The Young Turks - Free Daniel Hale

Episode Date: July 29, 2021

Daniel Hale exposed the machinery of America’s clandestine warfare – why did no one seem to care? Joe Manchin makes $500k a year from one of the dirtiest coal plants in West Virginia. Billionaire co-founder of Home Depot goes after Senator Warren over her wealth tax proposal. Meghan McCain laments “overworking” her entire adult life.  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. 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. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO ViPorter MasterC. and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit bemo.com slash the iPorter to learn more. Welcome to the Young Turks. I'm your host Anna Casparian. It's Wednesday, so we'll be doing the first hour solo.

Just want to do a quick apology for our technical issues. We've got them all squared away, sorry for the late start. But we're here and we're gonna have an awesome show. Second hour, John Idoroa will be joining me, the Dragon Daddy, the host of the damage report. And we're gonna talk about a lot of different issues, including right wingers pretending as if we don't have a ton of evidence regarding what happened in our nation's capital on January 6th. Laura Ingram is accusing Capitol Police and DC Metro Police of just acting, acting as they're testifying before the House Select Committee, which of course is investigating the whole awful situation that occurred on January. But before we get to any of that, I do want to encourage you guys to like and share the stream. It helps to get the message out.

You know, there's this algorithm situation. Apparently the algorithm loves it when you like the stream, loves it when you share the stream. That kind of engagement helps, you know, to get more eyeballs on the show. And we always really appreciate it when you guys help us out in that way. So with that said, why don't we get to our first story? It's a pretty heavy one, but it's important to discuss the treatment of whistleblowers in this country because, as I often say, seems like all the incentives are in the wrong places. So the whistleblower who informed Americans about the US drone war has been sentenced to 45 months in prison.

Now the Biden administration had called for nine years, but the federal judge in this case decided to sentence Daniel Hale to a little under four years. Now, for those of you who might be unfamiliar with who Daniel Hale was, he is in fact the one who leaked classified information about drone warfare after leaving the military. He was in the Air Force. And essentially, he was the one who would point out the targets for drone strikes. And then he realized, I am not in favor of what's happening right now. This is wrong and I need to make it stop. I need to make sure that journalists know what's going on, that the American people know what's going on with these drone strikes. And when you look at the numbers, when you look at the casualties,

especially when it comes to innocent civilians, I mean, anyone who would think of Daniel Hale as the bad guy in this story is just absolutely wrong. So let me give you some details and then we've got a video for you. So the documents included a report, finding that reliance on deadly attacks was undermining intelligence gathering. During one five month stretch of an operation in Afghanistan, the documents revealed nearly 90% of the people killed were not the intended targets. Hale also discovered, or disclosed, I should say, the criteria for placing a person on the terrorism watch list, Information that Muslim civil rights lawyer said in a letter to the court had helped them challenge the constitutionality of that system.

And, you know, when you think about the role of whistleblowers in this nation's history, whether it has to do with the foreign policy that we carry out abroad or what happens within our own borders, it's really information that's important to the American people in order to hold those in positions of power accountable. But those in positions of power, of course, want to rain terror on whistleblowers. They want to ensure that they get charged with violations of the Espionage Act. They want to ensure that they're imprisoned, sometimes in solitary confinement, which was the case with Chelsea Manning. And I am worried about the treatment of Daniel Dale in prison. I wish that he wasn't sentenced to any prison time at all. But of course, it doesn't matter which administration we're talking about these days, whether it's Obama, Trump and now Biden, they certainly want whistleblowers to pay the price for what they've done

in disclosing critical information to journalists and the American people. Now, I want to go to this next video that features democracy now and they're, I think, pretty well done and comprehensive description of who Hale was and how important his actions were. Let's take a look. Hale was enlisted in the U.S. Air Force from 2009 to 2013, during which time he worked with the National Security Agency and JASAC, the Joint Special Operations Task Force at Bogram Air Base in Afghanistan, where he helped identify targets for assassination. He later worked as a contractor for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. In March, Daniel Hale pleaded guilty to one counter-violating the World War I-era espion.

Act for leaking documents exposing the drone program, he'll be sentenced Tuesday. In a handwritten letter to Judge Liam O'Grady, Hale describes feeling immense guilt for his role in the U.S. assassination program. He wrote, quote, not a day goes by that I don't question the justification for my actions. Hale went on to write, to say that the period of my life spent serving in the United States Air Force had an impression on me would be an understatement. It's more accurate to say that it irreversibly transformed my identity as an American. I mean, it is kind of incredible when you think about the true traitors to the country that are still celebrated in the United States.

I mean, we still have Confederate soldiers statues in this country, on public land. And we still have a pretty significant portion of this country celebrating the Confederacy, even now. Remember, the Confederacy was against the United States because they wanted to maintain slavery. And, you know, people celebrate Confederates. And you look at someone like Daniel Hale and he's considered a traitor who deserves time in prison. It's just. But speaking of U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady.

He did in fact sentence him to 45 months in prison for violating the espionage act. Saying his disclosure of documents went beyond his, quote, courageous and principled stance on drones. In fact, during his decision, the judge said, quote, you are not being prosecuted for speaking out about the drone program killing innocent people. You have been a whistleblower without, I'm sorry, you could have been a whistleblower without taking any of, of these documents. So he stole the documents, he leaked the documents to Jeremy Scahill, a reporter with the intercept, and that's what he is being prosecuted and now sentenced for. But I would argue that the American people wouldn't know about incredibly important details

of that drone war, had it not been for the whistleblower. I mean, Americans would be in the dark about the awful nature of the drone program and And the number of innocent civilians who die as a result of those drone strikes. So to say, oh, well, you could have spoken out against this, but you didn't have to steal documents. You didn't have to, yeah, but going out and saying that, hey, we're doing this and we're doing that, people are going to want evidence, they're going to want proof. And having access to those documents allows a journalist like Jeremy Scahill to do the reporting that's necessary for people to know about our wrong doings abroad.

But like I said, the incentives are always in the wrong place. The worst things get incentivized. Bad people get rewarded over and over again in the United States. But someone like Daniel Hale, who really risked his own freedom in order to get this information out to us, he's the bad guy, he's the traitor to the country. I would argue he's the opposite of a traitor to the country. He's someone who actually believes in what this country is supposed to stand for, right? We're not supposed to engage in cruel and inhumane acts, but we do it.

We do it all the time. We do it abroad all the time, we sometimes do it in our own borders. But Daniel Hale's the bad guy. Well, I also want to go to this next clip. It's from a documentary that was made about the drone war and also about Daniel Hale. And in it, he spoke about what motivated him to do what he did. So let's watch. People who defend drones and defend the way that they're used, they always say, you know, they protect American lives by not putting them in harm's way.

But what they really do is they just emboldened commanders. They emboldened decision makers because there is no threat. There is no immediate consequence. They can do this strike and they can potentially kill this person that they're so desperate to get and to eliminate because of how dangerous, potentially dangerous they could be to the U.S. but if it just so happens that they don't kill that person or there's some other people are involved and the strike can get killed as well you know there's no consequence for it

when it comes to high value targeting every mission is to go after one person at a time but anybody else that's killed in that strike is just blanketly assumed to be an associate of the targeted individual So as long as they can reasonably identify that all of the people in the field of view of the camera are military aged males, meaning anybody who's believed to be of age 16 or older, they are a legitimate target. They, as long as it's a male, 16 years or older, they're a target, right?

Even if they didn't engage in any wrongdoing, even if the intelligence community isn't naming or specifically identifying people who are dying, right, as terrorists, doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if we do drone strikes and take them out. It doesn't matter. I mean, look, I get that some people don't care about this issue. But when we talk about why there's hostility toward the United States in other countries, I think it's important for us to know what we're doing, because if any other country did drone strikes against us that killed innocent civilians within our borders, we would be outraged.

Americans would probably be out for blood, not all of them, but a significant portion of the country would want vengeance, they want justice. And in this case, you know, you have the United States military taking out innocent civilians and wondering why it is that there's hostility toward the United States, thinking that we're above the law, we're allowed to do whatever we want, and destroying innocent people's lives, it's totally fine. We're spreading democracy, everyone. Now, what were the arguments made by prosecutors?

Prosecutors think that, well, you know, Hale actually put U.S. soldiers' lives at risk. And that's what we hear every single time a whistleblower. is being prosecuted or talked about, whether it's Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, in this case, Daniel Hale. But they can't name a single person who was harmed physically or otherwise due to these leaks. Not a single person. They just get to make that argument and go out of their way to ensure that someone who did the right thing, especially in this case, is put away in prison.

He didn't get nine years, but he got almost four years in prison. I do want to also read a quick statement from him. This is from Daniel Hale, July 27th, 2021. This is what he said in court. I think it's a powerful statement. I'm here because I stole something that was never mind to take precious human life. For that, I was compensated and given a medal. I couldn't keep living in a world, living in a world in which people pretended that things

weren't happening that were. Please your honor, forgive me for taking papers instead of human lives. The incentives are in the wrong place. Valuing human lives over the feelings of generals and military men in the Pentagon or our own politicians, you know, it's not good. You don't really get many incentives in doing that. You get punished for that. And we keep seeing that happen over and over again with whistleblowers. Edward Snowden uncovered and formed the American people about the government indiscriminately spying on us.

He can't come back to the United States. He is considered an enemy of this country for telling us that our, Our rights, our privacy rights were being violated by the federal government. The American people can't hold the government accountable unless they're fully informed about what the government is up to. I get that the government doesn't want to be embarrassed. I get that they don't want any accountability in regard to the murder, the slaughter of innocent civilians abroad.

But if we're to live in a real democracy, we need to be informed about what our government is doing. And heroes like Daniel Hale put everything on the line to let us know what's really going on. And for that, all I can do is thank him. But at the same time, feel incredibly embarrassed that the Biden administration pushed for him to be in prison for what he did. He doesn't deserve time in prison. He deserves to be a free man, period. We got to take a break. When we come back. We have more news for you guys, including a little later, Charlie Kirk has some thoughts on Simone Biles. I have some thoughts about him. So we'll talk about what he thinks. And Joe Manchin happens to be incredibly corrupt, but the media is ignoring that. We're not going to ignore

that here. We're going to connect the dots in regard to the infrastructure bill. And, you know, parse out was really going on. So come right back. We've got that story for you and more. Welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian here with you. I'm gonna read a quick comment or it's a question from a member of our Twitch community. If you're curious about our Twitch community, you can check out our Twitch channel at twitch. t. In fact, we've got all sorts of fun, sometimes saucy content on there. It's Wednesday, which means happy half hour airs immediately after our bonus episode for our members.

So definitely check that out. It's hosted by Brett Ehrlich and it's a lot of fun. Recovering Pagan says probably not relevant to any of today's topics, but what's everyone's opinion on espresso machine versus pod machine? I have a Dolce gusto and it's super convenient. So I don't know what that is. I'm unfamiliar with it, but the pods are wasteful. You probably shouldn't go with the pod machines. However, I think there are reusable pods you you can buy, so look into that if you're interested in the pod machine. And there is a massive downside with espresso machines, which I have one.

My husband gifted me with a very nice espresso machine a few years ago. I clean that espresso machine, I clean that espresso machine, not, I can't stand it anymore. I'm so tired of cleaning it. I'm so tired of the damn espresso grounds. They get everywhere, it's messy, it's dirty, just be prepared for that if you're thinking about getting, you know, a non-pod espresso machine. Okay, now that it's out of the way. Let's talk about Joe Manchin.

Hopefully I can speak a little clearly today. I don't know why I'm slurring my words. I promise you I'm not drunk or anything like that. But Manchin's in the news, so is cinema. We'll get you the details on the cinema story because it just broke. But conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin is warning that if the Senate fails in passing, the bipartisan infrastructure deal, he's unwilling to be supportive of the more robust reconciliation version of the infrastructure deal. Now, what are the differences? Okay, well,

the bipartisan deal only really includes physical infrastructure, basically physical infrastructure that Republican lawmakers do in fact want, because their corporate donors want it. You see, When it comes to commerce, you actually need infrastructure that's not crumbling. So they want to ensure that they provide the goodies for their corporate donors. And sure, maybe some of their constituents as well. But they're not interested in human infrastructure. They're not interested in helping to compensate people who are engaging in elder care, for instance. No funding for child care.

I mean, the right wing loves to force women to have children. that they might not want, right? They love to regulate women's bodies, but when actual children are born and their families need help, no, no, no social safety net for you, no child care for you, you can buzz off. That's the GOP. And guess what? Corrupt Joe Manchin and other conservative so-called Democrats in the Senate are empowering these goons.

That's exactly what's happening right now, and the most frustrating part about it is that the media will not tell you why that is. You keep hearing over and over again, well, Manchin just wants bipartisanship. Manchin just likes bipartisanship. No, it's not about bipartisanship. And I'll connect the dots in just a minute. But first, here's what Senator Joe Manchin had to say. I would say if the bipartisan infrastructure deal falls apart, everything falls apart. Both of them are extremely important. When one falls apart, how do you move the other one? It's not that difficult. I mean, you just It's just you take the physical infrastructure that's in the bipartisan bill. You bake it into the more robust and much better reconciliation version of the bill, and then

you pass it with a simple majority in the Senate. That's how you do it. That's how you do it. But he's not interested in that. And I'll tell you why. He says, I think there's a lot of good things in the reconciliation bill. I really want to work on, but we haven't spent the time on that, the bipartisan ones ready go, this one's ready to go.

He's eager to pass the bipartisan bill. Because look, the bipartisan bill also doesn't focus on something that he doesn't like. And it's the climate action. Because Joe Manchin would have you believe that he's just concerned about jobs in West Virginia. And look, that might be true. There might be hell to pay if some constituents who work in the coal industry lose their jobs as a result of, you know, the country. So, the country finally moving or shifting toward renewable energies. But the reality is that Joe Manchin doesn't just benefit politically from dirty fossil fuels.

He also benefits financially, directly. And we learned some details about that just today. In fact, according to the most recent financial disclosure, Mansion gained nearly half a million dollars last year, 490. $92,000 to be exact due to his non-public shares in a coal company called, it's a terrible name, Enter Systems, which records show is a contractor for a power plant in the state's north that burns waste coal. Meanwhile, Mansion's 2020 income for being a senator was $174,000. So let that sink in for a second. He's earning more money from dirty coal. that he is representing the people of West Virginia as a senator.

The incentives are in the wrong place. There needs to be laws that prevent lawmakers from being invested in individual stocks or invested in these types of companies, period. He is receiving a significant amount of his income. Why just survive back 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.

His income, it appears, from the coal industry. And we're not even talking about what he receives in the form of campaign contributions from fossil fuel companies. In fact, Manchin gave control to, or control of inner systems to his son back in 2000. This is very Trumpian, by the way. He years ago moved his holdings in the company into a blind trust in order to comply with federal rules, yet that doesn't prevent him from personally profiting. That's why I say it's Trumpian. This is the exact same thing that Trump did once he became president.

Since becoming a Democratic U.S. Senator in 2010, Manchin's total income from inner systems has topped $4.5 million. I don't know, I don't know. There are some things that I'd want to work on with the reconciliation version of the bill. You know, climate action, I don't really like that. It's going to hurt my profits, my personal profits. That's what this is about. Wakey, wiki media, wakey, I can't stand the constant nonsense about,

Well, you know, he's just, he's coming from a conservative state, so he's got to reach across the aisle. No, no, he's got a vested interest in defeating the reconciliation bill, in not supporting the reconciliation bill. There's more. Mansion, by the way, chairs the worst committee in the Senate, considering the conflict of interest here. He chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which is a joke. Obviously, there's a conflict of interest there. But there are no laws preventing this from happening. That's the problem. Due to impurities, by the way, of the waste coal grant town power plant.

So due to impurities in the waste coal, Grant Town power plant burns to generate electricity. It releases more sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide per unit of energy than any other of the state's coal plants. So this is incredibly, incredibly bad for the environment. But it doesn't matter. He doesn't care as long as he's profiting from this. So if that plant were to shut down, by the way, it would halt over 900,000 tons of climate warming carbon dioxide emissions that Grant Town releases annually. And I also want to talk a little bit about how much money Joe Mansion receives from the fossil. fuel industry in the form of campaign donations.

In fact, recently Julian Castro was speaking to MSNBC about a fundraiser that Mansion went to in Texas. Let's learn a little bit more about that June fundraiser. Right now we've got this huge reconciliation package, the infrastructure bill. There's a big question about how aggressive it will be in in the climate aspects. And here you have what would be the 50th vote for this. As the Texas Tribune reports, the host committee includes titans of the Texas oil and gas industry, many of whom domain almost exclusively to Republicans. Some of these donors make occasional contributions to Democrats who are either moderate or serve on

committees with oversight of the energy sector. Give you a little window into what the sort of climate hawk forces are up against? Oh, it does. And I mean, Mansions are chairing the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the Senate. The letter that went out, the fundraising letter said that Joe Manchin has been a good friend of the industry since he was governor of West Virginia. And I'm sure it's going to get a lot of buy-in from oil and gas executives. And the way that this ties into the voting rights part of it is, I bet what they're telling Joe Manchin at this high-price fundraiser is, hey, look, Senator,

you really are the reasonable guy here in the Senate. You're the only thing holding back the world from AOC and the socialists and X, Y, and Z. They're going to butter him up and make him think, hey, hey, you got to hold the line. Oh, they butter them up all right. In fact, remember, we also had that video featuring one of the top lobbyists for ExxonMobil, just disclosing the fact that they do quite a bit of campaign donations, legalized bribery to people like Senator Joe Manchin, Kirsten Cinema, who just today shared with the American people that she opposes the $3.5 trillion reconciliation infrastructure

bill. She claims that it's too expensive. It's too much money. She's a real fiscal conservative that Kirsten Cinema. She's not at all influenced by that corporate money. I mean, what a clown. But more importantly, the members of the media who buy that line, members of the media who think, no, these are good people, they just, they want unity, duh.

Those people shouldn't be employed as journalists. Because there are giant conflicts of interest here. There's a huge problem with legalized bribery. And when you ignore that issue, you lie to the American people about what's really at play about what really influences the decisions of these lawmakers. They don't serve us. They serve themselves. There's a reason why lawmakers leave Congress a lot wealthier, a lot wealthier than they came in. And it's because they can be invested in individual stocks. They can be invested in businesses like this coal company that mansions

involved in brings in half a million dollars a year, he's living large, but he'll lie to you straight in your face and tell you that he's doing this because he cares about bipartisanship. He doesn't care about bipartisanship at all. Manchin also has been, you know, hinting that he's not going to be supportive of the infrastructure bill for a while now. In fact, Manchin in June told a utility conference, he's not a fan of President Joe Biden's plan to address the climate emergency by cutting U.S. emissions in half by 2030 and hitting 100% clean power in electric utilities by 2035. In fact, he said, quote, I am concerned that the timetable they are setting is a very aggressive timetable. Cool, you should tell people who are experiencing

severe flooding or severe drought how you feel about that aggressive timetable. People are already dying due to climate change. He doesn't care. He's bringing in half a million dollars a year with his ties to this coal company. That's what he cares about. But the media won't let you know about it. Luckily, we will. So next time someone tries to sell you that BS about the importance of bipartisanship, give him the middle finger and then show them the numbers, because that's what this is about. We got to take a break. We'll be right back. back to TYT. Let's get to our next story. Home Depot's billionaire co-founder, Ken Langone, had a little bit of a meltdown over Elizabeth Warren's proposal for a wealth tax. In fact,

he had the meltdown in front of Elizabeth Warren on national television, which means we're going to drink some rich man's tears. It's time for when rich men cry. I care. That's it. Look, say what you want to say about Elizabeth Warren. You can't take away the fact that this woman has led to Leon Cooperman having that wonderful cry fest on CNBC. And now we're going to talk about Ken Langone, a huge Trump supporter, billionaire, and someone who apparently doesn't like the idea of paying taxes.

So let's get to the first part of his meltdown where he just thinks he pays way too much in taxes, but he tries to use a little trick here. Pay attention. Tax is negative compound interest, what it is. You're right. I made all the money. I paid the government, what I owed them. What I had left, I put at risk. I could have lost it all. I could have lost it all. But I paid my share. I have a bigger issue for. the senator that I think I would hope she would address that to me is apple pie and motherhood. Senator, could we talk about the wealth tax just for a minute before we change subjects here? Senator, I have an easy one for you and you're going to be shocked that I'm bringing it up from a fat cat Wall Street guy. How do you rationalize giving me $3,000 a month check every month with all my wealth? Why don't you people have the courage to address entitlements as to what should no longer be an entitlement? I shouldn't get Social Security.

Tell me why I should get a check and my wife gets another thousand bucks on top of that. Take it away from me. Have the courage to do it. I know it's the third rail of politics, but do it. So let's start with the wealth tax. That's where we were. You don't want to address the issue of how on the problem. getting four grand a month from the government and I shouldn't be getting it?

Can I answer some of these questions? Sure, please. All right, thank you. So I'll start with the first one, and that was the question about the wealth tax. Did you guys catch the little wink right there where he thought that little rant was like perfect? He's like, got him, got him. If you missed the wink, I'll show you what it looked like in slow-mo. Sure, sure, please. All right, thank you. So I'll start with the first one, and that was the- It was the first one, and that was the call. What a goon. What an absolute goon.

Now, Elizabeth Warren handled it well. So we'll get to her video in just a second. But I do want to know something. Social Security, which he claims he's receiving $3,000 from, and then later said $4,000. He doesn't even know what the number is. He's a billionaire. So to be fair, he's right in that that money isn't money that he needs. But it's important to have universal programs.

because universal programs are far more popular. Universal programs are a lot more difficult to scale back because everyone's receiving it. Everyone likes, everybody likes money, everyone does. And when you look at the public polling on Social Security, it's abundantly clear. The majority of Americans love it and only a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage of Americans want to scale it back or cut the program. So what he's doing there is trying to make it appear as though, oh, this is the Social Security program.

I mean, it's just, it's waste. It's waste because a billionaire like me shouldn't be receiving that money. But the way Elizabeth Warren answered that question, I think, was perfect. So let's take a look at that. And you'll ask about Social Security. I think Social Security really is the thing that is structured differently. It's structured as an insurance policy and you paid in year after year after year and part of the contract was if you would pay in, you would get this kind of return on the back end. It's not somebody's welfare. It's not somebody's charity.

It was an agreement that every employee in the country who is eligible for Social Security paid into and gets a return at the back end. She's right about that. Now, as we know, wealthy people have all sorts of tax loopholes that they can take advantage of. But for the most part, we all pay into the social security system. There's a cap in terms of the amount of income that gets taxed for social security. So if you're a high earner at a certain point, it's somewhere around, I think, last time I checked, I think $130 something thousand dollars. past that amount, you don't pay into social security anymore.

But the reason why it's a universal program is because it's something that everyone pays into. And so I think she answered that perfectly, but I would have also added the fact that universal programs are super popular. Let me give you those numbers right now. So first off, it's incredibly important to the majority of Americans, because the majority of Americans sadly rely on social security as a huge portion of their income during retirement. I say sadly because social security isn't enough to retire on for most people. And to know that such a huge percentage of Americans rely on that as their major source of income after they retire just gives you a sense of how, A, how necessary it is, but also

how it needs to be a little more robust. We need to offer more to Americans retirees in this program. Now, 57% of retirees indicated in our April of 2019 survey, this is from Gallup, by the way, this year that Social Security is a major source of income in their retirement, eclipsing by far the second and third sources, retirement accounts such as 401Ks and IRAs and work-sponsored pension plans. Look, 401Ks, IRAs, or IRAs, depending on how you like to say it, they're tied to risk. So you might be approaching retirement and the market can completely collapse and you lose a giant portion of your retirement. And I mean, that's what happened in 2008 for so many Americans.

Social security is not tied to risk. It's tied to how much you've contributed to the system. So if you've been taxed at the maximum amount for social security, you'll get the maximum payout once you're ready to retire. But even then, as I mentioned, Social Security isn't robust enough for people to comfortably retire on. But as I mentioned, 47% of Americans rely on that as their main source of income when they retire. Pew Research Center reported that 74% of Americans say that Social Security benefits should not be reduced in any way. And previous Pew Research found that only 6% favored cutting government spending on Social Security.

NPR PBS poll found last year, this is a little, this is an older study by the way. So it's not last year. This is from 2018 specifically, found in 2018 that six in 10 Americans would prefer to reverse the 2017 tax bill, otherwise known as tax cuts for the rich, rather than cut entitlement programs like Social Security, if necessary to reduce the deficit. So that's really the situation here. When Ken Langone is like, why don't you cut social security, it's because it's political suicide. Cutting social security does not poll well with Democrats, certainly doesn't

pull well with Republicans, doesn't pull well with Americans. They want to maintain that program. It is a popular universal program. So while Ken Langone is trying to play that little trick of like, but I'm rich and I shouldn't be getting that money, I mean, he could reject it. He could could reject it, but he doesn't, because it's not really about him wanting to reject the money. It's about him wanting to avoid paying into Social Security. And remember, it's not just, you know, getting taxed for Social Security. If you're a business owner, you pay payroll taxes. Payroll taxes also fund Social Security.

He don't like that. You don't like that at all. Okay, so let's get to one more video featuring. Elizabeth Warren and Ken Langone that I thought was fascinating. Let's look at someone like Jeff Bezos, who is worth a bazillion dollars. He has not paid taxes on all of that wealth. Don't describe it that way. In fact, Jeff Bezos, many years, has either paid nothing in taxes or he's paid about 1%.

Why? Because his income is very, very small. But he continues to grow his wealth through all of his Amazon stock. And how does he then fund a lifestyle like he does? Not by cashing in Amazon stock, but by borrowing against it. Right now, we have a tax system because it focuses principally on wealth that actually doesn't capture the folks at the very top. It makes middle class folks pay. It makes working class folks pay.

But it doesn't make those at the top pay. A wealth tax is an opportunity to say if you're at the very, very, very top, you have to make a contribution to. Listen, I don't have much to add to what she said there other than I like the fact that she spoke to him like he was a child because he acts like a child. She has to talk slowly. She has to soften her voice because he's acting like a baby. He's crying like a baby on national television, even though he is a billionaire, even

Even though he lips comfortably, even though he has been able to thrive in a system that is rigged in his favor, the idea of paying more into this system, providing more opportunity for others, just leads to a temper tantrum on national television for Ken Langone. He can't even sit still and listen while Senator Warren is speaking to him. Act like a child, you're going to get treated like a child. And then you're going to get made fun of on this show, especially when you act like a child like that. When you're crying on national television as a billionaire, it's just pathetic. Speaking of children, let's move on to Megan McCain.

Because I actually really enjoyed her commentary about hustle culture. I didn't expect it. I thought I was going to dunk on her. But no, no, she's actually right here. Megan McCain recently weighed in on Americans and their obsession to hustle, right? Hustle culture is something that definitely grates on my nerves, and I didn't expect it to grate on Megan McCain's nerves because to be quite honest with you, I didn't think that she was much of a hustler, but she sees herself as someone who's worked really, really hard,

feels incredibly burnt out, and is pulling away from working to focus on her family. She's decided to step down from The View. I believe this is her last week there. And so she opened up to People Magazine about this and said this. Well, 36-year-old exiting co-host of the View made an emotional plea via Instagram on Sunday to stop glamorizing, overworking and burnout, which she has admittedly battled. So, okay, let's put aside her workload for a second and just applaud the fact that, yes, Yeah, people are burnt out and we need to stop glamorizing overworking, right? First one in the office, last one out of the office, let's give them a giant pat on the back and

underpay them. No, let's stop celebrating this. This is not healthy. We need to push for, fight for actual balance in people's lives. And when I say balance, I'm not talking about working on multiple projects equally in a 24 hour period. I'm talking about balance between work and play, work and family. And what hustle culture essentially does is it pressures us to overwork, burn ourselves out. And if something doesn't go well in our careers, it allows, it creates a culture that allows for you to be the bad guy who just, it's your fault. You know, it's the myth of personal responsibility.

You didn't work hard enough. You didn't hustle hard enough. You didn't stay after you were off the clock longer. You should have been in the office, even though you weren't getting paid for it, that kind of stuff. It's toxic and it's harmful. It's shocking that this comment is coming for Megan McCain, who still identifies as someone who's part of the Republican Party. But what she's saying here is right. We should not glamorize overworking and burnout.

So let me read you the full Instagram post. She says, we need to stop glamorizing overworking. Please, the absence of sleep, good diet, exercise, relaxation, and time with friends and family isn't something to be applauded. Too many people wear their burnout as a badge of honor and it needs to change. Yeah, yeah, it needs to change, absolutely. So if you come across Gary Vee, and I know I'm picking on Gary Vee, he's probably the most prominent member of hustle culture. Just don't buy what he's selling. Don't drink this Kool-Aid because it's toxic, it's harmful,

and you're doing something that's actually pretty counterproductive for your own health. And I would argue even your own career because it creates a situation where you can be taken advantage of at work. With that said, though, here's Gary Vee. Here's what hustle culture really is. I did a lengthier segment about this on the show Weekends for Jacobin. Check that out. YouTube.com slash Jacobin Mag. But here he is, the one and only, Gary V.

There's so many people here that are just not patient and you're not paying. You know, the youngsters aren't patient because they have chips on their shoulder because they want to prove to mom and dad that they're right and they're going to do it their way. And the second they start doing their process, they've got the pressure on them. You know, they haven't made it yet. This is all about shortcuts versus the long game. I want to build the biggest building in town ever by just building the biggest building in town. while I think most people try to tear down

everybody else's building. So I think positivity and good is practical advice to building an empire and I want to be the poster child of the person that built the biggest, baddest empire and did it by being a good dude along the way. You need to outwork the people that have money. There's three variables, three pillars.

Time, money, talent. Talent is hard to control. Money you don't have yet. Time is your only friend. What you do between 7 p.m. and 3 in the morning will ultimately probably be the variable of your success. No, no, not interested in working from 7 p.m. to 3 in the morning, not interested at all. Not interested in doing anything after I wrap this show, just keeping it real. Because when you keep saying yes, when you keep giving into hustle culture, then it's just expected of you.

And no one, look, no one's going to hit you up and be like, yo, Anna, you look like you're burnt out. You could use a break. Maybe don't do this or that. No, they're going to put more on your plate. That's what hustle culture is. That is what hustle culture is. It's about squeezing as much work out of you as possible. It's about making sure.

And by the way, I know I'm putting myself into this. TYT is actually very good to me. I'm not worried about it in my context. But I'm using myself as an example to say, like, if you do that, right, it's, all about really squeezing as much labor out of you. So employers get their money's worth, right? They get the best return on their investment. They see you as human capital.

I don't know if Megan McCain thought about it this far, but I do know that that's the underlying message for people who do speak out against hustle culture. She also says this, this has been me, my entire adult life. Trust me, I love working and the satisfaction I get from it, But I have been the queen of burnout for a long, long time. She also added, trust me, I believe it now. I also feel my mortality and the finite amount of time, a human lifespan is more than ever.

Also, that there's nothing in this world guaranteed, most especially tomorrow. Okay, so that's what she's got to say. But now here's where I basically say no cookies for Megan McCain. Megan McCain is incredibly fortunate and privileged. So she can step away from the view. She can step away from work for the rest of her life if she wanted to. Most Americans can't afford that. Most Americans can't afford to take a single day off to deal with an emergency.

So we're talking about two very different classes here. We're talking about two very different situations here. And so while it's easy to say, hey, don't give into hustle culture, What we really need to have a discussion about is what can we do to build labor, power to ensure that when there are these insane expectations for workers, they have a way of pushing back. They have protection. So if they say no, they don't have to worry about retaliation. They don't have to worry about losing their jobs. That's why what went down in Topeka, Kansas with the striking Fidelay workers was such an important story to focus on.

on because those workers were forced to do back to back 12 hour shifts with no days off. And they were unionized and were able to strike for three weeks in order to change the terms of their employment to ensure that they had better working conditions and were not forced to work back to back 12 hours shifts with no days off. So that's what we need to focus on because it's one thing to say reject hustle culture. it's an entirely different thing to build a labor movement that's powerful enough to withstand the pressure and the retaliation from employers who demand to get the best return on their investment. The best return on their so-called human capital.

All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, John Iderola will be joining me. We're going to talk about Kirk, the jerk. Charlie Kirk has some thoughts about Simone Biles that garbage. He's just a garbage person. And you know what? John Irola likes to note who garbage people are. He's the perfect person to help me do this story. So stick around. We'll be right back. 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, Jank Huger, and I'll see you soon.