The Young Turks - The Young Turks 01.11.18: FISA, Missouri Governor, Racist Class, and Arrested Teacher Update

Episode Date: January 12, 2018

A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from January 11th, 2018. For more go to http://www.tytnetwork.com/join. Hour 1:  Cenk presents. Feinstein backtracks her recent actions, blaming it on her cold. NYC divesting from fossil fuels and suing Shell and other companies over climate change. Pennsylvania losing coal jobs in spite of promises. Trump flip flops on his views of the NSA, and Bret Baier calls him on it. Fox and Friends plays a role. Governor Greitens faces affair and blackmail allegations. Trump blocks immigrants from “shithole” countries. Hour 2:  Cenk and Ana present. Walmart gives bonuses and raises minimum wages, but closes down Sam’s Club. Florida University has a controversial class on racism, with a police guard standing outside. Bernie Sanders does a town hall on Medicare for all, and is interviewed by Ana Kasparian. An update on a teacher arrested for asking a question during a board meeting. Jeff Sessions doing away with Obama order to stop putting people in prison for citations. 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. Thank you for watching or listening to this free podcast of the Young Turks. We want to make sure that you get some portion of the show every day. But if you want the full show, which is actually five segments, come become a member and support independent media as well. TYT network.com slash join.

Meanwhile, enjoy the free podcast. My bad, I'd like to correct something. We're back on the Young Turks from the last segment. I think Trump did not mean a washing machine, but a dishwasher. We're going to put the coal in a dishwasher, clean it up, and then it'll be clean coal. I would love for someone to ask him, how do they clean the coal? I would just love that, because of course he has no freaking idea. So anyway, let me read you guys some tweets.

I am socks says, shithole countries, diplomacy at its finest. So that he said that that's news story broke right before I got on air. And I just read it during the break. Oh my God. Oh my God. It's such a terrible thing to say. Wait to get a load of the full quote. We're going to do that in the next segment.

Okay. Illegally Graphics says, why are you kinkshaming? People can be into BDSM and have great family values. That is certainly true. But as you'll see with the governor of Missouri, some of the things he did were not part of BDSM. They were not consensual. and he's in a, I think, a world of trouble, and rightfully so, as you'll see in just a little bit. Enrique Rodriguez says, but Cenk, what about all the new jobs washing the coal clean after its mind?

Fairport Point, Enrique, I hadn't thought of that. I got to put some thought behind it. And woke poppy says, I don't feel bad for people that voted against their own interest. Don't feel bad for those coal miners that voted for Trump. Look, I feel bad for the coal miners, no matter who they voted for, because those forces are out of their control. and they're workers, and, and the rug just got pulled out from underneath them. I do feel, you know, if you say, hey, they shouldn't have voted for Trump, yes. Did that affect whether they're going to lose their job in that mind or not?

No, it didn't affect it at all. Okay, all right, let's keep it going. Now let's go to Pfizer. Okay. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fitting the Republic or you, 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 On 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 and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it. You must have learned 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. like the graphic. Okay, all right. So, now Congress is looking into renewing FISA. This is basically the warrantless wiretapping they're doing pretty much all Americans. Unfortunately, I have bipartisan agreement on it. The only person who can't come to an agreement is Donald Trump. Well, he can't come to an agreement with himself on it. He was wildly contradictory in a span of a couple of hours. So let me explain. The Hill says the White House has called for the program

to be reauthorized. But the president lashed out at the program early Thursday. So 12 hours before the president tweets, the White House puts out a statement saying, this FISA renewal is wonderful. The warrantless wiretapping of Americans is such a great thing. But Trump then turns around and contradicts his own White House and says, House votes on controversial FISA Act today. This is the act that may have been used with the help of the discredited and phony dossier to so badly surveillance. and abused the Trump campaign by the previous administration and others. Now, you'll see where he got that from in just a little bit, but he's clearly against it.

I mean, so bad he used to surveil Trump campaign. He's terrible. It's early in the morning. The staff goes in and goes, dear president moron, your position is that this is a good thing. Can you please fix your idiotic tweet that says it's a bad thing? He's like, um, you die, I knew that. I knew that. So then he tweets a couple hours later. With that being said, well, I have personally directed the fix of the unmasking process since taking office. And today's vote is about

foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it. Get smart. I love that last part where he yells pretty much at himself. Get smart. So you could have used that a couple hours ago when you tweeted the opposite, it's like when I play basketball and sometimes I get frustrated that I'm not doing enough and I'll have missed a rebound. And going down the court, I'll be like, let's get some rebounds. That's Trump. Every day he looks at himself going, get smart, get smart. In fact, we found a video of him after the staff explained that he had tweeted the wrong thing yet again. Here it is. I'm a fucking idiot.

I'm a fucking idiot. I'm a fucking idiot. I'm a fucking idiot. Oh, fucking idiot. Fucking idiot, fucking idiot, fucking idiot, fucking idiot, fucking idiot. Fake news. Anyway, that was such a great performance.

Anyway, so they have So they asked John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, Sienna reported, catches up to him and says, well, did Donald Trump put you in a difficult position again where he had to correct him and explain to him what his actual position is? I love this quote. He said, it's not more difficult, it's a juggling act. In other words, it's what I got to deal with every single day. It's a juggling act. We're at a circus, and he's the ringleader. When Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about it, she had this hilarious quote.

We weren't confused, but some of you guys were. In other words, I know that she doesn't intend this. I assume she subconsciously thinks, we weren't confused. The president's an idiot. We knew that all along. We work with him every day. You guys were confused expecting him to make any sense at all. So where did he get this confusion from in the first place?

Well, actually, before we get to that, Let me show you, even Fox News, Brett Bear. I mean, Fox News is the home of Donald Trump. They defend him at every turn. But their lead anchor, Brett Bear, about the news. It's like scratching his head, like, oh, Jesus, Lord and mercy. How am I going to defend this guy now? All right, let's watch.

What's going on here, Brett? Well, it's kind of a mess. From the administration point of view, Adam Schiff is jumping on what were conflicting tweets from the president this morning about whether they should move forward with this authorization. But today the president tweeted out a question whether it should go forward and maybe it's not a good deal. Then he tweeted a second time and said, no, we need to pass this. Get smart. So it was conflicting.

Twitter called it a cleanup on Isle 702. And there was some pulling of hair out in the intel community and on the House floor as House members are really trying to get this across the finish line. Even Fox News is like, ah, it's a mess. Was it conflicting? The reference to 702 is the section 702 that they were debating.

But with Trump, it's clean up on aisle one and two and three, and just never mind, clean up the whole goddamn thing. All right, so where do you get the idea in the first place? Ironically, Fox News from Judge Napolitano. He saw this segment in the morning before he tweeted the angry tweet that got him in trouble.

Watch. I'm scratching my head. I don't understand why Donald Trump is in favor of this. His woes began with unlawful foreign surveillance and unconstitutional domestic surveillance of him before he was the president in the United States. And now he wants to institutionalize this. Mr. President, this is not the way to go. So Trump sees that. He says that.

He says, oh, Fox told me this not the way to go. This is the surveillance of me. I'm against it. By the way, to give credit to Judge Napolitano, he's right. This is a terrible bill. shouldn't have been in favor of it. And I certainly the Democrats shouldn't have been in favor of it. And 65 of them would afford it in the House, let alone nearly 200 Republicans. It eviscerates the Fourth Amendment. It's a terrible idea. And Trump accidentally had it right

the first time. But realizing this mistake that he was right for the first time in his life, it was like, wait, I got to fix that. I'm now going to retweet saying that, never mind, I'd like to go back to being wrong. And he has. And by the way, they pass. it easily. So there goes your rights. Okay, now speaking of which I want to turn the Democrats on the same issue and kick them around a little bit because they more than deserve it. So today, the House voted on FISA extension. This is warrantless wiretapping. I'm going to give you all the details of the unconstitutional nature of this vote to begin with. It was supposed to be a close vote because there was some libertarian Republicans like Justin Amman.

and Mark Meadows, who were fighting against it, and certainly a lot of true progressives who are fighting against this. And Donald Trump for a second, it looked like had done the right thing, but then he went back on it and said, no, no, no, the White House supports this. In fact, he said it in this tweet. He said, with that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process and taking office, and today's vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land.

We need it, get smart. Well, that's not actually true. And so Colin Kahnbacher at Law and Crime with a really good article about this explaining the details and the culpability of all the Republicans and Democrats who voted for it, he explains today's vote was not about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land, as Trump said. Rather, today's vote was about Section 702 of FISA, which largely concerns unconstitutional surveillance of Americans.

And he goes on to explain. The law initially passed to retroactively legalize the crime of George W. Bush administration after they were revealed publicly. Section 702 was then reauthorized, solidified, and became part of the bipartisan consensus by Barack Obama and his Democratic Party supermajorities in Congress in 2009. See, that's real journalism, explaining what both parties did wrong. and we greatly protested at the time and we took a lot of heat for it

because at the time people were saying no, that's our beloved Barack Obama and the Republicans are attacking him. You have to support blindly everything that he says. Well, we didn't support it. We thought it was unconstitutional back then. It's still unconstitutional today. It was unconstitutional when George W. Bush did it.

It was unconstitutional when Barack Obama did it. And now Trump has joined that course as well. But when Obama went to cover up Bush's crimes, it was really stomach churning. And that's what happened. And they continued to do it today, including Nancy Pelosi. So let me give you more details. They argue, Combacher says, without credibility, that the focus of Section 702 is on foreigners. This is not really true and not particularly germane.

The U.S. Constitution protects everyone on American soil or under U.S. jurisdiction. The enumerated rights are not supposed to be limited to Americans alone. See, that's very important because even if it's communications with an American citizen and a foreigner, first of all, there's an American citizen involved. That person has rights. Now those rights, their Fourth Amendment rights are gone. Second of all, they're saying, well, we can intercept it because the line goes through America. It's an American jurisdiction.

But if it's an American jurisdiction, then the Fourth Amendment applies. And Congress has just collectively decided, yeah, that's a good point. On the other hand, we don't care about the Constitution. This is one of the most clearly unconstitutional laws we've ever seen. And as usual, if you've got bipartisan agreement in this corrupt Congress, as I've told you for now over a decade, watch out. If they agree to something bipartisan, it is usually something horrific. So Section 702 allows intelligence agencies to choose their targets without disclosing or defending them in court. The FISC approves a set of rules and procedures once a year, and the government promises to follow them.

But the government does not have to tell a judge who it is spying on or why. See, that's not how a democracy and a liberal democracy like ours is supposed to work. More important than anything else, a constitutional democracy. There are supposed to be safeguards for the citizens from the power of the government. If you're a liberal, you should believe that 100%. If you're a conservative, you should believe that 100%. It's supposed to protect us against government intrusion, whether it's authoritarian government or big government. Most of Section 702 surveillance actually conducted has nothing to do with foreigners or terrorists of any sort.

The vast majority of alleged unintentional targets are regular internet users in the United States by a measure of nearly 10 to 1, according to a 2014 report by the Washington Post. So both the Washington Post and Kambocker here doing a great job. explaining what the reality is, they're spying in on us. And then when you ask him, well, who are you spying in on? It's a secret. So let's talk about the Fourth Amendment a little bit more specifically. The Fourth Amendment is at heart, Kambacher explains, a prohibition against general warrants. Only particularized warrants are permissible and must be based upon probable cause supported

by oath or affirmation, and particularly describe the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. That's a direct quote there from the Constitution. There's a reason for that because we wanted to escape the rule of tyrants. So that's why we put into the Constitution. If the government would like to search our property or seize our property, you have to tell us where, when, what, and it has to be specific. It cannot be a general warrant because tyrants used to do general warrants.

I'm going to get all your information and I'm going to keep it secret and I'm going to use it against you. and there's nothing you could do about it. That is not a constitution that is one that is liberal or progressive or conservative or American. It's just not how we were supposed to do things in this country. Now look, it gets even worse because Senator Ron Wyden had explained why he wanted to do an amendment of this bill. So let's explain the amendment and show you why it's worse. The bill reformed section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to end warrantless backdoor searches of American calls, emails, texts, and other communications that are routinely

swept up under a program designed to spy on foreign targets. So it was called the USA Rights Act, and it was supposed to revise FISA. Now, look, I think the original bill was a disaster. I would vote no on it, and enthusiastically so. But at a minimum, Wyden said, okay, look, if you claim that you're not doing it, warrantless wiretaps of American citizens. Great, I have this thing called the USA Rights Act. And Wyden, by the way, Democrat from Oregon, give him credit for being on the right side of this.

And a lot of Democrats were on the right side of this and some libertarian Republicans were. Give all of them credit, okay? Now, so he said, I'm going to introduce this thing. It's easy. You could just prove right away that this is not an issue. You pass my amendment. And it says that you are not taking American citizens' information illegally. They wouldn't pass it.

The USA Rights Act failed today. That failure occurred in large part, do the votes of House Democrats. They voted it down. They said, yeah, you want to do warrantless wiretapping of Americans? Go for it. That's the whole point anyway. We just took something that was illegal and unconstitutional that George Bush did and should have actually suffered legal consequences for.

Retroactively made it legal and shredded the Constitution. 65 Democrats in the House voted for it. They should all lose their jobs. Look, all the Republicans who voted for it should lose their jobs too. And a great number of them voted for it as well. And don't get me wrong, I am not letting those 191 Republicans off the hook. And there are more Republicans who voted for it, obviously about three times as much as Democrats. They should also lose their jobs.

And if you're a true conservative out there and you have been saying your whole life that you love the Constitution, you should throw those bums out. But that also applies to progressives like Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff and all those people who claim to be progressive. But in reality are establishment Democrats that love government power and love the ability to abuse that power against American citizens. Now, real progressives like Rokaneh tweeted this today, when Justice Amash and Meadows, those of the libertarian Republicans, chair of the Freedom Caucus vote against surveillance, but scores of Democrats vote for it. then it is fair to ask, what does our party stand for? If we can't be unified around the principle of civil liberties, then what is the soul of our party? Fortunately, that is a great, great question, and one question that Democrats should be grappling with today. And largely, unfortunately, for those establishment Democrats, the sole of their party is about corporate donors and state power.

And it is not what Progressives signed up for. If establishment Democrats are wondering what we are so upset about and why we don't support them blindly and we don't bow our heads to them, this is among the many reasons why. You're supposed to fight for us, not for power and more power to the already powerful. Okay, now I'm going to end my segment here on a fun note. I mean, it's disastrous, but it does have amusing hypocrisy. All right. So the governor of Missouri is in a world of trouble. He's a Republican ran on family values. Of course. Now he's involved in a sex sandal. Of course. A sex scandal. Maybe also a sex sandal. I don't know. But he, of course, when he was running, said, I'm Eric Gritens. I'm a Navy SEAL, native Missouri.

And most importantly, a proud husband and father. Well, we didn't bring that issue up. He did. He ran on it. In fact, I'm going to show you a commercial a little bit later where he involved his family, significantly so. Well, the woman that he had an affair with, and he admits that he did have an affair, he disputes that he blackmailed her or hit her. We'll get to that in a second. But the woman does not want to reveal who she is. So how do we find out about this story? Well, at the time, that woman was married to someone else, and that guy is not happy. So he apparently recorded his wife talking to him about their affair, and that's on tape,

local news stations got it, they played it on air, it is absolutely clear what the wife said at the time. And among the things she said about Greiton's treatment at the time was that it was, quote, horrible and disgusting. So what was it? Well, she explains to her husband. She doesn't know she's being recorded. So, you know, take it with one.

whatever grain of salt you want. I mean, on the one hand, she doesn't know it's being recorded. She's more likely to be honest. On the other hand, she's trying to explain this affair to her husband. So I'm giving you all the angles here, okay? On the call, she says, I met Erica a year ago, and I instantly had a big crush on him. So she's being honest with her husband, admitting she did have a crush on him. So that part is clearly consensual.

So that's important to know. Then she explains, he said, the governor said, I'll make you feel better. I'll make you feel good. come downstairs after he had convinced her to come to his house. I want to show you how to do a proper pull-up. And I knew he was being sexual and I still let him. And he used some sort of tape. I don't know what it was and tape my hands to these rings and then put a blindfold on me.

You know, sometimes I joke around on the show about watch out for these guys who keep telling you about their family values. They've got somebody tied up in a basement. In this case, it was literal. And she kept saying to her husband on the call, you know, I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know what he was doing. You know, I knew that it was something sexual and I agreed to it. So that's my fault. But I didn't agree to all of it.

And then this is what happened next. And this is very important. She explains, he stepped back. I saw a flash through the blindfold. And he said, quote, you're never going to mention my name. Otherwise, there will be pictures of me everywhere. Look, somebody has an affair. That's their business.

And I have said this when Democrats do it. I've said it when Republicans do it, especially if they're Republican, and we go through their record to see if they're hypocrites or not. If they were not hypocritical, you could be a Republican who's for a giant tax cuts for the rich and for more wars, but you didn't run on family values. And you were open-minded about that issue. Well, then your affair is your problem, not my problem. That's not something I'm concerned about.

and not something I'd like to judge you for. But when you run our family values, you tie up a woman in the basement and then threaten to blackmail her if she tells anyone. Well, that is not consensual, and we've got a massive problem. And by the way, you're an unbelievable jerk, to say the least. That's how you treat her. And that was in the beginning. She explained, yeah, afterwards, she did have another relationship with him, and then she

tried to break it off. and she told him he she was her his hairdresser and he eventually she wound up telling him look you're ruining my family life here my husband knows now please don't come to the salon anymore so there were times when it was consensual but certainly taking of the picture was not in the recorded phone conversation cam o v which got the tape explains that's the local station in Missouri in the recorded phone conversation the woman takes on some of the blame and says that Gritens apologized after the encounter and told her he had deleted the picture. Okay, now this is my speculation. No, he didn't.

Guys like that don't delete the picture. He had that in his back pocket. There's probably a 50% chance he still has the picture. Okay, but that's my speculation. Let's go back to what she said. She claims they had at least one more physical interaction later that day. So that goes back to consensual, giving you full context here, okay? All right, now we go to James Bennett. he is the attorney for the governor. He says, there was no blackmail, and that claim is false. This personal matter has been addressed by the governor, Ms. Gritens, Mrs. Gritens, privately years ago when it happened.

Outrageous claims of improper conduct regarding these almost three year ago events are false. Now, remember, the woman has not come forward. It is tapes of her from her ex-husband, now ex-husband. They were married at the time. So she doesn't want any of this publicity. She doesn't want to be known as the person who, had the affair with the governor and got tied up and all that stuff. So I get the aggrieved ex-husbands angry about the governor, but he has the tapes from back then. Why would the wife lie about it

back then? I mean, she might lie that she didn't have the affair to cover it up, but she didn't. She said, yeah, I did have the affair, and this is what the guy did to me. Okay. So now, Grighton's put out a joint statement with his wife. You're in this kind of mess. Have the decence to leave your wife out of it. But no, he's going to hide behind her. They say a few years ago, before Eric was elected governor, there was a time when he was unfaithful in our marriage. This was a deeply personal mistake. Eric took responsibility, and we dealt with this together honestly and privately. Now look, again, if there was no charges of non-concessual behavior and he didn't run on family values at all, I say, yeah, man, that's their business. And she wants to

forgive him. Bless her heart. That's not our job. to judge him or, most importantly, his wife, and the decisions that they've made about their marriage. But it wasn't private. It wasn't private at all. So let me show you a campaign ad that he ran. Now, this is after he had the affair, and he knows he tied her up in the basement. This is the ad he ran to become governor. This election is all about the future. If you want more government, higher taxes, billions in Obamacare expansion, and corrupt career politicians as you. then vote for Chris Koster.

That's what he's been doing, 22 years. But if you believe Missouri needs to change direction, and we can bring back jobs, clean up state government, and still give our kids the future they deserve, I'm Eric Wrightons, and we're asking for your vote. We are asking for your vote. Don't put your wife in the ad. I mean, that affair was, what, seconds before that ad was shot?

The affair was three years ago, so I guess about a year and a half, two years before the ad was shot. Don't put your wife in the ad, man. Don't run on family values. Don't tell us that one of your advantages is that you're a decent person who has family values. There's no end to their hypocrisy. So the ex-husband said, he took a picture of my wife naked as blackmail. There is no worse person. I think it's as bad as it gets.

It's as bad as it gets when someone takes advantage of something. Now, that was the original story. Late breaking story now, new charges. A media reports additionally. Now she has come forward, the woman that was in that affair, has stated that Gritens slapped her when she revealed that she had sex with her own husband. So now you've got assault, you've got potential blackmail. And finally, Republicans in the state of Missouri have called for an investigation, saying that this cannot stand.

We have to find out at least what actually happened. Yes, I encourage that investigation, and we'll find out hopefully through that investigation, who's right and who's wrong. But right now, it does not look good. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring out. and storing and selling our data, but that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers.

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All this stuff is terrible. But you had to, he knew he did all that stuff. And he ran bragging about how he's a family man anyway. No bounds, no bounds at all. All right, young turks, we'll be right back. You're right in the middle of this podcast. We've got another great segment coming up for you. If you'd like the full show, which is actually five segments,

go to t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. You become a member, you support the show, you support independent media, and you get the whole two-hour show ad-free every day. day. Let's go do it now. All right, we're back on a young Turks. A couple tweets for you. Medusa Mermaid says, no doubt Walmart will deposit those employee bonuses directly onto a brand spanking new Walmart gift card. Can you imagine? I mean, I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can totally imagine. Wordburn Steinem writes, you forgot the other great President Obama controversy. He saluted with a

cup of copy in his hand once. That's right. I did forget about that. I thought he was going to bring up the mustard on the hamburger thing. Which, by the way, I also do, and I don't think it's a big deal. Could you imagine if Obama said, like, refer to white countries, clearly white countries as shithole countries, but said, why don't we get more people in from Africa, which are great countries? Oh, my. Oh, ho.

Heads would explode. He once saluted with a cup of coffee in his hand. That's the fucking controversy they had on Obama. Anyway, bitchy gay guy writes in, I'm filing a complaint. The hashtag TYT live policy about twists is that they are always referred to as twisty twists. Yes, they are. You're right. Sorry, you got us on that one.

All right, we're going to put it in our file. Yes. All right, what's next, Anna? Okay. A university in Florida has a class that unfortunately needs to be guarded by police because of the topic that is covered in that class. It is titled white racism and it's at Florida Gulf University. The first class had two police guards guarding it because of threats that were made toward Ted Thornhill, who's a professor teaching the sociology course. Now, a course description says that the class will interrogate the concept of race examine the racist ideologies, laws, policies, and practices that have operated for hundreds of years to maintain white racial domination over those racialized as non-white. Now, some of the threats that the professor received included the standard death threats, which most public figures experience at some point.

But also some comments including the following, cancer, stage four is what you and your family deserve for spreading hate, lies, and intolerance. Interesting. Another person wrote in, I would ask that you stop using the name Ted and Thornhill, as I feel you are using a cultural appropriation. Change it to a bongo divinantri, divinantre, you racist pick. No irony there at all. No, no. Give him a racist name and then call him a racist. No. And that went right over his head.

And then this next one appears to be sent by Donald Trump because of the use of all caps, but probably not sent by Trump. It says, I bet membership in the clan is probably skyrocketing because of radicals like you. Capslocks are my favorite. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And of course they called him a subhuman mongrel while saying, how dare you say there's white racism? Okay, every one of those missed the concept of irony. So now let's break it down. Has there been white dominance supremacy and racism in this country for hundreds of years? Oh, no, never. I mean, really, I mean, is this a debate?

Really, you think that's a debate? Now, look, when they talk about the history of racism in this country, it doesn't mean that he's calling you racist. He doesn't know you. You take it so personally and it makes me wonder what it is that why you take it personally. I don't take it, Anna's literally Caucasian. Do you take it personally? I mean, I don't take it personally.

Okay, I'm looking at you. You look pretty white. Not only do I look white, Armenians are from the caucus. Like, we're white, we're Caucasian. But it doesn't matter. Like, for me, it's, this class is no different from any other sociology class that's been taught in regard to race relations in the United States. The thing that triggered people was the title of the class, white racism.

Look, if you get triggered by that, then there is some sort of guilt, either subconsciously or very consciously that you need to deal with, right? Because when I hear about this class, I don't think, oh, my God, this guy's calling me racist, how dare he? I think, oh, we're going to go through, you know, what happened historically in the United States. And what's currently happening today, which I would, maybe two years ago, I'd say isn't as overt, but lately has been very overt. So, okay, so let's continue. So white racism. Now, does that mean if you're teaching class on white racism, that's the only racism that exists and that's what the professor thinks?

No, he never said that. Could there be black racism, Asian racism? Of course. Do you know how racist the old world is? Almost everybody from every country thinks they're the greatest and everybody else is less than them. Is black racism possible? Of course.

So in Jamaica, you could have a class on black racism against Asians. So look, when I was there about a decade ago, and I don't know if it's changed dramatically since then, but almost every Asian person, and there are plenty of Asian people in Jamaica, if you don't know, are called Mr. Chin and Ms. Chin. And I have friends who are Asian and Jamaican, and they don't appreciate it. Okay. So if you were doing the class in Jamaica, you would do one on black racism, right? If you were doing it in China, you might do it on Chinese racism.

But in America, what is the predominant form of racism? Of course it's white racism. So let's do this one more time. I talked about in a recent old school episode, which now, by the way, are public. Members always get it. TYT Network.com slash joined. But if you want TYT old school on iTunes, we just did it with J.R. and Malcolm in the last episode. But real quick here, Turks in Germany are the minority.

And they're treated like African Americans are here in America. So if you did a class on German racism against Turks in Germany, that might make sense. Turkish racism against Germans, I'm sure exists, but is not the predominant issue in Germany, right? On the other hand, if you're in Turkey where Turks are the majority, then a class on Turkish racism makes all the sense in the world. Whereas a class of Armenian racism against Turks in Turkey makes no sense, right? Because Turks are the majority in Turkey. So these are simple concepts. But you don't care to understand these concepts if you think No, I can't.

There's no such thing as racism. Why won't black people know what their role is? So for me, this goes beyond this specific topic of racism. This goes toward a broader topic that's been ongoing regarding college campuses and free speech. So for me, it's important to allow various perspectives to be represented on a college campus, even if it's a perspective that you disagree with because you are supposed to be in an environment that challenges your preconceived notions. And so when you have the Ben Shapiro's go on to the Berkeley campus to give a speech,

I don't like that people try to stop that speech from happening. Even if you dislike Ben Shapiro, even if you disagree with his ideology, I think that there is value in hearing what he has to say. I listen to his podcast time to time, not because I'm a fan of Ben Shapiro, but because who knows, maybe, maybe there's something that he's right about that I'm wrong about, right? And so, you are open-minded. Well, because here's the thing. I think that we as humans, it's a human instinct.

Like we all kind of revert back to our comfort zone and we remain in our little ideological bubbles and I want to be challenged, right? And so every once in a while I'll hear an argument on the other side that I think is valuable and it'll make me do a little more investigating. That's a good thing. I want college students to stop trying to be coddled, right? I know that's going to offend a lot of people, but once you're out of college and you're in the real world, shit gets real, right? And there's no one to coddle you.

There's no one to like, you know, caress you're behind and tell you it's going to be okay. Like, life sucks and you're going to be dealing with a lot of pretty terrible people. It's better if you learn to get out of your comfort zone and deal with ideas that make you uncomfortable than to, you know, expect people to just agree with you all the time and whatever. So look, it's two things about that. I'm a great example of that because I was a Republican, but I was open-minded enough to start listening to the other side. And then eventually I was like, oh, that position is true. And then, by the way, history showed that Republicans don't balance budgets, things along

those lines. And peace through strength didn't mean peace. It meant endless war. So keep an open mind. And what Anna is saying is applies to both sides, both liberals and conservatives on college campus. So, yeah, putting kidding aside, yeah, go hear a conservative speaker. I heard Jesse Jackson back when I was a Republican at college.

And I walked out and going, man, I was surprising. I was pretty good, right? He made a bunch of good points. And then I went to listen to Farrakhan. And the first half of the speech was about personal responsibility. I was kind of like that. And then the second half was about how the Jews are the worst. And I was like, no, what?

No, I hate that, right? But so you go and listen doesn't mean that you agree. It means you keep an open mind. And for conservatives, God, can you stop being snowflakes? for a second. I mean, you get triggered by, just because they added the word white in front of racism. What is the predominant form of racism in America? You know that there's other slavery and slaves in the worst of the world. Yeah, of course we know that. Unlike you, we don't celebrate ignorance. There was slavery in Africa, there was slavery in the Middle East,

there was slavery all across the world. But in America, it was predominantly white people who had black slaves. For you to deny that is absurd and is defensive in a way that makes you think, hmm, what are you trying to hide? So I don't know why you would need a safe space from this very obvious class. So just let it go and have an open mind for a second, both sides. Yep. I am going to skip ahead because I really do want to talk a little bit more about the town hall that Bernie Sanders is doing. And I also want to share with you guys a snippet of an interview that I did with Bernie a couple weeks ago about this topic. So let's get right to that. Bernie Sanders has turned away from mainstream media in an effort to work with independent media outlets to provide coverage on his Medicare for all proposal.

This is really great news because for once, there will be coverage on a topic that delves into a specific policy rather than a high school-like catfight between Democrats and Republicans. So this all kind of began when Bernie went to mainstream media networks. and asked that they host this town hall coverage. And apparently they said no. So on the evening of January 23rd, Sanders will host a 90-minute national town hall on proposals for universal Medicare, streamed by progressive video outlets, now this attention. And would you look at that, the young Turks? He said, I talked to a very well-known TV journalist and said,

you know, I think it'd be really great to have a town hall on single payer. You can design it however you want. But the journalist kind of didn't follow through on it. He said, Bernie, that's a great ideal. We'll run it up the food chain. I never heard back. Probably what his executive at one of those cable news networks asked was, yeah, but who does he fight? And what kind of food will they be throwing at one another?

Well, it's about policy. No, no, no, we're out. A policy that generously paid TV hosts don't necessarily care too much about. Now, I want to toss to a little snippet of an interview that I did with Bernie Sanders on this topic. So let's take a look at that and we'll discuss. You notice that mainstream press had no interest in covering this policy. They didn't want to talk about Medicare for all, for whatever reason. Well, we know what the reason.

You know, it's not whatever reason. You turn on television today. What are you going to see? The pharmaceutical industry. one of these crazy ads, I'd be nervous about taking these drugs with all of the side effects. And that's another story. But they are dependent on advertising from the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance company. You're right. And just as our politicians are bought, mainstream media is experiencing the same type of corruption.

So there is a way to get around that, and that is independent media. So you have this great idea that I would like you to share with our audience. It's something that we're working on at the moment. It is a great idea, not just my idea, but a lot of people's idea. The idea is two-fold. Number one, really for the first time, I think, we are going to have a town meeting devoted toward a better understanding of what Medicare for all is.

To answer some of the very good questions that you raise, we're going to hear from physicians, we hear from economists, we'll hear from people who may be critical of the idea, We can listen to their concerns. But we will spend a significant amount of time talking about why the United States is the only major country or not to guarantee health care to all while we spend twice as much per capita

for a dysfunctional health care system. So that's one thing. But here is the second thing that excites me very much is I have believed for a very, very long time that not that corporate media is fake news. That's not what it's about. It's not that they lie about this or that. But there are major areas where, for a variety of reasons, mostly economic, they choose not to focus.

They're not going to focus too much about income and wealth inequality because the people who own their networks are in the 1%. And they're not going to focus on an issue like Medicare for all because of their dependency on pharmaceutical industry advertising and insurance company advertising. So what we have done, and the Young Turks are right in the middle of it, is put together several independent media sources outside of corporate media who are going to be broadcasting and live streaming this event. And I am extraordinarily excited about that because what we are doing with your help, great work you guys are doing, is allowing us the opportunity we hope and expect

to talk to millions of people directly without having to go through corporate media. So I love that Bernie Sanders is turning to this. And Dave Weigel does a good job with this piece in the Washington Post. And he mentioned near the end, you know, look, and he lives in Washington too. It's hard not to be influenced by the ubiquitous cable news that anybody in Washington is obsessed with. Everybody in Washington is obsessed with. But he notes at the end of the article, oh, by the way, Bernie did a video about Universal Medicare bill that he was promoting last summer. and it got 100 million views.

Just in passing, it got 100 million views. Well, that's 100 appearances on CNN. He would have to go on CNN for one third of the year to get that many views. But it's funny, like the old world's like, oh, yeah, of course. I mean, you get 100 million views online. You don't get nearly as much on TV. But TV, remember, is more important. No, it's not.

So Bernie has the exact right strategy. And Weigel quoted another really smart progressive that said, the mainstream media continues to ignore how income inequality and the lack of a decent health care system devastates the middle class. Oh, right, that was Anna Kaspari. So, look, Anna did a panel with Bernie, which we put up earlier. Now, the full interview that you just saw a part of will go up later on YouTube.com slash the Young Turks.

But don't miss the town hall on the 23rd, Facebook.com slash the Young Turks. So right there, we're all going to be broadcasting it and make sure that we get the message out to all Americans because they need to hear that message. There are real policy alternatives and we can win on this issue. Absolutely. So January 23rd, 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Don't miss it. Facebook.com slash the Young Turks. All right.

Time for one more story. One more story. An update on the story we did earlier this week. Earlier this week, a story went viral involving a teacher in Louisiana who called into question. a raise that the superintendent was going to get to the tune of $38,000. Keep in mind that the teachers in this school district have not received a raise in years. And so during this public meeting, she decided to voice her concerns. And the board president not only kicked her out, but gave a nod to the marshal in the room.

And unfortunately, she got arrested. Now, the school board president has decided to defend the marshal's decision to arrest her. We're going to give you his statements in just a second, but I just want to show you the video again to give you an idea of how ridiculous this was. Take a look. Teacher Dacia Hargrave spoke up during public comment. Because it's basically taking out of the pockets. For issue, the superintendent's new contract. A superintendent or any person in a position of leadership getting any type of raise, I feel like it's a slap in a face.

all the teachers, cafeteria work, or any other support staff we have. I have comments on the... She received a warning. It was public comment only, not a question-and-answer session, although board officials were answering her questions. After being called on a second time, that's when a city marshal stepped in. Excuse me. Is it against policy to stand?

Sir, do not. Hargrave left the meeting, but... But in the hallway, what are you doing? What are you doing? Don't. Can you explain you? Are you kidding me? Stop resistant.

I am not. You just push me to the floor. Sir, hold the woman. I am way smaller than you. So a lot of people were outraged after seeing that video. But the president of the school board is defending the decision to get her arrested. The marshal did his job. Anthony Fontana said, he went over there to settle it down.

He couldn't settle it down. She's the one who made the choice to continue speaking. He was taking her out. He wasn't arresting her. He was escorting her out, telling her don't come back tonight. It escalated out in the hall and she ended up getting arrested. He did exactly what he was hired to do. He followed the procedures completely.

She's the one who made the choices that got her arrested. Yeah, choices like asking her question. So, I mean, look, I love America. I defend it. I want to get back to an America that believes in freedom of speech and believes in its citizens. So for us to treat our citizens that way, you know, you could agree or disagree on whether the superintendent should have gotten that raise or not or whether the teachers should get that raise.

But does anyone really think that a teacher should be arrested? A teacher arrested for asking her question or speaking out on her position on the issue. It's just a police state everywhere. And now, of course, the guy defends it. He's the one you saw on tape going like this, nodding to the marshal, like, take her out. It's a terrible abuse of power. All right, we're out of time, guys. See you guys at Rebel headquarters in the post game.

Bye, bye. Thanks for watching. We're listening to this free version of the Young Turks podcast. You know that the full show is at t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. If you become a member, you get the full show, ad-free. We love you for watching or listening. Either way, there's going to be a new free podcast. to more, you can keep on doing that. But if you want to get to full show ad-free,

t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. 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.