 This is The Humanist Report with Mike Figueredo. The Humanist Report podcast is funded by viewers like you, through Patreon and PayPal. To support the show, visit patreon.com forward slash humanistreport or become a member at humanistreport.com. Now enjoy the show. Welcome to The Humanist Report podcast. My name is Mike Figueredo and this is episode 223 of the program. Today is Friday, December 20th and believe it or not, this is the very last episode of 2019, which is honestly kind of mind boggling to me because this year has gone by so fast and 2020 is already upon us and this will be a gigantic year politically, regardless if we win or lose. So as usual, since it's the last episode of the year, we are going to go out with a bang and have a jam-packed episode that will probably be longer than the Titanic, Irishman, and Avengers Endgame combined. Of course I'm being hyperbolic, I can't talk for that long, but regardless it's going to be a long episode but before we get to any news stories, we've got to take some time to acknowledge and thank all of the people who make this show possible. And that is our newest Patreon Paypal and YouTube members, all of which signed up for the very first time to support us this week or increased their monthly pledge. And that includes Aaron Washington, Alan B. Burdick, Eileen Fox, Jason Leary, Joe Nguyen, Jubes, Kekeen, Lance, Liz Mennick, Mandy Sadawasky, Miguel Maldonado, MQ, Owen Johnson, Paul Flores, Rod October Media LLP, and Siren Denied. So thank you so much to all of these kind souls. If you'd also like to support the show and join the Independent Progressive Media Revolution, you can do so by going to humanistreport.com slash support or patreon.com forward slash humanistreport. And as usual, if you want to support the show here on YouTube, you can click Join underneath any one of our YouTube videos. In 2020, we will be expanding membership options here on YouTube. So that way, there's not just the $4.99 option, but there will actually be more options, which I think is great. So on this jam-packed episode, we're going to end the year on a high note by talking about how Bernie Sanders' campaign is in fact surging. We'll talk about the media smear campaign against Cenk Uygur, Pete Wooded Judge's corruption, Biden being a one-term president possibly, as well as his take on the UK general election. We'll also talk about Bill Maher's bad take on Jeremy Corbyn's defeat. And a former healthcare industry insider exposes corporate Democrats. And we'll also have our annual End of the Year Awards, where we choose this year's MVP, scumbag, badass moment, and WTF moments of the year as well. And finally, we close the show by talking to 2020 congressional candidate Donna Imam from Texas. And that's just a small taste of what we've got in store for you today. So let's waste no time. Let's get straight to the news stories, because I've got a lot to talk about. So hopefully you guys will enjoy this extra-long episode of The Human Report. So it's been about a month or so since we first talked about the Bernie Blackout. That is the mainstream media's choice to deliberately exclude Bernie Sanders from discussions about the 2020 Democratic Party primary. Now, in and of itself, that Bernie Blackout is problematic, but what makes it particularly egregious is the fact that they're choosing to black him out at a time when he's actually surging. Now that was a month ago, but fast forward to today, and you cannot deny that Bernie Sanders is surging. You can't hide it. It's happening. Like the little engine that could, Bernie Sanders has been gradually climbing in the polls to the point where it's going to be increasingly difficult for the mainstream media to continue to ignore him. For example, a new NPR PBS poll found that Bernie Sanders is now in second place nationally, trailing Joe Biden by just two percentage points. And according to real clear politics polling averages, he has overtaken Elizabeth Warren officially and is now in second place. He's also in second place in the state of Iowa and is currently on the rise, whereas Pete Buttigieg, who currently holds on the first place there, is starting to fall. He also just took the lead in the state of New Hampshire. And on top of that, he jumped to first place in the delegate-rich primary state of California, according to a change research poll. And going back to that first NPR PBS poll that we talked about, as Common Dream states, he also pulled ahead in another key area. He is now leading among non-white voters with 29% to Joe Biden's 26%. So he is surging. There's no question about that. Bernie Sanders is surging and he is continuing to rise. Now, but before we talk about this any further, I just want to pause for a moment and I want you, yes, you watching this, to take a moment to pat yourself on the back, because regardless of how large or small your contribution is to this movement, you're contributing nonetheless, and you are what is helping to fuel the momentum that this campaign has. So if you donated $5 or $10, if you only made a couple of phone calls for Bernie Sanders, if you just convinced one of your relatives to support Bernie Sanders, you are what is making this possible. This is a nationwide political movement and you are part of it. So you are the reason why Bernie Sanders is surging. And there comes a time, as I've been alluding to, not just in this segment, but on previous episodes, that you get so big that the mainstream media can't possibly ignore you any longer. And we're reaching that point. So Bernie Sanders now being in second place nationally and starting to rise in early primary states, the mainstream media is starting to take notice. For example, you have The Hill finally reporting on Bernie Sanders surge. And on top of that, you have the Boston Globes James Pendle arguing that he now has the best shot at the nomination. Now he writes, in Iowa, Bernie is in a close second place behind South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg. He has reclaimed the lead in New Hampshire and in Nevada, he is in second behind former Vice President Joe Biden, according to real clear politics poll averages in those states. No one else can argue they are in the mix to win the first three nomination contests of Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, like Sanders. Big wins in those contests would make challenging him in other states insurmountable, if history is any guide. What's especially interesting about Sanders is his hardcore base of supporters. Poll after poll shows that a majority of likely Democratic presidential primary voters are still making up their mind on who they will support, even if they are leaning towards someone at the moment. This means that a one-time supporter of Kamala Harris may later backworn, and those who backed Biden may now be with Buttigieg. But Sanders people are Sanders people. In the most recent Suffolk University Boston Globe poll of likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters released in late November, it found that 64% of Sanders voters said their minds are firmly made up to support him. Compare that with a 37% of Biden supporters, 36% of Warren supporters and 30% of Buttigieg supporters who said they fully backed their candidate. In other words, holy crap, we might actually win this thing. Because if there's ever a time you want to surge, it is right before the primary because when you have a surge, you also have a lot of momentum. And momentum is what lead you to victory in a lot of these states. So understand that victory is incredibly within reach. It's possible. But with that being said, we need to solidify the gains that we've made. And I can't tell you, you know what, we did it. We've got the momentum that we need going into Iowa and New Hampshire. Now we can, you know, sit back and breathe a little bit easier. I can't tell you that because in this political climate now that Bernie Sanders is surging so much that the media is forced to pay attention to him. Now we have to work even harder than ever because I don't think you realize that the mainstream media is not going to give this to Bernie Sanders easily. The establishment is not going to allow him to just run away with this. There was an article, I think the week before last, where it detailed how Barack Obama essentially was contemplating stepping in to stop Bernie Sanders if it seemed as if he was going to be running away with the primary. So this momentum is a great thing. And we need to celebrate the victory and, you know, the progress that we've made thus far. But now we have to defend it and keep pushing. And in fact, push even harder than we've pushed before. Because like I said, once the media universally acknowledges that Bernie Sanders is surging, they haven't universally done so yet, but they're starting to. But once pretty much the CNNs, the MSNBCs, the Fox News of the World acknowledge that he is in fact leading and he has a real shot at the nomination. We will see a barrage of criticism that will be like anything we have ever seen before. Because if you thought that the smears of Bernie Sanders have been disgusting now, which they have been, you haven't seen anything yet. Because capital will not just, you know, roll over and die. It's going to fight with everything it has. So if Bernie Sanders continues to surge and if he makes a significant jump to where he starts leading in all of these primary states, once it's undeniable, they are going to pull out every single trick in the book. And people who you once thought were your allies are now going to be speaking out against Bernie Sanders and they will reveal their true colors. They were only paying lip service to the movement and they never really cared about the movement. We're going to see the media try to rehabilitate other candidates like Elizabeth Warren, because, you know, since she's now sliding and they see that Bernie Sanders is rising, they're going to try to present her once again as the progressive alternative. And I can't even fathom all of the different ways that, you know, they're going to try to beat Bernie Sanders, but understand that that is what they will do. Now, I want you to pay close attention to this race. Keep fighting. That's number one. If you are in the state of Iowa or New Hampshire, you should be on the ground knocking on doors for Bernie Sanders. If you don't live in those states, phone banking for him in those key primary states is going to be crucial. And if you can't do either of those things, if you could spare a buck or two, that will make all the difference. So that's what we need to do. We need to continue with this momentum. Hopefully he will see that rise in the polls, but with that good news, you know, the rise in the polls and what we're seeing now. Will inevitably come the attacks from the establishment. So I need you to be cognizant of that fact that that will be a reality, most likely. And if I'm proven wrong here, I will be, you know, incredibly happy to be wrong about that. But understand, I think everyone knows by now that this is not going to be easy for us. The better he does among the electorate, the harder we are going to have to fight when theoretically we shouldn't have to do that. Like if we're winning over hearts and minds, then we should be able to, you know, just focus on convincing more people. But we're going to have to wage a battle on multiple fronts. We're going to have to continue winning over hearts and minds. And we're going to have to deal with mainstream media's bias and, you know, elites who host these new shows, who don't want Bernie Sanders to get elected because he is antithetical to everything that they stand for. He poses a real threat to the establishment. So I can, you know, imagine a scenario where corporate Democrats and the establishment, they, you know, they have these anonymous tips that they'll give to mainstream media. You know, they'll be trying to sell stories to them. It's going to get ugly really, really fast. And that's what I want you to be prepared for. If we're prepared, then I think we'll be more capable of dealing with this barrage of tax of attacks. But what we've got to do is just continue doing what we've been doing because it's been working, but make sure that we don't let off the gas when we start seeing victory when it comes close. That's when we fight even harder because this is not going to come easy. And in the event Bernie Sanders actually wins this nomination, then a whole new battle begins. We defeat one enemy and then we go after the real giant, Donald Trump. And that in and of itself will be a huge battle. But then once we beat that giant, once we slay him, then it's the biggest battle. Getting his agenda implemented and codified into law. So I don't want to tell you this so you feel discouraged. I just want you to know that this energy that we have, this level of enthusiasm, we need to sustain that in spite of what we know will likely come. The attacks, the smears, the attempts to stop Bernie Sanders, it's going to happen. And we're in for a really long fight. But understand that all this energy that we are devoting to this movement is worth it. Because 30 years from now, when we look back at this moment and this movement, we're going to be able to tell our children and grandchildren that we were part of this movement. Like we were the ones who did this. We got Bernie Sanders elected and we are the generation that got Medicare for All codified into law. How amazing would that be? That would be our generation's legacy and anyone's legacy who fought alongside us. So it's going to be a tough battle, but I think we can do it and I know you guys are ready. So just be ready for one and two. Let's keep this momentum. So I mean, I wanted to talk about his surge because we have to have won some good news on this channel. You know, we don't get good news too often in 2019 in American politics, but on top of that, we do need to be prepared. And I feel like I'm preaching to the choir. I think you all are already prepared, but let's just be sure that we don't allow the attacks and the criticisms of Bernie to demoralize us. Whenever they do that, we push harder, we donate more to Bernie Sanders. And I'll leave that there. He's surging and you did this. Now let's defend what we've managed to accomplish and push even further. Joe Biden decided to weigh in on the outcome of the UK election and predictably it confirms his thesis that we need a moderate if we want to beat Donald Trump in 2020 because we saw what happened in the UK. You go too far to the left and the Trumpian figure will win. In other words, we need Joe Biden if we want to beat Donald Trump. As Quint Forge of Politico writes, former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday sought to draw parallels between the results of the United Kingdom's general election and the 2020 White House race, arguing that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's resounding victory should warn Democrats against veering too far left in their fight to defeat President Donald Trump. Boris Johnson is winning in a walk. Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate, told attendees of a campaign fundraiser in San Francisco. The Prime Minister's Conservative Party captured an overwhelming parliamentary majority in Thursday's election, taking dozens of seats in Britain's House of Commons from opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party. Predicting news headlines reporting the thumping by Johnson's Tories, Biden said, Look what happens when the Labour Party moves so, so far to the left. It comes up with ideas that are not able to be contained within a rational basis quickly. Biden went on to assert that the Prime Minister's triumph would change public perceptions regarding Trump's odds of re-election. You're also going to see people saying, My God, Boris Johnson, who is kind of a physical and emotional clone of the President, is able to win, he said. Okay, two things. First of all, I would like to hear which ideas of Corbyn's specifically led to him losing. And what I'm getting at is I don't think that Joe Biden knows much about the Labour manifesto or what Jeremy Corbyn was talking about, because what Joe Biden deems as too far left here, such as Medicare for All, they already have that in the UK, like what we're fighting for. We're fighting for what the UK has and is basically trying to defend. So I don't think that Joe Biden would actually be able to adequately describe what he deems as too far left from Jeremy Corbyn, because he doesn't know anything about the UK election. He doesn't know about American politics. So I mean, come on. Nobody believes that you know what's going on there. Second of all, look, here's the thing. We knew that in the event Corbyn would lose, which polls indicated that Labour wasn't going to win, centrists would be fear mongering about Bernie Sanders here in the United States. Although, conversely, in the event Labour was able to outperform the polls and actually pull out a victory, well, then Conservatives would just say, well, you know what, the UK is a different political setting. You know, they have different, you know, institutions. So that's different. You can't compare that to here. So I mean, regardless, they would be working backwards from their conclusion that if you are too far to the left, you're bad. And if you are a centrist or moderate or a neoliberal, then you are going to be our ticket to beating Donald Trump. They already reached that conclusion and the outcome of the UK election will not have persuaded them to think any differently. But regardless, let's look at some of the goons who claimed that Corbyn's defeat does spell disaster for Sanders in 2020. You had Jonathan Chaitre suggest that, you know, Jeremy Corbyn's defeat should prompt rethink among the left. You have Bill Maher saying Corbyn's defeat is a cautionary tale for Democrats in 2020 and now, predictably, you have Joe Biden floating this idea that only a moderate can defeat Donald Trump. Now, the only way that I think we on the left should respond to this type of nonsense is with this response by Matt from Majority Report, who says, Corbyn's loss shows that a moderate ticket is the one to beat Trump. I suggest Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, exactly. Because after a moderate is a demonstrable failure against Donald Trump, there's absolutely no introspection whatsoever from centrists. However, when someone on the left loses in a different country, well, all of a sudden people in the left in America have to reflect. Well, wait, you guys are the ones who told us back in 2016 that only a moderate can beat Donald Trump and the moderate of all moderates, the quintessential moderate, lost to Donald Trump. So why is it that we're supposed to be more introspective, but you guys aren't? Isn't it interesting that they have this standard that they apply to us, but not themselves? Well, as David Sorota puts it, Democrats must have a clear position on Brexit to win Michigan. I am a smart. That's exactly it. Now, getting back to Biden, let's assume for a moment that this electability argument of his is in fact correct. And you really do need a moderate to beat Donald Trump. Well, how does that help Joe Biden? Because even though he's hoping to benefit and exploit this loss of labor, well, why would we assume that he's the best moderate to take on Donald Trump? Why not Pete Buttigieg? Why not Amy Klobuchar? Why not one of the other moderates running? I don't know, Michael Bennett, John Delaney. Why Joe Biden? So this argument, even if it were true, which is not, it still wouldn't help Joe Biden. Because if anything, throughout the course of this primary process, he has demonstrated that he is incapable of defeating Donald Trump, not only because he is unhinged, not only because he called someone fat and can't hold his temper, not only because he is hollow and has no policies to offer people. I mean, why would you beat Donald Trump? Your performance at the debates has been absolutely atrocious. You have a support base that's incredibly malleable. Overall, they're less enthusiastic about you than someone who you deem too far left, like Bernie Sanders. I mean, why are you the one to take on Donald Trump? So if you truly believed that a moderate is best suited to beat Donald Trump, wouldn't it be more important for you to encourage your supporters to coalesce around a moderate that's actually more electable? Well, I mean, his argument would be, I'm polling in first place. Sure, fair enough. But Hillary Clinton was polling in first place at this point in time. And she's still lost. And Hillary Clinton is stronger than Joe Biden in terms of her political performance, in terms of just being more politically savvy. I think she was out of touch. And I think that Joe Biden, ideologically speaking, is probably slightly to her left. Regardless, she's more competent at running a campaign than Joe Biden is. Joe Biden is flailing. He makes a gaffe every other minute. So even if the moderate argument were correct, which again, it's not, Joe Biden is still not the moderate. So I know that you're trying to enjoy the fact that this might have a message for us progressives. Maybe we should back down. But that's not ever going to happen. A moderate will lose to Donald Trump in 2020, like they did in 2016. And a moderate like you, Joe, would certainly lose to Donald Trump. I have absolutely no confidence that you would do any better against Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton. Because the base doesn't like you. The mainstream media hasn't even really been doing propaganda for you because it's just embarrassing at this point. And even your own wife conceded that, you know, maybe we're not excited about your healthcare proposal. But, you know, you can beat Donald Trump. Maybe you have to make that argument that you're grasping for anything, which you are. I mean, I have nothing left to say. Joe Biden is not electable. If we truly want to beat Donald Trump, then it's Bernie Sanders. He's our best bet. Nobody is a foregone conclusion, but the United States is different than the UK. We'll get into this in a different segment, but it's not going to be Joe Biden, which is what I think he wants to be the takeaway, but that's not the takeaway. So the moment I found out that Labour lost in the UK general election after just being generally disappointed because I wanted to see change in the UK, I was bracing myself because I already knew that insufferable centrists in the United States would use Jeremy Corbyn and Labour's loss as, you know, more reason to beat us over the head with this idea that we can't have someone who's too far left run against Donald Trump. We need to play it safe and opt for someone who's more moderate. And sure enough, that is exactly what they decided to do, like the opportunists that they are, the moment that we found out that Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party was defeated. For example, in light and centrist, Bill Maher tweeted, the apparent beating that Jeremy Corbyn led the Labour too in the UK election should serve as a cautionary tale for the Democrats as 2020 approaches. Now, what I find interesting about Bill Maher's take here is that he claimed he supported Bernie Sanders back in 2016, even if he wasn't necessarily that enthusiastic about Bernie Sanders, but after we nominated someone who's a moderate and she lost Donald Trump, you'd think that that would reinforce his support of Bernie Sanders going into 2020 because if a moderate lost, then logically you can deduce that we should try the next option, which is someone who is deemed too far left. But instead, he's choosing to opt for a moderate after a moderate already lost when he previously supported Bernie Sanders, like the logic makes no sense. It's almost like Bill Maher isn't actually on the left, and he just supports centre-right policies because he's really rich. Now, I've already talked about this with Connor of the Cavernacle. I think it was a 30-minute video that I posted to the channel that we did together. It's also on his channel, so check that out. We kind of walked through the reasons why Jeremy Corbyn lost. We had our initial reactions, but I want to take the time to really parse out the reasons why Jeremy Corbyn lost and why that's not some type of foreshadowing about what to expect if Bernie Sanders is the nominee. I believe that Bernie Sanders is our best bet if we want to defeat Donald Trump. Now, that doesn't mean that it is a guaranteed victory. Regardless of who wins the nomination, it's going to be tough to beat Donald Trump. We're not going to underestimate him like we did in 2016 because Donald Trump now has that incumbency advantage, right? And he delivered tax cuts to elites. So regardless of how unorthodox he is, how much he makes them feel uncomfortable, he delivers politically and, for that reason, they like him, right? So it's going to be harder to beat him. But if we truly want the best bet at beating Donald Trump, we need to opt for Bernie Sanders. And I think Bernie overall can beat Donald Trump. But I want to go through why, because Jeremy Corbyn and Labour lost, that doesn't mean that Bernie is definitely going to lose here, which is what centrists want you to believe. The first and I think most obvious reason is that Jeremy Corbyn was running on a platform that was different than Bernie Sanders. It was incredibly progressive, but Bernie Sanders is running on things that they already have in the UK. For example, Medicare for All. So we're fighting for Medicare for All because if we don't get Medicare for All, thousands of people will die or go bankrupt every single year in this country. They already have that in the UK. Nobody is dying or going bankrupt in the UK because they have their national health system. Now, healthcare was a huge issue in this election because Jeremy Corbyn was trying to defend against greater privatization that Boris Johnson wanted to do. But regardless, it's not as big of an issue if nobody's dying in that country, right? So in the US, there's a greater urgency. We don't have the things that they have. So these issues that are progressive that are deemed too far left, they are of a greater salience here than they are in the United Kingdom. When it comes to the issue of healthcare, we are running on saving lives. Jeremy Corbyn was running on expanding coverage and protecting against privatization. Very different issues here. Now, on top of that, it's not like Corbyn and Labour's defeat was a surprise. The polls predicted that Boris Johnson and the Tories would win and that's what happened. So if we accept that polling is relatively accurate, well, out of more than 50 polls, Bernie Sanders only loses to Donald Trump in four of them. So if we are accepting that aggregate polling data is relatively reliable, well, then polls predicted that Jeremy Corbyn and Labour would lose and polls are predicting that Bernie Sanders would win. Now, polls aren't always accurate. Jeremy Corbyn actually overperformed the polls in 2017. So polls maybe aren't reliable, but if they're not reliable, then what we have to accept is that if he overperformed the polls back in 2017, then maybe him being too far left isn't a huge turnoff to the electorate after all. I mean, these are factors that they don't want to talk about and it's incredibly frustrating. Now on top of that, the political climate in the UK is very different than it is in the United States. This election was a Brexit election unlike the 2017 general election in the UK. And part of the reason why Jeremy Corbyn lost was because his message on Brexit wasn't clear. While Tories and Boris Johnson staked out a clear position and they were the party of getting Brexit done, Corbyn tried to appeal to both. He wanted to have it both ways. He wanted to appeal to the remainers and people who wanted to leave and that simply didn't work. Now in the event Jeremy Corbyn staked out a more clear position on Brexit, he could have won, right? If the position he took was what the country wanted, because again, this was the Brexit election. But to say that he was too far left or the Labour's manifesto was just too extreme is nonsensical because the issues that he talked about polled incredibly well. So it wasn't that he was too far left, it's that he wasn't decisive enough on Brexit. He wasn't leading on that issue. That is the problem. Now another issue that Jeremy Corbyn had, which actually to be fair Bernie Sanders shares, is that the mainstream media hates both of them. They disliked Jeremy Corbyn because he dared to speak out in favour of Palestinian human rights. They smeared him as basically someone who was anti-Semitic. And this smear was repeated over and over again. And the UK media gave favourable coverage to Boris Johnson even though he was the true bigot in the selection, not Jeremy Corbyn, who cares about human rights, who is anti-racist. But regardless, he spoke out in favour of Palestinian human rights. They called him an anti-Semite. You know, I don't know if it's just me, but I don't think that Bernie Sanders is going to have that problem. I don't think that accusations of anti-Semitism are going to stick to Bernie Sanders because he's Jewish. Now of course, that doesn't mean that the mainstream media in the United States won't try to replicate the success of that strategy because the day after they learned that the anti-Semitism smear helped sink Jeremy Corbyn. Well, they tried to use that same smear against Bernie Sanders because conservative media outlet The Washington Examiner penned an article the very next day titled Bernie Sanders has an anti-Semitism problem. And yes, that author is being serious. Now the article itself was met with almost universal condemnation. One, because it's fucking stupid. And two, because the author who wrote that doesn't actually care about bigotry because she is a fan of a fascist like Milo Yiannopoulos. So the media can try all they want to claim that Bernie Sanders is anti-Semitic or has an anti-Semitic problem or gives anti-Semites a pass. But it's not going to work. So obviously after we go through all these factors, it's easy to see that just because labor was defeated that doesn't mean that Bernie Sanders will lose in 2020. These are two different elections with different aspects and different issues at stake. However, because I'm not hacky, I do believe that that election should trigger some introspection among the American left. I believe that there are things we can learn from Jeremy Corbyn's loss that will make us stronger going into 2020. And apparently Michael Moore does too because he actually did talk about one really important thing that we should learn going into 2020. Not that we need to be more moderate and centrist, but instead we need to be decisive and leaders going into 2020. A week before the first Brexit vote, I was in the UK and I saw what was going on. And in fact, I called up Corbyn's office to see if he'd go have a drink with me and he did. And so we talked about this. It was clear to me at the time that he was of two minds about Brexit. Clearly, yes. That if you can't get the message clear, he was against it for all the right reasons. We can't leave Europe. We are Europe. Europe would have died had we not given a million lives or so to keep it. So there wouldn't be a Europe without what Britain did. On the other hand, he didn't want to desert what he felt was a strong feeling in the working class space of the Labour Party of wanting to get out. The message here is that Democrats need to lead, not follow. Democrats need to say, you know, this is the way it should be and this is what we're going to fight for. Now, look, I love Jeremy Corbyn. He is someone I respect and admire. But Michael Moore is correct here. If Jeremy Corbyn was more decisive when it comes to the issue of Brexit, he could have performed better. He could have pulled this off. But this was such a huge issue that it dwarfed all the other political issues. Now, I'm not willing to say that Jeremy Corbyn would have definitely won had he taken a stronger stance on Brexit. I think that it's one of the main reasons why he lost. I think he probably could have overcome the media smears. I mean, he almost won back in 2017. He made up a lot of ground. So I think that he could have overcome that, you know, and still won in spite of, you know, everything else that was going against him. But this was a Brexit election. Period. Now, Donald Trump could take a particular issue and change the narrative, use his bully pulpit to say this is the election about immigration or whatnot. But that's something that could come up with a moderate as president, right? It's not just Bernie Sanders who has to be aware of some of these pitfalls in the general election. Every individual who goes up against Donald Trump is going to have a huge battle on their hands, not just Bernie Sanders. But again, if we want to improve our odds, then we know that in America, the way to win is to make sure we galvanize the Democratic Party voting base. Because when turnout is high, we win. When turnout is low, Republicans win. So if we have a candidate that energizes younger people, then we have a fighting shot at beating Trump in 2020. It's not guaranteed, but at least we have a chance. And that person is Bernie Sanders. So instead of kowtowing to what centrists are saying and being fearful, make the case for Bernie Sanders. Let them know why they're wrong because they are wrong. Jeremy Corbyn's loss does not mean that Bernie Sanders loss is guaranteed in 2020. Absolutely not. If we truly want to win, then nominating a centrist is not the way to go because we tried that. The centrist lost. Hillary Clinton was defeated by Donald Trump. So if you're going to reduce all of this down to political ideology, we already saw how moderation and centrism played. Now it's time to try it our way because we have the winning strategy. No strategy is a guaranteed winner. But if we want to be victorious, if we want to win and defeat Donald Trump, Bernie is our best bet. Don't let the centrists scare you until you otherwise. We fight for what we believe in because what we believe in not only is morally justified, but it is in fact the strategy that will help lead us to victory. And that's all I'll say about this. So I have no way of confirming this. This is kind of just my own speculation, but I don't believe that Joe Biden wants to be running for president. And I certainly don't believe that he wants to be president. I think the only reason why he's running is because the establishment wants him to run and because he thinks or at least thought that this would be an easy victory. But it's not and he just seems over it. I'm basing this off of his demeanor as well as, you know, speculation before that he would only be running as a one-term president. Basically to just maybe defeat Donald Trump or at a minimum, you know, stop Bernie Sanders during the primary. Because if you're a former VP, then you have a lot of name recognition and you can raise a lot of money, not really panning out too well. Either way, I don't think he wants to be president. And there is even more speculation that maybe he doesn't want to be president. And in the event he's elected, he would only be a one-term president. This is based off of what people around him are saying. And it seems like they're leaking details of this story because they think this will help Joe Biden. I don't actually think that's going to be the case. Nonetheless, these are the details. This is from Ryan Liza of Politico who reports, Former Vice President Joe Biden's top advisors and prominent Democrats outside the Biden campaign have recently revived a long-running debate whether Biden should publicly pledge to serve only one term with Biden himself signaling to aides that he would serve only a single term. While the option of making a public pledge remains available, Biden has for now settled on an alternative strategy. Quietly indicating that he will almost certainly not run for a second term while declining to make a promise that he and his advisors fear could turn him into a lame duck and slap him of his political capital. According to four people who regularly talk to Biden, all of whom asked for anonymity to discuss internal campaign matters, it is virtually inconceivable that he will run for re-election in 2024 when he would be the first octogenarian president. If Biden is elected, a prominent advisor to the campaign said he's going to be 82 years old in four years and he won't be running for re-election. The advisor argued that public acknowledgment of that reality could help Biden molify younger voters, especially on the left, who are unexcited by his candidacy in fear that his nomination would serve as an eight-year roadblock to the next generation of Democrats. Now this isn't confirmed as of yet and whether or not Biden makes this public or makes it official will be based off of a political calculation. So if he thinks this will help him get elected in 2020, he's going to say I won't seek re-election in 2024. Now what's fascinating to me is that people actually think this will help him and there's this idea that maybe Biden thinks that this could help him. Because as they stated, well, you know, young voters who are turned off by Biden because he could serve for eight years, maybe they'll be a little bit more receptive to him if they know that he'll only serve one term. But I don't think this is going to have the effect that you think it will have, because if anything, this will make us dislike you even more because what is the point of running if you're only going to run for one term? That tells me that you don't have a clear agenda that you're willing to fight for. Because if you have an agenda that you think can be executed in four years, then you're not real about politics, right? You're not real about fundamentally changing the country. Even with Bernie Sanders, if he serves for eight years, I don't believe he will be able to get his entire agenda implemented. If anything, we'll get a few policies codified into law and then hopefully he catalyzes this political revolution in the way that FDR and Reagan did, albeit on the left, and you know, actually push the envelope and make it so that way he's so popular that you can't challenge Democratic socialism or in actuality, social democracy. But Joe Biden, I mean, you're not serious about anything. You're just running because you think you can easily win if you're only seeking one term. And on top of that, this puts Democrats at a disadvantage in 2024 because I don't have to tell you guys, I've said this before, incumbency is something that you definitely want to have. It gives you an advantage going into an election because voters, they are averse to change. They're scared to change things in the way that things are going, even if they're dissatisfied with it. So let's say, hypothetically speaking, voters, you know, shirk that trend of sticking with the incumbent and they vote for Biden and they defeat Donald Trump. Well, if Joe Biden chooses to not run for a second term, then Democrats lose that incumbency advantage. Now look, I would want to primary Joe Biden, right? If he were president, of course I would. I would want a primary challenger and I would want him to only run for one term because I think he's a ghoul. With that being said, though, Democrats who are self-interested theoretically should, you know, in their own self-interest not want him to do that. And furthermore, even though I would want him out as soon as possible, so we have a chance at electing someone who's more progressive, like this doesn't make me like him more. This just makes me see that he is the opportunist that I thought he was and that he really doesn't want to be there, right? You're an opportunist because you at least want to say you were president, like you want that to be part of your legacy. Being VP isn't enough and you ran for president multiple times before. You want that, right? You want that on your resume. But with that being said, it's clear you don't want to do this. Joe Biden doesn't actually want to be president. I think that if we really could press him to say whether or not he wants to do this, I think the answer would be no. He wants the title and the glory that comes along with it, but he doesn't actually want the job. And I don't really blame him, but then don't run. If you're only running to be a one-term president, you have no real core agenda. You don't care about helping people. You just want to win because you think you're either, oh, that position or you can easily walk to victory. But I don't think that this is going to help him in the way that they believe it will, as I stated. Younger voters aren't going to think, oh, well, he's only running for one term and he'll be out faster. So suddenly I'm more excited for him. No, in the event Joe Biden is the nominee, it will be evident that that will demoralize the base, turn out will be suppressed, and young people will just stay home. They're not going to be excited about Joe Biden. They are vocalizing that loudly and clearly, and you're not listening to them, right? If you want to win it, and if you truly want to win and you don't just care about defeating a progressive like Bernie Sanders, then acknowledge that we need a candidate who will excite the base. And if you honestly think that Joe Biden is that person, you are delusional and you are hurting all of us. You're empowering Donald Trump. So either way, this isn't confirmed. But if it's true, I don't think this will make him any more popular. I think it probably is true. It's just a matter of whether or not he fesses up to it, but not going to help you. If anything, I think this hurts him even more because it shows that he doesn't really want to be there. As many of you know, Cenk Uygur of TYT is running to represent California's 25th congressional district. In fact, we just had him on the program a little more than a week ago. And he's running a great campaign and he's picking up a lot of momentum, which is why the Democratic Party establishment is pulling out every single trick they possibly can to defeat him because he poses a real threat to them. So you've had establishment figures like Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein, even I believe, and Kamala Harris come out to endorse his opponent currently. But nonetheless, he has persisted and he secured major endorsements like Ro Khanna, Nina Turner, and even Bernie Sanders. Now, in addition to endorsements from establishment figures, they're also trying to defeat Cenk by trudging up these old articles that he wrote about 19 years ago that were misogynistic and they were half serious from what I understand, but nonetheless, they were problematic. Now, the good news is that I believe in forgiveness if someone actually changes and apologizes. And of course, Cenk has apologized because these are the same articles that were used when he was forced out of the Justice Democrats. But basically, they're trying to link individuals like Bernie Sanders to those smears. So instead of Bernie Sanders endorsing Cenk Uyghur, well, now the narrative is Bernie Sanders endorses misogynistic candidate Cenk Uyghur. So, anticipating that these smear articles, this narrative could potentially hurt Bernie Sanders, what Cenk Uyghur decided to do is, you know, reject all endorsements from Nina Turner, Ro Khanna, and yes, Bernie Sanders as well, which led to Bernie Sanders officially unendorsing Cenk tweeting, Cenk Uyghur has been a long time fighter against corruption. However, our movement is bigger than any one person. I hear my supporters who were frustrated and I understand their concerns. Cenk today said he is rejecting all endorsements for his campaign and I retract my endorsements. Now, there's so much to say about this. First of all, I don't know if really was Cenk who on his own accord decided to reject all of these endorsements. Maybe Bernie Sanders was already going to unendorse Cenk. I'm not sure what the situation is, although I will link to a video by Kyle Kalinsky who speculates about the situation using the experience that, you know, dealing with Justice Democrats in that dilemma, having their staff basically forcing Cenk Uyghur out after the alt-right digged up the same old articles that corporate media is now using to smear Cenk. But I mean, either way, this situation is incredibly frustrating because Bernie Sanders campaign absolutely mishandled this. Either you shouldn't have endorsed Cenk Uyghur altogether or you should have just stuck to your guns after endorsing him because this makes you look weak and all around it's not a good look. So I mean, I find this frustrating because I think that Bernie Sanders endorsing Cenk is the right move. And I think that overall Bernie should not have unendorsed Cenk Uyghur. That's kind of where I lean because regardless, they're still going to paint you in a negative light, right? They're still going to smear you for endorsing him to begin with. So you'd be stronger just defending your position and making it clear that this individual should be endorsed and should be in Congress because he is against corruption and he's for the people in spite of what he said 20 years ago. And predictably, you know, they're still attacking Bernie because he endorsed Cenk Uyghur. And on top of that, what's really disgusting is they're doubling down on the smears against Cenk Uyghur. Now, there are a plethora of examples of this, but I want to highlight just one example because I think it's the most egregious example of them all. So this is from the New York Times where writer Jennifer Medina wrote an article titled, Bernie Sanders retracts endorsement of Cenk Uyghur after criticism. And she argues, Mr. Sanders has said Mr. Uyghur was a voice we desperately need in Congress, but many Democrats condemned the endorsement, citing Mr. Uyghur's history of offensive comments. And as I stated, this is the most egregious example, which is why I want to kind of focus on this, but it also demonstrates that you will never appease your critics. They will never, you know, give you credit for doing the right thing if they believe that you did in fact do the right thing. They're still portraying Bernie Sanders in a negative way, and on top of that, they're smearing Cenk Uyghur. So all around this situation is demoralizing and depressing. And the reason why this example is as egregious as I say it was, because it really demonstrates how the media disingenuously frames things in order to create a particular narrative or misrepresent the situation for their political agenda. And here's how that happened in this article. Quote, in 2017 Mr. Uyghur was forced out of the group Justice Democrats, a group he co-founded that backs progressive congressional candidates around the country after his old blog posts objectifying women came to life. Mr. Uyghur's long history of comments about women included ranking them on a scale of 1 to 10 based on how likely men would be to have them perform oral sex. He also defended a similar ranking by Harvard's man's soccer team, which was widely condemned at the time. Mr. Uyghur, a longtime supporter of Mr. Sanders, has also disparaged former President Barack Obama on his show, argued that bestiality should be legal and hosted white supremacist figures including David Duke. Now on top of that, they also quote Mark Gonzalez, who is the chair of the Los Angeles Democratic Party. And he says this about Cenk, who has spent decades including up until recently attacking women, the LGBTQ community, Jews, Muslims, Asian Americans, and African Americans. His vulgarity, his hate speech, and divisive rhetoric have no place in our party. Now I've watched TYT since about 2008 I want to say, and that is not the Cenk Uyghur that I've come to know and respect. These blanket accusations of bigotry and racism, they are incredibly unfounded. Now if you read this article, as she goes through all of these controversies, she only links to two of the specific things that Cenk said. So the way that she's describing these scenarios of misogyny and whatnot, I mean maybe they're problematic, maybe they're not, but we just have to take her word for it. Okay, well when she says disparaging Barack Obama, what does that mean? Because Cenk is critical of Barack Obama because he's a corporate Democrat, and guess what, he's correct, but disparaging Barack Obama in this context, since they're talking about how he says horrible things about African Americans and vulgarity and hate speech, well you'd assume that he's saying racist things about Obama, when obviously that's not the case. But again, you know, she just describes it that way, so you have to take her word for it. He also on top of that, he ranked women on a scale from 1 to 10, based on how likely men would be able to, would have them perform oral sex. I don't know what the context is, maybe that's bad, maybe it's not as bad as they say, maybe she's misrepresenting the situation. The point is, if you don't link to what he's saying, specific quotes, then how are we supposed to trust you? And I'll tell you why, we probably shouldn't trust her in a second here. Now in one of the two instances where she actually links you to the comments that Cenk made, the specific comments, one of them is pretty controversial to be fair and this doesn't actually have anything to do with the old blog posts that everyone has been talking about. This centers on comments that he made about bestiality, which are pretty cringe-worthy to be honest. You know, this is a very yikes take about legalizing bestiality and I absolutely don't agree with this. But is it disqualifying? No, it's a stupid thing to say, but if you're going to fight for policies like Medicare for All, I can give you a pass on a yikes take here and there, especially if you're not really that person today. Like, we all are constantly changing and evolving as human beings. Like, I could probably go back and look to some videos that I did previously from a couple of years ago. I've only been doing this for four and a half years and say, well, you know, maybe I don't agree with that. In fact, I know I've had positions on this program that I don't really agree with anymore and perhaps I can hash that out. But the point is we're always evolving as human beings and so long as we're on that right trajectory of growth and improvement and we've apologized for the past things that we've done, then of course we should welcome that. But we'll get to that later. You know, we'll get to whether or not they believe that someone can truly evolve because what I want to talk about is how we should interpret these controversies from Cenk Uger because I don't trust what this author is saying based on one example that she describes here that we actually have the context for. So going to the David Duke example, they kind of do a tacit, you know, disapproval of the fact that he platformed David Duke. But on top of that, here's what she says about that. In one clip that circulated on Twitter, Mr. Duke ends an interview by saying, I am not what you call a racist, to which Mr. Uger replies, no, of course not. Now again, she was just hoping that you'd take her word for it. However, Kyle Kalinsky found the interview and provided a clip that gives you some additional context. David, how could you think you're not anti-Semitic? How could you possibly think that you think the Jews control the world? That's anti-Semitism 101. Kagan is on the Supreme Court. But so is Sotomayor. And she's definitely not Jewish. She's Latina. I mean, Kagan made it onto the Supreme Court. But so is Sotomayor. Those are two pigs by Obama. Sotomayor, clearly not Jewish. In fact, what is it? I think seven out of the nine justices are Catholic. Oh, my God. The Catholics have taken over the Supreme Court. Watch out, David. Watch out. It's the Catholics that are the problem. But then you've got the Koch brothers who buy all these politicians. They're not Jewish. How does that fit into your conspiracy theory? So, I mean, you keep saying Goldman Sachs, but before Blankfein, the head of Goldman Sachs was Hank Paulson. Christian extraordinaire. The biggest political contributor in the country is not Sheldon Adelson. It is David and Charles Koch. They are enormously Christian. They're Christian. Now, after seeing that, ask yourself this. Did it seem like Cenk was giving David Duke a softball interview as The New York Times implied? Did it seem like he was arguing that David Duke wasn't actually racist? Obviously not. Now, I actually found that particular portion of the interview and I added some additional clips beforehand so that way you can kind of see Cenk's overall demeanor. He was basically clowning on David Duke. He was being sarcastic. So that way, once you kind of grasp what his overall demeanor was, the way that he said, no, of course not. When David Duke said he's not racist, well, you kind of get what he's getting at. He's laughing at that notion. Are two-thirds of the country Catholic? Well, approximately. No, they're not Catholic. No, I'm talking about among Christians. No, they're not. Two-thirds of the country is non-Catholic. Two-thirds of the Supreme Court is Catholic. David, you got the wrong boogie man. Remember, the KKK was also against Catholics. I know you're more inclusive. I'm not against Catholics. Okay, no, you're more inclusive. That was one of your innovations. You know what? I'm for opportunity in this country and I'm against real racism and the ultimate racist apparatus that's going on in this country is Jewish racism and that's why I'll give an example this way. You always hear about white privilege. Another chart I give you. You know, I want to make this clear too. I'm not what you call a racist. No, no. I'm not because I believe that every people have the right to seek the things that they love and the things that they appreciate, their values, their people, their interests and I believe that every nation has the right to be free and independent. So, obviously, he was being sarcastic. I'm just surprised, actually, that they didn't take that other quote, you know, out of context where he said, oh, I know you're more inclusive. I'm surprised they didn't include that as well to smear him. It's just, it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. And after seeing the way that this author mischaracterized that interview with David Duke, how am I supposed to actually trust that her interpretation of these controversies is actually valid? We can't. You see, the Young Turks has hundreds of thousands of hours of content on their website, on YouTube. So they know that you're not going to take the time to dig through and find that specific clip where they were rating women. Maybe it was controversial. Maybe it was problematic and misogynistic. Maybe she's misrepresenting it as she did the David Duke situation. The point is, we don't know. And what makes this exponentially worse is that this author actually wasn't ignorant because she knew that Cenk was being sarcastic. She knew she was misrepresenting Cenk because he tweeted, when she contacted me for her story, I thought we had a shared understanding that Duke Clip was obviously out of context. She was immediately sent the full combative debate as proof that she completely ignored it and still published this lie is absolutely unconscionable. In other words, she knew what she was doing. This was a hit job, and her intent was in fact malicious. But what she probably didn't expect were people to call her out on her bullshit because we noticed the way she grossly misrepresented at least that one interview from Cenk, that one controversy from Cenk, and people called her out. So, for example, Kyle Kalinski asked his audience to contact her and politely ask her to issue a correction and to also apologize. Now, as far as I know, she hasn't apologized yet, which she should, but she did thankfully issue a correction saying an earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to a remark by Cenk Uger a radio host who was running for a California congressional seat. When David Duke, the white supremacist, appeared on the show and denied being a racist, Mr. Uger was replying sarcastically when he said, no, of course not. So, I mean, it's great that you issued this correction, but the damage has already been done. Nobody's going to revisit that article and see, oh, okay, he was being sarcastic. The people who don't really know about Cenk, who don't watch the Young Turks, read that article, and now they think that he agrees with David Duke. You did that. That's what the author of this article did, which is why Kyle demanded an apology as well. I've made mistakes on the show. I apologize and correct it when that happens. Apologizing doesn't mean that you're weak, it just means that we're all human and we make mistakes, although in this instance, since she already knew that Cenk Uger was being sarcastic since he deliberately said I was being sarcastic, we know that this was just an attempt to smear her. So I don't trust whatever else they say about Cenk, whatever they deem controversial because they're not allowing us to decide. If you're actually going to say that Cenk is misogynistic and he hates the LGBTQ community, you've got to bring the receipts, not just the one receipt, but bring multiple receipts so we can actually judge for ourselves because if we can evaluate the comments that Cenk made, then you actually have more credibility as a journalist because you believe the things that you're saying and you're not hiding them away from the public knowing that most people probably won't shuffle through all of the Young Turks thousands of hours of content to find out what you're referring to. Now, here's what's more important. All the people who are coming out to endorse Cenk's opponent because he's this huge misogynistic ass, well, guess what? They also don't actually really care about controversies and misogyny and homophobia because Nancy Pelosi, who endorsed his opponent, she also endorsed Dan Lipinski over a progressive Democrat named Marie Newman. Now, Dan Lipinski is an anti-gay Democrat who is also against choice. And some of the people, individuals who are speaking out against Cenk Yuger's misogyny here, people like Jill Filipovic, she condemned Cenk but she gave Joy Rita Pass for homophobic statements that she has previously made ironically on a blog post as well. Now, she deleted that tweet but I'll tell you what she said. She called criticism of Joy Reid's past disgusting and disingenuous saying that she made a judgment error years ago and sincerely apologized. But you see, even though Cenk also made a judgment error and apologized, well, he doesn't get a pass unlike Joy Reid, who definitely receives a pass from Jill. It's almost like the controversies don't matter and they will excuse people that they like but not give a pass to people who they don't like who is against their own political agenda. Interesting how that works, right? This is a double standard that is only applied to progressives. Now, here's the thing. I actually do give Joy Reid a pass. I am a member of the LGBTQ community and I welcome people who evolve because if I didn't, we'd have to analyze because at one point in time everyone was against LGBTQ people. So the thing is, they don't actually care about all of these controversies. It's fake outrage because they want to defeat Cenk because he's a threat to capital and the establishment. They know that he would not give Democratic leadership a pass. He'd confront Nancy Pelosi to her face when she is brazenly corporate and gives away to Donald Trump for no reason whatsoever. They don't want that. They don't want someone like Cenk having a large congressional platform and power to challenge him. So they're going to bring up whatever they possibly can to smear him and smear anyone who dares to help him get elected like Bernie Sanders. It's disgusting but understand that this is what they're going to do. It's a tactic. It's not principle. They don't care about misogyny or homophobia. They don't care about any of that. They don't bring up anything they can possibly use against you if it means that will help them politically and even if they have to lie or misrepresent what you said they're going to do that if it means defeating you because these people don't want power to fully be challenged. That's as simple as a way I can describe it. I mean there's no other way to frame this. This is about power protecting power. Capital making sure that it defends itself or what. So this is disgusting and morally reprehensible and as a direct result of this I contributed another 10 bucks to Cenk Ugra and I would encourage you to do the same. Whenever they do this and they try to smear one of our own that's when we have to help our own because even though there's all of these smears I do believe that Cenk can still win. It's going to be an uphill battle but nonetheless he can still win in spite of these smears because when you actually have people power behind you you can win and make a difference in spite of the behemoths that want to take you down. Now as a result of this Cenk Ugra raised more than $150,000 over the weekend because people who support him were outraged at this brazen smear by the New York Times. So I mean it's a disgusting story nonetheless it's not surprising at all and I'm glad they issued the correction but the problem with this correction it's you know it's a day late and a dollar short right not gonna help us anymore you know people are going to think that Cenk is misogynistic and this horrible person and they're taking quotes from people who aren't providing evidence that he's anti-Muslim when his family is Muslim it's just morally reprehensible but it's not surprising. This is why I do not trust the mainstream media and whatever they say I feel the need to verify myself as much as I can independently because they have an agenda and this should demonstrate that. So last week we learned that Mayor Pete's consulting work at Mackenzie included drumroll disaster capitalism which if you don't know is a process whereby capitalist ghouls exploit recently destroyed countries that were usually devastated either by war or natural disasters that was part of Pete Buttigieg's resume at Mackenzie yeah now on top of that he did consulting work for private insurance companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield and his work may have directly led to the loss of thousands of jobs but he doubts that that were the case and on top of that he also did consulting work for the EPA and USPS seemingly benign consulting work I wasn't too concerned with that although when I looked at his resume for Mackenzie even I was being a little bit too kind because that work that he did at least for the USPS it wasn't benign at Mackenzie that was literally trying to privatize the US Postal Service so I mean the more that you learn about Mayor Pete the less redeeming qualities there are he is functionally a Republican or was functionally a Republican at least if we want to be a little bit more charitable a log cabin Republican and the man is a ghoul now on top of that he was recently shamed into releasing the list of bundlers because you know whenever you hold these private fundraisers with really rich people in the Hamptons usually you release a list for transparency sake but Pete Buttigieg stopped updating that list as of I think it was April and he was recently shamed into being more transparent and one of the individuals who is holding fundraisers for him includes Netflix CEO Reed Hastings now you know I'm in favor of streaming services I have a subscription to Netflix part of the reason why ideally you want to avoid having Reed Hastings host a fundraiser for you is because the man has funneled money into causes that lead to charter schools the privatization of education now what's interesting to me is that Mayor Pete claims to be against charter schools he claims to be against school voucher programs but yet you know it's a little bit of a contradiction that he's allowing someone who advocates boldly so for charter schools to host a private fundraiser for him the question is why now I would argue that it's probably because Pete actually does support charter schools or maybe he's ambivalent he doesn't really care about the issue and he just wants to get a lot of money either way it's not a good luck if you're going to talk the talk we expect you to walk the walk but he's not doing that and the media hasn't questioned him on this but thankfully an organizer at a recent event decided to call him out and as usual Pete was not happy with the prospect of being challenged and he actually got a little bit testy this turned into kind of a heated exchange where he accused the individual asking him this question of trying to debate him it got weird nonetheless take a look so I'm very clear where I stand on these issues there are 700,000 donors to my campaign some of them may disagree with me on some of those issues but my stance will not change including my support for teachers and my support for labor so you'll keep you'll keep you'll keep your word you'll keep your word you'll keep your word you'll keep your word you'll keep your word so you'll keep you'll keep him as a host wait one question will you keep him as a host on the fundraiser read Hastings so yes or no question I have no plans to make a change there the fundamental fact of where I stand in my support for labor but wouldn't some people say that's a sign that you're not truly committed to organized labor and you're just willing to say anything I will say where I stand then why not drop the read Hastings from the fundraiser are you asking me a question or are you debating me is that my position is clear and it will not change even if somebody who supports my campaign disagrees with me on certain issues so he predictably tried to do the slimy politician dodge where you don't answer the question you try to obfuscate and what not and that organizer thankfully was trying to hold his feet to the fire and get him to answer the question it was a yes or no question but he wouldn't answer it and I couldn't help but think while watching this would we have to rely on organizers at these events to do the job of the media imagine if we had an adversarial mainstream media that actually challenged people in power or people seeking power like we wouldn't have to do this but because the media isn't doing its job since they love Mayor Pete we have to rely on people to hold him accountable and of course he doesn't like being held accountable because he seldomly is held accountable this is someone who is an elitist to question his integrity and his morals he doesn't like that and he gets pissed but while we're on the subject of talking about Pete Buttigieg and his morals or like thereof and his donors I want to go over some of the individuals who have been hosting these fundraisers and bundling to his campaign as Elena Schneider and Maggie Serverns of Politico report Buttigieg who has shot from little known small town mayor to become one of the most prolific fundraisers in the Democratic presidential primary named a list of 113 bundlers high dollar donors who have also tapped into their personal networks to raise money for the candidate the list released late Friday night covers everyone who has raised at least $25,000 for the campaign including several heavyweights in the financial industry among them was Hamilton James executive vice chairman and former president of the private equity giant Blackstone and his wife Amy as well as Oren Kramer as the head manager and major Democratic fundraiser New York socialite and philanthropist Agnes Gunn dubbed the homecoming queen of philanthropy world by the New York Times in a recent profile is another bundler for Buttigieg Gunn gave more than 400,000 to efforts supporting Hillary Clinton in 2016 another supporter helping Buttigieg Adam Barth is a Houston based partner at McKinsey and Co the management consulting firm where Buttigieg once worked Barth does not have any significant history donating to federal campaigns according to campaign finance records so Wall Street executives hedge fund managers and on top of that a lot of people more so than what I read to you who contributed to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and these bundlers don't even take into account all of the money he received from the health insurance industry so this individual is a hollow vapid person who doesn't stand for anything he's an empty suit and he doesn't actually have a political ideology his ideology will be what is dictated by his donors which is evidenced by the fact that he previously supported Medicare for All and then started taking money from the health industry and all of a sudden he no longer supports Medicare for All now don't question him on that because if you call him out then he's going to get testy and he may yell at you now he has been keeping the locations of these private fundraisers anonymous but that hasn't stopped activists such as Alisi Anil who tracked down these fundraisers and called him out now in response to people protesting his events constantly he claimed that he shares the same values as the people protesting his events except you don't share the same values because if you did you wouldn't be doing these fundraisers in the first place which is what they take issue with Pete so the man is a fraud and thankfully more people are starting to acknowledge that this is not someone who cares about you he doesn't represent you he's someone who's just trying to get elected he's a careerist and he will take any position that is politically expedient because he wants to do what will help him get elected period end of story I don't realize that which is why he's starting to go down in the polls and ultimately I don't think he's going to win so without question Bernard Sanders is the most important and I think influential ally that we have in the fight to get Medicare for all that doesn't mean that he created this idea even though he supported it for decades but he did popularize this issue this is something that grassroots activists have been fighting for for decades but what he did was he took this issue and he brought it to the forefront of American political discourse and because of him we're all talking about Medicare for all he is facilitating a cultural shift in the way that we view healthcare now we view it as a right even corporate democrats who don't even support Medicare for all at least concede that it's a right they don't actually believe it's a right if they don't want it to be free at the point of service but nonetheless he has changed the way that we talk about healthcare so he is the most crucial ally with that being said I do think that there are areas where he could improve and I think that he's playing too nice and he's done that pretty much throughout the course of the 2020 primary he rarely goes on the offensive and it's important that you defend when it comes to you know what you've managed to build up in terms of rhetoric around healthcare and Medicare for all but you've also got to attack the people who are attacking you if they attack Medicare for all don't just defend but attack the policy that they are proposing like Mayor Pete and the reason why you have to do this is because their attacks are actually landing like since Mayor Pete and you know Joe Biden have been more vicious and vociferous and attacking Medicare for all public support for Medicare for all has actually decreased and support for a public option has increased this is according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation who does a lot of polling when it comes to healthcare so you have to also go on the offensive and attack people who are fighting against what you're fighting for and Bernie Sanders has finally started to do that and it's really important because what he says people actually take seriously there was a recent poll that shows Bernie Sanders is the most trusted on a number of issues the economy, education healthcare and that is really really important so if Bernie Sanders says that somebody else's idea on healthcare is flawed people will listen and he did that he criticized Mayor Pete's Medicare for all who wanted and explained why that is an idea that is a disaster if it actually does get implemented so as Nick Coatrain of the Des Moines Register writes, Buddha judge like many candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for president outlined a healthcare plan that stops short of Sanders' goal instead Buddha judge proposes giving people a choice between buying into a public option of healthcare coverage or private insurance and that's its fatal flaw, Sanders said it would overload the government with the most expensive patients he said when you talk about having a system where you're going to have private insurance and you're going to have a public option going in the rich and the healthy will go into private insurance the poor and the sick will go into Medicare the system an enormous amount of money Sanders said so it's a failed idea in my view he chastised the prescription drug in healthcare industries as creating a dysfunctional cruel system that is very very expensive he asked attendees for stories about healthcare costs and they shared tales of high costs for inadequate care when an attendee asked about Buddha judges plan Sanders called it unfair if Buddha judge or someone else wants to maintain that system I think it's really unfair for working families of this country Sanders said I'm just suggesting to you we can substantially lower healthcare costs for working families and that is exactly correct we lower healthcare costs if everyone is in one risk pool if every single person is on the same plan in America that's what we need to have happen because that way it's not just you know that's being burdened by the sick and the poor whereas healthy people will be marketed by these insurance companies these plans that are cheap that don't offer much but nonetheless they're not helping to subsidize the entire healthcare system which is the way it's supposed to function if you want it to have staying power and longevity so what we need to make crystal clear about a public option is that this is the illusion of choice it's not actually increasing choice because if you truly want choice when it comes to healthcare what does that mean that means that I can choose my doctor I can choose the hospitals that I go to and I don't have to worry about out of network expenses but with this system Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden also are promoting this as choice because you get to choose between a private and a public option but that doesn't actually give you more choice than Medicare for all because if you have a multi payer system well what if the hospital that you want to go to doesn't accept Medicare I mean if everyone has the same plan if the government is the single payer when it comes to insurance they can't choose to opt out of taking Medicare unless they want to go out of business essentially now they technically can do that if they're stupid if they expect people to just pay out of pocket and I'm sure that maybe there'll be a clinic or two under Medicare for all that will do that but in the grand scheme of things it is in their financial interest not opt out because they would lose a lot of money but with a multi payer system with a public option they can do that they can say oh what's that you have Medicare we actually don't take Medicare here sorry or they can say you know what we actually do take Medicare but we don't accept Medicare for this particular procedure because they don't pay out as much as private insurance companies something along those lines I don't know but understand that if you truly want to increase choice if that's your main goal which is what individuals like Buttigieg purport then increasing choice means doing Medicare for all where you eliminate networks there's just one giant network and it's free at the point of service for everyone who actually can go to a doctor even if they don't have a job even if they don't have private insurance that is what choice means right because even if you're a homeless person you can walk into a doctor's office and get checked up because it is free at the point of service we don't have the choice to do that right now we wouldn't have the choice to do that under a public option because Medicare for all who want it as Elizabeth Warren actually put it is Medicare for all who can afford it in actuality you have to have money to have healthcare it is not free at the point of service therefore it's still a commodity like baseball cards and video games so this is important I'm glad that Bernie Sanders is now going on the offensive I think he needs to do this more and I get the worry with basically attacking your opponents because back in 2016 when he was more critical of Hilary Clinton marginally so he was accused of being a misogynist and you know a toxic and spewing too much vitriol but if you truly believe in what you're fighting for then you have to make sure you call out the people who are fighting the progress that you've made push the envelope further but defend the gains that you've made right solidify the progress that we've made that's incredibly crucial so regardless Bernie isn't going to win over the establishment and the health insurance industry so go on the offense of attack them if they're going to continue to attack you and attack Medicare for all just the other day Pete Buttigieg in defending his work at McKinsey for Blue Cross Blue Shield and the potential job losses that he caused he said that actually Bernie Sanders his policy I'm paraphrasing he didn't name Bernie but he essentially said Bernie's Medicare for all would lead to the most amount of jobs being lost because well if you wipe out the private insurance industry then that leaves thousands of Americans without jobs that's an attack and also it's a misrepresentation because Bernie Sanders opts for a just transition to where people who are currently working in the private insurance industry can get jobs in Medicare so it's a lie and you know his opponents have no problems attacking him so it's about time that Bernie Sanders gives them a taste of their own medicine and he actually calls them what they are you know frauds who are promoting failed strategies when it comes to healthcare he didn't call them frauds but he should but yeah give him a taste of their own medicine no pun intended keep it up Bernie because this is how you win by showing them that what they're pitching is snake oil and you're pitching what is truly going to save lives and offer people real choice Medicare for all so when I talk about Medicare for all I often times will criticize some 2020 Democrats who are using this choice lineup attack against Medicare for all they claim that Medicare for all reduces choice and they're actually opting to expand choice of the American electorate when it comes to healthcare because if you can choose between either private healthcare or a public option then isn't that really the choice that you want to make but I always retort by saying no the choice is allowing me to choose my doctor and hospital not choose between public and private healthcare that is the illusion of choice now one thing that I always points out is that this is a talking point that originated directly from the industry Republicans use it and now corporate Democrats are using it as well because it's an effective talking point that seems to be helping to push back against the momentum for Medicare for all now when I say that this is a talking point that originated from the industry I wasn't making that up or being hyperbolic and in fact a former health industry VP from Cigna Wendell Potter confirmed that this is actually an industry talking point because guess what guys I helped create this industry talking point so he talked about this on twitter in a thread that is long but incredibly important because he spills the tea on this talking point and effectively exposes anyone using it as frogs so he tweets out lately I've noticed some Democratic politicians defending the current healthcare system by saying it preserves choice for Americans as a former health insurance executives who helped draft this talking point I need to come clean on its back story and why it's wrong and a trap when I worked in the insurance industry we were instructed to talk about choice based on focus groups and people like Frank Luntz who wrote the book on how the GOP should communicate with Americans I used it all the time as an industry flak but there was a problem as a health insurance PR guy we knew one of the huge vulnerabilities of the current system was lack of choice and the current system you can't pick your own doctor, specialist or hospital without huge out of network bills so we set out to muddy the issue of choice as industry insiders we also knew most Americans have very little choice of their plan your company chooses an insurance provider and you get to pick from a few different plans offered by that one insurer usually either a high deductible plan or a higher deductible plan another problem insurers like mine had on the choice issue people with employer based plans have very little choice to keep it you can lose it if your company changes it or you change jobs or turn 26 or many other ways this is a problem for defenders of the status quo knowing we were losing the choice argument my pals in the insurance industry spent millions on lobbying ads and spin doctors all designed to gaslight Americans into thinking that reforming the status quo would somehow give them less choice an industry front group launched a campaign to achieve this very purpose its name my care my choice it's job trick Americans into thinking they currently can choose any plan they want and that their plan allows them to see any doctor they've spent big in Iowa and he has an example right here of that deceptive campaign quote this isn't the only time the industry made choice a big talking point in its scheme to fight health reform soon after Obamacare was passed it created a front group called choice and competition coalition to scare states away from creating exchanges with better plans the difference is this time democrats are the ones parroting the misleading choice talking point and they're even using it as a weapon against each other back in my insurance PR days this would have stunned me I bet my old colleagues are thrilled in celebrating the truth of course is you have little choice in healthcare now most can't keep their plan as long as they want or visit any doctor or hospital some reforms like Medicare for all would let you in other words Medicare for all actually offers more choice than the status quo so if a politician tells you they oppose reforming the current healthcare system because they want to preserve choice either they don't know what they're talking about or they're willfully ignoring the truth I assure you the insurance industry is delighted either way wow so this really is a bombshell revelation and this is devastating to any 2020 democrat who push this choice argument that includes John Delaney Amy Klobuchar Michael Bennett and especially Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg this is not something that you want to be revealed when you're currently trying to convince people that you constructed your healthcare plan because you think it strengthens our ability to make choices about healthcare the crux of Pete Buttigieg's Medicare for all who wanted is about you know allowing us to be the judge and make our own choice but this former insider just revealed actually that's a talking point and I helped write it so either you're dumb or disingenuous if you use this choice argument now Wendell Potter is an incredible asset to Medicare for all he came from the for-profit health insurance industry and now he pushes back against people who are fighting to stop Medicare for all using his knowledge as a former insider and what he's revealing here is that people in the anti-Medicare for all wing of the Democratic Party which I think is most of them they are frauds and they're using Republican talking points that they weren't previously using this choice argument is an argument that only Republicans used to use but Democrats only started to adopt this argument once it became something that they needed to push back against because you know they're taking money from health insurance companies so of course to continue that gravy train they are going to be expected to push back against the momentum of Medicare for all so when you hear Pete Buttigieg espousing this choice argument understand that what he's doing is the direct bidding of the health industry who is bankrolling his campaign now to Joe Biden's credit he doesn't necessarily use the choice argument as much as Pete Buttigieg although I believe he has said it he mostly fear mongers about the cost but the choice argument is especially egregious because it is so hacky right I mean it's obvious that if you have health insurance you know firsthand how little choice you have you can't go and see any doctor you want you have to make sure that doctor is in your network otherwise if you go and see a doctor that's out of network you get to deal with that cost and it's not going to be pretty right so I mean the choice argument is so stupid and it's not persuasive but to have people use it so frequently in the Democratic Party when it's an industry talking point in my opinion it should be disqualifying but it's actually helping people like Pete Buttigieg who I guess has been surging recently although that's starting to come to an end but I mean he's successfully arguing against Medicare for All and is driving down support and the reason why it's working is because people trust Democrats more than Republicans when it comes to health care broadly speaking so if a Democrat tells you you know Medicare for All restricts choice people will be more inclined to believe it more susceptible to the propaganda because the person who's spreading that message is usually more reliable like I think it's evident that Republicans don't have a position on health care other than let's chip away at the affordable care act and not help people get health care but Democrats you know at least they supported the affordable care act right so the broader electorate they simply take the argument that someone like Pete Buttigieg makes about choice and they think I mean why would he lie to us he's a Democrat Democrats gave us the affordable care act which I guess you know is a step in the right direction but the problem with this choice argument is that you're essentially telling people to ignore their own experience with these for-profit health insurance companies you're basically pissing on their legs and telling them it's raining it's not going to work and now we have a health care executive a former executive and Wendell Potter confirming yeah these people are just stooges of the industry who have created this talking point to push back against any type of health care reform not just Medicare for All but even the affordable care act so there you have it whenever you see someone use that choice argument make sure that you share this this thread with them or this video with them let them know that they are being duped by an industry that just wants to exist so they can continue to rip you off by offering you less benefits because that's how they profit Mayor Pete recently appeared on an episode of CBS this morning and surprisingly he was actually asked a question that's relatively hard um you know the narrative currently is that he's not doing very well among black voters on top of that he's not doing very well among Latino voters but as much as he champions generational change nobody talks about the fact that he's also not doing very well among young voters so he was asked why he thinks that might actually be the case so I'm going to play the clip note that there is a little bit of a filter on this clip um I've had some problems in the past playing CBS video so I hope that that will kind of thwart any um you know false copyright claims nonetheless we'll roll with it this is what he had to say his response is incredibly condescending especially when it gets to the portion where he talks about how young voters are actually flocking to Bernie Sanders and not him take a look under candidates tend to attract more support from older voters but we are building a coalition that's going to draw voters from every part of this country now certainly three and four percent among people under the age of 44 in South Carolina it's almost as bad as minority voters what explains that gap look there's going to be a continued process to earn support across the coalition but it's certainly the case that many of the younger voters are more attracted to for example Bernie Sanders campaign definitely has more young voters um I was a big fan of Bernie Sanders when I was 18 years old uh it's also the case that we are pulling together a coalition to talk about issues like climate to act on issues like climate and guns and the economy that the longer you're planning to be here the more you have at stake and young voters have to mobilize in a way that hasn't happened before oh we are it's just that we're mobilizing around Bernie Sanders not you now I was honestly surprised that he was asked a question this hard I know I already said that at the beginning of this clip but it's honestly astonishing this individual has gotten a complete pass from the mainstream media he's been worshiped as if he's a demigod and all of a sudden they're finally starting to give him a little bit of scrutiny and you can tell that he can't handle it he is unraveling um whenever a protester or an organizer shows up to one of his you see the way that he responds with condescension and dismissing their concerns so for him to be asked a tough question on the mainstream media first of all great on that individual for asking the question but second of all you can see that he's really biting his tongue because he wants to give some type of smug reaction and he was still smug but I think he wants to get testy but he has to kind of refrain from doing that so he was asked if you became president you'd be the youngest president in history and yet you don't have a majority of young voters is there a way in which you're out of touch with your own generation the answer is yes but Pete responded saying no but it certainly is the case that younger candidates tend to attract more support from older voters which I think is interesting um but actually remembering now back in 2008 when Barack Obama was the youngest candidate running in the Democratic party primaries you know there were actually mostly old people flocking to Obama do you remember that no oh that's right because it didn't happen in fact Obama was the youngest candidate and he also had the youth vote on Locke and as Pew Research pointed out 66% of those under age 30 voted for Barack Obama making the disparity between young voters and other age groups larger than in any presidential election since exit polling began in 1972 in other words what you just said is bullshit and young people vote based on policy and most of the time they are excited by the candidate who is on the left and functionally you are a boomer Pete you may be 37 but you are functionally a boomer you've got that boomer mentality which is why millennials don't fuck with you period and of story but in his view the reason why we don't like him is possibly because maybe we're naive now he didn't say this I don't want to put words in his mouth but he kind of suggested it so this is what pissed me off he said it certainly is the case that many of the younger voters are more attracted to for example the Sanders campaign definitely has more young voters I was a big fan of Sanders when I was 18 years old why don't you go ahead and finish the thought Pete finish the thought why did you only support him when you were 18 what do you want to say we know he wants to say something smug like well but then I grew up then I got educated then you know I started to see the world for what it is and became more pragmatic and less idealistic complete the fucking thought Pete because we know exactly what you want to say that we're dumb and anyone who doesn't support you must be misguided but you see the thing is no matter what we all know he wants to say which is that we're naive in actuality you're the one that changed because you're a political opportunist you decided to not be progressive you decided to sell out and take corporate money because you saw that as an easier path to victory because even if you know being principled and rejecting corporate money like Bernie Sanders has done makes you more popular among the youth well that still makes sure route to the White House more difficult because the establishment hates you if people in power don't like you then they can use the institutional advantages that they have to make your White House run more difficult so it's easier to just acquiesce and you know fall in line and do what the establishment wants that's what Pete decided to do not because he's running on any big idea I don't even know what he stands for he's running because he wants to be president he wants to be in the history books as the first gay president that's what nobody gives a shit if you're going to continue to fuck us over like every other previous president see it doesn't matter to me that I'm being fucked over by the first female president or the first gay president and that we are marching towards climate catastrophe while taking almost no action but we're doing it under the first blank president I don't care you see descriptive representation is good insofar as it produces substantive representation you will not represent us in a substantive way so he changed not because of political ideology but because of political opportunism and that is the thing about Pete that I think is becoming more apparent so the more I see Mayor Pete the more I dislike him because I don't think there is a more pretentious smug and condescending person running for president I mean even fucking if you combine like John Delaney and Amy Klobuchar I don't think they're even half as pretentious together as Pete Buttigieg is like he's smug he feels as if you know he's entitled to the presidency and anyone who dares to challenge him or confront him about his corruption they are inconveniencing him and you know that's just that's ridiculous so I'm over it I cannot stand Pete and I am not looking forward to establishment democrats trying to shove him down our throats every four to eight years whenever there is a presidential election when a democratic you know individual is not president I'm not looking forward to that because I can't stand him I can't wait for him to go away but you know something tells me he's going to be around for a very long time unfortunately now impeached president Donald Trump will be looking forward to a trial in the senate in early 2020 we're looking at probably January and we will find out whether or not the senate votes to remove him now spoiler alert I don't think republicans are principled enough to do the right thing maybe you get a republican or two who's in a vulnerable you know purple state that votes to convict overall I don't think anyone is expecting Donald Trump to be removed although the prospect of removal is so demoralizing and devastating to certain Trump supporters that when asked about this by a cbs news reporter they said that they believe the response would be violence if not necessarily from them then other Trump supporters take a look this is incredibly disturbing he's not going to be removed he's not going to be removed you feel confident in that my 357 magnum is comfortable with that end of story and then they remove him in the senate I think it would cause physical violence in this country that we haven't seen since the first ever one I think it would become the second simple one I would think that there would be a strong movement would be very negative possible violence not that on a condoning violence there will be a lot of mad americans 1780 million americans on the loose not very happy what we're seeing is a divided country both sides are dug in no one's budging we have families tore apart including my family my daughters are liberal I'm conservative now that this whole thing has been going on we just had a private Thanksgiving it's very unfortunate I wish it never would have happened this whole mess we're in did he do something wrong it doesn't appear to me that he did but I think it's going to be very hard for people to change anyone's mind if you're a trump supporter I'll speak for myself as a trump supporter I believe and I don't believe that he's dumb enough to say something that would actually get him into it I don't think he's going to get replaced I really don't think he's so large I mean he's like the best president it's not going to work now we keep seeing these types of videos this is not the first compilation of interviews from Donald Trump supporters where they essentially threaten violence but yet we're always talking about the violence of the left in the mainstream media we're always talking about whether or not it's progressives who are shifting too far to the left but we don't actually really focus on the threat that is far right radicalization Donald Trump has built up a cult following that is loyal to him and will be loyal to him until the very end so if they feel as if they can defend Donald Trump by resorting to violence they admitted they're willing to do that he's not going to be removed he was asked the first guy you feel comfortable with that my magnum 357 is comfortable with that end of story see if you have this idea that winning elections means convincing those people you are not meant for politics because you have a failure of a strategy I'm not saying that it's impossible to convince every single Trump supporter I think there are certain individuals from Obama to Trump namely in the Rust Belt in 2016 that are still gettable nonetheless your goal should always be to register new voters now I get that that in and of itself is difficult because we are constantly dealing with voter suppression tactics in every single state to a degree but disproportionately in red states in these voter suppression tactics voter ID laws, voter purges from the roles they impact people who are poor communities of color so we're basically fighting this uphill battle and it's incredibly difficult to win in this circumstance but the only way we can actually have a chance is if we register new voters and galvanize the electorate because even if Donald Trump has a small but really passionate core following who will never leave him no matter what still Democrats are under this illusion that we have to convince those types of people right now when I talk about you know Republicans being ghouls and being fascistic and being the party of death and destruction usually I'm not referring to Trump supporters and Republican Party voters because they are self interested like any other voter the problem is that they were misled into believing that voting for the Republican Party is in their self interest so they're misinformed and that's why they're voting for something that actually hurts them or maybe they know that voting Republican hurts them but they just think that you know curtailing immigration being conservative on social issues is more important so I don't know but these people most of them are just too far gone on top of that the second guy said if they remove him in the senate I think it'll cause physical violence I think it become the second civil war now I don't know that that person was threatening violence himself maybe he just thought that Donald Trump supporters his peers would resort to violence but is that really a movement that you want to be part of like in the event Bernie Sanders were elected president and did something wrong and was impeached I would be 100% confident that progressives would not resort to violence but yet you're part of that movement and you believe that they would resort to violence if he was impeached the fact that that's even on anyone's mind shows the state of American political discourse on top of that you have the third guy say that you know there'd be a strong movement possibly violence not that he's condoning that and quote what we're seeing is a divide in this country both sides are dug in no one's budging we have families torn apart including my family now I get that because each side is polarized because we view the other increasingly as a threat and we're dug in and we're not budging I agree with that statement but the problem is we can't acquiesce we can't come together because you guys are supporting a party whether you acknowledge it or not that is leading to the death of our planet they are not just refusing to act when it comes to climate change but they're actually undoing the progress and not that we've made much but they're still undoing the progress they're cutting social safety net programs like food stamps which are crucial this is a cruel party so we will never come together and at the way things are now I can never see anyone coalescing around you know a particular party unless there is some type of political revolution which is what we saw back in you know the days of FDR the Reagan revolution that wasn't a good revolution coalescing around Reagan wasn't good but nonetheless people just accepted that political ideology at that time was correct and that basically dominated and currently there's this war in this country not just within the democratic party but generally speaking among the American American electorate of this left-right divide and you know there's an ideological war that we're currently witnessing and one side has to win there's no way that these two sides can come together now I think the best bet is Bernie Sanders winning and uniting the party and the country by basically demonstrating that social democracy is in fact the way to go it heals the country it helps us it gives people who are desperate what they need and you know the last person who spoke it was a woman she said did he do something wrong it doesn't appear to me that he did now my only thought was would it even matter to you if he did like in the event Donald Trump on camera killing somebody would you even think that that would be something that he should be punished for that's the thing with these cults of personality is that no matter what the leader does there will be some type of rationalization for their actions so if Donald Trump does something that is horrible and it goes against their own personal values then they would still convince themselves that that individual is benevolent and you know either he made a mistake or you know he didn't actually do what we all saw him do so what I would like to see in America is us to get away from personality focused politics and prioritize policy over personality and I think by and large that really is what is going to be conducive to an electoral victory like Bernie Sanders you know he brings the policy and doesn't necessarily have a cult of personality but with that being said there are pockets within this country on the right and certainly on the left to be fair where there are cults of personalities around certain political figures and that is incredibly damaging because that's when you kind of suspend reason and objectivity and you just follow that person even if that person is leading you off of a cliff and they're taking you down a path that is bad for you you still follow that person so overall to see this I'm not surprised again not the first video where Donald Trump supporters have threatened violence nonetheless you know it really shouldn't be something that we just scoff and say well you know that's Trump supporters no this isn't the way that it should be you should not think that violence is acceptable if Donald Trump gets removed from office impeachment and removal is built into our constitution to protect democracy okay it's not a coup in the events the person who you like gets you know impeached and it's funny to me Donald Trump recently put out a tweet where he was basically congratulating I think the new president of Bolivia and you know he said that she was proof that you know they're on the path towards peace and democracy let me remind you that was an actual coup where Eva Morales was ousted I think in large part due to our influence the OAS and what not nonetheless that was a real coup but he calls that peace and democracy but an actual constitutional process here in the US of impeachment he calls that a witch hunt and a coup I mean reality is just flipped on its head and people believe in whatever they think you know is going to be better for their narrative I mean I don't remember who said this but I heard it recently and it was so perfect Republicans and conservatives they are the ultimate post modernists because they are the ones who really live in this alternate reality they kind of make up facts and expect you all to believe those alternate facts and buy into their delusions when we shouldn't do that we need to make sure that we plant our feet firmly in reality and we you know try to do what we can to make people more informed but I don't know what to say this video is just incredibly disheartening to see and I hope that these people wake up but unfortunately I don't think that's going to be the case I think they're just too far gone sadly well it's official Donald Trump is now the third president in US history to be impeached the other two being Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton remember that Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached now prior to the impeachment vote there were protests across the country with thousands of people in cities across the country basically speaking out in favor of impeachment and calling on Congress to do the right thing now when it comes to the actual impeachment vote there were two separate votes one for each article of impeachment the first was abuse of power and all but two Democrats voted for this and then the second was obstruction of Congress and all but three Democrats voted for this now the only independent to vote for this is Republican turned independent Justin Amash yes on both articles of impeachment and then when it comes to Republicans zero Republicans voted to impeach so now this will move to the Senate presumably in January where we will see a trial take place and the Senate will ultimately vote to either exonerate him or convict him and remove him now unlike impeachment which requires just the simple majority this requires two-thirds of the Senate to vote to impeach so he will almost certainly not be convicted in the Senate and I honestly doubt that we're going to get even a single Republican vote I'll be shocked honestly if we get all Democrats in the Senate to vote for impeachment because I'm not so convinced that individuals like Joe Manchin will vote to impeach Donald Trump so with that being said this impeachment vote needed to happen although I will say this frustrating because the way that Democrats handled this predictably wasn't the best they're largely giving him a pass for a lot of other things that he should be impeached for that I think would have actually made a more powerful case so just to name a few the hush money payments to stormy Daniels financial crimes violating the emoluments clause war crimes human rights abuses at the border to zero tolerance family separation policy Democrats chose to focus really narrowly on this Ukraine issue and I understand the logic strategically because they want to make sure that they narrow the scope of impeachment so that way the American people are able to grasp it but the problem with that strategy is that ultimately it's not going to convince as many people as you're hoping because it just allows Donald Trump to really focus his efforts on debunking anything that you say about the evidence that comes out well he can just say no that's not true here's reasons X Y and Z now if you were to get him on all the reasons why he should be impeached right the emoluments clause war crimes all of that then it would be a lot more difficult it's more scattershot so he can't possibly wiggle his way out of all of that right and convince people that he's not guilty of all those crimes because there's so many different things that he needs to defend whereas with this reign scandal sure it's an abuse of power but it just gives him one thing to focus on so this was mishandled absolutely and I don't think Nancy Pelosi even believes in impeachment because remember we've been pushing her to impeach House Democrats have been pushing her to impeach because this president has been in violation of the constitution since the day he was sworn in he was in violation of the emoluments clause so Nancy Pelosi probably only begrudgingly pursued impeachment so you know she would get progressives off of her back with that being said though you know she did it she checked the box and she kind of did a shitty job not gonna lie not very happy with Nancy Pelosi but I suspected that in the event they ever did pursue impeachment this is what would happen Nancy Pelosi wouldn't really do the best job with that being said I still am glad that Donald Trump was impeached and he needs to be held accountable because even if the Ukraine phone call is maybe the lesser of all of his crimes it still is an abuse of power unquestionably but in a way to not pursue him for other reasons which are all impeachable in my opinion you know in a way Democrats are still giving him a pass even if they impeached him now what's infuriating is that they only really chose to pursue impeachment because he used his position of power to get dirt on Joe Biden who is someone that the establishment loves so the way that you know the public might see this is hey you know they don't really care about impeachment they're just pursuing impeachment now because Donald Trump wants dirt on one of their own that's the way that people see it and I think correctly so however credit words do the fact that impeachment happened is important it's just that we'd have a more powerful case going into the Senate if it were handled more appropriately now in the event Democrats took my advice and they you know introduced let's say 5 to 10 articles of impeachment which they could if they wanted to get him for everything do I think that that would lead to him ultimately being convicted and removed I don't because that would assume that I believe Republicans would do the right thing and they are not going to do the right thing I have no faith in them and I have almost no faith in Democrats as well the only way that we'd get two thirds of the Senate to vote to convict is if something crazy happened and Republican senators feel vulnerable that if they voted you know to not convict Trump they would lose their seat something like that right but I highly doubt that type of situation will happen and even if that situation did happen I still don't know that Republicans would be principled because they're not principled they do what is politically expedient and they are all about team politics Democrats are the same so I don't suspect this to go anywhere in the Senate I think this is where it will die in the Senate nonetheless Trump is still impeached and this really is historic only three presidents in American history have been impeached and Donald Trump is one of them rightfully so now he should have been impeached for more that being said he's still impeached accountability is really important I think Democrats are right to hold Trump accountable I think they undermine their own effort especially Nancy Pelosi who chose not to pursue impeachment against George W Bush which obviously is a war criminal so he should have been impeached so you know there's a lot that I can critique with the way that this was handled with that being said it ends in Trump's impeachment and will likely end in the Senate where he will not be removed I think that that is the conclusion that everyone sees now whether or not this affects him or the 2020 race at all I don't necessarily know that that will be the case I don't know that this will hurt him going into 2020 I also don't necessarily know that this will help him going into 2020 I think that the impact on the election won't necessarily be that large either way but I think that the process itself matters because you know this is about principle it's about holding people in power accountable so we impeached the motherfucker and I think that that's it good on Democrats for fighting you know really I think credit is owed to people like AOC and Rashida Tlaib who have been pushing Democrats to actually impeach but here we are I think I'm just gonna start rambling if I continue talking about this because there's a thousand things to say about it long story short Trump has been impeached so we just recently learned that Donald Trump's administration wants to cut off food stamps for almost 700,000 Americans people who desperately need food stamps will be losing access to that because this administration wants to save a few billion dollars even though we just increased defense spending again but it hasn't even been a month and Donald Trump's administration is already setting their sights on another social program that they want to cut this time it is social security disability and as Jake Johnson of Common Dreams reports, activists are working to raise public awareness and outrage over a little noticed Trump administration proposal could strip life-saving disability benefits from hundreds of thousands of people by further complicating the way the Social Security Administration determines who is eligible for payments. The proposed rule was first published in the Federal Register last month but has received scarce attention in the national media. Last week the Social Security Administration extended the public comment period on the proposal until January 31st, 2020 Alex Lawson, Executive Director of the Progressive Advocacy Group Social Security Works told Common Dreams that the rule change is the Trump Administration's most brazen attack on Social Security yet when Ronald Reagan implemented a similar benefit cut, it ripped away the earned benefits of 200,000 people Lawson said. Ultimately, Reagan was forced to reverse his attack on Social Security after massive public outcry but not before people suffered and died Patient Advocate Peter Morley who lobbies Congress on healthcare issues called the proposal a national disgrace. This is not over said Morley. We will all need to mobilize. So, I just want to pause for a moment. There's a little bit more to the story but I want to reflect on this and the implications. Donald Trump is stripping away Social Security Disability Insurance not directly but the way that he's doing this is in a more covert way. It's death by a thousand cuts essentially. This is how they dismantle a lot of public programs. What he's trying to do is make the eligibility a little bit more stringent make people jump through a few more hoops and if he's able to accomplish this then he'll be able to pull off what he ultimately wants to pull off which is to get less people this help that they need. Have less people qualify for this program. It's the same thing that we see when it comes to voter ID laws, right? Even though Republicans want people to not vote and I'm sure that they love to just directly take away the right to vote for a lot of people but they can't do that because it's illegal and it would of course be massively unpopular so what do they do instead? They try to undermine that program to reach the same result. They implement these voter ID laws that ends up disproportionately hurting people of color in poor communities and this leads to people not being able to vote if they wanted to. It doesn't affect everyone but it cuts down the amount of people that vote. So essentially you implement this policy by being a nuanced troll saying well you know I'm not actually trying to get people off this program I'm just introducing a couple of other requirements. I mean everyone has an ID right so it should be easy if you want to vote. You know just present your ID and then you'll be able to vote but this is all just a trick right? It's a red herring. They will say that something else is an issue but really they're hiding behind their ultimate goal which is to undermine voters and people and often times strip away voting rights and in this instance cut a crucial benefit that people need. Not necessarily cut tactically but you know have less people qualify for said benefit. Now for those of you who are unaware with social security disability eligibility is a huge part of the program people are forced to prove that they still qualify for this and Jake Johnson kind of lays this out a little bit more in this article. The process for receiving social security disability insurance and supplemental security income is already notoriously complicated and the Trump administration is attempting to add yet another layer of complexity that critics say is aimed at slashing people's benefits. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported last week those already receiving disability benefits are subject to so-called continuing disability reviews which determine whether they are still deserving of compensation for an injury illness or other incapacitating problem as their lives progress. Currently beneficiaries are placed in three separate categories based on the severity of their disability medical improvement not expected medical improvement expected and medical improvement possible people with more severe medical conditions face less frequent disability reviews the Trump administration's proposed role would add another category called medical improvement likely which would subject beneficiaries to disability reviews every two years. According to the inquirer an estimated 4.4 million beneficiaries would be included in that designation many of them children and so-called step 5 recipients an internal social security classification. Step 5 recipients the inquirer noted are typically 50 to 65 years of age in poor health without much education or many job skills and often suffer from malities such as debilitating back pain depression a herniated disc or schizophrenia. Jennifer Burdick supervising attorney with community legal services in Philadelphia told the inquirer that placing step 5 recipients in the new medical improvement likely category and subjecting them to reviews every two years would represent a radical departure from past practice. Lawson of social security works said Donald Trump and his advisors know that this will kill people and they do not care so I want you to really understand that this is what's at stake this is going to kill people Donald Trump's advisors they know this they are fully cognizant of the ramifications of this policy change but yet they're still going to do it anyway. Why? Part of it is I think he just likes being cruel another part is maybe he thinks that by kicking more people out of this program or making eligibility more stringent thus leading to them not qualifying again if they are uneducated and uninformed about this change and won't reapply appropriately whatever the case may be maybe they think that this will save them money but I mean it's not like there's a shortage of money we just increase the military budget again so this is absolutely morally reprehensible but the good news is that we still have a limited amount of time we have until January 31st to take action so call your representative call your senator raise hell because this is unacceptable people who are on social security disability insurance are on that because they have no choice that they're disabled and they can't work some of them will not be on this program forever but many of them rely on that for a living and if they lose that they lose their livelihoods they may fall victim to homelessness this is going to kill people it's going to kill people and the fact that there's been almost no talk about this by not just the mainstream media but members of congress only I think two people have spoken out thus far it really goes to show you that Donald Trump is undermining a lot of our social safety net programs and he's doing things that will lead to people starving and ultimately dying and losing their livelihoods and nobody's really paying attention to it it's just it's really it's gut wrenching it's sickening and I can't help but feel really devastated for all of the people who are watching this and reading about this who are on social security disability and fear for their lives I mean could you imagine hearing news that your livelihood might get taken away possibly if you don't jump through even more hoops there's really nothing left to say all that I can tell you is take action even if you're not on social security disability you may one day need social security disability and this is a benefit that is absolutely crucial if you want to have a functioning compassionate society because we can't determine if we're going to one day be disabled and can't work father had a business and he lost it all when he became disabled randomly he hurt his back out of his control lost everything you know we need to make sure that we have some type of safety net that people can't fall under there's some bare minimum protections for our citizens but Trump is trying to take away everything and um I don't know what to say it's just it's just grotesque what else what else do you say about this there's nothing left to say it's not surprising cruelty is the purpose you know he just wants everyone to fend for themselves and that or be born into health I don't know it's just it's gross human turtle hybrid Mitch McConnell sat down for an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox news to talk about his new book titled the long game featuring a forward from Donald Trump oh goody and a portion of this interview really struck me because he talks about the most important long lasting contribution that Donald Trump has made and that he has helped Donald Trump make and this really is a segment that should terrify everyone because even though uh you know Mitch McConnell is a ghoul everything he's saying here is actually accurate because he is incredibly honest about how evil he is what have you learned over this time with the president now almost three years but maybe you didn't know well let me tell you what this book is about this book is about the most long lasting contribution that Donald Trump and senate republicans have made for the country and that is putting young men and women who are strict constructionists who believe the job the judge is to follow the law on the courts we did our 50th circuit court judge just yesterday Sean to put that in perspective Barack Obama did 55 circuit judges in eight years we've done 50 in three years and we have at least a year left for sure we're going to do more one fourth of the circuit judges remember most cases don't make it to the supreme court most complex litigation never makes it beyond the circuit courts this has been the most long lasting important contribution the president could make well into the future far beyond his tenure in office uh so we'll have a judiciary more inclined not to make it up on the fly you know president obama said he wanted to appoint judges who had empathy well you know that makes great sense if you're the litigant before the judge for whom the judge has empathy not so good if you aren't let's talk about any of the issues come up let's say somebody were to retire at the end of of this year uh leading into the summer you have been very clear if the president appointed would follow through on that nomination absolutely we definitely would do that and this paperback that we were just talking about the president's forward is about judges my afterward catches up what's happened during the trump administration on judges because my memoir came out three years ago before the president was elected what we've done here the president and I together with this paperback uh that you've shown on the screen is to talk about how the judge project came about how it went forward if you were to recall the most important decision I've made in my entire political career was not to fill the supreme court vacancy when justice lia passed away that was the beginning and now we've got an exclamation point here after three years that we thought the public would be interested in reading about and that's why the president not collaborated on this paperback so I was shocked that the former president obama left so many vacancies and didn't try to fill those positions I'll tell you why I'll tell you why I was in charge of the uh what we did the last two years of the obama administration I give I and I will give you full credit for that and by the way take a bow all right that was a good life um well congratulations on the book yeah his laugh is actually going to give me nightmares like that is going to haunt me forever that is incredibly creepy and just having him smile over my shoulder don't really want to look at it is giving me the heebie jeebies because this individual is the human embodiment of evil but he's right love him or hate him nobody can deny the fact that Mitch McConnell has been incredibly effective at you know furthering the republican party's incredibly psychopathic destructive agenda and he's done this just by being ruthless right not being principle being openly hypocritical he does not care he has a goal and he wants to achieve that goal by any means necessary it doesn't matter how it looks and he knows he's a ghoul he's laughing I'm thinking of him laughing again and you know I'm starting to feel nauseous anyway let's go through some of these accomplishments because this really is this he's ruined the court system for decades to come so he says Obama did 55 circuit court judges in eight years Trump did 50 in three 50 in three a fourth of circuit court judges have been appointed by Trump we just talked about this he's correct he says you know um he'll also fill the supreme court in the event of vacancy comes up in 2020 doesn't matter that when Obama was in the last year of his presidency and Justice Scalia died he said nope you know we can't fill seats for lame duck presidents now he's going to do that for Donald Trump doesn't matter that it's happening in an election year um he boasted about stealing that supreme court seat and then laughed when he admitted that he blocked Obama from filling judicial vacancies I mean what can he say even if we elect a democrat the best democrat Bernie Sanders in 2020 Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell's legacy will persist possibly for decades to come unless we take drastic action and we institute term limits which we absolutely should do it shouldn't even be a question and I'm not just talking about term limits you know at the highest level the supreme court I'm talking about term limits are all federal judges because this can't stand this agenda is antithetical to a thriving democracy and just humanity's survival this agenda is a radical agenda for all this talk of activist judges back in 2015 when the supreme court actually recognized the right to marry for LGBTQ couples we heard people like Ted Cruz talking about activist judges no the true activist judges are the conservatives it doesn't matter what the constitution says their conclusion will always be the one that is the most friendly to large multinational corporations I mean I don't even know what to say about this it's devastating Mitch McConnell's legacy will be one where he's remembered as one of the most destructive albeit most effective Senate majority leaders ever that what he's doing is evil he knows these judges will curtail our freedoms you know roll back civil rights and civil liberties but he does not care because he's there to do one thing serve his donors so he's gonna make sure that every conservative justice that's appointed is going to be one that will sufficiently serve you know elites the people who donate to Mitch McConnell so the only good thing about this if we can take anything away from this is that Mitch McConnell is up for re-election in 2020 I endorse whoever his opponent is I don't care who I would literally vote for a steaming pile of shit over Mitch McConnell and I literally mean that like just leaving that seat vacant and just like putting a turd on that seat that's better than Mitch McConnell still not gonna undo the damage that he caused the only way we can do that is if we have hypocrites still he's got to lose that's like the only bit of a sweet revenge that we can possibly have but I think that what people need to learn from this is that Republicans are never ever going to govern based on principle they are hypocrites they're ruthless and they don't care they'll you know throw that hypocrisy in your face so it's time for you know Democrats to fight fire with fire actually be tough stand up for what we believe in stop worrying about what Republicans will say and the public will think Republicans are winning and they're ruthless they're hypocrites they don't give a shit they never play nine dimensional chess and think you know three or four steps ahead they just act and they're ruthless it's time for Democrats to start actually being tough and holding Republicans accountable as well I don't have anything left to say I just feel a little bit nauseous after seeing Mitch McConnell's face and his laugh very very very chilling and disturbing billionaires should not exist it's something that we need to say loudly and proudly and if possible put it on a bumper sticker throw that on your car because we need to get the word across that you cannot ever earn a billion dollars anyone who earns quote unquote earns a billion dollars either exploited the labor workers or exploited tax laws or exploited our political system to get to that point now I've said before that billionaires shouldn't exist but moreover they absolutely should not be able to buy elections and buy positions of power we're seeing that more and more you know they'll contribute to the campaigns of politicians and get really cushy jobs Betsy DeVos is a billionaire who donated to Donald Trump and now she is Secretary of Education isn't that funny how that works but now they're just becoming more brazen and they're financing their own elections we have a president who did that and now we have individuals like Mike Bloomberg who are trying to do the same thing and he has spent millions upon millions of dollars more than 50 million I want to say in the first week that he announced to just flood the airwaves and he is relatively successful at getting his message out there and he is polling in the mid-tier already he's at above 5% I think passing Andrew Yang someone who has been in this race for over a year so billionaires shouldn't exist and they shouldn't be able to run for president because if you actually want to protect democracy you've got to have some restrictions in place to protect democracy sort of like we shouldn't tolerate intolerance we shouldn't be so democratic that we allow democracy to eat itself so with that being said I want to share an article that I found on Jacobin that I absolutely think is crucial it's from Luke Savage and he explains why like Donald Trump Mike Bloomberg is also a threat to democracy he writes not one but two billionaires have jumped into the race since the country's most gilded caffeine baron got cold feet though the extent to which these efforts will translate into actual votes remain to be seen Michael Bloomberg's campaign in particular has already become a powerful illustration of the way billionaires convert their wealth into power as a conscious strategy and the threat that it poses to democracy to state the most obvious Bloomberg has already poured in a whopping 58.4 million to carpet bomb several states with TV and radio advertising outspending anyone else in the race by exponential margins fellow billionaire Tom Steyer isn't all that far behind more subtle though no less insidious is the way Bloomberg's past contributions to various campaigns and initiatives have enabled him to purchase political contacts and legitimacy the way a regular person buys groceries each and every one of Bloomberg's mayoral endorsers has several things in common in addition to their roles as local elected officials all have had him at one time or another as a benefactor and all have attended his prestigious boot camp at Harvard that gives the mayor's access to ongoing strategic advice from Bloomberg funded experts more than half have also received funding and grants courtesy of none other than Mike Incorporated the problem isn't that such behavior secures wealthy individuals like Bloomberg direct benefit in the form of quid pro quo relationships though it certainly can, it doesn't have to when you're so rich you have a couple billion dollars to throw around you're no longer an individual making voluntary private contributions rather you're a stakeholder in the basic infrastructure of politics and society itself as the emerging dynamic in the Democratic presidential race makes all too clear you can have billionaires you can have democracy and as long as you have the former you can expect the latter to be perpetually compromised now I think that this is an incredibly powerful argument against not only having billionaires but allowing them to just be able to buy democracy right and the article goes into detail about the way that Mike Bloomberg has effectively bought goodwill and political capital which is incredibly disturbing I mean he's spending money buying complicity from groups and individuals which has allowed him to basically maintain the level of legitimacy that he has currently and this includes charitable contributions personal favors like paying for medical procedures and whatnot and we touched on the mayoral endorsements he's received and there's a total of 8 but that in and of itself even though it's not a large number it shows you how far his reach is because this is someone who is the mayor of one city and mayors in other cities are suddenly endorsing him I mean isn't that interesting I mean we really should all be appalled at the fact that billionaires are trying to get elected by using the wealth that they have to buy goodwill which in turn helps them cultivate political legitimacy it's just I mean how are people not speaking out about this how do people who claim to support democracy not feel uncomfortable about this how does every single person not speak up how does the media not do in-depth analyses about this now the way that this article really portrays Bloomberg and the way he's used his money to do favors for a bunch of people it really reminds me of you know the clientelism and patronage these types of patron-client relationships that we see in the Middle East and North Africa so in these really impoverished usually resource rich countries where you know elites have a lot of money and a lot of the population is desperate basically there's these patron-client relationships where a public official will do a favor for you and in exchange for said favor they expect political support they expect your vote and often times you know with these relationships you can get in good with a public official if you bribe them so for example if you need like a public document or a driver's license it's not as easy as just going to the DMV and applying here not that that's easy in and of itself but nonetheless if you want for example a driver's license in one of these countries in the MENA region then you have to basically try to convince a public official to allow you to get one you can bribe that individual or maybe he'll give it to you but that's a favor so basically the way that these relationships works is that you know it's give and take you know you give as much as you get and that's kind of what I see happening or what at least you know Luke Savage describes is happening with regard to Mike Bloomberg he is buying goodwill he's cultivating legitimacy by helping people and their personal political careers and personal lives it is downright despicable no one should support Mike Bloomberg but people don't know any better they see his ads and a lot of the times name recognition it really plays a huge role right so people may not know better they may just support him because hey that's the guy who I saw on TV now sometimes it can backfire right because we're seeing in the state of New Hampshire where Tom Steyer another billionaire has flooded the airwaves and his ads have become so so you know annoying that they're basically a meme to people they have them memorized there so maybe it could backfire but with Mike Bloomberg it seems like his strategy is actually a little bit more successful now whether or not he's going to be able to be somewhat victorious you know that remains to be seen but the fact that he's pulling nationally at above 5% that should be just terrifying to everyone not because we think he'll win but because look at what a billionaire can easily do spend money that is not that much money to them and you can become a prominent presidential candidate wow Bernie has popularized the idea of free college here in the United States but we all know that when he initially floated this idea when he was running for president back in 2016 Hillary Clinton's response was the same response that we see from centrist Democrats like people to judge you know today she said well why should we pay for Donald Trump's kids to go to school for free that's ridiculous now this notion that you know making public colleges and universities tuition free and canceling all student loan debt is a giveaway to the rich it's just disingenuous and quite frankly it's idiotic because rich people most of the time you know they're going to send their kids to private schools they're gonna go to Ivy League schools right and this only applies to public colleges and universities so we've been having to defend against this and I think that we pretty much made a fool of anyone who floated that until you know the 2020 election cycle when you have individuals like Mayor Pete and Amy Klobuchar insisting that this is a giveaway to the rich it's a giveaway to the rich now first of all if rich people are heavily subsidizing these programs then we have no reason to exclude them and universality is important second of all Bernie was actually asked about this because now this is kind of an argument that's being applied to student debt cancellation and he spoke about this at the public education forum and Ali Velshi of MSNBC asked him the question and I wanted to share his response because his answer here was just impeccable you propose canceling college debt so you and I have a lot of conversations about the way things go where I come from in Canada and how some of these things work better here's my one question about canceling student debt even if it's from public universities there are people graduating from professions who do very well in high demand engineers coders and other professions philosophically I know you want to cancel that student debt economically given how much it costs is there a way to look at this where you don't cancel the student debt of people whose debt doesn't need to be canceled well I look at it a little bit differently number one trust me that those people who make a lot of money who are very wealthy probably not going to be voting for me because we're going to be raising their taxes very substantially but what I have to say is I do believe in the concept of universality you know in Canada whether you're rich or you're poor you can take advantage of the healthcare system in this country Donald Trump's grandchildren could go to a public school if they wanted even though he's a billionaire or he says he's a billionaire we don't know that's true alright so I look at it the other way I think what is simpler and more straightforward is A making all public colleges and universities tuition free for all people and B canceling all student debt and in this case paying for that through a modest tax on Wall Street speculation so Bernie didn't really emphasize this point but I think it really is important to state that if rich people and elites are heavily subsidizing these programs if they're paying the most into these programs then I don't care if they're going to send their kids to public schools again in reality they end up sending their children to private colleges nine times out of ten private charter schools and private colleges so I don't care if maybe a couple of billionaires send their children to public school as AOC put it you know economic integration is incredibly important for social and cultural reasons on top of that Bernie Sanders says that universality is incredibly important everyone pays into it and everyone has access to that benefit and I want to get to his quote here so he says in Canada you know whether you're rich or poor you could take advantage of the healthcare system in this country Donald Trump's grandchildren they can go to public school if they wanted to even though he's a billionaire so he says I look at it the other way what is simpler and more straightforward is A making all colleges and universities tuition free for people and B student debt and in this case paying for that through a modest tax on Wall Street speculation now I want to expand on two ideas here so the first area where I want to expand is to really get a little bit more into the details as to why we should cancel everyone student loan debt including people who will one day be able to easily pay it off and make a lot of money because again this goes back to this notion that they will be subsidizing the system so if you college and you make a lot of money you get a career where you have a 6 or 7 figure salary your student loan debt should be canceled as well because with all of that money you're making you will be paying back into the system the money you make will be funding free college for the future generation and furthermore once we make public colleges and universities tuition free student debt isn't going to be an issue going forward so we need to cancel all student debt and make it easy don't means test it so certain people can apply to make sure that they're eligible and others won't be and I'll explain why we don't want to means test these types of programs because means testing is incredibly divisive it makes it more difficult for poor people and working class people to access the benefit if it's means tested because they have to prove that they're eligible for said program they have to prove using documents and it's just a big headache and it pits the working class and the middle class against each other because if the middle class is excluded from this benefit that the poor gets well then that means that public perception of that program will go down it's going to be viewed as a welfare program and there's not going to be public support for that program as there are for other universal programs like social security so if you want to make sure that these public programs are protected means testing is not the way to go if you want it to last anyways this is why social security has essentially been untouchable and republicans and democrats haven't been able to even partially privatize it it is because it is a universal program and nobody wants it touched everyone pays into it everyone gets it period end of story another video that I want to show you centers on the issue of students who can't afford school lunches and also how they have debt now there's stories that pop up all the time about students paying off the lunch debt of their classmates by selling cookies and cider and what not but this doesn't need to happen and I know that perseverance porn is something that the media loves like these stories how somebody perseveres through a horrible time in fact some more news just did a really great long segment on this where he talked about how these stories about how people have to pull their sick days in order to give it to someone that's not like a feel good story that shows how broken our system is the point is these types of stories about kids having to raise money to pay off the school lunch debt of their fellow classmates that doesn't have to happen when you live in the richest country ever and Bernie Sanders was asked about this he was asked what he would do about this would he allow for free lunches and his answer here was just phenomenal predictably in our schools and I've done stories on this called lunch shaming children coming into school and for one reason or another their lunch bill has not been paid this government spends about 14 billion dollars across the country on subsidizing low and free lunch program but still we have some children who they go into the class into the lunch room find out they haven't paid their debt and the money is thrown into the garbage can and the people have said and I'm asking you should the government subsidize lunch in public school for all children regardless of their income and you know what and breakfast and dinner as well this gets back this gets back to the point you raised the moment ago I believe in universality you got a whole lot of money you don't at the lunch room situation nonsense you both are treated equally but I'm gonna have you pay more in taxes to make sure that all kids get a decent education a decent nutrition I absolutely love that answer he says he supports free school lunches and breakfast and dinner as well think about what this means to students across this country it means that even if your parents are poor you will not go hungry while you're at school you will eat and he also brought up once again this notion of universality some people will in fact pay more into these programs than others but what matters is that we're all treated equally it will be free at the point of service to everyone that is how you craft good public policy and Bernie gets this and I'm really glad that he's taking the time to explain universality because the democratic party they're addicted to means testing and they think that this is a way to kind of stick it to the rich but if you truly want to be more hard on the rich as you say you do you would increase their taxes but not very many of them want to do that or if they do they want to do it only to a small extent which wouldn't actually make a difference wouldn't be enough to fund social programs so at the end of the day he demonstrates to people that he understands why we need to go for these types of universal programs and it reinforces the fact that he is the best in this race we're saying merry Christmas again well the war on Christmas is officially over and I say that because republicans have explicitly declared victory now that doesn't necessarily mean that you won't find the occasional snowflake who claims that there still is a war on Christmas for example you might see a daily wire writer crying about unisex gingerbread cookie sweaters but I mean you can't please everyone and the fact remains that we lost the left waged a war on Christmas supposedly and we lost although according to Donald Trump there is another holiday that we can possibly destroy if we work hard enough to do that as we gather together for Thanksgiving you know some people want to change the name Thanksgiving they don't want to use the term Thanksgiving and that was true also with Christmas but now everybody's using Christmas again remember I said that and he's right we can in fact say merry Christmas again we couldn't before but now we can and I know this and knew this because after Donald Trump was elected the ads that he ran featured this little girl confirming that we can in fact say merry Christmas without worrying about going to jail now if you think that I'm just you know playing around and you don't actually believe that we can say merry Christmas again I have evidence that we can in fact say merry Christmas again for example when Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch appeared on Fox News he said those magical words and the Fox News host she was delighted and asked now for a rare live interview Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch good morning to you Merry Christmas I love that you say that Case closed there is officially no longer a war on Christmas because it has been won and this is really just heartwarming because this really is what freedom looks like being able to say merry Christmas in America is what freedom looks like when Trump's executive order will curtail the First Amendment by punishing students on college campuses that participate in BDS it doesn't matter that Congress just renewed the Patriot Act and ignores the Fourth Amendment entirely freedom in America means that we can say merry Christmas without fear of repercussion and it's all because Daddy Trump saw that this was an issue and he decided to fix it unilaterally so and we know this because he will never stop reminding us that he alone solved this issue and did you notice that everybody is saying merry Christmas again did you notice I did actually but thank you so much for reminding me again can never remind me too much but he's right the war on Christmas has been won thanks to Daddy Trump and you know Eric Trump and his wife recently sat down for an interview with America's racist aunt Judge Jeanine Piero and I mean at this point they're just rubbing it in our faces that we can say merry Christmas again we get it you won the war on Christmas we're losers your winners we get it but I mean this video was just it was just a little bit too overboard because they won and now they're pouring salt in our wounds Eric and I were talking about what's going on with impeachment and the FISA and all that but will you guys be able to just forget about all of it and really enjoy the fact that you really are part of the first family you are the first family you've done wonderful things for this country we now don't have the political correctness that we used to people are actually saying merry Christmas you can say merry Christmas again isn't that so nice Jeanine I love it I love Christmas trees I love Santa over here I mean you know how do you feel that your father has done all of that Eric it's incredible it is nice to say merry Christmas again and it is a beautiful thing to celebrate all the holidays with beautiful little kids like this I mean this is what America is all about this is what the American dreams all about and you know this is why we have an incredible country because we can sit there with the Santa Claus and with beautiful trees and eat ice cream and open presents and love one another and you know and see little ones grow and it's the best of this nation and I'm proud of him for reinvigorating so much of it well there you have it we can now say that seasonal greeting that lives hate because apparently we couldn't say that before and if you were saying those two words before you probably shouldn't tell anyone but the point is there was definitely a war being waged on Christmas and we lost so I think that it's time we finally admit that we lost and we acquiesce now I've said the words merry and Christmas I haven't really said them together I've referenced it but I haven't actually said that yet like I've been saying happy holidays now for over a decade and I've never really said that to anyone so I'm going to basically make you the very first person post war on Christmas that I actually say those two words too so this is going to be hard and I'm a little bit nervous if I'm being honest but here it goes meh try again merry hang on it's been a while okay I haven't said this merry Christmas well it is now that time of the year again it's time for the humanist reports annual award show where we crown our scumbag an MVP of the year and we also decide what is the most badass and WTF moment of the year now the way that it works is I nominate four individuals or moments in each of these categories and then I allow my viewers to vote and ultimately decide who's the winner now for the first we have our badass moment of the year and there were a lot of moments that I think qualify as badass but I narrowed it down to four and the first one of course is the one that stands out to me the most and it is Bernie's moment at a debate where he said now a very famous line can you guarantee those union members that the benefits under Medicare for all will be as good as the benefits that their representatives their union reps fought hard to negotiate well two things they will be better because Medicare for all is comprehensive it covers all healthcare needs for senior citizens it will finally include dental care, hearing aids and eye glasses second of all I do know when I wrote the damn bill every time I watched that moment I loved Bernie Sanders even more it was a great moment it was unscripted but he capitalized on that moment he printed stickers about that moment I hope that you all were able to pick this up I believe he offered it to people who donated to him as little as a dollar I think I'm not sure but it was a great moment and certainly even though there wasn't too much substance there it was one of the most memorable moments of the debate and it really stood out to a lot of people and I just I love it and it's clear that you all do too now on top of that the next nomination is Greta Thunberg's UN speech where she essentially told the world how dare you and this was such a huge moment because it really put the climate change debate if you will into perspective and you know it essentially made us all feel like shit because we're all looking to this child for inspiration when we should be the ones who are driving the conversation forward and actually taking action I shouldn't be up here I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean yet you all come to us young people for hope how dare you you have stolen my dreams my childhood with your empty words yet I'm one of the lucky ones people are suffering people are dying entire ecosystems are collapsing we are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth how dare you the next nomination is really important because it came at a time when I think a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters were feeling incredibly demoralized you know he just had a heart attack the media was trying to exploit that situation there were you know pictures that CNN released where they clearly upped the saturation to make it look like he was purple it was just a really weird thing that they did you know the media dwelled on the fact that he had a heart attack some accused him of not being transparent and disclosing that he had a heart attack immediately it was a really frustrating situation but after the first debate post heart attack we learned that Bernie Sanders would be receiving perhaps the most important endorsements of this election cycle endorsements for members of the squad AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and it really came at the perfect moment when we really needed to pick me up when we were feeling like you know our chances were diminishing this really is one of the most badass moments of the year in my nomination I'm one of the people that was inspired by the movement that the senator has built there was an America that I dreamed about there's an America that most people believe in it is an ideal it's not reality yet and he started the work of organizing for that America and that has inspired me to get involved and run myself to help others also organize for that America I'm a Bernie Sanders because he's not going to sell us out he understands that it's not just about policies and about words but it's going to be also about completely transforming the structures in place that is hurting American people this is not just about running for president this is about creating a mass movement of working class people the first time I ever heard about Bernie Sanders was when I was a waitress in a greasy spoon diner type of restaurant in downtown Manhattan and I had been working 12 hour days I didn't have health insurance I was being paid less than a living wage and I didn't think that I deserved any of those things I thought that that's just how life was the only reason that I thought running for office was even possible for me was because of his example because he proved that you could run for office and not take big money now on top of that a really special moment I think that I had to nominate was the release of Lula de Silva now we haven't talked much about Brazilian politics here on this channel but for anyone who follows Michael Brooks or the Michael Brooks show if you're not subscribed to him immediately he has been covering this and Lula isn't just an important leader because he would change the trajectory of Brazil but he is someone who could possibly change the world along with Bernie Sanders we on the left are not just running to change the United States we want to change and ultimately save the world and solidarity with other left-wing socialist leaders like Lula de Silva is incredibly important so when he was released that was a really important moment for the global progressive movement now there were a lot of honorable mentions that I didn't nominate but considered nominating but ultimately chose these specific moments for just my own personal reasons and how I felt that they were really important to me the honorable mentions include David Koch's death Tulsi Gabbard's takedown of Kamala Harris at one of the debates AOC's numerous speeches one of which was when she confronted a big pharma executive and another was when she made a speech about climate change there were so many moments that we could nominate for badass but ultimately I decided on these four even though it was incredibly difficult to really narrow it down that being said though I passed it off to you and I allowed you all to vote and you made your voices loud and clear so on Patreon with 74 total votes Bernie Sanders I wrote the damn bill received 20% Greta's How Dare You received 41% the squad's endorsement of Bernie Sanders received 32% and the release of Lula received 7% now on YouTube our audience voted and with a total of 15,000 votes Bernie's I wrote the bill received 59% Greta's How Dare You received 23% the squad's endorsement of Bernie Sanders received 10% and the release of Lula De Silva received 8% and on Twitter with more than 900 votes Bernie's I wrote the damn bill received 44% Greta's How Dare You received 14% the squad's Bernie endorsement received 28% and the release of Lula De Silva received 14% now when you look at the total results across all three platforms in fourth place we have Lula De Silva's release in third place we have the squad's endorsement of Bernie Sanders and it came down to Greta and Bernie Sanders and just edging out the squad's endorsement is Greta's You and Speech and in first place we have Bernie Sanders I wrote the damn bill moment this is officially the humanist reports badass moment of 2019 and out of all of these four nominations I think this is a great choice I personally would have been fine with either of these choices winning but you know nonetheless I'm really glad that Bernie Sanders I wrote the damn bill moment happened because it just whenever I see that clip it puts a smile on my face even though I've seen it now like about a dozen times two dozen times possibly but here's what you all think Kay Keen on Patreon writes I started to vote for I wrote the damn bill but then remember that the squads endorsement of Bernie brought tears to my eyes the day it happened so I changed my mind Ashley Hudson on Patreon writes Lula's release hands down change on Patreon writes many great choices again however as a former swede I'm proud as heck of Greta and her courage and spunk Fly Girl on Twitter writes specifically when AOC endorsed Bernie and that amazing rally in New York Matthias Perea on YouTube writes I love that Bernie's line is I wrote the damn bill while Biden's is no malarkey even their catchphrases shows you who is the substantive one Sam on YouTube writes Lula getting out means so much for the future of Brazil those in power may kill one or two or a hundred roses but they'll never stop the arrival of spring Matt on YouTube writes I love how grown men got so angry at a 16 year old doing climate activism and there you have it couldn't agree more with the sentiment expressed here so Bernie Sanders I wrote the damn bill certainly a worthy badass moment winner for 2019 well it is now time for us to decide what is the WTF moment of 2019 and let me say narrowing this down to just four nominees was almost impossible because there were so many moments in this year that are just unbelievably WTF so before I get to my official nominations I want to go to the honorable mentions that includes Diane Feinstein's confrontation with the sunrise movement where she basically told little kids to fuck off there's Fartgate there's John Hickenlooper explaining how he took his mom to see deep throat Trump vetoed a bill that would have saved thousands of lives by ending US support to Saudi Arabia as they carry out a genocide in Yemen there's Jeffrey Epstein's sudden death Amy Klobuchar ate salad with a comb and then screamed at an aid there was the attempted coup in Venezuela, Turkey's ethnic cleansing of the Kurds, Modi's crack down in Kashmir, billionaires trying to buy the democratic nomination almost all of these in and of themselves can win not just because they're you know bad for the world or the country but because they're also so weird that I think they really represent that WTF title well but ultimately I decided on four and this was tough but these are my nominations Jeremy Corbyn and Labor's defeat in the UK general election Donald Trump almost bombing Iran I mean just being literally minutes away from war with Iran was a terrifying thought the successful coup of Bolivian president Evo Morales and the burning of the Amazon rainforest known as the earth's lungs just thinking about all of these things really makes me feel uncomfortable it makes me feel upset and whichever one of these ultimately ends up winning I think it's a worthy title as I said all of these honorable mentions like any of these are I think worthy enough of being WTF moment of the year but I passed this question off to you you all voted and these are the results so on Patreon with 77 total votes Jeremy Corbyn and Labor's defeat got 32% Trump almost bombing Iran got 12% the Bolivian coup got 16% and the burning of the Amazon rainforest got 40% and on YouTube with a total of 15,000 votes Jeremy Corbyn and Labor's defeat got 30% Trump almost bombing Iran got 12% the Bolivian coup got 15% and the burning of the Amazon rainforest got 43% now on Twitter with 868 total votes Jeremy Corbyn and Labor's defeat got 36% Trump almost bombing Iran got 10% the Bolivian coup got 25% and the burning of the Amazon rainforest got 29% now when you look at the total results across all three platforms in fourth place is the fact that Donald Trump almost bombed Iran which I think is understandable because it didn't happen still a scary prospect nonetheless I'm glad that that didn't happen in third you have the Bolivian coup in second you have Corbyn's defeat and in first place the WTF moment of the year according to the Humanist Report audience is the burning of the Amazon rainforest and this is absolutely worthy of that title because the Amazon rainforest is largely described as the earth's lungs for good reason and I think that this is important to a lot of people because it's a symbol of how far we've gone down the road you know towards environmental degradation where we're burning the Amazon rainforest deliberately this wasn't you know something that happened accidentally this was sabotage and on top of that when you factor in the terrible scenarios response when you know people around the world France and whatnot wanted to help it makes it that much more just strange all around but that's my thoughts here's what you all think about this Jason Councilor on Patreon writes as the burning of the rainforest pushes us closer to an extinction level event for me that's definitely the biggest WTF moment of 2019 Manda on Twitter writes having to choose this is the worst chance all or so WTF Dick Dak on Twitter recommends another WTF moment that I didn't nominate Trump pardoned war criminals and revoked a rule on reporting drone strike deaths absolutely worthy of being WTF moment of the year there's just so many it was difficult to even remember them all John on YouTube writes they are all WTF moments but the biggest WTF moment was how the media either didn't cover them properly or just covered the impact of them up Mori on YouTube writes can we just nominate the whole year as a WTF moment Lorian on YouTube writes the series finale of humanity has been wild Mark Murphy on YouTube writes the Turkish ethnic cleansing of the Kurds should be on the actual list I think this is you know certainly fair Clement on YouTube writes you really need to add an option 2019 itself entirely yeah I think that that is fair um this whole year has you know produced a lot of moments that made me scratch my head question humanity um feel demoralized it's just been a relatively rough year politically um but I mean it could always be worse let's just hope that you know 2020 will produce a lot less WTF moments so that way this you know part of the award process next year will be a little bit easier because this really was difficult as a lot of the people commented suggested you know you can swap out those four nominees that I chose with others and it would be I think just this compelling you know in terms of choosing which moment is the WTF moment of the year so this was really really tough um and I'm ready to move on because I don't want to think about all these horrible things that have happened in the year on top of all the weird things that have happened you know with John his mom to see deep throat and then talking about that and Amy Klobuchar eating salad with a comb fart gate I mean what a weird year so many WTF moments yeah but overall I think you know we can all acknowledge why the viewers chose the burning of the Amazon rainforest it's depressing it's disgusting and we need to take better care of the planet I don't know what else to say so I'll leave that there there's a lot of scumbags around the world and here at home but there can only be one scumbag that wins the humanist reports scumbag of 2019 title I nominated four individuals these are my nominations the first is Donald J Trump who I really don't think I have to explain in this year alone think of all of the things that he's managed to do he shut down the government for almost three weeks essentially because he threw a prolonged temper tantrum because he wanted funding for his border wall that he said Mexico would pay for he was literally minutes away from bombing Iran he single-handedly catalyzed an ethnic cleansing of the Kurds and northern Syria he continues to lock babies in cages he cut food stamps and announced another cut to food stamps he's expanding the US Empire increased drone strikes continues to kill civilians around the world his administration is supporting a lawsuit that would overrule the ACA's protection for people with pre-existing conditions this individual is obviously an unhinged scumbag and he really is I think worthy of this title but that's just one of my nominations my second nomination is Mitch McConnell now Donald Trump wouldn't be nearly as effective if it weren't for Mitch McConnell who is helping him achieve all of this Mitch McConnell is someone who is perhaps the biggest ghoul in the country because he has the same political ideology as Donald Trump but he's actually effective at accomplishing what he wants to accomplish and that is ruin the country and the planet he stole a Supreme Court seat from Democrats on top of that he is helping Donald Trump to stack the federal judiciary so when you go beyond Neil Gorsuch and Kavanaugh he has helped make Donald Trump one of the most successful presidents when it comes to nominating federal judges and on top of that Mitch McConnell is blocking almost every single bill that comes to the Senate essentially not allowing democracy to take place bills that would possibly even pass the Republican controlled Senate I mean I don't know what else to say this individual is a horrible morally reprehensible morally bank-rept human being and I absolutely believe he is worthy of this title now my third nominee is Stephen Miller who we all suspected was a white nationalist and white supremacist because you know look at him he helped craft Donald Trump's Muslim ban with Steve Bannon I believe on top of that he helped craft the family separation policy the zero tolerance at the border policy that led to families being separated and leaked emails recently confirmed that he does in fact have an affinity for white nationalism so the fact that someone like him is able to have power and hang on to power and hasn't resigned that makes him a scumbag because white supremacy should be nowhere near power and the fact that he is in a place of power and has a lot of influence over policy I mean that just makes him dangerous and makes him a scumbag now my final nominee is Boris Johnson the Trump of the UK who essentially ran an election on getting Brexit done and he made it very clear that he's going to allow the NHS to be a bargaining chip with the United States so he's going to open it up in other words to more privatization and he's going to undo the progress that they made in the UK and something that we're trying to achieve here I mean on top of that he has a pass of you know racism and bigotry and xenophobia and homophobia this individual is a far right figure like Donald Trump perhaps not as far to the right as Donald Trump nonetheless still problematic and he's just a bad person overall and I think that he's worthy of this title but those are my nominations you guys ultimately get the final say and here are the results so on Patreon Donald Trump received 14% of the vote Mitch McConnell received 7% of the vote Stephen Miller and Boris Johnson tied in third with 15% now on YouTube Donald Trump had 27% Mitch McConnell had 56% Stephen Miller had 7% and Boris Johnson had 10% and when it comes to our Twitter audience Donald Trump had 31% of the vote Mitch McConnell had 40% of the vote Stephen Miller had 11% of the vote and Boris Johnson garnered 18% of the vote now when you look at the total results across all three platforms in fourth place is Stephen Miller in third place is Boris Johnson and it came down to Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell but ultimately the ultimate ghoul and scumbag of 2019 is Mitch McConnell and I was kind of leaning towards either Donald Trump or Mitch McConnell either way Mitch McConnell is worthy of this title but there's a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel because Mitch McConnell is up for re-election so he may be the scumbag of 2019 but he might not even be in the running in 2020 if he gets defeated in fact his defeat could potentially be the badass moment of 2020 if we all play our cards but you know long story short Mitch McConnell is really the ultimate ghoul he has done irreparable harm to the country and really we are going to suffer because of his legacy now credit words do he's effective but effective doesn't necessarily mean that you are producing results that are good for the American people in fact he's hurting the American people but those are my thoughts here's what you all said John provided us with a number of quotes he says the human turtle hybrid mister because I get to decide what we vote on said this quote I'm indeed the grim reaper when it comes to the socialist agenda that they've been ginning up over in the house with overwhelming democratic support and sending it over to America things that would turn us into a country we've never been so this is full war socialism on the march in the house and yeah as long as I am majority leader in the planet none of that stuff is going anywhere I saved the Supreme Court for a generation by blocking President Obama's nominees and led the way for Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh on top of that he also said I love the tax bill and a lot of the other things we did but I think lifetime appointments not only to the Supreme Court but to the circuit courts are the way you have the longest lasting impact on the country and he's right about that Monica range on Patreon writes they're all bad as heck this turtle has been terrorizing our democracy since Obama was elected and he's done so much damage by not letting bills even come to the floor for a vote hundreds of them he acts like a dictator despicable person Sophia on Twitter says they're all garbage all of the above Mitch he's done the most long term and substantial harm Matt P on YouTube writes Buddha Judge Bezos and Pelosi should get a mention too also Almagro head of the OAS calling slash plotting the Bolivian coup fair enough so there you have it Mitch McConnell is our scumbag of 2019 um he certainly deserves this so uh congratulations Mitch I guess well it is now officially time for us to hand out our most prestigious award here at the Humanist Report and it's also the epic conclusion of our 2019 award ceremony we will now crown our MVP of 2019 now what's interesting is that this award show has been going on ever since we had the Humanist Report podcast I believe um and every single time we have had an MVP vote Bernie Sanders has won each consecutive time the only year when there was a real challenge to his dominance here was last year in 2018 when AOC almost beat him and it was really the only year when I was actually rooting for someone other than Bernie Sanders but now is that time to put this up for a vote and see who the Humanist Report's audience believes should in fact be the MVP of 2019 and as usual I nominated four individuals to no one surprise Bernie Sanders again is one of my nominations because this is an individual who is running for president who could very well not just change the country but change the world and if we elect him we could change the course of history and as a candidate 2020 Bernie is better than 2016 Bernie because he has shifted to a better position when it comes to student loans he now believes in full cancellation when it comes to healthcare he's gotten better on that as well he believes in cancelling medical debt he has improved he's a more well rounded candidate he's more savvy than ever he has the experience and of course he should be MVP in my opinion although these are just my nominees you all ultimately get to decide now of course another nominee is Alexandria Ocasio Cortez she really is one of the main individuals who I view as a real leader in the progressive movement she has been a wonderful member of Congress she endorsed Bernie Sanders I was worried you know after in 2016 we were betrayed by Elizabeth Warren and she abandoned us I felt really demoralized and I wasn't necessarily so sure that AOC would endorse Bernie Sanders I thought maybe she'd sit out the primary she thankfully proved me wrong and she proved to us that she is the real deal and she has helped facilitate a shift in the Overton window and she really has changed political discourse for the better and I absolutely admire her and I think that if she were to win this category she would be a really worthy representative of you know MVP for the year of 2019 my next nominee is someone new to this category Greta Thunberg and the only other person who I've nominated for this category you know that's been this young is Malala Yousafzai but Greta Thunberg has been one of the most if not the most important allies in the fight to stop climate catastrophe and she really manages to articulate the urgency of this issue better than anyone I've ever heard and she has inspired and encouraged a generation to get out in the streets and protest and fight for their future young people around this world look to her as a leader and that has to be acknowledged so of course I had to nominate her now my final nominee is Ilhan Omar one of the best members of congress arguably the most left wing member of congress because economically speaking she's awesome when it comes to social issues she is virtually perfect but also when it comes to foreign policy she's one of the strongest in congress in terms of speaking out against US imperialism so I absolutely respect Ilhan Omar and on top of that she really deserves recognition because she deals with something no other members of congress have to deal with a constant barrage of attacks, smears and literal death threats which she still receives on a daily basis but nevertheless she continues to fight for what's right and she's not backing down and she also endorsed Bernie Sanders, something I didn't expect and it showed a lot of courage and this really just it was phenomenal to see now I felt bad excluding Rashida Tlaib I felt like she also was a worthy choice but I felt like out of the members of the squad AOC and Ilhan Omar they just did a little bit extra to be considered for this category but Rashida Tlaib is absolutely an honorable mention I even considered putting all the squad together but then that would kind of be unfair because they're pulling votes but at the same time if I separate them then maybe they're splitting votes between AOC and Ilhan Omar either way I thought that it was more appropriate for me to choose four individuals and then allow you guys to be the ultimate deciders so with that being said I've talked long enough let's get to the results on Patreon with a total of 72 votes Bernie Sanders received 65% Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez received 19% Greta Thunberg received 8% and Ilhan Omar received 7% of the vote according to our YouTube audience with 11,000 total votes Bernie Sanders received 70% Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez received 17% Greta Thunberg received 8% and Ilhan Omar received 5% now on Twitter Bernie Sanders received 62% Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez received 21% Greta Thunberg received 10% Ilhan Omar received 8% now comparing all the results across all three platforms in fourth place we have Ilhan Omar in third place we have Greta Thunberg and of course it came down to AOC and Bernie Sanders yet again for the second year in a row and when it comes to who our MVP of 2019 is it wasn't even close once again Bernard Sanders is the humanist reports MVP of 2019 I was rooting for him again and I think he absolutely deserves this victory but I've told you my thoughts let's see what the audience thinks so Skyla on Patreon writes Senator Bernard Sanders Kay Keen on Patreon writes there can only be one Bernie Karen on Patreon writes Bernie's trying to heal a country Greta's trying to save the world Adriana on YouTube writes Bernie was the one who created the progressive movement who inspired AOC and Ilhan to run they said so themselves changing the discourse there wouldn't be a growing progressive force in Congress not meaning to discredit AOC and Ilhan Omar's merits of course love them both he's been the MVP for 40 years well said Zero PE on YouTube writes shifting the Overton window alone makes Bernie MVP absolutely Basim Shakir on YouTube writes Ilhan Omar because she has faced the most adversity from every avenue and still stand strong the most agent on YouTube writes Greta specifically because she pisses off all the right people so I mean there you have it for the fifth consecutive year in a row Bernie Sanders Hello? he will be standing writing his crowd today watching me perform Layer on the beat boy name another politician that you know that this consistent this consistent for the people education make a difference share the fight for 15 ain't equality for women comprehensive immigration in a real black agenda Medicare for all yeah you start to get the message I don't you worry about the swag matter of fact you can put it on my tab count every vote they think they got it in the bag $27 and they still getting mad so progressive and we never go let up Bernie establishment I'm screaming from the neck up this is our time this is our fight these are my kids this is my life this ain't about the left this ain't about the right nobody cares if your mega hats on tight you little baby still yelling for the wall still while the poor still trying to pay their life bill 40 hours gotta beg living wage still trying to see a better day instead of crying in the ocean full of misery we gonna stand tall with the burn making history hello everyone I am here with Donna I'm em running in the 31st congressional district of Texas she is challenging a build the wall Trumpian Republican in a race that is very interesting to watch it's a flippable district and she is here to tell us why she's going to win Donna thank you so much for coming on the program thank you so much for having me Mike I really appreciate it now I like this race because you were kind of explaining to me before you went on that nobody's paying attention to this race and that really is a shame because you are so close to flipping this district you're 2.9% away from winning that seat it's very competitive but yet the National Democratic Party and State Democratic Party they don't really seem to be interested because they feel as if this isn't something that is worth really investing in because it's not winnable tell us why you decided to run and why this is in fact a flippable district yeah so I'm an average middle class person that works for a living right I'm a computer engineer I've been working in the tech industry but over the last five years I started working on a non-profit and the reason I started working on a non-profit is around 2004-2006 I worked in Lafayette, Indiana in an industry where on the bottom floor we had manufacturing and every single one of those manufacturing workers were laid off they had no employment opportunities no way to get out and some of them never worked a day in their life again that left an impact on me and that's why I chose a specific non-profit because it focuses on education it provides free continuing education to anybody who wants it but why am I telling you this the reason is as I went through this non-profit what I realized is no matter how much time I poured into it there were people in Austin, Texas that have been unemployed for years during the 2008-2009 downturn even though they were highly educated and today end of 2019 when supposedly the economy is amazing people say the unemployment rate in Austin is low but guess what the unemployment rate in Austin is extremely high and it's high because people are working whatever job they can find they're working two free jobs even people with really great education so I felt defeated working in a non-profit and I don't think any person should have to depend on philanthropy or a non-profit to get by our system is completely broken and I wanted to find a way to be part of that solution I think if average people like me are ever inspired to run for office people who are not necessarily activists they're just general people who work for a living trying to raise their families trying to give them a good education if we don't come together we're not going to change the system that's why I'm running this race you asked me why is this so exciting Texas has six districts that the DCCC is targeted because they're very very close this is one of them the reason it's close is this over the last five years has grown gang busters right it went from a small sleepy little town to a major city in the United States and it's pushed people out into the suburbs two, three hours out of the city center because they just can't afford to live in the city anymore right it used to be a very affordable city and as they push people out you have young families moving into the suburbs so I live in the north Austin area and this area includes Williamson and bell counties and it goes all the way to Colleen which has the largest military base in the United States largest armored vehicle military base this district has more veterans per square mile than anywhere else in all of Texas this district is so close because just in the last year after the 2018 cycle we had 50,000 more people move into just one county because they're looking for a decent life and that like I said it's 2.9% of 8,000 votes so this waste kit is flippable it's winnable but the crazy thing is this I'm running on single-payer healthcare for all I'm running on education for all that incentivizes people to go serve in rural and underserved communities and I'm running on what I call real pay for all which says look you can't live on $15 an hour in most American cities and that people should be paid a real way which means you can not only just pay your bills but you should have the ability to purchase a home put a down payment on a home and you should be able to retire someday if you're working full time okay and the thing is people are like oh well you think that's gonna work in Texas you talk to every single person in Texas's 31st district it doesn't matter if you're Democrat, independent, Republican and you say we're trying to reduce the cost of healthcare because that's the real issue and single-payer does that we're trying to reduce the cost of education so kids in temple ISD and clean ISD can actually afford to live on UT Austin campus that message resonates we can flip this district blue on this platform that's the crazy thing about it and that's so interesting so I was under the impression that the national party wasn't necessarily paying attention to this race but I think the real story here is that they're kind of overlooking you because there's this idea in these flippable districts that you cannot be a far left candidate you know there's this fear mongering about that and the idea I'm assuming from the national party and even the state party is that you have to run a campaign that's very moderate center of the road because if you want to flip that district then you need to pull in some Republican party voters can you dive a little bit more into the detail as to why that's a horrible strategy and why getting out the vote is actually what will be conducive to a victory because I think that even though I talk about this people in that district really need to understand why running a campaign that is progressive and bold it's not a lost cause in fact this is your best bet but I want to kind of hear it from you as to why you think being true to yourself and actually running on a campaign that you say $15 is not enough you know that would scare a lot of people just instinctively and thinking okay she's too far left she's no way she's going to win so why do you think it's important to kind of push back against that narrative it's important to push back between that for that narrative because it's wrong so as a techie and as a product manager I ran some large product lines right there are tens of millions of people who use my notebooks there are you know semiconductor product lines that are in everything from your toaster to a high speed train that I've worked on so I understand the financial aspect of this the fact is this real paper all is not out of reach and it will organically grow the economy and I can make that I can make a strong ironclad financial case for that I have white papers on every single policy proposal that I'm proposing and here's the thing when you tell people look you're going to have health care guaranteed no matter what you're going to have hundreds of thousands of people going into entrepreneurship that's going to generate real jobs because they have that piece of the mind that hey I'm not going to die if I go and try to start a business out of my garage out of my living room okay when you pay people especially something people who make less than $50,000 a year families that make less than $75,000 a year when you pay them an extra dollar you know what they use it for they use it to buy their kids a better pair of nikes a newer backpack they go out with their family on Friday night and get a pizza together that money goes right back into the economy it creates more jobs and it creates high paid jobs this is a message that resonates it doesn't matter across it across party lines across thought processes it's the way we talk about it when we start using various labels people can push you left and right but the answer is this every single one of us has the same challenges we're trying to pay our rent or pay our mortgage we are trying to send our kids to school why because we want them to have a decent future ahead of them and we want to be able to pay our bills we don't want to bag on the streets we don't want to be homeless most of us want to be able to go to the grocery store and live a dignified life and we want to contribute to our community and if we have the financial resource to do that every single person is going to do that and there's a solid case for that it's undeniable and that's the message that we need to get to people we keep living on fear we're never going to get to this the biggest issue with districts like this because it's been read from its inception so the current representative has been in office for almost two decades many people who believe in this don't really understand how close this district is because when you run in a US congressional campaign or as a candidate there's thousands of candidates across the country so you get the least amount of exposure and not everybody is doing the research to find out hey there are all these districts in Texas there's one north of Austin that's right to go blue we've got some great candidate there who's got these great ideas and people love it I spent full time the first six months of 2019 just going across my district from city to city talking to groups bipartisan groups nonpartisan groups talking to people in places like for example Lions clubs and just clubs that come together like business clubs that come together and every single person believes the same thing they want opportunities they don't want to pay huge taxes but they're willing to pay for what makes sense and you know when it comes to healthcare and education look you know this we're overpaying for healthcare by trillions of dollars right now right we're overpaying for education the cost of education is completely inflated with technology the cost of education should be one tenth of what it was 10 years ago or 20 years ago it's the opposite right and we know that these are inflated just because they can be there's no actual logic behind it so what I'm saying is look let's use technology I'm an engineer let's use it let's use it to drive down the cost of education in four years we want it to be halved in another eight years we want it to go down further let's put the right incentives in place so we can get state universities to you know sign on to these initiatives right let's incentivize them to give them money and let's do the same thing with healthcare let's go to single care let's take out the billions of dollars that private healthcare insurance companies are making let's put more physicians because we have a huge lack of primary care physicians in this country by the way that nobody have you heard anybody talk about this on the mainstream media that we actually don't have enough doctors even if we want to cover the 80 million uninsured under insured let's scale the healthcare infrastructure let's put primary care clinics on in every neighborhood so people can get preventative care so you don't get to third stage cancer extremely expensive to treat right these ideas they resonate with every single person in my district and that's why I'm running that's why I believe I can flip it and I would love any help because yes financially we're struggling yeah you're running up against an incumbent who as you said has been there for almost two decades John Carter was elected in 2003 and gradually over the years he is losing support but as I kind of alluded to in the beginning of this this is a Trump being a Republican who is basically towing the Republican party line and I'm curious because you talk about all these issues and it makes sense like these are the kitchen table issues so to speak that a lot of people talk about that affect individuals but I'm wondering how much since you're in the state of Texas is he able to exploit issues and exploit xenophobia and what not and the issue of immigration because he wants to build the wall that's kind of his go to thing he's benefited from Trumpian Trumpism so how much is that an issue that's coming up and how are people responding when you try to basically center them on what's the real issue it's not you know immigrants who are hurting you economically it's the system itself it's elites as the rigged economy how does that play in terms of based on people who you've spoken with yeah so he's not just a build a wall guy the current representative is a direct recipient of money from the geo group which runs the private prisons and it runs these cages that we're keeping these kids you know Carlos Hernandez right 16 year old kid who died on a cold concrete floor this is happening under our watch no American nobody in Texas 31 no patriotic person on this earth is going to say that's okay there's nobody in my district that's going to say that's acceptable for you to take money from the geo group the group that runs these prisons where this boy died in his own pool of blood there's nobody who believes that the wall is going to help them be able to afford education for their kids to send them to UT Austin nobody believes that you couldn't even make them believe that and it's completely distracting but what we have unfortunately what these leaders have is they have certain mainstream media that are echoing this over and over and over again and that's all these people here and we have to cut through this the only way we cut through this is we run candidates who are talking about challenges that can be solved and we talk about the solutions the only way that we can combat this is that we have hundreds and thousands of US congressional people that talk about solutions we've got to stop talking about these generic keyword issues that are out there that we're supposed to use let's talk about health care how do we get it how do we reduce cost let's talk about education how do we reduce it how do we get it to every single kid doesn't matter if they want to go to trade school or college or two years doesn't matter right we have to talk about that and we have to talk about it until we drown out the fake news going around and saying that immigrants are the challenges look I'm an immigrant I came to this country the reason that I've been this successful and built a decent middle-class life for myself is because I got a great education a debt free education I got to do my graduate studies completely free on scholarships and assistantships I didn't have to worry about $250,000 of debt I was able to put a down payment on a phone because I had what a high paying job I want that for every single American I know we can get that to every single American and I have the financial case for what we Democrats believe is the more only right thing to do and I love your answer and I like to ask this of people who are running in red districts because it really gives you a sense of whether or not they have the right strategy and I think that you do like there's a lot of people who I think they're going to vote for Donald Trump or the Republican regardless right so what matters is that you don't deviate from your platform and try to appeal to these types of people the goal is to get out new people and people who really feel like they haven't been represented who don't really care about these types of issues and who just want someone who's going to look out for them but they kind of feel like you know the Republican or the Democrat even in certain districts they haven't been representing them so you know what's the point of voting they stay home a lot of people kind of checked out and so I love your strategy and people like you because you're you're basically doing something that hasn't been done you know energizing a portion of the electorate that has not participated in politics like if we if we want to live in not just a democracy functionally speaking but one that's thriving we need people to participate and they're not currently voter turnout is low thankfully it's up increasingly but I mean generally speaking comparatively speaking it's low and people like you are trying to change that which is phenomenal and I don't think that a centrist is going to flip that district if that district is flipped and I think it will be it's going to be because of you so I want you to talk through the dynamics of this primary because this is currently a competitive primary you're running against other Democrats and if I had to make a prediction before you tell me you are not someone who the establishment is taking much interest in so talk through who you're running against and who I'm assuming that you know more establishment corporates Democrats have kind of coalesced around because there always seems to be in each district one candidate who is pulling in the most amount of money usually from special interests talk a little bit about the dynamics here and where you kind of stand out yeah so we have five people in the primary so our filing date was yesterday by the way and we have our primary early voting is February 18 so we're literally you know less than two months away from early voting and our actual primary day is March 3rd okay so out of the five candidates most of us really don't have any kind of background in politics as in we're not traditional politicians there is one person that's ran before but the here's here's what makes me different okay all of these folks are coming in and they're running basically on bread and butter Democratic sort of messages right and I am I'm running on very specific policy I am saying look I believe in single care healthcare but in order to accelerate Medicare for all which I want to right I want to accelerate single-payer Medicare I want to scale the infrastructure I want to make sure we incentivize more primary care physicians so when Medicare for all gets implemented it'll actually be successful the what differentiates me is that I'm trying to bring ideas and solutions that will actually work they're profitable and we can pay for them and there's a financial case behind them education same thing I'm saying look if we want to get school teachers and social workers and physicians to rule places we got to incentivize them we have to pay off their student loans completely and say come come out and teach in Salado, Texas come out and teach in Temple, Texas come out and teach in Colleen, Texas right the biggest challenge with most you know folks that are running the primary right now is that they don't realize that for example my district in Bell County there's a 25 to 30% black American population right no one realizes that you need to go and ask for their vote and you need to give them something to vote for they're not just going to come out and vote for you because you're a Democrat right I've spent you know the entire year talking to all leadership and all the communities and the black community for example and you know what they told me this is fact they said Donna we know you love to talk about health care but black people we've never had health care we can't even get a job to us the justice system is a huge problem and I listened to them I formulated my own equal justice for all policy proposal I have a white paper it's published on my website I send it out to all the black leaders that I could and I know in the community I asked them to review it give them their feedback and they did they gave me edits they told me the problems that they faced especially if you've been incarcerated for whatever reason it is so impossible to get a decent paying job even if you want to turn your life around right we developed equal justice for all policy we made a core platform portion so we're addressing the needs of the people in Texas 31st district directly you know what I'm trying to say which is most Democrats they're not they're running on a generic message and you can't win you have to engage people you have to give them a reason to come out and vote you have to give them a reason to believe that somehow you're going to bring change because just running for office doesn't matter if you can't bring real change impact to people's lives we have people here who have less than $400 in their bank account and they literally cannot pay for their grocery bill imagine if you're a kid and you come home from school and you're expected to do your homework and there's not a single snack for you how do you focus how can you ever expect that that kid is going to have a life that's accomplished compared to somebody who comes home and their mom is at home or their nanny is at home and they have a meal in the refrigerator and they can focus and they do have a high speed internet connection so they can do their homework and that's the same out of those two kids that's reality we have to talk to reality and stop talking in generic terms and that's how we're going to flip this district and I think that that is so important that you said that because a lot of politicians they're running because they love the sound of their own voices right they talk at people and not get their feedback and talk to people and I think that that's really such a crucial part of what makes a good campaign because in each district there's going to be a very specific set of issues that impact voters differently people of color will have different experiences in certain parts of the country and certainly different experiences than their white counterparts there's all these different concerns that people have but they haven't had anyone just ask them what do you need you know what issues affect you what type of policy do you think would help your life and I think that that's so different and we're starting to see a paradigm shift in this country where people aren't just running on that generic platform I mean they are right you're experiencing that with your opponents but more people are rising up and they're trying to actually do something that hasn't been done and that is represent the people you know the house of representatives is people's house you're supposed to represent the people but we've kind of we've gotten fixated on this generic idea that we have to appeal to moderates and be center of the road and these purple districts or red districts and it's not working people aren't voting for Democrats because Democrats aren't listening to them and you're changing that so anyone who's watching this I think is going to be convinced that you're the real deal and if they want to flip that district they've got to vote for Donna so give us your pitch and let us know what we can do to help you if you're inside that district especially what can we do to volunteer okay so there's a couple of things you can do one if you're out if you're inside the district we need you we can put you to work in many different areas we need we need you to go talk to your neighbors we need you to go talk to your organizations we need you to knock on any door we need you to make calls on behalf of us that's how we reach people we have to have that conversation that point of contact there's only one of me okay and there's only so much I can do and until we get everybody involved in this movement we can't flip this district you don't win a district because you have a great candidate you don't win a district because you have a great message you win a district because the people in that district demand change they demand new representation and so we need you if you're in that district now we also need money because at the end of the day you still have to print content and literature and go door to door and you need some people to help you with van and you need some field organizers to cut you lists so we need every dollar we can get look we're a completely grassroots campaign no corporate money we barely have any large donations it's all small donations so any dollar amount you can throw our way before December 31st would make a huge impact and I'll tell you what for a campaign like ours in November and December are really complicated and hard times to raise money but more importantly a candidate like me who's running for the first time I spend most of my time campaigning going to events trying to meet people so I don't have the eight or nine hours of the day to be calling people and asking for money which is what a lot of corporate candidates are doing every single corporate candidate tells me they spend a minimum of eight hours on what's called call time that's calling wealthy donors and asking them to make $2,800 contributions I literally do not have time for that I'd be trying to go out and meet with the community and shake their hands and tell them who I am because they've never met me they don't know who I am so you can see how important it is to contact because people trust you based on looking into your eye and talking to you and seeing what you're going to do for them that's how they develop trust right so yes there's lots of ways you can help and even if you're outside the district you can help make phone calls and call inside the district and tell people about us we can do this this is a winnable district help me get through the primary and I promise I'll deliver you Texas 31 and I'll turn Texas blue that sounds absolutely phenomenal imagine if we brought in the squad in Congress so to speak and got someone from Texas elected that would be absolutely just amazing and I think the establishment would be shocked and to kick out a Republican who's been there for almost 20 years who's a Trumpian Republican I mean imagine how amazing that would feel if you contributed to that process so one more time tell us the date of the primary before we go so the date of the primary is March 3rd early voting is February 18th and if you want to check out my website or my policy it's at votefordonna.com alright we'll also have that information up on the screen Donna thank you so much for coming on we will be rooting for you and watching this raise very closely thank you so much Mike I really really appreciate it well that is it that was an incredibly long episode and I think I've said everything that I've needed to say and um yeah let's bring on 2020 so as usual if you want to ring in the New Year by supporting independent media you can do so by going to humanistreport.com or patreon.com or by clicking join underneath any one of our YouTube videos thank you all so much for helping the show not just to survive but thrive as well you all are the lifeblood of this show and your support is absolutely crucial and I just honestly cannot ever overstate how much I appreciate you all so I mean that is it happy holiday uh happy holidays including new years not a lot of the same year Christmas because there is a war on Christmas or there was but I am going to keep that war in perpetuity because I think it's important and it's funny but nonetheless you know I hope you all have a fun holiday and if you don't celebrate or if you don't celebrate Christmas I just hope that you take some time before 2020 before the battle that we're going to have to fight to just relax do some you know self uh self care you know play some video games watch some movies be lazy take a little bit of a break if you can mentally and physically because we are going to have to put in work if we want to be successful and have a good 2020 so I will be fighting and I know that all of you will be right alongside to help make sure that we are victorious going into this new year so that's it if I keep talking I will start rambling already kind of started to and I'm just done talking take care everyone my name is Mike Figueredo this has been the humanist report I will see you all in 2020