Globalist CEO latest to push the narrative that Albertans should shut up about Wexit
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Summary
In today's podcast, I take on some questions, some comments from Ed Sims, the WestJet CEO who was taking on Wexit, and it reminds me of what I've observed about the Brexit, and I talk a bit about the Quebec experiment with separatism, and even Czechoslovakia. I think we can learn from those other separatist movements for what to expect here in Canada.
Transcript
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Hey, Rebels. In today's podcast, I take on some questions, some comments from Ed Sims,
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the WestJet CEO who was taking on Wexit. And it reminds me of what I've observed about the
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Brexit. And I talk a bit about Brexit and the Quebec experiment with separatism and even
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Czechoslovakia. I hope you find it interesting. I think we can learn from those other separatist
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movements for what to expect here in Canada. Can I invite you to become a premium subscriber?
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It's eight bucks a month. You go to premium.rebelnews.com and you get the video version of the podcast,
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which I think is pretty cool. Anyway, please consider that premium.rebelnews.com.
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Tonight, a globalist CEO says Albertans should shut up about Wexit. They have nothing to complain
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about. It's December 10th and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody
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Last month when we had our Wexit town halls in Edmonton and Calgary, great events by the way,
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almost a thousand people came between the two events. Great questions and comments and it was
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pretty snowy out there. So great turnout. Well, one of the things I said on the panels was that we
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could all learn from how separatist movements have succeeded or not succeeded around the world.
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The separation of the Czech Republic from Slovakia, used to be called Czechoslovakia,
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was done in a shockingly quick time. I mean, depending on exactly how you measure,
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it was really done in six months. Both sides had just sort of got tired of each other, I think.
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They had different political parties in their parliament already representing different regions.
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There were definitely some economic issues, almost like our Canadian equalization issues,
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but actually not even as dramatic as the difference between, say, Alberta and Quebec.
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But really, I think they just wanted out. And part of it was that the Berlin Wall had just come down
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and the idea of dissolving artificial national boundaries was normalized. And they just did it.
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Fast, not really acrimonious. My cursory research suggests it was done very quickly,
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almost presented as a fait accompli. In fact, I don't know if it could honestly be said to have
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been done fully democratically approved. It was just, it was sort of shotgun, but it happened.
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Now, compare that to Quebec separatism, the opposite in so many ways. I mean,
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seriously, it's been almost 50 years since the FLQ crisis alone. That was an actual terrorist group,
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Front de Liberation du Québec, that planted bombs, kidnapped people. They even committed murder.
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It's hard to imagine. The whole place was put under martial law by Pierre Trudeau. That's when he said,
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just watch me, you know. Well, Quebec is still part of Canada. And so you'd think it was a failure,
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but really by every other measure, the FLQ and the legal Parti Québécois and the federal Bloc Québécois.
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By the way, today, in 2019, they're still the third largest party in our parliament.
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By any other measure, you must say the Quebec separatist movement is a roaring success. Sure,
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they're still part of Canada, but they only get the good parts, I think. Massive recipients of
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equalization. I mean, Quebec's provincial government has a multi-billion dollar surplus,
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while Alberta is in a multi-billion dollar deficit. But Alberta still sends them equalization money.
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I mean, riddle me that one. Quebec has a guaranteed one-third of the seats on the Supreme Court,
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even though they have less than 25% of the population. Quebec has control over everything
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from their own provincial police force, to their own immigration policy, to their own pension fund.
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I mean, they're even bringing in anti-hijab laws, and no one in Ottawa dares question it. They have this
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Teflon on them. It really is like a divorce from Canada, but with bedroom privileges, as many have
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called it. So yeah, probably more successful than if they actually were to separate and become an
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economically weak ethnostate, sort of like the Greece of North America. Quebec's got it all figured out.
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Well, what's to learn from Quebec? For a Wexiteer? Well, Quebec got so many things because they had an
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or else. There was always a threat of separatism that was more terrifying to the rest of Canada
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than actual separatism probably would have been. I despise the FLQ terrorists, and I am utterly
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against them in any way. But I think it worked. I think it was all a dance, actually, where one
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Quebecer in Quebec City would play fight with another Quebecer in Ottawa, the Prime Minister,
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to decide how much payoff was to be paid to Quebec. I mean, right there, out of the past 50 years or so,
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there's been a non-Quebec Prime Minister for what? Like, if my math is right, 14 years out of the last 50?
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But the comparison I'd like to make now is that of Brexit. Everyone was against Brexit. The media,
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the pollsters, the pundits, big business, the globalists, fancy people, all the political parties,
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including the Conservative Party, which actually called the Brexit referendum because they assumed
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it would fail, and then people like Nigel Farage would finally shut up about it. Everyone was against
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it except the people and the amazing Nigel Farage. You have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance
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of a low-grade bank clerk. And the question that I want to ask, the question that I want to ask,
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that we're all going to ask, is who are you? I'd never heard of you. Nobody in Europe had ever heard
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of you. I would like to ask you, President, who voted for you? And what mechanism? Oh, I know democracy
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is not popular with you lot. And what mechanism to the peoples of Europe have to remove you?
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Mr. President. Is this European democracy? Well, I sense, though, that you're competent
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and capable and dangerous. And I have no doubt that it's your intention to be the quiet assassin
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of European democracy and of the European nation-states. You appear to have a loathing
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for the very concept of the existence of nation-states. Perhaps that's because you come from
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Belgium, which, of course, is pretty much a non-country. So Brexit was won by the leavers
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over the remainers. But, of course, that was in 2016. It was even before Trump won. And here we are
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almost 2020. And the UK is still not out of the European Union because the remainers simply refuse to
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abide by the democratic results. So they stalled by any means, legal or illegal. Parliamentary,
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means, judicial means, excuse after excuse. I think they'll finally be out when Boris Johnson
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wins the UK election, as it seems he's set to do. But it almost wasn't so. And certainly until these
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very final moments, the establishment is cooking up ways to stay. And I bet they're still going to
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try even if Boris Johnson wins. The Remain side actually named their strategy Project Fear
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to terrify Brits into voting to remain. It failed. They said there would be mass layoffs. They would
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trade. No one would want to trade with the UK, the essential trading nation. That was the dumbest
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thing I ever heard until the British Sandwich Association said, I'm not even making this up,
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that if Brexit were to pass, there just wouldn't be any tasty sandwiches in the UK anymore.
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But certainly there would be serious problems in terms of some of the fresh ingredients we bring
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in from the European Union and also from overseas, particularly if we have problems at ports
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and we can't get ingredients through because they're all fresh and don't have a very long shelf
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life. And we've got no chance to stop piling fresh ingredients. So I think the answer from the
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sandwich industry is going to be that it's going to limit the amount of choice that consumers have if
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we suddenly crash out of Brexit in the way that it's being talked about.
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Imagine saying that with a straight face. That's when I ripped up my lifetime membership in the British
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Sandwich Association right on the spot, by the way. My point is, learn from these other places.
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Learn from Czechoslovakia. Learn from Quebec. Learn from Brexit. If there were a genuine Brexit
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movement in Alberta, what would it face? It would face Project Fear times 100, I think.
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It would face everyone lying about what a tough time Alberta would have on its own.
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There would be no appeasement as there was for Quebec.
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It would be lies and smears and attacks and meddling. Make no mistake about it.
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Which brings me to today's news. A story in the Financial Post. It doesn't cite anyone. All of it's
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off the record. No one's quoted. It's all rumors. But they ran it anyways. They claim that a high-tech
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company called Watchpad, I'd never heard of it, chose to locate in Halifax instead of in Calgary
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because of the threat of Wexit, which, by the way, is a Facebook page right now. I'm serious.
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Someone told someone who told someone. And so there you have it, guys. You see what your
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Wexit talk is doing? Uh, Wattpad isn't coming to town. That would have revolutionized Alberta's
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economy. Let me read from the Financial Post gossip column. That company was Toronto-based
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Wattpad, a tech firm with fewer than 200 employees that hosts user-generated fiction. Sounds like a
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moneymaker. The platform has over 80 million monthly users, according to a source familiar with
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negotiations but not authorized to speak publicly. The firm outlined its concerns in a written
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statement sent to CED. That's Calgary Economic Development. Earlier this year, Wattpad issued a
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request for proposals to cities interested in housing its second headquarters. Oh, boy. Calgary,
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you missed out on it. There's less than 200 workers there, and they got this cool blog where
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people can write fiction. I mean, that would have transformed your Alberta economy.
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Yeah. I don't know. And it sounds like the Financial Post doesn't know either. But that's
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the narrative. It's Project Fear. Come on, guys. You didn't get a few jobs of a fiction website
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company. Shame on you. And that totally outweighs the, you know, 200,000 six-figure oil and gas jobs
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that were lost in the oil past. Come on, Alberta. You could have had some cool jobs coding for fiction
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blogs. Give up your oil and gas obsession. Leave it in the ground and get with the Trudeau program.
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Learn how to code. Well, here's WestJet's CEO to say the same thing, really. WestJet's CEO on Wexit,
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I won't tolerate that kind of language. WestJet's CEO, Ed Sims, said talk of Alberta separating from
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Canada runs counter to the economic interests of both the Calgary-based airline he leads and the
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province as a whole. You know, Ed Sims really is the president of WestJet, so I guess he
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finally lives in Canada now. But he really is a globalist of the first order. He's lived and
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worked around the world wherever the headhunters sent him next. He's got that great British accent
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that I've learned to love from my trips over there. He lived in the UK. Then he lived and worked in New
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Zealand for a bit. Then he switched companies down there. Now he's up here in Canada for a bit. Who
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knows where he'll go next? He's that globalist, CEO, borders mean nothing to him, gazillionaire. He's
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exactly the kind of guy who would be a Brexit remainer, remainer. And so don't be surprised
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that he's rolling out Project Fear here too. And he's lecturing Albertans about what they can
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and can't say about their lot in life. He's doing just fine, Jack. Multimillionaire. He was lured here.
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Big paycheck, big bonuses. Don't you unemployed oil men speak up about your lot. You might upset his
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sweet, sweet gig. Let me quote again. I won't tolerate that kind of language, Sims said when
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asked in an interview for his thoughts on Wexit, the movement that promotes an independent Alberta,
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and that has come into the spotlight in the aftermath of the recent federal election.
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Okay, got it. So guy moves to Canada two years ago. So I guess he's not a citizen yet, right?
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But he's got some stern instructions for citizens.
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Having come from the UK, I've seen three years of total economic paralysis and stagnation
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caused by Brexit, Sims added. I don't envy our UK colleagues trying to deal with attracting people
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to a UK that feels very divided. And there's no reason for Alberta to feel divided from the rest
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of Canada. Oh, shut up, you prat. First of all, he's lying about the UK, or at least uninformed. I'm not
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sure which. The UK actually has the strongest economy in the European Union. He's lying when he says it's
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being rough. How would he even know? He's been in New Zealand for a decade. And hey, he just came
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to Canada to run an airline, so maybe he didn't bother to learn about Canada and the Energy East
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Pipeline being cancelled, and the Northern Gateway Pipeline being cancelled, and the Trans Mountain
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Pipeline being delayed or cancelled, or the carbon tax or any of that because it all happened before
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he came here, or when he was busy running the airline and not running his mouth. If we are not careful,
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we will start using the language of a depression rather than a recession, he said. I worry because we,
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WestJet, are a Canadian operation headquartered here. Hey, you unemployed oil men down there. Stop
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talking about your situation because you see, according to this guy, your talk is why Alberta's in a
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recession. Because you're talking about it? Because you're unhappy with your lot in life? You're unhappy
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with the carbon tax? You're unhappy with the blockade on the pipelines? Take it from this Brit
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who followed the cash to New Zealand and now is ringing the bell here in Canada with WestJet,
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but he has his eyes on the main chance wherever it is he's going to go next. So in the meantime,
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can you please shut up, you guys? I mean, you heard the man, I won't tolerate that kind of language.
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Yeah, mate, I don't know how it is, where you come from. I don't even know where that is anymore,
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and maybe you don't either. But here in Canada, foreigners don't usually tell Canadians to shut
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up. Of course, there is one more possibility. Maybe this Ed Sims is secretly working for
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Wexit. Because like Project Fear and that idiot from the Sandwich Association, nothing will push
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people towards separatism like a condescending blowhard, telling the little people to shut up.
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Professor Carlin, you gave $1,000 to Elizabeth Warren, right?
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Why so much more for Hillary than the other two?
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Because I've been giving a lot of money to charity recently because of all of the poor
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You can't wait for calmer times. The time for you is now. And I would say that what Trumbull
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said has even more bearing today. Because I believe that this is much like the Johnson
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impeachment. It's manufactured until you build a record. I'm not saying you can't build a
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record. But you can't do it like this. And you can't impeach a president like this.
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Kings could do no wrong because the king's word was law. And contrary to what President
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Trump has said, Article 2 does not give him the power to do anything he wants. And I'll
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just give you one example that shows you the difference between him and a king, which is
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the Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility. So while the president can name
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Well, those are short clips from the impeachment circus in Washington, D.C. They're all entertaining.
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The whole story is so complicated. I think that most Americans simply aren't following it. I have
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some proof. Look at this. It is the Google search trends for two different words. One is
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impeachment. And the other is Peloton. What is Peloton, you might ask? Well, it's sort of like
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a home exercise bike that's connected to the webcam and the internet. There was a slightly quirky
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Peloton internet ad that got the whole country talking. My point is people are not watching the
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circus, but the circus continues. Joining us now via Skype from Breitbart World Headquarters
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is our friend Joel Pollack, the senior editor at large down there. Joel, you have been following
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this meticulously. I think you're one of maybe, maybe 50, probably 20 people in the whole country
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that's actually going through this meticulously.
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My point about the Peloton versus impeachment is that I don't think this has gripped the
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nation in the way that, say, Bill Clinton's impeachment did a couple of decades ago.
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Well, your point about the Peloton is actually interesting because I missed all of the initial
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excitement over the Peloton ad. By the way, if you've ever seen these bikes, they're pretty
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intense. I actually was on an elliptical machine during the Houston Democratic debate a few
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hours before, and there was a guy next to me on a Peloton. That Peloton is pretty serious.
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Anyway, the Peloton ad is actually completely unobjectionable. There's nothing wrong with it,
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except that at one point, the wife in the ad, who is getting the Peloton as a Christmas present,
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is looking back at the camera, and she has sort of a look on her face, that critics, particularly,
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I guess, those of the feminist persuasion, interpreted as almost a cry for help or some
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kind of disingenuous glance as if to say, thank you, husband, for giving me the ability to shape
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my body to suit your whims. But in other words, the criticism was based on interpretations of an
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Oh, yeah. I thought it was a very quirky ad. I didn't find it. I had to study it twice to see
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what the offense was. I think in that way, the ad was a huge success. It got everyone talking about
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Right, right. So the impeachment is pretty much like that Peloton ad because there's nothing actually
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wrong with what Trump did. But the Democrats are interpreting a kind of inflection in their own
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imaginations in what Trump might have said to the Ukrainian president or might have suggested,
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you know, implicitly with some kind of signal that there was something amiss.
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You know, that's a great, I didn't make the connection, but you're so right. I mean,
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I watched the ad and I thought, well, there's nothing wrong here. And that's what the impeachment is.
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You've got to have some intuition that something's wrong because there's nothing more than that.
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Well, not even intuition. You've almost got to be kind of coached to see it. I mean,
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I can tell you that when my wife encouraged me to go to the gym, I had an experience like that woman
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in the ad. You know, it changed my life. I mean, you know, I don't stand before you here as a
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quivering mass of muscle, but I definitely feel healthier than I was before. So, you know,
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it's something nice to do for your spouse. I don't see anything wrong with it. I don't see
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anything particularly gendered about it because my wife was the one going to the gym and, you know,
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I was not. So, you know, I didn't see anything objectionable about it and something one spouse
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should do. Now, of course, they're all interpreting this woman's expression as somehow an indictment of
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the husband. And in the same way, Adam Schiff used that whistleblower complaint, not the transcript
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of the conversation, but used the whistleblower complaint to launch this investigation. Of course,
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Trump released the transcript and that wasn't really part of the plan. They didn't expect him
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to do that because they figured from the whistleblower complaint that whatever Trump said must have been
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terribly damning. And so they were primed to interpret what Trump said in the worst possible
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light. But of course, Trump didn't say anything damning or illegal. In fact, Trump was doing his job.
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And so when they introduced this issue into the House Intelligence Committee,
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Adam Schiff gave a dramatic reading to the transcript. He basically invented words, invented
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things, sort of a mob dialogue that simply wasn't there. So in a way, the Peloton ad is exactly right.
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And you said it's complicated. It's actually not complicated at all, except Democrats have made
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it complicated. You know, if this were simple, they wouldn't have to make it complicated. If the
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president had done something wrong, it'd be very clear. And you'd have no disagreement from
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Republicans. There are plenty of never Trumpers in the Senate, especially who would love to impeach
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the president and pretend the last three years never happened. They want to keep all the judges
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and they want to keep the low taxes and they want to keep the economy and so forth. But they don't want
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to acknowledge that he did anything, especially the Mitt Romneys of the world. They can't stand that
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this guy, won what they couldn't win and did what they promised to do, but probably wouldn't have.
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And so they want him out of the way. But the Democrats gave these never Trump Republicans
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nothing to work with. There's no case. Basically, the first article of impeachment, which Democrats
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released Tuesday morning, alleges that he abused his power, get this, by asking a foreign government
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to help us with an investigation that the Democrats' own witnesses said was probably necessary.
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Now, they didn't like the fact that Trump was the one asking for it. They said it should have gone
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through, you know, the department or whatever, but it wasn't illegal to ask for it. So they're going
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to impeach him because they say he abused his power because Joe Biden happened to be a political
00:22:27.780
opponent. There is no immunity, as Trump learned, against investigations if you happen to be running
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for election. Trump got investigated for alleged ties to Russia, which he didn't have. Joe Biden
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actually has ties to Ukraine. So there's that. Article two is that Trump obstructed Congress.
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Now, this is a bogus charge. In fact, both charges are bogus. They picked the two articles of impeachment
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that Cass Sunstein, Obama's, one of Obama's White House advisors, you know, Cass Sunstein's a liberal,
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married to Samantha Power, very left-wing guy. He came out with a book called Impeachment,
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A Citizen's Guide, in 2017, when all of the liberals, all the people on the left,
00:23:07.340
they were really interested in impeaching Trump for whatever reason they could find.
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And Cass Sunstein, even in that feverish atmosphere, wrote in that book that abuse of power
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and obstructing Congress are not valid reasons to impeach the president because every president
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has abused the power by definition, has abused their power because every president gets sued for
00:23:26.700
overstepping the bounds of their authority. And, you know, it's very hard to find grotesque abuses of
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power. But unless you've got some other crime that it's linked to, you can't just impeach a
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president for abuse of power. It's a term of art, really. It's not really anything impeachable.
00:23:39.080
It's certainly not in the Constitution. And then obstructing Congress is not impeachable
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because otherwise Congress could just come up with any farcical investigation and then impeach
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the president for refusing to cooperate with it. So they chose to introduce an article of impeachment
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on obstruction of Congress, basically saying President Trump should be impeached for asking
00:24:00.800
the courts to do what the courts are supposed to do, which is to adjudicate disputes over document
00:24:05.260
and witness production between the executive branch and the judicial branch and the legislative
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And your American system, even better than ours, checks and balances the president is supposed to.
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The Constitution counts on him to push back at Congress and vice versa and the judiciary.
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These are branches of... I mean, it's the balance of power. We don't have that in Canada where our
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parliaments, like the executive and the legislature are combined. I wish we had the ability for
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Congress or our parliament to fight with the executive and vice versa, but they can't. I don't know.
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It sounds pretty weak to me, but you make a good point. If you have such a complicated accusation,
00:24:50.260
it's probably to hide the fact that you don't have a simple accusation.
00:24:57.400
It would take so many words to explain a very simple accusation. That's why Democrats wanted to charge
00:25:03.600
Trump with bribery, because the public understands bribery.
00:25:06.940
There's only one problem. It wasn't any bribery.
00:25:10.480
One witness after another was asked, did you see a bribe? Did you know about any bribe? They all said no.
00:25:16.940
And after going through these Intelligence Committee hearings, there was just no evidence
00:25:21.360
of bribery. So Democrats dropped that in their articles of impeachment. So yeah, bribery is simple,
00:25:28.980
Yeah. I mean, everyone could understand, okay, Richard Nixon approved breaking into the Democrats'
00:25:36.780
campaign office, if that's what Watergate was, I think. I mean, that's pretty clear to understand.
00:25:41.480
But Trump was just his blustery self on a phone call. I don't know. Let me ask you how it's
00:25:48.820
playing out, because I know that the edgy wing of the Democrats, the squad, they were all very
00:25:57.140
bullish on this Tom Steyer, just dumping buckets of cash. But Nancy Pelosi was sort of hesitant.
00:26:04.280
They're all locked in this now. Do they regret it? Is this backfiring on them? I see polls from
00:26:10.600
across America suggesting that Trump and the Republicans are pulling ahead, and that maybe
00:26:16.700
grassroots Americans are saying, this is ridiculous. This is a setup. We're less than a year away from
00:26:22.140
the election. Stop these games. Am I misinterpreting? Am I cherry picking my information?
00:26:28.980
Well, let me put it this way. I think Pelosi was forced into the impeachment by the left wing of her
00:26:35.560
party. And I also think she was forced into making a decision on the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement
00:26:43.460
by Trump, because Trump repeated over and over again that the Democrats were failing to move ahead
00:26:50.220
on things that are important to Americans, like the USMCA, because they were busy with impeachment.
00:26:55.220
So it was a win-win for Trump, right? Because if Pelosi didn't pass the USMCA, he could blame her for
00:27:00.680
focusing on impeachment. And if she did pass the USMCA, which looks likely now, he could say he
00:27:05.520
achieved this major rewriting of NAFTA, one of his core election promises, something the unions have
00:27:10.940
wanted. I mean, the AFL-CIO is endorsing it now. And that's the Democratic core. I mean, that's their
00:27:17.360
turnout machine. So win-win for Trump. And I think Pelosi essentially had to stay in the impeachment
00:27:24.820
fight to stay on top of her caucus, because the left was really advancing and gaining in strength and
00:27:30.500
power. And she, I think, successfully bargained for time and for additional power by giving the left
00:27:36.720
what they wanted. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been relatively quiet since the impeachment started.
00:27:42.800
And in that sense, I think Nancy Pelosi scored a victory here because she was able to defang one of
00:27:50.120
her most important rivals and bring her into the tent. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is causing far fewer
00:27:57.560
problems for everybody, including Pelosi, but also Trump, since this impeachment started. So in a way,
00:28:04.640
Pelosi did what she had to do politically and is now the beneficiary of this process. Although I think
00:28:09.880
in the long run, this is possibly going to take the gavel out of her hands. I think the Trump supporters
00:28:16.280
are so angry about this and independent voters are so angry about it that Democrats have now placed
00:28:22.320
their control of Congress in jeopardy. Oh, and by the way, it's a census here next year. So if Democrats
00:28:27.660
get swept at the polls next year, Republicans will largely be in control of redrawing the
00:28:32.900
congressional districts if the Republican voters also show up for state legislative elections. So
00:28:39.400
let's just put it this way. Nancy Pelosi is making decisions under duress. They happen to be clever
00:28:46.740
decisions because she's a very canny politician. But her strategy, as opposed to her momentary tactics,
00:28:53.160
her overall strategy is a dead end. She has no way of getting out of this. Trump and the left have
00:28:59.580
boxed Pelosi in, which does not bode well for the future of her leadership. Now, I've underestimated her
00:29:04.280
before, so I want to be careful before pronouncing any sort of end to her political career. But
00:29:09.020
I don't see how she and the other members of the Democratic establishment, Adam Schiff,
00:29:14.060
Jerry Nadler, I don't see how they last much longer after this impeachment. They are going to lose power
00:29:19.340
in the next Congress, whether Democrats hold the gavel or not. Interesting. I got one last question
00:29:24.660
for you. I appreciate your time. You and I have been talking about Kamala Harris, the California senator
00:29:31.380
who we both thought had the winning combination, but she bowed out in recent days. And the new entrant,
00:29:40.600
Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, he's jumped in with a shocking amount of money. He
00:29:51.540
is spending $20 million per week in ads. I mean, if he keeps that up, he'll be at a billion dollars.
00:30:00.380
That's his own personal wealth. The guy's worth more than $50 billion. He's in his 70s,
00:30:05.260
so I guess he's thinking, what else do I got to spend it on? Harris is out. Bloomberg, I think he's
00:30:13.100
unacceptable and unpalatable to most of America. But if you're willing to spend a billion dollars of your
00:30:18.900
own money, more than every other opponent combined, do you think he's actually got a shot of things?
00:30:24.920
No. Bloomberg has no shot. And that's for a variety of reasons. But one of those reasons is
00:30:34.140
that I don't think Democrats look to him for leadership in what's called the moderate lane
00:30:41.760
of the party now. And now, you know, Bloomberg's now moderate, even though he's all in on climate
00:30:46.140
change and so forth. The decline of Joe Biden's fortunes does not automatically benefit the other
00:30:54.980
moderate candidates. What it means, basically, is that the party establishment is shoved out of the
00:31:01.300
way. So actually, it may create more room for candidates on the left. And if there's to be any
00:31:07.180
sort of moderate candidate who benefits, it's likely to be South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg,
00:31:12.320
who's rising in the polls, not Michael Bloomberg, age 77, 40 years older than Pete Buttigieg. I mean,
00:31:18.840
Democrats have always gone for younger candidates, but Buttigieg is also just more exciting.
00:31:23.220
He's also going to be the first serious gay presidential nominee if he wins the nomination.
00:31:29.160
Now, Bloomberg would be the first Jewish nominee. So there's kind of, you know, historical significance
00:31:33.580
in that. But I just think his age, in a sense, disqualifies him. And he is not, and has never been,
00:31:39.840
actually, a leading ideological voice within the Democratic Party. He's also a former Republican.
00:31:45.460
So all of this basically makes life much harder for Bloomberg. Biden's decline doesn't mean
00:31:50.700
Bloomberg's gain. If I were one of Bloomberg's heirs, I'd be calling dad or granddad right now
00:31:55.840
and telling him, why are you squandering the family legacy on a vanity project? You're 77 years old. You
00:32:01.820
should donate money to foundations and build buildings and contribute in a civic way, which he's
00:32:07.720
going to do anyway. And at least if you're on the left, he's been giving a lot of money to your
00:32:12.080
favorite causes. But this is a vanity project. He's not even getting on the ballot until Super
00:32:17.420
Tuesday, which is the fifth contest. His opponents are going to get a month of free media coverage
00:32:22.560
in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina. Oh, and here's another thing. This ties back into
00:32:28.300
impeachment. And this is just delicious. The Senate conducts the trial. The senators all have to be
00:32:36.960
there. You know, you watch Congress and members float in and out. They're there. They're not there.
00:32:41.460
They have to sit there during the trial because they are members of a jury, essentially. And so
00:32:46.100
all of the senators have to be in the Senate chamber during the trial. It's within Republicans'
00:32:51.540
discretion, since they control the Senate, when to schedule this trial. Now, they've said they want
00:32:56.120
to get it done quickly, but they've also hinted they could do it over six to eight weeks.
00:33:01.100
Either way, Republicans are going to be able to force the senators to sit in Washington during
00:33:06.940
a crucial part of the buildup to the Iowa caucuses in the New Hampshire primary.
00:33:11.560
So they're going to force Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar,
00:33:16.120
Michael Bennett, and anybody else to sit in Washington while Pete Buttigieg gets to go and
00:33:23.020
use his vast army of volunteers and his big money war chest to campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire.
00:33:30.420
So, by the way, Biden's also going to have to be in Washington because he might be a witness.
00:33:35.140
He says he'll defy a subpoena. Yeah, good luck with that. Biden is going to be called as a witness.
00:33:39.940
And even if he's out on the trail, he's going to be asked questions about this impeachment trial.
00:33:43.320
So essentially, impeachment takes most of the other candidates out of the race for about two or three
00:33:49.260
weeks, let's just say conservatively. And you get Biden also taken out. So that means you have
00:33:54.760
Buttigieg, Andrew Yang, and one or two others who will have free reign. And so Republicans can
00:34:02.360
really mess with the Democratic primary because of the Democrats moving forward on impeachment. So
00:34:07.020
it's really funny. I mean, and I get angry about this stuff, too. But at some point,
00:34:11.800
you have to laugh because it really just is comical. This is not a serious impeachment,
00:34:17.640
Yeah. Well, it's quite a circus. And we enjoyed our role, even though we were in Canada,
00:34:25.820
we certainly covered the Trump campaign in 2016, more so than any other Canadian outlet. I think
00:34:31.420
that's how we really got a lot of U.S. fans. And I look forward to us playing a similar role in the
00:34:37.440
2020 election. We have a new reporter joining us who's actually from Hawaii, Tulsi, a Gabbard
00:34:44.140
country. And I look forward to ramping up our own coverage of the 2020 campaign. And Joel,
00:34:50.280
thank you for being so generous with your time every week to give us the update from your point
00:34:56.440
All right. There you have it. Joel Pollack, senior editor at large of Breitbart.com. Stay with us for
00:35:11.020
And what do you think about that WestJet CEO? I mean, listen, I believe that corporate leaders
00:35:16.200
can have something to say about our country. Absolutely. And WestJet's an important company.
00:35:20.920
Absolutely. I don't think Ed Sims is a Canadian yet. And I think it's really gross for him to
00:35:28.660
tell unemployed Albertans they have nothing to bitch about. And then in fact, it's their
00:35:33.000
complaining that's leading to the bad economy. I think he owes all Canadians and Albertans in
00:35:39.460
particular an apology. What do you think? That's the show for today. Until next time, on behalf of all
00:35:44.980
us here at Rebel World Headquarters, good night and keep fighting for freedom.