The Young Turks - Missing The Target

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

A leaked U.S. intelligence report from February says “Netanyahu probably calculates Israel will need to strike Iran to deter its nuclear program.” GOP plans to unveil deficit-exploding tax cuts for the rich two weeks after debt limit x-date. WATCH: Charlie Kirk incites viewers to go after the target using financial "force" over pride merchandise. Trump posts insane fake audio of Hitler, Soros, and himself crashing DeSantis campaign announcement. HOSTS: Cenk Uygur (@CenkUygur) & Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com 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. Woo! It's up! Welcome to the Young Turks, Jake Ugar, Anna Kasparian with you guys on a fascinating Thursday evening. So we do have an amazing show for you guys, a little bit of the shlippity slap going on in the show.

things have been pummeled. And so hold, we're going to get to it. At length. We're going to get to it at length. So disastrous news, as always, but also some interesting news, fun news. Not only that, we're joyous warriors. There's fun news? There is.

DeSantis. Oh, there is fun news. There is fun news. Yes. Okay, let alone flat earth Dave. Okay, no, no, no, you got no guys. You can't miss flat earth Dave. You can't miss them.

The country's in a lot of trouble, okay? It's being run by all sorts of goofballs and incompetent goons. Yeah. And what can you really do other than laugh about it at this point? Right. Plus, we're here to straighten their asses out. We are. Okay, so, and we're here with you guys, our members that make all this possible.

You guys are awesome. So you know what? Let's do this. Let's do it. We begin with some potentially concerning news, although this has not been confirmed. Well, according to a decision. disturbing leak, the CIA believes that Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, is considering a preemptive war on Iran in an effort to deter Iran from developing nuclear

weapons. Now, the CIA does not know for sure based on this leak. So who's to say what the reality of the situation is? But I will say, we do trust the source of this report. It was not the New York Times. It was not the Washington Post. The source of this report was Ken Clippenstein over at the Intercept. And the reporting is concerning to say the least because should this happen, should the prime minister of Israel decide to do a strike on Iran, the United States government is already on the record in support of that effort. So let's give you the details.

Before we get to the leak, we need to know about how the leak was obtained in the first place. I think that's an important part of the story. So the leak document first came to our attention. via a report from Ken Clippenstein and The Intercept. And it doesn't seem that there are many other publications writing about this, except the leak was first reported on in April by an Israeli news site called Wynet. Wynet reported that they obtained the document through Jack Tashara's Discord leaks.

So remember, Jack Tashira was the young man who was the head of this small discord group where he somehow had access to classified documents and was shared. sharing those classified documents with other individuals within that Discord channel. Now here's the document in question, there it is, and you can't read it, but I'll tell you exactly what it says in just a moment. So if you're wondering whether we can trust the leak, again, for one, Ken Klippenstein's reporting about it. Also, the document does contain specific military terms like FISA, meaning that it was dealt with by a special court that authorizes sensitive surveillance for the American intelligence community.

There were some elements to this document that were questionable. For one, it refers to Benjamin Netanyahu as the president of Israel, as opposed to the prime minister of Israel. That concerns me. I think it would be strange if the CIA didn't know that he's a prime minister, not a president. But nonetheless, here are some important excerpts from the document itself. On February 20th, Israel conducted a large scale air exercise, probably to simulate a strike on Iran's nuclear program and possibly to demonstrate Jerusalem's resolve to act against Iran.

Earlier this month, the IAEA detected trace quantities of near weapons grade uranium in one of Iran's enrichment facilities approaching a declared Israeli red line. So let me just pause for a second and remind you all that there was a deal in place. It involved the United States, Iran, and multiple other European countries. And that Iran nuclear deal ensured that Iran was no longer, you know, developing its, you know, nuclear program. It's enriched uranium. And, you know, they never admitted that they were developing or using enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. However, the United States was able to negotiate under the Obama administration and ensure that they were not developing nuclear weapons.

However, under the Trump administration, he comes in, he rips up the Iran nuclear deal, which paves the way for Iran to develop nuclear weapons, because we didn't hold up our side of the deal. Let me continue. CIA, according to this leaked document, does not know Israel's near-term plans and intentions. Israel may wait to see US and international reaction to the IAEA's findings regarding Iran's nuclear program and whether Iran's supreme leader will authorize uranium enrichment to weapons grade before deciding whether to take action.

And finally, it says that Israeli president, again, he's the prime minister, but that's what the document says, Israeli president Nanyahu probably calculates Israel will need to strike Iran to deter its nuclear program and faces a declining military capability to set back Iran's enrichment program. So again, this leaked document, it's not confirmed enough for me, right? However, the response to this from the United States government is what concerns me. I want to hear what you have to say about this, Schenk, and I'll tell you what I mean. So look, the documents are very important.

The reason we keep saying that it's by Kankalibati, is science, because he has excellent sources. and that are proven to be correct over and over again in the national security apparatus. So to me, the document is just a small piece of the puzzle because the other things that the administration has said publicly already confirmed that we've given Israel the green light. And I need you to be clear about what we gave them the green light for. Go ahead and start a war in the Middle East. And we're going to back you up and we're going to go fight that war for you. So let me give you things that are already public.

So there's no dispute about this. Jake Sullivan, who's a national security advisor. We have a video of him talking about that. So let's go to that video. We are also engaging Iran diplomatically regarding its nuclear program. And we continue to believe that it was a tragic mistake to leave the deal with nothing at all to replace it. But we have made clear to Iran that it can never be permitted to obtain a nuclear weapon. as President Biden has repeatedly reaffirmed, he will take the actions that are necessary to stand by this statement, including by recognizing Israel's freedom of action.

Guys, him saying we're never going to let around have a nuclear weapon is not big news. Okay, so that's what they often say. The question is how, right? The very last thing he said was absolutely critical. He said that includes giving Israel freedom of action. What that means is they can bomb, bomb Iran. And once they start that war, we are going to back them 100%. So they now have a giant flashing green light. And you saw it with your own eyes there. Freedom of action. That's exactly what it means.

You can ask any person who's involved in foreign policy, et cetera. We're saying go, go, okay? Now that's insane. But there's more. I want to go to Graphic 5. This is our ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides. He says, as President Joe Biden has said, this is what he said earlier, we will not stand by and watch Iran get a nuclear weapon, number one.

Number two, he said all the options are on the table. Number three, Israel can and should do whatever they need to deal with, and we've got their back. That is not unclear at all. That is a giant green light. Go ahead and start a war with Iran. We would love to engage in another disastrous war in the Middle East. Iran is four times the size of Iraq and its military is far more capable

and by the way there's no evidence that they're developing nukes none and number three guys not only is there no evidence that they're developing nukes we can end their nuclear program tomorrow by getting back into the same exact deal that Obama signed exactly so why wouldn't Biden do that here's an excellent clue graphic number six in 2009 after then vice president Biden said quote, Israel can determine for itself what they decide to do relative to Iran,

i.e. freedom of action. Obama clarified that his administration was, quote, absolutely not giving Israel a green light to attack Iran. Now, I give you that because that's the contrast. So I got a thousand issues with Obama too. But in this case, he said, we are not giving a green light. And then he made a deal that took away any nuclear capability that Iran had, perfectly done, right?

Biden, meanwhile, even back then, is itching for war. Remember, he voted for the Iraq war. He's basically been a war monger his whole life, right? And so he's like, no, no, no, give him freedom of action. Freedom of action, green light. And Obama has to reel him back in. And now that he's president, he's like, oh, fantastic. Let's give him a green light.

And we can do another insane lunatic war in the Middle East. You know, and if you take a step back and you look at the political landscape overall, right? Domestic policy is tied to foreign policy. If you take a look at the negotiations that are needlessly taking place among Democrats and Republicans in regard to the debt ceiling, Notice how the Republican Party wants to free spending on everything with the exception of defense. They want to increase spending on defense moving forward. Why do they want to do that? And so I think that they're eventually going to get what they want because Democrats are pretending like, you know,

they're backing us into a corner. They're holding the dead ceiling hostage. You know, you have some progressive saying, you know, why are we negotiating with economic terrorists? Jamal Bowman, for instance, was quoted as saying that today, and I agree with him on that. But the important thing to remember is that corporate Democrats are pretending like they have to negotiate with Republicans on this. And in the end, they're going to give the Republican Party what they want. There will be a spending freeze when it comes to everything that benefits ordinary Americans here in the United States, with one exception, and that would be spending

on defense. And it's concerning because, I mean, look, First of all, Biden ran on, oh, can you believe what Trump did and pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal? I'm going to make sure that we get back in. Of course, he didn't do that. He reneged on that promise. And there seems to be some frustration that the endless sanctions against Iran have failed. They want regime change in Iran. When are they going to get it through their thick, thick skulls, unless they're complete and other liars, which is not only possible but likely.

But if they genuinely believe that, when has sanctions ever worked in a situation like this? It never, it didn't work in Iraq, it didn't work in North Korea. When you have someone who's basically a dictator and the Grand Ayatollah fits that bill in Iran, they don't have fair elections in Iran where anybody can run and anybody can win, anybody can have freedom of the press or speech, obviously, right? In a situation like that, sanctions never ever work and they're always an excuse for war. Oh, we tried sanctions. What are we supposed to do?

Now, invade them now. You know it doesn't work. And but even more so in this case, you know that the deal that they made with Iran to get their nuclear, all nuclear material out of Iran worked. It worked. It 100% worked. And it was a Democratic deal. It was one of the things I gave Obama tremendous credit for.

So why don't you just go back into the same exact deal? Remember, the guy who ended the deal was Trump. Trump boogeyman. So why is Biden doing the same exact thing as Trump? Trump. And so look, if you watch mainstream media, they'll tell you no, no. Biden's an angel on everything and Trump's the devil on everything. But really? Because look, I hate Trump and he's wrong on 997 things out of a thousand, right? But on this, by the way, we once violated their airspace Iran's while Trump was president. And we went in with a fighter jet and a drone. The Iranians

could have shot down both and killed our pilot and probably taken the material that we had on the plane, including the intelligence that built that plane, okay? And they chose not to. They shot down the drone. The fact that they shot down the drone shows that they could have shot down the jet, right? So the Pentagon, which are filled to the room with warmongers, were like, all right, great, let's bomb the middle of Iran, and it would only kill 150 civilians. And to Donald Trump's credit, he said, no, that's disproportionate.

So we did not do an attack inside Iran. Now, that is a very rare thing that Donald Trump got right. But our job is to be honest with you and deliver the actual news. So look at Trump showing restraint there, maybe the one and only time, but give him credit for that. Now, again, context for Biden, he got us out of Afghanistan. We give him a world of credit for that. And at that point, it looked like, hey, maybe he's not a warmonger. Maybe he's going to withdraw these troops and end these endless whores.

But here we go. Now, endless funding into Ukraine. Again, Ukraine deserves help, right? But the question is how much, but those defense contractors, they have Biden 100% wrapped up. Right. So they're getting rich over there. They're getting rich with extra defense spending. And now they're flirting with what would be, if you thought Iraq was bad, what would be the most disastrous war of our lifetime with Iran. And with Ukraine, yes, I mean, I don't have a problem with the United States assisting Ukraine and defending itself. if simultaneously there is an effort to engage in diplomatic negotiations and peace talks with Russia.

But it's become abundantly clear that the United States government has not only avoided that, they have discouraged that. And that allows for the war to continue, much to the chagrin of the American people who end up spending the money for that, spending our resources, which we could be using here to help Americans who need it. And obviously to the benefit of defense contractors, One final thing I want to mention that was apparent in Ken Clippenstein's reporting here, the United States has been doing more and more provocative military exercises with Israel. So as Clippenstein writes, in January, just weeks before Israel's secret exercise referenced in the intelligence report, the U.S. and Israel conducted what the Defense Department touted as their largest joint military exercise in history called Juniper Oak,

the exercise involved electronic attack, suppression of enemy air defenses, strike coordination, and reconnaissance, which experts said are exactly what the U.S. and Israel would need to conduct a successful kinetic attack on Iran's nuclear program. I have one more thing I'd like to add to. So sometimes governments put out retired folks that were in their national security apparatus to test the waters, right? They'll put out a statement, go, hey, he's not in government. anymore, right? But hey, the statement's out there, how are people reacting to it? Well, it looks

like Israel did that earlier this month because they put retired Israeli defense forces, Brigadier General Amir Avivi, out there to say, quote, Israel might have to deal with the Iranian nuclear program. This will mean an Israeli attack on Iran, which will probably result in a regional war. They're flat out saying it, and then we're giving them the green light. When the Democrats and the mainstream media lied to you and say there was nothing they could have done. Remember this moment. They definitely could have said no, just like Obama did. We are not giving you the green light.

You are not to start a war in the Middle East and have us pay the bill, not just with our dollars and cents from American taxpayers, but in blood with American boys and girls dying over there. Hell knows the answer. Hell no. It's so easy to end their nuclear program. just rejoin the deal, but they will not do it because they don't care about the nuclear program. They just want the war.

We're going to take a break. When we come back, we'll focus a little on domestic policy, including what congressional Democrats have cooking up when it comes to more tax cuts for the rich. All right, back on TYT, Jankana with you guys also. Vincent Morales and Daniel, they're American heroes. They just became young Turks members and helped to make our voice stronger. They did that by hitting the join button below the video on YouTube. You could do it as well at t.t.com slash join.

I want to do one point of clarification on something I was saying during the social media breaking a question of one of our answer to one of our members. Look, guys, sometimes I'll say Republican or Democrat. I'm going to try to be as clear as I can because the Republican voters and the Republican politicians are completely different. The Democratic voters and the Democratic politicians are completely different. I write all about it in our, in my book. So when I say the Republicans are nearly all corrupt in the context of greenlighting this war

with Israel, I mean the politicians. The voters do not want it, okay? And like, no one is harsher on Republican voters than I. But I can read polls, they don't want a war in the Middle East and but their politicians are as corrupt as anyone on the planet Earth and since they take that defense contractor bribes they want it and that's a giant difference. All right Anna this story is amazing except it's unsurprising so new political reporting indicates that congressional Republicans are currently cooking up a

a plot to provide nearly three trillion dollars in additional tax cuts for the rich. Now, this reporting came in the form of a newsletter that Politico puts out, and here's what we know about it according to common dreams and their report. So Jake Johnson writes that Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee hope to finish work on their emerging tax legislation by June 16th, which of course is just over two weeks after the so-called X date, the day on which the Treasury Department expects the federal government to run out of money to cover its obligations unless Congress raises the debt limit or President Joe Biden acts unilaterally, which we all know he will

not do. Now here's what Politico's weekly tax letter specifically says, quote, key parts of the tax cut package will likely include a full restoration of research and development deductions, full bonus depreciation, removing caps on business interests expenses or expensing, and a doubling of the $1.08 million limitation on the section 179 deduction, which like bonus depreciation allows a company to deduct an assets cost up front. Now, you should know a little bit about the person drafting this legislation. He is a long-term. Republican lawmaker who has been on this effort wanting to cut taxes because it not only benefits as corporate donors, it benefits himself. Representative Vern Buchanan, that's his

legislation aimed at making the 2017 Trump GOP tax cuts for individuals and some businesses permanent, also has a strong likelihood of getting marked up in a broader package. And Buchanan's bill known as the TCJA permanency act currently has nearly 100 Republican co-sponsors in the House. And I just want to remind you all that Republicans claim that they're concerned about the deficit. They're worried about government spending. They're worried about how that would exist. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too. When they fall out of balance, everything feels off. But here's the good news. This doesn't have to be the story

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naturally. Gasserbate the deficit. And they're saying that while they simultaneously work on legislation, that would provide additional tax cuts to the rich and to corporations. And look, this is a little scheme that Buchanan's been doing for a long time. I direct you to a video from 2010 where he was whining and crying about the same deficit-related concerns. Let's watch. We talk about Greece and their challenges. We're the next Greece if we don't balance the budget and get serious about our national debt and our deficits.

Last year, $1.4 trillion in debt deficit. This year we're expected exceed $1.5 trillion. We need to balance the budget now. My first year, three and a half years ago, I introduced a balanced budget amendment that just says we don't spend more and we take in. We need to do that or we're going to be the next Greece. He's also one of the wealthiest members of Congress.

So of course he stands to benefit from those sweeps benefit from those sweet, sweet tax cuts. Okay, so guys, the issues here are indisputable. So if you say you care about the deficit, proposing a tax policy that would add three and a half trillion dollars, way more than you're cutting, by the way, even if you get those cuts in the debt ceiling fight, cannot possibly be justified with being concerned about the deficit or the debt. You have, like, so if reporters were honest, they would say, no, the Republican Party does not

prioritize the deficit or debt, because it's a fact. You can't say, hey, I want to put a three and a half trillion dollar hole in it, but golly gee, I care a lot about it. No, it shows you 100% clarity that it's not about the deficits, it's about wealth transfer and wealth redistribution. And it's taking from the lowest people who. need food stamps, et cetera, and giving to the highest. So two thirds of the tax cuts go to the top 20%.

The top 20% on average get, no, I'm sorry, the top 1% on average get 25 times bigger cut than the middle 20%. That's right. Okay, so this is another giant tax cut for the rich. Now, why don't Republicans tell the truth? Because how do you think that will play politically? Guys, we'd like to rob the poorest and the middle class and the working class in this country. to give it to our donors, the richest people in the country.

Do you think that plays? Well, of course that. So why don't reporters report facts about it? They're basically, when they don't, they are doing propaganda and marketing on behalf of the Republican Party. Look, I get a little irritated with Jank when he makes broad criticisms of the media without being specific. However, this is a perfect example of Jank being 1,000% correct. because Politico didn't report this through their usual channels. So if you go to Politico's website and you're looking for an article about this, you'd be hard pressed to find it.

They sent this in the form of a newsletter, okay? Which means you'd have to sign up for the newsletter in order to get the reporting about this. Thanks to common dreams replicating the reporting, we're able to know about it. You're able to read about it if you're not signed up for Politico's newsletter. It is ridiculous to hide this incredibly important information from the American people by not reporting it through usual channels and instead doing it through a newsletter. And it's not just about political, hey, at least they reported it, right? So in some way, it's about the rest of the, all of the media, wait a minute, why, like,

if you look, you can see it from now on, you don't have to worry about whether I'm right about the past. So you will see articles about the debt ceiling fight, you will see stories about it on, TV, see if any of the reporters, the news actors on television or any of the so-called card journalists at the New York Times, et cetera, all point out, hey, by the way, they don't actually care about the debt because in two weeks they're going to propose a three and a half trillion dollar hole in the debt to give money to their rich donors. You have to point that out for context.

If you don't give that context, instead, by the way, you will actively see them right. the Republicans who say they care a lot about the deficit, the Republicans who say they care a lot about the debt, well, that's just you're lying on their behalf. Okay, guys, I'll give you more evidence. Trump put $7.8 trillion onto the debt. He created about $8 trillion hole. So how can you possibly say that you care about deficits in debt

when you created that hole? Bush and Trump, just their tax cuts, not everything else, just their tax cuts, $10 trillion, the great majority of it going to the rich. So the guys who care about the deficit and the debt had $10 trillion our money, okay, overall to just give out. No, it's okay, just give it back to the rich that they need because the poor rich need more. So let me give you some more data in regard to who these tax cuts would actually benefit.

Jenk had mentioned some data earlier, but I want to just really reemphasize that because this This is just meant to redistribute wealth from the poorest to the richest. So let's go to graphic four here. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimated earlier this month that just 1%, 1% of the benefits of the TCJA Permanency Act, those are the tax cuts that Buchanan wants to pass, would go to the poorest fifth of Americans. The richest fifth by contracts would receive nearly two thirds of the tax benefits. Also, this is going to cost the United States government quite a bit of money.

So for instance, the Congressional Budget Office estimated last week that extending the individual provisions of the 2017 tax cuts for the rich, which are currently set to expire in 2025, would add $2.5 trillion to the deficit that Republicans claim to care so much about over the next decade. And I should remind you that the original law made the cut to corporate tax rates from 35% to just 21% permanent. And by the way, Bernie Sanders took to Fox News to write an op-ed and air his grievances about this. And I'm glad that he did it through Fox News, right? You should let the Republican voters know about what their elected officials are up to. He writes, over and over again, we hear from the Republican leadership about how deeply concerned they are about the large deficit and national debt that we have.

If that's the case, why are they pushing for an extension of the Trump tax breaks that disproportionately benefit the wealthy and large corporations and would increase the federal deficit by $3.5 trillion? I mean, I think that it's smart to communicate that. I just wish that the entirety of the Democratic Party were doing what Bernie's doing. doing in trying to get this information out to all voters, not just Democratic voters, but also Republican voters who do not like these tax cuts for the rich. The tax cuts pulled poorly in 2017 as Trump was trying to garner support for them.

But weird that most Democrats are silent about this, no? So guys, look, on the polling of the tax cuts, 76% of Americans want tax increases on the rich. Three quarters of the country, including a majority of Republicans, say, I want you to increase tax on the rich. What did Trump do? The exact opposite. What did Obama and Biden do? The exact opposite. When they made Bush's tax cuts permanent. Okay. So no matter who's in charge, they do the exact opposite of what three quarters of the country wants because 100% of their donors want tax cuts. And that's how this game is played. So that's among the reasons why I get so frustrated to the media. But I'm going to give you one comment from one of our members, because it's a great point. And I want to give credit to Ilhan Omar, too.

She did a great job of fighting back against this as well. So a lot of times I ask progressives to fight back and I pull my hair out that they don't. In this case, they are fighting back and they're doing good job with the rhetoric, et cetera, and pointing out the inconsistency. Lou B writes in, no chance in hell that Biden and Democrats will bludgeon the GOP with a three and a half trillion dollar tax cuts. And then they split for the weekend ahead of the default Dems can't. fight. See, that's why I love our members, t-y-t.com slash join to become a member, because that's such a great point. Why doesn't Biden in the middle of the debt ceiling fight go, hey, listen, political wrote a story about it. Apparently, they have this plan, and it's absolutely true

they do, that they're going to put a $3.5 trillion dollar hole in the deficit. Well, then obviously I'm not negotiating with them on the debt ceiling because they don't care about the 100%. Yeah. Guys, that would be so easy. And it's not like it can't be done. Bernie just did it in the op-ed in the Fox News. It's the easiest thing in the world. You're not missing anything. Biden is choosing not to do that. So if you're a normie Democrat who was brainwashed by mainstream press

into thinking that Biden's a big fighter for you, okay, then I got a question for you. Is it that Biden is the worst politician in the world, and he can't figure out the simplest thing ever? Hey, why am I going to give you guys all these cuts from the average American when you're going to give it to the rich instead? Or is he in on it? He's always been in favor of those tax cuts for the rich.

And he's always been in favor of cutting spending for the average American. That is, you can look it up, that is the exact history of his career. But mainstream media kept that from you during the 2020 primaries. Because he's, oh no, you can't hurt the guy who's leading. And they pretended that he was quote FDR 2.0. What a freaking joke. Let's move on to some other news today, including this. We need to go after Target in a very serious way.

It is time for decent, ordinary Americans who do not believe in radical ideas in either direction, just say I will not allow my kids to be corrupted by this trans agenda. Just like the unhinged jihadist he liked to fearmonger about, Charlie Kirk and other far-right conservatives are going after Target because they disagree with the merchandise being sold in celebration of pride. Let's see what else he has to say. And it looks Target is our, it looks like they're caving. They say they're putting the clothes in the back. I don't want. I want Target to go bankrupt. I want them to close. I want them to close. I want chapter 11, okay? Somebody else can buy them up. No, conservative. It's going to be a bunch of empty buildings. Yeah. I want them to go chapter 11. People. People say, what does success look like? Chapter 11, okay? I want, I want skull and bones all the way down to the absolute nails of the stores. That's the only thing they understand is force. Pain is a teacher. Now, conservatives have an interesting strategy in getting various corporations to heal and give into what they demand. In this case, it has to do with anything that seems to support the LGBTQ community.

And unfortunately, this has already led to individuals going into Target stores and causing some damage, which is why Target has made some decisions already that appears that they're seating ground to what Republicans want. Target said it was concerned about threats impacting our team members, sense of safety and well-being while at work, after some customers had screamed at employees and thrown the pride themed merchandise on the floor. So I bring you, unfortunately, 24-year-old Ethan Schmidt, who takes the rhetoric that you just heard from Charlie Kirk and basically incites violence. He brings up the ante and you're about to hear what I'm referring to. We're going to hear from him and then we're going to show you what he did at a Target store, I believe, in Arizona. Giving you a heads up that, you know, we'll be coming after you hard, hard.

You know, I've already exposed you guys pretty good, but, you know, this is going to be the next level stuff. So, you know. Nice wins. LGBT loses. Yeah. You know, I also like to hunt LGBT supporters on my free time. That's one of my favorite pastimes, you know. Also, yeah, we're going to be going on hunting expeditions pretty soon, you know,

hunting the LGBT supporters across Arizona and Phoenix. So, you know, keep an eye out for that because, you know, you're not safe. But I would venture to say that people aren't safe when this guy's around. Here's an example of what he did at a Target store in Arizona. That there is no insert. There's nothing on it. It's disgusting, it's devil worship. That's devil worship.

Now Target has already made some decisions about the merchandise. Some of the merchandise, they're moving from the front of the store to the back of the store. There will also be some items that they will no longer sell as a result of this. And they're citing concerns about the safety of their employees. I've got more details on this, but Jank, I wanted to get your thoughts first. Guys, this is really bad. So these are vigilantes and they're telling you, you just saw it on video. We're going to hunt you down.

You should not feel safe. What are people in the LGBTQ community supposed to think? How are they not supposed to panic over that? How are they not supposed to defend themselves over that? So now when you got people talking about defending themselves against these kind of vigilante thugs, we're going to have chaos soon. This is going to be really, really bad. you see there's no check on them there's no cops there's no nothing nobody ever gets arrested right

so they just keep bullying everybody bullying bullying bullying bullying and they're filled with hatred well there's no there was excuses in the past oh no we're not against gay people it's just that the lifestyle and blah blah and the kid blah they used to have excuse they don't even have excuse anymore they just go we hate LGBT people and we're hunting them and if you're in favor of LGBT you like you put a rainbow somewhere saying like oh I don't I don't I don't dispose gay people. Well, I said we're coming to hate hate on you. We're coming to destroy you. How dare you not hate gay people? Okay, look, if you're a Republican and you don't like that, you got a funny way of showing it. So when you know how consistent we are, there was a deranged

person on the so-called left earlier this week that went after a reporter with a machete. and we said it was totally unacceptable and that they are not part of us, right? And they like did, you know, physical force against these guys who were anti-choicing on their campus, et cetera, and we spoke out against it, right? Republicans, where are you? Nobody's reining these guys in. No, that's exactly right. I mean, that's part of the problem.

I mean, you'll see some, I guess at this point, they would be considered moderate Republican. pushing back against this on Twitter, but other than that, I mean, they're they're getting encouraged by people like Charlie Kirk, people who like Matt Walsh, right? And there's also this issue of misinformation in regard to what Target is selling in the first place, so I want to get to that. Now as a result of everything that's been going on, this week Target became the latest company to rethink its approach after facing criticism for its pride collection, which included clothes and books for children that drew outrage from some on the right. The retailer, as I mentioned earlier, decided to move

its pride displays, including rainbow striped collared shirts, yellow hoodies reading, not a phase, and baby clothing and accessories from the entrances of some Target stores around the country and place them in the back. Now, in a statement, Target said this, given the volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior. No, guys, I got to jump in on that, because that just rewards them. Okay, let me, but okay, let me get to, you're right, it encourages what we're seeing. They're going to do it again and again and again.

But the thing that these companies care about more than appeasing any side of the political aisle is money. Of course. And what's surprising to me is that while boycotts, traditionally speaking, have not been effective. They have been effective in regard to the whole Bud Light debacle and also with Target. I don't think that they're making this decision because they care about their workers. I'm keeping it real. I think they're making this decision because their stock took a huge hit. Oh, their workers. Oh, no, no, no. Of course, no. Let me give you the numbers, though.

Yeah, no, of course it's about the money. But I got strong thoughts on that too. So go ahead. So Target apparently lost 9 million, I'm sorry, 9 billion in market value since angry social media users called for a boycott of the Minneapolis-based retailer over its rollout of the pride collection featuring LGBTQ-friendly clothing for children. So this wasn't really a boycott, but the stock value took a hit, right? So a week ago, Wednesday, before the controversy erupted, targets stock closed at $160. and 96 cents a share, giving the big box chain a market capitalization of $74.3 billion. As of early trading on Thursday, however, shares of the company were trading off 1% at $141.76. Okay, so guys, a couple of things here. So number one, I'm officially changing my position on right wing boycuts.

And I'll tell you why, and I'll tell you why it's also overhyped. But first, in the past, right-wing boycotts never, ever, ever worked. They would do these things. Oh, Disney, way before DeSantis, Disney doesn't hate gay people enough. That boycott was like 20 years ago, right? And they went after Disney, Disney is held strong, and their sales did not go down 0.1%. Completely and utterly ineffectual. But that was before the Republican base got radicalized.

And before social media spread that message so much more effectively than some rando evangelical Christian group out of Sarasota that nobody ever heard from. Okay. So now when the Charlie Kirk's and the Matt Walsh's put the message out and they say to their radicalized base, okay, we're hating Target, we're hating Bud Light because they don't hate gay people, it works. So now, does that mean that every company should panic? No, it depends on what your demographics are.

Remember, Nike went right in their grill and brought the guy they hate most, Colin Kaepernick, to do a giant ad campaign. And in the beginning, their evaluation dipped, and then it skyrocketed when sales numbers actually came in. Because Nike's demographic is young, which is very progressive, so that worked. If your demographic is old, bud light, I don't know what targets demographics are. Then, yeah, okay, then the right wingers are older, and that might hurt your sales. So, but there's one factor that nobody talks about, which is that this initial dip for Target and Nike and all of them is at the stock market. It's not based on any actual sales.

It's the reaction that super right wing Wall Street traders have to the news. Remember, almost everyone on Wall Street is right wing. So when they hear, oh, the right wing's mad about Target, well, they're. This is going to destroy target. Everybody sell, sell, sell, sell. Because it's their perspective. They did the same exact thing to Nike, and they were dead wrong. And then when the sales numbers came in, they turned around, okay?

So unfortunately, because of how right wing Wall Street is, and because now these boycotts are more effective, you're going to see so much more of them. Now, in reality, the left wing should be doing peaceful boycotts of companies that corrupt our politics by giving by bribing politicians every single one of them jank i know they would never shop again i know but we can go one by one but we got no leadership on our side so instead we have these monsters running out of charlie kirk so he said they should go to chapter 11 he started talking about in the context of finesse so i'm giving you that context okay but then when you see this violence already happening when you know your base is totally deranged when you know 28 percent of

Republicans already say they think it's time for violence and you have seen right wing violence time after time after time. When you say you should use force and I want to see skull and bones everywhere, do you think that maybe some people might misinterpret that? He didn't say, okay, but let's be fair. He said skull and bones, meaning like he wants to watch target fail, right? No, no, I just said. He said it in a financial context. But do you think every Charlie Kirk viewer is going to understand that? I get it. He's egging them on, go, oh, chapter 11, skull and bones. I want skull and bones everywhere. He knows his audience is going to misinterpret that.

He wants them to misinterpret it. No, I give no quarter to Charlie Kirk. He's a terrible guy, and he's doing it on purpose, and he loves the idea of vigilante violence. Sick, absolutely sick. We're going to have nonstop fighting in the streets. Our social fabric is completely decaying. So if I'm LGBTQ, what am I going to do? Just sit there and wait for them to attack me?

Look, I don't want the violence. I think violence is disastrous. I don't think the left should go anywhere near that. But vigilante stuff is going to break out everywhere now. And by the way, no one's getting protected in the streets either, okay? I don't know where the cops are. Both the left and the right now hate the cops. So they're nowhere to be found.

People are already attacking each other in the streets. This is just chaos is coming, guys. I mean, we're there. We're already there. Anyway, we got to take a break. When we come back, we have more for you, including a positive update in regard to one of the key organizers of January 6. All right, back on CYT, Jank, Anna Ikitaku, Jeff Beltari, and Jane Kay. They all just joined.

We appreciate it, guys. We love you for it. And Samantha Toto, gifted five Youngtors memberships on YouTube. Thank you, Samantha. You're wonderful. Anna. Well, we've got an update on some of the January 6 rioters and those who partly organized what happened that day. Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the oath keepers, has officially been sentenced to 18 years in prison after being found guilty of sedition for his role in the January 6th Capitol riots.

Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy by a Washington, D.C. jury in November. Now, prosecutors wanted the judge to sentence him to 25 years, but ultimately the judge decided on 18 years. Now what did Stuart Rhodes do specifically? According to CNN, Rhodes, who was accused of leading dozens of other individuals in a coordinated plot that culminated in the January 6th siege, was also found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding and tampering with documents. Of those that Rhodes led, 22 people, 22 have already been convicted of various federal crimes by a jury or guilty plea. Eight, including Rhodes' co-defendant, Kelly Meggs, who will be sentenced later Thursday, meaning today as well, were convicted of seditious conspiracy. Now, the judge argued during the sentencing that Rhodes failed to show even a little bit of remorse

for what he engaged in. In fact, through what he said throughout the trial, it was very clear that Rhodes was not at all remorseful for what he had done or what he took part in. And this next video explains that element of the story in greater detail. The judge said that Rhodes did not express remorse for this. And the judge stated that feared that if freed, he'd attempt this again. What exactly did Rhodes say through the course of this trial that gave the judge that concern? Right.

Well, the judge's words specifically was that as we heard you speak today, the moment you are released, you will be prepared to take up arms against our government. He's quoting back to him. And that's because Stuart Rhodes spoke for about 20 minutes today and essentially revealed how extreme he still is. He believes that the election of 2020 was illegal. He believes that there is a criminal regime governing the United States. He believes he is a political prisoner. But Judge Meta said to him, no, you are not.

It is not because of your political beliefs that you are here today. It is because you believe violence was the way to achieve the outcome of the election that you preferred. And that is not the way that American democracy works. He also said in the context of the sentencing hearing, quote, I'd like to start by just saying that I'm a political prisoner. And like President Trump, my only crime is opposing those who are destroying our country. Rose told the judge in court, and it did not bode well for him, Jank. Okay, so first of all, fun fact, that guy's got an eye patch.

He looks like a tough guy, warrior, maybe in Afghanistan or a record. No, he shot his own eye out. Oh my God, I didn't even know that. That's amazing. Total idiot. Okay. What a fun detail to the story. Yes.

So now secondly, Donald Trump, oh my God, these guys are patriots and I might pardon him. Then why didn't you give a dollar to his defense? left him totally hung him out to dry. Trump hung out all those guys to dry. So his Trump supporters gave him a couple hundred million dollars for legal defense. And they all say, oh my God, we love the January 6th guys. They're political prisoners. We can't wait to free them.

Well, why don't you use your hundreds of millions of dollars to free them? Why did they have to use public defenders, et cetera? Because these guys aren't rich like Trump. Half of them are broke, right? And by the way, what happened? And now I'm massively in favor of this guy going away. Having said that, all the poor are getting jail sentences. That's true.

All the rich that actually organized it, none of them are getting jail sentences. To be fair, in the video that we just watched, it looked like they were searching his home in Texas, which looked pretty nice. It's in Texas. No, he lives in remote areas. I read long stories about him. And I call him an idiot because he is in so many different ways. I mean, he's shot his own eye out. Yeah, of course. But he's like, he's actually a guy that that wanted to be thoughtful and he just went down

the wrong rabbit hole and just kept going and going and going until he became convinced that he had to be the vigilante militia for Donald Trump and cause violence on anyone that defied the dear leader. And he still believes that. And now that gets us to the most important point. If Donald Trump is elected, he will definitely pardon the great majority of these guys. 100%. I was just saying that. Yep. Yeah, it's not even, it's not an open question. He said, I'm going to pardon a huge majority of them, maybe all of them. We don't know yet, okay?

So we don't know that it's going to be roads in particular, but he's pardoning most of them. When he does that, what signal does that send? That sends a signal, do violence on behalf of Donald Trump, and you will get it, get out of jail, free card. Very literally, okay? He's going, it's like the villain Bain in the Batman movie where he releases all the prisoners. And he goes, now wreak havoc. That's exactly what Donald Trump would be doing if he gets reelected. So guys, you know, you see us rip Biden day after day because of his weakness, because he's so conservative on economic issues, et cetera, et cetera.

But Donald Trump is like a comic book villain. He tried to overturn our democracy once. He used these vigilante thugs. He's definitely going to do it again. And he's going to release the guys who are convicted of insurrection against the United States of America. Because they did the insurrection on the violence on his behalf. Remember when his staff told them, they're looking to execute your vice president. President Trump, he said, well, maybe he had it coming.

He 100% believes in violence. And if he pardons any of those guys, it's a giant green light. So what kind of violence can they do to all of us and get away with? Probably as much as they want. All right, that does it for the first hour. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back for the second hour of the show, that's when the fun begins. Because the Trump versus DeSantis fight is really heating up and you don't want to miss it.

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 slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.