We are pleased to send you a summary of the key stories we covered last week. These are written versions of the reporting and analysis we did on last week's episodes of SYSTEM UPDATE.
—Glenn Greenwald
MONDAY, DECEMBER 11 - SYSTEM UPDATE 196
Biden WH Seeks to Renew & Expand Domestic Spying—With Sen. Mike Lee.
The US’ Long History of Silencing Israel Critics—on Campus, Media, & Beyond
A new attempt to block a powerful tool of the security state for domestic spying while a bipartisan coalition of intelligence agency aligned politicians work toward its renewal and even expansion; Sen. Mike Lee talks about Section 702, and how to stop it; Censorship for Israel continues and the consequences befall the American people.
The United States exploited the fears that emerged after the 9/11 attacks in multiple ways. While the wars it started and the torture camps it installed around the world have largely come to an end—some 20 ending only years later—many of the most repressive and authoritarian domestic powers seized in the name of that terrorist attack endure to this very day. One obvious example is the Patriot Act, enacted in the days and weeks after that attack, and which was promised to be temporary; but every four years since, the Congress has re-authorized and renewed the Patriot Act, and now does so with virtually no debate—ensuring that what was once acknowledged to be a radical expansion of state power has now simply become normalized as part our political woodwork.
The same is true of the power grab that the US claimed—at first in secret, and then in the open—of the right to spy on the international communications of Americans citizens without having so much as to get a warrant first: one of the core Constitutional protections of the 4th Amendment. This was a power that the Bush/Cheney administration originally claimed in secret in early 2002. Once the New York Times was a Pulitzer for revealing the existence of this illegal spying power in 2005, the US Congress—under the leadership of Nancy Peolsi—acted to codify and legalize that warrantless domestic spying power by enacting Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act.
The terms of that law required that it be renewed every five years. And since, then, it has been. In 2013, the Obama administration demanded renewal and got it. In 2018, Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff joined with numerous Republicans to give the Trump administration the same vast domestic spying powers—even while Schiff and Pelosi were accusing Trump of being a fascist and new Hitler, they acted to ensure that the Trump administration also enjoyed these virtually unlimited spying powers on American citizens.
Now the law is again up for renewal. This time, however, there is a serious bipartisan coalition—enraged by how many times the FBI has been caught abusing these powers—attempt to impose meaningful reforms on them as a condition for its renewal. Last week, we had on our program Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky to warn that pro-spying members of both political parties are attempting to work with the Biden WH not only to ensure quick renewal, but also to expand those spying powers even further.
Senator Mike Lee, the Republican Senator from Utah, is now vocally warning about that attempt, and he'll be on with us tonight to discuss the prospects for stopping this bill and the reasons it's so dangerous.
Finally: The glaring abandonment of principle by many conservatives—especially those who have long posed as free speech champions—as they attempt in the wake of October 7 to usher in a wide range of censorship measures and classic cancel culture in the name of shielding Israel from criticism. Many conservatives have been consistent and denounced this—but many on the pro-Israel right who cheer this don't deny that it's a radical contradiction of their stated views and current actions.
Instead, they claim, they are simply finally using the left's censorship tactics against them, finally forcing American liberals to live under the cancellation and censorship frameworks they have imposed on every one else. While that sentiment might be understandable, there is a major problem with that claim: namely, censorship against Israel critics in the U.S.—in academia, in media, and in the corporate world—has been doing on for many, many years in the U.S. There is nothing new about it. And we'll show you the very long history of how aggressive and extreme this censorship in the U.S. has long been in the name of protecting Israel. Silencing and punishing Israel's American critics is not some new tactic now being used at tit-for-tat against left-liberal censorship: it has long been one of the most common and pervasive forms of censorship that many on the right, who vocally champion free speech, have long ignored if not cheered.
READ THE FULL STORY: PART 1 & PART 2
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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12 - SYSTEM UPDATE 197
Zelensky Begs DC for Money—While Torturing US Journalist, Gonzalo Lira.
Bill Ackman’s Long-Time Censorship Crusade Gets Results.
Google Loses Massive Anti-Trust Suit, w/ Matt Stoller
President Zelensky makes a final plea to Joe Biden and the US congress to fund his conscription army while his own government officials call him ‘delusional.’ ‘Brave’ Bill Ackman is celebrated as a hero by Israel supporters as he tries to cancel people via X; Google loses a major antitrust suit against Epic Games—creator of Fortnite—friend of the show Matt Stoller joins to give all the details.
Ukraine's President Vlodomyr Zelensky goes to Washington—again—with his hand held out for more American money—again. The Biden administration—after first blocking any possibility of a diplomatic resolution at the start of the Russia/Ukraine war—has spent more than $110 million in American resources to fuel the war, accomplishing little other than guaranteeing the destruction of Ukraine, sending hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian men to their deaths, and all but ensuring that Russia will end up controlling roughly ⅕ of what had been Ukrainian territory.
Over the last month, President Zelensky's closest allies in Kiev have run to the Western press to turn on both Zelensky and the war—accusing him of everything from having become an authoritarian to being "delusional" about his obviously baseless belief that Ukraine has any chance to expel all Russian troops from Ukrainian soil. But none of that stopped Zelensky from going to the White House, making rounds with American media, and meeting with members of Congress to plead, demand, and insist that more American money be transferred to keep fueling this increasingly futile but as-destructive-as-ever war.
Then: Few people outside the world of high finance and academia knew the name Bill Ackman until Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel. Almost immediately, the multi-billionaire hedge fund manager and fanatical supporter of Israel went on a rampage against anyone and anything insufficiently supportive of Israel—at first helping compile black lists of American college students who committed the crime of placing blame on Israel for the long-standing conflict with the Palestinians, then using his vast wealth to coerce Harvard and other institutions to intensify their censorship attacks aimed at Israel critics.
It has been bizarre watching so many Israel supporters and assorted Republicans march behind Bill Ackman and celebrate him as a hero—and to watch him celebrate himself as one: he really did recently praise his courage. Bill Ackman is what every conservative and even many liberals claim to despise: a billionaire who weaponizes his wealth to cancel and destroy the careers of those who disagree with him, and who tries to dictate to major universities which political views they may and may not permit to be expressed. And he's hardly alone. But the last two months have taken people like Bill Ackman out of the shadows and thrust them into the spotlight—and it's vital to realize that his cause—while masquerading as some sort of noble fight against wokeness—is nothing other than an attempt to force universities to prohibit and punish criticisms of this foreign country.
Finally: As the Justice Department prepares to go to trial against Google in an antitrust suit brought by the Trump administration, Google just suffered a major defeat in a courtroom in San Francisco. A company called Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, won a jury verdict that Google's use of its Google Stores violates America's anti-trust laws. We'll speak with one of the nation's premiere antitrust and Google experts, Matt Stoller of the American Economic Liberties Project, to tell us what this means.
READ THE FULL STORY: PART 1 & PART 2
WATCH THE EPISODE.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13 - SYSTEM UPDATE 198
Zelensky, Live on Fox, Re-Affirms His Own Tyranny.
ADL’s Game-Playing w/ Hate Crime Stats.
Media’s Gullible Embrace of Anon CIA Leaks.
Shocking Censorship Escalation in Brazil
In a Fox News interview with Bret Baier, Zelenskyy continues the lie of “defending democracy” to shield criticism of the repressive and tyrannical political powers he has ushered in Ukraine in the name of fighting Russia; ADL manipulates hate crime statistics and manufactures its own antisemitism crisis in order to fight an information war on behalf of Israel; CIA leaks lies about Russian army and Ukraine; Brazilian Youtuber Monark faces consequences as political censorship grows.
Ukrainian President is in Washington and, as we discussed on last night's show, he went to the White House and Congress to plead for more billions for his failed war effort, and then met with the true beneficiaries of this war—the CEOs of the American arms industry: Raytheon, Boeing, General Dynamics and the rest. December 13 on Fox News, Zelensky was asked by host Bret Baer about recent accusations by his closest Ukrainian allies that he has become an authoritarian and tyrant. Zelensky, rather than even attempt to deny the accusation, essentially affirmed his own autocracy—all while he insists that we must give him billions more to "defend democracy."
Then: The ADL has long been in the business of accusing people of being racists and anti-Semites in order to silence their opposition and force businesses to pay them substantial amounts of money to be released from those accusations. Ever since Oct 7, the ADL has found new allies as they seek to capitalize on the emotions surrounding the Hamas attack and the new-found efforts to silence Israel critics. Central to their campaign, and those of like-minded allies, is the cynical manipulation of hate crime statistics to try to invent a crisis that can be used to justify the repression of political speech.
After that: Despite how many times the CIA, FBI and the rest of the US Security State routinely spreads lies by using anonymous leaks, every new leak is met with an instinctive belief on the part of many in media that these leaks—by virtue of appearing in major media outlets must be true. The CIA just engineered a leak about Russia's military that is so obviously designed to promote their primary foreign policy aim of securing billions more to keep the war against Russia going, and yet so many people who should know better gullibly treated the leak as proven fact, without an iota of questioning or skepticism.
Finally: Censorship programs having been growing not only in the US but more broadly in the democratic world—in the EU, in the UK, in Canada, in Ireland, and in Brazil. These attacks on free speech in major countries are important in and of themselves, but also because each advancement of censorship powers is seen by other countries as a test case for how far they can go. Some of the most extreme systemic repression of political speech has taken place in Brazil—being used as a laboratory by the EU to see how far they can go—and earlier today news broke of one of the most extreme and truly shocking cases of political censorship.
READ THE FULL STORY: PART 1 & PART 2
WATCH THE EPISODE.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14 - SYSTEM UPDATE 199
Congress Again Renews FBI’s Warrantless Spying Power Over Americans.
Vivek’s Revealing Clash w/ CNN on 1/6.
Natasha Bertrand’s CIA Servitude.
Dems Pretend to Chide Israel
FISA 702 renewal sneaks its way into the annual National Defense Authorization Act and passes with overwhelming support from the bipartisan consensus in Washington; At a CNN town hall, Vivek shocks host Abby Philips by citing evidence of Jan 6 being an “inside job” ; Natasha Bertrand—the CIA’s favorite corporate “journalist” —has a new article taken right from the mouths of intelligence community and government operatives; Faced with broad opposition from the base over the violence launched against Gaza, Biden and Dems feign concern and give lip service to humanitarian values while continuing to arm Israel unconditionally.
In Washington, the US Security State always gets its way. This, yet again, is exactly what happened over the last 24 hours as first the Senate, then the House, voted on a bipartisan basis to renew and extend the FBI's power to spy on the communications of citizens without warrants of any kind.
Over the past two weeks, we had two lawmakers on our show—Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky—both of whom held out real hope that this time Congress would do its duty and at least impose limits, safeguards and reforms on the FBI—given the mountain of evidence proving that they abused these domestic spying powers. We'll show you what happened—how the FBI yet again won the right to hold onto this truly dangerous and authoritarian power—and, most of all, who in Washington is responsible for it.
Then: It is hardly a secret that the primary ideology of the corporate media is blind loyalty to the FBI, the NSA, the Pentagon and the rest of the agencies composing what Dwight Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex. Still, in a sewer of corporate media employes who perform this function, none is as corrupt about it, as mindlessly subservient to the CIA's talking points and agenda, as Natasha Bertrand—who proved her usefulness in this function by becoming the Queen of the most deranged parts of Russiagate. There was no CIA conspiracy theory beneath her dignity to spread—and then she became the first person to spread the CIA lie that the Hunter Biden laptop was "Russian disinformation." Bertrand has a new article on the Biden administration's view of the war in Israel, and it is really worth looking at just to see the kinds of rotted journalistic tactics that are not just acceptable but propel these people to ascend the corporate media ladder.
After that: GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy appeared on a CNN town hall with one of the network's personalities, Abby Phillips, who went there from being classified as a reporter with the Washington Post. Phillips asked Vivek about his statement that January 6 was an "inside job,” something he first said on this show and then repeated at the last GOP presidential debate. Phillips sought to prove that this was a false conspiracy, but rather than letting him answer, she used the tactic that has become the most common among incompetent TV interviewers: she just refused to let him speak, constantly talking over him, in large part because she had no idea what she was talking about, and in part because much of what Vivek was saying was demonstrably true, but she thought it was false because CNN never has its hosts tell its audience about it. There is a lot of illustrative meaning from this quite contentious exchange, so we'll break it down.
Finally: Democrats are playing a deeply cynical, even jaded, game when it comes to the posture of the Biden White House towards Israel's war in Gaza. From the start of the war, Biden did what he has done his entire political career: pledged complete, unlimited and unconditional financial and military support for Israel. He continued to do that even as the world began turning against the Israeli onslaught until Gaza. What changed, however, was polls began showing that the Democratic Party base was abandoning Biden over his support for Israel's war, and ever since, Democrats have been making theatrical gestures in public to pretend that they are chiding Israel and trying to limit what they can do, while in reality, they are telling the Israelis and making repeatedly clear that their financing and arming of Israel's war is unconditional and eternal. No matter your views on this war, this sort of deceitful game-playing should repulse you. At the very least, it deserves journalistic scrutiny and exposure.
READ THE FULL STORY: PART 1 & PART 2
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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15 - SYSTEM UPDATE 200
Tucker Carlson on Global Populism, the Censorship-Industrial Regime, Israel/Ukraine, His New Network, & More
Tucker Carlson has long been one of the most heterodox and fascinating journalists in American politics, whose daily coverage of world events on Fox News broke with the corporate media consensus on matters of foreign policy and economic orthodoxy. For the 200th episode, Glenn interviews Tucker Carlson for an in depth discussion on various topics including the crisis of free speech, the failures of neoliberalism, and the messianic lunacy of neoconservatism.
This week SYSTEM UPDATE commemorated the one-year anniversary of the debut of our show—our show launched on December, 12, 2022—and tonight marks the 200th episode of this program. To mark this anniversary, we have a special episode for you—we are devoting the program to a conversation I had on Wednesday with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host whose program was canceled under mysterious circumstances despite being the most-watched show on cable news.
Tucker just announced that he was launching a brand new media outlet—the Tucker Carlson Network—that has quite high ambitions in terms of the kind of journalism it intends to do. We spoke with Tucker in a wide-ranging interview about that new project, but also about all sorts of pressing issues including the new US-supported war in Gaza; the about-face done by certain sectors of the American right since October 7 on issues such as free speech and cancel culture; the primary pathologies of corporate media; the possibility of his own political future, and much, much more.
This is the first time he's been on SYSTEM UPDATE and the result was an illuminating and different sort of conversation that we are confident you will enjoy.
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