 So I've talked a lot about the protesters at ASU that followed Senator Kirsten's cinema into a bathroom But before we got that epic protest, we got the protest at Joe Manchin's Yacht So there were climate activists protesters who kayaked to his yacht and they confronted him about his refusal to support the Build Back Better Act And I think that this is perfect This is exactly what activists should be doing and you're gonna see that he actually did choose to engage with them Unlike Kirsten's cinema, but he also tries to placate them and lie and they call him on that immediately. Take a look Want to get a good bill that's a balanced bill that's well done and I know it won't be enough for some It'll be too much for others in West Virginia You know, West Virginia is a little bit different than usually There's a lot of poverty What are you gonna do for the poor in West Virginia? We're gonna be working everything we can to create good opportunities. And we need to tax the rich. Oh, I agree with that I definitely agree. That's the one number thing we should be doing is fixing the tax goats Everybody pays their fair share. We should be also negotiating for lower drug prices We should be doing all these things I agree with you 1,000 percent. We're all in the same page gang. We really are Well, we have here, let me just explain on that one we will get to that eventually but right now we can't even take care It's gonna go broken 2026. Let us fix it We're taxing the rich I agree we're gonna make the rich and the famous pay Well, how much is it going to be? I think it's going to be as few as you can come out. How much is it going to be? How much is it going to be? It's $88 billion. For 10 years it's $6 trillion, right? $6 trillion. How much do you think that we spend every year on non-discretionary, basically non-defense? Not enough. Just as much. Let me just give you all this. I'm just saying we can afford this. Let me just tell you, let me give you one little bit of information. Wait, I got one little bit of information for you. The Republicans are likely to take over the Senate. We don't, this is like, this is our one chance right now to pass the legis- If we don't do it and do it right, do you think they won't be pilling so they take over here? If you don't pass this, we're gonna- Yeah, they're not going to pass things like this for the people. They're not. This is our chance. I love this so much because these senators, they're also oligarchs. These are very, very wealthy people. These are multimillionaires who chum it up with elites. So they think that when they go to their yachts, there's not going to be any peasants around. It's a peasant-free area, but they actually invaded his safe space. They went into his bubble. And that's really, really effective because that makes them uncomfortable, which is the point of protest. You go there and you make these elites feel uncomfortable. And it's not like he's just some detached billionaire or millionaire. This is a U.S. senator. He's in a position of power and influence. And what he does or doesn't do directly impacts the lives of millions of Americans, hundreds of millions of people. So I don't care where they are, a yacht, the bathroom, protest them wherever they are, because they hold all the cards right now. If they choose to not support the Build Back Better Act, how many people will go hungry, become even poor? How many people will die if they don't get that Medicaid expansion? It's not what we wanted. I wanted Medicare for all, but it's better than nothing. It's a marginal thing to make a slight difference in people's lives. And if they can't even support that, they deserve to feel uncomfortable. They deserve to be heckled every single where a place that they go. Now, the good thing about Joe Manchin is, I mean, he at least talks with them. Kirsten Sinema, she was followed through an airport and she just didn't even say a single word to them. She keeps saying, oh, well, I don't negotiate in public. Okay, well, your job is to serve the public. So I think that you owe it to them to explain your position. But one thing about Joe Manchin is, even if he is engaging, it's not a good faith conversation. He says it is, but it's not an actuality. He's trying to placate them. He's trying to tell them what they want to hear. Because unlike Kirsten Sinema, I actually do think that he wants to remain in D.C. for a while. Kirsten Sinema, she might literally want to be a one-term senator so she can then go cash in and become a lobbyist. I think that's highly likely. So he wants to at least keep up the appearance that he cares, but we all know that he doesn't. Now, he said a lie and they called him out on that like this. And I love that he said that Medicare would go broke in 2026. And they said, that's not true. They called him out immediately. We keep hearing this lie about Medicare, about social security, that it's becoming insolvent, and we have to make changes to it in order to save the program. That is bullshit. And whenever you see or hear a politician rather talk about how social security or one of our social safety net programs is going insolvent, call them on that lie. Because what they're basically saying is, I really want to open the door to changes, i.e. privatization, that's basically what he's saying there. And we don't need more privatization. We need less privatization. Now, one person there, that last person said that Republicans are likely to take over the Senate. This is our one chance. This is our last chance. And that to me, I think that is something that can potentially persuade Joe Manchin. I think he thinks about that. And this is a really great point that Hassan Piker made. He said that Joe Manchin loves the attention. He loves being the swing vote. He loves being in power. So I actually don't think that he wants Democrats to lose power. He wants them to keep a really thin majority in the Senate so he can kind of be the power broker. You know, he's the one who can green light deals. He can kill them or save them unilaterally. But one person there made a great point that we spend 6 trillion over 10 years on the Pentagon budget. And he made some points about, oh, well, that's half of our discretionary budget. How much of our budget is not discretionary? The other half. I don't care what you're saying. The point that she's making is that we spend a lot of money on the military. That is our discretionary budget. Most of the time, most years, it's more than half of our discretionary budget, meaning the money that Congress can control what they do with it. Why are we spending more money on killing people as opposed to spending more money on helping people? It's ridiculous. And nothing that they say, really, I don't know that it's going to resonate with him. He doesn't at least listen to them, but I think it's going to fall in deaf ears. It really depends on what is in his best interest. If he thinks that this will help him maintain his position of power, he'll support it. But if not, I don't know. I mean, think about where this man makes his money. He's essentially a modern-day oil baron. As Mark Hertzgaard of The Nation explains, it turns out that the senator wielding this awesome power, America's climate decider-in-chief, one might call him, has a massive climate conflict of interest. Joe Manchin's investigative journalism has revealed is a modern-day coal baron. Financial records detailed by reporter Alex Koch for the Center for Media and Democracy and published in The Guardian show that Manchin makes roughly half a million dollars a year in dividends from millions of dollars of coal company stock he owns. The stock he held in Enersystems, Inc., a company Manchin started in 1988 and later gave to his son Joseph to run. So he knows that all of the investments that the Build Back Better Act makes in clean, green renewable technology, that's going to hurt his bottom line. And he's a greedy oligarch. So the money that he's making, it's not enough. He wants more. But maybe he'll sacrifice it if, for whatever reason, he thinks this is going to be beneficial to his long-term political career. It's the same reason why he didn't support an increase of the minimum wage. Because he, I believe, he has stock or he's a shareholder in one of the West Virginia and La Quinta Inns. So if it were the case that those workers got a $15 an hour minimum wage, that would hurt his own bottom line. So this really is about him and nobody else. Although, side note, there was a weird sub-story that emerged out of this yacht confrontation and journalist Matthew Chapman, who's basically just a Democratic Party loyalist. He wrote this, which I think he believed was important, but it isn't. He says, people need to stop calling this a yacht. It's a houseboat. It is worth $220,000, which is pretty much exactly the median home price in the United States and considerably less than what most senators spend on their second DC residence. My house costs more than this one. Okay, I mean, it looks like a yacht to me, but I'm no expert. The point is that what he's on is very clearly a luxury item that most Americans can afford. It's called almost heaven. It's supposed to be a luxury thing. So regardless if it's a houseboat or a gigantic raft, it doesn't matter. The point is that it's a luxury item that he was at away from the rest of the peasants. He thought he was insulated and they broke his bubble. They invaded his safe space. So I don't get what Matthew's point was, but good job being a hack. I don't know if you want some sort of award for it, but shut the fuck up. Stop protecting the powerful people like Matthew Chapman and Axios, who keep writing these fluff pieces for Kirsten Cinema. It's just so bizarre, but that's kind of like a different point. Point is people have to keep doing this. They have to keep exerting pressure on US lawmakers. I don't care where it is, bathrooms, yachts. Again, it doesn't matter to me. I'll reiterate that point because it's important. It doesn't matter where it happens. If they're at a restaurant, heckle them. If people like Joe Manchin and Kirsten Cinema are going to obstruct an agenda that would improve the lives of millions of Americans, they deserve the pressure that they're facing right now. And there's really nothing left to say about this. It's deserved. It's warranted. And most importantly, this is necessary. This needs to happen. Otherwise, they're not going to listen.