The Young Turks - Call Me Pureblood

Episode Date: September 15, 2021

California Governor Gavin Newsom won a broad and renewed mandate from voters who rejected a recall attempt. Corporate Democrats are threatening to block drug pricing reform in the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. U.S. poverty fell last year as government aid made up for lost jobs. Unvaccinated TikTokers are calling themselves "purebloods." A boy waited for hours in a COVID-swamped ER and then his appendix burst. Hosts: Ana Kasparian Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Thank you. What is up? Welcome to the Young Turks. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and we have a stacked show for you. Really looking forward to it, in fact. This is the kind of episode that I feel really good about because it's a good mix of substance and fun. In the second hour, Wazni Lombre will be joining me to talk about a lot of fun stories, in fact. We've got a follow-up to Tucker Carlson's hard-hitting reporting on an acquaintance of Nikki Meney Menages and the individual who allegedly has had a negative reaction to the vaccine, we covered that yesterday, there is a follow up to it. As you guys know, it's not due to the vaccine that has been debunked, but nonetheless,

it's a fun story to get to in the second hour. In the first hour, we got some new numbers in regard to how the coronavirus pandemic hurt the financial stability of Americans, and guess what, believe it or not, with the government aid that was provided during the pandemic, Americans were actually lifted out of poverty. Now, not nearly as many, but we're going to get to the details on that story, because it's a perfect example of how government can work if we apply enough pressure, organize, and ensure that it works for us as opposed to corporations. And later in the show, we'll also talk about pure bloods. What are pure bloods? Well, the unvaccinated really take offensive.

To the term unvaccinated, they'd like to be referred to pure bloods, but I would like them to kick rocks. But I'll give you those details and more later in this hour. But first, let's begin with an update on a story out of California involving Gavin Newsome. As you know, my opponent, Governor Gavin and Newsom, come on, let's be gracious, let's be gracious in defeat. That was conservative candidate Larry Elder, who, despite the fact was planning on claiming that there was widespread voter fraud if he lost, actually conceded and did so pretty gracefully last night. Now, this was in regard to the recall election involving the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. There was a petition to recall him. There were enough signatures to make it happen.

And it turns out that he was able to garner enough no votes toward the recall to maintain his position as governor of California. Now, Larry Elder's supporters clearly needed to take a little trip to the copium den. They were really struggling with the news. They didn't want to accept it. But despite the political differences I have with Larry Elder, I do commend him for conceding and not trying to pull what Donald Trump did in the 2020 presidential election. Now, there are some things to learn about regarding the recall race. Some pretty surprising results actually, because there were various polls that indicated that Newsom was in trouble. But apparently his ground game was strong.

Democrats turned up, they turned in their mail-in ballots. And some of the fraud allegations, unfounded fraud allegations involving mail-in ballots coming from Republicans is actually really hurting them. So we'll get to those details in just a second. But first, here are the results of the election as of now. More ballots are coming in. More ballots are being counted, I should say. But as of now, with about two-thirds of the expected vote in, 64% of California voters had chosen to keep Newsom around for the end of his first term. Now keep in mind, he's He's facing a reelection campaign in 2022. So, you know, it's, there will be an opportunity to challenge him from the left, should there

be a strong progressive candidate. Now that margin is likely to shrink at least a little bit in the coming days as more votes are counted. That's the way it works, right? But clearly he has enough of a lead to clinch this win. He is going to maintain his position. Now Newsom had actually improved on his share in several important places. 53% of Orange County voters voted against the recall, higher than the 50.1% who backed

Newsom there in 2018. Now for anyone who might not know about Orange County, it is usually thought of as a more conservative part of California. Historically it's been a far more conservative part of California, that's changing a little bit. But I have to be honest, even I was surprised that 53% of voters in Orange County voted against the recall. And I don't think that's necessarily a way of validating Gavin Newsom. The other candidates were just horrendous. They were awful. I had some hope that there might be a progressive alternative, and there wasn't. So it might just be an attempt to prevent

more unstable nonsense in the state. So the GOP also is now worried that some of the claims of voter fraud, especially when it comes to mail-in ballots, coming from the likes of Donald Trump, it's actually harming the Republican Party. So Republicans are especially worried about the damage Trump is doing two mail-in ballot habits of base Republican voters, habits that GOP strategists

have spent years building up. Registered Democrats made a disproportionately high share of ballots returned by mail, while many Republicans appear to have waited for election day to vote if they voted at all. So look, the mail-in ballot, which is how I voted in this recall election, I voted no, was incredibly easy, right? I mean, you get it at home, you just fill it out, send it back, you don't have to deal with any type of obstacle, there are no issues. But if you are a Republican voter and you've been consuming anti-mail-in ballot messaging, which claims that it's not a valid way of voting, it's not a credible way of voting.

There's going to be an issue with voting that way. Well, then you're less likely to vote by mail. And then once Election Day comes along, you know, you might find some obstacles in the way of casting your ballot. So now the GOP is really concerned about the damage that Donald Trump is doing. And to be sure, Trump was already preemptively before a single ballot had been counted, claiming that the election was rigged. Okay, so it didn't end up helping the Republican Party. It didn't end up helping Larry Elder.

And so we'll see if they actually learn any lessons from that. Now, Newsom's actions during the pandemic were the primary reason why this recall election was desired by right wingers mostly, right? So there were business closures. For me personally, I think that he handled COVID far better than Republican governors in this country have handled COVID. I had issues with Gavin Newsom for a whole host of other things, including his unwillingness to shelter the homeless, provide permanent housing for them. I have issues with the fact that he decided to bail out PG&E, a private utility company that has sparked wildfires in the state. So those issues, though, did not go into the decision making by right-wing voters.

They were upset at Gavin Newsom and some of these business closures. However, recall supporters who collected more than 2.1 million signatures did so on the strength of voter frustration at school closings, economic stagnation, and the early wave of COVID-19 cases that disproportionately hit low-income and minority communities. But he actually did manage to kind of turn things around because his messaging went from closures and, you know, mask mandates to let's get people vaccinated. And he's done a decent job with that. So by the winter and spring of 2021, Newsom's approach to combating the virus had changed from encouraging people to stay at home to encouraging people to get a shot. And while some states have experienced challenges with vaccine hesitancy, California is not. not one of them, 83% of those over the age of 18 have received at least one shot.

So that's certainly some good news. Now let's get to some of the reporting on this that certainly rubbed me the wrong way, okay? Because Gavin Newsom's campaign said something that I think is accurate yesterday. When it was clear that he was going to remain in office, he was asked whether they plan on celebrating. And he's like, no, I mean, there's really nothing to celebrate. This is a recall election. It's not a good look, right? And I think that's right. There's, unfortunately, the rabid conservatives in this state kind of controlled all of the media coverage on this issue. And what it did is it managed to drown out the concerns that progressives do in fact have in

the state. Those concerns are valid. And Gavin Newsom, needs to address them. Okay. Now, did progressives lead the charge in this recall election? No, they didn't. The right wing did. So it's understandable why the right wing dominated the narrative on this recall. But Gavin Newsom is far, far from perfect in regard to how he's handled his job in California. Nonetheless, you have Thad Kozer. He is the chair of the Polisai Department at UC San Diego, he claims that Gavin Newsom still has Washington, D.C. in his gaze, and this recall, rather than tripping up his national ambitions, has elevated his visibility across the country. Like it just, he's not doing a great job in California. The thing that saved

him was that everyone else running against him in the recall was insane, or not in any way suited for the position, right? So really voting against the recall was an effort at damage control, right? It was strategic voting to prevent someone unhinged from taking his place. But let's be honest, he's not handling some of the big issues in the state right now, including the homeless crisis, including the wildfires, including climate change, which he claims to be some sort of warrior on while, you know, he's simultaneously signing permits. for more drilling, which of course is contributing to the climate disaster that we're experiencing in this planet.

And I was about to say this country, we are experiencing extreme weather events in this country. But really climate change, as we know, has had a far larger impact on poorer countries. And Gavin Newsom pretending to care about climate change while he's signing those fracking and drilling permits is ridiculous. Now here's an excerpt from the Hills reporting on this. Newsom's win was significant enough that he didn't just claim the right to finish his first term. He virtually guaranteed he will win a second term next year.

I mean, that's certainly not hard news reporting. That's definitely opinion that's sprinkled into what's supposed to be a straight news report. But nonetheless, we'll see about that. We'll see about that. I wouldn't want Gavin Newsome to be too confident about what his chances are for a second term. I mean, if he really wants the second term, maybe he needs to focus on the issues that voters actually do genuinely care about. And I'm not just talking about, you know, right wingers and the made up worries that they have. I'm specifically talking about the real

economic concerns that people have in the state of California. They are worried about what we're seeing all across the state right now with homeless encampments, people living in squalor, people dying on the streets, that is a problem that he needs to address in addition to these private utility companies and how incredibly irresponsible they've been in their failure to update their equipment to avoid sparking the massive wildfires that the state has experienced in recent years. So to make it seem like Gavin Newsom's got it in the bag and he's going to have a second term, we'll see about that. But I'm really hoping that progressives are fighting hard and working hard to have an alternative to Newsome when he runs for reelection.

Because I would like an alternative to Newsome. He is not perfect, far from it. And unless he's willing to address the issues that I mentioned, I'm not really interested in seeing him have a second term. Just keeping it real. All right, well, let's move on to some other news. All right. Turns out that there are several members of the House, corporate Democrats specifically, who are willing to defeat the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill if it includes a provision that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies. This is an incredibly important provision that corporate Democrats have literally raised their

hands in their committees and said, no, we're not going to vote for the bill unless you get rid of this. So let's get to who these people are and what's motivating them. Representatives Kathleen Rice, Scott Peters, and Kurt Schrader reportedly claimed that including Medicare drug price negotiations in the package would keep the legislation from ultimately passing despite polls showing the provision has widespread support. And it really does have widespread support. I can't wait to show you this map that shows you just how popular that particular provision is. Now, a direct statement from Representative Kathleen Rice, again, these are Democrats. I do not support advancing policies that are not fiscally responsible and jeopardize

the bill's final passage. Wait, wait, wait, hold on. How exactly is it fiscally irresponsible to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies. I mean, that would mean that the federal government, which provides Medicare, would end up spending less on prescription drugs. So how is that fiscally irresponsible? Now, of course, it's not. We know it's not. But Representative Rice would use that ridiculous hollow argument and just expect us to expect us to buy it because, you know, maybe she thinks she can just get away with it. Maybe she thinks people aren't paying attention. Maybe she doesn't realize that people are going bankrupt.

People are literally skipping their necessary prescription drugs as a result of this. And they won't notice what she's doing along with two other corporate Democrats in the House. But I'm going to make it my business that people know what's going on. I mean, this is disgusting behavior. And to use that ridiculous lie to try to make an excuse for this. is just beyond ridiculous. Now, the only, again, the only irresponsible behavior here is what she's doing on behalf of her pharmaceutical company donors.

Americans currently pay two to three times more than people in other wealthy countries for prescription drugs. One in four struggle to afford prescriptions and 30% of Americans report having cut pills in half or skipping doses to save money. In one of the richest countries in the world, that's what Americans are having to deal with due to our privatized healthcare system. And in the case of Medicare, public healthcare system,

you have this ban on allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies. And by the way, that is an accomplishment by the pharmaceutical industry, by their lobbyists, and it's something that they're incredibly protective of. And so when you see Democrats, Democrats go against their own constituents in this way, understand that there are very clear

influencing factors that just get completely ignored by the press. Now, these lawmakers also feel invincible enough to go against the policies that the vast majority of their own constituents want. In fact, 90% of Rice's constituents support the provision, while only 18% believe the argument long made by pharmaceutical companies that allowing negotiation by Medicare will harm innovation. Similar poll results were found in Peters' is and Schrader's districts. Now, there was this wonderful map put together by the Data for Progress Organization. They wanted to show, help people visualize. More importantly, help these lawmakers visualize, just how popular a provision like this really is. Okay. And we know how divided the country is. We hear about how

polarized things are. But when it comes to many of the bread and butter issues, certainly when it comes to health care, when it comes to prescription drug prices, when it comes to wages, the issues that actually impact Americans in their pocketbooks, there's a lot of agreement. Doesn't matter what state you're talking about. Let's take a look at this map. So most Americans want this provision. You can see it. So the blue represents support for the provision. So the lighter the blue, the less support there is. But as you can see throughout this map, the majority of states overwhelmingly support it. In fact, the entire country, regardless of what state you're talking about, at least 88% of constituents, 88% of voters, are in favor of this provision.

And of course, it goes even higher if you're in states like Maine, for instance. If you're in, look at that, Florida. And Florida is considered a red state at this point, but remember, Florida just passed through a ballot initiative, a $15 an hour minimum wage. So Democrats can't argue that they're against provisions like this because I'm running in a purple district, it's super risky for me to do this. They can't use that excuse. And so Rice would have you believe that it's somehow fiscally irresponsible for us to spend less money on pharmaceutical drugs.

That's not really how fiscal conservatism works, right? I mean, fiscal conservatism is about saving as much money as possible. So rice is full of it, I mean, I think it's pretty clear at this point. And so what is motivating them? Look, I know it's repetitive, we talk about it on the show all the time, but we do it because others won't do it. They just pretend that these lawmakers, you know, what they say, they take it at face value, that they're actually worried because they're running in a purple district, that they're actually

worried about this being fiscally irresponsible. They just believe whatever the lawmakers tell them to believe, but we don't believe that. Common Dreams, which is a great independent outlet, reports that both Peters and Schrader have both accepted tens of thousands of dollars in donations from the pharmaceutical industry this election cycle. Pharmaceutical companies are the top contributors to Peters's campaign in the 2021 to 2022 cycle, they've already donated $88,000. And listen, $88,000 might not seem like a lot of money, especially when you look at the coffers of these lawmakers, right? The amount of money they're

able to fundraise. But make no mistake about it, it's cheap to buy off these lawmakers. So $88,000 in one election cycle speaks volumes to representatives like this. It doesn't matter if we're talking about a Democrat, a Republican, we're having a discussion here about clear, legalized bribery, it creates a conflict of interest, and despite the overwhelming support that these constituents have for this provision, these corporate Democrats are crossing their fingers, hoping you don't notice, and literally voting in their committees to do away with the provision. Now, this vote happened in the Energy Committee.

This was in the Energy and Commerce Committee. They voted down the provision. So that's not good news. However, the Ways and Means Committee in the House voted to approve the provision. So there's gonna be a pretty brutal fight in both the House and the Senate in regard to what the budget reconciliation bill

will include. And some of the most important provisions are on the chopping block. And it's not because of the power that the GOP has. It's because of the legalized bribery that influences these corporate Democrats. And I'm happy to call them out by name. And if you happen to be a constituent living

in the district represented by either Kathleen Rice, Scott Peters, or Kurt Schrader, hit them up, give them a call and ask them, why are you, why did you just vote down a provision that would save money for our government, and also a provision that an overwhelming percentage of your constituents are in favor of. All right, we gotta take a break.

When we come back, we have some more news for you, including some evidence on how government can actually work for you. It could actually lift people out of poverty. We have a case study for it, and we'll talk all about it. Welcome back to the show. I'm Anna Casparian. You're watching TYT if you're tuning in for the first time and if you're not tuning in for the first time and you're wondering, you know, what can I do to help support TYT? Like and share the stream. It's one of the easiest ways to do it and we always appreciate it. I don't typically read messages I get personally, but I'm going to read this one because it has to do with the show and what's coming up at the second hour. Tatei writes in. Tatei, I love this handle. the manager will see you shortly, writes in and says, I heard Waz is on tonight. I love him,

always a pleasure when he's on. I, look, Waz is a personal friend of mine, and I love doing the show with him as well. It's always a good time. And lucky for all of us, the second hour is jam-packed with lots of fun stories, including this might be done in the bonus episode. Let's keep it real. Okay, so you should become a member, t-y-t.com slash join or click that join button. Ben Shapiro talked about sex again. Yep. it because he can't help himself. And it's always a good time when he does. So pegging is the topic of discussion today. Yep, yep. So tune in for that. All right, well, before we get to the fun stuff, let's talk about how government aid actually works and helps to lift people out of poverty.

New data shows that the government aid that was provided during the coronavirus pandemic, even though it was too slim for our taste, even though they could have gone even further, actually did help to prevent Americans from falling deeper into poverty. In fact, the results are even better than that, helped to lift millions out of poverty, even as millions of people lost their jobs through no fault of their own. Now, this was research done by the Census Bureau, and the results are promising because it shows you exactly how government can work for you. And this is the kind of data the Republicans are like trying to bury. They're like, no, no, we don't want to talk about that.

We don't want to talk about that. It's so good. So the Census Bureau reported that 9.1% of Americans were living below the poverty line last year, down from 11.8% in 2019. That figure, the lowest since records began in 1967, according to calculations from researchers at Columbia University, is based on a measure that accounts for the impact of government programs. So COVID hits, closures happen, tens of millions of Americans lose their jobs. And to be quite honest with you, my expectation was, even with the government aid, it's very likely that more people, found themselves in poverty than before, right? Because we also need to be frank, the coronavirus relief bills certainly didn't go as far as

what we saw in other countries. Canada, for instance, provided $2,000 not once, not twice, but every month to its people during the pandemic. Whereas here in the United States, you know, when it came to the stimulus checks, all we heard from Congress was nickel and diming, nickel and diming. But the aid that was provided did help to lift people out of poverty. It prevented people from falling into poverty, and in addition to that, helped to lift people who were already in poverty out of poverty. So the Census Bureau estimated that the direct checks alone lifted 11.7 million people out of poverty last year.

Unemployment benefits and nutrition assistance prevented an additional 10.3 million people from falling into poverty. Listen, I get why people are frustrated with paying taxes, right? I totally understand it when you see the failed wars that our resources go to, $2 trillion toward that failed war in Afghanistan. But when I see our tax money, when I see government revenue, go toward helping our fellow Americans, I don't know about about you, but I feel like that's real patriotism.

Like I feel proud, like I feel proud to pay my taxes when I know that it's actually going back to my fellow Americans and we're helping people out when they're in a tough situation. You know, warmongers will have you believe that patriotism starts and stops at invading other countries. No, patriotism is looking out for your neighbor, is looking out for your fellow American, making sure that people are made whole when they suffer the economic consequences. of something like a pandemic, something that is through no fault of their own. Let me give you more details about this.

Median household income fell, median household income last year fell 2.9% adjusted for inflation to about $68,000. That figure includes unemployment benefits, but not even stimulus checks or non-cash benefits such as food stamps. So, you know, when you consider those other government programs, It helps Americans even more. The decline reflects the pandemic's toll on jobs.

About 13.7 million fewer people worked full time year round compared to 2019. And so why do lobbyists, why does the business community, the US Chamber of Commerce, for instance, why are they so obsessed with defeating important provisions in coronavirus relief bills? bills or the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill that includes all of these important agenda items, including childcare, free community calls. Why do they want to do that? Because they love knowing that Americans are desperate and feel like they have no choice but to accept the meager wages and no benefits that they offer through the positions that are open in their companies. There is a concerted effort to create a situation in which workers are desperate.

And when workers have options, when they're made whole through a catastrophe like the coronavirus pandemic, well, you know, and by the way, let me just be clear. A lot of people were not made whole. This was an effort that worked in avoiding, you know, poverty becoming worse in the country than it already was, right? So poverty wasn't exacerbated in the country as a result of these government programs. So a lot of people weren't made whole, but what the government did help to prevent additional Americans from falling into poverty as a result of this pandemic. And some millions were lifted out of poverty because of the help. Now, when it comes to the labor crisis, the labor shortage, what's the driving factor there?

Well, the business community would have you believe all this government aid. It's all about the government aid that people are lazy, they just want to sit around, and collect government checks. That's what this is about. But they also leave out the fact, and this is the real factor, that schools keep closing because coronavirus keeps spreading. So parents who might want to go back to work can't. They can't afford child care. And so when the school calls them and says, hey, you know, you got to pick up your son or your daughter, there was a COVID outbreak in the school, we're going to have to make them quarantine. mom's got to go pick up that kid and who's going to watch that kid.

So the business community tries to defeat, usually very successfully defeats, legislation that would raise their taxes in order to pay for child care. And then they turn around and say, well, why aren't these lazy bums going back to work? Well, I mean, you kind of created a situation where people feel like they have no choice. They pay low wages, so mothers are looking at their finances and they're like, I don't know, I mean, what's the point of me going to work when my entire paycheck is going to go to child care? So what the Biden administration is trying to do through the budget reconciliation bill in providing child care, in providing permanent child tax credits, in ensuring that community colleges offer two years of free education, all of that stuff helps to, honestly lift people out of the awful financial situation that they have found themselves in because of how rigged this system has been against them.

And to be sure, inequality doesn't just come out of nowhere, it has been rigged against them. I mean, during the Trump administration alone, you have two trillion dollars of tax cuts that primarily help the wealthy, the top 1% in corporations. They said it was a middle class tax cut. That is not what it ended up being. They have no problem with that. But when it comes to ensuring that the system provides a quality of opportunity, allows for Americans to be able to take care of their families and go to work, allows for Americans

to get an education without falling deeper and deeper into debt, they don't want to pay for that. That's what this is really about. So this is a perfect example of how government can work. And imagine if they go even further. Imagine if Biden succeeds in getting that budget reconciliation bill passed. those who kept their jobs, by the way, they did real well. Median earnings rose 6.9%. And by the way, an estimated 7.5 million people lost their federally subsidized unemployment benefits this month

after Congress allowed the unemployment benefits to expire. And to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's credit, she has just introduced late. legislation calling for an extension of the coronavirus relief benefits, including the unemployment benefits that have just expired. So she says, look, I mean, I can't just sit back and watch people suffer as COVID continues to spike in various parts of the country. We're still experiencing people who are jobless and have difficulty getting back to work. And so she's like, I got to at least try, and I give her a lot of credit for that.

But understand that what she is proposing is something that has already been proven to work. And it's about time that the government actually works on behalf of the American people as opposed to the best interests of their corporate lobbyist friends or the business interests who fund them and their campaigns. And I do want to end with the fact that Republicans are trying to avoid talking about this data at all. at all, Republican lawmakers who were in control of the Senate and the White House last year, meaning they should be wanting to take some credit for this, right? I mean, they played a role in this. They did not issue statements promoting the poverty numbers. That may be a reflection of the party's unified opposition to the Democratic push for more social

programs. And to be sure, you have goons like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claiming that, you know, that reconciliation bill, spending money. on the American people is just reckless. Let's watch. The tragedy is that Democrats want to inflict all this pain on middle class families. Here's the comedy.

They won't let Republicans have any say in this monstrosity, but they want our help raising their credit card to make it happen. Democrats want Republicans to help them raise the debt limit so they can keep spending historic sums of money with zero Republican input and zero Republican votes. So imagine a friend tells you he's flying off to Las Vegas to blow all of his money. He doesn't care that you think it's irresponsible.

You aren't invited to come along. But he wants you to co-sign a loan for him before he leaves. So that was Mitch McConnell whining about. the reconciliation bill as the Senate was debating about raising the debt ceiling. Now, he's gonna tuck tail and raise the debt ceiling. Not doing so means that the US would default on its debts. So he's gonna do what, he's gonna be a good little boy and he's gonna do what he's supposed to do. But the point here is, despite all of the faux populism coming from right-wing figures, I mean, Mansion hasn't really dipped into that. But we do hear a lot of

lip service from GOP lawmakers regarding like, oh, Americans are really struggling. There's unfair, it's the elites, it's the global cabal. They don't want to help you out. In fact, they don't even want to take credit for what they did last year to help Americans. Something that I would want to campaign on, something that I would want to bring to everyone's attention. Look, we passed policy that worked. The reason why they're not talking about it is because their donors are telling them to shut up and do whatever you can to strip down or fully defeat that budget reconciliation bill.

We don't want to spend money on helping Americans out. That's how it works. When we come back, we will talk about why anti-vaxxers don't want to be referred to as the unvaccinated. And they have a pretty goofy nickname that they would like instead. Come right back. Welcome back to TYT. One of our viewers asked about what happened to the conversation with the anti-vaxxers. I didn't know what that was about.

Apparently, Jank did an interview with anti-vaxxers. I don't know if it's available yet. A lot of the conversations end up being pre-taped and then they get released later. But apparently it was a contentious conversation. That's what I hear. So I'm really looking forward to watching it. Little Mac writes it and says, we need to organize a fund with national reach that goes public and attacks politicians who pull these stunts in real time. I'm guessing this is a reference to the corporate Democrats who voted against the provision to negotiate for lower drug prices.

It's the only way to put an end to lies, make it more expensive to fight and ads than to fight the ads, my bad, then accept donations. The question is how. Well, that's what we're trying to do through what Jank is referring to is the change machine. I don't like that, I don't like that, you know, title. But, you know, to learn more about that, just go to t.yt.com slash change because we're trying to, you know, mobilize our members, find ways to organize people and apply pressure to corporate Democrats. You can learn more about that again at t.yt.com slash change. All right, let's talk about these goofy conservatives getting real hurt because they don't like to be referred to as anti-vaxxers.

Conservatives are expressing displeasure at being referred to as the unvaccinated, and they're expressing their displeasure on social media, platforms like TikTok. In fact, the word that they would like used to describe them is pure blood. They want to be called pure blood. I think that's worse. The new pure blood trend seems to have gotten a big boost from conservative TikTok influencer. Lindsay Marie in a post shared last week that had hashtags like pure blood and unvaccinated. Well, let's hear from Lindsay Marie. Let's see what this influencer has suggested we do.

So I'm just sitting here and I'm thinking. From now on, I refuse to be referred to as unvaccinated. I want everyone to now call me pure blood. Oh, oh, you're telling us how we should refer to you. Like the people who are refusing to get vaccinated during a global pandemic where more than 650,000 Americans have already died. where schools have to keep shutting down, closing, reopening, shutting down again, where hospitals are overwhelmed with unvaccinated COVID patients. Oh, I'm sorry, are we inconveniencing you by referring to you with the correct,

accurate word, unvaccinated? Does that offend you? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You want to be called pure blood. What is this goofball nonsense? No, but it's, it goes to the issue, and we repeat it over and over again of entitlement. That like they're the victims. Like we're not we're not referring to them with their preferred nickname or their preferred description. Like we're the bad guys. Like the unvaccinated don't like that.

No, no, no. I am entitled to be referred to as pure blood. No, I'm going to call you whatever the hell I want. The video has since racked up nearly a quarter million views, probably more at this point. And Lindsay Marie is now promising her followers, and here comes the grift, that a line of pure blood merch, which will feature an image of a lion and the text pure blood, unmasked, unvaxed, unafraid. I mean, it's just, it's clown stuff. Leanne Star 23 also took the analogy a step further, because of course, how could they not? In like five, 10 years, maybe less, all the people who are unvaccinated were going to be hunted, she warns.

It's going to be like resident evil. We're going to be the, I know, if we're going to be the antidote, because everyone else is whatever, and we're going to be the only ones with pure blood. So, I mean, it reminds me of the story that we did, I don't know, a few weeks ago about the unvaccinated men. who think that their semen is going to be like a hat commodity, they're like, everyone's going to want that unvaccinated semen. No, no, we're not pretty sure we're not going to want that. Pretty sure we find you repulsive. Not interested. But these people, like, they're so self-important. They're like, oh, yeah, everyone's going to want our pure blood, our pure

unvaccinated blood. I mean, no, definitely not. And I hope you survive. COVID to be able to experience us telling you, no, we're not interested. Let's go to one more video of yet another TikToker. So I'm just sitting over here thinking instead of being known as or qualified as unvaccinated, you can start referring to me as a pure blood. Thanks. Like, I can't get past the sense of entitlement. Like, I can't get past it. Like the, You know, like putting themselves up on a pedestal and it's like, I am going to tell you how you need to refer to me. I do not want to be referred to as unvaccinated.

I am now a pure blood. No, no, I'm going to call you whatever I want. What are you talking about? How are you the one who's aggrieved right now? How are they the ones that are aggrieved right now? Like, what is going on? Like, I love how they somehow put themselves in the position of being the individuals who have been wronged. They're calling us unvaccinated, the injustice.

But let's talk about the real injustice, because as we know, coronavirus is something that is incredibly serious if you happen to be unvaccinated. However, if you're vaccinated, the likelihood of being hospitalized with COVID is, I mean, almost non-existent. 99% of COVID patients who are hospitalized right now happen to be unvaccinated. So the best way to prevent hospitalization is to get a vaccine. But it also prevents you from dying, right? We know that. So since hospitals are completely overwhelmed right now with COVID-19 patients who are unvaccinated, people who have medical emergencies are getting turned away from hospitals.

hospitals. I would argue that they have more of a reason to be aggrieved, right? I think they're the ones who might have something to complain about. So let me give you some statistics from various states. Let's go to the last graphic here. The federal government's latest data shows Alabama is at 100% capacity of its intensive care unit. And then Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and Arkansas are at more than 90% ICU capacity. Florida is just under 90%. And understand that's statewide. So you might live in a part of Florida or Georgia that's completely overwhelmed.

You'll get turned away. They might tell you the only ICU bed that's available, you know, you're in South Florida, you got to go north 400 miles or something. I mean, that's how serious the situation has gotten because of people who are refused to get vaccinated because of unvaccinated people overwhelming these hospitals. And there are real consequences for that. People die as a result of that. Not from COVID, although COVID patients are dying as well. I'm talking about people who have medical emergencies because medical emergencies happen and they can't get a bed in a hospital. They can't get the care

that they need because of people like the individuals that we just saw. Promoting the notion that not getting vaccinated is great. It makes you a good person, makes you a pure blood. I'm going to give you a few specific examples of people who have died as a result of not having the ability to find an open ICU bed. Let's go to the first video. This was U.S. Army veteran Daniel Wilkinson on an emergency room stretcher shortly before he died. Last Saturday, Wilkinson's mother, Michelle Puget, rushed him to Belleville Medical Center,

just three doors down from their home. But for Wilkinson, help was still too far away. ER Dr. Hassan Cackley treated Wilkinson, and he discovered that he had gallstone pancreatitis, something the Belleville Hospital was not equipped to treat. Wilkinson needed a higher level of care, but with hospitals across Texas and much of the South, overwhelmed with COVID patients, there was no place for him. So he died, and he's not the only one. We covered a story earlier this week about Ray Domania, who was seeking treatment for a cardiac emergency.

He lived in Alabama, couldn't find an ICU bed. He had to travel hundreds of miles to find an available bed, but there just wasn't enough time and he died from that cardiac emergency. So there are real consequences for what these people are doing. Here, I'll give you another one. A boy, this is a ProPublica report that was published recently. A boy went to a COVID swamped ER. He waited for hours, then his appendix burst.

Now there hasn't been widespread data on this. So all we can turn to is this anecdotal evidence of how awful this situation situation has been for people, but to make this about you as an unvaccinated person, to make it apparent that young unvaccinated people on TikTok are offended by being referred to as unvaccinated, that they'd rather be referred to as like some Harry Potter nickname or whatever. Like what, you're not the victim, okay, the entire country is held hostage by your stupid So spare me the tears and the whining.

Spare me your, you know, displeasure about being referred to as unvaccinated. You're unvaccinated, that's what you are. In addition to a whole host of other names that I can't use on this show right now. It's getting people killed. Stop being stupid, stop being goofballs on TikTok, just do the right thing because it's not about the individual. This is about public health. It's about the actions of the unvaccinated, not just harming themselves or their own family members.

It's about harming the entire country. So, I don't know. I hope they can handle that commentary. Seems like if they're having a tough time with the word unvaccinated, they might need some therapy after watching this. Who knows? Anyway, we're going to take a break. When we come back, Wazni Lombre will join me to talk about some more news and later in the show, a lot of fun. Don't miss it.

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.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.