0:00 Well, the Diddy trial is prosecuting the
0:03 wrong case, and there's something fishy
0:05 going on with Red Lobster's bankruptcy.
0:08 Also, some of you might be wondering who
0:11 the hell I am. So, today we're going to
0:13 take you all the way back to the first
0:14 story I ever covered on TikTok where I
0:17 exposed that there's poison in the baby
0:19 food. We'll also respond to some of your
0:21 comments. Welcome back to
0:26 Candace.
0:37 Our first story today is about food. A
0:41 specific kind of food that most of you
0:43 probably eat, but you probably never
0:44 realize that this food has a serious
0:47 dark side. And I'm speaking obviously
0:51 about shrimp. Endless shrimp to be
0:54 exact. Last May, Red Lobster filed for
0:57 bankruptcy. And at the time, I had
0:59 mistakenly assumed that it was because
1:01 of mismanagement in some sort of private
1:03 equity buyout like all the other cool
1:06 kids these days. But it turns out that
1:07 that's old news. Private equity had
1:10 already been there and done that way
1:11 back in 2014 when Red Lobster had been
1:14 bought out by Golden Gate Capital. And
1:17 what did they immediately do? Well, if
1:19 you watched our show yesterday, you
1:21 would know that they sold off all of Red
1:23 Lobster's real estate in a lease back
1:25 scheme. Much like Toys R Us and all
1:28 sorts of other brands before then, they
1:30 actually used this lease back scheme to
1:32 finance their initial purchase of Red
1:34 Lobster, like a leverage buyout that we
1:36 already talked about. But color me
1:39 surprised when I looked up who owns
1:42 Golden Gate Capital. It was founded by
1:44 former professionals from private equity
1:46 firm Bane Capital and its affiliate Bane
1:51 and Company led by former Bane Capital
1:53 partner David Dominic. So you remember
1:56 how last time we talked about how Bane
1:59 Capital was the private equity arm and
2:01 Bane and Company was the consulting arm
2:03 and they would never work together,
2:06 right? But not only that, when you look
2:09 up the real estate company that they
2:11 partnered with in the deal, later that
2:13 same year, 2014, they got busted for a
2:17 little $23 million accounting
2:20 error. This is coming from a couple
2:23 different sources online as well as
2:25 Wikipedia to summarize it all for us.
2:27 The company was formerly known as
2:28 American Realy Capital Properties, Inc.
2:31 and it changed its name after an
2:33 accounting scandal. His name was derived
2:35 from the Latin word veritas, meaning
2:39 truth. In October 2014, the company
2:41 admitted to $23 million accounting error
2:44 and fired chief financial officer Brian
2:46 Block. Lawsuits alleged that insiders
2:48 received over $900 million in fees from
2:52 the company. In December 2014, Shorch
2:55 resigned as chairman. Remember 2014,
2:59 right around the time that they had just
3:01 bought back all these properties from
3:03 Red Lobster. That's when they were doing
3:05 this whole accounting error. In July
3:09 2015, the company changed his name to
3:11 Verit. Verate. Verite. In September
3:15 2019, certain defendants agreed to pay
3:18 $1.025
3:20 billion. So, that's a little bit of a
3:23 whoopsies. But anyways, we're getting
3:25 distracted. Back to Endless Shrimp.
3:27 Endless shrimp led to an 11 million
3:31 operating loss in Q4 of 2023. There was
3:34 also the fact that when parties arrived
3:36 at Red Lobster looking to pig out on a
3:37 barge full of endless shrimp, they
3:39 simply wouldn't leave. Burke's
3:41 experience serving a man who put away 16
3:43 servings over the course of 2 hours was
3:45 actually mild compared with some of the
3:47 other stories I've heard. Josie, 19, who
3:50 also asked to be anonymous, super
3:52 anonymous, worked at a now shuttered
3:54 Kansas City Red Lobster, where she
3:56 watched a solo diner take down 30 orders
3:58 of fried shrimp within 4 hours.
4:01 According to the nutritional information
4:02 on Red Lobster's website, that's
4:04 something like 14,000 calories, bulking
4:08 season.
4:09 But if you read enough headlines and you
4:12 you quickly start to realize there is a
4:14 shrimp spiracy of foot and that's
4:17 because Red Lobster was bought in its
4:20 entirety by a company named Thai Union.
4:24 Thai Union owned Red Lobster and is
4:27 actually under investigation for its
4:28 role in this whole debacle. That's
4:31 because Thai Union not only owns 100% of
4:34 Red Lobster, but was also historically a
4:36 large-scale supplier to the chain. Just
4:39 before this promotion, they eliminated
4:41 all other shrimp suppliers. Thai Union
4:43 is one of the world's largest shrimp
4:46 suppliers, as well as all sorts of other
4:47 seafood like canned tuna. And I can only
4:50 presume that their goal with Red Lobster
4:52 was never to run a successful restaurant
4:54 company, but instead to perform the
4:56 world's first shrimpbased bustout
4:59 scheme. Because remember, the Red
5:01 Lobster company had already been looted
5:04 by private equity before Taiun bought
5:06 it. So unless Taiun is dumb, when they
5:10 bought it, they already knew that Red
5:11 Lobster was in big trouble. And when
5:14 they owned it, what did they do? They
5:16 cut off all the other shrimp suppliers
5:18 and turned themselves into the sole
5:20 provider of shrimp and then offered this
5:22 crazy deal where Red Lobster tanked on
5:25 buying endless shrimp from Thai Union.
5:28 And when you dig into Thai Union's most
5:29 recent financial statements, they own 62
5:32 different seafood companies around the
5:34 world. Many of them specifically shrimp
5:36 farms, packing, and distribution
5:38 companies. But when you add up all the
5:40 companies they own more than 25% of,
5:43 that number jumps up to 76. Thai Union
5:46 Group is the world's largest seafood
5:48 company and ranked number one in the
5:50 food production industry on Dow Jones
5:52 sustainability index which might be true
5:55 as long as slavery isn't one of their
5:57 metrics because this report was produced
6:00 by sustainability incubator just last
6:02 year about the rampant human rights
6:05 abuses in the shrimp industry. Thai
6:07 Union is mentioned numerous times, often
6:10 referencing their subsidiary, Chicken of
6:12 the Sea, which is one of the US's
6:14 largest retail seafood suppliers. The
6:17 report points out that at the prices
6:19 paid per kilogram in these sourced
6:21 countries, it's literally impossible
6:23 that slave labor and exploitation aren't
6:25 involved in the supply chain. Based on
6:27 their analysis, average monthly earnings
6:29 for shrimp peelers are the lowest in
6:31 India.
6:33 Yeah, I'm not sure what happens to
6:35 Ecuador uh between where the shrimp are
6:38 cheap and where the wages are recorded.
6:40 Like maybe they're not even paying wages
6:41 in Ecuador. I don't know. But suffice to
6:44 say, it's probably not too good of an
6:46 industry to be dealing with shrimp in
6:48 Ecuador. This isn't just some hairbrain
6:50 theory that Sustainability Incubator
6:51 cooked up. You might not have noticed
6:53 the massive scandal that rocked the
6:55 shrimp industry a decade ago, but we're
6:57 going to dive all into it today. But
7:00 before we detail the modern shrimp slave
7:01 trade, I want to read to you a bit from
7:03 the book, The Secret Life of Groceries.
7:06 Because you see, shrimp were notoriously
7:08 hard to farm or domesticate. When put in
7:11 farming conditions, their sexual
7:12 development gets stunted by stress, and
7:15 females just don't develop ovaries for
7:17 reasons we don't entirely understand.
7:19 And the book goes into this in pretty
7:21 interesting detail. And then stuff gets
7:23 really wild. The single great
7:25 breakthrough came in a fittingly bizarre
7:27 and brutal manner. Then as now, those
7:29 trying to make aquaculture work raised
7:31 their shrimp in overcrowded tubs. And as
7:33 their shrimp swam around and around in
7:35 circles in these tubs, their outside eye
7:37 would rub against the side of the tank.
7:39 And slowly, after God knows how many
7:41 circles and god knows what type of
7:42 crowded environment, the outermost
7:44 eyeball of the outermost shrimp in these
7:46 tubs would eventually get rubbed right
7:48 off, erased by friction. And from this
7:51 misery, an industry was born. It turns
7:54 out that for as of yet biologically
7:56 unexplained reasons, a female shrimp who
7:59 loses a single eyeball gets fasttracked
8:01 through puberty. Her ocular loss
8:03 unleashing a cascade of hormones that
8:05 begets ovaries in as little as 3 days.
8:08 This was not predictable, nor does it
8:09 fit with some grand anatomical theory of
8:11 shrimp endocrinology. But it is very
8:13 real and some supremely attentive farmer
8:16 noticed it and began snipping eyeballs
8:18 off by hand in an attempt to replicate
8:20 it. Soon the process went mainstream. It
8:24 was studied and verified in the lab. And
8:26 although nobody could quite explain
8:28 itock ablation, the quirky stride of
8:31 science skipped merrily forward, pushing
8:33 shrimp aquaculture into a new
8:37 age. So as this practice was invented in
8:40 the 70s, Thailand was one of the world's
8:43 leading shrimping industries because of
8:44 the waters around Thailand. But now
8:47 there was surging demand and so they
8:50 needed laborers to fill it. Fortunately
8:52 for the Thai shrimping industry, Burma
8:55 is right next door. You might know it as
8:57 Myanmar or Burma depending on what time
8:59 period your history book was written.
9:01 There are no shortage of refugees trying
9:03 to escape to Thailand from Burma.
9:06 Myanmar for a better life. There has
9:09 been civil wars and coups and bloodshed
9:13 in Burma since before most of us were
9:15 born. And this book, The Secret Life of
9:19 Groceries, tells the story of a specific
9:22 person who became a fisherman, not by
9:25 choice, who came from Myanmar to
9:27 Thailand looking for a better life and
9:30 wound up as a slave to the shrimping
9:33 industry. Bit of reference on where he's
9:35 coming from. There's no simple frame of
9:38 reference for rural Myanmar at this
9:39 time. It's feudal and corrupt. Trapped
9:41 in time without electricity, running
9:43 water, or paved roads, yet bedcked with
9:45 assault rifles. Tunllin doesn't grow up
9:47 with a floor, but does remember his
9:49 father's N16, leaning against the walls
9:51 of their hut. Transportation to the
9:53 front is largely on oxdrawn carts. The
9:55 country at this time is in perpetual
9:57 civil war between the government and the
9:58 communists, between small mercenary
10:00 armies funded by industrialists and
10:01 rival tribes, between ethnicities and
10:03 religions in the different sub regions,
10:05 all of whom ally with each other and
10:06 disband and realign to create chaos.
10:10 He leaves his home village without
10:12 telling anyone, bringing three t-shirts,
10:14 three pairs of pants, one blanket, and
10:16 the shoes he is wearing. He doesn't have
10:17 a proper bag, so he uses a plastic one.
10:20 He crosses the border at the town of
10:21 Miati, and it's easy. He does it all by
10:24 himself without a broker or a snake
10:26 head, just a matter of hitching a ride
10:28 and dashing across a river a few meters
10:30 down from the official checkpoint. When
10:31 I visit Milwaukei 18 years later, I see
10:34 several people doing the exact same
10:35 thing. From there, he walks up the steep
10:37 bank and emerges on the Thai side of the
10:39 border into a town called Mes. He's all
10:42 alone. The reality of being in Thailand,
10:44 of the language being different, of
10:45 knowing absolutely no one hits home. And
10:48 as that reality hits, a broker waves to
10:50 him. Tonlin says it seemed like he was
10:52 waiting for him. The broker is about 40
10:55 years old, his eyes smart and handsome,
10:57 dressed in a blue long-sleeve shirt that
10:58 is clean. So Tunllin approaches and the
11:01 broker asks him in Burmese, "Where would
11:03 you like to go?" and Tunland says simply
11:05 Thailand. Not totally realizing he's
11:07 already in Thailand. The broker says
11:10 that doesn't matter and puts his arms
11:12 around him. The two of them walk back to
11:13 a two-story brick house in May. They
11:16 walk side by side like they are on a
11:18 date. The whole time they talk in
11:19 Burmese about Thailand. Tunin is very
11:21 excited. The broker is laying out a
11:23 future telling about the different
11:24 cities in Thailand, the resorts in the
11:26 south, the skyscrapers in Bangkok, the
11:28 factories in Samu Sakon, and of course,
11:30 he's telling him all about the jobs. The
11:33 first thing he's told when sitting on
11:34 the floor in this hut, he is very lucky.
11:37 One of the migrants near him explains
11:38 that Tunllin has come at a very good
11:40 time. It has been hard at the house.
11:42 Some people have been waiting on the
11:43 floor for over a week. But Tunllin
11:45 learns he should be very excited because
11:47 the next day they are set to leave.
11:49 Truer's word. The next morning, the
11:50 broker arrives. He tells them they are
11:52 going to Chiang Mai, a city in the
11:54 north. But he tells the group that the
11:56 police are looking for migrants. They
11:58 are making his job very difficult and
11:59 dangerous. He explains that the military
12:01 is pulling vehicles to the side and
12:03 checking papers. So to get to Chiang Mai
12:05 without being arrested, they will have
12:07 to go it by foot. It is a 210 mi trek
12:11 through a jungle over several mountains
12:13 during the heart of the rainy season.
12:15 Tunllin does not know this because the
12:17 broker does not say this. The broker
12:19 does not take any questions or explain
12:21 anything beyond how they are to leave
12:23 town without attracting attention. Tun
12:26 is just excited to start.
12:29 It rains continuously the first day of
12:30 the walk and quickly the group begins to
12:32 break down. Many were sick and starving
12:35 before leaving. Every night they sleep
12:37 outside, huddled in groups under trees
12:38 or in small caves and overhangs in the
12:40 mountain areas. The only food comes at
12:42 two checkpoints per day where the guide
12:44 has arranged for meals to be stashed.
12:46 Each of these meals is identical. Tinned
12:48 mackerel and tomato sauce. It is not one
12:51 man per can. Tun says they split cans
12:54 three, four, or five people per can. Tun
12:57 estimates that a group of 100 people
12:59 left the house. By the end of this trip,
13:01 he knows for a fact that he saw six
13:03 people die of hunger or disease. Once
13:05 they get onto a truck, they sit in rows,
13:08 so tightly packed it is hard to breathe.
13:10 Then the door is closed. It is dark. No
13:12 one speaks. Tunin is not on one of the
13:14 benches, but sitting on the floor with
13:16 his knees tucked to his chest. He closes
13:18 his eyes and tries not to think,
13:20 estimating from a map, driving with no
13:22 traffic, their trip lasts 12 hours. He
13:24 tells me there are no rest stops and
13:26 that people cannot control themselves
13:27 and they urinate and defecate in the
13:29 truck. When they arrive, the back of the
13:31 truck is open and they are told to get
13:32 out. One by one, they unfold. People are
13:35 crying. A woman near Tunllin has died.
13:37 She was suffocated or crushed. Tunlin
13:39 does not know which only that he sat so
13:42 close to her the entire trip and that he
13:44 had not thought about her. Once he gets
13:46 put onto a boat, which he did not ask to
13:48 be on, he cannot eat because he is
13:51 seasick and throws everything up and he
13:52 is not allowed to sleep. This continues
13:54 for 3 days. It is at this point the
13:57 captain puts out the big canisters of
13:59 instant coffee for the crew to eat. Yes,
14:01 to eat, not to drink. On the fourth day,
14:04 doing work he does not understand among
14:06 men who speak languages like Camar and
14:08 Lao, he can only partially communicate
14:10 with. Nauseated, starving, exhausted,
14:12 Tunlin says he becomes physically unable
14:14 to continue working, and so he stops and
14:17 goes to the crawl space to take a nap.
14:19 This is his first beating. The captain
14:21 finds him asleep. He then wakes Tunllin
14:23 up with a weapon. My translator insists
14:25 on calling a yo-yo. It is a steel ball
14:28 on an elastic cord, and he swings it at
14:30 Tunlin, catching him across the face,
14:32 then repeatedly on the shoulders.
14:34 Tunllin shows me his scars. He says he
14:36 has beaten many times over the years,
14:38 but he will always remember this first
14:39 one. Tunllin says he is not beaten again
14:42 after this. The captain merely has to
14:44 point at this yo-yo for Tunlin to
14:45 increase the speed of his work until
14:47 after waiting six months, he makes the
14:49 mistake of asking for the salary he was
14:51 promised because that's how they got him
14:52 onto the boat, saying that he was going
14:55 to have a job. For this, he is beaten
14:58 even harder than before. He learns now
15:00 the captain owns him, that he bought him
15:02 when he acquired his debt. His friend
15:04 Tulle simply can't handle it. He is only
15:06 a teenager and is weak, which means he
15:08 is beaten more frequently. As the
15:10 captain whips him, Tulle slowly loses
15:12 his mind. After a particularly bad
15:14 beating, Tulle gets very sick. He can't
15:17 walk and he is allowed to
15:19 rest. But Tunllin knows things are
15:22 wrong. Whenever he asks Tulle questions,
15:24 the boy will only laugh or cry. Soon
15:26 after, Tulle refuses to work. It is now
15:28 that he is beaten until he is
15:30 unconscious and kicked into the sea.
15:32 Months at sea pass into years. Tunin
15:34 adjusts. He never enjoys life on the
15:36 boat, but he learns it. He becomes good
15:38 at it. He comes to do every job, sorting
15:40 the fish, carrying them to the freezer
15:42 on trays, patching, folding, pressing
15:44 the net, and looking for rips, and more.
15:47 This is Tunllin's second year on the
15:49 boat out of what will eventually be 14
15:51 years at sea. At this point, he's a
15:53 slave in the only meaningful sense of
15:54 the word. He cannot leave. He is not
15:56 paid. He was brought here a prisoner. He
15:59 was sold in a cash exchange. He works
16:01 under the threat of violence and he has
16:02 seen those who fought back against that
16:04 violence killed. His best friend on the
16:06 boat, the only person he knew before
16:08 boarding, was slowly driven mad and
16:10 eventually he was killed too. Although
16:13 they don't get a lot of sleep, this is
16:15 where they sleep. Tun shares a crawl
16:17 space with Tulac and the rest of the
16:19 crew before Tulle dies. Some closer to
16:22 indentured servants, some free men who
16:24 signed off on their own valition, some
16:26 who enforce the captain's orders, many
16:28 in more than one role, depending on the
16:29 precise time you look, all sleeping
16:31 together in a space less than a meter
16:33 high. To get to the bed, they crawl on
16:35 their hands and knees for about 12 ft
16:36 into the darkness through an opening
16:38 that can fit at most one person at a
16:40 time. This is where Tulin sleeps when
16:42 not working his 20our days. When I visit
16:44 a similar sleeping hole on the Thai
16:46 docks, the opening comes up just above
16:48 my knee and it is warm, exhaling the
16:50 dark yeasty manure smell of the unwashed
16:52 human body. Tunin and all the rest of
16:55 these workers are working in the fishing
16:56 industry, pulling up all sorts of fish.
16:59 But the waters of Thailand were getting
17:01 overfished. And as they got overfished,
17:03 more and more of that Thai fishing
17:04 industry was actually based on the trash
17:07 fish, the small fish, the guts, the
17:09 things that actually can't sell as fish,
17:11 but instead become fish meal. And they
17:13 never actually go back to port. They
17:15 stay out at sea for years at a time. And
17:17 they get other boats to come and
17:19 resupply them and take their catch into
17:21 port for them. And this describes how
17:23 fishers like Tunlin never see these
17:25 small unsailable fish make it to port.
17:27 They are passed to a sister boat at a
17:29 rendevous at sea. Traded along with
17:31 food, cigarettes, taibot, and fuel. This
17:33 is called trans shshipment at sea. It
17:35 saves fuel for the larger refrigerated
17:37 fishing vessels and it allows some boats
17:39 to stay out almost indefinitely,
17:41 resupplied by others. They turn into
17:43 floating prisons for trafficked workers.
17:45 So once all this trash fish makes it
17:47 into port after being out in the sun on
17:49 a boat all day, then it gets rolled into
17:52 the docks where it gets dumped out onto
17:54 the ground into the sun all day to rot.
17:57 But within a day, a man with a rake and
18:00 wearing dark rubber boots will push this
18:01 pile of fish and fish pieces towards a
18:03 growling mouth in the cement docks. It
18:05 looks like a hole in the ground with two
18:07 grinders in it for teeth. And it takes
18:09 the rotting fish and pulverizes them
18:10 further. The scent near the hole is
18:12 deafening. If you really want to know
18:14 what you're feeding your pets when it
18:16 says fish on the label, this is what it
18:19 is. It is the smell of thousands of tiny
18:22 rotting fish piled ankle high in the
18:24 90°ree Tai sun on a space that has held
18:27 ankle-high levels of tiny rotting fish
18:29 for years. It is a hot smell, not just
18:31 from the climate and the decomposition,
18:33 but because there are furnaces just
18:34 beyond. You can see them glowing behind
18:36 the man with the rake. The pulverized
18:38 fish will pass on a conveyor belt toward
18:40 those furnaces, getting cooked into a
18:42 paste, then baked into meal. This will
18:44 then be sold to yet another broker,
18:46 bought by a feed mill, and blended with
18:48 inputs from dozens of other facilities.
18:49 All to create the protein base in pet
18:51 food, food for fish farms, and the feed
18:54 for hungry little shrimp. But that is
18:56 just the industry responsible for making
18:58 shrimp food, as well as cat and dog
19:00 food. The rest of the shrimp supply
19:02 chain is brutal, too. For example,
19:05 here's another story from the shrimp
19:07 industry. Every morning at 2 a.m., they
19:09 heard a kick on the door and a threat.
19:11 Get up or get beaten. For the next 16
19:13 hours, number 31 and his wife stood in
19:16 the factory with their aching hands in
19:17 ice water. They ripped the guts, heads,
19:19 and tails, and shells off of shrimp
19:20 bound for overseas markets, including
19:22 grocery stores and all you can eat
19:24 buffets across in the US. After being
19:26 sold to the gig peeling factory, the
19:28 couple were at the mercy of their Thai
19:30 bosses, trapped with nearly 100 other
19:32 Burmese migrants. Children worked
19:34 alongside them, including a girl so tiny
19:37 she had to stand on a stool to reach the
19:38 peeling table. Some had been there for
19:40 months, even years, getting little or no
19:43 pay. At all times, someone was watching.
19:46 Benjamin Lore points out that this issue
19:48 is multiaceted and ultimately it stems
19:50 from the modern world's globalized
19:52 insatiable demand for more for cheaper.
19:55 It's a trend that permeates every aspect
19:57 of our modern brand of consumerism. And
19:59 there's no easy fix because when
20:02 Thailand was exposed, new standards were
20:04 imposed and the Thai shrimping industry
20:07 collapsed only to move to countries like
20:09 India and Vietnam. And now Thailand is
20:12 at it again. News misses this crucial
20:15 distinction that the slavery never
20:17 ended. It just moved into a new shadow
20:19 somewhere else where American and
20:21 Western consumers could shield their
20:22 eyes from it and pretend that it wasn't
20:24 happening. Thailand is now proposing
20:26 repealing the legal standards that had
20:28 previously cracked down on shrimp
20:30 slavery and force business abroad. The
20:32 Thai government has been insistent that
20:33 trade would not be affected by new
20:35 guidelines, stressing that the EU, with
20:37 whom it currently is negotiating a free
20:39 trade agreement, makes up only around 6%
20:41 of seafood exports. These practices go
20:44 wherever the shrimp industry goes and
20:47 lately that's been India because right
20:49 now India is our largest supplier. It's
20:52 no coincidence that Sustainability
20:54 Incubator found wages to be the lowest
20:56 on average in India and the price is the
20:58 cheapest. Who knows what's happening in
21:00 Ecuador. The market will find the
21:03 cheapest supply wherever it can be
21:05 produced and that will always be a race
21:07 to the bottom and the bottom will always
21:10 be
21:11 slavery. India became America's leading
21:14 shrimp supplier accounting for about 40%
21:16 of the shrimp consumed in the US in part
21:19 because media reports including the AP
21:21 investigation that exposed modern-day
21:23 slavery in Thailand and their seafood
21:25 industry. AP's 2015 reporting led to the
21:27 freedom of some 2,000 enslaved fishermen
21:30 and prompted calls for bans of Thai
21:32 shrimp, which had been dominating the
21:34 market. But unfortunately, that just
21:36 moved it to India. Stories from India
21:38 sound like this. She said she works in
21:41 brutal conditions, peeling, cutting, and
21:43 grading shrimp in a factory for less
21:44 than $4 a day, which is $2 less than
21:47 minimum wage. The working conditions are
21:49 tough, she said, wiping away tears with
21:51 the corner of her red sorry, standing
21:53 for long hours in the cold while peeling
21:55 and cutting shrimp takes a toll on my
21:57 body. This woman is a 51-year-old widow,
21:59 by the way. Baby, her last name, and
22:02 other workers said they pay recruiters
22:04 about 25 cents a day out of their
22:06 salaries just to set foot inside the
22:08 processing shed. Transportation and
22:10 company buses is also deducted from some
22:12 workers salaries along with the cost of
22:14 lunch from company cantens. Many workers
22:16 have no contracts and no recourse if
22:18 they are hurt on the job. Another peeler
22:20 said she suffers back pain all the time
22:22 from the arduous work for which she's
22:24 paid about $3 a day. Some have nail
22:27 fungus caused by small cracks that allow
22:29 germs to cause infections. Other women
22:31 have fingers or even their entire hands
22:33 darkening with frostbite. Ma said that
22:36 sometimes she has to amputate. AP
22:38 journalists observed dozens of women
22:40 working in unsanitary and dangerous
22:42 conditions. The shrimp pulled from
22:44 outdoor ponds in barrels were swished
22:46 around by hand in grimy water. Once
22:48 rinsed, they were dumped onto ice
22:50 covered tables where women stood peeling
22:52 them one shrimp at a time. Many handled
22:54 shrimp with bare hands. Some women had
22:56 bandages on injured fingers. Some
22:57 women's long hair dangled into the
22:59 shrimp. And you kind of expect that kind
23:01 of conditions maybe in, you know, third
23:03 world countries processing your food
23:05 like India or Thailand. But the point of
23:07 this is that Nikanti, the company that
23:10 they were apparently peeling shrimp for,
23:13 they present a very different image. In
23:15 the bottom section here, a marketing
23:18 video produced by Nikanti, which is
23:19 projecting $150 million in revenues this
23:22 year, shows shrimp peelers in a spotless
23:24 room with shiny tables, and workers
23:26 wearing gloves, head coverings, face
23:28 masks, rubber boots, and waterproof
23:30 aprons. By the way, Nikanti is a
23:33 subsidiary of guess who? Thai Union
23:36 Group. They of course denied the
23:38 allegations, said the company had
23:40 nothing to do with the peeling shed that
23:42 AP had visited, and said that their
23:44 branded truck was there only because it
23:46 was being leased to another company. He
23:48 provided a document that said that
23:49 Nikanti was paid
23:51 $3,600 for the four-month lease of a
23:53 truck with a license plate number the AP
23:55 observed. Sure, that document is a-ok.
23:59 Okay, but you have to imagine what's
24:02 going on out there when that's the image
24:04 they're presenting and the actual
24:06 conditions in these countries are like
24:08 the stories that you're hearing. And I
24:10 just wanted to give you a little image,
24:12 a little visual of where all the shrimp
24:14 in the world is coming from right now.
24:16 But just to be clear, the shrimp
24:18 industry works the way that the shrimp
24:20 industry works. And if you want to sell
24:22 shrimp for the prices that these
24:23 countries are selling shrimp for, you
24:26 have to compete with countries that are
24:28 using slave labor.
24:31 So your bottomless shrimp is another
24:34 man's or child slave laborers bottomless
24:37 despair. This year in 2025, New Orleans
24:41 hosted the Super Bowl. And someone had
24:43 the bright idea of going there and doing
24:46 a little testy testy on the shrimp that
24:48 they were selling in New Orleans and
24:49 other Gulf Coast cities. Turns out
24:52 everyone lies. The testing was done by
24:55 CD Consulting, made possible by a new
24:58 testing technology that could turn
24:59 results around in less than an hour
25:01 instead of sending to labs and taking
25:03 days. And what did those test results
25:06 show? Well, the cities with the highest
25:09 shrimp fraud rate were Tampa Bay and St.
25:11 Petersburg, Florida at
25:13 96%. According to CD Consulting, only
25:16 two of the 44 restaurants sampled were
25:19 serving authentic shrimp from the Gulf
25:21 of Mexico. A study found in Baton Rouge,
25:25 researchers sampled menu items at 24
25:27 restaurants and found nearly 30%, more
25:29 than one in four, were misrepresented.
25:33 family-owned shrimp business operating
25:35 out of the port of Tampa are struggling
25:37 to survive. While local restaurants
25:39 bamboozle customers into thinking
25:41 locally caught shrimp are being served,
25:43 family-owned and American businesses are
25:45 the ones bearing the brunt of our desire
25:47 for the most, the best, and also somehow
25:50 the cheapest. America and the Western
25:53 world has this obsession with optics and
25:56 ethics. We want to feel good about the
25:59 products we're buying. We want to be
26:00 absolved of our sins. But ignorance is
26:04 not bliss. And many, not all, but many
26:07 of these marks that are here to tell us
26:10 that we're making ethical choices are
26:13 essentially madeup stickers and rackets.
26:15 Inspections are often halfbaked, audits,
26:18 ineffective, loopholes are pretty much
26:20 endless. This is another thing that lore
26:23 covers extensively and with great nuance
26:25 in his book. It's a pretty rough story
26:28 when you really get into it. And these
26:30 types of stories are all over the place.
26:33 You can't pay attention to everything
26:34 and you can't be ethical with every
26:36 decision. You'll get decision paralysis.
26:38 You'll never buy anything. You'll never
26:39 eat anything. But it is important to
26:42 think about where your stuff is coming
26:43 from, who's responsible for it, and what
26:46 are the costs of low costs down the
26:49 line.
26:51 We've got trade wars, inflation, global
26:53 chaos, and a skyrocketing national debt.
26:55 It's no wonder that gold keeps hitting
26:57 record highs. With everything going on
26:59 in the world, thousands of people are
27:00 diversifying their savings with gold and
27:02 silver. And they're turning to my gold
27:04 partner, which is Gold Co. Right now,
27:06 Gold Co is offering you a free 2025 gold
27:09 and silver kit. Plus, you can get
27:10 unlimited silver if you qualify. Find
27:13 out how you can help diversify your
27:15 savings tax and penalty-free. Visit
27:18 candislikesgold.com or call
27:21 855222 gold. I'm sure you know that P.
27:24 Diddy is on trial and it's ongoing.
27:27 Details are coming out slowly. A lot of
27:29 people are following along with the live
27:31 court updates. There's no video coming
27:33 out of the courtrooms. Unfortunately,
27:35 we're not going to get an Amber Herd
27:36 talking about doing things on the bed or
27:39 anything like that, but we are getting
27:41 some funny court sketches and a lot of
27:43 really, really awful stories from Cassie
27:46 Ventura that really we're not going to
27:49 talk about. I don't want to talk about
27:50 them. you don't want to hear about them.
27:51 If you really care about all the
27:52 horrible things that Cassie alleges that
27:54 Diddy did to her while they were dating
27:56 and not dating and whatever else, you
27:59 can read all about it on the internet.
28:01 You can look up her original lawsuit
28:03 because that is not the story. And I
28:07 don't mean to say that Cassy's
28:09 accusations are not important because
28:10 they very much are. What I mean to say
28:13 is that so far everything that's being
28:15 discussed in the courtroom is super not
28:18 the story that we were all here to see.
28:22 The actual story that I want to talk
28:24 about that I assume that most of you
28:26 want to talk about is the kind of story
28:29 where Suge Knight famously accused Diddy
28:32 of being a longtime FBI informant. In
28:35 April of this year, Whitney Webb
28:36 released an excellent report about
28:38 Diddy's early life, outlining how he
28:40 attended a boy school that was marred in
28:42 numerous sex scandals and how his father
28:45 was very likely a rat, an informant that
28:48 was eventually caught and killed. All of
28:50 this was even before Diddy even got into
28:52 the music industry, where his early
28:54 mentors were linked to the mob and all
28:55 sorts of other scandals. The real story
28:58 is Lil Rod's lawsuit, which we've all
29:01 seen and talked about before. Lucian
29:04 Grange, the CEO of Universal Music
29:06 Group, was originally named in that
29:07 lawsuit, and so was Universal Music
29:10 Group and Mottown, as well as many other
29:12 people, but their names all mysteriously
29:15 vanished. But the lawsuit directly
29:17 alleges that Graange was at the parties
29:20 and presumably partially or entirely
29:22 funding them at times. The lawsuit
29:24 included what appeared to be screenshots
29:26 from videos of famous people and told of
29:28 coercion based on performing sexual acts
29:31 on camera. It included many specific
29:33 allegations about drugs, guns,
29:36 prostitutes, even minors. But the
29:38 biggest bombshell in the lawsuit, as far
29:40 as I'm concerned, and the thing that no
29:43 mainstream outlet wants to touch is the
29:45 allegations of hidden cameras. Quote,
29:48 "While living and traveling with Mr.
29:50 Combmes, Mr. Jones discovered that Mr.
29:52 Combmes has hidden cameras in every room
29:54 of his homes. Mr. Jones believes that
29:56 Mr. Combmes has recordings of defendants
29:58 Lucy and Charles Graange, Ethiopia
30:00 Habermarium, as well as other
30:02 celebrities, music label executives,
30:04 politicians, and athletes. Upon
30:06 information and belief, these
30:08 individuals were recorded without their
30:10 knowledge and consent. And as is the
30:12 case with the homosexual sex tape of
30:14 Stevie Jay that Mr. Combmes provided to
30:16 Mr. Jones, Mr. Combmes possesses
30:18 compromising footage of every person
30:20 that has attended his freakoff parties
30:22 and his house parties. I don't think
30:24 that all of those videos are the ones
30:27 being shown in court. Just my
30:29 suspicions. Upon information and belief,
30:31 due to this treasure trove of evidence
30:33 he has in his possession, Mr. Combmes
30:35 believes that he is above the law and is
30:37 untouchable. Upon information and
30:39 belief, Mr. Combmes employs Joseé Cruz
30:42 as his IT director. This writer has
30:44 spoken to several former employees of
30:46 Mr. Combmes who confirmed that Joseé
30:48 Cruz is the gatekeeper to all of Mr.
30:50 Comb's recordings. And I want to point
30:52 out here this document was prepared by a
30:55 lawyer and that lawyer has a legal duty
30:58 to believe that all the statements in
31:01 this document are true at least to a
31:04 certain like he he cannot just lie
31:06 openly. He cannot say that he spoke to
31:09 all these other employees of Mr. Combmes
31:11 if he never did. That would be a
31:13 disbarable offense. And so this lawsuit
31:17 has to at least have merit in the
31:19 lawyer's eyes. And maybe it wouldn't all
31:21 prove out in court, but it's not just
31:24 made up out of nowhere, right? And there
31:27 are very specific claims and there are
31:29 screenshots that seem to show
31:32 screenshots of video evidence. There's
31:34 all sorts of stuff in there. Okay, pair
31:37 all that with the fact that Diddy's head
31:39 of security was Fahhem Muhammad.
31:42 Quote, "In 2008, Fahhem graduated from
31:45 Sacramento State University with a
31:47 Bachelor of Science degree in business
31:49 administration with a concentration in
31:51 real estate and
31:53 marketing." Michael Jackson died just
31:56 one year after Fahhem apparently
31:58 graduated from college. Fahhem was
32:01 Michael Jackson's head of security and
32:04 apparently second on the scene when
32:06 Michael died. Then Fahheim winds up as
32:10 Diddy's head of
32:11 security. Kind of
32:13 weird. By the way, before we get off of
32:16 Fahheim Muhammad, remember his specialty
32:18 in real estate from college? Well, he
32:20 owns a real estate company, and he
32:22 apparently has land right on the Mexico
32:24 border. Check this out. 40 acres of land
32:27 in San Diego County. That's what one dad
32:29 gave his son for his 13th birthday. He
32:32 posted about it on social media, and
32:34 their story went viral. Rapper Shawn
32:36 Combmes even posted about it. Fahheim
32:38 Muhammad bought 198 acres out here in
32:41 Boulevard to get away. It's real quiet.
32:45 The wall is right there. This is not
32:48 like Chicago. It's not like LA. He lives
32:50 in Los Angeles and runs a real estate
32:52 business that buys and rebuilds
32:54 properties in the south side of Chicago.
32:56 He says to create a better living
32:58 situation for the black community there.
33:00 Fahhem says his mom taught he and his
33:02 siblings how important it is to own your
33:04 own property and to help their
33:06 community. So when his son Fahhem
33:08 recently turned 13, he gave him 40
33:11 acres. I thought it would be a great
33:13 opportunity to to teach him a life
33:15 lesson about the value of land. And
33:17 they're teaching other kids from LA
33:19 these lessons, too. So all them regular
33:21 rocks you picked, they bring inner city
33:22 kids out here to hike, ride ATVs, and
33:25 build campfires. And even though they're
33:27 right beside the border wall, they've
33:29 had no problems out here. These city
33:31 kids enjoy their own
33:33 private open space. They've had no
33:37 problems out here. Remember that's from
33:39 back during Biden's term
33:43 when there was all kinds of problems at
33:45 the border. If you owned land on the
33:48 border where no one was there, I have a
33:50 feeling there were people jumping over a
33:52 fence, dropping babies over a fence, and
33:54 running through your land. That's a
33:56 whole other dig though. But just suffice
33:59 it to say that I have questions about
34:02 why exactly did you choose to buy all
34:04 that land right on the border wall,
34:07 Fahhem, while you're simultaneously the
34:10 head of security of this sort of
34:13 trafficking operation that's having
34:15 these freakoffs where there's
34:17 allegations that there were party favors
34:19 and stuff like
34:20 that. Yeah. I can't help but feel like
34:25 they they're trying the wrong case in
34:28 court. But ultimately, this stuff isn't
34:30 new. If you're in the music industry,
34:33 people have been whispering about Diddy
34:34 ever since Biggie and Tupac were
34:36 murdered, making way for Diddy's rise to
34:38 superstardom alongside Biggie Smalls's
34:41 ex sidekick, Jay-Z.
34:44 And I just want to remind us all too of
34:48 some of the more recent allegations that
34:50 people have made against Diddy. But as
34:53 far as Meek Mills, Puff Daddy, whoever,
34:56 none of these, all you fake hard you
35:00 hold, hold on. All you fake hard you.
35:03 You know what I'm saying? I don't give
35:05 cuz you can't shoot nobody anyway. And
35:06 the reason why you got talk is cuz you
35:07 did a deal. You fed. You know what I'm
35:10 saying? That's why you got to come at me
35:11 cuz part of the deal for you to be a do
35:13 all that and get out of jail is that you
35:16 promise that you going to go pull my
35:18 coat card. So y'all [ __ ] shut the [ __ ]
35:21 up about me. Um PS today while we were
35:25 sourcing this clip, we accidentally
35:27 noticed that the original Drink Champs
35:30 video on their like on their YouTube
35:33 channel no longer has that little
35:36 section about Diddy being a fed. It
35:38 appears to have been edited to cut that
35:41 clip out. And we went back through it
35:43 and rewatched it and tried to confirm
35:44 and check out what is now on the drink
35:47 champ's website as of I think a year
35:49 ago. But as far as Meek Mills, Puff
35:52 Daddy, whoever, none of these, all you
35:55 fake hard, [ __ ] you. No, hold on. Hold
35:58 on. All you fake hard, [ __ ] you. You
36:00 know what I'm saying? So y'all [ __ ]
36:02 shut the [ __ ] up about me. You see where
36:04 it cut to a different clip and then it
36:06 came back to Kanye and you never got
36:09 to kind of weird. And as best as we
36:12 could tell that happened somewhere like
36:13 a year ago is when that video was
36:15 uploaded. And my presumption would be
36:17 that that has something to do with Diddy
36:19 applying pressure in approach to his
36:21 court appearance. But we don't know.
36:23 We're just we're just noticing things.
36:25 Just noticing. But anyways, none of that
36:29 is being mentioned in court right now.
36:31 It almost reminds me of a certain other
36:34 sex trafficker who didn't kill himself.
36:37 So, just don't forget the real story
36:39 because the real story is part of a much
36:41 bigger picture. And I'm sure we'll be
36:44 talking about that picture in stories
36:46 coming up. I want to take a second to
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37:38 Americans. I realized that a lot of you
37:41 guys might have no idea who the heck I
37:43 am. And I also realized that based upon
37:46 talking about the shrimp industry,
37:48 there's a whole lot of other stuff that
37:49 I kind of came up on, stories that I
37:52 used to cover all the time that we
37:54 should probably revisit. Teach you a
37:56 little bit about where I come from and
37:57 teach you a little bit about what's in
37:59 your baby food as well as all the other
38:01 products in your grocery store aisles.
38:03 So, here's one of the first Tik Tok
38:06 videos I ever made that summed up the
38:08 whole first dig I did into grocery store
38:11 aisles and into what's who really owns
38:13 everything and what are they putting in
38:16 everything. After we discovered that
38:18 Target has entire shelves of shampoo
38:20 that are all owned by the same mega
38:24 corporations, I decided to go look at a
38:26 bunch of other products that we put on
38:27 our bodies and into our various holes.
38:29 Cuz we all get the scent that this is
38:31 just the illusion of choice. But it's
38:32 different when you actually see it like
38:35 this. Like the whole shelf of deodorant
38:37 at Raid that has like three options that
38:40 are not mega corporations, but several
38:42 that are specifically branded to look
38:44 like they're natural and legit. like
38:46 Schmidz or Tomms of Maine. By the way,
38:49 the women's deodorant was the exact same
38:52 story. One option hiding down there in
38:54 the bottom. I went to the skincare
38:56 aisles of several stores. They purposely
38:58 brand it to look like it's medical and
39:00 like doctor formulated. They advertise
39:03 all over the place that it's trusted by
39:05 experts, you know, formulated by doctors
39:07 that work for Proctor and Gamble and
39:09 trusted by experts that work at
39:10 Unilever. Even at high-end beauty stores
39:13 like Ulta, I only found two types of
39:15 shampoo that were female or founder or
39:17 family-owned. Rest are owned by mega
39:19 corporations and billionaire private
39:21 equity, who I'm sure care a lot about
39:23 your hair care and your health. They
39:25 would never include carcinogens and
39:27 toxic chemicals in their products.
39:29 Obviously, all the class action lawsuits
39:31 you can find on Google are just fear.
39:34 But in some aisles, there are founder
39:36 and family-owned brands made by real
39:38 people that actually care about you
39:40 hiding amongst all of these other mega
39:42 corporations designed to blend in. And
39:44 so what I did is I started making
39:45 spreadsheets and giving them out for
39:46 free on my website with all the
39:49 different types of, you know, health and
39:52 with all the different types of skin
39:53 care, personal care products, shampoos,
39:56 with lists of the different brands that
39:57 we all consume on a daily basis and
39:59 whatever mega corporations or businesses
40:01 own those brands. Because I'm not trying
40:03 to say that all of these brands are
40:05 necessarily horrible for you. I'm just
40:07 trying to say that when you buy these
40:08 brands, your money is going to these
40:10 mega corporations. And mega corporations
40:12 pretty much all play by the same
40:14 corporate playbook. Target's top
40:16 shareholders are Vanguard, State Street,
40:18 and Black Rockck along with a bunch of
40:20 like investment banks and private equity
40:21 funds. In about four hours of work,
40:24 their CEO makes as much as the average
40:26 Target worker makes in an entire year,
40:29 which only totals up to like $17.5
40:32 million in 2023. I mean, poor guy got a
40:35 pay cut. How is he going to afford the
40:37 mortgage on his extra condo in the
40:39 Caribbean? He might even have to sell
40:41 one of the yachts. To be clear, that was
40:43 a joke. I don't know if Brian owns any
40:45 yachts. Not trying to spread
40:47 misinformation, Tik Tok, just pure
40:49 facts. I'm sure Brian is a great guy.
40:52 And a lot of people misunderstand my
40:53 message as being like capitalism is evil
40:56 and capitalism is the devil. And that's
40:57 not really what I'm trying to say. What
40:59 I'm trying to say is that capitalism is
41:00 what we make it with our capital. And
41:02 when we all support giant monopoly mega
41:06 corporations, we help to prop up this
41:09 version of capitalism that is actually
41:12 much more like corporate oligarchy. And
41:14 we inherently have the power to change
41:17 it or at least to push on it. If we stop
41:20 spending our money on this and start
41:22 giving more of our money to companies
41:24 like this, we can very much change the
41:27 world. Which I know sounds corny, but
41:29 it's true. The reason why mega
41:31 corporations do this is so that they can
41:34 maximize the chances of the most of our
41:37 money being spent on their products. But
41:39 we all have the power to go into this
41:41 aisle and to find that one little spot
41:43 where the real companies owned by real
41:46 people are hiding and to spend our money
41:47 on those products because that money
41:50 does not go to multi-million dollar CEO
41:52 bonuses. It goes to employees at real
41:55 companies that actually take care of
41:56 their people. It goes to voting for
41:59 products that are not filled with
42:00 chemical. Chemicals that cause hair loss
42:03 that then let those same companies turn
42:05 around and sell you products to prevent
42:08 hair loss. I'm not making that up. The
42:10 aisle at Target has both those products
42:12 both owned by the same companies, both
42:14 on the same shelf, right next to each
42:16 other. I can't imagine why. So, I know
42:19 times are tight for a lot of people. I
42:20 know the economy is horrible and it's
42:22 probably going to get worse. But
42:23 personal care products are a great place
42:25 to start changing your spending habits
42:28 because it's not like food that you have
42:29 to consume every day and you have to
42:30 spend tons and tons and tons of extra
42:32 money to buy better brands. You just
42:34 have to buy, you know, a better brand
42:36 once a month, you know, once a every
42:38 couple weeks. This is a multibillion
42:41 dollar industry. It's massive. And if we
42:43 all start voting in it with our dollars,
42:46 we stand to change everything. 2023 was
42:50 pretty depressing and I guarantee you
42:52 2024 is going to be just as or more
42:54 depressing. But my 2024 is going to be
42:56 all about things that we can do to
42:59 change to make the world a better place.
43:01 And we all know the world is run by
43:04 money. So start using yours to promote
43:06 businesses that make the world better,
43:09 not worse. What a throwback. That is
43:12 where your boy comes from. And that's
43:14 what I really got started on when I made
43:17 my first Tik Tok video is how does this
43:19 world work and who owns all the stuff
43:21 that we use? And over time, as I looked
43:24 at more and more products and more and
43:26 more industries and just started
43:27 learning about where all this money
43:29 goes, I started to notice the patterns
43:31 and notice how it works and notice
43:34 solutions. One of my favorite places to
43:36 start this dig that wasn't quite
43:38 mentioned in that one is Hidden Valley
43:40 Ranch.
43:42 Who do you think owns Hidden Valley
43:44 Ranch? And I want to invite you to
43:46 search that on the internet because all
43:48 of you can do this research, too. And
43:50 it's not hard. You can do it in the
43:52 grocery store on your phone. You can do
43:53 it right now on your computer. But when
43:55 you look up who owns Hidden Valley
43:57 Ranch, you'll get a screen something
43:59 like this, and you'll find out that it's
44:01 owned by Clorox, the bleach company. But
44:04 that's not the top of the chain. You
44:06 look up who owns Clorox and you'll find
44:08 out that it is a public company. Like
44:10 the kind of company you can buy stock
44:12 in, right? And the word you need to look
44:14 up in order to figure out who owns a
44:16 public company is you need to look up
44:18 Clorox Institutional Ownership. And when
44:21 you do that, you get to screens like
44:23 this. Or you can go to a website that'll
44:26 actually give you the full list. And
44:28 it's not hard to find. And when you go
44:30 to a website like Yahoo Finance and you
44:32 find the full list, you're gonna notice
44:34 something pretty quick. The top
44:36 shareholders of basically every company
44:38 in America are Vanguard, Black Rockck,
44:40 and State Street. But Black Rockck
44:42 actually owns State Street. So, it's
44:43 just Vanguard and Black Rockck. And then
44:45 below that is always all the banks, fund
44:48 managers, private equity, etc. And all
44:51 of them are nothing like any of us. And
44:54 the more you do this and look around,
44:56 the more you'll realize that these same
44:57 financial institutions are at the top of
44:59 basically every public corporation in
45:02 America, right? Even ones that you think
45:05 were natural and family or founder
45:06 owned, like Dave's Killer Bread, nope.
45:09 Got bought out a long time ago by
45:11 Flowers Foods. And when you look at
45:13 Flowers Foods, Vanguard and BlackRock
45:15 are the top shareholders. You keep doing
45:17 this over and over for different
45:19 industries and pretty soon you notice
45:22 that all kinds of different companies,
45:24 food and beverage, banks, big tech,
45:26 every single one of these little squares
45:29 inside of these bigger squares are big
45:32 companies that you will recognize the
45:33 names of and you can probably zoom in on
45:35 some of them. And the red highlights are
45:37 Vanguard, Black Rockck, State Street,
45:39 and all the other names on those lists
45:41 are their buddies. Notice there's even
45:44 funeral and hospice care. They have
45:46 water and utilities. They've got just
45:48 about every aspect of our lives locked
45:51 down in a big way. The entire market is
45:55 kind of just one big
45:58 conglomerated game where they all play
46:02 their parts and they all have their
46:03 different corporations, but they all are
46:06 owned by the same financial institutions
46:09 and all of them have a fiduciary duty to
46:12 make their shareholders money. That's a
46:14 legal thing. They are required by law at
46:17 all of those public corporations to
46:19 maximize shareholder value. And
46:21 everything you're looking at on those
46:23 lists are their top shareholders. So,
46:26 they are legally required to do what's
46:28 best for all of those financial
46:31 institutions, not for you. Once you take
46:33 this into the grocery store and actually
46:35 look at the products on the shelves,
46:38 stuff gets pretty bleak pretty quick
46:39 because what I started doing is just
46:41 coloring it in. Anything that's owned by
46:42 a mega corporation. Oopsies. There's not
46:45 a lot of options left. Notice the baby
46:48 food aisle over there. That's not a
46:50 single non-corporate option of baby food
46:52 in that store. That's a WCO. We're going
46:54 to come back to baby food. But it
46:57 doesn't stop there. You can do
46:58 detergent. Actually, the first one I
46:59 ever did was tampons and feminine
47:01 products. The cereal aisle, big money
47:04 maker in grocery stores. And you could
47:06 just go on forever. It never ends. And I
47:08 did this for a whole year. Trust me. But
47:12 I said I wanted to come back to baby
47:14 food because this is not just about who
47:16 owns it, but it's about when their
47:17 fiduciary duty is to financial
47:19 institutions like the banks, their job
47:22 is just to make the cheapest product
47:23 that will profit the most, that will
47:25 sell to the masses in whatever way they
47:28 can. And when you're talking about
47:30 something like baby food, there are
47:32 serious ramifications for doing so.
47:35 This report is an official report
47:38 published by the US House of
47:40 Representatives where they ordered a
47:41 study into what is in our baby foods.
47:45 And they found that baby food was wildly
47:48 tainted with arsenic, lead, cadmium, and
47:50 mercury. And I want you to notice the
47:52 brands that are at the bottom of the
47:54 screen where the logo of the House of
47:57 Representatives is. That's Gerber, Happy
47:59 Baby, Plum, all these different brands
48:02 that you might think. I thought that
48:04 Plum was organic. Yeah, it's owned by a
48:08 mega corporation. And when they tested
48:10 what was in these baby
48:11 foods, it was appalling. The test
48:14 results of baby foods and their
48:16 ingredients eclipse those levels,
48:18 meaning the levels that are accepted as
48:20 safe, including results up to 91 times
48:22 the arsenic level, up to 177 times the
48:26 lead level, up to 69 times the cadmium
48:29 level, and up to five times the mercury
48:32 level that is supposed to be allowable
48:34 in our baby food, which should be
48:37 zero. But even
48:39 so, that's pretty dark. And if you
48:42 didn't know that, if you didn't know who
48:44 is making your baby food and how little
48:46 they care about your baby's health, you
48:49 would probably feed that to your baby.
48:50 And a lot of you probably have. And I
48:52 want to stress that you should not feel
48:54 guilty about that. A lot of people can't
48:56 afford other things. And most of your
48:58 babies will be okay. But it is scary to
49:01 know about and it's important to look
49:03 for solutions. And unfortunately, those
49:06 solutions are not readily available or
49:08 easy. Right? You could make your own
49:09 baby food at home by cooking all your
49:11 food, but a lot of parents have to work
49:13 all day, right? That's the whole point
49:15 of having this convenient baby food. And
49:17 we didn't even mention the formula,
49:19 which is super messed up. But one
49:23 solution that I kept finding over and
49:25 over again in every aisle everywhere
49:27 that I went is that when you find brands
49:29 that are owned by families, owned by
49:31 their founders, owned by real people,
49:34 more often than not, those brands have
49:37 more of a commitment to humans, to you,
49:39 the customer. Because if they don't,
49:41 they're going to get gobbled up. They're
49:42 going to get crushed by the big
49:44 competition. They need to do something
49:45 outstanding. And usually they're real
49:48 people, too, that have kids that are in
49:49 this business for a reason. And so I
49:51 started to notice that the family and
49:53 founder owned brands for many obvious
49:55 reasons are on balance a far better
49:59 option. And it's not hard to buy
50:02 family-owned. Often they're the same
50:04 price. Sometimes they cost a little
50:06 more, but really the hard part is just
50:08 finding them because shelf space is for
50:10 sale in the grocery store. And if you
50:12 want to know about that, buy this book.
50:14 Not sponsored. It's just amazing. Shelf
50:17 space is purposely for sale so that they
50:19 can monopolize the entire aisle and make
50:21 it very hard to find all the little
50:23 brands that compete with this giant
50:25 corporate scheme. But if you know what
50:27 brands you're looking for, you can just
50:30 go find them and buy those and suddenly
50:32 you can boycott the entire evil
50:34 financial cabal all at once. So what I
50:37 started doing years ago when I first
50:39 well two years ago really look I'm real
50:42 old. I'm like an oldtimer guys. I've
50:44 been in this for forever. But all of
50:46 2023 and part of 2024, I made these
50:48 spreadsheets and I put them online on my
50:50 website for free. And even though I have
50:52 closed down that old store because I
50:54 sucked at running a clothing store, I
50:56 still have those spreadsheets available
50:58 on that website. The website is cancel
51:01 company.com/resources and we'll have a
51:03 link below. Um, and the spreadsheets are
51:05 up still to this day. It's Google Docs,
51:07 so you know, practice safe docs. Um, but
51:11 I should warn you that they're going to
51:13 be coming down soon because not because
51:16 we hate the project or anything like
51:17 that, but because we have something way
51:19 cooler in the works. And I don't want to
51:21 say too much yet, but let's just say
51:23 that all along people have been asking
51:25 me if you could use your phone in order
51:28 to scan products and find out who owns
51:30 them and all this stuff that was on
51:32 those sheets and more, that would be a
51:34 gamecher. And at a certain point, I
51:37 received an email from two people out
51:39 there that were like, "Yo, we took your
51:42 spreadsheets and we made them into an
51:43 app and we want to show you." And
51:46 they're awesome and they're total
51:48 wizards and there is an app coming. I
51:51 can't say too much just now, but it's
51:53 definitely on the way and it's going to
51:55 be sick. And we're going to put a link
51:57 down below in the description of where
51:59 you can go follow along in order to get
52:00 the updates when that's ready because
52:02 it's and by by the way, it's not going
52:04 to be like some crazy profit scheme.
52:05 We're not going to like make a bunch of
52:06 money off you. We're going to make a
52:07 dope product that I'm going to use every
52:09 day because we want you to be able to is
52:11 I mean, it's not about boycotting this
52:13 or that or shutting down this company or
52:15 that company. We're not here to tell you
52:16 what's ethically right or what's healthy
52:18 for you. We're just here to give you the
52:20 information so that if you personally
52:22 don't want to buy from Nestle for
52:23 reasons, you can figure out what's owned
52:25 by them because they own hundreds of
52:27 brands. If you don't want to buy from
52:29 Bud Light or from any old company, it's
52:32 up to you. This will help you do it
52:35 right. For me, it'll be to help find
52:36 family and found your own businesses.
52:38 For you, it can be whatever you want.
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53:34 8007951210. That's
53:37 8007951210 or visit
53:40 americanfinancing.net/owens. We've been
53:42 loving the comments that you guys have
53:44 been sending in. It's been so humbling
53:46 to receive so much support and so much
53:48 good belly laughter from all the things
53:50 that you guys have been saying. So, to
53:52 close out today, we're going to check in
53:54 with some of your comments at Chrismaz
53:57 75 said, "I am so impressed with
53:59 Candace's choice, not only because Ian
54:01 is fully capable of doing a good job,
54:02 but because he has different political
54:04 ideas than Candace does, and these two
54:06 are teaching people how to disagree
54:07 respectfully and still work together."
54:09 Yes, that is what we need more of in
54:11 this world and I couldn't agree more.
54:13 Candace, I love and respect her in every
54:15 way. Even though we disagree on things
54:17 that does not matter. You can be friends
54:18 with people regardless. At Kenny Seer
54:22 2719 said, we got Ian Carol filling in
54:25 for Candace before GTA 6. Let that sink
54:27 in. Classic at wearing light being said,
54:31 Ian being so respectful of Candace's
54:33 show to the point he was afraid to say
54:35 hell. I genuinely didn't know and I
54:37 didn't want to make a mistake and I kind
54:39 of like I used to teach a lot and so I
54:41 kind of like getting back to my roots
54:42 where you you know you're just making
54:43 family-friendly content. It's a good
54:45 feeling at
54:47 NCD48 all this and more on Candace then
54:50 I was kind of hoping for a baby Ian
54:51 Carol montage don't hold your breath but
54:54 maybe we'll do something like that at
54:56 the end of the at the end of the time
54:57 I'm here. I don't know. At faith-based
55:00 living 939 says, "As a mother of four,
55:02 thank you, Ian, for exposing these types
55:04 of mafias, I mean businesses." Yeah, if
55:06 you haven't seen the episode that we did
55:08 about Urban Air yet, both of the last
55:09 episodes this week were about this crazy
55:12 breaking story at Urban Air. And don't
55:13 worry, we will be doing a whole bunch
55:16 more about that whole debacle next week.
55:18 We're just taking our time to get the
55:20 story straight, to compile all the
55:21 documents that we have, and to really
55:23 put together a great story because we
55:25 don't we want to do the best we can for
55:27 Tiffany, for all the other children and
55:29 families that have been affected by
55:31 this, and hopefully to make a change.
55:33 So, at Cheryl Lynn 101 says, "My husband
55:36 strapped the harness for our 9-year-old
55:38 and tested the clip system at a couple
55:39 of these places. He was more aware of
55:41 the risk than me. We've even gone to
55:43 indoor rock climbing loces, too, where
55:45 he insisted on checking everything. He
55:47 didn't care about offending people or
55:48 pissing someone off, just measured
55:49 insistence. Hearing this story makes me
55:51 love him even more. Thanks, Ian. You did
55:54 great. That is a good man. More healthy
55:57 masculinity where you're taking care of
55:58 your family, making sure your kids are
56:00 safe. Do not outsource your children's
56:02 safety to an underpaid 16-year-old at a
56:05 private equityowned trampoline park.
56:07 That is never a good idea. At Alle de
56:12 Laquva said, "My daughter worked at
56:14 Urban Air. She was 16. She complained
56:17 she received no training and had to
56:19 harness the children. She quit because
56:20 she said management was irresponsible.
56:22 The place was a mess. Parents need to be
56:24 aware of this place and that we are
56:26 seeing at these places. Thank you for
56:28 bringing awareness to this. Yes, I'm
56:30 glad your daughter got out and is safe
56:32 and no horrible scandals happened right
56:34 on her watch at Gematic. Leon said,
56:37 "Tiffany is almost single-handedly
56:40 raising awareness of how private equity
56:41 is destroying small family-owned
56:43 businesses. You are so right. Tiffany is
56:45 an absolute rock star, a legend. And her
56:48 story has been she's been working so
56:50 hard to get her story out. And it's just
56:51 an honor to be able to help tell that
56:53 story and to help spread awareness of
56:55 not only what she went through, but what
56:57 all these other families went through in
56:58 secret arbitration that they were not
57:00 able to speak about until now. And I
57:02 just I cannot but hope the best for all
57:05 of these people that have been so harmed
57:07 by it. Um it's a real tragedy. So, on a
57:10 positive note, it's been really humbling
57:13 to see your response to me. Thanks for
57:14 all the wonderful comments. It's really
57:16 fun to read through them and giggle,
57:18 share them with the crew, um, and just
57:20 generally, uh, have a good time with you
57:23 guys and with everyone here at the
57:24 Candace Show. Um, this is just the first
57:27 week getting my bearings, getting our
57:29 stories straight. Um, next week we got a
57:32 whole bunch of bangers coming at you,
57:34 too. But for now, that's all for this
57:36 week. Be sure to like this video, share
57:39 it with all your friends, subscribe to
57:40 Candace's channel. Mine is linked
57:43 below. Go off and have a great weekend.
57:46 Stay healthy, be happy, and we'll see
57:48 you next week.