Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - Mini Show #21: 700K Subs, Akaash Singh, Student Debt, Substack, Amazon Workers, Rogan vs White House, & More!

Episode Date: February 5, 2022

Krystal and Saagar talk about getting to 700K subscribers, Akaash Singh's standup special, Biden's moves on student debt, backlash to substack, Amazon intimidating workers, the White House calling for censorship of Rogan, and more!To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.supercast.com/To listen to Breaking Points as a podcast, check them out on Apple and SpotifyApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-points-with-krystal-and-saagar/id1570045623 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Kbsy61zJSzPxNZZ3PKbXl Merch: https://breaking-points.myshopify.com/Daily Poster: https://www.dailyposter.com/ Akaash Singh: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdFGdIh0CZa_oF8MJAowsEw  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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that everybody's paying attention to. And because we're no longer on like the corporate algorithm or whatever favorable treatment you get over there at the Hill, your videos don't get served up to as many new people. And so it makes it a lot harder to actually grow that subscriber number. So we've seen a spike over the past number of days that helped to put us over the top of 700K.

Obviously, we're gunning for a million here. I'm gunning for one. I want that gold plaque right behind me, all right? I think that's a goal for this year, definitely, is to hit a million. So whatever you guys can do to help us get there, we love you for it. Thank you to those of you who have already hit subscribe. And of course, thank you as always, first and foremost, to our premium subscribers who make us not subject really and truly to the whims of YouTube. It helps a lot.

Very exciting milestone. Thank you guys for helping us make it happen. We love you. We love you very much. Joining me now is an amazing comedian, a personal friend of mine, Akash Singh. He, of course, co-hosts Flagrant 2 with Andrew Schultz, also a good friend. But he's coming out with a new special, Bring Back Apu. Akash, I'm really glad that you're here.

Tell us a little bit about why you chose the name Apu, why also you're going straight to YouTube and some of the rollout and the strategy behind this. First of all, thank you, Sagar, for having me. I'm excited to misinform millions of people. But I wanted to call this special Bring Back Apu because I thought Apu was a tipping point of like victimhood currency for South Asians. Yes. Whereas I, my eyes have been opened a lot. Like if you are a black American, you have been systemically oppressed.

If you are a South Asian American, you haven't. Your feelings might get hurt. But overall, we're in fantastic shape. We're like 40% of the doctors in this country, whatever astronomical percentage. So if you're going to point to this guy, Apu, as some, oh my God, we should have some currency in this victimhood market. I just don't buy into that. I think we are victors. We're not victims.

And so I wanted to do a special kind of centered around that theme of like, you can't just shout down every white guy and tell him he's privileged. We also have privilege and we do need to acknowledge that. Like I got family in India with no electricity right now. So I'm going to talk to them about white male privilege. What kind of asshole would I be? And I want to make it funny and have fun. Yeah. And so I wanted to poke fun at all that stuff. You know, I remember this was a big tipping point for me too, because I remember when that Hari Kondalablu stuff started coming out about Apu. And I was like, who is this guy? I'm like, he doesn't speak for me. I'm like, look, Apu, yeah, I mean, was it annoying? And somebody says it when you're a child, as you point to, Indian Americans

are the richest people literally in the entire United States. I mean, I don't know if there's been a better example of people who have succeeded within a single generation, which is astounding, honestly. And frankly, we should celebrate it. But choosing victimhood complexes and more, as a comic, how do you play with that? So when you're talking, because you're not just talking to an Indian audience, you're talking to all kinds of people. So how do you play with those jokes and make it relatable to as many people as possible? I think Pooh is the one joke I have

that's kind of like South Asian-centric in that special. And I think a poo is something that we all kind of recognize. And so many people were just like, I mean, I'm sorry to hurt your feelings, but like, we're going to do a whole, we're going to do a whole, like, conversations and news articles about this thing. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

So I think that was kind of the idea of it. And in general, I've noticed about me my whole life, I've just been annoyed by the loudest voice around me. I grew up in Texas and then I found extreme conservatives really annoying and stupid. Same as you. Then you move to New York and LA

and you're like, oh, extreme liberals are just annoying. Yeah, just as good. And it helps you be a comic. You got to fight against the loudest voice in the room because usually they're wrong. And that's why they're being so loud. So I think in there, in the middle is where most of my fan base is.

And we all kind of relate to this. Like everything around us just seems absurdly loud. So let's just poke fun at all that and let's have fun. And that's the kind of community we create. Even though I am super proud of being a Salvation, I know that's not going to be my only fan base. And I love that. I'm talking to them the most a little bit, but let everybody come in. Let's have fun, and let's just laugh at all this uncertainty.

You know, Akash, obviously I'm a fan, man. I listen to your guys' podcasts all the time. I thought it was really interesting that you guys are— you and Andrew are big believers in releasing specials and stuff to YouTube. That's your plan here. So this obviously circumvents the old model, which is you go to a Netflix, you go to an Amazon, you try to sell it.

Why did you decide to do that? What's the strategy here? I decided to do that mainly because Andrew decided to do that. And why not? It works. It works. But also, I noticed my whole career, and this is a similar thing Andrew and I have,

is that I was kind of overlooked by the industry, and I'm not mad at them, but they kind of tend to put on a lot of minorities who kind of relish the victimhood culture. And I don't think it's ill-intended. I think people who are genuinely, these executives genuinely do feel like, oh, I've had a pretty privileged life and that sucks.

So when they put on a minority who kind of like talks about how much they struggle and how much white people are evil, whatever, I think they feel relieved of their guilt because they're like, oh, well, I gave him a platform. So I don't feel guilty. And I think people that just became a cycle of like this thing that we all see in the media, which is every minority shouting down every white person. And it's just not healthy. It's cool to make fun of each other. I think we make fun of, I don't believe in punching down and punching up. We're all equal. We all punch each other in fun.

But the industry didn't tend to reward that. So we kind of had to take this alternative route to do the style of comedy we wanted to do. At the end of the day, that's more important than making it, is saying the things I want to say and having fun. Got it. I still remember one of the funniest clips I've ever seen you guys do is when some Comedy Central executives lost your job and you were dancing. I remember watching that on Instagram. I literally lost my mind about how funny that was. But it's in a broader context. So you guys looking over and have become massive stars. I've been to some of Schultz's shows in DC or elsewhere. I mean, it's crazy to see it. We're talking about selling out huge auditoriums. I

very much hope to see that in your future as well. And from that point of view, Akasha, we've been talking a lot here on the show about misinformation and about this. And to me, the most pernicious part of this is, look, Joe Rogan, he's going to be fine. Dave Chappelle, they're going to be fine. You know who gets screwed? It's guys like us, guys like us who are on our way up. Can you talk about why it's so important for you and for me and anybody else who finds himself on the way up not to participate in these things? Because it ultimately just leads to either self-censorship or the destruction, possibly, of our own careers. As we want to last and be successful, too. Yeah, in general, I don't really want to censor anybody who I think is speaking authentically.

Even if I disagree with you. If you believe these things, I will yell back and forth. But in no way do I think an argument should be me yelling at you for yelling and then silencing. I think that's unhealthy across the board, aside from career ramifications. And I don't think the career ramifications are as great because at the end of the day, people want to hear discussion. That's why you guys are killing it.

That's why you're one of the biggest podcasts and news podcasts on earth over CNN or NPR or whatever, and you're behind the paywall. Like these free podcasts that are just full of shit, everybody's bypassing them to go to you because it's authenticity and that we want authenticity. But I also think for, I don't think I'm like a savior in any way, but I think the future of this country is not in good shape

if period, we just stop allowing each other to talk. If we just keep yelling at each other and demonizing the other side, and that person shouldn't be able to talk, no, this person shouldn't be able to talk, and we just keep yelling at each other and demonizing the other side. And that person shouldn't be able to talk. No, this person shouldn't be able to talk. And then actually silencing, the country's just not going to be okay, period. And the smallest ramifications, I can't tell my ridiculous jokes, but I think overall, that's a thing that we should be wary of. Really well said, man. This is coming out Wednesday. So it comes out literally today

for everybody who is listening. Where can everybody go and watch it? Just watch it on my YouTube channel. It's Akash Singh Comedy. That's A-K-A-A-S-H-S-I-N-G-H Comedy. It's called Bring Back Apu. And I'm so excited for you guys to see it. I think we got a lot of fun with this. I can't wait to watch it.

We're going to link down there in the description. Also check out his work over at Flagrant 2. If you go to his website, he's going to be touring the country. Go and see all of his comedy appearances live. Akash, my friend, thank you so much for joining the show. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much, man. God bless, buddy. Love you. See you later. Joining us now for our weekly partnership segment with The Daily Poster. We have Julia Rock. She is the reporter on a new piece headlined Biden Moves to Block Student Debt Victory. The president created draconian bankruptcy laws. Now his administration appears to be trying to overturn a ruling that helps those bankrupted

by student loans. Great to see you, Julia. Good to see you, Julia. Thanks so much for having me. So this is a throwback. This is Biden getting back to his roots of making the bankruptcy laws worse for ordinary people. Tell us what's going on here. Yeah. So this is a case about a 35 year old man who held about one hundred thousand dollars in student debt. And he went to bankruptcy court in Delaware to have the debt discharged. He is sort of unable to keep a job due to disability. There are a lot of extenuating circumstances in this case. And so he went to bankruptcy court to have his debt, half of which is held by the federal government, half of which is held by a private provider, to have his debt discharged. And he had a rare victory in court. You know,

bankruptcy judges, in part thanks to laws that Biden helped write as a senator, set a very high standard for having student debt discharged through bankruptcy. So this man wins a rare victory. A few days ago, the Biden administration announces that it's going to be appealing the judge's decision, which not only could prevent this man from having his student loan debt discharged, but it could also sort of bolster this existing legal precedent, which creates a very high standard for having debt discharged through bankruptcy. Got it. So explain that court appeal a little bit. So this is a conscious choice, basically. They are choosing to do this. Is it a matter of administration policy? Like, are they standing up for a law? What's even their rationale?

Okay. So first, I'll just note that the administration has filed its notice of appeal. It has not yet filed a brief. So the rationale remains to be seen. But what I will say is that this case in this case, in the original case, the administration did, you know, fight this debtor, which which already it didn't necessarily have to do. This has been something that the Biden administration has done quite frequently during during its first year has been, you know, go up against student loan borrowers in bankruptcy court. That is something that Senator Elizabeth Warren and some advocacy groups have encouraged the Biden administration not to do. But this is sort of an additional step so that they fight this man in bankruptcy court and he wins. That's rare. And now they're sort of taking the exceptional step to appeal the ruling, bringing it into a higher court where precedent could could be more meaningful.

And, you know, again, not only not only fighting this one individual, but also fighting against a more favorable legal precedent. And how does this new posture differ from some of the rhetoric and campaign pledges that Joe Biden ran on? Yeah, well, so most importantly, you know, Biden said more than once that he would immediately cancel at least $10,000 worth of student loan debt per borrower. And of course, that hasn't happened yet. You know, he has postponed student loan repayments continuing, but that's about it. And there was an additional sort of smaller or less covered promise that Biden made on the campaign trail, which was to reform these bankruptcy laws, which again, he helped write, that really rigged the system against student debtors. And his education department claims to be sort of reviewing its policies towards these bankruptcy

cases, but there hasn't been anything yet. There hasn't been anything like, you know, an executive order to prevent the Justice Department from intervening in these cases, as some advocates have called for. And, you know, once again, Biden is actually doing very much the opposite, not only fighting these people, but now appealing this case. Wow. And Julia, one of the things that's interesting here that we've tracked on this show with your colleague David Sirota is how, I mean, this work that Biden did on rigging the bankruptcy laws was some of his most odious work that he did in the Senate. It was also something that he famously butted heads with Elizabeth Warren over.

I mean, she really called him out and took him to task and said, you can't claim to be a supporter of women when you're, you know, rigging these bankruptcy laws, I'm paraphrasing, to screw them in your work over here as senator. And yet they didn't figure a whole lot into the Democratic primary campaign. I mean, the discussion of some of his worst excesses in support of the financial service industry weren't a major focal point of that campaign. And so then, you know, it's easy for him to make these moves when he was never really held to account. Yeah, I mean, if you if you look at Warren's comments about what Biden was doing in 2005, they're scathing. She's accusing him of

being in the pocket of the financial industry, yeah, of working against poor people basically and penning these laws. And she has been, you know, to her credit, one of the senators pushing Biden on canceling student loan debt. She helped lead a letter last week to demand that the education department release its memo that has been complete for almost a year, reviewing its own authority to cancel student loan debt. But certainly she's not saying anything, and she was not saying anything during the 2020 presidential primaries on the level of what she was saying back in 2005. Wow. Well, it's really interesting, Julia. Great find, and we appreciate your guys' reporting. So thank you. Great to see you, Julia. Thanks so much.

Our pleasure. And thank you guys for watching. you, Julia. Thanks so much. Our pleasure. And thank you guys for watching. We're going to have more for you later. All right. So people are trying to cancel Joe Rogan. People are also trying to cancel the platforms which enable people who are not as famous as Joe Rogan, but who are making a living out here

in the independent media ecosystem. Let's put this up there on the screen. And this is not an op-ed. It's a freaking news article from the Washington Post technology desk. Quote, conspiracy theories spanned on major social networks connect with audiences on newsletters and podcasts. Oh, dangerous. Newsletter company Substack is making millions off of anti-vaccine content, according to estimates. And they point to some problematic folks who have been banned from YouTube or wherever and are making some money on Substack.

And Substack had a very classy response, at least, and said, look, we don't believe in censorship. We believe in free expression. We believe simply in enabling technology, which allows that to happen. We have content rules, plagiarism, anything that explicitly encourages people to do something which is actively dangerous, as well as doxing, the classic stuff that you get. Anything that doesn't violate that, we are going to err on the side of free expression. But this isn't coming.

It's not a coincidence. It's happening at the same time as Rogan, Crystal. It's a concerted effort by the media and the people who are threatened by Substack and by these alternative platforms in order to try and destroy many of their competitors. They cannot stand that anybody who has been banned, at least on the tech platforms that they prefer, has the ability to get their voice out in any other way. It's disgusting. They don't like the competition and they can't stand not having complete control over what can be said in the public sphere. I actually thought the response from Substack was really good. They said, the more that powerful institutions attempt to control what can and

cannot be said in public, the more people there will be who are ready to create alternative narratives about what's true spurred by a belief that there's a conspiracy to suppress important information. Censorship and labeling and, like, moral outrage and panic attacks over, oh, my God, these unfettered conversations happening on this platform or that platform. You're only causing people to feel like, you know, oh, well, what is so dangerous about this information? Why does this have to be suppressed? Why can't you just deal with that in the light of day and ultimately have these conversations? I also think it's funny because, like, I went and looked at Substack and who the top writers are in politics right now. The number one person in politics is still Heather Cox Richardson,

who writes letters from an American that's like, she's like a resistance lip. It's like a wine mom. By the way, fine. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with, I mean, it's like my history, but she has this very like resistance-y sort of ideology, okay?

And she's been very successful there. Good for her. Number two is the dispatch. Isn't that like a... Yeah, it's the cringe never Trump. It's like a never Trump thing, right? So that's number two. Then comes Taibbi.

Okay. Then comes Bulwark, which is another like... Once again, a cringe never Trump thing. Cringe never Trump site yeah i mean the article paints it like all that's on substack is anti-vaxxers yeah right that's the way they want to make you feel like like what were some of the social like parlor or whatever that did becomes or gab that did devolve into this just like total right-wing conspiracy laden. Substack has people literally across the entire ideological spectrum.

That's the point. Including, we had a Substack. We don't really get into it anymore. I have a Substack with Kyle for Crystal Kyle and Friends. Glenn's there. Matt's there. There's Resistance Libs.

There's Never Trumpers. And yes, there are some, like, apparently anti-vax people. Okay. But the whole idea that it's going to be an effective strategy in a democratic society is just try to censor the information that, you know, that is wrong sometimes or that is uncomfortable or that is hateful, that is outside of what you think the mainstream should be. It just doesn't work out. And by the way, it always comes back to, okay, well, who's going to be the censor? Because these people have their own financial and personal and power interest in determining what the sphere of acceptable conversation ultimately is. So yeah,

it's not an accident that they go through like one by one, every single platform. There's a panic about podcasts right now too. There was a panic about YouTube. There's a single platform. There's a panic about podcasts right now, too. There's a panic about YouTube. There's a panic about Substack. Every one of these new platforms is subjected to the same freak out about unfettered conversations and, you know, un's my favorite about who latches onto these campaigns. Put this next one up there. Chelsea Clinton's is ActiVax grift going strong. Why is Substack facilitating science denialists? They're making so much money a year publishing on Substack. Here is a great Glenn Greenwald response. Put this up there.

I freaking love this. And I'm going to read it because it is just so completely brutal. On Chelsea Clinton, Chelsea Clinton is lamenting this sub-sack is profiting off of a grift. Apparently, this political heiress, who is one of the world's richest individuals by virtue of winning the birth lottery, of being born to rich and powerful parents, who in turn enrich themselves by cashing in on their political influence in exchange for $750,000 paychecks from Goldman Sachs, and who herself was showered with a $600,000 contract from NBC News, despite no qualifications, believes she is in a position to accuse others of grifting.

This is the perfect, perfect response, which is, no, you're the grifter. You're worth $50 to $100 million. You're on the board of, like, Expedia. Oh, yeah, I'm sure you're a freaking genius, Chelsea Clinton. I mean, this is what I'm talking about. The people who are pushing the censorship campaigns, oh, some people are making a little bit of money on substandard. That $2.5 million is what these people make in interest a year off of the grift that they have been pulling off of what, on all of us, really, for the last couple of decades. So, you know, look, all we can really point to is that the attacks are coming strong.

I knew they would. It was always my fear whenever we set up our business here. But ultimately, look, the reason to do it is because of all of you who are out there who speak out against this stuff. So the campaign continues. I don't know what else to say. Personally, I'm very concerned about some of the warmongering lies and Russiagate lies that some of these other content creators on Substack have been profiting off of. So if we're going to have a conversation about misinformation, let's have a fulsome conversation about misinformation and who is getting what wrong where and with what consequences. Label every single thing the Pentagon says about

Ukraine misinformation. And then I'll start to believe you. All right, guys, thanks for watching. We'll have more for you later. Some big news on the Amazon front. New ruling from NLRB. Let's go ahead and put this tear sheet up on the screen. The NLRB has accused Amazon of threatening and surveilling warehouse workers on Staten Island. That is a significant facility. That's, of course, where Christian Smalls was working when he was fired. They say for violating COVID protocols, okay, what he was really fired for was agitating for better conditions and potentially a union for his workers. It's also where we've tracked a worker who, again, was agitating for

union rights, who was fired, who has now been made homeless because he was fired potentially illegally by Amazon. They deny all wrongdoing, et cetera, et cetera. Let me give you a little bit of what this article says. Federal labor regulators on Thursday accused Amazon of illegally surveilling and threatening workers who are trying to unionize a Staten Island, New York warehouse. They want to compel Amazon to take certain actions to inform workers of their right to organize. That's according to a regional director for the agency. They say that Amazon repeatedly broke the law by threatening, surveilling, and interrogating their Staten Island warehouse workers who are engaged in a union organizing campaign. Amazon says this is false, and we'll show it through the process.

But, you know, some of the behavior that they wereated employees about their organizing activities, called union organizers thugs, and allegedly threatened employees by telling them it would be futile to select the union as their bargaining representative. They're also accused of soliciting unspecified grievances from employees with the promise to remedy them if they reject the union. So basically saying like, hey, if you've got some problem, I can fix it for you if you reject the union. This is totally and completely illegal. Union elections are supposed, workers have a right to join a union if they want to join a union. Union elections are supposed to occur in a laboratory environment, which is exactly what the NLRB ruled Amazon had violated in that election down in Bessemer. And all of this becomes really significant because the Amazon labor union, this new union that's blatantly illegal bullying and union busting behavior is that they're going to have to, like, post notices around the warehouse about what workers' rights actually are. We always try to point that out.

Yeah, you know, you can fine them, but they always get away with it. This is part of the problem. And, you know, you look at this stuff, it is just so blatant. Also, how good is it that this news comes from the Washington Post? Yeah, that's a great point. Owned by Jeff Bezos. That is a great point. And let me tell you something. They immediately, in the fourth graph, put Amazon spokesperson said the allegations were false.

Disclosure, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. These are little things you would never think of, it's very, very rare in order to have the direct response from the company all the way up above the fold, so to speak, in order to make it so that it's in the very fourth paragraph. I know this because I used to write and was a journalist. And if you read, you can see that the responses are usually buried in the 20th or the 30th or whatever paragraph, and they describe the allegation fully before. But instead, they put the response, and then they go into the details that Crystal Hall just laid out. So another little piece of media manipulation for all of you folks out there. But look, this is the second time now they've been caught threatening and surveilling warehouse workers on Staten Island. They have to redo the election because they basically rigged it over at Bessemer,

even though they probably would have won anyway. So, you know, there's, God, the stuff these people get away with, it's unbelievable. Yeah, and listen, I mean, I think it's still very long odds in Bessemer that the result will be any different. But the climate is a little bit different now from when they were originally running that election. So I do think they have a little bit of a better shot this time around. But it just shows you how, you know, the technical right to join a union is, you know, it's very difficult because workers are rational to look at this set of circumstances and say, you know what, they're threatening to fire me or they're threatening to close the plant if I vote in favor of the union, if we ultimately end up with a union. And you know what? They've done that sort of stuff before and they got away with it. So that's why these circumstances are so incredibly difficult. And of course, that's why you need a total sea change in the way that we approach unionization and the way that these

elections ultimately occur. But, you know, once again, they're caught red-handed, effectively bullying, surveilling, and engaging in these blatantly illegal tactics, even under our sort of toothless current union laws. And, you know, I think the more that people see the way that Amazon behaves here, the more workers are feeling emboldened, the better chance we have of at least gaining a little bit of ground within the labor movement. And ultimately, we care about this so much because if you don't have an organized working class, like, honestly, you don't really have a democracy. You just have a corporatocracy. You have exactly what we have now, where it's rich people in corporate interests who run everything because there is zero counterbalancing force. I've been pointing it out here, but look,

you know, unionization actually went down in the year 2021, which shows you a lot when we have a big worker revolution happening, which we all support, but we got to make sure we keep these lasting changes. It can't be temporary. You got to have people out there fighting. Should we reform union? I don't know. You know, I don't have the answer to a lot of this. I just want people to have better lives and to fight for them. And this is, you know, this is just exactly what all these folks are up against because they rule your life if you work at these companies and it shouldn't be that way. That's right. All right. All right, guys, thanks for watching. We'll have more for you later. You would think that this Spotify saga with Rogan would end and yet somehow Crystal, it makes it all the way to the White House press briefing room where Jen Psaki says

that, well, what happened to Rogan? You know, the labeling is fine, but we want to see more from the company. Here's what she had to say. Last week, the Surgeon General was asked on MSNBC about Joe Rogan's vaccine comments on Spotify, and he said that tech companies have an important role to play in stopping misinformation because they are the predominant places where misinformation spreads. Spotify is putting out advisory warnings on episodes that have to do with COVID-19. Does the White House and the administration think this is a satisfactory step or do you think that companies like Spotify should go further than just putting a label on there to

say, hey, go do your own, check this out check this out. You know, there's more research you can look at, you know, scientific research regarding COVID. Sure. Well, last July, you probably know, but the Surgeon General also took the unprecedented step to issue an advisory on the risk of misinformation in public health, which is a very significant step. And amid that, he talked about the role social media platforms have. So our hope is that all major tech platforms and all major news sources for that matter, be responsible and be vigilant to ensure the American people have access to accurate information on something as significant as COVID-19. That certainly includes Spotify. So this disclaimer, it's a positive step, but we want every platform to continue doing more to call

out misinformation and mis and disinformation while also uplifting accurate information. I mean, look at the facts, right? You are 16 times more likely to be hospitalized if you're unvaccinated and 68 times more likely to die than someone who is boosted if you're unvaccinated. That's pretty significant. And we think that is something that unquestionably should be the basis of how people are communicating about it. But ultimately, you know, our view is it's a good step. It's a positive step, but there's more that can be done. More that can be done. Who are these people to tell Spotify who and what should be on their platform?

This is like during the entire Facebook saga. I mean, first of all, imagine having that privileged position of being able to ask a question of the White House press secretary when you have the climate crisis. You've got, you know, people's lives are up in inflation. I mean, all of these major issues. And you want to know about the labeling on Spotify. I mean, I know why Joe Rogan's podcast. Because he knows it's going to get clipped and he knows his face is going to be on television.

It's disgusting. And oh, by the way, this I knew immediately when they started going this direction of like, let me tell you about the deaths, why don't you ask why we aren't pushing for a healthcare system that doesn't incentivize chronic illness and death and keep people detached from the medical system so that they're fearful of going to the doctor when they get sick? Why don't you ask about that? Or why don't you ask about how they lied about caring that the big pharma companies lifted their patent protections? They said, oh yeah, we support that. And then they did nothing about it and continued to block that proposal at the World Trade Organization. If you're worried about people being unvaccinated, let me tell you, you got way bigger fish to fry than freaking Joe Rogan. It's just so outrageous. And the number of people who are begging for politicians to take a more active hand in censorship and picking who can be heard and who can't be heard is deeply, deeply disturbing.

Yeah, it's nuts. But, okay, let's talk about misinformation. You say there's an imminent attack by Russia on Ukraine. The Ukrainians say that's not true. So is that misinformation? That's actually real misinformation about what you are saying. You say something about, you say, for example, on the Biden administration with all of their claims around Russia, which is being driven by Putin for X, Y, and Z. Is any of that even true? I mean, what about that misinformation?

You want to talk about dangerous activities? What are you doing in Afghanistan right now? Millions of people are about to starve to death. A million people have already fled the country. Millions of children are about to starve to death. And you're asking about

whether the labeling is enough on Joe Rogan's podcast. It's such a joke. I mean, that's the thing is it's just such a joke. It's such a show. You're right.

The incentives are so perverse. All that dude cares about is like getting his little... Well, he's a foreign media reporter. I know that guy. Getting his little clip on the nightly news or whatever. So people like us will talk about it, which here we are doing, I guess it serves his interest, but at least we're showing you what the real incentives

are involved here. It's disgraceful. It's a, such a show and just pure theater and a distraction from anything that would actually make people's lives better. So yeah, it's very convenient for them to scapegoat, you know, Joe, who, listen, I talked about those podcasts and the issues I had with him, them. But the idea that that's the problem in the country is completely insane. You people couldn't even get tests out. I mean, here we are, the Omicron wave is subsiding and we still haven't gotten our damn test. So it's utterly ridiculous.

And I'm watching this. This is all part of a cathedral plan in order to try and destroy him. Like, I am watching this very closely. We've got the White House involved. Now the New York Times op-ed page. Now I see other artists out there trying to recruit Taylor Swift and some of the biggest streamers on the platform. I'm watching this happen in real time as they ramp it all up. You know, another thing I'd never considered, Crystal, I think it's mighty convenient that this all happened right before earnings season. So

Daniel Ek was actually forced in order to answer on his earnings call when the stock has now dropped by 20% over at Spotify. And he's the CEO of Spotify. He's the CEO of Spotify. Now, this is something which actually has been happening to Dave Portnoy, which is that Business Insider continues to drop these ridiculous, we don't have to litigate it right now. But they continue to drop these sexual assault allegations against him right before his company has to go and have earnings calls, which puts a huge screw on him and his stockholders and shareholders. I think that's the exact same thing about what's happening. We are watching all of this happen right before Spotify earnings in order to try and destroy the stock, destroy the company, and force them ultimately to fire Rogan. So none of this is organic. I'm fully convinced this is like a massive hit job, which is all just happening semi-organically because the incentives for these people is to continue to spew it up.

But it's a big con job that's being pulled off on people. And it's covering up for a lot of crimes by the people actually in the establishment. Yeah, it's a total distraction. It's disgraceful. All right, guys, thanks for watching. We're going to have more for you later. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids,

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