The Young Turks - Labor Wins Delivered

Episode Date: July 26, 2023

The Teamsters reached a contract with UPS. The Department of Justice sues Texas over floating barrier in Rio Grande. Biden appointee and Democratic donor bought expensive Hunter Biden artwork. Culture war consumes Congress as lawmakers confront spending deadline. Greg Gutfeld downplayed the horrors of the Holocaust by paraphrasing Viktor Frankl. "Jews survived by being useful." Gutfeld leaves out that millions died in concentration camps the day they got off the trains. He said this to his Jewish co-worker Jessica Tarlov. Hosts: Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur 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 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. All right, well of the Young Turks, Jake, Anna Kasperin with you guys, great show for you guys today. Number one, we have good news. What in the world? We have good news. So secondarily, the Republicans are panicking, and they want to send in the relief pitcher, send them in from the bullpen to go get Trump. So we'll talk about that later in the program. And then near the end of the show, I'll be honest with you where it is. It's kind of a fun story, having nothing to do with politics. How much people pay to get advice on how to get into sororities? Sorority consultants. They exist. It's an amazing story. You're going to love that story. All right, so we got a fun full show for you guys. Let's get started. It's not every day that we begin with good news, but today happens to be one of those days,

so let's get into it. At an early morning rally outside a UPS facility, the leader of the teemster Sean O'Brien didn't pull any punches in the city of angels. We are going to be the example on how it is to fight and take on a school yard bully. The union representing UPS workers have decided to take on the schoolyard bully, and it appears that they have won. So UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has announced a tentative collective bargaining agreement mere days before their current contract was set to expire. Now, failure to reach the contract by August 1st would have meant, would have resulted in some 340,000 UPS workers entering. a strike. And for now, it appears that that is unlikely to happen because they have reached

this tentative agreement. Now, details are still coming out, but we do have some preliminary information about this, including what the workers were able to secure through these negotiations, which by the way, in July had broken down. But luckily, they were able to go back to the table and negotiate and come up with an agreement that I think both sides, as far as we can tell at the moment, seem to agree on. So the new deal includes higher wages for the team. workers, air conditioning in trucks, and an agreement to hire 30,000 new drivers, which is critical considering one of the complaints was forced overtime or mandatory overtime. Now with a tentative agreement in place, work will continue as that contract is voted

on by union members next month. So we'll see what the outcome of that vote is. But a few more details for you. One of the sticking points, as you guys might have remembered from my interview with Sean or just a few months ago, was the two-tiered pay system in the current contract. They wanted to do away with that. The union railed against a two-tier wage system where part-time drivers make significantly less money per hour than full-time drivers.

The groups agreed to eliminate that two-tier system, Teamster said, and agreed to raises for both part-time and full-time drivers. And it appears that these raises are significant. So let me give you the numbers as it stands right now. Workers will get a $2.75 per hour raise this year and a $7.50 raise more per hour by the end of the contract Teamster said. The wage minimum for part timers will also rise to $21 per hour. The union said the average part time driver will receive a 45% raise by the end of the contract. And then just going back to the point I was making about how UPS has agreed to hire more workers,

that is in fact one of the provisions here. The agreement also promises that UPS will create 7,500 new Teamsters jobs and fill 22,500 job vacancies. So, Jank, really good news and it kind of shows you what happens when collective bargaining is allowed to take place and workers are given a seat at the table. 100%. Look, this is as good a deal as you could possibly hope for. Sean O'Brien and the Teamsters nailed it. They got almost everything they asked for the top pay for the UPS drivers,

not the part-time workers, but the full-time workers, is $49 an hour. That comes out to almost $100,000 a year. Nice job. And so can UPS afford it? Yes, in the last 12 months and also for the calendar year 2022. It's about the same similar number, about $11 billion in profits, not revenue, So $11 billion to pay for a lot of workers, and what this does is it just helps the workers share a tiny bit more in that $11 billion in profit. It doesn't mean that UPS is it going to make a profit.

This is not their profits, not cut in half, it's not cut in by through, none of that. It's just, hey, let's be fair to our workers while we're celebrating incredible treasure trove of profits at UPS. And I'll say something that probably almost no one else is saying, give credit to UPS too. They could have hauled out longer. They could have demanded to cut some of these demands. But no, they gave the Teamsters pretty much everything they wanted, and they're sharing those profits. So, yeah, they got forced into it.

They almost went to a strike. But at least they realized the strike would be devastating, and they did give them a very good deal. Well, I also, well, I don't know how much credit I want to give to UPS. I actually, in this rare instance, want to give congressional Democrats a little. bit of credit because what actually ended up happening was congressional Democrats let UPS know we're not going to intervene, similar to how they intervened with the railworker strike. And to be fair to the Biden administration, they continue to negotiate for paid time off

on behalf of the rail workers after they intervened to prevent that strike from happening. I just want to give you the full story on that. But in this particular case, it had become pretty clear to UPS that congressional Democrats were not going to intervene to prevent the strike from taking place. Okay, can I just say, look, look at how perverse our world is that the union has to beg the congressional Democrats, who they, by the way, fund to not screw them over. Right, right. But this is why I give Sean O'Brien so much credit, the head of the Teamsters.

So he got elected because people were annoyed and had had enough with old labor leaders working with the giant corporations and getting very cozy with them. So they got Sean O'Brien to go, no, no, we're going to fight the big guys and we're going to fight them hard. And look at the spectacular payoff. One of the things that Sean O'Brien did in this particular case was he went to Biden and basically said, you better not. If you even talk about intervening, it's going to hurt our leverage.

So do not do that. And somehow he got through to Biden probably, I mean, look, to some degree of. contributions, I'm sure, but union give tons and tons of contributions of Democrats and have for the last 40, 50 years and get zero for it, nine out of ten times. In fact, Biden, like in the rail workers, yes, he was better afterwards, but initially sided with the companies, no matter how much money you got from the unions, because they always get more money from the companies than they do the unions. No, Sean O'Brien deserves a lot of credit because not only did he make that message

clear to the Biden administrations, his participation in those congressional hearings was critical because he demonstrated that he is a fighter and he's unwilling to back down. And I think that that show of strength really resonated with members of Congress. And honestly, look, especially Democratic members of Congress, right, they still want to parade as the party that looks out for the little guy for the blue collar workers. But when push comes to shove, when people aren't paying attention, they tend to side with their corporate donors, unless they know they're going to pay the political consequences of doing so. With someone like Sean O'Brien, he wasn't just going to sit back and be quiet if congressional Democrats got involved, intervened, and

prevented that strike from happening, or did away with the leverage that the Teamsters had in this case. So a fighter in this particular case, I think, made all the difference. So guys, the reason why we're going ballistic about how great all of this is and how what a great job the Teamsters did is number one, because this is as good a deal as I have seen in my lifetime of covering politics in America for labor, because labor had just been getting mauled for the last 25 years, right? So, I mean, look, they got AC in the trucks, which to all of us decent, sane human beings should be the bare minimum, but they didn't have them. So like as we have record temperatures over 110 degrees in Phoenix for three weeks straight, et cetera, they don't have air conditioning in cars. So that air conditioning is not a little thing for those drivers. It's a huge part of, you know, maintaining their humanity and dignity, right?

They also dealt with the cameras inside the cars that's pointing at the drivers at all times. I mean, they just got, they got everything. And that's awesome. And but the second reason we're making such a big deal out of it is because for 20 years on the Young Turks, we've been saying Democrats need to fight. Progressives left wing needs to fight to be passionate, to be strong. And it is not to vent. It is not to be emotional.

It is strategic because the more you fight, the more you gain. And what we heard was a wall of lies from mainstream media and corporate Democrats going, no, civility, civility. You just, you just bow your head and you do whatever management and giant corporations and powerful people tell you. Well, there was always a lie. It was always a lie. And so you just get one guy like Sean O'Brien to go, no, I don't believe you're a lie. I don't think we should civility's the right answer when we're union, when we're teamsters. No, the correct answer is I come to kick your ass if you don't do what I tell you. But at the end, balance, practical, they got what they wanted and they got a contract. And look, it's not just our spin on this. It appears that even the Teamsters general secretary treasurer, In his statement showed great support for this preliminary agreement. This is Fred Zuckerman who said, quote, In my more than 40 years in Louisville representing members at Worldport, the largest UPS hub in the country,

I have never seen a national contract that levels the playing field for workers so dramatically as this one. So just a complete win, I'm very, very happy to hear it and to see it. We'll update you if there are any hiccups along the way, as I mentioned, just next month, the workers will vote on that contract. And based on what we're seeing, it appears that they are very likely to support it and vote in favor of it. But we'll update you as we learn more. And look, guys, we've got credibility here because you go back and look at our videos. And I'll show you tons of videos where we criticize labor leaders.

Because a lot of people just do things based on money. We don't get paid by the unions at all. We got no dog in that fight, okay? other than we care about the average American worker. And that's our ethos, that's what we believe in, right? And so when union leaders kept disappointing their workers, we criticize them. And oftentimes harshly, and people are like, you're on the left. You can't criticize unions.

No, no, no, no. There's a difference between unions and union leaders, a giant difference. There's a difference between Democratic voters and Democratic politicians, okay? So yes, we criticize a lot. Now, look, they deliver, and what do we do? credit where credit is due, fantastic job of sticking out for your workers. And the last reason why this is great news is because it gives a little bit of hope to the country, man. Yes, yes.

I mean, the corporate machines have been grinding us up and spitting us out. And all of our politicians are so corrupt, so drowning in corporate money. And the media is like, I don't see it, I don't see it, I don't see it, no, corporations are awesome. Status quo is awesome. So in that crucible of gaslighting and pressure and lies, for this to break out as a ray of hope makes a giant difference. Way to go, Teamsters. Now everybody learned from this and fight forward. Well, let's move on to a completely different story having to do with some of the immigration

policies out of the state of Texas. It appears that the Biden administration wants to fight back against some of those policies. Let's talk about it. A battle over border security now poised to play out in court with the Biden administration suing Texas over these floating barriers in the Rio Grande between Mexico and Eagle Pass A thousand foot line of buoys that this Honduran couple told us they saw and avoided as they crossed into the U.S. this afternoon. She's eight months pregnant. Why did you decide to come to the U.S.?

Because my brother was killed in Honduras, he told us. The Biden administration's Department of Justice is now suing the state of Texas over their spike-wrapped buoys. And of course, these are the buoys that Greg Abbott, the governor, of Texas has decided to place in the middle of the Rio Grande to deter migrants from coming to the United States. Now Abbott's opponents say that the treatment of these migrants is cruel and inhumane. So let's get to the details on what this lawsuit entails. Now the barrier, which we have covered on the show prior to this, is about four feet tall and movable so that it can be deployed strategically in migrant crossing hotspots. Webbing is also attached to the barrier,

underwater to make it difficult to swim below. And as a result of that, some migrants have drowned because they tried to avoid those buoys, they tried to avoid the spike-wrapped barriers. And in doing so, they end up in deeper parts of the water. And some of these migrants have drowned as a result. So by the way, over the years, hundreds of people attempting to reach the US through these fast flowing waters have also drowned. So that's another thing to keep in mind.

September 1st last year, 13 migrants drowned there. Earlier in 2022, authorities had recovered 12 bodies from the river in a single day. So we're literally talking about people dying here. Now on the first day of this month, authorities recovered the bodies of a Guatemalan woman and her infant daughter. She tried to swim around the spike wrap buoys and drowned as a result. And so did one of her children. She was present with two children and it's still unclear what happened to her second child. Now, I'm going to get to the details about the lawsuit and what the grounds are for the

lawsuit in just a moment. But, Jank, do you want to jump in? Yeah, so there's two different issues here. One is the federal and state issue. The federal government says there's laws on the book saying you cannot do something in these rivers that are maintained by the federal government without getting approval. And so that's very important. But like, as what I always tell you, You guys, be careful. So whatever the red states can do and cannot do also applies to the blue states when there's a Republican president. So there's a lot of things I would want the blue states to do that the federal government

might not agree to if Trump is in charge, right? So that one's a little bit of a mixed bag, but I think the Biden administration is on solid legal grounding. And then there's a humanitarian issue of what should you do here. And to me, that's also a little bit of a mixed bag, and maybe that might be. be surprising, but we talked about the wires before, the barbed wires, totally unacceptable. No way that I think, that's just so inhumane. By the way, people that are on the ground, ranchers, farmers, et cetera, people that are near

their properties above the river, et cetera, a lot of them are say, and they're Republicans, and they're saying, no, don't do the wires, I don't want the wires, it's too much. The buoys, on the other hand, well, a buoy, a wall, yes, it's got issues, but it's not, you know, alligators and snakes that Trump was talking about. It's not electric transit. It's not barbed wire. Booys and walls are historically what are used for borders, but you've got to get the federal permission. So I think that one's a little bit more complicated. So let me give you the statements coming from the Biden administration. So a Biden administration official, according to CBS news, said the floating barriers have interfered with border patrol efforts to patrol the river and process migrants who reach U.S. soil.

In one week, the official added, border patrol encountered dozens of injured or drowned migrants, including babies. So let's get to what the Justice Department lawsuit actually entails and argues. The lawsuit, which has been filed in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Texas, the department alleges that Texas and Abbott violated the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act by building a structure in U.S. water without permission from the United States Army Corps of Engineers. So that's the main argument here, right? That the federal government controls those waters, and without permission, Texas decided to implement these barriers and they just can't do that. Now the act also prohibits the placement of

structures and waterways without federal approval. And Abbott claimed without really explaining why that the statute doesn't apply in this particular situation. But you got to explain why. You can't just say it and allow that to stand without any further explanation as to why you believe that. Well, he is a Republican that is their usual routine these days. Nah, we're I don't need any stinking evidence. Well, bad news for you, you're going to court, and you said you can't wait to go to court. You're going to need evidence in court. So you better have your side prepared.

So right now, it looks like the Biden administration is in better shape when it comes to the issue of federal versus state. Look, I'm going to keep it real. I think that what Abbott and DeSantis were doing, as much as it discussed me to use human beings as political pawns, What they were doing in sending migrants to sanctuary cities and sanctuary states sent a message that I think resonated with a lot of people, including those who live in those blue states and those blue cities, who previously might have been a little more, I don't know, laissez-faire when it comes to immigration policy because it didn't impact them the way it does some of these border cities. They lose people once they engage in cruel and unusual punishment or treatment toward human beings. And that's exactly what's happening here, right? Sending migrants to different parts of the country, as long as they consent to it, I don't have a problem with. And again, it does send a message in regard to the lack of immigration policy that we're seeing from Congress.

But doing something that you know is getting people killed as they're fleeing their countries to come to the United States for either safety or economic opportunities is insane. And that's where you definitely start to lose people. I'm glad that the DOJ is suing them over this. Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't include the wires. It seems like that's a much better case. But, okay, so let's talk about it. But I'm, yes, in fact, when we covered that story last time, we said, hey, Biden is president, is he going to do anything about this?

And he just did. So great, or at least the Department of Justice did. So credit, where credit is due. Look, I want to be super clear. I love those immigrants. So I'm an immigrant. I'm a documented immigrant. And sometimes documented immigrants are like, oh, we did it the right way.

No, no, no. Well, we had the opportunity to do it the right way. Right. My uncle was a doctor that lived here in America. Much, much easier than that guy that you saw in the interview that had his brother killed and had to travel all that way with his family and then somehow try to, you know, crawl to this side of the border with all these obstacles. Why is he doing it? Because he's trying to protect his family. I love that guy.

And so I want to help them. Now, at the same time, everybody gets to put up borders, right? So, like, for example, walls are not great. we, you know, we on the left don't want as many walls, right? And but walls do exist. They are fairly common. Fences are fairly common in borders, right? And so you could make the argument, well, if you have a wall or fence, people could try to climb it, they could fall down and they probably do. And some people die that way. Does that mean we should never have a wall or a fence? Some on the left would say yes. And so, and I think a lot of people probably would say no.

So the question is, where's the line is, you know, for most decent human beings, Barb wire is nowhere near the line, right? But buoys, I think, are near the line. Then you need facts. I'm not saying I agree with the buoys. What I'm saying is, if they show like, hey, with walls, actually almost no one dies, they don't really try to climb in. But with buoys, they do actually try to cross and you get drownings all the time.

Then I say, no, I hate the buoys, get them out, right? But if almost no one drowns and you're just putting a barrier there that doesn't hurt human beings, but prevents them from crossing, as much as I'm rooting for those guys, And I love those guys. Well, I get that a country can vote to say we're protecting our border and we're going to put some obstacle there. Yeah, look, I think the biggest issue impacting immigration in America right now is the inaction that we're seeing from Congress. The inability, like their dysfunction and their inability to pass any reform or any legislation necessary to deal with, you know, sporadic influxes at the border. We have to have the resources in place to process people, the resources in place to deal with it.

But we don't. And so, you know, if you leave it up to the states, like Texas especially, to make these decisions, in lieu of federal policy and federal immigration reform, you're going to end up with gross policies like the spiked barriers. And in this case, with this specific lawsuit, the, the buoys meant to serve as like an obstacle for people to. to come in. So anyway, I do want to end with Abbott's response to this lawsuit because he remains defiant to say the least. He says Texas will see you in court, Mr. President. If you are truly, if you truly care about human life, you must begin enforcing federal immigration laws. Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused. Arguing that Biden caused the crisis, let's just keep it real, is ridiculous. I mean, how, how exactly did Biden cause the crisis? If I recall correctly, during the Trump administration, there was like a

months long, you know, narrative about the migrant caravan coming to the border. Was that Trump's fault? Was it Trump's failed immigration policies that persuaded migrants to come to the border? Not only are Trump and Biden's numbers very similar, but there's actually been a lull recently in immigration, partly because the economy is improving in Central America. There's so many other factors in real people's lives. Violence is going down a little bit in Latin America. That is helping so that more people are not forced to flee. Remember, the trek to America is incredibly dangerous.

They're not going to do that willy-nilly. They're only doing it if they feel like they're desperate and absolutely need to to protect their family and to provide for their family. So actually, the number of crossings have gone down considerably now. Do you get that sense if you watch right-wing media? No, of course not. They're all like, when Trump's in charge, oh, it's record lows, that's not true. When Biden is in charge, they're like record highs, that's not true.

It's just not true. And they keep saying it no matter what. And yes, no, things like war on drugs causes more immigration issues and more illegal border crossings than any policy, any other policy by U.S. presidents, and soon climate change will cause the biggest influx of immigrants. Those are actual macro factors that cause these problems, not little, hey, how many guards did you put on this 2,000 mile border? That's not really the issue. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, we've got more news for you, including just complete panic over DeSantis's failures already in this presidential election. And Mitt Romney basically begging wealthy donors to push some candidates.

out of the Republican race. That and more coming up, don't miss it. allow us to do honest news reporting. And so 10 hit the button below the video on YouTube. It's called join. It's called joined. It says join on it. Anyway, t.com slash join for everyone. All right, Casper.

Let's talk about Hunter Biden's artwork, shall we? First of all, I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else in them having to do with their businesses, period. And what I will do is the same thing we did in our administration. our administration. There'll be an absolute wall between personal and private and the government. There wasn't any hint of scandal at all. We were there and I'll impose the same kind of strict strict rules. That's why I never talk with my son or my brother or anyone else, even distant family about their business interests, period. Now the real question is, was that

statement from President Joe Biden in August of 2019, an accurate statement. Was he telling the truth? And some are asking that question now that a new report in Business Insider demonstrates that a wealthy Democratic donor has spent quite a bit of money on purchasing the president's son's artwork. Hunter Biden apparently is engaging in some artwork, and that artwork has sold for quite a bit of money. And later we learned that that very donor who bought the artwork was appointed to an interesting position by President Joe Biden. So let's get into the details. Let's talk about who this is and what insider found through their investigation. Now, the wealthy Democratic donor who has spent some money, although it's unclear how much

money on one of Hunter Biden's pieces of art is Elizabeth Hirsch Naftali. She's a Los Angeles, real estate investor and philanthropist. Nafdali is influential. in California Democratic circles and is a significant Democratic donor who has given $13,414 to the Biden campaign and $29,700 to the Democratic National Campaign Committee this year. In 2022, she hosted a fundraiser headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris. So she's very clearly involved in Democratic politics. More importantly, I think this is very relevant, she has been raising money for Democratic candidates and the Biden administration in particular.

But now we're also learning that this individual had purchased some of Hunter Biden's artwork. And we don't know exactly how much was spent by this specific person. But we do know that Hunter Biden has brought in at least $1.3 million by selling his art. And later, Naftali was appointed to an interesting position by Biden. Stick around for that information in just a moment. But, Jank, I want to jump in right now and tell me what you think. Yeah, so finally they got something. So look, we're, I think we're the most honest show by a million miles in all of media.

So all the time when the Republicans are digging and digging and digging to try to find something on Hunter, it was all nonsense. Like they're like, oh, you took drugs and we saw his penis. Okay, who cares? And then they made up things like, oh, we have an informant at the FBI who knows that Joe Biden took a $5 million bribe. And then you look into it and you're like, no, you don't. There was some dude who called in and he said, yeah, I think he did, but I'm not even sure. It's secondhand, and he's like, and plus I don't think he even did it. That's not evidence, okay, you guys are a joke.

But, and I don't want to reward digging and digging because people go on, powerful people go on fishing expeditions to destroy their opponents by digging and digging until they find something. The best example was Bill Clinton. They started on a real estate deal in Arkansas, which he turned out he was totally innocent. until they found out an affair. And then they're like, okay, we got a dress. Aha, now we're going to moralize about your life and we're going to smear you and all that stuff. Having said all that, this one is a little bit real. Yeah.

And so when it's real, we tell you guys. And so these donors, they funnel money to the campaigns and sometimes to the people and to the families. And this is not new. And I like that Republican voters are finding out about it for the first time. because remember right wing media keeps it from them too because right wing media works with Republican politicians and doesn't mind their corruption at all. Yeah, this corruption occurs on both sides. And look, it's usually very simple and it does not even need to require purchasing artwork

from someone who clearly isn't an artist, just putting that out there. Yeah, I'm going to come back to that. You just donate a ton of money to the candidate. And should that candidate get elected, it is highly likely that individual will reward you by appointing you to ambassador of whatever country, ambassador to, you know, the UN, whatever it is, right? It's favor for a favor. It's not as cut and dry as a quid pro quo. Like, you know, it's not in tax. Like, I'm going to give you this money. And in return, I'm expecting you to appoint me to this position. But you get rewarded when you're a big time donor for, you know, members of either political party.

Now, in this case, there's an extra component of it having to do with Hunter Biden and his artwork, right? So as I mentioned, his first art opening brought in about $1.3 million. We don't know, I know it's insane. We don't know what portion of that came from Elizabeth Hirsch-Noftali. But we do know that there were other buyers who we are unfamiliar with. I'll get to those other buyers in just a moment. Now, in July of 2022, eight months after Hunter Biden's first art opening, Joe Biden, and announced Naftali's appointment to the commission for the preservation of America's

heritage abroad. Now look, it is an unpaid position. Another caveat to be mindful of is it is unclear whether the appointment happened after she purchased the artwork or before she purchased the artwork. Insider is clear about that. Now, membership on that commission is an unpaid position that is often filled by campaign donors, family members, and political allies, the same crowd that often winds up with U.S. ambassadorial appointments. Naftali's fundraising activities mark her as the kind of well-connected donor who often wins such appointments regardless of any relationship they might have with the president's

family. And I do want to give you a few more details about other individuals who purchased some of Hunter Biden's artwork. Insider also obtained internal documents from Hunter Biden's gallery showing that a single buyer purchased $875,000 worth of his art, I believe he purchased, he or she, this person purchased about 11 pieces of artwork. The documents do not indicate the buyer's identity. But insider claims that while the Biden administration claims that, you know, we don't know who the buyers are, that Hunter Biden absolutely did know who the buyers were. He knew at least two of the buyers

because they told them. The gallery is not supposed to tell Hunter Biden and the gallery stores up and down, they did not tell Hunter Biden. But apparently Hunter Biden's personal friends with two of them, and they told Hunter, and that's why he knows who two of the buyers are. Okay, guys, most of the left wing shows say, oh, there's nothing with Hunter Biden ever, ever, ever. He's the most innocent guy in the world. Most of the right wing shows say everything he did is wrong and deeply connected to Joe Biden. No, those extremes are not true. Okay, so in this case, you're telling me that Hunter Biden was one of the top Ukrainian gas experts in the world. Obviously, yeah.

And now also one of the great artists in the world. Multi-talented, multi-faceted. Okay, I got news for you. I know tons of artists, and I'm sure a lot of you do too. They're not selling their work out of the gate with no previous experience at the top galleries for $1.3 million in total. I mean, come on, who could possibly believe that? And if that's true and he turns out to be magically one of the great artists in this country. I mean, how many artists in America can say that they sold $1.3 million worth of

of art. 20? I don't know the art world, 200 max? And he's in the top 20 out of the gate. No, come and get out of here. It's totally ridiculous. Obviously they're funneling money to them. By the way, art world, if you don't point out that this is ridiculous, I mean, you're becoming a joke, a laughing stock. It's a bunch of rich people who get together and play, you know, ass slap football. Okay, they're like, oh, oh great art, great art, This guy won't point, come and get out of here. It's totally ruining your credibility if you had any credibility left. Anyways, now having said that, we don't know if she got the appointment after she bought the art, as Anna pointed out.

But remember, it doesn't really matter. Right, because she got it after the fundraisers and donating all that money, yeah. So guys, tell me, and it doesn't matter and not that it's, means that the Bidens are not guilty, It means Joe Biden is guilty of this, but so is every president, including Donald Trump. In fact, I have a spectacular case of that in a second. Okay, but so she got the money, she gave the money to Joe Biden through campaign contributions. She gave the money to Hunter Biden through the art. And we're like, oh, which corruption is it?

Who cares? Like it's absurd that we give away these positions, including top ambassador positions. This is like the bottom of the rung. The top of the wrong is ambassador positions. We give them away to rich donors all the time. Oh, you bribed me. So why don't you become ambassador to France? What?

Okay, like that's insane. And they do it all the time. So for Republicans, if you're rich, hungry now. Now? What about now? Whenever it hits you, wherever you are. Grab an O. Henry bar to satisfy

your hunger with its delicious combination of big crunchy salty peanuts covered in creamy caramel and chewy fudge with a chocolatey coating swing by a gas station and get an oh henry today oh hungry oh henry choice of god we got biden we got the democrats who's the only was doing this you know what trump did shelden adelson gave him over a hundred million dollars twice in 2016 and 2020 to his packs to his campaigns etc so you know what he did when he was president squandered Well, first of all, no, he didn't squander it in 2016. He wanted 2016, to be fair to him, okay? But no, as president, not only did he give Adelson every single thing he wanted, all the tax

cuts, destroying the unions, shutting down a corruption case against him, and ending gambling online, okay? Which saved his whole business. But on top of that, he gave his wife, Miriam Adelson, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Now, if you're MAGA, tell me Miriam Aedelson deserve the Presidential Medal of Freedom. You know what she's done in her life to deserve it? She married Sheldon Aedelson. She hasn't done anything else.

All these rich deletons, whether they're on the Democratic side or the Republican side, all they do is play asslapped football. They get together, look, oh, you guys are great, you guys are great. Let's buy each other's stuff. Let's buy. Oh, which politician did you buy? I bought this politician. And which one, what did they give you? Oh, they gave me an ambassadorship.

Oh, they put me on an art committee. And for Miriam, she's like, you guys are amateurs. We gave $100 million, I got the most prestigious award that the United States of America gives. And out of all of this, so who's the most guilty, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, Donald Trump? No, in my opinion, the most guilty is the American media. They look at all of this. I mean, brazen over the top corruption. They're like, we don't see it.

To be fair, I know you keep crediting the Republican Party for this new revelation. This was an investigative report by insider. So this is the media unraveling or uncovering, I should say, potential corruption. No, great point by Anna. So first of all, thank you for pointing that out. Insider, nice job on the investigative work. To be fair to the Republicans, they dug so much and they made it such a big issue that someone finally figured this out and did some investigative reporting, right?

Now, but the reason why I blame media in general is the next time someone gets an important ambassadorship, the next time there's legislation that's on the line. The next time there's an election, are they going to say, oh, they voted on that bill because if they got bribed by that guy? No, the American media will never say that, even though it's patently obvious to every American voter. The only people in the country who can't figure it out is people in media. Oh, why did they get the ambassadorship? And that's the unimportant stuff. Sometimes they'll mention that around the edges. Why do they pass that bill? Why did it go all to the corporations? Oh, look at the corporate donors that gave them the money to pass that bill.

Never, never, the heart of corruption must be protected. And its number one protector is mainstream media. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, I'm going to tell you a little bit about the ongoing debates about the government funding bill. Apparently, that whole process has been hijacked by conservative culture wars. We'll tell you what that means when we return. All right, back on TYT, Jank and Anna with you guys, but I do have to address the elephant in the room, because the elephant in the room is the handle that just signed up for membership.

So we appreciate you. They hit the join button below. You can do it at t.com slash join. All right, Casper. Well, Congress needs to pass legislation. So naturally, everything devolves into culture war battles. They always say there are Democrats, Republicans, and appropriators. And now we have to say there are Democrats, Republicans, appropriators,

and unfortunately a bigger umbrella called baguets. Democratic Representative Mark Pocan is joining in on the frustration that the Democratic Party is apparently feeling in their debates over a new government spending bill. Now, they need to pass that legislation before September. Otherwise, the government will experience yet another shutdown. But Republicans, according to the Democratic Party, have hijacked the process, especially in the House Appropriations Committee, where the spending bill is being mired in conservative culture war battles.

So apparently the push on these social issues, and this is surprising to me, because I feel like all government does these days is engage in culture war. issues. But apparently when it comes to the House Appropriations Committee, this is pretty unusual. Usually they stick to what the Appropriations Committee is supposed to stick to, passing legislation that funds the government, that prevents things from shutting down. But apparently, of the 12 bills moving through the House appropriations process in recent months, policy riders targeting agency, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives have appeared in 11. and that's according to tracking from the human rights campaign.

Language seeking to ban discrimination against people who do not believe in gay marriage appeared in 10. And eight sought to block funding for pride flags and gender inclusive care. Three took aim at drag shows. So I wanna get to some of the specifics of these provisions that are being offered up by the Republican Party in the House Appropriations Committee in just a moment. But, Jank, I mean, I think that this is the inevitable. outcome of what we've been seeing in Congress for years now. Like the fact that, oh, the appropriations committee has been different. Like, they've kind of stayed out of all of this stuff is laughable to me.

I mean, if that is true, it is unsurprising to me that it's now come to this. Well, I think that what Pocan is referring to is normally, they just pass all this stuff in the middle of the night. Because they don't want you to look too closely at the stuff that they're passing. because almost everything that Congress does funnels money to their donors. So normally it's like quiet affairs. Oh yeah, we agree, we agree everything to the corporate donors. You got the same donors, let's go, let's go, let's go. But now for two reasons, Republicans are bringing a spotlight to this, and that's what

the cultural wars are. They're a spotlight. So the minute you say, like here, I'll give you one example, they want to ban pride flags being put up in buildings, the American government paying for any pride flags. what does it cost $130 bucks? And we're having a conversation over this. The Defense Department can't account for half their budget every year. So they're like, oh, $400 billion missing every year?

Nah, it's not a problem. Oh, the pride flies $130. Oh, that's spending the money. Now, when you do that, what you're saying is look here, look here, look here, right? And so that's why the Democrats are upset for two reasons. One, it is, they're purposely targeting people in the LGBTQ community, spreading hatred towards them. That is very true, in my opinion.

And that's, I think Pocan is part of that community. He's justifiably upset for his voters, for himself, et cetera. And then the second thing is they're like, stop making everybody pay attention to this. But they, but the Republicans are doing a second trick, which we're going to talk more about now. Look over here. Do not look over here where we have massive spending cuts. that are going to screw over the average American.

And I think it's also important to emphasize what Democrats have decided to focus on as the problem here, while ignoring another giant problem in what Republicans are doing. And I think you'll get what I mean in just a moment. But first, you mentioned the flags. There were other provisions that Republicans demanded be included in this government funding bill. So, for instance, the bill that would fund the Interior Department, including the national parks, would prohibit spending on eco-grief counseling and critical race theory. Because, you know, the Interior Department is now doing critical race theory,

and would prohibit any non-official flags from flying over the department's buildings or response to GOP complaints about pride flags. Look, honestly, I'm tired of the flag debates. Like, I think that's fine. I don't care about the flags, okay? But I think Jenk is right in noting that this is mostly a symbolic. effort meant to direct more negative attention toward the LGBTQ community, right? This is mostly their, you know, attempt to send a message about what their priorities are. Okay, can I, I got to jump. Sorry, Ann, I'm going to jump in real quick on that. Because look, guys, the Republicans might even be right on some of these issues.

So I don't like the gay pride flag should that be flown in government buildings. I have no opinion on it, right? So I always use my own ethnicity. Like if they said, oh, we want to fly a Muslim flag, I'd be like, why? Why? I don't know. Let's just keep the American flag. It's fine. Eco grief counseling. I don't know what that is. Okay, but whatever it is, I'm against it. Okay. And so I'm just being honest with it. Does Interior Department do any critical race theory? Probably not. Republicans make up half the stuff that they say, right? But that's not, whether you agree or don't agree, you could put that in a standalone bill and we could have a vote over it, right? I'm not saying you can't

vote on that. But they're putting in the appropriations bill to gum up the works and force more spending cuts because they're going to shut down the government at the end of September to try to get those spending cuts. And these are all both a distraction and a way of shutting the government, having an excuse to shut down the government because they were worried about $13 in pride flags. Now, here's where I think Pocan certainly has a good point to make, and it has to do with what the GOP is looking to defund. So let's go to Graphic 5 here. The transportation markup went into recess three times over an emotionally charged hours-long debate of an amendment that would strip funding from three LGBTQ organizations. So I wanted to look into what those organizations are because I was curious.

I mean, does the Republican side have a point in wanting to maybe take some funding away? Just because it's a pro-LGB organization doesn't mean it's necessarily a good organization to put public money toward. But I side with Democrats on this issue entirely. Okay, so here's what the organizations are. So the GOP amendment was pitched by Representative Tom Cole. He's a Republican from Oklahoma. And Cole's amendment would cut funding to three LGBTQ focused community centers, okay? One in Massachusetts and one in Pennsylvania.

These centers provide counseling services, networking and social events like art exhibits and other services, and also like job training opportunities. It is good to have these organizations provide support to local communities, especially when it comes to things like job training. Like what do you have against that? Representative Brendan Boyle, who requested $1.8 million in funding for the William Way Community Center in his district, described it as a historic building that has been a beacon of hope and support for Philadelphia's LGBTQ community for decades. It has provided vital sources or social services, including employment counseling, meals for seniors and many other resources.

The Republican Amendment would also nix two other Democrat requested earmarks. Pennsylvania Representative Christy Hollahan would lose about $1,970,000 earmark. She secured for an LGBTQ center in Reading, while Massachusetts, Representative Iona Presley would lose $850,000 in dedicated funding her district would receive for a group that supports housing for older Americans in the LGBTQ community. So going after the funding for these, you know, groups or these organizations, I think is the worst part of what the GOP is doing here. And Pocan called them out during that emotional meeting and debate. I want to show you just a snippet of that. Think about me as your colleague. I told you the story about a plowing guy.

Okay, fine. The guy doesn't want to plow my driveway. Whatever. But did I share with you when I used to get the article when I first ran for office where they wrote dead over your face and sent it to you in the mail? Or the time that when I wasn't out yet left a gay bar and two people followed me and beat me with a baseball bat till I was bloodied unconscious and called me a This is what you guys do by introducing amendments like this, taking away from people's earmarks is absolutely below the dignity of Congress and certainly the Appropriations Committee. And look, I agree with him on that. And so remember, two can play at this game. If Republicans are going to play this game where they try to take away funding for organizations

that help local communities just because they don't like that. that these organizations help a group of people that are marginalized, they want to continue marginalizing them. Democrats can turn around and start doing away with earmarks that Republicans want in their communities, right? So that's just something to keep in mind as this game continues to get played. And what gets lost in the debate and lost in the conversation, what I'm not seeing Democrats call Republicans out on is that while they're hyper-focused on the culture the worst thing Republicans are doing is they want to cut funding on pretty much everything, okay? They want to completely defund the government in this government spending bill.

But doesn't seem like Democrats are that worked up about that portion of it. Yeah, they should be worked up about both. There's nothing wrong with worked out both. Look, guys, this is our money, right? Every time you see an appropriation, that's our taxpayer money that's going to it. So do I want my taxpayer money going to help the senior citizens who are LGBTQ and who need help with their rent, et cetera? Yes, that's exactly what I want it going for. To help the average American, whether they're LGBTQ or not, and these are good organizations that are getting money to people who need that assistance desperately. Do I want that more than I want it going to

another $100 billion that is total utter waste and fraud at the Pentagon? Yes, I would much rather have it go all in that direction rather than to the defense contractors. How about the baseball bad analogy? Look, as I said earlier, I don't know what eco-grief counseling is and you want to fight over that in a standalone bill, no problem, no problem. And I might even agree with you, right? But is it an accident that they, every other provision is targeting the LGBTQ and black communities? Oh, and Latinos. They want to shut down a Latino museum. No, of course it's not an accident. They're not targeting a single thing that applies to straight people, white people, Christians, nothing, nothing. All the targets are

minorities. That's an accident? Right. That's not an accident. And so Pocaine is not exaggerating and it is not hyperbole. When you drive that kind of hatred towards a community, by the way, the polling numbers for approval of gay marriage have now dipped. I think they lost about nine points on the national average because they're driving hatred. And yes, sometimes that leads to somebody getting hit with a baseball bat when they come out of a gay bar. And so this is a disastrous route that the Republicans have taken. And Anna's absolutely right too. And while we have to fight 100% on those issues, we also have to fight 100% on the spending cuts, which are massive in effect everyone in the country.

Right. And look, sometimes politicians say the quiet parts out loud. And in this particular case, you have representatives, Andy Biggs, and Bob Good, two Republicans, saying the quiet parts out loud. What do they really want to do? What's their real objective here? Well, let's watch. I am not worried about a government shutdown at this point. I think that they'll continue on and then try to run it out till December, to be honest with you. But that's my own perspective.

I know I'm not speaking for everybody else. Bob, just want to answer? I would add to that we should not fear a government shutdown. Most of what we do up here is bad anyway. Most of what we do up here hurts the American people. When we do stuff to the American people while promising to do things for the American people, Essential operations continue. 85% is Mr. Biggs has just given me that number continues.

Mostly American people won't even miss if the government is shut down temporarily. Then why are we even paying for your salary, Bob Good? I mean, if most of what they do is useless and negative, why is the United States taxpayer funding the healthcare and the salary of Republican lawmakers like Andy Biggs and Bob Good, who refuse to do their jobs? I mean, this is their job as congressional lawmakers to pass legislation, to ensure the government is funded. Just because he has this ideology that the federal government is useless, he doesn't like what

they do, does it mean that he gets to, you know, avoid doing his job? Yeah, guys, I figured out watching that clip earlier today what I think the Republican strategy is going to be. That's why I mentioned it earlier in this story. I think that they're going to shut the government down at the end of September. And here's why. They played around with the debt ceiling, but they were never going to do that. And we told you that a hundred times while everybody else was doing fake theater. Why? Because if you mess with the debt ceiling, that crashes the stock market. No way their donors would allow

them. But if you shut the government down, it actually doesn't crash the stock market. Those are two very different things with very different economic results. Shutting the government down could cause like the markets and the economy to be hurt a little. bit to a decent amount, which is exactly what the Republicans want, because it would make their base happy to hurt Biden and hurt the Democrats while they're in charge. But more importantly, it would help their election efforts. So if the economy is doing poorly as you're heading into an election year, and whether it's Trump or anyone else, they could say, oh, Biden screwed up their economy.

It's his fault. And it doesn't crash it entirely, so their donors are not furious with them. but it hurts it enough to maybe win the next election. So they're going to make up an excuse, and my guess is they're going to shut it down. And having watched that, he's pretty brazen about it. Yeah, he is. We don't work anyway. What difference does it make?

We're all bums, and we're all playing theater here. And so, you know, I think watch out. I think they're going to probably shut it down. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back for the second hour of the show, we'll talk a little bit about both the White House. and the Auschwitz Memorial going after Greg Gutfeld over at Fox News. A statement that he made about the Holocaust. It's disgusting to say the least.

And later in the show, one of our favorite stories, sorority consultants, and the advice they give to mothers and their daughters who are looking to join sororities. Don't miss it. It'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