The Young Turks - Buttigieg Gets Busted

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

Pete Buttigieg gets exposed by his own agency. Biden's DOJ sides with Norfolk Southern in a SCOTUS case that could make it harder for workers to sue corporations. Tesla fires dozens of workers at their Buffalo, NY factory the day after the workers announced a union drive. Moderna has announced that their vaccine will remain free after pressure from progressives. Over 30 states are facing a "hunger cliff" as food stamps are about to be cut. Host: Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur 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. Woo! It's up! Well, really, I'm church, Jake Uyghur Anna Kusparan with you guys. We have super substantive stories about train derailments and

and how the government's screwing you and corporations are screwing you. So I.E. Welcome to the Young Turks. But we also have a little bit of fun where Kaley McInakeney versus Donald Trump. Oh my God, what is happening? Oh, God. It's still my beating heart. All right, we'll do that later in the program. Casper.

Honestly, we begin today with one banger after another from the lever. Okay, if you can support the work they're doing, please do so. because the lever is probably the only publication that I've witnessed cover the train derailment story exactly how it should be covered with a focus on the lack of regulations, the various players behind it. So let's get started. Let's begin with Lyre Buttigieg. In response to growing pressure for members of his own party, following a spate of train derailment, Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg has been pretending as if, he has really no power to regulate the rail industry and prevent some of the terrible

derailments that have occurred recently, including the one in East Palestine, Ohio, which of course led to toxic chemicals being released into the environment there. We're seeing endless photos, videos, all sorts of imagery of dead fish, people living in the area with rashes. Well, is that the truth? Is it true that the head of the transportation department doesn't have the ability to unilaterally regulate the rail industry? Let's give you the details. In a Twitter thread posted more than a week after Norfolk Southern's fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio,

Buttigieg indicated that he cannot reinstate an Obama enacted Trump repealed law requiring some trains carrying hazardous materials to replace their civil war era breaking systems with new electronically controlled pneumatic brake technology. Now this is something, that David Soroda, who founded the lever, came on the show to talk to us about in great detail. Make sure you check out that interview just to get filled in on that context. Now, here is the tweet in question. This is what Pete Buttigieg had tweeted. We're constrained by laws on some areas of rail regulation, like the breaking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015. But we are using the powers we do have

to keep people safe. But before you jump in jank, real important, Pete Buttigieg was actually debunked by the Twitter account belonging to the Transportation Department. This is flat out false, and this is a response to David Serota's tweet about it. There are constraints, but as the Department of Transportation has made clear, we will look to the NTSB investigation to take action necessary to ensure. accountability and improved safety. I've got a lot more of that from where it came from.

But before we get to it, Jane, go ahead. Okay, so first of all, his own department debunking him was awesome. Now, I'm sure that if you ask them, they would say, no, no, we're debunking David Sarota. There's a lot we can do. Well, then why did the transportation secretary say there was nothing you could do? Sirota didn't make him tweet that and Zeroto didn't make him do all these things. By the way, this is why David Sorota drives the rest of the reporters on Washington crazy

and the politicians. It's the Democratic politician's crazy. So, I mean, just flat out busted. Rest of the reporters, up and at him, up and Adam. There's a lot of things that Buttigieg can do. And the reason I jumped in is because this is the number one talking point of all Democrats on everything. There was nothing we could do. Yes, exactly.

There was nothing we could do. And then his own department goes, oh, well, there's a lot we could do. Sorry. All right. 100%. Now, remember, Buttigieg referenced some 2015 law. What was he talking about? So apparently he was referencing a law passed by Congress in 2015 at the urging, by the way,

of the railroad industry. Railroad industry does their lobbying. They buy off the politicians. And the politicians, of course, pass legislation that tends to be friendly of industry. But it required the executive branch to conduct cost benefit analysis of the break rule before enacting it. Okay, but here's the thing. Trump used that law to kill the breaking rule, but the cost benefit analysis, his administration used to do so was subsequently discredited. It was discredited.

So the transportation department under Pete Buttigieg could just do the cost benefit. and analysis immediately. I mean, that's the first thing I would do, right, if I had that kind of power. And I would immediately implement the new braking system regulation to ensure that, you know, should something go awry, the trains can break much faster. It would mitigate so many disastrous situations, right? But of course, the rail industry doesn't want to have to pay the extra costs associated with implementing those newer breaks. Yeah. So look, if you're going to be really generous to Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, the corporate Democrat wing of the party, you would say, well, it's not a conscious decision. He's not saying, hey, I want to protect the railroad

companies from getting regulated and so that they could have more accidents, right? Well, okay, then it's instinctual, right? He's been in office for over two years now. He never thought, hey, and by the way, as Anna's going to show you, a lot of groups ask them, states ask them, please regulate on this. And his instinct was, no, maybe I'll, I'll have. get to it in the second term at the end or something, but I'm not going to regulate the trains at all, pretty much at all. By the way, the giant plane delays, et cetera, what did he choose? His instinct is always to choose supporting corporations and not regulating them and not enforcing safety standards and other things to protect consumers. That's exactly right. Now, asked about

the breaking rule, a spokesperson said that it would be difficult to reinstate the rule in its previous configuration, given previous legal challenges, the spokesperson said proposing a new rule would require performing a new cost benefit analysis, which you guys should do, though they acknowledge the department has the ability to prepare the analysis. So why don't they do it? Yeah, I'm going to look, when you step in, if it, if it was you guys that is the head of the transportation tomorrow, anybody, right? And what would be your first instinct? Trump deregulated all these different industries, no matter which department you're in, actually. The first thing I would ask is, what did he deregulate in our industry?

Our job is to regulate them, so I need to know so we can keep people safe because he took a lot of risk to help his corporate buddies, right? Apparently, Buttigieg didn't ask that at all of any part of the transportation industry, which is at a bare minimum, deep incompetence. Another just point I want to bring up that really reveals the incompetence of Pipputijijic and how he was not qualified for the position that he was tapped for and is now serving in. He's doing a little bit of damage control. So he goes on Yahoo News and he's asked about the disaster in East Palestine, Ohio. And his response is that the Ohio train disaster was one of thousands of cases a year or one of a thousand cases a year. Oh, how does that make it better?

How does that make it better? You know, you're the head of the transportation department. You see that there are a thousand train train derailments. It's a big problem, no? And you have the power to do something about it, but he's decided not to. How long has the Biden administration been in power? Well, over two years now. Wow.

Seems like there was quite a bit of time for him to take some action. So as the levers reported over and over again, different groups in different industries have asked the Biden administration, please, we're drawing your attention to this. So for example, in this case, the brakes, some of the brakes are from technology from the Civil War. But we have new brakes. They work much better. They'll save a lot of, first of all, money, let alone lives from these giant train

agreements. And by the way, they don't save the train companies money. The railroads, I think installing them costs too much. They'd just rather pay the whatever it costs them for the accidents, right? But it costs East Palestine, Ohio. It costs all the different towns that they have access to tremendous amount of money. But because we have no one protecting us in our government, it's not like Buttigieg and Biden are going to make them pay the cost to the local communities. There's no way.

In fact, the next story in the show is how Biden's team is joining the railroad companies and trying to screw over their customers and their employees. There are a few things I also want to mention when it comes to the toxic chemicals, right? Because what made the derailment in Ohio so disastrous were the toxic chemicals that the train was carrying and how that was all released into the environment with the controlled burn. Now, as the lever reports, more can also be done in regard to trains carrying hazardous or toxic materials. Let's go to Graphics 6 here. Nothing prevents Buttigieg from using his existing rulemaking authority to expand the definition of a high hazard flammable train to cover trains like the one in Ohio.

Under the existing limited definition, the Ohio train, which was carrying five tanker cars of vinyl chloride, a class two flammable gas, and known carcinogen, was exempted from the classification's more stringent safety regulations. So what would I do? So would I just go, okay, I already know that what the care, a highly dangerous chemicals are. Here I'm regulating them. No, no, I would ask the specialist and I would ask the experts and they would say, oh, this one is not that bad. You don't have to take extra precautions. The cost is not worth it. These on the other hand are highly flammable. By the way, as we saw in Ohio, they're highly flammable, right? And so then I would say, okay, then

he has full power. Immediately, that's it. We're doing safety precautions, especially because they're jamming tons of cars onto these trains, making the trains much larger, much more dangerous, and they have less staff. You know how many staff who are on this train? Two and a trainee for 150 cars, which is extraordinary, right? And the rail lobby is lobbying hard to minimize that from two people to one person. Okay, so that's when the government's supposed to protect its citizens. You're not supposed to serve the corporations.

Corporations have a lot, have plenty of firepower to serve themselves. So why does Buttigieg do it? If you're new to American politics, you might not know this, or if you're a Washington reporter. Okay, so number one, if you're in the charge of the transportation industry as a regulator, when you go to run for president, which Buttigieg definitely will do at some point, if it's not 24 or certainly 28, who's you going to go to for a fundraising? The industry he was regulating. And he's going to cash tons and tons of campaign contributions.

contributions. If you don't understand that, you just don't understand politics, please move on with your life and do something useful in this world. And he is correctly deduced that serving corporations rather than voters is how you get ahead in D.C. That's why he has nonstop positive coverage. I mean, right now, look at this, this is a case study in American media. So mainstream media assiduously avoiding Buttigieg, giving him any blame. Oh, we don't know who is in charge of the Department of Transportation, golly gee, could they regulate? We never know. Buttigieg must be protected at all costs. Good corporate robot that he is. Right way media is like, ah, it's because he hates white people. Okay, it's like a flare they set off

to distract you. The only people covering an accurate least progressive media saying, yes, he's a Democrat, but of course he's supposed to regulate. So we have safety precautions so people don't get hurt in places like Ohio. Yeah, listen. Corporate Democrat, corporate Republicans. Republican, tomato, tomato, when it comes to policies that impact your day on a regular basis, okay? When it comes to industry, when it comes to regulating corporations, corporate Democrats, corporate Republicans, potato, potato, I'm serious. And I think that you see that here.

And that's the difference between what you see in left-wing media versus right-wing media. No, you need to be fair and honest, okay? Don't be a tool for either party. Be honest with your audience about what's really going on and the type of. of corporate takeover that has occurred with Congress and with the executive branch in this particular case. Now, I want to reset for another part of this story because I think it's important to understand what transpired with that train prior to the derailment.

New reports now indicate that the train that was derailed in East Palestine, Ohio had broken down prior to the derailment. And even though employees for Norfolk Southern made it clear that they were concerned about that, seems like executives ignored it. Here's a video explaining more. Employees working on the train were concerned about what they say was excessive weight and length in the day of before it derailed and burst into flames. The fire department reports the station for a mutual aid fire with these Palestinians. According to employees familiar with the matter, the train broke down at least once before derailing on February 3rd. In a statement, Norfolk Southern said the weight was

uniform throughout, with features to help reduce mechanical issues and that a longer and heavier train used to run. So of course, the company is trying to cover their tracks, no pun intended. But the train, which originated from Madison, Illinois, on the evening of February 1st, broke down at least once before derailing in East Palestine, Ohio on February 3rd. And that's according to an employee who spoke to CBS News on the condition of anonymity. They don't want to be retaliated against. Now, the employees say there were concerns among those workers on the train over what they believed was the train's excessive length and weight, 151 cars, 9,300 feet long, 18,000 tons before it reached East

Palestine, which contributed to both the initial breakdown and also the derailment. And one Norfolk Southern employee who spoke to CBS News said, quote, we shouldn't be running trains that are 150 car lengths long. There should be some limitations to the weight and the length of the trains. In this case, had the train not been 18,000 tons, it's very likely the effects of the derailment would have been mitigated. We have more comments from other employees, but Jen, curious what you think. I think the context is important. So I'm going to read the next graphic. The train derailed is considered to be very long, according to Sarah Feinberg, who served as an administrator for the Federal Railroad Administration from 2015 to 2017.

quote, when I was at FRA administrator, I was not happy with the lengths of the trains and they were 80 or 90 cars long, Feinberg said. This train was 50% longer. So as we've been covering this story, earlier we told you that the trains have been adding more and more cars to one ride, right? And so the reason they're doing that is obvious if you have two different trains going, you need two different staff. And there's other factors involved, but they all relate to cost. So what they want to do is longer trains, less staff to save costs. Now, do they know that that will leave less time for inspections, less people to inspect, less safety, right? Yeah, they know all that.

And I would be surprised if in their internal spreadsheets, they had not already accounted for a number of accidents that would result because they are not taking those safety precautions. Exactly. And then they put that into their budget and go, okay, we're going to pay. this amount for the accidents, but this is how much we would pay for the extra staff. Oh, the extra staff costs more. The shorter trains cost more. So who cares? We're going to make more money this way. Add more trains, add more trains so we can keep on going with the gravy train. By the way, again, not put not intended. But the government lets them do it. That's why they do it. Otherwise, they'd be afraid that there would be a

regulator that would say this is outrageous and have massive fines that would make it not worth it. But we know with corporate Democrats and corporate Republicans, they're going to let them get away with everything. In fact, just yesterday I shared with you guys that Norfolk Southern had announced a $10 billion stock buyback program just last year. So if you're wondering, well, what do they do with all those profits? All they care about is maximizing profits, right? Well, they have a generous dividend program for their shareholders. I talked about that as well. and $10 billion that they could have invested into a better breaking system, better safety protocols, you know, the things that would prevent these derailments from happening or mitigate the impact

these derailments would have. They don't want to invest in that. That's not going to increase return on investment for their shareholders. So instead, they artificially bolster their stocks with corporate stock buybacks, $10 billion just last year. Yeah, there's no question. And so why does Buttigieg let him get away with it? If you're again, new to American politics, it's because he thinks serving corporate donors is the right strategy. And all of these are giant corporations.

And so Buttigieg has sent out less to protect us, but more to do marketing on behalf of whichever corporation he's supposed to be regulating. So when there was those giant delays with Southwest, he did not come out and say, I'm finding Southwest for these delays. And I'm going to make sure that anybody who was affected gets their money back and then some. No, he came out and said, no, no, we don't need to do anything. Don't worry, it's all under control. Everything is great. Southwest is amazing. We don't have to regulate them.

Now he's coming out, didn't come out for 10 straight days. Now he's saying, oh, there's nothing we could do, which is a total and utter lie that his own transportation department debunked. So his job is not to protect you. It's to protect corporations. And why? Because that's where all the money comes from for their campaigns. So I'm going to read something from one of our members, really brilliant point.

Mickey see the Silverhead Dragon rode in. I said this during Nino's show that's on boss with Nina Turner on our network. Check that out. But I have to say it again, Pete's only qualification for this position was dropping out of the primaries and backing Biden against Bernie. Yep. This position was his reward for that. That's right. Now, that's actually indisputable.

Like, even if you ask the mainstream media reporter, they'd say, well, yeah, that's true, right? So he has no experience in transportation. He was the mayor of a small town. And a very bad one, by the way. Yeah, like there's been a ton of marketing and propaganda for Pete Buttigieg because he uses SAT words and loves corporations. That's exactly what the elite love, right? But our own Jonathan Larson did devastating stories about his administration in South Bend. African Americans are livid with him.

And it was both incompetence and a lot of racial issues in South Bend. You should read those stories. But by the way, with Sarota at the lever or Larson at TYT or anybody else does real, honest reporting about Buttigieg, we've literally had mainstream media reporters go, oh yeah, you guys don't like him, right? You're biased. I would love to like him, right? Why would not do the right thing and regulate these companies so they don't get away with what they've been getting away with. Then I wouldn't be reporting these stories.

I'd be giving him kudos. Of course. Why wouldn't we give him kudos if he did the right thing? Could you imagine he regulates them and prevents the accident when we come out. We're like, oh yeah, we don't like people being protected. Well, on what planet? It's like we tell them two plus equals four. And they're like, so you're biased against five. No, you're weirdly biased in protecting him.

Yep. And by the way, guys, it's good cop, bad cop, right wing media is attacking Buttigieg. But on his husband, on the, and he likes diversity and the railroad comes there. Like, Joe Rogan today almost made it sound like black workers did the accident. What? It's had nothing to do with any of that. Listen, I don't know what Rogan said, I haven't heard it or read about it, but what I will say is what Buttigieg did was he ignored what happened in Ohio for 10 days straight, spoke at an event, and what he talked, he didn't mention what happened with the derailment. All he talked about, he made a comment about how, oh, we need more diversity with construction workers.

People who see infrastructure projects happening in their towns, they want to make sure that the construction workers working on those projects look like or representative. of people in the community. And look, guys, I know that for a lot of people, that's not an objectionable thing to say, and I agree, right? But at the same time, understand what quite honestly, corporate Democrats tend to do. They have their own version of culture war distractions, right? They'll deflect from real issues, including issues where corporations are screwing us,

corporations are making us sick, and they'll distract us with other culture war narratives that in this case, it didn't work, right? No, in a lot of ways, it did work. I mean, the lever's done amazing reporting here. And now some of the other outlets associated press orders are starting to come in. But guys, that's exactly what I was saying. It's good cop, bad cop, right? So Buttigieg, in order to distract you from the actual safety problems and the money that

the corporations would have to spend goes, oh, it should be diversity in the workers. And then Rogan and Fox News go, oh, perfect, culture war issue. Oh, it shouldn't be diversity, should be all white workers or whatever the hell they're saying. It's a good point. And that's all, that's the main focus that you hear in right wing media. I almost like, I know this is a little too conspirator, but I almost think Buttigieg said that so that people would get distracted into a cultural war issue instead of focusing on the real problem, which is that he's choosing not to regulate these companies. That's right. I mean, I don't know if he's smart enough or strategic enough to do that on purpose. But either way, don't let anyone trick you into. thinking that this story is about anything other than the fact that both corporate Democrats and corporate Republicans are in cahoots in allowing corporations to get away with little

regulation that harms all of us, including the people who are living in East Palestine, Ohio. And last thing, right wingers. So a lot of you make totally wrong assumptions about us and they're like, oh yeah, are you going to criticize Buttigieg and Biden for this? Yeah. Yeah, that's what we've been doing for the last two weeks, right? You know why? Because we do honest reporting, right? Now, do you want to know who did the deregulation in the first place, Donald Trump. Now, that doesn't mean Biden's not guilty. It doesn't mean Buttigieg, Obama aren't guilty. Obama should have pushed harder too, right?

But why are you guys so weirdly biased that they're like, oh, yeah, Obama should have pushed harder for the, to protect us. But Trump was totally right in stripping away all of our safety regulations so that we could get bombed in the middle of Ohio. And then Biden was at fault for not bringing those regulations back that Trump wiped away. Come on, you can't be that biased. I mean, he bragged Trump bragged all the time. I'm gonna take away all the regulations.

If you have one, I'm gonna take away two. What do you think he was doing that for to help you? No, that leaves the giant flame balls over Ohio. He was doing it to help his own donors, just like the Democrats. It was those companies that are donating to him. We're not done with this story because there is a lot of heat that President Joe Biden should be taking for this as well. So when we come back, I'm gonna tell you how he has decided to

to take the side of Norfolk Southern in a case that the Supreme Court is going to make a decision about very soon. That and more coming right up. back on TYT, Jay Canana with you guys. Hey, Dragon with a Girl tattoo and Mickey C, who are both members. I read your comments. They're both excellent. And so $100 blue apron gift card for you guys. If you're a member, you can win that from time to time for great comments. Rewards at t.com to verify who you are and you'll get that card. Thank you for being part of the show. Casper. Well, we've got more on rail companies. Joe Biden has decided to side with rail company Norfolk Southern when it comes to a case

that the Supreme Court will be making a decision about very soon. Now, it has to do with lawsuits brought against rail companies, either by former employees or individuals living in a community that have been devastated by a train derailment. Now, at the heart of this case is the question of jurisdiction of lawsuits. And if Norfolk Southern gets its way, it'll be far easier for rail companies to block lawsuits against them. And the most disheartening part about all of this, and you really shouldn't be surprised when you learn about Biden's pro-corporate history, is that Biden is siding with the rail companies here. So let me give you the details. In the case against Norfolk Southern, the Biden administration is siding with the railroad in

its conflict with a cancer-stricken former rail worker. A high court ruling for the rail company could create a national precedent limiting where workers and consumers can bring cases against corporations. Now, as the lever reports, and really the lever is the only outlet I've seen do incredible, robust coverage of this, the lawsuit in question filed initially in a Pennsylvania County Court in 2017 deals with a state law that permits plaintiffs to file suit against any corporation registered to do business there, even if the actions that gave rise to the case occurred elsewhere. And I think that law makes all the sense in the world. Because think about it, if a business, if a company like Norfolk Southern is registered to do business in

Pennsylvania, well, someone living in Pennsylvania should be able to sue the rail company even if what occurred happened in another state. And that's what this particular case, or that's what this particular plaintiff is arguing here. The case has to do with a former worker for Norfolk Southern, a car man, Carmen named Robert Mallory, who was diagnosed with colon cancer. In the suit, he claims that the illness resulted from exposure from toxic chemicals, like asbestos, and so he claims that the rail company failed to provide the proper safety equipment and take other steps to ensure his safety. So he files the suit in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, even though he had never worked in that state. The reason why he

wants to file the suit in Pennsylvania is because his lawyers are from Pennsylvania and because he believes that he would get the fairest access to justice there. Now, Pennsylvania has what's known as a consent by registration statute, something states have had on the books since the early 19th century, which stipulates that when corporations registered to do business in the state, they're also consenting to be governed by the state's courts. Norfolk Southern asserts that being forced to defend the case in Pennsylvania would pose an undue burden, thereby violating its constitutional right to due process. I'm gonna let you jump in, Jake. Yeah. So look, guys, this forum shopping is a thing that happens on both sides and you can make an effective

argument against it. So for example, let's say that there was an accident in Pennsylvania and the guys from Minnesota and the companies from Virginia. You can sue in any of those three states normally, right? But what if that guy that got injured, Susan Hawaii? And you're like, hmm, I don't know if that makes sense, right? Okay, so so far you say, well, maybe the companies are right, right? Hold. So a lot of companies, on the other hand, make it very clear in their contracts that the contract must be guided by the state that they're incorporated in, we usually Delaware, right? Why? Because the Delaware courts are incredibly friendly to corporation. That's right.

So they do forum shopping as a matter of course. Almost all companies do this, okay? And then on top of that, this particular company has filed several lawsuits in Pennsylvania. So now they're turning around and going, how dare this guy file a suit in Pennsylvania? Well, you did the same exact thing. So they're literally saying we should be able to do it, but no one we heard should have the same rights as this beloved corporation, which should have more than human rights. So as the lever reports, even though the rail company, Norfolk Southern owns thousands of miles of track in the Keystone State, the Philadelphia County Court sided with the railroad and actually dismiss the case.

But Mallory appealed and the case wound its way through state and federal courts before landing at the United States Supreme Court just last year. And in the coming months, the Supreme Court is poised to issue its ruling on this case, which doesn't make me feel good about the situation, considering the pro-corporate judges that have been confirmed in recent years. judges like Neil Gorsuch, whose previous rulings make it abundantly clear that even if an employee's life is at risk, he'll still side with the corporation over the employee who very clearly has a valid claim against the company. Yeah. So get a load of this. So of course, Biden being

theoretically on the left and a Democrat should support the workers. The workers, right? I mean, that's what the Democratic Party is known for. Republican Party is known for protecting the rich, Right. Historically, this has been the case all the way back to FDR, right? And so instead they jump in here, as Anna explained, on the side of the companies and against the organs. But they really have, but here's the interesting part. They really have almost nothing to do with this case. So they butted into the case in a way that was nonsensical just to jump in and protect the companies. So get a load of this. This is amazing. Alana Kagan, who is of course, Supreme Court justice, and one that's from the left. The pro Obama nominated her. Ask the government, hey, what in the world are you guys doing here? In fact, we have an exact quote. She asked, Mr. Gannon, the solicitor-genitor, has a choice whether to participate in this suit or not. And so please don't take this as at all a criticism.

By the way, go ahead and criticize. Yeah, for real. Anyway, but she continues. It's genuine interest in curiosity. What is it about this suit that has made you decide to participate? That's the Supreme Court justice on their side going, what are you doing here? And why did you randomly decide to help these corporations for no reason? No, but Jank, the response is so telling the response to her question.

So Curtis Gannon, the deputy solicitor general, responded to her, sorry, weird. That was hilarious. Anyway, so he says this. We pointed out not just that the excessive availability of general jurisdiction could cause, international concerns for trade with the United States and our commercial interests. Guys, this is all that matters to them, okay? The trade, the commercial interests. Let me continue with the rest of that, okay?

But also the petitioner had called into question the constitutionality of a federal statute. And so we thought it was important to make sure that the court's decision here wouldn't implicate the constitutionality of federal statutes. Yeah, in other words, we're here to help corporations. What part of that was confusing, right? And it's actually refreshingly naive of Justice Kagan to be like, why did you show up here to randomly defend corporations? Because they're owned by them, you don't know that.

And to be fair to her, she lives in Washington. And in Washington, there's this giant thick bubble around the place where they tell everyone all the time, oh, these politicians. They have your best interest in mind, right wing media will tell you that the right wing politicians have your best interest. Mainstream media will tell you corporate Republicans and Democrats have your best interest. And so they're like, huh, why are they randomly defending a company for no reason at all? Well, it's not for no reason.

It's because of the bribes. It's the bribes. It's obvious. Exactly. Well, we've got a lot more news to get to, including a pretty devastating update to the Tesla unionization effort that I covered yesterday. We'll give you that update and more. And after that, we've got a lot more to get to, including how private equity firms are now looking to evict elderly people from age-restricted housing.

And one more that I've got to tell you guys about. I forgot to tell you at the beginning. Speaking of solicitor genitals, has penis size across the world gone up or down? A shocking, shocking study. Concerning. Let's just say that. All right. We'll come back.

All right, back on TYRT, Jank Anna and Elizabeth Wilson with you guys. Obviously Elizabeth's joined by hitting the join bottom below on YouTube and Holy Beer Dragon gifted five subs because they're a wonderful human being on Twitch. We appreciate it. Casper. Well, we have a pretty terrible update to a story we covered yesterday. Tesla has now fired dozens of employees in Buffalo, New York specifically, just one day after workers at that specific facility announced their intention to unionize. Now, the workers have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board,

and considering the National Labor Relations Board is much better under the Biden administration, relative to other administrations, they might have a shot at justice here, we'll see. But at the same time, Tesla is also voluntarily recalling more than 360,000 cars that were marketed as full self-driving vehicles, because it turns out they're not full self-driving vehicles. We'll get to those details in a moment, but before we do, here are the details on the firings. In a filing with the United States National Labor Relations Board, the Union Workers United accused Tesla of illegally terminating the employees in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity. The union asked the labor board to seek a federal court injunction to prevent irreparable destruction of employee rights resulting from Tesla's unlawful conduct.

Now, Workers United successfully organized hundreds of Starbucks workers or hundreds of Starbucks stores just last year. So they've been down this road before they have successfully filed complaints against Starbucks with the NLRB. Now, an organizing committee of 25 employees who label data for Tesla's autopilot system sent an email to Musk early Tuesday morning of this week with their intention to unionize and surprise surprise, then a bunch of them got fired. Now, several of the terminated employees had been involved in labor discussions, and at least one of them was actually a member of the organizing committee. Now, one union united workers organizer told Bloomberg this. This is a form of collective retaliation against

the group of workers that started this organizing effort. The terminations are designed to terrify everyone about potential consequences of them organizing, as well as to attempt to call the herd. Now, real quick, just a refresher on what the workers wanted to unionize for. These are individuals who analyze the autopilot systems on these vehicles, an incredibly important job. They were paid $19 an hour for this incredibly important job. Now, compare that pay to what Tesla charges for their vehicles and how much money they bring in.

Aside from that, they wanted to be able to take some time off. They're burnt out, overworked, which probably. probably doesn't bode well for workers who are tasked with an incredibly important job having to do with the autopilot system. And then the other thing is they're all being surveilled, right? So there's software implemented on the computers that they're using on a regular basis that keeps track of their keystrokes to make sure they're constantly working and that they don't take breaks. And so they want to unionize in order to change the working conditions in addition to the pay. Jank. So in this case,

the workers explain why the layoffs were so extraordinary, different than other layoffs. And it's a very compelling case, right? So they announced that you're going to do a union. And then all of a sudden, a mass layoff of those specific people, including a couple others, but mainly targeting them, it appears. It's not that subtle. But that's the thing about Elon Musk. He's not trying to be subtle.

He's trying to be the opposite. In fact, let me tell you about another case. in a bipartisan group of U.S. labor board members ruled in 2021. And remember, bipartisan. Republicans love Elon Must now. But even the Republicans were like, okay, said that Tesla repeatedly violated federal law in Fremont, including by, quote, coercibly interrogating union supporters and firing one because of his activism. Tesla is, of course, denied wrongdoing and is appealing that ruling.

And so that, by the way, even that last statement gives you a sense of why this is happening. Musk seems to have made the decision, just fire him, fire and fire and violate whatever you got to do it doesn't matter, we have a ton of lawyers, we'll just drag it out in the courts, right? And so, and the amount of money that we pay to the lawyers will be less than we would pay to the workers if they were unionized and actually had leverage and power and earned what they're actually supposed to earn and can earn for what we charge, right? So that's just a math calculation that he did.

That's right. So it appears he's screwing over these workers very much on purpose. Right. And I mean, he has made his position on organized labor clear over and over and over again. He's against unionized workers. He has said as much. He has made it clear that he'll, you know, he's just not in favor of it. And we all know why that is, right? Especially with a company like Tesla, workers unionizing means that they have a seat at the table. they're able to negotiate their pay, their working conditions, and how some of those profits are distributed within that company. And he's not in favor of that. Now at the same time, again, I want to reiterate, when it comes to something that Elon Musk really wants to market his cars

on, right? The driverless technology, you want to make sure that you respect your workers, you treat them well, they're not exhausted. But that's not the case here. And I think the chickens have come home to roost because it turns out that Tesla is voluntarily recalling 300, 762,758 vehicles equipped with the company's experimental driver assistant software. There have been all sorts of incredibly dangerous situations, crashes. We've talked about some of them. But for instance, if one of these vehicles is in a left turn lane, the vehicle doesn't recognize it and continues to go straight through the intersection.

Okay, so that's one example of what they've experienced with this technology. What's hilarious about this, though, is that Elon Musk, is recalling these vehicles, but doesn't want us to call it a recall. What do you think it is? Yeah, everybody knows what it is. Okay, guys, it is rather remarkable that these stories are on the same day. He fires the workers working on it and goes, oh, by the way, yeah, it's a disaster. Gee, I wonder maybe it has something to do with you, you know, treating the workers who are creating it so poorly and working under such terrible conditions.

Guys, look, there's this disparity. Some of you guys work in companies that are maybe they're mom and pops or whatever, and they're, treat you well, right? But you don't know what your brothers and sisters are going through in these giant corporations. And so I just talked to a viewer recently and he was telling me about some things that happen in enormous corporations. It's just mind numbing how much injustice there are those places and how little rights any of the workers have, right? But this one also made me think of that because they're monitoring the number of clicks on your keyboard, man, they're watching you for like a hawk every second that you're in. It is so

oppressive. I just, I get depressed thinking about it, right? And then when anybody goes, can we please get like a bathroom break or something like, you're fired? This is what corporate rule looks like and it ain't pretty. Definitely is not. All right, well, let's move on to another story. This one is so incredibly tragic. It shows you how this profit making machine does not care about anyone, including the elderly. nightmare of late stage capitalism, Wall Street investors are now dumping money into housing that is restricted specifically for elderly individuals. Now, this is housing for elderly individuals who do not want to live in nursing homes. And considering they're retired,

considering they're elderly, they're on fixed income. So their ability to afford housing is limited to say the least. Now, what we're seeing is that these Wall Street investors are going in and snatching up this real estate, which again is really, really important to maintain for these individuals. Now, age-targeted rental housing is an alternative, again, for seniors who don't want to live in nursing homes. A series of high-profile horror stories about Wall Street-owned nursing homes has led to increased scrutiny from regulators, including an ongoing probe by the government accountability office and a mention in President Joe Biden's 22 state of the union address where he said that nursing home profiteering ends on my watch.

And by the way, the nursing homes were destroyed by Wall Street investors, which is part of the reason why retired folks, elderly individuals are looking for housing elsewhere, including the age restricted housing. Now Wall Street is gobbling up that housing, those rental units as well. Here's Rebecca Burns of the lever, of course, because they're doing such a great reporting here, explaining how a company known as Well Tower, the world's largest health care real estate investment trust or REIT, is buying up all of these apartments with their own retirement money. So Americans' retirement savings are a major source of the capital that Well Tower deploys to acquire and ring profits from senior housing and health care properties as a publicly traded real estate investment. trust, the company shareholders include major mutual funds and more than a dozen state pension funds. So, Jank, some of these investing instruments and all of that can be a little complicated and

complex to understand. Can you break it down for us a little more? Yeah. So what they'll do a lot of times is they'll, and every situation is different, but they'll basically borrow money because that gives them more leverage. So if you only have 100 bucks to deal with, you know, obviously a hypothetical here with much lower numbers, you can only buy $100 worth of property. But a lot of times they'll leverage and they'll go, okay, I'll use $100 to borrow $1,000 or $10,000, and I'll go buy these properties. Now, but then at that point, when you leverage, you have interest costs, right? You have to pay interest for the money that you borrow.

Well, how are you going to make up for that? Well, you're going to take the properties that you bought at a certain price and you're going to increase the prices, whether it's rent or you're selling later, right? And, and so, and then you have to add a massive profit margin on top to make it worthwhile. So when the private equity buys these homes, it is inevitable in their rental case that they will drive up your rent significantly. They must do it to maximize profit. In fact, there's an executive in the story that admits it, okay? To give you a sense of scale, one of the people that worked, that bought one of these or, sorry, rented in one of these places, said that they were assured that they would get about a two to five.

5% red increase. And he thought, well, okay, that sounds somewhat reasonable. We're on a limited budget. And remember, you're supposed to spend only a third of your income, whatever it is on housing. On housing, right? So they budget for them. They're like, okay, and they're very careful with his wife, et cetera. And then they come in and go, 39% increase. Yeah, that's right. To elderly people. So they get evicted. They can't afford the rent. And they're out on the streets. What are they supposed to do exactly? Yeah. And well, Calamar executive, Calamar is one of the companies that does this, okay, said this.

This is a devastating quote. To operate, we need to cover those expenses. Unfortunately, we're passing them on to you. No, but what expenses? What expenses? Because the age restricted housing is, like the private equity firms, the investors love it because it doesn't come along with the labor costs that nursing homes have, right? So they can really maximize their profit.

So what exactly are they referring to when they say that? What costs? Well, the funny thing is they admitted the cost. They said it was in this case, they're like inflation is driven up costs. Our costs could be up to 9%. Now, first of all, they might still be referring to interest in the financial scheme that they set up in the first place. But even if it's 9%, you didn't raise their rents 9%. You raise them 39%.

They're just brutal. And they're saying it, they told it to the residents. Because they're like, what do you? Was the government going to protect you? No, we bought off all the politicians. There's not a goddamn thing you could do. That guy added at the end, this is an executive talking to the people that live there. We have to show that revenue.

We have no option. And that's what I tell you. That's what we both tell you guys all the time. Like even today, Bernie in another story said, you know, we've got to fight corporate greed. And he did a great job. We'll explain that later. But it isn't greed. They all have to be as greedy as possible.

That's called maximizing profit. It's how the system works. That's literally their mission. So here's an executive saying, well, of course we crushed you and took as much of your money as possible. We had to. We don't have an option. We had to maximize profits.

So sad day for you guys, we screwed you. They have a fiduciary responsibility, Jank. Yep. Right? Now, I should also note that not only is the federal government failing us when they refuse to regulate industry or these, you know, private equity firms, it's even worse than that because sometimes they provide the money for these investments, which then victimize people like these elderly people who are being evicted from their homes.

So while paying little in corporate taxes, Well Tower, has received more than $65 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds, earmarked for health care providers, according to quarterly. earnings reports after spending at least $300,000 lobbying the federal government on issues, including allocation of the funds. Because guys, that's their investment. Okay, and they got a sweet return. Invest $300,000 in lobbying. And the federal government will write you a check for $65 million in COVID relief. Again, to be fair to these companies, bribery is now legal. So you're kind of nuts not to give a $300,000 bribe if you're going to get $65 million back. Wouldn't you do it?

That's all you have to fix the system. Wolf dashpack.com, get the money out. Otherwise, this is never, this is going to happen to everybody. All right, so the last one here, because that same company, Well Tower, this is so brazen now. Where I live under such corporate rule, corporations are rubbing it in your face. They wrote a business update last June saying that they expect, quote, significant future growth in the wellness housing platform. Now, one of the reasons they said was because it, quote, operates with low to no staffing. So first of all, they're like, just bring them in, bring him, don't give them anything, okay?

You don't need, especially compared to nursing homes. I know nursing homes have a lot more staff by nature, right? But here, they're basically bragging about how they're not going to give you anything. Right. But wait, that's the least problematic part. Then they go on to say, this is amazing. Quote, seniors housing, and this is in all caps, is not income dependent. Meaning, we got these seniors where we want them.

They don't have a choice. And they explain in the paper, most of these folks have already sold their homes. They can't go back. Oh, my God. So if they're renting from us, moving out, especially because their seniors, is going to be prohibitive for them. And the moveout cost alone might break them. So we have them trapped.

So it is not income dependent. Just charge them more. And they know they're on limited income. But they're like, so what? They'll eat less. Jesus. This is late stage capitalism. So this isn't capitalism.

This is corporate capture of a government. We are run not by democracy, not by politicians. We're run by their donors, which are corporations. And now they're rubbing it in our face saying they don't have a choice at all. Let's just rob them. Let's say it out in public. And then get the government officials, both Democrats and Republicans, to protect. us instead of that. In a lot of ways, this country is one of the most terrifying places to live.

Just thinking about what your future is going to look like. And also keep in mind, I mean, if they privatize Social Security, right? Right now there's a retirement crisis where most people are not able to save anything for their retirement. What are we going to do? It's incredibly scary. Anyway, we got to take a break. When we come back, some positive news, because when you do have politicians fighting on behalf of the American people, it tends to work. Bernie Sanders proves that. We've got that story and more coming right up. Turks, support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more

by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.