The Young Turks - Scott Pruitt, Teachers in Oklahoma, and David Hogg

Episode Date: March 31, 2018

A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from March 30, 2018. For more go to http://www.tytnetwork.com/join.   Hour 1: John Iadarola, Abby Martin, Ryan Clayton, & Richard Greene Scott Pruitt, jumping from scandal to scandal. Teachers in Oklahoma see small victory, but they want more.  Hour 2: David Hogg does not accept Laura Ingraham’s apology. Alisyn Camerota asks David Hogg: what kind of college wouldn't accept you?? Conservatives lose it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Thanks for watching. Oh my God, would you look at that? We've got a power panel. Welcome back, everybody. It is Friday at The Young Turks. We are live, thankfully, and we are live with a power panel. A couple of familiar faces. One new face. Abby Martin is back, a creator of the Empire Files and founder of Media Roots News. Welcome back to the show. Ryan Clayton, it's been a little bit. I think once this year, maybe once this year previously. At least. President of Americans take action. And I recently learned on your business card, it just says, trickster. Troublemaker. Troublemaker, sorry. Well, on the other side. Okay, either way they look, they're going to get something. And for the first time, Richard Green, author of Words That Shook the World, 100 years of

unforgettable speeches and events, and a former host on Air America News, just like Jank, actually. Absolutely. A lot of people, like Air America, it felt like it was going for three and a half days. And yet, in that time, a lot of names that are still around. Some former senators even. Kind of around, yeah, with Al. Yeah, exactly. In the background, perhaps.

But welcome to the show, everybody. Thanks. Thank you. Got a big day of news. It's a little bit of a weird one, but we're going to touch on some important news. A scandal at the EPA, some progress from yet another state-level teacher strike. Good to see a state at least partially bowing down to the threat of another strike of teachers. Let's see, more attacks against the Parkland shooting survivors.

And someone who did not take sexual harassment and physical threats seriously in Congress, and it's a Democrat. Okay, so with that, why don't we jump into our first story? EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is, lately, he's just been bouncing from scandal to scandal. And today we're going to cover yet another. Perhaps not the worst, but it does tie him in with an industry that he is supposed to be in the business of regulating. And instead, he seems to be personally profiting from them. So it has to do with his housing arrangement in D.C. He's got a nice little deal going on, and he's getting it from the wife of a prominent lobbyist.

In all, this room that he has been oddly leasing on a daily basis, he paid $6,100 for about six months of use, which I assume I haven't lived in D.C. I guess D.C. rent is just really low. It's just super inexpensive, I guess. He was charged $50 a night. So $1,500 a month it would work out too. And apparently it was very close to the capital. And as a person who lives in L.A., I wish I could live in a place with low rent, like D.C. But I can't. Now, the owner of that particular unit is health care lobbyist Vicki Hart. Her husband is J. Stephen Hart, who is also a lobbyist, and his firm represents clients and industries regulated by the EPA, or I should say historically regulated by the EPA, perhaps

not the EPA of the last 14 or 15 months. One of those clients, Schneier Energy, Inc., was on the agenda for Scott Pruitt's December trip to Morocco. While in the country, Pruitt advocated for the benefits of exported liquefied natural gas. the company's unique speciality and yeah so now he's getting a nice little deal on some real estate there from a guy

who represents that company but he probably doesn't know that. I like how he can't even share the common areas. He only has to use his room. See that's funny I wasn't even going to get into the actual deals details of it but he has the room and it's cheap which is nice but as Abby you said he can't use

the common areas and in his lease he's not allowed to lock his door what is that about? But then we find out, and I apologize, it's not in the materials that I provided for you. At some point last year, his security detail had to break down his door because they thought he was having some sort of medical emergency. He was just napping. But for some reason, they were so worried that they literally broke his door off the hinges to get to him. The unlocked door. It might have been the door to the whole unit, I'm not sure, but some door was broken down.

Maybe he was breaking his lease by locking it. Exactly, exactly. Now, my favorite part is actually the last part you mentioned, you know, in the story, which is that like he's going to Morocco and promoting natural gas as the head of the EPA, right? The EPA is not like in charge of promoting like fossil fuel products throughout the world. Like that would be, yeah, exactly. So it's like crazy that the guy that's in charge of environmental protection is actually going around the world and being like, hey, do you want more of our like fossil fuel products? You know, it's like, it's totally backwards, you know, as with everything with the Trump administration. They put somebody in that's literally destructive to the purpose of that agency.

Yeah, here we are facing cataclysmic climate change to the point of such disaster that we don't even know if it's possible to reverse at this point. And here we are in our government that is just sitting BFF with actual lobbyists renting their homes. I mean, it's just outrageous. We're talking about a guy that sued the EPA over 12 times just in one state. But, you know, they say that there's no gift involved, right? They're like, oh, no, it's no big deal, there's no gift. Here's the thing, lobbying doesn't work like that anymore where you just bribe someone and they do a favor for you. It's intimidation. It's the threats. It's maybe a friend of his will put bad advertising out to against the policies that he may vote against. So

it's not just cut and dry like that anymore. Yeah. And even to the extent that it could be gifts, it doesn't have to be gifts right now. Exactly. I mean, he is a guy who has worked for those industries before. Yes, he's in government now, but he's not just going to retire after. He's not just going to play golf, he's going to go back to representing those sorts of industries. And so he can just get a slightly better deal after doing their bidding as head of the EPA. And think about like how close you have to be to somebody to like stay in their home. You know what I mean? Like that's the real crux of this because I know that Richard's probably going to be like, oh, it's not that big of a deal. But like it is that big of a deal. That the head of the EPA, like his his good friend,

good enough that he can stay in his home when he comes to town, is an industry lobbyist, promoting the destruction of the regulations he's in charge of carrying out. That's a huge problem. Like they're not draining the swamp or if they are draining the swamp, they're draining it like into the White House, right? And that's what the heart of this issue is.

The people that are in charge of regulating industry are best friends with the people in the industry. And that's a big problem. My point was, why are we not talking about climate change, renewable energy, all of these horrible things that he's doing with the EPA?

And I have a deal for Scott Pruitt, and perhaps we can put it out there. I will personally pay his $50 a night if he would be willing to sit down with Bill Nye, the science guy, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and Ryan and me, and perhaps the two of you, and actually have a real conversation about whether climate change exists. It's a good deal. If $50 a night will switch his loyalties, let's go for it. Yeah, and so you guys have brought up some great points. I mean, one, the idea that the head of the EPA is going to help.

spread natural gas. Seems crazy. We already have too many federal departments that are trying to do that. I mean, we had Rex Tillerson, obviously, who had some interest in that area. But even before him, Hillary Clinton, in that same role, was going abroad and she was talking up fracking and things like that. We have, obviously, the military is not, it's not like they're not concerned about energy exploitation and things like that. And so there's a variety of different areas that are already working for that. We don't need him. But I'm glad, Richard, that you brought up the climate change. One of the reasons I wanted to talk about this is this has been a particularly egregious week for the EPA. That at the beginning of the week, we found out that the EPA was going to be rolling back the higher fuel efficiency standards for cards that were instituted under Barack Obama, and were made permanent at the end of Obama's second term. So that's going to be gone.

Then we found out that one of the chief lobbyists for the one of the organizations that represents the auto manufacturers, submitted a report by a long time climate denier saying that we, you know, carbon is great for the environment. It produces a few food for plants and stuff like that. The day after that, emails were leaked from the EPA, from an EPA official to EPA employees, advising them on talking points to deny the consensus on, in science of climate change. All of that is in one week and then we find out about this. It's like, at least Betsy DeVos lays low every once in a while. But Scott Pruitt is just right out in front. And the thing that scares me about him is I want him out because there are a few people that I think are less qualified or that I would trust less to run the EPA.

But now there's talk about the possibility of him being taken out and put into the attorney general's position, which is its own big mess. It's almost like you cannot win in a situation. He's the most qualified. He's the most qualified to destroy the EPA. Because again, that's what Trump is doing. He's the people at the heads of these agencies that want to destroy what it is the purpose of that agency is to accomplish. And so, you know, Scott Pruitt is the perfect Trumpian to be in that position, right? It's not like he's the least qualified.

He's the most qualified from Trump's perspective and Russia's. And his AG, he could refuse to prosecute any polluters, which would be such a cool place for him to be. But I want people to remember that on November 6, 2018, in November 3, 2020, we get a chance to vote in. members of the House, members of the Senate, and then in 2020, a president who will actually pass the American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act by my buddy, Senator Sheldon White House, which would put a price on carbon and would put us on the path to being a leader in the world in fighting climate change. We need to focus on specific pieces of legislation rather than, in my opinion, little things that these people do, which is nothing compared to what they're doing overall in terms

of policy. Right, and pushing renewable energy. You can considering that the Pentagon is the largest polluter in the world. Over the war games exercise, the war is going on around the world. So it actually spans beyond just the Trump administration. But like you said, I mean, this is a dystopian hellhole where we're literally having legislators rule over us for the opposite, I mean, to destroy and dismantle the systems that they're in charge of. It's quite astounding. And there's probably more jobs to be had by expanding renewable energy resources than anything else in the country.

That is one of the most frustrating things. I mean, come on, jobs, jobs, stop, right? time, actually, yeah. There was, I don't know if it's still around, but there was that, the Apollo initiative. They want to do that massive investment and all that. And instead, what do they do? They throw up tariffs on solar cells and solar, you know, equipment. 30% tariff that's expected to kill more than 100,000 jobs over the next few years. Can I just say, can't, can I don't. Can I just say, I don't. That's where we're at. I mean, really, the head of Exxon and an environmentalist misses him. That's how bad we're at. I feel like the Overton window has, but you can't say it. I don't know. That's how bad we're at. I feel like the Overton window has. gone down like a slippery slope. It's like a roller coaster. I will say this. I do prefer him to Scott Pruitt, I think, perhaps at least in the issue of the environment, even though he was

the head of Exxon. It's like sorting the bottom of the barrel. Sometimes that's our job, unfortunately, in the last 14 or 15 months. Coming up soon, I just want to do this little plug. It was supposed to come out months ago, but last year, as many of you watching this, know, myself and Chivala Madlina,

documentary filmmaker, went to the Arctic for a couple of months, and we went around in a ship with a group of climate scientists conducting experiments north of Swalbard and things like that. We filmed the docu series, and it is finally going to be coming out next month, actually. So stay tuned for details about how you can watch that. With that, why don't we jump to our next topic? Not too long ago in West Virginia, the teachers decided that they weren't going to take it anymore, and they struck. And it took a while. But finally, they did get a pretty good deal for their effort in terms of pay, benefits, and one of their biggest concerns actually was health

insurance costs and things like that. Now, the media, I think, did a particularly poor job at talking and covering that topic. But despite that, thankfully, teachers' unions around the country did pay attention. And in the wake of the West Virginia strikes, other states have decided to take some sort of collective action when it comes to their education system. Oklahoma is one of the latest. And it was announced a day or two ago that they were going to do a walkout, on Monday. They hadn't, as far as I know, announced any sort of ongoing strike, but they were going to do a demonstration. And one of the reasons is that I believe that they are at present the 47th lowest average paid teachers in the country, which is pretty insane. And they hadn't

gotten a raise in something like 10 years. And so they announced that they were going to do that walkout. Now, Oklahoma lawmakers decided to do something to try to ward off that walkout. And last night, they gave final approval to a bill that will generate $450 million in new revenue from taxes on cigarettes, gas, and diesel. And the extra revenue will go largely, but not entirely to fund an average $6,100 pay increase for teachers. Now, that might not sound huge, maybe, but I have a feeling that Oklahoma teachers aren't making $200,000 a year. And so that is something, certainly. But it's not going to be enough to stop the walkout. One of the, the president for the Oklahoma Education Association, Alicia Priest, had this to say, after it was

announced that that raise was going to be funded. While this is major progress, this investment alone will not undo a decade of neglect. Lawmakers have left funding on the table that could be used immediately to help Oklahoma students. This package doesn't overcome shortfall caused by four-day weeks overcrowded classrooms that deprive kids of the one-on-one attention they need. It's not enough. We must continue to push for more annual funding for our schools to reduce class size and restore more of the 28% of funds they cut from education over the last decade. And I'm glad that the union there is not just focused on their own wages of teachers, but also of support staff in the schools and funding for the schools,

which is trended down not just in Oklahoma, but in a number of different states over the past decade plus. Yeah, exactly. This is a state where teachers were having to subsidize one day a week working at Walmart to actually just make ends meet four days a week. And then also just the pay, you know, and filling quotas. There were so many teachers, so many teacher spots left empty that they were just filling quotas with secretary's spots and whoever, just completely unqualified people to be teaching kids. But I think that the biggest takeaway here is the preemptive measures on behalf of legislators because of the fear of striking and the fear of unions. We're talking about a hundred year war on workers and unions that we've seen take place from the rich and powerful. And it's worked.

I mean, we've collectively erased it from our consciousness. We don't understand the actual monumental movements that unions and workers have had, the eight-hour work day, the weekend, all labor protections. I mean, so this is a huge measure, and it's also just showing how scared legislators are, because they know the power of workers and the power of people walking out, because they know who really puts the wealth in society and who makes society function. Yeah. Because the rich and powerful will cease to be able to do anything without the workers at their behest. Yeah, and they put them to the test in West Virginia. They were like literally no schools in any county that were open. And so like imagine being a parent, right, and having to figure out like, what are you going to do with your kids like that day, right?

And they like kept a strike going until they won. And so teachers around the country are seeing like, hey, you know, if we want to get what we deserve, then we need to go on strike too and put them to the test. And I don't even think they got to the walkout here. They didn't even get to the actual walkout. We will get to that. They will, but they just threatened it. And then they got a giant increase in their pay for everybody in that. that state and they got what they deserve.

You know, it's not a question of getting like more just because you want more. It's like people need to get paid what they're worth. And right now teachers across the country in most places aren't getting paid what they're worth because we have this radical right wing social experiment called trickle-down economics where we give all the money to the rich people and it and it somehow spreads to the rest of us magically with the magical trickle-down fairy, you know, like it doesn't work. And we're now reaching a logical conclusion of that social experiment and realizing it's completely false and we have to figure out a different way to do things. And we can't just cut public services

down to the bone because you're cutting teachers and you're cutting firefighters and you're cutting your neighbor. I don't think that the answer is cutting or actually making other workers pay for the teachers. You know what I mean? Like taxing cigarettes, taxing oil. This is just other average workers who are just going to be paying more for gas, paying more for cigarettes, train more for alcohol. And I don't think that's actually the answer. I think the answer is taxing the rich. Yeah, that's a good, that's a very good point. But can we put this in context? I mean, this is one of the happiest stories that I've read in a long time.

One of the redest states in the country, the state that produced Scott Pruitt, is every story about Oklahoma here? At the end of the day, Oklahoma special. Who pays attention to Oklahoma? It all is in one day. Good Friday, we're talking about Oklahoma. That here is a red, red, red state

that agreed to raise taxes. Just that, even where, no matter where the taxes are coming from, and on oil and gas, this is extraordinary. and a really great, great, hopeful thing for the future. And in their Constitution, you have to get three-fourths of the legislature to agree in order to raise any tax, right? So they had to get three-fourths of a Republican-dominated legislature in both chambers to agree to this tax.

And that, to me, is also really hopeful because you're starting to see this, like, this populist brush-fire revolt, not in places like, you know, New York and California and Washington and Vermont. It's like happening in Oklahoma and West Virginia and people are like tired of it and they're not going to put up with it anymore. And they're going to force even a dominated Republican legislature. I can imagine it's probably 75% Republican voting to the tune of 75% to increase taxes there because they realize this social experiment of trickle-down economics, it doesn't work. It's broken. And it didn't even require a tweet from David Hoke. That's true. That's true. Yeah, I love that that's 75% threshold.

And Oklahoma is obviously not the only state that has that. And the states that have the extra threshold for certain types of laws, why is it always for taxes? Like what state do you need 80% of the vote to take away abortion rights or something like that? Like it's only raising taxes. And that's one of those amazing things that if you get enough of a majority where you pass it at some point, then you just cripple social progress and legislative progress literally possibly for decades on any number of different issues. It's one of those like trickle down policies actually. But yeah. And I find this to be positive too. You mentioned David Hogg. I love that the unions are getting more active. I think that there are few individual things that could be better for America right now than an entirely invigorated, active, passionate union push across the country, across all industries. But even outside of unions, in the past year or two, we've seen a number of huge marches, even recently, the march for our lives, and that people are getting out there. They're getting out there in the streets for the marches. They're getting out there to actually run in primaries and all of that. And I know some individuals might look at a particular march and say that seems like a

big waste of time. I don't understand that. I'm not of that opinion. I think that Americans have been politically apathetic for far, far too long. So almost anything that they can get motivated for I'm a fan of. But when you see people marching for literally the concept of science or for, you know, those sorts of things, that I think is a very positive thing. And I am all for unions being as big of a part of that as possible. Yeah. And these people are scared of the contagion of strikes. We saw the West Virginia teacher strike worked. This is going to work. Unions and strikes work.

And they put the fear of God into business legislators and business owners. And I hate that workers are demonized. You know, I hate workers who walk out and stuff. They're like, oh, you don't care about the kids. These people don't care about the kids. They're cutting public funds. Our schools are underfunded. And there's no incentive for the rich and powerful to put funding in schools because they don't need the masses educated.

It's mostly, you know, service sector or jobs that are just going to be automated later. They just want the small 1% that they can put in their private elite education. So we need to emboldened workers and support them for walking out and just encourage that this is really the answer to hold the rich and powerful accountable in our society. My conservatives are happy to give them guns. Oh, of course. As many guns is you need, we'll pay for them. Pencils, no. We'll get your bullets, pencils, crans, paper.

I just don't have the money. But if you need guns, we've got that covered. You know, that's like the crazy, like, twilight zone politics we're living in America today. I was in D.C. for the March on Saturday, and it was exhilarating. And I don't think that that energy that was created by those 800,000 in D.C. and the millions all over the world, I don't think it's limited to guns. I think it is lighting the match that is going to spread all over the place. And helping unions, helping teachers, I think we're moving into a really positive time as we head into the midterms, which is where the whole, the real tsunami can happen.

Yeah. Yeah, we're going to have to take our first break. When we come back, we will be talking a little bit about actually some of those students that we were talking to about just a minute ago, the Parkland students and some of the most recent attacks against them. After that, we're going to have a little bit of some of the battles over reform inside of Congress in how we deal with physical and verbal threats, sexual harassment and things of that sort.

And then a story on physician-assisted suicide. There might be a new state that has legalized it. all that and more after this break. Thanks for listening to this podcast. You're only halfway through. So hold, hold, stay right here. Just want to remind you if you want to get all five segments of the Young Turks commercial free, these are just two of them.

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Because we don't usually have... It sounded great until Brett, to be honest. Anna, Ida, Maita. And Brett. Sorry, I have a dumb name. It felt severe. Yeah, it is. It's very, like, I don't know, like German sounding.

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We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The Republic or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and power. 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 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. At least nine advertisers have pulled their ads from Laura Ingram. Fox News Show, and that, of course, is following her tweet, mocking David Hogg for not getting into universities that he applied to, even though he had a 4.2 GPA. This was the tweet in question, David Hogg, rejected by four colleges to which he applied and whines about it, dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA,

it's actually 4.2, totally predictable given acceptance rates. Okay. And then she linked to a Daily Wire article that, again, just completely made things up. David Hogg never complained or whined about not getting into these colleges. During a TMZ interview, he just said, it's highly competitive. And then he also brought up an important issue, the issue of student loan debt. But there was no whining in that interview whatsoever. He whined about getting shot at. Yeah. What a whiner. And let's keep it real. That's really what Laura Ingram doesn't like hearing about, okay? The right absolutely hates the fact that David Hogg, Emma Gonzalez and other students from Parkland, Florida are pushing for change and succeeding in change when it

comes to the issue of gun control. Now, these advertisers pull out, including Nutrish, Dog Food Brand, TripAdvisor Nestle Hulu, Joseph A. Bank, Nestle, Expedia, Wayfair, all these advertisers are pulling out. And in the middle of all of that, Laura, Ingram realizes I need to apologize because this is going to hurt my profits and we can't have that. And so her apology goes as follows. Any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA, including David Hogg, on reflection in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland. For the record, I believe my show was the first to feature David. Okay, whatever.

So has David Hogg accepted her apology? Well, the first tweet that he put out in response to all of this was my personal favorite. He used the hashtag, shut up and be objective. And that was a reference to Laura Ingram's shut up and dribble comments when Lamar Odom had made some criticism. Oh, I'm sorry, LeBron James. I said LeBron Odom. Wow. I think he said Lamar Odom.

That's a right name. I'm sorry. He was in the news a while ago. I know, I know. I'm mixing people up. Sorry. But yes, when that happened, she didn't like the fact that he was criticizing Trump and said, shut up and dribble, you're just a basketball player.

So I love that David Hogg responded in this way. And then he also said, I 100% agree an apology. I 100% agree an apology in an effort just to save your advertisers is not enough. I will only accept your apology, only if you denounce the way your network has treated my friends and I in this fight, it's time to love thy neighbor, not mudsling at children. And so he also went on CNN, and we'll go to those videos in just a minute. But I wanted to open up to the panel and kind of get your thoughts on all of this. I'm so excited about these kids. I've heard a lot of commentary and a lot of people say to me,

wow, black kids are getting shot in Chicago every day. But it takes white kids to get shot for there to be some change. And I say, let's use our allies and let these white kids use their privilege to knock down doors for those of us who are not heard or seen. And I am excited about the fact that they are going in. And when they had that protest, they did have a lot of black activists there that were there bringing to the attention the intersections that need not to be ignored. So I'm like more power to them keep knocking down those doors and being allies to our causes. Because when she said shut up and dribble to LeBron, no advertisers pulled out.

And there wasn't the outrage that there is now. So if it took this young white boy to be dissed by Laura Ingram to shut her down and shut her up, then more power to him. Yeah, but for me also, let's have a moment to have a reflection of why that happens, right? Like, she's said so many racist things out of the, like, you know. It's commonplace. Yeah, yeah. A is for like abhorrent racist book. And then, and then Islamophobic things, xenophobic things.

And so it takes insulting a white child, right? To have advertisers. Well, also, and I will give him this. He was ingenious about how he did it. He said, who are your advertisers? These are the top 12. Pick some. Retweeted, folks go after it.

He did a call to action. And he was really organized. about how he was going to move around getting advertisers to boycott her show, right? And I think, though, for me, yes, like, let's get them off in any way we can, but let's also talk about why it takes that certain subject to get folks off. Like, we were talking earlier, Sam Harris was finally sort of taken down, and he's had a history for having a racist scientist come on and tried to argue that, you know, people are genetically predisposed to being stupid based on their race and things like that.

He had a whole history of saying incredibly Islamophobic things that people just washed, like, washed under the rug. I'm sorry, I don't know American proverbs that well, but what is it? Swept under the rug. Washed under the bridge. Water under the bridge. There you go. But so it, I'm, I'm happy to see these things happen, but I also want us to have conversations about why they happen and why certain things are not triggers for these moments. Yeah. So I'm going to push back on something a little bit because I think there is a distinct. So I think that most people would still, you guys are right, there is certainly a race angle when it comes to people like Laura Ingram. I mean, they have literally made a profitable business off of spewing this ideology regarding inferiority among minorities, right? However, with this, I think people finally had had enough when it had to do with a victim who was a minor. I mean, we're talking about a 17-year-old who just went through something so incredible. traumatic, who just experienced his friends, his teachers get gunned down right in front of him, who almost lost his own life because of this mass shooter, and is simply using the platform that he has now to speak out about something that he experienced and how he wants to reform things. So no one has to experience it again. And Laura Ingram's response, because she's so in love with the NRA, is to mock him for having a 4.2 GPA. I mean, let's see what your report cards look like? I mean, it's just ridiculous. Like, attacking kids is bad enough.

Attacking kids that just went through something traumatic like that, I think everyone, by the way, to their credit, even members of the right wing thought, okay, this is maybe going to go too far. He is annoying. David Hogg is annoying because he's making them question the stuff they take for granted and makes them question where they get their theology or their ideology from. They are making people step forward and say like, well, you just do what the NRA says. Maybe you should stop that. That's super annoying when someone steps up and is like, I just got shot at. And it is annoying because they had been able to get away with after every single shooting.

That line that you hear a billion times, let's not politicize this. Right. Right now, for the victims benefit, they had been able to say, let's not politicize this. And now it's so annoying that the victims are saying, no, no, no, that's fine. Come on and politicize it. for it. How annoying is that? It's very annoying. But those are the ones that are alive. They can criminalize all day, every day,

atrociously dead black teenagers, right? Like Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown and they can't even they're not alive to stand up for themselves. So I think there is a new low for a certain type of archetype for folks. And I agree. It is, it's atrocious

and it's abhorrent and people should band together and react to it and say, you know what, this is enough. But when do we say this is enough? Yeah. I'm a hundred 100% behind the lake, it's Passover. And when you see like, you know, advertisers jump ship because something terrible said on Fox News, there's a question that you ask, which is how is this night different from all others? That's right.

I know. And I'm just happy that there has been a reaction finally to the content that is a regular, it's a staple of Fox News, you know. So I like that there's finally some pushback. Now, David Hogg also talked about this whole incident on CNN. He is a strong, he's a tough cookie. Let's take a look at the first video. Do you accept her apology? No.

She's only apologizing after a third of her advertisers pulled out. And I think it's really disgusting the fact that she basically tried promoting her show after apologizing to me. And so what does he specifically want to address when it comes to Laura Ingram? He explains it in the next video. Would you consider sitting down with someone like Laura Ingram and reaching across the aisle just for the sake of common ground and trying to find the solutions that you're talking about? See, I would like to do that,

but first I would need her to be more objective in the way that she talks about us. Because if you look at any time that she talks about us on her talk show, she speaks only to our audience, which is kind of what a talk show host does. But what she does most of the time is she's like, oh, this leftist group is trying to take. take all your, she gets this really threatening tone about us that we don't have. We love every, like, we're people that just want to come, want everybody to come together as Americans and help us solve this issue. Because we do have to reach across the aisle to solve this.

This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is an American issue. And as such, we have to work together. So I think that he touched on something so important there, because their message gets hijacked and twisted by people on the right, or specifically, you know, the gun manufacturers, the gun lobby that want to sell more guns. So they paint this picture of these activists that's just flat out false and untrue. They're going to, they're just out to take your guns. They're going to take all of your guns away. All these law-abiding citizens are going to get their guns taken away.

I mean, I've seen all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories and all sorts of paranoia on social media from this is what they did in Cuba and we're going to become this communist regime to, you know, they're going to take away your guns and then murder you with those guns. just craziness. And I like that he touched on, you know, how their message is getting twisted to something that it's really not. They called them Hitler. Yeah, I know. What's the name of that lady who called him? So which is he? A fascist or communist. Exactly. But you know what? Like we said, I'll take it the way that I can get it. And I believe that those kids, because because the younger kids are not, for the most part, segregated like that. When you watch those

kids, and you saw that March, everybody was there. And they have mentioned kids in the LGBTQIA community. They are talking about black kids. They were like, we are not having this anymore. This is enough. So my hope is that this trickles down and goes everywhere, including Chicago and Baltimore and Miami, and that these reforms are also for the benefit of the inner city because I think that those children matter too. And remember, there are now numerous states that have passed gun control legislation, including Vermont, which I don't believe the governor has signed into law yet, but Vermont is a very gun-friendly state.

And now all of a sudden, their governor who campaigned in 2016 with a platform of, I'm never going to pass gun legislation or sign gun legislation, is saying, yeah, we need gun legislation. So it's, they're successful. And it kind of reminds me of, you know, the argument that's made when it comes to cartels when they're losing, right? When there's a flare up in violence, it's because they're losing ground. And with people like Laura Ingraham, they see that they're losing this argument and they lash out by attacking the victims who are calling for change. Yeah. So, all right. Well, there's another twist, another angle to the story that I want to get to.

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with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. David Hogg, one of the students and activists from Parkland, Florida, who's calling for gun control legislation, appeared on Allison Camerado's show on CNN, New Day. And during the discussion, Allison Camerata said something that triggered those on the right, which I thought was kind of interesting. Let's take a look at what she said, and then I'll give you the backlash. David, I am stunned that four colleges rejected you. What kind of dumbass colleges don't want you?

I mean, you've taken the country by storm. How do you explain this? Did they reject you before the Parkland massacre? Or how do you explain this? Okay, so that's what she said. And look, David Hogg is obviously a bright young man. He has an incredibly high GPA, 4.2. His SAT score is pretty good.

It's in the 1,200. Not good enough. Yeah. So he's obviously a well-spoken, bright young man, right? So that's her opinion. And I don't know why anyone would be triggered by that. But apparently those on the right are very upset at Camerado's commentary there. Eric Erickson shared his point of view.

He said, the kind that look at grades in academics, not activism. Yeah, well, his grades and academics are pretty stellar. So moving on. Stephen Miller, well, CNN did it. White privilege is real and is so perfectly summed up in this clip, I'm officially woke. That's just like a madlib of buzzwords. I know. Wait, I was like, what is he even saying right now?

I just. I don't know. I literally don't know what that one was. But when my kids filling out college applications, community service and all of that stuff is welcome. So including activism, yeah. So if you have a high GPA and good SAT scores and you're out there trying to change legislature to benefit children who are dying, I think that that should look, that should make a college application look good. What this basically says to me is that nobody knows how college works. So admissions were in the fall.

And so he probably had to turn in the admissions and it's a UC school in December. And so now the Parkland shooting happened after the fact. So I don't know what his activism looked like beforehand. And I went to UCLA, actually. I was a Bruin. Go Bruins. And I was also a Trojan, so I have to represent. Oh, I like you.

You should stay with the Bruin thing. But actually, the acceptance rate is an issue with. the UC schools, and especially UCLA, in 2017, they got 100,000 students applying to get into UCLA, and they accepted 16,000 students. That is 16%. So, yeah, 4.2 actually will not cut it because they're not asking the appropriate question, which is, is it weighted or unweighted? Did he take AP classes? Was he in the top percentile at his school? So those things matter in terms of the college admissions process. But of course, the right wing is, like you said, just stringing together, buzzwords attacking him, and then people on the, on, I hardly want to call

CNN the left, but moderates are trying to, you know, push their own sort of agenda, which I think her comment was, I don't even think there's an agenda. I know, no, no, but I mean, it was ridiculous. It was ridiculous. So, I mean, what's, what's she going to say? I'm glad you didn't get into the schools, nerd. No, no, but not only that, but like dumbasses. What kind of Journalistic reaction is that. That's the journalism. No, but what I'm saying is. I'm like defending her.

Like she had a 17 year old on her show. And she like was like, hey, welcome to the show. You know you're making news. You're such making a difference in the world. What kind of nerds don't let you into their school? Trying to be on. Yeah, she's making conversation. No, I get it.

But this is the after effect moment. That's what I'm saying. So like, okay, go for a year, do what you need to do, reapply or transfer. And you will get into the skills. No, no. Go to another school. Don't go to that school. My perspective on this, I just want to, look, no one really cares.

I don't even think Alison Camerata cares. I hate to put words in her mouth. She was just saying something, in my opinion, to be nice. This is not meant to be a freaking national headline. Absolutely. That's true. But my take on this is the right wing loves to take issues that, you know, need to be discussed, right? Like double standards in society, especially in our justice system when it comes to

two different groups of people. We have a two-tier justice system. It is clear as day. And so when we talk about things like white privilege, you know, it's not to demonize anyone. It's not to say that white people have like this upper hand and are always super successful and wealthy. It's to say that we have certain systemic issues that treat two different people in a completely different way, even if they've committed the same crime or acted in a similar fashion. So David Brock, for instance, Wait, David Brock is not his name. Sorry, I'm mixing up names like, no, no, no, that's not who I meant. No, no, I wrote it down.

Oh, Brock Turner. I apologize. I'm mixing up names like crazy today. But Brock Turner, for instance, he was the Stanford University student who got caught raping someone behind a dumpster and got a six months, a six-month sentence, which, by the way, was shortened after that, for raping someone. And so the reason why I bring that up, and the reason why I bring up white privilege is because white privilege is not, hey, you're automatically wealthy and successful.

White privilege is, hey, you know, if you have a black 23-year-old caught raping someone behind a dumpster, the justice system is going to treat that individual very differently from someone like Brock Turner who got that six-month sentence. Right. So that's what I mean. And so my long spiel is about how the right will then take stories like this and mock the notion. For sure, for sure. So that's why I want to do that.

No, no, no, no, no, for sure. And I love the young turks takes accounting and then makes them accountable for just spewing things out there that also have a direct impact, a material impact on people's lives. So I love that you all do that. What my frustration is is bad journalism, basically. Like, I know she was trying to mollify him in that moment and be kind to a young person on her show. But also, like, do you understand anything about college admission?

Well, you know, I, I mean, I have higher standards for journalism. And just mainstream media and just the journalists and anchors that they have on, I'm, I'm, like, I don't know how they get on. I, you know what, I will say this. It is a moment. It's a moment on a live TV show on a 24-hour news cycle. I would direct my inveter toward the 24-hour news cycle, not the way that it is, you know, it engenders itself in this situation. I would have it in, like, in the way that the tweets that we see from Eric Erickson come out, where people are like, the dynamic is. We smell a little blood in the water and suddenly we're Bruce with his like eyes glazed over trying to eat Nemo.

Like that's what they're all doing. And they get confused and they don't, they're not really thinking through it. And they think it's cool because they're all in a community. They get likes, you get more likes for this is, this is masturbation. Right. No, no, no, no, for sure, for sure. The policing of a moment is ridiculous and that's where we've gone like hypermeda with the way the journalism operates. Especially from the source.

That's what makes it so funny to me. God forbid this lady have a moment with a kid that survived a massacre and say they would be crazy not to have you. But that self-righteousness that we've taken on and that we're constantly judging everybody and that we're walking around thinking that we're greater than now. I'm a comedian, but I do know a little bit about college excessiveness because I have a daughter who's a very, very, you know, she's pretty dope and awesome. And I do know that when we talk about, someone told my daughter don't apply to UCLA. not Asian, they're not going to let you in. And we know that there are biases in colleges and that there are, this system that we like to promote and say that this is, this is how it is and this is the standard. We know that that is not the case because we look at college

campuses throughout the country and people have to have HBC use so that black kids can go to colleges because it is not equal and it is not even for everybody, especially black children in America. Especially at UCLA. We had a whole sort of organizing around the fact that I gave you some of the numbers for this year. There were years when only 98 black students were admitted to UCLA. So yeah, there are so many groups that don't get in. So if you're not getting in. And you shouldn't have to have a 4.6 GPA and it's 2000. SACC. He's out of state, but they would want you more because you would pay more. They're looking for balance. Absolutely. Really? Yeah. I thought it was harder to get in from out of state. No, no, no. There's a whole

controversy around this. No, it's easier because you're going to pay more money for tuition. You are. And actually, they're supposed to admit more California students. Yeah, no. And they're now international students, but they're supposed to admit more California students than they're actually admitting because they do get many from the state to subsidize their education. So it's a bit of a controversy, actually. All right, I can have a discussion about this all day. We got to take a break, though. Let's do that. And when we come back, Jim Carrey's masterful work. Thanks for watching what I hope was a lovely edition of the Young Turks. Now, you know that that is two of the five segments that we do, because that's free. We want to have you support independent media and can watch the whole show that we do every day.

five segments overall, no ads at all. That's at t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. Come become a member. Thanks for watching either way. 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.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Jank Huger, and I'll see you soon.