EPISODE NUMBER: 10118 (June 16, 2014)
GUESTS: Ta-Nehisi Coates | Ben Van Heuvelen
SEGMENTS: ISIS Militants in Iraq | ISIS Militants in Iraq – Ben Van Heuvelen | Racial Perceptions and Economic Stress | Ta-Nehisi Coates | Sign Off – Hand Mirror
SUIT REPORT: Dark Pin Stripped Suit | Light Blue Shirt | Blue Patterned Tie
VIDEOS: Monday, June 16, 2014
Racial Perceptions and Economic Stress
“CNN: Happening now, Iraq 2.0.”
- Yes, it’s Iraq 2.0, and like any upgrade, it’s faster, once in a while everything crashes, and you get the error message: “404 Government Not Found”.
- The news is Iraq is being rapidly overrun by a terrorist group out of Syria ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.And these are some bad hombres. ISIS been described as better armed than the national armies of Syria and Iraq, partly because Iraqi soldiers are handing over their weapons and uniforms peacefully.
- And it’s no surprise Iraqi soldiers are Shite’ing the bed.
“We’ve already seen just how ruthless they are. The militants claim they have killed 1,700 Iraqi’s in just the last day. […] They’re brutal. […] Very radical, very militant, very draconian.”
- How draconian? They’ve been announced by such humanitarian groups as, Al-Qaeda. Who have no officially changed their motto to, “Death to the infidels, but, you know, tasteful.”
“Fox News: They are considered now the richest terrorist organisation in the world, valued at $2 billion dollars.”
- The richest terrorist organisation in the world, which means they can now afford monogrammed suicide vests.
- The point is, we are facing the alarming collapse of the Iraqi government that took us eight years of blood and treasure to install, and it’s all Obama’s fault.
“I blame President Obama mightily for a hands-off policy when it comes to Iraq. […] The President’s inability to negotiate an agreement in Iraq, which puts us in this situation we’re in today. […] President Obama made a political decision, a campaign promise decision, not a strategic vision decision. He simply didn’t live up to his promises of more arms and a diplomatic surge. Thank you, President Obama. Great job, dude.”
- Yeah, great job, dude. Operation “Party Foul”. Next keg is on you, President Broseph.
- I don’t know what Obama was thinking when George W. Bush signed the troop withdrawal agreement in 2008.
- Thankfully, Fox News knows how to fix this situation:
“We have to do something. […] We’ve got do something about it. […] When is the President going to do something. […] He’s got to do something. I mean, he came out today and said he might do something in Iraq. He’s got to do something.”
- Yes, that is exactly the thing we have to do.
ISIS Militants in Iraq – Ben Van Heuvelen
Stephen: How bad is the situation over there? Should we be concerned that Lebanon is now the stable Middle Eastern country?
Ben: It’s, it’s very bad.
Stephen: All right, that’s good enough.
Stephen: So what do we do? Can we just ignore it? Do we have to pay attention to it? Because the American people didn’t really pay attention to Iraq when we still had troops there. Why should we pay attention now?
Ben: I think one of the best reasons to pay attention is that these areas in northern Iraq now, ISIS is controlling, I think it’s not unreasonable to draw an analogy between what ISIS wants to do there and what the Taliban did in Afghanistan prior to 2001. So in as much as it’s a big threat to countries around the world to have a group like ISIS controlling a large territory and marshaling a lot of resources, it’s a threat to everybody.
Stephen: What about the oil? Is the oil okay? Are they being cruel to the oil up there?
Ben: I can assure you that the oil is actually safe right now.
Ben: […] Well I think if we don’t stick our big toe back in there, at least in terms of intervening diplomatically at the very least to affect some political change in Iraq, then that’s exactly what is going to happen. There’s going to be a terrible humanitarian catastrophe with militias and –
Stephen: It’s humanitarian, but it’s humani-them-ian, you know? Don’t they have it coming? You know the names we’ve had to memorise over here of those people? All the Als, Bins, Abdul’s and all that stuff. I don’t have any room left. I deleted all that stuff and filled with names of people from the Ukraine.
Racial Perceptions and Economic Stress
- Our first blacks president’s first black economy continues to let down my friends in the African American community.
- Now, when Barack Obama was elected president, we were promised that racism was over, but for some reason it still exists. I blame the Mexicans.
- And just t show you how bad racism still is, this month’s ‘Atlantic Magazine’ is one of the fastest-selling issues in its history thanks to my guest tonight Ta-Nehisi Coates, entitled “The Case for Reparations.”
- Reparations? What happened to forgive and forget? White people have done the second part.
- In the study [on racial perception] scientists created this spectrum of faces ranging from white to black. Also known as Thomas Jefferson’s family tree.
- To recap: When money is scarce, white people think everyone looks black and then wont give them any money, confirming results first published in Paul Ryan’s budget.
- Nation, this study proves white people don’t discriminate because we’re racist. We do it because we’re worried about economic scarcity, which means there is a simple way to eradicate racism in America: Give white people more money.
Interview – Ta-Nehisi Coates
Stephen: Do you think the best way to heal a nation is to bum people out?
Ta-Nehisi: Yeah.
Stephen: Because this is well argued. And I can understand it, and I don’t want to understand it.
Ta-Nehisi: Right, right, right.
Stephen: So make your case to the good people out there, and understand that some of these people are not white. So don’t be mad at them.
Ta-Nehisi: I wrote that with that in mind.
Stephen: So, it’s not just for white people?
Ta-Nehisi: No, it’s not just for white people.
Stephen: Okay, didn’t know. ‘Cause it’s kind of an attack.
Ta-Nehisi: Well, I think it’s our history. And I do think it’s necessary to bum people out sometimes to heal people.
Stephen: But what good does reparations do? Are we talking about distributing money?
Ta-Nehisi: Probably so.
Stephen: So how much money is it going to take … I got the check right here. I just figure I’ll just pick one black guy, I’ll give him a check, and I’ll be a model for everybody else.
June 16, 2014 — Ta-Nehisi Coates
EPISODE NUMBER: 10118 (June 16, 2014)
GUESTS: Ta-Nehisi Coates | Ben Van Heuvelen
SEGMENTS: ISIS Militants in Iraq | ISIS Militants in Iraq – Ben Van Heuvelen | Racial Perceptions and Economic Stress | Ta-Nehisi Coates | Sign Off – Hand Mirror
SUIT REPORT: Dark Pin Stripped Suit | Light Blue Shirt | Blue Patterned Tie
VIDEOS: Monday, June 16, 2014
Racial Perceptions and Economic Stress
ISIS Militants in Iraq – Ben Van Heuvelen
Stephen: How bad is the situation over there? Should we be concerned that Lebanon is now the stable Middle Eastern country?
Ben: It’s, it’s very bad.
Stephen: All right, that’s good enough.
Stephen: So what do we do? Can we just ignore it? Do we have to pay attention to it? Because the American people didn’t really pay attention to Iraq when we still had troops there. Why should we pay attention now?
Ben: I think one of the best reasons to pay attention is that these areas in northern Iraq now, ISIS is controlling, I think it’s not unreasonable to draw an analogy between what ISIS wants to do there and what the Taliban did in Afghanistan prior to 2001. So in as much as it’s a big threat to countries around the world to have a group like ISIS controlling a large territory and marshaling a lot of resources, it’s a threat to everybody.
Stephen: What about the oil? Is the oil okay? Are they being cruel to the oil up there?
Ben: I can assure you that the oil is actually safe right now.
Ben: […] Well I think if we don’t stick our big toe back in there, at least in terms of intervening diplomatically at the very least to affect some political change in Iraq, then that’s exactly what is going to happen. There’s going to be a terrible humanitarian catastrophe with militias and –
Stephen: It’s humanitarian, but it’s humani-them-ian, you know? Don’t they have it coming? You know the names we’ve had to memorise over here of those people? All the Als, Bins, Abdul’s and all that stuff. I don’t have any room left. I deleted all that stuff and filled with names of people from the Ukraine.
Racial Perceptions and Economic Stress
Interview – Ta-Nehisi Coates
Stephen: Do you think the best way to heal a nation is to bum people out?
Ta-Nehisi: Yeah.
Stephen: Because this is well argued. And I can understand it, and I don’t want to understand it.
Ta-Nehisi: Right, right, right.
Stephen: So make your case to the good people out there, and understand that some of these people are not white. So don’t be mad at them.
Ta-Nehisi: I wrote that with that in mind.
Stephen: So, it’s not just for white people?
Ta-Nehisi: No, it’s not just for white people.
Stephen: Okay, didn’t know. ‘Cause it’s kind of an attack.
Ta-Nehisi: Well, I think it’s our history. And I do think it’s necessary to bum people out sometimes to heal people.
Stephen: But what good does reparations do? Are we talking about distributing money?
Ta-Nehisi: Probably so.
Stephen: So how much money is it going to take … I got the check right here. I just figure I’ll just pick one black guy, I’ll give him a check, and I’ll be a model for everybody else.