Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 2/17/23 Weekly Roundup: CNN Courts Charles Barkley, Plane Dive Disaster, Elon Twitter Boosts His Posts, Sanders vs Moderna, Chicago UBI

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

In this Weekly Roundup we cover CNN courting Charles Barkley for a new tv slot, a horrific Plane dive that almost hit the ocean is just now being released, Elon crafts the Twitter algorithm to push hi...s own tweets, Bernie Sanders' pressure on Moderna forces them to keep the drug free, and Ryan and Emily discuss the potential of UBI in Chicago.To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.supercast.com/To listen to Breaking Points as a podcast, check them out on Apple and SpotifyApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-points-with-krystal-and-saagar/id1570045623 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Kbsy61zJSzPxNZZ3PKbXl Merch: https://breaking-points.myshopify.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:01:56 Hey, guys. Ready or Not 2024 is here, and we here at Breaking Points are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election. We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio, add staff, give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it means the absolute world to have your support. What are you waiting for? Become a premium subscriber today at BreakingPoints.com. CNN is flailing. They got to figure it out. Their lowest ratings ever in modern history. So what do they do? First, they have Bill Maher reruns, I guess, for overtime that they're going to play. Already, by the way, Bill Maher already broke the rules by cursing and he was like, sorry, CNN. Well, now they've got a new idea. Let's put this up there on the screen. They are looking to hire Charles Barkley to come on CNN. And as much as I want to make fun of it,
Starting point is 00:02:47 I got to say, it's not a terrible idea. Charles is a compelling guy. He is fun to watch. The only question is, why would he belong on a news program for any reason whatsoever? Are they just going full, I guess, with the comedian thing? Even with Bill? I mean, Bill has been involved in public affairs and events, political stuff for basically his entire life. I mean, Charles is a sports commentator, a very, you know, former, very successful professional athlete, pop culture figure in his own right. But does he really have something that he wants to say five nights a week on CNN? Frankly, it would also be a demotion for him because far more people probably watch his NBA broadcasts than ever watch CNN. Yeah. I mean, Charles Barkley is hilarious.
Starting point is 00:03:29 If they did actually secure a primetime news show with Charles Barkley, I would probably watch it. Yes. I actually don't think it's a terrible idea in terms of audience interest. Do I think there's any chance in hell that he would do this? No way. He might, though. He's good on the camera. No way think there's any chance in hell that he would do this? No way. He might though. He's good on the camera. He's good. I mean, he already, look, he already has a great gig where he makes millions. That's true. Apparently they tried to lure him to be a commentator for Live Golf and he was like, no. I forgot that Charles loves golf. He's got a sweet gig where he's at.
Starting point is 00:04:06 So I don't see this one happening. But, you know, this is one of the better ideas they put out there, just in terms of sheer, like, entertainment value. Not that I think that he'd have, like, I think he'd have good sort of like every man takes on politics, which is kind of what he's, to the extent he's waded into politics in the past, that's kind of the vibe he's given off. Well, that's what you reminded me of this clip that we covered, which a lot of people
Starting point is 00:04:28 were really interested in at the time. Charles sounding off on politics. Let's take a listen. I think most white people and black people are great people. I really believe that in my heart, but I think our system is set up where our politicians, whether they're Republicans or Democrats, are designed to make us not like each other so they can keep their grasp of money and power. They divide and conquer. I truly believe in my heart most white people and black people are awesome people, but we're so stupid following our politicians, whether they're Republicans or Democrats. And their only job is, hey, let's make these people not like each other.
Starting point is 00:05:07 We don't live in their neighborhoods. We're all got money. Let's make the whites and blacks not like each other. Let's make rich people and poor people not like each other. Let's scramble the middle class. I truly believe that in my heart. Well said. It's been true. What can I say?
Starting point is 00:05:26 You know, I mean, I should take this back. He has been political at some point. I remember, I think he said he wanted to run for the governor of Alabama and he had like, he had to establish residency. Oh, really? I believe he identifies as a Republican. I don't know if this, but at the time he was, he called himself a Republican. And I know he had some political aspirations at the time. This was talked about, you know, years and years ago. He hasn't talked about it in a long time, but Hey, maybe he should. Yeah. Here we go. Charles Barkley on running for Alabama governor. He says he no longer has any interest, but that implies that he did at one point. Yeah. See, he said Democrats and Republicans are both full of crap. Um, so I think that's a sentiment's a sentiment that would capture the hearts and minds of the majority of American people at this point.
Starting point is 00:06:11 He says they do nothing for actual people. The Democrats and Republicans are both full of crap. You see now with this pandemic, they aren't doing anything for these people. So anyway, he says, I've been a Democrat all my life. I just realized now they've done an awful job taking care of poor people. They make the same boasts every four years, come to the black community and say they're going to make things better, but they don't really make things better. I'm still a Democrat, but I don't fall for stupidity. So anyway, it'd be interesting that is just now coming to light. Go ahead and put this up on the screen. This is terrifying. The headline here from the Daily Mail is every passenger's worst nightmare.
Starting point is 00:06:53 United Airlines flight from Hawaii to San Francisco nosedived 1,400 feet during epic storm, came within 775 feet of the Pacific in terrifying 45-second ordeal. Insanely, this had not come out because this happened a little while ago. It actually, I think, happened on the same day that Saga there had been that other flight where there was massive turbulence and a number of passengers were injured fairly seriously. And so the thinking here is this had to do also with the stormy conditions that were prevailing that day. The other thing that's crazy is after it landed in San Francisco, they like inspected the plane and then it flew again with, I think, the same crew and whatever. So that's kind of crazy as well. It's also wild that we're only now learning
Starting point is 00:07:41 about it. Nobody tweeted about it or had a video of it or whatever. But the details here are terrifying. They say that the gravitational forces, like the G-forces that they were facing, were extremely severe. They say it was in between radio calls with air traffic controllers in Mali throughout the 45-second dive. The climb produced forces of nearly 2.7 times the force of gravity on the aircraft and its occupants. That's used to describe the acceleration of an object relative to Earth's gravity. An upwards acceleration of about 5 Gs is enough to overwhelm the ability of your heart to pump blood to your brain, causes oxygen starvation. You'll blackout within a few seconds, but a downward or negative G force of the type that you would get in like this nose drive is even worse the blood pools in your head your face swells up your lower
Starting point is 00:08:29 eyelids are forced over your eyes this is called readout because all you see is the light shining through your eyelids at negative 3g the blood can't get back to your lungs to re-oxygenate so you pass out so this is a crazy situation they They came within 700 feet of smashing into, crashing into the ocean, which obviously would have been probably killed everybody on board. And it also comes on the heels of we've had a number of these near misses or actual catastrophes in the past number of days and weeks. You have planes that are almost running into other planes on takeoff. You had a plane actually hit a passenger bus that was there on the tarmac. So I don't know what's going on, Sagar. I don't know either. I mean, it's pretty scary. You know, they were only
Starting point is 00:09:16 at 2,200 feet before they dove. And they say it was at 8,600 feet per minute, which is terrifying. And yeah, I mean, the aviation industry, actually what concerns me is that the flight then lands in San Francisco and then it takes off two hours later. And United said that they had closely coordinated with the FAA and inspected the plane, you know, right before takeoff. I don't know, man. I'm not, you know, I don't know if I would want to go to the flight if you had known that that had just happened. And look, the other actually even scarier thing is that there was nothing wrong with the plane and it was pilot error, which is even more terrifying, right? Which, you know, I've read, I have a weird fascination with plane crashes. I studied a lot on that Air France crash that people will remember that.
Starting point is 00:09:58 That one was nuts because it was also in bad weather and it was pure pilot error where they crashed right into the ocean. I think it was like a Brazil to Paris flight, a hundred percent pilot error. And it's one that people study a lot in terms of getting dragged away from your sensors or fixating too much on some things. And yeah, I don't know. I mean, from reading on this, the fact is, is that if the plane did take off and it was cleared from a safety inspection, then that's even scarier because that means that there was a human situation involved. And I just want to know what is going on with those pilots right now today.
Starting point is 00:10:29 Yeah. Yeah. So you have this, which 700 feet from the ocean is not a lot of feet, guys. I mean, this was a close, close call. You had the near miss at JFK of two planes almost colliding. You had a near miss at Austin, actually the very day that we were flying out of Austin that morning.
Starting point is 00:10:47 Literally that morning. Unbeknownst to us. I flew off and I took off an hour later. Yeah, there was a near miss. Go ahead and throw up this graphic. You can see this is what the flight trajectory of this one with the nosedive looks like where they came within 800 feet. So steep, steep descent rate and then a steep after that climb rate and coming within 775 feet of the ocean. They talked to an aviation expert, a pilot by the name of Juan Brown. He said these sorts of incidents are increasing at an alarming
Starting point is 00:11:18 rate. He talks about there's a huge turnover in the industry, not only among pilots, but also amongst air traffic controllers, mechanics, maintainers, I don't know what that is, rampers. And with the state of hiring practices and training today and the relentless effort to do things faster, cheaper, and more efficiently, we're just one radio call away from having the biggest aviation disaster in history. And apparently both the JFK and the Austin incidents, experts have said, directions that were issued by air traffic controllers appear to have been an issue. So you've got pilot issues here, you've got air traffic control issues, and you have the overlying element of like, you know, corporate greed
Starting point is 00:11:55 probably pushing people too hard and massive industry turnover. So scary, scary, scary situation. Yeah, it certainly is. Some major news out of Twitter. Not actually major, just more amusing. Let's put this up there on the screen. Apparently, Elon Musk has designed a special system, according to Twitter insiders, that will actually boost his tweets first after Joe Biden's Super Bowl post got more engagement than his. This comes after some reported discontent by Elon from inside the company who was worrying about why his impressions had gone down after an engineer actually told him that it was because organic interest in Elon's tweets went down. He fired one of the engineers who told him that and has created now a special system. So, I mean,
Starting point is 00:12:40 I don't know, Crystal. I guess we could all sympathize with if you're going to own a platform, you might as well boost your own message, right? If I owned YouTube, that algorithm would be sweet to us. I would definitely boost breaking points and all of our friends over here. I guess I have some sympathy with that. But I think it just does show you some of the more capriciousness that continues. Because, I mean, even the whole way that this went down, at 2.36 on Monday morning,
Starting point is 00:13:05 James Musk sent an urgent message to Twitter engineers. We are debugging an issue with engagement across the platform. This is the cousin of Elon. He says, any people who can make dashboards and write software, please help solve this problem. It's high urgency. Bleary-eyed engineers, we log onto their laptops. The emergency becomes clear. Elon's tweet about Super Bowl got less engagement than Biden's. So in the wake of these losses, the CFO actually got people who were inside of the company to boost and change the Twitter algorithm to boost more of his tweets and include them on the For You page for everyone. So I personally just find it very amusing. It is. I mean, the whole thing is amusing. The first piece that broke was like how upset he was that his tweets weren't getting as much engagement
Starting point is 00:13:47 and he thought like, oh, there must be a problem buried deep in the algorithm that's like suppressing my tweets. And when an engineer broke it to him that just,
Starting point is 00:13:55 look, you're just not as hot as you used to be, which is normal in that. Like there was a whole Yeah, there's an ebb and flow. whole news cycle, Elon news cycle where people were
Starting point is 00:14:03 hanging on his every word and all kinds of news stories would be written about every little thing that he uttered on Twitter. Like, okay, that moment has passed. That is a natural ebb and flow. But, I mean, outrageously, he fires the engineer who told him the truth, which is no way to run anyplace. And you just end up surrounded by a bunch of yes men who are going to tell you whatever you want to hear. That's number one. But number two, I mean, it's kind of hilarious that he then made it a top priority for them to rig the algorithms to promote his stuff. At two in the morning.
Starting point is 00:14:28 Yes. That is also a crisis for me. Listen, if you weren't presenting your leadership of Twitter as like some free speech, you know, beacon of free speech and free speech safe harbor, because using the algorithm to rig the results and promote certain people over other people, it's consistent with what he said about freedom of speech, not freedom of reach. But it is equally as gamed and manipulated as active censorship and active banning and blocking. In some ways, it's more nefarious because it's harder. There's no transparency around it.
Starting point is 00:15:00 You can tell if you've been kicked off the platform and you can can say something about it, and you can try to call awareness to it. But there's no way to know who's being pumped and who's being suppressed. And everybody ends up just with their own little, like, conspiracy theories about what exactly is going on with the algorithm. So the best way to handle this would be to have it go back to being a neutral platform where it's just like, here's your timeline, and the tweets come up in order. Or, at the very least, which I think is something, didn't he, Sagar, promise that there would be transparency around the way the algorithm operated? At the very least, have it really clear and public
Starting point is 00:15:33 how these things are ultimately operating. But those are not promises that he has followed through on to date. I certainly hope so. All right. All right, more for y'all later. So we got an interesting little lesson, I would say, in the art and impact of actual governance. Let's go ahead and put this up on the screen. So Bernie Sanders threatened to have the CEO of Moderna forced to come and testify. Bernie is now chair of the Health Labor Pension, Education Labor Pension Committee.
Starting point is 00:16:06 And so as part of his chairmanship, he has been calling a number of corporate CEOs on the carpet and calling them to come testify. Well, lo and behold, just after he does this, Moderna is now saying, oh, we're going to keep our COVID vaccine free after all. Previously, they said they were going to jack up the price by 400%. Let's go and put this up on the screen, what they were saying. Previously, Moderna may raise COVID-19 vaccine prices up to $130. That is roughly 400% increase. Bernie Sanders calls it outrageous. And Sagar, this is something we've been talking about for a while. One of the greatest powers of the Senate chairmanships of the President of the United States is the power of a good public shaming. When these corporations, as they continue to do, jack up prices and contribute to inflation
Starting point is 00:16:52 and give themselves and their shareholders these big bonuses and pay them out and screw over their workers, one thing that you can do outside of regulation is force them, subpoena them and force them to come and face questions. They don't want to do that. And so oftentimes just the threat of any sort of like public accountability and shaming can force some sort of action on them. We saw this when Joe Biden very briefly. Remember when he went after the meatpackers for jacking up prices? He like made comments about it, issued a White House statement about it. briefly, remember when he went after the meatpackers for jacking up prices? He made comments about it, issued a White House statement about it. And lo and behold, right after that,
Starting point is 00:17:30 meat prices went down a bit. Just this power to call CEOs on the carpet and force them to answer for their crimes and their outrageous behavior sometimes can be as powerful as anything else. Yeah, the thing I've never understood on this is like, who is still taking the COVID vaccine? Like, who do you even charge for it? Is it the government? Like, in terms of keeping it free, is it like future boosters? Because they're already free, as I understand it. That was one part where I'm not entirely clear on like why this is even a skincare. Who even wants it? At this point, if you're not going to take it, you're clearly not going to take it. Yeah, well, I think the government funding for this, for it to continue to be free, is about to run out. And so they were going to be charging either health insurers or individuals this, like, outrageously jacked up price.
Starting point is 00:18:15 So, yeah. So it's a perfect example, though. insane greed from these companies who have already made so much money off of these vaccines, guaranteed backstop by the U.S. government, off of research that we developed, off of a process under Operation Warp Speed, which was a great success under President Trump. I mean, the way they moved heaven and earth to get these things developed and out to the public. But, you know, a lot of government resources went into this, and they just want to continue to try to milk this thing for everything it's worth. Yeah, I mean, really what needs to be done is that they shouldn't even have patent or any of this stuff on it. And a lot of it should be much more open to public scrutiny, research, and all of that.
Starting point is 00:18:53 That's the biggest problem I have with this. But okay, yeah, all right, we'll keep it free for everybody who wants it. I don't really know. I'm still taking it, but go for it. Yeah. Well, you know, Bernie has also, I know he wants Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to testify because Starbucks has been engaged in this just like utterly lawless behavior with regards to union busting with the grassroots union drive that has swept across the country at Starbucks stores. And, you know, those sorts of things that they can be very, they can be a
Starting point is 00:19:20 very powerful tool. And I'm certainly looking forward to see some of these people have to answer for what they've been up to. Definitely. All right, y'all. More for you guys later. The New York Times this week dug into a universal basic income program playing out outside of Chicago in which they're giving $500 a month to residents to test what that does for economic security, for satisfaction, for quality of life, et cetera. Shockingly, they're finding people like it. Emily, what is your general take on UBI? And is there a faction of the right that is like, you know what, maybe there is a place for this. It has its origins,
Starting point is 00:20:06 as I'm sure you know, kind of in the kind of Alan Greenspan world, or Milton Friedman. There was this kind of libertarian right that believed if you give everybody a very basic level of income, that that would allow a lot more human flourishing. But where is that now when it comes to the right? Yeah, you know, a great example or a great illustration of the arc is when Senator Romney introduced that child allowance bill that was basically cash payments to the extent that, I mean, there were very, very generous cash payments to parents from the womb all the way up to 18 years of age, depending on your number of children. And that immediately got sort of yanked. It was criticized by Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and others because it didn't have a work requirement. So Mitt Romney reintroduced something that had a $10,000 annual work requirement. And so I think the right, even the new right, you know, as illustrated by
Starting point is 00:21:07 the arc of the Romney bill, is very wary of anything that doesn't include a work requirement or that doesn't sort of, and I know there are ways to do UBI that might get around that, job training and other things like that. But I'm really curious about these experiments because they're happening all over the country. I think there's one happening in Arlington or Alexandria, right outside of DC. There are cities, municipalities that are experimenting with this.
Starting point is 00:21:37 And I am genuinely curious about the results, although I also think they suffer from a problem that over the COVID period, when there was a very generous cash allowance for parents as well, that we talked about a couple of times, Ryan, that found it basically immediately alleviated child poverty. It had a huge effect on quality of life, like right out of the gate. about sort of not being able to measure possible long-term ramifications of that in the way that you and I would probably disagree over some great society programs that sort of did well and then, or seemed like they were doing well, and then over time we've had maybe a different perspective on them. So that's one of, these are some of the limitations I see when looking at these experiments,
Starting point is 00:22:21 but I mean, I'm completely open-minded to the results. And I started out saying outside of Chicago for some stupid reason. It's in Chicago. I don't know why I said that. I wanted to read one quote from this guy, Christopher Ellington, from the New York Times story. He said, talk about shock. And this goes to one of the things you were saying. He was like, he said, it was, hey, the government is doing this? Wait a minute. I don't have to, you know, report this and report that. You don't have to go through all of my business and I don't have to watch what I say. I was like, this is how it should be.
Starting point is 00:23:05 And so it does go back to this thing where people are now just attuned or accustomed to the fact that if they're going to get anything from the government, which our government, the thing that we all kick into, and which is ours democratically, that they expect they're going to be harassed and humiliated and controlled. They're going to try to control what you can say. You're going to have to piss in a cup. You're going to have to go through all kinds of hoops, open up your bank account to them. And you mentioned job training, but so often the job training stuff just becomes like this ridiculous kind of pencil pushing exercise where you have to show up at this place and there's somebody who doesn't want to be there you know telling you how to use google and and everybody's just doing it yeah everybody's just doing it because they've been told that they have to do it because politicians believe that it's
Starting point is 00:23:42 better if they you know attach attach this work requirement to it. But anyway, so I also worry, to go back to what you were saying, post-pandemic about the fate of UBI, not just for the reasons that you mentioned, but because of the linkage in the public's mind and in politicians' minds between the money and inflation. Now, I think, and I think the economic data is bearing out, that something like half of it, almost looks like 50-60%, was kind of structured corporate greed. In other words, they saw that there was an opportunity for them to start raising prices and not get blowback either from politicians or from consumers, and they went for those price increases and they've been able to measure that. It's like a huge portion of it was that, and that was related to the supply chain problems and also related to the distortion
Starting point is 00:24:45 in spending. So yes, it's true that people had more money because of the child tax credit, because of the kind of stimulus checks that were given out, but because people weren't going out, because people were locked in their homes, they were spending their money on Amazon and on other goods rather than on services. And so the amount of goods that purchase clogged up the supply chains. And so then you did have inflation as a result of that. So I worry that UBI has been set back badly as a result of that because the next time people come forward and say, well, look what happened last time we had inflation as a result of it. Are you seeing on the right people who try to advance these types of family credits or child
Starting point is 00:25:32 tax credits, are they confronting that obstacle in a way that they weren't before? That's a really good question. And I think it gets to what you were talking about originally, how strange it is that a very libertarian proposal, truly a very libertarian proposal, came to be kind of owned right now by either the corporate center or the very progressive left. Because one of the things that would happen if UBI were to be implemented, and I don't like our system right now of just sort of band-Aids put on to patch up holes in our safety net. I hate that. I think it's inhumane and I don't think it's been helpful. But those Band-Aids go away with UBI.
Starting point is 00:26:15 And you end up with a system where there are programs people are maybe dependent on. And a lot of that goes away. And so this question of inflation and overheating the economy, et cetera, et cetera, is an interesting one because then you do get really big discretionary spending cuts. And you might even get this as an excuse to slash entitlements. You would certainly get this as an excuse for very serious proposals to slash entitlements if there were a federal UBI program. State basis is different, although on a state level, those entitlements. If there were a federal UBI program, state basis is different, although on a state level, those entitlements would certainly be in danger too. And so kind of
Starting point is 00:26:49 using these as a laboratory for what would happen economically, all of the hypotheticals, if a UBI were to be implemented on a large scale, it is really difficult. But I think some of those, to alleviate the economic concerns that you were just talking about, a lot of those safety nets would just be snipped right away, I think. I also think with just how much power employers have in this country, that with a labor shortage, there's just no way they're going anywhere near this. And I think in Texas, correct me if I'm wrong, I heard that they're either past legislation or they're moving to past legislation. The Texas Republicans are to say that no municipalities can try UBI. Like that's how hostile they are to it. That they don't even want towns like Chicago, you know, experimenting with it. Because they've got this, you know, they've got bosses who are saying, look, we've got this labor shortage.
Starting point is 00:27:43 And what the labor shortage is driving up wages. What they call wage inflation, what other people call a raise. And they don't want to encourage any more kind of worker militancy. Because the other thing you get when people feel comfortable in their job is that they start airing their grievances. And they start talking to their co-workers about how they can redress those grievances sometimes that leads to them for forming into a union whereas if there's more precarity if you get fired then you're gonna get evicted and you're totally screwed then the idea of coming together and trying to form a union which is arduous off and often gets gets beaten back is less appealing to people.
Starting point is 00:28:26 And I think a lot of bosses would like to get back to a place where that's less appealing. Yeah. And, you know, one of the reasons the right would be increasingly hostile to something like this after the pandemic, I think is illustrated really well by a story one of my colleagues, Joy Pullman, wrote, which is that these strings that are attached were used, for instance, in the case of school lunches to implement new bathroom policies. And basically the federal government held school lunch subsidies hostage to bathroom policy implementation. And so conservatives are now very wary, myself included, like in the state of Texas, that any of these subsidies people accept are going to start coming with, for instance, an emergency vaccine requirement and something that people are on a large scale
Starting point is 00:29:12 uncomfortable with from the federal government. And so the pandemic definitely created those concerns. And again, of course, we've covered it many times here. We're vaccinated. We hope our loved ones are vaccinated. But conservatives are very, very wary of that now. Yeah. I remember when the federal government basically used highway funding to push the drinking age from 18 up to 21. Yes, because I'm from Wisconsin. They did it to us. We were the victims. Were you the last holdouts? We were the last holdouts. The beer-drinking Germans in Wisconsin were just... It was anti-German.
Starting point is 00:29:52 I had a friend once who got pulled over, and the officer asked him if he'd been drinking, and he said, just beer. And he was serious. Just beer. It's basically water. Yeah, this is a guy that belongs in Wisconsin. wisconsin but yes i mean that that is a thing and uh you know with our with our federal system with these states pulling apart uh from each other on these on these uh cultural
Starting point is 00:30:17 issues it does show that like doing this doing this stuff on a federal level uh is is going to be that much more difficult, this overlap of cultural and fiscal issues with maybe the Obamacare, Medicaid expansion being the first example of this in our new era where John Roberts, you know, wanted, you know, everybody wanted him to overturn, all the Republicans wanted to overturn the ACA and he didn't. And as his little compromise, he's like, okay, well, Medicaid, you cannot force states to accept and he didn't. And as his little compromise, he's like, okay, well, Medicaid, you cannot force states to accept an expanded Medicaid. And so then for political reasons, all the states started saying, well, we don't want you to keep your dirty Medicaid money.
Starting point is 00:30:56 You know, we're happy being, you know, 49th and 50th in medical care down here. Which again will become another flashpoint because it's a DeSantis issue. This comes to DeSantis and it will be another flashpoint in a primary in 2024 where you have cultural populism then mixing with economic populism or people being forced to make those arguments or confront them. But in the meantime, looking forward to seeing the final results from this experiment. It's good that people are trying. I was skeptical of UBI and remained so to some degree because to me, it seemed like it was coming out of some Silicon Valley tech utopianism. Yes.
Starting point is 00:31:38 You had a bunch of tech bros who were like, don't worry, we're going to put everybody out of work. But then we're going to give everybody credits that they can spend with us. And that just felt, something about it felt dystopian. So I don't think it's an open and shut obvious thing, but I also think that people do deserve just a basic sense of dignity and economic security. And if this gets them there, then we should pursue that. So I'm glad that Chicago's doing it. And if it was a Friedman proposal originally, what better place to experiment with it than Chicago? The Chicago school. There you go. The OGs of uncensored motherhood are back and badder than ever.
Starting point is 00:32:24 I'm Erica. And I'm Mila. And we're the hosts of the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast, brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday. Yeah, we're moms. But not your mommy. Historically, men talk too much. And women have quietly listened.
Starting point is 00:32:38 And all that stops here. If you like witty women, then this is your tribe. Listen to the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you go to find your podcast. Your gut microbiome and those healthy bacteria can actually have positive effects.
Starting point is 00:32:57 Your mental health, your immunity, your risk of cancer, almost any disease under the sun. This week on Dope Labs, Titi and I dive into the world of probiotics, the hype, the science, and what your gut bacteria are really doing behind the scenes. From drinks and gummies to probiotic pillows. Yes, really, probiotic pillows. We're breaking down what's legit and what's just brilliant marketing.
Starting point is 00:33:22 With expert insight from gastroenterologist, Dr. Roshi Raj. Listen to Dope Labs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is your girl, T.S. Madison, and I'm coming to you loud, loud, and in color from the Outlaws podcast. Let me tell you something. I've got the voice.
Starting point is 00:33:42 My podcast, the one they never saw coming. Each week, I sit down with the culture creators and scroll stoppers. Tina Knows, Lil Nas X. Will we ever see a dating show? My next ex. That's actually cute, though. And Chapel Rome. I was dropped in 2020, working the
Starting point is 00:33:59 drive-thru, and here we are now. Listen, make sure you tell Beyonce I'm going right on the phone and call her. Listen to Outlaws with t.s madison on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast honey this is an iheart podcast

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