The Chaser Report - Extra - Dead Mayor Elected in Landslide

Episode Date: October 6, 2020

In a story that may be relevant for American listeners, a mayor in Romania has been elected in a landslide two week after dying. Also, Gucci has entered the workwear business, and a man has an old sandwich that President Richard Nixon half-ate. Plus Rebecca De Unamuno delivers all the news you can't trust.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report, Global World International News Headlines Update with Rebecca Dayunamuno. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has released the budget, announcing that Australia is back in black. Tonight, I announce that the budget is back in the black and Australia is back on track. He later clarified that he meant Australia is back in. a huge fucking deficit. The treasurer defended borrowing a trillion dollars, pointing out that the money has been borrowed mainly to give tax cuts to rich people

and that universities, women and the poor, all still lose out in the budget. Our plan is guided by our values. Contact traces for the super spreader event at the Rose Garden in the White House that infected Donald Trump have been working overtime to identify who infected the president with the coronavirus.

They said they were desperate to contact to the individual so they could thank them. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has been discharged from Walter Reed Hospital and flown back to the White House and had a message for the 210,000 Americans who have died from the coronavirus since February. Don't let it dominate you. Don't be afraid of it.

That's the latest Chaser news. Check out chaser.com.com.com for updates. Now it's time for a wrap-up of the rest of the news with Charles, Dom and Craig Roocastle who's filling in for Nina O'Yama. Thanks, back, and it's time for another one of these. International Global News World Roundup. Yes, indeed. We have Craig Rucasel and Charles Firth.

My name is Domney. Let's head to Romania, first of all. And look, the big election on in the US, we've been neglecting the Romanian mayoral elections. But one candidate managed to win the election in 64% of the vote, the incumbent mayor, two weeks after dying of COVID. And the city decided that they didn't want to reprint the ballots to save money. And he won.

He won two weeks after dying. Well, in fairness, he probably is doing a better job than most mayors that I know. It's also, it's a very Romanian thing. I feel like in Romania they probably got lots of dead mares. Like, you know, isn't there very quite a, you know. Well, that's where Transylvania is. Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Did he, is he dead or is he undead? Is he like a vampire? I think a vampire mayor would have a lot of advantages, particularly at the moment. You'd know that they weren't going to die of COVID, for one thing, on the job. What do you think the voters were thinking, though? So they knew, did they know he was dead? Well, I don't know if everyone in the village was aware of the news, but you'd think that they would be. So this guy, he was the incumbent mayor, the name of Eon Aliman, he was a social Democrat,

and he got re-elected to the third term two weeks after dying. and there was a big candlelight sort of vigil for him, and I'm sure that helped with turnout. But this is it. It's all about name recognition. This guy's a genius. I mean, he got his name in the press a lot. And then you should always die just before an election.

It's great for getting your name out there. And that's all that matters in the end when you go to vote. He's just, oh, do I recognize any of his name? I recognize that name. I wonder why I recognize that name. I hope Donald Trump adopts that strategy. Yes. Yes.

Well, Donald Trump is going for that. I like the thought that people actually all did know, like they were 100% across it. And it's just the worst burn to whoever he was running against. They're like, that guy or the dead one. They're going, I reckon the dead guy is going to be a lot better. That's a really, that's a harsh election to lose. Well, you can't be corrupt if you did. In some ways, he's the candidate with the most integrity of any.

candidate ever, has run for office. Yeah. It's hard to be flexible with your policies, though, posthumously. Having been once to a council meeting, too, I think probably the only way you could actually deal with it is to be dead. So this guy has really nailed it. I mean, look, to be fair, I think Australia, by electing Philip Ruddick as mayor of Hornsby, we may have gotten up and dead mayor before they do.

But what I love about this story is that, so the council decided not to reprint the ballots to save money. But of course, because he won, they've got to run the whole election again. Oh, no, no, no. They should just give it to the other guy who is running, surely, just as long as he kills himself. All right, moving on to Italy, where the renowned fashion label, Gucci, has made headlines after releasing a pair of high fashion overalls that come pre-stained with what looks like to be

grass and dirt. Have a listen to this news report. These overalls, they have been purposely stained with grass. If for some reason you like what you see, it'll cost you a pretty penny. $1,400. The Italian Fashion House debut, the new look for its Grunge-inspired fall in winter 2020 collection. So Grunge is back for $1,400, guys. Right.

Oh, I love, I love stories that tell me how stupid rich people are. I really do. Like, people are going to spend $1,400 on a pair of overalls, but need them pre-year-old. stained. Just get one of your servants to wear some cheaper ones out in the garden for a while. There's a save some money. No, I approve of this. This literally takes the work out of workwear. It's a perfect thing. And anyway, the thing that I'm most happy with is just to hear that grunge is back, because that's what we grew up with in the early 1990s. Dirty clothing. I don't think you've changed that, Charles. My old Raddy Cardigan, my old Raddy Cardigan is now

worth thousands. And it's got the stains. Yeah. No, and like, it was a cool look, or at least I thought it was a cool look until you actually look back at photos from that era and you realize it looks like you just rolled around in graphs for a while. What's particularly good about this is they haven't just cut it up. They've literally made, covered it in green like stains, which is not a great look.

I don't know. Like, who are you to dictate fashion? Like, do you mean the, you know, people who can charge? $1,400 for some overalls are in a better position to state what is good fashion and what's bad fashion, rather than you, Craig? You just wear T-shirts all the time. You're hardly the king of fashion. Sorry, I am terrible at fashion.

The good thing about this is these people don't realize they just go to an op shop and they'll get the same thing for $3. What I like about this, Craig, and I thought you'd be more into this because surely this is part of the war on waste, right? Like, if you don't even need to wash your clothes before they're worth $1,400, bucks. Isn't this a good thing? No, no, no. See, if rich people want shitty looking clothes, they just go and buy secondhand clothes, you morons, they pay $1,400 for a new one. You know what? I want to come back into fashion. I want to come clothes that make me look

as thin as I was 20 years ago. That's what I want to see. Glad rap or something. And finally, look, this is another inspiring story of not throwing things out, not creating waste. A guy with the name of Steve Jenny in Illinois is celebrating the 60th birthday of a sandwich. So when he was a kid, he was a Boy Scout. He attended an event when Richard Nixon, then the vice president of the U.S. was in town. And Nixon, there was a big barbecue. Nixon ate half of a buffalo chicken sandwich.

And here's how Steve Jenner, the proud owner of this sandwich, describes what happened next. Once he left, I just looked down at the picnic table and everybody else was gone. and that half-eaten sandwich was still on the paper plate. I looked around and nobody else was there to think about it. And I picked it up and hopped on my bicycle and sped home and ran in the door. I said, Mom, I've got the sandwich that Nixon took a couple bites out of. And she was surprised. She said, what do you want me to do with it?

I said, freeze it. And he's still got it today, gentlemen. I'm concerned about this story. because he's been keeping his mother's fridge. How many years, was it? 60 years. Yeah, yeah. 60 years.

The problem is, is if the electricity ever goes down and that returns to room temperature, it's got Richard Nixon's DNA on it. He'll probably grow into a Richard Nixon. We'll have Nixon's return to the earth. I want to know why this sandwich isn't in the presidential library. I mean, of all the memorabilia they have of the men,

you'd think this would be the most valuable contribution in the planet he made. I think it should have its own monument. It didn't be in the library. It'd be a monument in D.C. Next to the Lincoln Memorial. The Nixon's half sandwich. I mean, the thing I like about this story is he was so proud of having picked up this sandwich.

Then Watergate happens. Nixon resigns in disgrace and he goes, no, I'm keeping the dream alive. Keep him just keeping the dream alive. I like the way he told the story was he made out as if, but if other people had been around, they would have taken the sandwich. No, mate. Like, it's worth Googling. No one else was thinking that.

He tells the story over about four minutes in excruciating detail. And it's clearly the highlight of his, I don't know, 70 or so years on the planet. What a great contribution. I hope someone, Steve, you know, Barack Obama's half-eaten Pingles Packet or something like that. What other memorabilia should we be keeping from our leaders, do you think? Well, I hope somebody kept hold of Tony Abbott's half-eaten raw onion. Oh yes. I think because that's one for the ages. That is part of history. This is Australian history.

I guess also Scomo's burger from Grand Final Night would have been a useful relic, although it might stink a bit. What about was it a hot dog? Was it George Bush was he a hot dog when he vomited at the baseball? Oh yeah. God, that would be good. If you had a half vomit covered hot dog, that would be worth it. What about the The vomit that he, he got, when H.W. Bush vomited on Emperor Hiroshito or Hirohito? Hirohito, yeah.

I don't remember him vomiting on the emperor. It worked definitely as some sort of thing in Japan, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Obscure food knowledge about past presidents. You really forgot. I mean, you forgot how much the Bush dynasty was built on vomiting on things. I mean, you look back and that hasn't been written up in the history. There you go.

So for more headlines in between times, head to chaser.com. Dot A.U., you can also find the address there to send Charles your half-eaten sandwiches should you so desire. You can also find The Chaser on YouTube, on TikTok, Instagram, and just about everywhere else. Catch you next time.