The Young Turks - Tucker Spies On Kids

Episode Date: July 8, 2021

The socialist candidate for Mayor of Buffalo won the election – but the corporate Democrats aren’t having it. Republican Rep. Chip Roy says the quiet part aloud: “18 more months of chaos… That’s what we want.” A Bitcoin power plant is turning a 12,000-year-old glacial lake into a hot tub. Tucker Carlson suggests “cameras in the classroom.” A storm at ESPN over Rachel Nichols comments on Maria Taylor.  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. Welcome, everyone, you're watching The Young Turks. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian. For the second hour of the program, John Iderola, host of The Damage Report, will be joining me to help talk about some of the stories we have prepared, including how our waterways have now been contaminated with substances like methamphetamine, trace amounts, of course, and they're having an impact on trout. What kind of impact is that? Are they addicted

to drugs? That is a literal study that we're going to give you the details of. Just an interesting story outside of the realm of politics. But of course, in the first hour today, lots of political news to get to. The hysteria among the right wing regarding critical race theory continues to the point where it seems very clear that they're willing to use it and the fear mongering associated with it to do away with whatever we have left in terms of our privacy. So they're calling for more surveillance to police critical race theory, which is insane. We're also going to take a look at what's currently going down with the mayoral race in Buffalo, New York. Yes, it's a local race, but it's an important one because it really does highlight the divide between corporate

Democrats and Democratic socialists like India Walton, who won that Democratic primary fair and square. And then later in this hour, I want to talk a little bit about Bitcoin mining, private equity firms investing in it, and essentially privatizing gains, socializing losses. There's one community in New York that deserves a little attention when it comes to this issue. But before we get to all of that, I do want to encourage you guys to like and share the stream If you're watching online, it's one of the best ways to help support the show. And you know what, I'm gonna do a shameless thing right now. It's my birthday, help me celebrate it by liking and sharing the stream.

Let's get some eyeballs on it. It does help with the algorithm. So get the progressive message out there, folks. I'd really appreciate that. All right, without further ado, let's get to our first story. We are going on to the general election as a candidate for mayor. And what people have been saying is write down Byron Brown. That shameful display was the incumbent mayor of Buffalo, Byron Brown, who lost the Democratic

primary for the mayoral race in Buffalo, New York. India Walton, a self-described democratic socialist, did in fact win the primary, because she's a great candidate, of course, but also because of the fact that Byron Brown just did not take her challenge seriously and didn't even agree to do a single debate with Walton. Now with that said, what we're seeing from Byron Brown right now is really just this shocking Trumpian display of refusing to take the loss and rally behind the Democratic candidate that he lost too. So let's hear a little more of what Byron Brown has to say. He's encouraging in folks to write in his name in the general election.

We're already seeing some division among Democrats in Buffalo over this very issue. But just listen to the type of fear mongering and language he uses to talk about Walton. You know, we know the difference between socialism and democracy. We are going to fight for democracy in the city of Buffalo. The voters have said that they don't want an unqualified, inexperienced, radical socialists trying to learn on the job, on the backs of the residents of this community. We will not let it happen. No, actually the voters already communicated what they wanted, and they decided to go against you and vote in favor of vote. Walton, who again, let me just repeat myself, won that Democratic primary in the mayoral

race for Buffalo, New York, Fair and Square. I mean, Byron Brown certainly didn't take her seriously, certainly didn't campaign heavily against her. He totally underestimated her. And she is a democratic socialist. To use the type of framing and rhetoric that you would hear from someone like Donald Trump or Tucker Carlson in regard to radical socialists is just, you know, shameful and honestly incredibly pathetic. We're talking about a candidate who had the backing of the Working Families Party, of the Democratic Socialists of America, of grassroots organizers. She's funded by small dollar donors, whereas Byron Brown is a very different situation. In fact, the Buffalo News reports that the incumbent Mayor Brian Brown stated the next portion of his campaign with the promise of an all-star

team that will knock on every door in the city, raise enough money to compete, and even engage in debates he refused during the primary. No, come on. Look, the primary is where it matters the most for all intents and purposes, right? That's where we get to choose a candidate who represents the best interests of the left. And in this case, Walton certainly does that. That's why she won the election. But to now go to the general election and encourage people to write in Byron Brown's name. What does that do? That splits the vote, of course. And whatever happened to Democratic unity, any time you have a leftist candidate who so far as criticized, it just gently criticizes the Democratic

establishment or corporate Democrats, what do we hear? Oh, we need unity, we need unity. But now we're dealing with an incumbent mayor who can't accept the fact that he wasn't popular enough among voters in a heavily Democratic part of New York. And so he can't accept the fact that he lost and is now fearmongering about the winner and also encouraging a strategy that could split the vote and even pave the way for a Republican candidate to win. I mean, it's just stupid and shameful. I do want to also talk a little bit about how India Walton responded to it, of course, but the differences between the two candidates, because that's obviously incredibly important. For anyone in Buffalo who might be watching this, who might wonder, okay, well, I want to take part in that general election.

Who do I vote for? I'll give you the details. First, let's hear from India Walton, who says, quote, we urge Brown to accept the will of the voters end this futile campaign and help us work toward a seamless transition. It would be a shame for Brown to ruin his legacy by partnering with right-wing real estate developers in this pointless effort. The people of Buffalo deserve so much better than this. The fact of the matter is, Byron Brown does have an incredibly cozy relationship with real estate developers. I mean, as a Californian, I know firsthand what it's like to have a mayor who has cozy relationships with real estate developers. It's pretty awful. It's certainly contributed considerably to our homeless crisis here in Los Angeles.

But with that said, you know, the real estate developers and the relationship that Byron has, Byron Brown has with them is very relevant to this. So Byron's or I should say Brown's campaign has given financial aid at least $30,000 in the closing couple of weeks. That's when the panic struck in, right? That's when everyone realized, oh wait, this guy hasn't really been campaigning, he's going to lose, we need to give him some money. From out of area wealthy and connected political benefactors,

including those with business interests before the city for losing, for his losing primary. run. Now let's take a look at Walton. How was her campaign funded? What kind of relationships does she have as a democratic socialist? He, you know, he left that word out of his description of her, just referred to her as like some dangerous radical socialist. No, she wants to actually do what's right by her constituents and represent their best interests as opposed to real estate developers. And her campaign contributions certainly bear that out. So when Brown announced that he would challenge her as a right in candidate, Walton said she raised $40,000 in 24 hours from 600 supporters. So some of those include some heftier contributions, but the majority

of her funding has come from small dollar donations. Much of Walton's primary money came in organically in the words of one campaign source as words spread on social media and through outreach by the New York chapter of the Working Families Party, which helped run the Walton campaign using its experience in such things as primary day, get out the vote efforts. You look at her funding, it does come from small dollar donors, you have this very organic grassroots effort to get her in that mayoral seat to get to win that office. And what's also really impressive guys, if you want to see what effective electoral strategy looks like, take a look at the state of New York. Because for all the criticism of DSA gets,

And even I've criticized them in the past over honestly things that aren't even that important. When it comes to their organizing on the ground, when it comes to their electoral strategy, they have shown that they have a strategy that works. Knocking on doors, speaking to people who feel disaffected, who don't think that their vote even matters, right? Knocking on doors and encouraging people to be part of the electoral process, but more importantly, offering something to the voters of Buffalo, New York, that they haven't really been offered by Democratic politicians in a long time. I mean, it's the first time since the 1960s that you have a socialist candidate who is very likely

to win the general election in this mayoral race in Buffalo, New York. And so she's talking about housing, she's talking about creating a more equitable system, Not just racially, which of course she talks about, but economically speaking. And not doing favors for real estate developers and corporate interests from out of state. I love it. And by the way, Byron Brown also alleges that she wants to defund the police. And she came out and she's like, I didn't say I want to defund the police. We actually have a heavily funded police force in Buffalo, New York.

And we all know about that. We've seen some of the horrendous footage of police officers from Buffalo, New York, brutalizing elderly people as they're protesting. What she's trying to do is reform the system. So everyone in that community, whether they're black or white, whether they're poor or rich, actually get protected and served by the police in Buffalo, New York. There's a very big difference between that and just blindly supporting Buffalo police, regardless of what they do or regardless of how brutal they are.

So these small victories matter, and it's important to shame the hell out of incumbent mayor Byron Brown and the stunt that he's pulling right now because it's Trumpian, it's pathetic, it's embarrassing, and it does go against the will of the people in Buffalo, New York, the voters who turned up to support India Walton in this race. All right, well let's move on to some other news because, you know, leaked audio seems to be the name of the game lately, and I'm here for it. I love it. And the latest example features a GOP lawmaker. Honestly, right now, for the next 18 months, our job is to do everything we can to slow all of that down to get to December of 2022 and then get in here and leave.

That's right. Chaos and obstruction is the name of the game for Republican members of Congress. What you heard right there was Republican congressman Chip Roy, who very loudly declared that the strategy among GOP lawmakers is to essentially create chaos and obstruct until the midterm elections. And then at that point, they'll be in charge and they get to do whatever they need to do. Now, the context of this discussion was in regard to the bipartisan infrastructure bill. And it's important to know how Republican lawmakers are talking about this issue, and compare it to the nonsense framing we get from corporate Democrats who pretend like they really care about bipartisanship, when in reality, they're just using that as cover for the fact that they want to do right by their corporate donors. Now, Chip Roy is very clear. He has no interest in working with Democrats.

He certainly has no interest in supporting a bipartisan infrastructure bill if Democrats, Progressive specifically, do indeed plan on fighting for a reconciliation bill that will pass in tandem. And so just to give you more details about this event, this is the Patriot Voices event that Chip Roy was speaking at. And undercurrent, where Lauren Windsor does wonderful reporting, obtain this video. So the next clip that you're about to watch features a question about the infrastructure bill and pay close attention to how Chip Roy answers it. You had mentioned infrastructure and I was just, you know, this whole brewhaha over the weekend with Biden saying that they're going to ram through all this liberal, all these liberal wishlist things. Why are y'all going to vote for that? Are you going to vote for the one bill if they're going to put all this other stuff in a bill that they just ram through without any bipartisan?

Well, I don't move for anything in the House representatives right now. I don't mean, I know it's the Senate. The Senate, so what, right, the Senate was allegedly working to cut a deal. The people who are working to cut the deal, by the way, were not your conservative warriors in the Senate. And so they're cutting a deal. But then Biden, who came out and said we got a deal, allowed Pelosi basically to cut a stuff in and he go, no, you don't. You're only going to get that deal if you have reconciliation with all this liberal garbage.

And then Biden said, oh, yeah, and they kind of backed away from the deal. Then he kind of came back away from the veto threat. So nobody knows what anybody's going to do right now. That's the thing. This is the problem. I actually say, thank you Lord, 18 more months of chaos and the inability to get stuff done. That's what we're wrong. So the person you hear toward the end is Rick Santorum, a former Republican senator who says,

I agree. No, we love obstruction. We love chaos. Which, by the way, I mean, they're just saying out loud what we already knew. Anyone who's paying close attention to the Republican Party and the way they operate under a Democratic administration knows that their whole strategy is to obstruct. What's frustrating is there are good faith Democrats who, you know, think that maybe there's a path forward in doing this in a bipartisan way with the addition of a reconciliation package, right, that that would pass in tandem, would be. be signed in tandem with Joe Biden. And just for those who are wondering, okay, what's the difference?

Bipartisan bill would pass with 60 votes in the Senate. You would need Republicans, of course, to vote in favor of that, which means the bipartisan version strips out everything that matters. And the reconciliation bill would be a second bill. I mean, this is such an insane strategy to begin with, but it would be a second bill that would have all the goodies that we actually do need, right? All of the human infrastructure components. like funding for elder care, funding for child care, or an extension, a permanent extension of the

child care tax credits that Biden had implemented as part of his coronavirus relief package, which is really helping families out right now. So all of the good stuff would be passed through a reconciliation process in the Senate that would not require 60 votes. It would only require a simple majority. And of course, since there's 50 Democrats in the Senate, Kamala Harris, the vice president could come in and break that tie to get the reconciliation bill passed in addition to this bipartisan bill. Now, going back to the good faith actors, there are some progressives like, actually I can't name them, I don't know, but I've seen this effort to apply pressure on Biden to ensure that he does demand that both bills pass in tandem.

I just don't believe that he's actually gonna do it. I don't know why we're going with this strategy, especially when you consider the fact that Republicans have no interest in playing along, they don't want to work with you. You go to the Senate, right, Chip Roy is in the House. You go to the Senate and what Chip Roy said goes along with what Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said multiple times during the Biden administration. They has no interest in helping Biden pass his agenda. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed Tuesday that Republicans would fight.

They would fight attempts by Democrats to pass a jobs and families plan along party lines. Democrats are aiming to pass the package before the Senate leaves in early August. So let's get to the bad faith actors, right? So let's get to the mansions, the cinemas, the members of Congress, the Democratic members of Congress who are heavily funded by corporate interests, who pretend like they are working with Democrats and Republicans. because they care about bipartisanship. In reality, as we know through leaked audio of Joe Manchin during a meeting with billionaire donors, he knows that bipartisanship isn't a reality, but he needs to use that talking point to essentially help defeat popular provisions in Joe Biden's infrastructure bill

that his donors don't like. That's what this is really about. So we need to be clear about what the actual intentions are of these corporate Democrats. But we also have to be clear about the reality of the Republican Party overall. They're not interested in playing along. They're not interested in bipartisanship. So who cares about passing a bipartisanship infrastructure bill when it's crap? When it allows for $100 billion in what's referred to as asset recycling.

fancy way of saying privatizing our public infrastructure, a hundred billion dollars worth. That's what's in the bipartisan bill. It's garbage. So I think Democrats would be far better off in passing Biden's original infrastructure bill through reconciliation, throw away these fantasies about bipartisanship because it doesn't exist, and create a situation in which the midterms aren't a done in favor of the Republican Party. Pass legislation that improves people's lives. That way in campaigning, Democrats can maybe campaign on something other than, oh, the other party's really icky, you don't want to vote for them.

No, you can actually campaign on passing legislation that improves infrastructure, of course, but also improves people's lives materially. I know I say this all the time, I repeat myself, but it's just such a layup. Oh, well, what's going to happen with the Senate parliamentarian? What if she says that you can't pass this infrastructure bill under reconciliation, a simple majority in the Senate? Who cares? Overrule her.

That's what the Biden administration can do. Overrule her. You can do that. There really are no excuses. Really, when you boil it down, the only thing standing in the way of passing a robust infrastructure bill is corporate donors. It's the US Chamber of Commerce. It's the billionaire donors that Senator Manchin was talking to in that, what he thought, private Zoom meeting. It's amazing to me because Democrats have an opportunity here to actually do something that would be wildly popular.

I mean, polling certainly indicates that upwards of 70% of Americans support the initial iteration of Biden's infrastructure bill. So get it done. Get it done. Encourage people to support the Democratic Party by actually improving their lives. And who knows, maybe that'll actually encourage them to go vote for members of Congress, Democratic members of Congress. I mean, it's amazing like this defeatist attitude of, oh, we're likely to lose control in the midterms, that's what always happens. Well, maybe that's what always happens because you guys don't do anything. You keep capitulating to the Republican Party, which has nothing to offer voters.

They don't have anything to offer their own voters other than fearmongering about critical race theory. I mean, that's what we've been hearing about for weeks on end. Because they don't care about the economic anxiety of Americans. They don't care about the crumbling infrastructure unless they can sell it off and privatize it to corporations. I mean, progressives need to band together and they need to be very clear with voters about what's actually going on. And I really think that there's an easy path to victory for the Democratic Party. They're just unwilling to go through with it. All right, well, we got to take a break.

When we come back, more chaos. We're going to talk about Bitcoin mining and how it's just creating a terrible environmental situation for communities throughout the country, particularly in one town in New York. Come right back. Welcome back to TYT. and share the stream and help get the progressive message out there. With that said, let's get to our next story. On the shores of Seneca Lake, a retired power plant has reawakened, now pumping out half a billion pounds of CO2 a year. Not because this community needs electricity. Its main purpose,

powering thousands of computers 24-7, mining Bitcoin. The Seneca Lake community in upstate New York is suffering the consequences of a private equity firm buying up a decommissioned power plant, converting it to using natural gas solely, almost solely, actually, for the purpose of mining Bitcoin. And when I say they're suffering the consequences, what I'm specifically referring to is how this Bitcoin mining is impacting the local environment, particularly Seneca Lake, which is, you know, a lake that the community enjoys, usually during hot seasons like summertime. People in the community go there, they enjoy themselves. But the situation has gotten so bad that the water in the lake, as is described by some of the community members, is as hot as. entering a jacuzzi. Now some of you might be wondering, how does that work? How does mining for Bitcoin destroy the environment? Well, it certainly does emit CO2, and also the lake itself is being utilized for Bitcoin mining. And this next video gives you a good explanation of how that all

works. A private equity firm bought the dormant coal plant in 2014, converting it to natural gas, installing nearly 10,000 computers and growing. Bitcoin is all digital. There's no bank, no government printing money. Instead, high-powered computers solve complex puzzles to verify Bitcoin transactions. When they do, they also earn Bitcoins. That's called Bitcoin mining. And it devours huge amounts of electricity, more than entire countries like Argentina and Sweden.

We do not need to pollute this lake for Bitcoins. We don't all need Bitcoin. An intake pipe two football fields long cools the 70-year-old turbines with about 100 million gallons of water a day drawn from the lake. The superheated water is discharged into a river, raising fears about the fragile trout and harmful algae blooms. I mean, who cares about the ecosystem, who cares about the trout and the algae blooms? Algae blooms, that sounds like something that the community can pay for later on if it causes any problems. We've got to privatize gains, socialized losses, and this whole Bitcoin mining operation in upstate New York has led to protests in the community, understandably so.

Because again, this power plant that was previously decommissioned wasn't bought by the private equity firm in order to provide electricity or power to the community or to do anything wonderful for the community. It's all about helping to invest, or it's all about investing in this decommissioned power plant in order to mine Bitcoin, which doesn't help the community, it helps the private investors in Bitcoin, right? So this is an ongoing problem, to be quite honest with you, not just in New York, but we're seeing this type of behavior across the country, specifically with private equity firms, relying

on fossil fuels in order to do this mining. So I want to give you some more details about the private equity firm and also give you other examples of how this is impacting communities across the country. So the facility on the shores of Seneca Lake is owned by the private equity firm Atlas Holdings and operated by Greenwich Generation LLC. They have increased the electrical power output at the gas fired plant in the past year. Last week, Greenwich announced a new Bitcoin mining operation at a retired printing plant Atlas owns in Spartanburg, South Carolina. And they've got their eyes open. They're like, okay, great, where else can we do this? Because it's obviously highly profitable for them. They don't care about the impact on the local

communities, whether it's environmental or otherwise. But residents, of course, aren't happy about this. Going back to the Seneca Lake community that we're talking about here, one resident by the name of Abbey told CNBC that the lake is so warm. You feel like you're in a hot tub. And on June 5th, the resident staged a protest as a result of this power plant at a nearby Department of Environmental Conservation Office in Avon. The regulators don't rain in the Greenwich plant. They say 30 other power plants in New York could be converted. to Bitcoin mining, imperiling the state's emission reduction goals. And it seems like there's very little regulation around this. I mean, wow, what a shocker. It's what you can expect. But like other corporations, this private equity firm is using donations, giving out donations, in order to garner some support in the community.

For instance, not everyone wants this operation gone. The Dresden Fire Department welcomed the company's $25,000 donation. for a Jaws of Life machine, and the school district was grateful for a $20,000 gift to develop education and enrichment programs. So I mean, that strategy is actually incredibly smart. I mean, when you really think about it, you have local communities that are defunding certain things that are incredibly necessary, whether it be funding for the fire department, funding for the public schools in the area. You have a private equity firm come in. They're like, we don't want a lot of backlash over what we're doing and destroying this community and destroying

the local environment and the environment generally speaking, right? They're contributing to climate change through this Bitcoin mining. So instead of maybe reconsidering what they're investing in, private equity firms are like, I don't know, we'll just buy these people off. I mean, they're desperate for money. Their local politicians don't do right by them. So $25,000 here, $20,000 there. We'll garner some support and keep doing what we're doing. Who cares? Chacuzzi lakes. It's destroyed the local trout. Algae blooms. Who cares? Bitcoin mining is where it's at. We got to make money. Private investors. They love Bitcoin. It's the future. Let's give you more. The environmental consequences are horrific. So an estimate from the University

of Cambridge says global Bitcoin miners use more energy in a year than Chile. That's a country. When the energy comes from fossil fuels, the process can add significantly to carbon emissions. The Greenwich plant houses at least 8,000 computers and is looking to install more, meaning it will have to burn even more natural gas to produce more energy. So this is, I mean, And it's just, it keeps getting worse. And by the way, this particular power plant, they want it to produce 26 times as many Bitcoin or mine 26 times as many Bitcoin compared to what other power plants are currently generating right now, or mining right now.

And here are some other examples of what we're seeing across the country. As CNBC reports, in 2016, the private equity firm Arc-like Capital Partners of Boston bought into Lime Tree Bay, an oil refinery and storage facility in, I want to say St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The operation had gone bankrupt after a series of toxic spills, but it reopened in February. Just three months later, it was shuttered after it unleashed petroleum rain on nearby neighborhoods. Oopsy-dupsy. We got in mind for Bitcoin, though. I mean, I wonder who paid for that, by the way. Did they pay for that or did the community pay the consequences of that? These private equity firms also invest a large amount of money into fossil fuel companies rather

than renewable energy, right? And the numbers bear that out. For instance, in the past 10 years, private equity firms have poured almost $2 trillion into energy investments, according to Prequin, a private equity database. About $1.2 trillion has gone into conventional energy investments such as refineries, pipelines, and fossil fuel plants, compared to just $732 billion in renewables like solar and wind power. An investor criticism prompts some public companies to dump fossil fuel assets, but then private equity firms are ready buyers. So while we see the gains made by on the ground activism and organizing regarding banks pulling their investments out of fossil fuel companies, private equity firms are like, yo,

We're looking for some short-term investments. We're looking for an opportunity to make money. We don't care about morals. We're going to care of ethics. Please, we don't care. This is an easy way to make money. We don't care about the environment. We're going to privatize the gains, socialize the losses.

The community's sick of it. They're protesting it. But this story doesn't get much attention. We've heard a little bit here and there about Bitcoin mining and how damaging it is to the environment. But you don't hear these personal stories. You don't hear these local stories. You don't hear about what local communities are going through in regard to a change in their environment, a change in the, even the temperature of the lakes that they enjoy.

It's just pathetic. And the worst part about all of this, other than, of course, the contribution to climate change and making this planet impossible to live on eventually, is the fact that these private equity firms take out debt to do these investments, and a lot of these private equity firms are tied to pensions. So if one of these investments go south, who cares about the pensions? I mean, they're certainly going to suffer the consequences of that as well. That's a whole different angle that I do want to cover on this story in more detail at a later date. But we need to have a real discussion about what's happening with Bitcoin mining because it is

contributing to climate change. It seems to be completely unchecked. Private equity firms are doing more than just buying up single family homes and pricing Americans out of the market. I mean, they're also destroying local communities and their environment through the behavior that they're engaging in. But they don't care. There's very little regulation around this, and it's going to continue happening unless we have progressive politicians paying close attention, because we already know that corporate politicians, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, just kind of look the other way

as this stuff happens. So solidarity with the community of the Seneca Lake community in upstate New York. They're going through this, but they're not the only ones. This is a very real issue that does need to be addressed. And unfortunately, it's just not getting a lot of attention. Ridiculous YouTube beefs apparently drive up the views. But share this video. Show that you care about what's happening with American corporations,

their greed, their unwillingness to police themselves, they'll never police themselves. You need politicians to regulate and you need real investments in renewable energy. Otherwise, they're just going to run rampant and do whatever they want. That's what we're seeing right now. And it's just absolutely sad and pathetic. All right, we got to take another break. When we come back, we got to do a little bit of a deep dive into Tucker Carlson's fearmongering about critical race theory because he is reminding me of rhetoric that I heard to the lead up of the Patriot Act getting signed by the Bush administration.

So let me make the case for that when we come back from the break. If you've been paying any attention to the incessant fear mongering on the right regarding critical race theory, it'll probably remind you of some of the rhetoric that we heard. in the lead up to the Patriot Act. So 9-11 happens, obviously there's a lot of fear in the country. And what do the neocons do? Well, they use it as an opportunity to essentially get Americans to agree to just signing away their privacy rights, their civil liberties, and now we're hearing very

similar rhetoric from the likes of Tucker Carlson. So let's talk about that. Tucker Carlson, Tucker Carlson is proposing more surveillance in the classroom. You know, the guy that was just recently complaining about the NSA allegedly spying on him, he wants more surveillance, not for him, but he wants it in the classroom. And it's all because he is fearmongering every day about critical race theory, something that kids don't even learn about in grade school. It's largely a graduate level curriculum.

But Republicans don't want you to know that because squirrel, you got to pay attention to a non-problem because conservatives have nothing to offer us. So let's hear a little bit of what Tucker Carlson has to say about surveillance in the classroom. It's civilization ending poison. But it's everywhere. How widespread is it? Well, we can't really be sure until we finally get cameras in the classroom as we put them on the chest of police officers. Until we finally get a civilian review board in every town.

in America to oversee the people teaching your children, forming their minds, and let's hope we get both of those very soon. But until we do, we can't know exactly how widespread this is, but they're indications. We know that these ideas, this poison, has made it all the way to expensive private schools in Central Ohio. Private schools in Central Ohio. So private schools get to do what private schools get to do. They get to teach whatever curriculum they want. They could be a religious curriculum. Private schools are notorious for not having to follow any of the local guidelines or regulations pertaining to schools that are public, right? Public schools are regulated by local communities, by the state. They get funding sometimes federally, but most of it is regulated

on a state level. Also, Tucker Carlson says, no one can know. I mean, we need to surveil these teachers, no one can know what they're teaching your kids. I don't know, Tucker, you don't ever meet with your teachers? You never have a conversation, any PTA meetings? Because I remember my mom would talk to my teachers all the time. How's my daughter doing? What is she learning about? You know, I mean, where are the fathers, Tucker? Where are the fathers? But the fact of the matter is critical race theory is not an issue in grade schools. It's just not. For the most part, Critical race theory is taught on a college level, a graduate level, but they don't want you to know that. They don't want you to know that. Because you got to be scared, everyone.

If you're a white Fox News viewer, you're very likely to believe that critical race theory is something that it's not. That the whole point of critical race theory is to automatically assume that all white people in America are racist and just inherently bad. That's the way they talk about critical race theory. Of course, that's not what the curriculum actually is. But let's just go back to what Tucker Carlson is proposing here. He's proposing surveillance in classrooms to make sure we hold these dangerous, very dangerous public school teachers accountable. You know, they make like $40,000 a year, live in large. You know, oftentimes they have to spend. their own hard-earned money to buy supplies for their students. They get abused through this rhetoric by the right wing nonstop, not just on this issue, but every issue.

But no, we got to surveil, we got to surveil those dangerous teachers because they might be teaching something that they don't typically teach in grade school. And I'm too lazy to have a conversation with my children's teachers about what they're actually teaching my kids. And it's just hilarious to hear Tucker Carlson make these arguments when just the other week he was making up crazy conspiracy theories about being spied on by the NSA. Let's watch. Yesterday we heard from a whistleblower within the U.S. government who reached out to warn us that the NSA, the National Security Agency, is monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take the show off the air.

Now that's a shocking claim, and ordinarily we'd be skeptical of it, is illegal for the NSA to spy on American citizens. It's a crime. It's not a third world country. Things like that should not happen in America. So let's surveil powerless public school teachers, but the NSA is spying on me. We can't have that. We can't have that. Let me also just remind you all that Tucker Carlson was not friendly toward Edward Snowden when that mess. A massive story broke back when Glenn Greenwald used to be a journalist about the NSA indiscriminately spying on Americans. In fact, Tucker Carlson was critical of the Obama administration for not going after Edward Snowden as a person who had committed treason.

During one speech, Obama had referred to Edward Snowden as a hacker. And Carlson felt that he was really minimizing the crime committed by Edward Snowden. Very bad, very bad man, treason. You know, whenever it comes to surveilling powerful people, whether it be Tucker Carlson or Diane Feinstein, they're outraged. They don't want to be surveilled. But Tucker Carlson's calling for surveilling teachers because his cutesy little grift, his little culture war talking points, call for it. You know, just go ahead and scare the American people about teachers, encourage the surveillance of teachers for something that they're not even really teaching students. It's just so pathetic,

it's so sad. And of course, look, when you look at states like Florida, where they just signed an anti-critical race theory bill, it's not just about critical race theory. It goes further than that. It's all about indoctrinating students with the garbage that the GOP wants to indoctrinate kids with. Let's give you an example. Here's Ron DeSantis from Florida. The bill also expands our previous efforts in civics to add a requirement for the high school government class that students receive instruction on the evils of communism and totalitarian ideologies. We have a number of people in Florida, particularly southern Florida, who've escaped totalitarian regimes, who've escaped communist dictatorships to be able to

to come to America. We want all students to understand the difference. Why would somebody flee across shark-infested water, say, leaving from Cuba to come to southern Florida? Why would somebody leave a place like Vietnam? Why would people leave these countries and risk their life to be able to come here? It's important that students understand that. Now, as part of this bill, Florida will create a portraits and patriotism library so students can learn about real patriots who came to this country after seeing the horrors of these communist regimes. I mean, if capitalism is so great, why did we need the U.S. government to orchestrate coups in countries that had democratically elected socialist leaders?

I mean, if socialism is so awful, why did we have to go in and destabilize Latin American countries by installing our own puppets in those countries? I mean, it's just, it's fascinating, right? Because I don't know if I was a true believer in like the wonders of capitalism and I knew that socialism was bound to fail in these countries, I would just leave it alone, right? It's bound to fail, why does the US government need to get involved to overthrow democratically elected leftist leaders? I don't know, just the point.

But the reason why I show you that clip, other than the fact that it's related to the same narrative that we're hearing from Tucker Carlson, is the fact that this is the fact that this This is all meant to install the types of talking points, right-wing talking points, indoctrinate students with fantasies about US history and fantasies about economic systems. Things that they agree with, not things that are accurate, nothing based on evidence or historical context. They want to indoctrinate. They don't like any curriculum that makes them uncomfortable. And even if that uncomfortable curriculum isn't even being taught in grade schools, they're

going to pretend like it is because they have nothing to offer conservative voters. It's just the same fear mongering, culture war nonsense. And then you have that added layer of the rhetoric meant to manufacture consent, to give away your civil liberties to call for more surveillance. Surveillance of powerless people. We're talking about teachers, public school teachers, people who are underpaid, underappreciated, constantly attacked, let's go ahead and surveil them. That's what Tucker Carlson wants. What a great populist. What a great populist, really a man of the people, isn't he? All these pathetic clowns running around pretending as if Tucker Carlson is like some wonderful

socialist, are you blind? What's wrong with you? Carlson is the same old Tucker Carlson, the same Tucker Carlson who was a cheerleader for everything we standed or stood against during the Bush administration. Just because he's paying lip service to the economic anxieties that some people are experiencing in this country, most people are experiencing in this country, doesn't mean he's actually going to do the right things to respond to it. I mean, Homeboy is the air of like a Swanson fortune, makes millions of dollars as a cable news host, created like his own perfect little bubble studio in Maine while the rest of the country was struggling with coronavirus and also told people not to get vaccinated

because it's dangerous. I mean, he's just loosome. Tucker Carlson is loosome. And if you're unable to see that he has nothing to offer and that he's the same person that he was back in the Bush administration. And if you're gonna buy this garbage about how he's, you know, some populist who's actually looking out for the little guy, I mean, wake up, come on. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing when you see people who think they're leftists supporting the garbage coming from that show. Because there's nothing there. It's empty. All you need to do is just scratch the surface a little bit. And Tucker Carlson is the same garbage that we've known from years and years and years back.

Tucker's gonna Tucker. Don't buy into hollow talking points and nonsense just because he invites you on his show. He's not looking out for the little guy, he's looking out for himself. And what he called for there in surveilling teachers while crying about allegedly being surveilled by the NSA. Pathetic. Pathetic. Anyone who buys that crap really needs to get their head checked. Let's take a break. When we come back, John Iderola will be joining us for some lighter stories.

We will be talking about methamphetamine-addicted trout. It is a story. It is a study. You don't want to miss it. Come right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work. Listen ad-free.

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