 So there's a town hall that took place last week with a very prominent politician that I didn't talk about yet And I know who you all think I'm talking about you think I'm gonna say Cory Booker you think we're gonna talk about CNN's town hall with Cory Booker and yes He did in fact have his own CNN town hall However, I have absolutely zero interest in talking about this sell-out who supposedly texts back and forth with the president of APEC No, thanks. Cory Booker's canceled. I have no interest in covering that However, the prominent politician who had a town hall that I do want to talk about is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez because she had a town hall with other progressives such as Ro Khanna with Chris Hayes on MSNBC And they talked about the Green New Deal and what she does here is really important because she sets the record straight once And for all about the Green New Deal one she tells you what the Green New Deal is in actuality and she tells you how we're going to get it passed in the absence of Nobody having the political courage to act on it, you know, you we wave a magic wand and we pass the Green New Deal resolution tomorrow What happens nothing right because it's a resolution What the what our resolution that we introduced means is that it passes the house and it passes and it passes the Senate separately it just means that we make it a national priority and it says that the scope of The solution must be on the scale of the problem And so it outlines the ways that we can pursue that scope But in order for us to actually pursue this agenda We don't have to do it all at once, but then it outlines the ways and the hows of doing it This is not about appealing to my colleagues it's about appealing to you and appealing to the entirety of the American people because we like to think that the Wheeling and the dealing and the closing and the deals behind closed doors are what is going to lead us to the future But it is the actual, you know rubber to the road Political pressure and popular Organizing by everyday Americans coming together to create the political pressure to say we need a plan by 2020 and when you start voting on your presidential candidates based on that And when you start voting period when we weren't voting before You know it it completely changes the entire dynamic of the country And so that's where I think that that political pressure to keep our promises comes from because as a party We got to show up and I understand why we don't there is this false idea That people don't vote because they're uneducated or because we're apathetic or what have you but not voting is a choice We choose not to do it because we have become so cynical about this system that has not been working for us And so it creates a chicken and egg situation, but right now we all need to just mobilize and Voting isn't everything. I'm I'll be the first person to tell you that is that if all you do is cast a vote every Few years, we're not going to get out of this mess But we need to start there We need to start there and we need to at least cast our vote so we can have the political power That we deserve and that it that's how we actually get represented here as a country I think that that clarification was really important and it's not like she hasn't been clear all along But from the very beginning what has the right-wing propaganda machine been trying to do? They've been lying and obfuscating about what the Green New Deal is if you don't really know about The Green New Deal and you're just kind of a casual political observer then maybe you hear something about something something She wants to ban farting cows and ban air travel, but in reality That's not what this is about However, since the right-wing media machine and the propaganda arm of the Republican Party is so disciplined and since they all Loudly say the same thing at once it's easy for their narrative to catch on and drown out the actual Substance it happens all the time and that's what happened with the Green New Deal So I'm very glad that she took the time to clarify. It's just a resolution It's a resolution that outlines the scope of the solution that must be the scale of the problem That's all it is and it's important that the scope of the solution matches the scale of the problem Because if it doesn't then we're not going to be able to avoid catastrophic levels of climate change just last year The IPCC gave us a 12-year deadline They said if we don't act and take substantial action, then we will not be able To stop a two-degree Celsius increase, which will be catastrophic So what she's doing is she's trying to set out a resolution that Outlines goals is essentially a wish list that says these are the things that we need to do in order to meet the IPCC's Deadline she's acknowledging we may not get everything that we want on our wish list But so long as we make an effort and acknowledge that we've got a match The IPCC's 12-year deadline then that's important She then makes a really important point about the lack of political will to act because if you just sit back And you hope that Congress takes action. I mean good luck. We'll all be skeletons the entire Planet will be engulfed in catastrophic levels of climate change if we just wait on people to act the point that she says That she makes here is really important. She says look It's not just that you have to vote for a president and members of Congress that believe in climate change and genuinely want to take action You have to mobilize yourself the onus is also on you not just on members of Congress because if you just Expect them to take action You're gonna be waiting forever because they're not going to act without mass mobilization and this is a point that I think Bernie Sanders makes that really sets himself apart He talks about policy issues like Medicare for all and says look It's not just going to be the normal legislative process where we introduce a bill Congress votes on it and debates it You have to take action every city must mobilize there needs to be mass Protests nationwide because without that pressure Congress is not going to act because they have special interests in their ear Telling them not to act. So what she's saying here is super important. You can't just expect them to take action They're not gonna do it unless you force them to and now I want to move on to the second clip that I want to show You where Ro Khanna talks about the Greenew deal and really its feasibility because a lot of people Howard Schultz Even is talking about how unfeasible this would be to convert existing building buildings into renewable buildings and whatnot What Ro Khanna outlines here is not just the feasibility of The Greenew deal and not just that it's doable, but he cites very specific examples of what we can do The limited amount of money it would take to actually make a really huge difference and be competitive on the global Economy when it comes to renewable technology we could be a world leader But we're getting beat now by the likes of China and the points he makes here are phenomenal There's some very pragmatic things we could do Instead of the president yelling at the GM CEO on Twitter to create jobs You could actually expand the electric vehicle tax credit link it to domestic Manufacturing and open up a lot of those GM plants to make electric SUVs, you know the Greenew deal The Greenew deal is also the green energy race China is making 50% of the electric vehicles if you care about having that industry in the United States Why aren't we incentivizing that? Why aren't we building solar plants and wind plants? We could and this 93 trillion dollar number is crazy. It would for for 300 billion more dollars You can look at the math We would match China's spending and we could get to 50% solar and wind energy by 2025 California is already doing it. We're gonna get to 60% by 2030 Well, California is a leader, but so are states like Iowa and Texas and I want to say that because this is something that states across the country can do California has set a standard 60% renewable energy by 2030 every new home built in 2020 should have solar Panels on it. There's a real investment in creating solar farms and wind farms This is something so eminently doable in our country and the the idea that the economics don't make sense is a myth The Republicans I mean just in candor if they were to come back and say, okay, we want to spend $500 billion we don't want to do this we can start a discussion, but they're engaged in nonsense That is exactly it. They are engaged in nonsense and what you see is that it's no longer Acceptable for them to just outright deny climate change even though there's a few idiots Well, actually there's still a lot of idiots that do like Donald Trump He still just flat out maintains that climate change is a hoax But what you see is some Republicans moving the goalpost they are now saying well look maybe climate change is happening But there's no way it's anthropogenic. There's no way that humans are causing it It's something that's just the natural phenomenon But some of them are now saying okay reluctantly so I'll accept that climate change is happening and yes It's man-made but your solution is stupid So what they try to do now is they try to shit on any one solution and really shit on any and all solutions that are Trying to do something. Okay. Well, if you don't like the Green New Deal Why haven't you co-sponsored Tulsi Gabbard's off-act she introduced this back in 2017 and It's not as ambitious as the Green New Deal, but if we pass that would we be better off? Unquestionably so there are numerous bills that have been proposed, but you're still not choosing to act So their denialism is taking shape in the form of them just shitting on any solution while claiming that they agree with us and that they Believe that climate change is happening and that we should take action And what Roe kind of talks about here is that we don't really have to do very much to have a gigantic impact China is now producing 50% of electric vehicles So we are losing this green energy race that is taking place internationally now We could be a world leader, but we're choosing to not be world leaders. We're not talking about reckless spending We're talking about Investing and embedded in the word investment is this implicit acknowledgment that When you invest you one day get that money back But more money nobody invests if they think they're just going to Invest in something and then get the same amount of money back you invest if you think it's going to be a profitable venture for you That's what the Green New Deal is. That's what investing in renewable clean technology like hydro wind and solar We'll do we invest because we expect to get that money back But they don't get it and Ro Khanna speaks to that he says the idea that the economics don't make sense is a myth Exactly because if you are investing then not only are you Stimulating the economy in a really important long-term way. You are creating jobs And that's what people don't get there's been so much misinformation and obfuscation that people just assume Oh, well, we're just going to go on a spending spree if we pass the Green New Deal. That is nonsense It's nonsense and Anyone who says this is being disingenuous because we're not just spending we're investing Which means we get that money back the government investing in the economy is One of the most important things they can do for long-term growth But people don't get that because there's a lot of shills for the oil and gas industry that want to make sure that we don't invest because that would hurt the profits of oil and gas companies who Would you look at that contribute to their campaigns? So what we have to do is have an honest discussion But unfortunately, there's a lot of bad-faith actors that don't want that discussion to take place So I'm glad that this happened. I'm glad that MSNBC at least some hosts once in a while We'll talk about climate change in a really meaningful way And I do think that it's important that we push back against this false narrative that's being spread by the GOP because it's just completely nonsensical and What we're doing here is trying to save the planet But idiots are just looking out for the short-term profits of large multinational Corporations who donate to their campaigns and don't really care about the hellscape that we're gonna have to live in if we don't take action When we're older and when their grandchildren is older, so it's just it's disgusting and I'm glad that The left is pushing back once and for all and not just allowing the right to monopolize this discussion Like they did back, you know in the ACA days with death panels and whatnot They just they take the most most absurd argument and the left kind of dismisses it at first because it's so stupid and absurd on its face But then they end up winning because nobody pushes back But I think that we need to take their bad-faith arguments seriously And we need to be absolutely forceful in acknowledging that these are lies and nothing more than lies by bad-faith actors period Mike is a total loser. So don't hit the subscribe button, okay? And whatever you do folks do not hit the notification bell either Mike treats me so unfairly