The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1065

00:00:00.080 Hello everyone, welcome to the podcast of the Lotus Seaters. Today is Tuesday the 17th of December and I'm joined by Josh and Beau.

00:00:10.080 And this is episode 1065.

00:00:14.080 Blimey.

00:00:14.860 Yeah.

00:00:15.660 Getting on.

00:00:16.780 Right, so we are going to discuss how Trump might save Canada from its governor, I suppose.

00:00:22.380 The Wisconsin school shooting, what we know of it, and Biden's pardons.

00:00:27.400 And without further ado, should we start?

00:00:29.680 We have some announcements.

00:00:31.480 Where are they?

00:00:32.840 Christmas cards.

00:00:33.800 Ah, yeah.

00:00:34.500 Thank you to people sending in Christmas cards.

00:00:36.740 We do appreciate it.

00:00:37.660 We've started receiving a few.

00:00:39.220 We're putting them up in the office.

00:00:40.940 And thank you very much.

00:00:42.720 Festive ones.

00:00:43.480 They look festive.

00:00:44.640 Some very nice messages in there.

00:00:46.400 I've been reading them out to people in the office.

00:00:48.360 And very wholesome.

00:00:49.680 We're just blessed with fans like you.

00:00:52.480 We are indeed.

00:00:53.680 Thank you.

00:00:53.960 It's very wholesome indeed.

00:00:55.540 Right, should we pop these away somewhere safe and then we'll put them up in a bit.

00:00:59.680 Some news.

00:01:02.040 So, a curious thing has happened.

00:01:07.500 Donald Trump is going to be the next US president and it seems the world is healing.

00:01:13.280 And one of the closest places to the United States, Canada, seems to already be undergoing this healing process before he's even assumed office.

00:01:21.440 And it all starts with this.

00:01:24.440 And this is a news story from the 30th of November.

00:01:28.140 Trump praises very productive Mar-a-Lago meeting with Trudeau.

00:01:31.540 And of course, this was prompted, this meeting, because Trump had threatened to impose a 25% tariff on Canadian goods.

00:01:38.780 And of course, Canada sends about 75% of its total exports to the US.

00:01:43.100 And this would absolutely devastate the Canadian economy.

00:01:46.200 And so, it was significant enough that Prime Minister Trudeau had to come down and talk to Trump about it.

00:01:53.300 And of this meeting, apparently, they discussed many important topics.

00:01:58.560 And Trump apparently wrote that this included fentanyl, illegal immigration and trade.

00:02:05.340 And this is, of course, significant as well because part of the reason that they were, well, Trump was putting forward this 25% tariff on Canada is the sort of porousness of the border.

00:02:19.380 And as this article from recently admits, Canada admits people can simply hop over the US border as Trump demands crackdown.

00:02:28.120 And of course, there's no use Trump cracking down on the southern border if your northern border is equivalently porous.

00:02:36.740 And people can just come in and hop the border.

00:02:38.960 And, you know, even if he solved the Mexican border issue, which I think is a big ask in and of itself, if Canada is still a viable route to the United States, it will simply be the case that people will switch to go there.

00:02:52.540 Because, of course, people like George Soros are flying in people to Mexico so they can cross the southern border.

00:02:59.240 And what was interesting, a few weeks after Trump was elected, was that Justin Trudeau made an announcement that he is going to do a temporary halt on immigration and he is going to revise his immigration policy.

00:03:14.460 So this is yet another element of what you're saying that the world seems to be healing and how he is someone who is anxious about.

00:03:24.880 Yeah, I don't think he's necessarily had an ideological change of heart.

00:03:28.340 It's just a pragmatic move to try and cling on to power by trying to appeal to people's concerns.

00:03:35.240 But I think it's too little, too late.

00:03:36.920 Too late for them, yeah.

00:03:37.860 I would say so.

00:03:39.200 So what Trump is doing with this 25% tariff is that he's using the threat of the tariff as a bargaining chip.

00:03:45.840 I'd be surprised if it got to the point where they actually implement this 25% tariff.

00:03:50.680 Although, it is very effective as a bargaining chip because you either get what you want in the bargaining or you can justify it by saying you're protecting American industries.

00:04:03.580 And Trump's in a unique position to capitalize on that because he's sort of the candidate most associated with this notion of America first and protecting American businesses first, American jobs.

00:04:15.400 Because he's been trying to hammer this rhetoric home and therefore it helps him galvanize his support and build support further.

00:04:24.420 And although, of course, he's not running for election again, it's still useful for him to have national support because it makes his life easier.

00:04:32.020 And also, of course, Trump has introduced protectionist policies for things like American steel before.

00:04:38.780 And so it's not even a baseless threat because he's not unheard of using these protectionist moves to benefit America.

00:04:47.020 And so he's sort of got it both ways here and Canada's in a bit of a bind about it.

00:04:53.440 I don't want to use a sort of a lefty commie traitor talking point, but...

00:04:58.700 Uh-oh.

00:04:59.260 That border is ridiculously massive and through insanely rugged country sometimes because it's like essentially a straight line.

00:05:10.060 It just cuts across mountain ranges and ravines and rivers and everything.

00:05:15.160 So just physically, logistically, it'd be quite difficult to actually do that.

00:05:22.160 I think what's probably going to happen is that the United States is going to try and leverage its dominant position as world hegemon basically, you know, questionable perhaps.

00:05:32.200 But they're going to try and get Canada to adopt a similar immigration approach as the United States will adopt under Trump.

00:05:40.980 That's what's probably going to happen because that way Canada will be in a comparable situation to the United States in that they're not necessarily letting in hundreds of thousands of Indians like they're doing.

00:05:54.400 Although they're not necessarily the ones crossing the southern border because they can go the legal route.

00:05:59.040 But if they're preventing, say, massive processing of asylum seekers, which Canada has a massive problem with, as well as the massive legal migration as well, then that's probably going to curb the problem.

00:06:12.720 And America, just by merit of sharing a large border with Canada, is probably going to pressure them to reduce immigration by that route, rather than actually just building a massive wall.

00:06:25.720 Yeah, yeah.

00:06:26.520 Because that's the easier way of doing it, isn't it?

00:06:28.600 I know that there are a specific few bridges where nearly all people come across from Canada to America and back somewhere.

00:06:34.960 But if you really wanted to, if you wanted to go out to the Pacific Northwest and hike across the border, there'll be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles where there's nothing there.

00:06:46.100 It's just wilderness, really.

00:06:47.540 This is not immigration advice.

00:06:49.020 No, no.

00:06:49.920 Don't do that.

00:06:51.120 Although it's good hiking, I imagine.

00:06:54.100 If you ever saw the Trailer Park Boys episode with the Swayze train and stuff, you can walk across the border.

00:07:00.100 I didn't think the Trailer Park Boys would be coming up this soon.

00:07:02.900 Talk about Canada.

00:07:03.580 I mean, come on.

00:07:04.280 Yeah, of course.

00:07:05.040 It's past you already, referencing them.

00:07:09.520 No, so anyway, I wish Trump and the Americans all the best, of course.

00:07:14.140 And the Canadians.

00:07:15.380 They've suffered for it quite a bit, haven't they, really?

00:07:17.960 Of course I do.

00:07:18.380 Of course I do, yeah.

00:07:19.340 Now, the normal Canadian people had the absolute mickey taken out of them by Trudeau.

00:07:25.440 It's nearly 10 years now, I think, and very few people have good things to say about him.

00:07:29.980 I've got a decent amount of family out in Canada as well.

00:07:31.860 But one thing Trump did say, and this is sort of old news, but it ties into current news, is the fact that Trump suggested Canada could become the 51st state after the tariff would kill the economy.

00:07:45.360 Which, obviously, he's joking.

00:07:47.880 And lots of media outlets have pointed out that he's joking, which I found interesting as well, because normally people just take him at his word.

00:07:55.800 But everyone's sort of like, okay, we know he's having a laugh here.

00:07:59.440 He's actually going to annex Canada. 0.61

00:08:01.500 Do a false flag, claim they bombed the Bordwins.

00:08:07.860 And he has been running with it, but just from a rhetorical sense.

00:08:12.280 So you can see here, this is a post that he made.

00:08:14.640 It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor.

00:08:17.020 Notice he says Governor, Justin Trudeau, rather than Prime Minister.

00:08:21.040 And he's trying to play off of the 51st state thing.

00:08:23.920 And then he also said it again.

00:08:29.500 I think this is the BBC picking up on it.

00:08:32.180 And here it is again.

00:08:33.720 The great state of Canada is stunned as the finance minister resigns or was fired.

00:08:38.140 This is foreshadowing to what I'm going to talk about in a minute.

00:08:41.320 And by Governor, Justin Trudeau is the important thing.

00:08:45.720 So he's really going on about this.

00:08:47.380 And the funny thing is that there has been polling and 13% of Canadians think that Canada

00:08:54.600 should become the 51st American state, which I'm surprised it's that high, really.

00:09:00.760 Yeah, it is surprising.

00:09:02.320 But also one thing that I saw is that most Canadians have a much favourable view of Trump than Canadians.

00:09:12.960 Or let me rephrase it.

00:09:14.240 There is a larger number of Canadians who view Trump positively and Trudeau negatively than the opposite.

00:09:21.180 Okay, so they actually prefer Trump over Trudeau.

00:09:23.440 Yeah.

00:09:23.900 Well, fair enough.

00:09:24.880 Also, one thing I'll say is that there are, in Canada, there's sort of the English types and then the French-speaking types, aren't there?

00:09:33.360 Mm-hmm.

00:09:33.640 Like the French-speaking types. 0.99

00:09:35.120 Is it Quebec where they're strong?

00:09:36.500 That's it, yeah.

00:09:37.120 They don't want to be part of the Commonwealth or have...

00:09:42.100 Well, of course not, no.

00:09:43.020 ...have the king as part of...

00:09:44.780 Well, there's separatism, isn't there, in Quebec?

00:09:47.380 Yeah, yeah.

00:09:48.460 Which is interesting.

00:09:49.880 So would they want to go from having the king in Buckhouse as their head of state to the pres in the White House?

00:09:56.660 Probably not.

00:09:57.480 They'd want to be their own thing entirely, I would have thought.

00:09:59.320 Those people.

00:09:59.800 No, you're probably right.

00:10:01.740 But apparently in this poll, where was it?

00:10:06.520 It said, people in the Atlantic provinces, women and Canadians over the age of 55, were least likely to support it, which I thought was interesting.

00:10:14.380 So men and young men in particular were most likely, seemingly, as that's the inverse of those figures.

00:10:20.740 So it's also worth mentioning as well that the day before they were meant to release a budget or propose a budget, the deputy prime minister resigned, who was also in charge of releasing the budget.

00:10:36.700 And so then the position went to the industry minister, who then resigned on the spot.

00:10:43.780 What a coincidence.

00:10:45.280 Why would they be resigning?

00:10:46.480 Is it that bad?

00:10:47.280 Well, it might be something to do with this.

00:10:48.700 Canada overshoots deficit target by 20 billion Canadian dollars as the finance minister resigns.

00:10:55.940 That could have something to do with it, I imagine.

00:10:58.340 No way to explain this on a CV afterwards.

00:11:02.700 Exactly.

00:11:03.340 That's pretty bad.

00:11:04.060 In the scheme of things, in the scheme of sort of cabinet government, to have your deputy and then your head of finance or whatever it was, the finance minister, who's the second person to resign?

00:11:14.840 Well, she was deputy and the head of finance. 0.62

00:11:18.100 All right.

00:11:18.660 But then the next person down the line, they also resigned, you see?

00:11:20.900 Yep.

00:11:21.740 So that's pretty bad.

00:11:23.560 It is, isn't it?

00:11:24.060 That's really, really quite bad.

00:11:27.020 Decades ago, certainly a generation or two ago, you would just resign out of embarrassment, out of shame.

00:11:34.040 That just shows your government is imploding.

00:11:36.300 I doubt Trudeau will because he's the type that, until the WEF tell him he's allowed to resign, he would never resign.

00:11:43.140 Well, we'll get to Trudeau's situation in a bit because it might be a case of just sort of a bit of foreshadowing here where he might not have a choice.

00:11:53.420 But, you know, with these things, there's always potential for alternatives.

00:11:58.220 So we'll have to see about that.

00:12:00.280 So it's worth mentioning as well.

00:12:02.760 You shouldn't feel bad for this woman because she was the one who smiled about bank accounts being frozen with the trucker protests.

00:12:09.660 And then let's just listen to what she says about vaccine mandates.

00:12:15.660 There are people in the country who just, you know, haven't gotten around to getting vaccinated.

00:12:25.660 You get the idea. Obviously, we can't talk about this in detail because this is going on YouTube.

00:12:52.580 But from a policy standpoint, this is a very authoritarian approach to this issue.

00:13:00.300 That's what I think I can get away with saying.

00:13:03.380 But we've got to be careful on that one.

00:13:05.380 Also, I don't think anyone feels bad for this woman.

00:13:08.120 No, no, no. I think we should be grateful that she's gone.

00:13:11.640 Yeah, I disagree with her. I don't see the point.

00:13:13.360 I think they're being a bit sarcastic there, to be honest.

00:13:15.640 I don't think anyone feels particularly bad.

00:13:18.080 It's more that people are happy that Trudel shows that he can run the government.

00:13:23.940 Also, here she is smiling about freezing people exercising their right to protest.

00:13:30.280 So you're confirming that accounts have been frozen, both personal and corporate, but you're not releasing the information.

00:13:36.020 And the actual follow-up is, I'm just wondering whether the bank accounts will be targeted of individuals who donated to the Give, Send, Go and the GoFundMe campaigns.

00:13:45.280 Are they considered designated people under the Emergencies Act, meaning that their credit cards could be...

00:13:49.760 You get the idea, right? I'm not going to linger on this for a long time.

00:13:52.980 She's a bad person. I think that's fair to say, certainly from our perspective.

00:13:56.860 She's abandoning ship, but it was a ship that she really liked.

00:14:01.980 That's a very roundabout way of putting it, yes.

00:14:04.540 And Donald Trump also...

00:14:09.320 Yes, you can see the meme below as well.

00:14:12.060 The great state of Canada is stunned as the finance minister resigns or was fired from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau.

00:14:18.220 Here he goes again.

00:14:19.180 Her behaviour was totally toxic and not at all.

00:14:22.720 Conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada.

00:14:27.260 She will not be missed, which I thought was quite funny.

00:14:30.280 So yes, it seems like...

00:14:31.260 Can I see the meme? Can you scroll down a bit?

00:14:32.600 Go on, then.

00:14:34.680 Oh.

00:14:38.880 That's, of course, Trudeau's infamous blackface incident.

00:14:41.820 The deficit is like sand. It gets everywhere and annoys you.

00:14:47.140 I appreciate that, Stelios.

00:14:50.280 So, finally, they got someone to actually agree to the job of the finance minister.

00:14:56.120 And it's this guy who is already the minister of public safety and intergovernmental affairs and also has other obligations as well.

00:15:06.100 And he's one of the few Trudeau loyalists left.

00:15:10.080 And it's worth pointing out that five of Trudeau's cabinet ministers have stepped down in 2024.

00:15:18.680 So it's pretty embarrassing for him.

00:15:21.860 It's also worth mentioning as well, many of the current ministers have had to adopt two or even three different roles because there's such a shortage of people that want to be in it, in the cabinet.

00:15:33.000 I wonder why that is. Is it because they're so unpopular? I think it might be.

00:15:38.840 I don't know how he won the last election.

00:15:42.460 We can leave that question there, I think.

00:15:44.760 All right.

00:15:45.440 Oh, was there fortification going on?

00:15:47.440 Oh, all right.

00:15:49.760 Maybe.

00:15:50.360 I didn't know that.

00:15:51.760 But it's also worth mentioning as well, there's a by-election going on in British Columbia.

00:15:57.300 And this could potentially be something that spells the end.

00:16:01.560 I know lots of people speculate and say, oh, Trudeau's going to be resigning.

00:16:05.440 They've been saying that for the past year.

00:16:07.280 And you see it ad infinitum.

00:16:09.440 And this could be something that shows that they're really, really unpopular if they do particularly poorly.

00:16:17.200 But we'll have to see.

00:16:18.840 There has also been a little bit of pushback.

00:16:21.500 And this is Ontario's Premier Doug Ford saying, we'll go to the extent of cutting off their energy, going down to Michigan, going down to New York State and over to Wisconsin.

00:16:32.820 Americans are going to feel the pain as well.

00:16:34.780 And isn't that sad?

00:16:36.040 And that's in response to the threat of the tariffs.

00:16:38.320 But America sends in the Marines for less than that.

00:16:42.920 It does.

00:16:44.060 It is asking for trouble.

00:16:47.780 Stay safe, Doug.

00:16:49.140 That's what I would say.

00:16:50.660 Not that I'm genuinely saying America is going to send in the Marines against Canada.

00:16:55.140 Those are tough fighting words.

00:16:57.440 And they ring hollow to me as if Doug Ford is going to take on the United States.

00:17:04.680 No.

00:17:05.280 Single-handedly.

00:17:05.780 I mean, it's not that he's going to do this.

00:17:07.760 But I think that there is something that is possibly good about it.

00:17:12.020 That when you have people like Trump, you have to speak their language because they may respect you more.

00:17:17.980 Fair point.

00:17:18.700 Fair point.

00:17:19.740 Trump's playing brinkmanship with rhetoric and he's doing the same back.

00:17:22.620 Fair enough.

00:17:23.840 Just an idea.

00:17:24.800 Just throwing it out.

00:17:25.420 Yeah, yeah.

00:17:25.960 I don't think it will necessarily come to this.

00:17:28.020 A lot of the time, diplomacy between the US and Canada, there are strong words.

00:17:33.080 But actually, they get along pretty well and it's pretty amicable a lot of the time.

00:17:37.200 And normally, conclusions can be met.

00:17:39.440 There's also a pancake and maple syrup.

00:17:42.500 You're making me hungry, Stelios.

00:17:44.540 I am hangry.

00:17:45.620 I love pancakes and maple syrup.

00:17:49.060 Last time, the Americans did try to invade Canada and it didn't work out too well for them.

00:17:53.380 That's true, actually, yeah.

00:17:55.040 In 1812.

00:17:56.000 Fighting world.

00:17:56.460 Had a bit of help from, you know, us lot, didn't they?

00:18:00.200 I don't think we're going to get involved this time.

00:18:02.220 I think they've got a better military nowadays as well.

00:18:05.560 I would say so.

00:18:06.580 So, obviously, the head of the Conservative Party, Pierre Polivare, has called for a no-confidence vote against Trudeau because of all of this.

00:18:18.800 That is to be expected.

00:18:20.760 You know, the opportunity is now to call for these sorts of things and he is doing it.

00:18:24.840 And also...

00:18:26.060 He'll be their next leader, probably, right?

00:18:27.760 Most probably, yeah.

00:18:28.580 Yeah.

00:18:29.240 I have my reservations about him.

00:18:31.520 I don't know much.

00:18:32.040 I've seen a few clips of him and he seems all right, but I don't actually know much detail.

00:18:36.580 Yeah.

00:18:37.700 Fake-based.

00:18:38.740 Sort of centre-right.

00:18:40.340 Okay.

00:18:40.800 Sort of a little bit of milquetoast, perhaps a bit of a continuity, but slightly less bad than Trudeau.

00:18:47.460 That sort of thing, right?

00:18:48.640 Okay.

00:18:49.100 We know the type in Britain, don't we?

00:18:50.940 I like...

00:18:51.480 Ten a penny.

00:18:52.140 I like how you always have your reservations and frequently you're right.

00:18:56.060 Thank you.

00:18:56.840 I appreciate it.

00:18:57.560 I mean, we have to say it.

00:18:58.900 My cynicism is my defence mechanism against disappointment against the world and I'm quite often disappointed.

00:19:05.700 Also, the leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, Jagmeet Singh, was also calling on Trudeau to resign.

00:19:14.560 He's going to be the sort of new favourite of the left, I imagine, because, of course, he's trying to flank them from the left, as far as I'm aware, at least.

00:19:22.220 Is he saying that Trudeau is far right?

00:19:24.020 I don't think it's got quite to that point yet.

00:19:29.780 But outlets like Visegrad were saying, Justin Trudeau will likely be forced to resign.

00:19:35.800 Announcement could come within a few hours.

00:19:37.800 And this was more than a few hours ago.

00:19:41.980 And lots of people say this sort of thing.

00:19:43.780 I'll believe it when I see him handing in his resignation and addressing the nation.

00:19:51.040 Until then, I think it is difficult to say.

00:19:55.020 However, things aren't necessarily looking that good for him because you can have a look at other outlets like the BBC, for example.

00:20:02.060 Trudeau in peril after Trump's bat sparked political crisis.

00:20:05.560 That's pretty strong terms for an outlet that would be sympathetic towards him.

00:20:10.360 And even CNN, Justin Trudeau is facing a political crisis made worse by Donald Trump.

00:20:14.780 Can he survive as Canada's leader?

00:20:17.040 And even the fact that these mainstream outlets are asking these sorts of questions puts it on the agenda, doesn't it?

00:20:22.540 And makes people lose confidence in him as leader.

00:20:26.100 If everyone's asking, so when are you resigning?

00:20:28.560 It makes the possibility of someone resigning more, even if they were not inclined to do so in the first place.

00:20:34.580 My feeling is, you know, in recent times we've had someone like that Ardern woman in New Zealand. 0.99

00:20:41.760 Jacinda Ardern, yeah. 0.98

00:20:42.960 Or Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

00:20:46.120 These people resign without too much pressure.

00:20:49.380 Everything I know about Trudeau is he's not like that.

00:20:52.680 He's more like a Gordon Brown person.

00:20:56.320 We'll never resign.

00:20:57.800 I've said it before.

00:20:58.520 We'll never give up on the game until it gives up on him.

00:21:01.040 The last limpet on a sinking ship.

00:21:03.340 We'll hold on tooth and nail to the last possible moment.

00:21:08.000 That's my feeling about Trudeau.

00:21:09.860 Unless he's removed by legitimate means, by parliamentary means.

00:21:15.140 He won't just resign because there's loads of headlines about it.

00:21:18.660 That's my feeling.

00:21:19.360 I could be wrong.

00:21:20.280 That could take Kudai's terribly.

00:21:21.580 I actually agree with...

00:21:22.720 He could be resigning right now for all I know, but I suspect he won't.

00:21:26.600 I agree with what you're saying.

00:21:27.780 I think your read of his character is correct.

00:21:30.180 However, with his inability to fill cabinet positions, if enough of his cabinet turns on him,

00:21:38.140 it's pretty much over, right?

00:21:39.400 Because he won't be able to run a functional government.

00:21:42.700 And then you've got to hold your hands up and say, okay, well, there's nothing I can do now.

00:21:47.820 I'm going to have to resign because I'm forced to.

00:21:51.360 And I think that that would be the means in which Trudeau will leave, I think.

00:21:56.380 That would be a bit more honest on his part.

00:21:59.800 And also, it would be better for his party because he is someone who has governed for nine years.

00:22:05.680 People aren't happy with him.

00:22:07.620 It doesn't seem that he has a lot on his CV to show positive.

00:22:12.940 So, if there are...

00:22:14.340 Maybe he should just resign as a leader and give it to someone else fast.

00:22:19.920 It's also worth mentioning one of the most prominent Canadians in the world

00:22:23.420 has recently announced that they're going to leave Canada

00:22:25.920 because of the tyranny of the Canadian government.

00:22:29.540 And, of course, Jordan Peterson is actually, even in Britain, a household name these days.

00:22:36.500 Everyone sort of knows who he is.

00:22:38.440 And if someone this prominent says that they're leaving,

00:22:42.740 and he says, and this is a direct quote,

00:22:45.200 the new legislation that the Liberals are attempting to push through, Bill C-63,

00:22:49.460 I'd just be living in a totalitarian hellhole if that legislation passes,

00:22:54.740 and it could well pass.

00:22:56.220 And this is talking about the Online Harms Act,

00:22:58.660 which is similar to what we have in Britain.

00:23:00.980 And this is a quote from the federal government.

00:23:03.860 It contains a variety of measures to address a range of harmful content online,

00:23:08.080 as well as hate speech and hate crimes, both online and offline.

00:23:12.380 And we know that this doesn't work, obviously.

00:23:14.560 We're not in favour of any of this sort of thing.

00:23:16.520 And it's enough to put people off because there are plenty of prominent examples in Britain

00:23:22.980 of this having a backfire effect.

00:23:25.920 And it could be the death knell for Trudeau's Liberal Party, I think.

00:23:33.540 And so it's positive news for once about Canada.

00:23:37.140 Well done, Canada.

00:23:38.240 Things are going well for you.

00:23:39.720 And it is thanks to an American election.

00:23:42.260 I don't know whether that makes it better or worse.

00:23:44.200 But I hope you have a nice Christmas and you can feel a little bit better about your future.

00:23:52.940 Right.

00:23:53.640 Do we have any Rumble chat comments?

00:23:56.620 We cannae see them, can we?

00:24:00.400 We'll do them after the second segment, he said.

00:24:03.300 Okay.

00:24:03.760 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:24:04.340 I think Samson's got to pull them up.

00:24:05.940 I don't have control of the mouse.

00:24:13.180 Oh, Samson, you've got to pull up the segment.

00:24:18.220 Yep.

00:24:19.780 Okay.

00:24:20.280 It's all right.

00:24:21.080 It's a little pause.

00:24:22.680 It's good.

00:24:23.560 Makes you amped up.

00:24:24.840 Okay.

00:24:25.140 Are you excited for a school shooting?

00:24:26.600 Oh, I can't say that.

00:24:27.380 I mean, talking about the events.

00:24:32.860 Right.

00:24:33.220 Digging a hole here.

00:24:34.920 Right.

00:24:35.200 So, our next topic is a very sad topic.

00:24:37.740 We're going to talk about the school shootings at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin.

00:24:45.680 Digging a hole here.

00:24:47.640 Right.

00:24:48.760 Is that a new one?

00:24:50.640 I haven't even heard about this.

00:24:52.100 Yeah, it happened yesterday.

00:24:53.300 Yes, it happened yesterday, I think around 11 a.m. local time.

00:25:00.480 Right.

00:25:00.780 So, I have to say that there's a lot of fake news about the story and everything we're going to say should be taken with a pinch of salt.

00:25:11.040 And we are going to tell you a lot of the fake news around the event.

00:25:15.760 At least we're going to mention them.

00:25:17.760 And we are going to talk a bit about what we know.

00:25:20.340 So, basically what happened is that what we know is that a teacher and a student have been shot by a student.

00:25:28.540 That student has been identified as 15-year-old Natalie Samantha Rupnow.

00:25:34.460 And that teen girl just went into the school. 1.00

00:25:39.920 She started firing and she killed a student and a teacher.

00:25:45.200 Someone went and called the police.

00:25:48.160 The police arrived at around 3 minutes to 12 and they found, I think, the girl dead.

00:25:55.760 There are some reports that say that she was found dead.

00:25:59.100 Some other reports are saying that she died when she was transported to the hospital.

00:26:05.400 Also, I've seen articles in major outlets that are saying both in the same entry.

00:26:13.720 It may suggest that these are written by chat GPT, which is something that is a bit worrying and it shouldn't be handled this way.

00:26:21.560 Right.

00:26:21.720 So, what we know is that the teenage student and teacher were pronounced dead at the scene while another teacher and five more students were wounded.

00:26:30.120 Two of the students are in critical condition with life-threatening surgeries.

00:26:35.440 And Rupnow sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital, according to Barnes, who is the chief of the police.

00:26:45.880 Right.

00:26:46.100 So, there were lots of reports about what happened.

00:26:50.200 Everyone just started, rushed on X to say it's this or that.

00:26:55.600 I saw a ton of things that turned out to be fake news.

00:26:59.500 And this is one of those things where it's such a hot-button issue that everyone's rushing to get a scoop and not verifying things.

00:27:09.200 And you see all sorts of strange stuff circulating, don't you?

00:27:12.520 But sorry, do carry on.

00:27:13.280 No, no.

00:27:13.860 I'll just finish your sentence.

00:27:15.500 I agree with what you're saying.

00:27:17.440 And it's very difficult and dangerous because there are lots of people who just do it for clicks.

00:27:23.080 They are just circulating any kind of narrative that they want to push forward that has nothing to do with the facts.

00:27:30.320 It's kind of gross to me, really, that people can basically jump on a tragedy and then try and shift the narrative to whatever their pet topic is rather than approaching it honestly.

00:27:44.100 And I think that with something as sad as this, where innocent people die and a 15-year-old girl was driven to this or had mental problems that went unaddressed, we don't know yet.

00:27:58.700 But either way, I think my overwhelming emotion towards this whole thing is just sadness that the world is like this and that people are so willing to do harm to each other when they've clearly not done anything wrong.

00:28:14.360 And the fact that people jump on that and try and basically push their own agenda to make money is sickening.

00:28:22.960 I think our feeds must be very different.

00:28:25.880 I've not even heard about this.

00:28:28.200 I didn't see anything on my feed or anything.

00:28:30.740 Well, I think that's a blessing.

00:28:33.180 But there were many people who rushed to say all sorts of things.

00:28:36.480 I have some of them at the end.

00:28:38.160 We'll go reviewing them.

00:28:40.740 But let's see what happens.

00:28:42.640 It's rare that it's a girl though, right?

00:28:43.960 It's really rare that these things are done by girls.

00:28:47.940 Very, very rare.

00:28:48.980 Almost, not never.

00:28:51.700 Like there's that one from the 70s, isn't there?

00:28:54.240 They said she didn't like Mondays.

00:28:56.080 There's also Audrey Hale as well, the Nashville, Tennessee shooter.

00:29:02.280 That was relatively recent.

00:29:04.320 It was in the past year or so, I think, off the top of my head.

00:29:07.360 Was that the transgender one? 0.97

00:29:08.900 Mm-hmm.

00:29:09.800 Yeah.

00:29:10.440 She was born a girl?

00:29:11.840 Yes, biologically female. 0.86

00:29:13.380 Right.

00:29:14.140 So her family home was visited by the SWAT team and they raided it and they interrogated her parents and her father.

00:29:25.080 And the reports say that her father is cooperating.

00:29:28.020 Now, there is a lot of discourse about an alleged manifesto that is hers or is supposedly hers.

00:29:35.900 And it indicates several very worrying parts.

00:29:40.600 And we are going to talk about it.

00:29:41.980 I don't know if it is hers, but I will say the way I see it, it does seem to me to represent a sort of sentimentality that would do something like this.

00:29:52.180 Because a lot of people are saying, no, don't rush to say that the manifesto is hers and that it describes her behavior.

00:30:01.580 But on the other hand, no one who doesn't have any issues just wakes up one day and does something like this.

00:30:08.040 But again, we don't know if it is actually hers.

00:30:11.480 Well, there's some sort of document out there.

00:30:13.320 Yes, there is some sort of document.

00:30:15.520 It's been the document, whether it's true or not, was implying that she's some sort of radical feminist, which is possible. 0.83

00:30:24.820 But we just don't know yet.

00:30:27.580 Yeah, really severely man-hating.

00:30:29.960 But also, according to what I saw from the pages of the alleged manifesto, was also hating also against, it was also misanthropic.

00:30:40.780 It seems a bit, it seemed a bit antinatalist.

00:30:43.980 So on the one hand, it's presented a bit, you know, radical feminist and anti-man.

00:30:49.160 On the other hand, it's a bit antinatalist, saying that, you know, not being born is a good thing.

00:30:57.760 I mean, if it is legitimate, it would have been written by a 15-year-old girl.

00:31:01.560 So we're not exactly expecting a particularly coherent string of claims to be made.

00:31:08.660 But it's important to say, though, that the police hasn't confirmed that it is hers, actually.

00:31:14.800 Isn't it worth mentioning as well that we don't necessarily know the sex of the victims either.

00:31:20.800 And so that bit of information might be important in confirming or denying the authenticity.

00:31:26.240 Absolutely, because what we have looked, what we see when we read the main entries of the outlets, they say a student and a teacher.

00:31:36.920 They don't say a man or a woman or a girl.

00:31:41.680 They don't say, they just say a student and a teacher.

00:31:44.800 So that could possibly, that could possibly indicate that the manifesto rumors are false.

00:31:51.040 But on the other hand, it may be the case that as if the manifesto is correct,

00:31:56.320 there is also hatred towards women that have, you know, within quotation marks, internalized the patriarchy.

00:32:04.000 So it comes from feminism. 1.00

00:32:07.140 You know, you become so feminist that you start hating women. 0.99

00:32:10.360 That's an interesting angle, but it certainly is possible.

00:32:13.860 And it's also worth mentioning as well that people quite often criticize others for speculating about the motives of people who do this sort of thing.

00:32:24.340 And I think that that, if anything, should be the main focus of public discourse because the motives help best address how you prevent this happening in the future, don't they?

00:32:33.640 Because then you can predict what kinds of people are most likely to do this and how best to mitigate against that.

00:32:40.780 Exactly, yeah.

00:32:42.320 And there is the issue of, I would say, stochastic terrorism. 0.85

00:32:45.720 Because if young children, but also not necessarily young children, also, you know, young adults, are exposed into a narrative that is essentially hating people. 0.97

00:32:57.080 And it's, you know, human men are bad, women are bad, or, you know, white women are bad, white men are bad. 0.50

00:33:05.640 It's all this seems to me to create a polarization in culture that spreads a kind of hatred and tells, communicates the message that you can't reason with those people. 0.99

00:33:19.260 You should just hate them and you should just, you know, there is no way you can ever live with them.

00:33:26.140 Well, political rhetoric now has been so totalizing, and as I said, with such certainty, that I think older people are, generally speaking, intelligent enough to at least take it with a pinch of salt and see that it represents something that could resemble the truth, but is stated a lot more strongly than otherwise be.

00:33:49.500 I think that you speak to your average person, and that's probably what they would say.

00:33:54.220 Whereas when someone is younger, they can't necessarily understand that you're not meant to take it at face value, or at least that's how most people would interpret it.

00:34:05.660 And so they take things at face value, as said, and I think that's what makes them more susceptible to more extreme actions, as well as the fact that, generally speaking, you know, people under the age of about 25, the cutoff when the brain sort of, on average, stops developing, tend to be the most prone to doing these sorts of violent acts in the first place.

00:34:27.960 Exactly. And it's good to mention that civilization requires a sort of self-restraint when it comes to passions.

00:34:33.960 And young people are, on average, less self-restraint than older people.

00:34:41.960 And this narrative of victimhood that is pushed forward by wokeness, where it splits the population into oppressed and oppressors, and it sort of legitimizes violence within that framework.

00:34:53.960 Because it says, these are the oppressors, and they are oppressing you, so you need to do something about it.

00:35:00.960 Well, it's sort of left empty to be implied, isn't it? It sort of operates in the confines of the law, but it leaves a blank space that you're meant to fill in.

00:35:08.960 It says that self-defense is somehow justified, because you are a victim.

00:35:14.960 In some people's minds, if you're 15, it's a qualitatively short jump from punch a Nazi to shoot a Nazi.

00:35:23.960 Actively encouraged to punch a Nazi not too long ago, wherever you find them.

00:35:29.960 But it strikes me that 15 is remarkably young. I mean, it's not that there's no precedent for child killers. 0.82

00:35:35.960 Of course there are lots, even much younger than that even, but 15, I mean, no disrespect to anyone who's 15 or younger out there, 0.99

00:35:44.960 but you don't know your ass from your elbow. You was a little kid yesterday. 0.99

00:35:47.960 In fact, you are still a child. You're a child.

00:35:50.960 So it's terrible that her mind has been warped, or perhaps she had a chemical imbalance and was actually clinically insane or something.

00:35:58.960 I don't know. This is the first time hearing about it, but 15 is remarkably young to have to be so sure of your views that you're going to go and do something like this.

00:36:08.960 My experience from knowing all about different school shootings is sometimes, often they're just completely indiscriminate.

00:36:14.960 What springs to mind is the Virginia Tech dude who just hated the world, things like that.

00:36:20.960 Sometimes they're very specific, like they go there and they murder a teacher that they've got a beef with and then go on a bit of a spree or whatever.

00:36:28.960 So sometimes it's targeted, sometimes not at all.

00:36:33.960 I don't know if we know any of those details yet, probably not exactly yet, but just 15 is so remarkably young.

00:36:41.960 Like when I was 15, I look back on the things I thought when I was 15 and it's mad.

00:36:47.960 It's a weird madness you're in when you're in your teens like that.

00:36:52.960 The most important thing to me at 15 was like dating girls.

00:36:56.960 And that was, that's pretty much it. Maybe my exams as well, secondarily to that.

00:37:02.960 I still did well in my exams.

00:37:04.960 Right, so Andino did some good work here and he published this and he talked about the identity of the shooter.

00:37:12.960 Again, this is his version. Nice one, Josh.

00:37:16.960 I'm dribbling, sorry.

00:37:18.960 He is disconfirming that she identified as trans because a lot of people started saying that the shooter was a trans shooter.

00:37:29.960 And he says some things about her online presence that are particularly worrying.

00:37:34.960 He says that she used the name Sam online and the username CrossXia and she had extensive presence in several, I'd say just sick places.

00:37:46.960 Places like, you know, watch people die.

00:37:48.960 There are some segments of the dark web apparently where, you know, people will see things like that.

00:37:55.960 We see here photos of the shooter.

00:37:58.960 We are told that this is one of the last things she posted on X before she did what she did.

00:38:07.960 This is 10.45 a.m. This is the interesting choice of footwear there.

00:38:12.960 A bit of sort of commentary here.

00:38:15.960 Those sorts of boots are either worn by punks, hipsters or Austrian painter enthusiasts.

00:38:23.960 Well, we'll we'll talk a bit about that in a right now here, a photograph with a dog.

00:38:30.960 There are some people who say that the photos are a bit changed in some cases to make her look like worse or something.

00:38:38.960 I've I don't know.

00:38:40.960 And what happened is that allegedly again, these are allegations.

00:38:45.960 Some people have been in contact with with her boyfriend who allegedly knew nothing about it, but also some of her friends on Discord.

00:38:54.960 And they're saying that this was her manifesto and they took a snapshot, a screenshot picture of it.

00:39:02.960 And they say this is a part of it.

00:39:05.960 Now, again, we don't know if that's her manifesto, but it says things like women are the only hope for this wretched world. 0.98

00:39:11.960 But even women have been brainwashed by I think that's moids. 1.00

00:39:16.960 What does that mean?

00:39:17.960 No idea.

00:39:18.960 I've seen that word before and I'll find out.

00:39:21.960 For too long, they've internalized the patriarchy and turned on each other, always begging for male approval and validation. 0.97

00:39:27.960 And she says that men can be reformed or redeemed.

00:39:32.960 They are an effing.

00:39:34.960 It's a derogatory word for men used by female incels. 0.81

00:39:38.960 Okay.

00:39:39.960 Yeah.

00:39:40.960 Well, as many people pointed out in the office, I think you were one of them.

00:39:46.960 It's a bit weird to talk about a 15 year old as a fem cell. 0.96

00:39:51.960 Mm hmm.

00:39:52.960 But she definitely had seems to have had presence in in areas of the discourse where these terms were using. 0.99

00:40:01.960 And she's using a language that you would expect from the enthusiasts you mentioned before about men as being effing parasites. 0.97

00:40:09.960 And what is written there, every single male must be wiped out from babies to the elderly. 0.99

00:40:16.960 Now, I find these incredibly sick, sick statements. 0.77

00:40:21.960 And here we have allegedly that she had a handle crossics here. 0.82

00:40:29.960 And they say that these are that's what Andy Ngo says, that we can see her on commenting on several videos about that involve people harming themselves.

00:40:41.960 And allegedly she was an enthusiast and she was, you know, sexy Indian dude. 1.00

00:40:47.960 She's commenting on sexy Indian dude hanging himself. 0.97

00:40:51.960 That seems to me to be sick. 0.97

00:40:53.960 That is very weird.

00:40:54.960 Yeah.

00:40:55.960 But also the they have been saying that she was also enthusiastic about school shooters, that she was obsessed with them, that she was also obsessed with with all sorts of killers.

00:41:05.960 And you don't sometimes, you know, what goes around comes around when people are.

00:41:12.960 Sorry.

00:41:13.960 No, I interrupted you.

00:41:14.960 Carry on.

00:41:15.960 Sorry.

00:41:16.960 I just feel so struck, but I guess maybe I lived a very, very sheltered life.

00:41:20.960 But when I was 15, I guess because it was like the 1990s and you didn't have the Internet, really.

00:41:25.960 I mean, the Internet was about, but there wasn't just endless amounts of gore and real suicide footage or whatever.

00:41:31.960 Maybe there was.

00:41:32.960 I just never saw any of it.

00:41:33.960 When I was 15, I was still like a kid, basically a little kid at 15.

00:41:40.960 I really, really cared about football.

00:41:42.960 You were a 15 year old.

00:41:43.960 Yeah.

00:41:44.960 All I cared about was watching and playing football.

00:41:47.960 That means you were normal then, really, for, you know, a teenager in Britain.

00:41:51.960 To be obsessed with suicide and gender politics.

00:41:56.960 What?

00:41:57.960 At 15?

00:41:58.960 Jesus.

00:41:59.960 Jesus.

00:42:00.960 I find this to be incredibly disturbing because it seems to me that, I mean, things like that happened frequently, but not in that form.

00:42:09.960 They have happened before.

00:42:10.960 As you said, there have been shooters and kids who are shooters.

00:42:13.960 But it seems to me that all this is just incredibly sick. 0.66

00:42:17.960 Incredibly sick.

00:42:18.960 I completely agree with your sentiment that 15 year olds right now are exposed to a world that we weren't exposed.

00:42:26.960 And I don't think it harmed us.

00:42:28.960 I don't think it harmed us.

00:42:29.960 I think the responsibility lies on the shoulders of their family members and to a certain extent, I suppose, their friends as well.

00:42:38.960 In that quite often, you know, these bad sorts of things that teenagers can get into are either the influence of friends or it's an absence of sort of supervision from parental figures or family members.

00:42:57.960 And I think the antidote to a lot of these problems is just responsible parenting and, you know, making sure that people are aware of the impact of what they're doing.

00:43:10.960 Yeah. So there have been some allegations that she also wrote on that manifesto that her parents were scum. 0.98

00:43:19.960 That's how she wrote. 0.98

00:43:20.960 But on the other hand, I don't know if that's actually the case.

00:43:24.960 And we don't know.

00:43:25.960 But let me say one thing that it could be the case that her parents were incredibly abusive.

00:43:34.960 It doesn't seem to me that you just one day you wake up, you're a 15 year old and you do something like this.

00:43:40.960 But also, it could be the case of radicalization by social media, not by that, the house, because a lot of a lot of these narratives that we're constantly criticizing are essentially harming the family and are trying to infiltrate the family and essentially reduce parental rights by constantly telling.

00:43:59.960 Children and communicating to children that unless your parents, for instance, agree with everything you want to say, they're bad parents and maybe the state should take away from you.

00:44:12.960 I don't know. I don't know.

00:44:14.960 It's just that it's so complex and so messed up that we have to mention all of the we have to mention all of the angles.

00:44:21.960 Well, I think you can certainly say she was disturbed, whether it's an actual chemical imbalance, actually sort of clinically insane, or merely disturbed for whatever reason.

00:44:32.960 I think you can certainly say she was disturbed.

00:44:34.960 Well, just by merit of what she did, yeah.

00:44:35.960 Just by the world.

00:44:37.960 Like the internet disturbed her to the point of doing something like that.

00:44:42.960 I don't know whether it was her parents, whether it was the internet or what, who knows.

00:44:46.960 But yeah, it's terrible.

00:44:49.960 Right.

00:44:50.960 So we had President Biden releasing a statement calling for gun control after Wisconsin school shooting, as he said.

00:44:57.960 A bitter irony here is that he pardoned his own son for gun crime.

00:45:02.960 Bit of foreshadowing to Bo's segment following this.

00:45:05.960 And a lot of people are saying that statements like that didn't take place after the murder of the CEO.

00:45:13.960 Hmm.

00:45:14.960 Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?

00:45:15.960 Yeah.

00:45:16.960 Also, it didn't happen after the Tennessee shooting either, did it?

00:45:20.960 No discussion of bump stocks.

00:45:23.960 No.

00:45:24.960 Right.

00:45:25.960 Anyway, he says Congress must pass common sense gun safety laws, universal background checks, a national red flag law, a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines.

00:45:34.960 And as he says, we can never accept senseless violence that traumatizes children, the families and tears, tears entire communities apart.

00:45:43.960 Shall not be infringed.

00:45:45.960 That's all I've got to say on that.

00:45:47.960 I think that, yeah, I think we should finish the segment here.

00:45:53.960 It's an incredibly, incredibly tragic story.

00:45:58.960 Do you have to add something?

00:46:00.960 Yeah, I think that rather than addressing the weapon, addressing the person behind it is how you solve this problem.

00:46:09.960 Because there are plenty of nations that don't really have school shootings that have a high presence of guns.

00:46:15.960 That's true.

00:46:16.960 The Swiss, you know, the Falklands Islands has, I think, more guns than people, and they've never had a school shooting.

00:46:24.960 Obviously, it's only like 100 people, but still, there are lots of places in the world that are not like this.

00:46:31.960 I think some Scandinavian countries have got a very, a big culture of hunting, so lots of people have guns.

00:46:36.960 Mm-hmm.

00:46:37.960 And they don't suffer from loads of school shootings all the time.

00:46:40.960 Yeah, Ireland, I think, is the hunting capital of Europe per capita.

00:46:44.960 Right, the Republic of Ireland.

00:46:46.960 Yeah.

00:46:47.960 Really?

00:46:48.960 I didn't know that.

00:46:49.960 And I don't, I can't recall any school shootings.

00:46:51.960 It doesn't mean they haven't happened necessarily, but I don't think they have.

00:46:54.960 Like Sweden, I think loads of people own guns in Sweden, again, for hunting.

00:46:58.960 Or places like Finland and stuff, some of the Baltic countries.

00:47:01.960 Well, the Swedes are more into explosives these days. 0.94

00:47:06.960 Native Swedes.

00:47:07.960 No.

00:47:08.960 Hand grenades.

00:47:09.960 Right, okay.

00:47:11.960 Okay.

00:47:12.960 I think we should go to the-

00:47:13.960 Yeah, read the things.

00:47:14.960 To the comments then.

00:47:16.960 Okay.

00:47:17.960 That's a random name, says Josh is correct. 0.99

00:47:20.960 Pierre Poliver is 100% astroturfed.

00:47:22.960 He did nothing against the COVID restrictions.

00:47:24.960 Maxime Bernier, the PPC leader, was the only one speaking against it.

00:47:29.960 Yeah, they seem, I don't know too much about them, but they seem to be a bit more on the money with their rhetoric.

00:47:36.960 Ryan Hennigan says, the opinions of the Seripians and their Cuban, I'm going to say dictator. 0.99

00:47:46.960 I know how you spell it.

00:47:49.960 Very good pun, but I'm not going to read that.

00:47:53.960 Are just farting at a hurricane to reverse the direction of the wind.

00:47:57.960 We will be welcomed as liberators come the day of the rake.

00:48:03.960 This was a mean comment, yeah.

00:48:05.960 It was a trap.

00:48:07.960 So, Dogbreath the third says to Bo, the Nashville shooter was female, although identifying as male.

00:48:13.960 Yeah.

00:48:14.960 We got to that in the end, so you'll be very happy to know that.

00:48:16.960 And Dragon Lady Chris says, white pill, awesome sweater, Josh.

00:48:19.960 Oh, well, thank you.

00:48:21.960 It's a Christmas jumper, but it's got England flags on it, you see.

00:48:26.960 And it's got the English lion as well.

00:48:28.960 So it's got patriotism and Christmas together, which is a blend I didn't know I needed.

00:48:33.960 Bald Eagle 1787 says, the parents of the victims should sue all mainstream media, Democrats and social media personalities for brainwashing that kid into thinking there's no hope.

00:48:45.960 Yep.

00:48:46.960 Dogbreath the third chaps, the term is not femso, but in spin, involuntary spinster.

00:48:52.960 They really hate the word spinster, okay.

00:48:55.960 It feels very 19th century, doesn't it?

00:48:58.960 It's what I imagine critics of the suffragette movement would say, all these spinsters. 1.00

00:49:04.960 I like it, that's a good word.

00:49:06.960 And Ryan Hennigan says, she dropped her manifest on a Google Doc, she neglected to make the document public before posting the link.

00:49:14.960 Woman moment till the end. 0.95

00:49:16.960 I do that all the time, so I can't judge.

00:49:21.960 Right.

00:49:22.960 Well, just what a tragic story.

00:49:26.960 The past the mouse, Delios.

00:49:28.960 The sacred ritual.

00:49:31.960 Okay, so let's talk a little bit about Creepy Joe's pardons.

00:49:37.960 So, in the headlines in the last few days, over the weekend, it was that he pardoned 1500 people.

00:49:45.960 Which is an insane amount, isn't it?

00:49:47.960 Well, yes and no, I'll get to that, put it into perspective.

00:49:51.960 So, they were largely, the White House was at pains to say, they're all non-violent.

00:49:56.960 They're all non-violent offenders.

00:49:59.960 That's the best thing you can say about the people you're pardoning, then it's a pretty big list of deplorables to quote a certain female, Hillary Clinton.

00:50:10.960 You can still do pretty despicable crimes that are non-violent, in my opinion.

00:50:16.960 Well, you certainly can.

00:50:17.960 You certainly can.

00:50:18.960 Yeah, the White House said that, well, even Bernie said, Bernie Sanders said that it sets a dangerous precedent, particularly pardoning his son.

00:50:28.960 So, first up then, Hunter Biden, of course.

00:50:31.960 So, one thing I want to say straight off the bat is there's two things.

00:50:34.960 There's a presidential pardon, and then there's the commuting of a sentence.

00:50:38.960 And they're two completely different things.

00:50:40.960 And completely in the president's power.

00:50:42.960 So, a presidential pardon is quite an extraordinary thing, really.

00:50:48.960 We haven't got any equivalent of it in Britain.

00:50:50.960 It really is sort of plenipotentiary.

00:50:54.960 It's sort of absolute.

00:50:56.960 I think, I might be wrong about this, and if anyone knows better out there, let us know in the comments.

00:51:00.960 I think even the Supreme Court can't meddle with it.

00:51:03.960 It's sort of an absolute thing, if the president pardons you.

00:51:07.960 It's really quite an extraordinary power.

00:51:11.960 Many turkeys have felt that power.

00:51:13.960 Yeah, they pardon a turkey, don't they, at Thanksgiving every year.

00:51:17.960 Well, that was one of the things the White House said, was that it was, in Biden's statement, he said,

00:51:24.960 America was built on the promise of second chances.

00:51:27.960 I mean, fair enough.

00:51:29.960 But, when we look at some of the details of some of these people.

00:51:32.960 Yeah, also, you have a prison system.

00:51:35.960 And, for some offences, you go to prison on your first chance.

00:51:38.960 So, you're kind of not embodying that.

00:51:41.960 And also, I don't believe in second chances.

00:51:44.960 I mean, it depends what it is.

00:51:47.960 I was going to say, surely it depends a bit.

00:51:49.960 If someone forgets to give me back a pencil, I'll let it slide.

00:51:51.960 What if you are genuinely the victim of an injustice, though?

00:51:54.960 Well, in which case, I think it never should have transpired in the first place.

00:52:00.960 But we don't live in a perfect world. There's no such thing as a sort of a perfect judicial system, is there?

00:52:05.960 Far from it, yeah.

00:52:07.960 I think the logic has to do with preventing civil war from a classical Republican perspective.

00:52:14.960 Because the idea is to prevent another Caesar.

00:52:21.960 Or prevent pushing people towards the idea, towards thinking that unless they hit first, they're going to be hit.

00:52:30.960 Right.

00:52:31.960 Republics are very vulnerable to this.

00:52:34.960 And maybe it is a way of trying to diffuse that tension.

00:52:37.960 Because republics seem to be a bit more friction.

00:52:41.960 Have it containing a bit more inner friction than other political systems.

00:52:47.960 You're talking broadly about just the concept of a presidential pardon.

00:52:50.960 Yeah, I'm just trying to think about it.

00:52:52.960 Right, yeah, yeah.

00:52:53.960 Why would I do it?

00:52:54.960 Why would I want to be pardoned or something?

00:52:56.960 I mean, it was written in from the very get-go.

00:52:58.960 Even George Washington pardoned a few people.

00:53:01.960 Yes.

00:53:02.960 It's been there since the very beginning.

00:53:03.960 And towards the end of the segment, I want to look at historical precedent.

00:53:06.960 And see how Biden, how Creepy Joe stacks up against it.

00:53:10.960 The big guy.

00:53:12.960 Sort of sports team score sheet here.

00:53:16.960 Yeah.

00:53:17.960 How does Big Joe...

00:53:19.960 Big Joe...

00:53:20.960 I can't get my words out. 1.00

00:53:21.960 Shut up, Josh. 0.99

00:53:22.960 He's quite big, actually. 1.00

00:53:23.960 He's quite tall, isn't he?

00:53:24.960 He is quite tall, yeah.

00:53:25.960 He's about 6'3 or 6'4 or something, isn't he?

00:53:26.960 Yeah, people forget, because Trump's really tall as well.

00:53:29.960 You see them together, and you think they're sort of normal size, but they're not.

00:53:33.960 They're pretty tall.

00:53:35.960 But also you see some photographs with Millet, and there are sort of the...

00:53:39.960 They aren't that...

00:53:41.960 There isn't such a high discrepancy.

00:53:44.960 So I'm going to take those numbers with a pinch of salt.

00:53:47.960 He's a bit more stooped now, isn't he, like an old man. 1.00

00:53:50.960 Yeah.

00:53:51.960 His 11's are up.

00:53:53.960 So, yeah, he said that all the people had been successfully rehabilitated.

00:53:57.960 Not true.

00:53:59.960 And that they were deserving of a second chance.

00:54:01.960 I mean some.

00:54:02.960 So, out of these, the ones that caught the headline is 1,500 people or 1,499 people.

00:54:07.960 Largely sort of marijuana charges.

00:54:10.960 I wonder what Kamala thinks about that, because obviously she prosecuted lots of people for marijuana charges. 1.00

00:54:16.960 But one thing to mention is that most people think, and it is usually the case, that presidents do their presidential pardons and commuting of sentences right at the very end of their tenure.

00:54:28.960 But it's not always the case.

00:54:30.960 You can, as president, can do it whenever he wants.

00:54:32.960 And Biden's been doing it all along.

00:54:34.960 So, at some point, I think in 2022, he pardoned like another 6,500 people one day.

00:54:41.960 I think mainly for drug...

00:54:43.960 Morning morning.

00:54:44.960 Yeah.

00:54:45.960 Mainly for marijuana charges or minor drug charges.

00:54:48.960 I mean, when it's legal in multiple different states, it's perhaps easier to sell that.

00:54:55.960 Yeah.

00:54:56.960 I didn't know that. 0.88

00:54:57.960 That sounds ridiculous now that you mention it.

00:55:00.960 Because I would say that it's a power that shouldn't be abused and should be used with, you know, discretion in very few cases.

00:55:08.960 Just to prevent society from collapsing.

00:55:11.960 But it doesn't seem to me that if these junkies were put in jail, society would collapse us.

00:55:17.960 Yeah.

00:55:18.960 Sounds like I got it completely wrong.

00:55:19.960 Well, no, no.

00:55:20.960 That was the original idea.

00:55:21.960 That was the original 18th century idea, which it should be very, very rare.

00:55:26.960 A president sees that there's been a true injustice and they reverse it rather than they don't agree with a whole law and just...

00:55:37.960 Well, in fact, I was going to leave it to the end to do the historical look, but let's just do that now.

00:55:46.960 Well, George Washington did only 16, and you can see in the early presidents there's relatively small numbers, although kicking up to quite a few quite quickly as well, though.

00:55:59.960 One row.

00:56:00.960 One row.

00:56:01.960 So most presidents have done a few hundred, and there's a couple of anomalies.

00:56:07.960 So, for example, Jimmy Carter pardoned sweepingly about 200,000 people in one go.

00:56:15.960 One of the only things he did while in office, wasn't it?

00:56:18.960 He didn't do very much otherwise.

00:56:20.960 Well, he did a few things.

00:56:22.960 I don't want to get into Jimmy Carter, but that was for the Vietnam draft.

00:56:26.960 People that refused to answer the draft when he got in.

00:56:30.960 Fair enough, actually, yeah.

00:56:31.960 So that's an anomaly.

00:56:33.960 If it was on a chart, it would be a giant spike for him, but there's a reason for that.

00:56:37.960 I mean, also, a couple of other anomalies.

00:56:42.960 Andrew Jackson, after the Civil War, pardoned thousands and thousands of ex-Confederates,

00:56:50.960 because that was the policy at the time was that you need like a reconciliation.

00:56:55.960 Let's all come together and be one country again.

00:56:57.960 You know, let's not hang Jefferson Davis.

00:56:59.960 Let's not hang Robert E. Lee.

00:57:02.960 Let's not prosecute the entire officer class of the Confederacy.

00:57:07.960 So he gave them pardons, even though they were technically, well, traitors to the Union for having seceded.

00:57:14.960 So Andrew Jackson did that.

00:57:16.960 Harry Truman pardoned, I think, a few thousand people again for World War II draft stuff.

00:57:24.960 It's not quite as simple as that in his case, but there was a thing called the Selective Training and Service Act.

00:57:30.960 It's very different.

00:57:32.960 Basically the draft.

00:57:33.960 Very different than a few thousand potheads, though, isn't it?

00:57:36.960 Right.

00:57:37.960 Yeah.

00:57:38.960 People in war and things like that.

00:57:41.960 Right.

00:57:42.960 It seems a bit more noble, if you will.

00:57:45.960 Yeah.

00:57:46.960 Yeah.

00:57:47.960 Right.

00:57:48.960 Yeah.

00:57:49.960 So that's actually sort of a point of principle and a special circumstance.

00:57:51.960 Right.

00:57:52.960 Vietnam, World War II, Civil War.

00:57:55.960 So they're anomalies.

00:57:56.960 So if we don't count those ones for having very, very high numbers.

00:58:00.960 Okay.

00:58:01.960 Can they pardon everyone?

00:58:03.960 Well, again, if anyone out there knows better, do let us know.

00:58:07.960 But yeah, it's just like a complete blanket power.

00:58:10.960 Yeah.

00:58:11.960 They can.

00:58:12.960 It's sort of.

00:58:13.960 Well, Alastair Clarke, the great, late great journalist and historian Alastair Cooke.

00:58:18.960 Did I say Clarke?

00:58:19.960 Alastair Cooke.

00:58:20.960 Alastair Cooke.

00:58:21.960 Same name as the England, former England cricket captain.

00:58:23.960 Yeah.

00:58:24.960 Also a cricketer called that, but no, not him.

00:58:26.960 A much, much older journalist and historian.

00:58:29.960 Did Letters from America.

00:58:31.960 He's one of my favorites.

00:58:33.960 A big, big fan of the late Alastair Cooke.

00:58:36.960 He talked in one of his, one time about the presidential pardon and, and the ability to commute sentences.

00:58:42.960 Um, and he just describes it as this sort of, yeah, plenipotentiary, completely extraordinary, completely absolute arbitrary power.

00:58:51.960 So it does sort of fly in the face of the constitution and the, and the concept of justice.

00:58:57.960 But as long as it's not abused, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

00:59:02.960 Well, I think the example of Trump pardoning the Jan 6th prisoners is a good example of it working somewhat.

00:59:09.960 The Jan 6th hostages.

00:59:10.960 That's true.

00:59:11.960 Yeah.

00:59:12.960 I mean, I've spoke to some of them.

00:59:13.960 Um, that's a great example of it working as intended, as I imagine it was intended, in that they're people who are politically persecuted and then you can basically wipe the slate clean when a new person assumes office.

00:59:26.960 And I think that that has a good stabilizing effect as Stelios pointed out.

00:59:31.960 One thing I'll say is about a pardon is that, yeah, your, your, your slate is wiped entirely clean, entirely clean.

00:59:38.960 Um, but whereas if you just commute the sentence, you still have a criminal record and you, your conviction still stands, but you're let out of, you don't have to actually do the sentence.

00:59:49.960 Or if you sometimes often people are already in jail for the thing and you commute the sentence, so they just let go, but the criminal record still stands.

00:59:56.960 So they're two very, very different things.

00:59:58.960 Um, of course you would want the pardon, wouldn't you?

01:00:01.960 If you could choose.

01:00:02.960 I have a parking ticket.

01:00:04.960 Yeah.

01:00:05.960 Well, Bill Clinton, um, pardoned.

01:00:08.960 Was it a pardon?

01:00:09.960 I think it was pardon.

01:00:10.960 He pardoned his half brother.

01:00:11.960 So it happened, you know, there is precedent for this.

01:00:16.960 Um, well actually let's just, well, so many ways to go with this.

01:00:21.960 Don't know what to talk about next, but let's carry on with this list.

01:00:23.960 So you can see even in the, by the mid 19th century, sometimes the numbers are quite big, um, for various things.

01:00:31.960 So they are.

01:00:32.960 Yeah.

01:00:33.960 Woodrow Wilson did a whole bunch.

01:00:35.960 Most Americans hate Woodrow Wilson, don't they?

01:00:37.960 With a passion.

01:00:38.960 I don't particularly blame them.

01:00:39.960 Speaking of people we hate. 0.92

01:00:40.960 I've asked before who's the worst president on Twitter and a lot of people say, what a silly question.

01:00:45.960 Obviously the correct answer to that is Woodrow Wilson.

01:00:47.960 Roosevelt's in the running.

01:00:49.960 Yeah.

01:00:50.960 Roosevelt is quite big, but remember he served three and a bit terms.

01:00:54.960 He sort of also a little, well, was definitely an outlier in some level.

01:00:58.960 Um, and also he was during the World War II.

01:01:01.960 Yeah.

01:01:02.960 Yeah.

01:01:03.960 But he did various things.

01:01:04.960 He was very light on socialists, basically.

01:01:07.960 Again, Harry Truman sort of is an outlier.

01:01:09.960 Doesn't, not that he doesn't count, but he, there's reasons why his number was so high.

01:01:14.960 Um, Nixon might be an interesting one because he always said, and we know he did, we've

01:01:21.960 got a record of it on the Nixon tapes, that he would pardon his closest confidants, his

01:01:26.960 right hand men, uh, people like Haldeman and Ehrlichman.

01:01:30.960 He promised them multiple times he would pardon them for their, for their crimes or for perjury.

01:01:37.960 They were going to purge themselves on his behalf and he would pardon them.

01:01:42.960 And they did purge themselves.

01:01:43.960 And then he didn't pardon them.

01:01:44.960 Oh, and then he gets pardoned himself.

01:01:47.960 But he did pardon nearly a thousand people himself.

01:01:50.960 And yeah.

01:01:51.960 Jerry Ford comes in and pardons him immediately.

01:01:54.960 Yeah.

01:01:55.960 Um, yeah.

01:01:56.960 The Jimmy Carter Vietnam draft, 200,000.

01:01:59.960 Um, George Bush Jr.

01:02:01.960 George Bush Senior.

01:02:02.960 Not very forgiving, is he?

01:02:03.960 You've got to go all the way back to Zachary Taylor before you get someone as low as that.

01:02:08.960 All the way back to the 19th century.

01:02:10.960 James Garfield.

01:02:11.960 Even George Bush Jr., relatively speaking, didn't really take part.

01:02:15.960 He did pardon Scooter Libby, I believe.

01:02:18.960 Um.

01:02:19.960 Who?

01:02:20.960 Oh, one of his guys.

01:02:21.960 Oh, okay.

01:02:22.960 Scooter Libby was in George Bush Jr.'s inner sanctum.

01:02:26.960 Um, Trump pardoned Lil Wayne.

01:02:31.960 And, and Kodak Black, a bunch of rappers.

01:02:38.960 Um, so, um, but there are, there are some examples of when people, right at the beginning

01:02:45.960 of the American Republic, it was sort of, uh, not used to just pardon.

01:02:51.960 It wasn't all that political.

01:02:52.960 They saw an injustice and might do something about it.

01:02:55.960 Whereas the closer we get to now, the more it has been used to just pardon your friends

01:02:59.960 and things.

01:03:00.960 And now it's up to the point where they're pardoning people where it is questionable.

01:03:06.960 Like people that have done definitely like pretty bad crimes.

01:03:09.960 And it's like, why are you pardoning them?

01:03:11.960 How does, how does that, how is that fair?

01:03:13.960 Wasn't there the case.

01:03:14.960 They're convicted legitimately of a proper crime.

01:03:15.960 Why are you pardoning them?

01:03:17.960 Wasn't there a case whereby, um, it was a radical left-wing terrorist, basically, that

01:03:25.960 got pardoned?

01:03:26.960 Was that, I, I can't remember who it was.

01:03:29.960 I, I want to say it was Bill Clinton, but I can't remember.

01:03:32.960 Yeah.

01:03:33.960 Bill Clinton pardoned quite a few questionable people.

01:03:35.960 Um, yeah, quite a few.

01:03:38.960 Um, look, Roger Clinton Jr.

01:03:41.960 His half brother, uh, cocaine possession.

01:03:44.960 So it's just like, I'll let you out.

01:03:46.960 Look, uh, Bill Clinton's, uh, director of central intelligence, pardoned him.

01:03:51.960 Um, yeah, so quite, quite often they're sort of in recent times, it seems that they're

01:03:59.960 sort of, um, spies, intelligence services assets, uh, where they were caught out doing

01:04:06.960 a crime, but it was a crime.

01:04:07.960 They were sort of supposed to do sort of part of their job or whatever.

01:04:12.960 It's a gray area, isn't it?

01:04:13.960 Always a murky area.

01:04:14.960 This you did something that is illegal, but it was, it was, it was part of your patriotic

01:04:19.960 duty or you were ordered to whether that argument stands.

01:04:22.960 I was just following orders or not, but the president will pardon you.

01:04:26.960 Um, oh, look, Susan Rosenberg, Bill Clinton pardoned, domestic terrorist. 1.00

01:04:36.960 Um, you know, George W. Bush, uh, um, pardoned Scooter Libby. 0.99

01:04:44.960 So I think I was thinking about Susan Rosenberg.

01:04:47.960 Yeah.

01:04:48.960 That's what I just mentioned there.

01:04:49.960 Yeah.

01:04:50.960 Rosenberg.

01:04:51.960 Yeah.

01:04:52.960 Pardoned by, by Bill Clinton.

01:04:53.960 There we go.

01:04:54.960 That's it.

01:04:55.960 That's what I was thinking of.

01:04:56.960 Associated with the May 19th communist organization.

01:04:58.960 Right.

01:04:59.960 So there you go.

01:05:00.960 Yeah.

01:05:01.960 Uh, Barry Obama, uh, pardoned Bradley Manning.

01:05:06.960 Barack Hussein Obama.

01:05:07.960 Private first class Bradley Manning.

01:05:10.960 Um.

01:05:11.960 What happened there?

01:05:12.960 What happened?

01:05:13.960 The whistleblower, wasn't he?

01:05:14.960 Blowing too many whistles.

01:05:15.960 Um, you know, it got sensed to 35 years, but, um, yeah.

01:05:22.960 To be fair, um, the leaks were important there.

01:05:25.960 Yeah.

01:05:26.960 I did agree with what they did.

01:05:28.960 Yeah.

01:05:29.960 No, I'm, uh, broadly speaking, and it is difficult.

01:05:32.960 We could do a whole long form bit of content about Snowden and Manning and whistleblowers

01:05:37.960 in general.

01:05:38.960 And it's not easy.

01:05:39.960 It's not a cut and dry thing.

01:05:41.960 Uh, but by and large, I'm for it.

01:05:45.960 I'm on board with them.

01:05:46.960 Yeah.

01:05:47.960 I don't think PFC Bradley Manning should have been censored 35 years.

01:05:51.960 No.

01:05:52.960 Um.

01:05:53.960 Yeah.

01:05:54.960 Donald Trump.

01:05:55.960 Another scoot a little bit again.

01:05:56.960 Something else.

01:05:57.960 I believe.

01:05:58.960 Dinesh D'Souza.

01:06:00.960 Why?

01:06:01.960 Campaign finance violations.

01:06:03.960 Um.

01:06:04.960 Um.

01:06:06.960 Conrad Black.

01:06:07.960 Bit, bit odd.

01:06:08.960 I think he was just his mate.

01:06:09.960 I think he's literally like his mate.

01:06:11.960 Um.

01:06:12.960 Uh.

01:06:13.960 Roger Stone.

01:06:14.960 Right.

01:06:15.960 He sees like an actual, um, injustice.

01:06:18.960 Um.

01:06:21.960 Michael Flynn.

01:06:22.960 Susan B.

01:06:23.960 Anthony.

01:06:24.960 Uh, I saw.

01:06:25.960 Yeah.

01:06:26.960 Some of them you can do posthumously like in the, uh, 70s, I think.

01:06:30.960 Like people like Nixon or Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan.

01:06:33.960 They like posthumously pardon like, uh, Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.

01:06:40.960 Who were like stripped of their citizenship and stuff.

01:06:44.960 Um.

01:06:45.960 They said, no, we'll wipe that away.

01:06:48.960 So you can do.

01:06:49.960 In fact, one of the things, but one of the things I think is most odd is that some people

01:06:52.960 are reporting whether this will actually happen or not is something else, but that,

01:06:55.960 but Biden might pardon people ahead of time.

01:06:58.960 I'm not sure if that's possible.

01:06:59.960 Once again, in the comments, if you know more about this.

01:07:01.960 I would have thought that that would be a bit, um, a bit difficult to, uh, to justify,

01:07:05.960 wouldn't it?

01:07:06.960 I've never heard of that before.

01:07:07.960 I'm not, I'm not entirely sure that's possible.

01:07:09.960 I'm not entirely sure that's possible.

01:07:10.960 Yeah.

01:07:11.960 That's exactly what I was going to say.

01:07:12.960 I'm not sure if that's possible.

01:07:13.960 Again, if there's anyone out there that really knows this inside out, um, I've not

01:07:16.960 heard of that before.

01:07:17.960 How is that?

01:07:18.960 How can that work?

01:07:19.960 It would.

01:07:20.960 How would that work?

01:07:21.960 Sure.

01:07:22.960 Just say you can never, ever be prosecuted for anything ever.

01:07:26.960 In most law in the Western world, you can't legislate for, you know, future events

01:07:31.960 necessarily.

01:07:32.960 Right.

01:07:33.960 It really would fly in the face of like justice, wouldn't it?

01:07:36.960 Is it, um, for 10 years that they're being pardoned or for life?

01:07:40.960 Forever.

01:07:41.960 For life.

01:07:42.960 Yeah.

01:07:43.960 Completely slate wiped forever.

01:07:44.960 Yeah.

01:07:45.960 Um, so that applies retroactively.

01:07:48.960 It's not if the, if they go out and commit crime after being pardoned.

01:07:52.960 Yeah.

01:07:53.960 Then, then it's, you know, justice is normal, so to speak.

01:07:56.960 It's just been revoked.

01:07:57.960 Yeah.

01:07:58.960 Lethal weapon.

01:07:59.960 Yeah.

01:08:00.960 Yeah.

01:08:01.960 Yeah.

01:08:02.960 It's been revoked.

01:08:03.960 Yeah.

01:08:04.960 Yeah.

01:08:05.960 It's been revoked.

01:08:06.960 Um, so let's talk about some of the ones Biden has done, like a few thousand up to 8,000

01:08:12.960 now.

01:08:13.960 So.

01:08:14.960 Yeah.

01:08:15.960 Oh, that, that's a.

01:08:16.960 Nephews of Maduro.

01:08:17.960 Why?

01:08:18.960 Of Venezuela.

01:08:19.960 Yeah.

01:08:20.960 That's, uh, interesting.

01:08:22.960 So it does seem that Biden is, is up to it.

01:08:26.960 He's doing more than is usual in recent times.

01:08:30.960 But remember George Bush Junior did 200 odd.

01:08:34.960 George Bush Senior did less than 80.

01:08:37.960 You know, most presidents do a few hundred.

01:08:40.960 Right.

01:08:41.960 In the scheme of things, the average is a few hundred.

01:08:43.960 And he's like, or, or maybe a couple of thousand at most.

01:08:47.960 Right.

01:08:48.960 At most.

01:08:49.960 He's up to 8,000.

01:08:50.960 People expect that in his last weeks, he'll do more.

01:08:53.960 He'll do a lot more.

01:08:54.960 So that's interesting.

01:08:56.960 He pardoned people convicted of federal offenses of possession of marijuana, excluding non

01:09:03.960 U.S. citizens and those who were considered illegal immigrants at the time of their arrest.

01:09:07.960 That's an interesting clause to add on.

01:09:09.960 Based Joe on his redemption arc.

01:09:11.960 So that's 6.5 K out of the close, close to 8,000 K.

01:09:17.960 Well, no, most of that 8,000 K is just these drug marijuana.

01:09:21.960 Yeah.

01:09:22.960 That's right.

01:09:23.960 Oh, sure.

01:09:24.960 Yeah.

01:09:25.960 Yeah.

01:09:26.960 Yeah.

01:09:27.960 So he did 6,500, then another 1,500 the other day.

01:09:28.960 But some of them are, like, let me find, look, this, look at this guy.

01:09:34.960 Amin Hazanzedd, I don't know how, I won't even try to pronounce that correctly.

01:09:40.960 For conspiracy to unlawfully export technology to Iran.

01:09:43.960 Don't worry about what technology it is.

01:09:45.960 To fraud the United States.

01:09:46.960 To fraud the United States.

01:09:47.960 To fraud the United States.

01:09:48.960 Unlawful export technology to Iran.

01:09:49.960 Like, what?

01:09:50.960 I don't think there's any circumstance where that should be excusable.

01:09:54.960 And the next one down.

01:09:56.960 Reza somebody or other.

01:09:58.960 Basically the same sort of thing.

01:09:59.960 Exporting goods to Iran via UAE to fraud the United States.

01:10:03.960 Because one of these things.

01:10:06.960 It was in the news.

01:10:08.960 Incorrectly.

01:10:09.960 That he pardoned Joe Biden recently.

01:10:11.960 He pardoned a Chinese person called Shanlin Jin.

01:10:15.960 He didn't pardon them.

01:10:17.960 It was part of a prisoner swap.

01:10:18.960 This Shanlin Jin is essentially, I think it's a matter of record. 1.00

01:10:22.960 Let's say, allegedly, just to cover my ass. 0.99

01:10:25.960 Was just a Chinese intelligence asset. 1.00

01:10:28.960 A spy.

01:10:29.960 Oh! 0.60

01:10:30.960 And had tens and tens of thousands of explicit child pornography images.

01:10:35.960 So, a spy and a wrong one.

01:10:38.960 And he...

01:10:40.960 At first people thought he was...

01:10:42.960 He pardoned him.

01:10:43.960 He didn't.

01:10:44.960 It was part of a prisoner swap.

01:10:46.960 However...

01:10:47.960 The Chinese might even punish him for that as well, right?

01:10:50.960 Probably more harshly than in the US.

01:10:52.960 And prisoner swaps are a delicate thing.

01:10:55.960 I won't just say they're bad.

01:10:57.960 Because they're not necessarily always bad.

01:10:59.960 But...

01:11:00.960 Basically letting this person go.

01:11:01.960 I mean, who knows what the actual swap was.

01:11:03.960 And who America got back in return.

01:11:05.960 I don't know.

01:11:06.960 So...

01:11:07.960 What I would like to know in these cases.

01:11:09.960 What would be good to know at some...

01:11:11.960 You know, eventually.

01:11:12.960 Was what the exchange was.

01:11:14.960 Yeah.

01:11:15.960 For instance, the people you are saying who tried to unlawfully export technology to Iran.

01:11:21.960 Maybe...

01:11:22.960 Maybe...

01:11:23.960 He pardoned them for something.

01:11:25.960 Not just for...

01:11:26.960 Maybe.

01:11:27.960 Maybe.

01:11:28.960 Maybe that was good or bad.

01:11:29.960 We don't know.

01:11:30.960 Maybe.

01:11:31.960 So...

01:11:32.960 Who are some of the key people that Biden's pardoned?

01:11:34.960 Obviously, he's got all the potheads covered.

01:11:36.960 Jonky. 0.94

01:11:37.960 And his son, which is, you know, a crackhead. 0.56

01:11:40.960 So he's got the drug users.

01:11:42.960 Some of the worst, most egregious ones that people are, in my opinion, rightly up in arms about.

01:11:47.960 One's ex-comp controller, Rita Chundwell.

01:11:53.960 Who lived in Dixon, Illinois.

01:11:56.960 And embezzled something in the order of 53, 54 million dollars out of that town.

01:12:01.960 And just spent it on herself.

01:12:03.960 Essentially.

01:12:04.960 Embezzlement is a real crime though.

01:12:06.960 It's not something that should be pardoned.

01:12:08.960 And also, why would...

01:12:10.960 Why would you pardon this person?

01:12:11.960 Yeah.

01:12:12.960 She just bought, like, loads of things.

01:12:14.960 Homes and loads of holidays and loads of actual things.

01:12:17.960 Commodities.

01:12:18.960 Hundreds of horses.

01:12:19.960 She bought loads of horses and things.

01:12:21.960 50 million bucks.

01:12:23.960 And she got sentenced.

01:12:24.960 She got quite a, like, sent relatively.

01:12:26.960 She got, like, quite a few years.

01:12:29.960 And I think she was serving a lot of that under home arrest anyway. 0.99

01:12:34.960 And Biden just pardoned her.

01:12:36.960 Screw the people of Dixon, Illinois, then, apparently.

01:12:40.960 That town won't recover fiscally for ages and ages because of her. 0.71

01:12:44.960 Yeah, it's not.

01:12:45.960 It's not about money.

01:12:46.960 I pardon you.

01:12:48.960 Doesn't...

01:12:49.960 Like, why are you doing that, Joe?

01:12:52.960 It could be a broad network of favors for favors sort of thing.

01:12:57.960 I mean, if you were, hypothetically speaking, if you were to be the head of a crime family, this sort of thing might happen. 0.70

01:13:07.960 Hypothetically.

01:13:09.960 Another one, Paul de Gerdas.

01:13:12.960 Probably not pronouncing that right.

01:13:14.960 NBC has said that a former law partner from Illinois, Paul de Gerdas, was convicted of overseeing fraudulent tax shelters at a cost to the government of more than $1.63 billion.

01:13:27.960 The scheme generated over $7 billion of fraudulent deductions, according to prosecutors.

01:13:32.960 His law firm agreed to pay a $76 million penalty.

01:13:35.960 Prosecutors called de Gerdas, quote, the most prolific, pernicious and utterly unrepentant tax cheat in United States history.

01:13:45.960 While the judge described the case as the biggest tax fraud prosecution ever, according to Forbes, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2014 and Biden has commuted his sentence.

01:13:57.960 Why on earth?

01:13:58.960 What are you...

01:13:59.960 Why?

01:14:00.960 There are two things to say here.

01:14:01.960 First of all, taxation is theft.

01:14:04.960 Second of all, I'm not even an American taxpayer and I'm annoyed at this.

01:14:09.960 Like, this is just winding me up just purely based on the basis of the injustice of it.

01:14:14.960 There doesn't seem to be a justification for it.

01:14:16.960 No.

01:14:17.960 It's like this person has done a legit crime, been found guilty for it through due process and should serve their sentence.

01:14:24.960 This is the worst one for me, because I've got loads more I could say about it, but we're running on for time.

01:14:28.960 I'll probably leave it in and around here.

01:14:30.960 This one, I actually found myself getting proper annoyed about when I read this one.

01:14:37.960 Judge Jim Carlson, the Star Tribune said, Jim Carlson, a head shop owner found guilty in 2000...

01:14:47.960 Oh sorry, this is not the one I was particularly annoyed at, but I'll tell you anyway.

01:14:51.960 It was a head shop owner found guilty in 2013 on dozens of felony charges after experts said he sold enough synthetic drugs to cause a public health crisis in Duluth.

01:15:01.960 He had his sentence commuted Thursday on one of nearly 1,500 convicted criminals granted clemency by Joe Biden.

01:15:08.960 Carlson received a 17 and a half year sentence after a jury found him guilty on 51 of 55 felony counts for selling synthetic drugs from his store in downtown Duluth.

01:15:18.960 Prosecutors called Carlson, alleged Carlson, sold synthetic drugs that were misbranded as incense, potpourri, bath salts and glass cleaner, while using employees as guinea pigs to test how the unregulated drugs worked on customers.

01:15:33.960 And these synthetic drugs, I know a little bit about this, are some of the most dangerous stuff you can possibly get.

01:15:39.960 Like lots of the drugs that are most damaging on the streets these days started off their life as these sort of experimental synthetic drugs. 0.63

01:15:50.960 That guy's a full-blown, amoral psycho.

01:15:53.960 Shouldn't really be on the streets, I think. 1.00

01:15:57.960 That's a terrible crime.

01:15:58.960 Okay, this was one, sorry, this last one is the one that really got my goat.

01:16:02.960 It's like, just to throw it on the pile of crimes that Joe Biden has committed while in office.

01:16:10.960 This, this is a, this is terrible that he's commuted this guy's sentence.

01:16:14.960 Judge Michael Conahan.

01:16:16.960 So he's a judge.

01:16:18.960 And there was a scandal called Kids for Cash scandal.

01:16:23.960 That's never a good scandal name, is it?

01:16:26.960 No matter what the story is.

01:16:28.960 Doesn't bode well, does it?

01:16:29.960 I mean, I mean, Ghislaine Maxwell probably had a similar moniker, didn't she?

01:16:34.960 So there's a thing, yeah.

01:16:35.960 So there's a thing, there's like for-profit detention centers, right?

01:16:38.960 When you get the inmates to manufacture things, whether it's sort of, you know, making number plates, license plates or, you know, stamping out rivets or whatever it is.

01:16:48.960 Digging drainage ditches for the local community or whatever.

01:16:50.960 It's some sort of for-profit organization, right?

01:16:53.960 So he had over 4,000 juvenile convictions, so young people as well, overturned on the strength of his conviction.

01:17:04.960 Because he'd taken, and this is not my words, he'd taken millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks.

01:17:11.960 That's a quote.

01:17:12.960 In exchange for millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks for sending, unfairly, over 4,000 juvenile people to detention centers for profit.

01:17:25.960 Basically ruining young people's lives. 0.96

01:17:27.960 He probably did something relatively minor if it was being disputed.

01:17:31.960 Dispuses.

01:17:32.960 They might not even be guilty.

01:17:33.960 Criminals at all, yeah.

01:17:34.960 Their convictions were overturned.

01:17:35.960 Okay.

01:17:36.960 So...

01:17:37.960 So he's just ruined their lives for no reason except for money.

01:17:41.960 This feels like among the more evil things you can do without actually personally being violent to someone in a one-on-one exchange.

01:17:48.960 That strikes me as truly evil.

01:17:52.960 Yeah.

01:17:53.960 What a thing to do.

01:17:54.960 You're a judge.

01:17:55.960 Ruining thousands of juveniles' lives for the sake of money.

01:18:00.960 Yeah.

01:18:01.960 And obviously spitting in the face of justice again whilst being a judge.

01:18:09.960 Creepy Joe commuted his sentence.

01:18:12.960 It served most...

01:18:13.960 I believe it served most of his sentence but there's still a few years left to run or something like that.

01:18:17.960 Creepy Joe says, you can go.

01:18:19.960 You're free.

01:18:20.960 Why on earth?

01:18:21.960 What justification is there for that?

01:18:23.960 I thought Joe Biden liked kids.

01:18:26.960 Well...

01:18:29.960 It's like a complete abuse of the pardoning power.

01:18:32.960 Yeah.

01:18:33.960 And the last thing to say is just, yeah, that Trump, just to end it on this note, Trump has said that, quote, within hours of becoming president, he'll pardon or commute the sentences of the quote-unquote J6 hostages.

01:18:46.960 Good.

01:18:47.960 So let's see if he does that.

01:18:48.960 Don't know why I didn't do it before.

01:18:49.960 Right.

01:18:50.960 So we have some comments.

01:18:53.960 Johnny Logo says, it's Christmas soon so here's a tip for all the hard work, guys.

01:19:03.960 It's good to see Josh wrapping the Christmas spirit.

01:19:06.960 Well, thank you.

01:19:07.960 Well, thank you.

01:19:08.960 They engaged few.

01:19:10.960 People who think that Hunter has been trapped into incriminating his father have forgotten that time or not answer to any uncomfortable questions.

01:19:17.960 I have no recollection of that, Senator.

01:19:20.960 Well, I don't recall.

01:19:21.960 I can believe it with him.

01:19:23.960 All right.

01:19:24.960 Yeah.

01:19:25.960 Hunter Biden, you had the best excuse ever and you blew it.

01:19:28.960 Yeah.

01:19:29.960 Yeah.

01:19:30.960 I don't recall.

01:19:31.960 And that's not me being Saki.

01:19:32.960 I was high as a kite.

01:19:33.960 I genuinely don't recall.

01:19:35.960 Do you know how much crack I've smoked, Senator?

01:19:38.960 Ryan Hennigan.

01:19:39.960 Presidents only pardon federal crimes.

01:19:41.960 Governors pardon state crimes.

01:19:43.960 You cannot be tried after, but lose 5A right not to self incriminate.

01:19:50.960 Meaning Hunter can be compelled to testify or face contempt.

01:19:54.960 That's true.

01:19:55.960 Okay.

01:19:56.960 Again, they engaged few.

01:19:58.960 There's good reason to hate Wilson and FDR.

01:20:00.960 Wilson was functionally the first fascist leader of any country.

01:20:04.960 And FDR used fascist socio-economic policies as Wilson's head of the Department of the Navy.

01:20:11.960 Now, let's be clear.

01:20:12.960 I get why Americans, or anyone really, would hate Woodrow Wilson or FDR.

01:20:18.960 You don't even have to be American.

01:20:20.960 I'm not trying to play interference on behalf of their memory.

01:20:23.960 Bold Eagle 1787.

01:20:25.960 These pardons should be challenged in court since many of these pardons are for things that haven't been changed yet.

01:20:33.960 Been charged.

01:20:34.960 Been charged yet.

01:20:35.960 And pardons are only for crimes that one has committed and charged with.

01:20:38.960 It's like an admission.

01:20:39.960 I wonder if they are though.

01:20:40.960 I'm not sure if that's true.

01:20:41.960 I hope that's true.

01:20:42.960 Okay.

01:20:43.960 I'm not 100% sure that is true though.

01:20:45.960 We'll check.

01:20:46.960 We'll see.

01:20:47.960 Yeah, we'll see.

01:20:48.960 Dragon Lady Chris says, um, Bo, did you say Andrew Jackson gave pardons after the Civil War?

01:20:55.960 He died in 1845.

01:20:57.960 Wow.

01:20:58.960 Did you say about Andrew Jackson or later the, um, Ulysses Grant?

01:21:03.960 Uh, oh, oh, oh, it's Andrew Johnson.

01:21:06.960 Okay.

01:21:07.960 Okay.

01:21:08.960 There's an Andrew Johnson.

01:21:09.960 There's an Andrew Jackson.

01:21:10.960 She's quite right.

01:21:11.960 The Andrew Jackson is later.

01:21:12.960 Okay.

01:21:13.960 Okay.

01:21:14.960 It's Andrew Johnson who came directly after Lincoln.

01:21:16.960 Okay.

01:21:17.960 Did I say Jackson?

01:21:18.960 Apologies.

01:21:19.960 Okay.

01:21:20.960 And that goes out on YouTube.

01:21:21.960 If I've said Jackson, they're going to be like, oh, you don't even know the difference 0.98

01:21:25.960 between Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson.

01:21:26.960 Oh, and they're like 50 years apart or whatever.

01:21:29.960 Ah.

01:21:30.960 Much fedora tipping will be done.

01:21:31.960 Yeah.

01:21:32.960 There will be some fedora tipping.

01:21:33.960 Joe Biden, when asked about his, the pardon of his, of infamous murderer Hannibal Lecter

01:21:38.960 said, Hey man, just because he took some elephants over, you know, the thing, he shouldn't

01:21:43.960 be in jail.

01:21:44.960 Having some friends for dinner.

01:21:47.960 Rye Lion, has your monarchy any pardon power these days?

01:21:51.960 Nope.

01:21:52.960 Sorry, what was the question?

01:21:53.960 Does our monarchy have any pardoning power?

01:21:55.960 They don't have any power.

01:21:57.960 I think they've only got the power to cut ribbons these days.

01:22:00.960 They've certainly not got any real pardoning power.

01:22:02.960 They've got some things.

01:22:04.960 It's complicated.

01:22:06.960 Yeah.

01:22:07.960 On paper they have, but by convention not.

01:22:10.960 I'm sure that's ironic.

01:22:12.960 Threadnought says Hitler, Stalin and Mao were all non-violent.

01:22:16.960 Non-violent.

01:22:17.960 I'm guessing Dr. F.

01:22:19.960 Yeah.

01:22:20.960 Fuki.

01:22:21.960 Yeah. 0.99

01:22:22.960 Really, really you cowards. 0.95

01:22:24.960 I'm not a coward. 0.98

01:22:25.960 Got off on engineering and releasing a bioweapon.

01:22:28.960 Okay.

01:22:30.960 Do we have video comments?

01:22:31.960 Oh, we've got another one.

01:22:32.960 Oh, okay.

01:22:33.960 We do have video comments.

01:22:34.960 Wesley 1924.

01:22:36.960 Trump likely didn't pardon the January sixes before because they were prosecuted after

01:22:42.960 he left office.

01:22:43.960 Nobody knew at the time the other side would do what they did.

01:22:47.960 That's a fair point, actually.

01:22:48.960 Yeah.

01:22:49.960 Thank you for that.

01:22:50.960 Let's go to the video comments.

01:22:52.960 This is from the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York.

01:22:56.960 That's from Michael Drubbins.

01:22:57.960 My daughter is making a icicle out of glass rods. 0.66

01:23:01.960 A lot of fire.

01:23:02.960 It's very impressive, though.

01:23:03.960 In an icicle, where am I?

01:23:04.960 Firing it.

01:23:05.960 What's going on?

01:23:06.960 They're making an icicle out of glass.

01:23:07.960 Hell is freezing over.

01:23:08.960 I find glassblowing amazing.

01:23:09.960 I've seen people do it in real life and the ability to shape it.

01:23:15.960 And you've got to do it so quickly before there's sort of a perfect temperature that you have

01:23:32.960 to do it.

01:23:33.960 I don't know.

01:23:34.960 It's just such a fiddly process that I could imagine myself getting very fed up with it.

01:23:39.960 Let's go to the next one by Far King Al.

01:23:42.960 Legacy Media have been going after one of their own poster boys, Stephen Bartlett,

01:23:47.960 for daring to have alternative health professionals on his show and not challenging them.

01:23:52.960 It just highlights the envy of the left and how as someone becomes more successful,

01:23:57.960 they end up becoming more based.

01:23:59.960 But he's still not as based as Dan, who's a bit more based than basic based.

01:24:04.960 Dan was not here, yeah.

01:24:08.960 He was not happy with that D tier or whatever it was.

01:24:12.960 Remember California Refugee.

01:24:13.960 I'm your top guy.

01:24:15.960 Oh, speak of the devil.

01:24:17.960 California Refugee.

01:24:19.960 Base tier list two for one.

01:24:22.960 We'll do Callum.

01:24:23.960 I thought he died in the Nevada desert going to Fallout Nerd Mecca, but thankfully he posted

01:24:28.960 videos again.

01:24:29.960 If you aren't a member of the Callum fate, what are you doing with your life?

01:24:32.960 Callum goes in C tier.

01:24:34.960 And we'll do Daisy, who mods the rumble chat zealously and humorously. 0.98

01:24:38.960 As a real woman, she once said, quote, my ego is perego, which I think for a woman these

01:24:45.960 days is BERS.

01:24:47.960 Daisy goes in D tier.

01:24:51.960 Still winning.

01:24:52.960 He wouldn't have an A and S tier if he didn't intend on putting someone there.

01:24:59.960 Right.

01:25:00.960 People think Harry's really based.

01:25:01.960 Well, he is very based, but I suspect the S tier is...

01:25:05.960 I'm on the up and up these days, you see, Beau.

01:25:08.960 It's just a silly thing to try and out-base each other.

01:25:14.960 Our beliefs are just malleable.

01:25:16.960 Yeah.

01:25:17.960 Right.

01:25:18.960 Let's go to the next one.

01:25:19.960 Okay.

01:25:20.960 Comments.

01:25:21.960 Eric Nickerson.

01:25:23.960 Gentlemen of the Lotus Seaters, it is with great pleasure to inform you that today my

01:25:27.960 wife and I are welcoming our first son.

01:25:29.960 Cheers, boys.

01:25:30.960 Congratulations.

01:25:31.960 Yeah.

01:25:32.960 Well done.

01:25:33.960 And best of luck.

01:25:34.960 Best of luck.

01:25:35.960 Wendy Gold.

01:25:36.960 My favourite Lotus Seaters trio.

01:25:38.960 Thank you very much, Wendy.

01:25:40.960 Oh, yeah.

01:25:41.960 It's my comments now.

01:25:42.960 Chase Ball says, despite all the repeated terminal abysmal failures of his administration,

01:25:47.960 Trudeau refuses to resign.

01:25:49.960 His clinical narcissism knows no bounds and his pride will drive the liberal ship to the

01:25:53.960 bottom of the ocean.

01:25:54.960 Well, that's a positive spin on it.

01:25:56.960 Good riddance to him.

01:25:57.960 May we have a larger zero seats result with the Liberals than you guys had with the Tories.

01:26:03.960 And Andrew Tahl says, what made Canada different from the US is that we were a British country

01:26:11.960 and our culture reflected that.

01:26:13.960 The older generations still have memory of this time.

01:26:16.960 The younger generations only knows modern Canada living in the US's shadow and achieving nothing.

01:26:21.960 All while people from outside the country get support and our government proudly declares

01:26:25.960 Canada has no culture.

01:26:27.960 Well, you truly are an English culture because you're basically mirroring what we've done 0.78

01:26:32.960 here.

01:26:33.960 And, yeah, Canada, I feel much more sort of cultural similarity with Canadians in that they

01:26:43.960 have a more British way about them, generally speaking, which makes perfect sense, doesn't

01:26:48.960 it, of course.

01:26:49.960 Alex Ogle says, what astonishes me about the government and the media reaction to Trump threatening

01:26:53.960 tariffs on Canada is those who say, excuse me, oh, tariffs don't work.

01:26:59.960 They only end up impoverishing those the tariffs are intended to protect.

01:27:03.960 Are the same people now decrying these tariffs will ruin Canada?

01:27:06.960 What can we do to stop them?

01:27:08.960 Then everyone talks about how horrible Trump is and completely ignores the immigration problem

01:27:13.960 that is causing the threat in the first place.

01:27:15.960 Just get control on the immigration. 0.64

01:27:17.960 I entirely agree.

01:27:18.960 And although I'm quite free market, I do think that tariffs are important and they're good

01:27:23.960 to use, as Trump is using them, as a bargaining chip.

01:27:27.960 And, of course, if you're dealing with a country whose industry you don't want to support, 0.86

01:27:33.960 say you're trading with someone, but you're not necessarily on amicable terms, it might

01:27:37.960 be good to have some tariffs just so it doesn't unintentionally help them disproportionately.

01:27:43.960 Sorry, I've read too many comments.

01:27:46.960 Please carry on.

01:27:47.960 That's okay.

01:27:48.960 Okay.

01:27:49.960 Right.

01:27:50.960 So, North FC, Zoomer.

01:27:51.960 Yammer with Bo.

01:27:52.960 I can barely remember being 15 and what I can remember is mostly about Warhammer or video

01:27:56.960 games.

01:27:57.960 I had quite literally zero political awareness.

01:27:59.960 I probably would have had to guess if you asked me who the prime minister was.

01:28:03.960 Bleach Demon says the last few school shootings outside of gang activity in the US have been

01:28:11.960 focused on attacking Christian schools.

01:28:14.960 That's true.

01:28:15.960 It's a new trend, isn't it?

01:28:17.960 Eloise, I was given an Emma Goldman anarchist sign with gender politics in it by an older 0.99

01:28:24.960 girl secretively when I was 11 because feminism, who was friends with my eldest brother when 1.00

01:28:31.960 he was going through a heavy punk phase.

01:28:33.960 I feel it messed me up for a while.

01:28:35.960 It's always the same story.

01:28:37.960 Liberal ideologues want to infiltrate on childhood and think autonomy exists where it

01:28:42.960 doesn't.

01:28:43.960 We do need some level of censorship for our youngest.

01:28:46.960 I think a couple of things that kept me on the straight and narrow as a teenager was

01:28:53.960 friendly bullying from my mates and a reflexive disgust of anything effeminate.

01:29:03.960 I think having conventional masculinity and also people willing to enforce it is good.

01:29:12.960 And there's equivalence for women as well, although it tends to be rather than being directly 0.89

01:29:17.960 aggressive, more passive aggressive.

01:29:19.960 And I know that's a bit of a stereotype, but it's very true. 1.00

01:29:22.960 Someone online schools, especially Jewish and Christian schools need armed guards.

01:29:27.960 All they have currently are gun free zone signs, which tells the monsters vulnerable children

01:29:33.960 here.

01:29:34.960 And Bleach Demon, it's time to push the term gun person since females and males in dressers 1.00

01:29:39.960 are increasingly the perpetrators.

01:29:41.960 Right.

01:29:42.960 Let's go to comments on the pardons.

01:29:45.960 Do you want to read or do you want me to read?

01:29:47.960 Well, I'll do it.

01:29:48.960 Scott Gray says part of the pardon power is to correct the injustices in the justice system.

01:29:53.960 There are some people that are convicted and lose their appeals.

01:29:56.960 But later I found out to be innocent.

01:29:58.960 Sometimes a pardon is the only way to correct it.

01:30:00.960 Right.

01:30:01.960 So that would be all well and good.

01:30:02.960 In fact, I was reading there was one way back in the early 19th century where a president

01:30:07.960 pardoned them and the guy refused to accept the pardon.

01:30:10.960 I think he's like a train robber and one of the early presidents pardoned him.

01:30:15.960 He's like, no, I deserve to be.

01:30:16.960 I did it.

01:30:17.960 I deserve to be in jail.

01:30:18.960 I don't accept it.

01:30:19.960 He robbed a train, got away with it and handed himself in and said, you know what?

01:30:22.960 I'll do 20 years hard labor.

01:30:24.960 I feel really guilty.

01:30:25.960 It was something like that.

01:30:26.960 And then the next president pardoned him and he did accept that.

01:30:29.960 So maybe it was just.

01:30:30.960 I need a time to imagine him like the highwayman in Barry Lyndon where he's just incredibly

01:30:36.960 polite.

01:30:37.960 Yeah.

01:30:38.960 Half a second.

01:30:40.960 Samson.

01:30:41.960 We can have two minutes extra to so both.

01:30:44.960 Yeah.

01:30:45.960 Great.

01:30:46.960 All right.

01:30:47.960 The proletariat says, I'm no expert on pardons, but I'm pretty sure we got it from the English 1.00

01:30:50.960 system like most of the rest of our laws.

01:30:52.960 And in the controversy following the Hunter Biden pardon, people were commenting that it

01:30:56.960 might be too broad to be valid.

01:30:58.960 Yeah.

01:30:59.960 I think the Hunter Biden one particularly was as broad as it could possibly be.

01:31:02.960 Where do you start?

01:31:03.960 Yeah.

01:31:04.960 It's just like anything and everything he did is cannot be ever prosecuted for.

01:31:07.960 So you wouldn't want to be very specific and have a laundry list of things because then

01:31:10.960 you're basically listing his crimes, aren't you?

01:31:13.960 That concept comes from an act of parliament which had detailed the powers of the king to

01:31:22.960 issue pardons.

01:31:23.960 I'm no expert on the subject.

01:31:24.960 Perhaps it's worthy of an investigation in an epoch on English common law.

01:31:27.960 Yeah, maybe.

01:31:28.960 Well, it makes sense because the president is meant to take the place of the king in our

01:31:34.960 system, aren't they?

01:31:35.960 It's the chief magistrate.

01:31:36.960 In fact, that's what George Washington preferred to be called.

01:31:43.960 Like in the Roman Republic, the consul was still a magistrate, the highest magistrate, the highest 0.57

01:31:48.960 judge.

01:31:49.960 That's where how to the chief comes from, that the president is supposed to be the chief

01:31:53.960 magistrate.

01:31:54.960 So, yeah, it's an interesting note.

01:31:57.960 The name.

01:31:58.960 Yeah.

01:31:59.960 Cole's masterful minimal use of null oil.

01:32:03.960 Null oil.

01:32:04.960 That's for Warhammer painting, isn't it?

01:32:07.960 If only Biden would see, if only Biden would use presidential pardons for good.

01:32:12.960 I would particularly like to see Roger Roderick.

01:32:15.960 I think this is a Monty Python thing.

01:32:17.960 And perhaps even Brian released.

01:32:20.960 Any wrongly convicted wobbers and wapists, really? 1.00

01:32:25.960 Near life of Brian, isn't it?

01:32:27.960 Yeah.

01:32:28.960 And the proletariat again says, false labor of convicts is the one form of legalized slavery 0.73

01:32:32.960 left in the US.

01:32:33.960 Yes. 0.91

01:32:34.960 That judge is a literal slaver and should be punished accordingly. 0.98

01:32:36.960 I couldn't agree more. 0.95

01:32:37.960 I agree.

01:32:38.960 Yeah.

01:32:39.960 Dr. David Ferugia.

01:32:42.960 Ferugia.

01:32:43.960 Ferugia.

01:32:44.960 Says, fun fact, judicial punishment is the exception to the 13th Amendment.

01:32:49.960 What is the 13th Amendment? 0.57

01:32:50.960 I don't remember off the top of my head.

01:32:53.960 Can you look that up?

01:32:55.960 Someone online, meanwhile, someone online says, they're pardoning the criminals to punish

01:32:59.960 the people.

01:33:00.960 Yeah, seems like it.

01:33:01.960 Abolition of slavery.

01:33:02.960 Yeah, okay.

01:33:03.960 And involuntary servitude. 0.68

01:33:04.960 Right, right, right, right.

01:33:07.960 Henry Asselin says, the future pardons are actually for Joe because the kids he wants

01:33:13.960 to sniff haven't been born yet.

01:33:15.960 Silent Nicholas was a Turk. 1.00

01:33:18.960 Silent?

01:33:19.960 Silent Nicholas.

01:33:20.960 St. Nicholas was a Turk. 1.00

01:33:22.960 Says, would Robert Wilson no doubt pardon a lot of World War One draft dodgers or should

01:33:27.960 I say Edith Wilson?

01:33:30.960 I wonder if that's a relative.

01:33:32.960 Colin P said, yet again, I'm reminded of the West Wing.

01:33:36.960 That was a great show.

01:33:37.960 It's really lefty, but I still quite kind of liked it from the 90s fictional president

01:33:42.960 and West Wing.

01:33:44.960 Where one of the story beats involved the president issuing pardons as he left office.

01:33:48.960 Yeah.

01:33:49.960 Yeah.

01:33:50.960 That was near the end.

01:33:52.960 Dr. David Fagua again.

01:33:55.960 Farugia.

01:33:57.960 Farugia.

01:33:59.960 Farugia.

01:34:01.960 Farugia. 0.99

01:34:02.960 Says, they probably swapped the Chinese non-spire for some heroin addict who hates America. 0.99

01:34:09.960 Yeah. 0.98

01:34:10.960 Yeah, probably.

01:34:11.960 Yeah.

01:34:12.960 It's about their speed.

01:34:13.960 Didn't they do a prisoner swap with Russia where they got that weed smoking basketball 0.84

01:34:16.960 player?

01:34:17.960 Yeah.

01:34:18.960 And they released some proper bad spires.

01:34:20.960 They did.

01:34:21.960 Yeah.

01:34:22.960 It's like, what a terrible exchange.

01:34:25.960 America, you know, she might have been able to throw a basketball about, but they got 1.00

01:34:28.960 shot of her.

01:34:29.960 Should have been a blessing.

01:34:30.960 And finally, Derek Power says to Josh, if it's any consolation, we ganks are pissed off

01:34:35.960 whenever we hear about injustices happening in either Britain or in Europe.

01:34:39.960 Mutual empathy.

01:34:40.960 Well, thank you very much.

01:34:41.960 Yeah.

01:34:42.960 Right.

01:34:43.960 And on that note, we have come to the conclusion of this podcast.

01:34:47.960 Check our podcast tomorrow at 1pm.

01:34:50.960 See you and goodbye.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - December 17, 2024

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1065

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