Broadcasting Around the World from Washington, DC, I'm Bart Chilton and this is Martin Luther King Jr. today. January 15th, it's actually was his birthday and were he alive today nearly 50 years ago after his assassination in Memphis, in Memphis, Tennessee, he'll be 88 years old. We'll have more on the good Reverend later in the program and Ashley Banks will also take a look at minority gains over the last 15 years and coming up after some headlines we'll talk retail numbers with Melissa Harmo plus Alex Mahalovich will talk about the debt trap for Canadians and debt trap for US consumers and before we go we'll head over to the National Museum of African American History but first let's get to the business of financial headlines. Ford has announced to increase their investment in electric cars to a total of $11 billion through 2022. Ford had previously committed to spending $4.5 billion through 2020 and redirected $400 million in development from conventional models to electric and hybrids. Ford currently features just one electric vehicle to focus in its fleet but the new investment is aimed at developing models that can carry the corporation's more well-known and exciting names such as the Mustang. Ford hopes to be selling a lineup of 16 fully electric cars within five years including an electric sports car called the Mach 1 by 2020. More power to them. The iconic automakers announcement at the Detroit Auto Show is still just an effort to catch up with similar commitments from some of the competitors. Volkswagen for example is already committed to investing $40 billion in this area by 2022. GM plans to sell 40 electrified models by 2023 including 16 that are fully electric already. Dalmar AG which owns Mercedes-Benz plans all electric vehicles by 2022 and Volvo plans to phase out and gas only cars by 2019. Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods is already boosting their online grocery delivery sales. Market watchers at one-click retail say sales per Amazon Fresh increased by 35%. Up $135 million for the last four months of 2017. Sales of Whole Foods 365 everyday value brand items contribute $11 million to that total. While the increase was significant Amazon's total is still just a fraction established of the grocer's cut in this specialty market area. Kroger for example banked nearly $2 billion rather in sales for organic and quote natural foods. Albertson's competing brand registered $1 billion in that niche. Online sales still account for just 3% of the $800 billion total for grocery sales. Amazon Fresh is believed to have captured $350 million of that total. Now let's talk retail and to do that we have probably the best person around joining us. Melissa Armo the founder of StockSuite, such a cool name Melissa. Thank you for joining us. Let's start with Walmart that's been in the news so much. They've been talking about their wage increases and then tried to sneak in the other day down playing and they're closing those 16 Sam's Club stores. What's going on Melissa? Art is just trying to compete really in this retail sector which you know Target raised their minimum wage last year in 2017. So Walmart's a little bit behind the eight ball with that. They're doing they just announced it's going to be $11 an hour for new employees which is great. But yes like you said they did close or they're going to be closing this month a lot of Sam's stores in fact about 10,000 people are going to be laid off which is a lot. But I really think in the end Walmart was trying to make a good decision here. The retail landscape is completely changing and it's not going to stop. These are the Walmart's the targets the calls they've got to compete with Amazon just like you were talking about and they've got to cut corners where they can. And when you talk about stocks I know you look at this stuff all the time. How are they doing compared to some of the competitors competitors that you met? How's Walmart doing? Walmart's been doing great. Let me tell you something. It has been a bullish market but Walmart has surpassed all expectations in the last year. If you look at the stock one year ago this month January 2017 it was around $69 a share and Friday it closed over $100 a share which even in a bullish market that is a massive jump for the stock. It's over 40% it's almost 50%. So Melissa if their stock's up 40% why are they closing 60 stores? What sneaky strategy is that? Because here's the thing it's like I said the retail landscape is changing and Walmart seeing that it's not just about price at these types of discounted stores which really Sam's Club I mean I don't know if you've ever been to Sam's Club but Sam's Club is about discount and bulk. So they're just trying to compete it's not just price anymore with these discounted stores it's about speed of delivery when you can get what you need what you want. And so that's you know that's the thing you still got to drive to a Sam's Club to get whatever you need whereas Walmart and you know they've got to compete more online with Amazon and Target. Now what about some of those retail owners that don't have those great stock numbers? We've talked before about Sears and Pennies they're having a tough time are they going to be making it? They've been having a tough time for years in fact I was looking at those charts earlier today you know JCPenney and Sears had strong years 11 years ago 2007 they have not been able to recover they have had steep drop-offs the stocks are around $4 a share for JCPenney and around three something for Sears. If they can't recover with this with the new corporate tax cuts this year in 2018 because of Trump if they can't recover in this period I don't I don't know if they'll ever come back you know I mean now's their time it's either make it or break it now for some of these retailers that really are struggling and and and again going back to Walmart they're trying to make good decisions they're trying to get ahead of it their stocks performing and want to keep it up you know what I'm saying and these stocks that are not doing good they've got to get going here they've got to take advantage of this opportunity but it goes back to again the online stuff you know if you can buy something online at Amazon versus JCPenney and you got to go into the store you know the big difference there hey Melissa what about what about the millennials in retail I mean as they're starting families are they really going to help retail in any significant fashion is there something that maybe we can sort of cross our fingers for with retail well you know millennials love online you know they love watching movies and TV shows on the internet everybody's got their iPhones now that's where people do their shopping on apps you know that's one of the reasons that Amazon has done so well too so obviously those consumers they were buying things but as they a little bit older and start to make more money and have families and need other products and services they may be going to some of these other places to buy things another good retailer is overstock.com that's a good place that people can go to and that is an online retailer no brick and mortar stores and that stock has been flying as well so millennials will look to buy things from Amazon overstock.com places like that when they're having babies. Yeah you know I get that whole thing I just I just wondered about particularly when you said the overstock thing you know there are certain things that you know you really want to touch and feel right I mean a mattress for a baby's crib etc and you know it's really difficult to do those online we want to have you back and talk about any prognostication so I'll warn you now Melissa about what's going to happen in the future but we're out of time now Melissa Armell founder of the cool sounding stock swoosh thanks always for your time and expertise Thanks have a great day See ya and time now


For decades, literally decades, 20, 30, 40 years, members of both political parties have come to the floor of the Senate, come to the floor of the House, and they have bemoaned the high cost of prescription drugs in this country. And they promised the American people that they would lower those outrageous prices. Members have come to the floor, Democrats have come to the floor, and speech after speech has been made. And not only speeches, members of both political parties have put 30-second ads on television when they ran for office, hey, vote for me. I'm going to lower the cost of prescription drugs. So for decades now, members of Congress have been talking about lowering the cost of prescription drugs, and for decades they have failed to deliver. Talk, talk, talk, nothing happens. The cost of prescription drugs goes up. That was Senator Bernie Sanders begging and pleading his colleagues to finally deliver on a promise that they've been making to the American people for decades, and lower the cost of prescription drugs once and for all. In fact, he made it really easy for them. He co-sponsored a bill along with Amy Klobuchar, and if they support this or just don't block it, then that will help them all collectively deliver on something that all Americans would very much appreciate, Democrat or Republican. It doesn't matter. He wants to see the cost of prescription drugs lowered. But can you guess what happened next? Well, of course, they blocked it. As Jake Johnson of Common Dreams explains, Republican Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho blocked Senator Bernie Sanders' attempt Wednesday to force a vote on legislation that would slash prescription drug prices, thwarting the Vermont senator's effort to fast-track the new bill as the pharmaceutical industry rushes to high costs in the new year. Sanders, chair of the Senate Budget Committee, requested unanimous consent to proceed to debate and to vote on the cutting Medicare prescription drug prices in half-act, a measure he introduced earlier Wednesday alongside Senator Amy Klobuchar. If passed, the bill would bring the prices of drugs covered by Medicare into line with what the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Federal Supply Schedule pay for the same medications. According to a 2017 Government Accountability Office study, the VA paid an average of 54 percent less per unit than Medicare, for a sample of hundreds of brand name and generic drugs. But Crapo, a major recipient of pharmaceutical and insurance industry donations, objected to Sanders' request to advance the legislation, claiming it would usher in more bureaucracy. The Idaho Republican is the lead sponsor of a more industry-friendly bill titled The Lower Costs More Cures Act, which advocates a market-based approach to lowering drug prices. Just hilarious. A market-based approach to lowering drug prices. I've got really great news for Senator Crapo. You've won. We have that. We currently have the market-based approach to lowering drug prices. The bad news is that it's not working. In fact, it's been a catastrophic failure. So for him to have this bill that essentially does nothing, it's a joke. This is why nothing gets accomplished, because we have people who are so shamelessly beholden to their donors that they don't care how bad it looks. They don't care how many lives they ruin. And Senator Mike Crapo is absolutely bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical industry. So looking at his record on Open Secrets, just in the 2022 cycle alone, he took nearly $200,000 in PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry, making them one of his top donors this cycle. And of course, they've been a consistent contributor to him throughout the course of his career. So it's not a shock to see that he's doing their bidding. He's completely bought up. They tell him to jump. He asks how high. I mean, the people in Congress, they're essentially just proxies for corporate America. They're the puppets, the puppeteers are the ones who actually fund their campaigns. And, you know, you would think in a rational society, a senator would never dare do something like this, block something that all Americans would benefit from because they would be afraid to face the public. They would be afraid to explain this to their constituents. But we don't live in a functioning democracy. So it's normal. It's very common to have policy outcomes that are almost exclusively beneficial to corporate America and the ruling class. And we've known about this for quite some time. There's a 2014 Princeton University study by Drs. Gillens and Page that I cite all the time on this program. And they looked at policy outcomes. And what they found is that voters, just normal Americans, have a statistically insignificant impact on policy outcomes. But when you look at the preferences of business elites and corporate America, well, what they want more often than not gets codified into law. So when it comes to our preferences versus their preferences, they get what they want. And Bernie Sanders thankfully explained why this is the case. It's the lowest common denominator. It's the corruption. Well, let me tell you why we pay the highest prices in the world. Why people in America die because they can't afford prescription drugs.  Yes, you heard that correctly. Four and a half billion dollars over 20 years on lobbying. And God knows how many hundreds of millions of dollars on campaign contributions. These are campaign contributions which go to Republicans. These are campaign contributions that go to Democrats. And I am talking about many hundreds of members of the House and Senate who receive funding from the pharmaceutical industry. Further, the pharmaceutical industry has over the years mounted an unprecedented lobbying effort in Washington, here in the nation's capital and in states all over the country. And I hope everybody hears this because this is what power is about. This is why you pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Last year alone, the pharmaceutical industry hired more than 1,700 well-paid lobbyists to come to Capitol Hill to protect their interests, including the former congressional leaders of both major political parties. Got that? 1,700 well-paid lobbyists protecting the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. Get out your calculator because what that amounts to is three pharmaceutical industry lobbyists for every member of Congress. And that right there is why prescription drug companies can raise the cost of your medications. And there's not a single thing that you can do about it because they have all of Congress bought and paid for. And they have three lobbyists per member of Congress. How crazy is that? So they have a strong hold on Congress. And that's why there's been so many promises to lower the cost of prescription drugs for decades, but it never happens. That's why we've seen straight up 180s. I mean, Kirsten Sinema in Arizona, even though she was a corporate Democrat and she was running as a centrist, one of her key promises was to lower the cost of prescription drugs. She gets elected and what did she do? She blocks that. She blocks it.  So it's nice to see at least one member of Congress call this out explicitly and explain this is why you can't have what you want. This is why we're not doing the common sense thing to help you out and save lives.  That's why. And it's not just the pharmaceutical industry. This is a microcosm of a bigger issue. It's it's everything, right? That's why we don't have action on climate change. It's because Congress has been lobbied for decades from the fossil fuel industry. They're bought and paid for with campaign contributions. It's why, you know, we can't have anything. This is why. So, you know, it's really frustrating. And I didn't really expect a different outcome, but still to see time and again, these lawmakers spit in your face and tell you you can't have what everyone else in the developed world has, which is just lower prescription drugs.  I refuse to support these corrupt politicians. I don't know if it's ever going to happen, but, you know, certainly as long as people at least are educated about why things are happening, I think that's a really important start and credit to Bernie Sanders for eloquently explaining why Congress is so dysfunctional and incapable of doing the bare minimum with respect to governing.


Our Asian guys now finally getting back at Asian girls on social media. Let's take a look. Yeah, let's run the clip What race has the most attractive girls? Is that even a question? Yeah, what is it? What do you think Asian? Hell no. What would you like like Caucasian, bro? What kind of Caucasian anything white, bro? What are you? I mean, I'm Asian. What kind of Asian the tall Asian not the short Asian. Are you Vietnamese? What race has the most attractive girl white girls, I love snow bunnies and brunettes. Why have pretty eyes Have pretty hair gets my attention the most. What are you? I'm up. You know, you don't love your own race I do actually kind of whitewash. I like wages too. Oh man You know, I don't know if this video was trolling was it exaggerated was it completely fake or maybe it was authentic I tend to think it was one of the former but it sparked a lot of comments So we're gonna get into our thoughts on it and of course the fiery internet storm that it sparked So make sure you like subscribe and turning your notifications Andrew But you know what else is stirring up a storm small sauce goes delicious on everything Very spicy ma la tasty aromatic. Check it out small sauce calm. Um, first off I want to say this I got to give a shout out to Tommy Tan boy. Okay for creating this content Is it exactly how I would do it? Is it? You know have some moments that are way better than others. Yes But I guess part of me just likes that he's doing something. He's just agitating things I'm not saying he's when you agitate things people have a downside reaction. They have an upside reaction They have a middle one, but it's like does the Asian-American community need more people who are not scared to just go out and ask questions Yeah, these questions. They're trolley, right? Yeah, the questions are definitely pretty goofy and I don't know Obviously, I don't know if these two guys are real or they planted them or whatever they staged it but regardless It's always funny to see real reactions and I watched a lot of his other videos and definitely some of those are Getting some real reactions. Those are real people answering and he's running up to people at the parties just when they're just maybe I don't even know if they always know what they're saying. It is interesting and funny But anyways guys just you can check out his channel.  And then sometimes vice is like doing these documentaries and people God are in the streets or like they got face tats or just throwing up Signs and stuff like that that this is like sort of the middle overlooked AZN American, right? That's true.  We've interviewed people on the campus of UCLA and why you USC before people who know some Pilo and Tyga some little sage the Gemini songs I mean, you know I think that a lot of these people that they interview Andrew and we're gonna run some of the other clips right now What Asians has the most attractive guys Korean man. Why?   Yeah, it's easy to eat Okay, what are you? I'm Taiwanese. What Asians has the most attractive guys Japanese. Why my most recent ex was Japanese What you like about him his personality? I think personality matters more than like physical looks. What are you? I'm Korean. I have like a thing for like Korean girls and I have a really good personality. Oh Yeah, Japanese. I'm Vietnamese. Oh, okay. Does race matter? No, it doesn't but also I'm not looking for anything What Asians has the most attractive guys Why? Food people What are you I'm Iranian dang I haven't been with I've never been with What do you hate me from a scale from one to ten? It's not about looks about personality dogs Yeah, you're looking deep in my soul Wow, what's your number? I'm from base. I'm a 5-1-0. What Asians has the most attractive guys Filipinos why? What Asians has the most attractive guys Why What'd you like about the Korean guys? What Asian has the most attractive guys Koreans for sure Why they just got it down they got it My Chinese what Asians has the most attractive guys Vietnamese or Thai why because I met my first crush Well 16 and he was Thai. He was really hot. Why Vietnamese guys a guy I met from my friends from my school and he was like such a red flag. What are you? I'm South Korean. I like South Korean women. They're very very kind and sweet not not all of them What do you rate me from a scale from one to ten? I'm Vietnamese I got some games Seven I got your number It's not good everything life happens for a reason sometimes life you get rejected But he's got it like shug it off your shoulders. Yeah, and like find the next girl. Not everyone's your type Well, it was really nice meeting you. I think a lot of these people their primary social fishball is other Asians So I think that that's what is interesting Yeah, but I do think there's a lot of clout to be had here. This is the clout gang Yeah, people will really say anything on video for clout to be honest I'm Andrew first off first comment section people who just hate this interview They said this is the most embarrassing interview ever. These are the exact response responses I'd expect from Asians hanging out at Irvine spectrum.     He probably knows he's acting ridiculous, right? But he probably likes acting ridiculous to be honest It's probably a combination of a lot of things somebody said Asian guys are just getting payback at Asian women at this point Somebody said it is what it is. We didn't start the war Gorilla in the room.  Yeah, I can see why some Asian guys would try to do that I don't I don't know if the payback works, but I never I mean you're these are these are these own people being their own individuals. So Whatever they can say what they want, right, but these comments. I mean, these are real feelings. Yeah Yeah, but I don't think that they're straight up Disrespecting Asian women on the level that they feel like Asian guys have been disrespected by Asian women in the past Even though guys, I'm not trying to equal one for one We're not trying to do all this stuff is too complicated. All right Here's the next comment somebody said white women are only attractive if they are the conservative types Not the liberal Joe Biden left-wing types. Ha ha, okay. This is getting political guys, you know us I'm not supporting either party, but I'm just saying that it's interesting I do think that a lot of the white women that Asian guys end up marrying are more left-leaning though on a Statistical probability basis if you made me bet because I do know a Korean guy who's married to a like kind of a more Schoolteacher version of Kate Middleton here in New York. So I'm just saying I don't know. She's really liberal. She's from rural, Texas I don't know, but then you know people like Megan Kelly Kelly Rippa, too. I don't know man. It's tough to describe Somebody said if these were Asian girls that be getting mad hate in the comments and somebody said oh my gosh So this is okay now after roasting Asian women for doing this for white guys after all this time And this just turned into a back-and-forth argument. Of course back right not only Asian girls have internalized racism Yeah, it's true. No, it's true Asian guys can have internalized racism too for sure on a percent All right, did Asian guys always have internalized race in internalized racism, but they didn't have the leverage to act on it or I Guess what I'm saying is let's say for example that the white worship was always there amongst all Asians But one gender had more capacity to act on it Is that the situation or is that what people are trying to say or are people just trying to say oh now that you've Got the leverage you're defining this newfound taste or I don't know. It's hard to say. I think it's different though I think Asian guys always Desired and wished that Asian women wanted them and desired them back the same amount I think that's truly deep down in most Asian guys hearts. That's what they wished But some of them felt they were done wrong Yeah, and they're a little bit scarred from that and so they in their mind like to see some guy clapping back honestly They're gonna have to clap back is fake. There was some comments saying we're done waiting and we're done play Not firing shots back. That's what somebody said Fine. I guess I guess I don't turn into the general African-American internet community you see men and women get at each other a lot.  Yeah, I think if it was June Cooke saying that it would bother June Cooke fans, right? But this is just like a random guy So yeah like a supermodel or something that everybody was following that might bother the fans of the supermodel But it really yeah, it'd be siloed out Of course some people this turn into the whole thing wait till she's 30 and you'll start calling her grandma and other people Of course, this is like a comment You know like some people want to feel like they want to defend Asian women in this obviously referring to I guess the aging effects of Like tanning boosts and things like that.    Do you think the tall Asian guys are getting super cocky in 2023? I don't know how tall you'd have to be to be super cocky I feel like you'd have to be tall and good-looking to be cocky I will say this though I think that anytime you have physical traits that cut against the larger narrative of negative flaws against your community You do feel special possibly yeah Yeah, I think some of them are something with the good hair a white girl with a big butt whatever. Yeah tall Asian guy Somebody said yeah, that's interesting that this guy said that because most white girls don't like Asian guys Yeah, obviously, I don't think these guys are cleaning up in the white girl section But I'm sure they dated some I think more white girls or more non-Asian girls in general are open to Asian guys every year though Yeah, but I don't think it like all of a sudden went from here to here It probably is like inching over notching over somebody said this question is stupid to begin with there are our attractive people in all races If she's bad, she's bad. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, I think that's true, right? And somebody said man this guy doesn't even want to admit that he's Chinese because he's kind of like I'm just like a tall Asian Bro, I'm Asian. Well, would you say that he typifies what would be the proudest type of Chinese guy? Like are you shocked that he's not I feel like this guy is really tapped into like that Riz God no cap No, Keesey type of lane and in that lane, I wouldn't say the Chinese being Chinese necessarily has the most cachet Because Chinese are not they're known for like not being like that, right? So he's probably like Try not to be ashamed of it But not like reppin it because he don't he doesn't want it to affect his like Riz or clout points so the broccoli cut lane So David are videos like this going to feel some type of Asian woman versus Asian guy comment war Or do you think the Asians just don't they just don't think like that so it's not gonna be that bad Well, I think on a clearly on this Instagram page It did spark a little bit like a tiny tiny but Asian guys were kind of it wasn't like Clearly guys versus girls because it's not clear that Asian women to be honest care about this and in any sort of large number Yeah, no, I think a lot of Asian girls don't care about this video So they're not they don't care about his opinion, right because maybe they just it is what it is I mean like they in a way they hold the leverage and no matter how much one Asian guy or you know A taller Asian guy like wields his leverage. It's not gonna necessarily I guess change like the way things have been for like a hundred years I guess he didn't go into detail and start listing like Attributes of Asian women that he hates because that would be ultra disrespectful What do you think about all these videos that are going viral right now? It's not just you know this channel and a lot of Gen Z kids are doing controversial interviews There's OF stars that are like going hyper viral on non-Asian podcast that they go back and do the Asian Asian podcast It's like just a whole different generation of like social media Asian American crop Yeah, it's kind of like Asians unleashed I guess but like the only Asians you want to hear from are the ones who are out and about You know, they're out in the streets. They're out really outside Right like interview drunk people out of rave or something and it is true like if you look like a Typical Asian person that hasn't experienced much in their life I don't think a lot of people are gonna find your opinion interesting, right?  They just want to see Asians say stuff off the cuff that are that's inappropriate and controversial Yeah, and there's probably more content available now obviously on tiktok, etc. Other platforms of that than ever Hey guys, let us know what you guys think in the comment section below. Is everybody acting like rice gum? Is it good? Is it bad? In a way, I'm happy to see them just attack But I wish that they would try to maybe change the narratives within the community rather than just like purposely cut Against them to go viral because anytime you cut against the narrative It just happens to go viral because it's something that people wouldn't expect to see and it's like titillating to an audience But anyway, that's just the mechanics behind it. Let us know what you think in the comment section below I think there's valid points on all side until next time with a hop-hop boys. We out. Peace