America’s Lawyer E79: A federal lawsuit claims that the state of Alabama is using prison inmates as slave labor, leasing them out to fast food restaurants and other businesses and then taking their money for themselves. Billionaires are funding trips for federal judges all over the planet – and their money has managed to buy them all sorts of favorable rulings. And President Biden is growing furious about his bad poll numbers, and new reports say that he’s demanding answers from his staffers about why things are going so badly for him. All that, and more is coming up, so don’t go anywhere – America’s Lawyer starts right now.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: Hi, I’m Mike Papantonio and this is America’s Lawyer. A federal lawsuit claims that the state of Alabama is using prison inmates as slave labor, leasing ’em out to fast food restaurants and other businesses, and then taking their money for themselves. True story. Billionaires are funding trips for federal judges all over the planet and their money has managed to buy them all sorts of favorable rulings. And President Biden, well, he’s growing furious about his bad poll numbers, and a new report said that he’s demanding answers from his staffers about what’s happening. Why is it so bad for him? We’ll talk about that. All that and more. It’s coming up. Don’t go anywhere. America’s Lawyer starts right now.
A new lawsuit claims that the prison system in Alabama has engaged in a form of modern day slavery. The state’s been leasing out inmates to private businesses and then taking their wages to keep for themselves. I’ve got Farron Cousins with me to talk about this. Farron, my thought is, okay, first of all, you got people there that want to get out of the house, right? The idea they want to go do that. They don’t like hanging around their cell all day long. So this gives ’em something to do. But there’s another side to it, isn’t there? Go ahead and pick up.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. What we’re seeing happen in the state of Alabama, which by the way, is making the state about half a billion dollars a year, is they’re doing what’s called convict leasing. So they take these prisoners who, as you say, they wanna work, they want to not sit in jail where they’re at risk of being assaulted or murdered. So they say, yeah, I’ll go work at McDonald’s for you, because that’s one of the places they have a contract. So then they get their paychecks and realize, wait a minute, there’s only a few dollars on here. Where’s the rest of my money? Oh, the state government took it because they, I guess, just felt entitled to it.
Mike Papantonio: They take 40%.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: Guy says, well, this is a chance for me to get, and it is true. I mean, they did a study on this one time, and the prisoners really like to get away from what they’re doing every day, but when they turn it into slavery and there’s a different side to it too. The other side is some of these guys are wondering, are they holding me here when I should be paroled? In other words, am I being held back from being able to get outta here and get a real job so that these folks can make half, half a billion?
Farron Cousins: Yeah. A year.
Mike Papantonio: Half a billion dollars a year on my work. Typically its fast food, right?
Farron Cousins: Yeah. Fast food. They also do some construction work, obviously, and other things where they’re kind of removed from being directly involved with other people. But you brought up a really great point there. The denying of the parole. Even just not even giving these people parole hearings. There was one woman who was supposed to have a parole hearing back in 2020, and they pushed it down the road years so that she could keep going to work sometimes six days a week.
Mike Papantonio: The other part of it is they’re punishing the people that don’t want to do this. They’ve got all kinds of ways to do that. You know, put you over to bad cell or maybe ship you off to a higher security cell, a higher security prison. They can move around all over Alabama. But it’s got two sides to it. Like I said, I did see an article a while back where these guys say, well, this is good. I get to get out. I don’t necessarily wanna give 40% of my money to the state, but it gives me something to do. But then when it becomes punitive and you’re saying, well, we’re gonna hold back parole because we need these workers. We need slaves. So we’re not gonna give you parole. And oh, by the way, if you don’t participate, we’re gonna ship you to a place where you might be killed in a very, very high security prison.
Insurance companies have started hiring doctors with long, long histories of medical malpractice. They hire ’em to deny claims. That’s why they’re doing it. Most of the major insurance companies in this country are using doctors that have dismal records to tell you that your prescription or your medical procedures just aren’t gonna be covered by insurance. What a scam. Again, who comes through on this, Lever?
Farron Cousins: ProPublica.
Mike Papantonio: No. ProPublica.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. And this was actually said to me by a medical malpractice attorney, and she was absolutely stunned by what’s going on here. Because we have these doctors who not only have millions of dollars in malpractice lawsuits, many of them have been disciplined. They’ve been busted for fraud. We’re talking real criminal behavior. And now they’re working for hundreds of thousands a year for insurance companies saying, no, don’t cover this procedure for this patient.
Mike Papantonio: The worst part about it is the people doing this, for example, you may have a podiatrist that’s close to losing their license. They’ve been sued for malpractice, whatever it may be. Anesthesiologist, they’ve been sued for malpractice. They can’t really carry on a practice. So they go to work for $400,000 with these companies. And the part, the podiatrist is telling a cardiologist, no, you can’t allow this treatment to take place. There’s no, they’re not even in the same field. They have no idea what that cardiologist is trying to tell the podiatrist. It’s just automatic denial. About 10,000 a month for some of them. Right?
Farron Cousins: Yeah. I mean, they go through these things, rapid fire, because obviously the less you cover, the less the insurance company pays. So there’s big incentives, by the way, for these doctors, even with their horrible histories, they couldn’t get a job at a free clinic because they’re so bad with the malpractice that yeah, hey, you deny a certain number of claims, you’re gonna get a big bonus this year. Your base pay is $400,000, but we may throw in a couple extra hundred thousand depending on how much money you save us. And so these doctors that have no business practicing, they’re dealing with areas, like you said, that are outside of their expertise. A hundred percent. And they’re just looking on paper and saying yes or no.
Mike Papantonio: We’ve talked about this before, but first of all, let me clarify something, you know, it’s less than 2% of the doctors that create all the malpractice. That’s a startling number. Less than 2% create all the malpractice in the medical field. I think that’s a startling number. But we’ve talked about the idea that once Wall Street started buying up these small doctor run hospitals, you’d have these small towns where you’d have 10 doctors that owned the hospital, and they’re invested in that hospital in every sense of the word. They want things to go well. They want good patient care. Wall Street saw that, hey, this is a big profit center for us. So they started buying, just buying ’em up by the dozens, all over the country. Now they control 80% of the hospital healthcare out there. Wall Street does. So the cats that hire these people who have malpractice histories that are gonna say anything, anything the insurance company wants ’em to say to the tune of, I saw a report 10,000 a month. Some of these doctors are doing 10,000 denials a month. And so, yeah, for the right money and as you say, hey, throw in a bonus. Right?
Farron Cousins: Yeah. And to your point also about the hospitals buying up the, or Wall Street buying up the hospitals, the hospitals then buy up all the local doctors.
Mike Papantonio: Right.
Farron Cousins: So you can’t find an independent physician anymore. They’re saying, oh no, I’m a part of this medical group. So they do all the billing. They take all the pressure off me. But no, what they’re really doing is becoming part of this conglomerate that, again, is also in some instances, partnered at the hip with the insurance company telling us, no, you can’t have this. No, you can’t have this prescription. No, that surgery for a deviated septum, that’s mostly cosmetic. So we’re not gonna.
Mike Papantonio: Or experimental, or we don’t.
Farron Cousins: Right. It’s ridiculous. Look, they gave me issues about covering my carpal tunnel surgery. And this is what we’re dealing with because healthcare is so privatized.
Mike Papantonio: Well, it’s Wall Street, is controlled by Wall Street. When you have to call Wall Street to see if you can have heart surgery, which happens, happens repeatedly. We get calls here all the time. They say, look, I gotta have this procedure done or they say that I have two years to live. And they’ll call and say, we gotta get this done. And oh no, that’s experimental. We can’t put any money behind that. It’s the worst of the worst. And anytime you have Wall Street involved, you’re gonna have the worst. They’re trying to do this with the legal field. You’re seeing these law firms that are national law firms, Wall Street’s trying to do the same thing. They tried to buy us. I mean, you know, ridiculous. But the point is this, that’s their MO. Find out where the money is and then go and take advantage of everything you can with that industry. Whether it’s the dental industry. You’re seeing these dental clinics come up everywhere. Massive dental clinics. Optometrists, massive optometry. And the kids coming outta school it’s a pretty good deal. You’re coming through medical school. You owe $500,000. And so rather than going out there and hanging up your license and saying, I’m gonna start my own practice, just go, you know, go with the hospital. Go with these corporation groups, and it’s all become corporate and this is what’s happening with it.
Billionaires have decided that buying politicians isn’t enough. So they’ve started buying off judges. These wealthy donors are sending judges all over the globe to attend to their education. Well, judges have learned that they have to play ball sometimes in order to get these great trips. I got a couple of varied signs to the way this is developing because I’m in front of judges all the time. But give me your take on this. Okay.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. Again, another great report from the Lever here. And they went through and they analyzed the financial disclosures of these judges across the board. Left, right, center, doesn’t matter what the judge was or who appointed the judge, these billionaire backed groups, it’s not about a political agenda, it’s about a corporate agenda. And they are sending them all over the world in some cases because they put on these continuing education seminars. Where you gotta do these courses as judges and what it is, is it’s pro corporate propaganda, 100%. And they’re in all these places where you wanna go. You want a vacation. They have you in for three hours, then you’re free to play golf or do whatever.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. The places that are doing this, Duke University is a great example. They started, well, this was put together. What this story misses, I think to some degree, is big law firms are the money behind this. Okay. Your biggest defense firms that all they do is defend corporations, they’ll call Duke and Duke bought into this big time. Duke is like a haven for conservative thought where it comes to the practice of law. They bring in all these defense lawyers, then they bring in judges and defense lawyers compared to claimants lawyers, are about 10 to one. So the judges are hearing for four days about how horrible things are out there. But it’s the court. See, that’s what this story kind of misses. And this is really a well done story, don’t get me wrong. But the whole push now is the economics of law. Okay. That’s their big push with these really conservative judges. I would like to tell you that it’s just conservative judges that are the problem. Some of the worst judges I have been in front of come from Democratic appointments. And we say, oh, well that’s gotta be, Democrat appointment. We’re gonna be. But no, it’s not. But people don’t understand why that is. The Democrat appointment, just like the Republican appointment has come up through the defense industry. Okay. All they’ve ever done is represented corporate interest against consumers. I can’t go into the details about it, but the last awful, just ridiculous decision, overwhelming information that the corporation had done wrong. But when you looked at her analysis of things, it was all about the economics, you know? Well, yeah, we’ve killed some people. But sometimes that’s just the cost of doing business. That is emanating not just from the Federalist Society, but from the biggest defense firms, Williams and Connolly types in this country that are, they’re creating these havens. Duke is one of ’em. There’s several more, aren’t there?
Farron Cousins: Yeah. And of course, the usual suspects are the two. You’ve got the Koch network that is funding some of these junkets, the Federalist Society, as you mentioned. But really what this is, is this is almost a legal form of bribery. Right. There’s no restrictions on this. There’s nothing illegal being alleged at all. But these judges know, this is an expression I’ve heard you say before, you dance with who brought you.
Mike Papantonio: Right.
Farron Cousins: And that is exactly what these judges do. They say, well, okay, I’ve got this case in front of me now, but golly, they, actually just paid. It was a gorgeous trip we took down to Europe. It was great. So, we look at this, they did some bad things, but is it worth punishing them $500 million? And that’s where it comes in. It’s not necessarily always ruling against the plaintiffs. But reducing those damages to where the company still makes huge profits.
Mike Papantonio: Oh, it’s still, well, it’s a business decision. They make $10 billion and have to pay out $1 billion where they know from the very word go that the product that they were selling was gonna kill people. I mean, there’s no question. And I’m on these panels with these defense lawyers and judges, and it’s always stacked. It’s like 10 to one. And so that’s the way it’s designed. And like I say, Duke is the worst. It is the worst about buying into the idea, bring in all these defense lawyers, have ’em overwhelming the federal judges that are there. But I don’t really see, day to day, I gotta tell you, I don’t see a big difference. I know that probably shocks everybody. But I don’t see a big difference where it comes to the Democratic appointment or the Republican appointment. I mean, that it’s startling. You see some difference. But the variations of what I’m seeing right now with some of these Democratic judges that we thought, oh, this is gonna be a great judge because he came from a big defense, corporate defense firm, and he gave a lot of money to say Obama. And then Obama makes the appointment and Obama loses touch with the idea that this corporate defense lawyer is still a corporate defense lawyer. He just has a black robe on.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. They’ll be good on the social issue side of things. But when it comes to holding corporations accountable.
Mike Papantonio: Oh, forget it.
Farron Cousins: They’re all the same.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Forget it.
President Biden’s poll numbers have been going down for the past four consecutive months. And a new report says that Biden has noticed. You think? In fact, around Thanksgiving, the president called his staff to ask them, what the hell? What is this? And I think that’s probably the first thing he should have thought about. Do I have the right staff here? Go ahead and pick up.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. This is, it’s a good sign that Biden understands, hey, something is wrong. I shouldn’t be losing to the guy with 91 felony counts against him, who’s out there wanting to be a dictator, but he is. All the polls for four months have shown losing, losing, losing. And those polls keep getting worse for him. And we’re 11 months out now, so now is the time where it’s like, okay, we should be worrying if you’re a part of that Biden administration. Things are bad. But I think what he’s missing is they are not good with the messaging.
Mike Papantonio: Okay. So the talking head critics that are saying it is time to pay attention to this. I mean, whether it’s Carville or a lot of folks coming from the Obama admin, Axelrod, coming from the Obama administration and the Clinton saying, it’s time for us to pay attention. Some of their, speak clearly, speak coherently. These are the, that’s one thing. Stop stumbling around and running into things. I mean, that sounds easy. Lose Kamala Harris, get rid of her. She’s an anchor around your neck. Fix the immigration. Come out and start doing something about immigration. At least tell the story about the economy to where people understand that it’s pretty good. You’ve done a pretty good job. Talk about things like CHIPS, stuff that you’ve created for the infrastructure. Tell Hillary, get lost. Okay. Get rid of Hillary and bring Obama in to help. So these are all things that I wish he’d listened to. These are basically talking head recommendations. Oh, quit trying to save your toxic son. This is what you hear ’em talk about. And get rid of your staff. Your staff sucks. The people who are advising you are morons. Get rid of ’em. What do you think?
Farron Cousins: You know, I agree. When he came into office, look, he packed it with the same old DC insiders that have been there for decades, making bad decisions, doing things the way things have always been done for the sake of doing it that way. Nothing new, no new ideas, no big grand plans. So those people are a problem and that’s something, by the way, we talked about when the administration started picking people.
Mike Papantonio: Oh, exactly.
Farron Cousins: You know, your Neera Tandens and folks like that, like, kick them out the door. But here’s another interesting tidbit. Earlier this week, another poll came out, New York Times poll this time, that said that the three top issues for voters economy, then inflation, then immigration. But the issue the Democrats are focusing on, because it has helped them in the last election, is.
Mike Papantonio: The abortion.
Farron Cousins: Abortion.
Mike Papantonio: Which is good.
Farron Cousins: Which 1% of voters said that’s their top issue.
Mike Papantonio: Really?
Farron Cousins: 1%. And so they’re now, this was announced earlier today, they’re sending Kamala Harris out on a month long nationwide tour to only talk about that. That’s not a winning issue as much.
Mike Papantonio: I’m not sold on that. I mean, that’s the statistic and you know these statistics. Instinctively, I think it’s a good issue. But if it’s only moving one.
Farron Cousins: Well, it definitely is a good issue.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. To me, the issues are, look, the infrastructure issue was important. We’re building new roads now. We’re building new bridges. We’re doing the things that he said he wanted to try to accomplish. But his handlers are so bad. And that’s what everybody’s telling ’em. Get rid of these jokers. I mean, they’re terrible. Start anew. You have time to start with a new group. Also, these activists that you have around you that wanna put their head in the sand and tell everybody, the polls don’t mean anything. Get rid of ’em. Get rid of ’em. Because what a ridiculous thing to say. Talk about, let’s get some specifics. Talk about some of the point difference. Michigan, for example.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. Michigan. He’s looking at, what is it, 10 points I think at this point.
Mike Papantonio: It was 10 points. Yeah.
Farron Cousins: The other, you’re looking at five other swing states here because we’ve got Wisconsin, they’re calling Georgia a swing state, which I don’t agree with that.
Mike Papantonio: I don’t see that. Yeah, I don’t either.
Farron Cousins: That’s like calling Florida a swing state. We’re not. We are a red state, unfortunately. So all of these areas where Trump is winning by anywhere between five and 10 points, well outside of any margin of errors, and those are the ones that are gonna decide the election. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin. And that’s where he’s got real issues here. But again, the economic message, the Bidenomics talking point didn’t work. Okay. So switch it up, drop the name and start talking about the fact that listen, every month, this year, we have exceeded expectations on job creation. That’s big.
Mike Papantonio: Something bothers me and here it is, it struck me when I was reading this article. Okay. So he has everybody in the room and he says, look, this really isn’t about me. This is about the future of democracy. If he really believed that he would step down. If he really believed that he would step down. But that’s what he’s telling us. Really? It’s not about me. If it’s not about you and you see what’s happening here, get the hell out of the way. Let somebody run that can beat this crazy man. Somebody out there that we feel comfortable with. What do the independents do to this? Anything?
Farron Cousins: You know, it troubles me a bit because, look, we look at these poll numbers, we see it on paper and Biden’s in trouble. But then you look in practice and we have seen Democrats over-perform in every election since summer of 2022.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah, Virginia. I mean, look at Virginia.
Farron Cousins: Even Jacksonville, Florida. So it makes me wonder how accurate are the polls? Because they’ve been way off in years.
Mike Papantonio: I always worry about that.
Farron Cousins: But I think also dismissing them is not a good idea either. He has issues and he’s gotta work on ’em and he’s not yet.
Mike Papantonio: We’ll do a show like this and the comments coming in are, you can’t believe the polls, ignore the polls. You don’t ignore the polls. They’re telling you something and they’re telling that Kamala’s not helping him. They’re telling you that whatever the imagery is of this guy, it’s not great. They’re telling you that the handlers aren’t telling the story very well. They’re telling you they’ve got problems with immigration. You got problems with delivering your story on the economy and get rid of Hillary. Don’t have Hillary out as your talking point.
Farron Cousins: That, I mean, as somebody hugely as unpopular as she is, that’s just dumb. That is a dumb move. But, look, Ukraine is dragging him down a bit. Israel, Gaza, dragging him down.
Mike Papantonio: Totally.
Farron Cousins: He’s got a lot of problems.
Mike Papantonio: Do you think the hearings that are coming up really are not gonna have any effect? I mean, I really wanna, I have a hard time believing because I believe in the old paper cuts, you know? It’s just another paper cut. What is your take on it?
Farron Cousins: I’m basing mine on what the actual Republicans are saying. And right now the Republicans are telling us, yeah, we don’t have anything. We got less than nothing. But then again, they all, every one of them in the House voted to expand the inquiry. I do think at the end of the day, whether they find something or don’t find something, I think that House is going to impeach him. I think they will all band together and they will do it. That’s a big prediction for next year. But.
Mike Papantonio: Well, every day it’s a new story. The latest is Jim, his brother, having conversations with a guy I know. I mean, I used to try cases for him, Dickie Scruggs, talking about the tobacco issue and they were tapping the phone lines. And it’s this stuff that’s hanging around out there that the public hears. Now, does it mean anything at the end of the day? Is it really something that we can convict a sitting president about? I don’t think so. Not from what I’m seeing. But it’s all of these things that cumulatively have an effect on the American public’s attitude.
Farron Cousins: Well, the only thing that benefits Biden about that is the fact that it is all very confusing. And when an issue is confusing it turns people off because I don’t understand.
Mike Papantonio: Exactly.
Farron Cousins: Like the New York, not the fraud trial, but the one with Trump and the hush money payment because it was done this, a lot of people dismiss that because it is a confusing trail of things. So they say, well, that one doesn’t matter.
Mike Papantonio: That’s interesting.
Farron Cousins: People get confused and they.
Mike Papantonio: Well, it is like, it’s trying a case. I mean, if the jury doesn’t get it immediately within the first 30 minutes, you probably lost your case. You’ll be in trial for two months and you lost your case right up front in that first 30 minutes. That’s your point, I think.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: That’s a good point. Thanks for joining me, Farron. I say it all the time, I believe you’re the best, I really do believe you’re the best progressive commentator in the business. I honestly believe that.
Farron Cousins: Thank you. I appreciate it.
Mike Papantonio: That’s all for this week. But all of these segments are gonna be posted right here on this channel in the coming week. So make sure you’re subscribed. I’m Mike Papantonio and this has been America’s Lawyer where we tell you stories every week that corporate media simply can’t tell you. Their advertisers will not allow them to tell the story because they’ll jerk the advertising money away from ’em if they do, or their political connections are so strong to the Republican side or the Democratic side, that they’re afraid to tell the story because they’re afraid it’s gonna hurt the political party. We don’t have that problem here as you can tell. We’ll see you next time.
