Ron DeSantis the governor of
Florida is not pleased with Ben and
Jerry's over its decision to
no longer sell ice cream in
the occupied West Bank.
Of course this has to do with the
way the Israeli government has been
treating Palestinians and continues
to build settlements in areas
that the international community
considers to be, that runs counter
to what the international community
agrees with, right?
So Israel is occupying parts of
the west bank that it should
not be occupying.
So Ben and Jerry's makes
this decision.
They don't want to sell ice cream
in that area anymore.
There was all sorts of backlash
toward Ben and
Jerry by right wingers in America.
And now we're hearing from
Ron DeSantis, who wrote a strongly
worded letter about this, and
has put Ben and Jerry's on a list.
It is on a list.
So let me give you the details.
In a letter to the State Board of
Administration of Florida DeSantis
urged the agency to place Ben and
Jerry's on its
Continued Examination Companies
that Boycott Israel list.
Cool.
So here's what he wrote in
the letter.
He argues that Florida has a long,
or has had long, Florida has
long had a strong relationship with
the State of Israel as a matter of
law and principle, the state of
Florida does not tolerate
discrimination against the state of
Israel or the Israeli people.
So let's just pause for a second.
Ben and Jerry's making a decision
to no longer sell ice cream in
the West Bank.
Over Israel's occupation of
that area, is political speech, and
it's not discrimination.
I mean, to say that that's
discrimination is ridiculous.
They're still selling ice cream in
other parts of Israel.
Right? >> Yeah.
>> So. >> Let me just say
two things.
I know we're going to continue
with that quote.
But, one there is a little bit of
irony here that now Ben and
Jerry's ice cream is great.
They're wonderful progressives and
other people in West Bank
can't get it but
they still sell it in Israel.
So they should it in my opinion,
they should stop selling all over
Israel.
But that's very peripheral to
the story because the question here
is freedom of speech in America.
And the right wingers hated and
they say if you're, but
think about how absurd that is.
If you're disloyal to a different
nation, in their opinion, you're
going to get banned in Florida,
which is so beyond insane and
they say it's discrimination
against the Israeli people.
Other than the fact that
it makes no sense.
Think about it if it was applied
to South Africa to say,
you're doing a boycott and
divestment of South Africa.
That is discrimination against the
poor white people of South Africa.
Right. And so
we we here in Florida will ban
any speech that is against the good
white people of South Africa.
We find it to be discrimination,
I would hope that that would
be outrageous, but these days with
Republicans I don't know if they
would think that was outrageous.
>> What I think is outrageous is
that we have constitutional
protections that allow us to engage
in political speech.
And in this case, whether it's BDS
or the decision that Ben and
Jerry's made,
it is political speech, to have
the government punish you for
that political speech is
literally unconstitutional.
Yet this has been going on for
how long now?
It's been a few years that this has
been going on and
somehow all of these free speech
warriors on the right who whine and
cry about Ben Shapiro and
Ann Coulter being protested on
the campus of Berkeley.
Now all of a sudden think like free
speech, aint that important,
aint that important.
Because this is speech we don't
like so we have no interest
in protecting it.
I mean, it just shows you
the hypocrisy of course.
But it also shows you that,
you know, if you're not paying
attention, your constitutional
rights will get violated.
And there's people who refuse to
even fight for you on this,
right like I might not agree with
the BDS movement doesn't matter if
you agree with it or not.
We're supposed to have
constitutional protections for our
political speech, for our press.
And in this case,
there's literal punishment being
lodged toward Ben and Jerry's over
their political speech and
their business decisions that are
informed by that political speech.
With that said,
basically what he's saying I'm not
going to read his dorky ass letter.
He's basically saying, no,
you weren't, well, maybe maybe
the state of Florida maybe we're
not going to invest in Ben and
Jerry's and Unilever anymore.
How can you do that?
Okay, don't do it then.
>> Right? >> And then shut up.
>> I got you but it actually does
have political ramifications and
financial ramifications.
Because Ben and
Jerry's is a midsize company,
the parent company that at one
point bought it from Ben Cohen and
Jerry, of course, and is Unilever
and that's a giant company.
So if Unilever thinks,
this is going to cost us a lot of
money because Florida is a big
state, right?
It's going to apply political
pressure to bow their heads and
say, we don't care what war crimes
are being committed or
what the entire international
community says and we don't care
what laws the right wing government
of Israel is breaking.
We bet, we submit for
our own economic interests.
We will not allow any of our brands
to protest the right wing
government of Israel.
>> I think it would be far better
if they decided to maybe put aside
some of that legalized bribery
money for a legal defense because
what Ron DeSantis is threatening to
do here is unconstitutional.
Again, what he's threatening to do
is punish political speech.
And political, I mean, look,
how is this okay?
How is this okay? Remember
the story we did about the teacher
in Texas who was part of
the BDS movement.
She did not get her contract
renewed because of the fact that
she's part of the BDS movement.
That she was a public school
teacher, by the way, so she got
punished by the local government
for her political speech and
her political views.
How is that constitutional?
>> Could you imagine if they did it
too for like any other government
but let's pick a government they
that they don't like they say,
now if anybody criticizes Iran,
they will be punished in Florida.
>> It's absurd.
>> You'd be like, wait,
that's insane, right?
But wait a minute,
let's take an ally right?
If anyone dares criticize or
boycott Saudi Arabia in Florida,
they will be punished and they will
be financially further punished,
and there'll be actual legal
ramifications in the state of
Florida.
If you ever dare oppose the Saudi
government.
But the Saudis
are allies just like Israel.
Doesn't it sound absurd when it's
any other country but
we've all gotten used to, well, no,
America is supposed to serve Israel
not they're not an ally they're
our boss.
That's ridiculous.
By the way,
doing that feeds into anti-semitism
you're making it worse.
And so,
they're all giant hypocrites,
first of all,
by the way, the people doing this,
Ben Cohen is Jewish, okay?
So, it's he's been wonderful and
principled, and
he's a great progressive,
and you should reward Ben and
Jerry's for their courage here,
right?
But this is the genesis of cancel
culture.
You guys know that cancer culture
started with a right wing attacking
any professor on campus who had
what they considered a pro
Palestinian position, or
you want freedom for Palestinians.
You want to end the occupation and
their imprisonment.
That's a fire them, fire them, make
sure they're not allowed to talk.
To students, that's how cancel
culture started with the right wing
on this issue, and now
they made it into a law in Florida.
They are cancelled culture.
So if your look just ask any right
winger, ask Ben Shapiro, you
say you're in favor of free speech.
Are you in favor
of the most outrageous,
anti free speech law in America?
And his answer is if it's for
Israel, I was just lying about my
principles, principles?
I don't believe in any stinking
principles.
No, I just care about power.
Don't let them ever say
anything against our position.
And then if they ever criticize us
go cancel culture,
they criticized me I'm the victim,
victim my ass you guys hate free
speech and you hate America.
>> Yeah, look, these actions need
to be challenged.
The ACLU has, you know,
released a statement about this and
of course they find
it unconstitutional and wrong.
But look, I mean, I think Ben and
Jerry's should, allow Ron DeSantis
to try to do what he's claiming
he's going to do because people
are addicted to Ben & Jerry's man.
I don't know how to quit you like I
just don't.
I've tried every time I try.
I fail. I'm not going to buy
Ben and Jerry's anymore.
It's not good for me, right?
I can't I shouldn't be bingeing on
Ben and Jerry's at night
right before I go to sleep, but
then every single time I go to
the grocery store, you pick up
that pint of Netflix and
Chilled, you got to pick it up.
>> That's funny. >> You gotta pick
it up, peanut butter ice cream,
salty pretzels, it's delicious.
>> By the way, as I think you could
tell I was blanking on Jerry's last
name Jerry Greenfield.
And they're both wonderful
progressives and
wonderful Americans who care about
progressive principles
more than ethnicity or
anything along those lines.
So they're the best of us and
I love that they're doing this and
in the meanwhile,in a sense,
a side effect is exposing
the hypocrisy of Ron DeSantis and
all these right wingers.
>> Yeah, that's a great point.
What do you have a favorite Ben and
Jerry's flavor?
>> Yeah. [LAUGH] I love the peanut
butter cup one.
I love Chunky Monkey.
[LAUGH] >> Okay, okay.
>> Yeah, so I can go on and on,
there's plenty.
>> Last week happy half hour.
Did like a contest of Ben and
Jerry's flavors.
Netflix and Chilled,
my personal fave, didn't win, but
you gotta watch happy half hour on
our twitch channel twitch.tv/TYT
to find out who won