The following is an abridged transcript from System Update’s most recent episode. You can watch the full episode on Rumble or listen to it in podcast form on Apple, Spotify, or any other major podcast provider.

System Update is an independent show free to all viewers and listeners, but that wouldn’t be possible without our loyal supporters. To keep the show free for everyone, please consider joining our Locals, where we host our members-only aftershow, publish exclusive articles, release these transcripts, and so much more!

Donald Trump was inaugurated at the US Capitol - changed to an indoor venue at the last minute to avoid the extreme cold – and most of official Washington, along with his horde of new big tech billionaire supporters – attended and were featured central stage and played a critical role. Trump's speech was quite heavy on specifics, unlike most inaugural addresses, at least when it came to principles and goals and even several policies. Dozens of pre-planned executive orders were signed by Trump almost immediately upon arriving in the White House, most of which are intended to implement those policies that he laid out today but also throughout the campaign, even if some of those orders were of questionable legal validity, it almost certainly will make it through the courts. 

Joe Biden, who weeks ago pardoned his convicted son, Hunter, after spending all of the campaign vowing that he would never do so, today, went much, much farther by first issuing sweeping preemptive pardons to people like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley and more, all people who served his political agenda. 

Also, we sent our intrepid roving independent reporter, Michael Tracey, to Washington this weekend for the inaugural festivities, where he has conducted some remarkable and quite amusing interviews with very various D.C. luminaries in the way that only Michael Tracey can. We'll show you some of those and put the rest of them on our Locals platform. 

Donald Trump is now officially the 47th president of the United States, as well as the 45th. J.D. Vance was sworn in today as the vice president of the United States. That means Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are officially out of government. The entire ceremony in Washington is, on the one hand, a bit over-the-top and a bit melodramatic, but also has a sort of important tradition in the U.S. to signify the passing of this very important power that has been accomplished through the decisions and autonomy of the American electorate. So, I don't want to be too cynical about it. However, a lot was going on at this inauguration, beginning with the speech Donald Trump gave, which typically was designed to set the tone of what his next administration is going to be, what he wants the American people to understand about it and what to expect. 

On the one hand, Trump really evoked the standard themes that he campaigned on throughout the second term of his campaign. There weren't a lot of surprises but I think one of the things that surprised a lot of people – maybe even me – was that he really avoided the sort of bromides and cliches of inaugural addresses about unity and all of that; he unflinchingly identified the people that he believes were the cause of America's woes, even though most of them were sitting right behind him, inches away in the frame of the camera as he spoke. 

Due to the cold weather, they were in this very tight, almost claustrophobic setting up on the stage and so all the ex-presidents – Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and also the current sitting vice president, Kamala Harris – were extremely close to where Trump was speaking. They were sitting just inches away from him, off to his left and you could see them the entire time. What was so amazing about it was that most of Trump's speech was devoted to unflinchingly and without any real politeness to soften it, condemning the entire bipartisan political class over the past 20 years that has essentially, in his view, come close to destroying America due to not just ineptitude, but even more so to corruption, to moral and ethical failings, where they elevated the interest of their donors and themselves at the expense of everybody else in the society. And they all had to sit there while he issued vicious condemnations not only of their own policies and actions but really of their character. 

That produced a lot of amusing moments, the most amusing of which I think came right at the beginning, when Trump followed tradition by reading the names of all of the presidents who were in attendance as well as the vice president, the only one was Kamala Harris who was there, but then right after he read all their names to make clear that they were present, this is what he said immediately after reading their names: 

The following is an abridged transcript from System Update’s most recent episode. You can watch the full episode on Rumble or listen to it in podcast form on Apple, Spotify, or any other major podcast provider.

System Update is an independent show free to all viewers and listeners, but that wouldn’t be possible without our loyal supporters. To keep the show free for everyone, please consider joining our Locals, where we host our members-only aftershow, publish exclusive articles, release these transcripts, and so much more!

One of the most dangerous things, in Gaza, over the last 15 months has been to be a journalist. The Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that 166 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israeli bombing and invasion, at least some of them, if not most, were deliberately targeted due to their vital work, especially with no Western journalists being permitted to enter unless embedded with the IDF. And the people who are chosen to embed with the IDF were chosen precisely because – to put it mildly – they have no interest in reporting on Gaza, only mimicking Israeli propaganda. 

One of the journalists who has gained prominence for his courageous work over the last 15 months is Abubaker Abed, who is only 22 years old. He has used his fluent, actually quite eloquent English to become one of the most important voices telling and showing the rest of the world what is actually happening in his homeland. Originally intending to be a sports journalist covering Palestinian and global soccer, his life was upended when Gaza started to be destroyed, and he directed his journalistic skills and passion to tell that story. We spoke to him a bit earlier today in a recorded interview about life in Gaza over the past 15 months, whether they now have hope for a cessation of these attacks, re-building their society, and a return to some segment of normal life. We talked about the view of Israelis in Gaza and how they understand their broader struggle for freedom, as well as their view of the United States. All I can really say, I could summarize it further, but what I can really say is that Abubaker is an extraordinary person. It's one of the reasons why he's gained so much prominence of attention and affection. 

In the U.S., the long-time independent journalist Sam Husseini was physically dragged out of a State Department briefing yesterday for the crime of directing adversarial questions – the only kind journalists are supposed to ask – to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He did so rather than waiting for permission to raise his hand, knowing he would never be called on because he doesn't work for a large corporate media outlet. Sam is with us tonight to talk about why he found the questions he posed to Secretary Blinken about Gaza so vital and couldn't wait until he was given permission to raise his hand. He also talked to us about why he rejects this incestuous and friendly deference that most corporate journalists give to top U.S. officials like Blinken and to these pompous protocols they establish. And most of all, what all of this says about the U.S. corporate media generally and its coverage of the U.S. government's Israel and Gaza policies specifically. 

Two great interviews.

Interview: Abubaker Abed

G. Greenwald: Abubaker, it's really great to see you. It's great to speak with you. We're so thrilled to have you on. I've been really admiring your courageous and important journalism throughout these entire 15 months under the most difficult of circumstances. So, I really think there's nobody better to talk to about where we are in Gaza, what the likely future of Gaza and everything that's going on there than you. So, let me begin by asking how you're doing. I think a lot about people in Gaza, especially the people who have survived and what they've gone through over the 15 months and how it's probably impossible to imagine it. But how are you doing personally at this moment? Like, what has your life been like? 

Abubaker Abed: Well, it's been literally nightmarish every single day, really hot hell, so much pain, so much suffering, but yeah we really managed to go through all of that and survive and hopefully the cease-fire will continue until Gaza is rebuilt again. But every single day, every single day, we felt that we were alone. We felt we went to what was unimaginable, what was unbearable. We had to go through starvation many times, we had to shed tears over our loved ones, over our friends and family members even, and every day we really felt that we were stripped of our humanity. We were stripped of, you know, the human values of anybody because that is what the world accepted and tolerated to happen to us over the course of the past 15 months.

The following is an abridged transcript of a segment from System Update’s most recent episode, lightly edited for clarity and readability. You can watch the full episode on Rumble or listen to it in podcast form on Apple, Spotify, or any other major podcast provider.

System Update is an independent show that is free to all viewers and listeners, but that wouldn’t be possible without our loyal supporters. To keep the show free for everyone, please consider joining our Locals, where we host our members-only aftershow, publish exclusive articles, release these transcripts, and so much more!

Right now, CNN and its on-air personalities, including one of its star anchors, Jake Tapper, are in deep trouble in a state court in Florida precisely because of ample evidence that they not only lied on their broadcast but did so with clear, explicit malice. The lawsuit was brought by Zachary Young, a former Navy Veteran and U.S. government official who now has a private security company. Tapper in a report in which CNN accused Young of fraudulently exploiting vulnerable Afghans by running a black market in which he forced them to pay him to have any hope of leaving and re-settling in the United States. CNN's efforts to have the case dismissed have been repeatedly rejected. 

Jonathan Turley, Law Professor and prominent media analyst, was here with us to talk about all of this and what it means for the media generally.

Also, an interview with Arnaud Bertrand, a French entrepreneur who has lived for nearly a decade in China, where he has, in our view, become one of the most reliable and informed experts on that country as well as international relations in general. We have had him on the show before and always found it very illuminating and tonight we will speak with him about a wide range of topics, including the possibly imminent – or not – TikTok ban in the United States, the large-scale migration of American users on that platform to an explicitly and proudly Chinese platform, the visit of a high-ranking Chinese official to Trump's inauguration and the cease-fire deal negotiated for Israel and Gaza that does now look poised to take effect. 

There's a really interesting and I think important trial currently underway in a court, a state court in Florida, in which CNN is being sued for defamation by an individual who it appears was the subject of a false and reputationally damaging story. This plaintiff has not only succeeded in getting to a trial, but the trial is also underway. But he's also seeking punitive damages because he was able to present evidence that CNN didn't just lie about him but did so with malice. 

Professor Jonathan Turley is a Law Professor at George Washington University. He is one of the most prominent and I think one of the most informed media voices when it comes to telling us about legal cases and legal issues. He has a whole variety of credentials that we have gone through many times before. He's the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage” and he joins us to discuss this CNN case as it struggles through a $1-billion defamation lawsuit and what it might mean for the media more broadly. 

Interview: Jonathan Turley

G. Greenwald: First, Turley, always great to see you. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. 

Jonathan Turley: Thank you very much. I'm glad to be with you, Glenn.