The Young Turks - Fake Left

Episode Date: August 4, 2021

MPP activists decided to antagonize and harass Cori Bush as she was securing a win on the eviction moratorium. Cops caught pointing assault rifles at the homeless. Texas politicians that helped write weak bills and served on committees that got them through legislation are now getting paid by the energy industry with campaign cash. Seniors would cross party lines to back candidates who support Medicare negotiated drug prices.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too.

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You know what? In fact, I have a surprise not just for you guys. I have a surprise for the Dragon Daddy himself. No one knows what the surprise is. Literally no one knows. I didn't even tell my team. No one knows. John's going to love it.

I'm going to love it. You're going to love it. I know it. You know it. The American people know it. As I always say on Wednesdays, please like and share the stream. If you're watching live, it's one of the best ways to help support the show.

It's quick and easy, quick and dirty, and you get more eyeballs watching this program. So thank you in advance for doing so. We really appreciate it and look forward to an awesome rundown today, including some fun stories in the second hour. I'm not gonna lie, I love when John Ida Rola can join me to dunk on some of these insane right-wingers, including right-wingers who refuse to get vaccinated. But more importantly, some of the clownish behavior, going down in regard to Greg Kelly from Newsmax.

I didn't expect anyone to come out in support of Cuomo, but leave it to Newsmax to shock and surprise us, I guess. In the first hour, I'm going to discuss some of the treatment that Cory Bush had to deal with while fighting to get the moratorium extended. And then later in the first hour, we'll also talk about how corruption has played a massive role in ensuring that the privatized, deregulated energy grid in Texas remains privatized and deregulated. But let's start off with the movement for a people's party. A third party venture here in the United States that has unfortunately devolved into something that does not really lead to any progress for the left.

They've actually just served as a giant wrecking ball to any type of effort in getting Medicare for all in supporting members of the squad who are actually on the ground doing the work. So I bring you that story. Let's get right to it. Progressive Democrat, Cory Bush, fought hard and actually succeeded in getting the eviction moratorium extended. That eviction moratorium, of course, was expired on July 31st. The Biden White House argued that there was nothing they could do. They can't unilaterally extend the eviction moratorium? I mean, what could they do? Their hands are tied. Brett Kavanaugh, Supreme Court Justice said that he thinks that it might be unconstitutional. I mean, he didn't

actually pass down a ruling on it, but that threat from Kavanaugh was enough for the Biden administration to pretend as though they didn't have the unilateral power during a global pandemic to extend the eviction moratorium. Well, thanks to Cory Bush, who camped out on the Capitol steps for four nights straight, Biden administration decided to change their tune and they moved forward with extending the eviction moratorium for two months, 60 days to be exact. The new eviction moratorium will cover 90% of Americans. So this is a big deal. What Cory Bush did was incredibly important in ensuring that people will be able to stay in their homes for the next two months as the $46 billion in congressionally appropriated rental relief is given out by state governors.

Now, the Biden administration, again, has issued a new two-month moratorium on evictions covering much of the country after facing intense pressure from progressive lawmakers led by Congress member Cory Bush. On Friday night, Democratic Congress member Cory Bush, who was once unhoused herself, began camping out on the steps of the Capitol in protest. She stayed on the steps till Tuesday's announcement. So four nights straight, she's there, she's putting in the work. That inspired others to join her. People like Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez showed up to, of course, motivate and

give props to not just Cory Bush, but the other protesters who were there. Other members of Congress also showed up. So this was an example of political theater working? Because politics is, yes, about legislating. It's about legislative maneuvering. There's no question about it. But political theater plays a role as well. The question is, is the political theater strategic and who is impacted the most by the political theater? In this case, it's incredibly embarrassing for the Biden administration to have members of his own party calling him out and demanding more on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. He wants to

He wanted it to end, he wanted it to end as soon as humanly possible. And so that's why he extended this moratorium. Now I give you that context because it's important to understand just what Cory Bush did. But more importantly, how egregious it is that throughout her time sleeping out on the Capitol steps, she was being endlessly harassed by the same people who refused to let go of the force the vote nonsense from literally eight months ago, a political tactic that is now completely irrelevant. The political tactic was supposed to be this pressure among progressive lawmakers to hold their vote, refuse to vote in favor of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House until she promises to bring Medicare for all to a House floor vote, I should say. Now the squad, progressive Democrats decided that they didn't

want to use their political capital on that because of a number of different reasons. They were using their political capital for committee seats. They were using their political capital for carve-outs when it comes to pay-go. And they also knew that using their political capital for a floor vote that was going to fail, meaning that they would not get Medicare for all, just wasn't worth it. And ever since they made that decision, they have been hounded and harassed by people who, who in different contexts didn't really seem to care too much about Medicare for all. People like Jimmy Dorr, for instance, who supported Tulsi Gabbard in the last Democratic primary in 2020.

Tulsi Gabbard wasn't in favor of Medicare for all, but he was totally fine with that. Now he's pretending like Medicare for all is the only policy that matters, so much so that it warrants constant harassment toward AOC and other members of the squad. So I bring you this next video, which features part of this group, Max Blumenthal, who is part of Gray Zone, but is in cahoots with the whole force the vote movement, essentially harassing Cory Bush. He put out a short video of his interaction with her. Here's how it went. I heard there was an intense debate about the role of the squad and why the squad didn't

leverage its vote for the speaker for Medicare for all vote. And why the squad, I mean, with a margin so narrow in Congress, why the squad didn't leverage its vote on the stimulus to get a $15 minimum wage. So she started answering the question and at some point one of her staffers or someone who knows her got involved and kind of whisked her away. And that led to all this backlash among some components of the so-called left on Twitter. Oh my God, she doesn't serve the best interest. She's there in an effort to prevent people from getting evicted from their homes. How about focus on the topic at hand instead of focusing on a failed nonsense strategy from literally eight months ago? And the reason why I say it's a nonsense strategy is because it's irrelevant now.

It's irrelevant now. Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House. You guys push for something. They didn't do it. So are we just going to focus on that for the rest of these women's political careers? Or are we going to give them props for what they're trying to accomplish right now on an imminent issue? People getting kicked out of their homes in the middle of a pandemic. Are we going to focus on that at all?

And what's fascinating is when that short video was released, everyone was like, oh, look at that. She's so dismissive. But, you know, Gray Zone isn't known for providing a lot of context in their video content. I know from firsthand experience with them. They love to take things out of context. They love to cherry pick little snippets of videos that they've produced. They love intimidating people who dare to speak out against them like I'm doing right now. But guess what, you're not going to shut me up.

Now, there was someone who was also involved in this effort with Cory Bush. She was there the whole time. Kristen Mink tweeted about the interaction after there was all this backlash toward Cory Bush and how she handled that question from Max Blumenthal. She says, no, I was there and this framing is completely wrong. and disingenuous. Friday night, there was a guy who IDed himself as from the People's Party. Ilhan, meaning Ilhan Omar, chatted with him for a long while and went to follow him on Twitter. There, she found offensive memes about the squad.

So this is a quote tweet from Max Blumenthal's tweet, where, you know, he claims that, well, you can read the tweet for yourself. An intense argument broke out last night at the Capitol between an activist and members of the squad on their refusal to directly confront Pelosi and then he says that he asked Cory Bush about it. Okay. Kristen Mink continues to write, the conversational pattern, Guy Lobb's accusatory question, why won't you or didn't you do X, Y or Z, members respond with detailed info, Guy Lobb's same accusatory question as if nothing was said, it was ridiculous and distracted from the urgent issue we were there for. Housing. Now, I'm not sure if she's specifically referring to Nick Brana in the first tweet in this thread, or if she's talking about

Max Blumenthal, she quote tweeted Max Blumenthal, which goes along, who goes along with the same narratives that Nick Brana, the head of the movement for a people's party, has. But what's fascinating is if you look at other videos of the several days that this protest was taking place on the Capitol steps, you'll see Max Blumenthal, harassing people, causing trouble and making it all about him instead of the people who were facing eviction during a global pandemic. Let's watch. Chinese genocidal. No, you defend the State Department, you defend the most violent institution on the planet. There's no genocide. Yeah, Max Blumenthal's a wife and child in the background, she's like urging him to stop because it's so incredibly embarrassing.

And you know, he talks about Congress being the most violent organization. I mean, Max Blumenthal is the son of Sid Blumenthal, a longtime Hillary Clinton advisor, and aid, including when Hillary Clinton was in the U.S. Senate. So I don't know, maybe Max Blumenthal has firsthand experience with just how violent Congress really is. But I do find it questionable that he has now dedicated all of his time to harassing progressive members of Congress, the very people who are literally on our side on the very issues that we care most about, while ignoring the depravity, the cruelty, the viciousness of the Republican Party. I mean, you want to focus on corporate Democrats. You want to hold them

accountable. Awesome. I just find it super strange that people like Max Blumenthal, Jimmy Dorr, are hyper focused on incessantly harassing progressive members of Congress. And of course, Nick Brana as well, who again is the head for the movement for a people's party, that third party venture, which I'll get back to in just a second. Now with that said, there were unfortunately others who have taken part in harassing Cory Bush and other progressive lawmakers as they're fighting to ensure that people don't get kicked out of their homes. Here's another example. Everyone keeps asking what what should we do now? We're going to stay here. We're going to stay here until the rest of the work gets done. We're not buying the theatrics.

We're not buying the theatrics. No, I'm not one person, my man right there. We have 137 people watching. A hundred thirty-seven people. Damn. They were just working really hard. I think what they're doing is admirable and I think that... What do you mean what was I doing? You're informing people.

You think I shouldn't inform people? How am I trolling? How is it irrelevant that they're using money? I'm not going to... How is it irrelevant that they're using money for wars when they could be giving money to the homeless? They voted for... They voted to increase the budget for... budget for Israel. No, they voted against you. How much? I don't even know what you're talking about.

I know what I'm talking about. They use the they increase the budget for Israel in apartheid state. No what you. They increase the budget for an apartheid state. No idea what you're talking about. I know more than you. I know more than you. It's not a contest. Go home. It's not a contest. Then do your YouTube channel at home. You didn't do any research. And of course they did no research. Uh, going after, uh, going after, Progressive lawmakers like Cory Bush for voting for more war? There's no evidence of that. You look at Cory Bush's record, and it's the opposite of what that clown boy was alleging in that video.

And I also find it fascinating that they're accusing Cory Bush of doing nothing essentially. It's just political theater, when in reality, the whole force the vote movement was about, political theater. I mean, that was part of the argument. No, we know that it's not going to pass. We know, we know that they'll hold the floor for, we know they'll hold the floor vote. We know that they won't pass it. But it's important to A, understand which Democratic lawmakers are not in favor of Medicare for all, which is something we already know. But B, once they voted down, will cause a spectacle. We'll cause a spectacle, everyone, because left-wing media is so powerful that will cause a spectacle over a failed Medicare for all floor vote and then we'll

somehow magically get our way. So that would have been theater that would have failed. But the theater that Cory Bush engaged in worked because it was strategic and it was smart. What she did materially benefited people's lives. Yes, we need more. There's no question about that. But buying people time giving states two months to ensure that they pass out the $46 billion in rental relief so people are able to stay in their homes indefinitely. That's important. That's incredibly important. It certainly goes a lot further in improving people's lives than anything that the movement for the People's Party has been able to accomplish. It certainly improve people's lives far further than anything that Jimmy Dorr or Max Blumenthal has ever done in their careers.

And they have the audacity to go over there and harass people as they're fighting for something, as they're showing up and doing the work. I mean, it's just so pathetic and so shameful. But look, these little stunts, these PR stunts tend to happen quite often. Superficial PR stunts, writes the Washington Babylon, are par for the course for the MPP movement. for the People's Party. From the very beginning, Nick Brana misled members of Draft Bernie for People's Party and exploited their hopes that Sanders would lead a third party, even though the Vermont Senator himself explicitly rejected that idea in a February 12th, 2017 appearance on Meet the Press. So they lie to their own supporters about who's actually on board,

which it's a little problematic, a little problematic. I would also find a problematic if I happen to be a member of Congress, a U.S. state senator, and a third party is alleging that I support them when I might support them, but I'm certainly not joining them. I'm not leaving the Democratic Party to be part of a third party. Now, Bertie isn't the only person they did this to. To this day, MPP remains focused on loud. Very often boneheaded actions intended to generate controversy and buzz. Force the vote, a fleeting tactic of dubious merit at the time to pressure progressive

congressional representatives to force a floor vote on Medicare for all was relevant for all of two weeks, but quickly became a branding exercise for media like Jimmy Dorr and Brianna Joy Gray. So let's get to Nina Turner's race because they decided to mess around with that as well. Now, I want to be clear, this is an important caveat before I give you the details on the Nina Turner angle. I do not believe that their actions here led to Nina Turner losing the Democratic primary in Ohio's 11th district. However, this is the exact type of attack I saw over and over again by corporate Democrats against Nina Turner. And I always wondered, like, where is this coming from? Well, let me give you the details.

Nina Turner had been embroiled in a closely watched congressional race of her own. In a recent national call, MPP head, Nick Brana, intimated that she intended to switch her party affiliation to the people's party should she be elected. Oh, wow, did that actually happen? Was there any truth to that? No, there was no truth to that. But guess what? It was enough for bad faith actors to use it to attack Nina Turner. So K-Hive, an online coven of demented Kamala Harris cultists and center-right pro-Hillary zealots, some of whom have run bot networks in the past seized on this for their own purposes

and went on to promote the idea that Turner, quote, isn't even a real Democrat, end quote, and intends to switch parties. Awesome. So awesome. And of course, we can't forget what Jimmy Doors' wife said on their show, essentially discouraging people from voting for Nina Turner or even financially supporting her and her race. Nina Turner is against force the vote. She gave a bad faith answer on bad faith podcast. That's when I stopped my monthly donation, Jerry Mack.

You know how I feel, Jerry. I'm right there with you. I'm not giving my money to somebody who's running in the Democratic Party. I'm not giving my money to somebody who runs in the Republican Party. I'm not giving them my money. Come get my vote. Come get my vote. And you know how you're going to get support?

Universal health care. For my brothers and sisters in America, universal health care. Well, that kind of commentary does tend to influence some people. So I'll direct you to an example, one example. And this is from a super chat, someone who was willing to pay 50 bucks, nearly 50 bucks, to share with Jimmy Doors' audience, quote, just got my $50 a month to Nina Turner refunded, and I'm giving it to the show. Thanks for keeping me sane in crazy times.

Please, please stay safe and healthy through COVID. We need leaders like all of you in the future. Leaders. Leaders that serve as wrecking balls to any progress in this country, especially among the left. People who purport to be on the left, but somehow miraculously find themselves attacking the left and attempting to dismantle it bit by bit. Kind of curious that they do that over and over again while completely ignoring the wrongdoings of the Republican Party. And by the way, assisting corporate Democrats in attacking progressive candidates like Nina Turner. to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size.

Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget. After all, you're in your small space era. It's time to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca. At some point, you've got to sit back and wonder, are these people really on our side? Are they really allies? And are they really genuine? Are they sincere in fighting for the same policies that they claim to be in favor of? Because it seems like they're not. And you know, I don't know what motivates them.

Some people say they're grifter, some people say they're nihilists. Some people think it's all about the views or the podcast downloads. I don't know. I don't know what motivates them. What I do know is that their behavior is incredibly cynical. It's destructive. It hasn't accomplished a goddamn. thing. And it's embarrassing. And for far too long, I think good faith actors on the left

have quietly sat back and allowed them to do what they do because they're afraid. They're afraid because they're going to attack you. The bot army is going to come after you. I say come for me because I'm sick of this garbage and I'm sick of sitting back and watching them go after good people trying to do good things. Look, winning is important. We need to celebrate our wins when we get them. It's what sustains the left. This nihilistic garbage of like, no, they're not going to do anything for us. So we're just going to attack and we're just going to be wreckers and we're just going to complain nonstop and bully and harass people who are doing the work.

Look, you don't believe in anything. You don't think that anything good can come of progressive Democrats? Fine. Sit your ass at home and shut up. Or sit your ass at home and keep doing your podcast episodes or you're you don't. show, who cares? But in the very least, leave people alone as they're trying to accomplish something on behalf of the American people. These types of wins matter. What Cory Bush accomplishes, which she accomplished with the extension of the eviction moratorium, it matters. Stop discouraging the left from celebrating that, because we need to build on that momentum, not be whiny little crybabies.

at home while we put our little video content together. It's disgraceful. It's embarrassing. And honestly, at this point, all you can really do is mock them. But I just wanted to be abundantly clear that I don't stand with those people. TYT doesn't stand with those people. And I just wish the left was clear in stating that they don't stand with those people. We got to take a break. We'll be right back. Welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian, with you.

Please like and share the stream to help support the show. And let's get to our next story. There's a shocking viral video making its rounds online, and it features cops with assault weapons pointed at homeless people in Venice Beach, California. Let's watch. Hands up, we can see them. Go down to the ground. Go down to the ground. Everybody is fine.

Come out. Everybody down the ground. You too. I see you right here. Come out. Come on out. How many more are in there? So my man, take the pocket for me, right?

Right. So when that video went viral, many believed that it was due to an ordinance that was just passed by the LA City Council regarding home people being displaced, moved from areas where you find encampments. But apparently this story or that video was really about cops being cops. So both instances are awful, and I'll tell you about what the LA City Council is doing in just a minute. But first, why were the cops there? Why were assault weapons drawn? Well, LAPD officer Norma Eisenman told Insider that the officers were responding to a radio call warning of a an assault with a deadly weapon, the suspect was described as a white male in a blue tent

who threatened to shoot people with his gun. So the cop show up, guns drawn, their assault weapons drawn. Officers arrived, she says, the witness pointed out the tent with the alleged male with a handgun and tactical deployed. But was it an actual gun? Well, luckily, no one got hurt. It's very easy for a situation like that to devolve. And I wish, rather than having guns drawn, the cops would have maybe asked a few questions before, you know, approaching people, especially homeless people in such an insanely threatening manner. But the LAPD said the suspect, whose name remains unknown, alleged that a woman attempted to steal his bike, which led him to pull out his pellet gun in defense, though the suspect was temporarily detained,

carrying a pellet gun is not illegal, and he was eventually let go, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. So there was some misinformation regarding what was going down, what prompted the police to have their assault weapons drawn on homeless people in Venice Beach, California. Doesn't change the fact that it's obviously wrong and insane for cops to show up like that. Someone could have gotten hurt. All it would take was one person to make the wrong move, and we know how that kind of story ends. But this does also open up an opportunity to discuss some of the recent actions by the LA City Council in regard to homeless encampments throughout LA County. And to be sure, homelessness continues to be a massive crisis in California and specifically in

Los Angeles County. We experience it every day, we see it every day. It's honestly the most shameful thing to see in a country as wealthy as the United States. I've talked about it on show multiple times and I want to talk about it now. So what is this ordinance? Well, it prohibits sitting, sleeping or storing items on public property near sensitive uses. That includes libraries, parks, daycare centers and schools. But it also states that enforcement in any of those locations would not occur until the city council has reviewed each location and voted to give the go ahead. There has been long drawn out back and forth between the LA City Council and judges in regard to what is and is not allowed, what is and is not constitutional in regard to these encampments.

Federal judges have weighed in regarding encampments in public parks, and they've argued that the city needs to immediately put these individuals in housing because of the fact that these public spaces are no longer, you know, they're no longer accessible to anyone else, to people who live in the area, families who live in the area who might want to enjoy those parks. But here's the question, where do you place people who are unhoused? Are you just going to shuffle them around? Where are you going to put them? That's the big question. And this is why I have such a negative view of the Democrats, the Democratic leadership in California. Because Californians voted to increase their taxes through a measure called HHS.

And the whole point was to build affordable housing. And that has been incredibly slow. It has so far, in my opinion, been a failed project because you have people like Eric Garcetti giving out contracts to real estate developers who inflate their construction costs and who are taking forever to build these housing projects. It's incredibly frustrating. So to say, oh, we can't have these encampments anymore, okay, where are you going to put people? These are people. These are humans. Where are you going to put them? And so they've been offered temporary housing. We have over 100,000 vacant apartment units and houses in Los Angeles County. A few years ago, the LA

City Council, in an effort to urge landlords to rent them out, was threatening to implement additional taxes if they refused to do it. I don't know what happened, but the city council dropped that. So is there a shortage of affordable housing? Yes, there should definitely be more construction for affordable housing. But there are also other opportunities, vacant units that should be utilized right now. People are being pushed into shelters or permanent housing. Is that a long-term solution? It is not. It is not a long-term solution. But let's also be clear, because this is the other issue I have, allowing homeless people to just waste away and misery and die on the streets in these encampments, that's also not the humane

answer. And for the activists and also corporate Democrats who are like, no, no, no, we're the good guys. We are supporting homeless people who get to live on giant piles of garbage on the streets. No, that's not activism. That's not admirable. We need to be fighting aggressively for permanent housing for these people. Telling us that you're a good guy because you're allowing them to keep whatever they want to keep around them. It's just, it's nothing. That's nothing compared to what you actually need to do in providing housing. And in addition to that, social services so they can get their feedback on the ground and

get their lives together. That includes mental health care. That includes job training. That includes drug rehabilitation because some of these people are unfortunately addicted to drugs. Obviously not all of them, I'm not generalizing here, but to treat homeless people in California as some sort of monolith is stupid, because they're not a monolith. They have, there are different groups that are dealing with different struggles and need

a different approach. But what we're seeing from the city right now is just this superficial baseline, we'll put you in project room key, we'll put you in some temporary housing, we're going to push you into some shelters, it's just not a long-term solution, it's not sustainable. So what else does this ordinance indicate? Well, tents or other objects that are found to be within two feet of a fire hydrant, that's not allowed. So these are all the restrictions, thanks to this new ordinance.

People are found to be sitting, sleeping, or storing property within five feet of a building, usable entrance or within 10 feet of a driveway, that's not allowed. Tents or other objects are obstructing the street or bicycle path. Look, some of this stuff makes sense. You don't want tents in the street. It's dangerous for everyone involved. It's dangerous for the people living in those tents. It's dangerous for people on the road.

Also, you're not allowed to have encampments or tents that are blocking sidewalks in ways that prevent wheelchair users from traveling on them in violation of the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act, the landmark civil rights law. And I also want to just note that the way that this ordinance is written, the city can't come in and just displace encampments on day one. They show up and they have to give a 14 day notice. Once an area is approved for enforcement by the city council,

signs would need to be installed, followed by a 14 day public notice period. Enforcement would be accompanied by a street engagement strategy with social workers and others reaching out to a particular encampment over a period that could last up to four months. Once an area is cleared, Outreach workers would return over a period of three months to see if homeless people return, if they come back, additional outreach could be conducted to promote voluntary compliance. But again, we need permanent solutions, not temporary housing where in a month or two, these people are homeless again. That is not a sustainable solution. And when you step back and you look at the bigger picture on a federal level, certain things need to be outlawed.

Private equity firms should not be allowed to buy up single family residences to then turn them into rentals so they can monopolize the slum lord industry. We should also minimize or highly regulate foreign investment in residential properties in the United States. If we have a housing crisis, if we have a shortage of homes, why are we allowing foreigners who have no interest in actually living in the United States purchase up homes in the U.S.? It makes no sense. There are so many potential solutions, and we need to focus on robust measures for public housing. I think Austria's model for social housing is a good example of that, and I hope to give you guys more details about it in a future episode. But don't fall for misinformation online, but more importantly, don't buy this notion that,

no, no, people are being helped out, they're being placed in housing, everything's good, Everything's great. No, the solutions right now are not sustainable, they're not realistic, and we need to make difficult decisions that require quite a bit of resources in order to get this issue resolved. We need to address the underlying economic conditions that lead to the homelessness that we're seeing, not just in Los Angeles, not just in California, but across the country. We gotta take a break. We'll be right back. The new BMO ViPorter MasterCard is your ticket to more. More perks, more points, more flights, more of all the things you want in a travel rewards card, and then some.

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Thank you, Bart. I love that he plays this music for me on Wednesdays. It definitely like hypes me up. Anyway, well, why don't we take a little trip over to Texas on a story that we've been following from the very beginning. Texas is power grid. It's failing privatized power grid. What's the latest?

Is there any regulation going on? No, not really. Texas Governor Greg Abbott was rewarded handsomely by the fossil fuel industry and of course the privatized electric grid, the executives that work for it after he decided to pass down weak sauce legislation meant to regulate the privatized energy grid. Now, of course, this happened after the power grid failed, the people of Texas during a winter storm, because they refused to weatherize equipment, people lost power. And Texans literally died as a result. Now that's what happens when you privatize something and you deregulate it. Because private companies, as we know, want to maximize profits, they're not going to spend

money on weatherizing things if they're not regulated to do it. We know this, we know this. So the real question is, well, what happened? Did the lawmakers of Texas, did the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick do the right thing? Did the lawmakers in the state of Texas pass down some strict regulations ensuring that, you know, the power grid doesn't fail? The people in Texas aren't left without power during a winter storm or a heat wave?

No, but before we get to how weak that legislation was, let's go to the numbers, because That's what this story is about, it's about the corruption. From June 21st to June 30th, after the legislative fundraising blackout ended, five of the largest and most prominent companies in the Texas power grid supply chain, Calpine, Center Point, NRG Energy, Own Corps, and Vistra, or their top executives collectively donated about $497,000 to state elected officials and political groups. A large chunk of that cash was driven by Encore, Texas's largest transmission and distribution electric company, with many big donations coming from the company's executives.

Well, I mean, they've given donations to these lawmakers before. It's just interesting how after the Texas legislature handed down insanely weak regulations for the power grid, they were rewarded a little more than they typically would be. Let me give you more numbers. That's more than twice, the 207,000 they gave during the same period when the legislative session ended in 2019. And that's according to the Texas Tribune analysis. By the way, over that same short stretch in June, 11 prominent oil industry leaders including billionaires, Kelsey Warren, S. Javid or Javid, Anwar, and Douglas Scharbauer combined to contribute $3.2 million to Texas elected officials up from about 2.2 million over the same period

following the previous legislative session in 2019. So they're definitely upping the ante. It's like you got us, don't you? You're looking out for us, aren't you? You're not regulating us, you're not being super strict with us. Even as we failed the people of Texas, the very people who elected you into office. Awesome. You get a little more of a reward. Pat on the back, couple mill. Now what about Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas specifically? Well, Abbott received about $4.6 million from oil, gas, and broader energy interests, his latest hall, or largest hall, I should say, ever from those groups in the post-legislative session fundraising period following the four regular legislative sessions during Abbott's

tenure as governor. And look, as I mentioned, this money is, isn't just like, hey, we've got money laying around. Let's just go around funding politicians out of the kindness of our hearts. No, no, no, they get a return on that investment. Now in this case, the return on the investment came early before they had to, you know, do additional contributions. But the increase in contributions following the passage of that Weissauce legislation sends a message. The message is keep doing what you're doing, keep looking out for us, the corporations, the corporate interests, keep looking out for our profit motive, and you'll get rewarded. And what did that legislation look like? Well, the legislature ultimately passed a bill

that requires power generation companies to prepare to withstand extreme weather conditions. That sounds pretty good, right? Except it's not because the bill didn't set a hard deadline for when the upgrades need to be complete, and it stopped short of detailing how the state would enforce and incentivize the process called weatherization, meaning that they didn't detail how they plan to enforce it, and they didn't even give a deadline for when these efforts needed to be completed. And there was nothing in the legislation about taking care of the Texans who dealt with the burden of a terrible privatized, deregulated electric grid. Remember, we shared stories about Texans receiving insanely expensive power bills.

Has that been addressed? No. We did stories about Texans who literally died during that winter storm. Will there be any type of settlement for them? You know, any type of, you know, justice for them? No, no, there's no talk about that. So when you see two sides of the same coin in politics, when you see both Democrats and Republicans refusing to do the right thing, they don't care about doing the right thing. Like our views, our concerns pale in comparison to the corporate cash flowing into their coffers. And that's why politics, as I've said a billion times, has devolved into nothing more than culture wars, cults of personality, who loves Christmas more, who hates critical race theory

more, oh, should we defund the police? Should we not defund the police? Look, defunding the police, that's actually an incredibly important issue. But when you look at the conversations around that issue and how shallow they tend to be among our lawmakers, you kind of get a better sense of how they're not really looking to legislate or serve the best interests of the very people who elected them to have these positions of power in the first place. And what's amazing about this story is that one of these companies, one of these executives, just say the quiet parts out loud, because why not? It's not like they're going to ever suffer any consequences for anything. So CenterPoint Energy responded to the Texas

Tribune and its request for a comment. Here's what they said. In this case, Center Point Energy Political Action Committee made public contributions to support members of the Texas legislature who had announced their intention to run for reelection. This is important, regardless of party affiliation. No, the legalized bribery is okay guys, it's totally okay. We do both of them, we do both Democrats and Republicans. No, but that's, that's the problem. is when you have corporate interests doing legalized bribes to both Democrats and Republicans

on some of these incredibly important issues, both parties end up looking the same. And that's certainly the case in Texas with the legislator, including Democrats and Republicans, passing down this weak sauce legislation. And you see it on a national stage as well, on issues pertaining to health care, issues pertaining to housing. The list goes on and on. Let's just understand what's really going on behind the scenes and why it is that our political system continues to fail us, especially as the situation with climate change and the like remains dire. And the future will be bleak. We'll continue to look bleak unless we change the way politics is done. Now, the For the People Act would have reformed elections by regulating money in politics.

But, you know, Senator Joe Manchin really cares about that filibuster in the Senate. So it'll be blocked, it won't pass, and there'll be no progress. But hey, movement for a people's party wants to go attack AOC and Cory Bush as they fight to prevent people from getting evicted from their homes. I think they're focused on all the right issues, right? Anyway, moving on to our next story. Oftentimes, when we hear about the need for bipartisanship from Democratic lawmakers, let's keep it real, they're talking about working with the very Republicans in Congress who usually engage in obstruction, who are going out of their way to prevent any type of investigation into what happened in the capital riots,

just the very people who always stand in their way. In reality, they should look at the bipartisanship that's taking place among the electorate. Because on a lot of important issues, Democrats and Republicans tend to agree on things, including the ability for Medicare to negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies. So this is a recent poll that was conducted. And I think the results of this poll are telling because it reveals a disconnect between what we see in Congress and what the American people want. So conducted by the firm Lake Research Partners, the new poll shows that 87% of voters over the age of 65, including 89% of Democrats, 87% of Republicans, and 81% of independents support allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, which is currently barred from doing under the federal law. So federal law indicates that Medicare can't just directly negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. Now that's something the pharmaceutical companies lobbied for. That's what they've,

you know, doled out campaign contributions to protect, you know, their ability to price gouge the American people, including the Medicare system with outrageous drug prices. But what's also fascinating is, look at that, Democrats and Republicans, 89% of Democrats and 87% of Republicans agree. I mean, that's kind of miraculous, right? Now, let's also look at this statistic or this result from the poll, which I thought was amazing. So the survey also found that 31% of Republican seniors would be more likely to vote for a Democrat who supports ongoing congressional efforts to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, indicating a substantial political upside for candidates who back the idea, which would lower federal spending by an estimated

$456 billion over 10 years and potentially, definitely save patients thousands of dollars. And then here's the other thing, and this should be concerning for the Democratic Party. 60% of Democratic seniors said that they would be less likely to support a Democratic candidate who's opposed to that popular reform. Now, why are we talking about this? I mean, is this even a proposal? Is this something that members of Congress are even discussing? Yes.

So remember that reconciliation infrastructure bill, the one that would only require a simple majority in the Senate to pass? Well, Democrats are having a discussion right now about including a provision that would ensure that Medicare can negotiate drug prices. directly with pharmaceutical companies. The question is, will the final legislation include that provision? And if Americans were organized, if we had a game plan in place to apply pressure strategically, we might be able to get it.

Because apparently, we've got allies in the Republican Party, Republican voters who want the same thing. So bipartisanship is nothing if we're just having a discussion about reaching across the aisle to work with like Chuck Grassley or like Mo Brooks. Like who cares? Bipartisanship is in the electorate. Let's focus on that. Let's focus on what we can do to apply pressure together to ensure that we have a better system in place. Not just for seniors who get to take advantage of Medicare, but for a larger group of individuals who might qualify for Medicare if the reconciliation package includes a Medicare expansion, which is another thing that Democrats are talking about. But how about less talking and more doing?

Now we're equipped with this information. We're equipped with this knowledge. We know that we're on the right side of the issue. The question is what kind of strategic, like what kind of strategy are we going to utilize to ensure that these lawmakers actually stop for just one second listening to their corporate donors and pharmaceutical companies and start listening to the American people. Again, the very people who elected them to serve in that position of power in the first place. All right, I'm going on and on. I had one more story, which I'm going to go ahead and save for when John Ida Rola joins me for hour two. so sit back relax that does it for hour one when we come back for hour two i've got a little surprise for john and he'll join me to talk about how florida governor ron desantis he doesn't like it when people judge him don't judge him his feelings are hurt i'll give you the details on that story

and more when we come back thanks for listening to the full episode of the young turks support our work listen ad-free access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to apple podcasts at apple.com slash t yt. I'm your host, Jan Huger, and I'll see you soon.