Tim had Max Blumenthal, of
The Grayzone, as the guest.
Ian & Phil were the co-hosts.
After a lovely episode last time, we finally hit the rocky section of
Timcast IRL's coverage of the current bloody tragedy in the Levant.
Max appears to be in the vein of China-excusing (explained in some clips below), anti-American leftist, which has been cropping up.
Phil & Max go back & forth over who is worse, Israel or Hamas, for a good bit.
Ian, being his guileless self, unintentionally makes some remarks that poke holes in Max's views & positions.
This was an eminently clippable episode.
Clip Collection:
-Max comes onto the show half-crocked on bathtub wormwood alcohol, called Malört:
-Ian has one heck of an introduction. Says he prayed to Jesus, then prayed to Mohammed, listened to the Qu'ran, & wants to make Gaza the 51st State:
-Tim uses only the most trust-worthy of sources, Wikipedia, to discuss the Nayirah testimony before the U.S. Congress:
-Max argues the "40 babies decapitated" story is a way to deflect from the dead children from Israeli airstrikes. This is a deflection from the topic of this section. Max, also argues that the civilian deaths in Gaza motivate the atrocities committed in recent days:
-Max argues for the reason why Hamas attacked the music festival on the Gaza border, kidnaps Israelis for a bargaining chip in negotiations:
-Max contends that businesses next to the Israeli Defense Ministry are akin to the human shields used by Hamas. Max, then, argues that since peaceful methods did not work, & Hamas' violence is the only thing that works for getting their way. & Max claims suicide bombings of the Second Intifada were far more egregious than the current slate of attacks.
I try not to editorialise too much in clip descriptions, outside of my humour edits, but all this is akin to Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's argument of "They need bread" to explain why shoplifters steal Reeboks & plasma-screen TVs, or how rioting is the voice of the unheard drivel:
-Ian takes the bold stance of opening his three proposed solutions with The Final Solution to the Gaza Problem. Max compares Gazans being blocked from entering Egypt, to Hondurans illegally entering the United States, as they are looked down upon & considered a burden:
-Max describes the actions of the current Israeli security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, & his extreme views. Tim chimes in to say the Arabic definite article "Al" means "The":
-Max says he is capable of representing the Israeli perspective. He, also, says he is Jewish & came to his perspective on Israel versus Palestine while on a Birthright Israel trip, which he describes as "the best sex vacation":
-Tim asks what Hamas gains by blind-firing rockets into Israel. Max notes that Israeli rockets are much scarier than Hamas rockets, & that violence is the only way they can gain concessions. Phil says this is just an argument for the efficacy of terrorism:
-Max brings up the Haavara Agreement, where Nazi Germany & German Zionist Jews agreed to trade Jewish property & belongings for safe passage out of Europe to the British Mandate of Palestine:
-Ian goes all in on the Federal Reserve being the inception of our current situation. Time responds by telling Ian he is wrong, while Phil tries to explain where he may be in error:
-Though even Phil can get exasperated, because Ian claims that peace is the normal state of man. Phil lays out that the West is in a unique period where conflict is the exception, not the norm:
-Ian brings up Sidney Blumenthal, Max's father, without knowing they were related. Calls him a gun-runner, exploiting the war in Libya:
-Max has his issues with Trump, like the trillions in tax cuts & not supporting underprivileged communities in Washington D.C., where Max lives:
-A super-chatter calls out how much Tim bullies Ian, to cope with his insecurities:
-Max puts on his jacket, either because he is cold or is ready to run if Ian brings out the graphene cage:
-Max claims Communist China has not attacked anyone, which Ian brings up Tibet. Max makes excuses, such as Tibet was not a real country & it was not halfway across the world. Though you could include Taiwan, South Korea, the Soviet Union & Vietnam, to that list of nations attacked by Communist China since 1949:
-Ian brings it back to Tibet, saying it was an annexation. Max, again, excuses this & claims it was to remove a CIA asset (the Dalai Lama), foreign-backed governments-in-exile & the Tibetans welcomed the Communists as liberators, which is hilarious considering all his talk about Palestine being wronged throughout this episode. To note, I did not edit out anything from Max, Tim cuts him off & moves to the next super-chat at the end:
-A super-chatter brings up Sidney & Max Blumenthal's relations, Ian was unaware, & demands answers from Max as to what Sidney was doing. Max says he cannot speak for his father, but pooh-poohs the claims of war profiteering. Tim mentions how Ian is more interventionist, though I wanted to see Max's reaction to Ian's wasp remarks from last episode:
-Tim explains why the U.S. 2nd Amendment documentary, by Lauren Southern, has not come out, yet:
Tim doesn't like when his house negros learn
