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Hey, guys, ready or not, twenty twenty

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four is here and we here at

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We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage,

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But enough with that, let's get to the show.

0:41

Good morning, everybody, Happy Monday. We have

0:43

an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Krystal.

0:46

Indeed, we do lots of interesting stories to get

0:48

into this morning. So first and foremost,

0:51

the UAW those autoworkers are on

0:53

strike. We'll give you all of the details. We also

0:55

have reporters on the ground talking to workers

0:57

about their concerns. We'll get into all of that. We

1:00

also have student loan to have repayments beginning

1:03

very soon and that could have a huge impact

1:06

on the economy. There's some new numbers that we want to talk to

1:08

you about. With that Trump getting questioned

1:10

on abortion and also on trans

1:12

writes with some very interesting responses, really

1:14

going after directly Ron DeSantis. And that's

1:17

six weeks abortion band, so that was kind of

1:19

surprising. Ken Paxton, who

1:21

is the Attorney General of Texas. He was

1:23

impeached in the Texas House, but

1:26

he has now been acquitted in the Senate. A

1:28

lot of behind the scenes Trump related

1:30

machinations there. Soccer was all on the ground

1:32

in Texas, getting.

1:33

The skills in Austin's feet away

1:35

from the Capitol life there you go.

1:37

So we've got all of that for you and Lauren

1:39

Bober doing some things in movie theater that apparently

1:41

we need to share with you and give

1:43

our shakes out.

1:44

See children's play of Beatle Japs

1:47

that adds a lot to them.

1:49

Yes, we have footage, we've got all the reactions,

1:51

various stories, etc. And on

1:53

a more serious note, we are very excited

1:55

to have Neil de grasse Tyson of course very

1:58

famous astrophysicists, who has a new book

2:00

out and we're going to be talking to him about the mysteries

2:02

of the cosmos.

2:02

So that will be I get a UFO question in there

2:04

too for those wondering.

2:07

Yeah, don't worry about that before we start.

2:09

Just thank you again to our premium subscribers,

2:11

the focus group exceptionally well, We're already

2:13

working on the next one. I think people are going to be very interested

2:15

to hear what some of those people have to say.

2:17

Not just a GOP one.

2:18

We're going to go to all stripes, and I think people

2:21

again are going to enjoy it. Breakingpoints dot

2:23

Com. If you are able, we're also very happy

2:25

to be able to use your very hard earned money to

2:27

help support journalist Jared Jordan Sheridan

2:30

right now is on the ground for US

2:32

and for his channel as well to be covering

2:35

the UAW strike. We've got exclusive footage

2:37

words from the workers themselves. We always like to hear from

2:39

them on the ground, So that's what you were helping support

2:41

again breakingpoints dot Com premum subscriber.

2:43

But first, before we even get to the UAW,

2:46

we just had to add this. In a hilarious

2:48

development here on the Eastern

2:51

Seaboard, the United States military

2:53

has lost the F thirty

2:56

five stealth aircraft somewhere

2:58

in the United States.

2:59

Have no idea where it is.

3:01

And the military is now asking

3:04

for the public's help if you can

3:06

locate it.

3:07

Let's put this up there on the screen.

3:09

From JOINT based Charleston, we are currently working

3:11

with Beaufort South Carolina to locate

3:13

an F thirty five that was involved in a

3:16

mishap this afternoon. The pilot

3:18

ejected safely. If you have any

3:20

information that may help our recovery teams

3:22

locate the F thirty five, please call the

3:24

base Defense Operations Center at this

3:26

number. Based on the jets last known position.

3:29

In coordination with the FAA, we are focusing

3:31

our attention north of based Charleston and

3:33

Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion. I probably said one of those

3:35

wrong. Sorry, South Carolinians. For

3:37

those who are wondering, this is not only just

3:39

an F thirty five, This is an advanced

3:42

F thirty five B Lightning two jet

3:44

used for the United States Marine Corps. The

3:46

pilot, as we said, ejected safely, he

3:49

is in safe condition. However,

3:52

quote the jets transponder, which

3:54

usually helps locate the aircraft, was not

3:56

working for some reason we haven't

3:58

yet determined.

4:00

So that's why we have put out the public request

4:02

for help.

4:02

So that means that a seventy five

4:05

million dollar aircraft part of

4:07

a program which went hundreds of billions of

4:09

dollars over budget, which costs taxpayer a

4:11

total of one point seven trillion

4:14

dollars to develop has

4:16

gone missing after it

4:18

was heralded as like God's gift

4:20

to the United States military.

4:22

Oh, this thing you do anything.

4:23

You can fly upside down, it can go up

4:25

straight, it can do this and that, and that's why

4:28

we got to get rid of all of these cheaper aircrafts

4:30

and buy this one. Because it's the same plane,

4:32

it's intra platform whatever. All these military

4:34

geeks can say all that, and that sounds

4:36

awesome, except whenever you lose it

4:38

all over the Eastern

4:41

Seaboard and the transponder

4:43

doesn't work, it is proving at least

4:45

Crystal to be stealthy. It is quite

4:47

stealthy because we can't find it.

4:49

I just hate when I miss places seventy

4:51

five million dollar asset and you

4:53

know, have to call in the public to find it.

4:55

At the very least, like there needs to be some

4:57

serious questions that are asked

5:00

about how this is allowed to transpire. We have a

5:02

stealth program jet, which was again

5:04

like fifth generation fighter aircraft. That's

5:06

the way the way this was sold. It was a colossal

5:09

boondoggle from the very beginning.

5:11

And I always just find myself angry every

5:13

time things like that happen, because we're all

5:15

paying for this. It's an outrageous abuse

5:17

of taxpayer funds. And listen,

5:19

you know, Vera, this is just further proof

5:22

of the amount of just like ridiculous things that

5:24

we throw money at in the military.

5:26

It don't even work whenever.

5:27

It's like this is like the least the

5:29

smallest example of the unbelievable.

5:32

I mean again, with the military.

5:34

The Pentagon is the one agency,

5:36

the Defense apartments of one agency that cannot pass

5:38

their audit and they don't even come close. They

5:41

can only account for like forty percent of

5:43

the money that they're given from Congress. Actually

5:46

overstating, and I'm

5:48

being too generously. It's it's just it's

5:50

unbelievable. So anyway, guys, you

5:53

saw the number there on the screen. If you happen

5:55

to have seen an F thirty five

5:57

randomly in your community, alert

5:59

the government because they're on looking for.

6:01

Yes, thank you. Please call the number if you.

6:03

Happen to try to do a public services a massive

6:05

five.

6:08

So much going on, all right, let's get this strike, all right, Let's

6:10

get.

6:10

To this autoworker's strike, which we previewed

6:12

last week for you and did in fact happen,

6:15

which we expected because it seemed like the two sides were

6:17

very far apart. Now, the UAW

6:19

the United Autoworkers, they are taking a bit of a different

6:21

strategy here in terms of their approach

6:23

to the strike. Number one, they're targeting all three

6:26

of the Big three Detroit automakers.

6:28

That is different from the past. And number

6:30

two, the tactic that they are employing

6:32

here. They're calling you a stand up strike rather than going

6:35

out at all plants at once. They're

6:37

starting with a targeted few one

6:40

plan I believe, at each of the Big three

6:42

automakers, and then expanding from

6:45

there based on how the negotiations

6:47

go. So the idea is to keep the

6:49

automakers guessing and also to

6:51

be able to ratchet up the pressure as

6:54

things go on, and finally, to try to preserve

6:56

their strike fund, which is quite significant. They have eight hundred

6:58

and fifty million dollars in that strike fun But

7:00

if everyone will went out all at once, that

7:02

would only last them for a couple months, and they're

7:04

trying to stretch and expand that while exerting

7:07

maximum pressure on the automakers. Let's

7:09

listen to their new president,

7:11

National President Sean Fain, announcing

7:14

the strike and the strike.

7:15

Locations tonight, we call on three units

7:18

to stand up and go on strike

7:20

at midnight if we do not reach

7:22

a tentative agreement in the next two hours.

7:26

We're calling on GM Winsville

7:29

Assembly Local twenty two fifty

7:32

in Region four to stand up

7:34

and strike. We're

7:36

calling on Stillantis Toledo

7:38

Assembly Complex Local

7:41

twelve in Region two B to

7:44

stand up and strike. And

7:46

we're calling on Ford, Michigan

7:48

Assembly Plant, Final

7:50

Assembly and Paint Only Local

7:53

nine hundred in Region one A to

7:56

stand up and strike. These

7:59

three units are being called to

8:01

stand up and walk out on strike

8:04

at midnight tonight. The

8:06

locals that are not yet called to

8:09

join the stand up strike will continue

8:11

working under an expired agreement no

8:14

contract extensions. Though

8:17

the contract is expired, most

8:20

of your contract is still in effect. Management

8:24

cannot change terms

8:26

and conditions of work in your workplace.

8:30

You do not become an employee

8:32

at will. You

8:34

cannot be fired or disciplined for

8:36

no reason. This

8:39

strategy will keep the companies

8:41

guessing. It will give our national

8:43

negotiators maximum leverage

8:46

and flexibility and bargaining, and

8:48

if we need to go all out, we

8:50

will.

8:51

So that's the positive

8:53

part I laid out of their approach. Here

8:55

is it stretches sound to strike, fund keeps the bosses

8:58

guessing, and they can use

9:00

it in a targeted way to sort of ratchet up the pressure.

9:02

Put the Wall Street Journal Peace up on the screen

9:05

on the tactics, which really went into detail

9:07

of the pluses and minuses and also why

9:09

they chose these particular locations.

9:11

They said, the three plants now idled

9:13

in the strike emerged to sweet spots. UAW

9:16

officials wanted to spread the pain evenly

9:18

across the three companies. People with knowledge

9:20

said each of the three factories makes

9:22

mid size pickup trucks, for example, the Ford

9:24

Ranger, Stalantis's Jeep Gladiator,

9:27

and GM's Chevrolet Colorado and

9:29

GMC Canyon and part these plants were

9:31

chose to balance the impact across the automakers.

9:34

One executive board member at the UAW said, we

9:36

don't want to advantage one over the other.

9:38

They also said the message with the initial targets was

9:41

to show companies that wanted to continue bargaining

9:43

and reach a deal swiftly, not hit companies

9:45

with maximum pressure right after the contracts

9:47

expired. They went on to note that

9:50

these are not the factories that produce the company's

9:52

biggest money makers, large pickup

9:54

trucks and SUVs like FOURD F one fifty

9:57

or GM's Cadillac Escalade, leaving

9:59

the union with those those chips to play. Now,

10:01

there is a potential downside to this strike strategy,

10:04

which is, while it allows them to stretch

10:06

their strike funding and sort of keep these automakers

10:08

guessing, and there was all sorts of social media reports

10:10

about apparently there was potentially

10:12

some targeted disinformation put out there

10:15

that threw the CEOs

10:17

off on which plants were going to be struck, and

10:19

then they were trying to move parts around, et cetera

10:22

before this happened, and they were completely wrong about which

10:24

ones actually went out. So that's the advantage.

10:26

The disadvantages requires a lot of coordination.

10:28

Obviously, across a large union, you've

10:30

got about one hundred and fifty thousand members that are

10:32

impacted by this. And also one

10:35

of the greatest, most

10:37

important parts of any strike or work action

10:39

is solidarity. So if you have some workers

10:41

going out but not all workers going out, you've

10:44

got to just keep up the level of organization and make

10:46

sure everybody still feels like they're in it together

10:48

and everybody is sort of like, you know, following

10:50

the play in and following the marching orders as

10:52

this thing goes along. So that is the downside,

10:55

potential downside of the strike. But cannot

10:57

understate what a big deal this is. Obviously.

11:01

The Big three are some of the most

11:03

iconic brands in America.

11:06

You know, the automakers, the auto

11:08

industry famously or built the American middle

11:10

class, has a lot of cachet with the

11:12

American public, and it's another

11:15

signifier of how much workers are feeling

11:17

much more assertive. We saw the

11:19

teamsters and the ups workers able

11:21

to secure a pretty good deal through the

11:23

threat of a strike. We've got the writers and we've got

11:26

the actors still out. We've had way more strike

11:28

activity this year and a lot more union

11:30

energy and activity than we have seen in decades,

11:32

and this is certainly a part of that.

11:34

Yeah, it's really interesting the strike strategy that's

11:36

been happening. It's like you explained it to me in order

11:38

to stretch their strike fund. But it also is

11:40

like a looming threat of if you can push

11:43

and pull as negotiations happen, so negotiations

11:45

go bad and you can ramp it up as they go down, you can

11:48

ramp things there and you can keep it also as

11:50

a sign of goodwill and then use

11:52

like variable pressure to try and force

11:54

a close. So it's very interesting actually to see

11:56

it the smart strategy, to be honest,

11:59

because if you just do a full blown walkout

12:01

strike, I mean you can't. I mean you can last long,

12:04

like in terms of resolve, but not necessarily in terms

12:06

of the funds that they have.

12:07

Yeah, that's that's right. So we've

12:09

gotten a little reaction from the automaker

12:12

CEOs. We had the Ford CEO

12:15

going on cable news and saying, oh,

12:17

if we met their demands, gosh, we just wouldn't

12:19

be able to make it. Let's take a listen to what he had

12:21

to say.

12:22

Quickly put in some perspective the offer

12:24

that they have what they're demanding relative

12:27

to where you are right now. How

12:29

much damage would that do to the bottom line if.

12:31

You were to say, sure, we'll give you forty percent.

12:33

If we signed up for the uaw's request,

12:36

instead of making money and distributing seventy

12:39

five thousand dollars in profit sharing

12:41

in the last ten years, we would have lost

12:43

fifteen billion dollars in gone bankrupt by now

12:46

the average pay would be nearly

12:48

three hundred thousand dollars fully fringed

12:50

for a four day workweek. There is no

12:53

employee U. Yeah,

12:55

this is our full tenured

12:58

school teacher in the US make sixty six thousand

13:00

dollars. So for the military or fireman

13:02

makes mid fifty thousand, this is four

13:04

or five times six

13:06

times what they make.

13:08

Did you ever consider perhaps teachers and firefighters

13:10

should make more? Number one?

13:11

Even true?

13:12

Number two, it's total bullshit. So

13:15

just a couple things to keep in mind here. Number

13:17

one, the car companies are making like record

13:19

breaking profits, so much so that they felt comfortable

13:21

to authorize five billion dollars

13:24

in stock buybacks over just the past year. And

13:26

now when it comes to workers, oh we just couldn't make it, we go

13:29

bankrupt.

13:29

Bullshit.

13:30

Number Two, of the entire

13:32

cost of a car, because this is the other thing they threatened the

13:34

public car. Car costs are going to go up. Cars

13:37

are just going to be way more expensive. Do you know what

13:39

percent of the price of a new car

13:41

is labor? Five percent? Yes, five

13:44

percent. So don't fall for this. This

13:46

is all total nonsense. Of course, the NBC does nothing

13:49

to push back.

13:49

Well, I dug actually a lot into it.

13:51

So right now, just for everybody to know, the average

13:53

employee at the Big three makes eighteen

13:56

to thirty two dollars an hour depending on seniority.

13:58

The wage is not kept up with the inflation even

14:00

close to their way executive pay, stock buybacks,

14:03

profits, etc. As you pointed out, the automakers

14:06

offered wage increase from seventeen to five

14:08

to twenty percent in terms of

14:10

an increase over the four and a half year contract.

14:12

They were arguing that they should receive compensation

14:15

that beyond their hourly wages, profit sharing

14:18

and other bonuses to try and keep it out of the

14:20

contract. UAW says, we want to

14:22

end the tiered employment status and to

14:24

have manufacturers quote rely less

14:26

on temporary workers important because

14:28

it gets effectively put into the lowest

14:31

tier in order to artificially lower the

14:33

pricing, creates intracompetition,

14:36

and they are pointing out that temporary workers

14:39

are used effectively touse

14:41

against full time union workers as well. This

14:44

is a big focus of some of the previous strikes

14:46

that we've seen or some of the stand ups, because

14:48

they want to make sure that the newer generation of union

14:50

workers is also preserved. The entire point is to try

14:52

and preserve like some sort of middle class way of life.

14:55

Also, the way that he comes to that math is the

14:57

same deceitful way that they use the

14:59

ups. UPS was one hundred and seventy five thousand

15:01

dollars, Like, that's about total compensation

15:03

package. He's also using it not as three hundred

15:06

thousand dollars per year. He's conflating

15:08

a lot of stuff over a long timeframe

15:11

with projected inflationary cost

15:13

to arrive at that figure. So this was computed

15:15

by some pr of course executive.

15:18

It's a good talking point, you know, for them. I saw a lot of

15:20

people take it unsafe face value,

15:22

but it's just absolutely not true at all.

15:24

Like, once again we are talking about the

15:26

fact that they make eighteen to thirty two dollars an hour.

15:29

So you can do the math. What's the percentage of their asker. I

15:31

think it's fifty percent forty.

15:32

Percent raise, And there's a very specific reason

15:35

why, because the CEOs of

15:37

the Big three they got a forty percent raise

15:39

over the past four years. So they're saying, okay, well,

15:41

if these companies are doing well well

15:44

enough to give the CEOs a forty percent pay hike.

15:46

Why don't the workers who actually generate

15:48

all these profits, why don't they get

15:50

cut in on the same deal. And it's also important

15:52

to keep in mind when you see

15:54

these numbers, because you know, one

15:57

of the automakers put twenty percent raise on

15:59

the table. Sean Fain was like, no, it's

16:01

not good enough. And I'll tell you why, because

16:04

these workers took a huge haircut

16:06

in the financial crisis. They listen, taxpayers

16:08

bailed out the automakers. You'll recall that these

16:11

workers bailed out the automakers.

16:13

They lost their cost of living increases, They

16:15

took a direct hit in terms of their sally, huge

16:18

layoffs, huge hits to their pension. So

16:20

just for them to get back to even close to

16:23

where they were would require more

16:25

than a twenty percent increase. So that's

16:27

why when they look at these numbers, they're like, no, it

16:29

is not good enough. You have done

16:32

phenomenally well based on our work,

16:34

and we want in on the

16:36

deal. We want a fair and just deal.

16:39

And so they are standing very strong.

16:41

As you mentioned, Sacher, we have status kus

16:43

Jordan Sheridan on the ground for us

16:46

giving us some exclusive content. He talked

16:48

to some of the workers there about the way they

16:50

are feeling about this strike and why this

16:52

is so important to them. I would take

16:55

their word for a lot more than

16:57

these CEOs and their pr spin. So let's

16:59

take a listen to what they had today.

17:01

What for you is the main reason

17:04

you wanted to go on strike? Is it the wages

17:06

tears system? What's

17:08

the core issues for you?

17:09

Pretty much the wages. I

17:12

currently work two jobs, so I

17:14

want to kind of like, you know, not do

17:17

that to support my family. But yeah, I'd rather

17:19

just work the ten hours to go home my family instead

17:21

of leaving here and going somewhere else to do another

17:24

job.

17:25

In a typical day, how many hours you work in

17:27

between the two jobs?

17:30

More so, I work like a Thursday through Sunday thing, so

17:32

it's like they't like sixteen

17:34

to seventeen hours a day.

17:36

And sometimes watching these kids come

17:38

in here.

17:38

I work around a lot of kids that are really

17:41

new to careers and whatnot and coming

17:44

in at seventeen dollars an hour. And you know

17:46

what the cost of living is now, You can't

17:48

even have an apartment. You still got to live with your

17:50

parents or have fifty million roommates.

17:52

And it's not enough.

17:54

It's not for what we do.

17:56

It's not enough. It weighs on your body after

17:58

a long period of time. So yeah, really deserve

18:00

to at least have a better starting wage.

18:03

Fifteen dollars an hour. In this economy

18:05

gas groceries, you

18:08

must be really stretched economically to

18:10

pay the bills.

18:11

Stretched is not the word, you know. We

18:13

need better wages. We need at least a

18:15

ten dollar raise for all the work

18:17

that we do. We do a lot in my department,

18:20

and we're just underpaid and overlooked,

18:23

and I don't think it's fair, and I think

18:25

it's about time that we fight for our rights.

18:27

I'm in a building that we host sometime

18:29

two to three hundred people, and I'm

18:31

in that building by myself,

18:34

cleaning it from top to bottom, and

18:36

get the most extraordinary compliments

18:38

on my work because I am that good

18:41

at what I do. I'm just well underpaid.

18:44

But we're in a crisis right now

18:46

where that we are really one

18:48

pay check away from being evicted a lot of from our homes.

18:51

You can't feed yourself right, You can't

18:54

do anything because you have nothing left.

18:56

Do you feel you're getting enough from

18:59

the President of support. Do you feel

19:01

you're getting enough from other politicians,

19:03

because it's one thing to show up when

19:06

the strike happens, it's another thing are

19:08

they backing you when the cameras are not

19:10

here.

19:10

Well, the UAW traditionally supports

19:12

the Democratic Party, and last night, I was pretty

19:15

proud of mister Biden, President

19:17

Biden for backing up

19:19

the union efforts, and I

19:21

think he totally supports what's going

19:24

on, you know, up

19:26

to a certain reasonable time limit, and

19:29

he is aware that we are the fabric

19:31

of the entire country.

19:33

So we're going to play some of President Biden's

19:35

comments for you and also former President Trump's

19:37

comments, which are a very interesting contrast.

19:39

But I mean, listen to their

19:42

testimonials. Here, we can't make rent.

19:44

People are in danger being evicted. The

19:47

auto industry was one of the original

19:50

backbones of the American middle class, and

19:52

Henry Ford listened. He was anti

19:55

union and you know, got all kinds of issues

19:57

there, but he understood that his

19:59

workers needed to earn enough money

20:01

to be able to buy the product and

20:04

also was part of the push to make it a

20:06

five day work week for some of the same reasons.

20:09

This is part of what.

20:10

Built the American middle class. So for

20:12

these workers now to say, listen, fifteen

20:15

dollars an hour, seventeen dollars an hour,

20:17

How do you think I'm going to make it on that? How do you think

20:19

with the cost of living, I'm going to survive? And

20:21

they're being treated like, oh, they're so ungrateful,

20:24

and they they're already getting some you

20:26

know, luxury style pay. It's absolutely

20:28

ridiculous. And you can see why you had overwhelming

20:31

support for a strike and why, by the way, I mean

20:33

they elected just recently Sean Fain because

20:36

he said, I want to take a more militant approach. I

20:39

don't want to be cozy with the boss class the way

20:41

that you know, some of the previous union membership was.

20:43

And by the way, I also don't want to be corrupt the way that some

20:45

of the previous union leadership was and

20:47

got caught for. So they're on board

20:50

for the long haul. And you know, based on

20:52

what we heard from the workers that Jordan is talking

20:54

to there, they are very committed. They

20:56

are ready to be all in and to actually

20:59

secure the deal that they deserve.

21:00

Yeah, and I just want to underscore, you know, when she was

21:02

talking about seventeen to five, sometimes we're talking hourly

21:05

terms. We don't think about annual that's like thirty thousand

21:07

dollars a year. You know, it's like thirty five thousand

21:09

dollars year, As she accurately pointed out, that's actually

21:11

not it's not possible to really make it quote

21:13

unquote on that or it's at

21:16

least for some sort of middle class

21:18

wage. When you consider the average household income the United

21:20

States, it's seventy thousand dollars. And even

21:22

with the forty percent race that the union

21:24

here is asking for, it would put top compensation

21:27

at ninety three thousand dollars per year. Once

21:29

again, that's not total comp but I

21:32

mean, I think people should be talking in stark

21:34

terms, like is ninety three thousand

21:36

dollars for a senior worker at

21:38

a plant?

21:39

Is that a lot of money?

21:40

Especially in the age of much

21:43

more specialized like mechanical information

21:45

with the electric vehicles that they've

21:48

all talked about, it actually requires less labor

21:50

in some cases, and so, but it requires

21:52

more of a skilled workforce.

21:53

So, I mean, there are college graduates.

21:56

Did we did that whole thing about the Wall Street Journal

21:59

that average Princeton grad is making

22:01

like one hundred and thirty or something like

22:03

that, And that's a twenty two year old. Of course,

22:05

his educational difference and all that, but just

22:07

put it in societal perspective, well, in not ninety

22:10

three thousand dollars a year.

22:11

That's a really important point because part of

22:13

the reaction we saw to the teams

22:15

to securing a decent deal for ups

22:17

drivers, all of this class

22:19

contempt and class anxiety came

22:22

out because we have been

22:24

so conditioned to think that the only

22:27

people who deserve, like a good

22:29

salary and to be able to have some sort of stability

22:32

in their lives are people with college degrees

22:34

who are working at an office, and that is

22:36

a poisonous way to think about things.

22:39

These people work so hard that gentleman who

22:41

said he's having to work fifteen dollars it works for

22:44

the auto industry, supposedly the backbone

22:46

of the American middle class, and he has to work two jobs

22:48

just to make it work in sixteen seventeen

22:51

hours a day. That's unconscionable.

22:53

That's a failure and everyone should be invested

22:56

in this fight. And by the way, I'm going to talk a little bit in my monologue

22:59

about some other strike action that's going on. Drew Berry

23:01

Moore of the writers, short or whatever. There's a lot going on there.

23:03

But I looked at some of the numbers. Seventy

23:05

five percent of the public is on the side

23:07

of the workers here. That in and of itself

23:10

is different because people have just seen the

23:12

abuse of the working class. They've had it.

23:14

They saw what happened during COVID, you know, people having

23:16

their lives risk, people being you know, completely

23:19

screwed during COVID, and you

23:21

know, they bought the idea of

23:23

Okay, we can see who is actually essential to

23:25

this economy. We can see who actually makes these

23:27

things work, and they deserve a much better

23:30

deal. Let's get to some of the political

23:32

response here. I have to say Joe

23:35

Biden went a lot farther than

23:37

I thought he would based on his past

23:39

rhetoric around unions, which has always been very

23:41

careful and very I I don't want to weigh in very

23:44

both sides based on you know, where the Democratic

23:46

Party has been for years under Obama,

23:49

under Clinton certainly where

23:51

if anything, they were siding with the boss class.

23:53

Not only did he really clearly take

23:55

the side of the workers here, but he

23:58

also adopted some of the unions

24:00

own framing and messaging around

24:03

record contracts, record profits

24:05

mean record contracts. Let's take to listen to a little

24:07

bit of what you had to say.

24:08

I respect workers right to use their options

24:10

under the collective bargaining system, and I

24:12

understand the workers frustration over

24:15

generations. Auto workers sacrifice so much

24:17

to keep the industry alive and strong, especially

24:20

the economic crisis and the pandemic. Workers

24:23

deserve a fair share of the benefits they

24:25

helped create for an enterprise. I do

24:27

appreciate that the parties have been working

24:29

around the clock, and when I first

24:32

call them at the very first day of their negotiation,

24:34

I said, please stay at the table as

24:36

long as you can to try to work

24:38

this out. And they've been around

24:40

the clock, and the companies have made some significant

24:43

offers. But I believe they should go further

24:45

to ensure record corporate profits mean record

24:48

contracts for the UAWM. Say

24:50

it again, record corporate profits which

24:52

they have should be shared by

24:55

record contracts for the.

24:56

Uaw So there you hear, like

24:58

I said, the union framing record profits

25:01

from the automakers should mean record

25:03

contracts, which I think is a concept that you know, everyone

25:06

should sort of get behind. And I

25:08

don't know why he sounds different on this one,

25:10

Sager. I think it's partly because he's

25:13

a car guy. He's really obsessed with auto

25:15

industry. He was part

25:17

obviously of the bailout back under

25:20

the Obama administration. You know, have been

25:22

LUNs dead, GM's alive. That was his catchphrase

25:24

that he came up with that they ran on in twenty

25:26

twelve. What'd you make of his comments?

25:28

So?

25:28

I thought it was interesting. I do think it's electoral.

25:30

I think it's you know, you can read a poll, seventy five

25:32

percent of the people are supporting unions all

25:34

time support for a strike. He needs to win Michigan,

25:37

in Wisconsin and the car areas all over again.

25:39

There's a don't forget what killed Mitt

25:41

Romney in twenty twelve that op

25:43

ed that he wrote, what was it December two thousand and nine,

25:46

Let Detroit goote bankrupt?

25:47

He was like, I didn't write the headline. That's not what Okay,

25:50

dude, you can say whatever you want.

25:51

But people in Michigan all decided

25:54

to quote that whenever they were voting for Obama, and

25:56

the Obama campaign blasted it all

25:58

over.

25:58

Now.

25:58

Actually, Trump very sma mantly leveraged

26:01

union support against Hillary and

26:03

in Ohio as well, both to win Michigan

26:06

in twenty sixteen and then also to

26:08

win Ohio and increasingly going

26:10

there. What is the I forget the counting exactly

26:13

like the heavy union density county in Ohio which

26:15

had a former GM plant, and

26:18

they actually voted even more for Trump in

26:20

twenty twenty. But the point that he's always done is he's

26:22

tried to like leverage the idea of like outsourcing,

26:24

fighting against that we're going against

26:27

the trade deals, whereas Hillary was very much

26:29

like she didn't know where the hell she stood on

26:31

these issues. So I thought it was smart of him to do

26:33

that, you know, at the gasp of

26:35

trying to get to the industrial Midwest

26:38

on his side. Because remember, you know, he didn't win Wisconsin

26:40

or Michigan by all that many votes. A lot of people

26:42

actually forget that even though he did win. You know, they

26:44

don't look at that what the margins are in

26:47

some of these states. All Trump has to do is win three

26:49

of the Biden states and he wins the election in twenty twelve.

26:51

Yeah, and in these states, you know, it's just having

26:53

lived in Ohio, it's not just the people who

26:56

work directly in the industry. I mean, first of all, you have

26:58

a lot of suppliers and a lot of the surround economy

27:00

that is really devoted to the industry. But it

27:03

also is just part of the ethos

27:05

and the pride of those states. So

27:07

when you make a really clear statement like

27:10

Biden actually did there again surprisingly

27:13

of being on the side of the workers over

27:15

the bosses, yeah, that is that is

27:18

going to land. Trump, on the other hand,

27:20

got asked what I thought was actually the best question that Kristen

27:22

Welker asked her during her meet

27:24

the press interview with him, which became very controversial,

27:26

which we could talk about another time, but she

27:29

asked him very directly, which side

27:31

are you on? Whose side are you on? And

27:34

instead of giving anything approaching a direct

27:36

answer, he goes on this meandering thing about

27:39

EV's and that's the union's fault

27:41

that Biden got elected, et cetera, et cetera. Let's

27:43

listen to how he approached this issue. My question

27:45

for you, mister president, whose side are you on in

27:47

this?

27:49

I'm on the side of making

27:51

our country grade. The auto

27:53

workers are not going to

27:55

have any jobs when you come right

27:57

down to it, because if you take a look at

27:59

what they doing with electric cars. Electric

28:02

cars are going to be made in China. The auto

28:04

workers are not going to have any I'll

28:06

tell you what. The auto workers are being

28:08

sold down the river by their leadership, and

28:11

their leadership should endure Trump. The

28:13

reason is, you gotta have choice.

28:15

Like in school.

28:16

I want school choice. I also want choice for cars.

28:18

If somebody wants gasoline, if somebody

28:20

wants all electric, they can do whatever they want.

28:23

But they're destroying the consumer

28:25

and they're destroying the auto workers. The auto

28:27

workers will not have any jobs, Kristen, because

28:30

all of these cars are going to be made in China. The

28:32

electric cars automatically are going

28:34

to be made in China.

28:35

In response to the question who side are you on, he

28:38

just doesn't answer, really, And you know,

28:40

there's a few things here. We went over some of his comments

28:42

on this before number one. He either

28:44

doesn't know or has just decided to ignore

28:47

the fact that the guys who's in charge

28:49

of the Uawnwshan Fain. He's only been there

28:51

five months. He has nothing to do with

28:53

extreme leadership. He ran

28:55

against the previous exactly, and so

28:58

members just elected him because

29:00

he closely represents their interests and because

29:03

it very much appears like they support this

29:05

militant direction that they are taking. That's

29:07

number one. On the EV part. He loves

29:09

to say that there's a mandate for EV's

29:12

not true. I would be all for it if

29:14

Republicans were actually in favor of, Hey,

29:16

we're going to move to you know, we're going to make sure that

29:18

we support the EV industry and that it's got to

29:20

be union jobs and it's got to be good wages. That's

29:23

not what they're about. They just don't want

29:25

to see evs at all, which means

29:27

you're going to completely see that entire industry

29:30

to China. That's what they really want.

29:32

This is where I disagree a bit because the Biden EPA.

29:34

I did a monologue on this before, so I wanted to have all the

29:36

details. They have the rule that they want to

29:38

say that two thirds of new cars in a quarter of

29:40

new heavy trucks sold in the US by twenty thirty

29:42

two are all electric. So it's not a

29:45

mandate, but they're going to effectively do it through

29:47

the EPA. Now that rule has not passed,

29:49

let's be clear, it was proposed for a public

29:51

comment, but it's very likely they have under

29:53

the Biden.

29:54

Metosed theoretical rule by twenty.

29:56

Thirty it's not that administrative law. The

29:58

way that it works is that whenever you you are about to change

30:01

what administrative guidelines are, you have to publish

30:03

public notice in the same way for like an x

30:05

amount of period before it can go into

30:07

an effect. So by all accounts, this is very

30:09

likely to be the actual law, at least

30:12

the EPA administrative rule that gets

30:14

put into place almost certainly by the end of

30:16

twenty twenty four. So then the question is, can we actually

30:18

go to two thirds of new cars and a quarter

30:20

of new heavy trucks sold in the US by twenty thirty two

30:23

all electric?

30:24

Not a chance in hell.

30:26

I also support the ability to be able

30:28

to drive gas power vehicles if they so want.

30:30

I do think electric vehicles are very

30:32

important for our future. I also agree

30:35

with the critique that they make about China now

30:37

that said they didn't do a lot of this stuff while

30:39

they were in office, And that's actually where I get upset,

30:42

because my response would be, like, I agree that

30:44

it is a strategic national imperative that

30:46

battery technology, which is not just useful

30:49

for electric vehicles, but battery research which

30:51

is great for uns universities, and all

30:53

of that is heavily rolled up in China and they have

30:55

all of the support. So let's do what we did with the Chipsack

30:58

and let's build it here. That's what I would say.

31:00

So, which is some of what is

31:02

in the inflation reduction ass.

31:03

Some but not even close to it enough. I mean, once again,

31:05

the IRA is going to we will

31:08

make what are we had ten percent of new cars electric?

31:10

Maybe five percent or whatever that's bought on the lot. If

31:12

we're lucky, we'll get to twenty five percent

31:15

in two years. The other problem is, and this is a Big

31:17

three problem, and actually this does nothing to do with the unions.

31:19

They don't make good cars at all. Like the GM

31:22

what was it, The GM Bolts has already been dish,

31:25

It's already been discontinued. The only g Big

31:27

three EV that's worth buying it all, it's a Ford

31:29

Mustang Maki.

31:30

I was gonna say, I disagree with that. I love my mind,

31:32

but.

31:32

I'm saying that is the only one. You know, what are you going

31:34

to drive the Cadillac Lyric The thing looks

31:36

like a shit box. I'm like, let's be honest.

31:39

I actually like the way it looks okay,

31:41

but the performance max all that stuff, it's

31:43

not gonna work in my opinion.

31:44

Let's hacker. Let's be real about what are they

31:46

proposing. They're not proposing to do anything.

31:49

I don't disagree. I'm just saying, just want to

31:51

correct.

31:52

They just want to shit on evs. That's it. It's

31:54

not like I have a better plan that's going

31:56

to make sure that these jobs are here in America

31:59

and make sure that it's union jobs. And by

32:01

the way, not to get into

32:03

the weeds here, but in the Inflation Production Act, originally

32:06

the White House wanted a rule in there that

32:08

would require these to be union jobs,

32:10

which would be really important, and which is exactly why

32:13

the fact that didn't make it in is why Sean

32:15

Faine and the UAW are not endorsing Joe

32:17

Biden yet, which is another thing that Trump seems

32:19

to like mislead on on all of this. And it

32:21

was basically Joe Manchin and none

32:24

of the Republicans supported any of this, by the way,

32:26

So the choice is either you

32:28

can go do I think that the Biden administration has done

32:30

enough. No, I don't obviously have been critical

32:33

of them on a number of times on this front. It should have

32:35

been a requirement, that is, union jobs. They should do

32:37

war to make sure this industry is here in

32:39

America, like you said, like with the Chips Act. But

32:41

the Republicans and Trump specifically and

32:44

Jdvance, who put out very similar things on Twitter,

32:46

they don't want to do anything. They just want to say,

32:48

here, China, go ahead, have the industry.

32:50

We're just going to try to hold on to just

32:53

the you know, the traditional gas

32:55

powered part of the market for as long as

32:57

we can. When whether you have a

32:59

guidance from the government in place or not.

33:02

The automakers of their own volition were moving

33:04

in this direction because they can see the writing on

33:06

the wall that this is one of the key industries

33:09

of the future. So are we going to compete in this industry

33:11

or are we not? And that's kind of the choice here and

33:14

again, to go back to the you know, the core

33:16

of this, he gets asked whose

33:18

side are you on? And Donald Trump supposed

33:20

the mister working class. Whatever he can't

33:23

say, he cannot say. None

33:25

of them has been able to say. There was I think

33:27

one Republican who represents some moderate

33:29

you know, Joe Biden District in New York

33:32

who was able to say something somewhat

33:34

pro worker. But all of these other supposedly

33:37

pro worker senators and congressmen

33:40

on the Republican side, they've all

33:43

tacitly backed the bosses in this. They

33:45

cannot say that we think the worker should get

33:47

about it.

33:47

I would disagree that JD doesn't support building anything

33:50

new because I look, I haven't talked him about it.

33:52

I don't know full disclosure. I've known the guy for a long time.

33:54

But the point is is that I would say, if

33:56

you look, we say say supports more worker funds

33:59

or more worker but Trump can't

34:01

even bring us off to say that, So I would just put it that way.

34:03

I agree. Look, I think most of this is weaponized.

34:06

It's weaponized cynicism in

34:08

order to undermine it on behalf of the oil industry,

34:10

that's the vast majority of the Republican

34:12

Party, and specifically gas powered vehicles.

34:15

At a structural level, I really just don't know what to do

34:17

because here's the truth. TESLA is beating

34:19

every single one of these people and eating their

34:21

lunch. They're dropping prices while they're

34:23

able to fight, and even the like I said, the

34:26

vast majority the ev vehicles or

34:28

prop proposals that have come out since you

34:30

know, the only one, as I said, the Mustang, I mean that's a luxury

34:32

vehicle. Unfortunately, in order to try and make it

34:35

accessible, the Asian countries and Tesla are

34:37

the only ones even able to compete. You've got

34:39

the Hundai Ionic five. I

34:41

think the Key actually is quite affordable.

34:44

It actually looks like a good ride. But my

34:46

point is is that the people who are playing in that

34:48

space are not Big three makers. So

34:50

there's a structural level where I think it's interesting important,

34:53

But I don't disagree. I don't think that Trump administration would

34:55

do anything necessarily on this, and I

34:57

also don't have any confidence the vast majority of Republicans

34:59

would back and industrial policy to bring battery

35:01

technology here to the United States.

35:03

I think it's never posed anything. They

35:05

support it. They should propose something.

35:06

The important thing to understand too, is that even if

35:08

we don't go electric, the rest of the world will.

35:10

I was in India.

35:11

It was really troubling. I was seeing some Chinese like BYD

35:14

vehicles that were on the road. India

35:16

is actually going very heavily into electric vehicles

35:18

as well. I saw it in multiple that were there.

35:20

So we want to maintain like our ability to

35:22

also export some of the future technology to the

35:24

world the way that China is and wants

35:27

to do. It's not just about domestic

35:29

policy. It's also about One of the things with oil

35:31

is we have a ton of it. We actually are I think we're a

35:33

net oil exporter in some cases, which

35:35

I think is stupid for a whole other reasons,

35:37

but it gives us strategic independence and a

35:40

big economic fund. Unfortunately, know this is

35:42

happening public policy, So you're not wrong.

35:44

Well, I don't disagree.

35:45

Some of it is happening in public policy. I mean, in

35:47

the Inflation Production Act, you have not

35:49

only incentives, you have some attempts

35:52

at real industrial policy so that

35:54

we are part of that future and we don't just seed the

35:56

whole thing to China. We're way behind in

35:58

terms of moving in that direction. And you

36:00

also have some efforts at consumer and centers

36:03

to try to make these vehicles more affordable.

36:05

That's mostly a Tesla.

36:06

Mostly Tesla's been using, I believe, because it's

36:08

a tiered system where the Union I think it's

36:10

seventy five hundred off for a union made vehicle and then

36:12

five thousand off for a non union made vehicle.

36:15

But my point is the tax credit system

36:17

is not it has not been the impetus that was

36:20

wanted in the consumer market for you, well, at

36:22

at least at least let.

36:22

Tesla could always unionize it. And I mean that's the other

36:25

thing is, you know, this

36:27

fight for the auto workers is

36:30

so much bigger than just their wages, because

36:32

you can see already with what happened

36:34

with UPS and Teamsters, the number

36:36

of Americans who understand

36:39

that being part of a union is going to secure

36:41

you a better deal has skyrocketed. The

36:43

amount of interest in organizing has

36:46

skyrocketed, the amount of work actions skyrocketed.

36:49

And you also have somewhat

36:52

of a more favorable landscape for

36:54

union organizing right now with this National

36:57

Labor Relations Board. So it makes it easier

36:59

for you know, if you're for example,

37:02

if you are working at FedEx and you see

37:04

what the UPS drivers are getting, I mean, this is a problem

37:06

for FedEx. They're going to have to up their wages in

37:08

order to compete. And it's the same thing with Tesla.

37:11

I mean, they're going to have to Their workers

37:13

are looking at the deal that these autoworkers

37:15

secure and they're way further

37:17

down the total poll in terms of what they're earning.

37:20

I mean, that's going to impact that whole industry,

37:22

whether or not they're unionized. So that's why these fights

37:24

matter, not just for the workers that are directly impacted.

37:27

I agree with you completely.

37:31

Let's go move on student loans.

37:33

This is an important one. It actually gets a lot of what we're talking

37:35

about, affordability, way of life. How exactly

37:37

do we make it here October, student loan

37:40

repayments are starting, So let's go and put

37:42

this up there on the screen. The restart

37:44

threatens to pull quote one hundred

37:47

billion dollars out of consumer

37:50

pockets. Households are cutting back

37:52

and are worrying the largest retailers in

37:54

the United States. So the average

37:56

payment that borrowers are going to have to start making

37:59

is two to three hundred dollars each month,

38:01

which is effectively equivalent to a car

38:04

payment. The payments will quote mark the first

38:06

time that borrowers have to make good on these loans since

38:08

the Education Department instituted that pause

38:10

in March of twenty twenty, so it's been over three

38:12

and a half years now that they has been in place.

38:15

Quote. The issue is that in the interim,

38:17

money was spent on television's, travel, new

38:19

homes, and thousands of other products. That spending

38:21

is one reason that the economy has remained resilient

38:23

in recent years despite the surge in interest

38:26

rate. So we're going to have now a high interest rate

38:28

environment, and we are going to see on

38:30

average two to three hundred dollars a month

38:33

that are pulled out of the consumer pocket.

38:35

So right now, Target, Walmart

38:37

and other.

38:37

Retailers which rely heavily on discussionary

38:39

spending, are flagging this as one of the

38:42

biggest things that are going to impact their

38:44

bottom line. Now the Biden economists

38:46

and others are actually saying opposite. They're like, well, it's

38:48

a small thing for the eighteen trillion dollars

38:51

in US consumer spending, but this actually

38:53

can have a really big impact that I've been thinking a lot

38:55

about Crystal. October, November,

38:58

and December is known as the time

39:00

when like forty something percent of retail sales occur,

39:02

largely because of Christmas. People thread money like crazy

39:04

during the holidays. Don't ask me why, but anyway,

39:07

so like people throw money out of their pockets it

39:09

seems like nothing is real. Well, if you, at

39:11

the very same time have a two to three hundred

39:13

dollars a month pulled out of your budget for Christmas

39:15

gifts and for all this other stuff that you were going to buy let's

39:18

say on Black Friday, Prime Day or any

39:20

of these other things, well then you may just you

39:22

know, that could be the reason not to buy it, or

39:24

it could be the reason to go into debt. Both

39:27

of those things are really bad, you know, when

39:29

we consider it from a macro level, it also

39:31

just makes it even more so daily

39:34

life. For two to three hundred dollars,

39:37

I get a current grocery price, what is that like a week,

39:39

you know for a family of four, probably less,

39:41

unfortunately, So that's one week of

39:43

groceries which is gone, or it's one

39:45

week of your house fund, you know, your

39:48

sorry, one month of your put you down payment

39:50

fund, or any of these other things that people are signing

39:52

up for. So the overall pull out of the economy I think,

39:54

I think is actually going to have an immense impact,

39:57

given the fact that quarter

39:59

four, whenever it's starting up, it's one of the worst times

40:01

you want to impact retail spending from a macro level.

40:04

To your point, I mean the reason they call it Black

40:06

Friday is because traditionally that's

40:08

when the retailers actually get into the black

40:11

and become profitable, and so that's

40:13

why they call it that, and that does make

40:15

this period of time really critical for a lot

40:17

of retailers target Walmart,

40:20

et cetera. I thought one of the most noteworthy

40:23

pieces that they noted in here is

40:25

that the FED did a survey of economic

40:27

conditions and found that already

40:31

the potential payment restart had

40:33

led to workers taking on more hours and more

40:35

workers being available. So they're already

40:37

seeing the pressure. Of course, they're like probably celebrating

40:40

this, but they're already seeing the pressure

40:42

being put on the workforce just with the anticipation

40:46

of these payments restarting. You

40:48

also have a lot of signs that

40:51

workers and Americans who have a

40:54

student loan debt significant student loan debt are

40:56

already under a lot of financial pressure

40:58

and already are relying on debt

41:01

in order to finance their living expenses.

41:03

They note that more than half of consumers with student

41:06

loans added bank credit card

41:08

debt during the pandemic, around a third took

41:10

on new auto loans, fifteen percent took out

41:12

new mortgages, and at the same time,

41:14

these consumer savings have been declining since

41:17

reaching a peak in twenty twenty one. So

41:19

you already have some signs that you've

41:21

got a lot of student loan debt holders who are

41:23

already kind of at the brink. We've been talking

41:25

here and put up some charts and showing you some

41:28

numbers about you know, over the course of the Biden

41:30

administration, in the beginning, you have the American

41:32

Rescue Plan, that's what it was called, right, the Biden one, where

41:34

you got checks and people's you got the child tax

41:37

credit, you got some pandemic aid and recovery

41:39

added on top of what was done during the early

41:41

days of the pandemic. And the story of these

41:44

years has been those programs falling

41:46

away and falling away and falling away.

41:49

So no surprise that you have all these

41:51

signs of financial insecurity in creating.

41:53

The number of Americans who you know, could afford

41:55

a four hundred dollars emergency emergency

41:57

express expense that's going

42:00

down. You see the number of people who

42:02

have these huge ballooning credit card balances

42:04

that's going up. You see the amount in the savings

42:07

account, you see that going down. So you have all

42:09

these signs that Americans are already stressed, and of course

42:11

inflation adding to that picture. Then

42:14

you layer on top of that this huge

42:16

blow of Americans having to restart payments.

42:19

That could be it could be very

42:22

difficult. Now, one thing I did

42:24

want to note, I mean, we do have we

42:26

had the Biden administration's attempt to cancel some

42:28

debt. Obviously the struck down. They're

42:30

trying again through a different method to

42:33

try to get that to go through the courts. That's going to take some time

42:35

to work itself out if that even comes to pass.

42:38

They did pass, they did put forward

42:40

a repayment plan to make

42:42

the payments lower. It's called save,

42:45

to make the payments lower than what they would be

42:47

based on your income level,

42:49

to try to make this more affordable for people as

42:51

they restart, I will typical neoliberal

42:54

fashion because it's all means tests and complicated

42:56

whatever. It's a little bit hard to navigate.

42:58

But that program is a vail to try to at least

43:01

help to soften the blow for some individuals.

43:03

But I'm really concerned about what this

43:05

is going to look like when it fully restarts, because

43:08

this is going to be a huge hit to a lot of people

43:10

who are already in a difficult position.

43:11

Yeah, the SAVE program i've heard people talk

43:13

about. Dave Ramsey in particular, had a whole interesting

43:16

take on how exactly it works. I recommend

43:18

people go listen to them if you're interesting, because I know a lot

43:20

of people actually struggling with this. I think it has something to do

43:22

with pausing interest in the hope of in the

43:24

hope of forgiveness later on. I

43:27

know also that there's a lot of issues

43:29

with SAVE is that it only focuses on federal

43:31

bowers and it doesn't apply to some private

43:34

programs, and also parents who'd taken programs

43:36

out as well. The point is that this is really

43:38

bad, and we have numbers actually to continue to show

43:40

you, just to give you an idea. Let's put these up

43:42

there on the screen. Please that the time our

43:45

team put together, you can see that the average

43:47

debt bachelor degree holder right now is twenty eight thousand

43:49

and four. Grad school as of course, where it always

43:51

gets really hit seventy one thousand, the parent

43:53

plus loan, that's what I was talking about. There is at twenty eight

43:56

thousand. Law school debt is an average one

43:58

hundred and thirty MBA six, med

44:01

school two oh three, dental school

44:03

three oh one. I wonder if dentists made more than

44:05

doctors, because that's pretty crazy. And then pharmacy

44:07

school, which I don't understand, is one hundred

44:09

and eighty thousand dollars, nursing school somewhere

44:12

between twenty thousand dollars to forty seven thousand,

44:14

and then vet school is one hundred and fifty.

44:16

And you can see that the overall amount

44:19

of student dret outlying right now is one

44:21

point seventy sixty six trillion, and that is

44:23

after you have seen an interest basically

44:26

an interest freeze for the last couple of years.

44:28

So anyway, the point is that some

44:31

big consumer spending is about to get pulled out of

44:33

the economy, and we could very much see

44:35

some contraction in the year to come. At

44:37

the very overall impact on retail

44:40

spending. Retail spending has jobs.

44:42

We have seasonal workers who work for Amazon, for

44:44

all these other people which rely on a lot

44:46

of these places.

44:47

So yeah, drop in retail is very bad

44:49

for the US economy.

44:50

Yeah, and of course there's I mean, the bigger structural

44:53

picture of the insanity of these

44:55

costs and the fact that we need to do. I mean,

44:57

that's the macro is that

44:59

all all of these different programs that are an attempt

45:02

to make the payments at least somewhat reasonable,

45:04

are you know, not getting

45:06

at the core issue that it's insane that a

45:08

college education should cost as much as it does

45:10

at this point. Last thing, I just want to say,

45:12

if you do have a high student

45:14

loan debt burden, and this is something you're struggling

45:17

with, do look into the Safe Plan. It's

45:19

just an income driven repayment plan. The

45:21

ideas they'll take into account how much

45:23

you're earning, what your family size

45:26

is, and then your monthly payment will be lower

45:28

than what it was. And anything after twenty

45:30

years that hasn't gotten paid down that will

45:33

be forgiven. Some people who are lower income

45:35

they'll qualify for no payments whatsoever.

45:38

So do look into it. I will tell you everything

45:40

we're hearing is the paperwork

45:42

and getting a process. It takes about four weeks

45:45

to get these things processed, so it is a

45:47

little bit of a bureaucratic nightmare as these

45:49

things are. Again, you know, this is why I'm

45:51

in favor of simple universal programs,

45:53

but I think it could help a lot of people out there

45:56

if this is something you're struggling with, So that's the flag

45:58

ps.

45:59

You know, take care out there if this is one of you folks.

46:01

Yes, ob let's move on abortion.

46:04

So Trump making some interesting

46:06

comments in two separate interviews that he gave over the

46:09

last couple of days. The first is probably

46:11

the most politically astute thing he's done since the announce

46:13

for reelection. He came out hard

46:16

against Ron DeSantis, but also any

46:18

state that signed a six week

46:20

abortion ban. In his Meet the Press interview,

46:23

let's take a lesson.

46:24

Mister President. I want to give voters

46:26

who are going to be weighing in on this election, Yeah,

46:29

a very clear sense of I think I don't

46:31

think they're all going to like me.

46:32

I think both sides you are going to like me. Let's

46:34

going to have to happen, is you're going to have to do this

46:37

question. You're asking me a question. What's

46:39

going to happen is you're going to come up with a

46:41

number of weeks or months. You're going to come

46:43

up with a number that's going to make

46:46

people happy. Because ninety

46:48

two percent of the Democrats don't

46:51

want to see abortion after a certain

46:53

period of time.

46:54

If a federal ban

46:56

landed on your desk if you were re elected,

46:59

would you say.

47:00

It at fifteen Are you talking about a complete ban

47:02

a ban at fifteen weeks? Well, people

47:05

are starting to think of fifteen

47:08

weeks. That seems to be a number that people are

47:10

talking about right now.

47:11

Would you sign that.

47:12

I would sit down with both sides

47:15

and I negotiate something and we'll

47:17

end up with peace in that issue for the

47:19

first time in fifty two years. I'm

47:21

not going to say I would or I wouldn't. I mean, de

47:23

Sanctis is willing to sign a five

47:26

week and six week bit.

47:27

Do you support that?

47:28

You think that that's what he did is a terrible thing

47:30

and a terrible.

47:31

Mistake, a terrible thing. So

47:34

don't forget it's not just Florida.

47:35

It states like Iowa, which is the

47:38

caucus happening right now, States

47:40

like Ohio, Georgia. There are

47:42

multiple six week bands which would pass across

47:44

the United States. So this is a direct

47:47

break not only with Ron DeSantis, but with

47:49

a huge portion of this GOP

47:52

states. And as I said, what's

47:55

what he has just said makes him the most moderate

47:57

present person in the entire race on the

47:59

issue. Abortion, I mean, which is fascinating

48:02

for I think the mind to comprehend for people

48:05

who try to look at this stuff.

48:06

But listen, the man got elected

48:08

for a reason.

48:09

He's moderate in many ways on the areas

48:11

where the GOP has always been the most radical

48:14

quote unquote, which is poisonous to

48:16

the electorate.

48:17

And also Trump doesn't really believe anything.

48:19

So whenever he sees states like Ohio,

48:21

Kentucky, with Michigan and

48:23

all these others kill abortion at the ballot

48:26

box every single time it comes up for referendum,

48:28

He's like, all right, well whatever, He's like, it helped me

48:30

get elected, you know, being pro life, to

48:33

get the evangelicals to come out to vote for me in twenty

48:35

sixteen when I made my Supreme Court thing. But those

48:37

votes are gone and a ton of other votes have been activated.

48:40

And if that's the case, well this is where I'm.

48:42

Going classic Trump in that he doesn't

48:44

actually say what his position is. You

48:46

know, she's like fifteen, and he's like many people are talking

48:48

about fifteen, you know, I mean, doesn't actually

48:51

commit to anything. I was

48:53

surprised he was as clear as

48:55

he was on a six week ban, though, I mean that was

48:58

for him to say it was terrible and

49:00

to be that overt about it. I'm sure

49:02

there's going to be a lot of you know,

49:05

upset pro life

49:07

in the pro life world. But this is the other

49:09

thing. When you're the big dog, you can

49:11

get away with things that other candidates could

49:13

not get away with. I don't think there's another candidate in the

49:15

field who could say things as directly

49:18

that you know, no, that's too far, and that's terrible, and

49:20

we're not doing that on an issue that is

49:22

really key to a lot of Republican

49:24

voters, even if it's at odds with

49:26

the general public. I don't think there's another

49:29

candidate in the Republican field who could afford

49:31

to say that that directly on this issue.

49:34

And that's why you ended up with DeSantis signing

49:36

this bill, which he clearly was uncomfortable

49:38

doing. You know, waited until after he got

49:41

re elected as governor Florida because he was worried how

49:43

it would play even in the state of Florida. He

49:45

signed it in like a midnight signing. Cereal.

49:47

He's clearly trying to bury the fact that he was doing

49:49

this thing, but also felt the need to placate

49:52

the pro life activists both in his state

49:54

and nationally. So that's how he ends up in this position.

49:57

But you know, this is Trump's

49:59

kind of normy instincts coming

50:02

out here, and he immediately

50:05

recognized even though he of course is the one who put

50:07

the justices in place to overturned Growth versus

50:09

Way, he also immediately recognized that

50:12

Roe versus Way being overturned was going to

50:14

be a massive liability for Republicans.

50:16

Yeah. The important point here

50:18

with the Rod with DeSantis

50:21

and what's happened is, as you said,

50:23

they are all still at the liberty of the

50:25

pro life groups of being attacked.

50:28

Yeah.

50:28

But you know, Mark Levin, if this were

50:30

any other candidate, he would lose it, you

50:32

know, on the board, lose it. You would see

50:35

like frauth at the mouth of some of

50:37

the Glenn Beck some of these other

50:39

folks. They're not going to say a damn thing on this, and if

50:41

they do, it's going to be like the most me. Well, you know,

50:43

he's this and but he got road dun you know, something

50:46

like that. True, And he gets away with it.

50:48

And that's why he's good at what he does.

50:49

You know, he leverages his position and as

50:52

always he remains one of the most moderate

50:54

people really on the issue on social issues

50:56

in the entire GOP issue,

50:58

where I have always believed has given him tremendous

51:01

amounts of strength. One third of the people

51:03

who voted for Trump in twenty sixteen were

51:05

pro choice, and I think probably one hundred percent

51:07

of the people voted for the Democratic Party or pro

51:09

choice. So you know, you only have anything

51:11

to gain by being moderate on the issue

51:14

and by disavowing specifically the most

51:16

unpopular elements of your party.

51:17

Yeah, but then again, I mean, he was the guy that put

51:20

these dust.

51:20

That's what It's complicated.

51:22

So it's not like the reality

51:24

of what you know, his term in office led

51:26

to was moderation.

51:27

There was also a very funny bit

51:30

when Megan Kelly started trying

51:32

to get Trump into some of our modern culture

51:34

wars, and you can tell he is just completely

51:37

detached from the issue. Let's take a lesson.

51:39

I knew caitlyn Is Bruce. I

51:41

knew Bruce, and you know, Bruce was a

51:43

great athlete and a very handsome

51:46

person, very handsome guy, and

51:49

all of a sudden, Bruce's Caitlin

51:52

I said, what's this all about? This was

51:54

a brand new subject too, just like just

51:57

like we talk about, you know, the pandemic was

51:59

a subject that nobody knew anything about.

52:01

Nobody knew anything about.

52:03

Can a man become a woman.

52:09

In my opinion, you.

52:11

Have a man, you have a woman.

52:12

I think I think

52:14

part of it is birth.

52:16

Can the man give birth?

52:17

No?

52:18

No?

52:19

So you know what I find just fascinating

52:21

about Trump is like he truly doesn't care. This

52:24

is a man who it's because this is where

52:26

a huge portion of the energy is, especially online

52:28

online republic. This is like Matt wallsh Daily

52:31

Wire, like this is like the beating heart of

52:33

what they're all about.

52:34

And really, actually, let's be honest.

52:36

You know that big portion of people who are into

52:38

like modern right wing politics, like this is the

52:40

genesis of it.

52:41

But Trump himself floats in a different

52:44

universe.

52:44

So I just I don't know, I can't help but just marvel

52:46

at the fact that he gets away with something that no

52:49

other Republican politician would

52:51

be able to on this issue too, If any

52:54

Republican politician didn't definitively answer

52:56

like absolutely not and go off about schools

52:59

and all this stuff be raked, you know, they would look

53:01

at what Asa Hutchinson and all that the amount that

53:04

Tucker, Carlson and others go after

53:06

him. But with Trump, he gets it. He gets away with everything.

53:08

He gets away with everything.

53:09

I don't think there's going to be an incoming Tucker monologue

53:11

like expiating him. Yeah, it's

53:13

a great point. I mean you can see in particular, like

53:16

the Veik and Ron DeSantis or

53:18

like compete with each other on the extremist

53:21

language that they use on this subject. They would

53:23

have no problem, no qualms about

53:25

answering this issue. They would know exactly what to

53:27

say. And we noted

53:30

even in his in Trump's announcement speech,

53:33

remember that he didn't really he may

53:35

have said one thing about it, but it was like not,

53:37

it's so just like I said DeSantis

53:39

and now we're amswami as well. This really they put

53:42

at the core of especially when they

53:44

were launching, when they were first getting their campaigns

53:46

going, because they saw this is where all a lot of right

53:48

wing online energy is. But

53:51

again I do feel like this is kind

53:53

of Trump called it early

53:55

on the you know this woke's anti

53:58

woke thing like people means.

54:01

I love that, And it goes

54:03

back to I think some of his like New

54:05

York parts of him where

54:08

he's not. He's in for you

54:10

know, the like casual xenophobia, but he's

54:12

not really ready to go in on all

54:15

the anti gay stuff. That being said,

54:17

I mean, he goes on to remind everybody that he

54:19

pointed out he banned trans people from

54:21

the military, and he basically said the right

54:23

things with regards to the right when it comes

54:26

to you know, banning trans people from bathroom sports,

54:28

et cetera. But he clearly is

54:30

not interested in really talking about this issue, not

54:32

interested in really running on this issue. This is not the

54:35

core of what he wants to be tagget.

54:36

But it's smart.

54:37

I mean the bathroom thing, for example, it was extremely popular.

54:39

But with our friend of mine, Joe Simonston

54:41

actually had a good insight

54:44

quote Trump is not going to be based on trans

54:46

stuff because he's from Manhattan, where transgender

54:48

people were not an uncommon fixture of downtown

54:51

life throughout the seventies, eighties, and nineties.

54:53

It is only now a political movement.

54:55

And I think that's a.

54:56

Very astute observation. We always have to remember, like Trump's

54:58

from Manhattan.

54:59

You know, the pictures are Rudy Julie Ye dressed

55:01

up as a woman that.

55:02

I don't know what that's not thing. It's like a drag.

55:05

Yeah. But they're all against that now too.

55:07

I mean, well they're against it for children, Crystal.

55:10

Okay, sure, okay, against

55:12

it for children or at the very least a reasonable

55:14

position.

55:15

Yes, Lauren Bobert and cow are very concerned about

55:17

our children.

55:18

Lauren Barber ship be concerned about her own children after

55:20

her actions this weekend, but we will save in

55:23

a little bit.

55:27

Let's move on, Ken Paxton.

55:28

As crystl said, I was down in Austin where Marshall was

55:30

getting married this weekend. So congratulations to

55:33

my friend of the show, Marshall Costloff. And while

55:36

I was there, just feet away from

55:38

the US Capital, Texas Attorney General

55:40

Ken Paxson was acquitted on all sixteen

55:43

articles of impeachment. Let's go and put

55:45

this up there on the screen because the details

55:47

of this are actually really interesting. Quote. Only

55:49

two out of the nineteen Republican senators voted

55:51

in favor of convicting for any article

55:54

of impeachment, which is a complete flip

55:56

after the seventy percent of House

55:58

Republicans actually teach the attorney

56:00

general in May. As you can see there,

56:02

you can see all of the votes that lined up to

56:05

equit him. The point was that they needed

56:07

twenty one votes to ecquit and they are

56:09

to convict, and they didn't come close on

56:11

any of the measures that were made against

56:14

him. Now we've gotten investigation, we've broken

56:16

down some of the details here before they

56:18

effectively boil down

56:20

to let's just say,

56:23

very cozy interesting relationships

56:25

involving big donors, his mistress,

56:28

getting his mistress a job, using

56:30

and pressuring the office the FBI

56:33

to investigate competitors to

56:35

set donor. It's like the most

56:38

intra Texas thing you can imagine. Also,

56:40

what is it getting free remodels on his house?

56:43

Ye, there's a lot going on here. And

56:45

let's just say that in terms of the allegations himselves,

56:47

like I don't even think it really denies it, you

56:49

know, they're basically bulletproof true, which

56:51

is part of the reason why I was impeached. But this

56:54

is why I wanted to focus in on this is this

56:56

is a major victory for

56:59

the MAGA move movement in the Texas GOP

57:02

because there was a lot of intro fight around

57:04

the Bush people and then the Trump people

57:06

about who has the power, who has

57:09

the energy, the Bush contingent, obviously

57:11

left over from the W. Bush administration. These

57:13

are Chamber of Commerce Republicans,

57:15

oil guys, very traditional, the

57:19

Mitt Romney archetype of GOP.

57:21

We've had MAGA people, mostly like Ken Paxson, who's

57:24

been a MAGA hero now for a long time, and

57:26

that is really what saved him in this trial.

57:28

Let's put this up there on the screen.

57:29

You've got almost every single Texas

57:32

politician who is aspiring to something like

57:34

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick immediately

57:36

coming out blasting the impeachment process.

57:39

But most importantly, and I'd heard a lot

57:41

of rumblings from this crystal, is that a

57:43

full blown movement was launched by Trump

57:45

and by many of the people around him to make

57:48

sure that the message was sent. Let's put

57:50

Axios please up on the screen, which just made

57:52

it clear, if you vote to impeach

57:54

Ken Paxton, we are coming after you

57:57

with everything we've got.

57:59

You will get primary, you will lose power.

58:01

They leashed, unleashed all

58:04

of the MAGA influencers and others who

58:06

were against him to prop him up.

58:08

Packson.

58:08

Of course, remember we remember he did that lawsuit

58:11

on behalf of the electors or whatever for

58:13

the pet during the twenty twenty election. He

58:16

has long endeared himself to Trump. This entire

58:18

thing, by the way, has made me convince that if

58:20

Trump does win, Ken pax is gonna be Attorney

58:22

general. He will be one hundred percent he's going to

58:25

be the ag nominated. But anyway,

58:27

politically, it was a huge coup

58:29

for MAGA. Really in the Texas GOP,

58:32

where there's been a long fight between

58:34

Greg Abbott and others.

58:36

There was recently a.

58:37

Clip I'm sure people saw of Tucker

58:39

going after Texas Governor Greg Abbott for not

58:41

doing enough on the border. So there's a lot

58:43

of you know, intro fighting that's

58:45

been happening within the party for a long time. The fact

58:47

that they were able to prevail here actually does show a pretty

58:50

interesting balance of power.

58:51

Yeah, and the details here are disgusting.

58:53

As I said, Yeah, it's.

58:54

A property developer who he was buddies

58:57

with. They're trading political favors and

58:59

a long sort of it is this dude.

59:01

Part of why Paxson was so interested

59:04

in protecting him and going after his you

59:07

know, adversaries, competitors, et cetera, is because

59:09

the developer dude had hired his mistress

59:12

so that the mistress could be there nearby

59:15

in Austin. And it's

59:17

also, you know, disgraceful because

59:19

his wife is part as a member of the

59:22

Senate, so she had to stand by and like watch

59:24

all of this unfolding too, knowing

59:26

he'd lied to her and lied to everyone else about this affair

59:29

that was going I mean, it's just it's as blatant as

59:31

possible. And the people who were the whistleblowers

59:33

in this were like Republican true believers

59:35

who worked in his office who saw all

59:37

of this going down, were like, this is unbelievable.

59:40

This dude is breaking the law, Like we have to come

59:42

forward with this information. So of

59:44

course it was painted in Trump

59:47

friendly circles as some sort of like deep

59:49

state plot et cetera, et cetera. And

59:52

you know, it was very successful. And I

59:54

think it's said because the facts

59:56

here couldn't be any more clear cut. But

59:59

politics is so tribal, even within

1:00:01

the Republican Party, where you had a Republican

1:00:03

House that actually impeached him, but the Republican

1:00:06

House in Texas is

1:00:08

more aligned with that like Bush wing of

1:00:10

the party, and the Senate is more trumpy.

1:00:13

So we were saying from the beginning, we expected him

1:00:15

to be acquitted because of that political

1:00:17

dynamic. But that's it. It doesn't the facts,

1:00:19

the details, the you know, gravity

1:00:22

of the allegation, sy none of that matters.

1:00:24

It ended up just mattering are whose team

1:00:26

are you on? They paid social

1:00:28

media influencers to defend

1:00:30

the attorney general. Apparently Charlie Kirk

1:00:33

was very critical. According to strategists

1:00:35

who you know, were involved in this effort. Quoted

1:00:38

by Axios, they said he had his people posting

1:00:40

senators office numbers, was giving the manage

1:00:43

show driving the centers absolutely crazy. Also

1:00:45

interesting, they said they didn't care what mainstream

1:00:47

media said about this. All they cared about were

1:00:50

like the partisan rag outlets that

1:00:52

were going to toe the line, So that was what their focus

1:00:54

was on. And then the last sign

1:00:57

of just sort of how utterly corrupt

1:00:59

this process was the Lieutenant Governor

1:01:02

Patrick, who presided over

1:01:04

this trial as judge. As prescribed

1:01:06

by you know how this procedure works in Texas,

1:01:09

he got a million dollar campaign

1:01:11

donation and a two million dollar loan

1:01:14

from a pro Paxton group just

1:01:16

before the trial, and then immediately after

1:01:18

the trial is over, he comes out and talks about

1:01:20

how you know what a disgrace this was that

1:01:22

they impeached him, et cetera, et cetera. So it's

1:01:25

just as blatantly tribal and corrupt

1:01:27

as it could possibly be.

1:01:28

Absolutely am and that's the Texas GOP always

1:01:31

kind of has been. So but now I really

1:01:33

see this as like an intro fight Dan Patrick. He

1:01:35

knows where his bread is buttered now and you won't

1:01:37

be seeing something different. And there's

1:01:39

also still a lot of fights too. Don't forget there

1:01:41

was a split I believe between the two Texas

1:01:44

senators. Ted Cruz was a big Ken Paxton

1:01:46

supporter because he wants to remain popular

1:01:48

and in office, whereas John Corn

1:01:50

I don't think he had said anything that we're on

1:01:52

the procedure. He's much more of establishment

1:01:54

parent and protachment type. So you know, like I

1:01:57

said, it's a very interesting cleavage

1:01:59

in the entire party. And this I believe

1:02:01

is a big victory, not just obviously for Paxton,

1:02:04

who gets to remain in the job, but for all the

1:02:06

people in Washington who are on the side

1:02:08

of MAGA in particular.

1:02:10

This is it. The last thing I'll say on this is Paxon

1:02:12

is not out of the woods. He's also under

1:02:14

criminal investigation, so

1:02:17

you know, he could potentially be in legal

1:02:19

trouble even though he escaped

1:02:22

with his life.

1:02:23

In terms of the political well that's what helps set off this whole

1:02:25

thing.

1:02:25

Remember this has right years ago, these allegations

1:02:28

came out about the federal investigation and all that, So who

1:02:30

knows, maybe the Biden people will pick it up.

1:02:32

Yes, indeed, all right, sorry guys,

1:02:34

but we have to talk about Lauren Buffort. I'm

1:02:36

sure you all know. She's, you know, like sort of very

1:02:39

far right congresswoman represents

1:02:41

a district in Colorado.

1:02:42

She just barely five hundred votes

1:02:44

by.

1:02:45

The skin of her teeth last time around, and she's

1:02:47

facing a tough challenge this time around. So

1:02:50

first thing we learned is that she had gone

1:02:52

to a family friendly, supposedly

1:02:55

theatrical production of Beetlejuice

1:02:57

in Denver and she was kicked out, and

1:03:00

you know, she was all, oh, I did nothing wrong.

1:03:02

I was just singing and enjoying myself and maybe

1:03:04

they just hate like Republicans and that's why I

1:03:06

got kicked out, etc. Well, turns

1:03:09

out there was security footage.

1:03:11

So let's go and put this up on the screen. By the

1:03:13

way, this is not a child friendly if you have

1:03:16

Okay, So this is her with her date ye

1:03:19

in this family friendly theatrical production,

1:03:21

feeling up on her tits, and then

1:03:24

she goes ahead and reaches over

1:03:27

to his crotch and whispers

1:03:30

something to him. I really hate myself right now

1:03:32

describing all this. Then you see her getting kicked

1:03:34

out. According to the theater, there was

1:03:37

lots of you know, don't you

1:03:39

know who I am on the board? I'm on

1:03:41

the board, and she apparently flipped

1:03:43

off some usher who's just trying to

1:03:45

do their job. Put this next piece up

1:03:47

on the screen. We've got some of the details here from

1:03:50

Reuters they are sorry. From the Associated

1:03:53

Press, they say the theater didn't name bober but a

1:03:55

spokesperson and said Wednesday the video which showed Bobert

1:03:57

and guests being escorted out of the venue was of guests who

1:03:59

were kicked out after audience members accused

1:04:01

them of vaping, singing, using

1:04:03

phones, and causing disturbance. During the

1:04:06

argument in the theater, the two made comments along

1:04:08

the lines of do you know who I am? And

1:04:10

I will be contacting the mayor. According

1:04:12

to the venue's statement, which that type

1:04:15

of attitude. I just I actually find that worse

1:04:17

than a lot of the other things.

1:04:18

Wait, I actually agree, that's probably the worst thing that

1:04:20

she did the.

1:04:20

Whole Yeah, do you know, I am thing and

1:04:24

yeah, so initially, like I said, she she

1:04:26

tried to deny it. They

1:04:28

had also in that writer's report, her original

1:04:31

statement from her campaign manager said,

1:04:33

I can confirm the stunning and sallicious rumors

1:04:35

in her personal time. Congressman Lauren Bobert

1:04:38

is indeed a supporter of the performing arts

1:04:40

gasp, adding that she pleads guilty

1:04:42

to singing along, laughing and enjoying

1:04:44

herself. That was the original.

1:04:46

She brought this on herself. Yeah, nobody was going to release

1:04:48

that video.

1:04:49

She said.

1:04:50

That's a great she was.

1:04:51

She's like, I wasn't vaping. She was puffing fat

1:04:53

clouds in the vernacular of the gen z

1:04:55

kness who were out there.

1:04:57

I want to know if she was using an elf bar.

1:04:58

Apparently too, there was pregnant lady who

1:05:01

was right there who was asking her to stop.

1:05:03

Yeah.

1:05:04

Yeah, basic etiquette. Keep that in mind.

1:05:06

Vapors, by the way, both weed variety and

1:05:08

nicotine variety, because it is annoying whenever

1:05:11

you're in an indoor venue. But the point is that

1:05:13

she brought it on herself by acting like a fool

1:05:15

whenever she was in public and then denying

1:05:18

it after she got kicked out. But the

1:05:20

best part is is her recent defense in

1:05:23

an interview with O A N

1:05:25

one American news network. Here's what she

1:05:27

had to say.

1:05:28

What's the top story Lauren Bobert

1:05:30

getting kicked out of the Baute Theater, Denver, Colorado.

1:05:33

On what the media does.

1:05:34

It's what the media does, so what

1:05:37

they do.

1:05:38

I was a little too eccentric.

1:05:40

I am.

1:05:42

I'm very known for having a

1:05:45

animated personality, maybe

1:05:47

overtly animated personality. I

1:05:49

was laughing, I was singing, having a fantastic

1:05:52

time. Was told to kind of settle it down a

1:05:54

little bit, which I did. But then

1:05:57

my next slip up was taking

1:05:59

a picture.

1:06:00

Sure can't take any

1:06:02

images of the play. I've done it too, I've snuck

1:06:04

them sh right. So you got

1:06:06

thrown out because she took a pick and you weren't supposed to. But

1:06:08

you know what, here's my.

1:06:09

Whole thing, was arguing.

1:06:11

There's report saying that I was arguing threatening

1:06:13

you call the Denver mayor. I don't know why I would ever

1:06:15

call the Denver mayor. I think he would have tried to

1:06:17

lock me up the report saying

1:06:20

I was on the board of something.

1:06:21

I don't know what. I'm on the board.

1:06:23

I'm on the edge of a lot of things.

1:06:24

Let me tell you, people

1:06:27

that complained that, I'm thinking you're in Denver, Lauren.

1:06:29

It's very liberal. The people that complained

1:06:31

to the ushers that you're being noisy could have recognized

1:06:34

you and been like, oh, I think that's that mega

1:06:36

girl.

1:06:37

Yes, that's why she reason

1:06:40

well and all of the other stuff.

1:06:41

Here's the other thing too, She is flat out at

1:06:44

first, you flat out lied. She's a

1:06:46

liar about the vaping, and then when she was caught

1:06:48

on camera, she issued some apology

1:06:51

for just that portion. I mean, listen,

1:06:54

here's here's my thing with all of this, Like

1:06:57

it is the behavior tragy, it's trashy. Do I

1:06:59

really care that much? No. What I care about

1:07:01

here, though, is what she's such a hypocrite

1:07:04

because she does posture as this like oh, I'm

1:07:06

such a Christian, and oh I'm so concerned

1:07:08

about the children, and she's very you know, we're

1:07:10

talking about trans drag shows.

1:07:12

What are she's like very vociferously against

1:07:14

Alida because we must protect the children. Whatever,

1:07:17

And there you are feeling up on this

1:07:19

dude in some family friendly Beetle

1:07:21

Juice production. Like listen,

1:07:23

I'm all for Trashi Hoose having representation

1:07:26

in Congress, but I would like those trashios

1:07:28

to be a little less hypocritical in their

1:07:30

approach. And here's the other piece that many

1:07:33

were pointing out. Put this up on the screen. So the dude

1:07:35

that she's with there, apparently

1:07:38

he owns a gay friendly bar that

1:07:40

hosts drag shows, something

1:07:43

that she again supposedly is vociferously

1:07:45

against because we must think of

1:07:48

the children. Soccer.

1:07:49

Yeah, well, as I said, there's a lot going on

1:07:51

here. My personal favorite there's a lot of good tweets

1:07:53

and a lot of good memes about this is that the venue should

1:07:55

start shelling t shirts, which has got my Beetle

1:07:57

Juice and the Beetle Juice.

1:08:03

Jillian scept me that one.

1:08:06

I also there's also some really thank

1:08:08

you for the memes, Lauren.

1:08:09

There are some good ones about why are we all

1:08:12

saying be star star?

1:08:13

Do you know what we're bringing up? Actually

1:08:17

we might have said it more than three times in this more

1:08:19

than three times this, that's a great fine

1:08:22

you've ever watched the if you know the premise

1:08:24

of the if you don't understand the premise of the show anyway,

1:08:27

there's a lot going on here.

1:08:29

Also, it's not exactly like the sexiest

1:08:31

show you give me.

1:08:33

Yeah, that's there's also there's

1:08:35

questions you know about, like why beatle

1:08:37

juice? You know very I God, I just said it again.

1:08:39

I'm bringing I'm bringing it upon myself.

1:08:41

This is the most fun we've had here in a long time.

1:08:43

Yes, so thank you, Lauren. I appreciate that.

1:08:48

All right, Sorry, we're looking.

1:08:49

At I want to start out by saying I've got nothing

1:08:51

personal against Asnamonaj.

1:08:52

If anything, I actually owe him.

1:08:54

Once, despite the fact that I had never met him, I sent

1:08:56

him an email saying that my sister was coming to a show. He

1:08:58

personally insisted on greeting her and her friends backstage,

1:09:01

which of course made me cool in her eyes for

1:09:03

five milliseconds.

1:09:04

The point, though, is that.

1:09:05

He's a nice guy and even nice to me, despite

1:09:07

vast political differences, and because I

1:09:09

want people to know this is not out of malice

1:09:11

at all. Instead, it's to dwell on

1:09:13

the area where I have always differed most

1:09:16

from Hassan. Much of his political

1:09:18

orientation and comedy focuses in

1:09:20

on what I would say are the worst parts of America.

1:09:23

It is rooted, I believe, and probably what was a genuinely

1:09:25

traumatic experience that many Indian Americans

1:09:28

like me had to go through post nine to eleven. We

1:09:30

went, at least in our eyes, from a genuinely post

1:09:32

racial society where no one particularly cared where

1:09:34

our parents were from, to a world where suddenly

1:09:36

heritage with suspect and kids, of course, would

1:09:38

make ignorant or nasty comments. This was

1:09:40

not easy, to say the least, but the response to it

1:09:43

amongst many Indian Americans who have lived here has always

1:09:45

troubled me. I have watched as many of us,

1:09:47

who, by going off of data alone, are the richest

1:09:50

people in the United States, begin cause

1:09:52

playing as victims and becoming obsessed

1:09:54

with all the faults of the country. Many Indians,

1:09:57

it seemed, who are the children of doctors or engineers,

1:10:00

suddenly began using the language of black liberation,

1:10:02

as if their experience was in any way comparable

1:10:05

to the aftermath of chattel slavery and Jim

1:10:07

Crow. The mind meld of modern liberalism

1:10:09

has flattened the ability for these distinctions to

1:10:11

even be made. Many in the American's wholesale

1:10:14

have embraced the label of persons of color.

1:10:16

They fixate on these unpleasant experiences

1:10:18

to intellectually justify ideological

1:10:21

taker of American institutions. Now,

1:10:23

I'm letting this all out because it's important. It's

1:10:25

a worldview of which America is awful, which

1:10:27

the institution are rotten, unfair. It's a racial

1:10:30

view almost entirely. And of course you

1:10:32

can never quite be honest about why if it

1:10:34

was so bad in the first place, all the parents

1:10:36

would have fought so hard to come here. This

1:10:38

is the backdrop that you need to dive into some

1:10:40

of these shocking revelations from the New Yorker profile

1:10:43

on Hassamanaje, which detail multiple

1:10:45

incendiary falsehoods in his comedy. Now,

1:10:48

let's be clear, I do not expect truth

1:10:51

from a comedy set. Exaggeration, lies,

1:10:53

all outright falsehoods are probably key elements.

1:10:56

But as we go through and you see what I'm talking

1:10:58

about, what was led about for what emphasis,

1:11:00

You'll begin to see the problem. The story opens

1:11:03

with two key parts of hassan stand up routine.

1:11:05

The first is the story of a muscle bound white

1:11:07

man who had infiltrated his mosque growing

1:11:10

up after nine to eleven as an alleged

1:11:12

Muslim convert, and now would mess

1:11:14

with the man to make him suspicious. Now, per

1:11:16

his telling, years later, he was watching the news

1:11:19

and the white man popped up on the news as an FBI

1:11:21

informant. He follows it by playing

1:11:23

then a clip of said man being revealed

1:11:25

on the news. The second is about how

1:11:27

a white powder substance was mailed to his home

1:11:30

after doing a segment about Jamal Kashogi

1:11:32

on his Netflix show, per Is telling the powder

1:11:34

god onto his daughter and she was rushed to the hospital,

1:11:37

where his wife then told him she would leave him if he ever

1:11:39

put her children in danger again. But

1:11:41

that's the kicker. Neither of these ever

1:11:44

happened to him. The NYPD has no

1:11:46

records of this incident with the white powder. The

1:11:48

FBI agent who was referencing the clip shown

1:11:51

to the audience apparently didn't even start working for

1:11:53

the bureau until two thousand and six, four

1:11:55

years after the period when Minaj said that it

1:11:57

had happened to him. When the interviewer repressed

1:11:59

him and said why in terms

1:12:01

of the white powder story, why did you sigh that? On

1:12:03

stage?

1:12:04

He cited it as fact.

1:12:05

Actually, though in multiple interviewers and

1:12:07

whether he was manipulating his audience, Here's

1:12:10

what he had to say, quote, I don't think I'm

1:12:12

manipulating. I think they are coming for an emotional

1:12:14

roller coaster ride. He adds that is

1:12:17

grounded in truth and that what I'm ultimately

1:12:19

trying to do is to highlight all of those

1:12:21

stories. But what the interviewer really pegs

1:12:23

it for what it is, Basically, you're making things

1:12:26

up as if they happened to you to try to emphasize

1:12:28

a narrative of personal heroism and victimization.

1:12:31

The next story, too, is just as bad. In his specially

1:12:34

describes how he had a meeting with the Saudi embassy

1:12:36

in an attempt to try and interview Crown Prince Mohammed

1:12:38

bin Salman. Now, in his telling, his wife

1:12:40

didn't want him to go, was prodding him to

1:12:42

keep the Saudis because she was afraid of retaliation.

1:12:45

He describes how the Saudis threatened him during

1:12:47

the meeting and how on his train ride back

1:12:49

to New York he was getting a barrage of text

1:12:51

messages asking if he was okay, because

1:12:54

apparently, at that exact moment, the news had

1:12:56

broken of Jamal Kashogi's murder, except

1:12:58

as they found out quote, the eating hit the embassy

1:13:00

happened a month before the Kashurdi murder.

1:13:03

When asked about his response, quote, he had conflated

1:13:05

the timelines as a story to telling device

1:13:08

to make it feel the way that it felt. As

1:13:10

one of his former employees put it to The New Yorker,

1:13:12

quote, he totally presents

1:13:15

himself as a person who is always taking down

1:13:17

the despots and dictators of the world and

1:13:19

speaking truth to power. Another

1:13:21

who worked with him, I actually think was even more as Sue

1:13:23

quote, most comic acts wouldn't

1:13:25

pass a rigorous fact check. But if

1:13:28

a show is built on sharing something personal

1:13:30

that's not necessarily laugh out loud funny, the

1:13:32

invention of important details could make an

1:13:35

audience feel justifiably cheated. If

1:13:37

he's lying about real people and real events,

1:13:39

that's a problem.

1:13:41

So much of the appeal of those stories is

1:13:43

quote, this really happened.

1:13:45

Look, I'm going to end it there because I don't think it's a cut and dry

1:13:47

situation. Comedy is supposed to speak emotional

1:13:50

truths. But when those emotional truths are rooted

1:13:52

in a punch line of this happen and is representative

1:13:55

apparently of others experience, it does

1:13:58

deserve to really be questioned now, especially

1:14:00

in each case, fabrications were made to really

1:14:02

emphasize narratives what a hero Minaje

1:14:05

is, how awful America isn't always

1:14:07

been for brown people. I'm gonna end with a

1:14:09

fight from a few years back. It was a real rorschack

1:14:11

test for how Indians in America process who

1:14:14

we are a representation in pop culture. Indian

1:14:16

comedian Hari Condelablu led a crusade

1:14:19

against Apu from The Simpsons. He had

1:14:21

a documentary that was called and blamed the character

1:14:24

for perpetuating harmful stereotypes about

1:14:26

Indians in America and blamed the character for

1:14:28

a racial backlash. The character was then diminished

1:14:30

on The Simptons with an implicit apology that

1:14:32

it was bad. But as socialist Boscar

1:14:35

Sankara and I actually spoke about at the time,

1:14:38

what's so bad about Aphu? Aphu was both

1:14:40

an emotionally developed character on The Simpsons. He

1:14:42

represented what many who have come to this country have

1:14:44

done. He cared about his family so much that he worked

1:14:47

his ass off at a gas station. When he said thank

1:14:49

you, come again, is because he wants those customers to come back.

1:14:51

He wants to make his life work in a tough,

1:14:54

tough business. As Boscar wrote in one

1:14:56

episode quote after becoming a citizen ap

1:14:58

who gets a letter summoning him to jury do he

1:15:00

casually throws it in the waistbags. I

1:15:02

cannot think of a better depiction of a person

1:15:04

of color in media, neither an object

1:15:07

of scorn nor fetishized, just trying

1:15:09

to get by like everyone else. Anyway,

1:15:12

I'm curious with Oscar.

1:15:13

Colum was like, oh, it's awesome. We had him on at the time, and.

1:15:15

If you want to hear my reaction to Sager's

1:15:17

monologue, become a premium subscriber today

1:15:20

at Breakingpoints.

1:15:20

Dot com, Crystal,

1:15:24

what do you taking a look at?

1:15:25

After being the first show to cross

1:15:27

the writer's strike picket line and announce the return

1:15:30

of her show, Drew Barrymore realized she knew

1:15:32

exactly who the real victim in this

1:15:34

situation is herself. She posted

1:15:37

a weepy, rather pathetic video to Instagram

1:15:39

attempting to explain the unexplainable why she

1:15:41

threw her own writers and all the

1:15:43

other writers, working people looking for a little bit of

1:15:45

solidarity under the bus.

1:15:47

There are so many reasons why

1:15:50

this is so complex, and

1:15:54

I just want everyone

1:15:56

to know my intentions have

1:15:58

never been in a place

1:16:01

to upset or hurt anyone. It's

1:16:04

not who I am. I've

1:16:06

been through so many ups and downs in my life and

1:16:09

this is one of them. I

1:16:13

deeply apologize to writers. I

1:16:15

deeply apologize to unions. I

1:16:18

deeply apologize. I

1:16:26

don't exactly know what to say, because sometimes

1:16:30

when things are so tough, it's

1:16:33

hard to make decisions from that place.

1:16:37

There's a huge question of the why why

1:16:40

am I doing this? Well,

1:16:43

I certainly couldn't have expected this kind of

1:16:45

attention, and.

1:16:51

We aren't.

1:16:54

Going to break roles and we will be in compliance.

1:16:58

I wanted to do this because,

1:17:01

as I said, this is bigger than me, and

1:17:04

there are other people's jobs on the line, and

1:17:08

since launching Live in a pandemic, I

1:17:12

just wanted to make a show that was there

1:17:14

for people in sensitive times.

1:17:16

So you wanted to help people in sensitive

1:17:19

times by screwing working people struggling

1:17:21

in sensitive times, make it make sense

1:17:24

now. They say that celebrities become frozen in time

1:17:26

at whatever age they become famous. Drew was

1:17:28

seven when she became a national sensation in

1:17:30

et. That level of emotional maturity

1:17:33

sounds about right now. After people reacted

1:17:35

with what I can only imagine was universal

1:17:38

revulsion at the sight of this wealthy celebrity

1:17:40

having a public pity party over their own bad

1:17:42

decision, Drew deleted the video, and

1:17:44

now I actually have some good news to

1:17:46

report. After widespread outrage,

1:17:49

She's announced that she is reversing course,

1:17:51

delaying the return of her show until the

1:17:53

end of the strike. Thank you, Drew. Big

1:17:56

win for online shaming and an even

1:17:58

bigger win for writers. But I'm

1:18:00

to say, in some ways, the damage here has already

1:18:02

been done. After Drew took the initial hit for being the

1:18:04

first across the picket line, other shows

1:18:07

quietly decided to do the same. The Talk The

1:18:09

Jennifer Hudson Show said they are resuming production

1:18:11

as well. As we covered last week, Bill Maher, who

1:18:13

is himself a member of the Writers' Union, announced

1:18:16

that Real Time would restart, albeit without

1:18:18

the monologue and other scripted segments. Contrast

1:18:20

this approach with that of other celebrities

1:18:23

who've taken an actual stand in solidarity

1:18:25

with their writers and show staffs. Yes, the content

1:18:27

is very cringe, but Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel,

1:18:30

John Oliver, Seth Myers, and Stephen Colbert did

1:18:32

launch a podcast with all proceeds going

1:18:34

to make sure that their striking staffs

1:18:36

can hold the line and still make the

1:18:38

rent. You see, when you're a wealthy celebrity, you

1:18:41

do have other options available than becoming

1:18:43

the Hollywood version of a union busting

1:18:45

Pinkerton. Now, support for the strikers

1:18:47

has come from another unlikely place as well,

1:18:49

though, The California legislature. The state

1:18:52

House and Senate just passed a law which

1:18:54

would make striking workers eligible for unemployment

1:18:56

insurance at a rate of four hundred and fifty dollars per

1:18:58

week. Now New York and Jersey workers already

1:19:01

benefit from similar legislation, California

1:19:03

could become the third state in the country to follow

1:19:05

suit, but the ball is now in the hands of

1:19:07

Governor Gavin Newsom, and it is far from

1:19:09

certain that he will actually sign this bill

1:19:12

into law. Newsom has been known to use

1:19:14

his veto pen and has not been a one hundred

1:19:16

percent reliable front to labor. So we will be

1:19:18

watching closely to see what he will actually do

1:19:20

here, because the stakes could hardly be higher. Recall,

1:19:23

Studio executives literally said directly

1:19:26

they were going to use the threat of homelessness

1:19:28

in famously unaffordable California to

1:19:31

try to force writers to take whatever bad deal

1:19:33

they are willing to give them. And a lot is on theline

1:19:35

here too. Writers are trying to preserve the basics of

1:19:37

a living in an era of streaming and in an era

1:19:39

of chat GPT where tech is only

1:19:42

going to become more of a threat to their

1:19:44

livelihoods. They're also fighting really on

1:19:46

behalf of human creativity at a time when

1:19:48

we are in danger of having our humanity devoured

1:19:50

and sold back to us by the oligarch's robots.

1:19:53

If the state here could give them any kind

1:19:55

of assist in their attempt to stay fed and house

1:19:58

for the duration of the strike, that could

1:20:00

be huge. In spite of the selfish narcissism

1:20:02

of people like Drew Barrymore and the corporate greed of

1:20:04

well literally every corporate CEO, striking

1:20:07

workers actually have more of a shot at success

1:20:09

now than perhaps ever in my lifetime.

1:20:11

For the first time in generations, the legal landscape

1:20:14

is starting to shift a little bit

1:20:16

back towards more fairness for workers. We

1:20:19

have, of course covered the federal progress made by the National

1:20:21

Labor Relations Board, but California is far from

1:20:23

the only blue state that has passed pro worker laws

1:20:25

since the midterms. In Minnesota, the

1:20:28

Democratic governor and one seat cent of majority

1:20:30

has perhaps gone the furthest comprehensive

1:20:32

labor bill, including paid family and medical leave,

1:20:35

ban on noncompete clauses, ban on anti

1:20:37

union captive audience meetings, new protections

1:20:39

for workers in dangers in industries like Amazon

1:20:42

warehouses and meat packing plants. Illinois

1:20:45

enshrined union rights in the state constitution,

1:20:47

banning so called right to work for the private sector,

1:20:49

and also pass forty hours of annual paid

1:20:51

leave to be used by workers for whatever

1:20:54

they wish. And Michigan this

1:20:56

year became the first state in fifty

1:20:58

eight years to repeal so called right

1:21:00

to work laws, anti union legislation which

1:21:02

has been pushed by Republicans to undercut

1:21:05

labor. Now, this all represents a tectonic

1:21:07

shift in the typical trajectory of labor

1:21:10

rights, which for decades only

1:21:12

trended in one direction, and that was

1:21:14

race to the bottom. And just as important

1:21:16

here, the public is on the side of these

1:21:19

workers. According to Gallup, americans

1:21:21

back the striking writers over the studio bosses

1:21:23

by a margin of seventy two to nineteen.

1:21:26

They back the actors almost as strongly

1:21:28

sixty seven to twenty four. And they are

1:21:30

strongly behind the autoworkers over

1:21:33

the Big three seventy five to nineteen.

1:21:35

So if you are a millionaire out there thinking

1:21:38

of backing the bosses, crossing a picket line,

1:21:40

becoming a scab, take Drew Barrymore

1:21:42

here as a little bit of a cautionary tale, because

1:21:44

this really isn't complicated, comes

1:21:47

down to one simple question, whose

1:21:49

side are you on? And I guess

1:21:52

I'm heartened to see that she did reverse core.

1:21:54

And if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's

1:21:56

monologue, become a premium subscriber today at

1:21:58

breakingpoints dot com. Yeah all

1:22:02

right, we had a great show for everybody today. I really

1:22:05

enjoyed that. That was a lot of fun. Yeah we anyway,

1:22:07

Breaking points dot Com, go ahead and sign up. We're already late

1:22:09

as it is, so let's get it out. Bye. We'll see you tomorrow,