The Young Turks - Just Plane Stupid

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

Support independent, progressive news coverage from TYT. Support independent, progressive news coverage from TYT. Scoop: Israel to tell Secretary of State Tony Blinken that Palestinians can't return to north Gaza without a hostage deal. N.H. attorney general accuses DNC of voter suppression over primary fight. Nation’s largest single-family home landlord to pay $3.7 million in California rent-gouging case. Boeing supplier ignored warnings of “excessive amount of defects,” former employees allege. HOST: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA 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. Book club on Monday. Gym on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday. Quiet night in on Friday.

It's good to have a routine. And it's good for your eyes too. with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers, you'll know just how healthy they are. Visit Spexavers.cavers.cai to book your next eye exam, eye exams provided by independent optometrists. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and today's show is going to be a fantastic one. Honestly, I'm really looking forward to sharing all the news stories we have prepped for you guys in our rundown. Later in the first hour, one of my favorite stories has to do with private equity firms. And the companies that they back, you know, the very companies that snatch up single family homes in many parts of this country, well, they tend to jack up rent on their tenants suddenly and usually far too much. And in states like California, there are laws against that. And so it appears that there are going to be some consequences for one of those corporate investors known as invitation home. So we're going to talk about that later in this hour. The second hour is going to be incredible.

Wazni Lombre will be joining me to talk about a whole host of stories. There was an element to the Trump, Nikki Haley, Tiff, that we did not have enough time to get into yesterday. So we will be talking about that in the second hour. We're also going to discuss how leftists were just roundly suspended from Twitter today, or X formerly known as Twitter. And so we're going to discuss that. Ken Klippenstein makes an appearance in that story, so don't miss it. And as always, you can help to support the show, the work we do. and help to keep us independent from corporate influence by liking and sharing the stream to get more people to watch, or by becoming a member.

And you can do that by going to t.yt.com slash join, or you can click on that join button if you're watching us on YouTube. All right, without further ado, let's get to our first story, which has to do with updates on the Israel Gaza War. But I'm going to keep it a little lighter than usual today. And just talk about one of the things that caught my attention, give you some details, and then move on. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has taken yet another trip to the Middle East to basically discuss the ongoing Israel-Gaza war with Israel, of course, but also with Arab countries, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Now, in an exclusive report by Axios, they're claiming that Israel is planning to propose a hostage-related negotiation that actually involves holding Gaza's needs. hostage, which I am not in favor of, but there is potentially a light at the end of the tunnel here. So I want to kind of focus on the potential positives as well. First, let's talk about

the proposal. Now, before we get to the details of what Israel is planning to negotiate, it is important to understand what this war has meant for the vast majority of Palestinians living in the Gaza strip. It's estimated that 1.9 million Palestinians or about 85% of the population has in fact been displaced due to Israel's military campaign. Most of these individuals have been forced to move and evacuate not once, not twice, but multiple times. And since destruction from Israel's aerial bombardment is widespread, most Palestinians from northern Gaza will not have homes to come back to. And that's really important to keep in mind as I give you details about what the Israeli government is planning to propose to Anthony Blinken. And I'm unsure of what

the response will be from the United States government. But here's what we do know. Between 70 and 80 percent of buildings in northern Gaza have been destroyed in the war, according to an analysis of satellite data conducted by Haman Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University and Corey Schur of Cooney Graduate Center. Now much of the northern, much of northern Gaza's water, sanitation, and electricity infrastructure has also been destroyed. And so there is obviously going to be, and they're going to need resources to rebuild Gaza, especially northern Gaza, And there have been some reports indicating that various figures within Israel's government are trying to appeal to Arab nations in order to bankroll the rebuilding of the Gaza Strip. So far from what I've read in the reports, the UAE has basically, not literally, but effectively given the middle finger to that idea, arguing that it is not incumbent upon other nations to pay for the destruction in the Gaza Strip, that Israel should be responsible for that. The United States, in my opinion, is very likely going to use some of its resources if it does get to a point where Palestinians are allowed to remain in the Gaza Strip.

As we know, there are also reports indicating that some portion of the government, especially the more far right elements of the government in Israel, want to expel Palestinians entirely from the Gaza Strip. But clearly based on these reports, they are considering not doing so, but there is a catch. Okay, so what is the catch? Well, Israeli officials are also saying we are not going to allow Palestinians to go back to their homes in northern Gaza if there is no progress with the release of hostages. So understand what that Israeli official who spoke to Axios on the condition of anonymity is saying there. They're essentially saying if Hamas, a terrorist organization, a terrorist group fails to release hostages. If there's no positive movement in that direction, then we will not allow Palestinians to go back to northern Gaza. Now when they say we won't let them go back to their homes in northern Gaza, that makes no sense there really are no homes left in northern Gaza.

they have effectively raised it. But the idea here is, okay, if we were to rebuild Gaza and allow Palestinians back to the northern region of Gaza, that would only happen if Hamas released the hostages. Now let me be clear, Hamas absolutely should release the hostages. They're committing horrible war crimes by, first of all, kidnapping these innocent people and holding them as hostages. So I absolutely agree that they should release the hostages. There is a catch, though, and the catch is, you know, we're kind of unsure about what the current situation is with the hostages.

We don't know if they're still alive. We don't know how many of them are still alive. And we also don't know if they're currently being held captive by Hamas. And I say that because after Hamas was able to, you know, breach barriers and enter Israel to commit the atrocities they committed on October 7th, There were also other groups, other gangs who came into Israel, and they also kidnapped Israelis and took them to the Gaza Strip. And so some of the missing hostages or some of the hostages that remain in the Gaza Strip, we don't know what happened to them. I know there's one young woman who was kidnapped at the music festival, and ABC News did like this deep dive investigation to try to figure out where she was, and they ultimately couldn't

included that it's likely that Hamas does not know where she is and wouldn't be able to return her because of the other groups who again went into Israel and kidnapped civilians and forced them into the Gaza Strip. So there's that component of it. We don't really know where these hostages are, who these hostages are with, or if these hostages are still alive. And remember, when we talk about the aerial bombardments that are carried out by the IDF, when we talk about the lack of humanitarian. aid entering the Gaza Strip, that doesn't only impact Palestinians. And obviously, that's horrible enough, and that's something that we have condemned. But it also affects the hostages who remain in the Gaza Strip. So when I bring up the questions in regard to what their fate is, whether they're still alive, that's what I'm kind of getting at here.

The second half of it is it's wrong to collectively punish people and hold them hostage. unless Hamas release the hostages, the Israeli hostages that the Israeli government is asking for. I don't agree with that proposal. I don't think that's the way you engage in negotiations. These are innocent Palestinians who have lost literally everything and their lives weren't great to begin with because of the restrictions placed on the Gaza Strip even prior to the war. And so again, I disagree with this. A second Israeli official says that Israelis negotiators believe that the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza is significant leverage that Israel does not want to give up as it tries to secure a new hostage deal. So this second official told

Axios, quote, there are Israeli and American hostages that are still held in Gaza. We think we will know within a few weeks whether a new deal to release them is possible or not, the second official said. So where is the potential light at the end of the tunnel? Where is the positivity that we can focus on in this story? Because it's still, this war continues to be awful. Well, this tells me that they are engaging in negotiations. There was a period of time, especially after the hostage exchange kind of fell apart where they were not negotiating. They were not talking to one another. There was really no effort in pursuing diplomacy or diplomatic means of ending this war. And to me, this indicates that there could be

some of that going on, and that is good news. Israeli officials are expected to tell Anthony Blinken. They are ready to start the planning process with the United States and the UN for a future return of Palestinians to their homes. Remember, a lot of them have lost their homes. So they would have to rebuild those homes, if possible, or to shelters established by international organizations, the official said. So again, there are major questions looming in regard to who foots the bill for rebuilding Gaza. But what I choose to focus on here and, you know, take it for what it is, is the fact that there is a conversation currently taking place about the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza. And at least there is a discussion about rebuilding

Gaza. Right now, it is a complete and utter mess there. It has been made, you know, uninhabitable, unlivable. And so I do think that Israel is responsible for footing the majority of the bill here. But I have no doubt that the United States will very likely get pressured into using some of its resources and doing so. Now, if we are to believe what Israel is saying, things are likely to calm down in regard to the intensity of this war. I have noticed that Israel has conducted some more targeted strikes. And if that was what they were doing from the beginning, there wouldn't be much to criticize them for in regard to this latest round of warfare.

Obviously, there's a lot of other things that you can be critical of and we have been critical of. But the IDF spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, said on Monday that the Israeli military is in the process of transitioning from high intensity operations and most of the Gaza Strip to low intensity operations that are more targeted. As we had shared with you last week, Israel had also reported to the press, their government had, that they are planning to bring troops back to Israel out of the Gaza Strip. And a lot of that has to do with the economic ramifications of having so many IDF soldiers at war in Gaza. I think a lot of it also might have to do with the fact that there is just growing international condemnation over Israel's handling of this war. As we've also reported, South Africa is making allegations and charges of genocide against Israel. And I really do feel that that has shaken Israel up a little bit.

So that will be adjudicated in the International Court of Justice. We'll see how that plays out. But if this does, in fact, slow down a little bit. If we see Israel transition from a high intensity to low intensity operations, that means that there will be fewer ground forces in the enclave and fewer air strikes, especially in Gaza City and in the northern strip. But there is a caveat here that's worth knowing about. High intensity fighting is expected to continue in the southern city of Kahn Yunus, where the IDF is still searching for Hamas leaders who Israel believes are hiding in the tunnels. So again, if they're carrying out targeted strikes and they're genuinely targeted.

And they're avoiding this nonsense where they literally drop 2,000 pound bombs on residential buildings or refugee camps or hospitals and then argue, oh, well, there was nothing we could do. We had to do this. Hamas was using innocent civilians as human shields. If they stopped doing all of that and are far more careful in their military operations, then I'm totally fine with them going after Hamas. What Hamas carried out on October 7th was absolutely awful. Those were atrocities that was a terror attack, and innocent people suffered as a result of that. No innocent civilian deserves what happened on October 7th, but the same can be said of Palestinian civilians as well. They do not deserve what they have been experiencing over the last three months.

So I chose to share this story with you because there seems to be some potential positive movement. Obviously, there's still a lot going on that I personally disagree with, especially when it comes to holding Palestinians hostage until Israel sees the release of the Israeli hostages. But again, a lot of questions about where those hostages are, whether or not they're still alive. And hopefully we hear more word on that soon. And hopefully these more diplomatic negotiations continue. For now, though, we're going to move on to an entirely different story. We're going to go to the chaos in our electoral system here in the United States and talk a little bit about the ongoing war between the state of New Hampshire and the Democratic National Committee.

State officials from both parties in New Hampshire are ready to go to war with the Democratic National Committee over its election-related changes. This story is out of control, and it gives you a sense of just how far the DNC is willing to go in order to give their preferred candidate an upper hand in the general election. And so the DNC wants New Hampshire's primary to take place after South Carolinas. And lawmakers in New Hampshire absolutely reject the idea. And they're insisting to basically do as they usually do. They insist to hold their primary elections first. And things have gotten so heated that the DNC has now called New Hampshire's primary. Literally, they said this, meaningless.

They called it meaningless. and the New Hampshire Attorney General has even filed a cease and desist order against the DNC. That's how heated this is getting. So here's how the situation came to be. In late 2022, the White House had proposed a change to the presidential primary calendar. So let's put this graphic up. It'll show you what the changes would look like. So the normal order of state primaries go like this.

First, Iowa, second, New Hampshire, third, South Carolina. Well, the White House's proposal and what the DNC is trying to carry out is to have South Carolina go first, New Hampshire goes second, and then you probably notice that Iowa isn't even listed as third because Iowa would basically be jettisoned from the early voting states. Now here's why the White House, and by extension the DNC, claims they wanted to switch the order. And look, before I even read you the statement, let me just note, I find this statement unacceptable, okay, because this isn't really what's motivating it. And I'll explain why in a moment. But even if this were the real reason, I just don't think this is a good reason to switch

the order of the states. So the DNC swiftly codified Biden's wishes, saying they were necessary to give voters of color a greater voice in the process. Okay, let's pause. Listen, we live in a country that has an awful history when it comes to the treatment of people of color, being able to exercise their ability to vote. The idea that you should now give any group an upper hand in the electoral process, I think is ridiculous. Every American who is a voting age and is an eligible voter should be treated the same. No one should get an advantage over anyone else. I don't care about race, don't care about gender, don't care about sexual identity or I, you know, affiliation. I just think that this reasoning, even though this isn't the real motivation,

is what leads to division in the country. And Democrats always lean to this. And they don't realize how toxic it ends up being for, you know, greater society. So they say, the DNC swiftly codified Biden's wishes saying they were necessary to give voters of color a greater voice in the process. Though many noted that Biden happened to win South Carolina in 2020 while he lost Iowa, he came fourth place in New Hampshire and fifth place that year. So the second half of that is really what's motivating the Biden White House and by extension of that, the DNC, to try to change the order of the states. It's not really about giving people of color a greater voice. and our elections. I mean, they always lean into identity politics as their excuse for doing

all sorts of insidious things. In reality, this is about giving Biden needed momentum in the primary process. And honestly, that reasoning that they gave about people of color, I think was incredibly fishy. So here's some more details about the 2020 Democratic primary and like how they turned out, because I think that'll also kind of give you the context necessary to understand the real motivating factors behind Biden and the DNC. So for instance, in Iowa in 2020, Biden did not win that primary. So Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders were neck and neck. And Bernie ended up winning the popular vote. But Buttigieg was ultimately awarded two more delegates. That was a whole debacle. Go back four years to watch our video content on that. Then you had New Hampshire. Okay. So it was another

close race, but it was a close race between Bernie and Buttigieg. Bernie got the most votes, but the two actually got an equal share of delegates. Klobuchar got six delegates in the state of New Hampshire and was the last candidate to be awarded any. Biden was fifth in the popular vote in New Hampshire. So can you understand why Biden wouldn't want New Hampshire to be first in the primary elections. But South Carolina was a little different, little different. And South Carolina is the state that Biden would like to be first in the primary elections. Biden easily won the state with nearly 50% of the vote. Bernie came in second place with almost 20% of the vote. And so again, what Biden wants to do is front load the states where he's likely to do well in the primary

elections. But since New Hampshire didn't agree to this, well, Biden's not even going to appear on New Hampshire's ballot. That's how insane this is. So look, with all of this in mind, it's easy to understand why New Hampshire officials did not buy the DNC's bogus identity politics excuse. New Hampshire Secretary of State, a Republican, set the primaries date for January 23rd, knowing it would be out of compliance with DNC rules. And the DNC declared the primary invalid and warned the state would lose its delegates to the Democratic National Convention. But New Hampshire's like, no, we will persist. And they've chosen to do so. They cited state law that requires New Hampshire to hold a primary at least a week before any other state. And so

the DNC has continued to lash out against New Hampshire. Just last Friday, the DNC sent a stunning letter to the chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. His name is Ray Buckley, and here's an excerpt of what they wrote. As you are aware, the Rules and Bylaws Committee deemed the New Hampshire Democratic Party's plan noncompliant on December 1st of 2023. The New Hampshire Democratic Party must take steps to educate the public that January 23rd is a non-binding presidential preference event and is meaningless. And the NHDP and the presidential candidate should take all steps possible not to participate. This is the party that is running a candidate whose entire campaign platform is about saving democracy.

Just let that sink in for a second. Okay. So again, the DNC told New Hampshire officials that they need to bury their own primary. And not only that, they also stated that if they do not move the date, of the primary to what the DNC prefers, the state's delegates will not be awarded to New Hampshire. But the DNC is also failing to intimidate them, and I love to see this. Okay, this conflict has united both parties in the state of New Hampshire with Republican Secretary of State and the Attorney General coming to Buckley's defense. Just yesterday, the state attorney general's office also filed a cease and desist order directed at the DNC, the office also wrote in a letter to the organization, accusing it of illegal

voter suppression. Again, this is the party that claims they're trying to protect democracy, telling any person qualified to register to vote or vote in New Hampshire that the January 23rd, 2024, New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary election is meaningless, constitutes an attempt to prevent or deter New Hampshire voters from participating in the primary. And look, as we know, the Democratic Party doesn't want to allow primaries to even happen, right? They've got their 81-year-old incumbent president, and they feel that he is entitled to winning the nomination. And they know how deeply unpopular Biden is. Biden is incredibly low in approval ratings. And so in order to prevent any possibility of Biden losing the primary elections, they're just not allowing

primaries to take place. No primary debates on the Democratic side. The state of Florida, along with a few other states have decided we're just not going to hold primaries. It's insane, absolutely insane. So what happens now? Well, Biden has refrained from putting his name on this whole New Hampshire primary debacle. And according to Politico, Biden allies are working on a right in campaign for him in the state because all of these chaotic moves and all of this conflict, again, has led to a situation in which Biden won't even appear on the ballot. Meanwhile, New Hampshire officials are showing no sign of moving their primary. They do intend to allow this primary to take place on January 23rd.

And it remains to be seen what the DNC will do in response to that. But even if the DNC does allow the delegates to be awarded, none of them will be allowed to go to presidential candidate, Shank Yugar, because the state has completely excluded him from the ballot. And so we'll see how this all plays out. I think that these moves that the DNC tends to engage in during primary elections does not speak well of the Democratic Party. And I think it is particularly toxic for the Democratic Party when they are trying to run Joe Biden, again, a candidate who is going to base almost the entirety of his reelection campaign on Trump bad, democracy important. We must protect democracy. I don't know if Trump is going to be savvy enough to see what's currently transpiring with the DNC and use that to his advantage to basically squash the allegations of, you know, Trump being anti-democratic. But he'd be smart if he did use this to his advantage. And to know that the Democratic candidate here, Joe Biden, has that vulnerability is yet another cause for concern. He's got low approval ratings, okay?

He's got this vulnerability with the DNC basically carrying out his wishes and trying to screw around with the primaries in order to give him an advantage. You've got the ongoing migrant crisis, which we're going to talk about a little later, the fact that Republicans don't want to do anything about it because they know that it is, in fact, hurting Joe Biden and his chances of getting reelected. I mean, the list goes on and on. And as Democrats like to celebrate the fact that inflation has slowed down a bit, remember, inflation has only slowed down a bit recently. Inflation increased the baseline cost of goods that we need on a daily basis. That didn't go down. And that very likely will never go down.

It's just that inflation in recent months has slowed down from, you know, 7%, 9% to 3%. But again, that baseline is up there and it's still crushing a lot of Americans and a lot of Americans feel frustrated about their economic situation. All of these things really do combine to make Biden a vulnerable candidate, but he's being forced upon American voters, Democratic voters in particular, obviously. And if Trump really is a threat to America in our democratic process, well, the DNC and Joe Biden have a funny way of showing it. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, we've got more news for you, including one of my favorite stories of the day, how California is actually going out to fight against the rent gougers in the state. I hope other states are taking note of this. One of the few things that California is doing right these days. Don't miss it. We'll be right back.

card is your ticket to more. More perks, more points, more flights. More of all the things you want in a travel rewards card, and then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO ViPorter MasterCard and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit bemo.com slash ViPorter to learn more. Welcome back to the show, everyone. I just wanted to read a comment from our member, I am SOC, who says, Biden wanted the first primary moved to South Carolina to court black voters, and then he lost a ton of black support. Great job, Biden. That is true. He has lost support among African American voters. I don't know how much that's going to impact him in South Carolina, in South Carolina in particular. I do know that South Carolina is where Jim Clyburn is a congressman, and Jim Clyburn is the one who really, his support, his endorsement of Biden in the 2020 election really made

a big difference. So I'm guessing that's the play here, kind of leaning on Clyburn. And I'm honestly shocked at Clyburn's popularity in the state, if that is actually true. We'll see what happens, but this conflict with New Hampshire really is fascinating. And I give lawmakers in New Hampshire and election officials in New Hampshire a lot of credit for refusing to bow down to the demands of the Democratic National Committee. So, all right, well, let's move on and talk about something entirely different, a story that I think you will all enjoy. And I hope other states are taking note of what California is doing here, because it could protect more renters from sudden rent increases that tend to force people out of the housing that they rely on.

So let's talk about it. Let's get to this report. So. Kelk Rent is on the rise in cities across the country. Tonight, skyrocketing rents forcing a growing number of Americans to think twice about where home is. It's been making news for months. Rent is up. Rental prices increasing more than 30% in major cities across the U.S. There's a handful of reasons for the surge, but experts say one in particular is key. Private equity firms.

The predatory behavior by private equity firms and their business ventures in the housing market is something that we care deeply about. We've been covering it on this show sporadically. But we finally have some positive news out of the state of California. because California's prosecutors report that private equity-backed invitation homes, which serves as the largest landlord of single family home rentals,

will now be forced to pay millions of dollars in civil penalties and restitution after it was found to have engaged in illegal rent gouging. How often do we report stories like this? Not often, especially out of places like California. But I have to say this is an example of progressive policies really working to protect ordinary people, especially when it comes to something as important as housing. Now, this settlement would still need to be approved by a judge, but I don't see any reason why a judge wouldn't approve it. Now, according to Attorney General Rob Bonta, the nation's largest landlord of single family home rentals will pay $3.7 million in civil penalties and restitution to resolve allegations.

that it violated California laws against rent gouging. Okay, so let's pause and just give California and its state legislature a round of applause for passing legislation to ensure that sudden rent hikes that make housing unaffordable are essentially outlawed. Now, this is different from rent control. In the state, there are rent-controlled units, and the landlords of those units can increase rent about 1.5% of if I'm not mistaken. But when it comes to other rental units, California wanted to ensure that there was some protection for them as well. Now, it's great to see a tiny bit of justice for ordinary Americans and renters who do tend to fall prey to corporate interests. In this case, corporate

investors in residential real estate. But before we get to the specific case in California and how California's attorney general Rob Bonta pursued invitation homes with legal action, I do think it's important to remember the fine folks behind this insidious and, in my opinion, predatory business venture. So what is invitation homes? Well, private equity is all over this venture. It all started off as an apartment investment company known as Treehouse Group in Arizona back in 2006. Now, at that time, the company had bought up about 1,000 foreclosed homes following the 2008 economic crash. The way that we responded to that economic crash was absolutely disastrous to Americans

because it really did give institutional investors and banks a leg up in snatching up all the homes in our market. And that's kind of led to the housing crisis that we're experiencing today. But that company was later, treehouse was later merged with the Dallas-based property management firm Riverstone Residential. Then the company, business model got a massive boost from private investors because the company was acquired by Blackstone, the private equity company, in the spring of 2012, which ended up forming invitation homes. Okay, with Blackstone, again, giving treehouse and residential more capital to basically expand the business. Then in November of 2019, Blackstone divested its share of invitation homes,

But almost immediately in October of 2020, Invitation Homes created a joint venture with another private equity firm known as Rock Point Group to purchase $1 billion in single family homes in Dallas, Seattle, South Florida, and other U.S. markets. In some cases, they will literally build neighborhoods with the intention of buying up every home in that neighborhood and making them rental units. Now, Inditation Homes operates 85, 85,000 properties across the country. It's 12,000 homes in California accounted for 17% of the company's $614 million in rental revenue during the three months that ended September 30th, according to its most recent quarterly FEC financial report. It's important to keep in

mind when you put it in the context of a $3.7 million settlement. But nonetheless, here's some more information about that. The $2,982 average monthly rent for invitation home properties in Southern California is actually the highest in nationwide portfolio. So they charge a lot more for rent in California. And so as all of this activity was going on, luckily there were state lawmakers who caught on to it, caught on to how damaging it can be for ordinary people, especially when it comes to housing affordability, and they took some action. But aside from jacking up rent, these private equity-backed companies, corporate landlords, if you will, tend to treat their tenants poorly as well.

Here's an example. After Carlos and Ebony January say the landlord did a shoddy job of repairing an upstairs leak. Which is like to be alive. In Broward County, Florida, the parents of Breel Nicholson, say in a lawsuit, Their daughter's asthma was caused by the very same landlord who failed to remove toxic mold from their rental home. Every morning, every night, she has to take a breathing treatment. We just feel like we've been victimized and taken advantage of. Tenants also told us the company is quick to threaten eviction.

Even if a tenant is only a few days late with the rent, when it happens, they can end up in court and have to pay additional fees and the company's lawyers to stave off eviction. Is that true? They have to pay those fees. Yes, it's true. So let's get to what prosecutors in California did and how it led to a potential $3.7 million penalty. So between October of 2019 and December of 2022, Invitation Homes, which owns 12,000 properties in California, increased rents for 1,900 tenants above the allowable amounts per state laws. And that's according to Bonta's office. The law's limit annual rent increases to five percent plus a regionally adjusted inflation figure and to no more than 10%. So in the best case scenario for these institutional investors, they can jack up rent up to 10 percent in the state

of California, but no more than that. Now, shockingly, the legislation that I was referring to was signed by Gavin Newsom. I say shockingly because he's been an awful governor in so many different ways, but he made the right move here by signing this legislation into law. And the law that Newsom signed in 2019 states that California's rent camp law has basically been limited to what I had just described, a max of 10% in some parts of California. And the law is, in fact, one of the strictest limits on rent increases in the country. It applies to all multi-family rental housing, except for apartments built within the last 15 years. And the law also covers single-family home rentals operated by corporations or institutional investors, such as invitation homes.

And so currently under the law, landlords are allowed to increase rents by no more than 8.8 in Los Angeles and Orange counties, 9.2% in the Bay Area and varying figures elsewhere in California. It affects properties built before 2008. And as a result of state prosecutors deciding to go after this corporate landlord invitation homes, well, they will pay $2.04 million in penalties. The company is suspending, I'm sorry, the company is spending an additional $1.68 million to refund or credit tenants the amount it collected in excess of the state's rent cap plus 5% interest. And besides the 2019 rent cap law, Bonta's office alleged invitation homes violated separate laws that prohibit annual rent increases larger than 10% in local and statewide emergency

periods, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. And so he actually took action on behalf of ordinary people who tend to fall prey to corporate interests like this. And I'm really happy to report it. I'm not someone who just wants to trash what's going on in California for the fun of it. I live here, and I like to see our state lawmakers and our state prosecutors work on behalf of ordinary Americans. This is a perfect example of that. But in order for prosecutors to be empowered to go after that kind of predatory behavior, you need to have laws on the books indicating that the tenants are protected from sudden massive rent hikes. And unfortunately, many states in the U.S. do not have those protections. I think a good example of that is the state of Florida. There are very

few restrictions in regard to what landlords can do in raising the rent. And I personally know people living in the state who had to move out of their apartments because their landlord hit them up and let them know, hey, I'm going to jack up your rent by another $500 a month. That is not tenable. It's untenable for a lot of Americans. And so having this protection in place is incredibly, incredibly important. All right. With that said, we got to take a brief break. And when we come back, we've got more news for you, including, well, I'm just hoping that you guys don't have any travel coming up because there's some scary stuff happening in regard to inspections for airplanes, which is probably why we've been seeing so many issues with planes recently. So we've

got that story and more coming up. Don't miss it. For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. What's up everyone? Welcome back to the show. I wanted to just quickly give you an update on the story we covered yesterday. We did not produce a story about it today, but the update's still important. So there was this big controversy in regard to Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and how he spent some time in the intensive care unit following some mishaps with an elective surgery he had had. Well, it turns out that the elective surgery, in my opinion, isn't really so elective because he unfortunately was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was receiving treatment

in regard to that cancer diagnosis. After the procedure, he experienced some pain, ended up back in the hospital as a result of that, and then briefly was in the ICU. He remains in the hospital, although based on the reports, if we're to believe them, he's no longer in the ICU. So we basically found out that Lloyd Austin was diagnosed with prostate cancer almost at the same time as the White House. And that's where all the controversy lies. But I bring this up because when we were covering the story yesterday, it was widely reported that it was an elective surgery. When I think of an elective surgery, I do not think of treatment for prostate cancer. And I feel that my tone in that story was not serious considering what the actual medical emergency was. So that was because I didn't know

what the actual diagnosis was. And so I just wanted to put that out there. But I did float the possibility that it wasn't really an elective surgery. And maybe it was something far more serious that they're keeping from the public. And now it appears that was the case. So it is what it is. But with that said, let's move on to our next story, having to do with the airline industry and how incredibly irresponsible they happen to be.

That disastrous video you just a piece of plane. That disastrous video you just watched is actually from last Friday when an Alaskan Airlines flight traveling from Portland to Ontario went horribly awry. Now less than 10 minutes into that flight on a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane, An unused cabin door detached from the plane leaving a gaping hole during the flight. Now miraculously, there were only a few injuries, nothing too serious, and the plane was able to make an emergency landing. But according to documents from a class action lawsuit, Spirit Aerosystems, which is a company that reportedly manufactured the door plug that basically flew off the plane, as well as a subcontractor for Boeing was aware of potential defects and just decided to

ignore the very employee who was erring concerns about those defects, which gives you a sense of why regulations and government oversight is, in fact, important. Because when you have corporations that really have one goal, and that is to maximize their profits, they're not going to self-police. And in fact, when they are confronted by an employee who notices that there could be a costly defect on their planes, they're going to want to shut the employee down. It appears that is what happened here. Now, the complaint was originally filed last spring by a group of the company shareholders who claimed that the company failed to disclose production troubles and also quality control issues. An amended version of that complaint was

filed on December 19th with numerous testimonies from employees. Okay, so employees are like, we want to share what we have experienced with these airline companies and how we were treated once we made clear that there were some defects that our employers should be aware about and should do something about. So those employees revealed a persuasive, or I'm sorry, pervasive, I should say, they revealed a pretty pervasive culture of cost cutting and reckless behavior in the top levels of the company. And here's what one of those employees encountered specifically. On February 22nd of 2022, one spirit inspection worker explicitly told company management

that he was being instructed to misrepresent the number of defects he was working on. You're asking us to record in an inaccurate way the number of defects he wrote in an email to a company official. That makes us and puts us in a very uncomfortable. situation. The employee told a colleague that he believed it was just a matter of time until a major defect escaped to a customer. And indeed, that's exactly what happened with that Alaska Airlines flight just last Friday. Now, according to court documents, the anonymous employee was told by a supervisor that if they did not do as they were instructed, which was essentially shut their mouths, they would be fired. But the employee apparently submitted an ethics report anyway in which they stated the following, quote, we are being asked to purposefully or purposely record inaccurate information, essentially lie about the potential risks and defects on these planes. Now, that brave worker even sent a copy of that ethics report to the CEO of the

company, which I give this person a lot of credit for. But after that, the employee was briefly demoted, but luckily was later restored to their earlier position with back pay. He quit several months later, though, and claimed that other inspection team members he had worked with had been moved to new positions when, according to management, they documented too many defects. Hey, I got a proposal. How about you do something about the defects instead of trying to kill the messenger. But of course, I mean, that would require money. That would require resources. And when you have investors breathing down your back or your neck, you're probably going to listen to the investors before you listen to the employees who are concerned about the issues with these

defects. Now, there's a similar story in this lawsuit about a former quality auditor for Spirit who discovered a manufacturing defect in October of 2022. So this employee repeatedly tried to get his higher ups to do something about it, but no action was taken. And unfortunately, the fate of this employee wasn't positive because he was fired later. News of the defect broke in August of 2023, almost a year after the auditor had identified the issue. Now, these individual stories really do reflect how Spirit has prioritized profits over consumer safety. According to the court records, workers believe Spirit placed an emphasis on pushing out product over quality, inspection workers were allegedly told to overlook defects on final walkthroughs,

as Spirit just wanted to ship its completed products as quickly as possible. Now, the company has been under pressure from Boeing to basically ramp up their production, and in earning calls, Spirit shareholders have basically pressed the company's executives about its production rates. So basically, you're not producing quickly enough, produce, produce, produce, produce. But remember, these are also the same, these are the same shareholders that are now suing spirit. So on one hand, you have them applying pressure because the shareholders want a return on their investment, of course. But then you have these quality control issues. Then you have these defects with the parts that lead to disastrous situations, which also,

of course are going to hurt the profitability of the company and the returns that the shareholders are seeking. And so now they're suing spirit. I just think it's hilarious. Take a good hard look at what you guys were pressuring spirit aerosystems to do. Consider maybe changing that behavior because that has led to a situation in which employees who are really tasked with quality control are being ignored in order to continue ramping up production. Now let's continue because there's more to this in 2019 and 2020, the FAA, alleged that Spirit delivered parts to Boeing that did not comply with safety standards, then proposed that Boeing accept the parts as delivered,

and Boeing subsequently presented the parts as ready for airworthiness certification on hundreds of aircraft. So look, luckily the aircraft that are impacted by this, according to reports, have been grounded for further investigation. The model can put consumers in danger. And so grounding these specific planes with potential defective parts makes a lot of sense to me. But think about how counterproductive it is to rush through production, ignore defect, you're going to find yourself in a position where planes need to be grounded. And I'm sure that's not positive news for anyone looking to prioritize the profitability of these

companies. And it is a huge relief that so far no one's been hurt. But this is why it's important to have government oversight. It's not enough to just rely on corporations or companies to self-police. Because again, when it comes down to it, if the main goal here is to maximize profits on behalf of the shareholders, and that is really the main goal, they're going to prioritize that above and beyond anything else, including the safety of their own customers. So again, good news that no one got hurt, good news that this was caught before anyone got hurt. But it does give you a sense of how the sausage is made and how disastrous things can be if you don't have adequate government regulation and oversight. All right,

We got to take a break. That does it for the first hour. When we come back, I'm going to do a story that was probably isn't prepared for, but it's an important story to talk about anyway, because you now have conservative media figures urging GOP lawmakers to avoid doing anything in response to the migrant crisis because it might help President Biden get reelected. I'm not even kidding. This is what they are saying out loud on their shows. We've got that and more coming up. Don't miss it. I'm going to be. I'm going to be. Thank you. Thank you.