The Young Turks - Obama vs. Biden

Episode Date: March 26, 2021

President Biden’s big focus on re-engineering America is moving quickly with big policy initiatives, and it’s drawing some criticisms from the Obama wing of the party. Meanwhile, Democrats pushing stimulus talks admit to regrets on Obama’s 2009 response. 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. I'll be honest with you, I'm in a mood. Dude, I'm in a mood. Like, I think we're gonna have your microphone. Yeah, yeah, no, no, look, let's just keep it real. So, by the way, I just saw in the document that they gave me, the producers gave me, poll results from a poll I did not participate in, and I'm here for it. Is Megan, Megan McCain qualified to host a view?

93% say no. Come on. Come on. Come on. You guys praise you. I love you. Stop it. Go forward. Okay, there is. That's an overwhelming poll. That's not going to sit. Well, did you know her father's Jamicane? All right, anyways, is there deep dive later today? You betcha. Is it where Jordan Yule? I guess. Is it right after this show? Uh-huh. Is it on Twitch.tv slash TYT where there are many dragons and gifted subs and Bezos bucks? Yes, I'm not even guessing at that. I got more for you. But you know what else we have for you, a show filled to the room with news. Yes.

The visionary broadcaster and a Casparian will now take it from here. I also wanted to just add one more thing to the Jordan Yule story, or not story, but Jordan Yule's show on Twitch tonight, Ken Clippenstein will be the guest, which is really, really important to keep in mind because you just broke a story about Amazon workers, particularly Amazon drivers, being reduced to having to defecate in bags just so they save time in delivering packages. It's just such an important story for you guys to know the details about. So please check that out, Twitch.tv slash TYT.

Now let's get to the news. We're going to get a lot done. And if we have to, if there's complete lockdown and chaos as a consequence of the filibuster, then we'll have to go beyond what I'm talking about. That was President Joe Biden during his first ever press conference in his presidency. and he touched on a number of topics, but the important thing to take away from that statement is that he seems far more willing to do what's necessary with the filibuster in the Senate in order to pass bolder legislation.

Now, I don't want to get people's hopes up. I think it's important to continue applying pressure to the Biden administration on progressive priorities and policies. But Axios had a fascinating piece that, dare I say it, gave me a little bit of hope in the Biden administration because it seems that. that he is now more willing to kind of differentiate himself from the Obama administration. And this is big news because he's warming up to the idea of either getting rid of the filibuster or really reforming it so it's not serving as an obstacle to passing bold policies.

Now he also had a secret meeting with historians that Axios found out about. And that's a good thing because according to the reporting, the historian's views were very much in sync with Biden's, it's time to go even bigger and faster than anyone expected. If that means chucking the filibuster and bipartisanship, so be it. And I do want you to hear a little more from Biden's press conference today where he spoke at length about the possibility of getting rid of the filibuster. Take a look. It used to be you had to stand there and talk and talk and talk until you collapsed. And guess what?

People got tired of talking and tired of collapsing. The filibusters broke down and were able to break the filibuster and get a quorman vote. So I strongly support moving in that direction. In addition to having an open mind

about dealing with certain things that are just elemental to the functioning of our democracy, like the right to vote, like the basic right to vote. We've amended the filibuster in the past. But here's a deal. As you observed, I'm a fairly practical guy.

I want to get things done. I want to get them done, consistent with what we promise the American people. And in order to do that, in a 50-50 Senate, we've got to get to the place where I get 50 votes so that the Vice President of the United States can break the tie, or I get 51 votes without her. And so I'm going to say something outrageous. I have never been particularly poor at calculating how to get things done in the United States Senate. I might disagree with that last statement. But the important takeaway here is his willingness to do what's necessary with the filibuster, which, you know, I was skeptical of that. I remain skeptical. I mean, it's one thing to say it. It's another thing to actually do it. Now, one other thing I want to note is that based on Axios's reporting, Biden is apparently willing to spend even more on his upcoming infrastructure. and jobs bill. We had previously shared some of the preliminary details of that legislation.

And the preliminary details indicated that they were going to propose spending about $3 trillion. Now the conversation has gone to $5 trillion. And the reason Biden met with these historians, Jank, is because he's really wanting to model his presidency and his legacy after either Roosevelt or LBJ. Like he wants to have a lasting impact on the country and really push for real reforms. Yep. All right, so there's tons of good news in here. And in fact, there was so much hope for a second there that I dared to dream of what

if we had a president we didn't always disagree with? For progressives, that seems near impossible. Like whenever you get a concession out of a Democratic president, you feel like, oh my God, it's like it's a holiday there you'll get two every four years if you're super lucky, right? And they'll usually be minor. So when he actually seems to be going in some ways in a progressive direction, I almost don't know what to do with it. Like, great, all right, so now, of course, caution, let's give you all the details here.

First of all, they're basically saying $5 trillion, it's a way of fudging it a little bit because they're saying, but the $1.9 trillion from the stimulus, now we want $3 trillion extra for infrastructure bill. But there's even more good news there. Stuffed in that $3 trillion is a little bit of Green New Deal, or maybe a decent amount a green new deal. So they're framing it as infrastructure because that looks more bipartisan, and it's true. It actually is infrastructure. But some of that, and a lot of that infrastructure is around green energy, and that helps the economy, that helps the country, that helps higher wages,

and they're not embarrassed by it. So yes, yes, that's really good news. If you're trying to be like FDR, I love it. We're here for it. The more he thinks in that direction, the better off progressives are, because you know what FDR was? A giant progressive, the progressive. If you're heading in that direction, that's almost like saying, no, actually it's better than saying I'm going in, I'm trying to be like Bernie Sanders. FDR was to the left of Bernie Sanders, you know, so if you want to say that you're more left than Bernie Sanders, we're all here for it.

We're all here for it. And then in terms of the filibuster, look, he obviously is not saying, he's saying and he's in favor of a talking filibuster, don't get too excited. That doesn't mean he's in favor of getting rid of the filibuster. Talking filibuster is a midway point. It's not really where we want to be. And it's actually going to take up a lot of time to get past it. And just one more thought here for now, which is bipartisanship.

The Republicans haven't voted for a Democratic bill in, I don't, what, a decade? Honestly, like what bipartisanship are we talking about? So please stop with fairy tales and mythology. It's actually really embarrassing to hear any of that. No, there's, there really is good news. And I want to be clear about something. It's not that he's trying to be more progressive than Bernie Sanders. What he's being influenced by is Bernie Sanders.

And to be quite honest, during the election after the Democratic primaries were over, as Senator Sanders was campaigning for him and, you know, saying some pretty complimentary things about Biden, And it was a little frustrating, you know, as a Sanders supporter who enjoys salt, I wanted to see a little more saltiness, but it looks like Bernie, and not looks like, it's true that Bernie has a pretty good grasp on what the effective strategy here is, because Biden not only is more willing to go against this notion of bipartisanship, something that I thought was actually impossible. But he's also very supportive of policies that I otherwise would not think he'd be supportive of, including pushing for a floor vote on what's known as the Pro Act,

and that would really strengthen labor laws throughout the country. So some of these red states, for instance, are right to work states. And so the Pro Act would really pass major reforms to protect workers in this country. The fact that Biden is so strongly in favor of it is a good sign. And I don't think that he came up with that out of the kindness of his own heart. I think that there's been a lot of great grassroots campaigning. Bernie Sanders is also by his side applying pressure, but doing so in an obviously diplomatic way. But there are other things that are influencing Biden based on the reporting that I've seen,

including the fact that, look, we do live in a different era where voters over. overwhelmingly support bold economic reforms. You hear statements from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell regarding how there will be a nuclear winter if Biden and the Democrats do away with the filibuster or reform it. And Biden doesn't seem like he cares. Biden won't hesitate. Just as he passed the $1.9 trillion COVID rescue package with zero Republican votes and zero regrets, his team sees little chance he's going to be able to rewire the government in his

image if he plays by the rules of bringing in at least 10 Republicans. And good, at least he realizes that. You know, at least he's not spouting like delusional statements about how we need bipartisanship within the Senate to pass legislation. The Republicans are never going to play ball with him. And then finally, this is my favorite part of the story. This is personally my favorite part of the story. He loves the growing narrative that he's bolder and bigger thinking than President Obama, which we will elaborate on further in a story that we'll do later. But yes, yes, Biden, you should want to stand apart from Obama. His stimulus bill from 2009 did not do enough for those in the working class, the middle class who were hurt by the great recession.

It only furthered inequality. And so I think Biden needs to not only acknowledge that, but go bolder to secure his legacy as someone who actually did something about a broken economic system. Yeah. Look, President Obama was perfectly attuned to conventionalism in D.C. And worked his hardest within those constructs. Unfortunately, he completely lacked the imagination that those constructs were irrelevant. And he didn't have to follow any of that conventional wisdom.

I mean, he greatly limited himself by doing so. Progressives by pushing people like Biden and the entire Democratic Party have begun to erode that conventional wisdom construct. And thereby doing a giant favor to Joe Biden because then he would actually have a legacy. And so that's super important here. Look, I'm going to give you one more piece of good news, but then I'm going to give me two big cautions here at that. So inside that infrastructure bill would be paid family leave. And that is desperately needed where the only developed nation that doesn't have it is absurd that we don't have it. And I genuinely believe that Biden wants it. So that's great news, okay? Now, the two giant notes of caution.

One, I haven't heard of a peep about the $15 million in which. So why wouldn't that be in this bill? And I don't even see progress is pushing for it. So yes, okay, Bernie's pushed him to be more progressive in areas that are less painful. And I'm gonna explain that here then. But I don't see anybody pushing my $15 a minute wage. So the biggest note of caution arises from that. Look, at the end of the day, you'll know what there's an actual massive breakthrough when a Democrat challenges corporate power. And believe it or not, this is still not it, because Chamber of Commerce wants Biden to spend $3 trillion on infrastructure, a lot of that is going to go to business. So they're not opposed to that at all. They're a tiny bit of opposed to paid family leave, but they know they're like 100 years

behind the rest of the developed world, and they're going to lose that battle. So that's going to be a little bit that they give us. But when it gets to actual corporate issues, like the wages of their workers, health care, subsidies to oil companies, etc., tax cuts, all of those things, that's where he's going to run into actual opposition. And does he want to push past that opposition? No, he hasn't shown that yet. But this is about the maximum you can do, before you get to real corporate power and that battle. Yeah, look, that's a really great point. I do think that it's a positive sign.

And look at me being optimistic. I don't know what's wrong with me. But I will say the fact that Biden is so transparently supportive of the pro act, which corporations absolutely hate. I mean, it makes it easier for labor to organize and demand more, not just in their wages, but in their working conditions. The fact that he's so vocal about that is a good sign. But again, I think that proceeding with caution is important because I don't want people to get

their hopes up and then be disappointed. But more importantly, I think that the continued applied pressure on the Biden administration from the left, even though the left is still unorganized, is effective. And so we should continue pushing forward with that as well. But with that said, Jenk, I think we should move to the second half of this story, regardless regarding Biden's relationship with Obama and how he's been pretty critical of some of the decisions that Obama made in his leadership and how he wants to kind of set himself apart from that. So the Biden administration has been lightly critiquing the shortcomings of the Obama

administration. And it's not only revealing how Biden's leadership could be different from that of Obama's, but it's also pissing Obama's people off. Like, there's really no other way to put it. Now, I'm sure you all remember that on the surface, it appeared as though Obama and Biden had this great friendship, a great relationship, and there were never any problems. But beneath the surface, there were some issues, and there was a rivalry, which I'm sure Jank will fill you in with more details about in just a minute. But right now what we're seeing is that, you know, Biden, for instance, has said that Obama was not assertive enough in selling his economic stimulus plan, which the 44th president signed into law in February of 2009 amid a huge financial crisis.

Others in Biden's circle have argued that the Obama stimulus was too small, and they're right, an error that current administration was adamant it would not make, and it forged ahead with a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package. And there's also, and this is my favorite part, criticism toward how Obama was far too willing to negotiate and concede to the Republican Party. Another related critique is that Obama was too eager to get Republicans to sign on to his policy goals from economic stimulus to the Affordable Care Act when they had no real interest in doing so.

Suggestions that he was naive in this effort have long irked the 44th president. And to be sure, I'm about to read you a bunch of statements from people who are close to Obama, who are not pleased about the critique coming from the Biden administration. But, Jank, first, you jump in. Okay, first of all, drums. But this drama is actually important. It's not just fun, because who's right and who's wrong has really important ramifications for what we're going to do going forward. Now, of course, all of Washington is furious with any suggestion that the sainted Obama might have done anything one percent wrong.

So, you know, there's the Hill had an article where they quoted a professor Alan Lickman from American University, but really what they're doing is they're fishing for a quote to say, hey, Biden team, you better back off. And they, that's what reporters do a lot of times after the editor tells them to write a story in a specific way, go find me someone who's going to say this. So what is the message they want to deliver? Well, it's in the form of this quote from Lickman. Biden loyalists should quote tread carefully.

There's very little to be gained from criticizing Obama, who in many ways was an extraordinarily successful president. In other words, don't mess with us, okay? Because their feelings would get hurt. And remember, the thing that Obama cares most about is his legacy. God forbid he should care most about his voters. Okay, so I'm being super clear here. So who was right and who was wrong back in the day?

There's no question about it. History has proven, honestly, Honestly, us 100% right because what conventional wisdom in D.C. will do is they'll say, oh, there's nothing Obama could have done. Nobody back then knew that the Republicans would be this obstinate. That's not true. Go back to T.Y.T. clips from 2009, 2010, go back to what Bernie Sanders was saying. Robert Rice was saying. So it's all the progressives were screaming, you're not going to get the Republicans to vote for you. That is foolish. And they're like, oh, please, we're so sophisticated. We're sophisticated technocrats. We know our

fellow Ivy League alumni and I'm sure that they're going to work with us. Well, what happened, Rahm Emanuel? What happened, Axelrod? What happened to all of you? Now, you were all wrong. You hired people like Geithner and Summers who are actually Republicans and they told you to make the relief bill as small as possible and you believed it. Look, was it dumb? No, because Barack Obama's a very smart guy. But was it naive? Definitely. Did it take him too long to turn around? It took him six years to turn around. Yes, yes, he was dead. He was, look, he was wrong. He just flat out was wrong. And if that hurts his feelings or anybody who worked for him, that's a sad day for you. We don't want Biden making the same mistake. Go large. The Republicans are

irrelevant. In order to break your filibuster, you need 10 Republican senators. Does anyone on planet earth think they can get 10 Republican senators to do anything on Biden's agenda? If you say yes, You're honestly an idiot and your opinion should be immediately discounted. So anyone talking to you about bipartisanship honestly doesn't know one thing about politics in America. We were right all along. Well, Jank, since you mentioned both Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, two individuals who worked within Obama's administration, you know, just know that they're very defensive

about Obama's legacy and his record. And I do want to read you a few of their statements. Starting with Rahm Emanuel, who of course served as Obama's chief of staff before he went on to be an awful mayor in Chicago. Now, he says this, it's really about Obama versus Bush and Biden versus Trump, not the other way around. We built long-lasting, robust economic growth for the top 1%. And I think comparing one to the other is, is historically not accurate. And also, more importantly, it's strategically not advantageous. No, I actually think it is advantageous because you should take a look at the number of American

voters who voted for Obama not once, but twice, but by the end of Obama's second term, they were so convinced that the Democratic Party was not going to look out for their economic interests that they flipped over to a lunatic like Donald Trump. Now, obviously, I don't agree with the move that they made, but that's beside the point. The point here is that a lot of voters did put their faith behind Obama based on the campaign messaging that he used. It's just that he never implemented many of the policies that he campaigned on once he was elected. Also, in regard to David Axelrod, he says this, it is irksome, only in the sense that it was an entirely different situation. If the Obama economic record

were deficient, I'm pretty sure Joe Biden wouldn't have run on. it. Look, I mean, it was deficient. Inequality grew under the Obama administration. And so one of the arguments that they're trying to make jank is that, look, it was just a different political time. Now the left has a bigger voice. They can apply more pressure. There's more support for deficit spending. And all of that may be true, but we're talking about the difference between the Washington intelligentsia and the voters. The voters overwhelmingly have supported robust and bold economic reform. They have. They did after the economic decline in 2008, and they certainly did after what happened with the pandemic and how that impacted the economy as well. That never

changed. They want you to believe that that changed. But the only thing that's been constant, And the only thing that's been informing the Democratic Party's views of robust policy is what the Washington elite believe and what their own corporate donors want. And that's a problem. If Biden follows that paradigm, it's going to be an issue. He's not going to have a good legacy or a lasting legacy. Why would he want to repeat the mistakes of the Obama administration when he really does have an opportunity here to go down as one of the most important. reformers of our economic system. That would be incredibly popular. I highly recommend that he goes in that direction. Okay, so first of all, I love that the former Obama guys caught feelings. But guess what, guys, it isn't about you. I got news for you. No one cares about you. It's about do people have higher wages? Do they have healthcare or don't they? So a person sitting there who's going to lose their house because they didn't have enough money because of the

in ridiculous medical rates isn't going to be like, oh, but what was Axelrod's legacy? God, you guys are so self-obsessed and self-important. Oh, Arturica, whose legacy is better? Well, instantly, I hate you, and I think your legacy sucks because you're so obsessed with your own ego. So, okay, now let's break this down further. So, they say, Barack Obama is a political genius. Now, look, there's some logic behind that. He used an African-American guy who won two elections. His name is Barack Hussein Obama. So obviously he was amazing in some ways.

You can't take that away from him. On the other hand, he was incredibly selfish. Now, look, I'll even give the caveat of, look, they were going to call him an angry black man, the Republicans were terrible doing him. All of those things are absolutely true, okay? But they lost a thousand seats under Obama nationwide. And he triangulated just like the Clintons. And what that does is it damages your own party.

It says, my party sucks. The Republicans are not that good either. The only one who's reasonable is me, that's called triangulation. Bill Clinton invented that. Actually, Dick Morris invented that, and he's one of the worst right wingers in the country, okay? And so Bill Clinton used Dick Morris, and then Obama was like, oh, that's a good idea. I'll be selfish too. I'll make it seem like I'm the only reasonable person. I'll win. Meanwhile, my own party will lose a thousand seats. And he thought, and there's no question about this. He thought, I'll back Hillary Clinton in 2016 instead of Joe Biden. Did he let Joe Biden down after Joe Biden was loyal to him? Of course, anyone denying that just is trying to be polite and lives in DC and doesn't want to hurt

anybody's feelings. There's no question Obama picked Hillary Clinton over Joe Biden. Every single detail confirms that. So was Obama right? Because he's the political genius, right, D.C.? Oops, no, he was wrong. Hillary Clinton lost, Joe Biden won. Now, does anybody ever say that? No, No, no, no, you can't because that would offend the powerful, including all of Obama's allies. Look, I don't dislike Obama at all. So I'm just telling you what the political reality is. Now, there is a guy I dislike. It's Rahm Emanuel.

And it isn't personal. I dislike him for his effect on the country. So Obama had a temerity to say, you know, I really wish I had been pushed by the left more, and then that would have given me more room. That was one of the quotes of you. No, when the left pushed you, I know I was there. you sent out Rahm Emanuel to insult us and call us, you know, mentally deficient, et cetera. When you guys were the ones who were so silly and you thought, oh, I bet the Republicans work with us.

And we were mentally deficient? Oh, please. So now you're going to come back with Rahm, with his heartbroken. Oh, he's trying to out be like the ambassador to Samoa or something like that. Okay, because it's just further humiliations, which I'm here for and I love. But the guys, the reason I'm telling you this is because if Biden makes the mistake of listening to people like Rahm Emanuel, like Obama did, he will ruin any chance at relief for you guys. And I don't care about his legacy, but I know he does. And everybody in D.C. is obsessed with their own legacy. And Joe, like your legacy will be ruined if you listen to idiots like Rahm Emanuel, who will tell you. to kiss Republican ass and then get zero Republican votes. So there is a correct answer. And right now, Biden is on the right path. You're on the right path, Joey B. You got it. You got it. Go for it, okay? Yeah, we support it. Yeah, we're here for. But we gotta take a break.

No, hold on one super last thing, Anna, sorry. Look, the other thing we have to note here is that the Obama guys were borderline cruel to Biden when they were in the White House. So we don't have time for the dozens of quotes here. But they used to make fun of how he wasn't that smart. And it's always that embarrassing uncle of Thanksgiving. And he always talks too much and he goes in wrong directions, etc. So it's impossible on a human level to look at that and for Biden not to feel hurt by that. So he didn't get backed in 2016. He didn't get back that much, although Obama did deliver form it appears in South Carolina, which was huge to be fair, right? But and then to have those guys make fun of you all the time, and now they can get their feelings hurt because you passed a bigger stimulus bill and you're fighting for bigger and better bills, well, Joe, you got to say that's your problem, not my problem. Okay, I'm going to get things done. And maybe this time you can go ahead and get your feelings, sir.

We got to take a break, but when we come back, Amazon attempts to be woke and they fail miserably at it because their workers literally have to poop in bags so they can deliver enough packages on time. We have the details to that story and more when we come back. 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 sort of. 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. We're going to be. I'm doing. I'm going to B. I'm going to VIII. All right.

All right, guys, there's so many great comments in our member section. And by the way, Sheila T. Forge Father Eli, they just joined Young Turks by hitting the joint button. Are they American heroes? I guess. But listen, guys, we really, I'm not playing around with you guys. We're to change the world together. So everybody who joins up, either through that or t.y.t.com slash join. You guys are amazing. And we're going to do it together. You're going to see. It's going to be amazing. So let's do the show together. Diana writes in, noted American historian Heather Cox Richardson was initially against getting rid of the filibuster. She recently came out in favor of removing the filibuster, fascinating lecture

on that on March 23rd. Yes. Okay, so that's great info. It said, I like that these conventional wisdom historians are headed in this direction. Harvey Kay was pushing. He's a wonderful progressive historian. It was pushing for Biden going FBI's direction from day one. The filibuster was always ridiculous for our first 100 years. It was used only for racism. It has a tradition of race. All right, don't get me started. The math and magician says Biden has always been a practical guy despite being a racist and corrupt neoliberal through and through. It's very clear he understand how leftist the younger generation of the country is, and why he has to do more than throw them crumbs. He understands this as Obama didn't. Now that's a pretty harsh

assessment of Biden, but certainly it's true that Biden is a classic politician who sees where the country is. And now he's realizing, oh, the country has moved left. And that in and of itself is great news. Jim writes it, the problem I have with a non-FDR version of the infrastructure is that it usually just means throw money at contractors who then hire subcontractors that maybe eventually 10 out of every 100 bucks goes to actually building something or fixing something. Jim, again, you're so smart and right. Unfortunately, that is a big part of it. That's why corporate America doesn't mind the infrastructure bill. That's why it has a much greater chance of passing. Theater goddess writes, and with Biden meeting with the historians

are responding positively, people saying doing things will make him look better than Obama, makes me think that he's more worried about looking good than doing good. That's true, but I'll take it. We can exploit him. Oh, she adds as well, we can exploit him by pushing progressive policies and saying that it will make him look good. And it's not like exploitation in the wrong way. It's just to say, hey, listen, brother, you're going to get the credit you want. And at that point, you deserve.

Yes, carrots and sticks. Look, I can't stand it when something positive happens and the left is like, no, no, no, positive reinforcement works too. Carrots and sticks. We went after the Biden administration, particularly on gun control, aggressively yesterday. That was the right take. But when he does something right, carrots, okay? It can't just be all sticks. Then he's not going to pay attention at all. Hashtag boss. And last one is a bucket full of dragons. Anna, optimistic, deprived of salt. How can people drink margarita like this? Good question. People want to know.

All right on the Young Turks, shaking out on with you guys. I love this YouTube super chat from Katie Max. Katie writes in birthday shout out to our own synodragon, Ben Mankwitz. That's so true that, it's Ben's birthday. You know how you can get him a birthday gift? Hit the join button below. No, he doesn't like, did he tell me to tell you that? No, did I make it up?

Yes, but should you do it anyway? Yes. TYT.com slash join. Who's stopping you? Absolutely no one. Let's do it right now for Ben, for Mank. Do it for Mank. All right, Anna. Ben also wants you to like and share the stream. Like, it would make him really,

really happy. So do that. We're on, okay, can I just, we're on to a new thing now. Do it for Ben. No matter what it is, like just to do it for Ben. He's got to have it. All right, all right. We're going to do the next story for Ben. For Ben. All right. So an Amazon executive, you know, the company that applies authoritarian tactics on its workers, uh, try to to get snarky against Senator Bernie Sanders and it didn't work out so well for them. So Dave Clark, who's the executive in question here, tweeted and boasted about the fact that Amazon pays its workers $15 an hour. But remember, that only happened after Bernie Sanders pressured them in 2018.

So Clark writes, I welcome Senator Sanders to Birmingham and appreciate his push for a progressive workplace. I often say we are the Bernie Sanders of employers, but that's not quite right because we actually deliver a progressive workplace. I mean, it's just so disgusting and it's such a giant lie. So if you want to hear about a $15 an hour and health care, Senator Sanders will be speaking downtown. But if you would like to make at least $15 an hour and have good health care, Amazon is hiring. Now, understand why Dave Clark is putting these stupid tweets out there. It's because he's extra salty about the fact that Senator Sanders is traveling to Bessemer, Alabama, to support the Amazon workers there who are organizing and attempting to unionize. There's currently a union vote

taking place. Voting ends on Monday, and Bernie wants to do whatever he can to support their efforts, so he's traveling to Bessemer and these Amazon executives are trying to fight back. Clark also writes this. All we know, all we want to know is why the senator is one of the most popular polls in Vermont for 30 plus years, and their minimum wage is still only $11.75. Amazon's minimum wage is $15 plus great health care from day one. The senator should save his finger-wagging lecture until after he actually delivers. in his own backyard. Well, again, let me just reiterate, the only reason why, only reason why Amazon is paying a $15 an hour minimum wage is because Senator Sanders relentlessly pressured them

to do so. He held town halls, meant to apply pressure to Amazon. Like the whole topic of it was how much Amazon workers have to rely on government aid, in some cases sleeping in their cars in order to make ends meet, just absolutely disgusting behavior. And what I love is Stuart Applebaum's response to all of this, Jank. He is the president of the union that the Amazon workers are trying to join. And he said this, if working conditions were so great, Amazon wouldn't have such an extraordinarily high turnover rate of over 100% a year at its facilities. And of course, there are other problems with Amazon's working conditions, which I'll get to in just a minute. But Jank, what do you think? Yeah. So in a sense,

Those are message in a bottle, as you'll see. So in terms of Amazon here, well, a couple of things, guys. First of all, they really got some nerve telling Bernie Sanders that they're more progressive after he broke them and made them do $15. But secondly, I kind of like that they're pushing him from their so-called left, right? So you know, I don't think Bernie fought hard enough to get $15 minimum wage in the COVID Bill, I'm super clear about that. If Amazon wants to criticize him for that and say, no, everybody should have $15 minimum wage, great, I'm here for it. By the way, that was, and this we gave

Bernie credit for it, because you know why? Because we're fair. We're fair in giving him credit, we're fair in criticizing him. We said if it succeeds that it's push to get Amazon of $15, and by the way, Roe Conner deserves a lot of credit for that too. It'll make Amazon push everyone else to $15 so they're not at a competitive disadvantage. And that's, and that's That's exactly what happened. So that's why they're out here bragging about the $15. And so it was a great bold strategic move back then. Now of course, they're just a little bit more reluctant because they would offend their

beloved Joe Biden. I'm keeping it real, okay? But in terms of Amazon, that was very poorly played from the PR person's perspective. And the reason for that is you're picking a fight that you're not going to win based on the facts as Anna's about to show you here. Right. And I want to, you know, help educate Dave Clark a little bit. Maybe he's too busy, you know, reaping the benefits of his workers to understand how politics works. But in the state of Vermont, the state legislature did, in fact, pass an increase

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that he knew, just helping a brother out. But, you know, there are, of course, all sorts of issues with the working conditions over at Amazon. And Robert Reich shared those details in a tweet saying that workers are forced to urinate in bottles, which is true, firing pregnant women for taking too many bathroom breaks, which is true. All of this stuff is true. Hiring analysts to monitor labor organizing threats and also making employees attend mandatory anti-union meetings. And remember, we also shared a story with you just yesterday about how Amazon is now installing all sorts of tracking devices in the vehicles of Amazon delivery drivers, and they're collecting their biometric data to keep track of how many times they yawn

when they're delivering vehicles. And I should also note that Ken Clippenstein over at the Intercept just published a fantastic report detailing how Amazon knew that its workers were under so much pressure to deliver an insane amount of packages on any given workday that they were reduced to having to defecate in bags in order to save time just so they can meet those quotas. So please check that report out over at the Intercept. And Jordan Yule is hosting his deep dive show today on Twitch. where Ken Clippenstein will talk about those details and elaborate on them further. So check that out as well at twitch.tv slash t-y-t. Yeah, look, that yon thing is just the most amazing and oppressive thing I've ever heard. Do we also have to be super excited while working for corporate America under brutal conditions? Is that now, I don't want you bored. No, yes, yes.

I'm so happy to be not be able to get a bathroom break, right? Yes, but the answer is yes, yes. Barbara Aaron Reich and Brightsided writes extensively about that, about how people get penalized in the corporate environments for not being positive enough. So that's been a big problem. So look, Amazon is so aware of the problem of their drivers and sometimes in the warehouses as well, not being able to take enough bathroom breaks that they have draw attention to it all the time in internal memos.

Those are the memos that Ken got, by the way, the description of Fox is filled with fun. So we'll put a link to Ken's article in the description box if you're watching later on YouTube or Facebook. And there's always great links in there, so always check that out. But you'll see in there, they're like, hey, listen, we know all the people pooping in the Amazon delivery bags, and we know the urine in the bottles, et cetera. Now, if management knows that, and especially at a giant, well-organized company like Amazon, you think they don't don't know what's causing it, they know what's causing it. It's not guys being, and I don't even want to get into their female employees, like doing it for fun. It happens all the time

because they cannot meet their quota. Are Amazon executives aware of that? Of course, of course they're aware of that. Did they design the system to maximize the number of packages that they could send out without much concern for humanity? In fact, did they figure out how far they could push humanity, a human being to deliver the maximum amount of packages. Yes, their accountant's job is to figure that out. So they will push you to the absolute brink. That is why giant companies like Amazon is exactly where unions should organize. Absolutely. And not only does Amazon know about what their employees are forced to do, they've decided that instead of changing what the quota is like, they're going to punish the workers if they're caught urinating

in public or defecating in bags, again, because they feel the pressure to do that to save time. We got to take a break, but when we come back, Senator Elizabeth Warren in her most comfortable environment, speaking truth to power when it comes to corporate greed, this time it was pretty tense back and forth with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. You don't want to miss it, come right back. Great comments from our member section. Kid tested, Pallup Bureau approved, wrote in random, but every time I hear the word bipartisanship, I apply it to the anchorman quote. Well, I could be wrong, but I believe bipartisanship was an old wooden boat that was used during the Civil War.

We enjoy all anchorman quotes here. If you put an anchorman quote in the prompter, Yuger will read it, especially if you put it on his mahogany desk. Okay, the matter of The magician writes in again, gee Amazon tried to sarcastically attack Bernie and gets memory loss about the only reason they pay some workers $15 an hour is Bernie Sanders and it didn't work. Does this mean America aren't as stupid as they think we are? I guess. Okay, excellent comment. So I love this one too. Litch McConnell writes in, I assume no relation to the bad McConnell or maybe It's a reference to it. Anyways, Clark's job might be on the line if a union successfully organizes under his watch. He'll be grateful for the union when he gets demoted to a warehouse worker. Do you have any idea how fast he would quit? He'd quit instantly if he was made to be a warehouse worker. And I get why, but it's still, let's just noted. Okay, and Ink Dragon Rides in. And don't forget, Amazon made sure to offset their wage increase by eliminating most stock sharing

and bonus incentives. For line level workers, obviously, executive bonuses were left just fine. That is a million percent, right? Thank you for adding that. That's why I like doing this during the breaks. I think your comments are awesome. We have the smartest audience. And now Farleyita Belliard is part of that smartest audience in the world. Just hit the join button below. If you're on YouTube, it's a big button saying, hello, I'm right here. And you know some of those emojis like this? That's what the join button is like, hello. Okay. Go, gee. It's like, it's like, it's like, $1.99 at the low level. We see the badges. We appreciate it. $4.99 gets you the post game. You know that. That's a cup of coffee. Speaking of which,

Trisha Briggs wrote in on YouTube Super Chat saying, throwing no shade, but Jank and Anna, you're my favorite duo. Aw. I mean, look, look, all right, let me just keep going. As long as I'm included in the duo that you guys like, I'm happy. Yeah. So thank you. I mean like the other ones, like that's optional. That's optional over there, Okay, but okay. Anyway, so excited for tonight's show, she continues. I'm in a mood to Jenk, BTW, Too Strong Coffee is amazing. Isn't it? Okay, too strong coffee.com, but you're going to need this slash TYT, otherwise we don't get credit, okay? Everybody wants credit. That's human. It's human. It's validation. In this case, it's also money. So two strong coffee.com slash TYT. They're unabashedly

progressive and they really, it tastes awesome. So go check that out right now. Okay, I got more. Jay Martinez 310 checking us a little bit and I appreciate it. Agree with Obama's policy failures, but fails to consider race. Persons of colors have to work twice as hard for half the results. Had to be two times as conservative for half the results. So I hear you, and there's no question that that's a giant, giant caveat to critique of Obama. trauma. We were trying to help him get beyond that. I know those expectations, but the conventional wisdom was always wrong. All right, we'll be back. All right on Young Turks, Jane and Anna with you guys.

So our producers put in comments from our member section on TYT.com, on YouTube, Super Chat, and Twitch, et cetera for me. So I just want to give them a note live on the air. This Fahim Lalani, no more comments, okay? Look at this outrageous comment here. Jank and Anna, I love you both, but Anna has better judgment on almost everything. Oh my God. No, we're done with that.

We're done with that. That is, you know, I appreciate the compliment, but you should, you should never ever say things like that again, okay? It's very offensive to jank and I do not appreciate it. I was like, where's she going with this? There's no way she means that. All right, more. All right, well, there is a notable disagreement between Treasury Secretary Janet Yell

and Senator Elizabeth Warren. Now, Elizabeth Warren was certainly one of Yellen's promoters in this post as Treasury Secretary, so it's not like they have bad blood. But this is Warren, in my opinion, in the best environment for her to shine when she's speaking truth to power in these Senate hearings. And in this particular case, she wants to understand why it is that a company like BlackRock, which has not, it's currently dealing with $9 trillion of wealth that they're managing. Why is it that they don't have the proper classification to ensure that they're regulated appropriately?

Before I get to the details of that exchange, though, I think it is important to kind of understand what Yellen has done so far in this post as Treasury Secretary. And one thing that I'm particularly sensitive to is this notion of corporate stock buybacks, especially when it comes to corporations and banks that have been bailed out, especially when it comes to corporations and banks that the Federal Reserve has provided cheap money to in the form of quantitative easing. And so Yellen has decided that, no, no, it's totally fine. Let's allow these banks to buy shares of their own stock again.

I have been opposed earlier when they were very concerned about the situation the banks would face about stock buybacks, but financial institutions look healthier now, and I believe they should have some of the liberty provided by the rules to make returns to shareholders. She also says this, which makes me want to pull my hair out, the feds moved to allow buybacks to resume, came after the largest, this is actually from CNBC, came after the largest institutions showed they could weather, worst case scenarios centered around the pandemic. Central bank officials have largely praised the industry's COVID response and said the too big to fail firms remain well capitalized. The Federal Reserve, like the Federal Reserve printed money and handed it over to them. What are they talking about? Like the way they're framing this makes it seem as though like, oh, all of this great responsible behavior by these banks, you know, they really know what they're doing.

And let's not pat them on the back, pat them on the backs when it came to the small business loans, these banks did an awful job in distributing them to the businesses that actually needed it. Instead, they decided to hand that money over to their own clients, which is a huge issue, right? It was a huge flaw in the way that that money went out. But with that said, Jank, let's go to what Elizabeth Warren is concerned about. Specifically, Warren suggested that Black Rock, the institutional money management giant and leading ETF provider also should be designated as a system systematically, sorry about that, should be designated as a systemically important financial institution or it's also known as SIFI that is a firm that could put the economy

at risk if it were to collapse. And since they're managing $9 trillion in wealth, it is a giant institution and should they make mistakes and it could lead to an economic collapse. That's the point she's trying to make. And here's how that exchange went down. It's not obvious to me that designation is the correct, is the correct tool to address. Just a minute. Designation is what is what gives the Fed, it's increased oversight power. Is that correct? Is that correct? Yes. And is BlackRock currently designated so that it receives that increased oversight? It isn't designated, but I think it's important to understand. So that means it is not receiving the increased oversight from the Fed.

So my question is, are you currently looking at designation for companies like BlackRock, $9 trillion companies like this? Well, as I said, F SOC has looked at this issue in the past. I understand they've done it in the past. I'm not asking about what the last secretary of the treasury did. You are the head of FSOC now. And the question I'm asking is whether or not FSOC is considering and looking at designation for these large financial institutions. They should.

Wow. Wow. I think Yelen just got F socked. So look, that was Elizabeth Warren at our best. And the context Anna gave you is really important. She backs Yellen to become Treasury Secretary. Yellen walks into this ambush thinking, oh, here's someone who supports me. And Warren's like, no, no, wait a minute, wait a minute.

This is about policy, let's get real here. So this is why I liked Warren in the first place, because this is accountability that she's asking for from the executive branch. All right, so just a little bit more on this issue. Look, the designation, as Warren is explaining there, allows the Treasury Secretary to check in. It doesn't mean that they have to take any action. It just means they're allowed to regulate them. I don't see why we wouldn't do that with a $9 trillion company. So that's an excellent point, nearly indisputable. But the point I want to make is I haven't seen

anywhere else. You can't tell us that we're not going to regulate them. And then if it turns out you're wrong and they were a systemic risk, then turn around and say we need to bail them out. No, no, you got to pick one. So one thing that they could suggest, I don't know if they're even thinking about this at all, but Warren should suggest a bill, for example, that says if you're not a company that's considered a systemic risk, if you go bankrupt, we will definitely, definitely not bail you out. All the shareholders will get zero from the American taxpayer. It's an ironclad law, if you, hey, listen, if you want the protection, you need to get the regulation.

If you don't want the regulation, then you don't get the protection. That's how it works. You know that $9 trillion is greater than the GDP of every single country with the exception of the United States and China? That's how much $9 trillion is. Like, just let that sink in. No, Anna, that's such a great point because it's a joke. to say they're not a systemic risk. If anything went wrong with BlackRock, they would

instantly all scream from the rooftops. We were systemic risk, systemic risk, and that's why we need to be bailed out because, oh, it's dominoes, and that endangers all the other companies, and it endangers the cities and the states, and everything that Black Rock touches. Well, then okay, by definition, your systemic risk, and we have to regulate. So they want it both ways. And unfortunately, a lot of people in the Biden administration, like with the Obama administration, the Trump administration, Bush administration, et cetera, they're all worked for these giant corporations or got giant amounts of money from those corporations. So lo and behold, they say, no, I want to keep their costs low and not regulate. In other words, not have cops check in to see if they're doing

the right thing. And if it turns out, you know, whether it's just errors on their part, wild risk taking, or they were actually robbers on the street, right? And they did something wrong. on purpose, well, we're going to bail them out anyway. No, the American people are absolutely sick and tired of that. The right wing is sick and tired of it, and so is the left wing. It's about time that people like Elizabeth Warren regulated. I don't know, that's the job of a senator. Every Democrat and Republican senators should be doing that. It's an absolute shame that there's only one doing it. And, Jank, you know, since you implied that there's corruption and, you know, corruption basically leading to the kinds of decisions that people

like Yellen are making, I do want to provide receipts for that, because the truth of the matter is Black Rock, as I mentioned, is the largest money manager in the world with nearly $9 million in assets. Now, the firm last helped guide the Fed when the central bank was buying corporate bonds. So, you know, the close relationship between the corporate world and government is a problem. Now let's focus on how this impacts the Biden administration. have accepted, have been accepted in or are in line for top jobs within the Biden administration, including the former senior advisor at the asset manager who was president, who the president has picked to be deputy treasury secretary. During his confirmation process, Warren actually

questioned him, but refrain from asking whether F Sox should designate Black Rock. The Senate is expected to soon vote on his nomination. Also, vice president, Kamala Harris tapped Mike Pyle, Black Rock's former chief investment strategist to be her top economic advisor and Brian Dees, who was the firm's global head of sustainable investing, leads Joe Biden's National Economic Council. So look, all of this stuff is relevant, right? Because it's that same revolving door of politics that leads to the corruption and it leads to bad regulatory decisions being made. And in the case of a company that has, you know, $9 trillion in assets, yes, it's, it's definitely too big. It should have to deal with the same regulations

and more robust regulations, if you ask me, that other large institutions have to abide by. Yeah, by the way, that's why we told you that corporations love Kamala Harris, because they know that if she gets in charge, she's going to stuff, you know, all of advisors from Wall Street. And that's exactly what she's doing. And she raised a lot of money from Wall Street. So this, and look, even if those are good people, and I'm sure they're smart people, their assumptions are that industry and corporations on Wall Street are awesome and that they should be rewarded and they should be supported and unregulated. So when you stuff your administration full of people with those assumptions, you're playing with fire. But I'm going to

give the last word to two of our members, t.yt.com slash join to do the show with us. Carlson is a lying mother Tucker, unsurprisingly sent in a sarcastic comment. Oh, looky there. Has Elizabeth Warren woken from her slumber? Maybe she had a cup of too strong coffee. Now, I wouldn't blame her if she did, okay, but give her credit where credit is too. And finally, oh, jam, Rodin. Nobody's stupid enough to honestly believe a firm managing $9 trillion in wealth can't tank their economy. That's almost half of the U.S. USA's GDP, good fact. Of course they need heightened oversight and regulation. Look, do we have the smartest audience in the world? I guess. Okay, so when we come back, AJ Delgado is going

to join us live. She's a former Trump administration advisor or actually Trump campaign advisor back in 2016. And there's a very significant story that she's in the middle of today and she's going to speak out on it, you should be here for it. We'll be right 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 podcast at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.