The Young Turks - Pieces Of Junk

Episode Date: November 16, 2023

California Gov. Newsom on China's Xi visit: "I know folks say, 'Oh, they're just cleaning up this place because all these fancy leaders are coming into town.' That's true because it's true." A Republican proposes an amendment to keep junk fees for consumers. HOST: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian)  SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com 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! Welcome to TYT, I'm your host, Anna Kasparean, and we have a fascinating show prepared for you today. to take a little bit of a break on our coverage on the ongoing war in Gaza. We're going to pick it right back up tomorrow. But just for my mental health sake, we're going to let the

story develop further and cover it in more detail tomorrow. But yes, we do know about the ongoing brutality committed against patients at the El Shifa Hospital under the guise of going after Hamas militants. We know about the fact that we're not even getting updated death toll numbers anymore because of how terrible the conditions are on the ground that the Gaza health ministry can't tell us how many civilians are slaughtered, which I'm sure the IDF and the Israeli government is real happy about. But we've got a lot to get to on today's show, including quite a take that I have that I'm sure some of you are not going to like, but it's okay. There are some hard truths that need to be discussed in regard to a conference that's

taking place among international business leaders in San Francisco. I have an angle on that story that I think people need to hear about. Later in the show, we'll be interviewing a presidential candidate in the Democratic primary, Jank Yugar, you might have heard of him. And in the second hour of the show, Wozni Lombre will be joining me to talk about a whole host of stories, including what Republican presidential candidate, Nikki Haley, thinks, is of the utmost important going after online anonymity. in order to fight, which she calls anti-Semitism, what I would call critique, fair critique of the

Israeli government. But with that and more, you can look forward to in the second hour. I want to start off, though, with this story, buckle up. It's not for the fate of heart. If you get offended easily, just turn it off right now. But here we go. I know folks say, oh, they're just cleaning up this place because all those fancy leaders are coming into town. That's true. Because it's true. Quite the confession from California governor Gavin Newsom, who can only be described as a self-important and loathsome man with presidential aspirations

everyone should laugh at him for. The syringe and trash-riddled streets of San Francisco were spruced up, not for the residents of the city, of course not. But in preparation for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, President Joe Biden is expected to hold a meeting with China's president Xi Jinping there. San Francisco has been repaving streets and power washing train stations to prepare for 30,000 visitors from 21 nations. The delegates, the press, the CEO, it's going to be pretty amazing. San Francisco's mayor says it's a chance to turn the city's image around.

We expect lasting impacts on our city, whether it's the economy, tourism, convention. and also just really the narrative about San Francisco. Are there any steps that you've tried to take as mayor ahead of APEC to keep a diplomatic core member from wandering into the wrong part of the city? We are not trying to hide what the problems are of San Francisco. And we hope that people get a chance to experience, of course, great parts of San Francisco, but also know that we have our challenges and they are not as bad as what people are trying to portray them.

them as? Well, that's a lie. San Francisco Mayor London Breed is lying. You can't put a lipstick on a pig and pretend like what we've all been seeing on the streets is a figment of our imaginations. Temporarily cleaning things up doesn't magically erase our memories. And it really is amazing how urgently resources are made available when the comfort of the international business community is top of mind. There has been a noticeable reduction in the number of tents and drug activity along Van Ness Avenue, United Nations Plaza, and the area around the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, which has long been the epicenter of the city's drug crisis. Emails between officials show the city made a concerted effort to address homeless encampments, in particular

areas before APEC. In an email dated September 25th, Department of Emergency, management executive director Mary Ellen Carroll requested a 24-7 homeless shelter facility just in time for the conference. Marion Sanders, chief deputy director of the Department of Homelessness and supportive housing, responded to Carol by promising to have a clear plan of action for the event. In another email dated on October 23rd, a manager for the Healthy Streets Operations Center wanted to hold off on clearing two of of the encampments in the tenderloin district until about a week before APEC. Hopefully, you all can understand exactly why Newsom's admission regarding the cleanup effort

would inspire quite a bit of rage among Californians. For years, residents have pleaded with state and local leaders to improve conditions in public spaces, not just for aesthetics, but for safety. Although, let me be clear, you should not let anyone shame you for wanting to live in a clean and beautiful city. Families and hardworking taxpayers have been told repeatedly that what officials managed to accomplish for APEC this week was an impossibility. The problems are too complex. Crime doesn't actually exist. Don't judge the poor souls who have no choice but to smoke meth and inject fentanyl near your children's schools. You just have to take it. Even when the safety

of the community is on the line, Democratic politicians in California can't be. bothered to deal with it. Take a look at this CBS News headline from just a few weeks ago. It reads as follows, destructive encampment fires in San Francisco's mission set locals on edge. But who cares about the locals? The article notes, by the way, that fires and homeless encampments have become a common problem for firefighters in San Francisco and elsewhere in the Bay Area. Several fires happened in the space of just a few days. A disneyed. dozen cars were lost in those first two fires. But fortunately, neighbors managed to, you know, put out the third fire before it could do much damage. Just one of those fires actually ended up

torching 11 cars. Awesome. Lieutenant Mariano Elias of the San Francisco Fire Department told CBS on October 19th, quote, to date, as of four days ago, we've lost, or we've had, I should say, 681 encampment fires in total in San Francisco. But you know, too bad, so sad. Elias also told the local community to suck it up. There's nothing that can be done other than putting up with the damaged property, rapidly rising insurance premiums, and untenable destruction in their quality of life. You cannot force someone against their will to move or enter rehabilitation or housing.

And quite frankly, some people choose to stay on the streets. That's what he said. Oh, they choose to stay on the streets? Sorry everyone, I didn't realize that. What if I choose not to pay my property taxes or bring my property up to code if there are issues with it? What if I fail to take out the proper permits before I decide to, you know, remodel my kitchen? Can I just choose to do whatever the hell I want? Of course not.

And that double standard is infuriating. And as if the cleanup efforts for the APEC conference shows us, you absolutely can move people against their will. And yes, put them in housing. Local activist Del Seymour says of the encampments that have been moved in San Francisco, quote, some of the spots have been out there for 20 to 30 years. Okay, and they're just not there anymore. They're coming out doing all of this only for eight.

APEC. And it looks that looks as if some of them were actually forced to accept the housing. Wow, I thought we couldn't do that. The city opened 30 beds at its annual winter shelter facility in South of Market on Friday and is inflating many of its existing shelter facilities to accommodate roughly 300 more people. The city's homeless shelters saw a slight uptick in occupancy as of Monday afternoon reaching 92% capacity after months of hovering at 90%. The real question is, why are they usually hovering at 90%, why aren't the shelters at 100%. But remember, this was all done for APEC and President Biden's meeting with President she. The same urgency will not be seen at any other time or in any other part of California.

For example, in early October, residents in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles repeatedly contacted authorities and utility companies about a homeless encampment on the embankment of the Los Angeles River. And look, that's not an unusual site by any means. But what made this encampment different and dangerous was that it sat on top of a high pressure natural gas pipeline. Given the common occurrence of encampment fires, neighbors wanted, the city to intervene before something devastating happened.

Cody Brainerd, who lives in the area, told KTLA 5 News, quote, I've already thought a million times that this whole street is just going to go kaboom. But you know, what a, what a bougie concern. Are we really worried about explosions? Please. In community forums, residents post about their frustration, with one arguing, if the government is not going to uphold sanitation, policing, and infrastructure support

needed to maintain an organized society, why are we paying taxes? And in California, we pay a lot in taxes. Just like San Francisco, Los Angeles has been riddled with endless encampment infernos and unhoused individuals with mental health issues just setting homes and cars on fire. I'm sure you guys think I'm exaggerating. You might not believe me. So let me show you the receipts. Here's a video from Venice, California in April of this year. What's for Venice news? What is going on in Venice?

This car's, this dude's car is about to blow up, bro. Oh, wait, he just set it on fire? He said it on fire. He's got a gasoline tank. Holy shit. Holy shit. He just said a car on fire. He just set a car on fire. Well, I got him on tape.

Are we supposed to deal with that? I guess we are. Two years earlier in 2021, the life of a resident in Venice, California, was absolutely destroyed after a homeless person set her home on fire, just absolutely destroying everything she had while also burning her dog to death. This isn't necessary safe for us to be even here, babe. I hope it doesn't light our garage. Oh my God. What happened?

Is she home? We don't know. Do you want to be? Where's Courtney? Luckily, the owner wasn't home at the time, but her dog was in the home. dog is gone. And she suspects that the reason why someone burned her house down was because she asked members of a nearby homeless encampment to move. Now, one of the victim's neighbors told local news, I actually volunteered 20 beds to this very encampment and I offered it to our

councilman's office and they actually declined and said no. That's Heidi Roberts, the neighbor, who is also the founder of Haven Collaborative Housing. Mike Bonin was the city council member at the time. Luckily, he didn't seek re-election and he's gone now. There was this moment caught on tape in September of last year. Let's take a look. As you can see from the nest camera footage, an unhoused man set a building on fire just right there in broad daylight.

He's just casually doing this with no one intervening or putting a stop to it. You won't have to pay for the consequences, but the local community absolutely will. And what about all you conservationists and animal lovers out there? Any concern over the fact that the Bologna wetlands has suffered countless encampment fires over the years? The 577 acre site is an ecological reserve and one of the last significant wetlands left in Los Angeles. The subpovado wildlife reserve, where my dad would actually take me as a child, quite often, has also suffered multiple blazes that were set by the unhoused. In September of 2020, a four-acre fire at the basin not only destroyed the habitat,

but left one person, possibly homeless, dead. Angel Rose lives in the basin, but doesn't consider himself homeless. He told the press, quote, they're not going to burn me out, that's for sure. I'm an outdoorsman, so I live out here by choice. He was at the basin when the fire broke out and says that he has seen a lot of fires get started as a result of homeless encampments in the area, the same area that burned three times in 2019 alone. This has been a crisis for years. This has been a neglected problem for too long. As the Los Angeles Times reported just two years ago, 24 fires a day.

Surge and flames at L.A. homeless encampments a growing crisis. In the first quarter of 2021, they occurred at a rate of 24 a day, making up 54% of all fire. the fire department responded to. So one can understand why Angelino's place the blame and where they place the blame when a ferocious fire broke out under the Interstate 10 freeway in Los Angeles over the weekend. The badly burned stretch of Interstate 10 spans only 450 feet, but its impact has severed one of the nation's busiest roadways, snarling traffic, slowing commerce, and creating logistical nightmares well beyond downtown Los Angeles. This is like a lifeline. With its structural integrity

at risk, the overpass was a thriving artery that shuttles some 300,000 vehicles every day. Carrying nearly twice the number of cars, as the collapsed section of I-95 did near Philadelphia, the 10-lane bridge in Los Angeles is now shut down indefinitely. Our investigators have been able to confidently determine that the fire was caused by arson. Saturday's explosive fire believed to be purposely set engulfed a pallet yard under I-10, even torching a fire truck. Guard rails melted, chunks of concrete fell to the ground and exposed layers of rebalt. Which brings me to the incompetence and neglect demonstrated by Gavin Newsome, who declared a state of emergency following the blaze and freeway shutdown.

The fish rots from the head down, and Newsom is rotten to his core. Look, we do not know who set the I-10 fire for sure, although we do know it was intentionally set. And honestly, I don't begrudge people in Los Angeles who automatically placed the blame on homeless encampments, because guess what? We also know that according to NBC, homeless encampment started similar fires at that same site of the 10 freeway blaze before. One of them occurred as early as December of 2019. It keeps happening over and over again. Yet no measures were taken in regard to a state program that allows businesses to lease land under freeways for storage purposes. The Associated Press reports that the area under an elevated

Los Angeles freeway that burned last weekend was a kind of open air warehouse. with businesses storing everything from wood pallets to cardboard boxes to hand sanitizers on lots leased by the state through a little known program that now is under scrutiny. Oh, now it's under scrutiny. Now it's under scrutiny. Apex Development Inc. has been leasing the land under Interstate 10 since 2008. And guess what? One condition of Apex's contract stipulated that they were not allowed to store flammable or hazardous materials under the freeway. They're not supposed to do that. But those rules don't matter if inspections aren't taking place and enforcement isn't being implemented. And guess what? It doesn't look

like they were. Details of that program remained opaque. Newsom's office directed questions about whether the state has any regular inspection protocols to state transportation officials. because God forbid he takes responsibility for anything. And of course, the California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, did not respond to questions about inspections or provide information about how many properties the state leases. Prior to the fire, state officials filed a lawsuit against Apex, saying the company had stopped paying rent last year and actually owes $78,000. The lawsuit also says Apex was sub-leasing to six other companies, which can be legal if the

company received permission from state and federal regulators. But Apex did not, according to Newsome. So why the hell wasn't Apex development evicted? They're not paying rent. They're illegally storing highly flammable crap right next to homeless encampments known for setting fires. I guess it's just anarchy for California taxpayers and law and order for the international business community. We got to make sure they're comfortable. Now going back to that APEC conference in San Francisco, Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition

on Homelessness, had a particularly infuriating argument saying, quote, there's a lot of money coming into this conference, and none of that is being set aside for unhoused people who are being displaced. They're just moving people around. Oh, Jennifer, money ain't the issue, but you knew that already, didn't you? California has spent a stunning $17.5 billion from 2018 to 2022 trying to combat homelessness. That's just over four years. But California is adding more homeless people every year than any other state. More than 170,000 unhoused people now live here. Half of all Americans living outside on the streets, federal data shows, live in California. That money, that $17.5 billion gets funneled to NGOs and nonprofits that

fatten their wallets with our taxpayer resources while doing nothing to improve the situation for the homeless or the residents in the state. And guys, it's not simply a housing issue. If you're going around setting fires in broad daylight, you clearly have mental health issues, and these people need more than just a place to live. They need services, including inpatient, mandatory. One of the hardest parts of getting older

is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too. When they fall out of balance, everything feels off. But here's the good news. This doesn't have to be the story of your next chapter. Hormone Harmony by Happy Mammoth is an herbal formula made with science-backed ingredients,

designed to fine-tune your hormones by balancing estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and even stress hormones like cortisol. It helps with common issues such as hot flashes, poor sleep, low energy, bloating, and more. With over 40,000 reviews and a bottle sold every 24 seconds, the results speak for themselves. A survey found 86% of women lost weight, 77% saw an improved mood, and 100% felt like themselves again. Start your next chapter feeling balanced and in control. For a limited time, get 15% off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally.

...tory inpatient mental health treatment, okay? And it's not this magic fantasy world where someone who's suffering. from severe mental health issues and can't make decisions for themselves needs to give permission before we provide those services for them. Some people, unfortunately, it's a sad fact of life, need to be institutionalized against their will. And do you guys understand how utterly infuriating it is to spend that much money on a problem that just gets worse every passing year? But Newsom's team says we should be grateful, we should be super happy. quote, the problem would be so much worse.

Absent these interventions, Jason Elliott, senior advisor on homelessness to Governor Gavin Newsom told CNN. And that's not what people want to hear. I get it, we get it. It's going to take at least five weeks to repair and reopen the I-10, a stretch of the freeway, the 300,000 Angelinos rely on to get to and from work. And yeah, going back to that advisor to Gavin Newsom on homelessness, no, that's not what we want to hear. Now, I just want you all to imagine if Gavin Newsom ran the entire country

the way he runs California. If you're a Democrat in another state, hoping he becomes a contender for president in the near future, you should really reconsider. We got to take a break when we come back. Jank Yugar, a presidential candidate in the Democratic primary, will be joining me to give us an update on his campaign. Come right back.

Welcome back to the show, everyone, Anna Casparian with you. And joining us now is Democratic presidential candidate Jank Yuger. Jank, pleasure to have you on the show. How are you doing? Thank you, Anna. I'm actually doing rather terrific because of the good news that we got today. That's right, that's right. We're gonna tease the audience a little bit with the good news, okay?

So we're gonna get to that in a moment. But first, I wanted to actually talk a little bit about, what you experienced in New Hampshire, which was pretty much the polar opposite of what you've experienced in Arkansas. But before we do that, I want you to also just briefly summarize your intentions with this presidential run. Because you really do have two objectives here. And I think it's important to lay that out. Yeah. So objective number one by a landslide is knock by down the race so we can beat Donald Trump. So it's nothing against Biden, although I now have a lot of things against Biden. But if I thought Biden could be

Trump, then I'm not worried about it. But yet another poll out today, Quenipiac, he's at 37 approval, 59 disapproval. He's 22 points underwater. In almost every category, from the economy to foreign policy, he's 20 to 30 points down in terms of approval versus disapproval. And on the border issue, he's 40 points down. So this is a guy who you remove the names Biden, Trump, any other name you want. No political analyst in their right mind would say that this guy has a chance of winning. When I entered the race, I thought he had about a 10% chance of winning. Now I think it's down to closer to 5%. Almost no chance at all. And so just an absolute epic disaster. And think about how incredibly selfish he is. He said basically that

he'd be a one-term president. And now he's saying, no, I don't care. I want two terms. And my legacy is a two-term president is more important. So you know what I did? I bought the URL, selfish Joe Biden.com. And now it redirects to my website. Selfishjo Biden.com. So we got to knock the guy out of the race. This is insanity, total insanity, to go into a race against Donald Trump, who I think is a fascist, with a guy polling a 37%. So it's just basically saying we don't mind losing the election. So, Jank, before we go to your second objective for why you're doing this, I want to just give you a devil's advocate argument that I've seen in the press over and over again.

A spokesperson for the Biden campaign argues that, you know, this early in the election cycle, even Obama didn't look so great in the polls compared to Mitt Romney. And this is, of course, the 2012 presidential election. People were concerned that Obama wouldn't win against Mitt Romney. I think that there are some significant differences in that case versus Biden versus Trump. But I'm curious what you think about that argument. Yeah, total nonsense. You see normal variations for any politician and certainly for any president, right?

But when you look at the totality of the numbers, overall Obama was fairly popular. There was a brief moment where he dipped into the low 40s. But it was an aberration. It was not the norm. He was normally in the high 40s. Whereas now Biden is in the high 30s and dropping. Obama never got to the 30s. So if they're saying that they had the same numbers, that's just a flat out lie. That's why they're saying like this is a kind of Dick Cheney like logic. His numbers are in the general vicinity of Obama's. Obama's very, very, very nadir at his very bottom. So it's totally untrue. Second of all, Biden is down now 15 points from where he won in 2020,

and he won barely, of course, you guys remember 44,000 votes in three swing states, nearly lost electoral college. And he's down 15 points from there. Does it look like Obama and Biden have the same ability to mount a come back? Obama had to mount like a five-point comeback, which he was more than capable of. Joe Biden has to mount like a 15-point comeback, and he's shown no capacity for that comeback. All he's doing is sliding further down the polls. Now his stance on Israel is also decimating his polling. Democrats have flipped on it completely.

The whole country has flipped on it completely. And now that's also driving down his poll numbers. And he doesn't even campaign. Have you ever seen him campaign? Have you ever, have you seen, has anybody seen him in the last month or two do an attack against Donald Trump? Do say, hey, he's not a good businessman. He's not this. He's not that. Nothing. Nothing. Have you, has anybody seen him offer a policy proposal for next time around? Nothing. So this guy says, I don't want to run. I don't want to campaign. I don't want to speak out against Republicans. I don't want to speak out against my opponents. My poll numbers continue to dive to catastrophic levels, but I'm not getting out of the race.

because I want a second term. He's now a massive narcissist, a total utter egomaniac. Get the hell out of the race. Jenkforamerica.com. Beyond confusion in our member section writes in and says, I lost faith in Biden over the war completely, completely. I don't know who I'll vote for, honestly. And to be quite frank, that comment really does resonate with me.

you know, Biden up until his support for the brutal war that has overwhelmingly slaughtered children in the Gaza Strip, you know, he was a mixed bag. I saw parts of his administration that I liked. I liked the National Labor Relations Board. I like the fact that he appointed Lena Khan as the head of the FTC. There's some bright spots in his administration. But I don't really support a government that provides cover for war crimes of another government. I don't support the idea that we should be funding the war crimes of another government. So I know this is a little bit of a tangent, but real curious, Jank, what would you do in this scenario? Yeah, so first of all, new polling out shows us 68% of Americans say ceasefire, right now, ceasefire.

Our government should be pushing for that. And that's polling at about 30 points higher than a non-ceasefire. So the American people are super clear about it. No, it's actually way more than 30 point advantage in that direction. And then among Democrats, they're saying don't spend, send any more money to Israel. He's lost the Democratic Party. So as always, he's out of step. So what would I do?

There's no way in the world I would send another $14 billion so that the bombs that are dropped on innocent Palestinian civilians could say made in the USA on them. No way. And in terms of the overall funding for Israel, I would cut every single cent. So I'm super happy to bring it back. I'll double it. I don't mind as long as we have a peace solution. We have two states. We end the occupation. But until they end the occupation, until they end this bombing, they need to end both. I would not send another cent. Why are we? So now Joe Biden says, and all these politicians in Washington say, we don't have any money for paid family leave. So if you have a baby, you got to head back right to work into the assembly lines with the coal mines, the very next day because we have no money.

Your kids, they can't go to college because we have no money. Lower drug prices we can't. And everything is no money, no money, no money. Oh, Israel would like to go to war even more, kill more civilians. Oh, we got plenty of money for that. No, no, no, no, no. We're going to spend it on the American people. We're going to do progressive priorities.

Guys, just aren't you exhausted from Joe Biden and every Democratic leader saying, I'm not going to do what I told you? I'm not going to do anything that you want. I'm going to do the standard things that Washington always does. So what are we going to get in a second Biden term? Is there any hope in a second Biden term? Nothing. So Trump's a disaster and would destroy the country and destroy our democracy.

Biden, on the other hand, promises us literally nothing, nothing. He's made no campaign promises. So for God's sake, the reason I got in this race, even though it's a long shot, is because you need another choice, you need another option, you need someone to say loudly and aggressively, God damn it for once represent the American people and represent Democratic voters. Shouldn't every Democratic candidate be speaking like I am? How come I'm the only one talking like this? Everybody else is whispering. Now get the, get Biden out of the race. You got to go. Jankforamerica.com. And I want everybody to know, remember, will you see me

either here or in any other interview, wherever you see me, if you like something that I'm saying and you want to back me, jankforamerica.com and wait till you see the news. We're about to tell you the good news about Arkansas and Anna, there's an extra twist of that we just found out that's amazing. Okay, Jenks, so let's calm down for a second. You're a little too animated right now, okay? Your second objective, I'm just going to say it for you so we can get through this interview in time.

You're trying to ensure that naturalized citizens are able to run for president. And I think that that is the most noble part of what you're doing. I think that that's an important thing to pursue. And to be quite frank with you, I've always felt like. That's a long shot, but you're starting to see some really interesting movement. So unfortunately, you didn't have a lot of success in New Hampshire. Can you just briefly explained what happened there and then move on to what happened today, the great news out of Arkansas?

Yeah, so the first two states that had applications were Nevada and New Hampshire. And just out of complete luck, on their forms, it had the natural born clause in it. Most of the forms or most of the states do not have that clause. Now, you'll see the difference in Arkansas in a second. But because they had that clause, I had to strike out natural born and say I am eligible constitutionally, but I could not sign my name to saying that I was natural born here because that would be perjured. So we go to New Hampshire and we say, guys, this is for the courts to decide. The FEC has a ruling. This is really, really important. The FEC has said that nationalized citizens can run for president.

They say whether they could serve as president is up to the courts. But as far as the states are concerned, they must let me run. And New Hampshire said, we don't care. We don't care about the FEC. We don't care that you're right. And then I said, well, guys, the form itself is wrong. You cited actually the wrong part of the Constitution. And they said, oh yeah, oops.

And we said, okay, well, then if I crossed out that part, in fact, everyone who didn't cross out that part committed perjury, could I cross out that part? And they said, yeah, you could. I said, so wait a minute. You're saying I am allowed to cross out things. You just didn't like the part that I crossed out. They're like, well, yeah, technically our job is to just see if you cross out any part of the form. But basically they admitted we would have cheated for the other candidates and let them cross out parts of the form.

And then by the way, and then they added salt on the wounds by admitting, yeah, if Ted Cruz lied about whether he was a natural born citizen and just signed it, whether it was true or untrue, we would have let him on the law. the ballot and we did let him on the ballot, even though the courts never tested it. So if you lied, you would have gotten on the ballot, but if you told the truth, you don't get on the ballot. And other people are allowed to cross things out, but I'm not allowed to cross things out. So it's absurd and it wasn't their decision to make in the first place. Let me on the ballots and then let the courts do their job. And one of the things that the courts look at is how do the voters vote? So if the voters vote for me, that makes a giant difference in being able to win that case. And Anna, you're right, 25 million naturalized citizens.

And every one of us hears dozens of times in our lives. Ha, ha, you can't be president. That seems like a minor thing, but it isn't, guys. What it is is what we hear every time is, ha, ha, you're a second class citizen. You're not really American. You can't be our leader. You can go die for the country. And there's like 70 Medal of Honor winners who are nationalized citizens.

But sorry, you can die for us, but you can't lead us because you're a second class citizen. We're going to take that to the court and I've shown it now a number of times, 14th Amendment. It says all persons born or naturalized have due process and equal protection. They didn't say kind of equal. They didn't say equal with an asterisk. And they literally put the word naturalized in the 14th Amendment, which amends the earlier part of the Constitution. We're going to win this case. We're going to win so many things in this campaign, and today we started in Arkansas.

So good news out of Arkansas. What was different about Arkansas that allowed for you to make it on the ballot? Yeah. So first of all, I want to thank every donor, supporter, volunteer that we have. It wasn't just me, it was our team. But yes, today we got on the ballot in Arkansas. And that's a little bit of history. I am the first nationalized citizen on a presidential ballot.

in U.S. history. It's amazing. And I didn't just do that. You guys, if you're out there and you supported me at jankforamerica.com, you did that. And there's no way in the world I could have hired the staff. I could have done all the things that I needed to do to get on that ballot without you guys. And actually, it's just a lovely story. The audience has seen DeVaria.

My compliance person, she's the first person to sign up. She happens to be African American. We needed somebody from the campaign to go to Arkansas and hand in the papers in person. rule that Arkansas has. So she did it. And she did it at Little Rock. And she advanced the cause of civil rights as an African American woman in Little Rock. That is powerful. And I love that story. She was very proud to do that. And I'm super proud of my team. We already made history today in Arkansas. But we're going to keep on making it. We're going to get on a lot more ballots. And by the way, that's exactly why we need the resources to do that. That's why I keep mentioning

for America.com because those resources help us to get on more and more ballots and to win that Supreme Court case. But Anna, right before I came on, I found out something else, too, about what the DNC is doing in Arkansas. Okay. So apparently someone at the DNC called the Arkansas State Democratic Party and said, don't let him on the ballot. So that is the Democratic Party. They're so pathetic. Unbelievably pathetic, sorry, I just, is there anything more pathetic than the Democratic establishment? I mean, impotent, like, losers to say the least, fighting to keep you off an Arkansas ballot. But anyway, sorry, that's my opinion. What did you want to add to that,

Jank? So they apparently called and said, keep him off the ballot, and the state party said, no. That's the job of the courts, our job is to follow our laws and our rules. So an incredible thanks and gratitude, the Democratic Party of Arkansas, for doing the right thing and opposing the pressure that the Democratic Party is putting on them at the national level. But think about that. That is the Democratic Party, the DNC, saying we would like you to discriminate against this guy, even though the FEC has ruled that he's allowed on the ballots, even though you have decided that he should go on the ballot. We're asking you to break your rules because we don't want naturalized citizens to run. Those 25 million naturalized citizens, we think they should be second-class citizens. That's a Democratic Party. That's a Democratic Party.

I can understand the Republican Party doing that. The Democratic Party doing that is unconscionable. And then on top of that, Anna, so these guys, Joe Biden will not go out in campaign. He won't say anything about me. He won't say anything about anybody else in this race. And he won't say anything about Trump. But he sends his minions in the dark of night to go shiv people and to stab him in the back and to say, oh, yeah, this is good.

And understand why that is so damaging. Because if you campaign publicly, you convince the American people, you convince the electorate and you get them to come to the Democratic side, that's what you're supposed to do as someone campaigning for president. You're supposed to make her case for us. He says, I won't do that. I won't convince American people, and I'm sitting at 37%. And it's a near guaranteed loss.

I'm going to run this ship right in that iceberg. But I will prevent anyone that can help you from getting on that ballot. I will fight dirty when no one else is looking. And then I'll go around pretending. I'm regular Joe from Scranton. Brother, you haven't been in Scranton 50 years. You're Joe Biden from Washington. One of the biggest establishment figures that has voted for every war,

has been one of the most conservative Democrats in my lifetime. And let's be honest, one of the most corrupt Democrats of all time. The amount of money he's saying, he took nearly $150 million in dark money packs. Joe, where's the money? Who did you take it from and who do you serve? One of the giant chunks of money comes from a petroleum company. Gee, I wonder why he approved all the pipelines. So, Jank, we got- So we're just supposed to let that guy run the place, but not even campaign. Final question for you. You've got 30 seconds. We got to wrap up. So are you seeing any movement in regard to encouraging other people to join this race and challenge Joe Biden in the Democratic primary? Well, look, so we've got movement. We've got momentum. Now, but at the end of the day, the rest of the governors are not a profile in courage. I mean, Gavin Newsom's like tiptoeing around looking inside the room. He should not only tiptoe around, he should get out of Dodge immediately. But move on. Who else?

No, but my point is, these guys, whether it's, I want all of them to come in the race. I don't mind a strong primary. I'd love a strong primary. But they're all afraid of Joe Biden. What does that tell you? So look, Newsom, Whitmer, Shapiro, Pritzker, all these Democratic governors who are very popular in their states, either get in the race and show some courage and knock this guy out and actually beat Donald Trump or never come into politics. I don't want to see Gavin Newsom coming in 2028 when he wasn't here when the party needed him. So if you think we need another alternative, but you're not sure about me or Mary Ann or Dean, well, you should be furious at those Democratic governors. We're like,

oh, I don't know, Joe Biden didn't give me permission. Are you a leader or are you not? And if you're not a leader, don't come around here in 28. We don't need you. All right. Well, to learn more about Jenk's campaign, please visit jankforamerica.com. You can also follow him on Facebook at facebook.com slash jank Uger official. Twitter at Jank Yugar, same for Instagram at Jank Yuga. Jank, thank you for giving us an update on your campaign. We'll talk to you soon. Thank you. And don't lose track. We got him on the ballot in Arkansas. We made history today. That is great news. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Anna. All right. And also don't lose track of the fact that Gavin Newsome is a lowsome human being and should never run for president. But for now,

we're going to take a brief break. And when we come back, we've got more news for you, including Republicans going mask off to let the American people know that they believe they should be forced to pay all sorts of junk fees so corporations can get rich off them. We've got that and more coming up. Don't miss it. What's up everyone? Welcome back to the show. Just want to read a quick super chat because I think this comment is really important. It's from Amber who says, quote, my mother has been homeless since I was a kid. She has a lot of health problems and almost passed away. I tried to find a way to get her into a facility, but there's no way I could find to force her to get better. So this is the problem. It's, look, family. there, you are obviously family and any support that you can provide is incredibly important. But it shouldn't be left to individuals like you to deal with that on your own. And that is the problem that I have with the whole system that's in place to deal with this issue,

right? The people who are suffering from severe mental health issues who cannot care for themselves and end up on the streets, you need to have a support system in the county, in the state that offers the help that you need to get your mom indoors with the mental health treatment that she needs. We're not, we don't have that system right now, not at all. And instead, what's so incredibly frustrating is I believe local leaders use the cover of civil rights or civil liberties to just do nothing. Oh, well, we don't want to violate their rights. We don't want to violate their freedom, we're just going to let them wither and die on the streets. No, I don't think that's the right solution. So thank you for writing in. My heart breaks for

you and your mom. And I hope that you find a solution. I just wish you didn't have to do it alone. My heart breaks for that. Anyway, let's move on to junk fees. This story is infuriating, but it's a reminder of who we're dealing with when we talk about Republican lawmakers, basically doing right by their corporate donors as opposed to their own constituents. Since the beginning of the Biden administration's whole of government crusade against so-called junk fees, it has been clear that the president and his officials are just targeting fees and practices that go against their own objectives preferences. House Republicans were definitely mask off, making it very clear that they want Americans

to continue paying so called junk fees, which are costly and only end up screwing them while making corporate donors for the Republican parties wealthier. Now, you just watched South Carolina Representative Ralph Norman speak out in favor of protecting those junk fees, which, of course, the FTC under the leadership of Lena Khan move to ban. In other words, your tax dollars are paying the salaries of a man who is openly arguing in favor of corporations' rights to exploit you through misleading, absolutely misleading and unnecessary fees. So we'll explain just how much those so-called junk fees cost Americans in just a second. But I think it's important to first watch a little more of what Representative Norman

had to say yesterday. Speaker, my amendment would prohibit funding from being used to carry out the actions described in Biden's October 31st fact sheet regarding cracking. down on so-called junk fees that we've heard a lot of tonight. Specifically, this amendment will prevent funding from being used to implement the Department of Labor's controversial effort to crack down on so-called junk fees in retirement investing that could easily result and will result in higher fees and fewer investment options for hardworking Americans. Since the beginning of the Biden administration's whole of government

crusade against so-called junk fees has been clear that the president and his officials are just targeting fees and practices that go against their own objectives preferences. The administration can even define what a junk fee is. Yeah, the administration actually can perfectly define what the junk fees are. In fact, we'll get to the White House fact sheet in just a moment. But I do think it's worth talking a little bit about what Norman's trying to do here. He is introducing an amendment that helps to protect those junk fees. And I'll tell you exactly where those junk fees are implemented and how if you're saving for retirement,

it's definitely screwing you over. But the amendment that he introduced was for a bill that would provide fiscal year 2024 appropriations to the departments of labor, health and human services, and also education. But you'll note in the clip that Norman wanted to specifically prohibit the Department of Labor from using that funding to regulate junk fees in retirement investment advice. Now let's get to that White House fact sheet, which does exactly what our Republican representative here pretended like Biden had difficulty defining. So in October 31st of 2023, the Biden administration put out this statement. Right now, when a financial advisor provides retirement advice, they may be paid by the saver or the firm who makes the investment product they recommend, but when a firm pays a retirement

advisor more to recommend a specific investment product, that creates a conflict of interest that often leads to Americans selecting an investment product recommended to them that generates lower returns. That sounds like a bit of an issue, right? I'm glad that the White House has pointed this out. Seems like they want to do something about it. They continue to say in this fact sheet. These conflicts of interest are meaningful.

An advisor may receive a commission as high as 6.5% to recommend some insurance products. When the saver, and the saver means you guys, by the way, okay? When the saver pays for advice that is not in their best interest, meaning someone who is not a fiduciary, and it comes at a hidden cost to their lifetime savings, that's a junk fee. Weird, that seems like the Biden administration defined exactly what a junk fee is in proper context. Weird. Weird. Weird how a Republican lawmaker would lie on the House floor. Requiring advisors to make recommendations in the saver's best interest can increase

retirement savers returns by between 0.2% and 1.2%. to zero percent per year. Over a lifetime, that can add up to 20 percent more retirement savings. Advice rooted in conflicts of interest regarding the sale of just one investment product, fixed index annuities may cost savers as much as $5 billion per year. That's why President Biden had announced that the Department of Labor would propose a new rule to close these loopholes and require that financial advisors provide retirement advice in the best interest of the saver, meaning you, okay, rather than chasing the highest pay for themselves. This is essentially regulating the retirement industry in a way to ensure that the financial

advisors that people are working with are not engaged in conflicts of interest and are actually working on behalf of the saver, on behalf of the person's saving. money for retirement instead of basically working against the saver by investing in things that the advisor might be getting a commission from but might actually end up being costly for the individual saving for retirement. Okay. So in other words, the Biden administration is attempting to stop financial advisors from scamming elderly Americans. And here you have a Republican lawmaker with absolutely no shame on the House floor saying, how dare he? How dare he? We want to help financial advisors who are not fiduciary screw over elderly Americans,

who by the way are already struggling with a lack of retirement savings. By the way, did we mention that we also want to privatize Social Security? That's the Republican Party. And I don't I mean the voters, okay? Put the voters aside. I'm talking about the lawmakers who are screwing over their own constituents, who are trying to build that nest egg so one day, one day they can retire. Personal responsibility, right? Except in a country that is taken over by corporate interests and corporate greed, the well-being of the elderly people who did everything right, took personal responsibility, you know, grew that NESTEC, they get screwed over by the very people who, again, want to privatize Social Security. It is amazing to me. So according to the Biden

administration, financial advisors are not required by law to make recommendations in your best interests in several different scenarios. So let me give you what some of those scenarios include. For instance, when they are recommending advice on a one-time basis, like let's say you decide you want to move your assets from a 401k to a different retirement account? If you're working with a financial advisor who's not a fiduciary, they can definitely charge you junk fees and they can definitely advise you to invest in investment vehicles. They're actually a huge conflict of interest because they'll collect a commission, but you won't see a high return and you'll be saddled with fees as part of that investment

vehicle. Another example, when they make recommendations to plan sponsors like employers, So if your employer is working with a financial advisor that is advising the employer on how to invest 401 accounts for their employees, well, that could have all sorts of junk fees and conflicts of interest involved as well. The Biden administration wanted to prevent that from happening. But Republican lawmakers are against those types of protections for responsible Americans who again are trying to do the right thing and save money for retirement. Also, there are state laws that vary on whether or not advisors can recommend commodities or

insurance products like fixed index annuities without your best interest in mind. So that's something else to keep in mind. You should take a look at your state laws and see if there's any protection for you. My guess is more states than not do not have those protections in place. But do you want to know the worst part about all of this? Representative Norman's amendment was agreed to by that. the House. It passed. Let's take a look. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from South Carolina.

Those in favor say aye. Those opposed say no. In the opinion of the chair, the eyes have it. The amendment is agreed to. Sadly, this story couldn't come as a surprise to any of us. Republican politicians openly speak out against our best interest, against the best interests of their own base Republican voters. So let's watch them grovel to their donors. Please give me the money. I'll screw over my own constituents. I'll ensure that they're, you know, getting screwed over in their retirement accounts. I'll protect the junk fees that are making you rich. Let's take a look. For people in their 30s and 40s, we need to consider, you know,

raising the retirement age. They'll have plenty of time to plan for that. Not for guys like me who are 60. Go back on to small businesses that's been hurt the worst through all this, to raise a minimum wage that isn't based upon locality is only going to do more damage and more job losses. Yes, I can understand kids going hungry, but is that really the problem of the school district? Is that the problem of the state of North Dakota? We were building planes with Boeing. We were building more BMWs in any place in the world. I recruited Mercedes Benz. I recruited Volvo. We had five international tire companies, but I was a union buster. Well, I respect the speaker's commitment to take Social Security and Medicare off the table for the death ceiling negotiations. We've got to put them on the table in the long term. In my opinion, when you allow people to get away with just simply filing bankruptcy walking away or forgetting their debt forgiven, it really takes away from the value of the hard work of earning that money and the pride it takes to and the character bills to pay that back.

So as you hear more and more Republican lawmakers rip a page out of former President Donald Trump's faux economic populism book, just remember who they really are. And look, I'm not going to sit here and pretend like the Democratic Party is just littered with bleeding hearts who are looking out for your best interests. Some of them are. Some of them are actually concerned about the financial health and well-being of their constituents. But with the baked in money and politics system that we're dealing with, more and more Democrats go along with the very Republicans that you heard from in this segment. So definitely keep an eye out for that as well. But more importantly, we need to be advocates for ourselves. And we need to hold all of these politicians who work against us accountable.

We need to reevaluate who we vote for, how we vote. and whether or not the people we keep electing into office are worthy of our support in the first place. Because if they're helping financial advisors and corporations get rich off of responsible Americans who are, again, putting money aside for retirement, they should be punished at the polls. We got to take a break when we come back. Wosney Lombre will join me for an update on what Hyundai is up to. They're not unionized, but there's some Pretty good news coming out of Hyundai because of unionized workers. And then later in the show, we'll also talk a little bit about RFK Jr., thinking that it's a good idea to walk barefoot into an airplane bathroom.

Yes, that is a story today. We do need to talk about it. It's very important. We'll be right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work. Listen ad-free. Access members, only bonus content, and more.

subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.co slash TYT. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.