oh, thanks for joining us. you know, with massive port congestion over the last few months, causing the supply chain to actually experience a bottleneck nationwide. many of question whether consumers would turn out for this year's holiday shopping season was archie course want to natasha. sweet. explains the pandemic continues to impact consumer health habits. as the ami kron krona virus variant emerges, scientists are still studying just how harmful and contagious it is compared to the other variants. it's just one piece of the puzzle in uncovering the shopping patterns of consumers during this unusual holiday season with the variant alive and well retail sales were actually up this year. the main difference is a search in digital sales. the vice president of sales force noting a 3 percent rise post cyber week and not despite inflation along with less inventory. on wednesday, president biden held a meeting with his supply chain disruptions task force. he said the administration

was able to help alleviate bottlenecks at the ports, along with other issues plaguing the crisis. americans the only leading economy to world war household income and the economy as a whole are stronger than they were before the pandemic. even accounting for price increases and it was more people lining up for booster shots. there is a mix when it comes to people feeling safe and public with so many unknown factors at the present time. this is the kind of providers which you paid past, but it will mutate even faster with the high number of infections. each infection is a possibility that the new band will arise, which will be even more transmissible than the finance which we see right now. and while alarming, the good news is that it's believe the virus will eventually stop mutating. it still needs to be similar to the variance which can attach to our cells. if it will mutate and change everything. it's genetic material,

it won't be any more able to infect our cells. so there is a limits. the disruption in the global supply chain caused by coping 19 is still filled by millions of people struggling with food and security. and the organizations that help food on their table in the last few months as our need, the need keeps growing. we needed another vehicle to run and we couldn't get a vehicle to run. it took us a month to get a rental. 34 truck. yeah. the vehicles don't even exist right now, and secondarily, we didn't have enough drivers and, well, food pantries are scraping by the toy industry is booming, and the pandemic continues to influence the buying patterns of parents. the choice that they're buying are going to be able to engage kids for a long time. you never know we're going to be back in lockdown again. joy that only last for 20 minutes or keeps can entertain for 20 minutes. isn't a great purchase. and because of shortages, many are spending a little more than they did last year. so despite the economy still working its way

over inflation, consumers are still doing all they can to celebrate the holiday season. reporting for news feeds hughes and harsh sweets r t. ok, so for more of the nation to retail recovery, we welcome back founder and c of above trading. todd by the harbor. it thanks for joining me about a scott, it's great to be with you. okay, we hear all this gloom and dan, gloom and doom, and yet we see the numbers that are coming out in the current. are you surprised that these numbers and do you think retailers had much lower expectations going into the holiday season? just based off the headlines, i certainly believe that they had lower expectations. i think that small businesses suffer dramatically. i know the headline says no, but when i go out and look to check and go to some, my small vendors are no longer there anymore. they're out of businesses, this over cost inflation with no supply chain, you're seeing a lot of empty shelves to begin with and we have changed habits as americans to the

digital age. you know, amazon continues to grow box cars and of course they also see employer not employed but have a lot of small business that ships through them. so i don't see the numbers. and again, i'm always leery when i hear a government report of numbers because they're always adjusted at a later date. i think they're just trying to tell us to calm down everybody versus the fact that we've got 20 percent inflation not 7, and that people are not spending. and if we get a cold winter, which you've been very fortunate so far, it's going to be, it's gonna be your choice whether you want to eat or heat and not buy toys. well, that's the funny thing. you went to that and i feel the same way actually about polls. busy when it comes to politics, because you can always manipulated number based if you want to look good or look bad at the moment. what's best about your agenda? so i get where you're coming from, a numbers being released by the government. but you have to also look at these long lines that are out there if you go to any, even the big box retailer, they're wrapped around trying to trying to check out, you know, right now a lot of these retailers, when we'll talk to small business later,

what is the bigger problem to supply chain line and not actually having products on the shelves? or is it actually finding workers? are we still having such a problem? finding people to actually go to work 8 to 5 and check people out. it's got it, you can fine health today. this is the front of the problem is the slope slide chain, but the bigger problem is you can't get people to work. you know, look i went to a wal mart last. 3 week and i needed some help. i couldn't find anybody ask a question to help me. there is nobody here. that's why you have long lines because you've got not enough, right? people rain to register. you don't have enough help in the stores. and of course, try to get some help if you're going to self check out, you can't get a better show you how to do it. so you have an employment problem and that was more cause with, you know, the unemployment insurance with the stimulus that still somehow going on. how i don't understand. but, you know, we've got all these excuses that we've made and we've destroyed many businesses, but really hampered the small business. and i agree, and that's usually to just the heart of a community. if you do not have

a successful, small business environment, that community is going to die, unfortunately, doesn't matter how many times, how many big boxes that come in. and that's why i kind of him and scratching my head because every sign shows america the kind of turning. but the lines out are just people are out there shopping. it is absolutely crazy. panama human, some areas i have seen. but my question is, you know, what are people doing? where are they getting this money to spend? are we about to face a real credit crisis? when those credit card bills come in, in january, february, people just said, you know, case to ra, either the government's already paid for everything else for free. maybe they'll also pay off my holiday credit card debt. do you know? i would say is them, this is gonna be as likely as it was and oh wait, i'm not going to say it's going to be right that a vs year. but this position that we have put ourselves in and what the excess of lending that banks are doing. you know, the fractional banging system is no. busy longer in place, the way that it's supposed to be was never really that great,

but i would venture and bet that many banks could even pass a normal stress test if it was real and people are borrowing money. they're buying author house or borrowing of everything because it's so easy to get money and, you know, christmas no matter what the economy going, people are going to try to do something for christmas and for their kids or for somebody special. whatever people are going to spend the worry about that later, and that is usually a much bigger problem later. yeah, well, unfortunately later is only about a week away. but why i like to be optimistic coming into the new year. i think we're actually already building up our list of problems that we're going to be facing. welcome to buying america. thank you for joining me. so what's the sound that a clock makes? and once the social media jog or not, that seems just as unstoppable as the forward march of time itself, or the head tick tock, which is now the most visited site in the world. a list of internet ranking for 2021 shows a tick tock, beating google for the number one position,

rocketing it from it's number 7 slot last year. it is by far the biggest difference from last year where performance tracker, cloud player who published the list says so what's the secret? tick, tock, explosion and popularity? well, we walk around political commentator and social media connoisseur lauren chin for her always welcome now is, is lauren. i tell you i am a fan of tick tock. i was banned from day one for a really good reason was because of the fact that it was very much diverse and the type of information. so i wasn't just teenagers dancing. it was everything from cleaning products to household tips. it started with teams with sticking though and dancing, but it expanded. what's behind it? do you believe this broadening of what we find on tick tock and how much did the pandemic in lockdown was that the key to success? good timing. well, you actually got a leg up on me when it comes to tick tock, because i was one of those hold out to didn't really start going on the site until the pandemic until i was born at home. and i started wondering what are all these

young people in teens up to on the platform, but like so many others. once i started visiting it more, i all of a sudden got it and you are right. it tick tock does have a reputation as being somewhat of a shallow social media side just with teams, dancing and lips thinking. but you're right, there's a lot of other content on there as well. there is lifestyle content, cooking content. you can even find political content on there, a lot of which is actually really smartly made and i think being on that platform, get better insight into what younger generations, especially gncf, you know, what they think about politics. i think the pandemic definitely helped tick tock, because more people were simply at home looking for new sources of entertainment. but we're tick tock as dr. is that it has really leaned into these different creator communities in a way that we've seen you to facebook, twitter, and other social media sites, almost kind of pulling away from. so i think there are a lot of people who, when they're looking for almost grassroots content, now tick tock does seem to offer more of that. then you to bed does, which is such as shane because for the longest time that is what you do have to

offer that, that connection. and that feeling that you are getting organic, real people on the other, on the screen. but now, sadly, you to business brand deals, but for now, tick tock has managed to keep its user based, engaged with the interest and find out about laura is actually a very user friendly. and you can create these very just these things that people went to college for, for years to try to learn how to develop and they can do it. i watch these teenagers put these videos together. would make hollywood even be jealous at how quickly they can do them and how good they look. do you think moving forward that this is actually going to be something that is going to actually reward is going to promote possibly even the world that we live in and broadcasting and make actually better editors in the future that this is something they're starting an early age learning their craft and how to do it. absolutely, i think you to was probably the 1st step in that we saw a young people creators just feel empowered to be able to make their own content and show it to people all across the world. and i think tick tock is even like the next iteration of that because you have the editing app right on right on your

phone. it's included in the software. and i think as interesting as it is to talk about this from a consumer perspective, it's also really interesting to think of how this is going to be affecting brands in the future. because you actually have marketing agencies and individuals brands . now moving ad spend money from traditional platforms like google to places like tick tock, either through promoting their own content or through paying at influencers to do advertising for them. and then it's so important there, there's influences and getting paid for. and i'm also noticing, even from politicians, they're making their spots now antic talk 1st and it's even music music from the past. seventy's and eighty's, they get a little clip of it. all of a sudden the kids are once again downloading the full song on apple. so it's bringing back also a lot from the past, but the initial reason why people are, were concerned, and they probably so are, is the fact that ticket comes from china and this idea of a data breach in it that, that there's some security involved. should this worry people,

should people actually be concerned right now with somebody being on their, in terms of their data security as compared to every other app on their phone that does the exact same thing? well, i think here it's important to separate tick tock as a community from the app itself. because, you know, there's a lot of great things that happen on tick tock like on twitter, like on youtube, that aren't necessarily dependent or related to the people who are in charge of those platforms. so just as a community tick tock clearly has a lot of great things going for it, but obviously by dance is owned. you know, it, it is a chinese company. they have insisted li repeated that they do not share their app with the chinese government, but they're actually happened updates to their terms of service which have allowed them to collect things like even biometric data, which a lot of people i think are right, scared up and you know, frankly, you asked, is this any different than the data that google is collecting? know all of these sites. google, facebook, they are interested in your data. you're not paying for the service because you are the product. we all need to remember that, but that doesn't mean that it's something we should just ignore,

especially there have been a national security concerns over tick tock, specifically because there have been service members who have been using, using the app and people are worried. what, what other things on the phone is that then given the app access to this is an important conversation. and i don't think it's something that we should become complacent in. but i will say, you know, this isn't just because tick tock is owned by china. i think all of these big tech companies, data privacy is something we should be worried about. laura, that's a great point right there. that it's not just take it to every app that's on your phone. you say that you registered for free. nothing is ever free except for good information. good guest, and i really appreciate you sharing your knowledge with our, with our audience. thank you. thank you. so now after the break, when we were little and we called someone a name, there is usually a punishment, but what is the punishment for adults or even journalists to do that for our political panel brings you the inside scoop from capitol hill. when we come back,

i was diagnosed with cancer in 2000 when the doctors told me the cancer was incurable. i knew i had to make a change. so i decided to travel to one of the most toxic places in america. florida. one of florida is the biggest industries and best kept secrets is fostering one. the biggest layer is $85000000000.00 industry. is mosaic. tonight, there are reports of millions of gallons of contaminated water now flowing into the florida aqua floor. the main problem, there's a chronic. oh yeah, i don't want to hear that word poets name, but that's what it is. i'm in 2013 my uncle, our family dog, my brother, who was 21 years old, myself and my father were all diane, rob, problem, kidney problems. a 100. wow. yeah. the whole and the good play, right? yeah, yeah. maybe they'll actually, we're,

that far hill is more important in and so it begins 2 weeks of our christmas and new year's the specials. and when we looked back in the year, that was and parents in the future with some of our roster of amazing guests. all heterodox thinkers that wouldn't be caught dead on breakdown finance, corporate media, 1st up, james power counselor, can oil and gas manufacturing, electricity, telecomm, guys, quotation, all of them now have a type of infrastructure connected to the internet. well, clearly realizing this disruptive potential so that those countries cons, ignore it because it threatens national security issue. but if we take the money to you countries truly all of them subscribe to certain doctrines and maintains

selling but tell us forces. they are a cyber army on behalf of a country that's their job. oh, working them or should she popped in? she said, well, i'm getting ready to go shopping for christmas. family research. there was a going to buy another, shooting another safe part of american life shattered by violence. the gunman was armed with an hour 15, semi automatic rifle. when the issue comes home, it's time to act when we're silent on this issue, the other side winds by default, lady that lived over there. i was walking one of the dogs, which is why do you wear again when you skin doesn't play ticket often i think the people need to take responsibility in their own and be prepared if those kinds of

weapons were less available. we wouldn't have a lot of the shootings. we certainly wouldn't have the number 2, there is a responsibility which goes with the power being able to put your opinion out on a major platform now. so they, sam refused to acknowledge this and write or speak things which unapologetically inspires hate from one to another. and they almost feel like it's their mission to come up with the most emotionally charged phrases all to get attention. not realizing there are real world consequences to fueling this fire of division, especially in present day america. they have no regard for the truth or what they're words conspire and maybe they were not held in after the baby. but writers like this are dangerous and should be held accountable for us to write. these writers choose verbage and throw labels for the history of hate to draw attention with little regards of whether they are being accurate or what that action inspires

. actions which would cause physical harm to people where the perpetrator feeling justified in their violence. no one is going to 100 percent agree with each other, but it's how we handle these conversations which determine if we are speaking for the greater good or we are just saying things for the good of ourselves. so shame on those on any side of the political spectrum who not only falsely label those who disagree with the use words to devise and angry. the only possible reaction is evil . to discuss this present state of journalism in the heat that's being turned up, i want to bring in our house to be depressed. the malls berg as was legal, immediate analyst, lionel lionel. the thanks for joining me on this. thank you. i got it, steve. you cover the media, you watched all the time. do you feel like this rhetoric that's happening between the media side, but that between the 2 parties is getting worse and it's not even an election year . oh, it is. it is absolutely 1st of all,

something as simple as the word insurrection, which is a media creation. the january 6th riots which i abhor. i abhor any violence, no matter why they started or, or who instigated it. the fact of the matter is, it's been investigated by the department of justice, has been scores of arrest people have been prosecuted sentence. nobody was charged with insurrection. the word insurrection ever came up in a senate committee that did a report on, on the event, only the media and the democrats on the left call it an insurrection gratuitously. and of course, if you, during the 4 years of president trump, hillary started with a basket full of deplorable holes. if you support trump, you're, if you're a deplorable tra, transfer phobic homophobic graces, sienna phobic, and that became the mon trip. before years the media accepts it, the media agrees if you question the legitimacy of the election, even though democrats of question and hillary still questions the legitimacy of our

laws to donald trump. but if you'd question along with donald trump, though you'll be lost in 2020. you're, you're, you're an insurrection. is your threat to democracy? your every name in the book? trump was a nazi. he was hitler. he still is. it's the left that has done this much, much, much, much more so than the right in any way, shape or form within the media? well, in line, oh a exactly. you can tell the passionate because you have to deal with this all the time. steve, what i'm getting angry about it there's, there's a political terms. it's nothing new. but it seems like a rash hanging up like fascists. mark mark his comments. nazi hitler, they're doing this on all assign him to a political party. what can i do to the conversation, especially if there had nothing to do with the subject at hand? well, the 1st thing is regarding this conversation, steve, get off the fence quinn, sherman caught me of ha, no, you wouldn't. no, i love this man. i've the day you ever give me a milk toast response. i know the day the music died. let me add something. you're

right, and there's no way that we're going to changes. there was a we the, the right from the use he shorthand george always use room, you know, marxist and my dentist. and so it's a o. c is not a copy. it is. and let me just say something in this era is epic, that we live in where we use the word conspiracy theory to explain anything, women, and misinformation, and dis, information and dad information. i am going to suggest that one of these days there is going to be a lawsuit that is filed against someone who uses the term as a term of art, fascist, as in fashion, as someone who follows the political doctrine of fascism not not stupid. poopy patronize them up a jordan. but in actual for example, you are a nazi your national socialist. one of these days a court is going to say, this particular statement rises above the usual rancor. there's

a point of our discourse, and you specifically labeled and the q somebody of doing something which could have critical and deleterious harm. you're going to see libel cases, you're going to see the court handlers law affair versus warfare, and it's about time. it's one thing for me to use or term, but you know, scotty in steve, if i call you a white supremacist, that is a little different or a or a not c or a racist. i don't know what that line is, but there is going to come a day when they're going to use the defamation laws. everybody wants to know rittenhouse to to and sam and to so i'm telling you right now, you're getting very, very close to labeling something. it won't be for me to call you an idiot. if i call you a child molester, a murderer, a drug addict mentally ill, then we can becomes reliable per se libel per quote. and it's seriously defamatory well and stay. and i, and i hear what you're saying,

here's the other part of this. i think all of us know it's not just about the person from the camera. what they're saying. there is a chain of command and every news room and every print room and every, every radio station that it's not person just on air, but there is a line that goes up and we've seen it. russ recently with it cnn. you have coma taken out, but he had editors, he had producers all the way up to the top. and yet you never really hear of that accountability unless you hear the scapegoat one. and then the anger gets to stay on air with steve, why are we do people not realize that there's usually a long line of people that approve before you and i say something on there. there's a lot of people that have read over it to make sure that least everything sounds as it should. well, you know, you say people, you and i and people in the business line. of course we understand that we know jeff soccer. we know that people who run that dumb m as nbc, where white people are evil and everybody every, every story is a racist story that comes from the top. if they didn't like, what would they were seeing on the air that they would stop it? you know that i know that, but the viewer doesn't think that the viewer just pins it on the person or accepts

it from the person that they're hearing it from or seeing it from. i hate to say it, but this is why we have you guys to call them outline all. steve, thanks for joining us. finally tonight, according to figures released by the cdc, life expectancy has dropped in the us and coated well. it's somewhat being blamed ortiz alley for hell of it has the story. it's the largest single year decline in life expectancy in the us since world war 2 new data from the us centers for disease control and prevention. national center for health statistics indicates that life expectancy in the u. s. fell by 1.8 years in 2020 from 78.8 years in 2001, 900 to 77 years. according to doctor robert anderson, chief of mortality statistics that the n c h s. the thing that stands out to me is just the staggering decline. i know 1.8 years doesn't seem like a whole lot, but on a population scale, that's a huge decline in life expectancy as can be expected. the cdc has given covered

much of the blame for the morbid figures covered, was marked as the 3rd biggest cause of death in america last year following heart disease and cancer. but it is not the sole reason that there is a jumping us mortalities. the team behind the report said other factors also played a role in the increase. this include the rise and depths due to diabetes and accidental injuries which include drug overdoses. according to the report, there were more than 3380000 deaths in the u. s. last year about 5 130000 more than there were in 2019 of those deaths. more than 350000 are set up and caused by cove at 19, which makes up 10.4 percent of all debts in 2020. from a demographic perspective, some groups were more highly affected than others. men saw a bigger decrease in life expectancy than women. men last 2 point one years from 76.3 in 2019 to 74.2 and 2020. while when they saw a drop of 1.5 years from 81.4 in 2019 to 79.9 in 2020,

the numbers also seem to be more pronounced among racial and ethnic minorities with the hispanic community hit the hardest death rates for hispanic people went up 3 times as much as for white people. while death rates for black people increased about twice as much as for white people. taking only many to account the death rate for hispanic males rose nearly 43 percent for blackmail, the death rate increased 28 percent and for white males, the death rate increased by about 13 percent from 2019 dr. stephen wolf, director, i'm of virginia. commonwealth university center on society said, we see it time and time again, one generation after the next. as a doctor, there is no logical reason. a person should be more likely to die from a virus because of their skin color. it's totally a product of what society has done. even with the roll of vaccines against coven, 19 some experts believe the mortality rate will be even higher this year than it

was in 2020. last year covered was the underlying cause in about $351000.00 deaths . and this year, the totals expected to be nearly $20000.00 more. factoring what summer calling a u. s. drug overdose epidemic. and the number show and even darker picture for 2021 for news use hughes. i'm alex mileage. thanks for watching. that's all for today. ah. a technology is a very big industry and there's a lot of opportunities for hackers movie that it's not him, but he didn't bring the law in that country. you're dealing with why rushed him that the major cybersecurity challenge is the sovereignty of laws that cyberspace

has no borders, no cell grantee, we ended up with, for example, the national health service in the u. k. the and a chest was completely wiped out for the ransomware attack. if you were coming in to a clinic because you had a test or you had an operation, they can't find your records. they had to go back to pen and paper with ah, working room or should in the back. she popped in. she said, well,

i'm getting ready to go shopping for christmas. and i wish there was a good buying another, shooting another safe part of american life. shattered by violence, the gunman was armed with an a ar 15, semi automatic rifle. when the issue comes home, it's time to act. when we're stylish on this issue, the other side wins by default, lady that lived over there. i was walking one of the dogs, which is why you where again, where you scale and nothing can take it off it. i think the people need to take responsibility into their own and be prepared. those kind of weapons were less available. we wouldn't have a lot of the shootings that we certainly wouldn't have the number of deaths. well, it just seemed wrong when i just don't know. i mean,

you world yes, to safe out. the same becomes the african and engagement equals the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart, we choose to look for common ground. with the us says chaos awaits the world without its leadership. by many countries, still reaping the consequences of american involvement. we report from war tony t opiate where claims of fake news and unbalanced coverage and west of mainstream media being blamed for exacerbating the tomorrow. and the amazon workers rally over safety and working conditions, claiming the companies putting profits over people's lives.