> 00:38:59,279
Speaker 1: been some indications before that this sound that they heard

727
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:03,359
Speaker 1: that they said was associated with these microwave rays, that

728
00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:08,440
Speaker 1: what it actually was was crickets. Okay, So there's a

729
00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:11,120
Speaker 1: new evidence to back up the idea that this was

730
00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:14,279
Speaker 1: not in fact Russian rays. It was crickets. Let's say

731
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:17,520
Speaker 1: this New York Post tear sheet up there on the screen.

732
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:20,800
Speaker 1: Have they had a syndrome culprits? Maybe crickets. Scientists say

733
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:24,240
Speaker 1: this is all thanks to a foier request from BuzzFeed News.

734
00:39:25,320 --> 00:39:28,520
Speaker 1: There's a group, an advisory group called Jason that they

735
00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:31,400
Speaker 1: describe BuzzFeed describes as an elite scientific board that has

736
00:39:31,440 --> 00:39:34,920
Speaker 1: reviewed US national security concern since the Cold War. They

737
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:39,440
Speaker 1: looked into this report of the microwave rays, and they

738
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:42,440
Speaker 1: analyzed the sound, and they did the whole thing, and

739
00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:47,160
Speaker 1: basically they also confirmed that it sounds like crickets. They

740
00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:51,480
Speaker 1: even identified the very specific type of cricket that was

741
00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:55,759
Speaker 1: emitting this noise as they're doing their mating signal. As

742
00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:58,239
Speaker 1: anyone who lives in a rural area has certainly heard

743
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:02,720
Speaker 1: of similar form of sort of buzzing type of noise.

744
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:06,759
Speaker 1: And the interesting thing here too, is that the State

745
00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:10,520
Speaker 1: Department has had this report for a couple of years,

746
00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:14,680
Speaker 1: and yet they continued to feed the media this idea

747
00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:20,600
Speaker 1: that it was probably Russian microwave rays, and even just

748
00:40:20,719 --> 00:40:25,319
Speaker 1: recently on Tuesday, US House of Representatives voted for twenty

749
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,640
Speaker 1: seven to zero to pass a Havana Act bill compensating

750
00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:32,560
Speaker 1: CIA and State Department personnel affected by these incidents. News

751
00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 1: reports have widely blamed Russian spies randomly targeting CIA and

752
00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:39,440
Speaker 1: State Department personnel with microwave weapons and attributed this view

753
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:43,920
Speaker 1: to senior US officials again, while they had this report

754
00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:48,000
Speaker 1: and knew that the sound was crickets and that Jason

755
00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:50,839
Speaker 1: also said that while they can't rule out some other

756
00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:54,399
Speaker 1: cause going on in terms of the physical effects, which

757
00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:57,280
Speaker 1: you know, were real and people were feeling real symptoms

758
00:40:57,320 --> 00:40:59,760
Speaker 1: and real problems from all of this, but they point

759
00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:05,239
Speaker 1: to psychogenic effects. Mass psychology in the report they say

760
00:41:05,239 --> 00:41:09,479
Speaker 1: can also trigger neurological injuries in people. Jason believes such

761
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:13,840
Speaker 1: psychogenic effects may serve to explain important components of the

762
00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:20,000
Speaker 1: reported injuries. So this whole wild conspiracy theory about Russian

763
00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:24,600
Speaker 1: spies targeting diplomats with microwave rays and here's the sound

764
00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:28,960
Speaker 1: that accompanied it totally bunk. And they've known it for years,

765
00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:32,840
Speaker 1: and yet they continued to feed their media allies that

766
00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:35,680
Speaker 1: this was Russian spies. Take a listen to one MSNBC

767
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:39,600
Speaker 1: report on exactly this thing. The mystery, who are what

768
00:41:39,800 --> 00:41:43,080
Speaker 1: caused American officials living in these Havana homes and several

769
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:47,800
Speaker 1: hotels to suffer headaches, dizziness, and some serious brain injuries

770
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:51,239
Speaker 1: similar to a concussion. Last year, Cuban investigators told us

771
00:41:51,239 --> 00:41:54,040
Speaker 1: they would never allow their territory to be used that way,

772
00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:57,520
Speaker 1: but now Russia is the leading suspect, NBC News has learned,

773
00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:00,680
Speaker 1: according to three US officials and two others briefed on

774
00:42:00,719 --> 00:42:04,520
Speaker 1: the investigation, evidence they say backed up by highly secret

775
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:09,720
Speaker 1: communications intercepts collected during a lengthy and ongoing investigation involving

776
00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 1: the FBI, CIA and other agencies. US officials also tell

777
00:42:14,160 --> 00:42:18,320
Speaker 1: NBC News investigators now believe the Americans were deliberately targeted

778
00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:22,719
Speaker 1: and that was never updated that you know, I mean,

779
00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:25,799
Speaker 1: in fairness, that report was from early on, you know,

780
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:27,759
Speaker 1: when there was something going on we didn't know, but

781
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 1: they never updated to be like, hey, by the way,

782
00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:31,640
Speaker 1: we figured it out and it was criked. So pretty

783
00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:34,719
Speaker 1: much all of this just shows that the people inside

784
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:38,640
Speaker 1: the government are crazy because they literally believe they're being

785
00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:43,880
Speaker 1: have microwaves being shot at their heads secretly in Havana

786
00:42:44,040 --> 00:42:47,000
Speaker 1: and with the technology that we'd have no understanding up,

787
00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:51,479
Speaker 1: no awareness of, right with an unknown technology, and that oh,

788
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:57,399
Speaker 1: also it's Russia for because reasons, it's Russia, and now

789
00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:02,120
Speaker 1: Congress is voting aid to the victyvictims, when in November

790
00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:05,919
Speaker 1: of twenty eighteen, that same report said at least eight

791
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:08,640
Speaker 1: of the twenty one, so you know, a decent chunk

792
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:12,240
Speaker 1: are very likely crickets. They also said it was quote

793
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:17,680
Speaker 1: highly unlikely that it was microwaves. So what's happening here?

794
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:21,440
Speaker 1: I think it really just comes down to some of

795
00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:25,000
Speaker 1: these people are human beings. I bet serving as a

796
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:28,160
Speaker 1: diplomat in Havana or Russia is probably pretty stressful. It

797
00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:30,800
Speaker 1: is for a very stressful job. You're constantly getting tailed

798
00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:33,560
Speaker 1: by the FSB or whoever. The human secret police is

799
00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:35,239
Speaker 1: same in China. I've talked with some of the people

800
00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:38,279
Speaker 1: who served abroad. They really do surveil everything you do.

801
00:43:39,040 --> 00:43:41,600
Speaker 1: Your house is known to be bugged, your car is

802
00:43:41,640 --> 00:43:44,480
Speaker 1: definitely bugged. People follow you, even with your family when

803
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:47,320
Speaker 1: you're at the mall or whatever. Like, it's a stressful situation.

804
00:43:47,400 --> 00:43:49,840
Speaker 1: So I don't want to downplay that. But then you know,

805
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:52,399
Speaker 1: one guy starts getting headaches and you're like, oh my god.

806
00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:55,680
Speaker 1: You know, this is just like Russia. In nineteen sixty two.

807
00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:58,879
Speaker 1: And then next thing, you know, Havana syndrome is a thing.

808
00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:02,040
Speaker 1: And the media part is the most galling of this

809
00:44:02,160 --> 00:44:04,800
Speaker 1: because it goes to show that they'll just print anything,

810
00:44:04,800 --> 00:44:07,919
Speaker 1: that they believe anything the intel community tells them is true.

811
00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:11,040
Speaker 1: It goes to show that they didn't press for anything.

812
00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:13,440
Speaker 1: This is where I always get it. We also we

813
00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:17,400
Speaker 1: see leaked documents all the time, all the time, leaked assessments,

814
00:44:17,520 --> 00:44:21,400
Speaker 1: State Department, remember Afghanistan. Everything the people ever printed was leaked.

815
00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:23,880
Speaker 1: If the media wants to go out and get to

816
00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:27,200
Speaker 1: the bottom of it, they usually can. It's usually pretty

817
00:44:27,200 --> 00:44:29,960
Speaker 1: hard in order to hide, you know, especially this this

818
00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:33,480
Speaker 1: is an internal you know, eventually they released it by Foya,

819
00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:36,799
Speaker 1: so it shows it wasn't even that classific. So if

820
00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:38,200
Speaker 1: they were able to foy it and get it in

821
00:44:38,200 --> 00:44:39,960
Speaker 1: three years, that means somebody would have leaked it to

822
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:43,120
Speaker 1: you two years ago. Obviously they just didn't care. They

823
00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:45,359
Speaker 1: were like, oh, well, the Intel guys who aren't willing

824
00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:47,839
Speaker 1: to put their names on this are telling us it's

825
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:50,600
Speaker 1: Savannah syndrome. And so then they created this whole thing.

826
00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:54,239
Speaker 1: I mean, they had the spooks on TV talking about

827
00:44:54,239 --> 00:44:58,439
Speaker 1: how it was a classic hallmark of Russian attacks. They

828
00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:03,080
Speaker 1: had people writing, you know, long profiles of the victims,

829
00:45:03,480 --> 00:45:06,640
Speaker 1: they had people coming out. The State Department was freaking out.

830
00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:08,319
Speaker 1: I mean at one point they were saying the Trump

831
00:45:08,360 --> 00:45:13,640
Speaker 1: administration had to like confront Russia over the Havana syndrome stuff. Yeah,

832
00:45:13,680 --> 00:45:15,400
Speaker 1: of course, and it's all just like a fake it's

833
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:19,160
Speaker 1: a it's totally nuts. And that's I think the part

834
00:45:19,239 --> 00:45:22,319
Speaker 1: that calls me the most is that they knew it

835
00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:25,480
Speaker 1: at the time. They had a report from people saying

836
00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:28,919
Speaker 1: that it was not microwaves, and they still pushed it

837
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:31,600
Speaker 1: because it served an agenda. That's actually the worst and

838
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:34,160
Speaker 1: most nefarious part of all this. Yeah, this report is

839
00:45:34,160 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 1: from several years ago, So they've had this November twenty eighteen,

840
00:45:37,800 --> 00:45:39,879
Speaker 1: and how many more times have we heard, Oh, there's

841
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:42,319
Speaker 1: another incidence of havanas ad, Oh we've got another one

842
00:45:42,320 --> 00:45:46,640
Speaker 1: over another incidents of Havana syndrome. Because yeah, it was convenient,

843
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:49,880
Speaker 1: it was you know, suited the deep state agenda. The

844
00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:52,400
Speaker 1: media reports it uncritically, whether they believe it or not.

845
00:45:52,480 --> 00:45:55,880
Speaker 1: They have no interest in being like this whole Russian

846
00:45:56,000 --> 00:46:01,040
Speaker 1: microwave story sounds a little bit strange. What you got

847
00:46:01,080 --> 00:46:04,080
Speaker 1: to back that up? Any other dissenting views that maybe

848
00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:07,839
Speaker 1: you could offer me of another explanation here it really is.

849
00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:10,239
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't want to laugh because I'm sure

850
00:46:10,280 --> 00:46:12,680
Speaker 1: the people, like you said, who actually suffered from it,

851
00:46:12,760 --> 00:46:14,839
Speaker 1: like I don't want to diminish, they probably had very

852
00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:18,480
Speaker 1: real symptoms that they experienced, as you know, incredibly painful

853
00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:24,759
Speaker 1: and incredibly significant. But it's the media's job to ask questions.

854
00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:28,239
Speaker 1: It's the media's job to be skeptical. And when it

855
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:31,640
Speaker 1: comes to something that doesn't suit their agenda, something like

856
00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:35,960
Speaker 1: the Wuhan Lab week, they're extremely skeptical, right, They're skeptical

857
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:37,760
Speaker 1: to the point of saying, you can't even talk about

858
00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:40,920
Speaker 1: that because that's a conspiracy theory. This is a wild

859
00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:44,759
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory, and they bought it and propagated hook line

860
00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:49,640
Speaker 1: and sinker, even though the State Department Deep State knew

861
00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:52,719
Speaker 1: better for years now. So there you go. And then,

862
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 1: as I said, Congress comes through and passes funding for

863
00:46:56,760 --> 00:47:00,759
Speaker 1: the victims of Havana syndrome. That's fine, people need medical care.

864
00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:03,280
Speaker 1: I'm all for that, but you're ready for this transition.

865
00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:06,360
Speaker 1: They have not gotten their act together to provide funding

866
00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:08,640
Speaker 1: for the medical care of our men and women who

867
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:13,480
Speaker 1: served overseas and have become catastrophically ill from exposure to

868
00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:17,319
Speaker 1: burn pits, something that John Stewart has been highlighting now

869
00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:20,439
Speaker 1: for years, for years. He's done such a good job

870
00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:23,080
Speaker 1: on this. He's done such a good job. He's been relentless.

871
00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:26,879
Speaker 1: He's had success moving Congress before with compensation for nine

872
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:30,160
Speaker 1: to eleven victims, so still hoping that he may have

873
00:47:30,239 --> 00:47:33,080
Speaker 1: some success here. He just launched his new show, it's

874
00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:35,480
Speaker 1: called The Problem with John Stewart on Apple TV. I

875
00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:38,600
Speaker 1: watched the first episode. You know, it's interesting that I'm

876
00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:39,840
Speaker 1: going to show you a little bit of it. He

877
00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:44,479
Speaker 1: spent the entire hour long episode focused on this one

878
00:47:45,360 --> 00:47:49,960
Speaker 1: very heavy and very emotional subject of burn pits. He

879
00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:52,000
Speaker 1: does a little bit just to give you a sense

880
00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 1: of the overall show, and he kind of told people like,

881
00:47:54,760 --> 00:47:56,520
Speaker 1: this is not the daily show. This is going to

882
00:47:56,600 --> 00:47:59,480
Speaker 1: be a little different. He described it as more complete.

883
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:05,200
Speaker 1: It's definitely heavier. It's not all comedy, certainly, it's actually

884
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:07,359
Speaker 1: very light touch with the comedy. Does a little bit

885
00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:09,600
Speaker 1: of a bit at the beginning, and then he brings

886
00:48:09,640 --> 00:48:12,080
Speaker 1: in these victims, these men and women who have served

887
00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:15,600
Speaker 1: and are suffering catastrophic health consequences, and he talks to

888
00:48:15,640 --> 00:48:18,240
Speaker 1: them and they share their experiences and what they think

889
00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:23,160
Speaker 1: that Congress and the VA ultimately owes them. Then he

890
00:48:23,320 --> 00:48:28,440
Speaker 1: goes in interviews Dennis McDonough, who is effectively a longtime

891
00:48:28,560 --> 00:48:33,040
Speaker 1: political operative who remember when he got nominated critically yeah,

892
00:48:33,040 --> 00:48:38,279
Speaker 1: because he has no experience that would recommend him for

893
00:48:38,360 --> 00:48:42,440
Speaker 1: this incredibly important position of being the head of the VA.

894
00:48:43,040 --> 00:48:47,200
Speaker 1: So Stuart goes and really presses him for the entire

895
00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:51,080
Speaker 1: fifteen minute interview on this one issue of why aren't

896
00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:55,239
Speaker 1: you giving people what they need, compensating them for the

897
00:48:55,640 --> 00:48:57,759
Speaker 1: wounds and the injuries and the cancer and all the

898
00:48:57,800 --> 00:49:01,080
Speaker 1: things that they've suffered from exposure to these tops burn pits.

899
00:49:01,360 --> 00:49:04,279
Speaker 1: It gets pretty uncomfortable. Take a listen to a little

900
00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:08,000
Speaker 1: bit of that interview. I'm really trying to understand what's

901
00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:11,800
Speaker 1: the bar you're looking for, because to not be able

902
00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:16,200
Speaker 1: to articulate that clearly really troubles me. I don't and

903
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:18,319
Speaker 1: by the way, I don't doubt your empathy and I

904
00:49:18,360 --> 00:49:20,359
Speaker 1: don't doubt your care. I really don't. And that's why

905
00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:23,239
Speaker 1: I'm here talking to him, and I don't really give

906
00:49:23,239 --> 00:49:27,120
Speaker 1: a shit as you show, don't. I don't really care

907
00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:28,560
Speaker 1: what you think if I'm doing a good job or not.

908
00:49:28,640 --> 00:49:31,000
Speaker 1: I care what the vets like we've got. I should

909
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:34,960
Speaker 1: show you this. Give me Isaiah's fourth thing. This is

910
00:49:35,080 --> 00:49:37,400
Speaker 1: from the panel we did with some veterans. I just

911
00:49:37,400 --> 00:49:39,799
Speaker 1: want you to listen to Isaiah James, who is an

912
00:49:39,800 --> 00:49:43,200
Speaker 1: infantryman who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was a

913
00:49:43,239 --> 00:49:45,560
Speaker 1: healthy kid. When I want to know, I've got to

914
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:47,600
Speaker 1: run five miles like it was nothing. Now I can

915
00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:49,680
Speaker 1: barely breathe a night. I've used a breathe machine and

916
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:51,880
Speaker 1: go through breathing treatments and all these things. And the

917
00:49:51,960 --> 00:49:54,520
Speaker 1: United States military and the government doesn't give a damn

918
00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:57,000
Speaker 1: about as once without once you're out. They do not

919
00:49:57,160 --> 00:50:00,080
Speaker 1: care if another country was doing to our veterans, but

920
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:02,279
Speaker 1: we allowed to be done to our veterans and get

921
00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:07,680
Speaker 1: more ready, you know that's that's hard to hear. Clearly

922
00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:09,680
Speaker 1: you would agree with his sentiments. I think to some extent,

923
00:50:10,239 --> 00:50:13,080
Speaker 1: I agree with all of his sentiment, each and every

924
00:50:13,120 --> 00:50:15,719
Speaker 1: bit of it. Right. And so you're asking a very

925
00:50:15,760 --> 00:50:20,120
Speaker 1: logical question, which is okay, so do you need like, uh,

926
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:24,359
Speaker 1: you know, three papers from five researchers or what is it?

927
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:27,960
Speaker 1: And I don't know the answer to that. I don't

928
00:50:28,040 --> 00:50:29,920
Speaker 1: know the answer. How do you know when you found it?

929
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:33,799
Speaker 1: I guess I'm trying to figure out as the executive,

930
00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:35,719
Speaker 1: you could do this in the stroke of a pen.

931
00:50:36,680 --> 00:50:39,040
Speaker 1: I wish I could, but I can't. You know, I've

932
00:50:39,080 --> 00:50:43,279
Speaker 1: asked for that, I've asked. My point is, I still

933
00:50:43,400 --> 00:50:46,560
Speaker 1: can't understand what this bar is that you talk about.

934
00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:49,000
Speaker 1: That's a statue. I wish the statue. I wish. I

935
00:50:49,000 --> 00:50:51,279
Speaker 1: wish it were like a puzzle. I keep asking the

936
00:50:51,320 --> 00:50:54,160
Speaker 1: same series of questions. Okay, so like, we got all

937
00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:56,160
Speaker 1: these pieces, and just tell me where to put them,

938
00:50:56,160 --> 00:50:58,000
Speaker 1: and then let's figure out which piece we're missing and

939
00:50:58,040 --> 00:51:00,799
Speaker 1: then we'll build that. Right. You know, I'm looking at

940
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:04,799
Speaker 1: all the options available to me, especially on them, as

941
00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:09,120
Speaker 1: I've said to you earlier, the most difficult cases. So

942
00:51:10,160 --> 00:51:12,600
Speaker 1: you can see there McDonough has no answers. No, he's

943
00:51:12,680 --> 00:51:15,000
Speaker 1: completely I don't know why sat like that. Also, what

944
00:51:15,040 --> 00:51:17,680
Speaker 1: do you get off cursing? Look, I get on, I

945
00:51:17,719 --> 00:51:20,560
Speaker 1: get mad about this. It's not I'm opposed to cursing whatever,

946
00:51:20,600 --> 00:51:23,120
Speaker 1: But it's like you're trying to appear tough when you're

947
00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:25,360
Speaker 1: the guy standing in the way of a lot of

948
00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:28,279
Speaker 1: vets actually getting the checks and the medical care that

949
00:51:28,320 --> 00:51:32,360
Speaker 1: they deserve. Sometime after how long has it been, fifteen years,

950
00:51:32,600 --> 00:51:35,120
Speaker 1: twenty years? I mean two thousand and three was a

951
00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:37,920
Speaker 1: long time ago. Okay. It actually goes back to the

952
00:51:37,960 --> 00:51:41,799
Speaker 1: original Gulf War is when they started doing this disposal

953
00:51:41,840 --> 00:51:46,080
Speaker 1: and incineration in these burn pits and the things that

954
00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:50,480
Speaker 1: you're I mean it's everything from you know, human feces

955
00:51:50,600 --> 00:51:54,200
Speaker 1: and blood and I mean chemicals, everything. You can imagine

956
00:51:55,080 --> 00:51:58,719
Speaker 1: everything right lit on fire with jet fuel. You know that.

957
00:51:58,840 --> 00:52:01,680
Speaker 1: And this is something else that Stuart knows. This is

958
00:52:01,680 --> 00:52:04,440
Speaker 1: issue inside it now, and so he presses him, what

959
00:52:04,480 --> 00:52:06,279
Speaker 1: are you talking about? You need more evidence. We know

960
00:52:06,400 --> 00:52:09,520
Speaker 1: that this chemical is toxic and causes cancer. We know

961
00:52:09,600 --> 00:52:12,239
Speaker 1: that this other chemical is toxic and causes cancer. We

962
00:52:12,320 --> 00:52:15,600
Speaker 1: know these people were exposed to those chemicals. What more

963
00:52:15,680 --> 00:52:19,200
Speaker 1: research do you need? Because tell us so we can

964
00:52:19,239 --> 00:52:22,160
Speaker 1: get it for you. Like, let's do it, right. If

965
00:52:22,160 --> 00:52:24,279
Speaker 1: the problem is we need more research than fine, let's

966
00:52:24,280 --> 00:52:26,480
Speaker 1: do it. But Stuart keeps coming back, do we have

967
00:52:26,520 --> 00:52:29,960
Speaker 1: the research we know the impact of these toxic chemicals,

968
00:52:30,320 --> 00:52:32,879
Speaker 1: and you can see in that clip, McDonough is very vague.

969
00:52:32,880 --> 00:52:34,560
Speaker 1: Oh well, it's like a puzzle piece and we just

970
00:52:34,560 --> 00:52:37,120
Speaker 1: got to put it together. That doesn't mean anything. That's

971
00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:40,080
Speaker 1: just you like word salading to get out of what

972
00:52:40,200 --> 00:52:42,560
Speaker 1: is clearly an uncomfortable moment where you've been put on

973
00:52:42,560 --> 00:52:45,920
Speaker 1: the spot and the whole thing is like that, totally vague,

974
00:52:46,320 --> 00:52:50,920
Speaker 1: totally dodging, zero answers. And you know what I appreciate

975
00:52:51,080 --> 00:52:56,000
Speaker 1: about Stuart here is because he's so famous. First of all,

976
00:52:56,040 --> 00:52:58,800
Speaker 1: he can get the interview. Yeah, he can get it.

977
00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:02,640
Speaker 1: Never give that to anybody else right. Next of all,

978
00:53:02,760 --> 00:53:06,120
Speaker 1: because he's Jon Stewart, he's able to get this deal

979
00:53:06,239 --> 00:53:10,560
Speaker 1: from Apple TV to do a show that is very,

980
00:53:11,200 --> 00:53:15,120
Speaker 1: very intense and very serious and with a weighty issue

981
00:53:15,200 --> 00:53:19,080
Speaker 1: that I think is it's a lot for people ultimately

982
00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:22,400
Speaker 1: to take in. So I'm impressed with the way that

983
00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:26,560
Speaker 1: he is using his tools and his celebrity and his

984
00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:32,240
Speaker 1: access to actually hold people with power to account, something

985
00:53:32,280 --> 00:53:35,319
Speaker 1: that you never see from the journalists in this town.

986
00:53:35,480 --> 00:53:38,160
Speaker 1: Rarest thing in the world. I've respected him for many years.

987
00:53:38,160 --> 00:53:42,040
Speaker 1: On Nine to eleven Victims, he always have these panels

988
00:53:42,040 --> 00:53:44,560
Speaker 1: of firefighters on the Daily Show who are calling out

989
00:53:44,600 --> 00:53:48,239
Speaker 1: like Mitch McConnell and others for holding up aid to

990
00:53:48,360 --> 00:53:50,600
Speaker 1: nine to eleven victims. And one of the things he

991
00:53:50,640 --> 00:53:53,600
Speaker 1: points out here is that the chemicals in burn pits

992
00:53:53,920 --> 00:53:57,719
Speaker 1: are the exact same chemicals in Agent Orange and the

993
00:53:57,760 --> 00:54:00,480
Speaker 1: same ones that cause health issues for nine to eleven

994
00:54:00,560 --> 00:54:03,879
Speaker 1: cleanup workers. So think about that. The US government has

995
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:09,160
Speaker 1: already created a program and recognized the danger of these

996
00:54:09,239 --> 00:54:12,319
Speaker 1: chemicals in the Agent Orange case and in the nine

997
00:54:12,320 --> 00:54:16,560
Speaker 1: to eleven cleanup case. So even to mount the scientific link,

998
00:54:16,920 --> 00:54:19,200
Speaker 1: if it's the same chemical, why do we have to

999
00:54:19,239 --> 00:54:23,400
Speaker 1: reprove it again? You already proved it twice. We accept

1000
00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:27,760
Speaker 1: nine to eleven cleanup workers deserve money from the fund

1001
00:54:28,120 --> 00:54:32,080
Speaker 1: Agent Orange people, same thing, Why not this one? And

1002
00:54:32,640 --> 00:54:37,800
Speaker 1: it's all just about delaying. Dennis McDonough cannot even answer

1003
00:54:37,920 --> 00:54:41,279
Speaker 1: at what point the scientific link is enough? And that's

1004
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:44,480
Speaker 1: the thing answer. Stuart is a multimillionaire. He could easily

1005
00:54:44,560 --> 00:54:48,000
Speaker 1: raise enough money in order to fund whatever research is needed.

1006
00:54:48,040 --> 00:54:49,920
Speaker 1: He goes, oh, you need five studies, I'll get you

1007
00:54:50,040 --> 00:54:54,440
Speaker 1: five double blind within two years, however long it takes.

1008
00:54:54,640 --> 00:54:57,040
Speaker 1: But the reason they're not answering is because it's just

1009
00:54:57,160 --> 00:55:01,040
Speaker 1: bureaucratic morass and nobody actually cares. Could he actually do

1010
00:55:01,120 --> 00:55:03,960
Speaker 1: it with a stroke of a pen? Probably yes, he

1011
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:07,120
Speaker 1: claims he can't, and yet you know, Stuart has pretty

1012
00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:09,920
Speaker 1: compelling evidence that the VA Secretary, if he really wants to,

1013
00:55:10,040 --> 00:55:12,439
Speaker 1: could And if he can't, who do you work for?

1014
00:55:12,719 --> 00:55:15,279
Speaker 1: Joe Biden? Why can't you go to Joe Biden and say, look,

1015
00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:18,040
Speaker 1: mister president, I know you're a busy man. You've got

1016
00:55:18,040 --> 00:55:20,840
Speaker 1: COVID blah blah blah, We've got the Biden likes to

1017
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:23,480
Speaker 1: think of himself as a big vets guy. Every president does,

1018
00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:26,719
Speaker 1: but then do something about it, and they aren't. And it's,

1019
00:55:26,760 --> 00:55:31,280
Speaker 1: like you said, eternal credit to John Stewart actually leveraging

1020
00:55:31,280 --> 00:55:33,840
Speaker 1: his celebrity to help people. There are a lot of

1021
00:55:33,920 --> 00:55:38,600
Speaker 1: nine to eleven firefighters, cops, cleanup workers who owe their

1022
00:55:38,640 --> 00:55:41,560
Speaker 1: ability to pay their bills to him, and we should

1023
00:55:41,960 --> 00:55:44,760
Speaker 1: I hope. I'm saying the same thing about burn picked victims,

1024
00:55:44,960 --> 00:55:46,640
Speaker 1: and the same thing. I did not know about it

1025
00:55:46,719 --> 00:55:48,880
Speaker 1: until he raised it to my attention. Yeah, and the

1026
00:55:48,920 --> 00:55:51,239
Speaker 1: more I read about it, I said, this is horrible, atrocious,

1027
00:55:51,360 --> 00:55:55,160
Speaker 1: And if Congress can muster the particle of syndrome, to

1028
00:55:55,600 --> 00:55:59,640
Speaker 1: provide funding for the victims of Anna syndrome, Then what's

1029
00:55:59,719 --> 00:56:02,640
Speaker 1: keeping you what is holding you back it certainly you

1030
00:56:02,640 --> 00:56:06,280
Speaker 1: didn't have all the research to back up Havana syndrom

1031
00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:09,520
Speaker 1: in backed. So this idea, we need ten more studies,

1032
00:56:09,560 --> 00:56:11,520
Speaker 1: we need eighteen more studies. We need to know more

1033
00:56:11,560 --> 00:56:15,000
Speaker 1: of a link. This is ridiculous. If you cared about

1034
00:56:15,040 --> 00:56:18,360
Speaker 1: these veterans, if you actually cared about these servicemen and women,

1035
00:56:18,920 --> 00:56:21,680
Speaker 1: after they've served, after they've done their after you've sent

1036
00:56:21,719 --> 00:56:25,600
Speaker 1: them overseas in these ridiculous, endless wars that you spend

1037
00:56:25,760 --> 00:56:28,560
Speaker 1: endless amounts of money on, and then that's the bottom line.

1038
00:56:28,600 --> 00:56:30,880
Speaker 1: When they come home, when they're injured, when they have

1039
00:56:30,960 --> 00:56:33,680
Speaker 1: brain injuries, when they have emotional injuries, when they have

1040
00:56:34,040 --> 00:56:36,959
Speaker 1: cancer because they were exposed to these toxic burn pits

1041
00:56:37,000 --> 00:56:40,640
Speaker 1: day in and day out. Suddenly, sorry, we can't do anything.

1042
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:42,920
Speaker 1: Our hands are tied. It's a puzzle piece. We just

1043
00:56:42,920 --> 00:56:45,680
Speaker 1: can't fit it together. We don't have the money, et cetera,

1044
00:56:45,760 --> 00:56:47,920
Speaker 1: et cetera, et cetera. And I think Stuart does a

1045
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:50,160
Speaker 1: very effective job. If you only watch one part of

1046
00:56:50,200 --> 00:56:53,520
Speaker 1: the show, watch that interview with Dennis McDonough Ye, because

1047
00:56:53,880 --> 00:56:57,440
Speaker 1: it's about fifteen minutes long, and Stuart thoroughly in a

1048
00:56:57,600 --> 00:57:02,399
Speaker 1: very nice but forceful way, exposes how full of shit

1049
00:57:02,760 --> 00:57:05,960
Speaker 1: they are. Ultimately absolutely wow. You guys must really like

1050
00:57:06,000 --> 00:57:07,960
Speaker 1: listening to our voices. While I know this is annoying,

1051
00:57:08,000 --> 00:57:10,640
Speaker 1: instead of making you listen to a Viagri commercial. When

1052
00:57:10,640 --> 00:57:12,799
Speaker 1: you're done, check out the other podcast I do with

1053
00:57:12,840 --> 00:57:15,440
Speaker 1: Marshall Kassoff called The Realignment. We talk a lot about

1054
00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:18,800
Speaker 1: the deeper issues that are changing realigning in American society.

1055
00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:21,240
Speaker 1: You always need more Crystal and Zag in your daily lives.

1056
00:57:21,360 --> 00:57:24,280
Speaker 1: Take care, guys, Crystal, what are you taking a look at? Well?

1057
00:57:24,320 --> 00:57:28,080
Speaker 1: Folks follows in the air and strike Tober has arrived,

1058
00:57:28,120 --> 00:57:30,960
Speaker 1: Grab your pumpkin spice latte and head over to a

1059
00:57:31,000 --> 00:57:34,560
Speaker 1: picket line because a nationwide wave of strikes is truly

1060
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:37,760
Speaker 1: roiling workplaces across the entire country. You got workers from

1061
00:57:37,800 --> 00:57:41,760
Speaker 1: Hollywood to Barstown, Kentucky who have authorized strikes and walked

1062
00:57:41,800 --> 00:57:44,400
Speaker 1: off of job sites. It's part of what I previously

1063
00:57:44,440 --> 00:57:48,280
Speaker 1: described as a low key, uncoordinated general strike. Workers who

1064
00:57:48,280 --> 00:57:51,600
Speaker 1: are crushing abuse and sickened during the pandemic. They are

1065
00:57:51,800 --> 00:57:53,680
Speaker 1: just not going to accept all the crap that they've

1066
00:57:53,720 --> 00:57:57,120
Speaker 1: been forced to accept for years and years. They saw

1067
00:57:57,200 --> 00:58:00,640
Speaker 1: the way that billionaires got richer and more powerful than

1068
00:58:00,680 --> 00:58:03,960
Speaker 1: ever as their lives were casually put a risk to

1069
00:58:03,960 --> 00:58:06,200
Speaker 1: make sure that the chicken nuggets stayed stocked and the

1070
00:58:06,240 --> 00:58:10,720
Speaker 1: garbage stayed picked up, called essential but treated as disposable.

1071
00:58:11,160 --> 00:58:13,760
Speaker 1: You can see why workers might feel emboldened right now too.

1072
00:58:13,800 --> 00:58:16,160
Speaker 1: A tight labor market is actually giving them the best

1073
00:58:16,200 --> 00:58:19,240
Speaker 1: leverage that they have had in decades. In fact, Goldman

1074
00:58:19,320 --> 00:58:22,640
Speaker 1: Sachs and a panicked memo to investors warning that wages

1075
00:58:22,680 --> 00:58:25,400
Speaker 1: for the working class jumped up a quote eye popping

1076
00:58:25,520 --> 00:58:28,400
Speaker 1: six percent in the third quarter. Now, that is a

1077
00:58:28,520 --> 00:58:31,600
Speaker 1: very modest sum, all things considered, but it is a

1078
00:58:31,680 --> 00:58:35,400
Speaker 1: dramatic figure. Given the forty year history of completely stagnant

1079
00:58:35,440 --> 00:58:38,840
Speaker 1: wages in this country. Businesses are actually having to compete

1080
00:58:38,840 --> 00:58:41,080
Speaker 1: a little bit for workers. They're having to increase wages,

1081
00:58:41,120 --> 00:58:44,160
Speaker 1: they're having increased benefits in order to win their labor.

1082
00:58:44,640 --> 00:58:46,800
Speaker 1: That gives workers a lot more confidence to take more

1083
00:58:46,800 --> 00:58:49,960
Speaker 1: militant action in and out of the workplace. Even so,

1084
00:58:50,640 --> 00:58:54,080
Speaker 1: going on strike is a profoundly courageous act and a

1085
00:58:54,160 --> 00:58:58,320
Speaker 1: last resort taken when all other options are exhausted. So

1086
00:58:58,560 --> 00:59:00,560
Speaker 1: what is the latest on this strikeway. Well, as we

1087
00:59:00,640 --> 00:59:04,160
Speaker 1: covered just a couple days ago, the massive union representing

1088
00:59:04,160 --> 00:59:07,360
Speaker 1: film crews and other production workers just voted to authorize

1089
00:59:07,360 --> 00:59:10,840
Speaker 1: a strike and the margin was overwhelming, with some ninety

1090
00:59:10,880 --> 00:59:13,440
Speaker 1: eight percent of workers voting to walk out if near

1091
00:59:13,520 --> 00:59:16,160
Speaker 1: term negotiations do not get them what they want. That

1092
00:59:16,200 --> 00:59:19,200
Speaker 1: would be a first in iatzi's one hundred and twenty

1093
00:59:19,240 --> 00:59:22,360
Speaker 1: eight year history. Makeup to sets, to editing, to lighting

1094
00:59:22,360 --> 00:59:24,640
Speaker 1: to food services, these are the folks who do the

1095
00:59:24,680 --> 00:59:28,680
Speaker 1: real work of making Hollywood in our entertainment industry complex

1096
00:59:28,840 --> 00:59:32,800
Speaker 1: go while stars and executives rake in millions. Now, a

1097
00:59:32,840 --> 00:59:35,280
Speaker 1: few things here fueled worker anger. First of all, they

1098
00:59:35,320 --> 00:59:38,000
Speaker 1: have long standing complaints about wages, about hours, about the

1099
00:59:38,040 --> 00:59:42,080
Speaker 1: availability of breaks. Second, production timelines have been ramped up

1100
00:59:42,120 --> 00:59:44,480
Speaker 1: to a blistering pace to make up for lost time

1101
00:59:44,560 --> 00:59:49,160
Speaker 1: during COVID, And finally, streaming services were granted concessions when

1102
00:59:49,200 --> 00:59:51,960
Speaker 1: the industry was just getting off the ground. Now that

1103
00:59:52,040 --> 00:59:55,480
Speaker 1: services like Netflix and Amazon Prime are fully mature, there

1104
00:59:55,560 --> 00:59:58,920
Speaker 1: is no reason why workers on those productions shouldn't be

1105
00:59:58,960 --> 01:00:02,480
Speaker 1: treated the same as anyone else. So that's the IATZI

1106
01:00:02,640 --> 01:00:05,560
Speaker 1: strike authorization. But even more has happened just in the

1107
01:00:05,640 --> 01:00:08,720
Speaker 1: last forty eight hours. According to labor reporter Joonah Furman,

1108
01:00:09,240 --> 01:00:11,920
Speaker 1: four thousand more workers have gone on strike in just

1109
01:00:12,000 --> 01:00:15,320
Speaker 1: the last few days across four different unions. So we've

1110
01:00:15,320 --> 01:00:18,640
Speaker 1: got fourteen hundred Kellogg workers. They launched strikes at plants

1111
01:00:18,640 --> 01:00:22,920
Speaker 1: in Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee over things like terrible schedules,

1112
01:00:23,280 --> 01:00:25,920
Speaker 1: low wages, and a two tier system that breaks the

1113
01:00:25,960 --> 01:00:28,240
Speaker 1: solidarity of the shop floor and can sign some workers

1114
01:00:28,320 --> 01:00:32,280
Speaker 1: to second class citizenship. You have two thousand telecom workers

1115
01:00:32,400 --> 01:00:36,240
Speaker 1: on strike in California over unfair labor practices. At issue

1116
01:00:36,240 --> 01:00:39,640
Speaker 1: are similar things healthcare costs, wages, and the company's increasing

1117
01:00:39,680 --> 01:00:43,720
Speaker 1: reliance on contractors. You've got four hundred hospital workers who

1118
01:00:43,720 --> 01:00:47,320
Speaker 1: walk down in Oregon. Their concerns range from understaffing and

1119
01:00:47,400 --> 01:00:52,640
Speaker 1: low wages to an outsourcing threat and insufficient COVID protections. Finally,

1120
01:00:52,920 --> 01:00:55,960
Speaker 1: one hundred bus drivers went on strike in ann Arandel County, Maryland.

1121
01:00:56,040 --> 01:01:00,640
Speaker 1: Among their demands are paid overtime, sick leave, and living wages. Again,

1122
01:01:00,840 --> 01:01:03,640
Speaker 1: that is all just in the last two days. These

1123
01:01:03,760 --> 01:01:08,320
Speaker 1: four thousand workers join thousands who are already out on strike.

1124
01:01:08,840 --> 01:01:13,320
Speaker 1: From steel workers and miners to teachers, even symphony musicians.

1125
01:01:13,520 --> 01:01:16,240
Speaker 1: These workers are everywhere across the country. They work in

1126
01:01:16,280 --> 01:01:19,560
Speaker 1: blue collar, white collar, and service sector jobs, and they

1127
01:01:19,560 --> 01:01:22,840
Speaker 1: are united in one thing, their courageous willingness to risk

1128
01:01:22,840 --> 01:01:25,960
Speaker 1: their livelihood and solidarity with their brothers and sisters, and

1129
01:01:26,000 --> 01:01:30,200
Speaker 1: in defense of their own worth and dignity. So Joniferman,

1130
01:01:30,240 --> 01:01:33,480
Speaker 1: he tracks every strike or authorization, picket and union election

1131
01:01:33,560 --> 01:01:35,680
Speaker 1: at his substack. It's called who Gets the Bird? I

1132
01:01:35,720 --> 01:01:38,320
Speaker 1: am a subscriber. You should definitely be a subscriber as well.

1133
01:01:38,360 --> 01:01:40,760
Speaker 1: He's doing a great job there. But when you add

1134
01:01:40,800 --> 01:01:44,120
Speaker 1: it all up, we are truly looking at a title

1135
01:01:44,160 --> 01:01:47,200
Speaker 1: wave of working class revolt from coast to coast. And

1136
01:01:47,280 --> 01:01:50,560
Speaker 1: yet have you heard a word of any of this

1137
01:01:50,920 --> 01:01:54,680
Speaker 1: from corporate media. Of course not. They disappeared their labor

1138
01:01:54,720 --> 01:01:57,600
Speaker 1: reporters years ago. They have contempt and disdain for the

1139
01:01:57,600 --> 01:02:00,360
Speaker 1: working class to start with. After all, some of these

1140
01:02:00,400 --> 01:02:03,000
Speaker 1: workers might have voted for Trump or even failed to

1141
01:02:03,040 --> 01:02:06,280
Speaker 1: get vaxed. And there's no cheap partisan angle or dramatic

1142
01:02:06,320 --> 01:02:09,680
Speaker 1: Russia's spy a collusion novel angle. But even more to

1143
01:02:09,680 --> 01:02:13,880
Speaker 1: the point, black, white, and brown workers fighting together in solidarity.

1144
01:02:13,960 --> 01:02:16,600
Speaker 1: It goes against their core narrative, the core narrative that

1145
01:02:16,640 --> 01:02:19,600
Speaker 1: these people are selling day in and day out. We're

1146
01:02:19,600 --> 01:02:21,720
Speaker 1: supposed to hate each other. We're supposed to be inches

1147
01:02:21,800 --> 01:02:24,160
Speaker 1: from a civil war. We're supposed to understand that the

1148
01:02:24,200 --> 01:02:26,560
Speaker 1: greatest threat to our lives is the Trump supporter or

1149
01:02:26,600 --> 01:02:29,640
Speaker 1: the AOC supporter the next town over. We're supposed to

1150
01:02:29,680 --> 01:02:32,320
Speaker 1: listen to the experts, and the experts are telling workers

1151
01:02:32,360 --> 01:02:34,880
Speaker 1: to shut up and get back to work. But these

1152
01:02:34,920 --> 01:02:38,840
Speaker 1: striking workers have actually identified the real proximate source of

1153
01:02:38,960 --> 01:02:42,080
Speaker 1: needless struggle in their lives. It's their corporate bosses who

1154
01:02:42,120 --> 01:02:44,560
Speaker 1: have raked in cash while keeping their workers in poverty.

1155
01:02:45,000 --> 01:02:48,680
Speaker 1: Or for the public sector workers, it's a corrupt political

1156
01:02:48,680 --> 01:02:51,400
Speaker 1: system that would starve bus drivers and cut school budgets

1157
01:02:51,440 --> 01:02:54,560
Speaker 1: in order to build another bomb. Or for the hospital workers,

1158
01:02:54,600 --> 01:02:57,360
Speaker 1: a healthcare system that puts executive and corporate profits over

1159
01:02:57,440 --> 01:03:02,080
Speaker 1: health every single day, Corruption and greed of an overclass

1160
01:03:02,080 --> 01:03:06,160
Speaker 1: happy to set workers upon each other to keep themselves unscathed.

1161
01:03:06,640 --> 01:03:09,680
Speaker 1: In other words, these strikes tell a dangerous truth that

1162
01:03:09,720 --> 01:03:12,640
Speaker 1: the media just can't stand that even with the deck

1163
01:03:12,680 --> 01:03:15,400
Speaker 1: stackt and the game rigged and the politicians bought and

1164
01:03:15,480 --> 01:03:19,240
Speaker 1: the media captured. The people still have power, and it

1165
01:03:19,280 --> 01:03:22,880
Speaker 1: looks like this fall they intend to use it. And Sag.

1166
01:03:23,040 --> 01:03:25,160
Speaker 1: You know, I was kind of watching these little indications

1167
01:03:25,160 --> 01:03:27,840
Speaker 1: and going like, is it just that there's a little

1168
01:03:27,880 --> 01:03:30,440
Speaker 1: bit more one more thing? I promise. Just wanted to

1169
01:03:30,440 --> 01:03:33,120
Speaker 1: make sure you knew about my podcast with Kyle Kolinski.

1170
01:03:33,200 --> 01:03:35,600
Speaker 1: It's called Crystal, Kyle and Friends, where we do long

1171
01:03:35,640 --> 01:03:38,760
Speaker 1: form interviews with people like Nom Chomsky, Cornell West, and

1172
01:03:38,800 --> 01:03:42,600
Speaker 1: Glenn Greenwald. You can listen on any podcast platform, or

1173
01:03:42,640 --> 01:03:45,120
Speaker 1: you can subscribe over on substack to get the video

1174
01:03:45,120 --> 01:03:47,800
Speaker 1: a day early. We're gonna stop bugging you now enjoy,

1175
01:03:48,600 --> 01:03:50,600
Speaker 1: all right, Sager, what are you looking at? Well? If

1176
01:03:50,600 --> 01:03:52,800
Speaker 1: there is a single thing Donald Trump did in office

1177
01:03:52,800 --> 01:03:55,880
Speaker 1: which will resonate beyond the ages, it was his recognition

1178
01:03:55,960 --> 01:03:59,720
Speaker 1: that the US economic relationship with China was untenable. For

1179
01:03:59,760 --> 01:04:03,200
Speaker 1: all of his buffoonery and poorly executed actual deals with

1180
01:04:03,280 --> 01:04:06,320
Speaker 1: that nation, To his credit, he never actually buckled in

1181
01:04:06,360 --> 01:04:09,880
Speaker 1: his belief that China systematically abused the global financial system

1182
01:04:10,120 --> 01:04:13,600
Speaker 1: the openness of the US economy to buy off American elites,

1183
01:04:13,680 --> 01:04:17,000
Speaker 1: and to take millions of our best manufacturing jobs. When

1184
01:04:17,000 --> 01:04:20,160
Speaker 1: Trump declared a trade war with China, the entire political

1185
01:04:20,280 --> 01:04:23,160
Speaker 1: establishment said that he was a madman. But it was

1186
01:04:23,200 --> 01:04:25,720
Speaker 1: one of the few areas of politics where a vast

1187
01:04:25,760 --> 01:04:29,440
Speaker 1: majority of the American people were united behind him. It's

1188
01:04:29,480 --> 01:04:32,120
Speaker 1: exactly for that reason that I watched with great interest

1189
01:04:32,280 --> 01:04:34,640
Speaker 1: what Joe Biden would do while he was in office.

1190
01:04:34,800 --> 01:04:37,720
Speaker 1: Biden's problems with China are not a secret. Obviously, he

1191
01:04:37,800 --> 01:04:41,200
Speaker 1: voted for NAFTA enthusiastically. He voted for permanent normal trade

1192
01:04:41,240 --> 01:04:44,720
Speaker 1: relations with China and Chinese entrants into the WTO. During

1193
01:04:44,720 --> 01:04:48,120
Speaker 1: his tenure as VP under Obama, perhaps the most disgraceful

1194
01:04:48,160 --> 01:04:51,800
Speaker 1: time of US policy towards China, Biden bragged about spending

1195
01:04:51,800 --> 01:04:54,760
Speaker 1: more time with Shi shehingping than any other world leader.

1196
01:04:55,440 --> 01:04:57,800
Speaker 1: And of course, he literally kicked off his campaign for

1197
01:04:57,880 --> 01:05:00,880
Speaker 1: president saying, come on, man, to so the idea that

1198
01:05:01,000 --> 01:05:03,320
Speaker 1: China was eating our lunch. Whenever it came to the economy,

1199
01:05:03,600 --> 01:05:06,000
Speaker 1: Biden never answered the question of whether he would rescind

1200
01:05:06,000 --> 01:05:09,040
Speaker 1: Trump's tariffs or not. During the campaign. He never could

1201
01:05:09,200 --> 01:05:11,840
Speaker 1: quite admit that the Orange Man actually did get quite

1202
01:05:11,880 --> 01:05:14,000
Speaker 1: a few things right. While he was in office, and

1203
01:05:14,040 --> 01:05:16,600
Speaker 1: Biden is now trying to have it both ways. He

1204
01:05:16,720 --> 01:05:18,880
Speaker 1: is trying to both get the headline that he's tough

1205
01:05:18,920 --> 01:05:21,640
Speaker 1: on China, that he's following through on the Trump policy.

1206
01:05:21,920 --> 01:05:24,360
Speaker 1: But if you look closely enough, he just did the

1207
01:05:24,400 --> 01:05:27,000
Speaker 1: bidding of Corporate America to get them off the hook

1208
01:05:27,080 --> 01:05:29,480
Speaker 1: in a big way. This all starts with the recent

1209
01:05:29,520 --> 01:05:32,960
Speaker 1: speech by the US Trade Representative Catherine Tie, in which

1210
01:05:33,040 --> 01:05:36,919
Speaker 1: she declared the administration would not immediately remove the Trump

1211
01:05:37,000 --> 01:05:40,680
Speaker 1: tariffs on China and would actually require Beijing to uphold

1212
01:05:40,680 --> 01:05:44,440
Speaker 1: its commitments in a trade deal that was negotiated under Trump. Okay,

1213
01:05:45,080 --> 01:05:48,080
Speaker 1: so far, so good. Right, No, Because while the Biden

1214
01:05:48,080 --> 01:05:51,080
Speaker 1: administration got the New York Times headline that they wanted,

1215
01:05:51,520 --> 01:05:54,280
Speaker 1: buried within the speech and within the actual policy of

1216
01:05:54,320 --> 01:05:58,200
Speaker 1: the government was a little noticed but dramatically important provision.

1217
01:05:58,520 --> 01:06:00,720
Speaker 1: Friend of the Show Matt Stoler was quick to point out.

1218
01:06:01,000 --> 01:06:04,680
Speaker 1: Buried within the story was a paragraph that says, quote However,

1219
01:06:04,800 --> 01:06:07,280
Speaker 1: in a move that would offer some relief to businesses

1220
01:06:07,280 --> 01:06:10,760
Speaker 1: that import Chinese products, the administration said that it would

1221
01:06:10,920 --> 01:06:14,920
Speaker 1: re establish an expired process that gives companies a reprieve

1222
01:06:15,160 --> 01:06:19,760
Speaker 1: by excluding them from tariffs. Furthermore, these exclusions at the

1223
01:06:19,800 --> 01:06:23,040
Speaker 1: sole discretion of the priorities of the Biden administration. So

1224
01:06:23,800 --> 01:06:27,440
Speaker 1: immediately after the speech by Catherine Tie, the US submitted

1225
01:06:27,480 --> 01:06:31,120
Speaker 1: public comments on its plans to change the administrative procedure,

1226
01:06:31,320 --> 01:06:33,520
Speaker 1: in which they said that they would extend exclusions on

1227
01:06:33,600 --> 01:06:39,160
Speaker 1: tariffs to five hundred and forty nine different import product categories. Now,

1228
01:06:39,320 --> 01:06:42,280
Speaker 1: I actually went and read all of those product categories

1229
01:06:42,440 --> 01:06:45,600
Speaker 1: that they submitted, and some of them are not so great.

1230
01:06:45,920 --> 01:06:49,400
Speaker 1: Number three on the list is radiation therapy systems. Next

1231
01:06:49,480 --> 01:06:53,280
Speaker 1: caught my eye was water filtration system Next, automated data

1232
01:06:53,320 --> 01:06:57,840
Speaker 1: processing storage units, next, electric motors, pipe brackets for aluminum

1233
01:06:58,000 --> 01:07:01,560
Speaker 1: X ray tables, various types of meta including steel brackets,

1234
01:07:01,760 --> 01:07:06,680
Speaker 1: digital video cameras, and a lot lot more. In other words,

1235
01:07:06,840 --> 01:07:09,400
Speaker 1: here's what happened. The Biden administration said they're going to

1236
01:07:09,480 --> 01:07:12,919
Speaker 1: keep tariffs, but after massive pressure from big business, they

1237
01:07:12,960 --> 01:07:16,680
Speaker 1: revived the provision of a law which grants exemptions out

1238
01:07:16,840 --> 01:07:20,400
Speaker 1: like candy. Now, those exemptions are determined by them as

1239
01:07:20,440 --> 01:07:23,280
Speaker 1: long as they follow the rules which they wrote. Do

1240
01:07:23,320 --> 01:07:25,960
Speaker 1: you follow. The whole point of these tariffs was simple

1241
01:07:26,200 --> 01:07:30,640
Speaker 1: to reduce US supply dependency on China for its most

1242
01:07:30,760 --> 01:07:34,160
Speaker 1: critical goods. Who remembers April twenty twenty when we literally

1243
01:07:34,160 --> 01:07:37,560
Speaker 1: couldn't get our own ventilators or personal protective equipment, or

1244
01:07:37,600 --> 01:07:39,920
Speaker 1: when we found out we literally make nothing here that

1245
01:07:40,000 --> 01:07:43,080
Speaker 1: we actually need to survive during a deadly pandemic. It

1246
01:07:43,080 --> 01:07:45,920
Speaker 1: should have been a wake up call. Remember, though, a

1247
01:07:45,960 --> 01:07:47,760
Speaker 1: whole lot of people on Wall Street and in C

1248
01:07:47,880 --> 01:07:51,720
Speaker 1: suites have made billions of dollars by keeping us less

1249
01:07:51,720 --> 01:07:55,480
Speaker 1: safe here at home, by buying subpar products from China

1250
01:07:55,880 --> 01:07:59,120
Speaker 1: then crowding out any competitors. Then they also make it

1251
01:07:59,200 --> 01:08:01,720
Speaker 1: so you have no their option to buy anything else.

1252
01:08:02,640 --> 01:08:06,080
Speaker 1: These terrace exemptions and the dark process behind who gets

1253
01:08:06,120 --> 01:08:09,200
Speaker 1: them is none other than a multi billion dollar giveaway

1254
01:08:09,360 --> 01:08:12,840
Speaker 1: to corporate America. And make no mistake, those in Beijing

1255
01:08:13,120 --> 01:08:16,680
Speaker 1: know exactly what this means. They have been salivating and

1256
01:08:16,760 --> 01:08:20,000
Speaker 1: pressuring the highest levels of business here in America to

1257
01:08:20,120 --> 01:08:22,760
Speaker 1: open up a single front within the trade war for

1258
01:08:22,880 --> 01:08:27,679
Speaker 1: years to get some exemption status somewhere, get the government

1259
01:08:27,720 --> 01:08:30,720
Speaker 1: to buckle under Trump. They did not. But this here

1260
01:08:30,760 --> 01:08:34,200
Speaker 1: will be two things. It will be a lobbying bonanza

1261
01:08:34,400 --> 01:08:37,599
Speaker 1: to get your company included in this exemption. And two

1262
01:08:37,640 --> 01:08:40,479
Speaker 1: it's going to show the Chinese a return to business

1263
01:08:40,600 --> 01:08:43,800
Speaker 1: as usual. Remember, they got where they are today by

1264
01:08:43,960 --> 01:08:47,760
Speaker 1: exploiting systems just like this in the World Trade Organization

1265
01:08:47,960 --> 01:08:50,280
Speaker 1: where they are technically rules. But if you know which

1266
01:08:50,280 --> 01:08:52,639
Speaker 1: ones you cannot follow and which ones you can contest

1267
01:08:52,720 --> 01:08:55,559
Speaker 1: in court or get an exemption, within twenty years, you

1268
01:08:55,640 --> 01:08:58,600
Speaker 1: become a regional economic hedgemon and a global competitor of

1269
01:08:58,600 --> 01:09:02,160
Speaker 1: the United States. Real extension of these tariffs would have

1270
01:09:02,240 --> 01:09:06,960
Speaker 1: forced these American companies to seek permanent supply chains outside

1271
01:09:07,000 --> 01:09:10,360
Speaker 1: of China, set up new business relationships. It would have

1272
01:09:10,439 --> 01:09:13,240
Speaker 1: kept us safer, and yes, I will not lie to you,

1273
01:09:13,439 --> 01:09:16,160
Speaker 1: prices would go up slightly, But you should think of it.

1274
01:09:16,400 --> 01:09:18,800
Speaker 1: Not in the short term, but in the long Is

1275
01:09:18,840 --> 01:09:21,840
Speaker 1: it worth being wholly reliant on your main competitor on

1276
01:09:21,880 --> 01:09:24,800
Speaker 1: the global stage in your time of most desperate need.

1277
01:09:25,080 --> 01:09:28,479
Speaker 1: Almost any red blooded American would say hell no. That

1278
01:09:28,640 --> 01:09:31,760
Speaker 1: is why the Biden team has chosen this route. They

1279
01:09:31,800 --> 01:09:35,080
Speaker 1: wanted the headline, They wanted America behind them in a

1280
01:09:35,120 --> 01:09:38,360
Speaker 1: trade war. But don't let them get away with this giveaway.

1281
01:09:38,560 --> 01:09:41,040
Speaker 1: For that matter, don't let whoever comes next get away

1282
01:09:41,040 --> 01:09:42,960
Speaker 1: with it either. This is a game that we are

1283
01:09:42,960 --> 01:09:45,679
Speaker 1: going to play now and we'll be playing for decades

1284
01:09:45,720 --> 01:09:48,000
Speaker 1: to come. And it's amazing, Crystal, because you have to

1285
01:09:48,040 --> 01:09:50,960
Speaker 1: have the wherewithal to know what the exempt Joining us

1286
01:09:50,960 --> 01:09:55,439
Speaker 1: now is the Democratic nominee for Mayor of Buffalo, New York,

1287
01:09:55,680 --> 01:09:57,880
Speaker 1: India Walton. Great to see it, India, Welcome, good to

1288
01:09:57,880 --> 01:10:00,320
Speaker 1: see you, India, Thank you, thank you, thank you so

1289
01:10:00,439 --> 01:10:02,080
Speaker 1: much for having me. Great to see you as well.

1290
01:10:02,320 --> 01:10:05,120
Speaker 1: Of course, so I gave people a little bit of

1291
01:10:05,160 --> 01:10:10,040
Speaker 1: a preview. Won the nomination. You defeated the incumbent Democratic mayor,

1292
01:10:10,280 --> 01:10:13,719
Speaker 1: Byron Brown. He has not given up. First he sort

1293
01:10:13,720 --> 01:10:16,360
Speaker 1: of tried to do a kind of bogus third party

1294
01:10:16,560 --> 01:10:18,920
Speaker 1: thing and get himself back on the ballot that got

1295
01:10:18,920 --> 01:10:22,040
Speaker 1: tossed down by the courts. Now he's running a write

1296
01:10:22,080 --> 01:10:24,160
Speaker 1: in campaign. Just bring us up to speed about where

1297
01:10:24,160 --> 01:10:29,479
Speaker 1: the campaign stands today. Sure, So we've always run a

1298
01:10:29,600 --> 01:10:33,519
Speaker 1: very vigorous campaign with the robust field game. Even during

1299
01:10:33,560 --> 01:10:36,000
Speaker 1: the primary when we were pretty much being ignored, we

1300
01:10:36,080 --> 01:10:38,760
Speaker 1: knew that our key to victory was going to be

1301
01:10:38,840 --> 01:10:43,479
Speaker 1: voter contact, talking to everyday folks, working class people of Buffalo.

1302
01:10:43,560 --> 01:10:46,200
Speaker 1: So we've continued to do that. But we've also really

1303
01:10:46,200 --> 01:10:50,160
Speaker 1: stepped up our fundraising in our paid media game. My

1304
01:10:50,479 --> 01:10:55,200
Speaker 1: opponent is being well funded by members of the GOP

1305
01:10:55,520 --> 01:11:01,960
Speaker 1: and fire Right. So we're really just the strategy of

1306
01:11:02,720 --> 01:11:06,360
Speaker 1: organizers who are on doors and on phones and having

1307
01:11:06,720 --> 01:11:12,799
Speaker 1: relational organizing relationships with constituents and voters, but also marrying

1308
01:11:12,920 --> 01:11:17,919
Speaker 1: that with traditional path to victory including paid media, sending

1309
01:11:18,280 --> 01:11:22,120
Speaker 1: mail pieces and other things that get the general electorate

1310
01:11:22,479 --> 01:11:26,519
Speaker 1: more energized. Yeah. I mean, Crystal updated me on your

1311
01:11:26,520 --> 01:11:28,760
Speaker 1: situation India, and I was pretty fascinated by it. We

1312
01:11:28,800 --> 01:11:30,439
Speaker 1: have a New York Times story. We can put that

1313
01:11:30,520 --> 01:11:32,800
Speaker 1: up there on the screen. I mean, you won the

1314
01:11:32,920 --> 01:11:37,040
Speaker 1: Democratic primary, but the person that you beat isn't giving up.

1315
01:11:37,360 --> 01:11:39,560
Speaker 1: How did you win the Democratic primary? Why do you

1316
01:11:39,600 --> 01:11:42,519
Speaker 1: think that this person did not get the number of

1317
01:11:42,560 --> 01:11:45,679
Speaker 1: votes that you did, that you ultimately prevailed, and then

1318
01:11:45,800 --> 01:11:48,360
Speaker 1: what does it say about his decision not to or

1319
01:11:48,400 --> 01:11:53,040
Speaker 1: to continue in the race. Yeah, I think that we

1320
01:11:53,080 --> 01:11:56,559
Speaker 1: won the primary because the voters of Buffalo are largely

1321
01:11:56,640 --> 01:12:00,880
Speaker 1: disappointed with the leadership that's been displayed. You know, this

1322
01:12:00,960 --> 01:12:03,559
Speaker 1: is a person my opponent has been in office for

1323
01:12:03,600 --> 01:12:06,160
Speaker 1: sixteen years, and I think that there have been some

1324
01:12:06,280 --> 01:12:09,280
Speaker 1: positive changes to Buffalo. But by and large, there are

1325
01:12:09,280 --> 01:12:12,200
Speaker 1: a lot of working class people, people of color, people

1326
01:12:12,200 --> 01:12:15,200
Speaker 1: who live in poor and marginalized communities, who have not

1327
01:12:15,240 --> 01:12:19,000
Speaker 1: seen the material conditions of their lives change, who want

1328
01:12:19,120 --> 01:12:25,320
Speaker 1: something different. And I think our deep relational organizing strategy,

1329
01:12:25,760 --> 01:12:29,439
Speaker 1: along with his failure to engage the electorate period, you know,

1330
01:12:29,560 --> 01:12:34,479
Speaker 1: over the course of the last ten twelve years, feeling

1331
01:12:34,680 --> 01:12:37,360
Speaker 1: entitled to the office of mayor as if he doesn't

1332
01:12:37,360 --> 01:12:39,600
Speaker 1: have to answer to the people who elected him, was

1333
01:12:39,640 --> 01:12:42,439
Speaker 1: really a perfect storm to repel us to victory. And

1334
01:12:42,600 --> 01:12:44,840
Speaker 1: I'm proud of the work that we've done. I'm proud

1335
01:12:44,840 --> 01:12:47,600
Speaker 1: that we've been able to shine a national spotlight on

1336
01:12:47,680 --> 01:12:52,840
Speaker 1: Buffalo in a positive way that centers people, that focuses care, compassion,

1337
01:12:53,200 --> 01:12:58,519
Speaker 1: and our solidarity economy and our mutual EID networks that

1338
01:12:58,560 --> 01:13:02,200
Speaker 1: have cropped up. Looking forward to bringing home the victory

1339
01:13:02,479 --> 01:13:07,760
Speaker 1: in November India. Who has been backing your opponent? What

1340
01:13:07,880 --> 01:13:12,640
Speaker 1: has the Democratic Party done, because the reporting has been

1341
01:13:12,680 --> 01:13:15,439
Speaker 1: there's been a bit of a divide, just break down.

1342
01:13:15,680 --> 01:13:18,000
Speaker 1: You know, have they gotten in fully behind you or

1343
01:13:18,040 --> 01:13:20,840
Speaker 1: are they fundraising for you? Are they organizing for you?

1344
01:13:20,920 --> 01:13:25,679
Speaker 1: What has been the response? Well, you know I wasn't

1345
01:13:25,720 --> 01:13:29,840
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party nominee for the primary. My opponent was.

1346
01:13:30,160 --> 01:13:33,480
Speaker 1: But after I won the primary, a lot of Democrats

1347
01:13:33,560 --> 01:13:36,120
Speaker 1: kind of fell in line right the vote blue no

1348
01:13:36,200 --> 01:13:39,280
Speaker 1: matter who folks came along. I do have the support

1349
01:13:39,360 --> 01:13:45,400
Speaker 1: of the Erie County Democratic Committee of our chairman. Locally, However,

1350
01:13:45,439 --> 01:13:48,640
Speaker 1: we've not seen the flood of support that we've expected

1351
01:13:48,920 --> 01:13:51,880
Speaker 1: from local and statewide Democrats. And that's okay, right. I

1352
01:13:51,920 --> 01:13:56,040
Speaker 1: think that this campaign and I as a candidate, I'm

1353
01:13:56,160 --> 01:14:00,240
Speaker 1: largely unknown, so I understand the reluctance that some people

1354
01:14:00,320 --> 01:14:03,920
Speaker 1: might have. Also in Buffalo, we have a culture of

1355
01:14:05,160 --> 01:14:10,040
Speaker 1: retribution and you know, quid pro quo that precludes a

1356
01:14:10,080 --> 01:14:12,800
Speaker 1: lot of people from being able to be vocal supporters

1357
01:14:13,080 --> 01:14:15,320
Speaker 1: before they know what the entire lay of the land is.

1358
01:14:15,400 --> 01:14:18,400
Speaker 1: So I get it, but that's not going to deter us.

1359
01:14:18,520 --> 01:14:24,320
Speaker 1: We have established our own apparatus outside of the established

1360
01:14:25,160 --> 01:14:27,719
Speaker 1: party that we are very proud of. But I'm even

1361
01:14:27,760 --> 01:14:30,479
Speaker 1: more proud to be the bridge that brings sort of

1362
01:14:30,520 --> 01:14:36,320
Speaker 1: the outside contingency of more activisty groups right along with

1363
01:14:36,400 --> 01:14:39,639
Speaker 1: the more corporate Democrats locally to make sure that we're

1364
01:14:39,640 --> 01:14:42,040
Speaker 1: on the same page. And that means that we're prioritizing

1365
01:14:42,320 --> 01:14:46,879
Speaker 1: working class, poor people, brown people, women, children, the elderly,

1366
01:14:46,920 --> 01:14:50,040
Speaker 1: and the most vulnerable in our society, who really is

1367
01:14:50,280 --> 01:14:54,360
Speaker 1: traditionally in the less since since I've been a Democrat,

1368
01:14:54,400 --> 01:14:58,599
Speaker 1: which is all my life, the people we purport to support,

1369
01:14:58,680 --> 01:15:02,320
Speaker 1: and I think that this campaign is going to send

1370
01:15:02,479 --> 01:15:07,720
Speaker 1: a very loud message that this is where we are

1371
01:15:07,800 --> 01:15:09,920
Speaker 1: and where we're going. Let me ask you about one

1372
01:15:09,920 --> 01:15:13,400
Speaker 1: specific example that I've found kind of perplexing and maybe

1373
01:15:13,439 --> 01:15:15,680
Speaker 1: you can help explain why this is going on. So,

1374
01:15:15,760 --> 01:15:19,320
Speaker 1: Kathy Hochel is now governor of New York. She has

1375
01:15:19,360 --> 01:15:24,120
Speaker 1: made prioritizing women and elevating women. It's something she talks

1376
01:15:24,120 --> 01:15:26,680
Speaker 1: about a lot. And my understanding is you'd be the

1377
01:15:26,680 --> 01:15:29,880
Speaker 1: first woman mayor of Buffalo, and certainly the first black

1378
01:15:29,920 --> 01:15:34,080
Speaker 1: woman mayor of Buffalo, and yet Kathy Hochel has not

1379
01:15:34,120 --> 01:15:37,160
Speaker 1: supported you. Have you had conversations with her? You and

1380
01:15:37,600 --> 01:15:39,880
Speaker 1: what is it that? Why are they afraid to wait

1381
01:15:39,920 --> 01:15:43,080
Speaker 1: in and support of you? Are the Democratic nominee for

1382
01:15:43,240 --> 01:15:45,960
Speaker 1: the seat. Now, what is the reluctance? Where does that

1383
01:15:46,000 --> 01:15:50,760
Speaker 1: come from? I think that both in Western New York

1384
01:15:50,840 --> 01:15:55,240
Speaker 1: and in New York State, our established Democrats have a

1385
01:15:55,320 --> 01:15:59,760
Speaker 1: tendency to do what's politically expedient. I've had interactions with

1386
01:16:00,720 --> 01:16:03,960
Speaker 1: I've not had any sit down conversations about what I

1387
01:16:04,000 --> 01:16:07,960
Speaker 1: believe in, what my agenda is, or how we can

1388
01:16:08,040 --> 01:16:11,200
Speaker 1: work together. However, I think that some decisions that she's

1389
01:16:11,320 --> 01:16:15,439
Speaker 1: made recently speaks to things that I want to champion

1390
01:16:15,600 --> 01:16:18,479
Speaker 1: on a municipal level, and no matter what, we'll be

1391
01:16:18,560 --> 01:16:22,000
Speaker 1: able to work together. But again, I think that you know,

1392
01:16:22,080 --> 01:16:25,160
Speaker 1: the governor's place in a very precarious position where we

1393
01:16:25,240 --> 01:16:30,400
Speaker 1: have very well established Democrats who are entrenched in a

1394
01:16:30,439 --> 01:16:34,840
Speaker 1: system that doesn't allow space for people like me traditionally.

1395
01:16:35,439 --> 01:16:37,640
Speaker 1: So I understand the reluctance of a lot of very

1396
01:16:37,760 --> 01:16:42,120
Speaker 1: established Democrats for getting involved in the race, and I'm

1397
01:16:42,160 --> 01:16:43,960
Speaker 1: willing to be patient, and I'm going to work with

1398
01:16:44,000 --> 01:16:47,320
Speaker 1: people whenever they decide to come along, and not put

1399
01:16:47,360 --> 01:16:51,000
Speaker 1: the pressure on whether they support me or not, because

1400
01:16:51,040 --> 01:16:53,719
Speaker 1: I know that my base of support is coming from voters,

1401
01:16:54,000 --> 01:16:56,439
Speaker 1: is coming from people, it's coming from workers, It's coming

1402
01:16:56,439 --> 01:17:01,200
Speaker 1: from mothers and fathers and sons and daughters of my community,

1403
01:17:01,240 --> 01:17:04,160
Speaker 1: and that's where I count on my support coming from.

1404
01:17:04,400 --> 01:17:08,360
Speaker 1: And people who are in position can come along whenever

1405
01:17:08,400 --> 01:17:10,920
Speaker 1: they want to. But I'm not dependent on that to

1406
01:17:10,920 --> 01:17:13,439
Speaker 1: get us across the finish line. I'm really dependent upon

1407
01:17:13,600 --> 01:17:16,720
Speaker 1: and accountable to the people. And I think that it's

1408
01:17:16,760 --> 01:17:20,000
Speaker 1: important for me to allow my supporters to know that

1409
01:17:20,040 --> 01:17:22,639
Speaker 1: this is not politics as usual, and it doesn't matter

1410
01:17:22,640 --> 01:17:24,599
Speaker 1: to me whether I have the support of the governor

1411
01:17:24,960 --> 01:17:27,760
Speaker 1: or the state party chair or any of the other

1412
01:17:27,800 --> 01:17:31,840
Speaker 1: big names in New York democratic politics. But then I

1413
01:17:31,880 --> 01:17:34,400
Speaker 1: have the support of the people whom I am going

1414
01:17:34,439 --> 01:17:37,280
Speaker 1: to serve as mayor of Buffalo. One of the reasons

1415
01:17:37,280 --> 01:17:38,519
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you India is I saw

1416
01:17:38,520 --> 01:17:40,920
Speaker 1: a recent interview Gay where you said, quote a lot

1417
01:17:40,920 --> 01:17:44,040
Speaker 1: of people of progressivism is that a problem with progressivism

1418
01:17:44,080 --> 01:17:45,920
Speaker 1: is we are not very inclusive. If folks are not

1419
01:17:46,040 --> 01:17:48,840
Speaker 1: woke enough. It struck me, given the fact that you're

1420
01:17:48,920 --> 01:17:50,840
Speaker 1: running not only in a town with a lot of

1421
01:17:50,880 --> 01:17:53,400
Speaker 1: working class people of color, but a lot of working

1422
01:17:53,400 --> 01:17:56,840
Speaker 1: class white people as well, some places that the democratic

1423
01:17:56,880 --> 01:18:00,400
Speaker 1: socialist movement has failed pretty miserably, I would say, in

1424
01:18:00,400 --> 01:18:02,479
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. How are you trying to

1425
01:18:02,520 --> 01:18:07,360
Speaker 1: overcome that? What's your personal philosophy? You know, I thank

1426
01:18:07,360 --> 01:18:11,360
Speaker 1: you for that question, and I describe myself as a bridge. Right,

1427
01:18:11,439 --> 01:18:17,080
Speaker 1: I've lived in so many different stages of life, from

1428
01:18:17,120 --> 01:18:20,920
Speaker 1: being a poor child to a high school dropout, to

1429
01:18:21,040 --> 01:18:25,000
Speaker 1: then being a working class registered nurse, to them becoming

1430
01:18:25,280 --> 01:18:30,479
Speaker 1: a nonprofit executive and living more in the professional realm.

1431
01:18:30,600 --> 01:18:34,200
Speaker 1: I understand all of the parts of that sort of project,

1432
01:18:34,360 --> 01:18:39,599
Speaker 1: the professional trajectory, and I think that I am able

1433
01:18:39,640 --> 01:18:45,080
Speaker 1: to relate to so many different people across class, race, gender,

1434
01:18:45,600 --> 01:18:49,280
Speaker 1: socioeconomic status, and educational attainment that it makes me an

1435
01:18:49,280 --> 01:18:52,720
Speaker 1: attractive person not to only be able to lead this

1436
01:18:52,840 --> 01:18:55,760
Speaker 1: movement forward, but to act as that bridge that is

1437
01:18:55,800 --> 01:19:01,280
Speaker 1: able to bring opposing sides of opinion together. And what

1438
01:19:01,360 --> 01:19:04,040
Speaker 1: I tell a lot of my supporters is we can't

1439
01:19:04,080 --> 01:19:08,760
Speaker 1: be so pure that we other folks who are not

1440
01:19:08,960 --> 01:19:16,200
Speaker 1: quite as woke or as progressive as we are. We

1441
01:19:16,280 --> 01:19:18,840
Speaker 1: have to create a big tent. We have to allow

1442
01:19:18,920 --> 01:19:21,880
Speaker 1: people the space and room and the love and care

1443
01:19:22,240 --> 01:19:24,599
Speaker 1: to grow and have a better understanding of what it

1444
01:19:24,640 --> 01:19:26,599
Speaker 1: is that we want. And at the end of the day,

1445
01:19:26,840 --> 01:19:28,880
Speaker 1: what brings us all together is that we want the

1446
01:19:28,920 --> 01:19:31,599
Speaker 1: same things. We want a quality education for our children,

1447
01:19:31,800 --> 01:19:35,200
Speaker 1: we want safe, affordable housing for everyone, we want health

1448
01:19:35,240 --> 01:19:38,720
Speaker 1: access to health care for everyone, and that is bigger

1449
01:19:38,760 --> 01:19:41,799
Speaker 1: than any of the small things that we can point

1450
01:19:41,800 --> 01:19:44,920
Speaker 1: to that makes us not work together. So I'm proud

1451
01:19:44,960 --> 01:19:48,240
Speaker 1: to not only be involved in this local and now

1452
01:19:48,400 --> 01:19:51,280
Speaker 1: national movement, but also be at the center of it

1453
01:19:51,320 --> 01:19:53,400
Speaker 1: and be a person that holds the line and says like, hey,

1454
01:19:54,040 --> 01:19:55,960
Speaker 1: we're not going to cancel and dismiss people because they

1455
01:19:56,000 --> 01:19:58,559
Speaker 1: don't believe the exact same things that we do. We're

1456
01:19:58,560 --> 01:20:00,920
Speaker 1: going to call them in, not call them out, and

1457
01:20:00,920 --> 01:20:03,599
Speaker 1: figure out how we work together. Why do you think

1458
01:20:03,640 --> 01:20:07,639
Speaker 1: that we've seen an erosion of working class support, certainly

1459
01:20:07,760 --> 01:20:12,320
Speaker 1: white working class support. Also you had a significant little

1460
01:20:12,360 --> 01:20:17,200
Speaker 1: bit of African American, but more among Latino's support moving

1461
01:20:17,520 --> 01:20:20,000
Speaker 1: to the right and away from the Democratic Party. Now

1462
01:20:20,000 --> 01:20:23,840
Speaker 1: you have a Democratic Party leaning very heavily on effectively white,

1463
01:20:24,120 --> 01:20:27,280
Speaker 1: college educated suburban voters. When this is supposed to be

1464
01:20:27,320 --> 01:20:29,080
Speaker 1: the party the people, is supposed to be the party

1465
01:20:29,080 --> 01:20:31,920
Speaker 1: that is really fighting for and focused on the multi

1466
01:20:32,040 --> 01:20:34,519
Speaker 1: racial working class. Why do you think that that is

1467
01:20:34,600 --> 01:20:37,840
Speaker 1: Where do you think that they went wrong? I think

1468
01:20:37,840 --> 01:20:43,559
Speaker 1: that we've been sold a myth of rugged individualism and bootstrappiness. Right.

1469
01:20:43,600 --> 01:20:46,160
Speaker 1: We've been told that if you go to college. If

1470
01:20:46,200 --> 01:20:48,280
Speaker 1: you do all of the right things, you know, pull

1471
01:20:48,360 --> 01:20:50,960
Speaker 1: up your pants and follow the law, that you'll be okay.

1472
01:20:51,280 --> 01:20:54,240
Speaker 1: And now we are starting to come to the awakening

1473
01:20:54,360 --> 01:20:57,519
Speaker 1: as a community, as a nation that that is not true,

1474
01:20:57,800 --> 01:20:59,960
Speaker 1: that they're are systems that have been put in place

1475
01:21:00,320 --> 01:21:06,880
Speaker 1: to keep a certain demographic of folks impoverished. And that

1476
01:21:07,120 --> 01:21:10,600
Speaker 1: doesn't only mean black and brown people. Like, it's across

1477
01:21:10,800 --> 01:21:14,760
Speaker 1: class lines. Right. We've seen monumental strikes happening across the

1478
01:21:14,760 --> 01:21:17,439
Speaker 1: country right now in Buffalo and western New York, we're

1479
01:21:17,439 --> 01:21:22,679
Speaker 1: having one of the largest healthcare strikes you know, in history.

1480
01:21:23,200 --> 01:21:27,400
Speaker 1: We've see kelog and strike. We're seeing the organization of

1481
01:21:27,479 --> 01:21:30,240
Speaker 1: Starbucks baristas to try and join a union. So I

1482
01:21:30,280 --> 01:21:34,439
Speaker 1: think that we're really amplifying this message of a class

1483
01:21:34,439 --> 01:21:40,240
Speaker 1: struggle that transcends race, color, gender, creed. Right, and we're

1484
01:21:40,280 --> 01:21:43,200
Speaker 1: saying like the workers are actually the ones who have

1485
01:21:43,360 --> 01:21:45,840
Speaker 1: the power and should be exercising that to get the

1486
01:21:45,840 --> 01:21:48,599
Speaker 1: things that we so desperately want need from our local,

1487
01:21:50,000 --> 01:21:53,960
Speaker 1: state and federal government. Yeah, well, it's been great talking

1488
01:21:53,960 --> 01:21:56,759
Speaker 1: to you, India. We really appreciate you stopping by. Following

1489
01:21:56,760 --> 01:21:58,280
Speaker 1: your story with a lot of interest here on the

1490
01:21:58,320 --> 01:22:00,800
Speaker 1: show and we appreciate it though. Thank you, Thank you India.

1491
01:22:00,840 --> 01:22:05,559
Speaker 1: We appreciate the time. Thank you so much. Absolutely, thanks

1492
01:22:05,600 --> 01:22:07,920
Speaker 1: everybody for watching. We really appreciate it. It's been a

1493
01:22:07,920 --> 01:22:11,200
Speaker 1: banner week here. We continue to deal with the demonetization

1494
01:22:11,400 --> 01:22:13,240
Speaker 1: and we just want to make it clear it's not

1495
01:22:13,240 --> 01:22:15,120
Speaker 1: that we care. We want to tell you so that

1496
01:22:15,200 --> 01:22:19,320
Speaker 1: you understand exactly where our incentives are. It will always

1497
01:22:19,400 --> 01:22:22,000
Speaker 1: be on exactly what and how we want to cover something.

1498
01:22:22,200 --> 01:22:24,720
Speaker 1: That's why premium subscribers matter. It's the only way that

1499
01:22:24,760 --> 01:22:26,439
Speaker 1: we pay our bills and we keep our lights on

1500
01:22:26,640 --> 01:22:29,920
Speaker 1: here at the show. You guys are amazing. We love you.

1501
01:22:30,040 --> 01:22:33,200
Speaker 1: Remember we have new partnership with Daily Poster. We're going

1502
01:22:33,240 --> 01:22:36,599
Speaker 1: to have a brand new segment for you tomorrow from them.

1503
01:22:36,840 --> 01:22:40,360
Speaker 1: For Sirota and his team, they're always doing incredible reporting,

1504
01:22:40,479 --> 01:22:44,320
Speaker 1: following the money, exposing stories that nobody else is looking at.

1505
01:22:44,400 --> 01:22:45,800
Speaker 1: He's got a great one. We want to talk to

1506
01:22:45,880 --> 01:22:48,800
Speaker 1: him about the Sackler family. Of course, they're sort of

1507
01:22:48,840 --> 01:22:52,559
Speaker 1: like the primary villains behind the opioid crisis. Ways that

1508
01:22:52,640 --> 01:22:55,559
Speaker 1: Congress is working to try to let them off the hook.

1509
01:22:55,800 --> 01:22:57,680
Speaker 1: So he's going to talk about that. Tune in for that,

1510
01:22:58,080 --> 01:23:00,719
Speaker 1: We'll have additional content for you over the week and enjoy,

1511
01:23:00,840 --> 01:23:17,599
Speaker 1: and we will see you back here next week. Thanks

1512
01:23:17,640 --> 01:23:19,680
Speaker 1: for listening to the show, guys, we really appreciate it.

1513
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Speaker 1: the show. As always special thank you to Supercast for

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Speaker 1: powering our premium membership. If you want to find out more,

1518
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Speaker 1: go to Crystalansager dot com.