The Young Turks - Save Us, Kamala

Episode Date: March 5, 2021

Sen. Joe Manchin, the most prominent Democrat opposed to a $15 federal minimum wage, has a financial stake in at least one company that would have to increase pay if such a measure is passed, according to TYT’s Jonathan Larsen. Plus, Rebellion PAC’s new ad on Joe Manchin and the minimum wage. 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. Thank you. Welcome to the Young Turks. Eventually, I'm just going to be like my dad. Just like everything is like, welcome to your young tour.

We give you this right away. Thank you, Granica Spare. Brett Erlick's back producing. Everybody appreciates that. All right. So a great show ahead. We're going to kick some ass. We're going to show you some results of your ass kicking.

Well, that's fun. Hello. Are we winning? Is that why I'm happy? No. You know how it works. Somebody the other day said, oh, are you ever happy? Because they see me on Twitter and I'm constantly punching people in their face. I have like a collection of teeth in my backyard from the altercations on Twitter. All of it proverbial, not of it physical, proverbial, okay, metaphorical. Anyways, I say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm super happy. Until we start talking about the stories, then I rage. Yeah, let me just note for the record, because it's important. I think confirmation is important. Jank is an annoyingly happy person, like annoyingly happy. So he's absolutely right about that.

Yeah, but I appreciate it. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, I was going to say that I had to come with an asterisk. Okay. All right, listen, we've got to do the stories. But before we do, I'm just going to tell you one last thing. Soak it in. Okay. Soak, like, life in? Like, I don't know if we get a second chance. You don't know if we get a second chance. You know you got this chance. So why not just live it? You're religious? No problem. What if God gave you life so that you may live it? Okay, all right, forward news. All right, well, get ready to soak this in. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin has been one of the most vocal opponents and critics of increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. And And now we have a better understanding of his own personal financial interests that are influencing his war against paying people what they deserve to make.

Now Manchin justified his opposition to the $15 an hour minimum wage by saying the senator understands the challenges facing West Virginia small business owners. But Manchin has not publicly acknowledged that he's one of those small business owners. So TYT Investigates did a great job. This is Jonathan Larson's reporting to kind of figure out, you know, what kind of stakes mansion has in this fight. And here's what we know. Court filings related to bankruptcy proceedings and a mansion family dispute that went public have identified some of the companies in which Mansion allegedly had a financial stake, including a hotel and a chain of flooring stores. both companies would apparently have to increase employee pay if Congress passes a $15 an hour minimum wage.

Now, the most relevant company in this reporting has to do with something known as either AA property, AA property, and Mansion owns 50% of that company. Okay, so as TYT investigates reports, AA property is reportedly 50% controlled by Mansion and is an investor in Emerald Coast Realty which owns a Lakinta hotel in Elkview, West Virginia. At the Elkview, Lakinta, indeed reports that housekeepers make an average of $8.81 an hour. So imagine if they have to increase the minimum wage there to $15 an hour, obviously this would have not only an impact on this business, but it could have an impact on the return of investment for someone like Joe Manchin. There are other details that I'll share with you in just a minute, but Jank, are you surprised

by any of this? Of course not, of course not. So now these senators have started double dipping. So in the old days, it used to be just that the donor contributions would go to them, millions of dollars at a time. We have nonstop stories about that, including $9 million from Big Pharma, $36 million from healthcare insurance industry, going to Republican senators on a particular committee. I mean, they're buying these guys wholesale, super obvious. But now they also have their own financial interests. So you saw

Kelly Leffler and David Perdue just raking in money during COVID times because they had insider information on how they could make more money. So they transacted on the stock market based on that. Their fellow corrupt senators were like, oh yeah, I'd love to do that too. So they let them off the hook, but they did do it. And the voters of Georgia did not let them off the hook, by the way. So now Mansion, it turns out, is fighting against a minimum wage, partly because he'd have to pay higher wages. So look, there's two aspects of that. And number one, I'd love to see their books. I know they're not going to show the books to us. But I bet you that they, this is a well-established mature industry. It's not a new industry, not young industry.

And in those kind of industries, the profit margins are fairly stable. So I bet if I looked at those books and I'm a business owner and I know exactly where to look, I could show you how the workers could get $15 an hour and Manchin as partners would still make plenty of money. But they do make more money by paying their employees less. That's just the fact. So every time he blocks a minimum wage bill, Joe Manchin gets richer. That's just an absolute fact. Okay. And now the second part of the thing that Anna just read you is the average worker at that place is getting $8.81. Do you want to know what the minimum wage in West Virginia is? $8.75. Now what does that tell you? They're so generous that they're very generous. They're

paying cents more per hour, Jank. Be grateful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So whatever the minimum wage is, that's what people are going to pay. Okay. There would be some mom and poppuby. shops who are good guys and who'll pay more. But overall, most corporations and companies, whether they're gigantic or small, will unfortunately grind you down to the bare minimum. So look at that. They're paying on average, on average, only six cents more than the minimum wage. So all of those workers will get a giant wage hike and increase in their salaries if we pass a federal minimum wage to $15. That's why Joe Manchin thinks that's my money.

You're not going to touch my money. He's going to vote no. Yeah, that's exactly right. And we talk a lot about money in politics and it's definitely a pretty, obviously a corrupting factor in our political system. There's no question about that and we need to get the money out. But there's a second half to that that I don't think is discussed enough. And that's exactly what this story covers.

There's a huge problem right now with Congress members being invested in individual stocks, having these types of business investments and ownership of certain private companies. If you want to be a public servant, then be an actual public servant. You have to divest from individual stocks and you have to divest from these types of businesses because clearly it serves as a giant conflict of interest. And you're a lawmaker who's supposed to be making ethical decisions on behalf of your constituents, right? You're supposed to serve the best interests of your constituents. How are you going to do that if your business investments conflict with you doing your job appropriately and serving the best interests of your constituents

appropriately? It's a huge problem. Right. And Jonathan Larson in this story, and we'll have the link down below if you're watching later on YouTube or Facebook. Always check the description box because we got helpful links there, especially the articles that we talk about. Anyway, Jonathan pointed out that he might have interest in another family business. There's some conflicting reports about that. And a mansion proposed that maybe we can do a compromise and move at minimum wage, not to 15, not to 15, but maybe to 11. Now you want to know what the average worker there is? It looks like, based on the estimates that Jonathan found, the average worker in that company makes $11 and one cent. Hmm, gee, I wonder why Mansion wants to move it to

$11. And then he'll get to say, what do you mean? I pay above average rates. These guys are unreal, man. And everybody's gotten so used to their corruption. Nobody even questions it anymore. I mean, in any of the mainstream, and that's why I love TYT Investees, and I love that you guys financed it. Have you noticed in any mainstream media articles that, and thousands of them say mansion is going to block the minimum wage?

But they all painted as like, he's representing his conservative voters in West Virginia, who by the way, polling shows are completely against them, right? the Republican governor of Kentucky is to his left. And they never, ever clarify, oh, by the way, Joe Manchin might literally be making money off of blocking higher wages for you. You know, one thing, since you mentioned the media, I just wanted to add one quick note to that. One thing that's been kind of frustrating in the coverage of the House bill that just passed, the stimulus package. Reporters are pretending as if Biden's proposal from the beginning was to extend

unemployment insurance benefits through June. No, no, no. That was the Republican proposal. Biden's initial proposal extended unemployment benefits through September. And now the media is just reporting on the House version of the bill as if like, oh, Republicans wanted to scale it back to the end of May. but these Democrats fought and they got it to, you know, the end of June. No, no, fighting means that you get unemployment insurance benefits extended through September

as originally planned and don't pretend like, you know, Democrats didn't cave on that issue. They certainly did cave on that issue. I bring it up because it's, you know, sometimes we have these discussions about whether it's just negligence, maybe it's an oversight issue, like what's going on? But they know, they know, it wasn't so long ago that corporate media was reporting that Biden wanted the unemployment benefits to be extended through September. Literally in mid-February they were reporting that. And now all of a sudden they're pretending like that was never the case.

I don't know if they know, but the internet exists. I can look up the older articles and provide the evidence, which I did on Twitter. Yeah, and politicians haven't caught on to that. that, but partly because they have a mainstream media establishment protection racket for them. So now they're just changing facts on behalf of corporate politicians. It's absurd. I mean, the mainstream media acts like it was born yesterday. They're like, oh, the parliamentarian, obviously, the parliamentarian in our system of government controls everything, obviously. But wait a minute, we never talked about the parliamentarian before. And for Trump, we never discussed

at once for the Bush tax cuts, they completely, they fired the parliamentarian and the VP did whatever the hell he wanted. VP Dick Cheney, shocking that he did that. Is anybody noting that? Now finally independent media is forcing that into the conversation, but mainstream media was like, I don't know what you're talking about. No, I was born yesterday. And so I believe the Republicans and the corporate Democrats, when they tell me the parliamentarian rules everything in Congress, even though it never has before. Oh, come on. Okay, so now we have more on Manchin, okay? So Joe Manchin is blocking the increase of the minimum wage to $15 an hour. It was slated to go on the COVID relief bill. It passed the Democratic version of that bill

from the House. It goes over the Senate. And there's a lot of facets to the story. Manchin and Senema said, no, we demand to have lower wages. We do not, under any circumstance, want higher wages for American people. That's just a fact. That's literally their position. They're for lower wages and they want to block the Democratic version of the bill that has higher wages. And it appears that they might want to vote down the whole bill if they don't get their way for the benefit of their donors. And as we just reported, TYT Investigates shows that Joe Manchin would also personally make a lot more money if the bill, if minimum wage is not increased based on his private businesses. Okay. So unfortunately, not only the mainstream media, but a lot of Democrats take that. as a fait accompli. Well, okay, that's it. I guess there's nothing we could do. No, you could fight

I don't like for corporate Democrats. Fight. No, no, civility, civility. I surrender, surrendered. Now the realities, of course, they're not surrendering. Joe Biden and Joe Manchin agree. Joe Biden is just using Joe Manchin as an excuse not to do the $15 minimum wage he never intended to do in the first place. But we'll get to Biden later. In terms of this particular bill, especially, and the overall $50 minimum wage fight that continues and will continue until we get the damn thing, well, then we're going to make our case for us. Who's we? Well, in this case, this rebellion pact. Yes, I found a rebellion pack. Brianna Wu runs it, she runs it brilliantly, and every once in a while we'll make ads that'll show people the reality. Now, we're not

connected to the Democratic Party, we're not connected to anything, okay? So if Joe Manchin cries, oh my God, they're beating me up too much in West Virginia. Make him stop. Because that's usually how they think. Well, Joe, who are you going to make stop? Our donors are all you guys. Rebellionpack.com slash join. Rebellion pack.com slash join. Now, you'll contribute to this ad and we'll run it more in West Virginia if you like it.

So let's show you the ad and show you what Rebellion packs about. Joe Manchin betrayed you. He could have doubled your salary, but he decided to serve his donors instead. They gave him millions to make sure he kept your personal. low so they could make more money. He says the people of West Virginia don't want higher wages. That's ridiculous.

Why don't we cut his salary and see how he likes it? Or we could just fire him. Tell him you'll never vote for him again if he sides with big business instead of a hardworking people of West Virginia. Rebellionpack.com

slash join. Let's ram that ad down Manchin's throat. until he says, no moss, no moss, okay, fine, my donors aren't worth it, my hotel chains aren't worth it, these guys are really gonna cost me. Look, do I mean it? Hell yet, if I could, I would make the wages of the Senate minimum wage, then you know what they would move it to? $100 an hour, $200 an hour. They would move it instantly, they would move it overnight, and every single person watching knows that. Doesn't matter if you're liberal, conservative, or in the middle or any party affiliation. You know if we made the Senate wages minimum wage,

$15 would be a joke. I swear to God, they'd move it to $150 an hour. Okay, so let's cut his wages. And if he cries and he goes, oh, but it's not fair. Oh, really? So it's fair that we make minimum wage, but it's not fair that you make minimum wage, right? So no, let's get to a right minimum wage. And the way you do that is hardball, Anna. As a listener from a long long time ago when we were on the radio called in and said, and again, proverbially, beat them with a stick and they will do. Yeah, I mean, look, there are two things that I really love about that ad. Number one, the voicemover guy sounds super cool.

Like he sounds like someone I want to hang out with, especially with the Tude that we're getting in that in that wonderful ad. Like, I love the phrase or the line, why don't we cut his salary and see how he likes it? First of all, you wrote that line because that's the way you talk. Secondly, I love it when he's talking like that. No comment. No comment. This is a TYT exclusive. I don't know how we got our hands on this ad. No, it's great because I think what it importantly touches on is the clear disconnect between

American workers and the very politicians who are supposed to be serving their best interests, right? When you have these business investments, when you're invested in individual stocks, when you're part of a group of people, if you're a senator and you have access to closed door intelligence briefings on what's likely going to impact the economy, you should not in any way be invested in individual stocks. You shouldn't have these businesses. investments. And I mean, we're seeing the ramifications of it right now as he's working against the best interests of people, against the best interests of workers in order to enrich himself and ensure that he gets the highest rate of return on his own personal investments. It's a huge

problem. And look, Joe Manchin is, you know, soup de jour, right? Like he's the one in the center of this $15 an hour minimum wage battle. So that's why all the attention is on him at this given moment. But this is a problem that infects almost every single member of Congress. We have more millionaires in Congress than lawmakers who are not millionaires. And that's a problem. They're so rich, their names even say it. This dude's names like almost mansion. There used to be a Republican senator named a yacht. I remember. Yeah, I'm surprised there is a one called private jet. So now, look, when it comes to management, look, the internet thinks I'm rich. And look, from the mouth of the internet to God's ears. But if I was rich, I'd put a million

bucks into this ad. And I would, you know how cheap radio and TV ads are in West Virginia, let alone digital ads? I would run this, I'd put a million bucks into this ad. And I'd run it nonstop until Joe Manchin came and asked to vote on $15 minimum wage, he would ask for it. She would ask for it. You know how this is real politics, okay? So whatever is approval rating is, let's assume that it's 60, it isn't, but let's assume that. I would run that ad until it hits a number where a mansion feels it, 48%. He's below 50. Below 50 means income is usually lose 45. I just keep running. You're 42. What do you need? What do you need, Joe, before you realize the people of West Virginia actually want higher wages,

not lower wages. So now, I don't have a million bucks. You guys don't have a million bucks. But we all do it together. So rebellion pack.com slash join. And whatever we can muster up, we're going to keep running that ad until Mansion cries uncle. We got to take a break. But when we come back, is Kamala Harris possibly caving into demands that she overruled the Senate parliamentarian? I don't know. We got some video to show you. Droms. Definitely drums. Droms.

Do you guys do it? All right, simmer down. Let's all calm down. Calm down for six. I think you guys did it. Okay, don't do that. Let's like share the story and then people can judge for themselves. We'll be back.

See you in just a few minutes. We need to take them out of the office and hit them with us. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fing the Republic or UNFTR. As a young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that

be, featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size. Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget. After all, you're in your small space era.

It's time to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca. Challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime.

So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained, all at the same time. Stick a couple times. They will do. You know, I'm going to be. I'm going to be. I'm going to

I'm going to I'm a lot of I'm going to I'm on. I'm a

mrs. I'm I'm and I'm I'm I'm I'm

I'm Mxie I'm and I'm I'm I'm All right.

Back during the break, I want to read your comments because I like them. Elizabeth wrote in on YouTube super chat. I find TYT's photo of Joe Mansion extremely disturbing. I don't know what it is, but when I see that picture with his fingers pointing out, the length and shape of his fingers makes me nauseous. Elizabeth with the most rando comment of all time, congratulations, you just broke a record, but I kind of like your comment. I kind of like it.

I just want to break in here from the control room. about it every time it comes up. Skip's always like those, there's the fingers, there are the fingers. So other people know. Wow, it's apparently a thing. It's like a visceral thing. The sausage fingers are getting to everybody. You don't want to see how that sausage is made. Okay, ginger dragon in red shoes, already a fun name using super chat, already a fun way to participate in the show, says, Jake, the governor of Kentucky said, Democrat, we worked hard to get him, pay more attention than you'd like the guy. Well, that's certainly true. His name is Bashir, but we We were talking about West Virginia, where the governor went from Democrat to Republican.

His name is Jim Justice, and he's a terrible guy and does not live up to his name. But is he still more left wing than Joe Manchin, even though he's the richest guy in the whole state, he just bought the governorship for himself. All right, FLG says that was about my opening. That was just corny, jank. But you know we all love it. And look, I'm not saying the people love it. The people are saying, I'm just, I'm here to report the news. Okay? The news is I'm corny, but you love it. Okay. Speaking voice, look at this. That's so hilarious. Oh, no, no, no. I thought it's the person who just joined on YouTube by hitting a cute little join button, come on. It's almost winking at you. It's throwing wink emojis at you. Get in there. Get in two bucks. You've got two bucks.

But at essentials level, you're getting the posting. Anyway, the people who just signed up, Corrin Casper. I just read Corny, so I thought it was Corny Casper, but it's actually Corn Casper. Fascinating. Amazing coincidence. Garrett Hughes, Christian Cruz. Casper, what? You were going to jump in? I was just going to say, I wasn't a big fan of corn until people are going to like roll their eyes at this. I've taken a liking to whiskey, and then I realize that the whiskey I like heavily relies on corn, and it's delicious.

So I'm a big, I'm a big fan of corn now. Corn Casper makes sense. go forward. Okay, fair enough. It might have nothing to do with you, but we'll see. Rainbow Bright writes in West Virginia had a chance to get rid of Joe Manchin with Paul Jean Swergen and chose not to. If this does not wake them up, nothing will. The problem is the media. Paul Jean would have won if she got fair coverage. Keep it real. More when we come back. You know, we're back on the young church. that you don't know. Look, it's Jenk, it's Anna. You also know that. But the thing that I'm not

sure you know, liking and sharing the stream makes a giant difference. Also takes one and a half seconds each approximately. So like and share away. Let's get this progressive message out to everybody. Apparently people like it. Look at this comment from our member section. Stepan Wolf said, that's the best rebellion pack ad I've seen yet. Why, thank you. We appreciate that. I know people are wondering, hey, Cheng, did you write the best rebellion pack ad ever? I don't know. Inquiring minds want to know, but look, we're going to have to keep that a state secret. But you can't help spread it in West Virginia. Rebellion PAC.com slash join. Come on, let's join in. Casper, go.

All right. There's been a lot of pressure on Vice President Kamala Harris to overrule the Senate parliamentarian. This is the unelected Senate staffer who shared her recommendation that the $15 an hour minimum wage be stripped out of the coronavirus Relief Bill, so the bill can pass through a simple majority as opposed to needing 60 Republican senators, I'm sorry, 60 senators with support from Republicans in order to pass. Now, the important thing to note is that Kamala Harris can overrule the Senate parliamentarian. The Senate parliamentarian is not a god. The Senate parliamentarian is not a dictator. The Senate parliamentarian is simply someone who shares his or her thoughts on a certain provision in a bill. And then the person presiding over the Senate, in this case, Kamala Harris, can overrule her. And the question is, will she do it?

Now, Kamala Harris, to be sure, understands the importance of a $15 an hour minimum wage. In fact, she says so much during a recent interview that I want to share with you. Let's take a look at the first part. Take a look. I have been fighting for $15 an hour minimum wage. Since the beginning of time it feels like, most people may not understand that $7.25 is the current federal minimum wage. You know what that means? If you work 40 hours a week at federal minimum wage that currently stands, you are earning $15,000 a year, $1,000, $15,000 a year, which means that folks who are working a full day's work, a full week's work, are existing below the price. poverty line. We have to increase minimum wage. And we are going to fight for that. We're not going to give up the fight, even though the parliamentarians said that it can't stay in our bill. But it is one of my biggest priorities. She says it's one of her biggest priorities. More importantly, the reason why I started this with that video was to show you that she understands the importance of this issue.

And she also knows as the vice president that she single-handedly has the power to overrule the Senate parliamentarian. And Natalie Moore in that interview had asked her before she gave you that long-winded answer, whether she intends to overrule the Senate parliamentarian. She clearly didn't answer. So there was a follow up. Let's take a quick look at that. I just want to follow up. Given that parliamentarian rule, will you use your authority as vice president to include it in the relief bill anyway? Well, listen, we were very disappointed in the parliamentarian rule, but we are committed to working with Congress to determine the best staff forward.

And the bottom line is nobody in our country should work a full day's work and work 40 hours a week. in poverty. So in other words, no. I know how important this issue is. I know that I have the power to overrule the Senate parliamentarian, but no. And I mean, Jank, these kinds of answers from politicians are a dime a dozen. But what drives me crazy is how insulting it is to people. Like, I don't think people are so complacent anymore. I think they watch an interview like that and think, First of all, I mean, in the first video, she's like, I don't think most people understand that minimum wage is $7.25. No, they understand. I'm pretty sure a lot of people in the country understand. Secondly, if you know it's a serious problem, if you know that people aren't making enough money to live, if they're working full time and they're getting paid minimum wage, they're not making enough money to pay their rent to buy groceries, just to provide the essentials for themselves, right? Then why don't you have the power to include it in the bill? Make it happen. happen and then do what you did. Kamala Harris went to West Virginia and started doing interviews

to tout the coronavirus relief package. And Joe Manchin was upset about that. He had a temper tantrum about that because he doesn't want his constituents to realize what a bozo he is. Because it applies pressure for him to actually do the right thing by his constituents. And I don't know why all of a sudden she's backed off. Jank, go ahead. Yeah, so look, there's a lot of good news in that interview. And I'm actually super excited about, honestly, what you guys help to start and have done here. But first, I want to give credit to Natalie Moore at WBEZ. Excellent questions. Perfect follow up. So normally, like the Wolf Blitzers of the world will just skate right by that as she gives it, I'm keep it real, an Obama-like answer of. It's one of my top priorities,

and that's why I'm not going to do it. Well, wait, what? Natalie Moore being an actual reporter was like, wait, but you do have the power to actually put it in the bill, so are you going to? And she gave the same answer, which is blah-bidi-blah, which and I think correctly deduced was no, okay? But look at this guys, we've changed the tenor of the conversation. And is it exclusively us? Of course not. Every reasonable, smart progressive out there ranging from the Warren people all the way to the Bernie people and beyond. Everybody is saying several things at the same time, which is because you needed it. Why, you need Bernie to introduce it, we've gone over this. And he's going to introduce it.

Number two, you need Kamala Harris to not rule in favor of a McConnell filibuster on it. And by agreeing with the parliamentarian's advice, she would be agreeing with McConnell, and making it a 60 vote threshold for Democrats to include the minimum wage and COVID relief. Now, if it's one of your top priorities, why would you do that? Well, her excuse was, oh, no, no, no, no, the parliamentarian. But now, because it has become a larger issue, and did we have some part in that? Well, some in the press are giving us credit for that, because I think it's true. And again, it's not us, guys, it's you. When you're making the videos, you're using the hashtag, you're signing the petition. In this case,

it was hashtag save us Kamla. Did it trend? Of course it trended. Whatever we do anything together, it trends. We did it with Don't Kill It Bernie. Bernie changed his stance on it halfway, right? And in this case, Kamala is now finally having to answer questions. You're the vice president. There is absolutely no question. It's a point of fact that the parliamentarian does not have any power. I mean, I know that Democrats want to paint it like the parliamentarian controls everything. He was on the grassy knoll. She knows the secret sauce that goes into, you know, every burger. And so no, the parliament has zero power. Kamala Harris has all the power. And so now she's being called out on it. And now it's a little bit more embarrassing. Now the rest of the press looks into

it. But the thing is about Savas Kamala, and we have the petition to tyt.com slash petitions slash Savas Kamala. We framed it as Savas Kamala. Why? Because we're like, gullible people who are like, oh my God, I think Kamala Harrison Angel. But look, if you think that Khype, Great, great. But we're not trying to get her. We are actually trying to help her. If she makes this happen and overrules the parliamentarian, she'd be incredibly popular. And she'd be super hard to beat if she runs for president 24 or 28. So you save us, Kamala, and you save yourself. It's a no-brainer. It's a no-brainer. In fact, if they think Mansion and Cinema are really going to vote it down, they don't even need the 60 votes.

Kamala Harris can have her cake and eat it too. She could say that yes, the minimum wages in the bill and then go go golly, gee, there was nothing I could do. Corporate donors don't sweat at Mansion and Cinema killed it. It's actually a politically savvy move. But God, the donors have so much control, she still hasn't done it. But the more people ask, and the more Natalie Morris of the world do great reporting and great interviews, the more we got a shot at this thing. And all you need is a little hope, guys. And I would argue. And now the rest of the press is beginning to argue, you started that fire. You started that hope.

So this doesn't have to be negative to Kamala Harris. It could be wonderfully positive to her. She could be the hero that saves the day. But let's not pretend that it isn't her decision because it most definitely is. And the thing for me, and I'm sure a lot of people who have been frustrated by how all of this is developed, Jenk, is just how politicians think. this happens on both the left and the right. This isn't an ideological thing. But politicians seem to think that all they need to do. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that

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

available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT. fans. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N.com slash T-Y-T. Check it out today. Who is pay us lip service? All they need to do is tweet about how much they care about issues. All they need to do is tweet their outrage at how things have unfolded. And we'll be okay. We'll be satisfied by their outrage. They're, in my opinion, performative outrage. But no, you can't tell us that you understand the severity of the issue. You can't tell us that you you're going to fight like hell. And then when you find yourself in the perfect position to

actually do something about it, you back off and pretend as if you don't have that power. You have that power. There's a reason why she's in that position. And you don't get to pay us lip service by talking about how underpaid American workers are when you refuse to do exactly what you are empowered to do at this given moment. So that's the part that gets under my skin personally. Yeah, and guys, it's not like this is easy. You know, we knew it was hard from the get-go, but I said it was doable. And it, you know, it's kind of fighter's chance.

It certainly had a fighter's chance at some point. So look, let's just last thing on this, because it's so important. Anna's right, the politicians are used to doing talking points, i.e. propaganda. And in this case, she says, it's one of my biggest priorities. And normally the press then lets it go and then publishes, Kamala Harris says, minimum wage is one of her biggest priorities. They never clarify, she's the one that's killing it. I mean, isn't that amazing? So the propaganda assumes that the media is complicit and will help them spread that propaganda.

And that is beginning to break down. It's starting to break down during the Trump era because Trump was not part of the establishment and the media went to a different equation. And now people are beginning to wake up and go, yeah, wait a minute, aren't we supposed to challenge them? Because what she just said isn't really true. If it's your biggest priority and you can do it, why wouldn't you do it? I mean, it's just such a simple question. But it took so much effort on all of our parts to break this 40 year lock that corporate Democrats and Republicans had on the establishment media. The Anna, they did all those touring points because they knew they were going to get away with it because we had no functioning media in this country. But,

Now we do. And look, my critique, by the way, as you might have seen yesterday, is fair and across the board. So yes, that applies to Kamala Harris. Yes, she can change it and be the hero. For Bernie Sanders, yes, he's introducing it as an amendment, but he wasn't going to in the beginning. Okay, so that was you guys, 100%. And then now he's introducing as an amendment, but let's keep it real. Both for Bernie Sanders and any other Democratic senator, including Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and the others in the Senate. but also for our progressive friends in the house. One senator or six congresspeople can block this bill and force them to renegotiate.

It doesn't kill the bill. It just forces them to renegotiate it because there's no way that this bill isn't passing. Joe Biden must, must, must pass it. And when progressives, including in the House and the Senate and including Bernie Sanders and including some of our top allies, When they choose not to use their power, well, that's on them. And that is a choice that they are making. So did it have to do with Kamala Harris? Definitely.

Because if she doesn't rule the right way, we're never going to get past the filibuster. But you could block the bill anyway, even without that filibuster. You could just vote no on the underlying bill. And it would just take one senator or six congresspeople to force them to come back to the table and actually start talking about including the $15 minimum wage. And right now in Congress, we don't have Kamala Harris doing what she says is her top priority. We don't have one Democratic Senator who's willing to block the bill, again, not kill the bill, block it so we renegotiate it, and we don't have six Congress people who are willing

to do it. That's very sad. I hate to report it to you, but it is true. All right, we gotta take a break. But when we come back, we have a wonderful ad to share with you featuring Nina Turner. And later in the show, an unexpected senator is now pushing to squash the filibuster in the Senate. Who is it and what is motivating this person? We'll give you that and more when we come back.

I'm going to be. you know what i'm you know i'm sorry i don't know i'm All right. to Twitch first, per Z, right, so corporate donations should be seen as a financial crime. The people in charge of those corporate wallets are just using corporations to mass their personal

desire to fund political activity beyond the legal personal contribution limit. Look, there's a million things that should be a crime. You can give an unlimited amount of money. Sheldon Adelson once gave Newt Gingrich $30 million. It's insane. Yes, it's illegal in every other country on the planet. It's called a bribe. We're all, that, national media wholesale are is pretending that obvious bribes are not bribes that they're so complicit it's sickening okay uh tray fields writes in have been with us for two months by the way no surprise he doesn't want to increase regular americans pay because he doesn't want to increase payment to his own workers of course liquid music music entertainment has been with us for

six months which we appreciate and wrote in my favorite got to love t yt thank you for being honest fair and respectful, that's why I support TYT. I thank you. We appreciate it. And look at pink light bulb, given a thousand bits, been with us for nine months, using hashtag Bezos bucks. It's free for you guys. If you have Amazon Prime, the freest thing in the world, and we still get the money. That's what we in the business call a win-win. Okay, so everybody rush over to twitch.tv slash TYT. And if you got Amazon Prime, it's free for you guys. Otherwise, It's not that much anyway. Frank Morning Tree just gifted 10 subs. They're giving away subs. What are you doing? Jordan Yule. Does he do deep dive? Yes. Is it excellent? Yes. Is it good is it on Tuesdays and

Thursdays including tonight? Yes. Are we going to talk about that in the next story because they created an ad for Nina Turner? Yes. So everybody check that out. Now, I like this cat Angelina Marie just used YouTube super chat to say love you guys. We love you back. I like them apples. Okay, Little Mac, ooh, okay, little Mac, that's a significant super chat. So I'll read this, I'm forced to read it. There's nothing I could do. It's the rules of YouTube. Not true. Jank, what do you mean ram that ad down Manchin's throat? Come on, Jank. You're going about this all wrong, in completely wrong direction. You need to be shoving it up, Chank, up this fourth point of context so hard.

I don't know. I'm going to be able to be. I don't know. I'm going to be. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm

Yeah. I'm Yeah. I'm Yeah. And I'm and

I'm I'm and I'm I'm and I'm Oh, sorry, I was just having some of my too strong coffee.

I guess you could get it at too strong coffee.com slash t-y-t, I guess. All right, so Jank and Anna with you guys, we got a ton of stuff. Look at that, that's a nice graphic. I like it. It's organic, it's fair trade, it's super lib, and it's super delicious, you can't go wrong. All right, let's do it. So we got a show called DeepDive with Jordan Yule. It's on Twitch, twitch.tv slash TYT. So Jordan comes up with this crazy idea. Why don't we have the audience make an ad? What do you work for TYT? Okay, like that's, we love empowering the audience. I just realized the other day, we've hired so many people from the audience, including John Irola, including the guy who runs our Pittsburgh office.

And I realized just this morning, that's mental. Nobody does that, right? But we did it, and it totally worked. So Jordan comes up with an idea, hey guys, why don't we crowdsource an ad? They get a load of this. Then move on and says, I like that ad. I'm gonna run that ad. Progress is working together. Hearts melting all over the country. So in the way that they did, This is amazing. It's like Jordan would give them options on videos. People say, oh, I like that video. I like this part.

Let's take that part out. They're editing live on the air. It is so freaking cool. And they edited every part of this together. And they came up with this video slash ad, which now move on is going to amplify. This is the progressive base. This is all of us getting empowered to drive positive change. And in this case, is Nina Turner running for Congress in the 11th District of Ohio.

Can I get anina turner.com slash hello? Watch this at. Ain't this something? You know, we got people talking about practicality. What's practical? Well, if you're wealthy enough, you can sit back and wax poetic about practical. But if you are poor, baby, practical ain't working for you. It ain't working.

Let me tell you something. The division has already been set. And it is a corrupt system. in this country that hurts the working people. Are you on the side of the working day people of this nation? Either you are on their side or you are not. Either you're going to take a position and know that Medicare for all is a human right in this country or you do not. Either you believe that women deserve their whole damn dollar or you do not.

Either you are willing to stare down a legal system that sees black men and black women as somehow more criminal than anybody else. We need a champion who says that they are going to go to war with white supremacy. So if it's impractical when people are dying because they can't afford their prescription drugs, is it practical to sit back and understand that every. night, 500,000 of our sisters and brothers sleep on the streets is impractical to continue to make excuses. We are the wealthiest country on the face of the earth, and we can afford to have Medicare for all, college for all, cancel student debt. This is a multi-generational,

multigendered, multi-ethnic, multi-racial movement of conscious-minded people. That's who we are. That's what we are. And we are not going to let anybody divide us. We're coming together to transform this nation. Hello, somebody. I just can't get enough of that. So here comes hope, everybody. Here comes hope. Now, my guess is if there's a Nina Turner in Congress, we're taking bold action.

So honestly, I mean, I look at some of those videos. I think, fine, I'm the most biased man in America. But I think she looks like a superhero in some of them. When she's in that long coat, I'm like that she's like out of a movie, man. She's unreal. And she's got no fear. And that's just the most important thing. I mean, the other thing I think throughout the whole thing is hashtag queen, right? And Anna, no offense, you're the queen of the internet, okay? But she's the queen of Paul. Thank you, please stop saying stuff like that. You're the worst. No, I don't want you to say things like that.

No, she's great. I mean, she's got a fighter spirit, you know, and she's, I haven't seen a single instance of her backing down when she's fighting for something that she knows is right. And I think that's what we need. You know, she's just fearless. And more importantly, she understands the importance of organizing. She understands the importance of people power, a grassroots movement, and also a movement that is as inclusive as possible. And that's an important ideology to have to battle against this growing right-wing populism

that we're seeing that pays lip service to the economic anxieties that people are feeling. But at the same time only offers up the worst possible solutions, including shutting down borders, deporting people, dehumanizing people. That's what we're getting from the right wing and the Tucker Carlson to the Ron DeSantis's of the world. We don't need that. What we need is the real option to the political system that we're dealing with right now. And that's a system that stops representing business interests and actually,

starts representing people, the people of this country who have built it and who have fought for it and who deserve to have their needs met. That's something that the government hasn't really done in quite a long time. Yeah, so look, is there true to the rumor that the Bridgeton series based the Black Queen on Nina Turner? I don't know. I don't know. People are speculating about it. So, but seriously, it's that strength. It's that strength that we're all looking for and that Nina clearly has. So let me just do a couple of shoutouts here. First of all, to move on.org. I mean, how is that for great? They see an audience produced and crowdsourced ad. They go, yes, we like that, you know, put money behind it. So help move on.org. Second of all,

we could help Nina directly at Nina Turner.com slash hello. And that's super important. We need a fighter like her who's going to fight for the average person in Congress. And then finally, I want to give a shout out to Jordan. I mean, this is exactly the ethos of TYT. And so his show is called Deep Dive. And apparently you guys kind of changed the world there. You make political ads. It might lead to people going into Congress and it might lead to bills getting passed. So check that out Thursday tonight, for example, at 8.30 p.m. Easter. It's also on on Tuesdays. But tonight, right after the Young Turks on Twitch.tv slash TYT, Jordan's up with deep dive. God knows what he's going to do next. God knows what you're going to do next on his show.

So this is how we do the TYT network. You guys run this place. You're not, we're not the Young Turks. You're the Young Turks. But by the way, on Twitch, we're having so much fun. There's so much hype trains going on. I nearly collided the other day. There's so many hype trains. And now, uh-oh, a Nina Turner emo. It happened. It had to happen, and it happened. So everybody's having fun. Yes. Love the emotes. So there's several queens running around there. So go check it out. Amazing. Let's get Nina into Congress. All right, now we rage. This is the story that really got to me today because of how ridiculous it is.

So let's talk about Biden's plans for reforming our democracy. The House of Representatives has just passed the latest version of H.R.1. This is something that we talked about a little bit yesterday, but it's a critical election reform and voting rights bill. And it does all sorts of really, really critical things, including getting money out of politics, public financing of elections. It makes it easier for eligible voters to be able to cast their ballots. Essentially, this is the antithesis of what Republicans have been doing on a state level and what congressional Republicans have been wanting to do on a federal level. Now, Joe Biden, unfortunately, is naive enough to think that if he tinkers with this legislation,

Maybe he can get some Republicans to vote in favor of it in the Senate. So he said this, I look forward to working with Congress to refine and advance this important bill. And I look forward to signing it into law after it has passed through the legislative process. And let me be clear about something. This is not the type of legislation that can pass under the reconciliation process, meaning that it just needs a simple majority. This is the type of legislation that would need 60 senators to vote in favor of for it to pass,

meaning that you would need quite a few Republican lawmakers to vote in favor of this. And the likelihood of that happening is 0%. If Joe Biden decides to rewrite the entire piece of legislation to the GOP's liking, Meaning he bans black people from voting. He bans minorities from voting. He allows gerrymandering to only happen to the advantage of Republicans. Republicans will still vote against it. I promise you that. But my point here is the only way anything passes in the Senate at this point is if Democrats are willing to fight to nuke the filibuster. Other than that, a conversation about what's in the legislation is kind of a waste of time. Yeah. The Senate is where bills go to die, period. So Anna, I'm gonna do an honest to goodness prediction here, okay? So first of all though, let me clarify that when Joe Biden says, I'm going to work with Republicans

on this bill, what he means is I'm gonna work with my donors on this bill. Whenever Joe Biden mentions Republicans or moderate Democrats, just replace my donors and then you'll have the actual answer. Because Anna's completely right, it's inarguable. This is the bill that the Republicans hate the most because it would increase voting, including mail-in voting, which they think cost them the last election. There is a 0% chance that any Republican senator will ever vote for this bill. So look, do we have a media in this country or don't we? Because every journalist should be writing, that's absurd. Every Republican senator says there are a million percent against this bill. So who's Joe Biden negotiating with? I'm asking you, for God

sake, is there a single journalist in the country? Who is Joe Biden negotiating with? It doesn't make any sense. Are you guys ever going to ask them about things that don't make any sense at all? All right, now the prediction. Here's what they're going to do. They're going to use the Republicans and if they need to, Manchester, cinema, et cetera, as an excuse to take out all of the great anti-corruption measures in HR1. Now, the reason why I said all along, there's no way in the world HR-1 is going to pass is because it's actually a really good piece of legislation. So Nancy Pelosi kept passing in in the House, and there's two reasons why. One is half the bill, which I'm going to get to in a second. But the anti-corruption part,

she knew that it was never going to pass the Senate. And then it was originally introduced in the Trump era. She knew it was never, ever going to pass. If she thought it was going to pass, there's no way she would have put those anti-corruption measures in. So it was all political theater. Now, oops, they got to send into the White House. So now what are they going to, oh, we're going to keep the filibuster. We're going to keep the filibuster. Why?

Because they need the filibuster as an excuse. Now, what they'll do is they'll strip out every part of the anti-corruption measures. And then all that will be left is the half that Pelosi and Biden and the rest of the Democrats really love. That's the part where we increase voting. I love it too. And it's not because I'm voting Democrat these days. It's because I want more people to vote.

That is clearly the correct policy initiative. I like HR1 completely. But the reason Democrats are going to keep that is because they want to win elections. And that if more people vote, Democrats have a better chance of winning. That's why every Republican is opposed to it. That's why half of this bill is a near must pass for Democrats. So my prediction is they'll strip out the anti-corruption part. They'll keep the other half.

And after they're done eviscerating the best parts of the bill, then they'll find a way to pass it. How will they find a way to pass it? What's that? Yeah, yeah, finish that thought. I was going to ask you about that. How do how will they pass it? Because there's no way in hell any Republican is going to vote in favor of anything that expands voting rights.

That's right. And so there's no way they're going to get 60 votes. So that means this is less likely. But some legislative maneuver, like including it in another must pass bill, but it's a pretty large bill. And this one really has no, I mean, I don't care about its budget implications, but they're pretending to care, right? So they could somehow put it into another piece of legislation, but that's less likely, like I said. The main thing is, no, they might kill the filibuster over this, because this affects their own power more than any other bill. And as we all know, they're obsessed

with their own power. But that's part of why they wanted to kill the minimum wage before they got to H.R. 1 is supposed to theoretically go first. Now, there's a real reason to why COVID relief is going first, because it's COVID relief. But then when they moved to H.R. 1, they're like, huh, it's good. We already killed the minimum wage hike because we didn't want to do that. And if we don't have a filibuster, we have no excuse. So we'll get caught with our hand in the cookie jar. So we kill that. We kill the anti-corruption measures. Then we vote on the, Then we kill the filibuster and we vote on the thing that helps us most. And then after that, they'll probably shut down shop and go, oh, there's elections coming up and golly cheat.

No, by the way, there is good news. They'll do some sort of bill on the environment slash infrastructure slash jobs because the donors have flipped on that. Now there are more donors saying yes, actually do something about the environment. That's great news. So they might do that as well. But the bottom line is they only kill the filibuster when the bills. that don't hurt corporations are left and the ones that help Democrats. So that's why Anna, it's not impossible for them to kill the filibuster.

They might do it and they might at that point pretend, oh, you know what, we tried everything. Golly, gee, I guess we're gonna have to kill it. And then at that point, it's our job to say, hey, then why don't you put all of HR1 back? So all they would need is 51 votes in order to kill the filibuster, correct? Yes, yeah. Actually, 50 votes in Kamala Harris. Right, exactly. That's what I meant. So obviously Kamala Harris is going to be the tie-breaking vote.

I think that your prediction is near perfect. In fact, I wrote down in my notes, not taking a bet against you on this one. Until you mentioned, because I think you're right, I think they will strip the money and politics portion of it out. And Democrats do care about this because it's not just about, for them, right? It's not about doing right by their constituents. It's about maintaining their power, right? Being able to rewin or get reelected or to have other Democrats win if they choose to, you know, challenge any Republicans for congressional seats. But at the same time, and I want to know one other thing, there's a senator who's actually gotten a little more vocal regarding nuking the

filibuster. And that's Amy Klobuchar, who recently said, in regard to the past of HR1, I would get rid of the filibuster. I have favored filibuster reform for a long time now, especially for this critical election bill, which by the way is also referred to as the for the people act. So I do think that there's more motivation to ensure the passage of this bill for Democrats because it's more self-serving than other legislation that would actually benefit people as opposed to themselves. But at the same time, I never underestimate the weakness of democratic lawmakers. So we'll see how this plays out in the Senate.

You have both Mansion and Cinema on the record saying that they would not end the filibuster. In fact, Mansion recently threw a temper tantrum when a reporter asked him again if he'd be willing to reconsider his position on the filibuster, he's like, how many times I'll have to tell you? No, the answer is no. So we'll see if he's going to remain, you know, that defiant. But I just, at this point, after seeing what happened to the $15 an hour minimum wage in that coronavirus relief bill, I have very little faith in obviously Congress overall, but especially among Democratic lawmakers who, again, love to pay lip service. But when push comes to shove, when they finally find themselves in a position of power to do something, they refuse to do it. So I watched the movie one night in Miami. It's about this one night where Muhammad Ali,

Malcolm X, Sam Cook, and Jim Brown were all together. And it says it's a cool movie. It's kind of like a play. But anyway, the part that I love is of course Ali. And when he wins the championship that night, he leans over to the reporters. And this is part of why I love the guy. And he points them because they all predicted that he would lose and he would lose badly and he won easily. And he pointed to them and said, I told you. I told you. I told you. you, I told you, okay? So now I told you they would take out the $15 minimum wage. Everybody said it's easy, no way, it's a layup. They're definitely going to do it. It's their top priority. I told you they take it out and they took it out. And I did a tweet

with that same prediction I just told you guys earlier in the day. And then later in the day, Clobuchar comes out and goes, yeah, you know what on this one, the one that helps Democrats win. Here's corporate Democrat 101, Amy Clobuchar. Yeah, I think maybe we killed a filibuster on that one. Huh. Funny how that works. Politics is not hard to figure out, guys. And at this point, I see it in your comments from our members. You have it figured out way better than most of the media in this country. The politicians play these obvious games. If we had real journalists, they point out how obvious these games are. So of course, and the Republicans are dead wrong on voter fraud and any BS policy argument they have against this bill, okay? But they're not

wrong in saying that the Democrats also want to pass it because it does help them. More voters usually equals Democratic victories. So that's real politic. That's why there's a very good chance that they might kill the filibuster. But they will do the theatrics associated with it, and they will make sure to take out the anti-corruption parts. I would be shocked, Shocked beyond belief if they kept the anti-corruption parts. So then afterwards, I'll probably tell you, I told you, I told you, I told you. We got to take a break, but when we come back for the second hour of the show, I'm going to demonstrate how you should not respond to Texas lifting all of their coronavirus-related

restrictions. And we're talking about people that might agree with us on a lot of things who made poor decisions in what they tweeted. So we have that for you and more when we come back. Guys, I'm just going to jump in real quick. A little bit of drums on that story. My opinion's a little bit different than Anna's. Oh, no, Cenk. Oh, no. Oh, no. We need to cut his mic, cut his mic, cut his mic, cut his mic. When we come back, oh no. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.co slash t-y-t.

I'm your host, Shank Yugar, and I'll see you soon.