The Young Turks - Mother Tucker

Episode Date: March 16, 2021

A U.S. Navy probe finds a contractor charged in the Capitol Insurrection was a well-known Nazi sympathizer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. All right, well, my young church, Jane, you're Benjamin Dixon with you guys today. So of the unsurprisingly named Benjamin Dixon show. So, Ben, good to have you here today. Good to be here, man. All right. We got a lot of stories for you guys, and some of them will make your blood boil, as usual. I don't know if we got any good news today. We'll look for good news. We'll look for good news. We'll also have things that you're not going to see anywhere else, and that is a harbanger of things to come, which is also fairly normal. And nuance that you won't get anywhere else on some of these stories. So I'm looking forward to the show today. It's going to be fantastic. Ben's going to lead tonight. I love it. So Ben, take it away.

All right, Jay. So a lot's been said about the infiltration of our law enforcement and our military by white supremacists. But an army reservists has been charged with storming the U.S. Capitol. He was a well-known white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer. And he was well known on his Navy base where he worked as a contractor. And he was even rebuked at one point for quote unquote, sporting a distinctive Hitler mustache. You can see the images of Timothy Hill Cuselini. He is definitely trying to brand himself in a very particular fashion. I want to read a quote from CNN, Marshall Cohen on CNN, and said the following. Federal prosecutors revealed Friday that the Navy conducted its own internal investigation into Timothy Hill Cuselini that

uncovered numerous incidents where he promoted racist and sexist views. The Navy criminal investigation service interviewed 44 of his colleagues, and 34 of the 44 of them said he held extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish people, minorities, and women. His defensive attorney declined to comment Sunday about the new details of the Navy's probe, but has noted in court filings that Hell Cuselini maintained that he isn't a white supremacist. One of Hell Cuselini's supervisors told investigators that he would walk up to new colleagues and ask, you're not Jewish, are you? A petty officer claimed that he heard him say, Jews, women, and blacks were on the bottom of the totem pole. Another contractor at the base said, Hale Cuselini told

them that Jewish people are, quote, ruining everything and did not belong here according to the filing. And that is again, according to Marshall Cohen of CNN. The absurdity of this is that that despite all of these statements, Jake, he is saying that, and his attorney is saying that he's not a white supremacist and he's not affiliated with any extremist organizations. Nevertheless, he was arrested for marching up the steps of the Capitol on January 6th, a part of the extremist action that was treasonous, the insurrection. The other absurdity here is that despite all of these reports prior to January 6th,

it took the January 6th incident for this to come to light and for him to be actually investigated in this manner for there to be any ramifications. So Jenkins just really testifies to the fact that we have been successfully infiltrated, like many reports have come across over the last few years, saying not only that white supremacy is one of the leading domestic terrorist threats, but also that white supremacy and Nazis sympathizers have infiltrated at every single level of our law enforcement and our military and we saw that playing out particularly on January 6th. Yeah, so Ben, I had to confess that I, and I probably a lot of Americans share this,

that I was anywhere from a little to a gigantic amount naive about people's views on race and ethnicity and bigotry and sexism, et cetera. And I was even naive about my own backyard because this is in my backyard. I've driven by that military base dozens of times. So I grew up in a nearby place in New Jersey, and I've often talked on the show about, look, I happen to grow up, not in Colstank where this is, but in East Bronswick, New Jersey, it's a little bit further out, but not that far. My parents moved real close to that base later.

And in my town, it was a really interesting mix of working class white folks, immigrants, immigrants, Jews, Asians, a little bit of blacks and Latinos, etc. And so we seem to all get along fine. And I thought that that applied to everyone else. But it turns out if you're not in one of those affected categories, you live in a different world. And so, look, I'm acknowledging it here. And if you thought that racism was no big deal, but now you're beginning to see, while a lot of people thought and I didn't realize it, it's okay to acknowledge it. It's okay, it doesn't make you a bad person, right? It makes you a good person to go, oh, I'm open to new facts, and now I see things I didn't see before. If you told me when I was growing

up that that base was filled with racist and bigots and anti-Semites, I probably wouldn't have believed it, right? And back then, it was probably filled with more of them. Let's keep it real. I mean, Trump's given them permission to come out now, but, you know, and And so things seem to have taken in turn for the worst, but it's been around the entire time. No question about it, right? And so in this case, look, that's the other part of this, Ben. A lot of people think that nothing is racist. Like, other than a lynching, they can't agree to anything being white supremacy.

And honestly, a lot of times in the past, they didn't even agree to that. The reason the filibuster exists is because Southern senators needed to block anti-lynching legislation. So they would speak for hours and hours about how lynching was not that big a deal and not that racist. So like, I mean, right? And this guy, that Hitler mustache is unmistakable. Okay? You don't accidentally do a Hitler mustache. And it's not Halloween. It's not any of that stuff. And you don't say that. Do a Hitler mustache and then say a thousand horrible things if I choose at the same time and tell me you're not anti-Semitic. No. No, that, it's all But it goes further than that. I mean, he says, I'm not a white supremacist, which is what every

single racist says. By the way, non-racist also said, just because someone says it doesn't mean that they actually are white supremacists, right? But he says, I'm not a white supremacist, and then he says, as Ben read to you, Jews, women and blacks are on the bottom of the totem pole. But that's the literal, the very, very, very literal definition of white supremacy. I believe whites are superior to people that are at the bottom of the totem pole, blacks, Jews, and women. So if that's not white supremacy, I think, or if you think that's not white supremacy, you just misunderstand the definition. It means people who think that white folks, white Christian folks are generally superior to others because the others are black or, I'm sorry, are all these

imagined stereotypes, lazy, violent, and you go down, those secretly control the world, you go down the list, right? Anyone who tells you that the Jews secretly control the world or control everything, I got news for you. They're an anti-Semite. That's what they are. Okay, that's, there's no, there's no gray zone there. Like, you know, you want to talk about policy of Israel or America or something, there's a billion gray zones in that area, okay? Jews control the world, no gray zone, total utter anti-Semite and said while wearing a Hitler mustache, are we having this conversation? Is this, is this open for debate? Now, of course, his lawyer wants it to be open for debate, but the rest of us understand what's happening. But to me, Ben, I thought the most

disturbing part of all of us, I mean, look, it doesn't get any more disturbing than this quote, Hitler should have finished the job, okay? But that guy says, no, I'm not on what supremacists, I'm not big in it against Jews, I'm not anti-Semitic. Okay, so, and by the way, Hitler killed a lot of people, Poles, Gypsies, or Roma, LGBTQ folks. It says, But generally when you're doing the Hitler mustache, you mean juice. Okay, let's just keep it real. We're not talking about polls here, okay? And it might be in a different context, but not this context.

Anyway, Ben, the thing that I found most disturbing was Sergeant John Gets who he reported to. Now, Gets did something really interesting. He told investigators, oh yeah, all that stuff is true. He said it to me too. Almost all of his core, 34 out of 44 coworkers said, oh yes, he has said virulently racist, racist, anti-Semitic, sexist things, right? Including Gets, but then Gets writes a letter to the judge basically saying, ah, he's a good guy. And then they, and then people notice the disparity and they asked Sergeant Gets about it.

They're like, why did you say he said those terrible things? And then you write like he's not so bad and then you should show leniency. He said, he wasn't personally offended by Hale Cousinella's conduct and wanted to speak positively about him to the judge. In other words, and he has said earlier, oh, he's not joking. In other words, yeah, I heard him say all those racist, anti-Semitic things, and I was here for it. And so I wanted to support him publicly by telling the judge, he should take it easy on him. Sergeant Getz is at that base right now. He's not at all in trouble, right? So I'm not doing this to get him in trouble. I'm just saying that I think the problem is way, way bigger than we realize, because 34 of his colleagues

all knew how deeply bigoted he was. None of them did anything. The guy he reports to says, oh, I know what it is, and I'll write a positive note about him. Because Ben, apparently they all think it's perfectly normal. Right. Yeah, no, and that's the part, you know, the part that that stands out to me is the blatant attempt to absolve himself of his white supremacy, his Nazism, right? And the fact that that is a standard technique of the Republican Party of conservatives and white supremacists. And the question has to be asked is, at what point would it ever be racist to them? And that's exactly why we can't allow racist to define racism, Right? It's like you can't allow a misogynist to define misogyny. You can't allow an anti-Semite to define anti-Semitism because there's literally nothing that they would ever allow to rise to that occasion because then that would require them to actually admit that they're a bigot. And so what they want the luxury of doing is being a bigot without the stigma of bigotry or the accountability of bigotry. And by us having to even debate this, right? By us having to discuss this, it always increases. Like they move the ball.

a little bit further down the football field towards their goal. Like he said, his goal was Hitler should have finished the job. And so it becomes extremely dangerous. And then I have to look at the NCIS. Like my wife and my mother-in-law are probably watching NCIS right now. And in every single episode, they get the bad guy. What the heck happened here? Like this is like all the signals, all the signs are here.

All the testimony is there. But it wasn't until he marched up the steps of the Capitol on January 6th that an investigation, began at this scale to now we understand the level of white supremacy that this man was drenched in as a contractor, an army reservist, and a Navy contractor. And so it is like we have been infiltrated at a level where now they have no regard for the threat. And I think some of the reason his commanding officer felt okay with it is because he in some ways probably found some of that funny, right? Just, oh, he's just joking or, oh, he might be serious, but the same time he's a good guy. What does that say about the leadership across the ranks in the military? That says that

the problem of white supremacy festering and growing in the military is not because these guys are going there and being quiet about it. It's because you're finding common cause with other people in the military. And that becomes extremely dangerous when we see how many people from law enforcement and the military were actually out there on January 6th because had they had their way, they would have had the support of people who actually wear uniforms. Yeah, look, one more thing about this, along similar lines. So some people will then take this up as a cause-seleb for cancel culture, because that's who the right wing is.

And so, you know, I don't know that they would go to bat for a guy who says Hitler should have finished the job, but I'm not sure, I'm really not sure, okay? It's a possibility. But if Sergeant Gets were to be fired, I guarantee you people would. flip out and say it's cancel culture. Now, he's the Navy supervisor, like I told you. He told the judge, quote, he's proud to have someone like Hale Cousinelli serve under me. And when asked later, hey, what he seemed to have said terribly bigoted and racist things, Gett said, no, he would quote, frequently buy breakfast for a black colleague. Oh, well, I guess that does it then.

No one got lynched. Well, at that moment, he went on to invade the capital later in the midst of tremendous violence. And once a black person was bought breakfast. So I guess there's no racism to see here. Guys, 34 out of 44 colleagues said they heard him say repeatedly racist, anti-Semitic, sexist things. No one did anything. And Gets thinks it's perfectly normal and he was proud to have him serve under him. So, it's not about gets. But if you say to me, if you say to me, should hail Cuchinnelli be not a Navy contractor anymore, even if he didn't do the capital right? Of course not, of course not. We're gonna have a contractor who says blacks and Jews and women are at the bottom of the totem pole. I don't know what that guy's gonna do with our, with our money, that's our money, that's our

money that's going to a Navy contract, that's no way, no way I'm going to give a penny to an unbelievably hateful person like that. And then if you say to me, are you okay with Getson, you know, just saying, oh yeah, proud to have this guy who thinks Sittler should have finished the job, you know, serving there. No, no, look, man, how many black folks and Jewish folks and women serve there? And if it's perfectly normal that you have this monster walking around talking about Hitler and a Hitler mustache, you can't miss the guy. He's got a Hitler mustache on, right? If that's normal, don't we have a cancer in our society? You can't tell it's a few bad apples when people like this have been rolling around with complete impunity.

My God, I fear what anybody would, like if someone at that building had taken a knee during the National Anthem. I don't know how long they would have survived there. I don't know how quickly they would have been drummed out. But guys walk around with Hitler massaches and nobody ever does anything about it. In fact, when he's arrested for being part of a white supremacy mob, they back him up and go proud to serve with him. Right, right. And for them to say that he's not associated with any type of extremism, I mean, notwithstanding everything that he did before this, but to try to try to overthrow the United States government in the name of Donald Trump is the quintessential definition of extremism, right? And so, yes, he was an extremist and is an extremist and has

always been an extremist from all the reports that came from his colleagues. But now to make that defense, and the problem that I have with it even much more so is that you have actual politicians who are trying to try to water down the significance of what happened on January 6th, And now their stories are aligning with his attorney's story saying that, oh, well, these are actually good people who wouldn't break the law and all these other things in order to kind of water down the impact of January 6th. And so it's like lockstep with white supremacy and Nazism. And we're seeing that coming from Republican leaders. And that's a significant problem. And one last thing.

For those of you out there who are stretching, stretching, stretching to find an excuse for Gets or anyone else who saw this guy walking around and never did anything about it. Look, it's not just one or two quotes about Jews. We read you some of those quotes, it's endless quotes. So he of course used to end word, least surprising thing in the world. But to me, he attacked George Floyd, of course. But most importantly, he compared blacks to animals. How are they not blacks at a military base? Of course there are black troops at the base.

But we let this guy, this monster walk around, but that's because they don't think. he's a monster. That's the thing that's the most disturbing. It isn't about this one guy. It's about how normal this is. So it doesn't even stick out to anyone. They just go, okay, yeah, oh, hey, well, there's, you know, Timothy, me and Timothy, hating black people and Jews. Oh, and then, of course, women, they can't stand women. Hey, Tim, how you doing? Oh, we got breakfast for someone once. No, we've got to figure out a way to protect all of us, not just some of us. All right, we got to take a break here, guys. When we come back, look, you're going to be shocked to find out.

I'm going to say controversial things. I don't think that they're controversial at all, but in this insane world where we have to, you know, baby Republican, you're okay, you're okay, they're going to be found to be controversial. But we're going to talk about how a lot of them don't want to take the vaccine. And there's a lot more where that came from. So like and share the stream incoming when we return. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful.

But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that, 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,

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. Thank you. I'm going to be able to be. All right. give you guys a couple of comments here. Let's just start out on Twitch real quick. Bob Christina has now subscribed for three months using Amazon Prime, so it's free for him and we get the revenue. He said happy to subscribe for a third month. I also subscribe through the TYT app. Love it, Bob, thank you. Happy to help to keep the progressive message strong, Bezos Bucks, I feel so Robinhood

right now. If you use Jeff Bezos money to subscribe to subscribe to us on Twitch. Does that make you Robin Hood? I guess. So keep it up, guys. Not a billionaire writes in hoping for a good news day today. Well, we'll see what we got for you. Also been with us for far months using Amazon Prime on Twitch. I appreciate it. I'll get back to Twitch later. Peter Hamby writes, and if Farron cousins told all of us once, we all have racism within us, especially in green racism. After After all, plenty of military bases have been named after Confederate races. Peter, I don't know that Farron has got a monopoly on that point, but I like that you heard

it from him. Check out Ring of Fire where Farron Cousins is an excellent progressive host. Ring of Fire also on the TYT Network, and they're doing great. Gabby Mathis said, I'm Jewish and not on the bottom of the totem pole. Okay, and by the way, let's note the irony Gabby that he thinks Jews are both at the bottom and the top of the totem pole. You can't win. You can't win. Okay, Republicans eat, writes in. Polish were referred to as secondhand Jews. I pointed this out to my trumpet father,

who is half Polish, bigotry has an inherent stupidity. Okay, I love that comment a lot. And Man of Tomorrow writes, this is all on Super Chat. We appreciate you guys participating in that way as well. Mainstream media runs on a blind eye to white extremism. They do. That's true. And I'll tell you why, because they think half the country is wide extremists and they don't want to offend them. I'm being honest. So that's, that's part of you. They think us offending Republicans and conservatives on right wing is dastardly, unacceptable. We should be neutral to it. Well, sorry, that's not what we're going to do. Okay, a quick note on Twitch as well, Big Rick Energy is on tonight.

So make sure you check it out live. It's at 8.30 p.m. Easter. Twitch.TV. All right back on TYT, Jank and Ben Dixon with you guys, a lot more stories, Ben, take it away. So you would think that people would actually care about their own lives over their politics. But according to this recent poll from PBS News Hour, Morris poll of about 2,000, 1,127 adults, it reveals that COVID vaccinations may depend on your political ideology. I want to bring the image up on your screen, and you can see that 30% of Americans said that they do not plan to get vaccinated, but when you control for political ideology, it goes up.

41% of Republicans in general said that they would not get the vaccination, but when you control for gender, it goes up even higher. 49% of Republican men say that they will not get the vaccination. Now, this was brought to the attention of Anthony Fauci, one of the most trusted voices on the matter. And he was asked very specifically by Chuck Todd of Meet the Press, whether or not Donald Trump should speak to this specific issue. And this is what he had to say. Chuck, I hope he does, because the numbers that you gave are so disturbing how such a large proportion of a certain group of people would not want to make, would not want to get vaccinated merely because of political consideration, it makes absolutely no sense. And I've been

saying that for so long, we've got to dissociate political persuasion from what's common sense, no-brainer, public health things. The history of vaccinology has rescued us from smallpox, from polio, from measles, from all of the other diseases. What is the problem here? The problem is the politicization of an entire pandemic that has ultimately led to the deaths of about 527,000 Americans, but I digress. There was a recent poll from Axios that showed when you control for white Republicans, about 56% of white Republicans say that they would not get the vaccine. And if anyone, any group of people has a reason to be suspicious, it would be black Americans because of the history of the abuse in this country, especially as it pertains to medicine. Black Americans, African Americans have increased the amount of confidence that they have in the vaccine. The irony of this, Jank, is that the poll was from February where 56% of white Republicans said that they would not get it.

But in January, it came out that Donald Trump and Melania Trump actually received the vaccination themselves. And so if anyone has the ability to address this issue, which because at the end of the day, while it is laughable because this might be an example of the Darwin Awards and it might make voting easier in the future because of their stupidity, the fact of the matter is, is that the less or the fewer amount of people who get the vaccination, the more dangerous and the longer it's going to be for the rest of us to get back to some sense of normalcy. And so there is a need for Donald Trump to speak to his constituents, but instead of talking to them and convincing them that this is something that they should do, he secretly guided himself and his wife back in January before they were

kicked out of the White House. And now he's being quiet on the issue. While he's being quite on the issue, there are also other Republicans who are saying that we should be grateful to Donald Trump. Here's Senator Tim Scott saying as much about Joe Biden showing or not showing the appropriate amount of gratitude to Donald Trump for the vaccinations. For there to be no ability to share credit on such a day when we were recognizing 520,000 Americans had lost their lives, Thank God for the genius of the Trump administration who delivered 300 million doses ready to be put in arms on day one. The genius of the Trump administration was to downplay this from the beginning. The genius of the Trump administration was to politicize something as simple as wearing a mask. And now the genius of the Trump administration or the post-Trump administration is for him to be silent while his guys, his people, his supporters are.

are going to become victims and the last victims of COVID-19 because they refuse to get the vaccinations. Yeah, so I, I'm trying to contain myself in reaction to Tim Scott. So let's just show you some tape of the so-called genius on this particular issue of COVID-19. And let's see if we still think he's a genius. So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light. And I think you said that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do, either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you're going to test that too. Sounds interesting.

Right. And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out. in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost the cleaning? Because you see it gets on the lungs and it does a tremendous number of the lungs. So it'd be interesting to check that. Well, as you all know, of course, this infecting does help with COVID-19 on surfaces, on tables, chairs, etc. Injecting it into the lungs, on the other hand, would kill you instantly. So that's the genius of Donald Trump handling COVID-19. And people like Tim Scott still have the nerve to come on TV

and to like sickeningly kiss up to this idiot that caused so many extra deaths because of COVID-19. But I'm not done yet. Let's show you another genius clip of Trump handling COVID-19. And let's see if this turned out to be true. It's going to disappear. One day, it's like a miracle. It will disappear. And from our shores, we've, you know, it could get worse before it gets better. Could maybe go away. We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows.

No, people knew you just weren't among them. So after he said it would disappear like a miracle, 525,000 Americans died because we had an absolute moron for president of the United States of America. And it is political. So he got a vaccination, as Ben told you guys, but he did it quietly and in private. Why? Because he wants to be safe. He knows the vaccine is real. But the very fact that he did it privately rather than publicly, which is what all the other politicians are doing to encourage people to take it, shows you that he thinks it's political. And he thinks, now he's not, and this is really sad indictment of Republican voters, but he's not, he thinks, he thinks, he's not as dumb as the average Republican. So I'm not an idiot. I'm gonna take it to be safe, right? But I think you guys are all morons, he thinks, and you like it when we're stupid, and we don't wear masks, and we don't get vaccines. So I won't get one in public. I won't get one in public, because I don't want to lose popularity among the dumb party. And so now let's talk about, oh, Jake, you can't say they're dumb. Yes, you can. First of all, 41% of them say they're not even

going to take the vaccine? And we, 525,000 dead in America alone did not convince them of the magnitude of the problem. By the way, these are the same morons who said, no, any American dying, four of America is dying in Benghazi was the worst thing that ever happened to this country. Four people dead, worst thing that ever happened. 525,000 dead. And we have the worst cases and the worst deaths in the whole world. And these morons say, no, I don't want the vaccine. So look, I think there's good evidence now. It's not definitive. Science evolves, and so it's a series of experiments until we get to better and better conclusions. But right now, it appears that if you take the vaccine and you're double vaccinating and you wait your two weeks, that you are relatively

safe. And so I get mad at the government now, the Biden administration, they're beginning to change this. When they tell you to take over the top precautions after getting vaccinated, then what's the point of getting vaccinated? And it's, by the way, not scientifically accurate. appears that the science is leading to people is that if you get vaccinated, you're okay, right? And so when these folks come here and say, and if it's true, as we currently believe, that not only are you going to be okay, but you're also less likely to transmit a big study out of Israel confirms that, and that is where the science seems to be leading, right? If both sides of that true, you're not going to get other people sick and I'm not going to get sick after I get vaccinated,

If that's true, then I don't care at all that Republicans don't get vaccinated. I don't care at all. Look, among Democrats, only 87% say they're going to get vaccinated. So there's some idiot Democrats too. And I don't keep, look, that's not my business. If you're going to jump off a cliff, I'm going to try super hard to convince you not to jump off the cliff. But if you then say to me, I'm jumping anyway and you want to come, my answer is no, no, I don't want to come, Right? And so these guys, you don't want to take the vaccine after we're safe. You do anything you want, brother. Freedom! Freedom! Okay, watch Braveheart, rip out your guts, scream all over good broth. And don't take the vaccine, smear COVID all over yourself. I don't care.

How much can we try to help you morons and have you get mad at us? We're like, hey, you know what? We're trying to get you healthcare so your family doesn't die. No, I don't want it. You're gonna make me drink Starbucks coffee. I'm trying to I'm trying to get you higher wages. I don't want it. I'm trying to keep you safe from coronavirus. I don't want a freedom. I'm a smear coronavirus.

Well, all right, then go do whatever the hell you want. Okay, I like your freedom too. Less Republican voters. Whatever. I don't care. If you're telling us that you're going to attack us for bringing your truth and sanity, well, then keep your insanity. As long as you're not, like, that's the thing about freedom.

I don't care how many times you punch yourself in the face. You punch me in the face, we're going to have problems, so we need rule of law, okay? You punch yourself in the face, that's your goddamn problem. Yeah, yeah. I can't get over the numbers, right? Whenever I talk about COVID-19, I always think about V for Vendetta, where he literally, V literally launched an entire revolution after 80,000 people died as a result of a virus that was not contained by the government or actually spread by the government. We're at 527,000 people.

I mean, this is so historic that it will be talked about for centuries to come. And not even a footnote, but a major point in the history of our present is going to include the absolute absurdity and the ignorance of not only our political leaders, but the American people in general, right? because it was so simple. If they didn't want to shut down, we could have wore a mask. But not only did they not want to shut down, Republican leaders specifically, but they did not want to shut down and they didn't want you to wear a mask, which ensured, it guaranteed that we were going to have the maximum number of debts. And at what point will the American people look at this and say, enough is enough?

Well, apparently it's not now because you still have so many people who are looking at the opportunity that we have to break free from this pandemic and they're saying, despite all the millions of people who've taken the vaccine. 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 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 activity more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. VPN 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 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. And all the people who are, are, have minor side effects and all of the science and all the research used to have a good portion of this country who are saying that they're not going to get it. So it wasn't enough. 527,000 wasn't enough for us to look at this government with the revolutionary eye, right? And it's also not enough for people to say, I want to take care of myself so that I can go back to, I don't know where they want to go Cracker Barrow, where they want to go to. I don't know what they want to go to, but they don't want to put a mask on when they go and they don't want the vaccine. So they're literally asking for COVID-19.

And I, you know what, maybe, maybe the virus will give it to them. Yeah. So, Ben, last couple thoughts here. One is, please don't bring two of my favorite restaurants in this. Okay, leave Hooters alone and Cracker Barrel. I'm in Georgia. It's everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah, it's so convenient near the rest stops. Anyway, so I was, I'm not surprised by this study at all. I was in Utah about six months ago, you go into a grocery store. Most, and that was like when it was really like, well, it's been raging the whole time. Anyway, most of the women were wearing masks.

It was Utah, it was a harder Utah, right? None of the men were wearing mass. None of them, okay? Okay, so that it's just, it's super obvious what's happening. And if you're wondering, oh, why, what's the political play here? Right. So number one is started out as a, as in favor of big business, drive everybody back into the warehouses, the factories and the meat packing jobs, all those things, right? So shut up and go to work and we don't care if you die. That's how the politics of not wearing masks,

etc. got started, okay? The politics of ignorance. But then it was buttress by a word, the phrase that I don't love, but here is almost literal, toxic masculinity where white right wingers, in specific male right wingers, we're like, oh, I'm tough guy, man. Look, I've told the story in times. I saw this happen during the AIDS epidemic in Turkey, where they would tell truckers do not have unprotected sex with prostitutes. Yes, that happens in Turkey to, okay? And because there's this deadly disease out there and it's sexually transmitted. And the reports back then were they're like, oh, we're tough, we're Turkish, man. They would say this phrase, AIDS doesn't cut us. That means it won't affect us because we're so tough,

right? So here it is, toxic masculinity in America. Oh, COVID-19, man, it won't cut me. I'm a tough guy. Like I said earlier, don't care at all. Smear it all over yourself. Get it right up your nose. And then we'll see how tough you are. It'll be great. you'll get a chance to prove to God and nature and science and doctors, you'll show them from the emergency room. And then finally, to give you a sense of the numbers, now some idiots are saying, oh, DeSantis handled Florida, it's perfectly fine. You know, their rates were just slightly worse than Californians. Okay, so there's a large number of reasons why California has specific problems, given the density, et cetera, or the population, that's for another day.

But what I found amazing was if California had followed the same non-restrictions as the Santas had in Florida, so far already, we would have had 6,000 more dead in California. And Republicans are pointing that like, see, we told you. You told us what? You would have killed 6,000 more people. What did you tell us? And then if we had followed, if California had followed Arizona's restrictions, Arizona's more similar to L.A. in terms of demographics, density, all those, and the weather, the humidity,

et cetera, all those factors. If we'd followed the idiot Republicans in Arizona, they would have been an extra 38,000 dead in California. Facts are stubborn things. This disease is real. It kills people. After we all get vaccinated, if you want to be morons and risk your life, well, you're right about one thing. That's freedom, brother. You go have that it, Haas. It's America. You want to go kill yourself. That's your problem, not my problem. Absolutely, absolutely. All right, we got to take another break. More anger and frustration, but in a fun way, TYT style, when we return. I'm going to be able to be.

All right, back on TYYT during the break here. First, I want to tell you about aspiration. They're an awesome progressive financial institution. You put your money in there instead of a traditional bank You're going to save tons of money. They will not put your deposits into fossil fuel companies. When talk about fossil fuel companies later on the show and how they're destroying the planet, you've got peace of mind if you're right aspiration. Go to aspiration.com slash t-y-y-t. You got to put this slash t-y-t in there so we get the credit. Three to five percent cashback, by the way,

on conscious coalition purchases. That's a triple win. And by the way, quadruple win is if you're not yet Aspiration customer and you sign up now, you can get a lifetime TYT membership too. You've got a shot at it, so check it out at Aspiration.com slash TYT. Okay, let me go to, oh, by the way, Kenneth Johnson just became a young tourist member. Is he a bit of a hero? I guess. So he hit the join button below if you're watching on YouTube. It's really simple. $1.99 just shows your supporting show. We see your badges and emotes, and at least I know you're You're one of us and you're helping to get the progressive message out and fight for truth

and change, okay? At the 499 level, you get all the post games, including the one J.R. and I are going to do today. It's got a lot more personal stories, inside stories, and some extra stories you get before anybody else. So check that out. 999, you get all of our programming. All right, let me go to these folks on YouTube super chat. Coeli Walker says the military is steeped in racism. Our institutions and leaders must change. He represents their mindset, referring to Cousinelli, in protecting him, they are actually protecting themselves, bet he knows plenty on others.

So that's a really powerful point, Coelie. Thank you for sharing that. Because, yeah, if he was an actual bad apple, it's easy to get rid of him. But if he actually represents something broader, then it's much harder. And that's why he probably was there for a long time. Constant chaos writes in, Jenk, I physically recalled when you said that slur. And that's the one referring to Romas that I mentioned earlier, but thank you for correcting

yourself and remembering we were victims too. And NW was a slip-up. So I don't know what NW means, but that's probably because I'm a boomer. Anyways, so look, guys, it's okay. Look, a lot of us grow up at a time when there was a more common word for it. And in fact, when I was studying the Holocaust, that word would be used all the time. That's why it's stuck in my head. That isn't the issue. The issue is do you correct yourself? Do you get better? Do you learn? Are you responsive to others? So thank you for noting that. And we appreciate it. Okay. And then I got time for just one. Patricia Michelle Rose has been with us for two months on Twitch and says love TYT. Thank you for making me smarter. No, Patricia, you were always smart. We didn't make you

smarter, but we, I hope, armed you with knowledge, and we appreciate that you appreciate that. All right, back on Young Turks, Jank and Ben with you guys. We got a breaking news update. I saw it from our viewers first. That happens all the time when we're live on here. Lord Martin wrote in on Twitch, hi, Jank, there is good news. Deb Holland was confirmed two minutes ago by the Senate, 51 to 40. Okay. So first of all, thank you for doing the show with us. That's awesome. I love it. I'm here for it. And thank you for being a member on Twitch for four months using Amazon Prime. That's smart. It's free for you. We get the revenue. It's a win with Twitch.tv slash TiT. But for Deb Holland, I just wanted to say real quick, guys. That's super good news on a number of fronts. Number one, Republicans have been attacking women of color that Biden is nominated. And

And they got super encouraged when near attendant lost or withdrew because Mansion wasn't going to support her. And for all of my dislike of near attendance policies, I thought it was a bad precedent. But us pushing back on it, all of us together, well, some of us together, led to drawing the line on other women of color who were nominated. Perfect, perfect, that's exactly what we wanted. Deb Holland is Native American, as Interior Secretary, that is power. powerful symbolism. But the main reason that I'm excited is because Deb Holland is one of the

few progressives in Washington. She won recently as a challenger progressive and got into Congress. And now she's a cabinet secretary. And I love it. I'm here for it. And it's great news that Democrats held together and got her confirmed. All right, Ben, take it away. So let's categorize this with the dog whistle turning into a bullhorn. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is under fire today because of statements that he made on conservative radio that is explicitly racist. And I normally let you decide for yourself, but no, take a listen to this and you will see clearly how racist it really was when he made the comparison between the protesters that

protest on behalf of black lives versus the insurrectionists who carried out their treasonous attack on January 6th. I'm also criticized because I've made the comment that on January 6th, I never felt threatened because I didn't. And mainly because I knew that even though those thousands of people that there were marching to the Capitol were trying to pressure people like me to vote the way they want me to vote, I knew those are people that love this country that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break a law. And so I wasn't concerned. Now, had the table's been turned, Joe, this got me in trouble. Had the tables been turned and President Trump won the election, and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter

and Tifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned. So he would have been concerned. He wasn't worried because the people who stormed the Capitol, broke into offices, assaulted Capitol police officers, and broke a myriad of laws, their law-abiding citizens. I think what he really wanted to say was that, well, no, those are his friends. Those are people who he identifies with because he was comfortable with them versus people who would have been protesting on behalf of Black Lives. Now, he had a rebuttal, and I want to share a quote from The Guardian.com, and this is what he said on Monday, on the Dan O'Donnell Show, he said that because many of the Black Lives Matter protesters were white,

his comments were not racist. He went on to say, remember those leftist activists, those protesters, that some of them turned into riots. A lot of them are white. So there's no racism involved in this at all. Now, the irony and the sick, twisted, sad irony is that this rebuttal came on the same day that two of Johnson's beloved protesters were charged with the assault of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died the next day. Quote, Julian Ali, Cotter, and George Pierre Tanios are charged with three counts of assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, conspiracy to injure an officer, civil disorder, obstructing or impeding any official proceeding, physical violence on restricted grounds

while carrying dangerous weapons, and resulting in significant bodily injury, violent entry and disorderly conduct, acts of physical violence on capital grounds and aiding and abetting. So while Ron Johnson felt comfortable with these people because he said that they were obeying laws, they literally broke a litany of laws and attacked police officers, which led to the death of one capital police officer. So the irony and the sad part of it, I keep saying irony, but the sad part about it is, in their minds, Jank, this isn't racist. Couldn't possibly be racist, because never mind the fact that he identifies with one group because of their ideology, but he attacks another group because of what we're standing

for, which is fighting on behalf of black lives, but he's not a racist. Yeah. Well, racist oftentimes I think genuinely can't see their bias because it's like when you ask fish has the water, the fish's answer is what water? And he says, no, no, these good white folk right wingers, they'd never break the law. You just read like what, half a dozen laws that just those two guys broke. And we all saw with their own eyes, them breaking in the capital, them having nooses, them having the bear mace, the zip ties, the gallows, they're rifling through private materials of the senators and the Congress people.

But he genuinely thinks, no, that's okay. That's just white people demanding to have power over non-white people. To him, that's Tuesday. Ron Johnson thinks Wattwater. And so here, let's show a quick video of a chant of these nonviolent protesters that Ron Johnson is referring to. Yeah, I think hundreds of people normally get someone, murdering them with their bare hands by stringing them up because they're not violent.

Well, but Ron Johnson sees that and goes, yeah, but I'm here for it. So for them doing violence to maintain their political power. is the standard operating procedure. But I'm being quite literal about it. Remember, the lynchings weren't just for a picnic, although they literally did have picnics around the lynchings. You got to know the real history of America. It was to use violence as a political weapon

so that black people couldn't participate in democracy, couldn't vote, and wouldn't have any power. And so slavery was violence for a political reason. lynchings, Jim Crow, you name it, all violence purposely done for a political purpose. So honestly, white right wingers in this country have been terrorists for a long, long time. So when a terrorist like Ron Johnson says, I don't see any terrorists here as they're chanting about executing people, he probably genuinely doesn't see it. But when he sees black people, 93% of those protests were perfectly peaceful.

He sees, he looks at him and goes, black people by definition are dangerous. I don't know what you mean by racism. I don't know because he genuinely thinks black people are violent and all the other horrible stereotypes and thinks I'm just having the courage to speak the truth. No, you're having the courage to speak your truth, which is racism. So just look, all I want is for the Ron Johnson's of the world to not cry. It's not that much to ask for, like so constantly like, I can't believe he called me a racist because I thought all black people were violent.

And the people that came to execute us and people around us and beat the living crap out of cops. I could see, we could all see with everyone eyes. Brent, run the video of the cops being assaulted in these capital riots, okay? So. So they're attacking the cops, they're dragging them through the streets, et cetera. One of the cops died, and Ron Johnson says, what violence? All I see is white people, exactly, Ron, exactly.

Yeah, Jake, if I grew up hood adjacent, if I had to walk through the hood, I wouldn't feel uncomfortable at all. If Black Lives Matter marched down my street, I wouldn't feel uncomfortable at all. If I were to go to HBCU football game and in the margin bay, I would not feel uncomfortable at all because those are my people. That's where I grew up. That's what I've been around. And when Johnson is saying, his people are the people who try to overthrow this government. His people are the people who killed a capital police officer.

His people are the people who caused chaos and mayhem and violated this nation. His people are the people who try to overthrow this nation on January 6th. So that's why he feels comfortable. So he feels as comfortable around those terrorist insurrectionists, as I feel comfortable, you know, going to a football game. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. And last thing, I just can't, I can never get over how they say it with a straight face.

People who love this country, they literally attack the Capitol and carrying Confederate flecks. Okay, truly respect law enforcement. They kicked the living crap out of law enforcement and ran them over and killed some of them on their way in and would never do anything to break the law. By definition, breaking into the Capitol in a violent way was breaking the law. But he's basically, they can't help themselves. People like Ron Johnson believe in political terrorism as long as white right wingers are doing it. They just, they just believe it in their bones. And the minute they see a black person, they're like, oh, right? So, and to them, oh, black.

black people get beat up by cops all the time. They're like, where's the problem? Right. So they don't see a problem to address anyway. Whereas Donald Trump lost, and we no longer have political power because democracy work? Well, that's a real problem because we don't care about democracy. We just care about power. And those are my brothers trying to get that power back to white people where it belongs. So let's just be super clear. Ron Johnson is definitely a bona fide racist. And by the way, anyone who sees this and boasts for Ron Johnson is also definitely racist. Backs, thanks. So shifting gears, after last week's Tucker Carlson attacking and his sexist attack on women in the military, former and serving military leaders hit

out at Tucker Carlson for those comments. And they have started to backtrack because of political pressure. The second Marine Expeditionary Force are the first to apologize to the Fox News host. And this is what they said on Twitter. M.E.F's Information Center Twitter account added its voice to the criticism of a far-right television host on Friday posting a picture of a female Marine carrying a comrade. What it looks like in today's armed forces at Tucker Carlson, the account wrote, Get right before you get left,

boomer. This is court of David Brendan of Newsweek. But now they are apologizing in the face of right wing pushback. The second MEF account apologized in a reply to a tweet set by Fox 11 Los Angeles reporter Bill Melgan. And this is what they said. We are human and we messed up. We intended to speak up for female Marines and it was an effort to support them. They are a crucial part of our core, and we need them to know that.

We will adjust fire and ensure the utmost professionalism in our tweets. The apology continued, and this is what they said, we've strayed away from our brand and realized that our standard practices will be in effect, and you can count on us to correct our mistake going forward. Shortly after Ted Cruz capitalized on this opportunity, Cruz tweeted on Sunday announcing that he has sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Alston, asking for a meeting regarding the political attacks. And this is what he said on Twitter.

Under Biden, the military is launching political attacks to intimidate Tucker Carlson and other civilians who criticize their policy decisions. Officials in uniform are being used for the campaign. I've demanded a meeting with the commandant of the U.S. MC to put a stop to it. And this is a quote from his letter. He says, quote, this spectacle risk politicizing the military after several centuries of efforts to keep military officials out of domestic affairs, this kind of behavior. While perhaps typical in a military controlled third world country is completely unacceptable in the United States of America. The obvious contradiction here and why this talking point is bogus is because the Air Force has been working on making maternity flight duty uniforms available to its service. members in an initiative started during the Trump administration after airmen struggled to find uniforms that fit during their pregnancies. This is not a new initiative so that Biden can

dispatch pregnant women to fight, and this is according to Politifact. So Tucker Carlson is being coddled and being protected by right-wing conservatives, and we would expect that. And the military is backing down because I guess they don't want the political heat, but the fact still remains that Tucker Carlson is a raging misogynist who is capitalizing on every opportunity that he can to attack not only women but every single marginalized group in this country, Jake. Yeah, so this morning I put out a tweet saying, I guarantee you this is because there was pushback from the right wing saying, yeah, we're in the military and we think women suck too. So now shut up and have a neutral position on whether the military should have women

or not. You're politicizing the military by what? Defending their current policy. Well, by definition, that's not political. That's their current policy. But you're making it political, the right wing, by saying, well, we don't want women to serve. And so if you're singing out for women in the Marines, don't do that. Leave them behind. Yeah, that sounds like it's kind of the opposite of the Marine slogan, right? But they don't care. Because look, I'll give the conservative credit. on one thing, they use their political power. And even the slightest little issue, I mean, they'll go nuclear on Pepe Lapewue. So Ted Cruz will jump and call for congressional hearings and force people to come in in

the military to answer them. So like, well, our people do hate women in the military? We don't think they can serve at all, pregnant women, we despise them. Why don't you answer for why you have women in the military? And how dare you betray or talk against our beloved Tucker Carlson, who's who's It's much more important than any women in the military actually saving lives or fighting for America. And the military gets scared. So I know they were going to backtrack. Of course, of course they backtrack. Right? Because there's a lot of people who agree with Tucker Carlson's hateful position.

So that's the state of the country. So but Tucker Carlson is willing to do that. Ted Cruz is willing to do that. All the right wingers are willing to unite around that. Progressives have political power now, but they don't know it apparently, and they never use it. And we would use it for good. Hey, let's try to get people health care. Let's try to get them higher wages. And God forbid that anyone in the progressive media fights for something good being backed up by any progressive in Congress. They would never do that. They would never do that. On the other hand, Tucker Carlson says the most hateful things. Every Republican senator jumps on board. Oh, do not. How dare the U.S. military criticize Tucker Carlson, who's more important than all of our commanders. Leads to an uneven playing field where stupid little issues like Dr. Seuss gets amplified as if it's just a giant national issue. And we can't get anybody to talk about, hey, you know what, during a pandemic, maybe everybody should have health care. Because our side sucks at amplifying a message because everybody's filled up to here with ego. Oh, I'm not going to help. No way, man, no way. I don't want to stick my neck out.

somebody in the media will yell at me. Well, healthcare, maybe yes, maybe no, I don't know. Okay, let's go back to talking about Pepe Lepew. So now, there's a second layer that's interesting here, Ben. The layer that is not interesting is the facts. Okay, women actually are in the military. They do serve bravely. There are pregnant women in the military, and they have served incredibly bravely and courageously. Tucker Carlson has never done any of that. And it, you know, look, I don't want to get into what Tucker Carlson would do in a conflict. Okay, but probably regurgitate that, you know, the TV dinner that he grew fat and rich on. Anyways, but that's easy. Are we back to debating whether there should be women in the

military? Is that what we're back to? I mean, it's ridiculous, right? But the interesting second layer, Ben, is I noted on Friday's show, there's something weird going on. The right wing is starting to attack the military more. And I've never seen that in quarter century of covering politics. Every time I say that, I feel so old. Anyway, and I figured out, I think I began to figure out what's happening. I did an interview that was recorded today that you guys will see soon, maybe as soon as tomorrow. And you could always check it, especially if you remember, on t.yt.com, go to the conversation, and that's one of our shows. That's where we do the interviews. And so the guy who believes in Q&N, his name is J.T. Wild, he's a musician.

And you watch the interview, because he's actually not a bad guy, I think he's just totally misdirected. So there's some virulent people who are terrible people. I don't think JT is one of them. I think he's, as you'll see, I believe he's misdirected, okay? But he was really mad at the military. And he was already mad at the military because of too many wars, et cetera, good, right? But he was also mad at the military because they were supposed to do something to protect Trump on And that's what the Q&O folks believed. But the military, there was good patriots in the military who were going to step up and make sure Biden didn't become president. So when the military did not do a coup, a lot of the right wingers were pissed.

Now remember, Cruz is talking about, oh, you're politicized the military. Michael Flynn was in the White House where, according to reports from insiders that were in the room, they discussed for over an hour on whether Trump, this involved Donald Trump. They discussed for at least an hour whether they should use the military to declare martial law and basically end our democracy. I'm pretty sure that's politicizing the military, not enforcing their current policies. Yeah, Jank, I mean, just absorbing everything that you said right there, I think the most disturbing, that last part is the most disturbing, right? That they, the reason there's animus

towards the military, it's not because of the military industrial complex. It's not really because of American imperialism. They're okay with wars so long as those wars don't cause any type of mass migration to the United States and further the browning of America, right? But what they're upset with the military for is because they did not help with the coup and that the military actually has, I think part of it is because there's a blackhead of the military at this point. And so that is disturbing to the extent that they have an expectation that when they are ready to overthrow this government for their leader, for Donald Trump, they have the full expectation that the military as well as law enforcement will be there with them. And I guess they should

have the expectation because as we said at the top of the show, there were actual soldiers and law enforcement officers who were in the insurrection on January 6th. Yeah, I'm going to give the last word to one of our members here, t.com slash join to be a member and be part of the show because we think you guys are super smart and love involving you guys. And Greg added just one last wrinkle to my theory, and it's a really good one. He said, I'm pretty sure it was Tucker who went after the military first. Don't get to play the victim here. But I think it was Jenk who made the point on Friday this very well, maybe why he's,

he attacked them. I did partly say that, but then Greg answers, as I just told you a second ago, Greg ends by saying to get them to respond so he could cry. No, I talked about him attacking the military because there's now right wing anger towards the military and Tucker Carlson is riding that populist wave, right? But Greg, you're adding a really good point, which is Tucker knows the military is going to respond. And when he does, when they do, Tucker's then going to get to cry about it, because that's his favorite thing in the world. That's it. Right-wingers, their number one hobby

in the world is crying. So they say something horribly offensive. And when someone says, hey, could you not say that? That seems really offensive. They go, oh, poor Ross! I can't believe the military attack attacks. Anyways, so, Greg, that's exactly right. And so that's exactly how it played out. And now all the right wingers think for us, the thing that they love to think. We're the victims, we were victimized by the military because they wouldn't do a coup. And now we're victimized by the military because they allow chicks in the military.

And they actually said something mean about our beloved Tucker Carlson. Okay, cry away, bitches. So have at it, Haas. I don't care. The United States military is supposed to protect all of us and not just you racist and sexes. Okay, all right, we gotta go. Ben, you're amazing. Everybody check out the Benjamin Dixon show. All right, we're gonna come back with J.R. Jackson. We got so many more stories for you guys, including a Democratic, oh, Democratic trick, we're going to say it's tomorrow. Okay, but more law breaking by Republicans, of course. but also Democratic trouble as well.

We'll come right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.