The Young Turks - Damage Control

Episode Date: May 26, 2021

Secretary of State Blinken is talking about rallying international support to help rebuild Gaza after we assisted in destroying it further. Leaked memos show that the Associated Press might be regretting its firing of a young journalist over her pro-Palestinian activism. 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. You know, Love the Young Turks, Jank U Gran and Kasparian, today's a wild day. Literally anything can happen. And that's it, I'm done with it, Casford, the news. Perfect. All right, we're going to begin with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. He had a joint press.

Are you serious? Do you have anything else to say? No. Oh, okay. I thought you were joking. No, of course I didn't believe you. Can you blame me? All right, all right. That little pony is a little too high. All right, I'm ready, guys. Let's do it. Okay. President Biden asked me to come here today, really for four reasons. first to demonstrate the commitment of the United States to Israel's security, to start to work toward greater stability and reduce tensions in the West Bank and Jerusalem, to support urgent

humanitarian and reconstruction assistance for Gaza to benefit the Palestinian people and to continue to rebuild our relationship with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority. That was Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who held a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Now, unfortunately, many of the same talking points that we're used to by U.S. officials were regurgitated during this joint press conference. But there was some good news to come out of it, including incredibly important foreign aid to Gaza specifically, and I'll give you the details and the exact figures in just a moment.

But there were certainly some talking points by Blinken in an attempt to draw these false equivalencies in regard to the level of violence on the Israeli side and the Palestinian side, and also when it comes to casualties. And it's just not equal at all. Here's what Blinken had to say. Intense behind-the-scenes diplomacy led by President Biden, working very closely with the Prime Minister, helped produce last week ceasefire. Now we believe we must build on it. That starts with the recognition that losses on both sides were profound. Casualties are often reduced to numbers. But behind every number is an individual human being, a daughter, a son. son, a father, a mother, a grandparent, a best friend.

And as the Talmud teaches, to lose a life is to lose the whole world, whether that life is Palestinian or Israeli. I underscored to the Prime Minister something that President Biden made crystal clear throughout the violence. The United States fully supports Israel's right to defend itself against attacks, such as the thousands of rockets fired by Hamas indiscriminately against Israeli civilians. So he specifically says that the casualties on both sides was profound. And, you know, of course, doesn't offer any numbers, but indicates that the numbers are uneven.

The numbers are uneven. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that the numbers are uneven and that there was disproportionate force used on the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. Because, you know, every person who dies has family. I agree. Every person who dies has family members. Every person who dies, it's a tragedy. It's a loss. I'm specifically talking about civilians here. But there were hundreds of deaths on the Palestinian side and a little over a dozen deaths on the Israeli side. And that's because the military capabilities are not the same. This is asymmetrical. And they leave that part out of the story. But it's just frustrating to see the United States, even as the U.S. media has started to evolve and shift the narrative to something that's a little more accurate, the U.S. government has decided to continue on with their same narrative on this, which is pretty tragic because it gives you very little hope that things will change in terms of U.S. foreign policy in the region.

So they force us into nonsensical false equivalency conversations. Is every life precious? Of course. Did Israel act that way? No. Did the U.S. act that way? No. So the 12 Israelis that lost their lives is an absolute tragedy. The 239 civilians lost on the Palestinian side is also a tragedy. It is simply a tragedy that is literally 20 times higher. So if you say no, the 12 Israeli lives are worth more than the 240 Palestinian lives, well, you're a racist. And you don't believe every life is precious, so spare me your nonsensical quoting of religious texts that started this in the first place. So now, the most important part of all of what Blinken said is, okay, we're going to rebuild

Gaza. Like, I get, no, you're not, shut up. You know how you rebuild Gaza? You free them. And that doesn't mean, oh, we kind of stopped back. them, but we built, made it in open air prison because they can't control their borders. They can't really govern themselves. The West Bank can't govern themselves at all. They're dirty Palestinians who obviously should be occupied decade after decade after decade

because they're too violent. So spare me your nonsense quotes from religious texts. That's, again, that part of the problem to begin with, okay? But the most important thing is, okay, we bomb it, we rebuild it, we bomb it, we rebuild it. But are you ever going to free the prisoners? And by the prisoners, I don't mean the hundreds of people that Israel is rounding up right now for daring to dissent with them within Israel. That's also happening in a so-called democracy. But now Blinken says, no, we're not going to give any money that is going to get directed to Hamas, because Hamas is a bunch of terrorists. Hamas is a bunch of terrorists because they kill civilians. Let's go through this one more time.

But Israel killed 20 times the civilians. Well, they didn't mean it. They really suck at their military. They're just, oh, oops, we killed all the civilians again. Just like last time when we killed thousands of civilians, our military sucks and doesn't know what it's doing. And it's also the best in the world. Did you know what you were doing and intentionally killed those civilians, which would definitely make you a terrorist? Or do you have one of the most incompetent militaries the world has ever seen? No, you knew what you were doing. You, if you, you said, well, I'm kind of throwing rockets in the direction of possibly Hamas. And by the way, the government is Hamas, so I can call anyone Hamas inside Gaza Strip pretty much.

And so, and then I happen to kill all those civilians, golly gee. No, I'm tired of the wordplay. And then they say, okay, Hamas is terrorist because they killed, one of the 12 killed was an Israeli soldier. No, the definition of the, whatever fake definition we had of terrorism was killing civilians, not soldiers. In the middle of an armed conflict, killing soldiers is not terrorism. It's the conflict itself.

And then Israel turns around and goes, we murdered a bunch of Hamas terrorists, their military parties. By the way, by the way, and that's part of conflict. I say the same thing, same standard, right? But then they say, oh, we also killed their political leaders. Now imagine if Hamas had killed Netanyahu. Oh, the terrorist, the terrorist, right? We're not going to give any money to that's going to go to the terrorists. But they run the post office.

They run the medical buildings. They run, you know why? Because they run the government. Why? Because they won an election. Well, no, that doesn't count because we don't like, they kill civilians. But you kill 20 times. It doesn't matter. Propaganda, propaganda, propaganda, propaganda.

Those are by definition Muslim dirty Muslim terrorists and Israelis are beloved knighted statesmen in a so-called democracy. So I don't know where the hell the money is going to go, but Hamas runs the government in Gaza, whatever little there is of it. And so- The money's going to go to- It's going to go to stupid allies that will do. whatever Israel in America tells them to do. Let's get real about that. If you're not sending it to

Hamas, you're going to send it to lackeys who are going to find a way to get it to, you know, whoever is considered safe enough. In other words, you know, won't raise their head in rebellion as the imprisonment of millions of people continues decades on it. This is the carrot strategy for regime change. That's what they want. That's, that's, I mean, I think it's pretty clear. I'll give you the details. So this is the second graphic here. Blinken announced nearly $40 million in aid to the Palestinians, including $5.5 million in emergency assistance for Gaza.

That brings the U.S. assistance to the Palestinians under the Biden administration to over $360 million after the Trump administration had cut off nearly all assistance to them. Now, the Associated Press continues to write that the United States is trying to bolster Abbas, meaning Mahmoud Abbas, who's, you know, politician for Palestinians, who was sidelined by recent events in his rivalry with Hamas and on the international stage. Abbas heads the internationally backed Palestinian Authority, which administrators or administers parts of the occupied West Bank, but whose forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas ceased power there in 2007. So, I mean, you can kind of read between the lines there.

This is an attempt to push for regime change through financing. I think that there's a possibility could help Palestinians, but at the heart of what the US is trying to do is essentially minimize the power of Hamas. I don't know how that's going to end up. I don't think that this ongoing violence is going to just completely stop. Yes, there's a ceasefire right now, but I think the statement from Benjamin Netanyahu during this press conference is telling, because he doesn't hide anything. He's very transparent about what he's demanding here.

And before we go to the video, I want to read this quote where Netanyahu spoke of building economic growth in the occupied West Bank, but said there will be no peace until the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Okay, so let's stop for a second. Recognize Israel as a Jewish state. So what happens to the Palestinian citizens of Israel? What happens to them? What does that mean?

Oh, they're theoretically under a democracy. Come on, let's keep it real. They're second class citizens, etc. But look, to me, recognizing Israel as a Jewish state is a ship that has likely sailed. I know now a lot of people are saying one state solution, let's put everybody together and do a vote. It's the most unrealistic solution I've ever heard. Whether you think it's morally right or not, it doesn't really matter because there is a 0% chance that the Israelis would ever agree to it, not just the right-wing government of Israel, but any government of Israel. So let's move on to productive things. Let's get to two states. I don't really care what Israel calls itself, as long as the Palestinians actually have their own government. And to Mahmoud Abbas, I was hopeful about his leadership. When he first came in, he seemed less radical than the former head of the PLO, Arafat.

And it looked like he was working on a peace deal. I was hopeful about that. Obviously, Yassak Rabin got assassinated by an Israeli terrorist. And it was unfortunately the most successful. act of terrorism that I've ever seen in my lifetime. And they were rewarded by other right-wingers like Netanyahu, who said, oh, great, we killed Rabin. I mean, oh, a terrorist who completely agrees with me politically happened to agree, happen to kill

my main political opponent, and I hated peace. He was about to make peace. Now I'll never make peace. Thank you, terrorist, is Netanyahu's position. Okay, so don't tell me Netanyahu doesn't like terrorists, okay? And by the way, who started Hamas? Israel started Hamas. They thought it was a great idea to split the PLO.

Oops. And so by the way, who funded the Mujahideen that turned into the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan? We did. America did. Oops. Oops, oops, oops. Okay, here's a simpler solution. Stop imprisoning millions of people and the occupation today. I see all over social media.

Oh, no, but Jenk, the Palestinians didn't agree to the peace deals we wanted where we would taken most of their land. So we did not release the prisoners because the prisoners did not know their role in their place. Release the goddamn prisoners, okay? They're all prisoners. You are occupying them. And occupation is not

in any way democratic. All right. Anyways, the U.S. guys, let's give up on the mirage that U.S. is neutral. Blinken goes to Israel to do propaganda on behalf of Israel. And so, and last part of that is, the money that they gave a little Bank, I'll give them credit, was a brilliant piece of strategy.

And what they did was they funded people like Mahoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority until they became compliant because they didn't want the money to stop. So the West Bank is under control because they have leadership that is under control. And he's not going to push for a peace deal. It's not going to push for anything. They're totally compliant. And that's what Blinken went to do in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians should know when they are conquered.

We will now fund other people in Gaza and try to make them as compliant as Mahmoud Abbas is so the Palestinians will never have a state. That's what happened yesterday. All right, well let's move on to our next story because during that joint press conference, Netanyahu made sure to slip in some talking points regarding Iran that I think is worth discussing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged, urged the United States. state's government to avoid diplomatic negotiations with Iran in regard to re-entering the Iran nuclear deal. Here's what he had to say.

The second point is naturally is Iran. We discussed many regional issues, but none is greater than Iran. And I can tell you that I hope that the United States will not go back to the old JCPOA, because we believe that that deal paves the way for Iran. And I can tell you that I hope that the United States will not go back to the old JCPOA, because we believe that that deal paves the way for Iran to have an arsenal of nuclear weapons with international legitimacy. We also iterated that whatever happens, Israel will always reserve the right to defend itself against the regime, committed to our destruction, committed to getting the weapons of mass destruction for that end. So let me be clear about something. What Benjamin Nanyahu said in that statement regarding the JCPOA and how it allowed for Iran to develop nuclear weapons was a lie.

It was a brazen, absolute lie. The JCPOA was a nuclear deal that was not just between the United States and Iran, but between the United States and several other countries, European countries, it had the ability for these countries to go into Iran and do checks to. ensure that they were not enriching uranium or developing nuclear weapons. Now Iran has not been happy with that deal, which of course Donald Trump pulled out of during his administration and then implemented crippling sanctions that have only hurt the people of Iran. What Netanyahu wanted and what other conservative critics of the Iran nuclear deal wanted was a way to cripple Iran further and prevent them from developing or having missiles,

instance. Now, the Iran nuclear deal was about nuclear weapons. It wasn't about any other military capability, but it was an important deal because it allowed for, again, people to go in and ensure that Iran was not developing nuclear weapons. It also lifted sanctions that were previously implemented on Iran, which were helpful because those sanctions, even though people think that it's not a form of war, it absolutely is a form of war. It has hurt the Iranian people during this pandemic where they're unable to get medical supplies. The economy is so disastrous as a result that literal doctors and health care workers are fleeing the country because it's untenable. The situation is untenable.

The people of Iran are suffering over what Donald Trump did. And Biden said he would reenter the Iran nuclear deal, but he has failed to do that. In fact, there's no indication that he's even willing to negotiate with Iran. at this point. So he lied during his campaign about it. Got elected as president, I don't know where Biden is. I mean, look, when conservatives talk about Sleepy Joe, there's a little bit of credibility there. Where's Joe Biden?

What is he doing? What happened to his infrastructure bill? What happened to the American families plan? What is Joe Biden up to? He didn't want to weigh in on Israeli aggression toward the Palestinians in Gaza. But he was forced to because there was so much backlash as a result of the U.S. government's silence on the matter. No, this is insane. And the fact that we're listening to the Israeli prime minister, a right-wing authoritarian who just brazenly lied during that press

conference is honestly embarrassing. Embarrassing as an American. Absolutely embarrassing. Okay, so number one, we of course we have no courage at all in the U.S. And, and besides which we agree with the right wing government of Israel. So if Blinken was a man of courage, he would stop in the middle and go, I've just got to correct the record here. The prime minister must have misspoken there because Iran did not develop any weapons while the deal was in place. And in fact, we took all of their uranium out of the country and the deal worked brilliantly and involved the entire world. not only European countries, but Russia and China. So I'm sure that the prime minister must have been, must have misspoke because he probably

couldn't be that ignorant. Now, he would never add the last part. I get it. He's a diplomat, right? But he can at least use diplomatic languages like misspoke is not correct, et cetera. Nope, just sits there. Yes, sir, absolutely. The deal of my president, Joe Biden, remember he was part of the Obama Biden team that signed

that deal. The deal that my boss signed, you're right, just lie about it. Just go ahead. Oh, it was terrible. Oh, yeah, they built weapons. They're going to, we're the most powerful country. We don't look like the most powerful country. Nanyahu looks way more powerful than us.

He tells us what to do. I mean. Okay, so don't get a twisted on anything else. It's true. Netanyahu is the equivalent of Dick Cheney and Donald Trump. He is viciously right wing. He's a complete warmonger. And in that press conference, he's for the billionth time in a row

try to start a war with Iran, which, by the way, he doesn't want to fight. It's easy for him to bomb Palestinians. They have no defense. You just kill, kill, kill, kill, right? No problem. A warmonger, coward like Netanyahu is happy to do that, right? Oh, Iran. Iran has capabilities. That'd be a serious war.

Hey, America, fight this for us. No, no. The answer is no. But my answer is no, the American people's answer is no. Republican voters hate the idea, Democratic voters hate the idea, independents, hate the idea, but our politicians, they're 50-50 on it. So Biden, you said it was terrible that Trump came out of the Iran deal. Was it terrible or was it not? How many years are we going to go into your administration before you enter a perfectly good deal that you negotiated in the first place? No, but oh, you didn't get orders from Israel. No, you're not allowed to

say that, Jenk. You're not allowed to say that Israel is giving America orders. Guys, open your eyes. It's super obvious. This doesn't have any do with religion, okay? And, and, We also get orders from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia says, oh, I butcher that guy, cut his head off, I cut his limbs off, I put stuffed him in a suitcase. And we go, yes sir, thank you sir, yes sir, we're the most powerful. It seems like Muhammad bin Salman and then yah are the most powerful people in the world. And I mean, Trump took orders from Erdogan, Turkish leader of-

Yeah, Erdogan calls him up and says, get the hell out of northern Syria, your dog. And Trump goes, do I get any money? Do I get any money? Do I get any money? I get, yes, yes, yes. Yes, Erdogan. Yes, Erdogan. And he runs like a dog.

Who's the most powerful? Do we look powerful? We've taken orders from Erdogan, Bin Salman, and Netanyahu. No, I don't want to start wars for them. I don't want to start war. I don't want Americans to die. I don't want you to waste our money. And one more thing.

I am so sick of the lie of, oh, the Palestinians don't want Israel to exist. Hamas has that in their charter. they have said before that they would take it out if there was a peace deal, which is like, of course, and of course the Palestinian Authority has already said that of course Israel is the right to exist. But that's not the point, guys. There is one country preventing another country from existing. It's right in front of your eyes. Israel will not allow Palestine to exist. They occupy the Palestinians. Then they have the nerve to say, can you believe they don't want us to exist? You're preventing them from existing as we speak. Yet all of our American

so-called diplomats and leaders bow their heads. Yes, sir, yes sir. We will repeat your stupid talking points that are obviously brazenly false. And by the way, our media, do you ever correct them? Israel does not allow Palestine to exist? Has that ever gotten into a single article, let alone the fact that it should be in every article? Israel says that Hamas does not want It says, side note, Israel actually does not allow Palestine to exist. It is not theoretical, it is real, and Israel has kept the Palestinians in an open-air prison for over five decades. Does that go in every article?

It goes in no articles. All right, when we come back from the break, the Associated Press is in full-blown damage control after they fired one of their young journalists for her pro-Palestinian activism. And later in the show, we'll also talk about where the Biden administration is on the topic of police reform. See you in a few. 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-B-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 unlearn 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. Use your head. Use your hands.

Use it. Use it. Use it. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I'm going to be. Get down to it. Get down to it. Get down to it. Get down to it. Get down to it. Get down to it. All right, back on the young Turks.

Elias Chavaria on YouTube super chat asks, Anna, have you taught classes in university? If you do, if you have, do you think it's appropriate for political science professors to disclose their personal views? Yes, I do think it's appropriate. I mean, like we got to start, I don't know, maybe this is too strong, but we need to stop acting like children. Humans have thoughts, they have beliefs, they have principles, they have values, that includes journalists, that includes professors. And pretending as if we're like these robots that don't have beliefs is ridiculous. So I think it's actually better to be forthcoming and share with both your audience in the case of doing a show like this or with your students, if you're a professor, what you're you're, your potential biases might be, or more importantly, what your values are.

Look, we're going to talk about the next segment, because we're going to talk about the AP. But the idea that reporters or professors who are supposed to be robots that have a perspective from nowhere, that is the objective perspective, is total horse crap. It never made any sense. No, you should be honest about your perspective. That's a much better way to go. Another name wrote in, JenConfire today, LOL, too strong coffee.com. I appreciate it to strong coffee.com slash t-y-t.

Yes, I did have some today, but that's not why I'm pissed. Anyway, that's not why I'm fired up. I'm pissed. That's why I'm fired up. New members, Tracy, Ravenhawk, Edward Kuhnha, Jessica Manchaca, and Jane Smith, all just joined by hit and I join button below. We love you for it. Loretta writes in our member section.

As Norm Finglstein has pointed out, there is a simple solution to the nuclear weapons issue, namely a nuclear free zone in the Middle East. Oh, but that would necessitate inspection of Israel's nuclear arsenal, and we can't have that. Yeah, I'm so sick of every hypocrisy there is. Iran is not allowed to have nuclear weapons. Okay, great, let's get rid of Israel's nuclear weapons. No way.

We reserve the right to nuke them all until oblivion and murder all their kids and grandkids and all that stuff, okay? But they are not allowed to have any weapons. Why? Why is that a standard that makes any sense at all? I'm super happy that Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons? I don't think Israel should either. Oh, no, we can't have that. All right, back on the Young Turks,

Shankanana with you, more news. Following its ouster of journalist Emily Wilder over her pro-Palestinian activism while she was a college student, the Associated Press is now engaging in some damage control, especially among its writers and staff who found the fact that she was fired questionable to say the least. So the editors over at the Associated Press sent a memo over to their staff and they say, look, we hear you guys, you have a voice. I'm going to read you a few excerpts from that memo and give you some more details. So they write to the staff, we don't discuss personnel matters publicly, but please know that our recent decision to dismiss a member of the staff was a difficult one. We did not make it lightly. Much of the coverage and commentary does not accurately portray what took place. Now, you would think that if they're going to make a claim like that, maybe they're going to get a little more specific, right?

Maybe they're going to clear the air, provide some more details as to why this 22-year-old Jewish journalist, by the way, was fired. for a smear campaign that the right wing amplified. But no, they didn't do that. They did say, though, we emphatically do not believe there is a widespread problem of opinion and bias being expressed online by news staff. In the rare instance, when a problem does arise, they write, we take great care to examine the circumstances in detail.

Now, if they had taken the time to examine the circumstances in great detail in this particular case, then maybe they would have been aware of how this was a right-wing smear campaign directed toward a 22-year-old journalist, but I would argue they didn't do that before they made their decision to fire her. And they finally say that the Associated Press is in the business of fact-based journalism. Is it? It is who we are.

We have these values to ensure we maintain our position as an unbiased source of information and to protect our journalists so they can cover the news in all parts of the law. of the world, just make sure, though, that you don't ever participate in any type of activism, either in college or in any time in your life, because if the right wing decides to point that out as part of a smear campaign, then we'll fire you. Then we'll fire you. So let's be clear about a couple of things. First of all, I know how hard it is to be an employer and sometimes ex-employees lie about you. And then they say, well, no, you can't say anything about me, okay? Because I'll, you know, they have a number of threats against you in situations

like that. This is not one of those situations, okay? Emily Wilder is saying, you can release all my personal files, I don't mind. I'm asking you, what did I do wrong? And you won't answer me. So she's not saying, I'm blaming you, she's not lying about you. You appear to be lying about her. So she's saying, can you please just tell me what the hell you fired me for? Because you say that it wasn't for what I did in college. It was what I did as a journalist at the AP. But I only wrote stories about Phoenix. I covered Phoenix, Arizona. Yep. I didn't cover the Israeli-Palestinian issue. So what did I do wrong? No, no, no. Associate Press, unless you clearly explain, and especially the situation where an employee, a former

employee says, no, you can say it. You can say why, right? I'm not going to see you. I'm whatever it is, right? But say why, right? And then you say, no, I'm not going to tell you. Nah, that means that you're very, very likely lying. So don't give me this BS about fact-based journalism when you won't put up. So would the Associated Press stand for it? If let's say Russia today said, oh, we fired someone and it looked like it's because they disagreed with Putin, We were not going to tell you why. But trust us, it wasn't because they disagreed with Putin. Would the Associated Press trust them?

Would they just leave it be? Or would they do follow-up questions and go, can you show us to evidence? Can you show us to evidence? Now, the AP doesn't show us to evidence. So my job is not only to present the news with Anna, but to give analysis a perspective. And my analysis is you appear to be lying. And that hurts your brand of doing fact-based journalism way worse than what What Emily Wilder wrote, which by the way, none of it was offensive, what she wrote in college that Ben Shapiro was upset at.

And now Ben Shapiro runs the Associated Press, you're cowards? Yeah, yeah. Ben Shapiro runs the Associated Press. Ben Shapiro and his ilk decided that they were going to decide what the, you know, hiring practices at the Associated Press should be. So they all get together. It's always, I mean, look, the right wing is very, it's a well-oiled machine. in regard to these smear campaigns. And so they decided, okay, our next target is a 22 year old Jewish journalist. She's Jewish. They're accusing her of anti-semitism. They're accusing her of anti-semitism, not associated press.

Jake, let me finish my point, damn it. Like, they're accusing her of anti-semitism as a Jewish person who found the treatment of Palestinians abhorrent. Like she wanted to do protests, she wanted to engage in activism. That's her right as a college student. And for all of the right-wingers who were like, oh, politically correct stuff has, has run amok in America. Cancel culture has run amok in America. The right wing is, I mean, at this point,

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journalist. Really? It's embarrassing. Yeah. And in this case, it wasn't that Ben Shapiro called for the firing. It's that the Stanford Republicans said that Ben Shapiro was offended. Ooh. And then, of course, Senator Tom Cotton got into the mix. And then the Associated Press really got nervous.

Oh, my God. What if the Republicans criticize us? Then the powerful would be upset. I thought you were supposed to challenge the powerful. Come on, let's get real, man. Associated Press hasn't done that in years and years and years. And so there's one other thing we should consider that it's not just that the Associated Press gives into the right wing. It's there's an excellent chance that the people who run the Associated Press are right wing.

And certainly on this issue, so probably their perspective is the right wing government of Israel is, always right. Emily Wilder disagreed years ago, as a student, get rid of her. Unacceptable. Okay? Well, you tell us Associated Press, you're supposed to be journalists. You tell us, what's the answer? By the way, I want to be clear. I want the Associated Press to be excellent. I actually want them to do fact-based journalism. I don't want them to be scared of their own shadow. And by the way, and I don't want them to be biased. And right now they are deeply, deeply biased. And what do I mean by that? So right wing goes, boom, and they just fire anyone, change their reporting, et cetera, right? Again, I don't know if it's because they're right wing themselves or are scared.

If the left wing says something, they go, get out of here, who cares left wing? You have no power. We only care about the powerful. Oh, progressives complaining about how we covered Medicare for all because we gave no context and pretended that it was really expensive when, in fact, it costs half of what our current system costs everywhere else in the wall. You wanted us to report it accurately? Shut up, progressives. The Associated Press has never fired anyone, has never bent to the left.

No matter how right we are, no matter how factual we are, they dismiss the left in this country and all across the world because we don't have enough power. What does that tell you about how they do reporting? No, I wish they were excellent at their job, and sometimes they are. They have some great reporters and some great editors, and sometimes we get wonderful stories from them. But oftentimes it is, as usual, bending a knee to the powerful. Here, we've got one person who wrote in in our member section that I think made a good point that unfortunately is not just about Emily Wilder. Carl Tuckerson, their handle on our site wrote in, every single AP article says Hamas

seized power in Gaza in 2007. They never say that they were democratically elected, regardless of whether or whether Hamas are now seen as politically representative in Gaza, they recently postponed long-awaited elections. AP's wording is just flat out wrong, he says it drives him crazy. The building they operate out of in the Gaza Strip, just got, I mean, it was bombed by Israeli forces. It was bombed by Israeli forces. And immediately after that, thanks to a smear campaign by right-wingers, they cave to the demands of bad faith right-wingers. Good job. You guys really, you guys did a great job here. Killed it. Absolutely killed it. Good job, really.

Can you just report facts? Stop reporting your right-wing bias to us and report facts. I don't like that Hamas won an election in 2007. But they did. That's a fact. They seized power. No, we seized power when the United States and Israel blockaded Gaza Strip after their democratically elected representatives,

which we don't like, I don't necessarily like, got into power. Then we said we were kidding. We didn't think you could actually rule yourselves. You're Muslims, you're Palestinians, you're dirt. No, we seize power back. We blockade you. And you no longer control your lives and you now live in an open-air prison. But the Associated Press Rights every time Hamas sees power in 2007 and not mention the elections.

It is terrible reporting and it is not fact-based journalism. We've got to take a break when we come back. We'll tell you where Joe Biden is at when it comes to the. topic of police reform. I don't know what I'm going to be able to be. I'm going to be. I'm going to be. I'm going to be.

All right, back on the social break. All right, back during the social break, Trev is in TN, gave 2,500 bits on Twitch, and we appreciate it, makes the show possible. Sorken Dragon gave 500 bits, says just like the war on drugs, funding both sides of the conflict. British 32 wrote in on YouTube super chat. Hi, TYT, enjoying great combo again. If you want a U.S. diplomat to say something good or bad, all you have to do is pay money via a super PAC to them. By the way, Biden isn't president, but Mansion is because Biden doesn't have a spine to lead.

All that is relatively true. Maybe we should just use rebellion pact to just give, campaign contributions or enough of them through dark money, and we just buy the president. You know, maybe we're just wasting our time. Let's just collect enough money and go legally bribe, you know, Biden and Kamala Harris to do whatever the hell we want, instead of having them do whatever the hell corporations want. I mean, they're all of our politicians are for sale, so you're not wrong, British 32. Parker writes, and watching clips of Biden administration speak about Israel Palestine in the past two weeks has been nauseating.

progressive Demp's supposed to get excited for 2022. Well, there is no answer to that. They're going to get killed in 2022 because they're not going to do anything. I hope that's not the case, but that's where we're headed right now. Paulo Emmanuel Taviris wrote in Damage Inc letter finish. All right, he was kidding, and we get heated on the show. As you know, we do a different kind of show. It is what it is.

Krog just joined, so did Stellar Vision, so did Fallon Dabrosky, real talk on being black in America. All hit the joint button below. We love you guys for it. We're going to do this show together. We're going to be honest with you guys, unlike the rest of the media, and we're going to change the country together. Captain Polywag Vanderbif, which is a hilarious handle, just joined as well. And Lenny Gomez. So thank you guys.

Appreciate it. And all right, let me give you guys some programming updates. Woznia is on tonight and tomorrow night at 10 o'clock Eastern. That's Wazni Lombray. It's on Twitch.tv slash TYT. Was is so raw and honest. That show is awesome. So make sure you check that out.

He's not playing. Speaking of people not playing, Dr. Ritchie's on the conversation. He's got exciting news to share. And he's on with Anna, Thursday, May 27th. So make sure you check that out at 8.30 p.m. Eastern on that day. And then don't forget, guys, TwitchPitch. So we want you guys to be our next stars. Go to t.yt.com slash TwitchPitch.

Gives you a quick explanation of how you send in a video so you could be one of our hosts. We are of the people, by the people, and for the people. And we mean it. TYT.com slash TwitchPitch. Come be a part of the Young Turks. All right. Love you guys. We'll be back. All right, back on the Young Turks.

Jen can Anna with you. Well, it's been one year since the murder of George Floyd. And while the Biden administration claimed that they wanted to see legislation on Biden's desk by today to reform policing, Congress has failed to do just that. I mean, is anyone really surprised? Now, a senior White House advisor and former congressman, Cedric Richmond, granted an interview to the Huffington Post about this issue and offered an important series of non-answers. Regarding Congress, their fecklessness, and their unwillingness to actually fight,

and I'm specifically talking about democratic lawmakers, their unwillingness to actually fight to get anything done, much less police reform. So let me give you some of his answers if you want to hear what non-answers sound like. When asked about the legislation and how central it is to the goals of the Biden administration, here's what Richmond said. The president has publicly declared even in a joint address to Congress that the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act needs to be passed and we need and we have to reexamine the way the police and the communities that, sorry, I lost my place while I'm reading this graphic.

So let me start that again. The president has publicly declared even in a joint address to Congress that the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act needs to be passed and that we need to reexamine the way that police and the communities they police interact. And there's no trust there. You have to have transparency and accountability and policing in this country. End of story. So that was a fantastic answer if you've been living under Iraq and you have no idea what we need to do with policing in the country. This is something that's already been long established. Great. Thank you for. for stating the obvious. On whether the bill should end qualified immunity. That's a huge part of this debate. He says, it has to be a substantive bill, and it has to address what is happening far too often in this country.

And so we're not negotiating and setting red lines in public. Oh, God forbid. We're giving Congress the space to do it, but we would like to see a meaningful bill. Now, Cedric Richmond was in Congress. He knows how does that. Congress is. He knows how low the approval rating for Congress is because of their inability to get anything done. So to immediately just brush this off to, you know, Congress is working

on it. We support it. We want something substantive, but Congress is working on it. I mean, President Biden campaigned on this issue. President Biden pretends to care about this issue. I mean, he even talked about it during this joint session of Congress. But when it comes to actually fighting for it, nah, no, we'll leave it to Congress. where we know that it'll just languish and honestly, nothing will come of it. That's what the truth is. That's what the truth is. There will not be any police reform on a federal level.

In fact, let me do more predictions. There will not be an infrastructure bill. There will not be an American Family's Plan bill passed either. Period. Period. Where's Joe Biden? Where is Joe Biden? Is he fighting for these things?

You got a majority in the Senate and the House. Where's Joe Biden? Why is he not in West Virginia right now holding Joe Manchin's feet to the fire? But because it doesn't actually care. He doesn't actually care. That's what he's communicating through his inaction. Sorry, Jake, go ahead. Progressives in Congress.

What happened? I thought he was going to be FDR. Oh, don't worry. We simpletons here in progressive media that helped progressive legislative Progressive legislators get elected, we don't understand things. The very sophisticated legislators understand things. Well, we said he wasn't going to do anything. You said he had it on lockdown.

Who was right and who was wrong? Democrats love to pander to the black community. They love to pander to the Latino community. They love to pander to the LGBT community through their rhetoric. Rhetorically, they love to pander. And also they love to weaponize identity for their own political games. But when it comes to substance and actually passing legislation, fighting for legislation that improves the lives of these groups of people, along with everyone else, they won't do it. Because it's a great talking point when you're campaigning.

But when push comes to shove and you actually have to put in the work, they won't do it. I'm sick of it. So when you're negotiating with the Republicans on police reform, the best case scenario is that you're going to get incredibly weak police reform. Do you think the Republicans, 10 Republican senators, are going to agree to significant police reform? Anything that would bring real accountability? No one in their right mind believes that. Cedrichman doesn't believe that. Joe Biden doesn't believe that.

Joe Manchin, Cory Booker, it doesn't matter. None of them actually believe that. So what they're doing is they're saying, hey, can you give us space to come up with maybe the weakest reform we could possibly imagine that 10 Republicans in this. Senate good stomach. No. No. That's not interesting. If your best case scenario is that the Republicans are going to write the police reform bill, then it's not worth the paper it's printed on. It is inconceivable that they will write a strong police reform bill when they're asking

for permission from the people who enjoy police abusing minorities in this country. They get off on it. They support it. Their party is built on it. You're asking them permission for police reform? Now, look, guys, this is why I get frustrated with the media. They, like stenographers, they write down Joe Biden is in favor of police reform. No, he's not. In a best case scenario, you would write if you're an objective journalist, Joe Biden is interested in a very small amount of reform that the Republicans will agree to. That's a fact. That's a fact. So now you can say, well, I mean, he'd like to, but there's nothing you can do.

No, that's saying he chooses not to fight the corporate Democrats in his party. Because the corporate Democrats agree with the Republicans. And they like the cops beating up on black people because it protects their property rights. So, and they'll do whatever Chamber of Commerce says, they'll do largely whatever their Republican friends say. So if you're waiting for their permission, that means you do not want police reform. and that means you are not going to fight for it. But there isn't a single real, like among the mainstream media, there's wonderful independent and progressive reporters.

Among mainstream media, have you seen a single article that says Joe Biden is not in favor of strong police reform? Tim Scott's writing the bill. Tim Scott, the guy who came out for the Republicans, gave the response to Joe Biden, the guy who's, they presented as the main opposition to Joe Biden for the Republicans, and who said there is no racism in the country. He's the one writing the bill

and he has to get nine other until the hunt like right wingers to agree with them in the Senate and what they'll come out with if they come up with anything at all is the exact opposite. Something that covers up to issue pretends they did something

and at that point the mainstream media will jump in and call it historic reform. It does nothing but we'll call it historic and we'll do propaganda on behalf of Joe Biden and whatever few corporate Republicans

there are remaining. But here's the good news guys there's a silver lining to all of this. This is the good news. Democrats will lose control of Congress in the midterm elections. And if you're wondering, oh my gosh, what's the country going to be like after that happens? It's going to be like what you're experiencing right now. Exactly. That's it. Nothing's going to change. Exactly. And then by the way, Biden will deliver for the people he cares most about, his donors. Because what did he promise them that nothing will fundamentally

change? What did he promise us? Getting rid of student loan debt, $15 minimum wage, lower and prescription drug prices, public option, I can go on for almost an hour. We got none of those, but the donors got exactly what they bargained for. Nothing will fundamentally change, and then they'll lose the Congress in 2022, and nothing will change from today because the Republicans still run the show. We elected Democrats, but we didn't get Democrats, or we did get Democrats, because today's Democratic leadership is Republican. You know, and Joe Biden, in various reports that we've shared with you guys on this show,

I happen to enjoy them. Joe Biden seemed to get a kick out of people comparing him to FDR, but more importantly, he liked that he was considered a bolder president than Barack Obama because of what his proposals were, right? But when you really take a step back and think about it and you look at the trajectory of Biden's presidency, he's going to be a far weaker president than Barack Obama. and Barack Obama was nothing to write home about, but he did pass major reforms in health care. What's Joe Biden going to do?

His proposals were okay. I mean, obviously, as someone on the left, I want him to go further, far further. But in regard to infrastructure spending, in regard to taking care of American families that have been neglected by this country for decades, it was a good start, good start. He's not going to get that done. I mean, what is he going to do in his presidency? What is his legacy going to be? What are historians going to reflect back on to say this is what Biden accomplished in his presidency? What is he done?

He passed the COVID relief bill. Great. After, by the way, caving to the demands of business interests. I mean, the Chamber of Commerce certainly had more of a say than the American people did when it came to that piece of legislation. But other than that, I mean, I don't see a bright future. for the so-called bold policies that he's proposed. I don't see him fighting for it. And the fact that he's not fighting for, honestly,

it's just messages to people like me that he doesn't really care. You've got to show that you care. And his actions don't prove that out. All right. And last thing on this is I can't stand the extremes on the two sides either. One extreme is the right wing or idiotic people who say, Don't vote. Jump off a cliff.

It'll be better. I don't know what their alternatives. I don't have an alternative. I don't need a alternative. My hair's on fire. And they go, oh, yeah. You see what happens if you vote for Biden? How would Trump have been better?

Would Trump have done amazing police reform and made sure to protect black people in this country from police? Are you insane? Would he have done student debt cancellation? Would he have done the public option? What do you have done any of those things? Are you insane? So don't come here tell me, oh, yeah, but that shows we should have voted for Trump. only if you have an IQ in the single digits.

And then, but also the corporate democratic fanboys, like the House sparks of the world, who are like, no, corporate, you just have to give him a chance. You just have to give him a chance. I bet if they work with the Republicans, they're going to get bipartisanship, and it's going to be great police reform. You just didn't give Obama enough chance. I mean, he was only eight years, okay? So he was going to legalize marijuana.

He just didn't get to it. If he had 80 years, he would have gotten to it. I mean, eventually the Democratic leadership is going to be for universal health care. I mean, they're going to get to it in like 800 years. You didn't kiss their ass enough. You should have never criticized them. They're wonderful people. There was nothing they could do, but just give in the Republicans.

You think you should cheerlead for that. No, I'm not interested in any of that. And K-Hive. What is K-Hive? Oh, we really like this person because of her personality? And we don't care about policy? Yeah, whatever. Go learn something.

Let's move on to our next story. We've talked quite a bit about speculators and private equity firms, snatching up residential real estate and turning them into rentals. Well, unfortunately, Coke Industries is now involved in that. In fact, Charles Koch has decided to double down on the real estate end of his investments. And they're not only snatching up properties, they're also turning them into rentals and fighting tooth and nail to end the eviction moratorium because, you know, if people can't pay the rent as a result of the pandemic, as a result of these layoffs, well, they're going to need to be pushed out of their housing. So first, let me give you the details on just how much money Charles Koch is spending right now on buying up real estate, specifically residential real estate and then turning them into rentals. A month into the pandemic, Coke real estate investments made a $200 million preferred equity investment in Amherst Holdings LLCs, single family rental business.

And that's according to the corporate law firm Jones Day, which said it advised Coke Industries subsidiary on the deal. Now Amherst says that since 2012, its affiliated funds have acquired and operated more than 30,000 homes. So there's more, it doesn't stop there. In fact, starting last May, Coke real estate investments began a financial relationship with latter capital corporation, culminating in a $32 million, $32 million, of course, equity investment in December. And Coke also is making a point to buy up some of the more struggling properties, maybe development that went bankrupt and was unfinished. One example of that is a Las Vegas property

that he spent $350 million on. The Las Vegas property that Koch acquired last month for $350 million is one of the oldest and biggest unfinished real estate developments in the country. Property developer Jeffrey Sofer started building the 63-story, almost 4,000 unit hotel slash condominium and casino tower in 2007, but the project filed for bankruptcy after the 2008 financial crisis. So in Swoops, like swoops in Charles Coke, he buys up these properties, turns properties that ordinary Americans can buy if they're looking to buy their first home, for instance, turns them into rentals, serves as a landlord, much like these private equity firms. This is a little different, though, from the private equity firms in that Coke is not over lever.

Private equity firms will borrow money in order to do these investments, but Charles Koch, he's flushed with cash. So he's able to do these investments, and then what does he also need to do to ensure that he gets a return on those investments? He's got to be able to treat these renters like absolute crap and evict them the second they're unable to pay their rent. That means fighting the CDC's moratorium on evictions. He has spent quite a bit of money on that, and it is working on.

I'll give you the details in just a minute, but, Jank, first you. Yeah, so I actually want to get to that part because I get it. They bought a lot of homes. They bought a lot of properties. If you think that the market is low, you buy them. We explained in previous shows that they're squeezing average homeowners out and that that's a significant problem in the housing industry. But in this particular story, what I'm more concerned about is they then go and give money to these groups that use the court system.

with very, you know, benign sounding names, pretending to speak out for civil liberties, but in reality is funded by Charles Koch. And they use the American government to basically get around the rules of the American government. So they use the courts. If you can't buy the legislators to do what you want, then you go trying to influence the courts. So they're going to spend tons of money trying to make sure that they throw you out of those homes, your homes so that Charles Koch can make even more money. Exactly.

So I'll give you a few examples of how they've spent this money and the organizations they've worked with, right-wing organizations, to essentially go against the moratorium. So in the past few months, for instance, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the Pacific Legal Foundation, I mean, you get the hint with all the cutesy sounding names, the Pacific Legal Foundation and the new Civil Rights Alliance. Get out of here. It's insane, have been pushing federal courts to strike down the CDC eviction moratorium, which is designed to protect millions of Americans from being thrown out of their homes during the pandemic.

So how much money has Charles Koch spent on this lobbying effort? Between 2017 and 2019 alone, the Charles Koch Foundation contributed almost $7.7 million to those three conservative organizations. And guess what? Their efforts have paid off, because these are the three organizations, that are fighting on behalf of Charles Coke to get people evicted from these properties. In February, the Texas policy, I'm sorry, the Texas Public Policy Foundation convinced a federal judge in Texas

to declare the CDC's eviction moratorium unconstitutional. In March, a federal judge in Ohio sided with the Pacific Legal Foundation, ruling that the CDC, quote, exceeded the scope of its authority, end quote, with its eviction ban. It works, this is how it works, folks. It's money in politics, corruption, I mean, the United States loves to criticize other countries

that we're thinking about invading or thinking about doing regime change in for corruption. Look at Venezuela, corruption. There's corruption in all these countries that we want to invade. There's corruption in all these countries that we want regime change in. What about the corruption here at home? I mean, we've legalized it. And so I guess they think that it's different because we've legalized. We've legalized corruption.

But this system specifically screws you over. Doesn't matter how hard you work. Doesn't matter if you do everything right. If you are harmed as a result of a pandemic that you have no control over and you lose your job as a result, oh, Charles Coke will make sure that if you're living in one of his properties, he can evict you. And he'll spend millions of dollars to ensure he can do it. So Lewis Powell wrote a memo in 1971 for the Chamber of Commerce that basically said corporations should get together and take over the government.

And one of the things that he thought they should take over was the legislative system and the other was the courts. So if you bribe the politicians in the first place, then they'll just pass whatever bills you want. Well, that turned out to be startlingly true. The bribes are now called campaign contributions. But if that doesn't work, you could just use the court system. And in fact, Nixon then put them on the Supreme Court, and Lewis Powell declared that corporations could give money to politicians, which allows them to bribe the legislators in the first place. But if all of that fails, then you go spend money to go back into the courts and sue, sue with all your resources until you convince a judge in Texas that, in fact, people should be thrown out of their homes no matter what, right? And so now, if you think about the $7.7 million he put into those legal organizations, that sounds like a lot of money.

It isn't if you have hundreds of millions of dollars on the line or if you have billions of dollars on the line. Then it's a very small investment to make more money on the back end through the evictions. Because what happens? You evict people, then you put in new renters at a higher price because now the values have gone up. And then you make way more money out of that person's misery. Now, legally, they had a right to stay in that home. The government, the U.S. government passed the law saying they have a right to stay in their home. Charles Coke thought that law was inconvenient.

So he's now spending money to buy more of our government so that he can profit further off of it. Our system here in America is sick. It is just totally taken over by corporate machines, including Coke industries. And there's no hope in sight. There's no one fighting against it. People give generic lip service to money in politics. no one in Congress ever fights it, and no one's got a proposal, no one's got anything. So God help you if you're powerless in this country, because some giant business owner like Charles Coke will come and pating, ruin your life without a second thought so he could make just a little bit more money.

He made $37 billion just during the pandemic. $37 billion added onto his already incredible. wealth. What the hell's he going to do with all that money? You can't spend it all. It's doing it for his ego. I'm going to be even more rich than the other rich people. Yeah, I mean, our government's supposed to stop people like this and look out for the citizens. Instead, our government is completely captured by corporate interests. Yeah, I mean, while Americans are trying to figure out how they're going to survive and how they're going to stay in their homes, this is what wealthy people are up to. They're engaging in a genitalia measuring contest. That's what Charles Koch is more

concerned about rather than just being a decent human being and avoiding pushing people out of the homes that they're living in for shelter during a pandemic. Anyway, we got to end the first hour. I'm going to take a deep breath. We're going to come back and have an excellent second hour. And we're going to start off by discussing DeSantis white knighting for Trump by passing ridiculous legislation in the state of Florida regarding social media. You do not want to miss it. We have that and more when we come back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more

by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.