The Young Turks - Joe Biden's Failure On Climate Change

Episode Date: May 11, 2019

Joe Biden is going centrist on climate change. Cenk Uygur, Ramesh Srinivasan, and Brooke Thomas, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. 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. Hey, guys, you've heard of the Young Turks podcast because you're listening to it right now. But make sure that you subscribe and give it a five star rating if you like it. Thank you for listening. Drop. All right, welcome to the Young Turks.

Jake Ugo, Brooke Thomas, for Mr. and Yvassan. I don't know if I'm- You killed it. Okay, all right. Every time you do. Yeah, well, I don't know about that. There's a lot of syllables in that name. Yeah, if I got it right, two out of 20 times, I'm lucky. Okay, so a huge show ahead for you guys, there'll be plenty of Duncan.

I don't know why Dunkin' Donuts is not a sponsor here. It's every time we dunk on folks, we could put the donut in the munk. Anyway, Ben Shapiro will be eviscerated, destroyed later in the program. Joe Biden's story, that's coming up very soon. Don't miss that, very strong opinions on that. Later in the program, not eviscerated, but greeted in a warm manner. Rachel Lears will be on the program. She's director of Knock Down the House.

That's the movie about AOC and other just Democrats. She's coming on at 5 o'clock, Pacific 8 o'clock Eastern, right here on t.com. She has won several awards for that movie, and she'll be joining us. So that's great news for everybody. And oh, over the weekend, by the way, we're gonna do Game of Thrones review. So live right after the show, t.y.t.com, boom, Brooke's back. Me. Still the only one's smiling.

Yep. The rest of us are trying to look cool. He's trying to look like Brooke, Brooke on a Brooke, you know, everybody knows that, a well-known quote on the internet, okay, Brooke in a brook. Anyway, me, John Ben and Brooke, so that is immediately following Game of Thrones. Those are spirited, check that out. And of course for the members, we always give a little extra, so we do predictions at the end, except for, well, maybe we'll do one after the last episode, a prediction for future movies,

etc. Anyway, t.wit.com slash join to become a member. All right, what do we got, Brooke? All right, first up, it's a story here in California, actually. Parents in San Francisco are upset after the story of a teacher diagnosed with breast cancer has highlighted a major issue with California's education code. So check this out. A Glen Park Elementary School teacher who didn't want to be identified will likely be on leave for the rest of the year. As I said, she is battling breast cancer. And the San Francisco Chronicle were actually reported she could have as much as $240 per day deducted from her salary to pay for a substitute thanks to a 1976 change to the California Education Code.

And here is why, I'm gonna try to break it down for you. So teachers in California actually do not benefit from the state's disability program, and it's because they don't pay into it. They are allotted 10 sick days per year, which roll over if they're not used, and then an additional 100 days of extended sick leave during which their pay is docked to pay for a substitute, and this is all according to a spokesperson from the San Francisco Unified School District. And now, this is not specific to California, I mean, to San Francisco, excuse me, it's California statewide.

So after those 110 days, which you had to pay for, 100 of them, teachers can then dip into the catastrophic sick leave bank. And that's run jointly by the Teachers Union and the school district, and those are sick days that are donated by teachers around the district for their peers. There are currently 511 days in the bank, and this is according to Susan Solomon, the president of the teachers union, but that's not all because teachers actually are able to use only up to 85 days from the sick leave bank. And this is according to a collective bargaining agreement between the district and the teachers

union. You know, unfortunately that, you know, other parents have to step in, but they have. They've been rallying behind this teacher end. So far, more than $13,000 has been raised through a go-foam. fund me to help her with the cost of her medical leave. And the campaign's organizers, they describe her as an impeccable teacher. She's taught at the school for 17 years. So there's a couple more heartbreaking parts of the story, and I'll get into more specifics

in a sec, but I just want to make a general point first. What kind of a country do we have when we have things like a catastrophic sick leave bank that folks have to use when they get cancer? setting up GoFundMe pages so that they can survive. And the answer is it's a pretty barbaric country. So if you're from Europe or Japan or Canada or any other developed nation, you're probably shocked when you find out about the American system, that we just don't care about our citizens. We care about our corporations, we invade countries for them over and over and over again.

And if you're a corporate donor, you're gonna get anything you want. But you're a teacher, we're going to bulldoze you. So this isn't about whether, hey, should they have paid into the state's disability program. It's about who are we as a society? And the answer to that, unfortunately, is not a very good one right now. Yeah, so I come from a family of teachers. I'm a teacher myself in a public university. I know that's not exactly the same as being a public school teacher.

I attended and was part and in solidarity with the major university. U-TLA strike that we had recently that was successful. And it's time for those kinds of actions in my mind. As a teacher, we sort of think when we come to this country, when my family came to this country, that when we come here, we sign up for a social contract, which is like put your work in, add value to the society, and you get the basics. The basics are taken care of. But what we see happening, and we can see this in terms of our health expenses, is a very

troubling and sobering trend, which is the declining life expectancy that we see in this country. And it's unconscionable because teachers are the fuel of the economy in many ways, starting from the very basics of our childhood. Yeah, so it's not like we don't have any examples of systems that work. And if we were a rational government, what we would do is we would look around. Well, who's figured this out right? And in the case of health care, you might look at Canada, you might look at Japan, and those are interesting examples.

They spend half the money we do. They have universal health care. They cover everyone and spend less. If you're not curious as to how they do that, well, you got an issue. It's weird if you're not curious about how they do that. And whether we could save a lot of money for taxpayers and actually literally live. longer, that's something we should care about. In the case of education like this one, Finland has had outstanding results, but not just

the fact that they do so well, but the fact that they changed and then did so well. So their education system was not at the top, and they changed a number of things, and now they're in the top three very, very consistently. So do they use the same model as some of the other successful countries like South Korea? No, they don't. Korea works as students to death if you ask me. And okay, well, that's one model and they are near the top. And so you can take it or leave it, but it's interesting and you can learn from it.

In Finland, you know what they do with their teachers? Exalt them, and they pay them much higher wages. It's one of the best jobs you can get in Finland. I know in America that sounds unbelievable, like teacher, why would we value a teacher? The backbone of all of humanity, essentially, Rick, right. One of the best paying jobs, teacher, they're not even a banker. I mean, look at how insane our incentive system in America is. So now we got stories like this where if you get cancer as a teacher, you gotta pay for

your own substitute teacher. Are there no bounds of reason? And in America, unfortunately there aren't. We're increasingly working harder, earning less, and living shorter lifespans. And there are a couple studies that are out there that really show the value the teachers provide to a society, and they're twofold. One is they provide great economic value because they allow a workforce to grow, but they allow people, more importantly, to just be intelligent, sentient, conscious, loving human

beings. So the psychological impacts of being a teacher are profound on us because the early stages of our lives are so important to who we become. Yeah, sorry, we're good ahead. It just always makes me think that like we are in this place. And we've been for a while, though, that people who could be really passionate and students, you know, thinking about their future careers, really passionate about being educators, won't.

Yeah. Because why would you? No incentive. You know, yeah. Yeah, you know, Jimmy Dorr jokes around about how, yeah, blaming the teachers is probably the right way to go for the, all the ills of the country. They're putting all their money, packing it all in the trunk of their Toyota to sell, if he says, right?

To quote Jimmy badly. But we have this system now where, yeah, a lot of people in power when we had the housing crash, didn't blame the bankers who created that crisis through their greed. They blame the homeowners, and they blame them middle class. And whenever there's, and when we have completely falling apart schools, and why are they falling apart? Because we're not funding them in places like California and Alabama, and that's a funny They sent this, right?

And California should do much better in their public schools, but they have done disastrously. Why? Because the tax cuts for the rich. And so that is a choice that was made. That is why our education system deteriorated, not because of the teachers. That is a preposterous statement, not only on its face, but if you look at the evidence, well it turns out if you treat teachers well, you have a great education system. So those are facts.

And so back to this for a second, she, right after her surgery, a couple days after her surgery, She wrote personalized notes to all 22 of our students, thanking them for working hard, telling them she missed them and thanking them for their support. And now these parents are, you know, raising money through GoFundMe and they've raised $13,000. But for every GoFundMe story you hear, there's a thousand you don't hear. So if you look at this, you might think like, oh, look at that, hey, people stepped up and they're helping her and problem solved. No, the problem's not solved.

to other thousand teachers you don't see who have cancer all across the country. And because they didn't get a story like this, they didn't get lucky that it went into a newspaper or went on a show like ours, they're going to suffer quietly. And our government, who's supposed to represent the citizens, is never going to come to the rescue. Because unfortunately, right now, we don't have real representatives. We have people who work for their donors. And as long as they keep doing that, as long as we have the wrongest of them.

of structure in the wrong system, we are going to continue to do barbaric things like this, where you see, if you got cancer, you're gonna have to pay for the person filling in for you. It's for the rest of the developed world, it's unconscionable, it's unthinkable. And in fact, probably can't quite believe it. They can't believe that the richest nation on earth would do this to its own citizens. But yes, we do, we do it every day. When you apply the same logic by which a for-profit company makes money to the school system,

you have the system that we have here right now, which is the increased privatization of schools, public schools that are getting less funds and resources, and you also see the need for actions that we're seeing a series of strikes all around the country, Colorado, West Virginia, here in Los Angeles, Oakland, where teachers are striking, and that's the only time when people step up because parents are realizing our kids are going to have no education. These teachers are so important, and that's the only way in which I think we're seeing. seeing a lot of change happen right now. And that's heartwarming for me. Yeah. And look, I'm not in favor of every strike. It depends. It depends on the industry. It depends on the consequences

and the context, right? But for teachers all across the country, yes, if you think you're being screwed, you are right. You are being screwed. They have decided to deprioritize you. They have reduced your salaries or it certainly is not kept up with inflation all across the country. That is not an accident. It is because you're not a corporate. donor. These donors buy all the politicians, they legally bribe them. And that is why your education system is being privatized, your job is being eliminated, and your wages are stagnant.

Your only choice in a scenario like that, and a context like that is to strike, is to get together, fight together so that you at least have a chance of winning together. Okay, let's keep going. So we keep going, that's a good point to end on. Whatever you got next first. All right, I do have something next. Interesting, and maybe someone called ironic, because that 2020 presidential candidate hopeful Joe Biden is looking for a middle ground policy to battle climate change.

So looking for a middle ground policy to battle an emergency. But it's not my plan. Brooke, you know, I love the way you're friends. Before we get there in details, I hadn't thought of it that way, right? So I've got different thoughts on what kind of a middle ground it is, but I like the idea of like, oh my God, there's a fire in the house. Well, let's go with a middle ground. Can we just put out, that's right, can we just put out half the fire? Okay, so we'll let half the house burn down and put out the other half.

No, sometimes the middle ground approach does work. It depends on the situation. Okay, never works in an emergency. Yes, but hardly ever in an emergency, right? Right, hey, we're getting robbed here. Let's go with a middle ground approach. Let me take half your money or send in, you know, Edson, you get the point. And the planet is in crisis.

And if you don't recognize that, there is a significant issue there. I have a theory on where the real middle ground is, but let's give you more of the details. Yeah, so give you some details. Take a look. So the background of the policy will likely include rejoining the United States with the Paris Climate Agreement and preserving U.S. regulations on emissions and vehicle fuel efficiency that Trump, of course, is sought to undo. According to one of the sources, there are two sources that are giving us this information. But Heather Zecal is actually part of a team advising Biden on climate change, and she previously

advised President Barack Obama. So this sounds good, right? This so far, this sounds good. Here's where a lot of people have a problem. The second source, a former energy department official, also advising Biden's campaign who asked not to be named. That's always a red flag. Yeah, that's right.

Whatever you do, do not tell people who I am. Exactly. Okay. So they say the policy could also be supportive of nuclear energy and fossil fuel options like natural gas and carbon capture technology, which limit emissions from coal plants and other industrial facilities. And so, of course, this is likely to upset climate change activist, environmental groups. More than half of the crowded field, of course, of Democratic contenders, including Elizabeth

Warren, Kamala Harris, Beto O'Rourke, Corey Booker, Jay Inslee, and Pete. Buttigieg have backed the Green New Deal. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different

historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned.

And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. And many have also called for a moratorium on drilling on federal land. But back to the first source, Zeckel said, here's the deal, that Biden hopes to be able to use his climate policy to bridge the gap between younger and more progressive Democrats who want

bold action on global warming and the working class demographic that fear losing jobs as the economy shifts away from fossil fuels. So essentially, people are saying that he is already starting. with the fight for Trump, almost like he feels like he has the Democratic fight just, you know, in the bag already. Yeah, I don't accept that paradigm at all. Let me just make a quick point and then I wanna hear you out and then get back to the middle ground. So, Reuters wrote this article and they're a pretty good organization.

I would argue even better than most of the rest of the journalism done in America. But they say this repeatedly throughout the piece. I'll quote another sentence here, Biden's middle ground approach to environmental policy could put him in a better position than his rivals to take on Trump if it accommodates blue collar voters. I don't agree with the assumption. In another part of the piece, another mainstream media assumption is that, well, this will cost trillions of dollars. Well, you're leaving out the part where it saves trillions of dollars from all the, all the

economic disasters that we have had through floods, fires, hurricanes, extreme weather events. That part of the equation is almost never mentioned in the media or by corporate Democrats. But more importantly in that context, wait, if we're spending trillions of dollars, did it ever occur to you? That's because we're rebuilding the entire energy infrastructure of America and hence creating tons of jobs. So it's not either or it's not, hey, we're gonna save the planet but sacrifice blue collar jobs.

No, we're gonna save the planet and in so doing create potentially millions of new jobs. So I do not accept your corporate ideology that no, you can either have the planet or you can have jobs. That's the oldest corporate myth there is. And so for Biden to buy into it, and even more disturbingly, for good media organizations to buy into it is unacceptable. I think you, just an interesting point, it just reminded me as something that I keep complaining about and I forgot, I forgot to complain, what?

But you pointed out that this is still another hidden way of still assuming that all of those people voted for Trump because of economic anxiety. Exactly. So that was it. They're screaming, you know, shoot migrants at rallies because of economic anxiety. And so if you're soft on climate change, they'll like you because. They want fossil fuel jobs. That's really what this was all about.

It just ignores this aspect and this reason why Trump voters are Trump voters that people still are not fully willing to accept. I don't think it was so much about this. Yeah, so it's a lose-lose in both of those respects. I mean, to go to a totally non-economic issue like Black Lives Matter, when right-wingers who support Trump say that that's a terrorist organization, as they've said on Fox News, what that has nothing to do with economic issues, what God's green earth are you talking about, Right?

So that's part of it. The other part is, well, even if you already accept this because of economic issues, Green New Deal creates millions of new jobs, thereby giving you an opportunity to reach out to those voters in a much more effective way than let's maintain the status quo, because that appears to be Joe Biden's theme, just like it was Hillary Clinton's theme. Let's make sure we go back to doing pretty much nothing. So look, on the good things, Paris Climate Court, and look at the wording, preserving US regulations on emissions and vehicle fuel efficiency, that's table stakes.

That's saying, hey, let's go back to 2016. That's not going to solve the climate change issue. Those are good steps, but minor steps taken in an earlier time for you to put us back to 2016 creates two different problems. One is, then we have not gone forward in fixing the climate crisis that we have on our hands now, and we can't afford to lose any time. And second of all, you created a political environment that was so bad, so toxic, it created Donald Trump. No deal.

So for me, this is an example of what happens far too often in our country, which is you compromise before you even have an opportunity to negotiate. Which means, to me, what Biden is expressing here is not a statement actually of his values, but the fact that he's actually tethered quite likely to corporate money. I mean, as we see literally in the story with the natural gas industry insider as one of his advisors. The Paris Accord is largely non-binding. It doesn't go nearly far enough. Most climate scientists and journalists like Naomi Klein have made that point again and again. And on top of it, what happens here is there's an objectifying of blue-collar workers

and their economic anxiety. What people want are jobs and a social contract. They want secure income for their families and to be able to work to get what they want, you know, out of that work. They need to be protected as we go through these transitions. The Green New Deal isn't about leaving these people behind. It's about giving them meaningful employment in an industry of the future. And it's really important that as we go through these transitions, and this is something that Bernie Sanders has said very directly, that we don't leave. anyone behind.

We actually create more economic opportunities out of the challenges that we're facing right now. So I've got to run through two more things here at least. One is I promised you what I think middle ground actually means. I think middle ground in this case means middle ground between the planet and my corporate donors. So let's be honest and let's have a conversation we didn't have in 2016. We said it on air, but almost no one on TV said it. They asked Bernie Sanders in a very skeptical and demeaning way, like, are you saying that

Hillary Clinton's donors affected our policy? God damn it, yes, the answer is yes. Are they affecting Biden's policies? Of course they are. That's why he's going with a so-called middle ground. And so- And they affected Obama's policies. They did, they did, and that's an uncomfortable fact. And Biden loves to hide behind Obama.

He's like, I'm going to do nothing, but so did Obama, right? I'm going to go back to the status quo, but so did Obama. Right? And so, hey, if you attack me, you're attacking Obama, and you're not allowed to do that. Wrong, I am allowed to do that. And we have to be honest with people. And remember, it's a different time. If Obama was ahead of his time, which I don't think he was, but even if you were to grant

him that, that still doesn't get you to today. You have to go forward. You can't go backward and hide behind Obama. And so now, speaking of going backwards, I mean, look at this policies, right? It smacks of Hillary Clinton. So here's a quote, tell me if Biden said it or Hillary said it. Right now, to be fair, neither one of them said it's one of their advisors. Anyway, right now, we need a little bit more reality around this dialogue.

Remember when Hillary would say, oh, let's be real, let's be real, we're not going to help you, okay? The reality is there isn't anything we can do and the status quo rocks. How did that work out for us in the general election? And Biden constantly reaching out to Republicans, not interested in, misunderstands the political dynamic at hand. You know, one of his advisors is Obama's energy secretary, Ernest Monas, and you might think, oh, hey, Obama, I'm hiding behind Obama, wonderful, Obama's energy secretary, just wrote an

op-ed in March with a Bush administration official calling for a green real deal, meaning now, let's keep it real, we're not going to do anything. Me and the Bush guys agree. No. In that case, I'm not for a real deal, I'm for a no deal. No deal on Joe Biden. So it's not personal, I like Joe Biden, he's a likable guy. I met him a couple of times, I don't, it's not like he's my uncle, you know, he seems

like a fine enough guy, it's not personal at all. But if your policy planks are, I promise to march backwards and at best maintain the status scroll, and I promise to work with Republicans like Dick Cheney who he complimented, Mitch McConnell and the others. No deal, not interesting. So right now, he's got to do nothing Biden campaign. And that's how we lost the general election last time. Can I make one quick point, which is this is reflective of not having any vision at all, right?

I mean, Trump was clear about his hateful and hypocritical vision. Bernie Sanders was clear about his vision in the last go-around. What is Biden's vision? Is it to soothe everyone while the climate crisis gets worse, while people become more economically insecure? What is the vision? Yeah. And if you don't have a vision, you lose. And so to that point, Ramesh, he says, well, I call it climate change an existential crisis,

an existential threat to our planet. So first of all, let me know that I don't care what you call it, I care what you do. Second of all, if you think it's an existential threat, that means it is life or death. To Brooke's original point, would you go with a middle ground approach to an existential threat? No, that means you don't mean any of it. You're not, you don't think it's an existential threat. You're not going to act like it's an existential threat. The only thing that you view to be an existential threat is if your corporate donors back out of your campaign.

That's the reality. That's the real deal. Part of it could also, I wonder, you know, we're talking about donors affecting policies. and this kind of matches the behavior of a lot of older democratic lawmakers. You know, you're not talking about a world I'm going to see. You know, you know, essentially, and maybe. It's my grandchildren's problems. Though the studies show that in 12 years, irreparable damage.

Right. And we see it happening right now all over the world and in our country. Yeah, look, this is a problem. Maybe you didn't see it that way. Yeah, we're going to talk more about it in upcoming shows. And I've got big events for you guys that I'm not ready to talk about it yet. But the problem is that a lot, even Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are not ready to call out their colleagues.

And they gotta call them out. The Diane Fyesigns and the Chuck Schumers of the world are systemically corrupt. They're never going to change. They're paid not to change. And if you don't call out your fellow Democrats, you're not even gonna get their votes, let alone the Republican votes. You have to be incredibly tough to get this stuff passed. And we need much more toughness than that.

But Biden, I guess, in an ironic twist to his credit, is saying, no, no, don't worry, I'm not going to get anything passed. None of these are new proposals. At best, I'm going to go back to how it was, but I plan to pass nothing new. Wow, disastrous. All right, we've got to take a quick break. We've got a lot more dunking. You really push it for that.

Including on Trump when we return. All right, back on the Young Turks. And we were talking about fossil fuels and climate crisis just in the last segment. And, you know, one of our sponsors and partners is Aspiration, and we tell you to go to Aspiration.com slash TYT. So they, when you deposit your money in almost any bank, they will put it in a variety of different investments and then return you almost nothing. The current interest rates hover around 0.02%, but they make money off of it.

But one of the things that they put money into is fossil fuel industry. And so if we think it's an existential threat and we think that the planet is on fire, we also should not have our money being put towards fossil fuel industry. At Aspiration.com slash TYT, they are not doing any of that. They do not put your money into any fossil fuel companies. And instead of getting 0.02, you're getting about 2.0. So that is literally 100x. So you get so much more money.

And the money's clean. So it's a bit of a no-brainer. That's why we consider them a partner here. So please check that out, Aspiration.com slash TYT to get an account there. All right, let me, speaking of checking things out, on Tuesdays, we're going to start to do something different. We're going to do post games that are public to everybody. Normally the last half hour is just for members, okay, but get a load of this.

We're not done yet, and Brooke, you might take part in one of these one day, so brace for impact. We're gonna do Ask Me Anythings. Oh, no, no. Y'all are wild. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay.

So, now the twist is, so members make this show possible. So the questions will only be from young tourist members and members of ours on YouTube, okay? Nice, that's very. So you can become a member on YouTube by clicking the blue button, join. button join next to the videos or right underneath the videos. You can become a member of the Young Turks at t.t.com slash join. We've talked about the benefits of both. They're both great programs.

But either way, we will take comments from you guys or questions from you guys and we will answer them live. So check that out. The first one starts next Tuesday. So it should get pretty interesting. You'll all be able to view it at tyt.com and YouTube.com slash tYT. available to everybody, just the members get to ask questions. Okay, so speaking of the members, let me read a couple of comments real quick.

Brian R says, it's sad when GoFundMe is considered a viable health plan in your country. True enough. Daniel Sacks says, LOL, $13,000 versus cancer. That doesn't even cover one month's meds, never mind the other teachers pay. Now look, to be fair, she has insurance. So the 13,000 isn't going to cancer. The 13,000 is going towards her paying the other teacher to cover for her, which should be part of the system and not on her.

I mean, a lot of the teachers now have to buy their own books and supplies for the kids, which is crazy, absolutely nuts. Now they're gonna have to pay for substitute teachers when they get cancer, so that's what it goes to us. That helps her to still take home with salary so that she can have food to eat, gas in her car, pay the electricity bill, all things that her health insurance is not gonna cover. That's exactly right. The last one is Leon Sun just says, Ramesh is nailing it.

Okay, agreed. Thanks. I got a fed. Or a friend. At least one. Aren't you both my friends? Yes, yes. You're right.

You're in the double digits, for sure. That's right. All right, Brooke, what's next? All right, so next up, House Democrats are fighting hard, actually against Trump's efforts to shortchange Puerto Rico. Here's the latest. The House passed the $17.2 billion supplemental disaster relief package Friday in a 257 to 150 vote, despite opposition from President Trump, who urged Republicans to vote against the measure because of what he saw as excessive funding for Puerto Rico. Take a look at this. Puerto Rico got $91 billion, and I understand they don't like me.

It's the most money we've ever given to anybody. money. We've never given $91 billion to a state. We've never given. We gave to Puerto Rico $91 billion. That's Puerto Rico and they don't like me. Texas, Florida, the biggest hurricanes we've ever seen, Texas, Florida. But this. And what the Democrats want to do, they want to give more and more because they complain they want more money. They got $91 billion. It's the largest amount of money ever given for a hurricane to a state. to any element. Yeah.

So look, here's, I'm going to go ironic here. There's one thing that Trump does well, and you saw it there. Now, is it telling the truth? No. Okay, did they get $91 billion? No. The House just voted for $17 billion, and the Senate hasn't voted on that yet, and Trump doesn't want them to have that.

The $91 billion numbers, totally, I want to say incorrect, but I don't know. I know that it's a thing, like I don't think he's basing it on anything, so it's just like a fiction, right? He could have said, but Jillian, essentially like, right? That's right, or 93 billion, as long as we're making up numbers, what difference does it make? But what he does well is the repetition. Just keep saying 91 billion, like they did it to the Green New Deal, some right-wing think

tank made up a number, and in that case it was literally, I think it was 93 trillion. I'm not kidding, like just an outrageous, outlandish, insane number. And every right wing outlet repeats it, Trump repeats it, and then people think, oh, it's going to cost $93 trillion. I mean, think about that number and how impossible that is. That's as close as you can get to what Brooke just said. Why don't you just say a bajillion? Okay, if you're making up numbers, maybe make up like that portion of the number two.

But he says it so often and so that his followers genuinely believe that's the amount that we're giving to Puerto Rico. He's the master of the meme, you say something, you make it shocking, it goes crazy on social media, everyone gets riled up, and it just creates a lot of fanaticism. And by the time it's corrected, it doesn't matter because that meme was already heard around the world. It's done. Yeah.

And there is a coded language aspect of ignoring Hurricane Katrina and all of the people and what they look like, the demographics and, you know, of people who lost their lives, lost their homes, still, you know, took years to meet back up with their relatives. A lot of people say, you know, President Bush at the time ignored it. So it's no shock that, you know, he's completely ignoring it. That cost a lot of money in federal aid, still not enough that was necessary. But hurricanes, the hurricane in Florida, the hurricane, you know, in Puerto Rico, in Houston, there was still another major disaster that it bothers me when the president of the United

States doesn't acknowledge that. Yeah, so a couple of things building off of that. So yes, in reality, of course, his statement that. We've never given more money to anything before is wrong on three different counts. One is 91 billion is a lie. Number two is, yes, we have given more money to something before. I mean, what a preposterous statement. We've never given more money to anything before.

Okay, we'll get beyond that. And then you get to the most important part. No, it's not even true about hurricanes. We gave more money for Hurricane Katrina recovery, as well we should have. There was also thousands of people killed in that one and thousands of people killed in Puerto Rico. So it's, we're not the ones going around which saying which hurricane is more important and which one should have gotten 10 more dollars or whatever. He is.

He's going around, I mean, Puerto Rico, they keep asking, and he keeps implying that they're not doing enough for themselves, these stereotypes that he keeps pressing on. And then the people wonder, oh, why you guys call them racist or bigoted? Because he keeps saying Puerto Rico's lazy and they don't know how to handle money. It's maddening when he says that about the victims. There's one last thing about that. So they go around and complain that Green New Deal costs too much money. But when extreme climate events cost us a lot of money, they complain about that too.

So which one is it? Well, we wouldn't have to give $17 billion to Puerto Rico if the hurricanes weren't as extreme as they are today because of climate crisis. But when we go to fix that, you go, nope, no, I don't want to spend money on that. So what it is is really redistribution of the wealth. is the oil companies and the fossil fuel companies, they create the problems, they take home the profits, but they put the costs on to us. And then we fight amongst ourselves, did Houston get enough money or Florida get enough money

or New Orleans or Puerto Rico? Well, why are we even paying for the cost of the oil companies? Why don't they pay for it? The language is very specific too, just even in that sound bite there, just how he talks about Puerto Rico as if because they're not a state, they don't deserve the people there don't deserve the same national protections as the rest of the people here. And I don't buy that period. Like, I don't, I think people in Mexico deserve help when they need it.

You know what I mean? They're not at all part of the country. They're not a territory. So, but it's just, it's, it's, it's planned. It's, it's very purposeful the way he speaks about Puerto Rico compared to states. What's so troubling here is how different Trump's rhetoric is versus natural, with natural disasters that hit vulnerable black and brown people and marginalized communities. And it's really clear that he still thinks of Puerto Rico as a colony, right?

It's a colonial mindset by which Puerto Rico has talked about and treated. And it's not that dissimilar to the ways in which people in New Orleans were spoken about many years ago. And I just think it's really important to know that there's a lot of incredible, and I want to say this to all the viewers. There are a lot of incredible initiatives in renewable and sustainable energy and businesses and enterprise and non-profits and collectives in Puerto Rico right now. The Intercept's been reporting on this. And it's really important to understand that our aid to our fellow countrymen, to our fellow people, can actually help people on the ground,

help rejuvenate that island. So it's an example for all of us to look at in the context of climate change. Yeah. And the house that he lives in right now is not. in a state. Yes. It's just to how- It's not living in a state right now, guys. And the way he's standing there, knowing that, and speaking about as if Puerto Rico, it's different, it's separate. Yeah, just to finish up here, you're, I hadn't quite thought of it in that way to refer

to it as in the colonial mindset, and it's hard to get into Trump's mind, which is a dangerous and empty place. But so, because I think, like, why would we? treat Puerto Rico differently than Florida or Texas. Whereas he thinks, well, we've given them something and they still won't even thank me. Because they're not worthy of our help, but out of the goodness of my heart, I chipped in a little bit. And still, these people that we have colonized and tried to civilize are not helping, are not

thanking me enough. So it's that mindset that is so dangerous and wrongheaded. But finally, I don't want to let the Republican Party off the hook. here, because they're, what the media does a lot is they make it seem as if Donald Trump is exceptional, not in a good way, but like, oh, he's the wild card, he's different. No, this is the same exact thing that Republican Party did during Hurricane Katrina. If you remember, Barbara Bush went to go see some of the survivors and they were in a being put up in a football stadium because the Superdome, because there was no place to go.

People are in disastrous shape, they've lost their homes. And she said, I don't see what the problem is, it's probably better than they were living before. Wow. So that's who the Republican Party is. Trump is not an aberration, he's a natural extension of what they have been doing. It's not like the Republican Party was fighting climate change until Trump came along. No, they have been dead set against doing anything to help on climate change.

And they have had these kind of mindset about black and brown people from day one. And the frontline communities most affected by climate change tend to be black and brown and poor and working poor communities and people. And I think that's why you see such little care about those communities, because honestly, I don't think they really matter to these people. And that's something that constantly I think needs to be brought up is how the media in general as a whole doesn't do a great job of pointing out how climate change and climate issues, environmental issues impact people of color and communities of color.

Absolutely. Even, you know, transportation pollution, everything, you know, but. But the Green New Deal is not only starting with those communities, but is an across-the-board attempt to engage with all of the stakeholders, including people working in the fossil fuel industries like we were talking about earlier to give them a chance through these transformations. Right? These challenges and transformations are actually profound opportunities for us to grow our economy. You know what, I unfortunately just solved how we can get Republicans on board for Green

New Deal. Yeah. Call it the White New Deal. Oh my gosh. Boom. Okay. So we'll be right back and when we come back, hilarious mistakes by the Trump White House. And then I think we'll have time for another union busting story.

This time it's Delta. All right, we'll be right back. We hope you're enjoying this free clip from the Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting independent media, become a member at t.yt.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free segment. All right, back on the Young Turks. So a couple of comments for you guys first.

On the member comment section, and I hope this is not a reflection of his view of membership, but dissatisfied, writes in, I imagine the current government, I don't know, he blames the Central American migrants for the problems he himself created. And continues to create, by the way, in places like Venezuela. Yeah. And on Twitter, that boy's hell on Turlitz writes in, that guy lost over a billion dollars in under 10 years, wants us to think that he knows what too much money is. Okay, that's a good point.

And that was apparently a common theme because Zane Koss also said, Trump, luxury anybody about how to properly handle money, gold. So that's funny. All right, I want to tell you guys about a remodel we did of our website, tyt.com. It's great on a number of fronts because now a lot of the videos are all in one place. So if you have to go to damage report to watch it here on YouTube or Rebel HQ on Facebook or us here, just go to tyt.com. We're featuring the videos and the clips that are free a lot more now.

And some of the stuff is just for members, but it'll have that little gold part. But what we're also doing, which is kind of fun, is every once in a while we will randomly unlock members-only segments so people can check it out. So it's kind of like an Easter egg hunt there. So go on the website, see what's unlocked. In fact, in a sense, when we're doing the Ask Me Anythings on Tuesdays now that we're going to do on t.com, we're going to unlock that and it's going to be for everyone and not just for the members, but the members are the only ones who can ask questions on those Ask Me Anythings.

So t-y-t.com slash join to become a member, but you don't have to be a member to go to t-y-t.com and check out all of our videos from all of our different channels. And we now have partner channels on there as well. So it's your hub for progressive videos and news for the day. So you don't have to jump around to all the different channels on the other platforms. Okay, what's the expert? All right, so we've been talking about Puerto Rico. I think we should kind of stay on that topic because the world.

Series Championship Team, the Boston Red Sox were honored at the White House Thursday, but not everyone showed up, and I'll tell you the connection. Of course, the team's manager Alex Cora, did not attend the ceremony after citing his frustration with the administration's efforts to help his native Puerto Rico recover from a devastating hurricane. Nearly a dozen members of the team, all players of color, skipped the opportunity to shake Trump's hand. Meanwhile, every white player on the team attended. Now, Tom Warner, the team's chairman, downplayed the no-show saying it was each player's personal decision whether to attend, saying we don't see it as a racial divide. He said, I think to the extent we can.

Baseball is, he essentially said, he said it's not political. Baseball's not political. And so they sure celebrated. They were celebrated hard when they got there. Maybe it got a little weird before, because take a look at this. When the White House's first press release about the visit came out, the Boston Globe noticed a little something wrong with the team name. It was spelled red socks, S-O-C-K-S, instead of Red Sox, S-O-X, of course. And it seems that having the latter sewn directly into the home uniforms wasn't enough of a helpful hit for this White House.

So, and I think we have a picture, I think, of that press release. It's a dead serious. And there's actually more. After realizing that mistake, the White House issued a second press release, but this one went foul as well. Do you get it? These are not my jokes. These are great, though. They're okay, actually. They're okay. We can do better.

All right, so Trump's White House called them World Cup Series champions. That's unbelievable. Are there any Americans in the White House? Everybody has a host notice is too, right? Okay. Or have they all left a pitch? Because that's 2-0 on errors right now. World Cup Series?

Right. World Cup Series. I mean, if a Democrat had said World Cup Series, they'd be laughed out of the planet. They'd be called on American, actually. A hundred percent, that's right. You don't know how to spell Red Sox? You don't know how to spell Red Sox? I mean, do you live in America?

I want to know if he fed them, because baseball players are rich, rich, rich. You know what I mean? College players are broke. Baseball players are like rich, rich, rich, rich. Rich, rich, rich, did he give them big... At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us

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available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EXPRE S-SVPN.com. com slash t-y-t. Check it out today. Dick Max. Because that's what he does to all the college players. That's right.

Yeah. So, look, there's a serious issue and a non-serious issue here. The racial divide is real. I want to get back to that in a second. But continuing on the fun topic, look, it's just coincidentally. Obviously, we didn't know they were going to make this mistake this week. Just two days ago on Old School, another one of our shows, become a man. member, get all of them, t.wit.com slash join.

And seriously, though, Ben, Michael and I were talking about, they never let little eras go if it's a Democrat. And we talked about how John Kerry had called Lambeau Field, Lambert Field, when he was running for president. And Fox News went nuts. Oh, my God, I can't believe he would call it Lambert Field. He's not a real American, as Ramesh pointed out, and he's not an average guy, he's, you know, this rich, elitist.

etc. Meanwhile, Trump literally says that his rallies, I'm an elitist. He said that. He said, I'm part of the elite. I'm part of the elite. I don't know why they say I'm not part of the elite. And he brags about having $10 billion. Now, of course, it's a lie. And he's a buffoon who's lost a ton of money. But somehow, a guy who doesn't know how to spell Marine Corps, by the way, let alone every other word in the English language. And they misspell Red Sox and called the World Series World Cup Series. And it's just an amusing aside. I get it. It's a downpour of idiocy from Donald Trump. So which one do you focus on?

But if a Democrat had done it, they would never, ever, ever let it go. They would have called Obama Kenyon if he called Red Sox, spelled Red Sox S-O-C-K-S. But really it is stunning. All you have had to ever do was read any paper or turn on any TV station ever in your life. You don't have to be a sports fan. around to be a baseball fan to know that it's not spelled like the socks on your feet. That's unbelievable. Or you could have just looked at that, oh, right, on their uniforms, the ones we invited

to the World Cup Series champions. Okay, anyway, now on to this series, oh, by the way, they, that was not enough. Because some people have these theories like, oh, they did that on purpose to distract, so you would talk about that, there's never any strategy, remember that. They did a third error. Now, you're telling me this is something, an effort to distract? No, I'm surprised anybody picked it up. They referred to, they were from Boston where they have great colleges, including MIT,

and they referred to it as Massachusetts Institution of Technology. Okay, awesome. Okay, so they don't know anything about anything. I went there actually and it certainly is the Institute of Technology. Yeah. And our mascots, the beavers, because we're engineers. Yeah, I wonder how he's gonna spell that. But the important thing is, back to the racial divide.

Saying there is no racial divide when none of the minority players show up and all the white players show up is just saying I deny reality, it's alternative facts. And Ortiz made a good point. So David Ortiz's legendary Red Sox player, so X, okay. And he said, look, you don't want to go and shake hands with a guy who's treating immigrants like crap because I'm an immigrant. So he's saying like when you go and meet with the guy and you're pleasant to the guy, and he's insulted immigrants like me over and over again, what are you saying about me and

how you feel about me? But yet they all went and I just, I believe in solidarity as a team. That's such a good point, just as a human. And I thought about that. We joked about the Baylor women's, the pictures, because they were funny. But I wonder what would have happened had that coach said, you know what, I'm not even going to put you through this. I don't think that you all, my team of women of color who've just busted their butts all season

should go and have to shake hands with somebody who's been so horrible to people who look like them. And just how nice it would have been, especially your manager, your coach, like to just be like, okay, I'm gonna hear where he's coming from. And I get that it's, it just, the problem is that it always lies on the marginalized community. So you have to miss out on a trip to the White House and everybody else gets to go because what do you say, don't bother me? Like, do you know what I mean?

Like you, and when it could have been like the Golden State Warriors who went and spent their time with the most legendary congressman ever, you know, in Washington, D.C. instead, like that if these teams were to plan something bigger and better and not force their other teammates to have to miss out on something. I mean, the NBA is in a whole other sphere of advocacy and progressive politics, but I think it's really interesting in telling how, you know, a president who in this case is pretty culturally illiterate when it comes to mainstream national pastime sport. Why is it that the definition of pop culture and nationalism and just like American pie is somehow something that's usurped and owns by the Republican Party? And I think that's a real question that, you know, those of us who are critical of issues in this country can still. be patriotic.

Yeah. And lastly, I've said this before, but it's perfect for this situation. Governor Ann Richards used to joke about George W. Bush, that he was born on third base and thought he hit a triple. And for Donald Trump, he's so stupid. He was born on third base and thought he kicked a field goal. And so that's exactly where we are right now in America. Yeah, that's pretty good.

Okay, all right, let's do Delta is quick. No, we're out of time. Ah, dang. Okay. All right, I love that one too. Sorry about that. Oh, no, no. So guys, we got a lot of great topics coming up.

We got Rachel Lears coming up at 8 p.m. Eastern. You're going to be shocked to find others at Racist working at Turning Point USA, but the nature of it is, in fact, quite appalling and shocking when you see the video. And then Ben Shapiro loses it. uh and and walks off a set uh we will have a very good time making fun of him all right thank you guys we appreciate it we'll be 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 dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon