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Speaker 1: Cable news is ripping us apart, dividing the nation, making

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Speaker 1: it impossible to function as a society and to know

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Speaker 1: what is true and what is false. The good news

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Speaker 1: is that they're failing and they know it. That is

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Speaker 1: why we're building something new. Be part of creating a new, better, healthier,

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Speaker 1: member today at breakingpoints dot com. Your hard earned money

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Speaker 1: is going to help us build for the midterms and

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Speaker 1: the upcoming presidential election so we can provide unparalleled coverage

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Speaker 1: of what is sure to be one of the most

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Speaker 1: pivotal moments in American history. So what are you waiting for?

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Speaker 1: Go to Breakingpoints dot com to help us out. Good morning, everybody,

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

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Speaker 1: where we have pursul Indeed, we do lots of big

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Speaker 1: stories to get to this morning. First of all, President

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Speaker 1: Obama returned to the White House for the first time

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Speaker 1: since he was in office. We will tell you why

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Speaker 1: and what it means for the state of the Biden presidency. Also,

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Speaker 1: some new developments in the union busting campaign from Starbucks,

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Speaker 1: so they kicked out their old CEO, brought back Starbucks

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Speaker 1: founder Howard Schultz. He made some very illuminating comments and

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Speaker 1: also within an hour of making those comments, they had

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Speaker 1: fired one of the key worker organizers. So we will

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Speaker 1: break all of that down for you. Also, some new

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Speaker 1: developments ount of truth Social, oh my god, some new

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Speaker 1: reporting on it. You know, I've been doing my own

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Speaker 1: little journalism. I think I'm still like two hundred and

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Speaker 1: eighty thousandth on the wait list. So yeah, truth Social

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Speaker 1: not ready for me, apparently not ready for my truths.

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Speaker 1: And Christian Small's the president of Amazon labor union that

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Speaker 1: was victorious in that fight to organize a warehouse on

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Speaker 1: Staten Island. CNBC not only had you have him on,

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Speaker 1: they had to take him seriously, like I don't know

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Speaker 1: that I ever expected that would happen in my lifetime.

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Speaker 1: But they still manage to be like obnoxious and condescending

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Speaker 1: and patronizing. So we'll break all of that down for you. Also,

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Speaker 1: a story you don't want to miss about the iron workers.

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Speaker 1: Sager is breaking down Elon Musk yes having the largest

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Speaker 1: share of Twitter and what that means and his views

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Speaker 1: on that. I will be talking about a new leaked

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Speaker 1: memo revealing the words that Amazon is going to ban

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Speaker 1: their workers from saying words that include things like unions

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Speaker 1: and freedom. But we're going to start with the very

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Speaker 1: latest out of Ukraine. All right, So with Ukraine, the

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Speaker 1: President making some big news here, speaking again off the cuff,

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Speaker 1: calling Putin not only a war criminal, but asking for

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Speaker 1: him to be put on trial. Let's take a listen,

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Speaker 1: you may I remember I got criticized for calling Putin

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Speaker 1: the war criminals. Well, the truth of the matter, to

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Speaker 1: show what happened to group there, this warrants him he

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Speaker 1: is a war criminal. Well, we have to gather the information.

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Speaker 1: We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons

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Speaker 1: they need to continue to fight, and we have to

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Speaker 1: gather all the detail so this could be actual, have

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Speaker 1: a war crime trial. This guy is brutal and what's

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Speaker 1: happening in Buka is outrageous and everyone's seen it. No,

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Speaker 1: I think it is a war crime. I'm seeking more

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Speaker 1: science you. Yes, I'll have time to outside to you.

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Speaker 1: So interesting choice of wards there by the President. You

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Speaker 1: could see he could be He was specifically asked to

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Speaker 1: call it a genocide. He said no. Again, I've explained

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Speaker 1: about why that carries weight in terms of how the

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Speaker 1: United States is going to brand somebody but war criminal

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Speaker 1: itself was an extraordinary thing for him to say. Once again,

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Speaker 1: I don't think either of us disagree Putin is a

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Speaker 1: war criminal. The problem with Biden is he set it

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Speaker 1: off of the cuff in response to a reporter, and

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Speaker 1: then the administration had to be like, oh, well, here's

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Speaker 1: the evidence now in the specific instance that he's talking about. Here,

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Speaker 1: the images coming out of Buka are horrifying, absolutely terrible.

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Speaker 1: But whenever you brand somebody a war criminal, of course

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Speaker 1: you need evidence. And here's part of the issue. Just

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Speaker 1: this morning, cryst so we don't have time to get

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Speaker 1: it made. But the Pentagon says they cannot independently confirm

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Speaker 1: atrocities in Ukraine's Buka. Now I don't doubt that they happened.

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Speaker 1: The circumstances through which they did obviously need to bear

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Speaker 1: an incredible amount of investigation. You know, should not put

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Speaker 1: it past the Russians whatsoever in order to do something

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Speaker 1: so barbaric and terrible in terms of war. That all

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Speaker 1: being said, the reason why it matters is because all

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Speaker 1: of this is once again creating the conditions through which

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Speaker 1: only the end of the Putin regime is an acceptable

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Speaker 1: outcome to the United States, who, of course is a

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Speaker 1: major guarantee in the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia at

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Speaker 1: this time, and it just makes peace even more likely.

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Speaker 1: I hate having to do some of these segments too,

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Speaker 1: because it's so easy for bad faith actors to misconstrue

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Speaker 1: this is apologism. Who is apologizing for Putin Nobody. But

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Speaker 1: the world is a horrific place. We still met with

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Speaker 1: Kim Jong un, even though he's literally guilty of genocide

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Speaker 1: against his people. He's got nuclear weapons. It's because sometimes

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Speaker 1: security interest trump some of these things. As horrible as

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Speaker 1: that may sound, that is simply the way that the

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Speaker 1: world works. I don't think there can be any doubt

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Speaker 1: now given these latest comments, which yeah, they're off the cuff,

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Speaker 1: but to me, they felt very planned and intentional. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't it wasn't an afterthought, it wasn't casually done. This

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Speaker 1: was an intentional choice of words, an intentional direction. I

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Speaker 1: don't think there can be any doubt whatsoever that what

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Speaker 1: Biden did sort of accidentally stumble into saying that Putin

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Speaker 1: quote cannot remain in power is the actual end goal

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Speaker 1: of this administration. Because the reality is they are not

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Speaker 1: doing anything to push forward peace negotiations, and they are

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Speaker 1: doing everything they can to try to pressure Putin's regime,

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Speaker 1: to try to punish Russia, to try to make life

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Speaker 1: difficult for them. And as we covered yesterday, not only

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Speaker 1: have the sanctions not been as effective as they wanted

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Speaker 1: them to be, but in reality, all they're doing is

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Speaker 1: strengthening Putin's hand and the hand of the regime within

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Speaker 1: Ussia and making it much more likely that he stays

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Speaker 1: in power basically as long as he wants to and

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Speaker 1: as long as his life continues. So in that, by

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Speaker 1: the way, is not like a veiled call for him

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Speaker 1: to be assassinated. I'm just literally saying, you will live

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Speaker 1: out his life in Russia as a leader of Russia.

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Speaker 1: If that is indeed what he wants. The Biden administration

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Speaker 1: is doing everything they can to cause that to happen.

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Speaker 1: I mean, all of their actions so far have backfired.

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Speaker 1: I also think it's very revealing the questions that the

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Speaker 1: media asks him there. None of the questions are like, well,

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Speaker 1: what does this mean for peace? How are you going

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Speaker 1: to let Russia back in the Community of Nations? When

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Speaker 1: you call him a war criminal and you want him

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Speaker 1: to be on trial, you know, how is he going

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Speaker 1: to how are you going to be able to negotiate,

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Speaker 1: or how is Zelensky going to be able to negotiate

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Speaker 1: with someone who you've said should be put on trial

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Speaker 1: for war crimes? How's that going to work out? So,

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Speaker 1: if you care about the lives of Ukrainians and ending

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Speaker 1: this brutality, what you should be doing relentlessly is pushing

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Speaker 1: for that negotiated settlement. And whether it's his off the

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Speaker 1: cuff remarks he's a war criminal, that he's a butcher,

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Speaker 1: that he cannot remain in power, and now it seems

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Speaker 1: to be very intentionally chosen words about he should actually

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Speaker 1: face trial as a war criminal. All of those words

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Speaker 1: make it much more difficult to get to that end

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Speaker 1: goal that we all should be wanting. Yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 1: And look, even in terms of the International Criminal Court

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Speaker 1: and all that stuff in the Hague, the United States

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Speaker 1: is not even a party to the Hague Convention very

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Speaker 1: much because we don't want international jurisdiction over our troops.

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Speaker 1: I actually support that, by the way, but well, remember

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Speaker 1: I just had during the KBJ confirmation hearings, feel like

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Speaker 1: all this melt out how could you call George W.

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Speaker 1: Bush a war criminal? So it's we're complete hypocrites on

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Speaker 1: all of this. It's you know, and so we don't

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Speaker 1: have a lot of standing in the world to be

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Speaker 1: throwing around the world words war criminal. Really, what it

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Speaker 1: is is that whenever it comes to international law and

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Speaker 1: jurisdiction and all this, it's nonsense. It's great power conflict.

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Speaker 1: It always has been and will be until the end

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Speaker 1: of time. And really the reason why that I look

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Speaker 1: at this and I see no other ability for the

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Speaker 1: administration under this current regime in order to call for

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Speaker 1: the end and see that only is the acceptable way

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Speaker 1: for Putin to fall out of power. You and I

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Speaker 1: just know how unlikely that is. So now, as Rostautat

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Speaker 1: pointed out in his column which we brought everybody yesterday,

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Speaker 1: the flat kind of frozen relations with Russia seem like

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Speaker 1: the most likely scenario where Russia will declare some sort

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Speaker 1: of fake victory domestically, however, they will still have some

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Speaker 1: occupation of Ukraine. How the Ukrainians themselves are actually going

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Speaker 1: to go about this, obviously that also remains unclear. But

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Speaker 1: that means that there is no off ramp for sanctions

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Speaker 1: to come off and for Russia to then come back

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Speaker 1: into any sort of G seven international community aspect. So

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Speaker 1: then what happens, Well, we live in this kind of

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Speaker 1: like perma frost relations and quasi Soviet Union era relations

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Speaker 1: with Russia. That doesn't seem good for anybody who's involved.

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Speaker 1: And actually, when it comes to Putin, that means that

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Speaker 1: he has a one hundred percent solidification of power. In

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Speaker 1: terms of what we were talking about yesterday, we talked

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Speaker 1: about how this oligarchs are now one hundred percent united

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Speaker 1: behind Putin. That may sound like a misnomer, but it's

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Speaker 1: really not because a lot of these oligarchs in the

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Speaker 1: twenty tens they had independent power bases. Yes they were

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Speaker 1: made from Putin, but they were billionaires in their own right.

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Speaker 1: They had assets in Europe, they had the ability in

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Speaker 1: order to cavort around the world and Santrope and like

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Speaker 1: all these places. Now with the sanctions, they have no

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Speaker 1: choice but to be one hundred percent behind the Putin

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Speaker 1: regime when maybe previously they were eighty five percent. We've

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Speaker 1: consolidated a lot of the power around him, and in

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Speaker 1: terms of the actions the administration is taking here, there

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Speaker 1: is no you know, no off ramp in sight. Let's

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Speaker 1: put this up there on the screen. So this is

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Speaker 1: a new one from CNN, and you should believe them.

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Speaker 1: Whenever it comes to weapons transfers, they say US is

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Speaker 1: expected to help facilitate the transfer of tanks from NATO

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Speaker 1: allies to Ukraine with According to senior US officials, the

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Speaker 1: tanks will be Soviet era T seventy twos with Ukrainian

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Speaker 1: military has the experience operating and will be delivered quote

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Speaker 1: within days, not weeks. Now that's not enough though for

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Speaker 1: some members of Congress. Let's put this one up there

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Speaker 1: on the screen. This one also is very important. There

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Speaker 1: is a bipartisan coalition of three dozen lawmakers, some of

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Speaker 1: the people who are most praised here in DC because

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Speaker 1: they voted for the impeachment of Trump. Okay, apparently that's

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Speaker 1: the only thing that matters. You read a little bit further,

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Speaker 1: These three dozen lawmakers have a list of weapons that

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Speaker 1: are directly being requested by the Ukrainian government. So the

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Speaker 1: problem here is that the Ukrainian government is delivering these

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Speaker 1: lists to Congress because the administration is not necessarily giving

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Speaker 1: them one hundred and fifty percent of what they want.

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Speaker 1: The administration is urging the US to provide long range

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Speaker 1: surfaced air missiles, fighter aircraft, anti ship missiles, and other weapons,

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Speaker 1: some of which are not being transferred by NATO and

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Speaker 1: by the United States because they could be offensive in

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Speaker 1: nature and not defensive. So you continue to see a

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Speaker 1: bipartisan push, you know, very much acting on behest of

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Speaker 1: the Ukrainians. And it's hard to parse this by reiterating

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Speaker 1: the Ukrainian causes. Just I don't blame them for trying

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Speaker 1: to do everything within their power in order to defend

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Speaker 1: their nation. I would do the same thing if my

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Speaker 1: country was invaded. However, we are an independent partner. Yes,

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Speaker 1: we support Ukraine to what degree, and more we have

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Speaker 1: to balance with our own legitimate security interests. And this

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Speaker 1: is thinking and nuance that appears to just have disappeared.

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of it, crystal is kind of

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Speaker 1: a decadence of the West, where we have the hubris

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Speaker 1: to think that we can do whatever we want without consequences.

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Speaker 1: How many times in the twentieth century do we need

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Speaker 1: to or in the twenty first century do you need

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Speaker 1: to figure out that's wrong? Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, I mean Syria.

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Speaker 1: We can continue to go down the list. Did any

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Speaker 1: of those work out? No? They were complete disasters. The

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Speaker 1: world is a multifaceted, complicated place, and yet we see

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Speaker 1: none of this thinking pervading in Washington. Yeah, I think

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Speaker 1: it's really important to underscore there is a very good reason.

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Speaker 1: It's not just arbitrary that the Biden administration has said

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Speaker 1: no thus far to what these lawmakers and the Ukrainian

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Speaker 1: government are asking for. So when you're talking about surface

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Speaker 1: to air miss longer range surface to air missiles, fighter aircraft,

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Speaker 1: anti ship missiles, you're starting to get into now offensive

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Speaker 1: capabilities that will one hundred percent be seen as an

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Speaker 1: escalation by Russia, no doubt about it. And the longer

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Speaker 1: this conflict goes on, and the more you have this

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Speaker 1: step by step by step by step by step escalation,

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Speaker 1: the more you risk a broader confrontation the Russians. As

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Speaker 1: much as this is one hundred percent and existential threat

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Speaker 1: to the Ukrainians, the Russians see this fight as existential

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Speaker 1: as well, and they are not going to accept a

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Speaker 1: complete surrender and and we're sorry, and here's your territory back.

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Speaker 1: That's that's not going to happen. So we have to

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Speaker 1: figure out ways to empower Zelensky to be able to

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Speaker 1: negotiate a piece he is in. Have to remember he's

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Speaker 1: in a very difficult political situation here, because you have,

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Speaker 1: on the one hand, Ukrainians who are very emboldened and

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Speaker 1: should be rightfully proud of the way that their people

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Speaker 1: have fought and the way that they've been able to

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Speaker 1: push Russia back to basically just the east and the

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Speaker 1: south now of Ukraine. But on the other hand, the

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Speaker 1: reality is that a bloody stalemate is going to be

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Speaker 1: absolutely horrific. That Russia does have additional resources that they

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Speaker 1: can decide to bring to bear. Putin would have to

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Speaker 1: make a difficult political choice there as well, But you

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Speaker 1: have to understand that failure is not an option for

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Speaker 1: the Russian state either. So the more that you escalate,

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Speaker 1: the more that you send in offensive weapons, the more

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Speaker 1: you are risking that gambling for resurrection scenario that we've

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Speaker 1: talked about so much here, where they do something that

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Speaker 1: seems like it might be crazy if you're looking from

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Speaker 1: an outsider, but they see as like their last chance

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Speaker 1: to sort of save their nation and accomplish their objective. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I look, I mean the one pathway off of this

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Speaker 1: is some sort of peace deal. We should be doing

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Speaker 1: everything that we can in order to ensure that happening,

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Speaker 1: and I just checked the very latest. All signs actually

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Speaker 1: point against it. Zelenski today is speaking towards the United

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Speaker 1: Nations Security Council about Buka and the evidence of Russian

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Speaker 1: war crimes. The Russians say that they're going to respond

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Speaker 1: and prove that it wasn't them. We'll see. In terms

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Speaker 1: of the EU and others, they are said they're going

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Speaker 1: to be toughening sanctions against Russia today, I honestly want

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Speaker 1: to know what is left within the arsenal. Same with

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Speaker 1: the United States very likely to act in concert and

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Speaker 1: theas the Europeans is cutting off there to do it

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Speaker 1: of Russian oil, Yeah, we all know they're not going

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Speaker 1: to do that. Then they would literally be in poverty

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Speaker 1: within the next month. So some of the this is

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Speaker 1: chicanery and fake on their part as well. And there's

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Speaker 1: quite a bit of virtue signaling that's happening. But in

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Speaker 1: terms of the latest, that's where things are. The administration

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Speaker 1: pushing things in one way. Zelenski also very much going

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Speaker 1: within that vein peace talks. No update over the last

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Speaker 1: several days, and unfortunately that's where things are well. And

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Speaker 1: the last thing I'll say about this on the sanctions is,

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Speaker 1: as we covered yesterday, it is increasingly clear that the

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Speaker 1: indiscriminate sanctions that we have levied against Russia have backfired.

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Speaker 1: They have not been effective, and yet the media doesn't

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Speaker 1: process that information. Our lawmakers don't process that information because

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Speaker 1: they're on this one track direction of we have to

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Speaker 1: make them pay, we have to hold Putin accountable, when

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Speaker 1: that shouldn't be the end goal at all. First of all,

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Speaker 1: the Russian citizens once again did not do anything wrong.

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Speaker 1: They don't deserve to be punished, period, full stop. But

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Speaker 1: second of all, my goal isn't to make them pay.

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Speaker 1: My goal is to end this conflict and to have peace.

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Speaker 1: That never seems to be the thinking here, and so

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Speaker 1: so they're not able to evaluate the fact like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: we tried this direction, it's very clear it's not working,

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Speaker 1: and not only that, it's actually strengthening Putin's hand and

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Speaker 1: it's backfiring. What are some other directions we can pursue?

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Speaker 1: Instead they just say, oh, well, like ninety percent of

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Speaker 1: what we can do on sanctions doesn't work, So how

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Speaker 1: about we try one hundred percent. How about we just

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Speaker 1: double down on the same field strategy that hasn't worked

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Speaker 1: out to this point. Yeah, look, we need an endgame.

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Speaker 1: Sanctions can be a tool as long as there is

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Speaker 1: an actual result that is desired, and unfortunately, this current

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Speaker 1: result that the administration has is one that could actually

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Speaker 1: probably only be accomplished by military aims, and even that

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Speaker 1: would be a disaster. So then they're settling for some

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Speaker 1: middle ground on a moralistic basis, which sounds nice and

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Speaker 1: can make people feel better, but may not necessarily accomplish

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Speaker 1: the actual goal that anybody actually wants as a result

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Speaker 1: of this conflict. So it's a bad situation at the

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Speaker 1: end of the day. Okay, let's go to the second

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Speaker 1: part here, which is that the President Zelenski was actually

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Speaker 1: appearing on Fox News with Brett Bher and Brett Bher

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Speaker 1: actually really asked him about Russian accusations around quote unquote

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Speaker 1: Nazis within the Ukrainian military, and I think his response

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Speaker 1: is worth us talking a little bit about. Let's take

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Speaker 1: a listen. I want to have you cleared something up

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Speaker 1: for us, and this is these reports about the azof

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Speaker 1: Battalion that is said to be Nazi affiliated organization operating

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Speaker 1: as a militia in your country said to be committing

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Speaker 1: their own atrocities. What should Americans know about that unit,

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Speaker 1: about those reports. So Asov was one of those many battalions.

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Speaker 1: They are what they are. They were defending our country

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Speaker 1: and later I want to explain to you everything from

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Speaker 1: all the components of those volunteer battalions later were incorporated

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Speaker 1: into the military of Ukraine. Those Asov fighters are no

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Speaker 1: longer self established a group, They are a component of

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Speaker 1: the Ukrainian military. Back in twenty fourteen, there was situations

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Speaker 1: when our volunteers were encircled and some of them did

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Speaker 1: violate laws laws of Ukraine and they actually were taken

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Speaker 1: to court and got prison sentences. So laws above all. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is a tough response there from Zelenski. Part of

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Speaker 1: the issue, obviously, is that the Russians have been trying

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Speaker 1: to paint the entire Ukrainian military's neo Nazis. That is ludicrous.

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Speaker 1: President Selenski himself is a Jewish Man. However, it is

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Speaker 1: certainly true that a very small part of the Ukrainian

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Speaker 1: military is neo Nazi and people need to be honest

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Speaker 1: about that, about what exactly they believe about some of

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Speaker 1: the weapons and the training and the celebration that the

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Speaker 1: mainstream media has had of this. And part of the

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Speaker 1: reason why I do think it is useful for Brett

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Speaker 1: Baird asked the question, and I think for US based

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Speaker 1: commentators like us to discuss it is you should not

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Speaker 1: want to let the Russians have this one element of

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Speaker 1: their propaganda which is true, which is that it should

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Speaker 1: be confronted, and we should also be honest about the

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Speaker 1: exact composition of the force who we are supporting. It

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Speaker 1: does not diminish a just Ukrainian cause, it does not

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Speaker 1: even diminish what's happening. But we have to be honest

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Speaker 1: here that you know, Zelensky did ban some opposition parties,

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Speaker 1: and that the Azov Battalion and some of these neo Nazis,

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Speaker 1: while yes, a small percentage were being legitimately incorporated into

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Speaker 1: the defense of Ukraine, which sadly, I do think validates

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Speaker 1: some bad faith Russian propaganda. You know, there's this instinct

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Speaker 1: in the American press typically, and I appreciate bretbar asking this. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think he did it. I think it's important because

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Speaker 1: there's this instinct in the American press always to just

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Speaker 1: like ignore anything that's a little bit uncomfortable, and I

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Speaker 1: don't think it serves their aims because then, yeah, if

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Speaker 1: you're Russia and you want to paint the entire Ukrainian

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Speaker 1: military as Nazi or as a country, you know, just

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Speaker 1: like it up with Nazi sentiment everywhere, which is not

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Speaker 1: at all the case. In fact, these ultra fringe right

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Speaker 1: wing parties perform very poorly when they actually, you know,

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Speaker 1: are on the ballot and voters have a chance to

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Speaker 1: choose what they want in the direction that they want

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Speaker 1: to see for their country. So the whole thing is

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Speaker 1: farcical from the Russian perspective the way they're trying to

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Speaker 1: portray it. However, when you just try to ignore it

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Speaker 1: and just try to bury it, you actually strengthen their

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Speaker 1: hand because then they say, look, you're not even you're

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Speaker 1: not even willing to talk about this. Look, we caught

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Speaker 1: you putting Nazis like training Grandmas on TV and not

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Speaker 1: even mentioning. Look, CNN, you're putting this like Nazi battalion

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Speaker 1: commander on television and acting like he's some great hero.

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Speaker 1: So you're not actually helping the Ukrainian cause by burying

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Speaker 1: this type of information. And it's interesting Zelenski's answer here.

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Speaker 1: First of all, I mean, he doesn't deny, he's like,

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Speaker 1: they are what they are, which is hardly comforting, especially

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Speaker 1: when you know the US history of how goes when

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Speaker 1: we arm radical militants and then once the war is

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Speaker 1: over and you've got these young men who are armed

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Speaker 1: and equipped and itching for some sort of conflict, what

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Speaker 1: happens next, That's the question. It's also something that's really

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Speaker 1: relevant when we're considering what type of weapons we're ultimately

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Speaker 1: shipping into Ukraine. So that part of his response is

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Speaker 1: really interesting, like, well, they are what they are. But

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Speaker 1: the other part, I think he thinks that saying that

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Speaker 1: they are now, which is true, incorporated into the Ukrainian army,

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Speaker 1: is somehow We're going to ease our minds when actually

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Speaker 1: they're like, no, that's not That doesn't really make us

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Speaker 1: feel a lot better that they're like officially part of

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Speaker 1: the Ukrainian military now. And just so people know, I mean, look,

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Speaker 1: the accusations of Neo Nazism with the Azov Battalion are

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Speaker 1: very well founded. And before this war there was a

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Speaker 1: lot of writing, not a lot, but there was some

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Speaker 1: writing in the liberal press about the well and Azov

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Speaker 1: was also trying to recruit foreign Neo Nazi sympathizers from

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Speaker 1: the US and from Brazilian from other places around the

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Speaker 1: world to come to Ukraine. And they see this as like,

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Speaker 1: you know, the potential sort of homeland of the white people.

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Speaker 1: Their founding member this is sort of the most famous quote.

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Speaker 1: Founding member famously said in twenty ten that the historic

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Speaker 1: mission of Ukraine was to quote lead the white races

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Speaker 1: of the world in a final crusade for their survival,

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Speaker 1: and in case that wasn't clear enough, a crusade against

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Speaker 1: the jew led untermention. So that's the history of Azab Battalion.

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Speaker 1: And to try to sweep that under the rug pretend

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Speaker 1: it doesn't exist doesn't help your cause when you can

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Speaker 1: just point out that they perform very poorly. That the sentiment. Yes,

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Speaker 1: of course, there are fringe members of society there, as

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Speaker 1: there are here who hold extremist views. And by the way,

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Speaker 1: you might put some pressure on the Ukrainians to not

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Speaker 1: arm and supply these extremist factions with their own military.

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Speaker 1: The bottom line is here, it just is helpful to

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Speaker 1: be honest about the situation, and you are not effectively

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Speaker 1: fighting Russian propaganda when you were completely trying to ignore

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Speaker 1: the reality of what's going on. Yeah, that's right. I

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Speaker 1: think parsing what is true, what is false, what is exaggerated,

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Speaker 1: and all that is a direct service to the public

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Speaker 1: who need to make a decision for themselves. We've all

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Speaker 1: seen this movie before, and this is part of the issue.

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Speaker 1: When the United States was arming the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan,

431
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:31,239
Speaker 1: there was no discussion around and obviously, look, I think

432
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:34,399
Speaker 1: some of the Majiadin cause against the Soviets was incredibly just.

433
00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:36,919
Speaker 1: One of the people though, that we were doing direct

434
00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:39,199
Speaker 1: deals with and giving a lot of money to, was

435
00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:43,560
Speaker 1: Gulbadin Hekmatyar, who was one of the most vicious Islamic

436
00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:48,840
Speaker 1: Islamic extremist militias who in some ways was allied with

437
00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:52,320
Speaker 1: the Taliban and was let's just say, sympathetic to Osama

438
00:23:52,359 --> 00:23:54,560
Speaker 1: bin Lade. Yeah, and when I'm getting into all of

439
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:58,800
Speaker 1: the history of this, we basically outsourced our choice of

440
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:02,240
Speaker 1: who to fund armed to the Pakistan to Isi and

441
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:06,199
Speaker 1: there they went with and we liked, affirmatively liked the

442
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:11,240
Speaker 1: fact that they went with the most ruthless, brutal, unscrupulous killers.

443
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:13,920
Speaker 1: Great when you're fighting the Soviets, right, not great when

444
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:18,480
Speaker 1: you're against us. Because there were other anti Soviet groups

445
00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:22,240
Speaker 1: that were more moderate and more tolerant in their views,

446
00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:25,160
Speaker 1: that we could have gone with instead, but we liked

447
00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:27,680
Speaker 1: the fact that they were killers, and they were completely

448
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:30,359
Speaker 1: unscrupulous and willing to and barbaric and willing to do

449
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:34,720
Speaker 1: absolutely anything. And that ends up, you know, not working

450
00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:37,640
Speaker 1: out well for the world, for Afghanistan or for ourselves.

451
00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:40,280
Speaker 1: Same thing happened in Syria Jabaton Nustra, which is with

452
00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:42,679
Speaker 1: al Qaeda. Yeah, they happen to be enemies of ISIS.

453
00:24:42,760 --> 00:24:45,520
Speaker 1: They're also al Kaieda. They ended up having some people,

454
00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:48,760
Speaker 1: you know, some weapons or whatever made their way over

455
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:51,119
Speaker 1: into those hands. The same thing happened in Libya. We

456
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:54,760
Speaker 1: watched with the Libyan rebels Libyan democracy obviously a just

457
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:59,119
Speaker 1: cause Goddafi's weapons start flowing. Chris, you know, I'm forgetting

458
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:01,600
Speaker 1: his name. Our embass or who died was there in

459
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,879
Speaker 1: order to facilitate some interesting stuff. All this is not

460
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:08,320
Speaker 1: a blame America first. I'm just saying that these actions

461
00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:10,840
Speaker 1: have consequences. We need to learn the lessons, that's what

462
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:13,760
Speaker 1: we're saying, right, and having an honest discussion at the

463
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:17,520
Speaker 1: time before you do the policy can save you a

464
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 1: lot of headache many many years to come. And that's

465
00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:23,240
Speaker 1: why in the moment it's important to try and be

466
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,159
Speaker 1: clear eyed. That's all we're saying. I know that this

467
00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:27,400
Speaker 1: segment will still be you know, used by bad faith

468
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,520
Speaker 1: actors and all the others, but I think it's important

469
00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:32,760
Speaker 1: that our audience out there is trying to make up

470
00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:35,639
Speaker 1: their minds for themselves. Can hold many different things in

471
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:38,040
Speaker 1: their head all at once, and I trust people to

472
00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:40,639
Speaker 1: have enough honesty with themselves to be able to parse

473
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:43,439
Speaker 1: the situation regardless of even our own thoughts on this.

474
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:46,439
Speaker 1: So that's what you need. Indeed. Okay, all right, guys,

475
00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,320
Speaker 1: Banner day here in d C with the return a

476
00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 1: former President Obama to the White House for a hangout

477
00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:57,000
Speaker 1: with his buddy Joe Biden. Biden is let's go ahead,

478
00:25:57,040 --> 00:25:59,360
Speaker 1: but USA today up on the screen here, So Biden's

479
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:03,240
Speaker 1: expected to sign an executive order with regards to sort

480
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:06,160
Speaker 1: of shoring up the Affordable Care Act. And I believe

481
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:08,760
Speaker 1: they're supposed to speak together at like two pm and

482
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:12,400
Speaker 1: from the Rose Guard This is the first time that

483
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:15,919
Speaker 1: Obama has returned to the White House since he was

484
00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:20,200
Speaker 1: in office. We all know he's kind of he really

485
00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:23,960
Speaker 1: picks and chooses when he engages in any sort of

486
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:28,560
Speaker 1: political fights. Famously, when he was even president, he liked

487
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:30,720
Speaker 1: to kind of remain above the fraid and like to

488
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:34,040
Speaker 1: get his hands dirty with the common folk. In terms

489
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 1: of actually engaging in the give and take of politics,

490
00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:39,560
Speaker 1: he had a little bit of disdain for that. We

491
00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 1: also know very famously on the campaign trail, first of all,

492
00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:46,480
Speaker 1: he did not endorse Biden until the deal was done.

493
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:50,160
Speaker 1: Biden was like, oh, I asked him not to endorse, Okay, sure,

494
00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:56,280
Speaker 1: okay sure. It also was reported that during that campaign,

495
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:58,800
Speaker 1: as he was watching things unfold, he was telling his

496
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:02,679
Speaker 1: advisors privately like, don't underestimate the ability of Joe Biden

497
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:04,800
Speaker 1: to f things up, which I think was a very

498
00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 1: accurate assessment of not only the Biden campaign, but also

499
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:11,440
Speaker 1: how the Biden White House has unfolded. It is very

500
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:16,400
Speaker 1: telling that the thing he returns for is his primary legacy,

501
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:19,200
Speaker 1: the Affordable Care Act, because that's what this guy is

502
00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 1: mostly about at this point. It's about preserving his brand,

503
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 1: It's about preserving his legacy. And that may sound like, Okay, well,

504
00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:30,120
Speaker 1: you know that's understandable, no big deal, But that means

505
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:34,080
Speaker 1: making sure that no one goes beyond what he did,

506
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:37,440
Speaker 1: because you know, if you had, for example, universal health care,

507
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:41,119
Speaker 1: well then that really reveals and shows up how inadequate

508
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:44,000
Speaker 1: the Affordable Care Act ultimately was and how it was

509
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:48,480
Speaker 1: largely while it did contain some significant real improvements in

510
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:51,040
Speaker 1: terms of pre existing conditions and some of those other things,

511
00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:53,680
Speaker 1: but ultimately also was a giant giveaway to the health

512
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:57,840
Speaker 1: insurance industry. Jensaki was asked about all of this yesterday,

513
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:01,040
Speaker 1: and she has a way of like saying things that

514
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 1: she doesn't mean to be revealing but actually are really

515
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:06,719
Speaker 1: revealing because she's just so in the DC bubble, she

516
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:09,240
Speaker 1: doesn't really understand how her words are going to land.

517
00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:10,840
Speaker 1: Let's take a listen to a little bit of what

518
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 1: she had to say. So tomorrow they'll announce more steps.

519
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:17,280
Speaker 1: Also note as they did every week when President former

520
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:20,880
Speaker 1: President Obama was president and President Biden was vice president.

521
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:23,760
Speaker 1: That's a mouthful. They will have lunch tomorrow as well,

522
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:26,240
Speaker 1: as they used to do on a weekly basis. I

523
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:30,680
Speaker 1: would note they continue to talk regularly. They are real friends,

524
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,120
Speaker 1: not just Washington friends, and so I'm sure they will

525
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:35,920
Speaker 1: talk about events in the world as well as their

526
00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 1: families and personal lives. See real friends, yeah, not just

527
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 1: Washington friends. And for the uninitiated, this is the part

528
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 1: that's so revealing, Like the term Washington friends is so gross,

529
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:50,560
Speaker 1: because what they're talking about is something that is just

530
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:55,440
Speaker 1: purely transactional and cynical and would be a completely foreign

531
00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 1: concept to you know, ninety nine percent of the country.

532
00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 1: But it's just, you know, part of doing business here

533
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:03,920
Speaker 1: in Washington is, of course you have some a few

534
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:08,080
Speaker 1: real friends, and she puts Brock and Joe into that category,

535
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:09,840
Speaker 1: and then you have like the fake friends that you're

536
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:13,080
Speaker 1: just basically using for your own ends, having come from

537
00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:16,040
Speaker 1: that world. That's the worst part of it, how transactional

538
00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:18,480
Speaker 1: everything is. Being required to go to parties with a

539
00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:20,760
Speaker 1: bunch of people that you don't like and they don't

540
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:24,400
Speaker 1: like you, and you're only there in order to network

541
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:26,440
Speaker 1: so that you can all get more information so that

542
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:28,360
Speaker 1: you can continue to do your job better. This was

543
00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 1: a key part of being a White House correspondent. And

544
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:33,719
Speaker 1: it is such a revealing comment, and you see it

545
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 1: all the time. When you're here, people are dining next

546
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 1: to each other and they're like doing the cheers and

547
00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:40,719
Speaker 1: you know the this, and it's like you hate each

548
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:44,640
Speaker 1: other's guts. Everybody knows that, but it's all complete kabuki theater.

549
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:46,440
Speaker 1: It reminds me of my one of my favorite moments

550
00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 1: of the campaign. Let's put this up there on the screen.

551
00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:50,840
Speaker 1: This is a real trip down memory lane for us.

552
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:54,720
Speaker 1: Joe Biden tweeting in twenty nineteen, Happy best Friend's Day

553
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:58,200
Speaker 1: to my friend at Barack Obama with the Joe and

554
00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:04,880
Speaker 1: Barack friendship bracelet. That tweet was so cringe that David Axelrod,

555
00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:08,240
Speaker 1: who worked for Barack Obama and chief strategists on the

556
00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:12,640
Speaker 1: Obama campaign, replied, quote, this is a joke, right, And

557
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,520
Speaker 1: it's because at that time Biden was two percent or

558
00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:19,720
Speaker 1: whatever in the polls, complete failure, and he was trying

559
00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:22,240
Speaker 1: as hard as he could to ride Obama's coattails to

560
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 1: try and win the Iowa caucuses and to gain more

561
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:28,480
Speaker 1: foothold with the Democratic primary base. It really is stunning

562
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 1: to just think back to what it was, to how

563
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:34,880
Speaker 1: Biden was such a failure pre coronavirus. So many gaffes

564
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:37,280
Speaker 1: on the campaign trail, making a fool out of himself,

565
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:40,480
Speaker 1: with full knowledge by the Obamas and many people around

566
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:43,400
Speaker 1: him that Biden is an awful candidate. Put out that

567
00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:45,800
Speaker 1: up there on the screen. You're you were alluding to

568
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:47,959
Speaker 1: this quote, and this is a direct one, which is

569
00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:52,120
Speaker 1: that Obama reportedly said, quote, don't underestimate Joe's ability to

570
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 1: f things up. I mean, I agree, mister president. If

571
00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 1: you look back, you know, Obamacare is a great example.

572
00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:03,640
Speaker 1: What did Biden do on that hot mic the day

573
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 1: that it passed? You know, he leans into Obama in

574
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:08,040
Speaker 1: the when the mic is hot, he goes, this is

575
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:11,400
Speaker 1: a big fen deal, which became a meme. I mean,

576
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:15,760
Speaker 1: the guy what you know, before he was verbally incontinent.

577
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:19,360
Speaker 1: He was known as the gaff machine. That was his

578
00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:23,120
Speaker 1: nickname in DC. Within the press, everybody's like, oh, he

579
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:26,280
Speaker 1: always says something which causes a problem. It was an

580
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 1: open secret in Washington that the Obama people and Obama

581
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:33,240
Speaker 1: specifically could not stand whenever Biden went off script and

582
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:35,360
Speaker 1: whenever we do these things because it would cause big

583
00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:38,400
Speaker 1: headaches for him and his team. So a lot of

584
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:41,680
Speaker 1: this is just contrived. Oh, they're real friends. Not just

585
00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:45,480
Speaker 1: Washington friends. That's not true. Otherwise Obama would have endorsed

586
00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:49,080
Speaker 1: you or as Biden said, I asked him not to endorse.

587
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 1: He said, it's so seriously, I asked him not to endorse.

588
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:55,520
Speaker 1: I asked him not to endorse. No, you didn't. Literally,

589
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:58,400
Speaker 1: maybe you did after you found out he wouldn't endorse

590
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:02,400
Speaker 1: and endorse you. Yes, what a joke. Yeah. So there's

591
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:04,080
Speaker 1: a couple other things to say about it. First of all,

592
00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:07,440
Speaker 1: I saw some more David axlerod in houses Obama coming

593
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 1: back to the White House, and he's like, oh, it's

594
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,320
Speaker 1: a smart move because of course, you know, Obama has

595
00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 1: this great relationship with the base of the Democratic Party,

596
00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:17,600
Speaker 1: which is true, he does have. He is held in

597
00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:20,960
Speaker 1: high regard with the base of the Democratic Party. But

598
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:25,400
Speaker 1: it also has been proven, like for over a decade

599
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:29,600
Speaker 1: now that he is unable to translate his own personal

600
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:33,320
Speaker 1: popularity into votes. I mean, that was true when he

601
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:37,760
Speaker 1: was in office. Democrats got destroyed across the country while

602
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 1: Barack Obama was in office, losing a record number of

603
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:45,000
Speaker 1: state houses and a thousand state legislative seats in the

604
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:47,840
Speaker 1: House and the Senate, and ultimately the presidency to Donald Trump,

605
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:51,640
Speaker 1: He was not able to confer his personal popularity into

606
00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:55,960
Speaker 1: political power for literally anyone, not Hillary Clinton. You know,

607
00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:59,360
Speaker 1: he refrained from getting involved in the Biden thing. The

608
00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:01,960
Speaker 1: only thing he's really been effective at is these kind

609
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:06,480
Speaker 1: of like backroom deals and machinations behind the scene, for example,

610
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,520
Speaker 1: putting Tom Perez in installing him as the head of

611
00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:12,880
Speaker 1: the DNC, and also being involved in you know, when

612
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:15,440
Speaker 1: everybody dropped down and made it a one on one

613
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 1: contest between Biden and Bernie to make sure that Biden

614
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:21,720
Speaker 1: ends up after all other options are exhausted, make sure

615
00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:24,440
Speaker 1: Biden actually ends up as the Nomnie in order to

616
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:27,320
Speaker 1: crush Bernie Sanders. I mean, if you think about that record,

617
00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:31,000
Speaker 1: really the only ways he's been politically effective is to

618
00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 1: use his influence within the party machinery in order to

619
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:38,440
Speaker 1: crush the influence of the left and deny what is

620
00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:41,959
Speaker 1: like the sort of most the most compelling and interesting

621
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:47,240
Speaker 1: and compelling, especially among younger generations part of the Democratic Party.

622
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:49,920
Speaker 1: So that has been his real influence. And so if

623
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 1: they think that he's going to save him in the midterms,

624
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 1: like that is really fanciful. But I think it also

625
00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:57,080
Speaker 1: is a sign of desperation that they're say, a right,

626
00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:00,000
Speaker 1: let's bring let's bring Obama back like Biden's clearly not

627
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:02,520
Speaker 1: getting the job done here. That's how I read it.

628
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:04,960
Speaker 1: There's one other thing to say about this, which is

629
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:07,920
Speaker 1: that an American Prospect has done the reporting on this.

630
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 1: Democrats have They do have a big problem in terms

631
00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:15,799
Speaker 1: of the Affordable Care Act, just as they allowed the

632
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:19,040
Speaker 1: Child Tax Credit to expire, and I show the pulling

633
00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:23,160
Speaker 1: here a couple times of how that directly led to

634
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:27,560
Speaker 1: more independence fleeing the Democratic Party when they lost that

635
00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:30,880
Speaker 1: benefit which really propped up and supported a lot of

636
00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:33,920
Speaker 1: families and kept a lot of children, millions of children

637
00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:37,320
Speaker 1: out of poverty and out of hunger. So they dropped

638
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:39,480
Speaker 1: the ball on that one that was supposed to be

639
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:42,960
Speaker 1: extended as part of Build Back Better bill. But they

640
00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:46,680
Speaker 1: also dropped the ball on these Affordable Care Act subsidies

641
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:50,160
Speaker 1: that were passed at the same time, which benefit some

642
00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:54,880
Speaker 1: fourteen million people. And guess what they're going to get.

643
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:58,920
Speaker 1: Fourteen million Americans thereabouts are going to get a letter

644
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:03,839
Speaker 1: in oct informing them that their health insurance premiums are

645
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:08,600
Speaker 1: about to skyrocket, all because Democrats could not get it

646
00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 1: together to make these subsidies permanent. They were afraid to

647
00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,360
Speaker 1: put it in the original when they originally passed the bilks.

648
00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:18,400
Speaker 1: They're worried about the cost and so and they thought, oh, surely,

649
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:21,399
Speaker 1: surely we'll be able to, you know, extend this thing

650
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:23,879
Speaker 1: because no one will want to see their premiums go up. Well,

651
00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:27,760
Speaker 1: they've completely failed, and so they've set up for themselves

652
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:32,799
Speaker 1: this October surprise, surprise, fourteen million Americans. And by the way,

653
00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:38,040
Speaker 1: because of the crazy, confusing, means tested structure of the

654
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:40,879
Speaker 1: Affordable Care Act, the people who are going to see

655
00:35:40,920 --> 00:35:46,040
Speaker 1: their prices skyrocket the most happened to be older middle

656
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:51,320
Speaker 1: class Americans. Guess who always votes in maternal elections, older

657
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:54,560
Speaker 1: middle class Americans. So if you wanted to screw over

658
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:57,920
Speaker 1: a more potent political base, like congratulations, you really hit

659
00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:00,319
Speaker 1: the nail on the head here. So, while well, this

660
00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:03,040
Speaker 1: executive order that Biden is planning to sign, it has

661
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:05,160
Speaker 1: to deal with another little loophole in the Affordable Care

662
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:07,759
Speaker 1: Act that he apparently has the power to close. This

663
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:11,480
Speaker 1: is the real problem here and why they're still desperately

664
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:15,120
Speaker 1: trying to figure out something with Joe Manchin because otherwise

665
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 1: a lot of voters. Millions of them are going to

666
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:20,160
Speaker 1: get a root awakening right as they're getting ready to

667
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:21,919
Speaker 1: go to the polls. Yeah, it's not inflation was killing

668
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:24,239
Speaker 1: you enough already. And Rice, reading the way that this

669
00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:27,200
Speaker 1: executive order is constructed just shows you why Obamacare is

670
00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:29,680
Speaker 1: like literally the worst of all worlds. The administration is

671
00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:33,160
Speaker 1: cloing's closing. What's known as the family glitch stems from

672
00:36:33,160 --> 00:36:35,680
Speaker 1: a part of the healthcare law that deals with eligibility

673
00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:38,799
Speaker 1: in premium subsidies and ultimately prices some families out of

674
00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 1: health insurance. Under current REGs, people who are eligible for

675
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:45,480
Speaker 1: affordable employer health insurance aren't eligible for premium assistance on

676
00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:49,799
Speaker 1: the ACA marketplace. The Obama administration did not define affordability

677
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:52,799
Speaker 1: as the premium for a single beneficiary being below a

678
00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:56,000
Speaker 1: certain percentage of family income, which doesn't take into account

679
00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:58,839
Speaker 1: the higher cost of adding dependence to family. I have

680
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:01,040
Speaker 1: no idea. I don't even know what I just said.

681
00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:04,440
Speaker 1: All I know is I had to purchase health insurance

682
00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:06,880
Speaker 1: on the marketplace and it costs a ton of money

683
00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:10,359
Speaker 1: for a terrible plan. Yeah shocker, you don't have kids. Yeah,

684
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:14,320
Speaker 1: I don't even know. I'm a single male below thirty

685
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,439
Speaker 1: or below thirty for the next two weeks, and during

686
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:20,440
Speaker 1: that I have no underlying health conditions. Paying hundreds of

687
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:24,239
Speaker 1: dollars a month for disaster. Essentially, if I get hit

688
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:27,520
Speaker 1: by a bus, it'll be worth it. Catastrophic, Yeah, catastrophic. Yeah.

689
00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:30,080
Speaker 1: I better if I get bone marrow cancer, then will

690
00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:32,680
Speaker 1: be Okay. That's about it. There's so much to say

691
00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:36,520
Speaker 1: about Affordable Care Act because part okay, So the big

692
00:37:36,560 --> 00:37:39,400
Speaker 1: reason why it's structured in such a shitty way is

693
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:41,320
Speaker 1: because they decided we're not going to stand up to

694
00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:43,080
Speaker 1: the health insurance industry. We're just going to make it

695
00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:45,520
Speaker 1: a giveaway for them so that they don't destroy this thing.

696
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:48,760
Speaker 1: So that's the biggest problem. But the second biggest problem

697
00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:51,680
Speaker 1: is that they were so worried about like these talking

698
00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:55,440
Speaker 1: points around oh it's too expensive and deficit reduction whatever,

699
00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:59,440
Speaker 1: that they contorted it in all of these crazy ways

700
00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:02,040
Speaker 1: that they know at the time we're going to be

701
00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:05,200
Speaker 1: a problem. But they again figured like, we'll fix it

702
00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:07,720
Speaker 1: down the road. People are gonna like it's gonna be popular,

703
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:09,439
Speaker 1: which we'll be able to fix this down the road,

704
00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:11,200
Speaker 1: and I think Republicans will go along with it at

705
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:13,200
Speaker 1: that point. Or we'll have power whatever, we'll fix it,

706
00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:16,960
Speaker 1: and so things like this are a known issue. The

707
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:20,120
Speaker 1: whole reason the subsidies weren't sufficient in the first place

708
00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:23,360
Speaker 1: was because they were worried about like, oh, you're spending

709
00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:27,239
Speaker 1: too much money, and so because they hamstrain themselves from

710
00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:30,520
Speaker 1: the jump, that means, oh lo and behold, the policy

711
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:33,200
Speaker 1: is not that popular, and oh lo and behold. When

712
00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:34,680
Speaker 1: it comes to trying to shore it up and trying

713
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:37,799
Speaker 1: to fix it, Americans don't actually have any confidence that

714
00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:40,399
Speaker 1: you are doing a good job on healthcare to start with,

715
00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:42,800
Speaker 1: so they are not highly motivated to give you the

716
00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:46,160
Speaker 1: political power to be able to make these fixes. What

717
00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:50,480
Speaker 1: they've learned from all of this with you know, healthcare

718
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:56,560
Speaker 1: situation and Obamacare situation, what the DC Democrats have learned is, oh,

719
00:38:56,640 --> 00:38:59,200
Speaker 1: people don't reward you for like doing good work and

720
00:38:59,239 --> 00:39:02,960
Speaker 1: passing good policy. Now, people don't reward you for passing

721
00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:07,760
Speaker 1: like convoluted, half asked policies that were a mixed bag

722
00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:10,319
Speaker 1: for a whole lot of people. That's what they don't

723
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:13,120
Speaker 1: reward you for. And so, you know, that has led

724
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:15,520
Speaker 1: to a shift towards that's helped contribute to the shift

725
00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:19,360
Speaker 1: among democrats towards cultural signaling and culture war and virtue

726
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,919
Speaker 1: signaling when the exact opposite lesson should be learned, which

727
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:25,560
Speaker 1: is like, no, actually, we should have stood up. We

728
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:27,799
Speaker 1: shouldn't have been afraid of those talking points to start with.

729
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:31,600
Speaker 1: We should have actually passed the legislation that would deliver

730
00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:34,080
Speaker 1: for the American people and then have faith that they're

731
00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:36,960
Speaker 1: going to see you know, oh, this actually benefits my

732
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:39,359
Speaker 1: bottom line here. And oh, by the way, the most

733
00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:41,959
Speaker 1: important thing to say about this is maybe you should

734
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:44,319
Speaker 1: also just do that because it's the right thing to do,

735
00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:47,600
Speaker 1: and not out of some like weird political calculus about

736
00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:49,120
Speaker 1: how it's going to play in the midterms or the

737
00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:52,360
Speaker 1: next president. Look, just make healthcare cheaper. Everyone will be happy.

738
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:56,720
Speaker 1: That's all anybody wants. And yet they twist themselves into

739
00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:58,840
Speaker 1: all of these things, and that's how you end up

740
00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:01,400
Speaker 1: in the nightmare situation which all of us are in

741
00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:07,400
Speaker 1: right now, like a garm right among with you. Yeah, okay, guys,

742
00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:12,319
Speaker 1: we have some big developments with regards to Starbucks. Now,

743
00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:16,000
Speaker 1: as you all know, there is a union movement spreading

744
00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 1: across Starbucks like wildfire. We've already had a number of

745
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:22,960
Speaker 1: storage unionized. We have more than one hundred that are

746
00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:25,879
Speaker 1: set to vote, and this thing just continues to pick

747
00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:30,279
Speaker 1: up steam. Apparently the execs over at Starbucks are sort

748
00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:33,480
Speaker 1: of freaking out because their attempts to union bust. Not

749
00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:36,440
Speaker 1: only did they fall flat, I think they completely backfired.

750
00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:39,960
Speaker 1: They only made the case for a union that much stronger.

751
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:44,040
Speaker 1: So they kicked down the old CEO. They brought back.

752
00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:46,560
Speaker 1: Howard Schultz, of course, was the founder of Starbucks, and

753
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:48,680
Speaker 1: we'll get to in a moment, has a long history

754
00:40:48,719 --> 00:40:51,640
Speaker 1: and lots of experience at union busting, and in his

755
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:55,520
Speaker 1: first town hall meeting had some very revealing things to

756
00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:58,520
Speaker 1: say about how he views the union effort. Let's take

757
00:40:58,560 --> 00:41:02,800
Speaker 1: a listen. Now here's where it gets a little sensitive

758
00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:05,680
Speaker 1: because I've been coached a little bit, but I do

759
00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:12,360
Speaker 1: want to talk about something pretty serious. We can't ignore

760
00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:16,880
Speaker 1: what is happening in the country as it relates to

761
00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:27,359
Speaker 1: companies throughout the country being assaulted in many ways by

762
00:41:27,560 --> 00:41:33,279
Speaker 1: the threat of unionization. Assaulted by the threat of unionization.

763
00:41:34,040 --> 00:41:37,600
Speaker 1: Let's just be clear, all a union means is that

764
00:41:37,640 --> 00:41:40,200
Speaker 1: your workers have a voice and some power and a

765
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 1: little bit of democratics say in what goes on in

766
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:45,600
Speaker 1: their workplace. That is not an assault, it's not an

767
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:49,360
Speaker 1: existential threat. Starbucks is doing just fine in terms of

768
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:54,000
Speaker 1: their profit margin. Howard Schultz is extraordinarily wealthy. This guy

769
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:57,239
Speaker 1: never has to worry. But they see this as an

770
00:41:57,320 --> 00:42:01,480
Speaker 1: outright assault. And it also is take early jarring for

771
00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:04,680
Speaker 1: Starbucks with the type of language that they typically use

772
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:06,840
Speaker 1: about their baristas and I don't remember if they call

773
00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:10,040
Speaker 1: them like partners or whatever. They're sort of like languages

774
00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:12,080
Speaker 1: around it, and they have on their website all this

775
00:42:12,120 --> 00:42:14,840
Speaker 1: fuzzy language about uplift and how much they care about

776
00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:18,520
Speaker 1: these people. But when it comes to and they're happy

777
00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:20,880
Speaker 1: to give them, you know, they have better wages than

778
00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:23,280
Speaker 1: some places in the food industry, they have better benefits

779
00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:25,799
Speaker 1: in some places in the food industry. They're okay with

780
00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:27,680
Speaker 1: doing that because it's like part of the way that

781
00:42:27,719 --> 00:42:30,520
Speaker 1: they virtue signal in their brand. But when it comes

782
00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:34,239
Speaker 1: to workers having an actual say and a little bit

783
00:42:34,280 --> 00:42:38,480
Speaker 1: of power, absolutely not. They consider that a completely existential threat,

784
00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:43,000
Speaker 1: and they're willing to go to some pretty extreme lengths

785
00:42:43,040 --> 00:42:46,640
Speaker 1: in order to try to stop this union movement in

786
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:50,200
Speaker 1: its tracks. Here is the very first big move that

787
00:42:50,239 --> 00:42:54,640
Speaker 1: Howard Schultz is making now reinstated as CEO of Starbucks.

788
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:57,959
Speaker 1: He is scrapping and this for them is really big deal.

789
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:04,240
Speaker 1: Scrapping stock buybacks to quote invest more profit into our people.

790
00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:07,160
Speaker 1: Let me read you a little bit from this piece.

791
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:09,759
Speaker 1: In a letter on Monday to employees, customers, investors, and

792
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:12,759
Speaker 1: others titled on the Future of Starbucks, Shultz announced the

793
00:43:12,800 --> 00:43:16,840
Speaker 1: company would suspend stock buybacks immediately, his first act on

794
00:43:16,920 --> 00:43:19,279
Speaker 1: his first day back in the top job, which he

795
00:43:19,280 --> 00:43:22,960
Speaker 1: held twice before. He said stopping buybacks would allow Starbucks

796
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:25,680
Speaker 1: to quote invest more profit into our people in our stores,

797
00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:28,279
Speaker 1: the only way to create long term value for our stakeholders.

798
00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:31,959
Speaker 1: And here's the more of the context. Starbucks spent ten

799
00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:35,080
Speaker 1: billion on buybacks in twenty nineteen, paused him at the

800
00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:38,120
Speaker 1: start of the pandemic, but recently resumed the practice, spending

801
00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:40,040
Speaker 1: three and a half billion on buybacks in its most

802
00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:43,880
Speaker 1: recent quarter, which ended in early January. In October, Starbucks

803
00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:48,120
Speaker 1: said it would spend twenty billion on buybacks and dividends

804
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:52,120
Speaker 1: over the next three years, which is obviously an extraordinary

805
00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:55,920
Speaker 1: giveaway to shareholders and investors. That's the way you should

806
00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:59,880
Speaker 1: think about stock buybacks, and so they are so desperate

807
00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:04,080
Speaker 1: to stop this union movement that they will even agree

808
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:06,839
Speaker 1: to keep, you know, to stop giving away the whole

809
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:09,920
Speaker 1: store to the investors and the shareholders to try to

810
00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:13,200
Speaker 1: signal to their workers that they're going to do better.

811
00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:16,520
Speaker 1: The bottom line is, though, workers should not have to

812
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:20,560
Speaker 1: depend on the goodwill and large ass of billionaires in

813
00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:24,319
Speaker 1: order to have a decent workplace. All they want is

814
00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:26,560
Speaker 1: a little bit of say and what is their day

815
00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:29,880
Speaker 1: to day life. That's it. And no amount of like

816
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:32,920
Speaker 1: you know, investor announcements is going to be able to

817
00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:36,120
Speaker 1: stop that sentiment within these Starbucks across the country. Yeah.

818
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:38,080
Speaker 1: I think that there's a lot to be said here

819
00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:39,759
Speaker 1: and actually kind of look at it as a win win,

820
00:44:39,920 --> 00:44:41,920
Speaker 1: which is, on the one hand, we finally stopped a

821
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:45,680
Speaker 1: company from doing stop five ucks. Right, this is a

822
00:44:45,719 --> 00:44:48,759
Speaker 1: good thing. Now it's really what it should be, which

823
00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:52,520
Speaker 1: is that because of balance and pressure from the workforce,

824
00:44:52,880 --> 00:44:54,719
Speaker 1: they're like, well, if we don't want to deal with

825
00:44:54,760 --> 00:44:56,799
Speaker 1: these unions, we're going to have to pay people a

826
00:44:56,880 --> 00:44:59,160
Speaker 1: hell of a lot more and give them power. So

827
00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:02,520
Speaker 1: they either get paid, give them power, not give them power.

828
00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:04,400
Speaker 1: We'll give them a little more. We'll give them a

829
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:06,359
Speaker 1: little better benefits, we might give them a little pay

830
00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 1: raise power absolutely absolutely okay, but win win, right. I mean, like,

831
00:45:09,880 --> 00:45:11,480
Speaker 1: on one hand, you either get more money or they

832
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:13,000
Speaker 1: join a union and they fight you, and then they're

833
00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:14,600
Speaker 1: going to make even more money. So this is one

834
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:17,640
Speaker 1: of those areas where even the threat of it itself

835
00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:21,440
Speaker 1: can significantly impact. It shows you how corporate behavior. Amazon

836
00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:25,040
Speaker 1: did the same thing exactly they had to after the

837
00:45:25,360 --> 00:45:28,319
Speaker 1: Bessemer effort, which you know, the first time around really

838
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:31,360
Speaker 1: didn't even come close. But even just that first little

839
00:45:31,400 --> 00:45:35,480
Speaker 1: threat of unionization, they totally try to reframe how they

840
00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:37,200
Speaker 1: were talking about workers. They said they want to be

841
00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:39,759
Speaker 1: the best employer on the planet. They upped some of

842
00:45:39,800 --> 00:45:41,920
Speaker 1: the benefits and some of the wages to try to

843
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:44,920
Speaker 1: again stem the tide. So it really does show you

844
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:48,280
Speaker 1: the power of these movements that even when they don't

845
00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:52,440
Speaker 1: end up forming a union and workers actually having direct

846
00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:55,919
Speaker 1: power and direct say in their workplace, it forces these

847
00:45:56,160 --> 00:46:00,000
Speaker 1: corporate titans into making some concessions, which is pretty extraordinary. Yeah.

848
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:02,040
Speaker 1: So and let's go and put C four up there

849
00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:03,560
Speaker 1: on the screen. This is something you want to keep

850
00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:06,160
Speaker 1: everybody updated on, which is, don't take this all one

851
00:46:06,280 --> 00:46:09,240
Speaker 1: hundred percent, you know, as a good thing. Leila Dalton,

852
00:46:09,280 --> 00:46:12,799
Speaker 1: who was an organizer for Starbucks Workers United, was just

853
00:46:12,920 --> 00:46:16,239
Speaker 1: fired by Starbucks, and you actually pointed out Crystal that

854
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:19,400
Speaker 1: in an interview that she gave. She said to Jacobin,

855
00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:22,280
Speaker 1: my goal is to unionize the entire food industry. Starbucks

856
00:46:22,360 --> 00:46:24,120
Speaker 1: is a big corporation, but there are many other fast

857
00:46:24,120 --> 00:46:26,520
Speaker 1: food places. There are many health hazards that happen on

858
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:29,440
Speaker 1: a day to day basis because of understaffing or improper

859
00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:32,440
Speaker 1: working conditions. You're serving customers, cleaning and getting sanitized or

860
00:46:32,560 --> 00:46:34,680
Speaker 1: washing your hands as hard. I think some people deal

861
00:46:34,680 --> 00:46:37,000
Speaker 1: with not only Starbucks, but say McDonald's and Wendy's too.

862
00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:38,960
Speaker 1: So I want the whole food industry to know it's

863
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:42,640
Speaker 1: possible to unionize. And just as mister Schultz takes helme

864
00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:45,200
Speaker 1: of the company and accuses people like her of assault,

865
00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:48,200
Speaker 1: she is summarily fired from that company. So it's not,

866
00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:50,480
Speaker 1: by the way, that is illegal if you can prove it,

867
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:53,640
Speaker 1: but it's very hard to prove. There's a lot to

868
00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:56,600
Speaker 1: say about this. First of all, I just think these

869
00:46:57,000 --> 00:47:00,919
Speaker 1: standard union busting tactics not only do I not think

870
00:47:00,960 --> 00:47:03,920
Speaker 1: that they're working, I think they're backfiring it. And we

871
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:07,759
Speaker 1: see that with Amazon. I mean, Starbucks should go and

872
00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:10,200
Speaker 1: ask Amazon how it goes for them, how it went

873
00:47:10,239 --> 00:47:12,720
Speaker 1: for them when they fired Christian Smalls, or they fire

874
00:47:12,800 --> 00:47:15,400
Speaker 1: more of these worker organizers, and Layla is not the

875
00:47:15,440 --> 00:47:18,160
Speaker 1: first one to get the ax. By the way, I

876
00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:22,600
Speaker 1: think that there is a new climate of worker boldness,

877
00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:27,560
Speaker 1: a genuine sort of uprising. We're normally these tactics. What

878
00:47:27,600 --> 00:47:29,800
Speaker 1: are they intended to do. They're intended to scare people.

879
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:34,319
Speaker 1: They're intended to enforce and demand compliance, because you're just

880
00:47:34,360 --> 00:47:37,840
Speaker 1: too afraid to even vote yes on the union or

881
00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:41,799
Speaker 1: stand up for yourself at all. Instead, what I see,

882
00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:44,360
Speaker 1: and what certainly was the case at Amazon, is it

883
00:47:44,640 --> 00:47:48,319
Speaker 1: just pissed people off. It made them more committed to

884
00:47:48,360 --> 00:47:52,000
Speaker 1: the cause because people see someone like Layla, who was

885
00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:55,080
Speaker 1: a leader within her store, the people she works with,

886
00:47:55,160 --> 00:47:56,919
Speaker 1: they know who she is, they know what a good

887
00:47:56,960 --> 00:48:00,719
Speaker 1: worker she was, They know that her firing was completely unfair,

888
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:04,760
Speaker 1: and they also see the way that she was unafraid

889
00:48:05,120 --> 00:48:07,880
Speaker 1: of standing up for herself. Same thing with Christian Smalls.

890
00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:09,439
Speaker 1: This is one of the things the stories that keeps

891
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:13,080
Speaker 1: coming out of the Amazon organizing effort is that they

892
00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:17,880
Speaker 1: very intentionally created a culture of boldness and a culture

893
00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:20,719
Speaker 1: of risk taking to demonstrate to the people around them,

894
00:48:20,960 --> 00:48:22,680
Speaker 1: you don't have to be afraid of these people, you

895
00:48:22,719 --> 00:48:24,439
Speaker 1: don't have to be afraid of these managers, you don't

896
00:48:24,480 --> 00:48:26,880
Speaker 1: have to be afraid of Amazon. You have rights, and

897
00:48:26,920 --> 00:48:29,120
Speaker 1: if we stand together, we actually are powerful and we

898
00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:33,640
Speaker 1: actually can cause their capitulation on key issues. Because of

899
00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:37,920
Speaker 1: the labor landscape as it exists today, where by and large,

900
00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:41,240
Speaker 1: the problem isn't getting a job, the problem is getting

901
00:48:41,400 --> 00:48:45,760
Speaker 1: a good job. That also creates a climate of boldness

902
00:48:45,800 --> 00:48:47,879
Speaker 1: because workers feel like, all right, the worst you're gonna

903
00:48:47,880 --> 00:48:50,000
Speaker 1: do to me is you're gonna fire me. Guess what

904
00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:52,520
Speaker 1: I can get another crappy, low wage job. This one

905
00:48:52,600 --> 00:48:54,920
Speaker 1: is not all that special right now. What they are

906
00:48:55,040 --> 00:48:57,319
Speaker 1: in the fight for is to have some say and

907
00:48:57,360 --> 00:49:01,520
Speaker 1: to have living wages, decent benefits at the workplace they're at.

908
00:49:01,719 --> 00:49:04,160
Speaker 1: Christian Actually we played it yesterday said something that was

909
00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:07,200
Speaker 1: kind of revolutionary that I don't know if you guys

910
00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:11,200
Speaker 1: caught it, but he said, we're not quitting our jobs anymore.

911
00:49:11,239 --> 00:49:15,040
Speaker 1: We're going to unionize. That represents a sea change in

912
00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:19,520
Speaker 1: how workers have viewed the viewed their employment and viewed

913
00:49:19,560 --> 00:49:21,960
Speaker 1: the workforce. No, no, I'm not just leaving and getting

914
00:49:21,960 --> 00:49:24,320
Speaker 1: another gig. You don't have that power over me anymore.

915
00:49:24,320 --> 00:49:26,319
Speaker 1: I'm going to force you to make this job that

916
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:29,640
Speaker 1: I have right now into a good job. So I

917
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:32,120
Speaker 1: just have this sense, and we'll see what the impact

918
00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:34,560
Speaker 1: here of Leila being fired is. But I just have

919
00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:38,759
Speaker 1: this sense that these tactics they are not working. They

920
00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:42,319
Speaker 1: are completely backfiring. We saw in Buffalo two, Remember Howard

921
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:45,319
Speaker 1: Schultz came in and made that weird Holocaust analogy that

922
00:49:45,400 --> 00:49:48,320
Speaker 1: I was like, what is this all about? They flooded

923
00:49:48,320 --> 00:49:51,040
Speaker 1: the zone with all these corporate executives and these captive

924
00:49:51,080 --> 00:49:53,520
Speaker 1: audience meetings and every other tactic they could think of,

925
00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:56,160
Speaker 1: and it didn't work. And not only did it not work,

926
00:49:56,200 --> 00:49:58,719
Speaker 1: I really think that is part of why you have

927
00:49:58,800 --> 00:50:03,319
Speaker 1: seen this takeoff in the way that it has. So listen, Leyla, like,

928
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:06,160
Speaker 1: I really hope for the best for her. I know

929
00:50:06,280 --> 00:50:08,680
Speaker 1: she has big ambitions. I hope she stays engaged in

930
00:50:08,680 --> 00:50:11,920
Speaker 1: the labor movement. And I think that this movement is

931
00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:13,960
Speaker 1: only going to continue to grow. I think this is

932
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:15,360
Speaker 1: just the tip of the iceberg. I think in the

933
00:50:15,360 --> 00:50:17,400
Speaker 1: social media age. You're right, this is not you know,

934
00:50:17,440 --> 00:50:20,239
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety six where you can just disappear people who

935
00:50:20,239 --> 00:50:22,279
Speaker 1: own the prop you know, with the Internet and with

936
00:50:22,360 --> 00:50:26,000
Speaker 1: the organization Twitter and the open channels of communication, I

937
00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:28,879
Speaker 1: do think it's just impossible, and especially people like us

938
00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:31,160
Speaker 1: who bring attention and who talk about it. So I

939
00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:33,879
Speaker 1: expect that there will be a backlash. And like we said,

940
00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:37,040
Speaker 1: even this is a victory. Stopping stock buybacks and making

941
00:50:37,160 --> 00:50:40,720
Speaker 1: them pay more in salary. That is a titanic shift

942
00:50:40,719 --> 00:50:43,680
Speaker 1: in corporate behavior in the span of what a year

943
00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:47,439
Speaker 1: relative to how they were conducting themselves previously. So let's

944
00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:50,120
Speaker 1: keep it going, all right, let's move on. This is

945
00:50:50,120 --> 00:50:53,440
Speaker 1: a hilarious story which I've done as much reading as

946
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:56,520
Speaker 1: I can into the situation because it is very emblematic

947
00:50:56,600 --> 00:50:59,360
Speaker 1: of the Trump administration and everything that the man touches.

948
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:01,279
Speaker 1: So let's put this up there on the screen and

949
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:04,120
Speaker 1: start with just the news, which is that two top

950
00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:08,720
Speaker 1: tech executives at the truth social app that President Trump

951
00:51:08,960 --> 00:51:12,200
Speaker 1: had founded have quit the company as they have faced

952
00:51:12,360 --> 00:51:16,839
Speaker 1: lackluster numbers of users and plummeting sign ups. So here's

953
00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:20,839
Speaker 1: who they are, Josh Adams and Billy Boozer. They were

954
00:51:20,880 --> 00:51:25,080
Speaker 1: apparently the technology and product development heads at the company,

955
00:51:25,120 --> 00:51:29,640
Speaker 1: including the chief technology officer. Now we've already talked here

956
00:51:29,719 --> 00:51:33,200
Speaker 1: about the rollout, about the glitches and the errors. The

957
00:51:33,239 --> 00:51:36,760
Speaker 1: biggest problem that they have today is that since its launch,

958
00:51:37,120 --> 00:51:39,640
Speaker 1: downloads on the app have gone from one hundred and

959
00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:43,640
Speaker 1: seventy thousand downloads a day to just eight thousand. And

960
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:47,280
Speaker 1: what they point to is that within truth Social itself,

961
00:51:47,520 --> 00:51:51,399
Speaker 1: there's already all kinds of issues. Number one being they

962
00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:55,760
Speaker 1: were supposed to be fully operational by April first, according

963
00:51:55,760 --> 00:52:00,840
Speaker 1: to internal company document. Wealth and Evan Nunez, who is

964
00:52:00,880 --> 00:52:04,319
Speaker 1: the CEO, I mean the man left Congress. He was

965
00:52:04,360 --> 00:52:09,160
Speaker 1: a very powerful member of Congress and now leaves his

966
00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:12,880
Speaker 1: seat in order to serve as the CEO of this organization.

967
00:52:13,280 --> 00:52:15,840
Speaker 1: Now that day has come and gone. It's April fifth,

968
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:19,200
Speaker 1: the day that we're recording this segment. We're not fully operational. Crystal,

969
00:52:19,360 --> 00:52:22,000
Speaker 1: you went ahead check you've got an up date for you. Yes,

970
00:52:22,520 --> 00:52:26,240
Speaker 1: I have not moved. I'm still two hundred and forty thousand,

971
00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:30,160
Speaker 1: five hundred and forty one on the list. Right I

972
00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:32,319
Speaker 1: did I thought, maybe like if I log out, log

973
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:35,640
Speaker 1: back in, maybe move now and nothing has happened. And

974
00:52:35,680 --> 00:52:39,000
Speaker 1: that's exactly the issue, which is that people are reporting

975
00:52:39,120 --> 00:52:42,680
Speaker 1: being stuck in long queues. In terms of the posting itself,

976
00:52:42,680 --> 00:52:45,080
Speaker 1: we already brought you last week that Trump hadn't even

977
00:52:45,120 --> 00:52:49,640
Speaker 1: posted on the platform posted once since then, you know exactly,

978
00:52:49,840 --> 00:52:53,120
Speaker 1: And so what's going on. Isn't the whole point of

979
00:52:53,280 --> 00:52:55,920
Speaker 1: having this to be that you're going to replace a

980
00:52:55,960 --> 00:52:59,680
Speaker 1: Twitter alternative. Also, apparently roger Stone is saying that the

981
00:52:59,719 --> 00:53:02,640
Speaker 1: app is censoring him. So now they have their own

982
00:53:02,880 --> 00:53:05,960
Speaker 1: maga issues of censorship. Oh really, what did he think?

983
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:09,239
Speaker 1: So here's what it said. He said the app is

984
00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:12,040
Speaker 1: censoring me. He isn't giving a reason, or he hasn't

985
00:53:12,080 --> 00:53:15,160
Speaker 1: given any content specifically that's been flagged. It wouldn't be

986
00:53:15,239 --> 00:53:18,319
Speaker 1: necessarily surprising if that were the case. And there's some

987
00:53:18,640 --> 00:53:23,919
Speaker 1: inter maga like sort of divide over these social media apps, yes,

988
00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:27,520
Speaker 1: because some people are one and yeah, okay, So here's

989
00:53:27,520 --> 00:53:30,640
Speaker 1: what roger Stone says here. He says that he took

990
00:53:30,680 --> 00:53:33,640
Speaker 1: to truth Social said that they were about free speech

991
00:53:33,680 --> 00:53:36,719
Speaker 1: to post about radical Islam, including a picture of an

992
00:53:36,719 --> 00:53:39,760
Speaker 1: old Trump campaign button. Trump warns, but the growing threat

993
00:53:39,800 --> 00:53:42,560
Speaker 1: of terrorism et cetera. Well, what happened is they put

994
00:53:42,600 --> 00:53:46,040
Speaker 1: a sensitive content thing on his button, and he says,

995
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:49,000
Speaker 1: why is this being censored content on truth Social? He

996
00:53:49,040 --> 00:53:51,680
Speaker 1: wrote in a follow up post, notably that the second

997
00:53:51,680 --> 00:53:53,919
Speaker 1: post was not slapped with the content warning, so that

998
00:53:54,239 --> 00:53:56,920
Speaker 1: is exactly what he's pointing to. It has a sensitive

999
00:53:56,920 --> 00:53:59,000
Speaker 1: content thing that posse up on an image of what

1000
00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:01,800
Speaker 1: is literally a Trump campaign thing, which is kind of

1001
00:54:01,840 --> 00:54:04,080
Speaker 1: ironic when you think about it. All of this just

1002
00:54:04,120 --> 00:54:07,840
Speaker 1: goes to show you that, look, if you thought this

1003
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:12,000
Speaker 1: was going to be a competently executed company, I don't

1004
00:54:12,040 --> 00:54:15,399
Speaker 1: know what exactly country that you've lived in for five

1005
00:54:15,400 --> 00:54:19,080
Speaker 1: straight years. And it's a good example of how Trump

1006
00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:23,640
Speaker 1: himself does not care about the details of almost anything

1007
00:54:23,680 --> 00:54:25,960
Speaker 1: that he gets involved in. He cares about the branding.

1008
00:54:26,120 --> 00:54:28,719
Speaker 1: And look, the man is a legitimate genius whenever it

1009
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:31,480
Speaker 1: comes to that, but in terms of executive management and

1010
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:34,400
Speaker 1: any sort of competence, he's probably the single worst person

1011
00:54:34,400 --> 00:54:36,600
Speaker 1: in the United States in order to head something like

1012
00:54:36,640 --> 00:54:38,480
Speaker 1: that up. Put this up there on the screen, please,

1013
00:54:38,680 --> 00:54:42,360
Speaker 1: which is that Trump himself announced that he was creating

1014
00:54:42,360 --> 00:54:45,160
Speaker 1: truth Social to stand up to the tyranny of big tech.

1015
00:54:45,400 --> 00:54:48,520
Speaker 1: They hired these top tech executives, the ones who are

1016
00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:51,120
Speaker 1: have just now quit, specifically to show that they were

1017
00:54:51,160 --> 00:54:55,479
Speaker 1: a real company, and yet the launch day is coming gone.

1018
00:54:55,760 --> 00:54:58,640
Speaker 1: In terms of posting, all he posted was get ready,

1019
00:54:58,719 --> 00:55:01,600
Speaker 1: your favorite president will see you soon. That remains to

1020
00:55:01,600 --> 00:55:04,000
Speaker 1: be the case in terms of the number of followers

1021
00:55:04,040 --> 00:55:08,240
Speaker 1: and more. The downloads remain plummeting. The top executives are gone.

1022
00:55:08,480 --> 00:55:12,120
Speaker 1: Devin Juniez hasn't really said anything in terms of what's

1023
00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:15,320
Speaker 1: going on exactly with behind the scenes. They're going to

1024
00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:18,120
Speaker 1: have to replace that, and it's very clear here that

1025
00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:21,120
Speaker 1: they're off to a rocky start. To say the least

1026
00:55:21,480 --> 00:55:23,440
Speaker 1: you can say and believe as I do that I

1027
00:55:23,440 --> 00:55:26,319
Speaker 1: would love to see a better Twitter. I think a

1028
00:55:26,320 --> 00:55:28,319
Speaker 1: lot of that could come from Elon Musk, which I'll

1029
00:55:28,360 --> 00:55:31,200
Speaker 1: be talking about in my monologue. But a lot of

1030
00:55:31,239 --> 00:55:35,840
Speaker 1: these alternatives have just become cringe grift efforts on every

1031
00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:38,320
Speaker 1: part of the spectrum. Yeah, and I feel bad because

1032
00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:40,520
Speaker 1: a lot of people who legitimately trust Trump and they

1033
00:55:40,520 --> 00:55:43,160
Speaker 1: don't understand, you know, just how incompetent kind of a

1034
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:46,040
Speaker 1: moron that he actually is, felt for this and are

1035
00:55:46,040 --> 00:55:48,000
Speaker 1: giving over their data and signing up for aut it's

1036
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:50,560
Speaker 1: not just a sign of his incompetence, which I think

1037
00:55:50,640 --> 00:55:53,000
Speaker 1: is an important part of this, because a central part

1038
00:55:53,040 --> 00:55:56,040
Speaker 1: of his pitch and his appeal was like, I'm the businessman.

1039
00:55:56,280 --> 00:55:58,279
Speaker 1: I know how to get things done, Like it's going

1040
00:55:58,320 --> 00:56:00,600
Speaker 1: to the country's going to be well run office and

1041
00:56:00,680 --> 00:56:02,600
Speaker 1: executive brand, it's gonna be well run. Like if you

1042
00:56:02,640 --> 00:56:04,319
Speaker 1: still believe that, I don't know what to tell you,

1043
00:56:04,400 --> 00:56:07,520
Speaker 1: because we have manifest evidence that that is not the case.

1044
00:56:07,560 --> 00:56:10,279
Speaker 1: In truth, social being a very predictable, you know, very

1045
00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:14,799
Speaker 1: similar outcome. I genuinely want to know what is going

1046
00:56:14,800 --> 00:56:18,360
Speaker 1: on behind the scenes. Yeah, because listen, I've never stood

1047
00:56:18,400 --> 00:56:22,160
Speaker 1: up a gigantic social media platform personally, so I cannot

1048
00:56:22,200 --> 00:56:25,960
Speaker 1: speak to how complicated it is. But surely, look, they

1049
00:56:26,000 --> 00:56:28,640
Speaker 1: got a ton of money. Surely you can hire someone

1050
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:31,520
Speaker 1: who knows how to do this thing and figure it out.

1051
00:56:31,719 --> 00:56:33,719
Speaker 1: This has been now like this has been a long

1052
00:56:33,800 --> 00:56:36,600
Speaker 1: time that I'm number two hundred and forty thousandth on

1053
00:56:36,640 --> 00:56:39,240
Speaker 1: the list and nothing is changing and nothing is moving.

1054
00:56:39,320 --> 00:56:41,799
Speaker 1: So there's that to be said for it. I think

1055
00:56:41,880 --> 00:56:46,200
Speaker 1: it also shows, though, the sort of lack of care, concern,

1056
00:56:46,480 --> 00:56:49,239
Speaker 1: and at times outright contempt that he has for his

1057
00:56:49,320 --> 00:56:52,120
Speaker 1: own people, because this was held out as like, this

1058
00:56:52,239 --> 00:56:54,080
Speaker 1: is going to be, you know, a platformer, you can

1059
00:56:54,120 --> 00:56:56,480
Speaker 1: really express your beliefs, and this is going to be

1060
00:56:56,560 --> 00:56:59,880
Speaker 1: our part of our movement effectively, and the fact that

1061
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:03,560
Speaker 1: he doesn't even care enough to see that it's the

1062
00:57:03,600 --> 00:57:07,680
Speaker 1: basic elements of it are competently executed, it is another

1063
00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:10,319
Speaker 1: sign of his lack of care and concern for the

1064
00:57:10,360 --> 00:57:13,439
Speaker 1: people who most believe in him. And so I think

1065
00:57:13,440 --> 00:57:15,400
Speaker 1: that part of it really does matter. Yeah, I think

1066
00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:17,600
Speaker 1: you're right. It makes me upset just to see us

1067
00:57:17,600 --> 00:57:19,200
Speaker 1: a way. So many of these people have been used

1068
00:57:19,200 --> 00:57:22,440
Speaker 1: a lot of more boomers, and they don't have access

1069
00:57:22,480 --> 00:57:25,520
Speaker 1: to better information. I'll never forget. I remember this one

1070
00:57:25,760 --> 00:57:28,440
Speaker 1: when Rush was still alive and there was this elderly

1071
00:57:28,480 --> 00:57:30,800
Speaker 1: gentleman calling in. He was like literally in tears, being

1072
00:57:30,800 --> 00:57:33,320
Speaker 1: like they're stealing the election from Trump, Like why won't

1073
00:57:33,320 --> 00:57:36,360
Speaker 1: these Republicans do so he is distraught personally because he

1074
00:57:36,400 --> 00:57:41,080
Speaker 1: believes these people about what's happening. And these people donated millions,

1075
00:57:41,080 --> 00:57:43,960
Speaker 1: tens of millions of dollars to Donald Trump to you know,

1076
00:57:44,040 --> 00:57:46,400
Speaker 1: save the election, and we even pointed out that they

1077
00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:48,480
Speaker 1: didn't spend a lot of that money on challenging even

1078
00:57:48,560 --> 00:57:51,000
Speaker 1: the election results. So they lied to people whenever they

1079
00:57:51,040 --> 00:57:54,000
Speaker 1: took their money. Even today he requires the RNC and

1080
00:57:54,000 --> 00:57:56,640
Speaker 1: all these other people to pay his legal bills. I mean,

1081
00:57:56,680 --> 00:57:59,360
Speaker 1: it's just a grift, through and through and through. And

1082
00:57:59,720 --> 00:58:02,080
Speaker 1: that's the other thing. He'll take a lot of money

1083
00:58:02,080 --> 00:58:04,520
Speaker 1: off of this. It doesn't matter that it's a complete

1084
00:58:04,520 --> 00:58:08,360
Speaker 1: embarrassment failure and comminently executed, etcetera, etcetera. He'll be in

1085
00:58:08,360 --> 00:58:11,760
Speaker 1: a position to make lots of money off of this thing.

1086
00:58:12,080 --> 00:58:15,240
Speaker 1: The last thing I'll say, with regards to these new

1087
00:58:15,760 --> 00:58:18,720
Speaker 1: like you know, platforms that are meant to be about

1088
00:58:18,760 --> 00:58:22,240
Speaker 1: free speech, we've already seen the sort of successful model

1089
00:58:22,360 --> 00:58:25,320
Speaker 1: of how this really works. So we've pointed this sound

1090
00:58:25,360 --> 00:58:28,000
Speaker 1: a couple times, but I do think it's worth reiterating.

1091
00:58:28,360 --> 00:58:32,120
Speaker 1: You know, I was looking at Substack, which has free

1092
00:58:32,120 --> 00:58:35,120
Speaker 1: speech ethos like very genuinely committed to it, has taken

1093
00:58:35,160 --> 00:58:37,240
Speaker 1: a lot of heat for it, and has stood their ground,

1094
00:58:37,400 --> 00:58:39,840
Speaker 1: and I think proven themselves to be sort of true

1095
00:58:39,840 --> 00:58:42,400
Speaker 1: allies of the free speech movement. And I was just

1096
00:58:42,520 --> 00:58:45,320
Speaker 1: looking I happened on Twitter across what their top ten

1097
00:58:45,680 --> 00:58:51,360
Speaker 1: trending newsletters are right now and is truly ideologically diverse.

1098
00:58:51,400 --> 00:58:53,880
Speaker 1: The number one is still the like letters from an

1099
00:58:53,880 --> 00:58:58,280
Speaker 1: American's like a liberal historian, you know, very much aligned

1100
00:58:58,280 --> 00:59:00,920
Speaker 1: with sort of like the mainstream liberal sentiment. There are

1101
00:59:00,960 --> 00:59:03,840
Speaker 1: others in that camp. There are some that are right wing,

1102
00:59:03,880 --> 00:59:05,640
Speaker 1: there are some that are left wing. There are some

1103
00:59:05,720 --> 00:59:08,040
Speaker 1: that are hard to categorize. I mean, they really are

1104
00:59:08,200 --> 00:59:11,360
Speaker 1: all across the map. Because their whole thing was not

1105
00:59:11,760 --> 00:59:15,400
Speaker 1: just we're going to be like X existing platform, except

1106
00:59:15,400 --> 00:59:17,960
Speaker 1: we're going to have different rules on free speech. They

1107
00:59:18,080 --> 00:59:21,400
Speaker 1: met a market need and had integrated into that their

1108
00:59:21,840 --> 00:59:24,760
Speaker 1: care and concern and commitment to free speech. That's the

1109
00:59:24,760 --> 00:59:27,520
Speaker 1: way it has to be done, because ultimately, social networks

1110
00:59:27,520 --> 00:59:30,600
Speaker 1: are valuable because of the vast array of people that

1111
00:59:30,680 --> 00:59:34,320
Speaker 1: are on them. And so if your only pitch is, hey,

1112
00:59:34,440 --> 00:59:38,520
Speaker 1: we are exactly like Twitter, only we have different rules

1113
00:59:38,560 --> 00:59:40,880
Speaker 1: with regards to free speech, well you're only going to

1114
00:59:40,920 --> 00:59:43,640
Speaker 1: attract a very specific audience and you're going to limit,

1115
00:59:43,920 --> 00:59:47,880
Speaker 1: ultimately what the impact and the reach of that platform is.

1116
00:59:47,960 --> 00:59:50,800
Speaker 1: So the game with these big established players is you

1117
00:59:50,840 --> 00:59:54,560
Speaker 1: have to traine the policy framework. You have to you know,

1118
00:59:55,280 --> 00:59:59,520
Speaker 1: you have to make sure that they are subjected to scrutiny, accountability, transparency.

1119
00:59:59,600 --> 01:00:01,480
Speaker 1: In my I mean he should be treated as sort

1120
01:00:01,520 --> 01:00:04,640
Speaker 1: of public infrastructure and you know, handled more or less

1121
01:00:04,640 --> 01:00:08,680
Speaker 1: like utilities, because communication and the public square is backbone

1122
01:00:08,720 --> 01:00:12,120
Speaker 1: critical infrastructure in a democracy. That's the way you have

1123
01:00:12,200 --> 01:00:15,240
Speaker 1: to go about these Creating a competing product with different

1124
01:00:15,280 --> 01:00:16,640
Speaker 1: sort of rules of the road. It's not going to

1125
01:00:16,680 --> 01:00:19,720
Speaker 1: work out almost certainly, never sad to say, as much

1126
01:00:19,720 --> 01:00:22,000
Speaker 1: as we would like it to. When network effects are real,

1127
01:00:22,360 --> 01:00:25,280
Speaker 1: Go ask any real business person in Silicon Valley and

1128
01:00:25,280 --> 01:00:27,680
Speaker 1: they'll tell you the exact same thing. It is what

1129
01:00:27,720 --> 01:00:29,720
Speaker 1: it is. Yeah, all right. Last thing we wanted to

1130
01:00:29,880 --> 01:00:32,919
Speaker 1: get to before we jump into our monologues is I've

1131
01:00:32,920 --> 01:00:37,800
Speaker 1: been watching with great interest as the mainstream press decided

1132
01:00:38,200 --> 01:00:41,560
Speaker 1: that they have to now take Amazon labor union president

1133
01:00:41,720 --> 01:00:44,680
Speaker 1: Christian Smalls seriously. They have to give him a platform,

1134
01:00:44,720 --> 01:00:46,920
Speaker 1: They have to talk to them with some level of respect,

1135
01:00:47,280 --> 01:00:50,120
Speaker 1: because this is a man who's meussing around with capital now,

1136
01:00:50,160 --> 01:00:52,520
Speaker 1: so now, okay, we're going to have to keep take

1137
01:00:52,600 --> 01:00:56,040
Speaker 1: you seriously. It kind of reminds me of an irony

1138
01:00:56,120 --> 01:00:57,880
Speaker 1: pointed this out to me. It kind of reminds me

1139
01:00:58,080 --> 01:01:01,080
Speaker 1: of that, like two weeks during the Democratic primary when

1140
01:01:01,120 --> 01:01:03,680
Speaker 1: CNN felt like they had to have me on to

1141
01:01:03,800 --> 01:01:08,240
Speaker 1: represent like the thinking of people who were aligned with Bernie.

1142
01:01:08,320 --> 01:01:10,360
Speaker 1: So there's a kind of a similar dynamic going on.

1143
01:01:10,440 --> 01:01:12,600
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure I ever thought in my lifetime

1144
01:01:12,840 --> 01:01:16,240
Speaker 1: that CNBC would not only have Christians Malls on, but

1145
01:01:16,880 --> 01:01:21,640
Speaker 1: give him seven minutes to talk about why unions matter

1146
01:01:21,800 --> 01:01:24,120
Speaker 1: and how they are fighting and winning. Let's take a

1147
01:01:24,120 --> 01:01:28,200
Speaker 1: listen to a little bit of that. Chris, first of all,

1148
01:01:28,440 --> 01:01:34,440
Speaker 1: welcome once again. This started as a highly contentious relationship

1149
01:01:34,640 --> 01:01:39,280
Speaker 1: between you and Amazon to no small degree, because people

1150
01:01:39,320 --> 01:01:43,040
Speaker 1: there belittled you, alienated you, thought they could win by

1151
01:01:43,080 --> 01:01:45,560
Speaker 1: making you the face of the union push. But you've

1152
01:01:45,600 --> 01:01:50,320
Speaker 1: won this round here. So my question is on your

1153
01:01:50,480 --> 01:01:55,320
Speaker 1: strategy from here. Amazon's got a new CEO right since

1154
01:01:55,360 --> 01:01:59,120
Speaker 1: you started this, you are now a national figure in

1155
01:01:59,200 --> 01:02:02,360
Speaker 1: this new labor movement. What's your approach from here? To

1156
01:02:02,400 --> 01:02:05,480
Speaker 1: what degree do you think you can cooperate more with

1157
01:02:05,600 --> 01:02:10,160
Speaker 1: Amazon leadership, or to what degree do you think that's why? Well,

1158
01:02:10,200 --> 01:02:12,680
Speaker 1: they don't have no choice. You know, the revolution is here.

1159
01:02:12,880 --> 01:02:16,520
Speaker 1: That's what we've just witnessed. On Friday. We're going to

1160
01:02:16,640 --> 01:02:19,800
Speaker 1: organize buildings all across the nation. You know, we in

1161
01:02:19,840 --> 01:02:23,840
Speaker 1: the last seventy two hours, we've been contacted from workers

1162
01:02:24,040 --> 01:02:28,040
Speaker 1: all over the world. So they want to unionize. We're

1163
01:02:28,040 --> 01:02:29,680
Speaker 1: going to absolutely help them. We're going to get it

1164
01:02:29,720 --> 01:02:32,160
Speaker 1: done here in New York. First, we have another election

1165
01:02:32,240 --> 01:02:34,480
Speaker 1: coming up in three weeks, so we're right back at

1166
01:02:34,480 --> 01:02:38,760
Speaker 1: the campaign on the campaign trail. And once we've finished

1167
01:02:38,760 --> 01:02:40,520
Speaker 1: here in New York, you're going to spread, just like

1168
01:02:40,560 --> 01:02:44,680
Speaker 1: the Starbucks movement is spreading across the nation. Hey, Chris,

1169
01:02:44,720 --> 01:02:48,800
Speaker 1: you clearly understand a big part of the Amazon workforce.

1170
01:02:49,000 --> 01:02:52,680
Speaker 1: But for those who voted against unionization, what were their

1171
01:02:52,760 --> 01:02:54,440
Speaker 1: reasons do you think and what do you have to

1172
01:02:54,440 --> 01:02:58,400
Speaker 1: say to change their minds? Well, you know, I don't

1173
01:02:58,400 --> 01:03:00,320
Speaker 1: think we have to say anything too much. You know,

1174
01:03:00,360 --> 01:03:03,920
Speaker 1: they were misinformed. Amazon spent millions of dollars putting them

1175
01:03:03,920 --> 01:03:07,320
Speaker 1: into captive audiences for the last few months, every twenty

1176
01:03:07,360 --> 01:03:10,880
Speaker 1: minutes every single day. So imagine being put into a

1177
01:03:10,880 --> 01:03:15,880
Speaker 1: classroom being drilled anti union propaganda for months. Of course,

1178
01:03:15,920 --> 01:03:18,280
Speaker 1: some people want to fall victims to that, and I

1179
01:03:18,320 --> 01:03:20,440
Speaker 1: think that's what we saw. You know, a lot of

1180
01:03:20,440 --> 01:03:24,960
Speaker 1: people just really didn't know they were undecided. The company

1181
01:03:25,000 --> 01:03:26,640
Speaker 1: is telling you to vote. Know, this is their main

1182
01:03:26,720 --> 01:03:29,920
Speaker 1: source of income, so of course they went with that.

1183
01:03:30,080 --> 01:03:32,960
Speaker 1: But I think we show them better then we talk

1184
01:03:33,040 --> 01:03:36,160
Speaker 1: about it. We deliver our contract, we improve the quality

1185
01:03:36,200 --> 01:03:38,680
Speaker 1: of life. I think they'll all come around and be

1186
01:03:38,760 --> 01:03:41,880
Speaker 1: on board. There is so much to say about that,

1187
01:03:42,040 --> 01:03:44,680
Speaker 1: So first of all, let's just always keep in mind

1188
01:03:44,880 --> 01:03:48,080
Speaker 1: Amazon made their bed. They chose to make Christian Smalls

1189
01:03:48,120 --> 01:03:51,080
Speaker 1: the face of the movement. They're the ones who created

1190
01:03:51,120 --> 01:03:53,520
Speaker 1: the situation for themselves. And I think you can see

1191
01:03:53,520 --> 01:03:57,280
Speaker 1: there this man has a very powerful voice. I love

1192
01:03:57,320 --> 01:04:00,120
Speaker 1: how that question to him, the first question that we

1193
01:04:00,200 --> 01:04:04,400
Speaker 1: showed you where they're like, all right, you on, now,

1194
01:04:04,480 --> 01:04:06,480
Speaker 1: isn't it time for you to like lay off a

1195
01:04:06,480 --> 01:04:08,760
Speaker 1: little bit? Isn't it time to cooperate? And that same

1196
01:04:08,840 --> 01:04:10,800
Speaker 1: dude comes back at the end and basically ask the

1197
01:04:10,840 --> 01:04:14,000
Speaker 1: same question of like, isn't it time for diplomacy now?

1198
01:04:14,200 --> 01:04:18,440
Speaker 1: He's like, no, Amazon. His response is they're gonna have

1199
01:04:18,760 --> 01:04:21,840
Speaker 1: no choice basically but to negotiate and sit with us

1200
01:04:22,080 --> 01:04:25,440
Speaker 1: because the revolution is here. That is his response to

1201
01:04:25,480 --> 01:04:28,960
Speaker 1: these CNBC ghuls who are like so panicked about what's

1202
01:04:29,000 --> 01:04:30,640
Speaker 1: going on that they feel like they have to have

1203
01:04:30,760 --> 01:04:33,080
Speaker 1: him on and try to persuade him to like basically

1204
01:04:33,360 --> 01:04:37,480
Speaker 1: back down, So that is relatively extraordinary. I also love

1205
01:04:37,560 --> 01:04:40,520
Speaker 1: how they're trying to get him to lay out the

1206
01:04:40,560 --> 01:04:43,280
Speaker 1: anti union argument, you know, like, well, how about the

1207
01:04:43,280 --> 01:04:45,560
Speaker 1: people who voted against the union, don't they have a point?

1208
01:04:45,600 --> 01:04:47,880
Speaker 1: What is their perspective? And he's like, listen, we don't

1209
01:04:47,880 --> 01:04:49,400
Speaker 1: really have to persuade them. All we have to do

1210
01:04:49,480 --> 01:04:51,560
Speaker 1: is deliver for them. That's it, that's it, and then

1211
01:04:51,600 --> 01:04:55,400
Speaker 1: they'll be persuaded because they were subjected to an overwhelming

1212
01:04:55,720 --> 01:04:59,439
Speaker 1: propaganda campaign. So of course some are going to fall

1213
01:04:59,560 --> 01:05:01,720
Speaker 1: victim to of course, some people are going to understand

1214
01:05:01,720 --> 01:05:04,480
Speaker 1: that all we have to do is standard ground, keep

1215
01:05:04,520 --> 01:05:07,000
Speaker 1: doing what we're doing, and ultimately, when we deliver a

1216
01:05:07,080 --> 01:05:10,360
Speaker 1: contract that they see is better for them, that's when

1217
01:05:10,360 --> 01:05:12,400
Speaker 1: they'll all be on board. That's why it works. Look,

1218
01:05:12,440 --> 01:05:15,160
Speaker 1: even if they weren't misinformed, maybe they just legitimately didn't

1219
01:05:15,160 --> 01:05:17,840
Speaker 1: want the union, if they get better wages, well then

1220
01:05:17,920 --> 01:05:19,640
Speaker 1: they can be like, Okay, I was wrong, and they

1221
01:05:19,640 --> 01:05:21,600
Speaker 1: can change their mind. That's what it's all about. It's

1222
01:05:21,640 --> 01:05:24,760
Speaker 1: about just giving people a chance. And what I never

1223
01:05:24,800 --> 01:05:27,320
Speaker 1: can't stand about these things is they won't even want

1224
01:05:27,360 --> 01:05:29,920
Speaker 1: to give them the chance, and they want unilateral power

1225
01:05:29,960 --> 01:05:33,440
Speaker 1: when they're the second largest employer in the entire United States. Yeah,

1226
01:05:33,440 --> 01:05:36,840
Speaker 1: I have that situation. I feel like I'm crazy whenever

1227
01:05:36,880 --> 01:05:40,720
Speaker 1: I'm stating like basic facts of American labor practices, which

1228
01:05:40,760 --> 01:05:44,440
Speaker 1: we resolved in law in the nineteen fifties. Why are

1229
01:05:44,480 --> 01:05:47,440
Speaker 1: we having to do this entire dance again? But apparently

1230
01:05:47,760 --> 01:05:50,800
Speaker 1: we have to. The CNBC thing is also revealing. It's like, well,

1231
01:05:50,920 --> 01:05:53,440
Speaker 1: last time I checked, just only getting a single warehouse

1232
01:05:53,560 --> 01:05:56,320
Speaker 1: unionized is not that. I mean, look, it's a big accomplishment,

1233
01:05:56,440 --> 01:05:58,960
Speaker 1: but it's not like that's the end goal. Like why

1234
01:05:59,040 --> 01:06:01,200
Speaker 1: is JFK eight where you stop? That's not when you

1235
01:06:01,240 --> 01:06:03,520
Speaker 1: stop when you really have powers, when you have like

1236
01:06:03,560 --> 01:06:06,440
Speaker 1: a majority of the workforce, or you know, a lot

1237
01:06:06,480 --> 01:06:09,600
Speaker 1: of a lot of the warehouses that are under the

1238
01:06:09,600 --> 01:06:13,240
Speaker 1: air employee, then you have legitimate bargaining power and then okay,

1239
01:06:13,280 --> 01:06:15,480
Speaker 1: maybe it's time to talk. I mean, right now you're

1240
01:06:15,520 --> 01:06:17,520
Speaker 1: just getting started, Like why would you even ask the

1241
01:06:17,640 --> 01:06:20,360
Speaker 1: question at a single one? Real next question is Okay,

1242
01:06:20,360 --> 01:06:22,560
Speaker 1: what's the plan for the next warehouse? Amazon? Don't they

1243
01:06:22,600 --> 01:06:27,440
Speaker 1: even ask that? Amazon doesn't respect diplomacy cooperation. They respect

1244
01:06:27,520 --> 01:06:29,760
Speaker 1: hard power, I mean, they don't respect any of it.

1245
01:06:30,080 --> 01:06:33,160
Speaker 1: They have to be forced into doing the right thing.

1246
01:06:33,400 --> 01:06:35,720
Speaker 1: That is the only tactic, that is the only way

1247
01:06:35,840 --> 01:06:38,760
Speaker 1: that they're ultimately going to be able to win better conditions,

1248
01:06:38,800 --> 01:06:41,320
Speaker 1: not only for this warehouse, but for workers across the country.

1249
01:06:41,360 --> 01:06:43,720
Speaker 1: And as I continually say, this is not just a

1250
01:06:43,760 --> 01:06:47,600
Speaker 1: fight about Amazon. This really is about wages, benefits and

1251
01:06:47,720 --> 01:06:51,280
Speaker 1: labor standards across the entire country. And according to Christian,

1252
01:06:51,320 --> 01:06:54,160
Speaker 1: there are can workers reaching out around the globe. Even so,

1253
01:06:54,320 --> 01:06:58,280
Speaker 1: he really has barked something. I watched him on MSNBC

1254
01:06:58,640 --> 01:07:01,160
Speaker 1: as well. I told you, yes about the segment he'd

1255
01:07:01,200 --> 01:07:04,920
Speaker 1: done with Ari Melburn. He's another one with Mehdi Hassan

1256
01:07:05,440 --> 01:07:08,479
Speaker 1: and also got asked about you know, who was there

1257
01:07:08,560 --> 01:07:10,720
Speaker 1: and whether AOC supported them in all of this. And

1258
01:07:10,760 --> 01:07:13,240
Speaker 1: so you have a guy who's now being brought on

1259
01:07:13,400 --> 01:07:17,680
Speaker 1: MSNBC to inform their audience about the reality of the

1260
01:07:17,720 --> 01:07:22,720
Speaker 1: Democratic Party's hollow support for labor unions. Who else is

1261
01:07:22,840 --> 01:07:25,960
Speaker 1: allowed to do that? I mean, you just don't hear

1262
01:07:26,040 --> 01:07:30,840
Speaker 1: that perspective on that network whatsoever. But again, because first

1263
01:07:30,840 --> 01:07:33,640
Speaker 1: of all, Christian, I mean you talk about a free man,

1264
01:07:33,720 --> 01:07:38,560
Speaker 1: This man doesn't owe anyone anything. That's the beauty of

1265
01:07:38,680 --> 01:07:42,080
Speaker 1: him winning with no support is now he is free

1266
01:07:42,120 --> 01:07:44,760
Speaker 1: to totally tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

1267
01:07:45,560 --> 01:07:49,600
Speaker 1: But the other piece is because he has established himself

1268
01:07:49,640 --> 01:07:52,960
Speaker 1: as a credible figure, that has to be platform has

1269
01:07:53,040 --> 01:07:56,640
Speaker 1: to be dealt with because he's messing around with capital.

1270
01:07:56,760 --> 01:07:59,320
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what these people ultimately respect. And so

1271
01:07:59,360 --> 01:08:03,280
Speaker 1: it's no acts then that these mainstream platforms feel like

1272
01:08:03,360 --> 01:08:05,280
Speaker 1: they have to hear them out to figure out like,

1273
01:08:05,320 --> 01:08:07,080
Speaker 1: oh my god, what the hell is going on here?

1274
01:08:07,120 --> 01:08:08,640
Speaker 1: And do you think that we can persuade him to

1275
01:08:08,640 --> 01:08:11,600
Speaker 1: cooperate and be a dipple bat now rather than continuing

1276
01:08:11,720 --> 01:08:15,280
Speaker 1: the successful unionization drive that he's hoping to spark around

1277
01:08:15,280 --> 01:08:17,400
Speaker 1: the country. Yeah, it's an interesting thing too. I think

1278
01:08:17,600 --> 01:08:19,519
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know how much they even know

1279
01:08:19,560 --> 01:08:22,920
Speaker 1: about unions over there. That's actually the CNBC. That probably

1280
01:08:22,960 --> 01:08:24,680
Speaker 1: is one of the first times they've ever had to

1281
01:08:24,720 --> 01:08:28,320
Speaker 1: even grapple. They don't think of unions as part of business. Yes,

1282
01:08:28,600 --> 01:08:31,599
Speaker 1: they see it as like, yeah, I mean, we played

1283
01:08:31,600 --> 01:08:35,679
Speaker 1: the Jim Kramer thing yesterday, right, and he's like, well,

1284
01:08:35,720 --> 01:08:37,760
Speaker 1: what is Amazon going to do if they if they

1285
01:08:37,760 --> 01:08:40,639
Speaker 1: can't control their workers and force them to work shifts

1286
01:08:40,640 --> 01:08:43,280
Speaker 1: that they don't want to work. And you pointed the

1287
01:08:43,320 --> 01:08:45,639
Speaker 1: sound this is so true, Like he would not view

1288
01:08:45,680 --> 01:08:48,600
Speaker 1: his own workplace that way. Like if CNBC was like,

1289
01:08:48,640 --> 01:08:50,479
Speaker 1: you have to work these hours and that's way you're

1290
01:08:50,520 --> 01:08:52,880
Speaker 1: on the Tom shift now, Jim, he'd be like, no,

1291
01:08:52,920 --> 01:08:56,080
Speaker 1: I'm not doing career, I'm not doing that, and would

1292
01:08:56,120 --> 01:08:59,120
Speaker 1: never think that that was like an acceptable demand of him.

1293
01:08:59,280 --> 01:09:01,640
Speaker 1: And people are in who are in his class. But

1294
01:09:01,800 --> 01:09:04,840
Speaker 1: people like Christian and you know, his fellow workers there,

1295
01:09:04,880 --> 01:09:08,360
Speaker 1: they're just seen as like cogs to be moved around

1296
01:09:08,400 --> 01:09:11,360
Speaker 1: and placed into the machine and disposed of at will,

1297
01:09:11,880 --> 01:09:15,040
Speaker 1: and they consider it like an existential threat when suddenly

1298
01:09:15,040 --> 01:09:17,040
Speaker 1: the cogs have a little bit of a say and

1299
01:09:17,080 --> 01:09:19,800
Speaker 1: when and where and how they're being plugged in. So's

1300
01:09:20,040 --> 01:09:22,719
Speaker 1: it's really extraordinary to watch them all trying to grapple

1301
01:09:22,720 --> 01:09:27,040
Speaker 1: with this in real time. It's fun. I know you

1302
01:09:27,080 --> 01:09:28,400
Speaker 1: got more on this, so what are you taking a

1303
01:09:28,400 --> 01:09:31,360
Speaker 1: look at? Indeed, well, friends, Ronald Dragon once said the

1304
01:09:31,360 --> 01:09:34,400
Speaker 1: most terrifying words in the English language were I'm from

1305
01:09:34,400 --> 01:09:36,519
Speaker 1: the government and I'm here to help. Well, thanks to

1306
01:09:36,600 --> 01:09:40,000
Speaker 1: the intrepid reporting of one Ken Cliffenstein. We are now

1307
01:09:40,040 --> 01:09:43,479
Speaker 1: learning the most terrifying words in the English language, at

1308
01:09:43,520 --> 01:09:46,960
Speaker 1: least according to the corporate ghouls who run Amazon. According

1309
01:09:46,960 --> 01:09:50,360
Speaker 1: to a leaked internal memo, Amazon is planning to ban

1310
01:09:50,560 --> 01:09:56,080
Speaker 1: the words union, living wage, slave, labor, harassment, and restrooms,

1311
01:09:56,120 --> 01:09:58,919
Speaker 1: among a long list of others from a new internal

1312
01:09:58,960 --> 01:10:02,200
Speaker 1: worker chat app. I presume the restroom reference is likely

1313
01:10:02,240 --> 01:10:04,320
Speaker 1: with regards to the common complaint for workers that their

1314
01:10:04,360 --> 01:10:07,160
Speaker 1: breaks do not even afford them enough time to make

1315
01:10:07,200 --> 01:10:10,479
Speaker 1: it to the restroom and get back to their stations. Now,

1316
01:10:10,520 --> 01:10:14,200
Speaker 1: this leaked memo, it reveals quite a lot. First of all,

1317
01:10:14,400 --> 01:10:17,560
Speaker 1: that Amazon keeps such a tight and authoritarian grip on

1318
01:10:17,600 --> 01:10:21,679
Speaker 1: their workers that they feel entitled to exercise complete control

1319
01:10:21,840 --> 01:10:27,080
Speaker 1: even over those workers' language and speech and words. And second,

1320
01:10:27,360 --> 01:10:30,759
Speaker 1: it is very revealing that it is these particular words

1321
01:10:31,040 --> 01:10:34,200
Speaker 1: which Amazon finds to be so incredibly threatening as requiring

1322
01:10:34,240 --> 01:10:38,320
Speaker 1: a complete ban. But you know what, actually they're not wrong,

1323
01:10:38,760 --> 01:10:41,360
Speaker 1: because the Amazon union movement is the one thing that

1324
01:10:41,400 --> 01:10:43,400
Speaker 1: is budding and blossoming in the nation right now that

1325
01:10:43,640 --> 01:10:46,880
Speaker 1: could actually threaten the power of our ruling elite. Al

1326
01:10:46,960 --> 01:10:49,599
Speaker 1: you President Christian Smalls, he has announced that the revolution

1327
01:10:49,920 --> 01:10:52,479
Speaker 1: is here, and this time it is for real. Let

1328
01:10:52,520 --> 01:10:55,680
Speaker 1: me explain in detail why the Amazon union movement could

1329
01:10:55,720 --> 01:10:59,799
Speaker 1: become a truly pivotal, era transforming moment in American history

1330
01:11:00,080 --> 01:11:03,200
Speaker 1: and why I personally am so focused on it. So first,

1331
01:11:03,320 --> 01:11:05,840
Speaker 1: let's consider the context here. Our country is at a

1332
01:11:05,880 --> 01:11:09,360
Speaker 1: tipping point. The system of neoliberalism, which was architected by

1333
01:11:09,360 --> 01:11:13,599
Speaker 1: elite Democrats and elite Republicans, has robbed our towns of jobs.

1334
01:11:13,840 --> 01:11:16,639
Speaker 1: It is hollowed on our communities. It is destabilized families

1335
01:11:16,640 --> 01:11:19,920
Speaker 1: and local institutions. This has led to a collapse of

1336
01:11:19,920 --> 01:11:23,439
Speaker 1: democracy itself. How can you have democracy when there are

1337
01:11:23,439 --> 01:11:26,360
Speaker 1: no real communities to organize and no citizen led membership

1338
01:11:26,439 --> 01:11:29,760
Speaker 1: organizations to lead the fight, and when most Americans are

1339
01:11:29,800 --> 01:11:32,679
Speaker 1: too exhausted by struggling to get from paycheck to paycheck

1340
01:11:32,840 --> 01:11:36,040
Speaker 1: to focus on politics. The logic of the market and

1341
01:11:36,080 --> 01:11:39,360
Speaker 1: profit maximization was applied to every aspect of our lives.

1342
01:11:39,560 --> 01:11:41,880
Speaker 1: Our human worth was defined by what the market would

1343
01:11:41,880 --> 01:11:44,200
Speaker 1: pay us. Our value was measured by whether or not

1344
01:11:44,280 --> 01:11:47,960
Speaker 1: we were good little consumers. Politicians no longer engaged in governance.

1345
01:11:48,160 --> 01:11:51,639
Speaker 1: They substituted in market demands for values and for planning

1346
01:11:52,560 --> 01:11:55,439
Speaker 1: this entire system. It was ultimately designed to create a

1347
01:11:55,479 --> 01:11:58,880
Speaker 1: fat overclass, which it did very well, and this overclass

1348
01:11:58,880 --> 01:12:03,120
Speaker 1: then easily the political system and manipulated that market logic

1349
01:12:03,280 --> 01:12:08,160
Speaker 1: to their exclusive benefit. This has been a catastrophe leading

1350
01:12:08,160 --> 01:12:11,760
Speaker 1: to a spiritual, economic, and political decay. Most of the

1351
01:12:11,760 --> 01:12:14,240
Speaker 1: problems that we see in society today are due to

1352
01:12:14,320 --> 01:12:18,160
Speaker 1: this neoliberal system of economics and of politics. Everything from

1353
01:12:18,760 --> 01:12:22,840
Speaker 1: terrible media to corrupt politicians, to industrial decay, to death

1354
01:12:22,920 --> 01:12:26,960
Speaker 1: of despair, to our slide towards authoritarianism, surveillance and censorship,

1355
01:12:27,240 --> 01:12:30,439
Speaker 1: to the divisive culture war nonsense that tears the working

1356
01:12:30,439 --> 01:12:33,599
Speaker 1: class apart. All of that can be traced to the

1357
01:12:33,640 --> 01:12:38,040
Speaker 1: elevation of rigged markets over the needs of actual human beings.

1358
01:12:38,520 --> 01:12:41,559
Speaker 1: And there's a really only one counterweight that could check

1359
01:12:41,600 --> 01:12:44,040
Speaker 1: the power of this tilted system and create the roots

1360
01:12:44,080 --> 01:12:47,200
Speaker 1: of a healthy, actually democratic in a true sense of

1361
01:12:47,200 --> 01:12:51,639
Speaker 1: the word culture. Workers have to be organized. People must

1362
01:12:51,680 --> 01:12:53,760
Speaker 1: come together so that they can wield power in the

1363
01:12:53,880 --> 01:12:57,640
Speaker 1: one sphere that our financial overlords actually care about, and

1364
01:12:57,680 --> 01:13:01,040
Speaker 1: that's in the sphere of money and of profit. Unions

1365
01:13:01,080 --> 01:13:03,519
Speaker 1: are really the only way that we can fight back

1366
01:13:03,600 --> 01:13:06,200
Speaker 1: against the system. That has hollowed down everything good in

1367
01:13:06,200 --> 01:13:09,360
Speaker 1: this nation. It is no accident, then, that the neoliberal

1368
01:13:09,360 --> 01:13:12,759
Speaker 1: era coincided with a massive wave of union busting, kicked

1369
01:13:12,800 --> 01:13:15,400
Speaker 1: off by Reagan and pat Co and cemented by Clinton

1370
01:13:15,439 --> 01:13:18,120
Speaker 1: and NAFTA. You see the values of unions. They are

1371
01:13:18,200 --> 01:13:23,360
Speaker 1: diametrically opposed to the values of elite neoliberalism. Neoliberalism it's

1372
01:13:23,360 --> 01:13:25,960
Speaker 1: about the individual, every man and woman, competing for their

1373
01:13:26,080 --> 01:13:29,639
Speaker 1: rightful spot in the market hierarchy. Unions, on the other hand,

1374
01:13:29,840 --> 01:13:33,440
Speaker 1: they're about solidarity. They're about men and women working collectively

1375
01:13:33,479 --> 01:13:36,679
Speaker 1: for basic rights they deserve, not because of their market worth,

1376
01:13:36,920 --> 01:13:40,840
Speaker 1: but because of their humanity. Strong unions could not coexist

1377
01:13:40,920 --> 01:13:44,759
Speaker 1: with a total neoliberal takeover. And as union rates have declined,

1378
01:13:44,800 --> 01:13:47,639
Speaker 1: the middle classes collapsed. The profit margins of corporations, well,

1379
01:13:47,680 --> 01:13:50,880
Speaker 1: they have exploded, but wages, of course, they've flatlined. In

1380
01:13:50,920 --> 01:13:55,760
Speaker 1: certain instances, like now, they declined. Work has become increasingly precarious.

1381
01:13:55,800 --> 01:13:58,719
Speaker 1: The gig economies explored new and novel ways of abusing

1382
01:13:58,800 --> 01:14:01,760
Speaker 1: labor benefits that were once common and expected as part

1383
01:14:01,800 --> 01:14:04,960
Speaker 1: of employment. They've become rare, they've become fragile. No one

1384
01:14:04,960 --> 01:14:07,000
Speaker 1: has been harder hit by the shift than millennials and

1385
01:14:07,040 --> 01:14:08,799
Speaker 1: Gen Z who are being shut out of wealth creation

1386
01:14:09,080 --> 01:14:11,719
Speaker 1: entirely only able to get ahead if their parents happen

1387
01:14:11,760 --> 01:14:13,320
Speaker 1: to be able to cough up the down payment for

1388
01:14:13,360 --> 01:14:16,920
Speaker 1: their first home. This is a disaster for everyone in

1389
01:14:16,960 --> 01:14:20,080
Speaker 1: this entire country, people of all races, urban and rural,

1390
01:14:20,080 --> 01:14:23,080
Speaker 1: college and high school educated, rich and poor, even because

1391
01:14:23,080 --> 01:14:26,519
Speaker 1: who wants to live in a declining nation of anxiety, violence,

1392
01:14:26,520 --> 01:14:30,479
Speaker 1: and polarization electoral politics? Listen, they are one part of

1393
01:14:30,520 --> 01:14:34,600
Speaker 1: that struggle. But the truth is without organized labor democracy

1394
01:14:34,640 --> 01:14:38,080
Speaker 1: as hollow, unions are a basic required building block of

1395
01:14:38,120 --> 01:14:40,960
Speaker 1: actual democracy because the union hall, it's one of the

1396
01:14:41,000 --> 01:14:44,280
Speaker 1: few places left where people of different political ideologies and

1397
01:14:44,320 --> 01:14:47,680
Speaker 1: cultural backgrounds actually have to engage with one another and

1398
01:14:47,800 --> 01:14:51,080
Speaker 1: democratically work through their differences. Think about the John Deer

1399
01:14:51,120 --> 01:14:54,080
Speaker 1: workers in Iowa standing shoulder to shoulder fighting against a

1400
01:14:54,160 --> 01:14:58,760
Speaker 1: gigantic multinational. Their surface level political divides and cultural schisms,

1401
01:14:59,000 --> 01:15:02,719
Speaker 1: those meant absolutely nothing in that moment of collective struggle.

1402
01:15:03,200 --> 01:15:05,760
Speaker 1: Bonds of brotherhood were forged on that picket line that

1403
01:15:05,840 --> 01:15:08,639
Speaker 1: are sure to withstand the next culture war or moral

1404
01:15:08,720 --> 01:15:13,719
Speaker 1: fake panic. Unions help create stability and security supporting families,

1405
01:15:14,000 --> 01:15:17,760
Speaker 1: nurturing communities. That stability provided by a good paycheck and

1406
01:15:17,800 --> 01:15:22,160
Speaker 1: reliable benefits creates real freedom, actual freedom to make life

1407
01:15:22,200 --> 01:15:26,040
Speaker 1: choices and to participate as a full citizen in our democracy.

1408
01:15:26,479 --> 01:15:29,000
Speaker 1: And that participation leads to a system that is never

1409
01:15:29,080 --> 01:15:31,720
Speaker 1: going to be perfect. Guys, we're not talking about utopia,

1410
01:15:31,840 --> 01:15:34,960
Speaker 1: but it will actually be representative and real instead of

1411
01:15:35,000 --> 01:15:38,479
Speaker 1: captured by elites and completely fake. It is no accident

1412
01:15:38,640 --> 01:15:41,080
Speaker 1: that Christian Smalls is able to go on MSNBC and

1413
01:15:41,080 --> 01:15:44,760
Speaker 1: CNBC and CNN and tell them the whole truth. It's

1414
01:15:44,800 --> 01:15:48,040
Speaker 1: because he is a truly free man in the realist

1415
01:15:48,120 --> 01:15:51,000
Speaker 1: sense of that term. I can see how we get

1416
01:15:51,000 --> 01:15:54,000
Speaker 1: to that actual democracy from here. From where we stand

1417
01:15:54,080 --> 01:15:58,000
Speaker 1: right now, Amazon is ground zero. That's why care about

1418
01:15:58,000 --> 01:16:01,080
Speaker 1: it so much. It's the seemingly inciple giant. They are

1419
01:16:01,120 --> 01:16:03,439
Speaker 1: not only enforcing the current system and pushing it to

1420
01:16:03,479 --> 01:16:06,720
Speaker 1: new extremes of cruelty and humanity. Their size is their

1421
01:16:06,760 --> 01:16:10,320
Speaker 1: greatest asset, but it's also an opportunity because if a

1422
01:16:10,360 --> 01:16:13,400
Speaker 1: wave of unionization takes off an Amazon warehouses around the

1423
01:16:13,439 --> 01:16:17,160
Speaker 1: country and a flash, a significant proportion of the working

1424
01:16:17,200 --> 01:16:20,880
Speaker 1: population could be actively engaged with a union campaign and

1425
01:16:21,080 --> 01:16:24,879
Speaker 1: undergoing an education in forgotten values like solidarity and forgotten

1426
01:16:24,880 --> 01:16:28,439
Speaker 1: tactics like strikes. It would change the whole culture. And

1427
01:16:28,520 --> 01:16:30,840
Speaker 1: this is one culture war that I am one hundred

1428
01:16:30,880 --> 01:16:33,479
Speaker 1: percent in on. I don't care what care where you live.

1429
01:16:33,640 --> 01:16:35,320
Speaker 1: I don't care what party you like. I don't care

1430
01:16:35,360 --> 01:16:38,040
Speaker 1: where you position yourself on the ideological spectrum or on

1431
01:16:38,080 --> 01:16:41,240
Speaker 1: the class spectrum for that matter. If you care about

1432
01:16:41,240 --> 01:16:44,400
Speaker 1: having a country that is healthy, that is democratic in

1433
01:16:44,439 --> 01:16:46,960
Speaker 1: the true sense of that word, where the basic worth

1434
01:16:46,960 --> 01:16:50,920
Speaker 1: of humanity is affirmed, this is your fight. It's time

1435
01:16:50,960 --> 01:16:53,840
Speaker 1: for us to forge a new bipartisan consensus and to

1436
01:16:54,040 --> 01:16:58,480
Speaker 1: bury neoliberalism in the grave of its own making. Amazon

1437
01:16:58,760 --> 01:17:03,000
Speaker 1: is right to be in their union busting boots. And

1438
01:17:03,040 --> 01:17:05,479
Speaker 1: there is a reason why there is a general panic

1439
01:17:05,760 --> 01:17:08,040
Speaker 1: why they have to put Christian on these shows. Why

1440
01:17:08,280 --> 01:17:10,320
Speaker 1: you know at Starbucks And if you want to hear

1441
01:17:10,439 --> 01:17:13,840
Speaker 1: my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today

1442
01:17:13,920 --> 01:17:18,840
Speaker 1: at Breakingpoints dot Com. All right, Tzcer, what are you

1443
01:17:18,840 --> 01:17:21,200
Speaker 1: looking at? Well? As I've said here before on the show,

1444
01:17:21,320 --> 01:17:24,160
Speaker 1: out of all the megabillionaires in our society, the only

1445
01:17:24,160 --> 01:17:26,960
Speaker 1: one I really respect is Elon Musk. That doesn't mean

1446
01:17:27,000 --> 01:17:29,559
Speaker 1: he's above criticism, as I've shown here before in detailing

1447
01:17:29,560 --> 01:17:31,920
Speaker 1: his financial ties to the Chinese regime. But I do

1448
01:17:31,960 --> 01:17:35,280
Speaker 1: find that most people in elite media criticize Elon because

1449
01:17:35,280 --> 01:17:38,400
Speaker 1: of his occasionally cringe Twitter feed, but more importantly, his

1450
01:17:38,479 --> 01:17:41,120
Speaker 1: general refusal to bow to whatever the trendy thing is

1451
01:17:41,160 --> 01:17:43,759
Speaker 1: in our current elite culture and to buck those trends.

1452
01:17:44,080 --> 01:17:46,320
Speaker 1: One of those issues where Elon has stood fast, at

1453
01:17:46,360 --> 01:17:49,200
Speaker 1: least in rhetoric, has been free speech, where he released

1454
01:17:49,240 --> 01:17:52,200
Speaker 1: a tantalizing and interesting poll on Twitter several days ago

1455
01:17:52,560 --> 01:17:56,480
Speaker 1: asking if, quote free speech is essential to a functioning democracy,

1456
01:17:56,720 --> 01:18:00,639
Speaker 1: do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle. Thirty

1457
01:18:00,720 --> 01:18:03,519
Speaker 1: percent of respondents said yes, I'd love to meet those folks.

1458
01:18:03,720 --> 01:18:08,480
Speaker 1: Seventy percent said no. Elon mysteriously replied, quote, the consequences

1459
01:18:08,520 --> 01:18:11,720
Speaker 1: of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully now.

1460
01:18:11,720 --> 01:18:14,040
Speaker 1: It's very likely that decision may have already been made,

1461
01:18:14,080 --> 01:18:16,360
Speaker 1: as when Elon released his latest poll on whether he

1462
01:18:16,400 --> 01:18:20,839
Speaker 1: should buy Twitter stock or not, but it still stunned

1463
01:18:20,920 --> 01:18:25,080
Speaker 1: the world when yesterday morning, Elon filed paperwork with the

1464
01:18:25,120 --> 01:18:29,400
Speaker 1: SEC disclosing that he had purchased a nine percent stake

1465
01:18:29,640 --> 01:18:32,439
Speaker 1: in Twitter. The nine point two percent stake Elon has

1466
01:18:32,479 --> 01:18:36,200
Speaker 1: acquired within Twitter makes him the largest single shareholder in

1467
01:18:36,240 --> 01:18:40,040
Speaker 1: the company, and it opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities.

1468
01:18:40,280 --> 01:18:42,559
Speaker 1: Just this morning they announced he'll be joining the board

1469
01:18:42,560 --> 01:18:45,479
Speaker 1: of directors, and to put it in perspective, Elon now

1470
01:18:45,560 --> 01:18:48,879
Speaker 1: owns four times as much of Twitter as Twitter founder

1471
01:18:48,920 --> 01:18:53,880
Speaker 1: and former CEO Jack Dorsey, an absolutely astounding percentage of

1472
01:18:53,920 --> 01:18:56,439
Speaker 1: the company. Now, to be clear, it's a little bit

1473
01:18:56,479 --> 01:18:58,880
Speaker 1: wonky here. He does not own a more than ten

1474
01:18:58,920 --> 01:19:01,839
Speaker 1: percent or known as an insider stake of the company,

1475
01:19:02,000 --> 01:19:05,280
Speaker 1: and he is disclosing instead a passive role. Still, he

1476
01:19:05,360 --> 01:19:08,080
Speaker 1: has a board seat, So it's important. Twitter stock pop

1477
01:19:08,120 --> 01:19:10,479
Speaker 1: nearly twenty five percent of the news that Elon had

1478
01:19:10,479 --> 01:19:13,080
Speaker 1: acquired it. But more interesting to me is how is

1479
01:19:13,120 --> 01:19:15,639
Speaker 1: this going to change things? You see, Twitter has been

1480
01:19:15,680 --> 01:19:18,880
Speaker 1: going through a very rough patch business wise for some time.

1481
01:19:19,560 --> 01:19:23,479
Speaker 1: Jack Dorsey's departure, while spun as voluntary, was the result

1482
01:19:23,560 --> 01:19:27,720
Speaker 1: of immense pressure from outside investors who wanted Twitter to

1483
01:19:27,800 --> 01:19:30,559
Speaker 1: pursue more subscription products, and they wanted to get rid

1484
01:19:30,600 --> 01:19:33,320
Speaker 1: of Dorsey, who they saw as absentee and not very

1485
01:19:33,360 --> 01:19:35,719
Speaker 1: good at his job. As a result of this, Dorsey

1486
01:19:35,800 --> 01:19:38,240
Speaker 1: was forced out in a reorganization of the company and

1487
01:19:38,280 --> 01:19:40,719
Speaker 1: a reshuffling of the board, which is why they turned

1488
01:19:40,760 --> 01:19:43,759
Speaker 1: to well liked Paragu agar Wall as the new CEO.

1489
01:19:44,160 --> 01:19:48,080
Speaker 1: Paragu a former engineer, was tapped mostly because he didn't

1490
01:19:48,160 --> 01:19:51,439
Speaker 1: offend anybody and because the main demand from the new

1491
01:19:51,439 --> 01:19:55,080
Speaker 1: investors was that he continued product innovation at a faster pace.

1492
01:19:55,400 --> 01:19:58,639
Speaker 1: What they ignored was this, none of that is really

1493
01:19:58,680 --> 01:20:01,920
Speaker 1: that hard, and in tapping Agarwall, they elevated somebody to

1494
01:20:01,960 --> 01:20:04,880
Speaker 1: the position of CEO who is clearly not thought that

1495
01:20:05,080 --> 01:20:09,080
Speaker 1: hard about the way that Twitter influences discourse, especially amongst elites,

1496
01:20:09,280 --> 01:20:12,560
Speaker 1: and whether the First Amendment matters or not. As Agarwall

1497
01:20:12,640 --> 01:20:15,800
Speaker 1: himself said before he became the CEO, quote, our role

1498
01:20:16,000 --> 01:20:18,920
Speaker 1: is not to be bound by the First Amendment when

1499
01:20:18,920 --> 01:20:23,200
Speaker 1: it relates to censorship. Instead, he reiterated that making people

1500
01:20:23,280 --> 01:20:28,160
Speaker 1: feel safe was the priority. Classic activist nonsense, exactly the

1501
01:20:28,200 --> 01:20:30,599
Speaker 1: wrong choice. What this highlighted to me at that time

1502
01:20:30,760 --> 01:20:33,200
Speaker 1: was how awful a choice that Agarwall was for CEO.

1503
01:20:33,600 --> 01:20:36,840
Speaker 1: I wrote this, ironically enough on Twitter in reaction quote,

1504
01:20:37,000 --> 01:20:39,559
Speaker 1: none of the big problems that Twitter faces in the

1505
01:20:39,560 --> 01:20:42,760
Speaker 1: next five years are tech ones, they are socio political.

1506
01:20:42,880 --> 01:20:45,919
Speaker 1: They require principles and forethought as to how policy applies

1507
01:20:46,120 --> 01:20:49,920
Speaker 1: in controversial use cases. I added, choosing someone who clearly

1508
01:20:49,960 --> 01:20:51,760
Speaker 1: does not have a track record of this type of

1509
01:20:51,800 --> 01:20:57,000
Speaker 1: management will lead to more haphazard enforcement, more woke employee results,

1510
01:20:57,160 --> 01:21:01,000
Speaker 1: and worse public discourse. In other words, words, the biggest

1511
01:21:01,000 --> 01:21:03,880
Speaker 1: problem that Twitter faces has nothing to do with engineering,

1512
01:21:04,080 --> 01:21:07,639
Speaker 1: and honestly even with business. Their stock and their value

1513
01:21:07,720 --> 01:21:10,960
Speaker 1: is inextricably linked to the fact that, while yes, the

1514
01:21:11,000 --> 01:21:14,000
Speaker 1: majority of the US population is not on Twitter, that

1515
01:21:14,040 --> 01:21:21,040
Speaker 1: the elites overwhelmingly are in almost every sector sports, news, politics, finance,

1516
01:21:21,200 --> 01:21:26,040
Speaker 1: venture capital. Each individual sector has its own Twitter verse

1517
01:21:26,280 --> 01:21:30,720
Speaker 1: where being somebody actually does mean something very much so

1518
01:21:30,840 --> 01:21:34,400
Speaker 1: in the real world. Twitter's elite capture and a disproportionate

1519
01:21:34,439 --> 01:21:36,880
Speaker 1: impact then on so much of the world that you

1520
01:21:36,960 --> 01:21:39,959
Speaker 1: are as around you, is why it's important to understand

1521
01:21:39,960 --> 01:21:43,320
Speaker 1: then its content policy, and why then when they ban

1522
01:21:43,439 --> 01:21:46,320
Speaker 1: the Hunter Biden laptop story, when they cancel or they

1523
01:21:46,320 --> 01:21:50,040
Speaker 1: take off accounts of elected representatives and even the sitting

1524
01:21:50,080 --> 01:21:53,160
Speaker 1: president of the United States, that a discussion around those

1525
01:21:53,200 --> 01:21:56,760
Speaker 1: principles is so important. That is where Elon can come in.

1526
01:21:57,040 --> 01:21:59,320
Speaker 1: The truth is from a business perspective, there is not

1527
01:21:59,479 --> 01:22:02,360
Speaker 1: much except the current ad business and subscription products that

1528
01:22:02,439 --> 01:22:04,720
Speaker 1: Twitter Blue like Twitter Blue, that is left to be

1529
01:22:04,760 --> 01:22:07,679
Speaker 1: done over there. But some of the most critical decisions

1530
01:22:07,680 --> 01:22:10,640
Speaker 1: in company history are coming. First and foremost is this

1531
01:22:11,000 --> 01:22:14,080
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is probably running for president again. If he does,

1532
01:22:14,160 --> 01:22:17,120
Speaker 1: and especially if he wins the GOP nomination, is Twitter

1533
01:22:17,200 --> 01:22:19,360
Speaker 1: really not going to let him back on that platform

1534
01:22:19,560 --> 01:22:22,840
Speaker 1: because that seems crazy. I'm of the opinion that world leaders,

1535
01:22:22,840 --> 01:22:24,760
Speaker 1: no matter who they are, Kim jong un Aya to

1536
01:22:24,880 --> 01:22:28,680
Speaker 1: Lahomani Chairman g and others, should never be taken off

1537
01:22:28,720 --> 01:22:32,040
Speaker 1: the platform. Why because I think the public interest outweighs

1538
01:22:32,080 --> 01:22:35,479
Speaker 1: any stupid strust and safety policy at Twitter. But the

1539
01:22:35,520 --> 01:22:39,280
Speaker 1: election aside, Twitter has other big problems to solve. They

1540
01:22:39,280 --> 01:22:41,719
Speaker 1: already flubbed the lab leak in the early days of COVID.

1541
01:22:41,880 --> 01:22:44,160
Speaker 1: What if we have another pandemic? They banned the Hunter

1542
01:22:44,240 --> 01:22:47,320
Speaker 1: Biden laptop stories. I already mentioned. Their ad hoc policy

1543
01:22:47,400 --> 01:22:50,160
Speaker 1: under the new CEO even led to a new stupid

1544
01:22:50,280 --> 01:22:53,559
Speaker 1: rule that would effectively take away your right to record

1545
01:22:53,600 --> 01:22:56,160
Speaker 1: somebody who is wronging you and then post a video

1546
01:22:56,200 --> 01:22:59,559
Speaker 1: of it online. Because they're a private citizen. In short,

1547
01:22:59,680 --> 01:23:03,439
Speaker 1: the content policies of Twitter have a huge impact on

1548
01:23:03,520 --> 01:23:06,479
Speaker 1: the world around us. If Musk can have any effect

1549
01:23:06,640 --> 01:23:09,720
Speaker 1: at all, it will be his ability to influence the

1550
01:23:09,760 --> 01:23:12,559
Speaker 1: company in that way. And as a friend of mine

1551
01:23:12,560 --> 01:23:15,800
Speaker 1: put it, this is basically a win win situation. Either

1552
01:23:15,920 --> 01:23:18,680
Speaker 1: Musk impacts the company in a positive way and we

1553
01:23:18,760 --> 01:23:21,760
Speaker 1: have freer speech, or we learned that all the b

1554
01:23:22,000 --> 01:23:25,519
Speaker 1: asked about shareholder activism was actually fake in the first place,

1555
01:23:25,720 --> 01:23:28,280
Speaker 1: and then we get to explore more creative solutions for

1556
01:23:28,360 --> 01:23:30,960
Speaker 1: making Twitter better for all of us. Either way, it's

1557
01:23:31,000 --> 01:23:34,000
Speaker 1: a good thing. So elon, I wish you the best

1558
01:23:34,000 --> 01:23:36,719
Speaker 1: of luck. Interesting just this morning that he was appointed

1559
01:23:36,760 --> 01:23:38,920
Speaker 1: to the board of Director's Crystal while we were talking.

1560
01:23:39,200 --> 01:23:42,160
Speaker 1: And if you want to hear my reaction to Sager's monologue,

1561
01:23:42,200 --> 01:23:48,720
Speaker 1: become a premium subscriber today at Breakingpoints dot Com. All right, guys,

1562
01:23:48,720 --> 01:23:51,639
Speaker 1: we're joined now by two iron workers who are at

1563
01:23:51,680 --> 01:23:54,840
Speaker 1: the center of a labor dispute that could have implications

1564
01:23:54,880 --> 01:23:56,800
Speaker 1: for the entire country. Let's go ahead and put this

1565
01:23:56,840 --> 01:24:00,280
Speaker 1: American Prospect article up on the screen. Says the iron

1566
01:24:00,360 --> 01:24:03,559
Speaker 1: workers are resurrecting Joy Silk I'll explain it a little

1567
01:24:03,560 --> 01:24:06,439
Speaker 1: bit what that means. After months of complaints over basic

1568
01:24:06,479 --> 01:24:09,280
Speaker 1: safety standards, a majority of workers and a fabrication plant

1569
01:24:09,280 --> 01:24:14,400
Speaker 1: demanded union recognition, but the company refused and then retaliated

1570
01:24:14,800 --> 01:24:17,479
Speaker 1: joining us. Now we have Vince di Dinado, he's industrial

1571
01:24:17,520 --> 01:24:20,280
Speaker 1: representative with the Iron Workers International, and we also have

1572
01:24:20,680 --> 01:24:23,559
Speaker 1: Ron Rhodes. He is an iron worker who, because of

1573
01:24:23,600 --> 01:24:26,760
Speaker 1: all of this, is now unemployed. Gentlemen, we're really glad

1574
01:24:26,800 --> 01:24:28,360
Speaker 1: to have you this morning. Thank you so much. Search

1575
01:24:28,400 --> 01:24:33,800
Speaker 1: to you guys, thank you. Yeah, of course, Vince. Let

1576
01:24:33,840 --> 01:24:37,559
Speaker 1: me start with you. So there's a majority of workers

1577
01:24:37,760 --> 01:24:41,000
Speaker 1: who want a former union, and you would think that

1578
01:24:41,000 --> 01:24:44,040
Speaker 1: that would lead to contract negotiations and agreement. That's the

1579
01:24:44,040 --> 01:24:47,720
Speaker 1: way these things are supposed to unfold. What happened instead,

1580
01:24:49,760 --> 01:24:53,280
Speaker 1: So you know, the company started playing games as soon

1581
01:24:53,320 --> 01:24:55,640
Speaker 1: as they found out that the workers at G and

1582
01:24:55,720 --> 01:25:00,800
Speaker 1: B who wanted union representation, and they started playing games,

1583
01:25:00,840 --> 01:25:05,160
Speaker 1: threatening to close the doors if they voted yes. After

1584
01:25:05,200 --> 01:25:09,920
Speaker 1: the election, they started telling workers, hey, thank you, now

1585
01:25:10,120 --> 01:25:13,000
Speaker 1: you should go look for a job. And then roughly

1586
01:25:13,080 --> 01:25:17,040
Speaker 1: on March first, management walked in, tapped everyone on the

1587
01:25:17,080 --> 01:25:19,959
Speaker 1: shoulder and told them to leave. Everyone but two workers

1588
01:25:19,960 --> 01:25:23,920
Speaker 1: who are working there right now. The company's tried to

1589
01:25:23,960 --> 01:25:29,280
Speaker 1: avoid negotiating the contract with these workers, and right now we're,

1590
01:25:29,640 --> 01:25:31,360
Speaker 1: like I said, we're down to two people in the

1591
01:25:31,400 --> 01:25:35,000
Speaker 1: bargaining unit out of roughly twenty in the beginning, and

1592
01:25:35,040 --> 01:25:38,120
Speaker 1: there's roughly there's well over one hundred and twenty five

1593
01:25:38,200 --> 01:25:41,760
Speaker 1: unfair labor practices filed right now. Currently they're probably more

1594
01:25:41,800 --> 01:25:44,639
Speaker 1: to come. So, Ron, let's go into this. You were

1595
01:25:44,680 --> 01:25:48,519
Speaker 1: retaliated against as a result of this vote and by

1596
01:25:48,680 --> 01:25:51,320
Speaker 1: the company. Talk to us about that process and what

1597
01:25:51,360 --> 01:25:54,560
Speaker 1: it was like for you personally to have experience this retaliation.

1598
01:25:57,920 --> 01:26:01,280
Speaker 1: I mean from the very gig go. As soon as

1599
01:26:01,320 --> 01:26:06,639
Speaker 1: we marched on them, everything changed. They started surveiling us,

1600
01:26:06,960 --> 01:26:13,400
Speaker 1: They started bringing up attendance from eight to nine months back.

1601
01:26:14,240 --> 01:26:18,599
Speaker 1: They took away they would let us put in earn

1602
01:26:18,680 --> 01:26:21,880
Speaker 1: time anytime and take it off. They stopped doing that

1603
01:26:24,360 --> 01:26:27,439
Speaker 1: pretty much. They just degree they could to make our

1604
01:26:27,520 --> 01:26:33,760
Speaker 1: job more difficult. Ron, I don't know too much about

1605
01:26:33,760 --> 01:26:35,360
Speaker 1: the job that you do, but I have known a

1606
01:26:35,360 --> 01:26:37,840
Speaker 1: few iron workers in my day, and I know they

1607
01:26:37,880 --> 01:26:40,439
Speaker 1: take extraordinary risks in the work that they do. I

1608
01:26:40,479 --> 01:26:42,880
Speaker 1: know it is vitally important to the entire country and

1609
01:26:42,920 --> 01:26:46,040
Speaker 1: to the infrastructure of this nation. And I also know

1610
01:26:46,080 --> 01:26:48,719
Speaker 1: from the reporting from the American Prospect that not only

1611
01:26:48,840 --> 01:26:51,880
Speaker 1: was the company you know, ultimately did they basically fire

1612
01:26:51,920 --> 01:26:56,479
Speaker 1: almost everyone, but they were taking shortcuts on safety measures

1613
01:26:56,520 --> 01:27:00,559
Speaker 1: that were putting your health and lives at risk. Could

1614
01:27:00,560 --> 01:27:04,240
Speaker 1: you go into that in a little bit of detail. Well,

1615
01:27:04,280 --> 01:27:07,880
Speaker 1: we built decks that go around the big coal mining

1616
01:27:07,920 --> 01:27:11,720
Speaker 1: trucks for Kamatsu, and the tables were too close. We

1617
01:27:11,760 --> 01:27:14,679
Speaker 1: had talked to them about spreading out the tables because

1618
01:27:15,280 --> 01:27:16,920
Speaker 1: we have to flip these decks. We have to do

1619
01:27:16,960 --> 01:27:19,639
Speaker 1: the bottom, then we have to do the top. And

1620
01:27:19,680 --> 01:27:24,200
Speaker 1: they wouldn't move the tables if a chain or some

1621
01:27:24,240 --> 01:27:26,680
Speaker 1: of the rigging would have broke, and I mean it

1622
01:27:26,720 --> 01:27:29,320
Speaker 1: could have very easily fell on somebody right next to you,

1623
01:27:29,360 --> 01:27:33,080
Speaker 1: because they wouldn't spread the tables out more. The chains

1624
01:27:33,120 --> 01:27:35,760
Speaker 1: were never inspected maybe once in the four years that

1625
01:27:35,840 --> 01:27:40,800
Speaker 1: I was there. They were making their own lifting devices, fabricating,

1626
01:27:41,640 --> 01:27:46,960
Speaker 1: and they weren't OSHA approved. That's some of what we

1627
01:27:47,000 --> 01:27:51,800
Speaker 1: went through there. Vince talked to us about how Joysilk

1628
01:27:51,960 --> 01:27:54,559
Speaker 1: comes into play here, because this is about not just

1629
01:27:54,880 --> 01:27:58,280
Speaker 1: the fight for these particular workers which would be worthy enough.

1630
01:27:58,680 --> 01:28:02,360
Speaker 1: But there used to be a doctrine recognized by the

1631
01:28:02,479 --> 01:28:07,080
Speaker 1: NLRB that basically said, if majority of workers say they

1632
01:28:07,120 --> 01:28:09,160
Speaker 1: hand in cards saying they want to be part of

1633
01:28:09,200 --> 01:28:13,560
Speaker 1: a union, then the company has to have some legitimate

1634
01:28:13,720 --> 01:28:17,400
Speaker 1: reason for suspecting that you don't actually have a majority

1635
01:28:17,439 --> 01:28:20,519
Speaker 1: of workers who want to join a union. And as

1636
01:28:20,560 --> 01:28:22,840
Speaker 1: a secondary piece of this, and this is really important,

1637
01:28:23,240 --> 01:28:26,479
Speaker 1: if you have a host of purported labor violations, as

1638
01:28:26,479 --> 01:28:28,960
Speaker 1: you have in this case, the company can actually be

1639
01:28:29,240 --> 01:28:33,920
Speaker 1: forced into negotiations with those workers in that bargaining unit.

1640
01:28:34,240 --> 01:28:36,960
Speaker 1: The new General Council of the National Labor Relations Board

1641
01:28:37,080 --> 01:28:40,040
Speaker 1: says that she would like to revive that doctrine. That

1642
01:28:40,080 --> 01:28:43,240
Speaker 1: would be a massive c change for how workers are

1643
01:28:43,240 --> 01:28:45,960
Speaker 1: able to organize. Right now, the field is extraordinarily tilted

1644
01:28:46,040 --> 01:28:50,160
Speaker 1: against unions and against workers forming collective power. This would

1645
01:28:50,200 --> 01:28:53,800
Speaker 1: make it closer to the default that if you get

1646
01:28:53,800 --> 01:28:57,919
Speaker 1: a majority of signatures on union cards, that you ultimately

1647
01:28:57,920 --> 01:29:00,240
Speaker 1: are going to end up with a union and with

1648
01:29:00,280 --> 01:29:02,519
Speaker 1: a contract. Can you talk about the relevance of that

1649
01:29:02,560 --> 01:29:10,960
Speaker 1: decision here? Yeah, So on September seventeenth or September seventh,

1650
01:29:11,040 --> 01:29:14,559
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, a large majority of workers at G

1651
01:29:14,680 --> 01:29:18,920
Speaker 1: and D walked in and demanded the union recognition. And

1652
01:29:19,280 --> 01:29:22,680
Speaker 1: if you prove beyond a doubt that the majority of

1653
01:29:22,760 --> 01:29:27,760
Speaker 1: the workforce wants a union, Joyce basically states, there is

1654
01:29:27,800 --> 01:29:31,479
Speaker 1: no reason to continue this fight and push out an

1655
01:29:31,479 --> 01:29:34,800
Speaker 1: election so that the company has an opportunity to bring

1656
01:29:34,800 --> 01:29:40,200
Speaker 1: in union busters, fear tactics, intimidation, the lion cheats and

1657
01:29:40,280 --> 01:29:43,679
Speaker 1: threats that they always do and every single election out there.

1658
01:29:44,760 --> 01:29:47,439
Speaker 1: And so these workers on September seventh, they marched on

1659
01:29:47,479 --> 01:29:51,640
Speaker 1: the boss without a reasonable doubt of majority force or

1660
01:29:51,800 --> 01:29:56,400
Speaker 1: majority support, and the company refused to recognize that they

1661
01:29:56,479 --> 01:29:59,639
Speaker 1: wanted the ironworkers to represent them. So at that point

1662
01:29:59,720 --> 01:30:04,080
Speaker 1: we a petition. But the board stance is why do

1663
01:30:04,200 --> 01:30:07,679
Speaker 1: these workers have to endure this fight? They went through

1664
01:30:07,840 --> 01:30:12,880
Speaker 1: three union busters during this process. The company now has

1665
01:30:13,000 --> 01:30:17,640
Speaker 1: two attorney firms handling this. They've spent millions of dollars

1666
01:30:18,360 --> 01:30:22,639
Speaker 1: to break a bargaining unit of twenty that fully support

1667
01:30:22,640 --> 01:30:25,479
Speaker 1: a union, and they still do. They're still fighting for

1668
01:30:25,520 --> 01:30:29,559
Speaker 1: this and they're not going to stop with joy Silk.

1669
01:30:30,000 --> 01:30:33,080
Speaker 1: When the company starts breaking the law, it's dealt with

1670
01:30:33,200 --> 01:30:36,680
Speaker 1: a little bit sooner. There is possibly you can get

1671
01:30:36,680 --> 01:30:39,360
Speaker 1: at ten JA and junction a little bit faster because

1672
01:30:39,400 --> 01:30:43,480
Speaker 1: the laws say that if you prove beyond a reasonable

1673
01:30:43,520 --> 01:30:46,040
Speaker 1: doubt that you have the majority workforce, if the company

1674
01:30:46,080 --> 01:30:50,760
Speaker 1: refuses the bargain, that is immediately a bad faith bargaining charge,

1675
01:30:51,280 --> 01:30:53,920
Speaker 1: and when the board hears that, if the company has

1676
01:30:53,960 --> 01:30:57,800
Speaker 1: found guilty, they will be forced to negotiate with that

1677
01:30:57,840 --> 01:31:01,680
Speaker 1: group right then. And there been negotiating the afternoon of

1678
01:31:01,720 --> 01:31:05,519
Speaker 1: September seventh, instead of waiting until November. Going through the

1679
01:31:05,560 --> 01:31:10,439
Speaker 1: election process. We have three wrongful termination cases filed because

1680
01:31:10,479 --> 01:31:14,120
Speaker 1: of what the company done with their tactics. And now

1681
01:31:14,200 --> 01:31:17,920
Speaker 1: we're sitting where I believe ten or twelve workers on

1682
01:31:18,000 --> 01:31:20,760
Speaker 1: March first had retaliatory layoffs. There was a couple of

1683
01:31:20,800 --> 01:31:24,160
Speaker 1: workers that left right before that because they've seen the

1684
01:31:24,240 --> 01:31:26,960
Speaker 1: riding on the wall, They've seen the games the company

1685
01:31:26,960 --> 01:31:29,639
Speaker 1: were playing, and they just they couldn't handle it no more.

1686
01:31:29,800 --> 01:31:33,920
Speaker 1: They needed to go look for jobs to support their families. Yeah,

1687
01:31:34,080 --> 01:31:36,599
Speaker 1: the workers were working over brime re prior to the election,

1688
01:31:37,120 --> 01:31:39,800
Speaker 1: and they were they weren't allowed to work over time

1689
01:31:39,840 --> 01:31:44,320
Speaker 1: after the election. Yeah, this is just so completely ridiculous.

1690
01:31:44,360 --> 01:31:47,040
Speaker 1: I mean, events laid out for people in terms of

1691
01:31:47,040 --> 01:31:49,600
Speaker 1: what recourse that you have under these current under the

1692
01:31:49,640 --> 01:31:52,720
Speaker 1: current system, with the NLRB and with the current the

1693
01:31:52,720 --> 01:31:55,000
Speaker 1: current regime. I mean, how hard is it going to

1694
01:31:55,040 --> 01:31:56,960
Speaker 1: be for you guys to get what you rightfully deserve.

1695
01:31:58,920 --> 01:32:01,360
Speaker 1: It's going to be a battle. I mean, yeah, we've

1696
01:32:01,360 --> 01:32:03,800
Speaker 1: got labor laws, but they need to be enforced. They

1697
01:32:03,840 --> 01:32:07,120
Speaker 1: need to be stronger, they need to be enforced quicker

1698
01:32:07,200 --> 01:32:10,840
Speaker 1: to help workers when you know, before they actually get

1699
01:32:10,920 --> 01:32:14,520
Speaker 1: into a situation of a retaliatory layoff or a lockout

1700
01:32:15,680 --> 01:32:18,120
Speaker 1: or anything of the sorts. We're going to fight this

1701
01:32:18,240 --> 01:32:21,280
Speaker 1: all the way. We're not going to stop. The company

1702
01:32:21,320 --> 01:32:23,439
Speaker 1: broke the law in our opinion, and we're going to

1703
01:32:23,479 --> 01:32:24,800
Speaker 1: fight that and we're going to see it all the

1704
01:32:24,800 --> 01:32:29,840
Speaker 1: way through. We're requesting tenj injunctions to help with negotiations.

1705
01:32:30,400 --> 01:32:34,680
Speaker 1: We are still trying to negotiate because there are two

1706
01:32:34,760 --> 01:32:37,760
Speaker 1: workers still in the bargaining unit and we're not going

1707
01:32:37,840 --> 01:32:42,120
Speaker 1: to stop. One thing that we're asking the board is,

1708
01:32:42,640 --> 01:32:45,600
Speaker 1: you know, use this to help bring joysilk back. The

1709
01:32:45,640 --> 01:32:49,000
Speaker 1: workers in this country obviously need it. Looking at the

1710
01:32:49,000 --> 01:32:52,400
Speaker 1: workers at G and D in other cases across the country,

1711
01:32:53,040 --> 01:32:56,640
Speaker 1: the workforce is tired of being cheated, exploited and abused.

1712
01:32:57,240 --> 01:32:58,840
Speaker 1: They're standing up and they're going to fight for it

1713
01:32:59,280 --> 01:33:01,479
Speaker 1: and we need this. Yeah, And I think it's really

1714
01:33:01,520 --> 01:33:05,000
Speaker 1: important for our audience to understand that this is something

1715
01:33:05,120 --> 01:33:07,679
Speaker 1: this is a change that NLRB could make that would

1716
01:33:07,720 --> 01:33:10,439
Speaker 1: impact not just you all and bring a you know,

1717
01:33:10,479 --> 01:33:15,200
Speaker 1: a just conclusion to your struggle, but would significantly make

1718
01:33:15,280 --> 01:33:18,400
Speaker 1: it easier for workers across the country to unionize and

1719
01:33:18,439 --> 01:33:21,479
Speaker 1: shops where they were a clear majority ultimately wants to.

1720
01:33:21,560 --> 01:33:25,479
Speaker 1: And that's why this case has such importance nationally. Ron,

1721
01:33:25,560 --> 01:33:27,479
Speaker 1: Let's just close with you know, what has this been

1722
01:33:27,960 --> 01:33:30,439
Speaker 1: like for you? How are you getting by now? You're

1723
01:33:30,640 --> 01:33:34,120
Speaker 1: you're unemployed, You're in the struggle, you're in the fight.

1724
01:33:34,200 --> 01:33:35,920
Speaker 1: It's hard to say how long it's going to take

1725
01:33:35,960 --> 01:33:39,120
Speaker 1: for it ultimately to be resolved. And is there something

1726
01:33:39,120 --> 01:33:42,040
Speaker 1: that our audience can do if they support your cause

1727
01:33:42,040 --> 01:33:44,479
Speaker 1: and they support the direction of bringing back joy Silk,

1728
01:33:44,560 --> 01:33:49,160
Speaker 1: is there some way that they can be helpful? That'd

1729
01:33:49,200 --> 01:33:51,600
Speaker 1: be more of a question for Vince on that. I

1730
01:33:51,640 --> 01:33:59,639
Speaker 1: don't really know. Okay, sorry, not at all. Well speak

1731
01:33:59,720 --> 01:34:02,160
Speaker 1: you can really speak to though, how you're getting by?

1732
01:34:02,160 --> 01:34:05,599
Speaker 1: And how you're doing. Oh yeah, I mean my day

1733
01:34:06,560 --> 01:34:09,599
Speaker 1: went to about half a little bit less than half

1734
01:34:09,640 --> 01:34:13,559
Speaker 1: a week, so I've phoned behind on some bills. It

1735
01:34:13,680 --> 01:34:16,040
Speaker 1: was so sudden. I mean, they just walked up to

1736
01:34:16,120 --> 01:34:18,960
Speaker 1: us on the first like he said, tab us on

1737
01:34:19,000 --> 01:34:21,880
Speaker 1: the shoulder post some one for a meeting there that

1738
01:34:21,960 --> 01:34:26,000
Speaker 1: that's a letter from Kamatsu saying that they we had

1739
01:34:26,360 --> 01:34:28,240
Speaker 1: finished all our orders when we were all in the

1740
01:34:28,240 --> 01:34:31,880
Speaker 1: middle of building decks. So, I mean it was just

1741
01:34:31,920 --> 01:34:35,840
Speaker 1: a huge surprise. I mean, so I'm just trying to

1742
01:34:35,880 --> 01:34:39,600
Speaker 1: eat buy until i can find something. Yeah, Vince, is

1743
01:34:39,640 --> 01:34:42,200
Speaker 1: there something? Yeah? Is there something our audience can do

1744
01:34:42,280 --> 01:34:47,120
Speaker 1: to be helpful. So one thing that we're asking right

1745
01:34:47,160 --> 01:34:50,519
Speaker 1: now is we've got an Iron Workers Rising page, We've

1746
01:34:50,560 --> 01:34:55,160
Speaker 1: got a gm D Integrated Union website. We're asking people

1747
01:34:55,200 --> 01:34:58,120
Speaker 1: to get on there support these workers, keep an eye out.

1748
01:34:58,160 --> 01:35:00,960
Speaker 1: We're going to have some call to actions, but you know,

1749
01:35:01,120 --> 01:35:05,000
Speaker 1: push on your local politicians, your building trades and everyone involved.

1750
01:35:05,439 --> 01:35:08,920
Speaker 1: The NLRB. The workers this country needed joy silk, the

1751
01:35:08,960 --> 01:35:11,840
Speaker 1: workers of G and D need support, and so those

1752
01:35:11,880 --> 01:35:13,559
Speaker 1: are kind of some of the things that we're asking

1753
01:35:13,600 --> 01:35:15,799
Speaker 1: for right now, and we're doing our best to assist

1754
01:35:15,840 --> 01:35:18,640
Speaker 1: the workers as we can. Great, well, we'll have a

1755
01:35:18,640 --> 01:35:21,360
Speaker 1: link down there in the description to what you just mentioned.

1756
01:35:21,400 --> 01:35:24,760
Speaker 1: We really appreciate you gentlemen joining us today and we're

1757
01:35:24,760 --> 01:35:26,800
Speaker 1: definitely with you guys, So please keep us updated as

1758
01:35:26,800 --> 01:35:31,080
Speaker 1: well so we can tell our audience thank you, thank you,

1759
01:35:31,640 --> 01:35:35,439
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you guys so much for watching. We

1760
01:35:35,479 --> 01:35:37,840
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. We love all of your support and

1761
01:35:37,920 --> 01:35:40,719
Speaker 1: you're just helping us look build a media company which

1762
01:35:40,800 --> 01:35:42,760
Speaker 1: is able to bring you the stories like the ones

1763
01:35:42,800 --> 01:35:45,519
Speaker 1: that we just did and Amazon as well. Also, just

1764
01:35:45,560 --> 01:35:50,440
Speaker 1: an update for everybody on the demonetization front. My monologue

1765
01:35:50,520 --> 01:35:56,160
Speaker 1: yesterday on Taylor Lorenz was found not suitable for advertising.

1766
01:35:56,160 --> 01:35:57,720
Speaker 1: Did you get an answer on that? By the way,

1767
01:35:57,800 --> 01:36:01,240
Speaker 1: By the way, I reached out to YouTube. We appealed

1768
01:36:01,320 --> 01:36:05,759
Speaker 1: the decision as we do, and it has got no answer.

1769
01:36:05,920 --> 01:36:08,840
Speaker 1: It remains limited ads, which means we'll make like YouTube

1770
01:36:09,040 --> 01:36:11,680
Speaker 1: premium money or whatever. But it was also one of

1771
01:36:11,720 --> 01:36:15,519
Speaker 1: our top performing segments of the day yesterday. Interesting. Interesting,

1772
01:36:15,720 --> 01:36:19,280
Speaker 1: okay about how some of these things happen. Just pointing

1773
01:36:19,280 --> 01:36:21,759
Speaker 1: to you, I'm sure they'll give me some BS explanation

1774
01:36:21,800 --> 01:36:25,280
Speaker 1: now that I've talked about it. But listen, this is

1775
01:36:25,280 --> 01:36:27,519
Speaker 1: why we rely on you. Because you rely on this

1776
01:36:27,760 --> 01:36:30,479
Speaker 1: and this unsteady flow. And now because Taylor is crying

1777
01:36:30,520 --> 01:36:32,880
Speaker 1: and she's upset. We can't make any money off of

1778
01:36:32,920 --> 01:36:35,920
Speaker 1: the work that we do. It's why we need your support,

1779
01:36:36,439 --> 01:36:39,080
Speaker 1: not only for keeping the bills getting paid, but we've

1780
01:36:39,120 --> 01:36:41,439
Speaker 1: got some big stuff coming up, which I'm pretty excited

1781
01:36:41,439 --> 01:36:43,760
Speaker 1: to announce. Yeah, we got something we have. By the way,

1782
01:36:43,760 --> 01:36:46,479
Speaker 1: did you see Taylor's response to the no she blocked me,

1783
01:36:46,520 --> 01:36:48,880
Speaker 1: I have no idea, no, not response to what you said.

1784
01:36:49,320 --> 01:36:53,000
Speaker 1: She was outraged at the segment itself. Oh yeah, I know, Yeah,

1785
01:36:53,160 --> 01:36:56,599
Speaker 1: I put somebody she's I guess being harassed more. And

1786
01:36:56,680 --> 01:37:00,439
Speaker 1: so it's like, anyway, I got the MSNBC's she's been

1787
01:37:00,520 --> 01:37:04,519
Speaker 1: for us today. So anyway, we appreciate you, guys, that's

1788
01:37:04,560 --> 01:37:06,479
Speaker 1: the bottom line. You enable us to do what we

1789
01:37:06,520 --> 01:37:09,519
Speaker 1: do without fear or favor and to try to create,

1790
01:37:09,600 --> 01:37:14,000
Speaker 1: you know, a better information ecosystem that is doing its

1791
01:37:14,080 --> 01:37:16,720
Speaker 1: best to sort of sort through what are complex issues

1792
01:37:16,880 --> 01:37:21,000
Speaker 1: and to create you know, more democratic, better informed country.

1793
01:37:21,080 --> 01:37:23,360
Speaker 1: So thank you for being a part of that. We

1794
01:37:23,400 --> 01:37:25,760
Speaker 1: are eternally grateful. We have to have a wonderful day,

1795
01:37:25,800 --> 01:37:42,680
Speaker 1: and we'll be back here on Thursday.