The Young Turks - Rigged System

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

Desperate search for survivors as death toll reaches 36. Fox News discovers that people are struggling economically. We visited a Trump rally to talk with his supporters about economic policy and corporate power. Despite some irreconcilable differences between us, there's an aggressive pro-worker economic agenda that appeals to Americans across the political spectrum. Clarence Thomas' 38 vacations: The other billionaires who have treated the Supreme Court Justice to luxury travel. Michigan meat processor ordered to pay a MASSIVE fine of $1,143 after teen lost hand in grinder. HOSTS: Cenk Uygur (@CenkUygur) & 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. 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. to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca. All right, welcome to the Young Turks, Jane Hugger, Anna Kasparian with you guys.

Okay, well, right, well, you know, are we taking a break? Maybe, it could be. Anyways, seriously, we got a huge show for you guys, of course, the wildfires in Maui, The planet's on fire as usual. And but a twist, the giant twist in the show where folks talk to Trump fans, MAGA, and found out they actually do agree with us on a lot of things. Not all of them, but some of them, wait until you see that video. And it's not by us, it's by a union of all places.

A more perfect union. Yeah, indeed. So that's an amazing story. Hold for it. Let's go. Well, we begin with incredibly tragic news out of Hawaii. Let's talk about the wildfires. Strong winds from a hurricane in the area, which whipped up fires already burning after a spell of particularly hot and dry weather, which some experts say is linked to climate change. The satellite image on the left of the town of Lahaina was taken last month,

the one on the right yesterday. Dozens are dead and entire neighborhoods are absolutely wiped out in Maui following a catastrophic and unprecedented wildfire, several of them actually, that continue to burn. The fires are not anywhere near contained at the moment. And the conditions on the island were such that this hurricane and the high gusts have exactly. exacerbated the situation. We'll talk a little more about the cause in just a moment, but it was, in fact, fueled by the dry summer and the strong winds from a passing hurricane. The blaze started on Tuesday of this week and took the island by surprise. In fact, Maui County

said late Wednesday that 36 people had already died as a result, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire since 2018 when the campfire in California killed 50, I'm sorry, 85 people. Now, by Wednesday, about 271 structures had either been completely destroyed or severely damaged, and the flames left some people just minutes to act. In fact, some individuals had to run into the ocean and then later get saved as a result of that. They had nowhere else to go, so that's where they went for safety. The Coast Guard said it rest, We rescued 14 people who had jumped into the water to escape the flames and smoke. And officials prepared the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu to take in thousands of people

who have already been displaced as a result of this fire. A lot more details to get to. I just want to show you this map which was provided by the New York Times using NASA data. And it gives you a sense of where the wildfires have broken out on the island of Maui. And you can see that, you know, those areas are not contained at the moment and we're hoping that they will be very soon. But climate change, unfortunately, has made the conditions there so dry in an unprecedented way that it has exacerbated the fire.

You know, oftentimes when we make these links to climate change as a result of these stories involving natural disasters, it's not that climate change started the fire. It's that climate change created the conditions that exacerbated the fire to begin with. So we'll give you more details on that in just a moment. But, Jank, what are your thoughts? Yeah. So I want to talk about the politics of this, too, as to what can be done, what should Biden do in a second. But I want to talk more about how the fires got so out of control.

So there's a lot of former plantations in Hawaii, and they've basically let grass grow in that land. and it's become grassland. And normally, like in the old days, indigenous cultures used to start small fires to make sure that they prepared the land so that they wouldn't be out of control fires. Yeah, they do controlled burns. Yeah, controlled burns, thank you. So we don't do that anymore. And then what happened was extreme rain. Now, Hawaii's already very wet, as we all know, right?

But now because of climate change, there was even more extreme precipitation. and that meant the grass grew totally out of control. And then afterwards, you had extreme dryness, which is not normal for Hawaii. So then that sets the stage for, unfortunately, perfectly for a fire and a significant fire. Then the winds come in that Anna told you about, boom, it's 100% recipe for disaster. And who cooked, how did that recipe get cooked up? It gets cooked up because of the extreme weather events. There's usually some other factor like the grasslands in Hawaii, et cetera, right?

And then things always get worse as extreme weather events get out of control because then once the fire starts, then gas blows, gas tanks blow up. They add to the fire. More wind comes in, et cetera, et cetera. So is it climate change is specific for any particular storm or any particular tragedy? Well, it's hard to pinpoint exactly, right? But is it leading to the effects that we're talking about here that is affecting almost all of these extreme weather events? Of course.

In fact, the governor said this is a once-in-a-lifetime event. I got bad news for him. It isn't. And it won't be. And something like this will happen again and again and again in Hawaii and in other places. Because this is what extreme weather looks like. It's exactly what the scientist told us. And so now to the politics of it for a second, Biden should declare a state of emergency.

He did. No, no, not in Hawaii, I'm not talking about him in Hawaii, that's easy. That's a layout. Oh, I see, sorry, apologies. I declare a climate emergency, right? And he says he won't because practically speaking, he's already done it with his policies. No, that's such a ridiculous thing to say. There is no practically speaking declaring an emergency.

There either is an emergency that you've declared or there isn't. There's no practically speaking. And yes, half of your proposals in climate situation, here were good, right? And so those, that's the one thing that everybody gives you credit for that went into the Inflation Reduction Act, et cetera. And then the other half were horrible. And then you approved a number of pipelines drilling in Alaska, Manchin's favorite pipeline, et cetera. And you basically got back to zero. So that practically speaking, doing the equivalent of zero is declaring a climate emergency. And they save certain things like this

because there's almost no press in America. So no one challenges them. Corporate media, because, oh, yeah, yeah, don't touch oil. It's all good, it's all good. They're not going to challenge him on this, right wing's not going to challenge him, and mainstream media is not going to challenge him. I want to go to some videos, kind of giving you guys some images of what it's like on the scene and the kind of heartbreaking situation that the people of Hawaii are dealing with right now. So this next video shows residents trying to escape. And they're literally like, driving through as the blaze surrounds them, I want to give you a warning because as they're

driving, they come across a woman's, a woman laying on the ground. We blurred it out, but I just wanted to give you that warning anyway, but it gives you a sense of just the absolute devastation and fear that people in Hawaii are dealing with right now. Let's watch. We made it. We say I'm going to line on the road now pretty soon. Somebody's down right now. Somebody's down right there. Somebody's down. Just go, Dad. We cannot do nothing for her. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Just go. Just go. We cannot do nothing for her. Just go. Go, people, go. Beat the horn. Oh, my God. Oh, my God, bro. Oh, yeah, beat the horse. I am.

Does she? Yeah, I know you can't see. Yeah, it's really heartbreaking to see this. Also, a historic part of Hawaii known as Lahaina has been particularly devastated by these fires. I want to go to that video. It's ABC News reporting. Let's watch. Six fires erupting on the islands of Maui and Hawaii Tuesday, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses, forcing mass evacuations, at least a dozen people jumping into the ocean to get away in Lahaina.

Lahaina is on fire. Apocalyptic scenes in that popular tourist town and historic cultural landmark home to 12,000 people. Steve Scott desperately trying to fight back the flames. And you were essentially trapped in the middle of the fire. Right. I was with a hose shooting it up, trying to protect our building and plantation house, all of that blew up. Getting separated from his wife. I'm trying to find my wife. I know she's safe. I think she's safe. But I haven't found there yet.

Yeah, just absolutely devastating. I mean, entire neighborhoods gone, right? I mean, the last time I checked, there were 271 structures completely destroyed. People's homes, their, you know, their businesses just completely destroyed as a result of this wildfire. These several wildfires in Maui. Look, the problem with human beings is manyfold. One of us is that we are incredibly arrogant. We think we're the center of the universe and we're so important that nothing could

possibly happen to us. That's not remotely true. And the second problem we have is infinite greed. You just cannot stop people's greed. 100%. If the entire planet could be on fire, but if oil executives think they're going to make 10 more bucks drilling for oil, they're going to do it. And if they think they can make 10 more bucks, they're going to go and bribe a politician. And all the politicians are going to tell you that practically speaking, they did everything they could, which was zero. And they're going to cash that check right before the bank burns and the whole earth burns. So this is a story as old as time. Our arrogance and our hubris is literally lighting the planet on fire. And no one in charge seems to care

at all. Like I know people in the climate activist community who thought, well, okay, I mean, these last couple of weeks is just record breaking in literally. Like fires and temperature and heat and it was never seen before, right? And now they'll act. No, there's, I told them, there's no chance to act. They didn't even blink in an eye here. No, Biden is doing nothing. He will do nothing for the rest of his term. If Trump was elected, he'll go in the wrong direction for four years. If Biden's elected, he'll probably continue to do nothing for another four years. They're never going to move unless you fix the political system. And now bribery is legal and greed is infinite, so the planet will burn, period.

We need to, in the very least and in the short term, assuming that we can develop other sources of renewable energy, immediately switch to nuclear energy. So there's tons of things to do. There's so many, like, I understand the concern of, you know, just not wanting to give up the way that we're living in modern society, not wanting to give up the comforts of I totally get that. And we don't necessarily need to give up comforts of modern society by switching to other clean sources of fuel.

And we can do, not fuel, but like other clean sources of energy, I should say, right? We're not there yet with wind and solar, okay? We need to invest more. And I think that, you know, Biden has taken a good first step in that regard. But Germany, for instance, just decommissioned their final nuclear power plant and they're replacing it with coal, right? And I don't mean to pick on Germany. It's just, it's on the top of my mind as I think about nuclear energy. I understand why people wanted to move away from nuclear energy, but at the moment, it is not a good idea, considering how it's going to

increase our reliance on fossil fuels that are exacerbating the situation with climate change. Look, I think nuclear is a tough question and one that I hesitated on before. In fact, I never came to a conclusion on I interviewed people on both sides of the issue. They're both sides. They're incredibly passionate about their beliefs that are positive that they're 100% right. And but now we're in an emergency. Yeah. So if I was in charge, I'd say, give me all my emergency options.

And nuclear would certainly be on the table as one of those options. And then you see if it makes sense or not. But right now, nobody's acting like it's an emergency. Like Biden's not calling together his cabinet and saying, what do we do about climate change? We've got to act right now. No, they're literally, his cabinet is building pipelines as we speak to dig more to make fossil fuels more abundant and bragging about it. And by the way, Obama bragged. Obama was like, oh, we did more drilling and we got more oil under my watch than any president.

And now he's pretending to be concerned, but only barely, right? So this is the Hobs's choice we always have. Either Democrats who do nothing and brag about it, and then mainstream media comes in and white watches it and go, they're amazing, they're epic, they're heroes, etc. Or Republicans who go in the wrong direction. So unless something very, very dramatic happens in our political system, nothing's going to happen to address climate change and it's only going to get worse.

So I'm sorry, this is exactly the same warning I gave you many, many years ago about gun control. And I said, there's going to be a mass shooting in your neighborhood, I guarantee it. And when I said it however many years ago back then, people were like, whoa, whoa, Jank, come on, you're getting out of hand. Well, nope, I was 100% right. Now there's a mass shooting every single day. Why? If you don't stop the bribery, you're going to have infinite greed.

They're going to buy all of our politicians. And none of these issues will ever get fixed no matter how terrible they get because they don't care about you. All right, let's move over to something completely different. Let's talk about a mother from Alabama who went viral. I thought by teaching them what I learned, which is you work hard, you get a good job, you're gonna get the things in life that you need, right? Worked for me. Why wouldn't it work for them? Because it doesn't, because the world has changed, all right? Fox News, which actually tweeted out that video of an Alabama mother that you just heard from, apparently just realized

that Americans are struggling economically because they not only tweeted about that, they later interviewed the woman that you heard from Jessica McCabe. So we'll go to that interview, which unfortunately was one of the shortest television interviews of all time. But before we do, I think that we should listen to more of what Jessica McCabe has to say. We struggled and it was tough, but you know what? We made it. We knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel with our struggle. It seems like kids today, no matter how much they struggle, they just get further and further down the water into the drowning point. All right? When I was their age, I was making less than $10 an hour. And I can afford to live on my own.

Now you have to be making six-figure salary to get a decent, tiny little place to live. So what the fuck is going on and how do we help them as parents? I told my son, all you have to do is work hard, go to college or join the military like I did. He went to college, got his degree, got a full-time job. He moved back in with me right when he graduated from college because he said, hey, mom, as soon as I get a job, which was within two weeks of him getting out of college, maybe take me two months and I'll save up enough money for me to move out. It's been 10 months. He has saved almost every dime and still can't afford to live. Why are one bedroom studio apartments almost $2,000 a month? Why? Like, I just don't get it. So I don't even think that there's even classes anymore.

There used to be, you know, upper class, middle class, lower class. It's literally turning into the ultra wealthy and then everybody else is just born. Damn right. And that is a woman from Alabama. Look, I don't know what her politics are. Doesn't even matter, but the reason why I mentioned that she's in Alabama is because she's complaining about the cost of living in Alabama, which is a relatively affordable state compared to some of these coastal cities and, you know, the more expensive places considering how much people have to pay for housing. But no, these issues are impacting every American regardless of which state they live in. And some of the outlets that have been able to kind of push all of these important economic issues aside and hyper focus on issues that divide us, all of a sudden can't ignore this issue anymore. And so Fox News ended up tweeting that because the video had gone viral after Jessica McCabe had posted it herself. And then they later interviewed her about it. But the way that they had they talked to her and how quickly they wanted to change the subject was fascinating.

We'll get to that in a moment. But Jake, what are your thoughts? Yeah, so Fox misunderstood what she was saying. That's why they had her on and were into it until she started talking on their air. Because they thought she was saying like, oh, yeah, binomics, you know, it's because of Biden. No, she was making a much larger point about the state of our economy overall. And that's why it resonated. It didn't just resonate with right wingers.

I bet you most of the people who shared that were left wingers. And so, and again, we don't know her politics at all. And she could be a right wing. She could be MAGA. And it doesn't matter. We're all living under the same corporate rule. We're all living under the same economic situation. $2,000 for renting an apartment in Alabama?

How the hell is anybody supposed to afford that in Alabama? That's crazy. That's nuts. So look, we started TYT in my one bedroom apartment in LA, and that was $1,000, right? And that was 20 years ago. That's $2,000 for an apartment that might be the same size or smaller in the middle of Alabama. That it's, it's okay, but it's not just the apartment guys. Housing is totally unaffordable.

Yep. It's impossible. I talk to my hairdresser, as you can tell. The other day, I just go into random places. And it's good because I meet different people. And so she grew up, she's been in L.A. for 35 years. Originally came from Mexico. Got lucky because she bought a tiny little home 35 years ago back when it was affordable in Sherman Oaks.

She's so she's okay. But she's worried to death about her kids. Because she's like, how, how, how do you, on our cell? How do you buy a home? Impossible. Even if you drove two hours, not two hours outside of LA. Still no one that works on a real salary can afford a house in this area, right? And it's true in the whole country because her number one point that is brilliant and exactly right is there are no more

classes, upper class, middle class, lower class. There's only the ultra wealthy and the rest of us. And that's what corporate rule looks like. And the entire country is vomiting it. is vomiting it now, we ate it. But let's also keep it real, right? Because you know, you mentioned the homeowners. You mentioned the homeowner in Sherman Oaks who's worried about her children.

How are my children gonna be able to buy homes, place to live? Well, the only way that that would happen is if we really reconsider some of the restrictions on building homes, you get what I'm saying? Like places like California, under the cover, under this BS nonsense about No, no, no, we just want to make sure that we're considering the environmental impact. Like, there are environmental impact laws specifically meant to prevent new housing from being built in places like California. That's the whole point, right? Because when housing is thought of as an asset, and it is, in our society, it is an asset. It is honestly the only, well, I can't even say this now, but maybe 10 years ago, it was still the only thing left for ordinary people, ordinary working people,

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going down. But I just ask the so-called NIMBY's this. What do you prefer? Do you I prefer to have your sweet little home that's surrounded by pain and suffering, people dying on the streets, people in just abject poverty, not knowing what to do, where to go? Or do you want to live in a society where everyone's doing well? You still have your home, you're still building wealth, maybe not the extreme wealth you're building from your home at the moment, right? But still, you live in a better society, it's safer, it's better, and people are doing great. What's what I want.

I know. So infinite greed, we can't stop to infinite greed. So look, guys, it's not just a housing issue, but on the housing front, later in the show, we're gonna show you a video from a Trump rally where Trump supporters are talking about private equity guys buying up all the houses because they realized the finance guys, the big banks realize, oh yeah, real Americas are building up their assets in their houses. We should stop that. We should build up those assets.

Right, yeah. We should own them, and then we should just turn them into renters, and that way we could control them even more, right? That should be banned. That should be banned. Foreign investment in residential real estate, you know, where they don't even want to live here. They just want to park their money in buying up entire neighborhoods, buying up beautiful homes, whatever it is.

We have a shortage of housing. Why isn't there a federal ban on institutional investors in the short term until we actually build our housing supply? And why isn't there a ban, honestly, long term until we've really built our housing supply, foreign investment in U.S. real estate. And so meanwhile, as you, as this great anger rises in the country from the right and the left, the corporate Democrats are like, I don't see a problem. Why private equity guys are some of their top donors? They turn to Trump and the Republicans. You think they're doing

something about it? Of course not. So remember about foreign investors buying properties here in America? You remember the Saudis and the Russians bought tons of Trump properties and he loved did and he bragged about it and he even said about the Saudis, they pay $30 to $40 million for my properties. Am I not supposed to like them? So he celebrates the infinite greed that has brought us this problem in the first place. So no matter where we go, we have these incredibly corrupt politicians who are all in the same group of people that are robbing us blind. And on top of that, you add student debt and you, as she pointed out, credit card debt, as she pointed out in that video, she says, well, the inflation is brought up the prices, but our wages

haven't gone up as much. That's right. So now we're getting crunched and crunched and crunch. Exactly, that's corporate rule, okay? So this week- And I'm sure Fox News celebrated it, right? Like, celebrated her answers that. No, they got her off to air as quickly as possible,

because they're part of the bad guys. The interview was less than three minutes. They played her video, then the rest of the interview, the entirety of it was three minutes. But a chunk of it was taken up by them just playing her video, right? Now, I wanna just quickly mention. before we go to the Fox News interview, credit card debt for the first time in U.S.

history has surpassed $1 trillion. Americans are dealing with over a trillion dollars in credit card debt in an environment when the Federal Reserve is increasing interest rates, meaning the cost of that debt is even higher now than it was last year, than it was three months ago. Okay, that is what Americans are dealing with. So, listen, Listening to this woman, vent the way that she did, resonates with so many people. That is why it went viral and Fox News just doesn't get it. You're gonna see why in this clip, so let's watch. Jessica McKay, who went viral, joins us live.

Jessica, good morning to you. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. I understand in the aftermath you've been slammed by a lot of gen Xers who thought that the comments were inappropriate, but your son who read some of the comments actually feels like he's less alone. There are a lot of people in the same boat. Yes. And I think that's one thing that we need to take away from is that it's not 1988 anymore. We have to, as parents,

realize that the economy has changed. I understand inflation. Prices always go up. But I think that lately the wages are not keeping up with how big the inflation has gotten and we have to listen to our children. We're looking at these beautiful pictures. Gosh, you have gorgeous kids and it looks like a grandchild there too. What was your reaction to a little 11 million people can relate to this and viewed this. Oh, no, no, wait, wait. She doesn't want to blame the Biden administration and inflation for the reason that this is happening. Let's talk about her beautiful family, and doesn't it feel good to go viral online?

Yeah. Anyway, she, by the way, I give Jessica McCabe a lot of credit because even though very clearly, in my opinion, Ainsley Earhart wanted to kind of like move on to something a little lighter than actually talking about the economic realities that ordinary Americans are facing, McCabe went right back to talking about the reality of the situation, talked about what it was like to basically go apartment hunting with her son, said that even though he went through college, he did all the hard work that was supposed to afford him a well-paying job. Job out of college, $19 an hour. Which, by the way, she said, is better than what a lot of people are making, definitely better than minimum wage. But considering the debt that people have to take out just to get a four-year degree, $19 an hour ain't going to cut it. It's just not. Yeah. You know that reality. So rightly media blames the Democrats, mainstream media blames the Republicans, neither side ever admits that they have anything to do with it. It's always the other side

that created the problem. Fox News blames mainstream media, mainstream media blames Fox, and they go round and round. None of them actually go to fix any of it. Do they get you higher wages? No, do they get you help with your healthcare so that you can afford rent? No, do they prevent the abuse of private equity is doing to the housing market in the country? Absolutely not. Why? Literally all of the funders for politics and media are the richest people in the country. It's the same exact private equity guys. So all they're doing is putting on theater for you guys while that trash compactor keeps closing in and closing in on us while the media is telling you, oh no, everything is

great, don't you worry about a thing, okay? Just make sure you vote for our guy, back with the same guy as the other guy, and then everything's going to be terrific, yet nothing ever gets fixed. No, it's corruption defined, and the country is furious about it. And meanwhile, in mainstream media, they're like, well, I don't see a problem. There's no anger at all in the country. It's a status quo is fantastic. Yeah, maybe it is for you guys, but not the rest of us. All right, let's take a break when we come back. The video that we were talking about earlier. Pretty progressive group goes to a Trump rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.

But there's a twist, and you don't want to miss it. Back on TYT, Jank England and Sean Carter. Thanks for joining Sean. We appreciate you. Casper. All right. So this next story is dedicated to those who actually want to think about strategies to win policy, as opposed to taking the moral high ground online. So if you're not interested in that, now would be a good time to dip out. For everyone else, though, let's get to the story. So here's my hunch. For all the focus on culture war issues, the working class on the left and the right have a lot more in common than we're to believe. And if that's true, it could and should have huge implications for the upcoming

presidential election. So I went to Erie, Pennsylvania to find out. That's right. A reporter with more perfect union visited a Trump rally in Erie, Pennsylvania to see if there's possibly any common ground among the MAGA crowd. Do progressives and Trump supporters share anything in common at all? Well, we're going to show you some examples, on the people that this reporter talked to. Let's start off with the first video where the topic of economic stress comes up. Why Trump instead of Bernie Sanders? What I look at is more progressives like the Bernie Sanders facts and stuff like that. We actually see a lot of the same problems. I would vote for a Bernie Sanders before I'd vote

for like a Ted Cruz or a Marker Rubio. Prices are just higher. Like you go to the grocery store. I buy the same thing every time I go to the grocery store. He spent $102 at all these. I was just telling my uncle this. Yeah. I'm spending over 200 bucks now. Yeah. So things are more expensive. I think people are more scared. Our money doesn't have no value. And that's why people, that's why we're having problems. This whole inflation thing. It's been building and building for multi-decade and it's, it's getting close now. You're working McDonald's, right? I do. Do you feel like you're getting everything out of work that you're putting into it? I believe I should get paid more. All I am doing is I'm working my ass off to get my money. I'm a hard

worker and I feel like I deserve more. I work down in West Virginia. Yes. On the rigs for evil big red. Oh my God. Halliburton, we were two weeks on, one week off. So you never got to go home. We were the lowest paid of all the workers out there.

I only made $13.50 when I got hired on. For Halliburton. For Halliburton. A lot more to get to. But I do find it interesting that when a reporter shows up at a rally to see if there's potentially any common ground, meaning maybe I'm gonna ask some good faith questions and see if there's any areas of agreement. You get completely different answers compared to, you know, some of the legacy media outlets and the type of questions they ask. It's almost like they seek

out some of the unhinged stuff. So look, I think you're gonna get a lot of both if you go to a Trump rally. And we've been to many Trump rallies and you get a lot of both. Okay, you get the guys saying unhinged things. And yes, yes, sometimes you get this. And by the way, this is more perfect union. They're in favor of unions, they're afraid of the working class. They're definitely progressive. They're going to reach out to MAGA guys.

Now, what do we tell you guys? What have I been saying for all these years? And it's in my book too. And I wrote that portion four years ago, okay? So yes, for me, my personal opinion is half of the Republican voters are unreachable. they're in the culture wars, they're in this, they're in that, and you can't reach them. The other half are pissed just like us for the same exact reasons. But have they been misdirected?

Of course, of course they've been misdirected. So Trump's a con man, and therefore, unfortunately, he saw the discontent in the country, and like a lot of good con men, he was like, oh, they're mad, I can tell them I'm going to fix it, and then I won't, I'll just get them to help me. And that's Trump. And so I feel bad and I want to direct them in the right way, right? But saying like that they're irredeemable or that we're hopelessly divided, we can't ever come together on anything is terrible.

It's wrong because look, guys, it's possible to do both. Nobody fights harder than we do, right? You see it every day. So I'm not saying you give up on social issues. I'm not saying you give into them on social issues. I fight them on that stuff day in and day out. But if they agree with us on higher wages, why wouldn't we take yes for an answer? If they agree with us on paid family leave, which they do, if they agree with us on raising tax on the rich, which they do, take yes for an answer.

But no one else in media is incentivized to bring people together. I mean, I can understand why. I can understand why. I mean, think about how this very segment is going to be treated, right? As if, oh, no, no, no, this is TYT, providing cover for racism and xenophobia and bigotry and transphobia. No, that's not what this is at all, okay? It's about what you choose to emphasize when you talk to people on the other side, right? Do you choose to scold them and just make broad generalizations about them because of who

they choose to vote for? And again, I've said this a billion times before, is there some contingent of the Trump supporters who unfortunately believe terrible things that happen to be discriminatory, hateful, bigoted, yes. Do I think that's true of all of them? I do not. So the question is, what can we do to change our strategy to build broad coalitions, not just with, you know, reasonable Republicans, but also with independence, also with, yes, establishment Democrats or those who have bought into what establishment Democrats are selling. How do we build the coalitions necessary to improve the lives of everyone in the country?

How do we do that? And look, we've had six years straight of endless scolding, scolding, scolding, scolding, it hasn't worked. So what do you guys want? Do you guys want to keep doing the scolding? Because everything is getting worse as we continue with the same failed loser strategy of just lashing out on people and calling them every. terrible name you can imagine. Look, my hope is that we can build an outsider coalition.

Outsiders versus insiders instead of Republicans versus Democrats. So Republicans versus Democrats is a fake game anyway. They're on the same goddamn team. And they all get the same donor money. And here, I'm going to give you an example from the Democratic side in a second. And then look at corporate media, which is a combination of mainstream media and right wing media, things like Fox News. And what do they do? They all agree. on economic issues. They all think we shouldn't have student debt relief. Every single cable news outlet thinks that.

They all think we shouldn't have universal health care coverage. They all think that we shouldn't have a higher minimum wage, et cetera. When you ask actual Republicans and actual Democrats, they say, of course we should have a higher minimum wage. That's why higher minimum wage wins every time it's on a ballot. And it doesn't win with just Democratic voters. It wins with Republicans. It wins with independents.

But now let's look at the Democrats. I've asked every Democratic politician who, who, Who will talk to me, which is now a dwindling number. It used to be dozens, right? But I say, can you please, for God's sake, fight for higher minimum wage? Not just, oh, I proposed it. Oh, Biden and Schumer took it out. Oh, I guess we can't do anything.

No, fight for it. Fight for it. And show people you're fighting for it. Show them. And they'll come to your side. I can't get a single Democrat to do it. They're all like, oh, no, I'm doing culture wars. I'm doing something else.

I'm on Twitter. Why don't you fight for us, you idiots. Because they don't want to. And you know what's going to happen? That's not what they want to do, Jank. That's not what they don't. There is a reason why both parties endlessly lean into the culture wars. Okay?

And that's not to say, I'm not saying that because we shouldn't fight the bad policies that margin, further marginalized people who are already marginalized. But look, I just think when you have corporate interests, moneyed interests, bribing, legally bribing, because it's now baked into our system, both parties to essentially continue deregulating, continue cutting taxes, continue redistributing wealth from the bottom to the top, well, what are they going to campaign on? How are they going to sell themselves to the electorate? They're just going to lean into culture wars, which by the very nature of them, is divisive because it has to do with specific identities and pitting those specific identities against other

identities. They are playing all of us and they've been doing it for a while now. So my question to you is, what do we do to respond to it? Do we keep going in the same direction with a failed strategy? Or do we find a way to build coalitions? That's what I want to do. I want to build coalitions. I want to build labor power and I want to build coalitions. So there's actually outside pressure that points to these members of Congress and says, listen to me, you guys have to represent us, we are organized, and if you don't represent our best interests, there will be consequences. And those consequences are political, of course. But right now they're not afraid of us because we're too busy fighting each other. So congratulations on that failed strategy.

That's the only direction we've been going in. Patrick Bet David is on the right. I went on his podcast the other day and what do people always say, oh, you can't get the right wing to agree with anything, they're so crazy, they're nuts, all of them, all of them. Now look, I've attacked the right wing probably more than anybody in media. And when I went on a show, I ripped Donald Trump and he and his audience was furious with me.

Then I said, look, here's all the things we disagree on and you can see. I'm breathing fire on the things we disagree on. Now, what do you think about paid family leave? And I explained what it was. You know what percentage of their audience agreed after that? From a guy they don't like at all, 75% agreed. It's so easy. Let me give you more.

It's so easy. We all agree, but we can't find one stupid politician to fight for us. Because not a single one of them is afraid of the electorate. That's the truth. Let's go to one more video. Let's watch. Global corporations, they have, you know, the Goldilocks question, too much, just enough, or too little power? Where do you, where would you place?

I feel like their only thought is more money, more power. That's all they, that's all you care, whoever has the most money. Obviously, it's too much. Yep. When you have a company like BlackRock, that's worth $9 trillion. And Vanguard's $8 trillion. Obviously, I'm not going to argue, there's a problem with that. So you think the finance sector, does it have too much power, just the right amount of power,

not enough power? Way too much power. The financial sector? 100%. Yes. These people really, a lot of these people they don't realize are unelected officials. So all these politicians have this plan for how they're going to fix the economy, but then they just get in there, they don't do anything, and they're funded by the people, and those people are not elected. And they control the people that are elected. It is incredible how aware they are of what's going on, right? Yeah, no, no, guys. Look, again, we've been to thousands of Trump rallies.

You'll talk to people that have no earthly idea what's going on. And then sometimes you'll run into people that know exactly what's going on. But they're so frustrated and the Democrats don't help them at all that they're like, I'm going with a wild card, right? And some of them in that video explained like, yeah, no, we know Trump's not the best guy, right? But at least he's like saying things that we agree with. And so I'm going to get to that disaster scenario in a second, by the way. But look, three quarters of Americans say that big business has too much power.

Now, they mentioned private equity there. There's two guys that knew exactly what they were talking about. That guy you saw there, and then the guy in the white hair with the eagle shirt, if you watch the whole video, we'll put the link in the description box. More Perfect Union, did a brilliant job with it. And thank you for reaching out to all workers and not just workers on your side, right? That's how you build coalitions, that's how you win. Anyway, let me read you these stats so you get a sense of it. Vox data for progress poll in 2021 found 71% support for raising the taxes of the wealthiest

2% of Americans, while Reuters polling from 2020 found 64% support a wealth tax, a slight increase from 2019, Berkings poll that found 61% support for taxing the rich. In my book, Justice is Coming. We'll put the link down below for that too. show you a poll where it's at 76% that says tax the rich, tax the rich. And in fact, the Vox poll from last year showed 50% support for taxing the rich among Republicans. But does any Democrat take advantage of that? No. Because they don't want to take advantage of that ability to go get those voters because their donors told them don't. We're not going to

help anyone. We're going to crush them and crush them and crush them. Now, here's Here's the disaster scenario, if you're a Democrat. At some point, Trump, I'm afraid to say it out loud. He might figure out that he, all he has to do is pretend on two of these issues. Say he's for a higher minimum wage, say he's for paid family leave, and he'll win in a cakewalk, in a total and utter cake walk. I mean, you think he doesn't know that? That's what he did.

I mean, he didn't mention paid family leave. I don't remember him doing so. But in 2016, what do you think resonated with the voters? What did he lean into when he was campaigning? No, no, he did one thing, but not the other. So he actually did two out of three things. So one was, he said he was anti-corruption. He doesn't believe a word of it, right?

Of course. Right? And he was, and again, read the part of my book about Sheldon Adelson and how easily he bribed Donald Trump. And all the things that Trump gave him for those bribes. Okay, they're called campaign countries. Anyway, so. But the problem is that,

Shoot, I lost my train of thought. So he ran on the anti-corruption stuff. Oh, right. So the three things trumped it. So fine, he runs an anti-corruption. He doesn't mean it, but at least he was smart enough to run on it, right? And then he says, on for the average worker, and we're going to keep jobs here and we're to make sure they're not shipping jobs out. Also, not at all true. But at least he said it, right? And it made people look like he was fighting for the average worker. But on any progressive policy issue that the American people love, including right

wingers, no, Trump's not on their side. He said about the minimum wage, there shouldn't even be one. You should be your wages should be even lower. Because he's not an actual populist. So he's faking it. So he gets the things wrong all the time. And everyone around him is a moron of epic proportions. I mean, again, don't like I don't want him getting the idea. But like if he just figures out that he says two popular things that are progressive, he's going to walk right over the Democrats. And you know what the Democrats will say in back? They're like, oh yeah, Republicans for it? Then we're against it. We want lower wages for Americans. And besides, which are donors say, lower wages is, the higher wages is causing inflation. So we're against higher

wages. I guarantee you the moron Democrats would say that. Okay, look, we don't know that, right? I mean, the Democrats still want to present themselves as the individuals who are looking out for the little guy, but it's increasingly becoming the party of the hyper-educated, you know, upper middle class, and that's becoming more and more of a problem for Democrats. And the reason why they're attracting that portion of the electorate in particular is because of the fact that they're not putting action behind their words, the campaigning that they engage in that makes it appear as though they understand the economic anxiety. of ordinary Americans. But we got to go to one more clip because this guy and what he says in

this video was my favorite part of the video. Okay, my, it's just really struck a chord with me, and I think it's going to strike a chord with a lot of other people as well. Let's watch. There's so many houses for sale in our neighborhood. I was going to go to town and say, are these all, you know, can we find out? Are these just real people buying them? Or is this like proxies? See, Black Rock proxies, Vanguard proxies. Are they buying all these homes so people can't own them and they're just going to rent them? Would you be excited if Trump did anything to rain in? Well, of course. It's just, it's a monopoly that needs to be broken up. Just like remember the telephone company in the 80s, AT&T, that was broken up. Yeah. And that's what needs to be done.

Capitalism's not the problem. It's been corrupted to such a level just like people. People think all the politicians are corrupted. But it's corrupted at the highest levels of these corporations, like you said, being owned instead of 200 of them, you're down to four. That's a massive control. And you wanna know what's interesting, watch the full video because he goes on to basically call Trump a crony capitalist. He does, yeah.

But that's, honestly, that does not speak well of the Democratic Party. The fact that he's willing to support Trump knowing that Trump is a cronial. Trump is a crony capitalist, that means he thinks the Democrats are worse. Yeah, because the Democrats gave him no other option. So if you ever see Biden or Pelosi or Schumer saying, goddamn Blackstone and Vanguard buying up all the properties, so then they're trying to turn you into renters so you can't build assets? Of course not.

Those guys are their top donors. They're not going to say any of that. That's why they don't say anything, even though they're pretending to be on our side. So, and that guy at least understands, Trump's pretending to be on his side, but no one's actually on your side. And what is, and that's why it gets so mad at the media. And the media sees all that and goes, no, no, no, they are. You go talk to any media person in Washington right now, and they'll tell you, oh,

Biden, he did so much. He did so many progressive things. And you unreasonable masses, you still want more? No, no, no, he has to do what he has to do. He has to take all the donor money. Donors don't. And they've got grease all over their faces. They're pigs at the trough eating from all those donors.

And we can't find one goddamn progressive in Congress say those are bribes. Bribes. You're corrupt. No, no, beloved Democrats. We have to kiss their stupid ass. That's what we said progressives to Congress for. Fight for these guys. And fight for all of us, all of us.

Not just whoever's in your little group. No one's going to fight for a damn person until the elected politicians, members of Congress, know that failing to represent the well-being and the financial stability of ordinary Americans and workers will lead to consequences. And the only way that there are actual consequences is if you have an organized outside pressure campaign, and that requires broad coalitions. That's what it requires. So we need to get serious about that.

Otherwise, we're going to have another, I don't know how many more years of the same garbage. And I'm sick of it. That's where I'm at. We've got to take a break. We'll be right back. All right, back on TYT, Jank, Anna, and these wonderful people who hit the join button below and became members, Erica Rutherford, In Cognizant Reconstruction, and Crogra 47, gifted 10 more memberships on YouTube. We appreciate you all. We love you.

All right, Casper. Well, we've got more on Justice Clarence Thomas. The reporting continues, so let's talk about it. The most complete accounting yet of the high life of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas shows much, much more than previously known. More private jets, more fancy vacations, more sporting events, all gifts from mega-rich businessmen and documented through public and private records, plus interviews by ProPublica. In fact, ProPublica is not letting up, and they're still publishing, investment,

investigating reporting in regard to the types of luxurious gifts and travel that Clarence Thomas is gifted with. And even though most of this unfortunately seems like it's legal when it shouldn't be, the big question is his failure to disclose some of these gifts. Are there potential issues there? I mean, there are rules. He's supposed to disclose them. And the appearance of corruption is still pretty terrible. I don't know about you guys, but my friends don't spend that kind of money on me for gifts.

They don't take me on luxurious vacations. But the latest report from ProPublica, the latest expose, which involved speaking to more than 100 witnesses with knowledge of these trips, found that the friends of Justice Thomas provided chauffeurs, pilots, airport workers, chefs, and also other high-end business executives. So from their digging, they found quite a bit in this latest report. Let's watch this video, which gives you some of the details, and then I'll fill in the rest. Justice Thomas has been living a life of extreme luxury for 30 years underwritten by at least four different ultra wealthy benefactors. Earlier reports have revealed lavish gifts to Thomas, including a house for his mother and this nine-day vacation in Indonesia from conservative billionaire Harlan Crow.

Now the list of benefactors includes three more names according to ProPublica, David Sokol, Wayne Heisinga, and Tony Novelli. The report says the four moguls collectively treated Thomas to 38 destination vacations, including a previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas. private jet flights, plus an additional eight by helicopter. A dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events, two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica, and one standing invitation to an Uber exclusive golf club. So the question is, why would these tremendously wealthy individuals

who didn't have a relationship with Justice Thomas prior to him getting confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, Why would they spend this kind of money on him? Why would they spend this money on his travel, on a home for his mother, all of these lavish gifts? Now, Clarence Thomas says, there's no quid pro quo here. Okay, there's nothing that these people are getting for me. I'm not giving them anything in return or in exchange for these lavish gifts. But really ask yourselves, why is he getting all of these lavish gifts?

And look at your own life and ask yourself, I don't know, do people around you just gift you? you with lavish things and not expect anything in return ever. So that's a great point. I haven't thought of that. That ends the argument completely, if there was an argument. Has three different billionaires come and giving you millions of dollars in vacations recently? Gee, I wonder why they didn't. And they happened to just coincidentally give it to a Supreme Court justice. But this is a joke, right?

But if you like jokes, I got more for you. I'm going to go all the way to Graphics 6 here because I love this quote from Claris Thomas. This is before he got caught and people knew the vacations he was actually up. He said in 2020, I don't have any problem with going to Europe, but I prefer the United States. And I prefer seeing the regular parts of the United States. I prefer the RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There's something normal to me about it.

I come from regular stock and I prefer that. I prefer being around that. Walmart parking lots. Walmart eight helicopter rides. Did you take a helicopter ride to a Walmart parking lot? Do you understand the level of mendacity here? These guys are giant liars and they're sitting on the Supreme Court. By the way, let me just quickly correct something.

So earlier in the story I said that these donors or these incredibly wealthy friends of Justice Thomas had provided chauffeurs, pilots, airport workers. No, apologies there. In this report, ProPublica spoke to over 100 witnesses that included chauffeurs, pilots, airport workers, chefs, and other high-level business executives who shed light on the type of lavish gifts that he received. And just to also buttress Jank's point about how ridiculous it is that he wants us to all think that, no, no, no, he doesn't like the lavish things.

He likes to chill in Walmart parking lots. I just want to give you this example, H. Wayne Huzenga. Hizenga, who's got a pretty incredible last name. I got a fun story about him in his time. I'm not even being sarcastic, I like that last name. Anyway, he sent his personal 737 to pick Thomas up and bring him to South Florida at least twice, according to John Wenner, a former flight attendant and chef on board the plane. If he were picked up in DC, the five hour round trip would have.

have cost at least $130,000 each time had Thomas chartered the jet himself, and that's according to estimates from jet charter companies. Now, David Sokol also arranged for Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginny Thomas, to attend University of Nebraska-Lincoln sporting events with all access passes. The group watched both the football and volleyball games from luxury suites. The football skybox, which typically cost $40,000 annually, belonged to Tom Osborne, a former Republican congressman who was also the head coach of the team for 25 years. And by the way, a lot of this stuff, I just want to be clear, there's no illegality here other than, I don't even know if it's illegal. I mean, he's supposed to disclose these gifts. He has failed

to do so. I don't know what the accountability is. What is the enforcement mechanism? What is to happen when these ethical rules are broken. But nonetheless, I mean, if you have a problem with this, and I do, because it appears to be corruption. Of course it's corrupt. Right. Come on, guys. The biggest business owners in the country all happen to befriend Clarence Thomas after he gets on the Supreme Court and give him helicopter rides and 737 rides on and on and on because it's not corruption. They didn't want any favors in return. And then Clarence Thomas rules for business interests every time. And that's also a giant coincidence, having nothing to do with the fact that he's surrounded himself with billionaires. I'm sorry, I meant an RV park. I mean,

maybe he thought the 737 was an RV and with the chef on board. And maybe that's the kind of, you know, RV park that he's talking about. Look, I'm going to give you one from Alito. And Alito's relevant here to Anna's point. Because when they all right. all went into their confirmation hearings, they said, oh, yes, we will abide by the ethics rules and Congress can check us if we don't abide by those ethics rules. It's not a criminal violation, but it could be an ethical violation, which has a number of consequences, which by the way, if it's corrupt enough, all the way to impeachment for Supreme Court justices.

That's what he said when he was in the confirmation hearings. And now when they ask him, he said, no, I don't think Congress can do anything to the Supreme Court. basically said we're above the law. I mean, Congress isn't even considering doing anything. Like that's part of the problem, right? The corruption is so ingrained in our political system. In Congress, as we've talked about incessantly on this show,

also in the case of the Supreme Court where apparently you can receive all of these lavish gifts, skirt ethics rules in regard to disclosures about these lavish gifts, and essentially get away with it. And when reporters ask you questions about it, essentially laugh in their face or send them a sarcastic letter essentially denying them any answers to the questions that they have. And I do want to just quickly say, as for whether Thomas technically did anything wrong, this is according to the reporting, while some of the hospitality like stays in personal homes may not have required disclosure, ethics experts say that Thomas likely violated the law by failing to disclose flights, yacht cruises, and expensive sports tickets.

And the reporter for ProPublica, who broke this story, explains that in a little more detail in this last video. Let's take a look. One of the striking things about this reporting is that there are very few rules for the Supreme Court compared to other parts of the government. I mean, we've spoken to federal employees who say they can't even let somebody buy them lunch, let alone a $100,000 vacation. But there is a code of conduct for judges that says you're not supposed to be taking gifts that would make a reasonable person think that there was something improper going on. And we've talked to, I think, seven judges now from both parties who say they would never take anything close to this, just violates judicial norms. And as a public servant, you shouldn't be sort of living

the life of a billionaire, essentially, on the dime of people that might be trying to influence you, which is, you know, what we found is happening here. And by the way, I mean, look, a lot of the focus has been on Justice Thomas. But if you have these wealthy individuals willing to shell out some pretty serious money for these lavish trips and gifts, I'm sure they're doing it with other Supreme Court justices as well. Of course. So I mean, are we okay with that? I'm not okay with that. The fact that the Supreme Court, relative to other government agencies, has very few rules in regard to this drives me crazy. That's unacceptable. Guys, this whole thing's a freaking joke. One of those, some of those billionaires

give to an organization run by the guy who helps pick these Supreme Court justices. He's the guy who basically runs the Federalist Society. They hire Jenny Thomas and pay her a really high salary for God knows what. So that's direct money into the Thomas family. It goes straight into Clarence Thomas's bank account. It's just a brazen bribe on top of all the vacations. But they go, no, Ginny Thomas, like Hunter Biden, is an expert on legal issues and this and that. Really? Really? Coincidentally, she is, and she's getting that giant salary. Look, bribery's everywhere. They're buying all the judges. They're buying all the politicians.

And nobody's doing a goddamn thing about it. And finally, that brings us back to the Alito. So did Alito partake in this? Of course. But he says it wasn't so bad. There was a reason why he took the expensive jets, et cetera. Elito noted that his flight on Singer, which is another private equity guy, Singer's private jet was not consequential because, quote, it would have otherwise been vacant and imposed no extra cost on Singer. You see that? Those private jets were flying around the country. vacant anyway and he just happened to get on a billionaire's private jet. I mean, you're all being asked to be on a private jet of Paul Singer, right? Like you're all at, they're coming around and offering it to everyone. So Alito was like, oh, it's empty this time. All right, I guess I'll take it. These guys are laughing in our face.

They're saying we're going to rule in favor of corporations every time. They're going to brazenly bribe us. And now Alito says there's not a goddamn thing you could do about it because we're above the law. And I'm not going to listen to Congress. I'm not gonna get sanctioned, we're not gonna report any of these from our billionaire friends. And these are the guys who legalized bribery in the first place. That's right. Citizens United, they said you can give, corporations can give unlimited money to politicians.

Unlimited money to politicians. So the guys who legalized bribery are not going to be the ones that end bribery. Okay. So the only silver lining in this entire story is that Heisinga might be a little bit out of money after he gave all this to Clarence Town. Thomas, one of his top businesses was Blockbuster Video. Oof. A zinga. All right, we got to take a break.

When we come back for the second hour of the show, just come back. Just come back, all right? 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. slash t yt i'm your host shank huger and i'll see you soon