 A quick update on Beirut, last show you know we did in hours after the big Beirut bombing and bombing explosion. And some of the information wasn't as clear then, although most of what I said I think has turned out to be true. It was indeed an accident, it was not an attack, although if you watch Twitter and if you follow kind of some of the Middle East stuff or you email twice, all right email to Iran at youronbrookshow.com, just a regular email. I'm not sure where the through the website goes, who knows where it goes. I think it probably goes to my assistant but I haven't, I don't get those emails and I don't know how often she checks for them, so just use youron at youronbrookshow.com regular email, I'll get it immediately. All right, so it turns out that the explosion was ammonium nitrate which is used, which is a substance used both for fertilizer and for explosives. Derek said make sure to use that way, I don't know what Derek said. Just do what I say, right? I think that generally is, you know, I'm more senior than Derek, so, all right, ammonium nitrate which is a fertilizer, an explosive, on a Russian ship came out of Georgia, didn't know Georgia was a big manufacturer of ammonium nitrate, I haven't had, I couldn't find any info about why Georgia, why you would be shipping out of Georgia, anyway Georgia on the Black Sea, went through the Black Sea on the way to Mozambique, supposedly to a mining company in Mozambique was supposed to get this, right? And Derek is claiming I would rank him when it comes to, you're on a book show, Derek I think I'd rank you when it comes to pretty much everything, except Derek's own life which I do not outrank him in. Anyway the ship leaves Georgia on the way to Mozambique, so it goes through the straits in Turkey, down into the Mediterranean, Vigre stops in Athens, it's carrying 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate. It's supposed to go through the Swiss Canal, down the coast of Africa, and unload in Mozambique, Mozambique is an island off the coast of Africa. And the sailors are getting nervous, there is 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, they are basically sitting on a massive bomb, you saw the bomb go off yesterday, you saw the video, these sailors were justifiably nervous. Now exactly why this was being shipped to Mozambique, exactly why they chose to go to Beirut, exactly why Beirut, the port of Beirut accepted the ship in, all of that is still a mystery, and who knows if we will ever know any of that. But they sail into Beirut, and then there's a huge legal battle ensues, the sailors want to get paid, they want to get out of there, the shipping company doesn't want to pay them, the boat just sits there for years, ultimately, and nobody knows why, and nobody knows who did this, the boat gets unloaded, 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, get put into a warehouse, the ship sinks off the coast, I guess, of Lebanon, who knows where the sailors are, I have no idea what happened to sailors, the whole thing is weird, weird, weird, anyway, throughout all this, people are complaining to the government in Lebanon, you know, we've got 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate here, flammable, explosive, why is it here? Nobody does anything, nobody thinks they have jurisdiction, typical bureaucracy, if you see Chernobyl, it wasn't me, it's not my responsibility, I didn't do it, I don't know, somebody else, ammonium nitrate, oh that's benign, nothing will happen, every bureaucrat passes on to somebody else, sorry, you're right, it was to Mozambique, not to Madagascar, so Mozambique is not an island, it is a country, still down the Suez Canal, down the coast of Africa to Mozambique, and you know, complete political bureaucratic, nothing, when the stuff is in the warehouse, the custom officers write to a judge, they write to the justice department, they write to every department in Lebanese government, everybody passes the buck, nobody wants to take responsibility until the thing goes off, and you know, we have at least 100 people dead, several thousand people injured, who knows how bad the injuries are, who knows how many people are really dead because they haven't even started picking out the bodies from the ruins, or they've started, but it's gonna be a while, massive explosion, leveled buildings, I mean just, if you've seen the video, I mean it was really scary stuff, scary video, and you know, people compared it to nuclear bomb, now let me just say, once we get into the numbers of Hebrew Shimonagasaki, you'll see where this is nothing like a nuclear bomb, they're lucky it wasn't a nuclear bomb, of course, everywhere online, Israel is being accused of doing this, everyone online, from Twitter, Facebook, and a variety of different other sources in Middle East, this is an Israeli operation to do what exactly, it's unclear, destabilized Lebanon, Lebanon was already being destabilized, what I do find encouraging, if you will, from this very dark day for Lebanon, I mean it's really sad, is that people now out in the streets calling for a revolution, not just a changing government, not just justice, but for revolution, they've had enough, the country's bankrupt, people are starving, people are poor, they're no jobs, and now people are dead, maimed, dying, in hospitals, 300,000 homeless, and now people I think are waking up to the fact that the government is corrupt through and through, that the consequence of that corruption are not just a few billions of dollars or tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of billion dollars stolen in Swiss bank accounts, or used to buy weaponry for Hezbollah, they now realize that that corruption, it leads directly to the deaths of hundreds, the injury to thousands, and a destruction of a city, that corruption is systemic, it's throughout, it goes from the president to the prime minister to the parliament, and to the political elites throughout the country. I mean, corruption kills, and corruption just killed hundreds of people, would be my guess. And the real cause, Macron, the president of France is in Lebanon, Lebanon has a very close ties to France, has had for a long, long time, particularly the Christians in Lebanon. And the French president is there, he is claiming that while they will be providing humanitarian assistance, it's not going to be a blank check, let's hope he's right, I don't believe him really, because any check will go to Hezbollah rather than actually fixing things. And what are they going to do, they're going to replace this prime minister with another prime minister, this president with another president, they need a complete overhaul of their system of government, they need to get away from the sectarian nature of their system, they need to get away from the tribalism and the, you know, the adoration of violence, they need to get away from killing each other, arming themselves to the teeth, to actually rebuilding the old Lebanon, rebuilding a secular society, rebuilding a free society, rebuilding the Paris and Switzerland of the Middle East. And to do that, they have to get rid of their entire political elite, all of them need to get out, replace all the bastards and replace it with a constitutional system that protects the rights of individual Lebanese. Now, I know all of that is wishful thinking, and if we're going to get rid of political elites, how about the United States, that would be a good idea. But, let's start, you know, Lebanon is in worst state, it's worse than Lebanon right now. So that would be my wish for the Lebanese, and I think that any humanitarian assistant goes there, should be contingent on real change, not cosmetic change, real change. Now, unfortunately, I think the United States is going to send a lot of money and France is going to send a lot of money and the European Union will send a lot of money and the Saudis will send a lot of money and most of that money will end up in the hands of the existing elites, most of that money will be siphoned off to who knows where, most of that money will feed more and more and more and more corruption and decay and destruction. I'm not optimistic. But, you know, maybe, maybe the people have woken up. Maybe the people will not allow it to happen again. Maybe the people will make a real change in Lebanon for the better. Instead of going to war with Israel, they could learn something from Israel, maybe establish a free, non-sectarian, you know, Israel's a little too sectarian for my liking, but okay, so a free society that actually embraces some of the principles of free markets and who asked why is France involved? France has a long relationship going back. I mentioned this the other day to the 19th century with the Lebanese, primarily Lebanese Christians. Lebanese Christians used to be a much greater percentage of the population than they are today. They used to be almost 50% of the population. They're down to under 40, I think. The Christians viewed France. They had a good relationship with France and the Vatican, I think, all the way back to Napoleon in the days of Napoleon. And then, of course, when the Ottoman Empire was defeated, France was responsible for Lebanon. So France occupied Lebanon for many years. It's set up. France is the one that's set up. It's a democratic system. It's parliament. It's president. It's sectarian system. France is responsible to lodge it in for the mess that exists there because instead of fighting and annihilating the tribalism, it embraced that tribalism and supported that tribalism. And institutionalized, worst at all, it institutionalized the tribalism. So France established modern Lebanon. I mean, there is no such thing as Lebanon or Syria or Iraq. I mean, these are all countries created out of the aftermath of the fall of the Ottoman Empire when a Frenchman and a Brit guy sat down with a map and a ruler and some pencils and drew lines in the sand, lines on a piece of paper that translated the lines in the sand and created borders that created the modern Middle East. There is no Lebanon as a country, Syria as a country. Indeed, if there is a country, it's Syria, which used to control both Lebanon, most of Jordan and what is Israel today. That was great to Syria. But there are no, see, we think some talking to, there are no borders that go back beyond what the Brits and the French decided after World War I. So Lebanon is a creation of the French and the entire political system in Lebanon is a creation of the French. And when the French left, they kept obviously some strong connections with the Lebanese, particularly the Lebanese Christians. So I wish the Lebanese well. I hope for a revolution. By the way, I think that I was the first to call for a Lebanese revolution two days ago. Maybe somebody in Lebanon was listening to your book show and said, yes, it's time for a revolution and it would spread. And now they're out in the street calling for a revolution. Sykes-Picot agreement, that was the agreement between France and Britain. And it's named after Sykes, who was the Britain, Picot, who was the Frenchman, who drew the lines, drew the lines in the sand that created the modern Middle East and created what is today Lebanon. All right. So that is, that is where we are as new, exciting, fun information trickles in fun or not so fun or depressing information trickles in about Lebanon. I'll keep you updated as I have with TikTok, no new information of TikTok. So I'm not going to mention TikTok today. The future runs through the Iran book show. Yes, we are, we are determining the future on the show. At least that is my hope. So that is Lebanon. There's still a lot of stuff we don't know about the shipment. There's still a lot of weird stuff going on there. But I think I don't think there's anything conspiratorial, just a lot of incompetence. And, you know, maybe there's some reason why they stopped in Beirut, and this was unloaded. Maybe the Hezbollah wanted this stuff, maybe somebody else wanted this stuff to make bombs. We don't know, we might never know. We might never know. What we need today, what I call the new intellectual would be any man or woman who is willing to think, meaning any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, whims or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life, and who does not want to give in to today's cult of despair, cynicism, and impotence, and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages, and to the role of the collectivist brought. All right, before we go on, reminder, please like the show. We've got 163 live listeners right now. 30 likes. That should be at least 100. I think at least 100 of you actually like the show. Maybe they're like 60 of the Matthews out there who hate it. But but at least the people who like it, you know, I want to see, I want to see a thumbs up. There you go. Start liking it. I want to see that go to 100. All it takes is a click of a click of a thing, whether you're looking at this. And you know, the likes matter. 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