Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 4/19/22: Ukraine Escalation, 2024 Dems, Amazon Union, Mask Mandates, Taylor Lorenz, Testosterone Drop, Young Voters, & More!

Episode Date: April 19, 2022

Krystal and Saagar bring the up to date developments on the Ukraine war, 2024 Dem candidates, Amazon Labor Union polling, travel mask mandates, Libs of TikTok, testosterone decline, youth voter disengagement, and the legal battle against Amazon!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/Seth Goldstein: https://www.amazonlaborunion.org/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. worthy mainstream by becoming a Breaking Points premium member today at BreakingPoints.com. Your hard-earned money is going to help us build for the midterms and the upcoming presidential election so we can provide unparalleled coverage of what is sure to be one of the most pivotal moments in American history. So what are you waiting for? Go to BreakingPoints.com to help us out. Good morning, everybody. Happy Tuesday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed we do. Lots of big stories breaking just this morning.

We actually had to scramble the show around a little bit to cover some of the things that are coming to light just this a.m. So we've got a new breakdown from the Washington Post of their ordering of the potential 2024 Dems. That is quite revealing. They actually put Pete Buttigieg ahead of Kamala Harris. I'm sure she's going to be very upset about that. So we'll get into that

Washington Parlor game. New polling that shows just how overwhelming support for Amazon union workers actually is. It's bipartisan. The most significant difference actually isn't partisanship. It's generational. It's quite fascinating. So we'll show you those numbers. We also have news coming out of the federal courts. If you are traveling by plane or by train, any sort of public transit, you no longer have to wear a mask. We're free, people. A new ruling. We're free.

I'm only annoyed because I took the train literally last week to go to New York. Me too. We were together. And I remember thinking, I'm like, when is this going to end? I've got a flight at 5 p.m. Eastern. I'm going to post a free photo. And here you thought we would be wearing masks on airplanes forever. I did.

You thought that. I said it. I was wrong. Thank God. Thank you, whoever this judge is. God bless. I have no idea whether the legal reasoning is sound or not. I don't even care.

But we'll just talk about, yeah, what it means and where we go from here. The other thing that just broke this morning, Taylor Lorenz has revealed, or in her words, exposed, the individual who is behind a very popular Twitter account, Libs of TikTok, that you may have seen if you have been online. So we will talk about all of that, but we wanted to start with the very latest on the ground in Ukraine. That's right. Okay, let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen, which is very important. So a major Russian offensive has begun in the Donbass. So according to the Secretary of the War in Ukraine this morning, an active phase of Russian offensive began along the entire front line in Donetsk and Luhansk and the Kharkiv regions. As he says, the occupiers tried to break through our defensives. Now, the reason that this matters is because in the broader

context of where we are exactly in the conflict, we have been wondering, are we in a stalemate? We saw the strategic pullback from Kyiv. There were also possible updates in terms of the peacekeeping or the peace deal and all of that seemed to break down in the last couple of days. Obviously, the Ukrainians went ahead and sunk the Russian flagship. So when you put that together, the Russians clearly want to try and save face before even trying to come to the negotiating table. And by doing that, they're concentrating all of their major resources in those eastern regions, which have been in a hot civil war now for almost eight years. It seems clear that the Russians are trying to redefine their mission

here to take total control of those eastern regions. And only after that period are any negotiations likely and possible. And unfortunately, for the people who are living in those regions, this is a real hell. I mean, we're talking about shelling, which of course has been ever present, but there were hundreds of thousands of people who were living in some of these cities and millions, obviously, within the region completely have been displaced. And it's very likely that extraordinarily heavy fighting is going to be remaining in the region because the Ukrainians themselves have said, we're not going to give up this territory. It's truly, as we said yesterday, already some in the city of Mariupol are saying, we are going to fight to the bitter end, to the complete death. Right. And Mariupol, a really key strategic city that would enable Russia, that would be their

largest victory of the war thus far. And there are a limited number of fighters on the Ukrainian side still sort of hanging on. The Russians are saying they're holed up in the steel plant. And there are a number of civilians who are also trapped in the steel plant. I mean, Murray Paul has just been absolutely obliterated. The scenes from there, the images from there are absolutely horrifying. There's been a humanitarian disaster unfolding there for absolutely weeks now. And so the Russians are saying, hey, come out and surrender and you'll be able to escape with your lives, whether you could trust them is one question. But right now, those Ukrainian defenders are saying absolutely not. We will fight to the death.

But they are barely still hanging on this morning, to the best of our knowledge. We also have an update this morning from the foreign minister of Russia, Sergei Lavrov. He also is saying that that new offensive in the eastern part of Ukraine has commenced. He says another phase of this operation is starting now. Some analysts are saying that the renewed and escalated shelling in that region may just be a prelude for an even larger operation. There are reports from U.S. officials that Russia has increased their troop presence inside of Ukraine by about 10,000 service members. So you have, you know, a picture coming into focus of this is not a stalemate. This is a very,

you know, dynamic conflict, a refocusing on the eastern region and, you know, probably much more devastation for both civilian populations and combatants to come. Yeah, it's extraordinary. It just makes me so sad just thinking about all the people who are going to die here. And, you know, Ukrainian media is talking about major explosions on the front line in the city of Kharkiv and some other cities in the southeast as well where air raids were going off. And the Russians going ahead and confirming this just shows you that this is very likely to be the major front line and offensive now i think it's fair to say maybe even for years to come given the now semi-limited you

know operations that the russians can uh with can carry out under the context of the current political declaration it's not a war it's like a you know whatever special action or whatever military operation whatever fake language they're using on their stupid ass state TV. I think it's worth saying, too, you know, I don't think anyone in Ukraine, certainly President Zelensky has been saying that they shouldn't feel confident that this is now just going to be limited to that part of the state. And we did see shelling of Lviv yesterday. Yeah, some missiles hit there,

killed seven people. That's right. And also continued threats on Kyiv, even though there also are reports that sort of life is coming back to Kyiv, that people are emerging from sheltering, that kids are in the streets playing and sort of life is starting to return to that city. But certainly they don't feel that the threat to their own lives in those cities has passed. Yeah. And at the same time, you know, the Ukrainians are reaching for everything within their arsenal, including, unfortunately, let's put this up there on the screen, the use of cluster munitions, something that we have criticized the Russians here for, which is against the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which took effect in 2010, specifically because

cluster munitions are an indiscriminate bomb that has a lot of cause to civilians in their use. Just ask people in Syria how it worked whenever the Russians used cluster munitions in highly crowded urban areas. And, you know, this has been a confirmed use by the Ukrainian military of shelling with cluster munitions rockets in eastern Ukraine. And the reason that this matters is it just shows you that in a war, you know, all this convention and all this is pushed aside and people reach for whatever they possibly can

in order to try and win. And the people who are going to suffer the most, now you may celebrate it, you know, like, oh, it kills Russians. But look, the reason that we don't want these types of weapons used is because of their indiscriminate effect on civilian populations.

I'm not accusing them of having killed civilians. I don't know. There's no report necessarily on this specific use. But it's another line that gets crossed. And we can withhold our moral judgment. I'm not sure if we were in a similar situation. I don't know what I would do if I was the person in charge. But it just shows you that in war, you reach for things that are completely unthinkable and that the people who pay the price are the actual civilians themselves. And I was thinking actually about the Eastern part of Ukraine and just how much they've been through. If you read about Nazi campaigns, this was one of the most devastated and hard fought over areas by the Soviets and the Nazis. They all had to deal with occupation and complete control by the Soviet Union. Many had to deal with Chernobyl. I don't know if people remember this, but this region is

exactly the one which was majorly affected by the nuclear disaster. And then the chaos of the 1990s, once again in 2022, you get invaded, possibly getting, you know, torn from your home by one military or the other. Just a horrible situation. on a farm in a small village in the eastern part of Ukraine. And the reason why they were banned in that 2010 convention on cluster munitions is because 20 percent or more of the submunitions that come out of these cluster munitions fail to detonate on impact. So they're just sort of hanging around there undetonated. And then, you know, a kid, a civilian, anyone, that's what makes them so dangerous. They can then detonate later on and maim and kill civilians. You know, these are their own villages and towns that we're talking about here. So it is very sad. It's worth noting 100 nations signed on to the Convention on Cluster Munitionsitions pact. Those nations did not include the U.S., Ukraine, or Russia.

So those three nations, ourselves included, not party to this pact ultimately. But these are the sorts of things that we have to decry, whether it's Russia deploying these sorts of indiscriminate attacks. Which they have and are far worse, let's be clear. Yes, let's be clear. Or whether it comes from the Ukrainian side. Yeah, that's right. Okay, let's go clear, or whether it comes from the Ukrainian side. Yeah, that's right.

Okay, let's go ahead and move on here to the update on Washington. You might have thought that some of the discourse had cooled, and I had hoped that that's where it would stay. But unfortunately, we are seeing complete insanity at the institutional level. Senator Chris Coons and his comments, which we're about to play for you, where he calls for troops in Ukraine, matter. Because not only is he from Delaware, he is known as the Biden whisperer in the Senate. He is seen as a projection of the president of the United States himself and much of his thinking within the body. So when he says something like this, you should really pay attention.

This was over the weekend. Let's take a listen. I think President Biden's leadership has been steady and constructive, but this is a critical moment. If Vladimir Putin, who has shown us how brutal he can be, is allowed to just continue to massacre civilians, to commit war crimes throughout Ukraine without NATO, without the West coming more forcefully to his aid, I deeply worry that what's going to happen next is that we will see Ukraine turn into Syria. The American people cannot turn away from this tragedy in Ukraine. I think the history of the 21st century turns on how fiercely we defend freedom in Ukraine and that Putin will only stop when we stop him. Putin will only stop when we stop him. Only stop when we stop him. Says that we

should consider troops there. And look, if you think that he's not doubling down after the outrage of those comments, he absolutely is. Put that up there on the screen, please. Senator Coons says that the Congress and the White House should come to a common position about when we are willing to go to the next step and to send not just arms, but troops to the aid in defense of Ukraine. If the answer is never, then we are inviting another level of escalation in brutality by Putin. Once again, there is no consideration of, okay, what then? What's going to happen? What happens, ask yourself this question, if a United States soldier or service member steps or gets killed by a Russian cluster munition, it's not like they are not going weapons-free in this war zone. Ask yourself what's going to happen in that situation because it's going to invite a response by us.

I mean, look, if one of our soldiers or if a myriad of our soldiers gets killed by Russia, it's game over. I mean, in terms of how exactly that situation is going to escalate, this is incredibly dangerous. It is also why I was against all of these troops that were on the ground in Syria. I was deeply afraid of exactly this scenario, which is we have 100, 200 guys. They're sitting there with our, whatever the troops or whatever we were working with against ISIS. And then a Russian plane goes over.

Some guy, he doesn't even know what's happening. He goes hot on the wrong target. Now you're in a whole other geopolitical ballgame. And the Trump administration pursued that policy. The Obama administration pursued that policy. And now they are pushing for that, not just in Syria, where I guess it's arguable over in terms of how much we're influencing the conflict, et cetera. And it's not like Syria is a nuclear power.

Now we are talking about in Ukraine in a war which Russia itself is actively involved in. I just think that the lack of consideration on this is just completely crazy. And people are really not realizing just how quickly these things can escalate. I feel like I'm almost a broken record at this point. I know. How many times do you have to say the same warning? Well, and it also tracks with what we talked about yesterday, which was President Biden once again escalating his rhetoric

and calling what's happening in Ukraine genocide. Yes. So, of course, I mean, you're going to have a lot of Americans who listen to Senator Coons' comments and basically agree with him because of the sort of rhetorical landscape that has been laid out before them. I mean, it follows logically. If you say Putin is a war criminal, he should be tried at The Hague, and this is genocide, then what Chris Coons is saying no longer becomes so crazy. This becomes the next logical step, especially when

they use such sanitized language constantly in the press and our political class about what this would actually look like. They always frame it in the context of we have to defend Ukraine. Yes, you know, everyone sees, virtually everyone sees the Ukrainian cause as incredibly just. They never really lay out for you what happens, though, if we end up with troops on the ground, if we end up with a direct conflict with Russia, and how much pain that is going to bring to everyone, including the Ukrainians, by the way. But the type of conflagration that could lead to around the globe is absolutely horror to contemplate. You know, I'm glad you put it that way, because people don't realize that, okay, let's say that there is an actual war between the U.S. and Russia or even a limited war in which Ukraine is the battlefield. Ukraine is gone.

It gets wiped out. You know, there was an active acknowledgment during the Cold War that all the troops who were stationed in West Berlin, their job was to die. That was it. They knew it, too, actually. A lot of the tank commanders and others. Their job was simply to be there in order to invite nuclear escalation or a much bigger, a bigger and broader land conflict.

Do you want that to happen to the Ukrainian civilians? I mean, yeah, several million of them have fled. There's still, what, 20, 30, some odd million people who live in that country. Think about the elderly population, pensioners and others who can't move and who have lived in these places their entire lives.

It's over for them. I mean they will die very quickly and especially from the after effects of war. has to be tamping down this type of rhetoric, trying to bring this conflict to an end in any way possible that we can to guarantee peace for them. And look, I don't want to have sympathy. I don't have sympathy for Vladimir Putin. But I was telling you yesterday, I saw some photos of Buddhist troops from eastern Siberia conscripts deployed to fight in Ukraine. These guys don't have anything to do with what's going on in Ukraine, and they're getting killed indiscriminately. I'm not saying that if I was Ukrainian, I wouldn't shoot at them too. I'm saying, do you think they really had a choice in being there?

And they suffer under the Russian regime, just like many of the other ethnic minorities who live there, used as pawns, thrown into this conflict, probably specifically in order to make sure that the ethnic Russians don't realize the real cost and let these guys get killed. It's horrible. There are Russian mothers who are starting to ask questions. And they should.

Especially about the sailors who were likely killed when the Moskva, that flagship battleship of the Russians, was sank by Ukrainian missiles. And they're saying, no, no, it was a fire and munitions exploded, but everybody was fine and we got them all evacuated. Well, that was not the case. We don't know how many, but it certainly appears that there were scores of Russians who were killed on that ship. And so their family members and their mothers in particular are saying, where is my son? What happened? We want answers. So there is a lot of pain here all the way around. And there's another escalation that we wanted to bring to you as well,

which is for the first time, let's put this next piece up on the screen. You have British special forces training local troops in Ukraine, serving UK soldiers on the ground for the first time. So again, this is a tremendous escalation. It is a dangerous game that they are playing here because if you end up with a direct conflict between Russia and between the UK, that again could lead to a direct conflict. This is a NATO country. This is not a joke. This is the second most powerful country in all of NATO. And also they have nukes. I think people should realize that, you know, the French and the Brits also have nuclear weapons in their own right. And the UK, I mean, we, you know, they're a joke compared to us, but they're still a great power and a great

military. So, you know, you look at this and we see a very clear situation where things can go awry. Now look, maybe it'll work out, but one of the lessons of the last 25 years of American foreign policy, not Western foreign policy really, is we act with hubris and we don't consider what the 40th order consequences may be. Ask the people of Libya how it worked out for them. Ask the people of Syria how it worked out for them.

Ask the people of Mosul and people in Iraq who were killed in an ethnic sectarian conflict. Asked the people of Afghanistan and the ethnic minorities and others who suffered, had frankly false hope and then got killed by the Taliban. All of this, it's not the direct fault of the United States, but we had a role and we should try to minimize that role to the best of our ability in order to make sure that people don't die. And the big picture is this administration at this point has made it really clear that they actually are not pushing for peace. What they are pushing for is a foolish plan of regime change. I mean, that's their end goal. They've set it out right. Ron Klain saying, we don't want an off-ramp for Putin. That tells you they are not actually interested in peace. They are not actually interested in using the great might and pressure and influence and some of the early speculation for 2024 on the Democratic

primary side. And first of all, it's extraordinary that it's even a question who the Democratic nominee will be. It's really more of a question on the Democratic side who the nominee would be than it is on the Republican side. If Trump runs, he is all but certain to be the Republican nominee. And in fact, polling bears out that he is in a stronger position as not the president currently with the Republican base than Biden is with the Democratic base, which is extraordinary in and of itself. But let's go and put this Washington Post tear sheet up on the screen. So they have these things are so silly, but they have ranked the top 10 Democratic presidential candidates for 2024. And in a gigantic snub to Vice President Kamala Harris, they have actually placed Pete Buttigieg in front of her in line. So top contender, they have President Biden.

Of course, that makes sense. He is the incumbent president. You would think he would be a lock, but he's not a lock. But anyway, he's in the poll position there. Previously in this list, they had Kamala ahead of Pete, which also should be a no-brainer. Sitting vice president, I mean, very commonly throughout American history, of course, the vice president ends up going on to be the party's next nominee. But they make the case here, and I think not incorrectly, that she hasn't exactly delivered in the vice

presidential role. Really, it's been an opportunity for her to highlight how not up to the task and not up to the job that she ultimately is. And listen, I'm no fan of Pete. I'm no fan of Kamala. Their politics are basically the same, which is a sort of like just pure ambition combined with standard issue neoliberalism. But Pete at least ran an effective campaign, whereas Kamala didn't even make it to the Democratic primary to have a single voter cast their ballot. The entire list, let me just read through the list and then we can talk more about Kamala and Pete. So one is Biden, two is Pete, three is Kamala, four they have Elizabeth Warren, LOL. Five, they have Amy Klobuchar, also LOL. Six, they have Roy Cooper,

who no one is even ever heard of. He's the governor of North Carolina. Yeah, even I had to be like, who's that dude again? I was like, I think that's the governor. Right. So governor of North Carolina, who literally no one's ever heard of Roy Cooper. Sherrod Brown, who, you know, he's not like a crazy one to put on the list. They love this guy's profile and he has good labor politics, which I really appreciate. He's sort of like a Midwestern populist figure, senator from Ohio, still wins in a state that has trended hard right in recent years. And, you know, the thing with him, he took a pass last time around. And the thing with him is like on paper, he's kind of appealing because he can win in this tough state.

And like I said, he's got this kind of, like, labor populist orientation that I find appealing. But then when you hear him speak, it's not very—he doesn't have a lot of natural charisma. Maybe that's a selling point. Maybe people like that he just feels like, you know, a little bit less of the sort of polished politician. But anyway, that's Sherrod Brown. Number eight, Cory Booker. Why? Again, remind me how he did in the primary last time.

Remember, Andrew Yang beat him in order to get on the stage. Yes, great. Good memory there. Number nine is even more perplexing. Gavin Newsom. Yeah, let's do the French laundry guy. Literally, who wants that dude? I mean, other than him.

Yeah, right. He clearly wants to be president. Is anyone else interested? No, but that's the kind of person who makes this list. And number 10, AOC, who, you know, I think has made it so that she is never going to be in a position to win a national election. I don't even think she can win statewide office. I'm just going to be nice. Okay. OK, so one of the things that I'll put in here that was interesting is they said, you know, they were trying to figure out who might be the progressive, who might be the person that like the Bernie types could get behind.

And let me read to you what they say here about Elizabeth Warren, who they kind of, you know, put into that slot, even though obviously Bernie world not so much in love with Elizabeth Warren anymore these days. They say Sanders camp has suggested Biden will face a progressive challenger in 2024. But exactly who would that wing of the party line up behind? Politico reported recently that top Sanders aides have gotten involved in setting up the field for 2024, but by pushing for Ro Khanna to run rather than by building up Warren. Sanders and Warren have often been allies, but their 2020 presidential campaigns got pretty ugly with one another. The Center for Massachusetts also has a reelection bid in 2024, which she has said she'll pursue. It irks me that there apparently is some effort from people around Sanders to kind of like

put a candidate forward as if the grassroots base that supported Bernie wouldn't have something to say about that. And, you know, there are plenty of things that we've praised Congressman Conner for. I think he's been pretty good on foreign policy. But in recent weeks, he's been really it's hard to distinguish his rhetoric from sort of the standard issue, Democratic lane, you lane, corporate Democrat lane of the party. He's got the stock issue too. He's got the stock problem. Yes.

His wife has invested in these military industrial complex stocks, and he said basically, oh, that's fine. There's no problem with that. Spouses should be able to do what they want to do. What are you doing right now? And he also he just gave an interview with Politico where he said that the problem with Build Back Better was that progressives didn't compromise fast enough or far enough with Joe Manchin and that he didn't think that, you know, that Joe Manchin was he seemed to indicate he didn't think Joe Manchin was corrupt. It was just an ideological difference, which again is like at this point when you've seen like the money it gets from the oil and gas industry and the direct profits into his pockets from the coal industry, you still think that this dude is just like, oh, acting in good faith is kind of absurd. So anyway, it irritated me that they would think that they could like just foist a candidate onto a grassroots base and think that they were going to just accept them without any question. It's ludicrous. It's ridiculous also when you put it that way. It actually kind of reminds me sometimes of the MAGA wars when people are like, no, this is the real America first. And you have MAGA people around Trump who are trying to define what it means.

And it's like, no, it's just only Trump gets to decide. And I think in this case, even Bernie doesn't really get to decide because at the end of the day, as we saw with Trump's endorsements, it doesn't always work out. People are people. They think how they want. Many people who say they are Trump supporters say, look, I like Trump himself, but I'm not going to do everything that the guy tells me. And that's what bothers me also about the Sanders camp. I'm like, you don't speak for the Sanders movement. The Sanders movement, I think at its best, was an amalgamation and a coalition of a lot of disparate groups. You have people all the way from a Ron Paul libertarian perspective to the AOC, like, identitarian wing, to the economic populist, the union folks, and then,

you know, like the Linda Sarsour's and Tamika Mallory's of the world. Like, it was always kind of a strange group of bedfellows, which is fine. I mean, that's what political movements are. Yeah, exactly. Many times they have internecine war and they don't agree on everything, but Bernie was able to speak to a very large group of people

and why I think he was probably the most successful progressive politician of my lifetime. Well, he had a genuinely working class, young, working class, multiracial base. I mean, that was the core. I mean, remember when we used to look at where his donations came from? It was like Starbucks workers and Amazon workers. And lo and behold, look at who has this grassroots movement now. So anyway, yeah.

Listen, it's also this is how the Washington Post is spitting it, and it may not be totally accurate, but that sort of irritated me. Well, I think the main story out of this is that Kamala is number three. I mean, that's what this is how the Washington Post is spitting it, and it may not be totally accurate, but that sort of irritated me. Well, I think the main story out of this is that Kamala is number three. I mean, that's what it is. Which is that the secretary of transportation who took time off while he was doing his clearly very important job is the guy who is beating the sitting vice president of the United States. In Washington, I can guarantee you this caused a stir. I bet she threw the newspaper or what, if she still reads newspaper, I don't actually know. Oh, she definitely reads this

kind of stuff. Oh, I bet she freaked out. Definitely. And her comms director and all these people are absolutely, how dare you, and threats are being made behind the scenes. So in that regard, this thing makes me smile because you just know the Simone Sanders and all of them of the world are so pissed off watching Pete Buttigieg eclipse them. And look, these elite games do matter. Let's be honest. In terms of the DNC, in terms of the people in this town who matter, they all read that list and they all probably privately agree. It just shows you how awful of a politician that she actually is. Well, that's the thing is if you're a candidate running to be in sort of like the Bernie grassroots lane, this kind of crap really doesn't make a difference. 100%.

Do you think that there's a single Sanders voter who's like the Washington Post says I should get behind Elizabeth Warren this time? No. But if you are trying to play the inside establishment game, these sorts of things do matter. And especially this is the sort of stuff that the donor class reads. I don't know if you all remember, we covered reports that there were like already secret meetings of the billionaire and the hundred millionaire class to try to figure out how they could push Pete ahead of Kamala in line. But the bigger picture here, too, is just they have apparently done one of these lists before and they've always assumed like, let's just take Biden out of it because we assume that if Biden runs, he will be the nominee. But they actually go through this one and say, you know

what? Looking at the polling, that's not at all clear because a YouGov poll recently found that only 21 percent of Democratic leaning voters said Joe Biden would be their choice. Yes. 21 percent. Right. So in the same poll, Trump had 43 percent. Unbelievable. Not sure, undecided, had almost as large of a percentage as Joe Biden did.

And by the way, so it was 18 percent who said they didn't know. And by the way, the next two in line were Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, who each had 14 percent. Now, Bernie has all but ruled out running again. I mean, he's too old. Yeah. And, you know, he still seems like physically, mentally sharp or whatever. But he had a heart attack during the last campaign. So we cannot have an 88 year old president. Yeah. So I mean, listen, if he ran, I'd still I'd still support the values and the vision. But I don't think he's on the table this time. But that basically just pointed to the fact that they there is no consensus in the Democratic Party that even the base of the Democratic Party is like, I'm not sure about Joe again.

And they're like, and Kamala's not looking so hot either. So it is hard to understate how extraordinary it is to have a sitting Democratic president and have this level of total uncertainty about who the next nominee might ultimately be. Blood in the water. It is really pretty wild. Let's get to this next part. Go ahead and throw this up on the screen here, guys. We are looking at some new poll numbers that show that 75% of Americans think that Amazon workers need a union. 83% of respondents aged 18 to 34 back Amazon Labor Union. 71% of young Trump voters support the Amazon union. So that shows you,

I mean, there's a little bit of a partisan divide here, but it really is overwhelming support for workers to have at Amazon union. And one of the things that I found really interesting here, Sagar, is that, you know, we've talked about before how Amazon, the company itself, like people like it. It's convenient. You get your stuff really quickly. And they found, in fact, Amazon had a 91 percent approval rating of people that like it. But people were able to see both like I enjoy getting my products quickly and having the everything store there and the convenience that that entails. But I also really strongly feel that their workers should be treated decently and have some say in their workplace. So I found that really, really interesting. And, you know,

it really, the support was across the board. There was a little bit of a generational divide here. So older Trump voters in particular were probably the most skeptical, but they still, still 66% of older Trump supporters also thought that, you know, Amazon workers should have a union. So I think it also puts into perspective all the freak out that we talked about yesterday about Christian Smalls, who's, of course, the president of Amazon Labor Union, going on with Tucker Carlson. And like the fact that these, one of the arguments that I saw made online about why he shouldn't go on is because Tucker's audience isn't persuadable. And it's like, Tucker's audience is apparently already persuaded. At least a significant part of them are already on board. So, you know, you're actually going when you go on any network, whether they're speaking to a right-wing audience, a left-wing

audience, a liberal audience, or anywhere in between, you are likely to find a lot of receptivity because the support is so incredibly overwhelming. Look, YouTube comments are not obviously a good metric in order to judge things. That being said, I actually was curious when I looked at the comments on your monologue yesterday because I knew it was going to resonate with some Tucker and conservative folks. There were an overwhelming number of comments. And look, our audience is also disproportionately very young. So millennials and Gen Z almost entirely make up like 90-something percent of the people who watch the show. So that's another reason I'm curious. So I'm going and I'm reading the comments. And overwhelmingly, people are like, hey,

Crystal, you changed my mind on unions. Or they say, look, I'm still skeptical of big labor and of a lot of the people talking about social justice and that stuff. But Chris Smalls seems like a legitimately good faith activist who's just fighting for better workers rights. And also, it's true, the basic argument of we need some balance by the workforce against this giant behemoth, nobody disagreed with that. That is the most powerful, which is that when you disaggregate this from broader identity politics, culture war fights, how can you look at the second largest employer of individuals in the United States having all the power over its entire workforce and say, hey, maybe they should have a say in how long their break is and their wages, working conditions? You know, Americans are good people. They don't want to see people taken advantage of. Most people also still believe in free market capitalism. So they'll look at that

and say, look, Bezos, it's cool you got rich, all of that. I think you should probably pay more taxes, but the people who built your company for you should have a say in their day-to-day lives. How many Americans at any level of the stack, quote-unquote, are able to relate with your boss just says, and it makes you do something that you know is ridiculous, but you just have to blindly follow. And that level of indignity compounds across your life. And it makes you depressed.

It makes you feel like less than human. And you have to go and explore, you know, you have to go take a drink or smoke a cigarette or whatever just to forget your problems. I mean, how much of that is, how much of that am I describing of the everyday life of the average American? I don't think that's going to go away ever. But, you know, having some say in that, that has real consequences for people's lives. It's huge. And I think people want to, they want to order stuff from Amazon. They want to feel good

about ordering stuff from Amazon, you know. And I think everyone sees how extraordinarily profitable, I mean, the billions and billions of dollars that Amazon raked in from all of us during the pandemic. And so there's also an awareness of, like, no, you could afford to treat, like, this union is not going to destroy your business. Like, no one's going to believe that about Amazon. They feel like you could afford to treat your workers a little bit better and let them have a little bit of say in their workplace so that they don't have to suffer the indignities that we've talked about here. One of the things that Chris always talks about and other Amazon workers that we've spoken with always speak about is just the inhumanity of having this automated system that like hires and fires you. You're not even dealing with a human being. And New York Times, we talked to Jodi

Cantor, remember, about what a mess their HR system is through all of these automated processes where people are getting fired for no reason, through no fault of their own. And there's just like no recourse. You can't even get a human being on the phone to explain what the hell happened or to try to get your job reinstated. So that's the kind of like automated algorithmic tyranny that they live under every single day. There was actually a post that was floating around of Amazon had posted at one of their facilities on Easter Sunday. So these workers who came in on Easter Sunday, they were like, thanks for coming in on Easter Sunday as a reward. If you have this high, it was like 315 rate. I don't know what that translates to, but I'm sure it's some sort of nightmarish warehouse pace. Then you get entered into a raffle for chips and a soda. It's like, that's your reward for us giving up our

holiday and coming in and slaving away for you. It shows the level of contempt that they have ultimately for these workers. So I think it's extraordinary. I just want to highlight, you know, at this point, because union favorability is so high, because there has been such a shift in consciousness during the pandemic of who does lot more visible to folks who understand the incredibly essential work that they've been doing truly to keep the country running. And so it's easy to take for granted that there would be this positive sentiment in favor of a union at Amazon. But this is a complete sea change from just not long ago at all. I mean, when I was doing regular Fox News hits, the anti-union stuff was every day, all day. It was very popular with the base. You know, we'd had decades of anti-union propaganda, convincing people of all sorts of lies about what unions actually are and what

they actually mean. And I do think that with Chris Smalls and with the Amazon Labor Union, obviously, I was very critical of AOC and others for not showing up for them when it really counted when they were, you know, before they ultimately cast ballots. I think it's ended up being a blessing in disguise though, because it means that they haven't been associated with any sort of partisan camp. They just are in and of themselves, you know, and sort of judged on the merits of what they're doing. So it makes it hard to just put it into a partisan space. And I do think that's part of what's contributing to these very high numbers. We talked about this yesterday.

You know, Staten Island is Trump country. I don't think a lot of people realize that. Guess who they're all watching? Tucker. So they're like, oh, you were on Tucker? That's like a big thing, you know, in terms of credibility for him. And I think that the reason that all of this matters is if anything, the more grassroots it is, the better that it is going to succeed. The less it gets attached to our culture war and to our broader American political agenda,

the worse that a political movement is going to fare. So Chris, God bless you. Stay independent. Don't let anybody try and take hold of this thing. And stay true to yourself. The more that you do, the more you're going to succeed. And that's why that we've seen the level of success that he has had. Yep. screen. The TSA, the hall monitors, will stop enforcing the traveler mask mandate. All four airlines came out and said they will no longer require masks on planes. The news actually broke in the middle of the day, and there were videos circulating online of pilots and flight attendants actually breaking down in tears, being able to take their mask off for the first time in two years. People were cheering. They were celebrating, Crystal. The circumstances of this, I will admit, are a little weird. So let's go through what actually happened. Now, a federal judge in Florida on Monday struck down

the mandate. U.S. District Judge Catherine Kimball Mezzo said that the CDC and prevention exceeded its statutory authority and had failed to properly justify its decision. The suit was initially filed last July by the Health Freedom Defense Fund. Now, per the ruling, the fund is a nonprofit organization that doesn't want to force people to do this. And the court declares, because our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully, even in pursuit of a desirable end. The court declares unlawful and vacates the mask mandate on travel. The CDC, now for context, it actually extended that mandate until May 3rd for planes, buses, trains, and transit hubs, which come under federal

authority. Now, it does come into question here of whether the White House is going to fight for this decision. They came out and said this. Here's what Jen Psaki said. This comes out this afternoon. Right now, the DHS who would be implementing this and the CDC are reviewing the decision. The Department of Justice will make any determinations about litigation. They are assessing it right now. And as soon as they have an assessment and an update, they will make that available. She did call this, quote, an obviously disappointing decision. Now, if they were smart, they would just let it die and not pursue it. However, I don't know if the freaks in the CDC will allow that to happen.

At the same time, we have seen a complete, really just, we have seen a complete sea change in the last 24 hours. Just this morning, Crystal, Uber announced it will no longer be enforcing the mask mandate in all of its cars. So also thank God. In terms of that one, you see Uber, all four major airlines coming out and saying that. In addition, not only the TSA but Amtrak, let's put this up there on the screen, ends its mask mandate because that's also governed by federal law. The only people bucking are the MTA in New York City. So sorry for all the people who live in New York and still have to rise to Jersey Transit and the LIRR. You guys still have to wear masks. Of course, the city of Philadelphia still requires masks. So

I kind of put it this way, which is that I think that this is the final death, really, of the COVID regime in terms of its national politics and the way that it affects us. Does that mean that private crazy institutions, like, I don't know if you know this, every of the COVID regime in terms of its national politics and the way that it affects us. Does that mean that private crazy institutions, like, I don't know if you know this, every university here in Washington currently has a mask mandate. GW, American University, and Georgetown because of rising case levels. And if you look at the city of Philadelphia, many private institutions, I think Stanford, I have a friend who goes there,

he was telling me that the mask mandate is in effect in classrooms. Will there be limited instances in hyper-liberal spaces? Yes. But in terms of the way that it touches everyday American life, I think it's over. I mean, at this point, all 50 states no longer have mask mandates, indoor and outdoor. Like I said, some will come back on limited localities. But the travel one was the main way, especially because it applied to trains, buses, and pretty much all public transportation. That is the one where people still had to kind of engage with some of these ridiculous rules, and it's

finally over. The mass theater is dead. The trucker convoy won. That's a good take. I'm joking. They'll claim victory. Although they were a pain in the ass when they came to DC. I'm going to be honest, it was sucked. I mean, but that's the reason it's funny and a joke is because by the time they they protested, it was all already over. I mean, Biden basically declared this war over in his State of the Union speech. We talked about it. The covid part of the State

of the Union speech barely even got noticed because it had already fallen off of the bat for a lot of Americans in terms of their top priority. So there was very little discussion about what he said about COVID in his speech ultimately. It was like, what is it? Gallup said there's like 3% of Americans that say COVID policy. Yes, and they all live here in Washington. It's still their number one priority. So, you know, I've been occasionally sort of irritated with there's been a lot of like fear mongering, like the lockdowns are coming back and they're going to do it again. And I just don't see that and haven't seen that as a realistic possibility for a long time, because ultimately, you know, public opinion had really moved.

It's a very different landscape now that you have vaccinations widely available. And look, people should feel comfortable if they want to wear a mask on a plane, if they want to wear a mask on a train, do it. You know, if that makes sense for you, if it's just like a level of comfort or if you just want to be like sort of anonymous and have a mask on your face, which I kind of enjoy sometimes, go for it. But, you know, I would actually be a little bit surprised if the Biden administration does decide to fight this in the courts. I think they might do it.

I think they'll put up some sort of like, you know, like she said, that's disappointing and we're going to look at it. I think they'll sort of say some of those things and then kind of quietly let it go. Yeah. Because this is not what they want to focus on right now either. I mean, Biden in his State of the Union speech made it very clear, like we need to, you know, one of his things that's sort of irritating is like get back in the office. I don't really agree with that. If people are happy doing remote work and they're productive, I have no issue with that whatsoever. But certainly, though, we need to be in schools.

We need to be back to work. We need to be getting back to normal, given the fact that the vaccines work, that they have been incredibly effective and that they are widely available to anyone who ultimately wants to get them. So we'll see what the Biden administration does with this, but I would actually be a little bit surprised if they decide to fight this in the courts. I hope you're right, but I think you're wrong. I think that they are, I just think you can't underestimate the level of COVID insanity all the way up there at the top. I mean, with Fauci and his own advisors, the fact that they even renewed this thing for two weeks is nuts. Their doctor saying, yeah, it's absolutely on the table in order to extend it. And I just don't know.

Well, we'll see. But you also thought we'd be wearing masks forever. I was wrong. And you also were very concerned about new lockdowns and a lot of things that haven't really come to pass. You are 100% correct. I think you've overestimated. Listen, there are people in the administration who are certainly sort of infected with brain worms about COVID. No doubt about it.

But I think Biden himself has enough of a normie sense that he's clearly signaled we're moving in a different direction now. So we'll see. I pray you are correct. We will see. Although I know my neighbors and they will riot. Okay, let's move on. Taylor Lorenz is at it again. I mean, I can barely believe how exactly this has all played out in the last several hours.

So let's start from the top, which is that there is an account called Lives of TikTok. You guys have probably heard about it. Joe Rogan has talked about it. It's a very popular one. I think it has around 600,000 followers by the time I checked this morning. Now, yeah, 650. There we go. So this account surfaces videos making fun of liberals on TikTok. Often it can be trans stuff, identity stuff, LGB, whatever. I identify as a dog or I identify as a – It's a lot of culture war. It's critical race theory. It's for the culture war mills. Right.

That's what this account is. That's right. Sometimes it's funny and sometimes I find it offensive and that's what it is. Yeah. I mostly find it funny. So this person has been doing this now for about a year, maybe a year and a half or so. It's become a very popular following and it's definitely become, frankly, in my opinion, one of the most important kind of conservative activists in the entire country, if you care a lot about the culture war. And I'm saying that as an

objective statement in terms of the level of influence that it has had. Now, that account has been run anonymously. The author has, or I guess the owner of the account, has done some interviews, but has gone to great lengths in order to protect her anonymity. She's done interviews on Fox News. She's done interviews on podcasts as well, but has said that she doesn't want to reveal her face simply because of how much of a target that she is for many of the online harassment crowd. Well, we found out late last night that journalist Taylor Lorenz, who we've talked about here, who has decried online harassment, who broke down crying on NBC News because she says that people are coming after her and her personal identity. I don't want to minimize that. I actually think that that's awful,

and I don't think anybody should have to experience that. Well, it turns out that she doxed this woman and revealed her name. Now, I'm not going to read her name here on the air, but let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. Now, she says, meet the woman behind the libs of TikTok, secretly fueling the right wing's outrage machine. In it, she points to the anonymous impacts deep and far-reaching movement. Its content is amplified by high-profile media figures. She's appeared on Tucker Carlson. It's been referenced on Fox News. And then immediately begins to quote all of these fake identity experts about how the account is bringing violence against trans people or violence against people for simply highlighting videos that these

people post themselves publicly and then saying that this is in some way inciting harassment. And Crystal, what I found most objectionable, number one, she tries, of course, in order to tie this to Joe Rogan. She's like, oh, Joe Rogan cited it once as further evidence that he's some crazy right-wing activist. Even though if you go talk to Joe, ask him how he feels about trans people, he'll tell you in his own words. But the second thing is they literally link to her real estate license and they reveal her name. They say exactly the, not just area of New York, but the specific neighborhood of New York that she lives in, citing, you know, who she, this person is. And that level of identification is just ludicrous, especially in the context of this entire article, which is

meant to paint her as some sort of hate mongerer. Now, I personally think there is a story to be told about the lives of TikTok account. I've spoken about it offline privately with my friends. Like I said, I think it's crazy that this account came out of nowhere and legitimately became probably the most important right-wing account in the entire country. And I don't mean that, like I said, I mean, I think it's probably single-handedly responsible for the Florida legislation on not being able to talk about sexual identity to kids who are K through three. I think it's probably responsible for, along with Christopher Ruffo, for a lot of the critical race theory legislation that has gone across the country. And objectively, like when you look at it, that story is interesting

and I think it should be told, actually. But instead, this is just a bad faith critique. And it's clearly meant to dox her and to ruin this woman's life. And it's just how can Taylor square that with what she has done and said about what has happened to her? That's the part. Yeah. Lorenz, and you have put yourself out there as like, oh, I can't be criticized because that means that if you criticize me, you are intentionally causing people to bully and harass me. And that is, you know, out of bounds. If you say my name, she has said that. If you say her full name. That is out of bounds. How can you then turn around and write a story like this and

not apply that same principle of aren't you inciting harassment against this person? Now, I think this story is a little bit complicated because I think this person really walks the line of whether or not they should count as a public figure, right? She would very much say, I'm just a private citizen doing my thing. But to your point, number one, the account is very influential. And number two, she has done, you know, public interviews. I think she was on with Tucker Carlson and she's been on other podcasts and things like that as well. So it's there's a very blurry line here as to whether or not this individual should be viewed in the light of just a private citizen doing their thing or a public figure. However, there is no, there is zero doubt that Taylor Lorenz is a public figure who

has chosen a career working at, you know, some of the most prestigious and well-known journalistic outlets in the entire country. So there's, you know, they're not on a par here is what I'm trying to say. I think that this comes back to, they're basically jealous that, and I relate to this, that the right wing is so good at the culture war that they're able to conjure out of thin air this language about, you know, critical race theory and like insert it into mainstream conversation and make it a campaign issue just like that out of nothing. Sure. Right. And the left and liberals in particular are just not good at doing that. And so I think there's a frustration with how successful all of this has been. And again,

I share that frustration because I think, you know, I was just reading in Florida, they banned like 42 math textbooks that just talked about, had nothing offensive in them whatsoever. I mean, this stuff has gone completely over the top. The law is about, you can't make anyone uncomfortable when you're teaching history. I think that's all completely ridiculous. And I think it is censorship that is a problem that nobody who cares about like free speech and having open and honest discussions should support. But the real problem here is that they're just sort of jealous that the right has been so good at this and that they're unable to do it themselves. So rather than directly going after the arguments, rather than offering their own effective counter-narrative, the strategy is instead let's destroy this person. Let's destroy this account. Let's somehow tar Joe Rogan as part of this program because he's, you know,

they've made him into his own sort of like cultural signifier, culture war issue. And that's the direction they go in. But listen, I think the big thing here is just the kind of hypocrisy to be someone who on the one hand cries about being a victim of harassment if you dare talk about them or criticize them. And on the other hand, going out of your way to, you know, reveal the identity of someone who clearly wants to remain anonymous. And of course, you know, there's going to be harassment of this person. I think your point you're making is very important, which is that, look, if this person lives of TikTok was spreading falsely editing videos and then posting them or posting fake videos, then that's a whole other

discussion. But guess what? There's not a single thing that's in this article. Nothing false has ever been posted. And I think that one of the reasons the account is so powerful is because it simply just clips what these people are saying and then plays it for you. And you're like, oh, my God, I can't even believe this is real. I can't believe this person exists. And that is why I think it has been so successful. So when you look at it, there's no critique as to – or engagement, really, with why does the account resonate in the first place? What are some of the stuff that they are posting, which is doing very well? If you can find

evidence of her posting something fake, be my guest. To my knowledge, that has not yet happened. So when you look at what this is and why it's resonating, why exactly people feel fed up, I mean, I would dispute that it came out of nothing. I mean, I think there's a very real organic movement behind a lot of the things that Libs of TikTok highlights and that she basically focused it, posted to the most extreme examples, and made people aware of how insane some of this stuff actually is. So anyway, the story, in my opinion, is this account really has come from, like you said, nothing. It literally didn't exist and then became one of the most prominent accounts in the United States. That's crazy. I think it's a cool story actually.

And you know if it was a liberal account it would get like hate geographic treatment of like oh my god how this account is changing the world. And you know like

that's true. Like this one is oh we got a doxer. She's anti-trans. You know they throw all the worst labels. Yeah. Well and I also

want to be clear like the account most of what it does is like repost what the cringiest libs say on TikTok. Yeah. Well, and I also want to be clear. Like, the account, most of what it does is, like, repost what the cringiest libs say on TikTok. Yeah, right. That's not a crime.

That's what it is. It's like, and so that's another thing that, like, personally, I don't, I don't like this content when it comes from

the left or the right of just picking out, like, the most ridiculous person and trying to, like, this is something we really avoid doing on this show. There's a reason it's never been played.

You'll never see us doing the, like, Karen melts down over whatever. But, like, I don't like that direction of politics using anecdotes to smear an entire group of people. Yes. But that's not to say, I mean, that is done commonly online. It's like we're unusual in the fact that we don't go in that direction. It's not a crime. And most of what the account does, like I said, is like repost the cringiest lib content on TikTok that you could possibly find.

And also add like, she does add some like commentary to it. Okay, I mean, fine. Right. I just want to accurately like represent what the account is. So it's not like she's just reposting. She also is adding her commentary. That's not a crime. And in a democracy, you have to accept that there's going to be, however you feel about the issues that she's mostly focused on, you have to accept that there's going to be information out there that you don't like, that may even be offensive,

that there are people who hold views that you don't like, that may even be offensive. And so the instinct to instead of engaging with, offering a more compelling argument, offering a more compelling vision, having your own version of Libs of TikTok or whatever that is as effective, the instinct to instead use the power that liberal mainstream outlets have to try to shut these things down, I think that's a bad direction for democracy. And I also think that it doesn't work. I don't think it's going to be successful. I think probably Libs of TikTok is now going to be bigger than ever.

So congratulations. Absolutely will be. And, you know, in terms of the email, look at the text in which Taylor talks about her little piece on Libs of TikTok. Put this up there on the screen. She says, on deadline. Hi, Christina. I'm a tech reporter at the Washington Post. We are running a story exposing the woman behind Libs of TikTok. Not featuring, profiling, none of that. Uses the word expose directly in an email to a source. Also, I love this. If you'd like to comment, please let me know within the next hour. Let me tell you something. Giving somebody only an hour to comment is a BS move, which is made

specifically in order to make sure that they don't actually have time in order to formulate a real response and is done so that you can say you reached out for comment but didn't. And of course, Taylor is saying, I'm just doing standard journalistic practice. And you know what? Unfortunately, you're right. That probably is standard journalistic practice, but it shouldn't be. And it just shows you that she doesn't abide by her own rules. And like you said, look, if you want to defend some of the things that lives of TikTok or counter it counter it be my guest please i welcome you to try and do it but you know attacking her and trying to dox her a she's gonna be bigger than ever now we're talking about it i don't think we've ever mentioned lives of tiktok before no

we haven't actually by my to my knowledge we haven't you know why to stay away from a lot of culture war nonsense yeah that being said now you know i'm saying i'm reviewing obviously how i think about her but also i have to defend the account. And I have to stand up for the ability for people to anonymously post what other people are doing in America in the year 2022. So I hope she's okay. That's the other part that I think it's worth asking yourself is what was the news value of revealing this person's name? Right. So to do a story about it, to talk about even how it came to be. That's interesting.

You know, previous political affiliations, how it grew into something that is really significant and is helping to set a sort of right-wing agenda, is getting picked up by Fox News on an almost daily basis. Yeah, I think that's newsworthy. I don't know what newsworthy, like what does it add to that story to actually expose this person's name and their profession and their real estate license and all of that. That just seems, I just don't see how that adds anything to the conversation that's useful to an understanding of the phenomenon that's going on here. Absolutely right. All right, Sagar, what are you looking at? Well, if you're too online,

you're already familiar with what I'm about to describe. But if you're not, buckle up, folks, because it's one of my newfound but incredible pet peeves. The culture warification of basic health. Since myself getting into fitness and nutrition science this year, I have been mystified by just how much health decisions and what you eat and what you do is politicized.

It started, of course, and most of you saw, with MSNBC's now infamous op-ed, how fitness is far right and fascist. But we've gone even deeper down the rabbit hole. It went into overdrive over the weekend when a promo for Tucker Carlson's new special on declining testosterone level amongst males went viral. It admittedly is kind of hilarious. Let's watch. One of the biggest stories of our lifetimes is the total collapse in testosterone levels in American men. Those levels are declining by roughly 10% per decade, completely changing the way people are at the most fundamental level. NIH does not seem interested in this at all. It's not a big deal. We think it is a huge deal. So we want to know what's causing it and what you can

do about it. That's the topic of our upcoming documentary called The End of Men. Here's a look at the trailer. I welcome this opportunity to speak to the people of America about a subject which I believe to be most important, and that is the subject of physical fitness. A country is as strong, really, as its citizens, and I think that mental and physical health go hand in hand. There is nothing, I think, more unfortunate than to have soft, chubby, fat-looking children. I hope that all of you will join, and everybody in the United States,

to make sure that our children participate fully in a vigorous and adventurous life, which is possible for them in this very rich country of ours. There's been a 50% decline in sperm counts in the last 40 years, along with a precipitous decline in test-test sperm production. We're headed for a calamity, and that's not hyperbole, it's not exaggeration, it's just a mathematical effect. Would you recommend Young Man to Candor Balls? Too bad.

Once the society collapses, then, you're in hard times. Well, iron sharpens iron, as they say. And those hard times inevitably produce men who are tough, men who are resourceful, men who are strong enough to survive. And then they go on to reestablish order, and so the cycle begins again. Okay, a little over the top? Maybe. But something makes me think that the people freaking out about this are protesting just a little bit too much. Here's a sampling. Adam Kisinger of Neocon warmongering fame said, quote, This is actually real. Evidently he likes men without shirts, which may explain the Putin obsession. I guess calling him gay and a which may explain the Putin obsession. I guess

calling him gay and a Russophile in the same tweet. Others begged Tucker to pray his gay win or made some version of a Florida joke. I will admit, some of them were kind of funny. But at a deeper level, it did disturb me because it's clear message here. Caring about testosterone and featuring people who use proven therapies to increase it, and in general talking or thinking about male hormone health, is apparently anathema to a lot of the liberal intelligentsia, who will either mock you as gay or less of a man for doing so. It's actually quite homophobic when you think about it. And look, I get it. Tucker is a cultural lightning rod, but what he's featuring there is a very real and actually terrifying phenomenon. Declining levels of testosterone are having macro-sociological consequences

on our entire society. In fact, even back in 2007, it was apparent that US male testosterone levels have been dropping by 1% per year since the 1980s. In a more stark term, at the time, a 60-year-old man in 2004 had approximately 83% of the same testosterone levels that a 60-year-old man in 1987 had.

Now you might say, okay, so what? Why should I care? Well, at a basic human level is this. Hormones basically affect everything. Your mental state, your weight, how you feel today, how well you sleep, recovery. You will all understand this if you have an endocrinology problem,

but we almost never talk about it for everybody else. At the basic levels, testosterone, in the words of Dr. Andrew Huberman, makes effort feel good, especially within males, though of course women have nascent levels of testosterone too. It is linked intrinsically with the drive to accomplish, and that drive, is what propels an entire civilization. At a health level, low testosterone levels are really dangerous. It makes it harder to build muscle, it leads to more cases of osteoporosis, it's linked to heart attacks, depression, decreased energy levels, and fatigue. When you really think about it, at a society-wide level, it's catastrophic. We're talking here about a vital hormone to nearly 50% of every American.

Now, there are a variety of reasons that testosterone is declining. Online, people like to talk about plastics and seed oils and other things. All of them are absolutely responsible for population-wide drops for sure. But in my view and my discussion with the experts, it's obesity and bad lifestyle that are the worst culprits. The latter two obviously are intrinsically linked. If you are obese, you are far more likely to have low testosterone levels. It means you are more likely not to engage in physical behaviors, which stimulate testosterone production. Obviously, obesity is multi-causal, but obesity itself is deeply linked to the current crisis in testosterone. The other problem is sleep and alcohol use. Bad sleep dramatically lowers testosterone, especially in healthy young men. And of course, we live right now in a country

where the majority of the youth population is chronically underslept by even the most generous recommended hours of sleep that one should get a night. Combined skyrocketing alcohol use with negatively effect sleep and testosterone, you have a very clear picture of what's going on here. Being feet, fat, sleeping badly, drinking and using too much weed while not being active is a recipe for disaster. The good news is at least now you know. If you manipulate even one of those factors, it is likely to help you. If you tackle all four and you have, let's say, even a 50 or 25% reduction in some of those behaviors while you move your body more, in just a few months, you will feel like a completely different human being.

Take it from me. I don't even recognize the person I was 10 months ago, both mentally and physically. But of course, beyond the most important factors, there are other things you can do, which brings us back to this culture war nonsense. Many men with testosterone in dangerous territory or who are aging opt for outright testosterone replacement therapy. Now, for those who do not fall in that territory but are still looking for the benefits of a testosterone boost, there are various herbs and supplements that you can take. I personally, I take one by Derek from More Plates, More Dates on YouTube channel. You can go check that out for yourself if you are interested. However,

one of them, the last featured in the documentary, is red light therapy, which has actually become very popular online recently. This too was ridiculed on Twitter with, quote, testicle tanning trending for the entire day. Wow, that's a real tongue twister. Once again, I am dismayed because not a single one of these people appears to know that, guys, red light therapy actually works and is well-rooted within science. And as Dr. Andrew Huberman of Stanford University noted, quote, many people consider phototherapy modern new age biohacking, but Niels Fensen was actually awarded a Nobel Prize in 1903 for its exact discovery. Light is a powerful modulator of cellular function. I will let the good doctor explain to you how this all works on his podcast. It's far too complicated for me to try and summarize. But I can tell you, personally, I just got a red light

panel, which has a myriad of benefits, including, yes, for increasing your testosterone. Low testosterone levels are nothing to laugh about. When you consider it in the context of declining sperm count, it is downright terrifying what the consequences may be. The current war to accept fatness, minimize the health effects of obesity, minimize the real cost of drug and alcohol use, and then mock discussion of testosterone, it's a war on biology and on well-being itself. Do not let the culture war have this one. Please just take care of yourselves. You should care about your hormone health so that you can live longer and spend more quality time with your spouse or your kids or your friends. And do not let people mock people for caring about it, no matter who that person is.

So I know it's cringe, Crystal. I'm not going to lie. You have to admit. That the Tucker thing was weird. And if you want to hear my reaction to Cyber's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at BreakingPoints.com. Crystal, what are you taking a look at? Well, guys, buried inside of a devastating poll for Biden was a particularly devastating and also revealing little nugget. Not only was Biden's approval rating at a rock bottom 33%, but the youthful base of the Democratic Party has almost completely fled. A measly 21 percent of voters under the age of 35 say that they approve of Biden's performance in office.

58 percent disapprove and 21 percent say they're not sure. Now, that 21 percent approval rating was actually the lowest of every single age group. And it was actually the lowest of every type of demographic cohort that was tested except for one, and that would be non-college educated voters. They gave Biden just a paltry 20% approval rating. Just to give you a comparison for how bad that performance is among voters under 35, Donald Trump in the very same poll at the very same point in his presidency was able to get a comparatively somewhat better 31 percent of young voters to say they approved of his performance. 58 percent disapproved and 11 percent

said that they did not know. So Biden is actually doing even worse with young voters than Trump did. Or if you want another comparison here and his successful 2020 presidential campaign, President Biden won millennials and Gen Z by 20 points. Now, what's interesting is that in 2020, the younger the voter was, the more support Biden garnered. This Quinnipiac poll has the exact opposite dynamic. The older the voter is, the more likely they are to approve of Biden. His strongest support is actually among voters 65 and older. That's the only age cohort where he is above water, albeit narrowly. So what's going on here, guys? Well, it's honestly a perfect storm.

You got a generation that's been completely screwed by our economic system, is disgusted with both parties at this point. You got a Democratic political class determined at every turn to show contempt towards young voters. And you got a few obvious broken promises on some really key issues. Just take a look at this. Let's start with the last part first. Broken promises. Biden ran on free community college. Not only has he not done that, but he refuses to do anything to cancel student debt, something he could easily accomplish with the stroke of a pen. Student debt is one of the key reasons why millennials and Gen Z are falling so far behind their parents' generations when it comes to things like buying homes and starting

families. 57% of Gen Z enrolled in two or four-year colleges, so a solid majority of this new generation are going to college with all the debt burden that that entails. But that's really just the start. Literally 80% of young voters support legalizing marijuana. A majority of voters under 35 actually say that decriminalizing marijuana should either be a top priority or an important priority. Biden, he could deschedule marijuana tomorrow, but also flat out refuses to do that. Young voters are also more pro-union than any other age group, something we covered in the show, something they're demonstrating in real time by leading a new resurgent labor movement, which is upending the pro-boss status quo. Biden promised to be the most pro-union president in history, but won't use even the basic powers at his fingertips

to block union-busting companies like Amazon from receiving federal government contracts. The top priorities of young voters are jobs, climate, and healthcare. I don't need to tell you that Biden has failed to deliver significant changes on any of these three key areas. Now, this lack of action is combined with Democratic Party contempt for young voters, which ranges from thinly disguised to completely unmasked disgust. You might recall that during the book tour that led up to his presidential campaign, Biden himself kind of let slip how he actually felt about young people. And so the younger generation now tells me how tough things are.

Give me a break. No, no. I have no empathy for it. Give me a break. No empathy. Well, it certainly shows in how he's governed, doesn't it? Remember, too, these are voters who overwhelmingly back Bernie Sanders in 2016 and again in 2020. In fact, Bernie in 2016, he won more young voters

than Hillary and Trump combined. It wasn't even close. They represent the most progressive generation in history. But the establishment of the party acts like the left candidates from Bernie to Nina Turner need to be shamed, scolded, and crushed in every possible way that they can. From Pelosi deriding the youth-driven Green New Deal as the green dream or whatever, to Biden saying he'd veto Medicare for all if given the chance, to Obama constantly chastising voters for daring to expect anything significant from their elected leaders. It's not so much that young voters are leaving the party as the party is pushing them out and locking the door. They're happy to have their votes, of course, but then they'll spend four years all day, every day,

shaming them for daring to want anything better than the hellish landscape that the boomers are handing them. In the 2020 primary, I was always struck by the generational divide and how Democratic voters were evaluating their choices. In every poll we looked at, young voters said they cared most about the issues, and older voters said they cared most about beating Trump. I think it's probably because for people who came of age during the Iraq war, the financial crash, or the pandemic, they got a pretty good idea that just beating Trump is really not going to cut it. They've seen enough with the collapse of the promise of the Obama years

to realize that the Democratic Party has consistently failed them. It's not that young voters are going to turn to Republicans. That party is at odds with them on literally every issue and has perhaps even greater contempt for young Americans. But they might just stay home. Or in a nightmare scenario for the Democratic Party, they might get pissed off enough to back their own candidate against Biden. Lord knows, with his approval ratings as low as they are, there's enough blood in the water for someone to mount a credible primary challenge. You can only spit in the face of these generations for so long

before they figure out how to make you pay. I think this is one of the most underreported stories in American politics. And if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at BreakingPoints.com. joining us now we have seth goldstein he is a pro bono attorney for amazon labor union great to have you seth and nice to meet you too by the way good nice to meet you sir thank you um so we wanted to get an update for you obviously we've been covering here closely the historic win at jfk8 on staten island um but amazon is not going quietly let's put this tweet up on the screen from

Steven Greenhouse. He says the Amazon workers on Staten Island now face the challenge of getting a first contract. Amazon is already seeking to drag out things by filing 25 objections to the election. But with the union winning by more than 500 votes, the NLRB is unlikely to overturn the vote. So could you just bring us up to speed with what are some of the objections that Amazon is making here? What are they arguing? And do you think that there's a chance that they would succeed in overturning these election results? I don't think they have any chance to overrule the election. These are the most ridiculous objections I've ever heard of. One of the objections is that they're upset that the workers disrupted the captive audience

meetings, which the general counsel has now found to be unlawful. They're upset that we filed so many unfair labor practice charges against Amazon, even though everyone or most of them have been found to have merit with the board. They're upset that the NLRB filed a 10-J injunction for Joe Bryson, even though the administrative law judge found yesterday that Amazon had violated the labor laws and gave a scathing opinion against Amazon in that case. So we don't think that there's any basis to overrule these objections. That's good. Seth, can you just tell us about the extraordinary kind of them, that they're somehow better than all of us, and that we have to abide by the laws, but they don't do it themselves. For example,

they'll make threats, they'll do surveillance, they'll promise benefits. They really treat the union election like it's a 1930s Al Capone Chicago election. At every opportunity they have, they cheat. And now they're even willing to follow the Trump model and object to the elections with the intent of throwing out the votes that they thought were so precious when they were giving their captive audience meetings because they didn't get the result that they wanted. It's not how we do things. We respect democracy. We're supposed to anyway. That's kind of the whole idea. Have they escalated their tactics since the successful union election at JFK? And for people who don't know, there is another election set to happen next week at a facility, a sorting facility

that's just across the street. So have you seen them escalating their tactics, including using illegal tactics? Absolutely. They've they're blocking the use of our banner. We have a banner that our members were holding up in the break room and they've disciplined our employees about that. They have been harassing one of our lead organizers, Madeline Wesley, who was disciplined for talking about the union. And we actually have audio tape, which shows that she was doing what everybody else does. Some people talk about sports. Some people talk about going to the mall. But apparently, you can't talk about the election, which is a violation of labor law.

Wow. So, okay, Seth, can you walk us through here in terms of the future on these events and more, the level of opposition that you're running up against? Because as you said, you're working pro bono. I mean, just give us an idea of the David Goliath nature of the story. Well, it's not just David and Goliath, it's Goliath and King Midas, and unfortunately, some elements of the Democratic Party. So we're basing all of that together. We've got this boutique Democratic polling firm called Global Strategy Group, which is working hand in hand with Amazon, created a website that was unlawful. I forgot to say that's another unfair labor practice charge

that I filed. So we're up against a lot. And still, these workers have successfully been able to take on what some people had often called the white whale. But, you know, we're not on the Pequot and, you know, Ahab isn't our captain. So things, you know, we're fighting back and I think we're successful. I'll let you tell the story. But my understanding is basically Chris Smalls tweeted out, like, anybody got a suggestion for a lawyer? And you volunteered. My understanding is you're the only person who said, hey, I'm here. I'll help you guys out.

Why did you find their fight compelling? Did you think that they had a shot to actually pull this off from the beginning? And just share a little bit of what that journey has looked like for you. Well, my friend and I previously were talking about what it would take to organize Amazon, and we felt that it had to be a grassroots movement because of the nature of Amazon. That's not to say that traditional unions would not be successful, but we thought the best chance after Belsamer was a grassroots movement based on Black Lives Matter values and calling out for Amazon what it really is, which is a racist company.

We were really stricken by the blatant racism that occurred after Chris was fired and that the general counsel said that he wasn't smart or articulate. And we felt that based on that, you know, the general counsel said that he wasn't smart or articulate. And we felt that based on that, we could really drive an election. So when the call came in, I wanted to take it immediately. And I thought it would be an opportunity to reverse some of the Trump board's outrageous labor decisions. Well, you all have succeeded already beyond anyone's wildest

expectations. I give you so much credit for being there from the beginning with these guys. I think they continue to be wildly underestimated in their capabilities. And we just ask you to keep us updated about everything that's going on, Seth. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Thanks very much. Have a great day. Our pleasure. You too. Thank you guys so much for watching. We really appreciate it.

We just appreciate so much of your support. It's funny, the way that we do this show and how much we care about programming it. We get to the studio, we're like, news is breaking, we gotta change everything. Do all of this. You are the only people who enable our ability to do that. It takes a lot of work, not just from us,

but in order to fund the entire behind-the-scenes operation. So thank you for supporting us. We can keep a nimble operation and give you a better show literally only because you guys have our back, especially in some crazy, censorious environment that we're living in right now. So thank you all so much for the premium subscribers. Lifetime members, we have those plaques.

Reminder, we're not going to have a show on Thursday for a variety of reasons, but we will be back at it next week. And do not worry, we have tons of content which we'll be posting throughout the week, so you will not be without your breaking points. That's right. We've been working overtime

to make sure we had some content banged for you guys that'll go up even though we won't be doing a full show on Thursday. So we have a couple of partners that we're going to be able to announce soon. Yes, we have two new partners. Let's just announce it. Screw it. All right. So we have been looking for a while to bring someone in who can focus specifically on labor. Obviously, we do a lot of that ourselves on the show. But we're bringing in Max Alvarez as a new partner.

He's, of course, of The Real News Network and also Working People Pod. He gets lots of exclusive video. We want to send him out on the road, too, to cover emerging labor stories because we truly believe that this worker uprising movement is one of the most significant stories in the country. So in addition to what we do on the show, and obviously it's something I focus on a lot, we wanted to have someone whose eye is really specifically on that. Well, he can do it full time. And Max, you guys know Max. We love him. He's so good.

He's a longtime friend of the show. Wonderful, thoughtful guy. He's not biased either. Guy, tons of integrity, tons of just like really gets what people are going through out there. So very excited to have Max. And also bringing back an old great friend of the show, Ryan Grimm. He's returning. Ryan Grimm is returning. And we're going to work out a partnership with him as well. So he's always doing great reporting, his incredible contacts in D.C. He's got his eye on the midterms, on the primaries, on legislation. So he's always got, you know, an angle on news stories that are breaking right here in DC. So excited for that too.

Nothing but love and respect for my man, Ryan. I'm excited to see him again. And yeah, we're just going to keep growing the show. We're going to keep having more excellent content. You'll have a variety of BP partners that post over the next week, as well as content that we do. We will never, ever forget about you. You're always our number one priority. And we will see you all later. See y'all later. This is an iHeart Podcast.