Rebel News Podcast - Rebel Roundup： Guests Sheila Gunn Reid, Ezra Levant & Ben Davies

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Rebel Roundup, ladies and gentlemen, and the rest of you, in which we look back at

00:00:04.520 some of the very best commentaries of the week by your favourite rebels. I'm your host, David Menzies.

00:00:10.220 Hey, guess which party has the biggest war chest for next year's federal election?

00:00:15.740 Well, it's the media party, of course, thanks to more than half a billion dollars in liberal

00:00:21.460 welfare. Ezra Levent will serve up all the gruesome details. And when it comes to crossing

00:00:28.060 the Canadian-US border, there's apparently an unofficial new rule in 2018. The makers are

00:00:34.740 inconvenienced, but the takers, i.e. the irregulars, receive 24-7 concierge service. Sheila Gunn-Reed

00:00:44.020 shall explain all. And the latest Fantastic Beasts movie is a progressive panacea. So why are the

00:00:52.360 progressives panning this flick? Well, it's not progressive enough. Ben Davies weighs in on this

00:00:59.380 latest unintentional comedy. And finally, we get your letters every minute of every day, and I'll

00:01:05.640 share some of the letters we received regarding my report on the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

00:01:12.100 that was protesting something last weekend. Those are your rebels. Now let's round them up.

00:01:22.360 Hey guys, I really need your help because Justin Trudeau is doing something terrible to the news

00:01:33.540 media in Canada, and I want you to hear about it from me because most of the rest of the news media

00:01:38.700 themselves are compromised. Here's the basic facts. With less than a year to go until the next federal

00:01:45.280 election, Trudeau has set up a massive $595 million slush fund for private sector journalists. He

00:01:53.400 already controls most news reporters in the country because they work for the CBC government

00:01:59.140 broadcaster. But that's not enough for Trudeau. Now he wants to compromise the rest of them. And get this,

00:02:07.560 Trudeau will only give the money to what he calls trusted news organizations. But he doesn't mean

00:02:14.300 journalists that the public trusts. He means journalists that he trusts. Well, that's not a

00:02:20.260 real journalist at all. A politician should live in some degree of fear about journalists, fear that

00:02:25.420 they'll ask him a tough question or find out about a scandal. It's unnatural for journalists to agree

00:02:30.480 to be tamed like this, but it's already happening. A couple of weeks ago, the big left-wing journalists

00:02:35.620 union declared their support for Trudeau and announced a campaign paid for by those journalists'

00:02:40.860 own union dues to fight for Trudeau in the next election. That's a terrible conflict of interest

00:02:47.040 for reporters to be spending their own money campaigning for or against the politicians they

00:02:52.180 cover. But it was a quid pro quo. In return, Trudeau will give them $595 million. So they sold out

00:03:02.200 their journalistic ethics. But it's not just left-wing journalists. Look at how the National Post is

00:03:08.120 cheering this news. They used to be conservative critics of Trudeau. Now read what they have to

00:03:13.440 say. Here's their CEO. I tip my hat to the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister. They deserve a

00:03:19.720 lot of credit, said Godfrey. Everyone in journalism should be doing a victory lap around their building

00:03:25.300 right now. Yeah, so much for the National Post. And as they say in Vegas, folks, the fix is in.

00:03:31.860 From a leftist state broadcaster that annually receives about $1.5 billion to a union-representing

00:03:39.260 journalist that plans to serve as a cheerleading squad for the Liberals to a nearly $600 million

00:03:46.100 bailout for approved media outlets, it's official. The most well-funded political party going into next

00:03:54.800 year's federal election is the media party. And joining me now with more on this story is

00:04:00.840 Rebel Commander Ezra Levent. Welcome to Rebel Roundup, Ezra.

00:04:03.820 Well, it's a pleasure. It's amazing. You know, all the kerfuffle in the United States about

00:04:09.300 meddling in the election was over a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of Facebook ads

00:04:14.980 that, if you look at them, were confusing. They were pointless. To think that $100,000 would have

00:04:21.520 swayed the mighty United States election where $2 billion were spent. It's a laugh.

00:04:27.380 And here we have Justin Trudeau, less than a year before the re-election, giving $595 million

00:04:35.400 in a country one-tenth the size. And what's clear is he said he will only give that money

00:04:43.080 to media he can trust. That was the word, trust. Well, what does that mean?

00:04:48.000 A journalist should never be able to trust the media. A journalist should always be a little

00:04:53.820 bit afraid of the media. If you are trustworthy media in the eyes of a politician, that means

00:05:00.000 you're never going to ask him tough questions. You're never going to embarrass him. You're never

00:05:04.700 going to do investigations into him. You'll give him the benefit of doubt every time. You'll carry his

00:05:10.780 water on issues from open borders, mass immigration, to carbon tax, to whatever. You'll ignore his sexual

00:05:18.900 assault of Rose Knight in Creston, BC. You'll paper over his gaffes, like Peoplekind, or his dancing

00:05:25.960 in costumes in India. When he says he will give $595 million to media, but only those that he can trust,

00:05:33.740 he's basically saying, I expect every journalist in this country to be on my team. The laugh is

00:05:41.640 most of them were anyway. And Ezra, here's the deal. When it comes to the approved publications

00:05:47.860 and the approved journalists, the liberals don't have to go out and have like a checklist saying,

00:05:53.520 here's what you can and cannot cover. The implication, it will already be there. By that, I mean,

00:05:59.560 if I'm a journalist in the print media industry, that's a sunset industry. It is withering away,

00:06:05.800 less subscribers, less advertisers. I'm a journalist. I got to provide for my family.

00:06:11.300 I come across a tip, something juicy about the liberal government or Trudeau. This is a real good

00:06:16.320 investigative story. But wait a minute, do I bite the hand that feeds? So I'm going to probably bury

00:06:22.220 that. Yeah. You know, I've been watching a couple of my friends in the mainstream media react.

00:06:27.780 And let me just name two of them. Paul Godfrey, who's the CEO of Post Media. And I got to confess,

00:06:33.240 I like Paul. Because he's so candid. He's not a liar. He says he's in the business to get a return

00:06:41.460 for shareholders, or actually with Post Media, it's the debt holders. He's not in this. Like,

00:06:47.360 Conrad Black was an ideological warrior. Paul Godfrey has never said that's him. So when this

00:06:54.160 announcement came out a couple of days ago, Paul Godfrey said, massive credit to Trudeau and

00:06:59.800 Morneau. This is saving the industry. Every journalist should take a victory lap around

00:07:05.460 the building. So in case any one of Post Media's journalists was wondering what the official

00:07:10.400 opinion to hold was, they just heard it.

00:07:14.240 Oh, and I just kind of interject, because you are talking about the National Post.

00:07:17.620 Here's another conflicting part of this bailout. When you look at, say, the financial post section,

00:07:23.760 the National Post, which has long, and I've been a day one subscriber of the National Post until

00:07:28.620 recently, since October 98, when it started publishing. When you see the likes of the columnist

00:07:34.860 in the op-ed page and the financial post decrying bailouts to Bombardier, Chrysler, General Motors,

00:07:41.060 I'm sorry, guys, your street cred is gone.

00:07:43.420 Well, and that's the thing. It's not just the quid pro quo. I'll give you 595 million,

00:07:49.520 you go easy on me. That's sort of the bargain. That's a trade. It's very clearly what Jerry Diaz

00:07:56.380 of the Unifor Media Union has done. But just as bad, or worse in some ways, is there are some

00:08:04.200 honorable, idealistic, conservative, or right of center journalists in this country.

00:08:10.760 It's not that I'm worried that the Financial Post, which has some of the good ones,

00:08:14.520 the Toronto Sun has a lot of good ones. It's not that I'm worried that all of a sudden they're going

00:08:19.120 to say, well, Justin Trudeau phoned me up and said, cancel this story. It's that when you take

00:08:27.040 money that you have railed against for decades, when you take a handout, how can you in good conscience

00:08:34.360 criticize a bombardier, criticize overspending, criticize corporate welfare? It's not even that

00:08:42.380 you made a deal with Justin Trudeau, quid pro quo. It's that you are yourself in on it.

00:08:51.360 And so how can you... And this is a tactic that in the former Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc,

00:08:57.600 how do you deal with a dissident? And I know this is a dramatic difference because, of course,

00:09:01.920 I'm not comparing Justin Trudeau to the Soviets, and I'm not comparing a conservative journalist

00:09:07.980 to a refusenik in the Soviet Union. But the principle is the same, and it's this.

00:09:12.660 How do you take out a dissident? In the Soviet Union, you could kill them,

00:09:17.140 but that's messy and it might create a martyr. But if you can corrupt them, if you can make them,

00:09:25.800 and in the case of the Stasi and the KGB, can you make them turn in one of their own to get

00:09:33.700 themselves off the hook, to buy themselves a nice house, to get a family member out of trouble?

00:09:38.440 If you can make a dissident destroy his own morals, violate his own code, you haven't killed him,

00:09:47.520 you haven't done anything objectionable in the public eye, you've caused that dissident to destroy

00:09:55.080 the one, the little flame inside him, you've snuffed it out. So once a dissident would turn

00:10:01.100 in a friend or a family member or a colleague or an ally to the KGB or the Stasi, they, it was like

00:10:07.360 you snuffed out their own dissident nature because they could know, because the great strength that

00:10:12.180 the dissident had in the Soviet Union was their moral purity. They had nothing else, but they had

00:10:18.520 that left. And you can't take that away from a guy, but if you make a guy throw it away for a few

00:10:25.180 moments of comfort, you've snuffed out the flame. And that's the thing, when post media takes the

00:10:31.980 money, when the sun takes the money, they can never again have that righteous indignation that we need.

00:10:38.580 And you know, I can already hear from the usual suspects, criticism, oh, listen to Ezra,

00:10:44.240 listen to this speculation. It's not speculation. Ezra, there is proof in the pudding. Look what's

00:10:48.860 happened to McLean's magazine that gets almost $2 million a year in government bailout. I don't know

00:10:54.120 how. It's owned by Rogers, one of the huge multi-billion corporations. But you've got journalists that are

00:11:01.180 basically writing public relations for Mr. Drill. You've got Scott Gilmore, one of the editors at

00:11:09.220 large, the house husband for Ms. McKenna, and even writing columns that Canada is not a real country,

00:11:16.960 but we will take that government of Canada check that comes in. This McLean's magazine is not the

00:11:22.720 McLean's magazine when Barbara Meal was the editor, certainly. We have seen the corruption process

00:11:28.520 play out. Yeah. I mean, McLean's magazine has been a liberal PR magazine for three years, really. So

00:11:36.880 this $595 million is just the, I mean, it won't even make them, they can't be any more pro-Trudeau.

00:11:44.080 But for, I mean, Andrew Coyne, Paul Wells, Chantali Baer, David Aiken, Matt Gurney, Chris Selle. These are

00:11:54.820 the names of some of the journalists who work, who have publicly in the last week claimed to object

00:12:02.840 to this money. But every single one of them will take the money. Every single one of them will. And so

00:12:12.100 Trudeau, they can either say, oh, I'm against this. I'm against this. And maybe that's useful

00:12:18.500 to Trudeau. So he could say, look, look how independent these journalists are. They're really

00:12:22.420 mad at me. But it's a controlled opposition. But really, I don't think that shtick works. I mean,

00:12:30.140 David Aiken, who's an old colleague of ours from the Sunday's Network,

00:12:34.220 oh, I'm really, really, really mad about this. Well, I tweeted to him. I said, well, David,

00:12:39.680 you're a member of the Uniform Union M1 and Media 1. And here's your bylaws. And if one quarter of your

00:12:50.980 members request a meeting on this, the union has to have a meeting within 60 days and you can pass

00:12:56.220 a motion against this. Have you made the request? Oh, Ezra, these things take time. You know that.

00:13:03.000 Well, yeah, it takes 60 days. I've read the bylaws. Have you taken steps? No answer from him. And my

00:13:08.520 point is, I mean, I like David and I like some of the other names I've mentioned more, some more than

00:13:13.780 others. They have all made the choice that that Soviet dissident would make. Do I go to the gulag

00:13:21.080 or do I name someone else and he goes and I have some comfort and I've given up my more, I mean,

00:13:27.860 Andrew Coyne and Paul Wells in particular, I'm not picking on them. I'm just saying that they're

00:13:31.340 journalists who have squawked against this. You should never believe them in the first place

00:13:35.780 because they were happy to take those fat, fat checks from the CBC. They've both been CBC pundits

00:13:40.220 forever. I think Coyne makes either 500 or 1,000 bucks in appearance. It's an enormous amount of

00:13:45.520 money. So don't tell me that you're against government money while you're pocketing government

00:13:50.780 money. You have to live it. And they're hypocrites. And the Sun News Network tried to be conservative.

00:13:59.340 It was shut down by the CRTC. National Post tried to be conservative. It's taking the bribe.

00:14:05.080 I really think, David, that the rebel is really the last independent media outfit in the whole

00:14:10.540 country. We set up a little webpage called youcantbuyus.com where we're inviting people

00:14:16.340 to chip in voluntarily because the 595 million bucks, that's being taken out of the pockets of

00:14:21.780 every Canadian whether they like it or not. So what I'm saying to Canadians is you were forced to

00:14:26.980 subsidize your enemies, maybe voluntarily help your friends.

00:14:31.000 Ezra, we have to wrap it here. There's so many angles. And folks, if you do want to support the

00:14:36.320 cause, please go to youcantbuyus.com and chip in a few bucks for really the last independent

00:14:42.440 non-Trudeau liberal media outlet. And for all you newspapers that are going to take this kind of

00:14:48.860 prostitution money from the Trudeau liberals, I've got your headline written for your next edition.

00:14:53.820 When it comes to credibility, going, going, gone. Keep it here. More Rebel Roundup to come right after this.

00:15:08.280 While they live in Canada every day, many of them cross the border to go to work in the United

00:15:14.720 States at Polaris Industries or Marvin Windows or any number of the other local businesses in

00:15:20.700 Rosso, Minnesota. Piney is a perfect example of how closely linked us Canadians are to our

00:15:27.020 friends along the other side of the longest undefended border in the world. But it's also a

00:15:33.320 perfect example of how the liberals favor people who cross that very same border illegally over people

00:15:41.400 like those in Piney who have been doing it legally for generations. You see, on November 26,

00:15:48.020 the Canadian Border Services Agency is reducing the hours at the points of entry at South Junction,

00:15:54.780 Piney and Tolstoy, Manitoba. The Piney border crossing, which right now operates from 9 a.m. to 10

00:16:01.120 p.m., will be reduced by five hours. So the new hours of service will be between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

00:16:08.060 What this means is that people who live in Piney only have an eight-hour window to get to work in the

00:16:14.300 United States. And that doesn't include their commute time. Likewise, with medical appointments

00:16:20.380 and medical emergencies, still just an eight-hour window. And kids who played sports on teams across

00:16:26.780 the border, well, they can pretty well forget about playing sports this year. According to local

00:16:32.240 conservative MP Ted Falk, this will result in huge detours to other border crossings for people just

00:16:38.860 to get home from work. The next closest border crossing is a half an hour east, resulting in a

00:16:45.200 full hour added on to everyday commutes. Well, welcome to the new normal when it comes to crossing

00:16:51.620 the border thanks to the Trudeau Liberals. If you're an irregular member of people kind, well, 0.95

00:16:57.800 the Royal Canadian Bellhop Police will gladly carry your luggage to the nearest processing centre to ensure

00:17:03.940 those benefits start rolling in. But if you're a law-abiding, hard-working Canadian taxpayer,

00:17:12.040 well, sorry, loser, the Trudeau Liberals are suddenly fiscal conservatives as they embrace

00:17:17.840 cost-cutting measures that will make life a whole lot more inconvenient for you. Yes, ironically,

00:17:25.500 those very people who are paying taxes to ensure that the irregulars get full benefits, 0.99

00:17:32.420 well, they are the ones that are now being inconvenienced. Lovely. And with more on this

00:17:38.960 egregious story, I'm joined now by Sheila Gunn-Reed, host of The Gunn Show. Welcome to Rebel Roundup,

00:17:44.300 my friend. Hey, David. Thanks for having me back on. It's always a pleasure. Now, Sheila,

00:17:49.100 I don't have any skin in this game, given that I'm not a resident of Piney, Manitoba. But wow,

00:17:55.440 my blood is boiling over this, nevertheless. For starters, what is the ostensible policy reason

00:18:02.320 for the cutback on operating hours at the Manitoba-Minnesota border crossing in the first

00:18:08.420 place? Well, it's cost-cutting measures. All of a sudden, all of a sudden, the Liberals

00:18:13.620 are fiscal conservatives when it comes to law-abiding rural folks just trying to get across

00:18:19.380 the border to see their families, for their kids to play hockey, to have their babies, go to the

00:18:24.940 doctor, have life-saving medical interventions, or go to work. These people are literally just

00:18:30.460 trying to go to work so that they can pay taxes to fund infrastructure like border facilities.

00:18:38.760 Yeah, indeed. I mean, this isn't about inconveniencing Canadians who want to cross the border to take

00:18:44.700 advantage of Black Friday sales once in a blue moon. This is about people in Piney, as you said,

00:18:51.120 they work at Polaris Industries, Marvin Windows on the Minnesota side. They're trying to earn a living,

00:18:57.720 and those hours are really going to be a huge inconvenience for them.

00:19:04.540 Yeah, they're only keeping the border open for eight hours. So how do you work your eight,

00:19:08.740 10, or 12-hour shift at the window plant when the border is only open for eight hours?

00:19:14.020 This is going to add, I did the math, I plugged it all into Google Maps, it's going to add at least

00:19:20.440 an hour of commute every single day for these people to get to work, at least an hour. In some

00:19:28.080 instances, it could be even as high as two hours, and that's if the border isn't busy. But when you're

00:19:33.560 closing one border crossing and limiting those hours, of course, it causes a backup at other border

00:19:39.580 crossings. And there's something also, you know, a little more troubling at play. These people,

00:19:46.080 many of them are dual citizens, because they were born in Minnesota, because that's this community's

00:19:53.680 closest hospital is over in Roseau, Manitoba. So, or Roseau, Minnesota, excuse me. So, I mean,

00:19:59.680 this isn't something that's new. This isn't a new problem. This is a way of life in Piney. They rely 0.98

00:20:05.500 on Minnesota just to survive, and Trudeau's cutting them off, while at the same time building

00:20:11.700 permanent infrastructure at illegal border crossings to make it more comfortable for

00:20:17.760 people to cross from upstate New York into Quebec.

00:20:21.600 Yeah, absolutely amazing. And Sheila, I'm going to take this argument in a different direction.

00:20:26.740 Where is climate Barbie on this file? Because all this extra commuting, all this waiting in line

00:20:34.120 as you idle, and idling emissions are the worst kind of emissions that come out of a tailpipe.

00:20:40.280 Isn't this increasing, you know, the carbon footprint of the people of Piney, Manitoba?

00:20:46.280 Isn't this hastening the death of mother planet Earth? 0.96

00:20:50.540 Of course it is. But you know what? There's all those people who are walking across the border.

00:20:54.860 So that's saving on carbon emissions. It's like carbon offsets, David. You just have to learn

00:20:59.520 how to do the math.

00:21:01.200 But tell me, I've never been to this border crossing, Sheila. Can you paint a picture of

00:21:07.560 what it's like? Like, if it's closed, is there a way to cross it anyways, if there's no staff there?

00:21:15.000 Or, I mean, you know, I'm thinking, what's the worst that could happen to somebody crossing

00:21:20.800 irregularly? Getting free dental benefits, perhaps?

00:21:25.460 Getting $50,000 from the government for the year? Is that what you mean?

00:21:30.460 No. No, these people are, they're law-abiding folks. They are absolutely going to go out of

00:21:35.560 their way and inconvenience themselves and cost themselves more in fuel to do things the right

00:21:41.200 way. But on the flip side, we are rewarding people who break the laws of the country to

00:21:48.880 get into the country with free hotel accommodations in Toronto. That's a story that just came out

00:21:54.980 today. In the National Post, they're reporting that just in Toronto alone, from August to October,

00:22:01.140 so three months, it cost $2.3 million to house illegal border crossers in hotels. If we roll that

00:22:07.860 out for the year, it's anywhere from $9 to $10 million. So we're not exactly concerned about

00:22:13.840 cost-cutting measures when it comes to cross-border issues, except when it affects the law-abiding rural

00:22:19.280 folks of Piney, Manitoba.

00:22:21.060 Well, I'm sorry, Sheila, but quoting the National Post these days, now that it's about to become

00:22:26.360 an unofficial government organ thanks to taxpayer subsidies, I don't think they have any street

00:22:33.040 cred to go after any kind of fiscal handouts anymore. But you know, to me, Sheila, this is

00:22:39.720 disturbing. And it's part of the bigger narrative that we've seen with the Trudeau liberals in the

00:22:44.480 last three years. And it's this, if you're a maker, if you're a law-abiding Canadian taxpayer,

00:22:51.380 you're at the bottom of the totem pole, if I can use that metaphor these days. But if you're a taker,

00:22:57.540 Oh, yeah, I know. But if you're a taker, you are at the front of the line. We want you. We will

00:23:03.860 accommodate you. We'll have RCMP constables carry your bloody Gucci luggage even. I mean,

00:23:10.760 to me, as a law-abiding Canadian as well, as you are, as I'm assuming most of our audiences,

00:23:18.860 this is blood boiling, Sheila.

00:23:20.760 Well, and you know, there's also something that maybe you don't feel in Ontario quite as much as

00:23:28.540 we do out here on the prairies. But it's this disdain for people who live on the prairies,

00:23:34.300 these hardworking salt of the earth folks. I think it's sort of the same thing that they

00:23:39.460 have in the United States, where they talk about flyover country being ignored by the elites.

00:23:44.680 In Canada, in the West, and on the prairies, we're the flyover people. We have these elitist people

00:23:50.560 in sort of Toronto to Montreal, making the rules for the rest of us and how we have to live with

00:23:57.080 no consideration for our lifestyle and our, you know, I would suggest probably a distinct culture

00:24:04.240 we have here on the prairies. And this is just another instance of that, whether it's, you know,

00:24:10.060 Trudeau's attacks on law-abiding gun owners or cross-border working folks on the prairies.

00:24:17.160 It's just a symptom of that sort of Laurentian elite mentality.

00:24:22.220 Unbelievable. Well, Sheila, we're going to have to wrap it here. Hopefully, you'll button up your 0.89

00:24:27.460 sweater there because I think you're wearing one of your pro-life t-shirts. I don't want one of the

00:24:31.800 soy boys out there to give you a roundhouse kick to the shoulder, right? So, although I think you

00:24:37.680 could take those guys, don't get me wrong. But Sheila, thank you so much again for weighing in

00:24:42.120 on this issue. Thanks for having me on, David. You got it. And that was Sheila Gunn-Reed in Alberta.

00:24:48.380 Folks, keep it here. More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this. 0.84

00:24:59.080 JK thought she had it made. More money than a Middle Eastern sheik. More praise than a president. 0.99

00:25:03.640 And millions of loyal fans. But what's more important than all those trivial things,

00:25:07.680 JK Rowling wore her progressive badge proudly. Starting Twitter wars with Trump supporters.

00:25:12.620 Slamming Brexit organizers as racist and bigots. Being an open LGBTIQ activist. And generally

00:25:18.620 just mocking Trump on the reg. I mean, what could go wrong? Well, when you legitimize the beliefs

00:25:22.800 and values of the unappeasable, they come for you. Well, the newest movie in the series,

00:25:26.840 The Crimes of Grindelwald, opened with the lowest opening in the history of the franchise.

00:25:31.120 Many point to the critical complaints levied at the film as the problem. Not by conservative critics,

00:25:35.960 but left-wing critics. So let's just go through a few, shall we?

00:25:39.400 One, Johnny Depp, the man who had already been eaten by the left, was cast as one of the leads. And the

00:25:44.200 internet went wild. That a man who had sexual assault allegations from his estranged ex-wife that have

00:25:48.380 not been substantiated, was allowed to be on screen again. And let me emphasize, we still don't know

00:25:52.800 what happened. But him being allowed on screen threatened the very safety of leftists. The Twitter

00:25:57.120 world saying thanks to JK Rowling like, quote, remember that letter you wrote me when I was 15,

00:26:00.720 explicitly saying that the Harry Potter world would always be a safe haven from abuse, would always be

00:26:05.320 there to protect and comfort me? Well, shove it, JK. Another complaint that derailed this film was

00:26:10.340 that the movie wasn't gay enough. JK Rowling talked openly about one of the main characters,

00:26:15.740 Dumbledore, being gay. But since this children's movie only hinted at the fact that he was homosexual, 0.71

00:26:20.880 Vanity Fair put it, quote, the worst part is that this film tries to have its cake and eat it too.

00:26:25.320 It throws a few bones alluding to Dumbledore and Grindelwald's relationship, unquote. Because,

00:26:30.180 you know, kids don't want to see magic on screen. They want to see two dudes playing Tongue Twister.

00:26:34.380 Holy abracadabra, looks like the latest installment in the Fantastic Beasts franchise is not so fantastic

00:26:42.520 after all. Well, at least not when it comes to the perpetually offended progressives. Apparently,

00:26:49.220 there's just not enough social justice warriorism on screen. From the casting of Johnny Depp to the

00:26:56.660 fact that the movie was too much sorcery and not enough Brokeback Mountain. Yikes. And with more

00:27:05.040 on this feel-good flop is our Tinseltown rebel, Ben Davies. Welcome to Rebel Roundup, Ben.

00:27:11.460 Oh, just thank you so much for having me. This is just Christmas. It came early to talk about this movie.

00:27:15.660 Well, you know, the funny thing is, Ben, it looks like J.K. Rowley is learning the hard way. And that

00:27:23.320 is when it comes to appeasing the loony left, their appetite is insatiable. And if you don't

00:27:30.160 coddle them enough, then you're not an ally anymore. You're an aggressor. Does one laugh or weep, Ben?

00:27:37.680 I have to laugh. I think this is absolutely insane. When you try to appease people that live

00:27:43.480 off that rage, getting frustrated, getting offended at stuff, there is no limit to what they will get

00:27:48.500 offended by. And you give them a foot and they'll still complain about the other foot they didn't

00:27:53.060 get. And that's just exactly what happened with this movie. And J.K. is learning this the hard way

00:27:57.020 while completely sacrificing her stories and narrative to try to appease that. 0.93

00:28:01.340 And Ben, let's take this movie apart in terms of the problems with it,

00:28:06.160 according to the progressive left, which it's meant to appease. For example, you alluded to

00:28:12.360 it's not gay enough. I mean, what were these people looking for, especially in a movie that I would 1.00

00:28:20.840 imagine skews to a younger demographic? Yeah, I mean, that's exactly what it was. It just wasn't

00:28:27.420 quite gay enough, which is always what you think when you go into a movie. It's like, it was a good movie,

00:28:32.060 but if it could be a little more gay, that's, that's what I want. And that's what happened with 0.90

00:28:35.580 this movie that J.K. Rowling came out and said, Dumbledore, who, you know, is the guiding force

00:28:39.840 of the movie. There's always that character that mentors the younger people in any hero journey story.

00:28:44.140 And Dumbledore was that character. And she came out saying that, yes, he is homosexual. And in this

00:28:48.060 movie, you explore his younger years. And this is alluded through throughout the movie about his

00:28:52.300 special friend, this incredible bond he had with this guy with Grindelwald. And it's explicitly shown

00:28:57.660 out, especially explicitly told, but it's never shown to come to fruition on camera.

00:29:02.420 So it was Variety magazine, Variety magazine even came out and said, these people were just trying

00:29:08.720 to have their cake and eat it. They wanted to elude at homosexuality, but not offend people that 0.91

00:29:13.420 didn't want to bring their kids to a movie to see two dudes playing tongue twister. Like that was their

00:29:17.640 whole problem. It was just insane. And they tried, but they couldn't appease, obviously.

00:29:22.320 Well, you know, Ben, maybe in the director's cut DVD, they can have a scene where Dumbledore and his

00:29:28.260 special friend are driving in a convertible Saab or something. But the other thing now is Snake

00:29:34.920 Girl is played by Claudia Kim, who is a Korean actress, of course. And this is offensive because

00:29:42.220 this is a bad character. And I guess we can only have white males play bad guys or something.

00:29:51.100 Educate me here, Ben.

00:29:52.880 Dave, this is 2018. They're obviously trying to perpetuate women of color being submissive and 1.00

00:29:58.600 dominated by white men. I don't know how you didn't see this when she was cast. Yeah, that's 0.53

00:30:02.740 literally what they're saying. And I feel so bad for Claudia Kim. As any actress that works to try to book 0.96

00:30:07.200 one of these major roles, to have people on the left try to say that you are a part of perpetuating

00:30:12.780 this harmful stereotype, are you taking this role? That annoys me to literally no end. And then it

00:30:18.140 also just shows the insanity of the left, begging for diversity, but only in the roles that they deem

00:30:22.080 are worthy for these people to take. It's just absolutely ridiculous. And it's just the same

00:30:26.380 just horrible disease that's popping up in all these movies. And it's damaging people on all sides.

00:30:31.260 It's terrible.

00:30:31.860 And Ben, let's take this argument to the extreme. As you said, it's 2018. So the new rules are if

00:30:38.460 there was a movie that required a Latino character, it has to be a Latino actor and nobody else playing

00:30:45.260 that character. So in this movie, I see a whole bunch of witches out there. Are these people members

00:30:53.560 of the Wiccan faith? Because if not, I think that's a major fail. 0.73

00:30:57.320 Yeah, it's Wiccan appropriation. It's just, it's gross what's happening in 2018. I can't believe

00:31:02.380 we're not woken up to see this. It's just so stupid when this happens. And they're even trying

00:31:06.960 to bring more diversity to the original script and story because it's taking place, you know,

00:31:10.560 back in the day in a different period in London. But they wanted to include an Asian character and

00:31:13.980 they get in trouble because it was the wrong character to make Asian. It's just,

00:31:18.280 oh, I just can't handle it. It's just so stupid. But I love that it's happening to someone that is so

00:31:23.800 fighting for progressive, you know, progressive roles and making movies that are more correct,

00:31:27.880 progressive, and then her being absolutely eaten in the process. JK is taking a lot of heat

00:31:31.740 for these choices. Well, you know what? Progressive Hollywood and the actors that populate it,

00:31:37.440 I think Ben should be careful what they wish for. And by that, I mean, you know, you can duplicate

00:31:43.780 anything, including actors by CGI. I mean, so I'm wondering if in the future, because the creators of

00:31:53.480 these films don't want this kind of social media hate on, maybe they'll just go the Polar Express

00:32:00.100 route and everybody will be like an animated form of an actual human being. And it's not a real person.

00:32:07.360 It's just a character played by computer bits and bytes. And we're home free. Is that a possibility,

00:32:13.700 Ben? Well, I think that's very dehumanizing of you to even suggest. It's offensive to people who,

00:32:20.620 you know, are proud of who they are and their organic skin and not the digital form.

00:32:25.060 So I don't know how you would possibly get that through one of the studios. No, I mean,

00:32:29.320 you still would have people that would have to play those roles. But I hope it doesn't get to that

00:32:33.340 point. Hopefully we go back to, you know, people just not being crazy. And the left just learns

00:32:38.020 that this is an absolutely stupid thing, which you're seeing that it's starting to eat itself a

00:32:41.720 little bit. I covered this in the Bill Maher story, where now people are like, wait, this has actually

00:32:45.260 gone too far. We're allowing people and reinforcing the idea that when you're offended,

00:32:48.660 we will change the world to fit however you feel instead of being like, get up, grow up and get

00:32:53.560 over it like that. We're going to start to get back to that once the left continues to eat itself

00:32:57.320 like we're seeing. And Ben, on that note, last question, as you mentioned in your commentary,

00:33:02.440 this had the lowest opening in terms of a weekend box office and the whole Harry Potter universe

00:33:09.140 franchise. I'm wondering. And so I interpret that as, you know, people out there aren't buying what

00:33:14.960 they're selling. So when there's the next Fantastic Beasts movie, what I'm wondering is,

00:33:21.460 do the producers double down on the whole progressive social justice narrative and become

00:33:27.540 even more uber politically correct? Or did they just say, you know what the hell with this? Let's

00:33:31.780 just make a good story driven, character driven movie and not get into all this political rubbish

00:33:39.260 because we can't win. You cannot appease these people.

00:33:44.580 I think if I was going to bet on if the progressive types would come back to reality,

00:33:49.040 I would say no. And then they're going to completely double down. I think other stories

00:33:52.500 are going to pop up that are great. They're going to get a chance to get into the limelight. I think

00:33:56.260 this is already sold. It's sold to the devil here. And I think so has the Star Wars franchise.

00:34:00.720 Now they signed Kathleen Kennedy on for three more movies. They didn't learn from the massive outrage 0.99

00:34:04.860 of the last two movies, basically. So I don't see that happening. I see other franchises popping up.

00:34:09.080 I am worried when they are going to reboot Lord of the Rings at some point, they're going to be

00:34:12.420 like, you know what? This was a very white cast. This is not a very diverse sexually cast. We're

00:34:16.140 going to change all these classic characters in who they are and how they behave, who they sleep

00:34:22.900 with and the color of their skin. I think they might try to do that with movies they're rebooting.

00:34:26.420 But I think these are going to continue to tank. And then new movies that are great stories will get

00:34:29.600 opportunities to come up and be made. Wow. What a tragedy. Anyways, Ben,

00:34:34.700 listen, I appreciate your insight. I don't know how you survive day-to-day living in Hollywood,

00:34:41.340 the ground zero for progressive thinking. But thank you once again for your insight.

00:34:46.800 Oh, no problem, man. Thanks for having me. You got it. And that was Ben Davies in Hollywood,

00:34:51.340 folks. Keep it here. More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.

00:34:54.600 Well, I'm standing in front of Deco Labels. This is Doug Ford's business. And it's going

00:35:07.420 to be the site of a protest by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. They're upset about

00:35:13.340 things such as the minimum wage not increasing by a dollar and the reduction of sick days. And

00:35:19.740 of course, this is being interpreted as a war on the poor. They don't mention the tax cuts that the

00:35:25.360 Ford government gave to low-income individuals recently. But a couple of things strike me about

00:35:31.820 this protest. First of all, as you can see, folks, it's a Saturday. The business is closed. There's

00:35:38.040 no one here for the protesters to interact with. And secondly, the primary target of their protest,

00:35:46.600 Doug Ford. He's just about three kilometers away at the Toronto Congress Centre as part of the

00:35:53.660 Ontario PC Convention. So I'm not sure these guys have their coordinates quite where they should be.

00:36:01.820 What is your point, though? You want an alternative to oil?

00:36:05.060 It's a killer. Yes. Okay. Well, what is that?

00:36:08.340 Uh, the lithium crystals?

00:36:12.980 Go talk to Nazis. 0.55

00:36:15.800 Who's the Nazi?

00:36:17.080 Yeah, you guys. I know all about you guys.

00:36:19.880 Oh, yeah?

00:36:20.480 Yeah, I even kicked out Finkoli. Goodbye. 1.00

00:36:23.080 Okay.

00:36:23.700 Wow.

00:36:24.360 Hi, ma'am. What does your sign mean, Canadian Pussy Power? 1.00

00:36:28.060 What's it mean? Well, it initially was my personal response to the,

00:36:33.900 the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States.

00:36:41.040 Oh, okay. So, like you're recycling your sign, I guess, or?

00:36:44.620 No, I think Mr. Ford is just taking all his steps from Mr. Trump.

00:36:50.120 Oh, okay. Then, um, some would say that might be a good thing, though.

00:36:54.040 Definitely not.

00:36:55.500 Okay.

00:36:56.180 Try to figure out what Canadian pussy power has to do with minimum wage. 1.00

00:36:59.600 Hell, you're asking me that?

00:37:04.040 Why are you asking me that?

00:37:05.980 Don't I pronounce it with who I am here?

00:37:08.740 Do you need to read my, my buttons?

00:37:11.520 Well, the rank and file of OCAP and other assorted nuts were protesting something.

00:37:16.640 As you saw, they had a very hard time articulating exactly why they had gathered

00:37:22.380 outside Premier Ford's Deco Labels building.

00:37:26.020 In any event, here's what some of you had to say about all this sound and fury signifying nothing.

00:37:33.400 Snarly writes,

00:37:34.720 They forgot that when wages go up, so does everything else.

00:37:38.400 I'm now in the position of closing my store due to the higher costs.

00:37:43.360 Thanks a lot.

00:37:44.520 Sorry to hear about your situation, Snarly, but this is indeed why the marketplace, not the government,

00:37:51.680 should determine what the so-called minimum wage should be.

00:37:55.300 And even those that remain in business will cope by reducing staff and hours

00:38:01.420 and even switching to automation, such as self-checkout kiosks.

00:38:06.760 Does it sound like a win for the rank and file to me?

00:38:10.140 Paul Evans writes,

00:38:12.600 And yet they didn't protest against the last government that basically bankrupted the province.

00:38:19.100 You know, that's a good point, Paul.

00:38:20.580 But then again, speaking of liberals, maybe they all thought the budget was going to balance itself.

00:38:27.300 Hope for the Planet writes,

00:38:29.340 I wonder why some of these alt-left Marxist hashtag blue lunatics can't simply be polite. 0.59

00:38:37.520 Just because you disagree with a person's political views, you don't have to treat them as though they are the enemy.

00:38:44.880 Indeed, but I regret to inform you, Hope, that civility is on its deathbed these days.

00:38:50.820 And the mindset at these protests seems to be,

00:38:54.520 if you have nothing of substance to say, then shout it.

00:38:59.540 And Mickey O writes,

00:39:00.640 I think David Menzies has accidentally encountered the cast from The Walking Dead.

00:39:06.120 They don't have to pretend to be mindless zombies because they already are.

00:39:09.760 You know, that's a good point too, Mickey O.

00:39:11.640 If the producers of that AMC franchise want to do a Canuck version set in Toronto,

00:39:16.540 well, we've already completed the casting call for them.

00:39:20.580 And Gav1 writes,

00:39:22.000 I never see journalism like this on CBC.

00:39:25.760 Oh, of course not, Gav1.

00:39:27.600 For the Mother Corp, this is the sort of wacky Marxism that isn't to be mocked, but championed.

00:39:34.660 I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that some of these protesters were actually retired CBC staffers.

00:39:41.800 And that's no joke.

00:39:43.120 I've actually come across such individuals at other protests over the years.

00:39:48.180 Well, you know, Vive M, welcome to the new left, which hates the makers and embraces the takers.

00:40:11.920 But not everybody was a fan of my report.

00:40:14.260 Heather Chenoll writes,

00:40:16.360 This channel is a step away from the Proud Boys.

00:40:26.880 Well, Heather, you're right.

00:40:28.780 There are indeed plenty of other socialist countries out there, like Cuba and North Korea.

00:40:35.540 Yet, if you are indeed such a fan of Venezuela and you think Fox News is a propaganda mill,

00:40:41.360 why don't you fly down to Caracas and check it out for yourself?

00:40:45.040 Well, that wraps up another edition of Rebel Roundup.

00:40:48.660 Thanks so much for joining us.

00:40:50.100 See you next week.

00:40:51.040 And hey, folks, never forget, without risk, there can be no glory.

00:40:55.260 Good night.

00:40:55.680 Good night.

00:40:55.800 Good night.

00:40:56.280 Good night.

00:40:56.400 Good night.

00:40:57.440 Good night.

00:41:00.460 Good night.

00:41:00.880 Good night.

00:41:13.420 Good night.

00:41:14.440 Good night.

00:41:15.760 Good night.

00:41:16.060 Good night.

00:41:16.700 Good night.

00:41:16.740 Good night.

00:41:17.220 Good night.

00:41:17.880 Good night.

00:41:18.100 Good night.

00:41:19.120 Good night.

00:41:19.580 Good night.

00:41:20.120 Good night.

00:41:20.720 Good night.

00:41:21.120 Good night.

00:41:21.720 Good night.

00:41:23.220 Why don't you all get message?

00:41:23.380 Good night.

00:41:23.860 Good night.

Rebel News Podcast - November 24, 2018

Rebel Roundup： Guests Sheila Gunn Reid, Ezra Levant & Ben Davies

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