Aid Workers TARGETED For Rocket Attack By Israel!
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This is the Jimmy Dore Show. Russell speaking. Hey, hey, Russ. This is President Joe Biden. Oh, hello, Mr. President. How are you? Russ, I am enraged. Enraged? Enraged. But I assume you already knew that. Well, why would I know that, Mr. President? Because he was leaked to the press.

The fact that I'm enraged. Enraged over the murder of those seven aid workers by the IDF. Unconscionable. I heard, I got enraged, and I made sure that the administration officials leaked it to members of the media. And

And now Politico did an article about it. So it's out there, public knowledge, that I thought that murder was no bueno. All right, just a thought. Why don't you just come out and say that you're enraged publicly? Come on, man, get real. Also, in that same article, the same administration officials lament that you aren't actually going to do anything about it. You won't actually push back on Israel at all.

God damn it. They weren't supposed to leak that part. I imagine not. That's the problem with leaks. They're leaky. Well, what the hell am I supposed to do, Rush? I'm enraged. I mean, isn't that enough for you people? Not by a long shot. Maybe first stop selling the bombs to Israel that they're using to kill civilians and aid workers. Nah, we kind of need that money. Lean heavily on Netanyahu?

Oh, forget about that, man. Do you know that guy? He's a pepper pot. Lean slightly on that, Yahoo. Eh, still sounds dangerous. All right, so you're really going to do nothing. That appears to be the long and short of it, Rusty. At least is there something you can say?

Oh, yeah, we got that covered. Luckily, we just get to repeat what Israel says. We got John Kirby out there yesterday saying that there was no evidence that the strike on the aid workers was anything other than an accident. Or I should say three successive accidents.

No evidence. And administration is intent on reminding people that these things happen in war. It's unfortunate. It's tragic, but it happens. So we got the talking part all figured out, which is nice. So you're saying genocide happens in war? All the time, baby. I guess you're right. But we call those war crimes. Yeah.

And it kind of depends on who's doing it. International law is a complicated thing. Aren't you? Aren't you worried about the effect this will have on your campaign? The fact that you're in action is alienating, disheartening, even disgusting millions of voters.

Russ, of course I'm concerned. So that's why I'm bringing out the big guns as my surrogates. Obama, Bill Clinton, and now Hillary. With a dream team like this, how could we fail?

Wow. Amazing. And Hillary is already out there guns blazing like I knew she would be. She went on Jimmy Fallon the other night. And Jimmy's always got these hard-hitting questions, you know. And he asked her, what do you say to people who aren't excited about Biden or Trump? And do you know what she said? What?

Get over yourselves. Man, classic Hill Hill right there. I mean, I could never say that myself. It would seem condescending and tone deaf.

And man, I can't think of a better thing to say to people who are thinking of not voting for me because of genocide reasons. Get over yourselves. That is quite a message. Yes. Yes, it is.

It is quite a message, Rush. It is. It's a great message. I'm just I'm just curious. How many Palestinians do you think will be dead by the time of the Democratic Convention? Hundred thousand more?

Russ, I wish I had an answer for you, but I really have no idea. Something astronomical for sure, but there's no way to know. Nor can I tell another country how to run their country. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. Well, look, I got to go. Me and the boys down at the office are going to work on our next batch of leaks. Okay.

I think we might get a little creative this time. Really shake things up. Something like, Biden has grave concerns over the course of the war. Is that too much? Maybe not enough. I don't know. But we'll figure it out. We always do. Bye, Rush. All right, bye. We'll see you at the convention, Mr. President, with some friends of mine.

Today on Apocalypse Watch, because of Israel's sick, genocidal attack on an aid convoy,

Other charities are now pulling out and refusing to bring aid to Gaza, not because they want to, but because especially given that the charity hit had a very good relationship with both the United States and the IDF, it kind of had a chilling effect. Like, well, if they'll kill them.

Who will they not kill? This is not UNRWA, who they've had a grudge against for decades. This is an organization in very good standing with the State Department and with the Israeli government. So if they're not safe, nobody is.

This is from The Guardian. The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza seems likely to worsen after charities announced they are suspending operations in the territory in the aftermath of an Israeli drone attack, which repeatedly targeted a clearly identified convoy of international aid workers killing seven.

The strikes on a team from World Central Kitchen led the charity, along with other aid organizations such as ANERA, which helps refugees around the Middle East, and the U.S.-based Project HOPE, which focuses on health care, to announce on Tuesday that it would pause operations in Gaza to protect its staff.

Calling the decision an unprecedented step, Aneris said the killings, alongside the loss of numerous other aid workers and their families, has led our team to conclude that delivering aid safely is no longer feasible.

While we understand the severe consequences this suspension will have on the Palestinian population, the escalating risks associated with aid delivery leave us with no choice but to halt operations until our staff regain confidence that they can do their work without undue risk, a statement said.

Famine is projected and imminent in the northern half of Gaza, a UN-backed report said last month. And according to Oxfam, since December, the number of people in the Palestinian territory facing catastrophic levels of hunger has nearly doubled. At least 27 children have died of malnutrition, according to the health ministry in the territory, which is controlled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Eight ships organized by WCK arrived in Gaza on Monday carrying 400 tons of food and supplies, enough for one million meals, in a shipment funded by the United Arab Emirates after a successful pilot run last month. Now, I'm just going to say one million meals. From what I understand, there's about 2.2 million people there.

So even that is one meal for less than half of the people in northern Gaza right now. And that would be if they got it all in. However, workers had only offloaded 100 tons before the drone attack led the charity to order the vessels carrying the remaining aid to return to Cyprus. So this is the last video.

that was filmed by two of the people who were filming. - Hey, this is Tommy and Chef Olivier. We're at the Dear Abel Laugh Kitchen and we've got the mise en place. Tell us a little bit about it, Chef Ali. - This is the mise en place to cook the rice. So we have all the spices for boiling the water. We're ready for the boiling water inside the rice. This is the stir fry which we put oil, stir fry onions. We add the spices.

And after we stir fry the rice, we add the water. The water is aromatized with this mix of spices. There is the black lemon, there is the chili, there is the seven mixed spices, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and tomato paste. Indeed. So this is the beautiful, fragrant, aromatic rice that will be served today from Giro Bala Kitchen. Thank you.

Jesus fucking Christ. Both dead along with five others. And it was three, because McCray and his thing, they hit three times. Oh yeah, no, we're going to get to that. Because now more information is coming out.

On Tuesday, the Israeli daily Haaretz published harrowing details of the strike, citing defense sources. According to the report, an Israeli drone fired three missiles, one after the other, at the convoy of three armored cars.

all of which were clearly marked on the roof and sides with the WCK's logo because of a suspicion that an armed militant was traveling with them. Oh, well, then they had to do it morally. They had to. Listen, I keep making this comparison. It's like the South Park episode about you had to feel threatened to hunt. Yeah. And so they would just say, oh, he was coming right at us.

That that's what they do. Oh, that was Hamas. It was Hamas. It was Hamas. This is about genocide. So you don't, this is about wiping. That's it. That's it. They want, they wanted exactly what happened here for all of these charities to stop coming in order to wipe them out. Now I know USS Liberty was exactly what the guys on the boat said it was. Exactly. Yep. Despite the fact that the suspect did not leave the warehouse with the rest of the group,

The cars were hit as they traveled back along a route pre-approved and coordinated with the Israel Defense Forces. A Hermes 450 drone struck one car, causing some of the passengers to abandon it and switch to the other two vehicles. According to Haaretz, the team notified the IDF they had been attacked, but another missile then hit the second car.

The Israeli military expressed sincere sorrow over the deaths, adding that an investigation was underway. Israel's defense minister, Yoav Galant, this is the one who called Palestinians animals, by the way. Not Amalek? No, that was Netanyahu. That was Netanyahu. Said on Tuesday evening that Israel would open a joint situation room with international groups

to enable better coordination of aid distribution. It's going to take time. Maybe next year we will open this. This is like if you bought a goddamn VCR on 42nd Street from these people years ago, how you'd get dicked around, except it's people being murdered. It's that same Sony guts. It's got Sony guts. Well, this is what they've been doing for 75 years. They've just been playing a very long game

of gradually stealing more and more land, wiping out more and more people, driving them further and further back until they're just... That's what's happening here. They have decided this is the Zionist mentality. Their narrative, the way they see the world, is they came to their indigenous land

which even though most of them are secular was given to them by God. Yeah. Right. It's promised in the Bible. It's their land. No more agrees. And there are these, of course he does. Of course he does that fucking piece of shit. And, and here you have these savage people,

primitive, barbaric people. Yeah. Who they have repeatedly tried to make peace with and made generous offers to. What choice do they have? And because they're so barbaric and primitive and they're led by just foul people who mislead them, and that's the liberal view. That's what my ex would tell me. That it's their leaders are terrible. They have bad leaders. They have bad leaders, exactly. It's not that. That's the liberal view. That's the Israelis who aren't comfortable just calling them Amalek.

So they keep killing our people and forcing us to retaliate. Golda Meir had the sheer unmitigated balls to say,

One day we may be able to forgive them for killing our children, but we will never forgive them for making us kill their children. You want to talk about a sick, sick abuser's psychology. She actually said that, and this woman celebrated as a hero around the world in her lifetime. She literally said that. So...

We have tried and tried, but now what they have done on October 7th, it's the final straw. They won't say this, but this is what's going on here.

It's the final straw. We've taken all we can. We're the world's most moral army. We've done everything we can to help these people. And all they do is keep attacking us. And now this is the worst thing to ever happen since the Holocaust to any people anywhere on Earth. And this is it. We have to wipe them out and the world can judge us later. That is exactly what's happening. Whatever bullshit of what they say about it.

What did Marcus Aurelius say? How do you know a thing? By what it does. Forget about what they're saying. Look at what they're doing. They are trying to wipe them out as a people from the region and create conditions that are so horrific that they have no choice but to go live as refugees in other countries. Put your people in order here. And then they're going to build some Miami Beach hotels right there. A bunch of my friends know that. In Gaza, by the way, and they're up for it. They know it. They won't say it out loud.

But when we had Finkelstein on, first time I ever had explained to me, very simply, where I understood it. First time. Right. And when I go, hey, Gaza's a concentration camp? Expecting to hear, no, it's not. Yeah, what are they supposed to do? I thought not have concentration camps myself. Wow, you're naive. Yeah. So let's finish this up.

More than 200 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas began after the militant group's attack on Israeli communities on 7 October. Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N.'s top official for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid in Gaza, said on Tuesday.

The attack on WCK was not an isolated incident, he added, pointing out that the number of humanitarians killed in the last six months in Gaza was nearly three times as high as the death toll recorded in any other single conflict in a year. I understand any other World War One, World War Two, Vietnam, Iraq, any other.

Monday's killings caused an international outcry, including rebukes from some of Israel's closest international allies, such as the U.S. Yeah, that and a nickel won't get you out of a genocide. The White House said it was outraged by the attack.

Although John Kirby, the national security spokesperson, said there was no evidence Israel deliberately targeted the aid workers. So this is Will Maneker. They fired three missiles at three separate cars with the WCK logo on them. So let's see what this winner had to say about it. From a point of condition, as the president on February 8th,

issued a memo and it said, you already know this, but just for context, it said that it was the policy of this administration to prevent arms transfers that risk facilitating or otherwise contributing to violations of human rights or international humanitarian law. Is firing a missile at people delivering food and killing them

not a violation of international humanitarian law. Israelis have already admitted that this was a mistake that they made. They're doing an investigation. They'll get to the bottom of this. Let's not get ahead of that. Your question presumes, at this very early hour, that it was a deliberate strike, that they knew exactly what they were hitting, that they were hitting aid workers and did it on purpose, and there's no evidence of that. I would also remind you, sir,

No evidence of that. We continue to look at incidents as they occur. The State Department has a process in place. And to date, as you and I are speaking, they have not found any incidents where the Israelis have violated international humanitarian law. Unless you think we don't take it seriously, I can assure you that we do. We look at this in real time.

Oh, real time. ...international humanitarian law ever in the past five to six months. I'm telling you, the State Department has looked at incidents in the past and has yet to determine that any of those incidents violate international humanitarian law. Go ahead, Nadia. Wow. These guys make tobacco lobbyists look like Mother Teresa Keaton.

I mean, what do you say to that? I mean, no evidence that they did it on purpose. How about the fact that they fired on three different cars, all of which were clearly marked with the World Central Kitchen logos after they had already called in that they had been hit?

That's not evidence they did it on purpose. I would say that's fucking damn near proof they did it on purpose. That's beyond evidence in my book. But at the very least, it's obviously evidence. And I love that. Well, what are you saying? We don't take seriously international law. Are you suggesting we don't take that seriously? Yes, that is what we're suggesting. All the voters of Michigan are saying that, sir. It's quite obvious that, yeah, you don't take that seriously. What are these undecideds? Where are they coming from?

Well, well, they're like you smell something weird in like Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment. Oh, well, are you suggesting I have a head in my refrigerator? Is that what you're implying? Yeah. I mean, even this incident aside, the videos that have come out of

Gaza over the last six months. How can you say there's no evidence? We can find the evidence. You can't with the resources of the State Department. We've played the evidence on the air. You have mass graves. You have people discovered buried with their hands tied behind their back. We've seen footage. We just saw footage. Jimmy just shared footage of an old man with his hands up being summarily executed by the IDF.

Plenty of evidence if you want to look at it. You said it before. Obviously don't. This is a bunch of people I know who know that – because I remember hearing about this. They've been getting away with this for quite some time. They have. Just blown away people that they're not allowed to kill. And I didn't care so much until – why now? Why is it now so different? Because they don't have the control to like cover it up like they used to. Right. And I guess that Hasbro – It's also the scale of it. The scale of it is just too much. Yeah, they never pulled this big a murder. It's just too much.

I mean, I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't even know about the way snipers took people out when they did a peaceful march for the right of return. And this is something that I think most people didn't really know about. A lot of people in the political space knew about it, but it was not like what's happening now. I went like that. That's what I did because it was when I started to do research that I.

Uncovered? Wow, man. I mean, it's just disgusting. So this is Glenn. This is far from the first time Israel has killed American citizens in Gaza and the West Bank in the last year. Even the IDF account published in Haaretz shows how deliberately they killed all seven aid workers in the three clearly marked cars. And this is the woman from the video.

Five months ago, now this is what I was saying. This is an organization. This is not some radical organization that's on the outs with institutional power. They're very cozy with institutional power, and that didn't protect them. Five months ago-

Yeah. Five months ago, WCK founder and State Department asset and gray zone. There's Max Blumenthal. Gray zone has done an article about that predating this. Jose Andres was feeding Israeli troops and blasting a Spanish minister for calling for a ceasefire.

His WCK coordinates coordinates with the Israeli military. And that's why all these charities are pulling out. And really, we can't prove this. But Keaton said this. That might be why they hit them specifically. Yes, of course. Specifically, because how do you not see that? What better way to scare the shit out of the rest of them? They got exactly what I'm going to starve these people to death.

Obviously, if there was one group to target that would scare everyone else away, it's this group. Dude, that is calculated. That is some calculated-ass shit. No, they're evil. They are psychotically evil.

And we had this story. It really is. I mean, Norm calls them satanic. They really are satanic. I mean, it is a level of evil that is really not human. You know, like I can't go as far as I want to go on a censorious platform. But, you know, I do not acknowledge the humanity of people who deliberately starve children to death. Like,

Like you are not a human being in my book. If you do that on purpose, I do not acknowledge the humanity in you if that's what you're willing to do. And that is what they're willing to do. So it is it is an inhuman evil that these people are capable of. So this is Glenn and Professor Mearsheimer discussing this.

It seems to me like this kind of a rationale, like we decided to wipe out an entire convoy of aid workers because we thought that among them was one armed Hamas member, is the kind of rationale that's so flagrantly unacceptable, even in a war zone, that it's kind of shocking to hear the Israeli government using that as its story, as its excuse, especially given that citizens of the West, not just Palestinians, were killed. What do you make of that argument?

event and that justification.

Well, the Israelis basically treat Gaza as a free fire zone, which is that anything that moves inside of Gaza is a target that they are free to attack. And they basically believe that they can get away with it. Yes, there will be a lot of criticism from the usual circles. But in the end, the Americans will protect them because the Americans always protect them.

And before, when you were talking about the American response to this event, I think everything you said, Glenn, supports the basic point I'm making, that the Americans will not punish them, and if anything, the Americans will protect them.

And this is hardly surprising for anybody who knows anything about Israeli history. Just go back to 1967 when the Israelis attacked the Liberty, an American ship that was in the eastern Mediterranean. It's quite clear that the Israelis knew that they were killing Americans.

and they nevertheless did it. And there was no punishment for them. And Lyndon Johnson, who was president at the time, protected the Israelis at every turn. And there has never been any official investigation of what happened that settled this issue of the liberty in any meaningful way. And this particular issue that now

just took place in Gaza with the humanitarian aid convoy bears marked resemblance to what happened to the Liberty. And there are other examples as well, including the case a few years ago when Rachel Corey, who was an American aid worker, was run over by a bulldozer in Israel. She was blatantly killed at the time, and the American government did virtually nothing. And there you have it. We're Israel's bitch. And that is why, as a Jewish person,

When the Israelis say they're fighting to protect us from anti-Semitism, it makes me sick because this is what's causing anti-Semitism.

Most people, most, you got some sick bastards, you always will. Most people would give a shit about Jews and what they do if it was not for Israel. Israel is the greatest cause of anti-Semitism on earth because of this. Because how do people like me, like Keaton, like Norman Finkelstein, how do we argue against people who do believe wrongly that there's some kind of, you know, secret cabal that meets in the subways or something?

It's not a secret. When you see something like this. Yeah. When you see, I mean, there is, but it's a state.

And it's lobbyists, AIPAC, but it's not, you know, the ZOG. They'll link you to it. That's the most fucked up part of it. I mean, if there is, I'm getting gypped. They haven't sent my membership card. No, you're a self-hating Jew. You're worse than the Amalek. Whenever I hear that, I crack up. A self-hating Jew like every Jew I've ever met in America? That's why we have ethnic rhinoplasty? Because of the self? What are you talking about? Maybe Israelis should try some of that self-hatred. Stop murdering people.

That would be an idea. But when I see things like this, I say, yeah, man, you're really making me safe. I don't think so. Keaton, anything?

Uh, no, I'm looking up ethnic rhinoplasty. What is that? I've never heard of that. You haven't? I've never heard of that. I'm looking it up right now. No, it's real. That's the term. Ethnic rhinoplasty. It's based on the hatred of the Middle Eastern nose. Oh, wow. I didn't even know that. Most popular kind of surgery. It's not just Jews. It's Persians, Armenians. Why are you ridiculing? The art of ethnic rhinoplasty, a nose job that preserves your cultural identity. In case somebody wants it.

Yeah, it doesn't. Spoiler alert, it doesn't preserve it. Hollywood's based on hatred of your own features, you know? That's what this place is based on. 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 JimmyDoreComedy.com, clicking on Join Premium.

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.

Totally tis.

So just try take and bake for $12 every Tuesday at Papa Murphy's. Change the way you pizza.

We're going to cover the minimum wage, which has just increased in California and hopefully dispel some myths and create some worker solidarity. All right. So right here, strangely enough, right while I'm actually in the state, California just increased its minimum wage to $25 an hour for fast food workers. The new law,

A result of fast food worker strikes will increase the minimum wage of workers at restaurants with more than 60 locations in California to $4 more than the state's regular minimum wage. So the regular minimum wage is 16 here.

On April 1st, 2024, California's new $20 minimum wage for fast food workers went into effect. The wage hike will impact workers at about 3,000 fast food locations across the state and comes as a result of years of lobbying, protests, and strikes by the Fight for 15 and a union movement.

Labor advocates have hailed the new law as an important step toward winning all workers a true living wage, while some business owners have complained that the new law will cost them too much and force them to lay off workers.

This bill, which was signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom on September 28th, 2023, raises the hourly minimum wage rate for many of the state's fast food workers, with some exceptions, to $20. Yeah, Panera Bread. It also established, yeah, it was like a bakery. His friend from college owns Panera Bread. There you go.

It also is. I was wondering, why is there a bakery exception? What the fuck? Because he's corrupt. That was why. Yeah, it was a corrupt thing. I think they took that out, though. I think they ended up getting one. According to this article, there's still this bakery exception. It didn't count bagels. It was hilarious. It was very specific to his one old buddy. That's why I said, why bakeries? Okay. In any case.

It also established a fast food council within the state's Department of Industrial Relations, which is made up of fast food workers, industry representatives, and government officials.

The law targets fast food workers specifically because it is the direct result of labor actions in 2022 when thousands of fast food workers at hundreds of locations across California went on strike to demand the passage of the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, which would have raised the minimum wage and created a fast food council.

It's interesting, man. It's almost like when you take labor action and cripple these companies, you actually manage to get changes.

You get a lot more changes than you do breaking your ass in the snow for an old grifter like Bernie Sanders. Right? Yeah. They actually got higher wages. Well, the parliamentarian said, no, I'm sorry, guys. Send me more money. It was the first time I ever heard in my life of a parliamentarian when they didn't do this. I never heard of it either. I never heard of it either. That's the sixth branch of government. You didn't know the parliamentarian. That was like a fucking Dashiell Hammett novel, the parliamentarian. Yeah.

After fast food industry owners pushed for a ballot referendum and filed a lawsuit to block enforcement of the law, AB 1228 arose as a negotiated compromise between labor and capital. California has more than 500,000 fast food workers who work at what's called limited service restaurants.

80% of those employees are people of color and two thirds of them are women.

Far from being a quote summer job for teens, the typical fast food worker is a 26 year old woman. See, this is something people who make these arguments have to remember. The old economy is gone, right? This is where people work. Now they work at retail. They work at these fast food restaurants. These are the people who would have worked in factories at one time. And you know what happened with those factories? They,

They had massive strikes in order to get the kinds of wages and benefits that eventually they got. Eventually working in a factory became a middle class kind of a job. You could raise a family. You could send your kids to college. Those jobs are gone. And now the people who would have had those jobs are working in these kinds of environments. So they have to recreate the labor movement. They have to go on strike again.

to get what people in their position fought so hard for in industries that are now no longer here. These are the jobs people work today.

This has been a thing for a while. And it just makes me real angry because it'd be on the one hand, the same people that I guess are, you got to work for it. You got to work really hard and work and work. And then when you, and then we go, okay, well, I got to work at this place. What's a job for kids? Right. Respect of hard work goes right out the window. They're working. And now you're working. Well, these dish diggers do, I guess. Well, this look, I'm going to get into it, man.

but nothing bothers me more than working people attacking other working people for getting a living wage. That, that is, you're making yourself a peasant. You're making yourself a peasant when you talk like that. You know, when we look back at aristocracy, uh,

Because they really don't represent the peasantry in fiction. We think of the loyal aristocrats, loyal to the kings. Well, the aristocrats were loyal to the kings. When the kings got whacked, it was another aristocrat. That's right. The people who were loyal to the kings were the peasants. It's the peasant. Oh, the local lord. Oh, he's so good to us. That's what you're making yourself when you argue, oh, these burger flippers shouldn't be making us money. You're a fucking peasant.

You're talking like a peasant when you start protecting the prerogatives of the ownership class in that way. Now, if you're rich making that argument, God bless you, man. Home Depot. I hear they're introducing a new moat kit. Maybe you should invest in it before they come for you. But for the rest of you.

Don't defend these people. They look down on OnlyFans. If this chick was an OnlyFans. Well, we'll get more into where your money's actually going. It's not to these people.

Despite the rapid rise in cost of living and inflation, the federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009. So let's take a look at what the minimum wage should be. They're actually low-balling here. The minimum wage, if it had kept up with productivity, it would be $22.88.

Right now it is still 725 the federal minimum wage. I can't believe that. While most states have raised their own minimum wage rates since then, there are still five that haven't Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and two Georgia and Wyoming that have a minimum wage below 725 below 725.

Some fast food corporations have implied they will be forced to lay off workers or point to the new law as a reason to potentially raise product prices, thereby passing the cost of the increased wage onto the consumer. Of course. I just want to interject here. I don't want to stop the whole segment, but I just want to point out.

First, all the media was complaining about how now a Big Mac and fries is $18. There was no wage increase. That's right. These are greedy motherfuckers. They will charge you what they think they can get. It has nothing to do with the wage increase. They were charging you $18 for a Big Mac meal before this in states that don't have this. You see it all over the country in states that have not.

had a minimum wage increase has nothing to do with it. They hire people just to figure out how to extra screw you and get away with it. Right. Specialists they bring in just for that purpose. And arguing they're, they're gonna, they're gonna go to automation. They're doing that anyway. Have you walked into McDonald's lately? They, they have the screen there to order it. They were already doing that. Has that, they're going to do that in any case.

Yes, they're always going to try to get as much as they can for as little cost as they can. Exactly. That is never going to stop. Whether the minimum wage is $20 or whether it's $7, they are always going to do what they can to get the most for themselves and spend the least amount of money they can. And labor, they view as a cost. It is a cost. There was this guy, Scott Roderick, who owns, I think, 18 McDonald's restaurants in California.

who says, well, you know, now, because I don't want to lay people off, I'm going to have to forego a new HVAC system for one of my restaurants. I'm going to have to not trim the grass on the property as often. That's how they view workers, as grass on the lawn. That's what you are to your boss if you are a worker. You are another expense that they want to keep as low as possible. And if your wages go up, it means they're going to have to

cut expenses elsewhere. You know what? Good. Your job as a laborer is to assert that you're worth more than the fucking grass on the lawn. That's your job. You owe it to yourself and your family to do that, not to be a simp for these franchise owners who show up three times a year at each restaurant and just sit back and watch the money come in. Exactly.

Multiple studies have shown that despite business owners' fears, raising the minimum wage actually benefits the economy. A recent study from the Roosevelt Institute on fast food industry wages found that employers are able to absorb the increased operating costs without raising prices or cutting jobs. Now, here's the big takeaway.

The only requirement is that they cut down on stock buybacks, which benefit shareholders and invest more into the workers whose labor actually creates those profits. So when you see these morons, these morons telling you,

That, oh, well, there's not enough money there. There's enough money there. It's in the pocket of the CEOs. It's in the pockets of the shareholders. It's in the pockets of the investor class. It's not that that money is not in the system. It's not that they really have to raise prices to find that money. It's that they don't want to take less money for themselves.

Now, at one time, I'm going to play a little clip from Thomas Frank. You didn't have such an imbalance. And that is when you had this great and thriving middle class, when the CEO's wage was 40 times that of a worker, not 500 times that of a worker. That's where that money is.

And sure, they're going to try to raise prices instead of cutting their salaries and cutting their buybacks. But ultimately, you're going to hit a wall where nobody can afford a hamburger anymore. And you're going to have to go into that CEO pay. These labor movements are an effort to bring the economy back into balance because it's been out of whack for at least 40 years, increasingly more and more. Yeah.

Remember surge pricing at Wendy's? That died on the vine. Like it's Uber. Yeah. As the study noted, quote, in 2023 alone, the 10 largest publicly traded fast food companies spent $6.1 billion.

on share repurchases. To put this in perspective, if we estimate the cost of the minimum wage increase for affected employers using the most generous and unrealistic assumptions, employers' wage costs

will increase by a maximum of $4.6 billion annually. So that is $4.6 billion that they can't put into stock buybacks. And guess what? They still have $1.5 billion to put into stock buybacks. Not that they should, but they could still do stock buybacks if they want to.

They can afford it. Thanks to an annual 2.2% rise in price markups between 2014 and 2023, major fast food employers like the ones impacted by this new law have built up a nice buffer alongside their billions of dollars in profits.

Quote, the top nine publicly traded fast food companies alone took in nearly 25 billion in profits in 2023, commented Joseph Bryan, executive vice president of SEIU and member of the California Fast Food Council. Quote, and multiple studies have shown that higher wages lead to increased worker retention, recruitment, and job growth. Quote,

The minimum wage in California has gone up every year since 2015. On the same timeline, fast food restaurants in California added 142,000 jobs. Hang on. I thought they're going to fire people if you raise the wage. Every year, the wage has gone up and they've added 142,000 jobs. So that doesn't really line up. So let's talk about where your money has really gone because we covered this the other day.

The wealth of the 1% just hit a record $44 trillion.

The wealth of the top 1% hit a record $44.6 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter. All of the gains came from stock holdings thanks to an end-of-year rally. Economists say the rising stock market is giving an added boost to consumer spending through what is known as the wealth effect. Now, wait, I'm not getting into the whole article.

It would be a bit much. You can look it up yourself. But I just want to make it clear because I know trickle-down Reaganomics aficionados will say, but look, it's stimulating consumer spending. If you actually read the article, it's stimulating consumer spending amongst the upper third. Yeah.

Of the society. So when you watch people on both the left and the right, look, this is not just conservative media that will lead you to hate workers. When you go to the liberal media, they'll just try to present it more sympathetically while making the same arguments. Yeah. But, you know, we want everybody to get a wage. The conservatives will just be like, motherfucker, bootstrap that shit. But they're saying basically the same thing. So I'm not putting all of this on conservative media.

But when you watch these things and you say, my God, are these people living in a parallel universe for mine? Yes. They're living in a universe where the consumer spending is booming and they're hitting new levels of wealth because of the stock market. And that is probably not where you live. That is not where most people live. That's where they live. And that's why they have the politics that they have. Now, Thomas Frank, uh,

I would say has written the best series on essentially what's happened to this country and how that has played out in our politics. So it's basically what I would call his trilogy. What's the matter with Kansas, which will get into how a lot of people who consider themselves conservative or right wing have been tricked into hating the burger flippers.

because they hate those annoying liberals so much and they've connected those things. And a lot of people don't understand those annoying liberals hate those union workers more than they hate Republicans. Yeah.

They will chill with Liz Cheney all day and all night. But Bernie Sanders, who would be a very conventional centrist in Europe, was the antichrist to those people. They hate seeing wages go up for working people, just like any conservative does. His second book was with...

really don't want to view themselves as victims. And so they try to convince themselves that, no, the system is actually working the best that it can. Because if I believe that, then I can't think of myself as a victim. But guess what? You are.

You are a victim. You are a victim. Right. Everyone's a victim. Right. Look what that headline says. The wealth of the top 1% hit a record $44 trillion. The GDP of the United States of America, the GDP of the richest country on earth is $25 trillion, which means it can be argued that the richest 1% of people in this country literally own this country almost two times over. Yeah.

Their net worth, the net worth of the top 1% is almost twice as much as the GDP of the entire country. The argument begins and ends there. I don't want to hear bullshit about immigrants picking apart chicken carcasses at fucking Tyson plants or fast food workers getting $20 an hour. If you don't see every other problem as downstream of that, the fact that the richest 1% of people own the country two times over, then you're a dupe. You're just a fucking dupe.

So let's take a look at what Thomas Frank had to say about this, which I think sums it up very well. I was born in 1965 in a country that was... America has never had the kind of robust welfare state that you had in France, but we were...

in effect, a social democracy in the sense that there was not a great distance between working people and managers, between blue-collar and white-collar. That's just who we were in the country that I was born into. They called it the middle-class democracy. We were the great middle-class nation. Everybody had a car. Some people had a Chevy. Some people had a Buick. But there wasn't a whole lot of difference between them. And we all lived in the suburbs together. And that was the country I was born into. That country is gone.

And that is the great issue of the last 50 years, is the coming of inequality, that the middle class society has come apart. All right. So that's part of a clip you can find on YouTube, Why Hillary Lost by Thomas Frank. That's about 10 minutes. It's very worth checking out. Also, his next book, which kind of got into what happened to the Democrats, who had at one time been this workers' party that's called Listen Liberal.

And then finally, that was his last book, which according to him, he's out of the game. We'll see. It could be like, you know, these rock stars who retire and come back. But we come back. You tell me to vote Biden. We'll see. I don't. Well, he did last time. Well, yeah, yeah. Keaton had a little little dust up with Thomas Frank about that when he was on our show.

But his last book was The People Know, which was about basically how the establishment and the media have always attacked populist movements with exactly the same tactics and language. You'll be amazed if you read that book at how the things they said about populist movements over 100 years ago. Oh, yeah, I've seen that, yeah. If you just cross some things out, it sounds like it came out of the New York Times last week.

So, so end wokeness here, um, in their wisdom, uh, decided, uh, to, uh, post this, not, not realizing its implications. It seems California hiked the minimum wage to $20 per hour for fast food workers this week. You'll never guess what happened next. And so he shows the price increase at In-N-Out burgers, which I must say, and anybody who

As followed my adventures in Los Angeles, you know I love me an In-N-Out burger when I come out here. And something that really surprised me because I hadn't had one, I hadn't been out here in 20 years until I came to do the show in January. I was surprised how cheap it still is. Yeah.

Like they're very reasonably priced at an out burner. The guy who owns it. That's why it's not a big franchise guy. It was like a, I don't want to say a crazy Christian cause it's just an honest guy, but he made sure they had the lowest turnover of any fast food place because he paid their workers and pay their workers. They had like that price increases, not anything.

Well, that's the point. That's the point. I would feel fair saying that. Okay, so a double-double, which, I mean, to me, if you're going to go to In-N-Out Burger, go for it. I always get the double-double. $5.65, oh my God, it's gone up by 25 cents. Well, I guess nobody should have a living wage then.

The cheeseburger has gone up from 395 to 410. Yes, Dom. 15 cents so that people can feed their families. I don't know if I'm willing to throw that in to ensure that people can feed their families. Hamburgers went from 350 to 360. The horror. From what I can see here, it looks like the fries stayed the same. They didn't increase the fries. And the shakes went up by a nickel from 295 to $3.

So, wag that he is, Keaton decided to add his own spin on this.

easily the top 10 cell phones in the history of this site. And our friend, you're putting it up there. Like, yeah, look what you've done by raising the wage. Now, now the hamburgers are 25 cents more. If you eat at in and out once a week, which is more than you should probably. But if you go once a week and you spend a quarter more per visit,

That's what? Times 52 weeks a year. It's costing you an extra $12 a year as a customer of In-N-Out so that everybody working in that place can live with, I don't even want to say decency. I mean, I don't know how you guys do it out there with gas, $6 a gallon. Like you're talking about $20 an hour. After taxes, you're talking about what, $32,000 a year? How do you even live in California on $32,000 a year? Right.

How does end wokeness not know that wokeness was specifically invented to drive wages down? Like, if you want to end wokeness, raise the wages. That's what it's there for. Well, that's what's so stupid about this because, you know, end wokeness, I follow them. You know, I agree with them on some culture war issues sometimes, not at others. But this is like an image that somebody arguing...

for increasing wages would post yeah exactly how did you not realize that like and i gotta know who is the fucking drooling moron who saw this and went ah see see 25 cents on the double double like who the hell thought that when they saw it didn't raise the wage

It's amazing. I mean, I've been fed this my whole life where they say, well, if they're going to raise the minimum wage, all of a sudden you're not going to be able to afford a hamburger. No, they do. Because if you're paying someone an extra $4 or $5 an hour, those

That doesn't mean you raise the price of a hamburger four or five dollars, idiot, because you move thousands of hamburgers a day. So, of course, that gets reduced down to five, 10, 20 cents per item. Everybody's bucking up a quarter so the people can have a living wage. Wait, when I was young and they raise it from three dollars to whatever is six dollars, it's amazing to say it's seven for 20. But they said that I remember I heard Rush Limbaugh saying that stupidity that you just mentioned.

And then they raised it. And guess what? Nothing happened in New York when the comedy clubs, we were about to have a strike because clubs didn't want to pay money.

more than food spots or like more than five dollars a week night right we won't be able to stay but oh and lo and behold suddenly there are more clubs than ever exactly this is the same scam over and over again exactly because you put the money this is why we had such a thriving middle class that's what tom frank is describing in that clip because people had money yeah they had money yeah they didn't make as much as the ceo but the ceo didn't make more money than god

These private equity assholes are the ones putting wokeness on you. Why would you want to enrich them? Exactly. Exactly. Like, exactly. This is our friend, Nick at RBN. Me too. They're right. I would happily pay 25 cents more for a burger. So my neighbors can make a $20 minimum wage and live a better life. What the hell is wrong with you? Boot licking Americans. Exactly. If you, if you are mad at the burger flipper,

and not the hedge fund guy. If you're not mad at the 1% that have more money two times over than the entire country's GDP, if this is who you're mad at, you're a peasant. You're a peasant.

Get out of the peasant mentality. The North remembers. These people are not your enemies. He misses the old boot taste. He doesn't like the new. You can take our burgers, but you'll never take our freedom. So I watch these sad ass things where I'm like, it's like. Better watch it with that. That's probably hate speech now. But people that I'm like, oh, this is what I was hoping. Friends of mine that were like right wing people.

After they saw this bullshit, especially being done to them, what we all did to the Arabs on the, remember we all got, they all yearn to be prejudiced against Muslims again. They missed that old. It's not like, oh, they're going to, if they could do it to them, they could do it to me. Not that. Right. I want to go back the old ways when I knew who the bad guy was. Right.

Well, that's it. I mean, that's how the upper class has always divided the worker, right? By playing on prejudices and resentments. But nobody should be shitting on these workers. You should be following their example to create this kind of strike, this kind of solidarity in industries throughout the country so that we get back to...

to a place where people can live a decent life. Even if you hate them, you should want them to get a, a way to keep them off the goddamn street, which I understand you also don't like. I don't care for that either. This is the Jimmy door show. Russell speaking. How can I help you? This is Liam Neeson calling. I'm calling with a special warning to you and all of Jimmy's listeners.

I want you to pay very close attention. This coming Monday, the Earth is about to experience a life-changing event. The sun is going to disappear. Yes, it's called an eclipse, Liam.

Liam, um...

Such events often occurred in ancient Ireland. The Druids spoke of these events. It was called the Schlannery. During these times of darkness, men became beasts. Cannibalism. Orgies of violence. And also regular orgies. So many orgies. Mr. Neeson, it's just an eclipse. It'll last a few minutes. Over.

How could you possibly be a source of such prophecy? It's not prophecy, it's simple astronomy. The moon is going to pass in front of the sun and keep moving. How do you know it will keep moving and not stop? Maybe it likes it there. The moon doesn't simply stop. Also, the moon doesn't like or dislike anything. What if it veers slightly off course and crashes directly into the sun? Because the sun and the moon are millions of miles apart.

Hmm. And why are they the same size? Because the sun is orders of magnitude larger than the moon. It's just further away. You seem to have a very convenient answer for everything. These aren't my answers. These are the answers. This is basic grade school astronomy.

Well, I think I prefer to adhere to the ancient wisdom of the Druids rather than the prattering of grade school schoolmoms, especially with public schools being as underfunded as they are. The class sizes are absolutely unmanageable from what I'm told. Liam, I can't have you calling into the Jimmy Dore show and instigating a panic. Jimmy would never have me back.

Given what we are facing on Monday, your employment is of little or no concern. But since you seem to think that you contain the wisdom of the entire universe, let me ask you this. Okay, what? During this eclair... Eclipse. Eclipse. During this eclipse, as you call it, what would I see if I were standing on the moon instead of on the earth? Oh, let me think. Would I see the earth pass in front of the sun?

No, you wouldn't see the sun at all. You would just see the Earth get dark, I think. I wouldn't see the sun at all. Not unless you were standing on the side of the moon opposite us, the dark side of the moon.

There is no dark side of the moon, really. As a matter of fact, it's all dark. Okay, look, look, look. I don't really have time for this. We need to start the show. Suffice to say, this eclipse will be brief and harmless. No need for prep or activity. I promise you, Mr. Neeson, it's fine. All right, I trust you. I don't know why, but I do. Just don't look directly at it.

Why wouldn't I want to see this amazing celestial event? Just not directly, unless you have the special glasses. Oh, don't look at it without special glasses. Now I know you're full of it. Let me guess, these glasses are issued by the government. I don't trust one part of this. I should have known you were lying the whole time. Enjoy the festival of carnage that will reign upon our world. I'm heading them by chelanary, Bunker and Ulster, as we speak. Good day, sir. All right, fair enough, Liam.

Oh, and say hi to Jimmy for me when he gets back. I'll do. Hey, become a premium member. Go to JimmyDoreComedy.com. Sign up. It's the most affordable premium program in the business. 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.

Do not freak out.

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