The Young Turks - Lying Liars

Episode Date: March 10, 2021

Senator Tom Cotton claims Democrats are giving prisoners relief checks – but fact-checkers show that prisoners also got relief checks from bills signed by Trump and voted for by Cotton. 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. Welcome, everyone, you're watching The Young Turks with Anna Kasparian. And joining me today is Wozni Lombre, host of Woke Bros, NBA writer for The Athletic. Wozni, tell the people how you're doing today. I'm good, man. I'm just happy to be back as always.

internet looking really full and clean and ready. We're not gonna have any hiccups today, Anna. No hiccups, no hiccups. I promise you the tech hiccups are rare, especially given that we have everyone working remotely, you know, this far into the pandemic, but last time we did have a little bit of a snafu. This time, let's just cross our fingers and hope that everything goes smoothly. But we got a lot of news to get to today. In the show, we're going to discuss Pierce Morgan having a temper tantrum and walking off set.

What is the fate of his media career? We'll delve into that. We'll give you updates on the unionization drive among Amazon factory workers in Bessemer, Alabama. We'll also talk about how corporate Democrats, apparently not good sports about losing elections, will give you an incredible story out of Nevada as well. But before we get to all of that, let's update you on what conservatives continue to focus on in lieu of any actual robust policy proposals. Republican senators, all of whom voted down much needed coronavirus relief, are now attacking Democrats for provisions that were also included in previous economic relief bills under the Trump administration. We begin with Tom Cotton, senator, who in a series of tweets claimed

that, oh, you know, this bill, it's going to give money to prisoners. He tweeted about it saying Zokar Zarniev, that's the Boston Marathon Bomber, murdered three people and terrorized a city, he'll be getting a $1,400 stimulus check as part of the Democrats' COVID relief bill. He repeated this talking point on Fox News as well. Here it is. Is that true that Dylan Roof, the guy who walked into that church in Charleston, South Carolina and killed all those people?

He's going to get a check? Every prisoner in the United States, if they have any tax forms filed or is eligible for a check under this bill. The Democrats had a chance to stop that from happening on Saturday morning and they voted it down. I suspect you'll be hearing more about that next year on the campaign trail. Listen, Senator, it's so disturbing because this was supposed to be the easiest thing to get bipartisan support for. Now Cotton in this rare situation is not lying. The bill is written in such a way where prisoners do qualify for the $1,400 check. There's just one caveat that people should know about and it's that these same Republican lawmakers who are now pretending to have an issue with this

voted in favor of previous coronavirus stimulus bills that had the exact same provision. And just to give you the details of that, Daniel Dale, CNN's notorious fact checker writes that prisoners like other individuals were eligible for checks up to $1,200 per individual from the first bill Trump signed and up to $600 from the second bill Trump signed depending on their income. Both of those bills were approved by a Republican-controlled Senate and Cotton, of course, voted for both of them. So, Was, are you surprised at the political angling that's taking place among Republicans right now? You know, it's quite interesting to watch the dance that they try to play as far as coming up with valid reasons for their constituents as to why they don't support direct aid to all of them. And, you know, I actually watched your piece, your segment on Jacobin yesterday as I was building a brand new coffee table. or I was listening to it. And you talked about how this idea of bootstrap mentality is not in vogue anymore.

It used to be we could say we don't want to do anything for fear that the wrong sort of money grubbing, not hardworking enough people don't get it. But increasingly we're noticing that Republican base voters, Tom Cotton's constituents, happen to fall into the group of people that need help from the government. So that line of talk, like it used to work. Like it worked in the 80s. It worked during the Clinton era when they passed welfare reform. It worked in the past, but so many people have been failed by the policies of the federal government that this line of talk, it can't work. Like this, I did it.

It's somebody supposed to be like, I want $1,400 because two death row inmates got checks. It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And it's just cotton just grasping at straws, obviously. Right, and it's not just cotton. I mean, I've noticed, I mean, it's a continuing trend, but the Republican Party has seemed to kind of like ramp it up in recent months regarding the culture war and the fact that they're just falling back on tactics that they heavily relied on previously that I don't think have a similar effect today. First of all, I mean, I'm sure that some conservatives, older conservatives will hear that.

talking point, they won't care that Cotton had voted in favor of similar legislation twice. They'll just buy into the fear mongering about how, oh, our precious resources are going to prisoners. But I think overall, the effort to like lean into the culture wars and never really provide any real solutions to the problems that people are feeling or facing, it's just not a winning strategy anymore. Think about how many people we've imprisoned. Think about how many nonviolent prisoners are currently incarcerated right now. And think about how many family members, how many people out there know someone personally

who was incarcerated for nonviolent offenses. I mean, in a way, this establishment has done such a great job in criminalizing so many people that the very talking points that they previously used to do so no longer resonate with people the same way, right? And so again, like they're just going to keep relying on Culture Wars, Mr. Potato Head, Dr. Seuss, the migrant caravan, like, whatever they can think of, because Republicans have no solutions to improve your life.

Another example was Senator Ted Cruz, who actually did lie on the Senate floor about what this relief bill included. Take a look. The question for the American people to answer is, should your money, should taxpayer money, be sent $1,400 to every illegal alien in America? This amendment provides that it should not, that stimulus checks should only go to American citizens or to people lawfully present. Now, the Democrats may say their language allows for that, but they know that the IRS treats someone who was illegally present in the United States for 31 days last year as a resident alien. And so this corrects that and ensures that illegal aliens are not eligible for taxpayer-funded stimulus checks. The senator for Illinois.

Mr. President, the statement of the senator from Texas is just plain false. False. Let me be clear. Undocumented immigrants do not have social security numbers, and they do not qualify for stimulus relief checks, period. And just in case you didn't notice, they didn't qualify in December when 92 of us voted for that measure, and they don't qualify under the American Revolution. rescue plan. Nothing has changed. And for you to stand up there and say the opposite is just to rile people up over something that's not true. Will the senator yield for a question?

No, I won't. So that was Senator Dick Durbin, fact checking Ted Cruz in real time. And the fact check is accurate. None of this money, none of this relief goes to the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country. People who actually do pay into taxes, but don't get my money. much in return, especially when it comes to the millions that they spend on social security taxes. And then of course they don't actually get social security protection later when they're at the age to retire. They cook, you know, they clean your houses, they do your landscaping, they grow your food. I mean, the list goes on and on. There are no winners

in that video if you ask me was. I think both parties are wrong. Number one with Ted Cruz fear mongering and lying about what the bill actually entails. And also the Democrats' willingness to go along with this, in my opinion, flawed logic regarding who should and should not qualify for this relief. Yeah, the Democrats are just never good at. If you don't like the answer, change the question. They're not good at diverting the talk from something different. Because, you know, they don't want to come out and say, we want to use tax dollars on quote-unquote illegal aliens, right? Which is just a ridiculous distinction for undocumented people anyway. But, you know, again, it's funny.

Every time I'm on here, we have a Ted Cruz segment, and it's always him doing the same thing, just being as nakedly cynical as possible. He just wants to be the guy to be seen who brought a bill, who made people vote on whether or not illegal aliens. should get money that they're not eligible to get, right? Like, it's just the stupidest thing. It's just to try to curry favor. He's not talking about any of the substantive portions of the bill or who's actually going to get it and why they deserve it. He wants to make his no vote on a bill that has a popularity at about 68% in the country.

Like, this bill is extremely popular. So, you know, you see it with cotton. You see it with Cruz, they have to come out and try to justify why they are against the American people and, you know, getting them the help that they so desperately need. And this is just an ugly cynical ploy to get people riled up about something that a lot of people are quite frankly scared and riled up about which is undocumented people in this country, allegedly using up all of our resources, which is just insane. And again, I hate to sound like a broken record every time I come on here. They never, ever make these type of arguments when it comes to how much money tax breaks corporations are getting. Nobody ever said when Trump passed a record-breaking tax break. Nobody said, hey, that's tax revenue that belongs to you and could be going towards helping your life going into the pocket of some fat cat.

Tom Cotton wouldn't dare do it. And we know Ted Cruz wouldn't do anything like that either. And so that's why we got to look at this stuff for what it is, which is horse manure, Brett. Yes, yes. That is a good euphemism for what you really wanted to say. It's a good substitute. No, but, Was, you're so right. I mean, the corporate angle is important to bring up.

But this relief bill also extends to all sorts of entities that pay nothing in federal taxes, including religious organizations, private schools, they qualify for this relief. But, you know, when it comes to literally taxpaying undocumented immigrants who don't see that money come back to benefit their lives later, no, no, we need to fearmonger about them and pretend as if they're a drain on our resources. Let me just remind you all that many of these people are essential workers in this country who aren't offered the same protections that documented workers get. And so to treat them as their subhuman, to dehumanize them on the Senate floor like that is absolutely disgusting.

Well, let's move on to something that's been worrying me ever since the capital riots took place, and that's what the capital will look like moving forward security-wise. A new report on capital security recommends significant changes that could limit Americans access to the area following the January 6th riots. Now this was a report ordered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She wanted to see what type of flaws there were in the security surrounding the capital, especially after the riots took place on January 6th. And the report was led by former Hurricane Katrina commander and retired lieutenant.

General Russell Honor. And these are his recommendations, not all of them, but the ones that I think are worth highlighting. So the final report calls on more than 1,000 Capitol Police officers, a dedicated quick reaction force, so hiring more of them, and the installation of retractable fencing around the complex. So the retractable fencing, I want to know what that means, what it looks like. I know that if you, before January 6th, if you wanted to visit the Capitol, even go inside the Capitol building, you had access to it. And based on this report, it seems like access will be restricted.

And I don't know to what extent. It's unclear which of these recommendations they're going to implement. But one of my previous fears is already confirmed was they are planning on hiring more police officers, they're also doing away with certain oversight, which I'll get to in just a second, regarding, you know, whether certain law enforcement can unilaterally take action against what they perceive to be as a threat. I'll give you the details in a minute. But I wanted to get your initial thoughts so far. You know, and I think anybody who's an avid listener or watcher of MSNBC or CNN wants to, should close their ears right now. But I happen to be somebody who was

quite impressed that day that people could actually get that close to senators and congress people like that. I was actually shocked and heartened by the fact that these people could be touched, like these people who come out and play with people's lives every single day. And again, I don't agree with any of the people that were at the Capitol, but I automatically could see the happenings of that day coming back to haunt us in this very way. an overreach, an overreaction with more police presence, more military presence, treating the White House, again, which is supposed to be a monument to the people of this country, because we're allegedly a self-government, I guess, you know, treating that place like as if it's some sort of military fort or military base, when again, these people make decisions every single day that affect the lives of everyday Americans and to treat that place. as if it deserves to have some force field from the very people that they've been charged to govern. I wholeheartedly disagree. Obviously what happened that day was horrible. Obviously,

those people who behave that way should be dealt with and pay the repercussions, whether that be jail, fines, whatever the case may be. But the idea that you would treat, you know, the White House and the Capitol like Fort Bragg now or Fort Knox is patently ridiculous. Again, this is supposed to be a self-governing democracy. Those people in the government shouldn't be treated like, you know, Faberjeet eggs. No, you're, I mean, you're so right. And why should law-abiding, ordinary Americans suffer the consequences of what clearly was a failure on the part of law enforcement that day, right? Whether it's Capitol Police, the National Guard, the Pentagon.

I mean, we have, I don't, we literally have hundreds of intelligence agencies, not just a few of them, like hundreds of them, okay? Constantly being surveilled, they had the intelligence about what the potential threats were that day. They knew. And so the question isn't, oh, how much of a threat are ordinary citizens and how much do we need to do to ensure that there's a giant barrier between the people and the very monuments that are supposed to represent a gun, government by those people, right? Like we shouldn't be having those discussions. It reminds me of every other security failure that's happened. And then how everyone else has to suffer the

consequences of those failures, right? So what I'm seeing based on these recommendations is more resources pumped into law enforcement. Let me just give you the details. There's more. The most significant recommendation is the establishment of a dedicated quick reaction force. for all of Washington, D.C. to respond to developing crises. Do we not have enough of these people? Like, we need to have another government agency to do this? Really? Okay, let me give you more.

Honoré's team proposed three options. A force consisting of multiple law enforcement agencies that is granted legal authorities and funding. A force run by the D.C. National Guard that draws from National Guard units across the country and a permanent military police battalion housed within the D.C. National Guard. So it's like these people F up and then we reward, no, we punish them with more manpower and more funding. That's what we do. And congratulations to all the anti-government militias that showed up to the capital that day to engage in that riot. Your anti-government mission seems to have failed because now they're doubling down on more guns. government, more surveillance, and less access to the capital.

These people are, anyway, go ahead, pause. Yeah, it's just interesting to see the types of things that our government officials are more than willing to always throw more money at the problem, right? When it comes to helping normal everyday people, the idea that you would just throw money at them and their problems, which would be solved, which they would, by the way, just And it's so unclear, like the problems of rent and tuition and groceries and different things are problems that absolutely would be solved by money. And the problem of law enforcement just being derelict in their duties inadequate at

the job that they're tasked with performing would not be solved by giving them more money, more manpower, by just like, guys, just do your jobs, man. A bunch of people failed and didn't do what they're paid to do that day. And that's why it looked as embarrassing. That's why it was such a debacle. That's why it was so embarrassing that day. But like this idea that what's gonna be, you know, what's gonna solve this is just more people doing the same is ridiculous to me.

Yeah, like are they going to do a better job of getting white supremacists out of their ranks? I mean, there were capital police taking selfies with these guys during the riot. Like, are they looking into that? I mean, it also proposes this, this, of course they won't. And then, you know, there are a few things in here that I'm fine with. Like they propose giving US Capitol Police the authority to request support from the National Guard outside of law enforcement without pre-approval from the Capitol Police Board.

And they're clear about it only happening in extraordinary emergency circumstances. I don't really understand the bureaucracy behind that, like if you need backup, can't you just hit hit the right government agency up and be like, yo, I need backup. This is a, this is a crisis. So if there's an issue with too much bureaucracy and the recommendation is to get rid of that bureaucracy, fine. I'm okay with that. But, you know, another recommendation calls for Department of Defense directives to be amended to allow the head of the DC National Guard to retain emergency authority to quell large-scale civil disturbances. I'm going to need a little more elaboration on that one. Like, what does that mean? Right? So, um, I don't like the idea of,

providing more power and less oversight to law enforcement agencies. I don't like the idea of pumping more money into a failure. 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.

I think that there needs to be more of an investigation into, you know, who serves within the ranks of these multiple police departments or law enforcement agencies. those are things that we can do, but providing more barriers, making sure that everyone else suffers the consequences of their failure is wrong. And for all the Republicans out there, like Kevin McCarthy, for instance, who are whining and crying about how, oh my God, this is so unfair, they're shutting down access to ordinary Americans. Look at these terrible Democrats. No, no, it's because you guys emboldened the behavior that took place that day and continue to make excuses for it, which is why, A, that event happened, and B, people are terrified that it's going to happen again, because the Republican Party refuses to just

clearly and unequivocally shout that nonsense down. They won't do it. So, I mean, it's just, it's ridiculous that they're now acting as though they're the real victims here, when in reality we wouldn't be in the situation in the first place. If it weren't the constant incitements by Trump, in all of his cronies. Yeah, I mean, these are the kinds of issues that these guys literally have no legs to stand on, right? The rhetoric that's used every day by the types of people who quote unquote storm the capital, which I hate using that rhetoric because it's like these guys went in there for

photo ops. But the rhetoric that those guys used and the conspiracy theories that they push are regularly parroted by Republican officials, right? I think, you know, it always annoys me to see Democrats try to outreactionary the other side when it's like, no, that's what they do. You'll never see Republicans trying to be more liberal or trying to be more environmentalist or trying to be more anything that the Democrats purport to be, right? But the Democrats are constantly trying to outdo the Republicans at their own game. And it's to their detriment and to the rest of of us. As a New Yorker, I can speak to something quite similar to this, which is Donald Trump's

Fifth Ave building, the Trump Tower, was already in a major tourist destination, right? Like Fifth Ave is a bunch of shops, high-end shops. You can, you know, it's where a lot of people go to shop when they come to New York as far as tourists go. So it's always heavily populated, you know, Rockefeller centers over there. There's so much foot traffic already. And then when Donald Trump became the president, people weren't happy about it and would go visit his damn building all the time. So what was a cluster mess up, you know, became even more messed up, Brett, because so many people were sort of picketing Donald Trump's building. And then what happened? NYPD decided to treat it like a war zone.

And they basically occupied all of Fifth Ave for years. And it was basically impossible to get around down there. And this is essentially what the Democrats wanted to achieve in D.C. Because a bunch of people went and took pictures and stole laptops and did all the silly stuff that those storm troopers did that day. Yeah. Well, we got to take a break. But when we come back, corporate Democrats do not react well to losing. We'll give you the latest example out of Nevada.

and just a spoiler, little spoiler. They did not lose to Republicans. So I love that story. It's one of my favorite. And then updates on the Union Drive in Bessemer, Alabama. We have that and more when we come back. Don't miss it. We need to talk about a relatively new show called

Un-F-The Republic or UNFTR. As a young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-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 sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational,

aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, You must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. I'm going to be.

Hey, everyone, welcome to our first social break of the day. Let's start off with some member comments. Sierra Lee writes in, so glad that I found TYT and all of you like-minded individuals. I've probably learned more from watching TYT than I did getting my undergrad in political science. Sierra, let me just say, I got my graduate degree in political science. I definitely learned more out of a graduate school. than in. But yes, thank you for watching. Thank you for your support. Irene wrote it and says, this is why they gerrymand or meaning Republicans and suppress the vote. No one likes the GOP.

Well, you're onto something there, Irene. We do have a story about that later in the show. The efforts to suppress the vote have gone into overdrive. It's pretty insane. Mickey C., anytime the Dem calls out a Republican on the floor, the Republicans throw tantrums and demand decorum. A question I asked during the first impeachment trial still hasn't been answered. Why are they permitted to outright lie on the floor decorum? Yeah, I mean, when don't you hear lies? I mean, they lie in press conferences, they lie in the media, they lie on the Senate floor, the House floor, it doesn't really matter.

And, you know, both parties are certainly guilty of that. But in the examples we provided today, it was those Republican senators. Hippies for Bernie says, just renewed my one year TYT membership, thank you after not being able to for over a year due to financial problems because of the pandemic. I'm so excited and happy to be back with my TYT fam and support progressives in any way possible. Also, I want to apologize to everyone on behalf of West Virginia for Joe Manchin. He's a tool of the worst kind. And honestly, it's embarrassing to have him as our senator. Strong words, but you don't have to apologize.

I mean, you know, oftentimes we have people who embarrass us representing us. And that's in every part of government. Ronan, Warrior, writes in and says the U.S. Capitol Police have a quick reaction force, an SRT, as does the D.C. Metro Police, the FBI, et cetera. Why do we need another SRT in the Capitol? Because they didn't put enough boots on the ground during January 6th, please. Yeah, I mean, that's the point that I'm trying to. make. I mean, it's not as if we don't already have a very well-funded security state.

It's just that, oh, wow, wouldn't you know it? When it came to these particular rioters, they were ill-prepared. And the real question is, why? It's not a lack of resources. It's not a lack of manpower. Clearly, they didn't prioritize acting on the intelligence they had leading up to that day. And then from our Super Chats, Parker says, Anna and Was, looking fresh A.F. Was got the new mustache and Professor Casparian got a clean colored shirt. We are, we are

like up in the game today, Waz. We really are. Anyway, all right. We got to get back to the show soon. But thanks for watching and stick around because we got some great stories coming up. I'm going to be able to be. Hey everyone, welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian and Wazni Lombray with you.

Was, where can everyone find your work? To the athletic, I'm an MBA and culture guy over there. I try to tackle the NBA from the sort of lens and worldview that isn't very buttoned up and very analytical and cultural. Excuse me, not cultural, but like, you know, we have enough of that kind of stuff at the site. And the people who do it are great. That's how I sort of consume the NBA, right, and get smart. And we have a lot of that at the site. But I try to take a more fun angle, a more holistic approach and talk about pop culture,

talk about fashion, talk about sneakers, talk about different sort of angles when it comes to the NBA. I'm your like, you know, I'm your alternative NBA, if you will. And also please subscribe to the woke bros on iTunes and Spotify where me and Nando talk about political issues with a sort of leftward bent, Anna. Yep, I love woke bros. You guys took a little break last week and I was I was itching for a new episode. So it's required listening. If you guys care about politics, you want to know what's going on, but also enjoy hearing about it. Even if it's not such great news, definitely subscribe to woke bros. And we'll be back this Thursday and with a great guest. So you guys should definitely tune into that. Sounds good. All right, well, let's talk about probably my favorite story of the day, if not months. And it has to do with corporate Democrats in Nevada. Progressives backed by the Democratic Socialists of America have taken over the leadership

of Nevada's Democratic Party. And corporate Democrats are not happy about it. In fact, they're so unhappy about it that they decided to quit in mass. So on March 6th, as reported by The Intercept, a coalition of progressive candidates backed by the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America took over the leaders. of the Nevada Democratic Party sweeping all five party leadership positions in a contested election that evening. Judith Whitmer, who had been the chair of the Clark County Democratic Party, was elected chair. Now the party's executive director, now former executive director,

Alana Mounce, sent an email making clear that everyone on the small staff had resigned, including the party operations director, communications director, research director, and finance director. And this is definitely relevant because what progressives tend to hear, what leftists tend to hear from corporate Democrats over and over again, is this need to unify, this need to defeat Republicans, this need to work together. But when push comes to shove, when the power dynamics shifts a little bit to the progressives advantage, seems like they're not that interested in unity. The establishment had prepared, by the way, for this loss, having recently moved $450,000 out of the party's coffers and into the Democratic Senatorial campaign committee's account. Now, that account will put the money toward the 2022 re-election bid of Senator Catherine Cortez Mastow, who, by the way, is going to come up again in the story, a vulnerable first-term Democrat.

And real quick, Was, before I go to you, I just want to give some credit to The Intercept, including Akila Lacey and Ryan Grimm, who reported for this. And they have a deconstructed podcast episode dedicated to this story. So please check that out as well. And, Was, why don't you jump in? What do you think? Man, you know, my favorite part of the story, Anna, was it said the groups angling for change from the left were trying to divide the party.

While they were trying to save it, basically the establishment Dems are saying that, you know, the lefties are trying to divide everybody. They don't care about the party unity, X, Y, and Z. And what they really are trying to say is the people from the left are trying to divide the power within the party. And we're trying to hoard it. That's it. And the fact that they're no longer able to hoard all of the power and all of the influence within the party is a joke. And, you know, and later on in the story, Anna, they talk about how they didn't like the Whitmer lady because she crushed some type of diversity initiative or something stupid like that. But again, establishment, corporatist Dems, absolutely never talk about diversity when it comes to people on the left. They never want to diversify in that way.

They never want a diversity of thought, a diversity of approach, a diversity of, hey, man, maybe we should try to serve people instead of corporations at some point in all of this while we have the power. They never want to hear those voices in the room. And so that's why it's hilarious that they always try to throw out some wokeness, diversity, unity crap whenever they get smacked up. And, you know, I'm somebody who got a lot of patronizing tweets, a lot of patronizing texts, quite frankly, from some of my more centrist-type-minded friends when Bernie lost. Yes, yes, from the normies.

Well, I mean, your little radical-f experience didn't work. Why don't you guys fall in line and start doing the proper work of working with the party? you guys can't take your ball and go home. And then of course, that's exactly what establishment Dems do. As soon as they get their butts whipped, they take their ball, they go home. And, you know, I kind of respect the gangsterism of even giving yourself severances while quitting. Normally you get a severance for getting fired. These homies said, no, no, no, no, no.

We're giving ourselves severances for quitting. That was kind of gangster. I respect that. No, no, you know, I love that you brought that up because it reminded me of, like, a party in a marriage who knows that they're about to want to file for divorce, but they get their finances in order, right? Like, they move the money to an offshore account. You know what I mean?

Like, they get- At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing 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 T-Y-T, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for T-Y-T fans. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. The ball rolling before the announcement is made, you know, because like they moved like nearly half a million dollars out of the coffee.

into like the, you know, the arm of the Democratic Party that's going to help that senatorial race. And they, you know, they paid themselves the severances. You're right. Very, that is very gangster, as you say. But look, if Democratic operatives and corporate Democrats don't pay themselves, like, what else would they do? Like, I don't really, I don't really understand. But I love this statement from Judith Whitmer, who's now the Nevada Democratic Party chair. She says, We weren't really surprised in that we were prepared for it. But what hit us by surprise was sort of shocking, what's sort of shocking is that for a slate that claimed that they were all about unity and kept this false narrative of division going on throughout the entire campaign.

In fact, they kept intensifying that. That's what was surprising about it, was the willingness to just walk away instead of working with us. And some of you guys might be wondering, okay, well, how did they do this in Nevada? Like what was the underlying spark, like what galvanized people to really get active and elect these progressives? Well, believe it or not, Bernie's efforts in the state of Nevada really, really paid off for progressives. Because what he did through his campaign from 2016 and on was help to activate individuals, voters who typically would not be politically active, who would not go to. the polls to vote. And once you get people fired up and you give them hope, give them something to vote for, well, then they get involved. And that's what really played out in Nevada,

especially with the Latino vote. And wouldn't you know it, corporate Democrats don't have a chance as soon as you activate those people. So lots of good news. It's awesome to see people on the left get organized and professional. their efforts and their campaigns, right? It's one thing to do your little mail-ins and your callers and your commercials, but actually being on the ground, knocking on the doors of, you know, rank and file Democratic Party voters. And, you know, and not even just people that are already in the party, but activating people who establishment Dems completely ignore, because we know they only care about soccer moms.

Just, you know, finding new people to energize your faction is just incredible. And again, they're doing stuff like being more targeted. Their data collection efforts have ramped up. They've just professionalized the process that, you know, in 2016 was just a wave of an emotion of people who felt, you know, that Bernie's message absolutely resonated with them. And now in the intervening years between 2016 and now, we see that they're being more surgical, more precise about how they attack establishment dembs. Because this is the only way to get things done. You have to actually accrue some type of power. This idea that you're just going to lobby the Dems who have been in power forever to just do the right thing.

And they're just going to do it because, I don't know, like you convince them, no, power has to be seized from them. And they have to see that doing things the old way ain't going to cut it anymore, either get in line or get the hell out. Yeah. So I want to end this story on this one final point because it's just so, so good. So remember, we mentioned the senator from the state of Nevada, Senator Cortez Mastow, and how, you know, this is a vulnerable candidate seeking re-election in 2022. to. And apparently this senator approached a man by the name of the current Clark County Commissioner, Tick Siegerblum, to convince him to run against Judith Whitmer. And the Intercept caught up with him and confirmed that he was in fact approached to run against Whitmer.

And he's also a Bernie fan, and this is what he said to the Intercept. This is just a situation where the Bernie team won. And the old guard, so to speak, we're not going to stick around. As Jank would say, yummy in my tummy. All right. We got to take a break. But when we come back, an update from the drive to unionize among Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, don't miss it.

We'll be right back. All right. I'm going to read a few member comments. And then I'll read a few member comments and then I'll go on to. other stuff including super chats. Opinionated says, adding more security is par for the course in the United States. Remember one person with a possible shoe bomb. That's what I was thinking about. Created TSA and now you all have to take your shoes off. It's absolutely true. From our super chat section, YT pre-nude writes in and says free market corporation sold out to the CPC. Peter Hamby. More hypocrisy that with this that no one but TYT covers, the Tom Cotton knitted GOP minds want Democrats to not take,

not take what they've already done prior. Okay, I'm guessing you're talking about the Tom Cotton story since you mentioned Tom Cotton, but I'm not sure what you mean. More hypocrisy that with this, that no one but TYT covers, the Tom Cotton knitted GOP minds want Democrats not take what they've already done prior. Okay. So Tara says if those corporate Democrats emptied the account, meaning in Nevada, that just means that when the progressives win big, there's no corporate strings attached. So that's a, you know what, that is a positive way of looking at it. I like that.

Okay, that's very good. No Sleep says one unfortunate thing about democracy is that when people can legally elect fascists at all levels of government to kill democracy, i.e., what the GOP is actively doing right now. Well, what's interesting is all the effort that they have to put into rigging the system to their advantage so they can win, right? That goes back to the gerrymandering. You know, they literally have to alter the way elections are done in order to remain in power because they know their ideas are unpopular. They know that the only thing they can ever

fall back on is something that's not really garnering as much attention, which is, you know, the fear mongering, the culture wars, and all of that. People are growing tired of it, probably because culture wars don't seem that important when you're starving and when you're unable to pay your rent. People are looking for real solutions and Republicans are just unwilling to provide any. And look, I'm not letting Democrats off the hook. Democrats aren't nearly as bad. I mean, they just passed that $1.9 billion stimulus package. And it has a lot of really important things in it. So I'm not minimizing that. But at the same time, you know, Democrats tend to cave to some of the demands that Republicans have and the corporate world

has with means testing and, you know, nickel and dimeing people when they're in need of help. All right. Also, thank you to our YouTube members, Donovan Stoll, Katie Peterson, Leticia Silverthistle. That is an awesome last name. And Aaron DeMint. Love you guys. Thank you for supporting the show. And if you are unable to become a member, we totally understand easy, free way to help support the show is to like and share this stream so we can get the message out there to everyone who hasn't heard it yet. We got to get back to the show now. We'll see you there. I'm going to be able to be. Welcome back to TYt, Anna Kasparean, Walsney-Lombard.

with you. And we're about to give you an update on Bessemer, Alabama, where Amazon workers are trying to organize and unionize. Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama are currently undergoing a union drive. And to be quite honest with you guys, the jury is still out over whether or not Biden weighing in on it is galvanizing the cause. Now, let me be clear in stating that Biden weighing in and supporting the effort to unionize, not just in Bessemer, Alabama, but throughout the country is an important message. And he didn't seem to parse words. And I want to remind you of what he said. And then I'll give you the reactions from Amazon workers when we get back from the clip. The choice to join a union is up to the workers, full stop, full stop. Today and over the next

few days and weeks workers in Alabama and all across America are voting in whether to organize a union in their workplace. This is vitally important, a vitally important choice as America grapples with the deadly pandemic, the economic crisis, and the reckoning on race, what it reveals the deep disparities that still exist in our country. And there should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda. So, Was, that's a strong statement. And, you know, that's the first time a United States president has weighed in. Well, a sitting president has weighed in in in support of unionizing.

So, you know, Obama famously said while he was campaigning that he would put his walking shoes on and then go into Wisconsin and, you know, march with the protesters. and people on strike, he didn't actually do that. But what do you think about Biden's statement? I'm not going to lie as somebody who was very skeptical of what a Biden administration would look like for working Americans. I was pleasantly surprised and proud, quite frankly. I tweeted sarcastically in my best Van Jones voice, Joe Biden became president today when he put that message out there. But I, but you know, part of me really means it and like it's crazy and me and Nando say this to each other on the show all the time.

But it's really shaping up that Joe Biden is in probably going to have a way more substantive and impactful presidency than Barack Obama. He's already showing it like just the fact that, you know, before they did what they did to make sure they passed the stimulus of $2 trillion, which was amazing. The fact that he came out and said, look, we're not doing this deficit nonsense anymore. It's done. We got to get people help. That's a huge department from Barry right there.

Then, of course, he comes out and he gives a full-throated endorsement to unions and the effort to unionize amongst workers everywhere all over the country. I'm sorry, I was happy. I was proud of Joe Biden. I was pleasantly surprised at somebody who was just, you know, the attack that they took during the campaign. campaign against Bernie, which was essentially like, we don't want to do anything or change anything. We just want to be nicer and more polite than Trump. Didn't fill me with enthusiasm for what this administration would do for, again, normal working people in America, but that the president would use his bully pulpit to support unions. Again, you mentioned in a way

that Barack Obama never ever did as president. It's huge. You can't understate the value, the importance of what Biden did last week? Well, we also have some more positive updates. And I'll admit, like I continue to get surprised when this happens. But, you know, in a previous show, we talked to you all about the Pro Act, which is an incredibly piece of, incredibly important piece of legislation that would ban right to work states. You know, there was the Taft-Hartley Act that passed, you know, I believe it was in 1945 when

it passed. And what it did was essentially suck power away from unions and allow for states to implement certain laws that make it increasingly difficult for workers to organize and form union. So the pro act is important. And Biden has come out in support of that. I mean, Nando and I keep talking about this, you know, both on this show and on weekends for Jacobin. And every time we talk about these issues, we're like, oh, you know, is Biden going to do it? And then he does it. He supported the pro act. He supported this drive to unionize. And it's, look, guys, it is really important, right? Because just like we saw with Trump and his supporters, Trump's words mattered. They did influence his supporters. They did influence people in this

country, unfortunately, in the worst kinds of ways, right? But with Biden, this is basically communicating to workers, like the President of the United States, the most powerful person in this country, and certainly even possibly the most important person in the world, you know, has your back as you're trying to do this. And Amazon has been intimidating their workers. Amazon has like, they're denying it, but there's some evidence to show that Amazon worked with the county in order to change the traffic lights. So they change to green faster, that way as Amazon workers who are trying to unionize or organizing, like as people are stopped at red lights, now they're unable to do it because it'll be a green light and then

they have to go and they don't have the opportunity to talk. So this is good news. But, but it's still unclear if, you know, they're going to be able to unionize after they count the votes. March 29th is when the unionizing election ends. And the New York Times did. did manage to speak to some of the employees. And some of these comments, it's anecdotal, but still, some of these comments are kind of discouraging. And that's not to discourage anyone who's part of this effort in Bessemer. Please keep fighting, keep going forward. Catherine Highsmith is a 24-year-old that the New York Times spoke to.

And she said that she would wager that some employees were not aware that the president had said anything. She sees his support for the workers as less important than parts of his agenda that remain unfulfilled, including raising the federal minimum wage and sending robust stimulus checks to Americans. So, you know, the Senate did just vote in favor of the $1.9 trillion dollar coronavirus relief bill. It's now going to go back to the House. And Biden could sign it this week. That's what's expected. But was, I mean, it's been pretty delayed. And I think that it does hurt Biden to some extent. I don't know if people's minds are going to change as as they get that relief. But this Amazon worker, at least, is not buying it from Biden.

So, and let me just remind you all that there's 5,800 Amazon workers in this effort to unionize, right? So all of these people would be unionized if they vote in favor of the effort. And it's important that people understand that this is, this is an issue of the utmost important to one Jeff Bezos, a.k.a. the richest man in the world, a.k.a. Lex Luther. There's no doubt in my mind that a significant amount of resources have been allocated towards crushing this unionization effort. There's no doubt in my mind that middle managers and different type of people have gotten that tap on the shoulder about how they should be propagandizing people to do the opposite of this union effort, how to fearmonger, how to scare people about

what their livelihoods might end up being and how their paychecks might be at stake if this unionization effort is to pass. So don't get it twisted. When you see that there are people who are not trying to unionize, believe me, there's an effort internally going on and it's absolutely coming from the top to dissuay everybody from thinking that unionizing is the right thing to do. And I would just remind everybody who's listening to this show, even when those people like make America great again, they want to go back to the 1950s, labor power, union power was never stronger, you know, as far as the equality gap was never smaller in this country than those days, for the vast majority of Americans who happen to not be black, of course.

But again, the worker was never more powerful and more ascendant in those days that they claim to have been the greatest of America. And ever since corporate interests in this country have gone about union busting and just decimating labor power. Rights of the worker, wages of the worker have done nothing but stay stagnant while those at the top have gotten richer, fatter, more egregious in their actions. And so some people can say that's a coincidence, but I happen to be somebody who doesn't think so. Yeah, and I want to also note that the majority of the workers here are black.

And so it's, you know, unionizing, this is the perfect example of the type of company that absolutely should have unionized workers. We're talking about 5,800 workers. They work in a warehouse in, obviously, Bessemer, Alabama, a part of the country that has lost so many of its jobs as a result of, you know, free trade agreements and policies that are made in Washington. And so one of the ways that they try to intimidate the workers here is by, you know, making them feel as though they should be grateful. They should be grateful that yeah, they're working in these terrible conditions where their bathroom breaks are being very closely monitored. But if it weren't for this warehouse, they wouldn't be making $15 an hour. They would be making half that if they're lucky enough to find a job in Bessemer, Alabama. Those are the kinds of

fear mongering talking points that exist, but Amazon's got its factory there. They go in nowhere, and they're doing real well for themselves, okay? They certainly can afford to improve the working conditions of their warehouse workers. There's no reason for them to be monitoring bathroom breaks like this. And considering, this is not easy work, it's backbreaking work to work in those warehouses. And some might say $15 an hour is a huge improvement from the federal minimum wage and it certainly is, but there is no way that I would agree that they don't deserve to make more. They certainly do, but more importantly, they deserve protections. And that's what this union drive could potentially provide them. So solidarity and love to all of those workers

in Bessemer, hopefully they get what they deserve and vote for this union. Let's, you know what, Let's move on to our next story, because I do want to talk a little bit about voter suppression that's currently taking place across the country because wouldn't you know what, Republicans don't like the fact that they didn't rig the election enough to their favor. So after record turnout in 2020, Republican-controlled states appear to be in a race to the bottom when it comes to passing egregious barriers to voting. So Iowa, for instance, just passed a law that will significantly. that significantly curtail voting rights in the state.

For instance, Governor Kim Richards has just signed legislation cutting the state's early voting period and closing the polls an hour earlier on election day. The law cuts Iowa's early voting period from 29 days to 20 days. Polls will now close at 8 p.m. for state and federal elections instead of 9 p.m. It's like it's the most transparent thing ever, ever. There's no reasoning for it. They don't even, they don't even try waz to, like, pretend like they're doing this for election integrity. They're just cutting, they're cutting voting days.

They cut nine voting days off of the amount of time. Like, that's insane. And, of course, they cut an hour from each day from 8 a, from 9 p.m. to 8 p.m. It's just so obvious. Yeah. And they don't, and the reason why they have covers is because, because of things like hate radio, because of things like Fox News, which have demonized the other side. So effectively, it's the sense that we don't have to play fair because the Democrats are so evil.

We have to do everything at all costs to keep them out of office. But, you know, I feel heartened by the fact that these efforts have had the opposite effect in the sense that they've brought so much awareness to the chicanery that goes on in these local Republican parties, right? like these local governments as it pertains to voting. And people have been galvanized by and said, you know what? I'm going to vote despite you because of what you're doing. We saw record turnouts, which I think did have a lot to do with the mailing votes and the early ballots and all of that stuff.

But I have the utmost confidence in the people on the ground, the people around there to get out to vote because this is so cynical and so evil, quite frankly, so undemocratic, so anti-American, that I think these efforts often have the opposite effect. People get riled up. People do what they have to do to get themselves ready to vote. And again, they don't suffer. They do suffer in an ironic way in the sense that so many Republican voters actually take advantage of all these things. Like, there's no way to guarantee that every Republican is going to get to the poll before, you know, 8 p.m. There's no way to guarantee that Republicans don't use mailing.

Like, it's so stupid. Like, I think a lot of what we saw last election is the Republicans didn't mail in their votes because they got told not to. So I just don't think this is going to work in their favor ultimately. Yeah, no, that's such a good point. I mean, it is, it is pretty sweet to see how much Trump's false narratives about mailing in ballots ended up hurting him more than anyone else. But there is more from what's happening in Iowa. There's more in the law. For instance, it significantly tightens the rules for when

absentee ballots must be received by county auditors in order to be counted. Ballots must now arrive by the time polls close in order to be counted. The law also limits who can return a voter's absentee ballot. Only a voter or an immediate family member, household member or caregiver may return the ballot to the auditor's office or place it in the mail. The law allows counties to establish one, just one ballot drop box at the auditor's office under video surveillance. Like it's just total overkill and it's absolutely ridiculous. Previously ballots were placed in the mail the day before election day, they'd still be counted. As long as they arrived by noon the following Monday and previously anyone with the voter designated to drop off the ballot

would be able to do so. Obviously they're scaling that back. And I do want to move over to Georgia, because Georgia is where people were certainly galvanized in the 2020 election, which is why the state turned blue. And the Republican lawmakers in that state are not having it. So there is currently a piece of legislation that's going through the process. It just passed in the Senate, but it's going to go to the state house. It's known as SB 241, and here's what's in it. Legislators approved a bill repealing no excuse absentee voting, which 1.3 million voters used to cast ballots in the mail in 2020, including 450,000 Republicans. So to your point was, Republican voters could actually be hurt by this as well. They also voted to end automatic voter

registration, which 5 million of the state 7.6 voters used to register since it was implemented in 2016, they don't want a lot of people out there voting. And one of the ways, easiest ways to get people registered is just to register them automatically if they're eligible to vote. They want to limit that. They want to make sure that they make it as difficult, you know, difficult and complicated to vote as possible to kind of discourage people from doing it. Yeah, it's obvious that they are not the party of ideas. This is not the party that wants to sway people on account of how great the ideas are that will eventually lead to greater lives for them. For them, it's just about getting the right amount of people riled up around

issues that have nothing to do with their material well-being and ride that wave of emotion, of fear of anger into, you know, power and ultimately increasing the sort of wealth gap and shoveling as much of our money back up to the top and make sure that we get to live as paupers for the rest of our days. And this is just, you know, this is part for the course. You never see them come out and defend this in any substantive way. It's always about, you know, this voter fraud and, you know, people are voting twice and this and that. And, you know, they're busing people down from, they're busing people down from Harlem.

They're doing all of this craziness. It's always nonsense. They can never do anything on the merits. And, you know, unfortunately, this is just the GOP. This is what it is. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And don't think that the Georgia House doesn't have its own legislation. And it's so brazen-was.

Like one of the things that they're trying to do is cut weekend voting days to basically prevent what's known as souls to the polls, get out the vote drives that happen in black churches. Like it's just so obvious. It's so brazen. Like they don't want black people just too stupid to hold those souls for votes on a Wednesday. We can just change the day, big dog. I mean, give me a break.

It's so ridiculous. Anyway, well, that does it for our first hour. When we come back from the break to do our second hour, Trump is furious that the GOP is using his likeness to fundraise. So there's a battle happening behind the scenes in regard to Trump and the GOP. And then later in the show, the latest example of someone getting in trouble over tweets from 10 years ago. Is she or is she not guilty, we'll discuss when we come back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t.

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