Trump’s Only Crime is Putting a Bad Face on American Imperialism

I thought Chris Hedges was going to be 6'5 when I met him. And he's the same height. He's a normal guy? Yeah, he's normal, not tall. Have you met Chris Cuomo? Fredo? Fred, did you call him Fredo? No, he would throw- He'll wreck your shit. He'll wreck my shit if I do that. Yeah, he'll wreck your shit and throw you down the stairs. And then throw me downstairs. That was so revealing. That was so re- I was like, who are you? Are you 16? But you know that Fredo is the N-word. Oh, we've all said that. We've all said that. We've been saying that for years. To get Fettuccine L N-word. That is so fucking dumb to say that. The idea that he thought that he could pass it off, and he knew they were filming him. Right? Yes, yes. He knew they- How do you not know? It's like, calling- saying that to an Italian American is like using the N-word. Is it really? Guess what? Here's the thing about being Italian. There's no word for us. There's no word for us. You can call me a guinea. You can call me a greaseball. It's like, okay. Doesn't work. Right. There's no word. They don't work. They work for my grandfather's day. I used to talk to my grandfather because he was an immigrant, and he came over from Italy. And he told me all the horrible shit kids in school would say to him. All the horrible shit people in the street. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Guineas back then were- they were talked to like trash immigrants. Like they wanted them to go home. They didn't want them there. And there was a lot of dispute between the Irish and the Italians. So the- yeah. The Italians were thought of the way a lot of racist people think of Mexicans. Like they're coming over here to take our jobs. They're coming up- they're infesting our neighborhood with their smells and their food. And they're- they want to talk their language. Like my grandparents always spoke Italian in the house. Did they smell? Always. They smell great. It depends on what you like. I love Italian food, so it smelled great. But they always talked Italian. My grandmother and my grandfather always spoke Italian to each other. Yeah. They lived in an Italian neighborhood up until it changed. They lived in Newark, New Jersey. Okay. Which was all Italian. So it seems like every wave of immigrants becomes the new horrible person. Yes. Right? So I grew up- because I was Irish and they talk about how the no Irish need apply, all that stuff. Yep. And that's why they- Yeah. I mean that's what- it's just there's waves of this, right? And now the wave is, you know, Mexicans are the scapegoats. But you know, there's that documentary they did a while back, a day with no Mexicans. Uh-huh. But it's true. Everything would fucking shut down. Shut down. Especially Los Angeles. No kidding. But most of the country, most of the country- and this is the dirty secret about the United States of America is that we rely- a lot of ind- I shouldn't say we- a lot of industry podcasts. It doesn't really rely on illegal immigrants. But a lot of industries rely on illegal immigrants. And it's a fucked up situation to be in for them because they really don't have a path to become legal, even if they've been proven for decade after decade that they're a viable, contributing part of our culture because they got over here illegally. Even if they came over here as a child, then we can't- we can't let you stay, you know? And that's another thing, you know, the immigration, uh, had- they've been scapegoated since, as far as I can remember, Bill Clinton. So Bill Clinton, if you go back, there's C-SPAN videos of him saying Mexicans coming here, taking our jobs and all that stuff. He was- he did all that stuff. And Hillary Clinton, she bragged that she voted for a border wall. She- oh, a barrier, it was a fence in some places. She bragged- used to brag about it. So then Trump comes along, turns it up another notch, and they're like, this guy's a fuck- Right. It's like, no, you guys- so I make this point. He just says it in a way that's- Yeah, it's very offensive and it's wrong, right? Of course it is. But what I'm saying is he's building off of a bunch of shit that's offensive and wrong. Just like when they tweeted out those- so you find out, uh, uh, this is what I say, that, oh, he- he banned all the Muslims at the airport. Then you find out why they're at the airport. Barack Obama's been bombing them for eight fucking years straight. He dropped 26,000 bombs. They ran out of bombs! Then you find out these pudding immigrants in cages. You find out about Barack Obama built those cages. Then you say find out that Trump is gassing immigrants at the border, and you find out Barack Obama also gassed immigrants at the border, and they should be honored they were gassed by the lesser of two evils. So there is the silver lining, and it's finally starting to come out because the- the Democrats have run this Russia gate to the- it's done. They did the Mueller report. It's over. He concluded there is no collusion. It's over. So now they moved on to impeachment, but now he's bombing, so they're finally starting to talk about the War Powers Act. They're finally talking- but nobody's talking about cutting the Pentagon budget. Did you hear- do you hear that? I don't hear that. No. Do you think that the- the main- the main thing about impeachment is supposedly that he tried to get Ukraine to investigate his political opponent, Joe Biden? Right. That's the main thing. That's what they say. He'd take that out, and there's basically nothing. Right, and- and- and people aren't really that upset that he tried- half the countries, for sure, aren't upset that he tried to investigate Joe Biden. So many people are clinging to this as if this is a- this impeachment makes sense, because they think that he's not presidential. That's it. Yeah. That- as- as Aaron Matei says, who's the only guy I know who won an award for his Russia gate coverage, because he debunked it, like a good reporter's supposed to do, he- he always makes the point that Trump is not a suitable steward of imperialism, and they think he puts an ugly face on the shit we've been- this is what I've- this is- Trump puts an ugly face on the stuff we've been doing all along, and so now people are going to be more aware of it, and we would have been more aware of it if the Democrats would have actually opposed him on substance instead of a Russia gate. He says things sometimes that you go, you are just allowed to write your own speech, like when he was talking about Baghdadi, that he died like a dog, and you're like, what? Are you allowed to say that he died like a dog? Or how about the- this is the weird thing, that he uses Twitter to threaten other countries? Like when he was talking about Iran, that if they respond, they- we will respond in perhaps a disproportionate manner? Like, you're using Twitter to threat- like, nobody ever thought that there was going to be this sort of a- a venue for a president to just- just have mouth diarrhea. Mm-hmm. And that's why they- I mean, I really believe that's a big reason why a lot of the establishment wants to get rid of him, because he makes them look bad. Because they agree with his policies, the Democrats just gave him everything he wanted. They paid for his fucking border wall. They gave him expanded spying powers. They gave him an extra 131 billion to go bomb people. They helped fast track his judges. They fucking also helped him deregulate Wall Street. What the fuck aren't they doing for him? And that's why we have Donald Trump.