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Speaker 1: You know, in the past, we used to look to

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our president for inspiring words to get us through tough

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times like we're going through now. Our current president, well,

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they offer thoughts and prayers and truth social posts. Well,

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today I do want to take a moment to talk

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about the shootings that happened over this weekend, both at

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Brown University and in Australia during the Hanukkah celebration at

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Bondi Beach. Welcome back to The Michael Cohen Show on

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our continued journey to a million subscribers, and thanks to you,

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we blew already past that half million mark on our

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journey to that one million number. So please hit subscribe, watch, comment,

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and share, because this level of insanity, it's got to stop.

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So I want to begin just by showing you Trump's

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response to the shootings this weekend. But in order to

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do that, I want to set the stage of truly

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how unhinged he and his administration are. When he posted

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on Truth's social this morning about the death of Rob Reiner,

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let me show you what he wrote in it. He writes,

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A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner,

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a tortured and struggling. The ones very talented movie director

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and comedy star has passed away together with his wife Michelle,

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reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive,

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unyielding and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known

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as Trump derangement syndrome, sometimes referred to as TDS. He

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was known to have driven people crazy by his raging

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obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia

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reaching new heights as the Trump administration surpassed all goals

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and expectations of greatness and with the golden Age of

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America upon us perhaps like never before. May Rob and

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Michelle rest in peace. Now let me be crystal clear,

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he has no knowledge about what's going on in the investigation.

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In fact, there are reports that, unfortunately, it appears that

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it might have been the son who killed his parents,

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nothing to do with Trump'd arrangement syndrome. In comparison, I

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want to show you what a president should say. Let

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me show you what former President Obama said about the

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same Rob Reiner passing. In it, he writes, Michelle and

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I are heartbroken by the tragic passing of Rob Reiner

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and his beloved wife Michelle. Rob's achievements in film and

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television gave us some of our most cherished stories on screen,

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But beneath all of the stories he produced was a

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deep belief in the goodness of people and a lifelong

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commitment to putting that belief into action. Together, he and

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his wife live lives defined by purpose. They will be

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remembered for the values they championed and the countless people

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they inspired. We send our deepest condolences to all who

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love them. I'm not really sure that there are words

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within which to say that can demonstrate or elucidate the

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distinction between the two social media posts. Nevertheless, Trump never

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been afraid to speak ill of a celebrity after that

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individual's passing, and Trump also not afraid to speak ill

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of victims of gun violence either. At the Christmas White

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House reception, Trump claimed things happen when talking about the

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shooting at Brown University.

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Speaker 2: Play the clip and at Brown University great school, great,

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really one of the greatest schools anywhere in the world.

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Things can happen. So to the nine injured, get well fast,

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and to the families of those two that are no

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longer with us. I pay my deepest regards and respects

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from the United States of America. Thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: It's very you know, as I write it, my sub

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stec of today. The politics of hollow platitudes, thoughts, and

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prayers have become America's ritual of surrender, comforting the powerful,

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silencing accountability, and ensuring the next memorial is already being planned.

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My friends, America doesn't have a gun problem. We have

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a cowardice problem. We dress it up in constitutional rhetoric,

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we wrap it in flags, and we anesthetize ourselves with

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ritualistic grief. But at its core, its core, this is

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a failure of nerve and leadership. We know exactly what's happening,

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we know why it's happening, and year after year, body

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after body, we choose not to stop it. On Saturday,

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shortly after the shooting, Trump posted that a suspect was

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in but then literally talk about jumping to it. Fifteen

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minutes later said that he was wrong. Let me show

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you what they wrote in it. He writes, I had

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been briefed on the shooting that took place at Brown

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University in Rhode Island. The FBI is on the scene,

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the suspect is in custody, God blessed the victims and

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the families of the victims. He goes on to then, right,

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the Brown University police reversed their previous statement, the suspect

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is not in custody. Again, why put out a statement

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before you actually have facts? What's about a cash Patel

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didn't get notification from the FBI that the investigation isn't

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going exactly as planned. Now, to make matters even worse,

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the person of interest that they arrested yesterday turned out

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to be the wrong person altogether. And unsurprisingly for this administration,

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for Trump, for the FBI, they just messed up. And

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now the foe about that twenty four year old suspect

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from Wisconsin. It's been spread all over the internet. A

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reporter went on and asked the Rhode Island Police chief

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what evidence led them to arrest that individual. Listen to

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what he says about the FBI play the clip.

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Speaker 3: Specifically said in his tweet that it was a tip

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from Providence police that led you all to Hampton, And

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can you confirm it that's true? And what exactly was

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the evidence that led into this person?

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Speaker 4: At first?

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Speaker 5: Yes, it was a there was a tip that came in,

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just like we were taking any other tips, and that

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one came in specifically identifying a person of interest, which

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was this individual, and so we architect this got on

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it just like they got another, but this specific one.

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It was actually picked up by the FBI and they

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followed through it and they ended up coming and located

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this individual of interest. And at that point we did

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our thorough investigation examine, ended up drafting some searcher formats,

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came up with some evidence, but those that evidence was

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examined and we didn't have enough obviously to be able

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to prosecute anybody, and so the person was released.

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Speaker 1: Go ahead, actually question Look, let me be crystal clear

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about something. The comments that came out of the White House,

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especially during the Christmas party. And I want to be clear.

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I've been to that Christmas party. It's fun and I'm

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not being sarcastic. Place smells like pine needles and or

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there's the marine band playing. It is truly an experience.

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But as that party carried on behind guarded gates and

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wreathlined corridors, President in the first Lady, they offered the

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most predictable response in American political life. Yeah, thoughts and prayers,

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Thoughts and prayers, Thoughts and prayers for the students senselessly

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murdered at Brown University, Thoughts and prayers for the Jewish

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families in Australia who gathered at Bondi Beach to celebrate

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the start of Hanukkah It's the festival of Light, only

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to watch as the second day came transformed that celebration

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into a memorial after the anti Semitic violence shattered what

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should have just been a week of joy. These thoughts

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in prayers. It's the laziest phrase in American lexicon. It

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costs nothing to say, it risks nothing, and you know what,

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it changes absolutely nothing as well. Meanwhile, the Rhode Island

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Attorney General then addressed the fact that the suspect was

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being released as he should be.

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Speaker 6: Play the clip that work continues and it will continue tomorrow.

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Our prosecutors were there six in total. Our victim services

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folks were at the hospital. But this is what these

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investigations look like.

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Speaker 4: I've been around long enough to know that sometimes you

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head in one direction and then you have to regroup

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and go in another. And that's exactly what has happened

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over the last twenty four hours or so. Collectively, the

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team developed leads in a number of areas. One was

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chased to ground. It led to us detaining a person

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of interest. So those words and how we choose those

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words when we're talking about an investigation matter, and what

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it means here is that certainly there was some degree

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of evidence that pointed to this individual, but that evidence

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needed to be corroborated and confirmed, and over the last

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twenty four hours leading into just very very recently, that

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evidence now points in a different direction. So what that

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means is that this person of interest needs to be

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it should be released. I think what is really unfortunate

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that this person's name was leaked to the public. It's

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hard to put that back in the bottom. Okay, so

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we're going to proceed very carefully here.

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Speaker 1: There is look absolutely just a shit show. There is

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no way to put it back into the bottle. Now.

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Like I said, thoughts and prayers that're pointless, they're meaningless

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at this time. But I did want to end on

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a clip. Oh boy, I want to end on a

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clip to show you just how deranged MAGA is. On

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Fox News, they literally try to claim that Rhode Island's

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restrictive gun laws are the reason that the shooting happened.

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Play the clip.

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Speaker 5: As rare at this moment in our country's history that

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we get a politician not take that bait.

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Speaker 7: Yes, because I mean, he betrayed how he feels. He

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is living in an incredibly restrictive state in terms of

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gun control and gun legislation. And it's very interesting because

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in those states you tend to have the more horrific outcomes, again,

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because people can't defend themselves whenever, we don't.

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Speaker 1: Really what just took place in Washington, d C. A

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district that actually has some of the most strict gun

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laws in the entire country. Let me be clear, as

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I also write in my substact, the politics of hollow platitudes,

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that's out right now. So far this year United States

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has experienced more more than four hundred mass shootings, seventy

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seventy plus at schools alone, seventy classrooms turned into crime scenes,

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seventy reminders that in America, active shooter drills are treated

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like fire drills, and children are expected to adapt to

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the possibility of execution as part of their education. And

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still from these idiots, nothing, nothing, We're told that this

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is the price of freedom. We're fed the same recycled

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bullshit talking points. We're instructed to worship the Second Amendment

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without context, without limits, and without regard for the bodies

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piling up beneath it. So yeah, we mourn loudly, briefly, performatively,

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and then they legislate quietly, which is to say, not

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at all. I want to turn around and give you

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just a quick snapshot of what's happening in Australia, who

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already had some of the toughest gun laws on the planet,

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and yet after the Bondi Beach massacre, they're leaders. They

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didn't hide behind platitudes. They didn't say now it's not

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the time right to talk about it. They didn't pretend

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that the problem was too complex or politically inconvenient. They

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did what adults entrusted with power are supposed to do.

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They reassessed reality and they're acting on it. Mind you,

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they've done this before thirty years ago, all right, after

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a lone gunman slaughtered thirty five people at Port author

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in Tasmania using a semi automatic weapon, Australia responded with

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speed that should embarrass every American lawmaker, because within two

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weeks Trump's famous two weeks two weeks they enacted sweeping

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gun reforms, bands buybacks, national registration, strict licensing. Opposition. Yeah,

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they screamed, the gun lobby, they protested, and the government

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they listened, politely, gave them the two fingers salute and

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they did it anyway. And the results they actually speak

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louder than any NRA press release or donation, because between

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July twenty twenty three and June of twenty twenty four,

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Australia recorded literally thirty one gun related murders. Thirty one.

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That's a homicide rate of zero point zero nine per

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one hundred thousand people. In America, we wouldn't even call

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that statistic. We call it around error and it goes on.

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But that's that's what adults do, adults who care about

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future generations as we do. And that's why help me

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to get to a million. Let's make our voices so loud,

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so angry, so heard that nobody can ignore us, not

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on this issue and not on any issue. And as always,

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thanks for listening. Hey everyone, First of all, thanks for watching.

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I mean we're going to be posting daily episodes with

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reactions and talking about politics. We'll be talking about everything

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in fact, so please like and subscribe. Join us on

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this journey