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News sans Josh
33 Plays1 year ago
M tries something whilst Josh is away, to no avail...
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Inspirations
00:00:00
Speaker
When it's another Josh-less episode here in the House of Pickles, for some reason, I think I'm now broadcasting on Cheap Show, a podcast I'd rather like, even though it is very much in a quiet taste. But in the build-up for returning from China, I was listening to a lot of podcasts as I was packing things up and moving things around.
00:00:23
Speaker
and so I listen to a lot of cheap show in a very short period of time and it's kind of now taken over my brain.
Crafting News Stories ala Alex Jones
00:00:31
Speaker
Anyway what also is taken over my brain is Alex Jones and the fact that Alex Jones has a very unique style when it comes to presenting current events which is he reads a headline and then he makes up a story about it. Now this is kind of a practice run for something which is going to occur at some point but I'm going to take my
00:00:51
Speaker
instapaper links which I've been building up whilst actually since Christmas and whilst Josh has been away and we're going to see what the stories are and I'm going to give a first attempt to try to explain the story based on the headline alone
00:01:06
Speaker
and then we'll try and get into the actual nitty-gritty details.
Greek Wiretapping Scandal: A Modern Watergate?
00:01:11
Speaker
Let me alt-tab over to my insta-paper list and let's have a look at what's first on the stacky. And the first on the stacky is Greek government faces confidence vote over spying in Watergate row. And
00:01:27
Speaker
The first thought is, a little bit late Grace, Watergate was a long time ago, I mean, it's a 1960s-esque scandal, and it's 2023, so you know. Been a bit of a while, you probably should have
00:01:44
Speaker
noted your disagreement with Watergate at the time and not wait so long to catch up. It just seems a bit pathetic really, but actually the story here is that the Prime Minister of Greece has been wiretapping his political allies and foes, so he has a kind of Watergate-adjacentness to it.
00:02:05
Speaker
in that Nixon didn't actually wiretap as though he wiretapped himself, which caused the War Gates scandal to break in the way that it did. But in this particular case, we've got the Prime Minister of Greece actually spying on his allies and also his enemies. And that's not very good.
00:02:28
Speaker
So Greece is currently ruled by a center-right administration. This scandal apparently first broke in August, which is a bit disturbing. This is news to
UK Legal Loopholes and Russian Oligarchs
00:02:39
Speaker
me. Maybe I noted it back then, but it's kind of slipped out of my mind in the interim. But yes, the prime minister is going to be held to account in that if he goes to parliament, he will be asked questions about the scandal.
00:02:55
Speaker
But yeah, basically, we've got the leader of an EU country spying on his enemies and trying to get away with it, and that doesn't seem very good. I don't even think Alex Jones would think that's very good. Talking about things that Alex Jones might be a little bit conflicted on, UK government let lawyers bypass sanctions to help Russian oligarch sue people. And this is a case of, well, you know, why was Alex Jones to be like, well, you know, Russia's in the right here.
00:03:24
Speaker
You know, the sanctions against Russia, given the Ukrainian crisis, are completely immoral. Putin is, of course, the best person in the world, so it's a fact of. It's right that the UK government is recognised in the moral superiority of the Russian position here, and allowing lawyers to sue degenerate UK media outlets over things they're saying about Russian oligarchs. But in this particular case,
00:03:51
Speaker
We're getting into the interesting case of British libel law. And if you're not from the UK, or we've had to deal with people from the UK, they had to deal with their libel laws, Britain's libel laws are not very...
00:04:07
Speaker
good in that there's very much it's very much designed to help the people who feel they're being libeled and it's very difficult to defend yourself if someone takes it they have been libeled by you so it's very much the if you're rich and powerful you can use those libel laws to crush dissent or crush speech and so it turns out that the
00:04:36
Speaker
leader of the way of the Wagner Group, who we've talked about on this podcast before, I wish Joshua was here to pronounce his name, Yigevne Prigsozum. He sued a journalist who claimed that Yigevne was actually the leader of the Wagner Group, because it turns out he was the leader of the Wagner Group.
00:04:56
Speaker
but he had also had a policy of denying this whenever possible and engaging in sport, it's a technical term here, when it came to people making that claim about him before last year when he actually revealed he was the head of the Wagner drone.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein, and Royal Controversies
00:05:12
Speaker
So basically, whenever someone makes the claim he's the head of the Wagner Group, he would sue them saying, no, I'm not, even though he was, because he'd spent quite a long time denying his connection to this particular group. And so it turns out that
00:05:29
Speaker
in 2021, just before the revelations came out, that he actually was the head of the Wegener Group. The founder of Bellingcat made the claim that Ygveney Prozom was the head of the Wegener Group. He then sued them in court. There were sanctions against him and of course Russian oligarchs operating in the UK at the time. And so,
00:05:55
Speaker
He basically tried to get the government and tried successfully got the government to let him sue in a British court even though sanctions said that he should not be able to use his money in the UK to engage in acts of that particular kind.
00:06:11
Speaker
And the British government's response to this is really quite interesting with the government that says the rule of law. If you've been libeled, you're allowed to sue someone for libeling you, and that was his right to do so. And so the government allowed him to do it, which of course becomes even more complicated because it turns out he wasn't libel.
00:06:33
Speaker
but he was still able to go through the court system. So the UK government sanction system against Russian oligarchs at this point in time obviously has a lot of loopholes associated with it. And also it turns out if you consistently lied about your background, you can then use that in a British court of law to sue a reporter who reveals you've been lying about your background. But if you continue to deny it, then apparently that's just fine.
00:07:02
Speaker
Okay, I've got a few news stories here about the mass shootings in LA, but we're not going to make jokes about those and also the story which Really really has fascinated me. So Jelaine Maxwell wishes she had never met Jeffrey Epstein and Frankly I suspect that's true but the more interesting part of the story is the fact that she's also claiming that the infamous photo of
00:07:31
Speaker
Prince Andrew, and I've now forgotten her name, or Virginia... I can't even remember how... This is where, once again, Josh would be here. He pronounces names. I give the analysis. That famous photo of Prince Andrew, Julian Maxwell, says, well, that's definitely fake.
00:07:51
Speaker
And it's one of those situations of why are we listening to her? She has a particular rationale for wanting it to be fake. And they go, well, there's no originals who've only got copies.
00:08:07
Speaker
And that's not much of an argument because for a lot of photos we have now from periods like the 70s, 80s and 90s, they are just copies. Very few people actually held on to the negatives. Some people did. They would put them in the back of their photo album and then look at it from time to time. But most people take the printed photo
00:08:31
Speaker
keep the printed photo, maybe scan the printed photo in recent years, and throw the negatives away. So the idea that there's no negative, and thus that indicates that it's probably a fake, just doesn't ring true to me at all. But yes, apparently, Jelaine Maxwell was interviewed from prison and has regrets of her association with Jeffrey Epstein. She wishes she had stayed within her earlier career of being a banker rather than the associate of a pedophile.
00:09:00
Speaker
and also claims this photo is fake.
US Political Drama: House Speaker and George Santos
00:09:03
Speaker
And this is one of these things you go, well, I'm not entirely sure this should be a story to the point where I'm even going, I'm not entirely sure that we should be talking about this other than the gross stupidity of going, well, Jelene Maxwell says the photo is fake. It must be fake. That makes perfect sense to my mind. Okay, what else do we have?
00:09:27
Speaker
So the one thing which has been fascinating me about American politics, actually two things have been fascinating me about American politics recently. The almost record-breaking vote to get a House Speaker. Really wonderful stuff to be watching from a distance. Probably very terrible if you're living in America, but as a non-American living overseas, I found it great support to watch the Republicans repeatedly not be able to vote with a majority the choice of Speaker that they had.
00:09:55
Speaker
and the fact that they've had to make so many concessions to the extreme right of their party, I'm sure it's not going to come back to bite Kevin McCarthy any point in the near future. That's called satire. But George Santos, the person whose name we don't even know is real. So this is the Republican congressional candidate, actually congressional member, who
00:10:23
Speaker
Basically it turns out everything he has said about his past appears to be a lie. He claimed that his mother died in the 9-11 attacks, and then claimed that his mother died at Christmas some years later. He claimed at one point to be Jewish, and then when it was pressed upon him that he's actually Roman Catholic, he said, oh no, I meant Jew-ish. And I'm not Jewish, I'm just Jew-like.
00:10:53
Speaker
He claims to have worked for various companies who have no record of him. He claims to have been to various universities who have no record of him. He claims that he's always been out and gay, which his ex-wife finds to be quite remarkable given that they were married for quite some time when apparently
00:11:14
Speaker
He was being very out and gay and had no issue with his homosexuality. It seems that nothing he has said about his life is real, including the fact that four years ago he was even known by a different name, which was Anthony Devolder. And people are going, what is actually true about this candidate?
00:11:38
Speaker
And the astounding thing is the Republicans are not going to hold him to account because Republicans have such a narrow majority in the House at the moment, so in Congress at the moment, that they can't afford to turf them out and run an election where a Democrat might get in and narrow that majority even further. And you think that might be enough. Maybe you go, well, we'll swallow this dead rat. We'll allow Santos to be
00:12:07
Speaker
in Congress, but we won't give him any authority, we won't give him any committee commitments, but no, they're putting him on committees as well. So not only are they allowing a fabulous to be a member of Congress, they're giving that fabulous power. And this is the country that is still struggling to understand why Donald Trump became president. Well,
00:12:31
Speaker
Maybe, at some point in time, someone who was previously known as Santos might become President of the United States of America. Or, I think realistically, might claim he was President of the United States of America at some point in the near future.
Russian Influence in UK Politics: Fact or Fiction?
00:12:46
Speaker
He seems to think that nobody has a long memory, and thus he can make things up as he goes along.
00:12:53
Speaker
Alright, let's see if there's one more story that we can... Ah, yes. We might as well also finish on another Russian story. It says, MI5 refused to investigate Russian spies. Links to Tories says whistleblower. I've kind of given up on the Alex Jones thing here. I'm just doing the news.
00:13:09
Speaker
So, yeah, it turns out that people have been claiming that a Russian spy has been funneling money to conservative causes, which would be against the existing sanctions, and no one tends to want to investigate it. And what's interesting here is that these complaints are coming from within the House, so it's not
00:13:33
Speaker
they labor or lib dem people claiming that the Tories are being funded by dark Russian money. It's actually conservatives who are going, we think this money is coming from a dangerous place, we think it's linked to Russia here, and we're very concerned that no one seems to be very concerned that Russian money is being funneled into the Conservative Party, especially given the state of world affairs at this time.
00:14:00
Speaker
And so apparently there was a investigation by the British Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, and they claimed back in 2020, security services had turned a blind eye to credible evidence of Russian interference and other things that were going on at the time. And so this has made both Labour MPs and some conservative MPs very worried about exactly what's going on in British politics, although frankly,
00:14:30
Speaker
You should be worried about what's going on in British politics anyway, given a succession of corrupt and incompetent and just trivial Prime Ministers that the Tories have had in recent memory.
Jacinda Ardern's Resignation: Reasons and Future
00:14:45
Speaker
So yes, it seems that Russia is funneling dark money into the Tories, and no one seems to be particularly concerned, including the security services in the UK, who probably should be on the lookout for Russian operatives trying to influence British politics, but apparently when it comes to money being given to MPs, what am I fiver very, very hands off about these things, which
00:15:14
Speaker
just seems a little disturbing, seems also a little bit corrupt, but maybe I'm just, maybe I'm just a little bit, what's the word I'm trying to look for here? This is where Josh would sweep him and say something to fill this gap, but I'm just vamping instead. Maybe I'm just a little bit precious about these things. Maybe, maybe I'm a little bit precious about corruption. Maybe I should be more open to a certain degree of corruption being within a political situation.
00:15:43
Speaker
Oh, and of course, one thing we didn't mention, we, I didn't mention, of course, since Josh has been away, my country's changed Prime Ministers. So Jacinda Ardern has stepped down. She's basically tired of the job, which is understandable given how many crises she's had whilst being Prime Minister.
00:16:02
Speaker
from terrorist events to Covid and the like. So she stepped down. We have a new Prime Minister by the name of Chris Hippkins whose nickname is Chippy. There appears to be nothing conspiratorial about this. It seems that there's no scandal. The Prime Minister simply got tired of the role and no longer had the energy to do it anymore. As many people joked on the internet, many people have that thing of, oh, just take the Christmas break off.
00:16:30
Speaker
rejuvenate and then you get to the end of the Christmas break and go, yeah, actually, no, this job is not for me. That seems to have happened to Jacinda Ardern. The new Prime Minister was voted in by caucus. There was no dissent. He was the only candidate.
00:16:46
Speaker
it seems to be the unity candidate that they want to take through to the election at the end of this year, there appears to be no conspiracy here. I mean, I'm sure there are some people at the edges of the internet who are making dark, dark claims, but as close as we seem to be getting here is that many people think that Jacinta Ardern has a high-ranking, UN-esque job lined up,
00:17:14
Speaker
And so people go, it's convenient timing. But there seems to be no conspiracy here. It just seems to be she was tired of the role and is going on to do different work.
Personal Updates and Podcast Reunion
00:17:25
Speaker
So that's a bit of local news there of a non-conspiratorial bent. But I'm also aware that as soon as I click stop on this recording, there's probably going to be a new story out there, which actually says there was a grand conspiracy. And Jacinda Ardern is off to lead the New World Order, or at least form a new version of the band.
00:17:44
Speaker
new world order. Either way, be pleased to see what she does next.
00:17:50
Speaker
So that's basically all the news we've got time for this week. It is a shorter episode than usual, but talking straight to camera, which is jokes, or talking straight to microphone is actually quite difficult. Although this has been one continuous take, although I'll probably do a few cuts to remove some pops and crackle. You might hear a bit of background noise. That's the sea. I'm living down in Devonport with my mother while she's undergoing her treatment for lymphona.
00:18:20
Speaker
and it's a hot summer's day so the windows are open and the sea is cresting and crushing itself on rocks and so it sounds quite pleasant but it probably does make for weird background noise at the same time. Anyway, next week Josh should be back although next week's recording is probably going to be weirdly timetabled because of situations
00:18:44
Speaker
within my control, but things which are going to interrupt recording on a Thursday night. But Josh will be back next week-ish, and will return to a normal recording where I don't just have to vamp on screen for 20 minutes at a time. All right, I've got a cat who's now harassing me and wants some attention, so I will bid you totally vip.