Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 8/14/23: DeSantis Humiliated At Iowa Fair, Maui Residents Outraged At Disaster Relief, Trump Legal Team Texts, UPS 170k Salary, Auto Exec Caught Vacationing, Viral Rich Men North of Richmond Song, SBF Jailed, SF Workers Flee, Kansas Cops Raid Newspaper

Episode Date: August 14, 2023

Krystal and Saagar discuss DeSantis humiliated by Trump fans at the Iowa fair, Semafor reporter Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) breaks down all the events on the scene at the Iowa Fair, Maui Residents outraged at Biden disaster relief, Trump's legal team caught with texts about election tampering in Georgia, UPS drivers score 170k a year contracts, Auto Exec caught vacationing while lecturing workers, viral song Rich Men North of Richmond hits number 1, SBF jailed for witness tampering, Saagar looks into San Francisco workers fleeing crime in Doom Loop, and Krystal looks into how Kansa police raided a newspaper office in a possible corrupt coverup.To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.supercast.com/Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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absolute world to have your support. But enough with We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed we do. Lots to get to this morning. So we are starting with all of the Republican candidates descended on the unsuspecting state of Iowa. Some really interesting moments that unfolded there. We're also going to bring in a reporter who was there on the ground to give us all of the juicy details. We are also keeping track of the very latest in terms of those horrific, deadly wildfires in Hawaii. I mean, the news just continues to get worse and worse and residents getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of government support. So we'll break all of that down for you. We also have some news in terms of potential new Trump indictments coming down this week and some new revelations about exactly what his team was up to there in Georgia. We also have

more big developments in terms of a potential big three auto shutdown. Some very revealing moments from one of the big executives there. We're also going to tackle the surprise political hit topping the charts. Maybe you guys have heard this. And guess what, guys? Crypto boy wonder SBF has landed himself in jail. So we'll break all of that down for you and more. But we did want to start with what's going on on the ground in Iowa. Yeah, that's right.

We got to start with Iowa. It's shocking and interesting developments. Not really. In terms of how everything went down, Ron DeSantis took the stage with Governor Kim Reynolds of Iowa and was met with chants of we want Trump. Absolutely brutal, but also indicative of where the situation is. Let's take a listen. Ladies and gentlemen of the Iowa State Fair, let's welcome Governor

Kim Reynolds and Governor Ron DeSantis. They're hanging in there with us. Thank you so much. We really appreciate you being here as we have the opportunity. Well, first of all, welcome back to the State Fair. Ron, it's great to have you here, so welcome back. No, it's great to be here. We're really excited to see everybody. We appreciate... Hey, you know what? You know what? We're in Iowa, and in Iowa, we're Iowa nice.

So let's give everybody the opportunity to hear our candidates. So we'll stop. We'll stop until you do. But we're all going to have an opportunity to hear from each and every candidate. That's what we've been doing. So, OK. What a savage moment. So the woman scolding her own constituents is the governor of the state, Kim Reynolds, who clearly, Crystal, if it was up to her, she would endorse DeSantis tomorrow. She's been playing footsie with him the entire time. He has constantly kind of been kissing up to her, you know, over many interviews and

other things that he has given. And I just think it's a terrible look, you know, from a performance perspective, even to just give in to the crowd and give them what they want whenever they're shouting, we want Trump. I mean, yeah, they were loud, but guess what? You've got the mic, like you can at least get it on the record. You should just pretend not to notice. But to do the whole call out thing and Iowa nice, I just, I think it was, it showed a lot of weakness. To be fair, I mean, DeSantis isn't

the one that did it, but that's just the last thing that you want happening at, you know, kind of flagship political event in Iowa. And, you know, people need to understand this is a big thing, the Iowa State Fair. Oh, yeah. Well, remember, you know, the butter cow with Ted Cruz in 2016. This is often the site of some of the most famous, like, moments in a lot of primary politics. Many epic corn dog pictures have come out of the Iowa State Fair. Yeah, go-karts, basketball. They all try to pretend. They don their human suits for, like, 24 hours and try to pretend that they're just like us by eating like a, what, deep fried Oreo.

Like I'm going to wear a flannel and wear jeans. There you go. Oh God, yeah, I can't stand it. My personal favorite was a banner that was flying over the Iowa state. Let's go and put this up there on the screen. Seems to have been planted by the Trump campaign. Says, quote, be likable, Ron, and puts Ron's logo like Jeb Bush, Ron with a capital exclamation mark. So Trump, well, pretty much the unambiguous winner of the Iowa State Fair. Yeah. Not dominating the event, even whenever he's not on the stage and forcing his only real rival to basically have to shut down his interview with the governor of the state, basically being openly disrespected by her, supposedly her constituents.

I mean, it actually low-key made me feel a little bad for Ron DeSantis. I felt bad for him too. That's hard. Brutal. And there's, I mean, what are you going to do? There's no good way to deal with that state of affairs. And there's a couple of things because you have to, in that moment, as you're sitting there on the stage and you're hearing the crowd like jeering you among a Republican base that very recently really loved this guy. And so you're thinking, geez, did I not only screw myself in terms of this presidential race, but in terms of any political future? I think that is a very open possibility at this point. And then in terms of Governor Kim Reynolds, you know, if you are governor of a state and you did well there, I mean, she won by a hefty margin. She's got a pretty good approval rating, I believe, in the state of Iowa, et cetera.

She's having a realization of just how shallow her support is. Like, she doesn't command any sort of real, like, she doesn't command any sort of real loyalty from her own constituents. Nothing, no one in the party compares to Trump. That's just the bottom line situation. So I was also thinking about the state of Iowa has been significantly demoted in terms of the political season. You know, it's still first for the Republican side, but that race is looking all but over, you know, as evidenced by the chance that we show you there. And then on the Democratic side, you know, Iowa has been completely demoted in a lot of ways for good reasons because they completely screwed up the caucuses last time around. But this is so central to that state's identity. Yes, it is. I mean, being the first

caucus site where the first votes are cast and having this every four years pageantry of all the candidates going around from place to place. And they're very used to meeting the presidential candidates in person in these little gatherings, et cetera. And, you know, that era, especially on the Democratic side, is completely over. Yeah, you know, you're right. And Vivek Ramaswamy decided to warm up the crowd with a rendition of Lose Yourself by Eminem, donning his old persona, Davek, from back in the days whenever he was in college. Let's take a listen. So apparently what happened, Crystal, is that's his open song. And he asked Kim Reynolds, he said, do you know this song?

She said, no, I don't know the song. And so he said, well, I'll show you the song. How do you exist and not know that song? Listen, you know, boomers are people in their own right. And they've got interesting tastes. I guess let's just put it that way. I'm sorry, boomers who are a paying audience. We love you guys.

Don't worry. I just like to make fun of you. That said, it was an interesting move. I think what I actually found kind of funny about the whole thing is that, you know, 20 years ago, that would have been one of the biggest stories in the whole country. Like the whole Howard Dean scream, which I think wasn't that at the Iowa State Fair? Or it was a similar event. It was after Iowa didn't do well. Yeah. But yeah, so it was like something like or, you know, Bill Clinton. I still remember, you know, like reading about how Bill Clinton playing the saxophone on what is it? Arsenio

Hall was a landmark moment for the country. I remember reading that and being like, what? That's so stupid. It's hard to wrap your head around. Monoculture was a crazy thing. But, you know, this is just one of those that goes like a semi viral ish on Twitter, and then everybody just kind of moves on. Maybe that's probably for the good, so that people don't see their lowest moments. But I just thought it was funny, you know, to show all of this. But I think that we have to come back to Trump. Trump was the central figure at this thing. He dominated every single event, even when other candidates were there. Kim Reynolds was doing the rounds at almost every turn. It was, we want Trump, we want Trump. And he got the biggest audience at the entire thing. I would argue that at this point, Vivek and DeSantis are basically even

in terms of being quote unquote Trump's top rival. Trump doesn't really have a top rival at this point. I'm also going to give you a little bit of a hot take on the DaVake moment there. Okay. I kind of like I mean I respect the fact that you are actually willing to like publicly humiliate yourself to that degree Whereas if I I mean just even thinking about doing something like that makes me want to curl up in a ball and die So respect for that The other thing I would say is you're talking about how all these candidates like they don their human suits and try to be like See, I'm just like you people.

I mean, at least Vivek is doing something that is true to his genuine pre-political personality. And it reminds me a little bit, I mean, this is like a wild comparison, but it reminds me a little bit to Trump's first foray at the Iowa State Fair. Instead of him, let me put on the jeans and the button, like the flannel or whatever,

he showed up as he does. I remember he was giving people rides on, I think, his private helicopter. So he showed up as himself. And I do think that's one of the things that's like an enduring appeal of Trump. He sets the standard for like who he is, how he's going to approach this, what he's going to say. And, you know, people, unfortunately, better or worse, can't get enough of it. That is such a good point that actually just hit home. Trump never pretended to be anything but himself. He didn't ever want to spend the night in Iowa. He always liked to come home and sleep in his own bed in Trump Tower. He would rocket in on Trump

Force One. He would come in on Trump Force One. He'd land in the Trump helicopter. He would roll around. He'd put on a big show. And then he would get the hell out of there. And I remember because we were covering it at the time. It would have Ted Cruz doing the butter cow and Marco Rubio and everybody would be in their jeans. And Trump was just in a full suit. He just didn't care. And it was just one of those where he's like, this is me. And people love him for it.

And, you know, if I was looking back at the polls, it's right around now when Trump started to dominate every single Republican primary poll, actually less so than he is even right now, which just gives you a good example. I think it was Harry Enten, the polling analyst, said that no candidate has ever led this much in a primary this early in the race and not gone on to be the eventual nominee. So barring some black swan event or something like that, things are looking pretty clear. And Iowa clearly, you know, even at the grassroots level, where Ted Cruz did have a lot of success, still doesn't seem to be manifesting for any of Trump's opponents. Trump himself gave a little bit of an answer on Stop the Steal at Iowa, showing us that he very much is the exact same man that he always has been. Let's take a listen. He has to win the fairway. He's way down in the polls.

President Trump, did you intend to overturn the 2020 election? You know the answer. If you didn't hear, that was, do you intend to overturn the 2020 election? Trump, quote, you know the answer. What does that mean? Well, I mean, yeah, I think we do know the answer. Listen, you know, once again, we come back to, he has never really told us that he, you know, he has never presented himself as anything other than what he is. And I think that is what the primary voters in particular appreciate the most about him. And, you know, even every answer, it's just vintage Trump. He looks exactly the same as whenever he was there, what, seven

something years ago. And it's just, you know, in the same flashback of just how well it appears he's going to be doing this race. And yet the lack of sort of drama and interest in the Iowa State Fair, I mean, this is really a blip on the radar. It is a sign of just how little competition there is and how much of a foregone conclusion both of these primaries feel like. And listen, I mean, when you have an incumbent president, you know, that's fairly typical, right? They're very likely to get the nomination on the Democratic side. But, you know, what isn't typical on the Democratic side is the total ambivalence of the Democratic electorate towards their guy who is in the presidency. I mean, you know, Barack Obama, even at his lowest point, the Democratic base loved this guy, still loves this guy. Very different set of affairs with

Joe Biden. And then on the Republican side, you know, this should have been really contested. There was a lot of media hype about the challenge to Trump and all of this. And it looks like just as much of a foregone conclusion on the Republican side as it does on the Democratic side. The fact that the governor of the state basically threw in for DeSantis and no one cares whatsoever, that you had a bunch of evangelical leaders, including some in the state of Iowa, who signaled they wanted to move on from Trump. Also didn't matter, even a state that, you know, where the religious right has always historically been very important and, you know, liked people like Mike Huckabee, liked people like Rick Santorum, liked people like Ted Cruz. It just shows you that, you know, whatever drama is going to come in this primary season has not manifested itself yet, let me say, and may have less to do with who the eventual nominees are and more to do with some of the legal battles that we're going to be talking about in a bit.

You are absolutely right. All right, we've got a great guest standing by, Shelby Talcott. We're going to put her in the show now because she was on the ground in Iowa. She's going to give us a little bit of an insight. Let's get to it. So we're very lucky to be joined by Shelby Talcott. She is a politics reporter for Semaphore, and she was there in Iowa. She's actually still in Iowa. And so we're going to talk to her about the political candidates, and also she can evaluate all of the Iowa State Fair food for us as well. Shelby, great to have you. Thanks for having me.

Yeah. So we're just showing some of the kind of viral moments from the fair. DeSantis being chanted down with we want Trump and the Ron be likable banner and the DaVake, Vivek Ramaswamy rapping. Talk to us about the overall mood of people who were actually at the fair and the way that your report specifically talks about the way that Trump was able to exert sort of maximal influence over the fair. Yeah, what I thought was really interesting is when we're talking to voters on the ground at the fair, they're interested or they tell us that they're interested in the Trump alternative. So Vive vague drew pretty big crowds. Ron DeSantis

obviously drew pretty big crowds, plus some left-leaning protesters who were eventually kicked out, which he wears as a badge of honor. But then you have Trump swoop in, and it is like no other presidential candidate exists, right? And so it's something we've seen time and time again, and it was front and center at the fair. He came in for less than two hours, I think it ended up being on Saturday, when all of these other major candidates were there. And during that time period, it was like all eyes on him. He drew the biggest crowd. He had pro-Trump voters shouting down Ron DeSantis as DeSantis was grilling at the pork tent. And it's just kind of reminiscent of the, it represents the broader idea of,

sure, we have all these voters who say that they want alternative candidates, but we also have all of these voters who at the end of the day also love Trump still. Right. I mean, Shelby, can you just go into a little bit of that also from the voters that you spoke with and some of the color from actually being on the ground? I mean, what does the energy difference look like? It's something that I always noticed in 2015 or 2016 when Trump was running, that people were just not picking up on that on a national level. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of energy.

And campaigns have been telling us constantly, we see that there's an opportunity, particularly in Iowa, to take votes away from Trump. And when you're out on the ground talking to these voters, I'm seeing that also based on what the voters are telling us. And so when candidates are hitting the ground here, they're doing it hard. They're going big. You had Ron DeSantis, who is not known for his retail politics. I think we talked about this last time I was on, do retail politics pretty much all day at the Iowa State Fair, even going into the agricultural building and manning the egg on a stick tent, which is exactly what it sounds.

He was putting sticks on eggs and handing them out, which is a very popular attraction at the state fair. You had Vivek Ramaswamy, as you said, rapping. He also hired a Revolutionary War band that started playing songs after he ended his Kim Reynolds event. You had Donald Trump come in and drop $20,000 for fairgoers for food and drinks. So candidates are taking this very seriously. And it's kind of like a go big or go home type situation before the first debate. I'm pretty shocked by the whole egg on a stick situation. I've heard about many of the Iowa State Fair foods, the, you know, fried Oreos and the corn dogs and like typical fair. Isn't there like butter, fried butter, I think is a thing as well. Never heard

about the egg on the stick. You have this part in your piece about, I mean, this is just classic Trump, how he makes everything a show. He knows how to one up everybody in terms of the showmanship. Sagar and I were talking about how everybody else, like all the other candidates, they'll put on their jeans and try to be one of the everyday folks. Trump just shows up as Trump, does his thing. You say he arrived at the event with an entourage of Florida lawmakers, well known to conservative media. As DeSantis flipped burgers, Trump's private plane strategically flew overhead, distracting

fairgoers who turned to take photos and videos at the moment. A Trump aide confirmed the campaign was responsible for a smaller plane that flew above the fair throughout the day with a banner reading, Be Likeable Ron. And as you mentioned, he also just dropped 20 grand to help subsidize the fair food for people who were there. Yeah, I mean, it's classic Trump, right? A big part of Trump's campaign is trolling, quite frankly. And if you talk to his campaign, they will openly admit that part of Saturday was designed to troll Ron DeSantis in every way possible. And we saw that. And it was effective because what ended up happening, if you read all the headlines, if you search DeSantis Trump Iowa State Fair, every headline will read Donald Trump dominates at the Iowa State Fair.

Donald Trump trolls Ron DeSantis. And so it's this really interesting thing. But on the flip side, you know, as you're talking about this piece, they also are taking the Iowa State Fair in Iowa as a state really seriously. They have 30 plus staffers here every single day throughout the entirety of the festivities. They're having Marjorie Taylor Greene is coming next Saturday. They had Carrie Lake here. They had Wesley Hunt.

They have a number of surrogates who are gonna be on the ground participating in fair activities, talking to press, talking to voters. Because this is really an opportunity for both Trump and the other candidates, but particularly Trump, to kind of sway some of these less politically inclined voters to his side. Yeah. Shelby, I mean, that's an important point. There's a big, there's a lot of courting right now

of Governor Kim Reynolds, who clearly seems to have some sort of preference for Ron DeSantis. But she has said that she's not going to endorse until later on in the race. How is Trump, how is the Trump dynamic influencing her own decision about endorsements? Well, I think it's very obvious that that is a tense situation right now. If you talk to Reynolds staffers, they will argue that she has no problem with Trump. It is Trump who has a problem with her. And I think to an extent that's accurate. But I also certainly think as Trump continues to do these things and say these things and he keeps going after her, you know, it wears on her. And the result is you've

seen her really step up with how many events she's doing, particularly with Ron DeSantis after the Iowa State Fair, which she spent a portion of the day with him. She even did the, you know, he did the soapbox with her. And then she spent some of the afternoon with him. And then she went to an event with him that evening. And so she seems to, I know she says that she's not going to endorse until later in the race. But I think part of what really frustrates Trump is that her actions are suggesting kind of who she is leaning for right now. Yeah. And DeSantis has also made no secret of trying to court her, brings her up in all these interviews and talks about her pro-life record and all those sorts of things. When you talk to the non-Trump candidates and campaigns, what is their theory of the case of how they make the comeback? I mean, the lead seems insurmountable.

In fact, if you look at history, no one has been able to overcome this much of a deficit to be able to pull off the nomination. What is their theory of how they might be able to change what looks like a coronation at this point? That's the thing. There's no solid plan that I've personally heard. When I talk about a solid plan, I'm thinking step one, step two, step three equals we beat Donald Trump, right? It's more broad ideas of, well, we're hearing from voters on the ground that they're interested in an alternative. True. So we're going to be out on the ground 24-7 trying to court them.

True, also. And then the third thing I hear a lot is that eventually, particularly with all of these indictments, voters are just going to end up tiring of Donald Trump. But the problem with that is it all kind of depends on voters actually ultimately coming over to your side. And so I think this is the broad idea behind this whole presidential campaign is there's only so much Trump rivals can actually do. And at some point, I think in a way, it's, you know, it's up to the voters. Well, yeah, it's always good to get insight from you. Hope is not a strategy, as they say. Shelby, thank you so much. Great to have you and great to have your insights. We really appreciate

your time. Thank you, Shelby. So by now, you've probably seen some of the horrific images coming out of the state of Hawaii after those deadly wildfires, the deadliest wildfires already in more than a century. Let's go ahead and put some of this up on the screen for those who haven't seen. This is a before and after picture of the town of Lahaina. I mean, it's just horrific to look at this historic area, absolutely burned to a crisp. Let's go ahead and show this next one, which is absolutely horrifying. There's video of people who were jumping into the ocean in order to try to escape these wildfires. As I said before, deadliest now already based on the current body count in over a century. 96 people confirmed dead, more than a thousand still missing. So this is just an absolutely horrific death toll.

And then let's put this next one up on the screen. You can see the completely apocalyptic images here. This is, you know, an area that used to be bustling. You can see these skeletons of cars, everything just completely burned down. And basically there was a confluence of terrible factors that led to this outcome. This area in Maui had been subject to drought for a while. They also had an issue with these non-native grasses that had grown up across the region, which were super flammable, especially with the drought. And then you had hurricane strength winds that helped to spread this, unfortunately, like wildfire and leads to this terrifically awful, just terribly awful result. I was looking at some of the history here, Sagar, in terms of deadliest wildfires in American

history. As I said, this is the worst that we've had in over a century already, which is astonishing given the technological advances that we've made in that time. The worst in history that we've ever had was a fire in Wisconsin in 1871 that killed 1,152. It was at the site of a sawmill, so there was all this dry sawdust around, and just the whole town went up in flames. But the next closest to this wildfire and the deadly nature of it was in 1918. They call it the Cloquet Fire. When railroad sparks ignited a wildfire that raged for more than four days, decimating northern Minnesota, that set a death toll of 453 as a result of that fire. And,

you know, unfortunately, I think everyone's expectation is that the death toll is going to rise significantly from the 96 that it's already at, given the number of people who are still unaccountable. I was going to say, you know, you got days in now and you got hundreds of people who are missing. So it's like that is a terrible situation and something we've been trying to track here, Crystal, which was really put on the radar by both our producers, but also some of our audience, people who actually live in Hawaii. Yeah.

Is aid actually flowing to Hawaii in the nature that it should? And there's some indications right now from actual residents on the island that they are not happy with the federal government and the Biden administration about the delivery of said aid. I'm not getting what I need from the government. The community on Maui is extremely strong and the crowdfunding and the community effort to support each other right now is so unbelievably immense. It's chaotic and it's extremely hard

to organize who needs what and who needs where. A lot of the big box stores are running out of supplies and things are starting to get a little weird after natural disasters happen like that. A lot of people are spending their hard-earned money and they're taking their personal vehicles and they're driving into Lahaina through the danger to deliver supplies because we are not receiving the aid in any capacity that we need to be receiving aid on a larger level. But as of now, we are seeing very little support from big organizations. We hear that there is Coast Guards or National Guards that's assisting with organization in Lahaina. But at the same time, we are in contact with a lot of residents in Lahaina that are stuck up north between Kahana and Kili, who are out of power, out of water, out of gas. It's troubling stuff there, Crystal, in terms of what's coming in. And, you know, I've seen a good point. Mike Glover, fieldcraft survival guy, big into disaster relief.

He's like, we got up on one of the biggest military bases in the entire country, like a couple miles away. What are we doing? Why are we not surging? And you know, this has been coming out, residents, let's put this up there on the screen. This is a screenshot from an Instagram story that was taken by a local dive company.

They say, quote, the government has blocked entry roads to Lahaina, leaving people feeling abandoned and confused, unable to locate missing family members and get much needed supply to those in need. This has not stopped the strong community of Maui from finding ways to help. Apparently, one of the biggest problems on the island is lack of cell service. There's lack of Internet. But, you know, this is not just one story. We're hearing this from a lot of different people. There are viral videos floating around out there of actual residents saying they have been blocked, actually, by the local and the state and the federal government by coming

to the island. Apparently, FEMA wants to be the single source of control. And I'm not saying they're doing this intentionally. It just sounds like a complete bureaucratic incompetence nightmare, all of which we witnessed in the time in Katrina. The problem is this is so far away and so remote, and we don't have enough media resources on the ground that we're, you know, who knows what, what in terms of the information and stuff that some of the stuff

filtering out here is a real scandal. Yeah. We're really having to rely on the residents to tell us what is going on. And, um, you know, these aren't just isolated incidents at this point. We're seeing a lot of commentary coming from people who are impacted there on the island who are saying, please, someone report on this. Someone come to our aid. Put this next one up on the screen. This is another post. They say this was posted two days ago.

They're saying, for what it's worth, I'm hoping for a writer to write this complicated yet very simple story for Maui. Yes, it feels ridiculous because I know no one in these high places knows what I'm doing. Donations, we need them all. This is a plea, New York Times, NPR, CNN, anything large and legitimate. Do you know someone? Screenshot, share, I beg. He goes on to say, where's the Navy, the hospital ship, helicopters, the military, the natural disaster relief infrastructure that should have been here by now. So, you know, of course, the Biden administration says they're doing everything they can. National Guardsmen have been mobilized to the area, but clearly just a lot of devastation and frustration mounting among residents there on the ground as the death toll continues to mount. Yeah. And President Biden actually was

asked yesterday and on his beach vacation while he was quite literally on the beach. Mr. President, do you have any comments about the rising death toll in Hawaii? Quote, no comment, he said before heading home. You know, I mean, this is pretty disgusting stuff, to be honest. And look, you know, it's often a trope, the whole like we send money over there, but we don't have money over here. It doesn't necessarily have to be a zero sumsum game, but the politicians are the ones who have turned it into that zero-sum game. So I think the analysis is fair. But, you know, we got time to be requesting $25 billion more for Q1

to go to the Ukrainian military, including $13 billion of disaster relief included in there. And these people are American citizens out there pleading for money on Instagram while one of the world's largest military bases is 40-some miles away from this disaster. What the hell is going on here? You got people there saying that they're being blocked from bringing propane and energy to their freaking relatives. I mean, can you imagine? You got relatives who are not that far away whose house just burned down.

You got infrastructure going there. And somebody tells you you can't go see them. I'd be losing my mind. Yeah, you'd be losing your mind. You'd bulldoze and pass them if you can. I think all these people have already lost. Yeah. It just boggles the mind.

I can't believe Biden's on a beach. I genuinely can't believe that. If this happened mainly in 50, if this was Pennsylvania, if this was Virginia, if this was somewhere that, you know, was closer to home that they felt more personally connected, there's no way that the president of the United States would, you know,

just go to the beach and say no comment about the horror that is unfolding. Again, deadliest wildfire in more than a century. You could see from the photos the level of devastation. And to be that cavalier about it, I'm actually genuinely shocked by it, to be honest with you. And the other thing I'd say is, listen, I was reading into, is there a climate change connect with this particular one? It's always difficult to say in any particular disaster, what is the climate change connect? There's an indication they've been increasingly in drought in Hawaii in a way that they didn't used to be, that may be caused by climate change, hard to say. The increase in hurricanes and strength of winds

may be caused by climate change, hard to say. But what we do know is we are getting these disasters more and more often. We are going to continue dealing with these disasters more and more often. So we better get damn good at it. We better get damn good at mitigation. We better get damn good at relief. We better have the money queued up, ready to go and, you know, a plan in place, ready to help residents when they are impacted this, because this is the new reality, whether or not this particular incident was climate change driven, which again, it's very difficult to say in this particular incident. We know we're seeing once in a century floods coming year after year. We're seeing increased strength in hurricanes. We're seeing wildfires that are absolutely historic in their size and

scope. And we're seeing so much disaster that, you know, in a place like Florida, this is something we're hearing more and more too about people who can't get home owners insurance because of the threat of, rising threat of repeated natural disasters. So we better get our game together here because this is the new reality. Yeah, no, I mean, look, and the problem too is the fact that these people are like pleading for resources online, you know, that one guy's screenshot about the media and all that. It's just like, how can they be so ignored by what's going on? And Obama, to his credit, I guess because he's from there, was one of the first people really to start asking for funds and all that. I mean, literally, I think because he grew up in Hawaii, but pretty much everybody else has been gone.

It would be a good opportunity like when Trump, what is it, when the Trump campaign went to go visit East Palestine, even though Hawaii is a blue state, plane flies, you should get over there. People should know that people actually do care about what's going on. Luckily with the internet, some of the word is getting out there. I hope it will continue. Maybe we'll put a link to one of the disaster relief organizations that's down in the description. But it's a terrible situation. We're going to continue to keep an eye on it. Yeah, for sure. At the same time, we've got a lot of developments on the Trump potential indictment front. Let's put this first piece up on the screen. All right. So we had the Jack Smith indictments here. We had the Alvin Bragg

indictments. We had the documents indictments. Now we're looking at what is going to happen with this Atlanta grand jury. They are hearing Trump's case, it says, early next week, but this was written last week, so we're now talking about today and tomorrow, basically. They are hearing the Trump case, and it looks very much like they're going to be handing down indictments this week. Could be 12 or more people who are indicted as part of this alleged scheme. They said Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis' timeline became clearer on Saturday. Two witnesses in the investigation said they'd been summoned to testify on Tuesday.

Legal experts have said they expect the presentation of evidence to take around two days. So you do the math. If they're starting on Tuesday, a couple days, hand down indictments, that's what it's looking like. So probably towards the end of this week, we may be hearing something. There are two grand juries meeting in Fulton County through the end of August, one on Mondays and Tuesdays, the other on Thursdays and Fridays. Latest developments suggest Willis will begin her presentation of the case on Monday. That will be today. Public could know whether Trump and others have been indicted by Tuesday evening. So we are definitely on indictment watch. At the same time, CNN got a scoop about,

we reported here a while ago, this little county in Georgia, rural county, Coffey County, where the election administrators there and certainly the Republican Party officials were very favorable towards Trump. I think the county went like 70% for Trump. So this was Trump country. And they really wanted to give him whatever he was looking for in terms of these Dominion voting machines. And so we had previously reported based on what was in the press that they had given access to sensitive election information and these sensitive voting machine systems, which you are not allowed to do. That is wildly illegal to these data consultants. Well, guess what? We now have direct indications of who exactly hired those consultants and set up this whole deal. Let's put this up on the screen. This is the New York Post telling of it. They say Trump blasts phony Georgia

DA after report prosecutors have text and emails linking him directly to that voting system breach. Georgia prosecutors investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results are in possession of text messages and other communications that tie members of the former president's legal team, including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, by the way, to a January 7th, 2021 voting systems breach in the state, according to a Sunday report. One of the texts reads, just landed back in D.C. with the mayor, the mayor being Rudy Giuliani. Huge things starting to come together. Most immediately, we were just granted access by written invitation to

Coffey County systems. Yay. Again, that is illegal. The person who was most directly involved here is a woman by the name of Misty Hampton, former Coffey County elections official. She delayed the certification of Biden's win. She refused to recount results by the deadline. I think she may have been the one she published some video alleging fraud with the Dominion voting machines. So, you know, she went that extra mile and actually helped enable them allegedly potentially commit some crimes here. It's pretty ironic, Sagar, when you're so concerned about election fraud that you go ahead and commit some yourself. This is basically the exact same thing that happened in Arizona, if we'll recall.

During the whole audit of the machines, it turned out that we had rendered many machines unusable because they were basically seized and or improperly examined by the investigators who were looking into fraud. This has happened so many times now at this point where it's like this clownish and ridiculous gambit in order to try and prove the fantasies of not only just a man, but really of a lot of people around him who just don't want to admit that they lost the election. I think that the most honest reading, Crystal, that I've seen so far from many of these Republicans who is, they're basically like, well, we just got to embrace mail-in balloting. We'll just call it ballot harvesting, even though it's just mail-in balloting. And we have to outdo the Democrats. I'm like, yeah, that's actually correct. You work within the rules that you have here. And try to win.

And try to win. Yeah. Shocking. I know. You look at the rules of the game. You decide to play said game. And when you lose, you lose. And if you want to win, well, you know, you look what you did bad last time and you're going to try and do something else. Unfortunately for them, that hasn't really been working out and they've been their own worst enemies and trying to prove, you know, like this is the problem with Sidney Powell, with Rudy Giuliani, with all Mike Lindell, all these folks is they were so like they believe this so much that they were literally committing crimes in the process of trying to, quote unquote, prove that the election was stolen. Yeah. And some of them, I don't know, did Rudy Giuliani really believe this? I have no idea.

I really I genuinely don't. But I also think they just this is a group of people in certain instances that just feels like they're above the law, like the rules don't apply to them. So, you know, if if Rudy Giuliani was looking at a Democrat who was breaching voting systems in some county somewhere, I mean, they would see very clearly that that is, in fact, a crime and that you can't do that. But then when it came to them, they're like, yeah, we get access to the voting systems. We've been invited in, so it must be fine. Pretty wild. There's also reporting that suggests originally this grand jury in Georgia was being presented a lot. And they were looking deeply into that call that Trump had, what he calls a perfect call with Brad Raffensperger, where he asked him to, quote, find 11,780 votes. But as time has worn on, they've also taken a lot of time to dig into

what was going on in Coffey County with this voting systems breach. And, you know, this is one of those where sort of like the documents case, it's more, there's more of a clear line here that you can cross versus, you know, some of the January 6th stuff could potentially be contested. Obviously, I support the indictments, but there's legal arguments that can be made on either side. To me, the voting system breach is a little more clear cut. So we'll see when the indictments come down. Of course, we'll be following it really closely here and bring you breaking news as soon as we have it. What exactly is contained in it? What they're laying out? Who is involved? What's the conspiracy that's alleged? We've heard a lot about potential racketeering charges, so we'll see if that

is part of it. Yeah, look, we have no idea. Also, do you remember the Georgia jury for a woman and her media tour? Oh, yeah, that was weird. That's definitely going to be, you know, that's probably going to come back to bite, I think, if any of that ends up coming back to coming into the public sphere. So the real point of this whole thing is to just prepare everyone for another indictment. Looks very imminent. What they said early next week. Tuesday evening, they said. Tuesday evening. So I guess we'll be on watch as usual here over at BP. And the real one is that this also opens up a mountain of different charges and a legal battlefield because this

is not in the federal court system. This is in the state court system. It will be very different in terms of its interpretation. It also, in my opinion, actually might be the strongest on the grounds of election law because in our federalist system, Crystal, states are the ones who have near supremacy over the way that they run their elections and have the much more capacity to charge, you know, on these specific grounds than the feds of January 6th or any of these others. It's one of the problems that's been really for him from the beginning. And, you know,

if you look at it a state by state thing, the New York one pales in comparison to the level of legitimacy that they could have here in this case. This is one of the strongest cases, actually, they might be able to bring against him. Could very well be. And especially with this new information about the voting systems breach might be clear cut. We'll wait and see the details. At the same time, you know, one aspect of all of this that I find really interesting is it's like, okay, Trump, if you and your team really so strongly believe that there was election fraud, you're about to have these trials, go prove it to the public. He was recently asked some about, you know, does he still believe it? And he's still, you know, on his BS about all of this. He was also asked about whether or not he

would take a plea deal. Let's take a listen to what he had to say. But I can tell you one thing. There was a lot of shenanigans going on with the elections. Whether you look at 2000 fuels, whether you look at the 51 intelligence agents, it was all rigged. Whether you look at 2000 Mules, whether you look at the 51 intelligence agents who's all rigged, whether you looked at Twitter, at FBI, at DOJ, and take a look at what happened with DOJ. Take a look at what happened with Twitter.

It's a disgrace. Is there any chance you take a plea deal? Is there any Is there any chance you take a plea deal in Georgia? We did nothing wrong. We don't ever take a plea deal in Georgia? We did nothing wrong. We don't ever take a plea deal. We don't take plea deals.

It's a wise guy question. Wise guy question, no plea deal, floating 2,000 mules, which, you know, you can go back and watch my commentary on that. It's, you know, absurd claims. But listen, buddy, go prove it in court. Yeah. It's a chance in front of the whole nation. Go show how rigged the election is. As we often said at that time, we're like, listen, man, you know, 61 cases, 61 losses before the court. And, you know,

it is interesting, you know, when you really probe it. It's like the MAGA people really want you to believe that the courts were rigged in multiple Republican states with multiple Republican judges across multiple jurisdictions, local, state, and federal, and that somehow in every single case at the hand of the feds was able to come down and to interfere and said this to not prove. And what they've effectively resorted to, I've noticed this actually on Twitter, is resurfacing old clips

which have all been completely debunked around like, oh look, they pulled ballots out from underneath the table. It's like, every single time, I'm just, you know, it's like, if that's all they got, then it's not a wonder why they lost in the court system in the first place. Every single one of these has been looked into, people. You know, you can retweet it all you want,

that doesn't make it true. But it will remain true in their minds. Let's talk about some of the very interesting things happening on the labor front. Oh, yeah. So we covered how UPS came right up to the brink of a strike, which would have been huge, historic, et cetera. But they were actually able to come to a deal, and a rank and file member still voting on it, but it looks like a pretty good deal,

and it has a good chance of, I think, getting passed by the Teamsters membership. One of the provisions is those who are full-time at the sort of top of the salary spectrum are going to be making $170K a year. So pretty good salary. This has some folks really wringing their hands, very concerned about, God forbid,

working class person makes a decent salary and is able to maybe even actually afford a home. Jim Cramer, among those, very concerned about this deal. Let's take a listen to what he had to say. How about the way that UPS stock initially went up on that deal? And then people see that maybe the Teamsters got the best of it. Although it's a good thing for the U.S. economy that there is not going to be a UPS strike. You know, I'm so glad you mentioned that because that was very important for the U.S. I do want to know whether Ford is going to talk about whether there's more of an issue with the UAW than Carol Tremé talked about the issue with Teamsters. Very important to watch that because when you look at the way GM traded,

it started going down when Mary Barra, the CEO, glossed over a union issue. That's a big mistake. Sean Fain reminds me of the 1930s UAW, which we don't want. Which we don't want. We'll get to the UAW in just a minute. But here's some of the details that has caused stir. Yeah, people are very upset about this. Put this up on the sky. I can't imagine being upset about people earning a minute, but here's some of the details that has caused stir. Yeah, people are very upset about this. I can't imagine being upset about people earning a different decent living. But anyway, full-time UPS drivers will earn $170,000 a year on average in new contract, according to the CEO of that company. Salary ranges for full-time and part-time drivers among the details to come out this week. Here's a little bit of a quote from the CEO. She says, when you look at total compensation by the end of the new contract, average UPS full-time driver will make about $170K annually in pay and benefits. And for all

part-time employees that are already working at UPS by the end of this contract, they'll be making at least $25.75 per hour while receiving full health care and pension benefits. That part-time piece is really important, Sagar, because a lot of the drivers are actually part-time. So there is a good swath of their workforce that will not be earning this kind of a salary. But there's a lot to say about this because I find it so interesting. UPS is phenomenally profitable. They actually are more profitable than FedEx, consistently more profitable than FedEx, even consistently more profitable than FedEx, even though FedEx has a non-union workforce that does make considerably less than their

cohort over at UPS. So in spite of that, UPS has been a well-run company, perhaps because their employees are happier, perhaps that might be part of why the company is consistently more profitable. So it's not like the company is suffering. I can't imagine begrudging people a decent income and using their – this just shows you the power of unions. Yes. They use their collective power. They elected their leader, new leader Sean O'Brien, to force a tough deal on UPS after taking years of concession.

The last contract was really concessionary. The membership had actually voted it down because they were unhappy with it. Now they're able to use the tight labor market, use the more militant leadership that more accurately reflects the needs of the rank and file, and cut a better deal for themselves. We should all be celebrating. So here's some data that I can find just to put forward. Last year, 2022, UPS did an annual gross profit of $74.15 billion. UPS annual gross profit for 2021, $71.93 billion. UPS gross profit for 2020, $64 billion. Each one of those was an increase year over year. 2020 and 2021 each respectively showed a 13 to 12% annual gross profit increase. That's 125% over a two-year period under which UPS drivers actually basically made the entire

economy run. These people delivered goods to people who were working from home. They were essential workers that worked in bad conditions. On average, these people are walking like miles and miles per day. You should go look at the Fitbit data for some people who drive full-time for UPS. No joke, you need some actual physical requirements. Actually sit and have a conversation with your UPS driver if they have the ability. They don't have the time. Yeah, they don't have the time. Driving the trucks is also not a joke as well. I didn't know this. Apparently, they're not allowed to turn left because it stops the amount, it uses too much fuel.

So they have custom driving routes that cause them to drive inconveniently, which are all about fuel compensation, which saves them billions of dollars per year. So everything is right turns for the UPS truck. Obviously, yeah, it is kind of wild. I had no idea. They have a custom software apparently that does it, saves them a lot of money. But it's no joke. You're driving sometimes 10, 12 hours a day.

The time when everybody else is off is whenever you're the most on. Christmas Eve, all of that, that's game time. You know, that's the time when you've got to work even more than everybody else. So the hours are no picnic. That's why you get paid money. But it also comes back to more of a philosophical conversation. I don't really know why people are so angry about this. I've seen all these memes. I've been posting online, but it's like UPS drivers after five

years driving a Lamborghini. I'm like, okay, hold on a second. I live here in Washington, DC. I know plenty of people who make 170, and they make a hell of a lot more than 170 grand a year. These people can't even afford to buy a house. So what are you talking about? These people are driving Toyota Camrys. I mean, it's like, now, sure, we live in one of the top five, like, most expensive cities in the country. So it's not like Peoria, Illinois or something like that. I just, no offense, Peoria. I'm just pulling it out. You know, it's not a normal middle class place.

But if you look at the median home price on average across the country, specifically in what the top 10 metro areas where a lot of these people are having to work are nearby. We're talking about half a million dollars. We're looking at major interest rates. We're also, I mean, last time I checked, you want to be able to raise a family. I personally would love to live in a society where people can raise a family on an income of one. These people work incredibly hard. I don't see why they shouldn't have this. There just seems to be this philosophical anger at this. I've seen it a lot amongst white collar workers as well. And I think it's because what it comes down to is the pandemic was a sorting mechanism. We found out what's really valuable and what's not. So a lot of tech workers who were making the same money to become like a product marketer or whatever got fired and they're pissed off. The people who work

on their feet and with their hands and all that are making so much. So it doesn't bother me at all. And in fact, I think the economy should look a lot more like this than not less. Men. I mean, who doesn't want an economy where people might be able to afford to have a house, might be able to afford to have a family? That's what we're supposed to all be aiming for here. And I really do think it reveals just a level of sneering contempt for working class people. That's the only thing you can really attribute it to. Because no one blinks an eye at someone, you know, sitting in an air conditioned office looking at a computer screen making this kind of money. That we just that's fine.

And it is fine. You know what? It is fine. But guess what? These people work so hard. I challenge you to spend a day in these guys' shoes trying to run these routes and deliver these packages in the heat and in everything else, every other condition. This is a brutal job.

I've known people who do this job. I know the training they go through. I know how long it takes for them to be able to get to this position of being a full-time driver. I know how difficult it is on their bodies to do this kind of work day in and day out. So yeah, $170K all day long. I am 100% happy. I would like to see many more working class or service sector jobs that are essential to this country that make this whole thing work, earn a decent standard of living. By the way, there's also a lot of commentary about, you know, oh, the labor market's so tight and, oh, we can't find workers and we're having trouble,

we're short-staffed, et cetera. They're not going to be having that trouble at UPS. Put this Axios report up on the screen. 50% increase in job searches with the key terms UPS or United Parcel Service in the week following the deal's announcement. UPS jobs, Axios says, are hot after union deal wins major pay bump. So they're going to be able to get the cream of the crop. They're going to be able to have their pick. And by the way, part of why this deal is so important, what do you think FedEx is going to have to do? Oh, yeah. They're going to have there is a huge gulf between I think I was seeing FedEx workers make more like $18 an hour. This is off the top of my head.

I could be wrong, but I know there's a huge gulf between what UPS workers are making and what FedEx workers are making. So if they want their drivers to be, you know, top of the top notch, if they want to be able to fill out their workforce, they are going to have to up their compensation and compete. And that's at a different time in America when you had larger union density. Even shops that were non-unionized, those workers also benefited from what the union workers were able to negotiate because their employers also had to compete. So I am 100% here for it. Yeah, and look, the company's still profitable. The main reason people hate this deal is because Wall Street doesn't like it, because the gross profit is going to go down. But here's the thing. These people have plenty of money. UPS is paying a 3.3% annual dividend on the stock. They're paying out billions. It's just traders who want

to be able to squeeze and up that dividend. They want to juice the gross profit, and they want to be able to pay out even more and possibly even have UPS do its own stock buybacks rather than pay it out to the employees. And the employees did what they should be doing. We have a wildly profitable business doing year over year, billions of dollars in annual gross profit. And the vast majority of that value is going to the company executives and to the stockholders. Why should it not go to the drivers whenever they have the ability to make that concession? So I think a lot of the freak out over this is really bad faith. And I think about this all the time. It's like, hey, if you want to go and do something that has real value, then do it. Nothing is stopping you. A lot of this

is just anger from the fact that it's like, yeah, you did what you were supposed to do. You went to college, you got your white collar job, you've got a lot of student debt and you're not getting paid what you think is fair. And I sympathize with that. I really do. Because society told you that the UPS guy's a loser and that you're not. But you know what? You know, sorry. Reality has a way of catching up to people. So if you want to go make 170 grand, not a single thing is stopping you from being able to lift 70 pounds and walk 10 miles a day. Only turn right. Yeah, exactly. You can apply next time, or you can go create your own business. You could try and do something. You can see something that the market generally does have some value for. So yeah, I think that a lot of this is just

outrageous. Some of the way that people are, and maybe they're trying to make them feel bad for bargaining for a good wage. When you look at the situation, you're like, this is clear as day. It's not going to hurt the company at all. There's an element too of white collar workers who do earn this kind of salary, you know, 170, 200, whatever, who don't want to see the UPS guy be in the same class as they are. I think you're right. And who, you know, don't think they quote unquote deserve to have the decent life that they are very happy to enjoy. The last thing that I would say is, unfortunately, $170K is a good salary. It doesn't go nearly as far as it should, given the price of housing. This is astonishing. We're going to cover this

in a separate segment, probably to drop on the weekend. Just put this up on the screen from Bloomberg. 16% of Californians can afford to buy a home in the state. You know why? You have to earn $208,000 just to be able to qualify for a 30-year mortgage. So like your standard issue mortgage, you got to be earning $208,000. So even in the UPS drivers doing well, $170,000 in California, still probably can't afford a house. And that's a big part of the story of why, you know, the middle class has just been decimated in this country and why it is so, so difficult, no matter what you're doing, to be able to get your foot on that

ladder of financial security. Yeah, no, absolutely correct. And, you know, the UAW relates a lot to this as well. Yeah, that's right. So a lot going on with UAW, as I brought you before. There is a potential strike looming among the big three automakers. That contract expires on September 14th. They also, like the Teamsters, have a new, more militant president who was just elected by their members to take a more aggressive stance and posture in terms of these negotiations. So there's a little bit of a backstory here. One of the executives of the big three, Stellantis it's now called, he has been putting out all this, oh, you guys got to understand economic reality and you've got to be reasonable in

your approach. He put out this letter that just was so patronizing and absolutely enraged the membership. They also came to the table with a deal that was flat out rejected by the new UAW president, Sean Fain, as not serious as expecting them to take concessions at a time when they are very much expecting to make up for some of the concessions that they took in the past, in particular, the way the workforce bailed out the big three, along with taxpayers back in that 2008, 2009 era. Well, now it comes out that this dude, the executive CEO of Stellantis,

while these negotiations have been going on, he's not even in the country. He's in his second home vacationing in Acapulco. Take a look at this. So he is out there living it up while he's putting terrible deals on the table and calling for workers to accept economic realism. Sagar, apparently he and his husband just bought one of the most expensive mansions in all of Detroit. His husband is also an Amazon executive, apparently. He's got this beautiful mansion, second home in Acapulco that he's spending lots of time in during these negotiations. It's just absolutely unbelievable and really does tie into, they think they're entitled to this life. And then the workers who, you know, create the profits, do the labor to generate these profits are entitled to just the minimal scraps.

They're the ones who have to face the economic reality. Well, you know, you don't need a second home in Mexico. You know, it sounds nice. It must be nice, actually, to be able to jet away and issue statements and work like this and all of that. Apparently, the CEO of the company made $25 million last year. And their head of bargaining, as you said, he just bought the most expensive house in all of Detroit. I genuinely wonder if these people don't understand public record. It's like, do you know what this is going to look like whenever you're saying these types of things? Or, I mean, to be honest, I think I just don't care. How many people are really going

to cover it? Us? A couple of local Detroit papers, that's pretty much it. And that's part of the problem. You know, nobody really does cover labor that well in the country. And a lot of these people, unless, you know, Ted Cruz, every once in a while, somebody gets in trouble for going to Cancun. But this is business as usual and kind of has been for a long time. So it's disgusting. But part of the worst is how banal it is, is actually in the context of how normally these things kind

of go. Yeah. So it's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. I mean, right now, it looks very much like a month from now they could be heading towards a major strike. Obviously, this would be huge. It would be, you know, certainly one of the largest strikes in recent history. Put this up on the screen, a little bit of the backstory here, the ongoing tensions. They say tensions rise in UAW contract talks with Stellantis as strike threat looms. UAW President Sean Fain said in a statement that Stellantis has broken a pledge not to seek givebacks in this round of talks in which the union is seeking more than 40 percent general pay raises over four years, restoration of pensions for newer hires,

cost of living increases, an end to wage tiers and and other benefits. So Sean Payne and the UAEW have made it very clear. They are not taking a concessionary contract, period, end of story. So when Stellantis showed up with a contract that was like, but how about you take some concessions? They were understandably outraged. By the way, that 40% pay raise that they're seeking over four years, the reason they picked that number is because that is the pay raise that the CEOs of these companies have gotten over that same timeframe. So they're saying, listen, if you're doing well, that's great. God bless. Let us in on a little bit of this prosperity. And again, these automakers are doing well.

Stellantis actually is the most profitable of the big three at this point. So they're making some big asks. are doing well. Stellantis actually is the most profitable of the big three at this point. So, you know, they're making some big ass. They feel like they have a unified workforce. They have a real commitment. They've got militant leadership. They've got a tight labor market and they're willing to go to the table and push really hard for what they think they deserve. And again, keep in mind that these workers all took a big haircut and gave up, among other things, their cost of living increases as part of the auto bailout back in 2009. So, you know, we remember the taxpayers bailed out the big three. That was good. We should have done

that, protect American industry, jobs, et cetera. The workers also were part of helping with that bailout such that their pay, you know, in absolute, when you account for inflation is way down from where it was during that period. And so they're looking clawback a bit of what they have given up over those years to make these automakers profitable. Yeah, exactly. And you know, one thing, good thing too, is that history and politics is really on the side of the UAW here because in previous times, what would they do? They're going to slash and burn, and they're going to outsource to China to Japan, or sorry, to outsource to China and to Mexico. But because of the political wind shifting completely against that, they don't have that option this time. And I think that really is

to the benefit. The main part is we got to get our trade policy unified such that foreign competitors can't come in and do what they did in the 1970s, which was basically undercut the American market with cheaper made goods because of our ridiculous free trade policy. So if you make sure you protect that and you actually give the union, you know, if you give the union the living wage and then also focus things on the quality control side and all that. We actually could have what we haven't seen in a long time, which is an actually good, well-made American union-made car. There's a lot of things that have gone wrong with the car market over the last 50 years, but outsourcing was one of the original sins that killed it completely. So this is a good thing, though, that's really on their side. Yeah, and in the EV transition, if they want to take advantage of the incentives

laid out by the Biden administration, it's got to be here. Now, the Biden administration did screw up and get crosswise of the union on their EV incentives because they didn't require these new factories to have union labor or to match the wages of the workers who are building the sort of traditional gas-powered cars. So that's a major sticking point. It's part of why the union has not endorsed Biden when most other unions have fallen in line. So there's a lot going on there, too. But this is one to watch, guys. This is getting more and more heated and could have huge implications for the economy and for workers in general. Certainly could. We're going to keep an eye on it. OK, let's get to it.

The song of the summer. Isn't that what the kids call it? There is a new number one hit in this country. Let's go ahead and put it up there on the screen. Oliver Anthony, he's a Southern Virginia gentleman, has now reached the number one spot in the United States on the iTunes chart with the blue collar anthem, quote, Richmond, North of Richmond. I'm going to go ahead and assume that some of you guys have actually heard it. We can't play it for you because of YouTube copyright law. Music in particular is pretty vicious. But we do have some of the quotes that we can go ahead and pull out for people. So let's go ahead and put Mr. Anthony playing this up there on the screen. So in terms of the actual lyrics to the song, there's been a lot of analysis of said lyrics,

Crystal. And it's interesting because it certainly has struck a chord. So it opens, it opens, and I think with some good lyrics. He says, I'm quote, living in the new world with an old soul. These rich men north of Richmond, Lord knows they all just want to have total control. Want to know what you think, want to know what you do, and they don't think you know, but I know that you do because your dollar ain't shit and it's taxed to no end because of rich men north of Richmond. Richmond, north of Richmond, of course, referring to people here in Washington. So I think that the first 35, 40 seconds of the song are the reason why the song is such a success. It doesn't get into any politics and turn right, I think, up until an interesting lyric about Jeffrey Epstein. You have to be online enough in order to know this.

He says, quote, I wish politicians would look out for minors and not just minors on an island somewhere. Lord, we got folks in the street and got nothing to eat and the obese milk and welfare. So in that specific, is it a stanza? Is that what it's called? All right. Sorry. I don't know. I don't know. That's where things take an interesting turn. He has me up until Epstein. Then things become a little bit more interesting.

He says, quote, well, God, if you're five foot three and you're 300 pounds, taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds. Young men aren't putting themselves six feet in the ground because all this damn country does is keep on kicking them down. So here's my analysis of the song, Crystal. And I understand people are very, people love the song. Tell me.

This should be put in a time capsule as what the Republican Party of today is. No, for real. And that's why it's taken off for several reasons. It gets to the class anxiety in the first 35, 40 seconds. Bullshit pay, overtime, substance abuse, being neglected by the elites, but then somehow takes a hard turn to Ted Cruz conservatism by going after food stamps, obese people, and welfare. So the two parts of the song don't really actually fit together to me, but the ideological confusion of the song actually is the perfect emblem of the Trump movement, where you have

working class people backing Trump, and then he goes and passes the largest tax cut in history and they're like, no, no, no, he's fighting for the working man. And it's one of those where it ultimately, I think, comes to the cultural anxiety, which belies the plight of Mr. Anthony and a lot of the people around him. As I understand, he has terrible substance abuse problem. He found God and has now found music. God bless him. It's for real, you know, and it takes, and I wish this man absolutely nothing but success. And I continue to hope he does well. I'm more trying to look at it as a cultural sensation. And I think that the ideological confusion of that song is the, it really is the perfect view of what the Republican Party is today.

It's like free market libertarian, because you also, if you notice, he talks about taxation on the dollar and all of that. So he's like, well, I want lower taxes, but I'm also not making enough money. And I also am not for redistributed programs like food stamps. By the way, I looked into the data. Obesity actually does seem to go down as a result of the food stamp program. And so, yeah, anyway, I'm curious what you think. Because the cheapest stuff to buy is crap. Yes. And here's the other thing. That's not necessarily a food stamp problem. That's much more like a macroeconomic problem. It's like a big ag problem. Which, yeah, which, you know, if you care about big government, you know, why are we propping up some of these filthy companies that are actually making everybody ridiculously obese? Whole other

conversation. But like I said, we've got class anxiety backstopped by libertarian economics. Yes. This song to me is the Republican Party. And that is why it's taken off so much. I like your analysis a lot. It's so true because I'll hear a lot. There's a lot of like working class rhetoric that's been embraced by the Republican party. And then you're like, okay, what do you, what are we going to do about it? And it's like, we're going to have a debt ceiling shut down to cut food stamps. It was like, wait a second. He lost me. Um, yeah. I mean the fact that there's lines back to back that are concerned about people with not enough to eat. And then the very next line is like, so let's go after the welfare Queens and cut food stamps. I mean, listen, lots of people on both sides of aisle have confused politics that if you really flesh it out, it doesn't make a

whole lot of sense. I totally agree with your view of the politics embodied by this. It's like, if you take some Ron Paul libertarianism and you mix it up with some like Ronald Reagan welfare queen throwback politics, that's basically the song that you get. What I was thinking about, too, is why did this touch such a nerve and why did it blow up? Because let me be honest, like I actually do enjoy some music in this genre. So it's not like I'm opposed to blues or country or whatever. I just don't think it's a good song. Like putting the lyrics aside, the politics aside, I just genuinely don't think it's a good song.

It blew up because of the politics that are in it. And I think there's a few things going on here. First of all, I think it's part of a trend of like this. You can think of Sound of Freedom. On the other side, you could think of Barbie and some other sort of like liberal type of art that there's a real desire for people to wear their politics through their art to signal like who they are through the art that they're talking about and at least pretending to enjoy. I've been reading. I know you already read this book, The Fourth Turning.

We've been trying to get the author on the show. Marshall, you guys had him over on The Realignment. We'd love to have you on, by the way. Respond to our emails, please. Yes. He had this line about the particular phase of history that he posits we're in right now, which is like the crisis. He has this theory of like the periodicity of history. And he says, in the crisis phase, you don't ask, what does this art say to me?

You ask, whose side does this art say that I'm on? Interesting. That's a good call out. And that landed so much for me listening to this song again, like Sound of Freedom, Barbie. Try that in a small town. It's a huge sensation. So true. And I think it's especially true on the conservative side of the spectrum because they do feel very sort of like culturally sidelined. So anytime there's music, film, TV, whatever that they feel like represents their political perspective, you know, however imprecise or whatever, there's such a celebration of it because there's this deep desire to be like culturally visible and relevant. So even if the song is like not all that good, the fact that it has a lyric about, you know, welfare Queens or about inflation or whatever, it's like, yes. Or Jeffrey Epps is like, yes, I'm going to embrace this. I'm going to love this because at least I feel like this person is like,

sort of like me. So I pulled my redneck friends and I said, all right, why do you guys love this song? What's, you know, and look, I think it's, you know, I think it polled my redneck friends and I said, all right, why do you guys love this song? What's, you know, and look, I think it's, you know, I think it's good. I like, like I said, I like the opening part. Country music in general is not for me.

I grew up in Texas, bombarded with it. So I've rejected it ever since I left. They basically explained it this way, pretty much is what you said. They're pissed off that, quote, Nashville country

has gone woke and alt country is increasingly also going woke. People in particular right now are very upset at Mr. Tyler Childers for having a song about some gay coal miners. I don't really understand it, but apparently Childers played footsie with BLM kind of when things went out and people were pissed at him.

So he went down, but then he had a recent music video where there were like two gay coal miners in one of his videos. His fan base got pissed off at him. They're like, what are we doing here? Like, what are you trying to do? And so it was seen as a kind of a betrayal. At the same time, we've seen Jason Aldean

come out with Try That in a Small Town, which is a surge to a massive hit in the country. So I think that the line that you just said really encapsulates it, which is like whenever you want your art to reflect exactly like your personal political conviction. And that's why I think Anthony's, the thing is the other genius thing about the Anthony song, if you think about it, is it renites the entire Republican coalition. You've got the small business Republicans who love the welfare line, and you've got the small business Republicans who love the welfare line. Then you've got the working class people who love the beginning lines

about bullshit pay, overtime. You've got, he's very religious. He opened his most recent show with a reading from the Bible. So you've got the evangelicals. He was, you know, he's got all the hallmarks of like the evangelical, like saved by Christ from substance abuse.

And again, listen, God bless you, man. I truly wish this man the best. So anyway, that's my analysis. That's why I think it's a surge to a number one hit. I also think you can feel some of the, appears from what I've learned a little bit about him, some of the pain that the man has gone through. Lives in Appalachia from, you know,

I think he genuinely was telling a story like mirroring his own life. Yeah. Earning very bad money, drowning his sorrow in substance abuse, drugs and alcohol. Yeah. And then, you know, finding the Bible and then also turning to music to kind of outlay that. So there is something about the authenticity of where he's coming from, where, you know, I don't want to doubt him. I just think it's fascinating to look at it as a, as like a piece and just to be like, this is it. Like if you were to ask me about what Republican

politics in 2023 look like, it would be this right here. Yeah. You know, interesting side note about where he's from. He's from Farmville, Virginia. There's a very elite private boys school, college, Hampton, Sydney. Okay. That is in Farmville. It's, it's very rural area. He's not, he's not like, you know, he's not misrepresenting. He's not like an elitist or whatever. I'm not saying that. It's just funny because there is this, like, it's the sort of school that if you have a kid, sorry, Hampton, Sydney alums out there. If you have a kid who doesn't do that well in high school, you can pay a shitload of money to send them to this school. And it's like, they went to an elite school because of like the connections and whatever that they get. That's Hampton.

It's like Georgetown prep. Anyway, Sidwell friends or any of these places Yeah, so some of the problems that he's concerned about are very close to home that area Is it is it Jen this the other I saw some people be like he's not even from Appalachia. It does that it's not Appalachia I wouldn't call Farmville Appalachia. It's just like all it rural Virginia. It's just very it's where I mean, it's very rural It's like farm is harmful. It's very Country rural farms, etc. Just kind of in the middle of the state. All right. So yeah. As a Northern Virginia resident, I take offense, Mr. Anthony. We're the one who paid all your taxes. It's a joke. It's a joke. It's a joke. All right. SBF, we had to make sure that we covered this. Absolutely crazy development. And I know there was a lot of consternation around this.

So this actually does seem like, quote unquote, justice is working out here at the very least. Let's put this up there on the screen. SBS have been officially thrown in jail and had his bail revoked. The judge determined that there is, quote, probable cause to believe the defendant has attempted to tamper with witnesses at least twice. Twice. The most egregious allegation against him is that SBF actually allowed a New York Times reporter to come to his house and review the contents

of his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison's diary. At the same time, what he did is apparently he used a VPN to watch a football game rather than a television, quote, says something about the mindset of some of the things that he was engaging in. But the most crazy thing really was basically trying to provide dirt on the witnesses against him by inviting these reporters to come to his house, providing them copies of documents, showing them the contents of said diary, and then, quote, covering his tracks by trying to stop from it being connected to him because he knew it was in violation of the actual bail agreement.

And at the same time, what we understand is that there was a lot of consternation about the charges that were being dropped against him on campaign finance law. There was evidence, we thought, of corruption. But it actually doesn't appear to be that way at all. Let's go ahead and put this up there. Simultaneously, what we learned is that one of the most serious charges against him was only dropped because of a technicality, and that when he was facing extradition, the government had only agreed to send him to the US on fraud charges.

Prosecutors however wrote that to keep the treaty obligations, they would have to scratch that charge to make the illegal political donations. But it doesn't mean he's getting away with it because he's still faced with dozens of other charges. They are instead going to supersede with different charges that will not violate its treaty agreement with the Bahamas. So it's not that it was being dropped because he was quote unquote getting away with it. They are still going to be prosecuting under the current statutes.

And now he's got his ass thrown in jail for violating the terms of his agreement, allowing reporters to read your girlfriend's diary. That's a, or an ex-girl, well, polycule diary. I don't know what these people refer to each other as. Anyway, scumbag move. Dirtball. Dirtball. Yeah. And so what he did is because he I think she has probably flipped on him and is cooperating. And so he the what the judge is saying is basically he's trying to tamper with the jury and like turn them against her and make her look bad. So rather than him directly transmitting this diary to The New York Times, which would be easier to track. Instead, he invited the reporters to come to his house so he could more surreptitiously show them the diary, but apparently wasn't fooling

anyone. I mean, this is the other thing. It's like, this guy thinks he's so fricking slick. He really thinks he's pulling one over on everyone. And we see right through him at this point. So, you know, because of his own actions, his own stupidity, he now finds himself in for real jail until his trial. It's just an astonishing turn of events. And, you know, if you read the diary entries, I don't even think that it was a smart play to try to turn people against. Her name's Caroline, right? Yeah, Caroline. Against Caroline because she comes off kind of sympathetic. Like she's almost like a pawn.

First of all, they totally pay her way less than all of the other top executives. She's still making millions, so don't feel too bad for her. She felt completely overwhelmed, in over her head, like she didn't know what she was doing, like she wasn't up to the task, severe doubts about her own abilities to steer the ship. She feels like

there's no end in sight, et cetera, et cetera. And so what she comes off looking like is more of an easily wielded pawn than herself, some sort of a mastermind player. Now we'll see. That doesn't mean that she didn't commit fraud knowingly that she didn't, you know, I'm not trying to let this woman off the hook. I'm just saying in terms of SBF trying to make some power play here, I don't even think that this was an intelligence. I don't think it worked out the way that he wanted it to work out. I think he cultivated a relationship with the media and he's addicted to it. I know a lot of people like this. He loved the profile that he was getting. He loved the publicity and he just couldn't give it up. I mean, Michael Lewis, apparently, you know, who doesn't want to be written about by Michael Lewis? One of the great, you know, authors of our

time. He's been spending a lot of time at his house, you know, writing a new book on SBF. SBF was always a guy to do DMs and get on the phone. Remember, he spoke by a DM. I forgot he's writing a book about us. He's writing a book. Yeah, I actually can't wait to read it. It's going to be fun. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he's one of those people who he just loves the attention. Remember, he did multiple interviews. He did that one with the New York Times against the advice of his lawyers.

He just loves the spotlight. I think he's, I genuinely think he has a mental, I think he has an addiction. I think he has a sickness that causes him to act out. I could see that. In this way. And I think, you know, his hubris and all of that, as you said, he thinks he's the mastermind. And I think that he's cultivated that persona in his head, which caused him to pull off one of the most alleged biggest frauds really of all time,

and to be a symbol really of like the zero interest rate crypto phenomenon. Yeah. I'm sure he's been told his whole life he's this genius, boy genius. I mean, he kind of was. Wunderkind, et cetera. And so he just blesses all of his actions with this supposed genius and thinks that he is so much smarter than everyone else in the room. But it didn't work out for him. No, it did not. All right, so what are you looking at? Well, I want to start off by saying that unlike most people who talk about the decline of San Francisco or any other liberal city for that matter, I'm not happy about what I'm about to go into.

I've had some incredible times in San Francisco. I never really got to see it before it became a tech playground, but even when it was, it was relatively safe and it was a hell of a good time. Some of the best meals of my life have been in that city. I have many friends and even family who have lived there for stints who loved it. Sadly, almost all those people have left, including my family, because in the last few years it is slowly descending into the realm of a completely unlivable. And new data from the University of Toronto, which analyzed mobile phones used in downtown areas of cities, shows that most major cities actually saw a drop of about one-third.

That's extraordinary in its own right. But San Francisco has seen a full drop of two-thirds vacancy and activity in the city center. Other data is backing this up. Wall Street Journal is writing, quote, Downtown San Francisco now trails nearly every other major urban center in economic health. Its 25.7 office vacancy rate is close to 10 percentage points higher than the U.S. vacancy rate of 16.4. That is particularly a problem because San Francisco's funding model is largely based on that of other cities like New York. They levy the vast majority of taxes on the super-rich and the commercial sector to pay for city services. Downtown San Francisco accounts for nearly 75% of the entire GDP of the city,

showing that hits like office vacancy leave them especially vulnerable. And the reason workers are fleeing is really not complicated, as pretty much everyone has seen from news reports in the last few years. Property crime rates in San Francisco are some of the highest in the entire country. Theft is rampant across the city, both in retailers and towards residents. Personal property. This is coupled with one of the worst homeless vagrant problems in the entire country, with many people reporting dangerous near misses on the street and a feeling of generally unsafe any time they leave their homes. One recent piece of news really hit this. Hundreds of federal workers at the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, working for the Department of

Health and Human Services, will now be working from home for the foreseeable future because crime is so awful around the building. The building, which as you can guess, was brought to the city by Pelosi herself, is an 18-story monstrosity that sits in the downtown area. It also happens to be next to, quote, one of the city's most brazen open-air drug markets, where dozens of dealers and users congregate on a daily basis. The San Francisco Chronicle writes that the Pelosi building in particular is, quote, especially popular site for users to get high, socialize or pass out. And that the order was given through the building already had a system in place, even where a security guard was walking employees to the metro so they wouldn't get mugged on their way back home. Ironically, that order was actually given by the head of the building on the very same day that President Biden said that more federal workers need to come back to the office. The order by the federal government

is the ultimate admission of how bad the problem is. How can you convince people to come back to the office or even businesses to stay open when the feds themselves say it is too unsafe for their workers to come into the office. That bat signal has gone out to many businesses. You'll recall the news we brought here previously, the largest mall in the city, the Westfield Mall. I actually bought one of the ties that I wear. It's simply giving up and turning the property over to its loan holders. Other retailers are following suit. Nordstrom said it's going to close both its locations in downtown San Francisco due to dropping foot traffic in stores and rampant crime.

Whole Foods also is closing its flagship store in San Francisco after just a year citing concern for the safety of its workforce amid crime. Now look, individual stories of crime rarely tell the full picture of a city. But one woman in particular came to a point of discussion this weekend after she posted a TikTok describing her experience. Now, first, let's take a listen, and then we're going to discuss this on the other side. I'm literally shaking right now. I was just getting groceries, and I live in San Francisco, and I never really feel fully safe. If you live in San Francisco, I'm sure you know what I'm

talking about. And I just got groceries. I'm walking out of the store, and this guy is walking past me and says, you stupid bitch and he spits in my face that's all over my face and then I say excuse me did you just spit in my face and he says move or I'll rape you there's also people everywhere and everyone's just walking by because they're like I can't handle something else in San Francisco it's always something else I don't know even know why I'm posting this if you live in San Francisco do you feel this way all the time I don't feel safe ever I literally never feel safe it's better when it's daylight. But nighttime? No, not leaving my house. She's distraught. And unfortunately, the response to the video,

largely from the right, actually really annoyed me. Almost immediately, people dug up her account history to say, oh, well, she votes blue no matter who, or she supported defund the police. All that can be true. But over and over again, I'm noticing a trend where anytime something bad happens in a blue or a liberal city, the overwhelming response is a smug, well, you shouldn't have voted that way. And look, I don't even disagree on policy implications, but I do want to flip it around a bit. Scorning people who are distraught and who are having a problem and reacting to the terrible conditions in their lives, it's just as bad when the right does it as when the left doesn't. Remember the whole learn to code movement when left-wing intellectuals told coal miners they should learn computer skills to grapple with

unemployment and their way of life being completely destroyed? And in fact, the scorn and the lack of empathy that people often feel when liberals find themselves in big trouble is basically the same as when elite leftists have the what's the matter with Kansas hypothesis. Over and over again, you hear them say, why do these stupid Republicans who are borderline on the poverty level keep electing Republicans who work to defund their health care, stop worker protections, and minimum wage from being raised? And they push for free trade agreements that actually hurt their own constituents. And so when something bad happens to those red states, the discourse inevitably pops out a think piece or two about how Republican states are actually moochers who get more benefits than they generate and are downtrodden. Recall Hillary's comment. She won all the areas which are dynamic and not going

backwards. I just want to end on that note. Scorning people for living in awful conditions and being unsafe because of the way they voted, that is the road to hell. And we will never fix anything if that's the attitude. Because trust me, they got plenty of ammunition side on there too, should something bad ever happen to you. So there's no point to this monologue. I just saw that video. There's a lot of point to it. And if you want to hear my reaction to Sager's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at BreakingPoints.com. Anyways, Crystal, what are you taking a look at? Well, a stunning series of events recently unfolded in a small town in Kansas that has serious implications for free speech for all of us.

Marion County Record, small local newspaper serving Marion County, Kansas, saw their offices raided and ransacked by police, along with the home of their 98-year-old co-owner. Computers, cell phones were taken, personal records photographed. In a series of raids that were so aggressive, they saw one of the paper's journalists injured by the chief of police, and which was so stressful to Joan Meyer, the paper's co-owner, that she collapsed and died days later. The Kansas Bureau of Investigations has confirmed they're involved in whatever this so-called investigation is, and the more that we learn about it, the more that it stinks. It looks like powerful people in this small town did not like the reporting the paper was doing and decided to

use the local and state authorities to mete out revenge. All right, so here's what happened. All started when journalists for the paper attempted to attend a public forum for their local congressman, Jake LaTurner. It was held at a local restaurant. The owner of that restaurant, a woman named Carrie Newell, kicked the reporters out, telling them she refused to allow any members of the media in her business. After writing about that incident, the paper then received a tip about Ms. Newell, that she had a suspended license because of a DUI and had continued to drive on that suspended license anyway. Now, this had implications beyond local gossip. Newell was asking the local council for an ABC permit that could be put at risk by that DUI. The paper was able to confirm the tip using public records, but they declined to publish the information because they were concerned about the motivations of their tipster.

Specifically, they thought that Newell's ex was behind the leak, was trying to get the upper hand in a divorce dispute over who would get possession of the couple's cars. Now, up to this point, this is mostly some real typical small-town nonsense. But what happened next was deeply troubling. A pissed-off Newell claimed that the paper must have obtained her DUI record by illegal means. And apparently, she was able to convince the local cops to then pursue a broad search warrant. This search warrant was then signed off on by a local judge in spite of the fact that it appears to be in direct violation of federal legal protections for journalists. The Privacy Protection Act explicitly requires law enforcement to subpoena materials rather than obtain search warrants. Search warrants allow the cops to show up unannounced and conduct a broad search and seizure. Subpoenas are more narrow

and require subjects to be notified in advance, giving them a chance to contest the authorization. Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Villar signed the apparently illegal order and hasn't responded to requests for comment from other news outlets. So armed with this illegal search warrant, the entirety of the

local police force, plus two sheriff's deputies, came in full force to this tiny newspaper's offices and, again, the home of the newspaper's co-owners, Eric Meyer and his 98-year-old mother, Joan. Snatching cell phones, personal computers, photographing personal documents, bank statements that were laying on tables inside the Meyer residence. The chief of police was so aggressive in snatching one cell phone that he actually injured a reporter's hand. Days later, Joan Meyer, the 98-year-old co-owner of that paper, collapsed and died. She had worked at the paper for more than 50 years. According to her son, Eric, Joan had been quite anguished by the raids, had been unable to eat or sleep in their wake. The Kansas Bureau of Investigations has confirmed they've also brought into this investigation all triggered

by an unhinged local business owner with political connections who decided to try to throw her weight around. There's another layer to this as well, though, which may reveal why local law enforcement was apparently so willing to do the bidding of the licensed suspended DUI lady, the police chief, a guy by the name of Gideon Cody, was also the subject of an ongoing investigation by this paper, the Marion County Record. He had taken the role of local chief only recently after taking early retirement from the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department under what appeared to be suspicious circumstances. The paper was looking into exactly what had happened to trigger Cody's Kansas City departure at the time of the raid. Certainly convenient for him that all the notes on that investigation into what happened there, those

have all been seized now by his department that allows him access to ongoing reporting, including notes and information from confidential sources, as well as hampering the paper's ability to conclude reporting out whatever that investigation was going to show. According to the Daily Beast, Cody defended this search as part of a, quote, criminal investigation and also hinted that there may be more as-of-yet unknown details that would provide further justification for the raid. We'll wait and see if any of those additional details are forthcoming. As for Eric Meyer, the co-owner and publisher who just lost his mom, by the way, the message to his paper came through loud and clear. Mind your own business or we are going to step on you. For Meyer, the Marion County record has really been a labor of love.

He bought it with his mother and his father to save it from corporate ownership, takes no salary, distributes profits to his employees. He's single-handedly trying to buck the trend of local newspapers getting bought up and killed off. But threats to real journalism, they don't just come from corporate greed. They also come from corrupt systems where the powers that be conspire to silence anything that might be uncomfortable for them or threaten their power. Where the only stories allowed are toothless and cater to those with power rather than challenge and hold them to account. This story might be about a small town in Kansas, but the lessons are unmistakable for every town, suburb, and city in the entire country.

And Sagar, I write an interview with... And if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at BreakingPoints.com. Thank you guys so much for watching. Really appreciate it. Thank you to premium members who make all of our work possible. We've got a really fun guest in particular who I think all of you are going to love. Reminder, you guys get all of our interviews first before anyone, especially with the big ones. Otherwise, we'll see you all tomorrow. Over the years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned no town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've heard from hundreds of people across the country with an unsolved murder in their community.

I was calling about the murder of my husband. The murderer is still out there. Each week, I investigate a new case. If there is a case we should hear about, call 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I've seen a lot of stuff over 30 years, you know, some very despicable crime and things that are kind of tough to wrap your head around. And this ranks right up there in the pantheon of Rhode Island fraudsters. I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying.

Listen to Deep Cover The Truth About Sarah on the iHeartRadio app, 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. 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.

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