This is the Humanist Report with Mike Figueredo The Humanist Report podcast is funded by viewers like you through Patreon and PayPal. To support the show visit patreon.com forward slash humanist report or become a member at humanistreport.com Now enjoy the show Welcome to the Humanist Report podcast. My name is Mike Figueredo and this is episode 220 of the program Today is Wednesday November 27th, and we've got a jam-packed episode for you But before we get to the stories I'm gonna take some time to thank all of the people who make this show possible and that is all of our newest Patreon PayPal and YouTube members all of which either signed up for the very first time to support us this week or increased their monthly pledge And that includes Katherine Marie, Danny Katwell, Dante Trembler, Daphne and Alan Brule, Dominique Norris, Dravenholt, Earl T. Rosk, Jason Navarro, John Wannerm, Julia Hoff, Krishnamali, New Cordillers Club, Noah Difference, Rachel Rasmussen, Ryan Pickering, Seth Peterson and Tiffany Lee. So thank you so much to all of these kind individuals If you'd also like to support the show and join the independent progressive media revolution You can do so by going to humanistreport.com Patreon.com forward slash humanist report or by clicking join underneath any one of our YouTube videos So this week on the Humanist Report podcast John Cusack calls for a boycott of MSNBC Due to their anti-Bernie bias Michael Moore gives Santrists at MSNBC a reality check Andrew Yang calls out MSNBC's unfair treatment of its campaign Chris Matthews gives Bernie Sanders the worst possible advice ever and he also predictably criticizes him Bernie Sanders welcomes Mike Bloomberg into the 2020 race by telling him he is not going to be able to successfully buy this election And Bernie Sanders also capitalizes on Joe Biden's weakness when it comes to the issue of immigration We'll look at another CNN voter panel this time featuring Iowa voters who apparently love Amy Klobuchar Politico pushes an article that might be an insidious attempt to harm Bernie Sanders And the New York Times compares Bernie Sanders Green New Deal to Donald Trump's border wall on top of that an economist says Canceling student loan debt would boost the economy and we'll talk about the general election taking place in the United Kingdom And finally we'll close the show this week by talking to 2020 congressional candidate from New Jersey Zina Spazakis So that's what we've got on the agenda for today. Hopefully you guys will enjoy the episode It's going to be a shorter week for us because we have Thanksgiving and then black friday So we've just got you know a little bit less space to fill but nonetheless. Hopefully you guys will Enjoy the show. Let's go ahead and get to that So actor John Cusack who I recently learned is part of the brotherhood of the brunard Used his gigantic platform to draw attention to a really important issue And that issue is corporate media's bias against anti establishment candidates particularly Bernie Sanders in this instance now he tweeted about this and he also called for a boycott of msnbc Here's what he says be clear msnbc You did this to yourself No one made you parade neocons and neoliberal pundits to slander and smear a people's movement that you know is not radical But a return to f dr politics I'll just leave this here hashtag boycott msnbc Now this is a really strong statement coming from someone who is an actor because Everyone always reports on what actors say so if an actor tweets out something that's political You know, it's going to get attention and could potentially you know gain some traction So he shared a video compilation of msnbc's bias and I think downright hatred of bernie sanders And we actually talked about this same video compilation a few months back on the program I think it was july and this was put together by winkel the bernie bro And he took clips that jeff miami shares on uh twitter Of just various random instances of you know them talking negatively about bernie sanders And really when you step back and look at all of these clips together You see that there really is a hatred of bernie sanders by corporate pundits So let's watch the video so that way we get the full context and understand Why he thinks a boycott of msnbc is necessary Can I bring up the donkey in the room? bernie no Bernie Sanders makes the skin problem. Sanders fading is a bigger story than people who've given their credit for The previous set of numbers about common hair. It seems to suggest that bernie rows are actually a real thing He's just waving his arms around talking about revolution and all you where we are going. We won't need roads I mean, I am one of the things that I always hear from folks Uh, who aren't necessarily on the burning bus so to speak is that he's not really a democrat I saw bernie sanders trying to raise money off of me. Yeah, like my timeline's gonna be on fire Then do you see any crossover at least in those who are at his events? Who kind of look and sound like trump supporters when you say he attracts those who feel like they're struggling They're struggling to be heard and get their bills paid and their voices heard that sounds like a trump voter I see him as sort of a a not pro woman candidate And some people say that you've heard hella clinton's hand Bernie sanders has done nothing between 2016 and today to Expand his base to expand his his policies He seemed like a socialist from the 1950s yelling at people In the same um screechy voice without smiling without any kind of personal connection Bernie sanders has been talking about these same policies essentially because he's been in public service for the past 25 30 years But he actually hasn't done anything to pass them, right? He's talked a lot about them, but we have not seen any of these policies sign into law What happened with Hillary and and and what's his name? Exactly, you would take the risk. I am excited. It's are you asking out of every candidate? I'm also saying the same thing until 2016 this time around. I think that's not working. That's exactly the point I was gonna make it. I think he kind of got lost in the shuffle Other people have kind of taken those issues away from him and he looked like the angry man in the center of the Stage and get off my lawn. I think he comes off as as mean I think he's disparaging a socialist candidate is more dangerous to this country As far as the strength and well-being of our country than donald trump I would vote for donald trump a despicable human being Let me tell you something yourself. Look so watching that back. It's infuriating, right? I was angry the first time I saw it but watching it again It just reminds you that this isn't just a bias that we're talking about like they genuinely hate Bernie Sanders. They simply don't just you know, uh, prefer other candidates.  They take in these advertising dollars from the health insurance industry the defense industry and in return You know, they feel as if they don't want to rock the boat too much and not to mention a lot of these news pundits They are multimillionaires like chris mathews He gets five million dollars per year. That's his salary And does he deserve that like if you look at the segments that he does in the political analysis That he you know is engaged in The man is a buffoon So these are people who are not just uneducated, but they're also biased And when you put those two things together it makes for a really dangerous combination They are misleading people now This isn't just anecdotal evidence because we just talked about an in these times report by bronco marcetic Who confirms that msnbc is in fact largely ignoring bernie sanders And not only that when they're not ignoring him when they actually do choose to talk about him Well looking at the six main shows on msnbc the coverage of bernie sanders again when he's not being ignored Is disproportionately negative now? We know that this isn't just about msnbc because a few weeks ago on the program We talked about the bernie blackout where news outlets like cnn and msnbc along with the new york times and washington post They have a tendency to disingenuously report on polls in a way that downplays bernie sanders chances So if there's a poll where bernie sanders is in first or second place They'll you know change the headline to reflect a different dynamic and say oh, well pete buddha judge just surpassed Elizabeth Warren like that's an example right But they don't like bernie sanders and they're trying to not just downplay him but ignore him and when they're not ignoring him They uh expressed nothing but hatred for him. So, I mean, I don't blame john qzak For you know wanting to boycott msnbc and i'm definitely on board I've already been boycotting msnbc and I only watch when I have to to prepare for the show But the thing about msnbc is that those who are already willing to boycott are already doing so They're seeking out some type of independent news source beat on youtube or otherwise or elsewhere And you know, it's just it's not enough people Who are just average consumers of news media who just kind of follow politics? Not religiously, but they kind of try to pay as much attention as possible They kind of use msnbc as their go-to resource because they feel as if they're more reliable because they are ostensibly left wing So if you remove that from them, they just kind of feel like they have nothing left, right? They're not as informed and they feel as if that's that's like their go-to, right? So by taking away msnbc from them, we're kind of removing what to them is probably a crush So I don't know that a boycott would even be effective unless people actually know that there are alternative solutions out there So we need people to not rely so heavily on Mainstream media and if people who were liberal and left leaning felt as if they had an alternative source Then that would really make a huge difference, right? But because msnbc Is relied upon from people who are left leaning they will continue to have a disproportionate amount of influence on democratic party primaries and general elections to come and you know that Is problematic because they will continue to push corporate friendly candidates and ignore anti establishment candidates And if you're on the left if you're a democratic socialist You will always support the candidate that is hated by corporate media so we can never you know let our foot off the gas We've got to constantly apply pressure to msnbc until they either change Or enough people jump ship and really do boycott msnbc permanently So that way they realize that they don't have to get their news from this corporate news outlet There are other sources that will inform them And do a better job at it than this corporate sponsored network that doesn't really care About the interests of voters and they're just trying to you know uphold the status quo So at each democratic party primary debate, it's easy to see why people are so turned off by corporate media because it's not even like They're trying to uphold the facade of impartiality or fairness anymore. They just play favorites And shamelessly so they don't care about the optics. They don't care how bad it looks They prop up candidates in a very brazen way And um people notice and we just have to deal with it because this is the way things are going You know, it's frustrating because Amy Colbuchar was pulling at like 1.5 She is given the front runner status at these debates at the last debate I think she got more talk time than bernie sanders had this debate She got more talk time than people who are pulling higher than her. So mainstream media. They play favorites, right? The establishment centrists, they're their favorites, but the anti establishment candidates people like bernie sanders They don't get the treatment that they deserve With respect to their polling status, right bernie sanders is one of the front runners But he is not given the front runner treatment like joe biden or p buda judge And another person who is often marginalized at these debates is andrew yang But thankfully he didn't just call them out But he demanded an apology from msnbc because they are being brazenly biased against him He tweeted i was asked to appear on msnbc this weekend and told them that i'd be happy to After they apologize on air Discuss and include our campaign consistent with our polling and allow surrogates from our campaign as they do other Candidates they think we need them. We don't They've omitted me from their graphics 12 plus times called me john yang on air and given me a fraction of the speaking time Over two debates despite my polling higher than other candidates on stage At some point you have to call it and that's exactly it and andrew yang is making a really reasonable request here He's saying look i am polling Higher than other candidates So i should be given more coverage than them like i mean this isn't something that's difficult to grasp right? Amy klobuchar should not be given as much coverage as someone like pete buda judge or joe biden or andrew yang Because again, she's polling at 1.5 percent whereas andrew yang is in a solid what fifth place But yet he gets disregarded and instead they give glowing coverage to someone like kamala harris Who is barely out polling andrew yang they give more coverage to mike bloomberg who is not polling as high as andrew yang And he's right you just have to call it and he's not lying because they have omitted him like bernie from graphics over and over and over again And overall they just refuse to cover andrew yang's campaign They rarely mention him and on top of that when you look at the distribution of speaking time at that last debate moderated by msnbc You can see why andrew yang is angry. He got the least amount of time to speak Now when you add in the polling numbers here It becomes clear that even though he was polling higher than four other people They still got more time to speak than him And it's even worse when you consider the fact that when he actually was called on the questions that he got asked We're just idiotic one of the questions that stood out to me was they asked him What would you say to vladimir putin in your first phone call as president? I mean if you are tuning in and you don't know who andrew yang is how are you supposed to take anything away from that? Right, they're not giving him the chance to talk about policy substance and really lay out his agenda because Unlike the other candidates, even though I don't necessarily agree with all of the policies that yang is espousing He's more substantive than someone like amy klobuchar. But yet she gets called on she gets asked really serious questions about foreign policy and healthcare But andrew yang gets asked. Hey, what are you going to say to vladimir putin in your first phone call with him? I mean, what are voters supposed to do with this information? nothing Nothing it's pointless and they're only begrudgingly calling on him at all and candidates like bernie sanders because they don't want their Apathy and discussed with these types of anti establishment figures to be super obvious But I mean it's already pretty obvious and andrew yang spoke a little bit more about this in an interview with cnn well, ana Americans tuned in to the debate earlier this week and they saw that I got called on less than any other candidate Including candidates that I'm polling higher then and the questions I did get had virtually nothing to do with the core ideas of my campaign And if this were an isolated incident that would be one thing But if you go back over the last number of months msnbc has literally omitted me from over a dozen fundraising and polling graphics, which it's not about me It's about the 300 000 plus americans who've donated to and support my campaign And the millions of americans who know we need to rewrite the rules of the 21st century economy to work for us Think about those people donating 10 20 dollars of their hard-earned money to put a candidate on the stage and then have msnbc virtually ignore me for 32 minutes or When they tune in to msnbc to see how we're doing in the polls It's like I don't exist everything he's saying here is spot on This is exactly what they are doing and as a brenny sander supporter I can empathize with the anger of his supporters because if you are donating your money to this candidate You know and you're you're helping to propel their campaign you'd expect the media to pay attention But they're not and that's really problematic, right? Because we can't live in a true democracy if people don't actually know about the choices that they have The mainstream media has got to not just focus on their favorites And they have to actually give fair coverage to all of the candidates now As someone who supports brenny sander's over andrew yang I stand in solidarity with andrew yang because I know in the future No matter who I support as a democratic socialist It's probably going to be the candidate that the mainstream media hates So whenever we see this bias we have to call it out because the mainstream media has immense power here They are able to unilaterally choose winners and losers simply by not talking about a candidate like we've gone over this before but The reason why in part donald trump was able to win was because the mainstream media gave him 2 billion worth of free advertising Now yes, that coverage was negative But just the fact that they talked about him it primed voters to think about donald trump In a way that they thought of other candidates like he must be legitimate in their minds If the mainstream media is focusing so heavily on him But candidates who get largely ignored They don't take them seriously because if the media is not talking about them If they're not part of the national discussion, then well, they must not be serious contenders So we cannot allow the media To choose winners and losers for us. That's not their job Their job is to inform voters educate us make us as informed as we possibly can be Before we make our decision in 2020 now I truly believe that fairness is the way to go and we've got to hold them accountable We can never let them off the hook when they are being blatantly unfair even if it's for a candidate That isn't your first choice because if they're doing this to andrew yang They're going to do this to a future candidate and they're already doing it to bernie sanders, right? So they can't keep doing this. It's completely unfair. The fact that andrew yang Is out polling people like amy klobuchar, but yet they get more time to speak That is an issue now one caveat and i made this you know point in my Debate breakdown is that bernie sanders and andrew yang at these debates in particular They are less aggressive in their debate style now when you instigate confrontation You know you are going to allow yourself to get more time because that will you know facilitate a back and forth between you and someone else And obviously that will naturally Add to the amount of time you have to talk but as you know moderators of this debate It's incumbent on them to make sure that everyone is heard Equally or at least with regard to their you know position polling wise But the fact that someone like amy klobuchar is treated like a frontrunner But andrew yang who had zero name recognition nationally Is out polling most establishment figures for them to ignore that It's absolutely insane, right? So i absolutely empathize with the anger that andrew yang supporters feel and andrew yang Himself feels because this is completely unacceptable and good on him for demanding an apology Right because this is this can't just keep happening. They can't just keep ignoring kendits In favor of ones that they support it's just it's so frustrating But um, this is the uh media landscape that we are living in they are all about propping up the status quo And if you are not one of their favorites, they're not going to treat you fairly They're not even going to pretend to try to be fair to you anymore And that's just you know, that's the state of american politics the media plays an enormous role in elections and their wracklessness and favoritism Is having an influence like lefty people tune into msnbc and view them as a trustworthy source So people who don't know better are getting duped by msnbc And as you know people on the left we have to call this out when we see it Because this is bad for democracy and that's not hyperbolic to say this is bad for democracy We need people to understand All of the choices that they have in front of them not just the corporate friendly choices But that's not, you know realistic. So we just have to keep sounding the alarm So kudos to andrew yang and people like john qzak who are You know calling out msnbc here for being blatantly biased Chris mathews is basically the sean hannity of msnbc and i say this because He's genuinely stupid and he doesn't do real political analysis He virtue signals grandstands and he just sucks up to power And i say this especially after seeing one of his post-debate hot takes Where he gives democrats and bernie sanders the worst advice ever because you know how basically being socially liberal is the only Real reason to vote for these economically conservative democrats Well, what he's saying is that social liberalism that tenuous advocacy for social justice issues Abandon that and be more socially conservative as well and pander to people who are maybe a little bit more pro-life a little bit more Homophobic, maybe this is literally what he is going to suggest And on top of that he's going to tell bernie sanders that he shouldn't actually talk about One of the most pressing issues one of the most Um huge concerns that voters have in this country Take a look. This is uh one of the worst analyses if you could even call it that that i've seen Well, I think there's a couple things that strike me and they're they're anecdotal but uh When lieutenant colonel vinman was telling the story of his life the other day in the hearing And he talked about america as a country where uh, right matters And I and I thought that kind of uh immigrant patriotism is something that Really does not much to do with left versus right. It's sort of a feeling about the country You may want to make radical change this country like when he got three this land is our land or Kate smith and god bless america, but there has to be sort of a A piece there about america and your and your affection for the country you start with and did you work from that to fix it And I think when I look at some of the issues about choice or a issues like same-sex marriage and all I think the democrats always miss the the cultural piece. They seem to be right on the economics But they miss the cultural piece The uh and how you people feel about things you mean I can be I've been pro choice since roby wade was in was a court decision But I have a different view about abortion than other people do I think polosi does too. I think pennsylvania is pro life in a in a way that's pretty real And I think it was one of the reasons why trump went up there now trump is a monta bank He's a charlatan, but he plays on these cultural issues make america great again They're honest feelings, but he exploits them and distorts them in his purposes I think affection and patriotic feeling about the country and feeling about life and choice and traditional values if you will The democrats are very cold about those things and I think they really miss a chance To win By simply identifying with the feelings of the country better than they do And that's the only thought I have tonight and I caught it again tonight with bernie sanders saying The country's corrupt our system's corrupt be careful about that language bernie You know be careful that our system of politics is corrupt. That's too strong I'm sorry. It has corrupt aspects But to say our democracy is corrupt is a bad Starting point with a lot of people's hearts about this country. That's what I think that isn't what voters want chris That's what you want Because if democrats actually listen to you and took your advice They would be far worse off than they are now And it's just it's it's mind-boggling to me that this fool gets paid a five million dollar per year salary And he does zero research He Doesn't know what he's talking about seemingly And his show is called hardball when all he does is throw softball questions to people in power I mean, this is why people don't take corporate media seriously, but let's get to some of the specifics here He thinks that democrats should be more patriotic Whatever that means And he says I think when I look to some of the issues like choice and same-sex marriage and all I think democrats always miss the cultural piece They're right on economics, but they miss the cultural piece And how they feel about things now that was word salad But what he's saying here is completely idiotic. It's always usually democrats who win the culture wars and its republicans Who are lacking behind but he wants them to not miss the mark on things like abortion and same-sex marriage first of all it's 2019 marriage equality was legalized in 2015 Are you advocating that they rehash this issue in order to pander to evangelicals? Like I like I don't know what this looks like in practice But if I had to guess this strategy would be a massive failure And on top of that he says democrats are very cold about traditional values and whatnot and quote I think they really miss a chance to win by simply identifying with the feelings of the country In other words, abandon your base even more and shift Further to the right. Can you imagine? The one draw the one reason people come out to vote for democrats Is largely due to harm reduction because socially speaking They're not going to take away civil rights like republicans will But what he's saying basically is uh, you're missing the mark and uh, you are already economically conservative That's great, but do better when it comes to traditional values chris Just register as a republican I mean I don't know what the end goal is for him if they shift further to the right They abandon even a larger portion of their base You do know that they were wiped out under obama because they were too conservative, right? And people don't come out to vote because they don't perceive there to be a real difference between democrats and republicans so if you actually See this in practice Democrats would be non-existent. We just have one big party and it's already One big party in dc that just looks out for special interests and elites and oligarchs But if you take away that advocacy for you know social justice issues There's zero difference between democrats and republicans. It's just one big republican party in dc I mean, this is this is obviously the worst advice ever ever He also randomly brings up bernie sanders and says that uh bernie sanders Shouldn't say that the country and system is corrupt. Be careful with that language bernie. Be careful That's too strong. It has corrupt aspects But to say that our democracy is corrupt is a bad starting point with a lot of people's hearts about this country Again, it is absolutely absurd that he gets paid five million dollars per year to say things that he knows nothing about he is Incredibly uninformed because that is not where the american people are at a gala poll found that 75 percent of americans believed corruption was widespread This is from 2015 But nonetheless the findings show that he's wrong and the american people aligned with bernie on this issue And on top of that even if it was politically incorrect to point that out to call out the corruption A 2014 princeton university study found that we basically live in an oligarchy effectively, right? When you look at policy outcomes Normal citizens have a statistically insignificant impact on policy outcomes where as elites and special interests They dictate all policy outcomes That's due to corruption campaign contributions legalized bribes. That's the result of corruption So to say don't talk about corruption because you're offending people who are patriotic You have no clue what you're talking about And criticizing america is the highest form of patriotism.   Listen I know there's something tonight that is growing within each debate. This debate Is a real san and reyes fault the democratic party today He can talk about you all the online trough and you all want to get rid of it But bernie won't even agree with that his first chance tonight And he basically said this isn't about getting rid of trough This is about my big social democratic and revolution when I started going through the same old litany of numbers He doesn't accept your argument if you have to appeal of moderates You got to get some moderates centered on left democrats some centrists and some republicans And then you and budge edge and the vice president of all argument You have to go for a larger audience than just the hard left He doesn't accept that And elizabeth moine danrell doesn't accept it either. That's the fight is We just tried this strategy in 2016 Donald trump is the president. That's how effective your strategy is Appealing to moderates and republicans Is not going to be conducive to victory And for every moderate you win over by being republican light You're gonna end up losing 10 more left wingers Because as you shift to the right you abandon your base and then those people just stay home So the strategy is to go after non-voters and people who haven't been Participating in the process people who are voting for the green party go after them go after the left Because you can't win without your base And I shouldn't have to explain this in 2019 After we just tried the strategy with hillary clinton like I shouldn't have to explain this It should be common knowledge. They should have learned their lesson But guess what they're never gonna learn their lesson and even if let's say hypothetically speaking worst-case scenario Joe biden is the nominee and he rents to the center in the general election and loses in 2024 We'll be having the same conversation and people like chris mathews will be saying well the party's shifting too far To the left. We need to hold the center It doesn't matter how many times this strategy loses Chris mathews is comfortable. So he doesn't actually have to care about winning He just wants the candidates to talk about policy in a way that makes him feel Comfortable that you know speaks to his patriotic core Okay, well if they take your advice chris, they're gonna be worse off than they already are So what he should do if he truly cared about democrats winning is resign and stop spewing propaganda because if they actually take your advice Trump gets a second term So if you truly care about defeating trump, which he says he does then uh quit Stop doing propaganda because you clearly don't know what you're talking about and you were offering democrats the worst possible advice Just quit So we've been talking a lot lately about msnbc's bias and quite frankly their hatred towards bernie sanders um and how they're not speaking truth to power and How by and large they are misinforming viewers and they're not allowing People who tune into msnbc to know about the range of options that they have in 2020 and If you watch msnbc, I can't imagine that you know much about policies let alone about Everyone who's running but every once in a while they'll bring out a guest Who will actually penetrate that bubble and speak truth to power this time michael more was brought on And he was on a panel with brian williams claire mcaskill joyan reid and steve schmidt And he gave them the reality check that they desperately needed and everything he said was spot on take a look I think that we have to when you guys were talking about how we have to be more moderate or move to the center That's how we're going to win uh next year See to me. I think moving to the center. I am the center I I am the mainstream now the democratic party the majority of americans agree with me and bernie on all the issues Whether it's whether it's health care for all whether it's climate change Um minimum wage mass incarceration but down the whole list The the american people have moved left So the center is is now more of these sorts of things. This is what we believe so when you say that like for instance with um Uh joe biden said tonight 160 million americans want to keep their their private insurance says who are you actually talking to people about this Yes, they want the assurance That whatever we have with the new medicare for all is essentially just a transfer from what they have with their good union health care It's going to be that but it's going to be better for you. You're not going to have co-pays and deductibles fine, but The average democrat and the average american does not like the health insurance company. They hate etna and signa And united health care These are people that they're fighting with to get them to pay a bill that they won't pay The health care industry has caused more pain and harm An anxiety for the american people and practically any other industry And and we should never side with candidates that are going to say we're gonna we're going to keep this private profit making thing going That's not where the american people are at. They are fed up with this and i'll tell you I got a earful of it back home in flint last month when general motors was on strike What did the ceo of gm do on the third day of the strike? She took away their health care.  It's everything medical dental eye care You can get a free lawyer if you need one It's like it's the best and On the third day they saw the thing that they thought they'd have forever Could be taken away by the company like that And that's what people need to know that we can never allow our health insurance To be in the hands of a private profit making company Where they can end you tomorrow anybody watching the show right now your boss could wake up in the morning and go, you know what Steve the It's just cost us too much money You know here to have this to have this health insurance for the employees We got to cut it back. We got to raise the deductible. They can do this just like that That should be illegal It's a human right and we need to be like every other industrialized country that has this so that was Virtually perfect. There's really nothing that I can say to supplement that clip Because it was perfect. He said everything that I would have said if I were on that panel Except he probably said it more eloquently. That was beautiful I am the center Americans have moved left I mean We shouldn't have to explain that to msnbc hosts But here we are They believe that if you support something like medicare for all You are an extremist when in actuality. This is a return to fdr style politics This is not a new policy Democrats have had single pair as a goal for decades now But yet all of a sudden this is something that's radical if you support this you're radical Actually, no, that's not the case democratic party voters support medicare for all and before Centrist democrats started attacking it poll started to show that even a majority not a plurality a majority of republicans backed single pair medicare for all So when you say and suggest that you know supporting Progressive policies like free college and medicare for all and a green new deal are extremist and far left That's a lie because people who are progressive are the center now it's a little bit misleading because If you ask people More often than not they will self identify as conservative But when you go issue by issue people are by and large more left-leaning more progressive So political labels themselves are not that useful You have to go by the policies And when you look at the policies when you look at the platforms of 2020 candidates They're with bernie sanders more so than any other candidate perhaps now on top of that the point that he made about health insurance was just Amazing he said joe biden said tonight 160 million americans want to keep their private insurance Says who are you actually talking to people about this? He goes on to say the average american does not like their healthcare company They hate etna and signa and united health care These are the people they're fighting to get them to pay a bill that they won't pay the health care industry Caused more pain harm and anxiety for people than practically any other industry And we should never side with candidates that say we're just going to keep the private profit making thing going That's not where the american people are at and then he went on to talk about how general motors Used the health care that they provide to employees as leverage while they were striking I mean Hearing someone say something like this about health insurance companies on mainstream media It's like seeing a rainbow because it's so rare But whenever you see it you can't not stop and look and just appreciate it because it's so beautiful I mean Everything he says here is a hundred percent correct People do not like their private insurance companies and whenever there's this talk of people wanting to keep their private insurance No, they want to keep their doctors They want to make sure that if we transition to medicare for all they'll have the same level of coverage for most people Their insurance is going to be better under medicare for all and they're going to be paying less We're not getting what other countries are getting And we need to move to where the rest of the world is And the last thing I want to end on here is a quote from michael more which is just it's perfect It's the perfect quote to end on We can never allow our health insurance to be in the hands of a private profit making company Where they can end you tomorrow Anybody watching the show your boss can wake up in the morning And take away your health insurance on a whim like that Why are we allowing this system to persist? Why This is a system that is riddled with instability. There are five a hundred thousand plus Medical bill related bankruptcies that take place every single year Tens of thousands die because they don't have health insurance Why are we letting corporate media? Who are using talking points from the industry and politicians who are funded by the industry Dupus Into accepting a system that is against our best interests We shouldn't So mainstream media isn't going to educate people on this but every once in a while There will be a guest like michael more who comes on and says exactly what people who tune into msnbc need to hear And frame it in a way that's so brilliant that I hope That it gets them to think more deeper about these issues that the mainstream media downplays and dismisses and does propaganda You know against medicare for all Is something that we need desperately And anyone in the mainstream media any politician who's arguing against it Is literally trying to convince you to be in favor of something In favor of a system that is trying to kill you and bankrupt you they don't care about you They care about profits medicare for all would shift the goal from increasing profit to delivering health care That's what we need. That's what would save lives and stop medical bankruptcies once and for all kudos to michael more for actually saying this on national television I wish that more people would say that but you know, I'm sure that If you did say this regularly you wouldn't be invited back on and We'll see if michael more gets invited back on msnbc surprisingly brings him on fairly frequently But if he keeps this up, I doubt he's going to get many Invites in the future, but we'll see As much as I loathe corporate media They are clever because they can get people to think about things without actually saying it explicitly So one example is the way that they've been priming viewers To view bernie sanders as the trump of the left so to speak now They never say this directly But they want you to think about bernie sanders as a type of left-wing trump who will bring about You know the same level of irrationality and political instability that we are dealing with right now And the last example that we saw came from msnbc when they asked bernie sanders at a debate whether or not it's appropriate for his Crowds to be chanting lock him up with regard to donald trump Now it's a question that has zero substance But they asked it because they want you to think that bernie sanders is just like donald trump It's a false equivalence But nonetheless, this is how they kind of delegitimize Bernie sanders because they know that lefties dislike donald trump So if you kind of paint bernie as a trumpian figure Well that delegitimizes him in the eyes of some left-wing viewers and it's a strategy that I think Actually is uh relatively successful Now the overall anti establishment appeal appeal that bernie sanders has I think is going to help him But we still have to look at what they're doing because This is incredibly brazen And they used to be a little bit more subtle but increasingly as the primary goes on as they and they get more desperate to defeat bernie sanders They are becoming a lot more brazen So the last example that I saw besides the debate came from lisa freedman of the new york times Who claimed that bernie sanders green new deal? Is like donald trump's border wall. It's as unrealistic and irrational as trump's border wall Obviously false equivalence because one plan wants to save the planet another Is uh xenophobic and wants to keep immigrants out Nonetheless, uh, she wants you to think that bernie and trump They're just like each other ones on the right ones on the left And the argument is incredibly sloppy and lazy Nonetheless, the new york times published it and we're gonna dissect it She argues senator bernie sanders 16 trillion vision for arresting global warming Would put the government in charge of the power sector and promise that by 2030 the country's electricity and transportation systems Would run entirely on wind solar hydropower or geothermal energy with the fossil fuel industry footing much of the bill Much as mexico was to pay for the border wall Climate scientists and energy economists say the plan is technically impractical politically unfeasible and possibly ineffective Yet the criticism does not appear to bother many of the young voters Who will have an important role in selecting a democratic presidential candidate and who overwhelmingly place climate change at the top of their priority lists According to polls David victor a professor of international relations at the university of california san diego And a climate advisor to pete buddha judge the mayor of south ben indiana called that the big challenge for serious policy in the democratic party Quote the progressive wing wants radical change and climate change is one of those areas Where this has really been the most palpable. He said the sanders plan claims to deliver radical change But it can't work in the real world now just in those couple of paragraphs. There's so many problems with this Comparing bernie sanders green new deal to donald trump's border wall It's idiotic Because there's no way that we can compel mexico To pay for a policy that we want, right? We don't have jurisdiction over mexico Bernie sanders, however can compel fossil fuel companies To pay for climate change adaptation and mitigation policy Because we can tax them. We can't tax mexico But we can tax fossil fuel companies and implement reforms That would change the way that our economy functions move us away from a fossil fuel focused economy onto a green economy In fact, there are countries that are already doing this. China is doing this so for her to compare that to mexico Trump's Call for mexico paying for our border wall That's not just this ingenuous. That's dumb.  Well this article from hill. He tells you everything you need to know about david victor Quote peep wooded judge climate advisor is a fossil fuel funded witness for the trump administration against Children's climate lawsuit. So congratulations to prop up your argument against bernie sanders green new deal You cited a literal fossil fuel shill The new york times published this Are you proud of this work? like I mean this isn't the best messenger to argue against the green new deal if you're going to bring on climate scientists To argue about bernie sanders green new deal and how there's areas for improvement because i'm sure that there are Then do that, but you're quoting a fossil fuel shill Who's working with peep wooded judge who isn't serious about climate change mitigation What scientists are telling us is not only that we now have 11 years to act But we need world war two level political mobilization to actually stop a climate catastrophe bernie is here trying to meet the demands of scientists And you're choosing to shit on him and say that his green new deal is just like donald trump's border wall plea.   We're not against criticism Bernie Sanders is not above criticism objectivity is important and if there's genuine ways that he can Craft his green new deal that would improve it and make it more effective I'd be all for it But you're citing a fossil fuel shill And you're comparing him to donald trump I mean, there's nothing left to say about this shame on this author Shame on the new york times for publishing garbage like this. This is what we have to deal with Disingenuous people who are bad faith actors who aren't actually trying to make a good faith case against the green new deal She's arguing against it by using what shills have to say about the green new deal Yeah, sorry, but these people are the last people who I want to hear from Disgusting So I know that I'm preaching to the choir by saying this but it can't be overstated Bernie Sanders single-handedly has revolutionized campaign fundraising in america By relying exclusively on small-dollar donors and not millionaires or billionaires He demonstrated to everyone that you don't have to sell out to get elected. That is no longer a necessary evil You could subvert the whole process And just raise money By going to the people in fact this campaign just announced that they surpassed four million individual donations Which is more than any candidate in us history Now this scares the establishment because it gives Bernie Sanders an advantage that basically no other candidate with the exception of elizabeth warren Has longevity because small-dollar donors are propping up this campaign. He can stay in until they're very in Right the campaign funds are not going to dry up anytime soon He has monthly recurring donations from people who are nowhere near maxing out Who are going to allow him to stay in all the way until the convention And the establishment hates that so corporate media They're trying to find ways to not only downplay what he's managed to accomplish Like we've talked about the segments on cnn before But they're trying to find ways to maybe dissuade people Possibly from donating to Bernie Sanders and political published an article With a message that's subtle but possibly nefarious where they want you to maybe rethink the donations that you're giving to Bernie because by donating to him You may be inadvertently propping up the entities and organizations who you claim to hate So they published an article titled how bernie's small donors are making credit card companies Rich now based on that title when I saw this I thought oh, this must be about how poor people are so inspired by bernie Sanders that they are using credit cards to donate because they don't have any cash on hand They don't have money so they're kind of putting it on the credit card And you know putting themselves into debt to help bernie because they believe in him that much That's something that I did like in 2016 I donated to bernie sanders using my credit card because that was all that I had and I wanted to help him out So that's what I thought this was about But that's not what this is about at all. So the article's headline is a little bit misleading What this is actually about is the fact that there are processing fees that apply to every single transaction Not to that I say Yeah, obviously whenever you swipe your credit card or debit card There is a processing fee and you know the more times you donate to bernie sanders The more times there will be a processing fee that will go to these credit card companies now I really don't think this is anything that is Too surprising to people nonetheless politico linked to a newsy video where they kind of gave you this Objective breakdown that's presented in a very matter-of-fact way That doesn't really dive too deep into you know the implications and what this means for you as a bernie sanders donor Take a look donating to your favorite political candidate online is easy It can take just one click or if you set up recurring donations You don't have to do anything at all the internet has revolutionized how donors behave People now give more frequently and in smaller amounts than ever before But if you want to be part of getting me on the debate stage just go to yang2020.com And donate a buck but every time you donate online There's a processing cost and while it might be pennies on the dollar Those pennies add up and in recent years as small dollar donations have ramped up credit card processing costs have exploded Jonathan zucker is the former ceo of democratic payment processor act blue. He's watched this whole transformation unfold He is about eight years old What it really boils down to is it's just easier to make a small dollar donation than it used to be The reality is no one would make out 105 dollar checks and give them to 100 candidates But you can absolutely do that with online giving on the one hand large numbers of small dollar donors Investing in the political process is very good for democracy on the other hand They are also good for The the credit card processors between 2008 and 2016 The amount that federal campaigns reported spending on credit card processing fees roughly doubled going from 28 million to 52 million dollars 2020 campaigns have already racked up millions in fees and they're on track to surpass any previous election cycle Since 2008 more than 200 million dollars has gone towards credit card processing fees Of course political fundraising overall has been on the rise But more and more of every dollar donated has been going to credit card processing fees Instead of to the candidate And this cycle the sanders campaign has reported the highest processing bills the reality of Card processing is that the smaller the transaction amount The larger the percentage of that transaction That disappears into fixed fees. So the first thing I'll say is no, it's not the internet that revolutionized how donors behave It's Bernie Sanders Exclusively who revolutionized the way donors behaved Obama ran for president during the internet era and he didn't raise small dollar Donations he was taking money from wall street So don't give the internet credit for something that Bernie Sanders did Bernie Sanders changed the game So give him the credit that he deserves But that being said the video itself I don't really have any problems with that because if they're just going to educate people and explain how yes every single time You use your card There's a processing fee and the more times you use it the more fees that will be going to these credit card companies Like I have no problem with that However, the problem is that this video that politico links to only got 222 views and on top of that It's unlisted which means that more people probably read the article than just watched the video Now the problem is the article itself takes a few extra steps To kind of make Bernie Sanders supporters think about whether or not they should continue their contributions They write what these grassroots supporters may not realize is that in making small repeated contributions They have in aggregate delivered a huge payday for the middlemen often large banks and financial institutions that process those payments It's important that people realize that the more transactions they engage in the more credit card companies are making money Said Jonathan zucker the co-founder of democracy engine and former ceo of act blue the nonprofit payment processing behemoth Catering to democratic campaigns while it may only be a matter of sense Those pennies pile up nearly one tenth of that money came from sander's presidential campaign Which has paid credit card processors more than 2.3 million the most of any candidate this cycle Second is warren whose 1.75 million in processing payments narrowly edged out peepwood a judge's 1.73 million Donors however appear to be making a less informed choice An october newsy ipsos poll found that nearly half of donors didn't know Processing fees were taken out of their donations At least 44 percent said knowing the connection between donation size and fees could change how they donate If your goal is to reduce the amount of money that you're paying credit card companies with your donations Then you want to limit the number of donations you make zucker said the more donors combined smaller donations into larger Less frequent contributions. He said the more those campaigns are going to have at the end of the day Susan weisner a sander supporter who has already donated small amounts to his campaign dozens of times this cycle Said she had no idea that slices of her donations were never going to credit card fees Never knew they took that deduction weisner said now that she knows making many small donations instead of a large one Increases the cut going to processing fees. She said she may change the way she donates She said she plans to tell her friends to do the same I'll pass it along.  Maybe instead of just sending in five dollars Put that five dollars aside wait until you have you know, 25 dollars to spare and donate that amount to him So that way you're giving less money to the credit card companies and the processing fee itself is smaller And then bernie gets more money Now that in and of itself It's not the most problematic takeaway, but this is potentially Damaging to bernie sanders and the article frankly is relatively reckless because think about this What are people going to do in actuality if they're rethinking their small donations? Well, they'll put it off And if they put it off There's a chance knowing that people are busy and you know, we have short attention spans as human beings We might not get back to it might we might not Donate rather than you know saving our money to donate a bigger donation to bernie sanders We might just put it off and not do it So this could be a problem now I'm not going to argue that this is some nefarious plot by politico to take down bernie sanders All I'm saying is they need to be very careful And not try to discourage small donations because let me tell you all something that every person who is progressive Should know there is absolutely no ethical consumption under capitalism However, you spend your dollars even if you think it's going to a good cause in some way directly or indirectly Your money is propping up some type of organization institution or entity that is fighting to oppress you, right? So you can't really worry too much about this what you need to worry about Is the goal and the goal is getting bernie sanders elected and at the end of the day If you can only spare five dollars should you put that off? So you can avoid this processing fee? No Donate to bernie sanders in fact do it right now No matter how big a donation you want to make because remember that that fee that a credit card company is taking That's going to be something that they're going to be paying back when bernie sanders wins And raises their taxes So you can't stress the little things like this like this is a necessary evil act blue Is something that all candidates use running for congress or otherwise because it's the easiest way To raise money like what are you what are you supposed to do? There's no way that you can run a campaign and not prop them up It's either you do small dollar donations or you take money from special interests What matters is the policies that bernie sanders and these grassroots candidates are pushing right? So yes, we can acknowledge that maybe in the event we kind of consolidated our donations and rather than Sending in five separate five dollar donations It would be better if we sent in one twenty five dollar donation That's not practical for everyone like if you have five dollars and bernie sanders is asking you for a donation Send him five dollars. Don't worry about the processing fee because again, we're going to tax these bastards anyway So the regulation is what matters and second of all don't be afraid that your money is helping these organizations because this alternative is much better Than a credit card company Donating directly to candidates and effectively buying them off So if bernie sanders is having a portion of my donation go to a credit card Processing fee or whatever I like who cares it is pennies and yes, it does add up But they're trying to basically dissuade you from donating In you know these small sums, but it's that's just practical It's it's what more people feel comfortable doing like we have five dollars here ten dollars there So it's not realistic to expect people To donate like a fifty dollar donation or a twenty five dollar donation So politico needs to be more responsible and less reckless here and make sure that they make it crystal clear That they're not trying to dissuade people from donating to candidates that they support right do not give less money But they've got to know that if if you kind of turn people off to the process itself That a lot of people will see that and think oh well, I don't want my money going to these credit card companies Fuck them. I'm not going to donate anymore. Sorry bernie, but let me stress this He needs money without money He will not win so regardless if you can spare one dollar or five dollars Do it don't wait Donate when you can And as much as you can if you can donate twenty five dollars again instead of five individual five dollar payments do it but Do not be dissuaded By this article don't think that you're doing something wrong By donating to bernie sanders because credit card Companies are going to take a processing fee wherever you go whenever you swipe your debit card You're going to be paying that processing fee regardless So again, I don't want to seem like i'm conspiratorial and suggest that politico is trying to you know hurt bernie sanders in a direct way Maybe this is harmless, but My overall argument here and what I want you to take away from this Is that we can't be dissuaded from donating to bernie sanders because if we truly want change we have to support him By donating so donate if you can no matter what the amount is put that aside There's no ethical consumption under capitalism wherever you buy food no matter what you do You are propping up these institutions and entities that hurt you that oppress you So you can't just be selective Especially in this area where we really really need these grassroots donations to help bernie sanders like without this his campaign dies So as far as I see, you know the way I see right now.  We're gonna tax them later This is a long-term investment that we are making in bernie sanders campaign So please whatever you do don't let this article turn you off grassroots donations small dollar donations That matters too, right? So if you can only spare three bucks or a dollar to a candidate or bernie sanders Donate that don't wait because you know, we have busy lives And more often than not rather than just waiting we're gonna end up forgetting to donate that money or spend it So Donate don't worry. Just do what you can to help bernie sanders. He needs money. We need money to win And you know, you can't not donate because of this. That's what I want to stress donate now Well, we all knew that this was coming but now it's official The former mayor of new york city who banned big gulps and implemented the notoriously racist stop and frisk policy Mike bloomberg is jumping in the 2020 race and yes It is almost december and in case you weren't keeping track This is the second billionaire to jump into the 2020 democratic party primary So we have three billionaires running for president If you count Donald trump now might bloomberg to say he's rich would be an understatement because he is Really rich.   But what makes this worse is that he has managed to buy his way into the race by spending Millions upon millions of dollars. In fact, he's spending 30 million dollars in television advertisements in 29 states In just one week Which is more than all of his 2020 rivals have spent All year and unsurprisingly, you know flooding the markets with your message actually helps because He's already pulling at 2.3 percent and this is an incredibly crowded field So he just announced and he's already in seventh place ahead of tulsi gabbert. Amy klobuchar Cory booker and tom stare and in the video where he announces his decision to run for president You know, you can already tell that the reception is great because he disabled likes and dislikes along with comments. So That's definitely an indication that the people are really feeling it Now in the event you haven't already saw this ad because there's a chance that Uh that ad played before this video literally Well, here's the ad that he is running on. Um, you're gonna see that there's zero policy substance to be found here Mike bloomberg started as a middle-class kid who had to work his way through college Then built a business from a single room to a global entity creating tens of thousands of good paying jobs along the way He could have stopped there But when new york suffered the terrible tragedy of 9 11 He took charge becoming a three-term mayor who brought a city back from the ashes and brought back jobs And hope with it creating tens of thousands of affordable housing units So families could have a decent place to live raising teacher salaries and kids graduation rates and creating a more open And livable city for the millions who call it home He could have stopped there But when he witnessed the terrible toll of gun violence He put his money where his heart is helping to create a movement to take on the nra and the politicians They own to protect families across this country and help turn the tide And he's funded college educations for thousands of deserving low-income and middle-class kids and supported life saving medical research And stood up to the coal lobby and the outright denial of this administration to protect the only home We have from the growing menace of climate change But now he sees a different kind of menace coming from washington So there's no stopping here because there's an america waiting to be rebuilt Where everyone without health insurance is guaranteed to get it and everyone who likes theirs can go ahead and keep it Where the wealthy will pay more in taxes and the struggling middle class will get their fair share And jobs that just allow you to get by will become jobs that let you get ahead Mike bloomberg for president jobs creator leader Problem solver it's going to take all three to build back a country So in a nutshell orange men bad i'm rich and i used my money to do some good things and also medicare fraul is bad And what he says about medicare fraul Is insanely vague. He says where everyone, uh He believes in a system where everyone Without health insurance is guaranteed to get it and everyone who likes theirs can go ahead and keep it now I assumed just by watching that that he's basically endorsing a public option But when you go to his website, it's even more vague than that. He really doesn't say anything He states that his goal is to expand obama care and medicare as a way of achieving universal coverage Which what does that even mean? That's not a policy prescription. That's a vague non commitment to make our current system I guess slightly less shitty. I don't even know what to take away from that But the only reason why any of us are talking about mike bloomberg The reason why people are taking him seriously is because he is a billionaire and more specifically He is the billionaire deemed the savior of the democratic party since joe biden is most likely going to lose because i mean He's face planted. He has a gaff every 30 seconds It's evident that voters aren't really feeling joe biden and the electability argument isn't holding much water now So in comes people like devol patrick and billionaire mike bloomberg to save the day But the one candidate the only candidate rather who's truly taking on the billionaire class Had something to say about mike bloomberg and uh why he shouldn't expect to win We do not believe that billionaires have the right to buy elections And that is why we are going to overturn citizens united That is why multi billionaires like mr bloomberg are not going to get very far in this election That is why we're going to end voter suppression in america Because we believe And I believe this from the bottom of my heart. Look, I wouldn't you know run for office many many times for a month Most of the times i've won but i've lost But it never ever occurred to me as a candidate Or as a senator to figure out how I could suppress the vote of my opponents if I can't win an election Based on my ideas. I shouldn't win that election Now on top of that as oan higgins of common dreams reports Sanders in a statement friday in advance of bloomberg's entrance into the race Said he was disgusted that bloomberg believed the race could be bought I'm disgusted by the idea that michael bloomberger any other billionaire thinks they can circumvent the political process And spend tens of millions of dollars to buy our elections Sanders said And that's exactly it. Um the fact that this is possible. It really speaks to How we don't really live in a democracy This is an oligarchy right if you have to be rich to win an election And if having more money and spending more money boosts your chances This isn't really a true democracy. This is you know in oligarchy where money wins and anyone else Maybe they have a better message. Well, if they didn't have enough money, then uh, that doesn't matter because we again Live in a capitalist system where everything has been commodified including the democratic process itself Now on top of that bernie sanders speech writer david surrota thinks that the timing of bloomberg's entrance into the race Says a lot quote according to surrota the timing of bloomberg's announcement Lines up with sanders rise in the polls and a well reported meeting between the media mogul And amazon founder jeff bezos one of the two wealthiest men in the world Alongside microsoft founder bill gates bloomberg is also close with disney's bob eiger surrota said So what this is about is the elite class see that you know Their go-to guy joe biden is failing and pete buddha judge might be surging But i mean they realize he's probably not going to win And not just lose the democratic party primary, but if he were the nominee, he'd lose the Donald Trump So they need a new horse to back someone who can assure them that their tax cuts will in fact remain permanent And you know They they want to make sure that the status quo isn't upset too much So they want to stop bernie sanders and even elizabeth warren albeit to a lesser extent From winning that's what this is about They see that someone like bernie or elizabeth warren is probably going to win And michael bloomberg is their candidate sent in at the last minute To win now what i want you to consider is not just the fact that bloomberg himself is spending millions of dollars But if you have your really rich friends like bill gates and jeff bezos behind you They could also potentially bankroll you right spend even more money Now what his strategy is is really i think it speaks to how narcissistic billionaires are because he's choosing to basically Swear off You know any type of campaigning in iowa and new hampshire or not necessarily swear off but forgo campaigning there in hopes of really ramping up campaign efforts in states like texas and South carolina states that are more delegate rich because if he Doesn't get the momentum that candidates usually need from winning iowa new hampshire He's hoping that he could basically win this thing by winning the states with the most amount of pledged delegates now he's doing this specifically by You know running lots and lots of television ads. I mean these ads are everywhere. You have probably seen it already So he's not trying to win by having a real grassroots, you know ground game He's winning just by flooding the media markets and that really is shameful that is absolutely Shameful and guess what it's working. He's at 2.3 percent So the fact that he's already One of the top contenders in the top 10 it goes to show you that our democracy Is broken and to even call it a democracy is incredibly charitable because this really isn't a democracy To have a political system where a billionaire can not only buy his way into the race But make himself actually You know in a position to win certain states It's a downright disgrace So everyone should look at this situation with disgust And realize that the fact that we have not one but two billionaires running in the democratic party primary That speaks to the fact that we don't live in a democracy We live in an oligarchy and billionaires are no longer just funding elections By picking puppets to back. They're cutting out the middlemen and they're running themselves That's disgusting and uh, we're seeing democracy die Before our very eyes if you even want to argue that there's any life left in our democracy in the state that it's in It's it's a really sad thing to see you know See your country change for the worse and see the democratic process be commodified Like other industries, you know everything that shouldn't be a profit driven venture is turned into a commodified game Where rich people can jump in and gain the process It's sickening I know a lot of people probably already saw the clip that i'm about to play for you But I really want to talk about this because it just shows How awful of a candidate joe biden really is And this isn't a surprise to anyone who's watching this show because we've covered his campaign throughout the course of the primary And he's bad, but I mean, I didn't know that he was this bad I didn't know that he was willing to stoop to this low of a level So to give you some background He was confronted at a recent rally by an immigration activist who wanted him to commit to zero Deportations and all deportations on day one using executive action Joe biden gets frustrated throughout the course of this confrontation and ends up telling him to vote for donald trump Literally take a look All that were deported and separated from their families We have this classification of families We should vote for trump And no, no, I know I'm not going to do that But I want to make sure that immigrant families and people like silvia are not afraid And you have the power as a candidate to actually commit to stop all deportations from day one to executive action And we want to hear you say that I will not stop all deportations if you have a Could you commit to crime? No matter what happens, somebody commits an error and they shouldn't be deported. I'm asking you a question. Look, you saw it. I know. Okay. Look, there will be no family separations under mine. Under mine as it has been represented in the United States. That's a lie. But it stopped. It stopped. It stopped. That was embarrassing. That was downright embarrassing. And if he had any shame left, he would drop out after that. You just told someone to vote for Donald Trump because he wanted to challenge you to do better. This is how Joe Biden performs under pressure. You crumble. You become unraveled. So imagine the way that he'd fare during a debate with Donald Trump. Donald Trump can say something that triggers him and then all of a sudden he just melt down. He'd walk off the stage possibly.  You're running to be the president. You have to demonstrate to us that you have the temperament to be commander in chief. But you just told someone to vote for Donald Trump. That's embarrassing.  There are no words to describe this. You just told someone who's an immigrant activist to vote for Donald Trump.  He then challenged the protester to say, well, you know, if somebody was murdered, should they not be deported? And he tried to really get him to answer that question as if the protester who was challenging him needed to answer because he's running for president. No, you're running for president. The protester is not running for president. You're running for president. You are the one who needs to come up with policy prescriptions for the problems that are impacting people that are breaking apart families right now. And you were terrible. You and Obama had a horrible record of deportations. Not as bad as Trump, of course. But nonetheless, you still escalated after George W. Bush. Obama had the alien transfer exit program, which basically took immigrants and not just, like, deported them, but dropped them off somewhere randomly in Mexico, for example, where they were unfamiliar with. And this put them in danger, right? Because if you're unfamiliar with a particular area, you could be dropped off in a bad part of town where there is a lot of control from the cartel or gang violence.  That's what you and Obama did. So, I mean, that's why you're being challenged. But nobody can question Obama's legacy or his legacy. And when you do, that's what happens. Now, Bernie Sanders, I believe, has agreed to stop all deportations on day one because he acknowledges that you can use your executive action to make a difference. And we have to stop all deportations because our immigration system is broken. We're breaking apart families. We're locking children in cages. So, we're overwhelmed. And the system currently is not able to discriminate appropriately and determine who's a criminal and who's not. We're sending home people and breaking apart families and ruining lives. Dreamers are getting deported.  So, for you to react that way and unravel, Joe Biden, shows that you shouldn't just lose. You've got to drop out. That's just embarrassing. Now, Bernie Sanders obviously capitalized on this and he tweeted about this saying, Joe Biden may not want the votes of those concerned about immigrant rights, but I do join our movement for justice. And that's exactly it.  You have one of your rivals melting down at a minimal amount of scrutiny over a policy and he tells him to vote for Donald Trump. Unbelievable, unreal. Joe Biden is, he's not made for this. This is why he lost before when he ran for president and this is why he's probably going to lose again. He's not meant for this. He doesn't speak to voters.   Unreal. I want to take a look at an article published in NPR by Chris Arnold who states what I think is pretty obvious. Canceling student loan debt would be great for the economy. Now, this isn't the first article that features an economist that talks about the benefits of student loan debt cancellation. I believe it was MarketWatch that talked about this previously, but I mean, this is something that is obvious. If you eliminate that huge monthly payment that a lot of millennials have, of course, that increases their purchasing power. And as I've stated before, I would love to stimulate the economy and buy more things if I didn't have to worry about this student loan debt that I currently can't foresee ever paying off. Like a lot of us take on this debt expecting to never pay it off and to have it until the day we die. And that means that we're going to have to make decisions. Like if you are a millennial, you may not be able to purchase a car or a house because you have what is basically a monthly payment that you will have forever that is as high as some mortgages. It's unacceptable that our generation doesn't have the luxury of affordable college that the previous generation had. So of course, economists are seeing that this would be beneficial and they're talking about it. So let's get to the article here. Presidential hopefuls, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders want to tear up your student loans and set you financially free. That's popular among voters, especially those struggling to pay off this debt. Other Democratic candidates have more modest plans, but economists say the dramatic proposals from Sanders and Warren to free millions of Americans from the burden of student debt could boost the economy in significant ways and help combat income inequality. Warren would forgive up to 50,000 for most people. Sanders would go further with total loan forgiveness, but with these plans, having a price tag north of one trillion, such legislation would come with plenty of risks. The reason debt forgiveness could have a big impact on the overall economy is that a generation of Americans is making major life decisions differently because of student loans. In the short term, it would be very positive for the housing market, says Lawrence Yoon, the National Association of Realtors Chief Economist. He says his group surveys show that student debt has people delaying homeownership by five to seven years. The effects would go beyond the housing market. William Foster is a vice president with Moody's, which just had a report on student debt forgiveness. There have been some estimates that U.S. real GDP could be boosted on average by 86 billion to 108 billion per year, which is quite a bit, he says. That's if you had total loan forgiveness. Foster says it wouldn't have to be total forgiveness to see significant results. And he says it could also help address rising income inequality. Foster says most of these loans are from the federal government and it could forgive them. But that would mean giving up the 85 billion in annual revenue it's currently collecting on these loans. And he says that would result in a wider fiscal deficit. Now to put this into perspective for you, this is not some far left activist economist. This is someone with a relatively conservative estimate about the impact that this would have on the economy because some of the risks that he talks about here, they're not even applicable to both Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren's plans. So he talks about a possible moral hazard where if we cancel student loan debt for this generation, then future generations are going to take on more student loan debt because they're going to expect their loans to be canceled one day too. Except the problem with that being a risk is that both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are proposing free college. So we're not just going to solve this problem for the current generation with student loans. We're going to make this a non-issue moving forward. Now on top of that, he is correct that the student government does hold a lot of these loans. Now yes, that will mean that they will be losing some revenue if they choose to cancel this. And he argues that they'd likely have to raise taxes to make up for that lost revenue, which means that working class people would likely have to pay higher taxes and they'd be effectively subsidizing the student loan debt cancellation of high income borrowers like doctors and lawyers. But what Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are proposing is to raise taxes on elites, not working class Americans to pay for things like student loan debt cancellation. So even the pitfalls that he brings up are not applicable to these plans. The benefits are enormous. Canceling student loan debt would lead to a huge boost because of course, if you have more money, you are going to spend that money. Unlike rich people, when working class Americans have money in their pockets, they spend it. But rich people, what do they do? They sit on that money. It doesn't get reinvested back into the economy. So that's why trickle down doesn't work. But if you truly want the economy to grow, you have to make sure that we put money in the hands of working class Americans because increasing their purchasing power is better for everyone. We can actually buy the products that capitalists produce.  Now, they're already cutting our wages. They're already taking away retirement options. So this is really the least that they can do to make sure that we get a little bit of a break, right? You've got to go further, but this would obviously be huge. And not to mention the mental relief that this would yield to a lot of people who are experiencing a lot of stress because having a lot of debt, I mean, that's incredibly stressful. I feel the stress of having a lot of debt. And when I think about it, it kind of freaks me out because, I mean, that's a lot of money to owe and a huge monthly payment that a lot of us, again, don't really foresee ever paying off. So these milk-toe solutions that centrists come up with, like Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, like capping the percentage that you're paying each month, that's not good enough. Just cancel it. And Elizabeth Warren's plan, even though I credit her for pushing Bernie Sanders to do better here, her plan is not good enough.  So if you don't go into the negotiations saying, I want to cancel 100% of student loans, you're not going to get what you want, right? So aim high and try to get the best that you can get. Don't undercut yourself before negotiations even begin. But still, Elizabeth Warren does get credit from me for proposing student loan debt cancellation because few candidates are even talking about this. Wayne Massam is actually the first to talk about this, but Bernie Sanders, he just, he took that policy and made it better. And of course, this is what we need to do. This is why young people disproportionately support Bernie Sanders enthusiastically so because he's the only one that doesn't just care about us, but who has a plan that really would grow the economy in a substantial way. CNN hosted another voter panel. This one is from Iowa, and they're going to talk to people about the last Democratic Party primary debate who they thought were their favorites. And they're also supposedly going to comment on who they believe should drop out of the 2020 race. Now, I used to enjoy these, but as the primary goes on, these are really starting to crush my soul because it kind of demonstrates how out of touch the average person is like, it's evident that not everyone is going to be following the race super religiously. But I mean, the things that people say it kind of just communicates to me that we're all screwed. Nonetheless, let's watch it and then I will react as they kind of vocalize their thoughts on the race. It's going to be a bad one. If recent history is any guide, millions of Americans will have seen tonight's debate. Right now, though, we want to narrow it down to just nine. Nine men and women, all Democrats, all but two undecided. Their take on the candidates will set the tone and set it early because these... All but two undecided. It's November, almost December, and most of the people on this panel are undecided. That is... that's remarkable to me. I don't know how you're undecided at this point, but nonetheless, I'll watch. Nine daughters live in Iowa. We first met them back in June. We're always glad to see them. They watched the debate tonight with Eric Gary Tuckman. Gary? Anderson, five months, five debates. We've been with the same group of loyal Democrats here in the reliably Democratic County of Johnson County, Iowa, home of the University of Iowa, each time. And we watched the debate together today. They were all undecided when we started. Two now have made decisions. We'll talk about that in a minute, but first tonight's debate. Two made decisions. The first four, Elizabeth Warren did the best among this group. Who had the best showing tonight, Rosanne? Klobuchar and Booker. Klobuchar and Warren. Klobuchar. Klobuchar and Booker. Klobuchar. Booker and Warren. Scott? Booker and Buttigieg. Booker and Klobuchar. Klobuchar. Warren and Klobuchar. Warren and Klobuchar. Klobuchar and Booker. Klobuchar and Booker. Klobuchar and Booker. All of these people, most of them, all but what, like two or three, think that Klobuchar had the best performance. I mean, I just, the very first comment I think really highlights it. Where do they find these people? I never met a Klobuchar supporter. Exactly. That comment right there has 1100 thumbs up because I literally had never seen someone in the wild who supports Amy Klobuchar. Like the people who I have talked to, even outside of my bubble, either support Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg or Bernie Sanders, basically the front runners. But Amy Klobuchar, she's polling at 1.5%.  Because we know at that last debate that CNN moderated. They kept trying to prop up Amy Klobuchar and MSNBC obviously tried to do the same thing. So I mean, like, I don't know what's happening here, but people don't like Amy Klobuchar. She's going to get like nine votes, right? Nine votes, all of which are her family. Some of her family probably won't even vote for her because she's not boring. Her performance at this last debate was atrocious. Not to mention she was shaking the entire time, like a leaf, like you could see her hair, like going back and forth because she was shaking. I don't know if she was nervous or sick. But I mean, to say that Amy Klobuchar was good, like, I don't understand. Like this doesn't make any sense to me. This doesn't make any sense to me. Either this panel is like all strategists or they work for Amy Klobuchar or they're just completely weird people. Like I'm putting on the tinfoil hat.  Not that many people like Amy Klobuchar. This is not normal. This is not an accurate sample of Democratic Party primary voters. Nobody likes Amy Klobuchar. Like, am I missing something here?  Amy Klobuchar did the best. People, what is wrong with you? It's like most of you, the highest number is Booker. Klobuchar second, Warren sounds like... I can see Booker getting high, you know, marks from them because I thought he had a pretty good performance. Klobuchar did not have a good performance. I'm just going to go on an anti-Klobuchar rant, so we'll just watch it. The third here, and Buttigieg had one. One person said Buttigieg. One person said Buttigieg. Two people. First of all, why do you think Booker did the best? Who wants to tell us? He's the most inspiring. He's always working on talking about the issues in a positive manner, and he doesn't do any personal attacking. We didn't hear Biden or Sanders. It's not Biden. How come no one says anything about Biden or Sanders in a positive way after this debate? I don't think they really didn't think differently than what we've seen in previous debates. How do you think Biden's in Malone? You picked Biden in the first debate, I think.  I mean, he started mumbling on certain things, so I just kind of backed off. He's been doing that since day one, and Bernie Sanders did say things that are different. He made basically history by saying we should respect Palestinian human rights and dignity. basement. Big issue right now, as we know. First thing that was mentioned during the debate but an interesting point was Amy Klobuchar said our job is to look at each count when talking about impeachment. Kamala Harris said, in the White House, two very different approaches. Which was the best approach in this debate? Well, Klobuchar for sure. Klobuchar for sure. I just love Klobuchar. So you think that was too harsh with what Kamala Harris said about Donald Trump? The fact-finding mode right now. I mean, the fact is, he's not a convicted criminal. That's a fact, right?  But you think Klobuchar's approach is a better approach? Exactly.  They need to at least come into it with an open mind looking at the evidence presented. Otherwise, in a normal jury trial, they'd be struck. So you think enough was mentioned about the impeachment issue during this debate? Yes. What was the most important moment you thought during the debate? I think the conversation about acknowledging people of color throughout everything, not just during the election season. Yes, that was important. It came up multiple times. Yes. What do you think, Tom? I agree.  Do you want to continue seeing this? Yes, that is important. But yet, they all are saying Klobuchar did really well. What did Klobuchar say that was so remarkable? Like, I don't get it. The people in the debates. No. You know, you're going to go to the Iowa caucuses on February 3rd. Is it okay if 10 or 12 people are still in the race? No. You want them to leave? I would prefer that they recognize that nationally, it's just not their time. Like Amy Klobuchar, maybe? To bow out so that the other candidates can have that opportunity. Like Amy Klobuchar? Andrew Yang. What? Anyone else? Andrew Yang is pulling higher than Amy Klobuchar, but you want him to drop out and think that she did good? Jesus, I do not get the logic here. There is no logic. This doesn't make any sense. Tulsi Gamble. Yeah. Also pulling higher than Klobuchar? Final question for you. I was talking about you were all undecided when we started. Rosanna, have you made a decision? I have. You have? I am planning to caucus for Amy Klobuchar. Two hours later. Klobuchar, how about you? Not yet. Not yet? Not yet. Not yet? Not yet. Privately, yes, but no because... Privately. Privately. So we can't shake it and get it out of you? You're on a panel. Why can't you just say, Jesus Christ, did you not think that they'd ask you? I don't like any of these people. So we're still advocating for mental illness plans. Okay, Scott, you're the husband. Bernie is supporting Medicare for all. That includes mental health care. It would be comprehensive free at the point of service. People would get the care that they need. Physical and mental. You have it on your shirt, but you don't seem to care about it. Like, I don't get... I don't understand these people. Have you decided? I have not decided. Do you know who she wants? I do. I can't tell you.  God. Rikisha? No. Okay. Now, Temple, you have a sticker that says, Warren, on your red sweatshirt. You had decided, Warren, two debates ago. Yes. Have you changed your mind about her? I have not. So you're still with her? I will still be caucusing for Warren. And Janice? Getting close. Not there yet. Not there yet. Okay. So most of our people still undecided. You still have a lot of time, but, in a sense, it's dwindling because it is exactly 75 days until the Iowa caucuses. And we're probably fine. 75 days. Thank them so much for being with us yet again. It's so nice that they came back. Don't invite them back. Jesus Christ. That deserves a dislike. That was awful. I need to read some of these comments. Where do they find these people? I've never met a club which I support her. Thank you. Seeing and trying to control the narrative on who we should vote for.  Yeah. I don't know what to say about that. Everything that they said. Like, usually you can find, like, some kernels of, like, truth to what they say. But, like, there's no redeemable aspects of that panel. Like they said, the one true thing that I agreed with was that they brought up black voters. Yes, Booker made a very powerful point about that. But then you go on to say, Amy Klobuchar did a great job. Did she say anything about black voters? I don't know if she did. Booker made a really great comment about that. Andrew Yang made a really powerful point about white supremacy. Tulsi Gabbard said something that was good about that as well. I can't remember her response to the top of my head. But, like, the logic here makes no sense. They absolutely adore Amy Klobuchar, but they think that Andrew Yang should drop out when he's out polling her. I just, I don't understand this. This makes no sense. I can't help but think that the sample here is flawed. This is selection bias. There's no other explanation, because this isn't a representative sample of the average Democratic Party primary voter. Like, who likes Amy Klobuchar? Like, I genuinely want to talk to an Amy Klobuchar supporter. Like, I just don't get it. That was awful. Probably, no, definitely the worst panel that I've watched so far. I think that I need to stop watching these, because it's making me lose faith in humanity. Like, being fully honest. This is making me legitimately, like, question whether or not the species can survive if we have people with this type of logic. Yeah, I have nothing else to add to this. I'm just gonna rant at this point, so we'll go ahead and end the video. So on December 12th, there will be a general election that takes place in the United Kingdom, and basically British voters are going to choose between the British equivalent of Donald Trump and the British equivalent of Bernie Sanders, Boris Johnson versus Jeremy Corbyn. Now to be clear, their system is different in the UK.  But since Jeremy Corbyn is the leader of the Labour Party, if you vote for Labour and they win, well, he becomes Prime Minister if he gets a high enough percentage of seats to form a government. Now, the race that he is running is, it's brilliant. First of all, I love that the UK doesn't have multi-year-long elections. They call an election, and then it happens for a couple of weeks, and then it's done, you can move on. But the campaign that Jeremy Corbyn is running, I mean, just from the perspective of a US political commentator, I can't not love everything that he's saying, because Labour just put out a new manifesto, and Jeremy Corbyn promoted this by putting out a video where he basically named as many policies as he possibly could within 60 seconds. And this is the type of substance that I wish we'd see more often in the United States. Like, we see this with candidates like Bernie Sanders and AOC, but not often enough. But really, what Jeremy Corbyn is doing is he's upping the bar, and I can't not share this, because seeing this makes me genuinely excited about this election, even if it's not going to affect me directly. Big news! We've just launched our new manifesto. So I thought I'd take just 60 seconds to run through as many of the policies as I can. OK, 60 seconds starting. Now, 26 billion for our NHS, recruiting the doctors and nurses we need, a million new affordable homes to rent or buy with the biggest council housebuilding program in decades. We'll give you the final say on Brexit within six months. We'll end NHS privatisation, bring down waiting lists, and put patients first. We'll scrap university tuition fees, kickstart a green industrial revolution to tackle the climate emergency, create hundreds of thousands of new green jobs of the future. We'll build a national care service with free personal care for over 65s, the fastest fibre-optic broadband free for all, a short start centre in every community. We'll protect the pension triple lock, protect the free bus bus, protect the winter fuel payment, and protect the over 75s free TV licence. A real living wage of at least £10 per hour for all workers, boosting the pay of 7.5 million people, introducing a national education service, making world-class education available to people's lives. More money for schools, reduced class sizes, public ownership of water, energy and royal mail. We'll double the spend on children's mental health and have a counsellor in every school to take well-wising to public ownership. OK, my time's up, but that's only 60 seconds' worth. There's 104 pages in here. A fully-costed plan to transform Britain after almost a decade of cuts and neglect under Tories and Lib Dems. Take a look and decide for yourself Boris Johnson's Tories, bankrolled by billionaires or labour on your side, offering real change for the many, not just a few. Take care. See you soon. That was absolutely, positively brilliant. This is what really, I think, energizes voters. And in the last election, when he was up against Theresa May as party leader, he overperformed the polls. Nobody really thought that he would do that well, but it was because he ran a fantastically progressive campaign that was based on, you know, policy and not platitudes, and he did a phenomenal job. Now, what he talked about there is, you know, a green industrial revolution, sounds kind of like a green new deal, free fiber optic broadband for all, increasing pay for workers, and he also said something that I think is really interesting, and NHS privatization. This should serve as a really important warning for us in the United States as we debate health care reform, right? Because a lot of people point out, when I talk about abolishing private insurance here in the United States, people point out, Mike, that's too far because every country, be it Australia or, you know, the UK, they have private insurance, right? But it's hurting them. In Australia, they open the door to more private insurance, and people are complaining because costs go up when you do that. In the United Kingdom, about 10%, I want to say, approximately, of the market is private insurance, and it's a constant battle to push back against further privatization. Whenever the Tories take power, they want to privatize more and more portions of the national health system that the UK has. So what I say to people in the US is, if you're starting over and you're reforming our health care, it's kind of a misnomer to say that we're starting over, because we're just expanding Medicare, but I digress. If we're starting, you know, over in terms of reforming our health care system, don't start negotiations by saying, we're willing to allow some form of private, because when you do that, you are intentionally watering down your own public plan in order to preserve some role for private, in order to carve out, you know, holes in our own system to give them something to do, as Adam Gaffney puts it. So we, of course, should not do that. But I want to get back to the UK. I think that we have a lot to learn from Jeremy Corbyn and Labour. But basically, Boris Johnson is a clown.  Nonetheless, he's a far-right imbecile. But Labour put out an ad that really portrays this shift to the right that we're seeing everywhere, you know, in Brazil, in the UK, in France, and it portrays this xenophobia, this right-wing shift in a way that it deserves to be portrayed. You know, and they do this in an ad that really makes fun of people who scapegoat immigrants. It makes fun of politicians, specifically, who scapegoat immigrants and tell you that all of your problems are because of immigrants. This ad is phenomenal. Please, please. One at a time. My daughter's school is falling apart and there's just not enough teachers to cope. My mother needs surgery and she's been waiting six months. I got made redundant and can't pay my rent, but there are no council houses. Look, I know you're all angry. But there is one simple explanation. It's all his fault. What's Ali got to do with my mother? Well, he's an immigrant. If we get rid of Ali, then medical waiting times will be shorter because we'll have more doctors. Actually, I am a doctor. But what about the services you've cut? Are schools? His fault. Housing? His fault. Look, whatever the problem is, it's because we don't have enough money.  The money he's just given to that guy. He's just the CEO of a major tech company that needed to tax break. Don't worry about him. But if you need money, couldn't you just stop giving it to him? He clearly doesn't need it. Start giving it to schools and hospitals instead. He's a job creator. He hasn't created any jobs around here. He isn't part of our community. Why would he care about us? I trust Ali more than him. Look, let me level with you. I would love to put more money into housing and health care and education, but my hands are tied. I have to give wealthy corporations massive tax cuts because of Ali. Really? That was so good. So they're taking this phenomenon that is immigrant scapegoating that we're seeing throughout the world as these far-right bigots emerge after Donald Trump's election. And they are making fun of it. That's the only way you can really talk about this because if you truly believe that all of our problems emerge due to the presence of immigrants, then you are being duped by capitalists.  So, I mean, I really, really hope that Jeremy Corbyn wins. He's running a fantastic campaign. Please vote for Labour if you're in the UK. Imagine a world where Jeremy Corbyn is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Bernie Sanders is the President of the United States. Like, imagine the amount of change. Imagine the paradigm shift worldwide that we'd see. It would be remarkable, and I couldn't even imagine how much change would take place in that period of time where we kind of create this new consensus internationally speaking, where we no longer do regime change wars, where we respect Palestinian rights. It would be amazing. So, I truly, truly hope that he wins. If he doesn't win this election, he's going to be Prime Minister someday. I just hope that it is sooner rather than later because I truly believe in his message, and I hope he pulls this off, and he's running a fantastic campaign, so I wouldn't be surprised if he overperforms the polls again. You know, overall, the Democratic Party may not necessarily be offering me any policies that I like, but the fact that they do all of these really cool dances, it shows me how hip they are as a millennial, and it makes me want to vote for them. You all know what I'm talking about.  They know that their policy sucks, so the way that they try to make up for it and appeal to young folks is by coming up with these cringe-worthy dances, and the Pete Witte judge, high hopes dance. That's not a new phenomenon.  Now, in 2016, it was the fight song. Hillary Clinton had the fight song at every rally, and I absolutely hate that song. I still hate that song. It's one of the worst songs I've ever created. But now, the high hopes song, I think because it's accompanied with the dance, it's ten times worse. It's exponentially worse.  Like, you don't need a dance to appeal to young folks. All you need are policies, and that's how you're going to get people on board.  You're going to make us hate you more because it shows how out of touch you are because if you think that this is what's going to appeal to youngsters, well, that in and of itself showcases how out of sync you are with the Democratic electorate, namely young people. So, of course, since I hate all of these dances, I asked my patrons what do you hate more, the fight song or the high hopes song, which I think objectively speaking is one of the worst songs ever created. Objectively speaking, not subjectively, objectively speaking. You can figure out some scientific way to measure how shitty songs are and high hopes would be near the top of that list. So, between the fight song and the Buttigieg high hopes song, my patrons were very clear. They hate Pete Buttigieg's high hopes song way more than the Hillary fight song, three times more as a matter of fact. So, you know, this poll isn't surprising. I'm glad that they hate it as much as I do. But let's look at some of the comments because I think that they really, you know, describe the situation well. Stephanie says, listen, to me, white people who get roped into dancing are less cringe than organizing celebrities to sing a song designed to manufacture hype and good vibes for a candidate that were shoving down our throats as, quote, the best. Audio guy says, centrists shouldn't be allowed to access the arts. You need soul for that.  Tony says, I hear the high hopes song at work and it makes me want to throw up.   Watch it, Karen. You better watch how you speak about the queen. Borgon says, where's the survey for best campaign song ever? Because even though I thoroughly disliked Donald Trump, his song, the USA Freedom Kids, the official Donald Trump jam is completely awesome. You could not create a better anthem for the alternate reality of our totalitarian present. It's like Stalinist realism but for American conservative kid-pop music. People from strength or get crushed every time. Liz says, Buddha judge equals cringe. Hillary song equals cramp. Garrison says, definitely Buddha judge. So I mean, there you have it. I think that people on the left are in unanimous agreement that Pete Buddha judge's high hopes dance is not only stupid, but it makes me hate Pete Buddha judge even more. I know, maybe I've just become way too cynical because that's what politics has done to me covering it this closely now for multiple years. But I hate it so much. It's weird, it's robotic, it's culty and it's cringe-worthy. More than anything, it's cringe-worthy. So, um, yeah. It seems like people agree with me. And for good reason.   It is. I'm sorry.   Stop doing it. My name is Zena Spizakis. I'm a mom, an activist, an entrepreneur and I want to be your next congresswoman. I never thought about running before. I was going to handle things from the business side or as an activist. But when I read that we only have about a decade left to save our planet I couldn't just sit there. I needed to act. That's why I'm getting to work now. Strong corporate interests lobbyists, political machines fight every day against the policies that we need to enact in congress. Like the Green New Deal Medicare for All Common Sense Gun Control Campaign Finance Reform Criminal Justice Reform Student Loan Relief and Equal Rights All these policies will help make America more prosperous, more just and more secure. It sounds audacious but we have the ideas, we have the courage and we have the political will. So will you join our movement to create a better New Jersey and a better America? Yeah! Therein are you. Hello everyone. I'm here with Zena Spizakis running in New Jersey's 9th congressional district against incumbent Bill Pascrell and she was just recently endorsed by Brand New Congress. She was highly recommended by fellow New Jerseyan progressive Rusty and Sione and she is here to talk about her campaign. Zena, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you so much for having me. It's a real honor. I'm looking forward to it. It should be fun. I'm very excited and when we kind of first connected we got news that Brand New Congress had endorsed you which is really exciting. So I don't know if you attended, there was like a Brand New Congress training session or whatnot. Did you attend that? And how did that go? It was actually this, I just got back last night. It was this weekend where I was like, I would say except for like maybe one, all of the candidates that they've endorsed were there from around the country including a couple of senatorial candidates which is new for them this year. So it's not just the House of Representatives but you know we're going to change the face of the Senate too because if we need to get anything done we need to have both houses changed but it was exciting. It was a nice it felt like this is really what the future ought to be a diverse group, lots of different backgrounds a number of non-native born naturalized citizens running as well I mean it was just beautiful and behold everybody's coming at it from a different perspective. I'm coming at it from a clean energy perspective other people coming at progressive values via mass incarceration or whatever else but it was, I felt like if we put all these people in one room or in one house we could actually get a lot of things done as well. And the other thing that you should know about Brand New Congress none of their candidates take any corporate money I mean they've sworn off of it we don't want that influence in our campaign or in our legislating so it was great actually That's really exciting. I saw the pictures and I know this sounds corny but it was super heartwarming because I've been talking to these candidates and I'm a fairly cynical person. I think a lot of people who follow American politics closely it's easy to get cynical but seeing from all different walks of life across the country kind of rise up it really tells you that something is happening here and one thing that I think is very clear about all the Brand New Congress and not just Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats but anyone who's progressive who's running there's kind of this core ideology, this commitment to Medicare for All, a Green New Deal student loan debt cancellation and whatnot but each person as you kind of alluded to they're all approaching this from different angles so for you one thing that I really noticed is you have this really strong emphasis on a Green New Deal and basically saving the planet from climate catastrophe and in your bio you talk about how you kind of approach this previously from the business world and also part of your inspiration is you have two elementary age children which is obviously going to affect their future so talk about why climate change is kind of the issue that you're choosing to make front and center. I think it's obvious to everyone but I think it's really nice to hear from you why it matters to you. Yeah well you know why it matters to me obviously my children you know and everyone's children really anyone being born into this world is they're not going to have the same you know childhood I have I mean I'm in the weird generation where I remember what it was I'm probably the last generation now I'm aging myself right I'm in my 40s but I'm the last generation to actually remember what it was like prior to the climate crisis I'm in the first generation to really feel it and we're in the only generation really do anything about it and so you know I was I've been an environmental activist I you know I worked my working our company is a clean energy startup and I thought I was kind of doing my part until I read the UN's IPCC report last year which IPCC stands for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and it's basically a collection of the world's best sciences telling you well you've got to cut your emissions by about half in the next 12 years otherwise you know run away right run away green house effect the thing that terrified me about that Mike wasn't the 12 years necessarily is that I study climate models I mean I'm getting a graduate degree in energy policy and climate science and every single climate model that I've ever looked at has completely overestimated the amount of time in which we have to react so that 12 years to me was something more like I don't know I'm making this up five or six it's going to be a lot shorter than what they think it is it always has been because there are things that are happening to our climate that scientists can't really predict we've never been we've got no way of modeling what's happening out there and scientists by the very nature are conservative you know they don't want to go crazy with their predictions and so they've been completely off the mark things are happening faster than we expected and you know I as a mother I just I can't you know I read that report and I'm sort of look at my I'm in a safe blue district right it's a D plus 16 and I'm like what has he done on climate nothing in fact he even pushed it voted a couple times to push the keystone keystone pipeline forward and I'm just I understand this might not be his expertise and I don't expect him to be studying energy policy or anything like that but you know part of leadership is to actually put a voice to something even if it might be politically inconvenient and to be quite honest they can't you know no one in the House of Representatives or in the government frankly can claim that they've been ignorant to this Congress gets regular reports called national climate assessments they've known about this and in fact New Jersey where we're from there it's expected and it's happening now it's going to get wetter faster and warmer twice twice as warm faster than the rest of the United States and that's happening right now I mean we had Superstorm Sandy things are flooding I mean it just we haven't had a good snowfall since my since my son was a baby so I just I said there's no way I mean I this is something's my life's work but this is how I have to take it up to the next level because what I was doing was not moving the needle fast enough and in order to protect our children I needed to do this I needed to step up so yeah and I think it's really important that you give us your background because you have the expertise here and you've been looking at the data and that IPCC report I think it really put it into perspective for a lot of people myself included you know to where we kind of we've been putting this in the back of our minds realizing that it's a crisis but not really knowing how little time we have and it's so important because as you said you know scientists they are by their very nature conservative they're not going to come out with claims that are hyperbolic to get you to pay attention that's not the way that they do things so it's really important that we take things into our own hands and we really we understand the sense of urgency and really the 12 year timeline as you said it really isn't great I mean there's one model that predicts that human extinction if it's going to happen it's going to start by 2050 that is insane it's you know I think we're losing I don't know how many species a day you know I'm not going to even start quoting about you know what's happening in the penguin populations or anything like that but what happens with these extremes in weather is and we saw some of this starting in India and in the Saudi peninsula this summer the plants get stressed out they're a living organism and they get stressed out while if you have these huge swings in weather it weakens the plant and the plant will not be able to grow food if the plant can't grow food we can't feed our lifestyle we can't feed ourselves it starts food prices start skyrocketing and it becomes the climate crisis is an environmental justice issue I mean in so many ways you know even here in this country we think oh it's not really going to hit our shores our wealth is not going to protect us it won't it's coming for us and you know there I like to give the example last summer in India there were temperatures and part of India had reached so such high degrees that entire villages were abandoned because the livestock was dropping dead because it was too hot plants were dying because after a certain temperature I mean your plants going to die water dries up and there's no food and you had climate migrants we have we've seen hurricane was adoring and that hit just the Bahamas nearest we had a climate we had a whole ship full of climate migrants hitting Florida and what did we do I mean the Trump administration of course sent them away I mean predictably but that's going to if you look at the entire planet the equatorial regions of our planet is going to cause hundreds of millions of people to be displaced they're not going to head south they're going to head north they're going to head north into the US into Canada they're going to head north into Europe and into Russia and you can imagine what kind of conflict you're going to see when that when those people start finally I mean we couldn't handle a refugee crisis coming out of Syria which some people claim had some environmental effect you know some sort of environmental impetus to it I haven't seen this I haven't seen the data yet but there are those claims we couldn't handle that we can't handle what's happening at our border right now you know it's not if I if I'm a farmer if I'm a head of household and I can't feed my children I'm going to migrate and nothing to get my I mean you're a parent I get it and it's that's not the world I want to leave my kids it's not the world any kids should really inherit and it just it just it's so angering it's angering for me because because we've known about it for such a long time we've known about it I mean since in my lifetime right and the the we've had half of the world's emissions come in the last five years that's been most of my life we've had it's we can stop this now and the thing that gets me Mike is that we actually have the technology we have like the vast majority of the technology we need right now to deploy it you know I I'll go back to Bill Pascal he actually endorsed the green new deal about a week after I announced and got some positive presses like this environmental activists is going after Pascal which is okay coincidence take it as it is he endorses it he pays lip service to it activists in New Jersey ask him to come out with a statement for like at least you know a statement on a moratorium new fossil fuel projects which isn't a hard thing to do because I mean have we're building one of the largest wind farms off the off the coast of New Jersey right now we can replace we can replace that energy generation these wind farms don't take long to come up they take they're less in a year to build these things I mean it's not it's not like you're building a nuclear power plant which will take which takes like 10 years we have that but you know where where where's the leadership right where's the voice to it I mean why does a mother who is perfectly you know is perfectly happy you know trying to trying to get her company to like start producing you know clean electricity from hydrogen gas that was our start that's our start up you know why why am I jumping into this race because because of this negligence it's criminal negligence it is it is it is the biggest ever generational human rights violation frankly ever I mean it's my children these guys are going to be long gone out of office by the time my six-year-old is going to have to deal with food shortages you know I mean he's and and and I come from like I come from a privileged background I am you know I live in a good neighborhood I've got a good house but what happens to the people to folks who who you know who don't have my advantages such as ours frankly advantages that are found in the United States you go to the rest of the world and it's it's it is we will these people will die these people will die I can't I can't allow that I can't allow that who would I who no good person I I'm sorry I'm going on about this but it gets no you're you're absolutely I love the way that you're talking about this and I actually want to go a little bit deeper because we often times talk about climate change mitigation and adaptation finally in terms of the Green New Deal but this is a resolution so there's a lot of neoliberal pro corporate Democrats who can endorse the Green New Deal but not necessarily explain what they think that means now candidates are filling in what they mean by the Green New Deal but I want to talk to you because you know more about this than most people I think running for Congress what does true mitigation and adaptation look like in terms of policy like what would you do that you think would actually suffice because there's people who are proposing things but none of them either meet the deadline or they're not ambitious enough and I think that the Green New Deal is the first time I'm hearing people talk about you know meeting the urgency meeting that IPCC's deadline but what do you think we need to do just if politics weren't an issue if politics are an issue the first thing we need to do is just pass a moratorium on all fossil fuel any new fossil first any new fossil fuel projects need to be stopped and any and then we start looking at the fossil fuel projects and start looking at their emissions and start knocking down like the coal fire plants need to be decommissioned those workers need to be trained to to transition into a green job whether that's building wind turbines or maintenance on those wind turbines putting up you know putting up rooftop solar whatever while we can those are good you know at least in the wind industry here in New Jersey some of these companies that have been coming in are very pro-worker these are like you know good union jobs that should be done first of all more just keep it in the ground that's that's just a non-starter right there research the I'm sorry the financial subsidies right now depending on the study that I read anywhere between 15 and 20 billion dollars still go of our taxpayer money still goes to this day two fossil companies as financial incentives subsidies tax breaks whatever financial incentives those need to stop I mean it's a year old industry they don't need any support I mean I work so I'm paying for these guys to line their pocket and pollute the air that my children are breathing so that just to give you an example I mean that's what it is really bought and paid for right by ExxonMobil those need to stop and those need to be completely redirected into either financial incentives to adopt green technologies faster whatever those may be or if they need to be deployed into research and development that's the second thing third thing and this has been used with great effectiveness in other countries and it hasn't been actually that politically controversial is efficiency standards what we're doing to California has its own efficiency standards and the Trump administration is trying to go after them for that exemption in other words they can't California has been a driver in a lot of the efficiency standards around the country because if you want to sell into California you know you got to be a good player and that's been driving a lot of technology around the country and so now the Trump administration wants to say no California you can't do that anymore you know they're all for states rights until it comes to like energy efficiency you can't do that anymore and they're sort of taking them to court is where I believe it is efficiency standards need to put in and then really a lot we really need to build resiliency in some of these communities there are depending on the model that you see as far as sea level rise there are many parts of this country and millions will be affected by sea level rise those communities there's some Florida for an example Florida is built on limestone you really can't build a wall around Florida and hope to keep the water out of it because limestone acts as a sponge and comes in through the geology of the state so those communities either need to be something the building codes need to change they need to be something like that I don't know Superstorm Sandy hit here in New Jersey it knocked out power for many of these communities for quite a long time and that's because the surges that came in you know they hit these substations and these substations are not really designed to handle 15 foot you know tides coming in on a consistent basis that sort of resiliency and really it's an infrastructure spend because our infrastructure was developed for a fossil fuel economy and it was developed for no climate change and we spend like a fraction of it we spend I think 2 or 3% I want to say don't quote me somewhere around there that we spend just on infrastructure maintenance just to maintain our bad infrastructure which a lot of civil engineers will tell you needs help China China spends somewhere around 8% of its GDP on infrastructure they're building a green economy Europe is building a green economy in fact actually you know they're in a lot of their industries and a lot of their economies the Europeans and the Chinese I would say are almost 10 years ahead of where we are where we should be and we should be leading this I mean right now within 5 years my prediction is they will be the number 1 manufacturer of wind turbines they are already number 1 in solar thin solar films so there's a lot of it's a matter of stopping the bad stuff shifting some of those resources into the good stuff and then helping communities adapt to what's coming because even if we stopped all emissions right now the way the physics works is that there's going to be a certain amount of warming in the atmosphere so things are going to get worse before they get better and I tell people we can't really reverse it in my generation we won't this next election this next election comes down to that we want to see the worst effects in the next 30 years or if we want to slow it down enough that we see effects like in the next 500 years and allow for our children and grandchildren's generation to come up with solutions to their energy needs and to really just draw back out of the air longer term there's a lot of things you could do with land management and forestry management that allows for natural prostheses to start pulling some of these some of the carbon dioxide out of the air but if I had one thing to do right now you know carte blanche no politics involved and this is going to be a little controversial but I would shut down every methane pipeline in the country and I'll tell you why even a 2% to 3% leak in a methane pipeline because methane as a molecule is so much more powerful at warming the planet even a tiny little fractional link from any one of these little joints anywhere on these thousands of miles of pipeline is no better than a fossil fuel plant as far as its warming effects and people are wondering why we are curbing our CO2 emissions in the last 3 years the GDP of the United States has completely decoupled from our CO2 emissions so when people tell you we can't have economic growth and lower our emissions that's bullshit because it decoupled 3 years ago but what we're still seeing is these methane spikes in the air and there are people like where are these coming from they're coming from these pipelines and there's no way anybody can audit thousands of miles of pipeline and if you have like the pipeline the methane companies or the natural gas pipe companies should say auditing themselves it's like the chicken the chicken coop anyway so it's like those 3 things and I love the way that you simplify that and what you focus on which is important is adaptation and mitigation we can do what we can to stop climate crisis but regardless they need to realize that climate change is inevitable a certain degree of it it's just a matter of what we can control in terms of how bad that disaster will be so we have to arm ourselves with the capability to adapt now you mentioned natural ways of removing the CO2 from the atmosphere one thing that a viewer brought to my attention recently that I'm not too familiar with and I'm not sure if you are too is a way to artificially remove CO2 from the atmosphere is that technology that's there yet that's viable what is your take on that so yeah I have read a little bit about this technology so natural processes aside in other words put aside the fact th