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Dec. 23, 2020 - The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters
01:03:10
The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #32
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Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the podcast of the Lotus Seaters for Wednesday the 23rd of December 2020.
My name's Carl, and it's just me today because of Labour laws, which, incidentally, we'll get to a petition lobbying against those in future.
But for now, we're going to be talking about Donald Trump rejecting the stimulus bill, Mike Pence and the possibility of him going rogue as it's been framed, and, of course, Britain's ongoing war with the evil empire on the continent.
But before we do that, if you'd like to support us, you can go to Lotuses.com and become a premium member.
We've got loads of great premium content.
At the moment, in fact, tomorrow, I think it'll be, or on Christmas Day, we will have our premium podcast talking about the demographic changes in the United Kingdom and the implications of this after Keir Starmer got ambushed by this on LBC.
It's a really, really good one because we've got all the data, we've got all the interesting reactions, and it was too spicy.
No, it wasn't even spicy.
It's not even a spicy one, but the subject itself is too spicy to put on YouTube, and so this will obviously be hosted on our website, and if you want to watch it, you can go and sign up, and of course reap all the other benefits like being able to comment, and in fact, we've got the video comments working now, and no one sent us a video comment because I didn't know how it worked, I assume. we've got the video comments working now, and no one
But basically, if you go to the Lotus Eaters page where we embed the podcast, you've got an option on there in the comments to be able to just record a cell phone video of yourself and upload it, which is a question that you can send through, and we'll read out.
We'll play the video, we'll read it out.
I'd love to have some of those, just because I think they'd be fun.
But right, so let's get started.
Trump has rejected the stimulus bill.
And so we covered this yesterday, but I'll go over it very quickly again, just in case you missed it.
So, in fact, it's not just that I'd like to cover this thing as well.
I'd like to talk about the media reaction, right?
So this is the New York Times article on it.
And the question, what's included in the second stimulus package?
They say things like individual payments, unemployment benefits, targeted aid for small businesses, funding for vaccines in nursing homes, support for climate measures, a ban on surprise medical bills, rental protection, food security, funding for broadband infrastructure and absolutely no mention of foreign aid whatsoever.
It's really interesting, not what's in the New York Times coverage of this, but what's missing from the New York Times coverage of this.
Because really, on the face of it, how could you object to any of those things, right?
I mean, come on, you're not against the individual payments, obviously.
You're not against unemployment benefits.
You don't want to prevent support for climate measures, do you?
You won't abandon rental protections.
What are you, some sort of monster?
People have been suffering.
How could you be against this?
Well, thankfully, the New York Post exists.
And thankfully, the New York Post is prepared to tell us what they're leaving out.
And this bill, they had two hours before they had to sign it, and was 5,000 pages long.
And this is not a new problem, of course.
And so the what's in it is slowly coming out as the days go on.
And it's just mad.
Like, at one point, $15 billion has been earmarked towards grant programs for live entertainment venues such as Broadway.
So, the wealthy are going to make sure that their entertainment survives this COVID crisis.
You get $600, Broadway gets $15 billion.
Okay, right.
Obviously the $500 million earmarked for Israeli defense purchases, $250 for Palestinians, $1.3 billion going to Egypt, $700 million to Sudan.
I mean, how much is Sudan worth?
Like, is that not just them buying the country?
I should have looked it up.
What's the GDP of Sudan?
I bet America could just buy it.
But one thing I found really, really amusing is just $101 million to combat the transnational threat of wildlife poaching and trafficking.
Really.
Is now the time.
Now is the time.
I don't know, Peter or something.
Peter lobbyists are like, look, we have to do this.
This is the only opportunity we have.
But as you can see, the whole thing is clearly a front for...
Is it suddenly revealed the sort of lobbyist types to everyone and sundry, everyone watching.
The populist types, the AOCs and the Candace Owens and those people who ended up agreeing on this bill being awful, this package being awful because of what's been packaged into it.
At least everyone can, looking in and are now seeing the sort of gross, slimy lobbyist face of Washington politics, right?
And so all of this is total nonsense.
And thank God for Donald Trump, right?
Because there's always a tweet.
There is always a goddamn tweet.
Look, this is 2014.
I hope we never find life on another planet, because if we do, there's no doubt the United States will start sending them money.
Amazing.
Amazing.
Just every time.
Because Donald Trump is like the id of the United States.
He's just like the uncontrolled, like, gut of the United States.
And he just says what he's thinking.
And what he's thinking is doubtless what many, many, many just regular Americans are thinking.
Which is why I think he's done so well and why he's so popular.
But anyway, so yesterday, yeah, yesterday, Trump, everyone was waiting for Trump's reaction to this.
Is he going to sign it?
And a lot of people are like, oh yeah, of course he's going to sign it because they always do sign these things and people need money because the democratic governors are tyrannizing them in their own homes and preventing their businesses from opening.
But Trump instead came out and said this.
Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists, and special interests while sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it.
It wasn't their fault.
It was China's fault, not their fault.
I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple.
I'm also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package and maybe that administration will be me and we will get it done.
Thank you very much.
Are they Caesar?
This is great.
Trump obviously wants a bill without nonsense in sign, which is entirely in the interests of the regular American.
Now, I can't stress enough, this is why I like Donald Trump.
This is why I'm such a firm supporter of Donald Trump.
Because obviously he's an unpolished gem, right?
Obviously he's loads of rough edges, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah.
All these criticisms, doubtless true.
But look at where his interests lie.
Look, who else is saying this sort of stuff?
Who else is saying, well, hang on, why are all these special interests essentially going to make hundreds of millions of dollars Off the American taxpayer, while the American taxpayer gets screwed.
I mean, there are arguments for and against the stimulus checks themselves, and we'll talk about them.
Personally, I don't think there should be lockdowns at all, so there wouldn't be no need for stimulus checks.
But either way, if that's the paradigm, if that's what you're going to have to do, is there seems to be no way of getting the democratic governors to not tyrannise their own people, fine.
Okay, do something for the regular people.
Don't send hundreds of millions of dollars to Sudan!
Like, why?
It's comical.
It's genuinely comical.
And it's making the whole thing look like a farce.
And Trump is just, like here, the adult in the room who's actually done the right thing.
So, look, I'm not signing this.
Bring me something sensible to sign.
And this surely would be a time for them all to go, look, we seem to have been caught with our hands in the cookie jar at this point.
Maybe we should just do what Daddy says.
But anyway, so...
I like the way Trump framed this as well.
Just a quote from Newsweek from him.
For example, among more than 5,000 pages in this bill, which nobody in Congress has had time to read because of its length and complexity, it's called the COVID relief bill, but it's almost nothing to do with COVID. Well, it is almost nothing to do with COVID, isn't it?
It seems.
But we'll get to more things that are in this bill in a minute, because let's talk about the $2,000 stimulus checks.
Rand Paul posted a 12-minute video of his speech on the floor, and I believe he's a senator, and Today.
And he makes some great points.
And I'm no economist, but I'm certainly not Keynesian if I were to subscribe to a school of economics.
And Rand Paul explains why.
A billion dollars ago at the rate Congress spends money was just 80 minutes ago.
All of this should be setting off alarm bells.
But the only alarm bells in Congress are sounding the alarm for more spending and more debt.
No cuts, no offsets, no pay-fors, no prioritization.
Just print it up.
Print out more money and give it out to everybody, because it's free money.
Come and get yours.
Well, the getting's good, but it leads to a mountain of debt.
Spend all this money and leave the future to figure itself out.
John Maynard Keynes was once asked, what about the long run?
He said, in the short run, you know, you can make a stimulus, you can print money, and you can give it to everybody.
And Maynard Keynes, his response was, in the long run, we'll all be dead.
I hate that attitude.
I hate that attitude.
Well, the future doesn't matter.
There's a famous Greek aphorism, which is a society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they won't sit.
And this is exactly why this sort of Keynesian mindset of just like, we'll just pump loads of money into the economy and everything will be fine, is...
Obviously self-destructive.
I mean, like I said, I'm no economist, but I know that you're debasing the value of each dollar with each new dollar that is just arbitrarily printed, that doesn't have any kind of reference to real-world wealth.
And he goes on more throughout that speech saying, why don't we just print more?
Why don't we just give everyone 10,000 or a million?
Why is there a limit if we can just print all this money?
And he's right.
I mean, this is...
The problem with just printing fiat money.
Again, I'm no economist, but I have seen enough examples of hyperinflation to know that eventually money can become worthless, and that really isn't the sort of position you want to end up in, is it?
Where the wheelbarrow that you bring the money to buy your bread in is what's taken in exchange for the bread because the money's got no value.
And this is something that has happened before.
So, not in the United States, this is in post-war Germany, but in various other places.
I mean, Venezuela and Zimbabwe had hyperinflation.
Like, when they were printing, what was it, like $500 trillion shillings or something, trillion shilling notes or something like that, whatever currency they use.
But it becomes ridiculous and it's pointless because you can't actually try and circumvent reality about the concept of value.
Right?
Each note has value only as long as people value it.
And if you have nothing but a huge stack of notes, then each one becomes less and less valuable.
Again, I'm no economist, but I'm aware that this is how things work.
And so really...
I approve of all of the people who are protesting the bill.
I approve of AOC coming out and saying, well, in fact, she says here, you know, this is why Congress needs to take time to read the packages.
We have not read this bill.
We're supposed to vote on it in two hours.
And then she voted for it, as Tim Paul points out.
She votes for this.
So it's like, you absolute hypocrites.
Like, if the populists could have done something useful in Congress, now would have been the time.
But apparently not.
So anyway, what else is in this bill?
There are some really bizarre things that are in this.
And this is something that Michael Tracy found, which I find absolutely fascinating.
So this is one section.
On the 9th of August 2020, the government of Belarus conducted a presidential election that, A, was held under undemocratic conditions that did not meet international standards...
B, involved government malfeasance and serious irregularities with ballot counting and reporting of election results, including early ballot stuffing, ballot burning, pressuring poll workers, and removing bags full of ballots by climbing out of windows.
And C, including restrictive measures that impeded the work of local independent observers and did not provide sufficient notice to whatever.
That's the end of the quote that we've got there.
And for some reason, my notes have jumped to a different position.
That was John's fault, right.
But this is amazing, right?
Oh, and John's got the rest.
The leading opposition candidate, a name I can't pronounce, formally disputed the government's election results, explained to her staff that examined the election results from more than 50 polling places and found that her share of the vote exceeded Lukashenko's share many times.
Michael Tracy says this, it's so interesting that Congress snuck into his behemoth COVID omnibus bill a declaration of the 2020 Belarus presidential election as fraudulent on eerily similar grounds as the current U.S. president is declaring the 2020 presidential election to have been fraudulent.
That's really interesting, isn't it?
I wonder who put that in there.
I wonder why they put that in there.
And I wonder why Donald Trump couldn't have had someone put exactly the same thing in for the 2020 US presidential elections.
And when he says eerily similar, I mean, that really is eerily similar.
Like the Democrats are being accused and there appears to be evidence to suggest that they've done all of these things.
So it really, really makes you think, doesn't it?
Apparently, as well, another really, really interesting bit.
Hidden away, there is apparently a provision to nullify the President's use of the Insurrection Act.
Now, according to Wikipedia, because I'm no expert, the Insurrection Act of 1807 is the United States federal law that empowers the President of the United States to deploy U.S. military and federalized National Guard troops within the United States in particular circumstances, such as to suppress civil disorder, insurrection, and rebellion.
Really interesting in the light of all the autonomous zones that have been springing up all across the left-wing controlled areas of the United States and declaring themselves to be not the United States.
Why would that be in there?
Why would that be necessary?
Because you'd think that using the US military to stop insurrection is a good thing.
And this goes back to the early days of the Republic, let's say 1807, when apparently a person who murdered Alexander Hamilton, a politician who had a duel, I think it was, with Alexander Hamilton, killed him, which killed his political career, and he tried to raise an army to go conquer part of Mexico and set that up as a kind of personal fiefdom.
It never came through, obviously.
But isn't it interesting how they want this overturned?
It really makes you think.
But right, so we'll go on to the next one.
We'll do the subchats at the end, because it'll just be easier.
So, the question, really, in regards to the United States election, and I'm all for this at this point, Will Mike Pence go rogue?
That's the question.
So, packaged in this is the thought that, okay, Trump may well be preparing to lose.
And he's taken a few actions that I think do indicate that he is looking at the possibility of not becoming the president.
Even though he does, in that speech earlier, he did say, well, you know, it might be me.
You know what he's like.
Again, I've said this before.
Trump talks a big game in many regards.
But I think that in his heart, he is a constitutionalist, and he's not actually going to go for Caesar.
And so he's been making moves that it looks like he's preparing to lose.
I mean, this is a piece by Mother Jones from about a month ago, where they're complaining that Trump's pardoning a load of people, like people like Sheriff Joe Apio, who was famous for calling himself America's toughest sheriff, and who was detaining people based solely on suspicion of their immigration status, Condemned by a judge as amounting to racial profiling, and he refused to stop doing it, and the court found him guilty of contempt of court, and Trump pardoned him.
So, you know, a lot of stuff is like that, and some of it's like minor corruption.
Honestly, in the similar vein to the Hunter Biden stuff, not connected to Trump, but connected to some of his supporters that he has pardoned, and this is often what presidential pardons are used for, and you can say that these are illegitimate.
That's fair.
What you probably shouldn't say are things like this from CNN. Trump goes on a pardon rampage.
Because that's not really true.
But just look at the way this is written, right?
Donald Trump's presidency is blazing into history in a way that epitomizes his corrupt excess with pardons for cronies and war crimes, assaults on democracy, fresh COVID-19 denial and impunity for Russia.
Calm down, CNN, because that's literally a description of Joe Biden, so calm down.
And in a trademark bombshell that blindsided AIDS, Trump on Tuesday also issued a sudden pre-Christmas demand for changes to a desperately needed $900 billion pandemic relief bill that risked shattering the fragile bipartisan compromise he had made no effort's shape.
The deep state, the swamp of the deep state has risen.
I'm going to give us money.
And Trump's like, no.
How could he do this?
Says the mouthpiece of the deep state.
I mean, just listen to the language it's being written in.
Like, this is the sort of language that Gandalf would have used against Sauron, right?
This is genuinely warlike rhetoric.
The antics of the outgoing president in recent hours weighed down further the yet-to-begin presidency of his successor, Joe Biden.
Joe the Saint Biden who did nothing wrong, who already faced the most challenging debut of any US leader since Roosevelt.
I think it's a nightmare that everyone is going through, and they all say it's got to end, Biden said on Tuesday, when asked whether he expected a honeymoon of early political goodwill to help extricate the nation from the pandemic and its consequences.
That Biden is not going to be getting a honeymoon of goodwill at all from anyone, assuming he were to take the presidency, right?
That's not going to happen.
It's a ridiculous thing for CNN to say, and anyone with any knowledge of politics will be like, that's ridiculous.
But this is the best sentence.
The sleazy final days of the Trump White House later hit new lows when the president wielded his unassailable pardon power, substituting political payoffs for justice in yet another morally questionable use of executive authority.
This sounds like Pravda.
This sounds like the mouthpiece of the Venezuelan government or the Chinese Communist Party.
What kind of language does CNN think they're using here?
To come out and just openly say, look, we're actually literally just the organ of Joe Biden.
We are just physically connected to his campaign and we are here promoting him would be more honest and more useful than what they're doing here, right?
And so how many people has Trump pardoned?
Are Trump's pardons like Beyond the pale, are they outside of the norm?
Well, in some ways they are.
If you just look back at previous presidents and the percentage of pardons that they gave, George H.W. Bush pardoned 10% of requests.
George W. Bush pardoned 7% of requests.
Obama pardoned 6% of requests.
And Trump, when the police have finished coming to arrest me for telling you the facts about the matter.
Sorry about that.
God, it's frustrating.
Come on, come on.
Well, God, I can't even complain.
But Trump has granted 2%.
2% of the requested pardons in his term of office.
And this is 27 compared to Barack Obama's 200 or, you know, George W. Bush's 189.
But from CNN, you would not know that.
You would not know that Trump was actually being incredibly conservative in the number of pardons he's given, and all of the other presidents that came before him seem to have just been doling them out by comparison.
It's mad.
It's really mad.
And you had the same thing with the slate of federal executions.
Again, another thing that, like, Trump, like, getting these things done, these are people obviously on death row who have committed horrific acts.
I mean, the ACLU found themselves in defense of one lady.
I mean, she'd had an awful upbringing, full of sexual abuse, full of various terrible things that her family had done to her.
But this poor lady, I guess we'd say, being mad, had found a pregnant woman, murdered her, and cut her baby out of her womb, and then taken it home to nurse?
And it's just like, right, okay...
That person's insane.
And that was why she was on death row.
And the ACLU, you're like, oh, but look, her early life is like, yeah, but dude, there are some things you can't come back from.
I think murdering an expectant mother and stealing her baby is probably one of those things.
I mean, just call me old-fashioned, right?
But honestly, since I've stopped being left-wing, and now I consider myself a centrist, a right-leaning centrist, I suppose, but a centrist nonetheless...
I'm actually softened a lot on the death penalty.
I do think there are some things that just, come on, you do this, you've gone too far.
This is just way too much.
But anyway, yeah, so Trump's doing that.
And so, what's the complaint?
I mean, like, Mother Jones, executions are spreading COVID. Oh, that's why they're bad, is it?
Like, you can't just say, but COVID, to absolutely everything.
I mean, what's the worst that's going to happen, right?
These people are on death row.
They're about to be executed.
And by the way, there was fake news about the firing squads as well.
Apparently, Vicky looked this up.
They were complaining, oh, Trump's talking about bringing back firing squads.
What the hell's wrong with a firing squad?
Like, I'm not joking.
Don't laugh.
I'm not joking, right?
Seriously, there is merit to the concept of a firing squad.
I mean, a lethal injection, one, you know who's given it, right?
Because the point of the firing squad is you didn't actually know who the person who actually killed the guy was.
And so it gives the person, the people doing a kind of plausible deniability.
So it's a sort of emotional relief for them, right?
Because it's a military thing to do.
These are soldiers who usually give.
And they don't know that they're the person who did it, and so they can, you know, kind of clean their own conscience from having to kill a man, even though it's lawfully done.
But secondly, like, what's so bad about a firing squad that's so much better about an injection?
No, I mean it, right?
There's something, you know, weakening and disgraceful about just having, oh, here you go, injection right, now you're dead.
You know, give me a firing squad like a man.
You know, if I'm going to be shot, if I'm going to be executed by the state, I want to be stood there and go, go on then.
Go on then.
You know, give me a proper heroic death.
I'm not just going to be some sort of, oh, well, you know, the bureaucrat is now going to inject you with it.
No, no, you're not.
You're going to shoot me, okay?
This reasoning on the COVID thing.
I'm enjoying not having Callum here to rein me in.
This is good fun.
So, yeah, so apparently a bunch of staffers had tested positive during the carrying out of executions for coronavirus because of crowded conditions and a population more likely to have underlying conditions that make them vulnerable to contracting COVID-19.
Prisons and jails have become hotspots for the disease and federal prisons where federal death row inmates are located are no exception.
Eight federal executions that took place this year have drawn hundreds of people into a virus hotspot, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
So, okay, great.
That's great.
They may well die of COVID. That's tragic.
That should be prevented.
But anyway...
So the fact that Trump has been doing all of these things is being interpreted quite widely that it looks like he might think that he's going to lose.
And so I guess we'd better talk about that because it's not done yet.
Things are not over yet.
And there is actually still a path to victory.
This is going to be my massive cope, but that's fine.
I'm happy to cope along.
Anyway, the Georgia Senate has recently released a report saying that the election results are untrustworthy and certification should be rescinded.
This was the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee in Georgia that examined evidence of fraud in the 2020 election and has released a scathing 15-page report calling the results of the election untrustworthy and recommending that the certification of the results being rescinded according to Georgia Star News.
So not local Georgia paper.
State Senator William T. Ligon, the chairman of the Election Law Subcommittee, reached the conclusion after reviewing the recap process, the audit process, the current investigation is taking place, and the litigation is moving forward.
His subcommittee also heard testimonies from witnesses during an open hearing at the Georgia State Capitol on Thursday.
The events at the State Farm area are particularly disturbing because they demonstrated intent on the part of election workers to exclude the public from viewing the counting of ballots and intentional disregard for the law.
Again, remember the way that we're delegitimizing the Belarusian elections sounds a lot like this.
The report also found...
Yeah, the report also found that Georgia election officials failed to enforce state's election rules.
The state failed to provide adequate transparency during the signal verification audit process.
The Secretary of State implemented an unconstitutional gag order to prevent poll monitors from using electric devices to record the counting process.
Officials at all levels failed to secure test ballots and there was systemic failure to maintain appropriate records of the chain of custody for those ballots.
Ligon said, if a majority of the General Assembly concurs with the findings of this report, the certification of the election should be rescinded and the General Assembly should act to determine proper electors to be certified to the Electoral College in the 2020 presidential race.
Since time is of the essence, the Chairman and Senators who concur with this report recommend that the leadership of the General Assembly and the Governor immediately convene to allow further consideration by the entire General Assembly, Let's go!
What are we waiting for?
Come on!
You're absolutely right.
This is just like a Belarusian election, incidentally.
This looks illegitimate.
It's not trustworthy.
And again, we don't have to prove any kind of fraud.
What we have to prove is that they didn't follow procedure.
There's only one reason that you wouldn't follow procedure.
Well, actually, there's...
Sorry, that's not true.
There's two.
There's massive incompetence, which surely invalidates an election if it's not run properly, or there are people who want to cheat.
Why else wouldn't you follow the procedure?
Why else would you prevent poll watchers from coming in?
Why else would you do any of these things if you had good intentions?
People with good intentions don't do this.
And so the question, as MarketWatch asked a few days ago, I think it was, yeah, a couple of days ago, could Mike Pence go rogue?
Is Mike Pence the kind of loyalist who would stick by Donald Trump through thick and thin?
Well, I would say yes, actually, considering that I've been following this quite intently for the last four years.
And Pence has been absolutely nothing if not Donald Trump's chief supporter.
Pence has credited Trump with every success and refuted or denied every failure.
Pence has been 100% loyal up until this point.
So, Let's see what happens.
The state and House of Representatives will adjourn to their separate chambers to debate the matter for up to two hours, then hold a vote on whether to reject a slate of electors.
This scenario seems likely to happen after several Republican representatives have come forward saying that this is exactly what they're going to do, while Alabama Republican Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville said he might join in despite Mitch McConnell urging his caucus not to.
Mitch, get on board with the winning team.
God damn it, man.
Other conservatives have suggested that Vice President Mike Pence has the unilateral authority to reject slates of electors based, and I love the way they write this, based on language in the 12th Amendment.
I mean, yes, that is true, right?
Based on language is how all law works.
All things that we consider to be constitutional and legal are based on language.
And if that language, and I don't know what the 12th Amendment is, you know, I'm not an American.
I've had too much to do.
I haven't had time to go off and do that.
And again, this is why we need to repeal labor laws.
Normally I would have got Callum to go look that up, right?
But I can't now.
So bring back serfdom.
Now that I'm the one in charge...
No, anyway.
Based on the language, which is usually, you know, what the law contains, it is a bizarre way of saying, this is how the US Constitution is written.
So, the question is, what must he do?
That National File got hold of an exclusive White House memo that details it.
I'm just going to give you their summary, because I, like I said, I'm no expert.
I'm just reading what others have written, because it looks like there might actually be a coherent thing here.
But they say, and they've confirmed this with other people in the White House as well, Pence can deny electoral college certificates from states with widespread election fraud.
Pence must then notify the Secretary of State in each contested state that they have until January 6th to send a legal electoral college certificate.
This is not an option to Pence.
If he intends to follow the law from December 23rd until January 6th, he must instruct those states to remedy their electoral college certificates.
Today being December the 23rd, so when the Americans get up, and if you're an American, I hope you're enjoying your breakfast, when the Americans get up and get to doing all of this, let's fingers crossed the pens.
Oh god, now I'm in trouble for meddling with the elections.
So the drafters of the memo also tell National File that assuming six contested states, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada, do not remedy their Electoral College certificates by either selecting them in the legislature or holding another election, Trump will prevail in the Electoral College.
As there will no longer be 538 possible electoral votes, with several states having disqualified themselves by refusing to comply, Trump will have 232 to Biden's 227.
So, they have to do what Pence will ask them, if they want Biden to win, and this will give Pence the option to disqualify them, and is Pence going to do it?
Well, I don't know.
I mean, how's Pence's commitment to the cause looking?
Does he look like he's going to fight to the last man?
Well, let's see what he said.
Three days ago, a Turning Point USA event.
And come January 5th, we're going to hold the line in the United States Senate when we re-elect Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue to a Republican majority on Capitol Hill.
And as our election contest continues, I'll make you a promise.
We're going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted.
We're gonna keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out.
We're gonna win Georgia, we're gonna save America, and we'll never stop fighting to make America great again.
You watch.
Okay, so if this is any kind of indication of the kind of attitude that Pence is...
Ah!
If this is the evidence of any kind of attitude that Pence is going to come in with, then great, as far as I'm concerned.
I mean, where was that energy before?
Like, I haven't seen Pence demagoguing it up, but like I said, let's fucking go!
I want to see this!
You know?
I really want to see this happen.
Pence seems to be committed, and...
The ball is falling into his court, it seems.
So today, let's see if he does what he needs to do.
Again, I tell you, it was very frustrating being, like, ahead of the curve here, because, like, God, come on!
I want the results.
But anyway, so we'll go on to the final thing that I want to talk about today, which is Team Britain versus the evil European Empire.
So, of course, as we covered yesterday, France closed the borders to Britain, and we've got a bunch of pictures, so you can see the chaos, courtesy of the Guardian.
As you can see, it's just people in miserable weather just before Christmas who are just sat there being able to do nothing and achieve nothing and being frustrated throughout the whole thing.
Apparently something like 3,000 lorries were stuck in Dover.
And overall, something like 10,000 a day go through there.
So this has had major repercussions, of course.
But thankfully, today, there have been, well, in the past couple of days, there have been like, well, that was a dramatic pose.
Christ, man.
You're just waiting for the border to open.
Who is this guy?
Anyway, so, like, what?
How am I going to jump on a truck and smuggle myself into Britain if the trucks have been stopped?
But I'm joking, I'm sure he's a driver.
But anyway, so today, as the BBC have reported, after loads of negotiations, the border is at least partially reopening.
As the BBC tell us, the French government has agreed to ease its travel ban and allow trucks queuing at the UK ports across into France, but more than 50 countries have still suspended flights to and from the UK to try and limit the spread of the new variant of coronavirus.
I'd just like to thank the coronavirus for fully bringing to light the desires of the Brexiteers.
Now the rest of the world is cut off, so that's pretty good.
I'm joking, obviously.
From Wednesday morning, French citizens, British nationals who live in France and delivery drivers will now be able to travel as if they have received a negative test result less than 72 hours before departure.
No significant food shortages are expected.
Supermarkets have been warned.
The travel ban and delays at ports could see shortages of certain fresh foods, such as lettuce and citrus fruits coming from the continent.
But Sainsbury's have let us know that all of its Christmas dinner products are already in the country.
We have plenty of these.
And the freight industry group Logistics UK, which oversees a lot of the transport of goods, has asked for calm from shoppers.
Don't go out and panic buy.
We are not going to have a shortage.
And they said they were maintaining close contact with the UK government to ensure the supplies of fresh produce are available for Christmas and the New Year.
Everything will be fine.
It will be fine.
Until Guy Via Hofstadt tweets.
And then, I actually kind of want war.
I loathe Guy Via Hofstadt's...
That's not true, right?
That's not true.
I don't loathe Guy Via Hofstadt.
Guy Via Hofstadt's interests are about damaging Britain.
That's what Guy Via Hofstadt needs to do to succeed in his position as one of the EU's chief Brexit negotiators.
I actually don't know if he's still in that position, but he was for quite some time.
But he tweets out this, and there's just so much about our hate.
Guy Vinhofstadt, like, we forgot what borders look like.
Some thought they would remain open with or without the EU. They will now start to understand what leaving the EU really means.
That sounds like something Emperor Palpatine would say.
That sounds like something a villain would say.
Doesn't he say that in Star Wars?
They'll experience the full power of the Death Star or something, a fully activated Death Star or something like that.
It's been years since I've seen it.
But this is genuine villain rhetoric coming out of Guy Ville Hofstadt.
Which is great.
I actually love it when the mask slips.
I love it when they just come around and go, yeah, we want to crush you.
It's like, yeah, okay, great.
That's what I want, because now I can show everyone, you want to crush us, and we can take appropriate action now.
But I love that we forgot what borders look like.
Well, maybe if you weren't so anti-border, you would have known.
But anyway, Martin Daubney gave a great response to this.
He's a former Brexit Party MEP. He just says, That's fantastic.
And a fantastic response.
And completely true.
Like, again, if you were in doubt as to the...
Intentions of the European Union and the people who operate it, just look at Guy Verhofstadt.
You will start to understand what leaving you really means.
I mean, come on!
Who talks like that?
You know, you can't be like, oh yeah, well, we're partners and allies with Europe.
We should all...
Yeah, no, they're here to crush us.
They don't like the fact that we're independent minded and that without them, we are going to be a success.
And they know it.
They know that's the case.
And at the end of the day, You just don't talk to the Brits this way.
You just do not talk to the Brits this way, which is what Majid Noir has pointed out on Twitter.
He's like, own goal mate.
I really don't think you understand the United Kingdom.
And that's completely true.
You do not understand the United Kingdom if you think we're going to be spoken to in this way.
How much do you need?
How many times do you have to open your goddamn mouth and for us to go, no, right, that's it.
No, we don't want that.
We don't want that.
We're not joining the single currency.
We're not having open borders.
In fact, we're not even going to be in your stupid club.
How much more?
It's like, oh, now we're going to punish you by closing our borders.
Okay, well, you know, we will keep going because we're going to keep cutting off our noses to spite our face because screw you.
That's why.
We've got a thank you, though, from someone in France, a lady in France.
Who's this Rachel Marsden?
She wrote a column in the townhall.com.
And I love this.
I love this.
Terrorism couldn't do it.
Social tensions weren't enough.
Neither was the migrant crisis born of the regime change wars sparked by Western interest in the Middle East and Africa.
But now, the COVID-19 panic has managed to achieve what Western leaders have tried to make us all believe is beneath our advanced state of societal sophistication, unilateral border control.
Here in France, we didn't see this kind of border control leadership in response to any of the recent terror attacks, in which some cases were perpetuated by individuals who'd been travelling between Europe and jihadist hotbeds in the Middle East.
Even in the face of terrorist massacres, the EU required meetings, debate, discussion, voting, collaboration and compromise.
But when faced with a few Brits stricken by a new variant of COVID-19, the cooperative facade went out of the window.
Suddenly, it was every country for itself.
The media here in France couldn't even keep up.
They had just begun reporting that EU nations would soon be discussing a coordinated response to the new UK viral threat when they started getting press releases from countries announcing travel bans.
Interesting how all of the fiction goes straight out of the window, doesn't it?
But congratulations, France.
You can now, I guess, close your borders to jihadis coming from elsewhere, which I'm sure you need to do now because, I mean, you could just say they're infected with this new variant of COVID. But yeah, so I loathe the attitude that comes out of the European Union, and I'm glad that there are people in the European Union who understand and appreciate why the Brits are being so...
Resolute about this.
This is important.
This is about how they look at you and the respect that they accord to you.
And one thing that British people feel they have not been given, had the required amount of respect accorded to them for decades now, which is why we ended up leaving.
It's all about a matter of principle.
And if Guy Vilhofstadt thinks that we're going to change our mind over border closures, then he's wrong.
We want the border closures.
Let's have it.
Let's see where this goes.
But anyway, good news.
The trade will still happen.
You say I've got quite a lot of time, but really I meant to keep these podcasts to an hour long.
I didn't mean for them to go so long.
So let's go to any comments.
And if anyone's posted any video questions, that'd be awesome.
But no, because we'll just carry them.
Let's just go for it.
But, yeah, so, yeah, it's been an exciting day.
It's been an exciting morning for us, actually.
MuteStream, I cannot be with you today, but know that I am simping for our lord and love Hugo as hard as I can in my absence.
H for Hugo in the chat, hashtag Team Hugo forever.
Hugo actually couldn't make it to the office today because of various cancellations on the trains, so he's not even here to simp for.
He can't even enjoy it.
MuteStream says, also happy Christmas to all of you, take care.
care i think it's merry christmas but thank you anyway um coffee time general says mc a disposable camera is a clever gift every pick is permanent and the imperfection makes the results more endearing a great tool to teach the kids about patience certainty and the acceptance of imperfection that's actually a great point to be honest uh i i don't don't The sort of auto-printing cameras, do they even make them?
Yeah, you can still get them, can I? Right, okay.
Shaker Silver says, AOC and Trump are both in agreement as populists that the stimulus is horrible pork barrel.
Thought AOC is a fraud who voted for it while complaining.
She did.
She is a fraud.
But, I mean, she at least wears the mask of a populist, I guess.
But, honestly, I think that's the case with all of these kind of left-wing populists, you know.
We're for the people, which is why we want giant government spending.
Shut up.
You know, shut up.
Just...
I don't want giant government spending.
I just want the government to leave me alone.
You know, Ron Paul can still win.
Eric Edward says, give me Hugo or give me death.
Long live Carl.
God, I sound like French Revolution in here.
Ryan Garrison.
I started going to follow you since 2015 when I was in 7th grade.
My goodness.
Thanks for all the content.
Also, follow at RocketPopOnParler.
Well, follow RocketPopOnParler.
The Earl of Longford says, we'll evict Google back to Cali for dollars.
Google hasn't left California, have they?
A lot of other people have, and a lot of other companies are leaving, but I don't believe Google did.
Anyway, my OPS says, there goes my $600 of pottery shards.
USMCD Smith, $600 won't pay the rent, but it will buy a gun.
Wooo.
Buy two guns.
Yeah, all the memes going around that you can actually build guillotines for $600.
Well, I mean, I disavow the use of French technology, obviously.
Evan Meshannik says, I work overnights in the US, so I'll have to watch this later tonight.
And he plans to return to New Jersey.
I have to work and miss mines last year.
Well, I mean, I don't because of coronavirus.
I would love to go back to America and see a bunch of friends and, you know, go and do some live shows and stuff like this.
But at the moment, Britain is isolated from the world.
Splendidly isolated, in fact, from the world.
So, unfortunately, I can't.
And we can't really do much in the UK either.
So, I mean, I guess I'm just thankful we can still broadcast.
Righteous Jock says, Do we know how much the UK has sent in foreign aid during the Shandemic?
Not off the top of my head, but I'm sure I can find out.
Although that was cut.
I'm sure Rishi Sunak wanted to cut the foreign aid.
And everyone was freaking out.
Oh my god, if we can't give millions of pounds to Pakistan, then we're basically...
I don't know.
Evil.
Junk says, so the COVID bill is basically 1% for Americans and 99% clown makeup.
Got it.
Yes.
And exactly, again, you can say anything you like about Trump, but man, he keeps making the right decisions.
He keeps doing the right thing.
And he stands up when it's required as well, at the time when needed.
Like, again, with the critical race theory stuff, the stuff on China and this now, you know, an endemic piece of the United, like endemic corruption that has been traditional in the United States.
This kind of pork barrel politics, as they always say.
You know, I can completely understand why people are so upset about it.
And Trump, being the voice of the id of the United States, has stood up and gone, okay, no!
I mean, this is why you want Trump rather than Biden.
Biden is a China friend in the White House.
Everyone knows it.
But Jaffa on the Bound says, oh, come on, Carl.
It's been four years since Congress last had an overstuffed pork bill and they're out of practice.
Who is John Galt?
My bad yesterday.
Yeah, that's true.
And you're right.
You're right.
They are out of practice.
The great thing about this as well is just how revealing this all is.
Because if Trump just doesn't let this just go by and just, you know, signs in, because as you saw from the New York Times, they're not going to report on any of this.
They're going to allow people to be ignorant of this.
And it actually required Trump to stand up and say something about it.
MilkMyManTits, nice name, said, G'day, fella.
G'day, big fellas.
Merry Christmas.
Hopefully it's nice the way you are.
It's 43 degrees Celsius here at 9pm in Western Australia.
Yeah, a lot of people in the Northern Hemisphere don't realize that in Australia it's summer in winter.
So, they get...
Sorry, what's this?
Oh, no, sorry, just a quick thing.
Rishi Sunak did say the A target was going to be cut to 0.5%, from 0.7%, something like that, and everyone freaked out about it.
So, yeah, I thought I was right on that.
But, yeah, in Australia, the weather is reversed, because everything is reversed in Australia.
And so, yeah, it's boiling hot down there.
So I hope you guys are having a good one.
It's actually, it's not cold here.
It's just really miserable and rainy.
It's kind of like, you know, Disney's Robin Hood, where in the beginning you've got the rainy day and they're saving up for the church penny.
It's just like that.
That's a really good representation of what England's like in the winter.
It's really good, actually.
It catches the spirit of the thing.
Sorry, where are we?
Great.
Hugo is the most Belgian Belgian that has ever belged.
I can smell the waffles from here.
Something in Belgian?
Well, I assume that's Dutch, actually.
Hugo?
Well, I mean, the question of where Hugo is from is a long and complicated one, and presumably will go unanswered.
But I do feel that accusing people of being Belgian is some kind of insult.
Coffee time, Gerald?
Oh, right.
Heb ik gejek is, am I right, apparently?
Was that in Dutch, yeah?
Sorry, don't worry about it.
Coffee Time General says, would Trump rather hand out gibs to Pakistan for gender courses?
It is Dutch.
Or eat a pint of soil?
Imagine the Greeks if Germany stopped gibs, gravel in mouth.
Well, that's the thing, isn't it?
That was interesting.
Yeah, $10 million for Pakistani gender courses in Pakistan.
And, like...
As much as I'm tempted to say, well, you know, let's see where that goes.
There's a part of me that's like, yeah, it is also a curse.
So, do I want to curse Pakistan?
Not really.
So, Ken Jones says, or the court of Pikes as an execution, i.e.
running the gauntlet.
Doomhan says, disavow, by the way.
Doomhan says, agree, bring back firing squads.
Merry Christmas, and to Hugo, I wish a happy Hanukkah.
Man, it's gutting he's not in the office today.
But yeah, I don't see why I shouldn't be able to choose my own method of being executed.
Like, come on, this is about personal choice.
If I'm going to be condemned to death, normally it's like, you know, you get some kind of choice.
So, Firing Squad, just have it.
I'd be happy to go by Firing Squad.
Mojo says, gotta disagree on the death penalty.
There are many cases on the miscarriages of justice.
I think the miscarriages of justice are going to be much fewer than the legitimate usage of it, that's the thing.
I'd have to go find the statistics, but I imagine it's a lot lower.
And this is a common left-wing argument against the death penalty that I think is actually less and less relevant these days, because these days we actually are very good at establishing cases, because we have...
We have a great deal of forensic science.
We have cameras everywhere.
We can prove things a lot more easily now.
We've got this awful, awful person, murders and rapes children.
Why should we just pay for them to be kept in a box at the taxpayer expense?
Why?
They're never going to get out.
Essentially, it is still a death sentence.
Alexander Cross says, I mean, you could make the case that the death by firing squad is hygienic with COVID concerns.
You don't have to touch the poor sobs.
Good point.
Firing squad is the only safe, social distancing, COVID-responsible way of execution.
That's a great point, Alexander.
Stigma of the Rose says, this is not a soup chat, this is just a shill.
Give someone your money, this is not a soup chat, this is just a shill.
Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Thank you very much.
And it doesn't go to me, by the way, it's the company, so it goes to these guys.
As I've yet to take a payout.
Because you don't, initially, when you have new businesses.
But you can always go and sign up to LotusEast.com and make sure that I get to eat at some point in the future, which would be appreciated.
Eazy says, Hello Carl, I'm enjoying breakfast, thank you, and good morning from Michigan.
Please have a pleasant holiday season from my family to you and yours.
Well, thank you so much, and I hope you guys have a great Christmas.
Mr.
Tuck says, Another reminder that once the war with China is over, service will guarantee citizenship.
Yes, it will.
Claire DeLuna says, the problem with the language in the Constitution is that one assumes politicians can read.
Considering the recent COVID bill, that skill is in doubt.
More importantly, one assumes that politicians care about what's in it, too.
Which, again, even more interesting.
I'd love it.
What's the way it was written?
The language would imply, or something like that.
Based on language in the 12th Amendment.
Based on language.
Yes.
Just Chad yes.
Yes.
Based on language.
Exactly.
That's how we're doing this.
Just...
What a way of putting it.
What a goddamn way of putting it.
ArchetypeNet says, stick your freight on a migrant boat...
You're interrupting the podcast with obviously funny jokes that I'm telling.
Padre Mortales says, I too give a shill bill to you and your crew.
Thank you very much.
Keep making a smile, laugh and rise up from the US. Thank you very much, Padre.
The Earl of Longford, we call it the continental system.
What do you think of insisting companies paying tax on everything they make in a country and doing away with tax havens?
I mean, I don't disagree with the idea that there probably shouldn't be tax havens.
I don't see why one would need that, and the only people I can see that benefiting are those wealthy enough to take advantage of them.
If I have to pay taxes, which I do, then Jeff Bezos has to pay taxes, surely.
So I don't really like...
I mean, it just seems to be a way of legitimizing corruption.
But I mean, I'm no expert.
There may be some brilliant argument for tax havens that I'm just unaware of.
Robert says, 2,000 will give nourishment to my Second Amendment rights.
That's true.
You can buy a very nice piece of personal defense equipment for 2,000, can't you?
Ken Jones, UK versus European Empire.
Oh hell, there's another guy with a silly mustache again.
I guess you guys better rally up the RAF. Yeah, I mean, at the moment it's going to be the Navy, I think.
The Navy's being deployed to protect our waters and our fish.
And people are like, oh my god, you can't say it's your fish when it crosses into your waters.
Yes, we can.
Watch us.
Daniel J. Corica says, I'm not happy that I live in New York anymore.
As Long Island native, 41-year resident, I feel that Long Island should be its own state.
I'm sick of my taxes going to help New York City.
Trump 2020.
Yeah, man, I bet there is, like, I'm so glad I'm not under Cuomo, because he seems like an absolutely atrocious governor.
His policies seem awful.
Again, the same sort of policies in California, where it's just raising taxes and fixing none of the problems, incentivizing all of the worst kind of behaviors in society, and wondering why the place is falling apart.
Like, New York used to be something that people looked at in awe.
You know, people wanted.
It was like the symbol of America.
And that's why the Statue of Liberty is there.
You know, you want to go to New York, because New York's an amazing place.
And Cuomo is wrecking it.
I'm genuinely shocked.
And the weird sort of way that it's been expressed.
Oh, we're going to close all the synagogues.
You Jews better get in line.
It's like, all right, Andrew, you know, maybe we should lay off the Jews for a bit.
They didn't do anything.
They just went to their synagogues like they always do.
It's fine.
You know, but putting COVID patients in nursing homes, totally normal.
Mephisto says, France has been doing this for years with lorries.
In 2016, a 20-minute journey to Dover took us four to five hours.
They are making out that this has never happened before.
I didn't know that, to be honest.
Jameson Mayliff says, Hearing you read the date at the start of the video was pure nostalgia for the This Week in Stupid Days.
Honestly, I can't help it, because it is kind of just what I used to do.
Still glad we can get classic Sargon videos on the new channel.
Well, you know, I like to...
Please.
Oh, by the way, that was the thing.
So on lotuses.com today, it published at midday, in fact, I posted a think piece of my views on the shopping trolley question, because this has been going around.
I've seen lots of viral posts about this, and academic agents had lots of things to talk about in this regard.
The shopping trolley being the litmus test of a civilized human being.
And I think that's true.
And I wrote an article, an argument in defense of that.
And in fact, I like explaining some of the points about it.
And I really think it's worth your time.
You might want to go tweet that at him and tell him, yes, he's right.
But anyway, the Earl of Longford, don't worry, we will always sell you food despite the Holy Roman Empire.
Yeah, well, I mean, thank you.
Junk says, don't hold your breath, Carl McConnell will never be turtle enough for the Turtle Club.
Probably not.
Oh, purple junk, is that right?
Right, okay.
Thank you.
It was a Chinese character, I couldn't read it.
Daniel Koraika again, $5.
Thank you, man.
Louis Griffiths, I think.
Merry Christmas to you and the family, and hope Wee Man enjoys his first one.
Yeah, it's really great, actually.
He's drinking like a champ.
Apparently, newborn babies lose about 10% of their body weight after they're born, because getting into the habit of feeding, and babies who come out from a cesarean apparently are even more prone to this.
But instead, my son has gained weight successively every week that he's been weighed, or every time he's been weighed, and the nurse is like, oh, that's weird.
Oh, he's really fat.
It's like, yeah, good.
And so he's chubbed out and he looks like a nice, healthy, chubby baby now.
And he's a really, really, really peaceful lad as well.
But that could just be my wife's problem that I'm not paying attention to.
The Arnator says, Hey Carl, just want to shamelessly plug my parlor at The Creator of Monsters.
Follow The Creator of Monsters on parlor.
The Filthy Casual says, Take my simp dollars, you beautiful bastard, and keep up the good fight.
Thank you very much.
Harrison weighed for £100.
Jesus, Harrison.
Thank you.
Merry Christmas to all.
Next year, make the office peak Christmas.
In the meantime, buy a nice spirit or bottle for the office and yourself.
I will.
I took them all out for a Christmas dinner at our local Brazilian restaurant, Rio's, by the way, in Swindon.
It's excellent.
You should definitely go there.
They bring you around loads of well-cooked roasted meats and stuff like that, and now I'm saying I'm getting myself hungry.
But I took everyone out for there because it was amazing.
Great White Lobster on DLive has donated one diamond.
Testing, testing, can you read me?
We can.
I don't know what the deal with the diamonds on DLive are, but thank you.
I appreciate that.
But thank you so much, Harrison.
Really appreciate it, man.
Mr.
Everyman.
Plot twist.
Donald J. Trump is John Galt.
That's where it's going.
White Hot Peppers.
Hello.
Hey, dude.
How you doing?
Says, I found a Latin book from 1859 in an antique store a few days ago.
Thought it was pretty cool.
My favorite thing to say so far is, video are libera.
Merry Christmas to you and your family, Carl.
Thank you.
Libera.
I mean, that's liberty or liberal.
Something like that.
I don't speak Latin, so I can't translate that.
But, yeah, go for it, John.
You can whack up.
David Ainscoff says, Greetings from the faithful city.
Keep up the good work and Merry Christmas.
Thank you so much.
Stephen Amore says, By leaving the EU, we can legally restore firing squads.
That's a good point.
Zach Redpiller says, I don't trust the government to fix potholes.
Let alone carry out justice.
Plus, life in prison is cheaper than execution because of appeals.
Um...
Oh, it means free videos.
How do they have a word for video?
I don't.
How did the Victorians have a word for video?
Okay.
Um...
But, yes, good point, Zach.
White Hot Peppers.
Oh, yeah, I found a dictionary from 1937 that has some flags in it, and the German flag is the swastika, and the Chinese flag is the old one.
Crazy.
Yeah, it's amazing how things change, isn't it?
You know, like, people forget that Adolf Hitler was Time Magazine's Man of the Year, so when they've got, like, Joe Biden and Kamal Harris, it's like, yeah, they don't age well.
These time man of the year, they don't age well.
Michael VPN says, remember the EU leadership does not represent us.
That's correct.
You never vote for the leader of the European Union.
You never get to have any say in the kind of legislation that they're going to propose.
And you can only hope that the rubber stamp organization that is the European Parliament refuses when it's against your interest.
It is genuinely a situation with no taxation without representation with the European Union.
Christian says, Finnish state money to wish you a Merry Christmas.
Thank you very much.
EZ, hello again.
Ironically, New York City started going downhill after Trump moved to D.C. If he does leave office, get ready for MNYCGA. Make New York City great again.
Right, okay.
Well, I mean, fingers crossed that Mike Pence does his duty and makes sure that everything's okay.
2.0, hello again, says Mansa Musa gave out so much gold it wrecked Egypt's economy for decades.
That's correct.
It's no different than printing out stacks of bills with wild abandon.
It's the...
Sorry, I'm Scott.
It's my back.
It was the same with the Spanish and discovering the new world.
They brought back so much gold that the value of gold just went down, tanked.
Value is based on supply and demand.
It's for scarcity and desire.
And if there's no scarcity to money because literally the government is giving everyone money, then what's it worth?
Philippa Booty, the new COOF has already hit.
Oz border is still open though.
Well, I knew that it would.
It's one of those things I just don't think we haven't really got the capacity to control the virus, as everyone and their mother has been saying in the British government.
Matt Hancock, Boris, we've got to control the virus.
It's like, dude, I don't control viruses.
You don't control viruses.
Nobody controls viruses.
That's kind of the problem with viruses.
The best we can do is wait for a reliable vaccine.
And do that.
Or just suffer through it and come out the other side if you're not, like, over 85.
Alexander Cross says, just wanted to wish you and the team a Merry Christmas.
Well, thank you very much.
And I'm sure they all say thank you, too.
Sad Wings Raging says, I love kids.
If they're properly cooked, WC Fields.
Yeah, that's like the oldest dad joke in the world.
You know, I love kids, but I can never eat a whole one.
You know?
But anyway, thank you.
Thank you all for joining us.
I hope it was okay just being me today.
But I think I did all right.
I had fun because no one was here to tell me off.
But thank you so much for joining us.
And like I said, there's plenty of extra content coming on Lotuses.com.
If you'd like to sign up and become a premium member, the premium podcast about the migration will be up on...
Christmas Day, and I'm hoping to, this afternoon, record the Book Club podcast for The Rule of Law by John Bingham.
So go and read that beforehand, because I had a lot of complaints that people wanted to know what we were going to be doing next, so they could read it in advance and follow along with us, with it, so while I'm doing it.
So I'm going to hope to do that this afternoon, and so that will be probably just after Christmas when that's ready and put out.
But it's going to be a very nourishing book club episode, because if you're an Anglophile and you want to know why the English-speaking world has the best system of government, the most prosperous way of doing things, then that'll be why.
But, right, don't send any more Super Chat, please.
Jacob Sanka, though, just at the end, sorry I can't keep the stream with trying to read The Prince at work.
Well, I mean, I actually did an audio recording of The Prince a few years ago, so you can go look that up if you wanted.
But anyway, thank you all for joining me, and I will see you tomorrow, which will be the final podcast before Christmas.
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