Episode 72 - Good Grief, Goodyear! Former Top Pelosi Staffer Registers as Chinese Lobbyist. A Virtual Fire Drill?
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Summary
The president of the United States is calling for a boycott of Goodyear after a photo was taken at a Goodyear HR seminar that seems discriminatory against conservatives and against police. A genetically modified mosquito invasion that some are concerned about in the state of Florida, and a plan to release 750 million genetically engineered mosquitoes.
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 good year
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good year tires dominating the news the president of the united states calling for a boycott of
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good year following a photo being taken at a good year hr seminar that seems to be pretty
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discriminatory against conservatives and against police so let's go right to it there is a good
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year employee who takes an image and it says one team up in the top right corner with the good year
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logo and it says there's zero tolerance policy allows black lives matter allows lgbt as acceptable
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and then deems unacceptable blue lives matter all lives matter maga attire and politically
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affiliated material so obviously there was a very strong reaction to a corporate policy that would
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say that it's zero tolerance when dealing with folks who would just want to say that all lives
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matter or blue lives matter while at the same time allowing political messages that were not
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necessarily consistent with that viewpoint to be allowed so good year gets in the game and issues
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this like very corporate statement and response and it is more confusing than it is enlightening
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first it says well this is not issued by good year corporate well then who is it i mean who is it that
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under the good year logo under the good year banner under the one team mantra of their hr policies
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is allowed to distribute this messaging to their own employees if not them so maybe good year needs to
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answer that question second they say well we accept that we've got 60 000 employees that they have
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different political viewpoints and we just want to say all politics and campaigning for particular
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candidates would not be allowed so i guess that's their explanation for why they wouldn't allow
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maga hats but no real definition of what biden material or obama material or hillary clinton material
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wouldn't be allowed it specifically in the image says no maga well why is it that they would do that
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why wouldn't they just say no campaigning for any candidates so i think that that again raises more
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questions than it provides answers and then third they say we've always wholeheartedly supported
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equality and law enforcement and will continue to do so well i mean that that is quite the
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conclusory statement but good year here's the question if one of your employees wore a hat to
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work tomorrow that said blue lives matter would that be allowed or not allowed if one of your
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employees walked in with a shirt that said all lives matter would that be allowed or not allowed
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no real answer from good year on that and i think that they owe that answer frankly to their own
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employees because this response this very negative response to good year certainly is a consequence
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of organic outrage by an employee who felt discriminated against so i look forward to more
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answers from good year it seems inappropriate for them to have a corporate policy of you know banning
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certain types of political speech while allowing other types of political speech and if that's the type
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of company they want to be look i i'm not one who calls for boycotts based on politics frankly i think
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there are other things that bind us other than politics that wouldn't necessitate a boycott so i'm not
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all about the cancel culture but personally you know am i going to be eager to buy a good year tire over
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some other type of tire absolutely not because i think that you've got to embrace an america first mantra
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to be a patriotic company in this country you know i think that you really have to want america to
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succeed now that doesn't mean you have to get involved in politics as a corporation but if you
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choose to get in politics you should not be allowed to discriminate against your employees because they
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wear a maga hat or because they support law enforcement looking forward to more answers good year
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a genetically modified mosquito invasion that's what some are concerned about in the state of florida
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the environmental protection agency giving final approval to a plan by the monroe county mosquito control
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board down in the florida keys to release 750 million genetically engineered mosquitoes
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cnn has the story by sandy lamott and in the plan the expectation is that these genetically modified mosquitoes
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will produce female larvae that will die before they reach the stage of flight or the biting period of the
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mosquito lifestyle and or life cycle and apparently it is only the female mosquitoes we have to be worried
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about male mosquitoes do not bite for blood they only access nectar the females need the blood to produce
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the eggs so if you take 750 million of these genetically modified mosquitoes the thought is that they can target a
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specific type of mosquito that carries zika that carries chicken guinea that carries other bad types of
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mosquito-borne blood-borne ailments that we've had to deal with in florida and that certainly our friends in the
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caribbean have dealt with as well this plan was originally cooked up in texas uh it has been deployed in parts of brazil and
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panama and the hope is that we will not have the jurassic park uh in in experience with our mosquito release
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though uh there is a quote from jd hansen who's the policy director for the international center for technology
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assessment and center for food safety she says with all the urgent crisis facing our nation and the state
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of florida the covet 19 pandemic racial injustice climate change and the administration has used tax
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dollars and government resources for a jurassic park experiment well first of all it's actually not
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the administration it is the monroe county mosquito control board and i don't know why climate change
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or racial injustice would stop us from deploying the very best tech against killer mosquitoes because
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when you have zika when you have chicken guinea and some of those other real problems it affects low
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income communities it affects urban communities just because of the high population density that was a
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real problem in the keys and in miami and so it's good to see us using in my opinion the very best tech
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to try to deploy the genetically modified mosquito air force to take out these diseases
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this is an in case you missed it from our friends over at the national pulse natalie winters and it's a
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swamp watch regarding the revolving door that seems to exist between elements of the u.s government and
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moonlighting for the communist chinese party this is exclusive to the national pulse top pelosi
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staffer registered as foreign agent to lobby for chinese state media outlet and the story is of
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brendan daly former communications director for nancy pelosi and a political appointee of the obama
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administration he becomes a registered agent who provided the chinese communist party's premier state-run
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media outlet china central television network with quote strategic council as it expanded into the
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united states and it really is troubling to me you know to see that these folks get such an intense
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understanding of how our government works and then they go and cash in with china there ought to be a
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law stopping top congressional staff top political appointees and members of the united states congress and
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from working for china when they want to cash in on their public service when you put on our jersey
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and play for our team we expect some monogamy and i would hope that we don't see this trend continue but
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sadly it's happened with republicans and democrats you know they get their government experience here
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they learn about our nation how we make decisions and then they go and cash in with the chinese communist
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party we've got to do something about this because america is worth protecting and we should not be
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sold out by people who do their politics and then want to run and you know get some massive financial
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windfall as a consequence of the information that they were fortunate enough to get because our nation
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placed trust in them when you play for america we want you to stay on our team
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this you will have to hear to believe virtual fire drills for students learning at home take a
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listen to this exchange posted on social media got a little e-learning going on here today with uh
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christopher hammer all right christopher a lot of people feel like e-learning um it's kind of silly
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uh the programs aren't as good as going to actual school please tell me what you're doing this morning
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today we have a virtual fire drill where they are showing us where to walk out of the building that
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we are not in right now in case that building catches fire so let me make sure that i've got
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this perfectly straight here so i want to make sure everybody's on the up and up this is a virtual
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fire drill yes so in case the building that you're not in catches on fire you here at home will know
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exactly what to do yes virtual fire drill ladies and gentlemen here's my hot take in health care
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money ought to follow the patient in education money ought to follow the student and so if we're
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going to have more students homeschooling which i suspect we are if we're going to have more
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students engaging in digital learning and virtual high school my expectation is that we should
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send the resources to the people actually providing that service to the students and in many cases if
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that's the parent if that's a private company helping with a learning center if that's a math
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tutor that you know uses skype or some other mechanism to communicate with students let's do it let's design
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a cafeteria style education system that is more innovative that is more creative and that is certainly
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more useful to students and families than virtual fire drills for buildings that are not being occupied
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in students that could be learning in far more effective ways
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the greatest interview i've seen on television in quite some time was conducted by martha mccallum
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with becky pringle the president-elect of the national education association you will not believe your
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ears take a listen i want to just put up on the screen this is part of the nea's guidance on
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reopening school buildings and it says this ensure that school building reopening
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plans are inclusive and equitable for all educators and students by humanizing learning environments and
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designing spaces that are situated in the experiences of communities of color not just through white
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cis hetero and able-bodied lens lenses what is what does that mean and what does that have to do with
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making sure that the kids and teachers don't give each other covet 19 as an educator with over 30 years of
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experience i taught eighth grade science i know because i've talked to teachers every single day
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that they want to be with their students they want to be in schools with their students they know that
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that interaction between them and their students and their and their colleagues is absolutely essential to the learning of our students
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but these are not basic precautions that are in your your own organization's guidelines talk about
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you know not just through a white cis hetero able-bodied lens and designing spaces that are
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situated in the experiences what is this what is any of what i just read have to do with what you just
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said and this is one of the guidelines and demands of the nea we have said from the beginning
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that we need to focus our resources and plans on opening our schools safely and equity equitably that
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means that we want to make sure that we finally finally do something about the disparities in access and
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opportunities and resources i understand those goals i understand those goals but a lot of people
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are going to look at a situation that is desperate in terms of the basics in terms of just making sure
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that the kids can get into the classroom they can learn math they can learn science they can learn
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english and they're going to look at some of the things that are in your guidelines and say those
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things are are good they're aspirational they're good things to think about and maybe after we get
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through all of this we should address those issues but there's so many basics that don't fall in there
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ninety percent of our students go to public schools we need to ensure that the resources that the
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majority of our students need are there for them it is not i think obviously it depends so martha never
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gets an answer to the question what does it mean when the national education association says that
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teachers should not return to school to educate our kids until we have classrooms that are set up to deal
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with marginalized communities and side gender privilege now if you don't know what side gender privilege
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is it is that if you are born a man and stay a man that that is a privilege or if you are born a woman
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and you stay a woman that is a privilege that you lose that privilege only when you when you change
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from one gender to another how in the hell are you supposed to design a classroom to accommodate that
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to keep folks safe during coronavirus i want our school districts focused on masks and sanitation
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i want hand washing breaks i want barriers where necessary to keep students sufficiently socially
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distanced i want construction dollars available for additional classroom space or to convert temporary
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swing space or classroom space i don't want our educational professionals and administrators and school
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districts focused on how various forms of gender privilege impact the learning environment as we're trying
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to solve the coronavirus i mean i i guess if there's data to suggest that these gender questions impact
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learning there might be a time and a place to ask those questions but when it comes to reopening our
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schools i'm more concerned about this the physical well-being the mental health well-being the social well-being
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that comes with just getting open again and giving that option to families and students that absolutely
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need that option and there will be some who don't take it but i do not believe that becky pringle further
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enlightened us as to the deconstruction of gender being a key element of opening our schools
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the president taking questions from reporters on a variety of issues facing the country let's take a listen
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to the highlights when we came into office isis was running rampant all over iraq and syria and we knocked
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out the 100 of the isis caliphate but the obama administration did a very very poor job they were
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running rampant all over and we came in and we did a real job and we got rid of that and that was a good
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thing and now we're working with iraq they use the great american dollar which is the most powerful currency
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in the world and they're starting to do well and we are with them and this gentleman in particular
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we've developed a very good relationship and hopefully it's going to be very strong for your
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country there is some reporting that the u.s troops will withdraw from iraq totally in three years is
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this true so at some point we obviously will be gone we've brought it down to a very very low level we
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deal with there are attacks we take care of those attacks so we take care of them very easily nobody has
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the weaponry we have nobody has the uh anything of what we have we have the finest the greatest
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military in the world when somebody hits us we hit back harder than they hit us so we handle it in
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addition to that iraq has been very helpful where necessary but we have been taking our troops out of
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iraq fairly rapidly and we look forward to the day when we don't have to be there and hopefully iraq can
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live their own lives and they can defend themselves which they've been doing long before we got
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involved thanks for listening to today's episode of hot takes i'm congressman matt gates tune in tomorrow