Ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to thank you for the invitation, for the opportunity to speak here and indeed to discuss some issues of this very complex and very challenging portfolio which is facing especially challenging questions here in Ireland and other countries where the financial crisis is making an impact longer than most of us would have expected a couple of years ago. And I would really like to stress at the very start that the European Commission is indeed doing its best to support Ireland in this difficult period and now that in the recent period they have been some very high level events, high level visits in Dublin to help to change the atmosphere. I would also like to contribute to this series and discuss some difficult issues but in the spirit of improving the atmosphere if possible and see what I also saw in the morning together with government ministers that even in very difficult circumstances there can be a vision, there can be good ideas that show the way forward out of the recession, out of the financial turmoil and they carried not just the hope but also the strategy to improve the situation and the employment and the social area as well. This Barozo II commission of which I remember started its mandate when we were facing a financial crisis in another member state. It was then the Greek crisis on the agenda a little bit over one year ago and at the later stage the picture became more clear that we were not just facing financial crisis in individual countries but we have seen process that exposed much of the weaknesses of the Economic and Monetary Union but this process and these developments did not prevent us from developing ambitious objectives in the Europe 2020 strategy for the next 10 years for economic and social development but it's true that the starting point is really difficult I think it's an Irish proverb to say that you would not want to start from here. We would definitely not wish to start from here when we have in the European Union about 10% unemployment rate. We have 7 million more unemployed people now in the European Union than just about three years ago. This is really a sharp rise of unemployment and what is even sharper is the rise of use unemployment in the recent period especially in certain member states where it can be more than one-third of the age group and there are not a few, there are about half a dozen member states with such bad statistics. More than 38% of the European Union's unemployed people and 50% in some member states including Ireland have been without a job for more than a year now. These job seekers now risk being permanently excluded from the labour market and there are around 80 million people below the poverty line in the European Union. This is clearly a bleak picture, nonetheless it is worth pointing out that people have been cautioned against the worst social and economic consequences of the crisis by social protection systems. I do not want to downplay the impact of the crisis but I believe it has proven the value of the European social model which has protected people from some of the potential consequences of this very severe economic downturn. And while it may be called comfort to those who have lost their jobs, whose homes have been repossessed, it is clear that without EU solidarity and the European social model things would have been much worse in the recent years. We know the road to food recovery will be long and hard and that this difficult journey includes severe measures to reduce public debt and get national finances in order. The challenge is first of all to consolidate public finances while creating the right conditions for a return to jobs and growth. It is crucial that the negative impact of budget cuts on our social and economic situation is kept to a minimum and that the most vulnerable social groups are protected. And in order to help as many people as possible to find jobs it is paramount to build up active labour market measures. Ireland has put a lot of effort into modernising its system of benefits and activation policies while protecting people from poverty by maintaining benefits as far as possible despite cuts in public spending. This has meant, for example, that old age pensioners have been spared social benefit cuts. At the same time a number of new measures have been introduced to tackle unemployment. 15,000 activation places have been made available mainly under workplace men programs and around 7,000 additional places have been opened up in tertiary education. The government, in my view, has rightly made job creation a priority and I will come back to this jobs initiative later on at the end of my talk. But first I would like to tell you more about the role of the European Union in job creation, our employment agenda because in the last one year we have really developed this area quite significantly as part of the Europe 2020 strategy. In fact, employment and social policies are largely the responsibilities of the member states. That's what everybody knows and we hear it very often in our discussions but it has been recognised also that the European institutions have to play a strong role, they are strong expectations and we can see it from the opinion surveys, the Europe parameter that the European citizens want the European Union to play a stronger role and be more effective in job creation and in the fight against poverty. In the recent years we have seen actually a gradual strengthening of the employment and social dimension in Europe's overall policies and the Europe 2020 strategy which was adopted last June was agreed by the 27 EU leaders and it sets the objective to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in the next decade. It has five headline targets and out of the five headline targets to be achieved by 2020, one concerns employment, it's 75% employment rate to be reached by 2020 and another one education and a third one poverty reduction. The economic governance process which is being developed through what is known as the European semester is based on integrated guidelines for economic and employment policy. The EU is rightly building up closer coordination of economic and social policies and we need to ensure that the social dimension of this process is further strengthened. To help member states reform their labour markets, improve education systems and support social inclusion the EU also has a financial lever which is the European social fund. In Ireland over 900 million euro is being invested through the Human Capital Investment Programme to which the ESF contributes with 375 million. The ESF is a 10 billion euro per year fund that reaches out to 9 million Europeans annually. It helps 2 million job seekers to find work each year focusing mainly on upgrading skills, activation of unemployed people, increasing labour market participation and supports of disadvantaged people. Ireland is making a very good use of the ESF and is the second fastest ESF spender within the EU after Latvia. Just before coming here I actually visited a very interesting project of the Digital Skills Academy which is part of the digital hub in Dublin and I think this is helping those people enrolled in courses to gain skills that will make them competitive under labour market and get jobs very soon especially in the SME sector. The EU also helps workers who have lost their job due to globalization or the global financial and economic crisis. In 2009 and 2010 Ireland submitted six applications for support from the European Globalization Adjustment Fund for over 60 million euros covering re-qualification and job search assistance for nearly 10,000 workers. We have these financial instruments because one of the big challenges facing Europe's workforce is how to promote employability of people in a constantly evolving economic context as well as how to foster labour mobility among young people. And this is something I would like to underline here. Creating new jobs and ensuring that job seekers actually have the right skills the labour market requires is crucial if we are going to meet the overall Europe 2020 target of 75% employment. By 2020 85% of jobs are expected to call for high or medium level skills and the percentage of low skill jobs is likely to fall to 15%. So having the right skills for the future means more advanced skills because of technological and organizational changes as well as the shift towards a low carbon economy. Training in skills now is also important to address the unemployment challenges of the day. This is especially true in countries like Ireland where substantial re-skilling is needed for those laid off in sectors like construction which are unlikely to return to the output levels of 2008 or even 2005. A lack of suitable training and education or just the right mix of skills is preventing many people of all ages from accessing the labour market. This is where our initiative and agenda for new skills in jobs comes into play as one of the Commission's seven flagship initiatives under the Europe 2020 strategy. Last November I set out proposals that focus on developing labour market intelligence and skill governance for example. The new EU skills panorama for example will analyse skills mismatches across the EU and provide foresight on skills needs. We are also supporting mutual learning and cooperation between public employment services. Also the agenda focuses on education and training systems in Europe in order to provide the right mix of skills. For instance by improving the classification and recognition of qualifications. This also means reinforced cooperation within the triangle of education, institutions, businesses and employment services. And finally it's important to mention skills development where increased labour demand is expected particularly in areas related to the greening of the economy or for example the health sector. This also requires strengthening of the lifelong learning strategies. I could give you further examples of EU initiatives included in the agenda for new skills and jobs but I think this has been sufficient to highlight that our agenda is about investing in human resources. What we believe and what is expressed in the Europe 2020 targets and the flagship initiatives is that in the Commission's view the source of the competitiveness of the European economy is the competitive labour force which is trained, which is skilled according to the needs of the 21st century and we have to focus in the implementation of the agenda on these efforts and we have the capacity and I'm sure we will also post 2013 have the capacity to support these efforts in the member states by using the social fund and other financial instruments. Now I would like to spend some time on discussing another issue which is not so much a long term strategy but one of the most burning urgent challenges of the employment policy of this period which is use unemployment. The situation of the young people in the labour market as I pointed to this, the rise of use unemployment has been more dramatic, even more dramatic than the rise of average unemployment in the EU. In November last year actually use unemployment in the EU peaked at about 21 per cent and just like in overall unemployment Spain is holding the record here with the use unemployment it is 43 per cent but there are further countries, the Baltic states, Greece and Slovakia in Ireland too with use unemployment rate close to or higher than 30 per cent of the age group which is those at 25 years or less. So in other words if you look at this in absolute terms there are roughly 5.5 million young people out there without a job who may lose hope and simply drop out of the labour market. If the governments don't come forward more forcefully with very concrete strategies and opportunities. In some cases these young people may be forced to accept work under precarious conditions such as short term contracts offering few opportunities to move ahead even for those with good qualifications. Some will probably choose to spend longer in education which is not a bad idea of course but it may simply postpone the problem for a couple of years until they start trying to find a job again. And that's why the Commission within the 2020 strategy launched a specific flagship initiative about the use, it's called use on the move, it sets out actions covering education and employment for young people. Let me mention three of these actions. The first one on the policy level we propose that countries offer a use guarantee to ensure that all young people are either in a job or in education or training within four months of leaving school. The idea is to make sure that none of these people lose contact with the labour market. And on a very practical level we have launched the use at work campaign as an awareness raising initiative to create better links between young people and businesses, especially small businesses. 99% of EU firms are small and medium sized enterprises which account for about 70% of new jobs thanks to entrepreneurship, startups and innovation. Yet there are rarely the first port of call for young people looking for work. Use at work will bridge the gap between SMEs and young job seekers through job fairs and by providing information and support to encourage them to think differently. We are looking at how to encourage young people to consider starting up their own businesses. Last year we also launched the EU microfinance facility which already has operations in five countries and can support young entrepreneurs as well. And third, within the use on the move, we are launching a number of actions to support labour mobility among young people. Your first job action will be operated through public employment services, providing advice and job search and financial support for young people wishing to work in other member countries and for companies, especially SMEs, seeking to recruit young people. It's a bit like Rasmus for young workers and their prospective employers. The European Vacancy Monitor is up and running and helps young people and career advisors follow vacancy trends across Europe, providing useful information on the kinds of skills employers need. Ladies and gentlemen, let me finally again come back to the situation in Ireland. Looking at this from the perspective of employment and social policies promoted by the EU, I believe that the Irish government is going in the right direction in terms of fostering job creation and protecting people from poverty. The austerity programme has entailed a lot of painful measures. But given the fiscal impact of rescuing the financial sector, this has been unfortunately necessary to bring Ireland back to macroeconomic stability. Thanks to the government's commitment, the programme is on track and it has been possible within the first quarterly review to reverse the cut in the minimum wage and to reduce the pay related social insurance contribution for low income earners. This is good news as it will help to relieve the extra burden on workers and work against inward poverty in lower wage brackets. The government is also taking steps to directly stimulate job creation which is hugely important. The jobs initiative with its mix of education, training and internship measures, targeted investments in maintenance and retrofitting and tax breaks in labour intensive sectors is a promising programme. It should be built upon further. It is especially important to continue activating the unemployed and those who may have dropped out of the labour force. This means supporting the re-skilling of people so they are able to take up jobs in sectors where vacancies exist and are expected to grow in the future like IT, business support, engineering, healthcare, customer care, retail or even agriculture. Restoring state finances while ensuring a job-rich recovery and protecting the most vulnerable are the biggest challenges facing not only Ireland but also the entire European Union. Concentrating on employability and improving our human resources through training and education is essential. I believe Ireland offers a good example for Europe through the measures taken in the jobs initiative. The whole of Europe needs to work towards a job-rich recovery in the context of fiscal constraints and we need intelligent policies to achieve that. I wish the Irish government success in its efforts to bring the economy and national finances in line so the Irish people can enjoy brighter prospects for the future. Ireland's lasting reputation in Europe has been formed by a record of commitment, innovation and progress. The effort that Ireland has put in over the past years on infrastructure, education and innovation with Europe's help will pay off in making it through this very painful crisis. There is work to be done in reforming the labour markets, for example, updating worker skills and making sure the right conditions are there to create employment and keep those who are working in employment. But all the foundations of the Irish success story are present. A hard-working country with an open economy. I'm confident that Ireland will succeed and come out stronger than before. Thank you very much for your attention.


I Welcome, everyone, and welcome to Progressive Discussions. I'm your host, James P. Madonna, as seen on the web. I've been doing this since, as far as video talk, since 2007. And I was doing podcasts in the 1990s, mid to late 1990s. I was doing internet podcasts. So welcome, everyone. I haven't done this show on a Saturday night since, like I told Mr. Western Mike. OK, I haven't done it on a Saturday night since the early 2000s when I started doing the show with my mentor and original co-host, Reverend Dr. William J. Eisenman. May he rest in peace. The managing editor of Newsletter Sensors. And that's when we used to do it Saturdays. Podcasts and then the video shows. Actually, it wasn't Saturday night when we did video. It was it was in the afternoon. It was Saturday afternoon. And but anyway, regardless, Western Mike, I sent you the link on Instagram. Um, how are you this? Um, I would say end of summer. Is it the end of summer? Yeah, almost. Unofficial end of summer and beginning of autumn 2022. How how are you this weekend and how was your week? So you're welcome to come on. Whenever you are home. And I have a lot of material to cover. Usually I go through the deep serious topics at the beginning of the show. And then once I get through with these topics, I lighten up on on the topics. If it becomes an an uncensored, no holds barred, open topic show, anything goes. Yeah, OK, well. You will keep on typing and I'll do what I'm doing right now. Is my my good friend Western Mike, who does a fantastic live stream on Instagram. He used to do it strictly on on YouTube, like I'm doing now, but he switched to Instagram and his his talk show videos are better than ever. I'm really serious. He has improved over 100 percent if there's such a thing. Educational, witty, fantastic, keep up to good work. Western Mike. OK. Anyway, let me take a sip of I have chai tea, which is black tea with chai spices, Indian spices. They they also call the tea masala. And I have it mixed with a instant granulated ginger and turmeric with honey. Tea that comes in granules and it's it's it's from China. Or as a career, but anyway, they both make it. It comes in in foil packets. And anytime you feel like you need to to clear your throat or to help your throat, if it happens to be sore, my throat is not sore. I just need to clear it and prepare it for the show. You know, there is there is a change of the seasons syndrome, if you want to call it that, where anytime the seasons change, many people get sick. I'm not sick. I just feel that the temperature has a tendency in my part of the country to change drastically and quickly. In other words, it goes from really hot and humid to periodic hot and humid mixed with cool days. They call that Indian summer. When I grew up, when I grew up, I don't think you can use the word Indian summer anymore. But and then it just dips drastically. Oh, that tastes great. OK. I have a lot of great info here to go through. I'm going to. I am going to start with my good friend, Jason Cleveland, and Jason Cleveland is my other right hand man. He's actually my right hand man for progressive discussions. And he started. He's well, counting this video, he it will be starting of the production of monologues based on different topics because because of personal reasons. He can't come on the show. He's a married man. He's got a kid. And, you know, he has to keep everybody happy at home. He doesn't have the freedom. He doesn't have the freedom that myself and Western Mike has. Anyway, I'm going to play what I anticipate a very educational and enlightening video. OK, now let me do the share. The screen share here. Oh, here we go. All right, Mr. Jason Cleveland. And his first pre-recorded recent monologue. And he's going to discuss the infamous H.O.A. Homeowners Association and their dictator. Fascist power obsessed iron claw that they have on homeowners who assume that owning a home in the United States was the American dream. If you can afford it, but not to live by these dictatorial oppressive rules that they put on these homeowners that incidentally have to pay a fee to the Homeowners Association in the area that Jason Cleveland lives right outside of Seattle, Washington. I mean, how is it your own home if you have to live under the iron claw of the Homeowners Association and march to their tomb and have them bark out orders that you have to obey and say, OK, here we go. Well, hello, everyone and welcome. I am here to talk about my experience with H.O.A.'s Homeowners Associations, as they're known and why they could be a good thing, but most likely are really a bad thing. So I am putting this bill out at the request of a good friend of mine, James P. Madonna, the Piranha. He has a YouTube channel called Progressive Discussions. He's been going live on YouTube for many years. He's been in social media for probably greater than 20 years. And he is going to play this video during his newly updated broadcast time. He used to go live on Sundays and due to the National Football League and everyone's interest in that sport. He has now changed his time slot to Saturday, I believe, at 9 p.m. Eastern time. So hello, James. Thank you for showing this video on the broadcast. So let's get started, right? So Homeowners Associations. My experience with them has been extremely poor. What they're really meant and intended to do is to govern via a set of rules and regulations and covenants what you can and cannot do with your property. So you also have to pay for the luxury of having these people basically policing your every move. The Homeowners Association that I live in today, we have about 100 homes in our neighborhood. I live in Snohomish, Washington State, Snohomish County, which is a suburb of Seattle. We are approximately 30 miles northeast of Seattle and probably six miles east of Everett, Washington for geography purposes. But anyway, we've lived in this home now just over six years. And the Homeowner Association dues are $550 per year. They are paid in a one-time yearly payment. Unbelievable. Unfortunately, they don't have this is one of the things I really don't like about it. They don't have a way to pay it online. So you have to pay by check and you can have some deduction on your taxes for Homeowner Association fees. But to get a receipt from these people is next to impossible. So there's really no way to prove that you've paid these dues except for doing a print screen on your checking account to show that the money's been debited. So anyway, that's issue number one, I suppose. I'd really like to be able to have the opportunity to pay online. It's more secure that way and it's a guaranteed payment, whereas paying by check. The last Homeowners Association we lived in at our previous home, you would pay per month and it was $72 per month. So it was a little bit more. And if they didn't receive your payment by the 10th of the month, they would slap you with a $25 late fee. So you'd have to pay the next month would be $72 plus $25.97 and it would keep compounding. If you didn't pay the previous months late fee, they would tack on another month. So it was this never ending trail of late fees that you could be hit with. And finally, if enough time had passed and you did not pay the HOA monthly fee, then they can put a lien on your house whereby you'd have to pay severe penalties and legal fees to get that lien removed. And when these folks, it's never happened to me, but if these folks were to put a lien on your home, they could unfortunately, well, they could actually repossess the house, the county could take possession of it. I mean, it's a whole big nightmare, big mess. It's just terrible, the whole thing. So one time at our previous address, I sent the payment in and then I got a letter back about three weeks later saying, no, we have yet to receive your payment. I told them the check number, the day that I mailed it. Unfortunately with US mail, it's so untrustworthy. There's no tracking number. There's no way of physically determining whether the item that you mailed actually got to where it needed to be. So I called this person. I voiced my concern. I told them, yes, I indeed mailed this checkout. You are wrong, but you have no leg to stand on. It's their way or the highway. They're the ones that are right, not you. So anyway, I said, fine, whatever. Very frustrated, hung up the phone. The next month I mailed in the additional $25 to cover the late fee and figured I'd be done with it. Well, about six months later, they actually ended up cashing that original check. So I called them back and I said, look, what's going on here?  And the lady said, oh, I remember you. Yeah, sorry, things get lost in the mail. But you're all good. I said, no, we're not all good, right? I paid you an additional $25. So I'd like that money returned to me. And she said, well, we don't have any way of issuing you a credit. The only thing we can do is apply that to next month's balance. So instead of sending us $72, you'd send us what is that $47. Plus the 25. So that's what I did. And then I got a call saying your check is short. Well, not a call. Sorry, another letter in the mail saying that your payment is short by $25. So I called her back and she said, oh, we have a new accountant starting. She didn't know to apply this to your balance. So they slapped another late fee on me and the whole thing. It's, you know, I'm trying to remain as calm as possible, but you can imagine all this heartache, time lost, energy wasted. You name it. See, I always thought, Jason, I always thought that a homeowner is only obligated to pay the property taxes. If they still owe a mortgage, if they say they have a mortgage, they're obligated to pay the mortgage with the home insurance. But I've never heard of a homeowner's association scamming or rip off fee being mandatory for owning your own home. Never heard of that. Never. This is, this is racketeering, my friend. This is definitely racketeering. So the homeowner's association has a permanent place in the progressive discussions. Chisholors Hall of Shame.  Chisholors Hall of Shame. Pick whatever emotion you want to apply to this situation. Over $25, right? So I, thankfully we had moved out of that place and I couldn't be more happy to be rid of that homeowner's association, but only to go into this new one where the rules and regulations and stipulations here are so strict. You can't have a car parked in your driveway for more than 48 hours. Okay. When you're running over, you can get hit with a fine for having overnight guests longer than 48 hours or two days parked in your driveway. So they have to move the car out of your driveway to the street where the same 48 hours applies then back in the driveway. So imagine Christmas time or pick a holiday or in the case of my wife's brother, he had a hernia operation and we offered him to stay with us. So we could keep an eye on him and make sure that he was not in pain and resting and so on. And he was with us for a week. And sure enough, they put a fine on his window saying you can't park here more than 48 hours. It was like a $50 fine. So I marched that parking ticket right up to the HOA, the president of the HOA and said, look, my brother-in-law just had surgery. He's staying with us. He's resting. He's recovering. And through some arguing, I should say, or persuasive action, he said he would have it taken care of. But this is a public space. The street where we live is a public place and my property is private property. As a homeowner, I feel that I should be able to have a vehicle parked in the driveway longer than 48 hours. Well, of course it's your home. I mean, it's your property. You have a driveway and or garage. You should keep your vehicle as long as you need to.  What are you supposed to do with your vehicle? Have it suspended in the air over the roof or something? They're out of their minds. It's really insane. It is insane. I just want to say good morning, my dear Masoom. Good morning. Good morning. I think it's good morning. Wait a minute. I'm so used to doing the show on Sunday afternoon. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Good morning. It happens to be 9 30 a.m. Wednesday in the Tokyo area of Japan. So good morning to Masumi. We have fans from all over. Good morning, Masumi. And good evening to you, Mr. Bart Robinson. From Southwestern New Jersey. Good evening to you. Let me get back to Mr. Jason Cleveland. But the homeowners association doesn't see it that way. We're coming up into the fall season and a lot of folks like to have fires in their backyard. It's a great way to gather and to socialize and so on. But in our neighborhood, in our homeowners association, you are not allowed to have wood burning fires in your backyard. You're not allowed to burn debris or do any burning of any kind. You can have barbecues, but you're not allowed to do any burning. So there's also another thing that happened this year. Due to the age of your home, your house needs to be painted.  Based on the age of the home, you need to have it painted. I had several bids done to see what it would cost to have the house painted. You know, it's about $15,000, right? Imagine that. You got to just at the whim of whatever the HOA says you got to do. Wait a minute. $15,000 to brush and roll paint on a house. $15,000, I swear. In this country, all forms of capitalism are racketeering. And these so-called professionals, you know, they're all following in the pattern of auto mechanics. You name it, they're all crooks. They're all crooks. $15,000 to paint your house. You believe that, people? You need to do it, right? So I wrote a letter back saying, look, I just can't afford it right now.  So I haven't heard back from them, but hopefully I'm not in any trouble, meaning hopefully I won't get any lean or any fine. Another thing here too, they're very strict about keeping your roof cleaned. You know, we live in the Pacific Northwest where it rains a lot. There's a lot of moss on the roof and it can turn green. And you have to have your roof cleaned every year because it's a stipulation of the HOA. You also have to have your lawn green. In the Pacific Northwest, especially this year, we've received very little rainfall. So they grade your lawn according to how green it is. There's not enough greenness in your lawn. We're going to penalize you for that. You know what, you can't, this is all true. This is, and I know it sounds like bizarro world, people, but this is all true. This summer. Thankfully I have a irrigation system, so my lawn is watered every day. With a sprinkler system on a timer, but if we didn't have that, I'd have to drag sprinklers out and water the lawn every day to make sure it doesn't turn brown because if it turns brown, that's another fine you got to deal with, right? You also have to keep up with the appearance, so you have to have any common areas, meaning areas seen from the street. They all have to be immaculately maintained and landscaped. So I have to be out there mowing my lawn once a week at least. I have to keep my shrubs and bushes and hedges all trimmed very nicely, or else you'll get a fine. You know, I'm just naming a few of my own personal circumstances, but overall the booklet could be nearly 100 pages long. Which is just absolutely insanity. So anyway, long story short is my experience with the HOA, they seem to have this authoritarian, a very powerful way of dealing with things, right? There's no, let's talk about it. Let's have a conversation. Let's try to see it from both sides. They have this very authoritarian rule where they slap you with fines. That's their instant way of trying to get you to react to their requests and demands, which is not a very democratic process. I mean, I own this house and dam these people, right? I should be able to kind of do whatever I want. Now, I will say the positive thing about having an HOA is that it does keep, it maintains a pretty high standard that everyone must follow, which means that your property values are typically significantly higher in an HOA than a non-HOA. Maybe some of the upsides of an HOA are, right? You know, people aren't working on their cars in their driveway. They don't have motorhomes parked on their property. They don't let things get out of hand. You know, they have to keep their house looking nice because it keeps the property values up, right? So I sort of agree with their approach of doing that. But, you know, we've got a new HOA president here and she's a nice lady and stuff. But, you know, overall that's kind of, you know, just authoritarian rule, right? So anyway, that's my experience with HOAs. I could probably go on much longer, but hopefully this makes it on to James's show. And James and the panel, I hope you're having a great weekend. And take care, everyone. We'll see you next time. Goodbye. Well, that was incredible. Thank you very much. My right-hand man, Mr. Jason Cleveland of Seattle, Washington. That was a real-life Halloween, I mean, pre-Halloween nightmare story that is not fiction. It's for real. So I don't know where they get this idea anymore about owning your own home. It sure doesn't sound like it. Unbelievable. I want to say good evening. And happy pre-Autumn weekend to Mr. Daryl Macias of Northern California. Good evening to you, Daryl Macias. You, okay, very interesting discussion. Good evening, gents. Very interesting discussion. We live in an HOA, but haven't had to deal with the problems that Jason has. I wish I could stick around, but I have to run. Yeah, I have a lot of material for this switcheroo to Saturday evenings. I realize that many people are watching football games on Sunday afternoon and that they have to attend family get-togethers on Sundays. So I thought this might be a better time slot. So thank you. I guess you feel that the Saturday night switch was a wise one. Good. All right. I know Bart Robinson is a fitness and nutrition enthusiast. He works out like myself. He's an older man that is very physically active. And we have many things in common. I realize that, you know, you got to run, you got to run. I mean, if you're able to periodically watch the show on your phone here and there, if I'm still live, feel free to comment. Okay, now we're going to, I'm looking for it. I don't, I really don't know what happened to it. Oh, this is weird. What happened to Jesse Ventura? This is weird. You know, strange things happen on the internet. That's all I have to say. This is bizarre. Excuse me, people. Well, let me, let me play this. This, this is really fun. To be honest with you. This is really hilarious. It's a, hopefully I can open this up. This is a video based on a Republican Jesus. Really, I'm really mystified as to what happened to Jesse Ventura's. I had two videos of Jesse Ventura speaking. I have no idea what happened to it. I didn't touch it.  Like he was doing over on messenger. I think this is it. Okay, we will start this. The Republican Jesus. Truly, I say unto you, whoever welcomes one of these little ones in my name might be letting in a murderer or a drug. Let's get her to a detention center, you know, so we can figure out what's going on. I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. And behold, now I'm all lazy and entitled. You shouldn't have done that. Do unto others as you suspect they might want to do unto you. What if a man profited if he gained the whole world but lose his soul? A lot. He has profited a lot. One soul for the whole world that is an amazing deal. Why do you look at the speck of dust in your brother's eyes but ignore the plank in your own? Because of her emails. Yes, if a man strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him and shoot him. That is the law. If you want to be perfect, go. Sell all the possessions that you have and give the money to a solid mutual fund. By this, they will know that you are my disciples. That you say Merry Christmas! Christ, Christmas! That's my name in there and I put it in there because I put it in there so we can all celebrate Big Boy Jesus' birthday time. Okay? Okay. Surely you can heal me. My child, of course I could but who would pay for it? I don't understand. I don't have any money. Yes, it's a sad story but it does not make me responsible. It is super duper easy for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. The richer the better really. Maybe get a solid gold house just to be sure. Love your neighbor as yourself. Unless you are better than your neighbor. Then tell him that they're weird and you do not want to make them a cake. You have heard it said thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say to you any man who looks upon a woman with lust in his heart should go ahead and do what he's got to do. Lord, your followers grow hungry and we have only this fish and bread. Oh sweet. He was unbelievable. The republican Jesus. Okay, this is a real chiseler. A car shield. You know car shield. You've seen their commercials. Let me get it up. Chiseler's hall of shame. The popular car shield. And you've seen it. Well, it's a beautiful day out today. Good morning. Good morning. Of course, I'm here at the shop today and I got a very important reason why I wanted to really start this video off as soon as I got into the shop. Hopefully, we're going to get some people on here. You can chat up a little bit, but I wanted to bring your attention to vehicle car warranties or service contracts that all of us are, you know, we get approached by we get solicited on. And of course, with used car purchasing or even when our new car warranty runs out and we get into a an extended program, we want to be aware of the shortcomings that some of these third party warranties and service contracts will unfortunately offer. Right. So one in particular that really has us going here at the shop and the clients that the purchaser is car shield. There are many others, but in particular car shield is like the one that's broadcasting the most right now. And we have to tell you that from a professional standpoint, there are so many shortcomings in that service contract. And so many loopholes that clients that purchase them are really getting the short end of the stick. There's no question about it that car shield is really they make it very difficult for you to put a claim in and actually get paid. And of course, being live, we have all the noises that go with it. So look, I want to give you a couple of examples that we see here that we have on the lot today that were car shield clients and they were declined their claim, even though you would assume that the reason why the car failed would be covered. Right. So we have our first one here. It's a Dodge Chrysler minivan. Okay. It's fairly well kept. You know, it's up in age. I guess a little bit. But what it had going wrong, what it has as the issue is the flywheel is cracked, which will not allow the vehicle to start. Right. The flywheel is the is the piece of it's a component that sits between the morning. The morning Dennis is the component that sits between the engine and the transmission. The starter engages the flywheel. The flywheel has teeth. So does the starters Bendix. It comes out. It cranks the motor over. So you effectively, well, you can start the motor if you've got a lot of muscle on the front end like a big crank. But the starter takes a place that if the starter teeth does not match up and is capable of turning the engine over, the vehicle will not start. Now, car shield says it will take care of you think that it takes care of driveline engine and transmission. Well, it could take care of the engine. It could take care of the transmission, but it will not take care of the components in between. So this is a loophole that they get you on. So this person is out because you got to remove the transmission to install the flywheel. Right.  There's no other way around it.  And the biggest one is iced tea, right? So the actor iced tea is on telling you, hey, my car is protected by car shield. Well, let me let me tell you that legally he says what he says is the truth, but it's not by contract. It's not by a warranty contract. Car shield incorporated could be pet could be paying all of his car and maintenance bills, no matter what he drives, no matter what Bentley he rolls in, no matter what Jaggy might have, no matter what Tesla he may have. He's compensated, right? He's not buying a warranty. So car shield targets elderly. They target low income individuals. They target people who have high mileage vehicles and they prey on them. Even myself got a solicitation from car shield, right? Saying that, hey, by the way, your new car warranty is running out. And, you know, maybe you forgot to sign up, but here, let us show you our policies. So they're very good at getting into your head and getting into your mailbox and getting into your wallet. Flat out. So this is just one example, right? They're not going to cover it. So it really does. It really stinks. It really does. So I'm going to show you another example that we have on a lot today. This one's a little bit different, but nonetheless, the young lady purchased the contract. It's a, I think a 20, 2006 or so Nissan Maxima with a lower end knock to it. Okay, so granted, it may be a case of a little bit more poor maintenance, but nonetheless, she had a contract. So here's the other example that car, that car shield and all the third party warranties will have you take the burden of proof, meaning that you're going to have to pay for discovery before they may take on the claim. So in this particular case, right, we have a lower end knock. So they want us to confirm that the engine is big. Well, in order to confirm the problem, the absolute problem, we have to spend almost $1800 worth of time and labor to discover what we already know what we can hear and what any adjuster would come and sense would come out and go, yeah, I get it, right? But no, car shield to protect its back end will have us, wants us to take the time to tear down the engine to discover what's wrong. Now that burden falls on the client. So when you call the client up and you go, by the way, you have to take on the burden, you have to pay us to discover and then maybe, maybe your warranty cover, your warranty will cover it. That is absolutely horrendous, but it's a loophole. Legal? Sure. Remember the adage, it doesn't have to be fair, it just has to be legal. And they play that up all day long. And even if you look at their website, they have a tagline, the small things matter, something like that. And it's so ironic because they get you on the small things.  Never pay for a car repair again. Total BS, total BS, total BS. And you can take it any way, any way from there. But the reason I jumped on is because I really want you to, I want everybody to really understand that there are good warranty programs out there. There are good service contracts. We do know which ones are good, which ones are bad. Car shield, bad, X, triple X quadruple X, X all the way through. Do not get involved with car, car shield. And there's a few others that we can name, but nonetheless, I really had to come out and type with two people who have put good money out. And they're probably financing it and they're probably paying tons of interest on everything and they can't take advantage of it. These cars are going to go back and sit, not being used until they can come up with the funds to fix the vehicle.  So that's it for today. All right. I hope everybody's having a great day. It's absolutely gorgeous out here. I hope you're having the same type of weather. Yeah. Anyway, that's it for me. I'm signing off. It's Tuesday. Beautiful day. Hope you enjoy it. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks everybody. I appreciate it. Unbelievable, huh? Yeah, let the buyer beware. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. It usually is. Okay, I lost my accident when I lost my page here. Now, give me one moment, please. This is really the socks fan. I don't know what happened to Jesse Ventura. Did Google remove it without my authorization? Let me see. Give me a moment. I will. There's the James Piranha Madonna logo. I have to find something. I'm still here. It really bothers me that the Jesse Ventura videos mysteriously vanished. I mean, I have no idea. Okay, we're going to check out. We're going to check out Mike Lindell. You know, this fanatic extreme right wing, Trump and Stein Lover, the Mike Pillow guy that tries to sell this so-called special pillow for 100 bucks. Mike Lindell from Minnesota. We're taking your cell phone. Hold on. Hold on, Mike Lindell. Let me do a share screen. That's weird that the Jesse Ventura videos just mysteriously vanished. Okay, Mike Lindell from my pillow is in hot water, to say the least. We're taking your cell phone. We have a warrant for your cell phone. I go, no, I said my whole company. I run five companies off that. I don't have a computer.  Everything runs off my phone.  And I'm just, you know, I'm going, are you kidding me? You're not getting my phone. And so he shows me this arrest warrant. We're going to put it up here on a thing or not. This phone arrest warrant to arrest my phone. A warrant for your phone. He goes, ah. The election was stolen from Trump. He wanted to assist in overturning the results of the 2020 election. And as you might have gathered from that unhinged interview, the FBI apparently surrounded him at a party's fast food drive through to basically seize his phone. And that is what he's complaining about.  And I said, those are either bad guys or the FBI. Well, it turns out they were the FBI. He later posted a grand jury subpoena from a federal prosecutor in Colorado and a search warrant related to a federal investigation into breached voting machines in Mesa County, Colorado. We had done some coverage on that. And the warrant requests all records of information on the Lindell cell phone that constitute fruits, evidence or instrumentalities of violations relating to identity theft, intentional damage to a protected computer, and conspiracy to commit the previous two crimes, the warrant sites violations involving Tina Peters, Conan or Conan. Yeah, Conan James Hayes, Belinda Kinsley, Sandra Brown, Sharona Bishop, Michael Lindell and or Douglas Frank, among other co-conspirators known and unknown to the government. And by the way, the Denver FBI office didn't fact confirm that they seized Mike Lindell's phone, which I would be shocked if Lindell didn't expect it to happen, but it is Mike Lindell. So I don't know, maybe I'm being too generous to his ability to engage in critical thinking. I don't know, John, what do you think? Yeah, I was talking this morning and I really don't know what to think about comparing the reaction of Mike Lindell, assuming that everything is as he says it is. And obviously we've gotten some information, but not a ton of information from law enforcement. He's like, he went on every show, basically his own show, he did interviews on other shows to talk about it and how much of a victim he is and how willing he was to be hauled in. They love talking about how strong they are, how much they're going to get my phone. Steve Bannon, you left to kill me. Where do I go? I started right here. Okay. Why do they make these claims or if they're going to make the claims and then immediately backtrack on them? Why don't any of the viewers think, well, but didn't you say you were going to die? I was like getting right in the popcorn. I was going to watch that and then you ruined it. But anyway, there's no accountability so they can do whatever they want. Whereas Stephen Miller, he was asked a couple of times by Laura Ingram whether his phone had been seized and he refused to answer the question, despite being presented an amazing opportunity to make himself out to be a big victim who the deep stay is targeting. It's a very different response. The issue, of course, is that Stephen Miller, while being like thoroughly evil and all that, he's also at least somewhat savvy, somewhat like Mike Lindell is an absolute maniac. So I don't know, maybe he should keep his cards closer to the chest, but he's not. The thing is, any one of them could have important information on their phone. People like Sean Hannity, Roger Stone. We need access to that stuff. The issue, though, is seizing Mike Lindell's phone now. It feels to me like going looking for the documents after a year and a half. You might find something if they were so lazy that they didn't cover their tracks with so much time being provided. But there was all the time in the world for Mike Lindell to get rid of his text messages, get rid of his emails, whatever. No, you're exactly right about that. But that's why I say it would be shocking if you didn't expect, at some point, authorities to either do a raid of your home or to seize your technology. If you are engaging in attempts to overturn the results of our democratic process in electing a president, right? But that's the thing, John. We also have to remember we don't have that entitlement mentality. So if I ever did something that I knew was against the law, I broke the law, I engaged in some sort of criminality, I'd be terrified that I'm going to get caught, right? I feel like you and I would have probably erased our phones or whatever it is, right? I mean, we would never engage in the conversation. I'm going to do it right now just in case. Give me a second. But anyone with two brain cells to rub together would know, all right, well, I committed a crime. Now it's time to cover my track. Remember, we're talking about entitled individuals who think they're above the law. That's Mike Lindell. That's Magda. Okay, they're nuts. They're absolutely out of their mind. Today's right wing Republicans. And you know what? It couldn't happen to a better political party. Because that makes people to the left and progressives look so much more intelligent and normal. All right. Okay, I did that. Let me try this. It is one on Donald Trump. Everybody's favorite topic. The problem is not Trump. Trump is a symptom. If the problem were Trump, it wouldn't be happening other places around the world. We actually see all sorts of countries, advanced industrial democracies, where people are being angrier and they're voting more and more against the established. We saw that with the Brexit referendum, which was before the U.S. presidential election. We saw it in Germany with the rise of the alternatives to Deutschland, a actively Euro-Septic party for the first time since World War Two. We have nationalists in the German parliament. We saw with the recent Italian elections, where they threw out all of the establishment parties and instead it's the five-star movement and the league. Again, Euro-Septic anti-immigration populist political forces. This is a very unusual and it's not coincidence. So why is it happening? One reason is because you have lots of members of working in middle classes that feel like they are not doing well economically and no one in the establishment is going to help them. So let's vote for some change. Let's vote against free trade. Let's vote against the support of the establishment. Let's bring in something new. Second point. A lot of this is anti-immigration. Demographics have changed an awful lot in the United States, in Canada and in Europe over the past decades. And a lot of people feel, people that have come before say, wait a second, you're not taking care of me, but you're going to bring in these new people and these new people who I don't necessarily like or understand or trust. These new people who are getting benefits. What about my benefits? It's going to cost a lot of money to bring them in. Are they going to steal my jobs? Are they going to cause crime? Even though in the United States, we know that first generation immigrants don't actually cause more crime than those that have lived here. Nonetheless, the willingness to believe that those other people are bad and a problem goes up a lot when you feel like your government's not taking care of you. So that's been a big piece of it. A third piece has been the military. You know, the foreign policy establishment in the United States has been very willing to support the U.S. getting into wars around the world. But most of the sons and daughters of the foreign policy establishment don't actually fight in those wars themselves. That's also true of the political leaders that are responsible.  It's the enlisted men and women. They get sent off. Their families are left broken. Their communities are hindered. They come back. Iraq, Afghanistan, billions upon billions of dollars wasted on these wars, enormous numbers of people that are killed or wounded or have post-traumatic stress disorder. They come back. They're not seen as heroes. The Americans and the allies didn't win these wars. The Veterans Administration doesn't take care of them. So as a consequence, you see those people getting really angry and not voting for Hillary or Jeb. They're voting for Bernie Sanders or for Donald Trump. And then you have technology, which is that technology today is increasingly driving people apart. We get most of our information in the United States from advertising companies that view us as commodities, products. They want, they sell our eyeballs and our time on their sites to companies that pay money to ensure that we spend as much time as possible on Facebook and on Twitter and the rest. That's how we get our information. We'll spend more time on their sites if we are divided and we are narrower. Only follow the things we like, which means Democrats are watching pro-democrat sites and conservatives and Republicans are watching pro-Republican sites. And there's virtually no overlap. And so it's fake news for everybody. It's us versus them. That's happening across Europe. It's happening in Canada. Those four factors are driving us apart. They're ripping at the fabric of civic nationalism across all of the advanced industrial economies. And by the way, it's happening when the economy is doing really well. The United States today and the UK and Canada and Germany feel more divided than at any time in my lifetime. And yet that's when we can spend a lot of money. So if that's true, what do you think it's going to feel like when interest rates go up and growth goes down and we start laying people off. We don't have the budgetary space to give everybody a tax break. It's going to get worse. So it's very clear that this is a structural condition that we have been living with and ignoring for decades and it's getting worse. One interesting point is one country among the advanced industrial democracies that's not experiencing this problem at all. And that's Japan. You go to Japan, you'll actually find that the people are pretty much just as happy and trusting of their political institutions, their leaders, their media, as they were 30, 40 years ago. Now let's look at all of the factors that I just described that are causing problems in our countries. Economic erosion of the working class. In Japan, the population is shrinking fast. From now to 2050, it's going to shrink by another 15%, which means that even though the Japanese economy is not growing per capita, they're doing a lot better. They don't feel so bad. Immigration. Japanese actually let in almost nobody. So as a consequence, there's no one that they really have a backlash against. It's all Japanese, right? Number three, the military. The United States fights a lot to war, so do our allies. Japan does not. Their military is constitutionally forbidden from going abroad and fighting in wars. When they did support us in Iraq, they sent a few hundred Japanese, they kept them far away from any fighting. Every soldier had like a million dollars of insurance. They made sure that they were calling their families every week. They really didn't have backlash against the military. And finally, social media technology, where the Japanese as a government has worked hard to keep social media out of the political space. And the average Japanese adult isn't on social media, only about 39% of them are compared to well over majority of the West. So the one country in the world among the wealthy democracies that isn't experiencing a crisis of democracy is the one that kind of rejected globalism and its precepts over the last 40 years. Okay. Okay, I'm back. Brilliant man. I love his videos. He really hit the nail right on the head. It's a much bigger picture that we have to look at. I mean, Donald Trump is is a byproduct of the, the big picture, which Nikita Khrushchev during the Cold War. I think it was the early 1960s. He was right. He says the United States will deteriorate destroy itself from within the cap capitalism is a very broken system. And it is an evil system that doesn't do a damn thing for the bottom 98% of the population. It only works for the top 2%. I have more topics. I really screwed up with unless unless the Jesse Ventura videos were played last Sunday on my show. Okay, Donald Trump threatens to sue. This is amazing. Trump is Threatens to sue Fox News. This is funny. And they were, they were supporting Trump more than anyone else. They were really up his rectum, so to speak. Now he's, he is suing Fox because apparently they don't do his bidding.  Excuse me, and I will play this. This is amazing. Trump is threatening to sue Fox News for running a Lincoln project ad before we get to the feud between Fox and Trump. Let's look at the ad that ticks him off. Maga, we have some bad news. No, not that he lost, not that your little cool attempt failed at its planners and the attackers are going to jail. No, the really bad news is why Trump told you he lost, why he set it up way before the 2020 election. But it was fraud.  He spent it on himself not to take back the White House. It was the biggest scam in political history. Every dollar you send him paid to keep a shaky business empire and lavish lifestyle going. It was a suckers game all along. And you know who the sucker is. It's you. Trump was very, very upset that they were calling his supporters suckers on his favorite news network unsurprisingly he threatened to sue on true social posting this, the perverts and low lives of the Lincoln project are back on where else box news. Trump was in a way to the asylum after their last catastrophic campaign with charges made against them that were big time sleaze, and me getting many millions more votes in 2020 than I got in 2016, the Paul Ryan run box only has high standards for ads, but not for anyone else the perverts should not be allowed to false advertising box news should not allow it to happen see wall and court. There is one problem media reporting that local ad buys are made directly with cable companies not with the networks like And the Lincoln project is quite happy with their work here in 2020 the Lincoln project took up a long term release in Trump's brain, his threat to sue the Lincoln project today is like trump himself in potent flabby and pathetic bump stuff. So that was Rick Wilson, the founder of the Lincoln project, calling Trump impotent. I'm sure he liked that. So Trump doesn't always respond to the Lincoln project that he responded this one because it got all the way under his orange skin. Why don't you get under a skin because it's totally true. And with the fact that he's outed here is what's made you curious, you know how much he raised for stop the sea steel, which is so ironically named because the whole point of it is to steal your money. He should be called start this deal. He raised $250 million, but he won't even use it for his own legal defense for all those electoral cases he won't use it to defend Rudy Giuliani, or anyone else, because he's trying to funnel as much of it as he can into his own properties and into his own pocket. He is the biggest con man in American history. He's trying to steal hundreds of millions of dollars there Lincoln project out some and he catches feelings. That's what happened. I love that. I love those people. The young Turks sank, sank Iker and a Casparian, you know, news nation should sign them up. News nation should put them on their network. I know I'm very happy that Chris Cuomo is starting October 3rd, I believe on news nation.  After CNN and his so called close friends co workers through him under the bus, he will be back with more freedom than he had with CNN. So you're going to see a much better Chris Cuomo on news nation, but they should really hire sank Iker and the young Turks. All right. We're winding down. Oh, there's a good one. Lindsay Graham.  Lindsay Graham. Lindsay Graham. Okay, let me let me do the screen share. Bring Lindsay Graham up. There you go. Lindsay Graham. There's a prosecution of Donald Trump for this handling classified information after the Clinton debacle which you presided over and did a hell of a good job. There'll be riots in the streets. There will be riots in the streets. That was Senator Lindsay Graham, essentially, posing a threat to the DOJ for its investigation into Donald Trump, who we now know had literally hundreds of classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago residence, which he had of course taken home with him from the White House. Now that breaks the law. That's why he's being investigated. He was given ample opportunity to cooperate with the investigation, so the raid wouldn't even need to happen, but he doesn't comply. And so the chickens have come home to roost. And of course, after Lindsay Graham issued that threat, it was followed by Donald Trump doing what Donald Trump does best, post on social media. And so he posts on his truth social platform to say that he is supportive of this effort to not only threaten the country, but to rile people up to the point where they might do get another riot on behalf of Donald Trump. Now, Trump also had posted about the FBI. He's trying to instigate some infighting in a possible internal coup within the FBI. But before I get to that, Cenk, I wanted to give you an opportunity to weigh in. Yeah, as usual, here we go. Things are getting dangerous. So we already showed you the poll. 41% of Republicans think it might be time for violence. And so Lindsay Graham comes out here and says, well, they should do it, basically.  Yeah, that's very normal for the right wing these days. So be careful what you wish for Lindsay. We all remember what your reaction was to the Capitol riots. So if you're going to cultivate that kind of environment where political violence and political retaliation with violence is totally acceptable and you're actually edging it on, again, be careful what you wish for. Yeah, and then of course, Donald Trump's going to jump in and he loves talk of violence.  And he said he didn't have a problem with it. So you think he's going to have a problem with this? Of course, he's going to threaten more violence. And why would you threaten violence in a situation like this? Because you're guilty. That's why it's super frickin obvious. And anyone else that had classified clearance would be in prison right now if they had done what Donald Trump did. And Lindsay Graham knows that and Donald Trump knows that. Exactly. Well, I wanted to get to some of his posts in regard to the FBI, because on truth social, Trump has put up several posts where he's trying to instigate some internal infighting or possibly an internal coup with the FBI. He thinks there's a group of FBI agents who are on his side and he's trying to get them to act. So in a post he writes, when are the great agents and others in the FBI going to say, we aren't going to take it anymore? Much as they did when James Comey read off a list of all of crooked Hillary Clinton's crimes, only to say that no reasonable prosecutor would prosecute. The wonderful people at the FBI went absolutely nuts. So Comey had to backtrack and do a fake investigation in order to keep them at bay. The end result we won in 2016 and did much better in 2020. But now the left has lost their minds. And if you think that he might finally be weaning the country and his party off of this notion that the election was stolen from him, you'd be wrong. Because in another unhinged post he writes, so now it comes out conclusively that the FBI buried the Hunter Biden laptop story before the election, knowing that if they didn't. Trump would have easily won the 2020 presidential election. This is a massive fraud and election interference at a level never seen before in our country, remedy. Declare the rightful winner or, and this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 election irreparably compromised and having new election immediately. We live on different planets, but we exist in the same country. It is a disaster situation. So guys, look, right wing, here we are again. You know that you can't just say, oh, the guy who lost is now magically won. There's no vehicle for that. There's no law for that. It's not in the Constitution. How would you even make that happen? Who would determine?  You know why no one did that? Because you can't do that. It's not a thing. Hillary Clinton cried and cried and cried. No one denies that unless they're the establishment, right? Oh, it was the Russians. It was the weather. It was this. It was that. It was Bernie Sanders, blah, blah, blah, blah. But she never said, no, I'm the president.  You know why she never said that? Because that's mental. That's insane. There's no such thing. Or, you know what, I didn't like the way the election went. I thought James Cummy was unfair to me. Let's redo the election. You know why she never said that? Because there is no such thing as redoing an election like this. Two years later, if you think there is, you're just wrong. You're factually wrong. It's not a matter of opinion. You've been lied to. You've been brainwashed. There is no such thing. The guy that you're following, Donald Trump, doesn't know anything.  Or, more likely, he doesn't know himself. He's never read the Constitution. He's never looked up a law in his life. The only thing he thinks laws are for are breaking.  And he was president of four years. He still doesn't know because he has no intellectual curiosity. He doesn't know anything unless, oh, does it help Trump? Does it help Trump? And look, he's the one that passed the law that says he should go to jail for five years. I'm going to read you a small portion of the classified document part, but this is the relevant part. If you knowingly remove such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location, that's exactly what Trump did. And you all know that's exactly what Trump did. And now that he's cornered, he's like, but let's do a random election. So put me back in jail for no reason. Oh, otherwise, violence! Let's do a riot! That's the way it has become, pathetic, all of them. Well, I think we make the mistake in assuming that the right wing, as it exists today, really cares about what our Constitution says, really cares about the rightful winner of our democratic process. What's become more and more clear to me, especially with the rhetoric they've been using, things like our God-given rights, our rights were given to us by God, not by government. That was a literal statement in a Dave Rubin video that we'll show you guys later in the show. But the reason why I bring it up is because it doesn't matter, right? They don't care what the law says. They don't care what the Constitution says. They don't care what the real outcome of the presidential election in 22 was. They want to have it their way, period. And our democracy is barely even secondary to what their desires are. They think they've been anointed by God himself to run the country and throw out any democratic process that would stand in the way. That is what we're dealing with right now. So, anyway. All right. Well, the one final thing I wanted to mention is he also posted this on Truth Social. He re-truthed someone, if that's how you refer to it on Truth Social. The person wrote, the FBI interfered in the election and put the people who protested it on January 6th in prison. He quoted that saying, wow, well said. Nailed it. Nailed it. Anyway, we're in a scary place in this country. And the question is, with Trump being a symptom of what's broken in the U.S., what are we going to do to fix the actual root of the problem that we have at least 30, 35% of this country that's willing to throw democracy away just to ensure that someone like Trump stays in power? That's a scary thought and that's what we're dealing with today. Yeah, all right. The last thing I want to say, because you asked the former question is, but our only hope is for some reasonable person to break into the national conversation and begin to heal things. And not necessarily heal things right away, right? And you've got to fight back against misinformation first and you've got to win first and then do the healing. But it's never going to be the establishment because the establishment will never admit to their own lies. Oh, all the politicians are wonderful. There's no money in politics. All those millions of dollars in bribes are just hugs and rainbows. So as long as you have the goddamn liars running the place, the right wing is never, ever going to come to their senses because they think, well, I'm not going to listen to that liar, right? So we're at loggerheads and national right wing media won't allow any progressives on and national media won't allow any progressives on. So they just keep fighting over these issues and they're both lying for their own side. Thanks for watching the Young Turks. We really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. You'll get to interact with us more this live chat, emojis, badges. You've got emojis of me, Anna, John, JR. So those are super fun. Okay. Now, before, excuse me, let me come back. Before we lighten up on the topics, I want to see if my good friend, a celebrity performing artist, musician, songwriter, and clothing designer, Mr. Paul Anthony Mantia. I want to see if he is able to come on the show. He says there's a good chance he might be able to come on the show. The one last video I want to show you people is about my favorite social media kingpin. I'm being sarcastic. He's the one I despise the most. The eagle beak control freak geek, Mark Zuckerberg. And this is the woman, the whistleblower who used to work for Facebook, giving testimony and telling the public about her experiences behind the scenes with Facebook and what they're really all about. Fascinating. I always knew he was a no good sleazy, sneaky, shady, seedy, steaming pile of putrefactive fecal matter, Mark Zuckerberg. I always knew this. I have a very keen intuition. Maybe I'm partially clairvoyant, who knows.  I'm very good with getting vibes. And let's see. Okay. All right, let me go. This is the last topic, the whistleblower. The opportunity to do a screen share. This is fascinating. Okay, and away we go. Mr. Michael Hilton, are you still with us? This is the last topic that I will consider serious or deep. The opportunity to appear before you. My name is Frances Haugen. I used to work at Facebook. I joined Facebook because I think Facebook has the potential to bring out the best in us. I'm here today because I believe Facebook's products harm children, stroke division, and weaken our democracy. The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram saver, but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people. Congressional action is needed. They won't solve this crisis without your help. Yesterday we saw Facebook get taken off the internet. I don't know why I went down, but I know that for more than five hours, Facebook wasn't used to deepen divides, to stabilize democracies, and make young girls and women feel bad about their bodies. It also means that millions of small businesses weren't able to reach potential customers, and countless photos of new babies weren't joyously celebrated by family and friends around the world. I believe in the potential of Facebook. We can have social media we enjoy that connects us without tearing our democracy apart or democracy, putting our children in danger and selling ethnic violence around the world. We can do better. I have worked as a product manager at large tech companies since 2006, including Google, Pinterest, Yelp, and Facebook. My job has largely focused on algorithmic products like Google Plus search and recommendation systems like the one that powers the Facebook newsfeed. Having worked on four different types of social networks, I understand how complex and nuanced these problems are. However, the choices being made inside of Facebook are disastrous for our children, for our public safety, for our privacy, and for our democracy. And that is why we must demand Facebook make changes. During my time at Facebook, first working as the lead product manager at Pacific News Information, and later on counter espionage, I saw Facebook repeatedly encounter conflicts between its own profits and our safety. Facebook consistently resolved these conflicts in favor of its own profits. The result has been more division, more harm, more lies, more threats, and more combat. In some cases, this dangerous online talk has led to actual violence that harms and even kills people. This is not simply a matter of certain social media users being angry or unstable, or about one side being radicalized against the other. It is about Facebook choosing to grow at all costs, becoming an almost trillion dollar company by buying its profits with our safety. During my time at Facebook, I came to realize a devastating truth. Almost no one outside of Facebook knows what happens inside of Facebook. The company intentionally hides vital information from the public, from the US government, and from governments around the world. The documents I have provided to Congress prove that Facebook has repeatedly misled the public about what its own research reveals about the safety of children, the efficacy of its artificial intelligence systems, and its role in spreading divisive and extreme messages. I came for it because I believe that every human being deserves the dignity of the truth. The severity of this crisis demands that we break out of our previous regulatory frames. Facebook wants to trick you into thinking that privacy protections or changes to Section 230 alone will be sufficient. While important, these will not get to the core of the issue, which is that no one truly understands the destructive choices made by Facebook, except Facebook.  As long as Facebook is operating in the shadows, hiding its research from public scrutiny, it is unaccountable. Until the incentives change, Facebook will not change. Left alone, Facebook will continue to make choices that go against the common good, are common good. When we realized Big Tobacco was hiding the harms it caused, the government took action. When we figured out cars were safer with seatbelts, the government took action. And when our government learned that opioids were taking lives, the government took action. I implore you to do the same here. Today, Facebook shapes our perception of the world by choosing the information we see. Even those who don't use Facebook are impacted by the majority who do. A company with such frightening influence over so many people, over their deepest thoughts, feelings and behavior, needs real oversight. But Facebook's closed design means it has no real oversight. Only Facebook knows how it personalizes your feed for you. At other large-time companies like Google, any independent researcher can download from the internet. The company search results and write papers about what they find. And they do. But Facebook hides behind walls that keeps researchers and regulators from understanding the true dynamics of their system. Facebook will tell you privacy means they can't give you data. This is not true. When tobacco companies claimed that filtered cigarettes were safer for consumers, scientists could independently invalidate these marketing messages and confirm that in fact they posed a greater threat to human health. The public cannot do the same with Facebook. We are given no other option than to take their marketing messages on blind faith. Not only does the company hide most of its own data, my disclosure has proved that when Facebook is directly asked questions as important as, how do you impact the health and safety of our children? They mislead and they choose to mislead and misdirect. Facebook has not earned our blind faith. This inability to see into Facebook's actual systems and confirm how they work is communicated and confirmed that they work as communicated is like the Department of Transportation regulating cars by only watching them drive down the highway. Today, no regulator has a menu of solutions for how to fix Facebook. This Facebook didn't want them to know enough about what's causing the problems. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been need for a whistleblower. How is the public supposed to assess that Facebook is resolving conflicts of interest in a way that is aligned with public good if the public has no visibility into how Facebook operates? This must change. Facebook wants you to believe that the problems we're talking about are unsolvable. They want you to believe in false choices. They want you to believe that you must choose between a Facebook full of divisive and extreme content or losing one of the most important values our country was founded upon, free speech. But you must choose between public oversight of Facebook's choices and your personal privacy. That to be able to share fun photos of your kids with old friends, you must also be inundated with anger-driven virality. They want you to believe that this is just part of the deal. I am here today to tell you that's not true. These problems are solvable. A safer, free speech-respecting, more enjoyable social media is possible. But there's one thing that I hope everyone takes away from these disclosures. It is that Facebook can change, but is clearly not going to do so on its own. My fear is that without action, divisive and extreme behaviors we see today are only the beginning. What we saw in Myanmar and are now seen in Ethiopia are only the opening chapters of a story so terrifying no one wants to read the end of it. Congress can change the rules that Facebook plays by and stop the many harms it is now causing. We now know the truth about Facebook's destructive impact. I really appreciate the seriousness which the members of Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission are approaching these issues. I came forward at great personal risk because I believe we still have time to act. But we must act now. I'm asking you, our elected representatives to act. Thank you. Okay, okay people. She was being a bit too diplomatic in regards to what she said about Facebook. I mean she was very accurate, obviously a very intelligent young woman. But she was being way too kind concerning Mark Zuckerberg. Way too kind. Well, what I could do is here, I could do a little spinning wheel, spin the wheel, make a deal. Right? Let me do that. Just a little bit because I don't see anybody. I don't see Paul Anthony Mantia or Michael Hilton. So let me bring up the wheel, spin the wheel, make a deal. Well, the only thing I will say is that I wish I had the wisdom and knowledge that I have now way back in the day when I was younger than what would have happened was I would have spotted all the red flags, not got involved with those females in the past that had obvious red flags. Therefore, I would have avoided much stress and disappointment. I would have been able to avoid a lot of stress and disappointment. And I would have also not gone, not hung out in all those bars and dance clubs when I was much younger because the advice that some very intelligent people gave me was they said, you're not going to meet a nice girl in a gin mill. And they were absolutely right. Now, today you have something very negative when it comes to long-term relationships. And that is the feminist modern day woman. If Michael was here, we could do a little red pill talk and enlighten people as to the realities of the modern woman, which is not great. Oh, my gosh. What a coincidence. What a coincidence. The Eagle Bee control freak geek himself. Well, I just played the video before about the whistleblower that used to work for Facebook. And that's exactly what he is. You see, back in grammar school and high school, I remember the dorks, the nerds, the geeks. And they had no masculinity at all. They had like raisin balls.  And that's what they do. So that's what Mark Zuckerberg does. And he acquired a fortune by means of ill-gotten gains and screwing people over because he belongs to the tribe. And that's his prosthesis. That is an extension of the masculinity he doesn't have. Vixen Beaks. Nina Yordy from the ocean state of Rhode Island. How have you been? I haven't seen you in a while. I switched my show from Sunday afternoon to Saturday night because all the dudes are watching football or they have family get-togethers. So I pretty much went through all of the deep, serious material. And let's see. Let me see if I can... I mean, you're welcome to join if you're home. If you're out, have a good time and get home safe. Vixen Beaks. Vixen Beaks. Michael Hilton, are you still with us? I know Paul Anthony Manthea had a serious issue with his internet connection. He switched internet providers as well as mobile phone. He had a really bad company called Metro PCS. So he switched to T-Mobile. But there was an issue with his...  And he really, in reality, had 4G. And the whole time he thought it was 5G and it really sucked. I mean, the Wi-Fi sucked. It all sucked. And he's suing them. He's bringing them to small claims court to get reimbursed. For all the money he spent on Metro PCS based on a lie telling him that he had 5G. Now I have 5G with Spectrum. And my internet is pretty fast. So anyway, let me go back to the spinning wheel. Spin the wheel, make a deal. This is BC of BC's beer review when he occasionally passes out on people's live stream shows. Lowlife trolls living in their parents' basement. Well, trolls are people similar to geeks. They're usually... Some are dysfunctional misfits. Some are very intelligent, but they're not socially accepted. They're very strange people. Many of them are very unpleasant to the eyeball.  And the only way they can get attention and feel a sense of power is by trolling others online on the internet. And South Park did a show about trolls. That was very good. Normally, that's what South Park does. And that's it. That's the human race for you. I'll spin it one more time and then I'll close out the show. One more spin. Climate change. Well, if they don't do something soon, it will be irreversible. The planet Earth is in serious trouble.  Terrible flash floods, typhoons, tornadoes, hurricanes. Next, earthquakes. We haven't really seen any severe earthquakes, but they are overdue. Volcanic eruptions are also overdue. But that's geological. That's not climate change. The sea level is rising and the sea level will rise. They say scientists 16 feet if this very famous huge glacier in Antarctica, which is hanging by a thread should drop into the into the city into the ocean. We will see a 16 foot rise in sea level. So between the fossil fuel industry with their floral carbons going into the atmosphere and the destruction of the rainforest for the sake of greed to profit from all the wood that the rainforest has to offer. Destroying species of creatures that depend on the rainforest and the rainforest incidentally are the lungs of the planet Earth. Trees are extremely important vegetation in general. So between that, the heat waves, record temperatures. You saw what's happening. I think it's still going on in California with the drought and the record heat waves are creating of course the forest fires that is so common with climate change in California. It's really a bad situation. It's terrible. So anyway, regardless, I don't know where everyone is, but I will say thank you. Everyone for joining me. Thank you to Western Mike, Michael Hilton, Bart Robinson, Darryl Macias, Masumi from Japan. Nina Yordi from Rhode Island. Thank you everyone. And until next time, have a great Saturday night and have a great Sunday. Bye bye. And be safe.


This is the day we've been looking forward to. So when we promote the vaccine, what we're promoting is fleet readiness and safety. If there's any kind of hesitation, I guarantee you the answer is out there and let's get through this. It really is the path to getting beyond this. Make sure that you're doing your part to stop COVID-19 strikes. It's an all-hands effort. So I really encourage everybody to get in line, roll up your sleeve, get the shot.


Aaron Tippin is an American country music artist who continues to give up his holidays to visit deployed troops. I've got to show my homage to you guys. I have been doing this a long time. It started with Bob Hope, you know, 1990, person call. And, man, I think I've enjoyed a life of freedom thanks to the warriors that are defending this country. You know, it's a very small price for me to take a few days out of my life to come say thanks. The only thing on his mind is making sure that for just one moment, he'll make service members forget where they are. You know, I want to take it far away from you. I want to take it far away from you and make you laugh or make you have a good time. If you can sing along, you know, some of these old songs, that's what I came to do. I want you to have a moment like you're back home, not here, you know.  The rest of the time, we're going to pretend like we're back home. But what I realized as I'm always doing that is you're already self inspired. That is the people you are. Military, and I don't know if it's the caliber of people that come into it anyway, or after you're into it, you become that. I'm not sure which that is, but you are self inspired. And what really is great is when you leave the military, that never leaves you. That I can recall because as I see in life, when you return home, you become a credit to your community. He traveled all over southern Afghanistan visiting eight different small Ford operating bases and combat outposts, playing two shows a day. Tech Sergeant Jason David, Southern Afghanistan.


We're here at ITU Telecom World 2016 in Bangkok and I'm very pleased to be joined in the studio today by Fatima Barras, who is chair of Anacom's board of directors. Fatima, great to see you in the studio today and thanks so much for joining us again. It's a great pleasure to be here and of course as usual I'm very pleased to talk to you about what's going on in Europe. Brilliant, now in fact Europe is my first question here, I wanted to ask you about the digital single market initiative. Perhaps we could talk about how Europe's digital single market initiative has brought down barriers to unlock digital opportunity. Right, so this digital single market strategy was launched by the European Commission last year and I think that the main objective of the European Commission is somehow to develop a strategy in such a way that Europe is able to take advantage of all the benefits of the digital of the digital world in order to boost the economic growth. And the central issue, at least from what concerns the regulators for electronic communications, is of course what is related to broadband connectivity. So I would say that what is central for the digital single market strategy is connectivity and this is probably the main concern of the European Commission right now is and is also the main concern for the European Member States. With this broadband connectivity you are able to connect the entire territory and to avoid the digital divide in Europe and this is central and is connected to what the Commission just did that is to launch new targets for the digital agenda for Europe and also to launch a new code for electronic communications which means that in the future we will have a new regulation for electronic communications that somehow will stay in place till 2025. How will the European Commission's new regulatory package meet the challenges of the future? Well that's a good point because as I told you broadband connectivity is central and when we talk about connectivity we talk about both fixed networks and 5G so mobile connectivity. And what is important from the Commission point of view is to ensure high-speed broadband access to everybody. The main challenge I would say is the balance between investment the investment you need in order to achieve this connectivity on one side and on the other side to keep the level of competition among operators that you have right now in Europe. Somehow the success of regulation in Europe was to ensure a high level of competition among operators. Some people say there are too many operators in Europe and we say well this is the success of regulation because we were able to break down the entry barriers and to allow new players to come into the market and because there is competition prices are quite affordable and there are incentives among operators to invest. The question is that on these more challenging areas how can we ensure that there will be incentives to invest on one side and on the other side there will be still competition. And I think that the main concern of the European Commission in this sense was to ensure this type of balance namely they put long a lot of emphasis on access access to networks and I would say that in this new approach the Commission is trying to get what they call a smart regulation. So not using the old remedies that was just identifying the operator with significant market power and imposing him the remedies of you must give access to your competitors but try to get a different type of regulation like starting by the deepest layer saying first you must you regulator you must ensure that operators give access to ducks and pools to civil infrastructure in order to reduce the cost of deployment new generation networks and also the Commission is looking at other issues like co-investment agreements commercial agreements and also to some types of symmetric regulation. And what are the key initiatives underway to accelerate the uptake of broadband and move towards digital societies and in fact I wanted to ask you how has Portugal in particular had such success in Fiverr to the home development? Well what has been interesting about Portugal it's somehow we are quite in advance in what relates the recent proposals of the European Commission because in fact we started by imposing access to ducks and pools exactly what the Commission is now advising regulators to do but we did it in 2006 so much in advance and with this type of regulation we were able to reduce the deployment costs and some estimates say that these costs can be about 80% of the total costs of deploying networks so by imposing these access to ducks to the ducks of the historical operators of the incumbent we were using a kind of symmetric a symmetric regulation but also there is a law in place that imposes also symmetric regulation which means that any infrastructure like utilities roads railroads that can host electronic communication networks are obliged to give access so given these there is a kind of level playing field for all operators because the conditions are almost identical anyone that wants to invest that wants to deploy networks they have access to ducks and the pools at at the same level so this was very important to given the right incentives for the for the operators to invest on the other side we had strong competition among the cable operator and also the incumbent operator and from this strong competition of course they they had the right incentives to invest and today we have three big networks one of cable and two of FTTA FTTH that compete against against each other which is quite quite extraordinary in Europe because infrastructure based competition is what the European Commission is looking for and is what we have in place right now we also have a force operator that is a cable operator of a small smaller scale but is also putting some competitive pressure on the market so I would say that the main the main factors for success in Portugal were essentially the civil infrastructure access regulation on one side and the strong competition on the other side so I think that this statement that says that competition drives investment is the reality in Portugal now you took part in the leadership summit yesterday here at ITU telecom world wanted to find out what were your key takeaways from that well I what was interesting is that we are all looking for the same we are all facing the same challenges let's say we are all looking for broadband connectivity we are all looking to avoid the digital divide we are all looking at the challenging areas that are essentially the rural areas just the scale of the problems is so different I mean comparing what we are facing in Europe or what I'm facing in Portugal what the Indian regulator is facing in India it's really amazing but what is really important is that our concerns are the same and we can learn from each other and I think this is the great thing and finally a little bit of promotion for ITU telecom world but just what why is it good to be here what makes it special first of all we are in this part of the world this year and of course we learn about many things of different markets that probably we don't have the chance to to meet the people or to learn about these markets every day so this is important on the other side Asia is in Asia things are happening so fast and so quickly that is also great to to see what's going on and again we are learning from each other and sharing our best practices and this is the best thing of putting all these people together thank you very much indeed that was my pleasure


My experience with the NEA Foundation Awards for Teaching Excellence has just been life-changing. I would definitely have to say professionally it has been life-changing. I've been able to meet so many different people and has just given me a broader stage upon which to be an advocate for professional educators and for professional development. I've had an opportunity just to share why I think it's important for every child to have a wonderful learning experience every day. As an educator for the past 19 years, I had an opportunity just to impact the students in my classroom, but now as a curriculum specialist with our child development program, I have over 500 students that I'm impacting. And with the Global Learning Fellowship, learning how to be a culturally responsive teacher, I'm now able to just provide professional development to all of those teachers in my 30 classrooms, which hopefully will make the impact in those classrooms. I think it's so important for the NEA Foundation to provide teachers with this Global Learning Fellowship because it just helps us to broaden our cultural perspective. We think that the children that are in our classroom are all the same. Just because our ethnicities are the same, the cultural values and perspectives and beliefs that we have, not the same. So that professional development that's such an advantage that we're provided with when we're able to be a part of this Global Learning Fellowship. Any state affiliate leader who is considering this should not hesitate. This would be an awesome opportunity just for them to be able to share the great things that are going on in their state and the great educators that they have in their state. You have so many teachers who hone their craft every day. We are leaders in our profession. We dedicate ourselves daily to our children. We hone our craft so that we can be to the betterment of our students. And these teachers are advocates. They let their wings fly every single day, and this will be their opportunity to share that with everyone else. The NEA Foundation knows that there are so many stories just like mine.  There are stories across this country that need to be told about what teachers are doing every day.


The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and the L.E.A. Edo Command on Saturday arrested seven farmers suspected to be cannabis farmers in Uyghur near Ehoh, one of the local government areas of the state. The suspects were arrested in their suspected cannabis farms during an operation by personnel of the agency, which lasted several hours. Kennedy obedeke the principal staff officer operations Edo Command, led the operations told newsmen shortly before the destruction of the farms that they were discovered through intelligence. He disclosed that the operation had been ongoing since Wednesday, and in that in spite of the challenges faced by the command, it would not relent in the war against illicit drugs in the state. Meanwhile, one of the suspects who claimed to be the manager of the farm told newsmen that he was being paid 120,000 annually by the owner of the farms. He said he was aware of the implication of his crime, while also disclosing that the owner of the farm was at present on the run.