The Young Turks - Heavy Lift

Episode Date: January 5, 2022

Just as Democrats are hitting pause on Biden's climate & social spending package, a huge increase in child poverty could happen as a result of letting the expanded Child Tax Credit expire. A groping charge against former New York Gov. Cuomo has been dropped by a prosecutor. Joe Rogan encourages moving to a new social media app after Twitter bans GOP lawmakers. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders rebuked former President Donald Trump Monday after the frequent admirer of dictators endorsed the reelection of Hungarian President Viktor Orbán. In a new Brazilian presidential poll, Lula is leading the judge who locked him up. Hosts: Cenk Uygur & Ana Kasparian 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. Woo! All the best show on the internet. Not a big deal, though. Not a big deal. Jake Ugar, Anna Kusparian with you guys.

We do have the news. And, you know, the usual stuff, disastrous, fun, you know, standard fare. I'm going to start out super random just for like 15 seconds. Cool. Keep it tight. We got a lot. Okay, keep it tight. I just got a note on air from the EP, okay?

Didn't even have to use my IFB. She just said it right there. Don't look up the wonderfully progressive movie by Adam McKay, original idea by David Sorota. Number one on Netflix, worldwide,

biggest week in Netflix history, already top three most viewed in all of Netflix history. And establishment hacks in the Democratic Party. Why would they be opposed to it? Except they have a guilty conscience.

I'd called it a flop. Democratic consultants. Listen, if I were among the elite in either government or the media, I would absolutely hate that film. Yeah, because it's totally true and everybody loves it and you look like idiots because you are. More important than idiots is corrupt. The powerful are incredibly greedy and corrupt. And that's what any news person should say, go ahead, find that in anywhere in mainstream. media. Any reporter ever calling people in powerful greedy and corrupt. Isn't that weird that not a

single reporter does that in the whole country in the national media? Weird. All right, let's do actual news. All right. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and yes, he is the Senate majority leader, believe it or not, has basically said that he will force a vote on reforming the legislative filibuster in the Senate. This is in an effort to pave the way for, for the passage of a voting rights bill. Now, the voting rights bill, of course, is incredibly important for the future of American democracy. Also, it's incredibly important for the future of these politicians' careers, considering

the fact that Republican gerrymandering and other suppressive laws in red states really do undermine the possibility of Democrats being able to win elections fair and square. Now, here's what he had to say about this issue on the Senate floor this week. If Republicans continue to hijack the rules of the chamber to prevent action on something as critical as protecting our democracy, then the Senate will debate and consider changes to the rules on or before January 17th Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Now those are some strong words. It seems like Chuck Schumer has a real plan in place. He's going to do what's necessary in order to get voting rights passed. But when you scratch beneath the surface just a little bit, you notice that there really is no plan,

which means this calls for another edition of the dumb and the feckless. One of my prayers is that the Republicans will take back their party. Things keep dripping out, drip, drip, drip, drip, and the truth comes out. Now, Senator Schumer felt that maybe it'd be a good idea to go on MSNBC a very friendly, cable news network to get into the details about what he's going to do to ensure that the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 senators to vote in favor of legislation, is reformed. So it doesn't serve as such an obstacle in getting the Democratic agenda passed. And I want you to pay close attention to how Joanne Reed, of all people, pushes back, you know, asks some pretty tough

questions about Democrats in the Senate and how Schumer really fails in answering how he's going to get this done. Can you tell us any evidence that you, that Mansion or Cinema has given publicly or to you that they care more about voting rights and the democracy continuing than about the filibuster? Because I haven't seen any evidence that they actually have more support for voting rights and democracy than they do for the filibuster. What I can tell you this is They have made even public statements that particularly mention that he wants to get voting rights done and wants to figure out a way to do it. But why should we believe that? Why should we believe that? They haven't taken any action. Well, we've got to keep pressing them and pressing them and pressing them until they do. There is too much at risk here.

If obviously they were saying yes to us, we wouldn't have to worry about this. But we do have to worry. And we have to keep pushing. There's no real plan in place. And how do I know that? Well, he specifically mentioned conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who has served as a massive obstacle, going on the record to say that, you know, he's open to doing something about the legislative filibuster, especially when it comes to voting rights. However, turns out that's not really the case. Senator Joe Manchin voiced skepticism over a Democratic push to change the filibuster

along party lines, warning that his preference is for any rule. changes to be, of course, bipartisan, meaning that there would be no rule changes. Republicans would not want to reform or do away with the filibuster. In fact, he says specifically being open to a rules change that would create a nuclear option is very, very difficult. It's a heavy lift, Manchin told reporters, when asked about using the nuclear option in which Democrats would change the 60 vote legislative filibuster on their own, Jenk. Okay, so lots of fun things here.

First of all, I saw an article the other day that referred to Joy Reid as one of the biggest progressives in D.C. I don't know too many people on the planet that dislike progressives more than Joy Reid does. And even she's tired of the nonsense from Democratic leadership. Now, I believe her when she says she cares about voting rights. So she's pressing him on voting rights. This, come on, this is a bridge too far even for progressive killer Joy Reid. She's like, aren't we going to do anything? Really, Chuck Schumer, we're going to do nothing at all?

And so, look, that's a funny way of backhanded way of complimenting her. But good questions, way to press them. I appreciate it. I don't care about anything in the past. I just care about whether people are doing a good job now. So I appreciate the line of question. Now, Chuck Schumer's answers, I mean, look, it's pathetic. It's pathetic.

If you had any real press in the country, you would all know, and they'd all be telling you the most obvious thing in the world. I mean, look, guys, it's not even for the People Act. For the People Act was a good piece of legislation. It was called H.R. 1 last time around. And the Democrats pretend to be in favor when they knew they had no chance of passing because Trump was in office. Now, when they got into office, they're like, HR1 has anti-corruption stuff.

Got it, got it. And they ripped it apart. They have the John Lewis Act now. They named it that because it's weaker. So they want to say, oh, John Lewis, you all like John Lewis. He's a civil rights hero. will put our weakest piece of legislation with the best name. But even that is not right now is not going to pass.

So look, any reporter that entertains any talk from Mansion or any other politician about how Republicans might vote to end the filibuster for anything, or that Republicans might vote in favor of voting rights, no, you can't let that stand. Otherwise, you're not at all a reporter. There is no chance of that happening. Zero, that is an obvious brazen lie. We just say right there and then, really, you have 10 Republicans who are going to agree with Democrats on voting rights?

Name them. You couldn't name two, let alone 10, your obvious liars. So Chuck Schumer knows that. So now they're going to have to go to, let's do a carve out of the carve out, and maybe somebody could talk and we won't actually get anything done, but we'll have more talking in D.C. and pretty pleased Joe Manchin. Aw, Jank, it's very sweet. The idea of even being able to accomplish a carve-out for voting rights. Because Joe Manchin has responded to that possibility as well.

Let's go to Graphic 4 here. Mansion appeared skeptical that it would just nix the filibuster entirely. Anytime there's a carve-out, you eat the whole turkey. There's nothing left, Manchin said. In expressing, by the way, his admiration and love. of devotion loyalty to this legislative filibuster, which clearly serves to basically carry out corporate interests and block any type of progressive agenda or even moderate Democrat agenda from passing.

And by the way, I mean, look, there's an issue, and people might get offended by this, we need new leadership, we need to elect young, energetic people into Congress who actually want to fight for us. People like Nancy Pelosi, people like Chuck Schumer, this type of Democratic leadership definitely, like it seals the deal in regard to losing again and again and again. I mean, look at them. Look at them right next to me. Look at them. That's Democratic leadership. These are the people who are supposed to fight back against the fascistic Republican Party under Trump's leadership, please. And if you don't believe me, the interview with Joanne Reed ended pretty poorly. And I have that video for you right now. Let's take a look.

But when senators go to them and say, I will lose my election unless we do something about voting rights, when senators come to them and say, we will not have a democracy anymore, not just for two years, but for 10 years. And constant senators of all different stripes, including some of our most moderate senators, we have a group of three senators who's constantly talking to them, Angus King, John Tester, and the senators. from Virginia as well, saying to them, we were not for changing the rules, but we've changed our mind too much as at stake. The obsession with holding on to power and not letting it go is hurting the Democratic Party,

it's hurting the country. These are not leaders. These are not people who are looking out to represent the best interests of the American people. These are just narcissistic individuals who are concerned with their own profits and their own power. And the The fact that there's still no real plan in place to do something about voter suppression in this country tells you everything you need to know about the current democratic leadership. Yeah, and so first of all, guys, I know no reporter in D.C. will ever be honest with you, but they're nearly senile. But keep it real.

He can't remember Tim Cain's name. Tim Cain ran for vice president in the Democratic Party five years ago. Tim Cain, the guy who was VP, Joe Tester, I mean, John Tester, they don't, they're totally incompetent. The reason I have to scream it, guys, is because I'm trying to speak over the rest of the entire media, who are all pretending that Biden, Pelosi, Schumer are master legislators, master negotiators, They're so good at their job when we can see their face melting on TV and so I'm here to tell you the most obvious thing in the world, but I have to scream it because the rest of the media goes, oh, don't listen to them. That's ridiculous. No, of course, your leaders are supposed to be senile. They're not supposed to know what the hell is going on.

And on voting rights, again, bare, bare, bare minimum. I thought $15 minimum wage was bare minimum. That apparently has no chance of passing. But I didn't even think, like I knew they were going to get rid of the anti-corruption parts. But I didn't think that they wouldn't pass voting rights. It's political suicide not to pass voting rights, let alone the fact that this is what we've been fighting for for like literally centuries in this country. And Schumer said at the very end that it was, quote, too important to give up on.

Oh my God, they're considering giving up on it. Oh my God, they're considering giving up on the absolute bare minimum to save democracy. And so in the past the filibuster was used to block voting rights. And it's still being used to block voting rights. But there is a difference, guys. In the past, the filibuster was used to protect racists about civil rights, voting rights, and anti-lynching wants, okay? Now that is not the point. I don't want you to get confused because mainstream media use identity politics all the time.

No, now the filibuster is used to protect. corporate donors because they don't want the $15 minimum wage pass. They don't want any of those things passed that affect their interests. If you get rid of the filibuster, Democrats have no longer, no longer have any excuse to say, oh, there was nothing we could do. Oh God, did we give everything to the donors? That's right. Oh, golly gee, there was nothing we can do.

Filibuster, wink. How many times have you seen MSNBC anchors say that? How many times have you seen CNN anchors say it? How many times has the New York Times written it? Almost never when they, I mean, either they don't know when they're fools, they should just be plumbers. They don't know anything about politics or they're lying to you on purpose. They're keeping the actual reason away from you. And now it turns out they're willing to betray black voters, Democratic voters, and the whole country and democracy itself to protect corporations.

That's who these sickening corporate Democrats are. Now we're, oh, hey, we haven't given up yet. Wow, Chuck, you're a real role model and leadership. All right, well, let's move on to our next story where there's also a lack of leadership, especially when it comes to consequences for things like sexual misconduct and death. So, former New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, will not face prosecution for either his sexual misconduct allegations or the fact that his policies led to the preventable deaths of elderly people in nursing homes and then proceeded to cover up the data related to that.

Now let's start off with the decision among prosecutors in regard to his nursing home policies during the pandemic. Here's what we know based on Politico's reporting. The state attorney general's office released a report in 2021 accusing the state of drastically undercounting COVID-19 deaths in nursing home facilities. Cuomo's AIDS overruled state health officials on the issue, deciding not to publish a scientific paper that would have showed the scope of the deaths and to not send two letters the state health officials had drafted for state lawmakers. So just to give you more context on what he did, he essentially forced nursing homes to take in elderly COVID patients as they were being released from the hospital.

And of course, that led to the spread of COVID within these nursing homes. and that led to a spike in nursing home deaths. After that data was available, his administration avoided having to publish the accurate number, the accurate number of deaths in these nursing homes. So that was a huge issue, and apparently he's not going to face any criminal charges for that. Prosecutors in Manhattan believe that he didn't break any laws. So Alan Abram, his lawyer, basically, outside counsel to Cuomo's office, said in a statement that the former governor was told Monday by the head of the Manhattan District Attorney's

elder abuse unit that the office had completed a thorough investigation and would not bring charges. Oh, well, at least it was thorough. We thoroughly decided that we weren't going to hold them accountable under any circumstance. Now, I was going to do this story. We ran out of time last week about how prosecutors in different areas of New York, one by one, started dropping charges against Cuomo, meaning, man, you know what? We'll just let it go. We'll let it go, right? But I thought, hey, look, there's at least one left in Albany, and it looks like they're going to pursue criminal charges, and I had that written up as what I was going to tell you guys, then I'm going to do that either. Okay, so in that case, it was an assistant that he grabbed the butt of several times, and then he, that's the one where he reached under her shirt and grabbed her breasts.

Yeah, let me give you more details on that. Yeah, she's going to give you details. They dropped all the cases. Everything. You know why? Because he's one of the elites. They're not going to put him in jail. There's no way they were ever going to do that.

So they can tell me all these pretty little lies about like, oh, no, it's not coordinated. We just all happened to decide that there was just not enough evidence on poor Andrew Cuomo. I mean, all the people that are dead in the nursing homes is out of control, corruption, and the groping of women. We just couldn't find any evidence, you know. I mean, didn't he pay enough?

of a price, his reputation has been slightly besmirched. And you know, and he's among the elites, we have besmirched an elite, that's got to be good enough. No, no, it's definitely not good enough. So I have two things to say. Number one, and maybe this doesn't speak highly of me, but I've gotten to a point where I'm desensitized. Like, I have come to expect that people in positions of power, regardless of how hideous their crimes are, don't face criminal consequences for what they do. Okay, I mean, think about the number of credible allegations against men in positions of power, people like Brett Kavanaugh, people like Donald Trump.

I mean, that kind of sexual misconduct, whether it's carried out by a Democrat or a Republican, it doesn't matter as long as we're talking about a person who has money and power. So I'm not saying that the way I feel is right, but it's become so commonplace and so expected that I'm almost desensitized to these types of outcomes. The other thing I want to note is, how many places can you guys go to where the media is fair in having this kind of critique regardless of the political identity of the individual we're talking about? Because honestly, when it comes to issues of sexual misconduct, it becomes so politicized by one side or the other, when in reality, it's wrong regardless of who carries it out.

And there should be consequences, including criminal consequences, toward the person who carried it out. In this case, with the sexual misconduct, let me give you the details. The Albany Sheriff's Department or office, I should say, had filed a criminal complaint in October charging Cuomo with forcible touching, which is a misdemeanor sex crime that carries a penalty of up to one year in jail. Okay, so Cuomo will not be prosecuted in the criminal case involving allegations that he groped a former aide in the executive mansion in 2020, the Albany County District Attorney announced. Now, the move to drop the case, by the way, marked a reprieve for Cuomo,

who was actually expected to be arraigned in court on Friday, even as the prosecutor described the former aide, Brittany Camiso, as credible and said he was, quote, deeply troubled by allegations like the ones at issue here. No, he wasn't. He's lying. He is lying. Then why didn't you pursue the case? And so the argument is, well, let me give you his exact argument. Okay, so here is the Albany County District Attorney. He says, while many have an opinion regarding the allegations against the former governor, the Albany County DA's office is the only one who has a burden to prove the elements of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. While we found the complainant in this case cooperative and credible, after review of all the available evidence,

we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial. So, I was curious about that because what are the burdens? And if you look at similar cases, how are they carried out? Are they prosecuted? Are they let go? Are the charges dropped? Now, this is the third prosecutor, by the way,

who has decided to drop charges, sexual misconduct charges against Cuomo, as Jenk had mentioned. Let's look at the burden of proof. Let's go to Graphics 7 here. Prosecutors in Albany would have had to clear a relatively high bar had they proceeded with the criminal charge.

Okay. So hold on one second. Okay, so they would have, you know, high burden of proof, which required them to prove not only that Cuomo had touched Camiso, but that he did so with the intention of satisfying his own sexual desire or to degrade her. Because cases like these rarely have irrefutable physical evidence, much of the burden would likely have fallen on Camiso's testimony. Okay, sounds like the burden of proof is pretty serious, right? But what are the statistics when it comes to these types of cases? Is it worth pursuing prosecution here? I'll give you the numbers you decide for yourselves.

Of the roughly 1,400 cases, like Mr. Cuomo's, brought in a typical year across the state, almost four, almost four in 10 are dismissed or dropped, state criminal statistics show. So why not pursue it? I mean, that's, that's not, that's actually not bad. I mean, yeah, there's a possibility that, you know, the, the, it'll be dismissed or dropped or, you know, there isn't enough evidence. Yeah. So, first of all, that New York Times story is crap. It's a status quo protection racket.

So look at the way they framed the story. Oh, well, it's a high burden of proof. Almost four out of ten are dropped. Wait a minute. That means the majority. Yep. And in fact, a significant majority, over 60% are not dropped. So why did he get the exception and not the rule?

Now, did the New York Times frame it that way? Nope. Oh, that's really weird. Why are they dropping this case when the great majority of them go forward? No, they framed it as a high bar. Most of them are dropped anyway, four out of ten. Almost four out of ten. Okay, wait, isn't that curious how they framed it?

Because the New York Times loves the powerful and caters to the powerful. That's their job, it's the kiss the ass of the powerful. So they should have ripped Cuomo and the prosecutors who obviously brazenly corruptly dropped these charges. Nothing. I mean, what is it? Look at the other framing. Well, they'd have to just rely on her word. That's also true in rape cases.

Should we drop all rape cases? Come on. It's absurd. They're looking for every excuse to say, oh, come on, come on. He already stepped down as governor. Oh, come on. You guys, come on, he's, but he's so powerful and elite. I mean, we can't put him in there with regular people.

Yuck. I'm telling you, man, all of them, including the reporters at the New York Times, they genuinely feel that way. They think justice, in other words, revenge, vengeance, etc. is for us. We should get that. Never the elites. They're untouchable.

So let's realize what actually happened here, okay? The other cases drop. first because every one of them said, oh, don't worry, he's still being prosecuted in Albany. No, don't, no heat on me. Being prosecuted in Albany, criminal charges, sexual assault, that's really serious. So the press wrote, don't worry about it. He's there going to get him later. Now, when they dropped the main charge, they're like, ah, it's no big deal.

I mean, these things get dropped to come sometimes, sometimes. It's no big deal. I mean, look at the prosecutor. I'm going to reread, but in reality, what Anna read you, she said, he said, while we found the complainant in this case cooperative and credible. Now let me add the reality, which is, but we chose not to do anything about this credible complaint anyway. Exactly. Because she didn't have political power and the person who was accused had tons and tons of political power. So we chose to do nothing because we're corrupt. So the only real question

that the New York Times and every reporter should have asked but didn't ask and did the opposite is was there a formal or informal deal here? Because in the beginning, as skeptical, as I am, I would have guessed that there was no deal because you'd have to make a deal with each district attorney in the different counties. And that seemed like a bridge too far. But the way that, I mean, the highly coordinated gymnastics they did here to let Cuomo off the hook made me change my mind and go, I guess I'm still naive after all this time. Definitely. Yeah. Now, I think the deal was not just informal group think. It was formal. They reached out and said, he's going to step down, everybody dropped the charges when no one's paying attention. And don't worry, the press will

cover our ass. They love us. Just tell them what to do and then type it like the good dogs that they are. When we come back from the break, unfortunately, the Joe Rogan situation has devolved further. He is upset over the censorship of his show. We'll give you the details on that. and also get into the details of the man who has claimed that he pioneered the MRNA vaccine and why he is against COVID vaccines today. We've got those stories and more when we come back. All right, back on CYT, Jake and Anna with you guys. News. All right, let's do it.

Joe Rogan has decided to join Gitter, the right-wing alternative to Twitter. as an insurance policy in case he gets banned from Twitter. Now this came after Congresswoman Marjorie Green was suspended from Twitter for violating its policies on vaccine disinformation, something she has done multiple times, but she has done it so many times that it appears that she's now dealing with a permanent suspension. We'll see how that goes. Now, Gitter, as you know, was launched by Jason Miller, who was a former senior Trump advisor. And in his announcement, Rogan wrote this, this is his post on Gitter, just in case Twitter gets even dumber, I'm here now as well, rejoice.

Now, Rogan does have cause for concern in terms of possibly getting censored. In fact, he has been censored by some platforms already in regard to the vaccine and coronavirus-related misinformation he doles out with his podcast. For instance, he has consistently promoted the use of Ivermectin as a treatment for coronavirus, even though there is no evidence of Ivermectin as a treatment for coronavirus. And he has, of course, downplayed the need for young people to get vaccinated because he believes that it should only be used for people who have core morbidities or, you know, are more vulnerable to coronavirus. Now, Twitter, by the way, also banned Dr. Robert Malone, an MRNA vaccine scientist,

who has been accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 just days before he appeared on Rogan's podcast last week. Malone, of course, has also opened a Gitter account. Now, YouTube has decided to take down Rogan's conversation with Dr. Malone. And Dr. Malone's actually an interesting character. We'll get into more detail about him in just a minute. But before we do, I want you to get accustomed, or I should say, acquainted with him in case you haven't heard of him. So Dr. Malone, during his conversation with Joe Rogan, had used the phrase mass formation psychosis multiple times to basically compare modern day America to Nazi Germany. And even though he is one of the pioneers of the MRNA framework that's used in the COVID

vaccines. He's now out there spreading all sorts of scary, paranoid misinformation about it to discourage people from getting vaccinated. With that said, I want to play just a short snippet of his conversation with Joe Rogan, and then we'll discuss. Let's watch. What the heck happened in Germany in the 20s and 30s? You know, very intelligent, highly educated population, and they went barking mad. And how did that happen? The answer is, mass formation psychosis. When you have a society that has become decoupled

from each other and has free-floating anxiety in a sense that things don't make sense, we can't understand it. And then their attention gets focused by a leader or a series of events

on one small point, just like hypnosis, they literally become hypnotized and can be led anywhere. It doesn't matter whether they lie to them or whatever. The data are irrelevant.

And furthermore, Anybody who questions that narrative is to be immediately attacked, they are the other. This is central to mass formation psychosis, and this is what has happened. We had all those conditions. If you remember back before, 2019, everybody was complaining, the world doesn't make sense, blah, blah, blah. And we're all isolated from each other. We're all on our little tools. We're not connected socially anymore, except through social media.

And then this thing happened and everybody focused on it. So we've seen this happen before where people like to compare what individuals are doing to keep themselves safe during a global pandemic to Nazi Germany. I would argue that that is an insane comparison and incredibly insulting, especially to people who have family members who suffered during the Holocaust. But, you know, it's, it's just the whole situation is super strange because someone who considers himself the pioneer of the technology necessary to, you know, create these vaccines is now so heavily against it. And look, I can say as a free American, I am not a victim of any type of like group think. I want to live my life as a free individual without having to worry about getting hospitalized or without having to worry about dying from COVID. Same with my family

members. The way that you can finally go out there and live life and not be so atomized and isolated from everyone else is to get vaccinated. And look, if people don't want to get vaccinated, I would be totally fine with that if they weren't overwhelming our hospitals and essentially leading to a situation where people with other ailments are getting denied treatment because they don't have hospital beds necessary to treat them. I mean, he's, he's not a dumb person. He is a scientist. He is a doctor. He knows these things. But apparently he's got a huge bias that wasn't discussed in the context of this Joe Rogan interview, which I'll get to in just a second. But Jake, why don't you jump in? Yeah, I have a nuanced take on this. And actually,

I think I disagree with you on one thing. I actually think his explanation of mass formation psychosis made a lot of sense, whether the Nazis used it or anybody else used it. But as he was describing it, I thought it described the right wing perfectly. That's exactly what happens. You get one leader who says ignore all the evidence. And if anyone disagrees with the leader, then they are to be shunned. And so now there's some, again, nuance within the right wing, too, that leader, unchallenged leader used to be Donald Trump.

It's now morphing into Joe Rogan slash Alex Jones slash Tucker Carlson, right? But do they have mass formation psychosis? Definitely. They will not listen to any facts about anything, which is deeply ironic. So, and are they slipping into fascism? I think they definitely are. So now both sides think that each other are Nazis. By the way, now I think for reasons that we've explained, and I can explain more here,

I think that they are not in favor of democracy. Obviously, the big one being, hey, they lost an election, and they had no evidence, and they lost 60 court cases, and they said, screw it, we don't want democracy, right? But in their minds, they are the protectors of democracy. But guys, whether you're on the right wing or the left wing, you keep getting distracted. The people in charge is not the right wing or the left wing. It's corporations. And so-

And by the way, Malone would have you believe that he agrees with you on that. That, you know, there is an issue with these pharmaceutical companies. It's all about profit, that they rushed the creation of these vaccines. everyone is part of this giant experiment, but it's interesting because while he spews that talking point, which by the way, there's a lot of truth to that, he leaves out pretty relevant information regarding the fact that he worked as a consultant for major pharmaceutical companies. Like that was a huge part of the money he made, right? And so I think what we're experiencing right now is unfortunately this cocktail of failures among our institutions.

You're right. It's not about our political leaders brainwashing us. It's about corporate rule, which also gets left out of these nuanced conversation, lack of nuanced conversations. And yeah, it's incredibly frustrating. By the way, we don't disagree. I take offense to the idea that he's applying this like mass, you know, brainwashing ideology to people who are doing what's necessary to keep themselves and people in their community safe, right? Yeah. So look, Malone's a liar. Or he's an idiot. I don't know. He's lost his mind. Whatever the adjective you want to attach to it. Why? I'm not just saying that. And I'm not mainstream media where they just say, oh, anyone who disagrees with us should be banned. And by the way, this is really important, guys. Mainstream media also does mass formation of psychosis. They will tell you things like, no people don't want higher wages because they're concerned about inflation. Well, that's not true. No poll shows that. No, you don't want higher wages because you're part. a corporate rule. So I, and on this show, we've shown you literally hundreds of raisin over the top lies of mainstream media. Why all in favor of corporate rule. So now, but when,

but why do I say those things about Dr. Malone? Now I'm not saying he was never a doctor and he would never was never of sound mind. He apparently was a good doctor at some point, right? By the way, there's a lot of folks who were good doctors at some point and then have lost their minds named Dr. Oz, now that he's like a clown, everybody's forgotten. But he was literally one of the best heart surgeons in the country. Remember, Ben Carson used to be an amazing surgeon. So you can be a doctor and then lose your mind. And so, so in his case, why am I sure? Guys, all of the other doctors working at all of the other hospitals aren't all part of the drug company scam. A random doctor in the middle of Kansas or Rhode Island or Hawaii or wherever

they are, they aren't all like, oh, the big drug companies, they have sent me a check for $10.73 cents. I will now lie to all my patients that endanger their lives. You really think all of the world's doctors, except Dr. Malone and two other randos that Joe Rogan found, are all lying. That their patients that are dying are not the unvaccinated, they're the vaccinated, but every single doctor in every single hospital is lying. You'd have to be nuts to believe that. And at this point, Joe Rogan is definitely nuts and so is this stupid-ass quack Dr. Malone. Now, so I don't mind him getting banned for saying absurd things and that are obvious outrageous lies. But there's still nuance because if he says, hey, listen, I don't think the kids should take the vaccine. I don't

think that's an outrageous opinion. I don't necessarily, not necessarily, I don't agree with that. my kids took it. But I don't, that shouldn't get you banned. So we, we, everybody has to follow the science instead of the politics of each stupid camp. Yeah. And look, I think that, you know, I don't really, I don't, I don't have the same views on the censorship of Dr. Malone that I, that I, that I have with someone like, let's say, Alex Jones. Because he is a doctor at the end of the day. And there is a bias here that I think is taking, you know, really influence his commentary on the COVID vaccines that I think gets left out of these conversations. But once you start censoring the opinions of actual scientists and doctors, you do run into

some problems. I think that that, I do worry about that. I'm just putting that out there. It's very different from someone who incites violence toward victims of Sandy, of the Sandy Hook shooting, which is what Alex Jones did. Yeah, and I think Rogan is now on the edge, right? He never thought he was on the edge before, but the reason why he's on the edge is he keeps bringing in two doctors and not telling his audience. There are literally millions of other doctors who disagree. This guy's in the point 0.000% minority. Well then ironically, Rogan is doing an old mainstream media trick, which is, hey, some people say this and some people say that. Well, I'll call it even.

Well, it ain't even. You're de facto lying to your audience. And by the way, if you just kept, if you just stuck to the parts that are true, of course you're allowed to disagree. And guys, look, we don't, we have a tremendous self-interest in not wanting censorship. The mainstream media hates us. The establishment Democrats hate us even more than the establishment of Republicans. We would be among the first ban for just opinions.

But at the same time, when you look at things like this, if it, if their doctors have disagreements about cancer, well, okay, that's one thing. But cancer is not contagious so they could have that academic disagreement all day in public, even if one of them is a quack, right? But when you have a contagious disease and there are doctors out there who are saying, oh yeah, no big deal, man. I'll take the vaccine. Yeah, spread it around your family.

It's so great. Well, then the platforms have some responsibility to go, I need you to stop endangering people's lives. Yeah. Okay, so I wanted to get into what I keep hinting at, which is there's some bias here. in regard to Dr. Malone and these COVID vaccines, because I wanted to understand how is it that someone who considers himself the pioneer of the mRNA framework then feels the need to come out and discourage people from taking a vaccine that uses that research and saves people's lives. Well, the Atlantic wrote a lengthy piece about this, Tom Bartlett, I want to give him credit

for the article. And apparently Malone, this I'm reading directly from the piece, Malone says he deserves credit for more than just, hold on one second. Okay, here we go. Malone was the first author on a 1989 paper demonstrating how RNA could be delivered

into cells using lipids, which are basically tiny globules of fat, and a co-author, a co-author on a 1990 science paper showing that if you inject pure RNA or DNA into mouse muscle cells, it can lead to the transcription of new proteins if the same approach worked for human cells. The latter paper said in its conclusion, this technology may provide alternative approaches to vaccine development. And to be sure, that is true, right? So he is one of the pioneers, to give him credit, he's not some quack. But then things got a little shady, okay?

And it turns out that he feels that he was essentially erased from the history books in regard to being the pioneer, and it seems like he didn't want to give credit to his co-authors in regard to the research that was done in the 1980s. So the piece goes on to note that Malone says he deserves credit for more than just sparking hope in regard to this vaccine technology. He dropped out of graduate school in 1988, just short of his PhD, and went to work at a pharmaceutical company called Vickle. He now claims that both the Salk Institute and Vickle profited from his work and essentially prevented him from further pursuing his research. A Salk Institute spokesperson said that nothing in the institute's record substantiates Malone's

allegations, the biotech company into which Vickle was merged, known as Brickle, did not respond for requests for comment. To say that Malone remains bitter over this perceived mistreatment doesn't do justice to his sense of a grievment. He calls what happened to him intellectual rape. relevant details about his background that I would maybe bring up. Yeah, but look, that's why we say beware of fake populace. So Joe Rogan says, oh, watch out for the big drug companies.

That's why you should take Ivermectin produced by big drug companies. And this Malone guy's like, beware big drug companies. I mean, I loved working at a big drug company. And I thought they should have given me more credit and more money, but they didn't. So now I'm bitter. And 30 years later, I'm doing strikeback. It might endanger your life. But what do I care about you, man?

look, I got old grievances here. Guys, there are real massive issues with drug companies, including how they are jacking up drug prices. Our government isn't doing a goddamn thing about it. Corporate Democrats are the worst. Only people that tie them are corporate Republicans. They love higher drug prices. And I mean, you want to talk about assaulting us.

That's what the drug companies are doing. Oxycontin. Does it look like we're in favor of like, Yeah, gee, just trust the drug companies no matter what. They screwed us on OxyCon in a thousand ways, and the government oftentimes helped them do it, right? But that's why you have to use independent judgment. Now, do the drug companies lie about everything? Is every drug totally fake?

Well, if that was true, I guess Ivermectin would be fake, and the antibodies would be fakes, and all of those things that Rogan pushes would be fake. So obviously it requires nuance. Some are sometimes the drug companies do terrible things. Sometimes they come up with good drugs that are true. Well, how do we know? Should you trust us because we're progressives? You should trust Rogan because he has a big podcast.

Who, how do you know? Talk to the doctors you know. Go and see, oh, hey, there's two doctors online that say no. Hey, look, there's 20 million doctors who say yes. Are all 20 million doctors getting paid? Please use your mind. Use your mind. They're not all lying.

You know who's lying? Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan. As he sits there, go, oh yeah, don't trust $20 million. All the doctors in the world, I don't believe it, man. Yo, bro, bro, bro, if you were tough, bro, bro, if you were tough and independent, man. And you were making money for me telling people how, oh, yeah, mainstream media sucks, man. You got to be independent.

You got to be tough. And tough guys don't take vaccines, man. You kick us. And they just said, hey, what did Ron Johnson today? Well, why can't God gave us our bodies? Why do we need science and drugs? We don't need them at all. Oh yeah, I know.

If you're an MMA fighter or you've got Jesus in your camp, you don't need it. Why don't you just let cancer deal with that? Hey, why any of you're going to the hospital? If you don't believe 99.999% of all the doctors, why are you going to the hospital? Sit in your goddamn basements and do whatever the hell you want in your basement. You'll be super free there. all right we got to take a break when we come back trump signals yet again that he is a lover of

authoritarian and dictators we've got that story and more when we come back all right back all right back on c yankanana with you guys more news donald trump has come out in support of hungarian president victor orban who has severely eroded the country's generation old democracy, which honestly isn't that surprising when you consider the fact that Trump has in the past supported Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. He absolutely loves Narendra Modi in India, Jayao Bolsonaro in Brazil, Kim Jong-un in North Korea. The list goes on and on and on. When someone tells you who they are and who their friends are, you should believe them.

Now, Bernie Sanders called Trump out on this, tweeting, Trump wants to, what Trump wants to do here, what Orban has done in Hungary, weakened democratic institutions, curb press freedom, and rewrite election laws to entrench his own party's power. The threat to our democracy could not be clearer, and we must act boldly to protect it. And Trump does seem in favor of much of what Orban has done in his own country. And let me go ahead and read through that so you can kind of compare. There's some parallels between his leadership and what we've seen with Orban in Hungary. According to Amnesty International, for instance, under Orban, the government continued to undermine judicial independence and public confidence in the judiciary while women and transgender people were discriminated against in law and in practice. And asylum seekers were refused safe entry at borders and were expelled. And according to the New York Times, Orban and his party have steadily consolidated power in Hungary

by weakening the country's independent and democratic institutions, rewriting election laws to favor his party, changing school textbooks. I mean, the list is so similar to what's happening here in the United States, curbing press freedoms, overhauling the Constitution, and changing the composition. of the judiciary. Now, overhauling the Constitution isn't something that Republicans have tried to do yet, but many things on that list are similar to what we're experiencing here in the United States. Yeah, they're just brazenly admitting it. Orban proudly declares that he's in favor of illiberal democracy. It's amazing. Do you know what that means? Normally, this is not about

liberal or conservative. Liberal democracy just means a democracy that is the American version that we all love, including the right wing claims they love it, right? That means, yes, you have voting and on top of that, you have protection of minorities. And so, by the way, I mean, they don't mean minorities as in black, Latino, that they happen to be minorities here. Obviously, Hungary has different minorities. And by the way, some states in our country, some blue states now, white people are the minority, but they are also protected by a liberal democracy, right? And Orban just says, I don't want that. I want an illiberal, so-called democracy.

And he has stripped away all the protections that you normally get in a democracy by attacking the judiciary, the press, etc. And almost every commentator says that he is slowly strangling democracy in Hungary. But for Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump, that's not the bug, that's the feature. So they look at that and go, oh, that's a blueprint right there. The, oh, all the reporters are saying he's strangling democracy, but he's doing it in a subtle, slow and steady way so that the country can't fight back effectively. Bingo, that's our guy. That's our guy. It's amazing that they're admitting it publicly. But there's no checks left anymore. And they could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. So Tucker Carlson thinks, we got, you know, over 750,000 dead in America.

We told him not to get vaccinated. And they believed us. We all got vaccinated. Tucker did. Trump did. They all got vaccinated. And we told our sucker idiot voters and viewers to not get vaccinated. They'll do anything we say. So you know what?

The rest of the press, by the way, has lost credibility. They're not going to believe a word they say. So we're going to go talk to a fascist openly and talk about how great it's going to be to strangle democracy. And no one's going to care. And that's exactly what happened. So now Trump is going, yes, that guy who's the fascist in Eastern Europe can't get enough them? Yeah, I mean, and I'm obviously not surprised that Trump would endorse Orban. I mean, he, again, I gave you that long list of other terrible leaders across the, across the globe that he's been supportive of, including other autocrats and dictators. But nonetheless, you know, I did want to get into some details in regard to, you know, other right wingers and how they're so supportive of Orban as well, including Tucker Carlson. But before I do it, I also wanted to just note, isn't it?

it fascinating how, like my mind always goes back to the arguments that were made against Colin Kaepernick when he was leading that protest while kneeling during the national anthem. And the main argument was, oh my God, it is so disgraceful. It is so insulting to our troops who fought for our freedoms because their freedoms are so important, right? But at the same time, they seem to be very much in line with what Donald Trump likes, what Tucker Carly likes, which is the erosion of our democracy, which is the support and admiration for autocrats and dictators. And so now I go to Tucker Carlson, who last fall, Carlson, the top rated Fox News host, decided to broadcast from Budapest for a week, calling the nation a place with a lot of lessons for the rest of us. Wow.

Former Vice President Mike Pence visited Hungary last year for a conference on conservative values and the American Conservative Union has been promoting plans for a gathering there dubbed CPAC Hungary later this year. Guys, you have to understand something. There's right-wing politicians all across the globe and all across Europe. They could have gone to any of them. They didn't pick him because he's right-wing. They picked him because he's killing democracy effectively. Wow, so historians will look back and go, how could they not see fascism coming?

The leaders of the right wing in America went to celebrate a guy who's openly against democracy and is against immigrants, and by the way, anti-Semitic, the whole spiel, right? And talks about how the Jewish financiers are the puppet masters. I mean, it's the exact same textbook, right? And they're bracingly doing it in open. And we get it, you guys get it, mainstream media and the Democratic establishment, whistling past the ground. No, that's exactly right. I mean, I can't get mad at the GOP, people like Trump, people like Tucker Carlson, telling us who they are.

We know who they are. They've been pretty transparent and open about it. You almost have to give them credit for being how open and transparent they were. The thing that enrages me is that the political party, the opposition, to people like Trump and Tucker Carlson, the individuals who present themselves as the warriors for the little guy, the individuals who want to protect our democracy are weak, feckless, corrupt, and they're just liars. Okay, they can't even pass watered down legislation meant to protect our democratic process, even as they hold the levers of power, both in Congress and the executive branch.

I mean, let that sink in. Yeah, guys, Joe Manchin is saying he's asking for permission from 10 Republicans to do voting rights so they don't have to get rid of the filibuster. You're asking permission from fascists who are actively trying to kill our own democracy by limiting voting rights, who are saying, yeah, we're going over to that fascist to learn lessons on how to kill democracy. And you're asking them for permission to actually protect our democracy? They just told you they're not in favor of it. So many of them voted to decertify a perfectly valid election in 2020. And you're asking their permission? Nah, look, when if the fascists take over, which now is on the board, it's actually possible in America.

It's not hyperbole. It is possible. And historians look back, they will say that corporate Democrats were nearly as received. responsible as the Republicans, because they let them do it, and they didn't fight back at all. Their stock portfolios are looking real good, though. Yeah. Get those gains, boys, and ladies. Oh, you know, there was a story last week about Nancy Pelosi and our husband made millions of dollars in the stock market. And then Nancy Pelosi said, no, we're not going to fight against corruption. Free markets. Free markets. Insider trading is free

markets. No, that's the opposite of free markets. So as they gorge on their corruption, they can't be bother to look up to see that the fascists aren't coming. They're already here. All right. That does it for the first hour. We're going to take a brief break. And when we come back, we've got breaking news in regard to Donald Trump's proposed press conference on the one-year anniversary of the January 6th riots. Come right 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. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.