EXPOSED! MAGA “Influencers” PAID OFF To Shill For Big Soda!

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Jimmy Dore Show Episode Title: EXPOSED! MAGA “Influencers” PAID OFF To Shill For Big Soda! Release Date: March 26, 2025

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Introduction

In this explosive episode of The Jimmy Dore Show, host Jimmy Dore and his co-host delve deep into a troubling revelation: MAGA-aligned influencers being financially incentivized by big soda companies to promote sugary beverages. The discussion expands to expose the broader implications of corporate influence on public policy and social programs, highlighting issues like government overreach, privatization threats to essential services, and systemic political corruption.

MAGA Influencers and Big Soda Scandal

Unveiling the Payoffs

Jimmy Dore kicks off the episode by revealing that a company named Influencer Influenceable is channeling substantial funds from big soda giants like Coca-Cola and Pepsi to pay MAGA influencers. These influencers are incentivized to campaign against proposals that aim to restrict the purchase of soda through SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits.

• Quote:
  • Jimmy Dore [02:03]: "There's a company called Influencer Influenceable and it's the company cutting big checks to influencers on behalf of Big Soda."

Manipulative Tactics

The influencers deployed identical talking points, often invoking President Trump's affinity for Diet Coke to emotionally manipulate MAGA supporters into opposing soda restrictions.

• Quote:
  • Jimmy Dore [03:30]: "Over the last 48 hours, several large supposedly MAGA aligned influencers posted almost identical talking points... making them feel as if banning soda from SNAP would be anti-Trump."

Lack of Transparency

A critical issue highlighted is the influencers' failure to disclose that they were being paid, which misled their followers into believing the anti-soda stance was genuine grassroots opposition.

• Quote:
  • Jimmy Dore [10:06]: "A grand total of zero of them disclosed that they were paid to push a stance on proposed regulations."

Government Overreach and SNAP Benefits

SNAP Flexibility Abuse

The discussion moves to how current SNAP policies allow recipients to purchase junk food, including soda, which undermines the intent of the program to provide nutritional assistance.

• Quote:
  • Jimmy Dore [01:33]: "They are allowed to buy junk food with it. Right. So before Reagan used to say, oh, they're buying lobster with it. Yeah, that's what they're doing."

Public Health Implications

Dore emphasizes that soda is harmful due to high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners like aspartame, which have questionable approval histories.

• Quote:
  • Jimmy Dore [02:12]: "Nothing good about soda is poison. Right. It's high fructose corn syrup and it's garbage."

Influenceable's Role in Political Manipulation

Corporate Lobbying Strategies

Influenceable serves as a middleman between lobbying firms funded by corporations and the influencers, orchestrating campaigns to sway public opinion in favor of corporate interests.

• Quote:
  • Jimmy Dore [11:00]: "They develop relationships with influencers and pay them to push these lobbying groups' talking points."

Case Studies and Examples

Dore cites specific instances where influencers were paid to promote anti-regulatory messages, using templates provided by Influenceable to maintain consistency and effectiveness.

• Quote:
  • Jimmy Dore [12:10]: "Another template, too, specifically pushing a CPAC link calling this a war on soda."

Broader Implications: Privatization and Social Security Threats

Threats to Social Security

The conversation shifts to the impending threats against Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, driven by both political agendas and corporate interests aiming to privatize these essential services.

• Quote:
  • Jimmy Dore [36:39]: "They're going to try and screw up Social Security, make it not work, just like they tried to do the post office."

Postal Service Privatization

Dore discusses plans to privatize the United States Postal Service, highlighting memos from financial institutions like Wells Fargo that outline strategies to make the postal service a profit-driven entity at the expense of public service quality and workers' rights.

• Quote:
  • Jimmy Dore [55:04]: "A privatized postal system would also take aim at the universal service obligation which requires the mail to be delivered to every address six days a week."

Political Corruption and the Influence of Billionaires

Entitlement System Manipulation

The podcast critically examines how affluent individuals and corporations manipulate the entitlement system, aiming to divert funds from Social Security to Wall Street and other private sectors.

• Quote:
  • Jimmy Dore [36:36]: "They're trying to make people propagandized against it. They're doing the same thing to the post office."

Control Over Government Services

Dore points out that both Democratic and Republican parties are complicit in these schemes, driven by donor interests rather than public welfare, leading to ineffective governance and increased division among citizens.

• Quote:
  • Jimmy Dore [23:05]: "The Democrats have become the party of panic and punitive measures against the ones who can't afford it."

Concluding Insights and Calls to Action

Awareness and Resistance

Jimmy Dore urges listeners to recognize and resist the manipulative tactics employed by corporations and corrupted political figures. He emphasizes the importance of transparency and accountability in safeguarding public programs and services.

• Quote:
  • Jimmy Dore [10:51]: "Influenceable is the perfect fit for you. They suppress, want to get paid to shill for people you know nothing about."

Future Exposés

Dore hints at future episodes that will further investigate the shady operations of Influenceable and similar entities, promising listeners more revelations and strategies to combat these pervasive issues.

• Quote:
  • Jimmy Dore [15:51]: "Prepare for part two of this story where we find out more about the shady PR firm known as Influenceable."

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Key Takeaways

1. Corporate Influence on Politics: Big soda companies are paying MAGA influencers to oppose regulatory measures that would restrict soda purchases through SNAP.

2. Lack of Transparency: Influencers are not disclosing their paid partnerships, misleading their followers about the authenticity of their stances.

3. Government Overreach: There are ongoing efforts to allow SNAP benefits to be used for junk food purchases, undermining the program’s nutritional goals.

4. Privatization Threats: Essential services like Social Security and the Postal Service are under threat from privatization efforts spearheaded by corporate interests and facilitated by lobbying firms like Influenceable.

5. Political Corruption: Both major political parties are implicated in these manipulative schemes, driven by donor interests and leading to ineffective governance.

6. Call to Action: Listeners are encouraged to stay informed, resist corporate manipulation, and support transparency and accountability in public programs.

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This episode of The Jimmy Dore Show serves as a critical examination of the intersection between corporate interests and political influence, shedding light on how financial incentives are shaping public opinion and policy to the detriment of essential social programs and services.

Transcript

[Jimmy Dore]

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[Jimmy Dore]

Come see us on tour in Hartford, Connecticut, Syracuse, Atlantic City, Levittown, New York Co host, New York, Providence, Rhode Island, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, San Jose, Toledo, Ohio and Toronto, Ontario. Go to jimmy dore.com for a link for tickets. Establishment media sucks all gas lighting so good luck.

[Co-host]

We can't afford why he's fomenting this.

[Jimmy Dore]

Watch and see as his jack off the medium speeds and jumps the media.

[Co-host]

Come and hit some head on it's the chimney door show.

[Jimmy Dore]

So they want to take the snap benefits. Right. Which is money for, for poor people to get food. Which is a great idea. But what they do is they, they, they are allowed to buy junk food with it. Right. So you know, before Reagan used to say, oh, they're buying lobster with it. Yeah, that's what they're doing.

[Co-host]

Yeah, Reagan said that. I remember that like pretty recently. Is that one they just trot out all the time buying lobster.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah. And then they. Reagan says you're buying lobster and then she got into a Cadillac.

[Co-host]

The welfare queen.

[Jimmy Dore]

That was the welfare queen.

[Co-host]

So now soda.

[Jimmy Dore]

So the real thing is though, they're allowed to buy junk food. And, and there's nothing good about soda is poison. Right. It's high fructose corn syrup and it's garbage. And then if you're not drinking the high fructose corn sirup, you're drinking the stuff with aspartame, which, which a lot of people say is poison. And if you know anything about how it got approved, you would agree. So Nick Sorter, he got this Nick Sorter, he's good. This guy gets a lot of. He catches a lot of stuff. It says there's a company called Influencer Influenceable and it's the company cutting big checks to influencers on behalf of Big Soda. So Trump is gonna. And I don't know if it's Doge or whoever, but they're trying to get. I know Bobby Kennedy's about making the food for children in schools make it healthy instead of processed food and garbage. And they're trying to get rid of SNAP being able to buy soda. So over the last 48 hours, several large supposedly MAGA aligned influencers posted almost identical talking points fed to them, convincing you that Maha was out of line for not wanting soda purchases with food stamps. Snap. That's what food stamps are. Snap.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Dore]

Some even different things, some even slimy. Invokes President Trump as an emotional manipulation tactic, referring to his Diet Coke button. Donald Trump has. He has. He drinks so much Diet Coke he wants it. He wants shit out of laboratory rat. I don't know if you know that. That's how much Diet Coke.

[Co-host]

The guy doesn't do any drugs. It's so funny because like Diet Coke, I equate that with huffing the level of energy.

[Jimmy Dore]

Not a single one of them disclosed they were paid for these posts, which led readers to believe a general soda ban was in the works. So Maha is not haha about sugary sodas. Let me put it that way. So here's one. Clown world tweeted this out. This is according to Nick Sorter. The government wants to block soda purchases for Americans on snap. Remember when New York City tried this and it completely backfired? President Trump proudly had a Diet Coke button in the Oval Office. This is ridiculous. Government overreach let people decide for themselves. Says Cloud World.

[Co-host]

Snap. It's Snap. It's not people deciding. It's your money paying for them to have it. The reason they can't have lobster.

[Jimmy Dore]

Clown world is in fact part of the clown world.

[Co-host]

Yeah, it turns out World.

[Jimmy Dore]

Who could.

[Co-host]

Who would have thought an anonymous Twitter account would be no good at the end of the day?

[Jimmy Dore]

And everybody knows Mexican Coke is the only way to go.

[Co-host]

Yeah, that's true.

[Jimmy Dore]

I say Mr. Trump tear down the using actual sugar wall.

[Co-host]

Mexican Coke's the best, but I don't want to be deported.

[Jimmy Dore]

Here's another one. Eric Doherty says important we cannot allow Make America Healthy Again messaging to be used to force needy Americans into not buying certain things. Oh, all of a sudden they care about needy Americans. And what they're buying with government money. Some officials in D.C. are working on trying to prevent Americans on Snap from using those benefits to purchase any soda. Yeah, it's all. It's all. It's all not good for you.

[Co-host]

Remember, their biggest buyer, by the way, is poor people on snap. I bet you it is.

[Jimmy Dore]

Remember, I wouldn't doubt it. Them and Trump. So billionaires and super poor people. Remember when New York City Democrats tried. Same thing, the exact same message. President Trump literally has a Diet Coke button in his office. Let people think and decide for themselves. Anyone can consume. So that's another one. So there's another one, by the way.

[Co-host]

They didn't try the same thing. That's not true at all. They did not try the same thing. Because this welfare element.

[Jimmy Dore]

No, no. What they tried to do in New.

[Co-host]

York City sizes, and they made the sizes smaller. And so what?

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, and I thought they tried to get it out of schools. I'm not sure, but I think that's what. So here's another one. Not Jerome Powell. Powell says government overreach strikes again. This time it's soda. They want to restrict soda purchases through Snap this time. This is an unwarranted attempt by the government to dictate what Americans can or cannot consider. There's always been. I'm pretty sure there's always been controls on what you. You can't buy alcohol with Snap, Jimmy.

[Co-host]

This sounds like crack.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah. You can't buy cigarettes, you can't buy cigars. It's always.

[Co-host]

You just have to hide to smoke weed.

[Jimmy Dore]

By the way, even President Trump likes to drink his head. The government needs to stop. So these people are all being paid to say this. And they're not telling you. They're being paid to say this. I have advertisers. And when I. And I always tell you, hey, this is an advertiser. Here's one more thing to make people.

[Co-host]

Disclose that they got paid to say this. Oh, this scumbag. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. I hate this creep. Yeah.

[Jimmy Dore]

So just remember these people are arguing for the government to pay poor people to get fatter. These are the modern day Republican influencers. Here's Ian Miles Chung. Right. So, Ian Miles Chong, is. Are you really trying to tell me that soda can be used as part of a healthy diet? Is that what. Sure. As long as you use a straw and flap your arms a thousand times a minute like a hummingbird, I think it's okay to drink.

[Co-host]

That's the one safe way.

[Jimmy Dore]

A new war on soda has begun targeting purchases Made through snap. I don't believe it's the government role to decide what people should or shouldn't eat. The last time the US government dove deep into dietary guidance, the whole world ended up with the questionable food pyramid. It's also championed the COVID 19 vaccine. So this is.

[Co-host]

Wow, he lives in Malaysia, this guy.

[Jimmy Dore]

This is so deceitful. This is.

[Co-host]

He sucks. Yeah, this is very.

[Jimmy Dore]

This is. This is really. This is. You're. Wow, you're being paid.

[Co-host]

And this dude, by the way, he's putting his own fat spin on the ad cop. See how he goes the extra mile and throws in.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah. His own.

[Co-host]

Has a food pyramid.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

This is a guy who has a real ant problem at his house. He's a fat asshole with drinking sodium. Stop. He's got ants.

[Jimmy Dore]

Constantly promoting better health for Americans is a reasonable idea, but not when it involves curbing Diet Coke purchases. Why?

[Co-host]

I'm not on snap. What are you talking about? Miles was restricted about American welfare. People buying soda. Is that real?

[Jimmy Dore]

So. So individual liberty.

[Co-host]

Get a job.

[Jimmy Dore]

So he goes. These influencers. This is Nick Sorters reporting. Were given a couple templates to use by influencers, with one of those templates specifically telling them to mention Trump's Diet Coke habit. This was done to invoke an emotional response from loyal Trump supporters, making them feel as if banning soda from Snap would be anti Trump. This is an incredibly dirty tactic meant to manipulate loyal followers. Nick is right. And I don't want my tax dollars going to another war. We should be, we should not be losing our sons and daughters against the battle against Diet Coke. That's what I say.

[Co-host]

And this is big with AA people.

[Jimmy Dore]

So now, so here, then here it is. And here's the thing where it says mention Trump's Diet Coke button. So here's. This is it. And then here's a picture of Trump drink drinking Diet Coke. Look, it really helped his weight.

[Co-host]

Yeah, well, you know, he earns his own money as the President of the United States. This is Snap again. You don't want these people buying lobster. I've heard Republicans say this over and.

[Jimmy Dore]

Over again, over and over.

[Co-host]

A healthy lobster is no good. Have corn syrup.

[Jimmy Dore]

So Nick Sorter influencers were texted by influenceable, that's the name of the company influencer, telling them to help push back against government overreach and told they'd be paid between several hundred and even a thousand dollars plus for each post attempting to turn MAGA folks against RFK Jr and MAHA.

[Co-host]

And there it is, a post. How come nobody Approaches me.

[Jimmy Dore]

Nobody ever approaches me.

[Co-host]

Oh, it's good for you. I'm not with that. Yeah, not with the show.

[Jimmy Dore]

Help push back against government overreach and defend personal choice. Efforts to restrict soda purchases through food aid programs are a clear example of bureaucratic overreach. Oh, this is amazing.

[Co-host]

Do they get the name Influenceable by mixing influence and reprehensible?

[Jimmy Dore]

The way Influenceable operates is simple. They develop comfort relationships with lobbying firms who are funded handsomely by massive corporations such as Coca Cola and Pepsi. They also develop relationships with influencers such as the ones listed above and pay them to push these lobbying groups. Talking points. They're a middleman that makes a hell of a lot of. A lot of essentially selling out for our country that they are middlemen who make a hell of a lot essentially selling out our country. That's exactly what they're doing.

[Co-host]

You know why Trump's not going to fix America? Because it's America. And the bottom line of America is this bullshit.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right.

[Co-host]

Make money no matter what. And so you can't fix that, can you?

[Jimmy Dore]

So every influencer contacted by influenceable met the same criteria. Supposedly MAGA aligned. This was all meant to be. Well, they didn't contact me and there's. And half the country thinks I'm MAGA aligned, so.

[Co-host]

Well, that's because influenceable types just lie. They get money to lie.

[Jimmy Dore]

This was all meant to manipulate their followers, which trust them for their news and opinions, into siding with Big Soda. A grand total of zero of them disclosed that they were paid to push a stance on proposed regulations.

[Co-host]

Yeah, that's Warren Buffett's. He's a big. That's why he always. I love Coca Cola. Because he's a corn syrup.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right. There was another template, too, specifically pushing a CPAC link calling this a war on soda. The link was included in the outline provided by influencer Muncho Bull.

[Co-host]

Listen, the snap payments, I'll bet you a huge chunk of their money in the soda business comes from that. Because what? My girlfriend's like, people still drink soda. This is how long she lives in California. And. Yeah, like, you know.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

What do you think? All these fats. That's one number one fatso syrup in America.

[Jimmy Dore]

And it's even worse to drink diet soda if you're doing it to. To reduce your weight. They've done studies. The people who drink diet soda, it actually increases their weight because it's. It's a chemical and it's bad for you. It's not natural to Put that in your body and it messes you up. And the. The fattest people I know drink diet sodas. Just keep that in mind.

[Co-host]

Yeah, look, the science is done. You always see fat people drinking diet soda, but you do also see Mick Jagger drinking it.

[Jimmy Dore]

So you know, so you know, Influenceable does this a lot. Pushing sketchy leftist aligned ads in the past. They'll also pay people to routinely push candidates and movies too. This is much more an innocent example. But I'm sure you've seen some of these posts. This gives you a visual from start to finish. Listen to what filmmakers have to say. So that guy's doing it and he shows you over here. Here, I'll show you. This is the new Influenceable phone release. Please label it as influenceable in your contacts and pin it. Influencer is launching a campaign for the movie Sound of Freedom. Our goal is to bring massive awareness to the cause of child trafficking and drive people to watch the film. Two videos posted on Instagram. Tick tock. A hundred dollar to eleven for every thousand views. Time. So just so you get it, that.

[Co-host]

Guy is such a. I think that guy's such a fraud. But you had the guy explaining what the Sound of Freedom director. Remember you had the guest on explaining.

[Jimmy Dore]

Explaining why it was kind of a scam.

[Co-host]

Yeah. And if it was about real child traffic, think how they suppress that stuff. Why would you need to hire Influenceable to promote a thing like that? I think people want to know about that.

[Jimmy Dore]

They suppress, want to get paid to shill for people you know nothing about. Influenceable is the perfect fit for you.

[Co-host]

Well, I do want to, but I, for some reason I'm not fit for that service.

[Jimmy Dore]

I know. So this is. It just shows you that a. And then they pay him. So here's another one. It's just mine. My name is Galen and I had recruitment at Influenceable, the fastest growing anti woke influencer agency in the country. RNC works with hundreds of influencers on marketing campaigns to consumer brands, companies, nonprofits, PACs and candidates. We would like to discuss adding you to our network of influencers so we could provide you with additional work as a content creator. It's simple, no? So then they show you how to do it.

[Co-host]

There are no strings attached. I feel like there might be some strings.

[Jimmy Dore]

Luckily, some right wing patriots refused to sell out to Big Soda. Here's Riley Gaines. She didn't.

[Co-host]

She says, oh, because she's a swimmer and she's not an influencer. You know, like how people set out to be that like the other Scumbag.

[Jimmy Dore]

She says they offered to pay me to post a big fact check. A big fat heck no from her.

[Co-host]

She even swear.

[Jimmy Dore]

Even swear. Look how this is just the beginning. Prepare for part two of this story where we find out more about the shady PR firm known as Influenceable. We will not sell.

[Co-host]

Subscribe. I'm subscribed to next order. Dude.

[Jimmy Dore]

Large soda companies are paying influencers upward of $1,000. Why? Because Coke and Pepsi pull in over 5 billion each year off taxpayers funded food stamps. 5 billion off of food stamps.

[Co-host]

I was right. I was right. That's exactly what it is. I was right.

[Jimmy Dore]

Oh, my God.

[Co-host]

They wouldn't flip out. Because they have to get. They have to make you. It's like he crossed state lines. But they don't. You're supposed to fill it in. They don't want you to know it's SNAP.

[Jimmy Dore]

Look at this. Here's the estimated SNAP. SNAP households spend 5% of their benefits on soda. That's approximately $5.6 billion on soft drinks nationwide. Assuming Coca Cola captures 45% of this soft drink spending aligned with us, that equates to roughly $2.5 billion just for Coke from Snap.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Dore]

Wow. To any influencer who decides to take big soda shield money. Following this post, I'm going to call you out by name. The thousand dollar ain't worth it. Fair warning. So there it is.

[Co-host]

They only give out a thousand dollars and they make that much off of this evil thing they do.

[Jimmy Dore]

Wow.

[Co-host]

That much money. And they're only paying you $1,000 to sell out the thing you pretended was a big deal.

[Jimmy Dore]

Wow. And they said. And those are the same people angry at the scientists that Fauci bought off.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Well, they're angry at what they're. Look, I don't believe that everybody's this stupid. I don't. And what I've noticed is that's why this is great. This guy's reporting on this. Because a lot of these things that I'll see. Come on. The. Like I said, I've told you before. Stupid destiny. He was paid by some. Some group to argue with Norman Finkelstein. As if he was qualified to do that. They tried to coach him. This is how everything works. So when you see these bizarre. Like, why is this guy. When I saw Coleman, you say that stupid thing about, well, Ivermectin is made by big pharma.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

So isn't that bad? I'm like, I know you're too smart to make an argument like that. That's a I assume that's a paid show. You just assume someone's a paid show when they do that.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah. So these, those people were what, what they would. That's the definition of a paid show. So good work, Nick Sorter. Hey, you know, here's another great way you can help support the show is you become a premium member. We give you a couple of hours of premium bonus content every week and it's a great way to help support the show. You can do it by going to jimmy door comedy.com Clicking on join Premium. And it's the most affordable premium program in the business. And it's a great way to help put your thumb back in the eye of the bastards. Thanks for everybody who was already a premium member. And if you haven't, you're missing out. We give you lots of bonus content. Thanks for your support. Guess what Bill Maher said. Bill Maher is waking up, I guess a little. Let's listen.

[Bill Maher]

California is projected to lose three seats. New York, two. Also going to lose a seat. Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Illinois, all blue states.

[Jimmy Dore]

And that's because people are leaving those states. And what Bill doesn't realize, that's what the open borders was supposed to make up for. Okay, okay, now it's ruined. Yeah. Okay, who's getting these?

[Bill Maher]

Texas, Florida, Idaho and Utah. I mean, this looks like game over, you know, and the reason why people are voting with their feet is a lot of what your book is about taxes and regulation. I certainly been screaming about it forever. I did three years with a sign here that said, how long is it going to take me to get my Solar hooked up? 3 years talking about it on television in this state. You couldn't do it. This state has almost 400,000 regulations. I just put in a new roof because the fire, I thought, oh, it's got a roof that's not going to burn up. Two inspections. Why are you inspecting my roof? It's my fucking roof. If it falls on me, that's my problem.

[Jimmy Dore]

I mean, imagine if they'd inspected for massive catastrophic fires in the state of California instead of his roof. Bullshit. Imagine if that happened. Imagine.

[Co-host]

I think they did, but they didn't take the next step.

[Jimmy Dore]

Bill, if your roof. If your roof falls on. Roofer. Roofer. If your roof falls on you and you die and they didn't inspect it, it means they didn't make any money off your new roof.

[Co-host]

It's pretty obvious.

[Jimmy Dore]

I mean, listening to Bill Maher make absolute sense is like the, the one sane thing your crazy aunt ever said to you, you have to take a moment to process it. Really. It's. And the Democrats have become the party of panic and punitive measures against the ones who can't afford it. They're more like war stocks than Woodstock, am I right? Yes. Here he's got more to say.

[Bill Maher]

And we're taxed more than any other state. People are leaving these kind of states for places where they're not like they feel the heavy breath of government on them. It's just, it's not that hard for Democrats to understand this. But they, they seem to be incapable of doing anything about it.

[Ezra Klein]

So we poll this there.

[Jimmy Dore]

But Bill, they're not, first of all, they're not incapable. They're utterly corrupt. It's not that they're just, they're just goofs. Oh, they were just a little smarter or if they just.

[Co-host]

Bunch of goofballs, these guys.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, these guys are. No, they're corrupt. They're not incapable. I mean, I know it looks grim now, Bill, but just give the governor a chance for his podcast to take off and I think everything's going to work out.

[Co-host]

I started a podcast where I couldn't get Hollywood work no more.

[Jimmy Dore]

Here we go.

[Ezra Klein]

Leaving on cost of living. That's all part of it. They leave it because they can't afford homes. And it's a huge not just political problem. Those numbers you just gave, like the.

[Jimmy Dore]

People, the governor and the politicians in California know people. They know that people can't afford homes here. Housing prices are crazy. They know that. And what's their plan to fix that? Nothing.

[Co-host]

In fact, they burn the homes of people who can afford homes burned down.

[Jimmy Dore]

They burned down a rich community and a middle class community at the same time.

[Co-host]

Too many people have homes.

[Jimmy Dore]

Too many.

[Co-host]

The problem that they wanted to solve and they solved it.

[Ezra Klein]

After 2030, if that holds, a Democrat could win every state Tom Layer has won. Win Michigan, win Pennsylvania. And I'm just blanking on the third blue wall state. Win Michigan, win Pennsylvania and win Wisconsin and lose the presidential election.

[Co-host]

Right.

[Ezra Klein]

The blue wall would no longer be enough for them to win. And you have to take, I mean.

[Bill Maher]

They could win those three states and still lose the presidential.

[Ezra Klein]

That's how bad it is. Right. And that's because they are driving people out, working class families out of the states they govern because the cost of living is too high. And the cost of living in part for regulatory reasons, in part for taxes. But the big problem is they just don't have enough of the things people need. Not enough homes, not enough Energy. Not a government capable of delivering. And they've been.

[Jimmy Dore]

No, they are. The government is capable of delivering, Ezra. They're just not going to deliver for the regular person, ok? They're delivering for rich real estate developers, for Silicon Valley, for the war machine and weapons manufacturers, and for Walt. They're delivering for all those people. They're just not.

[Co-host]

They delivered on Ukraine so good, they had enough to sell to other countries that are against us.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right. That's how well they delivered for Ukraine. They can deliver. They're just not going to deliver for you. Okay, here we go.

[Ezra Klein]

More treating that as not a real problem. You were talking about your solar sign. California high speed rail. It's a huge disaster, but nobody's ever done anything about it. If you tried to build it again, it would go the exact same way.

[Bill Maher]

High speed rail.

[Ezra Klein]

Yeah, California's high speed rail.

[Bill Maher]

I think we first passed it in.

[Jimmy Dore]

2008 and it was supposed to go from San Diego to San Francisco. High speed rail from San Diego to San Francisco. You know where it goes now? They actually been building goes from Bakersfield to Merced. Places nobody goes. Nobody wants to go. They want it to go from Los Angeles, San Diego to Los Angeles to San Francisco. That's where people want it. It's going.

[Co-host]

Right?

[Jimmy Dore]

It's going someplace nobody goes.

[Co-host]

Don't get upset. Because guess what? It's never going to be made.

[Jimmy Dore]

And it's not even made. It's not even. It's not even functional between Bakersfield and Merced. And it never will be. It never will be. And why? Because we're corrupt.

[Co-host]

Do you think, Bill, these two geniuses on this iconic show are going to put together that they live in a Mafia rundown and it's a Mafia situation.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right. No, the Deep State's a dirty word.

[Co-host]

But you got to understand, think of the Mafia. They told you there was no such thing as the Mafia.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right.

[Co-host]

Just like, okay, so now like, I mean, you're not putting together. This is the most like out of goodfellas kind of shit ever. It don't make money. We're gonna burn it down. That's cheaper than trying to fix it. I mean, these are like Mafia things.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yes, yes. It's cheaper to let the cities burn down than it is to actually, I don't know, buy a thousand fire trucks, fill them with water, put them in a yard.

[Co-host]

We got all these investments coming in, Jimmy. Okay. I got a podcast coming out. I'm talking to Charlie Kirk. That's gonna Go. Awesome.

[Jimmy Dore]

There's more.

[Bill Maher]

I think they just voted about something about it again. It's. It's projected. Just give up. Just to, just, just to build, I think from Baker's Field to Merced. Who the hell wants to go from Bakersfield to Mercedes? And they couldn't do that.

[Ezra Klein]

I went out and toured this and the people building it were perfectly clear with me, look, this doesn't work if we don't do LA to San Francisco and they don't have the money to do LA to San Francisco and they don't have the regulatory structure to do it. They have been clearing. They started clearing the rail track through environmental review. The whole point of high speed rails, it's good for the environment.

[Bill Maher]

Right?

[Ezra Klein]

They started clearing it through environmental review in 2012. By the end of 2024 when I was fact checking the book, it was almost done. The reviews were almost done. And the thing that.

[Jimmy Dore]

12 years to get the environmental okays to build the high speed rail which is supposed to be helping us with climate change.

[Co-host]

Wait, we gotta pave the Brazilian rainforest to have a meeting about this?

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right.

[Ezra Klein]

Bothers me about it. In addition, we didn't get high speed rail is. They didn't change it.

[Co-host]

Right? Okay.

[Ezra Klein]

Huge failure. Learn something. Make it so it won't happen again. The problem is that the right. We've just been talking about this. The personality type of the right is autocratic now. And the personality type of the left is bureaucratic. And you can't govern if you are this obsessed with process. And you can see it in the outcomes. If you want to sideline dangerous populist right autocratic movements, you gotta offer people the fruits of effective government. If the places you govern are not advertisements for your governance, you are going to lose.

[Jimmy Dore]

Thanks, Captain Hindsight. Wow.

[Ezra Klein]

It's just depressing to live in a country where it still takes nearly three hours to get from Washington to New York. This is the great avenue, right? You can't get there in less than three hours. It should be 40 minutes on a real train. I couldn't agree with you more. But what I want to know is why is that any different than what they're doing in the red states? So regulate. Lots of energy, lots of building. In part, there are places where states have it right. Look, Houston and Austin, when people move there, they build more houses.

[Bill Maher]

They just do.

[Ezra Klein]

They build multiples more houses per thousand people who come in there than LA and San Francisco and New York City do.

[Bill Maher]

La.

[Ezra Klein]

San Francisco and New York City should take a page out of Texas's book on this. The problem with a bunch of the red states is the vision of where they want to go with things. Right. The fascinating thing to me about Texas is it's building as much clean energy as it is. Even though the politics are anti clean energy. The Texas governor, the Texas legislature, they keep putting up bills to make it harder. But because of the default in Texas is it's easy to build. And building clean energy is profitable because of the inflation reduction act and the technology and a bunch of other things, they're still building a ton of it.

[Jimmy Dore]

So here's what some people on Twitter had to say about unfortunately, many of those who leave those blue states bring their politics with them. No, I think, I think once they loot. They've been. They've been radicalized enough to leave the blue state and move to a red state.

[Co-host]

Yeah. This is like a thing of keep the electoral college, I feel like agenda.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Like because people will vote wrong if. Because he said dangerous. Dangerous popular populist right movements. I presume he means like maga. I mean I'm not dangerous to what I'm not sure. Houthis. But it's all like clear eyed now. After Kamala, before Kamala it was like she's great. Obviously she's going to win. Ezra Klein wouldn't say none of this before then. As soon as everybody made their money on the human shit coin that is Kamala Harris and they did a pump and dump on her. That's exact. That's why they ran a great campaign. Because everybody got rich on a losing candidate. That's what they mean by that.

[Jimmy Dore]

And, but, and but this is also again it. So now we can throw the bums out and we'll bring in new bums.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's all this means. As James Corbett just explained and he explains well in his book, this is. You're being controlled by. Don't look up because that's what. That's who's actually controlling you. It's the oligarchs and it's international. They created the European Union. They have complete financial control of the world.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Dore]

And they want us fighting amongst Israel.

[Co-host]

I will make that clear. They want us just Israel.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, that's right. They want us fighting each other so we don't come together to fight them. That's what this is. This is the game. So let me read you a few more of these tweets. Every single time a party loses an election, people like Bill Maher say the party is dying. That's it. Game Over. No, it's not. The Democrats are going to rule again, and soon, unfortunately. But it's true. Their party is in complete freefall. And it's absolutely stunning to watch them continue to double down on their ways, because if they changed, they would have to go against their donors and that's who they serve. So they're going to only change in ways on the margin. Maybe we'll. That's why they've been talking about trans issues. That's why they've been talking about racism. That's why they've been talking about white supremacy. That's why they've been talking about LGBTQ. That's why they've been talking about MeToo. That's why they've been talking about all that stuff to keep you from realizing you're being screwed from above, not from your side. That's why they want you to hate your neighbor.

[Co-host]

And, well, I think we're missing.

[Jimmy Dore]

And Trump and Elon Musk want you to think it's the Democrats are the problem, and the Democrats want you to think it's the Republicans are the problem. And that's not the problem. The problem is they don't want us. So that keeps us divided. And they don't want us to come together to realize that we're being screwed over by a government that delivers 100% for the military industrial complex, for Wall street, for the Silicon Valley, for big insurance, for Big pharma. They deliver 100%. They just don't deliver for you. And neither of them will Democrats nor Republicans. That's what people need to keep. Donald Trump is not going after the Pentagon. He's not going to reduce that money. He's going to try to find ways to cut your Social Security. He's going to try to find ways to cut your Medicare and your Medicaid. He's going to try to find ways to do that, but they're not going to try to find a way to get rid of 800. If they. I heard someone say, well, they got to rip the band aid off, Jimmy. Yeah, ripping the band aid off would mean closing 800 military bases we have around the world, taking our five aircraft carriers out of the Red Sea, bringing them home, stop funding Israel. That would be ripping the band aid off. They're not ripping the band aid off. There's pirates they're not doing. But there's pirates now, but there's pirates in the Red Sea that they're not doing that. So it's just amazing to hear people repeat verbatim what the State Department, the corporate news and Marco Rubio are saying, as if it's smart or if they thought of it, oh, no, we've got to hit back at the Houthis in Yemen. The problem in the world are the Houthis in Yemen. And that's why we have to bomb them. Well, they bombed us first. What the fuck are we doing here? Hey, if Russia had a fleet of aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Mexico, and that would be their fault, if someone bombed them there. They're not there, we're there. Where again, Trump's whole thing in 2016 and 2020 and 2024 was, let's get out of the Middle east, it's not our problem. And we're right back in there. So again, they know how to deliver for the military industrial complex, like that $113 billion out the door at the blink of an eye to Ukraine, which was all a money funneling organization operation. That's all Ukraine was.

[Co-host]

Look, you just saw the soda thing. Like, you think these are real people that are like, yeah, I get the Houthis. Like that.

[Jimmy Dore]

Right?

[Co-host]

You think there's not a paid shill program.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right.

[Co-host]

As there has been for all these conflicts. When you see so many of them, you start to notice them. I think we're just missing the important point here, which is we got to always stay within the two party Masonic system of Democrat, Republican. Oh, Democrats are good. Who gives a shit about them or Republicans or anything? Is anything going to be fixed? Like, what did you fix? I don't give a shit about your stupid team. I don't care. And everything's in terms of that. It's always to make you think, will the Democrats come back next year? What's this? A fucking baseball?

[Jimmy Dore]

I know it looked like the game was over for Republicans not so long ago. The Democrats just need the next Clinton or Obama. Sadly, though, there's no obvious error apparent. Sadly.

[Co-host]

Oh, yeah.

[Jimmy Dore]

As if things were better Obama, that things. As if things were better under Obama or Joe Biden. They weren't. They weren't better, they were worse.

[Co-host]

That's what I'm saying. It's. He's looking at it like it's the Yankees.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

Got to get these new players because it doesn't. You don't have to find a conspiracy. The shit's happening to you probably.

[Jimmy Dore]

It's ha. Right.

[Co-host]

You don't. You don't have to look for anything deeper than what they did.

[Jimmy Dore]

Stockpie says, I'm in California. Have been considering moving because the only Way to afford a of bigger places to move out of state. If I simply rebought my house today, mortgage would be triple, property taxes would double with no quality of life increase. Completely cooked. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. So Bill Maher, look at, he's like, hey, the Democrats can't deliver. The problem is thinking that they can. That he's thinking that they're, they're just incapable. Just what Ezra Klein said. No, they're capable. They deliver. They just like to deliver for you.

[Co-host]

He's one of the worst people I've ever. He's really a bad dude. Who's this Ezra Klein? I can't stand that dude. I mean, I know his work going way back. He's like, everything is such calculated scumbaggery. It actually makes me mad watching somebody be in that, like, oh, I'm just gonna say the real thing. It's, you know, you're not smart because you said the real thing. We all knew the real thing for how many years? Like, you just feel safe saying it now in your position? Fuck you, dude.

[Jimmy Dore]

This is the Commerce Secretary. He's a billionaire. He's worth somewhere between two and four billion dollars. And as I've told you, they're not cutting the Pentagon. What they're going to try to cut is your Medicaid, your Medicare and your Social Security. That, that is the goal. That's been the goal for decades. It's not something new that I'm making up. Or I think that this has been the. And even though Trump said he. Trump has said both things. Trump has said, I'm not going to touch it. I'm not going to touch your Social Security or Medicare. And then he's also said numerous times, yeah, you got to cut entitlements.

[Co-host]

And of course, quantum. It's quantum physics, Jimmy. You don't understand it.

[Jimmy Dore]

And of course they call them entitlements. And you know why they're called entitlements? Because you're entitled to them. Because you fucking paid for them.

[Co-host]

That's why you stole the money, the government stole the money to use on, I don't know, some Ukraine bullshit or whatever. That shouldn't fall on me, should it? So here should come out of the Pentagon.

[Jimmy Dore]

You would think, well, here comes the Commerce Secretary. So what they're doing now, and I've already told you this a couple of days ago, is that they're going to try and screw up Social Security, make it not work, just like they tried to do the post office, which they're trying to do again. So remember when they have so much.

[Co-host]

Growth, we see the growth.

[Jimmy Dore]

Remember what they did to the, to the post office, which for whatever you think works really well and send drugs to a dude.

[Co-host]

It's awesome.

[Jimmy Dore]

It's awesome. What they're doing. What they tried to do to the post office was they said, oh, they have to fund their pension 80 years out. So they tried to bankrupt the post office so they could privatize it. Right?

[Co-host]

Right.

[Jimmy Dore]

So, and then they could charge you 100% more for a letter. That's, that's the whole goal of this.

[Co-host]

What's more patriotic than so privatizing something to an international corporation?

[Jimmy Dore]

So they're doing that now, they're doing that now to Social Security. They're cutting, they're closing offices, they're cutting staff, they're making people reaffirm their identity. And then, but then you got to wait a couple of months before you could even do that. So it creates frustration for people and they're going to be skipping people's payments. So they're trying to create people to get people angry at Social Security. How? It doesn't work in history. Right.

[Co-host]

First time it will be that people didn't get paid from Social Security.

[Jimmy Dore]

Social Security has, Social Security has never missed a payment. But right now, here's the commerce Secretary telling you, get ready for it. Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks this month. My mother in law, who's 94, she wouldn't call and complain. I wonder why a billionaire's mother in law wouldn't miss her couple of thousand dollars check that month. I wonder what, I wonder what is that something?

[Co-host]

Who gives a fucking shit about your mother in law?

[Jimmy Dore]

Right?

[Co-host]

Fucker. What about my mother? What about my mother? What about all my people? You just win.

[Jimmy Dore]

She thinks something got messed up and she'll get it next month. Yeah, a fraudster always makes the loudest noise. Screaming, yelling and complaining. A fraudster?

[Co-host]

Yes, I've heard Israel before.

[Jimmy Dore]

A fraudster is the only person who would complain if they didn't get their Social Security. So do you see how he's priming people? What are you? You're a fraudster. You want your Social Security check, isn't it? You think Raytheon would complain if they didn't get their check that they were owed by the government? I think they kill the President, but yeah, that's right. By fraudsters you think they mean if you don't get your tax, if you don't get your tax refund. From the IRS when it's due. If you complain, are you probably committing fraud? That's what he's saying. What do you think about. How about your weekly paycheck? If you didn't get your weekly paycheck and you complained, would that be because you were committing fraud? Do you think this.

[Co-host]

Only fraudsters want to be paid what they're owed, what they're genuinely owed?

[Jimmy Dore]

Do you think this guy would have complained if the $14 million in 2024 bonus pay he got didn't? That check didn't arrive. You think he would have complained about that? Okay, here we go.

[Co-host]

They could shill all they want, but if Trump allows this to happen, that'll be the biggest blunder he ever made. His own, his own base, that Bannon's right about that.

[Jimmy Dore]

Let's say Social Security didn't send out. So let's listen to it again this month. My mother in law who's 94, she wouldn't call and complain. She just wouldn't. She thinks something got messed up and she'll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining. So you're a fraudster. So want to know what his net worth is?

[Co-host]

You know, when I don't get money, I'm supposed to get ice cream and yell and complain. Also, also, if you owe me, I will do that.

[Jimmy Dore]

What is Howard Lutnick's net worth? He's probably has a. This is from the street. He probably has a net worth between 2 billion and 4 billion. According to various sources, his wealth comes from his ownership stake and Cantor and other sources based on his financial disclosures to the U.S. office of Government Ethics. So.

[Co-host]

I love the example of his mother in law. I mean, what an insightful way to bring that to people. That should go over great.

[Jimmy Dore]

So guy who's worth 4 billion says don't complain when your Social Security check doesn't come because his mother in law who doesn't rely on Social Security wouldn't complain. So they're coming for your Social Security money. The first step is to cut staff and create chaos at the agency. So people get frustrated with Social Security and then they can push their decades old plan of taking Social Security money and put it and giving it to Wall Street. That's also known as privatizing Social Security and George Carlin predicted this. So just in case everyone wanted a modern example of what this sort of people led to. The French Revolution, that's.

[Co-host]

The guy didn't have a wig. He should have powdered that's right. He said that.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's the sort of people, let them eat cake.

[Co-host]

How many different ways are you going to say let them eat cake to people?

[Jimmy Dore]

And this, I don't think this, this isn't. Bill Clinton wanted to privatize Social Security. This isn't. Again, this isn't a Republican Democrat thing. As James Corbett revealed on our show and in his book, look up, don't look over to left or right, look.

[Co-host]

Up the dark forces that puppet your stupid fake sham government.

[Jimmy Dore]

This is the globalist. This is the globalist. This is the wef. This is the Bilderbergs. This is the ruling cabal, a secret group, tight knit that control the world finance. That's what this is. And they want it. They want your Social Security money and they're going to get it. And so there's that. So there's, there's your commerce secretary, a billionaire.

[Co-host]

It wasn't enough robbing you with inflation to go pay.

[Jimmy Dore]

Right.

[Co-host]

A war in 80 years. And they just robbed you for that the whole time. And they're going to screw you out like an insurance company. Much like that. A Luigi Mangione style insurance company.

[Jimmy Dore]

It's getting so bad that Republicans are telling Elon Musk to shut up about cutting Social Security. That's how bad it's getting. Republicans want him to shut up about Social Security. And that's from a conservative newspaper. They're all conservatives, by the way. They just say it out loud. They're all, all newspapers are owned by the same cabal of people who want to take your Social Security money. Just so you know.

[Co-host]

Yeah. One group will pretend to be upset about it, like after it's done.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yep.

[Co-host]

And then nothing will happen.

[Jimmy Dore]

Senate Republicans want Elon Musk to stop talking about Social Security and the Department of Government Efficiency to leave it alone. Musk statements that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. It's a Ponzi scheme that's been going since the 30s that has never missed a payment. Isn't that interesting? That's quite a Ponzi scheme. And his plans to cut up to 12% of the Social Security Administration's workforce are giving GOP lawmakers heartburn. They warn that Social Security reform is known as the third rail of politics for a reason. Any party that touches it is likely to get zapped come election Day. And Republicans fear that reductions in staff and field offices will boomerang on them, predicting constituents will grow frustrated if it becomes more difficult and time consuming to address problems related to benefit claims. It doesn't help the president when you have somebody who clearly is not worried about whether or not Social Security benefits are going to be there for him. Leading the effort to shrink the Social Security administration. Who said that? Republican Senator Murkowski, referring to Musk, who's the world's richest person. She said Musk claimed that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and rife with fraud. Doesn't do anything to calm the anxiety of people who are already anxious about what's going on with some of the safety net programs. Musk declared Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time. He said that in a three hour interview on Joe Rogan. Really?

[Co-host]

Not Herbalife.

[Jimmy Dore]

Not the war machine, not the Pentagon, not the Ukraine war.

[Co-host]

Things that didn't pay out, right?

[Jimmy Dore]

Not to a coin, not the Iraq war, not the Libyan war, not the Syrian war, not 20 years of Afghanistan. None of those things are Ponzi schemes. The biggest one is one that actually has never missed a payment that people pay into and rely on when they retire that they need.

[Co-host]

I mean, look, I know there are people from this country, so fuck them. I get that part of it, but I just think it won't do well with the electorate, that's all. I'm just trying to be strategic, Jimmy.

[Jimmy Dore]

Several other Republican senators said Musk should stop talking about Social Security and steer his budget cutting team at Doge in a different direction. Yeah, like as Steve Bannon said, why don't you go across the Potomac and why don't you start going after the Pentagon? They're never going to do that.

[Co-host]

Did Trump make a secret promise to the widow Adelson to cut Social Security? Is that what this is about? Promises made, promises kept.

[Jimmy Dore]

He should zip it on that. It's not helpful. It plays right into Democrats hands. They want to talk about Social Security cuts, Medicare cuts, Medicaid cuts and we don't. The President does not want to talk about that. He's against all those things, said a Republican senator who requested anonymity. The senator said it would be okay to talk about cracking down on fraud in the system, but warned when you start making it sound like you're questioning the foundation foundation of Social Security system, that's not helpful. You mean when you call it the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of the world?

[Co-host]

First of all, it's the only way they get away with all the other Ponzi schemes is because they haven't missed a payment. If they ever missed a payment. All the Gary Sinise concerts in the world would make old People support the war machine anymore.

[Jimmy Dore]

In an interview with Fox Business host Larry Kudlow earlier this month, Musk suggested that 500 billion to 700 billion in waste could be cut from the federal entitlement programs. Not the Pentagon.

[Co-host]

I thought he meant the Pentagon. I can't believe he's talking about something that somebody needs.

[Jimmy Dore]

By the way, you know, again, why do they call them entitlements? Because we're entitled to them.

[Co-host]

Oh, you and your entitlements.

[Jimmy Dore]

Most of the federal spending is entitlements. That's the big one to eliminate. So that's what they're going after. Medicaid, Medicare.

[Co-host]

Did they lose $2.3 trillion in entitlements? Twice.

[Jimmy Dore]

So twice. Did that happen that they told us about?

[Co-host]

Did they? I don't think they did. It's always an opt to make you think the military is a foregone conclusion, that we got to have the most military in the world. We literally could not win a war with anyone. You know how I know? Because we haven't won a war with anyone. How do you make a complex and then not win a war ever again?

[Jimmy Dore]

So just to let people know, here's the five big myths about Social Security funding crisis. That Social Security will be bankrupt. Social Security will not run out of money. The program is financed by payroll taxes. So as long as workers pay into the system, money's always going to be coming in. Last year, an estimated 183 million people had earnings subject to Social Security payroll taxes. Just okay. Those taxes are collected under the FIC, the Federal Insurance Contributions act, or FICA. Employers and employees each pay 6.2% of wages up to the taxable maximum. So if you make over $168,000, you don't have to pay any more incentives. Isn't that weird? So if they lifted that good incentive.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Dore]

So if they lifted that cap. If they had. If. So if you had to keep paying as if you made $1 million or $1 billion and you had to keep paying your fair share. So I paid just as much into Social Security as Bill Gates. Isn't that weird?

[Co-host]

It sounds like a Ponzi scheme to me.

[Jimmy Dore]

If you're self employed, you pay the entire 12 point. I actually pay more.

[Co-host]

Yeah, but look at what you get for it.

[Jimmy Dore]

It's the Social Security trust funds reserves that are projected. So the trust funds reserves are projected become depleted, not empty. What's happening is much like financial difficulties individuals may face. Suppose you have a major financial crisis and you use up all the money in Your bank and savings account, you're still working, so cash is still coming in, but it might not be enough to pay all of your monthly obligations.

[Co-host]

If young people can't afford anything, what's going to happen to people that don't get their Social Security? They're not all in rent controlled buildings, right?

[Jimmy Dore]

The old age and survivors insurance or oasi. OASI program which pays retirement and survivor benefits will be able to pay 100% of the benefits until 2023. I think they up that recently to 2036. If Congress fails to act, there will be enough projected income coming in to cover almost 80% of everyone's benefits. We're not bankrupt, we're not without money. We just wouldn't have that reserve to make up the full hundred percent. And you could make and you could fix it. Myth number four, the federal government has raided the Social Security trust funds. There's no trust fund. One reader wrote in response to a recent column on this topic. The money was stolen and spent on bridges to nowhere. Well, that's not true. Think of your Social Security trust funds like your savings account. And the bank then repays you with interest when you make a withdrawal. When you make a deposit, the bank takes your money, puts it to work by lending it out for home loans, auto loans. By law, every dollar of income coming into Social Security trust fund is invested in interest bearing securities backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. So it doesn't go into a trust fund, it goes into. They buy treasury bonds with it so that the government owes Social Security that money. Yes, the money has been spent for other government needs, but that does not mean Social Security gets worthless IOUs. The securities held by the trust fund have always been honored and have all as have all other treasury securities. So unless the country completely collapses, we'll always have that Social Security money that they put into securities.

[Co-host]

Bro, that's really bigger than I thought. A bigger. It's a scheme that it's liquid.

[Jimmy Dore]

So what? So what they're doing to Social Security, they're trying to make it dysfunctional and they're trying to get people propagandized against it. They're doing the same thing to the post office. And this isn't the first time they've done this. And this is bipartisan. Harry Wax, Henry Waxman, who was the chairman of the committee that did this the first time in 2006. This is Democrats and Republicans beholden to the international bankers and economic hitmen. That's what this is. They want to sell off the most profitable parts of the Post office and then raise your rates to send a letter 100% like they did with the.

[Co-host]

Airplanes and the hospitals and the everything.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right. So when private equity funds run your hospital, you get shitty service at way higher prices.

[Co-host]

Oh, and your firemen and your every single aspect that you pay out your ass for that you get less than Soviet service.

[Jimmy Dore]

So there's a memo that came out fueled by Donald Trump's billionaire cabinet and the Department of Government Efficiency. Anti government crusade privatizers are on the prowl. The first month of Trump 2.0 has been a bonanza of unabashed scamming and self dealing by the country's wealthy elite. The administration has sent a clear signal to profiteers. Now's your chance to get in on the action. For decades, the right and the left and the Democrats. This isn't a right left thing. That's a, that's a scam to get you to hate half the country. By the way, don't look left or right, look up. What do you want?

[Co-host]

If the post office didn't work, people wouldn't send drugs through it, by the way.

[Jimmy Dore]

Now it's working to make that dream a reality. In December, Trump indicated that he was considering placing the United States Postal Service under the Department of Commerce. Just recently, Luis Dejoy, the Trump appointed Postmaster General, agreed to partner with DOGE to get the ball rolling. Major financial institutions are giddy at the prospect. Last month, Wells Fargo released a memo outlining political pathways to achieve postal privatization and the various opportunities for profit. Their plan is clear. Sell off the most profitable parts, raise prices and decimate the unionized workforce. That's the gift. Finally, the scheme represents an attack on the very foundations of this popular universal public service. Wells Fargo envisions a postal service where the mail is kept as a taxpayer funded government entity, while the package and parcel components of the, of the Postal service, which are way more profitable, are sold to private industry. So they're going to. You're going to keep. The part that doesn't make money is when you send a letter. So that's cheap because the post office makes more money off their package and parcel delivery and they use that to subsidize when you send a letter.

[Co-host]

Oh, man. Imagine having your customer service from like Verizon or Comcast.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah. Or Facebook. Or Facebook. Oh, you know how you get good customer service from Facebook?

[Co-host]

I'm being too, too optimistic. It's going to be like a Postmates issue where you're going to talk to a computer that's right. You ain't going to have the state employee that you don't like.

[Jimmy Dore]

In order for the new private company to earn a decent profit, the United States Postal Service would need to raise prices by 30 to 140% across its product line. That's what they're going to do. A privatized postal system would also take aim at the universal service obligation which requires the mail to be delivered to every address six days a week. So no matter where you live, you can live in the middle of the desert, you live on the top of a mountain. The Postal Service has to deliver to your house six days a week. You know who doesn't? UPS. FedEx. When they privatize it, they don't have to do that anymore. Such dedication to equitable service would be a challenge for a third party operator to profitably move mail and packages. That's the memo from Wells Fargo says this move would also put pressure on the proposed mail only service, which would likely be financially hobbled. So what they're telling you is their plan. Their plan is to cripple the post post office in the way they serve you so they can extract more profit.

[Co-host]

Yeah. That bank with the great reputation.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah. Doe's assault on federal workers has seemingly given Wells Fargo inspiration. Citing recent DOE's efforts and federal cost control, it recommends that postal employees be given a deferred buyout, offer to leave or layoffs could ensue. Taking a page from the UK's Royal Mail, privatization in 2013. It suggests that the government take over all pension liabilities and not offer them to workers at the new private company.

[Co-host]

What does that mean?

[Jimmy Dore]

So they're meaning. So when a FedEx takes over the mail service, they don't offer them pensions.

[Co-host]

Oh, good.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah. With. With surprising candor, the memo admits that privatization will cause less job security amid inevitable loss of union protections, loss of pension benefits, higher health care costs and employee wage restructuring. So they're going to screw the workers. So that's. So when, when you privatize the post office, we're going to screw the workers in every which way possible so a couple of rich investors can make money.

[Co-host]

What do they mean? Admits they're not admits it's not a bug. That's the, that's the feature.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's the feature. Instead of privatization, the Postal Service should be expanded to perform services like postal banking, copying documents, wrapping holiday presents and more. They should be expanding the postal Service, not shrinking it and selling it off. So they're going to sell off the part that's really profitable. Bankrupt the part that's not the part you really need and screw the workers.

[Co-host]

Wait, does Wells Fargo happen to own like some kind of controlling interest in say, FedEx or UPS or one of the ones that don't want to pay union workers? So if you get rid of that, there's no so.

[Jimmy Dore]

So they.

[Co-host]

For them to be competitive on any level with anything.

[Jimmy Dore]

You know what else they did in England? They, they privatized the water and then they raised the water rate 60%.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Now they're getting rid of the NHS.

[Jimmy Dore]

Because now they're going to get rid of that.

[Co-host]

So Ukraine's not important.

[Jimmy Dore]

It's a, it's a neoliberal nightmare in London, just like it is in the United States. We give everything over to corporations. Do you want, you want to give firefighting over to corporations too? Let's see how well it works out.

[Co-host]

You might have to like that dude in L. A. That. Yeah, that guy. I mean, you might have no choice after Wild west it. Because it looks like they're going to ruin everything.

[Jimmy Dore]

Financial institutions. And then only rich people will have firefighting, which is what? Kind of like how bad it's gotten. Financial institutions like Wells Fargo want to turn an essential public service into another money making machine and destroy unionized workers in the process. That's exactly what. So they want to do that to Social Security, they want to do it to Medicare, Medicaid, they want to do it to the postal service. Hooray.

[Co-host]

Oh yeah, Medicaid.

[Jimmy Dore]

And then they'll come to the fire departments next.

[Co-host]

Hey, what if Medicaid got to make a profit? I like. Oh, it's not, it's not good. What if they could negotiate prices like you made it so they can't do. Yeah, but that could cut a lot of the waste.

[Jimmy Dore]

Hey, become a premium member. Go to jimmy door comedy.com sign up. It's the most affordable premium program in the business. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. All the voices performed today are by the one and only, the inimitable Mike McRae. He can be found at mikemcrae.com that's it for this week. You be the best you can be and I'll keep being me. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Do not freak out.

[Co-host]

I'm not kidding.

[Ezra Klein]

Do not.

[Co-host]

Do not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not.

[Jimmy Dore]

I'm not.

[Co-host]

I'm not.

[Jimmy Dore]

Don't freak out. Do not freak out.