the public will think Republicans are winning and they're ruthless they're hypocrites they don't give a shit they never play nine dimensional chess and think you know three or four steps ahead they just act and they're ruthless it's time for Democrats to start actually being tough and holding Republicans accountable as well I don't have anything left to say I just feel a little bit nauseous after seeing Mitch McConnell's face and his laugh very very very chilling and disturbing billionaires should not exist it's something that we need to say loudly and proudly and if possible put it on a bumper sticker throw that on your car because we need to get the word across that you cannot ever earn a billion dollars anyone who earns quote unquote earns a billion dollars either exploited the labor workers or exploited tax laws or exploited our political system to get to that point now I've said before that billionaires shouldn't exist but moreover they absolutely should not be able to buy elections and buy positions of power we're seeing that more and more you know they'll contribute to the campaigns of politicians and get really cushy jobs Betsy DeVos is a billionaire who donated to Donald Trump and now she is Secretary of Education isn't that funny how that works but now they're just becoming more brazen and they're financing their own elections we have a president who did that and now we have individuals like Mike Bloomberg who are trying to do the same thing and he has spent millions upon millions of dollars more than 50 million I want to say in the first week that he announced to just flood the airwaves and he is relatively successful at getting his message out there and he is polling in the mid-tier already he's at above 5% I think passing Andrew Yang someone who has been in this race for over a year so billionaires shouldn't exist and they shouldn't be able to run for president because if you actually want to protect democracy you've got to have some restrictions in place to protect democracy sort of like we shouldn't tolerate intolerance we shouldn't be so democratic that we allow democracy to eat itself so with that being said I want to share an article that I found on Jacobin that I absolutely think is crucial it's from Luke Savage and he explains why like Donald Trump Mike Bloomberg is also a threat to democracy he writes not one but two billionaires have jumped into the race since the country's most gilded caffeine baron got cold feet though the extent to which these efforts will translate into actual votes remain to be seen Michael Bloomberg's campaign in particular has already become a powerful illustration of the way billionaires convert their wealth into power as a conscious strategy and the threat that it poses to democracy to state the most obvious Bloomberg has already poured in a whopping 58.4 million to carpet bomb several states with TV and radio advertising outspending anyone else in the race by exponential margins fellow billionaire Tom Steyer isn't all that far behind more subtle though no less insidious is the way Bloomberg's past contributions to various campaigns and initiatives have enabled him to purchase political contacts and legitimacy the way a regular person buys groceries each and every one of Bloomberg's mayoral endorsers has several things in common in addition to their roles as local elected officials all have had him at one time or another as a benefactor and all have attended his prestigious boot camp at Harvard that gives the mayor's access to ongoing strategic advice from Bloomberg funded experts more than half have also received funding and grants courtesy of none other than Mike Incorporated the problem isn't that such behavior secures wealthy individuals like Bloomberg direct benefit in the form of quid pro quo relationships though it certainly can, it doesn't have to when you're so rich you have a couple billion dollars to throw around you're no longer an individual making voluntary private contributions rather you're a stakeholder in the basic infrastructure of politics and society itself as the emerging dynamic in the Democratic presidential race makes all too clear you can have billionaires you can have democracy and as long as you have the former you can expect the latter to be perpetually compromised now I think that this is an incredibly powerful argument against not only having billionaires but allowing them to just be able to buy democracy right and the article goes into detail about the way that Mike Bloomberg has effectively bought goodwill and political capital which is incredibly disturbing I mean he's spending money buying complicity from groups and individuals which has allowed him to basically maintain the level of legitimacy that he has currently and this includes charitable contributions personal favors like paying for medical procedures and whatnot and we touched on the mayoral endorsements he's received and there's a total of 8 but that in and of itself even though it's not a large number it shows you how far his reach is because this is someone who is the mayor of one city and mayors in other cities are suddenly endorsing him I mean isn't that interesting I mean we really should all be appalled at the fact that billionaires are trying to get elected by using the wealth that they have to buy goodwill which in turn helps them cultivate political legitimacy it's just I mean how are people not speaking out about this how do people who claim to support democracy not feel uncomfortable about this how does every single person not speak up how does the media not do in-depth analyses about this now the way that this article really portrays Bloomberg and the way he's used his money to do favors for a bunch of people it really reminds me of you know the clientelism and patronage these types of patron-client relationships that we see in the Middle East and North Africa so in these really impoverished usually resource rich countries where you know elites have a lot of money and a lot of the population is desperate basically there's these patron-client relationships where a public official will do a favor for you and in exchange for said favor they expect political support they expect your vote and often times you know with these relationships you can get in good with a public official if you bribe them so for example if you need like a public document or a driver's license it's not as easy as just going to the DMV and applying here not that that's easy in and of itself but nonetheless if you want for example a driver's license in one of these countries in the MENA region then you have to basically try to convince a public official to allow you to get one you can bribe that individual or maybe he'll give it to you but that's a favor so basically the way that these relationships works is that you know it's give and take you know you give as much as you get and that's kind of what I see happening or what at least you know Luke Savage describes is happening with regard to Mike Bloomberg he is buying goodwill he's cultivating legitimacy by helping people and their personal political careers and personal lives it is downright despicable no one should support Mike Bloomberg but people don't know any better they see his ads and a lot of the times name recognition it really plays a huge role right so people may not know better they may just support him because hey that's the guy who I saw on TV now sometimes it can backfire right because we're seeing in the state of New Hampshire where Tom Steyer another billionaire has flooded the airwaves and his ads have become so so you know annoying that they're basically a meme to people they have them memorized there so maybe it could backfire but with Mike Bloomberg it seems like his strategy is actually a little bit more successful now whether or not he's going to be able to be somewhat victorious you know that remains to be seen but the fact that he's pulling nationally at above 5% that should be just terrifying to everyone not because we think he'll win but because look at what a billionaire can easily do spend money that is not that much money to them and you can become a prominent presidential candidate wow Bernie has popularized the idea of free college here in the United States but we all know that when he initially floated this idea when he was running for president back in 2016 Hillary Clinton's response was the same response that we see from centrist Democrats like people to judge you know today she said well why should we pay for Donald Trump's kids to go to school for free that's ridiculous now this notion that you know making public colleges and universities tuition free and canceling all student loan debt is a giveaway to the rich it's just disingenuous and quite frankly it's idiotic because rich people most of the time you know they're going to send their kids to private schools they're gonna go to Ivy League schools right and this only applies to public colleges and universities so we've been having to defend against this and I think that we pretty much made a fool of anyone who floated that until you know the 2020 election cycle when you have individuals like Mayor Pete and Amy Klobuchar insisting that this is a giveaway to the rich it's a giveaway to the rich now first of all if rich people are heavily subsidizing these programs then we have no reason to exclude them and universality is important second of all Bernie was actually asked about this because now this is kind of an argument that's being applied to student debt cancellation and he spoke about this at the public education forum and Ali Velshi of MSNBC asked him the question and I wanted to share his response because his answer here was just impeccable you propose canceling college debt so you and I have a lot of conversations about the way things go where I come from in Canada and how some of these things work better here's my one question about canceling student debt even if it's from public universities there are people graduating from professions who do very well in high demand engineers coders and other professions philosophically I know you want to cancel that student debt economically given how much it costs is there a way to look at this where you don't cancel the student debt of people whose debt doesn't need to be canceled well I look at it a little bit differently number one trust me that those people who make a lot of money who are very wealthy probably not going to be voting for me because we're going to be raising their taxes very substantially but what I have to say is I do believe in the concept of universality you know in Canada whether you're rich or you're poor you can take advantage of the healthcare system in this country Donald Trump's grandchildren could go to a public school if they wanted even though he's a billionaire or he says he's a billionaire we don't know that's true alright so I look at it the other way I think what is simpler and more straightforward is A making all public colleges and universities tuition free for all people and B canceling all student debt and in this case paying for that through a modest tax on Wall Street speculation so Bernie didn't really emphasize this point but I think it really is important to state that if rich people and elites are heavily subsidizing these programs if they're paying the most into these programs then I don't care if they're going to send their kids to public schools again in reality they end up sending their children to private colleges nine times out of ten private charter schools and private colleges so I don't care if maybe a couple of billionaires send their children to public school as AOC put it you know economic integration is incredibly important for social and cultural reasons on top of that Bernie Sanders says that universality is incredibly important everyone pays into it and everyone has access to that benefit and I want to get to his quote here so he says in Canada you know whether you're rich or poor you could take advantage of the healthcare system in this country Donald Trump's grandchildren they can go to public school if they wanted to even though he's a billionaire so he says I look at it the other way what is simpler and more straightforward is A making all colleges and universities tuition free for people and B student debt and in this case paying for that through a modest tax on Wall Street speculation now I want to expand on two ideas here so the first area where I want to expand is to really get a little bit more into the details as to why we should cancel everyone student loan debt including people who will one day be able to easily pay it off and make a lot of money because again this goes back to this notion that they will be subsidizing the system so if you college and you make a lot of money you get a career where you have a 6 or 7 figure salary your student loan debt should be canceled as well because with all of that money you're making you will be paying back into the system the money you make will be funding free college for the future generation and furthermore once we make public colleges and universities tuition free student debt isn't going to be an issue going forward so we need to cancel all student debt and make it easy don't means test it so certain people can apply to make sure that they're eligible and others won't be and I'll explain why we don't want to means test these types of programs because means testing is incredibly divisive it makes it more difficult for poor people and working class people to access the benefit if it's means tested because they have to prove that they're eligible for said program they have to prove using documents and it's just a big headache and it pits the working class and the middle class against each other because if the middle class is excluded from this benefit that the poor gets well then that means that public perception of that program will go down it's going to be viewed as a welfare program and there's not going to be public support for that program as there are for other universal programs like social security so if you want to make sure that these public programs are protected means testing is not the way to go if you want it to last anyways this is why social security has essentially been untouchable and republicans and democrats haven't been able to even partially privatize it it is because it is a universal program and nobody wants it touched everyone pays into it everyone gets it period end of story another video that I want to show you centers on the issue of students who can't afford school lunches and also how they have debt now there's stories that pop up all the time about students paying off the lunch debt of their classmates by selling cookies and cider and what not but this doesn't need to happen and I know that perseverance porn is something that the media loves like these stories how somebody perseveres through a horrible time in fact some more news just did a really great long segment on this where he talked about how these stories about how people have to pull their sick days in order to give it to someone that's not like a feel good story that shows how broken our system is the point is these types of stories about kids having to raise money to pay off the school lunch debt of their fellow classmates that doesn't have to happen when you live in the richest country ever and Bernie Sanders was asked about this he was asked what he would do about this would he allow for free lunches and his answer here was just phenomenal predictably in our schools and I've done stories on this called lunch shaming children coming into school and for one reason or another their lunch bill has not been paid this government spends about 14 billion dollars across the country on subsidizing low and free lunch program but still we have some children who they go into the class into the lunch room find out they haven't paid their debt and the money is thrown into the garbage can and the people have said and I'm asking you should the government subsidize lunch in public school for all children regardless of their income and you know what and breakfast and dinner as well this gets back this gets back to the point you raised the moment ago I believe in universality you got a whole lot of money you don't at the lunch room situation nonsense you both are treated equally but I'm gonna have you pay more in taxes to make sure that all kids get a decent education a decent nutrition I absolutely love that answer he says he supports free school lunches and breakfast and dinner as well think about what this means to students across this country it means that even if your parents are poor you will not go hungry while you're at school you will eat and he also brought up once again this notion of universality some people will in fact pay more into these programs than others but what matters is that we're all treated equally it will be free at the point of service to everyone that is how you craft good public policy and Bernie gets this and I'm really glad that he's taking the time to explain universality because the democratic party they're addicted to means testing and they think that this is a way to kind of stick it to the rich but if you truly want to be more hard on the rich as you say you do you would increase their taxes but not very many of them want to do that or if they do they want to do it only to a small extent which wouldn't actually make a difference wouldn't be enough to fund social programs so at the end of the day he demonstrates to people that he understands why we need to go for these types of universal programs and it reinforces the fact that he is the best in this race we're saying merry Christmas again well the war on Christmas is officially over and I say that because republicans have explicitly declared victory now that doesn't necessarily mean that you won't find the occasional snowflake who claims that there still is a war on Christmas for example you might see a daily wire writer crying about unisex gingerbread cookie sweaters but I mean you can't please everyone and the fact remains that we lost the left waged a war on Christmas supposedly and we lost although according to Donald Trump there is another holiday that we can possibly destroy if we work hard enough to do that as we gather together for Thanksgiving you know some people want to change the name Thanksgiving they don't want to use the term Thanksgiving and that was true also with Christmas but now everybody's using Christmas again remember I said that and he's right we can in fact say merry Christmas again we couldn't before but now we can and I know this and knew this because after Donald Trump was elected the ads that he ran featured this little girl confirming that we can in fact say merry Christmas without worrying about going to jail now if you think that I'm just you know playing around and you don't actually believe that we can say merry Christmas again I have evidence that we can in fact say merry Christmas again for example when Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch appeared on Fox News he said those magical words and the Fox News host she was delighted and asked now for a rare live interview Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch good morning to you Merry Christmas I love that you say that Case closed there is officially no longer a war on Christmas because it has been won and this is really just heartwarming because this really is what freedom looks like being able to say merry Christmas in America is what freedom looks like when Trump's executive order will curtail the First Amendment by punishing students on college campuses that participate in BDS it doesn't matter that Congress just renewed the Patriot Act and ignores the Fourth Amendment entirely freedom in America means that we can say merry Christmas without fear of repercussion and it's all because Daddy Trump saw that this was an issue and he decided to fix it unilaterally so and we know this because he will never stop reminding us that he alone solved this issue and did you notice that everybody is saying merry Christmas again did you notice I did actually but thank you so much for reminding me again can never remind me too much but he's right the war on Christmas has been won thanks to Daddy Trump and you know Eric Trump and his wife recently sat down for an interview with America's racist aunt Judge Jeanine Piero and I mean at this point they're just rubbing it in our faces that we can say merry Christmas again we get it you won the war on Christmas we're losers your winners we get it but I mean this video was just it was just a little bit too overboard because they won and now they're pouring salt in our wounds Eric and I were talking about what's going on with impeachment and the FISA and all that but will you guys be able to just forget about all of it and really enjoy the fact that you really are part of the first family you are the first family you've done wonderful things for this country we now don't have the political correctness that we used to people are actually saying merry Christmas you can say merry Christmas again isn't that so nice Jeanine I love it I love Christmas trees I love Santa over here I mean you know how do you feel that your father has done all of that Eric it's incredible it is nice to say merry Christmas again and it is a beautiful thing to celebrate all the holidays with beautiful little kids like this I mean this is what America is all about this is what the American dreams all about and you know this is why we have an incredible country because we can sit there with the Santa Claus and with beautiful trees and eat ice cream and open presents and love one another and you know and see little ones grow and it's the best of this nation and I'm proud of him for reinvigorating so much of it well there you have it we can now say that seasonal greeting that lives hate because apparently we couldn't say that before and if you were saying those two words before you probably shouldn't tell anyone but the point is there was definitely a war being waged on Christmas and we lost so I think that it's time we finally admit that we lost and we acquiesce now I've said the words merry and Christmas I haven't really said them together I've referenced it but I haven't actually said that yet like I've been saying happy holidays now for over a decade and I've never really said that to anyone so I'm going to basically make you the very first person post war on Christmas that I actually say those two words too so this is going to be hard and I'm a little bit nervous if I'm being honest but here it goes meh try again merry hang on it's been a while okay I haven't said this merry Christmas well it is now that time of the year again it's time for the humanist reports annual award show where we crown our scumbag an MVP of the year and we also decide what is the most badass and WTF moment of the year now the way that it works is I nominate four individuals or moments in each of these categories and then I allow my viewers to vote and ultimately decide who's the winner now for the first we have our badass moment of the year and there were a lot of moments that I think qualify as badass but I narrowed it down to four and the first one of course is the one that stands out to me the most and it is Bernie's moment at a debate where he said now a very famous line can you guarantee those union members that the benefits under Medicare for all will be as good as the benefits that their representatives their union reps fought hard to negotiate well two things they will be better because Medicare for all is comprehensive it covers all healthcare needs for senior citizens it will finally include dental care, hearing aids and eye glasses second of all I do know when I wrote the damn bill every time I watched that moment I loved Bernie Sanders even more it was a great moment it was unscripted but he capitalized on that moment he printed stickers about that moment I hope that you all were able to pick this up I believe he offered it to people who donated to him as little as a dollar I think I'm not sure but it was a great moment and certainly even though there wasn't too much substance there it was one of the most memorable moments of the debate and it really stood out to a lot of people and I just I love it and it's clear that you all do too now on top of that the next nomination is Greta Thunberg's UN speech where she essentially told the world how dare you and this was such a huge moment because it really put the climate change debate if you will into perspective and you know it essentially made us all feel like shit because we're all looking to this child for inspiration when we should be the ones who are driving the conversation forward and actually taking action I shouldn't be up here I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean yet you all come to us young people for hope how dare you you have stolen my dreams my childhood with your empty words yet I'm one of the lucky ones people are suffering people are dying entire ecosystems are collapsing we are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth how dare you the next nomination is really important because it came at a time when I think a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters were feeling incredibly demoralized you know he just had a heart attack the media was trying to exploit that situation there were you know pictures that CNN released where they clearly upped the saturation to make it look like he was purple it was just a really weird thing that they did you know the media dwelled on the fact that he had a heart attack some accused him of not being transparent and disclosing that he had a heart attack immediately it was a really frustrating situation but after the first debate post heart attack we learned that Bernie Sanders would be receiving perhaps the most important endorsements of this election cycle endorsements for members of the squad AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and it really came at the perfect moment when we really needed to pick me up when we were feeling like you know our chances were diminishing this really is one of the most badass moments of the year in my nomination I'm one of the people that was inspired by the movement that the senator has built there was an America that I dreamed about there's an America that most people believe in it is an ideal it's not reality yet and he started the work of organizing for that America and that has inspired me to get involved and run myself to help others also organize for that America I'm a Bernie Sanders because he's not going to sell us out he understands that it's not just about policies and about words but it's going to be also about completely transforming the structures in place that is hurting American people this is not just about running for president this is about creating a mass movement of working class people the first time I ever heard about Bernie Sanders was when I was a waitress in a greasy spoon diner type of restaurant in downtown Manhattan and I had been working 12 hour days I didn't have health insurance I was being paid less than a living wage and I didn't think that I deserved any of those things I thought that that's just how life was the only reason that I thought running for office was even possible for me was because of his example because he proved that you could run for office and not take big money now on top of that a really special moment I think that I had to nominate was the release of Lula de Silva now we haven't talked much about Brazilian politics here on this channel but for anyone who follows Michael Brooks or the Michael Brooks show if you're not subscribed to him immediately he has been covering this and Lula isn't just an important leader because he would change the trajectory of Brazil but he is someone who could possibly change the world along with Bernie Sanders we on the left are not just running to change the United States we want to change and ultimately save the world and solidarity with other left-wing socialist leaders like Lula de Silva is incredibly important so when he was released that was a really important moment for the global progressive movement now there were a lot of honorable mentions that I didn't nominate but considered nominating but ultimately chose these specific moments for just my own personal reasons and how I felt that they were really important to me the honorable mentions include David Koch's death Tulsi Gabbard's takedown of Kamala Harris at one of the debates AOC's numerous speeches one of which was when she confronted a big pharma executive and another was when she made a speech about climate change there were so many moments that we could nominate for badass but ultimately I decided on these four even though it was incredibly difficult to really narrow it down that being said though I passed it off to you and I allowed you all to vote and you made your voices loud and clear so on Patreon with 74 total votes Bernie Sanders I wrote the damn bill received 20% Greta's How Dare You received 41% the squad's endorsement of Bernie Sanders received 32% and the release of Lula received 7% now on YouTube our audience voted and with a total of 15,000 votes Bernie's I wrote the bill received 59% Greta's How Dare You received 23% the squad's endorsement of Bernie Sanders received 10% and the release of Lula De Silva received 8% and on Twitter with more than 900 votes Bernie's I wrote the damn bill received 44% Greta's How Dare You received 14% the squad's Bernie endorsement received 28% and the release of Lula De Silva received 14% now when you look at the total results across all three platforms in fourth place we have Lula De Silva's release in third place we have the squad's endorsement of Bernie Sanders and it came down to Greta and Bernie Sanders and just edging out the squad's endorsement is Greta's You and Speech and in first place we have Bernie Sanders I wrote the damn bill moment this is officially the humanist reports badass moment of 2019 and out of all of these four nominations I think this is a great choice I personally would have been fine with either of these choices winning but you know nonetheless I'm really glad that Bernie Sanders I wrote the damn bill moment happened because it just whenever I see that clip it puts a smile on my face even though I've seen it now like about a dozen times two dozen times possibly but here's what you all think Kay Keen on Patreon writes I started to vote for I wrote the damn bill but then remember that the squads endorsement of Bernie brought tears to my eyes the day it happened so I changed my mind Ashley Hudson on Patreon writes Lula's release hands down change on Patreon writes many great choices again however as a former swede I'm proud as heck of Greta and her courage and spunk Fly Girl on Twitter writes specifically when AOC endorsed Bernie and that amazing rally in New York Matthias Perea on YouTube writes I love that Bernie's line is I wrote the damn bill while Biden's is no malarkey even their catchphrases shows you who is the substantive one Sam on YouTube writes Lula getting out means so much for the future of Brazil those in power may kill one or two or a hundred roses but they'll never stop the arrival of spring Matt on YouTube writes I love how grown men got so angry at a 16 year old doing climate activism and there you have it couldn't agree more with the sentiment expressed here so Bernie Sanders I wrote the damn bill certainly a worthy badass moment winner for 2019 well it is now time for us to decide what is the WTF moment of 2019 and let me say narrowing this down to just four nominees was almost impossible because there were so many moments in this year that are just unbelievably WTF so before I get to my official nominations I want to go to the honorable mentions that includes Diane Feinstein's confrontation with the sunrise movement where she basically told little kids to fuck off there's Fartgate there's John Hickenlooper explaining how he took his mom to see deep throat Trump vetoed a bill that would have saved thousands of lives by ending US support to Saudi Arabia as they carry out a genocide in Yemen there's Jeffrey Epstein's sudden death Amy Klobuchar ate salad with a comb and then screamed at an aid there was the attempted coup in Venezuela, Turkey's ethnic cleansing of the Kurds, Modi's crack down in Kashmir, billionaires trying to buy the democratic nomination almost all of these in and of themselves can win not just because they're you know bad for the world or the country but because they're also so weird that I think they really represent that WTF title well but ultimately I decided on four and this was tough but these are my nominations Jeremy Corbyn and Labor's defeat in the UK general election Donald Trump almost bombing Iran I mean just being literally minutes away from war with Iran was a terrifying thought the successful coup of Bolivian president Evo Morales and the burning of the Amazon rainforest known as the earth's lungs just thinking about all of these things really makes me feel uncomfortable it makes me feel upset and whichever one of these ultimately ends up winning I think it's a worthy title as I said all of these honorable mentions like any of these are I think worthy enough of being WTF moment of the year but I passed this question off to you you all voted and these are the results so on Patreon with 77 total votes Jeremy Corbyn and Labor's defeat got 32% Trump almost bombing Iran got 12% the Bolivian coup got 16% and the burning of the Amazon rainforest got 40% and on YouTube with a total of 15,000 votes Jeremy Corbyn and Labor's defeat got 30% Trump almost bombing Iran got 12% the Bolivian coup got 15% and the burning of the Amazon rainforest got 43% now on Twitter with 868 total votes Jeremy Corbyn and Labor's defeat got 36% Trump almost bombing Iran got 10% the Bolivian coup got 25% and the burning of the Amazon rainforest got 29% now when you look at the total results across all three platforms in fourth place is the fact that Donald Trump almost bombed Iran which I think is understandable because it didn't happen still a scary prospect nonetheless I'm glad that that didn't happen in third you have the Bolivian coup in second you have Corbyn's defeat and in first place the WTF moment of the year according to the Humanist Report audience is the burning of the Amazon rainforest and this is absolutely worthy of that title because the Amazon rainforest is largely described as the earth's lungs for good reason and I think that this is important to a lot of people because it's a symbol of how far we've gone down the road you know towards environmental degradation where we're burning the Amazon rainforest deliberately this wasn't you know something that happened accidentally this was sabotage and on top of that when you factor in the terrible scenarios response when you know people around the world France and whatnot wanted to help it makes it that much more just strange all around but that's my thoughts here's what you all think about this Jason Councilor on Patreon writes as the burning of the rainforest pushes us closer to an extinction level event for me that's definitely the biggest WTF moment of 2019 Manda on Twitter writes having to choose this is the worst chance all or so WTF Dick Dak on Twitter recommends another WTF moment that I didn't nominate Trump pardoned war criminals and revoked a rule on reporting drone strike deaths absolutely worthy of being WTF moment of the year there's just so many it was difficult to even remember them all John on YouTube writes they are all WTF moments but the biggest WTF moment was how the media either didn't cover them properly or just covered the impact of them up Mori on YouTube writes can we just nominate the whole year as a WTF moment Lorian on YouTube writes the series finale of humanity has been wild Mark Murphy on YouTube writes the Turkish ethnic cleansing of the Kurds should be on the actual list I think this is you know certainly fair Clement on YouTube writes you really need to add an option 2019 itself entirely yeah I think that that is fair um this whole year has you know produced a lot of moments that made me scratch my head question humanity um feel demoralized it's just been a relatively rough year politically um but I mean it could always be worse let's just hope that you know 2020 will produce a lot less WTF moments so that way this you know part of the award process next year will be a little bit easier because this really was difficult as a lot of the people commented suggested you know you can swap out those four nominees that I chose with others and it would be I think just this compelling you know in terms of choosing which moment is the WTF moment of the year so this was really really tough um and I'm ready to move on because I don't want to think about all these horrible things that have happened in the year on top of all the weird things that have happened you know with John his mom to see deep throat and then talking about that and Amy Klobuchar eating salad with a comb fart gate I mean what a weird year so many WTF moments yeah but overall I think you know we can all acknowledge why the viewers chose the burning of the Amazon rainforest it's depressing it's disgusting and we need to take better care of the planet I don't know what else to say so I'll leave that there there's a lot of scumbags around the world and here at home but there can only be one scumbag that wins the humanist reports scumbag of 2019 title I nominated four individuals these are my nominations the first is Donald J Trump who I really don't think I have to explain in this year alone think of all of the things that he's managed to do he shut down the government for almost three weeks essentially because he threw a prolonged temper tantrum because he wanted funding for his border wall that he said Mexico would pay for he was literally minutes away from bombing Iran he single-handedly catalyzed an ethnic cleansing of the Kurds and northern Syria he continues to lock babies in cages he cut food stamps and announced another cut to food stamps he's expanding the US Empire increased drone strikes continues to kill civilians around the world his administration is supporting a lawsuit that would overrule the ACA's protection for people with pre-existing conditions this individual is obviously an unhinged scumbag and he really is I think worthy of this title but that's just one of my nominations my second nomination is Mitch McConnell now Donald Trump wouldn't be nearly as effective if it weren't for Mitch McConnell who is helping him achieve all of this Mitch McConnell is someone who is perhaps the biggest ghoul in the country because he has the same political ideology as Donald Trump but he's actually effective at accomplishing what he wants to accomplish and that is ruin the country and the planet he stole a Supreme Court seat from Democrats on top of that he is helping Donald Trump to stack the federal judiciary so when you go beyond Neil Gorsuch and Kavanaugh he has helped make Donald Trump one of the most successful presidents when it comes to nominating federal judges and on top of that Mitch McConnell is blocking almost every single bill that comes to the Senate essentially not allowing democracy to take place bills that would possibly even pass the Republican controlled Senate I mean I don't know what else to say this individual is a horrible morally reprehensible morally bank-rept human being and I absolutely believe he is worthy of this title now my third nominee is Stephen Miller who we all suspected was a white nationalist and white supremacist because you know look at him he helped craft Donald Trump's Muslim ban with Steve Bannon I believe on top of that he helped craft the family separation policy the zero tolerance at the border policy that led to families being separated and leaked emails recently confirmed that he does in fact have an affinity for white nationalism so the fact that someone like him is able to have power and hang on to power and hasn't resigned that makes him a scumbag because white supremacy should be nowhere near power and the fact that he is in a place of power and has a lot of influence over policy I mean that just makes him dangerous and makes him a scumbag now my final nominee is Boris Johnson the Trump of the UK who essentially ran an election on getting Brexit done and he made it very clear that he's going to allow the NHS to be a bargaining chip with the United States so he's going to open it up in other words to more privatization and he's going to undo the progress that they made in the UK and something that we're trying to achieve here I mean on top of that he has a pass of you know racism and bigotry and xenophobia and homophobia this individual is a far right figure like Donald Trump perhaps not as far to the right as Donald Trump nonetheless still problematic and he's just a bad person overall and I think that he's worthy of this title but those are my nominations you guys ultimately get the final say and here are the results so on Patreon Donald Trump received 14% of the vote Mitch McConnell received 7% of the vote Stephen Miller and Boris Johnson tied in third with 15% now on YouTube Donald Trump had 27% Mitch McConnell had 56% Stephen Miller had 7% and Boris Johnson had 10% and when it comes to our Twitter audience Donald Trump had 31% of the vote Mitch McConnell had 40% of the vote Stephen Miller had 11% of the vote and Boris Johnson garnered 18% of the vote now when you look at the total results across all three platforms in fourth place is Stephen Miller in third place is Boris Johnson and it came down to Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell but ultimately the ultimate ghoul and scumbag of 2019 is Mitch McConnell and I was kind of leaning towards either Donald Trump or Mitch McConnell either way Mitch McConnell is worthy of this title but there's a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel because Mitch McConnell is up for re-election so he may be the scumbag of 2019 but he might not even be in the running in 2020 if he gets defeated in fact his defeat could potentially be the badass moment of 2020 if we all play our cards but you know long story short Mitch McConnell is really the ultimate ghoul he has done irreparable harm to the country and really we are going to suffer because of his legacy now credit words do he's effective but effective doesn't necessarily mean that you are producing results that are good for the American people in fact he's hurting the American people but those are my thoughts here's what you all said John provided us with a number of quotes he says the human turtle hybrid mister because I get to decide what we vote on said this quote I'm indeed the grim reaper when it comes to the socialist agenda that they've been ginning up over in the house with overwhelming democratic support and sending it over to America things that would turn us into a country we've never been so this is full war socialism on the march in the house and yeah as long as I am majority leader in the planet none of that stuff is going anywhere I saved the Supreme Court for a generation by blocking President Obama's nominees and led the way for Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh on top of that he also said I love the tax bill and a lot of the other things we did but I think lifetime appointments not only to the Supreme Court but to the circuit courts are the way you have the longest lasting impact on the country and he's right about that Monica range on Patreon writes they're all bad as heck this turtle has been terrorizing our democracy since Obama was elected and he's done so much damage by not letting bills even come to the floor for a vote hundreds of them he acts like a dictator despicable person Sophia on Twitter says they're all garbage all of the above Mitch he's done the most long term and substantial harm Matt P on YouTube writes Buddha Judge Bezos and Pelosi should get a mention too also Almagro head of the OAS calling slash plotting the Bolivian coup fair enough so there you have it Mitch McConnell is our scumbag of 2019 um he certainly deserves this so uh congratulations Mitch I guess well it is now officially time for us to hand out our most prestigious award here at the Humanist Report and it's also the epic conclusion of our 2019 award ceremony we will now crown our MVP of 2019 now what's interesting is that this award show has been going on ever since we had the Humanist Report podcast I believe um and every single time we have had an MVP vote Bernie Sanders has won each consecutive time the only year when there was a real challenge to his dominance here was last year in 2018 when AOC almost beat him and it was really the only year when I was actually rooting for someone other than Bernie Sanders but now is that time to put this up for a vote and see who the Humanist Report's audience believes should in fact be the MVP of 2019 and as usual I nominated four individuals to no one surprise Bernie Sanders again is one of my nominations because this is an individual who is running for president who could very well not just change the country but change the world and if we elect him we could change the course of history and as a candidate 2020 Bernie is better than 2016 Bernie because he has shifted to a better position when it comes to student loans he now believes in full cancellation when it comes to healthcare he's gotten better on that as well he believes in cancelling medical debt he has improved he's a more well rounded candidate he's more savvy than ever he has the experience and of course he should be MVP in my opinion although these are just my nominees you all ultimately get to decide now of course another nominee is Alexandria Ocasio Cortez she really is one of the main individuals who I view as a real leader in the progressive movement she has been a wonderful member of Congress she endorsed Bernie Sanders I was worried you know after in 2016 we were betrayed by Elizabeth Warren and she abandoned us I felt really demoralized and I wasn't necessarily so sure that AOC would endorse Bernie Sanders I thought maybe she'd sit out the primary she thankfully proved me wrong and she proved to us that she is the real deal and she has helped facilitate a shift in the Overton window and she really has changed political discourse for the better and I absolutely admire her and I think that if she were to win this category she would be a really worthy representative of you know MVP for the year of 2019 my next nominee is someone new to this category Greta Thunberg and the only other person who I've nominated for this category you know that's been this young is Malala Yousafzai but Greta Thunberg has been one of the most if not the most important allies in the fight to stop climate catastrophe and she really manages to articulate the urgency of this issue better than anyone I've ever heard and she has inspired and encouraged a generation to get out in the streets and protest and fight for their future young people around this world look to her as a leader and that has to be acknowledged so of course I had to nominate her now my final nominee is Ilhan Omar one of the best members of congress arguably the most left wing member of congress because economically speaking she's awesome when it comes to social issues she is virtually perfect but also when it comes to foreign policy she's one of the strongest in congress in terms of speaking out against US imperialism so I absolutely respect Ilhan Omar and on top of that she really deserves recognition because she deals with something no other members of congress have to deal with a constant barrage of attacks, smears and literal death threats which she still receives on a daily basis but nevertheless she continues to fight for what's right and she's not backing down and she also endorsed Bernie Sanders, something I didn't expect and it showed a lot of courage and this really just it was phenomenal to see now I felt bad excluding Rashida Tlaib I felt like she also was a worthy choice but I felt like out of the members of the squad AOC and Ilhan Omar they just did a little bit extra to be considered for this category but Rashida Tlaib is absolutely an honorable mention I even considered putting all the squad together but then that would kind of be unfair because they're pulling votes but at the same time if I separate them then maybe they're splitting votes between AOC and Ilhan Omar either way I thought that it was more appropriate for me to choose four individuals and then allow you guys to be the ultimate deciders so with that being said I've talked long enough let's get to the results on Patreon with a total of 72 votes Bernie Sanders received 65% Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez received 19% Greta Thunberg received 8% and Ilhan Omar received 7% of the vote according to our YouTube audience with 11,000 total votes Bernie Sanders received 70% Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez received 17% Greta Thunberg received 8% and Ilhan Omar received 5% now on Twitter Bernie Sanders received 62% Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez received 21% Greta Thunberg received 10% Ilhan Omar received 8% now comparing all the results across all three platforms in fourth place we have Ilhan Omar in third place we have Greta Thunberg and of course it came down to AOC and Bernie Sanders yet again for the second year in a row and when it comes to who our MVP of 2019 is it wasn't even close once again Bernard Sanders is the humanist reports MVP of 2019 I was rooting for him again and I think he absolutely deserves this victory but I've told you my thoughts let's see what the audience thinks so Skyla on Patreon writes Senator Bernard Sanders Kay Keen on Patreon writes there can only be one Bernie Karen on Patreon writes Bernie's trying to heal a country Greta's trying to save the world Adriana on YouTube writes Bernie was the one who created the progressive movement who inspired AOC and Ilhan to run they said so themselves changing the discourse there wouldn't be a growing progressive force in Congress not meaning to discredit AOC and Ilhan Omar's merits of course love them both he's been the MVP for 40 years well said Zero PE on YouTube writes shifting the Overton window alone makes Bernie MVP absolutely Basim Shakir on YouTube writes Ilhan Omar because she has faced the most adversity from every avenue and still stand strong the most agent on YouTube writes Greta specifically because she pisses off all the right people so I mean there you have it for the fifth consecutive year in a row Bernie Sanders Hello? he will be standing writing his crowd today watching me perform Layer on the beat boy name another politician that you know that this consistent this consistent for the people education make a difference share the fight for 15 ain't equality for women comprehensive immigration in a real black agenda Medicare for all yeah you start to get the message I don't you worry about the swag matter of fact you can put it on my tab count every vote they think they got it in the bag $27 and they still getting mad so progressive and we never go let up Bernie establishment I'm screaming from the neck up this is our time this is our fight these are my kids this is my life this ain't about the left this ain't about the right nobody cares if your mega hats on tight you little baby still yelling for the wall still while the poor still trying to pay their life bill 40 hours gotta beg living wage still trying to see a better day instead of crying in the ocean full of misery we gonna stand tall with the burn making history hello everyone I am here with Donna I'm em running in the 31st congressional district of Texas she is challenging a build the wall Trumpian Republican in a race that is very interesting to watch it's a flippable district and she is here to tell us why she's going to win Donna thank you so much for coming on the program thank you so much for having me Mike I really appreciate it now I like this race because you were kind of explaining to me before you went on that nobody's paying attention to this race and that really is a shame because you are so close to flipping this district you're 2.9% away from winning that seat it's very competitive but yet the National Democratic Party and State Democratic Party they don't really seem to be interested because they feel as if this isn't something that is worth really investing in because it's not winnable tell us why you decided to run and why this is in fact a flippable district yeah so I'm an average middle class person that works for a living right I'm a computer engineer I've been working in the tech industry but over the last five years I started working on a non-profit and the reason I started working on a non-profit is around 2004-2006 I worked in Lafayette, Indiana in an industry where on the bottom floor we had manufacturing and every single one of those manufacturing workers were laid off they had no employment opportunities no way to get out and some of them never worked a day in their life again that left an impact on me and that's why I chose a specific non-profit because it focuses on education it provides free continuing education to anybody who wants it but why am I telling you this the reason is as I went through this non-profit what I realized is no matter how much time I poured into it there were people in Austin, Texas that have been unemployed for years during the 2008-2009 downturn even though they were highly educated and today end of 2019 when supposedly the economy is amazing people say the unemployment rate in Austin is low but guess what the unemployment rate in Austin is extremely high and it's high because people are working whatever job they can find they're working two free jobs even people with really great education so I felt defeated working in a non-profit and I don't think any person should have to depend on philanthropy or a non-profit to get by our system is completely broken and I wanted to find a way to be part of that solution I think if average people like me are ever inspired to run for office people who are not necessarily activists they're just general people who work for a living trying to raise their families trying to give them a good education if we don't come together we're not going to change the system that's why I'm running this race you asked me why is this so exciting Texas has six districts that the DCCC is targeted because they're very very close this is one of them the reason it's close is this over the last five years has grown gang busters right it went from a small sleepy little town to a major city in the United States and it's pushed people out into the suburbs two, three hours out of the city center because they just can't afford to live in the city anymore right it used to be a very affordable city and as they push people out you have young families moving into the suburbs so I live in the north Austin area and this area includes Williamson and bell counties and it goes all the way to Colleen which has the largest military base in the United States largest armored vehicle military base this district has more veterans per square mile than anywhere else in all of Texas this district is so close because just in the last year after the 2018 cycle we had 50,000 more people move into just one county because they're looking for a decent life and that like I said it's 2.9% of 8,000 votes so this waste kit is flippable it's winnable but the crazy thing is this I'm running on single-payer healthcare for all I'm running on education for all that incentivizes people to go serve in rural and underserved communities and I'm running on what I call real pay for all which says look you can't live on $15 an hour in most American cities and that people should be paid a real way which means you can not only just pay your bills but you should have the ability to purchase a home put a down payment on a home and you should be able to retire someday if you're working full time okay and the thing is people are like oh well you think that's gonna work in Texas you talk to every single person in Texas's 31st district it doesn't matter if you're Democrat, independent, Republican and you say we're trying to reduce the cost of healthcare because that's the real issue and single-payer does that we're trying to reduce the cost of education so kids in temple ISD and clean ISD can actually afford to live on UT Austin campus that message resonates we can flip this district blue on this platform that's the crazy thing about it and that's so interesting so I was under the impression that the national party wasn't necessarily paying attention to this race but I think the real story here is that they're kind of overlooking you because there's this idea in these flippable districts that you cannot be a far left candidate you know there's this fear mongering about that and the idea I'm assuming from the national party and even the state party is that you have to run a campaign that's very moderate center of the road because if you want to flip that district then you need to pull in some Republican party voters can you dive a little bit more into the detail as to why that's a horrible strategy and why getting out the vote is actually what will be conducive to a victory because I think that even though I talk about this people in that district really need to understand why running a campaign that is progressive and bold it's not a lost cause in fact this is your best bet but I want to kind of hear it from you as to why you think being true to yourself and actually running on a campaign that you say $15 is not enough you know that would scare a lot of people just instinctively and thinking okay she's too far left she's no way she's going to win so why do you think it's important to kind of push back against that narrative it's important to push back between that for that narrative because it's wrong so as a techie and as a product manager I ran some large product lines right there are tens of millions of people who use my notebooks there are you know semiconductor product lines that are in everything from your toaster to a high speed train that I've worked on so I understand the financial aspect of this the fact is this real paper all is not out of reach and it will organically grow the economy and I can make that I can make a strong ironclad financial case for that I have white papers on every single policy proposal that I'm proposing and here's the thing when you tell people look you're going to have health care guaranteed no matter what you're going to have hundreds of thousands of people going into entrepreneurship that's going to generate real jobs because they have that piece of the mind that hey I'm not going to die if I go and try to start a business out of my garage out of my living room okay when you pay people especially something people who make less than $50,000 a year families that make less than $75,000 a year when you pay them an extra dollar you know what they use it for they use it to buy their kids a better pair of nikes a newer backpack they go out with their family on Friday night and get a pizza together that money goes right back into the economy it creates more jobs and it creates high paid jobs this is a message that resonates it doesn't matter across it across party lines across thought processes it's the way we talk about it when we start using various labels people can push you left and right but the answer is this every single one of us has the same challenges we're trying to pay our rent or pay our mortgage we are trying to send our kids to school why because we want them to have a decent future ahead of them and we want to be able to pay our bills we don't want to bag on the streets we don't want to be homeless most of us want to be able to go to the grocery store and live a dignified life and we want to contribute to our community and if we have the financial resource to do that every single person is going to do that and there's a solid case for that it's undeniable and that's the message that we need to get to people we keep living on fear we're never going to get to this the biggest issue with districts like this because it's been read from its inception so the current representative has been in office for almost two decades many people who believe in this don't really understand how close this district is because when you run in a US congressional campaign or as a candidate there's thousands of candidates across the country so you get the least amount of exposure and not everybody is doing the research to find out hey there are all these districts in Texas there's one north of Austin that's right to go blue we've got some great candidate there who's got these great ideas and people love it I spent full time the first six months of 2019 just going across my district from city to city talking to groups bipartisan groups nonpartisan groups talking to people in places like for example Lions clubs and just clubs that come together like business clubs that come together and every single person believes the same thing they want opportunities they don't want to pay huge taxes but they're willing to pay for what makes sense and you know when it comes to healthcare and education look you know this we're overpaying for healthcare by trillions of dollars right now right we're overpaying for education the cost of education is completely inflated with technology the cost of education should be one tenth of what it was 10 years ago or 20 years ago it's the opposite right and we know that these are inflated just because they can be there's no actual logic behind it so what I'm saying is look let's use technology I'm an engineer let's use it let's use it to drive down the cost of education in four years we want it to be halved in another eight years we want it to go down further let's put the right incentives in place so we can get state universities to you know sign on to these initiatives right let's incentivize them to give them money and let's do the same thing with healthcare let's go to single care let's take out the billions of dollars that private healthcare insurance companies are making let's put more physicians because we have a huge lack of primary care physicians in this country by the way that nobody have you heard anybody talk about this on the mainstream media that we actually don't have enough doctors even if we want to cover the 80 million uninsured under insured let's scale the healthcare infrastructure let's put primary care clinics on in every neighborhood so people can get preventative care so you don't get to third stage cancer extremely expensive to treat right these ideas they resonate with every single person in my district and that's why I'm running that's why I believe I can flip it and I would love any help because yes financially we're struggling yeah you're running up against an incumbent who as you said has been there for almost two decades John Carter was elected in 2003 and gradually over the years he is losing support but as I kind of alluded to in the beginning of this this is a Trump being a Republican who is basically towing the Republican party line and I'm curious because you talk about all these issues and it makes sense like these are the kitchen table issues so to speak that a lot of people talk about that affect individuals but I'm wondering how much since you're in the state of Texas is he able to exploit issues and exploit xenophobia and what not and the issue of immigration because he wants to build the wall that's kind of his go to thing he's benefited from Trumpian Trumpism so how much is that an issue that's coming up and how are people responding when you try to basically center them on what's the real issue it's not you know immigrants who are hurting you economically it's the system itself it's elites as the rigged economy how does that play in terms of based on people who you've spoken with yeah so he's not just a build a wall guy the current representative is a direct recipient of money from the geo group which runs the private prisons and it runs these cages that we're keeping these kids you know Carlos Hernandez right 16 year old kid who died on a cold concrete floor this is happening under our watch no American nobody in Texas 31 no patriotic person on this earth is going to say that's okay there's nobody in my district that's going to say that's acceptable for you to take money from the geo group the group that runs these prisons where this boy died in his own pool of blood there's nobody who believes that the wall is going to help them be able to afford education for their kids to send them to UT Austin nobody believes that you couldn't even make them believe that and it's completely distracting but what we have unfortunately what these leaders have is they have certain mainstream media that are echoing this over and over and over again and that's all these people here and we have to cut through this the only way we cut through this is we run candidates who are talking about challenges that can be solved and we talk about the solutions the only way that we can combat this is that we have hundreds and thousands of US congressional people that talk about solutions we've got to stop talking about these generic keyword issues that are out there that we're supposed to use let's talk about health care how do we get it how do we reduce cost let's talk about education how do we reduce it how do we get it to every single kid doesn't matter if they want to go to trade school or college or two years doesn't matter right we have to talk about that and we have to talk about it until we drown out the fake news going around and saying that immigrants are the challenges look I'm an immigrant I came to this country the reason that I've been this successful and built a decent middle-class life for myself is because I got a great education a debt free education I got to do my graduate studies completely free on scholarships and assistantships I didn't have to worry about $250,000 of debt I was able to put a down payment on a phone because I had what a high paying job I want that for every single American I know we can get that to every single American and I have the financial case for what we Democrats believe is the more only right thing to do and I love your answer and I like to ask this of people who are running in red districts because it really gives you a sense of whether or not they have the right strategy and I think that you do like there's a lot of people who I think they're going to vote for Donald Trump or the Republican regardless right so what matters is that you don't deviate from your platform and try to appeal to these types of people the goal is to get out new people and people who really feel like they haven't been represented who don't really care about these types of issues and who just want someone who's going to look out for them but they kind of feel like you know the Republican or the Democrat even in certain districts they haven't been representing them so you know what's the point of voting they stay home a lot of people kind of checked out and so I love your strategy and people like you because you're you're basically doing something that hasn't been done you know energizing a portion of the electorate that has not participated in politics like if we if we want to live in not just a democracy functionally speaking but one that's thriving we need people to participate and they're not currently voter turnout is low thankfully it's up increasingly but I mean generally speaking comparatively speaking it's low and people like you are trying to change that which is phenomenal and I don't think that a centrist is going to flip that district if that district is flipped and I think it will be it's going to be because of you so I want you to talk through the dynamics of this primary because this is currently a competitive primary you're running against other Democrats and if I had to make a prediction before you tell me you are not someone who the establishment is taking much interest in so talk through who you're running against and who I'm assuming that you know more establishment corporates Democrats have kind of coalesced around because there always seems to be in each district one candidate who is pulling in the most amount of money usually from special interests talk a little bit about the dynamics here and where you kind of stand out yeah so we have five people in the primary so our filing date was yesterday by the way and we have our primary early voting is February 18 so we're literally you know less than two months away from early voting and our actual primary day is March 3rd okay so out of the five candidates most of us really don't have any kind of background in politics as in we're not traditional politicians there is one person that's ran before but the here's here's what makes me different okay all of these folks are coming in and they're running basically on bread and butter Democratic sort of messages right and I am I'm running on very specific policy I am saying look I believe in single care healthcare but in order to accelerate Medicare for all which I want to right I want to accelerate single-payer Medicare I want to scale the infrastructure I want to make sure we incentivize more primary care physicians so when Medicare for all gets implemented it'll actually be successful the what differentiates me is that I'm trying to bring ideas and solutions that will actually work they're profitable and we can pay for them and there's a financial case behind them education same thing I'm saying look if we want to get school teachers and social workers and physicians to rule places we got to incentivize them we have to pay off their student loans completely and say come come out and teach in Salado, Texas come out and teach in Temple, Texas come out and teach in Colleen, Texas right the biggest challenge with most you know folks that are running the primary right now is that they don't realize that for example my district in Bell County there's a 25 to 30% black American population right no one realizes that you need to go and ask for their vote and you need to give them something to vote for they're not just going to come out and vote for you because you're a Democrat right I've spent you know the entire year talking to all leadership and all the communities and the black community for example and you know what they told me this is fact they said Donna we know you love to talk about health care but black people we've never had health care we can't even get a job to us the justice system is a huge problem and I listened to them I formulated my own equal justice for all policy proposal I have a white paper it's published on my website I send it out to all the black leaders that I could and I know in the community I asked them to review it give them their feedback and they did they gave me edits they told me the problems that they faced especially if you've been incarcerated for whatever reason it is so impossible to get a decent paying job even if you want to turn your life around right we developed equal justice for all policy we made a core platform portion so we're addressing the needs of the people in Texas 31st district directly you know what I'm trying to say which is most Democrats they're not they're running on a generic message and you can't win you have to engage people you have to give them a reason to come out and vote you have to give them a reason to believe that somehow you're going to bring change because just running for office doesn't matter if you can't bring real change impact to people's lives we have people here who have less than $400 in their bank account and they literally cannot pay for their grocery bill imagine if you're a kid and you come home from school and you're expected to do your homework and there's not a single snack for you how do you focus how can you ever expect that that kid is going to have a life that's accomplished compared to somebody who comes home and their mom is at home or their nanny is at home and they have a meal in the refrigerator and they can focus and they do have a high speed internet connection so they can do their homework and that's the same out of those two kids that's reality we have to talk to reality and stop talking in generic terms and that's how we're going to flip this district and I think that that is so important that you said that because a lot of politicians they're running because they love the sound of their own voices right they talk at people and not get their feedback and talk to people and I think that that's really such a crucial part of what makes a good campaign because in each district there's going to be a very specific set of issues that impact voters differently people of color will have different experiences in certain parts of the country and certainly different experiences than their white counterparts there's all these different concerns that people have but they haven't had anyone just ask them what do you need you know what issues affect you what type of policy do you think would help your life and I think that that's so different and we're starting to see a paradigm shift in this country where people aren't just running on that generic platform I mean they are right you're experiencing that with your opponents but more people are rising up and they're trying to actually do something that hasn't been done and that is represent the people you know the house of representatives is people's house you're supposed to represent the people but we've kind of we've gotten fixated on this generic idea that we have to appeal to moderates and be center of the road and these purple districts or red districts and it's not working people aren't voting for Democrats because Democrats aren't listening to them and you're changing that so anyone who's watching this I think is going to be convinced that you're the real deal and if they want to flip that district they've got to vote for Donna so give us your pitch and let us know what we can do to help you if you're inside that district especially what can we do to volunteer okay so there's a couple of things you can do one if you're out if you're inside the district we need you we can put you to work in many different areas we need we need you to go talk to your neighbors we need you to go talk to your organizations we need you to knock on any door we need you to make calls on behalf of us that's how we reach people we have to have that conversation that point of contact there's only one of me okay and there's only so much I can do and until we get everybody involved in this movement we can't flip this district you don't win a district because you have a great candidate you don't win a district because you have a great message you win a district because the people in that district demand change they demand new representation and so we need you if you're in that district now we also need money because at the end of the day you still have to print content and literature and go door to door and you need some people to help you with van and you need some field organizers to cut you lists so we need every dollar we can get look we're a completely grassroots campaign no corporate money we barely have any large donations it's all small donations so any dollar amount you can throw our way before December 31st would make a huge impact and I'll tell you what for a campaign like ours in November and December are really complicated and hard times to raise money but more importantly a candidate like me who's running for the first time I spend most of my time campaigning going to events trying to meet people so I don't have the eight or nine hours of the day to be calling people and asking for money which is what a lot of corporate candidates are doing every single corporate candidate tells me they spend a minimum of eight hours on what's called call time that's calling wealthy donors and asking them to make $2,800 contributions I literally do not have time for that I'd be trying to go out and meet with the community and shake their hands and tell them who I am because they've never met me they don't know who I am so you can see how important it is to contact because people trust you based on looking into your eye and talking to you and seeing what you're going to do for them that's how they develop trust right so yes there's lots of ways you can help and even if you're outside the district you can help make phone calls and call inside the district and tell people about us we can do this this is a winnable district help me get through the primary and I promise I'll deliver you Texas 31 and I'll turn Texas blue that sounds absolutely phenomenal imagine if we brought in the squad in Congress so to speak and got someone from Texas elected that would be absolutely just amazing and I think the establishment would be shocked and to kick out a Republican who's been there for almost 20 years who's a Trumpian Republican I mean imagine how amazing that would feel if you contributed to that process so one more time tell us the date of the primary before we go so the date of the primary is March 3rd early voting is February 18th and if you want to check out my website or my policy it's at votefordonna.com alright we'll also have that information up on the screen Donna thank you so much for coming on we will be rooting for you and watching this raise very closely thank you so much Mike I really really appreciate it well that is it that was an incredibly long episode and I think I've said everything that I've needed to say and um yeah let's bring on 2020 so as usual if you want to ring in the New Year by supporting independent media you can do so by going to humanistreport.com or patreon.com or by clicking join underneath any one of our YouTube videos thank you all so much for helping the show not just to survive but thrive as well you all are the lifeblood of this show and your support is absolutely crucial and I just honestly cannot ever overstate how much I appreciate you all so I mean that is it happy holiday uh happy holidays including new years not a lot of the same year Christmas because there is a war on Christmas or there was but I am going to keep that war in perpetuity because I think it's important and it's funny but nonetheless you know I hope you all have a fun holiday and if you don't celebrate or if you don't celebrate Christmas I just hope that you take some time before 2020 before the battle that we're going to have to fight to just relax do some you know self uh self care you know play some video games watch some movies be lazy take a little bit of a break if you can mentally and physically because we are going to have to put in work if we want to be successful and have a good 2020 so I will be fighting and I know that all of you will be right alongside to help make sure that we are victorious going into this new year so that's it if I keep talking I will start rambling already kind of started to and I'm just done talking take care everyone my name is Mike Figueredo this has been the humanist report I will see you all in 2020