The Young Turks - Alt-Right Goes Into PANIC MODE

Episode Date: May 7, 2019

Laura Loomer went on Alex Jones’ show to rant about her Facebook ban. Ana Kasparian, Nando Vila, and Maytha Alhassen, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Hey, guys, you've heard of the Young Turks podcast because you're listening to it right now. But make sure that you subscribe and give it a five star rating if you like it. Thank you for listening. What's up, everyone.

Welcome to TYT. I'm Anna Kasparian. I'm back. Yeah. Jank is not though, he's not here. But Nando Villa and Maita Alhassen are here to do the show with me, super excited. We're gonna start off with some fun. We're gonna discuss Laura Lumer, a person that I was completely unaware of until fairly

recently. But Nando is an expert. I'm an expert on Laura Lumer. I've celebrated her career from day one. And I just, I'm very happy we're discussing her on the show. I think she's a very important figure who deserves serious. serious discussion on shows like the Young Turks. Right, so look, we're starting off with Laura Lumer because we want some comedic relief

before we get into a discussion about what's happening in Gaza. And the misinformation that is being spread by the right wing, Katrina Pearson being one of them. And then later on in the show, we are going to juxtapose old Biden videos with old Bernie Sanders videos. And I think it's important to do that, because as the mainstream media props up, Biden, I think it's super important for people to know how different these candidates are and what their priorities are.

So I'm looking forward to that. That'll come in the second hour. Brett will join us for that discussion. Fun. You're ready? Yeah. All right, let's start off with some fun. Laura Lumer was among the right wingers and conspiracy theorists that Facebook decided to ban recently.

Now we can have a discussion about whether or not that makes sense, but before we do it, I I think it's important to show you what Loomer's reaction was to this ban when she was recently interviewed on Alex Jones's show. Let's take a look. Well, they're just trying to kill us. You want to know what they're trying to do. They want us dead. And I hate to make it all about myself, but I have been defamed, okay?

My life has been destroyed. My life has been ruined, Alex, by people who have defamed me online. I am 25 years old, and it will probably be like this for the rest of my life. But what are they doing? I want to know what people are actually going to do. my life is ruined. Does anybody understand how ruined my life is? I'm sick of it. I don't want to listen to people tell me that I'm a conspiracy theorist. They don't know what it's like to be me. My life is ruined, Alex. No, I understand. I just think you need to go with it. But at least

the president is concerned about it. Okay, he's concerned about it. But that's not going to stop the fact that I've lost 90% of my income. That's not going to stop the fact that I literally can't make a living anymore even though I have a degree. I was valedictorian in college. I graduated top of my class in my journalism program. And I'm sick of it. I'm fighting harder than most conservatives. I'm fighting harder than anybody. And I'm being destroyed and they mock me and they say I'm some crazy conspiracy. These people don't understand like my life is unlivable at this point in time. Like what is the point? My life now I have to worry about getting murdered by leftists and Muslims every single time I go outside.

It's disgusting. Oh, I know, I know. They're so protected. It's so sick. I'm so sick. Oh my God. There's so much to unpack here because the reaction from Alex Jones is something that you found interesting.

You're going to comment on it. Yeah. But before we get to that, I just want to make a quick serious note. So she's arguing that she's been defamed, right? But understand whether you agree with what Facebook did or not, she has not been defamed in any way. She has said things that have been horrific towards certain communities, especially Muslims, and she herself has actually defamed people like Representative Ilhan Omar.

In one tweet, she said the following, let's go to Graphic 3. After 9-11, we said never again, Ilhan Omar is only pushing for another 9-11, right? And she also incited violence toward Representative Omar writing things like we need some patriots to rise up and protect our constitution so we can prevent the estalienable. of a caliphate, you know, trying to push this narrative that a Muslim lawmaker is going to push for a caliphate. Obviously, that is not what Representative Omar is doing. So while she's crying her crocodile tears and arguing that she's being defamed, she has made

money from defaming others and inciting violence toward them. So I just want to make that serious point. And now let's have fun. I mean- You're a new-luner- I know, yeah, I was just gonna say I'm one day old, knowing who Laura Lumer is, but just a quick survey of the things that she's done to be provocative, to be disruptive, this seems like, you know, you dealt it, deal with it. Right. I mean, I smelled it, so yeah, I'm proverb, I'm so bad at proverbs.

Anyways, there's just so much to dig into. One thing is that if we could at some point get a screenshot, a grab of the image of her on Alex Jones's show and Alex Jones, because then And that's like the Facebook 20-year age challenge if she continues to be that riled up. That's what she's going to look like. Yeah. I mean, he's 45 years old. She's 25 years old.

She's 25. He looks like he's in his 50s. Anyways, she's been banned by Venmo, PayPal, GoFundMe. I don't know a couple summers ago, if you guys remember that Shakespeare in the park was disrupted. It was because it was her. She came onto the stage and she said that this play was normalizing political violence against the right during the assassination of Caesar because she said that they were trying to portray Caesar as a Trump-like figure and that this was all, Shakespeare was propaganda.

So Shakespeare was, you know. Are you serious? Makes sense. You know, if you think about it, it makes sense. I mean, I just love Alex Jones's reaction was like, Alex Jones was like, who is this crazy woman on my show? Like, I mean, if you, if your rantings make Alex Jones think you're insane, then, you know, you're doing a really good job. I mean, I think it's worth reminding people that Laura Lumer chained herself to Twitter HQ,

and it's like to protest her banning from Twitter, like she was like Mahatma Gandhi, you know, protesting British colonialism. And she snuck into Nancy Pelosi's house and camped herself in the backyard to protest immigration. Yeah, that story, I was completely unaware. of that and I have to be honest, I can't imagine anyone else getting away with something like that. You're trespassing onto private property, the private property of a lawmaker, I mean, if that was a person of color, let's keep it real, he or she would be gone.

Murdered, yeah, absolutely. And then even if they're trying to walk into their own house like Henry Lewis Gates tried to do in his Cambridge home, they also could potentially be arrested for trespassing. Right, right. Let's talk about, you know, who the real victim is, Meatham. And the real victim here is poor Laura Loomer. Let's hear a little more from her. Do people not understand that those of us who have been silenced have actually taken legal action?

Oh, I don't think they get it's a total war. I want people to actually do something. Okay, we need your money. We need your support. Help fund my lawsuit. Give me some money to fund my lawsuits. And that's what this is really about, right? Money, money, money.

What am I going to do? Please feel sorry for me. This is my livelihood. But no one pressured you to put out the type of propaganda, the type of lies, the type of incitement that you put out. You did that on your own. And you were warned previously from the very platforms that banned you to just cut it out. Cut it out.

We want you to stop. And if you stop, we're not going to ban you. But she continued. In fact, let's go to Graphic 2. An Instagram spokesperson said the company had removed one of Lumer's Instagram stories in which she recorded herself calling Islam, quote, a cancer on humanity for violating its hate speech policy. The spokesperson added that if Lumer continues to violate Instagram's rules, her account could

be banned. This is from April of this year, so she had been warned, hey, yo, like, cut it out. And she decided to continue doing it. So I'm tired of the oppression Olympics from the right wing. I mean, I'm tired of it, right? Yeah, a bunch of snowflakes. Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, what's interesting about this, too, is that Shakespeare in the park incident

where she got up on stage and she knew that she was going to actually be charged, which she was, six hours prior, there was that website, I think, Free Lumer, was bought and was activated. And she raised $12,000 to free her. So she's used to getting bailed out all the time. for her antics and for getting a lot of media attention for it too. And to kind of come out pretty unscathed. So I think she's dealing with the fact that there are consequences in this world to riling up hate speech.

Yeah, I mean, everybody knows that Shakespeare was the original radical Antifa. But I think there is like some, there is like some discussion to be had about the appropriateness of Facebook and Twitter and all these guys like banning right-wing political people because What's gonna happen in effect is that they're gonna end up eventually banning a bunch of left-wing people and it happens all the time. And I haven't quite made up my mind about how, what's the best way to do that? So I, look, of course we always go back to the difference between the government and private companies.

And so, you know, if you wanna bring up the constitution, obviously the constitution doesn't apply when it comes to private companies. But that doesn't mean that I don't, you know, that I agree with what Facebook did. So look, for me, there's a line that gets crossed by a lot of right winger. So hate speech is one thing, and I don't think people should be banned simply for hate speech. But I do think that people should be banned for inciting violence. Because if you're encouraging your followers to commit acts of violence, well, then A, even the U.S. Constitution doesn't protect that.

And B, I think that these platforms have a responsibility and an obligation to do. to do their part in keeping communities safe. And so that's, for me, that is the line. And so that's why I was in favor of someone like Alex Jones getting deplatformed, because he had been inciting violence toward some of these Sandy Hook parents. And the Posner family had to move seven different times because his fans were constantly going after them, threatening them with acts of violence, and it wasn't okay. So for me, again, that's the line.

I guess it's just that, you know, in Facebook and all these companies are. private companies, like you said, but the internet has become sort of the public square and the public square that has been essentially dominated by private companies. So it's a very weird kind of situation where there is some, I mean, I don't know. Like I said, I haven't made up my mind on it. And of course, inciting violence, we can all agree that that's wrong, but what does inciting violence mean? Like people said that Ilan Omar's comments incited violence, obviously we wouldn't think that.

But that's up to the people who are in power to decide, and they'll decide what that means, and they'll often turn that kind of rhetoric against the left. And that's just what we've seen time and time again. So I don't, again, I don't know what the right way to go forward is. I think the question is also, if we're operating in this public square scenario, what space are they taking up in the public square? Are they a newspaper stand? Are they a publisher?

They're taking money for ads. They're taking money in the traditional way that a publishing company would as well. And there are standards around what information gets viral or trends or gets published. So we haven't been able to determine what these social platforms would be under in terms of jurisdiction. Yes, that's such a good point. And I just want to quickly reference the importance of policies similar to what Elizabeth Warren wants to do, which is to break up these platforms.

Yes, yeah, please. Because if you break up the platforms, understand if you are a publisher of news content, right? That is your main objective as a company. Well, there are certain guidelines and certain laws that you have to adhere to. So for instance, if someone on this show straight up lied about someone else, right? Just slap them in the face. Made something up.

Well, there are laws protecting the individual who was just defamed. their defamation laws, right? And so in that context, there's actual laws that you can refer to. But with Facebook, with Amazon, with all these big companies, they do so many different things and they need to be broken up. That way they can be dealt with appropriately or the different components of the businesses can be dealt with. Yeah, as a first step, it seems crazy that Facebook can own Facebook, Instagram, and

WhatsApp. Right. At the same time. I mean, that seems like a easy first step in terms of, because people always ask, well, How do you break them up under what? It's like, well, they keep on acquiring other companies that are enormous, you can just start by re-separating them the way they were in the past. Yeah, I mean, I totally agree.

And I do also agree with those who are concerned about what this is doing in hindering conversations that need to be had. But again, those conversations that might be controversial should be treated very differently from what I've been seeing from some right-wing voices, where again, they encourage violence or encourage action toward those that they disagree with. And let me give you a list of Laura Lumer's conspiracy theories because in the middle of her meltdown, she claimed, no, they're calling me a conspiracy theorist, that's not what I am. Okay, that is what you are.

Here are some of the conspiracy theories that she spread on social media. She claimed that the shooting in Santa Fe, Texas was staged. She claimed that the shooting in Parkland, Florida was staged. She claimed that the Las Vegas shooter was affiliated with ISIS, which was not the case. And also that Caesar Seyok, who was the individual sending pipe bombs to various Democrats and CNN, is affiliated with Antifa when, of course, we all know that he was a giant Trump supporter, his social media accounts, and also the van that he was driving around in indicated he was a huge choice.

He read Hamlet and became Antifa. You know what's really wild about these conspiracy theories about the mass shootings as false flags, is that they insist that these are happening to introduce gun control laws to get rid of the Second Amendment, and we've not moved an age around any of them. I know, it's amazing. The biggest failure of a false flag operation. Yeah, the worst, yeah. We gotta take a break, but when we come back, we're gonna get into the situation in Gaza,

unfortunately, violence broke out over the weekend, and we're also gonna give you and debunk some of the misinformation from right wingers. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called

powers that be featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must not learn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the

propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. I'm right back. Welcome back to TYT. One of my favorite musical artist, Pitbull, says you got to spend money to make money. And I would argue that you got to put your money in a financial institution that pays you interest. And that's what aspiration does.

Aspiration is a financial institution that will pay you 2% interest. on your checkings account. I'm serious, okay? They won't charge you fees, and I think that's pretty incredible. So just go to aspiration.com slash TYT, open up that account, earn that money, okay? Because make your money work for you. Why wouldn't you do that? All right, I also want to read some member's comments and some TYT lives.

Let's start with Stacy. Perhaps she, meaning Laura Lumer, I assume, perhaps she should have taken that valedictorian journalism degree and done some actual journalism. She just needs to pick herself up by the bootstraps and quit crying like an entitled snowflake needing a safe space. Oh. No, but like you guys don't understand the level of salt in these messages is incredible. J.M. Frazier says, I don't want to hear people calling me a conspiracy theorist, she said

in an interview on Info Wars, right? By the way, one other thing about Alex Jones' reaction to her. I feel like he was a little jealous, he was a little jelly that she was out-crazing him in that interview. He's like, there's only room for one screaming maniac, that's me. Lucifer Vaughn says, oh my god, you got banned from Facebook, seriously, Facebook. Who cares? Go to a bar and dance.

Whoa. Damn. Pork Chop Express writes in and says, if you have a degree, was a valedictorian and chose to be a conspiracy theorist, that's on you, boo. Love it. And then, TYT Live, novice 05 says, all Lumer needed to do was keep it to dog whistling, and she would have been fine, but she couldn't even do that. That's true.

That's probably true. That is true, definitely. All right, now we move on to a much more serious story. Violence broke out over the weekend between the Israelis and the Palestinians, specifically in the Gaza strip. Now according to reports, at least 22 Palestinians, including militants and children were killed in Gaza over the weekend, and four Israeli civilians died in the fighting. CBS News has more details on this story. Let's take a look. Israel's military struck back, hitting about 350 targets in the Gaza Strip.

One of those Palestinian targets had been riding in this car. Israel's military says it was a senior Hamas figure. It was the first targeted assassination by Israel since 2014. Palestinians say an infant was also killed in one of the airstrikes. Her body was carried in a funeral procession. Her father said the children were playing and were struck by a missile shot from a drone. So Israel is claiming that their actions were their retaliation. Alleyation against Hamas, that Hamas had initially launched, you know, air strikes against

the Israelis, and they were essentially reacting to that. And of course, as we've seen in previous cases, their reaction is usually pretty disproportionate. They have more in terms of military capability, and they have more in terms of defense capability. But nonetheless, you know, lives have been lost, and they have reached a ceasefire. But the ceasefire is, I think, vulnerable. I think that any little provocation on either side will lead to more violence. But I'll give you more details on that in just a minute. Matha, jump in.

Give me some details on all this. Well, I think people have to remember because there's always this obsession about who started what, at what point, did Hamas launch rockets, did Israelis stop? You know, there was always a Hamas provocation. People have to remember that the blockade started in 2007 and what the blockade is. The blockade is blocking out people in an open air prison where they can't come in and out. Even their water sources where they go fish for their food, there's a certain distance they can go and then they'll be shot by the Israeli military.

So they are in an incredibly dehumanizing vulnerable situation where their food rations are all also determined in terms of what comes in and out, there's massive unemployment. So they have very little recourse to shift and change what's going on in their lives. And I guess at certain points there are rocket launches. But there's, like you said, Anna, a history of disproportionate violence because you're talking about a nation-states military versus, you know, a violent organization within the country, within Gaza. I mean, I just want to give you some updates.

You were talking about 24 people, 20, 224 people were killed on the Palestinian side, four Israelis, and that includes two pregnant Palestinian women and the 15-month-old that you saw. But also, if we go back, the report mentioned 2014, there were 2,104 Palestinians that were killed, 495 children, 72 Israelis, and you keep on going back 2012, 2009. And you see that same kind of disparity in terms of lives loss. So you have to ask yourself, what is different between the two sides and how can that help us move forward on a path towards peace? And usually it's not that the side that has the least amount of military grade equipment

has the burden of doing the most restraint. It's usually the one that is carrying. Right. And also, I think that it's important to put yourself in the shoes of people living in Gaza Strip, who are dealing with the ramifications of that blockade. So it's easy to say, well, Hamas struck first and they get what they deserve, which, and I'm not trying to say this to excuse what Hamas did, but you have to understand the motivations behind what they did.

Because if you create a situation in which a group of people are desperate, and they feel like they have no other choice, well, of course they're going to act out in the ways that we've seen. And instead of thinking about, hey, this is a symptom of an issue that we need to find a solution for, Benjamin Netanyahu's reaction has been to be even more brutal and more cruel toward the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. And I think the other thing that you have to realize is they're in a blockade and people assume that people are in a territory that they are from.

70% of the people in Gaza are refugees from other parts of what is quote unquote Israel, right? And so they are being cut off from their family members. They're cut off from where they are from. And like you were saying, cut off from the rest of the world, including food sources. So you have to imagine this is like a prison uprising, right? Prison uprisings can be violent, but they come from somewhere. They come from certain kinds of conditions that people are living through. Yeah, I mean, the whole situation is unbelievably depressing.

I mean, there was just the elections in Israel very recently and it was, you know, Netanyahu who won again, but the election choice was basically between, you know, the extreme right-wing Netanyahu and Benny Gans, who also supported the occupation, is not really calling for a two-state solution or anything like that, which was the sort of mainstream position throughout my whole life, you know, and now, now the de facto conditions on the ground make it seem like the two-state solution is a pipe dream, like it's just, it's, it's, they've created the conditions where, where that just can't happen at this point. Exactly, and that cycle of violence will only continue unless there is, you know, at least

a consideration to change course by the Israeli government. And what Netanyahu and the Israeli government is doing right now is putting the lives of Israelis, of Israeli citizens in danger. Understand that, he is doing that. If he genuinely cares about the lives of Israelis, he would, first of all, at least consider changing course and consider how his actions are leading to these uprisings that we're seeing by Palestinians. But of course, he's not interested in doing any of that.

Let me just quickly talk about the ceasefire. According to Arab news reports, a new ceasefire was brokered by Egypt and the United Nations. This is being reported by the New York Times, and it includes measures to ease the acute economic crisis in the impoverished Gaza Strip. And I want to give the New York Times a little bit of credit. because they're finally at least mentioning the fact that there are serious economic issues that the Palestinians are facing. Also, one other note that I wanted to mention was that there's concern that Benjamin Netanyahu

is not really taking the ceasefire seriously. So first, Hamas said that they agreed to the ceasefire, Arab news reports included news that there was an agreement about the ceasefire, but there was no statement from the Israeli government for a while. And then finally, when Netanyahu did release a statement, it appeared that he was, let me give you the exact wording. He said the campaign is not over, meaning the campaign to retaliate against the Palestinians in Gaza, and it demands patience and sagacity.

We are prepared to continue. The goal has been and remains ensuring quiet and superiors. for the residents of the South, meaning Israel, I send condolences to the families and best wishes for recovery to the wounded. So even in that statement, he is threatening more acts of violence against the Palestinians. And this is again after the ceasefire had been reached. He's campaigned on annexing the West Bank. So I mean, you could say that he was going extreme right to capture a certain voting block,

but he did tell us his intentions and annexing an area. that Palestinians are living on means that he is down for more violence. So it's clear that peace is not what he is concerned with. And I think also a lot of, especially American Jews who are progressive, know that and have been starting to seriously question the relationship between Netanyahu and Trump and their own, the way that they look at Israel and what Israel's been doing to Palestinians because of that tight-knit relationship. And, you know, Trump responded very quickly stating his support for Netanyahu.

Of course. I don't know if we have the quote, but it's pretty obvious. But I think that that's an important factor because I, you mentioned maybe the Israeli government has to change tack or whatever. They simply won't unless there's pressure from the American government. And there never will be pressure from the American government. From this current regime at least, yeah, maybe. I don't, I mean, look, unless. President Bernie Sanders might do something, but- Right, but let me just be clear about one thing.

Unless we get money out of politics, nothing will ever change in terms of the U.S. response to the Israeli government, if we have a right-wing Israeli government, as is the case right now. And the reason why I say that is because look at Obama, even Obama, you know, during his administration, to criticize the settlements that were being built in the West Bank. And John Kerry. And John Kerry. And think about the kind- They had a revolt from their own party in Congress.

Thank you. So they did not get the support from their own party. And you have to look at what the influences are behind the scenes. And it's important to bring that up. It impacts every single foreign policy issue that our government is involved in. And Israel is no different from that. So let's just move on to the second part of the story that is crazy. Following violence over the weekend between the Israelis and the Palestinians, right wingers,

including Katrina Pearson, felt the need to spread all sorts of propaganda and misinformation about what was really going on. In fact, she had tweeted the following, 650 rockets being fired into Israel from Gaza in an attempt to overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome, 173 intercepts, four people killed, and 28 wounded. What is Ilhan Omar or what is her response to this violence? Will she condemn it? Okay, so that was the texts of the tweet, and she also included a video, and this is the video that she included.

Let's take a look. So, I mean, that's compelling video, right? Yeah. Or at least it would be compelling if it were video used in the right context, because that was video from 2015 in Ukraine. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't from the Star Wars Empire Strikes Back, the Battle of Hoth, like the ATAT

walkers coming in. You know, that was the original tweet to see. Well, she said she posted it because she thought that American didn't know what rocket launching looked like. So they needed a, they needed that as context. Oh, oh. That was her. I have her response.

I'm going to read you verbatim which she had responded. But of course, it was a fake video and I want to give credit to all the people on Twitter who called her out on it. One of those people was Ben Norton and he wrote, wow, it's a crazy video from Ukraine, nice try, Trump's spokesperson. So then she responds because Ben Norton wasn't the only person. I mean, it was like a flood of people calling her out. And she said, 700 rockets now, and no, I'm not their geniuses.

The video is used as a gif to underscore what hundreds of rockets would look like to Americans. Yeah, it was just a meme, guys, don't you get it? This is like, you know, this is how the kids share information these days. They do the memes with the text and the thing, and then the gifts of like, you know, like Beyonce going like, oh my God, you know, like that's like, that's what it was. That's exactly what that was. Celebrity Rocking. Yeah, you know, like, yeah.

The original tweet is still there. Yeah. And this is so, this is par for the course. I mean, this is what you can expect from the right wing. And the end of that tweet, she mentions Ilhan Omar again. And that's what I really want to talk about. Because something like this happens and immediately from the right wing and members of establishment media want to know what Representative Omar and what Representative Talib have to

to say about it? What are the two Muslim members of Congress have to say about this? First of all, what does anyone have to say about it? Why is it that we immediately jump to Representative Omar? Are you trying to imply that Representative Omar thinks that violence against Israel is okay? Because she's never said that, never said that once. She has the audacity to bring up the treatment of Palestinians, which is legitimate, her concern is legitimate, and immediately everyone jumps down her throat.

It's absolutely breathtaking to me that this year alone, there have been two mass shootings at synagogues targeting American Jews at the hands of right-wing nationalists in this country, right-wing white nationalists in this country. And they're still obsessed with insisting upon the fact that anti-Semitism is a thing of the left and of Ilhan Omar specifically, you know, where there's been actual violence perpetrated against American Jews in this country from the right wing. And that just doesn't compute. Even more damaging, they're trying to link some of her old tweets to motivating those mass

shootings at synagogues, which clearly have no relationship because they were white supremacists who did those violent acts. And so that's what's really disingenuous about this. Do you have Ilhan's tweet that? Yeah, I do. So let's actually take a look at what Representative Omar and Representative Talib had to say about the violence over the weekend. And Omar writes, how many more protesters must be shot, rockets must be fired, and little kids

must be killed until the endless cycle of violence ends. The status quo of occupation and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is unsustainable. Only real justice can bring about security and lasting peace. That was- That was a mainstream position like 15 years ago. That was like the most utterly mainstream thing to say. Absolutely. And look, she's concerned with the ending cycles of violence. She's concerned with peace.

And she mentions the rockets. Right, right, right. But what they would probably attack her for, knowing how the right wing reacts to people like Ilhan Omar is her use of occupation, the word occupation, the status quo of occupation, because she's framing the situation as one that they probably wouldn't jive with. And then the other thing is that she does her and Rashida Thalab frequently talk about. about settlements being a barrier to peace. And they are not down with that either.

And so they are narrating it as violence. And in this moment, I very much think about what Malcolm X is popularized for saying. This is December in 1964, he said that the press is so powerful in its image-making role. And here we can just think about the right wing in this case on Twitter. It can make the criminal look like he's the victim and the victim look like he's the criminal. Wow, I mean, that definitely applies to the situation. If there isn't a serious attack on Omar or Talib's life, like within the next five years, like I'll be absolutely shocked.

Like at this point, like with the president and his tweets about Omar and what like the entire, I mean, in many ways the way the liberals have kind of provided cover for the criticisms of Omar, I mean, they're just creating a situation which something bad is going to happen. And it's absolutely shocking. And listen, there are other Muslim members. of Congress, but they don't receive this kind of hate because they're not women of color. They're not women of color who refuse to step down after they've taken a position. And like Ilhan Omar has said, I didn't get elected to Congress to be silent.

I got there because I am, my constituency believes in what I'm arguing for on their behalf. Right. So they knew who they elected. And I, like the consistent attacks on her and Rashida Talib are just. They're, I just, I have no words. What I want to understand is why it's offensive to refer to the occupation as an occupation. Because it's accurate and it's truthful. It's one of those like words have no meaning thing anymore.

You know, like, you know, what's going on in Venezuela is not a coup. What's going on in Gaza is not an occupation. It's just like, we can just change the meaning of words when it's like, I mean, I've, I've been to the border of the Gaza Strip before. And it's like, you know, that doesn't sound, that doesn't look like a free. open society, it looks like an open air prison, like you said. Well, because when you use terms like occupation, it is a violation of international law. You know, Amnesty International has called the blockade on Gaza an illegal blockade.

And I think that's the thing that they're up against, which is that these international organizations have laws that aren't necessarily enforceable, but they are globally damning. Yes, that's very true. And I want to make sure to read Rashida Talib's response to what happened over the weekend. And when will we hold, when will the world stop dehumanizing our Palestinian people who just want to be free? Headlines like this and framing in it, and framing it in this way just feeds into the continued lack of responsibility on Israel who unjustly oppress and target Palestinian children and

families. And the reason why I want to read that to you is because she made a really great point about a headline that was, in my opinion, incredibly biased. So let's go to Graphic 9. This was by the Washington Post. Death toll rises as Gaza militants fire hundreds of rockets into Israel, which responds with airstrikes. And just to give you another example, the Los Angeles Times wrote intense rocket fire at Israel-Gaza

border leaves at least 27 dead in two days. The LA Times one isn't as bad. But I do think that the Washington Post headline should be called out because it's so one-sided. It makes it appear as if the Palestinians are 100% the aggressors, they're 100% in the wrong. The Israeli government has been nothing but great to them, and that's just not true. It's the abusive husband that uses the look what you made me do excuse, you know, like look what you made me do or like the stop hitting yourself like with your little brother when you like hit him with his own arm, you know, like stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself.

Stop hitting yourself. Well, I think it's also unfortunately at this point for like decades of programming believable. There is this sense that the Middle East's geography of violence, that's why would they always say that Israel is the only democracy in the region we have to protect them. That's how we protect the rest of our interests in the region, which isn't true either. And so it's believable when you hear that Palestinians are aggressors. It's believable to hear that Ghazans are aggressors because you are inundated with these

headlines day in and day out. And so that's when it becomes irresponsible, is we can't have a vision of a humane sort of telling of what the Palestinian side has suffered. When we come back from the break, I will share with you a story involving the U.S. government provoking Iran into war. Lots of fun, yeah. And we have more for you. Make sure to use the hashtag TYT Live to tweet to us during the break. We'll be right back. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives,

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But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EXPRE SVPN.com slash TYT. T.Y.T. Check it out today. We hope you're enjoying this free clip from the Young Turks. If you want to get

the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting independent media, become a member at TYT.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free cycle. Welcome back to TYT. Nando Vila and Matha Alhassen join me. So I want to just tell you a little bit about a cool website that helps you build your own website. as Squarespace. Wow. The website that makes you build websites. Yes, that helps you build websites.

And I've used it myself to build my own website, yeah. I just transferred mine from one place to Squarespace. Did you really? Squarespace is the best. And guess what, since you watch the show, if you choose to use Squarespace to build your own website, you get a little bit of discount, okay? So if you go to Squarespace.com slash TYT, you get 10% off. Boom.

Boom. And even better, you can buy your URLs. URLs through Squarespace and build your website through Squarespace. It's a one-stop shop for website, you know, wonderfulness. So check it out. I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna buy the Nando is cool URL that I've been wanting to for my entire life. I can finally do it with Squarespace and I get 10% off, oh my God.

I bet you that's already taken. Nando's cool. I don't know, we'll see. By my mom. All right, and then someone tweeted in and gave us some incredibly important intel. Fact check, a little fact check. Yes.

Thank you, Drew. Drew tweeted to us and said it's worth noting that Lumer didn't graduate valedictorian. Shocking. I know. I know. She lied about that? Coming out of her mouth is not true. According to an interview she did, she was kicked out of school a month prior to graduation

for a stunt she did with Project Veritas. Of course, James O'Keefe was involved somehow. He's in everything. I was valedictorian in college. Oh, my God. All right. I was captain of the football team in college, by the way, starting quarterback. That was me.

Did you do any sports in college? No. No? Yes, I was starting quarterback. Of Boston College Eagles. We were number one in the country. Did you do any electives in? No, I was a very, I was a very bad student in college, and I just kind of coasted through

and didn't do it. And I regret that deeply. So, kids, if you're in school right now, do as many electives, do as many extracurricular activities, go abroad, do sports, go see the talks that your college provides. I didn't do any of those things. Yeah, I mean, it's because college students, for the most part, are super young and they want to have fun. Yeah, that was me. Anyway, this is a post-game topic that I really want to get into at some point. But right now, we've got to talk about Iran.

John Bolton, Donald Trump's national security advisor, is a warmonger, certainly a hawk when it comes to foreign policy, and it appears that he is now provoking Iran. And of course, there has been this push to engage in war with Iran, not just by the Israeli government, but also certain members of the Trump administration. Now, of course, Donald Trump famously ripped up the nuclear deal. that the Obama administration had, you know, agreed to with Iran. And now we're finding out that the U.S. government is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region to send a clear and

unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on the U.S. or U.S. interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force. That is an exact quote from John Bolton. Now, is Iran threatening us in any way? No. Is Iran serving as an imminent threat to the United States? No. No.

So what the United States is doing right now is provoking Iran, plain and simple. They have not taken any type of action against the United States. Now the deployment has been ordered as a deterrence to what has been seen as potential preparations by Iranian forces and its proxies that may indicate possible attacks on U.S. forces in the region, and that's according to an unnamed U.S. official who spoke to Reuters. However, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was not expecting any imminent Iranian attack. Oh, it's important, important caveat there, very important caveat.

John Bolton, who looks like the father of Charlie and Willy Wonka and the chocolate fire, or the grandpa, is a grandpa, right? Or like some sort of old train conductor, you know. He, along with a huge swath of the national security establishment in the United States government has been aching for war with Iran for decades, basically since 1980. And it does feel like they're inching closer than ever. And that should be a terrifying prospect for any of us because war with Iran would be very, very bad. Like if you thought the Iraq war was bad, war with Iran would be really bad.

That is the country you do not want to mess with. They are, they are real. Well, there's a huge difference between Iran and Iraq, and let's just be clear that- Not just one letter. That's true. Iraq has been a complete and utter disaster, but Iran would be worse because its military capability is far more advanced and yes, stronger than that of Iraq's. So, but here's the thing.

I mean, people like John Bolton, I would argue, love performance. perpetual war. Oh, yeah. So I don't think that the difficulty of, you know, conquering Iran is the bug. I think it's the feature. The feature, absolutely. Well, I mean, all these hawks, including Pompeo and Bolton, they are in favor of managed disaster.

So that's what they get profits from in terms of like contracts, war industries. And also, I mean, this is a clearly veiled advocacy for what Saudi Arabia wants. It's also something that we don't understand in the U.S. in terms of like what's happening with the sanctions that are proposed in terms of the export of crude oil, and also in terms of what Iran said it would do in response, which is to block the strait of Hormuz. That's what this is really about. So I'm going to read you one more part of the Reuters report that I think is super relevant. And then, Matha, I'd like you to jump into the oil issue.

That's really at the heart of what's going on here. Now, Reuters reports that Bolton cited, Bolton cited, no specific Iranian activities that have raised new concerns. So again, they don't serve as a threat, they're not an imminent threat. Bolton himself can't cite any type of, you know, threat coming from Iran. But as is the case with Venezuela, oil is at play, especially when it comes to Iran. So Matha, jump in and give us more details. And I believe I stated it incorrectly straight of Hamruz.

If we could throw up the map because I think it's really great to break down the geopolitical situation of the Middle East and where the street is. So you could see also what the interest for Saudi Arabia is. So these are images of the shipping of the oil. So 40% of global exports from the Arabian Gulf flow out this way and flow to Asia. So this would be putting China, India, and other people who receive these. exports in jeopardy, basically. And that's not good in terms of just war with Iran, but where the U.S. is in terms of its precarious

position constantly with China, especially with the current president that we have. But the other point, which is important and why this map is up there, if you can see where the strait is and this eastern part of Saudi Arabia, you know, they call this the Shia crescent, Iraq, Bahrain. They are afraid of this blockade because they think that there could be an inspired Shia revolt in Saudi Arabia on the eastern province where there is the most oil reserves in Saudi Arabia. So there is all this concern that's really never publicly discussed or acknowledged in

U.S. politics, and we should know about what we're going to get ourselves into should this escalate? And it's very similar to previous conflicts that the U.S. has dragged the country into, where you know, there's this facade of, oh, we need to spread democracy, we care about human rights, we care about stopping terrorism, whatever excuse the government will use to either invade a country or get involved or intervene in a conflict in a different country. And that's certainly the case with Iran. The underlying issue here, again, is oil, and instead we're hearing these arguments.

Look, this is the reason why the Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear deal. It wasn't because the nuclear deal was weak. The nuclear deal was incredibly strong, especially if you juxtapose what Iran agreed to, which included actual safeguards, people going in and reviewing the situation, making sure that they're following through. You compare that and juxtapose that with what Trump thought was a victorious deal with the United States in North Korea, which as we now know, wasn't a deal at all. And also, sanctions don't work.

Sanctions in Venezuela, sanctions in Iraq. Well, they do work. They kill tons of people. I mean, they kill tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people. They work like a charm. Yes, civilians who are starving to death in all these countries. And so the plan is to up even more sanctions against Iran. So what is that supposed to produce?

Yeah, just more death and misery. I mean, the, like you said, the Iran nuclear deal was perhaps, in my opinion, perhaps Obama's greatest single achievement as president. And, you know, just the possibility of peace between the United States and Iran, which has been sort of threatened for 30, 40 years. And it was just incredibly dispiriting to see the Trump administration unilaterally pull out of the deal to see the mainstream media largely kind of be silent about it. And to see basically every single Democrat in Congress support it.

I mean, I think it was only Bernie Sanders that voted. Bernie Sanders is like two others to vote to block, to continue the Iran deal in the Senate, which was President Obama's signature foreign policy achievement. It's just like, it shows how in the realm of foreign policy, bipartisanship is alive and well, for the most part. There are some differences between the parties, but for the most part, there is kind of broad agreement. And we're seeing it in Iran.

We're seeing it in Venezuela. We're seeing it all over the place. That's a great point. And it always comes down to U.S. economic and business interests, right? It always goes back to U.S. industries, what they want to do in terms of increasing their profits, and how much they're willing to give these politicians in lobbying to encourage them to, you know, push forward with these bipartisan resolutions or efforts or policies. when it comes to foreign policy.

When you talk to people who know Washington well, like the inner workings of Washington, they always tell you that money from the Gulf is just sloshing around Washington all over the place. In quantities that you can't even imagine from like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, whatever, all these states are just, they're pouring money into Washington to influence politicians through lobbying and all kinds of other ways, think tanks and all kinds of other ways. And you see that this is the net product of that. This is the end result of that effort.

And it's just- And finally, I want to just quickly mention that even though the United States did unilaterally pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, the other countries that were involved, including Germany, refused to do it. And Iran at that point really had no incentive to follow through with the deal. Of course. But they continue to follow through with the deal. And I think that's important to keep in mind as these politicians continue fearmongering about the danger that Iran serves.

So just keep all of that in mind, something to think about while we go to break. Thank you so much, guys, for doing the first hour with me. Make sure you guys check them out on social media. Where can they find you? At Nando Arvila on Twitter and Instagram. At M-A-M-A-Y-T-H-A-L-H-A-S-E-N. Somebody took M-A-F-A-F-A-F-E-N. And they have like seven followers, so.

And they won't give it back, right? Well, they didn't necessarily take it from me. That sounded very moose. It was taken from you. We're like, somebody established it first, and I'm resentful. You have been defamed. You were the valedictor. We'll be right back.

You should chain yourself to the Twitter HQ. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Jank Yugar, and I'll see you soon.