The Young Turks - Obesity & Insulin

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. On July 18th, get excited. This is big! For the summer's biggest adventure. I think I just smurf my pants. That's a little too excited.

Starting point is 00:00:21 Sorry. Smurfs. Only dinner's July 18th. While are we on church, Jake, you're at a couple of young church, Jake, you're at a with you guys. Guys, I got stuck in Miami because we're canceled. Yeah. So alive from a hotel room in Miami, Jake, you. So a big show head for you guys, including European style soccer haircut. You're the worst. I don't have time to fly back home to do the show, but you have time for that European soccer to hear.

Starting point is 00:01:32 Well, when your flight's canceled, you know, you got to make the best of it. That's all the thing. All right, anyways, we have a fine show ahead for you guys. Also, of course, a disastrous one, as you know. So we got the war. But on top of that, we have petty, petty good news. And Democrats, Republicans, we're going to make fun of them. Let's be honest.

Starting point is 00:01:54 And we're going to tell you things as they actually are. All right, so Casper, having said that, take it away. Well, I actually want to start off with a story that's kind of flying under the radar for many people. But it's important because it tells you exactly who the Republican Party really consists of. So only 12 House Republicans voted in favor of price caps on copayments for insulin. It's not even legislation meant to limit the amount of money patients spent on insulin itself. It only has to do with co-pays and only 12 House Republicans voted in favor of it. Matt Gates was not one of them. Now, in an effort to explain his no vote on this legislation,

Starting point is 00:02:37 which luckily did pass the House, but will unlikely pass if the Senate, he put out the statement. Here's what he said. In his newsletter Friday, Gates told his constituents that he opposed the bill because fat people, not big pharma, are responsible for driving up the cost of insulin. He suggested that type 2 diabetes, which is often linked to obesity, could be cured if only people would work out more and lose weight, at which point they wouldn't need insulin anymore, and the drug costs would fall without government intervention. Now, the statement is more than callous. It's also incredibly ignorant, and I'll explain why in just a moment. But here's what his newsletter said specifically verbatim.

Starting point is 00:03:25 While Democrat posturing of HR 6833 victimizes insulin payees as people with an uncontrollable disease that are being taken advantage of and need big brother to throw them a raft, lifestyle changes in mass would expeditiously lower demand and the subsequent prices of insulin. 90 to 95% of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes, which can be prevented or delayed with healthy lifestyle changes such as losing weight, eating healthy food, and being active. Now, of course, he noted a statistic there 90 to 95%. Notably, there was no evidence for that statistic whatsoever. But I just want to be clear, there are many people who have diabetes who did not make lifestyle decisions to habit, meaning it's not related to obesity, it's not related to their

Starting point is 00:04:20 inactivity or lack of exercise. I have a family. family member who has diabetes as a result of medication, she is forced to take as a result of a different condition, which has nothing to do with her lifestyle choices. So many Americans deal with the same thing. And by the way, even if 100% of Americans were dealing with diabetes, 100% of Americans with diabetes were suffering from it as a result of obesity, who the hell is Matt Gates to tell them? No, pharmaceutical companies get to price gouge you as much as they want. And as we know, this is really just price gouging. There was a giant story about Senator Joe Manchin's daughter when she was the CEO of Milan Pharmaceuticals. She struck a deal with

Starting point is 00:05:05 Pfizer to prevent them from putting out a generic version of the EpiPen. And the reason why she did that was to ensure that the EpiPen would be monopolized and she could charge whatever she wanted for it. And then she agreed to share some of those profits with Pfizer. Essentially, breaking all sorts of antitrust laws, which she was never held accountable for because her father happens to be one of the worst U.S. senators of all time. But he also says in his newsletter, arbitrary price controls are no substitute for individual weight control. Since 2000, the number of diabetes cases in the United States has nearly doubled. The demand for insulin has increased and the requisite price increases has followed suit. In other words, the price of

Starting point is 00:05:49 insulin increases as waistlines increase. And, you know, strong words for Matt Gates. I wish the media actually cared about this story and covered it more because the fact of the matter is there's a huge portion of Florida that not only has diabetes, but they're also being price gouged thanks to the price of insulin. More than a quarter of Florida residents are obese, including Matt Gates' favorite Palm Beach resident, former President Donald Trump. And more than 10% of the state's population suffers from diabetes, not of all.

Starting point is 00:06:19 Not all of which, of course, is caused by lifestyle factors. Got more details, which we'll get to in just a minute, but Jake, why don't you jump in? Yeah, so we showed on a previous show that this is not an isolated incident, not just for Matt Gates, but for several Republican congresspeople and so-called thought leaders, God help us, on what thoughts they're leading. But they're attacking overweight people and blaming them previously was mainly for COVID. Now it's also in this case for diabetes and the price of insulin. And I guess it's a way to try to get the attention off of their giant big pharmaceutical donors. So I don't know that Matt Gates has those to be fair about it.

Starting point is 00:07:07 So I don't know what his motivation is, but for him it might just be an extra way to be mean and to bully people. Because that's basically what the Republican politicians have become, just the worst bullies you've ever seen. So look, if you think the comments that Anna Red are not bad enough, he's gone after overweight people on at least four different occasions. I'll give you one here. He said he decried, quote, this is from other jokes. He decried, quote, woke culture for, quote, cheerleading for the chubbies. So this is a guy who has been attacking people based on their weight for a long time. And I guess in his bro culture, that's really funny.

Starting point is 00:07:54 Him and the bros laugh about it. Like, ha ha, yeah, she's overweight, and so is he. And I think that he probably gets a psychological kick out of it. But overall, the main reason Republicans are doing it is to protect their beloved drug company donors. By the way, I mean, while Democrats probably want to pat on the back for passing this very narrow piece of legislation in the House, which is very unlikely to pass in the Senate, I'm going to go after them in a moment. But I'm not done with Matt Gates just yet. And more importantly, the so-called pro-life Republicans who are only pro-life in the context of being able to control a woman's body. So let's say we play devil's advocate, right? And we just go along with what Matt Gates is. is arguing here, that the majority of people who have diabetes have it because they can't control their eating, they're not getting enough exercise. Okay, so what Matt Gates is advocating for, along with the majority of his Republican colleagues in the house, is for people who can't

Starting point is 00:08:58 afford this medication, people who can't afford insulin to just die. That is what they are effectively advocating for. He is saying, because that's how this works guys. Everyone knows this is how it works. If you can't afford the medication and you have diabetes, what happens to you? You die. You don't take the medication, you don't get the insulin you need. And then these clowns want to turn around and claim that they're pro life. They're pro life, again, only under incredibly narrow circumstances. And those narrow circumstances include a woman being able to make a decision about her own body. Because the anti-abortion movement in this country has always been and always will be about

Starting point is 00:09:46 control, about accumulating political power, and about punishment toward women who engage in sexual activity for pleasure as opposed to procreation. Now putting that aside, I want to note some of the other health issues associated with diabetes, health issues that lead to diabetes. Because he would have you believe, of course, that it's because people are just overweight. But no, that's really not how it works 100% of the time, 90% of time or 95% of the time. There are genetic mutations, for instance, monogenic diabetes. So that's diabetes that's caused by genetic mutations. There's also cystic fibrosis, which could not only increase the chance of getting diabetes,

Starting point is 00:10:27 but you could very well get diabetes as a result of that condition. There's also hemochromatosis, which could, again, a genetic condition that could lead to the development of type 2 diabetes. This is not based on lifestyle choices, this is based on a genetic condition. But hey, according to Matt Gates, if you can't afford insulin to keep yourself alive, screw you, he's just going to paint you as a fat person and be done with it. There are also hormonal diseases, including Cushing's syndrome, where your body produces excess cortisone, and then that ends up translating to type 2 diabetes. There's also hyperthyroidism, which is actually incredibly common. And that could also develop

Starting point is 00:11:08 into type 2 diabetes. And these, again, are conditions that are not based on lifestyle choices that people make. But again, my point of view is, even if someone has made poor health decisions in in their life and they're suffering from diabetes as a result, I think that it is the antithesis of a pro life agenda to give that individual or those people the middle finger and tell them to go F themselves if they can't afford the medication they need to survive. Yeah, I figured it out while we were doing the segment. So Republicans hate anyone they think is not like them. And so they circle the wagons and if they think you're part of my identity, for whatever reason, white Christian in my church, in my neighborhood, so those don't have to be

Starting point is 00:11:56 just race or religion, then I'm gonna circle the wagons for you, but I hate everyone outside the wagons and I will take great pleasure in hating them. And so Matt Gates, I guess, thinks he's in good shape. So he doesn't relate to people who are overweight. So by definition, Being a Republican these days, he feels he has to hate people who are overweight, because they're not like him. If you're not, if you're not like Matt Gates, he's gonna hate you. By the way, 25% of Florida is obese. So if- Yeah, we live in America, like come on. Yeah, if his district holds to the Florida average, which it likely does, that means he just gravely insulted a quarter of of his voters, but for Republicans, it doesn't matter.

Starting point is 00:12:47 You can call them obese, you can call their wife ugly, you can do any, you could do, you could have sex with underage girls apparently, right? In Matt Gates district, and they don't mind any of it as long as you hate the others. So hey, enjoy these fake populists robbing you blind on behalf of Big Pharma. And if you're a right winger who said, oh, I'm not taking the vaccine because of Big Pharma, man, And then you say, well, you know what? If someone is overweight, I agree with Matt Gates. You should give big pharma $1,000 instead of $35.

Starting point is 00:13:22 Really? Really? Republicans, do you have any compassion left for anyone that isn't you? No, they don't. They don't. But, Jenk, you know, let's now move over to Democrats. Because trying to pass legislation that just singles out, one medication here, maybe another medication, if we're lucky, if we're lucky, if we're lucky, maybe Democrats might

Starting point is 00:13:47 propose lowering the price or capping the co-pay for another pharmaceutical drug. Ooh, no, I mean, this is such a failed strategy, right? How about instead of singling out one medication or another, pass legislation that caps the price for all pharmaceutical drugs? That would appeal to far more Americans, since most Americans would be positively impacted by the passage of that kind of legislation. And it would be far more difficult for clowns like Matt Gates or any other Republican to point to a specific medication to how they don't need price caps because people who are sick with that illness or have that disease only have it because of lifestyle choices. I mean, Democrats love to put themselves in a weaker position. But more importantly,

Starting point is 00:14:35 the other thing, this is a perfect opportunity. I mean, the Democratic Party should exploit, take advantage of these comments by Matt Gates. This is not a politically popular opinion, but will they? No, they won't. I mean, they'll focus on other salacious stuff, which his constituents don't care about at all. But let me tell you something, whether you're a Democrat or Republican, if you can't afford the cost associated with the medications you need to survive, you're going to care about that issue. But, you know, Democrats will just let this fall by the wayside because they do not know how to do appropriate political campaigning. Yeah, so look, you won't get this on any other channel. On Fox News,

Starting point is 00:15:16 they'll tell you Democrats are full of crap, but the Republicans are lovely, lovely people. The MSNBC will tell you that Republicans are monsters, but the Democrats are just the biggest angels you've ever seen. No, the reality is 90% of politicians are full of crap. They're lying to 24-7. So, okay, you say you don't want price caps, easy to solve. Why don't we have Medicare negotiate drug prices on all the drugs that they buy? That would make a giant difference. It pulls it over 80%. I've seen some polls where it pulls over 90%. The American people definitely want it. It would lower all drug prices. Yet both Democrats and Republicans agree not to do it, no matter who's in charge, because they're all criminals.

Starting point is 00:16:01 who have gotten bribed by drug companies. Do you see any of the fake populists on the right wing telling you that? No, they're trying to scare you about mass and vaccines. Meanwhile, funneling tons of profit off of your back to their big drug company donors. That's who people like Matt Gates are. Absolutely. Well, why don't we get to our next story? Because we've got some updates on the unionization efforts for Amazon workers. There's a lot of anger out there, and I'm going to give you one number that might explain that part of the equation here.

Starting point is 00:16:41 Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, his total compensation last year topped $212 million. So if you compare that pay to the average worker, it's one to $6,500. So there's a lot of anger that, hey, we're doing everything for your company, and we just want more. We want a bigger piece of the pie. We want more representation. It's not anger, Lauren. It's jealousy. What is it?

Starting point is 00:17:04 Jealousy. That's what it is. Stuart Varney is about to make a dumb argument about why Amazon workers in New York decided to unionize. Let's watch. I've seen it before. I grew up in a jealous country, England. Always worried about how much they're making up there and how much we're not making down here. That's what you get in a socialist society.

Starting point is 00:17:25 So then you wouldn't want to unionize. You would want, you know, to make everything possible for you to work hard and get to where you want to be and not have a union get in the way. That's not the way they see it, obviously. But there you go. Isn't it fun watching these well-resourced cable news channels pretend like they don't have the ability to research what the workers wanted to unionize for? Because they made those reasons abundantly clear, both in Bessemer, Alabama and also in New York, where the unionization efforts, luckily ended up being successful. And I want to start off with one video featuring Christian Smalls. He's the New York former Amazon worker who actually ended up getting fired after he led a strike,

Starting point is 00:18:12 just a short walkout because of the lack of COVID protections at the workplace. Let's hear what he had to say two years ago when these efforts started. Chris, what aren't they doing that you want them to be doing? All we asked for was a simple building closure and needed to be professionally sanitized. No, we had a confirmed case and people were afraid and that's all we were asking for. Nothing more, nothing less, people to return to work. They wouldn't give us that and that's ridiculous to me. You said you were fired. When did that happen?

Starting point is 00:18:49 Around 4.30 today in the afternoon, you know, they gave me a call. How did that happen? They're claiming that I violated a quarantine policy, which I act. It's ridiculous. I'm appalled by it because I don't know what gives them medical expertise to know who's supposed to be quarantined or who's not. They claim that I came in contact with somebody that was tested positive. But the person that I sent home, which was my colleague, who tested positive, I was only around her for maybe two to five. minutes and thank God I sent her home because the bosses that are still in the building, they're the ones that allow her to come back to work. So Chris Smalls along with his colleagues wanted safer working conditions because they were considered essential workers who were forced to go into the warehouses, into their place of work to do their jobs. They just wanted the appropriate precautions taken to keep themselves safe. Pretty

Starting point is 00:19:53 clear to me, Jank. What do you think? I mean, is it, maybe it's just jealousy. Let's just chalk it up to jealousy. They're just jealous. Yeah, so look, they keep insulting their viewers. I don't know, they're Republican viewers, so they probably like it. I don't know, maybe it's a fetish. But I doubt that all their, all the people watching Fox News are CEOs or executives, I'm sure there's regular workers too. And these guys, keep saying like, oh, what do you need higher wages for? You're just jealous of the CEO who's better than you. I mean, they almost sound like they're out of a cartoon or comic book villain of some sort. And so, Anna, your point is obviously a good one about the real reasons that they're striking and these guys could have looked it up.

Starting point is 00:20:45 And they're obviously demagoguing. And that's why they don't want to talk about. They don't want to say, hey, look, they have real reasons, et cetera. And here's their reasons. But on the other hand, we think they're just being jealous, right? No, they don't ever give you the actual facts. They just go with their catty theory. But let's break that down too, because I think that one's really interesting. So these companies are making massive profits, especially Amazon. It's a one and a half trillion dollar company.

Starting point is 00:21:12 And so one of the things that the union negotiates for is how do you split up that pie? When you have massive profits, how much should go to the executives, how much should go to labor, to labor, how much should go to, you know, all the different categories, right? And so that competition between those different categories is exactly what a union is supposed to do. If you don't have a union, then the workers are not represented and all the money goes to the top instead, which is basically what has happened at Amazon. But Stuart Varney and Fox characterizes all that legitimate fight for higher wages as, ah, they're just being jealous. And one last thing about that, Anna, it goes to a mindset

Starting point is 00:21:57 that the CEO deserves the money. Exactly, right? The CEO at Amazon got $212 million last year, okay? And Stuart Barney and everybody at Fox thinks, well, obviously he deserves that giant paycheck. But you, when you're arguing for $15, man in wage, you do not deserve it. Well, how do you know about anything about my work? Well, you're just jealous, but wait, maybe I'm a terrific worker, you don't know. No, if you're poor middle class, Fox hates you. Yeah, and so let me mention a few things because the points that you're making are indisputable. With one exception, so Amazon, because of the fact that they were pressured by Bernie Sanders started paying its workers a minimum of $15 an hour.

Starting point is 00:22:46 However, I just want to make clear that it's not only about the wages, it's about having an equilibrium or something at least a little closer to an equilibrium of power within the workplace. And in the case of a major corporation, a massive employer like Amazon, there was no equilibrium. We're hearing horror stories about delivery drivers, defecating in bags or urinating in plastic bottles. We hear all sorts of abusive behavior taking place. And the way that you are able to negotiate for better working conditions

Starting point is 00:23:23 without being retaliated against is if you have that protection of a union. Now, Chris Smalls, unfortunately, didn't have that protection at the time, which is why, you know, after he demanded certain safety precautions be taken to protect the workers from COVID, he got fired. That's what happens. He had no protection at the time. And then he dedicated himself to organizing and ensuring that the workers, his former colleagues and coworkers would get the protection that they need. And I'm really happy to see that this is happening now at an Amazon, you know, at one Amazon place of work. And luckily, we're seeing this start to spread more and more to other Amazon facilities. But the other thing I wanted to mention is even if they're getting paid, like the lowest paid employees at Amazon, getting paid $15 an hour, you have to take a step back and look at

Starting point is 00:24:11 the grand scheme, like how much money Amazon is bringing in and how much of that wealth is just going to the very top. And you mentioned, you know, the money being accumulated toward the executives, let's not forget the shareholders, because the way the system is set up is to ensure that the fiduciary responsibility for Amazon is to provide a return on investment to the shareholders for Amazon. And so the people who are literally doing nothing more than investing capital into Amazon get rewarded much better than the very individuals who are generating that revenue, generating that profit in the first place. And those are the workers. So, I know you won't hear that explanation on Fox News because they have all the incentives to

Starting point is 00:24:59 prevent people from learning about that context. But the last time workers in this country were able to build wealth for themselves to enjoy a comfortable middle class was when they had union protection. And unfortunately that has dwindled considerably, you know, especially since the 1970s. And guys, one last thing here, I don't want anybody buying into the mythology of either or that either you have to give everything to the employees or everything to the executives and shareholders. The reality is of course you could give to the shareholders, executives, and the workers. Then the question is how much to each? And that's where a union helps to negotiate that. So what does Stuart, Varney, and Fox want them to do? Not having a union so they don't

Starting point is 00:25:45 get represented. And if you don't get represented, you'll obviously get less, right? And the answer is, Yeah, that's what they want. They want you. You're the average employee. They want you to get less and the people at the top to get more, which is the whole point of Fox. And the whole point of right wing media is to convince you that the rich getting everything is exactly as it should be. Well, we're gonna take a brief break. But when we come back, we have a pretty terrible update out of Ukraine. So I'm gonna preempt that story by saying it's gonna be graphic. I want to give you a warning way ahead of time. And when we come back, we'll do that story and more.

Starting point is 00:26:24 Don't miss it, we'll be right back. Yeah, Young Turks, Jenkin, Anna, with you guys. I'm just going to read one quick comment from super chat. Chloe Dollar said, for the love of God, put that Matt Gates quote in an ad. I know lots of conservatives with diabetes. I'm sure they love the fat shaming from their own reps. No, I'm telling you, Chloe, I hear you. But number one, that we're to require democratic competence. And there's no chance of that happening. If Pelosi has her way, they will run an ex-marine businessman in that district who can raise a lot of money and will run ads saying, Matt Gates is 99% right about the right-wing agenda. This is a center-right country. And you should definitely not for Democrats. But please vote for me instead. and then they'll get killed and they'll wonder what happened.

Starting point is 00:27:22 So those are that as you can look forward to with the democratic establishment. Give your RebellionPack.com, you'll see the ads you're looking for. All right, Casper. All right, let's do a Ukraine update. When we find people with hands tied behind their back and decapitated, such things I don't understand, I don't comprehend the kids who were killed, who were killed and tortured. So it wasn't enough just to kill for those criminals. Maybe they wanted to take gold or washing machines and they were killing it. But they were also

Starting point is 00:28:03 torturing them. President Zelensky of Ukraine has accused Russia of committing genocide following the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kyiv. Now, while they may have withdrawn troops near the capital of the country, they're still attacking certain regions of Ukraine. And what they've left behind in certain parts of Ukraine are pretty, it's pretty shocking, terrible. And I want to warn everyone that at some points in this story, there will be some graphic imagery. But independent journalists who went into the town of Bucha, just northwest of the capital, over the weekend, found the streets littered with bodies. The dead were wearing civilian clothing, and some had their hands tied behind their backs, apparently executed. Others were buried in a mass grave.

Starting point is 00:28:56 More than 300 residents were killed, according to the town's mayor. Now, human rights watch has done its own independent investigation into possible war crimes committed by the Russian troops. I always like to rely more on independent sources rather than just regurgitating what either side in this war has to say. And here's what human rights watch was able to report and also corroborate through their investigation. A woman told human rights watch that a Russian soldier had repeatedly raped her in a school in the Kharkiv region where she and her family had been sheltering on on March 13th, she said that he beat her and cut her face, neck and hair with a knife. The next day the woman fled to Kharkiv where she was able to get medical treatment and other

Starting point is 00:29:46 services. Human Rights Watch reviewed two photographs, which the woman shared with them, showing her facial injuries. So not only is rape taking place, executions of civilians appears to also be taking place, a witness told Human Rights Watch, for instance, that Soldiers forced five men to kneel on the side of the road, pulled their t-shirts over their heads, and shot one of the men in the back of the head. He fell over the witness said, and the woman present at the scene screamed. Russian forces also in the village of Starye,

Starting point is 00:30:21 Baikiv in Chernev region, rounded up at least six men on February 27th, and later executed them according to the mother of one of the men who had been nearby when her son and another man were apprehended and who saw the dead bodies of all six. And then I just want to give you one other example. And then I want to hear what you think, Jank. On March 6th, Russian soldiers in the village of Borzul or Vorzel, about 50 kilometers

Starting point is 00:30:50 northwest of Kiev, threw a smoke grenade into a basement, then shot a woman and a 14 year old child as they emerged from the basement where they had been sheltering, a man who was with her in the same basement when she died from her wounds two days later, provided the information to human rights watch. The child also died immediately, he said. And of course, Russia taking a page out of their Syria playbook claims that not only is this all a false flag, it's all lies, they're not doing it. Any reports to the contrary of what they have to say is seen as a provocation. So, Jank, again, very similar to what we saw in Syria with the use of chemical weapons and other terrible treatment of civilians on the ground there.

Starting point is 00:31:36 Yeah, so I was watching a CBS report on it and they show the cities and it's absolutely level, right, totally destroyed dead people in the streets. And at that exact time as they're showing that footage, they gave the denial from the Russians and said that it was all staged or that the Ukrainians had done it themselves. And as you look at the whole city, you're like, really? Ukrainians did that to their own city? And to all of their own cities? No. I mean, it's propaganda beyond all reason. So only Aaron Mote could believe it. Right. Okay. So, oh, look at the Ukrainians. What a terrible thing they have done to themselves. Yeah, yes, I got it. I got it. Okay, only propagandists say absurd things like that.

Starting point is 00:32:28 So now, unfortunately, there's bad news here, which I'll get to in a second from Russia. But why are the Russians doing these atrocities? There's two main reasons. One, it is Putin's playbook. It's what he did in Cheshdain, what he did in Syria, and what he's doing now in Ukraine. He does it every time. And he thinks part of the point is to intimidate the local population into surrendering. And that might work in Chechnya where the rest of the world is not paying attention and is considered within your territory.

Starting point is 00:33:04 And so especially countries like China don't want to get into anything where they're scrutinized for things they do within their own territory. You might be able to get away with that when you do it to Muslims because no one else in the world, certainly not the West cares, right? But you're not getting away with it in in Europe, we can all see it, and it's not going to work. The Ukrainians have shown incredible result. But there's a second reason why they're doing it. Some of these soldiers are going rogue. And what I found interesting, Anna, is that they were trying to get, in almost every instance, citizens in different cities say they about the looting. Now the looting seems like the least important crime, but you find something within that story.

Starting point is 00:33:46 They're getting, trying to get firewood, gas, food, and clothing. Which means that the Russian troops are having old world problems. American troops might get IEDs, they might have a thousand different problems when they're trying to occupy a country like Iraq or Afghanistan, but they're not going to run out of clothes. They're not going to need to steal local firewood. So this Russian invasion is going very poorly. And obviously their supply lines are a disaster. So some of the Russian troops are getting super mad.

Starting point is 00:34:23 They didn't expect that they were going to get killed at the rates that they're getting killed. And they're starting to take it out on the Ukrainian population. Yeah, I think I think you're absolutely right about that. You're also seeing Russian troops just kind of give up because of how awful it's been for them, how ill prepared they've been and how just how unprepared they've been for like the fierce resistance from the Ukrainians. And I think you're right because when you look at what they're looting, what they're stealing from the very civilians that they brutalize or murder, it's it is typically things like firewood and clothing and stuff like that. But I did want to also go to this next

Starting point is 00:35:10 video, which is also from the CNN interview that Zelensky did over the weekend face the nation, because he was asked, look, considering all the brutality, considering all the war crimes that have been committed, do you honestly think that you want to engage in peace negotiations with Vladimir Putin? And I think the answer from Zelensky was a good one. I want to highlight it. I also want to warn the audience that in the beginning of this video, you're going to see incredibly graphic imagery of the civilians who were killed, but it shows you the extent to which, you know, these war crimes have been committed by the Russian troops and just how brutal it's been. With that said, let's watch. Your team shared with us a video, images that your government has gathered

Starting point is 00:35:58 of what has been left behind outside of Kyiv that I do want to share with our viewers. And I want to ask you about it. Looking and listening to what Vladimir Putin has said, he's called Ukraine not a real country. He said it's controlled by little Nazis, he's called you a drug-addled thug. Is he someone you can negotiate with? As a president, I have to do it. Any war has to end, just end. I'm not talking about ending this with peace, because peace in this situation when there are thousands of people killed something that I'm not fine with.

Starting point is 00:36:44 But there is no any other way, this I'm saying as a president, there's no any other way but the dialogue, if we don't want hundreds of thousands of millions to die. And he's right about that. I mean, he's, of course, asking for more assistance from the United States, asking for even tougher sanctions against Russia. But peace negotiations, I mean, it's the only way out. It's the only way to end this. In addition to other forms of pressure that have been implemented against Russian oligarchs and the financial system and all of that. But yeah, he has no choice. I mean, what else is he going to do? Because if you don't engage in these negotiations, this could go on for months and months. They could level other parts of Ukraine, much like they did in Maripole. And by the way, we don't know the extent of damage. I mean, we know the extent of damage when it comes to the buildings and the property and all of that in Maripal. But we don't know how many civilians have died yet. It's been completely encircled by Russian troops, it's very hard to get access to that part of Ukraine.

Starting point is 00:37:59 It's been a complete utter disaster. Zelensky is right, this needs to end, and you have to be willing to engage in those talks, even considering the war crimes that are being committed by Putin and his troops. Yeah, so Zelensky also called it a genocide, what's happening. But at the end of the day, you don't get to negotiate with your friends, you have to negotiate with your enemies. That's how negotiation works. And so, and he's right. At the end, you must have peace. And the quicker, the better for Ukraine.

Starting point is 00:38:28 And so it's easy to be a tough guy American and go, oh no, the Ukrainians should keep fighting and dying. But he's representing his own people. The disturbing fact that I promised you earlier is that in Russia, Putin's popularity is still at 83%. So remember, media is everything. everything and they have shut off every other media. So they have no idea. The Russian citizens have no idea what's going on in Ukraine. They're only getting Russian state propaganda. It's like only reading gray zone. You'll have no idea what's actually happening in the world. And so that's why Putin is still very popular at home. And now the United

Starting point is 00:39:16 Nation Secretary General is saying it doesn't look like the Russians are strong. It looks like they're rearming. So if Putin is still very popular, the war is making it more popular at home, uh-oh, that means it could last much longer. Yeah, and I wanted to end on one other point. You know, Biden has not signed on to the genocide terminology to describe what's happening yet. But he of course has condemned the very obvious war crimes that are being committed. But the question is, okay, so if you're willing to admit that there are war crimes and there should be accountability, what does accountability look like? And I'm gonna be a little critical of the United States here

Starting point is 00:40:01 because there's some question as to whether or not the international criminal court should be part of this in order to investigate it and recommend the consequences for Russia. But remember, the United States doesn't believe in the international criminal court. And the reason why it doesn't believe in the international criminal court, the ICC, is because the ICC wants to investigate war crimes committed by Israel, and the US ain't about that. And so the second possibility is, okay, well, what about the UN Security Council? But it's real hard for the UN Security Council to carry out any type of consequence, because Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and they can veto any type of

Starting point is 00:40:50 proposed consequence for Russia. So really, I mean, it's interesting because we have these discussions about the Geneva Convention, about war crimes and all of that. And look, let's keep it real. The United States, of course, commits war crimes of its own and defends war crimes of other allies. But if the U.S. was actually genuinely legitimately concerned about war crimes and accountability, how do you actually carry out whatever accountability or consequences? There really is no foolproof way of doing it, which is why the United States has gotten away with committing its own war crimes in, you know, wars that it waged in like the Middle East, for instance. Yep, totally agreed. All right.

Starting point is 00:41:35 All right, I'm gonna let it go. We're gonna take a break. When we come back, we've got more news for you. Jink pulling and Anna Casparian, not paying attention to the argument, I feel like. No, I knew that you were gonna take my name in vain. No, I'm kidding. I knew that you were gonna misinterpret. I was trying to go quicker.

Starting point is 00:41:57 Okay, I'm here for it. I'm here for it. Yeah, you always want me to go quicker. I made my points, okay? I'm here for it. I'm here for it. Okay. So with that said, why don't We take a break. And when we come back, one of my favorite types of stories, watching a Republican

Starting point is 00:42:10 senator squirm during an interview on cable news. We'll be right back. All right, back on TYT, Jankana, with you guys. Also, Omni Peace Tech, and they wrote in on Twitch. Glad to be on board, TYT means telling you the truth. You got right, like that, good slogan, going with it. Go. All right, let's do it. Former President Trump has called Vladimir Putin a genius for the pre-war strategy.

Starting point is 00:43:01 He clarified that recently. He's also called on him to turn over information that he might be, that Putin might be aware of about Hunter Biden's business practices in the region. Do you think that will help him or will it hurt him if President Trump decides to run again? You're about to watch Republican Senator John Cornyn. What's out of saying anything even mildly critical about Donald Trump? Watch. I wouldn't trust Vladimir Putin any farther than I could throw. him. I think that's really the answer because Putin is a killer. He's a he's a thug. He has a vision of restoring the Russian Empire, the fall of which he said was the greatest

Starting point is 00:43:49 geopolitical tragedy in the last hundred years. So I wouldn't trust Vladimir Putin for a minute. So you think those are unwise comments? Is that fair to say? Well, I just don't think it's a conversation worth having. Please get off of it. Please stop asking me to criticize Donald Trump. I really, really don't want to do it because I'm super scared of him. Please don't make me do it. Please, please, let's not have that conversation.

Starting point is 00:44:18 I love watching these Republican lawmakers, like, just reveal themselves for the real cowards that they are. Like, hey, Cornyn, no one's asking you what you think about Putin. You're asked specifically by a Fox News host no less, if you think it was smart for Donald Trump to refer to Putin as a genius, won't answer the question, just won't do it. Yeah, by the way, Martha McCollum wasn't even quite accurate. Trump also said he was, Putin was smart after the invasion. And in fact, recently asked for his assistance. He's like, oh, a tyrant, butchering people in the streets.

Starting point is 00:44:58 Want to help a brother? Right? So Anna, go ahead. I just want to know, I just want to know, do we blame the feminists for this? Do we blame the feminists for the pacification of men? As, you know, the right wing love to say. Yeah, I don't think feminists have anything to do with this coward. Yeah. Well, they might find out a way, though. I can see John Corny coming out for the next interview and being like, well, to be fair to me, I might seem incredibly weak, but it's the feminist made me do it.

Starting point is 00:45:32 Don't put it past them. Do not put it past them. The feminist wussified me. I am now living wussy. So that's John Corner next time. Look, in the there's this movie called Deer Hunter. It's a classic you should watch it. And something came out of it. The a lot of things came out of one of them was squeal for those who watched it. You know what I'm referencing. So now you have squirm, okay, just ask any Republican about something awful Donald Trump has done. And then watch them squirm, like, ah, well, I mean, yeah, Putin's a killer, the worst person ever. Well, Trump said he thought he was smart and asked for his help.

Starting point is 00:46:15 Yeah, I can't, but I mean, is he, I don't, I mean, Putin's bad, but Trump is great. Trump is great for loving Putin. Ask, like, it doesn't matter. Kim Jong-un is Trump said he fell in love with him. Kim Jong-un a monster, barbaric, terrible. Oh, Trump loves him. Well, but Trump is also right for loving the barbaric monster. It does, the Republicans are so hilarious. He said at the end there, it's a conversation, it's not a conversation worth having. No, it's worth having. I want to have it. Let's have it. I mean, Trump is the head of the Republican Party. He's going to run again in in 2024. So I want to have that conversation. You don't get to decide, you don't get to go on

Starting point is 00:47:00 any platform, even Fox News, and decide what conversation is worth having. Answer the damn question, but you know what Cornyn's thinking about. He's thinking about Trump, you know, gaining a little bit of momentum with his rallies again. Once he decides he wants to attack anyone, including members of his own party, he's vicious. So he's sitting there, probably where wearing, you know, an adult diaper, like urinating on himself, thinking about the possibility of Trump going after him during a rally if he has, ooh, ooh, the courage to say, yeah, I actually disagree with Trump on that. And moving on, just move on. Just say you disagree and move on. But he can't even do that. So, and also, Anna, they just had like a several minute conversation

Starting point is 00:47:47 about that topic. He's like, oh, now that you're putting me on the spot about Trump, ignore what I just said for like minutes and minutes and minutes because it's not even a conversation worth having. Okay, just changed my mind about the entire conversation the minute you mentioned the magic word Trump. Sturm. Totally. And one last thing, I don't know if you remember this, Anna, we covered a long time ago. Cornyn in one of his reelection campaigns ran this hilarious goofy ad called Big Bad John. Oh yeah, oh yeah, real big and bad, real big and bad. And this kid, phony dress up like a rodeo clown, like not an actual one.

Starting point is 00:48:26 He just dressed as a cowboy on a horse. Like get out of here, man, you drove your limo to the horse. And now what was a big bad John is big diaper John? I mean, look, his courage really depends on the situation. And in this case, when it comes to Donald Trump, no, not big bad John. Not big bad John at all. A diaper. You've got a big bad mess, Johnny.

Starting point is 00:48:53 Ask one more time about it. I love this. I was the only thing they would ask Republicans about is Trump. So they could be like, oh, no, it depends. All right, well, let's get to probably one of your favorite topics, Jank, because it speaks to the power of media and propaganda. Let's take it away.

Starting point is 00:49:18 The election, I believe, was stolen, but we know that. Space Force has it all. Trump has all the information. It's going to be overturned. What do you think Space Force has? Space Force is a military branch of the, you know, just like the Army, you know, all the military. And they literally walk up here. They literally, the night of the election.

Starting point is 00:49:48 They literally watch the election be stolen. Some might listen to that rambling nonsense and think to themselves, how could anyone believe this? Well, Joe Biden has apparently referred to Rupert Murdoch, the man behind Fox News Channel, as the most dangerous man in the world. And that's according to a forthcoming book by New York Times reporters, Alex Burns, and Jonathan Martin. So they talk about this, they write about this in their book. And guess what, Biden is right because media and the filter bubbles that come along with it do a great job in propagandizing and radicalizing people. In fact, here's a little more of what it actually results in.

Starting point is 00:50:32 This is a lovely woman from Ohio continuing on with her crazy election fraud conspiracy theories. I believe that we're going to have an emergency broadcast and the military is going to come in with martial law and we are going to be shown eight hours on, eight hours off of videos for seven days, the world, and they're going to be showing us taped tribunals, taped confessions, and the world is going to be awakened to what's really going on with the deep state. So, Jank, we've got a case study there in regard to how right wing media, you know, radicalizes people into thinking all sorts of insane things, including the big lie regarding the 2020 election, but there's actual data. There's actually a recent study that we'll get into that proves this point. But before we get to that, any words for Julie from Ohio? Yeah, obviously seek mental health counseling. But other than that, though, you have to understand she's not purely crazy or purely unintelligent.

Starting point is 00:51:41 It's easy to conclude that, listening to the cuckoo for Cocoa Puff stuff that she was saying. But remember, she got that from somewhere. And, you know, there's a story in another part of the rundown today we're going to do where it shows that if you make Fox News viewers watch CNN, they wind up having different opinions. We're going to do that right now. Okay. Yeah. Okay, good. And you'll see the power of media. But whenever you see somebody saying something incredibly crazy, they got that from right wing media. They didn't make it up on their own. So right wing media is institutionalized lying and lying about insane stuff. And they hide all of the actual facts.

Starting point is 00:52:27 She's not making an active decision between reality and falsehood. She's only seen the falsehood. And by the way, one of the things that you saw there in that clip is what they're priming everybody for and having them look forward to it, which is martial law. She said, oh, it's gonna be great, we're gonna have martial law, et cetera. Yeah, it's amazing how much they actually hate democracy or how much they've been bamboozled into thinking democracy needs to be, you know, dismantled in an effort to ensure that their favorite person remains in power. I mean, it's just, it is crazy. But to your point,

Starting point is 00:53:07 Jank, I think it's important for people to keep in mind that these filter bubbles do exist. Propaganda is incredibly powerful. And there's a recent example in the form of a study. I want to share the results of that study with you. So these researchers looked into what would happen to, let's say, a regular Fox News viewer if they were asked to watch CNN. for seven hours a week instead. Okay, would their political views change? What would their take on various issues, current events change?

Starting point is 00:53:42 And you'd be shocked to find out, yeah, there was definitely an impact. The title of the study is the manifold effects of partisan media on viewers' beliefs and attitudes, a field experiment with Fox News viewers by David Brockman and Joshua Kala. And here's what they found.

Starting point is 00:54:00 Of the 763 qualifying participants, we then randomized 40% of the treatment group. To change the slant of their media diet, we offered treatment group participants $15 per hour to watch seven hours of CNN per week during September of 2020, prioritizing the hours at which participants indicated they typically watched Fox News. Now here were the results. They found that the participants became more likely to agree that if Donald Trump made a mistake, Fox News would not cover it. It found that Fox News gave viewers information about why the disease is not a serious threat,

Starting point is 00:54:39 while CNN provided a lot more information about the disease itself. Now the survey was conducted after three days on the participants, which again captured significant shifts in their beliefs. On COVID for instance, viewers who switched were six Six percentage points more likely to believe other countries handled the virus better than the United States. Five points more likely to believe that people suffer from what's known as long COVID. And 11 points less likely to say a president should focus more on containing violent protests than the pandemic. Then you move over to other issues. On the presidential candidate, Mr. Biden, Switchers were 13, 13 points less likely to agree that we'll see many more police get shot

Starting point is 00:55:30 by Black Lives Matter activists if he was elected and 10 points less likely to believe his supporters were happy when police officers got shot. And then finally on mail in voting, switchers were seven points more likely to support mail in voting after watching CNN. So the media matters. It really does have an impact on the way people see the world around them. Yeah, guys, there's no question about that. People get their information from somewhere. Doesn't magically pop into their head. They get it from some form of media. And so when they watch right wing media, not only are they exposed to insanity posed as perfectly same things and and sensible, right? But they're also shielded from the actual facts. So very, very few Republicans

Starting point is 00:56:23 in this country have heard that Trump and his team have lost 60 court cases and never presented a single piece of evidence in court about the 2020 election. So the overwhelming majority have no idea that even happened. And if they ever heard about court cases, they heard that no evidence was ever presented in any of those cases, they were only on the issue of standing. It's just not remotely true, but every right winger believes that because every right wing media says that. It's a complete and other lie that they've all said at the same time. So that is how they do mass brainwashing. And look at this experiment. They only did this for 30 days. It wasn't that long. And 5 points, 7 points, 11 points, that kind of movement in just 30 days. And remember they're getting paid for it. So

Starting point is 00:57:13 they're normally Fox News viewers. So they would be primed to disbelieve what they're seeing on CNN. But still they wind up believing it just because they're exposed to it. And so by the way, if you took CNN viewers and made them watch Fox News for 30 days straight, their numbers would move too. Media makes a giant difference. And so Biden is right. I'm just amazed that it's taking Democrats this long to realize, yes, the number one problem has has always been Rupert Murdoch. Well, that does it for our first hour, but stick around because our second hour is about to get wild.

Starting point is 00:57:52 We've got great stories for you, including why Tulsi Gabbard is trash. Don't miss it. It'll be fun. We'll be right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work. Listen, ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.co slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.

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