The Young Turks - Stumbling & Bumbling

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

Alito took an undisclosed private jet trip with billionaire hedge fund titan. Trump speechless as he’s called out for drug execution hypocrisy in Fox interview. Eviction filings are 50% higher than they were pre-pandemic in some cities as rent prices rise. Chris Christie says he would cut social security & raise the retirement age if he's elected president. The town of Seaford, Delaware almost passed a law that would let corporations vote in elections HOSTS: Dr. Rashad Richey (@Rashad_Richey), Aida Rodriguez SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. All right, welcome to the Young Turks. I am filling in today. I'm your host, Dr. Ashad Rich. You're good to be with you. We have none other than comedian, author, humanitarian, amazing stand-up comedian host extraordinaire Ida Rodriguez. Good day, sister. How are you? I'm good. I'm so glad to be back and to be back with you. Same here. Last time we saw each other, we were in person with each other, ironically, and you did such a remarkable job hosting this amazing event being comedic. and also challenging.

So I appreciate all that you do out here. Oh, thank you. I appreciate what you do too. Thank you, sister. All right. First story of the day, corruption, corruption, corruption. We're talking about the United States Supreme Court.

Justice Alito has been, well, let's just say, caught according to a pro-publica investigation. He was the subject to one of these particular Disclosure dynamics, it seems as if every Supreme Court justice has at least one billionaire who they ride on planes with, all right? Must be nice. Okay, so this was undisclosed. This was a private jet. These things are mandated to be disclosed. So the jet flight to Alaska in 2008 with billionaire Paul Singer and other conservative donors who had business before the court, Alito for his part, wrote a defendant. I say defensive intentionally. He knew the story was coming. He writes an op ed, and then the story comes out. Well, the op ed was to create damage control.

Anytime a U.S. Supreme Court justice who cannot be mandated to say a damn thing, when they start talking, there's there, there, guaranteed. All right? That's how this works. So he obviously denied any wrongdoing in the Wall Street Journal earlier. Street Journal earlier Tuesday. Before we get into the rebuttal, here's what ProPublica contends. Number one, Alito in 2008 flew on billionaire call Singer's private jet. This was on a trip that included Roman board at Alaska's Pricy Salmon Lodge.

that was paid for by then owner Robin Arkley the second who is a prolific donor to conservative legal causes like Singer, according to the report. Number two, Singer had connections with corporate entities who later made cases in front of the Supreme Court and won with the support of Justice Alito. Instead of addressing the allegations, the Supreme Court Justice took to the Wall Street Journal to publish an opinion piece. All right. And then we have this headline, Justice Samuel Alito, ProPublica, misleads his readers. The publication levels false charges against Supreme Court recusal, financial disclosures, and a 2008 fishing trip. This is an opinion editorial. Don't forget. So here's what Alito argued. ProPublica has level two charges against me.

First, that I should have recused in matters in which an entity connected with Paul Singer was a party and second that I was obligated to list certain items as gifts on my 2008 financial disclosure report. Neither charge is valid. Wait a minute, justice, neither is it a charge. You're a judge, you should know better. Alito denies knowing of the billionaire's connections, adding that the plane ride was not a significant matter. Not a significant matter because he was simply taking a seat, according to him, of someone, of a seat that would otherwise be vacant. Someone else would have occupied their seat. And because he occupied the seat, he didn't. not have to disclose because no money, no value, no thing of value was given to him. I want you to follow this insane logic. My recollection is what he says, is that I have spoken to singer on no more than a handful of occasions. All right, let's mark that. That is confession

of conversation. All of which consisted of brief and casual comments. at events attended by large groups. We'll note that he allowed me to occupy what would have otherwise been an unoccupied seat on a private flight to Alaska. It was and is my judgment that these facts would not cause a reasonable and unbiased person to doubt my ability to decide the matters in question

and partially. Second, when I reviewed the cases in question to determine whether I was required to recuse, I was not aware and had no good reason to be aware that Singer had an interest in any party. But while defending himself, he did skip some important details that I'm happy to highlight here. Alito admitted, excuse me, omitted, excuse me, omitted, excuse me, omitted. The detail, that Leonard Leo, co-chair of the conservative federalist society, and a key figure in the decades long effort to pull the U.S. judiciary to the right, actually helped organize the Alaska trip. He left that out. A. Raymond Randolph, a conservative appellate judge, also attended, according to the ProPublica report. Leo invited Singer to join.

Leo invited Singer to join and asked the hedge fund tycoon if he and justice Alito could fly on the billionaire's jet. Quote, Leo had recently played an important role in the justice confirmation to the court. ProPublica reported Singer and the lodge owner were both major donors to Leo's political groups. quote, he must have forgotten about it. This, you know, expose comes after a series of investigations. ProPublica has been primary and early investigation by ProPublica also exposed Clarence Thomas, his involvement with Nazi memory, a member being a collector billionaire Crow. We all know that, that was front and center, looks like Crow bought Clarence Thomas,

purchased Clarence Thomas's wife and also Clarence Thomas' mama. Republicans, you know, they're defending the justice. So this Rodriguez, okay, I'm just saying, why is it that they're all caught with billionaires? I mean, would a regular as millionaire have done? You know, it's funny is they're always caught with billionaires because billionaires run this country. They are, our Congress is for sale, our president, the presidential seat is for sale, our president is for sale. And apparently now the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land is for sale as well. And it, no wonder they don't prioritize nor do they fight for education,

the way they fight for guns and abortion, because they don't want people to know the judicial process. They don't want people to know how this is supposed to work. So that because people would revolt if they had the information, but they're too busy struggling. trying to work jobs so that they can pay to go to the doctor because health care is not even accessible the way that it should be to Americans. But it is unbelievable and egregious to see a continuous revelation of how compromise our system is, the Supreme Court, which is always supposed to be lauded as the highest court of the land, making these decisions. And it fully, you know, it is available. It is negotiable and it has a price. And I urge all of us,

Americans, whether they are Republicans, Democrats, independents, green party members or whatever they claim to be alarmed by this because if we continue to compromise, it will become standard. And at some point, it will affect you too, no matter what your beliefs are, if everything is about being handled by people who are for sale. That's right. And the reality is the rules exist so their transparency can be applied. If we need to connect

dots, we can connect them publicly. Those rules are not there, those disclosure rules are not there for them. They are there for us, okay? That's why they exist. And let me say this. A Supreme Court justice is a de facto lawmaker. Understand when a Supreme Court makes a ruling, there is nothing that will override that ruling except a future ruling by the Supreme Court. If you can control the Supreme Court, you control not only policy, you control statutory interpretation of law. They create case law every single day. All right, so Tom Cottonhead

this to say. Let's put it up. Good for Justice Alito to push back against the left wing hacks trying to intimidate the Supreme Court. Dems took the opportunity, however, to call out the court's corruption. Let's see what Ted says. Americans used to respect the Supreme Court. He's right. They use the rate highest on popularity. No more. Now the flagrant violations of ethical rules and possibly laws by Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas and potentially other justices. Americans can rightfully ask, has the Supreme Court turned into a cesspool of corruption? Let me pose a wisdom question to everybody. If somebody gave you a permanent job and said, there is nothing that you can do basically that would get you fired.

And this permanent job puts you in policymaking position. You're not a millionaire typically. And you get all of these shiny things. It's nothing they can do to you. You know why? Because the Supreme Court does not have an actual statutory document that says, here's what you must do and must not do. You see, every court has an actual adopted ethical guideline that must be adhered to. Even traffic court judges have this. The Supreme Court, however, does not, doesn't exist. They are able to self-govern something that no other judge in the United States of America has the ability to do. Let's put it up, Sheldon White House. Oh, my question, oh my, the questions. First, who orchestrated this weird prebuttal in the infamous WSJ polluter page?

And then Alito get help from a PR firm. If so, who paid? Yes, right questions. All right, my dear sister thoughts. You know, I mean, I'm just in awe of all of this. And the fact that Tom Cotton is perpetuating, you know, is perpetuating. this stuff, knowing how important, it's amazing how the Republicans are capable and able to support anything that happened so long as they feel it is in line with their personal mission

and what they want to get accomplished. If this had been one of the liberal Supreme Court justices, they'd be all over them. They would be all over them. The issue that I have with our political system right now is that that GOP, they tend to stand in solidarity a lot more, a lot more solidly than the Democrats and the left do. They will fight for to the death for, you know, I mean, literally to the death. They kill officers at the Capitol and they, or they, those officers took their lives as a result of the traumas and the issues that they felt. They will fight till the end to support their own causes, to get their own agendas, you know, fulfilled. And here we stand divided, constantly, you know, compromised. You know, we have allowed the left to also become

negotiable. And so it's just interesting to see the way they stand in the gap for one another, knowing that they're wrong. But the Supreme Court is, that's the end right there. Like, If the Supreme Court is a joke now, which it is, and it is slowly becoming a big joke, where does the American person look to to think that there's any type of justice or order in our lawmaking system? I mean, it's just America is a joke. And I hate to say that because I love it here. I don't hate America. But we have to say, we have to call it what it is. This is a joke. And our entire system is broken. We need a wash. Yeah, and we're learning about these things, but they've been happening for many, many years, right?

ProPublica is giving us information from way back when, no telling how many more egregious actions like this have been taken. We will continue to follow, obviously. All right, so this is interesting. Donald Trump, right, talking-ish like he typically does, forgot his own policy would have killed the woman he's bragging about rescuing. All right, hell of a thing. Let's go to it. Here it is. On order, you've said you'd be in favor of the death penalty for drug dealers. Still the case? Yeah, it's the only way you're going to stop it.

All right. Big proponent of the First Step Act, talked about creating death penalty for people who sell drugs, right? Okay, he's about to get called out in his insanity and his hypocrisy and attempt to take credit for everything. And here it is. Here it is. So you were a big proponent of the First Step Act, the criminal justice reform. You even ran an ad during the Super Bowl about it. With gratitude, I want to thank President Donald John Trump.

Critics of that law point out that 13,500 people have been released. About 12% of them have committed serious crimes after that. Joel Francisco was serving life sentence for selling crack cocaine. He was released in 2019, alleged stabbing a man to death, re-arrested. Paul Moore, drug trafficker, a fatally shot, a rival received a reduced sentence. So there are those. And your opponents are hanging on this. Yeah, but I focused on a nonviolent crime.

Yeah, naturally I have more. Do you not find it ironic that the guy from Fox News gave a tougher interview than anyone in the history of CNN with Donald Trump? Okay, so there's more. He can't keep his mouth shut talking tails on himself usually. Here it is. As an example, a woman who you know very well was in jail. She had 24 more years to serve. She served for 22 years.

Alice Johnson. Alice. She was in the Super Bowl. High quality. I said, how many years? And she was on a telephone call and they were involved in selling marijuana, mostly marijuana. And she got like 50 years in jail. But she'd be killed under your plan.

Huh? As a drug dealer. No, no, no, under my, oh, under that. Uh, oh, you mean when I was just talking is for the base? Oh, okay. When I was talking about killing dope dealers, damn, why did you bring that up? I had a moment here. Um, big ups.

Big ups for bringing it up and for being. quick with it and for being prepared for the damn interview. Now, Donald Trump had a policy proclamation, killed drug dealers. That was his policy proclamation. Then he wants to get credit for releasing drug dealers. The hell, wait a minute, this doesn't add up. And it is interesting that he stopped. Here's more. It would depend on the severity. It would depend on the She's technically a former drug dealer. She had multi-million dollar cocaine ring. Any drug dealer, look.

So even Alice Johnson in that ad? She can't do it, okay? By the way, if that was there, no, she wouldn't be killed. It would start as of now, so you wouldn't go to the past. No, I know, but your policy. No, starting now, yeah. But she wouldn't have done it if it was death penalty. In other words, if it was death penalty, she wouldn't have been on that phone call.

Please understand what Donald Trump is offering you. He's offering you, let's say the same thing that a crack dealer would offer during Christmas, maybe giving away toys to the local community, handing out turkeys during Thanksgiving, showing to be a very, very just enlightened individual as relates to these other things. Don't pay attention to this policy, only pay attention to the shiny object I would like to distract you with. Donald Trump does not care about the ideology of conservatives. He does not care about the ideology of Democrats, progressives, etc. He cares about the ideology of Trump. He's concerned about his own power. He's running for president again in order to exact his power in a way that one protects him from

criminal penalty, and number two, allows him to amass more fortune in the future. This is why he's actually running. And if you try to contextualize Donald Trump in any other way, if you try to contextualize him in a political framework, he doesn't fit. If you try to contextualize him in a partisan framework, they don't align. But if you contextualize him in the framework of an egotistical, money hungry, power feeding individual, everything lines up. He's dangerous, as dangerous as they come, because his rush to the bottom in his mind

will save his very life. All right, just says the thoughts. He obviously doesn't know the word deterrent because that's what I'm trying to say. But you know, I just marvel at the fact that they keep giving him audience, that people continue to have conversations with him. They keep legitimizing him. They keep, you know, glorifying him and giving him a platform. And that's very problematic. You know, Donald Trump is an example of, you know, the mediocrity of Americans that are privileged in basking in wealth that came,

you know, from on the backs of other people. We already know that he is an opportunist. You know, he he's an adulterer. He is proudly a sexual assaulter of women. You know, all of these things, he's racist, he's sexist, all of these things he's said out of his mouth proudly. And then he has this constituency of people, I don't even call them constituents. It's a cult following of people who are aligned with him. They think like he, thinks they admire him. They think that they too can get, become billionaires if their fathers give them millions of dollars. It's just amazing to see the way people want to identify with the worst of us. And it has nothing to do with him being a Republican or Democrat because he's,

he switched before, you know, he's just playing the political system to get whatever he wants, and that's power, money, and fame. But it's just sad to see that that we are actually having this conversation, that he is a former president standing in front of the law for committing crimes and that people still worship him in the way that they do. It just speaks, you know, elaborately to how uneducated the American is and how in need of information, like real information and truth and knowledge that the American is in need of. Yeah, I agree. And here's the thing about the first step act. had the potential to do great.

It was really a graduation of President Obama's criminal justice reform. Donald Trump saw an opening. He wanted to one up Obama. He did so slightly, but I want you to know the numbers, all right? First Step Act under Trump, please remember, they also defunded reentry programs that would have actually made sure that individuals had an opportunity to thrive when they were released from these extreme sentences for nonviolent felonies. He defunded those programs and then ordered his prosecutors to literally fight against

individuals who qualified for the program. I've had some of those individuals on my program on my radio show where literally they were out of jail, but the prosecutor wanted to put them back in under a direction of the White House even though they qualified. So please understand this was not an actual reform bill, period. All right, we got more We got more. Go ahead. I just wanted to say something quickly also about the putting the drug dealers in jail. You know, does that include, you know, America has opened the doors to drug dealing, as they call it, where marijuana stores are at every corner here in California.

But, you know, I just really think that a lot of times when he does stuff like that, he is just sending his little call to racist people because they give this idea of drug dealer as being brown and black faces, and that you're going to try to kill these people for committing these crimes without knowing the numbers of how many people who are actual drug dealers in this country as diverse as they come, because wherever there's poverty, there's a drug dealer. And so it's just interesting to me how he even used this black woman as his puppet and held her up in front of everybody, like he freed her, she's nonviolent, then turned around with this policy and saying that, you know, drug dealers should be, you know, inhumanely killed. But it's just amazing how he, he always seems to be speaking to his base.

And it's not because he believes in them or he agrees with them. It's because he knows that if he tells them what they want to hear, they will continue to follow him even if it's off a cliff. There you go. And if you want to dry up drug dealing, dry up the consumer base. Americans consume more dope than any other nation on the planet. And also, if you would like to create more productive individuals outside of that industry, provide more productive opportunities, education, and skill set training. That's how you solve the problem. We got more on the other side, TYT.

All right. Welcome back. We got a lot of show left. Let's talk about something major, evictions all over the United States of America. After a short reprieve during COVID, the COVID-19 pandemic, eviction filings by landlords have, well, They're roaring back, some at record levels driven by rising rent prices, okay? Rising rent prices, a shortage of affordable housing plays into that and lucent tenant protections. Now, together with those factors, you are creating a significant barrier to the progress of working class individuals. They are put in difficult situations, people who are poor, even worse. Okay. Now, for those who are facing things like this, society has a way of looking at it and saying, you failed.

Could not be further from the truth. That is not a failure. That is not a personal failure. It's a policy failure. Any time we're dealing with systemic homelessness, evictions, all of that aligns to a policy failure and not a personal failure. They will love for you to think it's a personal failure so that you do not hold them accountable to give you the proper policy to correct it. All right, eviction filings are more than 50% higher than the pre-pandemic average in some cities. According to the eviction lab, which tracks filings in nearly three dozen cities and 10 states, landlords file around 3.6 million eviction cases every single year.

Among the hardest hit are Houston, where rates are 56% higher in April and 50% higher in May. In Minneapolis, St. Paul, rates rose 106% in March, 55% in April, 63% in May, Nashville was 35% higher. Phoenix 33% higher in May. The latest data mirrors trends that started last year.

With the eviction lab finding nearly 970,000 evictions filed in locations, it tracks, 78.6% increase compared to 2021 when much of the country was following an eviction moratorium. By December, eviction filings were nearly back to pre-pandemic levels. As mentioned, part of the driving force behind increased evictions, rising rental prices. So rent prices nationwide are up at about 5% from a year ago and 30.5% above 2019. The problem, nobody's making 30% more money since 2019. That's according to the real estate company Zillow.

There are few places for displaced tenants to go with the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimating a $7.3 million shortfall of affordable units, excuse me, nationwide. So you have a logistical issue just with the available opportunities for affordable housing. The low income tenants can't count on pandemic resources that kept them housed, all right? Once again, that's a policy issue, right? And many have not found steady work, another policy issue. Their wages have not kept up with the cost of affording somewhere to live, another policy issue. What do you think you pay taxes for? Why do you think we pay taxes in this country is to pay politicians to figure out,

stuff. And if they haven't figured it out, that means that they're failing, not you. They are. There's more. In upstate New York, evictions arising after moratorium lifted last year, 40 of the state 62 counties had higher eviction filings in 2022 than before the pandemic, including two where eviction filings more than doubled compared to 2019. In Texas, evictions were kept down during the pandemic by federal assistance. And the moratoriums, but as protections went away, housing prices skyrocketed in Austin, Dallas and elsewhere, leading to a record 270,000 eviction filing statewide in 2022. These are people. These are not numbers. These are people. Daniel Grubbs Donovan, a research specialist at Princeton University's Eviction Lab says, and I quote, protection, protections have ended. The federal moratorium is obviously over. And emergency rental assistance money has dried up in most places.

Across the country, low income renters are in an even worse situation than before the pandemic due to things like massive increases in rent during the pandemic, inflation, and other pandemic era related financial difficulties. So naturally, homelessness is rising because of this. So let's talk about it from an actual perspective that grants insight and perhaps remedy. We were able to vaccinate damn near the whole world for free. We were able to provide vaccinations for virtually every American that wanted one. No cost. There are Americans starving right now. And we don't have the money to give them.

them a glass or water or a meal. That doesn't make sense, does it? You see, the reason why the engagement of the vaccine was successful is because they found a collective reason to do so. It was all about political will, not about money. Have you ever heard somebody go to the United States Congress and argue that we really should go to war with this particular country? We just don't have it in the budget this year. We always have enough money. to kill people and blow things up. It's never an argument about resources when it comes to war. But when it comes to domestic policies, they want you to think we broke.

We don't have the money, we don't have the resources. Damn lies, all lies, don't fall for it. They are trying to reframe the debate so you don't even know what the solution is because they're hiding it from you. There's more. There is a small sliver of good news as some protections born out of out of the pandemic of being made permanent. Nationwide, 200 measures have passed since January 2021, including legal representation with tenants,

sealing eviction records and mediation to resolve cases before they reach court. These measures are credited with keeping eviction filings down in several cities, including New York City in Philadelphia, 41% below pre-pandemic levels in May for the summer and 33% for the latter. If your city is not doing this,

your city is failing you. They're failing you. Now, there's more we can do, but that's the bare minimum. And my dissist, I'm going to pose to you cause and effect. How do you see it? What's the remedy? I mean, the remedy is so, we're so deep in it right now, right? This is, this is ridiculous and embarrassing that after a pandemic, the rent has gone up and the assistance for the American has gone down. There's no mental health care that is accessible to every American as it should be after they went through a traumatic period of being not only locked up in their homes, but constantly reminded that they were faced with their mortality.

The reality of it is when stuff like this happened, homelessness is up, crime goes up, and people who are complaining about having unhoused people living on their block have to suffer the consequences. of those people because they have nowhere to go. We have money to put museums and artwork inside of airports. They have waterworks inside of airports. I live in an airport. I never stop to look at any of the artwork. I don't need my tax dollars to put beautiful artwork inside of an airport. I need my roads to get fixed. But before I need the roads to get fixed, I would love for the people that are sleeping in my neighborhood to have a warm place to sleep and have some food and some socks on their feet. But the American, the problem is we don't, we are so polarized. We've gotten so caught up in political theater that we've forgotten about humanity. And the problem is that we

will bite our noses to spite our faces when we vote. And we do not care. We keep the same people in office who misappropriate our funds, ignore our needs. These people who work for us have have flipped the script and got us acting like we work for them. And we are not standing up for not even our own communities because this is a regional issue as much as it is a national issue. And if people in America really took it upon themselves to fire these people who have been in office forever. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for

you, no matter the size. Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget. After all, you're in your small space era. It's time to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca. And nothing has changed in your situation. And I beg you to tell me, like, under which administration has life ever really gotten better for black poor people in this country, Brown poor people in this country, white poor people in this country if you want to get if you want to get jiggy with it.

The reality evidence is nothing has gotten better for anybody and we do not ever use our power to vote in a very local way to get rid of the people who are in charge of the money that are there for the resources of the people in the community. And it's getting old. It's tired. We keep saying this stuff. I don't get nothing from the Republicans nor the Democrats. I know that they are trash. on both sides and the problem with this country is that everybody is negotiable and nobody cares about the average American and we better do it because they're not going to do it for us. That's right. Here's the reality. Any economist would tell you that in order for capitalism, especially the corporate ties kind of we have in America to thrive, it requires one thing. A permanent underclass requires that. Individuals who are willing to work for very little in order to give a corporation very much.

And this is a structural design. It's intentional, okay? Philadelphia, I gotta highlight this, 70%, 70% of more than 5,000 tenants and landlords who took part in an eviction diversion program resolved their cases. 70% is a high number. That's called a successful program.

The city also set aside 30 million in assistance for those with less than 3,000. in arrears, okay, and started a right to council program, doubling representation rates, but tenants. But in New York City, the cost of rent, stabilized apartments are set to rise for the second year in a row so that dip in eviction filings may soon rise from where it's at today.

So you have one policy counteracting another, but at the end of the day, this is a policy discussion. This is not a personal failure of anyone, all right? Okay, unpopular opinions. All right, next, we got it. It's going to be interesting. Got more on the other side. Stick and stay.

All right, welcome back. Chris Christie, the man who is bold enough to go after Donald Trump, but was afraid of him a few years ago and empowered Donald Trump to basically violate the country for four years. He's speaking out again, Chris Christie, in a very unpopular opinion, should be quite interesting. He has admitted to being a proponent of slashing Social Security, which, by the way, Every conservative has basically said they would until they are called out on it. Here it is. We need to deal with Social Security because 2034, 24% benefit cut.

There are millions of people in this country. You won't talk about that if you're the nominee. Of course I will. I'm talking about it right now. Once again, we don't have enough money for those who have worked their entire lives in America. we don't have enough money for them, we got to do something. We have to increase the age, decrease the amount, put it in a private equity firm or whatever the hell they're proposing today. But once again, they will have enough money to kill as many people as they choose, to bomb as many countries as they deem necessary. But not enough money to take care of Mamadale who paid everything already. According to a recent Ipsis poll, nearly nine in 10 Americans oppose reducing spending on Social Security for Medicare. All right. Share of U.S. adults who say they oppose reducing spending in select areas. Look at it. Look at it.

Now, stay there for a minute. Keep that graphic up because I want to make a comparison here. If your elected leaders are people who are asking for you to vote for them, remember what they're asking for, they're not asking for a vote, they're asking for you to allow them to represent you. Let me say that again, for you to allow them to represent you. If you do not believe there should be a reduction in Social Security and Medicaid, you should not vote for a person who will represent that value, because it's contrary to yours. But we still have this happening with guns in America. We have it happening as it relates to a woman's right to choose in America. Literally, there are people who say, both of me, I represent you, but I won't represent that value.

And I won't represent this value. I won't represent that. And they still get elected by the same people that would say they disagree with the values of the individual they just voted for. There's more. 88% opposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare. That's what it is, 76% opposed cuts to Medicaid and food assistance. And coming in below both of those, 66%, they oppose cuts to national security.

All right, isn't that interesting? A UGov poll found that Social Security and Medicare are among the most popular, they call entitlement programs. Democrats and Republicans both view each of them more favorably than not. And let me correct the record, an entitlement program is not what you already pay in. You are, let's say a corporation. If you are a corporation and you get a tax abatement benefit because you're just a corporation and the state likes you, that's entitlement. Now, that's a damn entitlement program for your ass.

That kind of program, we don't even understand. We've never experienced that kind of program. But these programs exist all over the place, and we don't ever contextualize it as an entitlement program for them. A majority of Americans, 57%, say Social Security should be given more funding. 1 in 5, 21% want its funding to remain at current levels, and just 11% would actually want it to be reduced. 66% of Democrats want Social Security to get more funding. Fifth and four percent of Republicans both the same damn thing. More funding, not less.

More funding, not less. But once again, 96% of Americans believe that police reform is required. Over 90% of Americans agree with having background checks for folks that buy all guns. They're not representing you as my point. If the majority of Americans believe in these things, and there is not one single piece of legislation taken seriously to promote these values, we have a disconnect between all political classes and us. This sister thoughts. Well, man, it's really unfortunate the way we treat the elderly in this country. And people that are in their 60s and 70s are still working in America because they cannot afford to live off of Social Security. My mother's on Social Security and I have to support her. I think it's embarrassing, I think it's sad.

It's become this American view or this American thing when I come from people that come from different countries and they'll say Americans don't care about the elderly in Asia. They revere and respect the elderly in Africa. They revere and respect the elderly everywhere else. But in America, it's like you are only valuable as long as you are making money for these corporations. But those people work for that money. Social Security is a benefit that you earn from the taxes that you paid while you were working. And imagine all of you people who are voting against it now where your dollars are going to go when you become older. This whole idea and attack the ageism in this country, it is the one acceptable ageism that doesn't, I mean,

ism that doesn't have any consequences. It is just so awful to hear. But like you said, the majority of people in this country do want social security. Most of us wanted to go up because we want our elderly to be cared for. We want people to, we want their needs to be met. Most of us do know that welfare and food stamps is essential for some people's survival so they don't end up on the streets and enjoying the unhoused. You know, I think that the majority of the people in this country are not rich, are not driving G-wagons, do not have an excessive. of diamonds and can take trips, you know, whenever they want. Most people in this country are working.

We respected them during the pandemic because they were risking their lives for us. And we called them essential. Now we have forgotten about them. They're getting evicted and losing their homes. And we continue to have the same conversations over and over again at nauseam. And nothing gets, nothing seems to change. And at some point, we have to be accountable for our actions. And when we talk about actions, I'm talking about voting.

Because Republicans nor Democrats have made the world better for any of us. They are doing, like I said, political theater, they're tweeting, they have time to go out. They when they decide that they are not in session, they go and do the things that they need to do. They have health care. Their kids go to the best schools. They live in the good neighborhoods. They have the nice clothes. They live the better lives. And here you are American struggling for your basic needs and you continue to employ these people who are supposed to be working for you. At some point, we have to do something. Social security is essential.

Our elderly need us to take care of them the way they took care of us, as you said. But now we're not doing anybody a favor. These people worked for that money and they are entitled to it and they should have more of it. Absolutely, 100% concur. And you made some powerful points that I want to highlight essential workers. Man, it was a great terminology, was it not? But I hated to remind essential workers of this one thing. If they don't give you essential pain, that's right.

Don't fall for them really believing you are an essential worker. You are a necessary worker for them to keep their bottom line going to be a catalyst to their interest. But if you were essential, they would provide you with the essential. resources, the necessities required for life, but they won't. And to your point about electing individuals who cannot understand our environment, where we come from, our experiences, keep in mind, everybody is a collection of three E's, me included, experiences, exposures, and environments. That's who we are. That's all we are. We are experiences, exposures, and environments. We have comforts,

to a place where we elect good branders, they can brand themselves as if they are so connected and down with your calls. But look at where they come from, what they have come through, what they have endured, what they have fought for, what they have sacrificed, what they have changed when nobody was watching. Experience, exposure, and environment. These folks, they are so disconnected. They'll make a policy decision adverse to your entire family with a smile. because of their experiences, exposures, and environments. Now, ironically, Donald Trump is actually connected to the base in a way that other Republicans are not. So at least one issue where Trump is clearly more in touch is here in rhetoric at minimum, not his actual policy because he's called out Republican opponents for wanting to cut Social Security safety net program.

So the Trump campaign said that as President Trump, and I quote, has consistently showed he would always protect entitlements. And contrast, the Santis has consistently voted to cut entitlements and has long advocated raising the age of retirement. Even with his incredibly unpopular economic positions, Krista believes he is what it takes. He's the person he got it to beat Trump. All right, here it is. There's a lot to say and a lot to differentiate, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. And nobody else in this race is willing to do it. They're afraid to do it or they're unable to do it.

Why is that? Well, I think over time, you know, Donald Trump has cowed a lot of people, Becky. And, you know, people get upset about being called names in public. I'm from New Jersey. I get called names in public all the time. It doesn't matter. I'm used to it. And I've known him for 22 years.

I think the difference is most of the people in politics have only known him for 80. or nine or 10 years. I've known for 22 years. I'm not afraid of him. He's a paper tiger. But he called you names too. And you didn't do a damn thing about it, sir. See, that's how I would have answered Chris Christie in that moment. All right, my sister, what's your thoughts? No, I was like, didn't he go get his dry cleaning or something? Didn't he say that? Damn. You know, it's so funny how everybody's like so bold and talking about the differences of this one and the other one. The reality of it is, this is all garbage. And that to sit there and advocate for Social Security to get cut or to be, you know, reduced or whatever it is, because you got a 401k, you got a pension,

you got all the protections that a lot of people don't have. So you can advocate for Social Security to be less than for those people. It's so, it's so just wrong and it's so disgusting, man. You know, the people in this country are struggling. They're struggling. And it's in the mind, too, because they voted for that military spending because they're being constantly reminded that we are under attack, that we're in danger. The propaganda is always having the American live in fear. But it's also so sad that they are in the state of not knowing that they're voting against their best interests because they don't know any better. And when you don't know better, you can't do better.

There it is. All right. Farewell said. We got more on the other side. Stick and stay. 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.

slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon