Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Mega Edition: The Worldwide Human Trafficking Problem (10/31/26)

Transcript

Mega Edition: The Worldwide Human Trafficking Problem (10/31/26) · Beyond The Horizon

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You know, human trafficking and sex trafficking are prevalent problems
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: throughout the world. It's not exclusive to one locale or,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: you know, one group of people or anything like that.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: It's everywhere and it's pervasive. And it's really bad here
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: in my state especially. Nevada has a pretty bad track
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: record when it comes to human trafficking... And especially servitude
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: in the realm of the sex trade. It's a very
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: transient place. And I'm sure most of you, or I
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: shouldn't say most of you, but a lot of you
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: from the United States especially, have been to Las Vegas.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: And you understand the nature of my city. It's a
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: chew you up and spit you out place, folks. Vegas
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: is not for people who are not prepared. That is
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: one thing that I tell people all the time. You
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: see all these glitz, the glam, the lights, the big buildings,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the volcanoes, the pyramids. You think that shit was built
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: on winners? Oh no, my friends. That was built on
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: the back of many, many losers. You know, people come
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: to Vegas and they have these delusions of grandeur sometimes.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: That this is going to be the place where they
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: make it. This is going to be the place where
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: they can make their dreams come true. But unfortunately, Las
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Vegas is the sort of place... That if you have
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: vices of any sort... Well, that itch... It's easy to scratch. See,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: when they call Las Vegas Sin City, they're not playing around, folks.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: It's a great place. Don't get me wrong. I love
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas. And I love Nevada. And in fact, when
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I leave Las Vegas in the next couple of years...
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: I'm probably going to be staying in Nevada... Just moving
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: up north... But there is a big time problem... When
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: it comes to sex trafficking... And human trafficking... In the
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Silver State... Anywhere you go... On the Las Vegas Strip...
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: You will see... Women who are... Women of the night...
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Shall we say... Prostitutes... Now... Not all of them are
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: forced into the sex trade, right? There are some people
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: who willingly go into this on their own. And there
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: are some people who make a very good living doing this. And,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: you know, you can get down into the weeds and
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: talk about, you know, all of the moving parts. Should
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: prostitution be legalized? Shouldn't it be legalized? You know, there's
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: a big stigma on sex workers as well. I try
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: not to play into that stigma, right? Look, everybody has
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a unique story. Just because somebody has fallen off the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: track and they're selling their body or whatever it may
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: be because that's all they have, it doesn't make them
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: a bad person. And the stigma of looking at people
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: as less than is something that I used to do
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: on a daily basis. Didn't even realize it. I was
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: doing it subconsciously. You know, the whole us versus them game.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: I've checked out of that game, folks. I don't look
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: at anybody and see less than, right? Or look at
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: somebody and say, oh man, well, that's a lost cause.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: You know, that's somebody's kid, right? Somebody's friend, somebody, you know,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: somebody's relative. So I don't try to put a stigma
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: on anybody and especially sex workers. They got it hard enough, right?
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Whenever you hear about a serial killer, who are they
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: usually targeting? So, like we've talked about several times here
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: on the podcast, I think that there needs to be
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: more resources for women who find themselves, you know, caught up.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: But there are women out there who are going to
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: go into this trade knowingly. And they make a lot
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: of money doing it. So, you know, it's... Not so
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: much the sex trade, right? Because that's shit. The oldest
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: profession is what? Prostitution, right? So I'm never going to
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: get up here and rail on prostitution per se because
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's too much of a nuanced issue
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: to have an absolute opinion on. I know one thing
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: is a fact though, folks. One thing for sure is
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: a fact and we'll push shit underground. And that's prohibition
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: in any regard. Look at the drug war. Look what
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: happened with booze. And then you push this sort of
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: thing underground and people have no resources. They have nobody
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: to go to and they're forced to live in these
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: deplorable conditions under the thumb of some disgusting, sick, second-rate
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: jerk-off who thinks he's, you know, Mr. Pimp of the Year.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: And it's just a vicious ass cycle for the ones
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: who get trapped in the game. But I think that
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: it's a nuanced topic. And there needs to be a
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: robust discussion about all of it. And especially here in
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: my state of Nevada, specifically. Because it is a prevalent problem.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: And again, we have legal brothels here in Nevada. About,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know. 60 minutes away from my house... You
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: can go to one... So... My personal opinion is... If
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: people want to engage... In that sort of work... If
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: a woman wants to... Be a sex worker... That should
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: be her prerogative... Or a man wants to be a
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: sex worker... That should be his prerogative... But I think
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: that the way that... We have a stigma on it...
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Makes it even more dangerous... There should be a place where,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: like a red light district, where it's acceptable, where it
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: could be monitored, and there's parameters that have to be met,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and people get tested for STDs, and all of that stuff,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: a highly regulated situation. But instead, with the stigma thrown
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: on top of it, these women who are forced into
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: things like human trafficking, They don't have any resources. They
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: don't have anywhere to go. What are they going to
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: go rat on themselves so they go to prison? So
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: our decrepit, broken, gross Department of Justice and prison system
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: can leave them behind again? Yeah, that's exactly what people
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: want to do. What sort of country sends people to
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: prison for being on drugs? It's fucked up. It's backwards
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: and it's wrong. And more times than not, the women
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: that we're talking about here, they're on drugs. People have
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: had hard lives, bro. And I don't judge people for that.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: I try to have some compassion these days. You know,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: it's weird. You figure as you get older, you become
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: more callous, right? You become more hardened. Not me. I'm
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: like empathetic now and I look around and it's crazy.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: It's just crazy. But these are people who need help
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: in a lot of regards and there's no resources for
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: them to be helped. And like I was just saying,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: if they go to the cops, it's like they're self-snitching on,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: you know, the cops are going to arrest them too
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: for being involved in whatever's going on. But as we
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: move forward and we understand that this issue is more nuanced,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: there needs to be another look at the stigma put
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: on top of these sex workers, right? to try and
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: differentiate from, you know, people who are being trafficked and
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: the women or men who have chosen to go into
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: this profession because it's lucrative, one. And two, maybe they're
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: into it, right? Who knows what people are into and
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: what they're not into? I have long ago stopped trying
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: to figure out what people, what makes people tick, right?
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Whatever makes you tick, God bless. As long as you're
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: not hurting nobody, I really don't care what it is,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: you know? I don't, Oh, that's weird. I don't care.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: I really don't care. Right? It's not my business. As
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: long as you're not hurting nobody else, not my business.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people are too nosy
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: these days, butting into other people's businesses. Like, you know
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: what's best for people. You don't know what's best for
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: other people. Stop it. And there's a lot of that
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff that goes on. So... If people have
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: decided that this is what they want to do with
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: their lives, then who am I to tell them not to?
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: My goal is, I think the object should be for
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: everybody to make it a more safer environment for people
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: who choose to do this. And that can only come
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: by ending prohibition, right? Setting up a regulated area outside
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: of town maybe, whatever it may be, whatever the people
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: of the said area decide, that should be employed to
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: give more resources to these people and so that the
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: people who choose to do this of their own accord
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: are in an environment and a place where it's regulated
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: where there's some rules at least where they know they're
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: not going to get in the car with a green
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: river fucking strangler see a lot of people act like
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: this couldn't happen to them or their families And I
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: find that to be ludicrous. This drug problem is pervasive, folks. You,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: your kids, your family, your wife, whoever. It doesn't take much,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: just a little taste of some of these drugs. And
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: before you know it, you're a fiend. And you'll do
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: anything to get those drugs, maybe even sell your body.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: And that's just the cold hard reality of the situation.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: And those people, those ones who are forced into it,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Because of their addictions or because of their being trafficked,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: whatever it may be. They are in such danger every
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: single time they hit the track to go turn a trick.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: You never know who you're getting in the car with.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: You don't know what kind of sick fuck is coming
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: around the bend to live out his fantasies with you
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: as just some object to him. You don't know. So
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: that's what I mean when I say the stigma is dangerous.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: And again, prohibition, in my opinion, when it comes to
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: vices like this is never going to work. So there
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: has to be a happy medium. My opinion, there needs
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: to be resources for girls who are on the street
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: who want to get out where they can go and
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: not be judged. And also there needs to be infrastructure
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: that's provided for people who choose to go into sex
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: work of their own accord. Again, Who am I to
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: tell somebody that they can't use their body to make money?
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Not my business. But there needs to be infrastructure provided,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, where that can happen in a safe environment.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: And maybe some of these girls that are out on
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: the street would be able to get off the street
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: if they had the resources available to them as opposed
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: to just going to a cop and getting arrested. So
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: those are just, you know, a couple of the things.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Very very few of the issues of this very difficult,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: nuanced problem. And in today's article from the Elko Daily,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: we're going to take it a little closer to home
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: for me and talk about the human trafficking situation here
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  Speaker 1: in Nevada. Headline, It Takes a Village to End Human Trafficking.
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  Speaker 1: This article was authored by Mara Vanderslice-Kelly. who is the
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: executive director of the United Way Center to Combat Human Trafficking.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Human trafficking is the act of compelling someone into work
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: or commercial sex through force, fraud, or coercion. It is
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: illegal everywhere, but happens every day in big cities and
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: small towns across the United States. And I'd like to add,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: considering we have a global audience here, it's happening in
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: your community too, folks. I don't care where you are.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: It's chilling to think about, but it's happening right under
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: all of our noses. Just recently, there was a brothel-type
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: place busted near my house, not too far away, that
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: was being run out of an apartment. This shit is pervasive,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: and it's everywhere you look. Small towns, big towns, everything
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: in between, and every single country in the world. Over
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: 40 million people in modern day bondage of some sort, folks.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Let that ruminate for a minute. Put that in your
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: bong and smoke it. Human trafficking takes many forms. A
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: foster care youth forced into commercial sex work by someone
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: pretending to be her boyfriend. A migrant locked in a house,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: compelled to cook and clean. A man with a mental
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: health disability laboring in a poultry processing plant. For no pay.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: It occurs across oceans. And in our backyards. Here in Nevada.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: The problem is particularly severe. More than 90% of human trafficking.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Calls in the state. Involve sex trafficking. Now it's sobering
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: to think. That in my state. My beautiful home of Nevada.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: That this fucking garbage is occurring. And I see it
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: on a daily basis. Right. Even if I ignore it.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: subconsciously or whatever. Every time I see a woman walking
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: on a street like Boulder Highway now, which is one
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: of the big tracks here in Vegas for prostitution, I
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: feel like stopping and offering her some sort of help.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: But then I say to myself, what sort of help
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: can you offer, right? You don't have the resources to
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: direct her to. There's no resources for these people. So
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: it's just a never-ending cycle that just stops and starts,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: stops and starts, and It's a hard life. It is
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: a hard life. I can't even imagine living like that.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: But yet you see it on a daily basis. Dozens
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: and dozens of women, man. It's a big problem here
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: in Nevada. Human trafficking is a $ 150 billion a year industry.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: There are more than 40 million victims worldwide, including many
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: in the United States. The National Human Trafficking Hotline recorded 11,500
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: domestic cases in 2019. Way more than that. Those are
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: just the cases that are reported. How many go unreported?
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: How many of these cases are never brought to light?
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: How many of these women and girls end up in
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the clutches of these sick fucks for years and years
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: and years? See, here's where I'm at with all of this, folks.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: If we have the resources to cage 2.2 million people,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: you mean to tell me we can't find the resources
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: to have some help for people who are involved in
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: situations such as these? Human trafficking situations or drugs, whatever
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: it may be. We don't have the resources to help them,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: so we should just say, fuck it, let them die?
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Forget the people on the fringes. As long as your
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: dinner is warm tonight, fuck everybody else. Is that where
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: we're at as a society? Because that's not where I'm at.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: I used to be there. Definitely used to be there.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: But not anymore. I see what's going on around me.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: I'm aware. I'm living. I feel it. Right? Right? And
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not detached anymore, and that's the biggest thing. I
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: was detached from all of this, living in my own reality. Well,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: my life's good, so what the fuck does it matter?
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Why should I worry about anybody else? And that was
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: my mantra pretty much until I met Carrie six years ago.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: When I met Carrie, my whole life started to change.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: I started to see things through a different mirror, through
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: a different pair of glasses. And then when Carrie got sick,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: when she got cancer, it was fucking rough, man. It
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: really dropped everything into perspective in my life. A whole
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: lot of people I thought that were down for me,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: that were going to ride with me forever, they were
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: nowhere to be seen. So you have to take a
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: few moments to collect yourself, right? Figure out the path
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: and get rocking. But, you know, it was an everyday grind.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: We were in the cancer place all the time and
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: you know i was exposed to a lot of people
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: that were really going through it and and people that
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: had nobody as they were fighting cancer and some really
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: horrible some horrible stories that i heard from people and
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: it really started to bend me to more of an
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: empathetic stance and from there i've started looking at everything
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: more from a more empathetic eye Realizing that it's not
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: just about me or how I feel. That there's a
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: whole fucking wide world out there, right? So, you know,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: as you experience things in life, I guess is what
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to say. It molds you. And yesterday's you
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: is not going to be tomorrow's you if you're leveling up.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: And that should always be the goal, right? Level up.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: And how are we going to level up as a
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: society in the United States or globally? If we don't
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: have resources to help the most vulnerable amongst us. If
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: we can get one girl off the track and give
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: her resources, that's a victory, folks. That's someone's daughter. Someone's mother.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Someone's friend. Just leave them out there in that wide-ass
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: ocean with no life preserver to be eaten by the sharks, huh?
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: That's the sort of society we want to live in?
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: How much money is for these people in that $ 3. 5
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: trillion that they just passed? They never talk about that, right?
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: You want to talk about a pandemic? What about the
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: homelessness pandemic we're experiencing in Las Vegas? Where are the resources? Oh,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: there are none. Only more money for the fat cats.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Only more money for the special interests. Me and you,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: we're on our own, folks. And the sooner we realize that,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: the better. So it's up to us, as a society,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: to demand change. Because these fuckbags that are in charge,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: they're never going to do it on their own. And
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: those were just the reported cases. Many more are never
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: brought to light. Sadly, marginalized communities, including people of color,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: LGBTQ plus individuals, undocumented immigrants, and survivors of abuse, are
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: more likely to become victims. Studies estimate that 40% of U.S.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: sex trafficking victims are black Americans, and over 60% of
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: labor trafficking victims are Hispanic. It's crazy and ludicrous. And
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: it's another reason why I think that the mob mentality
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: about trying to get people to come from South America
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: up through the southern border in mob mentality is bad
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: news bears. Not because I don't want people in this country.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: I don't give a fuck about that. Look, I'm not
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: one of those people. Oh, yeah, I don't care. OK,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: if you come to this country and you want to
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: work hard and provide for your family, you're my people.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: End of story. My problem is what occurs on the way.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: And people, once again, they just want to scratch the surface. Oh,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: come to America. It makes them feel good, right? You
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: got to get more nuanced. You got to dig deeper.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Do you understand the danger that lies for these people
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: coming from Central America to America with a coyote or
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: on one of the trains called like the Beast? You
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: understand the dangers and how many of these people end
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: up being raped and murdered and God knows what else.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: That's my biggest problem with all of this. Not that
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: there's someone coming here from a different country who's going
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: to steal jobs. That's a ridiculous way to look at life. Now,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: of course, every country has to monitor who's coming into
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: their country, has to make sure that there's, you know,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: a working border, right? But all of the rhetoric about
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: immigrants is BS. I live in Las Vegas, alright? I
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: live with a bunch of of hard-working-ass Hispanic people. And
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: I grew up with a bunch of solid, hardcore, family-loving,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: badass Hispanic folks, mainly from Mexico. Some of my favorite
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: people on this planet, by the way. Mexico is such
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: a great place, it's not even funny. A lot of
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: them were undocumented. I don't give a shit. Breaking news, okay?
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: My problem with the whole migration thing, like I said,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: is what goes on on the way to America. It
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: is bad news. Look into it if you haven't before.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: If you've never dug deep, do a little bit of
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: a deep dive and you'll see what I'm talking about.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: It's bone chilling to hear some of the accounts. And
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: then you get through Central America and you get into Mexico.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Now you got to deal with the cartels. You got
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: to pay the paisa. You better pay it. You got
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: to pay that tax or what? Then what? Well, now
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: you're part of their little human trafficking brigade because you
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: owe them now, if you're lucky, if they don't kill you, right?
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: So it's a nuanced issue when it comes to the
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: immigration situation. And I think that the people who use
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: it to score political points one way or the other
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: without going into the weeds and explaining to people what's
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: really going on are pieces of shit. Pseudo-intellectuals. There is
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: no silver bullet to end human trafficking, and it won't
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: happen overnight. However, a concerted effort from all levels of
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: society to combat this evil is our best hope to
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: end it. I agree with that. Look, we have to
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: work together. There needs to be coordination at the federal level,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: at the local level. And the main thing that I
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: can glean from all of this, from all of the
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: articles and speaking to people, is resources. What it comes
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: down to is money, like everything else. If there's no
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: resources for these people to utilize to get themselves out
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: of this hole, then what do you expect? You snap
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: your fingers and make things happen. People need a place
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: to go. They need food. They need clothes. They need education.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: So why don't we provide the resource? When communities come together,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: we can develop a comprehensive response. United Way is proud
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: to leverage our network of more than 1,000 United Ways
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: in 40 countries to identify and support local stakeholders in
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: the fight against trafficking. By mobilizing individuals, businesses, government, and
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: nonprofit organizations, our Center to Combat Human Trafficking helps coordinate
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: efforts to end this systemic injustice. And good on them, right?
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: I haven't looked too much into, you know, their organization,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: the United Ways organization, how they, you know, combat human trafficking.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: But any resource is better than no resource at this point.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: The playing field is barren, folks. There's no resources for
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: these people. How do I know, you might ask? Because
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: I have seen it with my own eyes. Very few
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: instances when we're talking here on the podcast where I
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: could say, oh yeah, well, I've seen that personally. I
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: know somebody who's lived through it. This is one of
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: those situations, unfortunately, that I know for a fact there
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: is no resources for people who want to get out.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I've had friends who got caught up, not in human trafficking,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: but in this life. You know, the cycle of abuse,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: sexual abuse, and there's never been any resources for people.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: And until we have that infrastructure built, it's just going
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: to go on and on and on and on. This
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: comprehensive approach is being piloted in Las Vegas with a
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: specific focus on the intersection of trafficking and the commercial
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: sex industry. And you see, that's the slippery slope, right?
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: A lot of people just want to do away with
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: the sex industry as a whole. I'm not one of
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: them people. Now, it's not an industry that I partake in, right?
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: I'm a germaphobe, first of all. Second of all, I'm
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: not into that kind of thing when it comes to
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: women of the night. But, you know, there needs to
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: be a place for people who are going to engage
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: in this. Because we're not going to regulate it. What,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: we're going to stop prostitution? No. It's a fantasy. So
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: we have to find a happy balance, in my opinion.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Where the people who want to engage in this sex
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: work are able to in a safe environment. Let OSHA
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: fucking regulate it, for God's sakes. I mean, I'm being
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: serious right now. I mean, you have like OnlyFans right now,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: not to digress, but OnlyFans getting rid of the explicit
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: content at the behest of the banking institutions. These fucking cartels.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: They don't want OnlyFans girls to show a little bit
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: of their bodies off or whatever it may be. But
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: they can go and give money to Jeffrey Epstein. They
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: can give a loan to one of these fucking dictators
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: so he can drop bombs on his people. Once again,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: the banking cartel rears its ugly head. And what's a
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: safer place for sex industry workers than in their own
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: home and pumping out content from their own living room?
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: I think that's probably a pretty safe place for people.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: But no, they can't have that either, huh? It's like
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: they're saying, fuck you, go back out onto the streets.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: And I find it heartless, ridiculous, and tone-deaf. Companies can
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: work to educate their employees and marshal donations toward projects
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: dedicated to combating trafficking. Many employees at UPS, for instance,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: are trained to spot signs of trafficking on their daily routes.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: UPS employees have given millions of dollars to anti-trafficking efforts
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: led by United Way Center. And I think that's a
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: good thing, right? If you're a UPS worker and you're
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: getting this kind of training and you can apply it correctly...
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: And help people out of a situation perhaps. Or bring
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: light to a situation. Hell yeah. Good shit. I'm usually
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: not in the category of somebody who wants to speak
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: to the authorities ever. Right? Not a big fan. My
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: experiences with the authorities have for the most part not
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: been good. Growing up in a poor neighborhood. Growing up
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: in a minority neighborhood. I've seen the shit first hand.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: So I'm pretty... I'm pretty apprehensive when it comes to
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: dealing with the police, or especially the feds, even though
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I'm never up to anything criminal. You just better off
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: when you're not dealing with these people. Additionally, business leaders
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: can strive to employ survivors of trafficking. Secure employment and
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: financial stability help reduce one's risk of being trafficked again.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Employing survivors may require more inclusive hiring practices. Like not
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: automatically disqualifying those with criminal records. 100%. When Carrie and
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: I open our gym or gymza, I'm not going to
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: take that into account. If you come to my gym
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: and you have a record for prostitution, that's not going
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: to stop me from hiring you. to run my front office. Look,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: I guess what I'm saying is this. I'm not interested
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: in who you were yesterday. I'm interested in who you
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: are today and what you're doing right now to make
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: yourself a better person. Shouldn't we all be interested in that?
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: We all have a past. You don't? If you say
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: you don't, you're lying right now. If you say you've
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: lived a life where you've never done anything that you
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: regret or you're embarrassed of, I think you're lying to me.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: So I think as a business owner or a manager
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: or somebody who is in a hiring position, I think
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: that we should look beyond some of that stuff, right? Now,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: I get it. If you work at a bank and
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: the person has a felony for stealing, probably not the
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: right fit. But it shouldn't just exclude somebody right away.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: And I know whenever I've hired in my capacity as
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: a manager previously, I've always fought for good employees or
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: good candidates no matter what the record said or if
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: they had a felony on their record. If I felt
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: that the person was the right fit for what my
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: operation is, I bring them on. And I'll certainly be
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: doing that when we open our gyms eventually. Because, look, again,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: I'm not worried about yesterday. We all fucked up. We
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: all made mistakes. We all said shit we regret. It's
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: about today. Do better today. As one advisor at the
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Human Trafficking Legal Center explains, trafficking victims are often arrested
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: and prosecuted for their traffickers' crimes. 100%. Bingo. Again, another
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: thing that needs to be adjusted, looked at, fixed. Too
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: many times, these are the most vulnerable that we always
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: talk about. These people who are caught up in this life.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: And they need resources. They need help. They need a lifeline.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Somebody to listen sometimes. Somebody who just cares. And there's
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: none of that kind of thing out there. Like, man,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'll tell you what, if I had
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: the money, I'd be engaged in all sorts of projects
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: right now to provide safe places for people like this. Men, women, children, whatever.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Whoever was in a situation like this deserves to be
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: able to have a place to go to catch their breath.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: To evaluate the playing field. And to make their next move.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: How are you going to do that if you're on
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: the street or in the clutches of some fucking pimp
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: with nowhere to go? You can't get out. Pervasive cycle,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: we were just talking about it, and it goes on
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: and on and on. Individuals can support anti-human trafficking initiatives
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: by considering their purchasing choices. Consumers can look for signs
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: of sex and labor trafficking in stores, salons, hotels, and restaurants.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: They can research whether brands employ responsible sourcing practices in
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: their supply chains. And I never thought I would have
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: to do that, but I do that shit now. I'm
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: very conscientious of where I'm spending my money. Everybody likes
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: this boycott shit, right? I'm not vocal about what I
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: do when it comes to that, but there's places where
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: I'll spend my money and there's places where I won't.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: And I won't get up here and preach about that
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: and tell other people what to do, but I know
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of other people out there that are
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: like me who do it silently. I don't need to
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: sign a petition. I don't need the virtue signal about it.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: I don't need to send a post to Facebook friends
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: about it. None of that shit. I just, money talks, right?
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: And then my money walks. I don't do business with anybody,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: if I can help it, if they've ever been a
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: sniff within Jeffrey Epstein's stratosphere. Concerned voters have immense influence
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: to wield too. Congress will soon reauthorize the Trafficking Victims
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Protection Act, which was first passed in 2000 to prosecute
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: traffickers and support survivors. Americans can call their representatives and
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: urge them to pass this legislation and fund anti-trafficking efforts.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: So I guess that's what we have to do, right?
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Give a call to your congressmen, your senators, and tell
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: them you want this put into place. Now, my suggestion
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: is whenever you call your senator or your congressman or whatever,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: be polite, right? You know, it's probably going to help
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: you out immensely if you're polite. I know you're mad.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: I know you're angry. I know you want to give
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: it to them. And if you want to do that,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: my suggestion is wait until they have one of those
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: open houses or one of those town halls. Then go
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: and express your opinions in person. And even then, I
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: would say, try and be polite. I get it. It's hard.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: We're all frustrated. For one thing or another at one
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: politician or another. One thing is universal in the United
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: States though. We're all pissed off. And that's obvious. All
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: you have to do is go out to the grocery
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: store and you can see that on a daily basis.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Or anywhere where you're engaging with strangers. Everybody's mad. Everybody
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: has a scowl on their face. It's just a very
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: weird environment we're in right now. Every day our lives
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: intersect with this issue through the products we purchase, the
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: systems we perpetuate, and people we pass on the street.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Each of us has the opportunity and ability to combat
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: human trafficking. United, we can end it. And I think
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: that it would be a good start if we got united.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Ending it, we're a long way away from that, unfortunately.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: But I think it's a good place to start. And
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: whenever you have organizations that want to get involved and
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: they want to bring light to this and they want
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: to provide resources to people who are actually living this nightmare,
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: I say great. Because for all of the bravado, all
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: of the virtue signaling, all of the we feel bad
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: for Jeffrey Epstein survivors, where are all of these rich
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: fuckbags with their checkbooks out to build facilities for survivors?
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Where are all these rich fuckbags showing up with a
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: memorial property in honor of these survivors that's going to
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: help other people dig themselves out of this hole? Where's
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Jeff Bezos? Where's bitch-ass Bill Gates? Where are the Koch brothers?
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: None of these people are anywhere to be found because
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: it's all talk to them. All of these billionaires, all 2,700
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: of them or whatever the fucking number is these days.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: They can all go to hell as far as I'm concerned.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: I'm done with all of these people. And all of
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: the shills that... I'm tired of all of it. We
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: have the resources. We have the money. The problem is
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: our weak-ass politicians, they don't have the willpower. So once again, folks,
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: it's on you. It's on you to force the issue.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: It's on you to demand change. The good thing about
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: all of that, the light at the end of the tunnel,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: is also that it's on you. Because you guys are responsible.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: You guys, you know what you want. And you've been
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: watching this play out for way too long. It's obvious
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: the game needs to be changed. That resources need to
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: be available. And that scumbags, when they're caught engaging in this,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: either be it Jeffrey Epstein or some street-level pimp, have
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: to pay severe penalties inside of the courtroom. If you'd
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: like to contact me, you can do that at bobbycapucci
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com. You can also find
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: me on Twitter at at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. For those
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: of you looking to find out more, today's article is
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: from Forbes. The headline is, Human Traffickers Used Pandemic to
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Grow Their Operations, Secretary of State Says. This article was
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: authored by Grayson Danger. The COVID-19 pandemic gave human traffickers
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: more chances to prey on people. according to a State
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Department report released Thursday, which found that losing income, isolating
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: to avoid the virus, and doing more work or schooling
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: online put people at greater risk of being recruited into
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: forced or coerced labor. Well, I know that there has
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: been a huge uptick in people mulling drugs for the cartels.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: The cartels have really exploited this situation, folks, and that's
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: why I brought up the issue of the wall and
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: down south. Because the cartels have really exploited a lot
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: of people coming from South America and Mexico itself to
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: go to America to mule drugs for them. And this
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: is one of my biggest problems with it. immigration. It
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: has nothing to do with people coming here who want
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: a better life. Unfortunately, the road to get here through
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: South America, through Central America, into Mexico is filled with danger.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: And my biggest problem are these women and children that
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: are making this long journey. And the pitfalls and the
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: things that occur on the way, how they're abused, how
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: they're taken advantage of. And I don't want to see that.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: I don't want to hear about that anymore. It disgusts
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: me hearing about people dying of thirst in the desert.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: People trying to, you know, hop the Rio Grande and drowning.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: I don't want to hear any of that shit, man.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: It's so sad. And most of these people, you know,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: a certain segment of society in America, a small portion,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: doesn't want to hear it, but this is the truth.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: A majority of those people that are coming from South America,
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Central America, Mexico, are good people. They aren't bad hombres,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: as old Trumpster liked to say. The majority of these
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: people are good, hardworking people. I live in Las Vegas, folks, okay?
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: I grew up with a ton of Hispanic people. A
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: ton of Mexican nationals who migrated to America. Solid ass people.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: People that want a better life. People that get up
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: every morning, go to work, usually multiple jobs, and don't
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: complain about it at all. Big time family structure, family units.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: These people, these people are a plus for america in
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: my opinion not a negative so my my beef with
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: illegal immigration is not the people that are coming here
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: it's the way that they have to travel to get
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: here and i don't think enough people talk about that
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: portion of it right everybody wants to talk about oh
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: well they're at the border they're gonna sneak in or
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: whatever when in reality these are human beings And the
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: courage that it takes to go on one of these
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: journeys to try and come to America. I mean, you
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: can say what you want. Oh, it's illegal. How can
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: you not respect the courage that a move like that takes?
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: And then for these people, they get to Mexico and
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: they get caught up with the cartel, especially during COVID.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: And then, well, now they're properties. As governments turn their
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: attention to the pandemic, traffickers have seized the opportunity to
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: grow their operations, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: an event announcing the report. The longer it takes to
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: end the pandemic, he said, the more people will become vulnerable.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: This is 100% fact. You know, you hear a lot
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: of people talk about, oh, well, the enhanced unemployment benefits.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Give me a break, okay? We got a real crazy
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: market right now that's going through a K-shaped recovery. And
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: the people at the bottom, like usual, my people, are
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: going to be the ones forgotten. No voice for them.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: Where's their voice? Where's their, you know, shining light within
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: the media? Nobody's sticking up for these people. And I
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: mean the working class, the real working class. They're the
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: ones who are going to suffer once again. You're going
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: to foot the bill for all of this. In all,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: 31 countries' anti-trafficking work, such as writing laws to stop
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: trafficking and punishing those who break them, declined between April
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: 2020 and May 2021 compared to the previous year, while
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: 17 countries improved their records, according to the Annual Trafficking
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: in Persons Report. Now, I could see some countries improving that, right?
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: These countries where... There's a lot of tourism going on,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: and that's the basis for it, perhaps. I could see
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: that improving because nobody was traveling, right? So that makes sense.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: Human traffickers force people to work in legal industries like
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: farming and mining and illegal ones, like drug trafficking, according
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: to the 644-page report. 100%. Say you're coming over, right?
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: And you're from, I don't know, insert Central American country here.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: And you're trying to get into America. And you save
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: up the five grand to get a coyote. And then,
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: you know, you give that guy the money, the coyote
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: or whatever. They bring you across. But when you get there,
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: you find out that it really wasn't five grand. You
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: really owe 25 grand or 30 grand. But that's okay
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: because you can work off your tab on the other side.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: You're an indentured servant. You're a slave. And you got
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: to pay off your debt. And these people are desperate
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: to get into America. Sounds great, right? Shit, I'm going
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: to America. All right, whatever. I got to do some
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: laundry for somebody. But it's more sinister than that. It
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: never turns out what you think it's going to be.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: And again, the most vulnerable are preyed upon. It makes
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: me so mad, so insane. How can we sit back
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: and let the most vulnerable get picked off on a
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: daily basis all around the world? Nobody stands up and says, hey,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: this is bullshit. Nobody stands up and says, hey, What
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: are you guys doing over there in Washington, D.C.? I
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: know the FBI is an absolute joke. I mean, just
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: take a look at Agent Trask over there who just
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: got arrested after him and his wife came home from
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: a swingers party. He went on to beat the shit
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: out of her. Oh, yeah, you know, he's the lead
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: guy over in that Whitmer situation up there in Michigan.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: That's your FBI, folks. And I know a lot of
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: people cheer that shit on, right? Oh, yeah, they're going
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: after the whatever militias. But let's be very clear. The
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: FBI is manipulating a lot of these groups from inside
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: of these groups. So I am very skeptical when the
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: FBI talks about they blew up a ring of domestic
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: terrorists or, oh, we caught these Islamic terrorists. And I don't,
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm very skeptical of the FBI and their
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: claims at this point. And I'm going to share an
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: article maybe later on about how effed up things are
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: at the FBI right now and the situation with Agent Trask.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: It all fits together, folks. You need to know all
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: of the details about the FBI agency being broken. It's
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: not hyperbole. If you consume the news in a rabid
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: fashion the way I do when it comes to situations
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: like that, you would see all of the articles and
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: you'd be left saying to yourself, what in the fuck
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: are these people doing? The most common forms of trafficking
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: include domestic servitude, child labor, and sex work. Yep, that
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: is definitely true. All of those things. Domestic labor, sex work,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: child labor. 100%. These people have no qualms with putting
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: a kid to work. Some factory for 18 hours a day.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: You think these people are humanitarians? The report said 11
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: countries were state-sponsored human traffickers, including Russia for allowing the
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: forced labor of North Koreans and China for directly compelling
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: into labor the Uyghur ethnic Muslim minority. Look, what's going
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: on over in China with the Uyghurs is disgusting and gross.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Everybody's so scared of China. Everybody's so scared to speak
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: up against the CCP. Fuck them. All right, how about that?
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Run home and tell that. The iron-handed, heavy way they
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: deal with their citizenry disgusts me. And all the people
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: that are chomping all around the world talking about fascism, fascism, fascism.
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: They should all be beating the drums when it comes
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: to China. China should be completely isolated by the world
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: at this point. No trades, nothing. But no, the world
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: doesn't have the courage to do what's right. Inequality and
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: discrimination in the U.S. and elsewhere have created the conditions
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: for crimes like human trafficking because traffickers prey on those
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: who are vulnerable, Blinken said. If we're serious about ending
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: trafficking in person, we must also work to root out
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: systemic racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination and to
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: build a more equitable society. It's like they got to
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: throw that in there for everything, right? Shut up, dude.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Stay on fucking task. Stay focused. And that's the problem.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: Everything is so scatterbrained. Nobody can stay focused in this government.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: Always worried about which way the winds are blowing. Breaking news, Democrats, Republicans,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: everything in between. The vast majority want human traffickers in prison, okay?
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: All of those things need to be combated, no doubt
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: about it. Racism, sexism, misogyny, all of it. But how
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: about we start By having some laws that actually have
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: some teeth when it comes to human trafficking. That'll be
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: a fantastic start place. Because guess what? We can all
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: agree on that. Since the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: signed in 2000, the State Department has to tell Congress
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: each year how many countries have not passed or enforced laws,
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: including punishment, to prevent forced and coerced labor, including sex work.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: The U.S. can withhold aid from and sanction countries that
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: do not improve. Yeah, well, who's punishing the U.S.? That's
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: the real question. What, the U.S. is all of a
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: sudden the guide when it comes to human trafficking? Yeah,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein was operating... Directly in our midst. At the
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: highest levels of power. But we're supposed to trust the US.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: To be the enforcers here. To my friends. Listening around
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: the world. Please push your governments. To do their own
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: work here. Because we can't trust the American federal government.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: To do the right thing. 45%. That's how many fewer people.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: Were convicted of trafficking. In the 2020 to 2021 period.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: According to the report. Yeah, it just means that there
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: was not as many reports, right? There weren't as many
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: people working to get these reports. Not as many people,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: you know, out there to enforce the law. So there's
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: less convictions. Human trafficking is vastly underreported, he said. There
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: were 109,000 victims that were identified in the report, but
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: nearly 25 million people are trafficked around the world, according
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: to an estimate cited by Richmond and the State Department,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: which means that the drop likely reflects fewer prosecutions, not
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: less trafficking. That's exactly what it does. Like I just
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: stated a second ago, look, there's less enforcement. The problem
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: of trafficking hasn't went anywhere. I'm encouraged that it's only
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: that much of a reduction, he said. The pandemic played
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: a role in the decline, but convictions had been on
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: a downward trend in the years before, said Richman, now
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: a partner at the law firm Denton's. Convictions may be
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: going down, Richman said, because countries have moved labor trafficking
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: cases to administrative courts. and because they have not adapted
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: their criminal justice systems to prevent trafficking, which is complicated
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: and can involve multiple jurisdictions. So look, there is a
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: serious problem with human trafficking. We all know that by now,
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: for sure. And this pandemic has just increased the issue.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: And I know, look, it's an emotional time for people, right?
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: I get it. But We have to try and be
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: clear-minded and try and find some common ground. And I
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: think that this area, sex trafficking, is the perfect kind
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: of place where people can come together and find that
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: common ground and start to maybe bridge that divide just
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: a little bit. Because folks, we all have to work together, Republican, Democrat,
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: all of it, if we're going to get rid of
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: these people. And I would hope that everybody listening to
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: this podcast for the two years now that we've been
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: blowing off here on air, I would really hope that
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: you folks especially would be taking a more impassioned look
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: at the situation before engaging in tribalism. Now, that doesn't
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: mean you can't have political opinions. Hell, we all have those, right?
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: But I just say, you know, when it comes to
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: this case especially, We have to stow our biases and
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: we have to go after every single person who's involved.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: And if our elected officials can't get together and come
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: to some sort of agreement on something like human trafficking,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: what the hell can they agree on? If you'd like
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: to contact me, you can do that at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com. You can also find me on
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. All of the links that
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: go with this episode can be found in the description box.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Today we're going to talk more about the growing problem
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: of human trafficking coming out of Ukraine. Now we've touched
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: on this recently and we've talked about it a little
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: bit But it's worth talking about once again because this
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: problem is just beginning, folks. Anytime you have a situation
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: where there is war in a nation and there is
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: a mass migration of people and you have women and
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: children leaving the men behind to fight, you know that
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: some of those women and children are going to be
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: exploited by scumbags. And we're already seeing that occur over
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: in Europe and in other places where these refugees have
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: taken shelter. And it's just going to continue to grow.
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: It is a problem that is not going away. It's
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: a problem that's not going to go away. And it's
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: just going to get worse as more refugees continue to
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: pour over the border. Now, the question is, what can
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: be done about it? What can we do about it? Well, unfortunately,
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: not much. All we can do is ask for accountability
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: and make sure that we're bringing some light to the situation, right?
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: Make sure that we're bringing some attention to the situation.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: Because unfortunately, the long road for a lot of these people,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: these women, these children is only just beginning. And it's
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: very sad to see. We've seen it in the other conflicts.
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: I've talked about this in Afghanistan. We've seen it in Syria.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: Wherever there is conflict, you can guarantee that human trafficking
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: is surely going to follow. And it's already starting, unfortunately,
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: in Ukraine. So today, since we have a bit of
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: a lull in Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell news, I figured
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: we'd take the time this morning and shine more of
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: a light on this ever-growing problem. With that in mind,
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: why don't we jump into this article from USA Today
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: and let's see just exactly what author Aliyah E. Dastagir
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: has to say. Headline, terrified children, men left behind, sex trafficking,
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: women in Ukraine fighting a different kind of war. You've
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: seen the pictures, a mother carrying a child bundled in blue,
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: her eyes fixed on nothing, her expression withdrawn. A young
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: girl on the train, palms pressed against the window as
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: she looks longingly at the father who will not board.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: And in a lot of cases, they'll never see their
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: fathers again. This is war. This is what happens. This
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: is a cold, hard truth of war and why it
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: needs to be avoided at all costs. Because the costs
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: that come afterwards are almost too much to bear. And,
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: you know, at my age, 42 years old, I haven't
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: lived through a world war or anything like that, but
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: the wars I have lived through, the conflicts I have
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: lived through and I've seen, it's enough to take your
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: breath away. You would think that in the year 2022,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: we would have found a better way to get on
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: with our lives. Some more discussion, some more detente, some
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: more talking at the table. But no, it's automatically revert
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: right back to animals and get to scrapping. I've had
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: enough of it. I've had enough of the monstrosity of humankind.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: A pregnant woman on a stretcher holding her swollen belly,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: smoke rising from the shelled out maternity hospital behind her.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: The world would learn Monday the woman had died and
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: the baby never got to breathe. And again, these are
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: the costs of war. You know, there's a lot of
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: people that will gloss war over and hype it up
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: like it's something cool, like it's a game of Call
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: of Duty. But that is not the case. Real lives,
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: real people are having everything taken from them. Families, hopes, dreams,
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: all of it. And the human toll is staggering. There
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: are glimpses of suffering generated by war. But they do
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: not tell the full story of the women and girls
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: caught in the Ukraine crisis. A story of displacement and
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: trauma with risks for abuse and exploitation that can have
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: myriad impacts on their health and well-being during this conflict
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: and beyond. So, again... We're talking about Ukraine right now,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: but you can inject any conflict zone in the world
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: and this is what's going on. This is what the
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: women and the children have to face. And the problems
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: that you see when there's a war-torn nation such as
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: Afghanistan or Syria and these migrants, these women are leaving
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: these countries, they are at a very, very high risk
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: for abuse. A very high risk. And it's very sad
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: to me that more isn't done about it. There isn't
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: more attention brought to this. And I don't just mean
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: here in Ukraine. I've been very vocal about the situation
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: that faces the women and children in Afghanistan as well.
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: And obviously Yemen. We have to understand that. all of
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: this stuff, all of these Game of Thrones that gets
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: played by these so-called elite, it has consequences that are
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: very wide-ranging. And as usual, women, children... The elderly, crippled,
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: mentally ill, those are the people who are going to
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: suffer the most. The U.S. has warned Russia's invasion of
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: Ukraine could be the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: World War II, which experts predict will hit women and
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: girls particularly hard. It always does. And let's remember how
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: many of these women and these children are never going
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: to have their fathers back. How many of them are
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: going to die in Ukraine? Now, remember, if you're 16
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: or older, 16 to 60, I believe it is in Ukraine,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: something like that. You have to stay and fight. Or
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: is it 18? Anyway, something like that. So a whole
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: generation of fathers is at risk of being snuffed. And
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: at serious risk. They're not out here messing around, right?
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: The Russians are lobbing actual artillery at people. They're launching,
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: you know, 105mm shells and the multi-launch rocket system. And
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: this is real war. This isn't fighting in the desert
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: where your enemy doesn't have air power or anything. This
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: is legit. First time since World War II, really, that
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: you're seeing this kind of firepower be unleashed. And it's
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: going to take its toll. When all is said and done,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: there is going to be so many fractured families. Women
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: and girls face heightened risks due to displacement and the
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: breakdown of normal protection structures and support, UN Women told
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: USA Today in a statement. The contraction of routine health
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: services and restrictions creates barriers to the provision of services
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: and access to justice. In past conflicts, we have seen
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: parties to armed conflict use sexual violence as a cruel
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: tactic of war, terror, torture, and political repression, In order
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: to advance their strategic objectives. Now look, I'm not going
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: to jump on board and say, oh yeah, this is
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: happening in Ukraine right now. Russian soldiers are going house
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: to house and raping people. I don't really know what
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: the truth is on the ground there. I'm not there.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: And there is something called fog of war. So we
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: have to be very careful about what we're sucking in
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: and calling fact, right? But I will say this. There's
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: a high likelihood... that at the very least some of
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: these soldiers are going to lose themselves in the animal
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: that they become when a sword is put in their hand,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: if you will, and they're going to commit atrocities. More
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: than 70% of women have experienced gender-based violence in some
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: crisis settings. Research shows women and girls affected by armed
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: conflict are exposed to an increased level of traumatic experiences,
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: which is associated with an increased prevalence of anxiety disorders
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: and depression. And as somebody who has anxiety, man, I'll
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: tell you what, I don't wish that shit on anybody. Thankfully,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: I don't have it to the point where it's like
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: crippling or anything like that, but I have a general
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: anxiety disorder. So every now and then I'll just get
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: anxious for no damn reason. It's taken me a long
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: time to be able to get that stuff under control.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: And for me, the thing that's really helped me is
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: finding the outdoors and going on adventures and stuff. So
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: I don't really deal with too much anxiety as these days,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: but I used to really have serious general anxiety problems.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: And I don't, I don't really, man, I don't think
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: it's a situation that anybody should have to deal with. Honestly, it's,
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: It's stressful. It's rough. So when you're in a situation
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: like this, war-torn, family leaves, if you have just, you know,
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: a little bit of anxiety, it can become a full-on
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: anxiety disorder and certainly depression. Imagine you're sitting in your
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: house and all you're hearing are shells raining down around you,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: blowing up, exploding, people dying, have no idea where your
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: family is. That's a lot for somebody to take mentally.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: And there's a lot of post-traumatic stress syndrome that comes
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: afterwards as well, unfortunately. While it's too early to know
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: the specific long-term impacts on Ukrainians, experts say the stress
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: of sudden displacement, separation from family members, loss of home,
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: and livelihood are already taking a toll. 100%. I mean,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: can you imagine? Think about that for a minute. We
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: all live relatively comfortable lives here in the West, right?
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: Nobody's dropping bombs around our houses, at least. You imagine
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: being in this war zone right now, how you would react?
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: And how about those of you who have animals? Imagine
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: you've got to take your dog out of there, or
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: your dogs. A whole lot of stress that I don't
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: even want to think about. When conflict breaks out, women
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: with specific and daily health care needs and those who
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: rely on government protections often lose access to crucial services,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: whether because infrastructure collapses or because it's no longer safe
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: to access them. The image of the pregnant woman on
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: the stretcher underscores the vulnerabilities, for example, of women who
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: require prenatal care. And this is the story of war,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: the history of war, right? Women who are ill or
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: pregnant or at the mercy of the state are always
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: going to be affected more than other people because they
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: have the whole rug ripped out from under them when
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: the government, for all intents and purposes, ceases to exist.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: So what are they supposed to do? They're reliant on
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: that safety string. And when that's not there... People are
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: in big trouble, especially remember all of their husbands are
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: gone fighting in war. All of their husbands are on
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: the front line. So it's really a sad, sad circle.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: Just because war breaks out doesn't mean that women's need
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: for sexual and reproductive health care is suspended, said Kim
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: Thu Seelinger, director of the Center for Human Rights, Gender
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: and Migration at Washington University in St. Louis. Women who
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: are victims of existing violence may not have protections enforced,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: and those seeking new ones may not be able to
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: access them as institutions break down. Experts say women living
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: in refugee camps are at an increased risk of gender-based violence,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: which can impact their physical, mental, and reproductive health in
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: the short and long term. Well, one thing I'll say
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: about this migration is it's mainly women, children, and elderly.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: There aren't as many men as far as, you know,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: Ukrainians that are with these groups. My fear is that
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: they'll be victimized by outside forces. Forces within Poland and
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: Estonia and these other countries who have established human trafficking
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: rings who are going to take advantage of this situation.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: When men stay behind, many women lose their family units.
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: Men in Ukraine, ages 18 to 60, are banned from
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: leaving the country because they could be conscripted to fight.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: The majority of people fleeing Ukraine are women with children
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: and unaccompanied minors who have unique risks and needs. And
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: that's definitely always the biggest worry for me are the
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: unaccompanied minors. I mean, these poor kids, they don't know
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: any better, right? They're all startled and frazzled from coming
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: out of a war zone. Now they're expected to navigate
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: this tricky situation and not find themselves in an even
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: worse situation. So it's very important that we have legitimate
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: resources at the border for these people when they're crossing
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: so that they fall into the hands of legitimate organizations
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: right away and not scumbags. With the family unit fractured,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: Many women are faced with new and stressful caregiving responsibilities.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: A 2006 paper in the medical journal, World Psychiatry, on
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: the mental health consequences of war found, if the household
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: is facing disaster, this may overload women's capacity to cope.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: As preoccupation with the needs of the family may lead
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: to that, they are not able to consider their own needs.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: And this is something that unfortunately is very prevalent in
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: a wartime atmosphere. A lot of parents, women and men both,
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: they stash their own problems, their own mental health issues,
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: their own whatever it might be for the betterment of
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: their children. And that leads to further disaster later on
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: down the line. Look, unchecked mental health issues turn into
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: really bad problems later on down the line, folks. There's
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: just no getting around it. You have to get a
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: handle on that stuff. But how do you do that
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: if there's no resources? How do you do that if
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: you're in the middle of a fucking war zone getting
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: bombs dropped on you? Selinger said it's heartening to see
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: the support from individual citizens in neighboring countries, many of
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: whom are opening up their homes in support of refugees.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: This is essential, she said, to help protect Ukrainians from
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: immediate harm. But it's unclear how long the compassion will last,
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: and she fears Ukrainian women may be harmed by those
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: with ill intent. Look, me too. It's definitely something that
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: I fear It's something we've talked about here for quite
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: some time now since all of this has started anyway
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: And it's something that we're going to continue to talk
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: about Because this is a serious issue that these women
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: are facing and these children are facing It's uncontrolled, unregulated,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: compassionate response, which always has some chance of risk, she said.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: There's no vetting of people who are opening up their homes.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: And that's, it is a risk. Relying on the kindness
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: of strangers, unfortunately, is a dangerous proposition these days. There's
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of people with very devious plans and plots,
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: if you will. Women may be vulnerable to sexual exploitation
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: and abuse. A growing body of evidence shows women and
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: girls in displacement situations are at higher risk of gender-based
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: violence and sexual exploitation and abuse, according to UN Women.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: We know that displaced women and minors are often at
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: greater risk of sexual exploitation and even trafficking, and there
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: certainly have been sophisticated trafficking networks in operation in Eastern
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: Europe for decades, Selinger said. And that's a fact. Women
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: get caught up in these kinds of human trafficking operations
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: in places like Eastern Europe and elsewhere, and you never
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: see them again. They end up being trafficked to some
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: far off place. They don't know anyone. Nobody knows them.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: And nobody's the wiser that these women are being trafficked.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: It's a very, very scary situation, especially when you add
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: the fact that there's the fog of war on top
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: of all of this as well. UN women said economic
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: desperation and collapse can also make women and girls more
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: vulnerable to exploitation and negative coping mechanisms such as child
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: marriage and survival sex when a person engages in prostitution
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: to meet basic needs. Now, we see that a lot
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: of women are forced into this all over the world.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: And it doesn't need to be wartime for it to happen.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: So you can only imagine how that's quantified When we're
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: talking about a wartime setting. The whole entire thing is
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: just depressing to me. And every time I wake up.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: And I jump on the computer when I'm in the studio.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: And I'm going through the news in the morning. I
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: just hope beyond hope that I'll wake up and all
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: of this will be over. Now I understand that's a
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: far flung dream. But that's my hope right? The suffering
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: is too much for me man. All over the world.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: It's depressing to see it. Can you imagine what we
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: could accomplish if we put all of our money together
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: that we use to kill each other? If we put
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: that money together for scientific purposes, to cure cancer, to
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: populate the stars, seed the stars. How much money do
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: we spend to kill each other? And for what? Stupid
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: ass disagreements over politics. Or this one believes in that god.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: This one believes in that god. I'm tired of it all.
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: I am really tired of it all. And we have
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: to figure out a way. To put the madness behind us.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: And move on as a civilization. Selinger said there are contexts.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: Where women who must cross borders. Experience violence. Either transactional sex.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: Or sexual humiliation. Often in front of their children. And sometimes,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: in front of their husbands, yeah, not gonna happen, I'd
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: be killed. If somebody thought that they were gonna get
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: handsy with Carrie, look, I'm certainly not the toughest man
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: in the world, but I would go absolutely fucking berserk,
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: and I don't care how many of them there are.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: You would have to kill me before you defiled my
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: lady in front of me. And the fact that people
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: are even put in that situation makes me disgusted. Absolutely disgusted.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: What sort of piece of shit Would assault a woman.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: What sort of piece of shit would be engaged in
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: something like this? You want to talk about people who
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: belong in Guantanamo Bay, folks? You're looking at them. For
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: women in Ukraine, the conflict alone is traumatic. But gender-based
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: inequality can exasperate trauma. Selinger said activation of the EU
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: Temporary Protection Directive was critical, as it allows Ukrainian refugees
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: to move freely within the European Union and to obtain
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: work authorization, which can reduce vulnerability to sexual exploitation. Though
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: Selinger said authorities must also pay attention to intelligence about
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: upticks in traffic. There's no doubt it's going to have
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: to be a... a group effort, especially over in the
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: European Union. With the way that you have the movement
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: over in Europe, over in Ukraine, and the women moving
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: around at a fast pace, it's easy for people to
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: get lost in the sauce, right? Individual citizens offering ad
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: hoc support should make sure they're doing so safely and
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: should report questionable situations, Selinger added. Countries housing refugees must
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: also support access to sexual and reproductive health care, child care,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: police services, and counseling with language access support. I think
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: that that's all reasonable. It's quite early to point to
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: all the gendered harms and long-term impacts, Selinger said. If
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: we look at other conflicts and see how things happen
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: in stages and how the violence can be compounded with
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: ongoing movement and insecurity, at the same time, many of
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: these women's husbands, fathers, brothers are still at home. The
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: daily worry as they watch the news having to reassure
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: their children that their father is okay and not knowing
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: that for sure. The level of stress is tremendous. See,
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: we forget about the human impact of all of this, right?
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: And a lot of people want to get into, you know,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: all of the nuance of what's going on politically. And
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: I get that. I'm one of those people as well.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by the geopolitical chessboard. There is no doubt
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: about it. But I've come to learn that the most
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: important thing, the most... important thing to focus on is
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: the human suffering when it comes to war and the
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: people who are Displaced the people who become refugees. What
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: do you think these people wanted to leave their homes?
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: They woke up and they said alright Let me grab
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: one little suitcase and my dog and my kid and
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: head for the border They didn't ask for this and
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: none of these other refugees did either so as a
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: civilization we have to make sure we're doing a better
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: job to make make sure that there's resources and And
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: like I said about Yemen, if we have enough money
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: to spend billions of dollars in munitions to drop on people,
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: we have to have enough money to provide services to
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: help people as well. We can do both. And if
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: we can't do both, then we shouldn't be engaging in war.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: So one thing is for sure, we have a humanitarian
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: crisis on our hands. And it's not just in Ukraine.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: We have a humanitarian crisis right now in Afghanistan, in Yemen,
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: in Ukraine, and there's other places as well. So we
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: have to make sure that we're keeping focused on this
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: stuff and we're holding our governments to account to make
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: sure that people are getting the proper resources. And I
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: think it's very important that we start at the very
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: beginning of it, right? The people, the women leaving the
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: country and then getting to these services, we have to
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: understand the whole entire scenario. And hopefully once they get
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: to these countries, the resources will be provided to them.
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: But we have to be realistic, right? And we have
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: to understand that not everybody is going to land on
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: their feet and not everybody is going to find the
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: services that they need. So we have to be aware
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: of that and we have to keep bringing the spotlight
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: to the people who are inevitably going to fall through
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: the cracks. All right, everybody, that's going to do it
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: for this morning's update. More context episodes are on the way.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: Some other stuff is on the way. And your boy
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: will be back in a little bit. If you'd like
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: to contact me, you can do that at BobbyCapucci at ProtonMail.com.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at ProtonMail.com. You can also find me on
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The link that we discussed
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: can be found in the description box. All right, folks,
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: have a good morning.