Glenn Greenwald
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Media Gloats Over Trump Indictment—Ignoring Dangers, Blinken Rejects Australia Demands to FreeAssange, & Worst Pro-Iraq War Journalist Promoted (Again), w/ Michael Tracey
Video Transcript
August 04, 2023
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Good evening. It's Wednesday, August 2. Welcome to a new episode of System Update, our live nightly show that airs every Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern, exclusively here on Rumble, the free speech alternative to YouTube. 

Before getting into the topics of tonight's show, we have a couple of programming notes. First of all, we are really starting to encourage our audience here on Rumble, here on System Update, to download the Rumble app, which is of great quality and will enable you to follow our program there and to turn on notifications. And that will in turn let the show directly notify you or email you exactly when our live broadcast is beginning so you don't have to wait. You will always be reminded. We are really thrilled, by the way, with the way this program has grown in a very short nine months. Our audience is really growing rapidly. Yet to the very large size. We are climbing the podcasting charts as well. But we do want to do more to promote the show, to spread the show. So, in addition to downloading the app and making sure you're notified, you can encourage others to do the same. 

Secondly, we are going to start introducing new features where we will begin much more frequently interacting with the commenters and the live chat feature that is here on Rumble, interacting with our audience and my readership has always been a very important part of how I've done journalism. We do have the live interactive aftershow every Tuesday and Thursday night that is devoted exclusively to interacting with comments, taking feedback and suggestions but we're going to start incorporating a lot more of that into the live program here on Rumble as well very shortly. 

For now, we just wanted to make a note that sometimes people go into the live chat and impersonate me by using various formulations of my name, and you should know that if it seems like I'm participating in the chat at the same time that I am speaking and reporting, live, here on the program, you should assume what probably is the obvious conclusion that that person is not me and is an impersonator. We've seen a few people falling for that. Don't fall for that, that is not me. But when we increase the interactive features of the chat, we will have a way for me to participate directly there, to interact on screen. We're really looking forward to that. 

And then, finally, as a programming note, although I'm not yet authorized to talk about the details, you may notice that I have here this secret new device, this device bequeathed to me great, great power. And you'll see it on my desk. You'll see me using it. As I said, I'm not authorized to speak about it. I don't want to have an indictment of the kind that Donald Trump got from Mar-a-Lago. But it is here, and I'm very ready to use it. 

For tonight's show, the fallout from Donald Trump's latest criminal indictment. His third so far, his third nightmare continues to unfold. Having had far more opportunity today than yesterday to delve into the substance of each aspect of the indictment, the frivolousness of these charges, as well as their dangers, have become much more manifest to me. But over the past 36 hours, since the indictment was unveiled, most of the corporate media, unsurprisingly, devoted very little to no time to examining or even allowing their audience to hear or read any of the criticisms of the indictment. Instead, they were in full-on gloating mode, barely trying to hide their utter glee and ecstasy over the fact that Joe Biden's principal political opponent and the man they long ago decided was the gravest threat to American democracies in decades – if not ever – was once again charged with crimes, this time in connection with an event they now regard as sacred, as having quasi-religious overtones: the “insurrection” of January 6. Some of the reactions were corrupt, but some of them are downright embarrassing when it came to the melodramatic pronouncements they were issuing about the sacredness and importance of this event. We’ll highlight both key dangers of this latest indictment, as well as the corporate media and the party they threw for itself in lieu of doing any actual criminal reporting on it. 

For that part of the show, we will talk to the supremely independent reporter, Michael Tracey, about this newest Trump indictment, about the political pressures that led to it and other topics as well, including the latest in the war in Ukraine. 

And then, Australia's Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has spent the year publicly denouncing the Biden administration for what appears to be the United States' real determination to proceed with the extradition and prosecution of Australians. That is in Julian Assange and a series of comments that have become increasingly strident over the year. Prime Minister Albanese reflecting growing resentment among Australians over what even many Assange critics there perceived to be the now abusive and excessive persecution of him by the United States, has urged the U.S. government and the Biden administration specifically to withdraw the prosecution. “Enough is enough,” he proclaimed, in May. The Biden administration’s refusal to heed this request from an allied government and a friendly government at a center-left government is beginning to generate real tensions with this vital American ally. In a visit to the country over the weekend, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pointedly refused to consider dropping the charges, telling reporters in Australia that Assange stands accused of “very serious criminal conduct,” mainly journalism. In response, the Australian prime Minister, again, told reporters “This has gone on for too long, far too long. Enough is enough.” He accused the U.S. of using double standards in its treatment of Assange and prompting some rare but rather intense negative media coverage in Australia towards the United States. We'll report on these latest developments.

Then, America's corporate media loves to depict itself as the bulwark against disinformation, the heroic vanguards that keep you from being exposed to things that might deceive you. And yet, those who thrive and are most rewarded within these same media corporations are the people who lie most aggressively and casually, as long as they're lying on behalf of the U.S. security state and its agenda. The journalist who did more than any single American to convince Americans of the vital lie that Saddam Hussein personally participated in the planning of 9/11 – that lie was crucial to get Americans to support the invasion of Iraq, which ended up killing around a million people. That person is Jeffrey Goldberg. And for those lies that he told, he was promoted from the liberal journal The New Yorker, where he won journalism prizes for those articles in 2002 linking Iraq to al-Qaida, and then, became the editor-in-chief of the liberal journal The Atlantic. He should have been scorned out of decent society forever, and yet he became the editor of one of America's most influential liberal magazines funded by Steve Jobs’ widow. And, again, today, he's been promoted along with the remaining editor of The Atlantic. He'll now be the new host of PBS's Washington Week. It cannot be emphasized enough, while the corporate media endlessly warns of the dangers of disinformation to the point of demanding the power to censor the Internet to protect you from it, nobody spreads and rewards serial destructive lying more than these media corporations do. 

Finally, we have spent months telling you and reporting on the growing censorship regime in Brazil, both because it matters unto itself, given how huge Brazil is and how influential it is in our hemisphere, but also because Brazil is plainly being used as a laboratory by the EU, Canada and the U.S. to see how far Internet censorship can go. Today, Brazil's Supreme Court judge, who is the person largely responsible for the entire censorship regime, took another truly disturbing step in destroying the life and work of the podcaster who until two years ago, just two years ago, was Brazil's most popular and influential podcast host, regularly called the Joe Rogan of Brazil. His name is Monarch. We had him on the show in January to report on a censorship order that targeted him and other Big Tech platforms, including senators and Congress members who supported President Bolsonaro. And the court today opened a criminal investigation into Monarch, barred him entirely from using the Internet and find him 300,000 reais, the equivalent of $75,000 or so, entirely based on a claim that has never been tested in court, that has never been the subject of a trial, that he was spreading disinformation. That's the only allegation against him. They've now turned him into a criminal. And completely wrecked his life. It is disturbing and alarming in the extreme. And we'll show you where the censorship regime in the West is headed by looking at how despotic Brazil has become. And we are not that far away from it in the United States and certainly not in the U.S. where there are no First Amendment protections. 

As another reminder, System Update is available in podcast form as well. You can follow us on Spotify, Apple and all other major podcasting platforms. The episodes are posted 12 hours after they first air, live, here on Rumble and you can rate and review each episode which helps us spread the visibility of the program.

For now, welcome to a new episode of System Update, starting right now.

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I LIKE MIKE!
I just wanted to express that I like Michael Tracy as a host. I started to appreciate his persona when I saw how he skillfully asked questions at the RNC that would have been greeted with "how dare you ask me this obvious question" when asked by others. The only area of improvement he needs to replace Glenn is he needs work on adding a few 'aaannnnndds'.

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Netanyahu's Speech To Congress; PLUS: Max Blumenthal on Israel
Video Transcript

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Good evening. It's Wednesday, July 24. I'm Michael Tracey, filling in for Glenn Greenwald, who's probably laughing at me, at least in spirit, wherever he may be while he's away. 

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel – you may have heard of him – was in Washington, DC, today, and delivered another one of his magnificent soaring addresses to a joint session of Congress that predictably evoked mass adulation and euphoria. So, we will review the fallout in graphic and possibly sarcastic detail. 

Next, we will talk to the president of the Heritage Foundation to discuss the much-buzzed-about Project 2025. This is a document that's become a major bone of contention in the 2024 presidential campaign. Already, some aspects of that plan or project that you probably won't hear discussed very much anywhere else in the so-called mainstream media, but I'll take care of that for you. 

And finally, we'll be joined by journalist Max Blumenthal, hopefully well known to many of you out there on the internet who's been surveying the wreckage out there in Washington, DC at the Netanyahu address or in the perimeter anyway, and he'll tell us about all the insane security protocols that I understand have been imposed to ensure a wonderfully smooth visit for the prime minister of our greatest ally, that being the Jewish state. 

For now, welcome to a new edition of System Update, starting right now.

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Untangling Fact From Fiction with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts
Interview

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Interview with Kevin Roberts

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And so that's something to perhaps ponder. And, with that, we wanted to move to an interview with the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, who is somebody of interest, because the Heritage Foundation has been in the news quite a bit recently. The document that the think tank produced, called colloquially and referred to as “Project 2025,” has become a major point of contestation among the Republicans and Democrats as it relates to the 2024 campaign. My working sense is that there are many aspects of that document, which I actually took the liberty of reading. At least large portions of that have not really been discussed much in the so-called mainstream media. So, glad to be joined by, Kevin Roberts. 

 

M. Tracey: Hello, sir. 

 

Kevin Roberts: Michael. Thanks for having me. Looking forward to an intellectually honest conversation. Whatever someone's political beliefs are about “Project 2025.” So, thanks for having me. 

 

M. Tracey: I appreciate that. So, if you listen to the chatter and much of the liberal-oriented media, obviously they've converted Project 2025 into what they think is going to be their gold mine of an attack line against Donald Trump and the Republicans writ large. And, I did something, I guess, a bit unusual by media standards, which is I read the document and there are portions of it that stood out to me as really guiding, getting no discussion whatsoever, at least as far as I've ascertained and those, for me, anyway, have to do with, national security and foreign policy. So, I want to discuss a few of those items with you, if you don't mind. 

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So, obviously, some recommendations are made in terms of how to reorganize the bureaucracy, the federal government, including the intelligence services and one prescription that is made is that section 702 of FISA, the Surveillance Act, ought to be renewed and reauthorized and that's been fairly controversial, including among the right, because, you know, the Fourth Amendment requires a warrant, and this authority is seen as authorizing warrantless surveillance and only barely passed the House in April, in terms of renewal. I think, actually, Speaker Johnson cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of that reauthorization of FISA. So, the section of Project 2025 that I'm referring to here, says that section 702 should be understood as a:

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And so, it says that these authorizations need to be properly maintained and accountable, but that they should be retained nonetheless. So, what is your sense of what Project 2025 proposes for that particular authority, FISA? It's been controversial throughout the Trump administration. Trump has criticized certain aspects of it as having been abused. But the fundamental authority the document does propose be retained. 

 

Kevin Roberts: Yes. Thanks so much for this conversation. We need to have more discourse like this in the United States, regardless of someone's political beliefs. So, I'm really grateful to answer the question about the policy detail. And, Michael, I'll make two points. One, from the standpoint of Project 2025, what you've read there is what's in the mandate for leadership book “The Conservative Promise,” this conservative policy manual, if you will. And keep in mind, we wrote that two years ago, so well before the most recent vote on the issue. The second point that I'll make is we do believe that the underlying authority of Section 702 should continue to exist, but especially those of us at the Heritage Foundation, which has facilitated this project, believe that there need to be very stringent serious amendments added to that. And so, during the last legislative, In the last legislative fight. Heritage. Of course, just one part of Project 2025, was vocal about some of these amendments being added to the bill so that we could better protect innocent Americans. All of that to say that this has been extended into what would be the next presidential term, and either for Mr. Trump or it looks like, you know, Ms. Harris, the nominee for the left. And I think at that point, we'll have the conversation about making those amendments again so that we can better protect the Fourth Amendment. 

 

M. Tracey:  Because also on the intelligence community, which again, raised a bit of a paradox for me because I've seen a lot of like people who on the right online who are actually in favor of Project 2025, anticipating that what's so great about it is that it will fundamentally overhaul the intelligence services and maybe combat the deep state, which has become a main theme among, you know, among right-wing discourse. And also Donald Trump obviously rails against it because he feels understandably aggrieved by elements of the National Security State that use unprecedented tactics to undermine him, whether it was through the Russia investigation, the Mueller special counsel investigation, etc., in his 2016 campaign. And then also in the early part of his first term, I want to just read a quote here. Here's what Project 2025 prescribes for the intelligence community.

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That seems like the purpose of these bureaucratic reorganizations that are being proposed is to better entrench American primacy, right?, to better expand American hegemony, and to combat alleged adversaries, which is very much in keeping with the standard mission of the intelligence services. Whatever tweaks you might want to make around the margins of how it's bureaucratically organized, would that be a fair summation? 

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Briahna Joy Gray on Dems Against Democracy, Biden's Gaza Problem, Ken Klippenstein: Should Biden Step Down as President?; Michael Tracey Joins as Guest Host
Video Transcript

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Good evening. It's Tuesday, July 23. Welcome to a new episode of System Update, our live nightly show that airs every Monday to Friday, at 7 p.m. Eastern, exclusively on Rumble, the free speech alternative to YouTube, by your esteemed host, Glenn Greenwald, who is out on vacation this week, and it really is an honor and a pleasure for me to try to fill his very big shoes as guest host today. 

If you're not familiar with me from past appearances on System Update, my name is Briahna Joy Gray, I host my own podcast called “Bad Faith” and until recently co-hosted The Hills show “Rising,” before I was censored for reporting news that was critical of Israel. Prior to my own show, I worked as the national press secretary for the Bernie 2020 campaign, and before that, I worked with Glenn at The Intercept. And like Glenn, I started my career as a lawyer, practicing in New York for about seven years before leaving to become a journalist. So, I felt very supported by Glenn early in my career and considered him to be one of the most ideologically consistent, intelligent, insightful, and courageous voices in the space. So really, it is a pleasure for me to be here with you today. 

Coming up today on the show we’ll be covering the Democrats' anti-democratic maneuvering to oust Biden and replace him with Kamala Harris, and how the group of politicians that sold themselves as the “anti-establishment left” have really shown themselves to be frauds in many respects, especially Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

We're also going to assess whether Kamala solves Biden's Gaza problem, that is, his unpopular handling of the war in Palestine, before being joined by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein, who has written a recent Substack post asking whether Joe Biden resign all together now if he’s too unfit to finish out his presidential campaign. 

Stick around after that, because Michael Tracey will be taking over as guest host to conduct an interview with Ro Khanna. I understand Ro Khanna is the first Democrat to come on System Update, so that's bound to be a really good interview.

For now, welcome to a new episode of System Update, starting right now. 

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