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Language: en
communism makes no sense at all totally
opposed to human nature it never works
it always evolves into dictatorship it
creates a power vacuum when you say hey
there's no structure of power here right
we're all equal it's a flat line one guy
usually gets up because that's human
nature and goes uh I don't think so I
think if you're going to leave a power
vacuum I'm going to take that power
vacuum corporatism hates competition it
wants Monopoly and oligopoly power
whereas capitalism loves competition and
wants to free markets when mainstream
media has you hooked you got no hope
because you don't have the right
information you have propaganda you have
marketing you don't have real news when
you're in the online world it's chaotic
and don't get me wrong it's got plenty
of downsides right but within that chaos
the truth begins to emerge Trump is a
massive risk because of all the things
we talked about earlier but there is a
percentage chance that he's such a wild
card that he overturns the whole system
and that is why the establishment is a
little scared of
him the following is a conversation with
Jen yuger a progressive political
commentator and host of The Young Turks
as I've said before I will speak with
everyone including on the left and the
right of the political Spectrum always
in good faith with empathy rigor and
backbone sometimes I
fail sometimes I say stupid inaccurate
ineloquent things and I frequently
change my mind as I'm learning and
thinking about the world for all this I
often get attacked sometimes fairly
sometimes not but just know that I'm
aware when I fall short and I will keep
trying to do better I love you all this
is Alex Freedman podcast to support it
please check out our sponsors in the
description and now dear friends here's
Jen
yuger you wrote a book yeah a Manifesto
that outlines the progressive vision for
America so the big question what are
some defining ideas of
progressivism yes so in order to do that
Lex we got to uh talk about where we are
in the political spectrum and uh in fact
there's two different uh spectrums now
people often think of left right uh and
that's true that exists but layered on
top of that is now populist versus
establishment
so I'm Center left on the Left Right
Spectrum um but I'm all the way on the
populist end of of the second Spectrum
so where does progressivism lie within
that well uh I would argue that it's
exactly in those places it's populist uh
and it's on the left but it is not
far-left so far-left is a different
animal and we could talk about that in a
little bit so so in terms of what makes
a progressive so expand the circle of
Liberty and uh justice for all and
equality of opportunity now people will
say well that seems pretty Broad and
All-American but is it think about it so
expand the circle of Liberty uh
everybody's in favor of that right no
absolutely not so uh certainly the king
of England was not in favor of expanding
the circle of Liberty and the founding
fathers said we're going to expand it
and they expanded it to propertied white
men and then progressives have been
they're progressives because they
expanded the circle of Liberty they then
from then on as we're perfecting the
union progressives always say expand it
further include women include people
without property include all Races and
at every turn conservatives fight
against it so that doesn't mean if
you're conservative today you don't want
to include women or uh minorities Etc
but but today you would say for example
well I don't want to expand the circle
of Liberty to for example undocumented
immigrants and maybe you're right about
that and we could have that discussion
in terms of a specific philosophy and I
don't believe that undocumented
immigrants should immediately be
citizens or anything along those lines
but I do believe in expanding Liberty
overall and the Contour of that are
what's interesting and then you say
justice for all everybody's for just no
right now marijuana possession is still
illegal in a lot of parts of the uh
country now a lot of right- wiers and
left Wingers agree that it should be
legal but for for my entire lifetime uh
black people have been arrested at about
3.7 times the rate of white people and
the entire country has been fine with it
so is that Justice no they smoke white
people black people smoke marijuana at
the same rate black people get arrested
about four times the rate that is an
injustice that an enormous percentage of
the country was comfortable with well
progressives aren't comfortable with it
we want justice for all so the equality
of opportunity is an interesting one
because the farle will say
at least some portions of them will say
equality of results right so
progressives just want a fair chance so
free college education but afterwards
you don't get to have exact same results
as either the wealthiest person or we're
not all going to be equal we don't have
equal talents skills abilities Etc
there's a lot of questions I can ask
there so on the circle of Liberty yes so
expanding the number of people whose
freedoms are protected but what about
the magnitude of freedom for each
individual person so uh expanding the
freedom of the individual and protecting
the freedom as an individual it seems
like progressives are more willing to
expand the size of government where
government can do all kinds of
Regulation all kinds of controls on the
individual so Lex what we're probably
going to talk about a lot today is
balance and so a lot of people think oh
I I'm on the right I'm on the left and
that comes with a certain preset
ideology so the right is always correct
the left is always correct so there's
two problems with that number one how
could you possibly believe in a preset
ideology if you're an independent
thinker it's literally by definition not
possible if you say I lent my brain to
an ideology that was created 80 years
ago or 8 years ago or 800 years ago and
I'm not going to change it you're saying
I don't think for myself I you know I
bought into a culture and by the way
there's a lot of different forms of
culture you could buy into religion
politics sometimes uh racial Etc so
that's why you need actually balance the
second reason you need balance other
than independent thought is because the
answer is almost never black and white
and that gets into a really interesting
Nuance because Mainstreet media in my
opinion is the Matrix and its job is to
delude you into thinking corporate rule
is great for you and we should never
change it and the status quo is
wonderful so they have created a false
middle what mainstream media calls
moderate is actually in my opinion
extremist corporate ideology so for
example they'll say Joe Mansion is a
moderate none of his positions are
moderate other than potentially gun
control in West Virginia he's not for
gun control the people of West Virginia
are not for gun control generally
speaking so and he uses that and they
usually have these shiny objects where
they're like you see this I'm a moderate
because of guns or I'm a moderate
because I'm a Democrat from West
Virginia but wait let's look at your
positions you're against paid family
leave that pulls at 84% so you're a
radical corporatist who say that women
should be forced back in work the day
after they have birth you're against the
higher minimum wage you're against
you're for every corporate position and
they all PLL at 33% or less so Joe
Mansion is not all a moderate and this
applies to almost every corporate
Republican and every corporate Democrat
they're all extremists in in supporting
what I call corporatism so you have to
get to a balance in order to get to the
right answer so that's an interesting
distinction here so you're actually as
far as I understand Pro capitalism yes
which is an interesting place to be
that's the thing that probably makes you
Center left and then still populist
you're you're full of uh beautiful
contradictions that say this which will
be great to untangle but what what's the
difference between corporatism and
capitalism is there a difference yeah
so I I really believe in capitalism I I
don't think that there's really a second
choice um the in where it gets super
interesting is the distinction between
capitalism and socialism because that's
not at all as clear as people think it
is and people often say socialism and
communism as synonms when they're not
synonyms right and so I view it as
there's basically four uh distinct areas
it's obviously a spectrum everything is
a spectrum right on one end you have
communism on the left and on the other
end you have corporatism on the right
okay and I would argue that capitalism
is in the middle and so communism we
know uh State owns all property you're
not allowed to have private property so
I will piss off a lot of people in this
show and so I'm asking for their
patience please hear me out and because
don't worry I'm going to piss off the
other side too okay so communism makes
no sense at all totally opposed to human
nature it never works it always evolves
into dictatorship because it is not
built for human nature it we're never
going to act like that it's not in our
DNA you could try to wish it into
existence and they have and it never
works and it's because once you have
almost no rules in terms of uh oh all
equal and even though communism
eventually winds up having an enormous
amount of rules right uh it creates a
power vacuum when you say hey there's no
structure of power here right we're all
equal it's a flat line one guy usually
gets up because that's human nature and
goes uh I don't think so I think if
you're going to leave a power vacuum I'm
going to take that power vacuum that's
actually a really interesting way to put
it because when everyone is equal nobody
is in power and human nature is such
that there's everybody's there's a Will
To Power so when you create a power
vacuum somebody's going to to fill it so
the alternative is to have people in
power but there's a balance of power and
then there's like a democratic system
that elects the people in power and
keeps churning and rotating who's inv
that is exactly it Lex you got it
exactly right in my opinion okay so
that's why communism never works and can
never work so they it it's an idea of
like we're all going to work as hard as
we possibly can and take only what we
need where when when has that ever
happened in the history of humanity
right we're just not built that way so
okay we can get into that debate with my
friends on the left Etc now corporatism
is just as extreme and just as dangerous
and that is basically what we have in
America now what we have in America now
and this is another giant trick that the
Matrix played on everybody that they
they did a shell game and all of a
sudden extreme corpor like mansion and
almost every Republican in the Senate
are moderates oh my God Mitch McConnell
all of a sudden is a moderate and uh Etc
as long as you're not a populist
populists are never moderate okay but if
you love corporations and corporate tax
cuts and everything in favor of
Corporations you're magically called a
moderate when you actually according to
the polling have super extreme positions
that the American people hate and by the
way that's part of the reason for the
rise of trump we can come back to that
okay okay but the second shell game is
taking out capitalism putting in
corporatism but still calling it
capitalism okay so what is corporatism
it is when uh corporations slowly take
over the system and create Monopoly and
oligopoly power so that snuffs out
equality of opportunity so how do they
do that H when people say the the system
is
rigged they oftentimes can't explain it
that well and then mainstream media goes
you sound
conspiratorial rigged yeah I wonder how
yeah super easy to explain it here's one
of dozens of examples carried interest
loophole so that is for hedge funds
private Equity the the top people on
Wall Street they that's part of their
income they get 2 and 20 right so 2% is
a flat fee no matter what happens to the
fund and 20% of the profits of the fund
goes back to the people who invested it
it's not their money it's not their
investment uh what they're getting is
actually just income and should be taxed
at the highest rate but it's because of
this loophole it's taxed at a much lower
rate at around 20% so do you know at
what income level you go above 20% if
you're a regular Joe it's at $84,000 a
year so these billionaires are getting
the same tax rate as people making
$84,000 a year it's unbel believably
unfair uh and that's corporatism taking
over and starting to rig the rules I'm
going to pay less taxes you're going to
pay more taxes okay so again I can give
you dozens of those examples so and
mergers so that they get to oligopoly
power that's how you rig a system
lowering the corporate tax rates making
sure that there is no real minimum wage
making sure there's no Universal Health
Care we all get become indentured
servants of Corporations they take away
power from the average guy give it to
the most powerful people in the world so
and but the most important distinction
Le is that corporatism hates competition
it wants Monopoly and oligopoly power
whereas capitalism loves competition and
wants the free markets and I remember uh
you know we started Young Turks back in
2002 so we've been around for 22 years
longest running Daily Show on the
internet ever uh and so we were be pre-
Iraq War and Iraq war stars and Dick
Cheney starts handing out no bid
contracts I'm like what part of
capitalism is a no bid contract you
can't negotiate drug
prices the most anti-free Market thing I
have ever heard it's almost like
communism for corporations they get
everything you they're it and there you
get nothing right so it's it's
Preposterous it's awful and and it kills
the free markets and it's killing the
this country and it is the main ideology
and religion of the establish are all
companies built the same here so when
you say
corporatism uh it seems like just
looking here at the list of uh by
industry uh lobbyists it seems like
there are certain industries that are
worse offenders than others like
Pharmaceuticals uh like Insurance oil
and gas yeah so it seems to me
it feels wrong to just throw all
companies into the same bucket of like
they're all guilty no they're not all
guilty so let's make a bunch of
distinctions here so first of all uh can
you first of all are they quote unquote
guilty no they're doing something that
is logical and natural right so if your
a company do you want to pay higher
taxes or lower taxes of course you want
to pay lower taxes right do you want to
have higher employee costs or lower
employee costs of course you want lower
employee costs right so but the
government needs to understand that and
protect us from that power that they are
going to exercise to get to those
results and if you if you think free
markets is there is no government you
you read it wrong go re go back and
reread Adam Smith he says You must
protect against Monopoly power if you do
not protect against Monopoly power you
will have no free markets and he's
absolutely right so second distinction
is between small business in big
business that's why Republicans will
always be like oh we're doing this for
small business that's why we got the
biggest oil companies in the world $30
billion in subsidies what happened to
small business right so I run a small
business and so if people were to say
like hey uh maybe there should be
exemptions for some of the regulations
if your company has less than five
employees 10 employees 50 employees Etc
there's some logic in that because
businesses have different stages of
growth and they have different interests
and different needs in those stages of
growth and we want to facilitate small
business growth because that's great for
the economy that's great for uh markets
Freedom Etc but the bigger corporations
even there there's a third distinction
it isn't that there's certain industries
that are worse there's just that there
are industries that are better at
lobbying so anyone who like right now
number one donor in Washington a lot of
people make a mistake they think it's
APAC or they think it's the oil company
companies or the banks no it's big
Pharma okay and who has the most power
in this country big Pharma so we can't
even negotiate the drug prices I mean
look guys think about it this way that's
like saying okay here's a bottle of
water and normally in the free market
that would cost about a dollar right and
in the uh for Medicare the drug
companies come in and go no I'm not
charging a dollar for that water I'm
charging $100 and the government has to
say yes sir thank you sir of course sir
we'll pay $100
that's the that's that's why compared to
communism because I can't imagine
anything more diametrically opposed to
the free market then you the consumer
have to pay whatever the hell a
corporation charges that's Insanity let
alone the patents let alone the fact
that the American people pay for the
research and then they make billions of
dollars off of it and we get nothing but
robbed by them so it's about Lobby power
oil companies have huge Lobby Power
Defense contractors hu have huge Lobby
power it's not that they're more evil
it's just that they have figured out the
game better and they have basically
taken the influence they need to capture
the market capture the government and
and snuff out all competition well or a
lot of comp uh figured out the game
better so I think a lot of
companies are good at
winning the right way by building better
products by um you know making people
happier with the work they're they're
doing and when at the game of capitalism
and then there's other companies that
win at the game of lobbying and I just
want to sort of draw that distinction
because I think it's a small subset of
companies that are playing the game of
lobbying it's a big Pharma so Lex I
first of all you have to set rules for
what makes sense not oh I don't like
this industry or I don't like this
company or hey this company is not doing
that much lobbying at this point they
will later when they realize what's
going on so for example in my opinion
APAC has totally bought almost all of
Congress
and so now other countries are going to
wake up and go wait you could just buy
the American government so APAC is going
to spend about a100 million in this
cycle and they're going to and then
they're getting 26 billion back so every
country in the world is soon going to
realize oh take American citizens that
live there get them a tremendous amount
of money and just buy the US government
right so that but for corporations
they've already realized that on a
massive scale right so for example in
the two industries you gave Automotive
so in New Jersey about a decade ago or
so one of the most powerful lobbies is
uh car dealerships so at the national
level you got Pharma and you've got
defense contractors Etc at the local
level guys who have huge Power number
one is utilities number two is real
estate and then car dealerships are
hilariously among the top right because
it's local businesses that are you know
financing the politicians at the local
level so they passed a law uh saying
that uh you have to sell through
dealerships but Tesla doesn't sell
through dealerships and it was intended
to bully intimidate and push out Tesla
out of the market they then did that in
a number of different states throughout
the country so does that make any sense
in a democracy of course not why you
could why do you have to sell your
product through a specific vehicle or
medium you can sell it any way you like
that's the most anti-free Market thing
possible why it was just total utter
corruption and but it's not but it's
perfectly legal the Supreme Court
legalized bribery so then what happened
in that case so then Elon came in and
gave campaign contributions and reversed
it so now we're in a battle where it's
an open auction right different
companies are buying different
politicians and then they're pretending
to have debates about principles and
ideas Etc so now let's look at Tech um
in the beginning Facebook was not
spending any money in politics or almost
any money in politics so what happens
they're getting hammered they getting
pulled into Congressional hearings and
Facebook's got fake news and oh my God
all these trouble from Facebook then
Facebook does the logical thing oh it
turns out I need to grease these sons of
okay so then they hire a whole
bunch of Republican Consultants they go
grease all the Republicans and most of
the corporate Democrats and then all of
a sudden we're no longer talking about
Facebook at all and Facebook are angels
and now we've turned our attention to
who Facebook's top competitor Tik Tock
funny how that works okay and by the way
then Donald Trump goes oh and Tik tok's
big dangerous company they working with
China okay and then Jeff Yas comes in on
this cycle part owner of Tik Tock and he
doesn't want Tik Tok banished of course
right so he gives Trump a couple of
million dollars Trump turns around the
next day and goes we love Tik Tock Tik
tok's a good company right so that's a
big contributor to uh influencing what
politicians say and what they think but
it's not the entire thing right no it is
it's 98% I'll go on mainstream media and
they'll be like oh I see what you're
saying I I can see how that influences
politicians about 10% I'm like no no
it's 98% so and even a lot of good
people think it's 50/50 they have
principles and they have money no they
have money and this smid of principles
that's why I wanted to clarify 982 okay
so how do we how do we fix it so it's
really interesting and nice that you're
Pro capitalism and anti- corporatism so
how do we create a system where uh the
free market can rule where capitalism
can rule we can have these vibrant
flourishing of all these companies
competing against each other and
creating awesome stuff yeah uh so in the
book I call it Democratic capitalism as
opposed to Bernie's Democratic socialism
right we can get into that distinction
in a minute but
um so as Adam Smith said and anyone who
studies uh capitalism knows you need the
government to protect the market as well
as the people because so like why do we
have cops because if we don't have cops
somebody's going to go well I like Lex's
equ equipment why don't I just go into
his house and take it right so you need
the cops to protect you and that's the
government so people say I hate big
government do you right it depends right
if your house is getting robbed all of a
sudden you like the government but you
also need comps on Wall Street because
if you allow insider trading the
powerful are going to rob you blind and
the little guy's going to get screwed so
that's this easy example and so if you
don't have those cops the bad guys are
going to take over they're going to set
the rules rig the rules in their favor
so that that's why you need regulation
and so the Republicans on purpose made
regulation a dirty word they're like oh
all regulation is bad and and then
sometimes on the left people fall for
the Trap of all regulation is good a guy
I like in on has a great analogy on this
Matt Stoler he's one of the original I
would argue progressives and there's
about four of us I'm sure there's more
but that have stayed true to the
original meaning of progressivism and
populism me Matt Stoler David seroa Ryan
Grim okay and they used to be in that
original blogger group there was guys
like Glenn Greenwald and other
interesting cats right but they went in
different direction
so Matt has a great line he says um if
somebody comes up to you and says how
big a pipe do you
want there is no answer for that it
depends on the job doesn't it right what
are we doing what are we building I I'm
going to tell you the size of the pipe
depending on the project so when people
say are you in favor of Regulation or
against it that's an absurd question of
course you need regulation it just means
laws right so don't kill your neighbor
is a regulation right so uh my idea is a
simple one and one we're going to keep
coming back to balance so when my dad
was a small business owner in New Jersey
and and they inspected the elevator six
times a year that was overregulation and
I said to my dad so should they not
inspect it at all I'm a young kid
growing up and he said no no you got to
inspect it at least twice a year I said
why he said because in Turkey sometimes
they don't inspect it and then the
elevator Falls
okay so so bounds of Reason correct
regulation to protect the markets and to
protect the American people yeah but
finding the right level of Regulation
especially in for example in Tech
something I'm much more familiar with is
very difficult because uh people in
Congress are living in in the 20th
century before the internet was uh uh
invented so like how are they supposed
to come up with regulations yeah that's
the idea of the free market is you
should be able to sort of compete the
market regulates and then the government
can step in and protect uh the market
from forming monopolies for example
which is easier to do yeah but that's a
form of Regulation right but then
there's like more check in the elevator
twice a year that's a more sort of
specific watching micromanaging so Lex
here's the deal there's no way around
the the laws are made by politicians
okay so and so you can't give up then
and go oh it's a bunch of Schmucks who I
think most politicians are just servants
for the donor class I the you know the
media makes it sound like they're the
best of us oh they deserve a lot of
honor and respect and they kiss their
ass Etc I think generally speaking
they're usually the worst of us
especially in this corpor structure
right because they're the guys who uh
their number one Talent is yes sir no
sir what would you like me to do with
your donor money sir absolutely I'll
serve you completely or 98% right so in
this structure the politicians are the
worst of us but at some point you need
somebody elected to be your
representative to do Democratic
capitalism so that you have capitalism
but it's checked by the government on
behalf of the people it's the people
that are saying these are the rules of
the land and and you have to abide by
them so the how do you get to the best
possible answer and which is related to
an earlier question you asked Lex which
is the number one thing you have to do
is get big money out of politics
everything else is near impossible as
long as we are drowned in money and
whoever has more money wins and by the
way when it comes to legislation again
that's true about 98% of the time like
we predict things ahead of time people
are like wow how did you know that that
bill wasn't going to pass or was going
to pass it's the easiest thing in the
world and we like literally like teach
our audience on The Young Turks watch
you'll be able to see for yourself and
now like our members commented 10 they
do these predictions they're almost
always right right because it's so
simple follow the money so if you get
big money out of politics and I could
explain how to do that in this act um
then you're at a place where you got
your best shot at honest Representatives
that are going to try their best to get
to the right answer are they going to
get to the right answer out of the gate
usually not so they pass a law there's
something wrong with the law they then
fix that part they it's a pendulum you
know you don't want it to swing too
wildly but you do need a little bit of
oscillation in that pendulum to get to
the right balance by the way I I was uh
listening to uh Joe Biden from when he
was like 30 years old the speeches he
was eloquent as hell it's fun to listen
to actually and he has a speech he gives
or just maybe a conversation in Congress
I'm not sure where where he talks about
how corrupt the whole system is and he
he's really honest and like fun and uh
that Joe Biden is great by the way that
guy I mean age age sucks you know people
get older but he was talking quite
honestly about like having to suck up to
all these uh rich people and that he
couldn't really suck up to the really
rich people uh uh they said uh come back
to us uh 10 years later when you're like
more more integrated into the system but
he was really honest about it he's
saying that's um that's how it is that's
what we have to do and that really sucks
that that's what we have to do yeah so
we did a video on our Tik Tok Channel
then and now of Joe Biden this is when I
was trying to push Biden out we should
say you're one of the people early on
saying Biden used to step down yeah I
started about a year ago because I was
positive that Biden had a 0% chance of
winning and uh and it turned out by the
way uh two days before he dropped out
his inside advisers inside the White
House said yeah near 0% chance of
winning yeah so we were right all along
you got a lot of criticism for that by
the way but yeah yeah we can come back
to that yes I did and which makes it
Tuesday for me uh I get a lot of
criticism for everything uh and by the
way Democratic party you're
welcome so but H B's a really
interesting example I'm really glad you
brought it up so the video on Tik Tok
was just showing Biden then Biden now
and and you're right Biden was so
Dynamic when you see how Dynamic he was
we did like side by side right and then
you see him now going get barely anyways
right you're like oh that's not the same
guy I get it right so and that got like
5 million views because because it
resonates they're like yeah yeah of
course right but when he first started
to the point you were making Le he one
of in fact I know because I talked to
him about this uh his very first bill
was anti-corruption why because at that
point Everything Changes in 1976 78 is
Supreme Court decisions that basically
legalize bribery but remember Biden is
ancient so he's coming into politics at
a time when money has not yet drowned
politics and in fact the American
population is super pissed about the
fact that it's begun they don't like
corruption so early Biden because he's
reading the room is very anti-corruption
and the first bill he proposes is to get
money out of politics okay but as Biden
goes on for his epic 200-year career in
Washington he starts to get not more
conservative more corporate because he's
just taking more and more money by the
middle of his career he has a nickname
the senator from
MBNA okay MBNA was a credit card company
based in Delaware the reason he had that
nickname is because there isn't anything
Joe Biden wouldn't have done for credit
card companies and corporations based in
Delaware which are almost all
corporations okay so he became the most
corporate senator in the country and
hence the most beloved by corporate
media and corporate media is checked him
his entire career until about a month
ago so for example in the primaries both
in 2020 and 2024 if you said the senator
from MBNA I guarantee you almost no one
in the audience has heard of it if you
heard of it good job you know politics
really well okay but the reason you
didn't hear of it is because the
mainstream media wouldn't say that's
outrageous of Joe Biden to be such a
corporate stooge they'd say that's
outrageous of you to point out something
that's true and something we reported on
earlier okay and so they protected him
at all costs now
finally when you get to this version of
Joe Biden we he can't talk he can't won
he's he he Bears no resemblance to the
young guy who came in saying that money
in politics was a problem now he's
saying money in politics is the solution
and in 2020 he said well I can raise
more money than Bernie I I I can kiss
corporate ass better than Bernie I'm the
biggest corporate ass kisser in the
world so I'm going to raise a billion
dollars and you need to support me now
of course he doesn't say it in those
words but that was a message to The
Establishment and buddish kachar Obama
kurn everybody goes that's right Biden
Biden Biden Biden not
Bernie I don't know that there's anybody
in the country who instinctually
dislikes Bernie more than Barack
Obama oh that's an interesting I'm not
taking that attention at this moment
let's because you mentioned mainstream
media what's the motivation for
mainstream media to be corporatist also
so first of all they're giant
Corporation
so they're all multibillion Dollar
corpor in the old days we had incredible
number of media Outlets so you go to San
Francisco there'd be at least two papers
and there'd be a paper boy and I'm going
all the way back paper boy on each
corner and they're competing with one
another literally they'd be caty corner
right and one guy's going oh I hear all
this details they're trying to get an
audience they're trying to get people
interested so they're populous they're
interesting they're mck rakers they're
challenging the government fast for to
now or not now but about a decade ago
five years ago in that ball in that
ballpark now there's only six giant cor
media corporations left and it's an
oligopoly right and they're all
multi-billion dollar corporations they
all want tax cuts half of them are also
especially about 20 years ago during the
Iraq War half of them are defense
contractors so they're just using the
news as marketing to start wars like the
Iraq War and then GE which owned MSNBC
makes a tremendous amount of money so
much more money from war than it does
from media that media is a good
marketing spend for these corporations
now that's part of it that they
themselves want the same exact thing as
Corp the rest of Corporations do for
corporate rule lower tax cuts
deregulation so they can merge Etc but
the second part of it is arguably even
more
important so where does all that money
in politics go so for examp example in
2022 it's just a midterm election not no
presidential should be lower spending a
ridiculous $7 billion are spent okay on
on the election cycle where does the 17
billion go almost all of it goes into
corporate media mainstream media
television newspapers radio they're
buying ads like nuts so we have a
reporter at tyt David Schuster he used
to work at MSNBC Fox News Etc and David
wants to appe piece about money and
politics at a local NBC news station and
his uh editor or GM spiked the story and
David goes into his office and asks him
so why this story is true it's a huge
part of politics if we're going to
report on this issue we got to tell you
what's actually happening so he says
David come here puts his arm around his
shoulders takes him to the big news room
and he goes you see all this money in
politics paid for that
that's really fascinating so big
corporations are giving money to
politicians through different channels
and then the politicians are spending
that money on mainstream media and and
and so there's a there's a vicious cycle
where it's in the interest of the
mainstream media not to criticize the
very corporations that are feeding that
cycle so not actually direct it's not
like corporations or cuz I I was
thinking one of the ways is direct
advertisement like Pharmaceuticals
obviously advertise a lot on uh
mainstream media but there's also
indirect which is like giving the
politicians money the or or super Pacs
and the super Pacs and spend money on
the that's why media never took
mainstream media never talks about the
number one factor in politics which is
money like we all know I mean you now we
as we talked about earlier we see it
with our own eyes open auction any
country any company anybody that has
money the politicians will now literally
say I am now working for this guy As
Trump says because he gave me a strong
endorsement which means a lot of money
right and so and the Press never covers
it almost never right so you're telling
me you're doing a an article on the
infrastructure build or build back
better Etc and you're not going to
mention the enormous amount of money
that every Lobby is spent on that bill
that's absurd that's absurd that's 98%
of the ball game and the reason they
hide the ball is because they don't want
you to know this whole thing is based on
the money that they are receiving and
and by the way that one more thing about
that Lex it's that the ads themselves
actually they
work and they work pretty well but
that's not the main reason you spend
money on ads you spend the money in ads
to get friendly coverage from the
content from the free media that you're
getting from that same Outlet and so
since every newspaper and every news uh
television station and network knows
that the Democratic party and the
Republican Party are their top clients
they're going to get billions of dollars
from them they never really criticize
the Republican and Democratic party on
the other hand if you're an outsider
they'll rip your face
off that's also really interesting so if
you're an Advertiser if you're a big
farmer and you're
advertising it's not the that the
advertisement works it's that the the
hosts are too
afraid not like explicitly just even
implicitly they're self-censoring
they're not going to have any guests
that are like controversial anti- big
farmer or they're not going to make any
jokes about big farmer they're not going
to make and that and that kind of that
continues and expands that's really
interesting sometimes it's super direct
when I was a host on MSNBC I uh had a a
company uh that I was criticizing in my
uh
and management looked at it and by the
way I used to go off prompter aot and it
drove him crazy not because I wasn't
good at it I I think my ratings went up
whenever I went off prompter but because
they couldn't pre-approve the script and
what do they want to pre-approve hey are
you going to criticize one of our
sponsors one of our advertisers Etc so
they H we had a giant fight over it and
the compromise was I mooved them lower
in the script but kept them in the story
right so sometimes it's super direct
like that but more way more often it's
implicit it's indirect you don't have to
say it right so I I give you an
spectacular example of it so that you
get a sense of how it works implicitly
so since G is a giant defense contractor
they own MSNBC at the time of the Iraq
War they fired everyone who was against
the Iraq War on air so Phil Donahue
Jesse Ventura Ashley Banfield but Ashley
bfield they did something different with
okay she was a rising star at the time
she goes and gives a speech in Kansas
not really even having a policy position
but just talking about the actual cost
of this Iraq war and how we should be
really careful they hate that so they
take their rising star and they take her
off air okay and she goes okay good let
me add of my contract it's okay I'll go
because she was such a star at that time
she could have easily gotten somewhere
else and they go no we're not going to
let you out of your contract why not you
going to pay me to do nothing yeah not
only that we're moving your office where
are you moving it to they literally
moved it into a closet okay and they
made sure that everybody in the building
saw her getting taken off the air and
moved into a closet the closet is the
memo right that's the memo to the whole
building you better shut up and do as
you're told okay so that way I don't
have to tell you and get myself in
trouble it's super obvious there are
guard rails here and you are not allowed
to go beyond acceptable thought an
acceptable thought is our sponsors are
great politicians are great the powerful
are great so how do we uh how do we
begin to fix that and what exactly are
we fixing is it the the influence of the
lobbyist the influence of like it feels
like
there's uh companies have found
different ways to achieve influence
right so how do we get money out of
politics so it's very difficult but
doable and we will do it so but in order
to do it the populist left and the
populist right have have to unite
because and that by the way that is why
we have the cultural Wars that's why
you're voting for
Trump no chance okay so we can get into
that in a minute so the culture wars are
meant to divide us if we if we get
united we have enough leverage and power
to be able to do it but uh you can't do
it through a normal bill because if you
do it in a bill the whole point of
capturing the Supreme Court was to make
sure that they kill any piece of
legislation that would protect the
American people you're saying the
Supreme Court is also captured by this
oh 100% so okay so let me explain again
people for the uninitiated they think oh
that sounds conspiratorial well in this
case that's actually somewhat true
because people now know about this it's
the pow memo right the most infamous
political memo in history Lewis Powell
writes a memo for the Chamber of
Commerce in 1971 that's basically a
blueprint for how the Chamber of
Commerce can take over the government
and Lewis Powell explains one of the
most important things you have to do is
take over the media but even more
important than that is taking over the
Supreme Court because the Supreme Court
is the ultimate Arbiter of what is
allowed and not allowed and he
says we need quote activist
judges to uh to help business interests
on the court okay and then Nixon reads
the memo and goes that sounds like a
really good idea how about I put you on
the Supreme Court and he puts Lewis
Powell the guy who wrote the memo on the
Supreme Court where he's the decid in
vote in balot and uh and uh Buckley so
bat's those two decisions are 76 to 78
and what they say is yeah yeah I read
the Constitution and it says that money
is speech no it isn't and no it didn't
that's not even close to true they just
made it up and they said okay in
corporations they're human beings no
they're not that's preposterous right
and they have the same inalienable
rights as human beings and citizens do
and money is speech and speech is an
inalienable right so corporations can
spend unlimited money in politics and
there goes our democracy gone okay so
citizens united just shot a dead horse
with a Gatling gun and made it worse and
put it on steroids but it was already
dead in 78 so that's why every chart you
you see for the rest of your life you'll
see this um every chart in about the
American economy starts diverge in 1978
so until 38 to 78 we have golden 40
Years of economic
Prosperity we create the greatest middle
class the world has ever seen and uh our
productivity is skyh high but our wages
match our productivity after
78 productivity is still Skyhigh best in
the world okay sometimes people oh the
American workers lazy not remotely true
we work our ass off okay but wages just
Flatline and they've been flatlining for
about 50 years straight and the reason
is because the Supreme Court made briber
IL legal so in order to get past the
Supreme Court you only have one choice
that's an amendment and so you have to
get an amendment amendments are very
difficult but so for example you you
need two-thirds of Congress to even
propose the amendment so well why would
Congress propose an amendment that would
take away their own power right cuz
almost everybody Congress got there
through corruption their main Talent is
I can kiss corporate ass better than you
can right so I they take the most amount
a person with more money in Congress
wins 95% of the time right but the good
news is the founding fathers were
Geniuses and they put in a second outlet
they said or two-thirds of the states
can call for a convention where you can
propose an amendment and after an
amendment is proposed then three
quarters of the states have to ratify it
that's what makes it so difficult
because getting three quarters of the
states there's so many red States so
many blue States getting three quarters
of the states they agree is near
impossible but there is one issue that
the whole country agrees on 93% of
Americans believe that politicians serve
their donors and not their voters so
this is the one thing we can unite on if
we unite on this we push our states to
call for a convention we all go to the
convention together we bring democracy
alive and we propose amendments to the
Constitution and the best Amendment gets
three quarters of the states to ratify
you go above the Supreme Court and you
solve the whole thing so if 93% of
people want this why hasn't it happened
yet I mean the obvious answer is there's
uh corporate control of the media and
the politicians but it seems like our
current system and the megaphone that a
president has you should be able to kind
of unite the populist left and right so
it shouldn't be that difficult to do
like hasn't a person like Trump who's a
billionaire mhm or on the left um a rich
businessman run just on this and win
well eventually they will right and so
that's why I actually have a lot of Hope
even though things seem super dark right
now so uh and that's why I was for
Bernie so I I can come back to that but
why hasn't Trump done it as easy he's
like what am I a sucker the guy gives me
money I do what the guy wants why would
I get rid of that that's how I got into
power and so that's how I'm doing it now
I get go to Miram Adon and say give me
$100 million and I'll let Israel Annex
the West Bank right so I'll go to the
oil companies and give me a billion
dollars and I'll give you tax subsidies
I'll let you drill I'll take away
regulation why would I stop that you
think he likes money more than he likes
being popular
because uh there there's a big part of
him as a populist in the sense that like
he loves being admired by large masses
of people yeah so and you're absolutely
right but that is the fault of Maga and
so Maga you're screwing populace in a
way that is
infuriating okay and smart Libertarians
like Dave Smith have figured this out
and that's why he's just as mad at Trump
as I am and uh and it's because he took
a populist movement and he redirected it
for his own personal gain magga figure
it out come on right and so if you say
oh you think Democrats have figured out
that Poli no they largely haven't
figured it out either and I think
there's blue Maga and I could talk about
that as well but for those of us on the
populist left yeah we're not enamored by
politicians and for example when Bernie
does the wrong thing we call him out
well why I'm not Bernie's not my goddamn
Uncle I don't I don't like him for some
personality reason it's not a cult of
personality you do the right thing I
love you for you do the wrong thing I'm
gonna kick your ass for it right so but
Donald Trump does this massive
ridiculous corruption over and over
again and mago's like I'm here for it
love it as long as you're doing the
corruption I'm okay with it what does
Trump what does Trump say about getting
money out of politics does he he says
nothing about it go magga why haven't
you held him to account like so when
Bernie helped Biden take out $15 minimum
wage from the Senate bill on the first
uh bill that was introducing the Biden
Administration we went nuts we did a
petition we sent in videos to Bernie our
audience Going H don't kill it Bernie
don't kill it and so Bernie then
reintroduced it as an amendment it got
voted down but he did the the right
thing right that is US holding our top
leader accountable and saying you better
get back on track okay cuz we're not
here for you and your personal self
aggrandisement we're here for policy
right and if magga was actually here for
policy they would have absolutely
leveled Trump on the fact that he I mean
remember what he ran on drain the swamp
that's why he won in 2016 right I so I
predicted on ABC right after the DNC and
Hillary Clinton was up 10 12 points
whatever she was and I said Trump would
win okay and they the whole panel
laughed out loud right they're like get
get Al to this crazy guy I said he's a
populist who seems to hate The
Establishment in a in a populist time
and so and drain the SW swamp is is a
great uh slogan uh and I knew he would
win when he was in a republican debate
and he
said I paid all these guys before I paid
them and they did whatever I wanted and
I was like that's so true right and
people will love that and especially
Republican voters will love that I
actually have a lot of respect for
Republican voters because they actually
genuinely hate corruption so what would
an amendment look like that uh helps
prevent money being an influence in
politics so I started a group called
Wolfpack um and name thank you
wolfpack.com and and the reason why I
named a Wolfpack is because everyone in
Washington I knew would hate that name m
um it's a populist name and everybody in
Washington Snickers like now you're
supposed to name it Americans for
America and just trick people Etc no no
no Wolfpack means we're coming for you
okay we're not coming for you in a
weirdo physical or violent way we're
coming for you in a democratic way okay
so we're going to go to those State uh
houses we're going to get them to
propose a convention and we did it in
five states but then the Democratic
party started beating us back we'll get
to that and uh and so uh we are going to
overturn your apple cart and we're going
to bring put the American people back in
charge so what does the amendment say
number one uh a lot of people will have
uh different opinions on what it should
say and that's what you sort out in a
convention so for example one of the
things that conservatives can propose
which makes sense is term limits because
the reason why these super old
politicians are in charge is because
they provide a return on investment so
you know if you give to Biden Pelosi or
mcconell they're going to deliver for
you they love that turn on a message
they don't want to risk it on a new guy
the new guy might have principles ew or
you know might want to actually do a
little bit for his voters boo whereas
these old you know and every corrupt
system has these old guys hanging around
that help maintain power Etc so my
particular proposal in amendme