11/13/25: WH Refuses To Post Job Data, Israeli Owned Landlord Behind Evictions, Wall St Hysterical Over Lina Khan, Starbucks Strike

25:46So let's put this up here on the screen. What the nation did is highlighted, quote, the eviction kings, one of Israel's biggest companies, how it's taking over huge swaths of U.S. real estate and how tenants are paying the price. So they specifically highlight these stories about how a company, for example, they highlight this one person who went down during an eviction hearing and they say, how did you get to court? Quote,

26:38matter. He owed money that he didn't have, so he was thrown out in May of 2024 and spent the following months homeless, showering at rest stops, sleeping in his truck. And what he specifically talks about is his company, referred to as American Landmark, a major corporate landlord with some 34 ,000 units concentrated in 111 megacomplexes like Conrad across eight southern states, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas, nearly two-thirds of properties purchased after the pandemic began. And the company with private equity structure that allows investors from all over the world to bet on the growth of a real estate portfolio.

27:10It is now America's 34th largest landlord. They say, based on a review by the nation and type investigations of thousands of records from dozens of properties, as well as an interview with its CEO, it's clear that the company model inevitably leads to frequent displacements of tenants. And specifically, what they also is they look at some 43 different tenants who faced eviction notices from across the American South and the Sun Belt, they report a wide array of issues that they say led to their case. And specifically, to get to the Israel connection, what they say is that because American Landmark is owned entirely, almost, by Elko, one of Israel's largest corporations.

27:48For years, Elko, via its electric super brand, has done extensive business, quote, in Israeli settlements in West Bank and East Jerusalem, and they drive many thousands of Palestinians, obviously, from there. Elko has maintained deep ties to the Israeli military, and, of course, has been long part of the Israeli establishment. You can say all of that objectively. This is an objective fact that you have a landlord here, which is operating in the U.S. And one of the reasons I think that this is worth highlighting is the problem of corporatized landlordization in the first place. No one is saying Israel controls everything.

28:20I want to be very clear about that. It's the 34th largest landlord. But it's emblematic to me, and I thought of this nation story, in the same way that we can worry about Chinese purchases of large swaths of farmland or any foreigners, by the way. Anybody ever go down to Miami? Do you know what percent of Miami is owned by people with foreign addresses? It's crazy. New York City, San Diego, Los Angeles, Chicago, here in D.C. Foreign ownership of land is a huge problem. And especially when it turns into a financialized instrument like in these big mega towers across the Sun Belt. One of the promises of the Sun Belt is it's cheaper to live there.

28:58That's why a lot of people move down there. Well, what's happening is they're all getting rolled up into these giant equity investments for private equity that's yielding money now to who knows who. From Israeli companies to Chinese companies, Russian companies, sketchy Brazilian companies, money laundering from all across the world. and the people paying the price are us who have to pay a couple thousand dollars a month in a run and who are having gadgets and all these other things put in there. So I thought it was just a good piece to demonstrate how when you have this financialization plus internationalization of America's housing market, this is the end result ultimately.

29:34And the other connection here, I mean, the fact that this company is so deeply involved in what are illegal settlements in occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, think of what they're doing there. They're actively pushing Palestinians off of their land. And then think of what they're doing here, which is what the nation documents, is they're using all these additional fees and tricks to push Americans now out of their homes and at nine times the rate of your average landlord. And, you know, this is what a lot of big management companies want to do. They like to push people out of their houses. Why?

30:17Because in a lot of places, you have restrictions on how much you can hike the rent so long as someone is occupying that apartment. When they leave, you can jack up the rent much further. We've actually seen this with some of these ice raids, like the apartment building in Chicago. There's some indications that what happened there is you had a sleazy slumlord from out of state, not out of country, but from out of state who wanted to kick a bunch of tenants out of the building to make it easier on them so they could, you know, reset the rates. And so what they did was effectively like call in ICE to clear everybody out of that building.

30:57And, you know, that appears to be part of it. It looks like that may have been the story, too, with that whole trend or Aragua apartment building in Colorado as well. So there are lots of tricks that landlords use to try to kick people out of their apartments so that they can hike up the rent even further than they would otherwise be allowed to do. And what this documents is this Israeli company is apparently like they have really innovated in terms of the tactics that they use, the predatory exploitative tactics that they use to make it so people cannot stay, cannot possibly afford the fees and the add-on additions in order to stay in their apartment.

31:38And so they end up out on the street. I mean, this is why when we talk about the, first of all, I think it's immoral to work with a company that is, you know, participating in the illegal settlements in the West Bank. That's number one. But number two, you know, when we talk about the housing market and we think about like the abundance style solutions where you're just trying to relieve permitting issues and build out more. It's like, yes, that is part of the problem. But if you're not confronting these issues with entrenched capital interests, then you're only dealing with one sliver of what the issue is here.

32:11You have to tackle all of these problems. And this is certainly one of them. The other one that we've talked about before is like the algorithmic price fixing in the rental market as well. And, you know, the rental market and the home ownership markets can be deeply connected in terms of what people are able to afford. So in any case, you know, there you go. This Israeli company that works in the settlements, kicking Palestinians off of their land, also working here at home to kick you and other Americans out of your home. Yeah. And I think what it highlights is just how, you know, structural it is, how difficult it is, you know, to even get your foot in the door here.

32:52You just have to be extraordinarily lucky. Like if you want to make it in a high cost of living today, good luck, man. Seriously. And I hate to say that. I really do. Because the promise of cities was that people could come here if they wanted to, unlike Ben Shapiro, not saying you have to leave, you know, if you're born. But the promise always is, it's like, this is where the action happens and the network effects and you get to meet people. But But you can't do that and then stay for a while if you make it so that only the top 0.1 % are the people who can afford to live there. That's sick, actually.

33:25It's really bad. Or that you have to move when you have kids because there's just no way that you could afford to raise a family. Yeah, I mean, look. I mean, that really hollows out the heart and soul of a place. One of my buddies. It's just completely childless. I was just talking to one of my buddies, all right? Like here in Northern Virginia, we have the most expensive county for the first five years of daycare. Daycare cost right now, Arlington, Virginia, is$146 ,000 over five years. $150 ,000 for five years. What's the point of even fucking working at that point? What's your after-tax income whenever you look at daycare?

34:00And then, oh, but if your wife doesn't work, or your husband, I don't judge, whoever doesn't want to work. Whoever doesn't want to work, oh, well, then good luck saving up for your down payment. And if you do happen to have a down payment, guess what? the boomer down the street, he's got cash in his portfolio and he's going to buy you out and he's going to make sure that you don't even have a chance. And then you're going to end up living 95 minutes outside of town in a three bedroom rancher built in 1960, uh, with the luck of living on a quarter acre lot, if you can afford it. And if you overcome everything I just discussed, put D2 up here on the screen.

34:31For example, the median age of a U S home buyer is now 61 years old. Okay. 61. All right. The share of first time buyers has now fallen to a record low of 21%. Does anyone want to riddle that one for me? And you know, everybody gets mad at me about my war on boomers and talking about property tax. This is why 61. That's the median. Does everyone remember median from elementary school? So what does that tell you about the number of people over the median who are over the age of 61, who are purchasing houses and how skewed the market it is. This is literally the grounds for violent revolution. Whenever we talk about landlords, property ownership, and you people, I'm the nice version of what's coming, just so you all understand.

35:16And they're trying to pass this stuff, exempting themselves from property tax and from school tax to make so that not only can you not afford a house, but they don't have to pay for your children's school. They don't get it. 61 is insane. That is a sign of the sickest society on earth that prioritizes people who are on their way out instead of the people who are, you know, on their way in. And it's not just for me, okay? I'm okay. But I know too many people who are not okay, who have to make really difficult choices. And very often, they either have to leave their job or leave the place where they actually want to live because it's way too expensive.

35:52And structurally, things are not designed for your flourishing whenever you have children versus when you're older in the country. You cannot look at that chart and tell me otherwise. And this landlord story is definitely part of it. I mean, here in Washington, people, I literally know people paying three,$4 ,000 a month in rent. $48 ,000 a year after tax income. I'm talking not that, like two, three bedrooms, all right? Not big. And these corporatized places, it's the same thing. They slap you with all of these fees and they're constantly, oh, a gym and a pool and all this other stuff. And the next thing you know, if you look at the itemization of all this stuff, if you're increasing rent, that's where it all goes.

36:33And then apparently it's being pushed by all of this. How are you supposed to work your way out of it? I genuinely don't see a way that you can. And these are people who are all making good money. That's the craziest part. So what if you're not making good money? Then what do you do? Yeah. You just do what? Leave? And then they're like, I can't believe these young people voted for Zoran. He's such a radical. It's like, you're lucky that that's what they're voting for at this point. You're lucky. Zoran's a nice version. The mean version, yeah. we'll leave it. Hopefully we're not going to find out, but at least Trump is solving it with the 50 year mortgage.

37:03So then that's going to make everything better. Well, apparently the idea was so terrible. We put C three up on our D three up on the screen. Apparently the idea was so terrible that even like, you know, within the white house, they were like, what the hell are we talking about here? A proposal wasn't fully vetted by top Trump administration officials. Apparently this, this guy, the same, what's his name? Pulte, the same guy. Yeah. Bill Pulte, who's like scouring records to find how Letitia James like checked the wrong box one time on some mortgage application and is using that to get up charges against Trump's enemies.

37:38That same guy is the one who came to Trump with this meme about FDR did the 30 year mortgage. And so you're going to do the 50 year mortgage and you're both great presidents. And Trump just saw that and was like, oh, yeah, great. Love that. Love that idea. And I don't know if I've ever seen such immediate sort of horror, visceral horror at a wonky policy proposal from across the ideological spectrum as I've seen at this. Yeah. Well, I mean, first of all, we're coming off of the cost of living 2025 backlash, the Zora Mamdani election in New York City. And what we're also looking at here is this is the question of our time.

38:16Like, I really am coming back to this. Can we pull over an element? I didn't get to it in our last block. C3, please just pull it over here. I've referenced it a couple of times here on the show. But this is that study which says that rising housing costs have caused some 51 % of the total fertility rate decline between the 2000s and the 2010s, and some seven percentage points, fewer young families in the 2010s. That will only be compounded by a factor of like five, considering the 50 % increase in housing that has come since 2021 one alone and from Gen Z and younger millennials, people like myself.

38:49So if you put that together and you can just see the existential nature through which lack of property ownership, lack of stake, and lack of hope for people have for a foundation of the future, it is not a surprise of not only politics, but of like everything. And I, you know, I have all these boomers in my replies who are always like, well, you have no idea. If you look at, you know, housing and costs and all that guys, look, facts are real. You can go and look the average home home buyer in 1985 was 29 years old. Remember that graphic I used to put up all the time about 1971, where if you look at the median wage, medium home price, medium cost of car and everything, it was just dramatically more affordable.

39:31I won't be lectured by people who were literally able to buy a home in the 1980s and then experience the bull markets of the 1990s and made an absolute shit pot of money and then are using the political system to their own benefit and to lobby for property tax deduction, free social security, free health care, and every other free thing that they can possibly think of. So I don't know. I look at that study. I look at the modern election, like you said, with Zoran. They're calling him radical. I mean, in my opinion, it's nothing compared to what is coming. I mean, his policy platform actually is quite If you poll the entire population, every single one of the things that his core promises that he ran on gets majority support.

40:13So he is actually the median, like the moderate in terms of where the population is. I think you have another update for us, though, Sagar. Oh, yes. I apologize. It's really influence on our society. I've been wanting to cover this for a while since we broke that story about Alexandrovich. Just an update for everybody. Let's put it up here on the screen in case anybody. I have not forgotten, please. I've not forgotten about the story. I do still track it. And I have people in Vegas who send me tips a little bit about this. Put D4 up there on the screen just so I can break it down. You'll remember Tom Alexandrovich, the Israeli cybersecurity official, who was ensnared in a bust where Las Vegas PD and HSI at the Homeland Security Agency teamed up where they were chatting with men on these apps, posing as underage teenagers, in this case, a 15-year-old girl, and basically luring these individuals in for an operation to try and get, you know, people would-be pedophiles off the streets.

41:12And so this is really official. Tom Alexandrovich was taken into custody. He admits under, just waves his Miranda rights. He admits in the interrogation, starts dropping all these hints about, meeting with the FBI, meeting with the NSA, immediately flies back to Israel after posting bail. He appears via Zoom in court from Israel, and his most recent defense all hinges on app verification, okay? So the lawyers, by the way, very pro-Israel lawyers, who are representing this man in Vegas, are challenging the undercover officer because they're saying that because the app's terms of service say that you have to be 18 to use it, that he had reason to believe that the person he was chatting with was 18 years old.

42:00Belies the fact that in the transcript, they're like, I'm 15. Like, they say something like, I am 15 years old. And he, under, again, you can go and read the docs that I released, he waves his Miranda and basically admits to it while he's testifying, or not testifying, but he's being questioned, presumably, not under, whatever. In the initial interview. Yeah, in the interview with FBI officials. It's all out there, you know, directly. A second officer testified that a source shown to Alexandrovich in the video call said, they said, quote, of age just over 18. The decoy literally said, quote, I'm only 15.

42:34I'm only 15. I'm not allowed in over since I'm only 15. Said it twice in the transcript, according to the grand jury's documents that have been released. So during the interview, Alexandrovich is saying, oh, well, she pushed me to show up in an Uber with a condom in my pocket. Okay. Let's take her to Cirque du Soleil. So good luck with that in court. I don't know. I mean, it could work. He has remained out of custody and out of the country. He's on a$10 ,000 bail. And the Clark County District Judge will be hearing petitions on November 24th. Trial is scheduled for March. So we'll see. We'll see how it goes.

43:09And remember, all of this is happening in absentia. He's not here. He's not committed to coming back. It's all coming via Zoom. The judge actually admonished the lawyer earlier for not appearing even via Zoom and saying that the lawyer needed permission for all of this. So we're still following the case, and the Israelis and other people are just hoping this stuff will go away. But we will continue to keep you guys updated. Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. have both been assassinated. And Black America was at a breaking point.

43:49Rioting and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest. It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution, I mean, people were dying. 1968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

44:38I'm Bowen Yang. And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of the Two Guys Five Rings podcast, in the lead up to the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends. Hi, Bowen. Hi, Matt. Hey, Elmo. Hey, Matt. Hey, Bowen. Hi, Cookie. Hi. Now, the Winter Olympic Games are underway, and we are in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears. Listen to Two Guys Five Rings on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

45:15What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, it's where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Faith when it's complicated.

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46:13All right. Well, we were talking about Zoran before. Let's go ahead and check in on how the Wall Street types are handling his victory in New York City. Here is CNBC. Wealthy who might be looking for a therapist after yesterday's election. And more importantly, we're looking for therapy when they heard that Lena Kham was joining the transition team. Which just goes to show you, looking back at the Biden administration, i mean she had a very important job in the but and we had her on all the time and hung on we should have her back and talk about what we'll have her back but let's just let's just know okay so as long as we know what i mean she is a sure no but that's what she was running the a very important yes well no i wonder what i wonder what it portends for business in new york It was funny.

47:04Oh, it's great for business. Awesome. A number of business leaders in New York reached out to me yesterday. I was traveling back from London and it wasn't even the election result itself. It was when it was when this Lena Kahn announcement was made. But it was like they they were sort of like frozen in place and talked. I mean, some of the texting and back and forth was more about sort of what had happened to the merger business. I mean, obviously, there's a lot of bankers in this city, financiers in this city and sort of what the approach is. I don't know if she's going to have a role in the future.

47:40What can she do, though? I mean, the future group or not. What my question was, this appears to nationalize a city mayoral staff. Right. Instead of saying we're going to operate the city as good managers, which is what the mayor's job is. it somehow makes it seem like we're going to be a platform for some national ideological. I don't know. The way Lena Khan freaks these people out is absolutely amazing. Of course, they're referring there to the fact that she's been named to be part of the Zoran transition team. And I mean, it's just wild soccer because like you would think she was some swashbuckling corporate destroyer.

48:17Like, look, no offense, Lena. I'm a fan. You know, you definitely did some good work. But let's be honest about what really went out under the Biden administration. I think by any reasonable metric, she was the most effective Biden administration official. Yeah. Like genuinely like trying to deliver, even if they're small, victories for consumers also, you know, involved in these big, you know, pushback on these giant mergers. And that's why they absolutely hate her. I mean, the war on her for The Wall Street Journal that Matt Stoller tracked was unhinged. And so now not only they have Zoran, but they have Lena Kahn in New York City and they are just losing their minds.

48:56And I mean, they ask a good question like, OK, well, what is she actually going to be doing? Because when she's at the FTC like that makes sense. You're dealing with all of these giant mergers and pushing back on them. But what are you going to do at the New York City level? And there's reporting from Semaphore this morning from Ben Smith that says I'll just read you what they write here about how she's seeing her role in New York City. Lena Kahn thinks beers at Yankee Stadium are too expensive and that she has the law on her side. Since the progressive antitrust crusader was added to Mayor Alex Nourn Mamdani's transition team, the business community she harangued as chair of Joe Biden's Federal Trade Commission has been puzzling over what she might be up to.

49:32Local politics, after all, is a strange soapbox for trust busting where federal law reigns. Well, people familiar with the transition have an answer. Khan has been scouring city and state laws, some overlooked by past mayors and some too new to have been tested yet for legal footing for Momdani's priorities. It's a skill set the Yale-trained lawyer wielded while running the FTC, where she dusted off laws, some dating from the early 20th century, and sued companies under novel theories of harm. Excavating and enforcing the law is how one transition advisor put it. Lena herself spoke some to this recently.

50:04Let's take a look at that. Coming from the FTC, I'm going to be especially focused on things like, How do we make sure that we have a full accounting of all of the laws and authorities that the mayor can unilaterally deploy? I think one thing that was really shocking to me at the FTC was just how much dormant and unused and underused authorities had just been on the books. Like literally Congress had passed laws, sometimes saying things as uncontroversial as it should be illegal to say your products are made in America when they aren't. And sometimes they had just been ignored by the FTC and not really enforced.

50:41So, you know, want to make sure that to the extent that the city has a robust set of laws that the mayor can enforce that we're going and understanding what is the full authority. and um i think it's i think putting her on the transition team is very important um both substantively and as a signal because what she is good at is like she said they're like scouring the laws to figure out where zoran actually has power and what he can do to deal with you know even things like he talked about like the halal cart issues and the soccer tickets being too expensive you know for new york residents and those sorts of things that can improve quality of life and push back on some of the power of some of the local interest holders.

51:22So in a sense, I think they're kind of right to be freaked out about her. Yes and no. I mean, it's one of those where, look, for them, I don't know. I don't understand these Wall Street guys. Did you guys not get filthy rich under the Biden administration? Like, what are we all just, they literally act as if like she decapitated them. The S &P was up like 80 % under the Biden administration. Yeah, but they didn't get their merger bonuses. Okay. I mean, and that's what, I mean, that's a big part to why they hated her. And I mean, she was like, on the one hand, you know, we still live in a shitty like system with terrible rigged rules.

51:53Her view though was, was somewhat revolutionary. I mean, we had had this counter revolution in terms of antitrust law, basically being dormant, where as long as you could show that like you were lowering prices for consumers, then it didn't matter how big you were. It didn't matter how exploitative. It didn't matter if you were Amazon and screwing over all these third party sellers. The only relevant thing was price. And her view was no. that you have to look at the broader picture here and see the way that these consolidations of power have important impacts, not just on price, but on labor, on markets, on the ability for small businesses to compete.

52:32And so that was a dramatic change. I don't think they're wrong to feel like this was someone who was a real enemy, especially since she did, not any longer, but did have some purchase both with the Democrats and with the Republicans. So I'm interested to see what she has to do. We can also check in on the Upper East Side moms who are equally freaking out in a totally hysterical way, apparently on Facebook group chats about Zoran's election, put E3 up on the screen. This was part of an entire article, E3 guys up on the screen. This is part of an entire article, I think from New York Magazine, digging into these Facebook groups and their reaction.

53:10Upper East Side, famously, very, very well-famous where Jeffrey Epstein had his mansion. and went for Cuomo pretty solidly. And so they write here, after the New York City mayoral race was called for Zora on the night of November 4th, the mothers of the Upper East Side began to panic, shocked when Facebook user wrote anonymously in the Moms of the Upper East Side group, which has 35 ,000 members. With all my love for New York City, I can't believe 50 % plus of the city voted for this joker, wondering who's actually leaving to where, Florida. Residents of the neighborhood synonymous with Gilded Age mansions and Tony private schools had voted for Cuomo, a staunch supporter of Israel who campaigned on a tough-on-crime agenda by a 24-point margin.

53:51The more than 300 comments responding to that anonymous post are full of mothers looking for property in New Jersey or Florida, predicting that Mamdani's promise to make buses free will lead criminals to rape and kill innocent passengers and airing their worries that New York City is on its way to becoming 1930s Germany. I mean, the level of hysteria. Like, you can never point to a single thing this man has done or comment that he's made that would make you think he's some Sharia law implementing Islamist jihadist who just, like, hates Jews and is going to massacre. I mean, it's just completely hysterical, insane thinking.

54:34And yet, like, I think they actually believe some of this crap. Like, I think they have bought into the Greenblatt ADL line about who Zoran Mamdani is. That's what I was going to say. Well, first of all, okay, let me split the difference because the free bus thing is actually fair in terms of talking about criminals all over the New York City subway system. It's not exactly peachy in terms of homelessness on the New York City subway right now. So let's put that one to the side. Although even then, again, saying raping and killing is like, okay, all right. I mean, it's, right. We can calm down.

55:01These ladies don't ride in the freaking bus. Anyway, these wealthy ladies on the Upper East Side, I guarantee you they haven't seen the inside of a public bus in New York City probably in their entire existence. Fair point. So let's just say let's protect poorer residents who rely on the bus from criminal homeless people, okay? Let's say that. And by the way, that will be a genuine problem for Zoran if the whole place gets overrun with a bunch of fentanyl addicts. That will actually be something that people should focus on. Now, on the 1930s subway or the 1930s point, this is, in my opinion, a massive indictment of the ADL and of the liberal Zionist media project in general.

55:39The free press, the ADL, and all this, because by the way, all these ladies, they're probably Democrats, okay? Or at least voted Democrat, like they voted for Cuomo, they probably voted for Obama in 2008, and Eric Adams, right, exactly. So let's be very clear about who these people are. They are consuming a large media apparatus which is built on exploiting as much fear of their past as possible. And I think that that's really irresponsible and deranged. And that's what's led to a lot of this. Like they're actually spreading stuff saying like that – and by the way, this is not just about Zoran.

56:18It's also about people like me or like any others who speak out against the state of Israel. They're like they are straight up anti-Jewish, OK? That's what they – like they really believe like the pogrom stuff and like they're buying guns or like afraid for their lives. I'm like, I think that's really dangerous because the point that everyone's been trying to make from the beginning is like, criticism of the state of Israel is not criticism of Jews, like period. And no matter how many times you say it, you still get branded as a literal Jew hater. And like I have experienced this, like actually lost people in my life and others who are like, dude, you hate Jews.

56:52And it's like, I don't – like what do I have to say to convince you otherwise? Nothing actually. It turns out, like, no matter what I say, criticizing the state of Israel actually just whips them up into, like, such a state level of hysteria. I guess because of the way they were raised about, you know, Israel is the only place that we're safe and all, which I get. But, you know, like, that doesn't mean that I have to buy into it. You live on the other side. Yeah, I know. It's like, but then— You're pretty safe. That's the whole problem. It starts to break down. It's like, guys, you all live here.

57:20Like, you know, it's a bit so safe. Then why don't you leave? Nobody's staying. You just have to stay. You know, it's like, if that's your homeland, then go. Go ahead. You know, we don't care, actually. But the whole point is just that they have whipped themselves into a level of hysteria where they actually believe this. It's so deeply irresponsible. And the ADL and all those other people, they absolutely are to blame. Also because they're whipping them up, you know, the ADL and others for their own. Like they have a self-interested reason. Like because they're getting a bunch of donations. They want like do you guys see how they actually prosper whenever people are afraid?

57:56But that's the issue that I have with all of these groups is that they've created this situation where some rich lady in the Upper West Side or East Side is actually worried about their Jewish children. I'm like, I'm sorry. I don't think that that's a major concern with Soran Mambai or frankly in any major American city. I'll say it. I'll say it. Okay. I don't think it's a big problem. If it's about an Israel thing, that's a little bit different. But it's not. You know, most people, nobody really cares that much whether you're Jewish or Hindu or whatever. You can mostly walk down the street. I've traveled the whole country.

58:27Mostly never had an issue. I don't know. Like, it's like, is that real? Why does that feel so, that feels transgressive to say at this point. Like, they want you to believe that it's like they're whipped up to a crazy point. At this point, I think there is a genuine rise of anti-Semitism. I think it has everything to do with the practices of the ADL and the insistence that every Jewish person be conflated with this genocidal state of Israel and the insane censoriousness around any legitimate criticism of Israel whatsoever. Yeah, I do actually think that that is fueling a significant rise in anti-Semite, the rise of Nick Fuentes on the right and how many young conservatives buy into his genuinely neo-Nazi views.

59:04like you know these ladies and their hysteria are a small subset of what helps to feel that genuine anti-semitic rise in sentiment and like i said the the insistence that every jewish person is um you know that israel's their number one issue and that they're absolutely committed to this uh genocide that is being committed against palestine but that's my point about actual race that's my point about the adl though yeah they're they like it that way they want people to be anti-semitic because that's their business that's the only way they can make money their business model. I mean, that's Israel's entire business model.

59:36Like the only way that like the more anti-Semitism there is, the more they can make their argument about it. That's why we have to say that have the Jewish state, et cetera. So yeah. These incentives, by the way, run in everything. How many years have I been talking about BLM, ACLU, and all these other places who profit off of like, you know, it's like the human rights campaign. They were dead after the gay marriage happened. Oh, and then the trans thing became their billion dollar new cause. This is the case for all of these bullshit nonprofits, just by the way. And so that's my issue, is that they're basically doing the exact same woke playbook that they allegedly criticized people for all over the years.

1:00:10In a lot of ways, these people are the biggest snowflakes that exist. Read this shit. This is snowflake behavior. This is hysterical. 100%. And by the way, if you don't want to worry about public buses, nobody forced you to live in New York City, okay? Nobody forced you to live in New York. You chose to actually live in an urban area. Yeah, move to Palm Beach if you want to. If it would make you feel better. Right. If you don't want to worry about it, guess what? I promise you the rest of the city will not warn you. Yeah. You can live in a suburb and nobody would care. You're like, and I'm not, look, everybody has a right to feel safe and all that.

1:00:40And like I said, I think that the free bus thing, you know, the left is going to have to contend with what it's like to actually have to live in a society and to police like violent thug behavior from people who are repeat criminals. Good luck with that, Zoran. We'll see if the BLM activists actually let you govern the city properly, but that is actually a very separate question than whether Jews are safe in New York City or not. The question, by the way, again, should be, is everyone safe in New York City? Why can't we just say that? Why can't everybody just be safe in New York City? And of course, it's like this victim mentality that has been totally propped up by this entire NGO industrial complex, which, by the way, again, feeds this victimhood.

1:01:23It's sick, actually, because you know why it's bad is, you know, I almost feel bad for them. Like they're living in a state of hysteria, like online, that's horrible. That's a bad state of mind to be in. Anybody who's living that way, like you need help for real. I don't know, I blame anybody. They can talk to their therapist about it. I mean, yes, you're also right. By the way, can I just say, Tonyist private school, what a great word. I forgot the use of that word. The word Tony? The word Tony as describing aristocratic. That's such, that is a real throwback. So that's some good lexicon vocab.

1:01:56All right. Well, speaking of class dynamics, I guess we'll say, we've got joining us now a spokesperson for the Starbucks Workers United Union to make a big announcement. Let's get to that. All right, guys, we've got some big breaking labor news this morning. And so joining us to make a significant announcement is Michelle Eisen. She's the national spokesperson for Starbucks Workers United. She's also a more than 15-year-plus barista at the Buffalo store, correct, Michelle? Yes, I was at the Buffalo location, the first one to organize in the U.S. back in 2021. Amazing. Well, welcome to the show.

1:02:32And why don't you just let people know what you guys are up to? So this morning, Starbucks baristas went out on our largest unfair labor practice strike on the campaign to date. There are over a thousand baristas right now in front of their stores picketing, protesting the company's refusal to return to the bargaining table with new proposals that meet our remaining demands and their vicious union busting. And we are in over 40 cities currently and prepared to escalate accordingly if Starbucks does not respond to our demands. And so tell us a little bit about, you know, it's been several years.

1:03:10We covered the origins of the Starbucks unionization movement here. What's the life like been with the company, you know, acquiescing to certain demands? Have there been union busting? What's the relationship like right now with management? OK, well, it's been a wild ride. It's been four years. You're right. It has been a significant amount of time. It's unfortunate that I have to report that the company spent most of that time union busting, violating U.S. labor law left and right. They are the most egregious violators of U.S. labor law in modern history. That's not debatable. They have found liable, guilty over 400 times.

1:03:47ALJ judges across the country have found them guilty of violating workers' rights over 400 times. There are over 700 pending unfair labor practice charges that have yet to be litigated. And just this year alone, they committed 125 more. So back in 2024, the company approached the union and said, hey, we're done fighting. We want to reach an agreement. We are promising by the end of 2024 to reach a fair contract deal with our unionized workforce, as well as resolve the outstanding legal issues. They have failed to do both of those things and instead continued to fight workers every step of the way and violate U.S.

1:04:24labor law. And workers are absolutely tired of it. There are a few remaining demands after nine solid months of bargaining back in 2024 that the company has just refused to give us any real proposals or solutions on. And those are more take-home pay, like making sure their workers can pay their bills, fixing the staffing issues in our stores, which are just atrocious. If you've gone into a Starbucks anytime recently, you'll see very understaffed stores. And at the meantime, at the same time, baristas are not being given the hours they need to pay their bills. And then continuing to violate the law and refusing to resolve any of these unfair labor practices that are just hanging over their heads and really hurting the brand reputation, hurting their workers.

1:05:08And workers are ready to escalate accordingly. We set a time for the company. We launched the strike authorization vote a couple of weeks ago. We said, you need to return to us with some resolutions by November 13th, which is Red Cup Day. It's an iconic day for the company. Here are our demands, which have been very clear to you for the last six months, and they failed to return. So workers are in action right now, and they're going to stay out there, and they're going to get bigger and stronger until the company does return. How many stores do you have unionized at this point, Michelle? We have won over 650 locations in 45 states and D.C., but unfortunately, the company did announce that large round of store closures about a month ago.

1:05:53So there are currently 550 open union locations, and that's over 11 ,000 Starbucks baristas that are unionized. And how is the treatment of the unionized stores and baristas compared to the non-unionized? Quite honestly, every Starbucks barista is suffering right now. All of the policies that have rolled out under Brian Nickel have only made workers' jobs harder, and they have not improved the environments in these stores. They have not improved the customer experience at all, which is why we've actually only seen our organizing increase under the reign of Brian Nicol. We've organized over 160 stores, I think, just since he stepped into that role.

1:06:34So non-union or union workers are recognizing that this company is not willing to step up and take care of them. They are willing to invest millions upon millions of dollars in other places, like$96 million pay package that Brian Nichol got for just the first four months of his employment with the company. They spent$81 million on a four-day managers conference in Vegas this past June. So we know the company has money. They are obviously not hurting for money. But unfortunately, they're not investing in their hourly workforce. The people who bring in that revenue, the people who create those relationships with the customers that get them to come back into these stores and spend money every single day, they're not putting the money in the right place.

1:07:18and the unionized workers are fighting very hard to improve this business. We want the company to be successful. We want the company to succeed. It would be counterproductive for us to not want that. And we've presented a lot of options to the company to help fix these issues. Wouldn't it be nice to walk into a Starbucks for your peppermint mocha this holiday season and not have to wait 40 minutes, not have to see two or three baristas running around doing the job of five or six people because they simply have not allotted enough labor to cover the business that that store is doing. It's wild to me when we see or I hear a store manager say something like, oh, well, you know, people just don't want to work.

1:08:02There are baristas who are dying for hours, who are begging to be scheduled so that they can pay their bills, so that they can qualify for these amazing benefits the company says they offer. And they're just simply not being scheduled. So this is not a matter of not having enough workers. It's a matter of not scheduling these workers enough to cover the needs of the business and to make sure that they have the ability to qualify for benefits and pay their bills. So many Starbucks baristas depend on SNAP and Medicaid. Why is a multi-billion dollar corporation have employees that are subsidized by the government?

1:08:38That just doesn't compute, right? Great point. And so we're done. waiting around. Baristas are tired. This will get bigger. It will be the biggest and longest strike in company history if the company doesn't return to meet the demands. And we're asking our allies to stand with us. For every single barista who is out there on the strike line, a dozen allies have committed to not cross the picket line and not shop at Starbucks while workers are on strike. That equates to tens of thousands of people who are not going to spend their money at Starbucks this holiday season. So this is a very clear message.

1:09:19And we're ready. We're ready. We've been ready for months. We've been ready for years, really, to settle this contract. We know it can be done for less than a single day's sales. It will cost less to settle a multi-year contract with the union than less than one single day's sales for this company, less than they paid Brian Nickel by millions of dollars for the first four months of his employment, less than they spent on this four-day managers conference in Vegas, which was over$80 million. Michelle, tell us a little bit more about those allies who have committed to standing in solidarity with you.

1:09:54And then also finally, what are you asking of the public? So we had a sign-on letter that went out from a bunch of different organizations. I believe the total number was in the tens of millions of, they represented tens of millions of people. And they all said, you know, the folks we represent are committing to not cross the picket line should workers have to go on an unfair labor practice strike. And here we are. And we're not going to spend our money at Starbucks. We're not going to buy gift cards for our kids' teachers. We're not going to go get our peppermint mocha, you know, while we're doing our holiday shopping.

1:10:28We're just going to stay away from Starbucks while workers are on strike. And so we've got student activists at their colleges doing the same thing, talking to their fellow peers, talking to their administrations about not having Starbucks products on their campuses. And we've got labor allies. We've got the entire U.S. labor movement. We've got the global labor movement standing behind these workers because we're all the working class. Unless you're in the top 1%, you are a worker and you rely on on your employer to compensate you fairly for your labor. And so they have just pledged to not cross the picket line and to not spend their money at Starbucks.

1:11:17And so what we're asking is that people uphold that. We have a site, nocontractnocoffee.org. You can go there. You can get up-to-date information on striking locations. You can sign our pledge to not cross the picket line and to not spend your money at Starbucks while workers are striking. And you can join us on the picket line. Workers are making a sacrifice. This is the holiday season. We are, you know, workers are sacrificing their time with their families. They're sacrificing wages. They're sacrificing potentially, you know, losing benefits over not going into work, being on strike to protest this company's failure to return with new proposals that solve these issues.

1:12:02and failure to resolve these legal issues. And so say hello, honk if you see them on strike, join for a little bit, drop off donuts. Just there will always be more workers in this country than there will be CEOs. And we have to stand together. So this is that moment. And this is an easy win. And I think the company ultimately will see that this can be settled. This can be settled so quickly. We could get back to the table tomorrow. We could solve the issues. We could improve workers' lives. We could improve the experience for the customers. And overall, it will improve the company as a whole. All right, Michelle, NoContractNoCoffee.org is the website.

1:12:44Couldn't agree with you more about the importance of working people being organized. The lack of that organization, I think, is one of the big things this country is suffering from right now. So thank you so much for your commitment and the work that you've done on this front. Thank you. My pleasure. Thanks for watching, guys. We appreciate it. Friday show tomorrow. See you then.

1:13:31Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Over the last couple years, didn't we learn that the folding chair was invented by black people because of what happened in Alabama? This Black History Month, the podcast Selective Ignorance with Mandy B unpacks black history and culture with comedy, clarity, and conversations that shake the status quo. The Crown Act in New York was signed in July of 2019, and that is a bill that was passed to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race. To hear this and more, listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:14:07I'm Bowen Yang. And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of the Two Guys Five Rings podcast, in the lead-up to the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends. Hi, Bowen. Hi, Matt. Hey, Elmo. Hey, Matt. Hey, Bowen. Hi, Cookie. Hi. Now, the Winter Olympic Games are underway, We are in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears. Listen to Two Guys, Five Rings on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.