The Young Turks - BOOGALOO NOISE

Episode Date: January 26, 2021

As lawmakers in both parties lobby the White House for a more targeted relief bill, Bernie weighs in on the Biden presidency so far, threatens to use reconciliation to pass a robust stimulus bill, and warns the GOP will win in 2022 if Democrats do not act aggressively now. 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, everyone. You're watching The Young Turks with Anna Casparian and Benjamin Dixon today, host of the Benjamin Dixon show. Make sure you check it out on YouTube. Ben, it's so good to have you with us. How are you? I'm doing great. Always a pleasure, Anna. Always a pleasure to have you. We have you. We have a gigantic show ahead for you today. Hopefully we get to all the stories that we've prepared. We are going to talk about where the Senate currently stands on the possibility of passing Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. There are some disagreements

among moderates, not just Republicans, but of course Democrats as well. So we'll give you those details and more later in the show. We're going to talk a little bit about why the left needs to be incredibly cautious and strategic in deciding who its allies are in actually accomplishing the massive legislative goals that we have. So we'll discuss whether or not it makes sense to ever align ourselves with right-wing extremists like the Bugaloo Boys. And later in the show, we'll also talk a little bit about what's happening with coronavirus, both in California and around the country. But before we get to all of that stuff, I think it's important to hear a little bit from Bernie Sanders. I criticize Republicans, yeah, for using reconciliation

to give tax breaks to billionaires to create a situation with large profitable corporations now pay zero in federal income taxes. Yes, I did criticize them for that. And if they want to criticize me for helping to feed children who are hungry or senior citizens in this country are isolated and alone and don't have enough food, they can criticize me. I think it's the appropriate step forward. That was Senator Bernie Sanders speaking to Dan Abash on CNN over the weekend. And as the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, we're looking at a man who not only has the right politics and the right policies in mind, but has a new position of power within the Senate, which is incredibly important when it comes to passing much needed coronavirus relief. Now, we're getting word that there are moderate Democrats who have joined forces with Republicans

to essentially air their grievances in regard to Joe Biden's coronavirus relief proposal, a $1.9 trillion proposal that in my honest opinion doesn't go far enough in providing the relief that Americans need. But nonetheless, it's certainly more robust than what we've seen from recent versions of relief, including the $900 billion relief bill that was passed. by moderates in both the House and the Senate. Now, with that said, I want to give you some details about what happened, you know, in a Zoom call with moderates, both in the Senate and the House. And then I'll give you a little taste of what Bernie Sanders plans to do to move forward

and why it's so important for him to have that position of power. Now, conservative Democratic Senator Cho Manchin organized a Zoom call with all moderate lawmakers that we all hate pretty much in order to talk about the spending involved, the $1.9 trillion that it would cost to pass Joe Biden's coronavirus relief package. And of course, Republican lawmakers think that Biden's package is just, it's too costly. So as the Washington Post reports, Senator Susan Collins, who had no problem helping to pass tax cuts for the rich in 2017, said this. There are still a lot of unanswered questions. Most notably, how did the administration come up with $1.9 trillion, dollars required, given that our figure show that there's still about $1.8 trillion left to be spent.

Now, I'm not entirely sure what she's referring to there. She's referring to money that was appropriated from previous relief bills. And it's important to note that that money is appropriated for very specific reasons. So is it money that was appropriated for small businesses? Are we talking about money that was appropriated for direct checks to Americans? Or are we listening to some trickster who thinks that she can pretend as though she's actually concerned about the deficit, when in reality, she helped to pass Donald Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy, which cost $2 trillion, all to give away massive tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy. Now, the $1,400 stimulus checks would, by the way, phase out under Biden's plan for individuals who make $75,000 or more a year and

families making $150,000 or more. But the phase of out level increases for families with larger numbers of children because guess what, children are very expensive. Creating a situation where a family with multiple children making more than $300,000 a year could still see some benefit even if they have not suffered income loss during the pandemic. My argument would be if you're concerned about wealthy couples with a ton of children receiving too much in government aid, how about rather than making a big deal about it now and stalling this incredibly important legislation, you deal with it later when they file for taxes. And if there's any indication that they had too much income and they didn't

need the help, then you tax them. But this argument that no, we got to pump the breaks, people are hungry right now, but we got to pump the brakes. That is not a convincing argument right now at all. And finally, of course, Senator Mitt Romney described the nearly two trillion dollar price tag of Biden's plan as pretty shocking, pretty shocking. I would argue that Congress neglecting its constituents is pretty shocking and pretty disgusting. But Ben, before we get to more Bernie Sanders videos, I wanted to get your thoughts. First of all, that was amazing. Everything that you just said was so important and you cut right to the core of it. I was sitting behind the scene just like clapping my hands because let's face it, Susan Collins is gaslighting us, right? I think

she is too wise and too experienced to not know what she's talking about. So since I know she knows what she's talking about, the only real solution here for this equation is that Susan Collins is gaslighting us along with all the other Republicans. And Democrats need to understand something. This is the game that they're going to play every step of the way. We cannot flinch whatsoever. They had no regard for the deficit or the debt when they gave the $1.9, well, they gave $2 trillion in tax cuts in 2017. So we should have no regard for what it takes for us to help the Americans recover from the disaster of COVID-19 and the Trump administration. Absolutely. So the Senate still has a legislative filibuster, something we've been talking about

on this show quite a bit. And that legislative filibuster indicates that the Senate would need 60 votes in order to pass this coronavirus relief bill. Now, obviously, that is going to be a difficult hill to climb. In fact, it's very likely impossible for enough Republicans to sign onto the legislation to get the 60 points, I'm sorry, 60 votes necessary to pass the bill, which is why Bernie coming in and having this position of power as the chair of the Senate Budget Committee is so crucial because what he can do is use a method known as reconciliation in order to pass legislation pertaining to the budget, okay, pertaining to coronavirus relief through a simple majority. Now, I'm oversimplifying the process. It's not as simple as,

oh, Bernie is going to, you know, snap his fingers and now we're going to do reconciliation. But it is another method that's available and a method that Bernie Sanders is clear that he's willing to use. In fact, during the weekend, during an interview with Dana Bash on CNN, he was asked specifically about this method. Let's hear what he had to say. So you've suggested that Democrats might need to use a process called reconciliation, which requires only 51 votes instead of the 60 to pass the coronavirus relief plan. You just heard Mitt Romney say that Republicans like him have shown that they are ready to compromise. So should Democrats move to pass coronavirus relief with 51 votes if they can't get Republicans support, say, before the impeachment trial?

Well, I don't know what the word compromise means. I know that working families are living today in more economic desperation than since the Great Depression. And if Republicans are willing to work with us to address that crisis, welcome. Let's do it. But what we cannot do is wait weeks and weeks and months and months to go forward. We have got to act now. That is what the American people want. Now, as you know, reconciliation, which is a Senate rule, was used by the Republicans under Trump to pass. massive tax breaks for the rich and large corporations. It was used as an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And what we are saying is you use it for that. That's fine.

We're going to use reconciliation. That is 50 votes in the Senate plus the vice president to pass legislation desperately needed by working families in this country right now. If you did it, we're going to do it, but we're going to do it to protect ordinary people, not just the rich and the powerful. And it's important that Bernie Sanders is using the comparison to the Great Depression because remember, the Great Depression didn't just impact the United States. The Great Depression was something that impacted every country. And as a result, what you noticed during that time was that countries went one of two ways.

They either went toward policies that are championed by the left as, FDR did, for instance, with the New Deal, or you have people like Mussolini, Franco in Spain, Hitler in Germany, using the same language that appeals to workers to essentially promote their brand of fascism. And so this moment is incredibly important. Not only are American suffering, but the moment that we're in can really determine where the future of this country is, country is headed. And that's why looking to history to understand the gravity of this moment is incredibly important. Ben.

Yeah, no, nothing but respect for my president, I mean for Bernie Sanders in his position. Because I'm actually grateful that he's going to be able to speak this way for the next few years because this is the type of language that we need to be spoken across the airwaves every single day. We need to show the hypocrisy of this country being willing to do anything for the wealthy for corporations, but nothing for the American people. So to hear Bernie Sanders make it clear, like, yes, we're going to use the same procedure that you used to get what you wanted, but we're going to do it to help the American people. So nothing but love for my president. Now, Bernie, during the negotiations regarding Donald Trump's tax plans, was incredibly critical

of Republicans and their use of reconciliation. And so he was called out for that during this interview. And I think his response was important. Let's watch. You mentioned that Republicans have used the so-called reconciliation process before, like in 2017, to try to kill Obamacare. You accused them of abusing the process back then. You said, quote, the function of reconciliation is to adjust federal spending and revenue,

not to enact major changes in policy. But you alluded to this. You are the chairman of the budget committee are going to be. You are already talking about using this tactic for things like paid family and medical leave for universal pre-K and child care, for climate change, tuition-free college, eliminating student debt and the $15 minimum wage. How is that not what you criticize Republicans for doing? Well, the devil is in the details of what we want to do and when we want to do it and when we have to do it. What we are talking about, by the way, are two separate reconciliation practices. Number one, the emergency one right now.

Right. Get direct checks, get those checks into people's pockets right now so they can feed their families. Make sure that people are not evicted from their homes. Make sure that states have the funds they need to get vaccines into people's homes. That's what we've got to do right now. And then as soon as that is done, we have to rebuild this economy. And Ben, I think he's absolutely right about that. I want to get your thoughts first before I share mine.

Right. Share mine. Yeah, no, I really wonder maybe that's why Dana Bash's countenance was kind of down because like she knows what Bernie is saying is true. It's like she didn't even want to read those questions. The framing of the question itself is the problem, right? The framing of the question itself is the fundamental problem in this country because we only are concerned about the details of how we get policy implemented if it's something that's designed to help the working class when it's not designed to help regular people. We have. no regard whatsoever to whatever rules have to be broken in order for us to just lavish the wealthy in this country with even more. Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you on the framing of the question, but I think that it did provide a fantastic opportunity for Sanders to juxtapose what the priorities of Republican lawmakers have been versus what the priorities of, you know, progressives like Senator Sanders have been. So look, if you look at polling from 2017 prior to Congress passing the tax cuts to the wealthy, the public was not on board for those tax cuts. It was not a popular policy

proposal. Everyone could see through it. They knew that this was going to be nothing more than a giant giveaway to corporations and to the rich. Okay? You have major banks that, you know, in the first quarter after the Trump tax cuts passed, saved billions of dollars in taxes. Average Americans, not so much. Now, you fast forward to what we're experiencing today. Polling indicates that 67% of Americans are supportive of $2,000 direct checks during this crisis. So it's incredibly popular, right? It's popular because it's people need it. People are experiencing absolute devastation right now through no fault of their own. We're talking about people who have done everything right. We deal with this pandemic. We deal with four years of an absolutely disastrous presidency

with with no real help to workers. And when you force people to stay home in the middle of a pandemic and they don't have a source of income, the government needs to do what the whole point of the government is, what the whole point of a centralized federal government is. It's just to respond to these types of crises, and we did not see that in a way that really addresses what Americans are going through. There was an asymmetric response that overwhelmingly looked out for people in positions of power and privilege, whereas the average American was left behind, much like what we experienced following the 2008 economic collapse.

And there are consequences to that. There are consequences to that for the Democratic Party, sure, but overall there are consequences for the future of this country. And Bernie Sanders understands that. So I highly recommend that progressives waste absolutely no time in trying to negotiate an appeal to people like Susan Collins, who is not an honest actor, who has no problems with giant giveaways that hurt the future of this country for the benefit. of the wealthy. Susan Collins might be in the Senate, but right now Democrats have a slim

majority, they have some power and they need to use it. And so Bernie's got the right idea. He needs to move forward with reconciliation when it comes to a relief bill. And more importantly, there needs to be a very aggressive push to get rid of the legislative filibuster. Because with this necessity of 60 senators to pass any legislation, I guarantee you the Senate will get nothing done. Absolutely. All right, well, let's move on to one other angle to the story. This is a country that is in pain right now. And if Democrats who have slim majorities in the House and the Senate, we got President Biden in the White House, if we do not respond now, yes, I believe two years from now the Republicans will say, hey, you elected these guys,

they did nothing vote for us and they will win. That was Senator Bernie Sanders speaking to Dana Bash on CNN. And honestly, you don't need to be a history buff to understand how accurate Bernie Sanders' statement was there. Because the question is, what is the political consequence of Democrats playing patty cake with dishonest Republicans who have shown us that they want to do nothing more than stall real relief to Americans. And the answer is if they don't fight hard enough, in two years when we have our midterm elections, history will repeat itself. And Sanders did offer some

specific examples of what he was talking about there. So let's take a look at the rest of the clip. If Democrats don't pass these sweeping changes you're talking about, do you think that they will lose control of the House and Senate in 2022? That's what history tells us. What history tells us is that When Clinton won in 92, two years later, the Democrats didn't do as much as they should have, they got swept out by the Republicans. Obama won in 2008, 2010 Republicans decimated them at the polling booths. Look, Donna, this is not complicated stuff. We're in an unprecedented moment in American history. Tens of millions of people are hurting.

People are watching this program, do not have food in their cupboards to feed their kids. kids. They are sick. They cannot afford to go to the doctor. They cannot afford the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs. They're worried about climate change and what that will mean for their kids in future generations. That is where we are right now. And the American people say, we elected you guys. Do something. And he's right. Just to offer you some more shocking statistics, as I've mentioned multiple times on this show, because every time I say it, it still shocks me. Eight million Americans fell into poverty since the last summer as a result of this pandemic. Eight million Americans. Unemployment rate is still at 6.7%. There are jobs, small

companies, that shut their doors, not temporarily, but permanently. And we're increasingly relying more and more on this so-called gig economy, where in places like California, these workers have no real rights. They are reclassified as a completely different classification of workers who do not get benefits. Our economic situation is dire, and it's only been compounded by this pandemic. And if Democrats don't get their act together, if they're unwilling to do what it takes, either through reconciliation or nuking the legislative filibuster in the Senate, I guarantee you, much like Bernie did there, that they will lose majorities in both the House and the Senate in the midterm elections.

Yeah. You know, Anna, you were saying something in the previous segment about how, how they, it's almost like an abdication of duty in terms of what this federal government is supposed to be doing for the American people. And I think it's so transparently obvious here that that's what's happening, right? That's what's happening with regards to the previous administration. And that's what's happening with regards to Republicans interfering or not doing what they can to make sure that Americans are taking care of.

But it's been a full abdication of responsibility as a government. I think they're fundamentally trying to make the American people accept a modified version of a social contract. And this social contract, we give them the consent to be governed. That's if they take care of their job as a government. And what they want us to be comfortable with is allowing them to do anything they want and the American people just put up with it because, well, we're used to it. Yeah, that's exactly right.

And what Republicans fail to realize is that a lot of the people, the growing rage in this country is not just going to magically disappear or subside with, you know, fancy talks of unity. People are not interested in flowery language right now. They're interested in being able to stay in their homes. They're interested in being able to provide for their families. They're interested in ensuring that they have enough to send their children to school, or more importantly, that they don't have to go bankrupt or dig themselves into a massive whole to send their children to school so they can get a decent education. People are angry for justified reasons. And when you have that climate of pure rage and anger for justified reasons,

that can easily be exploited by bad actors. So a lot of the unrest that we're seeing in this country, and I'm not blaming what happened in the Capitol, for instance, a few weeks ago on people living in poverty. But I do think that there is quite a bit of economic anxiety in this country right now. And people are looking for any solution. And that creates a climate that's easy to exploit for all the wrong reasons. And I am worried about the future of the country. I'm worried about people's livelihoods. And Democrats cannot play around. They can't play around. I don't care what Biden has to say about unity. Right. If you want unity in this country, first of all, objective shouldn't be unity among Republican and Democratic lawmakers, people in positions

of power and privilege. No, the unity should be focused on what we need to do to ensure that Americans see one another as people again, because that's not happening. And it's very difficult for Americans to see one another as people when we just had four plus years of the Republican Party led by Donald Trump pointing his fingers at the so-called others. And using them as the scapegoat for everyone's problems, whether it's China because of the virus, whether it's Mexico because of immigrants, whether it's Central America because of immigrants. Those people, those people who have no power are not the reasons why we're experiencing this economic anxiety right now. But it's very easy for fascists to use that narrative to divide the country, to divide and conquer when you're not getting real solutions from our lawmakers, from our federal. government.

Yeah, and I just, I'm really taken back by by the willingness of Democrats and some progressives to always capitulate to this this type of thing in the Republican Party, right? And it really goes in two different ways. You have some who want to capitulate to so-called moderate Republicans, and we know that doesn't exist. Susan Collins is not a moderate. She's just quietly radical. That's it.

And then you have others who want to align with other factions of the right. When the winning majority, the winning majority is a intersectional coalition of diverse people who are fighting on behalf of liberating everybody in this country and across this planet, that's a winning majority in a given day of the week. Absolutely. And look, we're going to talk about this a lot more on the show today. But it's important to everyone, everyone to really sit and think about what your theory of changes. Is your theory of change about empowering people?

people to collectively fight for what we need in this country? Or is your theory of change something different? And if it is something different, ask yourselves whether there's any historical example you can point to for that kind of strategy to work. Because honestly, any time we've seen transformative politics, either in this country or around the world, it's through a collectivist effort. The largest voting block in the United States consists of non-voters, people who are eligible to vote, but choose not to because they feel that government has done nothing for them. What can we do to get them involved? What can we do to empower them, to work with them collectively, to hold these lawmakers accountable? So they're no longer afraid of their donors. They're more afraid

of the collectivist action that's going to take place in this country through us empowering them. That's my theory of change. That's what I believe in. All right, we got to take a break. But what I just talked about right now, I'm going to elaborate on a little more in the next segment. We're going to talk about whether or not it makes sense to join forces with right-wing extremists who claim they also want to do something to help the working class. We'll be right back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-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-F-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 not learn 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. Thank you. Hey everyone. Welcome to our social break. Just a quick note from one of our partners.

If you're online and if you're watching the show, you are online, you should be protecting your online activity by using a VPN. We've partnered up with PureVPN where you can get a massive discount if you choose to work with them and use their services. Just go to tyt.com slash PureVPN to learn more details. You can even get a seven day trial of PureVPN for just 99 cents. Again, that's tyt.com slash pure VPN. All right, now to my favorite part, I'm going to read some member comments. So Carlson is a mother Tucker writes in and says that the election is over, why would Congress pass a stimulus package? Well, I do think that there are some members of Congress who actually genuinely do want to do the right thing instead of just look out for their own political careers. So I mean, it's a few people. But hopefully with Bernie Sanders as the chair of the Budget Committee, he'll move forward with the aggressive tactic of reconciliation. I can't keep up with the mass inertia writes in and says, I love that Bernie is playing a role in the new administration. We need him cutting it straight on the media. agree with you. And you can see some of his impact, you know, toward Biden. I wanted to get

your thoughts on that real quick, Ben. I mean, obviously Biden isn't proposing as much as we would like to see yet. But I will say what he's proposed so far is further to the left and I had anticipated. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, Bernie actually does a really good job of being able to hold Joe Biden accountable, because, you know, Bernie is going to tell the truth, regardless of who's the president. And so I think that's going to help move the conversation in the direction it needs to go. Absolutely. Jess writes in and says the media always questions Bernie on process and never on policy.

I hear you. And look, out of all of the, I guess, annoying interviews that we've seen featuring Bernie in the line of questioning that he's dealt with, that was probably the one that I was least annoyed with because the framing of the questions. We're grading. But I think that, again, it provided a perfect opportunity for Bernie to make his case. He made it clearly. And you can tell that Danabash wasn't really interested in pushing him on it because he was right. He was just right. So, yeah, it wasn't like this annoying back and forth that was like typical of a Chuck Todd interview, you know. The Ardvark writes in and says, it's great at least we're talking policy again instead of nuking hurricanes. I agree, totally. And look, there are things that have already happened that I think are important and we shouldn't minimize. Joe Biden getting rid of that ban on, you know, transgender members of our military is important. It's important. Showing that, you know, there's an emphasis on equality is

important. So, you know, rejoining the Paris Climate Accord is important. Understanding the importance of climate change rather than denying it, important. So we're making progress. But that doesn't mean we should stop pushing Biden. We got to continue pressuring him. And with that said, let's get back to our show where I'll talk about how we should not work with right-wing extremists. I'm going to be. I'm going to be. I'm going to be.

You know, I'm going to be able to be. Hey everyone, welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian and Benjamin Dixon with you. Make sure you check out Ben Show, the Benjamin Dixon Show on YouTube, subscribe, and show your love and support because we want to uplift as many left voices as possible on this show. But with that said, let's go ahead and talk about people we do not want to uplift and we do not want to work with for reasons that should be obvious, but I will make my case. So let's do it. On the left, it's important to understand how critical it is to win.

And in order to win, we need to clearly differentiate individuals that we can align ourselves with and work with strategically and individuals who we absolutely cannot work with because they do not share a common goal. They might pretend to share a common goal. They might say a few things here and there that we agree with, but we need to think about what individuals and various groups fundamentally represent, whether or not they have a material understanding of the problems that we're facing today, and whether or not they believe in a collectivist approach that is necessary to transform what we're going through in this country.

Now, one group that I agree is probably, not probably, definitely not worth working with is the Boogaloo Boys. So let me make my case as to why. Far-right Boogaloo Boys linked to killing of California law officers and other violence. That is a headline from the Los Angeles Times in the summer of 2020. Now, you might have issues with police brutality and policing in general in this country, and I certainly do. However, I do not believe that any situation that involves murder makes sense. I do not agree with violence. I do not agree with killing anyone, including ambushing cops sitting in a police patrol car and then opening fire on them. Authority said a California man accused of killing a police officer and a federal agent in June

scrawled the word boog in blood on the hood of a car during a standoff with police. Federal agents arrested two other members of the Boogaloo movement whom they accused of offering to work with the terrorist group Hamas. Now the Boogaloo boys are a loosely tied group of anti-government extremists. At the core of what they believe is we do not need the government, We must do away with the government. There are elements of the boogaloo boys that are, you know, full of, you know, white supremacists and racist. Others claim that they are not racist. But at the heart of what they believe is this notion that we must do away with the government.

Taxation is theft. These are not people who believe in the policies that we want to champion, including Medicare for all. These are individuals who want to do away with government by any means necessary, including exploiting racial tensions in this country to spark a race war, to spark their fantasy world of starting a civil war, a civil war that would get people killed. Now, they're also, by the way, the people who were behind the plot to possibly murder Gretchen Whitmer. They certainly were planning and plotting to kidnap her. And she's the governor of Michigan who had this scandalous idea of trying to keep people safe during the pandemic by shutting down some businesses.

And so federal prosecutors say that three white men with U.S. military experience are accused of conspiring to carry out a plan that began in April of 2020 in conjunction with protests to reopen businesses closed because of the coronavirus. More recently, they sought to capitalize on protests over the death of George Floyd. They wanted to use the momentum from riots occurring nationwide because of Floyd's death to quote, hopefully stir enough confusion and excitement that others see the explosions and police presence and begin to riot in the streets out of anger, the complaint said. One of the men, Andrew Lehman, Lenim, instructed the group to observe the riots occurring nationwide and use the momentum as a driving force to possibly take action against a free station, I'm sorry, a fee station at Lake Meade on federal land north of the Hoover Dam on May 30th. Other targets discussed included a U.S. Forest Service Ranger Station.

These are people who want to engage in acts of terror, they want to commit murder, they want to harm innocent people because they do not believe in government. That's who these people are. Let me give you more. Three men were arrested on the way to a protest in downtown Las Vegas, by the way, it was a Black Lives Matter protest, after filling gas cans at a parking lot and making Molotov cocktails in glass bottle. So they would show up to Black Lives Matter protests, not because they see themselves as allies to black people in this country who have been persecuted by police brutality and police in general. They want to and wanted to exploit these protests in order to spark a full-blown civil war because in their minds, that civil war could lead to them overthrowing the government. That's what they want to do. That is their plan. That is at the heart of what the boogaloo boys believe. They are right wing extremists, and whether some of them claim to be white supremacists or not, what matters here is that they do not have the same goals as we do here on the left. We want to empower workers,

we want a collectivist approach, we want general strikes, we want people to understand their power and use it in order to reform the government and ensure that our lawmakers actually represent our best interests. It's about empowering other people, not overthrowing the government. With that said, it was curious when Jimmy Dorr decided to bring up the boogaloo boys and put out some weird commentary that essentially rehabilitates their reputation. And he did so without any real research. In fact, the extent of his research was revealed live on air, and this is what that looked like.

A man who aligns with boogaloo boys? Who are the boogaloo boys? What is that? I don't even know what that is. Do you run? I don't know. Is that like the proud boys? I think so.

I'll look at boogaloo boys. My guess is they're proud boys who like to dance. I think they're, yeah, they're probably proud boys with rhythm. So this guy went to the state capital in Michigan and he gave this speech. Now, Ron, I want you to listen to this speech and tell me how much of this you agree with because we're told these people are maniacs. Yes, they're loosely organized, far right, anti-government and extremist political movement in the United States, according to Wiki.

Okay. So anti-government should have, you know, maybe little light bulb in Jimmy Dorshead, but it didn't. It didn't. The complimentary commentary continued. I want to give you a little more of that. Let's watch. BLM, Antifa, Buguloo, and Brightwing militias. Yes, he says BLM, Antifa, Boogalo, and right-wing militias are not the problem.

he's saying. Let's listen to it again. L.L.M. Antifaw, Fulguloo, and bright-wing militias. They are the antibodies, not the disease that is destroying our country. They are the antibodies, he says, not the disease destroying our country. The disease is a country run by two corrupt

political parties that do not care about you. So deeply incestuous with corporations that they are indistinguishable for each other. So what's happening there is a right-wing militia guy reaching out to the left-wing, people in BLM and Antifa saying we have more in common than our government wants us to think.

Did he say anything there that you could disagree with, Ron? Yeah, I mean, in theme, I think everything he's saying really just paints the picture of what's going on societally. I don't know if this guy's with any particular group or if he's just a guy making a I mean, I don't know who he is, but yeah, I mean, I think he's right on that it's like, this is the system that's oppressing the American people. So just to answer Ron's question, the person that they're speaking about is in fact a boogaloo boy and they learned that later because, of course, Jimmy Dorr decided to interview him in an interview that was titled on Jimmy's YouTube channel.

Radicalized Michigan anarchist seeks unity with the left. So already this narrative regarding how we should work with the Boogaloo Boys is becoming a dominant talking point among Jimmy Dorr and his followers, which is strange when you consider that these are people who want to overthrow the government and Jimmy decided to viciously attack progressive lawmakers because they didn't follow suit with his performative strategy to get Medicare for all, which by the way wouldn't have worked, but nonetheless. Medicare for all is by definition government-run healthcare. Now, what else did Jimmy have to say during his interview with this guy? Let's watch. Instead of demonizing people because they don't hold the exact same set in stone

ideology that we have, and if you actually traveled around America as I have, you will find people's ideologies are wildly inconsistent and always in flux and constantly changing. If there are people who are pro-LGBQ, against war, against the corporate dominance of the state, People who reject the two-party duopoly and who work alongside Black Lives Matter and Antifa, and they want a general strike, well, we have to be able to talk to those people. Because if we can't talk to those people, that's bad. That shows the weakness on our side. These people would also, you know, like to do away with everything our government represents. including our Constitution, which, by the way, offers protections for ordinary American workers.

But I guess that's not important because, hey, one of these Boogaloo Boys said in a speech that he likes BLM. In fact, Jimmy continued his social media PR for the Boogaloo Boys by tweeting this. I interviewed a member of the Boogaloo Boys. I was completely floored when he said he is pro-LGBQ, pro-Black Lives Matter, anti-police brutality, anti-racism, anti-ice, anti-war, WTF, marginalized Michigan anarchist seeks unity with the left. You know, I watched the Democrats debate one another during the Democratic primaries, and I was absolutely floored when Amy Klobuchar referred to herself as, a progressive. But it turns out that people lie, right? People lie all the time, including the boogaloo boys who, oopsie daisy in their own discord, made it abundantly clear that they intended on lying to the American people to rebrand themselves in order to exploit unrest

in this country to spark their fantasy of a civil war. Let me provide the receipts since I actually do my research. Here's a few of them. I agree with Pat Henry. I think publicly throwing our support both verbally and on the streets behind anti-ice people and SI, BLM, could produce a huge shift in public opinion, at least in the younger generations. Let me give you another one.

Salesmen, I don't want to protest with them, but to have a cause they simply simply sympathize with would help us gain support from people on that side of the spectrum. We want people's support, not the parties. And I'll give you one more. If we were gonna do that, we should be consulting leaders from their Twitter communities. That's how most movements other than ours get out there. And if we can get black Twitter and LGBT Twitter, we could turn the tide of the soft war. These are people who want to exploit others in order to spark a civil war because they want

to overthrow the government and everything that comes along with it, including constitutional protections. But for a man who claims he wants Medicare for all, Jimmy Dorr, who has gone to great lengths to demonize Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and other members of the squad, progressive lawmakers, women of color. It is curious that he now sees this weird allyship with people who want to overthrow our government. Because I guarantee you there is not a single boogaloo boy who believes in Medicare for all. Since they're anti-government and anti-collectivist action, I guarantee you that they do not want to sign on to the Green New Deal or anything that would actually combat climate change.

I guarantee you that they don't represent any of our goals. They might have similar frustrations with our system of government as it stands today, but it's for reasons that differ from the left. And we need to be absolutely clear on that. And I do want to give you an example of how Jimmy Dorr spoke about Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when she refused to use. utilize his strategy of forcing a vote on Medicare for all on the House floor. And in order to do that, she would withhold her vote for Nancy Pelosi, a Speaker of the House.

She and other progressives did hold their vote in order to get carbouts from PAYGO, which might sound boring. It's not sexy. But guess what? It's an actual legislative win that clears the path to pass legislation that we want. Again, it's not sexy, but without those PAYGO carve outs, which are written in such a broad way that they apply to things like Medicare for all, we would not get Medicare for all. The performative vote on force the vote, with force the vote, would fail. And proponents of force the vote acknowledge that. I would argue that it's just a little more effective to hold your vote for the speaker and get something substantive in return. And that is what progressives did with these PAYGO carve-outs.

But putting that aside, I do want to present this video of Jimmy Dorr, viciously attacking AOC for not going along with his antics. And this is to keep you from health care. That's what this is. This is to keep you from health care because she's a gutless wonder who will not do what she promised. and you don't get her to do what you want her to do by being nice to her. You get her to do what she's supposed to do by ripping her to shreds, which is what I'm doing right because she has it

coming. And it's not just her. They all do. She's the only one engaging on Twitter, which is why she's getting it. What it takes is courage from gutless wonders like you, AOC, you phony, and you're revealing yourself and I, I, I am just writing it down. We are category. You're doing it. and we're marking it. This is her outing herself as a gaslighting mother-h because you're broken. Because you're corrupted and co-opted.

And now we got to lay on you as hard as we can. Everybody sees through you. Everybody sees through you. Fascinating because Jimmy Dorr simply could not see through the boogaloo boys who he was incredibly complimentary toward, who he believed at face value as being good people that we should work with. When it came to AOC, someone who actually is fighting for the policies that we want, oh, she's just a gutless wonder. And I want to be clear about one other thing. There's a very clear difference between right-wing extremists, including the Bougaloo boys

who want to overthrow our system of government. And people who might have voted for Trump, but aren't a lost cause. I don't think that we should absolutely reject every single person who supported Trump. There are people who are persuadable. There are people who are getable. And it's important to differentiate between those two. But when we're talking about the boogaloo boys, that is a completely different category of individuals who do not have the same end goal as the left.

And we need to know that. And we need to understand what our theory of change is. Because in my belief... 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.

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It revolves around getting workers active. It does not revolve around aligning ourselves with right-wing extremists who do not believe in what we want in this country. Ben. Wow, you brought the receipts. And as I sat there and I listened to everything, I was trying to decide how I wanted to approach this particular topic because part of me wants to have a tone of reconciliation. But when you juxtapose his reaction to Bugaloo Boys to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of course,

We should not have a reconciliatory tone when this is the point. I said it weeks ago on Twitter, I'll say it on air anytime you're given the chance. The point is, is that this is a power grab to neutralize, in my opinion, my best estimation, it strikes at the heart of the progressive power structure and it neutralizes a good portion of it. And that's been the agenda the entire time. I don't know if that's, if that's Jimmy's agenda personally, but we see this happen every so many years. Every two years, we see that there's somebody who is trying to make an alignment between the left and the right, and we see it coming every two years like clockwork. And it's just this time

around, they picked up Jimmy Doar. So I think this is actually bigger than Jimmy Door. I think there's a concerted effort in this country to neutralize the power base of the left. And Jimmy Door probably is just the latest iteration in that. And it's just, it's important to, again, really explore that, right? And it's not just about Jimmy Dorr. I think you're right. It's important to understand where people come from. And more importantly, what their end goal is. So if someone uses certain buzzwords that sound appealing to you, dig a little deeper, guys. Just dig a little deeper. Because winning is important and I want to win. I want to win.

But dividing the left and then following that up with, oh, why don't we work with these right-wing extremists who want to overthrow the government, which would make it really hard to actually accomplish Medicare for all. Not into that strategy, not into it. Demonizing DSA while saying complimentary things about the boogaloo boys, not the strategy I'm interested in. Sorry, DSA isn't perfect, but I trust them a hell of a lot more to organize and find collectivist solutions to the problems we're experiencing right now, as opposed to the Boogaloo Boys who would overthrow the government in their dream fantasy world, by the way, through a civil war, which would lead to deaths.

That part, that part about overthrowing the government, right? Let's just be real. The first thing that they want to get rid of, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, They want to get rid of any protects Oberfels versus Hodges. They want to do away with that. Let's just be real. They're willing to play the game. There's a clip that I covered years ago of Richard Spencer admitting that he's willing

to play the free speech game in order to get rid of free speech, right? And so they're willing to play this game of coalition building in order to get rid of our liberties in the first place. There's a huge overlap between the people who really think that there is nothing to worry about in terms of the government if we just get rid of it. Right? But there is a real concern for minorities, for black people. Who do you think are going to be some of the number one victims of this coalition with the Boogaloo Boys if they actually are successful? Black people, brown people, indigenous people, LGBTQIA. I tell you what, if you want to know if they really are about progressive action, ask them where they stand on reparations, ask them where they stand on indigenous populations, ask them where they stand on Joe Biden's lift on the band of trans people in the military. So ask them about those issues. And I think you'll really see who these people really. are. Ask them what they believe regarding workers' rights. These are not pro-worker, pro-union individuals. They do not believe in collectivism. They don't believe in regulations. These are not people who are aligned with our political values. That's the issue here. And,

you know, one guy giving a spirited speech about how BLM and Antifa are not the enemies is not enough, not nearly enough to persuade rational, logical people into thinking that aligning themselves with them is going to lead to some sort of magical outcome for Medicare for all and the policies that we desperately need. Stay clear, stay focused, keep it simple, stay away from the enemy. We've got to take a break. We'll be right back. You're going to be able to be. We're going to be able to be. Hey everyone, welcome to our social break. I'm going to try to read as many comments

as possible, starting with our member section because I see a lot of great comments here. No More Trigonometry writes in and says, I mean, besides their horrendous views, why would you want to associate with a group that has such an atrocious, atrocious name referring to the Bougaloo Boys? Yeah, and also, they murder people, like they like the idea of murdering people. And again, I don't care if their targets are cops or members of the government or I don't care. We cannot associate with people who think murderer is a solution. You just can't, I'm not into that. Don't care. Don't care. I don't care how many times they say that they supposedly love BLM. I don't believe them. No one should. Let me give you more.

I bathe in a very stable geniuses tear says Republicans have always have, I'm sorry, Republicans always have unanswered questions to Democrat bills, even if those questions are answered, absolutely. The dragon who says Nye writes in and says, demonizing people for not having the same ideology he does is the entire point of Jimmy's show. What a clown. I'm gonna read some super chats now. Let's start from the bottom. Michelle Hunt writes in and says, thanks for doing the the Jimmy Door story. I fought with someone on the damage report, TikTok. Why are they trusting anything the far right says? Yeah, it's frustrating. And it's what I'm seeing a lot of is this concerted effort, and it's very toxic and it works to exploit the rage people are feeling

right now. And it's dangerous. It's just incredibly dangerous. Dead unicorn writes in and says Jimmy Door doesn't know who they are. Why is he talking about him? If you're a journalist, like Anna, do your homework before you open your mouth. Thank you for that. Detroit MicroSound writes in and says, I think Jimmy has likely known a long time about them. In fact, he may be communicating with them. I think Jimmy faked that intro to the Boogaloo Boys. Look, I wanted to stay away from any speculation in that video because I think it's important to really drive home the point. This goes beyond Jimmy Door. I hope you guys understand it. I don't like Jimmy Door. I think that's pretty clear. But this goes beyond Jimmy Door, right? Because we need to think

clearly and strategically to win, to win. And it's not about any individual podcaster or YouTuber or any particular electoral strategy. This is about collective action. This is about empowering people to get active. That's what this is about. And we cannot get sidetracked because time is of the essence. Let's get back to the show. We have so much more to share with you guys. Well, you know, What's up everyone? Welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian, and Benjamin Dixon with you. Now let's talk a little bit about how the media has decided to realign itself now that Trump is out. New York Times has decided they're going to try to, you know, go back to this whole both sides.

We love Republicans to narrative and I think it's incredibly destructive. So the New York Times has fired one of their freelance editors for putting out. out a mild, incredibly mild critique toward Donald Trump that upset some of their conservative readers. She also expressed some excitement on inauguration day. Let me show you exactly what got Lauren Wolf in trouble. She had tweeted regarding Biden landing on inauguration day. Biden landing at Joint Base Andrews now, I have chills. Scandalous. So, so scandalous. I'm not kidding. That is literally a tweet that upset some of the employers over at the New York Times. And then she also tweeted and then deleted this, the pettiness of the Trump administration not sending a military plane

to bring Biden to D.C. as his tradition is mortifying childish. Now, she deleted it because it turned out that Biden actually chose to fly on his own and didn't need a military plane sent by Trump. So it's part of the reason why she deleted it. But those tweets got her in trouble. So as Yashir Ali wrote, Lauren Wolf was tasked with mostly editing stories that were on the New York Times live page, which were constantly updated, related to the pandemic and breaking news events. Most of the criticism of her tweet came from conservatives. Now, Wolf, you know, apparently had upset the employers over at the New York Times for other reasons, although they're not very clear about that. Joe Pompeo from Vanity Fair wrote about this saying, that according to someone with knowledge of the phone call in which Wolf was let go, she was told that her name at the Times is, wait, she was told that her name at the Times's name were in headlines all over the place and that quote, we can't have that. So, oh, we're getting too much negative attention because of your tweets that are incredibly mild. So we're just

just gonna, we're gonna have to let you go because they, the New York Times wants to give people this fantasy of complete objectivity. But in reality, what they do is they engage in neutrality. And every single person who works at the New York Times, much like every single person who works in media overall, has a bias. All of us are people who have thoughts, values, beliefs, principles. And I would argue it's far better to be honest about that and upfront about that. that with your readers and with your audience. So they know who you are as you're delivering the news to them. But the New York Times likes to pretend as if objectivity and neutrality are the same thing. They are not. Wolf had previously been cautioned about her social media behavior.

A manager gave her a warning months ago after staffers expressed discomfort with certain tweets she was told bordered on being political. Now, I do also want to show you that the New York Times has a massive bias. Their bias is reflected in the way they edit their headlines on a daily basis. So last week, a big story that we talked about on the show, there was a worker strike at Hunt's Point, the largest grocery store in the world. And so the workers wanted a $1 raise. Through collectivist action, these unionized workers decided to engage in a strike. I'm happy to report that they came to a deal that both the employers and more importantly, the workers are in favor of. And the New York Times had first put out a headline or put out

a headline that said this, strike at largest U.S. wholesale produce market threatens supply chain. So they're a threat. These striking workers are a threat. Here's what the initial headline, Before they edited it said, why workers are on strike, they want a $1 an hour raise. They change that to essentially make these workers a threat as opposed to people we should side with as they're putting their lives on the line to work during this pandemic, you know, to ensure that we have food on our tables. So Ben, I want to bring you in because this story is just so infuriating. I mean, we're gonna go right back to it, right back to what we experienced during the Obama administration,

where Republicans are treated as if they're totally fair and totally credible on these issues. Right, you know, I think we deserve a better breed of media. I think the New York Times only gave any criticism of Donald Trump because he was so far gone that it was impossible for them to look objective without giving scathing critiques of Donald Trump. And so now that he's gone, they can get back to their usual couthing for a system that doesn't benefit anyone but the top 1%. So that's what they're protecting. And I think it's time for media to respond in kind by by doing, by continuing to grow independent media, to continuing to question sources.

And most importantly, like you said, that headline, being able to parse the spin in their so-called objective headlines, you could see the entirety of their political and philosophical ideologies. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Again, I really want to drive home the point that the bias exists and the way that they try to conceal the bias, I think is far more destructive than an editor tweeting that she has chills on inauguration day.

By the way, I mean, like Biden, you know, wasn't the person I preferred to lead the country. He wasn't my preferred Democratic candidate. However, getting Trump out was important. And simply saying that you had chills that day, well, I might not agree with it, right? Like overall, like it's so benign, it's so benign, especially when you juxtapose that to that headline change regarding striking workers who simply wanted a $1 raise during a pandemic where they're putting their lives on the line. Six of those employees died from coronavirus because they contracted it during their jobs while they were working.

So to make them, you know, a threat, oh, they're threatening the supply chain. Rather than focus on what the heart of that story is in the headline, I think speaks volumes regarding what their bias really is. All right. Well, that does it for hour one. We're going to take a four minute break. And when we come back, we have unfortunately some new details on the kinds of threats. that Representative Acacio-Cortez was facing during the riots in the Capitol. And then later in the show, we'll give you yet another example of police brutality, this time with a cop just deciding to run over people.

So that story and more when we return. 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 Podcasts at apple.co slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.