The Young Turks - Conflict of Interest

Episode Date: December 31, 2021

Alan Dershowitz reacts to the Ghislaine Maxwell verdict. Just a casual conversation among a couple of anti-vaxxers at an anti-vaxx rally. A federal ban on surprise medical bills takes effect on Jan. 1. People without COVID are dying because hospitals are full of unvaxxed patients. A border town in Southern China caught 4 people that were breaking COVID restrictions, so they paraded them thru the streets in a public shaming display. Hosts: Cenk Uygur & Francesca Fiorentini  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. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too.

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So this does have a weekend feel to it. Francesca, how you doing? I'm good. We are dropping the weight of 2021, Jank. And I don't know about you, but I am very afraid to wish anyone a happy new year at all. I'm just like another year's greetings to you. Like I don't want to say happy. I don't want to say good. I don't want to say, you know, I'm going to crush 2022 because I think 2022 might crush us, Jank. I don't know. Yeah, no, I don't know what you're talking about. Given how 2020 went and then 2021 went, I expect nothing but good tidings out of 2022. There may not be an insurrection.

Yeah, maybe, maybe not. We'll see how it goes. So, so Francesca, I got a text from Nancy Pelosi. We'll start in a second, but I got a text from Nancy Pelosi today. So maybe double-dolls right. You're getting those texts too? Yeah. Wait a minute. She's two-time in us?

Yeah, I know, right? So, but she, she commanded me what to do. No, I'm greatly amused because she, Nancy Pelosi sent a text asking for money. And the reason I bring it up in this context is because she said, oh, we're about to win the 2022 elections. And if you chip in $15, you know, that victory, you know, that victory. is on its way in 22. I was like, really? Because it doesn't look like that. But maybe Pelosi's on to something, right?

And our 15 bucks will of course make the difference. All right. So I just imagine you into it in like a text battle with just the bot being like, no, it won't. Everyone can imagine Jenk getting into a text battle with the Nancy Pelosi bot. I feel like, and like owning this bot so hard. No, Francesca. That's exactly what I did.

I know that it's a bot, but I sent it a message anyway, just partly to, or not partly, completely to amuse myself. Anyways, all right, lots of stories, let's get to it. What do you got for us, Fran? All right, well, socialite and predator and accomplice to another socialite and predator, Jeffrey Epstein, Gillane Maxwell has been found guilty of five of six charges of criminal sex trafficking of minors. Charges that could ultimately land her up to 65 years in prison, so effectively the rest of her life. I just want to read some reactions from one of the most high-profile victims of Virginia Joufrey, who was not called to testify, but whose testimony has led to others coming forward and has really been the impetus behind this case against both Epstein, but also Gillane Maxwell.

She says to the cut, I've been dreaming of this day for the last 10 years, not knowing that it was going to come. It's a bittersweet emotion because I have been fighting for so long and it's definitely not over. There are many more people involved with this. It doesn't stop with Maxwell, but it's definitely a relief to know that she's off the streets. And no matter how rich or how connected you are, that you can still be held accountable. All right, well, there you have it. So no matter how rich or how powerful or how well connected you are. And so interestingly, some media outlets turn to different experts, some victims to give

their thoughts about the verdict on Gilane Maxwell. And many have turned to Alan Dershowitz, a notorious attorney and also notorious because he was in fact named by Virginia Joufrey in her testimony. she has said that Epstein forced her to have sex with both Alan Dershowitz and Prince Andrew, an allegation that they both have denied. Another woman Sarah Ransom said that Epstein and Maxwell directed her to have sex with Dershowitz, which the famed attorney has also denied. If you remember in a clip, I do not want to play, Alan Dershowitz has said he is never, he doesn't know this woman, that he has a quote, perfect sex life for some reason he had to add that. You

You wonder what that entails, probably not healthy. But let's take a look at Dershowitz's first response. This is from the BBC, right? Reputable news outlet turning to Alan Dershowitz, who had been named by a victim. This is what Dershowitz had to say. The government was very careful who it uses witnesses. It did not use as a witness. The woman who accused Prince Andrew, accused me, accused many other people.

Because the government didn't believe she was telling the truth. In fact, she, Virginia Goufrey, was mentioned in the trial as somebody who brought young people to Epstein for him to abuse. And so this case does nothing at all to strengthen in any way the case against Prince Andrew. Indeed, it weakens the case against Prince Andrew considerably because the government was very selective in who it used. It used only witnesses who they believed were credible, credible, and they deliberately didn't use the main witness, the woman who started the whole investigation of Virginia Goufrey, because ultimately they didn't believe she was telling the truth. They didn't believe that a jury would believe her, and they were right in doing so. I'm sorry, what? Okay, guys, that was his response to, hey, what do you make of this predator being found guilty?

for all of her horrible crimes. And then Alan Dershowitz is just like, well, it was great that they didn't call this one witness who's named me in her testimony because that witness is bad. Dude, way to make it about yourself. And Jank, way in here. What is going on? Yeah, that was, well, I was going to say a terrible oversight. And I think it is, and you'll see BBC's reaction to this story in a second.

In American media, of course, that would not be an oversight. They do that all the time. And I don't mean in the case of chop molestation, but I mean in many other cases, they'll have people that are involved in giant industries that will push those giant industries and they'll never say, oh, by the way, this person is a lobbyist or works for them, etc. So for us in America, we're a little bit more used to it, but it is a particularly outrageous case to do it in. And if you watch the whole appearance, he really does nothing but smear the woman who accused them and defend himself.

So it's, it does, it barely has a fig leaf for any kind of excuse to have him on or what his so called expert analysis is. He doesn't even really talk about the heart of the case. He just talks about how man, the government did a brilliant job of not using that person who has accused me over and over and over again. And look, so Dershowitz has been basically riding on. his Harvard pedigree for his whole life. But you know, now we've got folks who went to Stanford or a professor at Stanford,

who then are now pushing COVID conspiracy theories and they're going on podcasts. And people are saying, well, you know, he's professor of Stanford, it must be true. Not noting that 99.9% of all other doctors and professors and scientists disagree. And to me, Dershowitz is pretty similar to that. He's represented some of the worst people on planet Earth. Not only is he accused in this particular case, but remember, he was also Jeffrey Epstein's lawyer, right? And he's, and this is really important guys.

When he represented Claudevon, O.J. Epstein, and by the way, all rich, all famous, he was not a publicly appointed lawyer. He chose to represent those people for money and fame. And so we're, he's been riding on a credibility he hasn't deserved in decades, let alone what monstrous things he might or might not have done. And, and, you know, look, he's become absolutely Giuliani-esque in later in his career, has now lost and shredded any ounce of credibility that he had.

And he even talks like Trump. That's why he, likely why he said he has a perfect sex life. Like Trump had a perfect call. These guys have all become zombies. And by the way, this is another thing, that people who have been accused and don't all go running to the right wing because a lot of folks didn't do it. Right. And I don't know the details in Dershowitz case. And I hope one day it does get adjudicated.

But some folks, both after the fact and preemptively, if they think they're going to be credibly accused, go running into the welcoming. arms of the right wing because they know the right wing doesn't actually care about any sex crimes, child molestation. You could do anything. And as long as you call yourself right wing, they will accept you and defend you. Yes, absolutely. And I do want to turn to a clip on Fox News. But first, the BBC did feel bad. They were like, oh, oopsies, are we? Has this not been going on for years in years, has Dershowitz not been defaming Dufray for, for like, you know, years, right? Just defamation lawsuits back and forth between his alleged victim and himself. But no, okay, so I guess they had an oversight.

So they issued this statement. They said news channel and BBC World, the interview with Alan Dershowitz after the Galane Maxwell verdict did not meet the BBC's editorial standards. As Mr. Dershowitz was not a suitable person to interview as an impartial analyst. and we did not make the relevant background clear to our audience. We will look into how this happened. You didn't even push back. I mean, have him on, but ask him about it, right?

He's obviously divulging a bunch of information about himself without you needing to. And as Jenks said, this is a clear, I mean, it happens all the time in American media. And in fact, Fox News also had Alan Dershowitz, again, who's been named by one of the victims of Epstein and Maxwell as someone who she was forced to have sex with. with, here is how he's talking about her now on Fox. He's being asked, okay, what's just your top line reactions? Again, he's making it about this woman and himself. Take a look. One of the women testified, she was 14 or 15 years old.

She was brought to Epstein for money by Virginia Gufrey, who was well over the age of consent. Virginia Gufrey, then according to the testimony at the trial, got naked, had sex with Jeffrey Epstein in order to facilitate her having sex with Epstein. So Goufrey, under the theory of the prosecution, is guilty as well. Yes, there are victims, but there were also perpetrators. And some of the people could be both victims and perpetrators. Gufrey could be a victim at one point, but then she became a perpetrator and a perjurer at another point. Okay, I just have to say that you do reading on this, you start to, you know, if you're

only coming into this story and you're hearing someone like Alan Dershowitz, go on Fox News, go on the BBC and defame who someone who was a victim and I'm going to play you a clip exactly in terms of how she was victimized. But you're starting to think, you know, there are people out there who probably think, oh yeah, this woman should also be prosecuted because, yes, she also brought people into the sphere. She trafficked too, so she should be prosecuted to. And I, I am so disgusted that someone is powerful and is influential as Alan Dershowitz is actually getting the upper hand on this story right now against someone who is a victim. And I do want to play, Jank, before I turn to you. This is Virginia Goufrey in her own words to the Miami Herald.

Remember the Herald was very influential in breaking the Epstein story and breaking the Gillane Maxwell story. This is what she describes how that happened, how she was 16 and she was asked essentially and forced, right? And she was manipulated, talk about groomed, in order to get more and more young girls for both Gilane and Jeffrey Epstein. She explains how that works briefly here. It kind of worked like a pyramid scheme. Geelan brought me in. I brought other girls in. Those girls brought other girls in. And no matter what, Jeffrey constantly had that open revolving door of young women, young teenagers, children, I like to call them, coming through his door for one purpose and one purpose alone.

There you go. A pyramid scheme of child sex trafficking. She was 16 when it started. She's now 38. And this is the person that Dershowitz is trying to basically smear and drag through the mud as this giant breakthrough has happened in her case. Yeah, it's, look, there's two layers of outrage here. One is having this guy who's accused in this case, come on and smear one of the victims over and over again and imply that she's a perjurer and that she herself is the real culprit without giving the victim a chance to air her side of the story. Even if you're not sure what happened there, well, it doesn't seem quite fair, does it? That you only give a hearing to the person who's accused of being a child molester.

And wait a minute, I thought the right wing was obsessed with, oh, Q and Nan and the leaders and elites who are molesting children and have a child sex trafficking ring. Wait a minute, Galane Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein had a child sex trafficking ring. Why is Fox News airing and sheltering Alan Dershowitz who's accused as part of that ring? Maybe he isn't. I don't know. And by the way, I'm really, really looking forward to that being adjudicated. So if he's right, great, he'll have his day in his court. He claims he's one of the best lawyers in the country. Can't wait to see that in civil court, criminal court, wherever that might be and maybe he's right. I don't know, but I'd really like to see the evidence. But Fox News

doesn't care about the evidence. They're like, that's our expert. Our expert is the one accused of child molestation. And that's because we think he's awesome. And the second layer of the outrage is not only are they not allowing the victim on, but they're pretending, especially the BBC in the way that they framed him. At least Fox introduced them as someone, I can't believe Fox did better than BBC. As someone who has some interest in the case and is involved somehow, BBC introduced him as a neutral expert. That's ridiculous. He's gross. He's clearly one-sided. And on this side, in this case, the one side is his side. He's involved in it. And so this is this is not a close case, BBC with a massive error. Fox News is actually par for the

Of course, I mean, if you're like Roy Moore or Donald Trump or Matt Gates or any of these right wingers accused of sexual crimes against children, oh, you go into the welcoming, welcoming warm arms of Fox News and they will have you as long as you hate the libs. What you do to children is totally irrelevant. And I mentioned Donald Trump in that context, so of course the right wings are going to catch feelings. Please don't just trust us, look it up for yourself, Donald Trump's exact quote, which I read yesterday you saw on my Twitter handle about how Jeffrey Epstein was a quote

terrific guy that they'd known each other and partied together for 15 years and there's tons of pictures of them hanging out together also pictures of Donald Trump with Galane Maxwell and he said well Jeffrey likes him young he knew at a bare minimum Trump always knew and then after everything was exposed and Epstein went in jail and then committed suicide. And by the way, every right winger and every Q&N goes, like, oh, yeah, which Democrat killed him? You know the president at the time was Donald J. Trump,

who was best friends with Jeffrey Epstein. I don't know if they were best friends, excellent friends, but they, Trump admits, they were great friends, right? And Trump knew, Trump, look, I don't know what Clinton did. I don't know what Trump did. I don't know what Dershowitz did, but they all knew and were great, great friends with Epstein and Maxwell. That's a fact. And so the right wing doesn't seem to care at all.

And when after Maxwell was arrested, even after Epstein's so-called suicide, Trump said that he wished her well. And if you thought that was a, now right wingers are claiming that was a joke. hilarious, you're the joke. We showed it to you two different occasions. A reporter asked him, really? She's one of the worst accused chal molesters in American history. And he's like, yeah, I wish her well. Yeah, that's because they're really good friends.

Stop looking at pizza shop basements and start looking. Don't look down, look up, look up. He was on the flight logs, look up at the little private plane they were on together. It is disgusting. The last thing I wanted to say is it is such a bad look if the person who you've associated with, whose long time partner you defended Jeffrey Epstein was just found guilty on five of six charges largely based on this woman's testimony. Yes, she didn't testify, right? Maybe she didn't testify. She did, the prosecution didn't see her as the best witness. They had plenty of

witnesses, sadly in this case to go on. So they had other women testify as to all of of Jillian Maxwell's crimes, but then to be like, oh, all the rest of these people are telling the truth. And this one woman, yeah, yeah, yeah, she's lying. Excuse me? Come again. How does that, aren't you the attorney? How does that hold up at all? Wouldn't you then be saying that the jury was completely wrong in this case? Then wouldn't you be on Gillane Maxwell's side? Just come out with it. Say that you're on her side. Yeah. Look, I'm just going to say, I'm going to read the quote one more time because I just want people to understand the degree to which Donald Trump definitely knew that Fstein was with underage girls, okay? Don't get me wrong. I say, oh, yeah, what about Bill Clinton? Yeah, absolutely. You know, Gillian Maxwell was at Chelsea Clinton's wedding. All of these elites were best friends and very likely they all knew. Now, here's Trump admitting it. He said to New York magazine at the time, I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. This is a direct quote.

He's a lot of fun to be with. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do. And many of them are on the younger side. Many of them are on the younger side and he's a terrific guy. That's so much fun to be with. So right wingers, you should maybe ask your leader, what kind of fun did he have with Jeffrey Epstein?

It's such a projection. It's amazing. We gotta switch gears for a little bit. Oh, we gotta, we gotta break. All right, we're gonna take a quick break us. Yes, and when we can, by the way, during the social break, for those of you who get the social break, I'm gonna read you the Nancy Pelosi text, because we're gonna have fun with it, okay? But meanwhile, there's a lot of surprises coming up, including surprise billing and surprise legislation about surprise billing. So we'll be right back.

All right, back on TYT, Jank and Francesco with you guys. It's the holiday spirit over at Twitch. Elder Mind Pulse gifted 20 subs, D. Cashmer gifted five. Leftover Zach gifted a sub. Kathleen gave 2,022 bits, get it. Happy New Year, TYT fam, she wrote in. But I want to give Opie mom's quote because she gifted 100 subs, which is fantastic. Check us out on Twitch.tv slash TYT, which by, which by,

By the way, we have a New Year's stream. Brett Ehrlich and Brooke Marks are doing it. Tomorrow night, obviously that's when New Year's is at Twitch. dot TV slash TYT, tune in at 11.30 p.m. Eastern. Oh my god, there's a 120 dollar giveaway. I mean, what are you gonna do? Oh, man. Anyway, back to Obie Mom, who's a champion and a hero.

She wrote in, thank you for creating such an amazing community for us. I'm so grateful. I found TYT, love you all. Obie Mom, right back at you. You're a huge and amazing part of that community. community. All right, Fred. So all right, well, we all know that anti-vaxers can be real vile in public, but how are they like when they're alone, you know, when they're together and just the two of them or the 20 of them or however many people? Well, now we have some insight thanks to someone who took some video at an anti-vax rally in New York and captured

a conversation between two demonstrators. Independent reporter Talia Jane shared a video of one Stephanie DeNaro, the name might sound familiar, just hang on, who appeared slightly out of breath as she attends the rally in New York. So let's just, you know, let's eavesdrops on that convo. How'd it go? What was it like? Oh, really? Yeah, I have it too. It's a hospital. Why is he in the hospital? But they didn't go to the doctor and just taking care of, like, dying now. He needs to be in the hospital. He's an idiot.

I don't know. Yeah, right? I don't know. You get so. Oh, you can't? Yeah. I'll call this woman tonight and see if you're here. Oh, okay.

And vitamin D and sick. Okay. He has to take it right away. They don't have to know about it. I don't know why he said. Okay. What does he feel sick? It sounds like he has pneumonia when he's coughing.

His lungs are so bad. I don't know, my lungs got bad for a while. I just stayed home and left to sleep. Yeah. That's what he was doing, but he wasn't getting any better. Okay, so there's a lot happening in that video. For those of you didn't catch it, and thanks to JR for throwing subs on that. There was a discussion about a friend of hers named Danny with another fellow protester.

They said, yep, Danny's got COVID. He's in the hospital. And then there's a little bit of a why, why is he in the hospital? Well, he's got COVID. It's a little bit of a who's on first conversation. happening? You know, because he's got COVID and we're all anti-vaxxers. Then his friend is suggesting Ibermectin. He's suggesting taking zinc. But Jenk, did you catch the beginning when she says, yeah, Danny's got COVID. He's dying. I have COVID too. Anyway, what's for lunch? Doopi-doo-do.

Just. Yeah. What is going on? No, Franie, I went back and double-checked the article. They're in an anti-vaccine protest. And so presumably none of them are vaccinated, unless some of them are cheating, which probably did happen. And she's walking around casually with no mask and see, oh, yeah, I got COVID. Yeah, and none of you were vaccinated. Okay. I mean, they're playing with each other's lives.

And look, it's hard not to call them unintelligent, but I'm going to break that down in a second. But let's talk about the unintelligent things they said, as opposed to who they are as people, right? So he's got pneumonia like symptoms. He's in really bad shape, you know, coughing like crazy. Well, then might you want to take it seriously? And then the other guy jumps in, oh, no, no, no. But if you give him horse medicine, everything's going to be here. Look, I know Ivermectin is also for humans.

Who cares? It isn't for coronavirus. It's for de-warmer. To the best of our knowledge, Danny doesn't have. have tape war. So like, but they really believe it. They really believe it. That guy could die because he's not, he didn't take the right precautions before or apparently after. And, and even she thinks he's an idiot because he didn't take care of it, right? But the other guy that's off camera, he thinks, well, when I got COVID, because they're anti-vex, they almost

all got COVID at some point or are going to. He's like, oh, I just slept in and everything was fine. But this is what the right wing is like literally and clinically incapable of understanding. What happened to you doesn't happen to everyone. You are not the only person on the planet. Different people have different reactions. So just because you didn't die from COVID doesn't mean no one dies from COVID. That doesn't mean that all the hospitals and the doctors and the scientists and the morgues are all lying. Those people didn't actually die just because you didn't die from COVID. So look, I guess, Frances, I'll say this.

Look, I've been wrestling with this for now probably over a year, right? You know, what do you call these folks? Do you call them anything? I mean, we have to deal with them every single day, right? So I landed on their detached from reality, you know, putting aside intelligence. And by the way, and it really does not have to do with intelligence. That's why I know that I'm going to go back and I'm going to slip up and I'm going to call folks stupid again. Because it's just their actions are so stupid.

It's impossible to resist. But look, to be fair, I mean, mainstream media says that a brutal system that allows people to die because they haven't paid a private company, enough money for health insurance or they didn't have enough money for the deductible. Space Street Media says that's a great and wonderful and just system. The planet is going to be destroyed by the climate crisis. And nobody's doing a goddamn thing about it. I mean, we're all nuts. We're all detached from reality.

And there's the Main Street media also has a cult. And they're completely detached from reality. They think politicians, let alone all those policy issues, politicians taking millions of dollars in bribes will not corrupt them. That's more detached from reality than anything we just saw there. So, but the bottom line is, if you live in that world, you know, you're in for a very specific. You're not in like the mainstream media has big picture, creates big picture problems. But this one affects your own life.

And I'm here to tell you that two plus two equals four. And if you have COVID and you don't wear masks, you will spread it. If you're not vaccinated, you will get more sick. And you're taking a percent of chance with your life. Jenk, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you're going to bring up math and I just feel a little triggered. So next time could you just warn me when you're going to do basic addition? That would really help me because like I don't choose to believe that. I choose to believe a different set of realities because I live in the upside down.

And Ivermectum tastes pretty good. Dude, you just put it on some toast. I do want to, I want to, I'm going to butt in because I have to tell you more about Stephanie DeNaro. She seems like the most callous person you could possibly imagine. And yet, that is not the most callous she's been on camera. In fact, you might remember her for being bakery Karen or coffee Karen back in New York almost a year ago or maybe even longer. This is what she was doing a year ago in terms of her responsibility to wear masks. This is how she flipped out.

You might recognize it. Take a look. I just want to order some bigos. If you want a server, show her, let you go. Take her out. I've been here. Man, he's not going to serve it, so please leave. Why?

Because he's a bitch. Oh, no, that's what he is. Hello, hello, hello, now you need to go. That's what he is. Excuse me, ma'am, ma'am, you need to go. I just said it, you heard it. Let me. All right, there she was just spewing a bunch of expletives and racial slurs.

at workers in a coffee shop. That was obviously a while ago, but I'm sure you guys remember it. So this is not her first rodeo people. She is pretty pretty terrible. She also, remember she claimed that she could say the N-word because her baby daddies are black. She said, all my children have a black father. And that's a term I've heard them use all my life.

Oh my God. So of course, these are the kinds of people who are marching in New York during a massive surge of Omicron because why? Because they can't go get like tapas or whatever they want to do and their places are closing down because people are staff members are literally falling ill and cannot run like cannot actually staff stores anymore and restaurants. She, this is my favorite quote from her. She once told the papers that she thought COVID-19 was a hoax. to convince people to use absentee ballots and steal the election from former President Donald Trump. Because that's apparently how absentee ballots now work here in the upside down.

As we heard from Rand Paul earlier in the week, who's like, that's what ballot harvesting is. You just flood a bunch of absentee ballots. People vote, and then you count them. Yeah. So here we are. So Francesco, the minute you say, hey, maybe we're going to say, hey, maybe we're going to be. should have a tiny bit of empathy for these folks who've been brainwashed into a cult, they go and use that NWRF. I mean, she used the actual word to a black person.

It was so over the top. We, I mean, of course we have to bleep it, but she's just, they haven't, when we have empathy for them, they do, they never return it in kind, right? They have no empathy for us at all or almost for any other human being. I got coronavirus, I'm going to talk to you right in front of your face with no mask on. Because if you get sick and die, I don't care, you're not me, okay? I'll call you the N word right to your face and insult you like that. And even if you were, it's true about her lovers or whatever the hell she claims, right? They don't know that.

They just think you're horribly insulting them, even if that was an extremely. which it most certainly is not. So you're, you know, it's so callous. And I'm like, I'm so sick of the right wing and their lack of any human decency and empathy. And the minute there's a study that shows, hey, the Omicron, we already know it's less lethal. But if you're vaccinated, it's this is now the dominant strain, it's probably the only thing you're going to get. And it's definitely not going to kill you. If there's a study like that, it comes out, I'm gone.

comes out, I'm gone. I'm done with these right wing. They can go get themselves sick. They can go be unvaccinated, they could, et cetera. I know they're clogging up to hospitals, but we're going to do a different segment on that, how they should move to the back of the line so that rational people don't die because of their mistakes. So and, and Francesco, there isn't anything they wouldn't politicize. I mean, there's the movie don't look up. Now CNN is running op-eds about how if you say climate change is real, you're politicizing climate change. And in that case in regards to the movie, they were saying that they were politicizing the meteor.

No, the meteor was coming in the movie, that's the context. In our case, climate crisis is real, coronavirus is real. When they say it isn't, they are politicizing it, you there I am again, you morons, but in that case I'm referring to the mainstream media. So when I say two plus two equals four, I am not politicizing math, I am doing math. When you say it isn't your politicizing math. So I try to explain simple concepts for a living. You do a great job.

You've done a great job. All right, let's turn to, oh, let's not turn anything. I'm turning back to Jake. What's up? All right, no, we gotta go, we gotta take another break. Stay right here though, that surprise building story, which is enraging. And I think one day could lead the revolution is coming up next. All right, back on TYT, Jank and Francesca, with you guys.

I'm gonna read one quick super chat here for you guys. Chaplain Fred, aka Prager Drager, said, Jank, thank you for the shoutout yesterday on Turks and Jerks. Happy New Year's and blessings to TYT. Thank you. I did that shout out because look, they really, the members are us. You are TYT. And I love that.

I wouldn't have it any other way. The rest of the media looks down there, knows that their audience and tries to to figure out how to manipulate them, et cetera. We do the show with you guys. So join buttons below or t.yt.com slash join, come join the family. All right, Francesca, what's next? All right, well, there is a small but critical victory for Americans and our otherwise very broken healthcare system.

There's a small little glimmer starting January 1st, 2022, the new year, a consumer protection law called the No Surprises Act is coming into effect that bans most surprise billing that insurance companies and others call balance billing it's basically when there's all kinds of negotiating behind the scenes between different hospitals between different insurance providers between different in care and out of care networks and they basically shove the bill your way and that is not going to be allowed going forward even when you're let's say you're you're you're never going to get that bill that says Oh my gosh, you use an out of network service and you were like, what are you talking about?

I am using the hospital I always use. This is going to help 10 million Americans and it will apply to, sorry, 10 million surprise bills a year. That's how many surprise bills there have been. So let's read more about the law. Congress approved it actually in late 2020 after a multitude of delays. You can only imagine the lobbyists losing their minds over this. Protects patients when they receive emergency care or scheduled treatment from doctors and hospitals that are not in their insurance networks and that they did not choose. Oftentimes you kind of just get shunted and given somebody. Consumers will be responsible only for their in-network cost sharing in these situations. So again, before that was always the burden of the consumer, it's not going to be that burden. So as of Jan 1, patients shouldn't receive a surprise medical bill from out-of-network provider in the following scenarios. When you receive emergency care, when you receive care, in an in network health facility or when you're transported by an air ambulance, so airplane or

helicopter. Now, I just want to note that because sadly, this bill does not cover when you are transported by a ground ambulance. In other words, the majority of emergency transportation, which are ground ambulances. So let's go to graphic number six. The No Surprises Act also won't cover underground ambulance transportation, even though you have almost no control over who provides the service. That means you still might receive an out-network balance for that ambulance. I want to go back one and say there's a couple other things that doesn't apply to. So addiction treatment facilities, birthing centers, clinics, hospice, nursing homes or urgent care centers that are not licensed to provide emergency services do not apply. But 10 million less bills that you didn't need, that's huge.

I'm scratching my head as to how this is going forward. And my God, is the private insurance company going to lose their minds when it actually starts to help people? Yeah. Well, I have a theory on that because anytime a bill that actually helps the American people passes, it is a massive exception to the rule of corruption in America. And so you have to kind of, it's important to diagnose it. Like what went right here? How could this have possibly passed?

Almost nothing that helps American people passes through Congress. And by the way, also note this passed a year ago under Trump, right? Both Democrats and Republicans passed it and he signed it into law. It's only getting going into effect now. So the reason my theory is, this was going to lead to an actual revolution because people, everyone that got a surprise bill, which it was piling up, like a higher and higher percentage of Americans were getting hit with a surprise, but everyone that I talked to was in an rage, an absolute rage.

So think about this, they still have these giant loopholes in this bill. So ambulances, for example, well, if you're in the middle of an emergency and you're having heart attack. Are you going to ask if the ambulance is in network? Are you going to even think about that? That's absurd, right? And then after, and are you going to negotiate? No, no, I don't want an out of network ambulance. Can you send me an ambulance from 28 miles away that's in network? No, that's still not addressing this bill. So you take an ambulance and you're playing with your financial life because they send your bills for 2,000 bucks, 4,000 bucks, 8,000 bucks. It's just literally, it's just literally,

A literal highway robbery. You're getting robbed on the highway on the way to the hospital. And this bill does not cover non-emergencies at all. So you're still, you're gonna go in, let's say you're taking a CAT scan. It's like, ha ha, we sent the lab results to an out-of-network facility. We never told you, you never asked, you never had any opportunities. Here's your bill for $21,000. Well, they don't have, but what the powerful people don't understand is they then think,

Well, I would just call my friend who's a senator and I would have it to say that because that's an outrage. I'll have it taken care of, right? No, 99.9% of people don't have a senator friend to call. They're screwed. They're going to lose their house. They're going to be homeless. So no, they're playing with our lives. And, you know, when you see stuff like this, I don't think it's at all a surprise that there was a riot against our capital. Okay, now people might find that controversial, but I think the right wing lost its mind because of corporate rule and the corporate media that protects it. Like guys, think about it, man, yeah, okay, the Trump guys are in a cult. But if you listen to mainstream media, are you sure you're not an occult?

Because mainstream media says, oh yeah, the surprise bills where they ruin your life on a thing that you couldn't possibly control at your weakest, most desperate moment, that makes sense, they say. Medicare for all, universal health care coverage, which every other development has. They say that does not make sense. No, you must pay these random ransoms to these insurance corporations. Otherwise, we're going to let you die. That is not normal.

You'd have to be insane to believe that. And that is mainstream media. Yes, and this is one small piece. I mean, two years ago, I did something for mainstream media, which was an hour-long special on MSNBC looking at health care. And I spoke to a woman whose son mysteriously fell ill. And she had like 11 different bills from different places. They went to one hospital, but like the third floor was not in network.

So but the sixth floor was, but the eighth floor wasn't. And so when people get sick in this country, they are slammed with so many bills from different kinds of basically private providers, right? that they didn't even know we're out of their network because they're often largely never told. You're never told also how much things cost if you've ever asked like, hey, how much is a mammogram? Nobody knows, but you're stuck with the bill no matter what. Just so you know how widespread this is, as Jenk was saying, I want to, it's important to mention that one in five, currently one in five emergency room visits and up to one in six in network hospitalizations include at least one surprise out of network bill. So patients can be hit with more than $1,200 on average, which is very low, for anesthesiologist services, $2,600 for surgical assistance, and $750 for childbirth-related care.

And that is, again, we've heard horror stories that are way worse than that. So it is a step in the right direction after what we've been through in the pandemic. I think we deserve far more, i.e. Medicare for all, if not better. But I don't know, guys, when you're being, you know, attended to in, if you've had an accident, just make sure you ask for the sky ambulance. Ask for the chopper, not the regular one. I don't know how you do that, but try to remember. No, the third floor being in that work and the sixth floor not being in network is Kafkaesque.

They're driving us out of our minds. And they're the number one culprit is cable news, New York Times, et cetera. that looks at that and goes, no, this is how it should be. And you should be surprised with a bill you can't possibly pay. And if you can't pay it, you should die. That's normal. No one else does it. I'm here, wiki, wiki.

I'm going to try to snap you out of the cult of the main street. Literally no other civilized country allows their citizens to die. We are alone. We are the only country. By the way, we're also the richest country, but nonetheless, we allow our citizens to die if they can't afford cancer treatment. That's insane, that is not normal. And we do these surprise billing, which again, at your worst possible time, and we absolutely

drive our citizens to ruin. I feel like we're constantly in that Star Wars scene where the garbage vault is closing in, and that's what corporate rule is. And I'm telling you the reason, and this bill is half good, as we explain. And that's why we're explaining a minor miracle that we got a half good bill out of Congress. And the reason is, because you want to leave just a little bit so we're not crushed to death. Because if the vault closes too much, well, we're there cash cows. They're milking us until we're dry and they don't want to kill the cow, right?

So that's why you got this half measure out of Congress so that we don't have a literal revolution. But that's coming. And I don't want it to come, but the greed of corporate rule is infinite. I wanted to come to the healthcare industry for sure. And speaking of which, I'm going to just slide right into this next story because it also has to do with our health care system that is strained as the surge in Omicron cases is Once again, putting this train on hospitals, especially in rural areas or places that already

baseline have not as much care. And it's not just the unvaccinated people who are suffering, obviously. Unvaccinated people are largely the ones who are now in hospitals. And in a couple weeks, we're just going to see how bad it is. But it's people who are awaiting emergency medical procedures that are not COVID-related, whose needs are now being put on the backburner. So that applies to an Iowa man named Dale Weeks. So Dale Weeks was a retired superintendent in southern Iowa who went to Mercy One Centerville Medical Center on November 1st after he began to feel ill. Weeks was diagnosed with sepsis, which can be treated. But the hospital had no open bed for him. At the time Weeks was admitted, Iowa was in the midst of a fall surge that resulted in more

hospitalizations than at any other point of the pandemic, save for last winter. And he, He was admitted, but at a hospital, 80 miles away. And he was given intravenous antibiotics, but nothing more could be done to treat his infection. Finally, Weeks was taken to the University of Iowa Hospital on November 17th and was another nine days before he underwent a 17-hour stomach surgery to treat what one surgeon said was the worst infection he'd ever seen. The register reported. This is according to Vice News. Weeks did die on November 28th at the age of 17. Again, from sepsis, which could have been treated earlier, his family is pissed.

His family is saying that it is because of the unvaccinated that are clogging beds. This is from his daughter. They told my dad and his wife right away they had no beds. It's infuriating that people who are not vaccinated are clogging hospitals up. And just for some context, especially in Iowa, as of Tuesday, unvaccinated people made up more than 80% of COVID-19 patients. in that state, and 83% of those in the ICU, according to the state health department. Yeah. Here we go again.

So look, we're doing what I guess is a controversial poll, but I'm going to explain why we're doing them, why I voted yes. Should hospitals deny care to anti-vax patients giving priority to those who have heated CDC guidelines and taking the vaccine? That's the question, okay? And that's at t.yt.com slash polls. So it's a real question because hospitals have to prioritize. If there's too many people and not enough beds, you have to make a decision.

It's not optional, okay? Now, how do they prioritize today? They prioritize on first come first serve. And we've come to accept that as normal and fair. But is it, is it fair? So if a bunch of people who said, oh, I don't go a damn about no scientist and goddamn doctors, I'm not going to listen to that, man. And they didn't vaccinate.

And then they got really sick from coronavirus and have to go to the hospital. Is it fair that they get priority over someone who has an infection and can die if they're not admitted to the hospital? I don't think that's fair at all. The guy who got the infection didn't ask for it. It's not his fault. Whereas they unvaccinated did ask for it. And proudly so. They brag about it all the time.

Oh, so what? So what? We're not going to do it. We're going to get sick and it's going to be awesome. It's just like the cold or the flu, who cares? It only kills fat people and old people. That's the thing that they've been saying. We proved the last line on the show over and over again.

They just keep saying, all right, who cares, it's just fat people? All right, then who cares right back at you? If the hospital is full and if they're unvaccinated coronavirus patients, they should be removed from the hospital to open up a bed for someone who didn't ask to be in the hospital. We can call them freedom centers, you know, they can just go there and be free There can be like a bunch. There could be like Starbucks workers or pretending to be Starbucks workers and they can like, you know, spit in their faces without masks on. Obviously that person would be wearing it. It'll be a whole like play acting of their fantasies. You know, but that's what they wanted. If you wanted to be free, then suffer the consequences for your so called freedom or your supposed freedom. But meanwhile, again, just like gun control, you're taking the freedom away from all of us to access. Oh my God. for the love of God, like to access the small sliver of healthcare that a lot of us already are just clutching onto with like like one little finger, right?

Like the one time we need any kind of medical attention in this country, we know as Americans because we get gouged that we wait and we wait and we, you know, and we don't go to get checkups. But the one time we do, what happens? It's full of unvaccinated people. And meanwhile, you know, the private insurance industry cashes, they're making money off these unvaccinated people. That's not free. Yeah. Yeah.

So I love the phrase that you used. They're constantly talking about their freedom. Great. Then the hospital should give you freedom, freedom to get the hell out. You're free to go. You're free to go. You didn't believe in doctors. What do you come in to doctors for?

99% of the doctors say you should get vaccinated, but you said you didn't believe in them. So why are you coming to visit a doctor? You are free to go, move along. Now the right way says, oh, this is outrageous, this is discrimination. No, it's not. You wanted the disease. You got the disease.

We tried to help you so you wouldn't get the disease. We tried to save your life, and you wouldn't listen to us. And by the way, it's not a ghetto for the anti-vax people. If an anti-vaxxer breaks their leg, they should go to the bottom of the line. No, they should get admitted right away. If they have cancer, they should get admitted right away, and they should keep their hospital bed. No question about it. It's not to discriminate against them randomly.

we don't hate you but guys you have to understand it's real they just whatever is real the right wing says you're politicizing it but that person that we just told you about actually died and they definitely died because they couldn't go into a hospital because they didn't have enough beds so and and who were the beds taken by definitely the unvaccinated clowns who got coronavirus so why did he have to die why did he have to die because it's not theoretical and it's not a movie. It's an actual human being from Iowa and he's actually dead. And by the way, of course he's not alone. Go ahead, Frances. Yeah, and I just wanted to say, but he's not alone. And in this fall and now winter surge, I have to read two more stories real

quick. So in August, a 46-year-old U.S. Army veteran, Daniel Wilkinson went to a hospital in Texas, suffering from gallstone pancreatitis, a treatable illness. While doctors raced to find a hospital with the capacity to treat him. He was airlifted to a hospital in Houston, but it was too late, and he died. So he could, again, basically shopping for hospitals. This next story is even more ridiculous. This is in September 73-year-old Alabama and Ray Des Moines suffered a cardiac event and died after being turned away from more than 40 ICUs that didn't have the capacity to treat him, his family said. In honor of Ray, please get vaccinated if you have not in an effort to free up resources for non-COVID related emergencies, Des Moines' family wrote in his obituary.

I mean, like, this is, this is like worse than Carrie Bradshaw, not calling 911 when Big had a cardiac arrest. I mean, honestly, sorry, I just have to throw that sex in the city reference. Let's leave it to you to lighten up a super serious story, but she should have called. Okay, look, she should have called. Last thing here, and I'm, look, maybe a lot of progressors will disagree with us because they'll say, no, look, that could lead the other consequences you don't want to set that precedent at hospitals. It's interesting. So do you go to t.com slash polls and tell us what you think. But guys, the last thing here is Ray DiManyo from Alabama is dead. He had a heart attack

and 40 hospitals said, no, we're filled with unvaccinated patients. Go die. Go die somewhere else. So we're trying to save their lives. It was one thing when you were playing with your own lives. It's another thing when you're playing with other people's lives. And so right wing, I know nothing will ever get through to you unless it's in the form of a conspiracy theory or told to you by a lunatic in right wing media. But I'm gonna try anyway. Do you understand that you're playing with other people's lives and then you're laughing about it and saying, I don't care if your loved ones, your family members, your dads, your moms die. Do you have any idea how indecent and immoral that is?

Because it's happening. And it's not just happening in California where I guess you wouldn't mind if people died because you want to own the lives. It's happening in Alabama and Iowa. It's happening to your family, your friends, and your neighbors. So for God's sake, can you have one shred of decency and look to protect yourself as well as others? And I can tell you ahead of time, the answer is going to be a resounding no.

They will not do it. Okay, oh, damn it, so out of time. All right, we got to go to the break. Oh, you want to do it? You want to do it? All right, I'm the worst. I'm the worst. All right, one last story.

Go, go, go, go. All right, all right. So, okay, from the other side of the world, you thought the walk of shame on Game of Thrones was terrible. This is the police in southern China in a border town who have been parading suspects through the streets for breaking COVID protocols and specifically smuggling people across the border. So this is a border town. This is in the city of Xinjit in Guangji province. Take a look at how they are shaming these people who defy the protocols. See it. Yeah.

Cheap. So those are trucks full of people who broke COVID protocols, so those are trucks full of people who broke COVID protocols being through the streets of southern China. As an example, they're wearing masks, their hazmat suits, and they've got pictures of themselves on the front. It is insane.

Obviously, I just want to give some context because this is very much notes from a different world. But this is a border town, and border towns in China face tremendous pressure to keep coronavirus out of China's stringent zero COVID policy. So their local officials are periodically fired fired or punished for failing to contain any flare-ups that evade the tough measures.

Again, China has a zero COVID protocol, which means one case, an entire city is shut down. Complete opposite reaction. My first thoughts on this are basically, this is what right-wingerers in America think that we're doing to them. They like imagine themselves parading through the streets when someone tells them to put on a mask before they can go in a restaurant and then freely. eat without a mask on in that same restaurant. This is what they want to happen, right?

Like how much does Marjorie Taylor Green want to be dressed up in a hazmat suit with like a picture of herself? Yeah. So I got to congratulate the Chinese government on combining Game of Thrones with squid games. So whoa, I mean, you put the triangle on their face and you got it right there. So this has gone now to the other extreme and this is absurd. So by the way, the four people are the smugglers with their pictures on them. And the other, the rest are guards.

And then there's guys with machine guns, making sure the crowd doesn't rush them. And I don't know, kill them. I don't know. But part of the reason is because, yeah, because of those four, the entire city had to go to lockdown for, I think, several weeks. So people are mad, they don't want to be in lockdown. And they get super mad at the people spreading coronavirus. which in America is considered outrageous. No, spreading coronavirus and endangering other people's lives is hashtag freedom here.

So we're one extreme where we think it's cool and a tough guy thing to get other people sick and maybe kill them. And then in China, my God, on the possibility that there might be COVID, they're going to parade people around and shame them in medieval ways. And so maybe, maybe we find a middle ground. And of course, a lot of countries have. But one more thing that I found amazing about the story is the differences in culture. Man, culture makes all the difference, right? And in Asian cultures, community is emphasized.

So people who violate the rights of the community as opposed to individual rights are seen as people who have brought great shame. to themselves, to their family, to their community. And in America, we call that, again, freedom. The Chinese culture does not view it that way at all. They think it is horribly disrespectful and indecent to others. Remember before COVID, wearing like a mask in Asian countries was to protect others from your cold or flu. Like it was a courtesy, because there is a sense of collective, as you mentioned. There's also rampant totalitarianism, Jenks.

So yes, culture and government. Yes, absolutely. And so, and Mao, by the way, used to do the shaming at an epic level. And that's why it actually has been banned in China for a long time. And this is in a southern province where it's made a comeback. But the shaming in China was so over the top during the Mao years that even in a Chinese community, they were, and country, they were like, no, no, this is way too much. And the correct answer, if you ask me for humanity,

is balance, balance, where we protect ourselves and each other without humiliating other other people in the process. All right, we gotta go. We're way past time, but Francesco was too much fun. There was nothing we could do about it. When we come back, and by the way, everybody check out Bituation Room and Twitchuration Room. Okay, so Twitch. Well, yeah.

Well, yeah. room. And when we come back, Alex Jones now is saying he has the dirt on Donald Trump and is threatening to release it. Drams. Come right back. 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, Jank Huger, and I'll see you soon. Thank you.