Virginia Fox, who is a sprightly 82 year old Republican Congresswoman with a doctorate in education, that'll be important in a second. Recently schooled a 10 year old on how his teacher is brainwashing him about climate change. Climate change otherwise known as every 82 [00:00:17] year old's most boring nightmare. Now Cenk, I personally am of the belief that even if you aren't into climate change, you are somehow still in climate change, which we can get to in a second. But first, any thoughts that you have about an 82 year old elected official [00:00:33] mocking a 10 year old boy? Yeah, I think that's really what we want our representatives doing because they don't pass any bills other than tax cuts for the rich or more for Israel. So find a 10 year old and yell at him. That seems like a good strategy. Let's show you how Virginia [00:00:50] Foxx did it. Yeah, when you have little kids reaching out to their leaders, you definitely want to terrorize them as soon as possible so they don't actually stay involved in politics. So let's turn now to this 10 year old named Christian Mango who received a pretty straightforward assignment in school. The assignment was to write an essay on a topic of his choosing [00:01:08] that he felt passionate about and then send that essay, send that letter to a person in a position of authority. Christian chose climate change. He wrote about the benefits of electric cars and suggested a $5,000 tax rebate to EV owners. That all sounds relatively reasonable. [00:01:27] Now he told Fox 8, they're better than normal cars. They're better for the environment. They pay less and there's no gas. Again, very reasonable, this 10 year old. Also urged Fox to join the fight against climate change, concluding his essay with quote, Maybe there is still [00:01:48] a chance for 6.5 million people to not die anymore and for the weather to get better, just maybe glaciers stop melting. Now, I don't know about you, but if I get a letter like that, I'm gonna be uh very empathetic toward a young child who's worried about climate change. So [00:02:07] what did Representative Fox say in response? Well, after sending the fourth graders some literature on what she called the disastrous effects of efforts to address climate change. Fox also said, incidentally, please ask your teacher to explain propaganda to you. I will [00:02:26] never be able to know my guess is that your teachers will not give you a good educational experience and help you learn to think as they are too interested in indoctrinating you. How sad. Yes, how sad that is someone with a doctorate in education who was unaware apparently [00:02:46] that he chose the topic. Anyway, on a completely unrelated note, El Nino is on its way and odds are it will be historically strong. According to the Climate Prediction Center, the odds of El Nino stretching through the winter has increased 96%. There's also a two out of three [00:03:05] chance it will be strong or very strong aka bad. or very, very bad. Now on Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA said it is very likely this year will be one of the top five warmest years on record. Now, speaking of the NOAA, Erica Spanger from [00:03:25] the Union of Concerned Scientists wrote on Wednesday, budget and staff cuts to NOAA, including the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service, have put the forecasting, early warning, and science capacity that communities depend on to stay safe in jeopardy. And the destruction [00:03:44] goes deeper, including the disbanding of the National Climate Assessment and the targeting of the National Center for Atmospheric Research for dismantling as the administration seeks to systematically erase the federal government's ability to track, understand, and communicate [00:04:01] our climate risk. So, Just to recap here real quick, you have Virginia Fox, who is 82 years old, telling a child that he's being brainwashed and that the government can't afford some $5,000 EV rebates. But that is strange because according to Representative Ro Khanna [00:04:21] and Senator Jeff Merkley, big oil collects 34.8 billion dollars in subsidies annually, and that is on top of the $100 billion that they get in annual profits. So I guess the question is where is all of that money going? Well, as fate would have it, at least some of it [00:04:40] is going to Virginia Fox, who by the way, is 82 years old. She's received roughly $10,000 from the Coke Industries, a major oil producer uh in her most recent election cycle and then thousands more. She received every cycle going back to at least 2012. She also has roughly [00:04:59] a quarter million dollars invested in energy and natural resources, a category largely made up of, you guessed it, big oil. And just to make sure we are all fully, I guess, unprepared for all of this devastation, last week, Trump's FEMA review council released its final report [00:05:18] and their recommendation. Yep, it is time to close the chapter. on FEMA. So great, what a time to, I guess, still be alive, Cenk. What are your thoughts on this? Do you have [00:05:33] any 10 year olds that you would like to yell at right now? So, no, I'm actually somewhat known for yelling, but not a children. uh So that's not a direction even I would go with. [00:05:49] So I don't know why the Republicans have decided it's okay to terrorize children. On a much lighter note, remember when Trump was talking to a seven year old uh during Christmas in his first term? He's taking calls, it's supposed to be a cute little thing. And he says to him, [00:06:04] are you still a believer in Santa? because at seven it's marginal, right? What are you doing? What are you doing? Don't do that. So and now Virginia Foxx is like, my beer. Okay, listen to me, you little rascal, you serve the oil companies. And if they give you climate [00:06:23] change, eat the climate change, you'll like it. Okay, all right, all right, Virginia, bring it down. Now here's what I wished she would do instead. I don't know, maybe stop funding the $35 billion in oil subsidies. That's outrageous, think about it, guys. That is nearly ten times [00:06:43] the amount that Israel gets every year. We're all super upset and we're upset for good reason. They committed a genocide, dragged us into wars, etc. But as far as an annual subsidy goes, big oil gets ten times the number and they have $100 billion in profit. When do we [00:07:00] get the 100 billion in profits? Wait a minute, if we're funding them, why don't we have equity in oil companies? because that's how capitalism works. You finance something and you get equity in that company. But the American people are what suckers? We just have to give them 35 [00:07:15] billion every year, even though they're already making 100 billion. What the hell do they need that for? And the reality is they don't need it at all. It is an unmitigated robbery. Those oil companies are robbing us blind. And the disgusting evil people that are helping them [00:07:33] do it are people like Virginia Fox. And Virginia Fox is deeply corrupt. But to be fair to her, Almost all of Congress is just as corrupt as our. So that is why under Republican and Democratic administrations, as the Democrats play good cop, we are against climate change. We are [00:07:52] against the oil companies. Golly gee, we didn't notice the 35 billion in oil subsidies. Once again, who's the one guy who noticed? Ro Khanna, okay? So, and Merkley to be fair, good senator uh from the Northwest. We should all be collectively yelling at our politicians who are betraying [00:08:17] us and literally robbing us every single day to give them that money to their donors. And usually based on how much they got bribed by those companies. Those bribes have been now legalized by the Supreme Court, they're called campaign contributions, but they are bribes nevertheless. Virginia Fox didn't wake up one day and go, you know what? I'm thinking for [00:08:37] just for no reason for charity for the general welfare. I think I should take Tom and Susie's money in South Carolina. They're already too wealthy. mean, they could even afford lunch for their kids. Let's take their money. Give me your goddamn wallet, okay? And give it to the oil companies. And if you complain you're an anti-oilist. Elliot, I mean, what are we [00:08:58] going to do with this level of corruption? Now, you know what it is really? Well, sorry, well, let's say it's adding literal insult to injury by yelling at this kid. He deserves so much better than that poor kid was doing his best and what a pure thing to actually be concerned [00:09:14] about. Also, if Virginia Fox wants to be worried a little bit about propaganda, read Merchants of Doubt. The propaganda began with the oil companies that she received money from and that many of our congresspeople received money from. They hired some of the same people who told the American people that cigarettes weren't bad for lung cancer and they used the same [00:09:33] methodology. They fired the scientists that discovered it was actually a result of fossil fuels and then unleashed one of the greatest propaganda campaigns in human history. But apparently, Virginia Fox isn't that interested in that stuff. uh