The Young Turks - Winter Wars

Episode Date: January 6, 2022

Big drug companies raised the prices on hundreds of medications on Jan. 1, with most prices up 5% to 6% on average. America’s nearly 750 billionaires collectively got $1 trillion richer in 2021, a tax-free 25% gain, according to calculations by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) based on Forbes data. In a new Brazilian presidential poll, Lula is leading the judge who locked him up. Dana Perino says the I-95 traffic jam happened because the left won't let cops have ""military-grade equipment"". A Florida activist was handcuffed while trying to attend DeSantis news conference." 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, What's up, everyone, you're watching The Young Turks. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and we have A fantastic show ahead for you today. I'm really looking forward to the first hour where I will share the details of how the pharmaceutical industry, which made record profits during the coronavirus pandemic, has decided to raise the prices on literally hundreds of life-saving drugs.

Because I mean, what could they do? They need the funding for research and development. Of course, we're going to debunk that garbage and more. Later in the second hour, John Iderola will be joining me to talk about, well, the reality of of Bitcoin bros and billionaires going to Puerto Rico as their latest tax shelter. What is that doing to local communities in Puerto Rico? We'll give you those details and more. We'll also talk about how the Trumps are now auctioning off goofy hats that Melania wore during the Trump administration. Why are they doing that? And will the money actually

go to a good cause? Or will it just go into the pockets of the Trump family? And in the bonus episode for our members. We're going to talk about the whole Eric Adams debacle. He used some wording to describe the working class that has many people up in arms. We'll discuss why, but more importantly, I want to talk about his policy in response to coronavirus and the Omicron variant. Apparently, he is dead set on forcing remote workers to go back to the office. And I think that's the lead that's being buried right now. But before we get to any of that, I want to encourage you guys to like and share the stream. The bonus episode was a lot of fun yesterday.

So if you're not a member, please become one by just clicking on that join button if you're watching us on YouTube. Or you can go to t.com slash join. With that said, let's move on to our first story. Well, it's a new year, which can only mean one thing for incredibly lucrative pharmaceutical companies that have made record profits during the coronavirus pandemic. It's time to raise prices. And they're doing so on literally hundreds of life-saving drugs. And it's not just one pharmaceutical company. It is several of them. and the number of medications that are set to increase in price is likely to grow in terms of like the list of drugs that will be more expensive for Americans moving forward. Now, what does the data say? How many drugs in particular are being impacted by higher prices? Well, pharmaceutical companies increase prices on 460 drugs on January 1st, with most prices up 5% to 6% to 6%

on average. So which drugs exactly are included in these price hikes? I actually want to start off with Gilead, which is an unfortunate name for a pharmaceutical company. It's an unfortunate name for any company. But nonetheless, they have increased the price of HIV drugs to the tune of 5.6%. So if you are dependent on Bictarvi or Discovy, you're gonna pay more for those life saving drugs. And if you're fortunate enough to have health insurance, let's be clear that the cost of your premiums and your prescription co-pays are likely to go up as a result of these types of price hikes. Let's move on to Pfizer, which has in fact made record profits during the coronavirus pandemic thanks to their coronavirus vaccine. Well, Pfizer decided to increase the cost of their

breast cancer drug to the tune of 6.9% and also 6.9% increase on its Prevnar vaccine and 4.4% on the costly heart drugs that are listed there, Vindamax and also Vindacl. And that's not the only pharmaceutical company that's increasing prices. We also have Vertex, which has decided to increase the price of its cystic fibrosis medication to the tune of 4.9%. And of course, there's a huge issue with that. In addition to the price hike, there's the issue involving how they have monopolized the market in regard to cystic fibrosis medication. It's already an incredibly expensive drug with a list price of $311,000 per year. Now, how do they justify this? I mean, we're talking about companies like Pfizer that have made record profits.

Why would they need to increase the price of these life-saving drugs? What excuse are they giving? I mean, they're shameless. They use the same tired excuse over and over again. We need research and development money. I mean, what could we do? We need to price gouge the American people. We need to price gouge Medicare in an effort to raise enough revenue to develop new life-saving drugs.

Yeah, except anyone who's paying attention can't possibly buy that. Why do I say it? Well, the reason why I say it is because you take a look at their record profits. You take a look at how much they're paying their executives, particularly their CEOs. And I would argue that maybe the money could be spent elsewhere if they're so strapped for cash on research and development. Now, one statement from a Pfizer spokesperson was this. The modest increase, the modest increase, is necessary to support investments that allow us to continue to discover new medicines and deliver those breakthroughs to the patients

who need them, said a Pfizer spokesperson. When posed specific questions about various rebates that could be offered, the spokesperson said, we do not disclose detail at that or at the product level. So let's take a look at what their profits are. If you look at Pfizer specifically, Pfizer said it expects a total of $36 billion from the coronavirus vaccine for all of 2021, just from the COVID vaccine alone. And it said based on contracts, it now has signed, it expects revenue $29 billion. from the COVID vaccine in 2022.

So they're expecting to make even more money, more profits off the coronavirus vaccine in 2022. And to be sure the coronavirus vaccine is incredibly important, luckily you can get the jab for free for now. But to say that Pfizer needed to jack up the prices of other drugs offered by the company in order to make enough money for research and development is laughable.

In fact, Pfizer does spend a considerable amount of their resources on their CEO. So why don't we take a look at the pay for the Pfizer CEO. Pfizer Inc. paid chief executive officer Albert Borla, $21 million in total compensation in 2020 alone. 21 million dollars in total compensation in just one year, 2020. The overall pay package, which included salary, bonus, stock, and other incentive pay represented a 17% that increase from Borla's compensation in 2019 when he was paid a total of just 17.9 million. I mean, what could they do? They really want to focus on talent retention here, you know, and it really does take a talented individual to be as callous as this CEO, someone who is willing

to jack up prices on life-saving medications, knowing that individuals who can't afford those price hikes are likely to be physically harmed as a result. Some could die, a result. That level of callousness really is a talent. It really is a skill within the pharmaceutical industry. Now the Daily Poster also reports that corporate Democrats are heavily influenced, and this shouldn't shock any of you. They're heavily influenced by pharmaceutical companies, which might have something to do with the fact that so many of these corporate Democrats in Congress fought aggressively against the provision in the build back better agenda that would have allowed for lower drug prices, that would have allowed for Medicare to negotiate

for lower drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies, which, by the way, as it stands today, they are barred from doing. So a top Democratic Party media buying firm, Canal Partners Media, is placing ads for drug industry front groups that want to block Democrats from lowering drug prices, as promised in the Biden reconciliation bill. And we've talked about the Biden reconciliation bill, the so called build back better agenda in great detail on this show. But for those of you who might want a quick update, that bill is dead. Congress has decided to shelve that legislation because they just refuse. Corporate Democrats refuse to fight for the very agenda that Biden claimed to be supportive of. It's Biden's agenda. But we haven't seen much of a fight coming from

President Biden either on that front. Now, canal partners also start. buying ads late last month for the coalition to protect access, CPA. Another apparent pharma front group, CPA has already bought 3.2 million dollars worth of ads for December and January. Now, what do those ads look like? I'm a little curious. Why don't we take a look? Today, vaccines and antivirals are helping fight the pandemic, because scientists System researchers in America's biopharmaceutical industry acted fast after investing billions over years to achieve breakthroughs. But now, Congress is threatening legislation that will devastate private industry's ability to fund treatments just like these. What's at stake isn't corporate profits. It's public preparedness.

Tell Congress to oppose legislation that would harm our ability to fight pandemics, paid for by coalition to protect access. And of course, there are a few things that we need to clarify in response to that. ridiculous deceptive ad. Number one, we already see these pharmaceutical companies bringing in record profits and paying their executives handsomely with that money instead of really focusing those resources on research and development. Also, in terms of research and development, a lot of that money does come from us, the U.S. taxpayers, through the National Institutes of Health.

So the federal government provides seed money, provides the research and development funding for these pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs that we so desperately need. In fact, a considerable amount of our federal resources went toward developing the coronavirus vaccine. So this argument that, oh, my God, look, but if we change this system, so Americans aren't price-gouged on life-saving medications, well, we just might not ever develop medicines again. That might not ever happen again.

And what can we do? We have to do this. We have to price gouge you, even though Americans pay on average two to three times more for these pharmaceutical drugs compared to other developed countries. Which is why many Americans travel to other countries, whether it be Mexico or Canada, to get access to the life-saving medications that they so desperately need. And while it might be easy for the Democratic Party to immediately point fingers at the Republicans and GOP lawmakers for their corruption and their cozy ties to the pharmaceutical industry, let's make one thing absolutely clear. Republicans, I think, are pretty clear about who they are. Okay, they don't hide who they are. They don't hide how they're pro-business, pro-corporations, anti-worker.

I mean, they might use populist rhetoric here and there, but at the end of the day, when you pay attention to their actions, actions when you pay attention to their rhetoric overall. In general, they're pretty clear about how they favor corporate interests over their own constituents. But it's the Democrats who present themselves as warriors for the workers, as warriors for their own constituents who have been price gouged by these pharmaceutical companies. They consistently campaign on reforming health care. They consistently claim they're in favor of universal health care. But when push comes to shove, as soon as they're in a position of power, what do they do? my God, the Senate parliamentarian is stopping us from being able to do this.

Oh my goodness, what could we do? We really tried to convince Mansion and Cinema with carrots after carrots after carrots. No sticks, though, to support this legislation. But they just, they don't want to do it. So we're just going to shelve the legislation, the build back better agenda. They always find excuses. And then once we get closer to election time, what do they tell us? If we just had more feckless Democrats in Congress, we would actually be able to accomplish something.

Please vote for us. We haven't actually delivered on anything that we campaigned on, but please vote for us. Democrats are in for political blood bath in the midterm elections, and they have no one to blame but themselves. But to be sure, they'll blame progressives. They'll blame people like us who criticize them for discouraging voters. from showing up to the polls to vote for them. They'll find all sorts of scapegoats, much like Hillary Clinton, after her massive fail in 2016.

But fact of the matter is, you can't just consistently campaign on being a warrior for the little guy, and then turn around and disappoint again and again and again. And it's also not going to work to consistently make the right wing the boogeymen. If you're not going to have something positive to campaign on, Don't get upset when voters are not persuaded to show up to the polls because Republicans are so scary. That did not work during the 2016 presidential campaign. It is not going to work moving forward. If they're going to campaign on these big promises, they need to deliver.

And I'm sick of them lying and thinking that they can get away with it. Remember, it's the Democrats in charge right now, not Republicans. Democrats hold the levers of power, and they're failing us again. And they only have themselves to blame. All right, well, why don't we move on to our next story? Because I always love to give you guys updates on where our wonderful billionaires stand in their wealth. Okay. And the pandemic's been difficult for a lot of people, but not billionaires.

So the pandemic has been a lucrative time for America's billionaires with a new report showing that the nearly 750. billionaires here in the United States have collectively increased their wealth to the tune of one trillion dollars. You know, you hear about all that fear mongering in regard to inflation. You hear about all the business community is really suffering. But when you scratch beneath the surface, as we should know by now, the individuals who are suffering the most are workers, whereas the investor class, the executive class, it's doing pretty well for themselves. Let me give you the numbers. Their wealth rose from $4.1 trillion

to $5.1 trillion over the 12 months that ended on December 31st. That wealth rise could fund half of the Democrats proposed 10-year, roughly $2 trillion, build-back better plan of social and environmental investments. That legislation has been shelved, by the way, meaning that it's it's dead, meaning that Democrats have completely given up on it because they never wanted to pass a social spending package. How's that working out for you, Pramilla Jayapal? You know, head of the progressive caucus, apparently trusted Biden a little too much in delivering that social spending package.

Seems like he didn't do that, right? Anyway, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk was easily the biggest wealth winner of 2021. riches growing by over three quarters or $118 billion to nearly 272 billion. I don't know, is that enough money? Maybe not. His single year wealth gain alone would more than pay for the build back better agenda. It's $109 billion plan to offer six years of free preschool for six million children included. And as some of you might know, Elon Musk loves to brag about the fact that, look at me,

I'm going to pay some taxes. I'm going to pay so much in taxes, everyone. But why don't we actually look at the numbers? How much is he paying in taxes relative to the average American worker? Well, Musk has recently boasted about facing an $11 billion tax bill last year, some substantial part of which is going to the state of California. But even if it were all going to Uncle Sam, it would represent less than 10% of his $118 billion wealth game,

in 2021. Average families, on the other hand, pay about 13%, meaning a higher percentage of their money toward federal taxes. So just let that sink in for a second. People who make far less income are paying a higher percentage of that income toward federal taxes. Well, this man, Elon Musk, who saw his wealth rise in one year to the tune of 118 million, $118 billion is complaining or making himself out to be some sort of hero because he's spending about 10% of those gains on federal taxes. Now, the rich don't get richer through innovation. Some do, but when we're talking about the billionaires who made a killing during the pandemic, that is not what we're talking about. We're talking about individuals who saw their wealth climb

as a result of the stock market and its ever growing performance. So why don't we look at that and why the stock market has performed so well, even as the pandemic led to mass layoffs, even as the Great Recession took place, even as COVID-related shutdowns took place, how is it that businesses perform so well in the stock market when there was all this chaos in the economy? Well, stock buybacks might have something to do with that. Share buybacks hit a record high last year. Companies in the S&P 500, a market index which tracks the stock prices of 500 leading U.S. companies, repurchase shares worth over $245 billion in the third quarter alone. That's just in one quarter. These exorbitant buybacks

helped U.S. stock market indices reach record peaks. The S&P 500 broke 67 record records. in 2021 and increased its value by 25%. And for those of you who are like, well, how does that, how does that work? You have the Federal Reserve injecting money into the economy. You know, they got to provide liquidity to the banks and the corporations, right? And you know what they do with that money? They just buy shares of their own stocks. And remember, executive pay, the compensation package that executives are awarded with,

for their wonderful behavior, usually has stocks involved. So if the share prices go up, that means that the executives' compensation goes up. So they literally, literally have a vested interest to take that money that's being injected into the economy by the Federal Reserve to artificially inflate the value of the shares for their companies. That's really what's happening here. That's why there's this massive disconnect between what we're seeing in the real economy and what's taking place in the stock market. This is another reason why the stock market is not a good indicator of how the economy is genuinely performing, because it is a house of cards.

And the Federal Reserve has played a huge role in that. Now, thanks in part to cheap debt and quantitative easing, that's what I'm referring to here when I talk about. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's awesome. often your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too. When they fall out of balance, everything feels off. But here's the good news. This doesn't have to be the story of your next chapter. Hormone Harmony by Happy Mammoth is an herbal formula made with science-backed ingredients designed to fine-tune your hormones by balancing estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and even stress hormones like cortisol. It helps with common issues such as hot flashes,

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get 15% off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. about the Federal Reserve's behavior, the, you know, the working class is feeling this disconnect from how the stock market is performing and how, you know, inequality is really exploding in this country. This is one of the ways that inequality continues to grow. But don't worry, the individuals who have made the most money during the pandemic, the billionaires who only got

richer, are very unlikely to be taxed on their earnings. Because remember, we're talking about the majority of their newfound wealth coming from the stock market. And in order for them to get taxed on those gains, they need to sell those stocks. And oftentimes they don't. So under current law, none of that gain will ever be taxed unless the underlying assets are sold. Now, Democratic lawmakers like Senator Ron Wyden have proposed a billionaire tax to mitigate this. It's not going to go anywhere because there are too many corporate Democrats who stand in the way of passing this type of legislation. But what would that have done? Wyden's billionaires' income tax would apply to capital gains rate a total of 23.8% on the highest income taxpayers to the billionaires' gain of slightly over $1 trillion.

The tax would be due annually on easy to value assets like stocks, which compromise or comprise much of the growth in. the billionaire wealth. Now, again, that legislation is unlikely to go anywhere. But one thing you should also keep in mind is despite all of this, despite all of the pain and suffering that the working class has experienced during this pandemic, and despite the fact that there is no conversation in Congress right now in regard to another round of stimulus for ordinary Americans, there are members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, who are now thinking about another round of stimulus for businesses. Let me give you those details. In recent weeks, the talks have been led by Senators Ben

Cardin, a Democrat, and Roger Wicker, a Republican. The duo in mid-December cobbled together the outlines of a roughly $68 billion proposal, two of the people said, which could include a mix of new spending and a repurposing of some unused cash authorized under previous packages. So are there any other details about this proposal? It's in the works. Who would benefit from it? Again, it would not benefit ordinary working Americans.

This is about helping businesses because that is the top priority in this country. That is at the top of mind for our members of Congress. The early efforts have focused primarily on authorizing billions of dollars to help an array of businesses, including restaurants, performance venues, gyms, and even minor league sports teams that face another potential blow to their already battered balance sheets as a result of the evolving pandemic. I think it's abundantly clear where the priorities lie among our lawmakers, within our system of government, it's clear that when it comes to something as simple as the federal government

rolling out free COVID testing, it's laughable. It's laughable. To the point where the White House press secretary will laugh in the face of a reporter who asks a simple question about that. But then after backlash, of course, the Biden administration announces, no, no, we'll dole out about 500,000 free COVID tests. But it took backlash for that. When it comes to stimulus for businesses, there's no question about, I mean, they're already working on it in Congress. They have shelved the build back better agenda, the social spending agenda that would provide universal pre-K, that would provide assistance with child care. So mothers who are struggling right now with child care would be able to go back to work. I mean, it would finally do something to legitimately tackle climate change.

That it's shelved, it's gone. Okay, that bill is pretty much dead. Congress is already focusing on another round of stimulus for businesses, which look, some businesses have been battered by the pandemic. I wouldn't have a problem with that stimulus package that's being worked on right now. But it does say something, and it says something pretty harsh about our economic system and our political system, that the ordinary American worker is completely left behind. In fact, you have lawmakers across the country, both Democrats and Republicans, demanding that

everyone go back to work, including remote workers. But, you know, while we're all expected to, you know, pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, rugged individualism for the ordinary American worker, businesses, businesses need that federal aid. They need that help. And they always take priority. Because we're ruled by corporations. We're ruled by capitalist interests. This is how it always plays out. And we really need to question. whether we're going to continue dealing with this system that tells us that we absolutely have to vote for certain politicians, every election cycle, only to get the middle finger as soon as they're in the positions of power that we elected them for.

We've got to take a quick break. When we come back, we've got more news for you, including some international news involving elections in Brazil. One of my favorite stories of the day. Don't miss it. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the show. I'm Anna Kasparian, and we're about to get to some international news. I wanted to give you guys an update on what's happening with the elections in Brazil.

So let's get right to it. Sergio Morrow, the right-wing judge in Brazil who imprisoned Jaire Bolsonaro's political opponent, Lula de Silva, leading up to the 2018 presidential election, is now actually running a against Jaire Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil. And I love it when bad guys fight. Let him fight. And I love the fact that this is actually increasing the chances of the leftist candidate, Lula de Silva, from winning.

So Bolsonaro actually lost support from the majority of the country. And it has to do with a number of different things, including his own corruption, but also his response to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the right worshipped Sergio Morrow for his role as judge who put former president Luis Inacio Lula de Silva behind bars on corruption charges. The popularity propelled Morrow to high office as justice minister under far right President Jaira Bolsonaro, who won the 2018 election, but only after the front one frontrunner

Lula was made ineligible by Morrow's sham conviction. And I'll give you the details on why that conviction was a sham in just a moment. But why is Morrow now running against Bolsonaro, the individual who he assisted in winning the 2018 election, the individual who named him as a justice minister under his administration? What's going on here? Well, it turns out that Morrow resigned from his post in the Bolsonaro government because of the fact that he was allegedly concerned with Bolsonaro undermining Morrow. He was concerned that Bolsonaro was meddling in the ability of law enforcement to do its job. Now, there are more

details on that in this video. Let's take a quick look at that. Sergio Morrow resigned as Brazil's justice minister. On live television, he accused President Jaiy Bolsonaro of political meddling in matters of law enforcement when he fired federal police chief, Mauricio Valekso, the day before. Unfortunately, there's no way for me to fulfill the commitment I made if I'm not able to do my job, if I'm not able to preserve the autonomy of the federal police to carry out its work. Sergio Moro's resignation comes just over a week after President Bolsonaro fired his health

minister, Luis Enrique Mandetta, signaling there could be more political turmoil still to come. Now Morrow stepped down back in 2020, and ever since then, it seems that there's been a bit of a feud taking place between Bolsonaro and Morrow, but I want to be clear about something. While Morrow is presenting himself as some sort of anti-corruption warrior, someone who wants to protect the independence of law enforcement to do its job, do not make any mistakes about Morrow's own corruption, his collusion with Bolsonaro. in an effort to turn Lula de Silva into a political prisoner. And guess what? That conviction, that sham conviction, luckily fell apart. And as a result, his whole, I guess, persona as this anti-corruption individual is really no longer valid. And it's showing in some of the polling. Now, let me give you the details on what happened with that sham conviction.

So the Supreme Court freed Lula and vacated Morrow's ruling. Determining that the judge acted with bias after the intercept, Glenn Greenwald, to be specific, revealed compromising secret chat log showing illicit collusion between Morrow and the prosecutors. This was prior to Glenn Greenwald losing his mind, but it was good reporting at the time. Now, attempts to revive the cases against Lula have subsequently been thrown out, leaving Morrow's legacy damaged. It was yet another hit to Morrow's credibility, which was decimated. during his brief, controversial, and at times humbling, or humiliating, I should say,

and at times humiliating tenure in the Bolsonaro government, culminating in an anticlimactic, acrimonious departure in 2020. And guess what? Morrow quit working under Bolsonaro's government to work in Washington, D.C. What was he doing there? Well, following his high-paying consulting gig in Washington, and even work on behalf of an Israeli billionaire accused of corruption and rights abuses, Morrow is now running for president himself. Isn't it funny how the guy who really presented himself as this anti-corruption warrior then ended up working as a consultant in D.C.? It is pretty amazing stuff, right? Now, Morrow has made an effort to avoid any questions pertaining to his anti-corruption work,

even going so far as to avoiding speaking to crowds during book signings and things like that. He avoids even the possibility of being ambushed by anyone who wants to ask him a tough question about his record. Now, while Brazil's mainstream media often ignores Lula or casts him in a negative light, Morrow unfortunately suffers no shortage of glowing coverage despite his lackluster polling numbers and vague policy proposals. Morrow was featured on the front page of the influential O'Global newspaper once every three days. Other major newspapers, radio stations, and television networks were similarly attentive. And unfortunately, there has been little, if any, critical coverage of Morrow's scandals. But while the media in Brazil, much like the media here in the United States,

prefers this corrupt politician over a leftist like Louis de Silva, who lifted literally millions of people out of poverty, it doesn't seem like the media's coverage is working so far. Okay, so a little more information about him, and then I'll give you the update on where he stands in the current polling. Morrow represents a part of Brazilian society, which includes a large share, according to the intercept, of the media that does not accept Lula and is ashamed of its previous support for Bolsonaro.

His strategy will be to try to sustain the character that was created for him, that anti-corruption character. I think this character is out of step with Brazil today, but it is a character that corresponds with many of the interests of some powerful groups in Brazil. And that's according to a Brazilian studies professor over at the University of Oklahoma. And so where does everything stand today with this election with this race? Well, facing off against both his far more charismatic arch nemesis, though, the former judge is struggling to break into double digits in polling. Awesome. The resurgent Lula, on the other hand, is ascendant polling at nearly 50% with the lowest

negative numbers of any major candidate. For his part, Bolsonaro, battered by an eight, economy and his administration's disastrous handling of COVID-19 is only managing to attract, oh, so sad, just over 20% of voters. And so the voting for this election is scheduled to take place in October of this year. As we know, a lot can happen in 10 months, so we'll see how this all plays out. But things are looking great for Lula de Silva. And remember, he was made a political prisoner by Sergio Morrow, and things seemed incredibly dire for him. But luckily, there was excellent reporting that outed Morrow as someone who colluded to make Lula de Silva a political prisoner, and all of those charges have completely

fallen apart. That conviction has fallen apart. And to be sure, among the people of Brazil, Lula does command quite a bit of popularity, not only because of the fact that he is untouched by the disgusting behavior that we're seeing by both Bolsonaro and Morrow, but more importantly because he did in fact lift millions of Brazilians out of poverty when he once led the country. And I think that that stability, that economic growth that happened under his watch and under his leftist policies really does reign supreme and really does send a message in this election. Hopefully that message remains and hopefully the people of Brazil make the right choice here, because I will say this, Bolsonaro has been a complete,

and utter disaster for the country. And even his supporters, his most avid supporters, have realized that. We got to take a quick break. When we come back, we've got more news for you all, including that massive traffic jam that happened in Virginia. Apparently, the solution, according to Fox News, is giving police more weapons to deal with snowstorm related traffic jams. What? We've got that story and more when we come back. In the house like LL Cool J in our Twitch audience has gifted 20 subs. So special thanks to you for doing that. I love it when I get gifted subs. So I know that the recipients of those subs are going to be super grateful for it. And for those of you who are curious about our Twitch

community and our Twitch channel, you can check it out over at Twitch.com. slash TYT. If you have a prime membership, you can actually get a free subscription to our Twitch channel through that. So definitely check it out. And special thanks again to in the house like LL Cool J. All right. Let's get to one of the craziest stories. One of the craziest commentaries on the winter storm that took place in Virginia recently. Drivers in Virginia were stuck on the Interstate 95 for literally a day, more than 20 hours, stuck on an icy road with no food and very little help. Luckily, most people ended up being okay. There were some deaths as a result of this crazy snowstorm that took place. But Fox would have you believe that the real

problem, the real issue that transpired was the fact that police departments and state police in Virginia aren't getting enough military grade equipment to deal with these kinds of disasters. I'm not even kidding. But before we get to that insane video and you do not want to miss it, I need to give you some context into what happened. What happened with this massive traffic storm, a traffic jam as a result of this massive snowstorm? Well, a 40-mile stretch, according to the New York Times. A 40-mile stretch of the highway, one of the busiest travel corridors in the United States came to a standstill overnight after a fast falling snowstorm led to Jack Knife's tractor trailers and hundreds of other accidents. Some people abandon

their cars, many including Senator Tim Kane, spent the night on the snowy highway. In fact, Senator Kane spent more than 20 hours in his vehicle, in his car. He said that he left his car on for 30 minutes at a time to charge his phone, make calls and also warm up, then turned it off to save gas and to sleep for 20 minutes or so, only to be wakened by the cold. When he wasn't napping, Kane said he passed the time by sipping Dr. Pepper. I do like Dr. Pepper, if I do say so myself, listening to Sirius XM Radio and eating small wedges of an orange that another stranded driver had given him. Remember, people are not expecting to be stranded on the interstate 95.

So most people don't have food, they don't have water. I mean, it was a terrible, terrible situation. And obviously, this is in the middle of a snowstorm where it's incredibly cold. Now, he said that he regretted his habit of skipping breakfast. He also apparently said that the snowstorm ended up being much worse than everyone had expected. And that's why there was a lack of preparedness in regard to this snowstorm. So as the governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, said, we were prepared for this. We were prepared for the storm that was predicted, a few inches of snow.

But instead, Mother Nature spent more or sent more than a foot of snow to the Fredericksburg area. And people unfortunately did die just to give you what we know so far in regard to people who were harmed as a result of this winter storm, authorities around the mid-Atlantic said the storm had caused at least five deaths. Two women and a man died after their vehicle collided with a snowplow, according to the Montgomery County Police Department. Local news outlets in Tennessee and Georgia reported that a child in each state had died after trees fell onto their homes. Now, when it came to that massive traffic jam, cars and trucks slowed, then stopped on their way up and downhills. At least one tractor trailer slid sideways across the

highway. In some places, four inches of ice froze underneath vehicles. So since officials didn't expect the snowstorm to be as severe as it was, it was just this terrible chain of events. It started off with rain. The rain then turned to sleet on the roads and on the interstate, which meant that it was incredibly dangerous to drive. Cars were slipping and sliding. And then after that, they received snowfall at a rate of two inches an hour for four to five hours. Now, that explanation, by the way, apparently wasn't good enough for the fine folks over at Fox, where Dana Perino wanted to blame this mess on something totally different. Let's watch. I talked to a state legislator there in Virginia, and he pointed out to me that in the last several years, many on the left made a decision that local sheriffs should not be allowed to have military grade equipment, right? Because they said that that was a bad symbol and that it was too militaristic and authoritarian. But imagine if they were still allowed to have the equipment that they had just a few years ago, it probably would have come in very helpful today.

What? I mean, what are, what are the cops supposed to do? Like, shoot the ice, shoot the snow? Like, what is she even talking about? And to be clear, police departments in the state of Virginia have continued to receive quite a bit of the military weaponry that our defense department has a surplus of because we spend so much on defense spending to basically funnel money over to private defense. defense contractors and weapons manufacturers who keep making more and more equipment, more and more weaponry, which the defense department has such a huge surplus on. They don't know what to do with it. So they handed over to local police departments, which then leads to the militarization of local police departments. But let's look at what's really going on here, because what she said there was a complete

and utter lie. First of all, the notion that we need more military grade equipment to deal with snowstorms is already ridiculous on its face. So I mean, we can just dismiss her ridiculous argument there alone. But let's even go further and debunk the nonsense that she just spewed there in regard to what local police departments are receiving or are not receiving from our defense department. So transfers of military gear to police departments, and I'm specifically talking about Virginia here, from $767,000 armored cars designed to survive mines to night vision equipment to the backpack

soldiers take into combat, ballooned, meaning they increased, ballooned in Virginia and in Hampton Roads in 2019 alone. Statewide transfers of military gear to police and sheriff's officers more than doubled to 3.8 million dollars. So what is she talking about? I don't, I really don't understand, like, where she's, well, actually, I do understand one thing. There's one thing that local police departments in Virginia stopped receiving as of 2012. And it's specifically military grade weaponry, okay? But let's let's give you more details on what they are receiving. through our defense department, through our military, to essentially police American citizens, right? I mean, why are we in favor of militarized police? Why do we need police departments

to have tanks and, I mean, essentially equipment that's meant to withstand mines? That's insane. In Hampton or the Hampton Police Sheriff's Office acquired the armored car for disaster response, such as to transport people or supplies during a natural disaster and to safely transport personnel if called to respond to a situation such as an active shooter, according to a spokeswoman for the department. Okay, great, so it turns out that they actually do have some of that equipment that would apparently be tasked with helping out in these types of disastrous situations. Apparently didn't really work that well, did it? But there is one thing, again, the weapons, that local police departments stopped receiving as of 2012.

A long time staple of the military's grants to law enforcement rifles, most recently M16s haven't been transferred since 2012. Is that what Perino's talking about? Is that what she's so salty about that the local police departments in Virginia stopped receiving military grade weaponry after 2020, after 2012? Is that? And exactly how would those kinds of, of weapons help with a traffic jam that's caused by an unexpected winter storm.

I'm just curious. The American people want to know, or at least anyone with two brain cells would like to know. This is just another way to protect a system that consistently redistributes wealth from the bottom to the top, redistributes our tax money, our resources, which, you know, our federal lawmakers will tell us what's finite, very precious resources. That's why they can't pass a social spending package, right? Why are we taking taxpayer money and pumping it into the defense industry? Year after year, the National Defense Authorization Act increases in the dollar amount allocated to the defense department. With no questions asked, it is a bipartisan effort.

And the only reason why that happens is so we can keep funneling money to defense contractors and weapons manufacturers. And that leads to the surplus that I was talking about earlier. All these weapons that the defense department does not know what to do with, they have so much of it that they look to pawn it off to local police departments. And Dana Perino loves that, totally supportive of that. I don't know how that has anything to do with mitigating the severity of a winter storm that leads to an insane traffic jam like the one people living in Virginia experienced on the I-95. But look, at the end of the day, just read in between the lines. This isn't about solutions.

This isn't about helping stranded Americans. This is about protecting a system of profits for defense contractors. That's all this is. It's just so transparent and so pathetic. So again, anytime you hear anyone on Fox News claim that they're so concerned about spending in government, oh my God, all the overwhelming spending by our federal government unacceptable. Okay, great, can we cut the defense budget? No, we can't do that.

Dana-Pri-No, not in favor of that. I mean, to use a tragic snowstorm-related event in Virginia to try to protect the profits of defense contractors and weapons manufacturers is just incredible. But it is Fox News, so I wouldn't expect anything less. All right, let's move on to, well, I did want to talk about one other thing, actually, because Kamala Harris also kind of had a fumble with this story. So there was a severe snowstorm, an unexpected snowstorm in Virginia, which led to a massive 40-mile long traffic jam on the interstate 95.

That traffic jam lasted for nearly a full day, okay? More than 20 hours, people were stranded on the interstate. And Kamala Harris decided to put out a tweet that seemed to be a little disconnected from that reality. So what was the tweet? Because of the bipartisan infrastructure law, America is moving again. That's what infrastructure is all about, getting people moving. I don't know if the people on her team are trolling her.

I don't know if they despise her and they want to make her look completely out of touch with what's happening in reality. But let's put the snowstorm aside for a second. Obviously, maybe think about what's happening in the news that day before you put that tweet out, obviously. I think that's easy commentary. But let's also acknowledge the fact that the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which passed not too long ago, has not really been implemented yet. Infrastructure projects take years. What are you talking about when you say that the infrastructure bill? America's moving again.

What? Okay, can you point to a single infrastructure project that's really taken off? It's really getting America moving again. Can you point to a bridge that's been repaired? I mean, it's just so ridiculous. But it goes to a broader issue with the Democratic Party. They have failed to actually deliver on many of their promises, including the social spending package that was decoupled from the physical infrastructure.

The physical infrastructure bill, which did pass Congress, received the support of corporations and, of course, also received the support of Republican lawmakers. who have corporate donors who absolutely salivate at the thought of government grants to basically increase their own profits while, you know, doing, in my opinion, not such a great job in regard to improving the infrastructure. The corporate infrastructure bill, it's the only thing that the Democratic Party can point to as a win, as a major, you know, campaign talking point. And Americans are not going to feel the benefits of that bipartisan infrastructure bill immediately, if there are any benefits that they will feel eventually.

I mean, there are some downsides to that bills we've talked about on the show as well, including the fact that it makes the, or paves the way for public infrastructure to be privatized, which means that corporations who will now control that infrastructure can implement all sorts of tolls and fees as Americans. commute to and from work. But it's just laughable because they're so desperate to find anything, to make it appear as though they have accomplished something during Biden's tenure, during the time that Democrats have held the levers of power. But Americans aren't stupid. And so she really posted an L with that tweet on two different fronts. Number one, showing how out of touch she is with what's happening in America, what's happening.

what's happening in the news that very day, but also more importantly, by making it abundantly clear that Democrats don't have much to brag about. So they brag about a corporate, loved, bipartisan infrastructure bill. Cool. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, John Idera will be joining me for the second hour where we will talk about, you know, the anti-cancel culture Republicans in Florida arresting demonstrators because they don't like answering tough questions. We've got that story and more when we come back. 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.