Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 10/19/21: Colin Powell, Union Activity, Amazon Scandal, Politico Sale, CNN Confronted, China Dependency, Biden Silence, John Deere Workers, and More!

Episode Date: October 19, 2021

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Good morning, everybody. Happy Tuesday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed, we do. Lots to get Buffalo. I think we brought you this news before who are trying to unionize first Starbucks location in the country that would be union if they, in fact, were able to win that election. Starbucks is going to some extraordinary lengths to make sure that doesn't ultimately happen. So we'll bring you the details there. Amazon, including Jeff Bezos, facing potential criminal referral to the DOJ from a bipartisan group. Members of Congress will bring you those details. Major DC media brand Politico is now owned by a company that is requiring their employees be loyal to various

political causes, some of which are quite controversial. Talk to you about that. An interesting moment on CNN with Brian Stelter and Barry Weiss that we also want to break down for you. But let's start with yesterday. We talked to you about the death of Colin Powell caused by complications from COVID and blood cancer. Today, we've got a little bit of a look at how the media has handled his death. I think this is really important. It's on a variety of levels. First on the culture war, just inability to just not let somebody die without immediately inserting some sort of X, Y, or Z virtue signaling either way on the side. And that's pretty much exactly what happened. So immediately after we learn about Colin Powell's death, his family put out a statement. I read it

for you guys on the air. Yesterday, they said he died of complications from COVID. He was fully vaccinated. Then it comes out like moments later that he had multiple myeloma, blood cancer, complications from that for a long time. He was extraordinarily at risk immediately. And I literally mean immediately. Everybody is jumping in trying to make this either into a vaccination thing or virtue signaling on how supposedly great he was just whitewashing the Iraq war whenever it comes to that. Fox, of course, this is literally how they covered it almost immediately, trying to make it into some vaccination thing. Let's take a listen. You brought up COVID. Look, this day will be a day for many things, for remembering the man, for remembering the leader that was lost. It's also a day to understand the implication on everyday Americans. And the reports are he died from complications

of COVID. The family has made a point in their post on Facebook this morning that Colin Powell was fully vaccinated. And as Americans out there wonder what lies ahead for them and they search and they need truth moving forward, we're seeing data from across the world. We're seeing data from Europe, from the United Kingdom, that fully vaccinated people are being hospitalized and fully vaccinated people are dying from COVID. And here we have a very high profile example that is going to require more truth, more truth from our government, from our health leaders as well. As we talk about this story on a day when state after state and institution after institution are pushing mandates for vaccination. In this time of divided, the country is very divided.

One thing people are pretty clear, you're going to get both sides of the aisle weighing in just as strongly with Colin Powell, because I think it was pretty hard not to have great respect to the person he was and what he's achieved. His parents were immigrants from Jamaica. There you go, Crystal. I mean, it was almost, and once again, you can even talk about all of that, but how to link it into the Colin Powell thing, it just didn't make any sense because by that point, he actually knew about the cancer. Of course, that one doesn't get discussed. And it's just all, you know, drifts into the realm of trying to insert it into day-to-day politics. While also, as you saw Brian Kilmeade, he's, you know, a pretty big neocon, just whitewashing exactly

what's going on with his actual legacy. They did it all there. Not only did they, like, you know, dabble in some anti-vote, this causes us to have a lot of questions. Stop using one freaking anecdote to prove your point, number one. Number two, you know that he had blood cancer and therefore his immune system was suppressed. So those are the types of folks who, yeah, breakthrough infections are really dangerous for those people. And actually- You get cancer and you get sick, like it's not good. Right. And actually on the contrary, rather than making a case against the vaccine, that's why people who are healthy do need to get vaccinated, not to just to protect themselves, but to protect people who have conditions similar to Colin Powell's who for whom the vaccine is not as effective and continue to be at high risk to this disease because of a suppressed immune response. So I love how they're able to filter it right into the right-wing culture war, but also toss it to Brian Kilmeade, who then does the whitewashing of Powell's reputation.

So they had it all there on Fox & Friends. It was the same thing. Immediately, John Roberts, who I actually like and respect, he tweeted about how he's like, this raises questions about the efficacy and the long-standingness of the vaccine. Let's put that tear sheet up there on the screen from Business Insider. He quickly had to delete it, I think, because Fox News corporate made him do so. Once again, we can discuss vaccine efficacy declining over time, immunity versus natural immunity, all of that. But I think it just always goes to the people want to latch onto

something in the news and then try and immediately cleave into a political point. And don't you worry, it's not like we're just focusing there on Fox. The entire political spectrum also, because Colin Powell, in his latter years after the Iraq war, became one of the most high profile Democrats in the country and endorsed Barack Obama famously in 2008. Biden, you know, was vehement against the Trump administration, all of that. He got a total media makeover. And Obama wrote this like long hagiography to Colin Powell. Put that up there on the screen, please. I mean, this extraordinary, of course, Obama has to make it about himself. Yeah. The endorsement about, yeah, that's what he really does, right? I mean, of course, Obama has to make it about himself. Yeah. The endorsement. That's what he normally does.

Yeah, that's what he really does, right? I mean, it's this plastic Obama. He's not allowed to let somebody pass without making it about himself. And what the real reminder here is that so many people wanted to try and have it both ways. want to do is just quash the Iraq stuff so that they could hold him up as they did long time in the media and say, see, former Republican Colin Powell supports Barack Obama. And I remember I was like 16 and I was like, wow, that's crazy. And then after a while, you're like, oh, they're doing this about everything. Former Colin Powell supports this media narrative. And then they don't really want to talk about

Colin Powell and his legacy. And I think what we did yesterday, we talked about Iraq. It will be his most lasting imprint on this country. Let's be honest. And the world. And the entire world. You can ask Iraqis.

Also, you could say, well, the tragedy is he had an inspirational life story, served in Vietnam. He was a chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and he had a great career. And ultimately, he mortgaged his reputation with the American people to sell us on the most disastrous foreign policy adventure of all time in U.S. history. And that's really just the entire story of who Colin Powell was. And we're not, you know, look, I wish his family the best, relative, every, all of that. Nobody wants to cause them pain. Right. But when you are a public servant and you have such a long impact on the world, remembering who these people are correctly is important. The stories that we tell about who people were and about their faults and then, you know, some of their pluses, it doesn't have to be just one

or the other. And unfortunately, that's basically how the entire like, you know, mainstream media tried to cover this. Like they are attacking people who even brought up the Iraq war. That was the real problem I saw. Yeah. So none of these people who lied us into war faced any sort of accountability in terms of justice for the crimes that they committed, the lies that they perpetrated on the American people, the servicemen and women of ours who were sent overseas to fight and die or be grievously wounded or just be taken away from their family at critical moments in their life. There was never any accountability for that, let alone the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died in that conflict, let alone what happened in Afghanistan over all of these many years as well. There was no justice

or accountability over that. So at the very least, when a person passes, there has to be an accurate public record of what they actually did as, you know, a public figure with immense amounts of power in their life. It's not to be mean. It's not to be nasty. It's not to cause his family pain, who 100%, like, I feel for them in their sorrow, and all the reports are on a personal level that he was a kind and wonderful person. This has nothing to do with that. This is about when you are a public figure who had that kind of immense power. In the final calculus, the public record needs to be accurate of what exactly you did. Now, there was one more that happened last night, Fox incident to add to the list, which is after the whole day of knowing that it was not only COVID, but blood cancer. Of course, Tucker does an entire monologue about how this shows you that

you've been lied to about the vaccine and all of this. I mean, just flagrantly wrong and irresponsible and all of those things. But I think you're right to frame this as immediately his death, rather than seeking what is an accurate portrayal of his true lasting legacy and the imprint he left on this country and on the world, it was immediately filtered through the culture war lens. On the right, they wanted to use this to make a point about vaccines. And liberals who have held up not only Colin Powell, but any number of Bush-era neocons, some of the worst war criminals in history, they've held up as icons of the resistance because they happen to be against Donald Trump. Trump becomes the defining figure, the defining issue. Nothing else matters.

Any other sin or crime you created in the past can be forgiven so long as you have the right answer on that one question of where do you stand on Donald Trump. By the way, this also showed up with some folks on Fox. Chris Wallace, we showed you Brian Kilmeade earlier. We can throw the Chris Wallace tear sheet up on the screen. He went out of his way to say, oh, this one thing with regard to Iraq and the infamous WMD speech, that was just a blot on a timeless figure's career, and it shouldn't define Colin Powell. And in fact, I know Colin Powell very much wanted for that not to define his entire legacy. But the fact of the matter is, that is the largest impact that he had.

That is, he used what was a pristine reputation in Washington with Democrats and Republicans. And the entire American people. And the American people. People really believed in him. Certainly the D.C. foreign policy establishment. The Bush administration knew they didn't have that kind of credibility. So they used Colin Powell to make the case at the U.N., to make the case to reluctant Democrats in Congress as well. He was the one that, I don't

know if you remember this is like digging up the past, but I think it's important to remember these things. He was the one that came up with this initial strategy of we're going to get new weapons inspections and a vote to authorize war. Well, that's really just putting pressure on the UN to be more aggressive against Iraq. Of course, that turned a vote for war turned out to be a vote for war. Who could have seen that coming? But because Colin Powell had endorsed this strategy, that gave a lot of Democrats who were open to it but who were on the fence, that pushed them in the direction. And then, of course, the speech that he gives at the UN that he carefully crafted, that he delivered very forcefully, that said it was unequivocally that Iraq had these biological weapons and weapons of mass destruction. It is hard to understate, like you cannot overstate how much that changed the calculus in Washington, how much that pushed

some of these reluctant players on board. Powell, from all reports, had a lot of reservations about this war and was opposed internally to going into Iraq. He basically said, you know, listen, you break it, you buy it. Yes. And this could be a potential disaster. But rather than speaking that, rather than resigning in protest, rather than taking any number of other paths, instead, he fell in line. He was the good soldier and he went out and made the case that led to utter disaster. He was instrumental in ultimately making that case. And, you know, what's ironic here, as you mentioned, he served in Vietnam. He also played a small role in covering up a massacre in Vietnam as well.

So that's a little preview of things that were to come in his career. But the Powell Doctrine was all about avoiding the mistakes of Vietnam. Yeah, that's true. It was all about, we have to make sure that the public's on board. We have to make sure that there's a clear objective, that you go in with overwhelming force and then you get the hell out of there so that we don't end up mired in these forever wars. And then in the end, he, of course, becomes instrumental in pushing our nation back into the next Vietnam, a conflict from which, you know, which was just a disaster from start to finish, which was unnecessary and uncalled for to begin with, and which lasted and lasted and lasted

without public support. So that's the truth about Colin Powell's legacy. I think that's right. And look, I think, you know, our listeners who are 18, 19, or even, you know, maybe even a little bit older, you guys probably don't remember like how the run-up to the war and how instrumental that he was. I mean, this was the speech, the defining speech that pushed the public and a lot of the people in the international community to support the invasion of Iraq. Let's take a listen to that. Things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have on Iraq's biological weapons is the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological agents.

Let me take you inside that intelligence file and share with you what we know from eyewitness accounts. We have firsthand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails. The trucks and train cars are easily moved and are designed to evade detection by inspectors. In a matter of months, they can produce a quantity of biological poison equal to the entire amount that Iraq claimed to have produced in the years prior to the Gulf War. Saddam Hussein's intentions have never changed. He is not developing the missiles for self-defense. These are missiles that Iraq wants in order to project power, to threaten, and to deliver chemical, biological, and if we let him, nuclear warheads.

Yeah, not a single thing of that turned out to be true, Chris. Yeah. Not one. And actually sitting behind him was George Tenet, the CIA director, who also was instrumental and also has never faced any accountability. And there was a good tweet, actually. Let's put this up there on the screen, which just goes to show, I mean, this was the aftermath of how important that speech was in convincing the American foreign policy establishment to go to war. And I thought Spencer Ackerman actually put this quite well.

Put the next one up there on the screen, please. Which is that, and this is why we're spending so much time on this, whatever else Colin Powell achieved in life, and it was a lot, he was the only man who could have stopped the Iraq war. And instead, he chose to swallow his doubts about the disaster that he knew it would be

and sell the invasion. And I think that that's what it is. He was a man of integrity, and he was somebody who developed the power doctrine. He was somebody who, off the record, was calling every journalist in Washington saying this is going to be a total disaster. But when it came down to it, he did not look President Bush in the eyes and say, I'm against this war. He never told him that he was actually against it. And at the end of the day, he acquiesced to it. And when Iraq started to become a disaster, he put it off onto Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld's hands and said, okay, you guys handle it,

because he wanted to preserve his sterling reputation and get out of the administration while maintaining the credibility without having done anything to prevent the war in the first place. That's what we have to talk about here. There's a lot of human flaws that led him to that moment. First of all, there's the soldier's mentality, the fallen line. Right. You know, you're not there to have an opinion. You're there to do what you're told. It's like you're the Secretary of State.

You literally are there for your opinion. Indeed. Yes, indeed. And not to mention, I mean, just when you reach those heights of power, your judgment really, really matters. And especially because there was so much trust vested in him. He really, look, there's no guarantees he could have avoided war. But as Spencer puts it there, he was the last man that really had a shot. And instead, when Bush came to him and said, listen, I think we got to go into Iraq. Are you with me? He said, yes, I am. Yes, sir. And part of it too was careerist ambition. I don't think

there's any doubt about that. The truth of the matter was within the Bush administration, he was kind of on the outside. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, they were the ones who were really the power players who had the ear of the president. And so what Condoleezza Rice advised Colin Powell reportedly was that if he, you know, threw in with Bush on this and he went and made the case to the UN that he would be in the position then he could manage the war. And he thought, OK, well, if I can be the person who manages the war, then this can be less of a disaster. Of course, they had no intention of actually using him in that regard. They only wanted to use him because of his reputation. And so he

ends up just being the one that launders all of this for the American public and for Democrats in Congress. And that's ultimately shameful. And also, you know, I saw a lot of, oh, in the end he regretted it, et cetera, et cetera. But, look, I went back and watched a bunch of interviews of Colin Powell from after he was out of the administration, 2005, 2006, when, number one, it's totally clear there's no weapons of mass destruction. Number two, it's totally clear that Iraq is a complete disaster. But when he still could have had a lot of influence in terms of the course and direction of that war, he was still carrying water for Bush saying, listen, the president didn't know. We used the best intelligence that we had. And so I think that's one other learning from this too, though, is that he was a creature

of the foreign policy establishment of Washington. And he, even though he was reluctant to go to war in Iraq, he thought like the rest of the foreign policy establishment did, that there were weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam Hussein was this, you know, bad actor that needed to be taken out. And so because he was of that total groupthink mindset, which we see far too often here in this town, that also was what pushed him in the direction of ultimately making this incredibly fateful speech and paving the road that ultimately led to the utter, utter catastrophe for our nation and for the globe that was the Iraq War. It's very difficult to describe just because we're on the tail end of it now what Iraq did to our international credibility, to our domestic politics, to everything, really. I mean, the entire world that we live in is because of Iraq. Even the financial crisis, arguably. I

mean, Afghanistan, the trillions of dollars spent. I mean, who knows how different it all could have come together. So we have to spend time. And part of the real tragedy of the Iraq war was all of the people like Powell, the media, and more who had a lot of trust with the American people, who mortgaged it for a lie that cost the lives of thousands of American soldiers, of who knows how many Iraqis, of ISIS, Syria. I mean, we are so much less safe and worse off because of the Iraq war that it's difficult to understand. And so it's in these times that we have to have this discussion so it's in these times that we have to have this discussion, a nuanced discussion about what it meant and why and the people who

were involved so that the people who are younger, who don't remember, can have an accurate understanding of what actually went down. Yeah. And the last response, highly cringe response, that we'll show you is from Congressman Jamal Bowman, squad member, progressive, who said, as a black man just trying to figure out the world, Colin Powell was an inspiration. He was from NYC, went to City College, and rose to the highest ranks of our nation, sending love, strength, and prayer to the family

and friends of Secretary Powell. Rest in power, sir. So I don't doubt that Colin Powell was in his, you know, truly remarkable up from the bootstraps, immigrant parents, not an exceptional student, goes to City College in New York, so not, you know, Harvard or Yale or one of the big name schools. I don't doubt that that example was an inspiration to many. But you cannot leave out that that inspiration turned out to be fool's gold because in the end, it resulted in total catastrophe. And if you're not telling that part of the story, then you're just not telling the truth about the life and legacy of this man ultimately. That's right, Crystal.

All right. So we've got some really interesting news for you here on the union busting front. A couple of stories to bring to you. Let's start with Starbucks. Let's throw this tarot sheet up on the screen. So a number of stores, Starbucks stores in Buffalo, have been working to unionize news that we brought you before. And this would be the first. These would be the first Starbucks stores to be unionized in the entire country. So this is a really big deal. And Starbucks appears to be totally freaking out and taking radical approaches to making sure that these workers do not ultimately unionize.

New York Times with a good story here about some of the tactics that have been employed. The lead is during her decade plus at Starbucks, Michelle Eisen says she's endured her share of workplace stress. She points to increased productivity goals, high turnover, etc. But she had never encountered a change that the company made after workers at her store and two other Buffalo area locations filed for a union election. Two additional support managers, quote unquote, from out of state who often work on the floor with the baristas and who, according to Ms. Eisen, have created unease. Now, Starbucks says there's additional managers in along with they've also flooded these stores with new workers who haven't, weren't initially involved in the union effort. So now you've got a new whole group of people that you've got to educate and you've got to persuade. And by the way, you've got to do this under the watchful eye of these like corporate level managers who have come in to effectively spy on these workers.

It's very clear what's going on here. Another tactic that they use, so early on, they have pushed to expand the bargaining unit so that it's not just these couple of stores that said, hey, we want to unionize. They're saying, oh, we want it to be all of the stores in Buffalo, which of course makes it harder because again, you've got to go now, you've got to organize all of those stores in Buffalo. So they did that. Then they had these, quote unquote, listening sessions, which of course were, you know, anti-union propaganda, one-on-one in a very intimidating setting. They had corporate executives all the way up to the level of Howard Schultz come in and, you know, be in these stores and sit for some of these listening sessions with workers. And now what they're partly doing is flooding the stores with new workers, sending in these spies, these assistant managers,

to make sure there's no, you know, funny business about talking about worker solidarity or unions. They're going above and beyond to make sure that this union drive is ultimately not successful. And we got to be honest with you, I mean, it'll probably work. Oh, I'm almost certain it will work. Yeah, because we've seen when companies decide there's not going to be a union there, whether it's Starbucks, whether it's Amazon, whether it's Walmart, they will do whatever's necessary. Now, I will tell you that some of these, according to New York Times and according to my own knowledge of labor law, some of these tactics probably fall into the category of illegal

intimidation. But you have to investigate it. Union elections are supposed to take place in a laboratory-like condition. It is not supposed to be subject to all this kind of pressure and manipulation and changing the game and bringing people in and these assistant managers serving spies. None of that is supposed to be happening. So it's very possible that like what happened in Bessemer, Alabama, if the union election does happen and the workers who want a union do not prevail, it is likely this will be contested and they may have to run a new election, et cetera, et cetera. But especially in a service industry where turnover is already very quick, the more you push these things off into the future, the greater your chance of ultimate successes. So Starbucks likely breaking the law here, And also it likely won't matter. Well, what's stunning is that they even

have a transcript of a video in which a district manager, this was just in September, was in Arizona. And she tells coworkers, the company asked her to spend time in Buffalo over the next 90 days because quote, there's a huge task force out there that's trying to fix the problem. Because if Buffalo, New York gets unionized, it will be the first market in Starbucks history. Yeah. And she also says that when someone asks if the task force is a, quote, last-ditch effort to try and stop it, she says, yeah, we're going to save it.

I mean, it's on video. Pretty blatant. It's literally out in the open. It's pretty stunning. I love how they're just packing these stores full of employees, even though they don't need to be there. Right. All in order to try and screw with it. I mean, look, it doesn't take a genius to say that this seems pretty illegal, allegedly, for the Starbucks lawyers and for whatever their official explanation for all of this. They say it's official company policy, just for the record. But put that in the context of where we are right

now. And this is what we've been trying to keep our eye on. The biggest story in the country is millions of people quitting their jobs, getting higher wages. Other, you know, many tens of thousands at John Deere and many Kellogg, other places coming together and demanding better working conditions after a huge moment of sacrifice in the economy. And you put all of that together and you really do see a stunning, I think, a stunning disconnect in terms of where national attention and focus is and where it should be. And it's because of the class bias that we see in so much of our media. Like I said, I mean, I jokingly was telling you all this, but the Sunday New York Times was literally about January 6th, was about recreating January 6th and pointing to the seven people who are most responsible.

And I'm like, do you people truly have nothing better to do to elevate to the highest consciousness? Well, look, to be fair, this is a New York Times story. I'm not saying that it isn't covered in any way, but ask yourself what's on cable news. Ask yourself what is really having momentous attention. And it's because there's not a big, there's no Trump angle here. There's no like Republicans bad, Democrats good, or like, you know, Joe Manchin, Bernie Sanders or whatever. It's just, just people who are trying to get a better wage and the absolute lengths, apolitical lengths, right? I mean, remember, this is Howard Schultz. He's a big-time Democrat and all of that, a big founder,

and they have Black Lives Matter all over the stores, all that stuff. I'd love to know, by the way, how many of these workers are actually black, given what we know about Buffalo, New York. And of course, they're willing to take out all the stops there. So stops right there whenever it comes to the wages end. But I think it's amazing when you see the class bias really penetrate and we just see each one of these data points bubble up all across the country. And it really does take almost a John Deere level one to even get the media to pay the tiniest little bit of attention. Like it takes 10,000 workers at John Deere. But this is happening everywhere. I mean, and Starbucks throwing everything at it. We saw the roots of that in Amazon. And I think this is going to be

a continuing through line for the next couple of months. More and more people are going to think about trying to unionize. And the companies themselves, they're richer than ever, Crystal. They made more money than ever in 2020 because of the pandemic, which the unions tell us all the time. And they're going to use that money in order to try and crack down on what's happening. Yes. And I mean, on the other hand, you can tell that Starbucks sees this as a real threat. And that in and of itself is encouraging, just as Amazon saw the Bessemer effort as a real threat. And so they do fear that if one of these shops were to sneak through, it could start a domino effect. And I don't think they're wrong to fear that. On the media point, it's not just that there isn't a

Trump versus Biden angle here to be had. It's also that the whole idea of a cross-partisan, multiracial working class working together in solidarity goes against the entire narrative that they've been selling the country for years now. It's very inconvenient. We're supposed to hate each other, right? We're supposed to be inches away from a civil war. We're supposed to believe that our greatest enemy is, you know, the person who thinks differently about politics or comes from a different cultural background or whatever it is. That's who's supposed to be the real enemy. So when you see these workers, and as I mentioned before, we're going to talk to a local president with John Deere about what's going on there.

But, you know, you see these workers not just fighting for themselves, but a lot of the core of the strikes right now are about a two-tier wage system. So you've got older workers who are good. They're doing pretty well. They've got a pretty good contract. And they're fighting for their brother and sister coming down the line who's coming up with a much worse deal.

And they're saying, this is about me fighting for our future. It's not even about myself. That sort of solidarity and collective action is not supposed to be a thing in America today if you believe the lens and the prism through which the media presents everything, where it's all about, you know, outrage over masks or not masks or a vaccine or not vaccine. Those or Trump or not Trump, I mean, that's the ultimate fault line in all of this. So to see this type of action,

well, it just doesn't fit with their narrative. Starbucks is not the only big corporation who's out there union busting. We can bring you another update on Dollar General. This one's pretty interesting, too. Let's throw this. More Perfect Union had this scoop. Guys, they're doing such good work over there. Make sure you follow them if you can support the work that they're doing, because they've really been highlighting these union struggles in an effective way. They say, scoop, Dollar General was caught illegally intimidating workers just days before a store in Connecticut is set to vote on whether to form the company's first ever U.S. union. District managers visited the store on Saturday and threatened to close it if workers voted yes. I mean, that is blatantly textbook illegal worker intimidation tactics.

It happens all the time, mind you. It happens all the time. Whether it's as explicit as this reportedly is that they just came in and were like, you know, you vote for a union, the store's getting shut down, you're not going to have a job anymore. Or whether it's more subtle. I remember during the VW organizing in Tennessee, there were politicians who were suggesting, hey, you know, they may just not have the jobs here for you going forward if you vote to unionize, even though Volkswagen themselves were actually in favor of the union. So you see this happen all the time. It's also worth noting More Perfect Union says that the union involved here, UFCW, they'll file charges with the NLRB against Dollar General for those union busting activities. The vote is scheduled for this Friday. And part of the context here is Dollar General actually pays the lowest wages of any retailer.

And workers who have been talking to More Perfect Union and other outlets say that they have also been dramatically understaffed, especially during the pandemic. And, you know, we've been covering like customers coming in very upset and ornery and stressed out and workers have felt their lives to be at risk. Police have had to be called in for all kinds of incidents. So it's about low wages, long hours, no leave, and people feeling like their physical safety is at risk because it's basically they're alone in the store having to handle whatever ultimately comes to them. So that's why they're trying to unionize and Dollar General going above and beyond again with illegal, allegedly illegal tactics to try to intimidate these workers to make sure it doesn't happen. Yeah, like we said, it's going to continue happening. And you look at Dollar General and even the impetus for the unionization, according to one of the employees who spoke within these times, was that they were being treated terribly. And that the district manager allegedly ignored a complaint of sexual harassment

and was heard making racist remarks. And then the district manager unfairly accused a complaint of sexual harassment and was heard making racist remarks. And then the district manager unfairly accused a manager of stealing. And they all got scared because they were like, they can do this to us. They have this amount of control over our lives. And if you've been in a rural part of the country, sometimes Dollar General is the only game in town. And a lot of people have to drive like 20, 30 miles just to like go to a Walmart in order to try and buy general necessities, let alone groceries, which is a big problem to a Walmart in order to try and buy general necessities, let alone groceries, which is a big problem for a lot of people. So Dollar General and the Dollar

Store, these various types, they have a lot of power in these rural communities and pricing power for wages. They can pay nothing. This is an Amazon story, which we're about to get to as well. So it's incredibly important that we track it. Yeah, they have an incredibly predatory model. I mean, that's the bottom line. They thrive when economic times are difficult, when the working class is struggling. And I think the stat I saw is that 75% of the population lives within five miles of the Dollar General. They're everywhere. And I live in a rural community. We've got one a few miles away from me. They're ubiquitous and yet they're highly profitable. They did extremely well during the pandemic, record-breaking profits, and yet lowest wages of any large retailer in the entire country.

So that's what those workers are fighting for. That's right. Hey, so remember how we told you how awesome premium membership was? Well, here we are again to remind you that becoming a premium member means you don't have to listen to our constant pleas for you to subscribe. So what are you waiting for? Become a premium member today by going to BreakingPoints.com, which you can click on in the show notes. Speaking of corporate malfeasance, Amazon.

This is pretty fascinating. So members of Congress, at least signaling that they might get a little bit tough on Amazon after it looks from new reporting that executives there up to and including Jeff Bezos may have at least misled and possibly blatantly lied to members of Congress in testimony about their anti-competitive practices. Let's throw this tear sheet up on the screen. This is from the Wall Street Journal. The headline here, members of congressional committee question whether Amazon executives misled Congress in a letter. Bipartisan group of reps ask for documents and exculpatory evidence as they consider whether

to recommend a Justice Department criminal referral for an investigation. So these members of Congress, again, some Republicans, some Democrats, you had Pramila Jayapal, Jerry Nadler, David Cicilline, you also had Ken Buck, you had Matt Gaetz. They sent this letter that Wall Street Journal got their hands on saying to Amazon, you better show us some evidence, some exculpatory evidence proving that you weren't lying to us about using third-party seller data to create your own products. So what they're doing, according to reports, is they'll see what's performing well on their platform. They'll grab all that data, take all that data from those sellers, all of the product specifications down to measurements of shirts. I mean, absolute specifics. They'll use that to create their own knockoff product. And then as if

that wasn't enough theft, then they prioritize their own product in the search results above the original maker and product. And I'm sure a lot of you guys use Amazon. This is a world we live in. And you probably know when you search for something, probably you're going to select what's in the first one, two, three, five results. Amazon Basics. It's always cheaper and it's always first. So that's what they're doing. They are privileging their own products, which they ripped off from other makers in the search results. Again, they deny this for the lawyers allegedly, etc., etc. But based on quite a lot of reporting at the moment that I'll get into in a moment. So when they were asked about this exact practice before members of Congress,

they said, no, no, no, we don't do any of that. It's against company policy. It's against company policy. And when Bezos specifically was asked, well, do you know of incidents when it happens? He was like, not that I'm aware. I don't know. I have to get back to you. I'm not that I'm aware of. So clear dodge there. Let me give you a little bit of what the letter actually says. So they asked the company to provide exculpatory evidence to corroborate the sworn testimony that several leaders provided. They say, we strongly encourage you to make use of this opportunity to correct the record and provide the committee with sworn, truthful,

and accurate responses to this request as we consider whether a referral of this matter to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation is appropriate. So a pretty significant threat there. They were all testifying under oath. You can't lie. And this was all sparked by a Reuters report.

Wall Street Journal had done some reporting on this before, but a Reuters report that I believe we can have, we can throw this tear sheet up on the screen. They got their hands on thousands of pages of internal Amazon documents saying not only was this like something that happened occasionally, this is standard operating procedure. In particular, they got into the Indian market and looked at the way that Amazon operated there. And just to give you one example of how this worked, there's a shirt called a John Miller shirt that was for sale. It was very popular. Amazon decided to follow their measurements down to the centimeter to replicate these shirts and privilege them. And of course, their products have taken off and done extraordinarily well. And this behavior, this anti-competitive behavior has greatly disadvantaged people. And I want to explain

people because people have been like, yeah, but Walmart has private label. Target has private label. Here's the difference. Amazon is both the platform and the retailer, and that's the biggest problem, which is that Amazon is the single platform on which these businesses exist. They actually don't really have another option in order to sell their stuff. both the platform, aka the marketplace, and you're the seller, and you have the ability to de-rank somebody in the algorithm and put your stuff ahead. I mean, look, if you go to Walmart, yeah, you may be able to put something down on the shelf, but you can still see it. If it's not on the page, you literally can't see it.

I mean, technically, you could click over. And also, 50-something percent of online retail sales in the United States were made by Amazon, I mean, on Amazon. So you put market power together, the differentiator of the internet, the fact that there is both the marketplace and the actual retailer itself. Size in particular, I think, is what makes this the most big and glaring problem. And look, Amazon knows this. That's why they say it's against their company policy. Because they know it's a bad look. They specifically know that the marketplace is their biggest seller for all of this. That's how they make so much of their money. Also, Walmart and all these other companies don't even have close to the level of the third-party

data that you would have. So this is why technology is just functionally different than like a Target, a Walmart, or like a grocery store, Kroger, HEB, or something like that. They go in and they look at all the customer reviews. Exactly, right. They look at how many returns are going to be made. They're able to evaluate the specifics of this data across every brand and every version of shirt, for example, that's being sold on their platform. And then they're able to say, okay, this is the one that gets the best reviews. This is the measurements. This is what it looks like. And there've been retailers before, I think it was, it was Williams Sonoma. It was like a home furnishing company that took Amazon

to court over just blatantly knocking off their products was settled ultimately. There's a shoe company called Allbirds that also has called them out for just blatantly replicating their wool sneaker that they sell. So this has been known for a long time, but executives have consistently either directly lied about it or pretended that they didn't know what was going on. We've got a little montage of them denying that they have any idea what's actually happening at their company. Let's take a listen to that. Let me get back to your office. Happy to get back with your office. Happy to get back to your office with an answer to that question.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know the direct answer to your question. I don't know the answer to that question. I don't know the answer to your question. Do you know if they were designated as essential? I do not. I don't know. I don't know about that. I can't see the email, and so I don't know the

context. I don't know the specifics of that situation. I'm not sure what you're referring to. I can't answer that question, yes or no. I don't remember that at all. I cannot comment on that because I don't remember it. So in fairness, that was a smart guy. Doesn't remember a lot. Right. In fairness, that was a bunch of different tech CEOs. But Bezos prominently featured there as having no idea what's going on in his own company. And by the way, that was one other thing from the Reuters report is that they found in these internal documents that highest level executives in India had been informed and involved in this practice. Right. So there you go. And the reason why, let's put that tear sheet up there.

The reason why we cover Amazon so much is around size. It is the second largest private employer in the United States. Amazon, they are looking to hire 150,000 additional workers ahead of the holiday season to keep up with demand. This is generally standard practice, but it's more than 100,000 than Amazon announced last year. So the size of Amazon just continues to go up and up and up. And whenever you start to go up that high, your decisions around unions and wages and how you conduct business and how you employ people, it matters because they are slowly gobbling up the labor market of this entire country. And they're very, very astute in what they do. They announced yesterday, oh, we're going to pay $21 an hour.

You're going to have all this. And look, great. I'm glad they're paying $21 an hour. But don't you dare form a union. Don't you dare complain about your break time. Don't you dare take a break whenever you're supposed to be walking 13 steps. Also, all your data, that's available for us, your steps, everything is tracked. Oh, delivery wasn't on time? Screw you, you're fired. I mean, it's just one of these things where with the wage comes a lot of power. And when you have that level of power and you're the only game in town in a lot of these rural communities, $21 an hour or the only option for somebody who may be low scaled, then you become a central point of how you conduct business controls the lives of millions of people in America. That's why we care so much. The fate of the working class should not be in

the hands and subject to the whims of the benevolence of one billionaire. Yeah, that's right. Or even a few billionaires. And so, okay, good. They get a little raised. But the whole point and what we show you with these worker movements is workers should have a direct say in the conditions of their employment. That's right. There should be a push and pull here. It shouldn't be all on one side. And that's what collective action through a union or through other means, but union is the most effective one we have, that gives the workers a little bit of power and a little bit of say where they can, hey, if breaks are really important, if a predictable schedule is really important to them, they can bargain for those items in their contract and not just

hope that Jeff Bezos is feeling generous today. Please don't schedule me at close and open instead of you can't schedule. How many people has that happened to and knows how much it sucks when you don't have a say over your labor conditions? That's what we really need in America right now. Yes, that is exactly right. Okay, big media story here in D.C. was the sale of Politico, the ultimate, you know, tiger beat on the Potomac, some people call it, like DC insider. That is perfect. I've never heard that before, but that is perfect. That is exactly what it is. I don't know who made that up. I don't get credit for it. But anyway, that is what it is. Tiger beat on the Potomac, Politico, sold to a big German publisher called Axel Springer.

And Axel Springer already owns a lot of different properties, including what used to be Business Insider and is now Insider. And we're getting a look. I didn't realize this. They require their German employees to actually sign a pledge that commits them to a certain number of company principles. And we can throw this tweet up there on the screen.

Among them, support for Israel, for a united Europe, and a free market economy. They say that is like a constitution. They apply to every employee of their company. And those who disagree with unconditional support for Israel, a united Europe, and a free market economy, among a number of other things. They also say basically, like, you have to support NATO, too, effectively. That those who disagree should not work for Axel Springer. Then they also had the nerve, the head of this company, to be like, you know, the problem in America is this biased partisan journalism. Oh, really? Wait, what?

You're requiring your employees to pledge themselves to these very specific and very fraught and very politically charged topics? And then you have the nerve to be like, but we're totally unbiased over here. It's insane. It's insane. It's outrageous. And, you know, the American employees at Politico, they're not going to be actually required to sign the loyalty pledge that the German employees. Probably because it would be illegal under U.S. law. Probably. Probably. It would at least be, you know, hopefully frowned upon. But the fact that you have Politico is extremely influential. Oh, extremely influential. Their playbook that they put on every morning is, you know, the comings and goings of DC. I mean,

it really does help to set the agenda for the day in this town and the way that people think about these issues. And it's all oftentimes like brought to you by Chevron or whatever, which is a whole other issue, but it's very, very influential. And the fact that now their employees have to be explicitly on board with this set of policies, I mean, it creates a wildly apparent inherent bias in what they're doing. I want people to understand that because you may not have ever heard of Politico, but what it is, is essentially the trade journal of Washington, D.C., right? So they have that playbook email which goes out to hundreds of thousands of people, usually people who are in the business, lobbyists and more. And it kind of describes like what lawmakers are saying about a particular bill, what, you know, outside

interests. They also break good. There are many, many good reporters over there, many of whom we've had on the show or use their reporting. So I don't want to say it's like bad. Exactly. Thompson does a good job. Right. But it's important, though, because it is a disproportionate impact in the way that people here think, as in what Politico reports or says or puts in their newsletter about something can both be what's happening and it can also influence the events that are on the ground. That's one of the pernicious things about media in D.C., especially insider media. So this is, I would say, up there with Axios as one of the pernicious things about media in DC, especially insider media. So this is, I would say up there with Axios is one of the most important brands in terms of how people in power actually think, work, and read every single day. That's why Axel Springer is

buying it for a billion dollars. Well, and this is the next piece of the segment. Ben Smith just had a column about some of the internal workings of Axel Springer over at the New York Times. And there's a lot in this that we can unpack. We can throw this up on the screen. The headline is, at Axel Springer, Politico's new owner, allegations of sex, lies, and a secret payment. I'll get to all that part, but you brought up Axios. Yes. Reportedly, they also wanted to buy Axios. Axios was founded by someone who left Politico. So there's a lot of bad blood there. And what they have effectively pitched to Axios is, we want you, Jim Vande Hei, who's now the head of Axios, who left Politico, we actually want you to run the joint entity. We're going to buy both Axios and Politico. Put them together. We want you to run the joint entity. But we know the Politico people will be pissed off about it, so we're not going to announce it

until after the Politico thing is a done deal and they can't back out. And VandeHei, to his credit, reportedly was like, that's screwed up and that's not how we want to operate, so no thank you. But that's the way that they play in this industry. The focus of this column is the fact that one of their executives there was apparently sleeping with all kinds of junior women. And then he'd give them promotions that they didn't really deserve.

And then when he was done with them, he would either fire them or sort of kick them back down in the organization. That this was a routine pattern of behavior that part of the reason they actually did a whole investigation, but they didn't reveal the results of what they found in that investigation. They decided to keep him on board until yesterday when they finally fired this guy after Ben Smith's column. But part of why, going back to the whole we're not part of the media thing, part of why they kept him on is because they liked his politics. Oh. thing. Part of why they kept him on is because they liked his politics. The head of the organization said we have to be especially careful because Mr. Reichschulte, I think is how you say his name, is the last and only journalist in Germany who's still courageously rebelling against the new GDR authoritarian state. Ben describes the GDR or communist East Germany in this context as a bit

like woke mob. So they like that part. On the other hand, I mean, their politics are a little bit interesting. They're mostly, you describe them as right-wing mostly, but then they're also sort of authoritarian. Like, let's throw this Glenn Greenwald tweet up on the screen. This dude that just got fired for his sexual harassment, you know, bad behavior at the organization, had aggressively gone after Glenn and Snowden and Julian Assange,

saying that Glenn and Edward Snowden have enabled terrorists, that Putin loves him, that they've enabled ISIS, that the Kremlin loves all the, like, standard stupid tropes. So that's the other part of what's going on with this company. That hallmark German righteousness. Everybody in Europe knows exactly what I'm talking about. And, yeah, look, maybe it's just me. I'm a little uncomfortable with a bunch of German billionaires

controlling some of the most, you know, important company media entities in the United States. I would be maybe – I guess I'd prefer our billionaires to do it. And especially if these people are requiring like oaths of loyalty to foreign countries. Also, United Europe. So it means – let's really think about the implications of what that means. So that means if you support Brexit that you are somebody who can't work at Axel Springer. Yes. Or on Israel, does it apply to BDS? Does that apply to the territories? Oh, it definitely applies to BDS. I see what I'm saying. So, oh, which border, 1967 or pre or post? Well, if you're pre-1967, does that count as pro-Israel? What if you believe

in a two-state solution? That commitment to free market principles, what does that mean exactly? You're allowed to have universal health care? Well, they have in Germany, but what about here? So is it okay here but not there? Once again, you shouldn't have any of this whenever you are a media entity, and especially whenever you control the opinions, really, and are one of the biggest tastemakers in the entire United States. There should be a lot more outrage about this, and there's not. And I think that's really

what it is. How much of this do you see? CNN's Brian Stelter, we're about to do a segment about him. Maybe this should be a good segment to cover. Maybe. I mean, maybe. The other way we can transition to the segment, because part of this, too, is there's a hypocrisy on, you know, the people on the right who focus a lot on censorship or media cancel culture and media bias. yielding support for Israel, this, a major DC outlet having an explicit and clear and stated bias and requiring their employees to be loyal to their biases, this somehow escaped their notice. Yeah, that's totally nuts. And let's go to CNN, Crystal, because this is just some of the most stunning stuff that I've seen in a long time. Credit to Barry Weiss. May have some differences of opinion there. But look, she did a great job whenever she went on CNN's Brian Stelter and really called him and the network out to his face

and held her own around the lab leak hypothesis, how the media covers up stories which are bad for the narratives that they don't like, and just really how irresponsible they are. Let's watch the entire thing in full. It really is worth watching. You're right. There are tens of millions of Americans who aren't on the hard left or the hard right who feel the world has gone mad. So in what ways has the world gone mad? Well, you know, when you have the chief reporter on the beat of COVID for the New York Times talking about how questioning or pursuing

the question of the lab leak is racist, the world has gone mad. When you're not able to say out loud and in public that there are differences between men and women, the world has gone mad. When we're not allowed to acknowledge that rioting is rioting and it is bad and that silence is not violence, but violence is violence, the world has gone mad. When we're not able to say that Hunter Biden's laptop is a story worth pursuing, the world has gone mad. When in the name of progress, young schoolchildren, as young as kindergarten, are being separated in public schools because of their race, and that is called progress rather than

segregation, the world has gone mad. There are dozens of examples that I could share with you and with your viewers. And you often say, you say, allowed. Everyone sort of knows this. You say we're not allowed, we're not able. It's the chasm between. Who's the people stopping the conversation? Who are they? People let work at networks, frankly, like the one I'm speaking on right now, who try and claim that, you know, it was it was racist to investigate the lab leak theory. It was. But I'm just saying that when you say allowed, I just think it's a provocative thing to say. You say you say we're not allowed to talk about these things, but they're all over the Internet. I can

Google them. I can find them everywhere. I've heard about every story you mentioned. Of course. So I'm just suggesting, of course, people are allowed to cover whatever they want to cover. But you and I both know, and it would be delusional to claim otherwise, that touching your finger to an increasing number of subjects that have been deemed third rail by the mainstream institutions and increasingly by some of the tech companies will lead to reputational damage, perhaps you losing your job, your children sometimes being demonized as well. And so what happens is a kind of internal self-censorship. This is something that I saw over and over again when I was at the New York Times. Look, that is so obvious in everything she's just said. I sometimes, I don't know about Brian. I really don't. You know, he was a good reporter. A glutton for well, I've heard of every single one of the stories that you're talking about. Well, have you ever covered it?

Have you ever done a single segment on GrabLeak? Right. It's your job not only to cover these stories, but also it's your job to know about them. Of course. So the fact that you, like journalist who makes your living knowing about news stories, knows about them, doesn't mean that they've been, you know, shared with the American public. Listen, my issue with, while it is satisfying to watch certain parts of that exchange, Barry Weiss is a very poor spokesperson for this view because she's not, she has a gigantic blind spot where these things are concerned as well. I mean, this Axel Springer story we were just talking about, because it is, you know, something that she's comfortable

with this type of censorship. You're not, I haven't heard a word from her, not on her sub stack, not on her Twitter feed. This is a, if you care about censorship and stories not getting covered, you should care a lot about that story. And this isn't a one-off.

Look, anyone can miss any particular story. I'm sure I've missed instances of censorship that matter too. But she consistently only looks at those that fit her particular agenda. was viewing the issue of quote-unquote cancel culture and censorship and authoritarianism and creeping lack of ability to have free speech through a purely partisan right-left lens, I think is missing the story entirely. So she doesn't bring up the state codified censorship of Republican past anti-protest laws or anti-BDS laws or any of the folks who have spoken out on behalf of Palestinian human rights who have been canceled or lost their jobs or be demonized, some of which she herself did when she was a college student. And look, I don't think people should be judged for their whole lives of what they do in college. I think she's apologized for that. Or not apologized,

but she's come out and said that she regrets what she did. But you don't see her changing in terms of actually having a lens that's inclusive of all of the people and causes who are being censored right now. So that's why, while it is very satisfying to see Brian Stelter be told to his face that CNN sucks, I enjoyed that as well, that is why I think she's a very poor spokesperson for this

because she has just as many blind spots as Brian Stelter does. No, I think it's always fair in order to point that out around what people talk about cancel culture. You know, Ryan Grimm did a great segment yesterday I saw about a campus, what was it, a campus newspaper which fired people for being pro-union. So they wrote an article, there were workers who are trying to unionize. The student newspaper published an article. Right. There were workers who were trying to unionize. The student newspaper published an article with quotes from those workers. Right. The administration forced them to retract it and publish a new piece.

And in place of those quotes with workers, they had anti-union propaganda. Something tells me that not, I don't want to only pick on Barry here, but no one on the right is going to, I shouldn't say no one, few on the right are going to bring that up. I haven't seen it. I saw that story with great interest, and I think it's a very good, important one in order to point out, because as we all know, there are endless amount of clicks and money to be had whenever we're talking about camp. By the way, I agree with pretty much every single thing that she said around all those issues, and I do think it is outrageous anytime one of those things does happen. And there's a lot of hay to be made around the culture war, and I think there's plenty of people who are fighting that. Yes.

But there's not a lot of people fighting the class war. And what did we point out today on the unionization segment on Starbucks? I mean, these guys, Dollar General and Starbucks, are throwing everything they have at making sure that they're working-class employees in Buffalo, New York or Dollar General. I mean, have you ever been to a Dollar General in a rural place? Like sometimes these places are sad. And this is no commentary on the people within.

I don't blame them whatsoever. You'll see like a rotting Piggly Wiggly right next to it. Right. Or some other grocery store, which has been closed for like 10 years. And these people out there are fighting to like make more than like $12 an hour so that they don't have credit card debt. Freedom of expression is being quashed. It is. Yes, it is being quashed. And so, yeah, you don't hear those concerns. And so, listen, here's the thing is I actually care about this issue. That's why I try to, you know, I'm sure I have my own blind spots. Lord knows. But I try to be fair about even in places where I disagree with the person saying, listen, they shouldn't be kicked off the platform. They shouldn't be kicked off

of Twitter. Donald Trump shouldn't have, you know, this is a powerful political figure. He shouldn't have been deplatformed from all these places. I try to be consistent. And the reason why is because it's not about my pet issue or cause getting deplatformed and censored. It's about the principle. And the fact of the matter is, if you actually want a different direction, you're not going to get there by turning this into a partisan, sectarian issue. You're actually, the opposite will happen. The opposite. I tell people that all the time. Will happen, and it is happening. That's exactly what is happening. The real beef that some on the right have is that they aren't the ones that exclusively get to do the censorship anymore. Both sides are really fighting to have it is truly a threat to democratic force and the ability for independent voices to rise

and all of that, that's 100% true. But it is not exclusively the province of the left or the right. And if you want to have allies across the political spectrum, you have to be willing to look at those places where people who have views that you do not personally support

are also being censored. It's not fun to be principled, but it's the only way to actually do anything about it. Wow. You guys must really like listening to our voices. Well, I know this is annoying. Instead of making you listen to a Viagra commercial, when you're done, check out the other podcast I do with Marshall Kosloff called The Realignment. We talk a lot about the deeper issues that are changing, realigning in American society. You always need more Crystal and Sagar in your daily lives. Take care, guys. All right, Sagar, what are you looking at? Well, the greatest tragedy of COVID is what could have been. I'll be honest, back in February, I truly had hope that we would make the most of a coming national crisis. I mean, look,

we had this virus that literally came out of communist China, which they covered up. We had a supply chain crisis, highlighting how dangerous globalization has been for the United States over the last 40 years. We had a national moment where everyone, for a very tiny, tiny, tiny amount of time, was actually all in this together. We had a record economic package in which we pushed money out the door, and we broke so many barriers. The time was then to reset the American relationship with China and with itself. To reaffirm the principle that we actually need to build things here in America again. We need to take care of our workers.

We need to take care of ourselves. It could have been a Great Depression and World War II style event. It could have been a moment of national reinvention for the better. And then the culture war took over. Instead, Trump ended up being a moron. The libs actually did go crazy. And we just argued about masks and vaccines for the next 18 months. We elected then an 80-year-old dude who's been in Washington for the last 50 years as president. Yes, the economic packages we'd passed, they were extraordinary. But it's been a long time since those $1,200 checks. If you take a look around D.C. here today, nothing has really changed.

It's back to normal, except honestly, it's much worse. Because now, today, we not only have the policies of yesterday, we have the effects of COVID, which have left us more vulnerable than arguably were in February of 2020. After the entire nation just saw that we didn't have what we needed for PPE during the pandemic, realized that most of the world's vitamins, basic medical supplies originated in China, you might have expected the United States government to reduce our dependency on that nation, right? Yeah, that's actually completely wrong. In fact, things have gotten much worse. Right now,

in the middle of the supply crisis that we face, Chinese exports to the United States are up 31% since January of 2018, when Trump put tariffs on that nation. In fact, per Asia Times, at a seasonally adjusted rate, the United States is buying $635 billion worth of Chinese goods, equal to 27% of our total U.S. manufacturing GDP. That level of import dependency on a single nation relative to domestic manufacturing is, quote, the sort of import dependency economists associate with third world countries dependent on former colonial powers. Yes, you heard that correctly. After a crisis which exposed all of the faults of globalization and Chinese dependence specifically, we have become more economically dependent than ever

on China. How did that happen? It's a term that actually implicates everybody. It includes me and probably most of you. But let's start with Trump. He talked a big game on China, and to his credit, he did put tariffs on that country. At the same time, though, he also gave a massive tax cut to the rich and corporations. And as part of that tax cut, the GOP bill actually cut depreciation allowances for capital equipment in order to pay for their lower corporate tax rate. And so that screwed with incentives. So much so that in 2019, it was the first time since the 2008 crash that U.S. companies spent more money buying back their own stock than actually investing in their equipment. It was a perfect storm because it caused a decline in orders of U.S.

manufacturing equipment all the way down to the very same levels that we saw in this country in 1992. We simply do not even have the domestic capacity right now to make the machines, which in turn can make stuff. So the GOP tax bill basically set us up for failure heading into the pandemic. Now, before that, of course, Joe Biden and George W. Bush and the entire establishment were united in helping destroy the U.S. manufacturing sector by allowing China into the WTO, signing NAFTA into law. Those twin actions, more than anything, hollowed out our industrial Midwest, and it reduced manufacturing to near all-time lows in the United States.

But where do we come into play? Well, everyone, I, like you, am probably afflicted by the most American of diseases. After almost two years of coronavirus madness, it sometimes just feels better than ever to just buy stuff. And it turns out I'm not the only one. In fact, consumer spending in the last year or so has skyrocketed to record levels. Of course, we intended some of that to happen with the $1,200 checks and the other efforts to stimulate the economy. But the problem is, when you can only make stuff in one country and suddenly everybody wants to buy stuff, then U.S. dependency on China is, of course, going to increase.

In other words, we have multiple crises. Chief among them is ineffective political leadership. Both Trump and Biden have utterly failed to reduce U.S. dependence on China, despite talking a big game. Neither of them have shown any of the requisite political will to dramatically transform the U.S. economy and to take on the corrupt business leaders who want this status quo. In fact, as I covered a few weeks ago, Biden is actually making it easier for U.S. companies to increase dependence on China with tariff exclusions.

Trump, while talking a big game, made the situation much worse with the tax bill. But I also don't want to let all of us off the hook either. Yes, it is true our culture and our political leadership have taught us that, as Matt Stoller said yesterday, consumerism is more important than citizenship for some. But let's be honest and realize that politicians also respond to incentives. The reason that both Biden and Trump can get away with this is because we let them. Most people would prefer to just shrug and say, yeah, that's terrible.

Someone should do something about that. Also, don't you dare tell me that the stuff I buy at Walmart is going to be 10 cents more expensive if you do try to do something about it. The race to the bottom in our politics right now is as much a reflection of us and our values as it is the decrepit leadership class that rules us. So to change this, we have to actually demand change. I know that really sounds simple, but the hardest thing we can actually do is let's stop being consumers and start being citizens again. How stunning is it, Crystal, that in the years after the Trump tariffs, that imports from China actually went up? One more thing, I promise. Just wanted to make sure you knew about my podcast with Kyle Kalinsky.

It's called Crystal Kyle and Friends, where we do long-form interviews with people like Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, and Glenn Greenwald. You can listen on any podcast platform or you can subscribe over on Substack to get the video a day early. We're going to stop bugging you now. Enjoy. All right, Crystal, what are you taking a look at? Well, guys, do you remember this? The only way we can deal with corporate greed in America is union power. That's a fact. You're the only ones to keep the barbarians on the other side of the gate, man. You're the only ones. So, folks, I promise you, the Fair Labor Standards Act passed way back in

Roosevelt's day, didn't say we're allowed to have unions and said the government should promote unions. I promise you, I will be the most pro-union president you have ever seen. I guarantee you a seat at the table. The government should promote unions. That, of course, was Joe Biden. And that was on the eve of Election Day in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Fun fact, I used to live right next door, neighboring East Liverpool, Ohio. So after launching his campaign at a Pittsburgh firefighters union hall, Biden closed his campaign by promising to be the most pro-union president in history. By promising that he would not only allow workers to unionize, but would actively promote unionization.

Now as president, he's also made clear he sees the decline of unions as a critical threat to America, saying that the trend has, quote, weakened our democracy. Those are pretty strong words. Yet here we are, the beginning of a major strike wave with workers from coast to coast. We're talking bus drivers and nurses and factory workers alike, all authorizing strikes, some rejecting contracts, some hitting the picket lines. And what has the self-proclaimed most pro-union president in history had to say about it? Pretty close to nothing at all. His press secretary delivered the company line that they would have nothing to say about any of the ongoing strikes while

noting generally that Biden is pro-union. You've got about 10,000 John Deere workers on strike, a number of other strikes going on. How concerned are you about the impact this might have on the economy or the supply chain? And do you have any plans to intervene? Well, we, of course, are not going to speak to any individual ongoing potential individual labor actions, as you know, as a standard. But I will note that the president, the vice president often say and that this is the most pro-union administration in history, and they will continue to govern and lead with that in mind. You got to love how that question was framed, too, about what the strike would do to the supply

chain, not about what it might mean for the workers, for example. Then we were graced with a few utterances from Mr. Most Pro-Union President in History himself. He said that his message to those striking workers is that they have a right to strike and they have a right to demand higher wages and the companies they're striking on are doing very well. I'm not going to get into the negotiation, but my message is, if you think that's what you need, then you should do it. Guys, let's just be honest. This is extremely weak. A tectonic shift is happening right now in relations between labor and management. You see it in the strikes. You see it in the great resignation. You see it in skyrocketing approval ratings for unions. And Biden, he is largely missing in action. He hasn't said a word about

other strikes happening at Kellogg's and other workplaces. Some of the workers who are risking their livelihoods here, they've noticed his absence from the fight. Kerry Williams, president of BCTGM Local 374G, told Politico, quote, at the end of the day, Kellogg's is an iconic American manufacturer food-wise. We were essential workers. And I would hope the Biden administration would put something out there to encourage the Kellogg management to get back to the negotiating table. Look, let me be totally clear. Biden, of course, has been way better on labor than Trump. It's not even close.

Most critically, he staffed the National Labor Relations Board with people who actually believe in the mission of that body instead of union-busting lawyers. But as Jonah Furman and Gabriel Winant point out in a recent article, he's also weakened labor's hand significantly by allowing a lot of key pandemic supports to expire. Workers out on strike, they lose their employer-sponsored health insurance. So those COBRA subsidies that we did have, those have expired. They would have been rather useful. Talk of the PRO Act, of course, initially pitched as an integral part of the Build Back Better plan. That has completely vanished from public debate. And as I detailed earlier, Biden has stuck to a legalistic dodge when asked about these strikes failing to directly advocate for the workers.

This power of the bully pulpit is also not to be underestimated. Media coverage of Striketober has been sorely lacking. Biden forcefully weighing in would be controversial and it would force the press to actually pay attention. That would put pressure on all of the companies involved, not to mention help inform the American people about what's going on. We are truly at a pivot point in terms of the labor movement and in terms of the fate of the American worker. In fact, at least some of the workers out on strike right now, they see their struggle in the broader context of an existential battle for the middle class. After all, rising inequality and falling union density, those things go hand in

hand. You can see it in this chart. It's a direct relationship. As unions decline, wealth concentration accelerates. It is a clear-as-day correlation. And of course, it makes perfect sense. When more workers are unionized, unions have more power. When unions have more power, they're able to win better deals for their members. And when their members win better deals, it lifts wages and conditions even for non-union workers. It is no accident that as union density has declined in America, wages have stagnated and corporate profits have soared. There is a moment here to be seized. One of the most hopeful moments that I frankly have seen in a long while in American political life. A sea change in how workers view their jobs and how they view their bosses.

A tight labor market that is giving workers a little bit of leverage to play with. What's more, public opinion is dramatically on the side of the workers who we claimed as essential, but then were treated as disposable. Why not, President Biden, show up at a picket line? Why not dramatically join the right side of the class war for once? Why not force a vote on the PRO Act and make every anti-union legislator go on the record as being for or against worker power? Biden said in that Beaver County campaign speech I played that the only way to deal with corporate greed in America is through union power. So Joe Biden doesn't have to look back to FDR or anyone else to know what his role should be right now. He only needs to live up to his own promises. And you know, Sagar, obviously,

this is a bit of wishful thinking, but I just don't think we can let go of the fact that there is a moment right here that if someone... All right, joining us now, we have Chris Larson. He is the former UAW Local 74 president, local there in Iowa, and worked at John Deere for 19 years. Great to have you, Chris. Good to see you, Chris. Hey, thank you, and thanks for having me on your show. Oh, it's our pleasure. Thanks for taking the time. So just give us an update.

What's going on with the strike this morning, what were the key issues, uh, that forced you all out on the picket lines? Okay. So, um, you know, we're manning the picket line 24 seven. Um, our negotiating team went back up to Moline, Illinois yesterday, uh, to make themselves available, uh, for negotiations. Uh, it's to my understanding that Dara did meetA.R. did meet with them. Other than that, I have no details further from that. The tentative agreement that was brought back to us,

and we voted down by 90% on October 4th. There were several problems. As you might know, since 1997, we've been tiered. Anybody hired after 1 October of 1997 came in with a substantial less wage, no post-retirement health care, kept factors on our incentive plan that were lower, and many other things. And a pension plan that was a third, a half of what our predecessors were. And then after 25 years of concessionary contracts, we finally have an environment that's ready for us and the ball's in our court and we know it. And part of what drives that, we see that Deere and Company

has been experiencing record profits. Their third quarter reportings exceed their record profit year of 2013. They're projected to make between $5.7 and $5.9 billion this year. As you probably know, CEO John May, the board seemed fit to give him 160% pay increase. And also, look, Deere rewarded their investors in August with a 17% dividend hike in a concerted effort

to increase wealth within their shareholders. And what we see with that contract or the tentative agreement that was brought back is not fair. It's not equitable. And, you know, we're ready to make a stand. Chris, why is it important to you, maybe some of the older members, to fight against the tier system and the continuation of if you guys are taken care of, why is it important for older members or people who have better benefits to fight for people who have lesser and which John Deere may be trying to take advantage of? That's a great question. Look, we've had 25 years of being in the Natura system.

It's left a bad taste in everybody's mouth. And for me, when I seen the tentative agreement, the non-starter from the beginning, even before we talked about wages, is the fact that Deere is determined to maintain a lower paid workforce. And we can see that when they offered no secure defined pension to new hires after one November of 2021,

just a 401k match. I personally feel, and I think a lot of others do, that we don't want our retirement benefits turned into a Wall Street speculation portfolio. We've covered here how they're one of the tactics they're using to try to break the strike is they've brought in salaried workers to try to do the jobs that you all were doing. How is that going? Well, I can't speak to that. I mean, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in there, but that is true. They do have some salaried employees in there working. You know what they're doing? I don't know. It would seem a pretty far

stretch to think that they would be capable of doing any sort of production at all. You know, maybe they're just taking inventory. I'm not real sure. There have been a few loaded trucks that go out that have equipment on it. But that's machinery that was built before we went on strike. Yeah. And Chris, something we've been trying to cover here is why now? Why is it that so many people are rising up right now either to quit their job for a better wage or unions who are going out on strike, demanding better from these companies? Why now?

After John Deere did have a record year, but they've been doing well for a time, why is this moment the right one to stand up? Well, I think what you're seeing is the rebirth of the American labor movement. And there's several factors that kind of went into that. You know, I think the one silver lining in the pandemic is that, you know, created part shortages and supply issues to put Deere behind on production. And this made it, you made it harder for businesses. And we see that the cheap labor bubble is finally busting, which is a good thing.

Workers are demanding more. They're not wanting to go out and work for peanuts. And it's time that workers are saying it's time to distribute the wealth a little more evenly. What type of solidarity have you seen within the communities there? I tell you, Crystal, the solidarity, the outpouring of support in this community has been absolutely amazing and overwhelming. We can't even keep track of all the different businesses that have donated food, water, supplies, people from the community.

You know, as we stand out there on the picket line, you know, it's constant honking, solidarity fists out the window, and the community is behind us. And I think a lot of, you know, even the farmers that buy the equipment are behind us. And we have to see, you know, how long can John Deere not produce? There's a big demand for agriculture implements right now because the corn prices are up, the soybean prices are up. So the ag market's really strong. Farmers are harvesting their crops.

That's when they get paid. And that's when they're looking to buy tractors and combines and balers and things of that nature. Wow. What type of political support have you received? And do you have an expectation of political support? Is that something you want to see? Yeah, I mean, obviously, we want all the support we can get. Yeah, we've had several, you know, politicians and candidates come down and walk on the line with us. Bernie Sanders called me last Friday and asked, you know, how he could be of support. And he bought picketers here at UAW Local 74 a pizza Saturday for lunch. And also sent down his videographer to help us make some videos to

push out and get our message out. But yeah, we've had several people come down and walk the line with us, and we appreciate it very much. One of the things that we've talked a little bit about here, Chris, there's a lot that we find inspiring about what you and your brothers and sisters there are doing. But we also find the example inspiring that I'm sure you have people from a range of political views and perspectives, supported different candidates, et cetera. And it's kind of rare, sadly, that you see in the media that example of people from all different backgrounds and political ideologies coming together in this way to fight for something. And I was wondering if you could just speak to that,

that concept of solidarity and the way that that has played out in the strike in particular. You know, that's one of the most remarkable things I see coming out of this is the display of solidarity. You know, our membership is very divided on political lines. It depends on what type of corporate media you're prescribed to. But we do. I mean, we are all together. Everybody's setting their differences aside. You know, coming together as one.

You know, my hope is that once the dust settles, people can be reflective and, you know, see who came, who showed up and who is with us. Well, we're 100% with you, Chris. So we really appreciate you joining us. Thank you. And last thing, Chris, if people want to support you and the other strikers, where can they go? Well, that's a little bit of an issue.

I mean, here specifically, we have a Fairway Food Store is giving us food at cost to supply our strike kitchen. If anybody's in the Ottumwa area, they can go to Fairway and make a donation to the UAW Local Strike Fund. And we can receive money that way.

I will say, I'd like to give a shout out to a group that I'm very proud of being part of, and that's United Auto Workers for Democracy. And we're trying to reform our union. They started to go fund me a few days ago and raised like $45,000 almost before they shut it off. So, you know, right now we have so much food. We have so much water,

different things that the people have brought in. But if you really want to help and you want to support, and if you're near John Deere facility, join us on the picket line, and that would be a great way to show your solidarity with us. Awesome. All right, Chris, thank you so much. Good luck out there. Keep us updated. We're really grateful for your time.

Thanks, Chris. Thank you very much. Our pleasure. Thank you guys so much for watching. We really appreciate it. You know, we just can't thank you guys enough for supporting the show it gives us life, the ability you could listen to what Chris says

that's how we have the ability to elevate stories like his to cover the stuff that needs to be done to actually look at Starbucks and Amazon and really what's happening here to try and have a better conversation so if you can support us, it really means a lot we've been being screwed around both by YouTube for quite a bit now the only reason it doesn't matter is because of your support. So

link is down in the description if you can become a premium member today. We really appreciate it. Yeah. And I also want to thank you guys for the way that you've supported some of the guests and outlets that we've brought on as well. We hear from them that when they come on, they see that they're able to continue their sub stack. They see that there's funds coming into their strike fund. So can't thank you guys enough for the support that you've shown to the entire Breaking Points community. We love you guys. Have a great day. And we'll see you back here for a full show on Thursday.

See you Thursday. Thanks for listening to the show, guys. We really appreciate it. To help other people find the show, go ahead and leave us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps other people find the show. As always, a special thank you to supercast for powering our premium membership if you want to find out more go to crystal and saga.com

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