Joshua Scheer
Lee Camp and Eleanor Goldfield discuss protests after an ICE agent shot a father with his child in the car, an anonymous collective documenting Gaza’s genocide, and AI executives’ push to replace human workers.
A government that lectures the world about human rights should have to answer for the violence it inflicts—and the violence it bankrolls. In this episode of Common Censored, Lee Camp and Eleanor Goldfield take aim at the machinery of impunity: immigration enforcement terrorizing communities, the destruction of Gaza, and corporate power finding ever more sophisticated ways to squeeze ordinary people.
Beginning with reports of a federal immigration officer shooting a father while his five-year-old son sat in the car, Camp and Goldfield connect the brutality on American streets to a broader political order that shields the powerful and makes everyone else expendable. Their biting discussion also turns to resistance—from communities fighting Trump’s border wall to efforts to document Gaza’s destruction. Running through it all is an urgent challenge: What does accountability mean when the institutions demanding obedience refuse to answer for their own actions?
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COMMON CENSORED — LEE CAMP AND ELEANOR GOLDFIELD
October 9, 2026
Editor’s note: This transcript has been lightly edited from the supplied automated captions for readability. Timestamps have been removed, paragraphs and section headings added, and obvious transcription errors corrected. Nonverbal fillers and immediate accidental repetitions have been reduced; the discussion, substantive wording, jokes, and sequence have been retained. Censored words remain [ __ ] as in the source. The supplied text does not reliably identify all speaker changes or voices in embedded clips, so individual turns are not attributed. Unclear caption wording is retained rather than reconstructed. This transcript has not been checked against the audio or independently fact-checked.
INTRODUCTION AND SHOW OUTLINE
Hello everybody. Welcome to Common Censored. I’m Lee Camp joined by the always amazing Goldfield. It’s less roomy now that you’re back. I don’t really get to spread my linebacker shoulders as much. I’m feeling a little cramped here. I mean, you usually do some man spreading anyway. So, [laughter] Excuse me. That’s woman spreading. Sorry. Yeah, woman spreading.
It’s our time. Okay. Hello everybody. Welcome to the show. Eleanor, the always amazing Eleanor Goldfield is only going to be here for the first 20 or so minutes. Not here for a long time. Just a good time. Enjoy it now. Enjoy it now cuz it ain’t going to last. We’re going to cover some mass protests that just erupted in New York City after the latest crime by our modern mafia.
It’s nice to see the mafia back again. It’s called ICE. I don’t think that’s a mafia to be honest. That’s true. Yeah, Mafia had like a code and like they dressed way better. They would like sit around and play cards and stuff like it was Yeah, it was better. I just feel like they were smarter, too. I don’t know why I feel that way.
An anonymous group has put together an interactive map of every bombing and strike throughout Gaza. All thousands of them. Pretty incredible. I got some new information on AI. I got all kinds of stuff coming up. So click thumbs up, click share, click subscribe. All that stuff helps. Do you like that we keep messing with you about what time this live stream is going to be?
Yeah, sorry. This time [laughter] we were aiming for 10:00 a.m. Eastern on Fridays, but it doesn’t always work. Anyway, let’s get moving. We’re going to start with ICE and the protest that actually started last night in New York City.
ICE PROTEST IN NEW YORK CITY
We’re recording those on October 9th for those listening later. [sighs] so if it’s 2029, then this the protest My god, then we’re still here. Protest, it’s amazing we’re still here. The protest might have stopped by. They might have petered out by then, but protests in New York City after ICE agents shoot a father in the neck with his 5-year-old in the back of the car.
This is the type of behavior that we consider our beloved US government. Federal immigration officer shot a man Thursday afternoon. In New York’s Marble Hill neighborhood. The man was treated in nearby hospital for a gunshot wound to the neck. He seems to still be alive. Eyewitnesses described chaotic scene unfurling in Marble Hill, a neighborhood that’s in the or connected to the Bronx.
Around 4:00 p.m., a slew of New Yorkers were getting home from school and work when shots rang out. New York City officials say the ICE agents were, get this, in plain clothes, wearing masks and construction vests. So now they’re dressing up as the [ __ ] village people and shooting people in the neck. So this is not new. There were reports, I can’t recall exactly where, but there were reports of ICE agents dressing up like you know like Verizon folks or people that would come to work on your house.
Oh, I’m just here to check a meter. Like literally like horror movie [ __ ] like to gain access to your home like a gun in a pizza box like a hitman. If it is okay if somebody comes up to your door dressed as a plumber carrying a pizza box, don’t open the door cuz that’s just it’s not a porn poor preparation.
It’s not actually a but yeah, so this like dressing up as other [ __ ] is not new unfortunately. That’s when you know you’re on the right side of history when you’re forced to dress up as other things so that no one knows what you actually do. Always the right side of history. Always. Never once has that gone wrong. The New York City officials said the ICE agents were I did that plain clothes.
One was carrying an assault rifle when he started shooting. Passers by were ducking. Meaning you have you don’t just have the father and his son in the car. You have other innocent people on the sidewalks nearby who are ducking for cover. Crowds of protesters and elected officials arrived at the scene in hours after the shooting and outside the hospital where the wounded man was taken.
Mamdani confirmed that the 5-year-old son was in the car at the time, but he is okay physically. Yeah, physically not injured. The mayor said he spent two hours on the phone with President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Mullen in a failed attempt to get the shooting victim, identified as 28-year-old Oscar Belgal [name unclear in supplied captions], released. Yeah, I can’t believe Trump wasn’t helpful in this. I can’t believe Trump didn’t see the error of his ways and released this man. Am I the only person who feels like Mamdani should just go get him and take him to his apartment?
I think what Mamdani keeps coming up against and you know when Mamdani anybody when Mamdani’s done wrong I have criticized him so I’m not one of these just you know sycophants but what he keeps coming up against is if he wants to do the things he seems to want to do and I think he genuinely wants like this guy freed he would he’s going to end up in a firefight in New York City between federal officers and NYPD that’s if the NYPD actually listen to him which I wouldn’t be surprised if they just do the opposite.
But which I feel like he’s not really looking for to go up against the federal government with a firefight. But no, but I am curious like if the mayor were to walk in to the hospital, I think I think ICE is so full of themselves and they have a federal mandate. The mayor of New Orleans. No, no, I don’t think they’d shoot him.
I think I don’t think Mamdani’s walking in armed. I think they’d probably hold him out of the way and possibly arrest him. Probably just push him out of the way. But anyway, but yeah, it just it just shows what a horror show this is and continues to be. I covered and I think you did as well that although the stuff like this, ICE shooting people has decreased, like the big stuff that gets news headlines, the actual number of arrests and putting people in concentration camps has not decreased and has gone up.
No, because ICE is changing their tactic. They do things like the construction vests like they have shifted tactics. And I think I’ve talked about this in the past that I think it’s really dangerous that we talk about the system like it’s not malleable that because it is rigidly capitalist and rigidly colonialist that for some reason that its tactics would be rigid. But that’s a fallacy.
The tactics of the system are incred incredibly malleable and they adapt very quickly seeing what is going on the ground. So for instance, seeing that there is disscent against ICE, well, they’re not going to be as public about it. I mean, obviously shooting someone in the neck is public, but they just can’t help themselves. I saw somebody in the in the chat mention this, like ICE just can’t stop shooting people, but they will do so wearing a construction vest or dressed as like you know, your local utility company or some [ __ ] like that.
So the more overt things that we saw in places like Minneapolis that is giving way to things that are a bit more on the as an undercurrent and just speaking as somebody who has done organizing around this in my home place in Baltimore. Yeah. You’re see like it’s harder to get a read because it’s not like there nothing’s marked anymore. So it’s like now you kind of feel like the neighborhood watch people.
You’re like suspicious vehicle and you’re like oh I’m that person. But you have to be because nothing’s marked. So you just have to be like, “Okay, there’s this random SUV with a bunch of dudes who look like Joe Rogan who just pulled up like I don’t like what is that?” And I know that whenever I say like it used to be, it usually didn’t actually used to be like America’s always been so [ __ ] up.
But wasn’t there a time where it was like illegal for cops to not have some identifying mark? Like didn’t they have to show their like badge number or like we’ve just done a warrant? We’ve just done away with all of that. Otherwise, it’s breaking and entering. But that doesn’t But that’s the thing. It’s like laws when you are for law enforcement or for the ruling class.
Laws are just something that happen to other people, you know, like they don’t apply to you. As you know, and this it goes across, you see this like with everything from the Epstein files to ICE, like it just laws just don’t apply to these people. Even if you have measly laws on the books, they just don’t apply. I’m going we’re going to get back to another ICE story here in a second, but I wanted to answer this question.
Thank you, Circle Home for
PENTAGON EXECUTION AND STATE VIOLENCE
Supporting the show. Asking whether we’re going to cover the live streaming of the Fort Hood shooters execution. I wasn’t necessarily going to do much on that in this episode, but yes, the Pentagon is saying they’re going to live stream live stream the public shooting of the Fort Hood shooter, which I don’t know if there could be a better representation of you are the monster that you’re claiming to stop.
Like, oh, we’re going to shoot this monster because he shot someone. Doesn’t that then make you the next murderer? Which is why the death penalty in general is dumb. I Yeah. No, you and I have both done extensive segments on the insanity of the death penalty in just recent weeks. Last week specifically. But I also think that whenever it’s something like this, the Pentagon’s like the Pentagon or Trump is like having a UFC fight on their lawn or they’re live streaming an execution or this [ __ ] I really think it’s partially to just cover up the stuff that they are is more concerning to them.
Like whether you stop that live streaming or not is not going to impact the US empire and their behavior. Whereas if we actually, you know, support BDS and have an impact on Israel and things like that, that actually is difficult for you know, and not great for the empire. So I think it’s a it’s a it’s a big distraction. Not that it should go ahead.
It’s a disgusting distraction, but it’s also it’s also ev evidence of the empire’s decline. I mean, look at Rome. You know, the games the games increased exponentially as you see Rome continue to fall apart. That’s when the games and the violence of the games too increased. That kind of like blood lust to take your mind off of to be like an outlet for the rage you feel at the loss of control over your everyday life.
Like it’s it’s dark as [ __ ] but it is something that’s been happening for oh, I don’t know, more than 2,000 years. So it’s like I got an idea. They charge pay-per-view for the execution and then use that to fund Medicare for all. Oh, no. George Carlin said pay-per-view, right? I think he picks during a halftime show. I think Yeah, I think he did mention pay-per-view, but I don’t remember what he You still have pay-per-view.
What he wanted it to fun. Yes. So, for a long time, UFC fights, there’s a lot of fights that are still pay-per-view, but it is getting more rare because the streaming services will they do it that way. Anyway, but yeah, we use that to fund Medicare for all. I think that’s the answer. And you could and you could do pay-per-view other things like flogging of certain people. You know, ICE agent being beaten with his own shoes.
Like there’s a lot of things you could pay and then fund Medicare for all I think is the Yeah, of course. Let me just throw in there. We don’t actually have to fund things because we actually have all the money we need. So whenever they say we don’t even have money, it’s full of [ __ ]. So I realize that. Okay. Was that’s Lee’s take on modern monetary theory.
By the way, folks, [laughter] it’s not my take. It just is. It just is. I just wanted to share this quote by Elif Shafak from her book, The Architect’s Apprentice, because it’s so spot-on to what we were just talking about. She writes, “Fear turned into resentment. Resentment into rage. And rage was a ball of flame you could not hold in your hands for too long.
It had to be thrown at someone.” Rage is a ball of flame. It’s it reminds me of Yoda’s fear causes anger, anger causes hate, hate causes suffering. Right. It’s pretty similar. A That’s not what Yoda sounds like. B. What is that? Is that a quote? Hate causes suffering. I’m suffering right now. I just nailed it, I think. Oh, I actually played Yoda.
I bet you didn’t know that. All right. Let’s get to this other ICE story.
BORDER WALL DESTRUCTION AND ACTIVISM
I mean, it’s kind of ICE. It’s ice adjacent. Well, I mean, it’s Well, okay. Anti-immigrants story. Sorry. Yeah. So, basically, this is I just, by the way, where Yeah. Where are we reading this? I just put up the new news that didn’t make the news for next week. Folks, do check that out at eleanorgoldfield.substack.com. I troll through all of this [ __ ] so that you don’t have to.
I don’t use AI because [ __ ] that noise. It’s narrated by me, written by me, read by me, all of that. So, for those who don’t know, there is also a fight going on at the, the so-called Mexico US border where they’re trying to build the border wall that has proven itself to be socially, politically, and economically a failure. So, and this week, Border Patrol agents, this was October 5th, and they still have not taken into account ladders.
You’ve seen that clip, right, where they’re like talking to some like pol like it’s like some politician and they and they ask like, “So, what about ladders?” And he’s like, “I’m sorry, what?” And he acts like he’s never heard of a ladder before. I don’t think I’ve se seen that one. There’s a Trump there’s there’s a similar Trump campaign speech where he’s I think from his from his last campaign, but where he go he goes, “We’re going to make the wall.
It’s going to be so beautiful. It’s going to be so big. It’s gonna be there’s no way. No one can get over it. No one can get over.” And then he pauses and he goes, “Unless they had a ladder, but it’s got to be so tall and like he realizes in that moment that something could get over it.” [laughter] Yeah. Like not like not even modern technology [snorts] ladders.
Okay. But that’s not stopping them from destroying ecosystems and brutalizing people in order to build a wall. But again doesn’t [ __ ] work according to what they want it to do. It works in destroying [ __ ] and being militarized. It works in destroying communities. Destroying community and Yeah. Nature. There’s a lot of animals that have trouble. Yeah. So, they for on October 5th, Border Patrol agents forcibly removed a tree sitter from what was known as grandmother tree.
A cottonwood that stood in a grove of several trees that then stood in the way of contractors building the wall. Agents then felled the tree estimated to be over 200 years old, older than the current border. A journalist sounds like older than the current America. Oh, is that what you mean? 200. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Journalist M. Granger wrote on his Substack that early in the morning on October 5th, at least 50 US border patrol agents, including the agents militarized tactical unit, BORTAC, which sounds like rat poison, raided the resistant camp, doesn’t it?
Doesn’t BORTAC sounds like sound like [ __ ] rat poison? BORTAC. I think I’d rather hang out with rat poison. And question we heard in a movie, very important. Is expired rat poison work better or worse? Discuss. Yeah, discuss amongst yourselves. At least 12 people have been arrested and report that agents assaulted and tackled multiple individuals, pushing land defenders into barbed wire fences, stomping on necks, and causing numerous injuries.
And John Washington, the author of The Case for Open Borders, who’s brilliant. He’s awesome. You should read the book said that reported that a new tree sit went up the very next morning on October 6th on the Mexican side. Oh, I can read off of here. No, I can’t. [laughter] in another cottonwood tree. And then on October 8th, reports came in about someone who had locked down to a construction vehicle and was then tortured by law enforcement who pepper-sprayed and beat the defender.
Border Patrol then taped an emergency blanket over the person locked down, turned on the truck, which allowed exhaust to build up in the blanket. And this is unfortunately not new. This is not a new tactic. I don’t think I’ve heard of that one. Oh, it’s Yeah. Well, and this is one of those one of those moments where people are like, “Oh my gosh, Trump’s America.” And it’s like, yes.
And also under not Trump’s America, when I was down in Louisiana fighting the Bayou Bridge pipeline, there was a similar tactic that was used on somebody who locked down to a piece of basically a construction vehicle. They turned the truck on and blew exhaust in the person’s face until they were able to extract them. And the reason that this happens is that when someone’s locked down, the way that we lock down, I’m not going to tell you how, but it’s very difficult for them to get that person removed.
It requires them to bring in special equipment and they got to do it so they’re not sawing off your arm and [ __ ] Although I wouldn’t be surprised if these people didn’t give a [ __ ] but so they want to try to convince you to extract yourself to basically unlock. And so they basically torture you in order to get you to do that.
I will say in all of the years that I’ve seen people locked down, I’ve never seen one person extract themselves, even through the extreme amounts of torture that they endure spraying them and all this pepper spray. They kick them. They And I’ve seen this at like close range. I’ve had I’ve been hit by law enforcement while locked down. So this these they want you to extract yourself and eventually they typically cut them loose, but it takes longer and so they lose time. And I’m not sure of the status of this person who locked down, but I will say that folks can folks can follow John Washington on Instagram, but also if you have the ability to go or if you have the ability to support, you can go to check out campos.org.
Oshad is the tono word for jaguar. Jaguars are there’s an indigenous species in that in those borderlands. So that’s camp-osh a.org. Cool. And I like their logo, too. Yeah. So, jaguars are indigenous to that area. And of course, the border wall creates the a barrier to them to be able to survive because the where they roam for food and mating and everything is across the border because guess what?
Borders aren’t empirically. [laughter] Yeah. They don’t exist empirically. So it’s all [ __ ] made up and the Jaguars don’t know what the [ __ ] In one of my stand-up bits, I talk about how like we invented things to further cage ourselves. Like cuz we came up with borders with our minds and animals don’t have them. You know, in my in my bit I talk about deer go back and forth across the bar all the time and somehow they’re freer than us.
Like we got so smart that we caged ourselves. It really is spectacular what we’ve done here. I like what we’ve done with the place. Yeah. Caged ourselves literally and figuratively. Yeah, and it’s an interesting there’s there’s a lot of also Tohono O’odham their ancestral lands cross the US and Mexico. And interestingly enough in Tohono O’odham language there’s no word for wall. And I think that this also speaks to like the constructs of language, like how that makes us think about our existence in the world when we are constantly fencing ourselves in literally and figuratively.
And on that note, Eleanor is going to awkwardly slide out while I continue the show. She does have to run. For those of you joining late, we mentioned it earlier. This is not just a [laughter] She didn’t just get upset. Oh, we should have staged a storm out. That would have done better. Would have gotten clicks. Sorry. Do you want me to slap you now? Slap me and yell [ __ ] this [ __ ] and then and then I’ll rip my shirt.
Oh, that seems unnecessary, but I like it. [laughter] Okay, just show a little midriff. Bye, everybody. Show a little something. All right, let’s keep moving, though. Please click thumbs up, click share, and all those things. YouTube actually has been a little less sorry, one more second here. A little less restrictive on me. Not a huge amount, but slightly less suppressive. So, it actually could help the show for you guys if you can do something.
And this is this is the free stuff you can do to help the show. Doesn’t cost you a dime if you can do two things right now. One, check that you’re subscribed on my YouTube. YouTube.com I think it’s moment of clarity or at moment of clarity. Go there, make sure you’re subscribed, but then change the click the little carrot the little arrow thingy next to it and make sure it says all alerts cuz that should normally help.
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DOCUMENTING GENOCIDE IN GAZA
Bringing you the this news and information. All right, let’s keep moving though. I want to get to this is this is pretty epic. What these activists have done about the Gaza information on the number of bombs Israel has dropped. So this is so drop site posted. Dropside news does great work especially on Gaza. Israel exposed is the name of the account. Definitely support them.
The anonymous collective behind one of the largest online archives of Gaza genocide documentation. So I’m going to play a little clip from this if you’re listening to the podcast. And by the way folks, we are also a podcast. The one with me and Eleanor is called Common Censored. The one where it’s just me. My normal live streams is called the Lee Camp Show on Spotify.
So just look it up, make it one of your favorites. So then you find yourself in a car ride and you’re like, “Oh yeah, what was that?” It’s called the Lee Camp Show on Spotify. It’s also called Moment of Clarity on other podcast platforms. I’m going to play a minute of this. For those of you listening to the podcast, it is a AI generation of like a or maybe it’s not AI, I can’t even tell.
But anyway, a woman with a mask on is explaining what this collective has done. It took a little longer than expected, but version one of our geolocation map is finished. You can open it from the node map with the button in the top right or go to archivegenocide.com. It places more than 35,400 nodes on the map, some exact and some more approximately by their block, neighborhood, camp, or building their caption names.
Click any event and it opens on the node map with related footage, links between events, and leads worth following. I just want to repeat that so everyone caught it. You’re talking about thousands of little red dots across all of Gaza on a map. If you click any one of them, it will show you, if they have it, and I think they have it for most of the dots.
It will show you v video footage of what was done there, of Israel’s bombings, of Israel’s shootings, of the genocide they’ve committed. I mean, this is a ridiculously extensive map and interactive map of this genocide. I mean, this is the most documented genocide that humanity has ever had. There is no hiding. There is no pretending it’s not happening. There’s no pretending that every even every hospital they’ve bombed is secretly filled with Hamas militants all sitting in a hospital.
Like it the amount of information collected is unbelievable. And they’ve all put it on an interactive map. It’s there for anyone to go watch. I’m sure Israel will be working their ass off to hack this site and destroy this site. And anyway, I’m going to play a little bit more. I don’t know if we need to play every detail, but anyway, Iris, our AI, is built into the map.
You can ask her for a place, a kind of attack, a date, or a person, [music] and the map shows only that footage. She can also explain anything you see to you. In the bottom left, you can switch to a dark map or satellite imagery, show Gaza’s five governors, or tap a point to see only footage within a set distance of it.
And this is also what I mean when I say, you know, I’m one of these people that how dare I have some nuance around AI, but I talk about how AI can it’s a tool and it can be used for very positive things. And here’s an example of it being used. I assume they’re using it appropriately. It can be used like normally if you get a map with this much information about it prior to when AI was starting to get good meaning just a year or two ago you get a map like this you’re scrolling through it trying to find something specific or trying to figure out what like okay I found the area but I need I’m looking for a certain video like and now you can type in a question and I mean it’s remarkable technology that you could type show me the bombing at this block in Gaza and it would find that for you and show you the video and it’s and this is an example of AI being used well.
It’s a tool being used well. It’s a tool being used for activists. It’s a tool being used to document genocide. It’s a tool being used to expose genocidal [ __ ] monsters. So AI is a tool and unfortunately the people that really control it at the top levels are psychopaths. But obviously there are good human beings out there that can use it for good. And the question as humanity continues to move forward is are we going to let the psychopaths continue to control it and try their best to shut down things like this which are spectacular efforts to document this genocide in a set distance of it.
Filters let you choose a [music] date range. Play the footage week by week and pick from a selection of facilities like hospitals, schools, or mosques. This toggle shows the UN satellite center survey of about 198,000 damaged or destroyed structures. 198,000 damaged and destroyed structures. And the other thing is I know that like you or I look at this and we go, well, you know, what do I need that much data about what happened in Gaza? Like you know I don’t need to see every block that but the place this is really useful is for those writing articles on Gaza those exposing the criminals those exposing the IDF those putting together reports for U you know putting together UN genocide reports this type of tool is incredibly useful for them so I did wanted to highlight this I guess we put this under the good news list under the solutions list at least solutions for exposing the genocide. Speaking of
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE AND TRUTH-TELLERS
Exposing the genocide, the Nobel Peace Prize is clearly trying to regain their image. I think I think last year was, you know, because yes, they gave it to Henry Kissinger. They’ve they Nobel Peace Prize has had some real issues in the past. They gave it to Obama like the moment he got into office and then he went on to kill a million people. So they’ve had a lot of issues.
I think last year where they legit just gave it to a CIA psyop to that’s trying to create regime change in Venezuela. Like I think a lot of people like, oh, Nobel Peace Prize is legit just designed to further imperial psyops and regime change. And so I think that maybe made them think maybe we should actually give it to someone like that genuinely helps create peace or like does something positive in some kind of way.
And so they gave it to Navi Pillay who led the UN report on Gaza genocide. The international reputation for the Nobel Peace Prize, which has suffered in human rights circles over the past year, recent years, may be on a path to improvement after Friday’s announcement that they’re giving it to Navi Pillay, a person of exceptional courage who has been at the forefront of accountability efforts for apartheid, prosecuting war crimes, and upholding international law for decades.
In its statement, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Pillay, who during her career served as a judge on the High Court of South Africa, her home country, her native country, and later the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the ICC has been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted. And let’s see. I’m going to play, it’s just a 30 second clip by her.
I think it’s very appropriate that I’m with friends and colleagues, all of whom support human rights. The last thing I did is the delivery of the report on Gaza, naming what’s happening there as genocide. Yeah. So, so one of the main reactions to that support is paying tribute to me for my courage. And you can imagine how surprised I was. Why would you need courage to speak the truth?
Yeah. So, she’s she’s saying, “Why would you need courage to speak the truth?” Well, the truth the truth is that one of the reasons you need courage is because if you’re powerful enough and you have enough of an impact, they will come after you in one way or another. They are certainly, you know, another UN employee. They’re certainly going after Francesca Albanese who’s they’ve attacked her in every way possible for bringing you the truth about the genocide and calling it a genocide from day one. She’s, you know, one of the most she’s been, you know, kicked out of certain circles.
She’s no longer with the UN, but she also they’ve debanked her. They’ve made it nearly impossible for her to buy anything with a credit card. I mean, imagine how difficult life would be if you can’t buy anything digitally, including credit cards, anything. Her life, she can’t travel, as far as I know. Her life is very difficult because of how much they’ve come after her. Speaking of the truth and of Israel, I just wanted to show this clip.
I’ve certainly
OCTOBER 7TH MEDIA COVERAGE
Showed prior clips. I know we just had October 7th and I put out a Substack column on how the mainstream media has now suddenly decided to begin talking more extensively about how Netanyahu knew October 7th was going to happen and he was well informed about it. You our mainstream media has suddenly realized that Netanyahu knew about October 7. And I think the reason is they’ve gotten the green light to actually talk about that because the goal of the Western media and Western politicians is seems largely to get Netanyahu out of office so that they can scapegoat him and say he’s the gen the cause of the genocide and everyone should love Israel again.
Go back to loving Israel again. So that’s the aim of western media and western empire. But since we just had October 7th, I thought I’d show this video which I’ve shown videos before of the incredible number of vehicles that were blown up on October 7th. Keep in mind Hamas and the Hamas militants only had small arms. So there’s no way to blow up a car.
And yet dozens and dozens of cars were blown up by IDF helicopters, bombs, IDF bombs, etc. And I believe the number the number I heard was they have 70 blown up vehicles. Maybe it’s more than 70, but at least 70. And so if you picture each of those, you know, let’s assume most of them were headed back towards Gaza. If you assume that each of those had two to three hostages or possible hostages or you know Israeli citizens of civilians of some form or another that’s that’s 140 if it’s just two in every car that’s 140 people but of course they were putting more than two people in each car so it’s likely hundreds like when you see this footage of these blown up cars this is hundreds of innocent Israelis, not to mention Hamas and Gazins that were killed, but hundreds of Israelis murdered by the IDF. So there’s there’s the video.
Sorry those of you listening to the podcast, I know you can’t see this, but I had not seen this kind of drone footage of just how crazy the number of cars is that were blown up in a way that Hamas is not capable of or was not capable of on that day. Like these were hit by bombs and missiles. It really is just unfathomable.
And maybe one day we’ll actually know the truth. I mean, maybe I think you and I know a lot of the truth about October 7th, but I mean, maybe it’ll actually be revealed in the mainstream media. As opposed to just they act like, oh, all that happened was Netanyahu knew that it was going to happen. That’s the only thing. It’s like, well, I think it’s about time to start covering everything else that you’ve been ignoring about October 7th.
But of course, that’s not what our mainstream media does. That’s not their job. All right, I want to move on. Just a quick reminder, if you want to support this show, you can join up at realleecamp.substack.com or patreon.com/LeeCamp. You get my ebook, Dangerous Ideas. Is you get both my standup comedy specials from this year. Two halfhour specials. One of them is called Nationalism is a Brain Parasite.
I remember what the other one’s called. I think I make too much content if I don’t remember the names of my comedy specials, but and you get extra content with my columns with I basically finish the column and then I just throw in some extra some extra write up some extra thoughts for those of you who are supporting members. All of that for the whopping cost of a beer a month.
You can help keep this show going. All right, I want to cover this real quick. The IRGC, Iran’s
IRAN, OIL, AND GEOPOLITICAL TENSIONS
IRGC warns that elicit hormuz roots will soon be blocked. You’ve heard Trump talking about how, oh, we’re getting the oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has lost the power to stop us. You we’re gonna get it through. We’re getting it through. Well, Iran is saying that’s not going to last very long. The Brigadier General, senior adviser to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, commander-in-chief, said on October 7th that Tehran will soon block the illegal routes established in the Strait of Hormuz. Small number of routes created by individuals engaged in illicit activities by blasting and destroying sections of rocky passages will soon be blocked.
The Strait of Hormuz is closed and the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran have complete control over it. This situation will continue until Iran’s legitimate demands are met. The volume of smuggled oil is extremely small and yet Trump’s acting like, “Oh, all the oil’s going through. Oh, it’s fine. Oh, it’s not even an issue. [ __ ] And we’ve seen the price of oil skyrocket.
It’s going to keep going up. This has all kinds of other ramifications as I’ve brought to you before, including food prices shooting up. I mean, really, the price of everything goes up because everything you buy is shipped around the world. But food prices especially because you not only have the diesel involved in farming but the nitrogen has to get out of the Strait of Hormuz and there’s just so many aspects of it. Then the food has to once grown has to be shipped across the nation or the world because we don’t actually do anything local anymore which would be the proper way to actually you know be efficient and not destroy the planet but no we can’t do any of that anyway Iran has said that the illicit oil will not get through much longer and every here’s the thing unlike the United States every time Iran says something they usually do like the vast majority of the time when Iran says they’re doing something, it happens.
Whereas with the US, it’s, you know, Trump can say something today, forget he said it tomorrow, not mean it tomorrow. Yeah. It doesn’t, none of it matters any. Okay, so I want to move on to AI.
THE PSYCHOPATHY OF AI EXECUTIVES
And I have some clips from this guy. I’ve played from him, clips from him before. His name his name on Instagram is Panodime. And he collects his whole channel is based on collecting clips of AI executives or engineers speaking about AI and how horrifying it is and what level of psychopath they are. Some of them, you know, the lower level engineers might not be psychopaths, but they are it is amazing what they’re saying.
And anyway, so I’m gonna play a couple of clips from him. And because it’s Instagram and Instagram blows all of the chunks that have ever been blown, it will like play the beginning of the video multiple times. This apparently was their solution to the old thing I complained about, which is anytime you try and play something on Instagram, by the time you hit the unmute, you lose the first three seconds.
By that point, you don’t actually know what they’re talking about because you missed the first three seconds. Instagram’s solution was not to fix that. It was just to play the clip the first five seconds multiple times. So, you kind of have no way around that. Please raise your hand if your company has insurance for catastrophic risks. So, I got to explain this to those of you listening to the podcast.
This is a Zoom hearing where the you know not heads but higherups in Meta, OpenAI, Google Anthropic are asked whether for these data centers they have insurance for catastrophic risk or is the state or city if something happens to these data centers is the state of or city left paying for catastrophic damage to these data centers? And she asked them to raise their hands if they have catastrophic insurance.
None of them raise their hands. Okay. I’m going to take that as a no that no company has liability insurance for catastrophic risk to cover large scale harm. So then the public, I assume, would be asked to absorb the cost. Then one of them finally decides they should say something. Madam Speaker, I have to be clear. I don’t know the answer to that, but I’d be happy to consult with our lawyers and get back to you. Three minutes later.
So, the Google person then realizes it’s a bad look to say they don’t have insurance. So, she instead says, “I don’t know if we do or not. Who knows? I’ll go find out for you.” Later, another claims he was having technical difficulties. And I was trying to raise my hand the previous round, but again, I will technical difficulties. The director for privacy and AI legislation of Meta doesn’t know how to use Zoom and therefore tried to raise his hand, but he had a special zoom glitch.
I don’t know if you’ve heard about this. When you use Zoom, it stops your hand from going up cuz he wasn’t frozen. We could see like he’s blinking and [ __ ] So, it wasn’t frozen, but it just it’s it’s a really weird quirk with Zoom where just your hand they it slaps Zoom slaps your hand from going up. It’s totally bizarre.
I’ve never seen any tech glitch like it before. I think it was invented for people like Elon Musk who can’t stop sigiling and so they were like, “What if we had a way where Zoom could stop his sigh?” And so, I think that’s why they initially instituted it. But anyway, it stopped this poor meta director of AI legality or legislation from raising his hand.
It he was still blinking. So, he was still He was still alive. He wasn’t dead. Screen wasn’t frozen. Just stopped your hand. I just wanted to for the record in relation to your previous question, I just wanted to signal also that I don’t know the answer to that question. I’m not the right person. But I would like to be able to come back to you afterwards with a with an answer if that’s okay.
And two minutes after that, another one gets an original idea. I did want to start by like the others clarifying that I don’t know the answer to the insurance question but would like to follow up. So, the tech policy lead of OpenAI also has no idea if they have catastrophic liability insurance, which would also it wouldn’t just be a catastrophe at the data centers.
I suppose liability catastrophic liability insurance would also be like the AI goes rogue and destroys, you know, all the federal government’s records or some [ __ ] [laughter] like that sounds like it’d be catastrophic liability as well. And she’s like, I don’t know. I’m just a I’m just a billion-dollar lawyer paid by OpenAI and Meta to know everything about the legality of all of their [ __ ] and I have no idea if we have insurance.
I do just want to say, and I appreciate you each have your own and look, I was a regulatory attorney at a large company. Understand that people have their sphere of work that they work in, but to not know if the company has catastrophic risk insurance when you have a product that some of your own founders are saying could cause cataclysmic risk is troubling at best.
[laughter] Yeah, just slightly troubling. By the way, it said on the bottom that was a New York state government hearing is what that was. So yeah, that’s what you’re dealing with the AI industry. They don’t actually feel any need to worry about any catastrophic risk because at the end of the day, they’ll get bailed out. They’re working very hard to be too big to fail, which means if they ran in to [ __ ] that was catastrophic, the US government would bail them out. Here’s another clip.
Same channel and he’s Yeah, I’m trying to remember who he plays. An AI executive, but anyway, we’ll we’ll find out which one. Let’s just restart Instagram where it will be. Imagine how they talk about us in private. Humans get time. If this is how they talk about and then they got to play at the beginning again because Instagram blows all of the chunks.
Did I mention all of the junks about us in public? Imagine how they talk about us in private. Humans get tired. Humans want more money. Humans want culture. Humans can be toxic. Humans are difficult to manage. I’ll take the AI any day of the week. This is the founder of an AI company called 20VC and basically just telling you that not only are humans becoming obsolete, but we also the AI executives don’t want humans.
So, it’s not just that we want AI because it like works harder or might be smarter in a lot of ways, but we also want to switch to AI because you know you don’t have to like talk to them like they don’t need coffee. They’re not going to tell you about their weekend where you’re like, I get it. Okay. You went on a date with Susan and it didn’t go well and she did this and she made you pay for extra dessert when she didn’t even want it.
He just wanted to see if you’d pay for it. I get it. He’s He’s just like, “Fuck humans.” If the work that the quality were better, this is now the CEO of UiPath. I don’t know what that is of a human can be done by a machine. I will hire today a machine even if it’s more expensive man than a human because human cost will only increase and they bring errors into the pictures while the cost of machine will increase.
So I will have a competitive advantage compared to people that will stick to humans. I think everyone will do this if this is how everyone and the guy’s making the point. If this is how they talk about us in public, imagine what they’re saying behind closed doors. Yeah, I’m sure it’s horrifying. Here’s something that this guy does not point out that a lot of people do not point out. This is horrifying, but if you’ve watched my stuff, you’ve seen me talk about the fact that this should in a rational society be a positive, right? In that companies would realize AI can do the work of a human and then that human would not have to do the work of something they never wanted to do.
Anyway, we are so ingrained into miserable wage slavery that we think that’s the only way humanity could exist, but we could actually have a whole other kind of society where it’s not. Did you find a good job? And if you didn’t, then you’re just [ __ ] Then you have to live in a tiny little space and you don’t get food and [ __ ] like that is insane.
It is insane. But because we grew up in it, we think that’s the only way stuff could work. It’s the only way is you just do something you [ __ ] hate every day of your life. And then once you’re old enough that you can’t walk upstairs anymore and you can’t get to the bathroom in time, that’s the time you get to enjoy life by being retired.
Once your body no longer functions and you don’t remember who your friends are, that’s when it’s time to be done with wage slavery and just enjoy life. Just enjoy pooping yourself and calling your best friend Margaret when his name is Dan. That’s the time to enjoy your life. It’s insane. And yet we all just grow up in it and we think so that’s how things work.
And so is it horrifying that AI is taking all the jobs and they don’t seem concerned about it and they’re actually excited for it? Yeah, it is because we’re not actually evolving to that other place. We’re not evol We should be, but we’re not evolving to that place that’s beyond wage slavery. [snorts] Thank you, Roma, for supporting the show. Really appreciate the super chat. For those of you who want to support my show and keep it going. And by the way, we have been kind of sta stagnant on members.
Not a lot of members have signed up in the past couple weeks. So, if you’d if you can, please consider throwing me the cost of a beer a month. One beer a month. It works out to about 33 cents an episode or column. So, if you feel like you’re getting [unclear in supplied captions: “30s for three cents”] from this, go to realleecamp.substack.com or patreon.com/LeeCamp. Both of those will work.
Or my locals community, leecamp.net. All right, in our final AI, the people who run AI are psychopaths clip. [laughter] And by the way, first of all, that guy Panodime he puts out no ones like his whole channel is based on just AI people saying insane [ __ ] And honestly, it could just be like Peter Thiel saying and saying like you could have a whole channel based on just Peter Thiel quotes.
You could have a whole channel based on Elon Musk quotes. And you could have a whole channel based on Alex Karp quotes who’s the head of Palantir. He’s not the founder of Palantir like Peter Thiel, but he is the I believe CEO right of Palantir. And anyway, here’s a quick one minute clip of him losing his mind at a reporter who didn’t even ask a difficult question.
Alex Karp is likely on some sort of crazy drugs, but he’s also just a straightup psychopath. You can see why him and Teal would get along. Like they’re both psychopaths, but it’s like Karp seems like he’d be like in the office for longer hours. That’s the only difference. What’s your message for the president today? So he says it really quick, so I’m going to repeat it.
The reporter says, “What is your question for the president today when you two have lunch?” So, Alex Karp, head of Palantir, going to have lunch with the president. All this reporter asked is, “What is it you’re going to talk to the president about?” What do you guys Okay, you know what? I love you guys ask these questions. They’re stupid as I’ll give you.
What do you think about AI and why do you believe it? Why is it good for America? And that’s the kind of question I can answer, which I with great respect because I love you guys and I like you guys too. But like he loses his [ __ ] over the question, “What are you going to talk to the president about?” Like when I first saw this clip, I thought the guy had asked him something like, “Do you know you’re a psychopath or something?” But no, it’s just what are you going to talk to the president about?
What a stupid question. It’s like the president said, “So he doesn’t think we need AI.” Did what? Did I just Okay. Do you really expect me to ask that question? Do you think I’m the village idiot? I’m asking. Okay. Exactly. So, I’ll give you a No, I gave you a question that was So, this is a question I could answer. What do you believe about AI?
Is it Is it Okay. AI has to work for the war fighter, has to work for enterprises. It has to be safe, has to be powerful. And there’s only one country in the world that has this kind of AI stack. Both the people and the products. Palantir and other companies are leading on the battlefield and leading. And the questions Americans have are everything with him when he’s asked about AI.
It’s just all about war, war and death and destruction. It’s making us the most lethal. He really is a psychopath who’s just focused on how can AI and Palantir kill as many people as possible. Like every time I see a clip of him, it’s just talking about just war, death, destruction. How can we shoot people more? Palantir is really good at it.
Does it work for me? Is it just a bunch of unpleasant people getting rich who ask obnoxious questions and refuse to ask the questions that they’re being asked or does it work for you? His sentences, a lot of his sentences don’t even make sense. I mean, this guy is drugged out of his mind. I don’t know if I’d prefer him being Maybe I like that he’s drugged out of his mind because maybe that means he’s getting less done.
Maybe Palantir’s got a lot of issues because this guy’s such a maniac. That would be nice. That might be nice. Maybe we’ll get a little benefit from that. Aaron and on the on the data center front
COMBATING DATA CENTER EXPANSION
And this is kind of a this is kind of a solutions. I know I have told you guys that I will bring you more solutions and I have been this is kind of a solution although it talks about some pretty rough things going on with the data centers but she talks about some people are winning. This is Erin Brockovich and you know all about her. She posted it’s happening in state after state and it’s coming in fast.
Rezoning. Here’s what people are telling us. And these are quotes from people out in various locations across America. Developers attorneys helped write the data center ordinances. The they signed a de an NDA do not disclose and they rezone this cornfield into a heavy industrial city council annexed substantial partial of land from agricultural to industrial zero impact assessments those are environmental impact assessments which are required it’s an agricultural zone and they rezoned it for commercial not industrial the city led a com a com let a company rezone and amend the PUD for data center buildings We have and then this back to Brockovich.
We have hundreds of comments coming in about zoning. Same playbook. Agricultural is now industrial. No studies, environmental studies, no transparency. The residents are the last to know. This pattern is wrong. Our zoning, our land, and our process deserve better. On the flip side, Blackstone owned QTS data centers quietly filed notice with the Virginia Supreme Court back in July. They were working on the Prince William Digital Gateway project designed to be the world’s largest data center campus with 2100 acres, 37 buildings, gigawatt scale power consumption, and billions in projected tax revenue.
But the whole thing fell apart because Prince William County had not run its public hearing notices the required six days apart in local newspapers. So, there’s all these requirements about telling the public you’re doing something, getting their input, public input times, community input, like, and they’re they’re skipping over all of it because they want to do this so fast. But luckily, there are like legalities to that.
And in some areas, the judges actually give a [ __ ] about the laws and they actually go, you skipped the public comment time. You altered the zoning, etc. So there are places where suing them based on that is actually stopping these data centers thanks to two thanks to two lawsuits. One brought by the Oak Valley Homeowners Association, the other from the American Wow, that’s the first time I’ve liked a homeowners association.
[ __ ] hate those things. From the American Battlefield Trust. They argued that the county had failed to meet the statutory public notice requirements of the Virginia Code. That same week, reports confirmed that at least 75 projects worth $130 billion dollar were blocked or delayed in the first three months of 2026. 75 projects, $130 billion worth blocked or delayed. All the more reason to study up on public notice law, environmental review standards, and open meetings compliance.
And remember how I said AI is a tool? It can be used for good. Here’s a good way it can be used. [ __ ] type into the AI, list to me all the ordinances that such and such proposed data center might be violating by coming into our area so quickly. And you know, you might have to get more specific with the question than that, but and I know some people might go, “Hey, I get stuff wrong.” Yeah, no, you verify what it’s saying.
But I bet you if I bet you in its response, if it lists 20 possible ordinances that this new data center might be violating and you do your research and verify that those ordinances exist and verify that it might be violating them, AI in that scenario probably saved you crazy amounts of research. I mean, maybe even helped you find some something that you never would have found otherwise.
And so AI can actually be used to help fight AI, to help fight against data centers. AI is a tool. Use it to benefit those who are actually making a better world rather than just the psychopaths. You have to This is the reason I’m still on Facebook and still on YouTube. I mean, these are in many ways, these are horrific companies. It’s the reason I use a laptop, which pretty much every laptop has [ __ ] conflict minerals in it.
We have to use we if we try and be 100% pure and never use anything that’s ever touched any wrong, then you just live in the woods and you’re never heard from again, which is perfect for the [ __ ] psychopaths that run this [ __ ] They would love nothing more than for you to never use a laptop. They love nothing more than for you never to post on Facebook again or whatever the a more popular one is.
I guess not Facebook, but YouTube, Tik Tok, etc., and instead invent your own social media that has 12 people on it. Now, I’m not saying don’t invent a better social media, but while it only has 12 people on it, you should keep posting on the massive ones because that’s how to have an impact. Look, I am shadowbanned on all these channels and I still keep posting on them because even the tiny percentage of people they let me reach with a shadowban is still bigger than I would reach on a social media site that’s just getting started.
I’m not saying I don’t do that stuff. I’m on a lot of those. But yeah, you get the point. I’m beating a dead horse. Use the tools you got. Use the tools you got to fight back. Use the tools you got to unite and fight back against the [ __ ] psychopaths at the top. And that’s what they are. Let’s use the right terminology.
They are indeed psychopaths. Let’s see. I’m going to do one more story. Why not? Why not? I got We’re We’re all here. Let’s Let’s keep it
CORPORATE EXPLOITATION AND CONCLUSION
Going. Before I do that, I list I said this at the beginning of the show, but it is a free way. I know a lot of you join later. It is a free way to help this show. Doesn’t cost you anything, but might very well could help me get to more people. One is at youtube.com/momentclarity. Make sure you subscribe, but then scroll down next to subscribe.
Click the little carrot. Change the alerts to all. If you leave it on personalized because YouTube hates me, it will decide, you know, I’d like to personalize the fact that you will never hear from a league camp video again. So personalized is not good for a channel like mine because YouTube’s like, “Yeah, [ __ ] that [ __ ] Change it to all and maybe we’ve got some hope that they’ll actually let you know about my videos.” The next thing to do is for free is sign up at my second channel, youtube.coml33amp.
Completely free. So subscribe to that one also and change those alerts to all. And then finally, you can do this for free as well, which is really.substack.com. Subscribe there and there’s a free version. So if you don’t want to throw me the beer a month, at least sign up for free. Really.substack.com. Okay, one more story. Let’s do it. This is a an interesting and good article from inequality.org.
Corporations keep finding new ways to gouge us. Ain’t that the truth? Our laws must catch up. Every day, companies find better and sneakier ways to reach deeper into our wallets. They trap us in subscriptions, bury fees until checkout, use algorithms to collude with competitors, and mine Oh, yeah, misread that. And mine our personal data to charge us the most we’re willing to pay.
Yeah, they really are discovering that there are there are a lot of ways to trick people into paying for things that they don’t realize they’re paying for. You know, you look at you look at some of the worst airlines and you know, people will book a Frontier Airlines ticket because they’re comparing prices and they go, “Oh, that’s 150 bucks and if I get it on United or American or something, it’s 300.
Wow, I saved a lot of money.” And then you try and fly on Frontier and even just have like one bag, it’s like 70 bucks. So, if you have two bags, you’ve already eliminated whatever you saved by booking Frontier [laughter] and then their planes are made out of like paper Dixie cups. So, that’s a problem as well. But, they figured out that they could kind of trick you into buying their tickets if you don’t realize you’re paying $150, $200 just because you have like two bags. So that’s one way.
Another way I’ve noticed recently, it used to be that you buy a coffee and they just give you whatever milk you want to put in the coffee. Now you say, “Ah, I want some oat milk cuz I’m lactose intolerant. I will not tolerate it.” And they’re like, “Oh, that’s an extra 75 cents.” Really? Really? And oat costs more than raising a cow to adulthood and then grabbing its mucus pus from its from its elongated nipple structures.
Yeah, that costs more. The oat costs more. Really? I don’t think so. I think you’re just abusing my invalid nature. The fact that I’m lactose intolerant. I think that’s all it is. You just you’re taking advantage. It’s it’s ableist is what it is to charge me 75 cents for being lactose intolerant anyway cuz you’re able to digest that [ __ ] without spending an hour on the toilet.
Abbleist. But they’ve also started using algorithmic price fixing. The article says that’s one of the most powerful tools in the arsenal. Price fixing no longer requires a smoky back room. Today, technology can do CEOs dirty work for them. From rent to gasoline, this algorithmic price fixing playbook is wreaking havoc on family budgets. Here’s some examples. In June, a class action lawsuit in California alleged that AI powered pricing tool calibrate helped more than 1700 gas stations coordinate inflating their prices.
At the pump, drivers paid a hefty price as Calibrate allegedly pushed gas prices up by as much as 30 cents a gallon. A roughly $4 billion dent in Californians budgets. So part of the way they used to catch people, you know, stores or gas stations or whatever for price fixing was the fact that you’d see just a couple of them would have their higher prices, you know, cuz they got together like you know, five gas stations in one little area and you are driving, you know, driving through and you go, “Well, that’s weird.
We get to this little five square miles and all of a sudden all the gas is 30 cents more expensive.” Well, that was because they coordin like literally the gas station owners got together and coordinated. But now they have AI, they have apps and AI to algorithmically do it and they don’t have to sit in a back room and they can do it across large areas at once so that it looks a lot less like they were in a back room deciding to fix the prices. Meanwhile, in the rental market, the Blockbuster RealPage lawsuit, RealPage is a real estate company, I guess, alleged that the company’s leasing software pulled landlords data and spit out rent recommendations that helped landlords raise rent in lock step.
In some buildings, using RealPage, rents jump by as much as 33% in a single year. So the a similar thing as the gas stations, these landlords could all raise their rents in lock step, which means that, you know, part of the way you’d get around price gouging was, yeah, five gas stations might decide to do it at once, but you go, hey, you drive six miles that way and you get outside of these higher prices.
So that was the problem with raising the rent prices was a few landlords do it. You go, well, I’m not buying from them. There’s cheaper apartments over there. But if they can all do it together with algorithmic pricing, they can manage to exploit you far more effectively. Another weapon in the gougers arsenal is dynamic pricing. Americans are familiar with prices that fluctuate when supply is scarce.
Say seats on an airplane or rooms at a hotel. But today, companies are pushing the practice well beyond the context of scarcity. They say shoppers might find that a sunscreen or bottle water has changed prices overnight in hotel shops or at stores like Walmart and Kroger. They installed electronic price labels. Yeah, I remember covering this when it first happened that they were putting in electronic pricing labels so that they could change the price for different customers cuz you’d walk by it and they’d, you know, know that certain kinds of customers or customers that come at a certain time of day have more money, tend to have more money. So they would they could raise the with electronic price tags they could raise it by the hour instead of or by the even by the person instead of by instead of having to go around the whole store printing out new prices for everyone instead of equality. Also wasn’t DoorDash.
I don’t think it was another one. It was one of the Oh, one of the It’s got the cart in the name, doesn’t it? One of the apps for buying groceries. It turned out that app was changing the price for whether for people that it knew had more money probably by which area you lived in. It would raise the price, you know, and we’re talking 30 cents each product, but 30 cents each pro product adds up like a [ __ ] Edge up like a [ __ ] And that’s technical terminology that actuaries use. Sh shoppers who are near a Target, for example, have been charged higher prices than those shopping at home.
And on platforms like Booking.com, users from wealthier cities may see higher prices for identical hotel rooms. Companies have stopped merely pricing products. Now they are pricing people. It really is horrific what they’re doing to us. This article says, “We shouldn’t settle for leaving shoppers vulnerable if they step across the street across state lines. Putting food on the table and a roof over your head is hard enough without greedy corporations squeezing you for all you’re worth.
A shopper’s bill of rights would be a good place to start. I mean, I don’t disagree that we should have such a bill of rights, saying that you have to have the same price for all people, but also we could talk about, you know, not having capitalism destroy our lives and the world. So, it’s not that I it’s not that I don’t want a shoppers bill of rights, it’s just that here’s an idea.
How about we not have these market economics that are like just designed to exploit us at every last every last place, every last moment, every last second that they can find to exploit us, you will be exploited. It that is how our system is set up. And they have perfected it to such a degree that like even if they get caught well there’s not really any law mostly there’s not saying you can’t exploit people like that’s kind of how the whole system is built.
It’s all built on exploiting us. So there’s not barely any laws about exploiting people with prices. And then even if they were to get c caught violating something like DoorDash just paid the largest ever settlement for wage theft wage theft and I covered it last week. Largest ever like gig worker settlement I think but it was the largest ever labor settlement in New York City. And they paid over $100 million, like $140 million or something.
But that’s not going to stop them. They like that even the largest ever settlement still they made enough money and they did well enough that it’s still useful for them to keep doing. It doesn’t actually even really slow them down. Maybe they’ll decrease some of the wage theft in a certain way because they don’t want to pay a fine again. But, you know, it’s not the 140 million cuz that most of that is just how much they stole.
So, they basically had to give it back to the workers they stole it from, but then they had to pay on top of that a fine. But the fine was like, you know, 10 or 20 million to DoorDash. It’s probably a parking ticket. So, it’s really worth it for them to do this wage theft because in most areas, that was in New York City.
In most areas, they’re not getting caught for it and they’re not getting prosecuted for it. So, man, they make a lot of money from wage theft. Let’s keep doing it. It’s like that’s how our system is set up. It really is just exploit, game, trick, bamboozle, rig at every opportunity. And if you are a person you know running a company or you have a company and you’re not into doing that kind of thing will you either stay a very small company yes Jacob to the app I was looking for earlier I think was Instacart you either stay as a very small company like there are mom and pop shops they still exist and they may be very much on the up and up and treating people because they’re not psychopaths they’re treating people right but you so you either stay really small or you get run over.
You get kicked out. You get you don’t rise up the rank there. There’s nobody running a massive corporation who’s not probably a psychopath, but at minimum able to somehow do mental gymnastics to justify exploiting everyone. That’s the best I can say about them. [laughter] All right, we’re going to wrap up here. Thank you guys for making this show possible. Again, this is a podcast.
It’s also called The Lee Camp Show on Spotify. I’d love for you guys to go on your on your phone device thingies. Go to Spotify, look up the Lee Camp Show, give it a rating. You can do that on there. Click that you want to follow it or subscribe or whatever the term is because basically Spotify wants to know which shows you like because then when you open your Spotify, it’ll say, “Hey, new show from the show you like.” So, all of that helps me and my shows.
And so, if you have Spotify, if you use Spotify, look up the Lee Camp Show. If you use a different podcast platform, look up Moment of Clarity because it’s called, that’s what it’s called on there. Also, my show with Eleanor, which technically today’s show is, she had to leave early, is, Common Censored. So, look that up on all your podcast platforms. Give us a rating.
All right, I will see you Monday, 3 PM Eastern, noon Pacific. Keep fighting.