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March 27, 2014 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
11:11
Oh Barry, you're a card!
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Time Text
Good evening, guten Abend, bonsoir, guten Abend.
Who the fuck just whooped?
Your Majesties.
Oh, it's the King of Denmark, I imagine.
I have to admit, it is easy to love a country famous for chocolate and beer.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Barack Obama World Comedy Tour 2014.
Leaders and dignitaries of the European Union.
Along with the other mythical creatures in attendance.
And those ideas eventually inspired a band of colonialists across an ocean.
And they wrote them into the founding documents that still guide America today.
Including the simple truth that all men and women are created equal.
I'm not really sure that's an accurate representation of the times when the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were written.
How many slaves did the founding fathers own exactly?
But those ideals have also been tested.
They sure have.
It was called the abolitionist movement.
Here in Europe and around the world, those ideals have often been threatened by an older, more traditional view of power.
Oh, this is going to be good.
This alternative vision argues that ordinary men and women are too small-minded to govern their own affairs.
Yes, we're all aware of the position of the United States government.
That order and progress can only come when individuals surrender their rights to an all-powerful sovereign.
The irony is breathtaking, isn't it?
Often, this alternative vision roots itself in the notion that by virtue of race or faith or ethnicity, some are inherently superior to others.
I thought we'd finished talking about the Founding Fathers.
And that individual identity must be defined by us versus them.
USA, USA.
Or that national greatness must flow not by what people stand for, but what they are against.
I know that a lot of people don't know this, but drone strikes against Muslims have increased under the Obama regime.
There has been no change in American foreign policy at all.
It's just increased.
I can't believe the words that come out of this guy's mouth.
And once again, we are confronted with the belief among some that bigger nations can bully smaller ones to get their way.
Yeah, yeah, you're right.
We are.
I hear the weather's nice in Cuba at this time of year.
That recycled maxim that might somehow makes right.
Yeah, you're right, you're right.
So when is the trial of George Bush at The Hague for his war crimes in Iraq then?
Oh, next week, is it?
Right, okay.
Russia's leadership is challenging truths that only a few weeks ago seemed self-evident.
That's right.
Only the Syrian government could have used that sarin gas, despite the fact that it was proven that the rebels had it.
It's crazy.
That in the 21st century, the borders of Europe cannot be redrawn with force.
Or referendums.
That international law matters.
How you can say this with a straight face is beyond me.
That people and nations can make their own decisions about their future.
Unless you live in the Crimea, in which case, you shouldn't have a vote.
To be honest, I really don't think that now is the time for you to start being honest.
If we define Our interests narrowly.
If we applied a cold-hearted calculus, we might decide to look the other way and whistle while staring off into the distance while we send the CIA in to overthrow them.
Except we can't do that with Russia because it's Russia.
Our economy is not deeply integrated with Ukraine's.
So, Ukraine is actually not an American interest.
Kind of makes you wonder what the fuck you're doing playing around in Russia's backyard, then, really, doesn't it?
Our people in our homeland face no direct threat from the invasion of Crimea.
Neither do the Crimeans, given that they voted to join Russia and they requested Russian troops under a treaty that they had in 1991 that said they could have up to 25,000 troops in Crimea.
And the Russians only have something like 16,000.
So what fucking invasion are you talking about?
Our own borders are not threatened by Russia's annexation.
Did Europe annex Poland when they allowed them into the EU?
It would allow the old way of doing things to regain a foothold in this young century.
Democracy is so 20th century.
Just look at the young people of Ukraine.
The heroes, damn it.
Goddamn heroes.
Who were determined to take back their future from a government rotted by corruption.
The Svoboda party are part of a coalition after the overthrow of the elected Ukrainian government.
Quote.
Svoboda has been described as an anti-Semitic and sometimes a neo-Nazi party by some journalists.
Organizations that want to hate speech, Jewish organizations, and political opponents.
Svoboda advisor established a Joseph Goebbels political research center in 2005, later changing Joseph Goebbels to Erst Junger.
This person wrote a book in 2010, citing works by Nazi theorists Ernst Rom, Gregor Strasse, and Goebbels.
Elsewhere, he referred to the Holocaust as a period of light in history.
In December 2012, the European Parliament expressed concern regarding Svoboda's growing support, recalling that racist, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic views go against the EU's fundamental values and principles, and appealed to pro-democratic parties.
Svoboda members currently occupy four positions in the coalition government: Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Ecology, Minister of Agriculture, and most importantly here, General Prosecutor.
This is not a party without power, and they are a neo-Nazi party.
The portraits of the fallen shot by snipers.
All the evidence shows that people who were killed by snipers from both sides among policemen and people from the streets were the same snipers killing people from both sides.
Collapse, yeah.
So that, and then she also showed me some photos.
She said that as medical doctor, she can, you know, say that it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets.
And it's really disturbing that now the new coalition that they don't want to investigate what exactly happened, so that there is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind snipers, they were it was not Sierkovich, but it was somebody from the new coalition.
A postgraduate student speaking of her fellow protesters, saying, I want these people who are here to have dignity.
Imagine that you are the young woman who said, There are some things that fear, police sticks, and tear gas cannot destroy.
The Ukrainian right police showed such restraint, even members of the US government applauded them.
These Ukrainians rejected a government that was stealing from the people instead of serving them and are reaching for the same ideals that allow us to be here today.
Did you forget who you were talking to?
Here's a reminder.
Your Majesties, none of us can know for certain what the coming days will bring in Ukraine.
But I am confident that eventually, those voices, those voices for human dignity and opportunity and individual rights and rule of law, those voices ultimately will triumph.
Well, they're already in the government.
I believe that over the long haul, as nations that are free, as free people, the future is ours.
I believe this not because I'm naive, and I believe this not because of the strength of our arms or the size of our economies.
I believe this because these ideals that we affirm are true.
Is it just me, or does he sound like he doesn't even believe himself?
I don't think public speaking is your forte, Barry.
I think you should probably go into something else.
You seem to be a much better comedian than you are politician.
These ideals are universal.
Yes, we believe in democracy with elections that are free and fair and independent judiciaries and opposition parties, civil society, and uncensored information so that individuals can make their own choices.
Yes, we believe in open economies based on free markets and innovation and individual initiative and entrepreneurship and trade and investment that creates a broader prosperity.
And yes, we believe in human dignity, that every person is created equal, no matter who you are or what you look like or who you love or where you come from.
That is what we believe.
That's what makes us strong.
And our enduring strength is also reflected in our respect for an international system that protects the rights of both nations and people.
Unless you're led by a US-backed dictator who we're going to turn on.
I'm sorry, I can't carry on with this bullshit.
This is absolute tripe.
Everything that he says is nonsense.
None of it reflects reality at all.
In any way, the United States government is gone off the deep end.
It doesn't matter whether you're a Republican or a Democrat.
The United States government does the same thing regardless.
There was an old line about the United States having one more party than the Soviet Union.
And United States politicians have got a higher re-election rate than Soviet politicians had.
Everything that he's saying is bullshit.
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