The Young Turks - Less Than The Minimum

Episode Date: April 16, 2021

The Cop who shot and killed Daunte Wright Jr resigns. Johnson and Johnson’s COVID vaccine is paused over very rare blood clots, but the White House says the pause won’t disrupt vaccine distribution. 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. On July 18th, get excited. This is big! For the summer's biggest adventure. I think I just smurf my pants.

That's a little too excited. Sorry. Smurfs. Only theaters July 18th. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body. but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too.

When they fall out of balance, everything feels off. But here's the good news. This doesn't have to be the story of your next chapter. Hormone Harmony by Happy Mammoth is an herbal formula made with science-backed ingredients, designed to fine-tune your hormones by balancing estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and even stress hormones like cortisol. It helps with common issues such as hot flashes,

poor sleep, low energy, bloating, and more. With over 40,000 reviews and a bottle sold every 24 seconds, the results speak for themselves. A survey found 86% of women lost weight, 77% saw an improved mood, and 100% felt like themselves again. Start your next chapter feeling balanced and in control. For a limited time, get 15% off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. All right, welcome the Young Turks, Jen and Anna with you guys today. So tons of news, unfortunately, a lot of a disturbing ranging from political to cultural.

And obviously we'll do the best we can with it. The last time I was on the show, I promised to be optimistic. And usually I am in my personal life and in politics. But I proved to be elusive given the material at hand. I fear this might be a similar show. All right, so without further ado, Anna Kaspari. Well, why don't we start off with where the minimum wage fight is currently at in Congress. Now that progressives have refused to withhold their vote on must pass legislation until they get a $15 an hour minimum wage provision included in these must pass bills, we have Republican, Mitt Romney, and semi-Republican, although Democrat, Senator Kirsten Cinema,

proposing their own version of what the federal minimum wage hike should be. And we're learning this through reporting over at the Huffington Post, where they say that the minimum wage hike they're looking for is about $11 an hour. We're negotiating a minimum wage proposal, which we would ultimately take to our group of 20 and see how they would react to it and go from there, Romney said, referring to a bipartisan group of 20 senators who are hoping to find ways to make the Senate function better. which is hilarious because this bipartisan group has done no such thing so far. Now, corporate Democrats also are pretty awful when it comes to this issue because there are specific Democrats who think $15 an hour is just too much. Senator Joe Manchin said that plainly. Also, a $15 an hour wage doesn't even have full support among Senate Democrats, including

cinema and Manchin. Mansion has repeatedly said he would vote or he would favor something closer to 11, dollars per hour phased in over two years. And I want to remind you all, the $15 an hour minimum wage hike would not be phased in immediately. It was supposed to be phased in within four years, which is an important caveat that I think a lot of people miss. I mean, to make it seem as though it was such a disruptive wage hike is absolutely ridiculous. And then finally, I'll leave you with this since I've been pretty disappointed in Jean Shaheen lately. Senator Gene Shaheen of New Hampshire has expressed concerns about how a $15 an hour minimum wage would

affect the restaurant industry, but you should know that the tipped minimum wage is $2.13 an hour. So do you know, we can't, we can't mess with that. We can't increase it because the restaurant industry would really suffer as a result. That's the ridiculous argument coming from a corporate Democrat like Jean Shaheen. Jank, take it away. Yeah, and of course if the restaurant industry or any industry is upset, well then corporate Democrats like Jean Shaheen are upset because that's their donors. And so, well, how is she supposed to get elected unless she does exactly what her corporate

overlords tell her to do? Okay, so look, this is frustration is all around here. Number one, of course, the Republicans are against any increase in the minimum wage. So if you want to get Romney credit for not being a barbarian and willing to go up to, it appears $11. Manchin said that Romney and Sinema are talking about $11. Okay, you could say he's the one Republican who has emerged from a cave. Is $11 good enough? Absolutely not. So that goes to the next to the corporate Democrats. They're all funded by corporations. No one in Washington media points it out because either,

A, they suck at their job and are completely ignorant of what actually drives politicians, or B, they're in on it. But I really don't think they're in on it. I just don't think they're very, very, very bad at their job and their editors and are, but the higher you go up the ladder, the more they're in on it. A, you can't disturb our advertisers and we need access to these corrupt politicians, etc. So the media's got a giant culpability here. Gee, I wonder why mansion, for example, as opposed to a $15 minimum wage, even though the people

of West Virginia are dying for a $15 minimum wage. And every poll indicates that a massive amount of Democratic voters wanted, a massive amount of West Virginia voters wanted. But by the way, also a very clear majority of Republican voters wanted. So if two thirds of the country wants it, why do you call the people who are against it moderates, whether they're Romney, Cinema, or Mansion, or Gene? They're not moderates. By definition, by definition, they're not moderates because two thirds of the country says do it, at least actually it's quite, in this case, it's usually even higher than that number when they pull $15 minimum wage. So every reporter in their country who keeps calling their

moderates and centrists should be fired because they are not doing fact-based reporting. They're doing access journalism. Oh, I would like to kiss up the politicians, so I'll make them look positive when in reality they're way outside the mainstream of actual Americans who unsurprisingly, of course, want one, higher Wages or lower wages. That's why I'm saying, it's like I feel bad picking on the reporters because the editors are bossing them around. That's why I think every editor and every newspaper and every major cable news outlets should really be fired. Oh, I think the moderate position is that America's lower wages, even though every poll indicates otherwise. Well, then

you're not in news, you're an alternative facts and propaganda. But now let me go to the main culprits here. Wait a minute, main culprits, we already got through the Republicans and the corporate Democrats. In this case, I'm heartbroken to tell you, it's progressive legislators who are choosing to do nothing, nothing. So they chose not to do it, put it in the COVID relief bill. And then so-called progressive leadership promises, maybe next time. Oh, next day, yeah, I talk to Biden. I'm so special, Jayapal says. I'm keeping it real. I'm going to give you quotes from her in a second. I'm so special, I get to talk to Biden all the time, okay? And I told Biden, we, you know, it's totally fine to kill the $15 minimum bill. In fact, I'll help you kill the $15 minimum wage,

but I'll do it next time. So they just released the five progressive priorities for the infrastructure bill. That's next time. Minimum wage is not on it. She never meant it. She's never going to go back to it. Then meanwhile, Romney and cinema outflank her, outflank all of the progressives in Congress by actually going in and working on a bill. Is Jayapal working on a bill? No. Is any progressive in the House working on a bill? No. Is a congressional progressive caucus working on a bill? No. But Romney and Cinema are. Romney and cinema. Look, guys, it's just, I don't relish this. I'm not one of these guys who wants to beat up these folks. Are you kidding me? I literally started the Justice Democrats. I named the Justice Democrats.

I'm heartbroken to see them sitting on their hands doing absolutely nothing. They're never going to get to it. And they're never going to fight back. And so the reason why this news story is so important is because the ship's about to sail. They're going to do $11. And then Romney and Cinema are going to do a dance on the Senate floor. All of the corporate media are going to applaud them as if they did something amazing. And they're never going to go back to it for at least another decade. We're about to lose.

And I don't even know if progressives in Congress are aware that we're about to lose. So I want you to be clear, why would I pick on Jayapala? Look, I'll be honest with you. I convince her to be a Justice Democrat. That's a fact, okay? And so I'm rooting, I want to root for her. I want to root for her. I want her to be a great leader.

But let me give you two quotes from a Time magazine article where they interviewed her recently. So Time explains that instead of acting as an opposition arm, she says she wants to be a proposition one. I've never heard that before. So they explained proposing the most progressive ideas possible and framing them in ways that can persuade her colleagues and the president to support them. Except the president didn't support them and her colleagues didn't support them.

That's why it didn't pass. Proposing something, I hate to break it to you, is meaningless. Passing something is all the difference in the world. Did the 33 million Americans who would be affected by increasing the minimum wage, did they get their increase or did they not? They didn't. I don't care what you propose. I care what you fight for and what you win for. Hey, by the way, if you can win without fighting, great, who wants to start a fight for no reason? I don't. It doesn't make me feel good. It makes it's uncomfortable. I know it's uncomfortable, right? But we didn't send you to be comfortable. I don't care

I care about your comfort. I care about the comfort of those 33 million Americans who desperately needed increase in their wages. So this is the most important part. Time explains, when a $15 minimum wage increase fell out of the package because of the Senate rules, some Democrats considered withholding their votes entirely. That's true, there actually are really good just Democrats internally. They fought, it's, all right, they fought, Time magazine explains, Jayapal helped persuade those members to support the deal, and it passed almost entirely along party lines. In other words, she talked them out of fighting. She talked them out of making a demand. Look, we've done the Frederick Douglass court a thousand times, and if you're a progressive and you don't know it, especially if you're a legislator, you should study up on it.

Power never, not sometimes, never concedes without a demand. Jayapal is bragging in the mainstream media about how she never makes demands. She just makes propositions. Well, I propose something, isn't that good enough? Oh, it didn't pass. It's never going to pass. Or we're going to pass the corporate version that a Republican in Kristen cinema who rubbed our faces in it about how she bragged about how she killed the minimum wage. She did a little dance as she killed a minimum wage.

And we're gonna go with their version because you chose not to do anything and not to have a minimum wage. anything and not to have a strategy. So look, again, I feel terrible about telling you the truth about Congresswoman Jayapal. I wish she was a great leader. And by the way, just so you know how Washington works, as soon as everybody, people become Congress people, they become elitist within a matter of minutes, okay? So now I'm a ruffian. And so when I criticize them as I criticized other Democrats, when they were running,

they loved that, right? Now that they're among the elites, they're gonna hate me forever, okay? So that's fine, but I'm asking them to fight and to be uncomfortable about challenging their colleagues. So I have to be willing to fight and be uncomfortable in challenging what used to be my colleagues. So I agree with everything you're saying. The only difference is what is the accurate or the most effective response to what we've already experienced with progress in Congress, right? I totally agree with you on Jayapal. I agree with you on on the mistakes that progressive legislators are making right now as we speak, but you also

have to understand all of the different influencing factors. Obviously, once you're in it, there's a tremendous amount of pressure to go along to get along. And we're seeing a lot of that among progressives. I'm not excusing them for it, but what is the enforcement mechanism to make sure that they stay honest, to make sure that they actually do what they campaign to do, right? There really isn't one, Jank, like that's the problem. So doing this, just calling them out, that's fine. And to be honest with you, it doesn't make me uncomfortable. I don't care. I have no loyalty to Jayapal. I have no loyalty to justice Democrats. I have no loyalty to anyone other than our viewers and what my personal values are. So I want a $15 an hour minimum wage.

But more importantly, I want a minimum wage that keeps up with inflation. Because the way we've done things in this country historically when it comes to the federal minimum wage has been ineffective and has not kept up with inflation. I'm gonna go to a video explaining this in just a second. But the point that I'm trying to make is it's not good enough to just get people you like elected. There needs to be an enforcement mechanism where the people are in charge of carrying out that enforcement. And that doesn't exist right now. That's the problem. So if you have progressives entering Congress and they have all the incentives to abandon us and there's really

no enforcement mechanism on the other side, what do you think is gonna happen? What's the answer? So Anna, the answer is actually simple. You don't wanna know what the enforcement mechanism is? I know. I know what it is. No, no, you're- It's not good enough. No, no, but Anna, look, no, this is really important for the audience to understand. Part of the reason why they have the pressure that they do not to fight, and Anna is right about that. They have an incredible amount of pressure. Don't think that it's easy. And you don't understand their context. In their context, every single, and it's hard for you to understand it from your perspective, every single person they talk to inside Washington says, don't fight, don't fight, you'll be stupid, you'll be mean,

you'll be rude, don't fight, don't fight, and when you don't fight, Time magazine and all the other papers come around. Bloomberg, we covered it the other day, and the hell, they all come in and go, oh, you're so brave and you're so smart and you're so strategic for not fighting. You gave up on all your priorities, you're brilliant, but if you fight, we will destroy you. So now look at that, wait, what's the enforcement mechanism for the corporate wing of the Democratic Party? The mainstream media. So if you actually do the right thing, the mainstream media will bury you. If you do the wrong thing, they'll pat you on the back, the head, all day long. So what's the enforcement mechanism for progressives? You're looking at it. That's progressive

media, us, the intercept, etc. Is that good enough? And it's right. Apparently it's not good enough, they're not even hearing us. They're like, oh, wow, I don't know, you guys aren't not my buddies anymore. Washington Post in New York Times, CNN's my buddy, debuts my buddies, my mama bears my buddy, you're not my buddies, okay, that's fine. But this is the only thing we've got. That's why when I enlist the viewers, you guys are so important because you actually did move Bernie Sanders on this issue. He wasn't even gonna propose us an amendment for the $15 bill. We never would have found out which Democrats in the Senate are against it if it it wasn't for you guys. So you're the enforcement mechanism. I wish we were stronger

as so that we could have a bigger impact. But the honest answer is that there's a media war. And if we can't get through to them and explain to them, they're killing hope out here. Then they're never going to move. They're just going to get the pats on the back from mainstream media. And they're going to let Romney and cinema win. And then the mainstream media will write an article just like the one I quoted to you just now afterwards, saying, oh, Jayapal did a brilliant job of not getting $15 minimum wage. Again, she says she might come back to it two decades later. She's so strategic and practical. Yeah, look, I'm not arguing that media isn't an important component of it. Like media is

important, but even that is not enough, right? Even if we were the biggest show in the country and everyone's watching us and everyone believes in what we're saying, it's still not enough. You need people to be organized and you need people to be able to bring the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to its knees. And you can't do that unless you have organized labor. This country is run by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Period. I know, organized labor in this country is pathetic. It is pathetic. It is pathetic. But there's a reason why. But there's a reason why. The reason why is because there have been laws passed throughout decades to weaken the ability for workers to form unions. Union power is what led, you know, FDR to pass the new deal.

The only time we had effective economic policy in this country was when labor power was stronger. But look, I know, I get it. We're not anywhere near that right now, which is why it's so important to pass the pro act, which is a giant mountain to climb. I'm not denying that. But let's talk about a comparison between the United States and other countries that have a federal minimum wage, okay? Keep in mind that Nordic countries, they don't have federal minimum wages. They have strong labor unions which negotiate wages on behalf of the workers, which is why they

get paid way better than we do here in the United States. But since we're comparing apples to apples here, let's look at other countries that have a federal minimum wage. Vox did a decent job with this video. I want to share it with you. Let's take a quick look. Every time the minimum wage has been raised, inflation has dragged it right back down. Really, America's minimum wage hasn't gone up.

It's essentially stayed the same since the 80s. What you're seeing here, this constant up and down, this is weird. It's not how the rest of the world does it, and it leads to a bunch of problems for American workers and businesses. Imagine how much smoother that could all go if the minimum wage just kind of win up over time. Well, we don't have to imagine it. In France, they automatically raise their minimum wage every single year. They tie it to inflation in the average salary of a French worker.

In Australia, a commission reviews the minimum wage every year, considering economic factors like inflation. The UK also has a commission, made up of union business and economic experts. The Czech Republic's commission consults with employer and union representatives. Their line is lower overall than America's, but it still trends upwards. Same with Costa Rica, and their committee reviews the minimum wage twice a year. In most countries, the minimum wage is in the hands of economic officials. In the U.S., it's in the hands of politics. And that goes about as well as you'd expect.

Yeah, it's a garbage method of increasing the federal minimum wage. This is part of the reason why you have ballot initiatives in red states like Florida that succeed in passing a minimum wage in that state, to the tune of 61% by the way, 61% of voters in Florida voted in favor of that ballot initiative to increase their federal, increase their state's minimum wage to $15 an hour. So, I mean, it's just, yes, the people want it, Jank. And unfortunately, right now, relying on Congress, whether you elect Justice Democrats or not, is a faulty strategy. It just is. It's a faulty strategy. No, it is.

We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-Fing the Republic or UNFTR. As a young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the end. interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a slight,

edgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time.

What are they doing? They have a block in the house right now. They're not using their leverage. So, okay, what are we going to do? What's the response to that? What's the response to that? Anna, your plan would require. decades, decades of work. While people sit there at $7.25 minimum wage, okay? And by the way,

currently, do you know what the unions are doing? Do you see them raging for $15? No, they're not. They're basically absent from this fight. Do you want to know why? Because they're selfish. Because they're saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, hold on. Let me explain why. They say, hey, if you get the $15 minimum wage, so we'll pretend to be in favor because we're in favor of labor, right? If you get it, well, that reduces our power. We're pretending to be the only ones who can get you higher wages. If you already have a $15 minimum wage, that might reduce in this time some particular union's power.

So they're sitting it out. They're not using their cloud at all, right? So I'm not going to go sit there and rely on this current union leadership, then you'll be waiting forever and ever, ever, ever. The problem is this current union leadership, and unions are incredibly weak. But look, I'm conceding to you that having a powerful organized, having powerful organized labor in this country is going to take some time. But I also want you to understand that relying solely on a few progressive members of Congress to do the right thing when all the incentives are on the wrong side, you're just setting yourself up for failure. And that's what we're seeing over and over again.

There has to be a better way to do this. No, look, if you can't rely on Congress and using political power and leverage in a democracy, then you're giving up. And so, no, you have to fight it this way. And so look, if we just said, if we took the attitude of, well, you know, we like to just Democrats. And so let's just, for lack of a better way of phrasing it, kiss their ass. and sit there and let them do whatever they want, oh, they're super comfortable.

They got nice seats in the palace. That's, oh, that's so wonderful, right, for them. And then we cheerlead for them when they do the wrong thing, then yes, that that's a very poor strategy and the strategy that unfortunately a lot of groups are taking right now. Oh, no, no, but then we would lose access to our legislators. So what? Because it isn't about your ego, it isn't about our ego, and it isn't about the legislators' egos. It's about how do you get it passed today? They need that $15 minimum wage today. It was literally the simplest priority we had. The president claims to be in favor. He's obviously lying. Democratic leadership claims to be in favor, but they're obviously lying. But you could

use their lies against them. You could use that publicly. Any one of any one of those progressive of legislators, including, by the way, Bernie Sanders, who is totally missing in action, okay? When it's an undoable thing, it's easy to be a rebel. When it's doable, but it's uncomfortable, that's when people are tested. And Bernie Sanders, is he calling out Biden? Oh, no, that's his friend. No. Is he calling out mention? No. Is he calling out any Democrats saying, wait, you promise. Joe Biden, you promise. Kamala Harris, you promised. Bernie Sanders gives that speech or a single Justice Democrat gives that press conference or goes to the floor of the Senate of the House do that, they're gonna rock this world.

The media would then go, oh my God, it's a fight between Bernie and Biden. And then they would go, well, it's true, Biden did promise it, it's true, he hasn't done it. It's true, it's true. But Bernie has chosen not to do that. The Justice Democrats have chosen not to do that. So it's incumbent upon us today, not 20 years from now, when we theoretically take a very weak and selfish union leadership and magically transform them into brilliant fighters 20 years from now. It's incumbent upon us right now, us and the audience to say, God damn it, Bernie,

God damn it, Justice Democrats, AOC, legendary fighter AOC, where are you? It was nice and easy and great to challenge democratic leadership when you were primarying them. But now that you're in power, all of a sudden you don't want us to challenge democratic leadership? Oh, hell no, you can get mad at us all day long, but you have got to do your job. And our job is to put pressure on you no matter what it costs us personally. All right, we'll come back with multiple stories about police brutality because we live in America. See you then. All right, let me do as many of your comments as we can here.

Greg writes in our member section. Didn't the story you guys do show mansions highest paying company pays $11 an hour? What a coincidence that he supports are raised to $11, eh? Exactly right, go to t.wit.com slash investigates. You'll see that story. Yeah, we did that story because you guys paid for our investigative reporting team. We're out of that money. We continue to do it anyway, because we're the little guy trying to do the best we can. Did any mainstream media picked that up? Of course not. That would, that's their beloved, beloved moderate Joe Mansion. They would never deign to criticize them because mainstream media is propaganda. Okay, little MacG writes in, remember when we talked about the Democrats got played by the

GOP so easily and how progressives are going to go in and fight to change the system? Well, now our progressives are the new dummy Democrats. I'm not saying it, he's saying it. Getting out, outplayed and we need to look for the new people to replace them to actually change the system, power corrupts. I can't keep doing this endless cycles guys, and I can't keep asking you to give money for endless cycles. They need a leader. If they have a leader, they'll realize, oh, it's gaslighting. It turns out when we fight, we can actually win. I believe that leader is Nina Turner. I'm asking you one last time, Nina Turner.com slash hello, okay? Let's try to give them a leader, Let's try to give them courage.

And all right, anyway, then they'll be deeply offended by it. How dare you say we don't have courage and we keep surrendering? Comrade captain writes, what happened to when they go low, we go high? This is literally the time for that. They go for 11, we demand 25. Yes, look, there's a thousand different ways that you could fight back. But Jayapal keeps saying, don't, don't, don't, don't fight back. 25, 15, nothing, nothing, nothing, don't fight back.

It's an obviously wrong strategy. All right, back on Young Turks, Jake and Anna with you guys. Anna's got more news. Officials in Chicago have released the fatal police shooting of a 13-year-old named Adam Toledo. He is now this video was something that was being withheld from the public, but the mayor of Chicago says that she demanded its release. We are not going to show the video because it features a minor getting shot and killed.

But more importantly, activists on the ground have asked people to avoid posting it on social media. Now Mayor Lori Lightfoot is pleading with the community to avoid any type of violent reaction to the release of the video. She's pleading for calm. And she also said during a press conference, we must proceed with deep empathy and calm and importantly peace. No family should ever have a video broadcast widely of their child's last moments, much less be placed in the terrible situation of losing their child in the first place. So this police shooting happened at 2 in the morning, 2.30 in the morning on March 29th. And the allegation here is that Adam Toledo, the 13 year old, was with another male who allegedly had fired his weapon, not at anything in particular

that we know about right now. We still don't have enough details about the story. So I want to kind to warn you guys about that. But authorities were called. At that point, the cops opened fire and killed Adam Toledo, again, a 13 year old, because they believed that he was armed. Now, Adam Toledo 13 was shot by the police last month in Little Village, specifically, a predominantly Latino neighborhood on the city's west side. According to law enforcement authorities, Adam was running down the alley with a gun in his hand and ignored an officer's command to stop and drop the gun. So point number one that I want to bring up right off the bat, he's running away, okay? Whether they believed he was armed or not, he's running away, which means by the very

nature of the incident, he is not posing an imminent risk or threat to the authorities. He's running away. That's an important part of the story. The other part of the story that's important to keep in mind is that, first of all, Mayor Lori Lightfoot says, I see no evidence whatsoever that Adam shot at the police. So we have not seen any evidence of that. In fact, if you look at this screenshot from the video, you see him with his hands up right before the police opened fire. Now, I reviewed the video, unfortunately, and it does appear at one point right before he turns around and raises his arms, that he dropped something, and that could have been the weapon. I don't know for sure, and I want to be clear about that.

But even so, you can see clearly in this screenshot that he's turned around with his hands up and the authorities, the cops, shot and killed him anyway. Yeah, so two standard huge problems here in America. One is because of our lax gun laws, everybody has guns, there's nonstop shootings in Chicago. And I don't want to hear from right wingers who are like, oh, no, Chicago is a magical bubble where they can't get guns from other parts of Illinois or Indiana or any nearby state with incredible ease. So people are shooting each other. They're shooting your cops. Cops are shooting at them. And no one ever does anything about it. Now, if you go turn on Fox News, you'll see them complaining about black people all the time. Do they ever do a constructive solution for? for how to have less violence in Chicago or anywhere else? No, they just got black culture, black dads are not there, black people are at fault.

So no, your racism is not a solution, okay? And then when cops shoot black people, what does Fox News in the right wing always say? No, cops are always innocent. Do you know that more Republicans now believe Chauvin is innocent as opposed to guilty? They watch them murder a man with their own eyes, and they're like, I don't see a problem. They're Republicans, they're like, oh, a white cop killed a black guy who in that case was unarmed. And when I saw him do it, I'm here for it. That's who Republican voters are. So they got no solutions.

And then, you know, progressives in Congress, I mean, every once in a while, they'll say something. Do they ever do anything? In order to do something, you would have to hold your own accountable. Because they got news for you, Trump's not president anymore. Joe Biden is. What did Joe Biden propose? Ghost guns. We'll get rid of ghost guns. Yeah, it's a ghost problem. Okay, that's not the issue. So now in terms of police shootings. No, no, no, hold on. Important clarification on that, we will not get rid of ghost guns. We'll just try to regulate them the same way we regulate all the other guns, which is poorly,

basically. Yeah, yeah. All right, great. So in terms of police shootings, You know, Rashida Thelieb, bless her heart, says, let's get, you know, I forget her exact quote about basically getting rid of the police. And then everybody goes, oh my God, no, no, no, no police, then it forced everybody to go, not me, but makes everybody in media, makes Biden, et cetera, everyone, all of them go out of their way to kiss cops' asses and go, no, we will never get rid of the police, we'll fight them even more, right? Look, can we focus? Can we pass anything? Can we pass anything in this Congress? So we got black people being shot, nonstop. And by the way, poor white people too.

And you think they're not, because we train the cops. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill. Don't take any chances with your life. If they're running away from you, who cares? If they're surrendered, who cares? If they're on the ground and they can't breathe, who cares? Just kill, kill, kill, kill. kill because you don't want to take any chance with your life. Can we fix that? Can we do a constructive solution to fix that? Here's the constructive solutions coming out of Congress. Zero. Republicans don't want to fix it. They enjoy what's happening. And Democrats are, as always, completely and utterly ineffectual. So a 13 year old gets killed in the streets. It's unfortunately, heartbreakingly, and normal day in America.

It is. I do want to note one other thing. though that's important. So the other person that Toledo was with was a 21 year old male. He was the one who allegedly fired shots. And the prosecution that's currently prosecuting him is making some pretty interesting mistakes in court. So this is based on a local news outlet investigating this case. And apparently during a bond hearing for 21 year old Ruben Roman, who was with Adam the night of the shooting, Cook County Assistant State's attorney James Murphy described the altercation by saying that the officer tells Toledo to drop it as Toledo turns toward the officer. Toledo has a gun in his right hand. But it looks as though the prosecutor's

office is kind of reneging, not reneging, but taking that back, or at least walking it back by saying by now in response to a WGN investigates inquiry, the state's attorney's office says, says that detail about Adam having a gun in his hand, the moment that he was shot was inaccurate. An attorney who works in this office failed to fully inform himself before speaking in court. So I just felt that it was important to share that detail with you. In case you see any of this misinformation on social media, he did not have a gun in his hand the moment that he was shot by the cops here. Yeah. And so, look, I reference sometimes movies and TV shows from the old days, just as a cultural landmark, right? And if you're old enough or you watch some of those

old school ones, you remember in the movies and the TV shows, the cops used to say, freeze, put your hands up, you're under arrest. They would say these things and they wouldn't shoot right away. You know why? Because back then, believe it or not, it's like the, Police brutality against African Americans was disastrous, don't get me wrong, it was always terrible, right? But they did not use lethal force with this degree of ease and severity. They hesitated before they killed someone. Now they're taught, don't hesitate. Oh my God, if you hesitate for a nanosecond, you're going to be carried out by six instead of judged by 12, kill, kill, kill, kill, right?

But by the way, part of the reason that they're trained that way is everybody has a gun. So look, the one part I understand is if you're a cop, well, thanks to the Republicans, and by the way, you probably agree with it, and that's incredibly stupid on your part, if you're a cop, everyone has guns, everybody has 12 guns. So the cops are jittery, everybody's armed, right? And so, but if you tell them to shoot immediately, you will shoot a lot of innocent people. So this guy, this kid is 13 years old. Tamir Rice was 12 years old, that was in Cleveland.

And they didn't hesitate, they shot him within two seconds. Two seconds of getting out of the car, getting the gun out, and shooting them. No hesitation at all of murdering a 12 year old. They found out later, oops, it was a toy gun. In this case, they find out, oops, he'd thrown away the gun. But you were trained to not hesitate for a second, because your life is a thousand times is more important than a citizen's life. That's where cops are trained. And if you hear anybody else telling you otherwise, they're lying to you, including all of the mainstream media, if that's

what they say. And oftentimes it is what they say, oh, beloved cops, et cetera. No, their training is to kill us before finding out if we're innocent or guilty. And that's just the reality. All right, let's move on to our next story where there's some disagreement about what to do with policing. Do you agree with her on that? I'm sorry, who said that? That was said by Rashida, Congresswoman Rashida Talib of Michigan. No, I don't. Senator Bernie Sanders was asked about a comment that Rashida Talib had in response to police brutality that we've been experiencing in this country. And basically it's just this call to abolish policing,

abolish the military because there is no real way to reform it. It's just toxic to its very core. But Bernie Sanders is not an agreement with that. You should hear the entirety of his statement, so let's take a look. Your fellow progressive Congresswoman Rashida Talib reacted by saying this, and I'll put it up on the screen. I am done with those who condone government-funded murder. No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can't be reformed. Do you agree with her on that? I'm sorry, who said that? That was said by Rashida, Congresswoman Rashida Talib, of Michigan.

No, I don't. I think that what we need to do is to understand that there needs to be major, major police reform all across this country. We are tired of seeing the same thing week after week and year after year. We do not want to see innocent African Americans shot in cold blood. So I think that is an area that needs significant amount of work. And I hope that Congress begins work on that immediately. And Bernie isn't the only one who feels that way. Recent polling indicates that the majority of Americans, including the majority of black respondents to this survey, do not want to abolish police.

and many also don't want to simply defund the police. Well, of course, I know that's not what movements like Black Lives Matter are calling for, if they want to reallocate some of those resources. Let me give you a few of these results, and then, Jank, I want to hear your thoughts. So only 18% of the respondents in this USA Today Ipsos poll supported the movement known as defund the police, and 58% said that they opposed it. The findings are even more fascinating when you break it. get down by race. So though white Americans, 67%, and Republicans, 84%, were much more likely

to oppose the movement, only 28% of black Americans and 34% of Democrats were in favor of it. Respondents were less opposed to the idea of redirecting police funds to social services. Though a 57% majority was still against the idea, 43% of Americans supported the idea. Now, 63% of black voters supported distributing portions of police funds to social programs, while 35% of white voters do. Jank. Yeah, man, this is a very tough one because I think Rashida Taleb's heart is in the right place. And it's a breath of fresh air to see any progressives in Congress actually fighting on any issue.

So I don't want to discourage it. On the other hand, it is very poor framing. So that's just my honest opinion, okay? So we've talked about defund the police before. So I'm not remotely surprised that it pulls horrifically, right? The idea behind it, which is, hey, you know what? We should take some of the funding from police and move it to social services. In fact, some are now suggesting the police be broken up into three different parts,

people who give out traffic tickets who shouldn't be armed, which is a really good point. people who should do social services and respond to emergencies and people who respond to crimes. So these are all really great points. But when you say abolish the police or defund the police, people turn off, they stop listening. And you can say, hey, no, that's not fair, and it's not my job to explain my ideas to people. You could say that, but then you'll lose. That's just a fact. If you don't explain yourself and you don't have the right framing, you will lose the media wars, and then you will lose the legislative battles. So it's incumbent upon us as progressives to come out with the right solutions and then

the frame them in a way that is palatable to the American people and in ways that they actually agree with. But when you say abolish your def on the police, you're going to lose 80% of America and have no hope of even getting reform. Now, on the other hand, don't get me wrong, corporate Democrats will do nothing. Republicans will exalt in doing nothing. So if you just do vague promises of reform, that'll lead to nowhere. That's why this is a very tough issue.

But I actually want to go to one of our viewers because I think they make a very good point. And I think it's a good springboard for constructive solutions. That's why I love doing the show with you guys. TYT.com slash join to become a member and participate in the show. So David wrote in, Jenk, cops killed because of qualified immunity. They're barely ever held accountable. The cities, meanwhile, pay out the nose when the lawsuits or settlements take place. So that's a great point.

Now, progressive legislators do know about qualified immunity, and that is one of their top issues, so give them credit for that. But now, how are you gonna get take away qualified immunity? If Joe Biden and Kamala Harris say, yeah, theoretically we wanna take it away, but we're not gonna do anything about it. Well, you have no choice in politics, but to pressure not Republicans, that's pointless, they're not in charge, but to pressure Joe Biden. But that's where progressives fall on their face.

I'm being honest, progressive legislators can do mean tweets, they could do tough things. I don't mean to take anything away from Congresswoman Tilley because she's a rare, pretty strong fighter in Congress, okay? But when they go, but if you ask them, now go challenge Biden, sound of silence, okay? So qualified immunity, I don't know, it should have happened on day one, getting rid of qualified immunity. Why are they above the law? Why are cops who have tremendous power and that we've empowered them with a badge that gives

them that power and a gun and they kill us all the time without hesitating, why do they get to be above the law? That's insane. Okay, now the other part of what David said is also important. Here, I'll suggest one change for you that would instantly change every police department in the country in one minute flat, okay? And when I say it, that's when, like, everyone in power go, no, no, no, no, no. And you guys will think it's a perfectly good idea.

You ready? When somebody sues after somebody's been shot, like happening in Chicago and Minnesota, in every state unjustly shot, right? The people who have to pay are the cops who did it. You know what would happen with the cops? Oh, they'd pause. They'd pause before shooting. If you were going to bankrupt them, the money was going to come out of their pocket.

All of a sudden, at TYTYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech.

And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cybercriminals. And it's also easy to install.

A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EXPRE S-SVPN.

com slash t yt. Check it out today. Oh, I don't know if I want to do police brutality anymore. I don't know if I want to kill people right away. Now, when you make this argument, people go, no, you can't do that to the poor police. Nobody will want to be police if they can't murder without immunity. Well, then they shouldn't be cops. Then we'll get cops who are more careful, right? But when we, the taxpayers pay for it, the cops don't care at all. The cop unions are thrilled. They're like, yeah, who cares pay it? Who cares? Who cares? Who cares? Go. go shoot him, go shoot them, we'll defend you no matter what, right? But if you said to them, you're gonna pay, the guy who did the shooting's gonna pay, his boss is gonna pay, the police

union chief is gonna pay, in fact, all the cops are gonna pay, it's gonna come out of the cops' pensions. Heads explode. But if we did that, the problem, I swear to God, would be instantly solved. Unarmed shootings, it would plummet. You'd have 1% of the unarmed shootings you have today. Yeah, yeah, but so far we haven't seen any real robust solutions as you mentioned, which is incredibly frustrating. You know, a lot of chest puffing over on social media, which is great, I guess, but social media is not legislating. It's just not. We gotta take a break. When we come back, we have more news for you guys, including what should we talk about? Court packing.

Court packing was an effort that died almost as quickly as it emerged in Congress. I can't wait to share the details of that with you, so come right back. All right, as you can see there, we got a poll on who's right, Bernie or Rashida Taleb. I have no idea how you guys are going to vote. I mean, I often have no idea on, but on that one, double no idea. So go to QRT.com slash polls. So you could vote on that poll in the story we just did about abolishing the police. Okay, so a quick plug here. Tomorrow's Friday, obviously, and Anna's going to be on Cole James Cash's show. So please check that out. It's Friday, 3 p.m. Eastern, obviously noon Pacific. It's Cole James Cash show on YouTube. Okay, so check that out. All right, now I'm gonna go to our members again. Tachana in Japan says, I love seeing you guys do a healthy debate. It really shows how passionate you are about the news. and how you are open to your opinions on this show, it is a good reflection of the viewers

too. Yeah, I mean, you guys are here for it. You guys finance it. So that's what allows us to be open-minded, independent, and share our actual opinions and not bar anything. Isaac says, I have a question for, no, I'm sorry, Isaac, we're not ready to talk about the toll traffic in New York yet. Sorry about that, we'll do it another day. And the Ethernet has a point, it's hard to hear, but I'm glad Jengis criticizing the Justice Democrats. If they take it as a constructive criticism, they can develop new ways to develop a better political strategy. I also think we on the ground need to organize because we can't depend on any politician,

even those we support. Look guys, the reason why I say they get sensitive is I've had internal conversations. The minute you challenge anyone in power, now including just Democrats, they usually just cut you off. Like instantly, there's an air of how dare you. It does not apply to a couple of them. And I hope to God, I can tell you who those people are these days. But there's such good guys and people that they don't want me to tell you because they're worried about throwing other just Democrats onto the bus. Okay, Carl Tuckerson, funny, writes in, I think that both of you and Anna are right in a way. Yes, Congress and unions are weak. This is why progressors need to

need to do like the Republicans that fight on all fronts, including political, labor, grassroots, and ballot initiatives to ensure the best chance of success. So that's a fair point. And I'll go to Chicago, I live in South Dakota, right to work for minimum wage state. Sadly, with my total and permanent VA disability payment of Social Security, my net income is in the top 30% of people in South Dakota. I'm not giving what I get back, but it would be nice if others could make enough to live. That is such an indictment of our society. Thank you for writing in with your personal experience. This country has become absolutely brutal to its citizens.

All right, I want to thank people who just joined on YouTube by hitting the join button below, Arthur Ashbrook, Grandmas, Sunshine Dragon, and Stephen Hobson. Guys, we have different layers of membership on YouTube, and it's so critical to us that, for you to sign up at whatever level you can afford. So if you can afford a higher level, you'll get more. You'll get the post game, for example, if you're at the essentials level. potentials level, and you'll get all of our videos on our website if you're at the premium level. But it also helps the show and helps make our voices stronger.

All right, back on a young church, Jen and Anna with you guys. I'm gonna read a bunch of YouTube super chats real quick here because I really appreciate you guys helping the show and it's good comments. Ray Turner, aka the Beard of Dragon, says, for all those upset at Jenks raging, all I can say is that if you're not angry, you're not paying attention, keep the flamlet jenk. Thank you. Jacob Torres says, thanks, TYT for all you do to fight corruption, about to become an expat unless something miraculous changes. And I sympathize with Anna's Dumerism. And Detroit Microsound says, I love TYT because you guys are just like Revolution 9 by the Beatles.

I wish I knew that reference, but it sounds badass, thank you. And finally, Parker says, on a much lighter note, can we please get Anna on an episode of Old School? It's been literally years since she's been on that show, would love to see it. Well, yeah, yeah. I know, but I don't like you guys, stop asking me to ruin things I enjoy watching. Like it's like, you know what I mean? I actually really enjoy the programming on the network. And I having to like be on it ruins it for me. But sure, I'll do it once. But I don't want to ruin it. Like I love watching old school. It's like something I look forward to every week. So. Well, thank you Anna. And remember guys, if you're at the premium level on YouTube, you get the join button below or you can upgrade through the same join button.

You can get old school anytime you want in the full episode or you could do it through our website. So t-y-t.com slash join. All right, Anna, let's keep doing the news. All right. Congressional Democrats had a short-lived goal of packing the Supreme Court, but as soon as the possible legislation was reported about how Speaker Nancy Pelosi killed the bill. And she explains why in this next clip.

Do you support Jerry now there's bill to expand the Supreme Court by four seats? And would you commit to bringing that bill to the floor? No. I support the president's commission to study such a proposal, but frankly, I'm not, I don't know that that's a good idea or bad idea. I think it's a idea that should be considered, and I think the president's taking the right approach to have a commission to study such a thing. It's a big step. It's not out of the question. It has been done before.

But in answer to your question, I have no plans to bring it to the floor now. Okay, God, I have a lot of thoughts. First, let me tell you what the legislation would have included, okay? So the bill would add four seats to the high court, bringing the total to 13 from the current nine. The bill is led by House Judiciary Committee Chair, Jerry Nadler, subcommittee chair Hank Johnson, and first term representative Mondair Jones. In the Senate, the bill is being championed by Ed Marquis of Massachusetts. Massachusetts, but it doesn't matter how Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not bring it to the floor

for a vote. But believe it or not, I don't really mind Nancy Pelosi refusing to bring it to the floor to the vote, like for a vote. It's, it wasn't going to pass, guys. Like, can we just stop playing these games? The Senate still has that legislative filibuster. As long as that legislative filibuster exists, like these like theater moments in Congress mean nothing. It's a waste of time. It's frustrating. But I will also add this in regard to what Nancy Pelosi said there. Can we just stop with the commissions already? Like it's clownish. It drives me crazy. Like, yeah, I know the popular thing that our base wants. But, you know, before we actually do it, we're actually going to create a commission to study. Just say you're not going to do it.

Say you're not going to do it. Don't tell us that you're going to do a commission to study it. It's such a dumb thing to say. And I see right through it. I think most people see right through it. But anyway, the commission's drive me crazy. Jank, go ahead. Yeah, two things. One is a billion percent agree on the commissions. Look, the media should say this means they're not going to do it. But that would require them to take a, to do one percent analysis.

Of course Biden's not going to do it. He stacked that commission full of Republicans. And he said, well, this is not for even. even adding seats to the court, then what is it for? Okay, it's just total theater, it's total nonsense, okay? Now, on the idea of the packing the court in the first place, I never liked the idea. It's one of those silly ideas that moderate Democrats, so-called moderate Democrats put out there, again, for just theatrics, they don't even believe it. They don't think it can happen, and they don't even necessarily want it to happen. But since, and if you're wondering why,

Why do they propose it if they know it's not going to happen? Well, that's your answer. Because they don't want to do things that might actually happen because that would affect their corporate donors. But if something can't happen, then they feel comfortable saying it and earning credit as if they're a progressive. So who was the one who championed this court packing idea during the primaries? Pete Buttigieg. And he seems so bold and progressive for wanting to do it. This is when he was trying hard to be a progressive, but it helps them with the intellectual elites that run the Democratic Party and mainly the Democratic donors too, because they're like, ooh, what an intellectual, but you know he went to Harvard, he went to, oh, he was at McKinsey,

he's so smart. He's this amazing new idea to pack the courts. And does anybody think it's possible? No, nobody thinks it's possible. So it was always a game. There's real things you could do. Remember when McConnell said, hey, don't you dare kill the filibuster, I can use so many Senate rules to block everything that the Senate will literally come to a stencil and not do anything. Now, I don't know to what degree he's bluffing about those Senate rules. But if those Senate rules exist, why didn't Schumer use them to block Amy Coney Barrett from taking the Supreme Court seat a week before the election? See, that's realistic. You could pressure Democrats to actually fight on the Supreme Court nominations.

We could have pressured Obama to put Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court. We could have done things that were realistic and practical, but that would have required an actual fight. And Obama doesn't want to fight, Biden doesn't want to fight, Schumer and Pelosi don't want to fight. They want to do commissions. So Buttigieg gives them this little play thing, and they have fun, and they do Plato and Mr. Potato head and et cetera. And then afterwards, Pelosi goes, no, we're not voting. I don't be ridiculous. And the band plays on. And now all the

the press, like, well, obviously, it's a brilliant idea, credit to Buttigieg. And obviously, they're not doing it, credit to Pelosi. Exactly, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. Yeah, this is what happens in Congress. This is what they do all day. The performative nonsense. It drives me crazy. But this is it. This is what it is. This is what it is. And, you know, and then on the corporate end, I know that this isn't related to Congress, but it just reminds me of what what you see with the performative nonsense meant to distract you from the fact that they're not actually carrying out what people are demanding. You know, Jamie Diamond today said that JP Morgan Chase will now change its rhetoric to ensure that they no longer refer to Latinos

as Latinos, they're gonna call people Latin X, and whatever other wording is acceptable now in the general public, I guess. I'm gonna be honest with you guys, I don't care, don't care, don't That doesn't fundamentally change anything, anything. And I'm tired of the performative crap coming from both the corporate world and from Congress. Okay, bankers referring to you as Latinx as opposed to Latina or Latino doesn't change the fact that they're robbing you. Just doesn't. Yeah, Anna, I'll tell you, if you did a national poll and asked Latinos, would you prefer to be called Latinx or prefer to have your wages increased? That would be what, 98 to 2 have wages be increased?

Of course, all of the major corporations through the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable and certainly all the banks, et cetera, are against increasing the minimum wage and against increasing your wages overall, but don't worry, they'll call you Latin X. Yeah, just don't fall for it. And more importantly, look, if they do that on top of making actual system, changes. Great, but don't fall for the trick that they've played over and over again. I mean, it reminds me of what happened during the mass protest last summer. All these businesses with Black Lives Matter, you know, posted on the boards that they covered their windows

with. It's just a way of like getting you off their back. They don't actually want to change their business practices. They don't want to change anything. And you see similar performative nonsense in Congress. And I'm tired of it. We got to take a break. That does it for our first hour when we come back ben Shapiro does not believe we're in a climate emergency because he's stupid and i'll explain why and provide some evidence see you in a few minutes 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 podcast at apple dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon