The Young Turks - An Uncivil Union

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Israel's war on Gaza has killed more women and kids in one year than any other conflict in decades. Trump has more working class support than any GOP presidential candidate in a generation. He's on track for the best performance among union voters in 40 years. He's up 31 points among trade school grads. Gas price fixing scandal grows as another US oil exec ""caught colluding with OPEC."" ""It's very complex"": Biden struggles with being out of the national conversation.""Title: Iran Strikes Israel HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Live from the Polymarket Studio in L.A. It's the Young Turks. Ice cream. What's up? Welcome to TYT.

I'm your host Anna Casparian on this very special post-VP debate Wednesday. I'm really looking forward to sharing the news with you all today. In the second hour, John Iderola will be joining me to talk about the aftermath of that VP debate between Tim Walls and J.D. Who won? What are the polls saying? Did it make an impact on the election at all? Lots of interesting details to get to in regard to that story. In the first hour, we're going to check in on Gaza,

something that I feel most of the media, with the exception of Al Jazeera, has pretty much kind of forgotten about, which is devastating considering, you know, bombardments and bombings continue in the Gaza Strip. We're also going to talk a little bit about how the Democratic Party has slipped considerably in their support among union members and working class Americans. We'll dive into that and try to figure out what the hell is going on. And we'll also talk about the ongoing RFK Jr. Nuzzi scandal, which is like the gossipy story that just keeps on giving. It will not end. And I am not ashamed to say that I jump in it. Okay, we all need a little bit of a distraction from all the doom and gloom in the news.

But as always, just want to encourage you all to like and share the stream. If you're watching us live, send in your super chats. I'll read your comments during our social breaks and members write in as well. I'll read your comments during the social breaks as well. All right, without further ado, let's get to the devastation in Gaza. This a crowd here is from the surviving family members who were attacked last night in a North Iraq refugee camp. 13 people were killed, seven of them were children, the bodies that you see on the ground right here. If you count the bodies, we said 13 of them, but seven of them, those are the children who were turned into pieces.

And we're brought to the hospital in plastic bags and in coolers. They were put all together. So one of these body bags has the bodies of two or three people right on the floor. Israeli defense forces have continued to brutalize the Gaza Strip while the rest of the world is just mainly focused on the growing conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah and Lebanon and of course Israel and Iran, which I'm really hoping doesn't turn into a full-blown hot war. Now, the number of dead Palestinians has now reached gruesome highs. Gaza's health ministry said today that over the past 24 hours, 51 people had been killed by the IDF in the Gaza Strip. Israel's several targets included a school and an orphanage in Gaza City, also included strikes on a high school in central Gaza, and the IDF, of course,

provided their usual justifications. You guys want to all say it in unison? We all know what it's going to be. In separate statements, the army said the two schools and the orphanage were being used as Hamas command and control complexes to plan and carry out operations. You guys have been bombing every square inch of the Gaza Strip for nearly a year. And you're still using the excuse of Hamas command centers, really? Really? Okay. But the death toll was highest in a strike that was carried out in conunis, where the IDF utilized both airstrikes and tanks on the ground. At least 32 people, according to reports were killed and dozens injured. The city's European hospital said, I want to pause and keep this graphic up.

As you can see, Al Jazeera is the source cited for this because it's an excerpt from one of their reports. But the source of information is the city's European hospital. I'm sure I'm going to hear that the European hospital is controlled by Hamas. But I'm not buying that argument. But let me continue on with what was said here. The hospital records show that seven women and 12 children as young as 22 months old were among those killed. Oxfam is another organization that's been putting out more information about what's happening in Gaza. And I commend them for doing so. So they just recently reported that more women and children have been killed in Gaza in one year's time than in any other conflict in the last 20 years.

Think about all the wars, especially the wars the United States has been involved in over the last 20 years. Okay, just to reiterate, the damage, the death and destruction caused to women and children by Israel is worse than any other conflict that we have experienced or seen in the last 20 years. Conservative figures, by the way. Conservative figures show that more than 6,000 women and 11,000 children were killed in Gaza by the Israeli military, with American bombs, of course, over the last 12 months. Data from 2004 to 2021 on direct conflict deaths from the small arms survey estimates that the highest number of women killed in a single year was over 2,600 in Iraq back in 2016. But what about Syria? Syria was dealing with a crippling civil war. Lots of innocent people were killed as a result.

Surely, surely, Bashar al-Assad caused way more damage. Way more women and children were killed in Syria, no? No, not really. A report by the organization, again, Oxfam. I'm sorry, Oxfam is reporting that a report by the organization, every casualty counts, examined information on over 11,000 children killed across the first two and a half years of the Syria conflict, an average of over 4,700 deaths a year. UN children and armed conflict reports over the last 18 years show that no other conflicts

killed a higher number of children in one year. Now, remember that the numbers in Gaza are currently pretty bad, but they're very likely worse than that. So the record number of women and children killed in Gaza does not include those among the nearly 20,000 people who are either unidentified, missing or entombed, meaning trapped beneath the rubble and bomb debris. So when the rubble is cleared and when we have a better sense of what the death toll is, I certainly suspect that the numbers are going to be much higher. And for those still living inside Gaza, the delivery Of Aid, of course, has slowed down. It wasn't great to begin with, but it has been slowed down even further. And this is according to reporting from Reuters. They say that the Israeli authorities are scaling down food deliveries sent by various organizations and businesses. And they have even created a new customs rule for UN truck convoys traveling from Jordan to Gaza through Israel. Under the rule, individuals from relief organizations, sending aid must complete a form providing passport details and accept liability for any false

information on a shipment, people involved in getting goods to the war-torn territory said. Now, on the surface, that seems like it's no big deal, right? Except it is a big deal. I mean, the wording kind of covers up what the real intent is here. And the real intent is to punish any of the aid workers who deliver aid and that aid ends up in the hands of Hamas. That is what they're worried about. Relief agencies say that they do fear that if their workers sign the forms and if the aid ends up falling into the hands of Hamas, the workers could face legal punishment. And we already know Israel has accused UN workers of working with Hamas, with being in bed with Hamas. I mean, they've even banned the secretary general

Antonio Gutierrez from ever visiting Israel again because he had the audacity to call for a ceasefire without condemning Iran's retaliatory attack against Israel yesterday. It's just Iran's retaliatory strike killed one person, a Palestinian in the West Bank. You want to know how many Israelis it killed? Zero. I mean, And by the way, it was a retaliatory attack. So like, does Israel think that it can just go around bombing sovereign countries, doing as it pleases with the bombs that we make here in America and provide them through our taxpayer money? Do they think they could just do all of that? And no one is going to try to fight back. It's just, it's infuriating.

It's infuriating. And I hate the fact that the United States is enabling this and is behind this. This is going to get a lot more innocent people killed. And I don't know what the end game is. The end game has not been made clear by Netanyahu other than we're going to take out all the terrorists. Okay, cool. Yeah, I heard the same story back in 2003. Instead of the axis of resistance, we had the axis of terror.

And our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were a complete and utter disaster. We did not wipe out terrorists. We wiped out a lot of civilians. We spurred the establishment of new terror groups. This is just so incredibly stupid. And what boggles my mind is we don't learn any lessons from history, even recent history. But anyway, let me keep going.

So a doctor working in southern Gaza told Reuters that lack of food is some of the world, some of the worst it's been during the war. These past weeks especially, we thought we'd been able to get a hold on it, but it's got worse. My clinic treats 50 children a day for various issues, injuries, and illness. On average, 15 of those are malnourished. Now let's talk a little bit more about the UN and the number of UN staffers who have been killed by the IDF. So the war has taken a pretty heavy toll on UN staff and their family member.

So last July drop site news, which is a new publication established by wonderful journalist Ryan Grimm and Jeremy Scahill reported that Israel's assault on Gaza had killed at least 172 dependents of United Nations staff by the end of June, according to a confidential UN report, in addition to 195 staff members. with impunity. I mean, they had to do it. They had to do it. The Israeli government shows no sign of ceasing this devastation. They're ramping it up, not only in Gaza, but obviously now there's a ground invasion in Lebanon. Obviously, you have Netanyahu egging on a hot war with Iran as well. And they, again, have decided that the best course of action when it comes to the UN is to ban their, ban the U.N.

Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez from ever visiting the country. Now, the BBC also reports that Israel's foreign minister, Israel Cats, basically declared that Gutierrez is persona non-grada and that he lends support to terrorists. And what did he mean by lends support to terrorist? He's referring to, again, Gutierrez calling for a ceasefire, calling for peace, without simultaneously remembering to condemn Iran. Okay. It's also concerning for the long-term welfare of Israel.

I know that sounds crazy. Like I've been very critical of Israel. Jank has been very critical of Israel. And I want to reiterate again, our problem is not with the Israeli civilians, Jewish people. My beef and his beef is with the Israeli government and how little they care about human lives.

And in my opinion, that includes human lives within their own country. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, the economy is in tatters. I mean, Israel had a budget surplus. I know I keep repeating that because it's so incredible to me. As a country here, the United States, where we haven't had a budget surplus for decades since 2001, it's impressive when Israel has a budget surplus in 2022. Not no more.

That's not the case anymore. So the country has seen its credit score downgraded and its gross domestic product shrink sharply. Tens of thousands of businesses have closed and a growing number of jobs are being moved offshore. Israeli reservists have put careers on hold or struggled to juggle them with military service. It seems like maybe pursuing diplomatic means of ending this multi-front war would be beneficial for everyone, including the Israelis. But let me continue, while Israel's massive high-tech industry has remained resilient, construction and agriculture, which relied heavily on Palestinians whose work permits were canceled by Israel after October 7th, have been hit hard.

Tourism, understandably, has plunged by more than 75%. So again, what is the end goal here? Other than Netanyahu holding on to power for dear life, for his dear life, of course. He doesn't care about the lives of anyone else. Look, in short, the continuation of Israel's escalation is short-sighted. It is selfish when it comes to people like Netanyahu who does not want to be pushed out of power, who does not want to stand trial for the corruption, very real, serious corruption charges that he is facing. And you're also seeing headlines today about like, ooh, Netanyahu was unpopular,

but he looks like he's turning things around. I don't know if that's true. And I don't know if the people of Israel think that his strategy is somehow going to make them safer in the long run or is somehow going to make their country stronger and better in the long run. But the reality is he is causing a lot of damage. Yes, a lot of civilians are getting killed. Civilians that I would venture to say the United States and Israel doesn't care about at all.

But what Netanyahu is inviting is terror and war on Israeli soil. So if Israelis didn't appreciate and were terrified by the various strikes that were carried out by Iran yesterday and retaliation for Israel's aggression, well, there's going to be a lot more of that. And they really need to question whether or not they're okay with it. I certainly wouldn't be. I think Israelis deserve better. I think they deserve way better leadership. And the fact that we are enabling a war criminal, like Netanyahu, disgusts me. I will never forgive Biden for destroying his legacy with his disgusting foreign policy. But here we are.

All right, let's move on. We've got other news. I wanted to talk a little bit about a story that broke earlier this week, but it's very relevant to the election and I kind of wanted to dig in. So let's talk about working class America and where they stand on this election. This is union house, so this is a democratic margin in presidential election. It ain't what it used to be. You know, you go back to 1992.

Bill Clinton won that union vote by 30 points. Hillary Clinton only won it by 12 points back in 2016. That was the lowest mark for a Democrat since 1984, Mondale v. Reagan. But look at where Kamala Harris is today. She's only leading by nine points. That would be the worst Democratic performance in a generation, 10 points off the mark of Joe Biden, who of course won four years ago, was sort of that union guy, Union Joe, right?

Won it by 19 points. She's 10 points off his mark, and the worst in a generation. It's not looking good for Democrats when it comes to the working class vote. And to be sure, Trump is pulling in a shocking level of support from union members, which puts him on track for the best performance of a GOP candidate among workers in literally decades. Now, making matters worse for Kamala Harris, Trump seems to have successfully lured in workers in the trades. This is something we've talked about in previous weeks. And I want to make sure everyone remembers the workers in the trades. They were typically loyal Democratic voters.

But that's not the case anymore. Look at this margin. This to me, oh boy, does this tell you about the state of our politics now versus back in the early 1990s? Margin among vocational and trade school grads and pre-election polling. Bill Clinton was leading that vote over George H.W. Bush by seven points. Look at where Donald Trump is today over Kamala Harris, a 31 point advantage. When I think people think of the working class, they think of people who use their hands.

And we know that Donald Trump has been going after that vote, and he is in a very, very strong position. More so perhaps than any other block, the folks who go to trade school, vocational school, that has moved from being a core Democratic group to now being a core group of Donald Trump's massive amount of support among the working class. So Harry Enton says there that Trump has been going after their vote. And some of you who are knowledgeable about what Trump did with unions and the National Labor Relations Board under his watch and his term are probably pulling your hair out. And I can understand why. I mean, his policies were not very friendly to workers. I mean, one of the stories that always stands out to me is the former Google employee James DeMore who got fired from Google.

after he put out a document explaining why he thinks women or why Google is having a difficult time attracting female coders to the company. Now, he took his case to the National Labor Relations Board under Donald Trump. And remember, Donald Trump and the, you know, conservative Republicans really rallied around James DeMore. They defended him. I actually defended him as well because I read the entirety of his document. And I think he's, honestly, I think he's, He, in his mind, thought he was trying to help the company figure out ways or strategies to bring in more women. But he did it in a knuckleheaded way. And rather than have a conversation about him, they fired him.

I didn't agree with that. I thought they should have had the conversation instead. Nonetheless, he goes to the NLRB. He's thinking, this is Trump's administration. All the Republicans have rallied around me. They support me. They think it was wrong. A gross injustice that I got fired.

And the NLRB was full to the rim of anti-labor people who were appointed by Trump. And they basically told him, skedaddle, okay, skedaddle, we're not going to help you out with your case. So I hear you guys when you pull your hair out about stories like this, right? But at the same time, remember, there is a difference between politics and policy. Okay? And oftentimes when it comes to the electoral process and winning elections, politics matters maybe more than policy. I hate to admit it, but it seems to be true. So when Donald Trump visited East Palestine, Ohio, after that Norfolk Southern train derailed and caused a toxic situation for that local community, you know, Trump visits and he buys

McDonald's for the first responders, you know, the firefighters and all of that. And I gave him credit for it. I thought it was smart politics. And it's that kind of stuff that I think ends up working to his favor among working class Americans. And I'm going to get into more of the explanation or analysis for why I think, you know, Democrats are losing the working class vote. But another sign of this was also a story that we reported about the Teamsters Union.

Because remember, the Teamsters Union decided we're going to sit this election out and we're not going to endorse either candidate, which is unusual for them to do. But while Sean O'Brien, the head of the Teamsters Union said the reason why they're making this decision is because they went to both parties and neither party would give them the concessions they wanted. In reality, I actually think it has more to do with the members of the Teamsters Union and where their feelings are on this election. So if you look at the electronic poll that was conducted, it showed that of the Teamsters members, 59.6% support Trump, only 34% support Harris. And when you look at the poll that was conducted over the phone, the numbers are very similar. Fifty-eight percent supported

Trump, 31% supported Harris. And as Dustin Guastella, who's a writer at Jacobin, points out, this finding would be consistent with the fact that some 56% of non-college educated voters overall support Trump, according to the Times Siena poll from September 8th. Okay, so let's break it down. What is happening? I think that there's a number of different factors. As I mentioned, as much as you might be a policy wonk and as informed as you might be on the different policies that were implemented or pursued by both parties, you kind of have to put that aside and think about the optics and the politics of the two candidates, right? Right. And so right now, I do think that a lot of people in the country are still getting to know Kamala Harris, which is why it is short-sighted to avoid doing as many interviews as you possibly can. There needs to be more specificity in regard to how Kamala Harris plans to help ordinary working Americans. I think that she has fallen short on that in her campaigning so far. She's put out some vague policies that sound good, but there needs to be, I think, more attention paid to ordinary Americans. She's kind of shifting.

in recent weeks to a more moderate pro-business message. And I don't know if there's some sort of testing going on behind the scenes that shows that that's going to actually help her in the race. But it does come at a cost. It comes at a cost where workers are like, all right, well, I'm going to go for the guy who's engaging in the politics that signals to me that he cares about me more. Even if his policies behind the scenes aren't so great for workers, right? And so let's get to the details on that. Yes, Biden's NLRB, much friendlier to workers.

He also, Biden worked behind the scenes to get paid time off for the rail workers who were going to go on strike before he intervened. So he got a lot of heat for intervening, and we gave him a lot of heat for that. But Biden did then go behind the scenes to secure what the rail workers were going to strike for, and that was the paid time off. And Biden's Federal Trade Commission has been great. But Biden's pro-union efforts, obviously were drowned out by something that isn't quite fair to pin on him, and that's inflation, right? Now, inflation was caused by multiple factors. And inflation increased the cost of living to a point where even if you're a union worker

and you got a few concessions because of Biden's involvement, you're still paying a lot more for the same essential items that you paid for under Trump, when it was a lot cheaper under Trump, well, then you're going to think of Trump as a better leader, right? Even if it doesn't make any sense, you're going to think of them as a better leader who kept inflation low. Cost of living was low, things were better. That's the kind of mindset that I think has kind of set in. Inflation, whether Biden likes it or not, whether the Democrats like it or not, really ends up getting blamed on the person in charge at the time inflation happens. And that's Biden and the Democrats, unfortunately. And Biden's pro-union efforts fell short when it came to things like

the pro act. giving your customers more ways to order, whether that's in-person with Square kiosk or online. Instant access to your sales, plus the funding you need to go even bigger. And real-time insights so you know what's working, what's not, and what's next. Because when you're doing big things, your tools should to. Visit square.ca to get started. The New Republic published a piece like just furious about where workers are on this election because they're like, why are you guys stupid? Don't you know the Democrats are way better? But guys, I don't think that that

approach is going to win, okay? By attacking the workers or attacking the voters, it's not a smart strategy. You're not going to win people over that way. You have to kind of understand where they're coming from. And when the new republic cited the pro act, I mean, the writer was like, yeah, I mean, Democrats, they're in favor of the pro act and Republicans aren't. Okay, but no one cares about the Democrats legislative wish list. Ordinary people are not like, hmm, you know, they haven't passed any legislation, but I'd like to look at legislation they wished they could pass. They didn't pass the pro act. So you can't give Democrats credit for legislation that they failed to pass. Do you get what I'm saying? Like the signaling might mean a lot to affluent

people who work in media, but the signaling doesn't mean jack to ordinary workers who might want to organize their workplace, but don't have the protection of the pro act because let's keep it real. They didn't really fight for it when they had the opportunity. In the first two years of Biden's term, of course he had majorities in both the House and a slim majority in the Senate. I will admit that, but they were so unwilling to do something about the Senate's legislative filibuster that they were unable to pass any of these pro-labor bills that they, you know, purportedly care so much about and want to pass. And look, unfortunately for the Democratic Party, Biden was a bit of a bump in the road when it comes to this ongoing trend in the party.

And we got to keep it real. Okay, so this is a huge problem. I didn't even know that this was said in 2016, but it gives you a sense of where Democratic leadership's head is at. Okay? So in July of 2016, Chuck Schumer said this during a Washington Post forum. They were noticing that Democrats were bleeding support among union members and working

class Americans. And so Schumer was asked about it during this Washington Post Forum. Again, this is in July of 2016. Here's what he said. The electorate is moving in a more democratic direction. When middle class incomes decline, people tend to move in a more progressive direction. Yeah, look, the senator maybe should have considered that the middle class incomes were declining under the leadership. of a Democratic president for the last eight years?

Who do you think the middle class is going to blame for their incomes shrinking? For income inequality increasing? Are they going to blame Republicans who aren't in charge? Are they going to blame the Democrats who are in charge? So like that thinking was so unbelievably dumb. But if you thought that was a terrible statement, it gets worse. For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in Western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia.

And you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin. How did that work out for you, Schumer? This was in 2016, before the 2016 presidential election, in which, of course, Donald Trump won. And since then, Democrats have continued to bleed support among union members and working class Americans. And that is devastating because Democrats used to be the party of FDR. They used to be thought of as the party that looked out for working class Americans. And look, if they want to tout what their legislative wish list is, they need to improve on their messaging. And they need to deliver. It is going to hurt them if each time people trust them, get out the vote,

canvass for them and get them elected, they turn around and they fail to fight for the policies that they claim that they wanted to champion once they get elected or reelected. They have to deliver. There's going to be consequences electorally in the future if they don't deliver. So I think that is also what's happening here. I've spoken to a few teamsters who happen to be friends of mind, and I was curious, you know, where their head was at on this issue. And there are a lot of teamsters who are concerned about losing jobs to immigrants. So look, that messaging has apparently also been effective. And I think that's part of the reason why Democrats have taken a more, I guess, moderate approach to immigration compared to what we were hearing in 2016. But the

final thing I'll say is I found this excerpt in Guestella's reporting really, really interesting because I agree, and he wasn't specific, but I'll get specific on his behalf. He wrote, it is no secret that the Democratic Party's image, interest, and value system are far closer to that of upper middle class liberals than they are to that of the average working class person. On cultural issues, too, it is the case that many workers feel deeply alienated from the liberal perspective. So he, again, is vague there, but he's basically talking about certain culture war narratives or certain things that the Democratic Party leans into and kind of front loads in their campaigns and through the electoral process. You know, rather than having a hyper-focused principled message on materially improving the lives of everyone, which I think would be a valuable message that would obviously appeal to people, you know, they get kind of caught up in these like small edge case type things. And they do a lot of nagging. They do a lot of scolding. And that turns a lot of voters off. And I was actually shocked to find out that my late friend Michael Brooks's sister had. disclosed something about Michael that I knew, but I just didn't feel comfortable talking about

it publicly. I mean, he's gone here, gone now. He isn't here to speak for himself. But he wrote a book that I highly recommend you guys all read. It's called Against the Web, a Cosmopolitan answer to the new right. And in it, of course, he talks about the right, but he also talks about some of the shortcomings of the left, namely in the area of like the culture wars and all of that. And so here's what Leisha said that Michael had talked to her about in their very last conversation. Michael was so done with identity politics and cancel culture. He just really wanted to focus on integrity and basic needs for people and all the other noise like diversification of the ruling class or whatever everyone's obsessed with, the virtue signaling. He was just

like, it's just going to be co-opted by capitalism and used against other people. And you know, vilify people and make it easier to extract labor from them. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely some elaboration of that in his book. But the point here isn't to say, oh, we need to exclude people. The point here is to say, no, we need to be more forgiving, accepting. tolerant and welcoming to people. Because when you engage in the vilifying, when you engage in the finger pointing, when you make your party seem like you're not allowed to have a different thought or else you're going to be labeled a heretic or something like that. Like all of that stuff is not appealing to people. So it doesn't surprise me that, you know, Dustin Westella mentioned

that in his analysis for why Democrats are losing some working class support. But honestly, I think all of that pales in comparison to the lack of policy wins when it comes to materially improving workers' lives in this country. I think if Democrats were able to accomplish some of their policy goals like paid family leave, for instance, well, then they can point to something real and substantive and universal that benefits people. And right now they can't do that. Biden didn't fight for his own agenda. He was willing to separate the physical infrastructure from the social infrastructure in the build back better plan. And he knew it was going to happen. He knew that Republicans and corporate Democrats wanted that to happen so they could vote in

favor of the physical infrastructure bill, which of course ends up giving all sorts of federal government grants to private companies, while also squashing the social infrastructure bill that would have provided paid family leave. Financial assistance to Americans who need to take time off work in order to take care of their ailing parents, that kind of stuff. These are serious issues that need to be dealt with in the country. And I think people are kind of sick about hearing from Democrats who claim they want to fix these issues, run on fixing these issues, and then get elected and immediately heal. So these actions have consequences. That's my take on it. Curious what you all think. Share your comments in the comments section

or send in your comments if you're watching us live. We're going to take a quick break. break, and we'll be right back. So before we ended our social break, I said, in regard to this election, I feel like I'm in this impossible situation, okay, because I actually don't want Trump to. win. I am not a fan of Trump at all. At the same time, I see mistakes being made by Democrats, and people get mad at me when I point to the mistakes being made by Democrats. So what do I do? Do I just cheerlead for Democrats so everyone here will be happy with me as we barrel toward an iceberg? I get that people love that because it's nice complacency. People want to hear what they want

to hear, makes them feel good. But you're not going to feel good when Democrats lose during the election. There's time to recalibrate. That's the point. that I'm trying to make here, but I don't know, man, whatever. Let's, let's keep going. Let's go to C block. Exxon Mobil reported nearly $18 billion. Chevron recording over 11.5 billion in profits. Soaring energy prices have contributed to record inflation driving up the cost, not only of fuel, but everything from apples to toilet paper. It's leaving some Americans struggling right now to pay for gas and food and other basic necessities.

The Federal Trade Commission has now basically looked into those record profits and realized that some of these CEOs with various oil companies are engaging in price fixing. And so as a result, they have recently banned the CEO of the Hess Corporation, his name is John B. Hess, from serving on the board of directors for Chevron following revelations that he was in fact involved in an oil price. fixing scheme. Now we're going to get to the details of that in just a minute. But first, it's really important to kind of get into the details of this merger between Chevron and Hess Corporation. So basically about a year ago, Chevron announced that it was seeking to acquire the Hess Corporation for a whopping $53 billion. Now, during an appearance on CNBC, basically to talk about the acquisition, John Hess basically decided to tout the record profits and growth that has corporation experienced under his watch. Take a look. You know, we have the best growth

portfolio in the business. And if you look at our stock the last five years, we were the best TSR total shareholder return over a five-year period, whether it's major or whether it's independent. And last year, we were up 94% number two in the S&P. Yeah, well, honest profits or ill-gotten gains? The FTC put out a presser about Hess, the gentleman you just heard from. FTC order bans Hess CEO from Chevron Board in Chevron Hess deal. FTC alleges Hess CEO communicated with OPEC representatives, encouraged higher prices in the global oil market. Okay, so let's just take a step back.

OPEC plus, what does that mean? Well, OPEC cartel is basically the group of oil producing countries on the planet, right? And so they communicate with one another, yes, but understand that if any one country decides that they want to withhold oil production, that ends up limiting the inventory or the supply of oil. And that translates to higher prices at the gas pump. It also translates to higher prices for everything because obviously you need, you know, you need that energy in order to ship goods and services. And so the shipping becomes much more expensive. Everything just becomes much more expensive. And so what ended up happening is the FTC looked into Hess and they found

out, this guy is colluding with other OPEC producers and encouraging them to limit their supply to keep prices high. It's so gross. So if you read the presser that was put out or press release that was put out by the FTC, it tells you in detail what they're accusing Hess of doing. But I'll read some of the highlights right now. They claim that Hess further encouraged his OPEC competitors to stabilize production. and draw down inventories, the complaint alleges.

Reductions in crude oil exploration and production generally lead to higher oil prices and higher prices for products derived from oil, including transportation fuels, such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, and heating oil, by the way. And so as a result, the FTC says that Hess's communications with competitors about global oil supply or output and other dimensions of crude oil market competition disqualify him from serving on Chevron's board of directors. The FTC will use all its available enforcement tools to protect competition in this vital market and help ensure American consumers benefit from lower prices at the pump. So the FTC makes clear that they believe that Hess's appointment to Chevron's board of directors

would heighten the risk of harm to competition, including meaningfully increasing the risk of industry coordination. Basically, the industry members colluding with one another in order to screw you over as the consumer and increase their profits, of course. He's also, by the way, not allowed to be hired as a consultant to Chevron's board of directors. And so the FTC Commission voted two to three to accept the consent agreement and place the complaint and order on the record for public comment. So we'll see how this plays out.

And I commend the FTC for keeping their eye on the ball here. But believe it or not, this is not the first example this year of the FTC catching an oil baron with his hand in the cookie jar. So let's get to the other individual. So this is a second person since May of this year that the FTC caught essentially manipulating the market. So the FTC found that Scott Sheffield, who is the founder of pioneer natural resources, had communicated with OPEC representatives through text messages, WhatsApp, and in-person to encourage higher oil prices. I mean, Homeboy left a paper trail or a digital trail. Your text messaging about your crimes?

Are you not a grown man? Like, what's wrong with? I mean, look, honestly, I'm saying what's wrong with you, but is he going to go to jail for it? I know. So I'll give you more details about it. So the only punishment that he received was the FTC barring him from serving on the board of directors for ExxonMobil. But some congressional lawmakers, to their credit, called on the Justice Department to investigate. And one of those representatives is Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan from Wisconsin, who urged authorities to consider jail time. Now, do I think that's going to happen? Very unlikely. unlikely. But here's what he did say about Sheffield and what he engaged in in manipulating the oil markets to price gouge you, the consumer. I just did a little napkin math. If collusion led to a 40 cent to 60 cent increase in the price of a gallon of gas for a vehicle, for the average person filling their tank, that's $8 or $10 a week. That's $500 a year of added cost. And keep in mind,

And that's just with the manipulation and price fixing that pioneer is accused of engaging in. That, you know, napkin math, does it include Hess Corporation and what they were engaging in? And so what was the overall damage? The five largest U.S. oil companies have reported more than $250 billion in profits, not revenue, profits over the last two years. You know, revenue is all the money that they've made, but they've got to pay people. all, you know, they've got costs, overhead, blah, blah, blah. Just pure profits, $250 billion. Unbelievable.

Now, you might be wondering if Biden noticed any of this or had any plans to intervene. You know, I mean, look, credit where credit is due, he appointed a wonderful FTC chair, Lena Kahn, one of my favorite things about his administration. However, what did Biden himself do about this? He kept talking about how he's going to intervene when it comes to the price. gougers and all of that. Well, let's take a look at him addressing record oil profits in October of 2022. Exxon's profits for the third quarter were $18.7 billion. One quarter, $18.7 billion. Nearly triple what Exxon made last year. And the most in this 152 year history, it's never made

that much profit. In the last six months, six of the largest oil companies, companies have made more than 100 billion, 100 billion. And we had a little discussion about this, the three of us and others, 100 billion in profits, and less than 200 days. Their excess profits are going back to their shareholders and are buying back their stocks, so the executive pays are going to skyrocket. Give me a break. Enough is enough.

Look, I'm a capitalist. You've heard me say this before. I have no problem with corporations turning a fair profit and getting a return on their investment and innovation. But this is remotely what's happening. Oil companies, record profits today are not because they're doing something new or innovative. Their profits are a windfall of war. The windfall from the brutal conflict that's ravaging Ukraine and hurting tens of millions of people around the globe. Oh, well, speaking of war, if Israel starts targeting and bombing Iran's oil-producing

infrastructure, oil prices are going to skyrocket. He knows that. Now, Biden says that he's against expanding the war or going to war with Iran. He says it, but then he continues to enable Israel by supplying the bombs. So which one is it, Biden? And by the way, what's always so shocking to me is hearing politicians like Biden, just sharing with the American people that he is fully aware of things like corporate stock buybacks and the greedy behavior. And the greedy behavior of various corporations who don't invest back into their own company or their own workers or their own communities, but instead do corporate stock buybacks, fatten up executive pay, all of that, right? He knows about all of it. Okay, did you even consider pursuing

legislation to rein in things like corporate stock buybacks? It was nice that he gave a speech about it. Credit where credit is due, I guess. But I do want to give the FTC a lot of credit. I mean, they're working with the tools that they have. This is the first time in my adult life where I've actually seen an FTC be effective in what it's doing. So Lena Kahn gets a lot of credit and Biden gets a lot of credit for appointing Lena Kahn. The NLRB has been wonderful under Biden. So Biden did do some things right domestically.

It sucks that all of that ends up getting erased by his failures when it comes to foreign policy. But that's just where we're at. All right, we got to take a break when we come back. More news. Don't miss it. The superchats today are kind of amazing. Okay, I don't even know what this is about, but another name writes it and says, bong rips for saugger.

Oh, I mean, I'm not a fan of bong rips, to be honest with you, but okay. All right, we've got another comment from another name. Casper the friendly host, thank you so much for the comment. I really appreciated this comment from Diego Sometz, who says, Anna, you inspired me to get active in politics. locally. That makes me really happy because local politics has a bigger impact on your day-to-day life. I threw a Harris fundraiser that raised $5,000. Your ability to speak hard truths but stay progressive change. My God, I love you so much. I feel seen. Your ability to speak hard

truths, but stay progressive, change my life for the better. And I am bringing that to my town. Thank you for seeing me. Like, I mean it. Because I don't know, we just live in an era where if you tell the truth about your own side or what you think your own side is getting wrong, people just automatically assume, oh, you've switched sides. No, I haven't switched sides. I still have the same problems with Trump that I've always had with Trump. That has never changed. But anyway, Michael Cotavelli writes in and says, only if Bernie won in 2016 and didn't get screwed by the DNC.

I know presidents don't have a magic wand, but I think the country would be in a better position today. Democrats turning more pro-labor Netanyahu sanctioned. Yep, I totally agree with you on that. And, you know, I was kind of surprised to see how many voters who supported Bernie in 2016 ended up backing Trump. I felt that that was just like an establishment Democrat talking point. But I really do think that the anti-establishment flavor and also the rhetoric to appeal to

working class people works. Now, one party, Bernie Sanders, was obviously genuine in what he was campaigning. on Donald Trump, he'll campaign on something. And I mean, we saw what his treatment of workers was like during his first term. So ACGC says the left isn't the left it used to be. Since the Tea Party pushed the GOP to the right, creating the Trump era, the Trump era GOP, the left big tent has welcomed in, you get it, Reagan era Republicans. Yep. Look, I think that Democrats absorbing neocons. and being super happy and jazzed about it,

not a good play. Everyone hates the neocons. No one likes the neocons other than defense contractors and weapons manufacturers. Okay, Bush era Republicans were super unpopular. Why are we honored to absorb them into the Democratic Party? That's crazy. Anyway, I've said that before, but I appreciate you reminding everyone of how much of an issue that is for the Democratic Party now and potentially for the future as well.

All right, I wanted to move on to a story about Biden and what he's been saying behind the scenes in regard to everyone moving on from him and focusing on, you know, the person who's actually running for president now, Kamala Harris. So without further ado, let's get into it. What have these past two months felt like and are you at peace with your decision? Well, I am at peace with my decision. Look, when I ran for the first of this, for my first, this last term, I said that I was going, I think. I saw myself as a transition president. Yeah. But what happened was we're having so much success in getting things done that people thought we couldn't get done.

Right. I found myself having used more time than I would have ordinarily to, you know, pass that torch. Well, new reporting indicates that Joe Biden might say publicly that he's totally fine without things played out after his decision to drop out. of the presidential race and basically pass the torch to Kamala Harris. However, however, according to sources close to Biden, he's not feeling so great in private. He is not enjoying the fact that everyone seems to have forgotten about him. Now NBC News spoke to 12 people with knowledge of this dynamic between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, including administration officials, campaign officials, and transition team allies.

And while his allies made it abundantly clear that Biden is rooting for Kamala Harris and he wants nothing more than for her to win in November, he's a little bit better, a little bit better. So let's get into it. Biden has privately complained to allies that his name and his accomplishments have virtually disappeared from the national conversation and about how quickly the party that he has served for more than five decades appears to have moved on from him, according to six people familiar with his comments. Further, Biden has noted at times, this is, oh, God, it's so cringe. He's got, he should not voice these opinions ever. Don't voice them to any way. You're in politics. Like, you can tell your administration officials and your closest allies, and they will leak it.

They will leak it. So don't say it. This is not good. Biden has noted at times that vice president Kamala Harris, who took his place at the top of the Democratic ticket in July, hasn't been mentioned. him in her campaign speeches lately, including when she talks about an economy, he believes his policy set on a positive trajectory, these people said. Okay, I'm not going to get sidetracked by whether or not he set the economy at a positive trajectory, but I am going to talk about why this is a really bad idea. Look, Kamala Harris is already very uncomfortable in public appearances and speeches. Okay, we got to call a spade a spade a spade. It's just true. I wish it wasn't true, but it's true.

Okay, she seems so nervous and uncomfortable and out of her element when she's in interviews. Even when she was being interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, I mean, it should be the most comfortable environment ever. Oprah's there to help you. But she struggles a little bit, right? And so a story like this about what Biden is saying behind the scenes and how he's so upset that like people aren't talking about him enough, it's going to get in her head potentially. And it could trip her up even more in public. So like, what are you doing? So according to NBC News, Harris didn't mention Biden's name once

during her 40-minute Pittsburgh campaign speech about the economy last week. So what? Dude, you're the current president of the United States. So what? But no, it bothered him. So she now more regularly just says, we when referring to the work that the administration has done. Take a look. Over the past three and a half years, we have taken major steps forward to recover from the public health and economic crisis we inherited.

Inflation has dropped faster here than the rest of the developed world. Unemployment is near record, low levels. We have created almost 740,000 manufacturing jobs, including 650,000. at the battery manufacturing plant over in Turtle Creek. So according to the sources, Biden was even hurt during Harris's debate with Trump. A few weeks ago, you're an 81-year-old man who's currently the president of the United States.

It's insane to hear about how hurt he is. But apparently he was hurt that during the debate with Donald Trump, a few weeks ago, Harris stated that she wasn't Joe Biden. Well, she isn't Joe Biden, and that was actually a pretty good line considering the fact that Donald Trump was up there on that debate stage, debating as if he was debating Joe Biden. So I had no problem with what she had to say. I thought it was a good moment. Clearly, I am not Joe Biden, Harris said at the time, adding, and I am certainly not Donald Trump. And what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for the country. She made the remark in response to Trump's contention that she is Biden as he tried to make.

the case that Harris or Harris is and the president's economic policies are no different. So like you get why she said it. I mean, everyone understood why she said, I'm not Biden. It's like, hey, hey, you're running against me. So if you've got a problem, go ahead and tell me what your problem is with me. Like, why are you campaigning against Biden still? And this is a comment that Harris has continued to make, by the way, on the campaign trail as she ramps up her media appearances. And during her first solo television interview with WPVI TV in Philadelphia, when asked to describe one or two areas where she's different from Joe Biden. Here's what she said.

Well, I'm obviously not Joe Biden, and I offer a new generation of leadership, Harris said. Adding the things once taken for granted cannot be overlooked anymore. So again, just want to reiterate. I get that Biden's airing these grievances privately, but he's airing his grievances to people who work for him in the White House. And obviously, that runs the risk of them leaking. it. He did leak. They did leak it. And now this is out there. And I don't think it's really helpful. It makes Biden look pathetic, honestly. And it could potentially get into Kamala Harris's head and

trip her up during her public appearances, speeches, and interviews. And according to some people with knowledge of Biden's private comments who should not be talking to the press about this, he understands politically why she's saying these things. But he's still frustrated. She has to say, I'm not him. She can't say I'm not the president because people will say she's not ready to do this. He gets that. It still doesn't sting any less. And that's from a Kamala Harris advisor. Now another person familiar with Harris's strategy stated she loves the president. She adores the president. She's proud of the record that they have. But I think the difficult part for a lot of people is that this will be the Harris administration. It won't be Biden part two.

Indeed. And that should be fine. She is a completely different person. She should feel free and comfortable to run her campaign as she pleases. She should run her campaign to win. And Biden should be helping her with that. Not talking about how hurt or bitter he is, that Kamala isn't constantly talking about him as she's campaigning for herself. Unbelievable story. Anyway, So we're going to take a break. When we come back, we've got more news for you. John Iderola and I are going to talk about the aftermath and analysis following the VP debate last night. Lots of great stuff to get to. Don't miss it.