Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - Mini Show #5: Elizabeth Holmes, Walmart Worker, VA Gov Polls, and More!

Episode Date: September 25, 2021

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shaping the Black community. From breaking headlines to cultural milestones, the Black Information Network delivers the facts, I've seen a lot of stuff over 30 years, you know. 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, Apple Podcasts,

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in weekly ask me anythings, and you don't need to hear our annoying voices pitching you like I am right now. So what are you waiting for? Go to breakingpoints.com, become a premium member today, which is available in the show notes. Enjoy the show, guys. We had some truly incredible outbreaks of white feminism that we wanted to bring to you here. The first is, of course, we've been tracking the trial of Elizabeth Holmes, former head of Theranos. Looks like she lied to everyone, investors, customers, etc., about what her supposed breakthrough technology could actually do. Made her the, you know, about what her supposed breakthrough technology could actually do, made her this young female billionaire, everybody loved her, and now that all came crashing down and she's in fact facing trial for the alleged crimes that she committed. Well, it was only a

matter of time before someone decided that all of this had nothing to do with the fact that she committed massive amounts of fraud and lied to everyone, but that she's a woman. That's the real problem here. Let's throw this op-ed up on the screen from the New York Times. The Elizabeth Holmes trial is a wake-up call for sexism in tech. This was written by Ellen Powell, who used to be the head, wasn't she at Reddit? Yeah, she was the CEO the head. Wasn't she at Reddit? Yeah, she was the CEO of Reddit. That's what I thought. And when she got fired, she also claimed sexism.

Yeah. So there's a full circle element. Right, indeed. So she has an interest in perpetuating this narrative here. But she basically says that, you know, and there is some truth to the fact that this fake it till you make it culture is endemic in Silicon Valley and that it's populated with a bunch of liars who think effectively anything is justified if it is in service of getting their revolutionary technology to market so they can transform the world, et cetera, et cetera. But there is a big difference with Elizabeth Holmes, which is that, you know, when a search engine doesn't work the way that it's exactly advertised or the algorithm isn't quite where you want it to be, you don't have people's literal lives at stake. Whereas she was portraying this to the public,

they were relying on these blood tests. And it was all a complete lie, fraud, Potemkin village where, you know, they weren't, the tests weren't accurate. They weren't able to do the tests that they claimed they were able to do. And it was just absolutely on a massive scale. I mean, these tests were in Walgreens. This was rolled out across the country with much fanfare. And she knew that there was a massive gulf between what the public was being told and the actual reality with, you know, potentially really damaging consequences. That's what this BS doesn't get. Like you said, if an HR enterprise software doesn't work 100% as advertised, okay, you know, my tears cry for the Fortune 500s that will suffer. But when people make medical decisions based on faulty blood work,

which happened to many people who are in John Kerry's bad blood book, they made terrible decisions about their health that had real world consequences to their bodies based upon the fake test results of this woman and her company that she knew that it was not in good faith that she put out a product that happened to fail. It was a direct knowledge of the fraud that she was perpetrating, both on Walgreens, her investors, and on these actual people that had consequences. That's the difference, Ellen A. and Pau.

And here's the thing, too, is this could have been written by her defense team, because we covered how she's leaning into a Me Too defense. And in this instance, the reverse of sexism being a problem for Elizabeth Holmes is actually true, is actually the case. Because what she relied on, what made her so famous, was that she was this young female tech head. Exactly. That's part of why she was able to attract all this investment, part of why she was on all of these magazine covers, why she was Glamour's Woman of the Year, all of that stuff, is because they loved the story of you have this male-dominated field. And, oh, my God, here's this woman who's breaking the mold, and she's the female Steve Jobs.

She leaned into her identity as a glass-ceiling, breaking, trailblazing woman. It's part of why she was able to snow people and get away with it for as long as she did. So it's the exact opposite of what Ellen Powell is saying here. She actually used her gender to enrich herself at the expense of, you know, all of these people who relied on this medical data that turned out to be complete trash. No, and you, as you point out, this is a long, this is now a new, you know, defense mechanism for the worst people in our society. Yes, another example of that. Jennifer Rubin, who has undergone this weird transformation into now she's like the biggest Biden stan out there, constantly getting retweeted by Ron Klain every single article she writes, which apparently

sadly get a lot of views. They're just slavishly shilling for the Biden administration. Biden propaganda. So Alex Thompson, who's a solid reporter over at Politico who covers the West Wing there, he was writing a piece about how she's gone through this transformation and how she used to be extremely critical, not just of Barack Obama, but also of Joe Biden specifically under the Obama administration, asked you a very obvious question like, oh, well, that's interesting. I wonder what happened. And let's talk about the change in your positioning here, to which she responded when they reached out for questioning.

She sent back this insane email that had in the subject line, off the record, which is not how you actually, they never agreed to be off the record. It's a dual agreement. Yeah, you have to, on both sides agree. They never agreed for this to be off the record. So Alex Thompson went ahead and published this email, which is quite interesting, in which she claims that the reason they're writing about her is because of sexism and also maybe because she's Jewish. I just have to read you this email because this is amazing. How utterly predictable that Politico would run the zillionth hit piece on a prominent woman, especially one candid in her critiques of Politico's hysterical clickbait style of coverage. Notion that I'm polarizing in a newsroom is a take only Politico could come up with by,

of course, running around to ask the question in the first place. I trust the post-superb news side folks to spend zero time thinking about me. This is entirely appropriate. My only surprise is that Sam Stein, who is a very good journalist, would become enmeshed in such an obviously misogynistic publication. Surely there are finer publications that would have him. And by the way, what a low class move to do this on Yom Kippur at the last moment. Yeah. So, come on. This has it all. So, she's saying like, I mean, this is an interesting story that Alex is pursuing. You used to trash Biden. Yes. And that got you a lot of clicks and a lot of prominence.

Now it's very convenient for you to praise him. And that gets you a lot of clicks and a lot of love from the White House. And I'm sure a lot of access. She's like their favorite journalist there. Now, what's going on here? And she goes right to, this is all about sexism and misogyny. And maybe also because I'm Jewish. And Alex points this out.

Put his tweet up there on the screen, which is that Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, has retweeted or mentioned Rubin more than three dozen times since midway. Mid-May, the White House press team, the DNC, the State Department, and the vice president's office have all promoted her various columns and tweets from her recently. So his coverage of her as a central defender and propagandist for the Biden administration is in fact a legitimate story. It has nothing to do with her sex. By the way, people have written several stories about the Lincoln Project and many other types in the same thing. So it's just a low life move in order to make. And yeah, I'm glad she got burned on this email. She wasn't even burned. She thought she was off the record. That's not how it works.

If you think you'd be in Washington long enough to know that. She certainly would be in a position to know that. I mean, the thing that ties these things together here and why this is so enraging to me is like, when you just throw around sexism for everything, it becomes meaningless. It ends up meaning nothing. And another thing is, look at how both of these incredibly powerful and wealthy women are pretending to be in some sort of like state of victimhood and using their gender in order to cover for power, basically. I mean, for Rubin, she's explicitly like protecting the Biden administration here by weaponizing her gender. And then Ellen Powell on behalf of Elizabeth Holmes, who's explicitly like protecting the Biden administration here by weaponizing her gender.

And then Ellen Powell, on behalf of Elizabeth Holmes, who's sexism, et cetera, identity-based issues are weaponized by the powerful to try to cover for their own failings, protect power, and make them out, themselves out like they're some sort of victim. It's disgusting display, and Jennifer Rubin and Elizabeth Holmes, two key examples here today. There you go. All right, guys, enjoy your day. We'll have more for you later. 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.

Today, we wanted to bring you the story of a true American hero. Beth McGrath decided she was ready to quit her job at Walmart, and she did it by announcing on the intercom to all of the store associates and customers exactly how she felt about that job and the people and the corporate culture and all of that. Just take a listen. Attention, Walmart shoppers and associates. My name is Beth from electronics. I've been working at Walmart for almost five years and I can say that everyone here is overworked and underpaid.

The attendant policy is bullshit. We are treated for management and customers poorly every day. Whenever we have a problem with it, we're told that we're replaceable. I'm tired of the constant gaslighting. This company treats their elderly associates like shit. To Jared, our store manager, you're a pervert. Greta and Kathy, shame on y'all for treating your associates the way you do. I hope you don't speak to your families the way you speak to us. Shout out to Kamini, Patty, Shardell, and so many more. Walmart doesn't deserve y'all.

Fuck Manage It and fuck this job. I quit. I quit. I just wonder how many service workers have wanted to say very, very similar things. I think this woman is speaking for millions of people who want to tell their corporate bosses, managers, and overlords to go F themselves. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. But unfortunately, what are we seeing?

Let's put this up there on the screen. More and more people are actually having to go and work at Amazon or Walmart. And as we have seen, the reason they're doing that is because, yes, Walmart is raising its wages, but it comes with a price, which is what did you see there with Beth, which is that Beth is having to work under a schedule that she doesn't necessarily have any say in, wage ladder. Actually, Walmart, as we've discussed, is better than Amazon in terms of promoting outside of its associates. But whenever you work at these places, you're basically at the total

mercy of management and you just don't have a lot of say in your day-to-day life. They could schedule you at night and then schedule you to open at 6 a.m. the next day. This stuff happens all the time. And it's basically completely allowed in our labor law for millions of people. This is their day-to-day reality. People like to portray it as, oh, it's basically completely allowed in our labor law for millions of people. This is their day-to-day reality. People like to portray it as, oh, it's temporary work. She worked there for five straight years. And, man, I don't think, you know, it's not like she probably wanted to do something better. Not necessarily any other options where she lives.

So it's just a good example of what happens. I mean, Walmart hollowed out so much of America. And now Amazon is coming on top of that and doing the same. Like, Walmart sort of hollowed out, like, the little downtown area and the local small businesses. Main Street or whatever. Yeah, Main Street. And then now Amazon is coming in and hollowing out, like, suburban America and the malls and the sort of, like, big box retailers and all of that and leaving with you with very few other options. I would like to think that maybe Beth felt comfortable taking this particular bold and

brave stand right now because maybe there are more job openings available and she feels like maybe there's another opportunity out there for me because she hung in there for five years and now something has either brought her to the breaking point or made her feel emboldened like, you know what, I'm going to be able to get another job at a similar level that maybe actually treats me like a human being. Because I also think it's very revealing what she says there. I mean, she says, look, we're underpaid and we're overworked. But she also just talks about, like, not being treated in a basic, decent, dignified human way by management, by the culture of the store, even by, you know, customers who were not kind. And that's something we've seen in culture as well as like service workers just treated by everyone as sort of like disposable robots less than humans. So kudos to

her. I saw there was also an entire staff of a restaurant. did you see this one, quit en masse. I think it was down in Georgia. And they just closed the restaurant and posted a sign on the door about what a terrible place it was to work. And they all just walked out together and were like, screw you guys. I'm out of here. So there you go. American hero. All right, guys.

We'll have more for you later. 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. We've been keeping an eye on that Virginia governor's race and a new poll by the Washington Post is really eye-popping. So let's put it up there on the screen. McAuliffe and Youngkin locked in a tight race for the Virginia governor. And remember, keep in mind that this is from the Washington Post, semi-local paper.

Among registered voters, McAuliffe has a 49 to 43 edge. However, amongst likely voters, it's actually 50% to 47%. Obviously, likely voters is what matters the most there. I mean, it's pretty fascinating, Crystal, because Youngkin is really trying to drive up his support in kind of the ex-urban parts of Northern Virginia, win over people who voted for President Biden but consider themselves Republicans who don't like Trump. McAuliffe is trying to tie Youngkin explicitly to Trump, do what Gavin Newsom did to Larry Elder. But right now, you've got a pretty tight race going on. And as you always say, Virginia is the ultimate bellwether because it's off your election.

That's right. It's like the only real significant election that happens right after the presidential election. Very unusual in these weird off years. And so, you know, you saw the Tea Party wave sort of previewed by Bob McDonald's romping win over Creed Deeds. You've seen the era of kind of the Biden Democrat and the shift to suburban Democrats with the rise of Terry McAuliffe the first time around when he used to be governor. And then Ralph Northam also appealed to a very similar demographic. So if you dig into these poll results, what the analysis from The Washington Post says is that McAuliffe is performing basically the same as Northam in most areas of the state, but the place where he's seen a lot of fall off is in those ex-urban counties. So, you know, not the inner ring of suburbs with the one after that. And that's the area that Youngkin has picked up a lot of support. Both of these candidates,

even McAuliffe, who was the former governor and is like pretty well known on the national stage, both of them are fairly undefined. Youngkin in particular, though, is really quite unknown. Yes. One thing I would say about this is Youngkin is not Larry Elder. Larry Elder had a lot more inflammatory things that he had said. He's this right-wing radio personality. He sort of continued to lean into that, even as he's running in on Blue State of California. Youngkin doesn't have that kind of baggage, so he is a better candidate in that regard. But I still think you

see some signs that this race could go the same way that California did. And ultimately, McAuliffe could open up enough of a lead to win this thing fairly comfortably, which is that right now, there's a big enthusiasm deficit among Democrats, which is why you see McAuliffe doing okay when you're just talking about registered voters and the race being extraordinarily tight when you're talking about likely voters. Democrats are just less enthusiastic right now. Now, as we get down the stretch, and also I should say, Youngkin is very personally wealthy and spent a lot of money early on to help to define the race and give himself the edge that he's enjoying right now. So it is very possible that as voters' minds are focused and as more advertisements are run, and Lord knows if Donald Trump may weigh in inadvisably into this race and say something

about it, as Terry McAuliffe continues to make the case about that extreme Texas abortion law and Roe versus Wade being potentially undermined at the Supreme Court level, as he starts to define Youngkin in that way with the more extreme parts of the Republican Party, you could see, number one, some of those exurban independent voters moving back to the Democrats. And number two, I think you'll see the Democrats starting to feel more of that existential, okay, we got to make sure that we don't get this crazy guy Youngkin in there ultimately. You always want to take these anecdotes with a grain of salt because who knows if this is representative of a broader population. But I did think that this

was an interesting comment from a voter that the Washington Post interviewed, this guy named Timothy Davis, 62, retired law enforcement officer. He lives down in Williamsburg, voted for Trump in 2016, and then voted for Biden in 2020. True swing voter. This year, right now, he's undecided. He says, I like some of the things in both parties. He gave McCaul high marks for his work on the economy and job creation during his time in office, but he did not like his support for gun control and abortion rights.

Youngkin's appealing, he said, but the big question for him was whether he is fealty to Trump, who Davis said caused terrible damage and stomped all over the Constitution. He said he'll take a closer look at Youngkin and try to decide if he's a true Trump yes man. It's going to be really, really tough. That's when I sit down on election day and say, wow, what's the worst of two evils? So that's the case that Terry McAuliffe is already trying to make and is going to continue to lean into is like, look, this guy is basically electing Trump. He is Trump's buddy. He supports him.

And Youngkin, because he doesn't want to piss off the Republican base, is kind of in a bind here because he doesn't want to distance himself too much from the president. So I think that dynamic playing on is going to be interesting to watch. I think you're right. I think ultimately Trump pushes McAuliffe over the edge. In a non-Trump world, I actually think Youngkin could have a shot. He'd have a shot. He'd have a real shot. I mean, look, I still think Northern Virginia and Virginia in particular are just basically a blue state now. But there's enough there that somebody like Youngkin, some sort of Hogan-like figure could pull it off. But given the

fact that Youngkin has to thread that line and there's no way that he can, there's no that way that he can try and denounce Trump the way that Hogan has or other Republican governors in blue states, I don't think that he ultimately pulls off. That being said, look, the bellwether is the bellwether, and we're going to keep an eye on it. The fact that it's even close is a problem. It is interesting. Yeah. And the other thing that was interesting in this analysis is what voters said that they cared about.

The economy and COVID continue to be really significant, seen as the most important issues. One thing that I did take note of is there's been a lot of conversation among Republicans and suburban voters about critical race theory and education, etc. It was a fairly narrow lead, but on the, first of all, the voters who were most concerned about education preferred McAuliffe, and overall voters preferred McAuliffe to Youngkin on education. So I just thought that was kind of an interesting note, too, that that issue may not be playing out as effectively for Republicans, ultimately, as they thought that it would. Yeah, I think that's right. All right, guys.

Thanks for watching. We'll have more for y'all later. 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 podcasts. 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. Over the years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and 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. Stay informed, empowered, and ahead of the curve with the BIN News This Hour podcast. Updated hourly to bring you the latest stories shaping the Black community. From breaking headlines to cultural milestones, the Black Information Network delivers the facts, the voices, and the perspectives that matter 24-7. Because our stories deserve to be heard.

Listen to the BIN News This Hour podcast 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, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.