#720 Imagine you're stuck in LA today, facing certain death from the Hamas Marxist army
TODAY: Alex details a rough workweek and the strange case of his employer having more volume and business than the shareholders would prefer. Due to overwork grievances and disciplined work methods from drivers, the company was forced to hire an additional 5 full-time drivers. Likewise in Minnesota the union wins 30 new full-time positions to fight company-wide layoffs and building closures. ALSO: The Battle of Los Angeles. Thousands of LA residents rise up against ICE raids on their neighbors, protesting the violence and cruelty wielded by the militarized agency. An SEIU labor leader is injured and arrested, and Teamsters voice their support. We argue for the dignity and protection of all workers and respond to some reactionary and nativist union sentiments. Get a bonus episode every week by signing up at http://patreon.com/miniondeathcult for only $5/month Music: Pelican - Specific Resonance Mr. Flash - Eagle Eyez
And conservative humor gone awry is going to fascist-fornia today.
So stay tuned.
We're going to take a few pictures of the desert and how their policies are actually messing it up.
It's not beautiful when you go across that border.
But stay tuned, guys.
We'll show you exactly what it looks like when the people just go to the dangers.
Follow their rebar in Houston.
Stay tuned.
Alright, I'm Alexander Edward.
And I'm Tony Boswell.
And we are Minion Death Cult.
The world is ending.
The Hamas Marxist army in Los Angeles, California is responsible.
We are all facing certain death at their hands.
But we're documenting it, folks.
Don't worry.
It'll all be documented.
You'll all see, okay?
Thank you for joining the show.
What's up, everybody?
Welcome to Minion Death Cult.
We got a jam-packed episode for everybody today, but I did want to ask my co-host here, Tony, do we have a merch update?
Do we have an update on the merchandise?
Merch is good.
Most of it's out.
I was just waiting on a couple new boxes, and everything's going out, and you should be getting your...
Everyone should have emails with tracking and things are good.
We're all set.
Sounds good.
Yeah.
Cool.
Yeah, so if this episode's coming out late or if you're hearing this a little later than normal, sorry, it's because work sucks.
It's because my job is kind of like hell right now.
I've had back-to-back-to-back 12-hour days.
It's kind of crazy how you take on additional work as an agreement to...
And then they just assume that that's now your new baseline and you can keep on taking additional work.
And I'm sorry, that's not the way it works, as a matter of fact.
And then you end up with paying me back to back to back 12 hour days, plus the grievance I'm going to file that I have already filed on being overworked last week.
So I am looking forward to.
That'll be nice.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's all just because they've implemented this strategy of destroying the company.
That's what it looks like.
It's kind of an interesting gambit that corporate is taking, which seems to amount to, we don't want money or business anymore.
We want to cancel our contracts with Amazon.
We want to cancel our contracts with the post office.
We want to just not do residential delivery in general, despite that being a successful business model for the last hundred years of the company's operation.
Fairly astounding to hear the bosses and corporate overlords say that $9 billion in profits last year just wasn't enough.
Just wasn't enough for them.
So we are going to apparently forcibly downsize the company, forcibly lay off drivers, close buildings, and still have the volume, still have...
Thank you.
And they, of course, expect the rest of us to just pick up the slack and help them lay off our coworkers.
It's not going to happen with me, and I hope it doesn't happen with other drivers either.
And it's funny because I'm actually going on vacation the next two weeks, and...
Good luck, everybody, with whatever.
It's tough on the streets.
However long I'm taking to do my route that I know the back of my hand, it's going to be very interesting to see what happens with somebody covering it.
And they know.
You know, my supervising team, they know that we're fucked.
They know that that the company is like, what do you like?
like a like it's it's like forced suicide or something um so much so it's I guess it's just called murder.
Corporations are people, so you have to try and figure out their correct analogy to make.
Maybe murder-suicide?
Something like that?
Yeah, I think that's more sense.
It is more like a cult suicide than anything.
Yeah.
But I did find out.
I said, have fun.
And my supervisor said, well, the good news is we actually had to hire five new drivers.
So they'll be here when you get back.
So not only have like they systematically brought back all the drivers that they laid off from my center.
We've now apparently had to hire five additional full time jobs, which is a.
And also in Minnesota, the Teamsters over there won a grievance that created 30 new full-time positions at the largest UPS facility in Minnesota.
So 30 full-time jobs that saved from layoffs, saved from unjust cuts.
This is good news.
It's, of course, like an ongoing fight with the company and with automation in general and the corporate American need for profits at all costs.
But this is one of the ways that we do fight back is by not doing your laid-off co-workers jobs for free.
Not just absorbing that.
And hoping that if you keep your head down and do more and more work, that the company will spare you from future layoffs or spare you from future harassment or whatever.
It's not going to happen.
You're just going to be doing that work for the rest of your life at UPS for free.
Yeah, yeah.
The biggest lesson to learn from this is, you know, the best thing to take is like, never show them your full potential.
Because if you do that, if you show them what you're capable of, you're doing that at the cost of your own energy and livelihood, and they will see that you can do it, and they will never ask you to stop.
So I'm excited to do the bare minimum when I start my new job and never show them what I can actually do so I can slowly escalate that and keep my livelihood intact.
Well, the thing is, it's like, okay, this is a career for me.
It's a full-time job.
It's a physical job.
It's something I'm going to have to be doing.
I've already been with this company for 20 years, but I was part-time for so long.
I have another 20 years with this company.
It's not just do the best you can do as much as you can do today.
It's, well, who says you're going to be feeling so great tomorrow?
Who says you're going to be capable of this same energy?
Who says your day is going to look the same?
You're going to have different challenges, maybe more challenges, maybe less challenges.
That's why the only baseline, the only standard you can actually adhere to is working safely and working professionally and working the correct methods because they can't penalize you for doing any of that.
That's part of the job.
That's part of having a sustainable workforce is working, you know, To the best of your ability within reason, within safety, within professionalism, and being able to take some time out to talk to your customers, to see if your customers have any issues, to see if there's any things that you can resolve on their behalf with the company, things like that.
Like that's all part of your job.
And it's unfortunate because you, Except for DOT regulations, which are 14 hours on the road, anything up to that, you just got to do it.
You can't refuse to work.
They count that as quitting.
So the only way to fight back is to just...
Make them pay you that overtime and then make them pay you the overtime again in the form of a grievance.
Yeah, get that money.
It might mean that you don't make it home for dinner on time, but, You're going to hurt yourself.
You're going to hurt somebody else.
And it's going to be way worse in the long run for you.
There was this video that's going viral in one of my Facebook groups.
I'll share it with you here.
It's this video of a driver whose route got cut.
And it's the community that he served on his route coming together to say how much this driver helped them, how much this driver meant to them.
Let's watch a little bit of it I can't believe UPS is doing this They just cut my favorite driver's route Which feeds this whole small town Where I do all my E-commerce packaging, ship out of my business, and the companies I work with ship all their stuff to me.
And someone up in corporate at UPS just decided it was a good idea to take away his route that he's been on since 2018.
So just take a listen to what one of the people that live in town had to say about Josh and his job.
In a world that often moves too fast, where kindness can feel like a forgotten art.
There's one person who reminds us every day that going the extra mile both literally and figuratively still matters.
That person is our UPS delivery guy and our friend, Josh.
Josh doesn't just deliver packages.
He delivers peace of mind, a warm smile, and a rare sense of trust.
Rain or shine, snow or sweltering heat, he shows up with unwavering dedication and a genuine heart.
We've seen him carry heavy boxes up long driveways, especially those bags of dog food.
He knocks gently so as not to wake a sleeping baby, and he waits an extra moment to make sure an important package ends up safely in the right hands.
He's helped elderly neighbors bring in their parcels, remembers names, asks about our well-being, and also makes time for a kind word when someone needed it most.
We each have our own Josh stories, moments that live in our hearts and keep our hearts smiling.
This goes on for minutes, but it's so crazy to think that a company would willingly throw this type of customer service,
this type of brand, In the most cynical response should be UPS trying to capitalize off of this worker's genuine relationship and connection to the community.
We've gotten so bad, we've gotten so far in capitalism that it's not sufficient even to exploit this worker's goodwill and this worker's relationship with the community.
Having this kind of relationship with your community whether it's because you're a service worker or any type of member of this community is such a powerful thing.
And when you see a corporation just willing to throw it in the trash it makes you think wow it is kind of a powerful thing.
Maybe it's too powerful.
Like maybe The sort of connection that this human worker has with the community is a threat to a corporation, to a system of capitalistic relations that wants us workers to be disposable, that wants us to be easily replaced with automation or AI or robotics or whatever.
When I was fired unjustly, my community, my route, you know, they didn't make a video, a little five-minute video package for TikTok.
Maybe next time I get fired, they can do that.
But they came together and signed a petition.
I got almost 200 signatures from my route of people attesting to my integrity and my relationship with the community.
And I believe that helped me get my job back.
You know, I fortunately have a union, so that was probably a bigger part of it.
But I didn't even go, you know, I didn't even go public with any of this because I had the union.
You know, if I had gone public with it, I'm sure I could have gotten even more community support and even more public support.
When humans get involved, it mucks up the profit motive.
It adds other incentives that become part of the calculation, incentives like community and sustainability.
And, you know, my most conspiratorial mind is, it's not even a conspiracy, it's just kind of like, I think, common sense, not to sound like a cliche, but it's, you have to get rid of these drivers, you have to get rid of these workers who are beloved by their community, Because, I mean, chances are they've been there for a while, so they make more than the new hires, so that's one reason.
But also, it makes the whole process towards downsizing and layoffs and automation makes it more palatable.
It makes it easier, because once you get rid of these community fixtures, it makes the whole thing easier.
Yeah, and like you said, from a really cynical point of view, It does show how desperate they are for profit because anybody else, anybody who's smart is making this exact video with a fan cam of him delivering and a shin song in the background and this woman talking over it and making money that way.
But like you said, they know that those delivery ice boxes that they have, they've never helped an old lady with her dog food up the stairs.
So they were able to go to the next delivery.
The drones?
The automated drones?
Is that what you're talking about?
Yeah.
They've never done that.
They've never gone out of their way because they saw somebody and had a conversation and realized they needed an extra step.
And every time you're helping an old lady, that's a moment you could be delivering another package.
And that's all they see.
Right.
You should be, as a worker, they want you to be a drone.
As a worker drone, if you see an old lady struggling to get out of her car or whatever, you should go through her.
Yeah, exactly.
She's just in your way of more profit.
Yeah, thankfully those drones will do that.
But yeah, I just, I don't know.
I wanted to give people an update on what it's like working for a company that's potentially being just hollowed out by capitalists and by Wall Street.
An ongoing battle.
And again, we still have the business.
That's the funny part.
Yeah, that's crazy.
is we still have the business despite their best efforts and they're just, you know, I think they're probably hoping people quit.
They're probably hoping people get mad at each other.
They're probably hoping people get mad at low-level supervisors instead of these corporate decisions.
Yes, the supervisors are carrying them out, but that's their job.
That's their job function.
One of these guys quits.
There's just going to be another part-time suit willing to follow orders.
I don't really blame them.
It's just an insane way.
Tony and I were talking about this.
It's just an insane way to organize a company.
It's an insane way to organize an economic system.
And it's an insane way to organize a world, a country, and a world at large.
Yeah, it's funny, like you said, what's really wild about it is this stuff happens all the time, and usually there's a little bit of sympathy because the business lost business.
The business does not have, you know, they're not making what they used to make, they're not having the customers to have, but that's not the issue UPS is having.
They're just trying to find new ways to save money to make money, and it's really counterintuitive, but it kind of shows how all that really matters to these people is like a number.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, it's just...
Yep, wild.
But anyway, like I said, we just hired on five drivers in Minnesota.
They filed that grievance.
They got 30 new full-time jobs.
There is a way to combat this stuff.
There is a way to fight back against this stuff.
So I would just urge people, if you're a Teamster, if you're working under these conditions, Talk to your coworkers.
Tell them to file nine fives.
Tell them not to work off the clock.
Tell them not to help the company lay off their coworkers.
And if your center's getting nasty with you, if your center managers are getting nasty with you, there is so much more stuff you can do to make sure you are working.
To rule, to make sure you are working safely.
Oh, that E-Reg, that over 71-pound package, you have contractual rights to call the center and make them send out another driver to help you lift that desk or mattress or whatever out of your truck, onto your dolly, up the steps.
That's a two-man job, two-person job for safety.
So there are plenty of things you can do to help create work in your center.
And remember, all that is you just doing your job.
All that is you doing your job correctly.
Because what they want you to do is to circumvent those things.
But that's just you doing your job correctly.
You're not doing anything wrong.
You're not even being subversive.
You're just doing what the contract says.
You're just doing what the job description says.
And that's good.
It's good this time.
Yeah, you're never going to be a good enough worker for UPS not to have dollar signs when they look at you in a casket.
There's just no way around it.
That's just the relationship.
And they know it.
You might as well know it, too.
They're not going to let you slide.
Why would you let them slide on this shit?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So Tony, did you do any rioting this weekend in Los Angeles?
I didn't do any rioting in particular.
I did do some post-rioting supervision at the bar.
Were you riot-sitting people?
Were you making sure everybody had a good, safe time while they rioted?
Yeah, yeah.
So that was pretty much...
But I was actually really...
We're eager to be like, man, we were out there.
It was crazy.
There was way more than I expected.
And people I didn't expect to be telling me that.
And it was really heartwarming and really good.
Yeah.
I'd love to see it.
Nobody was like, Tony, you're a bouncer.
Keeping people out of somewhere is your second nature.
Why do you like immigrants so much?
Yeah.
And then they look inside and see all the people I actually still let in that I probably should not have let in.
And they're like, okay, never mind.
He gets it.
Yeah, seem pretty crazy out there in Los Angeles.
Really want to hand it to those folks.
Jeez.
Jeez, Louise.
I'm going to read here a little bit from KTLA, the LA, you know, What's KTLA again?
I don't remember.
Whatever.
It's a big one.
It's one of the big ones.
Police used flashbangs, tear gas to quell ICE raid protests in LA.
A series of U.S. immigration and customs enforcement raids ignited widespread protests, confrontations, and scenes of chaos as federal agents detained at least 44 individuals across Los Angeles on Friday.
Protesters swarmed the streets.
Some jumping in front of law enforcement vehicles.
It feels like we're describing the fucking Fremen from Dune.
Protesters swarmed the streets.
Some jumping in front of law enforcement vehicles as KTLA captured the escalating tensions.
This is like descriptions from the Imperium describing Fremen warriors throwing their children who had knives at Imperial officers and shit.
I saw somebody hop on a van and they threw two hooks on chains into the top of the van and rode the van into another van.
La migra has become a killing word.
Agents moved in on at least three locations.
I wonder what caused this.
How did this start?
Agents moved in on at least three locations throughout the day.
One of the most visible confrontations took place outside a Home Depot in the Westlake District, where day laborers often gather for temporary work.
ICE agents in riot gear were seen clashing with and chasing people through the parking lot as stunned shoppers looked on.
So once again with ICE, with this particular administration, how it's been using ICE, It's just going after the softest targets possible.
Going after people showing up for their immigration hearings.
Tackling people in courtrooms for following the law and following the system of getting their paperwork.
Dragging mothers away from their children.
Going to fucking afternoon lunches and barbecues and shit.
And arresting people.
And now here at Home Depot.
What jobs are the day laborers at Home Depot stealing from people?
And it's wild too because it's such blatant racism.
The only thing they have to go off to chase these people down is their brown skin.
They don't know these people's names.
They don't know that they're undocumented.
It's the assumption that they're just going for it.
And it's fucking crazy to see.
Yeah, they're pigs.
They're just going after memes.
They're going after high visibility, soft target memes.
This is the equivalent of the private security firms and IDF-run security firms going after college kids.
This is the equivalent of that.
It's because they're all cowards and because the cruelty is part of it.
The cruelty and the sport is almost all of it.
It's not really even part of it.
It's just about all of it.
Ice agents and riot yet another raid unfolded at a clothing store on Town Avenue in the Fashion District.
Several workers were taken into custody in handcuffs and loaded into waiting vans.
Imagine like, just in the abstract.
Okay, so there's this, you know, we'll assume that the people they arrested were actually undocumented immigrants, which is a big assumption.
It's an assumption you can't make because, again, these people are pigs.
But assuming they are, you're working, what, under the table for sub-minimum wage at a business.
The cops come and they arrest you.
They arrest you and throw you into the back of a van for being exploited.
This is what we do in this country, is we just attack the people at the very bottom in general.
But still, it's always just shocking to me to see.
And this is what people are reacting to in the streets.
Because I haven't gotten to it in the story yet, but like a thousand people came out to say, fuck ICE and fuck you guys.
And it's happening all over the country.
And it doesn't matter if those people broke the law.
It doesn't matter if those people are, quote, illegal or whatever.
That's beside the point.
The point is, they're being exploited.
They're being treated harshly.
They're just looking for a better life.
And it's unacceptable.
I don't give a fuck if they broke the law.
This treatment is unacceptable.
Yeah, this idea that people were voting for, that ICE agents were going to be raiding cartel warehouses full of fentanyl and children, is not real.
And if that was what was happening, you wouldn't see this.
But they're going after, you know, aunties who, you know, Tia's who've been working in the garment district for 30 years.
You know, for people who you see, you know, people who are part of the community, people who are, who they're entrenched with, people who are their neighbors and, you know, they know their names.
That's who they're going after.
And like, and people are recognizing that and they don't, they don't want that.
And then it's, it's lovely to see.
Yeah.
I just, I, I, the argument that they're stealing jobs or whatever, it doesn't.
It doesn't hold water with me because it's just like you could also go under the table and work a sub-minimum wage if you wanted to, man.
These people don't have any other options, so of course that's what's going to happen.
These are desperate people.
And capitalists and bosses are going to exploit their desperation.
That's what the system will do.
That's an inevitability of the system.
Yeah, if that's something you really believed in, if you were really upset about it, you wouldn't be worrying about people taking those jobs.
You'd be championing labor rights.
You'd be supporting union movements.
You would be demanding equity in people who are putting work for people's work.
That's what you'd be doing.
You wouldn't be going after the people who are Because this only is happening because it's enabled by capitalism.
That's the only reason why this is happening.
So if you really cared, you'd go after the people who are actually enabling this.
But they don't.
They don't actually care.
They're just racist.
Several workers were taken into custody in handcuffs and loaded into waiting vans.
Outside, other agents in tactical gear engaged in tense standoffs with onlookers and activists.
Some of whom used megaphones to urge garment workers not to sign documents or speak with federal agents.
Later in the evening, flashbang grenades and tear gas filled the air as Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to mounting unrest in the Civic Center area.
At 7.51pm, LAPD's Central Division declared an unlawful assembly at Alameda and Temple Streets, warning that those who failed to leave would be subject to arrest.
Minutes later, the department reported that a group of violent individuals was throwing large pieces of concrete.
Officers were authorized to use less lethal munitions to disperse the crowd.
Did you see that video of that guy throwing concrete chunks at every ice vehicle that came by?
Yeah.
Awesome.
Amazing.
I've never been so grateful for the lack of infrastructure maintenance in Los Angeles.
I'm happy there's just large chunks of concrete laying around sometimes.
Yeah, those are still left over from when they bulldozed entire neighborhoods to put Dodger Stadium in.
Yeah, yeah.
And you just think about all the concrete trucks we're going to have with the Olympics coming in.
It's going to be really nice.
Approximately 44 people were administratively arrested in one arrest for obstruction, an HSI spokesperson said.
The investigation remains ongoing.
Updates will follow as appropriate.
That single obstruction arrest was confirmed by U.S. Attorney Bill Asali as David Huerta, president of the California branch of the Service Employees International Union, the SEIU.
He is seen falling to the ground with several agents around him before he is presumably taken into custody while protesters and agents exchange shoves.
The arrest of Huerta, who union members said was also injured, was condemned by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who called Huerta a respected leader, a patriot, and an advocate for working people.
No one should ever be harmed for witnessing government action, Newsom added.
In a new release issued Friday evening, SEIU California said Huerta was treated at a local hospital for injuries he suffered during his arrest.
But currently remains in federal custody.
He made the following statement through the union.
Quote, We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice.
This is injustice.
And we all have to stand on the right side of justice.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, there are...
We issued a statement here.
Let me pull it up.
Joint statement from Peter Finn, president of Teamsters Joint Council 7, and Chris Griswold, president of Teamsters Joint Council 42, regarding recent ICE raids in Los Angeles.
The coordinated ICE raids across Los Angeles today were violent and intentionally cruel.
These were not acts of justice.
They were calculated displays of power meant to terrify working families and rip communities apart.
Families who came here to build a better life were targeted and terrorized simply for existing.
Among those harmed was our union brother David Huerta, president of SEIU California who was injured and arrested while exercising his constitutional right to assemble and speak out.
His detention was an attack on every worker who has ever stood up for what is right.
ICE agents were not acting to protect the public.
They were sent to intimidate, to punish, and to silence voices calling for dignity.
Teamsters Joint Council 7 at 42 stand with every working family under attack.
We fight for justice for all workers as we know that it is our work that keeps our country moving.
The values of our labor movement demand that we speak out in moments like this.
The California labor movement will not be intimidated, will not be divided, and will never stop fighting for the right of every worker to live safely and with dignity.
Absolutely.
Good statement.
Absolutely.
The difference between this and Gavin Newsom's statement is drastic.
Gavin Newsom just tweeted about not being violent and he doesn't support Trump but we can't be violent and it's like, motherfucker, you have a military at your disposal and you're allowing this.
Your words mean nothing.
This is real.
This is a real statement.
They're doing real things.
The use of the word worker is so powerful throughout this.
And yeah, you love to see it.
It's really good that they're doing that.
And I'm curious to see what my man has to say on his podcast.
Oh, yeah.
No, I don't think he'll address it.
You don't think he's going to address this statement?
Yeah, him and Mark Anderson or some other Silicon Valley freak will definitely want to talk about undocumented workers' rights on his podcast, for sure.
Jesus.
Yeah, Gavin Newsom had a similar statement to the DEI workwear guy, or D-I-E workwear guy, which was that, well, violence is bad.
So, you know, you can protest, but don't get violent.
And it's like, there are guys in stormtrooper costumes throwing people to the ground.
It's already violent.
Self-defense is like, that is not the same thing.
This is self-defense.
This is protecting yourself and your community.
This is not, you know, senseless violence.
Fuck off.
Gavin Newsom, yeah, on this tweet says, never use violence.
Speak out peacefully.
They're already using the violence, man.
What do you expect people to do?
It's like a reflex.
It's like hitting somebody in the kneecap with a little rubber mallet, dude.
They're going to hit back.
That's just what happens.
And to separate yourself from being essentially in control of several of the most violent police forces in the country, between San Marino PD, San Marino Sheriffs, LA Sheriffs, LAPD, You know, throughout the state, responsible for hundreds of deaths, you know, countless amounts, countless acts of violence that have caused harm and changed lives, and you're going to say, don't fuck you.
Fuck you.
Like, we're not going to let you just, like, pretend like you're not part of the violence.
You are.
Yeah, D.I.E.
Workwear, who's like the woke, woke leftist workwear guy that everybody loves, It was like, yeah, please don't get violent.
Violence is bad, okay?
And somebody was like, what are people supposed to do when their communities are faced with direct violence?
Nonviolence cannot win against direct violence.
When people are being ripped from their communities, it's only logical that they defend themselves.
And Derek Guy replied, Dye Workwear replied, if you're in a relationship with an undocumented immigrant, you can make a direct impact on their life by marrying them.
Parentheses, if it is indeed a legit marriage.
And I am not suggesting anyone enter a false marriage for green card reasons.
He's like...
He's just like making sure he can get another LA Times interview at some point, right?
He's like making sure he can.
Are you that unaware?
We've had several stories where that exact thing didn't even work.
You know, like, what are you talking about?
That's not even an effective thing.
Hey, do you have a relationship with anyone?
How about this?
Bring some documentation to it and make sure that ICE has a date and a location to pick them up.
It's less violent that way until they fucking knock you over in the courthouse and drag you out.
Fuck you.
If I didn't want to get violently ripped from my community, I would simply find my one true love to spend the rest of my life with.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's so fucking incredible.
I wanted to address some responses to the labor leader getting arrested for, you know, it didn't even seem like he was like, quote, defending immigrants or anything like that.
It seems like he was observing a massive police action on people who may or may not have been.
Immigrants who definitely were workers, it's pretty cool that a labor leader was there to document how they were being treated and document what was happening.
But this was one of the responses in my Teamsters Facebook group.
Bruce, whose avatar is just a gun.
His avatar is just a gun.
That's not just a gun.
That's a patriotic gun.
It's a gun with an American flag on the handle.
Yeah, it could be AI generated.
And then he's got the vote filter over the gun, which would be a good bit, but I don't think it's a bit at all.
I think he's just a moron.
The ballot or the bullet?
Why not both?
They both have their place.
What if he's saying vote, and by vote he means, you know, like, fix the election by making sure one of them doesn't make it?
Some people like to vote with their dollar.
I like to vote with my gun.
Yeah.
That's what I think he's saying.
You say ballot, I say clip.
Ballot and the bullet.
So divisive.
Everything's either or.
Everything's black and white.
No, there's gray area.
Just go to your local polling place armed.
We gotta make that shirt where it's ballot and bullet and the A and the U are over each other so you don't know which ones it's saying.
Oh, yeah.
He balloted, she bulleted.
I don't know.
You make that work somehow, maybe.
But yeah, Bruce, who's a gun, says the news reported he was injured while he interfered with an arrest.
When you F-A, you will F-O the hard way.
So this is the fuck around and find out meme.
It's the meme that...
They love that it's, no, now we get to be the domineering jackboots.
We get to be the oppressive government.
So you're all going to find out.
You fucked around by not liking my memes on Facebook, and now you're going to find out.
And I like how fucking around is like, you know, they have these guns and all this stuff as their aesthetic.
And what they're talking about is people actually standing up to tyranny.
And not just posting a meme and not just wearing a t-shirt that says your feelings don't start and were my right start or whatever.
Whatever that shirt is.
It's people actually doing that for real.
And you're like, oh, you can't do that.
You gotta listen to the law.
Fuck you.
Yeah, these are people whose entire, like, we talked about this, I think, on the last episode or the episode before, where they try to cast the left as violent or whatever.
It's like, their entire politics and ideology is a meme about overthrowing a tyrannical government.
There's a meme about, oh, George Washington was actually a based gray man who put on his stunner shades and got the job done, or whatever.
And now, yeah, it's when you see people out in the street actually combating power, it's time to just mow them down indiscriminately.
Yeah, yeah, so stupid.
But this specific phrase, fuck around and find out.
You know, this labor leader tried to support...
So he fucked around.
Now he's going to find out.
Fuck around and find out.
And I want to say, brother, we are all going to find out.
All of us.
Every last one of us is going to find out.
If you're anything less than a venture capitalist, you're going to find out.
You might as well take this opportunity to fuck around.
Absolutely.
Might as well do some fucking around.
Make it worth it, at least.
I mean, most of us are fucking around to find out.
We want to find out.
Let's find out.
We're fucking around for that purpose.
It's okay.
Yeah, and just in general, what I'll say about undocumented immigrants, something I've said this whole time we've been doing this podcast, is that all workers deserve rights.
All workers deserve dignity.
Denying workers' rights is what makes them exploitable, is what puts them into the black market for labor.
If you organize them, if you bring them out of the shadows, how are they going to undercut your wages as an American worker?
How are they going to undercut your wages, especially as a union worker?
You give these people rights and dignity on principle, on principle, because that's what, like, despite, I don't know, reactionary workers may, like, pick and choose, you know, they may be pro-union and pro-worker, but then anti-undocumented immigrants, anti-illegal aliens or whatever.
And it's like, I don't think that's on principle.
I think that is just one of the few anti-worker pieces of propaganda you still have left in your head.
Yeah.
That's where it's coming from.
And to support, regurgitate, or help out anti-worker propaganda of any kind.
Hurts your own movement.
Hurts American workers' movement.
It maintains this idea that labor is just expendable.
Labor can be thrown out.
These people had fucking lives, man.
They gave years to these companies.
They gave years to the country, to whoever hired them under the table.
And to say that the consequence of that is you're going to be fucking ripped out from wherever you've made a home or whatever.
It just reinforces this idea that labor is expendable and trash and not as valuable as the business owners who exploited them in the first place.
And it all serves capital.
It all serves the bosses.
And I see no reason to go along with this at any level.
Yeah.
And like I said, that's why in that Teamster statement, the use of the word workers is so important and so impactful.
Because that's what they're talking about.
Because once you say that, then you are now ridding of the argument of freeloading and handouts and all that stuff.
That argument is thrown in the wind because we are talking about workers.
That is who they're going after.
These people are working people.
And so yeah, we need to support them because if they can get away with it, Yeah, absolutely.
And some more like...
I am fifth generation and personally 40 years a union man.
And on behalf of people like myself, period, I would like you to go take a go flying fuck yourself.
What?
I would like you...
I don't know what you'd be doing without them, to be honest.
I would like you to take a go flying fuck yourself.
Get back to representing American workers, you communist pieces of shit.
And this is a response to the Teamsters post?
Yeah, this is a response to the Teamsters supporting David Huerta and to David Huerta.
Jesus Christ.
Yeah, and it's like...
You're talking to labor leaders.
There might be people that you can accuse of not supporting American workers.
It's not these guys.
It's their fucking job.
It's what they've been doing.
It's what these organizations are for.
They're going above and beyond to help out other workers because they believe in class solidarity.
This isn't coming out of your fucking pocket, bro.
Like you could make claims about hypocrisy or a wedge issue or just trying to get publicity or whatever to like some...
You can't do it with these guys.
These are the people who fucking know what's what.
These are the people who have like skin in the game and they have a reputation for this stuff.
And I don't even if like the SCIU or even if Teamsters was organizing undocumented workers.
That means that those undocumented workers are now going to get a job at a union wage, at a union rate, that was also available to anybody else who wanted to apply.
They're not stealing that job at this point.
They just got hired.
You know what I'm saying?
If you have these protections and you have this unionization and everybody has to follow the same standards, then you can't get cheated out of it.
You can't get undercut.
You know?
It's only an argument for further organization.
And, like, a little irony there is that, you know, the point of a union, the point of a union leader is to make sure that every worker, regardless of who you are, gets your fair share of equity, gets the value of your labor, and gets what you deserve.
And that sounds a little bit like communism to me.
Yeah.
Which is good.
So I don't know if you...
Yeah, it's like, yeah, maybe...
Maybe what you actually think you want is a good thing, and maybe you should rid yourself of your nationalist ideals.
This other guy, Gen X Deplorable, says, Buckle up.
Who has the Gadsden don't tread on me flag as their fucking avatar, of course.
Says...
Thank you.
Yeah, man, you were definitely going to get rich waiting around in the Home Depot parking lot for some suburbanite to hire you for six hours to pay you $30 a day.
Yeah, man, that was definitely your ticket to the American fucking dream before an illegal came and stole it from you, you genius.
He said, fixed that for you.
Not that you care.
Your labor cartel has secured good pay for you, so illegal immigration doesn't hurt your ability to have a better life.
Yeah, you should be in a union too, brother.
I don't like labor cartel.
I'm so, I'm so offended that you think we're powerful and think that we've, uh, Have you ever been part of an organization that's gotten you a fucking $10 an hour raise, brother?
You should try it sometime.
It's actually pretty cool.
We should actually lean into the whole cartel thing to maybe market to and get the Scarface-loving crowd into unions.
The Teamster cartel.
We have union thugs.
We have Teamsters thugs.
We have our own deplorables.
And it's a very strong, powerful meme.
So funny.
So illegal immigration doesn't hurt your ability to have a better life.
Like you said, if you're in a union, it's not.
It's not.
It's so funny.
This is just an argument for unions.
That's all it is, man.
And also, we haven't talked about it in a while, but it gets talked about all the time.
But people forget that these marginalized individuals, these people who are getting taken advantage of, are huge contributors to your ability to have a better life.
You think grocery and produce prices suck now because of the economy?
Imagine what would happen if they actually had to pay people what they deserve to harvest those vegetables.
They're a huge backbone of this country.
Yeah, I mean, but that could become an argument for keeping those wages down, which, you know, is not an argument that we necessarily want to make.
But, like, there's a lot of irrational things in our economy that are propped up by exploiting the most precarious workers.
You know, that's why I think government run grocery stores and government run farms and things that are necessary that might not be the most profitable thing in the world, but still extremely necessary for the survival of humanity should absolutely be organized democratically and rationally and not in pursuit of profit.
Yeah, I just I you're never going to get me to be more mad at an undocumented immigrant than like.
Automation is what's actually threatening our jobs.
Wall Street greed, as I talked about at the beginning of this episode, is what's actually threatening my job.
A system built on a race to the bottom for workers is what's threatening all of us.
Talk about fuck around and find out what's going to happen as millions more get kicked out of the labor market.
When billionaires don't have to buy our labor anymore because so much of it has been automated or so much of it has been done away with.
What's your theory of change for how to overcome that obstacle for humanity?
Will you just be blaming everybody who got laid off?
What about when it's you?
Will you blame yourself if you get laid off?
Or will you say something like David Sachs, the AI czar for Donald Trump said, which is that AI is going to lay off a lot of people, but it won't be some leftist communist utopia where people get a living wage.
They just won't live anymore.
He tweeted out this guy, David Sachs, The future of AI has become a Rorschach test where everyone sees what they want.
The left envisions a post-economic order in which people stop working and instead receive government benefits.
In other words, everyone on welfare.
This is their fantasy.
It's not going to happen.
It's like, so what?
So then you get lynched, man.
I don't know what the fuck you want, okay?
You're already a millionaire.
You're already a venture capitalist.
He's a South African billionaire, by the way.
One of the worst kinds.
Like, what more?
You're going to immiserate millions of people for what?
And they're all going to be mad at you.
They're not going to like you at all.
And if you don't give them UBI, there is another option.
I don't argue for UBI under a capitalist system because where's the leverage to keep the UBI going?
I don't even think it's going to happen under a capitalist system because the people in charge of it are telling us that it's not going to happen.
That it's a joke.
No, your job is to do like what Joni Ernst said.
It's to die.
That becomes your new job.
We laid you off of your job coding or whatever.
We laid you off of your job working in this warehouse.
Your new job is to lay down and die.
Yeah.
And like you said, in that statement, he's not giving you another option.
He's just telling you, like, you're going to lose your jobs.
And they want you to have resources.
And that's crazy.
We're not giving you another option.
We're not telling you another way out.
We're just saying that's bad.
It was so funny because it's like...
You guys have everything.
You have everything.
We don't even have a job anymore.
The compromise is to give people enough to live on.
The very least you could do because I'll make the Marxist argument for this.
It was our labor that created the sufficient prosperity for you to be able to invest in automation and AI.
That's why they call these unions at the docks rent seekers.
Because for however many, they have a certain fee for when these carriers come in.
That used to be a certain amount of jobs would be to pull each of these shipping containers to unload them, yada, yada, yada.
A lot of that stuff got automated away.
But the unions didn't say, okay, I guess that means we don't have jobs anymore.
No, you pay a premium.
You automated, you pay a premium for the luxury of not having to pay so many people or whatever.
You're still going to have to pay because it's our labor that enabled that.
It's our labor that created the profit that you then used to lay us off.
And it's the same thing with society at large.
It's our posts, Tony.
It's our hard work on Twitter and on Reddit and on Facebook that created AI.
And we were not compensated for that labor.
And the very least you could do is share in the profit that's going to be generated from it.
Yeah, because they have definitely stolen your intellectual property.
That is a fact.
They don't plan on compensating you for it.
But this guy responded.
So this David Sachs tweet that I read had a lot of interesting responses.
Dubious facts.
Verified dubious facts.
Like a gimmick account on Twitter.
Says, where the hell do you come up with this construction?
I think everybody, whether they are from the left or the right, should be highly concerned that AI is not just coming for their jobs.
But we'll be used by criminals, terrorist groups, and state actors.
Have you considered that?
I loved this comment because there were plenty of comments that were like, I don't think it's a right-wing thing to want to have a job and live.
I think that's a left-wing thing.
I think that's just kind of a normal thing.
It's kind of something like, it's not even really a thing I want.
It's just kind of what I have to do to continue existing.
You know, it seems like there's...
But I like this one because, yeah, sure, AI is coming for your job, but also it's going to be used by criminals and terrorist groups and state actors.
So I just love, like, yeah, you might think losing your livelihood and your future to AI might be bad, but it's also going to be used by criminals and terrorists.
the AI gang is gonna come after you, or whatever, and it's just like...
If they've forbidden you from having a legal job, are you still going to just on principle starve to death?
Yeah, I'm just going to walk into the ocean because I know that's what I need to do.
It's funny because it's almost like the mentality where it's like because everything is pretty much worse than what it is.
So it's like AI music sucks.
AI crimes are going to be really bad.
AI crimes are going to be violent and cringe at the same time.
I just yeah, the terrorist groups are going to be like people trying to get bread.
That's who the terror is.
And I love state actors.
Oh no, AI might be used by state actors.
We've seen it!
What do you think Doge was doing?
Yeah.
Bro, you voted for it!
Yeah, it's what you wanted.
And the state actors, guess what?
They were using it not to make the welfare state more robust.
They were using it to destroy the welfare state.
They were using it to destroy the good aspects of government.
The only thing that actually redistributes goods and services to the people.
I have some responses to the video of that guy throwing concrete at all the windshields.
Which is just, yeah, he's wearing a motorcycle helmet while he's doing it.
And yeah, one of the comments here in the Let's Go Brandon Facebook group is just kill.
Kill.
Just kill.
Dwayne Davis saying kill.
Dwayne Davis is crazy looking, but yeah.
Yeah, they summed up a lot of the responses.
A rock is actually a deadly weapon.
Cain killed Abel with a rock.
What if he finds a slingshot?
What if he gets to, you know, David the Goliath?
That's crazy.
We cannot allow this to happen.
I loved this one.
John says, where are the cops?
I put out a couple SWAT teams with shoot-to-kill orders.
This shit has to stop.
And then Patricia notifies John, those were the cops!
Yeah, you fucking idiot.
With shoot-to-kill orders is so wild.
That's what they're all saying.
I didn't get those comments because it's so depressing, but that's what they're all saying, bro.
To see someone throwing a rock and shoot them, that's...
I think we are...
They're so desensitized.
No, if you're throwing a rock, you're a terrorist.
It's offensive.
Because the only people I've seen throw rocks are Hamas children.
Literally, people were like...
People were saying, that's what the terrorists do in Gaza.
And it's like, man, they weren't wrong about the war coming home, were they?
Yeah.
And it's like, yeah, that's a bad thing, dude.
That's a bad thing that you get shot for throwing a rock.
I love it so much.
Where were the cops?
They were running because they were outnumbered.
That's where they were, bro.
I don't know what to tell you.
You might be so bloodthirsty that you would run single-handedly into a group of angry people, people who are literally fighting for their lives and fighting for the lives of their family members and their community members, and think, well, I got a gun.
I can take them all out.
Even cops aren't that stupid, man.
They're not that stupid.
You can say that comfortably from your fucking couch on the internet and your full retirement, your 100% disabled military package or whatever.
The rest of us who have to live in society know that's not a smart idea.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's funny, too, getting mad about the rocks.
What do they think the rubber bullets are?
I think people really think that rubber bullets are like paintballs.
They're not chunks of metal coated in rubber.
Yeah.
This one I loved.
Scott says, a lot of those punks are legitimate white Americans.
Thus is their police, and that makes it even worse.
Cursing face emoji.
I think it means to say this is their police.
So they were throwing rocks at their own cops, Tony.
This is like abuse, bro.
This is like a crazy, fucked-up relationship these legitimate white Americans have with their cops.
This post is one of those ones that's so transparent.
It's like, legitimate white Americans.
Unlike the other Americans that aren't white, those aren't illegitimate ones.
And these police exist to protect us white Americans.
Yeah.
This is not to your own interest.
Why are you doing this?
Don't you know that as white Americans are here to protect us from all the other ones?
Yeah, it's like, no, don't do class warfare.
Do race warfare, please.
Yeah, please, exactly.
Don't unite along class lines.
Only race.
Only do race.
Oh, it's so funny.
This is their police.
God gave us uniforms and our skin color, okay?
That's how we know what team to play on.
I just put my away jersey on.
That's what I do.
It's blackface.
That's why God gave us blackface, so we could be race traitors.
I wish that's what it was.
Wouldn't that have been a different history where Blackface was actually a form of rebellion and a form of solidarity?
Yeah, showing up to the Black Lives Matter protest in Blackface.
We are all black now.
Listen, I don't want the police to be able to discern me from you when they show up.
I'm actually here with you.
I just, yeah, this is their police and that makes it even worse.
Yeah, it's my police!
I can throw rocks at them if I want to.
Yeah, hello.
Don't tell me how to raise my kids.
Don't tell me how to treat my police.
Yeah, this is how you get spoiled brats if you handle them with kid gloves, you know?
Unironically.
Unironically.
Hey, listen up, police.
Daddy's home when he brought his belt.
*laughter* Ha!
Um...
Um...
Oh my god, yeah, it's-it's- It's like, consider this like docking your pay, alright?
We could dock your pay, or you could take a broken windshield, you know?
And remember, we asked them to leave first.
We said leave, and they didn't listen.
And if you don't listen, there's consequences.
I think that what happened was they really fucked around and found out.
Yeah.
Shout out to everybody in LA.
It seems like there's going to be more fun times to be had.
It seems like we're entering the cool zone.
So we'll be watching this space.
Yeah.
Stand with your neighbors, man.
Stand with your neighbors.
Alright, well, I think we're going to call it here, you know, like we said, solidarity to all working people, solidarity to Los Angeles, solidarity to everybody who's coming out and letting these people, letting ICE know they're not welcome, letting these federal agencies know that they're on the wrong side of history.
It's really important, and it's good to see people doing it.
And so, just, it's love.
You know, it's good, positive stuff.
Which we need more of in this world.
And so thank you for doing it.
Yeah, yeah.
Keep the solidarity up.
It's just another sign that, you know, there are more of us than them.
Stand with your neighbor.
And we can do things like this.
We just got to, you know, keep going.
So let's keep it up.
It sucks it has come to this, but I mean, I'm glad that people are not just laying down.
We got to keep fighting.
And you got to remember who gave these people money.
It's not just Trump and the Republicans.
There are prominent Democratic leaders who gave these agencies millions of dollars.
Leaders like Joe Biden.
Leaders like Kamala Harris.
Democratic leaders who think that this is a good use of your money and this is a good way to run the country.
So keep that in mind.
And they're also in office right now doing nothing about it.
So don't forget that.
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