The Young Turks - Trump Water, Big Water

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

Norfolk Southern CEO grilled on past lobbying by PBS reporter. Donald Trump visits East Palestine. Some American food additives are banned in Europe – we break down why. Amazon has acquired the primary healthcare provider One Medical in a multi-billion dollar deal. Host: Ana Kasparian 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! Ice cream. Welcome to I'm your host, Anna Casparian, and we have a monster show ahead for you guys.

I got to be honest, we woke up this morning, looked at the news cycle. I was a little upset at the lack of news stories that were inspiring enough to put in the rundown. But as the day progressed, a lot more news broke. So we've got a lot of great stories to get to. We will be doing some updates on the train derailment in East Palestine. I think it's important to stay on that story. I'm already seeing some headlines dismissing Donald Trump's visit to East Palestine, and I think dismissing it would be a major mistake, and I'll tell you why. That'll be later on in this segment of the show. In the second hour, John Iderola will be joining me to talk about a whole host of issues, including one of the largest studies into the so-called four-day work week in the UK. Apparently it was so successful that employers want to stick to it. So I want to talk about the results and the possibilities. of implementing those types of labor policies here in the United States.

But as always, please like and share the stream if you're watching us online, if you're watching us on YouTube. You can also support us by becoming a member by going to t.yt.com slash join. With that said, let's give you this update. Question about rail safety. Because in November and December, Norfolk Southern met with federal regulators and pushed back against this proposed rule that would have in most cases mandated at least two crew members on trains? Why did Norfolk Southern spend so much money, millions upon millions of dollars lobbying against it? That really should be the top question reporters ask over and over again of Norfolk Southern CEO, Alan Shaw, who on one hand loves to pretend he's in favor

of safety regulations, but talk is cheap when you look at the actions of major rail companies, including Norfolk Southern, you'll notice that they've spent just in the last election cycle, $1.8 million on lobbying. And of course, that lobbying is meant to prevent any regulation that could eat away at their profits. Now, why don't we hear what Alan Shaw had to say in response to that very good question? What we're really interested in is solution-based safety rules. And we're very focused on following the science. And with respect to this accident, the National Transportation Safety Board, as you know, they're in charge of this investigation. And I'm very much looking forward to their results of their investigation. Once we have that, we're going to sit down and we're

going to figure out what we could have done better. As you can imagine, every day since this occurred, I've been asking myself, what could we have done better? What could we have done to prevent Yes. Well, I'm glad you asked, Alan, because the fact of the matter is, there was a lot that Norfolk Southern could have done to, in the very least, mitigate the disaster that occurred in East Palestine, Ohio. But before I get to all those details, I just want to address what he said in the very beginning of that video. He says that the company is very much in favor of solution-based safety rules. Fascinating, because I recall the incredible reporting by the lever, which showed that Norfolk Southern would brag to their shareholders about updating their braking system from the old Civil War era technology to the better electric braking system, which would help the trains break or stop faster than the old model. Now, once there was talk of the government mandating that all trains use the new braking systems,

Norfolk Southern, which bragged about the efficacy of the new breaks, lobbied pretty hard to prevent any government mandate or any government regulation that would force them to implement or install the new braking systems on their trains. So that's one thing that, you know, makes it abundantly clear to me that the executives over at this rail company really aren't interested in the so-called solution-based safety rules, because once they know what the solution-based safety rules could be, they lobby hard against them. Other things that I want to just quickly mention is, for starters, when rail workers raised concerns over the size of the train that ended up derailing in East Palestine, executives over

at Norfolk Southern ignored them. I mean, I'm old enough to remember that because it happened And not too long ago, let's watch. Employees working on the train were concerned about what they say was excessive weight and length in the days before it derailed and burst into flames. Fire department reports the station for a mutual aid fire with East Palestine. According to employees familiar with the matter, the train broke down at least once before derailing on February 3rd. In a statement, Norfolk Southern said the weight was uniform throughout, with features to help reduce mechanical issues, and that a longer and heavier train used to run the route. Right, right, except I wouldn't take anything the executives that the company have to say at face value at all. I would much rather listen to what the rank and file workers have noticed with the company and it's incredibly unsafe, cost-cutting strategies.

So for instance, in regard to the size of the trains and the number of workers on said trains, the employees have a lot to reveal to us. The employees say there were concerns among those working on the train over what they believed was the train's excessive length and weight, 151 cars, 9,300 feet long, 18,000 tons before it reached East Palestine, which contributed to both the initial. breakdown and the derailment. And the initial breakdown, by the way, happened a few days prior to the train derailing. So the train broke down, the workers reach out to their higher ups to let them know, listen, we think the train broke down specifically because it's too big. And the

executives ignored them. Let me give you more. We shouldn't be running trains that are 150 car lengths long. One of the employees said, there should be some limitations to the weight and the length of the trains. In this case, had the train not been 18,000 tons, it's very likely the effects of the derailment would have been mitigated. Now, the train that derailed is considered to be very long, according to Sarah Feinberg, who happened to serve as an administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration from 2015 to 2017. We had shared her quote with you earlier this week, but I just want to remind you of what she had to say. When I was FRA administrator, I was not happy with the lengths of the trains, and they were

80 or 90 cars long. This train, meaning the one that just derailed in East Palestine, was 50% longer. So does Alan Shaw need any other advice? Because I would venture to say that he knows all this. It's just that following certain safety guidelines would mean spending some of the money that they would much rather transfer over to their shareholders. In fact, another reminder, here's a fun headline for more perfect union. Norfolk Southern boosted shareholder payouts, 4,500 and slashed workforce 33% prior to Ohio disaster. And that had a huge impact. on their operations, as more perfect union reports, as a result of Norfolk Southern's

precision scheduled railroading, trains rent went from 80 to 90 rail cars supported by five workers to two workers overseeing 150 rail cars or more. This enabled management to effectively invert how much companies spent on workers and how much profit they generated for shareholders. Let's take a look at that inversion, because this graph will show you as they cut costs associated with labor, their operating profit margin went up considerably. So this was all by design. Alan Shaw, the CEO of the company, knows that this is by design. Higher returns for shareholders, higher profits, that is what the priority is. And what was hilarious, and not, I'm being sarcastic when I say hilarious, I'm being clear about that,

after the derailment happened, it took how many weeks for the EPA to announce that Norfolk Southern would be responsible for the cleanup? Why would that even be a question? So it's another case of privatizing gains, socializing losses, right? If the press wasn't focused on the story at all, if there wasn't a tremendous amount of pressure on government officials to do something about this, the fact of the matter is, I would venture to say that the EPA wouldn't even have Norfolk Southern pay for the costs associated with the cleanup.

Likely the local community would have to deal with it, maybe FEMA. And this kind of stuff happens over and over and over again. And by the way, we're all supposed to sit here and pretend as though the only problem with corporations in this country is that they're too woke, according to Republicans. No, the problem is they control our Congress, they legally bribe our lawmakers, and our lawmakers go along with the deregulation that the rail companies desperately want in order to increase their profits. That's what the reality is.

That is the problem with these corporations. They can cry about Lego being too woke. They can cry about the green Eminem not being sexy enough after it's rebranding. But those are not the issues with corporations, those are not the issues that have an impact on our lives every single day. The issues that have an impact on our lives every single day usually have to do with the deregulation that again maximizes profits for the companies while socializing losses. We pay for the losses over and over and over again, whether it be through financial means or through our health because of the pollution that we have to inhale, the dirty water we have. have to consume. That is the reality of the situation. Finally, I want to go to one specific Republican here. Because Senator John Thune, a Republican, oh, he loves that rail money, just loves it,

just flows into his pockets. He's one of the top recipients of the bribe money doled out by the rail industry. And it turns out that Senator John Thune proposed a bill designed to push back the deadline for the implementation of electronically controlled pneumatic or ECP brakes on rail cars carrying oil or other hazardous liquids. The legislation required years of study and new rulemaking. So we had been covering how Congress stepped in after the Obama administration wanted to implement the new

braking system and essentially passed legislation that would make it far more difficult to have that come to fruition, okay? So one of the things that John Thune initially did is he pushed for and succeeded in passing a bill that kind of kicked the can down the road when it came to the implementation of the new braking system. He argued that the technology was untested and that he simply wanted more data before moving ahead with the mandate for electronically controlled breaks, which by the way had been issued earlier in 2015 under the Obama administration. But Thune's goal wasn't even to just delay the safety rules, he wanted to go further. Thune's legislation was part of an industry

push to kill the ECP mandate, review of lobbying, congressional and court records show. Around the same time as he advanced delaying provisions in omnibus transportation legislation, Thune also introduced another bill to entirely eliminate the mandate for implementation of ECP. Following the election of President Donald Trump and with Republican majorities in the House and Senate, the rule was indeed scuttled in 2018. So please spare me the faux concern from the right wing in regard to corporations in America. Because when it comes to their worst behavior that has the biggest impact on our lives, Republicans aid in a bet, they love the deregulation.

They can't get enough of it. Of course, they will exploit the tragedy that occurred in East Palestine to posture as individuals who really want to hold corporations accountable. But behind the scenes, they're taking the bribe money, they're doing the deregulation, and really you have this incredibly weak Democratic Party that is incredibly ineffective in fighting back against that narrative. Because the fact of the matter is, there's a lot of regulation that Pete Buttigieg could have done as Transportation Secretary. We've been talking about that in great detail, and he has failed to do just that. So Democrats don't have much of elect to stand on, and they're not good at messaging. And at the same time, Republicans posture as these warriors who go against the corporate greed, when in reality they don't, they aid and abet it, and they make it appear as though they're looking out for the American people.

Optics and politics is just as important as fighting for certain policies. Because if Republicans can successfully present themselves as those who are looking out for local communities, the working class, even if they're lying about it, the optics is all they need. I mean, we saw that with Trump in 2016 when he paid lip service to the economic anxieties that Americans in the middle of the country were dealing with. Obviously, he didn't do anything to alleviate those economic anxieties. In fact, he added to them, but it didn't matter. Just paying lip service was enough.

Anyway, let's move on. There's a lot of other news to talk about, including Donald Trump himself and how he is using this tragedy to his political advantage. We will be back. The Biden administration should ensure that every family has the option of moving and homes and everything else until this thing is straightened out. I do want to especially thank some of the incredible people that. helped us because we're bringing thousands of bottle of water, Trump water, actually. Most of it, some of it, we had to go to a much lesser quality water. You want to get those trump bottles, I think, more than anybody else.

But we're bringing a lot of water, thousands of bottles, and we have it in trucks, and we brought some on my plane today. But to that end, I'm pleased to announce that we've helped coordinate the delivery of the water and bottled water as well as the tractor trail is full of it. We have big tractor trailers, full of water. I think you're going to have plenty of water for a long time, maybe. Former President Donald Trump visited East Palestine, Ohio, and as goofy as it might sound to hear him brag about the Trump water bottles

that he's providing to the local community, I think it would be a mistake to underestimate the impact that this can have. And to be absolutely clear, home boy Trump is campaigning right now. That is what he's doing. He saw an opportunity to exploit a tragedy for his political advantage. And regardless of how you might feel about him as a politician, as a person, and as many of you know, I'm not a big fan of Donald Trump, what he's doing is actually politically smart.

Showing up, providing something of material to the local community there, a local community that is terrified to bathe in that water, to consume that water, because of the fact that they're experiencing headaches, rashes, while the local officials are telling them the water is safe. Trump comes in and says, don't worry, I got water bottles for you, Trump water, Trump water. Now, there's something else that he did. It was a lie, but he mentioned the inaction by FEMA and how he did something to change it. Let's watch that. Biden and FEMA said they would not send federal aid to East Palestine under any circumstance.

They're not going to send aid. I thought that was a strange statement because I've been working with FEMA for a long time, four years, and they were great with us with the tornadoes, the hurricanes and things like this. And it was a strange statement to come out. And they were doing nothing for you. They were intending to do absolutely nothing for you. JD and I spoke and they said they're not coming, they're not going to come. I said that's very strange.

FEMA said specifically this doesn't meet the criteria and that's horrible and somebody has to do something for those people. I said back when I announced that I was coming, they changed their tune. It was an amazing phenomenon. Come on, come on guys, come on. Okay, none of that is true, like zero percent of that. is true, okay? FEMA didn't say, no, no, nah, we're not going to help under any circumstance. Sorry, that didn't happen. And also the idea that FEMA was kind of just sitting around, didn't

want to do anything until Trump, who is not an elected lawmaker, not a policy, like, he's not president anymore. Like the idea that FEMA took marching orders from Trump is also hilarious. It's not true. But again, there's a difference here. And it's important for you guys to draw that distinction, okay? There's the real world, what the facts are. And obviously, I'm giving you the facts. What he's saying there is a lie. But then there's optics and politics.

And when it comes to optics and politics, what he's doing, unfortunately, is pretty genius. Because he's showing up. He's like, I got water bottles for you guys. I'm really looking out for you. Of course, he's lying about the whole FEMA thing. But he's providing this illusion of leadership. this illusion that he is so concerned about the people of East Palestine and if it were not for him, if it weren't for him, if you didn't show up, the Biden administration.

What is it the Biden administration done for you? And you also have to think of this in the context of how the local community is currently feeling about the Biden administration because local officials and conservatives have in fact criticize Biden for failing to visit the area. And Donald Trump took advantage of that concern by those local residents. So how did he do that? Take a listen. I sincerely hope that when your representatives and all of the politicians get here, including Biden, they get back from touring Ukraine, that he's got some money left over, because we're now at $117 billion, and as you probably know.

So there he is referencing Biden's visit to Ukraine, while also mentioning the hundred, over $100 billion that has already been allocated in the form of military aid to Ukraine, which an increasing number of Americans, I think understandably, are starting to get frustrated about, not necessarily because they don't see the need to assist Ukraine in defending itself against Russia. But more importantly, when it comes to any type of social spending that helps ordinary Americans, we get nickeled and dined like crazy by Congress. But there's no debate when it comes to military funding, defense spending, and foreign aid. In this case, when it comes to Ukraine, right?

And so when people see that, and then they also think about the context they're living in, where they feel like they're struggling and there's no assistance from the government, no social spending to make their lives materially better, they get frustrated, they get angry. And while Trump might be a buffoon in some ways, he's smart enough to recognize this

and exploit it for his own political means. And just real quick, going back to the FEMA argument that he made, the FEMA lie that he told during the speech. He also said, quote, we opened up the dam and got them to move. So he's showing up and taking ownership of something he didn't do. And are the people of East Palestine or the people of Ohio going to know that? Well, it depends on where they get their news.

It depends on where they get their media. If they're stuck in a conservative news bubble, what Trump said might never be debunked for them. And Trump knows that. One final video I want to go to, I think is another example of how Trump is using this effectively for his own political gain. Let's watch. What's your specialty today? How are you today? Nice to meet you. Hello everybody. That's a nice, beautiful looking room for people. So I know this menu better than you do. I probably know it better than anybody in here. We're going to take here at the fire department. That was Donald Trump at a McDonald's in the East Palestine, Ohio area, being self-deprecating, making a point about how he knows the McDonald's menu better than the workers do, which is pretty hilarious. It's well known that he loves McDonald's.

But more importantly, he also said, we're buying meals for the firefighters and the police. it would be stupid, in my opinion, to discount or brush off what Trump did in East Palestine, Ohio. What he did politically was incredibly smart. Was it deceptive? Absolutely. Was it selfish and really just about self-interest? Absolutely.

But will the people of East Palestine know that? Do the people of East Palestine think that? And will the media effectively debunk the lies that Trump told during that speech? I don't think they will. So for the Democratic Party, I would take note because it's not just about the theater that Trump is engaging in here. It goes beyond that. Trump engages in theater that makes it appear as though he is very concerned about the material conditions of Americans in the country. And in this case, particularly in East Palestine.

And that is what Americans want in leadership. And they're not really getting it from Democrats. So again, if they want to just brush him off as if he's got no shot in 2024, if they want to brush him off as if he's some idiot who doesn't know what he's doing and there's no way he's going to win, I think they're making a mistake. I really do. All right, we gotta take a break. When we come back, we've got more news for you guys, including pretty devastating

new report about the food we eat and how the FDA is failing to properly regulate it. We've got that and more coming right up. Welcome back to TYT. We've got a lot more news to get to. So why don't we start with this? Potassium bromate is a suspected carcinogen that's banned for human consumption in Europe as well as China and India. But legal in the US, where it's used by some food makers to strengthen dough and estimated to be present in over a hundred products. There is evidence that it may be toxic to human consumers, that it may even either initiate or promote the development of tumors. Europe has banned all sorts of ingredients in their food that we consume on a regular basis, which is pretty disastrous when you consider what the health ramifications could be and very likely are as we eat all these chemicals that make their way in various products that we consume. Now, how much of a difference do the lack of food regulations in the United States make?

Well, CBS looked into that. Let's watch. Can we say for sure that these differences in regulations mean that people in the US have developed cancers that they would not have developed if they've been eating only in Europe? I think that that is almost certainly the conclusion that we could reach. It's not just potassium bromate, but many other chemicals and substances that have been. banned here in Europe over health concerns, but considered safe by the FDA. Do you think most Americans are aware that they're being exposed to substances that are viewed as dangerous over here? They probably just think, well, if it's available and it's in the store, then it's probably fine. The woman you just heard from used to live in the

United States, she decided to move to London and has been living in London for the past decade because she doesn't want her children eating the dangerous chemicals we consume on a regular basis because our FDA is terrible at regulating the food industry. Now, there's a reason for that. There's a reason why the FDA is terrible at doing the regulations that we need in order to ensure that what we're consuming doesn't make us sick. But before I get to all of those details, I just want to mention something that I think is important to keep in mind as the debate about obesity rages on in this country. When we hear from conservatives who think that the real solution to our astronomical

health care costs is Americans need to stop eating, they're too fat, they don't ever really take into account that we eat all sorts of things that have an impact on our bodies that we shouldn't be consuming. What kind of impact do these chemicals have in terms of our metabolism? our ability to digest these foods. I mean, it's just we have no one looking out for us in the federal government. And in a lot of cases, in state and local government either. And when it comes to the FDA, the food and drug administration seems like they're really set

up for failure. And most of their emphasis, most of their funding, most of their budget goes toward pharmaceutical drug related issues. Very little emphasis on food regulation. So let's give you the details on that. So the federal drug administration, I'm sorry, the food and drug administration. It's funny because sometimes the officials who work within the agency call it the federal drug administration because they forget that they're supposed to be regulating food as well.

But anyway, the food and drug administration was contacted for comment on this issue and get a load of this. The FDA said that when used properly, potassium bromate converts into a harmless substance during food production. The agency acknowledged, however, that not all of the compound used in any given recipe may convert during the production process, but the control measures were utilized to minimize the amount in final products. Were they? Were they? I mean, honestly, that statement from the FDA doesn't really help me sleep at night. FDA regulators or the FDA regulates 78% of the U.S. food supply. Okay, so keep that percentage in mind, because it's a big one. They regulate everything except for meat, poultry, and some egg products. Now, it's been more than 11 years since Congress,

passed a sweeping food safety law designed to prevent this type of health risk. In that time, FDA has failed to put in place safety standards for the water used to grow fresh produce, as mandated by that law, by the way, despite knowing that water is one of the main ways fresh fruits and vegetables become contaminated with deadly pathogens. Now, Congress has also ramped up funding for the FDA over the past decade. But weird, these deadly outbreaks of food contamination continue to happen, right? You hear about Listeria outbreaks. You might get contacted, you might get an email, you might see a news report indicating that there's a major food recall. Don't eat the peanut butter, don't eat the lettuce. You're going to get sick. There's

E. colide. There's Listeria. All sorts of reports. We see them all the time. Well, the CDC estimates that there are more than 128,000, that 128,000 people are hospitalized and 3,000 people die from foodborne illnesses each year, a toll that has not lessened after the sweeping update to food safety a decade ago. Also a recent outbreak tied to contaminated infant formula in which at least four babies were hospitalized and two died is a stark reminder of what's at stake when the food safety system fails. Now last year, Politico did a fantastic investigative report on what's going on at the FDA and why the agency does such a terrible job in regulating the food that we eat. I would have liked to see a little more in

regard to the corruption that plays a role in some of the decision making over at the FDA. But don't worry, I've got those details for you. We'll get to that in just a minute. Now, after this months-long political investigation, they found that regulating food is simply not a high priority at the agency where drugs and other medical products dominate, both in budget and in bandwidth. And the dynamic has only been exacerbated during the pandemic. So they write that the food program is on the back burner. To me, that's the number one problem, said Stephen Ostroff, who twice served as acting commissioner of FDA and held several other senior roles at the agency, most recently as top food official.

He also says there's nobody really pushing very hard to get them done in the same way that you're pushing very hard to get the COVID vaccines out there and authorized. Obviously, this report was published prior to the vaccines being authorized. We don't have that imperative and that pressure to actually make things happen on the food side of the food and drug administration. That is pretty damn devastating. And what's also incredibly devastating is that the agency has been slow to acknowledge numerous other chemicals of concern, including PFAS, also known as Forever Chemicals, which

can be found in the food supply and are used in food packaging. The FDA has also dragged its feet on major nutrition issues, even as diet-related disease rates in the United States have continued to worsen. For example, the FDA has spent the better part of a decade working on voluntary, voluntary, you guys, voluntary sodium reduction goals for food companies while many other countries moved ahead with their own years ago. Why are we telling corporations that have a profit motive that we have regular, that we have not mandatory regulations, but voluntary regulations, voluntary, right? We would like you to volunteer to spend more money on better ingredients for your food,

you know, quality ingredients. It's going to cost you more. We'd like you to avoid using these harmful chemicals in the food. It's going to cost you more. But we're not going to mandate it. We're just going to ask you to do it. Can you please do it? No, the FDA is supposed to regulate the food industry along with the drug industry. So why are they pretending like they don't have that power? They do have that power. They know they have that power.

So let's talk a little bit about the corruption angle here. Because turns out the big industry actually does lobby to the food and drug administration. So in 2022 alone, I looked into which companies or which lobbying groups related to the food industry had meetings with the FDA. And here's what I found. The list includes the American Peanut Shellers Association, California, Dairy's Inc., the Cigar Association of America, also the Premium Cigar Association, International Bottled Water Association, Lando Lakes, USA Rice Federation, American Bakers Association, American Farm Bureau, American Frozen Food Institute, American Honey Producers Association, American Seed Trade Association, American Soybean Association. I mean, the

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Conditions apply. list goes on and on. And this is just last year alone. All these, all these private interests getting together, lobbying the FDA for what? What do you think they're lobbying for? Think they're lobbying for better regulations? Of course not. They're lobbying to prevent regulations. Now, after Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act into law back in January of 2011, food industry lobbyists went to work right away. They didn't waste any time. And here's the result. This is a report from 2013. Winning the prize for the most frequent visitor to the FDA over the two year period was

Miriam Guggenheim of the law firm Covington and Burling. Thanks to her efforts, members of the American Bakers Association will likely be exempt from the legislation's proposed regulations regarding warehouse temperatures measures FDA says prevent problems that can cause food board illnesses. So they pass regulation, right, Congress passes a regulation that it would be great. Obama signs it into law and immediately, immediately after that, you have the American Bakers Association hitting up the FDA to make sure that they can be exempt from the regulations that had just been passed.

Guggenheim also accompanied representatives from Mars Candy when the company wanted faster approval processes for food additives and held telephone calls with the FDA. about bottled water labeling among other client needs. It also doesn't help that nearly half of the FDA's funding comes from the industry that it is tasked with regulating. So why don't we look at the numbers from fiscal year 2021? I grab this. It's a screenshot from the FDA's website. So in 2021, they had an operating budget of $6.1 billion. Now keep in mind, the $6.1 billion is supposed to be used to regulate pharmaceutical drugs and the food industry. About half of that, 54% of that budget, $3.3 billion of that $6.1

billion came from the federal government. But the rest of it, 46%, or 2.8 billion, came from so-called user industry fees from pharmaceutical companies and food companies. So if a lot of your funding, a huge portion, nearly half of your funding is reliant on user fees coming from the very industry that you're tasked with regulating, you might have a little more of an interest in speeding up the authorization for what these companies want to carry out, okay, or the approval process for what these companies want to carry out. Now, in response to the lack of regulation by the FDA, California lawmakers have in fact proposed taking matter. into their own hands. They want to ban certain ingredients and chemicals from making their way into

our food. Why don't we take a look at the next video for more information on that? CBS News has obtained a copy of proposed legislation in California that would make it the first U.S. state to ban five common chemicals, including potassium bromate from all foods sold, distributed, or made there. They're going to have to change their recipes, you know, get rid of these chemicals, and hopefully that's something that's going to have impacts far beyond our borders here in the state of California. Christina Ochoa says the FDA needs to do more. We're trusting them and this is the food that is feeding our future. And I want them to be held to a higher standard.

Now in response, the FDA tells us their scientists keep up to date on food safety research, but it says it's also the responsibility of the food industry to make sure the substances they use are safe. It's the responsibility of the food industry to make sure the substances they use are safe. So you want them to self-regulate, self-regulate. Like, you know, make sure that you guys are using safe ingredients, okay? And let's just call it a day. No, you guys are the regulators. That's the whole purpose of this agency.

That is the whole purpose. That is the only purpose. So what is going on here? And by the way, I remember covering this story years ago, back in 2014, the Washington Post had a piece that talked about the voluntary regulations that were being doled out by the FDA. Let me give you a few excerpts here. The more widespread concern among food safety advocates and some federal regulators is the quickening trend of companies opting for an expedited certification process to a degree

never intended when it was established 17 years ago to, in part, help business. A voluntary certification system has nearly replaced one that relied on a more formal, time consuming review, where the FDA, rather than the companies themselves, made the final determination on what is safe. The result is that consumers have little way of being certain that the food products they buy won't harm them. Finally, the oversight system shifted dramatically in 1997. In response to a shortage of staff members and complaints from industry that the process was too cumbersome, the FDA proposed new rules.

The agency told companies that they no longer would have to submit their research and raw data. The companies can share just a summary of their findings with the agency. What? So why, again, are we just, what is the point of the FDA if they're going to have private industry self-regulate? And clearly when they have a profit motive and they need to cut cost to maximize profits, they are not going to spend the necessary funds to make sure they're using quality ingredients. They need to maximize profits, that's how the system works. They know that.

So look, the whole system guys, it doesn't matter which government agency you're talking about at this point. There's so much corruption, so much so that the food we eat is unsafe. Nothing is being done about it. At the heart of every political issue that we discuss on this show is corruption, is endless conflicts of interest, endless legalized bribes. The system is set up to fail us over and over and over again. And we're all stuck talking about nonsense all day long, Marjorie Taylor Green's latest circus, Tucker Carlson's latest ridiculous rant that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I'm just tired of it. Because whether you're a Democrat, Republican, liberal, progressive, conservative, it doesn't matter. We all live under the same system that is screwing us while those in the media lie to us and distract us with garbage. That is the reality of the situation. Don't forget it. So next time you have an illness related to the food you're eating, understand that it's happening by design.

And there's no one in the FDA apparently looking out for you or looking to regulate the food industries or the food industry that's putting these chemicals and these ingredients in the food that we eat. It's insane. This is the stuff that matters. I just wish this is where the focus was instead of whatever circus people are obsessed with today. Anyway, we gotta take a break. When we come back, we've got more news for you, including a pretty terrifying acquisition by Amazon. We'll tell you more about it.

For YouTube member Crystal writes in, and by the way, you can become a member by going to t-y-t.com slash join or just click on that join button if you're watching us on YouTube. I've been working in the food industry all my life. Do you know how much people would try to get away with if they didn't get inspected, let alone self-inspect? Exactly. I mean, there's oversight for a reason. There is regulation for a reason. I don't really understand why we are funding the salaries of people who work at the FDA if they're not doing their jobs and ensuring that the food we're eating is safe.

By the way, the other thing is anytime I've been to Europe, the food not only tastes different, but you feel different after you eat it. I don't know if it's a placebo effect. I don't know if it's all in my head, but you just don't feel that like gross bloated feeling after you eat food in Europe. It's pretty incredible. Anyway, let's move on. We've got more news to get to, including a pretty terrible development when it comes to health care in America, just when he thought it couldn't get worse. Amazon has closed its deal, its acquisition of primary health provider, one medical,

after the Federal Trade Commission indicated that they would not fight them on closing that deal. Now this acquisition is just one sign of where the health industry is headed. You should be concerned about your personal data. You should be concerned about companies like Amazon monopolizing things. We'll get to that argument in just a second. But first, the details. The landmark $3.9 billion deal will turn the e-commerce giant into a provider of primary medical care with access to more than 200 brick and mortar doctors' doctors' offices, along with roughly 815,000 one medical members, according to the company's latest financial statement. Now, Amazon signaled a greater interest in the healthcare space when it purchased pill pack

in 2018 for $750 million using the acquisition to launch its own online pharmacy years later, the company has also ramped up its telehealth service called Amazon Care and it is sought to develop at home medical diagnostics. Now, what exactly does this mean? I should note that in the near future, it doesn't mean much. So one health or what's the name of the company again? Yeah, one medical. One medical has been around. They already have hundreds of thousands of members who have signed up for their company and the service they provide. What they're saying is, you know, they're going to offer a $55 discount for a one-year membership. It currently costs about $144 to be a member of one medical.

But there are some real issues at play here. So I direct you to a senior policy analyst at the American Economic Liberties Project who says, allowing Amazon to control the health care data for another 700,000 plus individuals is terrifying. Why would that be? Well, Krista Brown continues and says, acquiring one medical will entrench Amazon's growing presence in the health care industry, undermining competition. It will also pose serious risks to patients whose sensitive data will be captured by a firm whose own chief information security office once described access to consumer or customer data as a free for all. And data is very profitable. I mean, think about it. If Amazon has access

to your health-related data because of this acquisition, they can certainly market a lot of product to you? And I mean, look, are these concerns unfounded? Are we hyperventilating about this? How should we really feel about it? Well, the current patients enrolled with one medical are concerned themselves about the potential data sharing here. So why don't we watch this video that kind of delves into it a little bit? In terms of Amazon's track of route, though, There are instances in which the company has given broad swaths of its global workforce latitude to tap into consumer data. I mean, 44% of U.S. residents use prime. That is a crazy amount, especially considering that the largest healthcare system in America, HCA, only has access to approximately 1% of U.S. residents.

Amazon knows what you're buying, what pills you take, and it can guide your decisions to buy and when, and we'll probably use those in terms of health care. Great, that's great. Awesome. And remember when Elizabeth Warren was talking about the need to break up big tech? You know, like Amazon, is it a grocery service? Is it an online retailer? Is it a health care provider? I mean, it is taking over every sector of our economy. And the fact that we already have a broken health care model doesn't make me feel good about the fact that Amazon is now getting involved,

along with other tech companies, by the way, in acquiring health providers, in this case, one medical. And of course, you're going to hear all sorts of happy talk about how, oh, this is going to be super efficient. This is great. Just like we heard from the tech sector about, oh, yeah, social media, it's going to democratize. That's what we want to do over here at Silicon Valley. We want democratize. Do you feel more democracy with the tech sector right now? So with all the happy talk we hear about how this is going to lead to more efficiency in health care, possibly lower costs. What's the reality?

Let's go back to that Axios reporter who has done some pretty decent digging into this story. Amazon and one medical say this deal will make things more convenient for those using health care services. Amazon also says this acquisition will help make health care more accessible. to people who haven't had access to it. So will Amazon's expansion here make health care more accessible, more broadly available? I'd love to say the answer is yes, but unfortunately I do not have any current evidence to support that theory. I say that only because Amazon's efforts in health care so far have been largely directed at

the worried well, and so have when medicals. They largely serve people who are fairly affluent, fairly wealthy, and want what they call concierge, medical care. I will say Amazon had one effort that was targeted at the working class. It had a partnership, still has a partnership with a company called crossover healthcare. And so they have clinics set up with them near Amazon warehouses. It remains to be seen how this deal will impact those. I definitely will have my eyes peeled for that. But I don't think, I don't see this deal is about equity or accessibility to be, to be honest. Yeah, she's right about that. Because anyone who would be naive enough to think,

a private company acquiring another private company is somehow going to solve our health care concerns is just incredibly misled and incredibly ignorant about how private industry works in this country. Now finally, what's up with the FTC? I mean, the FTC, especially under, you know, Lena Kahn's leadership, has been pretty good in fighting back against monopolies and these types of acquisitions. Now, apparently they did not fight against this acquisition, but they say that they are still investigating it and can potentially roll back this acquisition. We all know that that's not going to happen, right?

But let me give you the statement. So this is Douglas Farrer, who's a spokesperson for the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC's investigation of Amazon's acquisition of One Medical continues. The commission will continue to look at possible harms to competition created by this merger, as well as possible harms to consumers that may result from Amazon's control and use of sensitive consumer health information held by one medical. But it's a lot harder to undo an acquisition, especially compared to preventing it from happening in the first place.

So don't be misled into thinking they're going to reverse this. They're not going to reverse it. It's incredibly hard to do it. What's done is done. Amazon has acquired one medical, and they've acquired the members that had already signed up for one medical and all the data that comes along with it. So let's see what they do with it. I don't have high hopes.

I don't think that this is going to lead to any real solution when it comes to our broken health care model. We got to take a break. When we come back for the second hour of the show, we've got some updates on how Biden is responding to the immigration crisis. And we'll also talk a little bit about some fun stories like dunking on Jordan Peterson because he is very upset at anyone telling him that he doesn't need to use as much paper towel as he uses. Real important issue that he's concerned about. That and more coming up. 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.com at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.