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Speaker 1: Greetings to you music lovers, thrill seekers, conversationalists on across

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Speaker 1: the fruited plane. It is great to have you here today.

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Speaker 1: Great to be with you, Rush Limbaugh, the E I

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Speaker 1: B Network and the Limbo Institute for Advanced Studies of

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Speaker 1: All Things that Matter. Telephone number eight hundred to eight

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Speaker 1: to eight eight to if you want to be on

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Speaker 1: the program. We're gonna do a version of open Line

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Speaker 1: Friday to day. Mr Snerdleie. Whatever people want to call about,

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Speaker 1: whatever they want to ask about, whatever they want to say,

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Speaker 1: anything about, UM, let them have at it. And then

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Speaker 1: it's Since we're not going to be here on Friday,

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Speaker 1: this is in fact the last program of the year

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Speaker 1: for me and folks, I want to tell you at

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Speaker 1: the outset here to me, this is a very important program.

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Speaker 1: I have very much that i want to say to

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Speaker 1: all of you today, and I'm feeling very pressured. Not pressured,

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm feeling uh stage fright kind of thing. I

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Speaker 1: so much I want to say, and I want to

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Speaker 1: say it correctly. I want to convey my feelings and

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Speaker 1: I want to do it right. I want to do

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Speaker 1: it to the to the best of my ability and

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Speaker 1: I have found in circumstances like this that the best

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Speaker 1: thing to do is not to think about it. Don't

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Speaker 1: don't make it more pressure packed than it already is.

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Speaker 1: But it's very important. You all are very important. My

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Speaker 1: family is very important to me. I've had I've had

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Speaker 1: a year now to reflect on the things that really matter,

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Speaker 1: a year to reflect on the things that are completely

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Speaker 1: relevant and important to me. And all of you were

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Speaker 1: in that large conglomeration of people and things that are

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Speaker 1: very important to me. Uh. I want to go back. Normally,

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Speaker 1: by the way, I wait until the third hour of

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Speaker 1: the program too, As I has always said that I

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Speaker 1: I usually use the Christmas programs such as this one

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Speaker 1: to engage in my thank yous and my thankfulness for

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Speaker 1: the year, rather than a Thanksgiving. And I don't know why.

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Speaker 1: Something about Christmas um my childhood memories of it. The

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Speaker 1: family is getting together and the children making it what

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Speaker 1: it was. My feelings of thankfulness always surface, my feelings

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Speaker 1: of great gratitude always surface at the Christmas time of year,

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Speaker 1: and it's no different this year. Now. In January of

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Speaker 1: this year, towards the end of the month, I received

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Speaker 1: a diagnosis. You all know, but Ei, There's something I

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Speaker 1: want to say about it. Um stage four advanced lung

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Speaker 1: cancer terminal diagnosis. The objective of everybody involved was to

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Speaker 1: extend life for as long as possible, as enjoyably as possible. Now,

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Speaker 1: many of you have been through this, Lots of you

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Speaker 1: have been through this as individuals, as families, and you

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Speaker 1: know what that means. Medical treatment that is designed to

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Speaker 1: attack the disease as greatly as possible while maintaining a

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Speaker 1: quality of life that makes it worth it. Some people

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Speaker 1: can't deal with the side effects of chemo or other

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Speaker 1: forms of treatment. Well back in late January when I

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Speaker 1: received this diagnosis and I was shocked. I was stunned,

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Speaker 1: and I was in denial for about a week. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm rush Limbo, I'm m I missed her big the

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Speaker 1: vast right wing conspiracy. I mean, I'm I'm indestructible as

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Speaker 1: it can't be right. What it was, and what I

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Speaker 1: didn't know at the time that I learned later in

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Speaker 1: the course of the year was that I wasn't expected

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Speaker 1: to be alive today. I wasn't expected to make it

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Speaker 1: to October, and then to November, and then to December,

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Speaker 1: and yet here I am and today I've got some problems.

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Speaker 1: If I'm feeling pretty good today, God's with me today.

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Speaker 1: God knows how important this program is to me today.

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Speaker 1: And I'm feeling natural in terms of energy, normal in

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Speaker 1: terms of energy, and I'm feeling entirely capable of doing

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Speaker 1: it today. I have been blessed. I've mentioned to all

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Speaker 1: of you back in the early days sometime. I guess

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Speaker 1: this might have been in February. It was around It was,

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Speaker 1: I think either during or shortly after I had received

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Speaker 1: the Presidential Medal of Freedom at this year's State of

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Speaker 1: the Union, addressed by President Trump in the House Chamber.

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Speaker 1: By the way, something I really hoped at. President He

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Speaker 1: had marvelous speech last night, four minutes speech on the

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Speaker 1: COVID relief debacle coming out of the Congress that should

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Speaker 1: be studied in a master's course in communication. It was clear,

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Speaker 1: it was concise, it was well paced, it was powerful,

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Speaker 1: it was on brand, and it was classic. It was

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Speaker 1: the kind of speech only an outsider could have made.

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Speaker 1: And I really hoped that Trump would sit down and

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Speaker 1: start ripping up the bill as Pelosi ripped up his speech.

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Speaker 1: You know, when she began to rip up his speech

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Speaker 1: is when he began the presentation of the metal to me,

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Speaker 1: seated next to his wife, the First Lady Milania, and

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Speaker 1: I I turned my back to her, which is proper.

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Speaker 1: She was the one who actually put the metal around

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Speaker 1: my neck. And I thought it was great, if, if,

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Speaker 1: if Trump would have ripped up that bill. Uh. But

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Speaker 1: he didn't, and that's that's understandable as well. But I remember,

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Speaker 1: I remember saying to all of you at that at

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Speaker 1: that time that I had a a little bit of

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Speaker 1: understanding of something that had perplexed me for a lot

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Speaker 1: of my life, and that was Lou Garrig. Lou Garrick,

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Speaker 1: the Iron Horse New York Yankees set the record for

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Speaker 1: consecutive games played until Cal Ripken came along decades later

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Speaker 1: and broke it. And on the day that rip can

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Speaker 1: are that the day that Luke Garreg announced that he

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Speaker 1: had his disease that was forcing him to retire from

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Speaker 1: Major League Baseball, he said to the sold out Yankee

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Speaker 1: Stadium today, I feel like the luckiest man on the

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Speaker 1: face of the earth. And I didn't understand that. I mean,

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Speaker 1: here's a guy who had just been diagnosed with the

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Speaker 1: most terminal of terminal diseases. And I said this, This

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Speaker 1: can't be really. You can't really think he's the luckiest

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Speaker 1: guy in the world. This is just something to be

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Speaker 1: saying because it will play well, it'll I don't I

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Speaker 1: don't mean to be insulting Luke garreg don't misunderstand. I'm

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Speaker 1: just thinking that, how in the world, if you're being honest,

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Speaker 1: can you feel like you're the luckiest man on the

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Speaker 1: face of the earth. Well, when I got my diagnosis

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Speaker 1: and when I began to receive all of the outpouring

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Speaker 1: of love and affection from everywhere in my life, from

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Speaker 1: from so many of you in so many ways, and

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Speaker 1: and from my family who man, they have supported me

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Speaker 1: my entire career, even during times it would have been

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Speaker 1: understandable and easy for them to say rush who we

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Speaker 1: don't know this guy, But that never happened. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I've been totally supported by virtually everybody in my family.

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Speaker 1: I've been propped up, i have been defended, I've been

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Speaker 1: made to look better than I am. My my lovely

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Speaker 1: wife Catherine has done so much in that regard. She

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Speaker 1: has done so much with Russia limbaud dot com and

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Speaker 1: with the charitable words that we have engaged in and

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Speaker 1: all of it has been to my benefit. All of

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Speaker 1: it has been for the UH and yours. It's the

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Speaker 1: benefit of people who are the recipients of our efforts.

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Speaker 1: UM So many people have put me first in all

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Speaker 1: of this, and I understand now what Luke Earrig meant,

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Speaker 1: because I certainly feel like that. I feel extremely fortunate

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Speaker 1: and lucky. And because I have outlived the diagnosis, I've

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Speaker 1: been able to receive and here and process some of

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Speaker 1: the most wonderful nice things about me that I might

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Speaker 1: not have ever heard had I have not gotten sick.

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Speaker 1: I think anything, how many people who pass away never

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Speaker 1: or the eulogies, never hear the the thank you's. I've

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Speaker 1: been very lucky, folks. And I can't tell you how

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Speaker 1: many how many ways when this kind of thing befalls you,

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Speaker 1: it's hard not to become self focused. It's hard to

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Speaker 1: not just think of yourself, and it's it's hard to

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Speaker 1: think that everybody's going to drop what they're doing and

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Speaker 1: deal with with me, with you. You have to guard

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Speaker 1: against that because this is to the family, this is

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Speaker 1: as disrupting, it's as upsetting as it is to me,

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Speaker 1: and in some cases even more so so. You can't.

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Speaker 1: I can't be self absorbed about it when that is

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Speaker 1: the tendency when you are told that you've got to

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Speaker 1: do date, you have an expiration date. A lot of

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Speaker 1: people never get told that, and so they don't face

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Speaker 1: life this way. This is not a complaint. I'm simply

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Speaker 1: this is why I said so much I want to

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Speaker 1: say today, and so much I want to say, well,

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Speaker 1: so much I want to say exactly as I'm as

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Speaker 1: I'm feeling it because my my point in all of this,

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Speaker 1: today's gratitude, my my point in everything today that I

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Speaker 1: share with you about this is to say thanks and

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Speaker 1: to tell everybody involved how much I love you from

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Speaker 1: the bottom of a sizeable and growing and still beating heart.

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Speaker 1: And there's room for for much more, all because I

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Speaker 1: have I've learned what love really is during this. You know,

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Speaker 1: I have a philosophy. There's good that happens and everything

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Speaker 1: that may not reveal itself immediately, and even in the

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Speaker 1: most dire circumstances, if you just wait, if you just

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Speaker 1: remain open to things, the good in it will reveal itself.

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Speaker 1: And that has happened to me as well in countless

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Speaker 1: countless ways. You know, I mentioned Katherine, don't misunderstand She's

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Speaker 1: done much more than just Redesign website and the and

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Speaker 1: Shepherd the Russia Lymba dot com store, she Shepherd of

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Speaker 1: the charitable efforts, the Betsy Ross stand up for Betsy Ross.

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Speaker 1: That amount of money we generated for the Tunnel to

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Speaker 1: Towers organization just incredible stuff. And it was all done

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Speaker 1: for me well, and and and the beneficiaries that it

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Speaker 1: was all for me. All of this was done for me.

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Speaker 1: So many people have done things this year for me,

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Speaker 1: and it's I know, it's not embarrassing, it's it's just gratifying.

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Speaker 1: And it has helped me to see so much, so

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Speaker 1: clearly not the goodness of people and their and their decency,

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Speaker 1: and it's confirmed so much of my instinctive beliefs about people.

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Speaker 1: For example, the alleged President elect Joe Biden holiday message,

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Speaker 1: our darkest days are ahead of us. Well, for some

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Speaker 1: of us, that's absolutely true. But folks, I have to

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Speaker 1: tell you, if I were president elected the country, it's

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Speaker 1: a last thing I would say. And even if I

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Speaker 1: believed it, I doubt that I would put it this way.

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Speaker 1: But I don't. I don't believe this anyway, darkest days

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Speaker 1: or ahead of us? What a bleak way of looking

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Speaker 1: at at things. This is. During a press briefing yesterday,

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Speaker 1: said the worst is yet to come in the fight

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Speaker 1: against the coronavirus pandemic, which is weird given that Biden

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Speaker 1: has repeatedly claimed that it's Trump who's killing Americans with COVID.

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Speaker 1: So Trump is gonna be gone soon. So why are

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Speaker 1: our darkest days ahead of us when Trump is leaving?

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Speaker 1: If Trump's responsible for all of this. But my point is, yeah,

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Speaker 1: the virus is what it is, but we adapt I

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Speaker 1: talked of it this yesterday. We Americans have adapted to

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Speaker 1: our problems. We've adapted to changing evolutionary things in our

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Speaker 1: lives in our country because of our freedom. Our freedom

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Speaker 1: has allowed our adaptability. If disaster is coming our way,

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Speaker 1: we don't just sit there and endure it. We come

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Speaker 1: up with ways to avoid it, to beat it back,

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Speaker 1: to overcome it. But we don't just sit there and

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Speaker 1: accept it. And as such, we don't just resign ourselves

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Speaker 1: to the fact that we're living in the darkest days,

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Speaker 1: because we, at least to this point, still have the

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Speaker 1: greatest degree of freedom of any people on earth. Now

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Speaker 1: it's under assault and under attack, and we all know this.

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Speaker 1: But I don't believe our darkest days or ahead of us,

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Speaker 1: and never have, like people have been asking, and you,

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Speaker 1: you've always told us to be time to panic at

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Speaker 1: the time. It's never time to panic, folks. Is never

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Speaker 1: ever going to be time to give up on our country.

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Speaker 1: It will never be time to give up on the

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Speaker 1: United States. It will never be I to give up

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Speaker 1: on yourself. Trust me,