The Young Turks - Tom Perez Bows Before Big Oil; Wilbur Ross Proves He’s Corrupt Enough For Trump’s Cabinet

Episode Date: August 13, 2018

A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from August 13, 2018. For more go to http://www.tytnetwork.com/join. Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian. New details on Wilbur Ross financial dealings and ethics issues. DNC backtracks on fossil fuel donation ban. Teachers union urges pension divestment from private prisons. Trump signs defense authorization bill. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Thank you for watching or listening to this free podcast of the Young Turks. We want to make sure that you get some portion of the show every day. But if you want the full show, which is actually five segments, come become a member and support independent media as well. TYT network.com slash join. Meanwhile, enjoy the free podcast.

No, no, I got to be honest with you guys, we're going to have an excellent with you guys. We're gonna have an excellent show tonight. It is chock full of amazing stories and twists and turns as usual, okay? These are our twists and turns go. So my new favorite person in the world is Stephen Miller's uncle. If you haven't seen his op-ed, you're going to love it. So that's one of the henchmen for Donald Trump, but his uncle turns out to be one of the best men in America. I'm going to Philly soon. I want to go find him and give him a hug. Anyway, you'll see. We will attack and defend Trump at different turns. There are nipples and dildos on the show. Okay, it's in the news. It's not me. Okay, it's in the news. Donald Trump's diplomacy

apparently involves buttons and nipples. You'll understand what the hell we're talking about when we get to that story. Then there's Sasha Baron Cohen. That's where, of course, the dildo comes into play. You can't make this stuff up, okay? But Amoroso might try. So we've got her in the story as well. Which parts is she telling the truth about? Which parts is she lying about? There's actually some decent evidence to adjudicate that, and we will. And then if you are a member, you're going to love a couple of stories I've got for you guys from over the weekend in the post game. So one of them is about a particularly interesting TYT viewer. That story has lots and twists and turns, including who did he vote for?

So that story's a roller coaster ride. That's in the postgame. TYT.com slash join to become a member and get all of our shows, including the postgame. Let's go over here. Wilbur Ross is the Commerce Secretary and apparently a bit of a scam artist. Now, for Donald Trump, that is not the bug. That's the feature. He is called Ross, quote, a legendary Wall Street genius.

Well, he has invented new ways to rip people off as you're about to see this from this story in Forbes magazine. So it's a business publication that has written about this. In the past, they've written about how he has lied about his wealth. And no, I'm not talking about Trump, I'm talking about Wilbur Ross, but, you know, peas in a pod here. Trump once explained in these particular positions referring to his cabinet, like Wilbur Ross, I just don't want a poor person.

All right, so Wilbur Ross is wealthy. It's unclear how much money he has, but it is a lot. So let's find out how he made it. So let's go to Forbes magazine, where they outline a number of lawsuits. against him and a number of action, legal actions taken against him, that give you a sense of how he made it. He had his own firm that he ran, W.L. Ross and Company. Well, in that company, he worked with a lot of different people, and a lot of them have sued him. Why? He apparently just took their money. He's called co-workers, let alone the clients. We'll get to that

as well. He's like, oh, yeah, I was going to give you this. Wrong. I'm just going to take it instead. What? They admit it. So hold. One of those guys is a private equity manager named David Storper. So they're doing private equity together. They're colleagues, co-workers, and here's what happens next. So three years ago, Storper launched what became a $4 million lawsuit against both his former employer, W.L. Ross, that's the company, and former boss, the Commerce Secretary, alleging that Ross stole his interests. Not, hey, there was a misunderstanding or he put it in that account when he should have put it in this account. No, he just took it.

Okay, so here comes some of the admissions. Attorneys for Wilbur Ross admitted in court filings that one of his companies took Storper's interest and reallocated part of it to the Commerce Secretary. Oh, I guess that's how it works. We're now calling it reallocating. But Ross's lawyers also insisted all that was allowed under internal agreements. Simply put, they wrote, this lawsuit is a personal vendetta against Mr. Ross. After a judge rejected attempts to prevent the case from going to trial, just days before

the jury selections, the two sides agreed to settle. So if you're not a lawyer, I could decipher that last part for you. They're like, Your Honor, this is a personal vendetta. I mean, I took his money and reallocated into my bank account, but we shouldn't let this trial go forward. The judge's like, no, this trial's going forward and it's going to a jury because they've got plenty of evidence. So right before they go to the jury and the trial, Wilbur Ross's turn, like, okay, fine, fine, we did it. Come on, let's just settle, okay?

I mean, look, we stole four million. What do you need back? Two million, three million? So it's not clear exactly how much they returned to Mr. Storper. And it's not a guy that I particularly care about. He decided to go into business with an incredibly shady guy like Wilbur Ross. But it gives you a sense of how little there is honor among thieves. So that is amazing.

You rip off your clients, that's terrible. But unfortunately, a lot of people do that on Wall Street. You rip off the average American. That's just standard practice, unfortunately. Not in all of Wall Street, but in big parts of Wall Street. But your own coworkers. Like, oh, hey, where's my salary, Wilbur? Oh, I reallocated it.

Where? to my salary. What? What? So, and it's not the only time he did it. I've got more. It's actually Dan Alexander writing in Forbes magazine. Great story. He says, what makes it all the more than a typical he says, she said dispute is a number of similar complaints against Ross. A third former W.L. Ross employee, Joseph Mullen, filed a $3.6 million lawsuit in December of 2016, saying W. L. Ross funds, quote, looted his interests, quote, for the personal benefit of Wilbur L. Ross Jr., an attempt, attempted to conceal their misconduct through opaque and misleading tax statements and disclosures. And there was another guy in there as well,

but that's three different guys who were like, he just stole my money. And other guys like, well, while we were working together, he looted my money. So you're being to get a sense of how Wilbur Ross does business. And guys like Wilbur Ross, by the way, don't settle cases if they didn't do it. Now, other people might want to make stuff go away and settlements happen and maybe they happen for lower numbers. That's all normal, right? Millions of dollars in settlements for a guy is like Wilbur Ross who's looking to reallocate

funds, et cetera, he ain't going to reallocate him back if he didn't do it. That's my personal opinion. All right. Storper and two other former high ranking executives at W.L. filed yet another lawsuit against the Commerce Secretary in November, alleging that he and his firm charged at least $48 million of improper fees, then pocketed the money. It was a slow siphoning rather than a one-time heist, according to the lawsuit.

So other executives at the company are like, oh yeah, if you thought it was bad what he was doing to his coworkers, wait until you get a load of what he was doing to his clients. That's a $48 million lawsuit. So, look, and it's true. From time to time, there are lawsuits that don't have any merit, and it happens, right? But one after another, after another, after another, after another, they're all saying the same thing, looted, stole, stole from clients, stole from coworkers. They go to trial, or they're about to go to trial.

He says, fine, fine, fine, right here, he'd take millions of dollars. And unfortunately, this is what Donald Trump does. This is what Wilbur Ross does. They steal so much money, and then you have to sue them, and they give you a portion of the stolen money back in settlements, and at the end of the day, they got away with it. And they got more than they had to give back. God, that is so maddening the injustice of it. And then they go around bragging about how rich they are, and the rest of the society

They treat them like, well, well, I think, so Wilbur Ross, you're a Wall Street genius. You know how to rob people for a living. Genius, Mr. Ross, Mr. Ross, and he's now a cabinet secretary. He's supposed to be representing us. Now, who do you think Wilbur Ross is representing right now as commissary, his commerce secretary? You think he's representing you and looking out for your best interest? This guy? I'm not even done with him yet.

Hold. Then there are the smaller anecdotal stories that give you a sense of his character. and then we'll end on a couple of big ones. And Forbes talked to dozens of people that know Ross. One says workers at his house in the Hamptons used to call to office claiming Ross had not paid them for their work. And other two people said Ross once pledged a million dollars to a charity, then never paid. Who does that sound like? Sounds like his boss, Donald Trump.

Look, you got a house in the Hamptons, a lot of people, you know. 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 powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-F-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. Now, like to mischaracterize progressives and say, oh, you don't want to, you don't want anybody to have a house in the Hamptons. No, no, have your house in the Hamptons. Just pay your workers. That's crazy. You have enough to have a house in the Hamptons. And then your workers, after working for an honest day's work or doing an honest day's work, have to go and beg for their money because you wouldn't pay them. Jesus Christ, man. Okay. Then there are bigger allegations, as Alexander explains.

Over several months and speaking with 21 people who know Ross, Forbes uncovered a pattern. Many of those who worked directly with him claimed that Ross wrongly siphoned or outright stole a few million here and a few million there. Huge amounts for most, but not necessarily for the Commerce Secretary, at least if you consider them individually. But all told, these allegations which sparked lawsuits, reimbursements, and an SEC fine come to more than, $120 million. Well, if you stole $120 million, you'd also be rich, and then you'd be considered a Wall Street genius, and then you might be a cabinet secretary. Now, are all those lawsuits right?

You know, hard to know. Are all the numbers right? Hard to know, of course. And most of the time, we don't get to find out, because if it went all the way through the trial, he'd probably lose. And somebody at some point should actually take some sort of action to stop guys like this from stealing on a regular basis because apparently just giving some portion of the proceeds back is not a good enough disincentive.

I don't know if there's anything that could be done on criminal charges, but it doesn't matter. They run the government now. So, you know, the saying about the inmates running the asylum, well, the robbers are running the bank, basically. And unfortunately, it's our bank, it's the United States government, it's taxpayer funds. They now control, and God knows what they're doing, the loot that. So these are big, big numbers that he's accused of ripping off. So his lawyers and himself, in his statement, they said something rather bizarre.

They said, the SEC has never initiated any enforcement against action against me. Ross said in a statement, failing to mention the $2.3 million fine it levied against his firm in 2016. I don't know if he's being cute and saying, well, technically it wasn't me. It was the firm I was running, the one that was named after me, the one I was in charge of. But either way, it's not cute, and it's not just allegations by other people where you can't be sure exactly if they're telling the truth or not. It's the SEC. And the SEC is not going around trying to pick on rich people for a personal vend.

There's nothing personal. There's no vendettas. There's no nothing, okay? If you paid a $2.3 million fine and you agreed to pay that fine against the SEC, See? Trust me, brother, you did it. Roughly two months before the 2016 presidential election, the SEC announced W.L. Ross was paying a fine and refunding $11.9 million. It allegedly skimmed from its investors, including interest. Wilbur Ross is not the kind of guy to pay back $12 million and then pay $2.3 million fine on top if he didn't do it.

So this is our Commerce Secretary. This is the Trump administration. What was that about draining the swamp? All right. So now we go from the Republicans and the usual tremendous disappointment with them to the usual tremendous disappointment with Democrats. Hey, good news, everybody. A couple of months ago, the DNC said, we are not taking any more money from five. fossil fuel companies.

Hey, terrific, okay? So, and just when people thought the DNC didn't have any principles and weren't really progressives. No, they're standing up. These guys lead to climate change. It's terrible for our environment. It's terrible for our health. And the DNC has morals and principles.

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm getting worried that they have changed their mind. Yeah, kind of knew that before the story started. We're having fun. We're having fun with disastrous stories. So, guess what happened? At the end of last week, there was a new resolution. The resolution introduced by DSE chair, Tom Perez, states that the party supports fossil fuel workers, hilarious, and will accept donations from employers' political action committees. Wait, I thought you were all of a sudden concerned about the fossil fuel employees.

So if you said, hey, and there was a proposal, by the way, you work in a fossil fuel. fuel company, you're Americans like everybody else, you've got a right to donate and to care about this country, no problem, you know, and how about, you know, letting them donate as employees up to $200, okay, to show their personal interest in a, in the Democratic Party or particular candidates, that makes sense, that proposal was defeated. Instead, what they're going to do is to help the workers, they're going to take money from their employers. That's not helping the workers.

That's taking money from the companies themselves so that you will serve those companies. Let's call it what it is. I got more details. So this is their explanation, the DNCs. The new resolution nods to, quote, forward-looking employers, oh, I'm sure,

that are, quote, powering America's all of the above-energy economy and moving us towards a future fueled by clean and low-emissions energy technology from renewables to carbon capture and storage to advance nuclear technology. Yeah, in other words, yeah, we're taking money from the fossil fuel companies. That's what we decided to do.

But don't worry that the DNC assures you as they have year after year. Oh, no, when we take millions of dollars from fossil fuel companies, we will not serve them. We'll just take their money and then actually fight for climate change. We'll see at the end of the story if Democrats have actually done that, but I don't need to explain it to you. It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican or an independent. And you already know how this story ends. You know it as a big picture.

The only people in the world who believe that politicians take money from giant corporations and do not do what those corporations say are the people who are on television or who work in Washington. All of the rest of us know that that's total and utter horse crap, that it's bribes. And yes, you work for them. Just admit it. I know they won't. And they'll say, how dare you?

The Democrats who take bribes are so much more honest than the Republicans who take bribes. No, they're just dumber, as I'll explain the facts behind that in a second as well. So a DNC spokeswoman said that the resolution came in response to concerns from labor that the original fossil fuel donations ban was, quote, an attack on workers. Get the hell out of here. attack on workers. I mean, look, I was going to take money from ExxonMobil, and I want to because I don't want to attack their workers. No, you just want to take bribes from ExxonMobil. Just say it. Your patronizing language here is so annoying. You think we're stupid.

Look, I'll grant you that it probably does work because the mainstream media will largely write it as like, oh, they are concerned about the workers. That's what they said. That's what I'm a stenographer. That's what they say that they were concerned about the workers. Please. Now, is labor concerned do the unions from those industries also want to give money to the DNC? Probably. Yes.

And is the DNC also affected by that and maybe even more affected by that? Maybe. So is there a laborer and union angle here? Yes. Is that smart way of conducting politics? No. No. Like I said, numbers in a second.

But so what an activist thing? Because if it's a good hearted effort and they're actually trying to help to work, But the people who care about climate change, well, they'll come out and say, no, no, guys, you're misreading it. It's really not that bad. No, they're furious. I can give you a lot of quotes. I'll just give you one tweet here from Kate Aronoff.

She said to put a fine point on it, this proposal isn't to let union members keep donating to the DNC. It's to let fossil fuel executives keep donating and selling influence among Democrats. Certain unions, including building trades, see their interests as aligned. with those of executives, and that is exactly what is wrong with the union strategy, as well as the Democratic Party strategy. A lot of the unions are in favor of money in politics, because they're like, well, we give money, too.

Conservers ask me all the time, whether it's an organization like Wolfpack that wants to get money out of politics, wolf-pac.com, we say it's nonpartisan. They're like, oh, really? Would you take the union money out? Yes, yes, yes. We would definitely take the union money out of politics. We would also take the corporate money out of politics. We would take all private financing of elections out of politics because otherwise they work

for private interests. And I don't care much if it's the unions or corporations. I don't want anyone bribing our politicians. And in this case, it's both. So let's examine now the numbers that I promised you on whether this is a good strategy or not vis-a-vis the Republican Party. And by the way, Alexander Kaufman writing a very good piece here in Huff Post that I'm quoting. He writes, oil and gas companies spent a record $7.6 million on Democratic races in 2016.

Well, I'm sure they wanted nothing in return. Anyway, but let's keep going. Let's see if that's a good strategy. That's a pittance compared to the $53.7 million in direct donations to Republicans, who received 88% of the industry's contributions during that election cycle. Republicans have taken in 89% of the industry's donations so far in 2018. That figure rises to 95% of the coal sector's largest this year. So, at TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives,

constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cybercriminals. And it's also easy to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices.

But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash T-Y-T. Check it out today. What do you think the oil companies are paying the Democrats for? It's obvious that they like the Republicans more because the Republicans deregulate them more.

They cut their taxes. They let them get away with endangering their workers. They love the Republican Party. So why bother giving 12% of the Democrats? so that you could buy their pathetic compliance. Be a good boy, okay? Democratic Party, sit down and shut up and let the Republicans do whatever they want, and then do your job, go on a press conference, and say, oh, there was nothing we could do.

Oh, my God. I mean, I happen to take millions of dollars from the fossil fuel companies. I happen to only take 12% because I'm an idiot. And I happen to be a loser, and I'm paid to be a loser. But when the Republicans said that the fossil fuel companies can do whatever they want, golly gee, there was nothing I could do. They are the Washington generals to the Republicans' Harlem Globetrotters in corruption. By the way, if you're a Republican, what are you celebrating?

If you're a Republican voter, are you celebrating that the Republicans have won the corruption game, that they're more corrupt? No, the Republican Party is loathsome. They're vomitous. But we already know they're corruption. I don't know there's some Republican voters that are out there denying it, oh, yeah, we're draining the swamp. Yeah, good luck with that horse crap, too. But the Democratic Party pretends to be on our side, and for two months, I mean, what a pathetic effort.

For two months, they're like, oh, we will be principled for two months, and then we will turn our back on you as always. Because our job's to lose. How do you think taking 12% of the money is going to lead to victories for you? It is going to lead to inevitable losses. Here's a crazy idea. I know you can't get off the crack of donor money because it goes into your pocket. It goes into the pockets of the people who work in the DNC. They're lobbyist friends, their consultant friends.

It goes into all your pockets. But what does it lead to? It leads to permanent losses. How could you possibly win with 12%. So the crazy idea is don't take the money, run uncorrupted campaigns where you go and the American people, God damn it, aren't you sick of the corruption? Every single poll says yes, God damn it, yes, they're sick of the corruption. That message will light this country on fire.

It'll work with independents. It'll even work with some Republicans because they hate the corruption. Their voters hate it, right? Instead, you're like, I'm going to be just as corrupt, but take less money. Do you think there's a good strategy? No, I think you're a goddamn loser and corrupt. Am I being clear enough? So what do they buy?

What are the results? Let's take a look, because some Democrats claim to really care about climate change. Some don't even bother. But these are the ones that claim to care. On the national level, most bills from Democrats who purport to be Congress's biggest climate hawks amount to half measures, either exempting major polluters such as the meat industry, directing carbon tax revenues that could be used to mitigate the effects of climate change to lowering taxes, of course, to serve their donors even more.

or waiting until 2050 to end fossil fuel use. And that's the best proposals we have. The rest of the Democratic Party is even worse shape. Barney Frank once said when being interviewed on the Young Turks, what do you want us to take? None of the banker money instead of 20%. Yes, Barney Frank, you schmuck. If you take 20% of the donor money, then you're...

in a 4-1 hole. I don't know if you can do math. They're going to outgun you four-to-one. You're always going to be in a permanent minority status. For what? For their crumbs? You beg these donors for their crumbs. And then they get mad at me for getting mad.

If you're not mad, you're not paying attention. Young Turks. You're right in the middle of this podcast. We've got another great segment coming up for you. If you'd like the full show, which is actually five segments, go to t-y-tnetwork.com slash join, you become a member, you support the show, you support independent media, and you get the whole two-hour show ad-free every day. Let's go do it now.

All right, back on our young turks, I'm actually going to tell you a good story about unions in a second, but I got worked up in that last segment. All right, so let's read some tweets and some comments. Gabby Marita 86 says, so when rich white dudes steal, it's really just reallocation. Is that like affluenza, but without the pretext? kind of, and then Forrest to Mintero, writes in, gets caught shoplifting. Quote, it's okay, officer, I'm just reallocating this shirt into my closet. Indeed.

So Lara G. on YouTube super chat says, hi guys. I creepily sent Anna a message on Insta about this weekend, but I'm a former Republican that can honestly say your show has changed the entire way I approach politics. You do you, boo-boos. Why, thank you, Lara, and you do you as well, boo-boo, right back at you. Okay, and boy, can I relate, I'm also a former Republican. All right, so Little Mac says, sent an email to Army at t-y-t.com to help go through research and write reports, but has been deliverable for over 48 hours.

I want in, how can I help retired veteran with MBA and nothing but time on my hands? So Little Mac, I love you on a thousand different levels. Thank you for using YouTube super chat. That helps the show. Secondly, I had a conversation this morning with General Fleschner, and about the Army, and we are working on it, and we are going to do different divisions, including research. We are looking forward to having you as part of that division, okay? Third of all, already great results.

We believe that the AP definitely responded to us when they did their so-called fact-check of Bernie Sanders Medicare for All. And then when we hit them again, they got hundreds of more tweets and emails. So they have heard you loud and clear. So that is, that's great work by you guys. And we're only going to get better and better as we organize better or better. There's now over, I think, 262 people in the TYT army. We just started a couple of weeks ago.

So we're going to figure out exactly what the media is doing most wrong, thanks to you guys. And then go get them. And again, the whole point is not to destroy the media. It's to help the media do a better job, and I think it's clear that they are, have an establishment bias. All right, Richard Atkinson says on YouTube super chat, oil companies donate to Democrats, so they win either way. But Jenks says keep voting for those Dems, even though he knows they are not on our side.

Stop voting for them even in general elections. Richard, to that, I say, it depends. And so you say, hey, Jank, that's unacceptable. It doesn't depend. I'm not going to vote for a guy. blah da da da da da we've had this debate a thousand times we'll have it probably at a thousand more times first of all anyone who complains about the democratic party and is going to vote for an independent in the general election you better have voted in the primaries so look sometimes in the

primaries you have no good choices a bunch of corporate you know people and they they're all obviously like in Hawaii look I and I should tell you that I'm I was wrong about that race That's two in a row that I've gotten wrong, and you've got to keep it real. Kanyella Ing lost over the weekend, okay? Came in fourth. He started in fourth, he finished in fourth. I was wrong, okay? He was a great progressive, but didn't win.

The other people above him, total corporate lobbyists. If Kanyella was not in that race, then you say, I don't want to vote in that primary. It's a hotel lobbyist versus a private prison lobbyist. Okay, I hear you, brothers and sisters. But when you got somebody like Kanye Lange, who's a great progressive in the race, get out there and vote in the primaries. Then if he loses, like Ed Case, so he won the primary, Ed Case is a total blue dog Democrat. Hawaii, the most progressive state, put a massively pro-war, pro-tax cuts for the rich Democrat in as their choice. Now, what are you going to do?

You're going to vote for a Republican? How does that make it better? Then you've eliminated all doubt as to whether he'll be pro-war and pro-taxed for the rich. At least with a Democrat, you might be able to pressure him, et cetera. Did I want Ed Case to win? Hell no. Hawaii made a terrible mistake. By the way, their press is unbelievably corrupt and helps the corrupt like they did with Ed Case.

But, I mean, you know, you saw 2016, you saw Donald Trump, we live with this nightmare every day. And you're still saying, no, no, it's okay if Donald Trump win. Well, I don't agree. I don't agree. It's my job to keep it real, both against the Democratic Party, and that establishment despises me, okay? And with you guys, when it comes to both primaries and general elections, that's my job. All right, let's go over here, give you guys some good news for a change.

Okay. Well, sometimes unions are frustrating because they have not done a great job of fighting to get money out of politics, and I talk about it on the show. Sometimes they're fantasticists. They fight for their workers, and they get them better wages, better pensions, better hours. So we are honest about the ups and the downs. Well, I got good news for you, because there's a union now doing something fantastic that we could all get behind. So Reuters explains a labor union representing American teachers on Friday urged pension funds to cut their exposure to investment firms that have funneled millions of dollars into private prisons, saying

the companies are getting rich on the U.S. government's practice of separating migrant families. Now, that is true, and that is plenty enough reason to make sure that none of the money that you invest goes into supporting private prisons, including your pension funds, no matter what pension you are part of. But you don't even need that. Private prisons are an anathema to America. They imprison people and take away their liberty and their freedom for a profit. They then give money to politicians and tell them the right laws to imprison more fellow Americans. Right or wrong. You think they care if you're guilty or not? It's a private prison. They're in a profit-making business. If they had a CEO who said, no, no, no, I don't

care about profits. Let's make sure that even if it means that we go out of business, that we have justices in this country and have less people go into prison. That CEO would be fired immediately because he would be not doing his fiduciary responsibility. No, they're incentivized to create more prisoners. That's us. It's not a foreign country. They're imprisoning us, let alone the migrants that are coming in. So the good news continues in this case. The American Federation of Teachers, that's the union in this story, which influences over $1 trillion in public teacher pension plans, published a report identifying more than two dozen firms that bet on jail operators core civic incorporated GEO Group, Incorporated, and defense contractor General Dynamics Corporation,

which has contracts with migrant shelters. It sent the report to pensions around the country, warning such investments could be hazardous. General Dynamics says, no, no, no, you misunderstand us. We don't imprison migrant kids. Well, you must be so proud. You only imprison migrants or other people for profit while you're starting other wars. That's a trillion dollar pension fund. That is the real power of the unions.

They should use that a lot more. That's the only thing that people care about it. And look, if you read the big short by Michael Lewis or have targeted. to so many people that work in finance, they consider, unfortunately, the pensions to be the suckers at the table. At the end, if things collapse again, guess who's going to get hurt the most? The average American worker, they're going to take so much out of those pensions, go, oh well, there was nothing we could do.

The market crashed. Hey, we all got our bonuses. We all got our money out. Everybody's still rich, except you guys, you lost your pensions. I'm telling you ahead of time, that's what's going to happen. So for all the unions with those trillion-dollar pension funds, use your leverage. God bless the American Federation of Teachers in this case, a wonderful thing to do. We should end all private prisons in this country.

Hashtag end private prisons. There's no excuse for them. It's like having private cops. Oh, no, no, no. I'm sure they'll do the right thing and defend the poor anyway, not just the people who are paying them, who are the rich. Who would be so foolishest to believe that? Private fire departments, that would be insane. Private prisons is equally, if not more, insane.

Last thing here on the overall trend, and this is a totally positive story, which is rare in this day and age, but look at this great trend. Several prominent pension funds, including the California State Teachers' Retirement System and the Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund are evaluating their investments in private prisons. Last year, New York City pension funds were the first to fully divest from the private prison industry, the report said. Wonderful. Every pension fund should demand to divest from private prisons, which is a scourge upon this country who are incentivized to lock up and take away people's freedom so they can make a profit and a buck off of it. It is an outrage. We should

end all private prisons in this country. Young Turks. All right, back on the Young Turks. Hey, Anna, how you do? Good to see you. Good to see you. I like how you're pretending like you just saw him for the first time. Why, hello there, Anna. Oh, hey, Anna, what's going on?

No, I'm not pretending. I just was going to get right into the tweets and realize I should say Anna's with us. Hi, everybody. Okay. Whoa. All right, Gabby, Mirate 86, says, private prison lobbyist sounds like a career. George Orwell would have invented specifically for a post-atomic dystopian science fiction universe, but in 2018, it's an actual job in the United States, sad.

And of course, the Hawaiian press takes it seriously like, well, that's a good upstanding citizen as opposed to a progressive. Okay, can you see I'm a little bitter about that race? Okay, Dark King Zorro says most people don't know. We did have private fire departments when they started, and it was a disaster. Look it up, learn from history. That's right, and we have talked about that in the past on the show as well. Just insane 1985 proves this handle by saying, voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil.

We're still doing this. Okay, but it's still the lesser of two evils. Okay, we have an election coming up with, let's see, who worked for George Bush? That was not the best of guys, but not just. John Bolton, you know, there were a lot of them, I don't know. There was a lot of bad guys in that administration, right? But let's go with Bush, screw it, Bush, I mean, that is plenty evil. Did the Iraq war, this cratered the economy, et cetera, versus Hitler.

Well, I mean, so voting is lesser of two evils, they're still voting for evil. Yeah, I'm gonna vote for Bush. You said you'd vote for Bush. Yes, the other guy's Hitler. The other guy's Hitler. Okay, anyway, all right, but hey, God bless your heart. Anyway, Peter Hamby in YouTube super chat says, with Minnesota and Wisconsin's primaries tomorrow, there will be a lot of gophers and badgers rating the polls.

Stay tuned tomorrow to TYT for the results. Why, Peter, thank you for the shoutout. That is what's going to happen. Important elections tomorrow night. We'll be here, as always, covering it. Manquitz is finally going to show us for a show up for an election night, so that's good. So, t.com slash live on every election night to catch us. And man, did we have a roller coaster last Tuesday?

Lots of great victories and lots of very disappointing defeats. So let's see how this Tuesday turns out. Don't miss it. And just speaking of last Tuesday night, we have a reporter Jennifer Cohen in Kansas who went to Kansas to ask them about their computer glitch that happened on Tuesday night in Johnson County. Unfortunately, it's largely been a stonewalling. officials have confirmed to TYT that provisional ballot tabulation is occurring this afternoon, but that's just provisional ballots. It doesn't tell you anything about the computer error that happened and how you're going to

verify that vote. So they don't let you see how they're doing the provisional ballots. That's not for the public. It's unclear who's allowed to see it. And then are we ever going to get verification of the vote? And right now, they refuse to answer any reporter's questions, including ours. And this is the sad state of our so-called democracy. All right, on the upside, we have an Android app.

So everybody check out our app at the Google Play Store, t-y-t.com slash app. Obviously, we have an iOS one that came out earlier as well. But the new Android app is hot. It's got great ratings. People love it. Catch all of our shows there, including one done by a certain Anna Kasparian. Hashtag no filter. The podcast is on the app.

Yeah, you guys should check it out. Yeah, indeed. All right, Casper, go. All right. Donald Trump has signed the National Defense Authorization Act, and based on what we know about this bill so far, the defense bill, it would give the Defense Department $717 billion for fiscal year 2019. Now, there are specific details that I want to get to, and then we have a few clips of the speech. that he gave in, you know, celebrating the signing of the NDAA.

Now, this year's National Defense Authorization Act authorizes about $639 billion for the base budget of the Pentagon and defense programs of the Energy Department. It also allows for another $69 billion for a war fund known as the Overseas Contingency Operations account. Now, the Hill also reported, I'm sorry, CNBC also reported that there's an additional $21.9 billion for nuclear weapons programs under the energy department, okay? So this, it fulfills the administration's priorities to bulk up the military, including adding 15,600 troops across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. So everything that's being done under this NDAA makes it abundantly clear that there will

be more funding for war efforts, essentially bulking up. our armed forces in case of military action or increased wars. And it is also, of course, as we can expect, a huge handout to private military contractors, including Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Those are the two major private industries or companies, I should say, that will profit the most from this NDAA. And I'll tell you how in just a minute. Okay, and Trump has goofy quotes.

We'll get to that in a second as well. they're always amusing and dispiriting to watch because he's the president. God help us. Okay, but before we do that, let me be clear. This is impractical. We can't afford it. And no one has ever bothered to explain how the United States government running trillions of dollars in debt.

And in fact, now the deficits back up to over a trillion dollars, as every Republican president brings it to a trillion dollars. Bush did. Now Trump is, every Democratic president. lowers it. Every Republican president increases it. Would they tell us it's impractical to get health care for the average American, to get better wages for the average American? But when they spend like drunken sailors in the defense department, everybody's like, yeah, bravo, bragged how easy it was to pass this bill. In fact, Congress added things Trump didn't even

want. Why? Because they don't get bribed. They get legally bribed by the defense contractor. who take almost all the money. So I'm opposed to parts of this budget that are apportioned for war because I'm afraid they're going to use it. And I objected that morally and strategically for this country. I think it'll be a nightmare. But even if they didn't allocate money for war, and I know what they say, oh, it's just in case of emergency,

like when the Australians say we're going to bomb Iran within a month, and just in case, wink, whatever, even if you believe that. But I also object to the heart of the defense spending. So does that mean we should have no defense spending? No, what a preposterous thing. Mainstream media, they drive me crazy, man. Whenever it's something that helps you, impractical, no way. Whatever it's the defense, they're like black and white world.

Oh, so you want our enemies to just come into the country and kill us all? No, I want us to spend a reasonable amount of money on defense. We outspend the top eight other countries combined in military spending. Why do we have to do that? We don't have to do that. We choose to do that to enrich those defense contractors that bribe almost all of our politicians. Yes, that's exactly right. And as I mentioned before, and I'll say it again, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman,

those are the two corporations that will profit the most from this bill that Trump just signed. So the bill follows the administration's request for 77 F-35 fighter jets and goes beyond the administration's request for Navy ships, authorizing a total of 13 new vessels. It's unclear whether or not these new vessels will cost as much as Betsy DeVos's yachts. But we do know that they are pricey and they will profit these private corporations. Now, the bill also gives troops, this is the good part, a 2.6 percent pay raise, and that is the highest in nine years. I am happy they're getting a pay raise. Very often, there's a lot of talk about helping our troops or helping our vets, and usually

nothing really gets done on their behalf. In this case, there's a small pay raise. I wish it was more, but yeah. So first, we are fair on this show, and we deal in facts. So that's the highest pay raise in nine years, great. I do not object to that portion of the defense bill at all. In fact, I would quadruple it. I would do a 10% pay raise for our troops.

You want to support the troops? Don't put a ribbon on your car. Give them a real pay raise. Like all Americans, they are way underpaid. You know how much people come into armed forces and get paid? A lot of the people that come into the armed forces get initially $19,000. Oh, my God. Okay, that's it.

They're risking their lives. You want to give them a 10% pay raise, I'm all in. You want to build nonsense weapons we're never, ever going to use so that executives, that defense contractors get rich, get a thousand times bigger salary, probably even more than the actual troops that risk their lives? Do any of those executives risk their lives? No, they cash the checks. So you want to apportion some of it more for the troops and less for the defense companies? Great. But they're never going to do that because the troops don't bribe people. Those executives do. Now, Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act in Fort Drum, New York,

in front of members of the military. There were members of Congress there as well. And there were portions of his speech that stood out to me personally that I wanted to share with you all in case you hadn't seen it. With that said, let's take a look at the first clip. The National Defense Authorization Act is the most significant investment in our military and our war fighters in modern history. And I am very proud to be a big, big part of it.

It was not very hard. You know, I went to Congress, I said, let's do it, we got to do it. We're going to strengthen our military like never, ever before, and that's what we did. I love that part, because, yeah, of course, of course Congress had no problem with it. Yeah. I mean, these corporations, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, fund our politicians like crazy. Of course they're going to be in favor of it. I mean, look, he's such a fool.

So it was easy. Like, he says it like it was, he was so good at making a deal. Why do you think it was easy, you schmuck? And what are you bragging about? It was easy because they all get donations from these guys. That's why it was easy. So I went there and it turns out it was easy. Yeah, so.

No, but there's more. There's more. Okay. And just one more thing, Anna. Sorry. The second part is we built the military like it's never been before. No, our military has been number one for what it's worth. And since I've been alive, right?

So it's not like, oh, but the poor U.S. military, we just weren't spending enough on it. But now, because of Donald Trump. Now, yes, he's kicked it up a notch, a totally unnecessary notch that totally waste our taxpayer dollars. As Eisenhower said, be careful with the military industrial complex. Every dollar you spend on weapons is a dollar you don't spend on your kids' education or food for your family. That's what Eisenhower, Republican president, that one World War II said. Trump said, it was easy. I built it like it's never been built before.

loser, idiot. Okay. So in the next clip, he brags about our military capability, including our weapons. The National Defense Authorization Act paves the way for another 1,700. Listen to this now. So we've been trying to get money. They never gave us money for the military for years and years. And it was depleted. We got $700 billion. And next year already approved. We have $716 billion to give you the finest planes and ships and tanks and missiles, anywhere in earth, nobody makes them like we do, and very, very far distant in this case. Jobs are very important in all cases, but in this case, military might is more important than even jobs.

So I want to just give you a little more context into his talking points regarding jobs. So there was a lot of bragging about how he's increased, you know, jobs in America, even though jobs have been increasing over the last nine years, meaning that it started under Obama. But nonetheless, I don't want to get into all that. I'm like, why does he keep talking about jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs? And I noticed it was subtle. He was referencing the jobs that will be created by building more weapons, new weapons, updated weapons. I mean, that's a huge part of the U.S. economy. We have this dependence on perpetual war

because perpetual war means that we have to keep spending our hard-earned taxpayer money on this war machine, on the military industrial complex. The thing is, other presidents don't mention that in speeches. Or at least, they're way more subtle about it. Trump can't help himself. He's like, yeah, this is going to create more jobs. Yeah, more war, more jobs. It's kind of incredible. And it's not just more war for us, it's more war across the world, which we encourage and incentivize because it makes us more money. So he apparently, when talking to other countries, he does very little homework.

This is another story out today in the news. But the one thing that he'll ask about is, how much do they spend in buying our weapons? So if you're Saudi Arabia, you can destroy Yemen, create the worst humanitarian crisis that the world has seen. Certainly right now, it's the worst there is. And Trump will help you. And Trump will brag about, yes, but Saudi Arabia bought a lot of our weapons. Yeah, but what did they do with them?

They murder civilians with them. But we made money. Me and my friends made money. Oh, it's so big. So, final part of this speech that I want to show you guys had to do with Trump's juvenile behavior. He can't help himself when it comes to that either. After bragging about the low unemployment rate in the United States, here's what he had to say.

We've created almost 4 million new jobs since the election. A number that the media in the back would never have said would be possible if during the campaign. I'm so proud of myself I didn't call him the fake news media I didn't call it I said to myself I will not today

in front of our great armed forces call them fake news we know the real truth but we won't say it today You just said it like eight times. No, I know. I mean, but that's what he meant to do. It's just.

Like, what a child. Yeah. What an unbelievable child. So this buffoon is the president of the United States. But to be fair, two things to be fair. One is, on this show, we have said the economy in terms of the unemployment numbers is doing well. It's slowing down a little bit, but overall it has maintained the trend that was started 93 months. ago, okay?

So anyone who tells you that Trump started is a liar, period, period, he didn't start it. But he also didn't crash it. Now I think yet, I think he unfortunately is creating a stock market boat, but that hasn't happened yet. And if it doesn't happen, then I'll say at the end of four years, hey man, he maintained the low unemployment numbers, and that's real, and that's a big deal. Now I think wages are too low, but they were too low under Obama. So I'm being fair about that part of the record, okay?

But when it comes to, you know, his antics, he just, you know, A, can't help himself by attacking the media when that isn't, it theoretically, this press conference is supposed to be about our troops, right? But he's just got to be about Trump, it's got to be about Trump. And so it's deeply frustrating and the reality is that that news media applauds. You think that they are against you on the defense budget? I just read an analysis that shows that the media has reported negatively on Donald Trump overwhelmingly. Why? I think it's because he totally deserves it. Okay, but the one area where the press, by a margin of four to one, gave him positive coverage, was when he bombed Syria.

That's right. Then they were all fawning, like, oh, bravo, Donald Trump. Way to potentially start another war and launch bombs. Bravo, no, so they're going to tell you the same thing they did it with this budget. Who's going around? Are any anchors on cable news going, can we afford this? Can we afford this every time a progressive goes on air? Can we afford higher wages for real Americans?

You know, how dare you? Can we afford the American dream your kids getting college education? Not one anchor asking if we can afford this. But, Jank, look, to be fair, the military is there to keep us safe from national security risks and threats. So, we can die here in the United States with a lack of health care coverage, you know? I mean, like, really think about that for a second. The whole point of the military is to protect the country. What good is it to protect the country if Americans don't have what's necessary to stay alive

and thrive? Yes, so if you're looking to protect our lives, for God's sake, give us health care. Yeah, all right, we gotta take a break when we come back, yes, we are going to talk about Amorosa, and then later on we will discuss the incredible ignorance of Donald Trump. It's a new report that came out in Politico, you don't want to miss it. Yeah, and look, we'll be fair to all sides again, because Amorosa is also a terrible person. Yeah.

But we'll help you discern what's true and what's not true. And we, not just an unnatural bias against Trump and not just an unnatural bias in favor of Trump. We'll suss out the facts together when we return. watching. We're listening to this free version of the Young Turks podcast. You know that the full show is at t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. If you become a member, you get the full show ad-free. We love you for watching or listening either way. There's going to be a new free podcast tomorrow. You can keep on doing that. But if you want to get the full show ad-free, t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. 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.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.