The Young Turks - Toxic Trainwreck

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

A gunman opened fire at Michigan State University killing three and injuring five. Ohio residents fear for their lives after a toxic explosion. MTG complains that labor shortages are causing derailments. Greedy cost-cutters are going after seniors in homes. The CDC says that teen girls are experiencing extreme sadness and violence. Host: Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur 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. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too.

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A survey found 86% of women lost weight, 77% saw an improved mood, and 100% felt like themselves again. Start your next chapter feeling balanced and in control. For a limited time, get 15% off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. All right, welcome the Young Turks, Jenk Ery, Anna Kasparan with you guys. And happy birthday, T-Y-T-T-T-T-Pa-da-da-da-da-da. So it's our 21st birthday. 21 years ago.

Been 21 for many, many years. Yeah. In a living room not far, far away, we started this little show called the Young Turks. And now 21 or 22 billion views later, here we are, and here you guys are. So thank you for watching, we appreciate it. We got a whole show for you guys after the Young Turks, celebration two and a half hours. And we'll go over some of the most fun moments of you. Young Turks in TYT history, we'll have all of our hosts, you guys are going to love it.

But in this show, the two are a normal Young Turks show, we have one fact that is among the most shocking I've ever heard. And Anna's less shocked by it, but the numbers are stunning, stunning. We have my folks, both people of Muslim background and leftists being so fragile, it's just bewildering. Come on, come on, please, I'm begging you. Look, what you need to just keep in mind, as we do the show today, is is unconsensual viewing a thing? Unconsensual viewing.

Yeah. Oh, come on, guys. Come on. Okay. We'll get to that later. Okay. So that's later in the program. Yeah.

And then, by the way, you know we got the tragedy, the massacre we're going to do first, right? But that's like the least surprising story in the entire rundown. So without further ado. Let's do it. A deadly rampage at Michigan State University. Prompting an hours-long campus lockdown. Reports of shots fire, send out an additional alert, continue shelter in place. The first calls coming in around 818 p.m. Within minutes, hundreds of officers swarming

Berkey Hall where authorities say two people were killed. The suspected gunmen fled to the nearby student union building where police say another person died. Three people are dead and five others injured, some critically, following yet another mass shooting here in the United States, this time at Michigan State University. The gunmen later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after police were searching for him for four hours straight. Now, according to reports, run hide fight, those were the instructions sent to students at Michigan State University in a text message informing them that a shooter was on the East Lansing campus. Run means evacuate away from danger if you can do so safely.

Hide means to secure in place. And fight means protect yourself if there's no other option. So this is where we're at now, where there's even a motto that students get text messaged as a shooting is taking place. Three people who were killed and five who were critically injured in the shooting were all Michigan State University students. MSU interim, Deputy Police Chief Chris Rosman confirmed early Tuesday during a news conference. Two of the deaths and several of the injuries occurred at Berkey Hall. And as mentioned in the video earlier, one person was killed at the MSU Union, Rosman said. Now, the University Police have identified the students who have died as a result of this mass

shooting. Junior Ariel Anderson is one of the victims. Sophomore Brian Frazier was another. And finally, junior Alexandria, Werner was the third individual who was shot and killed as a result of this mass shooting. So the shooter has also been identified. He's 43-year-old Anthony Dwayne McRae. And as I mentioned earlier, he took his own life after a four-hour manhunt by police. Okay, so let me just get this out the way.

Nothing's going to be done about it. There's going to be another shooting tomorrow. In fact, there's going to be two more mass shootings tomorrow. There's been 67 so far this year in about six weeks. So we're talking about 10 a week, a little bit more than that, almost two a day. Massacres, massacres, two massacres a day, okay? So, and it's kind of weird which ones we decide to focus on and which ones we don't. Now tons of massacres go completely unreported by the national media.

No politician will do anything about it. We don't live in a democracy. 92% of Americans want background checks in every state on every gun purchase, 92%. 83% want red flag laws, 74% want to raise the legal age of buying any gun to 21. These are overwhelming majorities, but we will get none of those things. That's a guarantee, please, please do not listen to anyone in the rest of the media having fake conversations about what might, what actions might be taken. And fake statements by politicians like Joe Biden who say, oh, that's why I measure those. Assault weapons bad in my state of the union, and we should really get on that.

I'm urging people to do that. Oh, are you? Are you urging them? Okay, none of the politicians are going to do it. We don't live in a democracy. They don't care what you think, and they don't care that your kids are getting killed. In fact, it's now so out of control. Jackie Matthews has now survived two of the biggest mass shootings in American history.

She survived Michigan State University, and she survived Sandy Hook. Yeah, our very last video in this segment, actually, features. her TikTok video talking about that. So let's go to it now. Yeah, so if we have that ready, let's go to that video. It is almost 1 a.m. and I am currently directly across the street from where the shootings at Michigan State occurred. I am 21 years old, and this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through. 10 years and two months ago, I survived the Sandy Hook shooting.

And when I was crouched in the corner in school in Newtown, Connecticut, on 12, 14, 12, I was hunched, in the corner with my classmates for so long that I actually got a PTSD fracture in my L4 and L5 in my right lower back. I now have a full-blown PTSD fracture that flares up any time I am in a stressful situation or anything occurs that's aggressive like that. The fact that this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through is incomprehensible. My heart goes out to all the families and the friends of the victims of this Michigan state shooting. But we can no longer just provide love and prayers. It needs to be legislation. It needs to be action. It's not okay. We can no longer allow this to happen. We can no longer be complacent.

And the Sandy Hook shooting left 26 people dead, including 20 children and six adults. But she wasn't the only one who was victimized by multiple mass shootings. Several students, on campus Monday had come to MSU as survivors of the November 2021 shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan in an interview with WDIV TV, Andrea Ferguson, the mother of an Oxford graduate said her daughter had started studying at MSU in January. So the shootings have become so common that people experience the mass shootings more than once in their life. And the Parkland massacre happened almost five years to the day, just one day after the Michigan State shooting. So they were set to commemorated today, and lo and behold, another massacre happens the night before.

Of course, they're going to be on the same anniversaries. There's so many massacres in America, a whole bunch of them are going to fall on the same day. So, Jake, look, I, and understand that I obviously want something to be done, right? But at this point, I don't know whether legislation is going to stop it. Like, I'm just keeping it real. There's so many guns. And, you know, the one thing that is true is for people who want to break the law and obtain guns or carry guns illegally, they're going to do it, as was the case with this shooter, right?

He had been prosecuted for illegally carrying a gun, concealed carry. He served one year of probation as a result of that and proceeded to obtain guns illegally. No, it does. The illegal stuff doesn't look. Guys, first of all, Anna's right about the number of guns, obviously, 120 guns for every 100 people in America. If you, you know, if you're living outside the country, you know that that's the craziest thing you've ever heard. No countries anywhere near that. We almost have as many guns in America as the rest of the world combined. We're in a nonstop shooting gallery.

So Anna, number one on the laws, well, it's a good place to start, right? Can we at least, the reason 92% of Americans want background checks is because can we at least know who the criminals are, right? I mean, it's like the bare, bare, bare minimum for tracking the guns, right? And even conservatives, Republicans, gun owners, NRA members. They all say, yes, we want background checks. But only one entity says no, gun manufacturers. So we didn't we can't have it because they bribe all the polish. So it'd be a nice start.

It'd be nice that red flag laws take away guns from maniacs who have people who are shown a propensity to crime, mental, violent mental illness, et cetera. So that's number one. So I don't want to give up on that. Look, I know it's nearly impossible, but I don't want to give up on it. Let me just respond to what you're proposing bit by bit, because it's far more complicated and nuanced than we should have red flag laws. I agree with the red flag laws, okay?

But you run into a brick wall when it comes to how red flag laws are implemented. They're implemented with the assistance of law enforcement and the left hates law enforcement. So how do you, how do you, you know, how do you deal with that situation? I don't care what the left hates or doesn't. No, no, I get it. But like we, we have these like definitive statements about what we like to see done. And then when it comes to the actual implementation of the laws that we want to implement, there's all sorts of issues and hangups and it's a lot more complicated.

Just implement it. And so if some person's belly aching, I don't know where they are. I don't care where they are on the political spectrum. You got a dangerous person with a weapon, take the goddamn weapon. 83% of Americans say, even their gun nuts, say take the weapon, the guy's dangerous, take the weapon, right? So pass the law, implement the law. But to your point, Anna, we need a cultural shift. So there is a huge percentage of this country that just doesn't understand facts, doesn't want to know facts.

The fact that the number of guns is directly correlated to the number of mass shootings, directly correlated to the number of gun homicides and suicide. There's absolutely no question about it. The science is overwhelming. It's one of the most overwhelming data sets I have ever seen. But it doesn't matter when you talk to a right winger, they're like, oh no man, I look my guns, all government tyranny, vermin. They don't care about facts.

They're like, oh, I think it's gonna make us safer. We already have more guns than everybody else. And it's not making us safer, it's causing two massacres a day. That's our kids. Here, I give you one more. Michigan Attorney General, Dan Nessel, she has kids at Michigan State University. She's a top law enforcement officer of Michigan. She's distraught over this. She's like, I don't know how to stop it, right? And at the end of it appears on MSNBC, she said, we have to start loving our kids more than we love our guns. And to that, the right wing in this country answers with a resounding, hell no.

If you told right wingers, take away your guns or your kids. I don't know how they would answer that question. Are you sure you know how they would answer that question? Because I guarantee you what a lot of them would say, well, if you take away my guns, I bet the kids are next. No way, I'm giving up my gun. Take your kids and maybe I'll murder you later with my guns and take the kids back. You don't think they'll say that?

You don't think they'll say it? I don't. I don't think they'll say it. They definitely, some of them. I guarantee you in the comments section, they're saying it right now. So anyway, you think the guns are Republicans and right wingers who are so obsessed culturally with guns? They equated with masculinity. So I'm not talking about the penis jokes and aha, you feel, you know, not as male, you whatever. No, I'm talking about they just, they think if you don't own a gun, you're not a man.

If you don't shoot yourself in the toe or somewhere else with a gun, you're not a man. And so it's ingrained into the culture. And so we have to fight back against that. But no one is willing to do that with me. I mean, because then you're going to say, oh, you're offending people. You can't offend people. Oh, jank, in the same breath, you mention how the vast majority of Americans, which obviously includes Republicans, want common sense gun reform like background checks.

And then you simultaneously make blanket statements about Republicans being so obsessed with their guns. They prefer their guns over their children. Okay, great point. That gets to nuance. So on assault weapons, for example, it's 50 to 1.5. 45, 50% of the country say ban assault weapons. So a plurality of majority, barely, okay? And so, but 45% of the country says, no, assault weapons that rip through kids are ripped through human beings, meant for warfare, not meant for hunting. Love them, got to keep them, value it more than the kids. That's a fact. That's a fact. So hey, those assault weapons are

only for murder. I value them more than the kids. They're killing kids every single day with those assault weapons. Don't care. I like my hobby. I like my hobby. I don't feel as manly. Look guys, I get it.

You live in the rural areas. You want protection. I get it. These days you live in urban areas you want protection. I get it. And so a lot of it is nonsense of protecting against government tyranny. You're not going to fight them in the woods. You want to be rambos and stuff like that.

I know, especially as we're in an ocean of guns, it's, you feel unsafe. Absolutely. I totally get it. But at the same time, the ocean of guns is what led to the lack of safety in the first place. So more guns is definitely, definitely not going to solve it. We've got to fix the culture, but nobody's willing to offend anyone. So we never have honest conversations about the toxic culture of guns and violence in America. That's a reality.

So just a few more details about the shooter here, including what his family and neighbors had to say about him. So as I mentioned earlier, he was prosecuted for a legal possession of a gun. McRae was previously arrested in 2019 for possession of a loaded firearm without a concealed weapon permit, according to records from the Michigan Department of Corrections. In June of 2019, he claimed to police that he left home to walk to a store to buy cigarettes and feared for his safe. so he took his gun. He pleaded guilty through the weapons violation, but did not serve prison time, record show. He was placed on probation in October of 2019 and successfully discharged in May of 2021. And in terms of his family members, his older brother says that he, you know,

seem to become more of a loner in recent years and kind of disassociated with people in the family. His father said that two years ago when his mother died was when he really started to kind of lose it. Neighbors of his also said that he was a hellraiser. That was a phrase used in reference to the shooter who practiced target shooting out his back door and has a recent history with firearms, which I described to you earlier. So, you know, to your point, I do think that there are common sense, you know, common sense things we can do. So if someone's shooting his gun out of his back door like that and being reckless, we got to be super careful to make sure that this person doesn't have possession of these guns.

Clearly he's obsessed with shooting the guns. Clearly he's, for whatever reason, something's going on with him mentally. But yeah, I mean, these stories covering them is a responsibility because people should know what's going on in the country. But you're right, I don't want to lie and pretend like anything's, going to happen or anything's going to change after we cover this today. Yeah, no chance, zero percent chance. So everybody who's saying with good intent, we can't bear this anymore and it's got to change and we've got to take action.

Understand you don't live in a democracy. Everything in America is about bribery. And by the way, even progressives in Congress don't understand that. There's all money in politics is the most important issue. Then they don't do anything about it. If you don't fix the bribery, they're just going to keep taking bribes. And guys, that's why, so, you know, that 45% who are clinging to their assault weapons, etc, that's a cultural issue

and we have to fix that. But the rest of it where yes, even Republicans who I say are crazy and believe in Q&N and all, like, just imagine the craziest Republican members met and they're like, no, we should have background checks. Even they're not that crazy. The only people that are that crazy are the politicians

being bribed by then. They're not crazy. They're being bribed, bribed by the gun manufacturers in the NRA. But no one on television, no one in Washington will say it because they're afraid of offending their colleagues. It's not just this issue, it's every issue. But yes, this corruption literally gets us killed. Let's take a break.

When we come back, we have some incredibly important updates on what happened with the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. That and more coming right up. All right back out of TYT, Jank and Anna, with you guys, also Scott Stevenson and Rochelle Van. They just became members and American heroes. We appreciate it. Hit the join button below if you can on YouTube. Everybody else, t.com slash join. Casper.

Let's do it. Residents within a one mile radius of the derailment were ordered to evacuate immediately. Resident Melissa Henry recalled the moment she knew she had to leave with her son. It smelled like really, really strong paint thinner, and then his eyes turned like bloodshot, and he started coughing, and I was like, yeah, we're leaving. After a controlled release of the toxic chemical from five of the derailed train cars, local officials consulted the Environmental Protection Agency and lifted the evacuation order on Wednesday. There are new questions about the safety of the air and water in East Palestine, Ohio,

following the derailment of a 150 car train carrying hazardous chemicals on February 3rd. Now, on February 3rd, about 50 cars of the Norfolk Southern train went off track in Ohio, causing a days-long fire in the area. 10 of the 50 derailed cars contained hazardous chemicals, including vinyl chloride, something we talked about on the show before, which were among some of the combustible liquids that authorities feared could set off a major explosion. The rail operator, Norfolk Southern, carried out a controlled burn, which is what you see on screen right now. And they did this in order to avoid an explosion, although there are some concerns that this was a bit of a shortcut. They could have potentially done a different method of transferring the chemicals onto

different train cars instead of just doing a controlled burn, which of course releases these toxins into the air. But for some people who live in the area of this derailment, they're not necessarily buying what they're hearing from the EPA. The EPA says that they've been doing tests of the air and the water and they say everything's fine, everything's safe. But they're experiencing something a little different, including burning eyes. They're noticing dead fish in the creek.

And one hazardous materials specialist told WKBN, quote, we basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open. So that's referring to the so-called controlled burn, which releases the one of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too. When they fall out of balance, everything feels off. But here's the good news. This doesn't have to be the story of your next chapter. Hormone Harmony by Happy Mammoth is an herbal formula made with science-backed ingredients, designed to fine-tune your hormones by balancing estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and even stress hormones like cortisol. It helps with common issues such as hot flashes,

poor sleep, low energy, bloating, and more. With over 40,000 reviews and a bottle sold every 24, seconds, the results speak for themselves. A survey found 86% of women lost weight, 77% saw an improved mood, and 100% felt like themselves again. Start your next chapter feeling balanced and in control. For a limited time, get 15% off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. The toxic chemicals into the air, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said the chemical spill resulting from the derailment had killed an estimated 3,500 small fish across seven and a half miles of streams as of Wednesday. But the state EPA says they're going

to continue monitoring and so far they have not found unsafe levels of chemicals in the water or in the air. So this is part of the problem with the culture of corruption because I used to trust the EPA. Now I'm not at all sure. So the Department of Transportation I don't trust at all. run by Pete Buttigieg, absolute lover of corporations. I mean, Jesus, the airlines and the trains are an enormous disaster in this country. He has a fine, him a dollar. He's a joke. He's a joke. They're like, oh, yeah, he's looking into it now.

Oh, is he? Guys, he didn't even release a statement about it for 10 days, nothing. Absolute silence about it. And it wasn't until the right wing got on his case recently that he finally put out a tweet or two about it. And so, and so look, I'm going to give credit here to the lever who's done brilliant reporting on this. That's David Serota's organization. You check them out. He almost embarrassed the national media into talking about it.

Now the right wing has picked it up. Now the national media, when the left wing is talking about it, oh, yeah, you're just bitter because you think you're going to run. Bernie Sanders is going to run against bootage. No way we're covering it. But now that the right wing's covering it, all of a sudden it's a giant story. Yeah, let me just be clear about one thing, because I don't want to waste any time, like dealing with an angle to, this story that's totally irrelevant because fact of the matter is, whether you're talking about corporate Democrats or corporate Republicans, they're the same thing when it comes to regulating

big industry, okay? So that's exactly work. Just keep it real. The Trump administration deregulated the rail industry as it pertains to the transport of chemicals that are dangerous, toxic chemicals, right? And the Biden administration has yet to reverse that deregulation. Why? Yeah. Why? So that's what I'm trying to get at, guys. Whether you're been brainwashed by Democratic media or right wing media, snap out of it. Obama said he was going to do a regulation on the brakes and the trains. They're from like 150 years ago, like the technology, right? And we have new brake technology that's way better and can prevent many of these accidents, okay?

Because there's derails and it's nonstop. And by the way, these trains are going through the middle of Pittsburgh. And this chemical is dangerous. There's another chemical that's far more dangerous that like just 20 of those cars can be like the equivalent of Hiroshima or something. We got the exact numbers in a sec. So guys, Obama didn't push it through the regulations. They dragged their feet, drag their feet. Then Trump came in and said, oh, no way I'm doing regulations.

Forget the brakes and hazard chemicals. Of course you can carry hazard chemicals that are hazardous and flammable, et cetera. And then Biden comes back in and you know what he's done to actually put those safety regulations in? Nothing. Zero. Huh, isn't that funny? Corporate Democrat, corporate Republicans. Republicans, corporate Democrats, and no action ever gets taken. Okay, so let's get to the other facts of the story.

And I want to talk about how the EPA seems to be saying two different things. Okay, so when it comes to the residents in the area who are concerned about the water and the air, the EPA is like, don't worry, we've been testing, everything seems fine. But there's something a little different. Ohio officials said Wednesday that residents could return home after air quality sample showed readings at points below safety screening levels for contaminants of concern. But the EPA, which is overseeing the air quality testing also said air monitoring since the fire went out, has not detected any levels of concern in the community and can be attributed to the incident. That can be attributed

to the incident at this time. However, the EPA said Friday in a letter to Norfolk Southern, this is the rail company, of course, that chemicals carried on the train continue to be released to the air, surface soils, and surface waters. In fact, Ohio's governor, Mike DeWine was asked about this during a recent interview. Let's hear what he had to say. Your office deemed it safe for residents to return to East Palestine of Wednesday of last week. Days later, we learned that the EPA informed the railroad of several other chemicals that were not publicly discussed. How can you assure people that the area is safe when we're still learning more about the severity of this disaster?

You know, where you rely on the experts, what they tell us. We continue to monitor the air, we continue to monitor the water. They continue to tell us, EPA continues to tell us that it is in fact safe. Where we've seen some traces is in the water, which is gone. which has gone into the Ohio River. Again, the experts tell us that it is such a small, small quantity that we really should not worry about it. We really should not worry about it.

But there's also a lack of transparency as it pertains to the type of chemicals that the train was carrying. At first, we only heard about vinyl chloride. But then it turns out there were other chemicals that everyone was kept in the dark about and we didn't find out about them until very recently. The next video explains that. The city lifted the evacuation order on February 8th, and assured residents that extensive testing shows the air and water are safe.

But officials have yet to release a complete manifest of what was aboard the train. Jamie Koza, who lives just steps from the river, is concerned about her three-year-old daughter and what East Palestine's other children could be exposed to in the water. I definitely have a right to know what was on that train. you know, to see that manifest, to know what chemicals are in the creek, and also how much. Now new details igniting new fears. A letter, the Environmental Protection Agency sent to Norfolk Southern revealed that cargo included more potentially hazardous materials than vinyl chloride. Chemicals used to make

adhesives, plastics, construction materials. The EPA telling the train operator it could be responsible for cleaning up the site. The EPA telling Norfolk Southern they might be responsible for cleaning up the site. They might be responsible for cleaning up the site. They might be responsible. Yeah, no. Well, who else would be responsible exactly? The residents who are now being potentially poisoned by the toxic chemicals that were being

carried by that train that was derailed. Isn't that interesting? Republican governor, Mike DeWine, and a Democratic transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, so far completely agree. Nothing to see here, guys. Whatever you do, don't punish the railroads. They're making billions of dollars in profits. They cut their staff to the bone.

They used to have a million people. They only have 200,000 employees now. They've done no safety regulations. We've never enforced it. Oh, coincidentally, they're filling up our coffers with giant amount of campaign contributions. But don't worry, those are not bribes. No, they think it's the right thing to do to not regulate any of these companies and just let them have giant fireballs of chemicals near your house. No, I mean, the EPA tells them they might be responsible for the cleanup.

The word might says a lot about how things work in this country. Exactly. That's why I don't trust the EPA. So, I mean, it's so sad they got us to a point where I don't trust the EPA, where if a government, Democratic doesn't matter if it's a Democratic president, the government used to actually look out for us on it. That's what it's supposed to do in a democracy. There are representatives. But now when the EPA or any other people, part of the government says, oh, no, no, don't worry. This corporation should not, you know, maybe might, might be responsible. But overall, everything is safe and fine. I don't believe you.

Okay, now finally, I want to tell you the specifics about the deregulation that happened under the Trump administration and was maintained under the Biden administration. So the U.S. Transportation Department, that's the department that Pete Buttigieg is the head of. But back in 2020, Under Trump, approved a rule to allow liquefied natural gas or LNG to be shipped via rail with no additional safety regulations. Trains can now run 100 or more tank cars filled with 30,000 gallons of the substance, largely from shale fields to saltwater ports. Just 22 train tank cars filled with LNG hold the same amount of energy as the Hiroshima bomb, a coalition of environmental groups wrote, in comments to regulators opposing the LNG rail rule change in 2020. Now, that was under the Trump administration, tail end of the Trump administration.

So now that Biden's in charge, now that you have Pete Buttigieg, Mayor Pete, as the head of the Department of Transportation, what now? Well, under the Biden administration, the Transportation Department has proposed a suspension of the Trump-era LNG rule, allowing the substance to be transported via rail and to replace it with a new rule. The suspension was supposed to be published by June of 2022, but it and the new rule have been delayed twice. I wonder why and are now supposed to be final in March. We'll see if that happens. The reason I mentioned right wing media earlier is because that's the only thing that anybody in Washington responds to. So there's some chance that

Buttigieg is now doing is going to do a cover your ass operation. And he's going to be like, Oh, yeah, well, I was going to release those rules any second now. Here's like a fraction of the rules that you need. And then the rest of the media will come out and go historic, historic safety regulations from Mayor Pete. And then there'll be another explosion, another explosion. By the way, as we were speaking, apparently there's been another spill. So I'm going to report it from our own members.

I just saw it from the members. Earl wrote in, Hey, T, T, Y, D breaking news. I got a hazmat warning 20 minutes ago saying not to leave the home, not to breathe the air, not to run any AC, incident happened a mile from my home, kind of nervous. I'm totally serious here. I know because Cat Daddy 23 wrote it on Twitch. Don't know how much reporting there's going to be because it just happened, but there's a chemical spill in Tucson, Arizona. So bad hazmat's been sent, and the people in the area are being told to shelter in place,

turn off anything that takes the air from the outside and puts it inside. Guys, corporate rule is squeezing us and squeezing us. Now there's like trains and explosions going off everywhere. mass shootings, the whole country's falling apart because we can't ever touch a corporation. They could do anything they want. They can create any kind of mayhem, damage, murder, you name it. I mean, we did a story with PG&E the other day where the company was convicted of manslaughter and none of the executives went to jail.

So there's never any consequences. These corporate media is lying new. Corporate Democrats and corporate Republicans are not on your side. They're on the side of the enemy, the corporate machines that are causing all of this damage. They have spun this in ways that really should blow your mind, right? Because it's not about deregulation for them. It's about companies being too woke, apparently. Now let's start with Marjorie Green.

Daily national embarrassment Marjorie Green has decided to blame the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment on lazy Americans who are contributing to the labor shortage. Now of course, that has absolutely nothing to do with the trail derailment, which I'm going to debunk and give you the details of in just a moment. But before we do, why don't we dive into Green's insane Twitter thread where she writes, our nation's rail system is a very critical part of our supply chain and the integrity of our railroad tracks and all of its working components and gears must be maintained. Then she pivots to this, with labor shortages that can also be a difficult task and take longer

to accomplish to be safe. She elaborates more on the labor shortage. Not only do we have a shortage of people, we have a shortage of good values. That's what's causing this, you moron. Please spare me anything you might have to say about good values, Marjorie Green. But let me continue reading what she had to say about this. And hard work is one of the most important good values America is losing or has lost. Think about this.

How many kids do you hear say they want to be a train engineer when they grow up? I don't know. I mean, if kids are paying any attention to the news, they'd know. that people who work for these major rail companies can't take a single day off without being retaliated against, because the rail companies have laid off so many of their employees, they went from a workforce of a million employees to only 200,000. You know why they did that Marjorie Green to maximize their profits? It had nothing to do with people refusing to work, but let me continue. If kids say it when they're five years old, our society's projected

values change their minds by the time they're 18 years old. Our society teaches them to want to either work as little as possible or to chase dreams they think will make them rich, but are only attainable by very few. And then just one more, one more from her Twitter thread here where she says, there are also many young Americans who spend their days dazed from using marijuana all day And unfortunately confused. No, so the- What in the world? So the East Palestine train derailment is because people are smoking pot and they're lazy.

When in reality, it has everything to do with these companies wanting to maximize profits by ensuring that they have the bare minimum workforce necessary to do the job. And there's deregulation. That's a huge problem as well, including the transport of toxic chemicals through our rail system. And I'll give you the details in a moment, but I wanted you to jump watching. Look, so she pointed out that this was a disaster and the government should do something, the representatives should do something about it like a day ago. And I was like, oh, that's interesting.

Rashida Talibah, just Democrats saying we should do something. Marjorie Taylor Green, the theoretical populist on the right wing saying we should do something. Imagine if they got together in real bipartisanship and challenged the corporate Republicans and corporate Democrats. That would be amazing. Wouldn't it? And it would get a ton of attention and maybe we can get something fixed. Oh, come on, of course that wasn't going to happen. So we went from a train derailment to our policy derailment.

So she went from, hey, maybe we should do something about it. What should we do? Well, you could fix the brakes. They don't have modern breaks. You could make sure they are not carrying or they are taking safety precautions when they carry hazardous chemicals that could blow up like that happened in Ohio. No, she went to the average American workers are bum, lazy. It's not the corporation's fault. It's your fault.

That's a populist. That's a populist. Oh, the world's most ironic populace, okay? No, and look at what Anna said. They went from a million workers down to 200,000. You think it's because 800,000 people were lazy? No, they fired them, you moron. Listen, anything. They fired them, you idiot, okay?

What a useful idiot you are for the corporate machines, Marjorie Taylor Greed. Right wing, please wake up. You're also getting killed out there. Wake up and wait till you hear Charlie Kirk and the other morons. All right, so let's give you the detail. So as we've mentioned a billion times, deregulation has a lot to do with it. Maximizing profits has a lot to do with it. The railroad workers united pinned this threat on rail industry cuts to inspection staff

and the elimination of safety protocol. Obviously. The East Palestine train was hurried. The nonprofit said in a statement. And though a cause hasn't been fully determined, they believe. that it was an issue with one of the axles. It appears the train was not properly inspected. Rail companies laid off more than 20,000 rail workers during a year period in 2018 to 2019, meaning before the pandemic. Representing the biggest layoffs in rail since the Great Recession

and the nation's rail force has dipped below 200,000, the lowest ever, and down from one million at its peak. Finally, I want to read this quote because it's from a former Norfolk Southern freight engineer who says they have cut the hell out of the workforce and there are big plans to cut it further just because the rail companies are profitable doesn't mean they're healthy in fact if they're highly profitable there's a good chance they're not healthy because in order to maximize those profits they lay off workers that they obviously desperately need in order to ensure that the safety protocols are met okay guys we're not saying that the trains shouldn't be

profitable. We're saying they don't need to have the massive margins that they have now. You can use some of your gigantic profits on safety protocols, which by the way, it's not you can. You must do that. In a sane society, we would require them to do that. Otherwise, not only is the potential harm to you guys, the fish are dead in East Palestine. A lot of the pets are sick. People are coming out with rashes, et cetera, already. Of course it's going to damage you guys. only does it damage your health, but now the government, i.e. your taxes, have to pay for their disaster. That's their cost. That's not our cost. Why do we have to pay for it? Right wing, why do we have, why do you have to pay for it? Because there's corporate rule

America and they're crushing us. Please wake up. Let's take a break. When we come back, we'll give you more Republican reaction, including insane commentary from Charlie Kirk and J.D. Vance on this matter. Stick around. All right back on TYT, Jane Canana with you guys, more news. All right, well, Marjorie Taylor Green and conservatives like her have decided to to lean on an anti-woke narrative or an anti-worker narrative to essentially deflect from the fact that deregulation is what led to the trained derailment in East Palestine, could have been mitigated with the proper regulations. But let's go to Charlie Kirk, who thinks, you know,

maybe the emphasis on a diverse workforce and wokeism is where we should be focusing here. Let's watch. dangerous. They know that it is actively poisoning the citizens of eastern Ohio. So why is it that they kind of shrug their shoulders and they say, yeah, okay, whatever. It's very simple. It's because the war on white people continues. The war on white people continues. Okay, now let me just note that East Palestine is in Ohio, of course. Last time I checked, Jank, let me know, I could be wrong. Lawmakers in Ohio, are they left wing? No, they're right wing. Oh, they're right wing. Republican Governor Mike DeWine. In fact, he had a reporter arrested for daring to ask a question about this accident. Yeah, so who are they? Because if, let's say,

you need to call this a crisis, an emergency, you need federal funding, you need FEMA to get involved, it is dependent on state lawmakers, local lawmakers to call on the federal government to provide assistance, to provide resources from FEMA. Have they done that? So when you say, when Charlie Kirk says, they don't care, who are you referring to because the state politicians are from your side? But let's hear more of Charlie Kirk's argument and see if there's anything logical in what he has to say. Why would you care for the law? white working class voters in eastern Ohio. You haven't cared about them in other reasons or other portions, and I will prove it to you. If this train derailment happened in downtown Atlanta

in the densely populated black neighborhoods, this would be the number one news story. It would be Flint Water Crisis 2.0. There would be clamoring in activism and talks for reparations. And Buttigieg, meanwhile, is out there saying, listen, while this derailment is happening, while the act of poisoning is happening, he's saying, look, the problem is that workers are too white. Buttigieg has never uttered the words, the problem is that the workers are too white. Not once. Buttigieg did fail in addressing this serious situation because he didn't say anything for 10 days straight. and then gave a speech where he talked about the importance of a diverse workforce, which I have no problem with the diverse workforce.

But you've got to address the lack of regulation that led to this disaster in Ohio. Yeah, guys, so what is this? It's a smokescreen. So Charlie Kirk is paid by giant billionaires and corporations, et cetera, to create smoke screens like this. So when a corporation screws up and their chemicals poison your neighborhood, they send in Charlie Kirk to go, identity politics. It's because you're white.

That's why they're doing it. Mike DeWine, the governor of Ohio is white. Joe Biden is white. Pete Buttigieg is the whitest man in America. What are you smoking? I don't know if you're this naturally stupid or if you get paid to be this stupid. But they're trying to distract you, even on this. When the issue is, did they do safety on a train that got derailed?

He somehow turns it to identity politics. Right, which divides the country. And that's his bread and butter. He loves it, right? The deflection from honestly, a class-based issue to a race-based issue that's manufactured by someone like Charlie Kirk only serves to divide the country. So we fight each other as all the corporate goons and all the millionaires and billionaires continue to get their way, continue to bribe our politicians, continue to get subsidies, deregulation, everything that allows companies like Norfolk Southern to get away. with what they got away with this train derailment.

Go ahead, Jake. So one more thing before we get to more clips. So he says, oh, if it was in Atlanta, it'd be the number one news story. It's been the number one news story on TYT for since it happened. We had David Strode on the main show to talk about it. We've featured his articles. I've tweeted about it nonstop. We just said, I don't know how many stories we've done on it.

I don't know that anybody's on more stories than we have. So wait, his explanation is it's the leftists who hate white people. Well, then why have we covered it more than anyone else? Let me give you an alternate explanation. See, and then you judge which makes more sense. Corporate Republicans, corporate Democrats, and corporate media didn't cover it because they're covering corporate ass. 100%. Okay.

And the left covered it because we're like, will you please do safety regulations to protect the citizens so those good people in Ohio don't have to worry about health for their kids and their families and all the things that they're going through right now? Please do regulation means laws like don't rob people, don't kill people, and don't stop doing inspections because it'll cause train derailments, right? But nope, Charlie Kirk's explanation is Joe Biden and Buttigieg, who are both very white, hate white people. Okay, you be the judge as to which explanation is more logical. No, also my favorite part of that last video we showed you was how he's like, I'll prove it, I'll prove it.

So I'm going to do a thought experiment now where I make up a syndicate. That's not proof. I'll give you some proof though, Charlie, like it since you allegedly like proof, right? I remember when that disastrous hurricane struck Fort Myers, Florida, which I visited Fort Myers several times on family vacations. I have family in Florida. Love that place, devastated over what happened there. I also know that it was majority white.

And guess what the federal government did immediately when that hurricane struck? Joe Biden provided the relief money. just resources pouring into Fort Myers, Florida, as it should be, okay? It wasn't about race, it wasn't about Democrats versus Republicans, it was about doing the right thing. Okay, but it's interesting. I didn't hear any crying or whining from Charlie Kirk or any garbage about this manufactured race war that he's constantly going on about when it came to Fort Myers, Florida. Now, it's up to the local politicians in Ohio to call on the federal government to release resources so they can deal with this situation,

appropriately. Have they done that? Because I haven't seen that yet from the Republican lawmakers in the state of Ohio. By the way, this is all over Fox News. It almost, I've now seen several segments where they're like, guys, this political is, are the Democrats doing this on purpose? Fox News, all of right wing media, that's another smokescreen. They never once in any of those segments said, hey, I wonder if it was a safety issue. I wonder if they shouldn't carry really dangerous or carry the chemical, the chemicals that are very hazardous, but have more precautions so they don't blow up into giant mushroom crowds, clouds over Ohio. Right.

Never mentioned, never mentioned. Is it because they hate white people? Is it because they hate Republicans? It's the Democrats' fault. It's Biden's fault. Jesus. And by the way, it is Biden and Buttigieg's fault. Look at us.

We're actually honest because they're not regulating them because they take money from the same guys. They have not reversed the deregulation that Trump implemented for the rail companies in 2020. They said they would, they haven't yet. That's a huge problem. They deserve criticism for that, okay? But I mean, turning this, it's all intentional. It's all meant to distract you.

It's all meant to provide cover for the deregulation for the profit maximization that these companies engage in. How do you go from a million employees at its peak to, under 200,000 employees in an effort to maximize profits and claim that that has nothing to do with the insane number of train derailments that happen on a regular basis now, right? This isn't the first one. This is the one that's getting a lot of attention because of how disastrous it is. But it happens all the time. Anyway, I do want to go to one more video, and this one features Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.

Let's hear what he has to say. Now we know if you listen to Secretary Buttigieg today, that they are focused more on whether we have too many white men in construction jobs than he is on the fundamentals of his job, which is ensuring we have a viable transportation infrastructure in this country. And unfortunately, my constituents in East Palestine have been some of the main victims of the fact that we have failing infrastructure in our country again, after spending tons of money in an effort to actually fix it. A senator from Ohio who spoke about the disastrous train derailment in East Palestine days, 10 days after it happened. Okay, that was the first time he had actually addressed it publicly, but purports to care about it so, so much. So let me ask him, has he reached out to the federal, I mean, he's part of the federal government,

has he reached out to his colleagues, as he reached out to the Biden administration to ensure that FEMA allocates the necessary resources. So the folks in East Palestine, Ohio are safe. Has he? Okay, so J.D. Vance is a crook, obviously. So again, he's going to deflect from corporations. Interestingly enough, reporters asked about that comment to the Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine.

And he just answered, this just happened. He said, you know, look, the president called me and said, anything you need. Oh, so I guess what happened to the president's not doing anything about this now. I thought the president was too woke and was blinded by his woken. So we're criticizing Biden and his. administration for not being aggressive about regulating these industries because we think they take money from corporate interests, etc. But when the disasters happen, they definitely rush in and they don't go, oh, as Fox News claimed, it's because it's a Trump county, okay, or it's a

white county, et cetera. But meanwhile, they asked Mike DeWine and he says, oh, no, the president called me right away and said, whatever you need, okay? But he continued. I have not called him back after that conversation. I will not hesitate to do that if we're seeing a problem or anything, but I'm not seeing it. The governor said that. That's the Republican governor, yeah. What's wrong with him? Does he hate white people? Maybe I don't know, maybe he hates white people and he hates Trump County that voted for him.

Okay, it doesn't have to make sense because they figured out our audience doesn't care about logic or facts. So we can just say anything we want. Soon they'll blame Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head and the M&M characters. and their audience will believe it. No, it's corporations. It doesn't mean they shouldn't exist. It just means the government is supposed to protect us from them as well as other humans. You can't rob us if you're a human, but why can you rob us and cause us all this damage if you're a corporation?

That's because this entire system has been set up to protect corporate rule. All right, we are going to take our next break. But when we come back, big news for Senator Dianne Feinstein out of California. So we'll talk about what her plans are for the future. And later in the show, we'll also discuss a Democratic lawmaker who was assaulted in an elevator in D.C. What is she calling for now as it pertains to criminal justice reform and public safety? That and more in the second hour of the show. See you then. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks.

Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Jank Huger, and I'll see you soon.