The number of private jets flying in and out of Davos last week caused a noticeable increase in carbon emissions. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: The number of private jets flying in and out of Davos last week caused a noticeable increase in carbon emissions. This is the second, second part of this Davos debacle, this gaggle of billionaire pricks meeting in this opulent hotel where nobody else is invited. And so, so lay out this story for us. How ridiculous, how, how the hypocrisy of this.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. You, you have this new report that has confirmed that each year when they do Davos, the number of private jets, which is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of private jets flying in there, causes a notable increase in carbon emissions that they say is the equivalent of putting an extra 350,000 cars on the road driving nonstop for seven straight days. And some of these jets that flew into Davos, do you know how long their travel was? 13 miles.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: Not 13 minutes. 13 miles.
Mike Papantonio: No. See the, the big, the big challenger jet coming in there, the challenger jet is part of the opulence. It’s part of, I’ve, you know, I’m a bigger guy than you, or I’m just as important to you. These people can meet with a zoom call. You could have the most extraordinary zoom meeting you’ve ever seen. But why do they wanna get together? They wanna get together because they have these backroom deals where they’re making deals. We, politicians were there. Democrats showed up in mega force. So they’re meeting with these backroom deals with these Democrats, or I guess there, were there Republicans there? I didn’t see any.
Farron Cousins: I, I think there were a few.
Mike Papantonio: Okay.
Farron Cousins: But I, the Democrats, like we’ve said, you know, they were the ones they were up on stage.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Because it all ties into NAFTA.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: It all ties into, it all ties in, into CAFTA. Shipping the jobs overseas is where this all started. When we heard Bill Clinton talk about the brilliance of globalism. That’s what this is where these billionaire types tell us how stupid we are. Tell us we can do better by shipping jobs overseas. But, but the point is this, they could have met with, in a zoom room for God’s sakes. They didn’t have to waste this kind of extraordinary energy input to do this. How about the sex workers? What, what, what’s, what the hell? They have to fly in extra sex workers because they know that these corporate types, they’re big on that. Right?
Farron Cousins: Yeah. That, that is a story that emerged actually, the UK did a wonderful job reporting on that, just talking about the sheer number of women they bring in because they know these, these wealthy men, they’ve got appetites, they want this. So they bring in, you know, the highest caliber women they can find.
Mike Papantonio: And at the same time they’re talking about human trafficking.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: How bad human trafficking is and how it’s a global problem. Hell, they’re flying these women in from all over the world, you know.
Farron Cousins: And, it, it’s impossible to believe that these are not, at least some of them, women who are not there voluntarily.
Mike Papantonio: Oh, absolutely not. Oh, how about, how about, let’s talk about how great Saudi Arabia is. Pick up that part of it, it ties into the energy part of it.
Farron Cousins: Ken Klippenstein did a wonderful job where he talked about how it basically towards the end of the whole conference became an infomercial.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: An infomercial for Saudi Arabia talking about how great it is for investment opportunities. Oh, they’re turning things around in Saudi Arabia. They’re great people running this country. Just a complete fantasy land. They’re trying to portray Saudi Arabia like Disney World.
Mike Papantonio: And it’s all of these international bankers trying to get part of the Saudi Arabia money. Part of the pitch about Saudi Arabia, look what they do for our country. They invest, they buy our weapons. Okay. They invest into buying our land and building whatever the hell Saudi Arabians build nowadays. It was just, it, it was, it was this whitewash of Saudi Arabia. And they didn’t get into the idea of, gee wiz. Let’s talk about the energy as it relates to Saudi Arabia.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: You know, the point, the hypocrisy was just so palpable here. And, and, and I didn’t see either side. I didn’t, I read across the board, I read the conservative stuff. I read the Republican stuff. Everybody lands exactly where we are. What we’re saying. It’s this unprecedented corporate opportunity to try to shape the world there in Davos Switzerland. Not in Chicago, not in Detroit. Not by zoom, but in this opulence.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. It, it was really interesting. This is kind of one of the few things that brings together both sides because like you said, across from left media to right wing media, everybody is out there saying, this is deplorable. These people are disgusting. They are the causes of the problems that we’re suffering from. And yet they’re up there on stage preaching to us about, oh, you’ve gotta do something to reduce your emissions. Now let me go get in my private jet and fly 13 miles.
Mike Papantonio: 13 miles. Yeah.
Farron Cousins: Because I didn’t want to call an Uber to get to the conference.
Mike Papantonio: I think, I think the number was more than 50% of the, all the jets coming in flew less than 500 miles.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: Okay.
Farron Cousins: And, and they have railway systems that serve Davos. They’re very nice, by the way.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: It’s not like a getting on a crappy Amtrak.
Mike Papantonio: No. These cats don’t, they don’t do rail services. Okay. So, but anyway, the, the, they were asked several times different ways. Why, why, why don’t you do this another way? Why, why do you have to fly in with your jet? Why can’t you do it it by zoom? The question was, well, we’re extremely busy people and we have things we have to talk about face-to-face. Yeah. Face-to-face is in backroom deals that are being cut for these bankers all over the, all the world.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. All off the record. Where, you know, where zoom could be recorded.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: Somebody could accidentally tap into it. You do it in a closed door room, nobody hears what’s going on.
Mike Papantonio: God forbid they should, they should hear us in a zoom room talking about how brilliant Saudi Arabia is and how they’re our best friends.
