Note From Glenn Greenwald: The following is the full show transcript, for subscribers only, of a recent episode of our System Update program, broadcast live on Rumble on Tuesday, January 17, 2023. Going forward, every new transcript will be sent out by email and posted to our Locals page, where you'll find the transcripts for previous shows.
Watch System Update Episode #23 Here on Rumble.
In this episode, we report on one of the creepiest bills yet proposed, from chief sponsor Sheila Jackson Lee, the House Democrat from Texas, that is designed to both codify and glorify racism in the name of anti-racism while fulfilling its ultimate goal, namely criminalizing speech in a way that is clearly designed to circumvent the core elements of the First Amendment's free speech clause. We wish we could say that this bill was some warped and isolated aberration but while it is undoubtedly warped, there is nothing aberrational about it, it is part of a clear global trend to use not just social pressure, but the force of law to criminalize all forms of online speech, all while masquerading overt racism as some noble form of anti-racism.
For our interview segment, we will speak to former White House speechwriter and editor of the Revolver News, Darren J. Beattie, about the very interesting and somehow odd phenomenon of Lex Fridman, who seemingly overnight has become one of the most popular podcast and YouTube host in the world, for reasons that are far from clear, as he compiles millions and millions and millions of views and has access to some of the world's most powerful and elusive guests. We'll talk to Darren about why that has happened and what that reflects, as well as both the potential benefits and pitfalls of the new Church Committee that House Republicans are implementing.
We conclude the show with a look at the fallout, very substantial and intense fallout, from our exclusive report on Friday night, right here, about a secret and extraordinary order issued by a member of Brazil's Supreme Court ordering multiple American social media platforms, including this one, Rumble, to immediately ban numerous prominent Brazilian politicians and journalists without so much as a trial or any process at all, or even an explanation. The reaction in Brazil to our report has been as vitriolic and hateful as any report I've ever done, and we'll examine why that is.
Monologue:
On March 12, 2021, one of the most shockingly discriminatory and racist bills in decades was passed by the U.S. Congress and then signed into law by President Joe Biden. The law, justified by the COVID pandemic, was the $1.9 trillion American rescue plan. It was passed strictly on party lines. All House Democrats, except for one, voted for it, as did all Senate Democrats. All Republicans, in both houses, opposed it. The bill contained a hodgepodge of payouts, loans, and small business relief with the goal, said President Biden upon signing it, “of giving people in this nation, working people, middle-class folks who built the country, a fighting chance."
Buried within this massive bill enacted just eight months after the George Floyd murder, was an overtly racist provision masquerading under the guise of anti-racism. One section of that bill allocated $29 billion for what it called the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. Now, as most of you know,
