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Feb. 5, 2017 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
27:43
This Week in Stupid (05⧸02⧸2017)
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Hello everyone, welcome to this week in Stupid for the 5th of February 2017.
I'm really fucking sick of talking about Donald Trump, but it seems that we literally cannot do anything now but talk about Donald Trump.
So we're going to talk about Donald Trump, and I'm really sorry, but you just have to hear the things that are being said.
Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gausch, founded student group called Fascism Forever Club.
This is a major headline that went around almost all of the quote-unquote credible mainstream left-leaning websites.
Donald Trump's choice for Supreme Court justice allegedly founded a group called the Fascism Forever Club when he was a student.
Neil Gorsch reportedly set up the club to rebel against the left-wing staff members at Georgetown Preparatory School near Washington, DC, where he studied there in the 80s.
I see.
So this isn't real, is it?
This is fake, isn't it?
This is just bullshit, isn't it?
This is going to turn out to be a joke, isn't it?
Neil Gorsch may not have started actual fascism club in high school.
Oh really?
Are you honestly telling me that he didn't start a fascism club?
This was a joke, wasn't it?
In political circles, our tireless president Gauch's Fascism Forever Club happily jerked its knees against the increasingly left-wing tendencies of the faculty, said the yearbook.
Oh, oh yeah.
But Jesuit publication American Magazine said the club never existed.
It was a total joke, said Steve Och, a history teacher at Georgetown Prep, who was the student government advisor during Mr. Gorsch's junior and senior years in school, told the publication, there was no club at Jesuit school about young fascists.
The students would create fictitious clubs, they would have fictitious activities, these were all inside jokes on their senior pages.
You fucking idiots.
The people at the Independent must have done zero fucking research.
Holy shit, this is pathetic.
This headline was fucking everywhere.
Hey, start a fascist cognoid.
You're a moron.
You're a total fucking moron.
You're totally out of touch.
You're fucking lazy and you're irresponsible.
This is bullshit.
I don't know anything about Neil Gorsch and I don't care.
I'd never heard of him until this headline.
And it's like, okay, so now I am probably forced to defend like another Mike Pence, some sort of utterly regressive fundamentalist Christian who thinks that the earth is fucking flat, it's 6,000 years old and that God touches him at night.
Just, I, fucking hell.
Just stop lying.
This was nothing but slander.
Nothing but slander.
Bullshit.
Absolute bullshit.
Speaking of fascists, there's a petition going around with 40,000 signatures to petition the president to declare Antifar a terrorist group.
And since Antifar meet the English definition of the word terrorist, I actually think that that should happen.
I'll leave a link in the description if you feel the need to sign it.
Honestly though, outside of Antifar and their regressive defenders like CNN and Chenk Yuga, why the fuck would anyone be opposed to classifying them as a terrorist organization?
I mean they are literally using violence and intimidation for political purposes.
That's what terrorism is.
Of course they feel they're justified, but every terrorist organization feels it's justified.
That's the problem.
They're not justified.
They do it anyway.
And I tell you what, the left-wing press, their constant lies and hysteria against Donald Trump, are amping these people up and egging them on.
I mean they are painting the most unrealistic picture of reality.
A distorted funhouse hall of mirrors where Donald Trump has a hit latash and a swastika on his arm.
And that beating people and smashing things up are acceptable ways to express your anger at losing a democratic election.
And the absolute lunacy of the week goes to Germany's Der Spiegel when they painted a cover of apparently Donald Trump converting to Islam.
Obviously, they don't mean it like that.
Obviously, they're just acting like he's like some sort of tyrant who took over the US with a military coup and is now doing things illegal and illegitimate, you know, things that Obama would never have done, even though he did almost exactly the same things and put all of these powers into place.
This is unbelievable, Dere Spiegel, and I'm not surprised when the internet started memeing it.
Since we've already been covering the Independent, and since we're on the subject of Angela Merkel, let's see what the Independent have to say about Angela Merkel this week.
Angela Merkel is now the leader of the free world, not Donald Trump.
Just Adolf Hitler's dream has been realized.
When Barack Obama revealed his last phone call as president was to Angela Merkel, reaffirming their alliance and friendship over the last eight years, he wasn't just saying goodbye, he was handing over his baton.
The German Chancellor isn't just the leader of Europe.
Now she's the de facto leader of the free world.
Honestly, I've had to edit out my response a few times.
I can...
I can hardly get the words out without flying into an apoplectic rage.
Why the fuck would anyone want Merkel?
Her unilateral policy on migrants has seen thousands of people raped and murdered.
Hundreds of thousands of other crimes.
Just that billions of Euros spent from Germany and Europe's budget on hosting mostly people who are taking advantage of them.
Merkel's tenure as Chancellor of Germany is going to be highly tainted by her abandonment of her duty of care of her own country.
She did this.
She made all of this happen.
The burden should fall on her shoulders.
The thrice-elected, soft-spoken former scientist from East Germany, armed with a doctorate in quantum chemistry, doesn't just carry the weight of Germany and Europe on her shoulders, but that of defending freedom and liberalism across the world.
I say this as someone who lived in Germany for eight years and has very fond memories of the country and the people within it.
Angela Merkel is not capable of defending liberalism and freedom around the world, and Germany is not capable of defending freedom and liberalism around the world.
I honestly think that a large portion of the German establishment is so far to the left that they have become trapped in the grip of some feverish pathological altruism, which seems to have been what was driving Merkel's decision to let in approximately 2 million migrants over the last couple of years.
I think this is absolutely crazy, and I think that Merkel herself is directly responsible for the deaths and rapes and damage that has been done to German citizens because of this, her decision, and the rise of the populist nationalist right wing.
She has caused this, at least in large part, through her policies.
The idea that she is the defender of freedom and liberalism around the world just goes to show you how detached from reality the author of this article is.
The idea that she even gives a shit about freedom and liberalism is baffling to me.
Where do you get this impression from?
This is not an attempt to be provocative or exaggerate for effect.
God forbid.
Donald Trump cannot claim the mantle of leading the free world by default.
America's military might is not the only criteria necessary.
Do I even have to make the case for this?
Yes, yes, you do.
Since his inauguration, Trump has undermined and ignored judges, even though an independent judiciary and separation of powers is key to a democracy.
Okay, we'll talk about that in a minute.
But the ban on immigrants highlighted something far more draconian.
Are you serious?
You think that not allowing foreigners into your country is more draconian than him taking over all of the separated powers of the state?
You're insane.
You're a fucking idiot.
You don't know what you're talking about.
If a president can abruptly restrict the rights of US citizens without bothering with lawmakers or even government departments, he's in effect an autocrat.
He wasn't.
He was restricting the rights of non-US citizens who don't have a right to enter the US.
That's not a right that they have.
The fuck this is exactly what Trump did and will continue to do so.
No, you're fake news.
You're lying.
This isn't true.
You're just saying things that are just flat out not true.
Then there's Trump's assault on international trade and cooperation.
Oh what, this is Trump doing yet another one of those things that he consistently said he would do.
Yeah, what a demon.
What a fucking asshole.
How dare he actually do this?
This is totally out of character for politicians.
Fucking is.
He is already threatening Mexico, China, and now the EU.
Who will be next?
He was elected to do exactly this.
He was elected for many, many millions of people on the prospect that he will fix America's international trade deals so corporations will not find it more profitable to simply move to the third world to produce their goods and sell them back in American markets.
Screwing the American worker.
I don't know whether this is going to work.
I have no idea that if in the long run this is going to be effective.
But you can't say that that's not something that people care about.
And him doing it is exactly what they voted for him to do.
But no, no.
Mexico, China, and now the EU are the victims of Donald Trump.
Who will be next?
We can debate whether globalization benefits people equally, but only a fool would deny that international trade is a global good.
He's not going to stop international trade, you fucking moron.
And it would only work if done in an equal, rules-based footing.
But Trump doesn't care for those.
Actually, he does.
He's been following the rules.
Opened up by Barack Obama.
If you don't like it, you can complain at the previous president, who's probably off golfing now, not giving a shit.
Well done.
This is another quagmire that Obama has left the American people with.
And everyone seems to think that he's fucking amazing.
I just don't get it.
I just don't get it.
He's ripping up international agreements so he can bully smaller countries into submission.
Yes, because Obama, in his opinion, has been selling his country out.
Signing trade agreements that are not favorable for the US means not favorable for the US working class.
These are very favorable for mega international corporations that span the globe and can use labor from any source that costs pennies a day.
But it's not good for your average American worker.
And that's what he's doing with this.
Yes, it sucks.
And yes, the people in these other countries don't get to take advantage of this situation.
That sucks too.
Trump's responsibility is not to those people.
It is to the American people.
Their own governments have the responsibility to those people.
And those governments often get bought out by US corporations through bribes.
I mean, Guatemala is the perfect case study.
Just look up the United Fruit Company in Guatemala, and you can see that there will be loads of exposés all over the internet because this is really well documented.
And you will see, just step stage by stage, exactly how the corporation basically infiltrated the country by buying out the government.
And they totally screw people.
And then they use this ultra-cheap labor from the third world to import bananas into the US at a huge markup.
They don't drop the price of fucking bananas.
You know, it's like this is entirely exploitative.
And Trump is actually preventing this cycle from occurring.
Even if it doesn't work necessarily and they like stunts growth or something, it's still something that needed to be done.
Something has to change.
They can't just go around the world exploiting people.
And lastly, there's Trump's hostility towards the media.
Regardless of its bias, a thriving democracy needs a media willing to challenge the government.
Yes, it does.
But the left-wing media in the United States and all around the world is currently in the act of attempting to delegitimize Donald Trump.
If it was a Russian conspiracy theory, now it's Hitler.
It's literally anything.
And constant, constant lies and misrepresentations and fear-mongering and hysteria is coming out about Trump.
That's all we see.
It's non-stop.
I can't even begin to.
I hope, like, in 10 years' time, people understand how bad these people are.
They're fucking lunatics.
They're acting like Donald Trump has marched on the White House with an army of soldiers or something.
The media has been trying to delegitimize him since he won.
Undermining the election with Russian conspiracy theories, I mean, ridiculous conspiracy theories.
Totally unfounded bullshit that no serious journalist should publish or report on.
Because it's just nonsense.
Like the fascist book club, in fact.
It just bullshit.
And if the media wasn't trying to undermine his presidency and weaken his legitimacy, he probably wouldn't have to go at them like this.
Being an adversarial press does not mean trying to overthrow the president.
Having grown up in communist East Germany before reunification, Angela Merkel is the polar opposite.
She doesn't just recognise the sound of autocracy.
She chose to escape it.
Oh, that's fucking rich.
That is just rich.
It's fucking amazing.
Yeah, I'll take two million migrants.
By the way, everyone else needs to take some as well.
Yeah, in fact, what we can do is have a migrant quota.
Why are you guys all slamming your doors?
Why are you, what?
What the hell's going on?
What are all these walls going up all over Europe about?
What are you talking about?
No, you just take these migrants that I decided to take in on your behalf.
This is why she stood up to Trump's bullying and bigotry, saying the necessary battle against terrorism did not justify putting certain groups of people under general suspicion.
Well, that's something we'll talk about in a minute, because, and again, none of these are my words.
I don't know whether this is necessary or not, but I can tell you what the people who do know think.
And I love that her alternative was just intrudeau, but Canada simply isn't powerful enough.
It has to be Merkel.
Okay?
That tells me an awful lot about the mindset of this author.
So let's talk about Fura Trump's draconian travel ban, shall we?
Seattle judge issues nationwide block.
How could that be if Trump was now the dictator of America?
A US judge in Seattle has issued a temporary nationwide block on Trump's ban on travelers from seven mainly Muslim nations.
Judge James Robart ruled against the government lawyers, claiming that US states did not have the standing to challenge Trump's executive order.
Customs officials have told US airlines they can resume boarding, ban travelers, while a legal case is heard.
Gulf Carrier Qatar Airways told Reuters that it would start accepting all passengers with valid travel documents.
The administration, however, could block them if it were to win an emergency stay.
The Justice Department says it will appeal against the Seattle ruling.
This is politics as normal.
This is just the system operating.
A new president has come in, he's tried to do something, and now he's trying to get it passed within the system.
This is how politics happens.
This is fine.
This is totally normal.
This is not draconian.
But I tell you what, I just can't understand what this guy is saying.
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson described the ban as unconstitutional.
Okay.
Folks who had visas, folks who were allowed to travel, were denied that right without any due process whatsoever.
That's un-American and unconstitutional.
The order Mr. Ferguson added also violated freedom of religion rights.
You cannot prefer one religion over another.
Okay, let's start backwards on that.
The ban is from nations, not religions.
Specific nations.
What I mean, why you even say you can't prefer one religion over another?
There are plenty of Muslim nations.
Most Muslims can still travel to the United States.
Just not from seven select countries that have a particular history with terrorism.
That's all.
What?
Why did you say that?
Washington State General Attorney just actually unironically referred to it as a Muslim ban.
Why?
Folks who had visas, folks who were allowed to travel, were denied the right with any due process whatsoever.
That's un-American and unconstitutional.
They're not American citizens.
They don't have to have constitutional process.
They don't have fact.
What due process is there to say, right, no, we're revoking your visa?
Can't the American government just do that at any time at will to anyone they want?
For pretty much whatever reason they want.
It's just revoking a travel visa.
It's not putting them in a fucking gulag.
It's not like sending them to Guantanamo Bay.
Fucking, they just can't travel to the United States.
It's not the end of the world.
Honestly, the hysteria surrounding this is bizarre.
Trump issued an executive order, as he can.
They blocked it, as they can.
He's appealing it as he can.
This is just a legal battle.
And then you've got like places like Al Jazeera saying, is Trump's Muslim ban a gift to ISIL?
That's right, call it a Muslim ban.
In fact, call it that in the first paragraph.
In this week's upfront, we speak to former FBI agent and counter-terrorism expert Ali Sufan on the potential consequences of President Trump's Muslim ban.
Not even in quotations.
Just, they're just calling it a Muslim ban.
I mean, maybe this is giving ISIS the impression that it is a Muslim ban.
If they just Google Trump Muslim ban, they get literally the reputable sources calling it a Muslim ban.
They're going to think it's a fucking Muslim ban, aren't they?
You are feeding into their narrative by simply misnaming this.
But anyway, he says, ISIS members and ISIS leaders, at least in their propaganda, have been calling President Trump and his ban and his recent policies a godsend.
We cannot win this war by dealing with our friends the same way we deal with our enemies.
It's very difficult, Mehdi, to say it's about security.
It's very difficult to say there is not an anti-Muslim sentiment in these policies to cater to the specific base that they probably have in Washington.
Okay, you can say that, but I mean, have we not seen enough terrorism coming from the migrant crisis?
Have we not seen enough crimes in and of themselves?
Have we not actually got experts saying, look, we really can't tell between the jihadis and the actual migrants?
Just to say, it's really impossible to tell.
And I tell you what, we fucking do.
It's almost impossible to tell a jihadist from an asylum seeker.
And that's not according to me.
That's according to Dutch criminologists whose names I'm not even going to try and pronounce.
We'll pick out the terrorists at a later stage, the then Justice Minister said to the Telegraph in a reaction to the inspection report, which said checks on asylum seekers constituted the first of a number of steps.
He might as well have told us not to lose any sleep over it.
Its findings show the minister's reassuring comments in a different light.
People who work for organisations which were part of the asylum chain, such as the IND and the COA, are saying that the public has unrealistic expectations of what they can do to flag up terrorism.
There is ample scientific literature to back up the contention that establishing a reliable method to spot jihadists is very difficult indeed.
The final conclusion of the report is that the organizations involved in the asylum chain are doing their best to spot jihadis, but it's extremely difficult.
Moreover, it's unclear if the list of indicators are a help or a hindrance.
We are surprised the minister's reaction did not include a comment on this particular problem and our recommendation to monitor and evaluate the use of those lists.
As in, this is not some kind of process that we can actually rely on to stop terrorism.
Because it is hard to determine who's a fucking jihadi or not.
Which is presumably why Q8 issued its own Trump-esque visa ban for five Muslim-majority countries.
Wow, they must have some serious internalized Islamophobia.
What fucking bigots?
Don't you know that ISIS are going to look at that and go, wow, this is a war on Islam?
Citizens from five Muslim-majority countries will no longer be able to obtain QAT visas after reports the Gulf State issued tight entry restrictions that mirrored Donald Trump's Muslim ban.
Again, calling it a Muslim ban.
It's not a Muslim ban, but that's the way everyone's describing it.
Syrians, Iraqis, Kekestanis, Iranians, Pakistanis, and Afghans will not be able to obtain visit, tourism, or trade QAT visas, with the news coming one day after the US slapped its own restrictions on seven Muslim-majority countries.
QAT sources told locomedia that restrictions were in place due to the instability in those five countries and that the ban would be lifted once the security situation improves.
Hang on, no, that's bollocks.
Let's just call them straight out on this.
They're fucking racists.
Kuwait reportedly issued a ban on all visas for Syrians in 2011, but allowed those inside the country to remain.
It made Kuwait the only country in the world to officially bar entry to Syrians until the US named Syria in seven countries banned from entering.
Because this is standard practice in international relations.
Banning a country's citizens is a way of putting pressure on that country.
It's a way of letting the people of that country understand that, look, what's going on there is not being tolerated by the international community.
You need to reform.
It's a method of using soft power.
And it's a method of protecting your own citizens if these countries are particularly unstable.
And of course, they are.
The idea that this ban is some horrible thing is just ridiculous.
Yeah, it's not great for the people who wanted to travel to the places they are no longer allowed to travel to.
That sucks for them, and that's the point.
It's meant to make the average citizens of the country understand that there is a problem with their country that has to be fixed, and the international community isn't going to be the one who does it for them.
That's fine.
It's totally normal.
And of course, there are plenty of things that they're not going wild about that Trump is doing that they're just keeping a low profile on.
Such as following Obama's foreign policy.
The White House has issued an unexpected statement appealing to the Israeli government not to expand the construction of Jewish settlements beyond the current borders in East Jerusalem and on the West Bank.
Such expansion, it said, may not be helpful in achieving the goal of peace.
And that's a really good thing.
Why aren't people on the left lauding this?
Trump's restricting Israel from taking over more Palestinian territory.
Bravo!
That's great.
That's actually fucking fantastic.
That's honestly, legitimately something the regressive left should be thrilled about.
And the United Nations, Ambassador Nikki Arhaley declared that the United States would not lift sanctions against Russia until it stopped destabilizing Ukraine and pulled troops out of Crimea.
Oh, that's fucking a good idea.
That's fucking brilliant.
I mean, Trump, that's odd for a Russian puppet.
You'd think that a Russian puppet would be lifting all those sanctions and saying, hey, would you like a slice of Ukraine?
On Iran, the administration is preparing economic sanctions similar to those the Obama administration imposed just over a year ago.
Wow, it's really weird for a Russian puppet government to then attack Russia and a Russian ally.
That's weird.
That's so bizarre.
The White House has also shown no indications that it plans to rip up Obama's landmark nuclear deal, despite Trump's withering criticism of it during the presidential campaign.
Yeah, it turns out it's actually a wise thing to have.
And so he's like, okay, well, I'll follow that then, because that's a wise thing to do.
Honestly, Trump is not that bad.
I'm so sick of people talking about Trump like he's bringing about the end times.
He's really not.
He's just acting as a national leader ought to act.
This is totally normal.
It's all totally within the scope of the US political system.
And I'm wondering if it's simply just that the left was not paying attention during Obama's tenure.
I'm honestly in the position where I think that they were just simply thinking, well, it's our guy, so we don't need to worry about it.
That's what I honestly think it is.
And you know what?
I'll finish with this.
Donald Trump's most bone-chilling tweet.
Yeah, nice fear-mongering there, CNN.
Here's Trump's truly jaw-dropping tweet from Saturday morning.
The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned.
Oh yeah, that's really terrible.
Yeah, he's we already know he's contesting it.
Yeah, he's filing lawsuits, they're filing lawsuits.
Yeah, it's dull, bureaucratic work.
I who cares?
I mean, this is what he's going to do.
He might win and he might get his ban.
He might lose, he might not get his ban.
What do you want?
What's so fucking exciting about this?
Why is this so concerning?
Well, yeah, that's the question we have to ask, isn't it?
It's okay to argue about whether the judge should or shouldn't have issued this order, but Trump is apparently attempting to delegitimize our federal judiciary by calling Judge James Robart a Bush appointee, a so-called judge, while arguing that his decision is ridiculous.
Okay, I'm done.
Just fucking done.
You have done nothing but try to delegitimize Trump.
You were so far up Hillary's arsehole, you have been, you were one of the early reporters on the Trump, the Russian dossier of Trump fucking getting prostitutes to pee on a fucking bed or something, just.
Just the idea that you would have the gall to go, oh my god, he's trying to delegitimize someone.
I think my brain might fucking explode.
I can hardly believe you would publish this kind of shit.
I mean, look, I'm just going to be honest, right?
The left-wing media is so far off the reservation.
They are not talking about reality.
And yet, they act as if they are.
And it's really, really is.
I mean, I've made allusions to Democracy's third oration before, his third Philippic against Philippa Vaston, where the Athenian chattering classes were just sat there in total denial of everything Philip was doing.
And this honestly seems like a really similar version of that.
That they're caught in this kind of group thing where everything Trump does is bad and everything they do is right.
Even if they're literally doing the same fucking thing that Trump's doing and they're condemning him for it.
I mean, that's literally what this article is, and I'm just...
Oh, man, it's...
It's crazy to watch.
And it's probably because I'm sat in, you know, sort of sunk into this all day.
But these people, these people reach millions.
That's what really worries me.
Millions of people believe that Russia stole the election, especially left-wing.
Like, 80% of left-wingers or something believe that Russia stole the election.
No proof.
No proof whatsoever.
It's all on the word of the CIA, which is a fucking joke.
anyone who is old enough to remember the bush fucking invasion of iraq should remember that the cia is not trustworthy and just all of this is just i love this First, Trump has made the media, which is a watchdog of our president.
Fucking God, think I'm going to shoot myself.
A focus of his attacks, calling them dishonest.
Oh yeah, you're...
When have you ever fucking been dishonest, CNN?
Just claiming they peddle fake news.
Just, I have covered multiple issues of fake news in this video.
I mean, that's practically all my job is now, just pointing out your fake news.
Then Trump went after our intelligence agencies because he didn't agree with their views on Russia's involvement in our recent election.
Look, you described it as their views on what happened because there is no proof of what happened.
And you are suggesting, and literally you suggest right here, Trump lashed out calling these agencies charged with gathering information for our national security disgraceful.
Look, the CIA is disgraceful, and they are the originators of this claim.
They're full of shit.
Everyone knows they're full of shit.
You're just unbelievably on their side.
I can't understand why.
The CIA is not trustworthy.
They've provided no proof and they're asking for us to take their word.
The answer is no.
And then CNN has the audacity to say that Trump contesting it with this judge, the rationale must be assumed to be the same, namely that Trump wants to delegitimize the judiciary, not this judge, the entire judiciary, so that the court decisions disagree with Trump will be viewed by his followers at the least as horribly partisan or at worst invalid.
Just I just cannot.
I cannot.
I cannot.
I can't even.
I just.
I never thought I'd see the day where the media would be this dishonest, this partisan, and this detached from reality.
Just this wrapped up in their narratives.
Because if you actually just look at any individual data point that they claim is true, you see that it's not true.
Or at least it's a half-truth.
At the very best, it's a fucking half-truth.
I mean, this is the world we're living in.
This is what the normies believe.
I just can't get over it.
I just can't get over it.
I would expect to see propaganda like this coming out of the Soviet Union rather than the United States.
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