The Young Turks - Fain Of Heart

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

You’re vital to our work. Support as a member: https://go.tyt.com/signup. Shawn Fain endorses Biden for President and trashes Trump while speaking to Fox News. Reporters gang up on a state department spokesman who has no answers on a viral video of Palestinian shot dead while waving a white flag. Meet 18-year old Tal Mitnick, the first Israeli jailed for refusing military service in “Revenge War” on Gaza. Oregon lawmakers move to undo part of drug decriminalization law. HOSTS: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) and Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) 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. All right, welcome to the Young Turks, isn't it? Jank Yugar, Anna Kasparian with you guys on a potentially lovely Thursday evening. Potentially. Potentially, okay? Depends on whether you're gonna behave and whether I'm gonna be nice to you.

That's gonna be the determinant of whether or not it's going to be a lovely afternoon. Well, at least for some of us, okay? I'm feeling feisty today. Get ready, guys. Today, only today though, act quickly. You'll never get like this feisty again until tomorrow. Anyways, but we don't mind you acting right now. T.R.T.com slash join become a member.

Okay, seriously guys, we make a lot of big ones, we make a lot of little ones. ones, serious ones, fun ones. Those are news items. We have them all go. Well, today at the very top of the show, we have Sean Fing, the head of the UAW, making an appearance. So let's get right to it. Could have considered Donald Trump. You did not. Why not? Well, I mean, you know, if you look at just the facts and the body of work of both candidates and, you know, both of them in their own words, nowhere in history as Donald Trump ever stood for the American worker. He stands against pretty much everything that we stand for. After holding out for months, the United Auto Workers has officially endorsed President

Joe Biden for re-election. And you just heard from UAW president, Sean Fane, who came with lots of receipts to help explain why it makes sense for the union to choose Biden over Trump. Let's take a look. President Biden was standing, stood there with us on the pick of line. You know, unlike President Trump back in 19, when GM was on strike for 40 days and he was completely non-existent and silent on the issue. You know, I can go down through the list of things, the difference in the candidates. But it's very clear to us who stands with working class people in this country and who stands

against him. In 2008, 2009, the economic recession, Donald Trump blamed the workers for what was wrong with these companies. You know, in 2015, he talked about doing a rotation of good paying jobs in the Midwest, somewhere where they pay less and have people begging for their jobs back at lower wages. You know, in 19, also in 15, when Volkswagen workers voted to organize, he put an LRB in place that killed the organizing, the contract for those workers. You know, in 19, when he was president, he didn't support the strike. He told workers at Lourdes Town Assembly Plant, which was closing, don't sell your houses, and then he did nothing to support them. You know, versus

versus President Biden, who in 2023, when a plant was going to close in Belvedere, Illinois for Stalantis, he stood with those workers. He helped us save a community and helped bring not one plant, but two plants back to life. And he stood with our members on the picket line in our fight for economic justice. Now, that was quite a long list of reasons why he chose to endorse Biden over Donald Trump, but he did hold out. The UAW did hold out. And look, for the purposes of a friendlier pro-labor administration, I believe it makes sense for the UAW to endorse Biden over Trump. There's also the option of not endorsing anyone, but I think that there were some conversations that were had, you know, behind closed doors. Biden was willing to work with the

UAW in regard to EV vehicles and how it would impact the jobs that they do. So it is It's fair to say that Biden is far more friendly to labor compared to Trump. I know that that's shocking to some MAGA supporters who have completely bought into Trump's phony populist rhetoric about workers. But the fact of the matter is he hasn't really delivered for average workers in this country or any workers in this country. He has succeeded in securing tax cuts for the rich though. Yeah, I don't think this is even close.

I don't even know why this would be a conversation. Look, I think that Sean O'Brien, who's the leader of Teamsters in Sean Fain, are doing a good job in holding their power and their leverage and then using it at the right time. Sean O'Brien interviewed or met with almost all the candidates on Democratic and Republican side. I think that's a smart thing to do. Fane didn't bother meeting with Trump, but why? Because of his track record. His track record is not unclear. So we get frustrated with Biden and the Democrats, so they'll always.

say that they're going to pass some sort of major pro-union legislation like the Pro Act. They never do anything about it. They barely even propose it. Obama did nothing, Biden did nothing. So there's plenty of things to get frustrated with Biden about. But there's also upsides for Biden with labor. The National Labor Relations Board is terrific. He did go on the picket line a couple of times. He did help the striking rail workers behind the scenes after the strike, et cetera. So there's at least some significant positives on the Biden side. On the Trump side, it's not. It's nothing but a giant list of negatives. Also, look, okay.

I'm sorry to interrupt you, Jenk, but also you have to think about what the priority is for the leader of the United Auto Workers and it's labor. That is the top issue. That is what matters. That is the top priority. So I see some people online, on the left attacking Sean Fane. You know, he called for a ceasefire. The UAW called for a ceasefire in Gaza back in December.

So they are on the right side in regard to the war on Gaza. However, the Biden administration's handling of the war was not the top priority in making this endorsement. The top priority is which administration is going to be best for labor because that's our top priority. Again, not close. Guys, anybody that watches this show or any other show that I've been on knows I couldn't be more in favor of Palestinian rights and ending this war and ending the occupation. but we can do several things at the same time. This brother went out of his way to try to help the Palestinians, but that's not his main job.

It's not even close to his main job. His main job is to look out for union members in UAW. And so in doing that, that one is not close. So back to Trump, he has never done anything for workers. So every time there's a strike, he sides with the companies, the giant corporations and not the people. He doesn't even think there should be a minimum wage. He's on the record as saying that.

The lower your wages are, the happier he is. Guess why? He's one of the elites. So here's what Maga never understood. Trump always wanted to be in the club, but they always thought he was a loser. And before he got into politics. And so that always got under his skin.

And that's part of why he hated the elites, not because he didn't want to be part of them, but because he wanted to be part of them so badly. And remember, Maga guys still pretend that Trump's a billionaire. I mean, nobody thinks that in reality, but, but the MAGA guys do and Trump says he's a billionaire. So, and certainly he owns a lot of businesses. He's driven a lot of them into the ground and bankrupted him, but he still has the Trump organization, et cetera. And there he wants wages as low as possible.

Remember, for a long time in construction and real estate, Donald Trump used undocumented workers at all of his sites. He's like, why would I pay an American one? I could just pay lower. You know how Trump is. He doesn't want to pay high. He wants to pay as low as humanly possible for. American workers and sometimes not American workers. His golf courses were filled with undocumented immigrants.

Right. So this guy's terrible on labor, awful. So I just don't see this as an interesting question or conversation. Of course, UAW should endorse Joe Biden between those two candidates. And right now, realistically, it looks like it's between those two candidates. I want to go to, well, one more video because during a speech, Before the unionized UAW workers, Sean Fane had some harsh words for Donald Trump, and I thought it was fun.

It was certainly a little more lively than what you saw in Fox News. So let's take a look at that. Donald Trump is a scab. Donald Trump is a billionaire. who he represents. If Donald Trump ever worked in an auto plant, he wouldn't be a UAW member. He'd be a company man trying to squeeze the American worker. True, absolutely true.

So I love the energy there. I love to see it. And who knows? I mean, with Sean Fane spreading this real message, about the anti-labor characteristics of Donald Trump, maybe some who support Trump will dig a little deeper to see if it's true. You know, maybe fact-check Sean Fain and realize, oh, that's actually right. Trump was not so friendly toward labor. The other thing I wanted to just quickly mention, because I think it's important. Again, bringing up the discontent

among the left toward Joe Biden and his support for Israel's war on Gaza, it is true that there are UAW workers who feel the same way. And so during that UAW conference, Joe Biden appeared and he gave his own speech. The speech was interrupted many, many times by UAW workers who are also pro-Palestinian protesters. So I wanted to give you a little taste of that. And I want to be clear, the people protesting are also UAW workers. In other videos, you'll hear others basically say four more years in support of Joe Biden. So I wanted to give you that proper context. But without further ado, here's what happened. So you hear some people say UAW to kind of drown out the protesters. And look, the fact of

the matter is when it comes to workers, especially when it comes to UAW workers, we're talking on a lot of people. There are going to be differences in political opinion. And if you take a look at the breakdown in who the UAW workers have voted for in the past, the UAW's membership base is not a political monolith, right? About one third of its members voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, and that's according to the union's internal polling. So the real trick and I think the most difficult thing to do when it comes to being a union leader is, ensuring that all of your workers feel connected to one another and that they prioritize being, you know, part of labor who look out for one another as opposed to tearing each other

down over, you know, some political differences, which of course are going to happen. And I love that. Yeah, so first of all, I was gonna bring up that one third stat too, because when you see Sean Fane, I think two things. One, this brother's not for the feign of heart. Nailed it. No, I love his energy, right? And I love his clarity. He just, I don't think it's that hard, but apparently a lot of people in public life struggle with being able to make a clear case. He just listed things one after another after another of what Trump did wrong.

We showed it to you earlier. He does it many times. And so the reason why that's so important is because number one, he's making a better case for Biden than Biden ever has. Like, I've never seen Biden make a quarter of the case that Sean Fain made against Donald Trump. You know, Biden barely talks, barely in campaigns. So when you see someone like Sean Fain making the case for Biden, you're like, wow, that's actually pretty good, right? And so he should be all over the campaign trail if he wants to and they want to have him. But number two is really important.

He's got credibility with American workers because he just delivered great results. He got them higher wages. He got them all these things that he wanted. And yes, he got it specifically for the UAW workers, but all American workers saw with our own eyes that he delivered. And that, and I'm sure that a lot of people thought, I wish I had a guy like that fighting for me at work. Well, other car companies in response to UAW workers securing a better contract ended up experiencing an increase in their own wages, even if they're not unionized, even if they're not part of UAW. Yeah. So when a guy like that, who is delivered comes and says, Trump's not the guy.

And here's why, a lot more people listen. And so a third of those guys that voted for Trump, if I told them, hey, Trump's bad, they might not listen as much. They definitely would not listen. Well, but they would listen to me more than they would listen to an average Democrat because, because at least I'm honest and I criticize Democrats as well, so they can tell when someone's honest. But Sean Fain's got the honesty, the hard-hitting stuff that I think that Anna and I have.

But he also has the credibility of having delivered for these same guys and made their lives materially better. And they, and I think they all recognize that. So when he says Trump's a bad guy, they're much more likely to listen to him. So this is important in more ways than one. In the old days when the unions did endorsements, it was always rubber stamp, Democrat, Democrat. And no one cared, no one paid attention. And they never made a good case. They never affected anyone.

True. Here we're dealing with a completely different scenario with Sean O'Brien. and Sean Fain that I think could make a big difference in this election. and what you're about to witness is no exception. You may have had the chance to see some of the footage shot by our cameraman in the Gaza Strip, widely shared online, showing a group of men, waving a white flag, representing no threat whatsoever, unarmed, and moving south to try and reach some relatives. The IDF opened fire, as you can see on that video, and killed one of them.

Well, the State Department has really had a rough go at things during their press conferences as journalists actually decide to ask some pretty tough questions in regard to the United States support for Israel, even as IDF soldiers are caught on camera committing war crimes. Now, during a recent State Department's press conference, you have the deputy spokesperson, his name is Vendant Patel, basically confronted by not one, not two, but three different reporters who had some pretty hard-hitting questions, and they specifically wanted to know what the State Department had to say about recent footage that was shot by a UK outlet known as ITV news, showing the IDF shooting and killing an innocent, Palestinian who was waving a white flag. And if you're unfamiliar with that story or that incident, we did cover it this week, but we do have the video ready so you can see what we're talking about. It is difficult to watch, but here it is. These pictures were filmed by a cameraman working for ITV news in Gaza. As he moved forwards towards the combat zone, he noticed this group of men doing their utmost to appear non-threatening, trying to proceed with care. They wanted to reach two other family members and get them out of harm's way.

interview complete, our cameraman walked away. And then this happened. The interviewee had been shot and fatally wounded. You can see them placed their flag on his chest. As he was carried away, the white flag was turning red. All right, that is a difficult video to watch, especially since you literally see him in his final moments, speaking to reporters with ITB news, and then the IDF decides to kill him. Anyway, the IDF alleges that ITV edited the footage. There's no evidence of any editing we all saw what happened.

The fact that the IDF carries out these types of war crimes, knowing that there's a cameraman there, by the way, is amazing and shows you how brazen some of these attacks are. And we'll hear from the State Department on what they think about that incident. Not good, but do you want to jump in on that, Jank, before we do? Yeah, I do. So guys, if you still believe that Israel is trying their utmost not to kill civilians. But golly, gee, they just happened and killed 25,500 of them, which is more than 1% of the entire population of Gaza, wounded 63,000, whether it's Israeli hostages or Palestinians. civilians that hold up white flags get murdered on the spot. No questions asked. You think that's all still an accident? No, you're, if you're in the very small group of

people who still think that, you're so biased you can't see straight. No one else on earth thinks that. So IDF and the American government can do all the propaganda they want. And we all have eyes, we all have ears. We see these guys getting murdered. Yes, murdered on a daily basis. And yes, Netanyahu's government has done 20 times the terrorism of Hamas by murdering those civilians in Gaza. Now, it's notable that Patel did not say at any point during this press conference that the footage might have been edited. So apparently he didn't touch base with the IDF to make sure that they have their talking points straight. But he did try to, to avoid having to answer any questions about it with this week excuse. Let's watch.

I am not going to comment on the specifics around that given I'm not aware of the full circumstances on the ground. And as we've said before, this is not an American operation. I'm just going to refrain from commenting on specific operations as we do not have full circumstances of what on the ground from here. This isn't an American operation. I'm not on the ground there to speak to the full parameters of the situation. I don't know, I mean, look, if I recall correctly, and I could be mistaken, I might have been hallucinating, maybe this didn't happen. But if I recall correctly, Jank, when it came to war crimes carried out by our enemies or adversaries, people like Vladimir Putin, for instance, seems like the State Department has no problem discussing and openly talking about those war crimes, even without our troops being on the ground. even without the United States being, you know, on the ground involved in that war,

other than, of course, supporting Ukraine militarily. Yeah, that's a great point, Anna. And also without 100% confirmation. So when the Russians do something in Ukraine, we call them out instantaneously. We don't go, hey, we need a couple of weeks. And we need to check with the Russian government and make sure that they're okay with us telling you what actually happened. And then after we get their permission, we'll come back to you guys. Never said in the case of the Russian government.

Honestly, not said that often for even allies. So Turkey is a huge ally, second largest army in NATO, and they do plenty of things wrong. And the American government usually calls them out right away, right? But as we all know, and if you, again, if you're pretending that Israel does not have a special exception for every rule, you're so blinded by bias you can't see straight. We all have eyes. So this guy, he's in an unenviable position. We all get it, right?

He's not the one that came up with the policy. Having said that, the reporters did a great job, three different reporters, pressing you about half a dozen times to answer the damn question. So did you check with the Israelis or didn't you? What did they say? What didn't they say? Et cetera. And he never answers any of the questions because his job as a representative of the U.S.

government is to kiss Israel's ass and to never tell you the truth about what they're doing and to evade all responsibility. So he'll do that the next day and the day after that. He'll never come out and say, oh, yeah, by the way, of course, I watched the video. We all watch the video. Obviously, they murdered him, obviously. And then if you ask them and they do, the second follow-up question, that's even more unanswerable. Yes, but what are you going to do about it?

Are you going to do anything about it? We're the ones giving them $4 billion a year. We want to give them an extra $14 billion now. Joe Biden gave them $250 million without even asking Congress. So are you going to do anything about Israel constantly murdering civilians? And the answer is hell no. Now he doesn't want to say that on tape, but that has been 100% the reality. So he has to go out there and invade like and look like a schmuck who's obviously a liar,

which is exactly what the government asked him to do. Yeah, what a terrible job. I would hate to provide cover for what's currently transpiring in Gaza. Now let's cue up B5 because I do want to give a lot of credit to these reporters for asking the types of questions they're asking, namely when it comes to alleged war crimes that are being committed by the Israeli government and the IDF. So let's hear how he answered that question. Did you actually reach out specifically to Israel about this footage and try to get whatever the facts that you guys are seeking? This footage just arrived earlier this

morning, so I don't have any specifics of our diplomatic conversations around this to speak to. rose last week and the week before, and the week before, and the week before, and the week before, where there have been, you know, if not similar, awfully close instances. Have you ever gotten an explanation from the Israelis? Have you ever gotten a finding from the Israelis of what their investigation, if they promised one? I'm not going to speak to private diplomatic conversations, Matt, but this is something that we raise continuously with the Israelis. The secretary has done so, other officials and our government have done so and will continue to do it.

Okay, well, have you ever gotten an answer from the Israelis? I'm just not going to, I'm not going to speak to the privacy of certain diplomatic conversations, Matt, but we have been clear that there is a moral and strategic imperative to take as many steps as possible to minimize civilian casualties. So two points I want to just make and then I'll toss it over to you, Jank. Number one, I don't know what the point of these press conferences are if they're not going to answer any questions. And if they're just going to deflect or say that they're unable to talk about closed door meetings or diplomatic conversations, okay, then this is a

useless meeting with you. There's no point in hearing anything you have to say because you're not saying anything at all. The other point I want to make is, I think is has finally managed to accomplish something that I didn't think was possible. Their handling of the war on Gaza is so unbearably difficult to stomach that journalists, either they have no choice, but they feel, or they feel compelled to ask the types of questions they're asking during these press conferences. This is not something that was indicative of press conferences having to do with Israel in the past. It just wasn't. Everyone just, they towed the line, along with the U.S. is undying, devoted, unmitigated support for Israel, and then they called

it a day. And things have changed, and it's because you can't deny the footage that's coming out of the Gaza Strip. You can't deny how many innocent civilians have died. You can't deny the weird double standard in which, you know, one side chanting, you know, from the river to the sea is considered genocidal terrorists. And the Israeli government saying that is totally fine. That hypocrisy, that double standard is so obvious. So, you know, you saw the reporters who asked those questions, Jank. They're not some like young whippersnapper, woke, you know, reporters from the New York Times. They're seasoned journalists who are like, I don't know, man, looks like an innocent person was just shot and killed even as he was waving

a white flag. Yeah, and look, and in mainstream media, and now this is stated press and Reuters, some of these reporters, and they're usually the best of the lot. The print journalists are usually better than the TV guys, et cetera. And the, and the New York Times, Washington Post have been pretty good on this issue relative to their past coverage, right? So it's damning with faint praise a little bit. But these guys are usually a little bit better. But it's still not overall, not well known for grilling the American government.

They usually accept whatever the hell the American government says and put it in the paper as if it's real. Here I think Anna's 100% right where people are like, look guys, this is insulting to our intelligence. We see the video clear as day. And you keep telling us that it's not a big deal and the Israelis don't kill civilians. It's now beyond absurd. We can't even contain ourselves anymore. So journalism is breaking out because they just can't help it. And so now look, last things here. In terms of his answers, we raised. These questions, he said over and over again with our Israeli partners. Yes, but do they ever answer them?

And the answer is no, they don't. They go, what do you think you are? No, we're in charge. Shut up and tell the reporters that we're awesome and that the people, they didn't simply keep people we kill their terrorists. Shut up, Patel, get out there and tell them that. And he does, because that's his job. So now, in terms of humiliation, I mean, you see what the Palestinians live with.

But now it's gotten to the point where this war has become humiliating for Americans. 100%. Because now we look like we're the gimp that they're trotting out here. And this poor guy, Patel comes out there and he's like, it's almost like he's got that mask on. And he and he's like, yes, Israel is always right. I mean, I don't have eyes. I saw the video, but I can't tell if he's dead. I can't tell if he's a civilian. I can't tell anything. What else should I say, Israel?

What else should I say? It's humiliating, humiliating. But aside from that, aside from this one press conference, it's the repeated headlines about how the Biden administration is urging Netanyahu to do targeted strikes, urging Netanyahu to do more to protect the lives of Palestinian civilians. And then the follow-up statements from Netanyahu himself or other members of the Israeli government essentially saying, no, we're going to do it. We're going to intensify our operations. That's what's happened now several times, where you'll hear, you know, either Kirby or Anthony Blinkin saying, okay, they're getting ready to pivot to a low intensity stage of the war. And then what does Israel do immediately after that?

They intensify their military operations. Lately, it's been in Kahn Yunus, in southern Gaza. Yeah, that is humiliating for the American government. And honestly, the American people, are we okay with this? Because we're funding this. We're offering the military weaponry, the 2,000 pound bombs for the Israeli government and the IDF to carry this out. Are we okay with that?

I'm not okay with that. Yeah. So last thing here is that there's a Trump analogy here. Netanyahu is treating Biden like Trump treats Tim, Scott, in the old days Chris Christie and all these guys, Lindsay Graham, that he humiliates ritualistically. He like, it points to them, goes, now come here, come here, to betray the people that got you here, say nice things about me, and then he'll look at him and you'll make fun of them, right? And that's how Netanyahu is treating Biden. So Biden goes, oh, we're trying to get them

to show restraint. Nanyahu comes out and goes, I'm not going to show any restraint. And I'm not going to do two-state solution. And there's nothing Biden can do. about and Biden's like, it's pathetic. And as an American, I feel humiliated watching our president grovel at the feet of a tiny little country that we are funding. They're not, it makes it, like if you came out from outer space and you saw this dynamic, you'd think, oh my God, well, to be fair, America's probably getting 40 billion or 400 billion or 4 trillion from Israel, and they have to act like their, you know, their proxy state. No, no, we're giving them money. except let's be honest guys they're taking our money and giving it to Israel but the

Israeli lobby is giving money to our politicians. So those are bribes, A-PAC bribes Joe Biden, let's be honest, Democratic majority for Israel has bribed a lot of Democrats and A-PAC bribes tons of Republicans. So if you say, oh no, no, ExxonMobil doing campaign donation, that's a bribe, that's corruption. But APAC doing it, well, they're angels. Come on, no one believes that. Don't forget the weapons manufacturers too, right? Because we give the money to Israel.

And by the way, they talk about this when they hear people like us criticize the money we're giving to Israel. I've heard government officials say, well, they're complaining about that, but that money goes right back to the United States. You know what they mean when they say that, right? That money goes into the pockets of military contractors, weapons manufacturers, military contractors, Military contractors, that's exactly where the money goes. And they talk about that as if it somehow benefits the American people. It doesn't benefit the American people. And as we speak, we're getting dragged into a broader regional war.

You have bombings happening in Iraq, in Syria, in Lebanon, Yemen. This is a disaster. Yeah. Once the Supreme Court legalized bribes in America, of course everybody was going to bribe American politicians, including corporations who depend on American politicians for their profit. They'd be nuts not to bribe them, but the problem is when defense contractors bribe American politicians, people die. Yep. What they want is for them to sell billions of dollars in military equipment to murder people. And they don't care who, they don't care why, they just want to sell the weapons to kill more people.

And they pay these tiny little legalized bribes to sellouts like Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and whoever else takes them, which is almost all of them. But the press, they did a great job in this case, but normally you ask the press to ask the politicians about legalized bribes. Oh, no way, no way. They all pretend like defense contractors have no power that Biden and all the other politicians are just making political decisions based on their ideology. No, no, they're making the decisions based on the number and amount of bribes they have taken, period. When we come back from the break, we'll give you an update on the 18-year-old Israeli who refused to serve in the IDF. He was sentenced the time behind bars. But guess what?

They decided to give him yet another sentence. So he's going to spend more time in military detention. That and more coming up when we return. All right on TYT, Janganana with you guys. Also John Kelly, who upgraded, you could do, you can either join or upgrade through the join button below the video on YouTube. John, thank you, brother. Those upgrades are essentially keeping us in business and we appreciate you.

More people, we appreciate Benjamin Webster and Box gifted a membership on YouTube. J Bomb Dragon gifted five, Chris Birch and the Progressive Moose gifted 10 apiece. You guys are amazing, you're American heroes. We appreciate you. And Progressive Moose said he's celebrating their 30th month of membership. And that's why they gave the gift of membership to others, which is lovely. Go nuts, read a bunch of comments. We got to take a break in two minutes.

So let's just do that. In two minutes, no. Yeah, just do it. So we can be on time. Let's just take that break. Okay, all right. Go nuts, go nuts. I'm going nuts, guys.

Here we go. Time for you guys to weigh in. So let's go to our YouTube members. Kristen Eckert says, jank with his new haircut, we see you, yummy. Look, I just, Bergen do you read anything in the iPad? Okay, I'm just keeping it real, okay? David Rotondo said Haley calls herself a union buster. If you're confused as to who's for the average American worker, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party,

that means you don't follow politics at all. at all. And so, the Democratic Party, by the way, like barely in favor of the average worker. Fairly. That's right. But like, at least you got that. Yeah. So I would say the Democrats are about 20% helping the average American worker and the Republicans are approximately 0%. But hey, if you need a giant tax cut for multinational corporations, Trump and the Republicans will deliver for you. Chris Birch says, great being around for 14 months on this account. Thank you, Jan Kenana. Keep up the good work. brother, Aces 8 says UAW can help a lot in the Rust Belt states like Michigan. True. And I, that's true. And I wanted to also read that because part of the reason you're

seeing so many protests breakout in regards to Gaza and why Sean Fain spoke about it is because they're in Michigan where there's a lot of Arab Americans and Muslim Americans. And I was just in Michigan. And tons of the Muslim Americans that I spoke to in Dearborn said, hey, my dad worked at an assembly line at GM, Ford, etc. And so they're huge into unions and into protecting Gaza. And that's why you're seeing that crossover there in Michigan. And that's a really interesting point. And now we go to our super chats.

Michael Malabon writes in, quick update. UFCW Local 663 in Brainerd, Minnesota rejected management's laughable offer. First, some people have been working without a contract for a few weeks now. I got the impression today that could be changing quickly. I want to read that because you spend good money on super chat to get out your news about your union. I love it and I want to reward them. Plus, it's news. So thank you for sharing that news.

Frank Rockefellers are one of our resident conservatives and he wrote in, corporate unions have to ingratiate themselves with political institutions for their lack of intrinsic merit and value results. Well, but Frank, I know that that's your standard conservative talking point, except in this case, UAW delivered spectacularly. So you can't say that they didn't deliver results and that they're just doing it because they lack intrinsic merit. Their merit was their workers are thrilled with the contract that they got them. So it's absurd.

All right, we got more later. Let's take a quick break, guys. And we'll come back with important stories, including the person who is refusing to go to war in Israel and Israeli, conscientious objector, and you're going to want to hear from them. We'll be back. I got sentenced for 30 days for my first sentencing and I got another draft order for Monday morning, which means I have to get drafted on Monday morning where I will go and refuse

service once again and probably get sentenced again. And this will happen over and over until someone gives up until the army gives me an exemption. After spending a month in military prison for his conscientious objection to serving in the the IDF. 18 year old Tall Mittnik has been ordered to report for an additional month in detention. Now, first time objectors tend to get about 10 days in detainment, but he's already set to serve at least 60 once the latest sentence is up. Now, here's the back story. Mittnik entered the Tel Hashemir Enlistment Center in December with other members of a group that basically consists of young Israelis who are conscientious objectors.

They do not want to serve in the IDF, and they do not agree with how the Israeli government has handled either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. He announced his refusal to enlist in the IDF, citing the war on Gaza, and Israel's, he said this, illegal occupation of Palestine. So for anyone who likes to lump in all Israelis or any group and treat them as a monolith, please don't do that, treat people as individuals because this is an 18 year old who already served 30 days in military detention and he's set to do another 30 days. Now he said of his experience in military prison, once inside the military base last month,

Mittnick presented the recruitment officer with his ID. I said, no, I'm not doing this. I was yelled at, told I had no choice. I had to stand up for myself. He was not sent to, I'm sorry, he was sent from commander to commander. To each of them, I said the same thing. I believe there is no military solution to this conflict. I'm a pacifist. For first time, refuse Knicks, as they're called, seven to ten days is a standard sanction.

On December 26, Mittnick received 30 days to be spent at a prison just outside the town of Kaffar Yonah. and Tal Mittnik getting sent to military prison again after serving his first sentence has inspired other Israelis who don't agree with the IDF's military operations to also take a stand. And I want to give you another conscientious objector who has previously served four months in military prison over his refusal to serve in the IDF. Let's watch. Eventually, I was brought in front of a commanding officer. The officer listed the charges. He said, well, you're not enlisting, right?

And I said, yep. And he said, well, I guess go to prison for a week. I was like, okay, I went to prison. I was in prison for a week. Israeli military prison, not civilian prison. And then once you leave prison, once your sentence ends, you get another letter commanding you to show up 24 hours later to enlist in the military. So I had to show up again and say, I'm not enlisting this time either.

And they said, okay, go back to prison. Basically, that song and the dance lasted for about four months. So as soon as you serve your first sentence, they try to basically send you to Gaza again. If you refuse to do it, you get another sentence. And so it's like a vicious cycle of, you know, refusing, getting a new sentence, getting out, refusing again, getting a new sentence, and then getting out. And just going back to Tal Mittnik real quick because I thought that this quote from him was pretty powerful. He said, quote, my refusal is an attempt to influence Israeli society and to avoid taking part in the occupation and the massacre happening in Gaza.

I'm trying to say that it's not in my name. I express solidarity with the innocent in Gaza. I know they want to live. I just think it's incredibly brave. And I think of myself when I was 18 years old. I don't know if I would have the courage to do what these young Israelis are doing, but I think they do deserve credit for this. Some people are kind of minimizing it as, well, this is the bare minimum they can do.

But you also have to understand what Israeli society is like, especially right now following the atrocities that were committed on October 7th. These are young Israelis who have lost friends, support from some family members, they're made pariahs over their decision. And so again, I do believe they deserve credit because imagine the pressure that they've been under and their refusal to cave to that pressure. Yeah, I don't know who's saying that they're doing the bare minimum, but that's insane. No, it's not your context, guys. It's the context that they grew up in and they live in.

And so within that context, they're totally heroes. I mean, yeah, it's not just that they have to go to prison for it, which is significant enough as it is. but it's also the pressure that exists in society. And so, look, I think that part is crystal clear. But I also want to point out how smart these guys are. Because Tal says, so look, we did 70 years of occupation. Does it look like it's getting us anywhere? Does it look like we're safer?

No, it's ridiculous. Clearly, it's not working. So it's not just because I don't want to kill innocent Palestinians. and that we shouldn't do that. It's also not good for Israel's security. The more we occupy, and he said on October 7th, we found out that it shook us out of our complacency. Oh, we could just keep occupying them forever and nothing's ever going to happen to us. We're just brutalizing them, but we're safe.

No, we're not safe either. Why would we be safe when we continue to imprison these people? Do you think they're never going to fight back? So both brave and smart, no question about it. And then I want to tell you guys, so he has to go to prison, Tal does, and the other person that we showed you guys, because they're honest. Now people who claim a religious exemption, which exists in Israel, mainly ultra-Orthodox Jews, they say, well, no, that's okay. I don't have to go. Now, ultra-Orthodox Jews are also the most conservative right-wing members, generally speaking, not everyone.

Of course, there's no monolith. But as a group, they're the biggest part of the settlers, the most right wing. They go, we want you to die for us, but we're not going. And we want you to die for our settlements. And we want to be able to shoot Palestinians whenever we want. We want no culpability or responsibility. But we don't want to fight. We don't want to risk ourselves.

We want kids like Tal to die for us. That sounds pretty American, actually. That sounds like our government, to be honest. right? Sending young men and women in our military to fight needless wars that obviously risk their lives. And if they make it out alive, they deal with all sorts of mental trauma and PTSD that they don't get the proper support and care for. Yeah, I have no sympathy for religious, fundamentalist nut jobs who go say, hey, murder other people on my behalf, whether they're Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or otherwise. But I don't want to.

on it. I don't want to risk my life and I don't want to pay anything. And a lot of times these guys don't even pay taxes. I don't care about your ridiculous, nonsense, lunatic version of religion. Like that to me is not at all compelling. Oh, oh, because you said some mythical creature told you to kill Palestinians and not serve to force others to go kill them on your behalf, I could listen to you? No, I don't. If Israel was consistent at all, they would put all of those ultra-Orthodox Jews in jail for not serving the IDF just as they're putting this wonderful, decent human being in jail. So I think that these guys are awesome. And guys, last thing, this is super important. About 35% of Israelis at this point are saying, let's go towards peace

to state solution. Now that's not enough. We got to get to 51%. Okay. But now finally, there's a little bit of trajectory in that direction. And I saw all the interviews that Tal did. And one of the things that he's saying is, look, guys, now there's two options. One is just kill them for the rest of time. And unfortunately, a lot of Israelis are still on that side. Vengeance. They killed us.

We're going to kill them 20 times more, 40 times more, et cetera. But now there's a growing number of people in Israel, not a monolith, growing number of people in Israel going, no, enough, enough, enough, okay? So now we're the bullies? This isn't right. And you have to not only end the war, you have to end the occupation. I think that this might be a harbinger of things to come, and it has to do with decriminalizing drugs and whether or not that was the right way to go. It's the middle of the day in downtown Portland, Oregon. Can you want to hold them up for a second?

We're on a ride along with Portland Police Bike Squad. All right, don't work with that other thing, all right, you're just going to take it today. Block after block, foil, syringes, and use narcan canisters litter the streets. The side of open fentanyl use is inescapable. Lawmakers in the state of Oregon are facing backlash as fentanyl overdoses reach record levels. Now let me be clear, they're reaching record levels across the country, but some states are dealing with higher numbers of overdoses. So Democrats are now planning to reclassify some drug possession as low level misdemeanors after passing a bill, essentially decriminalizing personal possession of drugs in 2020.

Now, I personally think that decriminalizing as opposed to legalizing and regulating is a terrible idea. And I think this is a perfect example. I'll explain what I mean in just a moment. But before I do, let's get to the details of this story. First, what did the original law do? The law that they're trying to roll back now. Well, back in 2020, Oregonians actually passed a ballot measure. It was ballot measure 110, making Oregon the first state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs.

So instead of jail time, users were given, you know, citations that amounted to about $100 and they were usually ignored. The second part of the measure basically aimed at increasing funding for rehabilitative centers, treatment centers, using money from cannabis taxes. But since its passage, Oregon has struggled to fully implement that critical aspect of the law. I'd like to know more about why that is, but it appears that that cannabis tax did not end up with the treatment centers that people struggling with addiction absolutely need. Now, Dr. Andrew Mendenhall, who's the CEO and president of a Portland-based nonprofit, says the following. The most recent studies are telling us that Oregon has about 50% of the treatment access or treatment capacity that it needs to meet the population health needs of Oregonian. more broadly. And that's a problem, especially with the fentanyl crisis becoming worse every year. The Oregon Health Authority now estimates that five Oregonians die every week from opioid-related

overdoses. And just to give you a peek into just how bad the numbers have gotten, if you look at the numbers from 2019, Oregon had 280 unintentional opioid overdose deaths total. That 280 number, exploded to 956 in 2022. So obviously the numbers keep rising and the communities in Oregon are like, are we going to do anything about this? Or are we just going to keep moving along as if there's nothing wrong with this? Now, it is true that fentanyl overdoses have spiked nationwide in the past few years, but Oregon is dealing with the largest increase of synthetic overdose deaths in the country and the third highest of all overdose deaths, according to data, from the CDC. And some Oregonians say measure 110 is not doing enough to address the substance

abuse crisis. Let's watch. Under Oregon's drug addiction treatment and recovery act, drugs are decriminalized statewide in an effort to instead help addicts with treatment. Everyone has an R can. $100 fine, smoking fentanyl in public. Don't worry about that. And they're gonna either offer you treatment or at least pay the fine for you. But calling the help hotline is voluntary, frustrating Portland law enforcement. Put your hands behind your back. They say, without the threat of jail and fentanyl's addictedness, there isn't a real incentive for people to seek treatment. What sort of an impact has 110 had on what you do out on the street every day? My full-time job is fentanyl, and basically all roads lead to fentanyl in downtown Portland.

Since Measure 110 took effect nearly three years ago, more than 6,000 citations have been filed, and 64% have been ignored. People in these social services programs will say the process of putting someone in jail, is part of the harm that they're trying to reduce. There's no silver bullet here. We need to create rewards and consequences to motivate people to engage in treatment. I tend to agree with that, but just one other note before I toss to you, Jank, and then we'll get into what they're trying to change. 63% of voters support bringing back criminal penalties for drug possession

while continuing to use cannabis taxes to fund drug treatment programs. And you know, what they want to see changed is basically if you are doing drugs in public, which is a big problem, especially in a lot of these blue states, well, then you're going to get more than just a citation, but you're going to get the option of either entering a drug treatment facility or spending time behind bars. And so the idea is the disincentive of prison is going to encourage them to go to rehab instead. Yeah, so first of all, when the money doesn't actually go to the drug treatment centers, people get super frustrated because it's one thing to say, hey, we want to spend your money on, you know, folks who made wrong choices. Let's be honest about that. But let's all be humanitarians and do the right thing and the decent thing and help them. People go, okay, because we're good folks, right? But when you don't see the money show up there, then you get super mad. And you lose trust in government.

Yes. And so that doesn't help Democrats either. And then who cares about helping the Democrats? The whole point is to that theoretically that they then are going to do the right things. But if they don't do the right things, then what's the point? So, okay, that's one part of it. But the major part here is 63% of Oregon, that's a very blue state. Yeah, there's red parts of it, no question.

But look at how fed up Portland is. Portland is one of the bluest places in the whole country. There's a whole show called Portlandia about super libs in Portland, right? And even Portland is said, no moss, this is crazy. We can't take this anymore. And part of the point here is, or one of the points of emphasis is, you're not allowed to use it publicly anymore. Because you know why?

Because people are sick of walking their kids to school, going to work themselves, taking the bus, And there's people doing drugs on the street. Surringes everywhere, foil everywhere. Yeah, it is a problem. Yeah. It is a problem. So this is why I've always had a problem with just simply decriminalizing.

Because when you decriminalize, all you do is disempower law enforcement. And it's kind of like a more anarchy, libertarian-based model where it's like a hands-off approach. Whereas legalizing and regulating means, okay, you know, if you're, If you're doing drugs in the comfort of your own home and you're not causing harm to the community, like, who am I to tell you you can't do that? But if your behavior is harming the community and also it's not helping you, right? Like, that's the other thing. In the past, there was an ability for law enforcement or members of the community to intervene, right?

If someone has a really bad addiction. And it wasn't a perfect system. I do think that that system needed reforms for sure. But it allowed for an opening for someone to intervene and give someone the option to detox and go through rehabilitation. Some people are so addicted, they're so far gone that they're unable to even make that decision for themselves. And if they are able to make that decision for themselves, rehab is so unbelievably expensive that they have a tough time accessing the treatment that they so desperately need. All I know is just simply decriminalizing has been a disaster, right? Yeah, so I'm gonna go further than that, but look,

pond in the comfort of your own home, everybody's in favor of that. So when we say drugs, the whole category doesn't make sense. Coffee is a drug, alcohol is a drug, pot's a drug. It's very, very different than meth or fentanyl, which are very dangerous. And then when you use it publicly, then you become a public danger to the entire community. So I don't agree with the people on the left who say the crime is fictional. It's not real. The drug use is no big deal.

Public drug use is no big deal. And the working class that's worried to death about it about their safety, who cares about the working class? That's insanity. That's not anywhere near a progressive position. It just isn't. Some portions of the left have gone so far. They've done the horseshoe and they are making libertarian right-wing

positions of freedom for everyone, no matter who it hurts. So along those lines, where I get harsher is, no, if you're, the citation is a joke. I mean, the 36% who paid it are suckers. There's no consequence for not paying it or for going to treatment. So what I think should happen is either you go to jail or you go to treatment. Yeah. And it's mandatory. It is not anywhere near option.

If you have committed a crime because of your addiction. So for instance, if you're doing smash. and grabs to feed your drug addiction. No, you're being, you're not being criminalized for your addiction. You're being criminalized for the smash and grab. But if drug addiction is what's fueling that, then you should be given the option to get your life together, right? Yeah, well, that's the humanitarian thing to do.

We're saying, look, we don't just send them to prison, give them the option of treatment. But the option of treatment isn't an option versus nothing, it's versus prison. So you don't get to say, I like the option of not doing anything. even though I smashed into your car, took stuff out of there while your baby was in there. But hey, that's your goddamn problem, et cetera. No, no, none of that makes any sense, mandatory in both directions. And finally, what drives me crazy is that no one ever talks about plea bargains. Part of the reason they have to bring this back is because a lot of times the drug dealers were giving a possession charge

because they could have had a distribution charge, but they do a plea bargain to, Drop them to a possession, but at least give them some prison time, right? But when they don't, when the prosecutors don't have that option anymore, they plea bargain to zero. So when you lower the penalties, there's no room to do a plea bargain. So everybody walks. But there is no plea bargain in this scenario, the current situation right now, because it's not really, it's not a crime. It's been decriminalized.

So it's just a citation. If you don't pay the citation, all right, well, sad day for the city or for the state. Yeah. So in the case of this particular law, they're talking about the users that are doing it publicly for fentanyl, etc. But I'm making the point about the folks that are even more dangerous, which is the drug dealers. Yeah, the traffickers. Right. And when you have the traffickers and you've lowered all the penalties, then again, you don't have room to do plea deals and they walk too. So that's why the people of Oregon and Portland are saying, we can't take it anymore. We've got to get back to sanity here. So they haven't finalized what the legislation will be. We don't have the concrete details yet, but I do want to just quickly give you the details we do have at the moment. Let's go to Graphic 4. The effort, if pass, would allow police to confiscate and punish the use of certain drugs in public places and parks. The changes could also make it easier to prosecute drug dealers and ease access to addiction treatment proponents claim.

While the specifics of the bill have not been finalized, personal use possession of drugs, except for cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms would be punishable by up to 30 days in jail or a $1,250 fine, misdemeanor charges for possession could be dismissed by attending a meeting with an addiction specialist. So the whole point is to basically push people with addiction into getting the help they need so they're no longer addicts. We'll see how it plays out. For now though, we got to take a break. When we come back for the second hour, God, a lot of news to get to. One of my favorite stories of the day is just how pathetic Nancy Mace really is. Don't miss that story.

We'll be right back.