The Young Turks - Christ & Crime

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared at a huge flag-waving rally at a Moscow stadium. You could score a $5 million payday fighting Russian corruption—if you play your cards right. Republican Senator Elaine Gannon of Missouri asked extremely invasive questions to a trans teen Avery Jackson who was testifying against a proposed anti-trans bill in the state. Sexual harassment went unchecked at Christianity Today for more than 12 years, and we’re now learning about it after the magazine self-reported. *** The largest online progressive news show in the world. Hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. LIVE weekdays 6-8 pm ET. Help support our mission and get perks. Membership protects TYT's independence from corporate ownership and allows us to provide free live shows that speak truth to power for people around the world. See Perks: ▶ https://www.youtube.com/TheYoungTurks/join SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ http://www.facebook.com/TheYoungTurks TWITTER: ☞ http://www.twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM: ☞ http://www.instagram.com/TheYoungTurks TWITCH: ☞ http://www.twitch.com/tyt 👕 Merch: http://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA #TYT #TheYoungTurks #BreakingNews 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. 3x5x3, 3x3, 3x3, 3x3, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd. Drop it like it's a Bonap poem. All right, power, power panel. It's so powerful. It's taking over the panel.

There it is. That's all we're going to do. We're just going to have the graphic up all night. All right. Jake, you and John, I know Ida Rodriguez is back, everybody. Ida, great to see you. So. Great to see you too.

Absolutely. All right. I'd say absolutely. Absolutely. good to see me too. So true serum, that side is show, you know, fighting words. How much do I love that title on HBO Max? You're still watching that. You're rewatching that is what's happening. U.S. Fired in that title. You were like, now we fight. Yeah. That's right. And we've been fighting ever since. And I tell you what, though, mainstream media loves it. They don't seem to love it so much.

But anyways, we do, and that's how we're going to fight back and we're going to win. Okay, so speaking of fighting, unfortunately, there is a lot of fighting in the world these days and not the good kind, the bad kind. So John's going to take us there. Exactly. Actually, we're going to start off with this. So it's just that the start off of operation, So that was,

of the new of our one of our out of our out of Russia. So that was of course

President Vladimir Putin speaking at Moscow's Luzniki Stadium. And if it seemed as if it cut off

kind of abruptly there into the music, that is actually the experience that people had watching it live.

They say that it was some sort of technical problem and that certainly seems plausible. Alternative explanations is that

some sort of Packer interfered with the live stream of what was considered to be a major appearance, a rare public appearance by Vladimir Putin. In any event, though, we do want to give you a little bit of what he actually had to say. At one point, Putin paraphrase the Bible, because anyone can do that, it turns out, to say there is no greater love than giving up one's soul for one's friends. And he continued to insist his actions were necessary to prevent genocide, a claim flatly denied by leaders around the globe.

Shoulder to shoulder, they help and support each other, he said of Russian soldiers. We have not had unity like this for a long time. And certainly there were cheers coming from the crowd. In terms of unity with the rest of the world, I feel like Russia's hit a low for at least some period of time. Now at that rally, there were a lot of people, both inside and outside of the stadium, Moscow. Police say there were 200,000 people. And while Putin appeared there mostly to speak about the current illegal invasion of Ukraine, the event was for the eighth anniversary of Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

Now, there were 200,000 people there, and many news accounts of this are saying this was a massive pro-war demonstration. And it is impossible to say to what extent the crowd approves of what's going on or even understands what's going on in Ukraine. But you should also understand that by no means was everyone there voluntarily. One Moscow social worker, Lena, spoke to the press and said, we are forced to go to all such events. We can't say no, it's out of the question. I hate this whole thing, and I am very afraid. They told us that if we don't go, it's going to be very strict this time. No explanations will be accepted.

We would be fired right away. I have no way out. I don't care about politics. I don't understand what's going on. Students, apparently, were required to go as well. So it is impossible to say what percentage of the crowd gives a damn about seeing black. Putin or approves of what's happening right now in Ukraine. Yeah, I find the crowd entirely irrelevant.

So is there a big chunk of the Russian population that is in favor of the war? Yes. So could you fill a stadium full of people with that? Yes. Is there a giant chunk of the Russian population that's against the war? Yes. Could you feel a stadium filled with 200,000 people of them? Yes.

So it's just optics and theatrics, ignored completely. By the way, this is them trying to outdo the Ukraine. Ukrainians on optics and they're failing miserably overall. You know what the Ukrainians did today? Well, they put out strollers in the middle of a square for every baby killed by Putin. Jesus. Now that is super powerful and way better than this BS fascist rah rah, you know, stadium rally here, okay?

And so speaking of fascist, so he says, oh, the most important thing in the Bible is the sacrifice your soul for your friends. But they're not sacrificing for their friends. They're sacrificing for you and your ego, and that certainly ain't in the Bible. And then finally, he mentions genocide and how the Ukrainians are doing it. So that's when you know that anyone supporting Putin here or otherwise is absurd and an obvious liar. There is potential genocide going on here, but it definitely isn't the Ukrainians doing it to the Russians. You would have to be disingenuous, corrupt, or the biggest idiot in the world to think that the Ukrainians have aggressively committed war crimes against the Russians.

I don't see the Ukrainians in Moscow or St. Petersburg. I see the Russians all over Ukraine. anyone saying otherwise is very likely, other than the possibility of idiot, et cetera, is a very bad faith actor who is doing it for some nefarious reason. And no one should believe them. Ida. So I'm back. I think it's interesting to watch.

Very sad to see strollers, very sad to see people die anywhere in the world. I would love to have seen this type of coverage with people of color who are suffering like this. But it's from that kid that comes from, you know, the religious background, it's so interesting to see how religious doctrine is always used to move the masses and the people who are suffering, the people who are broke, the people who are at the hands of these multimillion billion dollar people and their agendas and getting us under control. It just speaks to, you know, the lack of education that we have here in America that people are picking aside and they got their Ukraine flag on their Facebooks and on their pay. And they haven't, they didn't know where Ukraine was, you know, two weeks, two months ago. So I just think it's interesting to watch this, but I feel so sad because war is so profitable, right? One of the greatest things about war for those people is that it's very profitable. I don't want to go anywhere because I don't want to buy gas. It's so expensive. And so let us always remember that there's always an agenda from all of those people who are at the top who constantly eat when we suffer. And let's not forget that the people of Ukraine are the victims, just like the people in the Middle East, the people on the continent of Africa are all the victims. And you only get to see whoever the powers that be select to be.

important enough to cover. Yeah, you're definitely right. Like obviously people are going to make a lot of money off this. Some openly advocating for work, clearly they see it to be in their interests, either political or financial, but even some of the people supposedly being against it. Marjorie Green is saying let's not send them weapons, but she did invest in Raytheon and Lockheed Martin before she said that. So either way, she apparently is going to get what she wants.

But I want to give the panel a couple of other things to consider. First of all, that amidst that speech with Putin talking about. about the Bible and brotherly love and all that, they are doing everything they can to kill as many people in Ukraine right now, continuing their attack on Kyiv and also for the first time using a barrage of missiles to strike the western city of Laviv. Ukrainian's armed forces said that six missiles were fired. It's believed that they were air-launched cruise missiles fired from warplanes over the Black Sea. The Ukrainian military says, by the way, that they shot down two of them. It's impossible to confirm or deny that. But from this map, you can see

that Lviv circle there is very far to the west, incredibly close by the way to the border with Poland, not that far from Slovakia either. And that is significant for a few reasons. From the Polish point of view, it can be considered somewhat of a provocation. It also potentially gives us a bit of an insight into Vladimir Putin's military strategy, because it is not generally thought at this point that Lviv is important strategically for the movement of Russian troops or anything like that. It is, however, being used, used for a few other reasons. One, it's a safe haven for Ukrainians fleeing other war-torn parts of the country. It's believed that right now, Leviv has about 200,000 Ukrainians

displaced from other parts of the country. It only had 700,000 people to begin with. So imagine how swollen with internal refugees it is right now. It's also, by the way, a place and a bit of the infrastructure necessary for weapons and supplies to come into Ukraine from outside of the country. Coming in from Poland and these other countries, they might well go through Lviv. Well, if they destroy the capacity for Ukraine to bring those things in, then that could have ripple effects on the conflict. At the same time, though, apparently there was a conversation just in the last day between Vladimir Putin as well as Erdogan, the president of Turkey, talking about Russia's demands. And that includes things that you're probably familiar with at this

point, including that Ukraine would have to stay neutral and not join any groups like NATO. They would have to disarm, protect the Russian language in the country, and also go through so-called denazification. There are also some other demands having to do with the contested territories in the eastern portion of Ukraine. These are largely the concerns that have been cited throughout. What do you all think about the ongoing assault and the possibilities of peace? So, well, first, I think you got to ask yourself, what would Jesus do?

because that's what Putin was asking, and I think he would probably bomb alleviate, right? I mean, that's bombing refugees on their way out of the country, very Jesus of Nazareth. Okay, obviously I mock because it's absurd. So why bomb that city? Well, as John explained, there's refugees, there's also a lot of media there, that's where they're based. So what message are you sending when you bomb innocent civilians? The message you're sending is, we have no morals and we have no limits. So why would you want to send that message?

It's a form of intimidation. You keep going in this war. You have no idea how much will murder you. Anyone defending Putin is a monster. Okay, now the good news. Those negotiations that have actually started now, the negotiations they were theoretically having is mainly to run out the clock by the Russians. Putin was never serious about it.

And whatever promise they made, they instantly violated the next day. But the ones going through Erdogan are real because Putin and Erdogan are, it's complicated, but in a lot of ways, allies, okay? But Turkey, of course, is part of NATO, so they're also our ally. It's a real arbiter, okay? So Putin goes to Erdogan and says, here, this is what I'll take. That's a great development, okay? Because there's nothing on that list that is impossible.

So there's the bad stuff that is totally doable. I mean denazification. Yes, we all want to say screw you. Zelensky's Jewish, his family was killed by the Nazis saying that they're denotifying is absurd, but it doesn't cost any land. It doesn't cost any lives. So you say, oh, of course, we have driven out the Nazis. from Ukraine, and we hope that Russians do likewise, right?

So that goes in the bucket of diplomacy, it sucks, we bite the bullet, we move on, okay? And all those other, like, verbal requests are not as big a deal, right? It's easy for me to say it's up to the Ukrainians on whether they could swallow that pill or not, right? But it's also easy for us to say, don't take it, be proud, they're the ones getting killed, right? So in terms of the land, well, look, the bad news is they were vague on it, but it looks like they're starting to inch towards give us the breakaway republics, do not go into NATO, and maybe we have a deal and we withdraw. And consider Crimea a part of Russia.

And Crimea now officially becomes part of Russia. Okay, now I hate that deal, but I hate those people dying and the potential of World War III more. So it's not up to me or Ida or John to decide. Obviously, it's up to Zelensky and the Ukrainian people to decide. But that's a little bit of hope because now Russian withdrawal is on the table. Ida. So I can't get into the intricacies of this because I don't ever pretend to know what I don't know. I just learned something from Jank listening to him. And I have been reading, But this is something that like I said, I was not even aware of until a couple of weeks ago when this whole thing started. What I can say is if you are watching the news, not just domestically, but internationally, there is this really big push for a certain group of people that look the same, trying to just continue on their oppression of the people and just gain control.

And we have to be aware of what is happening around us because we gaze over there and look, oh, look what's happening in Russia and Ukraine. And stuff like that is happening in America. And I just feel like we need to be informed on what's happening right here because they distract us a lot with what's going on in other places. And I just, I feel like the whole, I watched these videos of these Russian women that were talking to the media and you see the police just taking them. away, there are some people, some men, Donald Trump and others who actually get aroused the possibility of being able to do that right here. And so while we're watching this, we need to really watch because we are so vulnerable to all of this stuff. And the idiots

in DC are making it easy for this to happen to us. Yeah, I mean, we certainly see the legislation the new anti-abortion bill in Missouri, all that they've done in Texas, in Idaho, they want to make it illegal for you to do gender affirming care for your kids. Like literally, they're trying to give you life in prison for moving out of a state to exercise your rights. They're legislating what you can do when you aren't even in that state anymore. So you're 100% right about that. I just want to say this because we always, we always frame this stuff. Like we have that, that American exceptionalism thing. It's not us. They're doing that over there. you the people, we're not like that. We're American. That stuff is happening here. And even

though there may not be an active war where you can see the casualties, but there is a war and there are casualties that you just don't see. And it's not just happening over there. Well, that's exactly why the Tucker Carlson's of the world are supported Putin, because they like what they're seeing, an authoritarian thug who oppresses others for only a specific group of people's benefit. They're like, what's there not to like? So he's the white, authoritarian, tyrannical ruler they've always wished for. Let's turn to another aspect on this. There's been some question for a while now. There's been some question for a while now, what effect on the conflict ongoing in Ukraine right now China will

end up having? And apparently as of today, we finally had a conversation between President Xi Jinping of China and President Biden. And in it, we don't have a full transcript or anything like that, at least as of when we're going live. But Biden apparently, quote, detailed the implications and consequences if Beijing were to provide material support to Russia in its attacks against Ukraine. It also said that Biden had detailed the costs imposed on Russia as a result of the invasion, which implies of the nature of the threat, and God I only hope, was economic in nature rather than some sort of military brinksmanship, which war with China makes about as much sense for the fate of the human species as one with Russia does. We don't have that

much information just yet, but there were a few questions that the press asked of Jen Saki earlier today about this call. Here's the first. Did President Xi ever referred to it as an invasion? We'll let President Xi and his team outline any more specifics about his component of the conversation. Why not reveal if he called it an invasion or called it a war? Because we don't as a policy speak for other countries. They can speak for themselves. That's the sort of thing that they do that makes sense to them, to a reasonable person doesn't make any sense whatsoever. They had the call. They said it to our president. He's our representative. Why can't we find out what they actually said?

We may not care, but I think that we should have access to that information. There was one other back and forth about this, though, so let's go to that. Yesterday, Secretary of Lincoln said the administration was concerned that China is considering answering Russia's requests for more military equipment. After this trial recalled, does the White House still have that concern? We have that concern. The president detailed, you know, what the implications and consequences would be if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts. brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians. And obviously that is something we will be watching and the world will be watching.

So leading up to this point, there had not yet been any evidence that China had been providing any aid to Russia. They deny that they've even been asked, although the belief is that they have. And based on the conversation so far, at least the news coverage of it, we don't know yet much about the conversation that was had. But diplomacy is ongoing of a variety of forms. So guys, I don't think whether they call it an invasion, a war, a skirmish, you know, a rumble, it matters much. There's what it signals matters, right? So is China going to help Russia or is it not? Because one fact pattern, possibility was Russia starts to win.

They've got the upper hand, they've got momentum, America tries sanctions, but they don't quite get Switzerland involved. and then it's leaking like a sieve, they're not that hurt. Then China and India come in on the side of Russia, and Russia wins. Okay, now another fact pattern is we do get Switzerland, Monaco, et cetera, to be on our side. The oligarchs are actually real hurt. They're putting pressure on Putin. The Ukrainians hold down the fort, literally. And then China and India kind of stay out of it because they think Russia might be losing,

and they don't want to be on the bad end of sanctions and consens. consequences, et cetera, especially if their allies going to lose anyway. It looks like we're trending in that second direction, which is good. If China, India, and others join Russia and try to break the sanctions, that's really bad. Not just for this conflict, but for future precedent. Can the world get together and say, no, you cannot invade and murder all these people in different countries. Now, of course, the country matters, unfortunately. The world is decided. not to do that for Yemen. But even so, doing it for Ukraine is an excellent step forward.

And we're so close to being able to do that successfully. That's why China with its significant power is so important. If they just sit on the sidelines, good enough. But if they help Russia to try to break the sanctions, both economic and military, then that's bad news for the world. If those two individuals who are driven by control and are fascists and dictators are thinking about this spreading worldwide, why should we trust that they wouldn't get involved? It's all about this great question. It's all about their national self-interest, right? They're not doing anybody any favors.

So on the one side, they think, well, if Russia takes Ukraine and there isn't much consequences, I guess at a later time we can take Taiwan and there won't be many consequences. So that's obviously has the way on their mind and they're not doing anything out of the goodness of their heart. On the other hand, they think, well, what if Russia fails? And then they have to withdraw and then we're suffering the consequences for what, for nothing? And now we took the damage in terms of world opinion and that has some consequences in deals that they make throughout the world. Our chances of taking things like Taiwan have been set back even further. Now, we've got sanctions and tariffs, et cetera, to deal with.

So they're just weighing that. And that's why if Russia's winning or losing is so important in that equation because it'll determine whether China gets bigger benefit out of joining them or staying out of it. Yeah. I want to throw just a few more last updates that I think are really interesting that our audience should know about. One, we were reporting earlier this week about the attack on the theater in Maripal. Ukraine has now said that they have been able to rescue 130 people from the destroyed building. You're seeing a shot of it right there.

And you can note, although obviously it's in Ukrainian, apparently the word for children is the white words that are in front of and in back of the incredibly distinct building. Thus providing no explanation for how you could accidentally destroy it. But anyway, as John, real quick, I think that the words are in Russian. They did, wrote a- Sorry, I apologize, in Russian. I mean it was meant to be read by someone who might be targeting this building. That's what I mean. But that leaves something like a thousand people reportedly, including children currently in the bunker beneath it, possibly to be rescued.

They are trying as we speak. God only knows what will end up happening. I also want to throw out this. And I just, I understand this sort of information is generally presented to make you feel better about the chance of the Ukrainians. And it certainly will help them. But it kind of horrifies me. Here's a photo right now of new drones that are being sent from the U.S. to Ukraine. They're called kamikaze drones. They're called switchblades, and they come in a variety of sizes.

But if you're thinking of the sorts of drones you might have seen in warfare before, that fly around, launch missiles, those sorts of things, that's not what this is. These are small enough to be carried by an individual person. They are launched out of tubes, and they themselves are the weapons. They are effectively bombs with wings that can be remotely controlled by a person on the ground, They say that it's able to be called off if civilians are nearby or if the target has moved in those sorts of things. Apparently, the Ukrainian forces have already had a great deal of success with what they say are over 50 elite squads of drone operators that have been targeting in the middle of the night with thermal camera equipped drones, Russian troop movements, as well as tanks. These drones can drop tank busting grenades effectively.

And all of this is going to help the Ukrainian forces. I hate that these things even exist, though, because once they're out and we've transferred, you know, as part of an $800 million aid package in Ukraine, others will develop them. What about when terrorists get their hands on things like this? I understand that they use drones in some cases already, but it's just devastating to see the proliferation of such easily hideable and movable lethal technology like this. West Clark Jr., on this show about a decade ago, predicted this. He said they're going to create drones, drones that could run into things.

I mean, he couldn't have been more right. And so he said, like, we have air superiority here in America? No, we don't. The Chinese are just going to come up with drones that run into our planes. And here we are. They've got drones that run into things and then explode. They're using them on tanks for now. I don't know the technology well enough to know whether he could also run into planes,

but I'm sure that there are varieties of that. And so now, John, obviously the very bad news is more lethal weaponry all across the world is a disaster. The slightly good news is there's a lot of arrogance in the world from the superpowers, including us, about we can invade any country we want. We have air superiority and they have no chance against us at all. Now you have to ask, do we? Yeah. Do we have air superiority? So both America, Russia, China, et cetera, we better watch ourselves because these drones can also go in the hands of people fighting back.

Yeah, you know, I watch it. I'm also scared to see these things. It's horrible to, I don't ever want those things to become normal, the images of human beings running away. I just want to urge people to remember that while we're cheering on aside, there are innocent people and people's children who are assigned to fight these wars. And that, you know, will never come home and they won't directly benefit anything from what's happening here. This is really about wealth, power, and greed. And, you know, I just, I really want people to understand. And I'm so glad you mentioned Yemen, Jank, because it is happening globally. People are being abused. And we are always the pawns in the game.

So don't get it twisted. Don't get it twisted. We are all the pawns in the game. If we're not sitting at the table, we are all ponds in the game. All right, last thing, guys. So as you see the Ukrainians fighting back, Ida's right, of course, we defended the Russian people over and over again in this conflict. Amazing journalists, protesters that are fighting for peace in Russia. But also the Russian soldiers we've mentioned, they're real people.

They didn't choose this war. It's not their fault. And so don't celebrate too much when you see the tanks getting blown up, et cetera. Having said that, I also want to say, don't ever judge the Ukrainians. So I don't want to see any crap about, you know, from the Putin apologists, whether they're on the right or pretend left, going, well, oh, the Ukrainians, they're so evil for blowing up a tank that had pointed to their house and was about to murder their family. No, no, the Ukrainians are allowed to fight back any way they choose. And if Russia doesn't like it, maybe they shouldn't have invaded. Yeah, I just want to throw out one more thing because I don't think this is going to be a big part of the conversation, but it is going to be worldwide news.

It is that there are obviously massive consequences of conflicts like this that ripple out outside of those countries and throughout the globe. And one is that the fact that you might see that Ukraine's supply chain of all sorts is falling apart, including food. That is terrible for the people inside of Ukraine, but it also has worldwide consequences. In particular, wheat shipments from both Ukraine, which is being attacked, and now Russia, considering the conflict and the sanctions have largely been put on hold, that's 30% of the world's wheat trade comes out of Ukraine and Russia. Apparently now the World Food Program is warning of collateral hunger in some Middle Eastern countries that rely on Ukraine for wheat.

Lebanon apparently gets 60% of its wheat from Ukraine, and it is hard to imagine much of any of it being exported in the near future. And so just bear in mind that these conflicts do not just affect the people inside of them. And our decisions in terms of sanctions and all that have worldwide consequences as well. Yes, and that is all due to Vladimir Putin. And anyone who defends him is an evil, immoral person. We'll be back. All right, back on TOT, Jank, John and Ida with you guys.

John's got more news for us. In fact, I do. Since the beginning of the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the U.S. and other countries have put together a wide set of economic sanctions against Russia, and in particular against individual Russian oligarchs, including Vladimir Putin. And that has really clamped down on a lot of the public accumulation of international wealth by those oligarchs. That said, they're a savvy bunch.

And so a lot of their wealth is actually not easy to track down, a lot of it is hidden. And that is where you possibly enter the picture because there's a new program where the US is gonna be offering rewards of the $5 million for help hunting down ill-gotten wealth linked to the Russian government in a program that was officially launched just two days ago. No word yet on expanding it to include getting back some of the wealth that our own domestic oligarchs have stolen from us over the decades, but I'll take a precedent when I can get one. That said, this framework was set in motion when Russia did the invasion, but it's building on moves that have been being worked on for a number of different years.

The rewards suggest that for now, private citizens with the right kind of intel and access, potentially have a way to profit by getting in on the ongoing sanctions activity in a program called the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Program that was officially approved as part of a defense spending bill by Congress back at the end of the Trump administration. Now he vetoed that broader defense bill that it was included in because he didn't like that we are gonna rename some US military bases that were named after racist Confederate leaders. Anyway, they overruled his veto and so now that program is ready to be rolled out. And to qualify for it, what you need to do is provide information that leads to the restraint,

seizure or forfeiture of assets linked to corruption involving the government of the Russian Federation. All of this is of course exciting and dramatic, it's got an air of like international spy craft to it. There's also some aspects of this that are a little bit worrisome. I think we can possibly get into that discussion too. What do you think? Yeah, so the, you know, Trump mainly, of course, vetoed it because of the basis. John is right. Having said that, when he saw kleptocracy asset recovery, he probably thought, what is that? Are you guys talking about me? Yeah, first of all, Trump doesn't even know what that means. You're right, Ida.

So if somebody explained it to him and said they would get back the things that bad guys stole. He'd go, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no, veto right away. Right away we veto that. That's not even close. So, but not just for his love of Putin and Russia, but because of love of the things he has stolen for people and that he would not like to give back. Okay, I find this to be a super interesting program. The most interesting part is not what you're going to hear most in the press. The yachts and all that stuff and seizing it.

And remember, this is just for stuff in America. So we can't go to like, you know, France and be like, oh, I think that's a Russian oligarchs car. I'm taking that Bentley, right? No, we have to have jurisdiction over it, et cetera. Getting the prize is not easy. You're going to have to do a bunch of loopholes. It's a little vague. But it is possible.

But the most important part is that theoretically, people that have information about where they have hid their money through American hedge funds could turn them in. That's where it is really interesting because that's probably a lot of the donors are probably not at all happy about that because a lot of the donors are in hedge funds or have hedge funds. And so that one could be controversial. So I mean, it's passed and let's see if they actually put it in the motion. But Joe Manchin could be very, very upset about that. I'm not kidding. Like when you talk about secret money and the Americans, remember the Americans hedge funds are the ones that are hiding the Russian assets. If we wanted, we could look at those right now, but we're choosing not to because rich Americans would be pissed.

Yeah. And you saw that the what got passed today where there were only of what less than five Republicans that voted against it with with regards to Russia. But when you said that, I immediately thought government, like I didn't even think people. I thought like Congress, like you see some of the corrupt things that they've done already in pulling out of stuff during COVID and all this, all the stuff that all the controversy that we've had with this. government of ours, which so many of us have chosen to pick aside as if they're the Red Sox and the Yankees without realizing that they're all in one team together. And that's team rich, rich, rich, rich. And it's like, it's so funny because I know that a lot of people are probably nervous because they don't want to be outed. And two, rich people who do dirty stuff. And not to say all rich people are bad because I know a couple of good ones. But I'm talking about. those rich, rich, rich people that do corrupt stuff, they've made their money off of the backs of others. So to them, this is just Friday. Exactly. By the way, the B-roll that was beside Ida right now, like that had, you know, the yacht, it had a fancy car, but it also had a house. And that made me think, how many times have we talked about oligarchs in Russia, but, you know, in Saudi Arabia, UAE, all that, they park huge amounts of money by buying incredibly expensive real estate. If you wanted to identify some property, can't you just go to Trump Tower and go to the penthouse and point at the door?

Isn't that a great way to identify some money that's being hidden in the U.S. for Russian oligarchs? I'm not saying I want the money for it, but you can give me the keys. I'll take that. No, but by the way, I mean, John makes a great point. So I don't know what they're going to do. Russian oligarchs have bought a tremendous amount of Trump properties. And non-Trump properties, of course. Yes, but specifically Trump properties, they bought a third of Trump Tower at one point, and then they rescued Donald Trump from potential bankruptcy when they did.

That's among the reasons why Trump has had an affinity towards Russian oligarchs and leaders. And so can I get the $5 million for saying, yeah, there it is. It's right there. They once, one of the oligarchs bought 100, Trump bought a house for, I forget the exact numbers, but like 20 million and sold it to a Russian oligar for 100 million or whatever it was. It was obvious, obvious money laundering, right? Whether you can get Trump on that is a different question. But here, federal authorities, go get that house and give me the $5 million.

That's right. There's amazing all the things they can do when they really try. Some of the most amazing things our government is able to do when they want to do something. Yet and still some of the simple problems that are happening right here in this country that affect the American people every day. It's just a formula that that mean with the formula that's out of this world. 100%. Yeah. All right, we gotta take a break, guys.

When we come back, more amazing news, well, you know, look, there's lots of bad news. world, we'll try to make sense of it for you guys when we return. All right, back on TYT, Jank John and Ida with you guys. John, take it away. Okay, we've got some tough stuff here, so everyone prepare yourself as we're launching to this. You're in the ladies' room and then you realize somebody else is in there that doesn't have a female has a male body instead of a female's body. I mean, it just causes some issues there.

No, it's, you should let people go to the back. No one's there. You see this thing that probably don't realize. Yeah, exactly that's the position as a long hair and that's men. Are you going to go through the procedure? What you just saw right there was Republican Senator Elaine Gannon of Missouri asking, obviously, very medically invasive questions to a teen. Trans teen named Avery Jackson. Avery, by the way, said that this was the first time a random grown up, not a doctor, not a medical professional, had asked them that kind of question. Their mom, Debbie, added that what the video didn't show was her squeezing Avery's hand in that moment, quote, almost in an attempt to have myself

not jump up. And although we should acknowledge that I think it's impossible to come up with with a context where some random Republican state senator is asking unprompted questions like that of a teen, the conversation wasn't about bathrooms or anything like that. That's just something that apparently Elaine Gannon is curious about and just wants to make a public spectacle over. The hearing where you just saw Avery speaking was about transgender kids being able to play on sports teams that align with their gender. But again, these Republicans are perverse, they're insane when it comes to this topic.

And so getting an opportunity to talk to a trans team and ask these questions to try to throw them off, try to embarrass them, God only knows what. Elaine Gannon isn't going to miss the opportunity for that. Now I want to give you at least a little bit of the response from Avery and their mom Debbie. Here's what they had to say about the interaction. You think we're going around forcing our genetic alien and people say. So trying to go to the bathroom and what you want to do is not let people do that. Your whole argument here is the fact that you don't want people to use back.

A bathroom is the one. Yes, no one is looking at the penit. I was seriously just curious. Wow. On such a record about gentles and if people would see that how they're going to I know. That's, we have been coming for seven years trying to help people understand. And I know this is about topic and we lived in the beginning by it, but that's the point.

Kids are going around to those themselves, kids want to play sports with their friends. That's what this bill is. And getting wrapped up in genitals and backrooms gets us so far away from that and it dehumanizes our children. My child is so much more than gender. I love everything that's what I need you to speak. I love everything that Debbie had to say there. This is about the life of kids like Avery. But for the state senator, it's, I'm just curious.

It's just a thing. I can just ask these questions. It doesn't mean anything to me. I don't care. It's your life. For me, it's a political weapon. It's something to get my base fired up. If I get them to hate and fear people like you enough,

then maybe we can stay in power and we can, continue to profit. It just, it makes me sick. And I can only imagine for people like Avery or for people like Debbie having to continually go through with this, just trying to have a member of their family get to live their life. Yeah, so nothing says individual liberty and small government, like a government official asking about your genitalia. Yeah. I mean, they say it with a straight face, right? Like, oh, we're for small government. And let me see your Johnson or whatever you got going on, okay? I want to know all about I want to hear the details.

What do you do with it in a bathroom? Oh, you're 14? Who cares? Tell me more. Show me more, right? What part of that is small government? What part of that is individual liberty? Republicans, they have a rebuttable presumption.

You meet a Republican, maybe he can convince you that he's not a liar. But their ideology is nothing but lies. They never meant small government. They never meant freedom. They meant I oppress you, and that's how this thing works. Okay, so, and the absurdity of this topic is endless. topic is endless. So they say, well, if you look male, but they think you're actually female because of how you were born, and you walk into a female, you should walk into a

bathroom because you were born a female walking a few. And if you did and you look like a male, what would they do? They'd flip out. They'd go nuts. They'd be like, what's a guy doing in the girl's bathroom? Well, you told me to come in here, okay? I wanted to go into the guy's bathroom. because I am a guy, but you said, no, you were born a girl, so you have to go to the girl's bathroom. So I'm in the girl's bathroom. How dare you come in here? You look like a guy. You know that's what they would do. You know that's what they would do, okay? So it's absurd in every way. And then finally, she said, how would anyone know? That's such a good point. I can't believe I haven't made that point in all these years. So thank you. What are you

what are you Republicans doing? Are you looking at us when we're in the bathroom? All of us? They have? Are you sneaking in a peek at the urinals? You perverts? Are you busting into people's stalls? Why do you care what they're doing in private? What genitalia do you have? I really want to see your genitalia. That's how Republicans are a small government, my ass. You guys are up in our business. You're trying to find out about our genitalia. Leave us alone, you perverts. We actually believe in freedom and individual liberty. You know, I'm sorry, Jake. So I know it's not funny, but it's funny. I agree with you. First of all, I cringe at the thought of thinking about anybody's genitalia while I'm in any bathroom.

Secondly, as a mom to a daughter and a son, I can tell you, which I've taken both of my children to the bathroom when they were younger, I have never really heard of anybody being assaulted by a trans human in a bathroom, but I have heard people being assaulted by a heterosexual male in the bathroom. Or by, sorry, cisgender male. So I just think that it's so fascinating. I have many trans friends and I will tell you the people who are DMing them, the people who are creeping into their DMs on Twitter and Instagram who are fascinated with them. And many of them who want to get down with them are cisgender people who are supposedly heterosexual and anti-trans. So I just think it's so interesting why that first of all, they were talking about sports and courtroom Karen made it about bathrooms and her fascination because she, sorry, I got angry. I just think that when you do stuff to the kids, talk to her mom. Talk to their mom. Don't address the children. And I've always had that as a rule with my own kids. Don't you dare take issue with my children, their children. You take that issue with.

up with me. That was totally inappropriate. I am burning up as a mom, because I would let her have it. How dare you? How dare you? You're totally right, obviously, of the sorts of people that do these assaults. But in particular, one of the things that makes this constant debate that they keep coming back to about bathrooms. Glenn Yonkin tried to make that half of his run for governor, that and making it so that you can't talk about slavery or whatever. What makes it even more perverse is if a trans person goes into a bathroom, of all of the danger that exists, virtually every bit of it is felt and experienced by that trans person. Because as you're right, there's no epidemic of trans people assaulting anyone

bathrooms. But there is an ongoing epidemic that nobody almost even acknowledges, let alone does anything about, of trans individuals being hunted down and harassed and assaulted and murdered. And so to take this particular thing is just so purposefully sick. And also exploitative. Like, there are definitely regular conservatives that are incredibly ignorant of the trans community and obsessed and hateful and fearful of the trans community. I don't doubt that at all. But for the elite class of Republicans, the politicians, they are just using this to maintain their position of power to stop regulations that might cost them some money.

They don't care at all about this. They're not losing sleep over what happens in bathrooms. But they do believe that their base is hateful enough and ignorant. enough to be convinced to think about politics exclusively through that lens. I wanna give, let one of our members have a comment here. We love to doing the show with you guys. TYT.com slash join to become a member, be part of the show. Dragon with a girl tattoo, wrote in, being curious about a 14 year old's genitals can land you in prison.

Yeah. So Q and on, where are you at? Where you at? I mean, there's a Republican senator, elite, powerful Republican senator who's asking about a young, child's genitals. I assume you guys are enraged, right? You're, you're, you're, finally, you got them. You got someone in power who's interested in children's genitals. Yeah. Oh, you're not going to do anything, right? Because of course, everyone in the right wing is full of crap. They don't mean a word they say. They just, the whole thing is an excuse in a facade for hatred. Fear and hatred.

That's the Republican Party period. Oh, sorry, also greed. Okay, and finally, I was, I'll tell you person I acted. I actually did have a creepy situation once in the bathroom. It was a public bathroom in New York. I think it was Grand Central Station. And I was in a stall. And I'm like, there's something weird, there's something wrong. It's like I had this instinct. But I couldn't tell what it was. And then I looked up and some creepy dude was looking into the stall. He had stood on the toilet of the other stall and was looking down at me like this. I mean, that is the creepiest thing you'll ever see, right? That right there, that picture in my mind, that's That's the Republican Party.

They're creeping into our stalls like, what are you doing? Well, what's your, I want to invade your personal life. You should do what I tell you are not what you want. I hate your individual liberty. Show me your gentle news. That's the perverts that are the Republican Party. Yeah, I had a creepy experience in a bathroom two months. This is a cisgendered man.

That's what the experience was with. I think there's a lot more of that going on. As a woman, I have to speak up. As a woman, 100%. 100%. I've been in a bathroom with a trans woman before. That's my friend. Nobody was alarmed. Nobody was alarmed. The man that was standing outside the bathroom in the club, everybody was like, yo, why is he standing outside the women's bathroom? This is the hypocrisy and the foolishness that we are tired of. And these are the things that they distract us with while they keep putting their foot on our necks. You know, I would love to know how many of these Conservative politicians have non-binary children, because I feel sorry for those kids who have to be parented by the people who care nothing about their humanity. Yeah, one more story?

Yep, okay, let's jump at this last one. You will be shocked to find out that at one of the leading Christian magazines, Christianity today, for more than 12 years, there was a rampant culture of sexual harassment that was well reported and absolutely nothing was done to protect the multiple women who came forward time and time again to talk about the experiences that they had. A story about this was actually run in the magazine by editor Daniel Silliman, who at the top of the story wrote this. This story was reported by CT News editor Daniel Silliman, edited by the senior news editor Kate Shelnut, and published without prior review by ministry executives. Neither editor had access to personnel

files or meetings regarding the allegations or investigation. Maybe this is. is the only way that they could get it out there. I don't know. But they say that effectively two executives for many years was conducting rampant sexual harassment. The accusations are against former editor-in-chief Mark Galley, as well as former advertising director, Ola-Toconbo Olawyer. And they say that this happened at the Carroll Stream, Illinois office. And the actual procedure for reporting this was almost non-existent, almost as if they didn't care about making sure that this sort of thing wasn't happening. And yet the report did actually happen. Women at CT said that they were touched at work in ways that made them

uncomfortable. They heard men with authority over their careers make comments about the sexual desirability of their bodies. In at least two cases, they heard department heads hinted openness to an affair. More than half a dozen employees reported harassment from the two-sided executives to a manager or HR between the mid-2000s and 2019. This is up until just a couple of years ago. Neither leader was even written up. There were no formal warnings, no suspension, no punishment, despite repeated accusations of the same nature against the same people, nothing was done time after time after time. And this is at Christianity today. And they would go on to say, maybe we'll get into it, about how that they're, they're an environment of purity and

godliness and all that. And meanwhile, they were protecting serial predators in their midst. Again, so look guys, when I was growing up, I was told by culture, society, and media that you should respect authority figures, that they were worthy of respect and that they were more likely to be correct than people without power and authority. My God, I've never been told a bigger lie in my life. So you should be more skeptical of authority figures, not less. Why? Because they have more power. And the nature of humanity is that power corrupts. And of course, absolute power corrupts absolutely. So when you have any position where they have a ton of authority that is hard to question,

you should think, oh boy, we should put a lot of checks and balances there to make sure they don't abuse that authority and power. So military comes to mind, especially the less checks there are in the military, the more likely there's likely to be abuse of commanders abusing people below them. But when you talk about religion, it's not that the religion is at fault. It's that the structure is at fault. And it happens in almost every religion. So you have an authority figure and they're not supposed to be questioned. And there are no checks and balances because theoretically they're only reporting up to God.

And then they usually have access to children and let alone, women that work underneath them in like in this situation, whether it's Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, it doesn't matter. They're going to abuse that power because they're human. And that is what's going to happen. And what have we done historically? Oh no, those are the people you shouldn't check in on because they're the most moral among us. That is a sick joke. Yeah, when you attach guilt and shame to daily function and it is done to you by someone who you look up to, A lot of us look up to those figures of authority within our churches when we were growing up. But you know, the thing is that multiply that by I don't know what number. And the funny

thing is somebody was commenting on one of my pages about one of my jokes about how hard it is to be a woman was like blah, blah, blah, women make more money. You have no idea what it is like that you're not safe in church. You're not safe walking down the street. You're not safe in a bathroom at McDonald's, you not say every single place you go, you are at risk of dealing with some man's ill messages about what he is able to do. Now you get that man power and it is a hot mess. And Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, all of it. Women have always been the victims of these types of things of these types of men and how they think. And I just, it's this disgusting. It is gross. And to sit here and say that it doesn't happen

in the church because it's pure and around the church is a lie and we need to stop telling that lie because you are accountable for the word and how you deliver it and your actions shall be, you shall be held accountable for those actions just like everybody else. if you truly believe what you're spitting in the in spitting to the people when I say spit I mean bars wrapping my my urbanness comes out but if you believe all of this the doctrine that you are showering people with daily then why do you think you're not accountable and you're not subject to the consequences that come from those actions according to God burning in hell hell fire if you believe it then why you're not scared of that. Yeah, that's another great point. I mean, on top of everything else, on top of their abuse, of course they don't believe what they're saying. If they believe that they wouldn't do it at all, they would definitely be scared of that eternal fire. They're total frauds. So people in power should not have less accountability. They should have more accountability. That's just

common sense. But common sense that we have not applied, guess why? Because the people in power set the rules. So it's time that we upend that and we protect all of us. And Ida makes a great point and I just want to end on that. Look, if you're a guy, just for a second, put yourself in the shoes of women. So I'm a big guy, I've never been afraid in a bathroom. Okay, I've never been afraid in any of these contexts. But the first time that a woman said, now think about what if you were my size and you're a woman. And don't think what would I do, I assume you you guys are decent guys. But think about all the rando, weirdo guys you've ever met in your life. Women have to deal with them too, okay? And then what if you were, you know, in their situation,

and even if just 15% of guys are terrible guys who might do something terrible, you don't know which 15%. So you're constantly looking around and worried. Our job as a society and as decent human beings is to look out for one another. That's what we're asking you to do. All right, before we go, Ida, a boycott on Twitch said, God's, I love Ida. She's a fire brand. So where can people see you, Ida? So I'll be at the Sacramento Punch Line, March 31st through April 2nd. Please come check out the show.

Let's have a good time. And I'm on Twitter, funny AIDA. I'm on Instagram, funny AIDA, and I don't battle rap with bitter balls on the internet. So it's hard not to like Ida. All right. Everybody check out Fighting Words 2 on HBO Max. That's Ida. It's special on there.

It's wonderful. And everybody check out Damage Report. John's a great host, obviously, on every day. All right. We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we've got more amazing stories for you guys. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work.

Listen ad free. members only bonus content and more by subscribing to apple podcasts at apple dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon