This is not good. So a group of civil society organizations have released a watch list and we're on it. Now it's a watch list of countries at risk of losing their civil freedoms, including Turkey, El Salvador, Kenya [00:00:18] and the United States of America. Now, look, they cited very specific reasons for why we're on this watch list. I'm going to go through those reasons. We can decide whether or not this is fair. So the group that put this watch list together is known as Civicus. [00:00:33] The organization's secretary general has stated that the United States appears to be sliding deeper into the quicksands of authoritarianism. Peaceful protests are confronted with military force. True critics are treated as criminals. [00:00:50] True journalists are targeted, and support for civil society and international cooperation have been cut back. So, six months into Donald Trump's second term, a bizarre assault on fundamental freedoms and constitutional safeguards has become the new normal. [00:01:09] And look, the reason why I say, true to some of the things that were brought up in that statement is because the military literally was sent to respond to anti-war protests in Los Angeles. That literally happened. And when there were protests against that, not from the protesters, although they [00:01:29] weren't happy about it, but from the leaders of the state of California. Trump doubled down and sent more members of the military to respond to it, even though, by the way, to the military's credit, they didn't want to be deployed for these reasons. They thought it was wrong because the military is not supposed to be deployed [00:01:47] against American citizens on US soil. So there's other things that I can get into. For instance, the first category is attacks against protests in the media. I mentioned the anti-ISIS protests. Civicus also referenced two specific attacks against the media [00:02:04] during anti-Trump protests. The first is the video that we actually covered of an Australian journalist who was covering the unrest and was targeted by police officer. Take a look. You just shut the fuck. Are you okay? [00:02:24] - Are you okay? - There was another incident as well. Police detained Salvadorian journalist Mario Guevara, a US legal resident, while livestreaming an anti-Trump know king's peaceful protest in Georgia. [00:02:42] Despite clearly identifying as press, authorities charged him with obstruction and unlawful assembly and transferred him to Ice custody, where he remains. He was a legal resident of the United States. It's insane. Civicus also cited the Trump administration's numerous lawsuits [00:02:59] against media companies, as well as the cutting of over $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Yeah. So there's one other angle that we got to get to in a second. But so to the things that I was talking about, you know, yesterday we covered a story about how I said, well, you know, [00:03:17] we were going to arrest people in LA. And it turns out they let a whole bunch of them go because they arrested the wrong people. They hadn't done anything wrong. They didn't have any evidence on them. But one of the excuses that they gave was, well, those two girls had, quote, [00:03:32] pre-assault indicators. What is that? What is it? It's a thought crime, right? So this is what tyrannical governments do. You didn't assault me. You didn't come close. It's actually kind of an Israeli trick. I had to preemptively attack all my Arab neighbors because of self-defense. [00:03:50] So now that's what our government is using against our own civilians, right? And and so when you look at the legal residents who have been snatched up, the citizens who have been snatched up, the people who are going to court hearings legally snatched up, Donald Trump attacking 60 minutes. [00:04:07] ABC, CBS The Wall Street Journal. If you criticize me, that's it. You owe me money. I demand a bribe. Otherwise, I'm not going to allow your mergers. I'm going to shut down all media who criticize me. I'm the guy who was for freedom of speech. And then the other factor that they cited was Israel. Israel makes us do such harsh crackdowns on our own citizens, so. [00:04:26] And our own legal residents. So students who were protesting Israel or even wrote an editorial, a political editorial about Israel were arrested and threatened with deportation, etc.. So it doesn't get any more authoritarian than you're not allowed to criticize [00:04:41] your government or a foreign government. Right. And if you exercise freedom of speech, we'll arrest you. So they've just absolutely trashed the First Amendment. And it's so deeply ironic coming from the guy who complained about cancel culture and said that freedom of speech was his top issue. [00:04:59] It's what a joke. What an utter joke. The other things that were cited by this group were the arrests of Mahmoud Khalil, Moshin Badawi and of course also Rumeysa Öztürk, [00:05:14] who was the Turkish national who was getting a PhD here in the United States, who just simply co-wrote an op ed piece for her university's paper. So, you know, these targeted attacks against anyone who dares speak out against the, mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza? [00:05:34] That was also cited. And I agree with citing that that was wrong. Obviously. What happened to Mahmoud Khalil? He missed the birth of his first child. He was in detention. He was in prison for months, months and months. For all he did was criticize Israel, a foreign government. [00:05:52] So this is disgusting. This is not what America is supposed to be. This is not what our Constitution is. So look, you know the flags that say, don't tread on me. This report summaries basically saying they're treading on you, brother. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true. [00:06:07] But it does keep you updated on our live shows.