The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - October 16, 2020

Episode Date: October 17, 2020

War escalates in Armenia's Nagorno-Karabakh region, Azerbaijan violates ceasefire. Ana Kasparian and Wosny Lambre discuss on The Young Turks. 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. What's up, everyone, welcome to TYT. I'm Anna Casparian, and you're watching the Friday show, which means that we will have a guest on later. Wasney Lombray will be joining us to help me cover some of the stories, some of the current events happening in the United States and around the world. As always, just want to encourage you guys to become members of this network. Members help to keep us sustainable. They help to make this show happen. And we're forever grateful

for their support. So you can become a member by going to t.t.com slash join. We're going to start off the show today with an update on a story that I covered in depth earlier. And it has to do with the ongoing war in Nagorno-Karabakh. This story is unfortunately only getting worse for the ethnic Armenians living in the region. And I think it's only fair to update the audience about it. But I highly recommend that you guys, please, please share this stream, share this video because this is the kind of news that unfortunately isn't getting enough attention in the mainstream press. So let's go do it. The ongoing war in Nagorno- Kornokarabakh, and aggression against ethnic Armenians in the region continues following

Azerbaijan's decision to violate a ceasefire that had been negotiated and brokered by Russia. Now Russian, Armenian families whose homes have been absolutely destroyed by Azeri bombings are now sheltering in historic churches. Rumbavodian and Aravodian, and people can't. Take it. It's notarvered in a puttutusian to,

in what's in a situation in. In 30 years, in, oh, not it's not, we're, we've got

our young now, my son, 25-year-karned, and it's that jane but I, I don't want

I, I don't want to. I want to live a lot of life, Yerjani, where, I can say you I can say you that it's not religion of war.

We have a new nuance. It's a more more and more geopolitical world. It's not only about or for Karaba. It's a word. It's a word.

It's a competition now between Turkey and Russia. Who will rule rule in South Kofkos and in Kovka? So that statement from an Armenian priest who is in the region is actually absolutely correct. This has become very similar to what we saw in Syria, unfortunately. Turkey is a major player, while Turkey on one hand completely denies any involvement in the aggression against ethnic Armenians in this region. The truth of the matter is they are certainly assisting Azerbaijan with military might, weaponry.

And now we're learning, and this has been going on in multiple reports, that Turkey is helping by providing Syrian mercenaries who are trying to carry out the will of the Turkish government and Azerbaijan's government. Now, in a previous video, I shared the historical context. to this story. I highly recommend you go back and you watch that. This video is going to talk about what's currently happening now and what's likely to happen in the future. But I do want to note that while there's all sorts of Azerbaijan or Azeri propaganda about how all of this aggression is committed by Armenians, ethnic Armenians in Nagoro Karabakh. The truth

is very different from that narrative. In fact, Armenians are now sheltered. in churches because of their homes being bombed indiscriminately. And now these churches are no longer providing safety for them because they're also being targeted by Azeri forces. Watch. First, I see that's how the samoyote came here, one could say that's all, when it's got to come here, and then there's, but here's here,

there's, and here, it's there, it's right? Do you? I'm, sort of, a few days we're going to we're

we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're

we're we're we're this this are the and I'm

a half a half the one year he's he's there's and he're

he're his half he're there's he're here they're they're

here But it's not, but in the past aren't, him there's not there, there's anywhere like going to be there. I'm just afraid that they will hit this place as well. And then we don't know

that we don't know that. And then we don't know that. So the historic cathedral that had been bombed in the video that you just watched is in Shusha and it was actually built in 1868. It has been a long time target of Azerbaijan, of Turkey. And I do want to focus on Turkey's involvement in the story because the involvement is significant and it has basically turned the more recent conflict between the ethnic, Armenians in Nagoro Karabakh and the Azeris into just a completely different dynamic,

because Azerbaijan now has the type of military backup from Turkey that it previously didn't have as much of. Okay, previously Turkey was a little hands off. Now Erdogan very clearly is involving his own policies involving Syrian mercenaries that he's promised salaries for, and he'll We'll deny that, but if you talk to the family members of Syrian mercenaries who have been killed in this war, you'll hear a completely different story. So let's discuss that. So recently the Washington Post reported that 52 Syrian mercenaries were sent by Turkey, and they were killed in this war.

So while Turkey denies sending them, the family members of these mercenaries did speak to the Washington Post. One of them said the following, they went to break the borders, meaning the border between Gornokarabakh in Azerbaijan, said a cousin of Mahmoud Najar, a 38-year-old Syrian fighter. The cousin, interviewed by telephone, said Najar's body in the coal truck was marked with the number 12. Money is the only reason, the cousin said. Who wants to go to Azerbaijan?

Who even knows where Azerbaijan is? So some of these mercenaries are on the record saying that they've been offered $2,000 a month in a salary in order to fight this war on behalf of. Azerbaijan, again, they are being sent by Turkey's government. When you consider the past relationship between Turkey and Armenia and the Armenian genocide, which was committed by Turkey, that led to the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians. The ethnic cleansing is something that the international community overall still has not accepted or acknowledged. All of those details give you a sense as to how serious this story really is. For not just ethnic Armenians living in Nagu Kro-

Gorno-Karabakh, but Armenians overall, the country of Armenia, the sovereignty of Armenia, because what it appears to be is a continuation of what Turkey failed to finish in 1915. I mean, there's really no other reason. This enclave in Azerbaijan is predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians. It is governed by ethnic Armenians. The international community says this is Azerbaijan's territory. But, you know, it's interesting to hear the UN make those types of statements, while many UN countries still refuse to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. So to tell ethnic Armenians who have literally lived in that region for centuries, that that is not their land, is laughable. And how did it turn out that this land was handed over to Azerbaijan? Well, it was

literally handed over to Azerbaijan by Stalin, because Stalin thought that maybe by doing so, he could get Turkey to sign on with the Soviet Union. That didn't work out so well for him. And now ethnic Armenians in the region are dealing with the ramifications of that. Turkey has denied sending Syrian fighters to aid Azerbaijan, its longtime ally. But relatives of two fighters, Najar and his nephew, said in interviews that monthly salaries were promised by the Turkish supported militias, and that fighters flew to Azerbaijan from southern Turkey. The deaths of Syrian fighters have also raised alarms, and of course this is very similar to what we saw in Syria, raised alarms about how this decade's old conflict could now rapidly worsen as it draws

in outside powers like Turkey and its rival Russia, and potentially destabilizes neighbors like Iran and Georgia. Also, Azerbaijan is receiving weapons from three different countries, and this should really worry Armenia, because Armenia has relied heavily on Russia to defend itself. But it appears that Russia has been selling weapons to Azerbaijan and Armenia at the same time. They're also receiving weapons from Turkey and Israel. Azerbaijan's assault on Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh has included the use of cluster munitions manufactured by Israel, and that's according to a report last week by researchers at Amnesty International, who examined footage of the munitions. The United States, along with France and Russia,

released in October 5th statement saying that the disproportionate nature of such attacks against the ethnic Armenians in that region constitutes an unacceptable threat to the stability of the region. I think it's important to really highlight that because I guarantee you there will be an influx of bots on this video claiming that all of the aggression is done by ethnic Armenians, ethnic Armenian villagers in this area who have pretty much no power. in this case, right? They're the ones who are carrying out the aggression.

It is absolutely ridiculous. They are relying on the government of Armenia to defend themselves. They believe that they have the right to self-determination. I agree with them on that. I know that I'm Armenian myself, but if you read the work of numerous historic scholars, you will see that this is an area that has been inhabited by ethnic Armenians for centuries. That's why you have literally the first Armenian school in existence built on that land. And the only reason why there's this aggression now is so both Turkey and Azerbaijan can shift

the focus away from their economic failures onto this message of nationalism. That's what we're seeing in that region right now. And it absolutely is leading to the deaths of innocent civilians. And it will also destabilize the region further. Also, the deployment of Syrian mercenaries has repeated a pattern from Libya, where Turkey and Russia are fighting on opposite sides of the civil war. Most of the Syrian fighters in Libya have been hired by Turkey, which sponsors militias inside Syria, opposed to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

So I bring up Syria quite a bit, because much like the proxy war that happened in Syria, We're starting to see the same dynamics play out in Nagorno-Karabakh. And one final thing that really concerns me in regard to the safety of Armenians in that region. Look, they have relied in the past on Russia to defend them. But unfortunately, in this case, it appears that Russia is less willing to take a strong stance and provide the defense that these civilians desperately need. So for instance, Vladimir Putin's government has given mixed signals about whether it will intervene,

saying that Russia will fulfill its treaty obligations to defend Armenia proper, but that its obligations did not extend to fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh territory. This story means a lot to me, guys, and I really appreciate you for listening to the details. Some of you have messaged me and asked me detailed questions about this story. And I always welcome that and I appreciate it. For anyone who's interested in helping out, please do so. People are desperate, they've been displaced. And there's a centralized effort to raise money at armenia fund.org. Any little bit helps armenia fund.org, please help these people out.

They're innocent, there's no reason for civilians to be targeted this way. And again, any little help will be appreciated. We got to take a break. When we come back, Wozni Lombray joins us to cover some domestic politics. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-Ing the Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government,

the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational,

aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today. And get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained, all at the same time. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to TYT, Anna Kasparian, and Big Was. That's where you can find him on Twitter, is with us now.

Wozni Lombre, writer over at The Athletic. What's up, Was. Nothing much. I'm good. I'm happy to be back. I got a haircut earlier this week because I knew I was going to be on TV today. I love it. I love it. You and Brett both got haircuts, I believe, right? Brett, did you get a haircut? Yeah, he did. Okay. Men in my life looking good, looking good. Exactly. And I'll have the viewers know that my barbershop was COVID safe. They did wear masks. Although I did have to walk in through the back door and the shades were drawn in the front. I don't know what that was about, but. We're here. Let's talk about that more in the post game because I want to talk about my strategy after I screw up my husband's hair because I've been cutting his hair since COVID started. And I wanted to get your thoughts on if this is a smart strategy.

But we'll talk about it in the post game, t.yt.com slash join to become a member. All right, so let's check in with a thermometer, see where we're at. We're trying to raise $200,000 this month. And the last time we checked, we're a little low, we're running behind a little bit. little bit, but we're doing okay better than the previous month, that's for sure. So $57,496. If you'd like to help keep TYT sustainable, please go to tyt.com slash go. The more sustainable we are through you guys, the less likely we will be to rely on advertisers, and I prefer that big time. Also, Common Room is airing tonight and you do not want to miss it.

Common Room is on our Twitch channel, for those of you who might not know we have a Twitch channel. And so for tonight, look at that old school cast. We have Brett Ehrlich, Jason Carter, Sam Shocker, and Bree Esrig. You can watch live at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, 6 p.m. Pacific at Twitch.tv slash t.T. This programming is exclusively on our Twitch channel, so make sure you check that out. And then finally, Aspiration. Aspiration is a wonderful financial institution where you can do all of your banking. They will pay you up to 10% cash back for your environmentally conscious spending.

And they will not invest your money in any of the shady fossil fuel companies. Go to Aspiration.com slash TiT to learn more. And I'm gonna do a rapid fire comment read because some of the comments are just absolutely incredible and I'm so grateful for you guys. In the member section, LM15 says, thank you Anna for covering news about Nagorno-Karabakh. International news is important. XTYT reporter says, what's the point of the Geneva Convention if no one is held accountable for violating it? I absolutely agree. Left is best, says thank you, Anna, for the great coverage.

As a Syrian, I feel really ashamed of the reports that some of my countrymen are mercenaries in this war. Well, I hear what you're saying, but it appears that Erdogan is taking advantage of people in desperation, you know, financial desperation to have them fight this war on his behalf. and it's absolutely disgusting. Gabby Marita says, I love when TYT covers international stories, but I hate that they're always so tragic. I guess that's the world we live in with 2020 being a raging dumpster fire worldwide. I absolutely agree with you on that one. And then Jemmo from our super chat section, I just want to really highlight his comment and everyone, you know, send him some virtual love because he says, thank you for covering this story. As a Turkish

viewer, I appreciate your input and your focus on the people living in the region. We literally cannot talk about the Armenian side of things in Turkey. So that goes to what I was saying, you know, in the context of the story. I mean, the propaganda is pretty intense. And you're not allowed to acknowledge the Armenian genocide in Turkey. You will face persecution. And so I, there are a lot of wonderful people in that area in Turkey who disagree with the Turkish government disagree with what happened, both during the genocide and what's happening now in their denial of acknowledging the genocide. And so we should never make the mistake of drawing these equivalencies between a government and its people. I know that as an American,

I wouldn't want the international community to think that Donald Trump is representative of my beliefs. And so let's just keep that in mind, you know, when we're talking about people versus governments. All right, well, let's move on. We have some other news today, including an update on stimulus. So Nancy Pelosi continues catching a lot of heat for the fact that she has refused Donald Trump's $1.8 trillion stimulus proposal. And one thing that's been overwhelmingly frustrating for me is that I haven't been able to find the language of Donald Trump's proposal. I thought maybe my research skills were getting a little dull. But it turns out that no one other than Nancy Pelosi has seen the details of that bill. And luckily, Ida Chavez wrote an excellent piece

in The Intercept about this that I really want to emphasize because already there's so many strong feelings about what Pelosi should do. But we need to proceed with caution because this could be a situation in which Republicans try to take more hard earned taxpayer dollars and use it to benefit their friends. So no House Democrat other than Pelosi knows what's actually in the proposal. The top line spending amounts and some of the major provisions have been confirmed, but no one has seen the text and no one's sure what else Republicans have stuffed into it. Progressive lawmakers, many of whom criticize the CARES Act from the left,

like representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, have not come out and question the strategy of holding out. Omar has demanded that relief pass now, but is asking Republicans to pass the Heroes Act. And to be clear, the Heroes Act is what the House passed months ago. That is a more robust piece of legislation that prioritizes the needs of ordinary Americans. Now, Ocasio-Cortez has not spoken out about the current offer, though in September she urged Democrats to hold out for a large package. that includes significant health funding and aid for state and local governments.

So yesterday we had a conversation with Senator Sanders about this because I was curious to hear his take on this story. Is there any concern that Trump's proposal is not really what he's making it out to be? Let's watch. There is concern that Trump could use that appropriated money. Let's say in an, you know, incredible situation where McConnell actually does successfully pass Trump's version, there's some concern that that money could be used as Trump's personal slush fund. Do you have any details on that? Well, Anna, I think your point is well taken. You know, people say 2.2, 1.8, what's the difference? The difference is, in fact, in the details. And I think one of the things that Trump wants, and I have zero doubt, would use is a slush fund to suddenly go out. out to all of the battleground states already is using a lot of money in agriculture to be spending money on farmers around the country whose votes he desperately needs. So you're right, as I understand it, although it's always very unclear when you deal with

Trump, because I'm not sure that he knows what he is talking about. So it's hard to know what the White House is referring to. And so I wanna get your thoughts on this was. How do you feel about Nancy Pelosi's decision to reject Trump's stimulus proposal? Well, if you read more into the Washington Post piece, she sent out a letter to her to her colleagues saying that Donald Trump is trying to get a win by sending $1,200 with a $1,200 check with his name on it, excuse me, ahead of the election in order to Curry favor with the voters and the implication being that we don't want to give Donald Trump

a win, which I just think is just foolhardy tactics. He's clearly lost on the pandemic. Tens of millions of people are out of work suffering. We've seen people, that's not to mention the 200,000 people who have died, more and more people getting sick by the day. This is a loser for him. I don't know that a check, a one-time payment is going to save him. in any meaningful way. And so I just think Pelosi's strategy here is just off. It's misguided and wrongheaded. It reminds me of something that happened in my world and in basketball.

When the Lakers were trying to trade for Anthony Davis, there was this rumor going around that they didn't want to give up Kyle Kuzma. Because Kyle Kuzma was just seen as just this untouchable great young piece. And so the Pelicans not really wanting Kuzma in the first place, we're like, oh no, we, okay, If you're not gonna give us Cal Coulzman, then give us every single draft pick for the rest of your life. And the Lakers is like, okay, cool, this is Nancy Pelosi. It's like, oh, no, we can't give you $1,200 with your name on it. It's just terrible strategy, it's terrible policy. If she was smart, I think, she would challenge Mitch McConnell to go against the president. I'm sorry,

there's nothing the president advocates for that his bait, that is ever unpopular with his base. You can go down the line from China to whatever. Donald Trump is in favor of something, his base will follow him. So I think McConnell, Pelosi, if she was smart, she would just put him in a bind and go against the president, because that's always losing proposition for Republicans. Yeah, I mean, look, I am really curious how McConnell would act if push came to shove. But, you know, I am also a little worried about what Trump's proposal does entail. Because there has been a slow and steady drip of information regarding that proposal. And one of the things that's a non-starter for Democrats, and it should be a non-starter for Democrats.

It should be a non-starter for any reasonable human who has any ounce of empathy or compassion. They want to provide liability protection to companies and corporations, meaning that if you're You're like Amazon in the early days of the pandemic and you don't, you know, spend a couple dollars to prevent your employees from getting sick. You don't provide masks or anything like that, social distancing measures, you don't implement them. Well, if your employees try to sue you, you don't have to worry about it because passage of the Trump version of the bill would prevent these companies from having to face any consequences

for refusing to protect the health and safety of their workers. So I bring that up because I just, I feel like there's a lack of honesty in the way the story is being covered, right? Like that's where a lot of my frustration comes from. On one hand, I totally agree with you and Americans need financial assistance right now. This does not need to be politicized. But of course, we have two parties that don't seem to be, you know, too concerned with getting this done as quickly as possible.

But on the other hand, we both know that if Pelosi plays. ball with Trump and passed his version of the proposal, and let's say miraculously, Mitch McConnell passed it, there would be all these components to that bill that people like you and I would be trashing on our shows, right? So I just want us to be honest about that because there seems to be this like strong urge to like tell Pelosi, you need to pass what Trump wants right away. Okay, but what's in that bill? How can you have a strong, how can you have a strong opinion unless you, you know,

you know what's actually in that legislation. Now moving on to McConnell, because I think, you know, you made a really great point there, and it would be interesting to see how he would act if Pelosi signed on to Trump's bill. Well, McConnell, for the moment being, is refusing to really help any ordinary American out, even as a whopping 8 million Americans have slipped into poverty during this pandemic. Watch. What we laid out a half a trillion dollars, highly targeted is the best way to go. And so that's what I'm going to put on the floor is what Senate Republicans, 52 of the 53 office, feel like it's an appropriate response.

You're correct. There were discussions going on between the Secretary of the Treasury and the Speaker about a higher amount. That's not what I'm going to put on the floor. So McConnell, for his part, refuses any type of. aid to average Americans. He just wants to provide $500 billion in aid that's mostly directed toward helping companies that are struggling right now. Yeah, to me, that's McConnell. That's a bluff, in my opinion. When he comes out with the 500 number, it's sort of a negotiation

tactic. It's like the Dems want 2.2, the president who's basically my boss wants 1.8, I'm going to throw out this open and salvo of 500 and sort of meet them some way way under what both of them want and pass it. Because the bottom line is when they passed the first CARES Act, that wasn't a McConnell bill. McConnell didn't want that. That's not something he was, you know, sort of lobbying for it to pass. I think what you're seeing there is McConnell saying, look, I don't want to do this in the first place. But if the president forces my hand, I'll play ball at some smaller number. And like you mentioned before, and a figure, out a way to get my cronies the help that they desperately need and want.

Like, you know, who cares about average Americans, which I guess in this bill, they're saying $400 bucks on top of the unemployed insurance benefits, which is a $200 decrease. And they're saying, of course, another $1,200 check signed by Donald J. Trump. I mean, that check, look, any little bit of help is appreciated. Like, don't get me wrong, I don't want to minimize how much $1,200. can help an average American who's really struggling right now. But like the one time nature of it is so insulting and infuriating. And like you're right. I mean, it really is a stunt by Trump to have his name on a check, which, you know, I don't know how effective that is. Quite

honestly, I don't care. Look, I think that people are making a really great point here. And I think it's an accurate point regarding at least some of Pelosi's intentions here. The sunk Biden's brain, or they sunk, I'm sorry, they shrunk Biden's brain from our member section, geez, writes in and says, Pelosi doesn't want to put relief through because she thinks Trump will benefit, close to the election, Waz's right, people's minds are already made up, help them now. So thank you so much for that comment, and I totally hear you on that. But let's also accept that Trump's version of the bill likely does have some components to it, provisions that will, in the long run at least, or maybe even in the short term, negatively impact

American workers, many of whom are forced to go back to work right now. And if these companies can save a couple pennies and prevent spending any type of money on safety equipment or social distancing for their employees, they're going to save a couple pennies. And I think another part of that needs to be calculated here that that I think Pelosi needs to think about is that you know for a fact under Biden presidency, nothing's getting passed straight up and down. Unless, you know, unless the Democrats are able to take the House, I just, I find it hard to believe that under a Biden presidency that he would sign off on 1.8 trillion. 1.5 trillion, 2 trillion, whatever you want to call it, for Joe Biden to play with. Because we've shown what he's, what's been his posture in the past under Democratic presidencies, which is to obstruct, which is to delay, which is to do nothing at any and all costs. Yeah, yeah. No, I think I think you're right about that. So this is really a dire

situation. And we have people who would much rather politicize every moment of this pandemic rather than do what's necessary to keep Americans safe and to make sure that they're fed and housed during the pandemic. It's so unbelievably infuriating. But we promise to stay on the story and update you guys as we learn more about what the different proposals entail. Let's move on to Trump's COVID operatives because politicizing this continues with the Trump administration. The Trump administration has installed its own operatives within the centers for disease control, and they're specifically tasked with suppressing critical information meant to keep Americans safe. Now, there have been two individuals who have been hired, and they're keeping

an eye on CDC director Robert Redfield, because can you imagine the CDC director is trying to share information about the pandemic with the American people that's meant to keep them safe? But apparently, poor Donny Boy thinks it makes him look bad, and he wants to continue downplaying how obviously severe this virus really is. So he's trying to suppress information coming from actual scientists from the CDC. The Associated Press broke this story. I recommend you guys read the full piece, it's excellent. And what they found was that the Trump White House has installed two political operatives at the nation's top public health agency to try to control the information it releases about the coronavirus pandemic as the administration seeks to paint

a positive outlook, sometimes at odds, or maybe all the time at odds with scientific evidence. So the two appointees have absolutely no public health experience, zero, none. But it doesn't matter because they're not supposed to be there to pursue public health. They're there to suppress critical information from getting out to the American people. The appointments were part of a push to get more politicals into the CDC to help control messaging after a handful of leaks were upsetting the apple cart, said a Trump administration official. So I'll give you more details on who these people are, but was I wanted to get your thoughts.

You know, this is in line with what President Trump has done basically from the beginning of his administration with with sort of appointments like what he did at the CFPB, where I'm forgetting the guy's name, but he appointed a guy over there, and I know somebody who was working. The new BMO ViPorter MasterCard is your ticket to more, more perks, more points, more flights, more of all the things you want in a travel rewards card, and then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO ViPorter MasterCard and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit bemo.com slash the iPorter to learn more. Over there at the time, and literally when the guy got appointed, he comes in and

the first day, he said, put your pens and papers down, there's no more work to be done here. And if those of you who don't know what the CFPB is, it's the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau. And, you know, what they were tasked with doing was holding banks accountable to consumers, right? Like going out, finding bank fraud, putting money back. in normal people's hands, that was the job of this government agency. President Trump put, I think Mullaney is his name.

Yes, McMovaney. Movaney, excuse me, McMovaney in charge. And basically they got that agency to do the opposite of what they were supposed to do. If you remember Jeff Sessions, when he got up in there, right? What was he doing? It's like, civil rights division, we don't really know what that is. Voting rights, we don't really care to prosecute. states that are blatantly violating the sovereign rights of American citizens. And just time and time

again, you want to go to HUD. You want, wherever you want to go, this administration is done. They appoint people to post in order for them to sabotage the very mission statements of these agencies. And if we're being real, this is a Republican tradition going back decades, get in power, appoint people to cabinet positions that are the opposite of what they're supposed to do, or just straight up in direct conflict of businesses, business backgrounds that these people come from. And this is just more in line with that. Yeah, no, I love that you brought up all those specific examples. What Mick Mulvaney did to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is like beyond shameful,

but he was put there specifically to do what he did. He was funded heavily by payday lenders. The whole point of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was to help regulate that very industry, this loan shark industry that keeps preying on desperate consumers. And so, you know, you're right, you're right, the same thing is happening in the CDC. But in this case, it's all about risking the like literally risking the lives of Americans in order to make Donald Trump look good for his reelection campaign. We like good press, Anna, you never saw your name and deadline or Hollywood reporting thought,

I like that story. That's all that is, it's just good press, we all love good press now. Well, that's true, but in this case, if I had to choose between good press for myself or saving as many lives as well, you know, you and I were like humans. We're compassionate humans, not sociopaths like Donald Trump. But let me give you more details about these two appointments. So when the two appointees showed up in Atlanta, their roles were a mystery to senior CDC staff, the people said. They had not even been assigned offices. Eventually, one of them, Nina Witkowski,

became acting chief of staff, an influential role as director Robert Redfield's right hand. The other, her deputy Chester, Trey Moller, also began sitting in on scientific meetings. So Witkowski seemed a particularly strange fit, get this, for the nation's top public health agency, she studied finance and business administration in college and graduate school, And at one point worked as a publicist and talent booker for Turner Broadcasting's cartoon network. Oh, great, great, great appointment to the CDC. That's awesome. Wow, her political work included being an events director during the George Bush 2000 presidential campaign. As a state department official, she developed an international engagement program for U.S. athletes and coaches.

Yeah, she sounds like she's totally qualified for this position in the CDC as thousands of Americans are dying every day from this pandemic. It's crazy. I'm somebody who oftentimes on the internet will make fun of sort of credentials, liberal Twitter, where it's like, oh, I went to this school and this, this, this, that. And I got these credentials and I'm fancy. And I can understand, I can sympathize with the strain of thought that's like, all right, you don't need certain credentials. to work certain jobs and be in certain professions. The CDC doesn't happen to be one of them in the middle of a global pandemic though. Like this is just an extremely important job. People's actual lives and health are at risk, right? We're not talking about some fancy seat on some fancy board or at some whack-ass consulting firm.

This is, you know, these people are in charge with keeping people alive and healthy. This is kind of even despicable by Donald Trump standards. Yeah, it really is. So the House Select Subcommittee says it's investigating these new hires, which means it'll probably go nowhere. But at least you, the American people know what's going on. They're trying to shackle Dr. Redfield, prevent him from sharing incredibly important coronavirus information with you. And so I suggest that, you know, you rely on, you rely on rely on fact based, evidence based information and advice from actual public health experts. Please wear a mask, please stay safe, please socially distance, and pretty much do the opposite

of what you hear from Donald Trump at this point, because he's a self-serving sociopathic person who clearly does not care about your safety, but certainly does care far more about increasing his chances of getting reelected. And by the way, I mean, his strategy hasn't been so successful so far. You can't deny or ignore the numbers of Americans who are dying on a daily basis as a result of this pandemic and as a result of his lack of leadership and action. We got to take a break when we come back. Twitter has banned some more content. Should they have? Well, we'll give you the details on that and more when we come back. at t yt we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data but that doesn't mean we have to let them it's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech and one of the best ways is with express vpn

express VPN hides your IP address making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers express VPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you for from eavesdroppers and cybercriminals. And it's also easy to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN.

And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EX, P-R-E-S-V-P-N. dot com slash TYT. Check it out today. Hey, guys, welcome back to TYT, Anna and was with you. Lots of comments about the last story we did and the stimulus story. I wanna thank our Twitch viewers though, because they have done such incredible things, especially today.

So gift subs, Rouse 52 has gifted five subs, ancient Wisdom has gifted five subs, null unit 40 subbed at tier, null unit 40 subbed at tier three for the fifth month, thank you, and Void Queen. Thanks, TYT, for your honesty, progressive ideals and willingness to cover stories like these and that other outlets may pass over. Much love, thank you so much. I'm assuming you're talking about the Nagorno-Karabalbos story. And yeah, it is being ignored. There was a video of workers. from CBS who responded to Armenian protesters. Anyway, in the worst possible way, you should look it up. I don't want to butcher what he said verbatim, but it was something along the lines of,

I hope you guys all get bombed. That got no attention, and it's disgusting. A troll P.Y donated 100 bits and said, I'm Russian and I so, so appreciate all of this info that I could have never forgotten anywhere else, thank you, TYT. And Min Vikings 27 donated 10,000 bits. Thank you so much for your support, guys. We love you. All right, that's a lot. 10,000 bits is a lot. Even I know that. All right, well, let's do our next story. As we all know, Twitter got a lot of criticism for censoring a New York Post piece that alleged all sorts of things against Hunter Biden, we talked about it at great detail. But before that happened, they actually censored something else that's been going on on their platform, something that some experts are referring

to as digital blackface. Well, what is that? Well, Twitter halted an unknown number of fake accounts, claiming to be black people supporting Donald Trump for breaching the platform's ban on manipulating the site and spreading spam. The accounts were identified for using uniform language and tweets that included things like, yes, I'm black and I'm voting for Trump in all caps. Many of the accounts used profile pictures of black men taken from news reports and other sources. Several of the accounts claim to be from members of groups with pro-Trump leanings, including veterans, police officers, steelworkers, businessmen, and avid Christians. One of the fake accounts had in the place of a profile photo the words black man photo, a hint of

sloppiness by the network's creators. So I mean, look, I feel like anyone with a pulse knew that this was going on with Twitter. I think it's pretty easy to suss out the questionable accounts, the sock puppet accounts. I think they're getting a little more sophisticated, but usually you can tell when you're dealing with bots. And unfortunately, there are plenty of them on Twitter. And all you need to do is look at polling data to see that Donald Trump doesn't have like this magical influx of black support.

He's been terrible to black people, to people of color, to immigrants, he's been brutal and openly so. But was, why don't you jump in? What do you think about this? Do you think Twitter should be taking these types of steps? I don't, honestly, not for something like this, not for the black bots, if you will. I actually had a conversation not too long ago on my podcast Hoops Adjacent with the legendary Hall of Famer David Aldridge. He mentioned that anytime he tweets about anything black

related, he gets spanned by it. And I was like, damn, I guess I'm not woke enough because I've never gotten one in my life. I've just never interacted with them. I just think I just have a problem with the Twitters and the Facebooks, sort of being the editors or the gatekeepers of sort of right and wrong. I think hate speech and things of that nature different than just, you know, sort of political propaganda misinformation because something like a New York Post article, I'm sorry, outlets like T.Y.T and the New York Times and the Washington Post and all these other outlets that have a super duper huge reach will be able to debunk.

in and get that out to paint. And if they really wanted to, they could just tip the scale on the algorithm. You know what I mean? Make sure that the stuff that's actually true is getting out there and being pushed at a, you know, more dramatic rate than some of the other stuff. But the idea that you would just not allow them to post it at all on Twitter, I think is a very, very, very slippery slope. And I think one of the great things about something like social media is that somebody can go viral who's just a normal person just because they put something out that people are that are catching on with people. And if you stamp this out, there might come a day when they want to stamp that kind of stuff out. And so that's why I'm just

like I'm not, I don't, I'm not a cheerleader for this kind of thing, even if it's stamping out the kind of stuff that I guess we're supposed to be against anyway. Yeah, look, we covered that New York Post situation on the show yesterday. And I wholeheartedly, agree. I mean, first of all, if you want to avoid circulation of that story because of the inaccurate nonsense in it, and there was inaccurate nonsense in it, and that, by the way, that whole story is like being dismantled as we speak because Rudy Giuliani is a clown and he can't keep his own story straight. So like with stuff like that, leave it up to the free marketplace of ideas. Let's have robust debate. Let's provide evidence. Let's go ahead and debunk the nonsense

that's coming out in that story. We did that in the context of discussing censorship, right? We discussed how the censorship is wrong, but we also were able to debunk the claims in that story. That's what you should do. I do agree that it's a slippery slope. I think that there are some instances where there's evidence of actual humans being harmed, right, physically.

And in those cases, it makes sense to censor some materials. So for instance, the fact that Alex Jones was going after the Posner family, they lost their little boy in Sandy Hook and Alex Jones made them a target. And they had to move eight different times because of their, you know, they worried about their own security. When you're talking about people who are fearful for their lives as a result of the activity that's taking place on these platforms, I think you can have a discussion. When it comes to content from laughable clownish publications like the New York Post, all right, let's have it, right? Let's let's have a conversation about it. I just don't think it makes sense to have this massive corporation serve as the arbiter of

what is and is not acceptable on the platform, especially since this is a platform where so many people get their news. And let's face it, Anna, you're living proof of why we don't need this. You've gone viral dunking on and debunking stupidity like this countless times. So I don't need Jack Dorsey's extra help here. I got Anna Kasparian on my side, y'all. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, and like, by the way, they had censored the content before they had determined

whether it was false. Like, that's an issue. And it creates a situation where the Republican Party can further this narrative that they're like- They can victimize themselves, turn themselves into martyrs. Yeah. Yeah, and that's exactly what happened. Like, every time something like this happens, you have elected officials like Senator Ted Cruz, whining and crying about it, making themselves out to be the professional victims. And then you have the Dave Rubens of the world who, without this victimization, like literally couldn't earn a paycheck. So let's not empower them with accusations of censorship and, you know, how they're being, how they feel aggrieved.

Let's go ahead and allow these articles to exist. They're gonna exist no matter what. I didn't even want to read it until it was censored. After it was censored, I wanted to read it. Because that's how human nature works. Don't try to censor people. I think it usually yields counterproductive, you know, counterproductive outcomes. All right, in the post game show today, we are gonna talk about Susan Collins helping to fund awful QAnon candidates. I don't know what she's doing. She's a mess. But we have other stories for you as well, including some moments from the town hall that Trump engaged in. A lot of people are giving Savannah Guthrie some love. I probably will not, but we'll talk about it with Waz. And if you guys haven't checked out Waz's work,

please follow him on Twitter at Big Waz. And he's also a writer at The Athletic. Where can people will find your work, Was. Oh, I think you're muted. Sorry, sorry about that. I write for the athletic. You guys can sign up. We got a special going $1 for the first six months, $1 a month. I think even I could afford that and I'm a broke boy.

And of course, make sure you're listening to the athletic NBA show. That's our podcast feed. We have a host of the best and brightest minds in NBA media. So if you're an NBA fan, make sure you're listening to the athletic NBA show on every single streaming platform wherever you get your podcast. All right. We'll see you guys in the post game. 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 slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.