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July 10, 2025 - The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters

01:31:50

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1205

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	Hello and welcome to the podcast of the Loadseaters episode 1205 for Thursday the 10th of June 2025.
	I'm your host Luca joined today by Harry who's very enthusiastic and alumni Josh Firm.
	Dun dun dun.
	It's Josh.
	It's me.
	Oh that's a shame.
	It's Josh.
	I'm sorry about that everyone.
	Huh?
	Why?
	Why?
	I was asked is why.
	And now I'm here.
	I'm sorry.
	How gracious.
	How gracious of you.
	Standards.
	Standards, gentlemen.
	Well, today we're going to be talking all about the second Spanish reconquista.
	We're then going to be...
	You have to get used to the studio again, Josh.
	What this?
	Where am I?
	You hear me?
	We're then going to talk about Russia's coming demographic crisis.
	And then we're going to talk about a different demographic that's bringing a crisis to cruise ships.
	That's right.
	Yes.
	So with that all said, let's begin.
	So trouble in Spain, ladies and gentlemen.
	And this time something different to the fact that they can't go a day without trying to snatch Gibraltar back from us.
	On this occasion, I, as a Brit, come to them as a friend and an ally to the Spanish.
	Uno Biro, poor favor, love.
	There's my contribution to this segment done.
	Time for a siesta.
	Not another word.
	Right.
	So the current Spanish minority government led by Pedro Sanchez, the most Spanish name, who has been Prime Minister of Spain since 2018.
	Well, his government has basically been embroiled in scandal after scandal, which has really come full circle because what happened back in 2018 was he led a no-confidence vote against the nominally conservative party in Spanish politics, the People's Party, the Judean People's Party of Spain.
	Not the People's Judean Party.
	No, no, very different to that one.
	Yeah, that's splitter.
	But the problem is, as you can see here from the first headline, Sanchez Ally quits the Socialist Party amid sexual harassment allegations.
	They have those in Spain?
	I was going to say that exact sentence.
	Stole it from my brain.
	You might as well have not even come in today, Josh.
	Yeah, we've got a Josh already at home.
	There you go.
	Feeling improved, actually.
	Feeling redundant, yeah.
	I left voluntarily, thank you.
	That's decided to stop working.
	That's okay.
	But it's not the only scandal.
	It's not just the sexual harassment.
	It's also the bribery and the fraud and the huge corruption in Spain.
	Who would have thought it?
	So you had Francisco Salza, and then you've got Santos Cerdan.
	I'm definitely pronouncing that wrong.
	But he is now in jail.
	He's been remanded and put in jail.
	He went to the Supreme Court in Spain, and they said that really they had to put him in jail.
	They had to detain him without bail because otherwise he'd get out and he'd destroy all of the evidence.
	I mean, if that's true, that's simple as.
	Makes sense.
	Simple as.
	So all of this has left the Spanish, current Spanish government in a very, very unpopular position, which naturally means that, well, when one side of the left-right, you know, two-party system becomes unpopular, what can you do but go back to the other one?
	Right.
	And so already you're getting headlines like this, where Fiejo, yeah, that's Alberto Nunes Fiejo, which I've definitely again pronounced right.
	It's his now or never moment to lead Spain again.
	It's now his now or never moment to save the system and return Spain to the sensible art of democracy.
	So his pitch is going to be, we may be corrupt sex offenders, but we're going to save Spain.
	I mean, he's either going to have to own it or, yeah, you can't shake those sorts of things.
	Those are two kinds of things hanging over a political party that you can't really recover from.
	Look at the Conservatives in Britain.
	They were known as the Party of Sleas.
	Right.
	And they still are.
	Yes.
	And that's exactly what these socialists are based on, you know, handing out, taking bribes to get public contracts, you know, for all sorts of government programmes and things like that.
	But also the problem here is that, of course, because even though there is a general sense of two-party system to Spanish politics, of course, they do actually have a form of PR.
	sorry, of proportional representation.
	But obviously, as well as that, I suppose a lot like us with, you know, when we get parties like Pai Cymru and the SNP, And also Spain is, of course, not without its own little whinging separatist movements, such as the Catalonia.
	Spain is a very disunited country compared to Britain.
	Spanish politics is a lot more, you know, at each other's throats, I think, because although we disagree politically internally in Britain, it's not quite the same as the Spanish, where there's entire regions where they're willing to turn to terrorism to become separatists.
	The Scots haven't quite got that far yet.
	We snuffed that out of them after Glenco.
	Hey, Luca.
	Spain is also a massive country where huge regions are separated by mountains that are just very separate from one another in the first place.
	So it makes a bit more sense.
	Although, you know, England can be geographically varied.
	We do have a bit of a better sense of unity.
	Yeah.
	Except for maybe whiny Cornish nationalists.
	Yes.
	that's a good point.
	Nobody cares.
	Construct mountain range across Cornwall.
	Good idea, Harry.
	Cornwall's.
	Well, Devon, and then we just separate from the.
	Oh, yeah, sorry.
	I forgot the whiny Devonshire nationalists as well.
	Nobody cares.
	So obviously, with this general sense of, you know, establishment consensus and things going from one right-wing government of corruption to the left-wing government of corruption, it's no surprise, of course, that eventually people will look for different parties to go to, for alternative solutions.
	And of course, this led to the establishment of the Vox Party in Spain.
	And now, this came as an offshoot originally of People's Party back in 2013, 2014.
	But then, obviously, what you had was by the time of the general election over in 2019, you had them actually gaining some seats in amongst the, what was it called?
	Yeah, that's it, the Congress of Deputies, right?
	I think they got six seats mostly in the south of Spain.
	And obviously, since then, the problems that led to that shift towards Vox have only been exacerbated, of course, in recent years.
	Since that 2019 general election, of course, you had COVID and you had the really militant lockdowns that the Spanish implemented.
	You've also had a stark rise in migration, of course, as well.
	Well, Spain is in a rather unfortunate position where, geographically speaking, that is, where it's very close to North Africa, which shouldn't be a mystery to anyone.
	But the same routes that were used to conquer Spain and eventually led to the Reconquista are being used for migration, aren't they?
	And I think also a lot of them are coming from, say, Sardinia and Corsica across as well, from what I understand.
	Yeah.
	And it's interesting you should mention the Reconquista, that very minor event in Spanish history.
	Oh, yes.
	Because when the Vox party began their campaign for the general election back in 2019, they launched it at Covadonga in the north of Spain, which was, historically speaking, the place of the first victory of the Reconquista.
	So they're trying to tie themselves, obviously, into a Spanish history and the struggle against conquest and obviously Islam most fundamentally.
	Foreign hordes.
	Foreign hordes.
	Yes.
	Not including the Portuguese.
	Well, not including.
	Which obviously hit its mark.
	And now you have, you know, obviously, as they say, in 2019, they were able to gain a toe hold, as they said in the New York Times.
	As opposed to foothold?
	Yes.
	No, it was just a little toe.
	It was just a little.
	In climbing, a toe hold is more difficult than a foothold.
	So I'm just giving them a compliment.
	But now, obviously, things are heating up, and we're getting spicier policies, more daring policies.
	And you have here the far-right Vox party is calling for 8 million foreigners to get kicked out of Spain, which is more than the number who live in the country.
	They're just going to invite some in to kick them out for the fun of it.
	forgot to attach the Chad face to this headline.
	Yes, well, obviously they go on to...
	Supporting the entire Basque region.
	Yeah, we'll send you back over.
	Well, this will also, of course, apply to, let's face it, a lot of the British expats who have gone there as well.
	They're not the biggest fan of us over there.
	They're not.
	Ever I've gone to Spain.
	No, especially.
	I've seen graffitied on the side of mountains, which I think is a very interesting effort to go through.
	On a mountain.
	It says Brits go home.
	And I'm just like, well, this is going to be a fun place to visit.
	But also, you bear in mind as well that I'm entirely for that, right?
	It is at the end of the day the Spanish country.
	It's the Spaniards' right to have who they want in it.
	And that obviously extends to other Europeans as well.
	In fact, if anything, Britain could do with a few more Brits returning to our shores if anyone is going to come here at all.
	And obviously it might also improve.
	Maybe we should do a trade.
	It's like, okay, we'll take back our expats if you give up all claim to Gibraltar for all time.
	Also, I did a segment quite a few months back now talking about the movement on the Balaric Islands to just get rid of tourism.
	And I was just like, yeah, it probably ruins their way of life.
	It gets lots of drunk teenagers from Britain over there.
	Yeah, why not?
	I mean, it's their island.
	They can do what they want.
	Yeah, definitely.
	So they say all the millions of people who have recently arrived and have not adapted to our customs and in many cases have contributed to insecurity in our neighborhoods will have to return to their countries.
	Rocio Dimer, Vox's national spokesperson on demographic emergency and social policies, told reporters.
	We should have one of those.
	We should definitely have one of those.
	calling it an extraordinarily complex process of remigration.
	And we have the right to survive as a people, which is...
	Very reasonable.
	And something that, you know, makes you, when you read statements like that from insurgent right-wing parties in Spain, it makes you realize how much we're lacking one over in Britain.
	We do have Rupert Lowe saying deportations over and over and over again.
	He's the one sounding the trumpet in Parliament and nobody else.
	He's our very own Rourke's drift of a man.
	One man standing against many.
	Rupert is our spokesman for demographic emergency and social policies.
	But then you also have where it goes on to say that of our country's 47 million inhabitants, roughly 7 million or more than 7 million, because we have to take into account the second generation, 8 million are people who have come from different origins in a very short period of time, and it's therefore extraordinarily difficult for them to adapt to our ways and customs.
	So, yes, it is not just the people who have arrived recently, but it's also, yeah, those who have began to entrench themselves.
	Basically, the Spanish versions of the Windrush, I suppose, and those ones that, you know, we, of course, have several generations, you know, dug in.
	If it's the Spanish version, I imagine they're not rushing.
	Yeah.
	Well, I was going to say something, I won't.
	So then you also have the leader of the Vox party who said they are nervous.
	They are already lying and manipulating again.
	Vox has not stated the numbers of those who must be deported.
	Well, they threw out some ballpark numbers, as I've just read, so that's not entirely true.
	Simply because we don't know.
	It's all those who have come to commit crimes, all those who intend to impose an unfamiliar cultural belief, all those who mistreat or belittle women, all those who have come to live off the efforts of others, and all the unaccompanied minors because children should be with their families.
	We don't know how many they are.
	When we come to power, we will know, and they will all leave.
	And the first to celebrate alongside the Spanish will be the legal immigrants, those who follow the rules and respect the country that welcomes them.
	So, North FC, Baz.
	I was going to say, Baz is going to be able to stick around.
	Honorary.
	As long as he learns a bit more Spanish.
	A little bit more Spanish.
	Baziel.
	It's the least you guys can do.
	We'll learn to order a gin and tonic as well.
	Uno, gino, and tonico.
	Por favour.
	But as you can see here, just how quickly the migration numbers are actually rising.
	Just from 2021 till now, there's been 1.5 million new immigrants come to Spain.
	So it's rising very, very rapidly.
	It's at about 150,000 per quarter there, it looks like, at least for the most recent figures, is that?
	So yeah.
	Yes.
	Yeah, quarter one and two.
	Wow.
	That's massive.
	Yeah, it's jumping almost 100,000.
	All obviously under the socialist government, because of course...
	I think he's doing it down a bit there.
	Call it centuries, right?
	It's a layover for flights.
	The departure lounge.
	Sorry, so Spain was for decades a land of departure, of striving beyond our borders.
	Today it is a land of welcome, and those who arrive contribute with their effort to build a better Spain.
	Build back better.
	Sorry, is he a particular does he remember Al-Andalus particularly fondly or something?
	We were so much better back then, so much more open and welcoming and diverse.
	The Moors.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	So obviously, Spanish Prime Minister, not really a student of Spanish history, but you know, we don't expect much from our politicians, do we, these days?
	But of course, the question is, well, Vox is obviously not going to win an outright majority.
	And so, of course, it comes down to, like so many of the other PR constitutions in Europe, such as Germany, is the centre-right party going to be willing to go into coalition with the insurgent right-wing party?
	And on that front, the People's Party have actually given signals that they might, which will be interesting.
	And they said that, as it says here, rejecting political isolation and calling for their voters and saying that they were deserving of respect.
	That those people who are voting Fox obviously deserve respect.
	Now, of course, of course, there will be political reasons to pander to them, to give some sense of trust in all of this.
	To be nice to your constituents.
	Yes, there is always a political reason to do that if you're looking to win them over.
	Well, exactly.
	Most Western politicians don't know this.
	They're just not very good at it.
	Well, but there's a lot of contempt out there, isn't there?
	Especially from the left wing of Spanish politics.
	And so it will be interesting to see what goes on ahead, because at this point, if it was on this one, and it wasn't, but the Voxer are currently polling at about 15% now, which is very, very good, you know, for a party that's really only run one general election, you know, to now be up 15%.
	And they've also got a foothold, of course, in the European elections into the EU as well.
	But you can see the trajectory that the conversation is shifting in Spain.
	And of course, my personal opinion on this is that...
	What?
	I'm paying attention to what you're saying, Luca.
	I'm sorry.
	It's unusual to see Harry concentrate, I know.
	He makes a funny face.
	Yeah, that's true.
	It's true.
	Well, forgive me.
	But the thing is, of course, that even though we might bash our European continental counterparts from time to time, of course, we are, well, we're not all free until everyone's free, are we?
	It's sort of like, you know, this panel, really, isn't it?
	We rib each other, but if push comes to shove, we'll stick up for one another.
	Yeah, the feeling's mutual, alright.
	No, no.
	With stuff like this, I just hope it's not a case of a Maloney, if they get anywhere near power.
	I've been so let down by all populists at this point.
	Americans have been very angry at me, but I'm seeing so far this term of Donald Trump's administration as Mostly a complete and utter failure.
	Betrayal is a word I would use often, loudly.
	Could be better.
	But yeah, trust me, Epstein's client list, they're going to use that to blackmail to get the agenda through.
	That's what they're going to use it for.
	Keep coping, suckers.
	But I just see most populist parties now as Trojan horses.
	So I hope that it's different with Vox.
	You don't want to pour cold water on it.
	No, no, no.
	Not at all.
	No, well, I mean, of course, I have my reservations too.
	And, you know, as you point out, they're entirely founded on precedent from other populist parties who have done this time and time again.
	But also at the same time, where else can the Spanish people currently within this system put their voice?
	There is a key difference here in that you can look at other European countries like France or Germany and the centre or the right refuses to work with the so-called right-wing parties.
	I'm just saying that because some of them, particularly in the Penn in France, socialist economics boo.
	But they basically stonewall them.
	They don't let them in.
	And there's the Cordon Sonnetaire.
	Exactly.
	And that's not happening in Spain, which is promising.
	And it seems like actually there could be a situation where Vox could be in coalition if you take them at their word.
	The centre-right party.
	Yeah, which obviously, as Harry points out, I'm not really willing to take them at their word.
	But as I also maintain, ultimately, this is a genuine European struggle that we're all going through.
	One struggle, brother.
	And obviously, you know, even if we were to come out of this, the other end of this, in total victory, we don't want France to become a multicultural hellhole.
	You know, we don't want Spain to be...
	Or do we want our traditional pesky neighbours at our borders?
	No, I agree.
	Right.
	I've been facetious, but I do agree.
	I wish the best for my European neighbours and just Europeans more generally.
	I would like strong Europe.
	Fortress Europe.
	Together we can rule the world once more.
	Yes.
	Join me.
	Yeah, unironically.
	So.
	America's backing out.
	I'll discuss it a little bit in my segment in a moment.
	But America's backing out of Europe slowly but surely.
	We need a united front.
	Not as the EU currently is, though.
	That's gay.
	Indeed.
	And faking lame.
	So, yes, all the best to the Spanish Patriots out there.
	I hope that the second Reconquista goes very, very swimmingly for you.
	Just make sure that you don't harm Baz in the process, please.
	He's a good lad.
	He's giving us a chance.
	He's not harming anyone.
	He's beached on, you know, on an actual beach.
	They're all called full of lager.
	Bloating in the sun.
	He looks like a whale that's been there for a few days, getting kicked by the sun.
	Sigilstone says, who's the weird new guy with Harry and Luca?
	Odd-looking duck.
	Can't see him being around long.
	No, I'm leaving straight after this.
	Straight out of here.
	Base state, Harry and Josh are like a couple who broke up on good terms, meeting up again after a few months where Harry's still secretly upset Josh left him and is trying to play it off like he doesn't care.
	You saw right through me, basically.
	It's only when the cameras are pointing on.
	He's very sentimental off camera.
	Yeah.
	Could I have the mouse, please?
	That's a random name has sent two in as well.
	The first, the most recent of which, I can't read.
	You keep doing this, that's a random name.
	I can't say those kinds of things on camera.
	It is funny, though.
	It is funny.
	Yes, but we can read them and we do like them.
	And there is another one he sent.
	Harry, you said before that you'd sacrifice anything to the eclipse, Berserk reference, to restore the West.
	Would you sacrifice Josh?
	I know he left to avoid this, but now's our chance.
	Yep.
	Sorry, Josh.
	Throw me in the mountain.
	Do me in.
	No, you've not read Berserk, The Eclipse.
	What happens in the Eclipse is a lot worse, a lot nastier than just being thrown in a mountain, but you'll do it for the West, won't you?
	It's not like the end of Tenacious D, where the devil takes me in as a sex slave or something, is it?
	That was a scene.
	That was a shockingly good guess.
	Was it actually?
	Kind of close to that, yeah.
	Jack is pissing himself right now.
	He loves that.
	Alright then, so we should probably go on to my segment then.
	I'll let you.
	I'll allow it.
	Oh!
	Let out a few farts first.
	More just the...
	Foreshadow.
	Making sure, you know when you feel the build-up?
	Okay.
	Glad to see standards hasn't slipped since I've been away.
	Josh, I've been on this desk with you plenty of times, and I've had a few wafts in the air that I know from me, so you can't talk.
	At Lotus Eaters, your flatulence per hour is a premium level.
	Anyway, right, so before I get into the meat and potatoes of this segment, I just want to say that I like peace.
	I dislike war.
	I dislike people pointlessly dying in wars that they don't really gain to benefit from on either side.
	People dying is bad.
	As such, I'm not taking any one particular side in this.
	I'm trying to analyze the facts as I see it.
	And what I've seen over the past day or two is people sharing about this claim, which is that Russia is seeking to import 1 million Indian workers in 2025 to replace labor lost to the Ukrainian war, which seems to reflect a lot of the demographic problems that we're facing in the rest of the West.
	Russia's interesting because it's, you know, it's basically the gateway to Asia.
	The large gateway to Asia where a lot of the- Gateway to Asia.
	No, you're not working here anymore, so you can set up your investment and get that going.
	Could be the one Asian takeaway in England out of importation.
	Josh's little red takeaway.
	But it reflects the demographic problems that we have over here.
	And Russia is a largely population-wise European country.
	A lot of the population is clustered in the West.
	But also, there are vast swaths of land which are over in Asia.
	It's already quite a multi-ethnic country.
	It's basically an empire.
	It's an enormous multi-ethnic empire.
	I think there's something like 192 ethnicities within Russia already.
	And I've seen that they do have some problems in places like St. Petersburg and elsewhere, where you're getting inter, because it's a big federated states, interstate migration coming over to the West to take jobs that are in places like St. Petersburg.
	But this in particular seemed to be reflective of the problems that we're facing.
	So I thought, okay, what's the actual truth to this?
	Because we're in the middle of a war, and the people on the right who want you to believe that you should be rooting for Russia try and say that Russia is a bastion of traditional values, family values.
	It's the one last place, along with maybe a few Baltic states and Poland, where you've got truly European values shining through.
	And oftentimes, other people on the right who don't want you to be supporting Russia.
	I don't think you have to take either of those positions, by the way.
	You can stay neutral.
	You can think for yourself.
	That is an option.
	But other people want you to think that Russia is this enormous brown country filled with Muslims, which is just as anti-white as the rest of us.
	And this news seemed to be supporting the idea that Russia is this big brown anti-white horde being led by Putin who wants to screw over his population as much as our leaders want to screw over ours by importing foreigners in to lower wages, change culture, etc, etc.
	So I thought I would look into this subject and try and see the truth of it.
	And before I actually go into what I was finding, first some context, some recent updates on what's been going on in the Russia and Ukrainian war.
	So there was talk earlier this year of Trump reducing the amount of weapons that would be sent over to Ukraine, especially after his big bust up with Zelensky in the White House a few months ago.
	But now they've said that they will be receiving some more weapons.
	He said that they'll send more weapons after an announcement last week that Washington would halt some shipments of critical arms to Kiev during a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu.
	I think that was the same one where Netanyahu offered Trump the Nobel Peace Prize and nominated him for it.
	Netanyahu, the greatest man in the world.
	Yeah, the greatest man in the world.
	Like, big back patting operation going on in that meeting.
	Patting so loud it could be heard all the way in Ukraine, apparently.
	Yeah.
	Trump said he was not happy with Putin and that Ukraine was getting hit very hard.
	Trump also indicated that the US would send primarily defensive weapons to help Ukraine's war effort.
	There is probably a reason for Ukraine having defensive weapons sent to them rather than offensive weapons, which is, I was listening to a stream that was done last night on Scrump's channel, which is that NATO is beginning to run out of missiles.
	This is the same kind of thing that we saw in Israel during the Israel-Iran conflict that happened just a few weeks ago, where Iran produces really cheap munitions.
	A lot of Russia's missiles that they're getting are from Iran, because Iran has a big manufacturing base where they can produce all of them cheap and they're effective.
	Israel has very, very, very expensive interception defenses where they're basically intercepting really cheap missiles that can be produced indefinitely with really, really, really expensive equipment that can't be produced indefinitely, which is probably one of the reasons they slammed the brakes on it after America intervened.
	Europe and America don't really have great manufacturing bases for the weapons anymore, or at least certainly Europe doesn't.
	No, definitely not.
	And especially with America pulling out slowly but surely, that's going to become more and more of a problem.
	What I heard was that basically most European domestic manufacturing of weapons is being produced by one factory in Poland.
	Which is not very good in terms of defence, because that's one target is a very easy target.
	But it is also worth mentioning as well that by supplying defensive weapons, it de-escalates some of the increasing tension that we had from Ukraine actually striking into Russia proper rather than disputed territory.
	Which was using American weapons, which oftentimes necessitated American operatives on the ground to help to oversee the usage of these weapons, which could have been seen by Russia.
	It doesn't seem that they did at the time, but could have been seen by Russia as direct provocation, direct involvement in the war.
	So that could have escalated things.
	Things didn't escalate.
	And for a long while, we've just had what appeared to be a stalemate going on, but I've seen that Russia has been increasingly pushing into Ukrainian territory and they are looking to make some moves on other Ukrainian cities in Ukraine's east.
	So Trump has decided he's going to do that.
	Trump's apparent change of heart came days after a deadly Russian drone and missile barrages on Ukrainian cities, including Kiev.
	One attack on the city last Thursday claimed a third life, according to local officials.
	So that's three presumably civilians killed in these attacks.
	The Pentagon responded as well, saying that at President Trump's direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops.
	I looked into it.
	I can't see many updates on what's going on with peace talks at the moment.
	So it seems that the conflict will carry on and continue to carry on indefinitely, which means, you know, day one peace didn't work out very well.
	And it means the killing will continue.
	I mean, not even year one peace.
	Well, I mean, year one peace would have been the end of 2022.
	So that is well behind us.
	We'll see if Trump's year one can end with peace.
	Oh, that's what I meant.
	I can only hope so.
	I can only hope so.
	Because while we are in the middle of the war, it's difficult to be able to determine exact casualties when we're in the middle of a war.
	And casualties are including Injuries and deaths, but estimates are going up to potentially 1 million for Russians at the moment.
	And the Guardian are claiming here in their sources that that's based off of things like funeral business in Russia and also some places like let me see here.
	A place, an independent Russian outlet, Mediazona, has identified the names of more than 111,000 Russian military personnel killed using official records, social media obituaries, and images of tombstones.
	Estimates coming from the Ministry of Defense and other places are saying that it could be anywhere between 250,000 to 950,000 Russian military deaths.
	That's also been said by a study by the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies in Ukraine.
	Their casualties are potentially 60 to 100,000 personnel killed and total casualties of approximately 400,000.
	So these are catastrophic numbers.
	If Russia's numbers are anything like 950,000, that's more than we lost during, I believe, the First World War.
	I think we lost three quarters of a million.
	It is, of course, difficult to establish whether someone's been killed, captured, or is missing in action as well.
	So there's a certain degree of uncertainty with a lot of the figures that are coming out.
	But it's certainly safe to believe that an entire generation of young men on both sides has been lost.
	Yes, and women as well, because of the way that Ukraine especially is scripting women into it.
	And they go on to mention here, what will broaden out into the rest of the subject, that Russia has a demographic crisis going on outside of this as well.
	Even before the conflict, sucking up the lives of so many young men, Russia was experiencing a demographic crisis, very similar to the demographic crises that we are experiencing in the rest of Europe and in the US and many liberalized and westernized countries where birth rates are low.
	Of ethnic Russians, I think the birth rate is 1.4 or 1.5, well below replacement rates.
	And the other ethnic groups in Russia is mainly the more Islamized, like the people who are in the North Caucasus, Chechens.
	I think Russia's an interesting case as well.
	Above replacement rates.
	Sorry.
	Russia's an interesting case as well because lots of people point to the cost of living as one of the reasons as well as deliberate programming.
	But I don't think that's going on as much in Russia.
	And I think actually, you know, because of the sanctions and because they produce a lot of their things internally from the old Soviet times, the cost of goods isn't, you know, extortionate relative to, say, the West.
	It's comparable as a percentage of their purchasing.
	And so what it seems to me to mean isn't that it's a deliberate political thing because it doesn't seem like there's that messaging and it doesn't seem to be purely economic.
	I believe it's some sort of human thing whereby you get to a certain level of development and people simply stop having children.
	Yes, it seems that once you reach a certain living standard for people, once certain amenities and comforts are met, day to day, you're not in a constant struggle for survival.
	People stop having as many children.
	And Russia's also had a lot of problems because there's holdovers culturally from the Soviet eras where people were having ridiculous amounts of abortion, for instance.
	Abortions to the point where the highest rates in Europe are I believe per capita it was seven per women.
	Per woman, I should say.
	Seven per woman.
	And that will, of course, be massively spiked up by particular women having lots and lots and lots of abortions.
	But I think it was something like low access to contraceptives meant that women were just using abortions as a form of contraceptive to a ridiculous degree, which led to some women experiencing infertility as a result of it.
	Now, it seems that women aren't necessarily having as many abortions.
	They've drastically reduced those numbers, but access to contraceptives has increased.
	And also what I was reading is that Russian men are facing a bit of a fertility crisis as well because of alcoholism and other such things.
	It's rendering a lot of them.
	Sounds very stereotypical, doesn't it?
	It is a very stereotypical reason, but that's some of the stuff that I've been looking into here.
	And as well as that, you have people emigrating out of the country, people having to move to the front lines, killing off lots of people that way.
	The average male life expectancy in Russia has fallen from 68 to 66 since the start of the special military operation.
	And he said, and a demographer, Alexander Araksha, has said that the government has made it harder to track long-term demographic consequences of the ongoing fighting.
	They stopped publishing all mortality and life expectancy data for its male population from 2024 onwards.
	And again, if you look into this, there's the ethnic groups here, but if you just scroll up, it leads to a population pyramid that will look quite familiar to anybody in the West, where you have aging populations, a lot more people in their middle age and older than you get in the peak working ages around here.
	I can tell why this contraction is so sharp here, which is going to be people losing their lives or moving out of the country.
	But in terms of the ethnic groups, they say in here that Russia is about 70% ethnic Russian.
	Where is the ethnic groups gone here?
	Immigration.
	Oh, God.
	It's vanished.
	It's vanished.
	Here we are.
	We're back here.
	So it's about 71% in 2021 identified as ethnic Russians.
	19% of the total population identified with various ethnic minority groups.
	I think the rest of it is made up of either indeterminate or people who are of Germanic rather than Russian backgrounds.
	According to the United Nations, Russia's immigration population is the third largest in the world, numbering over 11.6 million in 2016, most of which are from post-Soviet states, mainly from Central Asia.
	And there are 22 republics in Russia, and of those, 12 of them, ethnic Russians constitute a minority.
	So very already a vast, diverse, ethnically enriched nation, which means that surely we should have just been steamrolled over by them.
	Immediately.
	Ukraine, very homogenous.
	Russia, diverse, varied, strong, right?
	They should have just steamrolled over the country.
	So I guess that doesn't make much sense.
	But at the same time, you get accounts like, say, for instance, Radio Genoa posting about, oh, this is Moscow.
	What do you notice?
	And it's just slop.
	Videos of lots and lots of white people, which seems to be pretty fair, given that 70% at least of the population, especially, again, if you look at some of the maps that they provide here.
	So this map, for instance, this is the percentage of people who are ethnically Russian in Russia.
	Red is, what is that, 80 plus percent?
	Yes.
	So you get massive swaths of the West, which are 80 plus percent ethnic.
	European Russian, basically.
	European Russian, whereas you get huge swaths of the land, which are mostly wasteland, let's be fair, where it's not.
	So their demographic situation seems slightly better than what we have over here.
	But the demographics are still dropping in terms of the total proportion of European Russians.
	Seems to be dropping because of reduced birth rates, because of aging populations, people not having children, people migrating out of the country.
	But then you get the slop from one side saying, like, look at how white it is.
	And then you get other people saying, well, actually, it is also what Russia looks like because they have...
	Oh, yes.
	And you have demonstrations, hundreds of thousands performing Eid prayers in the streets of Moscow.
	This is supported, of course, as well by Putin because he is emperor of a vast multi-ethnic empire where most, where a lot of them are already Muslim.
	I've seen some reports that by the end of maybe 2050, 30% of the population of Russia is predicted to be Muslim.
	So that's all very interesting.
	So again, there's evidence on both sides for both kinds of the arguments of Russia.
	But either way, we know that people are dying.
	Young men are dying.
	There are labor shortages.
	There is a record low unemployment at the moment in Russia of 2.4%.
	And when you have labor shortages and not very many people who are out of work, the government only ever tends to go in what the solution only ever tends to go one way for stuff like that, especially when Russia is already allied with nations like India with the BRICS agreement.
	It's sort of a military alliance, an economic one, but yeah.
	I think India is somewhat friendly with Russia, aren't they?
	Yes, they have strong ties to one another that they want to make stronger.
	And when you say it's not militarily, maybe not yet.
	And to be fair, maybe not ever, because Russia has actively been scamming some Indians into signing up to join the Flight.
	This is very strange.
	It was, to be fair in this article, only 91 Indians.
	But that's still more Indians than you would expect to get scammed into fighting on Russia's behalf for them, right?
	They just posed as beautiful Russian women on Facebook and they were trapped by unsolicited messages.
	So most of them are from poor families who were lured by agents with the promise of money and jobs, sometimes as helpers in the Russian army.
	Instead, they were sent straight to the war zone.
	They're not going to be put on latrine duty, to be fair, are they?
	Many of them said they were stationed in parts of Ukraine under Russian control where they had to navigate landmines, drones, missiles, and sniper attacks with little to no military training.
	Thankfully, Russia has now said that they're not going to do this anymore.
	Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
	They're just going to bring in North Koreans to fight for them instead, I would imagine, because they've got strong ties with those.
	If government wins then, the North Korean government doesn't have to feed them and the Russians get troops.
	Yeah.
	There you go.
	I bet that's probably the nicest time those North Koreans have ever had.
	They actually get military rations.
	It would be kind of funny if Russia did this big migration agreement with India and then just pulled all of their own soldiers out and sent them all to the front line.
	That would be a hell of a bait and switch.
	But I wouldn't be supportive of it because I don't want loads of Asians overrunning European countries in any capacity.
	Surprise, surprise, I know, right?
	Golden Horde this time.
	And so what's been going on as well?
	So they've done that.
	In India and Russia, they have been already discussing.
	So to go back to the original claim of a million immigrants coming in from India because of these agreements, there is some evidence to suggest that they've at least been looking to broaden it up and open it up a little bit.
	So Russia's first deputy prime minister, Denis Mancharov, announced on Tuesday, and this was back in November of last year, that India and Russia are in discussion to prepare Indian workers with skills through Russian vocational training programs to facilitate their future employment in Russian companies.
	And that was, you know, last year, I think Russia already has 32,000 foreign students in Russian universities.
	But again, it's quite funny because you hear the kind of numbers that people are really worried about in Russia of foreign migrants coming into the country.
	And it's just like a drop in the bucket compared to the West, compared to us, because it's like they're panicking over the fact there's already 4,000 visa applications for Indian workers coming into St. Petersburg.
	They're like, that's way too many.
	Numbers that we can't see.
	4,000.
	4,000, that's about at least 100 times less than what Richard Tice would promise us as a reduction of numbers coming into this country.
	So it is funny to see the perspective change there.
	Russia has already also, some companies in Russia, including with this one, Ozone, have started to turn to South Asian workers as labor shortages in particular areas of the economy open up.
	So Ozon's a big online retail place and they've been turning to workers From India.
	In this, they include a little clip of a video that you can go to on YouTube of an advert where a man is speaking Hindi and offering all of these different benefits to the people coming in.
	They'll get housing, they'll get health insurance, they'll get work attire, food, and they'll get Russian language lessons all free of charge.
	I think one of the big differences with this, though, is that they would just be coming in to do the work.
	There's no big promise of citizenship or visa or passports being given to them so that they can become Russian.
	It's just like, no, we just want your labor.
	That's how the rest of the world does it, really.
	But I think hearing an Indian speak Russian would be the biggest non-sequitur I would have ever heard.
	It would maybe blow my mind a little bit.
	I don't know how I would deal with that.
	And of course, big surprise.
	Big surprise.
	You're not going to guess this one.
	Russian big business definitely wants it.
	Ah.
	Yep.
	They really want this.
	Andrei Komarov, a board member of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, proposed training foreign workers specifically for the Russian job market at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
	Education Minister Sergei Kavstov also voiced support for the proposal.
	He claimed that countries across the former Soviet Union, as well as in Africa and Latin America, that's definitely what Russia needs, more Africans, had expressed strong interest in Russia's vocational educational system and its professionalism federal project.
	Well, yet, of course, people from incredibly poor countries are going to want to come over and take jobs from your own people.
	Of course, that's what's going to happen.
	Earlier this year, the Samol yacht construction firm launched a pilot program to employ Indian nationals on Moscow building sites.
	Company executives praised Indian workers as reliable and more affordable than Central Asian workers.
	Central Asian, I would assume, meaning big non-Russian parts of Russia, noting that their employment contracts prevented them from switching jobs.
	So they're literally just going, we can exploit these guys so much better.
	Please, daddy government, let us take in more cheap labor.
	Please, don't you love big business folks?
	Don't do it, Pooh.
	Don't do it.
	I've seen what you've done for the Arabs and I want you to do it for me.
	The same for everywhere.
	But the big thing with this one, the 1 million figure, was coming from a man called Andre Besadin, head of the Ural Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
	Obviously, this is a regional chamber.
	The Ural Mountains.
	That's out in, you know, sticks a little bit.
	Yes, this is not a federal section of the government.
	This is a regional chamber of commerce.
	He made an assertion on Wednesday saying the arrival of Indian workers would assuage the country's deepening labour shortage, particularly in the Sverdalovsk region.
	But the Labour Ministry has said that the recruitment of workers from India is regulated by quotas and are set a year in advance based on regions and employers' needs.
	Each specialist from visa countries invited within the quota obtains a work visa and work permit, and the company, before employing a visa worker, obtains permission from the Interior Ministry to hire such employees.
	So they need to get government permission to do it in the first place.
	Russia's total quota for foreign workers in 2025 is 234,900 with 71,817 spots for Indian citizens, which is less than the number of H1V visas that were issued last year in America.
	But they again point out in this article, Russian businesses are experimenting with it.
	They mention the construction pilot program.
	They mention the other companies that I've mentioned.
	But they say while executives cited advantages, including lower wage expectations and limited job mobility compared to Central Asian laborers, they also encountered early setbacks saying the results haven't been particularly successful, blaming the language barrier and cultural differences.
	So Russia is in very much the same place as we are in terms of demographic crisis.
	If they are below replacement rates, not necessarily that somebody like Josh or I would agree that you need an enormous population, especially with automation coming along the way.
	But for the time being, the worry is while they're not doing it right now, will Russia decide to pull the trigger on mass immigration to fill labor shortages for the sake of cheap labor for big business, the same way that we've experienced over here in England, the US, and the rest of the West?
	So while the statement that they're bringing in a million Indians isn't true right now, I'll be interested to see how it develops because the problems in place for the conditions to invite all of them in are definitely still there, especially with the war still going on.
	And I can only hope, as I have done this entire time, that peace talks can be successful and the conflict can be brought to an end and the killing can stop and we can all and people can go back to their lives.
	While she was doing the rumble rants, I need to quickly run to go to the toilet.
	That's alright.
	I'll be quick.
	You Queen 8 says, Josh, so good to see your hair again.
	Oh, well, thank you.
	Nothing said about the rest of you, though.
	That's a random name.
	As Ukrainians pushed back into the Russian front, they were taken aback by the Russians' lack of latrines, leaving their new Russians, I would assume.
	Now have the mouse back, please, Jack.
	Thank you.
	Sigilson, Indian troops in Ukraine trying to sneak up on Ukrainian troops.
	Ukrainian troops, hmm.
	Do you smell curry?
	Scott Saigai says, my mate's Russian girlfriend told him that in Soviet times to boost population, there was a campaign saying that in order to be healthy, women needed sperm in them at all times.
	I hope that's true.
	That's what I'm going to have to.
	As your research in the afternoon.
	I'm going to have to look into that because that's amazing.
	I did look into it.
	And obviously, the demographic problem in Russia has been a problem for a long while.
	Going back to the Soviet times, they've never really been able to boost their birth rates very well.
	In like 2006, I think Putin started to put in programs to boost fertility rates, to boost child rearing, where they were putting in financial incentives.
	Here's some money towards a mortgage.
	Here's extra tax credits and stuff like that.
	Sounds like similar incentives to what Orban was doing.
	In the same way that, sadly, Orban, you know, bless him for trying.
	Yeah.
	It's not worked.
	It boosts it a tiny little bit, but not enough to get up to replacement rates.
	That's the thing.
	It maybe boosts it by 0.1 or 0.2.
	It never actually brings you up to that massive boost that you need.
	That old Soviet system sounds like it might have some merit, though.
	Well, I mean, I'm a taken man.
	I couldn't comment.
	That's a random name.
	The Habsification is 100% correct.
	I'm from Eastern Europe, and it isn't more conservative than West.
	It simply isn't woke culturally.
	It's very similar to modern-day China, but with more bazes.
	And on that note, the Habsification says Russians and traditional should not be in the same sentence.
	Russian women have large abortion rates and they're extremely materialistic and brasses.
	Brasses?
	I don't know what that means at the end there.
	But yeah, from what I've been looking into, that does seem to check out.
	And Sigilstone says, as the men crawled, the general called and the killing carried on and on.
	What was the purpose of it all?
	What's the price of a mile?
	Yeah, good quote there.
	Jack's telling me off for not shutting the door when I walked in.
	Now, take us out, Josh.
	Give us something for you.
	Take you out.
	Is my segment going to be that bad?
	I've got to shoot you.
	No.
	Right.
	I need to get my notes up first, don't I?
	So, there we go.
	It is the holiday season, and as it is the summer, you all might be thinking of going on holiday somewhere.
	Have you got any holidays planned?
	October.
	I've got one in September, south of France.
	Might have a week back up north at some point.
	Oh, that's a reminding yourself.
	That's a good holiday.
	Nice day at Cleethorpe's for me.
	Well, nothing fancy.
	Alton Towers.
	But one thing I wouldn't suggest doing is going on a cruise with Carnival Cruisers because this has been a developing scandal.
	I'd hate to be in the PR team for Carnival.
	I feel quite sorry for them because I don't think they've necessarily done anything to deserve their reputation other than offer cheap holidays to people.
	I was going to say they're an affordable brand.
	A Ryanair of Cruises.
	Yes.
	There's actually a guy that I'll pull up who describes them as the Walmart of cruising, which is kind of funny.
	But back in the end of April, there was a great big brawl.
	And I think that this is where it was docked in Texas.
	And you may notice something about these people.
	No, I don't know what.
	They're all wearing baggie shirts.
	But there was a 24-person brawl.
	They were all jogging.
	And it, you know, travelled across the pond.
	The whole world saw this because it's like, wow, this is unheard of.
	A cruise ship.
	Lots of people fighting.
	What?
	I thought it was supposed to be relaxing.
	I know.
	You think you go on a cruise, it's like the most relaxed of all.
	You don't even have to do the traveling.
	And then there was another wave of bans when this happened.
	So just some of the customers throwing chairs at one another.
	And again, this did the rounds, as it often does.
	People like a video like this.
	It's a shame Stelios isn't here because he loves this sort of thing.
	But you'd think that this is meant to be nice and relaxing.
	Apparently not.
	These cruises really aren't very diverse, are they?
	It seems like it, doesn't it?
	And then I'm going to play the audio for this next one.
	I want to torture you all.
	So imagine you're on a nice relaxing cruise on holiday and you're sat down, you've got a drink, you kick him back, and then this walks past.
	Sorry if it's loud.
	Jack's also get up.
	I'm gonna turn it down.
	What are they doing?
	Just walking around through the corridors of the ship and wrapping in.
	Imagine if you're in bed.
	Whoa.
	So, do these cruise ships, do they come with waffle houses installed?
	Because they should.
	It's just one great big floating waffle house in spirit.
	I thought so.
	I thought so.
	Well, one thing, I can imagine why they're so affordable, because they must save a lot of money on fire alarm batteries.
	That's true.
	Nobody will notice if they're locked.
	Very dangerous at sea on a ship as well.
	You also see this sort of behavior of just taking the signs off of people's doors, which is just needless anti-social behaviour.
	Gave the wrong MF the drink package.
	What's the drink package?
	They've got drinks packages.
	Also, imagine coming out of the lift and then...
	They're blaming the cruise company.
	I don't think it's the cruise company doing this.
	Are they just doing backflips?
	You know, that's quite impressive.
	Do better carnival cruise.
	Do they just mean up the price?
	Well, either that or they're just saying, hang on a minute.
	Remember when we had those signs on doors in America in the past that said know certain people of certain backgrounds?
	I'm surprised that these people would be so eager to be on a ship at sea.
	I know.
	There'll be...
	I'm going to interrupt myself, actually.
	I couldn't believe this when I found it.
	So I found this video, and I thought that someone overlaid Tom Hanks from Toy Story over the top.
	It's just that the guy filming it sounds a bit like Tom Hanks, like a hick Tom Hanks.
	Hang on, listen to this.
	Oh, I'm going to back it up.
	Whoa, stop!
	Back up, my man, back up.
	It's going down.
	It doesn't sound like him there.
	Just when he's going woke.
	Oh, shit.
	Welcome to the motherfucking cruise.
	No swear, mister.
	But you get the idea there's some more violence on the cruise ship.
	To be fair, that guy actually sounded like he was kind of enjoying his holiday.
	This reminds me.
	Some enthusiasm.
	This reminds me, there was that video that went around a while Back of a black guy filming another black guy trying to rob a Chinese shop where the Chinese guy gets the upper hand on the black guy and starts beating him like spanking his ass with a broom and the guy filming just switches does a complete 180 in a split second he's like oh he whipping your ass son he whipping your ass fantastic remember
	I just remembered that.
	And here's another brawl.
	If you're noticing some similarities between those, you're not allowed to do that.
	That is forbidden.
	Any similarities are purely coincidence.
	There's no pattern of behaviour here.
	And just to really emphasise that, here is a fight on a basketball court.
	They have basketball courts?
	They know their target demographic, don't they?
	You've got to play some b-ball.
	Yeah, you get the idea.
	And there are other passengers here that just look at the judgement.
	Get what you pay for.
	Are they Italian women, maybe?
	They look a bit Italian.
	Just look of pure content.
	I can tell the word that they're beaming telepathically at those women.
	I won't say it, but I know what they're saying in their heads.
	But if you do find yourself trapped on one of these cruises, there is a safe place.
	Now pay close attention to the swimming pool in this next one.
	Look at how busy it is.
	Oh, wait.
	Look at how crowded it is.
	It's just kids with life jackets on in the pool.
	There's not a single adult person swimming in this video.
	I still wouldn't go into a pool that's got that many people in it.
	I find that...
	It's a bit crowded still, isn't it?
	But it's the least crowded part.
	True.
	But those kinds of public pools are kind of disgusting.
	I feel like what the ship could do with is a classical music hall.
	You know, just a little place where you can go and enjoy some classical music.
	I feel like that would be one.
	Where I could be the lone Anglo sat by myself enjoying some peace and quiet.
	The meme of the guy at the cinema just there with a cigarette.
	When I went on a cruise, there was like a theatre and we could go watch a theatre performance and there was like live music and we went to a nice lounge sort of bar and there's a guy playing some smooth jazz on the piano.
	It was very nice and classy.
	I've known some people who've worked cruises doing the music on them and it pays well.
	It's good work if you can get it.
	And you get to basically go on a perpetual holiday.
	Do you think that if they have some magicians on board this cruise ship, they'll be like, oh, and it's gone, but that wasn't part of the act.
	They've just gone up and nicked the things that it was worth.
	Oh no.
	And your wallet has vanished.
	I meant to make this rabbit disappear, but now my credit card is gone.
	So I found this video on TikTok of a lawyer who's worked on cruise ships his entire career.
	Okay.
	Hang on.
	I've got to start it from the start.
	Sounds sensible.
	Yeah.
	I actually spent some time on TikTok.
	I'm still in recovery.
	But this I thought was too good.
	I don't know what's going on.
	I've broken TikTok.
	You might have to refresh it.
	What is this?
	Yeah.
	Just refresh your page.
	I'm interested now.
	We can't.
	Right.
	There we go.
	Now the volume.
	It's the people.
	Fights are on all cruise lines, not just Carnival.
	Really?
	I've been doing this kind of work investigating crimes on cruise ships for over 31 years, and I've never investigated a fight between passengers on any cruise line but Carnival.
	Just take a look at the DOT website for the last quarter of 2022.
	Carnival had 11 reported criminal incidents.
	Royal Caribbean was half of that and Norwegian a third of that.
	So I think it is the cruise line that's the problem.
	For more information about crime...
	Wait.
	The Norwegian cruises don't have big Valhalla-style brawls on them?
	Apparently not.
	Apparently not.
	I think it's a cruise line there.
	I love this little incredulous.
	Really?
	Really?
	That's great.
	And I also saw this.
	This was from a travel publication.
	Just read this opening paragraph.
	Carnival Cruise Line experiences more allegations of serious crimes committed at sea than any other cruise lines sailing from North America, according to the criminal activity data reported to the FBI in accordance with blah blah blah.
	The most common types of crimes reported aboard Carnival and all cruise line ships are assaults, both sexual and those involving serious bodily injury.
	Now, if those videos are anything to go by, I might have spotted a little bit of a pattern here.
	I think...
	Can't be having that.
	I think it might be a pattern of certain people being violent, maybe.
	It's possible.
	It just needs more youth centres.
	And now, Harry, you'll like this video.
	I've got the reincarnation of David Lynch discussing the urban nature of cruises.
	He came back.
	He's like a cruise enthusiast.
	Somehow.
	David Lynch returned.
	This guy, he likes cruises as his little internet niche.
	Here he is.
	I'm on the dream, and we have a comment wanting to know if this cruise is very ghetto.
	Sounds just like it.
	I will tell you it's a very urban cruise.
	The shorter the cruise, the more urban the cruise becomes.
	If you take a longer cruise, I'm on a six-day, so if I was, say, on a ten-day cruise, it wouldn't be quite as urban.
	But this is a pretty urban cruise, even though there's not that many people on it.
	I mean, it's probably at 75% capacity.
	But other cruise lines, such as Doreen...
	Well, you get the idea.
	He's basically saying...
	He's yelling like Gordon Cole, isn't he?
	Coop, it's great to see you!
	I couldn't believe my luck.
	We've had Tom Hanks and David Lynch.
	Amazing.
	Are we getting Kubrick next?
	Resurrecting him from beyond the grave.
	So that he can scowl at the urban cruisers.
	So, after all of these videos...
	Is cruisers going to be a new euphemism?
	be him I hate cruisers.
	Um, anyway, as all of this, uh, all of these videos came out, this was shared, and this got a lot of recognition.
	15.7 million people viewed it.
	It says, As of June 2025, these are the new rules Carnival Cruise has implemented.
	And I'm going to read through all of them because they're hilarious.
	Stricter drug enforcement.
	Cannabis, even if legal in your home state, is banned on board under federal law.
	Violators face removal and permanent bans.
	That's the first law.
	Youth curfew, guests 17 and under must leave public spaces by 1am, which is pretty generous.
	1am, yeah.
	Unless accompanied by an adult or part of a supervised teen program.
	Now, this one puzzled me until I looked it up and found out that actually it's a black culture thing, that they have these handheld fans that go clack and are really annoying.
	Even their fans make loud noises.
	It says fan restrictions.
	Handheld non-battery fans are now prohibited, partly due to safety concerns surrounding the viral.
	Where them fans at, Lion Dance.
	I wonder who is doing this.
	This is like a lesson in anthropology right now, Josh.
	Thank you.
	Bluetooth speaker bam.
	Guests may no longer play their own music in public areas.
	Carnival says the rules is for comfort, but many see racial bias in enforcement.
	I love that they just note that you see...
	Just leave it at that.
	Yeah, you may think so.
	We don't care.
	Stop doing it.
	Wait until you say what they said about people's reaction to this.
	So I've been on a big old cruise.
	I went on a two-week Mediterranean one when I was 17.
	It was very good.
	Not a single person played music from a Bluetooth speaker.
	They did exist back then.
	I know it was a long time ago.
	I know I'm 30 this year, so that was nearly 15 years ago, but still.
	Drinks package enforcement, 15-day drink limit on Carnival Cheers package has existed for years, but is now being enforced more strictly.
	And that's the daily drink limit as well.
	So 15 drinks, plenty to get along with.
	That's more than enough.
	Yeah.
	And reduced music genre options, though not officially banned, hip-hop and rap appear to be quietly removed from many ship playlists.
	DJs and Beethoven added.
	DJs also reportedly declined guest requests now.
	You could compact all six of those rules into just stop being urban.
	Yes.
	It's funny how, like, if we just didn't have to dance around the subject, it could be simplified.
	It could be really simplified.
	It was condensed to one rule in the past.
	No carnival cruises.
	It's not banning rap music, says Business Insider.
	But that's not what is claimed in the original post.
	The original post is saying that they've not officially banned it, but they're saying, you know, maybe we shouldn't be playing that stuff because it gets a very urban demographic.
	And here is a person who checked it out.
	They went to listen to some music.
	I'm not going to play it out loud because of copyright.
	But it's not rap music.
	It's very much pop music.
	And lots of other people who have been on cruises this month in June have said, okay, we've not really heard any rap music.
	So it seems like there's some truth to it, but I don't know.
	Maybe it's just coincidence.
	It is possible.
	So I thought it was interesting.
	And they responded to a lot of the backlash over the rules.
	And allow me to introduce the most legendary rebuttal here.
	Where it is.
	Here we go.
	So it starts with in a statement.
	In a statement, the company emphasized that the rules are intended to promote a more peaceful environment, not to signal any form of cultural erasure.
	In fact, many of these policies have been in place for years, as explained in a February 2023 video outlining what's appropriate while on board their ship.
	So not only are they saying, no, we don't care that you're calling our rules racist, they're racist now, and they were in 2023 as well.
	Deal with it.
	It's our cruise liners.
	They're basically owning it, right?
	They're just saying, yeah, there's all this controversy.
	And they're like, actually, we passed these rules two years ago, which is actually quite a good defense because then they're saying they weren't able to enforce them for some reason.
	Apparently not.
	But it's just like doubling down, which I appreciate.
	But they're saying that they're not, this is like a condensed version and they're not actually the real rules.
	That's not like an official document.
	However, here is an official document and it's basically the same thing.
	Here we go.
	Smoking, illegal narcotics, handheld fans and beverages, personal devices, curfew, guest corridors.
	It's saying, please refrain from running and making noise, including shouting and screaming in hallways, since doing so disrupts other guests who may be resting, sleeping in their staterooms.
	Which need not be said to some people.
	I didn't have anyone running or shouting in the hallways when I went on my cruise.
	In fact, I don't remember anyone even making noise.
	People whispered, actually.
	Really conscientious, considerate.
	It's like a library atmosphere in the corridors.
	Sounds very peaceful.
	It was.
	It was good because the boat at one point was in a storm and I was rocking back and forth in my little cabin and it was making me feel quite sick along with the alcohol I'd consumed.
	But anyway.
	So I've just got a mental image of you in like a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and sunglasses, go, whoa, whoa!
	Like Otto in the Simpsons.
	I used to be more like Bill and Ted, but yeah, Otto.
	I'll take that.
	It's not too far off, to be honest.
	And understandably, black people have realised what's going on and they've been upset about it.
	Here is Travel Noir, which is a funny name to be reporting on this.
	Basically just Travel Black in French, but okay.
	Black passengers feel targeted by Carnival Cruise Line's new rules.
	They are being targeted.
	That's true.
	And rather than complaining about it, perhaps one must adjust their behaviour to not offend other people so you can continue to have nice things.
	What you do is you exhibit the behavior to continue having nice things.
	You know, you exhibit the behavior that created it in the first place.
	But we'll get to that in a second.
	And here's another one: this is from The Root.
	Carnival's new rules got black folks all in their feelings, but others say Cruise Land's justified.
	Sorry, I couldn't resist.
	I'm just being silly.
	And they're complaining about the rules in part, but also pointing out that some people say actually people are going there to have a nice relaxing holiday and people aren't doing that.
	And they're not specifically targeting black people and actually saying that is kind of funny in and of itself because you're admitting, hey, you've got rules against being loud and obnoxious and inconsiderate.
	I'm personally offended.
	Yeah, and just one specific group can't seem to find it in themselves to adhere to those rules.
	Just can't do it.
	If you feel like it's targeted, why do you think they feel it's necessary to do that?
	Is a question that you should ask yourself.
	The hell is this headline?
	I know.
	These rules got black folks all in their feelings.
	I know.
	Quality journalism, Harry.
	And, oh, that's the wrong link.
	Here we go.
	That's what I was after.
	They've got people complaining.
	I'm not going to play it because it's annoying.
	But she's just saying they don't like black people.
	And she's saying that the rules are obviously racist, which I find interesting because it's just saying, like, be nice to other people.
	You're making it unpleasant for them.
	It's enforcing white cultural standards.
	That's what's racist about it.
	But whether this screenshot is legitimate or not, it has got people saying, so this lady is saying that she's not sure she wants to go on her carnival cruise anymore, even though she's booked it, because she feels like she's not welcome anymore.
	So it's sort of having the intended effect, if that was the intention.
	She can't be annoying.
	I guess so.
	I don't really understand.
	It's like, well, she's complaining about they're not playing rap music on a cruise.
	Do you know what?
	It's so difficult with the kind of music, you know, us guys listen to to go in any public place.
	You don't know how lucky you have it having some degree of cultural hegemony.
	Even though that hip-hop music is annoying?
	Mostly horrible.
	Yes.
	And then here is someone who's actually cancelled their cruise because of the new rules.
	So these rules work, I guess.
	And we do have a video to pull up, I believe.
	Meet the new rules, same as the old rules.
	There is one guy that gets it.
	And I'm going to use this to play us out, basically.
	Hopefully, you don't have Bill O'Reilly amongst us.
	He doesn't understand what that means.
	But here we are.
	Sick of y'all.
	And before y'all get on here, talk about some, oh, they racist.
	They hate black people.
	No, they hate me.
	That's what they hate.
	I hate them too.
	They hate me.
	That's exactly what it is.
	I don't know how to handle y'all.
	So y'all get on here, get drunk, get the fighting, being disruptive, disturbing.
	All the other passengers.
	That's all it is.
	Like, y'all act like y'all have no home training.
	Like, everywhere don't have to be a party.
	Some people pay for this just to simply relax.
	What a revelation.
	And there we go.
	So, I guess there's two lessons to learn here.
	If you want a nice, relaxing cruise, maybe give Carnival a miss for the time being.
	And there's a lesson to the people who normally frequent carnival cruises, the people who like going on them.
	If you want nice things, perhaps you should exhibit the behaviours that make their existence possible.
	Sound advice.
	There we go.
	Right, let's go to the videos.
	The mention of Mechahidler yesterday has reminded me that I finally solved the power issue with the Mechs arms.
	You see, the fuse boxes couldn't handle all the power, so I just bypassed it.
	However, also our control board was improperly wired, and it fried not only itself, but the main computer.
	Building Mechs isn't easy, but one day it would be fun to have an AI control one.
	With an emergency shutoff, of course.
	I did find a potential candidate, but I've run out of time, so we'll show it off in tomorrow's video comment.
	Is that robot doing the salute I thought it was after the mention of Mecca Hitler?
	That was a per- it was a pretty straight arm going.
	Well, just move on.
	Rock got a body.
	Well, I'm glad you fixed it.
	A man is trying to drive a car into Lee Cons, London.
	This looks like a job for the ULED camera.
	The ULED camera.
	Find Londoners' millions, hunt down the driver, and lock them up.
	But wait!
	Right-wing nutters are cleaning the London underground.
	Attack them publicly in the London Assembly.
	Call them names.
	Ignore all the killers and thieves.
	And watch London's crime wave viral.
	The new Cindy Con collection from Lego City.
	That's great.
	That's amazing.
	I respect people who make those.
	And thank you for sending it in.
	I miss those old adverts as well.
	They were great.
	That was a particularly good one.
	Have we got any more?
	Hi, guys.
	Longtime listener from New Zealand.
	Just wondering if I could get a comment from you on what you think of Dave Smith's take.
	Like a contemporary of Candace Arnold.
	Wondering if I could get your viewpoints on his talking points about current events.
	Whether you listen to him, what you think about what he's talking about.
	Okay, thanks.
	Obviously, I enjoy your work.
	I'm always here.
	I'm the crazy conspiracy theorist person.
	I hope that none of my clients see this video.
	Well, it's nice to finally put a face to the name, Charles.
	Thank you for sending in.
	What an auspicious day I have returned.
	I know, just for when Josh came back.
	I don't always watch Dave Smith, but I do catch part of the problem sometimes, and I always try and catch up when he's appearing as guests on other people's shows.
	Dave is a very reasonable guy.
	He's a very intelligent guy, and he's very principled as well.
	So even on subjects that I disagree with him on, sometimes, most of the time I find that the two of us align on most issues, and I respect his integrity.
	Yeah, I don't agree with him on everything, but I respect him because he seems to be talking about these things from first principles, and he seems to be very genuine about what he's saying.
	I've not actually seen any of his comedy because he's a comedian first.
	I know, neither have I, actually.
	Hopefully, it's not like Joe Rogan, where you see his comedy and you're just like, well, good job he's a podcaster.
	With Dave, I think the thing that I most align with him on tends to be his anti-war positions.
	He comes at it from more of a principled, purely anti-war first principle.
	Whereas I, when it comes to war, would probably be a bit more pragmatic.
	I do think that there are some situations.
	He had this discussion with Oron McIntyre.
	There are some situations where war could be justified, particularly defensive.
	But his position on Trump's recent aggression against Iran and his positions on things like the Iraq war, the forever wars in the Middle East, all of that are very well thought out and very well explained as well when you listen to him.
	Okay, let's go to the comments.
	We do have some more rumble, Ren.
	We did it for your segment.
	If you'd like the rest of the video, I just realized I'm a guest and I'm already saying, let's go to the comments.
	Stepping on your toes.
	You'll never be just a guest.
	There's still time to swap chairs, Josh.
	I'll never be just a guest.
	I'm a turncoat and a traitor.
	There you go.
	Benedict Arnold.
	All right, let's have a look at some rumble rants.
	I hate cruisers, says Sigilstone.
	The engaged few.
	Joggers going to jog.
	Guest Carnival decided they didn't want to be known as the Section 8 of Cruise Lines anymore.
	I saw people making that joke, and I don't understand what the Section 8 actually is.
	I guess that's some sort of unpleasant thing.
	I should just Google it, shouldn't I?
	Section 8, United States.
	Is that a designation?
	Housing choice voucher program?
	Yeah, I was going to say that's a housing choice.
	It helps low-income families.
	Okay.
	That's a housing designation.
	I had to Google the joke, but thank you for making it.
	You know that meme from No Country Fraud Men of Anton Chagur sitting there with a glass of milk and the caption says, stares in violent disgust?
	That's how I feel watching this.
	I'm glad I could have been a part of it.
	What if?
	What if, counterintuitively, we make the Carnival Cruises even cheaper?
	So even more joggers go on.
	Luca, don't say these.
	I just read it.
	Sigil Stone says section 8 is in the US what we'd call council houses.
	Okay.
	And there are two related to my segment.
	Habsification.
	Harry, brass is a slang for sex worker prostitutes.
	Sex worker.
	Here in merry old England, you'd hear a couple of geezers looking for a brass on a night out or holiday.
	I've never heard that before, actually.
	So you learn something new every day.
	Or you could say, I'm looking for some brass.
	I hope you don't run into a couple of coppers.
	Sigilstone, offering money doesn't raise birth rates almost like it's not material conditions.
	It's a multi-factor thing.
	But I do think that as long as people have a certain level of urban comfort, if they can order delivery and their slop arrives on time, and if they can waste their days and evenings playing video games and watching mindless TV.
	Hey, don't insult my new routine.
	Then the incentives to have children are somewhat lessened.
	There are other factors in that as well, of course, but bread and circuses is a real great pacifier of the masses, especially when you're also trying to feed them other antinatal ideologies and such.
	I also think that there can also be a non-deliberate aspect to it, that we've never had this degree of urban density and just sheer population in countries.
	And, you know, a lot of people live in major cities now, over half the world, and it makes sense that the population slows because when you're in a major city, people's life strategy changes.
	This is an observable psychological phenomenon where they have, you know, they invest a lot more into fewer offspring, but they make sure that those fewer offspring are more likely to be successful.
	So it isn't necessarily irrational.
	I just think that there are people that aren't exhibiting the optimal behavior.
	Yes, and on that subject related to Russia, it's worth noting that about 70 or 80% of Russia's population lives in urban areas.
	So that's also definitely a fact.
	You're not living in an urban area.
	You're in the middle of nowhere, and you're sort of surviving, really, aren't you, in Russia?
	You're still just a serf out there tending your land.
	Not even enforced by the state, just by sheer circumstance alone.
	You didn't even know the Soviet Union collapsed.
	You're so isolated.
	That does happen, doesn't it?
	That's funny.
	Anyway, let's go to some of the written comments.
	Sure.
	Alright.
	So.
	There we go.
	Alright, so Omar Awad says, it's a strange political horseshoe where the left come to the same conclusion as the right, but about different demographics.
	I'd hate them a lot less if they just deport the indisputably harmful groups as well.
	Well, yeah, yeah, totally.
	Lucret, if you're not careful, Starma will agree to take in all the people that Spain kicks out.
	Well, like I say, if it was just Bazes, then we could definitely, you know, imagine what we could do with a few more thousand Bazes in Bradford.
	But normally they're sort of pensioner Bazes that are going there for their retirement, aren't they?
	Yeah, they went out there for the quiet life.
	The silver baz.
	Silver baz.
	Fierjo is like, I can fix Spain.
	Maybe, maybe.
	The long live Vox, indeed.
	Luke Cooper says, I lived in France, in the Savoy region, and saw graffiti on mountainsides saying, stop the French occupation of the Savoy in French and in English.
	It's nice.
	What a peculiar.
	I've seen graffiti in foreign countries where they write it in two languages, and I'm just like, that's almost wonderfully quaint.
	That's for our benefit.
	It's like they're going to.
	And sometimes the graffiti is not even relevant.
	I'm just like, I'm an English tourist.
	This is not.
	This is of no concern to me.
	Why did you write it in my language?
	The Google translate of mountain ranges.
	What's happening, as always, they're all hoping that we'll bring the Empire back.
	It's what it always comes back to.
	Spanish will dust off their galleons again.
	Yeah, there's like one more time for old time's sake.
	It's like the Stones playing a gig in their 80s.
	This is our last farewell tour, we swear this time.
	HMS Drake.
	Spanish regions that may turn separatist.
	What do you mean Spain isn't just tacos football and Catholicism?
	I think you're thinking of Mexico there, aren't you?
	Yeah, that's more of a...
	Do they play football in Mexico?
	Yeah, of course.
	I thought they do wrestling.
	They do that too.
	It's luchadors.
	You can do multiple sports.
	No, you can't.
	In Mexico, they allow it.
	They also do mass cartel beheadings, but no one's...
	It's kind of the greatest national sport.
	Yeah.
	There's a lot of logistics that go on into that.
	No, they're big on their football in Mexico.
	I think Mexico beat the US not too long ago in a football match, which was quite funny.
	I mean, the Americans don't really care about football, do they?
	Not actual football.
	Yeah, but Mexico.
	Come on, America.
	You care now, don't you?
	I can see it in your eyes through the camera lens.
	I'll read through some of mine.
	Ananimi, does anyone in the developed world understand that other ethnic groups will seek to conquer you?
	All of Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and now Russia.
	There are Indians running stores in Malta.
	Does no one think that once the Indians reach critical mass, they will start exerting power?
	Why is it always Indians?
	Why not other parts of the developed world?
	There's a few answers to the questions that you've put forward there.
	First of all, Indians are quite unique in a mass diaspora when they come over to these countries.
	Because I actually disagree.
	I don't think they want to exert power or dominate the other ethnic groups.
	I kind of think they just want to be here running corner shops.
	Yeah, I think for Indians, they take part in our culture to some degree, but I think they're just here because they get a better quality of life to raise their family than they do in India, which is true.
	And obviously, when Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, we saw all of those videos in India of them going like, aha, now we're in charge.
	But Rishi Sunak himself didn't govern like a demagogue over the English like that.
	And why is it always in these?
	Well, there's two reasons for that.
	One, obviously India has an enormous population to begin with.
	The same with China, but China is less likely to send out emigres in the same way that India is, because China's a very developed country in many ways, and also...
	Yeah, most of the people they send out end up being spies.
	And the other thing is that India already has, ironically enough, interstate, because it's an enormous subcontinental region split into multiple states, interstate migration problems driving down wages in places like New Delhi.
	So in New Delhi and other parts of India, they've got millions and millions of people on strike right now.
	I was looking this up in preparation for the segment.
	It just didn't come up.
	Where they are complaining because Modi has implemented new work policies that reduce the ability to strike, reduce the power of unions and increase working hours.
	And also, you've got all of these interstate foreign other Indian workers moving into your state like New Delhi and taking jobs and lowering wages.
	So even Indians have Indians.
	Yes, exactly that.
	Exactly that.
	So they have their own internal economic migration problems as well.
	Indians all the way down.
	Which will be pushing some of them out into the rest of the world so they can try and find work elsewhere.
	It's really, really fascinating stuff.
	Send them to the front line against Pakistan.
	Well, they'd be up for that.
	Yeah, they'd be well up for that, to be fair.
	Alex Ptolemy, Mormons are very wealthy and have massive fertility.
	As we can see, economic conditions worsening.
	Fertility doesn't increase.
	I think hand-waving away the issue being one of just wealth doesn't address the issue.
	Like I said, I think there are multiple factors into it.
	It does seem that as economies and territories become more urban and become more liberalized as well, that they do experience big problems with fertility.
	The Mormons are wealthy, but they're also very rural and they do have traditional values and religion behind them.
	So they do not suffer necessarily the same problems.
	It's one of those issues where it seems like it's a death by a thousand cuts.
	There's multiple different factors that add up in a very small way to a much bigger phenomenon, I think.
	And Zesty King says, all of a sudden Russian car crash videos will start to feature random Indians taking selfies in front of oncoming traffic.
	That is weird, the way that you see those videos and trying to take selfies in front of trains and they just...
	If anybody can explain in the comments, why do they do that?
	And let's go on with your comments, Josh.
	Michael says, this is why, when on a cruise, stay towards the back of the ship in the lower floors, smoother sailing, and far away from the madness of the main party decks.
	I've never known a party deck, really, in a cruise ship.
	I didn't realize it was like that.
	If it was just like a big party, depending on how long the cruise is, you'd get bored of it very quickly.
	But according to that cruise expert, the one I went on was 14 days.
	So that probably filter out the urban element, wouldn't it?
	Because it's a long and expensive one.
	Thank you for introducing me to that, man.
	That's all right.
	AZ Desert Rat says, isn't Carnival the company behind the infamous poop cruise?
	I think 2017?
	Right, I'm Googling that.
	Poop Cruise 2017.
	That's not something I want in my search history.
	Inside the revolting story of the infamous poop cruise.
	Well, I know what I'm doing with my afternoon.
	Pooping on a carnival.
	2013, and it was a carnival cruise.
	I'm pretty sure one of their boats sank as well.
	I was going to make a joke about it, but I think people are going to.
	Oh, no, toilets gave up in the middle of the sea, and there's a Netflix documentary about it now.
	Oh gosh.
	If only there were buckets and a whole ocean to dump them in.
	Just saying.
	I mean, it's not the worst thing.
	If you're on a cruise liner, I mean, it goes into the ocean anyway.
	Sorry, The Guardian, poop cruise review: three stars out of five.
	A fascinating look at a toilet disaster that still haunts passengers.
	It just keeps on coming back.
	It wouldn't flush.
	Where's Stellios when you need it?
	Stellios needs to watch this.
	And on that note, that's all we've got time for today, ladies and gentlemen.
	Brown shell.
	If you'd like, you can.
	On that brown note.
	It's time to end.
	You can come and join Calvin for his Common Sense Crusade at 3.
	And if not, then we'll see you at 1 p.m. tomorrow for the podcast.
	Thank you for your time.

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