We Need a Wage Report

is really about hopefulness. Hopefulness is what allows people to think and innovate off of what they believe the future can look like. Right, It is this grain of feeling that things can actually get better because you see, what happens is that when you start to believe that what is in front of you can't change, that it is immovable, that this is just your life. It doesn't matter if you work harder, it doesn't matter if you follow the rules, it doesn't matter if you do the right thing. That

things are just not going to get any better. That is when hopelessness seeps in, depression takes over. Anxiety rules the day. And if you are so enthralled with that level of misery, right, then you no longer have the will to fight, because what are you fighting for? Nothing's ever going to quote unquote change. That's what Republicans are hoping for. They are hoping to throw every single thing

at the core. Its every single piece of disgusting, horrific anti woman, anti black, anti gay, anti trans legislation at the state, local, and federal level. They are trying to do everything because they know that when Americans, when people start to really nurture that grain of hope, right and it starts to take root in us and we start to see a way through some possibility, some light tunneling out of that darkness, they start to run scared. Right,

So what are we seeing right now? What are these glimmers of hope that I kind of want to center us around. As we enter into this new week, and it is going off of how we ended last week, blockbustered jobs report comes out from the Biden administration, adding over half a million jobs. As all of this talk about recession, US going into recession? Are we in a recession?

Over five hundred thousand jobs have been added the more during Biden's first year plus than any other administration, and that is coming in off of considerable millions of jobs lost because of COVID nineteen, because of the pandemic, and because of the Trump administration's mishandling of pretty much everything, we are now at a surplus. A question that, though was asked, was posed rather by former candidate Nina Turner out of Ohio, though, was can we get a wage report?

And it's true because we are always economists are always so focused on jobs reports, we don't ever stop to ask that if the jobs that are being supplied are those that are of a living wage, how many jobs do people need to hold down in order to be able to put food on their table, gas in their car, medicine in their medicine, chess, and take care of their other basic needs. So that is still a very good question, because we know that with inflation, things have become increasingly

more expensive. Your grocery bill has become increasingly more expensive, and yet the wages have not gone up to meet right the price hikes. So that's a good question, But it is not to downplay the fact that this administration has been able to add all of the jobs back that were lost. So bravo to the Biden administration. We're going to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes some of the biggest climate fighting initiatives, climate change fighting initiatives

that we've ever seen. Now, Kirsten Cinema, who is in bed with and in love with corporate interests, had removed from the bill which would have added a fourteen billion dollars surplus, which was an interest tax on private equity firms. And of course she had that removed because Kirsten Cinema is setting up her next act right while she's still supposedly doing the job that she was elected for, not by shareholders but by the people of Arizona. She had

that piece removed. Anytime that we ask ourselves why is it that billionaires and multimillionaires don't pay their share, Well, it's because of the cinemas of the world, right. It is because those people that you elect to actually look after your best interests are only looking after their own self interest, right, And it isn't like, here's the thing.

If you're able to skirt the law, if you're able to keep most of your money right and not give back because you're greedy, because you're selfish, because you're a capitalistic pig, then you go do that, right, because you feel like you don't know anybody anything, And we always set up the rich to believe that they got to that place all on their own. Bullshit. Tell me a story about a multibillionaire, and I will tell you a

story about people that stepped on other people's backs. There are but a few people who you can actually lift up and say no, No, they got there through work, sweat and tears, not by oh, making money on top of their inheritance. Right, I digress. But I have to mention the good but also state the obvious, because I want us to have the full picture of where we are.

The Department of Justice has decided after the twenty twenty murder of Brianna Taylor two put up charges against the four cops that were responsible for her tragic death when they I don't even want to use the word botched because that isn't strong enough a steakout that would end in being at the wrong fucking home and killing an innocent young woman who had her whole life in front

of her. Those cops, some that were fired from the force and some that are still active duty in Louisville, Kentucky, are now facing federal charges of violating Brianna Taylor's civil rights, among other things. That is good news. The Department of Justice has also signaled with their grand jury that they are hauling in some of the top brass lawyers chiefs of staff from the Trump administration in their investigation into

the January sixth insurrection. For eighteen nineteen months now, I have been railing against Merritt Garland in the Department of Justice for their sloth and glacial like pace. Well, come to find out they may actually be moving. The alarm clock may have gone off, and what these high profiled subpoenas are showing us is that they're getting to the

there there. And there are multiple reports coming out about Trump's defense team getting ready to put together their defense telling Donald Trump to cut ties and communication with Mark Meadows. What is that special reporting signal that we heard from CNN signal that Glenn Kirshner will get into in just a bit. Mark Meadows may be flipping like a pancake, right.

Mark Meadows may have finally after listening to the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, his former aide before the January sixth committee, might realize that, oh shit, I could be headed to federal prison, and how do I lessen what is coming at me? Maybe it's time to start singing. Another sign of good news on the insurrectionist front. Well, thank god

for stupidity. Alex Jones as lawyers accidentally sent two fucking years of his text messages two opposing counsel in his trial with a Sandy Hook family who is charging him with a civil suit for his lies against their dead child. What we know right now is that the January sixth Committee has subpoenaed those very text messages. The Department of Justice wants those text messages, the FBI wants those text messages.

And what is being said thus far is that rumor has it child pornography was found on Alex Jones's phone, which is a federal crime intimate. I don't know what this means, but timt exchanges between Alex Jones and Roger Stone are also available in that treasure, trolls of text messages, which I'm sure in the coming weeks we are going to see in more detail. And God, get the popcorn ready, because I cannot wait. I cannot wait to see what

is inside. But coming up next to walk us through where we are with the Alex Jones case and where we are with the January sixth Committee and the Department of Justice's investigation is our friend host of Justice Matters, Glenn Kirshner. The Damage Report with John Idarola is one of the most popular shows on the TYT Network that serves as your daily breakdown of the genuine threats and

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As always, anytime that I have the opportunity to sit down weekly with our friend host of Justice Matters, Glenn Kirshner and MSNBC legal analyst, I'm elated because I get to dig into all of the things that I don't know, and I get my own one oh one legal class every every week with Glenn. I want to start out, Glenn with the biggest trial, one of the biggest trials, because God, there's been so many that we've been paying

attention to. Which is that of Alex Jones. Alex Jones, host of Info Wars, made it his mission over the course of ten years to smear I don't even smear is not even a strong enough war. Glenn to what Alex Jones did to the families of Sandy Hook, the children, six year olds, kindergartner's, first graders, and their teachers that

were gunned down in their classrooms. If you can believe it, nearly nearly ten years ago, Alex Jones made it his mission, folks, to create conspiracy theories, lie say that the families were actors, the murders never happened. And finally they were able to get Alex Jones into court, suing him in civil court one hundred and fifty million dollars for the trauma, the damages. I mean, these families were receiving death threats right from

his rabid followers. So in this case, Glenn, you had been watching because Alex Jones, as we all know, is very connected with the Trump circle, right one of Donald Trump's biggest supporters, Roger Stone. Like, they're all just birds of a nasty feather that flocked together. So I want you to lay out what you saw about this case, and then we can go into this series of just

reality TV turn of events that happened throughout the trial. Yeah, first of all, anybody who profits off the pain of the Sandy Hook families is there really is no term to describe how indecent he is. And it's all performance, aren't mind you? I don't I have no idea what he actually believes, but I think he actually believes very

little of what he says. It's all about the almighty dollar, because he plugs into the conspiracy theory dujure, and he says, send me money, send me money, send me money, and I'll say whatever where it is you want to hear um. So I mean, the man is lower than whale shit, quite frankly, and doesn't get much lower than that. But you know what, profiting off the murder of children? Yep? Oh, if I could get him in the boxing ring for a fair fight. So you know you saw some really

poor lawyer lawyering Danielle. Now you know, civil trials um can tend to spin out of control, you know, whereas criminal trials, depending on the judge, are usually much more closely regulated proceedings. You're dealing with somebody's liberty interest, a defendant who's on trial for his or our liberty or, in the rare case of a capital prosecution, their life. But in civil court, you know, it often feels like this,

No whole barred. The rules don't really apply. I will violate the rules over and over again, regardless of how many times the judge yells at me, counsels me, admonishes me. That's what we saw. I mean, Alex Jones is just it was a pathetic performance, of course, So let's talk about the damages first. Because my understanding, and I hope you'll correct me if I'm wrong, I didn't follow it as closely as I was following all things January sixth,

because there's been some really important developments there. They awarded the jury awarded I believe four million dollars in compensatory damages yesterday, and the deliberations will continue on punitive damages. Let me just break down what those two things are. Compensatory damages are awarded to this sounds ridiculous. But to try to estimate the life of the child, what would the child this sounds crass. I've never been a civil practitioner.

What might that child have earned over his or her lifetime? So such that you know the family and the child, of course, has been deprived of making that money. Those are compensatory damages. You're being compensated for money that you basically stole by committing this murder, or in Alex Jones case, by lying about and defaming the victims and their families.

But then there's punitive damages. Punitive damages are punishment for the horrific lies that Alex Jones told in the untold damage he did to those families by telling those lies. I know the families have sued for one hundred and fifty million dollars. So my assumption is the next verdict or finding of the jury will be the punitive damage is part how badly should he be punished for what he put those families through. One fifty million dollars doesn't

sound like enough. It could be one hundred and fifty billion dollars for what he did to these families. But you know, I think whatever the ultimate finding is with respect to money that he owes for his horrific behavior, it will bankrupt him. It will probably you know, put him in the fact pauper's prison the rest of his life. At least that's what I'm hoping. And then if you want to talk about one of the world's biggest legal

bungles ever, please his Alex Jones lawyers. According to what we've seen reported inadvertently gave the plaintift lawyers, the lawyers for the Sandy Hook families, his whole cell phone. How two years, two years worth does that happen? You know? When it comes to electronic discovery and electronic evidence, I am the last one to pretend like I know all

the ins and outs. What I do know is that we used to have our forensic experts, our electronics experts, do lots of forensic searches of computers and cell phones. They would generate information that, if you printed it out, would fill the Library of Congress for one cell phone. It's insane. They would put it on various discs and thumb drives and floppy disks or whatever back in the day, and then we would have to give over what we would have to give over in discovery to opposing counsels.

It's not a simple, straightforward proposition, especially for somebody who is eat incompetent like me. So I'm not going to say, listen, it's a horrific mistake, you know. But what I love about it is it puts all the lies to everything Alex Jones has been saying and testifying about, which means he's now open to possible clinal perjury charges. But the last two years of his text messages, how close was he with Steve Bannon and Roger Stone and Mike Flynn

and Rudy Giuliani. And do you think, Danielle for a minute, he and Donald Trump weren't communicating somewhere somehow because Alex

Jones had a big audience. Alex Jones message was pro Trump, and I have a feeling this could be a treasure trove for both the j six Committee because they're seeking to get their ants on Alex Jones text messages, and then ultimately for the federal grand jury that has all of a sudden, you know, been prodded into wakefulness and they're going gangbusters bringing in extraordinarily high profile witnesses to testify before the grand jury, like White House cow patsa Boloney.

So let's let's transition into from Alex Jones. We will know more about his fate come next week when when the punitive damages are are decided. And it was thankful to me for the people that follow me on Twitter, because I was outraged by only four million dollars and then folks who are like, don't worry, Dannie Hell don't worry.

It is not just gonna be for me because I I came to find out, like everybody else, Alex Jones, who was making eight hundred thousand dollars a day selling bullshit on his Info Wars, selling survival food and gun paraphernalia, I had no idea that white supremacy and stupidity were so lucrative. I had no idea. So I'm like, oh, he definitely has this money that he can come off of for those families and what he did to them.

But I want to transition now to January sixth because you and I for you know, god knows how long now almost two years since the insurrection, almost two years we've been waiting for the Department of Justice to activate, to activate in the way that the January sixth Committee has activated. And like you have said, they have woken from their slumber right and it is as if the alarm clock has gone off there. So walk us through, Glen.

What we have learned over the last week about where the Department of Justice is right now is it is it in parallel with where the January sixth Committee is. Are they still lagging behind because the January sixth Committee obviously has been working since January six, right, so they've been working for the last eighteen almost nineteen months now. So what does it look. Where are we with where the Department of Justice is on January six? Well, we're in a much better place now than we were a

few months ago. And I want to just tweak my snarky comment of a few minutes ago that they've been prodded into wakefulness, because that's my frustration talking. But let's also be fair to the Department of Justice. I'm speaking to myself now. We learned recently that back in April, the Federal Brand Jury had subpoened and received Mark Meadows cell phone records. We didn't know that that had been

going on. And what I can promise you, Danielle, that wasn't the first significant step DJ took that we knew nothing about. So it has been going on for a very long time, and whatever they've been doing behind the scenes, they have now decided tactically that the time is right to start subpoenaing the highest of the high profile witnesses because they knew everything would get out precisely as it

has been getting out now. For example, when Mark Short, Vice President former Vice President Pence's chief of staff was subpoena to the grand jury. What did he do? He ran to the Washington Post Carol Lennig, and I'm glad he did, and he said, let me tell you what the federal prosecutors are asking me in the grand jury. So that's the point where the cat's out of the bag. And what I'm hoping is DJ has done everything it could do behind the scenes before coming to this moment

in time. Doesn't mean they've been doing nothing, okay, even though I'm so frustrated that they seem to be moving too slowly and there's been no overt law enforcement activity to lock people up, like people who are tampering with witnesses, because that's the kind of stuff you have to address in real and you don't delay when it comes to witness tampering. See, I'm going off on eleven tangents already.

I'm gonna try to pull myself back. So what we learned that was actually pretty earth shattering this past week is White House Counsel Pat Sippoloni and the depth the White House Council, whose name is escaping me, it will come to me, have been subpoena to the grand jury.

The reason and I did a couple of videos, and I've been talking on air with Joy and others in recent days about why it is such a dramatic difference when a White House Council testifies to the January sixth committee, which we know he did, We saw that, and to the federal grand jury, because people might be inclined to say, look, testimony's testimony, he's done at once, what's the big deal the difference between testifying to a congressional committee and testifying

to a federal grand jury, like night and day, because we saw Pat Sippoloni and some video tape testimony that was part of the j six public hearings, refused to answer questions about Donald Trump's primes, about Donald Trump's conduct, about Donald Trump's statements invoking executive privilege. And there's a little bit of a silver lining behind that dark cloud, because remember how there would be a really hot button question that was seeking information about Donald Trump's responsibility for

the insurrection. Pat sippalone would look over it as lawyer, and as lawyer would give him like one of these motions as if to say, you can't talk about that, and Pat sippalone would go, yeah, I guess that's all I can say. You know, I'm overstating a little but only a little bit, because that was the message that was watched that back and forth. Right. And here's the thing. The January sixth Committee has zero power work to test and overcome that assertion of privilege and compel an answer.

But the federal grand jury has tons of power to test, overcome, and compel an answer in real time. That's why these two settings are so dramatically different, because the Federal grand jury is going to get all the good stuff that the j sixth Committee couldn't get. And let me just tell your viewers thirty seconds of how that happens. Because I've litigated privileges in the grand jury a bunch over

my thirty years as a prosecutor. So when a witness is in the grand jury, I refuse to answer that question why attorney client privilege, spousal privilege, Fifth Amendment, privilege against self incrimination, executive privilege, doccupation privilege, priest parishioner. There's lots of privileges, and they're legitimate privileges in a law. But guess what a lot of people invoke those privileges

because they don't want to testify. They don't want to knock out their friend or their criminal associate, so they just throw that up as as a roadblock to prosecutors getting the information. You know what we do. We walked over to the chief Judge's chambers in this case, it would be Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the Federal District Court in DC, and we litigate the privilege in real time. I mean literally, all this happens within a matter of dates. So it's not, for instance, oh we go back, we

come bet like it's this elongated. This is truncated. You're able to really do this at the moment and say, well, let's talk about this privilege and then move forward. It ain't Don McGan running out the clock for two years the way he did trying to fight having to testify before Congress, because this is a very different setting. There's a need for this criminal evidence right now, and so the system is set up to resolve the issue right now,

which a congressional committee can't do. They can try to bring suit in a civil suit in court to compel the testimony, and then that takes years and years and years. So here's what Beryl Howell. I would bet a buck of my own money. You know I'm not a high roller. That's my betting limit. I would bet a buck that Beryl Howell would say, Wait a minute. One, the president hasn't invoked the privilege, and Donald Trump ain't the president. It's Joe Biden. One. The privilege is waived, Pat zippolone.

Two crime odd exception. Pat sippolone. Donald Trump was talking about crimes, so belt and suspenders. There's two reasons, and there's a third, which is escaping me at the moment. But I'll pop into my head and so I predict she will order him. She'll say, the privilege yields. Appreciate your attempt to assert it. I'm ordering you to testify before the grand jury. And here's the beauty of that.

And I want to go back to what we were talking about a minute ago, when Pat Sippoloni would look over at as lawyer and Pat sippalone would be like, I guess I can't say anything more. Once Judge Beryl Howell orders him to testify, he has one hundred percent legal cover. He's bulletproof. Nobody can say he violated any privilege because the privilege was litigated and laid the rest

by the chief Judge and he's protected. So he can go in and say Donald Trump did this and did this and said this and directed us to try to do this and said this to Mike Pence, and he is ft once all that stuff comes tumbling out. And so that's why it's so different. This is not more of the same. All testimony is not created equal. And then the last thing I want to kind of throw into the mix is last night's reporting on CNN where and it was buried down in the article, but I'm

going to do a video about it today. Donald Trump has been counseled, now they don't say by his defense team, but I think that's probably who was counseling him. Donald Trump has been counseled to cut all ties and have no communication with Mark Meadows. What does that tell us, Marcus flipping bingo bingo? That is the reasonable inference you

can draw from that reporting. Once that domino falls, it's on, it's on, and I love the reporting and Rolling Stone a few days ago that Donald Trump's defense team is coming up with a legal strategy that involves putting it all on fall. Guys, that's a meadow, meadow, Rudy, you name it. So I think I I think it's happening. I think it's happening. So here's a question. Because this, this I did not know because you know, sometimes I like to sleep, So this I did not know. Now

about Mark Meadows, uh and Trump? Um, Cassidy Hutchinson had said that Mark was in his office burning papers, right, Um, the day of the insurrection. Right, he's in there burning papers. He was also in there we know from that wild I think it was December thirteenth or December eighteenth meeting, right, the one that was absolutely crazy, um, looking for constant

institutional ways for Donald Trump to stay in power. So paint us a little picture about Mark Meadows and what kind of trouble Mark Meadows could be facing on his own for this man to go from burning papers and looking for the constitution loopholes to then being like, you know what, I think, I think it's time. I think it's time that I that I give it up, that I give up the ghost. Right, what paint us to what what could be could potentially hypothetically be going on.

So here's my prediction, um, And as an asside. When I was at the US Attorney's office in DC, one of my nicknames they weren't all flattering, trust me, was King of the Cooperators. That was not a compliment, mind you. You know that's that's basically saying. You know, you deal

with a lot of criminals in your prosecutions. And when I say King of the cooperators, frankly, I loved working with cooperating witnesses because they were my de facto experts on crime in Washington, DC, because that was their life. So I would work with them. I would get one hundred percent of the truth out of them about their crimes and then about the crimes of others. Then I would make them plead guilty to their crimes. I wouldn't make them, but this was the deal they got. You

plead guilty to your crimes. You work night and day to help me bring others to justice for their crimes. And then at your sentencing hearing, I'm standing shoulder to shoulder with you figuratively speaking, and I am telling that judge who was about to sentence you about all the hard work you did to try to make right what you did wrong for all those years. You're still going to prison. Hey don't you don't get a free pass for your crimes. But your sentence might not be life.

Your sentence might be ten years in prison. And you know you're forty years old, thirty years old. You will still have a life to live on the outside, and you will be able to sleep at night knowing that you made a change in your life and tried to do the right thing moving forward. That's Mark Meadows, Mark Medick.

Here's my prediction. Mark Meadows goes to prison, but he goes to prison for a shorter period of time as opposed to a longer period of time, because he flips on Donald Trump and tries to make right all of the things he did wrong for so many years, like voter fraud in North Carolina that will be rolled into the mix, and all of the enabling that he did with and for Donald Trump to try to corruptly overturn

the elections results. For God six, he was treason central taking all these phone calls and text messages from members of Congress, Jenny Thomas and I love using Jenny Thomas's own tweet against her and against Mark Meadows. She said basically, I'm going to paraphrase. You have to overturn the elections results because there are ballot fraudsters being detained on barge's outside of Gitmo right now awaiting their military tribunals for sedition. Mark,

So you need to overturn the elections results. I mean, what kind of craziness is that? But what does Mark Meadows do? He receives that information and says, King of Kings, where with you? We're going to reinstall Donald Trump. That's a conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States. That's one text message that doesn't even go to him burning government records, It doesn't go There's so much and that's why I think Donald Trump has been canceled. You do

not talk to Mark Meadows anymore. So I think we're on track. I think we're on track. I mean, I'm going to say this as my as my final note. It seems and let me be cautiously optimistic, ye of little faith that I am, But it seems as if the thread has been pulled and that we're going to see very I hope quickly or quicker than we have things start to fall apart for Donald Trump and all of these people. And I believe that Alex Jones is treas Er Trove is going to be just that. I

think it's going to be eye opening. I think it's going to be a bag of crazy. It's going to be good and I hate to talk and run. I got to run. I appreciate you, Glenn, Thank you so very see you next week. All right bye. That is it for me today, dear friends on woke up as always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.