Political Scandals - Political Science Theme

Andi 0:01

this, sounds so believable. Like creepy old men, politicians don't know how technology works. That's one of my favorite scandals.

Tanner 0:11

oh

Andi 0:11

Yeah. Yeah, we're all doomed. It's like pretty woman, but with

Tanner 0:16

Yeah.

Andi 0:18

Wait, what

Tanner 0:19

Yeah.

Andi 0:19

plot? Twist Oh my God. Hello and welcome to this episode of the I Should of Known podcast, the trivia podcast that can't be trusted. Each week our Quizmaster presents you with four big facts on a topic, but one of those facts is a lie, So for November, we're doing political science and our quizmaster today is soups

Sups 0:41

Hello

Andi 0:42

and he is doing a find the fake episode on political scandals. So he's going to present us with, Political scandals from around the world, but one of them, he has invented So join me, Andy, and our other host Tanner in figuring out which one it is.

Sups 0:59

So what I've done is I've picked four different political scandals from around the world. And of course one of them is fake. I mean, I did makeup entirely, like I changed few things here and there

Andi 1:11

Okay

Sups 1:12

the low hanging fruit of the week, Yeah. Which year was the Watergate scandal

Andi 1:18

19 76, 78

Tanner 1:22

Sure, let's go with 76.

Sups 1:23

I think in 76 they did the, reporting down during that time, but it was 1972

Andi 1:28

Oh, yes. Okay. I understand. when did they break in? Was the election for 72, It became a thing in like, Yeah. 76.

Sups 1:38

reports came out much

Andi 1:40

later.

Tanner 1:40

uhhuh. Okay. Okay.

Sups 1:42

Okay. So we ready for some

Andi 1:44

Yeah. let's get salacious

Sups 1:48

All right, scandal number one. the year is 2013. The Labor Party in the uk, they tweeted a press release and the press release was basically an attack on the educational secretary of UK And this press release had a link, right, which contained like details and stuff like that. And this Gavin Barwell, from the Conservative party he saw the tweet and he immediately replied, I know labor are short of. But having an invitation to date Arab girls at the top of your press release question mark, So the labor press party team immediately jumped on and replied that, you know, those are ads, and the ads you see,

Andi 2:33

oh,

Tanner 2:34

they're targeted

Sups 2:35

they're targeted based on your,

Tanner 2:37

Oh, no.

Sups 2:40

based on your search history

Andi 2:42

Oh my God. So, yeah, he opened the link and saw an ad and thought that was like the banner on the release. Yes. Oh my God.

Sups 2:52

Yeah. And his take on the whole situation, I regret the embarrassment. This has caused

Andi 2:57

Wait, what?

Tanner 2:58

the most,

Andi 2:59

how old is this?

Tanner 3:00

I've ever

Andi 3:01

remember. So this guy, is not very tech savvy.

Tanner 3:04

I love how this guy blames the other party's press release for the ad. didn't he think it was weird that like they were advertising what he's been searching

Andi 3:14

you know Yeah, right. Honestly, like this, sounds so believable. Like creepy old men, politicians don't know how technology works. Looking up girls also feeling very like combative towards the other party. completely lacking self-awareness. this sounds very real.

Tanner 3:32

definitely blaming them for something that you did and then like a fapa on Twitter. Of course. Of

Andi 3:38

course. And then of course, doubling down on how like it wasn't your problem. Yeah.

Tanner 3:44

I regret the embarrassment. That is the worst

Andi 3:47

apology British bri. Oh, you, so you regret getting caught. Yeah. Yeah. But like you didn't get caught. You went out and did this

Tanner 3:54

if you had just stayed quiet, no one would've known.

Andi 3:57

Yeah. Honestly, like some of these people, it's like, why are you running your own Twitter? Like you. give it to some teenager and don't touch it. Yeah. It's like Ted Cruz liking the porn video. Exactly. That's one of my favorite scandals. what are you doing? Come, someone take these people off their phones,

Tanner 4:12

oh

Andi 4:13

Yeah. Yeah, we're all doomed.

Sups 4:15

so moving on to scandal number two. Danielle Ailes she was a 40 year old MP from Port Western Australia, and she was having an affair with a 19 year old man. Okay. Now this itself isn't a controversy, totally a normal thing that you'd expect politicians to indulge in, But their relationship made headlines when it was discovered that Daniela solicited 200,000 Australian dollars from local property developers, so that her lover, Kirk Ley, could open a restaurant. And none of this was disclosed to the Parliament which of course is a violation of the law. soon after the allegations came to light. Her husband retired from politics, but she continued to be active and fought the next select. Which she lost. Daniela and Kirk stopped seeing each other eventually, and then she divorced her husband. But the restaurant Kirk opened, called Wildflower, received a Michelin star in 2016. The restaurant menu responds to the six noar season. Contemporary flair Noar are like Aboriginal Australian people who live in the southwest

Andi 5:29

Okay. I was gonna ask, what kind of restaurant is this? So this is a high end fine dining. Yeah. Yeah. Experience.

Tanner 5:36

So she fundraised for her boyfriend as a politician.

Andi 5:42

and the restaurant's doing really

Sups 5:43

the restaurants doing really well, and I mean, it still existed in today,

Andi 5:47

that's some good sugar money right there. That's, that's good work, Kirk, that's definitely like,

Tanner 5:52

now. Worked out well for Kirk

Andi 5:53

that guy. Yeah. Right.

Sups 5:55

Yeah.

Andi 5:56

Okay. stole money basically, or like misled what the use of funds was for, right?

Tanner 6:03

Almost embezzling if it was a company, but she's a politician. So the money's coming from the government and the people.

Andi 6:10

Yeah. Well, and I think like technically it's not a lie that it was for local development. It's just that like the, the choice of what locals were developed, right. Where a little can needles also like, I mean, a 19 year old with a successful Michelin star restaurant, like, so impressed by this Kirk guy. I don't even know what's up with, like, Kirk is crushing it. That's super impressive. You

Tanner 6:33

Kirk,

Andi 6:34

seed money? I know that guy, knows how to get some seed

Tanner 6:37

money. Yeah. I really hope his like pet name for her was Wildflower and then that was the restaurant

Andi 6:45

Okay. But then,

Tanner 6:46

is it fake? it's a pretty good story.

Andi 6:50

Entertaining story. we were saying, it's impressive that he had his own restaurant in 19, but it's also a bit unbelievable that he had his own successful restaurant in 19, right? So maybe that's made up. You know, maybe he just turned on the head the more traditional trope of an older man with a younger woman. She wanted to start some kind of business. He made it a restaurant, oh, it's Southwestern Australia. So maybe that's like where, could be a lie.

Tanner 7:18

I could also see it as like the plot of a movie,

Andi 7:20

Oh yeah. Like some nineties movie. Yeah. You could kind of play on that. It's like pretty woman, but with

Tanner 7:26

Yeah.

Andi 7:27

so we'll put a pin in that one. Yeah.

Tanner 7:29

It's Possible.

Sups 7:30

Right. scandal number three.

Tanner 7:32

Yeah,

Sups 7:33

the year is 1975. India's Prime Minister in Gandhi has just declared emergency. Her son, San Gandhi, took charge of India's population control, encouraged by loans worth millions of dollars from the World Bank, United Nations population fund, So he embarked on this mass sterilization campaign to sterilize poor Indian men. A total of 6.2 million Indian men were sterilized in a year. this incident also has a reference in Salman Rush. These novel Midnight children the men were basically poor, so they were promised like land, government, job, money. right. And it was sort of like this eugenic control program. something like that.

Tanner 8:20

oh my goodness.

Sups 8:21

do you know about India's emergency, period.

Andi 8:24

know it happened.

Sups 8:25

Yeah,

Andi 8:26

it's basically like martial law, correct?

Sups 8:28

exactly. everything was banned. Like, you know, in the Gandhi got all the opposition leaders jailed.

Tanner 8:34

was Oh, wow. Was

Andi 8:35

our listeners, I assume they had a very similar look on their faces. Tana and I were just sitting here like staring, wide eyed, like, this one's very serious. Yes.

Tanner 8:44

Forced

Andi 8:46

Yeah, the, it's pretty dark. That's very dark. It's kind of one of those things where it's playing a little bit, unlike you don't know Indian history. Cause I feel like 10 Indians is either obviously true or false. Mm-hmm. And you would like know about this era? including I would be playing on that Think it's probably real. Yeah.

Tanner 9:05

But this is a big, big event.

Andi 9:07

That's a major scandal. Yeah. that's even beyond scandal. Scandals are usually like the first two or they're like smaller. This is like human rights violations, you know? Really

Tanner 9:18

what do you call a war crime when it's your own country and you're not at war

Sups 9:21

yeah,

Andi 9:22

exactly. Crimes against Humanity, I don't know. against it's probably real. otherwise soups. Do we need to talk about something? if you invented this Yeah. but it's, interesting and, think good to draw attention to these kinds of events and that, like parts of the world that maybe you don't know the, full history of and like, When you talk about the numbers and stuff, you know, everything in India, like the numbers are always so much higher than you think, So like, yeah, that makes sense. That it's like probably the largest, I think eugenics. act. So yeah, I. It's important to know about.

Tanner 9:55

Yeah.

Andi 9:55

Yeah. So

Tanner 9:57

It sounds, It sounds, believable because it's so

Andi 10:00

It's unfortunately real.

Tanner 10:02

unfortunate. Yeah.

Sups 10:03

In that case Scandal Number four, three time Italian Prime Minister Sylvia Bur he was known for his Bunga Bunga parties at his fill during his tenure as a Prime Minister. These parties well nothing but grand Orgies Some witnesses describe it as female guests dressed as nuns performing erotic dancers for the Prime Minister and his cron. But when asked about these parties, SCON always described the party as innocent and elegant after the parties, he used to, of course, bribe the girls so they would not report it to the authorities. This became a huge issue because in 2013, he was found guilty of pain to have sex with. belly dancer who was also known as Ruby, the Heart Steeler. She was 17 at the time and Berlusconi was sentenced to seven years of jail. But his lawyers got it overturned saying that there was no way Bescon would have known that she was 17.

Andi 11:04

17.

Sups 11:06

When these allegations of wild parties and soliciting services of sex workers were thrown at him, he replied, I have never paid a woman. I have never understood what satisfaction there is if the pleasure of conquest is absent.

Andi 11:22

That's like the most Italian

Tanner 11:24

was

Andi 11:24

I've ever heard in my life.

Tanner 11:26

Wow. A gross old guy. he's a real creep. totally believable for

Andi 11:31

him. Yeah. Also Italian politics. Yeah. Famously pretty scandalous like this. Yeah. Though this is not fun. Scandal. This is actual like crime scandal. Let's go back to talking about creepy old men looking up Arab girls.

Sups 11:46

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, unfortunately there is a lot of sex involved, but I think that's what politicians rather, they get tangled in

Tanner 11:55

Yeah.

Andi 11:55

Yeah. I mean, well, like there's one thing where some scandals, it's not really a scandal. Like a lot of it is like prudes make something, a scandal. Like having a partner who is considerably younger than you, or like, yeah. You know, these aren't real scandals. Mm-hmm. but when their children. It is.

Tanner 12:15

Or bribing them And paying

Andi 12:17

you know, we've moved beyond scandal into just straight up crime. Yeah. So like, that's very different. So I think a lot of people, like, they get it twisted and they think like, any sex scandal, you know, it's, it's the sex that was the problem. It's like, no, no, no, no. It's the age of the person. Yeah. that's the problem. Yeah. And like the paying for it, that was not the issue really. I mean, I know it's a crime in Italy, but like that wasn't really the

Tanner 12:42

Yeah, It's interesting that that's how he defended himself.

Sups 12:45

Yeah. I

Tanner 12:45

never paid them. Well then, hang

Andi 12:47

on. Yeah, right. Exactly. Like right, like what's so that was not the problem with what was going on. Ew. Yeah. Unfortunately also sounds

Tanner 12:58

Yeah. I wouldn't put it past him.

Andi 13:00

I mean, I don't know enough about Berlusconi himself, like I guess this could, could be someone else, but like powerful men, kind of all the same.

Tanner 13:08

Yeah. Yeah, it sounds like very believable Scandal, unfortunately.

Andi 13:13

of course is still in power and has not faced any real consequences because this is the nightmare world that we.

Sups 13:19

Yeah.

Andi 13:19

Wow. All right, so Can you repeat those four scandals and then we will guess which one we think you've made up.

Sups 13:27

Okay. The four scandals are scandal one. Date Arab Golds, United Kingdom. Number two, Daniela and Kirk Australia, number three India's emergency, India. And number four, bunga, bunga, Italy. One of them is made up.

Andi 13:57

right? Yeah. So I think, I'm not gonna touch the last

Tanner 14:01

Uhhuh, you think they're dark enough to be unfortunately.

Andi 14:05

Yeah. And also like, I don't know. I don't wanna think about them. Mm-hmm. So for me it's like one or two. Mm-hmm. for the lie. I also don't wanna believe like soups is like coming up with these crimes, these really dark ones, you know? Yeah. where's how I'm gonna feel about you after this episode, Yeah. Like the lie could be, it was someone else. Mm-hmm. but like, unfortunately, yeah, someone somewhere has done those. So like, I'm thinking unfortunately, I think number two is probably the lie.

Tanner 14:30

Oh, you don't think the restaurant happened?

Andi 14:32

No, I think it's like maybe pieces from different places. Mm-hmm. But politicians using money kind of indiscriminately that's real, right? Like that people do that. That's real. But like the particulars of like funding your lover's restaurant is maybe, I think that's probably the live, yeah. That like it's not a real restaurant.

Tanner 14:52

then I love that got a Michelin star and

Andi 14:54

Yeah, yeah. yeah. It's a great story. Yeah. And maybe that's the problem. That's why. it sounds too great.

Tanner 15:01

Okay.

Andi 15:02

too good of a story.

Tanner 15:03

I'm stuck on the first one. I think if I was gonna make up one, that's what I would make up like, I think it sounds like a sex scandal that politicians would definitely get themselves stuck in.

Andi 15:13

Yeah, and also like just the kind of Luddites, like I don't know how the internet works saying like, I'm you. Yeah. I feel like there are so many examples of older politicians doing things like that on the internet that like, He could have made up this particular incidence. Mm-hmm. but like, it's the same as from somewhere else. Like some other politician, some American politician. We didn't talk about any American scandals. Right. But you know, like maybe that

Sups 15:37

This time I gave America a pass.

Andi 15:40

I don't know if it, yeah. yeah. yeah. No kidding. You could do an entire absent on just American ones. But it's good to hear about other countries, They have problems too Yeah. So I think number two is where the lie elements are.

Tanner 15:55

right. I think number one,

Sups 15:56

Okay. Good. Andy, I think your opinion about me is not gonna change after this episode because three

Andi 16:02

and four. Oh, no.

Sups 16:04

Yes. totally. Totally. Yes. Unfortunately, Those are both. Between one and two. I think Gavin Barwell would be really happy. I'm not sure if he listens to the, I should have known podcast, but I think he'll be incredibly excited to know that okay, there's at least one person that this actually didn't happen, but this did

Andi 16:23

happen.

Tanner 16:24

Oh, Yikes.

Andi 16:26

Tanner had faith in you. Gavin

Tanner 16:29

I'm not on

Sups 16:29

your side, Yeah. Yes. Elements of lies are, in scandal number two, I'll tell you what is the real part. The restaurant did happen, but Australia does not have a single Michelin star restaurant. There are only 30 countries in the world

Andi 16:47

Wow. which has Wait, what

Tanner 16:50

Yeah.

Andi 16:50

plot? Twist Oh my God. So like it wasn't even about politics. to get the lie, it's, you have to know about food. Uh, no restaurant in Australia has a Michela. No. There are only

Sups 17:02

are only 30 countries in the world, which has, as of July, 2022, the last ranking.

Tanner 17:08

Wow.

Andi 17:09

So that was the giveaway automatically. Oh my

Sups 17:12

Yeah.

Andi 17:12

But there is a restaurant

Sups 17:14

is, yes. And this also didn't happen in Australia. So I took it from, in Northern Ireland. So there was this lady, of course, I changed the name. Kirkley is her lover, but this MB

Andi 17:26

Should have noticed that name A little more should have been more skeptical. I

Tanner 17:30

say Irish guy

Andi 17:32

super like Gaelic. Yeah.

Sups 17:34

her name was Ila Robinson And of course she did solicit money and the lover did open a restaurant, but all of this happened in not island. So yes, I just took like pieces from different parts Wildflower as a restaurant in Port does

Andi 17:49

exist. Oh, that's funny. Okay. It's a real restaurant.

Sups 17:51

It's a real restaurant. their menu are the six Noar seasons.

Andi 17:55

they don't have a Michelin star. See, but like, yeah, 19 year old having a mission star restaurant is unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah.

Tanner 18:04

You're on the right track there.

Andi 18:05

Yeah. I guess.

Sups 18:06

Yeah.

Andi 18:06

We were all over the world and all over the emotional spectrum. We, learned a lot of things though. Wow. Not the least of which is that Australia has no Michelin Stars Australia. Get your act together.

Sups 18:17

Yes.

Andi 18:19

So I'm

Tanner 18:21

Yeah.

Andi 18:21

I should have known. I

Tanner 18:22

should have known.

Andi 18:23

Thanks for listening to this episode of the A known podcast. This is our last episode from the Political Science Month. Hope you enjoyed it. Be on the lookout for our next one next month. it's winter themed, and as always, thanks for listening. it's like literal seed money.