Untitled Document

[00:00:00] Well, the Diddy trial is prosecuting the [00:00:03] wrong case, and there's something fishy [00:00:05] going on with Red Lobster's bankruptcy. [00:00:08] Also, some of you might be wondering who [00:00:11] the hell I am. So, today we're going to [00:00:13] take you all the way back to the first [00:00:14] story I ever covered on TikTok where I [00:00:17] exposed that there's poison in the baby [00:00:19] food. We'll also respond to some of your [00:00:21] comments. Welcome back to [00:00:26] Candace. [00:00:27] [Applause] [00:00:28] [Music] [00:00:29] [Applause] [00:00:32] [Music] [00:00:37] Our first story today is about food. A [00:00:41] specific kind of food that most of you [00:00:43] probably eat, but you probably never [00:00:44] realize that this food has a serious [00:00:47] dark side. And I'm speaking obviously [00:00:51] about shrimp. Endless shrimp to be [00:00:54] exact. Last May, Red Lobster filed for [00:00:57] bankruptcy. And at the time, I had [00:00:59] mistakenly assumed that it was because [00:01:01] of mismanagement in some sort of private [00:01:03] equity buyout like all the other cool [00:01:06] kids these days. But it turns out that [00:01:07] that's old news. Private equity had [00:01:10] already been there and done that way [00:01:11] back in 2014 when Red Lobster had been [00:01:14] bought out by Golden Gate Capital. And [00:01:17] what did they immediately do? Well, if [00:01:19] you watched our show yesterday, you [00:01:21] would know that they sold off all of Red [00:01:23] Lobster's real estate in a lease back [00:01:25] scheme. Much like Toys R Us and all [00:01:28] sorts of other brands before then, they [00:01:30] actually used this lease back scheme to [00:01:32] finance their initial purchase of Red [00:01:34] Lobster, like a leverage buyout that we [00:01:36] already talked about. But color me [00:01:39] surprised when I looked up who owns [00:01:42] Golden Gate Capital. It was founded by [00:01:44] former professionals from private equity [00:01:46] firm Bane Capital and its affiliate Bane [00:01:51] and Company led by former Bane Capital [00:01:53] partner David Dominic. So you remember [00:01:56] how last time we talked about how Bane [00:01:59] Capital was the private equity arm and [00:02:01] Bane and Company was the consulting arm [00:02:03] and they would never work together, [00:02:06] right? But not only that, when you look [00:02:09] up the real estate company that they [00:02:11] partnered with in the deal, later that [00:02:13] same year, 2014, they got busted for a [00:02:17] little $23 million accounting [00:02:20] error. This is coming from a couple [00:02:23] different sources online as well as [00:02:25] Wikipedia to summarize it all for us. [00:02:27] The company was formerly known as [00:02:28] American Realy Capital Properties, Inc. [00:02:31] and it changed its name after an [00:02:33] accounting scandal. His name was derived [00:02:35] from the Latin word veritas, meaning [00:02:39] truth. In October 2014, the company [00:02:41] admitted to $23 million accounting error [00:02:44] and fired chief financial officer Brian [00:02:46] Block. Lawsuits alleged that insiders [00:02:48] received over $900 million in fees from [00:02:52] the company. In December 2014, Shorch [00:02:55] resigned as chairman. Remember 2014, [00:02:59] right around the time that they had just [00:03:01] bought back all these properties from [00:03:03] Red Lobster. That's when they were doing [00:03:05] this whole accounting error. In July [00:03:09] 2015, the company changed his name to [00:03:11] Verit. Verate. Verite. In September [00:03:15] 2019, certain defendants agreed to pay [00:03:18] $1.025 [00:03:20] billion. So, that's a little bit of a [00:03:23] whoopsies. But anyways, we're getting [00:03:25] distracted. Back to Endless Shrimp. [00:03:27] Endless shrimp led to an 11 million [00:03:31] operating loss in Q4 of 2023. There was [00:03:34] also the fact that when parties arrived [00:03:36] at Red Lobster looking to pig out on a [00:03:37] barge full of endless shrimp, they [00:03:39] simply wouldn't leave. Burke's [00:03:41] experience serving a man who put away 16 [00:03:43] servings over the course of 2 hours was [00:03:45] actually mild compared with some of the [00:03:47] other stories I've heard. Josie, 19, who [00:03:50] also asked to be anonymous, super [00:03:52] anonymous, worked at a now shuttered [00:03:54] Kansas City Red Lobster, where she [00:03:56] watched a solo diner take down 30 orders [00:03:58] of fried shrimp within 4 hours. [00:04:01] According to the nutritional information [00:04:02] on Red Lobster's website, that's [00:04:04] something like 14,000 calories, bulking [00:04:08] season. [00:04:09] But if you read enough headlines and you [00:04:12] you quickly start to realize there is a [00:04:14] shrimp spiracy of foot and that's [00:04:17] because Red Lobster was bought in its [00:04:20] entirety by a company named Thai Union. [00:04:24] Thai Union owned Red Lobster and is [00:04:27] actually under investigation for its [00:04:28] role in this whole debacle. That's [00:04:31] because Thai Union not only owns 100% of [00:04:34] Red Lobster, but was also historically a [00:04:36] large-scale supplier to the chain. Just [00:04:39] before this promotion, they eliminated [00:04:41] all other shrimp suppliers. Thai Union [00:04:43] is one of the world's largest shrimp [00:04:46] suppliers, as well as all sorts of other [00:04:47] seafood like canned tuna. And I can only [00:04:50] presume that their goal with Red Lobster [00:04:52] was never to run a successful restaurant [00:04:54] company, but instead to perform the [00:04:56] world's first shrimpbased bustout [00:04:59] scheme. Because remember, the Red [00:05:01] Lobster company had already been looted [00:05:04] by private equity before Taiun bought [00:05:06] it. So unless Taiun is dumb, when they [00:05:10] bought it, they already knew that Red [00:05:11] Lobster was in big trouble. And when [00:05:14] they owned it, what did they do? They [00:05:16] cut off all the other shrimp suppliers [00:05:18] and turned themselves into the sole [00:05:20] provider of shrimp and then offered this [00:05:22] crazy deal where Red Lobster tanked on [00:05:25] buying endless shrimp from Thai Union. [00:05:28] And when you dig into Thai Union's most [00:05:29] recent financial statements, they own 62 [00:05:32] different seafood companies around the [00:05:34] world. Many of them specifically shrimp [00:05:36] farms, packing, and distribution [00:05:38] companies. But when you add up all the [00:05:40] companies they own more than 25% of, [00:05:43] that number jumps up to 76. Thai Union [00:05:46] Group is the world's largest seafood [00:05:48] company and ranked number one in the [00:05:50] food production industry on Dow Jones [00:05:52] sustainability index which might be true [00:05:55] as long as slavery isn't one of their [00:05:57] metrics because this report was produced [00:06:00] by sustainability incubator just last [00:06:02] year about the rampant human rights [00:06:05] abuses in the shrimp industry. Thai [00:06:07] Union is mentioned numerous times, often [00:06:10] referencing their subsidiary, Chicken of [00:06:12] the Sea, which is one of the US's [00:06:14] largest retail seafood suppliers. The [00:06:17] report points out that at the prices [00:06:19] paid per kilogram in these sourced [00:06:21] countries, it's literally impossible [00:06:23] that slave labor and exploitation aren't [00:06:25] involved in the supply chain. Based on [00:06:27] their analysis, average monthly earnings [00:06:29] for shrimp peelers are the lowest in [00:06:31] India. [00:06:33] Yeah, I'm not sure what happens to [00:06:35] Ecuador uh between where the shrimp are [00:06:38] cheap and where the wages are recorded. [00:06:40] Like maybe they're not even paying wages [00:06:41] in Ecuador. I don't know. But suffice to [00:06:44] say, it's probably not too good of an [00:06:46] industry to be dealing with shrimp in [00:06:48] Ecuador. This isn't just some hairbrain [00:06:50] theory that Sustainability Incubator [00:06:51] cooked up. You might not have noticed [00:06:53] the massive scandal that rocked the [00:06:55] shrimp industry a decade ago, but we're [00:06:57] going to dive all into it today. But [00:07:00] before we detail the modern shrimp slave [00:07:01] trade, I want to read to you a bit from [00:07:03] the book, The Secret Life of Groceries. [00:07:06] Because you see, shrimp were notoriously [00:07:08] hard to farm or domesticate. When put in [00:07:11] farming conditions, their sexual [00:07:12] development gets stunted by stress, and [00:07:15] females just don't develop ovaries for [00:07:17] reasons we don't entirely understand. [00:07:19] And the book goes into this in pretty [00:07:21] interesting detail. And then stuff gets [00:07:23] really wild. The single great [00:07:25] breakthrough came in a fittingly bizarre [00:07:27] and brutal manner. Then as now, those [00:07:29] trying to make aquaculture work raised [00:07:31] their shrimp in overcrowded tubs. And as [00:07:33] their shrimp swam around and around in [00:07:35] circles in these tubs, their outside eye [00:07:37] would rub against the side of the tank. [00:07:39] And slowly, after God knows how many [00:07:41] circles and god knows what type of [00:07:42] crowded environment, the outermost [00:07:44] eyeball of the outermost shrimp in these [00:07:46] tubs would eventually get rubbed right [00:07:48] off, erased by friction. And from this [00:07:51] misery, an industry was born. It turns [00:07:54] out that for as of yet biologically [00:07:56] unexplained reasons, a female shrimp who [00:07:59] loses a single eyeball gets fasttracked [00:08:01] through puberty. Her ocular loss [00:08:03] unleashing a cascade of hormones that [00:08:05] begets ovaries in as little as 3 days. [00:08:08] This was not predictable, nor does it [00:08:09] fit with some grand anatomical theory of [00:08:11] shrimp endocrinology. But it is very [00:08:13] real and some supremely attentive farmer [00:08:16] noticed it and began snipping eyeballs [00:08:18] off by hand in an attempt to replicate [00:08:20] it. Soon the process went mainstream. It [00:08:24] was studied and verified in the lab. And [00:08:26] although nobody could quite explain [00:08:28] itock ablation, the quirky stride of [00:08:31] science skipped merrily forward, pushing [00:08:33] shrimp aquaculture into a new [00:08:37] age. So as this practice was invented in [00:08:40] the 70s, Thailand was one of the world's [00:08:43] leading shrimping industries because of [00:08:44] the waters around Thailand. But now [00:08:47] there was surging demand and so they [00:08:50] needed laborers to fill it. Fortunately [00:08:52] for the Thai shrimping industry, Burma [00:08:55] is right next door. You might know it as [00:08:57] Myanmar or Burma depending on what time [00:08:59] period your history book was written. [00:09:01] There are no shortage of refugees trying [00:09:03] to escape to Thailand from Burma. [00:09:06] Myanmar for a better life. There has [00:09:09] been civil wars and coups and bloodshed [00:09:13] in Burma since before most of us were [00:09:15] born. And this book, The Secret Life of [00:09:19] Groceries, tells the story of a specific [00:09:22] person who became a fisherman, not by [00:09:25] choice, who came from Myanmar to [00:09:27] Thailand looking for a better life and [00:09:30] wound up as a slave to the shrimping [00:09:33] industry. Bit of reference on where he's [00:09:35] coming from. There's no simple frame of [00:09:38] reference for rural Myanmar at this [00:09:39] time. It's feudal and corrupt. Trapped [00:09:41] in time without electricity, running [00:09:43] water, or paved roads, yet bedcked with [00:09:45] assault rifles. Tunllin doesn't grow up [00:09:47] with a floor, but does remember his [00:09:49] father's N16, leaning against the walls [00:09:51] of their hut. Transportation to the [00:09:53] front is largely on oxdrawn carts. The [00:09:55] country at this time is in perpetual [00:09:57] civil war between the government and the [00:09:58] communists, between small mercenary [00:10:00] armies funded by industrialists and [00:10:01] rival tribes, between ethnicities and [00:10:03] religions in the different sub regions, [00:10:05] all of whom ally with each other and [00:10:06] disband and realign to create chaos. [00:10:10] He leaves his home village without [00:10:12] telling anyone, bringing three t-shirts, [00:10:14] three pairs of pants, one blanket, and [00:10:16] the shoes he is wearing. He doesn't have [00:10:17] a proper bag, so he uses a plastic one. [00:10:20] He crosses the border at the town of [00:10:21] Miati, and it's easy. He does it all by [00:10:24] himself without a broker or a snake [00:10:26] head, just a matter of hitching a ride [00:10:28] and dashing across a river a few meters [00:10:30] down from the official checkpoint. When [00:10:31] I visit Milwaukei 18 years later, I see [00:10:34] several people doing the exact same [00:10:35] thing. From there, he walks up the steep [00:10:37] bank and emerges on the Thai side of the [00:10:39] border into a town called Mes. He's all [00:10:42] alone. The reality of being in Thailand, [00:10:44] of the language being different, of [00:10:45] knowing absolutely no one hits home. And [00:10:48] as that reality hits, a broker waves to [00:10:50] him. Tonlin says it seemed like he was [00:10:52] waiting for him. The broker is about 40 [00:10:55] years old, his eyes smart and handsome, [00:10:57] dressed in a blue long-sleeve shirt that [00:10:58] is clean. So Tunllin approaches and the [00:11:01] broker asks him in Burmese, "Where would [00:11:03] you like to go?" and Tunland says simply [00:11:05] Thailand. Not totally realizing he's [00:11:07] already in Thailand. The broker says [00:11:10] that doesn't matter and puts his arms [00:11:12] around him. The two of them walk back to [00:11:13] a two-story brick house in May. They [00:11:16] walk side by side like they are on a [00:11:18] date. The whole time they talk in [00:11:19] Burmese about Thailand. Tunin is very [00:11:21] excited. The broker is laying out a [00:11:23] future telling about the different [00:11:24] cities in Thailand, the resorts in the [00:11:26] south, the skyscrapers in Bangkok, the [00:11:28] factories in Samu Sakon, and of course, [00:11:30] he's telling him all about the jobs. The [00:11:33] first thing he's told when sitting on [00:11:34] the floor in this hut, he is very lucky. [00:11:37] One of the migrants near him explains [00:11:38] that Tunllin has come at a very good [00:11:40] time. It has been hard at the house. [00:11:42] Some people have been waiting on the [00:11:43] floor for over a week. But Tunllin [00:11:45] learns he should be very excited because [00:11:47] the next day they are set to leave. [00:11:49] Truer's word. The next morning, the [00:11:50] broker arrives. He tells them they are [00:11:52] going to Chiang Mai, a city in the [00:11:54] north. But he tells the group that the [00:11:56] police are looking for migrants. They [00:11:58] are making his job very difficult and [00:11:59] dangerous. He explains that the military [00:12:01] is pulling vehicles to the side and [00:12:03] checking papers. So to get to Chiang Mai [00:12:05] without being arrested, they will have [00:12:07] to go it by foot. It is a 210 mi trek [00:12:11] through a jungle over several mountains [00:12:13] during the heart of the rainy season. [00:12:15] Tunllin does not know this because the [00:12:17] broker does not say this. The broker [00:12:19] does not take any questions or explain [00:12:21] anything beyond how they are to leave [00:12:23] town without attracting attention. Tun [00:12:26] is just excited to start. [00:12:29] It rains continuously the first day of [00:12:30] the walk and quickly the group begins to [00:12:32] break down. Many were sick and starving [00:12:35] before leaving. Every night they sleep [00:12:37] outside, huddled in groups under trees [00:12:38] or in small caves and overhangs in the [00:12:40] mountain areas. The only food comes at [00:12:42] two checkpoints per day where the guide [00:12:44] has arranged for meals to be stashed. [00:12:46] Each of these meals is identical. Tinned [00:12:48] mackerel and tomato sauce. It is not one [00:12:51] man per can. Tun says they split cans [00:12:54] three, four, or five people per can. Tun [00:12:57] estimates that a group of 100 people [00:12:59] left the house. By the end of this trip, [00:13:01] he knows for a fact that he saw six [00:13:03] people die of hunger or disease. Once [00:13:05] they get onto a truck, they sit in rows, [00:13:08] so tightly packed it is hard to breathe. [00:13:10] Then the door is closed. It is dark. No [00:13:12] one speaks. Tunin is not on one of the [00:13:14] benches, but sitting on the floor with [00:13:16] his knees tucked to his chest. He closes [00:13:18] his eyes and tries not to think, [00:13:20] estimating from a map, driving with no [00:13:22] traffic, their trip lasts 12 hours. He [00:13:24] tells me there are no rest stops and [00:13:26] that people cannot control themselves [00:13:27] and they urinate and defecate in the [00:13:29] truck. When they arrive, the back of the [00:13:31] truck is open and they are told to get [00:13:32] out. One by one, they unfold. People are [00:13:35] crying. A woman near Tunllin has died. [00:13:37] She was suffocated or crushed. Tunlin [00:13:39] does not know which only that he sat so [00:13:42] close to her the entire trip and that he [00:13:44] had not thought about her. Once he gets [00:13:46] put onto a boat, which he did not ask to [00:13:48] be on, he cannot eat because he is [00:13:51] seasick and throws everything up and he [00:13:52] is not allowed to sleep. This continues [00:13:54] for 3 days. It is at this point the [00:13:57] captain puts out the big canisters of [00:13:59] instant coffee for the crew to eat. Yes, [00:14:01] to eat, not to drink. On the fourth day, [00:14:04] doing work he does not understand among [00:14:06] men who speak languages like Camar and [00:14:08] Lao, he can only partially communicate [00:14:10] with. Nauseated, starving, exhausted, [00:14:12] Tunlin says he becomes physically unable [00:14:14] to continue working, and so he stops and [00:14:17] goes to the crawl space to take a nap. [00:14:19] This is his first beating. The captain [00:14:21] finds him asleep. He then wakes Tunllin [00:14:23] up with a weapon. My translator insists [00:14:25] on calling a yo-yo. It is a steel ball [00:14:28] on an elastic cord, and he swings it at [00:14:30] Tunlin, catching him across the face, [00:14:32] then repeatedly on the shoulders. [00:14:34] Tunllin shows me his scars. He says he [00:14:36] has beaten many times over the years, [00:14:38] but he will always remember this first [00:14:39] one. Tunllin says he is not beaten again [00:14:42] after this. The captain merely has to [00:14:44] point at this yo-yo for Tunlin to [00:14:45] increase the speed of his work until [00:14:47] after waiting six months, he makes the [00:14:49] mistake of asking for the salary he was [00:14:51] promised because that's how they got him [00:14:52] onto the boat, saying that he was going [00:14:55] to have a job. For this, he is beaten [00:14:58] even harder than before. He learns now [00:15:00] the captain owns him, that he bought him [00:15:02] when he acquired his debt. His friend [00:15:04] Tulle simply can't handle it. He is only [00:15:06] a teenager and is weak, which means he [00:15:08] is beaten more frequently. As the [00:15:10] captain whips him, Tulle slowly loses [00:15:12] his mind. After a particularly bad [00:15:14] beating, Tulle gets very sick. He can't [00:15:17] walk and he is allowed to [00:15:19] rest. But Tunllin knows things are [00:15:22] wrong. Whenever he asks Tulle questions, [00:15:24] the boy will only laugh or cry. Soon [00:15:26] after, Tulle refuses to work. It is now [00:15:28] that he is beaten until he is [00:15:30] unconscious and kicked into the sea. [00:15:32] Months at sea pass into years. Tunin [00:15:34] adjusts. He never enjoys life on the [00:15:36] boat, but he learns it. He becomes good [00:15:38] at it. He comes to do every job, sorting [00:15:40] the fish, carrying them to the freezer [00:15:42] on trays, patching, folding, pressing [00:15:44] the net, and looking for rips, and more. [00:15:47] This is Tunllin's second year on the [00:15:49] boat out of what will eventually be 14 [00:15:51] years at sea. At this point, he's a [00:15:53] slave in the only meaningful sense of [00:15:54] the word. He cannot leave. He is not [00:15:56] paid. He was brought here a prisoner. He [00:15:59] was sold in a cash exchange. He works [00:16:01] under the threat of violence and he has [00:16:02] seen those who fought back against that [00:16:04] violence killed. His best friend on the [00:16:06] boat, the only person he knew before [00:16:08] boarding, was slowly driven mad and [00:16:10] eventually he was killed too. Although [00:16:13] they don't get a lot of sleep, this is [00:16:15] where they sleep. Tun shares a crawl [00:16:17] space with Tulac and the rest of the [00:16:19] crew before Tulle dies. Some closer to [00:16:22] indentured servants, some free men who [00:16:24] signed off on their own valition, some [00:16:26] who enforce the captain's orders, many [00:16:28] in more than one role, depending on the [00:16:29] precise time you look, all sleeping [00:16:31] together in a space less than a meter [00:16:33] high. To get to the bed, they crawl on [00:16:35] their hands and knees for about 12 ft [00:16:36] into the darkness through an opening [00:16:38] that can fit at most one person at a [00:16:40] time. This is where Tulin sleeps when [00:16:42] not working his 20our days. When I visit [00:16:44] a similar sleeping hole on the Thai [00:16:46] docks, the opening comes up just above [00:16:48] my knee and it is warm, exhaling the [00:16:50] dark yeasty manure smell of the unwashed [00:16:52] human body. Tunin and all the rest of [00:16:55] these workers are working in the fishing [00:16:56] industry, pulling up all sorts of fish. [00:16:59] But the waters of Thailand were getting [00:17:01] overfished. And as they got overfished, [00:17:03] more and more of that Thai fishing [00:17:04] industry was actually based on the trash [00:17:07] fish, the small fish, the guts, the [00:17:09] things that actually can't sell as fish, [00:17:11] but instead become fish meal. And they [00:17:13] never actually go back to port. They [00:17:15] stay out at sea for years at a time. And [00:17:17] they get other boats to come and [00:17:19] resupply them and take their catch into [00:17:21] port for them. And this describes how [00:17:23] fishers like Tunlin never see these [00:17:25] small unsailable fish make it to port. [00:17:27] They are passed to a sister boat at a [00:17:29] rendevous at sea. Traded along with [00:17:31] food, cigarettes, taibot, and fuel. This [00:17:33] is called trans shshipment at sea. It [00:17:35] saves fuel for the larger refrigerated [00:17:37] fishing vessels and it allows some boats [00:17:39] to stay out almost indefinitely, [00:17:41] resupplied by others. They turn into [00:17:43] floating prisons for trafficked workers. [00:17:45] So once all this trash fish makes it [00:17:47] into port after being out in the sun on [00:17:49] a boat all day, then it gets rolled into [00:17:52] the docks where it gets dumped out onto [00:17:54] the ground into the sun all day to rot. [00:17:57] But within a day, a man with a rake and [00:18:00] wearing dark rubber boots will push this [00:18:01] pile of fish and fish pieces towards a [00:18:03] growling mouth in the cement docks. It [00:18:05] looks like a hole in the ground with two [00:18:07] grinders in it for teeth. And it takes [00:18:09] the rotting fish and pulverizes them [00:18:10] further. The scent near the hole is [00:18:12] deafening. If you really want to know [00:18:14] what you're feeding your pets when it [00:18:16] says fish on the label, this is what it [00:18:19] is. It is the smell of thousands of tiny [00:18:22] rotting fish piled ankle high in the [00:18:24] 90°ree Tai sun on a space that has held [00:18:27] ankle-high levels of tiny rotting fish [00:18:29] for years. It is a hot smell, not just [00:18:31] from the climate and the decomposition, [00:18:33] but because there are furnaces just [00:18:34] beyond. You can see them glowing behind [00:18:36] the man with the rake. The pulverized [00:18:38] fish will pass on a conveyor belt toward [00:18:40] those furnaces, getting cooked into a [00:18:42] paste, then baked into meal. This will [00:18:44] then be sold to yet another broker, [00:18:46] bought by a feed mill, and blended with [00:18:48] inputs from dozens of other facilities. [00:18:49] All to create the protein base in pet [00:18:51] food, food for fish farms, and the feed [00:18:54] for hungry little shrimp. But that is [00:18:56] just the industry responsible for making [00:18:58] shrimp food, as well as cat and dog [00:19:00] food. The rest of the shrimp supply [00:19:02] chain is brutal, too. For example, [00:19:05] here's another story from the shrimp [00:19:07] industry. Every morning at 2 a.m., they [00:19:09] heard a kick on the door and a threat. [00:19:11] Get up or get beaten. For the next 16 [00:19:13] hours, number 31 and his wife stood in [00:19:16] the factory with their aching hands in [00:19:17] ice water. They ripped the guts, heads, [00:19:19] and tails, and shells off of shrimp [00:19:20] bound for overseas markets, including [00:19:22] grocery stores and all you can eat [00:19:24] buffets across in the US. After being [00:19:26] sold to the gig peeling factory, the [00:19:28] couple were at the mercy of their Thai [00:19:30] bosses, trapped with nearly 100 other [00:19:32] Burmese migrants. Children worked [00:19:34] alongside them, including a girl so tiny [00:19:37] she had to stand on a stool to reach the [00:19:38] peeling table. Some had been there for [00:19:40] months, even years, getting little or no [00:19:43] pay. At all times, someone was watching. [00:19:46] Benjamin Lore points out that this issue [00:19:48] is multiaceted and ultimately it stems [00:19:50] from the modern world's globalized [00:19:52] insatiable demand for more for cheaper. [00:19:55] It's a trend that permeates every aspect [00:19:57] of our modern brand of consumerism. And [00:19:59] there's no easy fix because when [00:20:02] Thailand was exposed, new standards were [00:20:04] imposed and the Thai shrimping industry [00:20:07] collapsed only to move to countries like [00:20:09] India and Vietnam. And now Thailand is [00:20:12] at it again. News misses this crucial [00:20:15] distinction that the slavery never [00:20:17] ended. It just moved into a new shadow [00:20:19] somewhere else where American and [00:20:21] Western consumers could shield their [00:20:22] eyes from it and pretend that it wasn't [00:20:24] happening. Thailand is now proposing [00:20:26] repealing the legal standards that had [00:20:28] previously cracked down on shrimp [00:20:30] slavery and force business abroad. The [00:20:32] Thai government has been insistent that [00:20:33] trade would not be affected by new [00:20:35] guidelines, stressing that the EU, with [00:20:37] whom it currently is negotiating a free [00:20:39] trade agreement, makes up only around 6% [00:20:41] of seafood exports. These practices go [00:20:44] wherever the shrimp industry goes and [00:20:47] lately that's been India because right [00:20:49] now India is our largest supplier. It's [00:20:52] no coincidence that Sustainability [00:20:54] Incubator found wages to be the lowest [00:20:56] on average in India and the price is the [00:20:58] cheapest. Who knows what's happening in [00:21:00] Ecuador. The market will find the [00:21:03] cheapest supply wherever it can be [00:21:05] produced and that will always be a race [00:21:07] to the bottom and the bottom will always [00:21:10] be [00:21:11] slavery. India became America's leading [00:21:14] shrimp supplier accounting for about 40% [00:21:16] of the shrimp consumed in the US in part [00:21:19] because media reports including the AP [00:21:21] investigation that exposed modern-day [00:21:23] slavery in Thailand and their seafood [00:21:25] industry. AP's 2015 reporting led to the [00:21:27] freedom of some 2,000 enslaved fishermen [00:21:30] and prompted calls for bans of Thai [00:21:32] shrimp, which had been dominating the [00:21:34] market. But unfortunately, that just [00:21:36] moved it to India. Stories from India [00:21:38] sound like this. She said she works in [00:21:41] brutal conditions, peeling, cutting, and [00:21:43] grading shrimp in a factory for less [00:21:44] than $4 a day, which is $2 less than [00:21:47] minimum wage. The working conditions are [00:21:49] tough, she said, wiping away tears with [00:21:51] the corner of her red sorry, standing [00:21:53] for long hours in the cold while peeling [00:21:55] and cutting shrimp takes a toll on my [00:21:57] body. This woman is a 51-year-old widow, [00:21:59] by the way. Baby, her last name, and [00:22:02] other workers said they pay recruiters [00:22:04] about 25 cents a day out of their [00:22:06] salaries just to set foot inside the [00:22:08] processing shed. Transportation and [00:22:10] company buses is also deducted from some [00:22:12] workers salaries along with the cost of [00:22:14] lunch from company cantens. Many workers [00:22:16] have no contracts and no recourse if [00:22:18] they are hurt on the job. Another peeler [00:22:20] said she suffers back pain all the time [00:22:22] from the arduous work for which she's [00:22:24] paid about $3 a day. Some have nail [00:22:27] fungus caused by small cracks that allow [00:22:29] germs to cause infections. Other women [00:22:31] have fingers or even their entire hands [00:22:33] darkening with frostbite. Ma said that [00:22:36] sometimes she has to amputate. AP [00:22:38] journalists observed dozens of women [00:22:40] working in unsanitary and dangerous [00:22:42] conditions. The shrimp pulled from [00:22:44] outdoor ponds in barrels were swished [00:22:46] around by hand in grimy water. Once [00:22:48] rinsed, they were dumped onto ice [00:22:50] covered tables where women stood peeling [00:22:52] them one shrimp at a time. Many handled [00:22:54] shrimp with bare hands. Some women had [00:22:56] bandages on injured fingers. Some [00:22:57] women's long hair dangled into the [00:22:59] shrimp. And you kind of expect that kind [00:23:01] of conditions maybe in, you know, third [00:23:03] world countries processing your food [00:23:05] like India or Thailand. But the point of [00:23:07] this is that Nikanti, the company that [00:23:10] they were apparently peeling shrimp for, [00:23:13] they present a very different image. In [00:23:15] the bottom section here, a marketing [00:23:18] video produced by Nikanti, which is [00:23:19] projecting $150 million in revenues this [00:23:22] year, shows shrimp peelers in a spotless [00:23:24] room with shiny tables, and workers [00:23:26] wearing gloves, head coverings, face [00:23:28] masks, rubber boots, and waterproof [00:23:30] aprons. By the way, Nikanti is a [00:23:33] subsidiary of guess who? Thai Union [00:23:36] Group. They of course denied the [00:23:38] allegations, said the company had [00:23:40] nothing to do with the peeling shed that [00:23:42] AP had visited, and said that their [00:23:44] branded truck was there only because it [00:23:46] was being leased to another company. He [00:23:48] provided a document that said that [00:23:49] Nikanti was paid [00:23:51] $3,600 for the four-month lease of a [00:23:53] truck with a license plate number the AP [00:23:55] observed. Sure, that document is a-ok. [00:23:59] Okay, but you have to imagine what's [00:24:02] going on out there when that's the image [00:24:04] they're presenting and the actual [00:24:06] conditions in these countries are like [00:24:08] the stories that you're hearing. And I [00:24:10] just wanted to give you a little image, [00:24:12] a little visual of where all the shrimp [00:24:14] in the world is coming from right now. [00:24:16] But just to be clear, the shrimp [00:24:18] industry works the way that the shrimp [00:24:20] industry works. And if you want to sell [00:24:22] shrimp for the prices that these [00:24:23] countries are selling shrimp for, you [00:24:26] have to compete with countries that are [00:24:28] using slave labor. [00:24:31] So your bottomless shrimp is another [00:24:34] man's or child slave laborers bottomless [00:24:37] despair. This year in 2025, New Orleans [00:24:41] hosted the Super Bowl. And someone had [00:24:43] the bright idea of going there and doing [00:24:46] a little testy testy on the shrimp that [00:24:48] they were selling in New Orleans and [00:24:49] other Gulf Coast cities. Turns out [00:24:52] everyone lies. The testing was done by [00:24:55] CD Consulting, made possible by a new [00:24:58] testing technology that could turn [00:24:59] results around in less than an hour [00:25:01] instead of sending to labs and taking [00:25:03] days. And what did those test results [00:25:06] show? Well, the cities with the highest [00:25:09] shrimp fraud rate were Tampa Bay and St. [00:25:11] Petersburg, Florida at [00:25:13] 96%. According to CD Consulting, only [00:25:16] two of the 44 restaurants sampled were [00:25:19] serving authentic shrimp from the Gulf [00:25:21] of Mexico. A study found in Baton Rouge, [00:25:25] researchers sampled menu items at 24 [00:25:27] restaurants and found nearly 30%, more [00:25:29] than one in four, were misrepresented. [00:25:33] family-owned shrimp business operating [00:25:35] out of the port of Tampa are struggling [00:25:37] to survive. While local restaurants [00:25:39] bamboozle customers into thinking [00:25:41] locally caught shrimp are being served, [00:25:43] family-owned and American businesses are [00:25:45] the ones bearing the brunt of our desire [00:25:47] for the most, the best, and also somehow [00:25:50] the cheapest. America and the Western [00:25:53] world has this obsession with optics and [00:25:56] ethics. We want to feel good about the [00:25:59] products we're buying. We want to be [00:26:00] absolved of our sins. But ignorance is [00:26:04] not bliss. And many, not all, but many [00:26:07] of these marks that are here to tell us [00:26:10] that we're making ethical choices are [00:26:13] essentially madeup stickers and rackets. [00:26:15] Inspections are often halfbaked, audits, [00:26:18] ineffective, loopholes are pretty much [00:26:20] endless. This is another thing that lore [00:26:23] covers extensively and with great nuance [00:26:25] in his book. It's a pretty rough story [00:26:28] when you really get into it. And these [00:26:30] types of stories are all over the place. [00:26:33] You can't pay attention to everything [00:26:34] and you can't be ethical with every [00:26:36] decision. You'll get decision paralysis. [00:26:38] You'll never buy anything. You'll never [00:26:39] eat anything. But it is important to [00:26:42] think about where your stuff is coming [00:26:43] from, who's responsible for it, and what [00:26:46] are the costs of low costs down the [00:26:49] line. [00:26:51] We've got trade wars, inflation, global [00:26:53] chaos, and a skyrocketing national debt. [00:26:55] It's no wonder that gold keeps hitting [00:26:57] record highs. With everything going on [00:26:59] in the world, thousands of people are [00:27:00] diversifying their savings with gold and [00:27:02] silver. And they're turning to my gold [00:27:04] partner, which is Gold Co. Right now, [00:27:06] Gold Co is offering you a free 2025 gold [00:27:09] and silver kit. Plus, you can get [00:27:10] unlimited silver if you qualify. Find [00:27:13] out how you can help diversify your [00:27:15] savings tax and penalty-free. Visit [00:27:18] candislikesgold.com or call [00:27:21] 855222 gold. I'm sure you know that P. [00:27:24] Diddy is on trial and it's ongoing. [00:27:27] Details are coming out slowly. A lot of [00:27:29] people are following along with the live [00:27:31] court updates. There's no video coming [00:27:33] out of the courtrooms. Unfortunately, [00:27:35] we're not going to get an Amber Herd [00:27:36] talking about doing things on the bed or [00:27:39] anything like that, but we are getting [00:27:41] some funny court sketches and a lot of [00:27:43] really, really awful stories from Cassie [00:27:46] Ventura that really we're not going to [00:27:49] talk about. I don't want to talk about [00:27:50] them. you don't want to hear about them. [00:27:51] If you really care about all the [00:27:52] horrible things that Cassie alleges that [00:27:54] Diddy did to her while they were dating [00:27:56] and not dating and whatever else, you [00:27:59] can read all about it on the internet. [00:28:01] You can look up her original lawsuit [00:28:03] because that is not the story. And I [00:28:07] don't mean to say that Cassy's [00:28:09] accusations are not important because [00:28:10] they very much are. What I mean to say [00:28:13] is that so far everything that's being [00:28:15] discussed in the courtroom is super not [00:28:18] the story that we were all here to see. [00:28:22] The actual story that I want to talk [00:28:24] about that I assume that most of you [00:28:26] want to talk about is the kind of story [00:28:29] where Suge Knight famously accused Diddy [00:28:32] of being a longtime FBI informant. In [00:28:35] April of this year, Whitney Webb [00:28:36] released an excellent report about [00:28:38] Diddy's early life, outlining how he [00:28:40] attended a boy school that was marred in [00:28:42] numerous sex scandals and how his father [00:28:45] was very likely a rat, an informant that [00:28:48] was eventually caught and killed. All of [00:28:50] this was even before Diddy even got into [00:28:52] the music industry, where his early [00:28:54] mentors were linked to the mob and all [00:28:55] sorts of other scandals. The real story [00:28:58] is Lil Rod's lawsuit, which we've all [00:29:01] seen and talked about before. Lucian [00:29:04] Grange, the CEO of Universal Music [00:29:06] Group, was originally named in that [00:29:07] lawsuit, and so was Universal Music [00:29:10] Group and Mottown, as well as many other [00:29:12] people, but their names all mysteriously [00:29:15] vanished. But the lawsuit directly [00:29:17] alleges that Graange was at the parties [00:29:20] and presumably partially or entirely [00:29:22] funding them at times. The lawsuit [00:29:24] included what appeared to be screenshots [00:29:26] from videos of famous people and told of [00:29:28] coercion based on performing sexual acts [00:29:31] on camera. It included many specific [00:29:33] allegations about drugs, guns, [00:29:36] prostitutes, even minors. But the [00:29:38] biggest bombshell in the lawsuit, as far [00:29:40] as I'm concerned, and the thing that no [00:29:43] mainstream outlet wants to touch is the [00:29:45] allegations of hidden cameras. Quote, [00:29:48] "While living and traveling with Mr. [00:29:50] Combmes, Mr. Jones discovered that Mr. [00:29:52] Combmes has hidden cameras in every room [00:29:54] of his homes. Mr. Jones believes that [00:29:56] Mr. Combmes has recordings of defendants [00:29:58] Lucy and Charles Graange, Ethiopia [00:30:00] Habermarium, as well as other [00:30:02] celebrities, music label executives, [00:30:04] politicians, and athletes. Upon [00:30:06] information and belief, these [00:30:08] individuals were recorded without their [00:30:10] knowledge and consent. And as is the [00:30:12] case with the homosexual sex tape of [00:30:14] Stevie Jay that Mr. Combmes provided to [00:30:16] Mr. Jones, Mr. Combmes possesses [00:30:18] compromising footage of every person [00:30:20] that has attended his freakoff parties [00:30:22] and his house parties. I don't think [00:30:24] that all of those videos are the ones [00:30:27] being shown in court. Just my [00:30:29] suspicions. Upon information and belief, [00:30:31] due to this treasure trove of evidence [00:30:33] he has in his possession, Mr. Combmes [00:30:35] believes that he is above the law and is [00:30:37] untouchable. Upon information and [00:30:39] belief, Mr. Combmes employs Joseé Cruz [00:30:42] as his IT director. This writer has [00:30:44] spoken to several former employees of [00:30:46] Mr. Combmes who confirmed that Joseé [00:30:48] Cruz is the gatekeeper to all of Mr. [00:30:50] Comb's recordings. And I want to point [00:30:52] out here this document was prepared by a [00:30:55] lawyer and that lawyer has a legal duty [00:30:58] to believe that all the statements in [00:31:01] this document are true at least to a [00:31:04] certain like he he cannot just lie [00:31:06] openly. He cannot say that he spoke to [00:31:09] all these other employees of Mr. Combmes [00:31:11] if he never did. That would be a [00:31:13] disbarable offense. And so this lawsuit [00:31:17] has to at least have merit in the [00:31:19] lawyer's eyes. And maybe it wouldn't all [00:31:21] prove out in court, but it's not just [00:31:24] made up out of nowhere, right? And there [00:31:27] are very specific claims and there are [00:31:29] screenshots that seem to show [00:31:32] screenshots of video evidence. There's [00:31:34] all sorts of stuff in there. Okay, pair [00:31:37] all that with the fact that Diddy's head [00:31:39] of security was Fahhem Muhammad. [00:31:42] Quote, "In 2008, Fahhem graduated from [00:31:45] Sacramento State University with a [00:31:47] Bachelor of Science degree in business [00:31:49] administration with a concentration in [00:31:51] real estate and [00:31:53] marketing." Michael Jackson died just [00:31:56] one year after Fahhem apparently [00:31:58] graduated from college. Fahhem was [00:32:01] Michael Jackson's head of security and [00:32:04] apparently second on the scene when [00:32:06] Michael died. Then Fahheim winds up as [00:32:10] Diddy's head of [00:32:11] security. Kind of [00:32:13] weird. By the way, before we get off of [00:32:16] Fahheim Muhammad, remember his specialty [00:32:18] in real estate from college? Well, he [00:32:20] owns a real estate company, and he [00:32:22] apparently has land right on the Mexico [00:32:24] border. Check this out. 40 acres of land [00:32:27] in San Diego County. That's what one dad [00:32:29] gave his son for his 13th birthday. He [00:32:32] posted about it on social media, and [00:32:34] their story went viral. Rapper Shawn [00:32:36] Combmes even posted about it. Fahheim [00:32:38] Muhammad bought 198 acres out here in [00:32:41] Boulevard to get away. It's real quiet. [00:32:45] The wall is right there. This is not [00:32:48] like Chicago. It's not like LA. He lives [00:32:50] in Los Angeles and runs a real estate [00:32:52] business that buys and rebuilds [00:32:54] properties in the south side of Chicago. [00:32:56] He says to create a better living [00:32:58] situation for the black community there. [00:33:00] Fahhem says his mom taught he and his [00:33:02] siblings how important it is to own your [00:33:04] own property and to help their [00:33:06] community. So when his son Fahhem [00:33:08] recently turned 13, he gave him 40 [00:33:11] acres. I thought it would be a great [00:33:13] opportunity to to teach him a life [00:33:15] lesson about the value of land. And [00:33:17] they're teaching other kids from LA [00:33:19] these lessons, too. So all them regular [00:33:21] rocks you picked, they bring inner city [00:33:22] kids out here to hike, ride ATVs, and [00:33:25] build campfires. And even though they're [00:33:27] right beside the border wall, they've [00:33:29] had no problems out here. These city [00:33:31] kids enjoy their own [00:33:33] private open space. They've had no [00:33:37] problems out here. Remember that's from [00:33:39] back during Biden's term [00:33:43] when there was all kinds of problems at [00:33:45] the border. If you owned land on the [00:33:48] border where no one was there, I have a [00:33:50] feeling there were people jumping over a [00:33:52] fence, dropping babies over a fence, and [00:33:54] running through your land. That's a [00:33:56] whole other dig though. But just suffice [00:33:59] it to say that I have questions about [00:34:02] why exactly did you choose to buy all [00:34:04] that land right on the border wall, [00:34:07] Fahhem, while you're simultaneously the [00:34:10] head of security of this sort of [00:34:13] trafficking operation that's having [00:34:15] these freakoffs where there's [00:34:17] allegations that there were party favors [00:34:19] and stuff like [00:34:20] that. Yeah. I can't help but feel like [00:34:25] they they're trying the wrong case in [00:34:28] court. But ultimately, this stuff isn't [00:34:30] new. If you're in the music industry, [00:34:33] people have been whispering about Diddy [00:34:34] ever since Biggie and Tupac were [00:34:36] murdered, making way for Diddy's rise to [00:34:38] superstardom alongside Biggie Smalls's [00:34:41] ex sidekick, Jay-Z. [00:34:44] And I just want to remind us all too of [00:34:48] some of the more recent allegations that [00:34:50] people have made against Diddy. But as [00:34:53] far as Meek Mills, Puff Daddy, whoever, [00:34:56] none of these, all you fake hard you [00:35:00] hold, hold on. All you fake hard you. [00:35:03] You know what I'm saying? I don't give [00:35:05] cuz you can't shoot nobody anyway. And [00:35:06] the reason why you got talk is cuz you [00:35:07] did a deal. You fed. You know what I'm [00:35:10] saying? That's why you got to come at me [00:35:11] cuz part of the deal for you to be a do [00:35:13] all that and get out of jail is that you [00:35:16] promise that you going to go pull my [00:35:18] coat card. So y'all [ __ ] shut the [ __ ] [00:35:21] up about me. Um PS today while we were [00:35:25] sourcing this clip, we accidentally [00:35:27] noticed that the original Drink Champs [00:35:30] video on their like on their YouTube [00:35:33] channel no longer has that little [00:35:36] section about Diddy being a fed. It [00:35:38] appears to have been edited to cut that [00:35:41] clip out. And we went back through it [00:35:43] and rewatched it and tried to confirm [00:35:44] and check out what is now on the drink [00:35:47] champ's website as of I think a year [00:35:49] ago. But as far as Meek Mills, Puff [00:35:52] Daddy, whoever, none of these, all you [00:35:55] fake hard, [ __ ] you. No, hold on. Hold [00:35:58] on. All you fake hard, [ __ ] you. You [00:36:00] know what I'm saying? So y'all [ __ ] [00:36:02] shut the [ __ ] up about me. You see where [00:36:04] it cut to a different clip and then it [00:36:06] came back to Kanye and you never got [00:36:09] to kind of weird. And as best as we [00:36:12] could tell that happened somewhere like [00:36:13] a year ago is when that video was [00:36:15] uploaded. And my presumption would be [00:36:17] that that has something to do with Diddy [00:36:19] applying pressure in approach to his [00:36:21] court appearance. But we don't know. [00:36:23] We're just we're just noticing things. [00:36:25] Just noticing. But anyways, none of that [00:36:29] is being mentioned in court right now. [00:36:31] It almost reminds me of a certain other [00:36:34] sex trafficker who didn't kill himself. [00:36:37] So, just don't forget the real story [00:36:39] because the real story is part of a much [00:36:41] bigger picture. And I'm sure we'll be [00:36:44] talking about that picture in stories [00:36:46] coming up. I want to take a second to [00:36:48] tell you about pure talk. What if I told [00:36:50] you that you could cut your cell phone [00:36:51] bill in half and support a US company [00:36:54] who shares your values? Values like [00:36:56] supporting our veterans and creating [00:36:57] American jobs. What if I told you that [00:37:00] you don't have to sacrifice coverage [00:37:01] because you'll be on America's most [00:37:03] dependable 5G network? I'm talking about [00:37:05] the only wireless company that Candace [00:37:07] endorses, Pure Talk, a wireless company [00:37:09] that is veteranled and invest in a US [00:37:11] customer service team so that you have [00:37:13] the best support possible. If you're [00:37:14] with Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile, join [00:37:17] the hundreds of thousands who have [00:37:18] successfully cut their cell phone bill [00:37:20] in half. That's right, the average [00:37:21] family saves over $1,000 a year when [00:37:24] they switch to Pure Talk. Switch in as [00:37:26] little as 10 minutes when you go to [00:37:28] puretalk.com/owens with plans starting [00:37:29] at just 25 bucks a month. What are you [00:37:31] waiting for? Go to [00:37:33] puretalk.com/owens and make the switch [00:37:35] to pure talk wireless by Americans for [00:37:38] Americans. I realized that a lot of you [00:37:41] guys might have no idea who the heck I [00:37:43] am. And I also realized that based upon [00:37:46] talking about the shrimp industry, [00:37:48] there's a whole lot of other stuff that [00:37:49] I kind of came up on, stories that I [00:37:52] used to cover all the time that we [00:37:54] should probably revisit. Teach you a [00:37:56] little bit about where I come from and [00:37:57] teach you a little bit about what's in [00:37:59] your baby food as well as all the other [00:38:01] products in your grocery store aisles. [00:38:03] So, here's one of the first Tik Tok [00:38:06] videos I ever made that summed up the [00:38:08] whole first dig I did into grocery store [00:38:11] aisles and into what's who really owns [00:38:13] everything and what are they putting in [00:38:16] everything. After we discovered that [00:38:18] Target has entire shelves of shampoo [00:38:20] that are all owned by the same mega [00:38:24] corporations, I decided to go look at a [00:38:26] bunch of other products that we put on [00:38:27] our bodies and into our various holes. [00:38:29] Cuz we all get the scent that this is [00:38:31] just the illusion of choice. But it's [00:38:32] different when you actually see it like [00:38:35] this. Like the whole shelf of deodorant [00:38:37] at Raid that has like three options that [00:38:40] are not mega corporations, but several [00:38:42] that are specifically branded to look [00:38:44] like they're natural and legit. like [00:38:46] Schmidz or Tomms of Maine. By the way, [00:38:49] the women's deodorant was the exact same [00:38:52] story. One option hiding down there in [00:38:54] the bottom. I went to the skincare [00:38:56] aisles of several stores. They purposely [00:38:58] brand it to look like it's medical and [00:39:00] like doctor formulated. They advertise [00:39:03] all over the place that it's trusted by [00:39:05] experts, you know, formulated by doctors [00:39:07] that work for Proctor and Gamble and [00:39:09] trusted by experts that work at [00:39:10] Unilever. Even at high-end beauty stores [00:39:13] like Ulta, I only found two types of [00:39:15] shampoo that were female or founder or [00:39:17] family-owned. Rest are owned by mega [00:39:19] corporations and billionaire private [00:39:21] equity, who I'm sure care a lot about [00:39:23] your hair care and your health. They [00:39:25] would never include carcinogens and [00:39:27] toxic chemicals in their products. [00:39:29] Obviously, all the class action lawsuits [00:39:31] you can find on Google are just fear. [00:39:34] But in some aisles, there are founder [00:39:36] and family-owned brands made by real [00:39:38] people that actually care about you [00:39:40] hiding amongst all of these other mega [00:39:42] corporations designed to blend in. And [00:39:44] so what I did is I started making [00:39:45] spreadsheets and giving them out for [00:39:46] free on my website with all the [00:39:49] different types of, you know, health and [00:39:52] with all the different types of skin [00:39:53] care, personal care products, shampoos, [00:39:56] with lists of the different brands that [00:39:57] we all consume on a daily basis and [00:39:59] whatever mega corporations or businesses [00:40:01] own those brands. Because I'm not trying [00:40:03] to say that all of these brands are [00:40:05] necessarily horrible for you. I'm just [00:40:07] trying to say that when you buy these [00:40:08] brands, your money is going to these [00:40:10] mega corporations. And mega corporations [00:40:12] pretty much all play by the same [00:40:14] corporate playbook. Target's top [00:40:16] shareholders are Vanguard, State Street, [00:40:18] and Black Rockck along with a bunch of [00:40:20] like investment banks and private equity [00:40:21] funds. In about four hours of work, [00:40:24] their CEO makes as much as the average [00:40:26] Target worker makes in an entire year, [00:40:29] which only totals up to like $17.5 [00:40:32] million in 2023. I mean, poor guy got a [00:40:35] pay cut. How is he going to afford the [00:40:37] mortgage on his extra condo in the [00:40:39] Caribbean? He might even have to sell [00:40:41] one of the yachts. To be clear, that was [00:40:43] a joke. I don't know if Brian owns any [00:40:45] yachts. Not trying to spread [00:40:47] misinformation, Tik Tok, just pure [00:40:49] facts. I'm sure Brian is a great guy. [00:40:52] And a lot of people misunderstand my [00:40:53] message as being like capitalism is evil [00:40:56] and capitalism is the devil. And that's [00:40:57] not really what I'm trying to say. What [00:40:59] I'm trying to say is that capitalism is [00:41:00] what we make it with our capital. And [00:41:02] when we all support giant monopoly mega [00:41:06] corporations, we help to prop up this [00:41:09] version of capitalism that is actually [00:41:12] much more like corporate oligarchy. And [00:41:14] we inherently have the power to change [00:41:17] it or at least to push on it. If we stop [00:41:20] spending our money on this and start [00:41:22] giving more of our money to companies [00:41:24] like this, we can very much change the [00:41:27] world. Which I know sounds corny, but [00:41:29] it's true. The reason why mega [00:41:31] corporations do this is so that they can [00:41:34] maximize the chances of the most of our [00:41:37] money being spent on their products. But [00:41:39] we all have the power to go into this [00:41:41] aisle and to find that one little spot [00:41:43] where the real companies owned by real [00:41:46] people are hiding and to spend our money [00:41:47] on those products because that money [00:41:50] does not go to multi-million dollar CEO [00:41:52] bonuses. It goes to employees at real [00:41:55] companies that actually take care of [00:41:56] their people. It goes to voting for [00:41:59] products that are not filled with [00:42:00] chemical. Chemicals that cause hair loss [00:42:03] that then let those same companies turn [00:42:05] around and sell you products to prevent [00:42:08] hair loss. I'm not making that up. The [00:42:10] aisle at Target has both those products [00:42:12] both owned by the same companies, both [00:42:14] on the same shelf, right next to each [00:42:16] other. I can't imagine why. So, I know [00:42:19] times are tight for a lot of people. I [00:42:20] know the economy is horrible and it's [00:42:22] probably going to get worse. But [00:42:23] personal care products are a great place [00:42:25] to start changing your spending habits [00:42:28] because it's not like food that you have [00:42:29] to consume every day and you have to [00:42:30] spend tons and tons and tons of extra [00:42:32] money to buy better brands. You just [00:42:34] have to buy, you know, a better brand [00:42:36] once a month, you know, once a every [00:42:38] couple weeks. This is a multibillion [00:42:41] dollar industry. It's massive. And if we [00:42:43] all start voting in it with our dollars, [00:42:46] we stand to change everything. 2023 was [00:42:50] pretty depressing and I guarantee you [00:42:52] 2024 is going to be just as or more [00:42:54] depressing. But my 2024 is going to be [00:42:56] all about things that we can do to [00:42:59] change to make the world a better place. [00:43:01] And we all know the world is run by [00:43:04] money. So start using yours to promote [00:43:06] businesses that make the world better, [00:43:09] not worse. What a throwback. That is [00:43:12] where your boy comes from. And that's [00:43:14] what I really got started on when I made [00:43:17] my first Tik Tok video is how does this [00:43:19] world work and who owns all the stuff [00:43:21] that we use? And over time, as I looked [00:43:24] at more and more products and more and [00:43:26] more industries and just started [00:43:27] learning about where all this money [00:43:29] goes, I started to notice the patterns [00:43:31] and notice how it works and notice [00:43:34] solutions. One of my favorite places to [00:43:36] start this dig that wasn't quite [00:43:38] mentioned in that one is Hidden Valley [00:43:40] Ranch. [00:43:42] Who do you think owns Hidden Valley [00:43:44] Ranch? And I want to invite you to [00:43:46] search that on the internet because all [00:43:48] of you can do this research, too. And [00:43:50] it's not hard. You can do it in the [00:43:52] grocery store on your phone. You can do [00:43:53] it right now on your computer. But when [00:43:55] you look up who owns Hidden Valley [00:43:57] Ranch, you'll get a screen something [00:43:59] like this, and you'll find out that it's [00:44:01] owned by Clorox, the bleach company. But [00:44:04] that's not the top of the chain. You [00:44:06] look up who owns Clorox and you'll find [00:44:08] out that it is a public company. Like [00:44:10] the kind of company you can buy stock [00:44:12] in, right? And the word you need to look [00:44:14] up in order to figure out who owns a [00:44:16] public company is you need to look up [00:44:18] Clorox Institutional Ownership. And when [00:44:21] you do that, you get to screens like [00:44:23] this. Or you can go to a website that'll [00:44:26] actually give you the full list. And [00:44:28] it's not hard to find. And when you go [00:44:30] to a website like Yahoo Finance and you [00:44:32] find the full list, you're gonna notice [00:44:34] something pretty quick. The top [00:44:36] shareholders of basically every company [00:44:38] in America are Vanguard, Black Rockck, [00:44:40] and State Street. But Black Rockck [00:44:42] actually owns State Street. So, it's [00:44:43] just Vanguard and Black Rockck. And then [00:44:45] below that is always all the banks, fund [00:44:48] managers, private equity, etc. And all [00:44:51] of them are nothing like any of us. And [00:44:54] the more you do this and look around, [00:44:56] the more you'll realize that these same [00:44:57] financial institutions are at the top of [00:44:59] basically every public corporation in [00:45:02] America, right? Even ones that you think [00:45:05] were natural and family or founder [00:45:06] owned, like Dave's Killer Bread, nope. [00:45:09] Got bought out a long time ago by [00:45:11] Flowers Foods. And when you look at [00:45:13] Flowers Foods, Vanguard and BlackRock [00:45:15] are the top shareholders. You keep doing [00:45:17] this over and over for different [00:45:19] industries and pretty soon you notice [00:45:22] that all kinds of different companies, [00:45:24] food and beverage, banks, big tech, [00:45:26] every single one of these little squares [00:45:29] inside of these bigger squares are big [00:45:32] companies that you will recognize the [00:45:33] names of and you can probably zoom in on [00:45:35] some of them. And the red highlights are [00:45:37] Vanguard, Black Rockck, State Street, [00:45:39] and all the other names on those lists [00:45:41] are their buddies. Notice there's even [00:45:44] funeral and hospice care. They have [00:45:46] water and utilities. They've got just [00:45:48] about every aspect of our lives locked [00:45:51] down in a big way. The entire market is [00:45:55] kind of just one big [00:45:58] conglomerated game where they all play [00:46:02] their parts and they all have their [00:46:03] different corporations, but they all are [00:46:06] owned by the same financial institutions [00:46:09] and all of them have a fiduciary duty to [00:46:12] make their shareholders money. That's a [00:46:14] legal thing. They are required by law at [00:46:17] all of those public corporations to [00:46:19] maximize shareholder value. And [00:46:21] everything you're looking at on those [00:46:23] lists are their top shareholders. So, [00:46:26] they are legally required to do what's [00:46:28] best for all of those financial [00:46:31] institutions, not for you. Once you take [00:46:33] this into the grocery store and actually [00:46:35] look at the products on the shelves, [00:46:38] stuff gets pretty bleak pretty quick [00:46:39] because what I started doing is just [00:46:41] coloring it in. Anything that's owned by [00:46:42] a mega corporation. Oopsies. There's not [00:46:45] a lot of options left. Notice the baby [00:46:48] food aisle over there. That's not a [00:46:50] single non-corporate option of baby food [00:46:52] in that store. That's a WCO. We're going [00:46:54] to come back to baby food. But it [00:46:57] doesn't stop there. You can do [00:46:58] detergent. Actually, the first one I [00:46:59] ever did was tampons and feminine [00:47:01] products. The cereal aisle, big money [00:47:04] maker in grocery stores. And you could [00:47:06] just go on forever. It never ends. And I [00:47:08] did this for a whole year. Trust me. But [00:47:12] I said I wanted to come back to baby [00:47:14] food because this is not just about who [00:47:16] owns it, but it's about when their [00:47:17] fiduciary duty is to financial [00:47:19] institutions like the banks, their job [00:47:22] is just to make the cheapest product [00:47:23] that will profit the most, that will [00:47:25] sell to the masses in whatever way they [00:47:28] can. And when you're talking about [00:47:30] something like baby food, there are [00:47:32] serious ramifications for doing so. [00:47:35] This report is an official report [00:47:38] published by the US House of [00:47:40] Representatives where they ordered a [00:47:41] study into what is in our baby foods. [00:47:45] And they found that baby food was wildly [00:47:48] tainted with arsenic, lead, cadmium, and [00:47:50] mercury. And I want you to notice the [00:47:52] brands that are at the bottom of the [00:47:54] screen where the logo of the House of [00:47:57] Representatives is. That's Gerber, Happy [00:47:59] Baby, Plum, all these different brands [00:48:02] that you might think. I thought that [00:48:04] Plum was organic. Yeah, it's owned by a [00:48:08] mega corporation. And when they tested [00:48:10] what was in these baby [00:48:11] foods, it was appalling. The test [00:48:14] results of baby foods and their [00:48:16] ingredients eclipse those levels, [00:48:18] meaning the levels that are accepted as [00:48:20] safe, including results up to 91 times [00:48:22] the arsenic level, up to 177 times the [00:48:26] lead level, up to 69 times the cadmium [00:48:29] level, and up to five times the mercury [00:48:32] level that is supposed to be allowable [00:48:34] in our baby food, which should be [00:48:37] zero. But even [00:48:39] so, that's pretty dark. And if you [00:48:42] didn't know that, if you didn't know who [00:48:44] is making your baby food and how little [00:48:46] they care about your baby's health, you [00:48:49] would probably feed that to your baby. [00:48:50] And a lot of you probably have. And I [00:48:52] want to stress that you should not feel [00:48:54] guilty about that. A lot of people can't [00:48:56] afford other things. And most of your [00:48:58] babies will be okay. But it is scary to [00:49:01] know about and it's important to look [00:49:03] for solutions. And unfortunately, those [00:49:06] solutions are not readily available or [00:49:08] easy. Right? You could make your own [00:49:09] baby food at home by cooking all your [00:49:11] food, but a lot of parents have to work [00:49:13] all day, right? That's the whole point [00:49:15] of having this convenient baby food. And [00:49:17] we didn't even mention the formula, [00:49:19] which is super messed up. But one [00:49:23] solution that I kept finding over and [00:49:25] over again in every aisle everywhere [00:49:27] that I went is that when you find brands [00:49:29] that are owned by families, owned by [00:49:31] their founders, owned by real people, [00:49:34] more often than not, those brands have [00:49:37] more of a commitment to humans, to you, [00:49:39] the customer. Because if they don't, [00:49:41] they're going to get gobbled up. They're [00:49:42] going to get crushed by the big [00:49:44] competition. They need to do something [00:49:45] outstanding. And usually they're real [00:49:48] people, too, that have kids that are in [00:49:49] this business for a reason. And so I [00:49:51] started to notice that the family and [00:49:53] founder owned brands for many obvious [00:49:55] reasons are on balance a far better [00:49:59] option. And it's not hard to buy [00:50:02] family-owned. Often they're the same [00:50:04] price. Sometimes they cost a little [00:50:06] more, but really the hard part is just [00:50:08] finding them because shelf space is for [00:50:10] sale in the grocery store. And if you [00:50:12] want to know about that, buy this book. [00:50:14] Not sponsored. It's just amazing. Shelf [00:50:17] space is purposely for sale so that they [00:50:19] can monopolize the entire aisle and make [00:50:21] it very hard to find all the little [00:50:23] brands that compete with this giant [00:50:25] corporate scheme. But if you know what [00:50:27] brands you're looking for, you can just [00:50:30] go find them and buy those and suddenly [00:50:32] you can boycott the entire evil [00:50:34] financial cabal all at once. So what I [00:50:37] started doing years ago when I first [00:50:39] well two years ago really look I'm real [00:50:42] old. I'm like an oldtimer guys. I've [00:50:44] been in this for forever. But all of [00:50:46] 2023 and part of 2024, I made these [00:50:48] spreadsheets and I put them online on my [00:50:50] website for free. And even though I have [00:50:52] closed down that old store because I [00:50:54] sucked at running a clothing store, I [00:50:56] still have those spreadsheets available [00:50:58] on that website. The website is cancel [00:51:01] company.com/resources and we'll have a [00:51:03] link below. Um, and the spreadsheets are [00:51:05] up still to this day. It's Google Docs, [00:51:07] so you know, practice safe docs. Um, but [00:51:11] I should warn you that they're going to [00:51:13] be coming down soon because not because [00:51:16] we hate the project or anything like [00:51:17] that, but because we have something way [00:51:19] cooler in the works. And I don't want to [00:51:21] say too much yet, but let's just say [00:51:23] that all along people have been asking [00:51:25] me if you could use your phone in order [00:51:28] to scan products and find out who owns [00:51:30] them and all this stuff that was on [00:51:32] those sheets and more, that would be a [00:51:34] gamecher. And at a certain point, I [00:51:37] received an email from two people out [00:51:39] there that were like, "Yo, we took your [00:51:42] spreadsheets and we made them into an [00:51:43] app and we want to show you." And [00:51:46] they're awesome and they're total [00:51:48] wizards and there is an app coming. I [00:51:51] can't say too much just now, but it's [00:51:53] definitely on the way and it's going to [00:51:55] be sick. And we're going to put a link [00:51:57] down below in the description of where [00:51:59] you can go follow along in order to get [00:52:00] the updates when that's ready because [00:52:02] it's and by by the way, it's not going [00:52:04] to be like some crazy profit scheme. [00:52:05] We're not going to like make a bunch of [00:52:06] money off you. We're going to make a [00:52:07] dope product that I'm going to use every [00:52:09] day because we want you to be able to is [00:52:11] I mean, it's not about boycotting this [00:52:13] or that or shutting down this company or [00:52:15] that company. We're not here to tell you [00:52:16] what's ethically right or what's healthy [00:52:18] for you. We're just here to give you the [00:52:20] information so that if you personally [00:52:22] don't want to buy from Nestle for [00:52:23] reasons, you can figure out what's owned [00:52:25] by them because they own hundreds of [00:52:27] brands. If you don't want to buy from [00:52:29] Bud Light or from any old company, it's [00:52:32] up to you. This will help you do it [00:52:35] right. For me, it'll be to help find [00:52:36] family and found your own businesses. [00:52:38] For you, it can be whatever you want. [00:52:40] And now I want to tell you about [00:52:41] American financing. Debt doesn't just [00:52:44] show up one day. It builds little by [00:52:46] little. credit cards, car loans, medical [00:52:48] bills, and suddenly you're juggling [00:52:50] payments, feeling stuck. But here's the [00:52:52] good news. You're not stuck. You just [00:52:54] need a reset. At American Financing, [00:52:56] they help homeowners like you every day. [00:52:58] They use your home's equity and roll [00:53:00] that high interest debt into one simple, [00:53:02] affordable payment. They're saving [00:53:03] homeowners an average of $800 a month. [00:53:05] No judgment, no pressure, just real [00:53:08] solutions that put you back in control. [00:53:10] Imagine breathing again, sleeping again, [00:53:12] knowing your future is yours to shape. [00:53:14] It starts with one call and it only [00:53:15] takes 10 minutes to get started. And [00:53:17] there are no upfront fees, so it costs [00:53:18] nothing to find out how much you can [00:53:20] save. And if you start today, you may be [00:53:22] able to delay your next two mortgage [00:53:23] payments. American Financing salarybased [00:53:26] consultants are ready to listen and [00:53:27] ready to help. Take back your peace of [00:53:29] mind with American Financing. Call [00:53:31] American Financing today. [00:53:34] 8007951210. That's [00:53:37] 8007951210 or visit [00:53:40] americanfinancing.net/owens. We've been [00:53:42] loving the comments that you guys have [00:53:44] been sending in. It's been so humbling [00:53:46] to receive so much support and so much [00:53:48] good belly laughter from all the things [00:53:50] that you guys have been saying. So, to [00:53:52] close out today, we're going to check in [00:53:54] with some of your comments at Chrismaz [00:53:57] 75 said, "I am so impressed with [00:53:59] Candace's choice, not only because Ian [00:54:01] is fully capable of doing a good job, [00:54:02] but because he has different political [00:54:04] ideas than Candace does, and these two [00:54:06] are teaching people how to disagree [00:54:07] respectfully and still work together." [00:54:09] Yes, that is what we need more of in [00:54:11] this world and I couldn't agree more. [00:54:13] Candace, I love and respect her in every [00:54:15] way. Even though we disagree on things [00:54:17] that does not matter. You can be friends [00:54:18] with people regardless. At Kenny Seer [00:54:22] 2719 said, we got Ian Carol filling in [00:54:25] for Candace before GTA 6. Let that sink [00:54:27] in. Classic at wearing light being said, [00:54:31] Ian being so respectful of Candace's [00:54:33] show to the point he was afraid to say [00:54:35] hell. I genuinely didn't know and I [00:54:37] didn't want to make a mistake and I kind [00:54:39] of like I used to teach a lot and so I [00:54:41] kind of like getting back to my roots [00:54:42] where you you know you're just making [00:54:43] family-friendly content. It's a good [00:54:45] feeling at [00:54:47] NCD48 all this and more on Candace then [00:54:50] I was kind of hoping for a baby Ian [00:54:51] Carol montage don't hold your breath but [00:54:54] maybe we'll do something like that at [00:54:56] the end of the at the end of the time [00:54:57] I'm here. I don't know. At faith-based [00:55:00] living 939 says, "As a mother of four, [00:55:02] thank you, Ian, for exposing these types [00:55:04] of mafias, I mean businesses." Yeah, if [00:55:06] you haven't seen the episode that we did [00:55:08] about Urban Air yet, both of the last [00:55:09] episodes this week were about this crazy [00:55:12] breaking story at Urban Air. And don't [00:55:13] worry, we will be doing a whole bunch [00:55:16] more about that whole debacle next week. [00:55:18] We're just taking our time to get the [00:55:20] story straight, to compile all the [00:55:21] documents that we have, and to really [00:55:23] put together a great story because we [00:55:25] don't we want to do the best we can for [00:55:27] Tiffany, for all the other children and [00:55:29] families that have been affected by [00:55:31] this, and hopefully to make a change. [00:55:33] So, at Cheryl Lynn 101 says, "My husband [00:55:36] strapped the harness for our 9-year-old [00:55:38] and tested the clip system at a couple [00:55:39] of these places. He was more aware of [00:55:41] the risk than me. We've even gone to [00:55:43] indoor rock climbing loces, too, where [00:55:45] he insisted on checking everything. He [00:55:47] didn't care about offending people or [00:55:48] pissing someone off, just measured [00:55:49] insistence. Hearing this story makes me [00:55:51] love him even more. Thanks, Ian. You did [00:55:54] great. That is a good man. More healthy [00:55:57] masculinity where you're taking care of [00:55:58] your family, making sure your kids are [00:56:00] safe. Do not outsource your children's [00:56:02] safety to an underpaid 16-year-old at a [00:56:05] private equityowned trampoline park. [00:56:07] That is never a good idea. At Alle de [00:56:12] Laquva said, "My daughter worked at [00:56:14] Urban Air. She was 16. She complained [00:56:17] she received no training and had to [00:56:19] harness the children. She quit because [00:56:20] she said management was irresponsible. [00:56:22] The place was a mess. Parents need to be [00:56:24] aware of this place and that we are [00:56:26] seeing at these places. Thank you for [00:56:28] bringing awareness to this. Yes, I'm [00:56:30] glad your daughter got out and is safe [00:56:32] and no horrible scandals happened right [00:56:34] on her watch at Gematic. Leon said, [00:56:37] "Tiffany is almost single-handedly [00:56:40] raising awareness of how private equity [00:56:41] is destroying small family-owned [00:56:43] businesses. You are so right. Tiffany is [00:56:45] an absolute rock star, a legend. And her [00:56:48] story has been she's been working so [00:56:50] hard to get her story out. And it's just [00:56:51] an honor to be able to help tell that [00:56:53] story and to help spread awareness of [00:56:55] not only what she went through, but what [00:56:57] all these other families went through in [00:56:58] secret arbitration that they were not [00:57:00] able to speak about until now. And I [00:57:02] just I cannot but hope the best for all [00:57:05] of these people that have been so harmed [00:57:07] by it. Um it's a real tragedy. So, on a [00:57:10] positive note, it's been really humbling [00:57:13] to see your response to me. Thanks for [00:57:14] all the wonderful comments. It's really [00:57:16] fun to read through them and giggle, [00:57:18] share them with the crew, um, and just [00:57:20] generally, uh, have a good time with you [00:57:23] guys and with everyone here at the [00:57:24] Candace Show. Um, this is just the first [00:57:27] week getting my bearings, getting our [00:57:29] stories straight. Um, next week we got a [00:57:32] whole bunch of bangers coming at you, [00:57:34] too. But for now, that's all for this [00:57:36] week. Be sure to like this video, share [00:57:39] it with all your friends, subscribe to [00:57:40] Candace's channel. Mine is linked [00:57:43] below. Go off and have a great weekend. [00:57:46] Stay healthy, be happy, and we'll see [00:57:48] you next week. [00:57:50] [Music]