The Young Turks - False Positive

Episode Date: January 14, 2022

The Supreme Court has blocked President Biden’s workplace vaccine rules but it allowed the requirement for healthcare workers. Fed Chair Jay Powell grudgingly acknowledged that corporate profiteering and market concentration are helping drive up inflation. Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather have been sued over an alleged crypto scam. The Democratic Governor of Maine torpedoed a worker’s rights bill. Almost 10,000 Kroger’s workers go on strike in Denver. A judge in western Illinois who found an 18-year-old man guilty of sexual assaulting a 16-year-old girl has come under fire after he later threw out the conviction, saying the 148 days the man spent in jail was punishment enough. Hosts: Ana Kasparian, Wosny Lambre 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. Thank you. What's up everyone? Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Casparian. Jank is still out, but joining us today is Wazni Lombre, although I don't think I pronounce his name correctly. I think he pronounces it much better. Was, welcome to the show. If you want, you can introduce yourself, just so I can hear you say it with that French accent. Are you really making me do this every time I'm just going to be put on the spot? Okay, well, all right, all right, fine. The Haitian people out there. My name is Wosney-Lumbley. How do you not love that? How do you not love that?

I don't know. It's funny. I find myself speaking a lot more Creole the past week or so, because I've been, for whatever reason, between my mom, we did a show yesterday with the homie Pascal Robert, who is, you know, a great Haitian scholar, you know, media personality. I've been speaking a lot more Creole than I generally do,

because there's no Haitians in LA. in LA. I need to learn Spanish, matter of fact. Yeah, Spanish is definitely handy, especially in Los Angeles. So was Armenian. That's true. I mean, you could learn Armenian. Maybe a little bit more difficult considering it's like a completely different, we have like a completely different alphabet and all of that. But anyway, we've got a great show ahead for you guys today.

A lot of stories broke pretty close to Showtime, which is kind of an annoying process to go through. But the good news is we have a lot of news to share with you, including what Biden has said in regard to his failures in passing a voting rights bill. Seems like he's throwing his hands up in the air and just saying like, I guess I kind of give up. This doesn't look like we're going to be able to get this done. I'll give you the exact details of that story in the second segment of the show.

But we have other news that is not so great, but I don't want you to feel any despair because there's also some inspiring news, especially when it comes to the labor movement. We'll be talking about that in the first hour. And then we'll lighten things up a little bit in the second hour of the show. As always, just want to encourage you to like and share the stream if you're watching us online on YouTube.

And if you're not a member, you should become one. We've been having a lot of fun in our members only bonus episodes, which air immediately after our live show. And today we're going to have some fun. And by the way, by becoming a member, you help to support us, keep us sustainable, and keep us free from any corporate influence or corporate advertising. All right, well, without further ado, why don't we start with the first bit of bad news, and it has to do with Biden's insanely weak vaccine mandates for large businesses.

In a six to three ruling, the conservative Supreme Court has decided to strike down President Joe Biden's incredibly weak vaccine mandate, which pertain. to large businesses, businesses with 100 employees or more. Now, I say it's insanely weak because it had all sorts of loopholes, all sorts of caveats, people who don't want to get vaccinated, could take advantage of those loopholes and not get vaccinated. But nonetheless, the Supreme Court, with every single conservative Supreme Court justice, decided to strike that part of the vaccine mandate down. Now, they did decide in the same ruling to uphold the similar mandate

that would apply to medical facilities that receive any public funding or any money from Medicare or Medicaid. So it seems like they're applying two different standards here. They did not sign their decision on this, which I think tells you quite a bit. And so let me give you their so-called rationale in this ruling. Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, and that's true, they have been given those powers, it has not given the agency the power to regulate public health more broadly, requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans selected simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees certainly fails in the latter category. Oh, is that the problem that it wasn't applied to

smaller companies? Okay, well, if that's the case, then by Biden should just revise his vaccine mandate so that it applies to smaller companies. But of course, that's not the real issue here. This is a conservative Supreme Court, more importantly, a pro-corporate Supreme Court. And there were several, I mean, dozens of right-wing states that sued the Biden administration over this. You also have some businesses and corporations who didn't want to have to deal with testing and vaccine mandates. And, you know, when I talk about those loopholes was what I'm specifically referring to is if an employee at one of these companies decides, nah, I don't really want to get vaccinated. All they have to do is submit to COVID tests once a week. And there are other loopholes as well, including, you know, religious exemptions and things like that. So really what I believe is happening here is that the Supreme Court is handing down rulings that are favorable to what the corporations want because this is a pro business. pro corporation, Supreme Court.

That's it. I mean, we're dealing with this pandemic that will not go away, mostly because of the fact that people are still unvaccinated, not just in this country, but globally speaking. People are not getting boosted. It's just a complete, and utter mess. And honestly, at this point, this is what we should expect. Anytime there's any common sense executive action or legislative move in Congress,

it might just be completely destroyed in this conservative Supreme Court. Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head when you talk about how wholly captured the Supreme Court is by the corporate interests. And again, like, it's pretty, it's very bad with the Republicans. It's very bad with the Democrats. But on the Supreme Court, who, you know, these guys are allegedly neutral arbiters of the law, right? allegedly. These guys, especially the conservative judges, they are 1,000 percent pro-corporate and basically every single decision that they're going to make. They're going to side with the corporations. And, you know, I'm not going to lie. I'm not really all that bent out of shape

about it. It's not like this mandate had any real teeth to it anyway. And I have a hard time believing that like people who were dedicated to not being vaccinated weren't going to figure out a way to get around this or even employers would figure out a way to not, you know, sort of enforce these mandates. So I can't get too bent out of shape about Sleepy Joe's mandate getting knocked down. Well, in the same decision, they did essentially apply a double standard when it comes to these health care facilities. They argue we agree with the government. that the health and human services secretary's rule falls within the authorities that Congress has conferred upon them. Is that what? Okay, so when it comes to health care facilities,

totally like this kind of mandate makes all the sense in the world. By way, I think it makes sense in all cases, including, by the way, in small businesses as well. But look, while we keep basically seeing common sense policies or common sense executive orders get basically ruled against in this pro-corporate Supreme Court. I don't want anyone to feel despair because we are seeing some positive outcomes in regard to working conditions during this pandemic when workers organize and are willing to strike. Now, this has been a huge issue among workers throughout this pandemic. And one trend that I think is very noticeable is that when workers are unionized, when they're organized, when they're willing to strike for better working conditions,

including more protections at the workplace so they don't get sick from COVID. More often than not, they do get what they want. So a lot of people will sometimes message me and they'll be like, you know, we appreciate that you're being honest about what's going on in the country, But what do we do then, right? Like, what do you advocate that we do? Well, try to change your immediate environment. I mean, I think that's where we've seen some positive changes. And that gives me a little bit of hope.

But under the current system that we're living under, governmental system, with this highly conservative Supreme Court, with, by the way, the fact that Donald Trump was able to successfully appoint hundreds, It's literally hundreds of conservative federal judges. We're going to keep running into issues like this again and again, unless the people are willing to organize and really do what it takes to challenge the one thing that seems to matter in this country, and that's capital. Yeah, like, that's basically it. You hit the nail on the head.

The only thing that's been able to be a ballast against the corporate insurance. are, you know, unions, workers organizing and striking just labor militancy. I think, you know, when people criticize folks for being apathetic and not being involved in the political process, what's the proof that collectively marshaling a political will towards, you know, I don't know, getting Joe Biden, the electoral college votes in Georgia, right? Like he went down there the other day and some black leaders were like, We put work in, like there was boots on the ground here, knocking on doors, like sweat equity put into getting Joe Biden elected president of this country, and you've done nothing for

to show. There's nothing to show for it. Like, they did all of that, all of that hand-wringing about how Republicans are going to come and kill our babies while they sleep because they're so awful. They're the devil. Oh, my God. Save us from the Republicans. Please, Joe Biden. And what do they get for it? Nothing. People are tired of platitudes. People are tired of photo ops. People are tired of Kentate cloth, Nancy Pelosi. People want to see action.

And the only action that we've seen in the past few months, the past year, is labor action. Yeah, you're absolutely right about that. That's the only inspiring and positive thing we've really seen in this country during the pandemic and certainly during the Biden administration. You say that voters are Democratic voters are tired of the stunts. the photo ops, the kente cloths. But what about Hamilton? Do you think Hamilton still has lasting power? Oh, God.

As somebody who's never seen Hamilton, but have been forced to listen to it on Spotify, the soundtrack, I was hoping that we were done with that thing. And here goes Nancy Pelosi, rearing that ugly Hamilton head again with just, the corneest, most, like, that was absurd. That, that was insane.

So we didn't actually talk about it on the show, Waz. So for the audience members who have no idea what we're talking about, because we haven't covered it, do you want to give them a quick rundown of what happened with Hamilton? Yeah, basically, you know, to commemorate, I guess to like, to commemorate the day, the anniversary of January 6th, which we know Anna is the single worst thing that's ever happened in American history. To commemorate the day, they got Lin-Manuel to write a song about unity and togetherness and I don't know, crap. And some Hamilton cast members actually sang and they played the video.

And Nancy Pelosi was so proud of herself to present the people, to present the Congress with this beautiful song she had commissioned by the great Lin-Manuel Miranda. It was embarrassing. And you know, again, like I wonder, I really do wonder, and I mentioned this on our Twitch show, and I wonder if the Democrats would have felt a way to pass build back better in some major way. Would they celebrate it? Like, would they get people to write a song to be like, yo, you know, child tax credit paid sick leave, basically green spending so that we can, you know, get ourselves out of the climate rut? Would they commission a song or, you know, get a painting done? I don't think so. I don't think they would. celebrate that. But for January 6th, because it conveniently, you know, paints their enemies as cartoonish, evil, blah, blah, blah, blah, it's so convenient for them. They want to celebrate that. And again, I don't want to make light of January 6th, but, I mean, to pretend that it's the death

of our democracy when, you know, Bill Back Better has a 70% approval rating amongst the American people. And a few people in the corporate class can just basically say, go to hell, right? to 70% of the American people. What's more undemocratic than that? Well, by the way, so it turns out that the crew did talk about that story. It was in the bonus episode on Fridays. I'm not on the bonus episode on Friday. So for those of you who want to check out that conversation, you can by becoming a member,

t.yt.com slash join. Or if you're watching us on YouTube, just click on that join button on the screen. But yeah, I think you make such a great point, Waz. And it goes back to what we saw during the Obama administration. It worked during that time, just like this constant dependence on celebrity culture to get their messaging out. But at this stage in the game where Americans are really seeing what corporate rule looks like and they're experiencing that in their households, they're experiencing that in their pocketbooks, they're not interested, okay, in the stunts, they're not interested in the celebrity culture. They want actual legislative change. And if you're not going to give that to them, simply relying on the boogeyman messaging regarding the Republican Party simply isn't good enough.

And I don't mean to minimize in any way how destructive the Republican Party really is. Make no mistake. I mean, while some might think, well, January 6th was bad, but it wasn't the worst thing that's happened to this country, it's not just about January 6th. It's about everything that led up to that day and everything that has happened legislatively on a state level. Everything that's happened in regard to redrawing districts in all of these red states. All of that, look, the Republican Party, for all of the embarrassing, humiliating, stupid things they say publicly, on the ground, they're pretty well organized. And it seems like they get things done. And it's stuff that they get done to our detriment, to the detriment of our democratic process.

I am concerned about that. What I'm more concerned about, though, is that we have no line of defense in regard to the Democratic Party. Like none, zero. And we're going to talk about that in more detail a little later when we give you Biden's latest statements about the voting rights bill. But for now, why don't we move on to unfortunately our break? I just realize what time it is. So we're gonna take a brief break. When we come back, we'll actually get to that voting rights story.

And then we'll follow it up with an exchange between Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Senator Elizabeth Warren. Finally, someone asks the right question in regard to inflation. We'll give you that and more when we come back. some pretty awful updates on the fate of the voting rights bill. And I want to get to this story. It broke a little later today and it's a statement from Joe Biden about, you know, where we're really headed when it comes to this incredibly important legislation. So let's talk about it. In a recent statement, President Joe Biden responded to fears that there will be no passage

of a voting rights bill. And of course, this follows conservative. Democratic senators like Senator Mansion and Cinema, essentially saying that they are in no way in favor of reforming the filibuster to essentially create a pathway for the passage of a voting rights bill. Now remember, it's important to pass a voting rights bill not only due to the fact that you have several red states that have passed voter suppression laws, but also when you look at the redistricting that's been taking place, the gerrymandering that's been taking place. It's very clear that the Republican Party has gone out of its way to draw these electoral maps to give them an increased advantage in winning in these elections. And so it's important for them to pass it. But what does Joe Biden have to say about it since he did not persuade these conservative senators to reform the filibuster? Remember, if you don't reform the filibuster, you would need 60 votes in the Senate to pass a voting rights bill.

You could create a carve out in the filibuster, so you could pass it with a simple majority. They can't even do that. And so here's what Biden said. The honest to God answer is, I don't know whether we can get this done. Biden said that after leaving a more than hour-long meeting with Senate Democrats to persuade them to change the Senate's rules. I hope we can get this done, but I'm not sure. So I just want to remind you all very briefly of what campaign Biden was like versus the Biden that you just heard from today. Because during the Democratic primary for the 2020

presidential election, Joe Biden ensured that he stood out as the Democratic candidate who could really get things done. The Democratic candidate, you know Jack. I know. He's the guy who battled corn pop. He's the tough guy who can persuade the GOP to work with him. He's so much better than a Democratic socialist like Bernie Sanders, because unlike Sanders, he would be the one who would be so persuasive, so effective that he could get Republicans on board with his agenda. The only thing he got Republicans on board with, by the way, is a corporate handout infrastructure bill. That's it. He can't even get members of his own damn party to make one small reform to the legislative filibuster to pass voting rights. It's unbelievable. I mean, Woz, how do you

ever, ever support a party like this? Considering how. One second, Anna. Yeah. Imagine this. is, oh, Galgado's making me feel good about the end of democracy, as we know. This is cool. I'm feeling much better right now. No, but seriously, though, but seriously, I just, it's kind of, it's, it's, it is really discouraging when you see the fecklessness of the Democratic Party on a national level. Like, they just cannot do anything collectively. Like, they just don't have the internal will to get this done.

And look, and to me, the only way to spend this positive is that you do need to win some, you know, councilmen, state assemblymen, a few of those races. And you can reverse some of these decisions on the state level, on a more molecular level, right? Because obviously, you know, if there was a national answer to this, the Dems would be doing it. But they're not. Like, I don't know what else to say. I just think this has to happen on a more local level, because that is. where they're doing the gerrymandering and redistricting because as you said Anna they're very organized on the state level and they can move in unison on those things in places like Kansas

in places like Georgia etc etc so i think that's got to be the answer because there's no proof that the national democratic party on the federal level can get a damn thing done they just have there's just no proof of this no it's it's worse than that was because When you're dealing with a solidly red state, it's fine. I mean, if you're living in that red state, you agree with whatever policies they got going on in that red state, fine, I guess. But we're talking about an electoral system that relies on the electoral college. And it gives an undue preference to these states that barely have any people living in them. You know what I'm saying?

Like the fact that we in most of this honestly like why is it that we rely on the electoral college? Like I wouldn't care. I wouldn't care as much if we didn't use that system to decide elections. And so I don't know, I don't this is this is disastrous. Anna, cornfields, cornfields and barrels of hay need representation in the government too. Everybody knows this, Anna, come on now. It's unbelievable. It really is. He also said, by the way, like every other major civil rights bill that came along, if we missed the first time, we could come back and try the second time, he said.

But it gets even better. Okay. So his full statement, I don't know that we can get it done. But I know one thing, as long as I have breathed me, as long as I am in the. White House, as long as I am engaged at all, I'm going to be fighting to change the way these legislatures are moving. But what? No, you don't you don't get to present yourself as this strong leader when you can't get your own party to pass legislation that literally impacts the future of their own careers. Yes, it obviously the thing that I care about the most, not their careers, but the future of what's left of our democratic process. But as we know, people are motivated by incentives and disincentives.

And you can't even get all Democrats in the Senate to agree to just one small little carve out, you know, just to protect their own political futures. He can't do that. But he gets to, you know, put out these strong statements. Senator Joe Manchin, he says he's not in favor of reforming the filibuster. Kirsten Cinema, not in favor of reforming the filibuster. But Manchin gave this incredibly insulting quote, and I want to read it to you. He says, the president gave an extremely very passionate, very good speech. It was very human and it was very touching and it was very good and it was

very historic. As to Biden's words had changed his mind at all about not supporting the Senate rules change with a simple majority vote, Manchin simply replied, he did a an excellent job. I mean, yeah, I just, man, I'm not going to lie. I'm going to enjoy the day when the, when the Republicans take back the Senate only for the fact that Joe Mansion will become irrelevant again, because this dude's public grandstanding and his peacocking these days because he's turned himself into the most important man in the world, it just makes me want to vomit every single time. But yeah, the guy's a, you know,

he's a ghoul and he's disgusting. And this is what he's, this is what he's going to do. And, you know, part of it too, I guess like nobody wants to set, set this precedent. I don't understand why they just don't go, all right, Joe, like, what do you want? What do you want? Why don't we just write what you want and we'll get something? Like, what do you want, bro? you know, but they just won't do that either. I don't know. I just don't, I'm running out of answers here. I really thought that we're going to figure out a way to get Bill back better done.

And there's some thought that eventually a diet, build back better will be passed. No, no, boss, boss, don't even float that. Don't even float that. Please don't even float that. Like, are you filling in for jank right now? It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Okay, I don't want anyone to even float that garbage on our show.

And I'm sorry to be like, I'm not angry at you or anything. No, no, no, no, no, you should be angry at me. No, you're the best. How could I ever be angry at you? But like, guys, wake up. They're not going to do it. We got to stop being naive. And we got to find other ways.

There needs to be an organized on the ground outside strategy that doesn't just simply rely on, like, oh, no, it's election time. Who do we vote for? Who cares? It doesn't matter. It barely matters. It barely matters. I mean, if you had asked me in 2020 right before the general election, why does it matter?

I'd be, I'd say like, well, at least Democrats will stop the bleeding. No, they don't, they don't, they can't even do that anymore. They don't even stop the bleeding. So sorry, I know I'm being too negative here, but let's just be crystal clear with the audience. I'm not going to give you guys false hope. They're not passing buildback better in any way, shape, or form. There isn't even going to be a watered down version of it. Mark my words.

And guess what? If I'm wrong, I'll come on the air and I'll apologize and I'll say that I was wrong. But I know I'm not wrong. I'm tired of being naive and thinking that they actually give a damn about us. They don't even give a damn about the futures of their own political careers. They can't even do the bare minimum and pass a watered down voting rights bill. It's not even the initial voting rights bill, which was of course more robust and included provisions that would do something about campaign finance reform. Manchin himself gutted that, proposed a paired back version, much like he did with the build back

better agenda. And then when push came to shove, gave everyone the middle finger, as he does. And if Biden genuinely cared about these issues, and I'm going to go ahead and accuse him of not caring about these issues, you know what he would do? He would do what Trump does. Trump, again, and people get mad at me when I say this, I don't care. Obviously, he didn't face any consequences for playing hardball. Trump would stop at nothing to basically destroy any Republican who stood in his way.

Do you think Biden's willing to do that? Biden's not willing to do that. If the tables were turned and Trump were the Democratic president, you know what he would do? Oh, sweet mansion. Oh, you're standing in my way. You know that nice little federal job I gave your wife? Taking that away. I'm going to fire her.

on Twitter and embarrass her. Your daughter broke a bunch of antitrust laws. I want to revisit that investigation. How about that? Yeah, I am suggesting that he do that. But he won't. But it's embarrassing because the actual strong leaders in this country are the worst people who advocate for the worst things. And then you have those campaigning on representing the little guy And what do they do? Feckless, flaccid, weak, pathetic. Yeah. And the problem is, you know, the, they're battling a perception problem to the Democrats,

because when you do campaign with this big talk about all the stuff you're going to do and how you care about this and how you care about that and you don't get anything done, like it makes you look worse than let's face it, like Donald Trump, they really didn't do anything they again like what they were doing with the child separation at the border was horrible of course ripping up the iran deal was terrible the climate the paris climate accords awful all they did though was past their big tax cut and which was completely unpopular even amongst their own constituency like republican voters hated it and they made the libs mad They delivered that for their people.

They got the libs met. They pissed off the libs. Like people, liberals were tearing their heads apart every single day of this guy's presidency. But again, like they didn't do anything like. And another part of his like Joe Biden in them, they put out all of this stimulus, a bunch of kids out of child poverty, people with a bunch are able to get up, do a bunch of savings, all of this stuff, all of this great stuff. They don't take victory laps on it.

They don't want to claim those as wins. They don't want to, they don't want to accept their own wins. The small wins that they do have, they don't even want to claim them. And so I understand Anna's skepticism about their will to pass bill back better. Because like even when they do deliver stuff for the little guy, they don't even celebrate it. It's insane to me, you know, but you know, whatever. Lin-Manuel Miranda writes great songs I hear. here. Man, it's embarrassing. All right, well, let's go to our next story because this was a good

exchange. It's good in terms of, you know, getting actual information out to people, but it doesn't really do anything policy-wise. But nonetheless, let's talk about Elizabeth Warren and Jerome Powell. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is now going through another confirmation process since Biden has reappointed him as Fed chair. So the Senate has to confirm that position again. And during these hearings, he had a fascinating exchange with Senator Elizabeth Warren on the topic of inflation. Now, we've heard that all sorts of things have led to inflation, anything from increased demand to supply chain issues. But what about the corporations who simply increase their prices because they can and there's virtually no one stopping them and there's virtually no competition.

Warren wanted to ask about that. Let's watch. Today, nearly two out of three of the biggest publicly traded corporations in the country are reporting fatter profit margins than they reported before the pandemic, which doesn't sound like they're just passing a long cost. So let me ask you, does that increase in profit margins, combined with greater market concentration in industry after industry, suggest to you that some corporations may be passing along increased costs and at the same time charging more on top of that to fatten their profit margins? That could be right. It could also just be, though, that demand is incredibly strong and and that, you know, they're raising prices because they can.

Well, that's the point. They're raising prices because they can and they're not being competed down. That was an important moment because what Warren points out there in regard to the record profits that these corporations are making makes it abundantly clear that they're adding a lot more to their prices. Like, they're really utilizing the narratives that we've heard in the corporate media. Like inflation, inflation, inflation, inflation, inflation. Perfect opportunity for corporations to just increase their prices to whatever they want. When you think about how various sectors of the economy are monopolized, I mean, what are they going to do? Worry about competition and lower their prices as a result of that.

And we're not talking about, you know, things that luxury items that people might not need but want to spend money on. We're talking about actual things that people need in their households on a regular basis, the cost of food. Why have we seen such an extreme amount of inflation in various sectors of the economy? And that's what she's trying to draw attention to. I'm not saying that it's only because of that, of course, there have been some supply chain disruptions, which I think makes it pretty clear that maybe we should consider having more manufacturing in this country instead of exploiting cheap labor around the world. But that's not the only issue here. You have corporations taking advantage of the narratives that are playing out in the corporate

media to not only increase their prices, but to use the corporate media to justify it, even when there's no justification. Yeah, and again, record profits, right, that are not being passed down to the workers and that are not being reflected within the pricing, right? Where it's like, yo, they're making a lot of money. It's not like they have to raise prices so that they meet some minimum threshold of profit, right? Like it's like, no, I got to charge you this because I need to make X amount. Like no, like they're making all the money and they're keeping it for themselves. Like they're getting it on both ends, right?

Like they're not paying it out to the workers and their price couch and consumers. So like, surprise, surprise, the evil actor in this whole thing are the corporations. Like who could have predicted that? And you know, an economist say it all the time. Inflation talk is sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. You pump, pump, pump inflation talk. Us, we say, oh snap, I gotta save, I can't spend, I gotta hold on to stuff. I start hoarding stuff and then that then has a terrible effect on the economy.

But what I will say is that there is a psychic cost to that sticker shock. Like people don't like seeing gas cost that much. Even if you say, yo, you know, the government's like, yo, we're going to send you some money, put some money in your hand to pay for, you know, that higher price of milk or that higher price of gas. Like people just feel agitia when they see prices are that astronomically high. And, you know, that's not good for the powers that be. Yeah, you're absolutely right about that.

There was one other part of their interaction that I wanted to show you guys. And then I also want to just briefly discuss how the Fed chair, and remember, the Federal Reserve's only role is to prevent inflation. I want to talk about how he has increased inflation and continue to do so as things that people, ordinary Americans need, like housing, became astronomical. But before we get to that, let's watch the second half of their interaction. Market concentration has allowed giant corporations to hide behind claims of increased cost to fatten their profit margins. So the consumer pays more both because the corporation face higher costs and because, as you put it, because the corporation can increase prices. The reason I raise this is that higher prices have many causes and we can't overlook the role that concentrated corporate power has played. in creating the conditions for price gouging.

She's absolutely right about that. Now, Elizabeth Warren comes at things from a reformist lens, meaning that she wants more regulations in place. She wants to find ways to kind of control unmitigated crony capitalism. But I also want to be clear about something. Despite any well-meaning regulation, even if those regulations were, all of that always ends up being temporary because you still have like remember the whole point of like a capitalist system is to do what was what does capitalism compel you to do what is the mandatory point in capitalism this profit generate profit that's it that's it you've got a board of investors and every time you meet with them they're like yo what are you doing to increase my return on investment. That is capitalism. So companies literally have a fiduciary

responsibility to their shareholders, to their board, to maximize profits. And what do they do in order to ensure that happens? They engage in the lobbying that we've seen, the money in politics, it leads to the corruption that we've seen, and they will claw their way to what they want, which is repealing those regulations, bit by bit, little by little, that is always the outcome. So even if we pass regulations, which honestly right now with how ineffective government is, I'll take it. But just understand that those regulations aren't permanent. They always end up getting chipped away at because the whole point of this system is to maximize profits, period. Now, real quick, I wanted to also just discuss Jerome Powell and how disastrous it is that he is very likely to continue serving as Fed share.

This is the man who has engaged in, I mean, record quantitative easing. And this is monetary policy that put money, cold hard cash in the pockets of big banks, private equity firms. And what do they do with that money? They invested it for themselves, particularly in real estate. They bought up entire neighborhoods of single family homes. And what did that do? It caused inflation in the housing market. I mean, insane inflation in the housing market.

And this is the unelected government agency, the Federal Reserve, whose only task is to prevent inflation. Bravo. We gotta take a break. We got to take a break. Let's do that. And when we come back, we'll talk about, I know you guys love this phrase,

the latest pump and dump scheme, this time with celebrities included. We'll be right back. Welcome back to TYT, Anna and Waz with you. And Waz, how Blair you, writes in and says, I'm so happy Wazni is here today. I'd like to celebrate by you. saying was sikdir. Do you know what that means? I have no idea. What is that? So sikid is like a

Turkish curse. FCC hasn't caught on to that yet, so we still say it on the show. So, but the way Jank says it is, was sikid and how Blair you has, you know, used your name instead, which is kind of cute. I like that. Salute. All right. Well, let's talk about this this pump and dump scheme. And I love that these stories are now starting to come out because I want you guys to be careful if you are dabbling in the crypto world. Just be suspicious to some of the stuff that's out there. So there's a new class action lawsuit that names several big name celebrities and accuses them of engaging in a cryptocurrency pump and dump scheme. This is where they attempt to manipulate the value of various cryptocurrencies, and then as

soon as they manipulate it to a high value, they cash out before the dip. Now, this again is based on allegations in this lawsuit. So we don't know for sure if these celebrities will be found guilty of engaging in this kind of behavior. But I'll give you the details, and you can judge for yourselves. So the claimants are accusing the defendants of perpetrating a pump and dump scheme in which investors sell off their shares to make a lot of money after orchestrating a rise in its value. The lawsuit states that the coin rose 632% in value after Mayweather, Floyd Mayweather, and Paul Pierce promoted it. The boxing star wore shorts with the Ethereum Max URL, during his exhibition match with Logan Paul, while Pierce tweeted about it.

And guess what? This is not the first time that Mayweather has found himself in hot water over cryptocurrency related matters. Mayweather was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2018 for failing to disclose that he was paid $100,000 to promote Centra Tech's 2017 initial coin offering. Two of Centra Tech's founders were arrested for securities fraud, and wire fraud, with the SEC accusing them of touting non-existent relationships between Centra and well-known financial institutions in an effort to entice people to invest in the ICO. And we're not done in terms of the celebrities involved in this latest lawsuit. Kim Kardashian is also involved. She apparently had posted about Ethereum Max on Instagram stories,

telling followers that she heard about it from her friends and linking to its website. According to Morning Consult, a whopping 19% of the survey respondents who said they heard about Kardashians' post invested in Ethereum Max as a result. And so this is, look, we don't know if it's, I'm on a cover my legal basis here. I would like to speculate that it appears to be a pump and dump scheme. It has not been proven yet. However, with that said, I just want you guys to be careful. Okay, listen, let's just be clear about one thing in America, especially.

There are no shortcuts for normal people like us. Okay, there's no overnight, wow, all of a sudden I'm a millionaire. And if miraculously you do find yourself to be a millionaire after investing in cryptocurrency, cash out. Don't be stupid. Just don't be stupid. Like, it's just so obvious that it's a scam to me. I like, I get it.

I know, I know the crypto bros get really mad when I say this, but come on, just be careful. That's all I'm saying. Was, what do you think? Yeah, I would just generally tell people like if you do want to invest and I'm not, look, I don't, I'm not paid by Bitcoin and nothing, but like, Bitcoin like actually has a utility, right? Like it actually performs a function. A lot of this stuff like doge coin where they named this cryptocurrency after a dog.

Guys, this is so obviously not legitimate, right? And you know, again, like people used to say that the reason why Bitcoin had a utility is that you could give money to people, exchange money without leaving a trace, right? Like when you do a bank transaction or wire, or whatever, there's a record kept of you sending money somewhere and somebody receiving it somewhere else with Bitcoin and eliminated that. However, I still haven't been able to get this confirmed or debunked. Like, allegedly the FBI has a backdoor to crypto into Bitcoin now. So you can't even do that anymore. So it doesn't even serve that utility. Look, the general rule of thumb should be this. Kim Kardashian will not get you rich. Like, just know that.

She'll get herself rich. Yes, she's not going to put money in your pocket. That will never be the case, you know. And I don't want to, you know, I don't want to be cruel and be like, all these people got what they deserved. But I mean, let me, let me tell you what they got. Let me tell you what they got. The website on Floyd Mayweather's trunks, I mean, jeez, Louise.

The lawsuit states that the day after Kardashians post, the token's value, did it shoot No, of course it didn't shoot up. The value plummeted 98%. Further, the coins creators allegedly sold off their shares before the price drop, as shown by their wallet's activities. I don't know. I think, I think this is not a declarative statement. It is my thought that this was, in fact, a pump and dump scheme. That is my opinion, just based on the facts that we have available. Just saying, just saying. Yeah, and you know, I'll give these guys this, like the investment it takes to pay a Kim Kardashian, she, like she makes a lot of money to promote stuff on her Instagram, like per post or whatever. And, you know, Paul Pierce to a way lesser extent at Floyd Mayweather, but they invested in that knowing like, yeah, this is about to go up and we're going to be able to make a lot of money off of this. So, yeah, someone wrote in, Jonathan wrote in in our super chat section and says,

it's definitely important to do your own research in crypto. This is an emerging market and a complete shift in the dynamic of privacy, finance, gaming, and equality as we know it. Please don't use the equality argument, okay? Like, I love you, Jonathan. I really do. And thank you for writing in. I really appreciate your perspective.

But I just want you to think a little more critically and not, because look, I remember when Silicon Valley was really in its heyday and everyone was buying the argument that their behavior was democratizing everything? And we saw how that turned out. If you look at the individuals who benefit from cryptocurrency, it is not, there's no equality here. Okay, there's actually more inequality in cryptocurrency than there is in the entirety of the U.S. economy. Like, just let that sink in for a second. So I just, I don't Morgan Chase is already in there. Like this idea that like it's this democratic, you know, the little guys are going to be able to get off. Like they're there already. And we know what happens whenever they show up somewhere, they take it over. Yep. That's exactly right. But Jonathan does give some advice. He says, don't get scams. Stick to blue chips. Ethereum max could have could anyone have asked and that got deleted. Okay. So thank you for your comment. Really appreciate it. But yeah, I mean, look, just be careful. And especially when you see celebrities promoting something like that, ask yourselves, why? Are they really looking out for me? Are these multi-millionaires really looking out for me? Just be a little more suspicious. And don't be naive. That's all I'm saying. And one final thing I'll say was, I can't even get myself to do cameo. Right? Like it's easy money. It's super easy money. You just like do a greeting for people on video. Like happy birthday, Joe. I hope you enjoy your day. Like 200 bucks. I can't, I don't have the shamelessness necessary to sell myself like that. But these celebrities who, by way, I'm not, I'm not anywhere near rich guys. Like I live in a condo like I'm in the San Fernando Valley. Like I'm good. It's a nice condo though. I like that condo. It's a good spot. I'm a little two bedroom condo. I'm happy.

I'm happy. But like, what I'm trying to say here is, like, most people would want more than what I have. I can't even do the cameos. The fact that Kim Kardashian of all people and Floyd Mayweather of all, what are you guys doing? Like, you really do have to have this characteristic of shamelessness to be stupid rich in this country, really. It's amazing. Anyway, and again, no hate for anyone who does cameos. I think Ben Mankowitz might be on there. But again, great, that's awesome. I wonder if anybody is close enough to Jimmy Dorr or Ben Shapiro in their life,

be smart enough to get them an Anna Kasparian cameo for their birthday. Wouldn't that be amazing? Oh my God. All right, I'm going to leave it there. I'm going to leave it there. We got to take a break. When we come back, we've got a lot of great news in regard to some labor activity. So we've got those stories and more when we return.

We'll see you then. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Jan Jueger, and I'll see you soon.