Republicans FINALLY Plan To Subpoena Democrat Firm Over Biden Dealings, Journalists Push Fake News
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin announced he plans to subpoena Blue Star strategies, a Democrat public affairs firm, over potential influence dealings with Hunter Biden and Burisma.Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden for some time now since Donald Trump became the target of the impeachment inquiry and trial.Now for some reason journalists are coming out of the woodwork to claim that the subpoena is a political maneuver due to Joe Biden winning in South Carolina. What they omitted is that Ron Johnson sent a letter to Ranking Member Peters on February 24th over his intention to subpoena Blue Star.By leaving out this context "journalists" seem to be running defense for Democrats by pushing a fake news narrative that this is politically motivated.It might be but we don't have that evidence, the opinion and assumptions are for you to decide.As Democrats face a battle on all fronts, from the far left progressives and Bernie Sanders, to trump and the republicans, they need all the lies they can get to prop their failing party up.
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Republican Senator Ron Johnson is threatening to issue a subpoena over Hunter Biden's work in Ukraine with the company Burisma, and he's targeting a company called Blue Star Strategies, which is a Democratic public affairs firm, naturally.
There are many Democrats who are concerned about this, one saying that this is going to play into the hands of Russian disinformation.
Yeah, okay.
Been there, done that.
I'm not interested in hearing about your stupid Russiagate theories.
We should investigate.
We spent all those years investigating what you guys wanted to investigate.
Can we please just move on and maybe investigate something else?
But today, you know what I noticed?
Journalists are indistinguishable from Democrats because the moment this news came out that Ron Johnson was intending to subpoena a Democratic firm, Tons of high profile journalists jumped to claim it's all about election interference.
They didn't say that same thing when this happened in 2015.
They didn't call crossfire hurricane the investigation into Donald Trump's campaign before he was elected.
They didn't act like that was election interference.
But now all of a sudden these journalists come out running defense for Democrats.
Why?
Joe Biden just had a big win in South Carolina.
So, of course, the only reason Republicans would seek to investigate or issue a subpoena is because they're trying to hurt Joe Biden, even though Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden since before the impeachment trial even took place.
So why are these journalists running defense?
Well, your guess is as good as mine, but I think we have a pretty good guess.
Because they're ideologically driven, they live in big cities, they're probably Democrats, they donate to Democratic parties, they are not objective reporters in these circumstances, and they shouldn't be coming out saying, hmm, gee, I wonder why they would issue a subpoena.
There's a simple answer.
They have been investigating the claims since before impeachment even started.
And in fact, you could even argue Donald Trump's phone call with Ukraine, which sparked the impeachment, was the beginning of Republicans looking into what Joe Biden was doing.
So it's all about framing.
I think it's a sad state of affairs when we have this state of journalism where they're going to rush to defense.
But let's get started and figure out what's actually going on with this subpoena, and then I'll walk you through how, well, the journalists are rushing to the defense of Democrats as per usual.
Before we get started, head over to TimCast.com slash donate if you'd like to support my work.
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But let's read the first story and figure out what actually is going on, even though the journalists are probably falsely framing it, which they are.
Politico reports, Ron Johnson threatens subpoena over Hunter Biden's Ukraine work.
The subpoena seeks records from a Democratic public affairs firm.
A key senator is threatening to issue a subpoena for records related to former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, and his work for a Ukrainian energy firm, the most significant escalation yet in an investigation that has divided Senate Republicans.
Let's note something important here.
And it's the most significant escalation yet in an investigation, meaning it's been ongoing.
Keep that in mind.
In a letter obtained by Politico, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson told members of the panel that he will soon schedule a business meeting to vote on a subpoena for the documents, which are purportedly related to Hunter Biden's role on the board of the Ukrainian firm Burisma.
The subpoena seeks records from Blue Star, a Democratic public affairs firm.
In his letter to committee members, Johnson cited government documents indicating that the firm, quote, sought to leverage Hunter Biden's role as a board member of Burisma to gain access to and potentially influence matters at the State Department.
If issued, The subpoena would be the first as part of the panel's joint conflict of interest investigation with the Senate Finance Committee.
It also comes on the heels of Biden's landslide victory in the South Carolina primary on Saturday and ahead of several Super Tuesday contests that could shape the trajectory of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
That paragraph is entirely irrelevant, especially when you read the letter.
They're trying to make it seem, now I want to be careful, I don't want to accuse Politico because I'll show you the actual interference.
But they're trying to make it seem like the only reason this is happening is because, well, the primary is here.
Oh, Joe Biden just did well.
And like we said, they want to dig up dirt on Biden.
Crossfire hurricane, investigations into Trump, Carter Page, etc.
None of that rings a bell to any of these people.
The double standard is so thick, you could cut it with a knife.
President Donald Trump was impeached in December for allegedly pressuring Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens over similar allegations that the Senate committees are probing.
The Senate acquitted Trump last month on a mostly party-line vote.
And don't forget, That the impeachment vote itself, before the actual, to start the trial, was bipartisan in its opposition, with one Democrat even quitting the Democratic Party and joining Republicans, over the sheer absurdity that we're witnessing.
In his letter, Johnson said Michigan Senator Gary Peters, the committee's top Democrat, had objected to the subpoena in separate correspondence.
Democrats have said there is no evidence to buttress the allegations that Biden or his son did anything wrong related to Hunter's role on the board of Burisma.
And that is an opinion.
And in my opinion, that is a lie.
Because Hunter Biden and his associates were making tons of money and we want to know why.
Because there is reason to believe he was selling influence.
But more importantly, a court had ruled recently that there must be a probe into Joe Biden's efforts To interfere, to get a prosecutor fired.
Now, maybe it's not true, fine.
But they want to act like this is all happening now because Joe Biden won, ignoring the fact that it's all potentially happening now because a Ukrainian court is forcing a probe into Biden's role in firing prosecutor Viktor Shokin.
Gee, I wonder why it all could be happening right now.
They say Peter said he was concerned the United States Senate and this committee could be used to further disinformation efforts by Russian or other actors.
He also demanded that the committee receive defensive briefings from the U.S.
intelligence community about the information the panel receives as part of the probe.
These people are liars.
They are weasels.
Russiagate is over.
You lost that one.
We had to deal with your stupid, incessant conspiracy trash for years, and I even entertained it.
But you know what?
After your own special investigation fails to find evidence of wrongdoing, it's on you now to shut up.
Indeed, some Republican senators have expressed similar concerns, both privately and publicly.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham has said senators should take very cautiously anything coming out of the Ukraine against anybody.
Okay, it's not the Ukraine, it's just Ukraine.
But Lindsey Graham, who's tweeting great congratulations to the Biden family, who's friends with them, I do not trust him.
And not only that, he's one of these Republicans I think is gonna do nothing.
But sure, fine, people can act like they like the guy.
In December, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina, met privately with Johnson and Senator Chuck Grassley, the Finance Committee chairman, to express similar concerns about the Senate's Biden investigation, saying it could aid Russia's efforts to sow chaos in American politics.
In his letter, Johnson said the report about his meeting with Burr was inaccurate, but said he could not discuss the substance of any discussions he had in a classified setting.
Apparently, some here in Congress believe they're above the law when they publicize the fact of a meeting and purported details of conversations that took occurred in a classified setting, Johnson wrote.
Well, he wrote something weird.
Johnson said Blue Star and one of its former consultants, Andrei Telezenko, provided some documents to the committee, but added that Telezenko was barred from turning over some of the information due to his non-disclosure agreement with Blue Star.
Blocking the receipt of relevant records and any committee member voting against the subpoena would be doing only heightens the risk of disinformation because the committee would not have access to all pertinent information.
Now here's what I want to do.
I'm going to move on from this because that's about the end.
I'm going to show you How, air quotes here, journalists are reacting to this information.
And I want to point out, we do have two sides to this story.
That is the Republicans and the Democrats.
And there is some bipartisan effort on both sides.
Certainly there's some Republicans who are concerned over this, don't want to move forward.
Lindsey Graham has even expressed, you know, discontent over what's going on, as others.
And we've seen in the impeachment process, Jeff Andrew, for instance, quitting over impeachment because he refused.
But I will get into all that, but first I want to show you...
Journalism.
Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post tweets, hmm, Joe Biden suddenly comes back from the political dead on Saturday, and the very next day, the Ron Johnson, the Ron Johnson, pens a letter seeking subpoenas on Burisma?
Must be a coincidence.
Yes, it could be.
If you had Google and you actually read your own newspaper stories, this guy works for the Washington Post as an editor and chief writer, and he doesn't know that it was what, a couple days ago that Ukraine court forces probe into Biden role in firing prosecutor Victor Shokin?
Gee, I wonder why these subpoenas are coming now.
Yeah, sure.
You want to play the angle that they're worried Joe Biden can win?
Fine.
But you've never even asked a single question about that.
So the simple solution would be there's literally going to be an investigation in Ukraine over this.
Perhaps America should investigate as well, right?
We spent all these years looking into the Russian nonsense.
Here's Mr. Andrew Kaczynski of CNN.
It took less than 48 hours for Hunter Biden to reappear in the news after Biden's South Carolina win.
A letter from GOP Senator Ron Johnson dated March 1st on investigating Burisma.
Ron Johnson is, of course, one of the three GOP senators who echoed Biden in calling for reforms of Ukraine's prosecutor's office in a letter to Ukraine's president in 2016, which is irrelevant Because many people going back back then wrote news articles and questioned the conflict of interest of Joe Biden having his son work on the board of Burisma, which did have an open investigation.
Mind you, it was dormant and trying to seek the ouster of the prosecutor as well as investigate or get corruption investigated in the country.
Conflict of interest.
Many people were upset about.
I don't care if you penned a letter saying we got to deal with corruption.
Everyone agrees.
But there's more.
This Sarah Reese Jones, I'm not super familiar with who she is, but she's the boss at PoliticsUSA, so probably a more partisan effort, sure.
Not the same as CNN or Washington Post saying, right after Biden won South Carolina, Senator Ron Johnson wanted to subpoena witnesses in the bogus Biden-Ukraine conspiracy theory.
Oh no, what's going on?
A conspiracy theory, you say?
These poor Ukrainians are falling prey to a conspiracy theory when their own courts ruled that there was election interference that's reported by the New York Times and they need to open a probe into Shokin.
But I want to show you something funny.
Hey, what's this?
We have the actual letter here.
This is the actual letter from Ron Johnson.
And in it, he points out something rather interesting, which was omitted by these journalists and the news outlets.
He writes, on February 24th, 2020, I notified Ranking Member Peters of my intent to issue a subpoena to an individual for records and attendance related to his work as a consultant at Blue Star Strategies.
A copy of my notification letter to Ranking Member Peters, which includes a more detailed explanation of the committee's oversight work leading up to the request and the subpoena schedule, is enclosed.
On February 27, 2020, Ranking Member Peters notified me of his disapproval of the issuance of the subpoena.
You mean to tell me that in this letter, he has a memo dated the 24th saying he was planning to issue the subpoena?
But they're going to accuse him of only doing this because Joe Biden just won a primary.
I'm pretty sure the 24th was before the primary.
And in fact, his intention to subpoena Hunter Biden was around the time Joe Biden was dropping in polls and was losing in the primary.
Yeah, these journalists won't tell you that.
They omit it.
Fortunately, we do have one journalist, Catherine Herridge of CBS News, who just tweeted out the letter, so thank you to this journalist, because some of them apparently still exist, and will give you the legit information.
You see, when they actually show you the letter, instead of just claiming, we've obtained the letter, you can see what's really going on.
Now, I want to make, I want to check to see if he's got, actually got the memo enclosed.
I don't think, she did not post an image of the actual memo.
But we can see he goes on to mention that the ranking member, a Democrat, ranking member Peter's disapproval letter stated that he is concerned over the United States Senate.
It's hard to read.
But he's concerned that Russian interference, yada yada, and fake news and all that.
But this shows That the intent to subpoena this company, this firm, over the Hunter Biden issue comes well before Joe Biden's win, and that a Democrat even had the opportunity to respond and dissent, and he included it in his letter.
What more do you want?
Well, listen, let me show you a few things.
It is not coming just after Joe Biden's win.
Republicans in Senate press on with investigation into Hunter Biden.
When was this?
February 6th.
Spare me.
They're lying.
The Treasury Department complied with a request from Senate Republicans and documents related to Hunter Biden's ties to a Ukrainian energy company, according to a Senate Democrat.
February 6th.
Did Joe Biden win the South Carolina primary a month ago and we just didn't know?
No, it's because these journalists are indistinguishable from Democrats.
They're activists on their behalf and they're not telling you the full context.
They're trying to make it seem like this is a political action.
You can say Viktor Shokin wasn't actually doing anything.
But he was being investigated and he fled the country.
Joe Biden steps in.
He demands the firing of Viktor Shokin.
Otherwise, they won't get a billion dollars.
The guy gets fired.
And surprise, surprise, whoever this new guy who comes in is, clears Zlochevsky, the founder of Prisma, of all wrongdoing, saying lack of evidence.
He comes, Lachowski then comes back to Ukraine. Something then different. Something different
happens then when Trump starts digging into this and Zlochevsky flees the country and is now
believed to be in Monaco. Now, I can't prove anybody did anything wrong, but you want to you
want to say it's a conspiracy theory and there's no evidence. There's circumstantial evidence,
at the very least, enough to issue a subpoena, right?
I take you back to the game these journalists, I should say Democrats, I should just call the journalists Democrats, right?
The game that these Democrats are playing.
Again, distinguishing from the good CBS News journalist who actually gave us the documents on Twitter so we can see for ourselves that Ron Johnson said it was on the 24th.
He notified a Democrat well before publicly announcing anything.
I think that's honorable.
Shows there's some integrity there, right?
Because this is him saying, before we go public, which might hurt some Democrats, I want to let you know what my intention is.
He then issues a dissent, and Ron Johnson makes sure to say in his letter, here's what the ranking member believes, and he even agrees with him.
We will do our best to make sure misinformation doesn't propagate, and that we take everything, you know, very cautiously.
What more should we do?
Should we ignore the strange chain of events because it was in America's interest, because the previous administration did it, because Trump should allow people to commit crimes if we think they did or might have some circumstantial evidence suggesting it?
I'm not a legal expert.
I can't tell you where the boundary is, but I feel like there's at least probable cause, right?
Like a cop walks up, smells smoke, and says, hey man, get out of the car.
Sometimes it's BS.
Happened to me before.
But I think right now where there's smoke, there's fire.
And so we should at least check, right?
Now sometimes there's smoke and there's no fire, but you still check, right?
Imagine sitting in a room and smoke starts billowing under the door and you're like, no, I don't think we should look because it's a conspiracy theory to assume there's a fire in my house.
That's ridiculous.
And I'll bring you now to one of my favorite little bits here.
Who will win the 2020 Democratic primary?
Right now, Joe Biden's at 14%.
Sanders is at 20%.
This is the 538 prediction model.
No one is the highest.
Trump and the Democrats.
Nobody fears Biden.
Well, the Democrats want Biden.
Perhaps that's why they're so desperate to go after Trump and accuse the Republicans of playing dirty games.
The Democrats are doing everything in their power to stop Bernie Sanders and help Joe Biden.
And what Joe Biden did, maybe it was dirty and Republicans are going after him.
So they are they are panicked and they're they're facing a fight on two fronts.
The party is in chaos.
They are being attacked by an insurgent party, the far-left progressives and socialists.
Meanwhile, the only opportunity they have to actually stop Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, is crooked.
You want to know my personal opinion?
I think Joe Biden's crooked.
And I'll tell you why.
It is with the utmost respect that I mention Joe Biden lost one of his children, his son Beau.
He now has the last remaining son, I believe so, Hunter Biden.
Well, Hunter Biden's been accused of a whole bunch of really messed up stuff.
People say that he partakes in contraband.
I'll say it lightly.
Well, what do you do when you're a father and you find out that your kid's tied up in a corrupt company that's under investigation?
I think Hunter Biden would be willing to do whatever it takes to protect his family, and you know what?
To an extent, I can respect that.
I can.
A man who wants to do right by his family by any means necessary.
To an extent.
There's respect there.
But guess what?
When you take corrupt actions to benefit yourself, your friends, and your family, instead of holding those around you accountable to our society, well, then you are responsible for that corruption.
It is my personal opinion that something happened here where Joe Biden was trying to protect his kid.
I'm not saying it's true.
I'm not saying I know for a fact it's true.
I'm not saying there's any evidence it's true.
I'm saying there is some circumstantial evidence of potential wrongdoing with Hunter Biden and Burisma.
There is very, very light circumstantial evidence over Joe Biden's potential interference, but not very much.
You know what that means we should do?
Well, we see smoke.
We don't know if there's a fire, but we can issue some subpoenas, right?
The very least, what I can tell you, because I really want to make sure you understand this, is that the journalists coming out right now, not all of them, but a lot of them, are lying to you to falsely frame what is going on, so that instead of looking into corruption in our politics, You look at Donald Trump and the Republicans and accuse them of politically motivated investigations.
The strange thing being, that's literally what they were doing, wasn't it?
Well, the one thing I can leave you with is at least some good news, because with all of their efforts to smear Trump, they've only helped him.
Trump and the GOP raised $86 million in February.
And you know what?
Good for him.
The Democrats deserve the uphill battle they're facing.
But I also think something else.
Many people speculate the Democrats are willing to sabotage their own party to stop Bernie Sanders.
They'd absolutely prefer Donald Trump winning four more years than Bernie Sanders taking over the Democratic Party and becoming the most powerful member of it, the leader, as the president.
Some people think they don't care that everything they do actually helps Trump.
In fact, it's an accidental net positive.
While they're going after Bernie, they're accidentally rallying Trump's base, which still, to them, is like, well, you know what?
As long as he wins and Bernie Sanders doesn't.
I'm not a big fan of Bernie's policies.
I think he's a hypocrite.
I think he flip-flopped.
I think a lot of people are naive and haven't looked into core issues like 2A and immigration, in which Bernie Sanders has been a big flip-flopper.
But I can tell you, the Democratic Party is tearing itself apart to stop Donald Trump.
So they will smear Trump for sure, but I don't think they want Bernie to win.
So Trump raises $86 million.
I'll tell you what, if you're a Trump supporter, expect to win in November.
Well, I'll tell you, I will add to that.
I really, really do think Trump's going to win.
But I guess I should say hubris will be your downfall, as I normally do.
I'll leave it there.
I look forward to seeing what happens, and I hope they do issue a subpoena, because it's time for Republicans to start investigating the direction.
Not because I'm a Republican or care about their policy, because I'm sick of the one-sided scandal nonsense, and we really should know what's happening.
I will see you all in the next segment at 6 p.m.
YouTube.com slash TimCastNews.
Thanks for hanging out.
I will see you all next time.
In what may be one of the most insane things anyone could say when trying to run for President of the United States, Joe Biden said at a recent campaign rally he was going to raise your taxes.
Elizabeth Warren didn't want to admit that Medicare for All would raise your taxes, and Bernie qualified his statement when asked, yes, yes, your taxes will go up, but costs will go down.
Because no one wants to pay more taxes.
Yet Joe Biden thought it was a great idea to say to a rally that he was actually going to raise your taxes.
Now here's the reason why.
Back in 2019, Matthew Iglesias of Vox pointed out that progressives did a great job in convincing America Trump did not give them a tax cut.
We can complain about the $1.9 trillion deficit, but the reality is Americans did get a tax cut.
And if you trust PolitiFact, which sometimes you shouldn't, It mostly went to upper middle class and upper class people, so a lot of the tax cuts did go to people who are making more than $100,000 a year, but around 10% went to, you know, middle class and a little, actually, I would say about 20% or so went to the middle class of varying salaries, and we'll take a look at the data.
But because of this misinformation, you now have people cheering, or I shouldn't necessarily say cheering, but willfully accepting someone saying he's going to raise their taxes.
I want to play for you this audio because you just need to hear it.
It's hilarious.
And then I'll show you why people are essentially cheering for this stuff.
You are going to have your taxes raised, not cut, if you benefited from that.
I don't think Joe Biden has any idea what he's talking about.
Can I also point out that I am absolutely flabbergasted this man won in South Carolina, when he probably didn't even know he was in South Carolina, let alone running there.
I'm not trying to be mean, but the dude literally doesn't know where he is.
Like, way too many times, he's been claiming he was in the wrong place.
The dude is just not all there.
Now take a look at this story.
From the Washington Free Beacon, back on April 9, 2019, VoxRider praises progressives for misleading Americans on tax cuts.
VoxRider Matthew Iglesias praised progressive groups for misleading Americans about their taxes Monday.
In a tweet, Iglesias praised the messaging success over President Donald Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
The president signed the bill into law in December 2017.
At the time, Then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said the bill would save families making $73,000 per year more than $2,000.
Progressive groups did a really good job of convincing people that Trump raised their taxes, Iglesias said.
At the time, Democratic Party messaging insisted the bill was a catastrophe for the middle class.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said the middle class got crumbs from the table.
Senator Chuck Schumer claimed the proposal socks it to the middle class.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said 86 million middle-class families will see a tax increase.
That is not true.
In February, Senator Kamala Harris called the tax change a middle-class tax hike.
Now why would they be lying?
Because they don't have anything to offer.
So they have to pretend like things are worse than they really are.
But what I will never understand is that these people think they can look you in the eye and lie to your face when you're enjoying the benefits of what the tax cuts have wrought.
I like doing analogies with ice cream.
You might be familiar with this.
So imagine you're sitting there licking a sweet, delicious chocolate ice cream and they're literally screaming in your face, you never even got the ice cream.
In fact, Trump took your ice cream away and you're like, But I'm holding it.
That's what I don't get.
How can you walk up to someone who's literally holding a thing and say, you never got that?
It's like, but I did.
I have it.
And what's even crazier, people believed it.
People actually believe it.
When their tax returns came back and they were like, my refund this year is lower.
It's like, yes, because you paid less taxes, dude.
People don't get it.
They don't get it.
The Washington Post gave the latter claims two and four Pinocchios, respectively.
According to the Tax Policy Center, the average middle-class family is keeping almost $1,000, which would have previously gone into government coffers.
Monday, Iglesias admitted the bill had in fact been a success.
Despite Democratic insistence to the contrary, the facts say a clear majority got a tax cut.
Nobody likes to give themselves credit for this kind of messaging success, but progressive groups did a really good job of convincing people that Trump raised their taxes when the facts say a clear majority got a tax cut.
To this day, they're now lying to your face.
You know, it's just they're spitting on you.
They are spitting on you in condescension, calling you stupid to your face.
Joe Biden saying, how many of you benefited?
Well, one person was like, I actually did.
Well, we're going to raise your taxes.
So everyone got a tax cut under Trump, and now he's coming to you, lying to you, and now saying, if you got a benefit, we're gonna take that away?
Who are you talking to?
I guess people who are dumb enough to vote for Joe Biden.
CNBC reporter John Harwood made a similar observation Monday.
He said in an NBC Wall Street Journal poll, showing just 17% of Americans think their taxes were cut, despite clear evidence to the contrary.
No wonder Trump GOP tax cut is so unpopular, Harwood said.
Replying to Iglesias later Monday, Harwood speculated as to why many Americans may not realize they benefit from the cuts.
He pointed to a change in withholding tables, which determine how much the IRS keeps from each paycheck to pay taxes at the end of the year.
He said they were helped by the fact that tax cuts for most people were a. modest and b. concealed by new withholding tables that dribbled them out week by week in tiny amounts.
So that's true.
And I'll come back to read this last little bit, but I want to show you something.
This is a PolitiFact story stated on January 2nd, 2019 in an interview on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show.
Oh, so basically the fringe psychotic conspiracy channel for the left.
Warren said, with the Republican tax law, the rich folks got 1.5 trillion.
So this is over a year ago.
So there you go.
There's Joe Biden's figure.
Let me show you what PolitiFact says.
Who gets what?
So this is over a year ago. Key takeaways. The 1.5 trillion is one main government estimate of
the net rise in deficits due to the tax acts over and over 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office
now predicts deficits deficits will go up 1.9 trillion. So there you go. There's Joe Biden's
figure. Let me show you a politiFact says who gets what 10 year distribution of tax cuts under
the 2017 tax law. We can see that for people who are making 10 to 30,000, your taxes actually went
up a little bit.
That's fair to point out.
The lower class took a hit on this.
That's not cool.
Not cool at all.
If you make $40,000 or more, you did get a tax cut.
If you make $50,000 to $100,000, you're receiving, each of these brackets gets about 10, so that's about 20% of the tax cuts.
Now, if you make $100,000 to $200,000, 31% of tax cuts went to you, and $200,000 to $500,000, 30% went to you.
two hundred thirty one percent of tax cuts went to you and two hundred to five hundred
thirty percent went to you. It is fair to say most people will see a tax cut. But yes,
lion's share goes to people making more than one hundred thousand dollars a year.
It's not perfect, but the issue is about the percentage of the taxes being paid.
If rich people are making more money, a tax cut will mean they save a lot more money.
But the point is still, it is fair to point out that rich people got a big tax cut.
So if Joe Biden wants to point out that people making less than $10,000 to $30,000 a year aren't getting that big benefit, and you can point that out, that's absolutely important to say.
I agree.
But a lot of people benefited who are not rich people.
Listen, if you're working a trade, you might be making more than $30,000 a year, okay?
So, I think this is bad.
We need to figure out why poor people have seen a net, you know, they're getting negative in terms of the tax cuts.
But come on, people making $30,000 a year or more, you did get a tax break.
Criticize the large portion of this going to wealthier individuals 100%.
But don't lie to people!
That's what I can't stand.
Why is it difficult to say, Donald Trump's tax cuts, for the most part, are benefiting upper middle class to upper class people.
Middle class people did get a tax cut.
Lower class people got hurt on this, and we can probably do a better job.
Imagine if that was the message Democrats came out with.
Because you're going to look someone in the face who's making more than $30,000 a year, which is a lot of people in this country.
The median is well above 30.
I think it's like 38.
In which case, more than half the country or more are making that amount.
Now, the average income is high because we have a ton of rich people.
But the point is, should someone be unhappy because rich people got a tax cut?
So, if you make $100,000 a year and you are getting a big tax break, should someone who makes less than $100,000 a year be upset?
No!
And let me tell you why using their own argument.
You see, right now Elizabeth Warren is talking about student debt forgiveness.
And there are a lot of people on the right saying things like, why should you get $50,000 paid by the government if I had to pay my student loans?
And the left says, just because we're going to do better doesn't mean you will be hurt.
A net positive for me is not a net negative for you.
The funny thing about this, I gotta say, Is that student debt forgiveness would require taxing people who make more money.
So yes, it would be net negative.
But there's one meme I saw from the left.
I gotta admit, it was actually pretty good.
It was the trolley problem.
Are you familiar with the trolley problem?
The trolley problem is, a train is coming, and it's headed towards, on the track there's a fork, and you can pull the lever to move the train.
It's headed towards five people.
If you pull the lever, it will only kill the one person.
The problem, so the trolley problem is essentially, will you choose to kill that one person to save the five?
Because your actions will result in that person's death.
So anyway, the meme they made was it was a single, a single, uh, the five people were on the front track that were gonna die no matter what, and you could pull the lever to save the one person.
That's the joke.
The point they were trying to make with this, and I saw some high-level, uh, some, like, high-profile, not high-level, high-profile progressives were saying, if people were already hurt by student loans, we should still make sure the train stays off the track so it won't hurt any more people.
You're right.
I think it is unfair.
I do believe in student debt forgiveness, just not the way they're doing it.
I think we should totally suspend interest.
People will pay down their principles, but it won't accrue.
And we'll do it in a very simple way, so you still gotta pay it back, but it won't, we're gonna get rid of that, you know, predatory aspect of it.
So you pay back what you owe, what your initial loan was, so there will be forgiveness there, but a compromise, right?
I agree with that.
And that's why I also agree with the tax cuts.
I get it.
There's a deficit.
That's a problem.
We're hoping that increase in trade volume will actually generate more tax revenue and offset that.
I don't know if that'll actually happen.
That's the plan.
Here's the ultimate point.
The left simultaneously argues, why should you be mad that I'm getting helped?
But then Joe Biden and all these other progressives come out and complain that rich people are getting tax cuts.
So what?
A tax cut for the rich isn't hurting you.
The government, oh, wait, you want to play that game again?
You can argue.
But if my benefits get cut because we don't have the tax revenue for it, that is hurting me.
Yet the thing there is, you're arguing for the right to take money from someone else to pay for something for you.
Isn't that a big problem?
Now look, I actually agree with social programs.
And I always want to say this, it's very important.
And then I got some other Democrat stuff we can go over to wrap up the segment.
But the problem we have with social programs is that they can't die.
They can't end.
If we create a program that says, hey, we're going to allocate X amount of dollars to help people who are unemployed, at some point we need to assess that program and end it if it's bloated and broken, and we don't.
We just keep making it bigger.
And that's why we keep needing more and more taxes to cover these things.
You'd think a percentage would be fine, and the trade volume would generate the revenues we need, and we could repair our infrastructure.
Instead, we have crumbling infrastructure, bad negotiations, bad crony contract deals, and we have festering social programs that need to be reformed.
Shut it down, reform.
I'm in favor of them, absolutely.
I am a liberal, not a staunch small government conservative.
But I can point out, we need to weed out the bloat.
So let me just wrap this up.
And then I want to show you some other crazy stuff that happened with the Democrats.
As we're on this subject, you know Pete Buttigieg dropped out and I was like, I refuse!
I refuse to care about Pete Buttigieb.
I said Buttigieb!
Dropping out.
I don't care.
But I gotta talk about it anyway.
And apparently some protesters shut down a Klobuchar event.
So we'll talk about the craziness of the Democrats.
But listen.
If you make more than $100,000 a year and you got a tax cut, I don't care.
Congratulations.
You're gonna get to spend money.
If you're making less than $30,000 a year and your taxes went up, I do care about that.
That I do not like.
But I'm not going to blame the people because, you know, we made it better for them.
That's literally the left's argument.
How about we cut taxes for the poor?
Michael Bloomberg's the guy who wants to raise taxes on the poor.
That's nuts.
He says it's for their own good.
You know what?
So anyway, I think you get the point on that.
Biden is a liar.
And I'm gonna quickly go through some of these next, you know, quick stories, just because I can give you a quick update.
I'm not gonna do a full segment on Booty Jeb.
Pete Buttigieg drops out of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary ahead of Super Tuesday, and that's crazy.
But it seems like they're trying to consolidate around Joe Biden, so that's the plan.
Biden did really well in South Carolina.
He got, you know, what, 50-some-odd delegates, so he's now, you know, potentially going to be able to win.
Unlikely, though.
So, a lot of people think that Buttigieg took a deal.
Or it's possible he knew he cannot generate any support in the black community, so he knows he's not going to win, especially in, you know, more diverse states.
So he bails out while he still can.
Not to mention, his campaign, to my understanding, wasn't raising enough money.
So, you gotta realize, a lot of people are saying he took a deal.
Nah, I don't think so.
I think the dude's broke, and I think he just knows he can't do it.
The funny thing is, Klobuchar is still running.
I don't know why.
But Black Lives Matter protesters shut her rally down.
And then, uh, the last thing I want to show you is this.
No one is growing in the prediction model for 538.
Who will win the primary for the Democrats?
No one is now at 66%.
The other day it was at 59%.
So Bernie and Biden are close.
Sanders is 1 in 5 to win.
Biden is 1 in 8 to win.
Bloomberg, Warren, everybody else has collapsed.
They're not going to win at all.
But this is going to go to a brokered convention, and the delegates are going to go to Joe Biden.
That's where I think we're headed.
But you get the point.
They're lying about taxes.
I'll leave it there.
Stick around.
Next segment will be at 1 p.m.
on this channel, and I will see you all then.
We've got some major breaking news on the coronavirus.
First, Florida has declared a public health emergency due to two presumptive positive coronavirus cases.
We are now hearing about the first case of coronavirus confirmed in New York City.
Which means it is probably much worse than you realize.
This is huge from Reuters.
In the last 24 hours, there were almost nine times more coronavirus cases reported outside China than inside.
This is actually a bit of good news.
But hold on one second, I got another big update.
New York doctor warns.
Coronavirus cases will surge in the thousands by next week, and three critical weeks were lost in containing the spread because CDC tests failed as female healthcare worker becomes first confirmed case in the state.
Another big breaking news update.
Markets are beginning to stabilize.
They are recovering.
And I will say it.
I said it last time.
People who bought the dip are going to make off like bandits on this one.
Apparently, the sell-off that we were seeing was automated.
As more people sold, algorithms started selling.
If you were smart enough to buy in when it was down, it's probably going to keep going up.
As of right now, it's up about 1.5 points.
So we're looking at 365.
Might not mean a whole lot to a lot of people, but if you're 401k and you were buying in when it was down, it's going to go right back up.
This kind of stuff happens, right?
People panic.
They go and they buy a bunch of, you know, products and stuff.
They sell a bunch of stock.
And then things get better.
So, what I want to mention about the Reuters case, and then we'll read about New York City because I think that's the most important.
In the last 24 hours, there are almost nine times more coronavirus cases outside of China than in.
Here's the thing.
China has had an authoritarian crackdown.
So they have begun to stabilize a lot of the problems.
The spread is slowing.
As they essentially crack down with harsh authoritarian measures.
The reason why we're seeing a larger spread outside is most likely to that, at least in my opinion.
But I want to tell you, we can't really do the same things China has done.
They are a dictatorship as far as anyone's concerned.
So yeah, they can show up with guns and men in suits, lock you down, and you can't do anything about it.
Here in the Western countries, mostly, like more so the US, it's a lot harder to contain when people have civil rights.
It's a sad truth.
With freedom comes those risks.
But a doctor in New York is warning things are going to skyrocket.
Now, like I mentioned, we do have our first confirmed case in New York City.
I want to give you just a really quick, brief statement on the emergency in Florida.
Ron DeSantis said, tomorrow I will be in Tampa and Miami with Surgeon General Rivkes and other officials to discuss our continued statewide response to COVID-19.
Florida Department of Health says they have two presumptive positive cases.
One adult resident of Hillsborough County and one adult resident of Manatee County.
Both individuals are isolated and being appropriately cared for.
I guess, put up another tweet.
Okay, so it's both the same tweet.
They said, Florida's public health system is well prepared to handle COVID-19.
Our healthcare professionals throughout the state are implementing the appropriate protocols and are ready to respond.
Please make sure to visit the Florida website for up-to-date information.
So, for those that are in Florida, it's floridahealth.gov slash COVID-19.
Make sure you stay on top of this.
I want to stress, as I do with most of these videos, we are not facing the apocalypse.
Please, everybody, calm down.
You see, a lot of people have already started panicking.
And I got to say, it is...
Kind of frustrating.
And I said this, don't panic.
Do not... Well, people did.
They're rushing stores.
There's lines out Costco like crazy.
As soon as they get a confirmed coronavirus case, people freak out.
I do think there is good reason for us to be prepared.
I will always say it.
And I think it's good reason the governments are reacting this way.
And the most important reason, I think, is due to the amount of beds available.
So in the United States, for every thousand people, we have about 2.6, 2.7 hospital beds.
That is really, really low relative to many other countries.
The issue here is that...
If people are asymptomatic for a couple weeks and then get hit really hard and really fast, and we're looking at around 18 to 20% of individuals needing hospitalization, if there is an outbreak in a small town, we may run out of hospital beds.
So that's a real consideration.
And it's already starting to happen in some parts of the world.
I believe in Italy, they're facing a shortage.
So if a lot of people are getting sick, this is bad news for the rest of us.
The Daily Mail, let's read a little bit of this story.
Dr. Matt McCarthy, who is a staff physician at the New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, also claimed he doesn't have the tools to properly care for patients because of the lack of coronavirus tests being made available to hospitals.
Health officials in New York have been scrambling to get their own coronavirus testing kits up and running after getting stuck with faulty tests from the federal government that they said left them unable to diagnose people quickly.
Dr. McCarthy told CNBC's Squawk Box on Monday that the bungled test distribution was a national scandal and claimed New York had only been able to properly carry out 32 tests so far.
We hear it's coming very soon.
But I'm here to tell you that at one of the busiest hospitals in the country, I don't have it at my fingertips.
I still have to call the Department of Health.
I still have to make my case and plead to test people.
This is not good.
We know that there are 88 cases in the United States.
There are going to be hundreds by the middle of the week.
There's going to be thousands by next week.
Let me tell you something.
If we know that there are 88 cases in the country, and we have a lack of testing, if we were accurately testing, we'd probably see the numbers skyrocket.
So right now, it looks like numbers are stabilizing to a certain degree.
This is worldometers.info.
We can see so far 3,069 deaths, 45,636 recovered.
The mortality rate for closed cases has gone down by four percentage points.
And that's good news, and it's likely due to the fact that we know about it, We are reacting to it, and we are taking precautions.
Now I want to say a few things to all the haters, acting like nothing's wrong, everybody just calm down.
3,000 people lost their lives, and this is going to affect more people.
The mortality rate is estimated to be around 2 to 2.2% based on current stats, maybe around 2%.
Some say even as high as 3%, whatever.
That's around the number, right?
And a lot of people are saying, oh, so what?
What do you mean, Oso?
People are dying!
We don't want that to happen!
Even if it was one person!
Look, I understand their scaled response.
If one person got a mystery illness and died, nobody would be talking about it.
Yes, more people die from the flu, but the mortality rate for this disease is higher, mostly affecting people with pre-existing conditions, compromised immune systems, people who are older or really, really young.
But of course I think it's important to keep on top of this.
You know, there's a lot of people say, oh, but why aren't you reacting this way to the flu?
Because we have a system in place for the flu already.
Yeah, I know the flu, it hits people hard.
But it's like a .1% mortality.
This is substantially higher.
And now we can see what ends up happening when people wait too long and they panic.
I'm going to show you this tweet thread from Karen Weiss.
She said, really should have done my regular Costco run last week.
I've never seen it like this.
This is a few miles north of Seattle.
This is a Seattle Tech correspondent.
Huge lines in Costco for regular groceries.
These people are not buying the entire store.
Look, you can see one guy's...
Well, that's a big box of granola bars, I'll tell you what.
Nutri-Grain bars.
But this dude, look.
He's got some, I don't know, what is that?
Like some kind of frozen fajita thing.
He's got some chips.
A lot of people are doing regular grocery shopping right now, and that's why I've been saying, go do your grocery shopping.
There are a lot of haters.
They want to drag me because I did a promo for emergency food supplies.
I, you cannot, like literally the pitch I've given is don't let anyone shame you into not taking care of yourself.
You can make fun of anybody you want, dude.
The last person who's gonna care is me.
So, you see how people are reacting, and here we go.
I'm going to do it.
Let me tell you what.
If you go to safeandreadymeals.com, there is a funny little picture of me.
I do think the website might be a little over the top, but they're selling two-week and four-week food supplies.
They have a bunch of other things.
It's $87 or $197.
Listen, the point is, you're probably not going to use this stuff.
My buddy was telling me the other day, he was like, every time someone gets a cut, they say, where did I put the band-aids?
Because you never use them.
But you have them, right?
The crazy thing to me is that there are people who literally drink food, I mean, drink water, and eat food every day, who think they shouldn't have a little bit stored that'll last a long time.
Not because the world is gonna end, you people are nuts.
I'm not talking about... I mean, well, to an extent, the naysayers screaming the end is not... Yeah, I think you're a little nuts.
But the people who are like, I don't gotta do anything... Dude, I was in Sandy!
Okay?
And now here's the bigger issue.
So here's what I'll say.
If you want to get a bucket, you know, they're like little bins.
It's 2-week food supply.
They say that it lasts up to 25 years if stored properly.
You can go to safeandreadymeals.com.
It really does help support the channel, so I'm really grateful to them.
It is not like my company or anything.
I just use my picture and, you know, they want to... You don't need to... They say prepare with Tim.
I roll my eyes at this, but it is good stuff.
It is.
Look, it's not because I think you're gonna need it, it's because I think sometimes people panic, sometimes people rush to the stores, and sometimes hurricanes happen, sometimes earthquakes happen.
Right now there's a big delay on these things, so you'll see the link in the description below.
You're probably not gonna get them for a couple months, but don't worry!
Don't panic about the coronavirus.
Yes, it's a serious issue.
We should be reacting a bit over the top, a little bit.
Vox.com, for instance, said it's not overreacting to prepare.
And it's because we want to make sure, as one doctor from Switzerland I talked about yesterday, we want to make sure there's slack in the system.
So that you don't run out to Costco right now and have a massive line of people to buy your Ruffles potato chips.
Now, that's not what you'll need the emergency food supply for.
That's just for, like, it lasts a really long time.
You buy it once, you're good for a long time.
And in the event that there's supply chain disruption, in the event that there's, I don't know, an earthquake, or a tornado, or a thunderstorm, because these things hit everywhere, we have tornado season, we have hurricane season, some of the worst flooding ever in Dallas, I believe, in Texas, this stuff happens, man.
I can't believe there are people who are laughing, being like, you would seriously have food?
It's like, yeah, dude, I got a gauze kit too.
No one's ever had a femoral bleed in my house before, but yeah, I have it.
The first aid kit comes with a little tourniquet too.
You're not really gonna need it, but you buy it, don't you?
I think people are stupid.
I think people are dumb.
Look, you're not gonna build a bunker.
I don't want people to think, like, you're gonna go build a bunker, but seriously?
You literally eat food every day.
So, yeah, you might want this stuff.
I get it.
It's different for a first aid kit.
That's for emergencies.
What do you think emergency food is for?
Anyway, let's get back to it.
She says, shout out to the lady who braved this and walked out with just a single bag of popcorn.
I mean, people might let you cut in line if you just got a single item.
They do.
There was one photo I saw that I believe was Los Angeles, and it was a massive line out the door of empty shopping carts of people rushing to Costco.
When all this news broke, I went grocery shopping.
Bought some rice and beans, bought some canned food, and bought some five-gallon water things.
Like, we already use them anyway.
We have this really cool thing from Amazon where you just, like, put it on the top and press the button and it pumps the water out.
It's really awesome.
We went grocery shopping.
Is it because I thought the world was gonna end?
No, it's because this is happening.
It's not because of the disease.
It's because people's fear of the disease, right?
The panic is often worse depending on what's going on.
So, like, I don't know how to tell you, man, but humans can be predictable.
We knew stuff like this was going to happen.
You've got massive lines throughout Costco.
I don't know what she's talking about now.
She says, Coda, to add people, were surprisingly patient and the Costco staff were professional and friendly.
As always, be safe everyone.
And she said, you know, somebody mentioned, around the region it was clear that residents were bracing.
At a big box store north of Seattle on an early Saturday, checkout lines were unusually long, snaking down aisles with carts loaded with all sorts of supplies.
Here's the big issue.
In the normal system, everybody takes their time and buys when they need.
But I don't know if you've ever been to a Walmart.
Like, the lines are usually bad enough.
Let alone you're gonna tack on some fears over the coronavirus.
So we've got a dude straight up saying New York is gonna see thousands of cases.
This is not the new plague.
No, it's just a respiratory illness.
Most people will get a cold and they'll get over it.
But there are people who will be hospitalized.
We want to make sure those people are safe and survive.
And we want to make sure that everyone takes care of themselves.
And you need to be a bit more self-reliant.
I lived in New York.
I lived in Chicago.
It is mind-numbing to me how much people think they can rely on the system to save them.
Look, man, when disaster comes a-knockin', no one's there for you.
In New York City during Hurricane Sandy, it was crazy to see.
Like, the flooding smashed out windows.
Power was out for, I think, like two weeks.
Maybe that's an exaggeration.
I don't know.
It's been a while.
But at least a few days.
In some areas, I think it may have been two weeks.
Nobody can come in and help you because they have to slowly work.
I mean, well, I will say this.
Guess which part of Manhattan got its power turned on first?
The Upper West Side.
That's where all the billionaires live, like areas like Central Park and Billionaire's Row.
Of course they got their power turned on first.
Lower East Side, however, didn't get their power turned on for a long time.
When that happens, what are you going to do?
Well, a lot of people had to leave the area and go to other areas to get food.
Global markets stabilize on heels of worst week since Great Recession.
So let's talk about the good news and why panic is always the wrong thing to do.
The markets are coming back.
The markets are... I'm trying to look over at the meter, but last I checked it was up by a point and a half.
The people who bought the dip, they're going to be really happy they did.
Now we're seeing the mortality rate is slowly declining as we start to get a grip on this.
It may be that it's going to get worse in the U.S.
It may already be bad in the U.S.
and we're just not testing for it.
So we might be behind the curve on this.
We should probably get ready.
Supply chain disruption seems likely.
The CDC said school disruptions, business disruptions.
It's not crazy to think you might, you know, be chilling at home for a couple days because local businesses don't want to open out of a fear of spreading.
This is actually smart.
We're not all screeching that the end is nigh.
We're saying, hey guys, we're going to take a couple days off because although the mortality rate is low, the last thing we want to do is exacerbate the problem because one death is one death too many.
We don't want anyone to die, but it's likely coming.
So let's mitigate this.
Guess what?
It means everybody's getting a couple days off, at least a little bit, right?
Some schools will be closed, but I think it's fair to say it's not that bad.
Okay?
It's not that bad.
There are a lot of people screeching the end is nigh.
There are people who are selling, you know, like, masks like crazy, and they're probably making a ton of money.
And there are people selling full hazmat suits, and I just think that's silly, dude.
If you're older, you really want to be careful.
If you're immunocompromised, you want to be careful.
If you've got young kids, you want to be careful.
Same as you would with the flu, but I want to be fair, this is a higher mortality rate than the flu, so we will take it seriously.
The markets are coming back.
You know, anybody telling you to bug out or buy a bug out bag or anything like that, for this, calm down.
I do think it's fair to have a bug out bag, right?
You want to have like a flashlight, you want to have maybe like a GPS or something, because guess what?
Fires happen.
It's crazy to me that people think anybody who might be prepared for this stuff is a prepper, thinking the world is ending.
It's like, dude, remember when the flood happened?
Yeah, you'd be really happy if you had a bag with some extra clothes in it, with maybe some cash, maybe a GPS, maybe a portable battery, or maybe a USB charger that uses AA batteries.
Something like that.
Because guess what?
These things happen.
And no, the world didn't end because of it, but people face disasters.
So, look, the markets are going to rebound.
People are going to be happy about it.
There have been some really stupid things, I must say.
I'm gonna, you know, I can't, I gotta show you.
A patient in San Antonio, Texas was released from quarantine and later tested positive for coronavirus.
This is not the first time it's happened.
So we got a sickness traveling far and wide.
It's going to be in a lot of cities.
It's probably already in a lot of cities.
We have two deaths now in Washington.
Potential outbreak at a nursing home.
People are getting sick.
And to make matters worse, we kind of are bumbling around like idiots.
Hey, look!
It's a silly thing to say, but the benefit that China has is they're an authoritarian dictatorship.
They can come down and just arrest people for talking about it and try and shut everything up and have their Liberation Army or whatever show up with disinfecting sprays and giant drones.
Well, we respect freedom, which means we accept the risks along with that freedom, and you know what?
It is a risk worth taking.
I understand that because we don't live in a police-state authoritarian dictatorship like they do, it may actually get worse here.
So I will say we've bumbled a little bit with things like this, but you know what?
To an extent, it upsets me, but at least we're free.
To an extent.
There's a fine line between security and freedom, and I always err on the side of freedom.
If we're going to have mistakes like this, the best I can do is say, do better.
Because we want to get a handle on this, we want to make sure it doesn't spread like crazy, and we never want to justify the horrifying things these dictators do, like people in China.
So, I guess you get the point.
Let me just go through everything real quick, just to give you all the basic updates again.
Public health emergency in Florida.
If we know that there are two presumptive positive cases, it's likely infected thousands already.
And this is bad for retirees and people who are older.
One death is one death too many.
No, we don't want anyone to die from this, okay?
We know we can expect it.
So this is why we want to wash our hands.
This is why we want to be careful.
The reason why you want to have backup supplies or emergency supplies is so you don't have to go to Costco because that could exacerbate the spread.
It's not because the world is ending, it's because you don't want to contribute to its spread, alright?
We know that it's being, you know, kind of stabilized in China, which is good news.
In New York, we've got a confirmed case.
Doctors fear it's going to get worse, and people are going nuts at Costco.
Okay, okay, let me stop.
That's not fair.
People aren't even going nuts at Costco.
This is what you need to realize.
The people who are shopping, it looks like, are just buying regular stuff.
It's their normal weekly shopping period.
They're all doing it at the same time, though.
You ever see the Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns goes to the doctor and he talks about how Mr. Burns has this, like, syndrome where his immune system is so bad, literally every germ is trying to get in at the same time, and they're all getting stuck in the door?
That's what happens.
Individually, you can go to the store and buy what you need, you know, a couple cans of food, some water, with no problem.
But when everyone goes at the same time, that's the problem.
So here's what I'll say, and I stand by it.
Never let anyone shame you into not buying some supplies, some emergency food, or having some stuff, you know, some long-term storage stuff in your basement.
Whether or not it's through the site I've mentioned, Safe and Ready Meals, or anything like that, it supports a channel, ignore me.
Do your thing.
Take care of yourself.
I only shout these things out when I think it literally matters.
But the problem arises, or I'll put it this way.
I mentioned this, and I'm proud I did, because a week or two ago I said, you're going to want to go out and get your weekly grocery shopping done now, because this happens.
To all the people who are saying that, like, oh, I'm crazy or stupid for mentioning you should go grocery shopping early, well, what do you say to them now that these photos are showing massive lines, huge wait times, and these stores are selling out on a ton of goods?
Look, if you're one of these people who is like, ha, Tim's an idiot, Okay, go to the store now.
Maybe your area's fine.
I don't know, I'm just saying.
In Seattle, it's not.
In Los Angeles, it's not.
Washington had a couple deaths.
People are going to their, you know, I wouldn't even say they're freaking out.
They're just saying like, hey, maybe we should go out and do this.
Right.
Everyone at the same time.
If you were watching me, congratulations, you probably got in a little earlier.
We went to Costco like two days ago and we had no, or we went to Sam's Club.
No problems.
We did our routine grocery shopping.
We got some extra dry food that'll last a little while.
That's about it.
That's all I'm saying.
I think that sounds reasonable.
But for some reason there are people who think that sounds stupid, and I just shake my head and I'm like, man, don't knock on my door when, you know, the stores are all jammed up and the shelves are emptied.
Because I've been in multiple hurricanes.
Many of you have probably had.
Many of you have probably been in floods.
And you know what happens at Walmart when a flood's coming.
In Florida, it was like a couple years ago, there was a hurricane coming and they thought it was going to hit.
The stores were empty!
People rushed, you know, at the same time.
That's why you get emergency supplies.
The world isn't ending.
It's just hurricane season again.
It happens every year, man.
I can't stand people.
You want to speak reason to them, but they're like, I can't believe you'd be dumb enough to buy food.
Whatever, man.
I don't want to say it a million times.
I'll wrap it up there.
I think we're going to be fine.
The markets are coming back.
This is going to be great news for a lot of people who bought in the dip.
Congratulations for doing it.
To the people who panic sold, I'm sorry that you did, but I can't predict things.
All I know is there's a mortality rate.
We don't want people to die, but we're going to be fine.
Just make sure you are vigilant.
And then once this all, you know, starts kicking up in the United States, you'll be sitting in your room watching TV, maybe reruns of Seinfeld or something, and you'll be like, good thing I got some food, huh?
And then a couple weeks will go by, and it'll be back to normal.
I'll see you all in the next segment at 4 p.m.
at youtube.com slash timcast.
It's a different channel.
Thanks for hanging out.
FEMA is preparing for possible coronavirus emergency declaration.
Quote, to me, this is another indication that the president and the White House are finally aware of the gravity of the situation, said former FEMA official Michael Cohen.
This would allow the federal government to take important actions, and I don't want to waste time.
Let's just read the story to figure out what's going on, because I do have a lot of updates, and there is some bad news.
But I'm going to make light of this segment at the end, so just bear with me.
From NBC, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is planning for the possibility that President Donald Trump could make an emergency declaration to bring in extra funds and personnel to assist the administration's coronavirus response, according to internal documents obtained by NBC News.
FEMA officials are preparing for a, quote, Infectious disease emergency declaration by the president that would allow the agency to provide disaster relief funding to state and local governments, as well as federal assistance to support the coronavirus response, according to agency planning documents reviewed by NBC News.
The Trump administration would have to use the 1988 Stafford Act to enable FEMA to provide such disaster assistance.
Emergency declarations are most often used in the event of natural disasters, but can be used to help manage disease outbreaks.
Quote, to me, this is another indication.
I read this quote already, so we'll skip over it, but they're saying Trump is taking it seriously.
They need to consider all tools available to them and have contingencies for action.
I actually find this reassuring, said Tim Manning, who was a FEMA deputy administrator under Obama.
I hope this discussion has been happening continuously over the last couple of months.
An emergency declaration would allow FEMA to provide disaster medical assistance teams, mobile hospitals, and military transport, among other kinds of federal support.
Manning said, that sounds amazing.
Earlier today, I talked about how there could be a shortage of hospital beds.
This is exactly what we need.
So good on, well, assuming Trump does this would be good news.
FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund has a current balance of $34 billion according to the latest agency update.
It's money that's sitting there and ready, said another former FEMA official who declined to be identified.
FEMA spokesperson Lizzie Listow said the agency is currently focused on supporting the Department of Health and Human Services, Which separately declared a public health emergency on January 31st, allowing Health and Human Services to access funds and other resources to aid the government's virus response.
At this time, there isn't anything additional to the HHS public health emergency, Liz Tao said.
Confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States.
And we have all of these different, you know, the map showing where all the cases are.
So, they say the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
It would not be the first time the federal government has used FEMA's resources to assist in a medical event.
They say in 2000, President Bill Clinton used the Stafford Act Emergency Declaration for outbreaks of the West Nile virus in New York and New Jersey, ordering up to $5 million in federal aid to supplement state efforts.
Emergency declarations are distinct from major disaster declarations, which are more far-reaching and typically used for hurricanes, floods, and natural disasters.
Now, we do have some more alarming updates here.
Washington State announces four more coronavirus deaths, bringing the virus death toll in the U.S.
to six.
It is very likely That there are many more deaths and people infected with the coronavirus that we haven't tested for.
We don't know they're sick.
Most, around 82% of the coronavirus cases are mild, meaning people get a cold and probably not realize it.
But these deaths may be related to a nursing home.
They say the novel coronavirus continued its march around the globe Monday despite travel restrictions aimed at curtailing its spread.
As the global death toll passed 3,000, South Korea on Monday confirmed 599 new cases, far higher than the daily tally reported in China.
With 4,335 confirmed infections and at least 22 deaths, South Korea has the second largest national caseload.
However, it has tested more than 100,000 people, far more than most nations.
Which means, if we were taking care of this, if we were testing people, it would probably appear to be much, much worse.
So, maybe good news for the markets, I guess?
One of the other updates we saw earlier this morning was that the markets rebounded a lot.
I think last I checked, it was up like 600 or so points, so the people who bought the dip, congratulations.
Now before we move on, I am going to give a shout out to safeandreadymeals.com.
First, full disclosure, these videos on coronavirus are always demonetized.
I'll try and keep this one short.
I think it's fair to say that having a two-week food supply, something small, not prepping for the end of the world, just for supply chain disruption, hurricanes, etc.
Look, these natural disasters happen all over the country and the world, and it's surprising to me that people would buy a first aid kit but not just some emergency dry food.
I am only shouting them out because I really do think it's a good idea, and I myself have bought some food supplies for dry storage and emergency food as well.
I think it's smart to do, so I'll leave it there.
If you're interested, the link is in the description below.
I want to stress, this is not an apocalyptic event.
It's not the end of the world if you don't pick this stuff up.
I just personally think it's a good idea.
And I want to also stress, I almost never do these shoutouts because I don't like to freak out, sell vitamins, or any of that nonsense.
But I think considering the panic, people rushing to stores.
You know, for me, it does make sense, and again, it really does support the channel because these videos are always demonetized.
But now I'm gonna give you some funny news, alright?
I hope you're ready for this one.
Maybe it's unfair for me to make light of the situation, but as bad as things are, I always think humor can be something good.
And I get to drag CNN at the same time, so hey, there's that.
You see, on February 7th, CNN reported the U.S.
coronavirus travel ban could backfire.
Here's how.
And, of course, they go on to drag Donald Trump.
Experts say travel restrictions the Trump administration put in place to stop the novel coronavirus from spreading could have unintended consequences that undermine that effort.
It's been days since the U.S.
restrictions went into effect, blocking foreign nationals who visited China in the past two weeks from coming to the U.S.
Details about the U.S.
travel ban's impact are still emerging, but some are already urging the U.S.
to reconsider.
That's right, travel bans are a bad idea.
All of the evidence we have indicates that travel restrictions and quarantines directed at individual countries are unlikely to keep the virus out of our borders.
Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week, these measures may exacerbate the epidemic's social and economic tolls and make us less safe.
Wow.
Well look, I'll tell you what.
It's an honest report, and now it's really funny because CNN is going to restrict travel on their employees.
Okay, I know, it's not a direct correlation.
They're talking about restricting different countries, how it's ineffective, it's very very different, but come on, you gotta admit it's kind of funny.
CNN wasn't the only one to report this news, I'm just kind of being a jerk, I get it, but no no no, in all seriousness though, let's read what's actually going on with CNN.
CNN to limit employee travel due to coronavirus outbreak.
The restrictions apply to all WarnerMedia news and sports employees, which includes CNN.
Now, I think it's fair to say CNN hasn't been doing a whole lot of traveling lately anyway, because their news seems to just be orange man bad.
And they don't need to go on the ground anywhere to rag on President Trump.
They can do that from the comfort of their own New York studio, which I believe is now near the Navy Yards in Brooklyn.
In a memo sent to staffers on Monday morning, Jeff Zucker, the chairman of WarnerMedia News & Sports, instructed employees that all intercontinental travel needed to be personally approved by Zucker.
Staffing for upcoming political events like the Democratic debate, as well as NBA and NCAA coverage, will also be limited to only those who are absolutely critical to getting content out or meeting basic revenue-generating needs.
Quote, it goes without saying that nothing is more important to us than keeping you safe.
We also are aware that employees of the news and sports, particularly those of you in news gathering at CNN, and those of you involved with ongoing sports coverage, face unique challenges with these new restrictions.
We want to do everything we can to enable you to keep doing your jobs, but also stay safe.
For any non-intercontinental travel, Zucker instructed staffers that they would need approval from division heads or their senior executive designees.
Nothing is more important than your well-being.
While some of these protocols may seem inconvenient, they are being taken out of an abundance of caution to keep you all safe.
It is unclear how long these restrictions will remain in place, but we will continue to communicate regularly as the situation both domestically and globally changes.
I think that's actually a good idea.
I don't want to drag CNN.
I mean, well, no, I do.
CNN has a lot to be dragged over, but I think it's fair to say moderate restrictions that require approval, it's not necessarily a bad idea.
The bigger issue, because I know there's going to be a ton of people who love ragging on me for doing those food promos.
They're like, you know, as if I think the world is ending.
I don't.
I think it's that you want to mitigate damage.
The deaths we saw at the nursing home are a perfect example of why we want to take precautions.
Because, yes, many of us may survive, but if we contribute to the spread through, you know, needless measures, like not taking precautions, then you're going to end up with people in nursing homes, the elderly, people with immunocompromised systems.
Well, they're going to be the ones who face the brunt of an exacerbated spread.
CNN, on the other hand, has business to take care of.
And if they get the coronavirus and someone comes back to the office, and it sweeps through the office and everybody gets sick, they're gonna lose a lot of money.
So from a business standpoint, it actually does make sense.
Pointing out, I was being a jerk earlier with that story, because I think it's funny, but no experts have testified to this, you know, that travel restrictions for certain countries might not make sense.
So here's what I want you to leave off with.
Because I got another segment coming up in about a half an hour, talking about preparedness.
It's a great segment.
You're gonna love this one.
The next one.
I just want you to all make sure that you remain calm and you have a plan.
Kim Kardashian, apparently, is coming out saying you need a bug out bag, and I think that's kind of awesome, actually.
I think that's pretty rad.
You should.
You should just take general precautions for if, like, I don't know, you get a fire in your house or something.
Sometimes regular old disasters happen.
So I'll leave it there.
CNN limiting travel is funny, but maybe we'll see something with FEMA.
That's the real news.
And I think that could be good, because although they think, you know, the flu is worse, that's fine.
Let's do what we can to limit the spread of this, period.
Stick around, I got a couple more segments coming up for you in a few minutes, and I will see you all shortly.
Over in the UK, a scandal is brewing related to transgender youth after a 23-year-old biological female who transitioned to male now identifies as female and is taking legal action against the NHS, which is the UK health service, due to, well, essentially not challenging her enough when she was questioning her identity.
It seems that in many cases, I'm not saying all, I'm not trying to go after every single community, but I think it's important to point out there are many cases where there's a separate underlying issue where people lack self-esteem and think this might be the issue.
This might be the reason why they don't feel good about themselves or they hate themselves or hate their bodies.
You then get a health service or clinics that are a bit overzealous and want to promote this or they have a confirmation bias and you'll end up with young women like this individual here.
Now, I absolutely say young woman, even though you can see she has facial hair.
And it's because she identifies as female and regrets the transition, and is filing a legal action over this.
Too often, the stories we hear are positive, and those can be good things.
But the issue is there needs to be sane balance.
If there's real people who are critical of what these clinics are doing, it's important to know the stories.
Because of social media campaigns to get people banned for bigotry or transphobia, you'll end up only hearing the positive, and that can result in stories like this.
In fact, this woman says she went online and she saw all of these issues, and sure enough, now she realizes it was wrong.
But when you go online and everyone whispers sweet nothings into your ears, when everyone around you keeps saying positive things because you can't say otherwise, otherwise you'll get cancelled, You'll end up with poor people, with people like this who I have pity.
I'm not trying to be disrespectful when I say that, but I empathize, I sympathize.
The story says, a 23-year-old woman who is taking legal action against the NHS gender clinic says she should have been challenged more by medical staff over her decision to transition to a male as a teenager.
A judge gave the go-ahead for a full hearing of the case against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust.
Lawyers will argue children cannot give informed consent to treatment, delaying puberty, or helping them to transition.
The Tavistock said it always took a cautious approach to treatment.
Gender Identity Charity Mermaids said that people face a long wait for access to such services, that they can save lives, and that very few people regret their decision.
The clinic based in Hampstead, Northwest London, which runs the UK's only gender identity development service, Added, that it welcomed an examination of the evidence in this contentious area.
I think that's smart.
Because even if it is rare, even if it's not rare, the point is a review would be a good thing for everybody and I don't see why anyone would be opposed to it.
Now you have one individual who seems to regret her decisions and she wants to see a more, you know, a more challenge to young people.
And perhaps that's good because it could weed out people who may be misdiagnosed and make sure those who should be diagnosed and treated will actually get their treatment.
I think it's a win-win for everybody, right?
Kara Bell is one of the claimants and will give evidence in the judicial review, which is likely to be heard in early summer.
The second claimant, known only as Mum A, is the mother of a 15-year-old girl with autism who is awaiting treatment at the clinic.
Kara describes being a tomboy as a child.
When asked how strongly she felt the need to change her gender identity, she replied that it gradually built up as she found out more about transitioning online.
Then as she went down the medical route, she said one step led to another.
What she is describing here is akin to or at least overlapping with something called rapid onset gender dysphoria.
Now there have been many trans activists who reject the idea that there is peer pressure or a, you know, a social contagion effect.
In terms of people thinking they're trans.
The social contagion effect is not something I've come up with, and not even a phrase I agree with.
It's actually something that's been written about, and that's the phrasing they use.
So if you take issue with that, you know what, I kind of agree, I don't like the idea of calling it a contagion.
You can call it social pressure, or just a social phenomenon, whatever.
Look, more importantly, I don't think phrasing matters, but I know a lot of people do.
I'm just trying to make sure I do this and all in a very respectful way, but bring you a story that may be important for those that don't get counter information on the internet.
This is a young woman who saw more information online, and she regrets it now.
That doesn't mean every single person does, doesn't mean the majority will, but it does show how there is a need to highlight these stories, even just a little bit.
Let's move on.
She was referred to the Tavistock GIDS clinic at the age of 16.
She said after three one-hour-long appointments she was prescribed puberty blockers, which delay the development of signs of puberty, like periods or facial hair.
She felt there wasn't enough investigation or therapy before she reached that stage.
Quote, I should have been challenged on the proposals or the claims that I was making for myself.
And I think that would have made a big difference as well if I was just challenged on the things I was saying.
They go on to explain what puberty blockers are.
They are drugs that can cause the development of things like breasts, periods, facial hair, and voice breaking.
They can pause the development.
Sorry, not cause, pause.
They can be prescribed to children with gender dysphoria who feel their sex at birth doesn't match up with their gender.
This is meant to give them more time to weigh up their options before they go through the physical changes of puberty.
However, puberty blockers do have long-term and permanent effects.
A year after starting the puberty blockers, Kira said she was prescribed the male hormone testosterone, which developed male characteristics like facial hair and a deep voice.
Three years ago, she had an operation to remove her breasts.
Initially, I felt very relieved and happy about things.
But I think as the years go on, you start to feel less and less enthusiastic or even happy about things.
You can continue and dig yourself deeper into this hole, or you can choose to come out of it and have the weight lifted off your shoulders.
She decided to stop taking cross-sex hormones last year, and said she was now accepting of her sex as a female, but she was also angry about what had happened to her in the last decade.
Quote, I was allowed to run with this idea that I had, almost like a fantasy, as a teenager, and it has affected me in the long run as an adult.
I'm very young, I've only just stepped into adulthood, and I have to deal with this kind of burden or radical difference in comparison to others at least.
Kira's lawyers will argue that children cannot weigh up the impact such a treatment might have on their future life, including, for instance, on their fertility.
Former staff at the clinic have raised concerns that teenagers who want to transition to a different gender are being given puberty blockers without adequate assessment or psychological work.
You know?
I was told over and over again when I was younger that I would want to do certain things, and I said, that's not true, I know what I want, and of course, I didn't know what I wanted.
Young people always say these things.
I think it's important to note that young people do sometimes know, but they don't always know, and they can't because they're not old enough and they don't have the life experience.
I think it's fair to point out there can be young people who are very smart, and it's important to respect young people when they say they want to try something.
Not all the time, but sometimes.
Because we can't remove all of the obstacles out in front of them and just snowplow everything away.
So sometimes kids and young people say dumb things, and you can argue with them, and you can say, you know what, man?
Here's what I want.
Go try what you're saying.
You know, stay safe, and then when you figure it out, you'll learn.
That's the only way to do it.
You can tell someone how to do something over and over again, but for many people, they just have to find out for themselves.
I don't think for this.
I think this is an instance of adults just telling you they'll give you whatever you want, instead of telling you, hey, sometimes you are wrong about things.
Kids don't know everything.
And perhaps in this circumstance, this young woman needed someone to push back.
Instead, all she got was a bunch of yes-men.
Yes, you're right.
Whatever you want, we'll give you what you need.
No questions asked.
It's not true for everybody, but it's true for at least her.
It has been claimed that children as young as 12 have received the drugs which block the hormones that lead to puberty-related changes.
But she also understands why teenagers arrive at the clinic deeply distressed and desperate to change their gender.
Quote, I did say the same thing years ago when I went to the clinic.
I would say it was saving me from suicidal ideation and depression in general.
And at the time, I felt it relieved all of those mental issues I was feeling alongside gender dysphoria.
She described her family life as difficult.
She also believes that if she had felt more accepted by society as she was then, she might not have wanted to change her gender.
She added that she wouldn't have wanted to listen to voices of caution when she was younger.
I'm going to tell you what.
I'm going to wrap this up by calling out Taylor Swift, of all people.
You're probably saying, I don't see what she has to do with this.
Well, I'll tell you.
She made a music video called The Man.
Where she sings about how life is so much better for men and that she would have been so much more successful if she was a man.
And perhaps it's because of this persistent lie that many young women feel that life would be easier and better if they were men because the things they want are traditionally masculine.
Women can do traditionally masculine things.
It's no big deal.
Maybe it was a long time ago, but not anymore.
You don't need to transition for this.
You can just, you know, work in construction, be an electrician, work on an oil rig, be a garbage man, whatever you want to do.
Taylor Swift is part of this issue, not necessarily related to trans issues, where they're telling young women, your life sucks because you're a woman.
That men have it so much better.
They don't.
There's pros and there's cons across the board, and it's impossible to know because most people have never grown up, well, no one has grown up as both genders.
I mean, independently.
You know, my experience growing up was as a male.
And many people grow up experiencing life as a female.
What this woman experienced was growing up female and transitioning.
It is unique.
What I mean to say is, to do a proper experiment, to know, you need controls.
You would need to be able to experience both developmental stages and we just, it's not possible.
I mean, I guess not right now.
Maybe in the future we'll make some kind of immortality engine and gender swapping engine.
I have no idea.
The point is, If you tell an entire generation of young women that men have it better, and that they can do all of these things, and you show all of these masculine behaviors as only male, don't be surprised when a small percentage say they want to be male.
And you'll end up with these young women regretting it.
And now she permanently has a beard and a deep voice, and it's not necessarily, you know... Well, I think she obviously understands why she doesn't like it.
And I'll leave it there.
I'm not saying this as an attack on anybody or anything like that.
I'm just trying to make sure that people who are going to make these decisions, they have, you know, a reasonable discussion that includes pros and cons.
Nothing in life is perfect, and there is no silver bullet to solve all of your problems.
I'll leave it there.
Stick around.
I got one more segment coming up in a few minutes, and I will see you all shortly.
The other day, Vox.com ran a story saying that it was not overreacting to prepare for the global outbreak, if you know what I'm referring to.
I'm gonna try and keep the language on this one more specific to celebrity and everything like that.
But anyway, the point is, Vox basically said, you know, if there's a pending disaster, you should probably prepare for it.
And now, Vox has another article advocating for preparedness, at least to a certain degree.
And I'm kind of impressed.
There are a lot of people.
So I've done a shoutout to this company that sells emergency food kits.
And there are a decent amount of people who love smack-talking.
Well, they would smack-talk me anyway, so it's pointless.
But they're mocking me over the fact that I would tell you that having emergency food is a good idea.
These people are stupid, because you never know when you might need some emergency supply.
To assume the government and society will always be there for you, to me, is frankly absurd.
And I guess it's probably because I was homeless on and off when I was younger, and I know that at some point, you just don't have everything handed to you.
When you live a cushy, comfortable, middle-class or upper-class life, it's probably easy to dismiss concerns over disasters.
But when you've actually experienced hardship, or if you've actually traveled around the world, you might say, you know what?
It makes sense to have an emergency kit.
If you're somebody who likes to go on road trips, for instance, what do you keep in your car?
Well, you probably got roadside flares.
How often do you use them?
Rarely, if ever, most likely not.
But you know why you have them.
So I've gone on huge journeys around the country.
I almost died in, like, North Dakota, driving in the winter, leaving Standing Rock, because I'm in a Honda Civic, and I'm a crazy person.
So it was like a total whiteout, and I'm like, I don't even know what you can do.
I'm like, just try and keep the wheel straight.
Can't see the road.
There's not, there are things in life that are not just about disasters, that are about general occurrences, normal things that people do, where you want to be prepared.
So I'll say this, and we'll read the story, this is funny, they say, most Americans are not prepared for a disaster.
Now survival kits are all over Instagram.
The Kardashians and the Real Housewives are talking about pre-made Judy survival kits.
Are they any good?
I love it!
I love it!
I absolutely do.
I have driven around and I have seen exactly why you want to have some minor emergency preparations.
Minor.
I'm also hostile environment certified, so perhaps I get this better than most people.
But let's actually just jump into the story.
They say, quote, I've always wanted to put together a box that has everything you need in case of an emergency.
Kim Kardashian confessed to me from her Instagram stories in late January.
You know what, man?
We just had massive fires in California.
narrating the opening of a massive orange crate.
The praise was echoed by her mom, Chris, and sister Courtney, both posting their own unboxing
videos showing off kits designed to support self-sufficiency after disaster.
You know what, man?
We just had massive fires in California.
That's why they're talking about this.
Yet you would have people tell you it's stupid to get a two-week food supply.
I'll tell you what, man.
When a wildfire hits, when a hurricane hits, we literally just witnessed these things happen.
That's why Kim Kardashian and other celebrities are like, check it out, I got a bug out baggin' some food.
It was a bit odd to see the Kardashians pivot from pushing detox tea to preaching the preparedness gospel.
But they weren't the only influencers lining up behind the idea.
Popular accounts, including those of Olivia Culpo, Nyle DiMarco, comments by celebs, Haley Duff, WeWoreThat, MakeupByMario, and not one but two Real Housewives of New Jersey, posted stories or photos featuring their own orange gear, part of a new line of preparedness kits called Judy.
This is truly awesome.
Too many people have this stigma of the prepper.
These people who have underground bunkers with cans lining their walls.
But let me tell you something.
You ever hear the saying that one of the reasons why America's never been invaded is because there's a gun behind every blade of grass?
Preparedness is about so many different things.
If there is a food shortage, and literally every household in this country has an emergency food supply, the economy will keep on keeping on.
It's not just good for you.
It's good for the whole family.
Good for the whole country.
That's the point.
That's why the Kardashians are doing it.
And I'm not telling you that they're the brightest people in the world or anything like that.
But I just think it's... I'm not here to defend them.
I'm not necessarily saying... I'm not trying to say anything bad about the Kardashians.
I just don't know anything about them.
That's the point I'm trying to make.
I'm trying to say, it's really cool when celebrities talk some sense.
And if you wanna be one of these, like, snooty, I-I-I'm-smarter-than-you morons, like the gra- You know, you know the story of the ants and the grasshopper?
Grasshopper didn't prepare for winter and then dies?
Yeah, you can be the grasshopper.
I'll be the ant.
I'll work hard, I'll pr- I'll s- I'll store some stuff up, and I'll have some preparation.
In 2017, the global market for incident and emergency management was valued at $75.5 billion.
By 2025, Allied Research Marketing projects it will jump to $423 billion.
After decades of such kits being relegated to survivalist subcultures or extreme religious sects, you can now purchase versions created for weathering all sorts of storms at Costco or even Pottery Barn.
It's understandable why the market for disaster preparedness is growing.
We've seen some of the worst natural disasters in U.S.
history in a recent, alarmingly short window.
Concerns over the climate continue to rise, the doomsday clock... You know, they're... I think the doomsday clock is dumb, but anyway.
That shift into the mainstream comes with a quite literal price and brings an uneasy recognition of what it will mean for those who can't afford it.
This is a good point.
For many, the idea of stocking up on supplies and planning to survive on your own after disaster might seem like something out of an apocalyptic TV show.
Your thoughts might go straight to bunkers and canned food, cults and reality TV.
In actual reality, the Federal Emergency Management Agency suggests all Americans should be prepared to be self-sufficient for at least three days after any given disaster.
It's a suggestion they've been pushing regularly over the past two decades after evaluating their ability and lack thereof to reach people following large-scale emergencies like 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Repeated surveys show that the message hasn't quite stuck.
Although, according to 2015 FEMA release, 80% of Americans live in counties that have been struck by disasters.
Surveys regularly show around 60% of Americans have no emergency plan in place.
I can't believe I'm reading this at Vox.com, the left-wing progressive site, going full-on right-wing conspiracy nutter prepper.
No.
The reality is, any sane, rational person can pop over to Costco and pick up a little crate of emergency supplies.
Because I think you're crazy if you don't.
I'm not telling you you have to.
I'm not telling you the world is gonna end.
And forgive me if, you know, to the people who watch, like, all of my videos, you hear me say it all the time, you know, you get, I think you understand.
But let me just tell everybody else.
I say this so often.
First, because not everybody watches every video I do, but you really gotta break that stigma.
FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, that was trying to help people during Katrina, they are literally telling you, you cannot rely on them for everything, and you need to take care of yourself.
This is one of the coolest things ever.
As somebody who has traveled the world and seen real strife, stores stripped and raided, stores closing down, no food, Algal blooms, hurricanes, fires.
I think it's rad that people are finally saying, I don't care.
And you know what?
If Kim Kardashian says to do it, you know it must be the right thing to do, right?
I'm kidding, by the way.
Let's read a little bit more.
Here's a quote, it's really hard to move the needle on that.
People still don't understand risk very well, says Anita Chandra, senior policy
researcher at the Rand Corporation.
She's also the vice president and director of the organization's social and economic well-being arm,
which analyzes the factors needed to build healthy and economically stable communities.
Chandra does think the extreme nature of recent events has caused a shift in awareness,
but believes it's still not enough. We are seeing forward progress. Is it fast enough against our
risk? No. Dr. Erwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disease Preparedness at
Columbia University, thinks part of the problem lies in the lack of clarity around what it means
to be prepared.
The actual nature of the disaster makes a great deal of difference.
Are we talking about being prepared to stay in your home in some sort of lockdown situation?
For some period of time?
Are we talking about a kit that you have to take with you?
Clearly, people need supplies like food and water in the wake of any disaster.
But as Redliner sees it, typical advice tends to flatten these events into a one-size-fits-all mold, particularly when you look at prepackaged kits, like the one they say here's one on Amazon for $149.
It promises 100% satisfaction guarantee for surviving for 3 days after earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and other disasters.
It's a bold claim, considering the myriad variables not only in the disasters described, but also when you take into account who might be purchasing the item and the specific needs they have.
In some ways, they just somehow misrepresent themselves as being disaster preparedness, so people think, I'll buy a kit for my car and another for my house, and I won't have to think about it again.
Really a false sense of security.
Perhaps surprisingly, Simon Huck, the creator of Judy, agrees.
So, here's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to wrap this up.
Well, you know what?
I'm going to read a little bit.
I'm going to read their conclusion, and I'm going to wrap it up with one more shout-out, because I refuse to let anyone shame me into telling you you can take some simple precautions.
I think it's really cool.
Check out these Judy Supply Kits.
I don't know exactly what they're all about.
They say there's so much in life we can control.
Spotify.
Spotify playlist.
Sweet Green Order.
Netflix.
One thing we can't?
Natural disasters.
That's why you need Judy, a preparedness brand, here to help you deal with the unexpected.
Emergencies big and small.
You know what I'm gonna do?
I want to help brand what it means to take care of yourself and your family and not just assume someone will always be there for you.
That is just absurd.
This is a really, really long article and I'm actually kind of impressed.
It's pretty cool.
They end by saying, Well, they end by just talking about this event.
But anyway, I think we'll wrap it up there.
But I'm gonna give one last shout-out before I go.
I'm stoked to see Vox talking about this.
I have been with people on the ground in crazy conflict scenarios who are not prepared.
Preparedness is not about a kit that's going to save your life.
It's about a state of mind, a plan.
Do you have an app that tells you how to do basic survival preparedness?
What if there's a wildfire, a hurricane, a tornado?
Or what if the supply chain is disrupted by, say, you know, a global pandemic?
Here's what I'm all about.
This is a website, safeandreadymeals.com.
I've given them a shout-out several times.
Some people on the internet want to drag me over this, and you know what I'll say to you?
Y'all are dumb.
Y'all are dumb.
Look, what are we looking at?
Are we looking at a bunker with canned foods for three years?
No.
We're looking at $87 for a two-week food supply.
I'm giving a shout out for two reasons.
On this, because I want to prove a point.
These are not extreme in any capacity.
How much food do you have in your pantry?
You probably have some food that'll last you years.
Why would you buy it?
You have rice that'll last for years.
Why would you buy it?
Oh, it's because sometimes you want food for storage.
What we just read from Vox is awesome.
Celebrities telling you, hey man, sometimes it makes sense to have a bug out bag, a preparedness kit.
And it does.
I've gone through hostile environment training for conflict and crisis, alright?
I've been on the ground with people who have no idea how to handle themselves and wouldn't know what to do if they were faced with a real disaster.
Have you ever seen a disaster economy?
When you go into areas affected by floods, you see price gouging, but you also see legitimate price increases.
Someone might say, hey, I had to drive 50 miles to pick up this water.
It cost me this much in gas, the bottle of water now costs five dollars.
Price gouging is when they sell a bottle for like, an exorbitant amount because they know you're desperate.
But no, in all actuality, if someone's gonna spend a hundred bucks to go drive and pick up a case of water, then the water becomes more expensive.
It's just the way things work.
They gotta ship things in.
It costs taxpayer dollars.
So don't assume someone else will be there for you.
Don't assume you will always be safe.
And also, don't assume you need a year's bunker supply.
I did a shout-out for this.
Safeandreadymeals.com.
Check them out.
Pick it up if you're interested.
Or don't.
I'm not telling you what to do.
Don't freak out.
But it's two-week.
They're displaying a two-week and a four-week food supply.
It's not even that expensive.
It's relatively inexpensive for food, I gotta say.
So if anybody wants to come to you and tell you you're a moron, you're an idiot, you're panicking, you're overreacting, just ignore them.
Just ignore them.
FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency, they're straight up saying, we wish more Americans would take these things seriously.
This is not the end-all be-all.
So I'll do this, just to say, what this site offers you with the food supply is not everything you're gonna need.
You need to figure that out for yourself.
I'm just telling you, I bought emergency food, I don't think I'm gonna use it, but it's good to have, and I don't care what anyone says, they can say everything they want to me, and I'll tell you what, man, I have been on the ground in riots, where guns have been fired, and these other journalists are like, are those fireworks?
Do you see anybody carrying fireworks?
Do you see people carrying guns?
And this is the kind of mentality of the safety bubble that America has created.
These people have never experienced true hardship, so they think everything will always be okay.
Now, I have experienced hardship.
I grew up on the South Side.
I've seen how things can get.
I've seen gang activity.
I've been in riots, and I've been in other countries, and you know what?
I'm like, 80 bucks?
That's a good deal.
And I put it in my pantry, and I haven't thought about it since.
What's the likelihood I'm ever gonna pop that thing open in 25 years or whatever?
I should probably store it better, but it's got a couple- I think it's a couple years, but like 25 years of proper storage?
I'm probably not gonna pop it open.
I hope I don't!
That's the point.
In the event I have to.
I'll be happy that I did.
And all those people who are screeching and laughing about it, making fun of the Kardashians for promoting this stuff, they're gonna be the ones begging the Kardashians for help.
I'll leave it there.
You know, if you guys are unhappy with me mentioning this stuff, I rarely do these shoutouts, but just trust me when I say I really do mean it when I do shout them out, alright?
