Episode 152 – A Terrorist Released for Being...Too Fat？ Congress Stalls on Coronavirus Relief, Again. 2020’s Best COVID Love Story.
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Summary
The government runs out of money tomorrow, and it s running out of time to get a short-term continuing resolution in place in order to avoid a government shutdown. Meanwhile, the Senate debates whether or not to pass an omnibus bill that includes a provision to end surprise medical billing.
Transcript
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you ever watch this guy on television you all were not telling the truth and you should not
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be trusted congressman matt gates thank you for what you did for your country today be offended
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with the democratic whip not house republicans like a machine matt gates
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welcome to hot takes i'm congressman matt gates let's talk about the news the government runs
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out of money tomorrow and based on the phone conference call i just had with republican
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members of congress i do not believe that by tomorrow there will be an omnibus legislative
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package alongside a coronavirus relief package ready to pass and send to president trump it
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appears those negotiations are ongoing and so it's likely that tomorrow the congress will have to pass
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a short-term continuing resolution backing the members of the house and the senate up against
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christmas because if history holds members of congress will vote for just about anything to
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get home to christmas and to be off for christmas break so it's one of the ways that swampy
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features make their way into legislation i will tell you there's one substantial republican win
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and i want to give the republican negotiators credit for this it does appear in the final legislative
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text and again i haven't seen legislative text yet that there will be a provision to end surprise
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medical billing this is something that really plagues our fellow americans where you go in you figure
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you've got insurance but you didn't know that your hospital where you had insurance had a contracting
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relationship with some other you know mri company or some other diagnostic company and then lo and
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behold your visit that you know might normally have cost a few thousand dollars is automatically up to
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like fifty sixty thousand dollars so we want to see an end to surprise medical billing and what we're
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hearing on capitol hill right now is that that's going to be included in the final legislation now
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there is a debate raging now over whether the ppp loans ought to be tax deductible a lot of republicans
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in congress believe that it should be i know we're still working with the treasury secretary steve mnuchin
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on that issue but that's something i hear about frequently from small businesses that need to have those ppp
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loans tax deductible and so we're still fighting for that the other issue is rent many many americans
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are renters are landlords are involved in the real estate industry and the government manipulation of
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the rental market has had some real downstream impacts on the economy and at the same time we know
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that we've got a lot of folks who are renters who've seen you know their jobs vanish into thin air and
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it's not their fault that that happened so that is still a sticky wicket that we're negotiating and
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i hope to be able to have more on that it's something that we're very very focused on we
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don't want to create a situation where the renter is captive we don't want to create a situation where
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the landlord is captive i'll be continuing to uh you know work on this legislation and update our
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listeners but suffice it to say there's no legislative text the government runs out of money tomorrow
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it looks like congress will be doing a little bit of work over the weekend
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the senate's homeland security committee met yesterday to discuss election irregularities and
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election integrity and there were some pretty heated moments between chairman ron johnson and
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the democrat ranking member gary peters take a listen i just have to talk about russian disinformation
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because the people peddling it are not on my side of the aisle senior democrat leaders including
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ranking member peters you know were involved in a process of creating a false intelligence product
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it was supposedly classified they leaked to the media that accused senator grassley the president pro tem of
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the senate and myself of accepting and disseminating russian disinformation from andre kirk durkash i'd
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never heard of the person until they brought it up sir mr chairman i gotta respond to that i mean you're
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saying i'm putting out information well one i did had nothing to do with this report you you lied
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repeatedly you lied repeatedly in the press that i was spreading russian disinformation and that was an
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outright lie and i told you to stop lying and you continue to do it mr chairman this is not about airing
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your grievances i know what i don't know what rabbit hole you're running down you talked about
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russian disinformation senator paul this is simply not what we're dealing with but mr chairman you
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can't make these false allegations and then dropping it there that is why this senator paul needs to
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return back to it senator paul partisan things this is this is this is terrible what you're doing to
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this committee and all the great work that you talked about it is what you have done to this
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committee it is not also using the chairman of spreading disinformation nothing could have been
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further from the truth and you're spouting it again which is why i had to respond oh come on
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here's my hot take the democrats should be embarrassed for calling the hunter biden laptop
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russian disinformation there's been no proof of that but plenty of proof that hunter biden was engaged
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in wrongdoing now i'm not talking about his personal life or his personal antics frankly i don't
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think that's the business of the united states senate certainly not the fbi and the department of
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justice but if hunter biden was engaged in activities that put other countries before ours
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that had these foreign interests entangled with the workings of our government well that is worthy of
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review and it's why it's so frustrating to have democrats unwilling to see evidence unwilling to
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evaluate the information that is before them without such a partisan lens i also think that it's
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ridiculous for democrats to just dismiss out of hand these irregularities that occurred as a
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consequence of the election just hear from some of the witnesses in the senate's homeland security
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hearing take a listen in wisconsin we just completed it we just completed a recount we found that there
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were incomplete and altered certificates these are the certificates on the front of the envelopes
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that have to be exactly done correctly under our law if not those results may not be counted how many of
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those more than three thousand of those identified by person were nonetheless counted even though they
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are clearly invalid under the law then we have an interesting category called indefinitely confined
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these are people which the statute i read from the statute by age physical illness or infirmity or are
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disabled indefinitely among those claiming this status so they don't have to provide any identification
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among those claiming this status is one of the electors for joe biden three million people properly voted in the
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wisconsin more than 200 000 identified during this recount did not but those votes got counted and our statute says
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they should not have been so it remains to be seen whether or not this evidence will result in
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a senator joining members of the house of representatives to offer an objection to the counting of the electors from
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states with these substantial irregularities and i think that the country would actually benefit
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from more of this discussion more debate more exposure and if we continue to shine the light
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on election fraud and election irregularities it may function as more of a deterrent to that type of bad behavior in the future
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too fat for prison that was a winning argument for one of osama bin laden's former henchmen who was
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just freed from a new jersey prison after a judge deemed him too fat for jail we get the story from
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the new york post and abdel abdul barry was convicted for two deadly 1998 bombings he's now free and living
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in the united kingdom the judge saying quote the defendant's obesity and somewhat advanced age make
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covet 19 significantly more risky to him than to the average person uh barry's lawyers had cited their
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clients age girth and asthma as reasons that he ought to have been released he's 60 years old spent 21
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years in a new jersey prison was involved as an al-qaeda operative that in activities that ended up
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killing 224 people including 12 americans those bombings occurring at embassies in africa i never thought
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i'd see the day that too fat for prison was a winning argument but i guess with one manhattan judge
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billionaire republican mega donor charles coke has joined in an op-ed calling for massive amnesty
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for illegal aliens residing in the united states of america he writes that the 11 to 22 million
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illegal aliens here ought to have the opportunity to come out of the shadows this while we still have
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tens of millions of americans who want to work but who can't because of lockdowns following coronavirus
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now i appreciate all that the coke brothers have done to elect republicans over the years it's probably
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resulted in a lot of good but this position for amnesty is not one that should be held in the
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america first republican party amnesty undermines the opportunity that we have to preserve for our
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fellow americans i think those who support amnesty and open borders take too low of a view of what
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america is america is not just a constitution or an idea america is our home and just as we wouldn't let
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just anyone walk into our home without knowing who they are what their intentions were we can't just
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let anyone walk into our country and if someone were to come into your home without permission
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you wouldn't start by then wondering whether or not they could add value to your home the first thing
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you would say is you don't have permission you have to depart until permission is granted and then
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perhaps there's an opportunity for a positive experience a positive exchange but when you just
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have amnesty proclamations like those from charles coke and like those from a lot of left-wing
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politicians you encourage the caravans the human trafficking the mass migration the erosion of borders
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and the undermining of wages of our fellow americans i have a hard line view on immigration people off
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ought to have to get permission to come into our country and we ought to give permission to those who
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would enhance the american experience i don't believe that our immigration system today works
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i think it is a broken system i think that it is dramatically improved as a consequence of president
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trump i mean think look we don't have these caravans forming at the same level now as they were four
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years ago and that's because president trump built more border wall about 400 miles to be precise
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he changed the amnesty policies he ended catch and release he ensured that if people wanted to claim
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asylum that they could do so from their home country or from a safe third country i'm concerned
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that the america first pro-trump immigration policies that have been working over the last few
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years for our country could be undermined in the coming years the fact that republicans are calling
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for amnesty is not a good sign a member of the seattle city council who wants to defund the police
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recently ended up having to call the police you just know this was going to happen we pick up the
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story from the post-millennial and it is one of lisa herbold member of the seattle city council
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she had previously introduced legislation to excuse or dismiss almost all misdemeanor crimes committed
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in seattle by quote persons with symptoms of addiction or mental disorder then she ended up
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calling 9-1-1 to protect her from the very type of crime she might want to legalize when someone
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threw a rock at her window a witness said they saw an unathletic and bad runner leaving the scene
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the suspect was described as a clean-shaven white male with a black hoodie and jeans the witness
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told officers that he would recognize the suspect if he saw him again but declined the officer's
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business card for contact or follow-up so it's just interesting that in our time of need we seem to
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value law enforcement a great deal but for political reasons to virtue signal to those who are anti-police at
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the local level there is a willingness to legislate otherwise we want everyone to be safe we want to
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support our law enforcement particularly those police who go out there and keep our streets safe each and
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every day and we want those police to exist for law-abiding americans and even for members of the
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seattle city council just yesterday the house of representatives passed a major bipartisan piece
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of legislation for our nation's veterans the bill increases resources for homeless veterans and one of
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the really important features of the bill it creates dedicated women's health providers at the va
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females are a rapidly growing demographic within our veteran community a va health has seen a real
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increase in the number of women they're treating as a consequence it has increased from 160,000 to
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475,000 since just the year 2000 so with that massive increase in the number of women who need veteran
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care creating dedicated funding and requirements for women's health care within the va system absolutely
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essential for our war fighters for our veterans other provisions of the bill ensured that there are
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economic opportunities for veterans and that we ensure the continuation of employment because that
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transition from you know military active duty service life to civilian life is one that man if we nail it
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there is just a huge return on investment for society with a veteran who is now deploying skills in the
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economy helping our businesses grow helping our nation's productivity but frankly there are a lot of
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veterans who fall through the cracks who aren't given those transition services into private life this bill
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will make that stronger and i'm glad i got the chance to vote for it along with every other member of the
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house of representatives this is definitely the most romantic story i have ever seen in the daily caller
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man jet skis nearly five hours to visit his girlfriend across the irish sea and then is jailed for violating
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coronavirus restrictions dale mclaughlin 28 years old was sentenced to four weeks in jail on the isle of man
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on monday for flouting the island's strict coronavirus travel restrictions he buys a jet ski and then the
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next day drives it for four and a half hours to the island from scotland to see his girlfriend now it's
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only a fool who looks for logic and matters of the human heart according to my favorite movie oh brother
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where art thou and my goodness to see uh a four week jail sentence handed down to this guy i don't know
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about this but i'm willing to guess that the judge who issued that sentence has probably suffered some
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recent heartbreak and was just not in the mood for romance as an excuse for violating coronavirus
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restrictions hey we all need love man we all need human contact i salute dale mclaughlin for his tribute
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to romance and passion and look if the girlfriend who he drove four and a half hours to see on a on
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a jet ski and then went to jail for four weeks on if she doesn't stick with him through this jail
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sentence there are plenty of women that i know that would love to meet this guy thanks for listening
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to hot takes i'm congressman matt gates the show is written produced and directed by myself luke ball and
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joel valdez do us a favor give us a five star rating on itunes or leave us a comment on your favorite
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