The Young Turks - Trump in Trouble

Episode Date: December 14, 2022

Costco is feeling the heat from Wall Street to raise grocery prices. As households continue to suffer utility giants are raking in billions. A phrase from Sam Bankman-Fried's testimony, the CEO of FTX, goes like this… “I f***** up.” Donald Trump is experiencing a fall in the polls due to recent controversies. Just this year 102 books have been banned from school libraries. 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. Woo! It's up! We're going to be able to be. Welcome to the Young Church, Jake Ugar, Anna Kusparin with you guys. We're gonna have kind of an amazing show for you guys.

So we- It's all over the place. It is. But look, we've got important stories about the economy and politics. But guys, I am beginning to see blue on the retirement of Donald J. Trump. I'm beginning to see it. You're not going to stop me from saying it. So the optimist is here. Okay, whole swing.

A little bit, a little bit, but when I tell you the story, you're going to say, uh-huh. But then later in the second hour, you're going to grow pessimistic about clitorises. Is it clitori or clitoris? I don't know, I've been wondering that all day. Is it clitter eye? Listen, I know it sounds like it's a joke of a story, but it's not. I think there's an important commentary there about the lack of knowledge we have about our own anatomy. No, actually, first of all, that's totally true.

Yes. Is it an epidemic? Yes. Pandemic, no. But this most stunning fact is not the Trump numbers, although they're stunning. The most stunning fact is buried, if you will, in that story. So don't miss that one. All right, let's do it. All right. Well, we begin with something rare here at the TYT. We're going to give a major company some credit. Costco has decided to go against the grain and absorb. the higher costs that manufacturers are charging them due to inflation. They're doing this instead of passing down the inflationary cost to the consumer. And it turns out that their

financial partners, Citibank, in particular, city group, not too happy about it. During their recent earnings call, Costco's management actually pushed back against one city group analyst who ain't about that life. Okay, you should be, you should be forcing your customers to pay more, okay? You're gonna, you're gonna increase your profits. And then that means you're going to increase our profits, okay? That's what we need you to do. Why does the bankers sound like Trump? No, because the bankers are all mob bosses. That's why, okay? That's what a mob boss sounds like, okay. So no, but gonna need you to increase your profits. That doesn't really sound like a mob boss, but I hear you. I hear you. Now, here's what happened. Again, earnings call.

They do this every quarter. This is for investors and analysts to decide whether or not they want to keep investing and analyzing the company that's having the earnings call. Wall Street is pushing Costco for higher profits at the expense of customers, writes more perfect union. In yesterday's earnings call, Costco's management faced pressure around its decision to absorb some grocery inflation instead of raising prices. Why make that decision a city group analyst asked, why make that decision, huh? Why make that decision?

No, but by the way, now being this out more like a mob boss, both in Stalin. substance because I could see a Maboos said, you cost us money. Why you make this decision, huh? Totally. Why you make this decision? But we should, we should envision it in that exact way. Okay, because think about what they're asking for. In fact, I don't need you to think about it. No, don't even think about it. I'll tell you. I'll tell you what they're, she's going to say it right now. Now, the analysts argued that Costco could have pushed prices higher because get a load of this, Consumers have been, quote, happy to take increased price, especially in fresh. I think you're fresh.

They're happy to take the increased price, okay? They're happy about it. Okay, Alan Weisselberg. Yeah, now Tony went over and talked to them and made sure that they're happy to take the increased price, okay, and everything's all fresh now. So go ahead, Costco, give them the higher price. They're happy about it. Costco says no, in a shocking turn of events.

They say no, and it is a smart business strategy. I think that they end up winning at the end of the day, and I'll tell you why. But I do also want to give more perfect union a lot of credit for their thoroughness in putting in parentheses that fresh refers to products like produce, meat, and dairy, okay? Okay, good. And he continues to say, or actually Costco's CFO responds with, in our view, people notice those price differences. And he's absolutely right about that.

Now remember, when we recently covered some of the proposed grocery chain mergers, we disclose just how many, like, grocery store companies actually exist. And there aren't very many options. There's like four of them, right? So the grocery industry is really monopolizing, and as a result, consumers really have no choice, but to deal with the higher prices as they're being priced gouged by these grocery chains. But Costco has decided to go in a different direction, and that really has been part of their business model from the beginning. That's part of the reason why they've been so successful.

The way that they carry out their whole shopping experience is very different. You go into a giant warehouse, there are pallets stacked up to the ceiling. You have to be a Costco member, of course, to shop there. But everything is far more affordable because either they get to offer lower prices because there are no bells and whistles. when you go to the warehouse to buy products at Costco. And also, if they deal with some of these manufacturers who are maybe increasing their prices due to inflation, well, Costco has its own private label. Let's take a look at the video.

Explains a little more about that. I got the Kirkland brand microwave popcorn. I got two packs of bottle of weather. Kirkland is Costco's private label brand. It's their store brand. It's a brand that when they want to offer something at a certain price, that they don't feel a manufacturer, a supplier can do it. They build it themselves. Since it was launched in 1995, the in-house brand has built a reputation for quality and low prices on

everyday items. Today, Kirkland products make up a quarter of Costco's $166 billion in annual sales. So Costco is basically letting the manufacturers know, oh, you're going to charge us inflated prices for these products, how about we have our own private label, we can manufacture this product ourselves, slap the Kirkland brand on it, and sell it. And that's what they do. Yeah. And you know what? Like the video states, and look, this isn't a plug, this isn't like an advertisement for Costco. This is genuinely how I feel about Costco. The Kirkland products are good quality, right? Oftentimes when you buy the store brand version of whatever the item is, you're giving up a little bit of quality in order to save some money.

In my experience, that hasn't been the case with Kirkland. All right, well, God bless. Look, I know a lot of digital media companies that used to do these kind of things for real as an ad, right? Right. And you're like, oh, I was just at Walmart. I'll tell you, their cheese bowls are delicious. So that's not what's going on here.

But we do want to encourage and reward good guy companies. And there's a thing called a good economy. So I don't know if the Costco's technically part of it, But I know that they've done a lot of things where you go, oh, wow, look at Costco, taking care of their employees, paying higher wages, now blocking higher prices, good quality product. And by the way, guys, so like capitalism's taking a beating here in America for good reason, because in my opinion, it got swallowed up by corporatism, which is just awful. And everybody despises right wing left wing, it doesn't matter, right?

But here's an example of capitalism working right. This is actually how it's partly how it's supposed to work. The reason why it doesn't work this way in terms of creating competition, which lowers prices and brings you better products, is because we really don't have capitalism in America anymore. The corporations capture the government, so then they don't really need to compete. That's why Costco's kind of driving the entire market crazy. They're like, stop it. We had a good thing going. We could charge them, whatever the hell we want.

They're happy to take it, right? Because they don't have any other choices and they have to eat. But now you're giving them another goddamn choice. Right. Well, Costco isn't part of these big chain monopolies, right? And so as a result, it serves as a competition. Yes. And that competition is so incredibly important. And they've decided to go with a business. Look, okay, let's just call it what it is because I also don't want to be one of these like dopey, you know, hosts that's like, you know, they're doing this because they're so moral and they're so kind. No, they're doing it because they see this as the more effective business model. But by the way, I don't see that much of a distinction between those two things. If you think that the right business model is to be good to people and your employees and customers, well, it's great.

I hope you make a lot of money from it. I hope you make tons and tons of money from it. I know. Because you're keeping the prices at a place where we could pay them, right? Right. Your margin is at a reasonable rate. And that's what a good company is supposed to do. If you lowered any past that, you're not going to be sustainable and then you're not going to even exist.

Okay, let me explain what I mean, though. I think that it is a common mistake to think of either politicians or companies as either moral or immoral. There is no morality involved at all. Let's just keep it real. Maybe in some cases when it comes to some politicians, but even then, I'm willing to debate that. When it comes to companies, morality is not part of the mix at all. They are driven by incentives and disincentives. So, for instance, if I think about this on a very personal level, I've had a Costco,

membership, but it's just me and my husband, right? We don't have a big family. And going to Costco, even though we had the membership, didn't always make sense because buying things in bulk seems too much, right? Yeah, me too. However, during, you know, this inflationary period, some of our favorite grocery items, for instance, there's a brand of bread that we really like, it went from $5 a loaf to $8 a loaf. That's a lot. At the grocery store closest to where we live. Were you happy to receive that? I wasn't happy to receive that. I must be honest.

I must be honest. You know, to the dismay of this wonderful city group analyst, I wasn't happy. But nonetheless, once I realized you could buy two loaves of that bread in a pack at Costco for $10, meaning I'm going back to paying $5 a loaf. Yeah. I jump in it, right? So I started shopping at Costco more. Yeah. And I do all my grocery shopping there.

That's how the free markets are supposed to work. But we don't have free markets because of all the corruption. There's definitely someone, the leader of Costco is clearly a smart and moral guy, based on the decisions that I've seen. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. But I'm getting to your point in it. Okay, I said the leader must be, okay? But look at the pressure that he's under because it's a public corporation.

The Citibank goons are coming in going, everybody's happy to receive the price. What's the matter, what are you, right? And they are, they are turning down some profits. They're literally turning down profits now. Again, it's good business because you're turning down short term profits for more long term profits and more sustained profits, right? So it's smart. But there's pressure in the markets to be greedy, to think short term, and to give me

the goddamn money right now. Yeah, I agree with you on that. So they have a much better, in my opinion, business strategy, long term strategy, and they're still bringing in quite a bit in revenue. For instance, in the last quarter, they brought in a whopping $53 billion in revenue. So they didn't hurtin, okay? In one quarter, guys. In one quarter.

That means it's coming over $200 billion for the whole year. And if you're wondering on how much it has impacted their bottom line in regard to refusing to pass on the inflated manufacturer prices to the consumers, Well, their profit margin honestly isn't impacted all that much. So their profit margin would have been 12.7%. And since they're not price gouging their customers, it is now 12.2%. So 0.5% difference. No, but in Wall Street, that's a huge difference. Yeah, but go ahead and cry about it, Citigroup.

Go ahead and cry about it. And by the way, so it's not a matter of crying, what they do is like, okay, we're going to mark you down. That's what the analyst job is. So these guys are not greedy enough. So we're going to punish you by, you know, suggesting the people that they should sell your stock and your stock price is going to go down. And apparently they've got a leader smart enough to go, have at it, hoss. Okay, I'm willing to take this short-term hit to build a better business.

And he is building a better business because like Anna had that experience well before this article came out and you're hearing it from other people. And yes, in the long run, if you provide a good service and you're good to your community, you do better. And guys, look, if you're on the left, you want to encourage that because everyone else, the entire market is encouraging the opposite, right? But the way that you do basically a consumer revolution is say, no, I'm going to go to the good guys. I'm not going to go to the bad guys. And so our society, it's not just the stock market, is structured around making the bad

guys feel good and the good guys feel bad. Why? Because the bad guys are like, oh, smart, savvy businessman made as much money as possible. They're geniuses. What a great CEO, right? A good guy says, no, let's build a long-term business. They're like, oh, you think you're a good guy? And what are you going to do?

Keep the money? Ha, ha, he kept the money. Wait, hold on, so did the other prick. And he was way worse. And it's better that you make money doing something positive in the world than make money doing something terrible in the world as most corporations are doing. Now, let's juxtapose that story with the antithesis of what Costco has been up to. In New Orleans, a line of people looking for help with their power bills wrapped around a building.

Some people carrying four-figure utility bills. the city doing what it can to help renters find relief. Utility companies are robbing you. That's the simple way to think about this because about 20 million Americans are now behind on paying their energy bills. And there's a very real reason why they've been paying increased rates. Yes, some of it has to do with the war in Ukraine and the increase in energy prices. But some percentage of those energy price hikes actually have more to do with them wanting to increase their profits and engage in corporate stock buybacks.

And Americans are suffering as a result. This is according to a new report by a watchdog group known as accountable.us, they do really great work when it comes to corporate greed. And they talk about the nine largest energy firms that brought in a whopping $13.8 billion in the first nine months of this fiscal. year alone, okay? At the same time, again, you have 20 million Americans who are having difficulty paying their energy bills. And in much of the country, the temperatures are freezing right now. We're about to experience yet another cold front. Now, that is a lot of money, and they sure have been charging us a lot just so we can keep our homes warm, so we can cook food in our homes. Well, what did they do with all that money? I'm sure some rebates

for the customers, right? Who have been crushed by this inflation. No, the firms actually returned over $11.2 billion to shareholders during that period in the form of dividends and stock buybacks, a story as old as time in a country with an economic system that's really rigged against its people. Now, utility costs have also been so astronomical, again, that 20 million people have had difficulty paying their utility payments. Southern companies, Georgia subsidiary, for instance, had a near 12% rate hike approved in June of 2022. And in August of 2022, its Tennessee subsidiary was granted a rate hike that would result in typical monthly home heating bills rising by about 25% according to the analysis done

by accountable.us. And for those of you wondering, you know, what's going on nationwide? Well, nationwide investor-owned utilities have requested rate increases amounting to nearly 12 billion from the beginning of the year through the end of August, according to S&P Global. So for those who have fallen victim to this narrative, that these utility companies have no choice. They have no choice. I mean, gas prices are up. You know, there's all these problems because of the war, because of the war in Ukraine. It is what it is. They have no choice. That is a lie, and that lie is evident in the amount of money they are returning to their shareholders in the form of stock buybacks and dividends.

Yes, and so this is a natural monopoly. And in a natural monopoly, the government must regulate. Otherwise, you're going to say, well, look, it's the winter, you need heat. I'm the only one who's providing it. So you could freeze or you could pay me any damn thing I like. So the government has to regulate and make sure that they're charging a fair price. where is the government? Yeah.

Right. And so utility companies figured out what all other companies did, but they actually figured out relatively early. And for them, most of their giving is not at the national level. It's at the state level. So if you go and look at campaign contributors and donors at the state level, in a lot of the states, if they're not number one, they're certainly among the top three or four utilities are right up there.

Because if your fate is controlled by politicians, and they're going to determine whether you make 14 billion or 12 billion or 2 billion, right? These are giant, giant numbers. Is it going to pay to grease some politicians at the state level? Of course. I mean, Capitol Hill is greasier than a Turkish wrestling match. Curious analogy, but correct. Correct. But in this case, it's the state capitals.

And so you go find a governor and you'll go, and you'll find utility grease all over them, including Governor Gavin Newsom in California. Absolutely. And then they let him do this. They let them take risks with your lives, whether it's fires in California or the freezing cold in Texas. You remember Ted Cruz ran to Cancun when that happened. And this is how they rob us.

Exactly. And notice that the majority of the price gouging that Americans are experiencing today has to do with items that you need to survive, right? So when we're talking about utilities, we're talking about a resource that people absolutely need to survive, especially in parts of the country where the temperatures are frigid, where they need warmth, where they need their gas ovens or whatever they use electric ovens to cook. So there is no, sure, you could freeze to death in your home by trying to conserve energy. But fact of the matter is people get desperate. These utility companies know it. And the consumer has no choice, but to pay these insane inflated prices where they're

clearly being price gouged to increase the profits, which then get passed off to the investors here. So it's just, this is how the system works. It's very rare to find a company or a corporation that's willing to go against the grain. We recently talked about Costco's business model, which is definitely different. And they've pushed back against investors during earnings calls where they're essentially trying to encourage executives at Costco to price gouge their, their, you know, customers, but they're refusing to do it. That is an exception. That is very rare under today's system. So look, some on the left might argue that you should say that utilities are basically free because we're not going to let anyone freeze to death. And that's

a good argument. And Jamal Bowman, Corey Bush and Rash and Rashida Taleb are making some form of that argument right now to Bill Dave introduced in the house. But even if you're in the camp, But no, listen, brother, you got to pay your bills so that otherwise we're, I mean, you're forcing us to cut your electricity, right? If you're in that camp, but think about it, guys, since it's a monopoly, the government is making a decision between whether those people who could barely afford it have to pay 25% more or the incredibly rich executives and shareholders get more money. Because that's, in this case, it's a zero-sum game.

Either one side's going to get more money or the other is. And in the case of the customers, it's not just about money. If you don't have enough money, you also lose your electricity. Yes. And you face some dire situations. And over and over again, government officials paid by these same exact companies through campaign contributions, coincidentally decide, no, the incredibly rich should get 25% more, and some of you should have your electricity cut off.

And that is a brutal decision that they make. And that's the cost of bribery that we all live under in America. When we come back from the break, we'll give you some updates on the indictments that Sam Bankman-Fried is facing, including the testimony that he was supposed to give to Congress. It's been obtained by the media. We'll tell you what he was planning on saying and more when we come back. All right, back on TYT, Jankana with you guys. Also, just Lainamo just joined.

There's no way that's how you pronounce it. But you're an American hero for becoming a young Turk's member and help us do this show. It's a good time for it. We're doing Food for Thought trivia. Give it away a hot-all gift card to 100 members on Friday. If you get one, the trivia question right, which comes from these live shows. from these live shows, so pay attention. All right, and every once in all for good comments,

I just came away for, like it's Vaseline and it's Tyra Bank show. All right, now I go to add. Yeah, okay. Let's do it. So next story. Sam Bankman Fried has been arrested in the Bahamas and is expected to be extradited here in the United States

where he faces charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and financial fraud. Now prior to his arrest, Freed was planning to testify before the House Committee on Financial services and Forbes obtained what he was planning to say. Now, it's a lengthy statement to say the least, lengthy testimony, but it seems as though he was planning on lying in a lot of ways. So I'll give you, yeah, I mean, so I'll give you some excerpts that I think are relevant here. First, he starts off with something that is not a lie. So credit where credit is due, he begins

it with, I would like to start by formally stating under oath, I effed up. Yeah, but you know, well, so Anna, you're right that that's true, but, but even that's misleading because he makes it seem like, oops, it was an honest mistake. Oh, I was going to go left, but I went right. Oh, I effed up. No, you planned to move the funds around so you could make money off of other people's money. And then you lost that money because you were greedy. That's not effing up.

That's doing it on purpose. That's a different situation. But okay, it's a good start, though. I'll take it. Now, in order to understand how he's full of crap for the rest of what I'm going to read, I think it's important for you to hear from federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. They had a press conference today to explain in detail what the charges are, what he is being accused of. So let's listen to that, and I'll tell you what Bankman Fried claims is going on.

First, we charge that from 2019 until earlier this year, Bankman Fried and his coach, conspirators stole billions of dollars from FTX customers. He used that money for his personal benefit, including to make personal investments and to cover expenses and debts of his hedge fund Alameda research. Secondly, and relatedly, we charged that Bankman Fried lied to Alameda's lenders about the source of the money that he was using to pay those debts. Third, we charged that earlier this year in the midst of the crypto crisis, Bankman Fried lied to investors in FTCs about the fact that he had sent billions of dollars in FTX customer money to Alameda. And fourth, we charge a Bankman Freed violated federal campaign finance laws by causing tens of millions of dollars in a legal

campaign contributions to be made to candidates and committees associated with both Democrats and Republicans. Now, I'm sure Jenk has a lot to say about the campaign finance law as part of this. So I'll leave that to you in just a moment, but I have a few things to say. So understand that there are really two companies at play here, and Sam Bankman-Fried was behind both companies, okay? So you have the FTX exchange, the crypto exchange, where, you know, people are thinking I'm going to invest in FTX. I'm going to invest in crypto. I don't want to miss the boat on this. This is how I'm going to get rich. So they're investing in the cryptocurrencies through FDX, right? Now, the second company in question is Alameda Research, which is a hedge fund. And so what Sam Bank

Fried is being accused of is taking the depositor money from the FTX exchange and essentially gambling with it and losing it. And then there was a bank run, the equivalent of a bank run, which led to the eventual collapse of FTX and he ended up filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Now, he seems to think that his biggest mistake was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which I would venture to say was not his biggest mistake. So he says in the testimony, I know that it doesn't mean much to say that I am sorry. It doesn't. And so I'm dedicating as much of myself as I can to doing right by customers. When all is said and done, I'll judge myself primarily by one metric, whether I have eventually been able to make customers whole. If I fail our customers

in this regard, I have failed myself. Now he claims that he was pressured to sign the Chapter 11 bankruptcy documents, and it was a big mistake. He says, quote, I deeply, I deeply regret giving into pressure to sign forms that precipitated the Chapter 11 filing just a few days after FTX International became potentially insolvent. Among other things, the Chapter 11 team was thrust into a very difficult situation, and I worry that they were given very misleading information by a few members of the FTX US team when they joined. Now he seems to think that FTX US was on the up and up. Things were good, but I'm not buying that.

So he says, to the best of my knowledge, FTX US has been and remained solvent and could pay off all of its customers in full tomorrow. Unfortunately, the Chapter 11 team has frozen the FTX US exchange, blocking customers access to the account information and funds. The customers who have lost assets are those who traded on the FTX international platforms, which do not accept U.S. residents. Now, he might still have to testify. It's just that he's going to have to testify in court. If the extradition goes as planned, he does have the ability to appeal that effort. But considering the fact that he has embarrassed rich, famous people, it is unlikely that the extradition appeal will work. Yeah. Look, let's acknowledge the elephant in the room. His biggest mistake was the haircut. Let's be honest. Okay. Or the lack of one.

In fact, the good news about going to federal prison is he'll get the first haircut of his life. So now let's move into serious stuff. So look, his mindset is unbelievable. But it's because the rest of us don't live in Silicon Valley. and didn't grow up in a situation where there's spectacular wealth everywhere. And everyone abuses the system and thinks that it's perfectly normal. And that robbery is just a normal way of doing business. So he seems genuinely shell-shocked. Like his whole perspective, he still doesn't get it. He kept talking about how he's going to make it back.

Dude, it's over. You're in chapter 11. You're not getting control of the company again. You lost, look, the market cap on FTX at one point. was either $72 or $82 billion, now it's gone. He just, he seems like a kid, and he is, by the way. He's really young. So he grew up this arrogant and entitled, et cetera.

So he seems like a kid going, look, if you just let me double down a couple more times, I can make it back. I can make it back. You just bet on black. And then when you win, you bet on it again. And then one more time, and then I got it back. Why won't they just let me gamble anymore? Well, that's not how it works.

But to be fair to him, it is kind of how it works. works. That's what a lot of the other crypto companies are doing as well. And he and he has said before in talking to reporters. And that's why he's being weirdly honest sometimes when he talks about how he bought off the Republicans and Democrats. And he said to the reporters, I don't get it. Everybody does it. Yeah, I know. You're all crooks. You're the one who got caught. Well, okay. So I want to talk about it in the context of traditional banks, right? Because when you're depositing money in a traditional bank, especially if it's a savings account, the reason why there are certain penalties or fees that they might charge you if you're taking too much

money out of your savings account or the remaining balance is too low is because they want to gamble with your money. That's what they do with it, right? Yeah. But there are regulations to protect you. So obviously there's the FDIC insured situation where if the bank fails, your money will be protected under the federal government to a certain amount. I believe it's about $250,000, if I'm not mistaken. But anyway, and there are other regulations in place as well. For instance, the bank has to have some amount of liquidity in order to ensure, you know, if they make bad investments with that money, they're able to not like screw over the depositor.

Yeah. So let me give you just a little bit more detail on that. So you'll have leverage limits, right? And they vary all the time. They depend on the jurisdiction. They depend on the laws that were passed. And a lot of times the government deregulates the banks. And then that leads to what?

Disasters. Because the minute they're deregulated, they do the same thing Sam Bankrupt Fried does. In fact, that's what they did in 2008, where they collapsed a whole global economy. So if Sam Bamkin Fried said, well, they did it in 2008, those are all guys who you guys still revere. Well, that's true. And what did they do?

They would, and Paul Volcker tried to end this. It was called a Volker rule where they would end proprietary trading, where the bank takes your money on one side, your deposits, and then uses it the gamble on the other side. And the government had then deregulated so much that they didn't even have leverage limits so they could take almost unlimited risk. And since it's your money, they have an incentive to take more risk because the more risk they take, the more profit they get. But if they lose the money, who cares it's your money anyway, right?

It's not their money. What's the big deal, huh? We've provided a place for you to put your money. And then we lost it. What's the big deal? And that's basically what they said in 2008. And all of the very, very corrupt politicians, definitely both Republicans and Democrats, said, oh, yeah, they're right.

And these are the giants of the world, and they're the greatest people on earth. And let's bail them out with your money again, this time your taxpayer money. And so they went back to it. But they put in some small changes. So Dodd-Frank was trumpeted as the greatest, most epic, historic financial reform bill ever, because that's corporate media. They're doing the cover-up, right? In reality, it was so weak that Volker wanted to take his name off of the bill. He's like, you didn't ban proprietary trading at all.

So please stop lying as if I support this bill. Paul Volker used to be a very conservative head of the Federal Reserve. Now he's considered or was considered a progressive, right? He didn't change his positions at all. The country has become so deeply corrupt that Volcker's like, this is absurd. This is in capitalism. You guys are just robbing the place. Exactly.

And so that's what Sam Bankman-Fried was doing. But with no regulations. With no regulation. At the crypto side. So when you have no regulations, it's not just him, I would be shocked if everyone in crypto wasn't doing the same exact trick and robbing you absolutely blind. And before we forget, listen, the campaign finance part of this I think is fascinating. I can't wait to learn more.

And as we had shared with you last week, while it was well known that Sam Bankman-Fried was pumping a lot of money into the campaign coffers of corporate Democrats, he admitted on the record that he donated the same amount to Republicans, but did so through dark money donations. And so, and one of the other things that he confessed to was that while he made public statements about his openness to regulations of cryptocurrency. It was all BS. It was all publicity. He even said F regulations, F regulators. He doesn't want regulations. Then he's not able to rob the depositors and gamble with their money. But anyway, we'll learn more through this investigation

and the ongoing investigation into this. So I can't wait to find out what else he was up to. But, Jank, the financial stuff, campaign stuff. So look, I don't even know what they're going to charge with on that front. And I say that because I think what he, that's the one thing that I thought he did that was, to be honest with you guys, perfectly legal. Now, is it moral? No, of course not. No, we, but we did legalize bribery. You can't give to the politicians directly and have them put it in their pocket, but you almost kind of can because you can give it to their campaigns and their campaigns can spend it on their own properties like Trump did. They could funnel it to themselves in 18 different ways. But you could certainly bribe them in terms of campaign

contributions. You'd give unlimited amount. You'd give it through dark packs. You could give it through other packs. And that's what he did. And he was brazen about it. But if what he did is illegal, that's great news. Because then you should go arrest Democratic majority for Israel, who was the lobbyists that were in the same exact campaigns as he was on the same exact side. You can go arrest the Koch brothers. You can go arrest, you know, all of these corporations that do the same things that he does. And so look, and if, by the way, while you're at it, why don't you go arrest both the Republicans and the Democrats that he gave the money to if that's illegal. But I guarantee you at some point they're going to drop that portion

of the charges because they're going to realize, oh, right, right. Of course, our bad. Bribery is totally legal. And what he did was what every lobbyist and every company does because our politicians are crooks. Here, I'll give you one example. Chantelle Brown took money from him through a super PAC, you know, directed through. so that it doesn't go straight to her, right? But that was in essence to win her election, which she did. They took millions of dollars. They spent it against Nina Turner, who's now our host out on-on boss,

and they bought the election. He bought Chantelle Brown's votes. You think Chantel Brown didn't promise to vote with Sam Brankton-Fried? That he was like, oh, I'll just trust her. No, he knew Nina Turner is honest, and she has to be defeated because she's a progressive who would actually protect consumers. Shantel Brown is deeply dishonest and will make sure to protect me instead of consumers. So find every Democrat, and by the way, a Republican if you can, that he gave money to, and

you'll find a crook. Well, we're going to take a brief break. When we come back, we've got more news for you, including we should probably talk about Donald Trump's no good, very bad day. Come right back. All right back on TYT, Jank U Granite Kasparean and also Darth Nails. They just became a member by hitting that beautiful join button underneath the video. So beautiful, this big beautiful button.

Big beautiful button. The biggest button, you won't believe it, the biggest button you've ever seen. Trust me, we've got no problems with the button. Trust me, okay? We also have no problems with the URL, t.com slash join. And Camp Z 247 is an American hero. Gifted five young turks memberships on YouTube. You guys are the best, Casper.

Let's do it. I think that there has that a portal, a demonic portal, opened above the White House around the time that the Biden's moved in. That's Roger Stone, former President Donald Trump's topic. advisors, one of his top advisors. And he is insane. In fact, listen to what he has to say next. This was brought to my attention by a Christian who lives in North Florida who sent me a bunch of photographs and a bunch of documents and also some notations in the Bible about portals. And I was like, okay, sure. Okay, I appreciate it. Thank you. Well, I mean, you should start out by being

skeptical. I was saying that sounds insane to me. You know, it does sound insane because it is insane. And maybe Trump getting advice from Roger Stone, a literal lunatic wasn't the right way to go considering he seems to be sliding down the polls significantly. It's according to a new poll that was done by Suffolk University. We'll get to those details in just a moment. But, Jank, I know you have a lot to say about Roger Stone and his concerns about the demonic port. Well, I mean, obviously, who isn't concerned about it? I've been here, I'm buzzing in the streets.

You guys hear about the portals? It does keep people up at night, definitely. So what's hilarious is that that guy, the host that who's interviewing him, he sounds like a reasonable guy, right? He's skeptical and I listened to the whole thing. Later in the interview, he's like, look, I'm skeptical about the demonic portals. I believe mainly in curses. I was like, okay, that's a good turn. He's like, he's like Jake Tapper's shockingly, even more evil doppelgager.

So, I mean, they had this hilarious conversation about it. But it's not so funny because Roger Stone is, I don't know if he's trolling the right wing or if he actually believes it. It's always hard to tell. But he's tapping into things that folks are taught that are, of course, nowhere near true. He said, well, what, what? I mean, we all know Satan is real. And that that means demons are real. Yeah, you exist.

And demon, well, that's true. If anybody would know, it would be Roger Stone. I mean, if anybody came out of a demonic portal, okay, so maybe I would draw a little bit of my skepticism here. But anyways, and he goes, and you know demons exist, and you know the demons are inside people, so they got to come from somewhere, so they got to come from a portal. I guarantee you, like, 98% of Republicans listening were like, oh, yeah, oh my God, right? And so it's apparently, of course, it's over the White House, of course.

Of course, the dangerous part of that is that they then start to think that real people are possessed by demons. Sometimes. Yeah, well. Sometimes you can be real naughty. Well, that's a different thing. Now we're having fun portal conversations, okay? Not the other kind. Anyway, but seriously.

What are you going to do with this? What are you going to do with this guy, right? Like, what are you supposed to take these comments seriously? Like, we're supposed to have a genuine exchange about this lunacy? Okay. What do you think comes out of a demonic portal? I mean, but these are the guys who are debating with them. That is one of Trump's top advisors.

One of his top advisors, a bunch of lunatics ran the country. They might run it again. Another, they might not, Anna. They might not, they might not. Now, why do we say that? Let's go back to what I mentioned earlier, the poll. Now, this is a USA Today, South Folk University poll, and they found that by a two to one margin, two to one, GOP and GOP leaning voters now say they want Trump's policies, but a different standard bearer to carry them.

While 31% want the former president to run, 61% prefer some other Republican nominee. Gee, I wonder who that could be, who would continue the policies Trump has pursued. So they love the sin, hate the sinner in this case, right? Oh, that's such a great way of putting in. Yeah, so a $100 gift card. No, I'm just kidding. Okay, so look, I've always been skeptical about this narrative without really seeing any data to back it up. because I definitely can see the Republican establishment trying to move away or move on from

Donald Trump. In fact, in the next video compilation we show you, you'll see some pretty big name figures voicing how they're looking to move on while still maintaining the policies. But this is the first time that I see a poll that has a gap wide enough to show that Trump is losing favorability among the voters. Now, before I get to those details, let's watch the video I was referring to. People want us to get back to the policies of the Trump Pence administration. I certainly would not turn my back on President Trump.

But with that, I love Governor Ron DeSantis. He is America's governor, and he has these same policies. I think America longs to go back to the policies that we're working for the American people. But I think it's time for new leadership. Maybe it's time to turn the page if we can get someone who has all Trump's policies. who's not Trump? Turn the page. There you go.

All right, we're going to give you more devastating numbers in a second. But this is the first time that I'm actually seeing hope that we might begin to enter the end of the Trump era. Well, okay, so I sense your optimism where. And you'd like to squash it. Of course, yes. You have an unlimited supply of that optimism. And we need to cut that crap out, right? I'm here to stop that party attitude.

Listen, Trump is a symptom of everything that's wrong in the country. So while I hear you, there is a positive aspect of no longer having to deal with a man who's so shameless that he would destroy our democracy just to remain in power. All of those issues that have led to that symptom still exist, right? And I'm concerned about that. No, what a shocking turn of events. Let me make a case that it's not entirely true. So I think that I, it appeared that first of all, let's put it this way. Trump brought two things to the table.

He brought hate and madness. Like crazy, crazy stuff. Let's inject bleach into us to cure COVID. You win causes cancer. Elections don't mean anything. Constitution should be ripped up. Just total madness, right? He thought about nuking a hurricane.

So what I was worried about is that the Republicans loved both of the, of those things. They hate and the madness. But now it looks like they're a little tired of the madness. So Anna, you're 100% right that they still want to hate. So the core of the problem still exists, right? And they're just going to transfer it out onto DeSantis. And the distinction that Anna is making is so important because if you watch mainstream media, they like to pretend that Trump is the only problem, right? And once Trump is gone, oh, the fever is going to break and the Republicans are going to go back to being wonderful moderates who are going to give you know, do these great bipartisan deals.

No, no, no, none of that is true. Anna's absolutely right about that. But here's a rejection, as we saw in the midterms, of the madness, even within the Republican Party. For now. That is encouraging. That is encouraging. For now.

Okay, so for now. I don't know how this is going to play out as we get closer to the 2024 presidential election, but I'll give you the rest of the details regarding this poll, because the numbers are pretty significant. So 56% to 33% of Republicans and those inclined to vote Republicans say they prefer DeSantis over Trump. That's a big number, man. Look, all the articles were unclear as to whether that's in the two thirds that are already don't want them to run or overall. I think it's in the two thirds that don't want them to run.

But it's still a big, big lead for DeSantis with two thirds of Republican voters at least. So that is a sea change. So in July, 60% of Republicans wanted Trump to run again. But by the time we hit October, that number had already dipped to 56%. Now it's fallen to 47%. That's real, brothers and sisters. Yes, it is real. And look, I think part of it, actually a big part of it is the voters are exhausted from the endless investigations and potential criminality.

They just want to get those policies accomplished. And it's difficult to accomplish those policies. As much as I obviously don't want them and don't agree with them, it's difficult for them to get what they want when the leader of the party is constantly embroiled with endless investigations. Partly, I think that they might be exhausted from that. But the main thing that they're concerned about is they're now worried that he's a loser. Well, he is. And so that's great news.

And by the way, that could, by the way, be an argument against what I was just telling you. Maybe they still like the madness, but they're like, we just, we are not going to be able to get that hate and madness into the White House and into power if it's in the form of Donald Trump because he's such a goddamn loser. And by the way, guys, we did a hundred loser Donald segments before the 2016 election because we sensed that was his number one weakness. And we were right. So here he is, Republicans are turning on him. And now his favorability has gone down even from 75 to 64. Remember, in 2020, just a couple of years ago, 93% of Republicans voted for him. Almost no one broke from him.

Now it's down to 64%. He's in actual trouble. And there's a real poll. This isn't what in the beginning after the midterms, the Republican establishment was super mad at him. And they're like, oh, we have a poll from Republicanestablishment.com. And it says you do not like Trump. And those were horse crap and we told you about it. Suffolk's a real polling organization.

USA Today is a real paper. So he is for the first time in real trouble because they think he can't beat the Democrats. And by the way, they're right. This is the killer last stat. Biden's lead over Trump is now 7.8 points, almost eight points. But Biden loses to DeSantis by four points. That is a giant 12 point difference. And that means either Republicans have power or they don't have power.

And they want to own those libs. And in order to own the libs, you need to have power. So that's why they're leading towards DeSantis, because they're finally beginning to realize Trump is a loser. All right. Well, whenever I think of Ron DeSantis and governors like him, I think of book bans. So why don't we do that? Let's talk about book bands.

No, let's do it. Yeah. Imagine being so obsessed with banning books. You move from your long time home in New York to travel all the way to Florida, specifically to ban books in an area you don't even live in. Well, that's what one man did, Bruce Friedman, and he succeeded in banning a lot of books, dozens of them, and he definitely wants to ban more. So this year, at least 102 books have been banned in Clay County, Florida. They were removed from school libraries, thanks in

large part to this single conservative activist. I want you to pay close attention to his quotes, because dude's got issues. So, but I want to know if you get what I mean. So let me just get through the details. Okay, all right. So he's the president and founder of the Florida chapter of no left turn. It's a right wing educational group that was founded by Yeran Fishbin. Fishbean. Now, public schools are starting to resemble reeducation camps and our cities have turned into killing fields. Wow. The group wrote on Facebook, it's beginning to feel like Pol Potts, Cambodia. Fishbean says, is that what it's feeling like? I think. I thought for sure he's going to end the sentence with it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

And he's like, no, no, po-paw. That's what it's looking. Really? They're like, oh, we've got these re-education camps now. They're down teaching the kids a two plus two. He actually equals four. Okay, all right, if you say so. I feel like people who make statements like that should be sentenced to live in a country for one month.

That is similar to what they're describing. Oh, I know, right? Like, so he's in Florida, he's having great Cuban food. Right, yeah, yeah, he's having a cappecito, pastelito, he's having a great time. It's like, oh, it's a killing field. It's just sunny outside. Everything is great. Send him to North Korea for one month, right?

And you got worms inside, your intestines and stuff, and you haven't eaten, you haven't seen toilet paper in a month. And then he'll be like, please send me to a re-education camp in Florida. Totally, 100%. Okay. So it seems that Bruce is equally as insane as the group's founder, by the way. And Bruce is the guy who traveled from New York to Florida, specifically to ban books. Now he gained some notoriety when he went to a school board meeting and then proceeded to read from a book that described a rape scene. The school board cut his mic for obvious reasons.

How creepy is that? He also told Fox News that he wants his 15 year old son to be in the public education system and come home unhors. He's concerned his 15 year old son is being unharmed. So obviously the natural, you know, strategy to prevent the harm of his 15 year old son is to ban books that he had no idea about in the school libraries while the internet is at his fingertips. And you took the words right out of my mouth. Because look, guys, it's serious story because they're trying to ironically shut down speech from the guys who claim to their favor of speech. They're trying to cancel books from the guys who claim they're in favor of, they're against cancel culture, right? But it's also funny because how hilariously irrelevant, I wish my kids were going to the library and like, oh, let me look through the books and, oh, I found one. That's interesting, right?

They're doing us a huge favor because they're making reading cool again. I know. They're making it look like, oh, if you go to library, you might find something really hot. So naughty. So taboo. I'm reading a book. Like all of a sudden, 50-year-olds are like, oh, dude, have you seen the the library, which a 50 year old hasn't said in like two decades. But what's also amazing is he's specifically targeting books that don't have pornographic material in them. They don't like, okay, I'm going to give you examples in just a moment. But look, Anna, that's the thing.

I mean, back to the internet for one second. There's two girls kissing. Have you seen the internet, Bruce? No, have you seen it? Can you imagine? Oh my God, he's laying in the corner in fetal position, just like rocking back and forth. Oh my God, the internet. They do more than kissing on the internet.

All they do, trust me, Bruce. Okay, all right, so let's get to the details. Now, during a November 28th meeting of the Florida Department of Education, library media working group, he said that he had compiled a list of over 3,600 titles he doesn't approve of. Let's watch. I have a list of over 3,600 titles that I believe have concerning content. Our libraries have more than a little poison in them. Think of it like a recipe for a happy, well-developed child.

How much poison is it okay to give them? Whether it's porn, critical race theory, social emotional learning, fluid gender, pick your poison. None of it is okay for my boy. I expect this team and all like it to clean up this mess or like I'm doing locally. We'll take them down one book at a time. I will perform 3,600 challenges and overwhelm your all. awful, awful procedures and policies. I'm coming for your books, okay?

All right, I got over 3,600 titles. I'm coming for your books. You better tidy up that library. I got my eyes on you. All right. So one of the books. No, we're going to keep going. No, sorry, go.

No, because I got to give the example. No, she's got to. So he wants to ban and has succeeded in banning. The Girl from the Sea, which is an award-winning novel, okay? It's about a 15 year old girl who develops romantic feelings for another girl. Now, the two girls hold hands at one point. And as you can see from the image, they share a kiss. But there's no sex, no swearing, no nudity.

Unacceptable for him. Okay. So in an interview with popular information, Friedman described the girl from the sea as a book for slight, okay, this is what I mean. Slightly post-pubescent little lesbians, Friedman says. He objects to the book being available in Clay County Libraries because students are not in school to learn about how to be better lesbians. The book is not about being a better lesbian, you weirdo creep. Yeah, you could be a worse lesbian if you want.

It doesn't matter. Okay. You could be a total middle lesbian, like a mid-lesbian. Bad-bad lesbian. Okay, yeah, and how, is that a bad lesbian good or bad? Because, like, you're a bad, bad lesbian. could be like really positive. I don't know which way he's going with that.

He's worried about his 15 year old son reading a book about lesbians. Are you worried your son might be a lesbian after reading the book? Like I don't get it. Okay, let me continue. The book, the book exposes students to a land of girls making out with great illustrations. With great illustrations, because he took time on that one. No, but seriously, like this is what I'm talking about, man. This guy's thinking about things that he's feeling real guilty about.

And that's why he's acting out the way he is. In my opinion, that's my analysis on this. According to Friedman, students should not be focused on kissing or petting or anything else in that general territory. No, and 15 year olds, by the way, are not. They never thought about it until the librarians put it in their heads. Noddy librarians, I mean, and all those books. Yeah, yeah, the librarians were like, hey, look, I know you 15 year old boys are not at all interested in sex, but have you heard about lesbians?

Okay, okay, get a load of this next quote. Friedman said he is comfortable with gay people. Of course, he seems very good. And, quote, recognizes that they exist, but this is the part I'm talking about. Is he not merciful? Friedman said he lived for years in New York City. And on very rare occasions, I would meet a sexually aggressive homosexual person. Good for you, brother.

And have words with them. That's what we're calling at D.C. I'm sure you did. I'm sure you did. Listen, stop hating yourself. It's going to be okay. instead of lashing out and banning books, go get therapy, okay? But that was like the accidentally like the most sexual thing I've read all week.

No, but who describes people that way? Okay. Who describes people that way? I met an aggressively homosexual man and we exchanged words. No, he said, he said, quote, verbatim, I would meet a sexually aggressive homosexual person and have words with them. Listen, like again, how didn't you know they were sexually aggressive? Yeah, how did you? How did you know?

I mean, that seems awfully specific knowledge that you would only get under certain circumstances that you might not get from exchanging words. But listen, this guy has succeeded in getting these books banned, right? Not every book, some of the books, for instance, there was one book that had no nudity, no sexual content, nothing. It just, it was a book about, you know, a main character named Justice who was experiencing discrimination because the character was black. There was nothing explicit in that book whatsoever.

He even acknowledged it, but he doesn't like the fact that the book deals with racial discrimination because it makes him uncomfortable. So he doesn't think anyone else in that school district should be able to read that book. But think about how mental that is. Okay, so like the whole gay, not gay thing, I know religious folks got brought up in wrong kind of brainwashing. Oh, it's so evil. Oh, my God.

God's so wrong. He shouldn't have created you that way. Okay, so that's awful, totally wrong. But I understand where it comes from. This, on the other hand, he's like, it's a book about a black kid who's an Ivy League student who has some racial profiling issues. Like, seriously, the most normal thing I've ever heard in my life. And the book is, Dear Martin, the story of an Ivy League-bound African-American, and it's a story about an Ivy League-bound African-American student. So, Dear Ivy, Dear Martin is the name of the book.

And so he's like, well, I don't like it. I don't know if he doesn't like that the kid wind up in Ivy League in the book, by the way, it's not a real story. Or that he doesn't like that he had was racially profiled or he doesn't like that he's noting that he got racially profiled. In other words, Bruce doesn't like black people talking about races. Okay. And he wants to shut them up because he thinks he rules the world. He thinks he's Bruce almighty, right? So he didn't succeed with getting that book banned.

And thankfully, I mean, at least there's some line here, because again, no explicit material whatsoever. And they have to provide a reason for why they're trying to get a book ban, right? Like, you can't show up and be like, you know, I read the Da Vinci Code and I'm really mad I spent $15 on it and didn't enjoy it. So I'd like you to ban it, please. Okay, kind sir, do that today. Like, where's the line?

Yeah, well, see, on that particular book, the Dear Martin one, he can't say I don't like black people, so I want you to ban the book. So he has to say, uh, critical race theory. No, he says it promotes. Critical race theory, how, right? No, I don't have to explain it. I just use this catchword that Fox News taught me, and then I get to hate black people and it's okay. Exactly. So he says it promotes black lives matter and the notion of microaggressions and he doesn't like it. So I don't like that it promotes black people living longer. I mean, it's absurd. Okay. Yeah. And by the way, I'm just going to fast forward to the final graphic here, because going back to what I referenced earlier, how his quotes seem to reveal something that he doesn't mean to reveal about himself. So Friedman cites the Parental Rights Act, aka don't say gay law to justify his objections to these books. And he says this, you don't want little children questioning their budding little bodies. Just stop talking. It's creepy. I just don't.

I don't know, there's something strange about the way he talks about young people, the way he talks about gay people, the way he talks about everything. There's something going on with this guy and I think it is insane that places like Florida, certain districts in Florida have created a system in which people who might have some serious issues are able to prevent students from accessing books that have nothing wrong with them whatsoever. Yeah, look, this guy got dozens of books. banned until and then finally they realize, oh, we're just giving into a lunatic and maybe we should double check. And because you know why? Even by the way, don't say gay doesn't apply to

libraries. He's wrong about that. But everybody in Florida that's involved in education is so nervous because that bill allows you to sue them directly. So the librarians are like, I don't know, just ban them all. I don't because I don't want to be sued for $10,000 or I don't want to have a bunch of people sue me for $10,000 at a time. I mean, they're going to bankrupt me. They're to take my home to go to ruin my life because there was a perfectly normal book about a black kid who was successful. I don't know, I guess Bannon because of the goddamn bill because it's so hateful. That's Ron DeSate. So Bruce guy is a loon and he's pathetic and all that stuff, right? But he's not the heart of the problem. The heart of the problem is Ron DeSantis

who passed this bill in the first place that encourage lunatics like this to go and try to cancel all the books in the world. The politicians who manufacture culture wars in order to engage in their political campaigning and distract you from the fact that they're actually pro-corporate and assist corporations and robbing you blind. That's what's really fueling this. And it enables the lunatics like Friedman to do what they do. And I leave you with this, okay? He's on a war path. He even says that if anyone gets in his way, he has vowed to run over them like a dead body. Another quote of his, by the way. And don't lose all hope, though. Luckily, there are still some reasonable humans in Florida, like this angry mom who spoke at the same meeting after Friedman

and another woman from his posse, you know, did their thing. Her name's Michelle. Let's watch. These women don't get to decide how to raise everybody else's children. And I know that you're not only getting emails from no left turn in education or moms for liberty because I know there's a whole hell of a lot of more seeing women out there, parents, moms and dads who don't believe that our children need to be policed like this. I find it disgusting the way that these people keep focusing on pornography, maybe they have a problem and not everybody else. Also, Michelle, CRT is not an issue here. So get off that high horse. Thank you. Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, yeah. That was excellent. And I'm glad that there are others

picking up on what I picked up on when it comes to guys like Friedman. Harvors. All right, we got to take a quick break. When we come back, we will discuss. us Republican traders to this country. Don't miss it. 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. at apple.co slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.