The Young Turks - Patently Ridiculous

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

Inside the Koch-backed effort to keep money in politics and stop H.R. 1. Why Florida’s COVID numbers are facing new scrutiny. Progressives are pushing Biden to lift COVID vaccine patents. 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. What's up, happy people. You're watching The Young Turks with Anna Casparian. And joining me today is Ida Rodriguez, host of the truth serum and good friend of the Young Turks. Ida, it's always so good to have you on the show with us. I'm glad to be back. And I wanted just to stop quick, just address some rumors. quickly. I did not fall out with the young Turks. That's not why I haven't been here. I've been really busy. And we are all good. We didn't have a fight or anything of the sort. So please stop putting those dumb comments on my Instagram. That's so funny. I've been kind of, not kind

of, I've been pretty much staying away from social media lately. And I've been really happy. So I haven't been coming across any of those rumors. But no, there's like this whole instigator ecosystem right now. And it's, it's really infuriating because, like, I'll give you an example. Some of the lefty shows, like Sam Cedar Show, majority report, they take callers. And I've noticed that there's like this pattern of people like who watch all of the different shows. And they'll like call into Sam's show, for instance, and be like, did you hear what this host said? And then they'll like, of course, mischaracterize what the host that they're talking about said. And then try to like instigate some sort of conflict.

Guys, I know that we're, you know, many of us are still stuck at home. I know that it can get boring, but like take up a hobby, some woodworking, like, we're all good. Let's, let's try to find ways to unite the left, not instigate fights and conflict among them. But anyway, Ida, as always, it's always so great to have you on. And we have a lot of stories to get to, including the latest from the Derek Chauvin trial. We'll play some video from the trial today. Since we produced that story, there have been more updates, which I'll share with you as well. And then probably my favorite story of the day, although it's depressing, has to do with a school being renamed in Florida. And, you know, the folks in Jacksonville, they have

thoughts about slavery and the history of this country. And they're going to share those details with you. So can't wait. But before we get to that, let's talk a little bit about what Coke-funded organizations are already cooking up to defeat election reform legislation. The election reform bill known as HR1 or the For the People Act is incredibly popular with the electorate. It would expand voting rights. It would ensure that people who want to vote will easily be able to do so. But the people who aren't so happy about this are the individuals who love doling out dark money in order to bribe our politicians. And so I'd say the Koch Brothers, but really now it's Coke Brother, has come out talking about how this needs to be

defeated, and they're already engaging in focus groups to figure out just how to do that. Now, the New Yorker was able to obtain audio of a private conference call that took place. And this conference call included all sorts of conservative dark money groups, also an aid to Mitch McConnell, and they were expressing their frustration over the popularity of this legislation and what they can do to defeat it. Without further ado, let's go to the first video which features an individual who works for a Coke-funded organization. I don't want to give too much away. Let's take a look at what he has to say, and I'll fill in the blanks. Most people have never heard of the phrase HR1. so over 60% of people just had no idea what we were talking about when we said have you ever heard of HR1

however when presented with a very neutral description of HR1 people were generally supportive and the most worrisome part which Grover mentioned at the very beginning of his presentation is that conservatives were actually as supportive as the general public was when they read the neutral description of HR1 And so as I have here in my don't slide, you know, this isn't just a matter of like finding conservatives and then activating them on this in a public way. You know, there's a large, very large chunk of conservatives who are supportive of these types of efforts. So he's not celebrating the fact that even conservatives are supportive of this legislation. That is seen as a huge problem throughout the entirety of the audio that the New Yorker was able to obtain. And the person that you heard there is Kyle McKenzie.

He's a research director, the research director over at the Coke Run advocacy group known as Stand Together. Don't be fooled by its sweet sounding name. It's a terrible organization. And they want to ensure that corporate interests and the powerful elite in this country have more of a say in our democracy. democracy than you do. And so conservatives do like the legislation because it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican. The fact that we have dark money funding campaigns, the fact that we have legalized bribery in this country, the corruption is something that upsets both sides of the aisle. And so they're trying to find ways to kind of outmaneuver the popular messaging that comes along with this type of legislation. And it wouldn't just get rid of dark money. This legislation calls for the public financing of campaigns, which is a really, really big deal. And that goes in addition to, you know, expanding voting rights, ensuring that people are easily registered to vote if they're eligible to vote and what have you. But before

I get to more sound featuring this McKenzie character, I wanted to hear some of what you had to say about this, Ida. You know, it's funny because I watched Judas and the Black Messiah early, and I realized that Fred Hampton was only 21 years old when they killed him. And, you know, people were like, yeah, he was trying to unite the people. He was trying to get the people black and the Rainbow Coalition. The reality is that they killed him is because he was coming for capitalism, right? And anybody who comes from capitalism, I mean, Jesse Jackson has been talking about anti-racism forever and he's still here. Captain at 21 got, you know, was murdered by the U.S. government.

And I just think about how these agendas, they're so important to those interests because they really do manipulate everything that happens in our environments and why, you know, of course racism is bad, white supremacy is at play. It is a function of capitalism. And then when you think about this, these are people who don't care about the quality of your water or your air, who don't care that the laws are, you know, rigged in not in your favor and that they have, you know, labor, this free labor that continues the slavery legacy of this country. So when we talk about these things, it's so deep and so, it's so much invested in where our communities and how we live our lives, all of the people who are

not in that top 1%, that this kind of stuff should really move us to really understand who who we're voting for and what they're what they're voting for in government. And it's not just about the president, but that is why it's so important to understand who you're putting in those seats to go represent you in Washington and who represent you in local government. Yeah, that's exactly right. And what I really appreciate about this story and the fact that, you know, the New Yorker was able to obtain this leaked audio is that it gives you a clear sense of how the

sausage is made, really. Because don't think that, you know, you have these incredibly like brilliant lawmakers who are super strategic and they sit around like thinking analytically about how they're gonna push through some legislation. No, that's not how it works. There's all sorts of gross, corporate like behavior happening in our political, in our political world. And that includes the focus groups. That includes more of what you're about to hear from McKenzie in the clips that we're about to have you listen to, because it's not about having a democratic process where the will of the people reigns supreme. This is a conversation about breaking the will of the people or manipulating people to think that legislation that would

actually give them the ability to be part of this democratic process is awful, it's terrible. And so what are they thinking about? What did they find through these focus groups that they engaged in. Well, McKenzie is about to share more details about his findings in this next clip. Take a listen. Don't get into a fight in HR1 where you engage with the other side, where they have the talking point. HR1 stops billionaires from buying elections. Unfortunately, we found that that is a winning message for both, you know, the general public and also conservatives, you know, that simple message, but far in a way was resonated with people. And, you know, when they had to compare that message versus tons of other ones, they were

most persuaded by that and they found that to be most convincing and most, you know, riled them up the most. Wow. Congratulations, Kyle. I guess that's why they pay you the big bucks. We're surprised. We did a focus group and we found out that people don't like money in politics. Oh, congratulations, Ida. You know, it's funny is that you and I, we've talked about this stuff before. And you know, we know who the real enemies are and you know who really gets off when we struggle because it's so profitable. The struggle of the people is so profitable for those at the top. And you know, this gives people insight into all the little moving parts that go, that are in play to

keep you oppressed and suppressed and frustrated and hungry and broke. And just the reminder that even though the American people have suffered horribly as a result of this pandemic, those people have gotten richer as a result of this pandemic. And we need to really take all of this into account because while we're having these culture wars and these fights on Instagram and on Twitter, those are the people who are benefiting from it. It is so profitable for them at the top. We need to really, really, really real align ourselves in this fight, because the quality of our lives are getting worse while theirs gets better. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And understand that the context of this conference call that they're

having is this necessity to manipulate, not Democratic voters. They consider Democratic voters is a lost cause. They're having a conversation about manipulating conservative voters specifically. That's what this is about. So what were more of the findings from this focus group? Let's take a listen. Perhaps most sadly on the don'ts column here, the last number five, and this is a major reason we undertook this research, was just to simply test whether the phrase cancel culture could be attached to HR1 and using that to motivate the right would be helpful. Unfortunately, at least in our max diff exercise where we had messages against other messages, this concept of cancel culture didn't really resonate with people.

So our phrase was something very akin to HR1 is the less attempt to use cancel culture to cancel conservatives, something like that. And it really ranked in the bottom. Dude, political corruption has its, I don't want to sound too optimistic because I'm not, but political corruption, I feel, has its days numbered because, again, we're talking about conservatives here, right? And conservatives have been propagandized by GOP lawmakers regarding cancel culture endlessly. And they're not buying it. I mean, look, they believe that cancel culture is a problem, right? But they aren't buying it in the context of dark money or money in politics, corrupting politicians, bribery that essentially takes us out of the equation as individual

voters, really. They're not buying the argument. They're like, oh, oh, you're going to bring up cancel culture. You're going to bring up cancel culture to try to manipulate me into thinking that money in politics is a great thing. No, not buying it. Right? So I love that because it also, to me, reveals that even conservative voters seem to be increasingly aware of class as opposed to other identifying characteristics, right? So rather than see their billionaire conservatives as their as their homies, they're like, they're not like me. My situation's a little different, you know, and that's a good sign. Yeah, it is. And you know what it is, one of the things that I think about is that a lot of people who are conservative in their, in their views, it comes

from, you know, their upbringing religion and where they come from. And they really believe those things. They believe in, and in whatever their religious doctrine that they've accepted for to guide their lives. And they are noticing that these people are manipulating those things for profit. And yeah, there are a lot of people who want to identify with Donald Trump who lack education and or not just Donald Trump, because I don't even think Donald Trump is a conservative. You can't be a conservative when you smash in, you know, porn stars and you got all these baby mamas because that's not in alignment with conservative views. And that's just not me trying to, you know, that's just,

truth. But I just think that it's important that people realize that their personal beliefs, their specific values are being manipulated by these people for gain. And I'm glad that people are starting to wake up. Because those people really believe those things. They believe in those things. It's attached to their Jesus or whatever it is that they believe. And I'll hear these guys and people come along to say, you know what? Check this out. And they're like, No, we're good. We're good. And I'm glad. I'm glad. I am too. Now, I'm also aware of the kind of fight that billionaire conservatives are willing to engage in. And I don't want anyone to think that this is going to be an easy battle. Of course, Republican lawmakers are going to try to fight this tooth and nail. Democrats in the Senate specifically have become more willing to at least discuss reform. the filibuster in order to pass this type of legislation in the Senate. Remember, as the legislative filibuster stands today, they would need 60 votes total in the

Senate in order to pass this type of legislation. So the first order of business would really need to be filibuster reform, or my preference would be to do away with the filibuster altogether. But this is a must pass piece of legislation for Democrats if they wish to have any type of political future. Because as we've seen over and over again, as we're seeing right now in states like Georgia, Republicans are doing anything and everything necessary to game the system to their advantage to ensure that they get the votes. And anyone who wants to vote for Democrats will have a difficult

time doing so in some of these battleground states. We do have one more clip to get to. Let's take a look at that. And I'll give you some more details about what HR1 includes. The one message that seemed actually to work, and I know this won't be intellectually satisfying to a lot of people on this call who really want to engage in this fight, the message that seemed to work, right, was simply that Congress shouldn't be focusing on this right now. Our country has much bigger fish to fry at this moment, which I think we can all agree with. You know, and so the two examples we use were health care and the economy, right? you know, there's still an unbelievable amount of people out of work in the country.

Congress should focus on getting people back to work, not on, you know, these kind of niche donor disclosure type of endeavors we're working on. Obviously, you know, we don't have the luxury of maybe making that statement because we do need to refute the other side's point of view, but from a mass communications point of view, that is one of the most effective messages. Okay, great. So we know what actually did resonate with the participants of this focus group, the allocation that there are other fish to fry. But what the Democratic Party needs to do a better job in, and they need to be prepared ahead of time. I mean, they just got a giant hint about

what this campaign is going to be about. They need to have a message ready about how we're not going to be able to fry that fish unless we have a democratic system, a democratic process in place to ensure that the will of the people is effectively communicated to lawmakers. And you're not going to get healthcare policy, you're not going to get economic policies that benefit the best interests of the electorate if you have dark money pouring into these campaigns, and if you continue to protect this system of legalized bribery, and if you think it was a problem before, just consider the fact that elections are going to become more and more difficult considering all of these, you know, anti-voter bills that are passing in places like Georgia

that make it increasingly difficult for voters to cast their ballot. So this is an important piece of legislation because it at least begins to address the core problem that we've noticed in our democracy since the Supreme Court ruled in Buckley v. Vileo, and then, of course, that subsequent ruling on Citizens United. We do not have a sound democratic process right now because it is being undermined by money in politics. So if you actually want something done about all those other agenda items, including health care and the economy, you're not going to actually get what you want unless you do away with that virus. You do away with that system of legalized bribery. So, you know, the science that goes into divide and conquer,

it's amazing to just to listen to it, right, to hear, because that's what it is. The term billionaire conservative and billionaire liberal to me just sounds crazy because you just, I don't believe that you can be, you're either a liberal or conservative, if you're a billionaire, you just align yourself with whichever agenda is going to make you more money, because I just think that being able to sit on that much money knowing all of the problems of the world has to speak to a certain type of psyche. And you know me, I wouldn't be me if I didn't do me. I'm sitting here looking at this stuff and I think about it from the perspective of people of color, black people in this country. You know, the world, America, they had to give up one of their greatest resources that

was free labor. They gave it up and every single day they work hard trying to figure out a way to get back to that. And that prison, prison industrial complex, and it just sounds like a bunch of bitter, rich, rich white people that are in their fields because they don't have an opportunity to exploit the American people in a way that makes them money so that they can continue passing that money onto their children and their children's children while our children starve and get shot in the street. So I just think that when I hear these stories and I hear this kind of stuff and I read about this kind of stuff, just sounds like a great temper tantrum for people who are, you know, who are sitting fat based on the work

of hundreds of years of people that were kidnapped. And now they're like, how do we do this again? How do we? And people think it's extreme and they think I'm a conspiracy theorist. But if you don't look at the way that America is running right now and how it's trying to work its way back into slavery and that the American people are all have always been a casualty of this toxic capitalism. I don't know what else to tell you, man, this sounds gross and disgusting. And the fact that he's so monotone and having this conversation, lest you know, that is just robotic and scientific and it's economic. What is not as moral, it is not humane. It is not rooted in anything that has compassion or empathy for the people of this country. It is all based on manipulation.

And we need to really be awake because it's just happening before our very own eyes. Absolutely, absolutely. The manipulation is just part and parcel of what this whole conversation is about. And just to remind you all, I really want to drive this point home. This is an incredibly important piece of legislation. It must pass. The New York Times called it the most substantial expansion of voting rights in a half a century. It would transform the way Americans vote by mandating automatic national voter registration,

expanding vote by mail, and transferring the, basically it would prevent Republicans from being able to draw districts or gerrymandered the way that they've been doing. And that's incredibly important. It would take that power out of parties and have actual nonpartisan experts make decisions. decisions about how districts should be drawn. And that's important as well. So we'll stay on this story, give you guys more details as we learn where the legislation is in the process. But don't be fooled by the nonsense coming from these disgusting billionaire grifters who are, dude, Charles Koch. He's like 110 years old. Let it go. Let it go. Go enjoy your wealth. Leave us alone. Okay. Stop trying to destroy what little we have left of our democratic process. For now, though, we got to take a break. and when we come back, we have some updates on the coronavirus situation in Florida, a state that was applauded for doing so, so well. But are there numbers accurate? We'll give you the details on that and more.

We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The Republic or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and power. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be, featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you think.

thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, You must have learned what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime.

So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained, all at the same time. I don't know. sorts of exciting programming notes with you starting with old school. It's Tuesday, which means after the post game today, old school will air. If you're not a member, you should certainly become one because members get that whole show. If you're not a member, you get like a little tasty taste, right? Just a little, this is delicious, but I want more. How can I get more? Become a member.

One of the easiest ways to do that is through our YouTube channel and special thanks to all of our YouTube members for helping to make this show happen and for supporting us. And yeah, let's also talk a little bit about what you can look forward to on the conversation because as we've been talking about on the show lately, you have the state of Georgia, unfortunately passing some disgusting and backwards voting laws in order to prevent specifically black voters from being able to cast their ballot. And on the conversation this week, We're going to have Representative Park Cannon, who's going to talk to Dr. Rashad Richie about that legislation and what can be done moving forward to kind of mitigate the damage that will be done to our democratic process as a result. This is super exciting because Representative Cannon is giving us an exclusive interview, no interview with CNN, no interview with major cable news networks or major networks.

This is going to be an exclusive conversation on the conversation this Wednesday at 5.30 p.m. Eastern time to 2.30 p.m. Pacific. You can check that out live at t.yt.com slash live. And also we've been nominated for a Shorty Award and voting is going to end really soon. It ends tomorrow. Please help get TYT an award for its election coverage in the Shorty Awards section for Best in Live event coverage. You can go to t-y-t.com slash shorties to learn more about how you can vote. And again, you can vote once a day until Wednesday, March 31st, but that's tomorrow. So try to vote today.

And please support us because we'd love to win an award for all that hard work we put in for the election coverage. All right, we got a minute left. I'm going to read a few member comments, starting with Kathy Hastings, who has a comment about Matt Gates. Now we know why Matt Gates is considering leaving Congress. He is under investigation by the Department of Justice bar started over whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17 year old girl two years ago. So we, I just found out about that story right before going live. My goal is to read up on it and hopefully share more details with you guys at some point in the second hour. But thank you for notifying all of us about that.

Spicy Flanders, of course, Koch brothers and the Republican bootlickers are opposed to the right to vote. Republicans know they'll lose in a free and fair election. You're right about that, which is why they consistently try to game the system to their advantage. Instead of taking a look at how unpopular their views are, their policies are, they've decided, well, why don't we just cheat? Mickey C also has a comment, which I will read when we come back for our next segment. Okay, see you there. Welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian, Ida Rodriguez with you. And I want to read a quick member comment for Mickey C who says, in response to the last story we covered.

Other fish to fry, there are 20 committees in the House, countless subcommittees working on a lot of different policies at once is the norm, not working on just one at a time. And you're right. That's a really great point. I mean, in theory, right? In theory, they're working on a lot of legislation at the same time, although what we end up getting from Congress is far less than that. And part of the reason why is because they're beholden to their corporate donors. So this is why the For the People Act absolutely must pass. My favorite provision in that legislation has to do with publicly financed elections. Will we actually get that by the time it makes its way through Congress? Probably not, but if we can do something to mitigate the flow of dark money and money in politics,

I think that it would be tremendously helpful in empowering the voices of actual individual voters as opposed to corporate interests. With that said, though, let's move on to the great state of Florida, which has been getting a lot of applause for the way that they've handled coronavirus, but maybe they've been suppressing some numbers. So let's discuss. A new study seems to confirm what many have already suspected regarding the number of coronavirus deaths in the state of Florida. Now Florida under the leadership of Governor DeSantis was one of the first states to open things up and just go back to normal as if we're not dealing with a global pandemic. And what was interesting was, you know, fairly recently there were comparative analyses done, you know, showing how California fared compared to Florida. Florida opened

everything up. California at the time had still shut everything down. But the numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths seemed pretty comparable. So what was going on there? Well, Well, it turns out that some researchers argue that the way officials in Florida count coronavirus deaths is a little skewed in a favorable direction for DeSantis, and I'll explain how. Researchers came to that conclusion by comparing the number of estimated deaths for a six-month period in 2020, that was from March to September of last year, to the actual number of deaths that occurred, a figure known as excess deaths because they exceed the estimate. There were 400,000 excess deaths known or excess deaths across the United States in 2020, okay?

So when you look at Florida specifically, the researchers say 4,924 excess deaths should have been counted as resulting from COVID-19, but for the most part, they were ruled as having been caused by something else, thus lowering Florida's coronavirus fatality count. That's possible because people who die from COVID-19 often have comorbidities, such as diabetes and asthma. And so I wanna bring you in because as I was reading the way that they manipulate numbers like this, it made me think of George Floyd and how they tried to blame George Floyd's death on anything other than the fact that Derek Chauvin basically suffocated him to death, with his knee, right?

It was like, no, no, no, no, it was actually the fentanyl. No, no, no, it was actually his this or is that. But, you know, in the case of coronavirus, obviously that's BS, right? But in the case of coronavirus, I would argue that it's also BS. I don't know, what do you think? And I think you're muted.

Oh, I was like, I mean, first of all, you mean Florida manipulating numbers? No. The whole election, we, you know, I think that enough is enough. The ridiculousness with the people, Florida and Georgia and Texas have been, these officials have been having a field day with this coronavirus and their approach. And meanwhile, the people who are dying are the ones that don't have access to the health care that they have access to or any of the information and the stuff that they have access to.

I think that I truly wholly believe that wholeheartedly believe that they've been manipulating numbers. They've been throwing that in our faces because the people who are dying are people who belong to groups that don't really matter to these people. So I just, yeah, they probably have been manipulating numbers because why is it that everybody else has been devastated by this virus, but then places that have high concentration, a high concentration of people who don't believe it's real, of course, you know, all of it goes to play together. You have a whole bunch of people who don't think that this is real, to this day, people who you're still hearing about fighting about wearing a mask, people who want to continue to have spring break events and parties no matter

who's at risk, and then the people who are dying are older people, black and brown people, people, poor people, people are marginalized situations. So of course, that it's very possible that they are manipulating the numbers because as usual in America, those people don't matter. Yeah, I mean, you make a really great point. Florida is the second state in terms of elderly population. And so I tend to forget about that because when I think of Florida, of course, I think of like South. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size.

Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget. After all, you're in your small space era. It's time to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca. Florida, where I visit my in-laws, But Florida has a giant, you know, retired community. And as we know, coronavirus is far more likely to be lethal for elderly individuals. And so, you know, there's also this issue.

And it's not just about Florida. I mean, you'll notice this throughout the country where, depending on where you are, the health officials will decide whether or not to count the death as a coronavirus death or to consider the death as something that was caused by the comorbidity. Now, to be sure, all of the patients were talking about had coronavirus, it's just that the way that they're recorded really depends on how the health official decides to list them. Is it COVID or is it because of heart disease, right? They might not have died from a heart attack, but depending on their own discretion, the health

officials of discretion, they'll decide if it's COVID or if it's some heart issue. And so as Daniel Weinberger from Yale mentions in this Yahoo News report, some states classify a death as due to COVID if a positive molecular test was obtained, while other states allow the death to be classified as due to COVID if there is a suspicion that it was caused by COVID, even without a molecular test. So I mean, there's just no uniformity across the country. And I think that that stems from the fact that we never really had a robust centralized approach to combating this virus. I mean, come on. Of course, of course we get hit with a global pandemic during the Trump administration. I mean, it couldn't have been any other way, right? And there is one other statistic that I want to share with you all

because I do think it's relevant, because excess deaths were at 21% nationwide for 2020, and that's according to CDC figures. Florida saw a 15.5% rate of excess deaths for the period that was studied. California's excess death rate was also 15%, despite that state's governor, Gavin Newsom, having enacted much more stringent restrictions than did DeSantis in Florida. So obviously the difference in excess deaths between California and Florida is notable, and you should keep that in mind. But it goes beyond government policy, a state government policy. I think it also has to do with whether or not people are willing to follow through with social distancing guidelines and things like that.

So Newsom having strict rules didn't necessarily stop some of these massive warehouse parties that. that were broken up by cops, you know, when COVID cases were spiking more recently. But I do think that it's fascinating and should be investigated further that Florida somehow miraculously seemed to not follow any social distancing guidelines beginning in August of 2020. And somehow their numbers are lower, much lower than some of the states that had strict shutdown measures. So we'll see how this goes, but don't think I forgot about the fact that DeSantis got one of their data scientists fired because she was accurately reporting data regarding coronavirus cases and deaths. So do I think that there's a pretty big possibility

that they're suppressing numbers or at least manipulating numbers? Yes, but I would also caution you about this one study because based on their comparative analysis, it doesn't really seem like the number of excess deaths in Florida versus California is that big of a deal. Really, there's no difference. All right, well, let's move on to a story that needs to be talked about. It has to do with the coronavirus vaccine. Progressives are calling on the Biden administration to lift the coronavirus vaccine patents so that poorer countries can produce their own supply. Now let me be clear about something before I give you more details in this story. This is not a conversation about rich countries handing over their doses of the vaccine.

This is a discussion about lifting, at least temporarily lifting patents so that these pharmaceutical companies share the technology, share the research necessary to produce the vaccine in some of these countries that have been unable to obtain even a single dose of the vaccine for their own people. So for months, the United States has joined Canada, the United Kingdom, and several other rich countries in blocking the patent waiver proposed first, introduced at the World Trade Organization last year by South Africa and India. So South Africa and India are really leading the charge in trying to get access to the information necessary to produce these vaccines. Now, two companies, AstraZeneca and Navavix, Navarix, have allowed manufacturers in India,

Japan, and South Korea to produce their vaccines under voluntary licensing agreements. But the WTO, which supports India and South Africa's waiver request, argues the terms of that voluntary license scheme being offered by some patent holders are not sufficient to address the current pandemic. And so the calls by progressives for Biden to do something about this continue to grow louder. And that's a good thing. So you have representatives Rosa DeLoro, Jan Shikowski, Bernie Sanders, of course, and dozens of other U.S. members of Congress joining forces with 400 grassroots advocacy organizations in urging Biden to end U.S. opposition to this waiver, proponents say is necessary to distribute sufficient vaccine doses to developing countries.

And Biden's thinking about it. So maybe he needs a little more of a push. And if he needs that push, obviously we're happy to engage in that. But we're dealing with a global pandemic. So rich countries hoarding that technology for themselves isn't really going to help this situation, especially when our global supply chain really relies on these countries, especially countries like India, right? So if you're worried about the economic situation, like you should be worried about people's lives, okay? But if you don't care about that and you're more concerned about the profit seeking of pharmaceutical companies. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing

and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cybercriminals. And it's also easy to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get.

three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for T-Y-T fans. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. Consider the fact that not sharing this vaccine is going to have a negative domino effect on our economy, on our health. This is really something where all countries need to be working together to beat the virus. And right now, you know, profits over people continues to reign supreme and that's a problem. Yeah. And so for those of us who were not crazy about either of the choices that we had for a president of the United States who have been very transparent about that, these are the things that we talk about when we talk about this Democratic Party that so many

people are, you know, pledge their allegiance to. But here it is, here we are having a conversation about the United States of America and its impact on other countries. And so this conversation doesn't have anything to do with immigration, but allow me to make the comparison is that when we do things like this, which destabilize other countries, it forces people to have to come here or want to come here because they're seeking something that they don't have in their own countries. And this is the domino, these are the domino effect. So when we think about not wanting to give the resources to other countries, and then we complain about why there are so many Indians in America when we are those people who participate in those conversations. These are

the reasons why people have to, because the president of the United States is operating in his capitalistic mentality, which is toxic for all of the people. And the fact that the reason why we're in this situation in the first place is because of a global effect, the global effect of coronavirus, which started in some place called China. And so we don't ever think that things like that are going to affect us because we think that we operate solely as this individual singular entity when we know that it's all interconnected. So when we don't want to help India, coronavirus is not going to get better in Montana because this is the stuff that happens that affects the people throughout the world. And for some reason, those people who are at the top who make all the money, they don't care because they're not directly affected because they're not walking into the stores where these people work and they're not interacting with the people directly. So it just pisses me off that we have these conversations because coronavirus is not going to get better for anybody until it gets better for everybody. Because that's the reason why we're so affected by it, right?

is not down the street from here. And yet and still, I have friends that have died of coronavirus here. So it's just, are you on our team, Biden, or are you not? Because we need to know that you're for the people because you're acting like those, the dummy that we heard in the earlier story. Right. And look, one of the things that people need to be aware about is the importance of getting vaccinated goes beyond just protecting yourself. We already have variants of this virus, and it's because it mutates.

And so a way to prevent future variants is to get as many people vaccinated as possible. What if in the future there's a variant that's not responsive to the vaccine? That could happen. It hasn't happened yet, as far as we know, but that could happen. It is in everyone's interest. It is in the economy's interest, if that's literally all you care about, to ensure that we share these resources across the globe, including with the Global South. And so hopefully Biden does the right thing here. But overwhelmingly, my feelings are, you know, considering how this is a human rights thing, a human rights issue, pharmaceutical drugs should not be a commodity. It should be something that's owned by the people. It's already partially financed by the people. It's just that

they then turn around, they price gouge us after we help with their research and development. But nonetheless, this is an important story. Please keep your eye on it as we will, and we'll definitely update you as we learn more. We got to take a quick break, though. When we come back, what are your thoughts on a potential vaccine passport? I'll tell you what conservatives think, and hopefully you disagree with them. We'll be right back. Thank you.

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if free market individuals would not be in favor of the Fed pumping free money into banks and corporations. Free market individuals would not want money in politics where you get to gain the system to your advantage. Anyway, it's, thank you for that comment. I agree with you. Lars Nilsen says good news when it comes to workers' rights. Oh, this is, this is good news. I read this in the financial times today. Volvo Cars will give all their employees around $50,000, $25 weeks paid parental leave. And that affects both men and women, which I'm excited about. Hopefully more companies will follow. Yes, that is a good news story. Thank you for reminding me about it. Peter Hamby says, DeSantis attacked scientists, even rating one to hide the real numbers

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call us smoking salt. Ooh, I like it. That's a good restaurant name. That's a good restaurant name. Anyway, we got to get back to the show. Let's do it. Welcome back to TYT. If you're watching live, please like and share the stream, the algorithm loves it. Like every time you do it, the algorithm's like, oh yeah, baby, give me more.

So give it more, give it more. Share the message of TYT. It's one of the easiest ways to support our show and also spread our message. Now let's get to the notion of vaccine passports and how conservatives are terrified of it because they're mostly just driven by fear. A new Biden administration initiative might soon require the American public to carry around what they're referring to as vaccine passports. Now, of course, we're dealing with a global pandemic. This is an incredibly content. virus. And so if individuals are refusing to get vaccinated, you know, some of these businesses,

some travel locations might want to be aware of it in order to protect their own customers, clients, or constituents. And so this vaccine passport would, of course, prove that you've been vaccinated against the coronavirus. However, the initiative is going to be used and is already being used as a culture war symbol by right-wing grifters like Marjorie Taylor Green. Let's hear what she has to say about it. They want you to be required to have something called a COVID passport. And this would mandate your ability to be able to travel, your ability to be able to go to events, your ability to be able to buy and sell.

And I asked the question earlier today, is this something like Biden's mark of the beast? because that is really disturbing and not good. Oh, if you're going to come into the football game or the baseball game or the concert, you need your vaccine passport because we're trying to do a good job to keep everyone safe. This is what the Biden administration is trying to talk to these private companies into doing. Well, let's analyze that. You see, it's still the same thing. It's still fascism or communism, whatever you want to call it,

but it's coming from private companies. So I have a term for that. I call it corporate communism. I call it corporate communism. So Ida, what are your thoughts? Is this the mark of the beast? Is this corporate communism? What is this exactly?

You know, every time I think something sensible is going to come out of that woman's mouth, she don't ever think that. No, no, but what's wrong with you? But not sensible. So I'm thinking she's going to say something that's like what I've read from people who are you know, feel suspicious about the vaccine. I think she's going to say this is a way for them to control Americans. This is a way for them to.

Then she hits me with the mark of the beast. And I'm like, there she goes. There she goes. This was too balanced to laugh that long. I was like, you know, she always does that. You know, she's like, you know, because the American people need to and, you know, old McDonald had a farm. Like that's always the way that she comes across, nothing.

Listen, people in this country eat McDonald's. They have all several, several other types of vaccinations. They take Z-packs. They take antibiotics that they know have been connected to cancer. So now, you know, this whole conspiracy about this vaccination, I thought she was going to go to Bill Gates trying to put the chip in our bodies as if we don't have a chip that we carry around in our cell phones, where I'm like, they got cameras outside, dude.

Like everywhere, put the pale horse book down. It's a wrap. There's a whole new wave of conspiracies you need to be working on because all that other stuff y'all talking about is past us. They can see you walking down the street. They know where you are. You are linked to a computer. You give people your location.

I don't know what you think Bill Gates is going to keep up with. your location through a vaccination, he could just Google world you, whatever that stuff is called, the Google thing where you can see. I just think that you said it at the beginning of the story. They're driven by fear. And that's insulting to the people who are the constituents of these clowns, right? That constantly is, it's never through science, intellect, information. It's like, because you know they're coming to get you and they're going to set us all on fire. It's always something that is, and it's praying on the people who are ignorant and who don't have a, don't, the uneducated, the poor, the people who don't have time to research all this stuff because they're too busy working and factories and that's who they're praying on. They have a specific target market. And that's why I have a problem with it because that right there, that was very specific to the Bible and the revelations. It's interesting to me that someone like that is quoting the Bible after doing this. the things that she does, right? Because the Bible also says, which I've said repeatedly,

says something to the extent that better you not be born than to mislead my sheep. So you're participating in this game for your benefit, for profit, game, fame. You're trying to become popular. You're trying to do, you try to use the Donald Trump handbook. We see you. We know you're doing push-ups in a hotel looking crazy on Twitter. We see everything you're doing because you're trying to get followers. You're trying to get people to know who you are because you're going to want to sell books and you want to make money off the American people just like the rest of them are. So while you're quoting the Bible, if you really believe in this stuff, then you need to know that you're going to be accountable to the set of rules that you continuously pumping out there. And that's why I don't like these people, because to me, according to the Bible, they're supposed to be behaving in a way that makes them worthy of the calling.

And you know, this woman is not that because we've seen her behavior endlessly. So I just, I'm just like, here we go, she shows up. I'm not surprised. Yeah. Yeah, I'm certainly not surprised either. And not that it really matters at the end of the day. But I do see Marjorie Taylor Green as different from like Matt Gates, right? I think Matt Gates knowingly engages in misinformation or disinformation campaigns to manipulate constituents.

Marjorie Taylor Green is just not a very smart person, right? So I think that the conspiracy theories that she puts out there are things that she actually genuinely believes, right? And I think that's certainly a problem when we're dealing with a pandemic that is incredibly contagious. And more importantly, if you're going to be going to public events, right, whether it's a sporting event or a concert, you're going to be around a big group of people, understand that Understand that, you know, when you're not vaccinated and you might be a non-symptomatic carrier of that virus,

you might be in close contact with someone who, because of their health condition, is unable to get the vaccine. So you're putting innocent people's lives in danger simply because you've decided that, you know, you don't want to carry these papers with you. And by the way, that's the one other thing. I want to know, and I think this is important, if there are going to be exceptions made for people who have immune issues, immunity issues and are unable because of preexisting conditions to get the vaccine, I think that it would be wrong to exclude them from public events because they're unable to get the vaccine. So that's, I think, an unintended consequence that could come up that maybe policymakers aren't thinking about ahead of time, but they should think about it ahead of time. But for those of us who are healthy and are able to get the vaccine, listen, if you don't want to get the vaccine, do you boo? But understand that there are consequences for actions that, you know, we either engage in or refuse to engage in. And in this case, you don't get to go to a crowded place if you, I mean, depending on how this is carried out, you might not be able to travel to any country you want.

You might not be able to go to certain events if you've decided that you're going to, you know, boast about, you know, this culture war nonsense of not getting the vaccine, you know, because that's really what this is turned into. It's become a symbol. It's become a symbol a part of the right wing's identity to reject the vaccine. When we know that if Donald Trump were the president right now, they would not have the same type of issues with, with getting. getting the vaccine. I just want to say quickly that I went to Hawaii for work last month and Hawaii made us get tested before we got there. We had a QR code. When you go to a restaurant in Hawaii,

you have to fill out a contact tracing form. And I think, and that's not out of the country. That is Hawaii, right? You can't go there. They will not allow it or they will make you quarantine for 14 days. And I'm thinking to myself, their numbers are very low there. They have it, they have a grasp on what's going on in Hawaii. But I just think it's interesting that these privileged white people who are always having these tantrums are okay with everybody carrying papers except them. Carry your paper. Yes. Yes. Okay, Ida, we got to end on that because that's the perfect point. I'm going to read you Justin Amash's tweet. He says no vaccine passport. It doesn't get much more dystopian than being required to show your health papers wherever you go. I'd like to remind

Justin Amash of SB 1070 in Arizona, where they were forcing Hispanics, Latinos to carry papers indicating that they're citizens. Because the whole point of that legislation was to profile people. If you look brown, you better have some papers proving that you're a U.S. citizen because we're giving cops permission to demand those papers to prove that you're a citizen. I mean, and by the way, It doesn't get more dystopian than that. It doesn't get more dystopian than vaccine documentation. I would argue like one of the largest employers in the United States, reducing its employees to defecating in bags because they give them such overwhelming quotas,

is a bit more dystopian. Okay, and of course I'm talking about Amazon here and the fact that its drivers are literally reduced to urinating in bottles and defecating in bags in their vehicles. because they can't afford to waste any time going to the bathroom due to their heavy workload. That's, I would argue, a lot more dystopian. But Amash doesn't seem to have a problem with that. So anyway, we got to take a break. When we come back, we do have a breaking news story about Matt Gates.

We'll give you the details on what he's being investigated for by the Department of Justice. And we'll also fill you in on the latest from Derek Chauvin's trial. Come 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.co slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.