The Young Turks - DEI Panic!

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

State Dept. human rights staffer quits over Biden's Gaza policy. Joe Rogan calls Israel-Hamas War a genocide: ""You went through the Holocaust and now you're willing to do it?"" Feds recently hit cargo giant in the Baltimore disaster for silencing whistleblowers. This startup founder wants to sell cocaine. " HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://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 Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Woo! It's up! What's up, everyone, welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kaspari. And some of you probably thought I was gone. Some of you probably thought I would never return, but I'm here now, ain't I?

And I'm here to share the news with you. And I was gonna come in hot, because there's this big story out of New York involving a repeat violent offender who killed a cop and that person has a long history of severe mental illness and should have been institutionalized to receive the care and treatment that he deserved. Instead, he didn't get that, was allowed to just languish on the streets and eventually kill a cop. So now he'll spend the rest of his life in prison as a result, which really highlights the importance of having a system in which people who can't make good decisions for themselves, you know, have a society that makes good decisions for them so they don't end up hurting themselves

or others and then they end up in prison for the rest of their lives. But we might cover that tomorrow. I don't want to come in too hot, even though I just kind of outlined the story right now. Anyway, but we are going to cover some updates on the ongoing war in Gaza. We also have some interesting statements by Joe Rogan in regard to what's transpiring in Gaza. So we'll get to that later on in the first hour of the show. Big news, involving a political figure who has passed away. We'll talk about who that political figure is later on the show as well. And in the second hour, as always on Wednesdays, John Ida Rola will join me to cover a whole host of topics, including Kerry Lake,

giving up on fighting allegations that she had defamed someone. She just wants to know what the punishment is. Let's just move on. Let's not go through this trial. Let's just get on with it. So we'll get to that in the second hour as well. For now though, I did want to do that update on Gaza, so why don't we get started? All right, so the list of Biden administration officials quitting their jobs in protest over the president's support for Israel's war on Gaza is growing.

State Department official Anel Shalene, who worked as a foreign affairs officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, which I didn't even know existed, has stepped down due to Biden's arms transfers to the, to, and the support of Israel. So the now former State Department official says that her work promoting human rights in the Middle East and North Africa were complicated by Biden's double standard in favor of Israel. She says, quote, I wasn't able to really do my job anymore. Trying to advocate for human rights just became impossible. I mean, how can anyone blame her, especially when the whole world is watching the death and destruction in Gaza? She was healthy. There was nothing wrong with her before, Mila's mother says.

Then suddenly everything dropped. She wasn't eating anything. We had no milk, no eggs, nothing. She used to eat eggs every day before the war. But now we have nothing. Across Gaza, too many are feeling the pain of this deepening hunger crisis. Small children, emaciated and malnourished. These were little Yazan's final moments.

His tiny fingers gripped in his mother's hand. He, like Mila, would not make it. Israel has denied targeting civilians and says that there is, quote, no limit to the amount of humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza. But the reality on the ground paints a very different picture. According to a senior UN official, at least a quarter of Gaza's population is now said to be just one step. step away from famine.

By the way, since that report was published back in February, even more Gazans have crept closer to famine. And you can understand where Shailene is coming from. Because remember, her job is meant to promote humanitarian rights in other countries. How can you do that when the United States is greenlighting what's currently transpiring in Gaza? Now, she worked mostly in North Africa, coordinating with activists and civic groups to promote democratic values, such as freedom of assembly, and free press. She says that work had become pretty impossible because partners in the region were incensed by the continued flow of U.S. arms to Israel, despite the staggering toll of the war. Some activist groups have stopped talking to American personnel as a result. She says, quote,

if they are willing to engage, they mostly want to talk about Gaza rather than the fact that they are also dealing with extreme repression or threats of imprisonment. She said of civil society groups in the region. The first point they bring up is, how is this happening? Yeah, I wonder the same thing. At an internal State Department session on the war, she actually raised concerns about how Biden's blank check support for Israel was undermining the administration's other priorities, including competition with China, human rights, and climate change. My question was, why is this support for Israel seen as more important than all of the other arguably very significant priorities? I still don't feel like I have a great answer as to why.

Now several months ago, as we shared with you, senior State Department official Josh Paul also resigned from his post in protest over the Pentagon's arms transfers to Israel. Paul commended Shaline for having the courage to resign. And by the way, it does take a lot of courage. We're talking about a 38 year old woman. She's a mother. She's got a lot of people relying on her financially. And because of her morals, because of her disagreement with what the Biden administration has been greenlining, she has basically risked her livelihood in order to do what she feels is right. Now, when the staff of the bureau feel that there is no more they can do, said Josh Paul, it speaks volumes about the Biden administration's district.

regard for the laws, policies, and basic humanity of American foreign policy that the Bureau exists to advance, Paul said. And while only a handful of federal workers have quit their jobs in protest over the war in Gaza, many more have expressed their dissent in other ways. For instance, last November, hundreds of employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development supported a letter calling for the Biden administration to use its leverage to initiate a ceasefire. And it does have a lot of leverage. In another example, the Washington Post reports that officials across the federal workforce are participating in public demonstrations or engaging in fundraising efforts on behalf of Gazans. It seems that the growing dissent within the federal

government is also mirrored by an increased percentage of Americans expressing their own disapproval of Israel's actions in Gaza. So take a look at this chart. According to a new Gallup poll, a majority of Americans, 55%, now disapprove of the military action Israel has taken in Gaza. Back in November, only 45% of Americans felt this way. Now only 36% of respondents say they support what Israel is doing on the ground in Gaza. The biggest drop in support toward Israel's war is seen among independent voters, the kingmakers. I mean, these are the people who really decide our election, so I'm sure Biden's paying attention to this. In November, last year, 47% of self-identified independent voters supported the war. That number has dropped

down to 29%. And while 36% of Democrats were actually in favor of Israel's actions several months ago, only 18% feel the same way today. Even Republicans are experiencing a drop in their support, dipping seven points from 71% to 64%. Recently, the U.S. decided against vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire during Ramadan. And honestly, I think it's likely that political motivations were at play, especially when one considers that the U.S. has vetoed ceasefire resolution several times during this ongoing war. What likely changed is that the Biden administration finally seems to understand that there are massive political prices to pay if they fail to listen to their base and if they fail

to change course. It has taken a great deal. of effort by demonstrators to get through to Biden. And by the way, great deal of effort by voters who decided to cast their uncommitted ballot rather than cast their vote for Biden. And here's the latest example, which took place in Raleigh, North Carolina. A patient with a heart disease, diabetes, or a child with asthma couldn't get coverage. Why? Because the insurance company considered those preexisting condition allowed them to deny coverage.

Everybody deserves health care. Be patient with them. They have a point. We need to get a lot more care into the process. Now look, I think Biden handled that well by saying that they have a point because they absolutely do have a point. The protesters asked what about health care in Gaza in case you couldn't hear them. And that's why Biden talked about the need for more humanitarian aid to enter the strip. But while Biden is literally facilitating airdrops of humanitarian aid to get around Israel's blockade,

behind the scenes, the United States has deemed Israel in compliance with the president's national Security Memorandum, requiring that recipients of U.S. weapons must not block the provision of humanitarian assistance. In other words, even though Biden knows and has repeatedly acknowledged that Israel is refusing to allow aid into the Gaza Strip, his administration is willing to lie in order to justify sending more bunker buster bombs to Israel. According to Heretz, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says that we've had ongoing assessment of Israel's compliance with international humanitarian law. We have not found them to be in violation, either when it comes to the conduct of the war

or the provision of humanitarian assistance. By the way, prior to the war, there were as many as 500 humanitarian aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid. There wasn't a single day during this war where they reached that number, not even close. They got up to about 200 trucks on some days. But clearly they have severely restricted aid going into the Gaza Strip, which is why there are arguments, and I think they're justified arguments, that Israel is carrying out collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

And by the way, 17 congressional Democrats in addition to leading international NGOs say that Israel is not in compliance, leading State Department and U.S. aid officials similarly insisted that Israel's assurances failed to account for realities on the ground. Senator Bernie Sanders says that the State Department's position makes a mockery of U.S. law. And I completely agree. In a statement, Sanders said that 32,000 Palestinians and Gaza have been killed and almost 75,000 injured, two-thirds of whom are women and children. Some 60% of the housing units have been damaged or destroyed. And almost all medical facilities, have been made inoperable.

Today, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children are facing starvation because Netanyahu won't let in sufficient humanitarian aid, while thousands of trucks are waiting to get into Gaza. To pretend that Israel is not violating international law or interfering with US humanitarian aid is absurd on its face. The State Department's position makes a mockery of US law and assurances provided to Congress. By the way, the aid drops that the US has been facilitating, again, to get around the humanitarian aid blockade that Israel is carrying out, is not only inefficient, but it has proven to

be dangerous. In fact, there are recent reports of Palestinians literally drowning as they were trying to get the humanitarian aid that was dropped into the sea, okay? It's just, it's not safe, it's not the most efficient way to do this. The fact that the US and other countries are doing these airdrops is again, additional proof that Israel is carrying out a blockade. And by the way, Bernie is right. But reports from earlier this month indicated that the Biden administration approved more

than 100 separate arms sales to Israel since October 7th. The transfers amounted to thousands of precision guided munitions, bunker buster bombs, and other lethal aid. Biden even bypassed Congress to provide the increased firepower to Israel, and he did it at a time when U.S. officials have complained about Israel's failure to minimize civilian casualties. So what I really see happening, and this has been ongoing, is this attempt by the Biden camp to have their cake and eat it to. Biden wants the protest to stop. I mean, These demonstrators have been following him at every event. They've tried to announce events closer to the event date, so people won't catch on to the

fact that he's having an event in the first place, hoping that the protesters won't show up. But they find out, they show up because they're obviously very much motivated in their efforts and in trying to convince the federal government to change course, to stop providing a blank check to Israel. And you know, it's going to hurt him in the election. He's already seen what has happened in states like Michigan, where you have a sizable portion of the Democratic base casting their ballots for the uncommitted, you know, category as opposed to casting their ballots for Biden. So he wants to, yes, engage in the tough rhetoric that we've been hearing from him in regard to Netanyahu and what he's currently carrying out in Gaza. And yes,

the U.S. should get a tiny, tiny bit of credit for not vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. But at the end of the day, if you really look behind the scenes and see what the State Department's been doing, all of the justifications that the U.S. is providing on behalf of Israel and their ongoing brutal war in Gaza, It just to me proves that Biden's doing the tough talk for political reasons. He's hoping that it will be enough to carry him through the election. But make no mistake about it, his actions still speak much louder than words. And as long as he's continuing to transfer weapons to Israel, even bypassing Congress to do so,

I just fail to feel the need to give him any credit. But using your leverage means telling Israel that you will no longer send them weapons unless they change course until they rain in their military operations. And there really hasn't been any indication that Biden has the willpower to do something like that. I have one more story. I have one more story related to Gaza. This one, I think, is surprising a lot of people when it really shouldn't surprise people

if you've followed Rogan statements about the Israel-Palestine war. But nonetheless, some people are surprised, so why don't we unpack one of his recent episodes of the Joe Rogan experience? They were always saying they're only targeting Hamas and everybody else is a casualty. Well, if those guys are just unarmed civilians and they're walking, alone. That's what they appear to be. Dresden. And you just blast them from the sky with robots. This is the tragedy of war. Yeah, this is insane. And no one knows what to think now. Because if you can't talk about that, if you can't say that's real, then you're saying that genocide is okay as long as we're

doing it. And that is what we're saying. And if you're saying that from a perspective of someone who literally went through the Holocaust. You just heard that correctly. Joe Rogan, described Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide during a recent episode of his podcast. Now, he was joined by comedian Kurt Metzger for that conversation, which focused pretty heavily on the war. So without further ado, let's hear more of what they had to say. The thing that drives me the most crazy when people talk about, you know, well, Hamas is doing this and Hamas doing that. These people, they voted in Hamas. Like, these people are the poorest of poor, deprived of sanitation, education,

proper hospital care, food. What the a thing are you talking about? How are they going to rise up? Just run out and get shot en masse until Hamas runs out of bullets and then you bludging them to death with rocks? What are you saying? The voting for Hamas, by the way,

they forced a vote there. They're like, you have to have a democratic process. And then they voted for Hamas. The same way Fatah became a party. So they voted, then they go, You voted wrong. We're putting you in a concentration camp. That vote, by the way, happened back in 2006. And I just want to remind the audience that half the population in Gaza is under the age of 18.

So the majority of people living in Gaza did not, in fact, cast a ballot or vote for Hamas. But nonetheless, you have the Israeli government using the same excuse, the same argument, that, well, they elected. in Hamas, we consider them a terrorist group. What they carried out on October 7, the atrocities that they carried out, gives us the necessary excuse to carry out the brutalities that we're carrying out in Gaza. So be on your way. That's mostly the messaging that we've been getting from Israel's far-right government. And I just feel like every excuse that they've given us can easily be debunked. Hamas is using Palestinians as human shield, so we had no choice but to drop bombs on said civilians.

Well, they've been using that excuse for forever. I mean, not just during this current war, but in previous wars that Israel has had in the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank, they always find some sort of excuse about how terrorists are using civilians as human shields. You would think that at this point, Hamas would be under the impression that Israel doesn't care if they're using civilians as human shields. They're going to drop the bombs anyway. So I just feel like the argument doesn't really make much sense.

The human shields don't work, so why would Hamas keep using Palestinians as human shields? And then also, how do you justify the blockade of humanitarian aid, which is rapidly taking Gaza to a situation in which most of them are going to, most of the civilians are going to face famine? How do you justify destroying 60% of the residential buildings, residential housing units in Gaza? How do you justify that? Could it be that maybe Israel wants to just completely raise Gaza, flatten it, destroy all of its infrastructure, and push Palestinians out of that land, out of that territory? And I don't really have to guess much about whether the far right government of Israel wants to do it. because they tell us they want to do it. In fact, Kurt Metzger references that in the next clip.

Let's watch. So what are these Israeli soldiers putting up on TikTok? Well, all the war crimes that they do. No. Look, I want to make this clear to everyone. I would never listen to an Arab, okay? So I want you to understand that. I would never believe a Muslim about nothing.

You don't have to ever do that. Look at not America, what they tell you. Israeli news, Israeli politicians, their ambassadors when they come here and talk, listen to what they say, because that's what I unfortunately did, and it was quite disturbing. It is quite disturbing. In fact, that's why South Africa had quite a bit to use against Israel's far right government when they went before the international criminal court to argue that Israel's carrying out a genocide, something that the international body says is certainly possible, feasible. So look, some might be surprised at Rogan statements here, but I'm not surprised at all. I think on this particular topic, Rogan's actually been pretty good. In fact, we had some previous examples that we've covered on the show, having to do with Kid Rock's incredibly ignorant statements about the Gaza Strip and about the Palestinian people.

If you don't remember what I'm talking about, here's a little refresher. That's the only thing people understand. This is what happened in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Boom, just wiped out, they're like, oh, yes, we don't have Supreme Leader anymore. We did not know you had such big bombs. Yeah, but everybody has big bombs now. The problem is you use a big bomb. You set a precedent that they can use a big bomb.

They don't have one. And later in that conversation, Rogan really did feel the need to offer some defenses for the Palestinian civilians living in the Gaza Strip, which I genuinely appreciate, especially when you consider how gigantic his audience is. Let's watch. You can't just nuclear bomb people. I didn't say nuclear bomb you back. No, I didn't say nuclear.

Okay, you said to Hiroshima, Nagasaki. I thought you meant it like that. No, no, I was seeing just the brute force of strength used in those conflicts. Yeah, but even, even a conventional bombing campaign, if you want to do that somewhere, they can do that to your place. I'm a peaceful man. Right, but you're not supposed to pick civilian targets. That's actually a war crime. You can't fight war like that.

But you're not supposed to pick civilian targets. They are. So that's where, like, the massad has been able to get into hospital. They got trenches underneath. They got operations center. They killed those dudes the other day. And all we can do is go by the reporting, like, you know, I get it. But at some point, you got to believe something, right?

No, I definitely do. They definitely seem to be doing that. But also, if you're a person who's born in Palestine, you're under their control. It's not your fault. My birth. Yeah, but that those aren't our enemy. No, they're not. They're civilians.

And we're supposed to care about protecting civilians. We're supposed to reject BS excuses, you know, shared by a government or a country that continue slaughtering civilians, right? We're supposed to push back against that. Now, look, I give Rogan credit for that, but obviously this is something that is controversial to say in some news organizations, which is why I think for the longest time, you didn't really hear much pushback against whatever Israel was doing, regardless of what government was in charge regardless of how far right or far left it was far left. How funny is that?

But this is the reality of the situation. If Israel went in and was careful about protecting civilian lives and specifically engaged in military operations to take out leadership of Hamas, to take out Hamas militants, I'm not an idiot. I know that war is awful. I know that civilians unfortunately die in wars, in every war. So it's not like I'm going to go after Israel and be super critical if, you know, there are some civilian casualties. It's just the reality of war and it's tragic. But guys, two thirds of the casualties are women and children.

And by the way, all the men who have been killed are not all Hamas militants. We know that. The reason why we emphasize the women and children is because the idea that the women and children are the Hamas militants who committed the atrocities on October 7th is laughable to say the least. But we keep hearing the excuses, people keep buying the excuses, but things are starting to change. And these allegations of anti-Semitism that are only meant to shut the conversation down aren't really working anymore.

And when you have the top podcaster in the country speaking out against what's happening, that is a big deal. When you have Joe Rogan referring to what's happening in Gaza as a genocide, that is a big deal. And even if you don't believe at all that what Israel is carrying out is a genocide, you have to at least acknowledge the fact that on the international stage, and even here in the United States, Israel is losing support because of how they are carrying out this war, because of the optics of the war, because of the statements that we've heard from various members of Israel's far-right government.

Netanyahu has done great damage to that country, great damage to that country. And he continues to do so because he wants to remain in power. He is under the impression that the Israeli people will just, you know, bear him as long as this war is ongoing, which means that he has an interest, a self-interest in continuing this war as long as possible so he can remain in power. I believe that the Israeli people need to oust him as soon as possible. Okay, not for my sake, not for America's sake, but for their sake, for Israel's sake. Because this is the type of leadership that is leading to various countries that are allied with Israel,

not really questioning whether Israel is the type of ally that gives a damn about human rights, about international laws. That's a terrible place for Israel to be in. And so if they don't change course soon, the dissent will continue to grow. Netanyahu doesn't care about that. All Netanyahu cares about is himself and his ability to remain in power.

And I think the people of Israel should really consider what that means for them. All right, we gotta take a break. When we come back, we've got some updates on the tragic Baltimore cargo ship collision. And that story has all sorts of crazy people claiming crazy things. Because I mean, what would the news be if we didn't have crazy people claiming crazy things? We'll be right back.

Ice cream. All right, I wanted to read a few comments before we move on to our next story. Frank Rockefeller says, Palestinians apparently have had 35 years to exit Gaza and yet most stayed and saw the writing on the wall as to Hamas thuggery. Frank, do you know what happened to Palestinians who tried to leave the Gaza Strip? Namely, Palestinians who tried to breach the barrier between Israel and Gaza, they would get shot immediately by Israeli snipers, immediately. So you know what? I would like to see you try. So why don't you go to Gaza and then try to leave. Gaza and see how that works out for you. Just see how that works out for you. Probably not well,

as many young Palestinians experienced as they tried to, you know, leave Gaza themselves. Let's go to Carissimo who says, I've never been a fan of Biden, same, but we must realize Biden's actions are also determined, are also determined by most congressmen and senators who fear APAC and who have questionable morality as well. Carissimo, I would agree with you, except I don't in this case because Biden literally bypassed Congress. He went around Congress, around Congress to supply Israel with more weapons. There were a hundred different transactions in which the Biden administration did that

while bypassing Congress. So no cookies for Biden, okay? No excuses. He's done a lot unilaterally. And he hates the fact that there's been pushback among his core base of Democratic voters. So that's why he's trying to put on this brave, you know, tough face when it comes to his rhetoric toward the far right government of Israel. But talk is cheap. He's got to stop sending them weapons or at least make it abundantly clear that he will stop sending weapons unless Israel ends its humanitarian aid blockade. And, you know, maybe stop killing civilians.

All right, with that said, though, let's move on to our next story. We're moving off Gaza entirely to talk about the cargo ship tragedy that occurred this week. Six people are presumed dead after a cargo ship named Dolly crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore this week. There are still many unanswered questions about what led to this horrific incident. But regulatory filings might provide some hints. Turns out that the company that chartered the ship was recently sanctioned by federal investigators for musseling workers who voice safety concerns. In fact, just eight months prior to the horrific crash, the Labor Department sanctioned

shipping conglomerate Maersk, or Maersk Line Limited, for firing an employee who reported unsafe working conditions on a Maersk operated boat. The worker who was a chief mate and relief captain on the Maersk operated Sathmarine Mafadi reported under prepared, I'm sorry, basically unrepaired leaks, unpermitted alcohol consumption on board, inoperable lifeboats, faulty emergency fire suppression equipment, and other issues, and those are big issues. The Labor Department found that Maersk had a policy that requires employees to first report their concerns to the company prior to reporting it to the Coast Guard or other authorities.

Federal regulators at the occupational safety and health administration, also known as OSHA, called the policy repugnant and a reprehensible and an egregious violation of the rights of employees, which chills them from contacting the Coast Guard or other authorities without contacting the company first. And guess what, OSHA was right in their analysis since the company's policy violated the Seaman's Protection Act, which protects maritime workers who report violations to the Coast Guard from company retaliation. The legislation was amended in 2010 to add protections for employees who refused to perform certain duties due to fears of personal injury. And yes, I said seaman and duty in the same sentence. Pretty amazing. When the Labor Department concluded

their investigation into Maersk, they found that the censorious policy was approved by the company's executives. Merck's vice president of labor relations admits that this reporting policy requires Siemen to report safety concerns to the company and allow it time to abate the conditions before reporting to the Coast Guard or other regulatory agencies, Labor Department investigators said in their report. Regulators also ordered the company to reinstate the employee and pay over 700,000 dollars in damages and back wages. I want to do that guy's job. How do we do that guy's job? You know, that sounds pretty good. They also demanded that Maersk revise its policy to allow Seaman to contact the Coast Guard about safety concerns before notifying the company.

Marisk is also in the middle of a legal battle with International Longshoremen's Association, which is a labor union representing 65,000 maritime workers, APM terminals, a division of Maersk, sued the union claiming employees at its Mobile Alabama port were engaging in an illegal strike. Documents filed by the union in March alleged that the company illegally suspended six workers for raising a concern about a safety issue at the job site. Look, this new reporting gives us some insight into the workplace culture at Maersk. which doesn't seem conducive to safe shipping operations, but it doesn't necessarily mean that there were known safety vulnerabilities aboard Dolly.

Now that the black box, or what's the equivalent of the black box, has been recovered, we should await a full investigation into what really transpired. The Washington Post did report today that there was an issue discovered on the same cargo ship last year in June. Inspectors at the port of San Antonio, Chile discovered a problem categorized as relating to propulsion and auxiliary machinery, according to the Tokyo MOU, an intergovernmental shipping regulator in the Asia Pacific region. The issue was classified in the subcategory of gauges, thermometers, etc., but no additional details about the deficiency were provided.

The problem was not serious enough to warrant detaining the ship, according to the records. And records also show, by the way, that after a follow-up inspection that was carried out later that same day, the Dolly was found to have no outstanding deficiencies indicating that the problem was addressed. So as we await the results of a full investigation into what caused this horrible and destructive cargo ship collision, it's worth taking a moment to address one of the more politicized allegations floating around. Our friends on the right think that diversity, equity, and inclusion is to blame. Take Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew from New Jersey, who wants to cut infrastructure regulations while focusing his ire on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his culture war grievances.

line with Buttigieg is that he's worried too much about personal pronouns, worried too much about DEI policies, worried too much about, you know, being the cool kid on the block. And this has been a secretary that quite frankly, even with the money that was allocated under the transportation infrastructure legislation, they're moving so slow on it because of regulation. We want to get these things going. So, you know, I'm disappointed in the job that does, it's obvious that it's not about tree equity. It's not about personal pronouns. It's about that safety and the transportation of the people. Yeah, sounds like this whole DEI argument is just meant to shift the conversation away from possible safety regulations, which corporate

donors are known to lobby hard against. To nobody's surprise, Van Drew isn't the only one who's making this insane argument that DEI is to blame. And look, honestly, there are some elements of DEI that I think are not good and I've been critical of. This story is not a good example of that. But anyway, let's go back to other Republicans claiming that DEI should be blamed for this horrific incident that happened. Anthony Sabatini, a Republican running for Congress in Florida, tweeted a video of the crash with the caption, DEI did this. Of course, Sabatini, who sounds more like a cocktail than someone

that's savvy enough to be a political player, didn't provide any evidence for his claim. Another right winger on X wrote, quote, shipping giant Maersk confirmed that the Dolly ship operated and managed by Synergy Marine Group collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland around 127 a.m. Synergy Marine Group promotes DEI in their company. Did anti-white business practices cause this disaster?

There is literally zero evidence of that. And while it's true that Synergy Marine Group does manage Dolly, the ship is actually owned by Grace Ocean Private, a Singapore-based company. And all these companies really need to do a better job with their names. Okay? Like the branding, really not up to par. And by the way, what do you know, they do have some skeletons in their closet, but they have nothing to do with DEI.

So let's get into it. The New York Times reports, vessels belonging to the owner of the Baltimore ship had been cited for labor violations. The vessels had underpaid crews and kept workers on board for months beyond their contracts, according to an Australian regulator. But just wait, because it actually gets worse, if you could believe it. The post on X got lots, this post on X got lots of attention last night after Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, a black man, held a press conference to update the public on the status of the rescue operation. So let's take a look.

Here we go. This account tweeted, this is Baltimore's DEI mayor commenting on the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. It's going to get so, so much worse, prepare accordingly. Yeah, look, I maybe I'm the slow one here, but I'm having a hard time understanding how DEI comes into play when we're literally talking about an elected official, meaning the residents of this community voted for the mayor, for the guy who's currently mayor. He wasn't a corporate diversity hire for the morons who somehow forgot, you know, how elections work. Also, according to U.S. census data, the city of Baltimore was 62.3% black in 2022. So I guess if the city wanted to promote diversity, they should have elected a white mayor.

Look, if you can believe it, others were even more explicit in their idiocy and racism. Former the blaze host, Elijah Schaefer, sarcastically tweeted, breaking mayor of Baltimore speaks out with photo of Scott captioned that bridge be closed, yo. As the community note attached to the earlier tweet points out, Brandon Scott was elected as mayor of Baltimore in 2020 with more than 70% of the vote. He did not come into office through any DEI practices, appointments, etc. The implication in these conservative arguments that Scott somehow isn't qualified for his position and only got it because he's black is nonsense.

Scott's rise to the mayor's office started at Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Baltimore, where he served as a mentor leader. In his transition to the city council, Scott, a native of the Park Heights neighborhood in Baltimore's northwest side, and former high school and college track star became a youth advocate. In 2011, Scott, an alumnus of St. Mary's College of Maryland, moved from city council staff to city council member. He spent eight years on the city council before being elected mayor. Seems like he might be qualified.

There's a reason conservatives are, in my opinion, flooding the zone with theories about DEI policies causing the cargo ship crash. For one, honestly, it's the new catnip for some right wingers and gets these pundits clicks and views. But also, it's a pretty clever way of averting people's attention from the things that might have actually led to these kinds of incidents and accidents happening, like weak and unenforced regulations, poor oversight of corporations, and political corruption. So don't be a sucker and don't get distracted.

All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, we'll do one more story without Johnny Pie, and then we'll bring John in. We'll have a good time. We'll be right back. What's up, everyone, welcome back to the show. I wanted to do a story that I think everyone who, you know, everyone who has acknowledged the failed drug war should know about because unfortunately there are some money to interest who are salivating over the idea of legalizing all drugs because they see it as a wonderful

business opportunity, which could lead to increased addiction and overdose deaths in the country. I'm not kidding. So let's get into the details of this story. So your argument and the advocates of decriminalization say people are going to be taking this stuff anyway. They are. They are. And the problem is there's no checks and balances. So people that, let's say somebody wants to go into ecstasy, like there was a famous case last year where four girls went, they passed the bar, they, you know, they were excited. They went out. Just passed the bar. They went out. They All day to XSE, one died because it had fentanyl in it. That's a tragedy.

That's a, that's a, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, not in our society. We do have measures to be able to allow people to do what they're going to do safely. The man you just heard from is an investor and entrepreneur who goes by the name Bill Panah Giotacopolis. Yes, that is his name and, um, he was speaking to Bloomberg about his plans to start a new business. called basically safe supply, it's a company that's looking to cash in on the drug trade once

now banned narcotics are legalized. And we should be concerned when you look into his business model and everything that he is investing in because it's not just the idea of legalizing the drugs. He's also investing in things like rehabilitation centers once people become addicted to the drugs that he plans to push for. Now, safe supply, which, has raised about $4 million in venture capital and went public last year, believes that the global surge in legalization policies will create a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars, one they plan to get in on at the ground level. I'm gonna pause right now and just say, remember, the idea of decriminalizing hard drugs

and regulating them was meant to encourage people to get help for their addiction as opposed to throwing them in prison where, honestly, I don't believe that people suffering from addiction belong. That was the idea. The drug war failed. How do we rethink our policies in order to help the people who need help? And to stop criminalizing people who have really no business behind bars. That was the whole point. This guy sees it as, oh my God, And this is an opportunity for me to push hard drugs on people, right? To see this as a business and to make money off of them, both in the process of pushing the drugs and selling the drugs, but also in the aftermath once people are addicted

and need rehabilitative services. So he believes that widespread drug legalization is coming. I don't blame him for believing that because we've already seen a little bit of it happen. And he believes that entrepreneurs should absolutely capitalize on. on it, and it's based on this global shift toward more liberal drug policies. The entire basis of this Canadian company's model is based on the legalization of cannabis, which I think is fine, psychedelics, and the pilot programs that have sprung up in various states in the US.

So safe supply even cites this timeline on their website to argue for starting what they call the third and final wave of drug reform. Let's take a look. So they give this timeline starting with 2001 where Portugal decriminalized all drugs. Portugal's initial model was very effective, specifically because they maintained a stigma toward drug use and pushed people into getting rehabilitative services to beat their addiction. They later cut funding for these programs and basically did away with some of that stigma. And as a result, addiction to some drugs actually spiked in Portugal.

They're now trying to revert back to their previous model. I did a lengthy deep dive video on that, which you should check out. But Portugal's initial model did work, and I'm in favor of that. But let's continue. They also provide the example of Oregon and Colorado in 2019. They decriminalized all drugs. Funny enough, they didn't mention that Oregon has changed course since then, which we'll get back to in just a moment. 2021, British Columbia applied to have all drugs decriminalized and is taking proactive measures,

including the first prescribed safer supply program. There's more, 2022. Experts around the world, including members of the UN and the entire country of Scotland, are calling for the drug war to come to an end. 2023, Berns, Switzerland announced intent to conduct a pilot of legal cocaine sales. By the way, speaking of cocaine, he seems to be hyper-focused on launching all of this with cocaine being like the main drug that they're pushing out into communities. By the way, cocaine also very addictive from what I hear.

Now, Oregon did roll back their decriminalization. I really want to get back to that in a minute because it's important to know about why that happened. But what's even more concerning about how he seems to be using the same profit-driven strategies is that he's using these profit-driven strategies that pharmaceutical companies used in the lead up to the opioid epidemic. Pharmaceutical companies knew that these painkillers were severely addictive. And so not only did they push these drugs into communities, they also were making money off rehabilitation services that were tasked with helping people get over their opioid

addictions. So with that said, according to safe supply, they're planning to create a $360 billion plus dollar total addressable market. And so Panagio Takopolis insists that he's not trying to get anyone hooked on drugs, but believes prohibiting them is a waste of time and capital. He says that money is being made every single minute of the day on drugs. Just the wrong people are making the money. He thinks he's the right person to make money off of pushing drugs into communities. And it's funny that he says that he's not trying to get anyone addicted to drugs.

That's not what he's trying to do here. Except he and his backers are sizing up their investments in drug test strips, rehabilitation centers, laboratories, and other products that may experience a boom during a legalized drug market, which also includes selling the drug, which he intends to do. Now let's pivot back to what happened in Oregon, because Oregon did decriminalize drugs. in their state, and it ended up being a complete and utter disaster, mostly because they claim that they were following the successful Portugal model, but that is not what happened. They did not follow the successful Portugal model, and as a result, drug addiction and overdose

deaths skyrocketed in their state. So the key elements of the measure, which was known as Measure 110, were the removal of criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of drugs, including methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl. In turn, that created a sharper focus on reducing harm. At least that's what they were hoping would happen. That didn't happen, though. More than $260 million were allocated to services such as naloxone distribution, employment and housing services, and voluntary treatment.

Supporters hoped that ending penalties and reducing the associated stigma of drug use, that was the big problem, would bring a range of benefits. But it turns out guys that if you look at the Portugal model that worked, they kept the stigma of drug use. The idea that stigma is a bad thing in any and all cases, I believe is ridiculous. There is a reason why social norms exist. And if you do away with the stigma of this drug use, it becomes a normalized part of society. And I think that that did not bode well for states like Oregon, and that's why they've changed course.

Once drugs were decriminalized and destigmatized, the thinking went, those who wanted to continue using would be more willing to access harm reduction services that helped them use in safer ways. But that didn't happen. Measure 110 failed because those advocating for it misunderstood addiction and also misunderstood the need for stigmatizing the use of drugs like. meth. The drug overdose death rate increased by 43% in 2021, its first year of implementation, and then kept rising. The latest CDC data show that in the 12 months ending in September of 2023, deaths by overdose grew by 41.6% versus 2.1% nationwide. No other state saw a higher rise in deaths. And look, I give the voters in Oregon a lot of credit for changing course, for trying a policy, seeing that the policy did not work and actually had all sorts of unintended consequences that were terrible for the state and for the people living in that state,

they change course. That's what you're supposed to do. You recalibrate once you realize that your favored policies are flawed. I wish people in L.A. maybe reconsidered some of the policies that we've implemented here, but they're slow to catch on. They keep reelecting terrible politicians who keep pushing terrible policies that seem to punish people who are trying to do the right thing in Los Angeles. But who knows? Maybe they'll change course sooner rather than later. Now, drug users didn't seek help and would ignore the $100 drug possession tickets that replaced criminal penalties in Oregon. And again, to be clear, I don't think criminal penalties are really the right way to go. I think that you can implement the Portugal model in a way

that works. It's just that they didn't do that in Oregon. But still, Panagio Takapopoulos wants to ignore the failure of that system and basically add to it because he sees that there are profit making opportunities here. That is the concern that I have. Once you have entrepreneurs and business interests get involved, you think they're not going to push for highly addictive drugs to be sold to people in various communities? You think they're not going to do that? Clearly, they're going to do that. That's why this guy is investing in rehabilitation centers. All right, let's hear more of what he has to say.

We know that some jurisdictions such as Oregon and even BC have been having second thoughts about decriminalized drug use. In some cities, obviously, there's this spectacle of people openly using hard drugs. So the best example is Portugal. Portugal decriminalized 20 years ago. And they saw a thousandfold decrease in overdoses in the transmission of infectious diseases, I fee and hepatitis, it was a, it was a success, but it's a half measure. Okay, if you, if you want to go that route and decriminalize it, that's great. You've got to then start offering a supply.

It's a commodity. I mean, we can sit here and say it's illegal and it is, but the reality is for the last 50 years, you can go to any major city or any city, really, and buy cocaine. It's a commodity, guys. These drugs are a commodity for this guy who plans on pushing them out. into the world and profiting both off of the sale and the rehabilitation services that come after people are severely addicted to drugs like cocaine. It's a commodity, it's a commodity.

This wasn't the point of decriminalizing drugs. And I love that he brings up the Portugal model when he has no intention of implementing a Portugal model at all. You think this guy wants to stigmatize the use of hard drugs like meth and cocaine? But The Daily Beast did talk to some drug experts, thankfully, regarding safe supplies model, and they believe that it's misguided, comparing the model to how the opioid crisis panned out. And they're right to do that because it's very similar to the opioid crisis. Keith Humphreys, a psychiatry and behavioral sciences professor at Stanford,

also referenced the opioid crisis to point out the flaws in safe supplies model, saying, quote, I think the Sackler family proved through Purdue Pharma that if you can dramatically increase the supply of addictive drugs, you can make an extraordinary sum of money. And he said this, referring to the makers of the painkiller Oxycontin, you have to addict and kill a lot of people in the process, but you do make a lot of money. And finally, he also says that drug legalization means corporations, marketing, lobbying, and all the things the tobacco industry does, and that dramatically increases use, which increases death and addiction. Portugal's model started to fail, specifically when the government decided to outsource what

they were doing to nonprofits, okay, essentially a public-private model, and basically. Basically, the services, the rehabilitative services, helping people get over their addictions, that kind of fell by the wayside. In this case, we're not even talking about a government being involved in helping people beat an addiction. We're talking about a private company that is seeking to make money, openly admitting that they are seeking to make money off of the sale of highly addictive drugs. And so I share this story with you not to say that we should be super hard on people who

are addicted to drugs. No, I share the story with you to say, you have to be savvy enough to understand that when it comes to certain progressive policies, there are moneyed interests who see an opportunity to co-op those policies for their own financial benefit. And they have a role in swaying how those policies are implemented, how they're written. And if you are on the left and anyone who pushes back against progressive policies because they want to make sure that it's precise, if you have a negative reaction to that, please just reconsider because there are people who want the same thing you want, but are a little

more cautious in how these policies get implemented. And so we'll see how this plays out, but I really, really hope that rather than go in the, you know, Oregon state model, we actually realized that those models failed and we really implement the Portugal model instead. We'll see, I doubt it. We seem to screw up every policy that we've implemented, including a lot of criminal justice reform policies that could have been great, but ended up going way too far and reclassifying all sorts of severe violent crimes like strangulation and child sex trafficking as nonviolent

crimes that are ineligible for bail. ridiculousness, but here we are. Anyway, we gotta take a break when we come back. John will join me for some breaking news on a political figure who has passed away.