Authoritarian China responds to coronavirus outbreak with arrests, quarantines and a massive cover-up
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Summary
Today I make a comparison between how the Soviet Union reacted to their Chernobyl disaster and how China is responding to their coronavirus disaster. I also play some clips from HBO's miniseries Chernobyl, one of my favorite shows of the year.
Transcript
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Hey, folks, today I make a comparison between how the Soviet Union reacted to their Chernobyl
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disaster and how communist China is reacting to their coronavirus disaster.
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I also play some clips from HBO's miniseries Chernobyl, one of my favorite shows of the
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To get the video version of this podcast, which I think is important for today's segment,
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especially the footage out of China, you've got to be a premium subscriber.
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You go to premium.rebelnews.com and you get the video version of this podcast and Sheila
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Gunn-Reed's podcast show, rather, and David Menzies, too.
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Tonight, China responds to a massive virus outbreak by arresting people.
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It's January 24th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
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You know, I don't get a lot of time to watch TV except when I'm on airplanes, which I am
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too often, and so I clicked on HBO's Chernobyl miniseries, which I honestly thought was going
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In fact, I have to admit, I watched the whole thing twice.
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And what I appreciated the most about it was how they depicted the Soviet system.
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I thought it was filmed beautifully, and the recreation of the actual explosion scene was
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I was so surprised by some of the things they depicted in the movie that I did some research
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afterwards, you know, in real life, not on the miniseries, to confirm the accuracy.
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I really didn't know how massive a problem Chernobyl was.
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Because economically, logistically, literally hundreds of thousands of people in the Soviet
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Union were pressed into service by the regime to try to fix the problem.
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I think that Chernobyl, along with the costs of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and their attempt
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to keep up with Ronald Reagan's Star Wars defense initiative, I think that was really the cause
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of the fall of the Soviet Union, and I think Chernobyl was probably a bigger factor than
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I just, that's my belief after watching the miniseries, it was that incredible.
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But the thing I found the most fascinating about the show was the theatrical depiction of
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how an authoritarian state, a totalitarian state in many ways, handles a crisis, a crisis that
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involves danger, but also political embarrassment, and how it prioritizes those two problems.
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Can I show you two clips from the movie Chernobyl, the miniseries on HBO?
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Here's one, and this is set just hours after the explosion, the same night that the reactor
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So the level of danger was not yet known, but the local Communist Party committee was having
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And I want to show you their response, which is, of course, there's some artistic license
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There's mild radiation, but it's limited to the plant itself.
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Do you think I would keep it in Pripyat if it wasn't safe?
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The Cherenkov effect, completely normal phenomenon, can happen with minimal radiation.
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I wonder how many of you know the name of this place.
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For is that not the sole purpose of the apparatus of the state?
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But our faith in Soviet socialism will always be rewarded.
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No, the state tells us the situation here is not dangerous.
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The state tells us it wants to prevent a panic.
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When the people see the police, they will be afraid.
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But it is my experience that when the people ask questions that are not in their own best interest,
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they should simply be told to keep their minds on their labor
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That is how we keep the people from undermining the fruits of their own labor.
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We will all be rewarded for what we do here tonight.
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that accurately, I think, reflect the tyranny of the Soviet Union
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So it's clear that if you ask any questions that
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towing this globalist climate change line, well, then
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you're not going to have the access that you need to do
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We don't go to these scripted press conferences and
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And we don't regurgitate these press releases that
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We go to where the interesting stuff is happening,
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whether it's her political rallies in Edmonton or her
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I was surprised to see it was only seven people.
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There were seven people there and eight security guards
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There was more security guards than actual people
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But somehow this is an international sensation.
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But we go to these interesting places and we ask
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And that's something that the mainstream media just
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Because if they do, they'll lose their cushy chairs at
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There's one thing I want to bring to your attention.
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Greta obviously noticed you when you talked to her a couple
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And then when you put your, we announced that your documentary
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And she and her handlers would have remembered the questions you
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And now a gap year, for those who don't know, is when a student
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sort of takes a year off from school and, you know, goes
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backpacking or, you know, goes, takes a break, works a bit.
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She said, typically it's when you finish high school before you
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go on to college or university, you gap year, travel,
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sow your wild oats, run around a bit before you hunker down
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Sorry, a teenager in the middle of high school is not on a gap
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I'm standing up to power by walking out of class.
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I think, Kian, that that was Greta's way of saying, yikes,
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I'd better get ahead of that by saying, oh, no, no, no, no, no.
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I was on a gap year, so you guys didn't actually cast me
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That's my theory based on how closely she follows you.
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You're not on a climate strike if you're on a holiday year,
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Yeah, that's what I was referring to when I said these cryptic
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There's another one, and I can't recall exactly what it was.
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When I was in Madrid with Sheila Gunn-Reed at the COP25 summit,
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we were putting out our news, and on the other side of the coin,
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Greta Thunberg was releasing her damage control every time we released
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more and more info about her campaign and about her political involvement
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So, yeah, I think it's fair to say that Greta Thunberg is very closely
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following our coverage, especially when it comes to her plastic-filled Tesla.
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Greta's watching because, and I wouldn't say that we're a huge news
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We're not that large compared to many other news outlets that would
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consider themselves conservative-leaning, but Greta is paying very close
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attention to what we're releasing because we're the only ones that are
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diving deep into Greta Thunberg's story and the lies that she's been
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releasing or have been released on her behalf by Greta, Inc.
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video people watch for a minute or so this is a 30-minute documentary but it's so well documented
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you're there on the ground i think that it is possible kian for us to bend the narrative to
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change the narrative here to start bringing up the other side of the story that's that's our
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motto you know rebel news telling the other side of the story um that seems to me a pretty basic
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tenet of journalism i think it's sort of cool that we're doing it i i think this documentary is going
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to go well and i don't think it should be the end of our greta coverage i think that we should
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continue on it i'm not afraid to send you on journeys around the world um i mean it costs money
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flying to stockholm over christmas um i don't i just got your expense account uh we're going through it
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i i think those tickets were around 1600 bucks each we had you and a cameraman go over and we
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had a local helper on the ground and we had hotel i haven't looked at the whole thing but i think the
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total cost all in of this documentary is about 10 000 canadian dollars now there's no way we'll
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recoup that on youtube i don't even know if they're going to monetize the video we don't have ten
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thousand dollars to chuck around every month but i think this is important work and if folks want to
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help us they can go to greta inc.com g-r-e-t-a-i-n-c like greta incorporated greta inc.com
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and if you want to chip in i can assure you kian flies economy class to stockholm yes and um i'd like
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to do more of this you were in madrid you were in stockholm you were in hong kong covering the freedom
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movement there there's a lot of stories and i think you've got that style you're aggressive enough to get
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the questions but you don't get in deep trouble uh i think you've got to keep doing this kian
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yeah i'm all in ezra i i want to keep it up too uh because nobody's holding these this these eco
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elites whether it's uh you know greta inc or or whether it's the communists in hong kong
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nobody's holding them accountable uh and and i'm honored to be able to keep doing it so i you know
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what i one last note i think that we've reached peak greta i think when when greta was awarded the
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person of the year i mean there's no topping that she was denied the nobel well you haven't heard
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about the nobel prize yet my friend well she was snubbed on that last year at least maybe she'll
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get it next year um but i i seriously think that you're you're right about us changing this narrative
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i think that people are finally waking up to greta uh and i think this documentary is going to go a
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long way to exposing greta as uh for what she is she's a fraud and i i think that the narrative is
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finally turning and shifting away from uh just this blank face by a blank check buy-in into into what
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she's putting out there yeah well your video uh when you met her in edmonton i think that has 1.2
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million views sheila gun reid also did a video when she came to edmonton that video is closing in on
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a million views um i think all of our greta videos combined have several million views i don't know
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how many people will watch this documentary i think it is the authoritative documentary about greta that's
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not just a love letter pr so theoretically this could be the video that everybody goes to for the
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other side of the story i think we are going to debunk the myth and i think that that's a service
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to journalism and in our case it's a service to the kind of things that we care about the oil and gas
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industry jobs fighting against junk science and global governance so uh i'm pretty pleased last word
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to you and then i'm going to throw to another clip just to show people so give me your final thoughts
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on this has been an exciting few weeks in stockholm and then working on the edit give it give us your
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final thoughts uh it i was surprised with how much uh it takes to actually put this stuff together
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um when i went there i thought oh well we're gonna know this great footage uh and we i mean we put
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footage together from the fact the fact that she's on a fake school strike to the fact that the person
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who found greta found in very large quotation marks i had to walk two miles accidentally to
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accidentally find her on the very first few minutes of her very first school strike we go to her
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childhood home well the home that she lives now and document her community and show how privileged
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greta tunberg really is she's not you know she's not someone from uganda or uh or bolivia or
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bangladesh she's a rich elite we expose it all in this documentary at gretainc.com uh and i really
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appreciate everyone who pitches in to help this kind of coverage um because you know if we're not doing it
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nobody else is and i think that it's important work and i hope our viewers agree with me on that
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all right well that's great for folks who want to chip in go to gretainc.com let's close this segment
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with um another clip from the documentary that we launched today at 10 a.m eastern time take a look
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hey what are you doing don't touch me who do you think you are don't we're serious i don't care get
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the fuck off who do you think you are i'm asking questions yes i want to ask greta some questions
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yes don't touch me yeah what do you think people are going to say when it gets out that a security
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yard from sweden punched a reporter three times in the gut uh sure i don't care you don't care
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oh you know this is communist country oh don't touch me they're pushing just larger larger frame
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wide angle of this guy being an asshole my feet are planted here oh if you touch me i'll be reporting
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you yeah sure what are you doing here are you from what are you doing here what do you mean what am i
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doing here i'm a reporter i'm asking questions now i'm focused on you instead of greta who i should be
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focus on fuck off don't get so close don't touch me i'm not touching you you're standing on my foot
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once i haven't moved once hey what are you doing dude i'm not aggressive and you are dangerous for
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us so no i'm not leave me alone leave me alone stop i'm allowed to do this where are we hong kong
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china no this is sweden so you have id do you have yeah i do and i'll show it to you thank you
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no fuck off are you here illegal i think so yeah you're done with this no i'm not i don't think i am
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hey welcome back on my monologue yesterday about donald trump's speech at the world economic
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forum in davos justin writes trump's speeches are so captivating i've never seen anything like it
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well that speech that i played for you was obviously a scripted speech it was written by a speech
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writer who obviously gets trump's message but i have to say if you've never watched trump at a rally
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that's what you gotta watch because he's semi-scripted but he riffs and i gotta tell you
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half the time it's like a stand-up routine he mocks democrats he mocks reporters he just riffs on things
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things he saw a tweet he saw a clip he saw he's a master entertainer he's got a message he's got a point
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i think you got to watch the unscripted uh rally speeches more than the scripted ones and that's
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half the reason why the media party doesn't run his speeches because they are both informative and
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entertaining and i put it to you persuasive pj writes what a concept a country's elected leader
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putting that country first oh yeah you know i just see today that the new foreign minister uh champagne
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is his last name is talking about the importance of canada getting on the uh security council of the
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united nations you know the security there's there's a general assembly where every country has a vote but
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then there's the security council that has the permanent members united states russia china
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france for some reason and uh britain sorry i almost forgot uh it's funny how how uh france is on
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there but india is not anyways they elect smaller countries for for terms and canada is or justin
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trudeau wants to get on because it's a a bragging point for him is that really the point of foreign
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policy to win votes from other little countries um and what is trudeau and champagne what are they
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how are they tailoring their messages to win those votes is that the reason why trudeau was so gentle
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with china on our hostages there is that the reason why trudeau was so gentle with iran after they shot
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down that jet i think it might be on my interview with fh buckley ron writes your guest said he was
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confident trump would be re-elected i hope he's right but i also agree with michael medved that the
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dem candidate will not be any from the clown show but one of the obamas most likely michelle and that's
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extremely dangerous well i've heard that theory i you know i obviously it's a possibility i don't think
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so i don't see evidence of michelle organizing um you know she does some speaking tours but that's
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just to grab some cash and to feel special um i just don't see it and i have to say obama
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had a certain charm to him i mean i i disliked him deeply but he had an affable look he had a nice
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face and a nice smile and he could be a charmer michelle obama comes across as scowling and angry
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and i don't think she ever clicked with people uh other than partisans just my own view you could
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maybe you thought she was charming i've never heard i've never heard anyone call her charming
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um hillary clinton however oh she wants back in you can taste it on the conservative leadership race
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in canada beverly writes rumor has it that harper will seek the nomination so that is why pierre stepped
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down what do you think we need someone who will be a true conservative not just fiscal i got tired of
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the party wanting social conservative but throwing us under the bus once they got our vote beverly uh
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i saw a tweet by michelle uh rempel garner uh an mp from calgary who said she was in direct
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communication with stephen harper and he's not running again and again i see no evidence that he
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would run again he's last i saw he was giving some panel discussion in india like he's doing
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international stuff and i think he is glad to be done with the hassle of things he resigned from the
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uh conservative party's fundraising board they say it was so he could battle jean shere but who knows
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maybe maybe uh is that why jean shere quit is that why pierre polyev quit if harper did return that
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would be an excellent reason for those two to quit but i have some trouble believing harper would want to
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come back in maybe i'm wrong we'll find out soon i guess because the election of that the leadership
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contest is less than six months away whoever's going to run and better get going folks that's
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our show for today and for this week i hope you had a chance to tune in to kian's documentary at
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gretainc.com or you can find it on our youtube page until next time on behalf of us here at rebel
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world headquarters see you at home good night and keep fighting for freedom