Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ The Stratford Festival rewrites Shakespeare — and it’s as bad as you think

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Today, I'm going to give you a bit of a rant about a play I saw over the weekend,

00:00:05.140 but I'll explain to you why it's much worse than just a few wasted hours. I feel it's terrifying,

00:00:11.020 like the Taliban destroying sculptures they don't like. I feel like that's happening to our

00:00:15.900 Shakespeare, and I'll tell you what happened to me. But first, let me invite you to become

00:00:20.120 a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. Just go to

00:00:24.600 rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe, eight bucks a month. That really helps us float the boat here,

00:00:29.440 because, as you know, we don't take any government money. That's rebelnewsplus.com.

00:00:34.620 All right, here's today's show.

00:00:48.200 Tonight, the Stratford Festival rewrites Shakespeare, and it's as bad as you think.

00:00:58.160 It's July 31st, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:04.340 Shame on you, you sensorism bug.

00:01:07.820 Why do we love art? Well, I guess we each have our reasons. Maybe because it elevates us, brings us

00:01:21.340 out of our daily grind, think about higher things, brings out the best in us, shows us something

00:01:26.860 more than human, some wonder, some imagination, some love, some faith, some hope. The world at its best,

00:01:34.040 maybe? I don't know. I mean, take a look at these images. Easy to find. This is a particular

00:01:39.420 Twitter feed called Culture Critic. The sculptures that they show here. How can you make stone do that?

00:01:49.080 The churches, no wonder they inspired people. How? Music. Is it not the emotional soundtrack of your

00:01:57.620 life? Does it bring out your feelings? Architecture. How you feel in certain buildings. I mean, compare

00:02:04.160 a beautiful church from the medieval ages to the brutalist architecture of the 1970s. I don't know.

00:02:12.200 There's a million reasons to love art. I believe that Shakespeare is an important artist, one of the

00:02:18.360 most important. Wrote 39 plays, 154 sonnets and more. I think that in a way, his art is more useful, more

00:02:27.980 approachable than even a Mozart music or even a painting. I think you can use it, deploy it, aspire to it all

00:02:37.120 the time. I mean, you can look at a sculpture all the time, too, I suppose. Maybe you could listen to the same

00:02:42.420 song all the time, but, you know, any one of his plays, 15,000 words. I think there can be so much

00:02:48.580 more in it than a song. I mean, speaking of words, he invented hundreds of them from wild goose chase

00:02:55.040 to the word zany. His plays weren't original in their subject matter, but I think they were perfect.

00:03:02.500 He mastered the language and he mastered the human condition. I don't know of anyone who has ever

00:03:08.420 better understood what it means to be human and could express a better love, Romeo and Juliet,

00:03:13.760 jealousy, Othello, ambition, Macbeth, and it goes on. One of my favorite Shakespeare's is a comedy

00:03:21.820 called Much Ado About Nothing. You know, a million sitcom episodes have treated the same subject, a man

00:03:29.400 and a woman who argue with each other all the time and their friends say, hey, wouldn't it be something 1.00

00:03:35.400 if we could trick them into getting together? Well, that's basically the story of Much Ado About

00:03:41.200 Nothing. They trick Benedict, that's the man, and Beatrice into falling in love with each other. I want

00:03:46.820 to show you a beautiful treatment of this, a movie, I don't know, about 20 or 30 years ago by Kenneth

00:03:51.320 Branagh and Emma Thompson when they were both at their prime and they really make the language come

00:03:56.860 along. One of the things about Shakespeare is sometimes the language is archaic. It's difficult to

00:04:01.480 understand, but of all the Shakespeare's plays I've read, I think Much Ado About Nothing is the easiest

00:04:06.920 to understand. The jokes carry to today the best, and with Branagh and Thompson acting it, it was

00:04:13.480 great. I want to show you a few minutes from my favorite scene in the play, and I hope it makes

00:04:19.860 you want to see the play, either the movie Much Ado About Nothing or the play in person, even just to read

00:04:24.480 it. Take a look at this. They did a beautiful job.

00:04:32.640 Come hither, Leonardo. What was it you told me of today? That your niece Beatrice was in love with

00:04:39.940 Signor Benedict? I did never think that lady would have loved any man. No, nor I neither. But most

00:04:48.240 wonderful that she should so dote on Signor Benedict, whom she hath in all outward behaviors seemed ever

00:04:54.320 to abhor.

00:04:56.400 Best possible.

00:04:58.400 Maybe she doth but counterfeit.

00:05:00.400 Faith, like enough.

00:05:02.400 Oh, God!

00:05:04.400 Counterfeit!

00:05:06.400 There was never counterfeit of passion came so near the life of passion as she discovers it.

00:05:14.400 Why? What effects of passion shows she? Bait the hook well, this fish will bite. 1.00

00:05:23.440 What effects, my lord?

00:05:32.560 You heard my daughter tell you how?

00:05:34.240 She did indeed.

00:05:35.440 How, I pray you.

00:05:38.560 You amaze me!

00:05:47.600 Ah, I should think there's a trick, but that the grey-bearded fellow speaks it. 1.00

00:05:52.720 Has she made her affection known to Benedict?

00:05:54.720 No, and swears she never will. That's her torment. She'll be up 20 times a night, and there will

00:06:01.760 she sit in her smock till she have writ a sheet of paper. Then down upon her knees she falls,

00:06:07.760 weeps, sobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, curses. Oh, sweet Benedict! God give me patience!

00:06:17.760 She does indeed. My daughter says so. My daughter is sometime afeard that she will do a desperate outrage to herself. 0.99

00:06:26.800 It is very true.

00:06:30.800 It were good that Benedict knew of it.

00:06:32.800 What end? He would make but a sport of it and torment the poor lady worse. 1.00

00:06:36.800 I'm sorry for her.

00:06:37.760 I pray you, tell Benedict of it and hear what he will say.

00:06:41.760 Were it good thinking?

00:06:42.800 Hero thinks surely she will die. For she says she will die if he love her not,

00:06:48.720 and she will die ere she make her love known, and she will die if he will her.

00:06:55.040 If she should make tender of her love, tis very possible he'll scorn it.

00:06:59.600 For the man, as you know all, hath a contemptible spirit.

00:07:02.720 Oh! 0.60

00:07:04.720 Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.

00:07:12.800 Has he was here?

00:07:14.880 Hi, ha, ha, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.

00:07:16.960 Ah ah, ha, ah, ah, ah.

00:07:17.600 This can be no trick!

00:07:20.080 Ah ha, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.

00:07:35.180 Ah ah, ah ah.Ah ah ah, ah, ah, ah ah, ah.

00:07:35.460 Ah ah. Ah ah ah ah ah. Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah.

00:07:37.840 Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah.

00:07:42.400 I will bear myself proudly if I perceive the love come from her.

00:07:45.900 They say, too, that she will rather die than give any sign of affection.

00:07:51.900 I did never think to marry.

00:07:56.900 I must not seem proud.

00:07:58.900 Happy are they that hear their detractions and can put them to mending.

00:08:02.400 They say the lady is fair, tis a truth, I can bear them witness,

00:08:04.900 and virtuous, tis so, I cannot reprove it, and wise.

00:08:08.900 But for loving me, by my truth, it is no addition to her wit,

00:08:13.400 nor no great argument of her folly,

00:08:16.900 for I will be horribly in love with her.

00:08:24.900 I may chance have some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me

00:08:30.900 because I have railed so long against marriage.

00:08:34.900 But doth not the appetite alter?

00:08:38.900 A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.

00:08:42.900 Shall these quips and sentences and paper bullets of the brain

00:08:47.900 awe a man from the career of his humour?

00:08:51.400 No!

00:08:53.400 The world must be peopled!

00:08:55.900 When I said I would die a bachelor,

00:09:04.900 I did not think I should live till I were married.

00:09:08.900 I've seen that movie five times, and this weekend,

00:09:11.900 I'm back in Canada after so many far-flung travels,

00:09:14.900 I thought, you know, let's do something in Ontario.

00:09:16.900 And the missus took me to see Shakespeare at Stratford, Ontario,

00:09:20.900 which is about a 90-minute drive outside of Toronto.

00:09:23.900 And the whole town is based on plays and Shakespeare.

00:09:28.900 And to my delight, the set for this play looked normal,

00:09:33.900 not some weird political statement.

00:09:36.900 The actors were normal.

00:09:38.900 And I say this because if you go to a lot of plays these days,

00:09:41.900 there's politics forced down your throat.

00:09:43.900 I saw the show Oklahoma a couple months ago,

00:09:47.900 and the central prop were Bud Light cans.

00:09:51.900 And they were handing Bud Light out

00:09:53.900 and drinking Bud Light and throwing.

00:09:55.900 And I just thought, I'm so distracted.

00:09:59.900 It was awful.

00:10:00.900 I left at halftime, or I saw The Winner's Tale

00:10:03.900 and there was some trans subtext.

00:10:06.900 Can I just see a play?

00:10:09.900 And I did, and I loved it.

00:10:13.900 There were a lot of black actors playing it,

00:10:16.900 which I thought was excellent.

00:10:17.900 It was a little bit confusing to have a white dad

00:10:20.900 with a black daughter.

00:10:21.900 But I have to say that all of the actors of every background

00:10:25.900 were outstanding.

00:10:26.900 I'm not against actors of other races playing other races.

00:10:30.900 Ben Kingsley was excellent in Gandhi.

00:10:33.900 In the Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh movie I just mentioned,

00:10:36.900 Denzel Washington played a key character.

00:10:38.900 So it was excellent.

00:10:40.900 I thought, good.

00:10:41.900 Finally, I can see Shakespeare done right.

00:10:43.900 And everyone was on their game.

00:10:46.900 But the play is about staying pure until marriage.

00:10:49.900 That's one of the themes.

00:10:51.900 There's a young woman named Hero

00:10:53.900 who's going to be married to Claudio right away.

00:10:56.900 They get engaged very quickly

00:10:57.900 and they're about to be married in like a day or two.

00:10:59.900 And they're both young and they're both perfect for each other.

00:11:01.900 They're both perfect for each other.

00:11:02.900 But here's the plot.

00:11:04.900 The night before their wedding, a villain wants to destroy things. 0.99

00:11:10.900 So the villain gets his own servant to have noisy sex with his own mistress 0.97

00:11:16.900 while calling out Hero's name. 0.98

00:11:19.900 And the villain makes sure that Claudio and his friends hear it.

00:11:23.900 So this is the night before his wedding.

00:11:26.900 And he creates a trick to make it seem that his intended bride is disloyal the night before.

00:11:32.900 So obviously, it's a calamity.

00:11:34.900 I mean, this play was written 400 years ago, but that would be a calamity today 0.81

00:11:38.900 to encounter what you thought was your bride having sex with someone else the night before your wedding.

00:11:44.900 So it was a shocking moment of the play.

00:11:48.900 Hearts were broken.

00:11:50.900 The villain is caught and confesses it.

00:11:53.900 And Shakespeare solves this plot by having this young woman Hero die.

00:11:58.900 She doesn't really die.

00:12:00.900 And then coming back as her cousin or relative who just happens to look the same

00:12:04.900 and marries Claudio and happily ever after.

00:12:07.900 But there I am in Stratford watching this.

00:12:11.900 And that happened in the play.

00:12:14.900 But then the play didn't end on that happy ending.

00:12:17.900 They added on additional scenes.

00:12:21.900 It was in old timey language.

00:12:23.900 It pretended to be Shakespeare.

00:12:25.900 But the play ends there.

00:12:27.900 I've read the play.

00:12:29.900 I've seen the play.

00:12:30.900 I've seen the movie.

00:12:31.900 It ends.

00:12:33.900 But in this Stratford version of the play, Hero lectures Claudio,

00:12:40.900 basically saying,

00:12:41.900 well, if I did have an affair, what's it to you if I did?

00:12:45.900 And I'm not saying I did, but if I did have an affair.

00:12:48.900 And it was so bizarre.

00:12:51.900 And then Claudio literally prostrates himself,

00:12:55.900 bows down face to the ground,

00:12:58.900 while an angry Hero lectures him that she can sleep with whomever she wants. 0.79

00:13:04.900 What?

00:13:05.900 That is the opposite of the entire play, the entire plot, the entire context.

00:13:17.900 That is not Shakespeare.

00:13:19.900 They called it Much Ado About Nothing.

00:13:21.900 They advertised it that way.

00:13:23.900 They claimed that it was Shakespeare, but it was not.

00:13:27.900 You could say it was Shakespeare in transvestism.

00:13:31.900 It was Shakespeare in drag.

00:13:33.900 Erin Shields is the writer who thought that she is a world-class historical cultural figure

00:13:44.900 by rewriting Shakespeare.

00:13:46.900 And you have to dig deep on their website or in their program to find out additional text by Erin Shields.

00:13:53.900 That's quite something.

00:13:55.900 Imagine if you had a Bible and you had additional text by Erin Shields,

00:13:59.900 just adding a few things in.

00:14:02.900 And let me read from Erin Shields' official website.

00:14:05.900 She needs a website. 1.00

00:14:06.900 Shakespeare doesn't have a website.

00:14:08.900 He doesn't need one.

00:14:09.900 He was perhaps the most influential writer in the English language in all of history.

00:14:14.900 So he doesn't need a website.

00:14:15.900 But if you've never heard of Erin Shields, she has a website and she'll tell you,

00:14:18.900 most of her work highlights the negation of or misrepresentation of women in classical texts

00:14:26.900 by adapting these stories through a feminist lens for a contemporary audience. 0.54

00:14:32.900 But it wasn't a misrepresentation.

00:14:34.900 It's a play.

00:14:35.900 It's a work of fiction.

00:14:36.900 But it absolutely was the state of affairs back 400 years ago in England.

00:14:43.900 And even now, not only in much of the world, but I put it to you in 2023 in Stratford, Ontario,

00:14:51.900 it is the social norm that if a bride was having noisy sex with someone not her betrothed on the eve of marriage,

00:14:59.900 that would break the marriage off.

00:15:01.900 But not to Erin Shields and Stratford who want to rewrite this misogynist play.

00:15:07.900 They kept it largely hidden.

00:15:10.900 It was called Much Ado About Nothing.

00:15:12.900 It was a Shakespeare play.

00:15:14.900 Erin Shields' name was not on it.

00:15:16.900 It was a counterfeit.

00:15:19.900 It would be like seeing Romeo and Juliet without suicide. 0.78

00:15:22.900 It would be like Merchant of Venice without mentioning the Jewish merchant, No Pound of Flesh. 0.93

00:15:28.900 Those things may disturb you.

00:15:31.900 I mean, I find The Merchant of Venice a challenging play.

00:15:34.900 There is anti-Semitism in it.

00:15:36.900 It's a plot line there.

00:15:38.900 But if you don't like it, don't change it and pretend it's Shakespeare.

00:15:44.900 Stratford is a huge cultural engine.

00:15:48.900 There are many theaters, hundreds of millions of dollars, both public and private money, dedicated to the theater,

00:15:55.900 but especially dedicated to Shakespeare, even the town name, the place names.

00:16:00.900 It was dedicated to this cultural pillar of the West.

00:16:04.900 And it has been stolen and invaded and colonized by woke radicals.

00:16:10.900 Look, if you don't like Much Ado About Nothing, which is a funny play, fine.

00:16:16.900 Everyone has a different taste.

00:16:19.900 Why not write your own play under your own name?

00:16:22.900 You know, Wizard of Oz is a fun movie that is almost 100 years old, actually.

00:16:28.900 And there's a revision to it.

00:16:31.900 It's a Broadway play called Wicked from the point of view of one of the witches.

00:16:35.900 And it's a great play.

00:16:37.900 By the way, it's very successful.

00:16:38.900 It's a huge commercial success.

00:16:39.900 People really like it.

00:16:41.900 It's not called The Wizard of Oz.

00:16:44.900 It's called Wicked.

00:16:45.900 It has its own writers.

00:16:46.900 And by the way, they made it a success.

00:16:49.900 If you're going to revise Shakespeare, say so.

00:16:53.900 Call it a feminist revision. 1.00

00:16:56.900 Why trick people and hide what you've done?

00:16:59.900 I started poking around the website of Stratford.

00:17:02.900 I came upon their DIE, their Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity statement.

00:17:09.900 It's 14,000 words.

00:17:13.900 It's as long as a Shakespeare play.

00:17:15.900 Shakespeare play takes about two and a half hours to read.

00:17:19.900 That's how long their diversity and woke policies are.

00:17:23.900 Look, what else do you propose to change and sort of sneak in as a Stella White?

00:17:30.900 Maybe the King James Bible.

00:17:32.900 Well, fine, I guess.

00:17:33.900 I mean, it was revised too, right?

00:17:36.900 But King James put his name on it, letting you know it was his version.

00:17:40.900 That's what we often hear, King James version.

00:17:44.900 If you want to change the Bible, put your name on it and see if people will read it.

00:17:49.900 But what else would we change in the arts because we don't like it in the lens of 2023 woke studies?

00:17:55.900 Change the Mona Lisa because it's sexist in some ways.

00:17:59.900 Change Mozart musics.

00:18:01.900 Destroy a sculpture like the Taliban do because we don't like it according to our progressive instincts. 1.00

00:18:08.900 Are Aaron Shields and the actors at Stratford as good as Shakespeare, as interesting as Shakespeare?

00:18:17.900 Would you buy a ticket?

00:18:19.900 Could you sell out a theater if they put their names on it and said that this is their interpretation, their revision?

00:18:26.900 Will their work be read 400 years from now? 0.94

00:18:29.900 Will Aaron Shields' bizarre feminist take where brides can have sex with whoever they want noisily on the eve of a wedding? 1.00

00:18:37.900 Will that be a cherished work of art 400 years from now?

00:18:41.900 No, it wouldn't even be a cherished work of art today.

00:18:44.900 No one would pay to see it today were it not for their deceptive advertising.

00:18:51.900 Don't ever trust Stratford again.

00:18:53.900 I say that with a broken heart.

00:18:56.900 They can't convince you to like their feminist revisionist propaganda on its own, 1.00

00:19:02.900 so they'll pretend that it's actually Shakespeare's work.

00:19:06.900 Oh, with additional script from Aaron Shields.

00:19:09.900 Don't go see Much Ado About Nothing.

00:19:11.900 There's still some wonderful parts to it if you know which is Shakespeare.

00:19:15.900 But if you watch the whole thing and actually listen to what you're watching, you might end up hating Shakespeare too.

00:19:34.900 Hey, our friend Mark Marano was on Fox News. Take a look at this interview. He was on Jesse Waters' show. Take a look.

00:19:41.900 Says some European landowners don't have the money for forest maintenance. It's costly.

00:19:46.900 So instead of paying a fine for not maintaining the underbrush, they'll torch it instead.

00:19:51.900 The producer says it's common knowledge. And last year in Portugal, CNN reports two firefighters were arrested for setting forest fires in order to give their fire company more work. Cha-ching. 0.95

00:20:06.900 So what about here in America? Remember those awful wildfires in Yosemite last year?

00:20:13.900 Multiple states are under red flag warnings. That is the highest level of alert for wildfires.

00:20:18.900 It's all due to a combination of high blistering heat of low humidity and strong winds.

00:20:23.900 So it wasn't the heat, humidity, and winds after all. It was Wackerman.

00:20:28.900 Edward Wackerman has just been busted for the Yosemite arson.

00:20:32.900 He could be responsible for destroying 130 homes and 20,000 acres.

00:20:37.900 And remember the smoke bomb from Canada? The sky was orange. The East Coast strapped their COVID masks back on.

00:20:46.900 Well, the Toronto Sun reports that cops suspect arson was behind that major wildfire in Quebec.

00:20:54.900 So yeah, it's hot. Maybe it's getting hotter.

00:20:57.900 But before we blame Republicans like Hillary Clinton did this week, let's take a look at the guy with the book of matches.

00:21:04.900 Author of The Green Fraud, Mark Marano joins me now.

00:21:09.900 So Mark, can you distinguish between an arsonist fire or winds blowing an already hot forest?

00:21:21.900 No, not really. Not once they start. And it looks like they started these fires, the arsonist or the unnatural way, at the worst possible times, with high winds, with dry conditions, with heat.

00:21:34.900 So it sounds like they may have even known what they're doing. And there's two different aisles.

00:21:38.900 There's the Rhodes aisle and the Corfu aisle. And both of them now, the officials are saying these are intentionally started.

00:21:44.900 And they actually said they're basically sick individuals who get pleasure out of causing other people pain.

00:21:50.900 And this, of course, happened in the United States. You mentioned Yosemite.

00:21:54.900 That was a Democratic donor who was actually given a Democratic candidate.

00:21:57.900 So we have Democratic politicians blaming wildfires on climate change when in reality it was one of their donors who actually started the wildfire.

00:22:06.900 And this goes to Australia. Forty-two percent of the Australian fires were said to be caused by mankind.

00:22:12.900 They've had 700 unnatural fires started over 250 arrests a few years ago in Australia. This is a global problem of people starting this.

00:22:22.900 Now, is it climate change? Well, this would be the equivalent of blowing up a dam or sabotaging a dam and allowing a valley to flood and then saying, oh, look, climate change is causing more floods.

00:22:32.900 There's other forces at work here, Jesse. Joining us now from his lovely globally warmed patio is our friend Mark Miranda.

00:22:41.900 Mark, great to see you. Whenever people say global warming causes forest fire, they're trying to scare people into thinking it's so hot, it's so warm, there was some kind of natural combustion.

00:22:54.900 You saw that head of the U.N. the other day talking about global boiling.

00:22:59.900 You know, they're trying to imply that there's some spontaneous combustion.

00:23:03.900 I think that's their message track. They're trying to imply it's so hot, things are just conflagrating.

00:23:09.900 But it's arson or other human, you know, not putting out a campfire or throwing out a cigarette.

00:23:17.900 That's what's causing most of these fires, isn't it?

00:23:19.900 Yeah, that is human cause. It's just not climate change.

00:23:23.900 Well, a couple of two background things on wildfires and forest fires.

00:23:27.900 Dramatic declines in the last hundred years in Canada and the United States, in Europe, globally.

00:23:34.900 Even the United Nations acknowledges this. Even our national climate assessment.

00:23:38.900 That's really not in dispute. We've now forest fires and wildfires are down dramatically.

00:23:43.900 Even the hot spots like California, San Jose Mercury News.

00:23:47.900 Big newspapers have reported, first of all, centuries ago, California had much worse droughts and wildfires.

00:23:53.900 So there is no increase in wildfires.

00:23:55.900 Now, you can always find an increase, Ezra, if you pick one region of California or one region of Western Australia.

00:24:01.900 And then you pick like since 1998, there's been an increase if this continues.

00:24:05.900 So that's how they do it. And the other thing they do is they show you and I call it like sort of the casino effect.

00:24:12.900 You walk in a casino and you see a wall of slot machine winners, right?

00:24:16.900 You'll see someone. There's $10,000 winner. There's $100,000 winner. Look, that person won $300,000.

00:24:22.900 I got to play the slots. Everyone's winning.

00:24:24.900 It gives you the impression that everywhere that they're paying out huge sums and you got to play because you're going to be a winner, too.

00:24:29.900 Your chance of winning the lottery very low. Your chance of someone somewhere winning the lottery is very high.

00:24:34.900 So what they do with wildfires in all extreme weather is they highlight every single event to show you as though this is some kind of unprecedented record-breaking event.

00:24:44.900 And they combine them all over. You can always find a lottery winner. You can always find a slot machine winner.

00:24:50.900 And they put them all together on the nightly news and the corporate media and they run with it as though it's unprecedented. It's not. We know that on climate timescales, they're not.

00:24:59.900 So that's an important, and then actually a third point, this is important before we talk about wildfires, is they're not even a good metric of climate change.

00:25:08.900 This isn't a good way to measure whether climate change is real or accelerating or happening or man-caused because wildfires depend on land usage, politics, forest management,

00:25:19.900 water diversion, tree maintenance, all sorts of other issues that have nothing to do with carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases, or anything like that.

00:25:28.900 But if you want to play that game, of course, they're down. So we're now finding out whether we're talking Australia or Greece or Italy or Canada or the United States,

00:25:37.900 it's either a majority of fires can be started with arson or, as you mentioned, campfires unintentional. But the point is they're still human-caused.

00:25:45.900 In the case of these arson, a lot of these seem to happen during a time when it's a max impact, meaning dry, hot, and a time where you just wouldn't want to see that happen.

00:25:57.900 And we're finding here in the United States, we just had a major arson event revealed.

00:26:01.900 A Democratic donor, not making this up, Ezra, started a fire in Yellowstone, was being prosecuted for it.

00:26:08.900 This Democratic donor actually gave to Democratic politicians who later then tried to make hay out of these forest fires and wildfires

00:26:16.900 claiming they're caused by climate change, when in reality the fire was caused by a Democratic donor.

00:26:22.900 See, Democratic politicians blaming wildfires on climate change that were actually caused by their own Democratic donors.

00:26:28.900 That's the absurdity we're facing right now in the climate arena, if you will.

00:26:32.900 That's a comment you made on Jesse Waters' show on Fox, and I wanted to ask you for more information about that.

00:26:38.900 Because there are some people, pyromaniacs is a phrase that we used to use, arsonists, people who get a psychological thrill from lighting fires.

00:26:48.900 There are some people who just do it for terrible kicks, who almost like there are some mass shooters who do it for the celebrity.

00:26:57.900 I think that there is a strange psychological thrill that some of these deranged people get.

00:27:03.900 Here's what I want to ask you.

00:27:06.900 And maybe you don't have the information, and if so, that's fine.

00:27:09.900 But I believe you when you say a Democratic donor was the arsonist.

00:27:13.900 Do you think that this was just a deranged person who happened to be a Democrat donor?

00:27:19.900 And it's a coincidence, you know, there are criminals who donate.

00:27:24.900 There are deranged people who donate.

00:27:26.900 And it just is, I mean, I would call it a coincidence.

00:27:31.900 Or do you think that rather than a psychological derangement in the criminal act in that way,

00:27:37.900 do you have any information that the arson was done to promote the narrative of global warming?

00:27:45.900 Because that's a whole different thing. 0.76

00:27:47.900 It's one thing for a crazy pyromaniac to be a Democrat. 1.00

00:27:51.900 I won't be surprised, but frankly, he could be any political stripe.

00:27:55.900 But if the fires were set knowing, aha, this will make the news.

00:28:01.900 This will promote the narrative.

00:28:03.900 This will help wake people up to the threat of global boiling.

00:28:07.900 Do we know if it was a political arson or just a pyromaniac arson?

00:28:13.900 Well, we don't know if it was political.

00:28:15.900 But this was summer of 2002, last summer.

00:28:18.900 His name is, this is not making his name, Edward Wackerman.

00:28:21.900 And he was from California.

00:28:23.900 And he's now been charged.

00:28:25.900 This is according to the Washington Free Beacon.

00:28:27.900 And he's a donor of thousands of dollars to many Democratic candidates.

00:28:30.900 He's being charged with starting the fire with arson.

00:28:33.900 In most cases, and particularly the grease fires, which are occurring right now,

00:28:37.900 the authorities there are basically saying these are people, it's an arsonist mentality.

00:28:42.900 It's twisted.

00:28:43.900 They sort of bring, they get a pleasure.

00:28:44.900 It's pyromania.

00:28:45.900 They get a pleasure out of bringing sort of pain and seeing this massive destruction.

00:28:49.900 It gives them a feeling of power.

00:28:51.900 You can get into the whole psychology of an arsonist.

00:28:53.900 But no.

00:28:54.900 To answer just directly, no.

00:28:55.900 We don't have evidence that he did this to sort of hype it.

00:28:58.900 However, it does make you wonder.

00:29:00.900 I mean, if you think of someone, you know, say someone sabotages a dam and creates a great flood.

00:29:05.900 I wouldn't be surprised if the media then says, hey, look at this.

00:29:08.900 The valley is flooding.

00:29:09.900 This is climate change.

00:29:10.900 I mean, this is the kind of thing you got to start wondering.

00:29:13.900 And it's the same.

00:29:14.900 It's not very far because you have the Harvard Environmental Law Review this year, Ezra,

00:29:19.900 saying that energy companies should be prosecuted for climate deaths because use of fossil fuels is creating wildfires and droughts and tornadoes and hurricanes.

00:29:30.900 It's really, and this isn't our premier environmental journals.

00:29:33.900 This isn't like I'm quoting you a Greenpeace blog.

00:29:36.900 So it's not very far-fetched.

00:29:38.900 And it's not a far-fetched idea to think that someone's mindset could be like, gosh, this forest is dry.

00:29:44.900 And, gosh, we really need Joe Biden to declare a national climate emergency.

00:29:48.900 Let's help him along here.

00:29:50.900 Because whether they do it intentionally or whether they're, as Joe Bastardi, the meteorologist says, climate ambulance chasers, in the end, is there really much difference whether you started intentionally or whether you just, excuse me,

00:30:01.900 or whether you just exploit that bad incident or the wildfire or the hurricane to use it to get political climate emergency declaration and or use it as an excuse to prosecute energy companies or pass the Green New Deal or whatever you're trying to push in the climate agenda.

00:30:20.900 There's really not much difference.

00:30:22.900 You're right.

00:30:23.900 And, of course, the worst people here are the media spin doctors who say this is proof.

00:30:28.900 So whether or not the arsonist was politically minded or just deranged is irrelevant because it's weaponized the same way by the media.

00:30:35.900 But I can't help but think back a few years with the Black Lives Matter riots around America. 0.99

00:30:41.900 And maybe you recall seeing a few people dressed head to toe in black, complete black block anonymity, face covered, black umbrella, who had a specific baton in hand.

00:30:58.140 And to get the riot started, he would go and smash windows, smash, smash, smash, smash, because riots require some sort of starter pistol, the first person to do the first violent thing, and then everybody pours in.

00:31:14.380 And we saw social media footage of people who were clearly agents provocateurs who were clearly going to get this party started, like Ray Epps on January 6th.

00:31:28.460 But in this case, they were completely anonymous.

00:31:31.480 The riot was ready.

00:31:32.500 And so I would be disappointed.

00:31:35.840 I would be scared.

00:31:36.660 I would be shocked, but I would not be surprised if the same bad actors who wanted those riots in the summer of 2020 wanted the arson in the summer of 2023 because it's all just political math for them.

00:31:52.380 It's all just can we get the images?

00:31:54.960 Can we get the social political feeling?

00:31:57.500 If you have people starting riots and they cause burning and they cause death and destruction, why wouldn't they start a fire?

00:32:06.780 In fact, in many ways, it's a lot easier and less risk of being detected.

00:32:11.760 Yeah.

00:32:12.280 In the case of the grease fires, they actually have video of the man actually starting it.

00:32:16.360 And I mean, you can watch this from, I guess there was aerial footage or satellite photo of someone.

00:32:21.100 I think it was a drone.

00:32:22.160 It might have been.

00:32:22.680 It might have been a drone.

00:32:23.580 But to your point, we had many instances here in the United States during the Black Lives Rally burning of cities. 0.96

00:32:31.880 You could call it where they'd show up.

00:32:34.020 You could actually see piles of loose bricks would show up on the sidewalk.

00:32:37.920 And the idea would be to start breaking storefronts, all to sort of ignite that incident.

00:32:43.820 You can go back to the Vietnam War, our government, the Gulf of Tonkin.

00:32:47.040 Anything is always, you always need the spark.

00:32:49.700 The question is, is that you could also refer to this as climate Antifa if they are out there trying to start these wildfires to create this kind of emergency.

00:32:59.740 But the key is they're also on the flip side of that.

00:33:03.720 They really are just kind of the way a school shooting generates the gun control excitement.

00:33:09.240 You know, they'll seize on any opportunity, weaponize it.

00:33:11.680 And they're almost excited when a school shooting happens because then they can start pushing legislation.

00:33:17.220 It's that same thing again.

00:33:18.680 So the question is, and now you're going down a rabbit hole of dark conspiracies, some people would say, of what came first, the chicken or the egg.

00:33:27.180 Ultimately, it may not matter because especially with extreme weather, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, there are always going to be just like there's going to be a lottery winner, just like there's going to be a slot machine winner somewhere.

00:33:38.320 You're always going to have your example and your case to show up and try to, I guess the word would be a psyop.

00:33:44.900 And my phrase this past couple of weeks with the heat wave and the wildfires and the U.N. saying it's global boiling is we're moving now, I think, officially from the COVID psyop to the climate psyop.

00:33:55.160 And, of course, a psyop, just a psychological operation, is a government, you can even see government corporate collusion narrative where all the information is sort of controlled to lead the public into one direction, that this is unprecedented, this is happening.

00:34:10.680 And we need to basically give up more rights in order to fight the climate emergency the same way we had to give up rights to fight the COVID emergency.

00:34:18.100 And right now, this week, now, remember, a week ago, it was two weeks ago, it was the heat wave.

00:34:22.440 And I could go through every one of those claims in the heat wave and have some fun with you to explain in a sentence or less why they were all bogus, unprecedented.

00:34:29.680 They were not unprecedented.

00:34:30.540 But it's shifted now to the wildfires.

00:34:34.060 And what they don't want you to talk about is the lightning strikes and the arson and the intentional firing.

00:34:39.740 And this goes all the way.

00:34:40.700 I mean, in Australia, at one point, they estimated 42 percent were arsonists or unnatural causes.

00:34:47.220 They arrested hundreds of people in one year alone in Australia a few years ago for intentionally setting fires.

00:34:54.520 And Australia, of course, is having their political battle on climate.

00:34:57.220 I can't answer because I haven't seen prosecutors say that any of the actual arsonists were motivated to start these fires.

00:35:05.080 But it's a certainly legitimate and valid question to be asking.

00:35:10.520 Well, and we've seen this used in other jurisdictions.

00:35:13.440 I'm familiar with Israel, where in Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, they would send fire-starting balloons over to Israel.

00:35:24.660 And within Israel proper, the forests were attacked for arson by terrorists.

00:35:31.620 It was a political weapon.

00:35:32.860 In that case, it was designed to genuinely harm the environment, harm the forest, harm the fire department.

00:35:41.360 So they weren't trying to build a political narrative.

00:35:43.700 It was other than you are vulnerable, we are everywhere, you can't protect all of your forests.

00:35:48.440 So terrorists in Israel, terrorists against Israel, have used arson as a weapon.

00:35:55.240 It is not inconceivable that the same kind of eco-terrorists who do horrific things to build awareness would do horrific things here.

00:36:06.900 And by the way, all it takes is one in a million people.

00:36:09.220 Is there one in a million people crazy enough, immoral enough, cold-blooded enough, sociopathic enough that they would start a fire if they thought it was for the right reasons?

00:36:22.760 I think the answer is absolutely, and they'd be normalized. 0.65

00:36:26.500 Last word to you, Mark.

00:36:27.600 Do you think?

00:36:28.560 I just don't think this is ever going to stop.

00:36:32.100 Fires are natural.

00:36:33.480 Well, 200 years ago, forest fires would rage completely uncontrolled over North America.

00:36:39.880 They would wipe out – well, I mean, no one knows how much territory they would wipe out because there are no contemporaneous records.

00:36:45.920 But before European settlement in North America, I can imagine forest fires burned until they burnt out.

00:36:52.200 And by the way, that was a natural thing, and they regenerated, and obviously it was a healthy cycle of nature.

00:36:58.140 There always will be fires from natural causes, and I think that political arson is absolutely something we have to consider.

00:37:08.840 Last word to you.

00:37:10.560 Yeah.

00:37:10.780 In fact, when I did my Amazon rainforest documentary, I interviewed experts and talked to scientists.

00:37:16.300 Going back to, like, 15th century, the indigenous people – people always say, oh, the indigenous people of the world, they're earth-friendly, they live in harmony with the plants and the animals.

00:37:26.280 No.

00:37:27.200 They said you could fly over the Amazon, if you could fly over the Amazon, in the year 1500, you'd see fires all over the place, slash-and-burn agriculture.

00:37:35.300 The American Indian, to use the politically incorrect term, would hunt species to near extinction, buffalo off of cliffs and herding them.

00:37:43.580 So the idea that these fires have been caused by man for years.

00:37:47.280 And the other thing you could argue, interestingly enough, and I've seen evidence of this, the whole – if you're worried about forest fires, you ought to be worried about Smokey the Bear.

00:37:56.700 Smokey the Bear may be responsible.

00:37:58.300 Remember, he was the one that started the early 1970s, the fire suppression ideology among the Green Movement, which infected and we're still dealing with in places like California, where they believe all fire is bad, so we must suppress it constantly, year after year, decade after decade.

00:38:14.160 And what do you do? They're building up a giant tinderbox, and that tinderbox is going to blow, whereas the actual good forest management is you have controlled burns, you keep it thin, you keep it cleared, you don't let the fuel load, i.e. the dead branches and leaves and pine needles grow.

00:38:29.860 So Smokey the Bear might be responsible as well, but I think you're absolutely right when you're dealing with this.

00:38:35.680 It's a valid question, but I'm not aware of any prosecutors anywhere, whether it's Australia, Greece, United States or Canada, who have said this person started it because they are a climate activist and wanted, you know, essentially to put political pressure to make a climate emergency worse or appear worse.

00:38:51.860 But it might just be, Ezra, that our prosecutors aren't asking the right questions and aren't thinking outside the box like that, and I think you're on to something here, very valid.

00:39:00.980 Well, we'll have to keep our eyes peeled. I certainly hope that's not a new kind of political crime, but I just say again, there's such mania out there, drummed up.

00:39:10.700 I mean, this global warming here is so insane. I think it pushes one, even one in a million people pushed to the brink is enough to create terrible things.

00:39:19.040 Mark Morano, boss of ClimateDepot.com. Great to catch up with you again.

00:39:22.860 Thank you, Ezra. I appreciate it.

00:39:23.960 Our pleasure. There you have it. Stay with us. More ahead.

00:39:26.700 Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me.

00:39:39.680 Veranda says, in the last hundred years, we've had summers with 35 to 40 degrees Celsius.

00:39:44.940 Now with climate change, we have the very same 35 to 40 degrees Celsius, however, presented by your local forecast with the map painted in red.

00:39:53.340 Yeah, I mean, it's called summertime, and they really connected to global boiling.

00:39:58.180 We have cold winters, too, but don't you dare say that that's global cooling.

00:40:02.640 Don't you know the difference between weather and climate?

00:40:05.100 J.N.M. Cross says, this may be your most succinct, most correct, most rational commentary yet, Ezra.

00:40:11.740 What about China's unchecked pollution? Is it really about saving lives, saving the earth, saving non-renewable energy sources?

00:40:17.500 Of course not. It's about control, and fear is the shortest and strongest path to control.

00:40:21.760 You know, they really did try out so many new things during the COVID lockdowns that they are going to repeat,

00:40:28.520 from fear to the concept of lockdowns to emergencies to, you know, just two weeks to flatten the curve,

00:40:34.900 just two years till we flatten the curve of, you're going to hear flatten the curve for climate, too.

00:40:40.260 I promise you that.

00:40:42.280 Boy, they learned all the wrong lessons, didn't they?

00:40:44.240 Yeah, but what is so disappointing to me is that it seems to have worked.

00:41:01.880 You know, they did a cabinet shuffle, so many positions like, you know, musical chairs,

00:41:06.860 but really, does it make a difference?

00:41:08.840 First of all, his appointments to cabinet are based on demographic tokenism.

00:41:13.860 It's so clear to me that the people he appoints don't actually do the work.

00:41:19.040 And second of all, I think that we've never had a government more controlled by the center before.

00:41:23.520 It's all controlled out of Trudeau's office.

00:41:25.700 I see gossipy rumors.

00:41:27.220 I don't know if they're confirmed yet, that Gerald Butts is back in Ottawa,

00:41:31.060 helping to run the show and getting ready for the next election.

00:41:33.440 I have not had that confirmed.

00:41:35.140 And that might just be some gossip, but it wouldn't surprise me at all.

00:41:39.100 Gerald Butts, the disgraced former aide to Trudeau, who was ejected from the PMO

00:41:43.860 for his outrageous role in sacking Jody Wilson-Raybould,

00:41:48.400 the former justice minister who opposed Trudeau meddling in court cases.

00:41:52.740 He left in disgrace.

00:41:53.960 But he's been warmly welcomed back by the media party and the political establishment.

00:41:58.480 Doesn't that tell you everything you need to know?

00:42:01.760 Oh, well, we'll keep up the fight.

00:42:03.860 That's our show for today.

00:42:05.140 From all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home,

00:42:07.820 good night and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - July 31, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ The Stratford Festival rewrites Shakespeare — and it’s as bad as you think

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