Aggressive Progressives: March 23, 2017

In Aggressive Progressives - On Demand, Membership by Gigi Manukyan107 Comments

Jimmy Dore, Steve Oh, Michael Wood, and Michael Tracey talk the anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, death of Darren Rainey, media’s coverage of Russia, and Putin’s relations with past presidents.

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Comments

  1. ONLY 20 MINS OF MICHAEL WOOD? NOT ENOUGH. PLEASE HAVE HIM ON EVERY WEEK. ALSO STEVE. HAVE HIM ON EVERY WEEK TOO!

  3. Dont talk around the bush Steve…you defend that position because you know that TYT has put too much attention on Russia as well…investigate as much as you want just stop talking about it…talk more single payer…more infrastructure…free college…the rest is 2ND MATTER!!!!!

  4. The people of Ukraine revolted to remove a Putin stooge from power. The sanctions are directly linked to Russia’s actions after that revolution and everything it is doing to undermine Ukraine. The sanctions are targeted to a very specific group of people and businesses, and it is difficult to see the panel on this show claim that the progressive position is to abandon the sanctions and screw the Ukrainians. Double standard.

  6. Okay.
    Enuff already.
    90+ comments here.

    AP originally aired Mar 30th.
    It is now 6:37pm eastern April 2.

    Will we get to see it by Monday?

      1. If I did not upload something for work! I would of had to come in on the weekend.

        Old school and AP are the only reason I have a damn membership ….. why can I not watch this@!!!!!

    2. It’s now 9:30am PDT on 3 April. Still no AP from 30 March. Please at least let us know that you’re working on it!

  10. I started watching this week’s episode (3/30) and paused it after a few minutes, but when I came back to continue, it was gone. Aaaaahhhh! I’m having SERIOUS Jimmy/Steve withdrawal.

    1. Trump’s Ministry for Online Censorship is up and running sooner than expected, y’know?

      …only joking obviously, only in jest. It’s probably just an HTML error.

    1. where is the new episode. i miss one week and you don’t post it……

      If someone made a mistake they should fix it on the dam weekend. I am so mad. I am FREAKING OUT! WHERE IS AP@!@@!!!@

  12. yes, where is the new aggressive progressive? My weekend is not complete without Jimmy and Steve and friends …

  13. ..why did this week’s episode get removed from the site? I was in the middle of watching it, it crashed, and now this is the most recent episode suddenly

  14. Clintonite Dems, let me get this straight:

    We were worried communism would destroy capitalism, hence the Cold War.

    Which we ‘won,’ and now they’re capitalists.

    And you guys find it suspicious that OUR greedy regulation-hating assholes poured in like carpetbaggers in the post-slavery South to take advantage of the Wild West for oligarchic, crony capitalism that resulted, and that that (SHOCK) required cozying up to characters less than scrupulous?

    But as long Hillary does it in the State Dept, and Bill gives a little talk before pocketing his payoff, that’s not only not surprising, it’s totally kosher.

    ———–
    Also: What Steve is not taking into account (maybe is now), btw, is: the corruption is TOTALLY SEPARATE from the fact it’s being used as the seed transferring Trump-hate into full-blown McCarthyism, because of course then THEY [Dems ] will naturally be the appropriate ones to lead the charge to war w/Russia.

    It’s like, a tire iron is an innocent enough object. Unless there is no flat tire, you’re on a dark road, and someone has pulled it out of the trunk and is swinging it idly and eye-fucking you.

    If you look around, this is not only DRIPPING with that kind of menace, it’s doing what it’s meant to do: getting people to make completely illogical leaps and gang up up ‘non-believers’ as a rabid mob.

    Corruption is every day, Steve (and, easing those sanctions? Those were political horseshit in the FIRST place: good riddance) — but the gasoline-on-the-fire of a new McCarthyism in the same cycle as a potential new white nationalist administration?

    Is INCALCULABLY bad.

    It’s dropping people’s gag reflex on suspending critical assessment, making them herdable, making them a pointable weapon against dissent. It’s incredibly pervasive, and it’s infected a stunning number of people I though had better sense (I’ve unfollowed or blocked a third of my peeps over it).

    I don’t think Steve is giving this enough weight. Propaganda forms around some seed, and the seed in this case, as Michael pointed out, is LESS egregious than business as usual: let’s not grant it any stature at all without including the whole class of offenses, the whole gamut of countries where they take place, among all constituencies & affiliations.

    1. It’s dropping people’s gag reflex on suspending critical assessment, making them herdable, making them a pointable weapon against dissent. It’s incredibly pervasive, and it’s infected a stunning number of people I though had better sense (I’ve unfollowed or blocked a third of my peeps over it).

      Same. Always knew there was going to be a lot of this in 2017, but the sheer shit-storming intensity of it has really been something to behold.

  15. In some countries, the police are called peace officers. Wouldn’t it be nice if our law enforcement’s main concern was peace rather than police.

  17. OMG J.D. Rich little could not touch your impersonation of Tom Perez. Unreal. Tom and the DNC must despize you as much as I love you and all on your show. Stay after the bastards. Real change comin soon after all the pesky smoke and mirrors removed that have allowed the charade to persist. 2018 gonna be fun! Gonna be some real pussy hurt corporate tools reduced to lobbyists. Imagine if only republicans responded to bribery how easy they would be to completely destroy. We can imagine again,right?

  18. Great point, thank you.

    I think most people know that when someone chooses to attack the person rather than his/her message, it’s because he/she can’t THINK of a good answer to the message. This also goes for nitpicking grammar or spelling.

    Yes, errors in spelling and grammar DO tend to undermine the message, or make it confusing or difficult to read in extreme cases, but, outside the realm of academia, in English, we have no “Real Academia” that can say, in an authoritative fashion, what constitutes correct English and what does not.

    So in the real world here, there is not correct or incorrect grammar OR spelling, there is only standard and nonstandard. For people like me, we at least strive to encapsulate the message in standard English, mainly for clarity and ease of understanding, though it doesn’t hurt that it leaves trolls with less to get their gnarled little teeth into.

    Those who are snobs, grammar Nazis, trolls, assholes, or just plain people who owing to lack of contemplation on the matter, insist that it must be standard or it’s wrong, I say this. Language evolves. If it didn’t, we’d all still be speaking Latin, or Proto Indo-European or whatever. Or in caveman grunting.

    Every change in language that gave us modern English was at some point “wrong” or “incorrect.” Isn’t it a good thing for the language we speak, that all those snobs, grammar Nazis and trolls and assholes, etc., weren’t there?

    Just grunt if you disagree.

  19. Well, that’s just like, your opinion, man.

    My name is not pretentious. It means left big toe. You’d know that if you bothered to look, instead of just assuming.

    But it says a lot about you, “SkewedTrue” (speaking of pretension in naming!) that rather than answer what I wrote with a cogent argument, you resort to personal attacks. But I won’t take the bait.

    As for your charge that I’m sooo wrong on sooo many points, a bare assertion you made, why not refute … I dunno … even one of them by pointing out HOW I’m wrong, rather than just INSISTING that I am, and HOPING anyone at all will buy YOUR bullshit.

    If my “looooong” post hurt your poor little brain, why read them?

    Sorry if I triggered you. Perhaps you should retreat to your special snowflake safe space.

  20. Steve Oh is by far the best progressive here. Jimmy Dore is annoying AF. What pisses me off is how much he talks about how much the mainstream talks too much about Russia- damn ass hypocrite, just STFU about it then.

    1. And another thing, why are you judging peoples’ grammar? It’s a board post not a Walt Whitman sponsored essay contest.

    3. That’s a pretty lame comment. Way over simplified and seems you’re just looking for a reason to hate on Jimmy.

      Easy to see right through.

  21. I appreciate the calm discussion about the problem. One country that was not mentioned was Saudi Arabia. Didn’t Trump start 8 companies inside SA during the Primaries?

    1. As a chubby bearded thirty-year-old who enjoys using large words and is also named Micheal, Micheal is either my spirit animal or long lost twin.

    1. Yeah what the hell is with political shows talking about the current president?! It’s messed up! Find a new subject!

      *sarcasm*

  24. I agree with Steve Oh. It’s good to have the counter points made by Michael and Jimmy but I think they dig their heels in too much. Steve is more nuanced. For one thing, France is an ally of the U.S. and Russia is not. Russia is I’m opposition to the west and NATO. France isn’t. It’s just odd Michael or Jimmy won’t mention that. Of course Russia isn’t communist, that doesn’t mean that we’re best friends now. This picture of the Bushes with Putin is how old now? It wasn’t long ago that Russia – U.S. relations weren’t so bad. Things have changed since then… geopolitics change. Michael and Jimmy make good points but let’s not cling to our points of view and try to win the argument. Let’s have a discussion.

    1. > For one thing, France is an ally of the U.S. and Russia is not.

      This doesn’t mean anything or guarantee anything. Other “US allies” currently include:
      – warmongering, theocratic dictatorships like Saudi Arabia
      – sponsors of terrorism like Pakistan
      – failed or failing states like Afghanistan and Iraq
      – military dictatorships like Egypt
      – Uzbekistan, where according to Human Rights Watch, political prisoners are regularly tortured and killed, famously including being boiled alive.

      The list goes on and on and on. Put simply: most of the worst countries in the world are all “allies of the US”.

  25. Big fan of Michael Wood and his perspective on the show. His aggressive condemnation our deeply corrupt law enforcement and criminal justice system pipeline—or as I like to call it, the meat grinder—is articulate, well-founded, and backed up by his career as an armed employee of the state.

    We don’t hear enough discussion on the [lack of] accountability of officers of the law in this country and how the power structures in place underpin their continued abusive behavioral pattern. Meanwhile, the disturbingly regular stream of cellphone videos showing defenseless Americans gunned down by protectors of the peace has all but entirely beaten any incredulity out of my reactions by now.

    Keep hitting on this subject and chipping away at the normalcy of our deeply fucked penal system.

  26. A Suggestion: People come here to express their opinion DON’T hazzle them about spelling and grammer.
    Some of us struggle with both it does not mean we should not be heard.
    Also A lot of people have 2 or more languages they don’t need to explain to anyone that their 1st laungage maynot be english.
    So you are good at English don’t be an arsehole

    1. So, you take a correction as a personal attack instead of an opportunity to learn?

      Pathetic. (You misspelled “grammar”. You could either remember that, or whine you’re incapable.)

  27. There is plenty of difference between France and Russia. France is a true democracy and generally minds its own business. They didn’t call them Freedom Fries for nothing.

    Russia is run by an autocrat who would love to control the reigns of power in the U.S. And he’s doing a pretty good job of buying off Trump and his administration. As Hallux Sinister says, since the cold war was supposedly over, they’ve simply switched to different tactics.

    I love you PAs, but you have some major blind spots.

    1. TheCheryl, interesting point about switching tactics. It reminded me that Russia went from an autocracy to a dictatorship to an oligarchy. The point being that their post-communist government did not have any strong democratic foundations on which to build. To aggravate the situation, we didn’t provide them with the monetary help they needed during their transition. One reason for not helping them had to do with some influential Cold Warriors being petty in their victory. As a result, Russia went from democracy to oligarchy very quickly. Given these cherry-picked and our corporatist foreign policy, it makes sense that the Russian state would want to affect us in some way. I would have assumed containment would be a desired goal, but you are suggesting control is the objective. Interesting. Perhaps, my thinking is too inside-the-box.

      By the way, what is hallux.sinister and what is it good for?

  28. Am I wrong or do we have a recent invasion of pro-corporate trolls on the website?

    While I am all for an investigation into the whole mess with Russia, I have little faith that it would produce actual results. Given that the Democratic caucus is full of pro-establishment corporatists who want to keep using it as a distraction from their failure, hearings would probably be full of hype and few facts, like Schiff demonstrated just a few days ago. The Republicans of course want to minimize any damage, so they won’t by trying to get the facts, either. A congressional investigation would probably only serve at this point to produce sensationalistic headlines for the Huffingtonpost, but little actual factual results.

    Also, I don’t think that there will be much found, anyway. We have had just such ton of “OMG, look at this devastating find!” moments on TYT in regards to the alleged Putin/Trump connection which came to nothing like a fastly deflating balloon in the end, so from my side it just looks like people keep throwing shit at the wall in the desperate hope that something sticks, because they wish so hard for their silver bullet to get rid of that meddlesome priest.

  29. Thank you folks for taking so much time on Russia in this episode–I feel that the differing views on Russia reporting aren’t hashed out enough during the other shows for me to really see where everybody is coming from.

  30. It is amaIng to read the comments and see how many TYT members are effected by MSM/Democrats russia propaganda.

    Even more effective than the bernie bashing during the primary, where some gullible TYT members were so pro-hillary.

    It seems the Democrat’s bullshit and MSM propaganda still works even on TYT audience. Probably because the culture is creates makes some TYT cast take the propaganda and give it a little validity.

    Jimmy, Jordan, and the AP’s have been right every step of the way, even when all of TYT was blind. For people to not trust their judgement over the people gullible to the russia nonsense? My god, wake up and look at the evidence for god’s sake! There is none. Propaganda ftl.

    1. > It seems the Democrat’s bullshit and MSM propaganda still works even on TYT audience.

      Only a little. If check out the TYT forums on Reddit and such, for some reason, it’s a more reduced phenomenon.

  31. I was add the caveat that if I were wrong we’d have WW3, but I honestly don’t think a war with Russia means WW3 in any way.

    I believe that it would most likely be a one sided war of everyone vs Russia, with Russia’s allies saying “Oops. We dont want war with the U.S. and Europe. Sorry!”

    Russia’s military spending is quite small. And China would suffer so greatly of the U.S. stopped buying from them bc of war.

    If I’m wrong, it’s bad, but I honestly don’t even see Russia doing anything but backing off if a real war with them started (as opposed to a conflict in middle east).

    Also the America people, if the war was unnecessary, would demand Peace.

    However I back Jimmy because more violent conflict is not what we need. Another Cold war is not what we need. And those two are guaranteed if we dont resist this cold war propaganda spewed by the corrupt democrats.

  32. This is so strange. Have been listening to Aggressive Progressives for a while, and it’s always made a lot of sense what they’ve been saying, up until JUST NOW.

    I’m sorry to have to break this to you, but we ARE still in a cold war with Russia. I don’t know why you’re saying we’re not. That argument makes as much sense as asserting that the Earth is no longer in orbit around the sun, or that the sun doesn’t exist anymore, because it’s NIGHT TIME.

    Was there a cold peace treaty negotiated at the end of the cold war? Was there a cold surrender? Did the cold troops come home? The cold war was a phenomenon in which we had an adversarial relationship with Russia and its slave-state satellite ‘republics,’ but not one in which our troops were in direct contact with, or were fighting active battles with Russian troops, or bombing or blowing up each other’s facilities, factories, burning crops, etc. The term “cold war” referred to the general adversarial relationship, the degree of mistrust, hostility, and preparation to fight each other without actual exchange of fire.

    This situation never ended. America came to think of itself as the only superpower because of the collapse of the Soviet government, and reforms instituted, (and rolled back bit by bit,) by leaders of the post-Soviet era. Yes, Communism, such as the Soviets practiced it was shown not to work, just as we are seeing how Capitalism, *as practiced here* doesn’t work. The big difference is in how LONG it takes to fail, or what circumstances must exist in order for it to fail. BUT… the basic relationship of barely restrained hostility, mistrust, spying, trying to undermine each other, trying to meddle in each other’s internal affairs, but IT. NEVER. REALLY. STOPPED.

    The cold war didn’t end, it simply thawed a bit, but things have frosted right back up.

    As for the frankly idiotic assertion that it was feared that the Communists were trying to take over through the use of unionization, but that that’s not happening anymore, how blind do you have to be to fall for THAT argument? Even if the “bring down the Capitalists by unionizing their workers” approach WERE being used in this way, and even if that HAS stopped, that’s not an effort, that’s a TACTIC. They’ve simply switched to DIFFERENT tactics, namely, getting a puppet (Donny “Tiny-Hands” Trump) into the Whitehouse, whereupon he installs a bunch of people who will help him to run America into the GROUND. The TACTIC changed, it doesn’t mean the GOAL changed. This isn’t painting the Russians as the boogeyman, and yes, I can VERY MUCH discern the difference between “the Russians” as in THE PEOPLE, (whom I generally have no problem with–they are no more able to influence what the Kremlin does than the average American can affect what WASHINGTON does,) and the Russian government, by which I mean the murderous, kleptocratic Putin regime.

    Don’t believe the popular myth that the cold war ended. That war was never actually declared by either side. There was no going to the US Congress by any US President asking for a Formal Declaration of Cold War upon the Soviet Union. Neither was there a cold peace treaty signed aboard the deck of a cold aircraft carrier. There was no cold truce, no cold ceasefire, no cold alliance formed in its wake.

    The cold war simply refers to the warlike nature of the relationship between our governments, and that hostility is VERY much there, hence their government, intelligence services, and let’s call them ‘associated forces,’ the hackers and the like, meddling, interfering with, influencing, and undermining our elections and related political processes we use to determine who makes rules and policy in America, and who commands the very military forces of our nation theirs would have to fight if this became a… a hot war, I guess, or a conventional war, or a shooting war, or a nuclear war.

    Normally I like what I hear on the AP. I agree with most of what you guys say, and am THRILLED that I finally found someone who is capable of observing the obvious, and has the balls and the platform to say it, things such as “Hillary Clinton was the weakest and most corrupt candidate the Democrats could have chosen, they should have gotten a REAL progressive like Bernie Sanders,” or words to that general effect. Or when you talk about how wrong it is how we treat people in this country, the most vulnerable, those who have not had the opportunities THEY were so fortunate to have… etc. But today, SWING AND A GIANT MISS. I was actually waiting to see if one of you would say, “JUST KIDDING!” but I’m beginning to think you guys are SERIOUS about this.

    Sad. Sad and alarming. I’m not going to sign off here by saying “I’m never listening to you again,” but… I’m scratching my head as to how you guys who seem so right so often can get this particular thing so wrong. Hmmm… it is getting CLOSE to April 1st… but no, that’s still a week away! What is going ON?!?

    1. > America came to think of itself as the only superpower

      America has been the sole superpower beause of the following set of facts (many of which were already in effect or true long before the Cold War ended):

      1) Military Spending: America spends 596 billion on its military, Russia spends only 66.4 billion. The difference has always been great but now it is truly astronomical: America outspends Russia by a stunning ratio of 10 to 1.

      In terms of this total military spending, Russia now ranks as only 4th in the whole world. Behind China and Saudi Arabia (which is a US ally).

      And then we haven’t even talked yet about the dilapidated, aging and highly outdated state of the Russian military.

      2) Military Bases and Troop Presence: The United States is the largest operator of military bases in the world, again by a HUGE margin, with 38 “named bases” having active duty, national guard/reserve, and/or civilian personnel as of September 30, 2014.

      There are still about 40,000 US troops and 179 US bases in Germany, over 50,000 troops in Japan (and 109 bases), and tens of thousands of troops, with hundreds of bases, all over Europe. Over 28,000 US troops are present in 85 bases in South Korea, and have been since 1957.

      Altogether, the US has military bases in at least 74 countries. Russia has bases in only 10 countries, and with the sole exception of the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea (which has always been there, even in the days of Czar) those bases only have a few thousand troops.

      If you look at the presence of US military personnel (so beyond the bases) then the US has military personnel deployed in more than 150 countries around the world.

      3) US Involvement in active conflict: in 2013, the US military’s own figures show that it is actively fighting and conducting military operations in 134 countries. Yes, really. And this number can only have increased since then.

      In the waning days of the Bush administration, Special Operations forces (SOF) were reportedly deployed in only about 60 nations around the world. By 2010, according to the Washington Post, that number had swelled to 75. Three years later, it had jumped to 134 nations, “slipping” to 133 last year, before reaching a new record of 135 this summer. This 80 percent increase over the last five years is indicative of SOCOM’s exponential expansion which first shifted into high gear following the 9/11 attacks.

    2. Hallux Sinister
      The so called Cold War was against the Soviet Union named for not having any hot zones (combat). That country no longer exists. I do not see how it this would not end the Cold War as you can not even compare the USSR with it’s iron curtain and modern day Russia. However, the treaties you are looking for do exist and are treaties the US signed with the new government. I can message you with them along with examples of my experience with the Russian inspection teams checking our compliance if you would like as well.

      Also in 1991
      “The republics of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine act to dissolve the Soviet Union, finally freeing Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.”

      The things the Russian country is doing are annoying but is all part of dealing with nations of the world. The acts China has done more recently far out do any threat of Russia.

      I do not say this to be an asshole and hope it does not come off this way.

      1. I do not say this to be an asshole and hope it does not come off this way

        Why would it come off that way? Nobody is an asshole for describing global reality or for laying out the hard facts, which is what you’re doing.

    3. As usual with looooong posts under pretentious names, you declare firmly a whole lotta shit you completely misunderstand.

      Just pointing out you’re fulla crap on many, MANY points you assert. (Eg, redefining ‘cold war’ to suit yourself.)

      No one is persuaded by your long-winded bullhorn-on-a-soapbox

  33. MANAFORT OFFERED HIMSELF UP TO THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN, HE WAS NOT SOUGHT AFTER. HE IS NO LONGER BEING SUED. HMMMM.

    1. It’s the most progressive outlet, not the most liberal one.

      Secondly, it’s not a ridiculous comment because some members are voicing it. Not my fault, but they are.

  36. No evidence of Russian hacking. OK. But does that matter?

    Really its about a new president and his administration, that outwardly, visibly, repeatedly, unabashedly professes admiration, has CLOSE ties too, and has adopted tactics of a nationalist dictator.

    We forget that they are our adversary. Not an outright enemy, but their system, including the current one, has been our main adversary for over 70 years.

    Just listen to https://soundcloud.com/samharrisorg/the-russia-connection. This is a view from the conservative right.

    1. Reminds me of the Saudi connection and the Bush family. All the corruption needs to go as it is not only Trump. To be a multi-billionaire usually requires some good government connections in the world.

  37. Another amazing show. The Rachael Maddow’s of the media are whipping up a conspiratorial frenzy because their corporate Democratic incompetent, corrupt candidate couldn’t beat their hand-picked biggest loser.
    (I’ll contribute to building the wall around the woods in Chappaqua.)

  38. Yes, our domestic policy is now the same as our foreign policy: flood country with weapons, promote and stir up rival factions, intervene to save country from these armed, rival factions that they have agitated, send in troops, bust heads and loot resources. Divide and conquer 101.

        1. How was anyone supposed to tell that that was “just a joke”? Can you at least add a smiley face or something? FYI, the internet is full of comments exactly like yours but completely serious.

    2. I’m being to think Jimmy and Michael are working for Putin. I mean the evidence is right in your face now and they are like nope nothing to see here. But what about the fact that at least 6 ambassadors have died and this week someone was thrown off a balcony. Also, everyone around Trump seems to have connection with Russia. Nope all made up nothing to see here. Why are you so obsessed with Russia? I’m really trying to like Michael but it doesn’t seem like he think critically.

            2. Robert: apparently that’s Dyslexia *itself*. Show some respect.

              (And, kinda rude not to let you STAY and fuck off, huh?)

              (At least they capitalized your Asshole title, that’s something.)

              1. Nope. I work alongside the dyslexic, one of the benefits of which is being able to tell when someone is using it as an excuse for something unrelated. Which is offensive to people who are actually dyslexic, such as my coworkers and friends.

                I don’t mind your forceful style of writing, Skewed. On the contrary, I’m happy to see you commenting again.

              2. …wait, sorry, I misread your comment and its sarcasm. In my defense, most people around here do not employ sarcasm, so I’m not readily attuned to it. So, ignore my previous comment, and welcome back.

                1. Was just about to clarify. Extra points for a measured response when you assumed you were facing an attack lol

      2. I think Michael confuses the left’s political exploitation of the Russian influence with the actual election influence. Steve Oh is totally correct that we need to continue to investigate the various actions that Russian entities took to try to skew our election. In regards to Trump and his administration it is prudent to investigate if there was actually a connection and it looks like the FBI is already doing this.

  40. Russia is definitely up to something. Michael and Jimmy are over apologizing on Russia’s behalf. Explain why we are involved in Syria now, Jimmy? Michael assumes Trump knows what he is doing politically and will distance himself from Putin if he does something. That is NAIVE AS FUCK and shows a lack of experience.

    1. Jimmy and Michael are both using the same ideas, the Deep Government? Show your Proof, of this, or do you believe in the Illuminati? Sorry, But you remind me of the Bumper Sticker of the sixties and the seventies “Better Red Than Dead” Have you ever lived in a totalitaranism state? It is not a pleasent.

    2. Every country is up to-to-something. It is a little annoying that the unclassified report mostly focused on the RT anti-Hillary programs online. Did it “influence” the election? Of course it did, everything does now with the internet. There should be a constant on-going intelligence campaign to monitor cyber threats from other countries and a robust defenses against cyber operations. It would be concerning if this was not already integrated into our agencies.

      Although my own speculation, Trump was trying to get more voters by fear mongering people with Russia. Especially with HRC’s comments about the Syria no-fly zone and cyber operations to be treated as direct attacks.

  41. I look forward to AP every week, thanks for another great show!!! I really enjoyed Michael Tracey’s insight, bring him back on soon. :)

  42. This is why Steve Oh is my favourite Young Turk: he sees the issues and is aggressive about them, but he doesn’t allow himself to overreach, and he fine tunes Jimmy’s arguments away from over-speculation. He brings it to the core issues. People don’t care about Russia. People care about jobs and the economy.

    That’s not to say I don’t see the need for Jimmy too; without Dore, people looking to feel outright anger at the establishment might instead be drawn to some maniac like Alex Jones or Glenn Beck.

    Honestly, the distraction is working. Aggressive Progressive should be talking about the DINOs and how they aren’t opposing Republicans on principles.

  43. The greatest heist of American democracy happened right in front of our eyes last year with the DNC
    rigged outcome and massive primary election fraud of never before seen proportions. It was worthy of
    any third world puppet dictatorship.

    The “red herring” here is that no one has disavowed that the wikileaks e mails are not accurate and that democracy has been stolen and crushed.

    Sure Putin is a thug and part of every day corruption in Russia with his gang of state and privateenforcers and that an investigation without any media coverage needs to occur but Americans need to know they just went through a financial coup d’etat hand in hand with the media. The DNC establishment ” sold their soul and our democratic rights to the Company store”

    No amount of media propaganda or hysteria will let us forget!

  44. I have no doubt Trump would do corruption to enrich himself. The guy has always been a con artist. Russia is probably not the only state he has shady dealings with. The guy is a fraud.

  45. I understand the phobia of Russia, I was born in communist Czechoslovakia. Americans don’t see everyday Russian propaganda in post soviet republics, where hundred of thousands of people read pro-Kremlin disinformation articles on Russia paid websites, Russian paid trolls attacking bloggers and even professional reporters (even in Sweden!).

    We border with Ukraine and are nervous of what will Russia be allowed to do next? See popular Russian music sing of taking back our land etc. This is why there is phobia. I am not saying that west should start a war with Russia. But understand why we fear Putin.

    Being in bed Kremlin IS NOT the same as Buenos Aires.

  46. Love aggressive progressives but SUPER frustrated w this Russia minimizing. Put in is not a typical corrupt pol, he’s KGB and his adversaries turn up dead. He just invaded and annexed Crimea, “bitterly condemned by Ukraine and the West.” WHY should we drop sanctions Michael Tracey?? So disappointed to hear commentary that sounds so uninformed. My dad was in charge of East Bloc intelligence research for govt his whole career. I think you’re mischaracterizing Putin-if cops are fully despotic what do you think a former KGB guy is?? And I 110% agree w u on Dems and HRC so plz get this right!

    2. Putin is an authoritarian, oligarchic capitalist who is to be condemned by all, for sure (and Jimmy does just that). But it doesn’t logically follow that he controls or manipulates the politics of every western country. It just doesn’t follow.

      2. Yes, let’s put this in realistic terms: BUSH was CIA director. OUR KGB.

        His SON was made President (not elected: MADE) after HIS term.

        Virtually NO attention is given in US to popular vote. Guns, war, health care: Americans have no more ACTUAL say in the LARGEST issues than Russians do.

        Russia is TINY, economically & militarily: Germany’s economy ALONE dwarfs her.

        We have surrounded Russia with nukes and bases (how would we like Russ nukes in Canada and Mexico), after they basically won WWII FOR us, and we promised in the aftermath to move “NOT ONE INCH” to expand NATO into Eastern Bloc yet have chipped away at, fomented insurrection in, and electorally interfered at every opportunity since.

        If interference is an act of war, we are at war with virtually the entire world.

        See the two versions of “Our Brand Is Crisis” and then tell me AGAIN how “horrible” this country we’ve ruined with our arms race is.

        If you’re scared of Russia?

        You’re a goddam neurotic coward who doesn’t read enough and lets others control them through fear.

    3. LinCo – Yes, Putin is as shitty as you describe. The big question I have for you then is, where do we stop? It’s an honest question that I believe is incredibly hard to answer even for someone informed.

      The actions Israel has taken are illegal and barbaric. China’s currency manipulation and taking over the small countries in the South China Seas are just a couple of instances of a long list. Then there is the issue of Saudi Arabia which include the major exporter of terrorists and why we are bombing families in Yemen. What about Egypt? There is a long list of terrible leaders without even getting into the US involvement of bringing them to power.

      It would be nice if the world did not have so many problems. Hopefully one day this is no longer the case. With multi-national companies, World Bank Group (WBG), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and export credit agencies (ECA), I do not see it happening.

  49. Congratulations to Jimmy on having one of his own videos tweeted out by Wikileaks.

    Not tweeted out by someone on Twitter who is sympathetic, aligned or indirectly associated with Wikileaks, understand. Tweeted out by Wikileaks itself.

    That’s a big deal, big leagues, and all that.

  50. This was such a great episode Thank you guys. I usually side with Jimmy, but I think Steve’s position on Trump-Russia is largely where I’m at currently. Lot’s of love from Australia :)

  51. That’s awesome! Steve Oh, I have felt the same as you do on the Russia deal. Now I understand :) I don’t own a T.V. and the only radio show I listen to is MPR on my way to work, and they suck. I read a lot of print news, and watch independent news on YouTube, and of course here.

  52. Cenk said Paul Manafort should be arrested… it’s a wonderful thing to see how diverse and nuanced everyones views are. I’ve always been fascinated with how the media controls the narrative in the US and how propaganda is propagated. But keep in mind that the US Government will lock journalists up for disrespecting them so if Manafort was a kremlin agent they’d throw him in jail so fast, “it would make your head spin” lol. I’d rather agree with Jimmy and Micheal a tiny bit more then Steve because the consequences of them being wrong is small whereas the consequences of ramping up the threat of Russia is WW3.

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