The Young Turks - Scammin MAGA

Episode Date: April 6, 2021

Fox host CRIES over Godzilla v. Kong. Companies are listening to consumers and their outrage over the Republican Party stripping voting rights in Georgia, so McConnell is giving more “dire warnings��� to protect his political career. 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. Welcome to the Young Turks. I'm Anna Kasparian. Joining us is host of the Bituation Room, friend of the show, regular on TYT, Francesca Furentini. What's up, Francesca. Hey. I keep wanting to call you Fran, but I stop myself.

because I know you don't like it. So Francesca or Franie. Don't tell anyone, no, it's all good. I accept all kinds of nicknames. It's a sign of endearment, damn it. It's so good to be with you, Anna, on a Monday. What could, there's nothing going on, right? We're just, let's just hang.

Nothing going on, you know. Look, to be completely honest with you guys, it's just the same nonsense continues, just they try to give you a different flavor, but we see right through it. So we're going to debunk right wing lies regarding the voter suppression law in Georgia, which of course has been incredibly controversial. And there have been calls for corporations to do something about it, showing that we're in a pretty precarious situation. Also, Donald Trump has decided to cancel everyone on Easter Sunday. We'll give you the details on that story. And later in the show, we'll discuss an infrastructure disaster in Florida that could lead to

to homes being flooded with toxic radioactive wastewater because America, really, for the vast majority of people, does seem to feel a little more like a third world, undeveloped country. But before we get to all of that, our very own Brett Ehrlich brought this story to my attention. It's different from what we usually start the show with. We don't typically talk about movies, but there's a point here. So let's do it. Neil Cavuto is concerned, concerned about the reputations of billionaires that are currently being destroyed in mass media, particularly in movies that are coming out on platforms

like HBO. Yes, you heard to hear folks, we're in for another episode of When Richmond Cry. I care. That's it. That question here is the latest movie Godzilla versus Kong. As I mentioned, it was a movie that was available or is available on HBO Mac. So if you have that platform, check it out. But really what Neil Cavuto takes issue with is how the billionaire is portrayed in this film. Without giving you any spoilers, he explains why. Or what have I told you the real villain in, you know, this whole Godzilla versus Kong movie,

it's a Godzilla, and it's not Kong. It's this guy named Walter Simmons from the movie. He's a billionaire who runs a company called Apex Cybernetics. The name even sounds evil. Apex Cybernetics. But my point is this. This is not the first movie that has kids. characterize the villain as a businessman or a rich guy. Again, I don't want to give away what's

going on here. But these two are fine. Godzilla, you know, Kong, they're fine, all right. It's what this evil billionaire is crafting. That's not fine. But I've seen it again and again. Francesca, won't someone please just think of the billionaires? Won't they? Won't they? I mean, Isn't it just so unfair that the bad guy in this film is the billionaire? Billionaires have been so helpful. Like for instance, exploiting their workers and making them poop in bags without giving them enough time to take a break or the fact that they reap all the benefits of the country but then refuse to pay back by paying their fair share in taxes.

I mean, aren't they the good guys in society? What's going on? I know, and it's what's crazy to me is that Cavuto's not happy that there's some kind of billionaire representation. There's not that many of them. You know, a lot of minority groups, I'm Asian American, we don't get represented on screen very much. You know what I mean? So billionaires, look, take it where you can get it. There's not that many of you. Yes, eat it up, soak up the screen time. Very important to have hashtag billionaire representation. So honestly, I don't know what he's talking about. But I do think it's so sci-fi. And I feel like Anna, like it's not really far off

from our world right now, like giant pandemic in form of Godzilla, like climate change in form of King Kong. And then the people that run the world are just like, what about the billionaires and their money? We're like, we're dying. Everything's being destroyed. And then the media is just like, but billionaires. It's so perfect. You know, the thing that always fascinates me about billionaires and the quote unquote elites is they they have what I like to refer to as F you money, right? I mean, it's these are people who are in many cases untouchable. They seem to be untouchable in regard to the law. I mean notoriously after the 2008 economic collapse at the hands of billionaires, there were no real consequences or criminal charges against the very

bankers and speculators who completely destroyed our economy. I mean, they get away with so much, and yet they're very sensitive. I mean, maybe that's admirable, Francesca. Maybe it's admirable that they have such soft feelings. And, you know, being portrayed in a negative light in a movie really gets to them, really cuts to the core. And of course, Neil Cavuto might not be a billionaire, but he's wealthy himself. And typically the kind of messaging that he's ticked off by could lead to things like maybe tax increases to ensure that they pay their fair share of taxes. I mean, that's really what's fueling the commentary that you hear from Neil Cavuto in that video. He can relate to the wealthy. He doesn't want to be demonized, and he's probably under the impression

that he's somehow earned where he is in life through his hard work and intelligence. I mean, we can tell otherwise, but what do you think? No, that's exactly where this is, I mean, we've talked about this before, especially with Fox News hosts. They are like, you know, like doing someone else's bidding. Like I don't think that Kavuto's a billionaire, but he clearly still has hopes. And man, he wants to just eat whatever crumbs. And he currently does of, you know, of a far right media system, like loaded with money. And so, yeah, that he doesn't want to bite the hand that feeds him. But it is interesting. And this is going to be a theme, I think, in a lot of the stories that you guys cover that we cover, and that have been going on recently with what's

going on with Amazon, with Jeff Bezos, and then with Elon Musk, just like self-dunking constantly. And there's a through line, which is if there's nothing wrong with all of the money you have, if you truly did, earn all of it yourself, yeah, let's ignore the loopholes and let's ignore the exploitation of your workers, if you really deserved it, why would you be so sensitive about it. Like, why would you care when people criticized you about it? You would have nothing to hide. You'd be chill. And it's crazy to me that as much money as you have, you can't buy like a clean conscience. You just can't, because you ultimately know you don't deserve that much money. You definitely didn't earn that much money. And the tax structure and everything about our

economic system is totally on its head. Yeah, you make such a good point. I mean, it is, it reminds me a lot of Donald Trump following his 2016 presidential win, where his like insecurity about legitimately winning that election was just so apparent. And it's because he knows. He knows that he was the unlikely winner. And it's because of how incompetent and unqualified he was for that position. But putting that aside, you know, one thing that we need to be clear about is that this country has experienced decades and decades and decades of positive PR spin in favor of the type of inequality that Americans are experiencing right now. First of all, I mean, if you look at that genre of film, I mean, there are plenty of billionaires

who are represented in a positive light, Iron Man for one, Batman the other. But really, I mean, we've dealt with decades of the myth of personal responsibility, right? I think it played out in media, it plays out in the news, there's no question about it, where anyone who's experiencing the other side of this inequality, people who are not millionaires and billionaires, have no room to complain because it is their personal responsibility to create a good life for themselves in this wonderful country where all the opportunities are right ahead of you, right at your fingertips. And obviously people have woken up to the fact that that's a complete myth, that's a complete lie, and the inequality is baked into the system,

It is not a bug. It is the feature of that system. And so it's just hilarious to me that finally people are waking up. And look, I think that these movies are responding to young people voicing what they're noticing and seeing in this country right now, right? And what are they going to want to do? They're going to want to pander to those audiences. They're going to want to make money. And this is probably the reason why we're seeing a little more of a critique toward billionaires as opposed to just immediately presenting them as these like wonderful figures who earned everything that they did and do crazy, amazing things for the for the country in the world. We know that that's not the truth because we've had case study after case study

showing us that's not the truth. Yeah, man, these the writers and producers, they're not the heroes, but they're on TikTok. They see that they're like, there's like discussions of socialism, BLM, racial inequality. TikTok is woke AF, man, they're crazy over there. Like, I mean, I'm scared over there. I'm not kidding, obviously, but like, no, but seriously, young people, if you want people to watch your movie, yeah, you're going to have to have a little bit of a critique of a billionaire. And yeah, paint him as a bad guy because guess what, they're not the good guy. They're not. Certainly, certainly not.

Anyway, all right, well, let's move on. But real quick before we do, Brett Erlich, grab that story before we went live today. And I'm glad he did because that was fun. And he made me look good by reminding me that Iron Man and Batman were also billionaires, because I forgot about that. Anyway, moving on to some serious stories regarding Georgia. The GOP has grown saltier as the public succeeds in pressuring more and more companies and corporations to speak out against Georgia's voter suppression law.

Now, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp isn't too happy about the fact that the MLB, for instance, is moving its All-Star game out of the state. He explains why in this next clip. Let's hear if he has a case. Yesterday, Major League Baseball caved to fear and lies from liberal activists. They ignored the facts of our new election integrity law, and they ignored the consequences of their decision on our local community. In the middle of a pandemic, Major League Baseball put the wishes of Stacey Abrams and Joe Biden ahead of the economic well-being of hard-working Georgians who were counting on the All-Star game for a paycheck. Georgians and all Americans should know what this decision means. It means cancel culture and partisan activists are coming for your business.

They're coming for your game or event in your home. town. And they're coming to cancel everything from sports to how you make a living. And they will stop at nothing to silence all of us. I want to be clear. I will not be back and down from this fight. And neither are the people who are here with me today. We will not be intimidated. And we will also not be silenced. Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, and Delta may be scared of Stacey Abrams, Joe Biden, and the left, but I am not, and we are not at all. I mean, it's really in the Republicans' best interest to pretend like they're unafraid and not intimidated in any way by potential boycotts. Because really, when you look at the fact

that the Republican Party is unwilling to take a good hard look at its own platform and how unpopular it is. And instead, their political survival is just going to rely on them rigging the system to their advantage. Yeah, they're going to keep fighting this. They're going to continue trying to intimidate anyone who dare criticize the law or dare to boycott the state as a result of the suppression laws. But make no mistake about it, despite what GOP lawmakers or talking heads would have you believe, this is by far one of the most ridiculous and severe voter suppression laws. And they keep arguing about how it actually expands voting. But it expands voting in very specific parts of Georgia, while really restricting and limiting voting, making it far more difficult

to vote in parts of the state that are predominantly African American. So I'll give you all of those details in just a minute. But that's the growing talking point, Francesca. that we're hearing right now, that this is really a voter expansion bill or law at this point. Yeah, exactly. I'm surprised he didn't just bring up like Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and have them, you know, sort of voice that, we still wanna be in Atlanta. We love Georgia, hey, you know, whatever, some, whatever, like that's the level of sense that Kemp is making. This is a guy who rigged his own election for governor while he was Secretary of State, overseeing that election, robbing Stacey Abrams, and then turns around and takes away

that electoral oversight from the current secretary of state and hands it to Republican state legislators. This is a guy who has rigged the entire system in Georgia for himself. He has personally canceled the votes of many black and Latino Georgians who stood in line to cast their ballot for Stacey Abrams in 2018 and we're not able to do so because of how few polling places there were. So talking about cancel culture, like let us just untie and untwist this, this BS not that they're trying to craft here. They are canceling like democracy in Georgia. And we can talk about the strategies for trying to undo that, but yes, what a nonsensical discussion. Exactly. And I think what they're concerned about following the MLB's decision is that

it would lead to some sort of domino effect with other Georgia-based companies, maybe moving business out of town, out of state. I think that that's unlikely to happen. And we're going to ask you about it in one of our polls. But first, let me give you some more details. I want to make the case. So obviously, Kemp is not the only Republican who has spoken out against the MLB. You also have Chris Christie, the disgraced former governor of New Jersey, a man who has been wrapped up in his own scandal, someone who has no business opining on any political issue as if he's a legitimate person to hear an opinion from. But nonetheless, he's upset at the way that this legislation or this now law is being portrayed in the press and by people like Joe Biden.

Let's watch. Was this the right move for the MLB? Listen, it's just a symptom, George, it's a symptom of what's going on in our country right now. I sat here and listened to the president's inaugural address, and I just want a couple of real quick points from it. Politics need not be a raging fire that destroys everything in its path. Every disagreement does not have to be a cause for total war, and we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated or made up. And Joe Biden's broken his own rule, 84 days. And now he's lying to the American people, George. He's lying about this bill.

He's lying to the American people about it to cause the raging fire he said he was going to put out. I'm very disappointed. He's very disappointed, Francesca. He's very disappointed because it turns out that this is actually a great law that exp- oh wait, no, expands voting for white rural voters in the state of Georgia. And I think it's really important to give you guys this detail because it's a growing narrative that seems to go unchallenged for the most part. In fact, what you're likely to hear conservatives argue is that there was some real fact

checking taking place over at the Washington Post. Suddenly they're big fans of the Washington Post. And so I was like, oh, well, maybe there's something that I was misled about. I don't want to spread misinformation to our audience, I want to make sure that I'm correct. And so I went in and took a look at that Washington Post article that they were talking about. I'm gonna read you a few excerpts of it right now. So here we go, this is from Peter Stevenson, Washington Post. who writes, a close examination of the language in the laws show it does contain new restrictions

on voting. Some are likely to make it disproportionately more difficult for poorer voters and voters of color to cast their ballots. So let's give you some specific details. The Hill reports that in the 2020 election where there was no voter fraud, by the way, there were 94 drop boxes for ballots across the four counties that make up the Atlanta metropolitan area. While the while the new law limits the same counties to a total number of 23 drop boxes in the future. So 23 drop boxes might not sound like that little, right? Maybe that's enough, except we're talking about the most populous part of Georgia. So clearly they had 94 drop boxes for a reason, severely limiting the number of drop boxes in the most populous part of the state,

where you have a higher percentage of black voters is obviously sending a message here. here. Voters will have less time to request absentee ballots. There will be strict new identification requirements for absentee ballots. And while early voting will be expanded in some of these small counties, it won't be in more populous ones. Rather than allowing voters, for instance, to request ballots six months from Election Day, the new law says voters can start requesting ballots 78 days out. Counties can begin sending ballots to voters just 29 days before election day rather than the previous 49 days, which by the way is actually pretty serious because critics say any mail delays with these shorter periods could lead to voters not getting

ballots on time or not being able to return them in time. I mean, the list goes on and on. I'm not even done. I just don't want to go on a lengthy rant where I'm just reading graphics about how awful this legislation was. But it's awful. The fact that it's now law is awful. They took out the provision regarding Souls to Polls where they would prevent people from voting on Sundays after church. Obviously that was meant to target African American voters. But don't get it twisted. The final version of that legislation that was signed into law is horrendous and is specifically trying to rig the election to the Republicans advantage. I'll give you more details if you want, Francesca, but I do want to hear more from you.

Yeah, I mean, it's so bald face. Like I don't understand, we have to, we have to understand that all of this is a distraction talking about cancel culture and all of that. It's a complete distraction from the fact that they're still mad that they lost in the 2020 election, that they sent two terrible candidates to go up against two Democrats in the Senate and they flipped the Senate blue and the state went blue itself to Joe Biden. That's what they're mad about. That's it. And I just want to mention just something about the corporations, you know, Coca-Cola and Delta are not heroes here, okay? No, no, no. Corporations are never the heroes. Exactly. What corporations are, are the

middleist of the road skewing conservative. They are a conservative middle of the road barometer of what they think is safe or not safe for making money. Straight up, they've never been on the forefront of history. In fact, the only reason that Delta and Coca-Cola even issued those statements was because I think something like 75 black business leaders called upon them to say something and to do something they weren't going to, and then they made a statement, which is like not even a big deal, kind of a toothless thing. But so once again, Longbendy Twizzlers candy keeps the fun going. Keep the fun going. Twizzlers, keep the fun going.

Situate the Republican Party in the year 2021 with all of these nationalist, fascist tendencies next to corporations with once again, once again, the moderate conservative line. And there's this entire Gulf where you realize these Republicans are on so much, not just the wrong side of history in the year 2021, but the wrong side of history in the year 1945, right? Like they're so behind. And so once again, these guys are, they're not our saviors, but like to get mad at their statements because they believe in people voting. Oof, that says a lot about you. Yeah, and I look, there has been growing calls for companies that are based in Georgia to say something, right, to speak out. And look, some of them, yes, have spoken out. Coca-Cola has spoken

out, Delta has spoken out. There's been a long list of companies that have been willing to pay lip service to the concerns of those who are watching our democracy deteriorate right before our very eyes. But remember, these are also companies who have been part and parcel of the legalized bribery and corruption that undermines democracy. So to think that they're gonna save us, I think is incredibly naive. I would be a little more, I guess, open to what they're saying, if they were actually putting action behind those words. Now, the MLB did, but remember, the MLB is not headquartered in Georgia. They're just moving their All-Star game, and I commend them for that.

That was a good move. However, it's something entirely different for, you know, a Georgia-based company like Coca-Cola to literally get up and leave. And I don't want the people of Georgia to suffer, but my point here is talk is cheap, and if that's all you're looking for, if you're looking for a company or a CEO to pay lip service, All right, you might get it, but that's not really going to change anything. Absolutely. And it's a, it's a good debate, right? Ilhan Omar is on one side saying yes to boycotts. They've worked in the past.

I mean, in fact, speaking of the South, right? This is the legacy of boycotts and the legacy of the civil rights movement go hand in hand. And then you have Stacey Abrams who's like, no, stay and fight. And you can sort of make an argument for both. You know, I, you know, as someone who feels like Georgia, and this is not from a crass political point, but Georgia's in play. You know, Georgia flip blue and because of a lot of people fighting. So there is a huge argument to make for people to fight and for people to fight on a local level. Because if the state legislature weren't in Republican hands, we'd be in a different situation right now.

So it's hard to know what to do because I mean, Georgians, I think Georgia Republicans are going to miss the jobs, but they don't care. They'll just get another, I mean, maybe there are more Amazon warehouses will come in and they can just, you know, race to the bottom. Like maybe, like, who knows? They have such little respect for their own citizens that you're like, I don't want to leave them to the wolves. That's not to say Delta is like a beautiful employer. We know that's not true.

Right, right. And we want to hear what you guys think. So we do have a poll on this. I'm really curious what you guys predict will happen. Will Atlanta-based companies like Delta and Coca-Cola actually move their business out of state? And you've got two options there, yes or no. Go to t-y-t.com slash polls. To participate, can't wait to hear what you guys have to say.

For now, though, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, Donald Trump is ready to cancel everyone over this. We'll give you the details on that and more when we come back. Man, we got one minute. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-B-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.

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Pacific time again on Twitch tonight. Welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian, Francesca Furentini with you. And unfortunately, we do have a Trump story, but it made me laugh. And hopefully it'll do the same for you. So let's talk about it. favorite President Donald Trump celebrated Easter the way you'd expect a good Christian to by whining about criticism toward Georgia's voter suppression laws. In a statement that Trump put out over the weekend, he says for years the radical left Democrats have played dirty by boycotting products when anything from that company is done or stated in a way that offends them. Now they're going big time with woke cancel culture and our sacred elections. And what is

He's referring to there is the fact that the, that Major League Baseball decided to move its All-Star game out of the state in response to the suppression law that Georgia just signed. And it's interesting that he has such strong feelings about cancel culture, because if I can remember correctly, conservatives also get super whiny when a private company, like Nike, for instance, does something that they don't like, like include Colin Kaepernick in one of their advertising campaigns. Remember that? It led to a bunch of videos posted on social media that looked like this. You're going to go ahead and say, hey, buy them our shoes. We stand with people who kneel for the national anthem. Well, sorry Nike. I've been buying you for a past 20 plus years.

Not anymore. Not only am I burning my favorite pair of Nikes, you are burning your sales. Have a good day. You're burning your sales. Nike did fine. That was a great time to invest in Nike, by the way. You would get a nice return on your investment. Now, Francesca, I want to read one more part of his statement before going to you because Trump

actually urges conservatives to partake in cancel culture. In fact, he says we can cancel culture harder than you can, liberals. And he says this, it is finally time for Republicans and conservatives to fight back. Boycott Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, J.P. Morgan Chase, Viacom, CBS, Citigroup, Viacom, CBS, Citigroup, CIS, UPS, and Merck. Don't go back to their products until they relent. Yeah, J.B. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and other banks that will not loan me any money. Right.

Please loan me money. But you know, the one thing is, Francesca, there are certain things that are tough to quit, right? I mean, when it comes to banks, it's easy for Trump to quit because they won't loaned money. But what about that sweet, sweet Diet Coke? Well, Stephen Miller recently posted an image that features Donald Trump trying to hide his Coke. It's pretty funny. So he's not even following his own boycott. Wow.

That is an angle I hadn't thought of, and that's brilliant. Pepsi, it's the same. No. Oh, wait, it's Pepsi? Oh, I thought it was Coke. No, I'm saying what I'm saying, just drink diet Pepsi. Oh, got it. Yeah, yeah.

No, I know. But he's full of it. Like all of these Republicans are the same, right? All of these Republican politicians are the same. Everything is theater. Everything is culture wars. Everything is BS. There are legitimate concerns over the fact that Georgia passed a voter suppression law

that limits voting for a lot of poor and black people. So their response to it is, okay, how can we somehow twist this into another culture war issue? When in reality, at the heart of it, as you know, Francesca, is our democratic process that's being attacked by these Republicans. Yeah, I mean, just the Colin Kaepernick stuff reminds you, like, how insanely niche the complaint was. Like not niche, but just remove from the issue. It's not about Kaepernick. It's not about kneeling. It's about the systemic killing of unarmed black people in this country.

That it just feels more like a feature than a bug of the policing system. That's what's at issue. And lo and behold, what a short three, four years later, Roger Goodell apologizing to Kaepernick, right? Like, you know, speaking of like, once again, these corporations and people, again, go with where the wind carries them. But like, yes, it is trying to pick off and bite off just the smallest piece of a much larger issue. Make that the theme. Focus on that and distract and distract and distract. And also, happy Easter.

Yeah, just distract exactly. The best part of that. And you're so right. Go ahead. Oh, no. I just want to know that I just want everyone to know he added happy Easter to the end of it. I know I was going to get to that. Oh, okay. I'm my bad, dude. So he finishes it off with, they rigged and stole our 2020 presidential election, which we won by a landslide.

And then on top of that, boycott and scare companies to submission. Never submit, never give up. The radical left will destroy our country if we let them. We will not become a socialist nation. Happy Easter. Like, what? But what's amazing is, like, this is the guy who just crashed a wedding at Mar-a-Lago to whine about how unfair life is to him. Like, this guy does not pass up any opportunity, any holiday to somehow make the situation about him and how aggrieved he is. It's just, it's so laughable. And like, look, honestly, at this point, anytime the words cancel culture are uttered by anyone on the right, I have to roll my eyes and, like,

just brush them off. But remember, the whole point of the voter suppression law that just passed in Georgia is to cancel the any, like to cancel the Secretary of State. If they don't like that the Secretary of State refuses to go along with the demands of the GOP. So in this case, they didn't like that Raffensberger didn't just listen to Trump when he hit him up and said, hey, why don't you find like about 11 or so votes and help me out? They didn't like that Rathensberger didn't go along with that. So the whole point of this legislation, as it's written, is to cancel the secretary of state if he or she does not do the bidding of Republicans. That's it. The law states, the General Assembly, which is made up of Republicans, will select the chair

of the state elections board rather than the board being chaired by the Georgia Secretary of State, an elected position. So they're even canceling their own voters in the state of Georgia in this regard. Well, that's the thing about cancel culture though, Anna. It's only cancel culture if it's someone who is a person of color, a woman, someone with a disability, a trans person, asking something of a straight, white, wealthy person. That's it. That is the only way it is cancel culture. If it's the other way around, if it's disenfranchisement, if it's not giving someone a home alone. If it's decades and decades of colonialism and slavery, that's not cancel culture. That's just, that's just living, not for you, for us, the ones on top, right? That's just

normal life. I wanted to just quickly bring up that image that I was talking about, which was posted on Twitter by Stephen Miller. I just had a terrific meeting with President Trump. And Josh Billinson writes, he's hiding a Diet Coke bottle behind the phone a day after telling everyone to boycott Coca-Cola. It's just so good. It's so good and it's so Trump. You know, folks, people told me it was planted there, folks. I didn't put it there. People are saying, people are saying it was planted. Anyway, he didn't say that yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did eventually. They can do amazing. It's a deep fake, deep, fake news. I'm sorry. Why do we miss him? Why do we miss him? No, no, don't miss him. Definitely

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and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN, dot com slash t y t you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for t yt fans that's e x p r e ssvpn dot com slash t yt check it out today oh remember how covid was going to disappear by easter you guys will all be able to worship together if that's your thing like i just i'm still traumatized we're i mean where our whole country is but like like My God, just keep writing the statements and eat and drinking your Diet Coke and go away for

everybody. Yep. All right. Well, some of his supporters, unfortunately, are facing the ramifications of supporting him. They've been scammed and scammed so bad that even a cancer patient had money taken out of his account days before he died from this Trump scam. We'll give you the details of that when we come back from our next break. TYT.com slash join become a didn't have to do that plug, just felt like doing it. Don't care. I'll see you guys in a few minutes. Hey everyone, you may have noticed that Jenk hasn't been on the show lately. But don't you worry, even though he hasn't been doing this show, he will be on C-SPAN. You should check that out. I'm kidding, he's been on vacation. He'll be back on this show Thursday this week.

But he will also be on C-SPAN tomorrow on Tuesday at 8 a.m. Eastern Time, 5 a.m. Pacific. So you can start your morning off with Jank and tune in. He'll be talking about the news of the day, of course, and he'll even be answering some viewer questions. So I feel like it's going to be entertaining. Definitely check that out. It's going to be good. Eclectic Michelania writes in in our member section and says,

first they came for the billionaires, and then they use the money to solve 95% of our economic problems. Exactly. I mean, that's what they're afraid of. Don't shoot, I'm the goalkeeper, has some thoughts about cancel culture. Remind me again the number of things the GOP has tried to cancel, Starbucks, Nike, Kaepernick. They're the last people who should be talking about so-called cancel culture. They thrive on it, totally agree.

Carlson is a lying mother Tucker writes in and also says that there's a new rule. Kemp doesn't get to talk about cancel culture. The only reason he's governor is because he canceled the black vote in Georgia. Natalie Hyman writes in and says, maybe I'm just confused, but why is Kemp so hellbent on this voter suppression law when he was the one who basically told Trump to take a hike post the recount 2020 election recount? Now all of a sudden, Kemp is invested in voter integrity. Sounds like bull crap to me. I mean, obviously he doesn't care about voter integrity. The legal team surrounding Trump's campaign was so clownish and so embarrassing that even Brian Kemp had to tell. the American people the truth about the fact that Trump had lost the state of Georgia. But make no mistake about it. He does not care about democracy. He loves the fact that he's able to game the system to the Republicans advantage. That's currently happening now. It happened before in that gubernatorial race against Stacey Abrams. And he's here for it. So that's why he's

so gung-ho about fighting to keep this law, you know, enacted essentially. All right, we have more time. I can't believe it. I'm gonna scoot over to the super chat section. Peter Hamby writes in and says, if I can make more billionaires and millionaires cry, you can have all the money in the world, but it's a Khadju, King, and God, they don't give a damn. I don't know what that means, but it sounds good. Pearls before wine also says, I want to thank you. If I hadn't found you on Facebook, I'd still be listening to Fox News and, wow, might be dead

by now. Instead, my doctor cleared me for AA meetings wearing a mask. So now I'm baking sweets for a group of drunks. Thank you so much for that kind comment. And I'm really happy that you're doing well, that you're doing better. And that makes this job worth it. I mean, thank you for writing in and sharing your experience with us. The big piece says the GOP, nobody likes me, everyone hates me. I'm going to eat some worms. I like that comment for for some reason, it's really good. It's a good song. Right.

Exoteric dragon. Yeah, humans are effed. Applied to whichever story. Rudy Acosta or Acosta. Georgia want to buy a gun same day with less proofs of citizenship, no problem. Want to register and vote the same day, not so fast. Exactly. It shows you where their priorities are.

All right, well, let's get back to the show. Welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian and Frances. Asperian and Francesca Fiorentini with you. Francesca, tell everyone where and how they can find your podcast, the bituation room. Where how I thought you'd never ask? You can watch the bituation room every Sunday, 5 8 Eastern on my YouTube channel slash Fran Efeo or listen as a podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. I love me some podcasts, man.

It makes those long runs or workouts just a little bearable. So, and if I'm listening to good shows like the bituation room, very bearable, very enjoyable, in fact. So everyone check that out. All right, let's talk a little bit about how Trump scams people. It shouldn't be a surprise, but apparently at this point, it still is to some. As Donald Trump was getting his ass handed to him in fundraising during the 2020 general election, he decided to think outside the box.

And with the help of a GOP campaign platform known as Win Red, he said. He decided to set up weekly recurring donations by default to any of his supporters who dared donate any money to his campaign. I mean, this story shows you exactly the type of person Donald Trump is. And look, if the evidence that was provided following Trump having to pay a $22 million settlement to students he defrauded wasn't enough evidence for you, maybe this will help you out a little bit. So one of the individuals who was scammed is a man named Victor Amelino. He's a 78 year old Californian who referred to the Trump campaign as bandits.

He had made a $990 online donation to Trump in early September via Win Red. It recurred seven more times without his knowledge, adding up to almost $8,000. He said, I'm retired, I can't afford to pay all that damn money. Neither could a cancer patient who was also scammed in a similar way. Unfortunately, he's passed away, but he did find out that he was scammed prior to passing away. And so how exactly did Donald Trump do this? Well, as the New York Times reports in their investigation, in the final two and a half months of the 2020 election, the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, and their shared accounts issued more than 530,000 refunds

worth $64.3 million to online donors, the Trump operation refunded, dwarfed that of Biden, not Biden Jr., I mean, Biden Jr., is that this is actual name. But anyway, campaign, and his equivalent Democratic committees, which made 37,000 online refunds totaling $5.6 million in that time. So on one hand, you got Trump having to issue $64.3 million in refunds, And just to show you how insane that is, you can compare it to what Biden's campaign had to issue in refunds, which is about $5.6 million. Now refunds happen for a number of different reasons. For instance, if you as an individual have contributed more than you can by law, you know, there are election laws indicating that you can only donate a certain amount. Well, then the campaigns

have no choice but to give you a refund. But that is not what happened with Trump. With Trump, he did something incredibly shady. What he did was he had a box checked off that indicated, by default, that indicated that the donation would be recurring. At first, it would be a recurring donation each month. And then he decided to like up the ante a little bit and made the default recurring contribution every week. And I do have some details about how that looked on the website. It was intentionally opaque. It was intentionally made to essentially lie and mislead his donors. So this is what it

originally looked like, right? It was in order for you to not get charged multiple times, you would have to go out of your way to check that box off, like that you don't want to do this. It was checked off by default. So make this a monthly recurring donation. And you And then it also checked the box, let's break a fundraising record on Trump's birthday, join now. This additional donation will be processed on June 14th. Then they switched it to this, Francesca. They've switched it over to make this a weekly recurring donation until November 3rd. And then the second box is, President Trump, I debate Joe Biden on September 29th, And I need to know that I have your support. Join the Trump Cash Blitz now. And that's, of course, in all bold. And then in non-bold lettering, donate an additional $100 automatically on September 29th. And I'll show you how it further devolves in a minute. But I wanted you to jump in, Francesca.

Yeah, I mean, this is so on brand, right? You want to be surprised. But it's like, of course, of course is exactly what this campaign would do. And like, I'm surprised there wasn't another box at the very end that was like, did you really want to uncheck that? Because I'm pretty sure. Oops, refresh, start over. Like, you know, and the other thing to know is that Trump mailers, you know, sadly somehow I ended up on the Trump email list. And you can't get off. Like pretty much any political email list. And there's nothing but, you know, how do you think Trump is doing? Hey, it's Tuesday. It's Monday. How do you think Trump is feeling? Good, great, amazing. He man, you know, Iron Man. level, right? And there's all this hyperbole, right? And so it's like, it's not that crazy to read these emails and be like, oh, they're just hyperboically asking if I love Trump. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, yes. And wait a minute, my first born, you know, like my home. Like, but but it's so it's, it's so easy because of the way the campaign has been run anyway to just be like, how much do you love him. And then of course, just automatically charging them all of this money. I mean,

it is insane amounts of money. That's so, that is so much money. And that is the difference between people making payments on electric bills and or not. But he doesn't care. Because, right? He's never cared. I mean, he's been finding ways to scam fans and supporters of his for a long time now. I mean, he was caught using his charitable foundation to enrich himself. He was literally using the proceeds of his own charitable foundation to buy massive portraits of himself. He, of course, defrauded students through Trump University and had to pay a $22 million settlement as a result. And then this, you know, campaign grift doesn't surprise me, especially when you consider that following the outcome of the 2020 general election, Trump was putting out

all sorts of emails in an attempt to fundraise. And the way that he presented it was to make it seem as though he was fundraising in order to pursue this legal battle to uncover widespread voter fraud. Then you read the fine print and it's like, no, it's actually gonna mostly go to my political action committee. I might do other political stuff in the future. Right, yeah, Yeah, like that's what he does. He, yeah, he scams you guys. Yes, they're bandits. Congratulations. It's been, you know, four long years of evidence indicating this has been going on. And I mean, I'm just specifically talking about his term. There was more evidence of that even before he was president. But people didn't care. They just decided, okay, great, I'm just going to let him keep scamming me. And I'm going to show you the last version of the fundraising effort here. And just, I mean, like, take a look at how it's written, how it's misleading. what they've chosen to make bold. So in bold writing, it says, this is the final month until election day, and we need every Patriots stepping up if we're going to win four more years for President Trump, he's revitalizing

our economy, restoring law and order and returning us to the American greatness. But he's not done yet, this is your chance, stand with President Trump and maximize your impact now. And then in non-boldt lettering, make this a weekly recording donation until November 3rd. And then right underneath that, there's a second box. Again, it's already checked for you. You would have to uncheck the box in order to avoid getting charged. And similar strategy, you see it.

It's like a long, loviating paragraph about how great Trump is and how you can save him. And then in one sentence in non bold letters, a non bold font, you have the truth that you're about to get charged. additional $100 automatically on October 9th. It's just, it's amazing. Which was called by Wyn Red a money bomb. That's what they called the automatic checking of those boxes. And Win Red is a for profit company. So like the Democratic version would be Act Blue, which is a nonprofit. Winred is a for profit company. And they even made money from the reimbursements. So when they would like they had to reimburse folks for their for like the money that they took without their permission and then they made money on that and I like I haven't verified this but I'm pretty sure that came from the same person. It's like when you order something online you forget to check if there's free returns and then you've got a pay for a return and you're like I got why I shop online. I hate that scam. I hate it. The restocking fee. Oh, oh, I have to pay the restocking fee. Aren't you employing people and paying people to do the restocking? Why am I paying the restocking? Why am I paying the restocking? Like biggest, don't get me started.

Continue. No, no, no. But I mean, at this point, right, you got to ask yourself, at what point are people paying for the GOP to lie to them, right? It's just like, take it. I believe you. Just lie to me more. And then, oh, you're a crook.

Oh, I love it. Like they're, it's so masochistic, right? And or sadomasochistic, I don't know, it's kinky. kinky, but it's a gross kinky and and but it's not a good kink. It's not a good kink. Not a good look, not a good kink. And of course, Fox News won't cover any of this. They don't talk about Trump University. They don't talk about the Trump, you know, foundation. And I don't know if we're getting to our presidential library story, but that's going to be a whole other money suck if Trump ever does do one. Yeah, I mean, it's such a great point about the library. There's no

question. He's going to look for private donors to help fund that library. But, you know, One of the other, you know, one of the other things to keep in mind because some might think, well, I mean, they refunded the money. What's the big deal? It is a big deal. Because as Francesca mentioned, there's a charge that comes along with, you know, getting that refund. But on top of that, essentially what Trump did was secure an interest-free loan for himself for the election. Because he needed that money, he had not been able to keep up with Joe Biden in regard to fundraising. And then what did he do in order to have the funds available to refund all these individuals? He engaged in that ridiculous challenge voter fraud fundraising effort and used that

money not to actually challenge the legitimacy of the 2020 election because they didn't have a shred of evidence indicating there was voter fraud, he used it to pay back the previous individuals he scammed. But make no mistake, there's still a bunch of people out there, especially those who contributed to his legal efforts who have been scammed and remained scammed and still think that he's their guy, looking out for them, looking out for their best interests, you know, man of the people, fighter for the blue collar workers. It's just a complete and utter joke. Yes, absolutely. Anyway, we should probably, no, let's do one more story. Let's do one more story and then we'll take a break. I love this story. It broke during the weekend and I had to

share it with you guys. So just a few weeks after Amazon executives openly embarrassed themselves on Twitter by alleging that their business practices happen to be more progressive than anything that Senator Bernie Sanders has accomplished, the online retail giant is now a apologizing for making their employees pee in bottles and defecate in bags. Actually, no, that's not what they're apologizing for. They're apologizing for their tweet response to Pocan denying that their employees urinate in bottles. Their employees do, in fact, urinate in bottles. And that was all revealed through Ken Klippenstein's incredible reporting and by Amazon workers telling us the truth about what it's like to work as drivers, delivery drivers specifically, and workers in their warehouses.

Now, Mark Pocan had previously tweeted in response to Dave Clark, an Amazon executive, paying workers $15 an hour doesn't make you a progressive workplace when you union bust and make workers urinate in water bottles. In response to that, the official Amazon news account said, you don't really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? And that was followed, of course, by Ken Klippenstein, publishing a piece in The Intercept titled Document Show Amazon is Aware, Drivers P in Bottles, and even defecate en route despite company denial. And so it was just not a good look, PR-wise.

They didn't know what to do. And so they finally apologized to Mark Pocan, not to the workers. The tweet was incorrect, they write. It did not contemplate our large driver population and instead wrongly focused only on our fulfillment centers, which by the way, fulfillment center workers say that they experience similar issues because of the fact that they don't get enough time to go to the bathroom. In fact, their bathroom breaks are timed. And they also write, we know that drivers can do, we know that drivers can and do have trouble finding restrooms because of traffic or sometimes rural routes. And this has been especially the case during COVID when many public restrooms have been closed, which is a lie. The drivers told Ken Clippenstein that they feel that they

can't take a break and look for a restroom because of the large amount of packages they're expected to deliver on a daily basis. So before we get to Pocan's response to all of this, Francesco, what say you? Yeah, no, Ken was on the bituation room the other night and spoke about how, you know, in doing these stories, you know, you usually get workers who are, you know, actually kind of satisfied or like, you know, I'll give them like a B or whatever in terms of a grade. that the people who reached out to him anonymously were overwhelmingly upset about these conditions and also didn't know that we, the public, didn't know that, yes, they urinate in bottles and defecate in bags in the same truck that our goods are arriving in, you know, which is wrong

on so many levels. But, you know, it is, it's commonplace among truckers too, right? Which doesn't make it right. But the point of the statement that really got to me, Amazon's apology, which was very much alike, you know, like the disingenuous, like when you're like, I'm sorry that you felt that I was being mean, but like, I'm sorry that in your little brain, like, so disingenuous. They say something like, regardless of the fact that it's industry wide, because they think they reference that other delivery drivers also do the same thing. We don't yet know how to fix it, but we will look for solutions. Well, I mean, I have a solution. I have a solution.

How about you hire more workers? Like, they're so, like, I know, they're insulting our intelligence and I can't believe I'm answering their question. But we all know what they can do, right? They don't want to have enough employees. So each individual employee isn't overwhelmed with an insane quota every day, right? That way you give your workers enough time to take a break and not feel guilty about it, not feel monitored for doing so. I mean, we just recently shared a story about how Amazon's, you know, trying to put all sorts of crazy tracking technology within the vehicles to keep track of how many times they yawn. I mean, that's how insane they are with monitoring their workers and making

them feel awful for needing to do normal, natural things like use the restroom and take a break. And Mark Pocan is right. It's not about apologizing. to Mark Pocan, you morons. He says, sigh, this is not about me, this is about your workers who you don't treat with enough respect or dignity, start by acknowledging the inadequate working conditions you've created for all your workers, then fix that for everyone. And finally, let them unionize without interference. By the way, the National Labor Relations Board recently indicated that Amazon had illegally

fired its employees, specifically activist employees who are demanding better working conditions and also demanding that Amazon do something to cut down on the pollution that it puts out through its business practices. So the NLRB told Emily Cunningham and Marine Costa that it would accuse Amazon of unfair labor practices if the company did not settle the case. Both Costa and Cunningham who worked as designers at Amazon Seattle headquarters began criticizing the company publicly in 2018. They were part of a small group of employees who wanted the company to do more to address its climate impact.

The group, Amazon employees for climate justice, got more than 8,700 colleagues to support its efforts. But you know who didn't support its efforts? Amazon executives who promptly fired them. And now they're facing the consequences for that. This is insane. I mean, and it's like good on, good on those employees, right? I mean, 8,700 other employees backed them, right? That's power in numbers.

And I think that we're seeing now in Bessemer, Alabama, that there's a real chance that this union fight might actually work, right? And if it doesn't, it is already set in motion all of this scrutiny that the largest company, maybe next to Walmart in the world, is skating by on bull. bullying and exploitation and has zero interest in even like even doing the PR job of making it look like they care about their workers or look like they care about the environment, let alone actually doing so, right? Because of course it would be way too expensive and we couldn't guarantee that. No, no, no, no, no. No, it's because you're greedy and Jeff Bezos is a trillionaire and you don't want to see your profits decline even though you've had record numbers under the pandemic.

So it's like I think that story of those not whistleblowers, employees that wanted to start a company organization, hey, that's totally normal. That story is so great that we're talking about because because of the workers in Bessemer, they've put Amazon under the spotlight. And I'm so glad because we rarely all get together to go after the same corporation because There are just so many of them, but I'm really happy that we are focusing our attention on Amazon, which deserves it, you know, tenfold. Definitely, yeah. Look, I don't plug a lot of things, and this is not a paid plug, but you guys should check out the fairly recent episode about

the Bessemer unionization effort from the daily. So that's the New York Times podcast. It's hit miss, sometimes they have incredibly, like, good episodes. That Bessemer one is one of them because they talk to one of the lead organizers of that effort throughout the episode. And hearing her perspective, I think is incredibly important. So check that out if you've got some time. And of course, check out the bituation room as well. That's the podcast that Francesca hosts. But that does it for our first hour. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we're going to show you exactly how corruption negatively impacts you even during global pandemic thanks for listening to the full episode of the young Turks

support our work listen ad-free access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to apple podcasts at apple dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon