This fog is the perfect weather for us to check out the real house that inspired Disney's haunted mansion. It's perfect. This is going to be great. Let's go do this. Now when I say the inspiration for the haunted mansion, I'm talking about the look, the facade, the outside of the building because as you know Disneyland has a haunted mansion and that was the original one and it was actually located in New Orleans Square but when they were building Disney World they were looking for something because it was getting placed in Liberty Square so they wanted a mansion with more of a Victorian look to it and that's when the Imagineers came across this beautiful mansion and decided that's what it's going to look like. Before we get to the mansion actually, I wanted to show off a little bit of this beautiful town, Jim Thorpe. Look at it. The buildings are so just awesome. I love the clock tower. I love the old bricky looking kind of streets. This is pretty amazing actually. What a cute awesome town. I also wanted to give you guys a little more information about the mansion which is actually right behind me and we're going to get to that but a little backstory is always good. So anyways, Asia Packer who was one of the richest man's back in 1860, he was heavily into the railroad. His son recently got married and wanted to build a mansion next to his house and his son's name was Harry Packer. So the mansion that was based off the haunted mansion is actually called the Harry Parker mansion. Kind of confusing. Harry Potter. Parker. His father bought it for him and they're kind of right next to each other. So not only are we going to check out one awesome mansion but we're also going to see another awesome mansion. So the plan is to head right over to Harry's mansion and then come back and check out Asia Packer mansion. But Harry Packer's mansion is the one that was based off, well that Disney world based on the mansion's looks after. So I want to check that one out first and then come back and definitely check out this one because look at that. Amazing. Oh wow.  These cool benches. Oh, there it is. You guys ready? There it is. The Harry Packer mansion. Look at that. Here's a little side by side comparison. Oh, looks pretty good doesn't it? Wow. Let's get up there.  This is like blowing my mind right now. The Harry Packer mansion and it's actually a bed and breakfast in so you can come here and stay in this mansion. Look at the stairway.  It's kind of nifty and cool. Look at the cool windows though and the door knob. Look at the nifty stained glass. I always like stained glass windows. I walked around front because I want to see it from the front side and wow. It is magnificent. I really want to get up on that porch though. Honestly. What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments. I mean I see a lot of similarities but I mean it's still just a gorgeous, gorgeous house. And like I said before Harry Packer mansion is also a bed and breakfast in and they do murder mystery weekends. That is pretty awesome. So you can look them up murder mansion dot com and check out all the cool nifty activities that they do here. Turn up behind the house because I think this is the way you check in if you were staying here. Oh they have a libations lounge but it looks like it's closed aww shucks aww man and I missed the self-guided tours Saturday and Sunday 1 to 4 only man. You just can't get enough of it. I'm like circling around the building finding ways to get in. You can't go actually inside the house. I did call and they did tell me they did not like filming inside the house so that's why I'm not going to film inside the house but you can stay here it's a bed and breakfast you can do a self-guided tour lots of great stuff. They even have a little park right next door right across the street. Just cross the street and look how pretty this is. Oh the bells are ringing it's like their garden or like if you were walking through the graveyard scene oh wow this is so beautiful here that's it I want to live here now yep my goal is to buy that house one day. I would live here and come sit out in my garden out front and just take in all the beauty surrounding me unbelievable isn't it check out that shot right there the house sitting on the hill I'm loving this I am like loving this that is beautiful right there oh man I see what Disney or the Imagineers saw in this place it is pretty amazing here you're so beautiful to me what do you guys think would you stay here that I would stay here they said the room rates are about 150 to 375 dollars a night I mean that's pretty good for a bed and breakfast and to stay in something so historical like it's totally worth it I mean I don't have money right now but I would stay trust me and it's on my bucket list now I'm coming back here I'm spending a night in that house it is gonna happen but until then my sweet sweet home away from home we're gonna go check out big daddy's house the bells from the church is really making it 20 times better being here right now I hope you can hear them I love it this equally is another beautiful mansion imagine sitting on that porch you're just looking out at that view wow legit view his life from his home wow oh something also really awesome that I just discovered back here this house was also a part of the underground railroad that is pretty amazing they have doors that was leading underneath this mountain like it's an escape goat I gotta show you look at that what is behind those doors amazing so love the life you live and we'll see you next time bye just one last look amazing got a long walk down the hill here oh boy there's a car coming oh I shouldn't be walking backwards


Log entry the catch scarlet Queen Philip Carney master position five degrees five minutes south 120 degrees three minutes east wind light sky overcast Remarks cleared port of Macassar, Celebi's Island after troubled voyage up coast reason for trouble Tattooed beaver and baby food for parry parry Overing sky nine days out of Santa can that we swung in toward the mountains that are the backdrop for Macassar our first Port below the equator The scarlet Queen threaded away through the usual clutter of Oriental Harbor traffic Rusted inter-island steamers in from Surabaya Batavia. I'm Boina Papua native craft from Celebi's ports It started to rain when we were halfway across the harbor by the time we'd reached our birth at the Netherlands Asia Company's docks our decks were awash with it and it fell with equatorial consistency for two days Things orders on Macassar had warned that the place was swarming with Constantino men grouping because of our nearness to the prize Kang had charted me to sail after the orders were that unless we were Contacted the first day. We would leave and return every 24 hours The first day passed without contact So on the second my chief mate Gallagher and I nosed into the city looking for a short cargo hall Was something to make a trip out profitable We didn't find it But the third day started out to be better We got a promise of clearing weather when the barometer started to rise and the chance for a money trip when a visitor walked aboard the scarlet Queen I am from Riper master of the local Juliana. I'll welcome aboard captain. I'm Phil Carney. I see you birthed here You are for charter I might be good. I tell you about your passengers. I'm not rigged for passengers. You are good enough There are only two men and a married couple two cabins They bought passage with me to parry parry, but now I don't go I got a better offer a cargo for Java and you already signed for their passage. That is right They are in a hurry to get there one day up one day back. I'll pay you myself 2000 floor. Hmm Well, all right, Vanriper get him aboard. I'll want to leave this afternoon. Yeah, the papers to sign In this envelope 2000 floor. They will be here in two hours. I Signed the papers and watched him waddle off and disappear into the driving rain Gallagher moved his gear into my cabin and we made what preparations we could for the passengers Check the chart for the run up the Celebes coast to parry parry Looked like tricky sailing already, but when I read the barometer the last time before my passengers came aboard I wished I hadn't signed them on The mercury had risen all morning, but now it was falling rapidly that in the lessening rain meant only one thing in these latitudes storm and So mutual continues the voyage of the Scarlet Queen written by Gild out and Bob Talman and starring Elliot Lewis The Scarlet Queen proudest ship to plow the seas bound for uncharted adventure Every week a complete entry in the log and every week a league further into the strange Voyage of the Scarlet Queen By the time the passengers showed up even the harbor water was uneasy stirred by the rolling swells that swept in from Macassus straight They came aboard in the following order first wearing gaiters a high clerical color flat hat and a long ecclesiastical Rain cape a hawk faced man. I Am Reverend beaver captain Harlan beaver May I say that your presence in this port was providential when I think of those poor Gentle savages without a shepherd these many weeks. Yeah, our cabin is the first one to start with Reverend this companion Number two was a sodden shape and case and white linen that was both wet and dirty He carried a small black release. I have been cursed with the name Ambrose Griffithy, sir But you will be relieved to know that there is a qualified physician aboard You bunk with a reverend doctor a reverend you say It'll be a mighty tussle should he grapple with Griffithy's demon first cabin on this side The couple came aboard with the help of three crewmen a man in a wheelchair Bundled in scarves steamer rugs and rubber sheeting until you could hardly tell what he looked like was carried aboard followed by his wife a Pale worried looking little woman at least 15 years younger than her husband But trying her best to disguise the difference in their ages by the lack of makeup and the shapeless clothes she wore Mr.. Mrs. Alfred Kram captain my husband is an invalid as you see there are certain things now about our boxes You mean your baggage no our supplies There are 48 boxes in all and have your men stack them in our cab 48 Look, I'm sorry, Mrs. Kram. I contracted to take four passengers I can't take a cargo unless it goes through official channels if you want to delay your sailing you are of course at liberty to Have the supplies inspected, but I assure you the boxes contain nothing but special foods Strain baby foods which are necessary to my husband's very existence Captain Carney if you only knew how hard it's been to attain even this small supply the delays the red tape in my Poor okay, okay, Mrs. Kram. Gallagher rig the cargo gear and get it aboard 48 crates in the cabin skip Forget what you can in and stole the rest in number one hole. Thank you captain. Yeah, well, there she comes red get it aboard and make it secure 3 p.m. Ship took on heavy roll on entering Macassus Strait seek cresting with heavy cross well Sky lowering with scutting clouds wind moderate southeast gale velocity 30 knots Restricted passengers to quarters double reefed mainsail and mizzen 4 30 p.m. Swell rising sky unchanged wind fresh southeast gale velocity increased to 38 knots Course altered 10 points to south for reasons of security put main backstay carried away mainsail taken in sailing under jib and mizzen 8 p.m. Weather conditions unchanged ordered ship brought to for night and sales taken in keeping bowing to storm with motor Oil lanterns rigged throughout ship due to flooding of generator and failure of electrical power What's happened to the lights generator's been damaged river and the oil lights are carriers But your orders were to stay in your cabin till the storm passed over. What are you doing here? I have no need for the protection of the cabin captain, but for the sake of my native flock in party party I must demand from you our position and the direction in which we are traveling our position is just off the sperm Monday's And our direction is roughly not by West all fate is in your hands captain so saying I Accused you of the bastest untruth you reverse the direction of the ship and in cowardice you are retreating toward Macassar Reverend beaver if I could put about to Macassar I would but I can't our bowers to the storm and we're losing way before it Captain Carney, I must reach party party. Well, we'll make it when do you expect to resume your call when it's safe to do it I hope that will be soon kept so do I now will you please go back to your cabin reverend I got work to do There's you command As he left his hawk-like face was set at an expression that still could have been fear or anger or both It started for the engine room to see what could be done about the generator But before I got halfway across the cabin I was faced by another example of the dwindling passenger discipline the form of another visitor This one was at least more pleasant and he was still carrying his little black bag I see you've been blessed with a visit from my bunkmate. I in a strange one He is wandering about the ship the way he does what about your grifety. What are you doing out of your cabin? I've come to share with you a startling bit of information. Oh, what is it? Grifety has been about some captain dear But for the life of me never can I remember seeing a hail and hearty man huddled into a wheel chair before tonight What do you mean? Well speaking my rounds among the passengers bringing them what help I could in the way of soothing words and Medicines I quietly opened the door to the cabin of mr. And mrs. Alfred Cram The gentleman was there alone captain busy himself facing the floor for a naft now What do you think of that? Closing the door without giving him a sight of me I left returning after a proper time and using me knuckles on the door Come in he says and there he was in his wheel chair.  Yeah, what do you make of it? Nothing dark. It's not in my business I got trouble enough for my own I suppose you're right yet It strikes me as queer the man would waste his time in a wheelchair when he can walk about But you'll have to admit captain dear. It is a strange list of passengers you've got that it is grifety that it is I Didn't know how strange they were until I made my second try for the engine room this time I'd gotten to the cabin door before I was stopped I Made it across the bucking cabin as quickly as I couldn't pull open the door to the companion way In the dim light from the oil lamps I could see two people standing by the cabin shared by Reverend beaver and dr. Griffithy one of them was Vera Cram and the other bear to the waist his upper body covered with intricate tattooing Visible even in the faint light was the Reverend Harlan beaver His right arm was raised before he saw me and his slaps and Vera Cram reeling across the companion way Then he turned and went into his cabin. Oh captain. Thank heaven you've come going on Griffithy materialized out of the gloom some place they both followed me into the cram cabin Both port holes were open and the gale whipping through them had blown out the lamp Started to light it after closing the ports, but Griffithy stopped me We don't need light captain poor ferris dead and perhaps darkness would be more merciful to the poor widow take her out Captain, I'll do all there is to do which is little more than covering the disease from the eyes of the living all right Okay, Mrs. Cram you can come into my camera It wasn't until she'd moved into the light that I noticed that a change had come over her She was no longer without makeup and she no longer dressed in shapeless clothes She'd stopped trying to look 15 years older than she was and she was quite becoming even in widowhood Sit down over here, Mrs. Cram. You won't feel a role so much. Thank you Captain I I feel that I must tell you something. I've got to talk to someone. Oh, what about about my husband? I don't believe he died of natural causes You saw Reverend beaver in the companion way when he slugged you. Yeah Clerical robes and his kindly attitudes are disguised captain. I think he killed my husband Why out of jealousy? Holland beaver and I were quite closely associated a few years ago Intimately you might say But he got into serious trouble with the Dutch officials and he was sent to prison Mm-hmm. I promised to wait for him, but while he was gone I well, I learned to hate him for what he'd done to me. I married Alfred Holland found me and wanted me back.  I I'm risking my life and telling you this captain Holland never finished his prison term escaped Captain Carney, could I please stay here under your protection? I'm afraid Well, we'll make you feel any better. Mrs. Cram. Sure. You're welcome to the cabin By the time the overcast morning had arrived the wind had dropped to a fresh gusty breeze We'd repaired the main backstage the Scarlet Queen plunged into the still heavy swells under sail again We'd made a new course to parry parry We were a half hour out and I was just being relieved at the wheel when Gryffindy walked after meet me Could I have a private word with you captain sure Gryffindy? How private Mrs. Cram's in my cabin Well in the one recently vacated by her husband. Okay, come on It's about cram being killed instead of dying. I already heard it. Did you know and from whom may I ask his wife? Oh, how about it? It's the truth captain. He was poisoned Did she confess no she accused beaver the reverend now And what might have been known at him to drive him to such lengths the fact that he's not a reverend He's an escaped convict and jealousy over the woman from past friendship I know splendid all the elements of drama captain gear. Yeah, well, you can have it Gryffindy Sounds a little messy to me You don't approve of these people captain not especially None of them turn out to be what they looked like in the first place the invalid isn't an invalid He doesn't dies killed the mousy woman turns into a sweater girl. The reverend is an escaped convict It's a pretty good average Everybody but Gryffindy he came aboard a villain and by the saints of villain he'll remain But to the gist hmm feeling a pang of hunger just before cram departed and having a weakness for Strained baby food myself. I went into the hole to get me a can You've got guts Gryffindy nosing around my ship. Hey, but I'm willing to pay for the liberty. I took Did you know captain dear that you have a fortune on your ship or did I find it out? What are you talking about? look here baby food The can he held out to me had been opened the label called its strained vegetables But the can was filled with salt-like white crystals Wasn't hard to figure what it was or why cram had been putting on the invalid act Narcotics captain a ton of the stuff I should say now listen captain dear You've been I for profit or you wouldn't be sailing these waters carrying passengers and the like The two of us have a fortune stacked up about us here in the cabin and more in the hold It's ours for the taking Yeah thousands of Florence dollars if you like do you have the heart for it? Well, that depends on our chances Gryffindy who's to say no They're a cram yeah, she'll not say a word not with the specter of murder hanging over her own head She'd have a time convincing anybody. She didn't poison them for a full share of their supplies Do you think she did no Because I did But nobody'll prove it captain dear even if they try which I doubt You did a few drapes of poison in the oil of the lamp captain after cutting the wires of the generator So we'd have the lamps death by absorption of the stuff a trick developed by the Borges god Love them who used the wick of the candle for the same purpose Handy thing to know perfect conditions small cabin No ventilation with the ports closed against the storm and captain dear No evidence the lantern and I chucked over the side What do you think is that? That's very neat Gryffindy I liked you better before I heard it, but it's very neat. You will join me in the venture What's the deal? They simply face her with the truth Offer her a choice between being turned over for smuggling and murder And freedom as an honest woman recently widowed due to natural causes Carrying in her hand a death certificate signed by me and witnessed by you And dabbing at her eyes from grief brought on by sienna for husband buried at sea What do you think that? I'll think it over the thinking's done. What do you mean man? Well, we've only seen one can of the baby food griffidy You stay here and check some of these i'm going into the hold and look at some of the ones down there Okay, well you gave me a start man. I thought you'd lost your heart Not me griffidy after I locked his door. I did the same with those leading to the other principles There was anything I didn't want to get mixed up with it was the netherlands indies customs They're tough at best and even tougher on non-nationals I was going to turn over the whole shipload to the first official who'd take them But I should have thrown them overboard and saved myself the trouble Our hook hadn't been on the bottom of shallow anchorage of parry parry five minutes before the pudgy little local region had climbed out of his dinghy and stomped into the cabin The arrival didn't surprise me, but what he had to say did Captain carney I have the pleasure to report that you ought to be detained for the arrival of customs officers from the cassa Oh, I thought I'd give you the news region. I got them all locked up for you and the contraband is just as it came aboard You will receive no leniency for your late show cooperation leniency Why should I need leniency? Yeah, you ask me that captain.  I went to the customs captain van riper. Yeah What does he know about it? He says the cargo was not on his ship that he saw you and the cram woman talking and that you took money from her Huh, well, then it's a frame Of what? I don't know what you call it out here. It means van ripers lying. Why should he lie to get me into trouble with customs? Hey What company does he sail under do you know? It says on the message It is here. Um, do you read that? I don't have to Constantino, isn't it? That is the name. Yeah, I thought so Gallagher Never mind coming down up anchor with sailing out of here great Get moving red get us out of here What's the step? Yeah, I know fatty.   You resist the Netherlands indies government reaches for a gunner because we'll have to I warned you fatty. I'll warn you again. You'll be a good boy or I'll lash you to a mast You hear from I've heard enough already Now come on get up on your feet and follow me around. Don't talk just listen You know if you behave you'll make yourself a name on this island Come on I got good news for you grippity Yeah, I got a Dutch official who wants to come in with us protection You don't say no I what a fortune will do to the official mine. Here he is. Yeah. Yeah He's worried about one thing. He thinks too many people know this stuff's aboard He doesn't quite believe that you and the woman and I are the only ones and that even I didn't know until an hour or so ago No, that's right. There's not a thing to fear man. Dear. It was a good scheme from the beginning and proven No, yeah, since you killed cram Well, uh, that is a subject without appeal when I'm faced with the uniform Thanks, grippity. We'll get together later and map our course After locking grippity and his cabin again, I left the regent and gallagher's hands and called on Vera cram All I had was passion and greed to work with but sometimes when they're stirred together they're strong medicine To her I told the whole story up to but not including the meeting with dutch law or its presence aboard Then I went to the reverend harlan beaver and told him the same using only the truth except in regard to one point Because when I left him he believed that Vera was not only denying him a share of the fortune in drugs as well as herself But that she decided to share them both with grippity I led the regent into my cabin, tucked him in a corner out of sight but within hearing Returned his gun to him I stationed red outside the passageway in case I needed him And then I gathered the passengers What is the meaning of this meeting captain? I contracted for passage to my mission in darling You can drop the act and take off the high collar beaver. We all know who you are Vera I had to tell him holland darling. I thought he'd help us help us what? Spend the fortune from your narcotics captain.  I thought he'd help us with your escape holland So that we could start our life together again holland captain. Why has the situation quiet gravity? Please holland Well now who might you be to be quiet in me? Vera I've taken alias from you The months in prison. I did for you Escape I did for you the hiding in disguise. I did for you Even your marriage didn't stop me But this has what holland I don't understand don't lie to me I'd only felt this way before How easy it would have been but I don't understand if the cram is dead And you decide to share what you are and what you have with gravity You don't understand that anything I felt for you must turn to hate What have you been saying drifty? I haven't been sharing anything. No, of course you haven't. Why should you? Because I don't talk unless I think beaver which is more than I can say for the two of you But now I have thought and I know why the captain has brought us here Don't try the gun grifety. It is the captain who thinks he will gain, but he won't The medicine almost backfired grifety pulled a revolver out of his pocket pushing his chair back as he stood He swung toward me, but beavers hate and jealousy were faster His gun spoke before he realized that grifety was drawing on me He watched grifety's body slump to the floor and while he did the truth came to him. He looked up at me Started to raise his gun again. Then my dutch ally in the corner opened up Beaver's right shoulder jerked twice under the shocks. He spun slowly around And collapsed loosely under the deck He's not dead, no No, I don't think so, but thanks anyway. Hey skipper it work all right? Yeah. Yeah, right You know, I think I set a record of some kind I've been saved twice in as many minutes once by an escaped convict and once by the law Not bad skipper. Not bad. Yeah, they will read about me in the newspapers in mcassar better than that fatty You're gonna make a personal appearance because that's where we're going now By nine the following morning we'd made the return trip to mcassar left our cargo including passengers dead and alive and the fat hands of the Regent Received our sailing orders and headed out once more into a brightening sky over the strait We left the harbor under power But when we threaded through the traffic and found deep clear water, we settled back on the wind The water was brushed into whitecaps by the playful gusts that were all that remained of the storm So drew up to its height The boom swung heavenly out The deck beneath me shuddered a little under the first rush of sail power Chips went up and tightened Then the mizzen When the scarlet queen dug in And the spray at her bow turned creamy with a speed Lifted into the air Blew to starboard like spin drift a better departure than the last one skipper Somewhat mate and we ought to set up a rule no more passengers. They just mess up the ship Oh, they aren't all bad red. Oh, I don't know some of my best friends have been passengers. Well, how about smugglers? Well, all right, I'll go along with you there. We accept no more smugglers. Well, it's a relief to hear that I know I'll sleep easier. You sound like you don't believe me red Sure, I believe you but I just don't trust smugglers. That's a good honest american remark red I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you to drink skipper. Yeah, if you're sure it isn't contraband After you mate after you log entry the catch scarlet queen 5 30 p.m miles traveled from san francisco 16821 sky overcast wind light carrying full sail ship secure for night Signed philip carney master The voyage of the scarlet queen has come to you through the worldwide facilities of the united states armed forces radio and television service


These days to get attacked all we have to do is step foot off campus and tell anybody even a local Qantas club or a local church or even a group of elementary school kids that climate change is real and then the angry letters start to flood in. Typically the attacks are not really about the science. The attack on the science is a proxy for what is really an effort to discredit science that may prove inconvenient for certain special interests. That's when I started getting attacked and that was when life sort of changed. It was a bit like you know going through the looking glass. I started getting hate email. What happened then was I mentioned to a couple of colleagues what was going on and one of my colleagues at Scripps at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said to me you should talk to Ben Sander. Something sort of similar happened to him. I remember sitting in a bar in Madrid with Stephen Schneider at the late Stephen Schneider immediately after the final sentence had been agreed on in the 1995 report a sentence that's forever engraved on my memory. The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate and here we are at this bar and Steve says to me this changes everything you know your life is going to be changed forever and I had no idea what he was talking about I really didn't. There is definitely a pattern of what happens. Nasty emails, complaints to your university, requests for your emails and a lot of attacks online. Often it takes the form of an attack on individual scientists. There's a part of you know the strategy of ad hominem attack.  I have received letters in the mail in that in one case contained a white powder that I had to actually report to the FBI they had to come to my office and investigate this and send this off to a lab to make sure that you know it wasn't anthrax or some very dangerous substance that my entire department would have been subject to because of this. Then there's the power of the Internet which really was not available back in 1995 to harness your supporters to go after individual scientists send them threatening emails or worse and let them know we're watching you and we don't like you we don't like what you do. One of the tactics that you see in sort of climate change denialism is an effort to spin and misrepresent peer-reviewed scientific studies. So often studies that say one thing for example show that you know some aspect of climate change is you know even worse than we thought will somehow be spun by climate change deniers as if it you know doesn't provide evidence for concern. Clearly misrepresenting scientific information, cherry-picking scientific data. One egregious example that we talk about in the book is an early work by Jim Hansen that Bill Nirenberg, Bob Jastrow and Fred Seitz take out of context and use it to argue that climate change is caused by the Sun when in fact if you go back to the original paper Hansen is arguing exactly the opposite. I think an additional weapon in the arsenal is a freedom of information act requests which are being used not really to advance understanding or again shed light on complex scientific issues but as a tactic to threaten to intimidate to throw a spanner in the works to take up your time. They will bully editors to try to get them to retract articles that are a threat to their case, their case being that climate change isn't real it's not something to worry about. The weirdest day of my whole life practically was the day I got a phone call from a reporter in Tulsa, Oklahoma who said to me are you aware of the fact that Senator James Inhoff is attacking you? At that time I honestly didn't even know who Senator Inhoff was in fact I think I'd been to Oklahoma maybe once but I mean so yeah and I said no I have no idea why I mean I first I thought he was making a mistake like this was some other well I have a very unusual name so it didn't seem plausible it was some other Naomi Areskas you know yeah and then he had he read to me from the speech that this that Inhoff was making you know and it was part of what we all are very familiar with now that I was part of the global conspiracy the scientific conspiracy to bring down global capitalism and I remember thinking conspiracy scientists are not that organized. Hacking emails releasing them all of these things yeah the technology has moved on since 1995 but it's the same playbook don't really focus on the science and advancing understanding contributing but tear down destroy. Well I think the best we can do is shield ourselves from the attacks and try not to dwell on them unless it's a safety issue in which case we take appropriate steps and try to move on focusing on what we want to achieve rather than what's trying to hold us back. So if you are a prominent scientist if you participate in the public discourse as I've often said you better develop a thick skin because you will be attacked personally. So my number one rule of thumb is do not Google myself I don't want to see my number two rule of thumb is do not read the comment section I don't want to know. One of the things that I think is really important is that by writing about these things and by documenting it and by writing about it in a scholarly way you know with high standards of documentation we can explain to our colleagues or institutions editors a journal and the public and the media what this is because this is not a scientific debate I mean if I have one message that's what this my message has been all along and still is this is not a scientific debate it's a political debate but it's a political debate being made to look like a scientific debate. We now know why people do that because it's a very very effective strategy because if you can make people think it's a scientific debate then people think it's too soon to act but if people see the truth if they realize that this is certain if it's a political debate that it's related to people's ideologies to their value structures that gives a whole different cast so it's very very important for people to understand the character of what this thing is. Some things are worth fighting for and that perhaps was the most profound lesson for me back then that a clear public understanding of the science doing the kind of thing that you're doing here that was truly worth fighting for.


Put your thumb up when we should start area. Hi, my name is media Benjamin I'm with code pink, and I'm very happy to be joined today in this webinar by a dear friend Iranian American who grew up in Iran has been working as a peace activist she is a scholar. She's taken dozens of delegations of Americans to Iran, particularly people in the faith based community. She has organized delegations for code pink to go to Iran. And she is also a member of the code pink advisory board that has been working with us for a long time to try to figure out how we can improve us relations with Iran. So I'm delighted to be on with you Leila thank you for taking the time on a Sunday to be with us. Thank you very much for having me. It's my honor and pleasure. Certainly we're in very difficult times. It seemed like last week that World War three was going to be starting. I know you were very upset and, of course, everybody in Iran was upset and all of our friends here in the US, thinking that we were just about on the brink of an all out war. And I don't like to say we were on the brink of war because we've been at war with Iran. Now for almost two years since the Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear deal and impose these brutal brutal sanctions and we'll talk more about. We thought that the shooting war was really happening and Iran responded to the killing of Soleimani with quite a brilliant restraint by a hitting the US bases while they're Iraqi bases but where US soldiers are in Iraq. But really making sure that they didn't hit Americans, and fortunately no lives of Iraq use were taken either. It was to prove that Iranians had the ability to reach those bases without going through their allies. And it was also to show they didn't want to move into this all out war. And I know that you grew up, Leila, during the time of the Iran Iraq war so you could you tell us a little bit why this memory that people have, how it affects people's views on where we stand today. Yes, that is actually, I was eight years old when the war broke out and I was 16 when it's ended. So I remember. 80 to 88. Yes. And so I vividly remember the going to the shelters losing my friends and losing friends, families, and also waiting in the shelter for a bomb drop to hear it and say oh thanks God tonight was not our, you know, turn probably next day. I remember when going to school the school windows was shattered everywhere. And these are the time that, of course, the rest of the world gave Saddam Hussein all kinds of weapons including chemical weapons and I'm talking about Tehran, the capital which was not really engaged in a war to the last days. People who lived in the borders from the moment that the Iraqi army got the green light from the United States that they can invade Iran, they were involved in the brutal war in a real war, and it was not only bomb or missiles, it was also a one to one fight. So for first 40 days, which Iranians remember it as a 40 days of resistance and still the army was not because it was as you remember it was immediately after the revolution so the army was not really ready to go to the border. Nobody knows what is going on, the new government didn't know that and then the Iraqi when they invaded Iran, the Iranians took their utensils, they took their asses and shovels, they took, you know, whatever they could find in order to go and fight with the enemy. And this is very important to remember that then the Iran's population was 36 million and still there is a sign in the border city Khurram Shah that they said the population of Khurram Shah is 36 million because everybody before the army and the Artej could just grab himself and go to the border, everybody took something and started to fight because it was the attack on our home on motherland. I know in America people say fatherland but over there because mother is very precious, so it was the motherland that it was under attack. And actually last time I was in Iran almost two years ago, for a project I interviewed many women who were active in the border and at that time they were either, you know, 15, 16 years old and they tell me that our parents were worried for us because you remember what happened to Yazidis in Iraq and a lot of rape, a lot of, you know, like the slavery of women, so their parents were very worried for them but they said one of them told me, I asked, I told my mother, mom, either, you know, you are going to lose me or you are going to lose Iran, which one you are going to choose and my mother said I prefer to lose you, stay here and fight for, you know, our homeland. And so this memories that I have, part of that is a memory and the other part is through hearing other stories. I think it's a very important for everyone, specifically for the government or for the White House, for the President Trump, for everyone to remember that Iranians are very, I don't know, sometimes the word nationalism has a, you know, a different meaning or a negative meaning, but I want to say they really respect their motherland, they really respect their home. And probably that is coming from a very ancient culture that they, you know, like Zoroastrian culture that there are a lot of respect for the land and for what we are coming from. And so I don't want to just, you know, stutter my talk but I want to say it is very important to remember that whatever happened, no matter what is going on among people in Iran or between them animosity, hostilities, whatever exists, when there is a foreign threat, when there is a threat of an enemy from outside, people get together and they stand hand in hand to defend their identity, their home, and their being, basically, and I think it is possible that a lot of places are like this, but there are some policies in the Middle East in the past decade or so, or maybe more, that people are thinking because Middle East was created, you know, in the later years after the World War One. So there is not some specific nationalism among Middle Eastern people like what happened in Iraq or in Syria, like people say, I'm Sunni, they are Shia, the other one is court. The story of Iran I think is a little different because Iran has been a nation state for millennium, and we live together next to one another without caring about, you know, each other's religion or political interest or whatever can divide people. And that takes me to say today Iran also is a very diverse country, you know, we had demonstrations two months ago against the government for the political and economic reasons, we had demonstrations last year, we had uprising 10 years ago, and I can say people in Iran are not happy, definitely, because of the economy condition, because of the political condition, because part of that is because of the government, other parts is because of the foreign involvement and sanctions and threat of war, all of them, so made people of Iran to be very unhappy, and they show it, they are not fearful of showing it. And these are all domestic issues. And we are like a family that we feel that we are, you know, we are okay to just hold each other accountable or yell at one another, but as soon as another person from a different background or from a foreign background, I would like to use mostly the word foreign, because the foreigner means foreign to our culture, foreign to our, you know, identity, foreign to collective understanding of Iranians of what Iran and Iranians are. And specifically with the respect that we have to be history or history and culture. So it makes people to be united and to be together. I was talking to my brother yesterday, and he said a friend of mine came and said, Oh, thanks God you don't have immediate family in Iran do you don't have immediate family. And my brother said I looked at him and I said I have 80 million immediate family who are living there. So, I guess this is a perspective of most of us. I wish I could send, you know, because President Trump apparently can speak Farsi these days. So I could send the Farsi letter to him and say, Hey, you know, you are involved and you are just encouraging people to continue their demonstration which also I encourage because those government should be accountable. But don't be happy that if they are demonstrating against the government that means they are, you know, getting ready for you with the sweets and flowers like what President Bush thought about Well, thank you for all that. I think you said something that I just wanted to go back to which is that Iranians are not afraid of showing their opposition and I wonder, you know if that is truly true all the time because when people came out in November against the increase in the price of gasoline. There were hundreds of them that were shot down and you know that kind of brutal repression. And yet it's so confusing from the outside, because we see then the millions of people that did come out to show their morning of the killing of Soleimani and then now in the last couple of days we've seen people out on the streets protesting the plane crash and the government's refusal to immediately accept responsibility for that. And that too was repressed from what we see.  And so it's hard to say you know what is genuine uprising from legitimate demands of people inside Iran and certainly legitimate morning and what is really being egged on by the US and I think this makes it harder for people inside Iran to be building reform movements and protecting human rights and those, what do you say to that. Definitely, definitely. Just one quick example. There is an Iranian director, a woman very successful you also the code think you met her in Iran. She is a woman who made a lot of film about Iranian women and their movements and their sufferings. And so she announced, I think it was two days ago, she announced a rally and morning rally basically for those who lost their life in this horrible plane crash and then the rally was ready everything was prepared a lot of people follow her of course, and then immediately when the tune inside the inside Iran, turned to be a little violent, and then, and they found out that British ambassador was participating in for whatever reason even taking photo or whatever. And also Donald Trump to keep tweeting and a lot of foreign involvement is there. So he immediately she immediately came on Twitter and other social accounts, accounts and then announced that the plan is cancelled because I don't want those who are enemy of Iran, use this opportunity and ride on this, you know, emotional time that people are having. So this is a very basic and and very, you know, I think raw material that we have in front of us to see how these kind of behaviors from outside can destroy movements inside Iran. So, you know, Iranians, we have done everything we have done revolutions, operations, war, killing, whatever possible we change the 2,500 years of kingdom and we change we brought you know, a lot of things that probably countries experience in their lifetime we did it in the past 100 years. And we understand that change, it's, it's not coming from abroad, it's not coming from above, it's change is something that we individual people in a society can make it and that is the real change. And as soon and because of the geopolitics of Iran, a lot of foreign voices get involved and as soon as they get involved. That means the movement inside either will be crushed by the government, or if people are smart enough okay I don't want to give this opportunity to those who want to misuse this condition and they just keep quiet because also we have seen in the past decade Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria particularly that because of the non violence legal demonstration and asking for a democratic society, like what happened to Syria after 10 years, and by the involvement of foreigners. So there are many different kind of movements. Because Iran is a very vibrant society. Most people know about the, you know, culture and society and the average age of Iranians and the education of them. So, it's very vibrant and there are people from many shades of beliefs and ideologies and interest to the government. And one of them wanted show their own interest like in November we had a demonstration against the government that turned to be really wild and lots of damage to the to many infrastructure. And then later we had in general Soleimani's funeral, we had a huge turnout. And now of course this horrible plane crash or plane, I don't know attack or it is really sad it is very sad. And then a lot of people are, I believe is rightfully angry and sad and they want to show it they want to feel you know solidarity to the families and also they don't want to feel alone at home and sit and cry. But again because of the foreign involvement, their simple demonstrations has to be crushed by the government again or controlled by them. And these are these are the situations that makes every democratic movement destroyed. And that happened in Iran many many times, unfortunately. Yeah, thank you for explaining that we've seen that in our own travels to Iran where in earlier years we were able to meet with civil society groups with non governmental organizations. And then when things would get tougher with the United States, those groups would either disappear or be afraid to meet with us. But there is one group that we have always really felt honored to meet with when we travel to Iran and that is the Peace Museum. And at Peace Museum, it really explains how horrific the Iran Iraq war was. But this year when we went there. We also did an apology from the American people for the shooting down of an Iranian plane that happened at the end of that Iraq, Iran Iraq war and 1988. I wondered if you could explain what happened because it's an important reference point to contrast the way that the situation with the shooting down of the plane, the Ukraine plane is playing out today. Actually, there are a lot of talks also around that among the Iranians they say, we don't see, you know, whoever has done this. We put it in an equal condition as whoever did in 1988 to the Iranian airplane, which caused 299 civilian lives. So both are mistakes. And, you know, in the best condition we can put it this way that both are mistakes. Some people say the other one was not a mistake it was, you know, intentionally and so we really don't know still probably in 50 years or so the history will give us the answer. But the difference is, although the Iranian government, I believe the horrible thing that for three days made people to wait. If they knew it, I don't know what the condition was still we don't have the clear news if the government knew from the moment that they, you know, the plane was crushed if they knew it it was something that the Iranian military did if I really, we still are not sure and there are a lot of things around that but at least they came publicly they apologize and the Iranian military colonel came yesterday I guess I couldn't watch all the talk because emotionally I was really sick to see the innocent lives and this poor guy also he was miserable himself explaining and saying it all was our mistake and we apologize and forgive us and whatever he could say to make it clear that he understand it was the mistake from their side.  And then we have in the other side of this story we have 1988 that just the country came out of the war with Iraq actually it was in the process of the peace negotiation with Iraq we lost a lot of beautiful lives of Iraqis and Iranians during the war. And then oh yeah US gave many different weapons including chemical weapons that Saddam used against the Iranian anime and Iraqis 5000 people died in a second because of use of chemical weapons in both Iraqi and Iranian sites. And nobody even you know one of the anger that they still keep it here is because when Saddam was in a court before he died, nobody even mentioned that that you are responsible for 5000 innocent lives of courts in in both Iran and Iraqi site. So yeah United States supported Saddam during the war also. Many times when Saddam was losing us helped from attacking some tankers in the Persian Gulf, and not just us but also the Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries help Saddam saying and weapons. Interestingly, I strongly suggest we read again three top artists work treacherous alliance because in that book, he specifically discuss the matter the only support Iran had for a while, or the main support Iran had was Israel. So it's interesting to go back and read that but yeah United States help Saddam and this time when Iran was in the process of the peace negotiation, the US the Winston Navy with the Captain Rogers I think was his name. And we sense we sense and yeah sorry, we sense and then 1988 in fourth of July, they hit the Iranian airplane, which had 299 people going from Tehran to Dubai, and all of them died, not one person and stay the live and then that was one part. It was only that I would say if the United States would come and say and apologize or say it was a mistake or whatever. It could be acceptable we say okay mistakes, you know happen. But the problem was, not only the United States to this very day has not apologize for the life of 299 innocent people on that plane, but also President Reagan, handed the middle of honor to Captain Rogers, because of the bravery that he showed. I cannot explain that and I cannot understand what kind of bravery is that. And that is still for Iranians still is in their mind. I would say in a very modern history when we talk about 1953 that is still Iranians remember of the coup in Iran CIA coup. This is another also a very harsh memory. I really, really appreciate code pink in their last trip, and they, they acknowledge that they recognize that and they talked to the people in the peace museum and they handed a beautiful booklet or small book to them, and told them that if our government never did that if our government never reminded that but we remember your loss and I think it was a very powerful. Thank you. And we are also today. We have put together an apology to the Iranian people, because we feel that the present conflict and the stress that 80 million people in Iran must be feeling is caused by Donald Trump. If anybody wants to sign on to that please go to the code pink website and sign on to our apology. But going to where we stand today. You know they talk about tit for tat, as if there are two equals that are fighting each other and I don't want to excuse the Iranian government for anything that they have done that have increased the tensions in the Middle East. But I don't think we should be using that kind of terminology, I think we should be totally acknowledging that there was a process to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons the Iran nuclear deal, but as the foreign minister is a reef told us when we visited Iran and our last visit, he said that we chose this one to work on because we thought it would be easy because Iran was not did not have nuclear weapons. And we thought that this was the beginning of a process to then start negotiating about other issues. This was a tremendous breakthrough from all of the years of hostility since the 1979 Revolution and the constant sanctions that had been imposed on Iran to move into a different phase. And the people in Iran were so hopeful and happy, and many of us here were really hopeful and happy as well. And then to think that instead of moving on from that deal to the next issue that could be discussed in a way that would start bringing peace and stability to the Middle East, where we know that all the players have to be involved, the Saudis, the Iranians, the Israelis everybody. It went that Donald Trump ripped up that nuclear deal and brought us now to this brink of war, but it's important to say that it wasn't just ripping up the Iran nuclear deal. While Iran has been under some sort of sanctions since 1979. The Trump administration has taken this to a new level. And the sanctions you wonder how it is that one person Donald Trump can make the lives of millions of people in Iran so miserable, just through these executive decisions that say, not only in US companies, not trade with Iran, but we want to make the rest of the world, not trade with Iran. We want Iran not to sell one drop of oil, which is the bulk of the foreign currency that they receive. And then, after this latest round of conflict of the murder of Soleimani and the Iranian response, Donald Trump, instead of taking this as a moment to really say, Okay, you know, we're going to step back. We want negotiations with Iran. They announced that there would be new sanctions, and then the day after that actually impose new sanctions that affect the mining sector, the textile sector, even Iranian carpets. As if any of this is really a threat to US national security because that's the legal basis under which this is done. And so it's really just a slapping the Iranian leadership around some more to say we're going to continue to escalate because the Iranian government had said at the last United Nations Security Council meeting when there was a proposal for Donald Trump to speak to the Iranian president Rouhani Rouhani said no, as long as these sanctions are imposed on us and are hurting our economy so much we will not sit down with you. So it's really disingenuous on the one hand for Donald Trump to say, Oh yes, you know we are open to talk with Iran and on the other hand, do exactly what they know would make those negotiations impossible, impose new sanctions. So I wonder what you can have to say about that. I certainly agree with you agree with everything you said because, you know, sanction, it is sanction is war sanction is act of war sanction is healing slowly, and sanction is actually destroy the society is not only one day meal that gets more expensive. But it's everything, it's education, it's relationship between a family members. It's, you know, it's power is power that specifically women lose, because, you know, in a, in a society like Iran in a Middle Eastern society that, or probably international still men are considered as a bread winner to the house they bring the main food to the house, they, they, they, they work. So the first ones who lose their jobs are women. That means they lose their power they lose their voice.  They, they lose a lot because of the sanctions. And, you know, in Iran, Donald Trump or anyone who has done sanctions they believe they think they can make Iranian people to go against their government. I think that's a big mistake for two reasons. One, if the people like the in November people because of the gas price got high and people got angry and they went into the streets and they was, you know, demonstrations and whatever. What happened, government has started to kill people. So this is one thing that is one reason that by sanctions and creating difficult time not the slapping on the government of Iran but the slapping on the people's face. They cannot change the regime because of sanctions if they got if the United States or Trump thinks he can do that. The other reason is because of again the cultural matter that we have expression among Iranians we say, you know, if we don't have it we keep our cheeks red by slapping ourselves because the cheek and the red cheek means you are healthy. And people say I, you know, just slap my cheeks to show that I'm happy or I'm healthy, but because that's a cry. I tried that people want to go outside and tell everyone that, you know, I am suffering, I am hungry I don't have. I cannot provide for my kids for my family. And other thing I want to say in the interviews that I did with women, two years ago that I was in Iran. These women, the same women who were I told you at the beginning of this talk that they were in the border of Iran, Iraq, Iran, Iraq, border of Iran during the Iran-Iraq war and they experienced the war in the first time when they were 16, 17 years old. And I asked them, and now today, of course, they have their own children and they are dealing with this condition in Iran, the condition of sanctions or threat of war. And I asked them which one is more difficult. And they said this one. They said sanction is more difficult and harsher than war.  But sanctions there makes some people very rich, very rich people who are connected to the centers of power they make a lot of money out of sanctions, and they make majority of Iranian people poor. And the other thing is, because of the pride that people have, they are not comfortable to go to one another and say, I cannot eat today or I cannot provide for my kids today. So based on what I've heard from them, sanction is more violent and harsher than war than bombs. And I really strongly believe we need to do something specifically if Trump is really genuine, genuinely says, I want to negotiate with Iran. It's not possible. It's not possible to hold someone in the corner of a wall, hold his, you know, neck and say, you know, you have to talk to me.  And you say I want to negotiate. At least if Trump administration, I believe, if they are really want to do something with the situation in Iran, I think at least they need to reduce these sanctions which are killing people, basically. And from every angle you look at that from the, you know, like the other day I was talking to my aunt and she told me the price of the potato, which always have been really cheap in Iran is 300% rise and the potato. And if you think about other things, you know, people have other expenses like medications I had a friend whose son was diagnosed with kind of cancer, and they couldn't find the medication they sent me the prescription, I have a doctor friend and I gave the prescription to my friend and said, medicine is like $500 each, because there is no insurance and nothing. And plus we need to put it in the cold, keep it very cold and take it to Iran which makes it impossible impossible for that poor father to provide, you know, even if he has money to get the medication for his son and he has to choose to let his son die, or I don't know, maybe it doesn't have any option. And so, these are the things that makes the situation makes a lot of pressure on people. And I think if we want peace in the Middle East, which we really, really want, and I think we should want it, because it's a horrible, we created a horrible condition for ourselves, there is no security, I don't know what security means for Donald Trump. But if, you know, putting the American lives in all around Iran and kill Iranian military officer, the second important person in the country, if you put all the American lives around Iran and you pressure Iranian with sanctions. How can you create security? And I think these are very important points. Hopefully, on January 25, when we go out and show our, you know, our frustration with these policies, we can send our message to our government, to our leaders, to our sanctions and let them know that sanctions are worse than wars. We need to stop sanctions on Iranian people and we have the experience of Iraq. Of course, Iran doesn't give us the correct numbers of people who are suffering from, you know, lack of medications, food, whatever. We have the experience of Iraq, we know sanctions are killing people slowly and quietly. And also on January 25, I think it's very important for us to be loud and clear that the United States troops must leave the region. I want to briefly mention this, that why? First of all, because we need our kids here. We need our brothers and sisters here at home and we can create a better society with them to be here. Being there, getting PTSD and also a lot of money that we need here for our own kids, for our own societies. For people like me who are immigrants left everything behind to come here and have a beautiful, wonderful life and then not having an insurance. So why do we spend our money over there while we can provide for our own society? And then this is one thing. Another thing is for the Middle Eastern people. See, in, I think it was in July that Iranian, we don't know if it was Iran or not. Some people say it was Iran. Some said no, they hid the Aramco oil facilities. Nothing happened. There was no war there because they understand each other's language. They know when to go forward and when to stop back. It was after that that Qasem Soleimani became not only a military general but also a politician and a diplomat to go between Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq to create a peace between these three. And because United States didn't do anything, Toronto stayed back and let the Saudis do whatever they want to do and Saudis decided to make a peace with Iran. So if the United States leaves the region, the region will see peace. That is another reason we need to be loud and clear on 25th. Well, thank you for moving us in the direction of what we can do because I think people listening to this, that's what they are most concerned about. So one of the things is to be out in the streets. We've already had a day of action that was called in just a very short time on January 4 after the killing of Soleimani on January 2. And it was amazing that in over 80 cities people came out. And then we had another day of action last Thursday and over 300 cities. And this one is a global day of action where we're getting responses from people in Africa and the Middle East and Latin America, the one to join in an international call to say the world says no to war. So please go to the code pink website and look and see if there's already a city that has signed up in your community. And if so, please join that. And if not, you should be the one to call for a demonstration. It doesn't take a lot. You just put up will help you put up a Facebook page will help you advertise and voila.  There's also a lot of work to do in Washington DC. We did pass the war powers resolution this week in the house now it's going to go to the Senate we need to lobby. And there will be other senators who are on the fence about this, and there will be other resolutions to actually cut off all of the money for this war, and that would be coming from Bernie Sanders in the Senate and Donna, we have to get behind those efforts. And there is something that code pink is working on to really call for an exemption for humanitarian aid, which the Trump administration says is exempt from the sanctions but it is not. So there's a lot of work in Congress to be done, and then separate from that, we have to reach out to whatever networks we have, whether it's in the faith based world if you go to church, a mosque, a synagogue, whatever. Get them to do an educational event in the church or come out with a statement and go into a union if you're related to a union part of one or you have friends who are get them to come out with a statement and then we're going city by city and we've done this in the past we got to do it all over again, get your city council to pass resolutions. There are already some that have done that we're going to put it up in the toolkit on the code pink website, but that's another way to get your community involved.   We are asking people to go out with clipboards and sign people up for code pink anti war activities and we have that in the toolkit as well. So there are lots of ways to really build up a movement that we have to do. We've just gotten a breather because we're not in an all out shooting war. But who knows how long this is going to last. But as we have the time right now we have to use it wisely to build up a very strong movement to show Donald Trump, not that we want him reelected by no means in the White House but he has to know that this is not what the American people want. And so there are many ways to get involved with us. Please contact at code pink. If you want to send us an email you can do that at info at code pink.org. And Leila I just want to thank you for all the work that you have been doing for so many years to try to build links between the Iranian people and the American people, all the delegations. And I want to thank all the Americans and anybody else in this country to Iran, and the work you're doing right now as well. And for giving us your time in a very beautiful webinar this morning to educate people about the Iranian people. Thank you very much. Thanks a lot for everything for everything you do for peace and justice. So we'll sign out from this webinar but please keep in touch with us and let's keep building this movement. And we will have more webinars with people from Iran from the Iranian American community as well. And thank you so much. I know trying to find them. We're signing out here. Okay. We got it.


Hey, folks. In this quick video, I'm going to show you how to find your personal profile link on Canvas. From your Canvas dashboard, you want to go ahead and click on your account photo in the upper left-hand corner. It's a little circle that should have your picture in it. From there, it'll bring up the sidebar, and you want to go down to where it says Profile. While it shows you your profile here and you can edit your profile here, this is not actually your individual profile link, and if you send this link to anyone else, they'll just see their profile. Instead, what you want to do is up here where it says Your Names Profile. Go ahead and click on that. This then takes you to your public user profile, and you can see that you end up with a link kind of like mine, where it's got a about, forward, slash, and then a number, and this link is the one that will always take you to your specific personal profile. I hope this video was helpful.


Welcome back. The national chairman of the all-progressives Congress, Senator Abdelayadamu, has stated that the ruling party has achieved more feats or more than any other political party in Nigeria in the last seven years. That's any other political party in Nigeria's history, including the People's Democratic Party. The ruling party has also reviewed its own primary election table, saying there is no truth in their session. It had zoned its presidential ticket to any part of the country, thereby dispelling fear that it has zoned the presidency to the northeast. Joining us to talk about this, I'm glad to say we have an APC chief team, Kingsley Wally. He's also convener of the Freedom House. Good evening to you, Mr. Kingsley Wally. Unity House Foundation, not Freedom House. Unity House Foundation. I didn't mean to cause any commotion since, yeah, apologies for that. You know, in Potakot, where we both are residents, that can cause a lot of trouble. But Unity House Foundation, sorry about that. We had hoped to have been joined by Diro Odeime, who is the former publicity secretary of the PDP. We told that he's busy at this point. But Mr. Kingsley Wally, what are your thoughts on this statement by your party chairman that the APC federal government has performed better than any other political party in the history of Nigeria? Well, to a larger extent, let me thank you first of all for giving me the benefit and opportunity of coming on your program one more time. Well, if there's anything that I've always said to people is that to admit that we are going through difficult times as a country, things are really, really tough for Nigerians. But it's always important to remind Nigerians to say and ask them when did this rain start beating us. That will help us to situate a lot of conversations properly. It's just not enough for you to say, oh, things are difficult. You need to find out. We're always dealing with symptoms and never the causes of our problems. So I think Nigerians are noticing the symptoms of several years of planlessness. I always tell people too, when I grew up in this country, when I was growing up rather, I always had a five years, 10 years, 20 years development plan. And all of those just by most, we were like operating with, you know, generally what people call cruise. We're just on the cruise in this country. For most part of the 16 years that the Democratic Party was in power. Again, there's a legitimate argument by some members of PDPDP who are saying that even at then, some members of the APC today were still part of that PDP administration that we cares today. And we probably say are responsible for our issues. But looking at it generally, I want to admit that in the political class that has kind of created the situation we are in today. So we cannot completely, completely as in a rate all the members of the APC from the problems of Nigeria, but to a large extent, the consistency of our crisis can be attributed to the 16 years of planlessness by the People's Democratic Party. And if you have been fair, if you have been fair to the government of Mohammed Buhari, you will accept the fact that he came in one who had a crisis. There was a recession to the extent that our only source of revenue was just there. I mean, maybe it was cheaper to sell or rather it was costing us more to produce than what we were selling. So and then somehow we've just been managing and getting things done one way or the other to the extent that today you can sincerely say that there's an attempt, a serious attempt at diversifying our economy. It's most politicians and analysts who come on the TV and they will say, oh, we need to diversify the economy. We need to be more productive. Our economy is too import dependent. And you ask what definite steps have been taken, even those who have been in government still come and tell of the same story of the need to diversify economy. And because Nigeria's problem cannot be solved in a day. President Mohammed Buhari started somewhere and he's been very consistent with that, that one way of getting out of where we are today is agriculture. And you cannot deny the fact that there's no movement in the agric sector. Our agro economy, it's improving. It's not where we want it to be, but there's progress from that end. So I'm saying that with consistency, you can see that system we grow. Unfortunately, those who want the economy to grow, who are talking about diversifying the economy, for example, who will scream when you want to protect local production. So for me, I think this government has been consistent to the extent that trying to fix the economy, because in the first place, it's important for you to identify what your problem is. Mr. Wally, you're saying that the situation, you're saying you did agree that all progressive congress in the last seven years has performed better than the PDP or any other political party's administration did. And you're saying that the issues are real. You're admitting that we have issues on ground. But it seems you're saying that it was caused by the PDP. I wouldn't say it was caused by the PDP. The PDP actually exacerbated the situation with free spending. They made Nigerians feel like, oh, okay, everything is cool. There was cheap funds, corruption money was all over the whole place. People could just walk into NNPC, get an allocation paper.  And they thought it was overcooled. But generally, we refuse to accept the fact that we were a poor country. We were poor. Our economy was not where we were pretending to be. Because the lifestyle of Nigerians became something you had to, any sense person will ask yourself, ask himself rather, what is sustaining this? Is this sustainable? No, it wasn't. You went to the airport. The airport was full of private jets. The lifestyle of Nigerians just went nuts. And you asked, what was the basis for this? Just cheap funds, corruption money. And if anything, you cannot deny this administration of trying to create some level of physical discipline. So you're talking about physical discipline. What is APC doing differently in its time? Yeah. It's obvious for anybody to, any sincere person to say, one, for example, you look at the president, which is very instructive. You ask yourself, he's supposed to be the flag bearer of APC. He's supposed to be the flag bearer or the example of leadership. Not one single claim of financial indiscretion has been traced to the president of this country. That's the fourth stop. And you talk about corruption. Yes. Corruption has not been completely eliminated. We still have challenges. But somebody is showing example, leadership by example. People still make money from the system one way or the other. But the most important thing is not to free for all things. Okay. So you're saying there's corruption, but it's not as bad as it was under the PDP. It's not just as bad. It's nowhere near where it was before brother Wari came into office. The PDP has argued in the time pass that the corruption under the APC is worse than it was under PDP. What do you say to that? Anybody can say that. Anybody can make any claims. But you ask yourself, where did General Buwari get the money that they are using to put the infrastructures you are seeing in this country today? Is it corruption money? Did he manifest? Did his father leave anything for him? That's from where the inheritance that is building infrastructures in this country. Coffee on the second Niger Bridge. It's always been in the pipeline. It's going to be completed this year. The lake depots. It's always been in the pipeline. It's going to be completed this year. He's not even talking about roads. The Lagosibara expressway has gone through all kinds of faces, disputes and all of that. That will be completed this year. So I'm just trying to mention, I'm not even going into the railways.  So what I'm saying in physical terms, in terms of things that you can see, right? You can really identify where government is working. If you come to the East, you just need to go ask people on ground. You know, the problem we have is that people come to TV, go to radio on the newspapers, say things that are not very viable, to the rather they did not bother to go and check. For example, if you are traveling between Potakot and Enugu, 80% of the stretch of that road, you can virtually go on a cruise. Are you saying the Potakot-Enugu road is near completion? Because last time I used that road some years ago, the cars I used was never the same. Precisely. What I'm saying is that you can make a call, put a call to anybody that stays on that axis and ask them what the state of that road is today. Yes, up till somewhere around Aba, the Potakot end, is not being fixed.  Enugu and Niger, the same thing. And these are the roads that I have been on. So I cannot reasonably start making claims on things that I can see. I can make claims. What about the issue of 100 million Naira APC nomination form, which is being easily bought by several contestants as parents, somehow asking where are these people getting 100 million Naira form from to purchase these forms? Surely there must be corruption in the APC that the members of the party have made so much money to be able to afford 100 million Naira. What do you say to that? Kofi, you're still in Lagos, right? I do. You're still in Lagos, right? Yes, yes, absolutely, yes. How many G-guards must have this, that you see on Lucky Expressway in one day? And how much is that for one? How much is one G-guard? Okay, okay. So are you saying the members of the party... The point I'm making is that the leadership of these countries, such a serious business, that I believe that anybody who is sincere and wants to be present of Nigeria must show it down the proof of it. For example, people say the money is too much. Don't forget that in developed claims, such things are done through contributions, donations rather. People who have interest in you, people who believe that you can deliver, you can do stuff, we just say okay, fine, this man Kofi can do this job. Let us raise money for him. A hundred people raising one 1 million Naira, it's 1 million Naira. So if you're a presidential candidate, you don't have 100 friends who can give 1 million Naira. you have no business going to APS the APS headquarters when to begin form even for younger people the party was gracious enough to say okay 50 50 50 50 million error for any young person people less than 40 my god if we don't have 200 people who can give you one million error then you have no business running for the presidency of this country the truth is this is better probably not too not too smooth but the truth no matter is that if you want to be president of Nigeria you you must show seriousness. Just for a second, imagine that the figures were anywhere near maybe five million, 10 million era. You will have, for 100 billion era, how many political firms? Embarrassing numbers, that's the truth, you must accept it. Am I even thinking about the fact that of the amount? I'm saying, why should 20 people want to be president in a piece? All right, so let's move on. The economy is set to be in free fall. If you go through the business papers, you go through the economic reports and news, it's tales of wars. Tony Lumulu, most recently and famously, put out tweets that perfectly captured the saying that the rich also cry, lamenting the situation in the oil and gas sector, lamenting the situation as far as the Naira was concerned. And Nigeria is not even able to meet up to its obligations in terms of the OPEC quota. We look at the Naira. The Naira is in free fall. I need to do this. Yesterday I changed the $100 for 585 Naira, sir. What's happening to the economy is unprecedented. What do you say? So is this better than what the PDP did? No, I hate to say this. I don't want to sound personal, because if you're running a business, it's, your target is to make profit, right? Right? Our economy is so terrible, right? It's so horrible. People are hungry. Yes, I accept that. I agree with that. How much did you be a post as profit this year or last year? The economy is so bad. The economy is so bad. How much profits are the banks posting? Because I want to identify the speaker that I just made a reference to with the banking industry. If the economy is so horrible, that the rich are also crying. Do you bother to check the rock star lifestyle of bank executives? See, don't forget, I tell them by telling you that they are in this business to make profit. But those who make the same profit should not make insane statements about this country. Okay, okay. How are we taking this country, yes. All right. Finally, Mr. Wally, does the APC, looking at what the party has been doing in terms of its performance, do you have what it takes? Do you have candidates or the persons with the character and the experience to fix the issues that you've admitted exist? As far as the list of names, people who want to vie for the office of president from your party are concerned. Copy again. I didn't get the last one. Does the APC possess what it takes to solve the issues you've talked about? I mean, you've admitted that it's not all rosy. From those who've come out saying they want to be president on the platform of the APC, do we have people who are competent enough to fix Nigeria's issues? Let me put it this way. What, I'm going to return the question back to you. You are aware of the Asiwaju years in Lagos. You are aware of what Asiwaju Bola and Metinibu did in Lagos for eight years. You are aware, right? And the foundation he built for Lagos State. You are aware? Listening to you. No, no.  It's very popular, man. You are very aware of the selling qualities and pedigree of the vice president of this country who is also running, right? Of course, you are very aware that in the last seven years, this government had made moves or progress in the area of real transportation, what you probably called the rail revolution. You are equally aware that not too long ago, Nigeria had, if you're chip into Nigeria, some parts of the post in this country, you did what they call wartime insurance in civil times. Nigeria has been gotten off that, what they call the blacklist. That's happened under this administration. All right, all right. You are equally aware that for several years, like I said earlier on, the Nigerian post authority. I'm afraid we have to go. No, I have to finish this, please. I have to finish this. Oh my, oh my. I'm afraid Mr. Wali, our producers, have just informed me that we are out of time as sincerely apologize so that we will bring you on again. Definitely we'll do that. And I want to thank those of you who've been watching for staying with us, plus politics returns more at the same time. Kingsley Wali is a chieftain of the APC and convener of the Unity House Foundation. I'm Kofi Bartels. Have a great night and see you tomorrow.


Ah, good day mate, 40 here. So I made a bunch of blokes and a Sheila for a walk about this morning. So I show up at the coffee shop and I'm parched.  It's $4.50, mate, for just a bottle of water. Just bought some chewing gum, took $6 to the Kudji supermarket and asked, how much chewing gum can I get for $6? And the 10 piece packs of sugar-free spearmint, $2.50 each, but the bloke took mercy on me and threw in three packs for $6. So not cheap here, but Kudji, it's in the aboriginal language, it means smelly. So this place means smelly. I'm here at Kudji Beach and smelly because there's all this seaweed. So seal the seaweed along the shore. All right, so it means smelly. So where I come from in Kurumbong, near Morasset, it means the place of the flies. So I went for a walk about, we walked about 15 kilometers around Watson's Bay, very posh area of Sydney. We were walking for four hours. Ah, good time. Anyway, I just found out, even as a white person, you can join an aboriginal tribe. Like there's a process and a procedure and you can join an abo tribe. So I'm just out here in the ocean trying to figure out which aboriginal tribe I should join. And so just wondering if you've got any recommendations. What's the best aboriginal tribe for someone like me to join? Where would I feel most at home? So wherever I go in the world, there's an abo tribe with a campsite where I can feel at home. So even white people can find an abo tribe, join an abo tribe. There's like paperwork and everything. It's like, it's real official. Like top stuff, mate. So like you can be white, you can be blind, you can be a shield, you can be a bloke. Right, there's an abo tribe for you that you can join. And I'm sure they're great benefits and very reasonably priced. So on the lookout for the right abo tribe, meanwhile, I'm back in the ocean.


Hackers, Havana Syndrome, and other invisible Russian aggressions that only the CIA can see. The House Foreign Affairs Committee is reportedly marking up its hilarious Havana Syndrome Attacks Response Act this week, which calls for sanctions upon whoever the president determines is responsible for inflicting U.S. officials with hangover-like symptoms using high-tech microwave beams. The condition has not been proven to actually exist in any tangible way, and has been commonly attributed to psychogenic illness, Cuban crickets, and actual hangovers. At the same time, virulent Russia Gator Julia Ioffe has published an anonymously sourced article proclaiming that the Kremlin is responsible for this mysterious alleged ailment. In an article for Puck News titled Havana Syndrome, a Cold War saga in Bidens, Washington, Ioffe reports that anonymous sources at the Walter Reed Military Medical Center have told her that this strange affliction now has so many victims among U.S. government employees that the facility is at capacity, and that Russia is to blame for it. Ioffe writes, quote, the intelligence community is increasingly convinced that the Russian government is behind these attacks. Russia has extensively studied and invested in the technology and, in the spring of 2017, just as the attacks in Havana were ramping up, Putin personally pinned a medical on the breast of a young scientist for his advances in using directed energy and microwaves on signals, systems, and living cells. Russia certainly has the motive. Putin still thinks America is Russia's biggest enemy, and poking the country in the eye is a worthy end in and of itself. Plus, there's that location data placing FSB officers in the same Taiwanese hotel where a senior CIA official was hit. But there still isn't enough evidence to make a public declaration. They believe the hypothesis is more, but they don't have a smoking gun, said the person familiar with the investigation, end quote. To get a sense for the integrity of the sourcing in Ioffe's reporting, here's an actual paragraph from the article and I'll add emphasis with my voice. Quote, Burns has also convened a panel of intelligence officials to try to find whoever is behind these attacks. A spokesperson for the agency told me that the CIA is bringing an intensity and expertise to this issue akin to our efforts in finding bin Laden. She added, We will keep doing everything we can to protect our officers. People familiar with the inquiry tell me that the political will behind this is palpable. As one source told me, whereas before you might have said that folks working on the issue spent half their time trying to convince people that something happened, that kind of distraction has dissipated to a large degree, end quote. This is the kind of sourcing that would make a UK gossip rag blush. Here's another delightful bit, quote, I think we're beyond the point of anyone being able to question whether it's a real thing. A senior administration official told me, end quote. Ah well, if an anonymous government official tells Julia Ioffe that Havana syndrome is real then hot damn that's good enough for me. Apart from anonymous individuals, Ioffe also cites a quote retired CIA officer named Mark Polymeropoulos who attests that he himself came down with a case of Havana syndrome that was so bad it forced him to, quote, retire. Ioffe writes, quote. As we talked I couldn't square two things, Mark's retirement and his age, he had just turned 50 and by his own account he had been on the up and up at the CIA. Why had he left so soon, I asked him. But Mark's answer surprised me, Havana syndrome he told me off the record that he had been hit while visiting Moscow and that the attack had undermined his health so badly that he physically couldn't work anymore. A promising career in an organization he loved and had come of age in was over, end quote. Oh wow, the retired CIA spook had to retire because he was afflicted with a condition which just so happens to advance CIA Cold War hysteria about a CIA targeted nation and now he's spending his, quote, retirement telling Cold War propagandists all about it. Mm-hmm. Havana syndrome is a mysterious illness whose symptoms include vertigo, nausea, and billions of dollars in new Cold War military spending. It's just so interesting how Russia keeps attacking America in unverifiable and invisible ways that only the US intelligence community can see. First it was plot hole riddled claims that Russian hackers attacked American democracy in 2016 and now it's invisible microwave beams from secret Kremlin ray guns. Someday soon we may turn on the news to see footage of an empty capital building while a reporter solemnly tells us that it has just been stormed by GRU agents injected with invisibility serum. I'm old enough to remember when the US war machine needed actual physical events to justify the advancements of its military agendas, like planes crashing into buildings. Nowadays those agendas are justified by invisible, unverifiable allegations for which the evidence is always classified. Believing that Kremlin operatives are attacking the brains of US government employees with ray guns which cause mild hangover-like symptoms is no less crazy and baseless than the claims by internet crackpots that the COVID vaccine contains 5G mind control nanobots. Literally the only difference is that one has been endorsed by the mainstream US political media class while the other has not.  When a US government operative says it, it's called Havana syndrome.