The Young Turks - Bezos Bucks

Episode Date: May 27, 2021

Bernie Sanders drops his attempt to block the $735 million arms sale to Israel after it was made clear we’re amped about participating in human rights violations. ‘The clock is ticking’: Democrats grow restless with Biden’s infrastructure talks as Republicans float their next counteroffer. Senate preparing $10 billion bailout fund for Jeff Bezos’s space firm. Elizabeth Warren gets into it with Jamie Dimon. When no landlord will rent to you, where do you go? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. 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. Welcome to the Young Turks. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and we have a gigantic show ahead for you today. It's Wednesday, which usually means that I'm joined by John Ida Rolla for the second hour. But John is off today, so I'll be joined by Nando Villa, a good friend of mine, and also also my co-host on weekends for Jacobin to help me talk about a bunch of stories that I'm amused by. I'm sure many of you are amused by, but I'm going to give Nando a difficult time because Nando is usually not amused by.

So we're going to talk about Mike Lindell getting rejected from an official Republican event, which is always a lot of fun for me. We're also going to discuss the special grand jury that has now convened in the criminal case involving Donald Trump and the Trump organization will give you all the details on that and more. And I'm going to keep it real with you guys. The first hour is full of the kinds of stories that I like to sink my teeth into, including where the country is on the issue of housing and how it's pushing American families into motels. That problem has only been exacerbated by the pandemic. And of course, I'm sure many of you have maybe come across portion of the video, but Elizabeth Warren, I mean, she decided to sink her teeth to Jamie Diamond, the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase. But before we get to any of that stuff, I want to make sure to encourage you guys to like and share this stream. If you're watching us on YouTube, it's one of the easiest ways to help spread the message

and help to support our show. And as always, if you're watching on YouTube, You can always send us super chats, which will read during our social breaks for our online audience. Now, with all that said, why don't we get right to our first story, which is a little bit of a depressing update on Bernie Sanders and his take on weapons to Israel. Senator Bernie Sanders has backed off of his promise to force a vote on a resolution that would essentially block hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons sales. to Israel. Now, this weapon sale was approved by the Biden administration just last week as the violence and aggression toward Palestinians in Gaza was certainly making headlines. We talked about it quite a bit on this show, but it appears that Sanders has decided to back off due to the lack of support for this resolution, again, meant to block this weapons project or sale. Now, let me also

be clear that Sanders did not have enough votes in order to get this resolution through. In fact, all he needed was a simple majority in the Senate, and it doesn't appear that he had that. So under the Arms Export Control Act, Sanders needed a simple majority but faced opposition from Democrats, which I am not surprised by. Democrats are also very much in favor of aiding and abetting. And what's going down with the Israeli government. We have been not only providing foreign aid to the Israeli government, but we've also offered and approved quite a bit of military funding.

And so this weapon sale is in no way surprising to me. And the support among Democrats is also in no way surprising to me. Now, we've shared this number with you before, but it is a $735 million weapon sale. And again, since it was approved, by Biden, and since there was very little chance of this resolution passing, Bernie Sanders decided to back off of it. Now, Sanders has also dropped a hold on State Department nominees

that he had placed late last week as after speaking with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who discussed steps the administration is preparing to take to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and across the Palestinian territories. An aid for Bernie Sanders, claims that Sanders is not willing to accept the status quo. But to be quite honest with you, that really means nothing. Because what is Bernie Sanders going to do? He doesn't have the support for a resolution like this to block the weapon sale. You have corporate Democrats who are terrified to ever speak out against the right wing government of Israel, regardless of the number of casualties in Gaza, regardless of the number of Palestinian children who are dead. To say,

that he's not going to accept the status quo, that's all fine and dandy. But when your tough talk isn't backed up by any type of action, it's just that. It's just tough talk. A Sanders aide also said, Secretary Sherman committed to a continuing dialogue on these issues. As a result of this conversation, Senator Sanders has lifted his hold on State Department nominees. Now, since the sale of the weapons were approved last week. It's been unclear whether, you know, Sanders could even hold a floor vote on this, right? So if the Biden administration had approved it, would it even happen? Would this even be brought up for a floor vote in the first place? Honestly, that remains unclear. But it seems like at this point, it's over. They're going to get the

weapons. There's really no U.S.-led punishment for the very clear aggression by these government and Benjamin Netanyahu, I would never expect the U.S. government to dole out any type of, you know, even strong words I wouldn't expect. But one thing that's really interesting is if you look at the American public and their opinion on the weapon sale and the proposed resolution to block the sale of weapons to the Israeli government, it looks like there's really a split. So this poll that was done by the Hill and Harris X found that 51%, just 51% of registered voters in the May 21st to 23rd survey said that they would oppose. They're against a resolution to block millions and weapons sales to Israel. By contrast, 49% of respondents said

that they would support the measure. So when you consider the margin of error in this survey, it's really a split. Also, when you break it down based on party lines, the findings are actually pretty fascinating. What I found the most surprising about this poll was that 50, 53% of Republicans. 53% of them said that they would oppose the resolution along with 51% of independence. 53% of Democrats said that they would support the measure. Only 53% of Republicans would oppose the resolution. That's fascinating.

But the thing that stands out the most is that it doesn't even matter what party you're from. It doesn't even matter, you know, if you're talking to a group of Republicans or Democratic, The country is really split on the issue of blocking weapons with this resolution. Now, in the meantime, since we now know that the weapons will go to Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government, the UN is gearing up to start asking some questions, doing some investigation into whether Israel conducted or took part in any war crimes. And if they did, if they're found guilty of war crimes, just keep in mind that it's U.S. weaponry that certainly aided and abetted those crimes. Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority, according to the Jerusalem Post, submitted a resolution

on the creation of a fact-finding mission that will be voted on Thursday when the UN holds a special session on the matter in Geneva. It's expected to receive the majority vote in the 47-member body. The committee would investigate Israeli activity in Gaza, for instance, and Jerusalem, as well as the ethnic rights that broke out in mixed cities within sovereign Israel. Also, the resolution states that the commission would be authorized to make recommendations in particular on accountability measures, all with a view of avoiding and ending impunity and ensuring legal accountability, including individual criminal and command responsibility for such violations and justice for victims. The wording in the resolution sounds great. I also want to just note that in order for anything to really happen, you would need the most powerful country in the world to agree that maybe

we should look into the actions of the Israeli government to see if there are any war crimes here. And of course, that government is the United States and that government is the one that's providing the weaponry for the war crimes, alleged war crimes that have taken place. So while there are countries, part of the UN who absolutely do want to investigate this, who want to hold Israel accountable, the fact of the matter is, at the end of the day, if the United States is not on board, if the United States continues to provide military funding and weaponry to Israel, nothing's going to change. Really nothing is going to change. The only silver lining that I saw in the recent violence was the change in rhetoric when it came to the way it was covered in the U.S. press.

Oftentimes, it's very one-sided. While it's an asymmetrical, the violence is asymmetrical, as I've said, the military capability is asymmetrical. There's disproportionate power on the Israeli side. The way that it's been covered historically in the United States has been. lopsided in favor of the Israeli government. This time, though, there has been a little bit of a change. And I think people are waking up and feeling confident enough to speak out against the injustices that I think most people would feel comfortable speaking out against if it was a conflict

in any other country. So what gives me hope is that these honest conversations continue, that the justified criticism and critique continues. And really, that's the way you start shifting or changing minds on this issue. Because everyone in that region deserves a life of dignity. Israelis deserve a life of dignity. Palestinians absolutely also deserve a life of dignity. And unfortunately, they have not been given that, especially not in Gaza, an open-air prison,

especially not under conditions of an apartheid. And that needs to change. And the only way it can change is if people feel confident and, free enough to speak their minds and point out the atrocities that take place. All right, well, let's move on to our next story because this is something that I was bringing up on the show quite a bit yesterday. And I was wondering where Biden's been. I've been wondering if there's been any negotiation on the infrastructure bill. And luckily, the conversations are continuing. They are negotiating it. But once you get into the nitty gritty and you look

of the details, not a lot to be too excited about, keeping it real. So let's get to the story. The Biden administration has already provided some concessions to Senate Republicans on the matter of the infrastructure deal. Now, the infrastructure bill is still in the negotiation process. The Biden administration, along with the Democratic Party, are still entertaining the idea of getting Republicans to sign on to it. But there are some progressive Democrats who are like, let's get this going. We're wasting time. We need to do this through reconciliation.

We're not going to be able to do this in the Senate with a vote of 60 senators saying, yes, we're in favor of this infrastructure bill. Remember, it's Mitch McConnell, who clearly noted that he will not in any way go along with Joe Biden's agenda. His number one priority is to fight Biden's agenda. So why would anyone think that Senate Republicans have any interest in good faith negotiations? They don't. They don't.

But it doesn't matter. Biden is still engaging with them as if they're good faith actors. And it is incredibly frustrating. So what are the concessions? Well, first, let me just note that Republican senators leading the talks with the Biden administration said Tuesday that they would release a nearly $1 trillion counteroffer up from the initial $560. billion dollar GOP counter plan put forward earlier this month. It comes after Republicans on Friday rejected Biden's trim down $1.7 trillion American jobs offer that cut $550 billion out of his original $2.3 trillion plan. A lot of numbers flying around. So the only thing to take

away is that Biden has, you know, in his mind, a much higher number. Republicans decided to go from a little over half a trillion dollars to a trillion dollars with their new counteroffer. But while all of this is taking place, Biden has already agreed to some concessions. It is $1.7 trillion counteroffer. Biden proposed what's being referred to here as minor concessions. I think that's a matter of opinion, to be quite honest with you. To remove funding for research and development, supply chains, manufacturing, and small businesses. It would also reduce $100 billion for broadband expansion to $65 billion, matching what Republicans have proposed and cut funds for roads and bridges.

But what happened? I thought that Republicans were in favor of physical infrastructure. Republicans claimed they want physical infrastructure, not social infrastructure. So why is Biden randomly deciding here to cut funding for roads and bridges? And also the broadband that's proposed in this infrastructure plan would overwhelmingly benefit Americans in rural parts of the country. Typically Americans in red states, Americans who have Republicans as their local representatives. It is pretty incredible how much the Republican Party will, on one hand, pander to their voters, right? when it comes to culture war nonsense, but behind the scenes, they'll screw them, even with something

as simple as offering them broadband internet. Okay, awesome. I don't know why Biden decided to make these concessions. They make no sense to me at all, especially when you look at polling indicating that his infrastructure plan is wildly popular. It's even popular with Republican voters. All he needed to do was really just fight for it rather than waste his time negotiating with Senate Republicans. And when it comes to the cuts in research and development, this is an incredibly vague way of reporting it. And I can only speculate as to what they're referring to with research and development. But remember, Biden wanted to focus on research and development pertaining to renewable energy. Republicans don't want that. They don't like renewable energy.

They don't want to invest in it. And so my guess is that the cuts to research and development would hurt efforts to fund the research and development for renewable energy. Great. Again, concessions that did not need to be made. The trim down plan would still keep the corporate tax increases that Republicans have said that they won't support under any circumstances. It would also fund home caregiving for elderly and disabled people, electric vehicle expansion, and other social infrastructure components that Republicans oppose. So it's about. Fascinating because it keeps some of the, I mean, look, Republicans are opposed to all of this. They claim they're in favor of physical infrastructure, but clearly they're not if they succeeded

in getting Biden to concede to cutting the funding for roads and bridges. They're not in favor of any of this. But publicly, they'll claim they're in favor of funding for physical infrastructure. Again, we're dealing with individuals who are not good faith actors. And it's not just the Republican Party that's littered with bad faith actors. We have quite a bit of that on the Democratic side as well, especially with someone like Senator Joe Manchin who knows that the Republican Party has no interest in working with the Democrats at all on this. What's frustrating to me is that we're just wasting time.

We're wasting time entertaining these GOP lawmakers who are just, honestly, doing nothing more than stalling, and we need to get this legislation passed. We need to get the American Families Plan passed. I just think we need to get to a point where Biden and Senate Democrats are actually playing hardball, and that's just not happening here. Republicans have said that they will only support spending on physical infrastructure, even though they got Biden to cut funding for physical infrastructure. Also, Senator Roger Wicker, who's a Republican from Mississippi, said the upcoming counteroffer would keep former President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts intact, avoiding corporate tax increases proposed by Biden, and instead repurpose already

approved COVID-19 relief funds to pay for repairs to roads and bridges, broadband expansion, and other infrastructure. He characterized the price tag as matching what Republicans have discussed in closed-door meetings with the president, although the White House disputed that Biden gave them his support. That's the other thing. I mean, when you're dealing with bad faith actors, they're going to leave the meeting with Biden and claim that Biden agreed to all sorts of things that he didn't necessarily agree to. So that's what you're dealing with with bad faith actors. What are we doing here? Why are we wasting our time? It just makes no sense. Do you think Mitch McConnell? Do you think Mitch McConnell would have any interest in bringing Democrats to the

table when it comes to passing anything in his agenda? Do you think a Republican president has any interest in democratic support for passing anything in his agenda or her agenda in the future. Who knows? Of course not. Of course not. Right now, you have the Democratic Party in control. They don't have enough of a majority in the Senate. There are still some obstacles in that regard.

But you have Senator Bernie Sanders as the chair of the Senate Budget Committee. That's a tremendous amount of power. the House is still in the Democrats' hands, they still have the majority there, and Joe Biden is the Democratic president. Why are we wasting our time? I know I'm being a little redundant and repetitive here, but it's just so frustrating that with the limited amount of time we have, like before we know it, the midterms are here, it's very likely that Democrats are going to lose control of Congress after the midterm elections, and then we're done. Then there's no opportunity to get any of this done.

But let's go ahead and waste time with these ridiculous closed door meetings to deal with people who have no interest in actually passing this legislation. And again, take a look at what the priority is for Republican lawmakers. Senator Wicker is saying that, you know, look, we care about physical infrastructure. We're going to get Biden to cut funding for it. What we really want to do is protect tax cuts for the rich. And Biden didn't even begin the negotiation with a high tax rate. The corporate tax rate was 35%.

Obviously not the effective tax rate when you consider deductions and all of that. But 35%, Trump cut it down to 21%, and Biden is proposing to increase it to 28%. And it's still not good enough for Republicans. Of course it's not. If they had their way, there would be no corporate tax. There just wouldn't be. They don't like taxes. They don't like, because look, corporate taxes mean that, hey, maybe our donors are going to be upset with us.

Same goes for corporate Democrats. Corporate Democrats know who funds their campaigns. And they don't want these businesses and these business interests cutting off that money if they vote in favor of increasing corporate tax rates. That's what really drives this country. It's not what the polling indicates. It doesn't matter if the majority of Americans find this legislation to be very popular. What matters is what corporate donors feel about it.

And corporate donors hate the idea. On July 18th, get excited. This is big! For the summer's biggest adventure. I think I just smurf my pants. That's a little too excited. Sorry. Smurfs.

Only dinner's July 18th. Of course. So they're going to go ahead and fight aggressively to defeat this big. bill. And unfortunately, they have bad faith actors in the GOP on their side. And they have some corporate Democrats on their side as well. Also, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said this month that he is 100% focused on stopping the Biden administration. Well, we all know that. I'm sure the Biden administration knows that. So again, for now the billionth time, why is the Democratic Party along with the Biden?

Biden administration, wasting time appealing to the GOP. Let's get it done. It doesn't matter what they have to say. All they want to do is serve as obstacles. That's it. We got to take a break. When we come back, we have more news for you, including Jeff Bezos, getting a bailout. I'll tell you why.

We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fing the Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be, featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it.

The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today

and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. So, you know, We're going to be. Hey everyone. Welcome to our first social break of the day. Fun story. The dress I'm wearing today is not a dress that I was planning on wearing. I had a completely different dress on. It had a loose thread that I decided to pull because I just thought it was like a random loose thread, not a big deal. Front of the dress completely unraveled. And this dress is a dress that I was planning on donating. Luckily, it was in the trunk of my vehicle. And I had something to put on. for the show today. But it's been a day, guys. It's been a day. It's been a lot. Anyway, so let me give you some programming notes, beginning with our LGBTQ special. As part of TYT's Pride special, ShopT-YTYT is actually donating 100% of its proceeds on June 1st to the Trevor Project. You can check out the Pride collection over at shoptty.com. Also, we are having an

LGBTQ special, and you can check that out on June 1st at 8 p.m. Eastern time, 5 p.m. Pacific at t.y.t.com slash live. It'll be hosted by Jason Carter, and it's featuring John Iderola, Adrian Lawrence, Daniel Franzis, Franzis, and Plastic Martyr. I mean, there's a lot of names on here. It's going to be a great show. So make sure you guys check that out. Also, I had a fantastic conversation, pre-taped interview with Dr. Rashad Ritchie. He is, one of the latest hosts here at TYT, and we talked about his upcoming show. Actually, what am I saying? Upcoming.

It was launched this week. But we talked about the show. We also talked about his life, and he's got an incredible story. So please check that out. You can watch that on May 27th at 5.30 p.m. Eastern Time, 2.30 p.m. Pacific at at t.y.t.com slash live. All right. Let me read a few of your comments.

We have American, but I say, Tomato, says, go Anna. How is Anna this good at doing a solo hour without even breaking a sweat? I was crying before I went live today. A printer didn't work. My dress unraveled. It's been a freaking hard day. So thank you. But there was definitely a lot of sweating going on. Theater goddess says, saw my best friend today and was able to give her a hug for the first time in 15 months. I know what that feels like and it's incredible. Because we're both hella vulnerable to COVID. It was an outside visit, but vaccines are wonderful. I agree.

It feels really good to be vaccinated and to be able to see my friends again. I've gotten a lot more social. I think the pandemic put a lot in perspective for me. Peter Hamby in the super chat section says after a few months of all the hubbub of voter fraud and Smartmatic and Dominion's lawsuit, I guess the GOP is telling Lindell that he made this false flag bed. And now he has to sleep in it. It's really funny. Can't wait to talk about that story. Nando's going to hate it. We'll see you in a few minutes. Anna Kasparian with you guys. I was about to say Anna and Jank with you. Jank is not here. He'll be back tomorrow, though. All right. Well, let's get to our next story because the richest man in the world apparently needs the U.S. government to offer him a bailout. What? Well, that's kind of how this country works, unfortunately. It's what happens when you're ruled by oligarchs. Now, let's get to it.

All right, NASA is outsourcing its capacity to work on the lunar program, and they're outsourcing it to private companies. And so Amazon had put its name in the hat, well, I should say Jeff Bezos and a different company that he founded put its name in the hat to win a government grant in order to be part of this lunar program. Now, Bezos has created something called Blue Origin. It's his space program. It's a competitor to Elon Musk's Space X. And it turns out that NASA decided to grant this money to Space X instead of Jeff Bezos's company. Now, Bezos didn't like that, right? He wants to be part of the action.

And so a U.S. lawmaker, a senator from the state of Washington, has come in to essentially carry water for him. And of course, it's a Democrat. The order would come through the Endless Frontier Act, a bill to beef up resources for science and technology research that's being debated on the Senate floor this week. An amendment was added to that legislation by Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat from Washington, to hand over 10 billion. dollars to NASA, money that most likely will go to blue origin. So Cantwell's measure wouldn't rescind the grant to space X, but would create an additional grant, okay? An additional contract that Bezos's company would be in line to win. A third company, Dynetics, had also bid for the moonshot, but the author of the new amendment, Cantwell, offers a strong suggestion,

of which company it's likely to benefit? Oh, well, what's the strong suggestion? Could it be the fact that Blue Origin is based in her home state? Is that the strong message here? Yeah, I mean, look, she's clearly looking out for business interests that operate out of her own state. There is, of course, quite a bit of lobbying money behind all of this. But just take a minute to really process what we're talking about here. The richest man, in the world, the man who has crushed his workers, the man who has reduced delivery drivers to defecating in plastic bags and urinating in plastic bottles, needs to get a $10 billion grant paid by us, U.S. taxpayers, for this project to get us to the moon, which we haven't

been to since 1972. You know, whenever it comes to a $10 billion grant on something that could actually help the American people who are in dire need right now in many cases, there's usually a giant debate. In fact, I just did a long story about the infrastructure bill and how much nickel and diming is taking place in regard to funding for broadband internet in rural parts of the country where it's difficult to get internet in 2021. That kind of nickel and diming when it comes to the American people, the average American, happens all the time, all day, all night.

But when it comes to one of the most powerful men, one of the most wealthy men in the world, $10 billion, let's write an amendment. Let's write an amendment. Maybe we can do two grants, guys. Maybe we can do two grants. We have two wealthy guys here. Both of them, you know, we care about a lot more than the average American.

So why don't we appease both of them? It's disgusting. Look, Ryan Grimm did an excellent job reporting on this in The Intercept. I encourage you to read the piece to get a full picture of this story. But he was also recently interviewed for The Rising. And he talks about it in a little greater detail in this clip. Let's take a look. What's so amazing is that NASA actually went with SpaceX, not just because they were

They were cheaper, but they were much cheaper. You know, $3 billion compared to, I think, $6 billion on Blue Origins bid. And they said, look, I know that Congress had suggested that we bid out to a couple of different companies, but we don't have enough money. They had come to Congress multiple times saying, if you really want this project, if you really want us getting to the moon, you know, we're going to need a bigger budget than we have right now. NASA was unable to persuade Congress. the only way that Congress decided to open up the piggy bank is when Bezos and Blue Origin said, hey, wait a minute. We thought we were going to get this contract, but we didn't. And so then all of a sudden, you know, 10.032 billion dollar authorization winds up, winds up in this new bill

and moves quite quickly. Now, it's not done yet. It would still have to go, still to go through the Senate, to go through the House. They have to find the money through an appropriation or some already appropriated money that they can move there. But it's a huge, huge win for Bezos and Blue Origin, and it's a bigger win that NASA itself was able to get. So Ryan did a great job explaining how this all works, right? So it's not as though Cantwell just snapped her fingers and offered $10 billion to Jeff Bezos. The Congress still has to vote on this, right? They still have to approve it. But it's very likely to be approved. I mean, when you look at how the vote in the Senate broke down, the vast majority of senators voted in favor

of providing these grants. And so we'll see. We'll see what the final result is, what the final bill looks like with all the amendments included. But what persuaded Cantwell? What would persuade other lawmakers? As we know, Cantwell is probably looking out for business interests in our own home state. But when it comes to other lawmakers who might actually, vote in favor of this awful idea, it might have to do with the fact that Jeff Bezos has spent quite a bit of money on lobbying. It always goes back to the money. Before I give me those figures, though, what I thought was interesting was how Cantwell tried to sell this idea, sell this amendment? I mean, did she have any way of, I don't know, framing this as something

that could be persuaded? Like, can you be persuaded by it, maybe? I don't know. I mean, could you, is there something that she could point to as a good reason for why we need to provide two different grants just to ensure that Jeff Bezos is included in all of this? She says, I think there needs to be redundancy or multiple contractors in case one fails. And it has to be clear this problem. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often. in your hormones too. When they fall out of balance, everything feels off. But here's the good news.

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self back naturally. It says can't be redundancy later. It has to be redundancy now. Bravo. Bravo. Was she in speech and debate? She was in speech and debate, huh? I'm sure she won all the gold trophies. That was the worst argument I've ever read for anything. I mean, it's amazing that we need redundancy, but we don't need redundancy later down the road. We need redundancy now. Redundancy now, everyone. That should be her campaign slogan where she runs for re-election. Just absolutely shameful and pathetic. Now, Bernie Sanders is not in favor of this. He says it does not make a lot of sense to me that we would provide billions of dollars to a company owned by the wealthiest guy in America. And the wealthiest guy in America knows where to spend his money to get what he wants.

You know, he knows how to get a good return on his investment because Blue Origin spent $625,000 lobby. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cyber criminals. And it's also easy to install.

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And the one thing that Bezos, or maybe there are other things, but one of the more jarring things that Jeff Bezos has decided to invest his money into, that is not a good return on investment, is this. The Amazon founder just commissioned a 417 foot or 127 meter yacht for an insane $500 million and it will undoubtedly be one of the most luxurious yachts the world has ever seen. And as if that wasn't enough, the mega yacht comes with a second smaller support yacht with its own helipad. Because why not? This yacht, which has yet to be officially named, will most likely be his second yacht. The yacht is 417 feet long, spanning several decks and it will boast three enormous masts. Across its decks, you can expect sprawling lounges, snazzy bars, huge swimming pools,

and enough entertainment to last you at least a year. So while Congress means tests Americans during the pandemic to decide whether or not we deserve any type of financial aid, They have no problem, just tacking on amendments suggesting that the wealthiest man in America should get a $10 billion grant for his little pet project. I just, I want you guys to compare the way we're treated to how people like Bezos is treated. There ain't no means testing. No one's, no one's bringing up his yacht, with the exception of Bernie Sanders, of course, he certainly did. But there's no discussion about whether this redundancy is wasteful.

There's no discussion about why doesn't Jeff Bezos invest his own goddamn money into his little pet project? Why is the U.S. government having to do that? I mean, it's just, and you see this across the board with every industry. I know I bring it up a lot. But it's wrong that we as American taxpayers fund research and development for pharmaceutical drugs. And then once those drugs are developed, we spend far more on them than people in other countries because our politicians don't represent us. They don't represent us at all. If they actually represented us, they wouldn't allow these pharmaceutical companies funded by us in their research and development to turn around.

and price gouge us. If they represented us, they wouldn't make these weak, disgusting arguments in the Senate about how we need to waste federal resources on redundancy to benefit Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the country. They don't represent us. They nickel and dime us. They hand out the cash to these corporate welfare queens. That's what they are. That's what Jeff Bezos is. I mean, how many successful corporations do we subsidize through having to pay tips, for instance, through having to pay for social safety net programs for full-time workers who literally cannot make ends meet on their wages? I mean, you want to talk about people taking advantage of the system. It is not the average person in America. It's people like Jeff

Bezos, who has a little fit over not getting chosen by NASA for their lunar program. It's pathetic. A lot of lawmakers are tweeting very strong tweets, though, so we got that. Let's take a break. When we come back, Elizabeth Warren goes after Jamie Diamond, and while I'd like to see more than just tough talk during these Senate hearings, I do enjoy watching Jamie. me diamond squirm. And you will too. So come right back. We're going to be able to be.

Hey everyone. Welcome back to our social break. So Al Belzo asked if we were planning on covering the mass shooting that took place in San Jose, California today. And the answer is no. Mostly because I don't know what more to add to that story other than what we've said over and over and over and over again about mass shootings in America. I don't know what else to say. Eight people were shot and killed. The gunmen, it appears, then shot himself. So nine people total are dead. I just, I don't know what to do. And at this point, I just, I think everyone is in this tense situation where you're wondering when you're going to experience it firsthand. hand. All right. I'm going to go to some super chat comments. No Sleep says, yeah, it's just tough talk, but seeing as he, Bernie, didn't have the votes and his block was moot, maybe cut Bernie

some slack here. At least he's moving this previously stagnant conversation forward. I mean, but is he, I don't think I was being needlessly rough on him. And I think that it's worth knowing which Senate Democrats are in favor of shipping weapons to the right, government of Israel. I think that there's some value in knowing who those Democrats are. Did I think it was going to pass? No, of course I didn't think it was going to pass. I knew that there were Senate Democrats who were against that resolution. But look, man, we've been cutting progressives a lot of slack if you ask me. I mean, what's the point of electing them? And I'm not talking about Bernie. Like, what's the, every time we have these discussions about like, please,

vote for the Democrat in this race. It's so it's so important to vote for this progressive. Okay, great. But once they're in power, I get it. I get it. It's still a small group of people. But there are opportunities in which they can withhold their vote. They can hold back as a block until they get some concessions. The fact that, like, don't be Joe Manchin is able to flex as much muscle as he is, tells you something. You know that Joe Manchin would cave the second Bernie Sanders went to West Virginia, as he, by the way, committed to doing and then didn't actually do. If Bernie Sanders went to West Virginia and started rallying support for the infrastructure bill, rallying support to do away with the filibuster, I mean, why isn't he doing that? That's what I want to know. I'm tired of the

tough talk. I just am. I'm sorry. It is what it is. Peter Hamby says, It just sounds like the GOP in the House and Senate are getting our tax money, doing nothing, maybe or must be a good lifestyle. Yeah. Our Stone says, who knew that participation trophies were so expensive? Michael Adonte says, just got my second Pfizer shot. Hey, everyone, welcome back. This will be our final segment before Nando Villa joins me for hour two. But I'm loving this next story, probably my favorite story of the day. So let's get right to it. The biggest banks in the United States had to testify before the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee

to answer some questions about why it is that their lending is down, specifically lending to small businesses and to ordinary Americans. I love the fact that they're holding hearings on this and I will address that portion of the issue in just a moment. But what came out of these hearings was an exchange with Senator Elizabeth Warren and Jamie Diamond, who of course is the head of Chase Bank. Now, what they were talking about was just how much money Chase made in 2020 with overdraft fees. Because you would think, you know, during a pandemic when people are really struggling, maybe wave overdraft fees, maybe be a decent.

person, decent company that understands the hardship that so many Americans are faced. But, I mean, I'm not stupid. I know that morality, ethics, all of that doesn't play a role in a corporate machine like J.P. Morgan Chase. And so this exchange was fantastic. Take a look at the first video. Mr. Diamond, how much did J.P. Morgan collect in overdraft fees from their consumers in 2020? money? Well, I think your numbers are totally inaccurate, but we'll have to sit down

privately go through that. I also want to point out we did not overdraft. Can you just answer my question? We did not overdraft. We did not overdraft at the Fed account. And at any request, so you never, I'm sorry, Mr. Diamond, that was, Mr. Diamond, that was not the question. Did you, you had an automatic protection. So I'm asking, you were. You were. recommended, the regulators recommended, you offered that same kind of protection to your customers. How much, in fact, did J.P. Morgan collect an overdraft fees from their customers in 2020. Do you know the number? I don't know the number in front of me, but I actually have the number in front of me. It's $1.463 billion. That's nearly one and a half billion dollars that you collected from your customers.

There was one line in there that you might have missed, but I think is important. And it was when Elizabeth Warren mentioned recommendations from regulators. Private companies aren't interested in recommendations from regulators. Regulators are supposed to regulate, not dole out recommendations. So if there is no regulation preventing Chase Bank or any other bank from charging overdraft fees during the pandemic, they're going to charge overdraft fees during the pandemic. And that's exactly what Chase did to the tune of nearly $1.5 billion. $1.5 billion.

Let's watch more of this exchange. Now, do you know how much J.P. Morgan's profit would have been in 20,000? 2020, if you had followed the recommendation of the regulators and waived overdraft fees to help struggling consumers. In other words, without that overdraft money, would your bank have been in financial trouble? We waived the fees for customers upon request if they were under stress because of COVID. You know, I appreciate that you want to duck this question. Do you know how much your profits would have been if you'd actually waive all the folks as the regulators recommended. We waived the fees every time. The answer is your profits would have been $27.6 billion.

I did the math for you. So even if J.P. Morgan Chase decided that they were going to waive the overdraft fees, they were good. They made a lot of money, a lot of money in 2020. In fact, so much money that recently, Jamie Diamond said that they're doing corporate stock buybacks. We're doing real well. We're going to enrich ourselves. Of course. They didn't even need to charge the overdraft fees to make an insane profit. They still made the profit. But they got to get a little more, right? Doesn't matter if you're struggling American. Doesn't matter if you're dealing with a pandemic. Doesn't matter that they get all sorts of goodies just for being a big bank. Goodies like, you know, not having to deal with any prosecution for collapsing the global

economy in 2008, not having to deal with, you know, the nickel and diming that we deal with in Congress. I mean, the Federal Reserve prints out money and hands it over to them because they need liquidity, guys, they need liquidity. I mean, they get all these tax breaks that we don't get. But it doesn't matter, they always want more, which is why that line. Recommendations from regulators makes me want to pull my hair out. Recommendations from regular, what recommendations?

What is the point of regulators if all they do is recommendations? You're supposed to regulate. Of course they're going to want more. The whole point in this system that we're living under with private industry is for said private industries to maximize profits. It is their only goal. There is no discussion about morality. There is no thought about ethics. There is no thought about how their practices are negatively harming others.

It is a machine and its only goal is to maximize profits. And if they can get a little more, which for them is $1.5 billion through charging overdraft fees, they're going to do it. They don't care about your recommendations. Final video for you. So here's the thing. You and your colleagues come in today to talk about how you stepped up and took care of customers during the pandemic. And it's a bunch of baloney. In fact, it's about $4 billion worth of baloney. But you can fix that right now. Mr. Diamond, will you commit right now to refund $1.5 billion you took from consumers during the pandemic? No. Right now. No. No.

That's right. Senator Warren, no, no. I mean, I don't believe that she's actually surprised by his answer. He's telling you bluntly, but more importantly, he's telling the American people. No, no. No, I want that $1.5 billion. Now let's kind of discuss the whole point of the hearing in the first place. Because the hearing is about the fact that these big banks, not just Chase, other banks, Wells Fargo is included. You know, you had Charles, I'm sorry, Goldman Sachs as part of this hearing. Like all these big banks are part of this, right? And the whole point of the hearing was, hey, the Treasury handed you some money so you guys can, you know, inject some cash into the economy during this awful pandemic. The Federal Reserve also prints money, gives it to you for cheap. You're supposed to lend it out to small businesses. and to ordinary Americans.

But you guys haven't been doing that. What's up with that? Let me give you those details. According to data from the Federal Reserve, from April of 2020 through April of this year, commercial loan issuance from America's 25 largest banks declined by 12.5% while consumer loan issuance has declined by nearly 1%. 0.8% over the same period on a seasonally adjusted basis.

I don't know if any of you tried to even like refinance your home loan, your home mortgage during the pandemic. It was the most challenging thing I've had to go through. They just didn't want to do it. I had to go to multiple lenders to make it happen. Everyone's talking about low interest rates. Oh, low interest rates, that's not for you and me. Low interest rates are for people who are already in positions of power, people who already have established businesses.

Low interest rates, if you fight really hard and you are persistent, maybe you get to take advantage of that. But getting a loan from these big banks has been incredibly difficult. This is something that I've heard Nomi Prins talk about quite a bit. In fact, when it comes to QE, something I've discussed on this show, she is, in my opinion, the top expert on that, matter. And QE is what I'm referring to when I talk about the federal reserve offering liquidity to these big banks under the assumption that the big banks will then turn around and provide money, loans to people who need it. But they haven't been doing that. What have they been doing with that money? Well, let's remind you all about, first off, what the Federal Reserve has been doing

exactly. I want to make sure we get the details right on that, and how that has increased corporate stock buybacks among some of these big banks. So the Federal Reserve's balance sheet ballooned following their March 15th 2020 announcement to carry out quantitative easing, that's QE, to increase the liquidity of U.S. banks, it reached 7.81 trillion U.S. dollars as of May 5th, 2021, this measure was taken to increase the money supply and stimulate economic growth in the wake of the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But just a few weeks ago, we learned that these banks started to increase their corporate stock buybacks. They really ramped it up. Take a look at this fun little graph, which shows

you how much corporate stock buybacks have increased in 2020. And obviously, we're not even halfway through the year yet. And when it came to the companies and why they're doing this, why would they do corporate stock buybacks? Well, for companies, share buybacks can be an enticing alternative to dividends when it comes to returning capital to shareholders, really the only point of capitalism. They reduce outstanding shares, which helps to boost earnings per share. Everything is about the shareholders. And when it comes to Jamie Diamond specifically, if you want to know what he's doing with the money, you want to know what he's doing with the money. Jamie Diamond, chief executive of J.P. Morgan, whose board gave the green light to a $30 billion buyback program in December, said last month his bank was, quote, buying back stock because our cup runneth over.

end quote. Taking money from the Fed, not loaned it out to people who need it, including small businesses that Republicans claim they care so much about. And they're just making themselves wealthier, guys. That's what they do. And when Jamie Diamond's feet

are held to the fire by the likes of Senator Warren with fantastic line of questions, he has the courage, the confidence to tell you the American people that he's going to keep charging you overdraft fees even as you're struggling from a pandemic and he is not going to give you that money back.

Capitalism. It's so delicious, isn't it? All right. You know what? Let's do this. Let's do one more story. And when we come back for the second hour, we'll bring in Nando Villa to help me break down Trump's possible indictment. That's a growing story that I honestly don't have a lot of hope for, but who knows? Who knows? We'll see where that goes. But for now, let's talk about what Americans are really

dealing with. Americans who are living in poverty, living in the shadows, and can't even get into an apartment, even if they have the money to pay for it. So, a lengthy New York Times investigation finds that poverty in the United States has gone so far as to lead countless. I mean, there are no official numbers, but a growing number of Americans to live in motels. And part of the problem is their credit scores are preventing them from being able to get accepted into an apartment. And as a result, they're spending more money to live in motels that clearly don't have the same necessities and amenities that an apartment or home would have. Now, just how many Americans are living in these motels, as I mentioned, the numbers are

difficult to track down, but the New York Times found that there are 5.6 million hotel rooms in the United States. According to STR, that's a hospitality research firm, roughly half a million of them are classified as extended stay, and that's up from about 200,000 to decades ago. So extended stay hotels slash motels are typically the types of places that poor people have no choice but to live in if they could afford the, you know, weekly, oftentimes they charge weekly rate for that place. Now, what you should also consider is that it's not just adults that are living in these conditions. There are plenty of children who are living in these conditions as well. As more adults have moved into hotels and motels, so have more schoolchildren.

97,640 lived in these settings in the 2018 to 2019 school year, up from 45,780 in the 2004-2005 school year. And that's according to the National Center for Homeless Education. And in Georgia, in Winnett County Public Schools, for instance, the largest school system, in Georgia, 91 bus stops at hotels, motels, or extended stays pick up nearly 600 students. The situation is dire, and I want you to really visualize what that kind of poverty looks like. Take a look. The Star Motel is a painful place to be. It is not a place suitable for people to live.

It's a heartbreaking place. No one deserves to live at the Star Motel. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, low-income areas of Orlando were plagued by a lack of affordable housing, with families packing into crumbling motels. The Star Motel in Kissimmee, which was in disarray before the pandemic hit, was pushed over the edge by the recent economic shutdown. The motel's owner abandoned it in December. Since then, residents have been left.

to run the place. The power has been shut off at least four times. Can't tell her to come and see because they're shutting the power right now. Right now. Tell her to come and see it. In early August,

the electric company trucks were back again. The motel's residents needed to pay $1,500 to keep the power on. Have you paid anything? Had you done anything? Yeah, actually I have. No es ployal because I just messaged you receipt from what I just paid on the leg.

Right now. I have it on your face, no way. Today is the due date. This should have been paid on Friday. Like every other Friday, they have to be paid because we went and got the money. Now, the heart of this New York Times investigation is the issue of credit reporting. Because if you have fallen on hard times and you've been evicted from. an apartment or a home, it ends up on your credit report.

And if it ends up on your credit report, landlords will not rent to you in the future. It's incredibly difficult to find a landlord who's willing to do it. So these individuals have no option but to live in these hotels, which do in the end cost more than rent in an apartment would. I mean, and by the way, let's also mention the fact that many of these credit reporting bureaus make massive mistakes in their credit reporting. So oftentimes people who haven't even been evicted will find themselves in this awful situation because these credit bureaus are their private companies, right? They collect all this data on you, sometimes inaccurate data, and that data gets to determine what your quality of life will be. And so these people are, again, paying more money to live in these conditions.

As the New York Times writes, in the Clayton County School District, the superintendent began looking closely at the rise of extended stays in the country in 2019, a full-blown crisis, one directly tied to the disproportionate harm of bad credit in black communities. In his district, there are 21 regular school bus stops at hotels, motels, or extended stays. In Georgia's fifth largest school district and among its 55,000 students, about 2,000 of them are classified as homeless every year. Congress can't even pass decent legislation right now regarding improving infrastructure, providing jobs to Americans. I mean, they're again, just nickel and diming Americans. We got to cut funding here. We got to cut funding there. We got to provide $10 billion in grants to Jeff Bezos's lunar pet project. But when it comes to the American people, I mean, we have children who are literally living on the streets. Like, the situation is so dire that the people we're

talking about right now living in these hotels and motels are not even in the worst situation. We have children living in the streets in the richest country in the world. And we're judging people and whether they deserve to live in a decent place based on their credit score. It's insane. It's absolutely insane. And it makes me livid to read this kind of stuff, to see this kind of stuff. You see it with your own two eyes when you go outside. Do we, does anyone deserve to live like that in this country? No, no. Does Jeff Bezos deserve 10 billion in government grants for his space project. No, no, he doesn't.

He doesn't. And of course, there's also a housing shortage. That exacerbates the problem. So by the mid-1980s, federal and state governments mostly stopped building public housing directly. That was a mistake. The thinking was that private investors lured with tax credits would build enough affordable housing instead.

How did that work out for you? Man, that, the age of neoliberalism destroyed this country. And not just this country, as we know, it's had its impact globally. But once the federal government decided to outsource the construction of affordable housing to private companies, private companies have a profit motive.

But once they did that, It's over. It's over. That's when the problem really began. And as you guys can see it in the cost of housing today, the lack of affordable housing today, the problem continues. It continues to get exacerbated year after year after year. We see it here in Los Angeles where voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of a ballot initiative to increase their taxes to provide affordable housing for the homeless, to get people off the streets. And Mayor Garcetti wanted to provide favors to his private real estate developers. They're the ones tasked with building the affordable housing.

And guess what? They haven't done anything. I think one building has been built. The policy largely failed people with extremely low incomes, you know, relying on the private companies to build affordable housing. And over roughly the same period, the available public housing units declined to 9508,000. at the end of 2020 from 1.4 million in 1990, according to HUD. It's the portion of the housing stock declining the most, says Andrew Arand,

the vice president for research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. And the final thing I wanted to bring up is that the lack of decent paying jobs is also exacerbating this problem. And the gig economy has a lot to do with it. One in five adults, who wanted more work, for instance, were doing without full-time work in late 2019. Remember, that was when we were being told that the economy was booming. The economy's booming, everyone. Look at the stock market, but one in five adults couldn't find gainful employment, a full-time job. Let me give you more.

The same graphic says that 53 million people have low-wage jobs, and that's research from the Brookings Institution, An expanding industry built on informal and impermanent housing is a reflection of the precariousness that increasingly defines daily life for millions of Americans. So what's insane is when you look at the speculators who at this very moment are buying up residential real estate and then turning them into rentals to price gouge people who are looking. looking for a place to live. They're, they're incredibly comprehensive in regard to their business model. They're looking at single, you know, they're looking at condos. They're looking at single family residents. They're they're looking at trailer parks. That's something else. I mean, you look at Black Rock, Blackstone, I should say. Blackstone's been buying up trailer parks

because they want to make sure that they monopolize the housing market. And guess what? But they're investing in these extended stay motels as well. Because if they have control over all of the housing, all of it, they're good. They can charge what they want. You have no other option. So they create a situation in which people have no choice but to end up in places like these motels. And even when they end up in the motels, Blackstone wants to make sure that they have control over that situation as well. Well, I'm not even making this up. In March of 2020, the Blackstone group, the private equity

giant, partnered with Starwood Capital and agreed to buy the extended state America chain for $6 billion. And they made a killing during the pandemic because these establishments didn't shut down during the pandemic. Other hotels did. But since these motels, and extended stays have people literally living there for shelter, they had to be up and running, right? They had to keep operating. The broader hotel industry endured enormous losses, writes the New York Times. The occupancy rates plummeting to 44% for 2020,

or to 44% for 2020. Extended stay America's occupancy rate was around 74%. The publicly held company has experienced industry-defying prosperity during the pandemic, $96 million in profits on revenues of $1 billion in 2020. That's how it works. We got to take a break. Nandovila will be joining me for Our 2. Stick around.

Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work. Listen ad-free. Access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple. podcast at apple.com.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.