This is The Humanist Report with Mike Figueredo. The Humanist Report podcast is funded by viewers like you through Patreon and PayPal. To support the show, visit patreon.com forward slash humanistreport or become a member at humanistreport.com. Now enjoy the show. Welcome to The Humanist Report podcast. My name is Mike Figueredo and this is episode 291 of the program. Today is Friday, May 21st and I am officially fully vaccinated as of today. It's been two weeks since my second dose of the Moderna shot and it feels really good. So I just had to point that out because I think that that's worth celebrating. So we've got some stories to talk about, but of course we're not going to talk about anything until we thank the folks who make the show possible. All of our newest Patreon, PayPal and YouTube members, all of which either signed up for their very first time to support us this week or increased the monthly pledge that they were already giving us. And that includes blah, blah Eve, Jerick and Sekmara. So thank you so much to all of these kind individuals. If you'd also like to support the show and join the independent progressive media evolution, you can do so by going to humanistreport.com slash support patreon.com forward slash humanistreport or by clicking join underneath any one of our YouTube videos. So this week we've got quite a bit of topics to talk about, but of course we will continue our coverage of Israel's massacre in Gaza and specifically we'll talk about how the Biden administration is continuing to enable Netanyahu's war crimes. And we'll also talk about Rashida Tlaib's confrontation with Biden about his ongoing support for Israel and staying on the subject. We'll also talk about how the tide is finally starting to turn in the United States on this issue. Alan Dershowitz attacks Bernie Sanders for condemning Israel. The country's largest nurses union condemns the CDC's new mask guidelines. The Supreme Court will, in fact, take up a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. Joe Rogan parrots old right wing talking points. Katie Porter exposes a pharmaceutical CEO's greed. She lays on the cusp of undoing decades of neoliberalism with the new constitution. And we'll talk about a hospital that's choosing to sue thousands of patients during a pandemic, even after they saw their revenue rise last year. So that's what we've got on the agenda for today's episode. Hopefully you enjoy what I have in store for you. Let's get right to it. In case you took a break from the news cycle over the weekend, let me get you up to speed on what took place, specifically all of the war crimes that Israel did over just the last couple of days. First of all, they killed nearly 60 Palestinian children, a number that is likely to rise by the time you see this video. On top of that, they destroyed the road leading to Gaza's main hospital.  Now, the associated press reports that it had no indication that Hamas was in the building. And of course, they'd want to verify this, knowing that if Hamas was in the building that their journalists were in, that would make them a target of the Israeli military. So they had no incentive to lie here and they claimed that they verified, but Israel, they have every incentive to lie here. However, you know, they don't really care what the AP says because they claim that they have irrefutable proof that Hamas was in fact in that building and they supplied the United States government with that proof. Although for whatever reason, the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, says he has not seen the evidence yet and he's kind of an important person who they'd want to get this information to immediately. You know, it's almost as if the Israeli government knew what they were doing. They lied to justify their war crime and they didn't like that news outlets like the associated press were reporting on their war crimes. So they bombed them to blatantly silence the media.  Now, if you're wondering why the Israeli government is so brazen, well, I'll get to that. I'll tell you why. Spoiler alert, it's because of the United States government. But to top off their weekend of terror attacks against the Palestinian people, they took to Twitter to post rocket emojis, lots and lots of rocket emojis. Now, they claim that each rocket emoji signifies a rocket fired at the Israeli people by Hamas. However, I wonder how long that thread would be if they had a rocket emoji for all of the air strikes. They dropped on the heads of Palestinian women and children. How long would that thread be if they actually listed all of the civilian casualties and represented said civilian casualties with emojis? Now, here's the thing about what's going on in Gaza and Palestine. We're complicit. Our government supplied Israel with the bombs that they are using on children and the Biden administration can effectively end all of this. Almost immediately with a simple phone call. So what is he doing? Well, here's what he's doing instead. As Ellen Mitchell of the Hill reports, the Biden administration has approved 735 million dollars worth of precision guided weapons to be sold to Israel. A congressional aide confirmed to the Hill on Monday, the sale which Congress was officially notified of on May 5th has concerned somehow Democrats who have pressed the administration to limit military support for the Israeli government in the face of its growing assault on Gaza. A majority of the possible sale is of Boeing made joint direct attack munitions equipment that can make unguided bombs dropped from aircraft into guided missiles. The aide confirmed. Okay, so let me get this straight in response to us giving Israel the weapons that they are now using to massacre civilians in Gaza. What does the Biden administration do? They offer them more weapons. Okay, maybe we're being a little bit too uncharitable here. Maybe it's not as bad as it sounds. Maybe this is some twisted attempt at soft diplomacy and Biden is maybe trying to send a message. Hey, if you want more bombs, stop dropping the last bombs that we gave you. I mean, maybe that's the case. Although believe it or not, that probably isn't the case because the Biden administration isn't attaching any stipulations to the weapons. He basically knows what these weapons will be used for. AP reports. The White House says President Joe Biden expressed quote support for a ceasefire in a call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday, the eighth day of Israeli Palestinian fighting. The Biden administration distanced itself Monday from growing calls by Democrats and others for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers as fighting entered a second week with more than 200 people dead, most of them Palestinians in Gaza. The United States, Israel's top ally also blocked for the third time what would have been a unanimous statement by the 15 nation UN Security Council expressing grave concern over the intensifying Israeli Palestinian conflict and the loss of civilian lives. The final US rejection Monday killed the Security Council statement at least for now. Okay, we'll never mind. It literally is as bad as it sounds. Biden is expressing support for a ceasefire. And of course, he was very, very clear in that call. I'm sure that both sides are equally culpable here. But if you thought that that was bad, it's actually an improvement from a worse statement that the White House put out via Twitter over the weekend, which reads today, the president spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed his strong support for Israel's right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza and condemned these indiscriminate attacks against Israel. So once again, he's echoing the same sentiment he expressed before Israel has the right to defend itself. They have the right to indiscriminately drop bombs on Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world with 50 percent children. And it's perfectly fine. It's not a war crime. You know, they can literally bomb buildings, housing journalists, and that's fine. We'll still give them millions of dollars worth of bombs that we know they'll use for war crimes.  And you gave him the knife. And then he went and committed the act of murder. Well, you just supplied that murderer with a murder weapon. Therefore, you're partially culpable.  You helped this individual carry out a murder. You aided and abetted this individual.  That's what's happening here with Joe Biden. So this isn't just a defense of Israel. This isn't just him greenlighting the war crimes that Israel is carrying out in Gaza. This is Joe Biden being culpable, being a co-conspirator here. So Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal and he should be in prison for the rest of his life for the crimes against humanity that he's carrying out right now. And guess what? Joe Biden should join him because what he's doing is he's giving Benjamin Netanyahu a psychopath, the weapons that he's using to slaughter innocent civilians. And that can't stand for a president who ran on decency and restoring the soul of America. He's proving that America never had a soul if we enable atrocities like this and we won't even allow the UN Security Council to express concern about Israel's war crimes.  But this is the status quo that Joe Biden is continuing to carry out. But unfortunately for these war criminals, the tide is beginning to turn and more and more people, including American news agencies are waking up the reality of the situation that Israel is the occupier and the aggressor and there's no both sides to this. I mean, we saw how AP in that article was still both siding this. They say Israel, Palestinian fighting after Israel literally bombed their news outlet. But the tide slowly, but surely is turning things are changing and those individuals who are defending Israel's war crimes very quickly will find themselves on the wrong side of history as the people who defended South African apartheid are now finding themselves on the wrong side of history. I'm always sick. I don't know. I can't do anything. If you own this, what do you expect me to do? Fix it. I'm only 10. I can't even do anything in this war. I just want to be a doctor or anything to have my people my cat. I'm just a cat. I don't even know what to do. I get scared, but not really that much. I get I do anything for my people, but I don't know what to do. I'm just 10. I'm just 10. All of this when I see a little cherry cry every day, saying to myself, why do we deserve this? Why? What did we do to this? Videos like that, especially when they go viral on social media is part of the reason why I think slowly, but surely the tide is beginning to turn when it comes to Israeli apartheid because we're no longer just being presented with one side of the story. Now Palestinians can take to social media and actually share their experiences, remind people that they are capable of feeling pain and suffering as well. And it's a lot more difficult to deny the humanity of an entire group of people when it's right up in your face. And so the tide isn't just changing with regard to the sentiment towards the apartheid state of Israel, but we're even beginning to start to see a shift in US media and we'll talk about the John Oliver segment, which I never would have thought would happen in a million years. But more significant, perhaps, is the response from Democratic Party politicians who aren't mincing words. They're very clear in their unequivocal condemnations of Israel. And I talked about this over the weekend in the Twitch clip that I posted where we talked about this on Thursday. But I want to share a clip from my appearance on TYT where I explain why this is so significant. Look, if you called Israel an apartheid state on air on cable news just a couple of years ago, you would have been taken off the air for sure. And anybody that denies it is totally not living in reality. You couldn't even say occupation on air without issuing some sort of a correction. That was taboo as well. And the beauty of their speeches is that everything that they're saying, they're not mincing words. They're unequivocally condemning Israel. And that matters. Even the folks who disagree with what's happening and aren't peddling the whole, well, Israel has the right to defend itself line. They may not necessarily want to speak up because they know that the Israel lobby is going to bankroll their opponent's campaign come election time. But that's already happening to Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar. So they have nothing to lose at this point. And that's why they're speaking with so much clarity. They don't care because everything that could have been done against them has already been done. So now the shackles have been released and they're just speaking on this issue as it is. And what is happening is apartheid. And to have any member of Congress say the words apartheid truly is a game changer. 100%. Exactly. And to give you some additional context, the best that we got in 2014 during Israel's massacre of Gaza then from a Democratic Party politician was from Jessica Ramos. I don't even think she was actually an elected lawmaker. I think she was just like the chair of the New York City Democrats. But either way, all she posted was a tweet that said Palestine with the heart emoji and for that people were calling for her head. That was contentious. Palestine heart emoji was extremely controversial in 2014. But now lawmakers in the Democratic Party are calling it exactly as it is. They're saying this is an apartheid regime. And AOC just tweeted out apartheid states aren't democracies. So they're not just describing the situation accurately. On top of that, they're also holding their appears accountable.  And I've got to say the silence of many Democratic Party politicians is deafening. But what's nice to see for the first time ever are their colleagues, members of the squad, progressive Democrats actually calling them out. So for example, right wing Democrat Richie Torres he took to the New York Post to write an op-ed where he basically pretends to be courageous by going against the Twitter mob and defending Israeli apartheid.  But his colleague Jamal Bowman called him out for this saying, my brother Richie this is not about a Twitter mob this is about justice, humanity and equality this is about Palestinians deserving peace, land and self-determination like everyone else. This is about Palestinians having their land and homes taken from them and our ignorance of Palestinian pain. That is the truth, my brother. So to actually see members of Congress call out the apartheid regime support BDS explicitly and on top of that hold their colleagues accountable and call out their lies about the situation this is a paradigm shift. This is incredibly new and what really makes it seem like things are different is to see segments like this on major television networks in the United States. Lots is complicated here but some things are pretty simple.  Let me just say that if you followed politics back in 2014 and you followed Israel's massacre of Gaza back then to see a segment like this on television it would have broke the internet but now this is becoming more and more common and Ali Belchi of MSNBC a network that is usually biased and just toes the line of the Democratic Party establishment he came out and said what I didn't think I'd ever hear a pundit on mainstream media say. Palestinians are at best third class citizens in the nation of their birth. The idea that it's even remotely controversial to call what Israel has imposed on Palestinians a form of apartheid is laughable. One look at a current map of Israel, Gaza and the occupied territories conjures up only one other example apartheid era South Africa. The Israeli government on an ongoing basis declares parcels of land on which Palestinians live to be either of military or archeological importance causing residents to be evicted. Sometimes there's a court case and almost always the Palestinians lose yet months or weeks later that same important land suddenly becomes home to a brand new Israeli settlement. As more and more Jewish settlers take over land on which Arabs live the occupied West Bank becomes de facto more Israeli and in the explicit hopes of the Israeli government more Jewish. This is a long standing attempt and a deliberate attempt to force Arabs who have lived in that land sometimes for hundreds of years out. It's an attempt to dilute their presence of Arabs as full participants is in the opinion of the Israeli government and their courts diluting Israel. Just prior to the pandemic I toured many of the contested areas and homes from which Arabs are being pushed out both in Israel proper and in the occupied territories. Palestinians don't control the important parts of their lives. Palestinian families are refused permits to build or renovate their homes when they connect their homes to the municipal water supply. Israeli soldiers sometimes cut the pipes when they attempt to harness solar energy because their homes are not on the grid. Israeli soldiers literally come and remove solar panels from their homes. I spent an hour and a half traveling alongside an elderly Palestinian woman who is being transferred between three ambulances from Gaza to the no man's land in between and then into Israel to get cancer treatment. Three ambulances over the course of one mile more than an hour to cross the border. That's how Gazans live without medical treatment because Israel prevents it without electricity much of the time because Israel prevents it without the ability to fish in the Mediterranean ocean because Israel prevents it without an airport or a seaport because Israel prevents it. Like Israelis Palestinians also have a right to exist and to defend themselves but there is no one willing to help them do that. Not the Israeli courts and not the U.S. government. What the U.S. also shares with Israel is the belief that Hamas, the political party in Gaza is a terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel. Hamas is supported by the majority of Palestinians in Gaza. Hamas may not be in the best long-term interests of the Gazans but peace hasn't really worked out for them. Faced with an Israeli government which pens them into what has been called the world's largest open air prison they have chosen a government that most of us wouldn't prefer. One that is not given to negotiation and moderation and respect for its neighbor. This is not a secret. It's out there for you to see. You just have to look for it. And America needs a new approach to Israel. After more than seven decades of not just being deprived of land from which they were evicted Palestinian frustration runs deep. It may be worth going deeper than what you may hear inside your bubble and understanding the depth to which the Palestinian people are subject to apartheid in their own land deprived of basic necessities you just have to look for it. By now I'm sure that you've seen this segment but I've got to say I had to share it at length because this is truly remarkable and I am usually one to argue that words don't really amount to much but when it comes to this issue we have had so little progress that to see such a gigantic shift in rhetoric and tone is truly a game changer. It's really incredibly important. So I don't know what it is. Again perhaps it's videos from social media of Palestinians like the one that we saw of that 10 year old Palestinian girl perhaps Israel has gone just a little bit to brazen with the war crimes bombing buildings that house associated press journalists. I don't necessarily know but I will tell you this something feels different and we're finally beginning to wake up when it comes to this issue collectively as a country I think it's the beginning of an incredibly important start and what I would recommend to everyone who's watching this who's still trying to both sides it or sides with Israel as they literally carry out an ethnic cleansing it is not too late to get on the right side of history the tide is turning and history is seeing this as it really is so it's not too late for you you can get on the right side of history and you can actually open your heart to the Palestinian people and you can stand in solidarity with human beings who just want to live on their land who want to stop being evicted from their homes who have a right to not be slaughtered by a far right extremist government that wants an ethno state and I'll leave that there it's not too late for you get on the right side of history while you still can because I can guarantee you that the folks who are on the wrong side of history are going apartheid now they probably feel very embarrassed about their decision to support that atrocity individuals who are against gay marriage and gay rights in the 80s and 90s are now very embarrassed I'd imagine about their position and we know exactly where this issue is headed as well so it's not too late actually open your heart and more importantly educate yourself and support the Palestinian people and their struggle for self-determination and to exist thankfully Bernie Sanders is one of the better United States senators on the issue of Israel Palestine but let me tell you he's still not perfect and he has come a long way since 2014 so let me just remind you the way that Bernie Sanders spoke about this issue during a town hall in 2014 he got lots of pushback because of this take a look Hamas has used money that came into Gaza for construction purposes and God knows they need roads and all the things that they need and use some of that money to build these very sophisticated tunnels into Israel for military purposes for survival purposes I don't want to be interrupted the question was asked it's a bad question and I'm trying to if you don't excuse me shut up you don't have the microphone I don't want police officers here are you going to arrest people? no I'm not going to arrest people are you going to allow us to have a discussion but you can do come down to here come down to beat down the crowd join the discussion their view is that Israel should not have a right to exist to say that Bernie Sanders has improved on this issue would be an understatement you can argue that he's done a complete 180 on this issue and people during the town hall were outraged because they asked Bernie Sanders about the war crimes being carried out by the Israeli government and he acknowledged that their response was disproportionate and they were overreacting the issue was that he still kept focusing on Hamas but what about Hamas this and Hamas that has the right to defend itself and they were trying to educate him on this issue and after years Bernie Sanders finally is changing his mind on this and that's really important so I'm not showing you that video to attack Bernie Sanders and smear him and make it seem as if he's less progressive as he should be I'm sharing that video with you because I want you to know that there's hope we can change hearts and minds not everyone is as principled and objective as Bernie Sanders but it is possible to actually change people's minds on this issue and maybe you're not convinced yet that Palestinians have the right to exist but there's still a chance for you to change your mind so Bernie Sanders has made a tremendous amount of progress on this issue and in an op-ed for the New York Times he wrote the US must stop being an apologist for the Netanyahu government and in this op-ed he says let's be clear no one is arguing that Israel or any government does not have the right to self-defense or to protect its people so why are these words repeated year after year war after war and why is the question almost never asked what are the rights of the Palestinian people in this moment of crisis the United States should be urging an immediate ceasefire we should also understand that while Hamas firing rockets into Israeli communities is absolutely unacceptable today's conflict did not begin with those rockets over more than a decade of his right-wing rule in Israel Mr. Netanyahu has cultivated an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian type of racist nationalism in his frantic effort to stay in power and avoid prosecution for corruption Mr. Netanyahu has legitimized these forces including Itamar Ben-Gir an extremist Jewish power party by bringing them into government it is shocking and saddening that racist mobs that attack Palestinians on the streets of Jerusalem now have representation and it's Knesset now he goes on to call for an immediate ceasefire and he calls on Joe Biden to actually condition the aid that we're sending to Israel now it's not perfect he doesn't mention apartheid in that article and to my knowledge he still doesn't support BDS he's against the crackdown in the US against BDS but he doesn't necessarily see BDS as a solution himself but when you compare what Bernie is saying now to what he said back in 2014 it's a huge difference it's like night and day and it's really important now part of the reason why a lot of lawmakers don't want to speak out in defense of the Palestinian people is because any and all condemnation of the Israeli government's actions is usually conflated with anti-Semitism what you're condemning this far-right extremist Benjamin Netanyahu it must be because you're an anti-Semite so the question is when somebody who's a Jewish American like Bernie Sanders condemns the far-right extremist government of Israel what's the response? well it's the same response, they tweak it a little bit rather than saying that he's anti-Semitic they just say he's a self-hating Jew and if you read the op-ed that Bernie Sanders wrote there is zero indication that he is a self-hating Jew but that didn't stop Alan Dershowitz from going on the far-right Newsmax TV and calling Bernie Sanders just that and ironically condemning Palestine for war crimes you'll prevail on this because of the anti-Semitism that stimulates so much of this and you can be a Jew in an anti-Semite you know, Bert Weiden has made some wrong statements positively and I commend him for that but Bernie Sanders who's Jewish is a self-hating Jew a self-hating Jew who is willing to see Israel be defeated militarily by a terrorist group because he's on the hard-left and he has to follow the hard-left and that's what he has been doing think of how preposterous and idiotic this argument is from Alan Dershowitz he's calling Bernie Sanders a self-hating Jew because Bernie Sanders condemned ethnic cleansing and genocide from a far-right government that wants an ethno-state quite literally that makes him a self-hating Jew that's morotic that's not necessarily an argument that only Alan Dershowitz is peddling lots of people who are staunchly pro-Israel usually funded by the Israeli lobby by the way they are saying the same exact thing so in an interview with Ali Velshi who's been great on this issue by the way Bernie Sanders responded to this responded to claims that criticisms of the Israeli government is anti-Semitic and Bernie Sanders Senator, you published an op-ed I delivered a commentary yesterday on the fact that we do need to start taking the rights of the human rights of Palestinians into account Senator Ted Cruz, not talking about you but talking about the squads opposition to things, he said this on Thursday it's disgraceful that you have members of the United States Congress that basically operate as shills for terrorists and undermine Israel and they undermine Israel so often that after a while okay, we get it, you don't like the Jews folks have said that about you too how do we understand the ability to criticize the policies of the Israeli government as being entirely separate from and counter to anti-Semitism that's exactly right the Israeli government has evolved over the years into a pretty strong right-wing government and their coalition now includes people who are over-racists and when you have the United States of America, Ali putting almost four billion dollars a year into Israel we have the right to demand that they respect the human rights of all people including the Palestinians, what we need now is an even-handed policy which protects the security of Israel they have a light right to live in peace and security without terrorist attacks but the people in the Palestinian territories also have a right to live in peace and dignity and anyone who takes a look what's going on in Gaza right now where youth unemployment is 70 percent and I'm talking about before this current war and the terrible things that have happened in the war where youth unemployment is sky-high where people can't get electricity and clean water on a regular basis this is a territory controlled by Israel so we got to deal with the corruption of the Palestinian Authority but we have also got to create a situation where the people in the Palestinian territories are respected as well yeah so what he's basically saying is what's wrong is wrong it doesn't matter who you are and where you come from genocide is genocide, ethnic cleansing not his of course but the sentiment remains don't let these bloodthirsty fools intimidate you into thinking that it's anti-Semitic to condemn the right-wing government of Israel that wants an ethno-state they're the ones who are actually racist they're the ones who are prejudiced who hate another group of people because of their identity it is not anti-Semitic to condemn the right-wing government to not condemn the right-wing government of Israel means you actually don't care about people who are suffering so don't let them try to weaponize their identities to shut down criticism this is just a diversion tactic pushed by the Israeli lobby to get people to turn a blind eye to the war crimes being committed by Israel but no, silence is unacceptable and for those like Andrew Yang and Richie Torres who go out of their way to defend the ethnic cleansing that Israel is doing currently against the Palestinian people they're the ones who will be viewed as the intolerant bigots who support something so egregious that I don't think it's that long until all of history sees what's happening in fact I can't even say that the rest of the world already sees what's happening it's just the United States who brainwashes its citizens but again, even that's starting to change as some US media outlets is an apartheid they're calling Israel an apartheid state they're calling Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal because he is and the United States is the sole vote that blocks condemnation of this on the UN Security Council so honestly, we stand alone in the world in allowing this to take place so understand that in the broader context of world history and the fight for justice we know who's on the right side of history I think that's very obvious it's not folks like Alan Dershowitz it's folks who stand up for the Palestinian people and that should be obvious it shouldn't be this controversial people shouldn't be this afraid to speak up because they're afraid that condemning a psychopath like Netanyahu means that they're anti-semitic that's preposterous and we have to absolutely vociferously push back against this moronic narrative we have to the CDC shocked a lot of people when they announced a new guideline for COVID-19 masking saying people vaccinated against COVID-19 can go without masks indoors and outdoors now this is great news they base this off of new studies that conclude that not only are you very very well protected against the virus if you've been fully vaccinated but on top of that, you're less likely to spread the virus to other individuals because if you've been vaccinated you're less likely to have a larger viral load which infects other people so it's really good news to get this information and these studies the issue is without the enforcement of some sort of system or vaccine passports how exactly is this enforceable how exactly are businesses supposed to determine who is and isn't vaccinated well according to Dr. Anthony Fauci they're just going to use the honor system so more than 40% of adults we should note still are not fully vaccinated some are partially but not fully there's no real way right now to track who's vaccinated who isn't vaccinated there's a lot of resistance to any sort of vaccine passport but how are restaurants airlines others supposed to know if the people coming to their establishments or their vehicles without masks really have the right to not well we all have a right to do whatever we want but really have the CDC guidance supporting they're not wearing masks well Jake they will not be able to know I mean you're going to be depending on people being honest enough to say whether they were vaccinated or not and responsible enough to be wearing a mask not only for their own protection but also for the protection of others so in other words we'll be trusting people like this what could go wrong now listen I feel frustrated with this because on one hand the vaccines work that's what the CDC is communicating here and that's really important and it could be used by the CDC to encourage people to vaccinate look if you don't want to wear a mask anymore get vaccinated and you no longer have to the issue is that this comes at a time when not everyone is fully vaccinated 50% of the population having received at least one shot but there's still a lot of people not fully vaccinated myself included I mean I have my second shot but it's not until the two-week point after your second dose we're considered fully vaccinated and furthermore people who are eligible for the vaccine were 18 as of April 19th they're still not fully vaccinated and children aren't able to get vaccinated yet so this raises a lot of questions and it's led to organizations like the National Nurses United Union to condemn the CDC here as Julia Conley of Common Dreams reports the largest nurses union in the United States is calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to revoke the guidance on mask wearing and social distancing that the agency released last week calling the significantly skilled back guidelines dangerous as the US and other countries continue to face the coronavirus pandemic and new variants of COVID-19 National Nurses United circulated a petition over the weekend gathering signatures of Americans who were confused and alarmed by the CDC's new guidance soon after the union released a statement condemning public health authorities for recommending that fully vaccinated people stop wearing masks and social distancing in most situations quote this newest CDC guidance is not based on science does not protect public health and threatens the lives of patients nurses and other frontline workers across the country said Bonnie Castillo executive director of NNU registered nurse now is not the time to relax protective measures and we are outraged that the CDC has done just that while we are still in the midst of the deadliest pandemic in a century the union expressed particular concern for how the new guidance would leave public facing workers including grocery store employees and healthcare workers vulnerable as business establishments will have no way of making sure unmasked people are vaccinated against the coronavirus quote people have been asking us I don't understand how am I going to know if the person next to me is not masked because they're fully vaccinated partially vaccinated refused to be vaccinated have conditions that don't allow them to be vaccinated said Jean Ross co-president of NNU in a video the group released Sunday while we share that confusion and I tend to agree with national nurses united I get that you want to incentivize mask wearing right but there are other ways to do that if that's actually the CDC's intent here I mean you can have incentives to where you give people a tax break or it's Ohio or Oklahoma no I think it's Ohio they're offering to enroll people who get vaccinated in a lottery and they're giving five residents a million dollars each I think that things like this are important but for something like this especially when you offer little to no guidelines and you just say people who are fully vaccinated no longer have to wear masks this could backfire because again not everyone can get vaccinated and not everyone who wants to be vaccinated is fully vaccinated yet including children so in an interview with CNN the CDC director Rochelle Walensky was asked about this like what does this mean for people with children who are afraid that people will abuse the honor system inevitably so and maybe endanger their kids and her answer didn't provide much clarity let's just get practical here is it safe for that unvaccinated child even in a mask to be in a grocery store when people around them could be unmasked and not following the honor system because they're not vaccinated thank you for that question we were going to be at this period of time we knew that there was going to be a time where we had the majority of Americans who wanted to be vaccinated vaccinated and yet the children were not going to be eligible yet and we are working really hard let's celebrate the fact that this week we also got news that we can vaccinate our 12 to 15 girls we hope by the fall by the end of this year we'll have vaccine kids eligible at even younger ranges and what we're saying is those kids should continue to wear a mask in those settings we recognize the challenge of parents who can't leave their kids at home should be masked in those settings and to the best of their ability to keep a distance those the recommendations for those settings have not changed and do you trust that they're not vaccinated given what we've seen over the past year plus will actually keep their masks on you know I think that people who were not inclined to wear a mask were not inclined to wear a mask before Thursday but some of them were mandated to do so and those mandates are lifting in part because of your new guidelines yes and what we're really asking in those settings is to say in terms of the honor system people have to be honest with themselves that if you're vaccinated you're not if you're not vaccinated but again not everyone is fully vaccinated and this is the same CDC director who just a month or so ago warned of impending doom because of a rise in cases now I get cases are down vaccinations are up and the vaccines work that's great news but the question is how do you enforce something like this when we don't know who is it isn't vaccinated and honor system very isn't going to work in a country of people who have been lying and raised issues with the mask mandates but I mean sure it makes sense to want to incentivize the vaccines by saying look your life can kind of return to normal if you get vaccine it's just this raises so many questions that aren't answered by the CDC which is why I'm inclined to believe that what they did here is irresponsible now what happened over the weekend was many retailers such as Costco and Walmart did in fact just lift the mask mandates and asked whether or not the CDC anticipated this happening Rachelle Walensky didn't really give an answer she just basically evaded the question did you mean for this guidance to result in stores and local governments lifting those mask mandates good morning Dana thanks for having me I think we should just take a moment and pause and celebrate where we are in this moment you know cases have come down just in the last two weeks our death rates are as low as they have been since April of 2020 so and vaccines are available and eligible everyone is eligible above the age of 12 so we have a plenty of vaccine and the science as you just conveyed demonstrate that they work and so that is what allowed us to make this guidance at the individual level this was a first step it was foundational guidance everybody is really thinking about what this means now at this moment 16 months later as we really think about opening up and we needed to sort of set this foundation based in the science to make sure people understood as they make their recommendations moving forward and we are doing hard work with them to make those recommendations and I understand what you mean about a first step but can you see since this is big news for every American can you see how your guidance the vaccinated people can take their masks off but requirements from businesses local governments to keep the masks on are sending a mixed message here's what I know I know that we need to do the hard work this was individual guidance to understand what this means for communities what this means for businesses we know at the individual level the vaccinated people are safe more than one third of Americans have been vaccinated over 45% of adults above the age of 18 those people are safe when they get vaccinated after they're fully vaccinated for those who are unvaccinated we're really asking those businesses to work hard to make sure that they have available vaccine for those people so that they have time off so paid time off so that they can get their employees vaccinated and for those people we really are asking them to get vaccinated or wear a mask to keep themselves safe so we're relying on the honor system not just at the individual level but at the business level as well we're supposed to assume that businesses out of the kindness of their hearts will allow their employees to take some time off to get vaccinated and perhaps take a couple of days off after their second dose if they experience side effects I mean do you understand why this is so confusing and let me just say the CDC director should be clear should answer questions as clearly as possible not evade questions like a politician so this is really frustrating to me because again I kind of see why the CDC would do this to incentivize people to take the vaccine and it's based in science if you're vaccinated you're good you're basically able to resume your activities as you did before the pandemic but at the same time what I'm worried about are the people who are inevitably going to abuse this system who refuse to get vaccinated and don't want to wear a mask of course they're just going to lie and say yeah I'm vaccinated mask comes off and the cases continue to spread because of folks like this and individuals who aren't yet fully vaccinated individuals who are immunocompromised can't get the vaccine then they have to pay the price it's just it feels it feels weird there should have been more clarification with this statement and again I am not a public health official so feel free to disregard any and everything that I'm saying right now but I'm just sharing my opinion I think what should have happened was they should have delayed this new guideline at least for a month or so so that way anyone who finally became eligible the general population as of April 19th would be fully vaccinated when this goes into effect it is the case that if you're fully vaccinated you don't really have to worry about this but there's a lot of folks who still kind of do have to worry about unmasked people spreading their germs people like my nephew who just turned 18 and got the vaccine he'll not get vaccinated he'll get his second shot in the beginning of June I believe and then two weeks after that around mid June he'll be fully vaccinated I mean what about these people and to me my issue with this is that masks are the easiest most convenient thing we can do to stop the spread of the virus so are they really that big of an impediment to our daily lives and routines that you have to issue this new directive right now again it is based on the science and by NNU that this isn't based on science necessarily because it is studies show that the vaccines are highly effective in the real world and that if you have the vaccine you're less likely to spread the disease to other individuals but at the same time it just seems like this is a little bit too early but I mean what do I know I'm just an individual and I just want us to get through this so whatever we can do to actually permanently get through this I'm all for that it's just that this doesn't seem all that thought out the CDC was overly cautious for months and they just change it on dime like that I don't get it it's frustrating and I think it's irresponsible at a minimum for the CDC to just do this make this new announcement and then absolutely provide us with nothing in terms of what we're supposed to do to enforce this it's uh it's not good we'll put it like that and leave that there now that conservatives have a comfortable 6 to 3 majority on the Supreme Court take a guess as to what is one of the first things that's on the chopping block of course it's Roe v. Wade and the Supreme Court will indeed be hearing a case about abortion so as political reports the Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will reconsider the right to an abortion it established almost 50 years ago agreeing to review Mississippi's ban on the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy the court's decision to take a case directly challenging Roe v. Wade the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide suggests that the court's new 6 to 3 conservative majority is ready to eliminate or more likely curtail the right to terminate a pregnancy in a one line order the court said it will review just one question that cuts to the heart of Roe whether all bans on abortion before a fetus can survive outside the womb are unconstitutional the Supreme Court will likely hear arguments on the case in the fall meaning a ruling could come down in summer of 2022 just a few months ahead of midterm elections that will decide party control of the narrowly divided house and senate the decision to take the case also sets up a clash between a new presidential administration supportive of abortion rights and red states intent on limiting or banning the procedure outright since the Mississippi ban on virtually all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy was enacted in 2018 it has been blocked by lower courts that have cited Roe's viability standard most medical experts believe viability occurs around 24 weeks of pregnancy Mississippi was part of a wave of republican leaning states that passed bans on abortion early in pregnancy in recent years knowing they would be rejected by lower courts but hoping they would provide the Supreme Court with the opportunity to revisit the Roe decision the addition of justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court last fall expanded the bench's conservative majority raising expectations that the nation's highest court would curtail abortion access so what states like Mississippi were doing in passing these laws that they knew were unconstitutional was trying to instigate a challenge to Roe v Wade because I mean the court tipped in their favor and solely but surely it was tipping further and further in their favor back in 2018 you know Ruth Bader Ginsburg they probably knew that she wasn't necessarily healthy and that Amy Coney Barrett could soon replace her or some conservative justice could replace her so they knew exactly what they were doing and now predictably the court is going to be revisiting Roe v Wade so the question is will the Supreme Court actually actually further curtail the rights granted to women under Roe and the answer is most likely if they don't straight up override the precedent of Roe v Wade that will actually be surprising but at a minimum I expect them to side with Mississippi here this is what conservatives have been fighting for for a very long time it's been a rallying point in elections so we'll see what happens but this is a very bad sign of what's to come and for those of you who claim to be pro-life but are also conspicuously silent when it comes to wars I just want to let you know that this isn't actually going to curtail the number of abortions taking place in the United States what will happen is abortions will continue but they will continue illegally and unsafely for women and as a result we may see more unsafe abortions kill women as a result but this doesn't mean that abortion will automatically be banned in all 50 states this just means that states can restrict abortion if it is the case that the Supreme Court does indeed overrule the precedent set by Roe v Wade but I mean let's say hypothetically speaking they overrule Roe v Wade how long until we see like a dozen, two dozen states possibly just outright ban abortion probably immediately probably immediately very bad sign and if Democrats aren't serious about packing the Supreme Court or introducing a constitutional amendment to codify the right to an abortion into law which isn't going to pass either then we may just watch disaster unfold and that's a really scary thought but this is not necessarily surprising given the makeup of the Supreme Court if you've been following my coverage of the Israeli massacre in Gaza you'd know that I am very dissatisfied with Joe Biden's predictably terrible response here and his unconditional support to Israel as they carry out war crimes and an ethnic cleansing in Palestine but thankfully now things are starting to change I stated in a different video that it kind of feels as if we're at a turning point where the tide is turning in favor of Palestinian human rights and the excuses that individuals who vociferously defend Israel used to use are no longer persuasive and better yet we have a member of Congress who is Palestinian who is actually able to challenge power in a way that we've never seen before now Rashida Tlaib Palestinian American lawmaker actually confronted Joe Biden to his face and called out his unconditional support to Israel and Luke Broadwater and Nicholas Vandos of the New York Times write about this saying Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan confronted President Biden on Tuesday over his support for Israel amid its bombing campaign against Hamas in Gaza urging him to stop enabling a government she said was committing war crimes against Palestinians according to a Democratic aid familiar with the exchange during a conversation on a tarmac in Detroit where Mr. Biden had arrived to visit a Ford factory near her congressional district Ms. Tlaib echoed a scathing speech she delivered last week on the House floor that he must do more to protect Palestinian lives and human rights who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe her remarks Ms. Tlaib who could be seen making her case to Mr. Biden as she greeted him at the steps of Air Force One told the president that the status quo was only enabling more killing and that his current policy of unconditional support for the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not working the aid set Mr. Biden shook Ms. Tlaib's hand after the conversation and later praised that the congresswoman made public remarks at the factory in Dearborn and if you want to know what he said here's the video Okay First of all her name is Rashida not Rashid Second of all you're the president of the United States stop praying nobody wants to hear about your thoughts and prayers start acting by picking up the phone and threatening to cut off aid to Israel just like that it really is that easy you can exert the pressure that you have as a leader to stop this but you're not doing that and because the Israeli government knows that they have the US's unconditional support Benjamin Netanyahu has gotten more brazen than ever bombing Gaza's sole COVID-19 testing lab and butchering top doctors further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis that they've already created in Gaza and that's not even including Israel bombing a building that housed AP journalists so spare me I don't care about your thoughts and prayers you're the president of the United States you have the power to act and you're choosing to not act you've expressed support for a ceasefire but you refuse to demand a ceasefire unequivocally and because that's the case Israel will continue to commit this massacre commit atrocities in Gaza in fact news broke just as I record this that the Israeli government vows to continue their slaughter of Gaza it's really infuriating to see politicians who are in positions of power especially the president talk about thoughts and prayers nobody wants to hear about your thoughts and prayers take action use your power and the executive branch's power to do something but he's not doing it so I mean it's a little ridiculous that the president of the United States after a member of Congress whose Palestinian begged and pleaded with him as a prayer, it's embarrassing honestly he should be embarrassed that's a terrible response now this is the reaction to an event that took place near Joe Biden's speech there's many solidarity with Palestine events going on one of them was in Detroit and this was the reaction to Joe Biden appearing in their city as he's permitting Israel to do genocide in Gaza he thinks he can just walk into Dearborn they have shut down the whole south end to make sure that nobody could get close to him that nobody could let him know how we feel we have over a thousand people here today I don't know much about physics I don't know much about sound but I know the south end is that way so can everyone look that way and with the loudest voice you can say Free, Free Palestine Free, Free Palestine Free, Free Palestine Free, Free Palestine Joe Biden is going to hear us today one way or the other again that was one of many Palestinian solidarity protests taking place around the world right now so it's nice to see people step up and speak out finally and get on the right side of history and condemn Israeli apartheid and the ethnic cleansing and genocide that they're carrying out currently in Palestine and I hope that we have her voice in Congress to actually speak out to represent the plight of the Palestinian people to actually have family in West Bank to plead their case we never had this before and it's really important to have that representation in Congress especially now so people like the president don't just have one side in his ear they actually get a little bit of pushback Joe Biden actually hears from Palestinians all Palestinian at least I should say who's not just going to accept the same tired excuses that we've been hearing for decades as the United States permits Israel to commit these atrocities Richard Gonzalez is the CEO of a pharmaceutical company called ABVY now this company manufactures two drugs with which they raised the cost of just last year one of these drugs is an anti-inflammatory and another is a drug used to treat cancer yeah that you'll be surprised to find out that in 2020 the year where a pandemic ravaged the world and is still here with us today he made $24 million which is an 11% pay raise now he went before the House Oversight and Inform Committee and Representative Katie Porter pressed him to explain why they raised the cost of these drugs especially during a pandemic when people are struggling he got him to inadvertently admit that the justification that his company gave was a lie so she tweeted out Big Pharma says they need to charge astronomical prices to pay for research and development yet the amount they spend on manipulating the market to enrich shareholders completely eclipses what's spent on research and development today I confronted a CEO about the industry's lies with visuals and as you're going to see here what she did was masterful way how much did you spend on litigation and settlements from 2013 to 2018 I don't have that number I'll be happy to give it to you $1.6 billion $2.45 billion on R&D $1.6 billion on litigation and settlements what about marketing and advertising how much does it spend on that marketing and advertising we spend about $4 billion a year $4.7 billion how about executive compensation 2013 to 2018 2013 to 2018 it's probably on average about $60 million a year try $334 on for size now how much did Avvy spend on stock buybacks and shareholders stock stock buybacks and dividends to enrich your shareholders from 2013 to 2018 stock buybacks if you actually look at just pure stock buybacks it would be about $13 billion stock buybacks and dividends is the question sir dividends I didn't have to come back with a number over that period of time $50 billion so Mr. Gonzalez you're spending all this money to make sure you make money rather than spending money to invest in develop drugs and help patients with affordable life-saving drugs you lie to patients when you charge them twice as much for an unimproved drug and then you lie to policy makers when you tell us that R&D justifies those price increases the big pharma fairy tale is one of groundbreaking R&D that justifies astronomical prices but the pharma reality is that you spend most of your company's money making money for yourself and your shareholders and the fact that you're not honest about this with patients and with policy makers that you're feeding us lies that we must pay astronomical prices to get innovative treatments is false the American people, the patients deserve so much better I yield back that was incredible and that last line was so good that I have to read it again quote the big pharma fairy tale is one of groundbreaking research and development that justifies astronomical prices but the pharma reality is that you spend most of your company's money making money for yourself and your shareholders beautifully put they try to justify gouging their customers by saying we have to raise the cost because producing and manufacturing all of these drugs discovering new ways to treat illnesses this all costs money but as she stated they spent 2.45 billion on research and development whereas they spent 50 billion on stock buybacks and dividends completely exposed as liars and this is how you do it this is how it's done this isn't the first time that Katie Porter has exposed the CEO but every time she does it it's brilliant because they walk right into her trap they never come prepared and part of the reason why they always end up getting cornered here is because they have no justification right they raise the cost but it's not like this medication is getting better they always try to come up with some excuse and it's never ever convincing and now you know why it's because they don't have any legitimate reasons to gouge their customers it's all about making money we know that they're not using the additional revenue by gouging customers to put that into research and development they're just enriching their shareholders and themselves again, that CEO Richard Gonzalez made $24 million in 2020 in a year during a worldwide pandemic where a lot of people lost their jobs around the globe that individual got an 11% pay raise how by raising the cost of drugs people need by gouging customers who rely on his company's medication it's truly morally reprehensible and this is why we can't have a healthcare industry in America healthcare, pharmaceuticals hospitals, they have to be decommodified because so long as it's a money making venture the goal isn't going to be to treat patients the goal is going to be to make money, to increase profits, to increase shareholder value. In fact, Goldman Sachs notoriously asked whether or not curing patients is a sustainable business model that goes to show you that they don't care about helping people they just want to make money. So you manufacture a really good drug that people need to survive or perhaps to live their life somewhat manageably or normally and then what do you do you raise the price because you know that they need it preying on people quite literally, it's just morally reprehensible honestly companies like this they need to be nationalized because they've proven that they're not looking out for the public good and sure it's the systems that are in place that incentivize this sort of behavior but again with no adequate regulations that reign them in then this is going to continue to happen and the issue is that the regulations imposed on these companies they're mere inconveniences they get a slap on the wrist you know sometimes it's more cost efficient to just break the law or you know break regulations pay the fine and then do what makes you the most money that's what a lot of companies do that's how they operate not necessarily in this context I'm not accusing this individual or this company of breaking the law but certainly what they're doing is unethical and it needs to be reined in legislatively okay so we are going to play a little bit of a game so I'm going to read you a quote and then I want you to guess who said it here's the quote you can never be woke enough that's the problem it keeps going it keeps going further and further and further down the line and if you get to the point where you capitulate where you agree to all these demands it'll eventually get to straight white men who are not allowed to talk so the question is who is it that said this is it a Bill O'Reilly former Fox News host B Rush Limbaugh dead radio show host or C Joe Rogan host of the Joe Rogan experience on Spotify I'll give you a few seconds to kind of think it over guess who said it and here's the answer you can never be woke enough that's the problem it keeps going it keeps going further and further and further down the line and if you get to the point where you capitulate where you agree to all these demands it will eventually get to straight white men are not allowed to talk right because it's your privilege to express yourself when other people of color have been silenced throughout history it will be you're not allowed to go outside because so many people were imprisoned for so many years I mean I'm not joking no I know I know it really will get there it's that crazy we just got to be nice to each other man and there's a lot of people that are taking advantage of this weirdness in our culture and then that becomes their thing their thing is calling people out for their privilege calling people out for their position you know it's a fucking crazy times I'm sure that the irony is completely lost on him because as right wing cope on twitter points out he's complaining about straight white men eventually not being able to talk while he as a straight white man was paid 100 million dollars from spotify literally to talk I mean does he does he even acknowledge how ridiculous he sounds it's actually straight white men like Joe Rogan who are the real victims in American society definitely think that Joe Rogan is the victim I'm sure that every day he cries himself to sleep in his mansion because of how much of a victim he is and you know perhaps he needs to get his mind off of his victim hood by playing some tennis on his home tennis court or swimming in his in ground pool that I'm sure he has in his backyard I mean this is clearly idiotic and the reason why at the beginning of the video I made you guess between who actually said this is because Joe Rogan sounds a lot like a lot of right wing ideologs who say the same thing who propagate this claim that actually it's white men who are the victims in America not marginalized communities not American workers so Owen Higgins on Twitter share two articles that sound eerily similar to what Joe Rogan is saying here Bill O'Reilly complained that the left aka the woke mob wants power taken away from the white establishment and now dead radio show host Rush Limbaugh claimed that white privilege is a liberal construct and now we have Joe Rogan a supposedly apolitical self-identified idiot saying the same thing basically parroting the same points that right wing ideologs have been making for decades it's just a new package and a new person saying the same thing that we've been hearing and honestly I wasn't necessarily that taken aback by Joe Rogan saying this because I didn't necessarily think that he was being literal right and even his guest laughed because he didn't necessarily think that Joe Rogan was being serious as he complained about straight white men not being allowed to talk but he he confirmed he was serious he said no I'm not joking it really will get there so he confirmed that his argument was in fact literal he believes it is literally the case that will get to a point where straight white men won't be allowed to talk you're supposed to see it all of your talking time to marginalized communities he doesn't even persuasively argue against the straw man that he created what marginalized communities want the demands that they're asking for and I don't know if he had a particular group in mind he often shits on trans people so maybe he was talking about them but what people want isn't to replace white people at the top of the social hierarchy what they're calling for is the abolition of the social hierarchy altogether so there can be equality they don't want to make you their subordinates they don't want to make you a second class citizen they just want equality that's literally all that they want by and large civil rights movements are always criticized in this way it's just that the argument changes a little bit you use synonyms for words that they used before I mean do you think that in the civil rights era conservatives back then or apolitical people were thinking wow these black Americans who are calling for an anti-segregation they seem perfectly reasonable and I don't think that this is going to make me a second class citizen no whites literally argued that if blacks got equal rights that would be discrimination against them we still see this argument shrouded out against the LGBTQ community just a couple of weeks ago I covered a segment from Mike Huckabee's program where he claimed that the equality act isn't actually about equality actually it's about subjugating Christian Americans to second class citizenship because if they're no longer allowed to discriminate against LGBTQ people they are therefore being discriminated against they're the new people who are the victims and this is the same argument being made by somebody who's more persuasive than an idiot like Bill Riley or Rush Limbaugh who's dead or Mike Huckabee but here we are Joe Rogan is continuing down this path of being just a full-blown conservative right-winger it's pretty sad but what's really sad is the fact that he has influence on a lot of people I don't necessarily care about Joe Rogan's political ideology he's a multi-multi-millionaire if you have more than a hundred million dollars then I think you're gonna be out of touch that just comes with the money but what's sad is that people still take Joe Rogan seriously so people who are apolitical or don't necessarily know better they might actually be persuaded by Joe Rogan's argument because he's the one making the argument you know when Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly makes this argument people can easily deduce that these are right-wing talking heads they're hacks they're not objective but when Joe Rogan says that they think oh well Joe Rogan saying it so it must be true and it's pretty sad all that marginalized people are asking for is to be treated with dignity be treated with respect and be given equal rights not more rights than anyone else nobody is making this argument so whatever woke mob he's referring to again we don't have the full context I don't know what group in particular he was referring to perhaps he was reacting to an article or particular protest I don't know but still overall for him to say that it's literally going to be the case that straight white men won't be allowed to talk in this country while he gets paid $100 million to talk I mean how can anyone take him seriously after this the answer is they should not and Joe Rogan is a fucking clown even though now the US influence over Latin America is starting to wane back in 1973 when Chile elected a socialist government and elected socialist president Salvador Allende we back to coup and overthrew that government and that led to one of the most harshest brutal authoritarian regimes ever and even though Augusto Pinochet is no longer in control in Chile his legacy remains and his legacy wasn't just of authoritarianism it was also a legacy of neoliberalism that was ruthless as well so as Kenny Stentzel of Common Dreams explains after a US backed coup toppled Chile's democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende on September 11th of 1973 Pinochet's regime implemented a wave of pro-market policies under anti-democratic circumstances at the behest of economists trained at the University of Chicago this led to vast inequalities and rendered egalitarian reform exceedingly difficult even in the post-dictatorship period that began in 1990 there have been numerous attempts over the past 30 years to rein in market fundamentalism in Chile but because neoliberalism was so deeply embedded in the country's 1980 constitution the reign of Pinochet's policies outlived the military dictator and to give you a sense of how terrible it is in Chile it's often referred to as a laboratory for neoliberalism all of the policies that we want implemented here in the United States the neoliberal policies that we want here that conservatives want here to be clear they've been implemented in Chile for example the Wall Street executives and big business interests have been trying to privatize Social Security in the United States but they've never been successful at doing that however in Chile that actually did happen and conservatives always point to Chile as the model for how we should run our Social Security system and they continue to do this even as the system in Chile is literally falling apart to the point where hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Santiago to demand reform but the good news is that things are starting to change we are on the cusp of a new dawn in Chile because the policies of Augusto Pinochet may soon come to an end because of what is taking place currently in the country so Common Dreams continues during a historic referendum last October which represented the culmination of a decades long revolt against the neoliberal model Chileans voted in a 4-1 landslide to rewrite the dictatorship era constitution notably voters chose for the new constitution to be written by a popularly elected assembly of constituents rather than a mixed assembly of politicians and citizens at the time political theorist Melanie Cruz called the overwhelmingly popular support for a new constitution a chance to bury Pinochet's legacy and rebuild the country on a truly democratic basis still the question remained who would be in charge of the process which of the more than 1300 candidates would be selected for this monumental task during this past weekend's election originally scheduled for April with pushback due to an increase in coronavirus infections Chileans were finally given a chance to answer that question definitively of the 155 citizens elected to the constituent assembly only 38 which is less than a quarter came from the right wing coalition known as Vamos Porchile by delivering a knockout blow to the country's right wing voters ensured that a large majority of the 155 delegates responsible for establishing a new political framework at the constituent assembly will be bringing progressive perspectives rather than neoliberal orthodoxy to the table increasing the likelihood that a genuinely emancipatory constitution gets created Greg Grandin a world renowned historian of Latin America tweeted Alluding to neoliberalism Grandin added that it started in Chile it will end in Chile so finally after multiple decades only now Chile is finally starting to undo the damage that we caused by supporting a coup d'etat that ousted their democratically elected socialist president back in the 1970s and it's not just that neoliberalism will be going the way of the Dota hopefully we'll have to wait and see what constitution they craft but it's also the case that currently in Chile they have some of the most restrictive laws related to abortion in the world so social equality is also going to be a thing that gets promoted most likely at this constitutional convention in an article for The Guardian, Cherise McGowan argues that this could actually be a game changing moment for gender equality in Chile and she writes in Chile feminist constitutional candidates stress that parity in the new constitution does not only benefit women but any minority group that has been excluded from political spaces including the country's indigenous communities, LGBT groups and gender non-conforming people so that sounds incredible and it gets better there will be 17 seats allocated to indigenous people so this truly is a chance for Chile to lead the world now not in neoliberal policies not for them to be a laboratory of neoliberalism to export the policies that they produce after testing it there to the United States and other countries now is their chance to actually right the wrongs of the Pinochet era and actually form a constitution that benefits the people of Chile and it's truly, it's honestly remarkable to see the shift in Latin American politics where they're no longer just accepting US influence, no longer accepting what the United States says now they're charting their own path and it really is just so inspiring to see and one more thing I want to share is this tweet from Professor Richard Wolff who writes salute to Chile rising from the long night since Allende's murder Pinochet's dictatorship Milton Friedman's economic policies for the rich a special bravo to Chile's women pioneering a new constitution and we'll leave that there so Chile was one of the first Latin American countries that I learned about specifically as it pertains to US intervention and how we backed the coup that ousted the socialist leader that led to a brutal dictatorship and now to see it all finally change and to see the people of Chile have a chance to have a future to have a new opportunity it really is phenomenal to see so I stand in solidarity with the people of Chile and I am excited to see the constitution that they craft they elected the right people so now we'll see what they come up with but hopefully this will be a new standard for constitutions throughout the world because if they prove that they can actually chart a new path and respect the rights of indigenous people, marginalized groups and workers then perhaps now Chile could become a laboratory for democracy and socialism and not neoliberalism and I can't wait to see what they do so this story that we're going to talk about is very very rage inducing it made me very angry after reading it and it's not necessarily something that's shocking but still when you hear about the specifics it really is unthinkable now I think that the left has done a really great job at persuasively arguing that healthcare in America should not be commodified but we don't nearly talk enough about how hospitals as well should not be businesses hospitals should prioritize patients and not profits but in this story it really reiterates how important it is to more often include hospitals in this discussion about the decommodification of healthcare because they do a lot of terrible things that lead to people being harmed especially when times are tough during a global pandemic that is so bad it only happens usually once a century so as CNN's Casey Tullin reports as the coronavirus spiked in Missouri last fall a wave of cases hit a nursing home in the state's rural heartland Robin Bull, a part-time nurse remembered an ambulance coming and going constantly on one especially scary morning rushing residents to Moberly Regional Medical Center the local hospital but even as Bull was helping send patients to Moberly Regional the hospital was in the process of suing her and at least one other former employee at the nursing home they were two of more than 600 former patients the hospital has sued over medical bills during the coronavirus pandemic according to a CNN analysis of court records Bull's experience is hardly unique hospitals owned by community health systems incorporated one of America's largest hospital chains have filed at least 19,000 lawsuits against their patients over allegedly unpaid medical bills since March of 2020 even as other hospitals around the country have moved to curtail similar lawsuits during the coronavirus pandemic a CNN investigation found the company's 84 hospitals which are concentrated in the south and stretch from Alaska to Key West Florida have taken their patients to court for as little as $201 and as much as $162,000 they say litigation is a last resort CNN's review of court filings across 16 states the company operates in found that most of the patients sued by CHS like Bull didn't hire a lawyer or fight the lawsuits and judges often ruled in the company's favor by default in some states defend its debts piled on with attorneys fees and interest elsewhere the hospital chains subsidiaries quickly moved to garnish defend its paychecks after a judgment CHS in 2020 enjoyed its most profitable year in at least a decade even as it was suing patients during the pandemic the company made $511 million in that income last year a big swing after four straight years of annual losses that strong financial result led to the company's top executives earning millions of dollars worth of bonuses according to documents it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission one reason for the success CHS has been buoyed by taxpayer support it received $705 million in pandemic related aid from the federal government's CARES Act and other state and local programs in 2020 not including additional government loans it will have to pay back according to its 2021 annual report to shareholders ok let's step back and review all of the details here they are suing thousands and thousands of patients during a pandemic in a year when they actually saw increases to their revenue after they took taxpayer money could they get any more brazen I don't think they could get any more brazen if they tried and the reason why they usually win by default as the article referenced is because normal working Americans they can't afford to fight this legally having a lawyer who's good to represent you it costs money you know for paperwork, court documents there are legal fees associated with that so a lot of people they just they can't fight it so what happens ends up rewarding the hospital who's suing them who actually has the resources to take on these individuals it's a power imbalance and it's unjust and this is an injustice that has been happening forever in America it's just that even as bad as these businesses called hospitals can be sometimes at least some of them during a pandemic said ok maybe we won't harass people too much who can't afford medical bills but not this hospital chain it's just shocking like reading the details it's almost unbelievable but it's totally predictable in our late stage capitalist society but at the same time the details are still very shocking like I never as much as this is normalized in America I never feel as if oh sure that's just the thing that happens in America that's just the way it is rage inducing because they're so shameless hospitals like this need to be nationalized immediately because they very clearly are showing you that they don't care about their patients they care about profits they're like a mafia they treat you you owe them for the rest of your life you're in debt to them and in the UK it isn't this way there are some privately run hospitals in the UK hospitals are actually publicly owned so that means that doctors and nurses they're actually government employees now again not all hospitals in the UK but we don't even really have that as an option in the US I mean the closest thing is the VA medical system for veterans but we need to at least see an increase in publicly owned hospitals and Bernie Sanders is on the right track in pushing for more community run health centers but I mean with the way the system is currently we're going to continue to see this happening now what would alleviate some of the pain that people are feeling is if we had a single payer system so rather than sending all of these gigantic astronomical bills to the individuals it just gets sent to the one insurance company representing all of America the United States government it's why we need Medicare for all it's why we have to nationalize a good portion of hospitals in the United States we can start with this chain so you know for me I always talk about Medicare for all but I think that's the start and then you build on Medicare for all after that you slowly but surely turn the United States health care system into a more national health care system that we see in the UK which is loved by British people just ask them so I mean only that there I think that the details of the story speak for itself how shameless this this company is it's not surprising but still the details are shocking because during a pandemic you know when other money-making companies when other hospitals are choosing to give patients a break not this chain they're going full speed ahead suing thousands of patients it's just it's unthinkable during a year when they actually saw their revenue increase it's just it's awful there's nothing left to say it's just awful that this is happening President Joe Biden has been predictably terrible when it comes to pressuring the Israeli government to stop slaughtering Palestinian civilians but thankfully senior house Democrats actually decided to do the right thing and exert pressure on Joe Biden to suspend the weapons deal currently slated to go through because it's a little bit of a bad look if you know especially now those weapons are going to be used against innocent civilians however senior house Democrats backed away from that yeah I don't know if the Israeli lobby got to them and you know got them to have a change of heart I don't know if they got cold feet or felt like that effort wasn't going to amount to anything since Joe Biden isn't going to budge either way senior house Democrats decided to be cowards but thankfully newer members of congress members of the squad representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Rashida Tlaib and others are stepping up political reports a group of lawmakers is cobbling together an effort to block a controversial sale of precision guided weapons to Israel as president Joe Biden ratchets up the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring to a halt the increasingly deadly conflict in Gaza representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leading the effort along with representatives Rashida Tlaib Mark Pocan Ilhan Omar and others according to a draft resolution obtained by Politico the 11th hour Democratic effort comes one day after a group of senior house Democrats on Tuesday backed off an emerging push to delay the sale amid intensifying violence in the region lawmakers wanted to use the impending arms transfer as leverage to push the Israelis to drop their resistance to a ceasefire earlier Wednesday Biden told Netanyahu that he expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire according to a White House readout of their phone conversation last week the US blocked efforts by the United Nations Security Council to call for a ceasefire effectively backing Israel's bombing campaign against Hamas the Palestinian militant group as of Wednesday Israel's military operations in Gaza have killed 217 Palestinians including 63 children while 12 Israelis have died in the conflict which escalated after Hamas launched thousands of rockets into Israel now I'll just pause here to correct that article the conflict escalated when Israel chose to do an ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah they're the ones who initiated all of this they're the occupiers they're the aggressor so I still think it's important to point that out whenever we see this sort of false equivalence or both sidesism in these sorts of articles but the point of the article stands that now thankfully we have members of congress members of the squad who are actually doing the right thing now on twitter AOC explained a little bit more about what her goal is saying the United States should not be rubber stamping weapons sales to the Israeli government as they deploy our resources to target international media outlets, schools hospitals, humanitarian missions and civilian sites for bombing we have a responsibility to protect human rights it must be said here amplification is necessary but not sufficient traction on the issue is very dependent on your calls to congress retweets aren't enough call your member of congress and let them know how you'd like to be represented on this matter some tips on calling congressional offices one, don't be scared our lines exist to receive your calls to call your member the one who represents your district look it up in the link above be kind and clear you can firmly state your position without being cruel so she's correct it's not scary and to show you how it isn't intimidating I'm gonna call in a second I'll call my representative but I just want to respond to some of the things that she said here like she specifically cited how Israel is very brazen they're targeting media outlets they damaged the road leading to Gaza's main hospital and if you watched Vosh's 27 hour live stream where he fundraised for the Palestinian children's relief fun as he was doing the live stream their building was bombed it's just they're so brazen bombing these types of humanitarian groups who are literally there to provide medical assistance to Palestinian children so Israel doesn't care at all they have no regard for human life and it's funny in the article it's cited how Biden his message to Netanyahu was I expect significant de-escalation okay but what are you gonna do about that because he's gonna hear you and say okay thank you very much for your input and continue doing exactly what he's been doing the way that you actually get him to stop if you want your words to have any teeth whatsoever is you have to condition aid you stop the arms sale I mean it's not that difficult Biden has leverage he's choosing to not use that leverage hence why Netanyahu isn't just continuing with the slaughter in Gaza they're being brazen openly committing war crimes bombing a building that housed associated press journalists so it is important this is gonna be very difficult I don't have much hopes that this resolution is going to pass you said that though that doesn't mean that we don't try so I'm gonna call my representative her name is Suzanne Bonamici I'm not gonna put her number on the screen as I usually do when I call politicians because I don't want you to call my politician I want you to call your representative so I'm gonna give her a call to her local office thank you for calling Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici's Beaverton office out of an abundance of caution and in the interest of everyone's health the congresswoman's office offices in Washington DC and Oregon are closed while the congresswoman and her staff work remotely we will be checking this for this mail regularly and returning calls please leave a brief message along with your phone number and email address the congresswoman's website is available at bonamici.house Hello Representative Bonamici my name is Michael Figueredo I'm a constituent of yours and I just want to call you to support Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's resolution urging the Biden administration to not sell weapons to Israel while they literally carry out a genocide in Gaza I would love to have you be a leader on this issue and not only support that but also speak up at the behest of Palestinians who right now are suffering they can't get in or out of Gaza without Israel's say Israel controls their electricity their water supply and currently they're being massacred with 63 children dead because of Israel at the time I make this call so please I ask you to support this resolution and be a leader speak up it's the right thing to do and you will be on the right side of history if you do that thank you very much for your consideration and that's it I mean I usually end up babbling on far too long when I call a member of congress or my representative but you don't have to do that you can just keep it short and sweet hi my name is my phone number is blank please support AOC's resolution condemning the arms sale to Israel that's all you really need to say it's not difficult and when she says it's not scary it's surprising the number of people who actually say they are a little bit afraid to call is a bit startling to me and a lot of people have social anxiety and sometimes it helps if they see individuals like me do something really simple I can just make a call and I've gotten a lot of great feedback from people who say that when they see me make a call to a member of congress they feel a little bit better about doing it themselves 9 times out of 10 you're never going to talk to an individual at best you'll talk to a staffer who will write down your message and that's it they'll relay the message to the member of congress but it's not anything to be afraid of you know if you stumble over your own words or you don't necessarily articulate yourself perfectly what matters is that you get your point across and it's relatively easy to do that so long as you care about this issue so I would encourage you to follow AOC's lead here and make the call to your representative and we will leave that there absolute credit where it's due AOC hasn't necessarily been the best on the issue of Israel Palestine but over the course of the last couple of weeks I have been pleasantly pleasantly surprised and delighted to see the way that she's spoken out on behalf of I'm very happy about this and it's nice to have leaders in congress now because this is something that's new we've never had members of congress really lead the charge against this really apartheid and I really want to give her credit because this is things like this it matters even if it might be really difficult to actually pass this resolution there is a seemingly infinite number of issues that need to be addressed not just in the country but around the world Republican Party politicians they're responsibly focusing on the most important issue that currently is plaguing humanity no I'm not talking about global anthropogenic climate change of course I'm not talking about the global pandemic that we're all dealing with I'm speaking of the great sauce shortage of 2021 now if you don't know what I'm talking about this Breitbart article should shed some light on the situation quote now in response to this article US Senator Ted Cruz tweeted out Joe Biden is destroying America bro you're a united states senator now that's not all because in response to an article at the hill about Chick-fil-A's shortage of sauces QAnon conspiracy theorist and capital insurrection co-conspirator Lauren Boebert responded saying is there no limit to how awful Biden's America can get and in addition to her quote she also responded directly to that article's thread and she wrote the exact same comment and the first response is just too perfect because it says are you going to storm the capital in protest now we did manage to capture one video of a public freak out from a Republican who was very outraged at the shortage of sauces take a look I want special one sauce where's my special one sauce I'm taking a rig I'm taking a rig I'm taking a rig rig I'm taking a rig Hey Ted Cruz this shoe I'm Ted Cruz now look I'm sure that you're confused maybe it's the case that they're retooling the whole thanks Obama meme but they're just applying it to Joe Biden maybe they're not actually Joe Biden for a restaurant chains sauce shortage but no that they're actually being unironic here they're literally blaming Joe Biden for Chick-fil-A's sauce shortage so to give you a little bit more insight into the origins of the story and how this became an issue for the Republican Party Paul blessed of Vice News explains Republicans are pinning the blame on President Joe Biden for the gravest crisis currently facing states the great Chick-fil-A sauce shortage of 2021 Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt who is up for reelection next year sent an email to supporters Monday pointing the finger at Biden over the chicken restaurant supply chain issues which the company said earlier this month were a result of industry-wide supply chain shortages Chick-fil-A has a sauce shortage and you want to know why Stitt wrote because of Joe Biden's radical liberal policies the shortages are limiting not only zesty buffalo oh god honey mustard and ranch dips essentially every aspect of the global economy from ketchup packets to computer chips has been affected as consumer demands and international supplies were thrown out of whack from the pandemic and while Biden has pushed for more US companies to manufacture chips in America there's no word yet on what he's doing about our national condiment emergency so this is literally something that the Republican party is trying to make into a thing they're outraged that they can't get their uh zesty buffalo sauce from Chick-fil-A and as a result they're blaming Joe Biden okay um so I looked at the email that Kevin Stitt sent out to kind of see if it's as crazy as it sounds and also I wanted to know is there any specific link between Joe Biden and the sauce shortage and he really doesn't say anything about that in this email he does allude to the gas shortage that may have something to do with it and yes it is the case that there is a gas shortage but is there a specific policy that Joe Biden's administration has implemented that has led to said gas shortage because I do know that a very large gas pipeline was hacked did Joe Biden hack it because if so then perhaps he shares some culpability there there was a lot of panic buying I guess you could blame Joe Biden for not issuing a statement calming the masses I just like you're really stretching here you're really going out of your way to try to make Joe Biden responsible for this when I mean as president at the end of the day you are responsible for everything in the country really we're gonna make the sauce issue a thing that we demonize Biden over I mean look as a leftist there's virtually unlimited things that you can criticize Joe Biden for he's an easy target quite frankly but they choose sauces at Chick-fil-A see this is why liberals need to understand what leftists say when we tell you don't take Republicans seriously don't try to work with them there's no sense because they're not serious the issues that they always raise when it comes to Democratic Party presidents are the dumbest issues imaginable does anyone remember the scandal with Obama when he chose to wear a tan suit one day or how he didn't salute a soldier the correct way when he was getting on Air Force One I can't even remember what the scandal was but he had a coffee in his hand and he like did a half salute or whatever and that was apparently a really big deal there's been gauzy which is something that they tried to turn into this big controversy they just they don't know how to criticize Democrats because they agree with a lot that the Democratic Party does when it comes to economics they agree on a lot more with the Democrats than even leftists do so what do they do they try to manufacture these bizarre scandals in order to get the Democratic Party president but they go for the dumbest of all dumb scandals I mean really Chick-fil-A sauces look let's just assume for a moment that they're arguing in good faith and they have evidence that I'm not privy to and Biden really is unilaterally responsible for the great sauce shortage of 2021 is this really like the main thing that you want to make a big deal out of aren't there other things that you can criticize Joe Biden for I mean really this is this is what we're doing Chick-fil-A sauces we're going to get your honey mustard so you're throwing a temper tantrum being a Karen on Twitter Ted Cruz really I mean I shouldn't pretend to be surprised because this is very on brand for the Republican Party but it's just I don't know what to say they're melding down over sauces okay all throughout the course of the pandemic I have continued to showcase the hysteria over masks by let's face it people who are Republicans and it's not getting any better like we're nearing the end of the pandemic at least in the United States as vaccinations take up but the hysteria over masks is somehow getting dumber as we ease more restrictions so just last week the CDC issued a new guidance which says people who are not vaccinated they're the only ones who have to wear masks they no longer have to wear a mask indoors but they're still like ratcheting up the anti-mask rhetoric and the hysteria is getting more bizarre more hyperbolic and just downright idiotic so the blaze TV hosted a conversation between Glenn Beck and Dave Rubin otherwise known as rave dubin and I don't even know how to introduce this segment but basically Glenn Beck compared anti-maskers to Jewish Germans during the holocaust and Dave Rubin then used his Jewish identity to validate what Glenn Beck said saying yes you are correct this is very much equivalent to the way that Jewish Germans were treated during the holocaust I wish I were kidding about this but this is literally the conversation that they had take a look on somebody has become almost like a yellow star so many people on the liberal side see the mask as a sign that you're part of the party and when you're not wearing a mask you're a problem and they've been shaming us they've been side-eyeing us speaking out calling us names how do they remove that mask because it has become part of the identity of the party well Glenn that goes directly to the danger that they've been doing for years now which was calling us all racist and bigots and Nazis and I know that you personally you've gotten into hot water from the lefty media at times for making the Nazi analogy and I completely agree with you on this when you make the Nazi analogy these are the people who call all of us Nazis but the Nazis didn't just show up one day it didn't just show up one day yes it is a process of othering people saying the worst things about people and now it's not just that our political views are odious and should be silenced and kicked off big tech and everything else it's that we are literally killing people by not wearing masks by not bowing to these people and who is who's actually the ones that are instigating the hate it's that honestly their stupidity never ceases to amaze me so there's a couple of things that I want to respond to in particular can't respond to every single point that they made because we'd be here all day if that were the case but Glenn Beck says so many people on the liberal side see the mask as a sign that you're part of a party ask yourself why that's the case why is that the case Glenn Beck which party politicized masks which they made it so that way wearing a mask was a political statement is it the party that claimed that mask requirements are hurting our liberty they're infringing on our rights as American citizens you're the ones who turned this into a political issue and you're mad now that it's a political issue well stop making everything a partisan issue he also said and when you're not wearing a mask you're part of a problem and they've been shaming us siding us speaking out calling us names because you're literally being childish for refusing to wear a mask in the middle of a pandemic you're being an imbecile you're being unreasonable and I don't believe that every time you go out in public without your mask you're getting all these snarls and side eyes from liberals everybody just goes on about their business nobody cares what you're doing like when I'm in a store and I see someone without a mask I think that that person is stupid and probably a Republican but I don't ever confront them I don't snarl at them I just keep my distance that's it but they love being the victims here they love it now Dave Rubin after Glenn Beck compared anti-maskers to the star he stepped in of course to legitimize that idiotic point he said look you've gotten into hot water lefty media at times for making the lazy analogy or the Nazi analogy maybe I'll correct it in my notes but the Nazi analogy and I completely agree with you on this he then adds the Nazis didn't just show up one day it is a process of othering people it's ironic that you say that because that's literally what Republicans do all the time just ask any trans person but ask yourself this Dave Rubin do you honestly think it's the case that mask mandates are quite literally going to put us on the trajectory of an anti-conservative holocaust is that genuinely what you believe Dave Rubin please is this actually the route that you think this is going on it couldn't possibly be that we're dealing with a pandemic that's so bad it only comes around once every 100 years it couldn't possibly be that masks are literally just there because it's a pandemic no no it's because this is basically like the beginning of the next holocaust I mean there's there's no there's no sugar coating it Dave Rubin you were a fucking moron and Glenn Beck is too Jesus fucking Christ I just you people are so stupid and so unreasonable it's a piece of cloth is it really that big of a deal like I am someone who has glasses so whenever I wear my mask I breathe and my glasses fog up that's a little bit of an inconvenience but it's still not that big of a deal it's a pandemic so it's understandable that this minor inconvenience is something that I have to do throughout the duration of the pandemic although I've been vaccinated so not necessarily for much longer it's just they're so unreasonable and the only response that's appropriate for these imbeciles is this you are so dumb you are really dumb for real speaking of Marjorie Joker Green she is a lawmaker who decided to lead a rebellion in the house with other Republican Party politicians against house rules recording masks I'm not joking Politico's Melanie Zinona explains a group of House Republicans revolted over their chambers mask rules on Tuesday the latest sign of tensions boiling over as Congress wrestles with how and when to return to pre-pandemic routines around a dozen Republicans refused to wear masks during the evening vote series and strategically stood at the well of the chamber which appears on the c-span cameras and seemed to encourage other members to join in Representative Marjorie Taylor Green snapped a selfie with a few other masclists members and posted it to social media taking pictures on the house floor is against longstanding rules due to security concerns at one point Representative Robin came over and confronted the rebellious crew and asked them to be more respectful of other members and staff. Representative Thomas Massey who was standing nearby could also be heard shouting to another member ingest, I can't hear you with your mask on Massey was one of the lawmakers who helped organize the protest sources said earlier in the day Representative Brian Masst of Florida stood up during a GOP conference meeting and told his colleagues that he's done wearing masks and will refuse to wear them on the house floor going forward even if it means being fined according to multiple sources in the room and I've got to say that that is definitely not a melodramatic snowflakey thing to do it's the Sigma thing to do actually to have a public meltdown as a lawmaker because you don't want to wear a piece of cloth over your face during a pandemic I just I don't even know what to say you can probably hear in my voice I'm exhausted reporting on Republicans stupidity so frequently sucks the life out of me like I feel like my soul has been drained from my body because it's like the movie idiocracy that wasn't supposed to be a documentary but idiocracy like I could point to examples in there where I would actually think you know what they're probably smarter than some Republican Party pundits and lawmakers honestly it's that bad if you take them seriously honestly and I mean this with all disrespect that says a lot about your intellect if you think that these people are serious people you're stupid look my expectations for Republicans it's it's very low we'll put it that way it's it's below the floor low but there are some things that you think aren't really that controversial that even seemingly insane people like Marjorie Taylor Green and the Republican Party have no problem supporting I mean some positions that one takes it's not really supposed to be controversial right ice cream is delicious I think Republicans and Democrats can both agree with that cookies are delicious dogs are adorable hatred against the AAPI community is unacceptable well actually that last statement is an issue because Republicans 180 Republicans in the house to be exact decided to vote against the resolution condemning hate against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in the United States now for more of this we go to David Badesh a raw story who explains Wednesday afternoon the United States House of Representatives voted 244 to 180 to pass a resolution condemning anti-Asian hate after 8 people including 7 Asian Americans 6 of whom were women were shot and killed at spas in Atlanta Georgia in a series of hate crime mass shootings last month all 180 no votes were from Republicans no Democrats voted against the resolution among the no votes were Georgia Republican representatives Rick Allen Andrew Clyde Marjorie Taylor Greene Jody Heiss and Barry Loudermilk Congressman Loudermilk represents part of the area where the killings took place Jesus the text is quite simple condemning the horrific shootings in Atlanta Georgia on March 16th 2021 and reaffirming the House of Representatives commitment to combating hate bigotry and violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community the resolution says the people of the United States more in the eight innocent lives lost 6 of whom were women 6 of whom were women of Asian descent and several of whom were immigrants it lists the victims names Emily Tan, Da Yu Feng, Delayna Ashley Yan Paul Andre Michaels Yong Ai Yu Soon Jung Julie Park Hyun Jung Grant and Soon Cha Kim so I've got to ask why would you vote against this like what reason can you possibly state that makes it justified to oppose something like this the only thing I could think of is that while it references a shooting and if Republicans condemn a mass shooting then that must tacitly suggest that they support gun control reform I don't know but this is a very basic resolution just condemning hate against a community currently under attack who's seen an increase in hate crimes why is it so hard to support the bare minimum now if Matt Gaetz has taught us anything usually when a Republican votes against something that is uncontroversial it says a little bit about themselves so for example Matt Gaetz was the only member of Congress to vote against a bill that would further criminalize sex trafficking and here we see 180 Republicans vote against the bill explicitly condemning hate against the AAPI community so I can only suggest or deduce rather that they're taking this position because either at best they don't care about hate against the AAPI community or at worst they actually don't like the AAPI community either way it's just this is really it's shameful to not even do the bare minimum and condemn hatred against a marginalized community who has been victimized because of a pandemic that the last president blamed all Asians for saying it's kung-fu or China virus he has fueled anti-Asian hate crimes and the least that Republicans can do is this seemingly symbolic gesture to just support a resolution condemning hate against this community and they can't even do that they can't even do that Jesus Christ there is no limit to how low they're willing to go to go out of their way to showcase how they are just terrible human beings and it's truly embarrassing look I don't like conservatives but back in 2016-2017 there was a shooting that took place at a Republican baseball game and it was a Bernie Sanders supporter who carried out the shooting right he didn't do this in the name of Bernie Sanders it's just someone who happened to support Bernie Sanders who did a mass shooting if I was a member of congress and there was a resolution condemning this violence against Republican lawmakers what I supported obviously because I very clearly don't support violence against Republican lawmakers it's just these things like this they shouldn't be partisan issues condemning hate against the AAPI community they shouldn't be a Republican Democrat thing but here it is everything in our society is a political issue wearing masks during a pandemic is a political issue believing science is a political issue condemning hate against the AAPI community after they just were victims of a mass shooting that even is a political issue with this level of polarization it's almost insane it's like if Democrats say that ice cream is delicious how quickly until people like Marjorie Taylor Greene come out and condemn ice cream and say that ice cream is disgusting and it's terrible and Democrats only support ice cream because their donors in the ice cream industry are fueling them big Ben and Jerry's Democratic Party politicians and I'm being intentionally hyperbolic here but I mean that's really what it feels like they're just going out of their way to go against things that Democrats support because Democrats bad therefore any and everything that they propose is bad to not support a symbolic resolution condemning hate against the AAPI community that's just a lot more about them than anyone else so by now I think it's abundantly clear since author JK Rowling has made it known every opportunity she had that she hates trans women okay we get it but how obsessed she is with hating trans people truly I didn't know the depths of her bigotry she is out of her mind she is obsessed with demonizing trans people and if you also don't agree with her and think like her and also think that trans people are some sort of subspecies especially trans women then she doesn't want to be associated with you because Stephen King, another author who's a better author by the way he tells the story of JK Rowling cancelling him his words not mine for not hating trans people yeah so as Andrew Schuster of Mediaite explains Stephen King discussed his falling out with fellow author JK Rowling after he tweeted his support for trans women last year the Harry Potter author deleted a tweet praising the horror novelist and unfollowed him on the social media platform after he sanctioned a tweet saying trans women are women Joe cancelled me, King told the Daily Beast in a new interview she sort of blocked me and all that here's the thing, she's welcome to her opinion that's the way the world works King continued if she thinks that trans women are dangerous or that trans women are somehow not women with it, the idea that someone masquerading as a woman is going to assault a real woman in the toilet, if she believes all those things she has a right to her opinion King went on to tell the Daily Beast that despite the backlash she's received nobody has cancelled JK Rowling he added, she's doing fine I just felt that her belief was in my opinion wrong we have differing opinions, but that's life I mean I did not know she was that obsessed with trans people that's bizarre, that's really weird that's really weird if somebody else doesn't support your bigoted view about trans women you actually block them on social media wow now Stephen King is uh, too nice here he makes it seem like, well you know I know that she doesn't think that trans women are women and she thinks that they are uh, bad people in general and their predators but I mean that's just a difference of opinion no, that's not a difference of opinion some things aren't necessarily a matter of opinion right? some people might have the opinion that climate change is an actually man made some people might have the opinion that the pandemic isn't actually real some people might have the opinion that racism doesn't exist anymore that institutional racism isn't a thing these people are objectively wrong and empirical reality does not support their claims trans women are women period so he's too nice most liberals are and he's giving her a pass and he also said look, you know she's bad on this issue but she is better on other issues she's against Donald Trump oh wow let's give her an award for being anti-trump she was also anti Jeremy Corbyn yeah so I mean I can't stand her going out of my way to attack Stephen King I think that it's really interesting of him to speak up about this because usually when you're that famous and another famous person kind of comes at you or cancels you then you might not necessarily feel inclined to speak out if you want to avoid drama but I'm glad he shared this because it truly speaks to how deranged this individual is who's just obsessed with trans people okay Rowling leave trans people alone leave trans people alone deal with the fact that trans people are here and they're not going anywhere like it or not so you can try to demonize trans women you can try to hate against them and be prejudiced against trans people but all you're doing is making their lives hell they're not going to go away, they're here to stay so you can choose to actually be a good person and accept trans people and stop propagating discrimination against them or you can keep doing what you're doing and you're going to be judged very harshly by history because like all civil rights issues interracial marriage gay marriages women's suffrage we all know where this issue is headed it's just a matter of when society is going to change its opinion more collectively and you're going to be on the rock side of history if you don't wake up but at this point she's done so much to damage the trans community particularly trans women to demonize them when they're already subject to violence and marginalization she's a bad person and she's also a petty piece of shit it's certainly not surprising at this point but of course I'm going to call you out as trans women because it's not right what you're doing and quite frankly it's pretty disgusting pretty grotesque what you're doing I don't know how you live with yourself trying to make the lies of marginalized people harder but I mean she's a millionaire so she doesn't care she's insulated, she's privileged and she doesn't care about the impact that she has on the world so she continues to demonize trans people well that's all that I've got for you today thank you so much for sticking with us if you've made it this far in the program as usual we're not going to end the show without thanking all of our Patreon PayPal and YouTube members for helping us not just to survive but thrive as well you all are truly amazing and I truly appreciate everything that you do for us so that's all that I've got if you want more of the Humanist Report every Thursday at 8pm PST I will be on Twitch either talking about politics or playing a video game it's a fun time definitely make sure that you check that out and that's I think everything so I will see you all next week take care everyone my name is Mike Figueroa this has been the Humanist Report have a great weekend everyone