Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - MINI SHOW #1: Kamala Harris Disapproval, Nabisco Workers Strike, and Alex Jones Rips Trump

Episode Date: August 28, 2021

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Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, all you beautiful breakers. We thought we would do something a little bit different here. So we are going to release our weekend YouTube segments as an audio podcast because I know there's a sizable amount of you who only listen here.

So it's all good. We've got a couple of things that we recorded throughout the week, which are a little YouTube extras. And now here they are for your listening pleasure. At a rally recently, Donald Trump said that he got the vaccine and there was a little bit of like smattered booing. Then he tried to clean it up and be like, eh, but you still have your freedoms. This got a lot of media attention because it showed sort of that even he was at odds with where some of the bases in terms of

vaccines. Someone noteworthy, Alex Jones, picked up on this whole dynamic and had some interesting commentary. Let's take a listen to first Trump at the rally and what he said, and then Jones's response. You got to do what you have to do, but I recommend take the vaccines. I did it. It's good. Take the vaccines, but you got now that's okay. That's all right. You got your freedoms, but I happen to take the vaccine. If it doesn't work, you'll be the first to know, okay? I'll call up Alabama and say, hey, you know what? But it is working. BS, Trump, that's a lie, you're not stupid.

Just two weeks ago, they said it was 65%, then 40%. Saw a number put up about Pfizer shots, 30-something percent. Cuz they just wanna tell you it doesn't work, so you're running up a new damn shot. And then they'll tell you in six months that one doesn't work. It's called rope-a-dope. Shame on you, Trump. Seriously. Hey, if you don't have the good sense to save yourself and your political career, that's okay.

At least you're going to get some good Republicans elected. And, you know, we like you. But, my God, maybe you're not that bright. Maybe Trump's actually a dumbass. All right, we'll be right back, stay with us One of the things that's interesting here is that First of all, you see Trump Like in the moment

Adjusting his approach on Vaccines, so I don't think you're going to hear that Line anymore from him because he's famous For sort of like fixing these things on the fly But also, I mean What do you make of Jones Who has been a steadfast supporter of Donald Trump, saying the most basic thing that, you know, you should probably go out and get a

vaccine? Yeah, I mean, look, I guess in a way you got to hand it to Alex for having principles, right? No, I do think it's fascinating that even Trump, I don't know. I mean, many people have said, oh, well, this is something that goes much deeper that, you know, people don't take direction from Trump. I just don't think that's necessarily true. I think that if Trump had actually embraced the vaccine more wholeheartedly when he actually got it, I think back when was it, December or whenever, whenever it took weeks for them to even reveal that Trump

had been vaccinated. And I remember even senior officials didn't even know that that had happened. That I think could have made a difference. And so, you know, inserting yourself in the process now after, you know, a lot of the media campaign and a lot of the conservative, you know, just kind of skepticism of all that, I think you could have headed it off by, you know, calling it Trump vax or something like that. I've seen Trump do this on a variety of issues, like stimulus checks on Afghanistan. He can change the base opinion completely if he wholeheartedly believes it. And if he gets out in front of it early before kind of the media ecosystem takes apart, while he tries to insert himself after,

then it's not surprising to me whether, you know, Trump inserts himself or not, whether he can change opinion. So that's just kind of how I think about his role with all this. I mean, it is interesting because at this point, the base has definitely gotten away from him on this issue. Like, I don't think that there's anything he could say at this point that would change a hardcore, you know, 10 to 15% that would change their mind. They've decided that's it. And it really doesn't matter what he says. I mean, his, you know, his thing there is relatively half-hearted, like I got it was good for me, but you know, you do whatever you want. It's hardly even still a full throated endorsement to encourage people or take credit for it like you said to frame it as because this development did um happen under his administration so it'd be very obvious direction

to go and to claim credit for the vaccine that seemed to be the direction they were going in from the beginning and you'll remember the the numbers on vaccine hesitancy really flipped because originally you had even Kamala Harris saying like, I don't know if I want to trust the vaccine under Trump. And you had a lot of Democrats who, you know, I mean, that was wildly irresponsible and you had a lot of Democrats that were feeling that same way. So I do think that he could have your point about, he could have gotten out in front of it and change the course of, you know, of the dynamic for the base. But at this point, it's sort of gotten away from him. And I think Alex Jones is probably more in touch, unfortunately, with where the most hardcore supporters are in their

thinking at this point. Yeah, look, it's been eight months, right? So like now with eight months, and remember this happened en masse, which is that in the beginning, it was the conservatives who were pushing masks. And then the liberals were like, actually, no, there's nothing wrong. But then Trump went full anti-lockdown and more. I still believe that if Trump had embraced the Trump mask and he'd worn the presidential mask all the way back in March, first of all, he'd be president. But second of all, it would be a completely different reality in terms of the politics of all of this. And a lot of it would be switched with elite media, possibly doubting masks, and then actual normal people saying, no, this is something that we should be doing.

Trump has never really understood his own unique ability to actually push the base in whichever direction that he wants. I'm not saying that these are people who are just going to blindly follow him. But what he does is he can crack through conventional wisdom and through previously held assumptions because they have so much trust in him in so many other areas. Saw it happen on Afghanistan. We saw it happen on government spending, so many different areas within the Republican base. And I really do think that if he had changed his tune and been more of a leader on this, both on masks and on the vaccines, we'd be living in a whole different country. But now it's like, now what? He has no Twitter

account. He's not even the president anymore. So know, so now he's just he's much more of a figure than he used to have the same level of authority when he was actual president. Well, and if he had taken a few of those different measures and steps and public approaches, he'd probably still be president. I mean, that's the bottom line. It was close, close enough that if he had been like, you know, remotely responsible, then I think it would have been enough in the suburbs to hold down to a few more people where you win a Georgia, you win a Michigan, you know, you win it certainly. And you end up back ultimately in the white house because it was really that close. So it kind of, you know, it makes me, uh, it, it, it sort of illustrates a dynamic that it really isn't generally Trump kind of leading the base. His skill was he's very good at workshopping things publicly, figuring out what's organically landing and then leaning into that. It's not like he comes in with like, these are my set of views and I'm going to bring people to where I am.

He's more being led than he is doing the leading. So for example, now with vaccines, is he going to observe like, oh, this is the position of the base. How can I move them to where I think they ought to be? No, of course not. He put his finger in the wind. He saw what he got back and that'll be the end of that. I think, unfortunately, I think that's right. I mean, he's, he's both a pleaser and he never really saw himself as a leader. The only where times that he was is when he had really strong convictions on things like trade, like forever war. Um, those were things that he like truly believed and had for a really long time, obviously failed on Afghanistan. So, you know, not giving too much credit. But at the end of the day, like that was the way that you could actually push the base in a different direction. But in issues like this, I think he's going to be much more of a

follower like he was on mass and on lockdowns and more when really he could change the entire equation. Hey, so remember how we told you how awesome premium membership was? Well, here we are again to remind you that becoming a premium member means you don't have to listen to our constant pleas for you to subscribe. So what are you waiting for? Become a premium member today by going to BreakingPoints.com, which you can click on in the show notes. Time for one of our favorite recurring segments here on Breaking Points.

How terrible of a politician Kamala Harris is. So let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. This is a new feeling thermometer via NBC News in the way that Americans feel about different politicians. Kamala, in August of 2021, has the lowest feeling thermometer of any first year vice president going back to Al Gore in 1993 with an unprecedented very negative rating on NBC News' survey tracker. That, I think, is absolutely incredible. And you can actually see that even Al Gore had the 12% very negative feeling. Dick Cheney in June of 2001, Darth Vader Cheney himself, 11%. And this is pre-9-11,

so none of the bump. Joe Biden, July 2009, was at 19%. Mike Pence was at 23%. So you remember how much people hated Mike Pence, and they made all those memes around him calling his wife mother and all that? Yeah. Now go ahead and add 13 more, and we have Kamala at 36%. So she is truly one of the most hated politicians in modern American history, and especially amongst her colleagues there, among the former vice presidents. It's kind of incredible. Everyone could have predicted it, and yet it's just funny to see, it's funny to see it manifest itself into reality, is what it is. There's a lot about these ratings that are interesting slash disturbing. The Kamala one, actually, I kind of like the most because it kind of makes sense to me, you know. The Biden

one also kind of makes sense to me because his ratings are more or less neutral, like total positive 38 percent, total negative 36% is like more or less neutral. I guess Pence in a weird way as being more or less neutral kind of makes sense to me as well, because he was just such a bystander to the presidency. I mean, he really didn't do anything other than, you know,

occasionally pop up in the news doing something weird, like calling his wife mother, which I do think is kind of creepy. Um, whatever. It's your choice. the one that really the one that really disturbs me here is dick cheney yeah he had such positive ratings plus 23 and then on the difference between very positive and very negative plus 15 what but you know i mean you're probably too young to really remember

this period, Zagor. But when he first was picked as vice president by George W. Bush, the thinking was like, oh, this is like a moderating influence. This is someone who actually really understands government and he's not going to be, you know, this radical, like George W. Bush has more radical ideas. The thought was for a lot of people who were nervous about George W. Bush, they were kind of relieved when Cheney got picked as vice president. And then, of course, like 9-11 happens and he just uses it as an excuse to implement this incredibly radical ideology of nation building around the world, obviously the consequences of which we're still living with here. But look, I mean, anyone who watched Kamala's failed presidential performance should have

known that this would be the case. And this is an instance where she is 100 percent a media creation. I mean, the voters literally were like, we want nothing to do with this. She had to drop out before the primary. But because she'd been such a media darling and because the establishment so wanted to make her happen, she ends up as vice president of the United States. And now they're kind of hosed because they're stuck with her and they have to look at these numbers and go like, geez, I hope the old guy makes it to the next presidential run, because if Kamala ends up as the top of the ticket, we're in some big trouble here. And that's just 2024. Look, she will be the nominee in 2028 if Biden wins reelection. I mean,

then you're hosed. I really don't know what to say. I've never seen such a surefire loser on the modern American political stage. And just everybody's always crying misogyny. And look, I'm sorry. That is not what is happening here. Or if it is, maybe it's a small part of the story. Plenty of women have done plenty well in many different Democratic primaries and have been elected to many Democratic offices. It's the fact that she clearly is just a very unprincipled person. This is something that goes all the way back to her political career. From the very beginning, she is a chameleon and people can sense it. One of my favorite things here in DC is that stupid mural, which is like, excuse me, Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. And I'm like,

who asked for this? I actually want to know. Nobody is like yasqueening around Kamala except maybe herself. That's it. Obama, I get it. I get it. Absolutely. Even Hillary, it's not my thing, but I understand. There are like legit Hillary Hillary stands out there. But with her, just the level of trying to create it into this thing and running into actual public opinion, they're just never going to be able to obfuscate that. And it's a story I always love highlighting because it just shows how full of it that the media and really that these people are, that they try and force it down people's throats. The only thing that can save you is democracy from letting these people take over. Yeah. Well, and there's also been a trend over time, which is part of, I guess, why Dick Cheney is so popular in these very

disturbing polls is, you know, public officials have just gotten less popular over time. I mean, people are just disgusted. Republican, Democrat, talented, undalented, like across the board. People are just fed up with the political class and everything is also fed through this incredibly like tribal partisan sectarian lens. So you automatically know that if you're a Democrat, every Republican is going to be against you. Every Democrat is likely to be for you. And then all the action is kind of in the middle with the independents, of which there are fewer and fewer who actually are kind of unaffiliated from a partisan perspective.

So that's kind of like a longer how because of the media's wildly unfair coverage of his Afghanistan withdrawal, he's taken a big hit there. But and approval ratings are a little bit different than this. Like, how do you feel about the person thing? But he's still doing better than Kamala, even right now when things are at their toughest for President Biden. That's right. Well, good luck. That's all I have to say. Good luck to Kamala, even right now when things are at their toughest for President Biden. That's right. Well, good luck. That's all I have to say. Good luck to Kamala. I wish you the best. I hope that you run so that I can cover it here on the show. It will be interesting to watch and we will bring you all the latest. Wow. You guys must really like listening to our voices. Well, I know this is annoying. Instead

of making you listen to a Viagra commercial, when you're done, check out the other podcast I do with Marshall Kosloff called The Realignment. We talk a lot about the deeper issues that are changing, realigning in American society. You always need more Crystal and Saga in your daily lives. Take care, guys. So workers across the country are on strike at Nabisco factories in five different cities across the country right now. They're saying they've lost their pension. They're saying they're worried about jobs being moved overseas, something Nabisco has done in the past. This is at a time when the company has done extraordinarily well during the pandemic. So joining us now to bring us up to date on what is going on with that strike is Mike Burlingham.

He is the vice president of BCTGM Local 364 in Portland, Oregon. Mike, it's great to have you. Thank you very much for having me. Yeah, absolutely. So just tell us why you and your brothers and sisters are on strike. Absolutely. This has been a long time coming, unfortunately. It's been a bit of a boiling pot really since 2016

when we sat at the table for the first time with Mondelez. Mondelez became the new owners of Nabisco in 2012 when there was a split from Kraft Foods. So in 2016, when we were meeting with them for the first time, it was very apparent that Mondelez's approach to negotiations was, we have certain things in mind and we are unwilling to budge from those things. So it was more of a list of demands rather than negotiations. So from 2016 to 2020, we went without having a contract at all. So during that time, we were working on the previous contract. In between that time in 2018, the company claimed impasse and withdrew from our pension. So at that time, for all of us working inside of the bakeries and the distribution

centers that are all on this contract, the clock stopped for us in 2018. So for a lot of individuals who are months away from retirement are now having to work several more years to actual retirement age of 65 to receive that pension benefit. And for many people, they're not even going to receive that pension benefit at all. And in 2020, we did have a one-year contract, which was at the very beginning of the pandemic. So this allowed the use of temporary workers inside the facility on a temporary basis. The temporary workers were supposed to be out of the bakery by August 1st of 2020. The use of the temporary workers was only supposed to be there for sanitation purposes and also to pick up any areas of production in case people had to go out due to COVID reasons. On August 1st, 2020, when the company had reached out to all the locals to ask if they could keep the temporary workers working,

we told them no. They went ahead and kept them anyway. So the company is now in violation of its own contract. And up to the point here in Portland, Oregon, on August 10th, when we walked out, there were still temporary workers inside of that building. Got it. And Mike, the strike has now expanded across five different states. It's a historic action there. How many workers are we talking about here? And let's just get, you know, let's just reiterate and make it clear to people. What are you demanding, you know, in terms of the basics?

Right. Well, in Portland, Oregon, we have just a little over 200 workers represented by the BCTGM. In Chicago, there's roughly 600. Richmond, Virginia, over 500. These are the bakeries. And then we have our distribution centers as well. So there reinstatement into the pension that you took away from us without negotiation. These are things that we have fought for in the past. We've already given up things such as wages, taking lesser wages years prior so we can maintain pension funds, so we can maintain our health care benefits. We've already done giveaways in the past to have what we have today. So what we're coming to the table is saying we just want things to remain the way they are. The company isn't interested in that. They're coming in saying, oh, these are decade-old policies that we have in here, and then these are the things I need to change. The company says they're coming to the table in good faith.

But again, just like in 2016, they're coming in with their list of demands and saying, we're not budging from this. So that's not negotiating. And Mike, did Mondelez and Nabisco, they have a tough year last year, profits way down, barely making it? On the contrary, Mondelez and snack foods as a whole did very well during the pandemic. But Mondelez just last year in 2020, had $3.5 billion in profits. The year before that, they made $3.9 billion. And the year prior to that, they made $3.3 billion. So we're talking about over the course of the last three years, they have made nearly $11 billion in profits.

And they are making acquisitions. They are a growing company. They're doing very well for themselves. But during the global pandemic, excuse me, the demand was very high for snack foods. So what that meant for us is a lot of hours and a lot of days put in consecutively. For us here in Portland, many of us were working 13 to 16 hour days. Same can be said for Chicago and Richmond, Virginia. We were putting in long hours day after day. My longest stretch without a day off was five weeks. But for several people, they had even longer stretches. Wow. That is just unbelievable. And as you're saying, you're really not asking there for much, and the company isn't negotiating.

That is just absolutely crazy. Crystal, do you have anything else there? Yeah. One other thing, Mike. I've seen some workers calling for people to not eat Nabisco products. I just wanted to see if that is in fact the position of you and the union and where else can people find information about what's going on and keep track? Sure. Yes. Right now, while we are out on strike, we are asking people do not buy Nabisco products.

We've had a campaign for a number of years now when the company was shutting down bakeries and moving a lot of the money down to Mexico. We were asking people to check the label on the back of your package. It'll tell you where your food is made. Please support the U.S.-based bakeries and buy those Nabisco products. Do not buy any that say made in Mexico. We've been very fortunate to have a lot of coverage with this strike right now and keeping yourself educated on what's going on. I feel like a lot of people are doing so. We've been getting a lot of great support on that. So we want to say thank you very much to everybody out there who's supporting us. Yeah, I saw you guys. I saw information on War Perfect Union.

They've been doing great work. I know had a few videos featuring some of your workers. And listen, it takes a lot of courage to do what you guys are doing to stand up for yourselves to try to push back against a giant multinational corporation. So, you know, just really grateful to you for the time today. And we will be following closely and wish you all the best, Mike. Thank you, Mike. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Thanks for listening to the show, guys. We really appreciate it. To help other people find the show, go ahead and leave us a five star rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. It really helps other people find the show.

As always, a special thank you to Supercast for powering our premium membership. If you want to find out more, go to crystalandsauger.com. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily, it's You're Not the Father Week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family

fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. He's trying to give it to his irresponsible son, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. They could lose their family and millions of dollars? Yep. Find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. Enter Camp Shame, an eight part series examining the rise and fall of Camp Shane and the culture that fueled its decades-long success.

You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now.

Let me hear it. Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.