And it starts with copper, the mineral copper. Theres copper in brass. Theres copper in bronze. The Statue Of Liberty is sheathed in a layer of copper. Thats about the thickness of two pennies. Pennies themselves used to be copper, but now theyre just coppercovered zinc, which sort of seems sad. It makes financial sense, because copper over time became too valuable to use in something as cheap as a penny, because most of what we use copper for now is conducting electricity. We use copper for wiring. There is a massive global appetite for copper. And the Worlds Largest producer of copper is an american company. Its a company that used to be based in new orleans but now the Mining Company freeport is based in phoenix, arizona. And the freeport Mining Company of phoenix, arizona, they do still mine copper in arizona and
they mine copper in new mexico and in colorado. But they are a gigantic firm. And theyre a global operation. In south america, they mine copper in chile, peru. In indonesia, they operate the largest gold mine in the entire world, which is also the Third Largest copper mine in the world, which is also a huge silver mine as well. This is an american company, but the physical footprint that freeport has in indonesia, it isnt just visible from space. Its easily visible from space. Its massive. Their mine in Papua Province in indonesia, is basically a massive upside down mountain. Its almost a half million acres. They first discovered Mineral Wealth there in the 1930s when it was a dutch colony, by the 1970s, indonesia was an independent country and that
mine was one of the biggest open pits in the world. Among the many products and byproducts of that mine are of course all that silver and copper and gold. Also hundreds of millions of tons of mining waste that they have dumped in the surrounding jungle and rivers. That environmental damage associated with that mine is one of the things that mine is most famous for around the globe. It is also unappreciaby massive, both geographically and economically. Freeports operation in indonesia is so big, in indonesia that company is the single biggest taxpayer for the whole country. And its not like indonesia is some rinkydink country. Indonesia has 260 Million People. The biggest countries on earth by population are china first, then india, then us, then indonesia. Indonesia is ginormous. But of all the 260 Million People in indonesia, its biggest tax payment every year comes from arizona, comes from this american company. Its just huge. In our president ial election this past year, do you remember when indonesia had a weird little cameo role . It was in the republican primary. It came up. It was so strange, so inexplicable but unexplained. At the time and until now, it didnt ever make sense until now. And i love it when a story like, you know, Doesnt Make Sense for a year, and then all of a sudden it does. It rarely happens when you get it so clearly, like light dawns on marblehead, oh, thats why that happened. In this case, light dawns on marblehead, now we get it. It started off strangely with no explanation. It was last september, 2015. A few months into the start of the republican primary. The donald Trump Candidacy had started in june of 2015, and it was almost, honestly, treated as a joke from thbeginning. His supporters can crow about that now, and they do, but at the time it was treated mostly as a joke. And there were some funny things, some laughable things about the launch of the Trump Candidacy, up to and including reports that the candidate had to hire extras, he literally had to pay actors to pretend to be his supporters at his day one announcement at trump tower. But however soft and even silly his ndidacy seemed at the very start, It Ught Fire R real very quickly, so much so that by the fall of 2015, the Republican Party was already worrying openly about Donald Trumps poll numbers. He was definitely leading. And the were worried that even if one of their more normal candidates could beat trump to get the nomination, they were worried that he was showing such support in the polls, maybe he
might bolt the Republican Party and run as a third party, an independent candidate against whoever the republican nominee was. This was a real concern, moderators at the debates, and ultimately the party itself, started asking all the republican candidates to make a pledge, to pledge that they would support whoever the party ended up nominating. And there was a little question as to whether the other candidates would really pledge to definitely do that, because there was a chance to donald trump might become the nominee and would they all be comfortable making that pledge. But mostly the republicans were worried about trump himself. Would trump make a pledge like that . Would he really pledge, not just to not run as an independent, but to wholeheartedly support whoever the republican nominee was, even if it was somebody like low Energy Jeb Bush or lyin ted or little marco . The Republican Party was very worried about that, because
initially the answer from trump was that he would make no such pledge. Is there anyone onstage, and can i see hands, who is unwilling tonight to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the Republican Party and pledge to not run an independent campaign against that person . Again, were looking for you to raise your hand now. Raise your hand now if you wont make that pledge tonight. Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump, to be clear, youre standing on a republican i fully understand. The place where the rnc will give the nominee the nod. I fully understand. Just to be clear, were going to move on, youre not going to make the pledge . Im not going to make the pledge at this time. That was august 2015. Major point of contention in theRepublican Party. Major point of contention at the republican debates. Lots and lots of drama around that issue. All the other candidates say, yeah, ill make the pledge. But donald trump for a long time wouldnt. And that is why it was genuinely a big deal, it was the resolution to something around which there was a lot of tension. It was a big deal when on september 3rd, donald trump changed tack, finally announced that yes, he would sign this pledge. I have signed the problem. [ applause ] so i will be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican Party and the conservative principles for which it stands. And we will go out and we will fight hard and we will win. He signed it. He signed the pledge. I have signed the pledge. It sort of feels like a silly turn in the campaign, now looking back at it. But at the time it was a big deal in the republican primary. There were two things that were weird about it when it happened. The first one was when he held up that piece of paper, everybody could see that the date on it was wrong. It was september 3rd, not august 3rd. That was kind of weird, the date was wrong. The second thing that was strange was, hey, whats this random indonesian guy doing there for this announcement . It was a weird moment at the time and it really made no sense until now. Were having one of those moments when something that previously made no sense, makes sense. This is what happened that day. This is how donald trump, he wrapped up, and then restarted his Press Conference about signing that silly republican pledge. It was so weird at the time. Watch. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. [ applause ]
hey, ladies and gentlemen, this is a very an amazing man. He is, as you know, right, Speaker Of The House of indonesia. Hes here to see me. One of the most powerful men and a great man and his whole group is here to see me today. We will do great things for the United States; is that correct . Yes. Do they like me in indonesia . Yes, thank you very much. Speaker of the house in indonesia. Thank you very much. [ applause ] that was such a random moment in the president ial election, right . Such a random moment in the republican primary. Press conference is over, he convenes this Press Conference to announce he signs this pledge, holds the pledge up with the wrong date on it, thanks everybody, walks away, comes back to the podium, starts up the Press Conference to tell everybody how awesome it is that hes meeting with his friend,
december 2015, three months after he had that weird meeting with trump that nobody understood, that guy, the Speaker Of The House in indonesia, forced to resign in the midst of this scandal. And then over the course of the ensuing year, things got even more wild than that. He was facing this ethics tribunal for this caught on tape corruption scandal. But then the tape itself got ruled inadmissible as evidence before the tribunal. And this guy was powerful enough and connected enough that even though he had had to resign in disgrace, even though everybody had heard the tape, right after our election in november, this past november, they actually returned this guy to power as Speaker Of The House again. And now two things have happened that sort of make us understand our new world. Two things have happened that make this all make sense. Number one is that the Trump Organization has just confirmed to the New York Times that Donald Trumps new real estate deals, that golf course he wants
to build, that resort he wants to build, the indonesian resort deals that brought this politician to trump tower in the first place, Trump Organization has just confirmed to the New York Times those deals are on. Those projects are moving forward. Remember when donald trump said right after he was elected that there would be no new deals by the Trump Organization . Now that hes President Elect . There are new deals that are absolutely under way in west java, thats the golf course, and in bali, thats the hotel. Must be nice to have a very powerful politician like the countrys Speaker Of The House helping you out with real estate deals like that. And what does the indonesian Speaker Of The House get out of this deal . The man who was caught on tape trying to squeeze 4 billion out of that gigantic american Mining Company, thats the largest taxpayer in his country . That brings us to the final piece of this, which is apparently how its going to
work in this country. Were used to reading about how stuff works like this with autocratic leaders who have been in power for decades, and their extended family who own more wealth than the rest of the country combined, right, politicians who get caught for corruption in foreign countries, were used to reading about this in like terrible human rights reports on countries that end in stan. But now we get an american chapter of this story, because the last piece of this is that just as this Speaker Of The House in indonesia gets reinstated, after his Corruption Charges get thrown out on a technicality, just as this Speaker Of The House helping donald trump with his real estate deals gets put back in power, and just as those deals that will enrich the american president personally, just as those real estate deals get turned back on in indonesia, at the same time our incoming president announces the newest
member of his administration, who will serve without a salary and will not be asked to disclose any of his business contacts, a man who has been consulted already on the head of the epa, who is consulting now on picking the head of the sec, who will apparently be in charge of reviewing all Corporation Regulations in the new administration, this new key member of the federal government for whom they have invented a job without a formal portfolio, he is the single largest shareholder in that Mining Company, whose mines in indonesia you can see from space. The company that did not pay the 4 billion Shakedown Price to that politician who is personally helping donald trump get richer in indonesia as president. And now that company will presumably be in an excellent position to do whatever needs to be done to benefit whoever needs to be benefitted. You scratch my back, i scratch a giant hole in the earth that can be viewed from mars. This is apparently what its going to be like now. Everybodys got to Pay Attention now. I know it feels like time to not Pay Attention. Weve all got to Pay Attention. A lot more ahead tonight. Stay with us. Coming up on look famous people we catch flo, the progressive girl, at the supermarket buying cheese. Scandal alert flo likes dairy . woman busted [ laughter ] right afterwards we caught her Riding Shotgun with a mystery man. Oh, yeah [ Indistinct Shouting ] is this your chauffeur . What . no, i was just showing him how easy it is to save with snapshot from progressive. You just plug it in and it gives you a rate based on your driving. Does she have insurance for being boring . [ Light Laughter ] laugh bigger. [ laughter ] inatures bounty hair, skin and nails challenge. So in 30 days, my future self will thank me. Thank you. I become a model . . Yes. No. Start the challenge today and notice more beautiful hair, skin nails or your money back. I wanted to know where i did my ancestrydna. The most shocking result was that im 26 native american. I had no idea. Its opened up a whole new world for me. laughs here it is. Hey dad wishes do come true. The lincoln wish list sales event is on. Get exceptional offers on the lincoln family of luxury vehicles. The final days of the lincoln wish list sales event are here. Get a new 2016 lincoln mkx with zero down and a complementary first months payment. Congress. Were looking at archived tape today of the first day of the congress that ended today, like what happened, today is the final day, what happened on the first day . There was this great metaphor come to life moment on day one, at the very start of this past congress. Then republican speaker john boehner, taking the podium to start the new congress, to start the session. We learned something we knew knew before. Right over that black banner, see the black banner there . See that . The podium is a machine. It goes up. Whoop is rises from the earth. If you snap your heels together right and say the magic word, it rises, whoop that was the first option day of this congress, we learned that about the podium. Today is now officially the last day of this congress. And however excited the republicans were, however much the metaphors all pointed in an upgoing direction, for all the things they were going to do
with complete control of the house and the senate for these past two years, we can now say it has not gone well. Lets start just for perspective with after world war ii. This is all the congresses, all the sessions of congress that have happened since 1947. Those blue lines show the number of bills that each congress was able to pass. The last line with the arrow pointing to it, that is the congress that comes to an end today. You will notice that congress over the last few years has been a little stunted, is probably the polite way to put it, since the republicans took over the house in their Big Wave Election in 2010. Look at that, the three congresses since then, the 114th Congress Just ended today, those three are the least productive congresses of all time. Since the republicans took control of the house in 2010, the three congresses since then
rank first, second, and third as the least productive congresses weve ever had, since anybody started tracking the productivity of congresses at the end of world war ii. This Congress Just ending today also had the lowest Confirmation Rate for civilian nominees in modern american history. For the First Time Since the modern Budget Process was created in 1974, this congress for the first time ever, they didnt even try to pass a budget. At least in previous terrible congresses, they tried and failed to pass a budget. This time they didnt even bother to try before they failed. This congress that just died excuse me, this congress that just ended today, they also worked the fewest days of any congress in the last 60 years. Thats impressive. Congress is less popular than gum on your shoe. Congress is less popular than gum on your socks. Congress is less popular than gum in your hair. And it has been for a good long time. But this Congress Just wrapping up today, they are special. They have truly distinguished themselves for doing absolutely freaking nothing. That said, a new Congress Starts tomorrow morning. And the new congress that starts tomorrow is going to be very different than it has been for these past few years. I mean, its possible they may be so atrophied from lack of activity, theyre all going to spring some