 This is the Humanist Report with Mike Figueredo The Humanist Report podcast is funded by viewers like you through patreon and PayPal To support the show visit patreon.com forward slash humanist report or become a member at humanistreport.com Now enjoy the show Welcome to the Humanist Report podcast. My name is Mike Figueredo and this is episode 310 of the program Today is Friday, October 15th and before we get started I want to take some time to thank all of the folks who make the show possible all of our newest patreon, PayPal, YouTube and Twitch Supporters who either signed up for the very first time to support us this week or increased the monthly pledge that they were already Giving us and that includes cutthroat 789 dirty pirate 90 Kang Lang 333 KL Michelle McConnell Sandra Tihi, Skeptizie, Sly Annie, Tina Horn and Yankee 2-1-1 So thank you so much to all of these kind individuals if you would also like to support the show and join the independent progressive media revolution You can do so by going to humanistreport.com slash support patreon.com forward slash humanist report or by clicking join underneath any one of our YouTube videos This week we've got a great show for you. Kirsten Sinema is teaching a class about corruption at Arizona State University So of course we will talk about that Also in this episode John Stewart shares his thoughts on Trump 2024 and cancel culture and he's spot-on So I'm really excited to talk about this Bernie Sanders shows support for India Walton Charlie Kirk gets humiliated during an abortion debate Tucker Carlson lies about a Fox News's vaccine mandate policy Marjorie Green has beef with Trump's attorney Lynn Wood and finally will close the show by talking to 2022 congressional candidate Rebecca Parson. That's what we've got on the agenda for today's show Hopefully you will enjoy what I have in store for you. We have some additional segments as well But without further ado, let's get right into it Last week we talked about how activists Confronted Kirsten Sinema in the bathroom demanding that she support immigration reform and the Build Back Better Act And at that time I made a comment that I think I'm now gonna have to walk back I said why is she even teaching at ASU? What unique insight could she possibly provide to students? She's just a mindless corporate drone So what does she know about anything? And I'm gonna have to walk back that comment because there is a class that she's teaching that really is perfect for her So this headline from the intercept says it all Senator Kirsten Sinema is literally teaching a course on fundraising The senator is educating Arizona State University students on her fourth day asking for money Yeah, so I think that if you do want to learn how to be corrupt how to beg for money from your corporate donors This is something that she knows quite a bit about The fact that this is a course that's offered It's not super surprising because colleges offer all kinds of courses Some of them are really insightful others are kind of pointless. It just really depends this one However, it is definitely something that Future politicians might want to know about if they want to play the game in DC and win If they want to become a politician or a lobbyist, it's it's really disgusting and gross But really this is exactly what you'd expect from Kirsten Sinema. She's not gonna be teaching political science 101 She's not gonna be teaching history. Of course she's gonna literally be teaching students how to be corrupt and Nobody knows better than her So Ken Clippenstein of the Intercept explains all students hope to learn from the top experts in their field Graduate students at Arizona State University have an unusual opportunity this fall to do just that Where Senator Kirsten Sinema is teaching a course on getting rich people to give you money The course title developing grants and fundraising is one of two classes Sinema is teaching this fall at Arizona State University School of Social Work the syllabus which was obtained by the intercept says students will learn diverse fundraising strategies for nonprofits as well as how to cultivate donors including large individual donors by leveraging resources like Opportunistic fundraising finding supporters for major fundraising events and well Asking for money the outline identifies key course concepts such as corporate giving Political strategy influence and power as well as more socially conscious terms like discrimination oppression and privilege One of the required books is fundraising for social change Ironic in light of Sinema's attempts to ensure things like corporate tax rates remain unchanged a spokesperson for Kirsten Sinema did not respond to a request for Comment fundraising is a subject the Arizona senator knows a thing or two about having raised eye-popping sums of money from groups opposed to President Joe Biden's build back better agenda Sinema has racked up some $920,000 in campaign contributions from said groups according to an analysis by accountable US a watchdog group that monitors corporate lobbying Now if you want to read the full syllabus, it's ten pages long I'll link to it in the description down below if you are watching this on YouTube, but if you are listening on Spotify or means TV you can find this on the intercepts website They link to it in the article, but this really I think it speaks to how broken our system is where things like this are normalized in a Democratic society things like this shouldn't have to be taught it shouldn't be the case that this is so ingrained It's just what we expect from politics that classes are literally taught on it It really speaks to how far we've fallen and it doesn't just date back the citizens United money and politics has been an issue For a while in American politics it dates back to Buckley v. Valeo But when you live in a capitalist society eventually Capitalism like a virus seeps into every single facet of society and it inevitably targets democracy itself and that's really what we're seeing We're seeing the commodification of democracy the commodification of elections to where you can't really be electorally successful Unless you raise large sums of money. It's a business It is a business that companies profit off of now that really is disgusting Now you have a few exceptions you have Democrats like the squad Ilhan Omar Cori Bush AOC who they don't actually raise money From large multinational corporations or elites They take lots of small-dollar donations and that really is the better model because even if these politicians who raise money From small donors aren't going to be perfect. Are they going to be more in touch with what their constituents want? Yeah, because it's human nature corruption really is something that It's not that complex if let's say Amazon Donates to your campaign or a super PAC and they give you five hundred thousand dollars It is human nature that you are going to be more kind to them I mean just think on an individual level put politics aside If one of your friends walks up to you and they give you a thousand dollars You're obviously going to be thankful But if that person says something that you disagree with if they say that they don't they don't support medicare Or they call you stupid and you know, they think that you're ugly Well, you're gonna have a harder time criticizing them because they just gave you a thousand dollars You're gonna maybe bite your tongue or maybe you push back But not as harsh as you would have had you not been thankful for the large sum of money that they gave you So it's it's Psychological it's a human thing to be corrupted by money And so when you take that and you extrapolate it and you put it on a massive scale like US politics You see the aggregate effect that it has on our society where politicians they don't represent their constituents any longer They represent their corporate donors and Kyrsten Sinema is teaching a class on Just this as if it's normal the class isn't necessarily about the way that money and politics has corrupted our democratic institutions It's how to participate in what is tantamount to legalized bribery. That's so gross But this this is what we've come to expect from one of the most corrupt senators in the United States and I can't even say that she You know, it's I think that it's a misrepresentation to say that she's one of the most corrupt She's just more brazen about it than other senators But many senators are corrupt most senators are corrupt sadly just last week We were talking about how John Hickenlooper was questioning Facebook about their profits If they changed their algorithm to not actually promote hatred now come to find out He has lots of money in stocks in Facebook. So this is something that is ingrained in society. It's not just Corruption from donors. There's conflicts of interest senators own stocks They profit off of the companies that they're supposed to be regulating and none of this is even Controversial it happens out in the open and we just kind of as a society we come to expect it now and Over time that erodes the fabric of democracy. It's antithetical to a representative democracy and Kyrsten Sinema is trying to Rather than break up that rather than speak out against it and the ways that it has helped to deteriorate Democracy in the United States. She's teaching about it as if it's normal Well, you know, this is just the system. This is what the system incentivizes. So I'm just teaching that But really what what a stupid class to teach what a dumb class to take You should be teaching about The impact that money in politics has on democracy rather than trying to propagate that but again Like I'm not gonna try to police the things that are taught at colleges because they teach everything But this is just sad the one thing that she possibly has any knowledge about that's what she's teaching about an ASU It's not it's not surprising. It's just It's like a parody. It's like a parody that has come to life and it just is so Depressing and embarrassing and expected. I Just found out that John Stuart actually has a new show on Apple TV and I haven't checked it out yet But he did an interview I believe about his new show and he said a couple of things about Subjects that is on everyone's mind that we're all thinking about and what he had to say the insight that he offers is Really Refreshing to hear so the first thing that he talks about is Trump 2024 and the prospects of him getting reelected and He basically says what we're all thinking He has a really really good shot at getting reelected. Unfortunately This is the reality of the situation and it's a little bit early to try to figure out What is actually going to take place in 2024 but assuming Trump is going to run again. Does he have a good chance? Absolutely, so as Judy Kurtz of the Hill explains John Stuart says former President Trump has a very good chance of winning back the White House If he enters the 2024 race, I think he's got it He's got a very good chance and they're smarter about it Stuart said Sunday during an interview with David Remnick at the 22nd annual New Yorker Festival He's brilliant at understanding what will drive the television narratives Stuart said referring to Trump Stuart also predicted that if Trump runs again It will all be about January 6th and stop the steal But what I think they really learned from this experience was there are really specific pivot points within the American electoral system And those pivot points are generally the administration of elections run by partisans But not by audiologs He said the actual danger of what happened at the Capitol in January Stuart added is that it exposed a fragility at A level that is not flashy or sexy or known while Trump has repeatedly teased a potential 2024 White House bid he hasn't formally declared his candidacy I thought he disqualified himself at every turn in 2016 the former Daily Show host said of Trump Adding that the former president displayed an antibiotic resistant strain of populism He came at the right moment for that audience with the right message and unapologetic and in a lot of ways I think every time you thought that something was disqualifying or something would defeat him But for those of us who have been in New York, we probably saw like if nothing else the dude's resilient Stuart 58 said and unfortunately, I think that John Stewart is correct here one thing that I disagree with him on is that Donald Trump is brilliant when it comes to television narratives. I do believe that Trump is good at creating narratives, but I don't Think that Trump is deliberately trying to disseminate certain narratives I think that he says something and the media will cover it Because Trump is good at generating ratings So I mean Trump may be savvy somewhat as a media personality in some ways, but I don't want to give Trump too much credit I think that a lot of things happen on accident There were some theories that really irritated me about Donald Trump that oh He he's doing this to distract you from this or he's doing this to distract you from that and he's trying to play 3d and 4d chess I think that he's dumb and a lot of the things that he does the consequences of his actions usually are The result of coincidences or accidents, but it either way I think that he's correct overall about the larger point that if Trump were to run in 2024 He really would have a great chance and yes this is going to be about January 6th and stop the steal which means that Trump in 2024 would be a Lot more dangerous because now he is running to further delegitimize a system that's already barely holding up He's going to run on it. Listen. I was denied. I was cheated So that's not only going to give him the advantage in the Republican 2024 primary because nobody else is gonna want to challenge the president who the base loves who was cheated So that's gonna help him there and for the more he's gonna hammer home in a 2024 election against Joe Biden or Kamala Harris I was cheated. I was cheated. I was cheated and eventually people are gonna think well since he was cheated Well, of course, we should reward him with the presidency that he was Illegitimately denied and overall the discourse will continue to deteriorate and the situation will get worse Republicans will grow increasingly authoritarian and do what they can to actually cheat him to victory now They're they're already kind of doing that by gerrymandering They're already doing that by instituting voter suppression laws particularly in areas where Trump did not do as well as he did before So for example in Texas one thing that really drove voter turnout was drive-through voting and They got rid of that or they're trying to I believe that they did already do that But mail-in voting one thing that hurt Donald Trump because it increased turnout. They're doing away with that in many states, so We have a lot of things When you put them all together they tend to add up and they hurt democracy I discovered a story where there were 11 states that had passed laws that allowed their state legislatures to subvert Elections in the event they don't turn out the way that they like now that doesn't mean that they can just say well We don't like the results. We're gonna overturn them like that But what it does mean is that they have more power as opposed to local governments who usually control These these elections so it's just overall. It's it's really scary to think about that being said I think it is still a little bit too early to speculate about 2024, but John Stuart said everything that's on our minds Yeah, he's probably gonna run again and if he does he has a phenomenal chance now. He also commented on cancel culture and coming from a comedian What he's gonna say is actually Very refreshing yet again because he says something that you wouldn't expect a Comedian to say because all comedians are seemingly in lockstep on this particular issue But he takes it in a different direction. It says something that's Pretty common sense in my opinion, but seemingly most people don't agree with this point of view So here's what he says Stuart also knocked the absurdity of cancel culture in his virtual chat with Remnick People that talk about cancel culture never seem to shut the fuck up about it The comedian said like there's more speech now than ever before he said the internet has democratized criticism What do we do for a living? We talk shit. We criticize we postulate we opine We make jokes and now other people are having their say and that's not cancel culture That's relentlessness. We live in a relentless culture Stuart said and the system of internet and all those other things are incentivized to find the pressure points of that and exacerbate it and to that I say Exactly he is exactly right here The people who complain about cancel culture are usually people who are very powerful who haven't actually been Canceled maybe they've seen some accountability for their actions. Maybe they've been criticized But the amounts of people who claim they've been canceled Well, it seems like they're still around how many people themselves can claim well I've been canceled for this or that well if you've been canceled for something That implies that you're you're you're gone. You're you're canceled, but that's not actually happening So what he says here is that yeah freedom of speech has been democratized because of social media before we never had the opportunity to Interact directly with a celebrity, but now if a celebrity says something that's stupid like Nick Minaj If she tweets about her friends cousins swollen testicles We can directly challenge her and say you are stupid and there is a chance that she might see that I mean, there's a lot of people tweeting at her at once So odds are still diminished that we're gonna get through to her directly But have the chances increased? Yes, and if enough people say something all at once odds are that celebrity is gonna hear it This is unique This has never happened before and it's all possible because of the internet and social media So because of that we're trying to figure out as a society How to deal with this new phenomenon and a lot of celebrities who usually are Insulated in their bubbles and surround themselves with yes men They've never had to deal with this before so what do they do they melt down like snowflakes and they claim I'm being cancelled when in actuality. You're not being cancelled. You're still rich You still have a mansion you still are at the tippy top of the social hierarchy in the United States You still have power You're just being a baby about the fact that for once you're facing criticism and sometimes that criticism is gonna be illegitimate Sometimes that criticism is gonna be too harsh But it doesn't mean that cancel culture is this rampant phenomenon and certainly the hysteria over cancel culture is Definitely overblown at a minimum and that's what I think that John Stewart is getting at and it's nice to see him say that because This is what I've said as well And I would like to think that people would already acknowledge this because cancel culture isn't as big of a thing as People want you to believe it is and certainly Discourse surrounding cancel culture has been weaponized by political actors So the conversation overall is usually bad faith and disingenuous So I feel like what he's saying shouldn't be that surprising it should be common sense to most people but it really isn't a lot of people view cancel culture as A real threat and to the extent that cancel culture exists. It's Not that prevalent as a phenomenon as many people would like us to believe So John Stewart here his insight is really great to see because what he says is Common sense saying something that's that's common sense like this is necessary and it makes a difference So I'm glad that he spoke on these issues I absolutely agree with him and I hope he says more if he's gonna offer Refreshingly common sense takes like this. I'll have to check out a show because yeah It seems like John Stewart still kind of has his finger on the pulse for the most part I'm sure that I have a lot of disagreements with him on certain things But at least on these things things that he That is insight is usually really valuable cancel culture Yeah as a comedian. I like that. He's saying this. It's it's common sense in my opinion As Fox News hosts continue to criticize vaccine mandates as some sort of a liberal authoritarian plot I find it really fascinating how they're all remaining conspicuously silent on the policy instituted by their employer Fox News because believe it or not the vaccine policy at Fox News is even more strict than the one put into place By the Biden administration and the White House actually praised Fox News Sarcastically of course for instituting their own version of a vaccine mandate and the company was even called out by a former Fox News host Eric bowling quote Fox was attacked from the right by a former employee Eric bowling now on the conservative network Newsmax bowling said Wednesday night that network leaders are pushing the wrong policies So while Fox hosts bemoan and complain about the liberals who are forcing Americans to get vaccinated They themselves are doing the same thing and that is the textbook definition of hypocrisy He said and Eric bowling may be wrong about virtually every other issue But when it comes to the hypocrisy of Fox News's hosts, he's absolutely correct here This is hypocritical. So why won't Fox hosts condemn Their company's policy or even at a minimum address it? Well, finally, one of them decided to speak up Tucker Carlson, of course And what he says here is interesting because he doesn't actually condemn Fox News's policy Rather, he chooses to deny that they have a vaccine mandate altogether This I always get a kick out of Fox News Fox News requires vaccinations for all employees Give me a break Fox News Now to be clear we just have a show on this channel That's it. We don't run the company and we would never presume to speak for the company But as a factual matter what Joe Biden just said is completely untrue. It is a lie Period we can say that with authority since we work here Every day literally alone among big media outlets Fox News defends this country's most basic civil liberties What we used to refer to was the bill of rights To cynical authoritarians like Joe Biden and the ghouls around him like Susan Rice That just can't be genuine. They assume the people you see on Fox News must be pretending Pretending for money or prestige or ratings or something else But they are wrong. We are not pretending at all. It's real Oh, is that so? Well, then I'm sure you'd have no problem disclosing your vaccination status, right Tucker Yeah, didn't think so. He's not gonna do that because then he looks like a gigantic fraud because we all know I know it. You know it. He knows it that he is vaccinated. I'm sure he was vaccinated as soon as he became eligible He's vaccinated But if he tells the truth about his vaccination status Then after fear margarine about the COVID-19 vaccines, he looks like a fraud to his audience And furthermore, it's really hard to believe that Fox News doesn't have this sort of a policy When there's evidence that they have this policy and Fox News themselves They put out this video Where they've celebrated their 25 year anniversary and would you look at that every single person is wearing masks every single Person So Tucker knows what he's doing, but I mean he's a propagandist So what he could do is just uh pretend like he is as principled as he is in actuality and he could just say Look, I'm not vaccinated. We know that that's uh, you know, that's not true But you know, he might not want to do that because perhaps he has an issue with lying I mean, I lie if I'm really cornered or something. I lie Oh, okay Well, then never mind But look, maybe it's the case that checker Carlson hasn't actually gotten vaccinated We don't know because he hasn't disclosed his status yet But in the event he hasn't gotten the vaccine and he actually is walking the walk Well, then uh, here's What his life is like working at Fox News As Justin Bargona of the Daily Beast explains while Fox has boasted that over 90 percent of its staffers are vaccinated It is not requiring all of its employees to get the shot Instead the company is requiring daily testing for those who refuse to get the jab or haven't revealed their vaccination status So technically you could still work at Fox News and not be vaccinated But if that's the case then you will be subjected to daily covid 19 tests And let me remind you that that's more strict than the policy put into place by the Biden administration So osha is going to mandate that uh companies with more than 100 employees If they don't require vaccines and they subject those employees to weekly Vax COVID-19 testing But Fox News is saying if you're not going to get the vaccination Or you're not going to tell us what your vaccinations status is You're going to get tested every single day to continue working here But yet tech or Carlson hasn't spoken out against that and you know You can make the case that technically this isn't a real mandate since there is a test out option But Tucker Carlson says that the Biden administration's policy is effectively a vaccine mandate and that it's bad So if that is a vaccine mandate and it's draconian then by his own standards The fox news vaccine mandate or vaccine policy, whatever he wants to call it Is worse. It's orders of magnitude worse. So based on his own standards based on his principles He should be more outraged at the vaccine policy of his employer than the one instituted by the white house But yet he won't condemn fox news and now when he finally addresses it. He just denies He's lying. We know he's lying So the question is if he's really a principled truth teller Why won't he call out his employer if you're as against vaccine mandates as you say you are Wouldn't it be logical to condemn your employer? It just it doesn't make sense why he won't do this It's almost like he's full of shit and usually I don't go out of my way To share msnbc clips because I have my issues with that network as well But there's a clip from uh, chris haze, which is really worth sharing because he kind of Calls Tucker Carlson's bluff. He says listen If you truly believe that the vaccines are bad and vaccine mandates are bad then of course You have no choice. You have to call out your employer. Otherwise you look like a fraud. Take a look I think Tucker Carlson is going to quit fox news Now hear me out. Okay Fox news as I've told you is running one of the most destructive disinformation campaigns. I've ever seen It's exacerbating one of the deadliest periods in american history Media matters found the channel pushed claims undermining vaccines 99 of the days in the past six months and the hosts over there are Strenuously opposed to vaccine mandates or requirements, right? They let you know every chance they get Joe you cancelled all medical freedom today with your broad edict and your mandates when you start diving into private business That's where the rubber hits the road. This is tyranny And it's getting more and more aggressive. This is autocracy It is the beginning of the communist style social credit system These demands are so obviously irrational That forcing you to accept them without complaint is the whole point of the exercise It is a form of sadomasochism. It is dominance and submission It's about power if they can make you take medicine. You don't want or need they've won You are theirs. You belong to them Sadomasochism spicy Tucker Would willingly suffer in such submission It's why fox news has been celebrating the very brave resistors in other organizations who have resigned from their jobs Were gotten fired or placed on some kind of leave rather than get the vaccine or be owned They brought on nurses and teachers even an army lieutenant colonel But their newest champion is someone at another cable channel espn a host their name sage steel Who is now suspended from being on air partly for appearing on a podcast and going after her employer for mandating vaccines I think to mandate I respect everyone's decision. I really do but to mandate it is Sick and it's scary to me in many ways But I have a job A job that I love and frankly a job that I need but again, I love it I just um, I'm not surprised it got to this point, especially with disney. I mean a global company Okay, so as you just saw there espn's sage steel had the courage of her convictions She got vaccinated because they required her but then she went and she called out her employer's vaccine mandate Even though it got her suspended which naturally made her a hero at fox news I think sage is brave for being willing to say exactly what she thinks. I agree with everything sage said I don't think it makes sense for uh for espn to be mandating the vaccine for employees I think they should be allowing employees to make their choices The irony here again is that none of these people clay travis brine killmeade to tucker carlson have shown that same bravery to call out their own network and their own employer The fox news vaccine requirement is stricter than the one proposed by president joe biden and described as tyranny and creeping communism fox is requiring unvaccinated employees to be tested every day And inside the buildings. I mean just look at this video of the opening of their newsy tc bureau Everyone is wearing masks and are most likely also vaccinated or getting tested every day because that is what their company is mandating Now tucker carlson has been the most vocal anti vaccination voice in american media And unless he just does not actually believe any of the stuff he's saying And it's all just a craven cynical act for ratings while he himself is vexed and people die needlessly by the thousands He might just be highlighting all those other people who showed actual courage As he works up his own courage, you know kind of through osmosis to walk out Because if you truly believe you are suffering under the Sato masochistic heel of a tyrannical employer Even if they are paying you lots and lots of money Even if you don't want people to think you're a total fraud Then you have got to have the guts To call out fox news or resign in protest. There's no other option. It's the only way forward You can do it. Tucker. I believe in you Yeah, but he's not going to do that If he really felt as strongly about vaccine mandates as he says he does He would quit he would resign in protest But he's not doing that Because Tucker Carlson is a disingenuous bad faith actor and he knows his role. He's a propagandist the words that come out of his mouth I don't know how much of it he believes But either way this should prove to everyone that he's a bullshitter But fox's audience doesn't know about the vaccine policy at fox news Fox's audience doesn't know or even probably think about the prospect of Tucker Carlson himself being vaccinated So while Tucker Carlson tells them how bad vaccine mandates are and how bad the vaccine is They're gonna listen meanwhile. He's protected At his place of employment everyone's wearing masks. Everyone's vaccinated or testing daily He's vaccinated most likely and so, you know, he he'll say one thing But his actions don't line up with his words And that is by definition fraudulent So, uh, it's this is really interesting I don't think this was a good idea for him to address this because it just It makes him look like a bigger fraud than he already did But still I mean, um, I think that this will appease his audience So in the end it's not gonna hurt him or his ratings, but either way if you still Think that Tucker Carlson is some sort of a brave truth teller you have been duped Do you truly in your heart of hearts Truly believe that this is a human being this without a doubt without a doubt. Yes. This is a dolphin fetus So, let me without a doubt a dolphin fetus is a human being This is a human fetus. Look how similarly look that amazing clip was from a debate featuring charlie kirk and comedian ben gleeb And the reason why it's so incredible is because ben gleeb sets up a trap and charlie kirk unknowingly walks right into it And the result is just humiliating for charlie kirk now There's a lot more to be said about that exchange, but before I talk more about this I do want to share the extended version of that clip so you can see kind of what happens in the lead-up to that moment And shortly afterwards, uh, so uh, enjoy at eight weeks. We have tails Uh at eight weeks and um, uh, um, embryo has tails. Do humans have tails charlie? I'm sorry. What serious question. Do human beings have tails? I'm not exactly sure the essence of the question. Do human beings have tails? Do you have a tail? You know, I have Never met anyone with a tail. I'm not exactly sure the uh, exactly But fetuses have tails kind of proves that at that phase they are not a human being they got tails humans don't have tails We're not dinosaurs. Let me even show you a photo if I may okay. Do you truly in your heart of hearts? Truly believe that this is a human being this without a doubt without a doubt. Yes. This is a dolphin fetus So let me without a doubt a dolphin fetus is a human being. This is a human fetus. Look how similar they look, but Quite different dolphin. You just confirmed that a dolphin in life. Do you confuse dolphins for human babies often? So let me ask you a question. You go to sea world and you're like someone's got human babies in that aquarium Get the human babies out of the aquarium. Well, you labeled it as a human fetus. No, I did not dishonest No, I did not label it as anything. Let me let me say human fetus on there Let me ask you a question though. So let's let's hold up those two pictures. Sure. Is there a moral difference between the dolphin and the baby? At this stage, no And you just confirmed that let me ask you perfection. That was sheer perfection Uh, what we just saw was a debate tactic that I want more leftists to use Because ben glebe is kind of using charlie kirks tactic against him Because if you watch longer on and I'll link to the full debate down below for anyone who wants to see it Charlie kirk once he kind of gets knocked off of his feet He gets back up and he then uses the same tactic that ben glebe just used on him Because what ben glebe did was he kind of presented charlie kirk with a common sense question Right, this is a fetus and the argument is that life begins at conception for charlie kirk So of course if he Is given an image of what he believes is a human fetus He's gonna answer but in answering and knowing that he's gonna answer you kind of prove Ben's point that does life really begin at conception? If you can't tell the difference between a dolphin fetus and a human fetus isn't this just a comp of cells at this point Now the way that charlie kirk rebounds from that is he asks Okay, well, is that human fetus that you showed me is that dead or alive ben glebe then says It's dead now That was a bait as well and charlie kirk kind of got him into a corner by saying that because it's not dead But the point is that does life begin at conception? That's the point of contention that they're both arguing over so to say that it's dead and to bait ben glebe into saying yes, it's dead You kind of prove your point as well So I don't necessarily know that this was a blowout for charlie kirk or for ben glebe overall But that particular moment was really really insightful Because one it shows how successful leftists can be when they replicate the same debate tactics of right-wingers And two it's important because what ben glebe did there was masterfully attack the root The core of charlie kirk's argument now charlie kirk goes on to explain His thoughts on abortion But really if we could find one moment in the debate where he summarizes his entire worldview about how he believes life begins at conception It's it's this clip that we're going to show you now Basically if you establish that life begins at conception and you accept that notion then of course if that is indeed life if fetus is life then of course Killing it is tantamount to killing a fully developed human being once you kind of accept that premise So take a look at what charlie kirk says and then i'll tell you why this whole Pro life this quote unquote pro life thing that he's trying to espouse here Does it actually add up if we're logically consistent take a look this really kind of goes down to the question of when Does human life begin when does personhood begin and the science of embryology says very clearly that life human life Begins at conception now speaking non scientifically as a moral argument We have overseen the slaughter of our fellow citizens over the last couple decades This is a genocide dare i say a holocaust of our citizens that has occurred since roe versus wade You talked about women well just statistically half of the 62 million abortions Since roe versus wade are 31 million women that never had the chance to live So first of all i just want to say that regardless if abortion is legal or not They're still going to continue to happen banning abortions Is not going to lead to less abortions instead of them being Safe and legal now they'll just be unsafe and illegal But by banning abortions you're not going to get rid of abortions entirely But to get to charlie kerks argument here he claims that That right there that fetus that's human life and it's so important that we protect that human life That we violate a woman's bodily autonomy even if she doesn't want That clump of cells in her well, you know, that's that's life If you don't think it's life Well, then at least it's going to develop into a human being at some point So he's taking what he believes is a pro-life stance But if you take that pro-life position and you extend it Then logically it should also follow That charlie kerk believes that under no circumstances Should a state have the death penalty under no circumstances should war ever be supported He should be a pacifist He should also support medical advancements that save lives such as the covet 19 vaccines He should also be very pro-life when it comes to supporting refugees and asylum seekers He should also make sure that no human being on the planet goes hungry and that everyone has basic health care And certainly the most pro-life stance of all means that we do everything in our power dedicate every single penny that we have To make sure that there is a planet for future generations And we have to combat climate change that is the ultimate Test of who is and isn't pro-life if you don't believe that there should be a habitable planet for future generations Then you're not pro-life. That's the logical extension Of this pro-life stance But that's not what charlie kerk believes in fact He disagrees with all of the things that i just listed So it's weird that your pro-life when it comes to fetuses But that's where you draw the line I mean certainly if you're gonna accept this notion Which i do not but if you're going to accept that life begins at conception Then wouldn't you accept that a fully developed life a child who's sentient who can think who can feel pain Is also deserving of life So why stop supporting life after the fetus is born either charlie kerk Doesn't actually care about life because he does want to control a woman's body or He doesn't really care either way and like many republican politicians He's just using this as a wedge issue To slide through a really insidious right wing economic agenda that disproportionately benefits elites What is this really about because if you say that you're pro-life Why do you arbitrarily draw the line at fetuses? But once the baby is born we don't care if that baby deals with war and global anthropogenic climate change We don't care if that baby goes hungry and doesn't have health care Why draw the line there? The entire Pro-life movement and it's a misrepresentation to even call them pro-life The entire pro-life movement is based on a farce Clips like this are so persuasive because charlie kerk. He's just a talking head He has a lot of rehearsed talking points But ben glee being a comedian he was able to kind of knock him off balance Kind of prove how silly his point is so overall I think that this was really really incredible to see and this is something that you can easily replicate On a personal level if you have a really anti-abortion uncle or someone in your family Who's anti-abortion and please don't call them pro-life call them anti-abortion because they've shown time and again That they're not pro-life. They're just anti-abortion, but if you have someone in your family That's anti-abortion You can do the same thing show them a picture of uh I don't know an elephant fetus and will they be able to tell the difference? Probably not probably not so where they choose to arbitrarily believe life begins Like that entire notion that anti-abortionists base their worldview on it can easily be dismantled Just like that and a comedian did it In less than 30 seconds to a right-wing hack who's been trained to debate people who knows Which rhetoric is effective to use so if it works on charlie kirk it's going to work On someone you know and perhaps you can use this same tactic and change somebody's mind Well, folks, we've got trouble in trump world and two individuals from trump world who should in theory Be totally aligned on everything are actually beefing currently And they're exchanging insults and i'm talking about trump attorney lin wood and marjorie taylor green What we're about to read Is truly bizarre, but it's totally expected in 2021 america. So first, let's look at what lin wood said about marjorie taylor green This is certainly Interesting to say the least so as jason lemon of newsweek explains in my opinion marjorie taylor green is a communist Wood said in friday remarks if marjorie taylor green is running around saying impeach biden that says that biden won He didn't the attorney said and you would never impeach him with a communist congress It's a waste of time wood went on to suggest that green may be a trader a trader will come at you as a patriot Be careful wood said now the first thing that i'll say about this is that to see Someone who calls everyone else a communist to see someone who Uses the word communist as a synonym for bad be called a communist herself It really is satisfying to see Having said that though to suggest that marjorie green of all people is a communist is just it's obviously absurd on its face and He's criticizing her because she wants to impeach Biden when you'd think that a maga chud would want that to happen But it's bad according to him because to want to impeach biden and you acknowledge that he's president in the first place Which in and of itself is a no no So you you have to pretend Like trump is actually still the president if you actually want to be part of this cult It's really really bizarre But if you think that marjorie green let that slide you'd be mistaken because she hit back with a very powerful Know you and accused him of some things that are pretty uh big as well bigly I should say green responded on saturday with an attack of her own She suggested that would attempted to take money donated to his former client kyle written house The young man has been criminally charged with fatally shooting two people during a black lives matter demonstration in wisconsin last year While he was still a minor people donated money through fight back law lin wood to kyle written houses legal defense Kyle fired lin in december people didn't donate to lin wood So why would he want two million dollars back green wrote in a post published to her telegram channel Only monsters hurt innocent people in their greatest time of need. She's talking about kyle written house by the way jesus She continued the g.o.p Congresswoman urged followers to donate to a different fundraising campaign for written house green then raised questions about the motives behind Wood's actions and the wake of the 2020 election if lin wood has fought so hard against the election like he claims Even encouraging people to go in the capital on january 6th Why isn't he the target of the january 6th? Which hunt she asked got him the j6 house select committee is only focused on trump's biggest defenders But not lin wood green wrote hmm Wood later posted more criticism of green on his telegram channel I love marjorie taylor green But I have raised serious concerns about her failure to take meaningful action to fix 2020 he wrote I believed in marjorie now that I have questioned her failure to act to fix 2020 It appears that marjorie no longer believes in me to the contrary She has attacked me with lies and misrepresentations the attorney continued a monster. Are you kidding me? He asked would then suggested that green was becoming part of the so-called deep state I'm also still willing to help her to prevent her from falling even Into an even deeper deep state ditch he wrote So my favorite part about this is that they're just going back and forth Accusing someone Accusing the other of something. That's just that shit fucking insane Actually, I think you're a communist while you're part of the deep state. Ha ha I mean, this is real stupid folks. This is incredibly fucking stupid. They remind me of like Two birds fighting over A corn kernel and a piece of dog shit. They both look ridiculous They sound crazy and anyone who's watching this should Be perplexed but also entertained because this is truly funny And I mean regardless of what they're fighting about. I don't know what catalyzed this I don't know why linwood chose to take a shot at marjorie green because seemingly he's the one Who drew first blood? But I like this any time there's trouble in Trump world. That's good for america objectively so if you care about america and democracy We need all of these little goons to be fighting each other because so long as they're fighting each other Then uh, they're at least preoccupied. They're not ruining the country or ruining it as quickly. I should say But marjorie green here if I have to take a side I've got a side with uh marjorie green, I guess because she doesn't seem like the one who provoked this exchange Right and not that I would ever side with marjorie green on anything But it could be the case that perhaps she implied that he was Taking money or embezzling money from the kyle written house legal fund And maybe she just hinted at it and he didn't like that. I'm not necessarily sure how this began It's really gross for her to suggest that kyle written house was some innocent person This is a kid that showed up to a black lives matter protest and he killed two people So I just I don't know what to say about this to to read this is truly surreal I mean look it's expected in 2021 america But still even if this is the type of discourse that I'd expect from american politics nowadays It's still really surreal and feels like a parody to read this It feels like something you'd see from some political satire But here you have these two dipshits one calling someone a communist who's clearly not a communist And then accusing her of being part of the deep state and then she's saying oh well actually It's a little bit sus that out of all of the people around donald trump He's conspicuously not being investigated when he encouraged people to go to the house And she kind of has a point. Maybe he should be investigated. I don't know either way Um, this put a smile on my face And I hope that it uh did the same for you because watching these two idiots fight each other back and forth It's basically a real live version of the spider-man pointing at spider-man meme But I hate them both. They're both wrong. They're both stupid But I love this and I hope that they keep this up So we've been following the mayoral race that's taking place in buffalo new york for quite some time on this program And there really shouldn't be anything to talk about at this point. There shouldn't But there is so in this city in buffalo It's heavily slanted towards the democratic parties So if you win the democratic party primary you are essentially Going to win the general election. It's usually a foregone conclusion But that's not necessarily the case here because india walton defeated the incumbent democratic party mayor byron brown And he has refused to concede Okay, now you think what's the big deal? He's not conceding so what she's still gonna win except he's chosen to not concede and run a sore loser write-in campaign and when you are the Four-term incumbent mayor with a lot of name recognition and more importantly big money donors on your side I think that that write-in campaign is something that actually could be competitive, which is frustrating but nonetheless Here we are and I want to share a quick clip from an interview that india walton did with jen prulman and peter hager And she explains the situation. Uh, and it's just it's truly truly frustrating. So I won the democratic primary 65 percent of registered voters in buffalo are democrats, right? So you want a democratic primary traditionally? It's assumed you're the presumptive mayor Um, well the 16 year four-term incumbent didn't concede He started a writing campaign And not only is he doing a writing campaign, but a couple of weeks ago. He got a local judge to Rule that our state Board of elections Deadline to file independent nominating petitions was unconstitutional and put him back on the ballot So we had to appeal that decision. We went to court. We got him off the ballot But now like all of this republican money is being flooded into the race. There's independent expenditures They are commercials that are like blatantly lying saying i'm going to lay off 100 police officers who are all going to be people of color and women um a video surface last night of him saying that i'm going to um allow rapists free sex predators Um, it's it's just ridiculous. But you know, he has so much power and privilege and money That they're able to play these things on a constant loop and you know, the more people hear this stuff The more likely they are to actually believe that it's true. So it's um It's funny in a way and then in a way it's kind of not because it'll be one fair and square and um Really want to bring positive change for working class people in buffalo and we're up against this monumental Um pretty nasty fight. Yeah So if this red and campaign works it really speaks to how powerful big money is in the united states Now, I hope that it doesn't work. I hope that he fails obviously because india walton is the real deal She actually wants to tackle poverty. She actually ran a competitive primary and Byron brown did nothing He sat on his ass and he expected himself to just win by default. He didn't run a campaign So she won her constituents clearly chose her over him and yet he's refusing to step down So she needs help. It's not like she's automatically going to win because she defeated him in the democratic party primary. This is basically Uh part two of the democratic party primary except now whoever wins actually does gets worn in as the mayor So she needs a lot of help and there's been leftists who are speaking out But now the most important leftist in the country Has chosen to uh stake his claim here Bernie sanders and he is going to war for india walton So he actually sent out a fundraising email on her behalf encouraging all of his supporters to donate to her campaign And it reads when democratic socialist india walton launched her campaign for mayor of buffalo They said she was too radical to win. She said she was bold and visionary They said she had no chance to beat a four-term incumbent then earlier this year She shocked everyone and won a close primary race That was only possible because she showed the political power of an agenda that puts people first Much like we did when iFrist was elected mayor of burlington 40 years ago Now the establishment incumbent she defeated in the primary is running a write-in campaign in the general election Which is less than a month away. He is being funded by wealthy corporate developers and fighting for an agenda that benefits them Quote when we think about socialism, you know, we're perfectly fine with socialism for the rich We bail out wall street banks and give a billion dollars in tax incentives To one of the richest people in the world and when it comes to providing resources working families need to thrive Socialism becomes scary that may remind you a lot of our campaign But it was india walton's response to a tax calling her a democratic socialist She ran a bold campaign. She talked about the issues people care about and she won Now india walton's opponent may have the support of people like carl paladino A trump supporting republican real estate developer, but india walton has something her opponent does not and that is the people Now there's another part from bernie's fundraising email that i'm going to read to you But i just want to pause right there and and talk about how important this is because bernie sanders is a fundraising machine He doesn't have this huge contact list of elites millionaires billionaires donors that he can call But he does have this huge email list that the dnc was thirsting for which he never gave to them i'm assuming and that in and of itself can do wonders By sending out this one email He probably helped her raise tens of thousands of dollars and that really makes a difference in a city where every penny is going to Count so if you also want to support india walton, i will link it to her campaign website down below You could donate a dollar two dollars three dollars twenty seven dollars Whatever you donate helps because if she can actually win and be a successful blueprint For what can be done to improve people's lives Then obviously that benefits the Cause of leftists overall now There's another thing that i want to point out that bernie sanders uh talked about in this email And it was too perfect to not share he writes when progressives lose elections We are all supposed to get in line and rally around the establishment candidate and do everything we can to help them win And we do when progressives win They get primaries like aoc rashita and ilhan all did last cycle But much like those three india is going to rally the support of working people and she's going to win as well And so i love that he made this point because i've made the same point as well. It's so frustrating. It's infuriating Democrats will always say after the primary is over. Okay It's time to vote blue no matter who it's time to get in line behind the person who won But you can see now firsthand that when it happens to somebody that they don't like They're not willing to preach unity. In fact byron brown is doing everything he possibly can To divide people And it's truly it's it's interesting that nobody in the establishment has called him out Is nancy pelosi or jim clibern gonna come out and denounce byron brown No, of course not because it's unity for the and not me That's the mantra of the democratic party and even like putting aside this This race back in 2020 when it looked likely that bernie sanders was going to become the nominee because he had the most pledged delegates Well, we remember the talks of joe biden elizabeth warren They all raised their hands when asked if somebody Who didn't get the most votes should win possibly Essentially implying is it okay or is it permissible or morally right to Use superdelegates to steal the nomination away from someone that we don't like And we saw what happened everyone raised their hands Bernie sanders was the only person who said no the person with the most votes Is the person who should become the democratic party nominee? And we we never saw what happened But I think that we all could have anticipated a lot of corporate democrats Denouncing bernie sanders possibly endorsing donald trump over him. I mean this is all speculative right because we can't Run back and and play that out to see what happens in an alternate setting But still it's frustrating that democrats continue to do this again and again and again And this race with bernie brown is a microcosm of a bigger issue of the democratic party doing everything they can to stop progressives But prop themselves up and you know, it's because they're they're serving their donors They're operating at the behest of the people who get them into power in the first place But uh, either way, it's good to see bernie sanders shame them for their hypocrisy And it's good to see him Fun raised for india walton because even though I think that she has a really great chance of winning I don't want to risk it. I don't want this to be another race Where we lose. I mean we we just saw Uh, you know a victory taken from us with neena turner. We were right there And we lost so I don't want that to be the case again I don't want to take any chances definitely if you can support india walton because if she is successful This is a win for all of us not just india walton not just Buffalo it's a win for all of us I feel like it's pretty obvious as to why everyone should be opposed to and bridges line three pipeline I mean we have a limited window of opportunity to act to stop The worst of what climate change has to offer and to construct a new pipeline that would emit the equivalent of 50 coal power plants of co2 it's At this point it's suicidal, right? It's further entrenching us in this system of fossil fuel reliance when we should be moving away from fossil fuels entirely and as a society investing in clean Green and renewable technology so the climate aspect the tribal sovereignty that's violated to construct this pipeline All of these are crucial in this story But another element that was reported on by the guardians hillary bowman Is shocking this is a bombshell and I haven't heard anyone speak about this yet And I had to talk about this because it also speaks to the conflict of interest With police officers who were brutalizing protesters there So here's what bowman writes the canadian company and bridge has reimbursed u.s Police 2.4 million for arresting and surveilling Hundreds of demonstrators who oppose construction of its line three pipeline According to documents the guardian obtained through a public records request Enbridge has paid for officer training police surveillance of demonstrators officer wages overtime benefits meals hotels and equipment Police have arrested more than 900 demonstrators opposing line three and its impact on climate and indigenous rights According to the pipeline legal action network It's common for protesters opposing pipeline construction to face private security as they did during demonstrations against the dakota access pipeline But in minnesota a financial agreement with a foreign company has given public police forces and incentive to arrest demonstrators The minnesota public utilities commission which regulates pipelines Decided rural police should not have to pay for increased strain from line three protests as a condition of granting line three permits The commission required enbridge to set up an escrow account to reimburse police for responding to demonstrations Enbridge told the guardian an independent account manager allocates the funds and police decide when protesters are breaking the law But records obtained by the guardian show the company meets daily with police to discuss intelligence gathering and patrols And when enbridge wants protesters removed it calls police or sends letters Our police are beholden to a foreign company tarahoska founder of the indigenous frontline group genua collective told the guardian They are working hand in hand with big oil. They are actively working for a company Their duty is owed to the state of minnesota and to the tribal citizens of minnesota It's a very clear violation of the public's trust. She added so when you See these headlines about how police morale is lower than ever and public trust in police has deteriorated This is why Because it's evident They're not serving the people. These are public servants who are working for a private foreign company That is truly Insane we have a private canadian company paying public american servants to police and surveil protesters by them cheeseburgers putting them in hotels it's truly dystopian I don't know what the right word is But there's a lot of adjectives that you can use to describe the situation or welly and dystopian draconian It's insanity But this is what you expect from a late stage capitalist society where police officers They don't serve the public They serve the interests of capital and the guardian looked over the Records that they obtained and they've determined that there's a really close working relationship between enbridge and minnesota police So This shouldn't happen minnesota police are supposed to serve the people of minnesota not enbridge But yet they were brutalizing these protesters at the behest of a company that was paying them It's It's one thing right to set up an escrow account to have the company Bear the cost of the additional policing that will result from protests of the pipeline, which people shouldn't be policed For protesting something that shouldn't be happening in the first place But then to see that they have this really close relationship It's just it's sickening and I say all of this and You might sense this level of ambivalence in my voice and it's because I'm not surprised by this at all. I am not surprised by this even a little bit This is what we expect The cops aren't looking out for citizens They're not I mean think back to 2020 with the george floyd protests People who were in the streets marching Maybe you were one of them if you've watched this Did you believe that the officers were there to protect you or protect property from getting damaged? I mean, it's just overall We don't value life as a society. We just don't we value capital Everything else comes second And this right here kind of proves it So it's just one of the many reasons why This pipeline should be opposed the process itself is inherently gross I mean the treatment of these protesters, that's a different story In and of itself But the fact that the police were abusing these protesters who were exercising their first amendment rights At the behest of a private company who's paying public police officers to treat them poorly. It's just It's gross but predictable I'm not sure how many of you have noticed but something really important is taking place all across this country Workers are all collectively standing up and they're saying enough is enough And they're demanding better better treatment livable wages And all of this activity that we've seen the rumblings of worker frustration Has all culminated in a moment that could actually Really yield change in america at the aggregate level So we've seen those viral posts of retail workers and fast food employees Quitting in mass Tapping signs to the drive-through of fast food places saying we all quit. We're closed on top of that We've seen unionization attempts at amazon We've seen strikes from factory workers at nebisco now kellox workers are on strike 98 of the international alliance of theatrical stage employees wanted to strike 10,000 john deere workers are on strike 37,000 healthcare workers at keiser permanente are on strike according to labor reporter jonah firman I mean, I can't keep up so much is happening and in the month of october alone So many employees Are either on strike or they're set to strike That we've reached a number that we haven't seen in this country in a very long time to the point where it now has its own name strike tober And as labor reporter dav jameson puts it we now have strike authorizations at john deere strike deadline tonight IATSC hollywood deadline october 18th and keiser permanente deadline tbd. That's around 90 Thousand workers right there. Those are the kind of numbers you don't see anymore This phenomenon is what union power looks like in action and for the workers who don't have unions They're currently waking up and realizing the importance of unions And if they're not able to go on strike because they don't have a union to back them up Well, what they're trying to do is create unions So we heard about the besamer alabama union attempt earlier this year Well now starbucks employees are trying to create the first Unions in the chains history. There's no unions for starbucks workers, but in buffalo new york Well, that could change So starbucks actually closed two stores in buffalo that are trying to unionize now They're saying that it totally has nothing to do with the unionization attempts One of the stores according to them is closed for a modeling and another is closed for hiring But I think it's pretty obvious that They're lying they closed these stores down because they want to shut down this unionization attempt because in the event starbucks workers can unionize Then like these other workers who have unions They have a lot more power and you don't have all the power if you have a union But you have more leverage you have a bigger say and so overall strike tober is about workers finally demanding better treatment livable wages and to actually be taken Seriously to be respected and it's a human rights. So I think that they should be valued and the more workers that stand up The more that other employers are going to get worried now for more insight on this We got a julia connelly of common dreams who describes what labor leaders are saying about strike tober Former labor secretary robert reich observed Wednesday that with employees in industries across the spectrum set to strike in the coming days following corporate leaders failure To meet their demands for fair pay and working conditions The u.s. Is closer than it has been in decades to experiencing a general strike You might say workers have declared a national general strike until they get better pay and improve the working conditions wrote reich and the guardian no one calls it a general strike But in its own disorganized way, it's related to the organized strikes breaking out across the land Hollywood tv and film crews john deere workers alabama coal miners nabisco workers kelov workers nurses in california healthcare workers and buffalo corporate america wants to frame this as a labor shortage wrote reich Wrong what's really going on is more accurately described as a living wage shortage A hazard pay shortage a child care shortage a paid sick leave shortage and a health care shortage Unless these shortages are rectified many americans won't return to work anytime soon as iitsc members potential strike drew near The union pointed out that some of its members stagehands and theater tech workers at north shore music theater in beaverly massachusetts Secured level wages after striking for just one day this month An smt crew were previously paid 60 less than the industry area average But will now be receiving wages starting at 18 dollars an hour said the union last week afl cio president liz schuller told the hill that the strike tober movement shows that with economic inequality getting worse and worse Unions are the solution. This is the capitalist system that has driven us to the brink schuller said And she is precisely it It was only a matter of time until all of these frustrations bubbled up But really it took a couple of workplaces fighting for unions striking to get others to see and it was kind of like a domino effect And on top of that, I think that the pandemic has exacerbated all of the terrible conditions that workers have been dealing with So this is a really really important moment in history and all of The stories from workers is important But one that I want to draw your attention to is the striking workers at Kellogg's And a more perfect union put out a really insightful video about this I don't think I can play the clip because I believe that they have copyright and music in it But workers explain how they've been forced to work 16 hour days and they're expected to use vacation days whenever they're sick They can't afford to feed their families. I mean, it's a pretty common thing That we're hearing about so it's really important And what you can do to help these striking workers is show solidarity with them So when they're striking do not cross the picket line That means that if Kellogg's workers are striking you don't buy Kellogg's cereal We need to let these companies know even if it's in a really subtle seemingly insignificant way that we stand with workers We don't want to buy their products if they're going to mistreat and underpay their employees So overall that's basically what strike tober is It is a collection of workers across this country rising up and finally demanding better And you love to see it. I hope that this becomes an annual thing Perhaps this might pave the way towards an actual general strike But when you have little strikes taking place little attempts to unionize here and there across the country all together Collectively what you see our employers finally realize that they can't just take these workers for granted any longer And it's it's encouraging. This is the first labor story that I've talked about in quite some time Where actually genuinely feel encouraged to share this news with you. I mean, of course, it's sad that it's come to this Right, but to see workers take a stand and stand up for themselves That really is a phenomenon that I I just I love to see I think it's pretty obvious that the republican party's base is unquestionably loyal to Donald trump and he's well aware of this fact The republican party establishment and leadership. However, not necessarily I mean, they'll play nice with donald trump publicly But behind the scenes you know that they hate his guts and the feeling is mutual donald trump hates them as well And the precise reason as to why trump doesn't like the republican party leadership and why he's taken shots at mitch mcconnell Is because they won't toe the line that he wants them to toe He wants them even in october of 2021 To say that the election was stolen He wants them to pretend as if he won But it was just stolen away from him due to widespread fraud Committed by the democratic party, but they won't do that as much as he wants them to So he has a plan which he's concocting currently to try to get them To play the games that he wants them to play no matter how unreasonable He seems and how unreasonable it makes them seem and this strategy is actually Brilliant, but it is incredibly incredibly destructive not just to the republican party, but possibly democracy itself So nbc news reporter sahil kapoor says this via twitter trump just threatened to have republican voters stay home in 2022 and 2024 Unless the party is able to solve by which he seems to mean overturn the result of the last presidential election Which he lost the statement reads if we don't solve the presidential election fraud of 2020 Which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented No, you have not republicans will not be voting in 2022 or 2024 It is the single most important thing for republicans to do So what he's doing here is huge. He's saying the single most important thing for his followers to do Is the boycott the 2022 and 2024 elections if He's not installed as president I mean, there's a couple of caveats here, right? It's donald trump So he might change his mind in five minutes and say no, of course I would never encourage republicans to boycott these elections. We've got to win. We've got to be the the democrats But if he actually sticks to this The base would absolutely listen to him. I don't think anyone doubts that the base would not Go against their dear leader because I mean it's to the point where I don't think You can say that this is just a normal political Wing of the republican party. It's a cult It's a cult of personality. The loyalty to donald trump is what they Uh want above everything else. So if he says don't vote The republican party is toast. So he's putting them in this unwinnable situation to where if they don't somehow install him as president or at a minimum Advocate for him to be reinstalled as president Then he's gonna tell all of the base to stay home. It's truly insane Now as the helicoper put it the same fabricated claims of fraud arguably depressed g.o.p Turn out in the georgia runoffs and helped democrats win the senate and that's right And i'm not necessarily one to Say that trump is super strategic and he's politically savvy and he's playing 40 chess But here it seems like this is part of a bigger plan and as political reporter sam stein put it He's setting up a situation in which he drags the entirety of the party into questioning election legitimacy as a platform He's already making headway. So with this one move He can get the entire republican establishment to bend to his will like that They'll ask him how high when he tells them to jump now in the short term This is great news for democrats right because they're gonna win Every single election for the foreseeable future so long as donald trump says don't vote the system is rigged Long term however, this is incredibly destructive to democracy because if you have The base of one of two major parties in the united states Basically think that their vote doesn't count at all And if they no longer believe that the democratic process is the main way that they can affect political change Well, then they'll begin to opt for undemocratic means to affect political change and overall with time that starts to Cause democracy to erode support for democracy declines And we've seen just within the last year the impact that that has we've had members of the republican party's base openly call for a military coup here in the united states There have been reporters that interview trump supporters at trump rallies that still take place in 2021 And they say yeah, the election was stolen and i would welcome a military coup. Some aren't even saying yeah the the military They're already planning to uh reinstall donald trump So you can only keep up this charade for so long until Democracy itself begins to really suffer more so than it already has But the only way trump can pull this off is if that base remains loyal to him If you know they start to gravitate towards someone else like ronda santis trump no longer really has That much sway But the problem for the republican party is that he still is the most influential figure Within the republican party as lexie lonas of the hill reports former president trump holds a 35 point lead over florida governor ronda Santis and former vice president mike pence in a hypothetical 2024 gop primary matchup a new morning consult political poll found 47 percent of respondents in the survey said they would vote for trump while only 12 percent each Said they would vote for desantis or pence the only candidates other than trump to hit double digit support The huge lead highlights the popularity of trump who has repeatedly floated but not confirmed another white house run Continues to enjoy in the republican party He has said however His supporters will be very happy when he does announce his decision And that he could easily defeat other candidates and believes most people would drop out if he entered the race If i faced desantis i'd beat him like i would beat everyone else trump said in an interview earlier this month But i think most people would drop out i think he would drop out And i don't usually say this but i agree with donald trump I think that they would all clear the field for donald trump in the same way that we saw Basically every single democrat cleared the field for hillary clinton in 2016 We're gonna see all republicans clear the field for donald trump In 2024 maybe there's gonna be like one A centrist e republican a more moderate republican step up and try to be the anti trump But trump is going to dominate if these numbers hold so could trump feasibly Manipulate the entire republican party base Into boycotting the 22 and 24 elections if he wants them to If he wants to find some way to manipulate the republican party establishment Absolutely He knows this The heart of the gop still lies with donald trump So if he really really wants to He could crush the republican party and bring every single establishment figure within the republican party To heal and they're not happy about that prospect But wow if he did this that would be certainly entertaining to watch The long term like i said pretty destructive to democracy as well aside from the short term benefits that democrats would reap from this insane move Well folks jordan peterson is back in fact come to think of it I don't know if he actually ever really left because i haven't been following the career of jordan peterson But i'm told that this man is supposedly an intellectual a right wing intellectual Which is an oxymoron, but nonetheless he's supposed to be really smart But he put out a banger of a tweet that i had to talk about because it proves that even the smartest people on the right Aren't as intelligent as the dumbest people on the left So he thought he'd do a little bit of a sick burn on leftists a bit of a gotcha But i'm going to explain to you why this is incredibly stupid So he tweeted out it's mystifying to see so little skepticism of oft vilified big pharma recovid vaccines on the left Can someone explain this now? It's a bit of a rhetorical question for him because he knows the answer The answer is oh well, it's because leftists are hypocrites That's the point that he's trying to make Now maybe he'd argue No, i'm just being intellectually curious That's a really bad jordan peterson impression. It's it's the best kermit the frog that i could mess through up But nonetheless, maybe he he would try to play this office. I'm just asking questions about the left I'm genuinely honest. I'm asking earnestly, but we know what this is about He could play dumb, but he's trying to do a bit of a gotcha to the left And he thinks that this is a really big brain take But it's not it's the brainlet meme with the hamster wheel on the head. You know, which one i'm talking about It's stupid. I mean, what is the expectation for leftists? Do you think that we're supposed to reject modern medicine and embrace Faith healing use crystals to heal ourselves Uh essential oils. What do you expect? Of course, we use the products that big pharma produces when we have a headache Uh, most people on the left. I'm assuming they take Tylenol manufactured by big pharma If somebody on the left has diabetes, they're going to take insulin So this isn't the own that you think it is. In fact, it makes you look intellectually dishonest And lazy, this is sloppy thinking and it's a really sad attempt at a gotcha And really what this may be is him signaling His next trajectory to kind of jump on this anti-vax grift bandwagon because I'll tell you this As a small of a minority, uh, the anti-vaxxers are in this country They absolutely are passionate and anyone on this platform Who pays lip service to, uh, anti-vaxxers are on any platform really they get very very popular And you can test this out just look at any channel That recently started to cover the vaccines in a negative way recently Look at their analytics go to social blade. Look at the boost in subs And, uh, views that they got because of this anti-vaxx rhetoric. So it's really popular And so if you're a grifter, this is a very potentially lucrative thing to talk about But there's a bunch of, uh, leftists on the internet who responded And I had to share what they had to say because their responses were perfect They all dunked on him as they should Benjamin Dixon responded saying you're a wee bit late to the grips Jordan exactly Good paul tit guy says the actual conspiracy is how the profit motive behind the vaccines Has led to a massive global inequality of access costing countless lives purely for the profits of big pharma The data showing vaccines are effective at preventing hospitalization and death is overwhelming Exactly facts matter. Cody Johnston says vaccines are good and this one is free Adam Johnson says the left criticism of big pharma is that their price gouging greedy assholes who deny life saving drugs To the global south and poor here at home. Not that they invent sinister positions to plant microchips and people dipshit Natalie sure chimes in with a perfect point as well saying the whole reason pharma is so evil is they perform a socially necessary function If they didn't they'd be so much lower on the list of terrible industries And that's precisely it the issue that the left has Collectively with big pharma is their greed It's that they know that what they have what they've created often times with public funding Is necessary and so knowing that people are desperate for the product that they put out They manipulate they work with other companies who produce similar Treatments and they collectively raise the costs forcing people to pay. I mean, this is what happened with epipen They they consolidate also It's it's the business practices. Not that they are going around Spreading and creating poison and killing people. I just feel like he should know this It's like attacking leftists for participating in society. Oh, well, you don't like Uh capitalism. Well, I see that you've got a cell phone there Capitalism invented that cell phone capitalism led to the innovation and the technology that uh led to you having a cell phone Okay, you can still participate in society and have criticisms of society. So for jordan peterson So-called intellectual to make this point I mean, I've just got a question What was he saying? Before was he ever actually that intellectual were people listening to the arguments that he was making because I first heard Of jordan peterson because of his anti trans hysteria He claimed that a bill in canada would lead to people going to jail if they miss gender somebody who's transgender When zero people have been jailed as a result of that law So the dude doesn't really seem Like he knows what he's talking about and if anything he seems like a hack And the one good thing about jordan peterson was that he kind of offered these self-help tips He was he was a sort of self-help guru But if he ended up going to rehab himself and can't get his own life together Wouldn't he have taken his own advice if his advice was worthwhile? It just seems like this is someone who Really shouldn't be taken seriously based on the things that he said and done and this is just further proof of that Now perhaps he'll have his second win another 15 minutes of fame by jumping on the anti vax bandwagon Maybe this is just the one off either way. This tweet was absolutely idiotic but it's Really the best that you can expect from so-called intellectuals on the right. They have nothing their ideas are bankrupt intellectually and morally And this is why the points that they make they always seem overly hacky No, of course, you're not a fucking big pharma shill if you're a leftist Who believes in a lifesaving vaccine? That doesn't make you a big pharma shill What would make you a big pharma shill is if you took money from a pharmaceutical company And then you advocated for them you made arguments on their behalf, but nobody on the left Is doing that when we say you should get the covet 19 vaccine It's because we're doing it out of self-interest and a concern for human beings who we do not want to see suffer because of this pandemic So it just to see this I mean, it's so intellectually sloppy, but it's It's what the right thinks is Intelligent so okay keep making silly points like this And we'll keep changing more minds because this is not something that's going to convince normal people That you're being honest. You're a good faith actor. This is bad faith and this is stupid It's galaxy brain. It's it's low IQ shit Hi, everyone. I have a fantastic guest back again on the program It's rebecca parson running in washington states sixth congressional district against incumbent democrat derrick kilmer And she's here to talk about her campaign once again rebecca welcome back Hi, I'm really glad to be back. Thanks for having me on again. Glad to have you back. We also have a special guest Mm-hmm the campaign pug half bug. This is augie Okay, okay. Well welcome does does augie do any work on the campaign distribute flyers contact supporters You know, I put her on the phone to follow up with donors and try to do some phone banking, but she just refuses You know as I work today in her life Typical liberal dog, right? They don't want to work But in all seriousness, I I'm so glad that you're back because uh, you are running for congress Again, so I'll ask you the same question that I asked isaiya james What made you want to run again because these campaigns are grueling. They are soul crushing at times what made you Wanted to do this again. I never want to run once let alone twice, but you're committed. You're dedicated So, uh, why run again and what makes this run different? I want to run again because I still want to have somebody representing our district who supports medicare for all the green New deal housing for all and my democratic opponent darin kilmer does not and has come out publicly saying he does not support medicare for all the green New deal and then why run again? I think that it's really important for candidates to think about this, you know, especially in surging candidates like myself as a You know, if you don't win the first time you learn a lot and then use it the second time So that we don't just have in the same districts, you know progressive candidates starting from scratch each time Because you really learn a lot. I got 35 000 votes Those are voters who would you know, hope fingers crossed vote for me again And I would be able to build on it to get through the top two primary to the general So I think it's uh, you know, quarry bush ran twice And before that she ran for the senate. So actually three times that she ran And it's just important. I think to um build on build on the experience you got because you have a You know, it's just incredible what I learned and so what's different this time is I'm putting a much greater focus on fundraising And getting what I need to make that happen putting in the hours every day making calls finding the you know, really talented people to help me do that help me raise money but really prioritizing that because um, you know, I don't take any corporate money and Running against somebody who's taken millions of dollars in corporate money and has I think over two million cash on hand right now And so while it might be difficult to ever reach that level that he has Um, you know the more money I can have the better so I can afford things like Advertising to reach voters and more mailers and uh stuff like that. So Yeah, and I think it's so urgent right now with the climate crisis too In the pacific northwest, you know, we had a lot of people die during the heat wave and it's just uh More and more intense climate change and that that's one thing that really really motivates me Yeah, same. Uh, I'm also in the pacific northwest and this heat wave. It really was the eye opener. Um, Along with the wildfires last year. It seems like if you live here now I mean if you live anywhere in the world, it's it's difficult to ignore climate change But really this was a wake-up call for a lot of people At least in my own social circles and myself who weren't necessarily paying attention And so for lawmakers to still uh see climate change knocking at our door And not take action not change the way that they speak about this issue or the urgency with which they deal with climate issues I feel like it's it's non-negotiable. Now if you're not absolutely, um Pedal to the floor attack and climate change head on you're not worthy of being in congress So to kind of get to that point. What do you believe as a lawmaker? You would do different um in comparison with derrick kilmer because to me I view him as kind of a run-of-the-mill corporate democrat a milk toast democrat doesn't really stand for anything Is just kind of there occupying that seat. He doesn't put himself out there. He doesn't propose anything So, I mean, I I think it's pretty obvious a progressive versus a corporate democrat But just speak through legislatively speaking what you'd be doing now if you were in congress that you don't believe he would be doing I would be pushing for things like getting medicare for all on the floor to actually vote on And then looking at the green new deal, uh, the parts of the resolution and many people have different ideas What a green new deal is but then introducing legislation to actually make that happen So what exactly I would like to look at climate change and instead of this kind of mealy mouth Well net zero by 2050 or uh more carbon tax for this that kind of thing I think that a politician is not being serious about climate change unless they have dates They're willing to work towards uh because the the scale the speed of climate change is going much faster than climate scientists predicted it's uh, you know, we are getting to um Thresholds that they hadn't thought we would get to for years. It's happening really fast So for example, we need to get off fossil fuels stop using them stop subsidizing them get to 100% renewables And so for my date, I said that is 2030 because I think that politicians should have a date They're actually working towards what is the plan? Uh treat it like you would any job You don't go into work and it's like, okay We're gonna try to grow the business by 10 percent this year But we're just kind of you know do whatever and bumble along the way you create a a plant Here's the benchmarks and the dates that we're trying to achieve things by and at least Introduce that legislation And then in terms of things like oh go ahead Oh, no continue In terms of things like uh the current, you know build back better bill um, I would be holding the line and not caving to Centrists like mentioned in cinema Godheimer who are trying to tank it and then also keep calling attention to the fact that 3.5 trillion was the compromise originally Even biden himself was talking about numbers as high as 10 trillion And even if it were 3.5 trillion and all of that was for climate It still wouldn't be enough for climate and it's not all for climate And so it's not enough and so I would keep bringing that up and refuse to cave because as long as progressive keep caving We we can't progress Yeah, I'm kind of curious and it's hard to draw a really clear line But what would be your number because joe biden said all right the 3.5 trillion it's got to come down And now the uh leadership of the congressional progressive cock is saying okay We're willing to talk numbers with you. What are the specifics that you want to cut? They're saying this to the uh the Moderates so in terms of what is your line? What is it for you like for me? I feel like the floor would be No less than 3 trillion. Otherwise, I don't support the bipartisan infrastructure deal But even that you can argue is kind of caving in a way because as you said this is already a compromise It's over 10 years. So it's honestly embarrassing that There's even a conversation about coming down from 3.5 trillion that being said You know at this point in time There's so much in that that if we can get something through that will make a difference during a pandemic I think it would make a difference. So it's it's tough and morally. I don't know where I would have to draw a line Do you do you have a sense of where you would you would stop and you just you'd check out and say no vote from from me I'd stick to 3.5 trillion and say like but this isn't the way negotiations work You don't work walk into a car dealership and it's like uh, no, sorry the amount you're asking for is too much And then they're like what do you want to pay instead and I say what do you want me to pay instead? You know, it's like, you know, it's a two-way street. And so the Corporate conservative democrats who are holding this up They're saying we're not going to vote for it's a okay come off with an offer But in the meantime, I'm sticking to 3.5 trillion because that's what's needed and if you look at it in terms of What what members of congress should be doing with ideally what they would be doing is trying to help people help their constituents So say okay, we're going to cut here How many homeless people will freeze to death over the winter because you cut housing funding or um You know, how many families will put off having children and grandparents won't get their first grandkids How much longer will they put that off because uh, people just can't afford to have a kid without childcare subsidies And put it in terms of those really concrete terms like okay, Joe mentioned What's your number? How many homeless people do you want to die this winter? And put it back at them that way and be just really blunt because that's what it's about Is people's lives Yeah, and that's that's a really great point. What's what's frustrating to me is um, The way that progressives oftentimes Negotiate themselves Too much down not to say that I have much criticism of the progressives in the house because they have done a great job At holding the line for the most part But I think that if you rather than coming down from 6 trillion to 3.5 Maybe you come down to 5 trillion and then you work down From there to get closer towards your goal. Um, it's just it's frustrating because I see these articles And it's about democratic party operatives freaking out about 2022 Joe Biden's sinking approval rating And I mean there's a gigantic gift that is waiting to be gifted if they just pass this legislation Um, but they're not doing that. So I like that you would work in you know, their constituents and whatnot One thing that I wanted to ask you because you are a grassroots candidate How would you or would you use the grassroots as part of your legislative process? Because oftentimes in congress, you know, you you you give and you take you make deals You you say I'll support this if you support my policy with other lawmakers your colleagues But uh, how would you bring in the grassroots because I think that what people really would like to see is lawmakers trying to Galvanize their constituents to take action to make calls to if if need be show up in dc Is that something that you would work in to the equation or do you think it actually requires more members of congress to kind of All bring their constituents together because I think that it might be difficult for one lawmaker to do it But what's your view on this overall and what the role should be and ideally what you would do Uh to try to um boost grassroots organizing as it relates to legislative deal making I would definitely use the grassroots and Reach out to constituents in my district, but then also progressive nationwide You know since the last primary Since my primary, you know it last august and now over the winter. I did a lot of direct action around housing I co-founded a group called Tacoma housing now and together with other Groups that were part of that coalition We occupied empty buildings including a middle school that I've been empty for 11 years Turned it we just declared we're turning this into emergency pandemic housing put out a press release instead of the city You know deal with it. This building has been empty for over a decade. You're doing nothing with it So we're just going to turn it into emergency pandemic housing So I know where people die over the winter And then when they kick this out we went on to do other actions So we shut down an intersection and put a tent in the middle of it Since so many people are sitting in tents and encampments Since they refuse to provide any trash services to the camps we took a cue from the young lords And we went to the camp we rented some u-haul Went to the camps picked up and it was mountains of trash filled two u-haul trucks and dumped it in front of city hall And lo and behold they suddenly moved it and when they picked up the trash really quickly suddenly they were able to provide trash service and then over christmas we uh We paid for people 43 people to stay in a hotel for christmas even then on christmas day We announced the county needs to pay with the free money from fema that they could be applying for and using right now And that kind of stuff got action whereas years and years of kind of polite Calling and going to city council meetings and setting up meetings. Let's meet with a mayor. Let's meet with that person Let's have a summit. Let's talk some more. It just doesn't work because politicians Know how to talk the talk they'll meet with you and be like, oh, yes. I really value equity and equality and we need to Just and they just throw in buzzwords to them I mean, these aren't just buzzwords used to our important concepts that they just treat like buzzwords And they just kind of talked the talk and nothing changes But because of us our action, um, they added 200 shelter beds to the system They made an extended a shelter was going to end in the middle of winter They extended it through to the spring and that stuff definitely saved lives because people die every winter here And so as a legislator, I would want to do the same thing speak with organizers develop a plan And what is a nonviolent direct action that we could take to really force congress's hand and I would be willing to to do that and, um Use the grassroots to take direct action because as one out of 435 votes or one out of I think it's about 100 in the progressive caucus Um, that's just one vote. And so I would definitely have a lot more power to to pressure Other legislators by using nonviolent direct action Yeah, I like that you you have that history as an activist because you know specifically Their experience what gets lawmakers to pay attention and that's really important You know, what makes them tick, you know, what gets them to actually hear people and not just ignore them So I think that that's really important Um going into congress you will inevitably be faced with really really complex situations that aren't usually black and white Oftentimes you'll see large bills large spending bills that contain a lot of good things and a lot of bad things But I want to propose a hypothetical situation just to see how you would handle this as a lawmaker And I don't really feel like there's any right or wrong answer. It's pretty complex. I don't know how I would deal with this But let's say that there is another 3.5 trillion dollar spending bill that comes up And there's lots of really really great things in it. There is paid family leave There is additional funding for housing There's an expansion of medicare and medicaid to the state so they can expand health care But at the same time in that same build in that same package is a poison pill It's defunding the u.s. Postal service or privatizing it. There's something in there that's really bad What do you do in that instance because I mean as a lawmaker From a marketing standpoint, it could be swung in either way progressives can say well, rebecca parson She caved she voted to defund the u.s. Postal service or they could say she voted for paid family leave and housing funding How do you handle that situation because it's bound to come up and we've seen it time again With progressive lawmakers in congress and I don't always feel like they've handled these situations In a good way, but at the same time it's difficult to deal with these things So what do you do as a lawmaker in that instance? Well, I think what the progressive caucus this congressional session has been doing is great And I know they made some structural changes. I read a couple articles saying they moved from having two Chairs to having just one so they could get things done faster and make more speedy decisions and not get kind of Outplayed by the rest of the democratic caucus that was able to act faster. So And they've been holding the line. So I think uh encouraging and more of that Maybe there also needs to be an additional group that's smaller That also decides, you know, how they're going to act and tactics and looked at the numbers Whatever the numbers of democrat republican would be in in the next congressional Session and perhaps, you know, maybe come up with our own tactics of a smaller group of five to ten people And then also direct action like okay, if you're going to defund the post office I would get in touch with activists and maybe come up with some creative direct action that we could do To to get people's attention and I think it's important with direct action as well to Do something that poses a a nonviolent threat to the flow of capital or To Whatever it might be whoever you're trying to target. So you're not just kind of waving signs There's a place for for protests inside waving both direct action You want to choose your target and a method to really get their attention? So that's the kind of stuff I would do and then Try to go on get as much media attention as I could to the fact that there's this poison pill in there And Yeah, that's what I would do and not I'm not going to give just hold the line But I'm not going to vote for this it has this giant poison pill in it and uses many methods as I can to draw attention to that Yeah, I like your answer because Really what I think that viewers are looking for is at least some instinct to fight it not just kind of accept it Well, this is you know the situation these are the cards that we were dealt Because I think that there's always some way that you can change things and make a difference and holding the line Really does go a long way. I mean if progressives in congress actually did this more frequently I think that uh That they would have a lot more power in congress and I feel like now they're going to see it because of how successful They've been with this 3.5 trillion dollar reconciliation package They they see how when they bind together and they don't break and they hold the line They really get things done. They shape the narrative and it's really great to see So I'm glad that you said that another question that I want to ask is relatively hypothetical as well But this is bound to come up. So, you know, let's say you get elected to congress and you have a couple of bills that you want to Introduce and you need lots of co-sponsors. You want hearings on these in committees um, but one of the members who is heavily considering co-sponsoring this bill is a primary opponent to another fellow uh brand new congress person the uh 2024 lineup and so the stipulation is that if he co-sponsors your bill you can't endorse his primary opponent Now the bill is important. It's climate change legislation Uh, what do you do in this instance? Because that's really tough and I feel like that kind of played into aoc's calculation back in 2020 when she didn't endorse quarry bush um, because lacy clay ended up co-sponsoring her uh, green new deal resolution What do you do in this situation? That's a really good question. I think I would still air on the side of supporting their primary challenger And just finding some other way So I know congress likes to pass these huge bills that go through because then they can get these poison pills in and Say the other side Well, if you don't vote for it, you know use our own arguments back at us You know how many homeless people won't be able to get into a shelter that kind of thing? Instead of passing, which I think would be much more ideal This is something that the host of congressional dish podcasts has talked about is like one bill So this is you know the funding for homeless shelters bill and this is the funding for Like increasing the fish population in a certain area like very specific individual bills so that you don't have 20 different topics all covered in one bill. Um, I think I would push for that kind of thing and so then if it's okay I'm not going to co-sponsoring your bill because of the you know, because you won't agree to uh, Not you know, not support my primary opponent. Try to find some other way to get it through an amendment Um, like the the culture of congress as a whole it it seems sort of outside that it would be very hard to change They're used to passing these enormous bills. Um, and so if that's the way it's going to be Okay, then maybe I go to some other ally and say well, could you get this small thing through as an amendment to your bill? Don't you don't even have to put my name on it or anything But try to get it through that way and I think try to find the little You know legislative routes that you can get things in so that you still achieve your goal without Sacrificing your principles Yeah, I like that answer I I think I would do the same thing because ultimately Even if we need support for these bills, you know Progressives in congress need to build power at the same time nothing will really change if we don't change the makeup of congress So I would also prioritize that Uh, so I I appreciate your answer there. Okay last hypothetical. I promise Uh, this one's a fun one. You're on the house floor. You're debating a bill and marjorie taylor green walks up to you And she calls you a communist and tells you to take off your mask. What are you doing that situation? Do you run or do you confront her? Uh, I ask her if she's carrying I don't know That's smart actually Because I think um During the civil war didn't a northern congressman and a southern congressman actually got to do a fifth fight on the floor And one of them was severely injured I just want to make sure that I physically safe Yes Priority number one. Yes Yeah Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah, just ask her to back away like no, thank you. I don't want the covid that you're certainly I'm out carrying. Please get away from me Yeah, it's it's It's something that I think about now where congress isn't just full of all of these robotic mindless corporate drones We have a lot of really crazy people in there I mean, it's not like it's not like this is a new phenomenon with marjorie green. We've had louis gomer there for a while But it's still I feel like the level of insanity that we're seeing from congress It has increased measurably so so I just I'm curious how you deal with this watching the progressives in congress deal with marjorie green I know quarry bush had to move her office. She was screaming at another member of congress outside on the steps of capitol hill I can't remember who it's just it's truly bizarre So, you know just from a human standpoint I think it's interesting to ask these questions just out of curiosity because I mean we all want to know How how you handle these very weird and bizarre situations and of course it's always going to be an answer that is an adult answer Okay, last question You know, my viewers they're familiar with you. They know all of your policies, you know, medicare for all green new deal So give us your last pitch. What do you need? How do we help you get elected? Do you need more more donors? Do you need people on the ground? What do you need from us and also make your pitch as to why you should replace derrick kilmer? Well, I could really use people's help with all of the things you mentioned If you can donate that's a big help. You can go to rebeccaparson.com and click the donate button to do that A dollar helps every every donation no matter how big or small helps You can also sign up for the email list And then reply to any of those emails if you want to help with volunteering, you know, you can help with Text banking we're doing that right now for donations you can help with that Later on we'll have phone banking if you're in district. I'm definitely and you're interested in As it's safe and and as the campaign progresses doing canvassing and knocking on doors It also helps no matter where you are if you could tell somebody who you think might be like minded about the campaign because Uh, you're a lot more likely to be persuasive to somebody who knows you trust you then my campaign just cold contacting the same person So it actually helps a lot. Hey check out this candidate Or suggest they donates or sign up for the email list or something like that so those are all things people could do to help and As to why I should replace derrick kilmer. Uh, he's the 13th most conservative democrat in the house He has come out publicly saying he opposes medicare for all in the green new deal Um last session. He was chair of the new democrat coalition Which is a you know conservative corporate large wing of the democratic party So he's somebody who's building quietly building a career for himself working his way up the ladder And as a kind of person we want to stop from Going up and up and up in positions of leadership and continuing to block progress because like you said earlier He is somebody who just follows, you know when back when he was in the washington state legislature Uh reporter asked him the debate at the time was about gay marriage He was asked to support it and he just smiled and said i don't think we should redefine marriage And now he puts himself forward as this big, you know, I want my daughter to grow up in a world where everybody can love Whoever they want was like, well, yeah 10 years after it's safe to say that Yeah, how courageous I know if you So, yeah, I think I should replace him for those reasons and because our district is really struggling with stuff People are across the country. I mean homelessness is increasing People can't people who are in homes can't afford their rents. It's you know up to 50 of their income Um, they have are working multiple jobs that don't have benefits Uh, parents are working all the time. Uh, can't afford to have a child or can't afford to have more kids I mean the problems that people are having around the country We're having in this district too and stuff like the green new deal would help so much with the the jobs guarantee That's part of the green new deal and this district has benefited from policies like that in the past, you know, the new deal FDR's new deal jobs programs. We had seven of those work camps here in the district that gave people jobs Um, there's a lot to improve on those policies were written and implemented in a racist way So we of course want to improve on them But you know this district and I'm sure probably every district around the country has a history of like when the government could actually Um do something positive like provide jobs get people to work at jobs that actually pay so Those are the things that I I support and why I think I should replace Derek Kilmer Well, Rebecca, thank you so much. It's always a pleasure talking to you And we all are absolutely wishing you luck and we hope that you crush it And I think that you will you're a great candidate and you know, it's nice to see you return I always hope that candidates when they announce that they're running They commit to at least two runs because that increases the likelihood that you'll win So I really appreciate the sacrifice that you're making Lord knows I would not want to do that But I thank you for running and trying to break through this horrible corporate corrupt congress that we have So thank you so much. We'll continue to follow your campaign. Yeah. Thank you and thanks for everything you do Well folks, that is all that I have on the agenda for today's show Hopefully you enjoyed that if you've made it to this point in the episode and as usual We're not going to end the show without thanking all of the folks who make the show possible All of our newest patreon, paypal and youtube members who help us not just to survive But thrive as well. Thank you all so much. You are truly crucial in our show success So I'm going to stop rambling. I will see you all next week But as usual if you want more of the humanist report, you can find me on thursdays at 7 p.m Over at twitch.tv slash humanist report where i'm talking politics I'm streaming video games and we just usually have a fun time overall But that's it folks. Take care everyone. My name is like figure it out. This has been the humanist report You could support the humanist report at patreon.com Slash humanist report But trust me, I'd have way more supporters at patreon if that was my podcast said