The Young Turks - O'Keefe Defeat

Episode Date: February 22, 2023

Russia suspends participation in last remaining nuclear treaty with U.S. Howard Schultz says unions are ‘a manifestation of a much bigger problem’. James O’Keefe resigns from Project Veritas after employee complaints. Pete Buttigieg does an interview on GMA and talks about how he’s holding the rail companies accountable. Florida state officials are weighing a 'classical and Christian' alternative to the SAT. Host: Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur 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. Woo! It's up! Well, I'm George, Jake, you're anna, for you guys, do we have a fantastic show ahead for you. Come on, guys, don't be a fantastic show ahead for you.

Come on, over, don't be ridiculous. We do. It'll be all right. No, this kind of amazing, okay? Amazing. No, it is going to be very good. Okay, seriously. Some would say that you're going to enjoy it bigly.

It's one of the best shows. People are saying it's one of the best shows. Look, I don't want to use the S word and say it's going to be a show, but I'm going to use it. Okay, we'll see that later on. All right, guys. Seriously, we've got, of course, Trump being goofy and, of course, potential world wars. This is the news these days. But I think one of the most interesting parts of today's show is going to be breaking down different interviews with other media and showing you what's the action behind the action.

Oh, Droms. All right, Casper. Really? What story is that? I'll show you. Oh, no. Okay, all right. Let's talk about potential World War III. Vladimir Putin has announced that he is suspending Russia's participation in what is referred to as the Start Treaty,

a treaty that he entered with the United States, which limits the nuclear capability of both countries. So we're doing great, lots of progress when it comes to geopolitics. He says, quote, I am forced to announce, are you, are you forced? I'm forced to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the strategic offensive arms treaty. Putin told lawmakers toward the end of a major speech to parliament nearly one year into his invasion into Ukraine. Now, what exactly is the START treaty? And what did it do? Well, the START treaty was originally signed back in 2010, in Prague specifically. And then they decided to extend it during Biden's administration in 2021. Of course, this is prior to Russia's invasion into Ukraine.

It caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy. Although if you deploy any, we're already in bad shape. So look, honestly, just reading what the START treaty does, I don't really think this is that big of a deal. However, I'm uncomfortable with how often Vladimir Putin brings up the topic of nuclear weapons in various ways as this war continues. Yeah. So look, there's two ways to interpret that. One is he's saber rattling and it's a good halfway measure where he's threatening us without actually doing anything. If that interpretation proves to be correct, great. Then take all the quarter measures, half measures that you want as long as you don't actually launch anything, right? And I think the Chinese agree with me. We'll get to that in a minute. But of course, other possibility is he's doing exactly what you did at the border. where he piled up the troops and said, I'm going to come in unless you give me X. And then they gave him X, and he's like, well, I'm just kidding. I was going to come in anyway, right?

And so, and in this case, he could be saying, yeah, I'm going to deploy more nuclear missiles. And by the way, deploy just could mean that, hey, I've got more subs with nukes that I was supposed to have under the treaty in the water now. I've got more missiles ready to go. Now, using them is a different thing, but it could be a prelude to using them. So this is, look, I've said this many times. We keep assuming that Putin won't do it when he's shown on a great number of occasions, when we think he won't do something, he does actually do it. So Vladimir Putin has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons of any country.

I didn't know that. I thought that the United States and Russia was either equal in the number of the nuclear weapons, or honestly, I thought the U.S. probably had more. But Russia currently has 6,000 warheads. Yeah, it doesn't really matter if they had 600 or 6,000 or 6,000. Like one will do the destruction, right? Like it's amazing. Yeah, because we got into this really, really dumb arms race.

Arms race. Yeah. And this treaties like this were supposed to cool down the arms race. And now Putin's saying no. And by the way, for the Russians, probably half of them don't work. But they don't need it anyway. I mean, 600 could probably wipe out humanity, let alone 6, So the minute you start launching him, it's an epic disaster we can't recover from.

Again, I think the Chinese are our best friends in this case, even though we're demagoguing against them. Can I just read that quote? Okay, she and Biden talked and she has said this, and the Chinese diplomats have said this on a number of occasions, but the quote is important. Nuclear weapons cannot be used and nuclear wars must not be fought, the Chinese leader said. So they're now beginning to side with Russia. We're really mad about it. We're saying their Chinese are helping the Russians with lethal aid. But here's the Chinese saying basically, look, the rule we're laying down for the Russians is,

maybe we help you, maybe we stay neutral, maybe we even give you some arms, but you cannot do nuclear strikes. If you do, then we're out. And they're saying that very publicly. Yeah, and let me be clear about something. As far as I've read, maybe you came across some information that I missed, but I have not seen any indication that China is willing to provide lethal weapons to Russia. Now, yeah, that's just what the Americans are saying. Right, yeah, the US State Department is accusing Russia of that.

They claim, Anthony Blinken specifically claims that they have information indicating that China is considering providing lethal weapons to Russia, but we haven't really seen any real evidence of that. And China certainly has not in any way overtly committed to providing weapons to Russia. But beside that, look, the fact of the matter is China is straddling both sides because they want to improve their relationship with the West in certain regards, especially with Germany and France. But they are also purchasing pretty cheap oil from Russia at the same time. So there is a benefit in straddling both sides,

right? Yeah. And if in the extra benefit that people aren't talking about that I'm alluding to here is if China serves as a check on Putin saying, hey, here's a line you cannot cross Otherwise, you'll have no allies left. That can actually be super helpful to the rest of the world. So that's why us like blowing down China's doors with all of our, you know, warmongering talk against them is not at all helpful. I agree with you on that wholeheartedly. So I want to give you a few other excerpts from Putin's speech.

He says that he is suspending the treaty, but it doesn't mean that he's pulling out of the treaty. He says, of course, we will not be the first to carry out nuclear tax. tests, but if the United States tests, then we will. No one must be under any dangerous illusions that global strategic parity can be destroyed. He also says Western elites aren't trying to conceal their goals to inflict a strategic defeat at Russia. They intend to transform the local conflict into a global confrontation. And he is definitely telling the truth about that because here is Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in April of 2022 making it abundantly clear that they want to essentially use this conflict to weaken Russia to the best of the

United States abilities. Let's watch. We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can't do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine. So it has already lost a lot of military capability and a lot of a lot of its troops quite frankly. And we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability. So, you know, statements like that make it clear to everybody, including Vladimir Putin and Russia, that we are looking for them to basically deplete what is left of their military capability. And we brought this up when we covered the story yesterday. And I think it's an important point to touch on, because when it comes to what the United States is urging in this conflict, is there some messaging in

regard to avoiding peace negotiations or a peace deal? I'm concerned about that. And as that is being discouraged, Russia with an irrational actor like Vladimir Putin is getting more and more belligerent in regard to his comments on nuclear war. Yeah, so I want to break down the last quote from Putin at Anna already because it's about a third right. Are we they are we trying to weaken Russia through this conflict? Yes, absolutely correct. Okay. And you just saw it. It's not in dispute, right? But does, do we want a global confrontation? No, we want to drive up a defense contractor contracts to as much as humanly possible, dump it on the American taxpayer. We want oil prices to be high. We, we want speculation

for in the financial industry to be high. So we're just trying to make it. as much money as possible for our elites. That's our actual, that's the only goal of our government. That's not the only goal. I don't think that's the only goal. I think the other goal is to weaken Russia militarily to ensure that China really doesn't have another superpower to align with should we continue antagonizing them. Yeah, but at the end of the day, our goal is financial.

Like we, I don't think, like we gain all of the elites in our country gain by picking on a smaller country like Iraq and destroying it for profit, right? But if you go against Russia, nobody's going to gain from New York getting nuked. Okay, so, but we're playing a super dangerous game of confrontation that could accidentally lead to that. But there's one other part of that statement. He says they want to inflict Putin said a strategic defeat to Russia. Well, you know how you could have prevented that, Vlad, by not invading Ukraine.

Yeah, 100%. Okay, like nobody forced a strategic defeat. on you. You made that decision. And apparently, not so bright, you had no idea what your military's capability was. I mean, you got humiliated there. And now you're trying to cover safe face. That's why the Chinese being allies with the Russians, I'm telling you, is not such a bad thing. Because if the Chinese go screw it, we're not allies with you either. Then he's fully backed into a corner and thinks I got nothing left to lose. And that's a really bad place for Putin to be.

So we'll see what happens in the future. Obviously, I think the best path forward is to encourage pressure both sides to engage in a peace deal. We're nowhere near that right now. And things continue to escalate. And that's what's concerning about it. So we'll stay on the story and let you guys know updates as we learn about them. All right.

Well, moving on to other news, unfortunately, Marjorie Green is continuing with her divisive an insane commentary about what the future of America should look like. So let's watch. Texas, you know, states where they, they like the tax policies. They, they like the schools. They like the consequences of Republican and red policies. What I think would be something that some red states could propose is, well, okay, if Democrat voters choose to flee these blue states where they cannot tolerate the living conditions, they don't want their children taught these horrible things. And they really change their mind on the types of policies that they support, well, once they moved to a red state, guess what? Maybe you don't get to vote for five

years. You can live there, you can work there, but you don't get to bring your values that you basically created in the blue states you came from by voting for Democrat leaders and Democrat policies. Fresh off her widely criticized tweet calling for a so-called national divorce between red states and blue states, Marjorie Green is now proposing a temporary voting ban on self-identifying Democrats who move out of so-called blue states to red states. Let's hear a little bit more from what she has to say, and then I'm going to show you a map of the United States, a map that apparently Marjorie Green is unfamiliar with. Let's watch. What does a national divorce look like in your, in your estimation?

Well, a national divorce is not a civil war. It's actually separating by red states and blue states and making state rights and state power a lot stronger than it is right now. It would be shrinking the federal government. For example, we can take education. Well, if we have a national divorce, there's no need for the Department of Education. Red states and blue states would be in control of the education in each state. Red states would very likely have traditional education. homeschooling, charter schools, private schools, technical schools. They would not allow any type of gender lies being taught in their schools. LGBTQ woke teachers would be fired and not allowed to teach there. They would allow parents to be able to choose the curriculum instead of school boards that don't respect parents' beliefs and traditional family values. And it may be in blue states, they would have full gender transition schools for their students. I don't know what they would do, but I'm sure their education would look different than ours.

This is what culture war brain rot looks like. Jank, what happened during the Civil War? What was the Civil War about? Well, we kind of split up into northern states and southern states, kind of like red and blue. And then the southern states wanted more state power. So like a national divorce kind of situation. Exactly what she described. Interesting, yeah.

Okay. I mean, it's stunning how ignorant she is. In the red states, do they teach history at all? Do they teach civics at all? Now look, ironically, as you guys know, if you watch yesterday, she's from a blue state. So she doesn't even know what state she's in. Georgia voted for Biden and Obama twice and his two Democratic senators, etc.

so incredibly ignorant, but that's exactly what happened during the Civil War. Let's take a look at this map of the United States. As you can tell, you can see the red depicting the red voters or the Republican voters and the blue depicting the Democratic voters. There's a lot of mixing going on, Jank, right? So how do you determine how this national divorce happens? And by the way, let's just address the fact that she is telling the American people that if If you have one political identity and you move to a state that she has determined is

a so called red state, well, your rights to vote should be taken away from you for five years. Why? Yeah. I mean, how ridiculous is that? Okay, so if you're a Republican and you move to California, should your voting rights be banned? I would never in a million years propose something that disgusting. But this is who they are, right?

People like Marjorie Green specifically use culture war issues to get Americans to think of each other as enemies, right? Oh, people living in Florida or Texas are my enemies. They're my enemies based on their views on culture, based on their views on what the right, you know, social fabric for this country should be. No, we're Americans. We might have disagreements, but guess what? There are a lot more agreements among Americans, regardless of their political affiliation, than people like Marjorie Green, but have you believe. In fact, let me give you some example. Sorry, Jane. This kind of garbage really does fire me up because we got to stop fighting each other as ordinary Americans and

really look up at people in power who have an interest in dividing and conquering us. So interesting poll that didn't really get much coverage. This was done by you gov. They looked at voters between January and September of 2022. And here's what they found. 73% of Americans think teachers should get paid more. 61% support policies that would prevent landlords from raising rent. 65% of Americans have an unfavorable view of Mitch McConnell. Here, here to that. 60% of Americans support more spending on public housing.

67% support the government offering medical debt forgiveness. 79% of Americans have favorable views of social security. 79% have a favorable view of Medicare. 77% have favorable views of other social spending programs. including disability insurance. You want me to go on, but they don't want us to focus on what we have in common, on how we want to do something about economic justice in this country or the economic injustice we've been living under.

All we do all day long is talk about whatever manufactured culture war Republicans want to frame the argument with. And I'm sick of it. I'm so sick of it. Yeah, well, look, if the elites wanted to do a false flag operation, this is exactly what they would do. They would plant someone like Marjorie Taylor Green. Now, did they, I don't think they're that smart.

No, I think she's an actual person with those actual thoughts. She's a useful tool. Yeah, but the elites must be thinking, how did we get this lucky? Because, and as all those numbers are right, the first chapter of my book, Justice is coming, is poll after poll after poll showing, we all agree, we all agree. Do you know that 59% of Americans say that corporations have too much money and power? I mean, no one on TV thinks that, no one in Washington, they're too much money in power. How much is even too much?

I don't know, but 60% of six out of ten Americans say, no, corporations are so bad, I just don't even want them to have that much money. I mean, which is honestly a position I don't even agree with. It's to the left of me. Six out of ten Americans are to the left of me, right? Let alone the two thirds and the three quarters that agree with us on every major issue, right? But when you send someone like Marjorie Taylor Green in, she's so effective at her job because not only does she get her side riled up, like, oh, we hate gays, don't let him teach,

don't let him teach, we hate gays, right? She said it, she said we fire all the LGBTQ teachers. You can rewind the team. Right, you know what, all right, do it, do it. And listen, for all of the supporters of Marjorie Green, I'm trying to be common reason with you, I don't think you're necessarily a bad person. I just don't think you maybe have thought about this enough. Okay, all the gay teachers, transgender students, they're purged from the school systems across the country.

Okay, how are you gonna pay your rent or your mortgage? What about your medical bills? What is Marjorie Green and honestly the entirety of our legislature doing to improve your life right now? Nothing, nothing. So if that is what sustains you, if hating on us, getting on others, getting people fired, if that's what feeds you, keeps you nice and warm at night, put shelter or a roof over your head, great, except it doesn't, it doesn't. In the end, you're still struggling and you still have lawmakers, not representing your best

interest, but distracting you with whatever hate that they're instilling in your heart. It's disgusting. Don't fall for it. Yeah, well, look, I have trouble not falling forward because I'm not gonna let them fire any gay teachers. Of course not. I know. And so I'm going to fight her, right? So and if you want to talk about education, well, who's the absolute worst?

The least woke states, Alabama and Mississippi. They've been led by Republicans for decades on end, and they're miserable in education. They're dead last because they don't care about education. They care about propaganda, right? So you're forcing me to fight you because you keep saying, oh, those hateful people, I love them so much. And I want all of you guys, they say, to have our values. You're not allowed to be gay. You're not allowed to be anything else.

We're going to rule over you. Well, what am I going to do? Agree with you on that? No, of course I have to fight her on it. I'm not going to let you. I don't want your life, Marjorie Taylor Green. Your life looks miserable. I think your values are disgusting.

thing. Oh, I'm going to exclude them and I'm going to exclude them and I'm going to rule over them. And then they say these gaslighting garbage like liberals want to control your life. Are you crazy? I don't care. I don't care about your stupid life, Marjorie, Taylor Green. Leave us alone. Go away. Go into a cave and don't learn anything and don't have any gay people around you and don't have any black people around you. You just said yesterday we showed me a clip about, oh, I mean, I know some white people that are so bad, they might be as bad. as black people. Okay, go into a goddamn cave and do whatever the hell you want there, as long as you're not affecting us. So she forces us to fight back. And when we do, we're bright back into the mess. And people don't know that over 80% of Americans believe in paid

family leave. And a corporations win to drive you back into your jobs, low pay. She's never fought for you. If you're a right winger, find me a right winger that fought for you on economic issues that put foot on your table that took care of your family. No, all they have is hate, hate, hate, own the lips. We're going to destroy their woke culture. Oh, God damn it, gay people, black people, cheat immigrants. Oh, they're the problem. No, you idiots. Look up, look up. Who do you think has the power you? And you forced me to say terrible things about you. Who do you think has the power? It's the corporations, you. I'm trying to contain myself. Corporate power has taken over all of our government and it's

slowly crushing us. We have no economic dignity left. And yet you back people like this who keep attacking us and provoking us into these endless conflicts so that you're endlessly distracted from what you actually want, which is dignity, safety, security, and comfort for your family. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, we'll talk. We'll talk. talk about how corporations like Starbucks feel about workers having any say over their working conditions or their pay. So don't miss that story. We've got that and more coming up. Kenanana with you guys. More news. Howard Schultz is in the news again. Let's watch.

Do you believe that there is room for a part of the Starbucks workforce to be unionized? I think that'll have to happen in collective bargaining. Because previously you've said, no, this is not in your vision. And the unions have said that is evidence that you are not going to bargain with them. Could you ever see doing that embracing the union as part of it? No. Starbucks founder and CEO Howard Schultz sat down with CNN's Poppy Harlow to share his views on the increasing unionization within the company. Now, as many as about 268 Starbucks

stores have in fact voted in favor of forming a union. Now, Howard Schultz came back from retirement specifically to squash these unionization efforts and luckily he hasn't succeeded. Keep in mind that 80% of the stores who voted to unionized did in fact succeed in forming a union, but that makes up only about 3% of Starbucks stores in the United States. You have to consider that there are many Starbucks stores in the U.S. Now, I want to get to the rest of the interview and some more information about what Starbucks has been up to in terms of squashing unionization efforts and how the National Labor Relations Board has stepped in to protect some of these workers. Before I do though, Jank, do you want to weigh in on this?

Because do you believe in any way that Howard Schultz is going to be receptive to this effort to unionize? Well, so I think it's a little bit complicated. I think that when he started, he actually believed the things that he was saying, right? But people change based on the culture that they're in. That's just a fact for all of humanity. And he's been at that executive level and the billionaire level for a long, long time. So I watched that whole interview. And a lot of his assumptions are based on his new values, not the values he started Starbucks with.

So if it was that Howard Schultz, he might be okay with unionizing or he might have run a company that didn't need a union. That's what he keeps saying today. But if you watch the whole interview, he contradicts himself. He says, oh, no, these were our values, whether the union came in or not. And then later in the interview, he says, well, the union made us do this. Well, which one is it, right? And so the reality is it's kind of both. He started with those values, in my opinion, okay?

And now whenever he talks, he's always like, hey, I got shareholders value. And he said in the interview, hey, in the 10 months I've been back, our stock has got a $40 billion. I know. But wouldn't that tell you that you could then afford a union? But he thinks, no, he's talking to other rich people and telling them, look at how great I am. I'm both magnanimous and making tons of money. Yeah, shareholders aren't interested in what Starbucks can afford to spend money on,

other than returns on investment for the shareholders. Of course, they want maximum returns. So his personal values don't really matter. His actions matter, right? And his actions have been to fire some of the workers who were unionizing their workplace. No, that's my point. Yeah. He's, he has new values and doesn't realize it.

Now his values are, and he says it in the interview, maximizing shareholder value, right? No, values are supposed to be about morality. They weren't supposed to be about the value of the stock price. Yeah, it's not like a year-end job performance review. Okay, that's not what values are. Okay, so let's go to some more of his video here. We'll also give you some details on why the workers want to unionize in a minute. But let's get to some more video.

It's my belief that the efforts of unionization in America are in many ways a manifestation of a much bigger problem. I've talked to thousands of our Starbucks partners in these co-creation sessions, and I was shocked, stunned to hear the loneliness, the anxiety, the fracturing of trust in government, facturing trust in. companies, fracturing of trust and family, the lack of hope in terms of opportunity. The primary reason that I was interested in trying to run for president was the very essence of helping people try based on the life that I've led and where I grew up to create an opportunity to get out of the malays that they're in. But I think though some of those people are the ones that are pushing for unionism. now and look into you as the head of the company to come to the table with them.

It's interesting that he's looking outward instead of looking inward, right? Why do you think the workers want to unionize? Oh, it's because they don't trust politicians, or could it be that they're looking around in their workplace, they feel powerless, they feel that they're not being compensated fairly, they don't feel the working conditions are humane. And so they want to have a seat at the table and the ability to collectively bargain with the employer in regard to these issues that have a very real material impact on their day to day lives. Yeah, Anna, there's a second disconnect that we don't talk about enough. We just earlier in the show talked about the cultural wars and how that creates a disconnect in the country between the rightly and the left wing when we actually share economic interests, right?

In this case, this is the economic disconnect. So I've talked to people that are in that in the same culture as Howard Schultz. Let's just put it that way. And they genuinely don't get it as Howard Schultz showed you in that clip. He's like, they seem like they've lost faith in government and companies. And he's like bewildered as to why. I can tell you, Howard, it's super easy because those companies pay off those politicians through campaign contributions and then get deregulations and lower tax.

and every advantage you could possibly imagine. We can't even negotiate our own drug prices. Meanwhile, people die because they're rationing insulin and other drugs and they can't get any higher wages. And we're being crushed by those companies that you value so much that you think are there God's gift to humanity. No, those are the corporate machines

that are steamrolling the American citizens. And he genuinely does it. By the way, it's not just him. Almost no one in power gets it. They think, well, what, what? What? Why are you guys losing faith in these great companies and government that we have? It's working out great for me. Yeah, so we're here for you, for you, exactly.

So why don't we actually hear from Starbucks workers? Howard Scholle should maybe sit down and listen to these workers himself because it seems like he doesn't even understand what is motivating them to want to unionize in the first place. So what do the employees say? Let's hear from a 20-year veteran worker at Starbucks named Daniela. Let's watch. The communication between higher-ups and our stores started to become non-existent. They introduced so many new things like components to drinks, mobile orders, deliveries. We were never given the tools to make that happen properly.

We were doing all this extra work, and we weren't. getting paid for what we think we think that we were worth. fast paced, you're on your feet, the entire shift, you deal with customers who are incredibly rude, they want their coffee. I had a hot latte literally thrown on me on my very last day of work, okay? It is an incredibly difficult job. And Starbucks, its profitability is dependent on these workers. And they're looking at what they're getting paid relative to what the corporation is making off of their labor, and they want a bigger piece of that pie, and quite frankly, they deserve a bigger piece of that pie. That is why they are unionizing, Jank.

So Howard Shulski gets frustrated. And look, I run this company as well. So I understand both sides. And so he says, well, look, they say they want to seat at the table and they want more say in what we do. I don't get it. I don't know what that means. Well, if they mean, hey, listen, don't introduce the Frappe because the Grande is working out with the Venti, whatever. Look, you didn't, You weren't part of the market research, you're not involved in finance or the marketing angle of it. So I have some sympathy for everybody has a specialty, and I'm not sure that you're going to, you know all the piece of the puzzle.

So, okay, fine. But when they talk about economic seat at the table, but Howard, you keep bragging about the $40 billion you just added over the last 10 months, you can't then turn around and say, no, I can't share a bigger piece of the table. with my workers and then tell me that you have these great values he came up with in the 1970s that you're not at all applying today. In fact, you keep referencing that part of the interview and I think that was a telling part because he said the quiet part out loud, right? Yeah. So why don't we go to that where he brags about the profitability of Starbucks and

his performance? You've said that unions are contrary to Starbucks vision. Yes. And that's your vision. Well, it's not only my vision. I think the 51 year history of Starbucks is a vision, a collective group of people that believe in doing everything to create value for our people so that we can create value for our shareholders. And we've done that. Value for our shareholders. Understand that under this model, under this system, that is the first priority. That is the most important. part of running a business in the United States, if it is a publicly, publicly traded company as Starbucks is. Let me just give a few statistics here, some numbers, because, you know, you made a really good point, Jank, about how there's enough wealth here, enough revenue being generated, enough profit being generated, that unionizing doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to hurt the company. And in fact, with hundreds of these stores now unionized, it appears

that it hasn't hurt the bottom line for Starbucks. First, when the organizing started, Starbucks reported a 31% annual growth in profits in 2021. The year workers began unionizing as well as an $8.1 billion, as well as $8.1 billion just in the fourth quarter of that year. And guess what? They're doing even better now. They're doing even better now. So Starbucks has pulled in record sales in 2022 in the latest fiscal quarter.

Sales in North America were up 11% compared to the same period in 2021. Now the sales are up because there are workers behind the counter at the cash register, taking the orders, making the orders, and getting the product out to the consumer. There is no profit and there is no revenue without those individuals. They deserve a bigger piece of the pie. That's not saying that they deserve, you know, a disproportionate piece of the pie, but they certainly deserve more than they're getting paid now and they deserve better working conditions, including the tools necessary to carry out whatever new initiative Starbucks

has or new product Starbucks has. So last two things for me. One is $8 billion in a quarter. It means that in assuming the fourth quarter is a little bit better than the other quarters is around $30 billion in not revenue, but profits per year, okay? Nuts. Don't tell me that you don't have enough for the workers. One of our members wrote in K-Flux wrote in, I worked for Starbucks for eight years and the mission statement was always something.

we prided ourselves on. The mission statement used to be essentially when we take care of you, you take care of us. But if you're making $30 billion in profit and they've got to unionize to get better wages and other benefits, are you really taking care of them? It certainly doesn't look that way. And finally, the media is so interesting, guys. If you watch this interview, Poppy Harlow actually asked me about the unionization many times. So you would actually get the sense of maybe she was a little bit tough on him, right?

She kept going back to that issue, right? But what the magic is in what you don't see, okay? So number one, Howard Schultz wanted to do an interview to get his sign of the message out because he thought, hey, the union guys are constantly in the press and we're not answering them. So I'm going to pick a place that's going to give me what I think is going to be the softest and easiest interview. In this case, it was CNN.

So what is implicit in that interview, given that she's going to ask about unions, that's The whole point is to come on to answer these questions, but not questions that are too aggressive, right? And the framing matters a lot. So I noticed in three, four different instances in that interview, you could watch it for yourself. When Howard Schultz says something, especially something that is pro Starbucks and is maybe even a little inspirational in their own mind, they would then roll tape of wild applause. Oh, that's right. And it was leading into the next segment. and there was always an ostensible reason when he ran for president.

He's going on stage and there's applause. Starbucks workers applauding when the union instead of him. But he would speak and there would be applause. Then they went to Brooklyn, his home growing up. And they did like a third of the interview about how poor he was and how he worked his way up and how he's an average man just like you guys with those values. It's what the New York Post did with their recent puff piece on Ron DeSantis. painting him as this like working class blue collar guy who went to you.

Yeah, and they're sitting in a comfortable studio and they're having a genteel conversation back and forth. And if you watch the whole thing, you get that you're left with the impression of this is a good guy and he's just like us, he's just struggling with this union issue, right? And he keeps saying that their wages and benefits are great, right? So at the end, you wind up thinking, I guess the union is, is, could be wrong here, right? If you watch the whole piece. But by the way, wait a minute, did you hear from the union at all?

Nope. Nope. Did they do a 10 minute soft piece with a union leader? Did they go to their home that they grew up in and see their poor middle class background, etc? It's the acts of omission. It's the acts of framing. Look, Noam Chomsky taught me this. And I'm telling you a small part of it.

They've been doing this for a long, long time. Mainstream media's job is not to give you the news. It's to give you theater that makes you go, oh, I think the corporation might be right after all. So you can't, once you see it, you can't unsee it. One of my favorite stories is coming up next. James O'Keefe has been forced to resign from Project Veritas. We'll tell you why, complete with a lot of fun video. Don't miss it.

All right on T-O-T-O-T, Jank, Anna, Nick S and Randy Presby. Nick and Randy, thank you for joining. We appreciate it. Casper. Fun news, let's do it. As a former board member told me 10 years ago, Project Geras will never be stopped from the outside. It will only be because we stopped our service. Right? I'll get to that too in a minute.

Prophetic as it may be, that is exactly where we find ourselves in the situation today. A situation where I have been stripped of my authority as CEO and removed from the board of directors. I bet you didn't know that. We know now. That was James O'Keefe, of course, who has been forced to resign from Project Veritas for his alleged mistreatment of staffers and his alleged misuse of the non-profits funds. We've got all the details about what those accusations are. Now, he was placed on paid leave earlier this month amid a dispute with the non-profits board. The board reversed O'Keeffe's firing of two top executives and also received a lengthy memo from unhappy employees and staffers detailing how he has been outright cruel, how his conduct is basically, it equates to mistreating the staffers. and there are specific details in the memo that we're going to get to in just a second.

Now, the lengthy memo regarding his treatment and cruelty was signed by a third, a third of the employees over at Project Veritas. So it's not like, oh, there's some unnamed individual within the staff that doesn't like him or this is some sort of hatchet job against him. A third of employees signing onto this letter is a pretty big deal. And here's what they say. James has become a power drunk tyrant, and he is exactly who he pontificates on who he should be exposing, the memo said. Ouch.

Working for O'Keefe at Project Veritas can mean being publicly humiliated by him in what amounts to public crucifixions, and even being required to take lie detector tests, his unhappy employees write in the memo. So apparently there were some employees that he suspected were leaking things. to the press, and he had the staff take polygraph tests. I mean, it's insane. There's more, there's a lot more. Let me read one more for you. James has become, oh yeah, a power drunk tyrant.

I just really wanted to emphasize that. Yeah, well, yes. But look, so we're going to get to the music videos. Don't worry. No, it's the best part. They're hilarious. Okay, hold on. Okay, but they spent money on it.

It's great. But here's the debate that's going to happen. Was the music video good? That's a debate. Oh my God, stay tuned. Okay, but I only have like a tiny bit of sympathy for the employees. Why? First, they work a Project Veritas.

Thousand percent. You went to go work for a douchebag organization that smears others and edits tapes in a deceptive way to try to hurt organizations and other human beings. Yeah. And you didn't get treated well. Duh. Yeah, let's also be clear. clear because Project Veritas loves to sue. We believe and we think that Project Veritas is a douchebag organization.

Go ahead, Jay. Yes, okay. That is very important to clarify, okay? So you went to go hurt others and then you're like, it turns out, did they therefore authoritarianism? But that's what you signed up for. And it really mean, well, that's what you signed up for? What did you think was going to happen that he was going to be mean to people you don't like?

But internally, he was just gonna be an angel? No, he's just as much of a douche as he wanted him to be to others. We think he's a douche. Okay, in our opinion. In our opinion. Okay, so seriously, on the other hand, it is interesting that they went like, oh yeah, we're gonna get those libs and we're gonna own them and we'll just doctor the videos, in my opinion. Okay, you could watch the videos for yourself and see the missing parts.

And also there's quite a bit of reporting, extensive reporting showing that the videos have been doctored. Yes. You can read that reporting for yourself. Look, you can see what's missing in what they put in. It's super obvious. Anyways, and they're like, you wanted to do that. And then you get this guy.

And then you're like, oh, wow, when it's done to you, that doesn't feel good. Well, that's what a conservative is, right? They just don't think anything matters until it's done to them. Well, now it was done to you. Of course, O'Keefe is like this. Look, some of the stories are outrageous in terms of the abuse. But then the misuse of funds for musicals is just the greatest thing in the world. So we're going to get to the misuse of funds because that is probably the juiciest part of this,

but a few more comments from the staffers who were abused. During a September 2022 trial against a Democratic consulting firm that O'Keefe later lost, an employee complained that O'Keefe berated them in front of jurors because he needed something to eat. He was very hungry. Ultimately, the employee alleged O'Keefe took a sandwich from a heavily pregnant woman, which Will Summer over at the Daily Beast. Don't, I mean, I get it. She was eight months pregnant, but heavily pregnant.

I don't find better wording. Anyway, the staffer said, quote, I was yelled at in front of jurors because he was hungry, and then he took the eight month pregnant woman sandwich. I mean. But I mean, does anything describe a conservative better than, I want your stuff and I don't care who you are? I'm pro-life, but give me that sandwich. which I don't give a game if you or your fetus wants it.

Another, in another apparent reference to O'Keefea staffer complains about employees at Project Veritas getting spat on. So like Jimmy Doer apparently works there. I'm kidding, that's a joke. Well, he would spit if he heard that joke because he's just laughing about his jokes. Rule number one, you can't spit in an employee's face over a tweet, true story. So guys, that one's critical to me. It's, Will Summer doesn't have a great reputation of the Daily Beast either, by the way.

So I take everything he says with a great assault. So in this case, we don't know if it was like he's screaming in a spittle. That's bad, right? But it's different than going and spitting in an employee's face over a tweet. If it was actually spitting in the face, no, no, like you should go to jail, but that's assault. Like that's, no one should tolerate that. That's insanity. Yes.

But we don't know which one it is, to be fair. And there's been a lot of turmoil at Project Veritas, including an FBI investigation. So Project Veritas faces a number of threats, including an FBI investigation and an ex-employee's lawsuit alleging that O'Keefe oversaw a raucous, sexually charged workplace complete with at least one drug overdose. Project Veritas has denied breaking any laws in the FBI investigation and is fighting the lawsuit, but in December, the group did lay off several staffers. All right, so with that said, let's move on to the accusations pertaining to the misuse

of funds, okay? Now, the board has claimed that it was legally required to call a board meeting after it discovered that O'Keeffe was committing what they described as financial malfeasance. The board's list of alleged misspending incurred by the nonprofit at O'Keeffe's direction. included a $14,000 charter flight to meet someone who could repair his boat. Other alleged expenses included $150,000 over 18 months on private black cars and thousands of dollars on DJ and other equipment. The board also accused O'Keefe of wasting $60,000 on dance events.

Dance events. Which look, I like dance events, but I'm not going to use. Ty-T-Y-T funds to do it, right? 60,000. How much dancing did you do, brother? You know, man, that is a dance-a-thon. Saturday at Live over there. Now, in December. Fever, sorry.

In December, Project Veritas also acknowledged in properly giving O'Keefe $20,500 in excess benefits to pay for Project Veritas staff to accompany him to Virginia as he performed a lead role in a production of the musical Oklahoma, what? What? What? Okay, and then finally,

there was some money put into what you're about to see, which is in fact something put together by O'Keefe, starring O'Keefe. Just enjoy, you're welcome. I just can't believe and my face is on TV. Ali Kaki Am I left

right M or G O B Ali Kaki Do I have faith The truth Does truth have faith To me

O'Keefe is suing Twitter for defamation The Project They're up and down Because they confronted a Facebook executive Take a video like that down That would be due to a docks concern

I can show you a video of CNN doing the exact same thing What are made factual statements about our client and are false. Aligarchy. Twitter singing in Zonk is working with Dorsey. Aligarchy. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Come on, come on, come on.

Aligarchy. No, but I kind of love the song. Like, is that bad? We played it on old school. Now we play it here. It's going to get stuck in my head. Don't do that to me. Aligarchy.

Can we just play the old. for a minute and like really like appreciate the musical genius behind this song. He's gonna think it's real. He's gonna think it's real. No, I kind of like the beat. You're crazy. This is a weak as amateur horse track. But also look, I'm a little concerned about children seeing that video. It might groom them. You know what I'm saying? It might persuade some of the male kids in this country to betray their masculinity, right? I don't know, people are asking. Oh, Keith is suing Twitter for defamation.

I love the bad thing. Looking at the bat. It's a slight hammer. Aligarchi. I love it so much. They're walking like an Egyptian. Oh, I love it so much. They're walking like an Egyptian.

See you? Come on, it's good, it's good. With doors. Alikarki. Okay, Bart made a good point last line on old school. It's actually, we think it's based over for a Prince song, controversy. It is, it is. Oh, that's why I like it.

Yeah, it is. That's why I like the beats. It is from a Prince song, and this just validates the nature of conservatives. Going after a song, stealing from someone who is not alive. And by, by the way, also black, so cultural appropriation. He wants to be in musical theater so bad. So bad. Guys, that's what I?

Live your dream, James. Live your dream. Go for it. Go for it. Yes. Go get him. Aligarchy. So guys, first of all,

here's another set of folks I don't shed a tear for. The donors to Project Veritas. Oh, I love it. Some of the worst people on earth. Oh, I love it. I can't get enough of it. Waste their money. The funny.

Alligarchy. The funny thing is the donors are part of the oligarchy. Oh, I love it so much. And it's like such a hilarious meta meme, right? Where they're doing a song about the oligarchy funded by the oligarchy. Oh, it's so good. Okay, and they don't make any money. They don't, it's just, they get 20 million a year from these right wingers.

And it keeps like, I don't know what to do with $20 million a year. So you know what? I'll just put on the musicals that I always try. dreamed about as a kid. No, O'Keefe knows exactly what he wants to do with the $20 million a year. We just listed it for you. Yeah, look guys, man, I mean, here we check like every $4 receipt, okay? Oh my God.

Meanwhile, these guys are spending $150,000 on cars. Like not to cars that they even buy, just like for simple transportation because they want to live like rock stars. So they take the, I don't care at all that they wasted douchebag right wingers money. I love that they wasted it. Hey, idiots who gave money to Project Veritas, in my opinion, enjoy the stupid-ass song they spent it on. And I hope you enjoyed the Oklahoma production in Virginia where they went to for $20,000. Oh my God, can I just say, like really think about what it took to put that music video together.

Like they went to train, like do the choreog- learn the choreography, learn the choreography, practice. They had to bother ripping off friends and writing lyrics. How much time did you spend on practicing? Kevin O'Keefe, James O'Keefe. Why do we keep wanting to call him Kevin? It's weird. But anyway, that was fun. So.

Yeah. And now, of course, there's a bunch of right-wingers who are like, we stand with James O'Keefe. Yeah, Charlie Kirk. You should be able to abuse your workers. And what's the whole point of a conservative? You can't dominate others and oppress them and keep them under your boot, right? What are these woke companies now at a project? Veritas demanding not to be spit on.

Yeah, Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, Don Jr. The usual suspects are backing O'Keefe. Yeah, Steve Bannon took it, what, over, he got indicted and then pardoned by Trump because he's a criminal, right, over the money that they were going to steal for their fake wall. You think he's going to mind O'Keefe stealing from donors? That's like Republican 101. By the way, if you're a Republican donor, don't do not ever shed a tear.

someone's taking money from you and miss spending it. The whole point of your donation is to take money from the rest of us for tax cuts for the rich and deregulation so you could rob the rest of us. So you'll you'll excuse us if we don't give a damn about how your corrupt money was wasted. All the gucky. All right, we gotta take a break. When we come back, we've got an update on week Pete. What's going on with the Norfolk Southern debacle?

That and more, don't miss 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 Podcasts at apple.com at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.