The Young Turks - India Walton Wins

Episode Date: June 25, 2021

India Walton poised to become Buffalo’s first socialist mayor. Biden expected to back the Senate's bipartisan infrastructure framework. Pedestrian bridge collapses onto DC-295 after ‘poor’ rating – five are hurt. The Supreme Court rules against union recruiting on California farms. General Mark Milley kicked Matt Gaetz around over critical race theory, so Ingraham and Fox News, in a blindly hypocritical rant, now want the military to be defunded. Britney Spears asks the court to end her conservatorship, detailing its control over her life. Kevin McCarthy, an elected official with resources to find out what policies and promotions are being carried out, raged against a fake poster of the IRS promising a regular check to children via the child tax credit. Rudy Giuliani suspended from practicing law in New York over false election claims. OAN contributor excites QAnon idiots over his rant that the election was stolen, proven by the amateur Arizona audit, and that the thousands of ‘traitors’ revealed should be executed. Capitol rioter tells the judge that she deserves probation because she watched ‘Schindler’s List.’ 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. What is this? Welcome to the Young Turks. I'm Anna Kasparian. You guys know I'm freaking out. Emma Vigland, co-host of the majority report and a former TYT employee, good friend of mine, good friend of the show. Emma Viglin, thank you so much for joining us.

Well, thank you so much for having me after all of this time, you know? I mean, I know that you and I left on horrible terms. So, I mean, it's just been, it's been a bit of work getting back here. But I'm glad we were able to put aside our differences. Well, Emma, I will say it is impressive how you've managed to build a successful lane for yourself in this media, this competitive media landscape by not only leaving TYT, but not attacking us immediately after leaving TYT. It almost seems as if, you know, if you have interesting things to say and you have some talent, you know, you'll find your place in this landscape. But anyway,

Obviously, it's so good to have you. And I saved a story specifically for you because the India Walton story out of Buffalo, the mayoral election there, was something that we were being asked to cover yesterday. But I was like, nah, I want to get a New Yorker up in here to discuss. I know you've been following these local races. And everyone, please check out the majority report where Emma is working as a co-host along with Sam Cedar doing really great work. I always enjoy watching the show whenever I get a chance to watch. It's just really, really great work. But without further ado, Emma, why don't we get to that India Walton story that I really want to tell the audience about?

And I can't wait to hear what you have to say about it. All that we are doing in this moment is claiming what is rightfully ours. We are the workers. We are the workers. We do the work. And we deserve a government that works with and for us. India Walton, the socialist candidate for mayor out of Buffalo, New York, is now the presumptive winner of that mayoral race. She has beat the Democratic incumbent and is poised to win considering the fact that this is

a heavily Democratic area. She will be the first socialist mayor in Buffalo. New York since the 1960s, but also the first female mayor of New York. And usually we'll hear from corporate Democrats focus on the identity portion of candidates without talking about the actual substance of the candidate. In this case, we have someone who is full of incredibly important ideas, someone of substance, but more importantly someone who has the right class analysis in determining which policies are necessary for the people of Buffalo, New York.

Let me give you more details about her. India Walton is a nursing community activist who ran with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families Party. When the Associated Press called the race Wednesday morning, that was yesterday, Walton was leading Byron Brown,

a longtime member of the Democratic establishment by 7 percentage points or by about 1,500 votes with all of the in-person ballots counted. I want to go to this next video of her reaction to learning that she had won in this primary race. Let's take a look at what she told her mother. Mommy!

I won! I'm the mayor of Buffalo. Well, not to January, but yeah. Like, yes. Oh my God. Yes, Mom. I won. So awesome to see that.

Like when you're in this atmosphere of faux emotion and pandering to people, it's really nice to see real individuals run for these local races and win and also express themselves in an authentic way. But more importantly, this next video gives you a sense of what she stands for as someone who plans to fight for working people in New York. You're yourself a socialist. Oh, absolutely. The entire intent of this campaign is to draw down power and resources to the ground level and to the hands of the people. And when we think about socialism, you know, we're perfectly fine with socialism for the rich. We will bail out Wall Street and banks and give a billion dollars in tax incentives to one of the richest people in the world to build an empty Tesla factory in South Buffalo. Buffalo. And when it comes to providing the resources that working families need to thrive,

socialism becomes scary at that point. So I'm very proud to be a democratic socialist. I am proud to have the support of Buffalo DSA and national DSA. So Emma, talk to me a little bit about what the reaction was among the left in New York as we learned about India Walton winning this primary race in Buffalo. Yeah, I mean, so we're here in New York City where it was incredibly deflating that Eric Adams is very much likely going to be the Democratic nominee for mayor, which means that he will probably be the mayor. He used to identify as a Republican. He doesn't even necessarily live in New York. We're not exactly sure. He has multiple tax evasion potential issues. He's a former cop who ran on a tough on crime stance. He was one of two candidates who did not commit to reducing police funding, him and Andrew Yang.

And so his apparent victory was quite deflating for us here in New York City. But when you go and look at Buffalo, you know, it's a town that has in the past few decades just been ravaged by outsourcing of jobs. and the kinds of neoliberal politics that have hurt a lot of other parts of the country, particularly in the Rust Belt. So it's very reminiscent of a lot of those cities there. And so seeing a socialist, an unabashed socialist win in that primary, and by all accounts, it was due to classic just grassroots campaigning, Similarly to the ones that we've seen in other upsets of incumbents on the incumbents, I should say, on the federal level with, you know, Jamal Bowman and the Casio-Cortez here in New York. But there is something brewing here, right? I mean, in New York, yes, a party machine boss type guy and Eric Adams likely won the primary. And that's a huge blow. And I mean, I'm saying this now. If you read reporting in New York Magazine and others, I mean, there are. significant potential illegalities behind the scenes about this guy.

I mean, I'm not necessarily sure. Yes, so I literally just did an interview on it. That's why it's so fresh in my mind. I think this is going to be very plagued by scandal administration. So if he gets to office. But with India Walton, that's the kind of stuff where you go, we are making progress. And on the biggest stages, it may be difficult because there's so much money here in New York that's going in the other direction in a big city like New York City, obviously, and I know in

L.A. you face the same thing. But we're chipping away. And a lot of that is due to grassroots organizing in places like DSA who have been unfairly besmirched by the online left that doesn't actually represent the left. Yeah, I'm glad that you mentioned that because for anyone who's actually interested in what's been working on the ground, I think the New York DSA has been incredibly successful in organizing, in canvassing, and ensuring that in these local races, they get their candidate in. And it's really nice to see it because while you're absolutely right in regard to New York City's mayoral race and how deflating that can be, it's important for the left, the organizing left, to post their Ws, right? And by the way, DSA has a Twitter account

called DSA posts this Ws, and I love it, because there is a path to victory, but it requires actual work on the ground, you know, actually listening to some of these organizers who have done this many, many times and know exactly how to get people involved, how to persuade people, how to canvas, all of that. So look, the media is an important element to the left in regard to keeping people informed and making sure that we at least boost various organizing efforts when we get the opportunity to. But the real ground game, has been successful in New York, and I want people to focus on that whenever we feel pretty powerless, because oftentimes, especially with recent developments on Biden's infrastructure

bill, we can certainly feel pretty powerless. But there are paths to victory. And this particular mayoral races is one example of that. Now just getting back to Byron Brown, the Democratic incumbent in Buffalo, he seems to refuse to concede. So Brown, who once led the state's Democratic Party and is a close ally of Governor Andrew Cuomo declined to concede on Tuesday night, despite the margins separating him from Walton. In fact, he says, we're going to make sure every single vote is counted. And then when it became pretty clear that every vote, I mean, once every vote is counted, she's still going to be

the person who beats him, beats everyone in the Democratic primary. He kind of switched his messaging over to, well, I'm not going to concede. I'm going to make sure that people can write my name in during the general election, which takes place in November. But it seems like it's good day and good luck for him. I mean, it seems like it's pretty much over. Well, I mean, good. I'm happy, because one, this is super reminiscent of what Crowley tried to do. In the aftermath of being defeated by Akazio-Cortez, you know, he conceded and the media goes, oh, he played the guitar, thank you so, so much for being so gracious. And then like two weeks later, he's like, you know, maybe I'm going to run on the working family party's ticket and I'm going to sap votes

from her, even though it was a heavily blue district and it wouldn't matter anyway, but because he was endorsed by the working families party, there's a thing in New York where you could potentially vote for a candidate on that ballot, even if they're both a Democrat and ran in the Democratic primary. And so this is very New York. It's very reminiscent of a lot of the tactics that we see from someone like Andrew Cuomo, from someone like Joe Crowley. In many ways, it's super retrograde here because it's an entirely blue state. And so it enables old school party boss type politics where people play extremely dirty. And so why I'm trying, and I know California is very similarly. And as we saw with Alex Morris, Massachusetts is similar. So when you have these

big states where they're traditionally very blue, it creates corruption in and of itself because there's not really an opposition. Not that I want Republicans to win, but because it creates its own ecosystem and then you have corruption in many different ways. So luckily, though, I doubt that this will be successful. It's probably just, you know, he's feeling a little bit butt hurt. And this is, you know, one of the tactics that he's towing around with. Yeah, definitely. You know, one other thing I wanted to draw a little bit of attention to, because what you said about the money pouring into New York City's mayoral race made me think about how, you know, it seems like the corporate Democrats, the neoliberal wing of the party certainly neglected the mayoral race in Buffalo, but had they been paying closer attention to it, if they had injected more cash into defeating Walton in that race, I think they could have probably been successful in that because we've seen. just how powerful money in politics really is. We're also seeing something really interesting in Ohio's 11th district.

That's the race that Nina Turner is running in. She's trying to win that congressional seat. And she has a massive lead over the corporate Democrat in that race, who was just endorsed by Hillary Clinton. And why did Hillary Clinton endorse her? Well, because the corporate ring of the Democratic Party realized that Nina Turner had this massive lead, and they needed to get involved immediately. When they're ignoring it, that's when progressive candidates can really succeed.

And so immediately after that endorsement by Hillary Clinton, you see corporate money flowing into that race. Jenk thinks that it's already too late. But I do think it's an interesting case study to see what happens when corporate Democrats are distracted by a myriad of other things and actually allow democracy to play out without the government, not the government, without the corporate corruption and lobbying taking place. Yeah, certainly. And that race is interesting too because, I mean, Nina Turner obviously had a lot more of name recognition than the standard, you know, DSA endorsed candidate that's going to be

coming into a Democratic primary. So their guard was probably already up. But on the flip side, it's also beneficial to Nina because she's got that name recognition. And then, you know, on that day that Hillary Clinton endorsed, endorsed her opponent, she broke her single day fundraising record. So speaking of Jamal Bowman earlier in the segment, Hillary endorsed Elliot Engel, who was the incumbent Bowman won.

I think she did the same thing to Crowley, AOC won. Let's hope it's the kiss of death. And she's three for three here. I would love that. Totally. If she were to endorse me, if I ran for anything,

I'd be like, no, no, no, don't curse me. Don't curse me. I don't want that endorsement. And by the way, she would never endorse me, which is good. It's a badge of honor. Anyway. Right.

All right. Well, let's move on to some of these updates on the infrastructure bill. Joe Biden has reached a deal on the infrastructure proposal with a group of bipartisan senators. And while it's being celebrated as some progress in the corporate media, I would argue that this is actually a pretty bad sign, even though Biden would have you believe that he's going to continue fighting for the very things that he conceded on in this infrastructure bill. So first, let's go to this video of Joe Biden addressing the press.

on the deal, although with not many details. We have a deal, and I think it's really important. We've all agreed that none of us got what we all wanted. I clearly didn't get all I wanted. They gave more than, I think, maybe they were inclined to give in the first place. But this reminds me of the days we used to get an awful lot done up in the United States Congress. We actually work with them. We've got bipartisan deals.

bipartisan deals mean to compromise. We agreed on infrastructure. We made serious compromising on both ends. There is, and they'll give you the numbers. But we did not, they did not, and I understand their position, Republicans and this group did not want to go along with any of my family plan issues, the child care tax credits, the human infrastructure that I talk about. And that will see what happens.

bill in the budget process, if we get some compromise there, and if we can't, see if I can attract all the Democrats to a position. If you watch that video and didn't feel absolute doom, you're not paying attention to what's going down in politics. Because what he's referring to there regarding bipartisanship is all about working with the party that Democrats described as. a massive threat to this country. They campaigned against Republicans as if they are the worst of the worst, people who pose a threat to all of us, which actually in a lot of ways I agree with. But then they turn around and talk about the importance of bipartisanship.

Now, how about representing what the majority of American voters want? Okay, never mind the Democratic voters who showed up, turned up, and voted for Biden and also the two other Democratic candidates in the Senate for Senate runoff races in Georgia. How about, you know, how about ignoring the obstructionist right wing in Congress and actually delivering to the Republican voters who find your infrastructure bill, your original infrastructure bill, incredibly popular? It's not just Democrats, it's not just independence, it's Republicans as well. And for some reason, we keep hearing from Democrats that we need to capitulate to the very individuals that they described as a massive threat to our lives during the last election. It's ridiculous.

Yeah, I mean, so there are a lot of scenarios about what could play out here, right? And, you know, the first of the things is, you know, Biden has throughout his entire career fetishized the Senate and Senate process, which includes bipartisanship. And that's also why he is not pushing hard to end the filibuster while he's still kind of virtue-suffer. signaling, I hate to use that term, but Democrats fundraise all the time off of gun violence and off of police brutality. And, you know, Biden's saying he's not going to do anything by executive order. Okay, well, then you need to pass legislation that can pass through the 60 vote filibuster. And so if you're not addressing that, then I don't really want to hear

anything about gun control or climate change or anything like that. But this, you can pass via 50 votes via the reconciliation process because it pertains to the budget infrastructure. And yet, Biden seems to be going through this entirely unnecessary process where he is just saying that we should do a bipartisan bill. Well, why? I mean, I don't get it. I don't get it whatsoever. But the point, my mom's calling me. The point is that the point is that, I mean, the There is potentially some sort of plan in place, right? Pelosi's saying that she's not going to vote on this bipartisan bill unless there are two bills, the bipartisan bill and the reconciliation bill unless they both pass the Senate.

And Biden is saying the same thing. And the reconciliation bill would contain climate proposals, right? But I mean, I don't trust them. That's the problem. If that were the case, if that were the case and they're going to do two bills, One, and they're just going to handle infrastructure through the bipartisan process and then do a separate reconciliation bill. I'm like, okay, great. Then we have two bills. But I don't believe you. I believe that they will eventually, as is their way, cave. And then they'll have one bill. Yep. And the one thing that's really saving them from themselves here is that Mitch McConnell is an obstructionist. And he is probably if Biden signs onto something, not going to say yes to it just because Biden signed onto it.

So let's unpack everything that's going on because I agree with your analysis and certainly with the part where you're skeptical of the Democrats actually passing a second bill through reconciliation. So first, what were the concessions? Everything, basically. Everything that we heard Republican lawmakers would agree to is what they're going to get. Everything in regard to taxes remains unclear because remember, there's been a lot of debate about the so-called. pay fors. Republican lawmakers want to put the onus on American workers to essentially increase our gas tax and make sure that, you know, that regressive tax is implemented. So corporations and the wealthy don't have to increase their taxes. Biden says that he will not under any circumstance sign on to that. So even today with this announcement of a bipartisan agreement,

we still don't know what they have agreed to in regard to the pay force. So there's that. Also, So remember, Biden had called for quite a bit of funding for this infrastructure bill to the tune of $1.7 trillion. Well, the... 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. Pared down plan, the bipartisan agreement, with 559 billion in new spending, has rare bipartisan backing and could open the door to the president's more sweeping $4 trillion proposals.

No, it won't. Later on, this is according to the Associated Press. The senators have struggled over how to pay for the new spending, but left for the White House with a sense of confidence. So that should be reassuring to you all, right? That they left the White House with a sense of confidence, that they'll figure it out. To me, that is a foreshadowing of regressive taxation to come. Because there's no circumstance under which 10 Republican senators would sign on to legislation that would increase taxes on the rich. So I'm actually skeptical that this bipartisan agreement is actually going to go through.

then you get to the second part of it, which is, all right, well, we've made all these concessions to Republican obstructionists in the infrastructure bill, but what we're going to do is we're going to pass all of our other priorities through a second bill, and we'll do it through reconciliation, which doesn't require 60 senators to vote in favor of it. We can do it through a simple majority. Well, here's what Pelosi says. Pelosi on Thursday welcomed the bipartisan package, but she warned that it must be paired with the president's bigger goals, now being prepared by Congress under a separate so called budget reconciliation process. And then she was quoted as saying, this is important. There ain't going to be a bipartisan bill without a reconciliation

bill. And Biden said something very similar. I expect that in the coming months this summer before the fiscal year is over, that we will have voted on this bill, the infrastructure bill, and well, as well as voted on the budget resolution. But if only one comes to me, this is the only one that comes to me, I'm not going to sign it, it's in tandem. He's making it very clear that he needs to have both bills done simultaneously, one through a bipartisan vote, allegedly, the other through reconciliation, which will include things like child care, free public college, some of the human infrastructure components of his original proposal that was rejected by Republicans. But in order for that to pass the reconciliation, Emma, wouldn't that mean that we would

run into the same issues we ran into with cinema and mansion, not wanting to support the bill because it's not bipartisan enough. And I'm talking about the second bill. Yeah, and the second bill is the one that's the most likely to be axed because as what people don't realize is that as time passes, these things get less likely to pass because we are getting closer and closer to the 2022 midterms. And these house, these representatives and these senators are less likely to take tough votes. So we don't have all the time in the world here. And by the way, a 50-50 split in the Senate,

there are very old senators and I'm not being morbid here. Somebody could pass away and it's not a given that they're gonna have this 50-50 split. So I mean, there should be an effort to get this done as quickly as possible and yet we're doing this elaborate dance seemingly for the benefit of two people. And that's Mansion and Cinema.

But there are more people than that. There's Mark Warner, there's John Tester. There are other senators on this ridiculous, moderate, corrupt train, honestly, who essentially want the package to be small and answer to people like the Chamber of Commerce and other parts of industry, although largely infrastructure is fairly well accepted by, I think, corporations, and that's probably why Biden's targeting it first. But that's the problem is that, you know, I, if this dance works, Biden looks like a genius, right? Where, oh, like, oh, they were never going to accept the bipartisan infrastructure proposal anyway.

So maybe we'll do two big bills through reconciliation. And Mansion and cinema will see the light that they were always unreasonable from the start. I think that's honestly what the optimistic take is on this. But I don't think it's going to happen. And the doomsday scenario is that Biden feels the pressure to pass something going into the midterms. McConnell obstructs effectively enough. And the only thing we get is a skinny infrastructure bill. And then the second part is abandoned altogether, which deals with all of the human components,

which is the number one thing that someone like Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party does not want the Democrats to do. one, because, you know, he wants to destroy the social safety as much as possible, ideologically, and that's what his donors tell him. And two, it would be a successful political win because these things are popular, including elder care, you know? I mean, you have Republicans going on air railing against elder care isn't a part of infrastructure, as if the average American cares what the actual definition of infrastructure is by Washington standards.

They're all about the elder care part. So there are a lot of moving parts here, but I am concerned about the direction this is going, no doubt. Absolutely. Well, we'll keep you guys posted on any other developments. But for now, we've got to take a short break. When we come back, we'll show you exactly why passing a robust infrastructure bill is so important. Come right back. Welcome back to TYT. I want to give a special shout out to. to Susan Green, who she's actually, for lack of a better word, my coach, and she's a big fan of yours, Emma. So I had to let her know that you were co-hosting the entire show with me

today. She's super excited. So shout out to Susan Green. Yeah, she's a great person. I met her through Michael Brooks, and she's become a really important part of my life. So the fact that she's a fan of yours says a lot about her and vice versa. So, well, I mean, the fact that she was friends Michael says a lot about him and I recognize where I'm sitting. So hi Susan and we knew a great person. Yeah, definitely. All right, well we just talked about the updates on Biden's infrastructure bill. They're not really positive updates, unfortunately. But I do want to talk about why it's important to actually move forward with robust spending and focus on improving this nation's infrastructure. A pedestrian bridge collapsed and crashed down onto traffic, onto the DC

295 in northeast Washington, D.C. At least five people were injured. Luckily, no people died as a result of this, but it was a stark reminder of this nation's crumbling infrastructure. In fact, we do have a few videos to show you of what happened. And keep in mind that this is, a bridge that had some structural issues based on some recent inspections that were done. And there are bridges like this all across the country that have been neglected, that are in dire need of repairs, dire need of federal spending in order to repair them. And in the meantime, you have Congress literally nickel and diming the kinds of projects that need to be done through these negotiations on Biden's infrastructure bill. Now, without further ado, take a look at this

dash cam video of the bridge collapsing. Oh, no. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. This cannot just be happening. And ABC News did a pretty good report detailing how this likely happened and what the issues were in its most recent inspection. Take a look. Tonight authorities are investigating this terrifying scene, a pedestrian bridge collapsing onto one of the busiest highways in the nation's capital.

Officials believe this truck slammed into the bridge, sending it crashing down. Drivers trapped in their cars buried under the debris along I-295. We had a collision with the bridge right here, which separated the bridge from his mooring. A result of that, collision caused multiple cars to be involved. And Rachel, everyone has survived this and you've learned more tonight about a recent inspection of that bridge. Yeah, David, the mayor saying tonight that this bridge was inspected earlier this year and that everything checked out. I mean, we're so lucky that no one was killed in this awful bridge collapse. And just to give you some more details about the inspection that I've been referring to, the bridge received a four or poor rating after it was inspected in February.

So it was inspected in February, and they realized, oh, it's not, it's a little compromised. But we're still using the bridge? Like, why hasn't the bridge been like shut down until they do the repairs at least? I mean, again, we're lucky that no one got killed. It had declined on a national scale that rates bridges from zero to nine from February of 2019. When the bridge had been given a five or a fair rating, a rating of four is the threshold that prompts a multi-year planning process to replace the bridge. I mean, Riches country in the world, Emma,

but once you realize that a bridge isn't structurally sound, you need to trigger a multi-year planning process before anything gets done. That's America, great. Yeah, and it's, when you say that, that's the kind of bureaucracy that triggers conservatives, like, oh, the government can't get anything done, right? I mean, that's the kind of thing that they would say.

But the reality is, is that it's not the government in and of itself. It's what the government chooses to fund and the same conservatives that would say that would be outraged if we were to slash the military budget or adjust our national priorities about what kinds of money we give out to things, right? I mean, oil subsidies is another good example. It's not that much money. Our military budget is though. And if we just allocated or reallocated a fraction of that money, we could inspect and

maintain those bridges as a much quicker pace. And that's not the only bridge. That's far from the only bridge that has some of those structural issues and implications. And the American Society for Civil Engineers, they do, I think, every five years, some sort of grading process for each country and or our country at the very least in terms of the rate of infrastructure and, you know, what it is comparably to the rest of the world. We upgraded from a D plus to a C minus, so. Did we really? Richest country in the world.

Sorry? Did we even do that? I'm actually shocked that there was any improvement. I'm surprised too. But, I mean, some of these statistics are shocking. There's a water main break every two minutes in the United States. 43% of our public roadways are in poor or mediocre condition. Yeah.

And, you know, we're really a country that's terrible. at being proactive about anything. We're not proactive about our healthcare. We essentially wait for an emergency to happen and then, okay, don't worry, you have to pay $30,000 in medical bills because we don't provide health insurance for you, even though it would save the country a ton of money

for us to give you that upfront. You're just gonna have to pay for it yourself. We did this in Katrina. We do this all the time. We allow for disasters to happen. And then we say, well, none of this could be prevented. Well, if we were proactive and we decided to shift our national priorities in the way that made sense, stuff wouldn't happen. Yeah, no, I absolutely agree with you.

We had a very similar mindset in researching for this story because I wanted to look into where the United States stands relative to other developed countries regarding infrastructure. And the World Economic Forum regularly puts out its list of infrastructure in the developed world. And here's what we know. So first off, if you look at the list of total developed countries pertaining to infrastructure, we're all the way down at 13. If you look at this graphic that was put out by the OECD and then published by the Washington Post, China actually spends a lot more money on its infrastructure than we do. About 5.5% of their GDP is invested in infrastructure, whereas in the United States is a little

over than a little more than half a percent of our total GDP being invested in infrastructure, transportation infrastructure specifically. So I want to be clear about that. But when you look at the World Economic Forum, here's what they know. For water and electricity utility infrastructure, the United States actually ranks number 23rd in the forum scores on transportation. The forum score takes into account eight measures, rating the United States number 12 globally. The United States falls behind on the railroad score. The forum measured the number of miles of railroad

track per square mile in each nation, rating the country at number 48. So to me, the most concerning is our utility infrastructure. I mean, we're seeing how that's playing out in a privatized deregulated model in Texas. Our water infrastructure is clearly incredibly damaged to the point where not just Flint, Michigan, but many municipalities throughout the country have unsafe levels of lead in their drinking water. So, you know, when we hear members of Congress and President Joe Biden applaud themselves for

reaching a bipartisan deal on the infrastructure bill that's nothing more than this incredibly watered down, really watered down piece of legislation. And we don't know all the details of like where all the money is even going to go or how the money is going to be spent. Is this going to be a public price? Stop. Do you know how fast you were going? I'm going to have to write you a ticket to my new movie, The Naked Gun. Liam Nissan. Buy your tickets now. I get a free chili dog. Chilly Dog, not included. The Naked God. Tickets on sale now. August 1st. is this going to be nothing more than another way of redistributing taxpayer money to private corporations and developers who inflate their prices and get rich off of these government grants?

I want to know how it's going to be carried out. We don't know yet. But I do want to provide a different perspective as well because it's important, right? So members help to make this show happen. We read our members' comments and we take them to heart. Stiff upper lib writes in and says, here's how I see it. There are not enough progressives in Congress. I'm sorry, but the numbers are not there. I just do not think that Biden had much of a choice about the infrastructure bill,

meaning he didn't have much of a choice but to essentially concede to what the Republican senators were demanding. Too many Republicans, along with two demos, we know who they are, were blocking any chance for a $2 billion bill to pass. It's their fault not Biden's. So that's certainly a perspective that gets represented quite a bit in corporate media and also legacy media outlets like the New York Times, for instance. It's important to share that perspective here as well and talk about it. Emma, do you want to weigh in on that perspective? Do you think that Biden really had no choice but to just kind of concede to Republicans here?

Well, I mean, I think it's a fair statement. I do think it's fair because we don't necessarily know how touchy Mansion and cinema are behind the scenes. I mean, cinema is a psycho. Mansion is at, you know, at the very least, he's, you understand what he wants. He wants to appear like he's owning the libs and being a renegade in and of himself just to kind of carve out a specific niche in, in West Virginia. But I don't, I don't agree. I think a lot of what Biden does being a creature of D.C. is a bit masturbatory, not to be gross about it. But I mean, This entire process, as you say, Anna, of reaching a bipartisan consensus, it's only meaningful

because he ascribes meaning to it. And DC ascribes meaning to it. Is it bipartisan in how the American people view it? No. I mean, the original infrastructure package was around 80% in terms of approval. I mean, that's just not the reality. It's bipartisan in the office politics way. And why I say it's masturbatory is that we don't really care. about that though. And the American people certainly don't care about that. The American people don't care when things are bipartisan. They just want things to improve. And nobody's going to remember anything about the bill being bipartisan if our infrastructure continues to crumble, even though they heard, wait, I thought Biden passed this massive infrastructure package.

His legacy will be defined by the content of the bills he passes. Yes. Not by the Senate processes that are plaguing him in the moment. No, I don't know, Emma. I mean, I do see massive groups of people like discussing the importance of maintaining the legislative filibuster in the Senate. I mean, it's big water cooler conversation these days. Everyone's really talking about.

Oh, because what would the Republicans do? What would the Republicans do if you took away? I'm sorry, just really quickly. What would they do if you took away the filibuster? All they care about passing pertains to economic policy, tax cuts. They can already do that through reconciliation. reconciliation. So getting rid of the filibuster does nothing for them. What will they do? Pass a bill saying, oh, critical race theory is bad. Who cares? This is what we need to do.

It's urgent. And I just had to put that out there because they've exhausted all their cards with with the filibuster. Absolutely. Yep. All right. Well, we got to take a break. When we come back, though, we're going to discuss, honestly, a pretty shocking moment between the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, General Mark Millie, and Congressman Matt Gates. It's probably one of my favorite videos of the year. You don't want to miss it, so come right back. Welcome back to TYT. I need to tease our bonus episode today, starting with a super chat comment from Ted Cruz,

Wedgy Dragon, who writes it and says, got to give love to TYT and Majority Report for rubbing more ice on Crowder's tozies that made my week. Plus, I got a surprise raised this week. Congratulations, Wedgy Dragon. That's amazing. Ted Cruz Wedgy Dragon, let me be specific. That's amazing. Yeah, I'm super excited for your raise, but also in our bonus episode today, you think I'm not going to talk about the whole Stephen Crowder thing with Emma? Of course I am. Of course I mean, are you joking? It's all I've thought, I've literally had trouble sleeping keep thinking about it. It, I didn't realize how much I needed that.

It totally changed the tone of the rest of the week. And how much work went into it where we had to pre-record the show and pretend it was live and it all paid off so well. Bonus episode, bonus episode, okay? So become a member, click that join button if you're watching us on YouTube. For now though, we're gonna get to our next story. So during a House Armed Services Committee hearing to discuss the budget for the Pentagon in 2020, or 2022, I should say, Matt Gates decided to essentially use it as an opportunity to continue fighting on with the latest right-wing culture war talking point.

This time, of course, about critical race theory, seemingly the only thing right-wing media and right-wing lawmakers care about as America. Americans are literally suffering with poverty, with illnesses, with homelessness, and a whole host of other issues that they'd rather not discuss. So what exactly did Representative Matt Gates ask to Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense? Let's watch. In my previous discussions with service members and particularly officers, the number one issue that they raised to me with concern, often unable to speak publicly for fear of the type of retribution that Lieutenant Colonel Lomeyer faced.

They say that your stand down regarding extremism did not help our military. It hurt the military. And I want to share with you that perspective, that it caused service members to other eyes one another. It impaired group cohesion. And interesting to me is that I've heard those sentiments. frequently from units that are majority minority. How should the Department of Defense think about critical race theory? So that was the question. It's

important to understand how he framed it. Lloyd Austin did answer the question. I think he gave a pretty great answer, but really got a lot of attention. By the way, he asked that question to Lloyd Austin, who's black. I think that's a relevant part of the story, right? So here's Matt Gates. Essentially, continuing on with his incredibly ignorant and uneducated theories about critical race theory, something that he knows nothing about. The right wing oftentimes will get asked what critical race theory is and they never have an answer because it's not really about the substance of the matter. It's about engaging in the culture war to distract from everything else that's going

on in the country because they have no solutions, people. We all know this. What really got a lot of attention was how the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mark Millie, responded. Let's take a look. On the issue of critical race theory, et cetera, I'll obviously have to get much smarter on whatever the theory is. But I do think it's important, actually, for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read. And the United States Military Academy is a university.

and it is important that we train and we understand and I want to understand white rage and I'm white and I want to understand it so what is it that cause thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the constitution of the United States of America

what caused that? I want to find that out I want to maintain an open mind here and I do want to analyze it. It's important that we understand that because our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and guardians, they come from the American people so it is important that the leaders now and in the future do understand it. I've read Miles Satang, I've read Carl Marx, I've read Lenin, that doesn't make me a communist.

So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend? And I personally find a defensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commission, non-commissioned officers of being, quote, woke or something else, because we're studying some theories that are out there. That was started at Harvard Law School years ago, and it proposed that there were laws in the United States, anti-bellum laws prior to the civil war that led to a power differential with African Americans that were three-quarters of a human being

when this country was formed. And then we had a civil war in a manseparation proclamation to change it. And we brought it up to the Civil Rights Act in 1964. It took another hundred years to change that. So look it, I do want to know. Wow. I didn't I wouldn't have expected that exchange obviously I'm very critical of the military and you know when I say military not the soldiers but specifically what the Pentagon

and the State Department has engaged in over the last several decades the insane amount of our money and resources going toward a bloated Pentagon budget but that exchange was pretty incredible. And Emma, before I go to you, I just want to indulge the audience in a moment that was just so nice to see. One more video for you. And I personally find a defensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commission, non-commissioned officers, of being, quote, woke or something else, because we're studying some theories that are out there. That was started Harvard Law School years ago, and a proposed That was an open-handed slap, boy.

That's what that was. That was Mark Millie, General Mark Millie, shutting down the ridiculous right-wing talking points that get recycled over and over again among GOP lawmakers and, of course, in the right-wing media. Emma, what do you think? Well, I mean, it was incredibly gratifying, look at that big head shaking itself.

I mean, I obviously I'm in favor of a lot of what was said there. And you know, I think the thing about critical race theory and the way you need to understand it is that it's really just a placeholder for Republicans to talk about any type of education that doesn't indoctrinate young people to being good little white capitalists who don't really question anything. Right. And don't question their place in the world and don't question why they're black or brown classmates don't feel a certain way. And as you said, no one really understands what it is. And so anybody who may be on the fence to hear that coming from somebody in the military uniform, it has an authoritativeness. And it's not, you know, some DSA member, not saying that in any pejorative way, but it's somebody who holds that position and doesn't traditionally speak that way. I think it really does have a lot of value.

And it's a good thing that someone like him is saying these things because not just because critical race theory is just this entirely manufactured BS by Fox News that they forced into the national conversation as they often do where they've decided that this tests well. I mean, this is how they do things. They test it with a focus group. This triggers a certain amount of Republicans or some of their viewers. And then they decide to run with it and that's what they've done. And then it goes downstream and you have someone like Matt Gates asking these questions of government officials,

which is just not at the forefront of anything that should be asked in terms of relevance to the American people. But also because then you get people like Laura Ingram who are turning on the woke CIA and that other thing. That's what Tucker Carlson is. And oh, maybe we should defund the military because this is how they feel. deal. You know, you're you are triggering the lib so much that it pains me to say that, right? You would really hurt my feelings if you cut military spending and cut from the CIA and cut from the FBI. You would trigger me so hard, Laura Ingram, if you were to do that. I mean, please don't. Yeah, I mean, and just going back to what you said about the authoritative nature

of, you know, General Mark Millie making that statement. The thing that makes it so powerful is that it's an individual coming from an institution that the right wing has spent decades and decades portraying as one of the most important American institutions, a powerful part of American identity. I mean, if you dare to criticize the Iraq war, remember the talking point that we would hear from the right wing was that you're not supporting the troops. You're not supporting the military. They're fighting for our freedoms.

I mean, it's happened recently with Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem to call out brutal policing in this country. The response from the right wing was, oh, you're being incredibly disrespectful to our military, to the soldiers who put their lives on the line to fight for our freedoms. And so to hear a person that represents that very institution, essentially, slap down Matt Gates and the rest of the GOP in their nonsense about critical race theory and their obsession with the culture wars was yes incredibly gratifying and certainly more powerful than what we would see in a tit-for-tat type debate in cable news right between two figures so I love seeing that and I especially love to see Matt Gates disappointment and his shaking head you know hopefully he can shake his head to

prison once we know what the true details are about the federal investigation he's facing for potential sex trafficking of a minor. He's being investigated for that. Let's not forget that point. Pretty sure he wants to distract from that as well. Well, when we come back from the break, I think it's worth giving you a little of Laura Ingram's reaction to that exchange and what her threats are, which oddly enough, I'm totally into. 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.co slash t-y-t.

I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.