Smith announces arson investigation
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Summary
In this week's show, we look at Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's decision to hire arson investigators from outside the province to investigate the fires, as well as her announcement of her new cabinet. We also take a look at the recounts in two close ridings, and a discussion on affordable housing.
Transcript
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Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel.
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I hope that you guys are having a great week. It's been a bit of a quieter week in Alberta
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politics. There has of course been a lot of backroom discussions and speculations about who
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would be in the new cabinet and that was unveiled on Friday so we'll dive into that a little later
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in the show. Today we're going to be looking at Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's announcement
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that she will be investigating the arsons. We're going to dive into the cabinet announcement as
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I mentioned. We're also going to be taking a look at the recounts in two close ridings.
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A new Calgary bylaw has restricted pro-life material. And finally, we'll have a discussion
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on affordable housing. All that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup.
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Okay guys, my first story for you here today is Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she will hire
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arson investigators from outside the provinces following an unprecedented wildfire season.
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You guys know that this year the wildfires started unseasonably early, about a month earlier than
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usual and have been extremely destructive. Here's what Smith had to say about it on a podcast earlier
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this week. Well, I think you're watching as I am the number of stories about arson and I'm very
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concerned that there are arsonists and there have been stories as well that we're investigating and
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we're bringing in arson investigators from outside the province. We have almost 175 fires with no known
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cause at the moment. Sometimes they're very easy to trace. When you have lightning storms,
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that's easy to trace. When you have a train derailment, that's easy to trace. Can't fire.
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But to have 175 fires that we don't know the cause of, that's unusual. If we take a closer look at her
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comments on arson, we know that Mounties in Grand Prairie are currently searching for a suspect after a
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fire was started in an alley. Officers said witnesses reported seeing a man wearing all black with a white
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shirt around his shoulders leaving the scene and they are now looking for that suspect.
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As well, there was a May 3rd post from Parkland County's Twitter account which really made the
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rounds online. In this post, Parkland County said their fire department had responded to four
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suspicious fires in the preceding five days on Highway 16, less than a 40-minute drive from
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Alberta's capital city of Edmonton. Parkland County wrote, quote,
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we are asking residents to report any suspicious behavior to RCMP by calling 911. And as I just
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mentioned, we have had our first look at Alberta's new cabinet. Let's take a look at some of the
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interesting names here. Demetrius Nicolaitis is the new education minister. He has been the advanced
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education minister for some time now. This is definitely a promotion for him. Adriana LaGrange was
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of course the former education minister. Most notably, she was responsible for the new curriculum
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that conservatives have largely lauded. We know the Alberta Teachers Association
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wasn't the biggest fan of it. She's been moved over. She's been given a promotion as well. She is
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now the health minister. Brian Jean has been given the energy and minerals portfolio. Rebecca Schultz,
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she is the new minister of environment and protected areas. Todd Lowen stays on as the ministry of
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forestry and parks. These individuals were all contenders in the UCP leadership race, which of course
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was ultimately won by Danielle Smith. Pete Guthrie is the new minister of infrastructure. He is moving
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to that role from the energy portfolio. Some looks at some new individuals who are in cabinet include
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Dan Williams. He's the new minister of mental health and addictions. And Jason Nixon is back
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in cabinet. He is the new minister of social services. That role was actually held by his brother
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Jeremy Nixon before the election. Jeremy lost his seat. I was in a Calgary riding in the recent
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provincial election. I suspect Nixon's appointment will be seen as very controversial by Smith Space,
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including those who were very supportive of her leadership bid. Jason Nixon was Jason Kenney's
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right hand man. Well, Kenney was premier and that includes during the COVID-19 pandemic when we saw many
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restrictions, including a vaccine passport in Alberta. But I'm sure you guys have some thoughts.
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Comment on the video below and let me know what you think of Nixon's appointment in cabinet.
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Does he deserve a second chance under Danielle Smith? Or would you have preferred to see him
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left off the list? We also know that he had an independent challenger during the recent provincial
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election. That was of course, Tim Hoven, who was barred from running by the United Conservative Party.
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He was disqualified to even be a candidate in a nomination race. While Tim Hoven did have quite a strong
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showing in the recent provincial election, it is very, very difficult to win as an independent
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candidate. Moving into our next story here, Elections Alberta has released the official election results.
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Those were published on Thursday. I explained to you guys last week that following an election,
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Elections Alberta undergoes an audit of all the ridings before they announce the official results.
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This year, that audit included two recounts in two close ridings. That was Calgary Acadia,
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Tyler Shandro's former riding. And there was also a recount in the riding of Calgary Glenmore that was
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previously held by Whitney Isik. The recounts determined that the NDP did win in both those
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ridings. In fact, the recount even solidified their victory with an increased margin. Initially,
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UCP incumbent Tyler Shandro had lost Calgary Acadia by just seven votes. But following the recount,
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that margin widened by 18 ballots for MLA-elect Diana Batten, who now won with a total of 25 votes
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in comparison to the seven that were first reported. There was a similar situation over in Calgary Glenmore.
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Whitney Isik had originally lost that riding by 30 votes, but following the recount, that margin widened
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to 42 votes, an increase of 12 ballots. Candidates have until June 16th to decide if they would like to
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request a judicial recount. A judicial recount is when a candidate goes before a judge and argues the
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specific of each ballot in hopes of maybe turning the tide in their favor. UCP spokesperson Dave Prisco
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told me the party is working with affected candidates to decide if a recount is warranted.
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So I'm sure I'll have an update for you guys on that one next week. We're also going to take a quick
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look at some of the voter turnout, which did drop significantly compared to 2019. There was a voter
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turnout of just under 60% this year. That's compared to 2019 when 67 and a half percent of the population
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turned out to vote. Although it is worth noting that the 2019 numbers were record breaking. That was the
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largest voter turnout since 1971. So it's not particularly surprising that we didn't surpass
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those numbers again this year. Moving into the controversy of the week here, Calgary City Council
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has amended a bylaw to restrict pro-life material. Specifically, the bylaw would give a fine of $1,000
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to those who hand out images of aborted babies, unless that image is first hidden within an envelope.
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The envelope must also contain a warning about the contents and show the name and address of the
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sender. Richard Durr, executive director of the political pro-life party, pro-life Alberta,
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says the bylaw indicates that abortion itself should be outlawed. He said, quote,
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if the images are too graphic for public consumption, then perhaps the act of abortion,
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which brings out these horrific images in the first place, ought itself to be further regulated or
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outlawed. Canada is the only democracy in the world which provides no legal protection for
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pre-born humans. In March, the Canadian Institute for Health Information revealed that there were over
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87,000 induced abortions in 2021. Calgary City Council says reported incidents will be investigated
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and enforced based on, quote, education, voluntary compliance, and officer discretion. Calgary
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councillor Jennifer Winas said images of aborted babies can be, quote, deeply traumatizing and harmful,
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end quote, for some people. She added, quote, while we want to uphold the freedom of advocacy groups to
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express their opinions, we need to also balance our responsibility to protect communities. As a
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society, we accept that not all content is appropriate for everyone, which is why we have
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our ratings for disturbing or mature films, for example. These pamphlets fall under that same category,
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and it's reasonable to ask that they come with a content warning.
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Durst said counsel is intent on protecting, even promoting, graphic expression through drag queen
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story hour at public libraries, but restricts it and prohibits free speech to those decrying the
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horror of abortion. I think it's very challenging that this councillor decided to compare the act of
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abortion to R-rated films, which are designed to horrify watchers, but I'm just going to let you guys
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think with that one for a little bit on your own. Moving into what we're watching in the weeks to come,
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I'm really curious to hear what you guys think about this story. MPs across party lines are
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criticizing Calgary City Council's move to reject an expert task force recommendations to increase
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affordable housing. The task force brought forward six main recommendations, which included 33 actions.
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The main six recommendations sought to make it easier to build housing across the city and make
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more city land available for construction. The 33 specific actions called on council to take action
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like removing all minimum parking requirements in residential areas, and to establish financial
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incentive programs that would drive the production of more secondary suites.
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Councilors took issue with a zoning recommendation, which would allow for the construction of row houses,
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townhouses, duplexes, semi-detached, and cottage housing clusters in more areas.
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Councilor Andres Chabot said, quote, I think there's absolutely no way that I could convince
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my communities to support that major of a change. While Councilor Sonia Sharp said,
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it's a leap to think that we should just accept the expert recommendations with no further debate on
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what it all means on whether Calgarians support those recommendations.
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It's not about the money, and it's not disagreeing that we should do something.
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Very interestingly, conservative and liberal MPs weighed in on this. It's not too often that we
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see federal politicians weigh in on municipal issues, but we've definitely seen them take a
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step forward when it comes to housing issues all across the country. Federal conservative housing
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critic Scott Aitchison said the recommendations would have made it easier to build the homes that
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people need. But, quote, gatekeepers stood in the way. The conservative MP for Calgary Nose Hill,
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Michelle Rempel-Garner, said she represents the same suburban constituents as councillors who voted
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against the proposal. She said, quote, we need to build support for more housing, not vote against it.
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Courage and leadership is needed. This vote result is not that. I'm disappointed in you.
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And the liberal MP for Calgary Skyview, that's George Hall, also weighed in. He said it's disheartening
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that city council rejected the recommendations. He said it's made worse by the fact that eight
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councillors voted against the proposal while voting in favour of the costly arena deal, which of course
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we've discussed on this show before. On Friday, my colleague Noah Jarvis asked Pierre Polyev if he was
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supporting anyone for the Toronto mayorship. That race is currently ongoing.
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But I would say to Torontonians, vote for someone who will fire the City Hall gatekeepers
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so that we can speed up housing construction. The exclusionary policies of the gatekeepers at City
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Hall, who Trudeau's been funding, are driving our immigrants, our working class, and our working
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poor into the streets. Polyev said his government would force cities to build more homes or they would
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remove federal infrastructure spending. So I'm curious what you guys think about this story.
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Are you worried that these new types of homes, especially row houses and townhouses, are going to shape
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the look and the feel of the communities that you currently live in and that you really enjoy?
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Or perhaps you're on the other side of things and you're a young person who's saying,
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I can't afford anything that's a detached home with a yard. I just want to have a property at this point.
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Okay guys, and now let's move into my weekly comment roundup. User Pat B said,
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congratulations on finding a place in Calgary. It's like winning the lotto nowadays.
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I think Daniel will turn those losses around and will win a bigger majority next time.
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Make no mistake, Kenny is the author of these losses. User Richard M. Messiah, I'm sorry if I
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mispronounced your name, said, thanks Rachel. We love your sincere, honest, and great reporting.
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We the people. Thank you so much for your kind compliment. I do really appreciate it. I actually
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appreciate all the comments I get under my show. You guys are very complimentary and when you have
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a criticism, you say it in a very fair and reasonable way. So I do appreciate that and I take
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your criticisms under consideration as well. I think it speaks to my viewers and our base at True
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North, just that people are still able to have respectful dialogue and discussion online.
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We definitely don't see that in terms of our broader societal trends online. And you know,
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the election was very personal and divisive. I couldn't believe how angry people would get just
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because I was showing up to NDP press conferences to ask questions. I wasn't even there to provide
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commentary simply to ask questions and some people just could not handle that. It definitely makes
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you scratch your head and wonder what they're so afraid of. So thanks again. I do appreciate the
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support. Okay guys, that's all that we have time for today. As always, if you're able,
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please consider supporting our work. You can do that over at donate.tnc.news. I will see you guys