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Episode 413 - Curing Mondayitis
15th January 2024 • The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove • The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove
00:00:00 01:01:42

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In this episode, we discuss:

(00:37) Intro

(02:38) Last week's Predictions

(09:01) Scomo Book Deal

(11:55) Trump Pushed Preachers

(18:36) Elections Everywhere

(21:29) Aussie Merch

(26:48) Question for Scott

(39:39) Houthis

(50:03) Proof of Climate Change

(59:39) Subs Need Crew


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We have a sister podcast called IFVG Evergreen. It is a collection of evergreen content from the weekly podcast.

Transcripts started in episode 324. You can use this link to search our transcripts. Type "iron fist velvet glove" into the search directory, click on our podcast and then do a word search. It even has a player which will play the relevant section. It is incredibly quick.

Transcripts

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Suburban Eastern Australia, an environment that has, over time,

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evolved some extraordinarily unique groups of homosapiens.

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But today, we observe a small tribe, akin to a group of meerkats, that

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gather together atop a small mound to watch, question, and discuss the

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current events of their city, their country, and their world at large.

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Let's listen keenly and observe this group fondly known as the

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Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.

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Yes, we're back.

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Special time, Monday night, eight o'clock, which will be the regular

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time for the foreseeable future, the Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove podcast.

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I'm Trevor, the Iron Fist, sitting on the fence in regional Queensland.

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Scott the Velvet Glove.

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How are you, Scott?

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I wouldn't expect that I'm on the fence.

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Anyway, yeah.

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Don't know.

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Your normal sort of velvety words, your sort of Seeing both sides and

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your gentle approach to things, at least one listener wasn't happy how

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that went in terms of Palestine.

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We'll get on to that.

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It's just one of those things, you can't be everything to all men.

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No, you can't.

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And coming in loud and clear, our UK correspondent, Joe, the tech guy.

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How are you, Joe?

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Morning all.

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Surviving the freezing weather here.

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Yeah, Joe was before we were recording.

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Complaining about the cold weather.

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We're sure there's plenty of hot, warm weather here in Queensland.

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Yeah, hella.

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Yeah.

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Very hot.

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Yeah.

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So, there's a podcast where we talk about news and politics and sex and religion.

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And if you're in the chat room, say hello.

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Don't have anybody yet because it's 8 o'clock on a Monday night,

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I don't think anybody's used to it.

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So, we'll see how that pans out.

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who could be the first person to comment on a Monday night episode?

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You know, the opportunity is there for anybody who wants to take it.

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That doesn't include you, Joe.

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Now, what are we going to talk about?

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Well, we've got, I guess we're going to talk about some of the

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predictions we made last week.

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Scamo's got a book deal.

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I'll be watching out to buy that one.

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Yes.

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A bit about Trump.

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Lots of elections.

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Australian Day merchandise in Woolies.

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Scott was taken to task by a listener.

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He'll have a chance to defend himself.

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and everything you need to know about Houthi rebels and What they're

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up to, as well as climate change.

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There we go.

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That's on the agenda.

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See how we go.

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So, Scott, last week, I said, so I think we'll start to see, over the

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years, see people start to accept that capitalism, unrestrained capitalism,

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experiment, has some major problems.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Lo and behold, a few days later, in the Courier Mail of all places,

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I actually saw an article more or less saying the same thing.

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And, look, dear listener, for my sins, I do read the Courier Mail.

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Like, I don't read every article.

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I just read the headlines and get a chuckle out of most of them.

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But it is so crazily pro liberal, pro right wing, anti

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woke, it's just a caricature of a right wing rubbish rag now.

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It's laughable.

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Incidentally, I saw a thing on Twitter, I think it was Quentin Dempster, saying

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that I hear head reports from people that the Courier Mail was in such poor

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shape financially that it might go just to a digital version and not a paper,

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it'll be paperless in not too long.

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Perhaps when Rupert dies, Lachlan will just make it paperless.

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What do you think of that, Scott?

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I wish you wouldn't worry me.

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I don't buy it.

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It's one of those things I think up here in, up here in the regions, you're gonna

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have a hell of a lot of problems with that because people do love a newspaper.

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Mm-Hmm.

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And you still, still do see people coming out of a, out of the,

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news agent and that sort of stuff with the, with the newspaper.

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Mm-Hmm.

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It's one of those things, but you know, the readership's down and

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all that type of thing, they're just gonna have to accept it.

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Yeah.

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I see.

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I see it's ideas repeated, like I've, you know, friends with Right Wing Tony

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Facebook posts are invariably just continuing on themes that have been rung

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in either the Courier Mail or Sky News.

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So It's still influential in that older demographic, who still have

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faith in newspapers, but I'm just hoping for an anti news takeover.

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Yeah, an anti news takeover.

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No, no, NT, the Northern Territory News.

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Oh, right.

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The headlines at least.

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Are you not aware of the NT News?

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Oh, is this like a play on words and it's always about a

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crocodile to try to eat somebody?

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Yes, basically.

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Oh, at least it'd be amusing then.

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Yeah, it's kind of like The Chaser, or, I don't know, something like that, yeah.

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Well no, it is actually serious news, but they always try

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and get a punny headline in.

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Yeah, look, anything could be better than The Courier Mail.

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It is a pathetically biased rag that is just in Yeah, when I read it, it's,

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it's I treat it as a work of fiction.

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Yeah, anyway, It's probably wise.

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In that paper, they don't really You know, like, the Australian always has,

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Phillip Adams writes in the magazine as their token left winger, who sort of

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gives a left wing version of his thoughts.

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But the Courier Mail has never really had anybody like that and just in their

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main comment page was an article by Paul Williams and he was saying that, for the

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first time ever the Australian Financial Complaints Authority has received more

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than 100, 000 complaints about banks and other financial institutions.

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that's a lot.

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100, 000 complaints about banks and financial institutions, and he

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says it feels like the 2018 Banking Royal Commission never occurred,

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let alone mattered, so he's pleased to see the Albanese government,

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I mean that's words you don't see too often in the Courier Mail.

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Quote, that's why I was pleased to see the Albanese government this

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week put supermarkets on notice to lower prices, and he says.

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I'm a long believer in private enterprise, but I'm now forced to ask a key question.

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Is our cost of living crisis, especially those parts fuelled by

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oligopolistic behemoths like banks, insurance companies and supermarket

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giants, born of a too lightly regulated and therefore overheated capitalist

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system, now burning the middle classes?

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If so, when did the fire begin?

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In the next paragraph he blames Thatcher, um, and Reagan and then,

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talks about foreign banks being admitted and, how it was a bit of

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a shame that some of our government owned corporations were sold off.

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So there we go.

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That prediction came through fairly quickly on that one.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Absolutely.

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Mmm.

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It wasn't very prescient, though.

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No, well, thanks, Joe.

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Actually I noticed you didn't mention Bob Hawke in there.

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Well, yeah, and Bob Hawke.

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Yes.

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Actually, well, you know, the more I read about these things, the more

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that, sort of Hawke and Keating We're really just an early version

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of Tony Blair, and really performed, um, that function here in Australia.

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So they did some good things that had to be done, like floating the

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dollar, I guess, had to be done, and And stripping away, stripping away

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the tariff barriers and all that type of thing that had to be done too.

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Yeah, but as we've mentioned before, that the deal done with the unions, with

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wages, and all the rest of it, and selling off stuff was really, you know, took on

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a lot of the neo liberal sort of stuff, so, yeah, they, my admiration for the

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Hawke Keating government is a lot less than it was five years ago, I would say.

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You're right Scott, I left them off the list.

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I was just trying to paraphrase the article, but maybe I was just softballing

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Hawken Keating at the same time.

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Well spotted.

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No worries.

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Don't let me get away with anything.

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No, I won't let you get away with it.

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Um, Scamo.

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Haven't heard much about him lately.

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I cannot believe that he's got this book deal coming.

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You know, and the book titled Plans for Your Good, a Prime Minister's

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Testimony of God's Faithfulness.

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I mean, Jesus Christ.

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Literally.

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Literally.

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Yeah, I know, but And a foreword by Mike Pence.

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You know, it's one of those things, I cannot believe that he's, he's going

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to try and justify everything he did, Robodeath and everything else, he's

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going to try and justify that on God's teachings or something like that.

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You know?

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Who knows?

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According to this article While the book will deal with Mr Morrison's

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political career, the heavy focus will revolve around pastoral encouragement.

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He writes, quote, Scamo, In writing this book, what was important was

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not what I did, but what God did for me, how he sustained and encouraged

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me in good times and bad, from a miracle victory to a crushing defeat.

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And how his faithfulness over a lifetime had prepared me for these times.

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God's faithfulness.

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He's just a self-serving wanker, isn't he?

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I think you're referring to God's faithfulness over and how his

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faithfulness over a lifetime had prepared me for these times weren't, yes.

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Does God have faithfulness how God helped him?

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Yeah.

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Well, God helped him through the tough times.

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Yes.

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And then slammed him with a crushing defeat.

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And he was prepared for this because of the previous experience with God.

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He was supported by God.

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Yes.

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Sustained by God.

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Anyway, that's going to come out on May 21st.

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On my birthday too.

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Thanks very much.

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Really?

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Is that your birthday Scott?

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Yeah, 21st my birthday.

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There you go.

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I'll buy you that for a present.

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No, don't bother.

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It'll be very expensive toilet paper to use.

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I was going to say, it's a good cure for insomnia.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Meanwhile, still on the sort of political and religious connections,

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given the elections coming up in America, dear listener, I've rekindled

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my subscription to the New York Times.

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So, I've got an article from the New York Times.

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By the way, When I was, with these friends who were visiting from California,

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and we were discussing just different things, and this lady was talking about

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her husband as, you know, reading the New York Times, and it's of course

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so left wing, I said, do you realise that the New York Times has supported

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every war that America has entered?

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And she was surprised by that, she had no idea.

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From the New York Times.

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Tim Alberta's recent book about the Christian nationalist takeover

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of American evangelicalism.

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Evangelicalism.

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It's called The Kingdom, The Power and The Glory.

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It's full of preachers and activists on the religious right.

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Expressing sheepish second thoughts about their prostration before Donald Trump.

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And, in a nutshell, dear listener, what it's saying is that these pastors

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were told, Yeah, if you want Roe v.

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Wade overturned, we've got a whole bunch of, we can deliver that for you, but we've

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got a whole bunch of other stuff, and you have to help us get that through as well.

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It's all or nothing.

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So when you get your people to support us, um, there's going to be

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all this other stuff in terms of, you know, hardcore Republican policies.

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Anyway, the book is saying that the pastors are regretting entering into

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this bargain, this deal, and now they've kind of lost control of their flock.

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That people are not They're not identifying with churches as much and

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they're identifying with Trump and the pastors in various congregations feel

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that they've lost their connection with their flock and the flock now listens

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more to Trump than he does to the preachers and they're regretting that.

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That was something that was covered on the Friendly Atheist, a podcast

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that I listen to every week.

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That was, that was covered in their latest edition, which came out last Friday.

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Was that this book?

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Related to this book?

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No, it wasn't related to that book.

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It was related to what they're saying there.

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That the, the pastors and everything are regretting.

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They're telling their congregation to go out and vote for Trump

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because they've discovered that they're treating Trump like he's

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an idol, that they are worshipping him rather than worshipping God.

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So And even worse than that The money that used to go to the church is

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almost certainly going to Trump now.

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Trump now, exactly.

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Yes.

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The tithings are going to Trump.

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Yeah, that would be true too.

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Good point, Joe.

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That's what I really regret.

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Well, you know, you'd hope that their regret is more about the, faithlessness of

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Trump and that sort of stuff as opposed to their financial concerns, but I do believe

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that they, I believe that You know, I wouldn't be surprised at all with what Joe

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is saying, that the tithes are probably going to Trump more so than the church.

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The last paragraph of this article says, From this wreckage has emerged

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a version of evangelicalism that sometimes seems like a brand new

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religion, with Trump at the centre of it.

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As Ruth Graham and Charles Hermans reported in the New York Times,

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in Iowa, the percentage of people tied to a congregation fell by

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almost 13 percent from 2010 to 2020.

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Which was a sharp decline.

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As ties to church communities have weakened, the church leaders

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who once rallied the faithful behind causes and candidates

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have lost influence, they wrote.

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A new class of thought leaders has filled the gap.

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Social media personalities and podcasters.

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Once, once fringe prophetic preachers and politicians.

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So.

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Prophetic preachers on the fringe and politicians, media personalities

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and podcasters, apparently.

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All.

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Yeah.

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Well, there we go.

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That's a take that I hadn't heard before.

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Was the preachers now regretting it because Ah, these people are now

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listening to Trump rather than them.

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Hmm.

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Hmm.

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But they got their way.

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They got Roe v.

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Wade overturned.

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They did.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, but the number of states that have actually imposed, the number of states

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that have actually imposed the ridiculous laws and that sort of stuff that says

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you can't abort after five weeks and that type of thing, that is actually down

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on what the original predictions were.

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It was, they were actually talking about everything south of the Mason

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Dixie line just going that way.

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But they haven't gone that way.

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You've got Florida, you've got Texas, and those larger states

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have actually enacted those laws.

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However, where you actually put abortion on a ballot measure, which was the case in

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a state whose name escapes me, It was very resoundingly defeated that it, they wanted

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the, that was then they, they had a change to the constitution that gave everyone

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the right to an abortion in that state.

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So I just think that, and you can also see the, the behavior of the

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Republicans who have very quickly altered their own personal websites

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and all that sort of stuff, calling for a, calling for the end of Roe v.

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Wade to ignoring it completely.

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It's one of those things.

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It's just that it has backfired on them very badly.

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And if, and you can also see it in the words of Trump and that sort

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of stuff, he says that, you know, the abortion ban after six weeks is

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ridiculous because so many people don't realise they're pregnant.

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And then he also counters it by saying that, well, this

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is just what I've got to say.

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I've got to say this to get elected.

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So he's, trying to have both sides of the cake.

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There we go.

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So, so they got Roe v Wade overturned.

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How many states have actually taken advantage of that?

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Not as many as perhaps they hoped.

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Meanwhile, it's created a dysfunctional Republican Party.

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And it's meanwhile caused the preachers to lose power over their flocks.

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And so the evangelical preachers are stuffed.

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the laws haven't changed, you know, across the board.

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The Republican Party's stuffed.

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The only person who benefited out of the whole thing was Donald Trump.

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They got him elected.

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And he didn't care what happened with Roe v.

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Wade himself.

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He couldn't care less.

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There we go.

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Jack H won the award for the first commenter on our Monday night 8pm

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edition, who's wrote, here in the chat room, unexpected notification.

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Good evening and thanks as always for the show.

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Thank you, Jack H.

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Oh, there's going to be a lot of elections this year.

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there was an article that's saying that over 4 billion people, half the

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world's population across 40 countries is going to be going to the polls

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this year, so it's not just the United States, but India, Indonesia, Russia.

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The UK.

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That Russian election will be Well, that'll be heavily rated.

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Worth watching.

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I wonder who's going to win that one.

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Oh, Vladimir Putin's going to win that.

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Yeah.

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United Kingdom.

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That'll be an interesting one as well.

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Surely the Tories are gone.

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Surely Keir Starmer and Joe, what's the feeling on the

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ground as our UK correspondent?

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What are people saying?

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they're not very impressed with Keir Starmer.

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I mean, there have been some by elections and Labor has One of those, but, um,

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I think people are just giving up.

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But they must be appalled with the Tories and think, doesn't matter how

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bad Labor is, they've got to vote.

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They cannot possibly I think if you had a compulsory ballot over there, you

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would get a Labor in in a landslide.

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But because you don't have a compulsory vote, I think a hell of people that

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are saying, well, I can't vote for the Tories, but I don't really love the

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Labor Party, I'm going to stay home.

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The hope is, that my friend was expressing the other day, they're hoping for a

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hung parliament, that the LDP actually get the balance of power, and that they

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introduce proportional representation.

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Which will at least break the two party block that there is at the moment.

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Right.

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Because they've got First Past the Post, and they've got three parties.

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And so, basically, if you vote LDP, they'll never get in.

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You're just wasting your vote.

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Ah, so preferential voting rather than proportional, is it?

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No.

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No, they want proportional.

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No, they want proportional voting.

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Right.

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Okay.

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The same way you have in Europe, where you have a You've got the

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Parliament and that sort of stuff being made up by the percentages

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of the votes that you've garnered.

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Yeah, which is what we were talking about last week, which would

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be great, but gee, could you, well, would Labor agree to that?

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Who knows?

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yeah, I mean, so, LDP gave up on it last time, because they were in a power

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sharing agreement with the Tories.

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so, the question is, do they have the balls to push for it

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and refuse to join an alliance?

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Mm.

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a power sharing agreement until they get that Mm-Hmm.

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Because obviously both labor and the conservatives don't want it.

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Yeah.

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It's so hard to change those sorts of things.

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Mm-Hmm mm.

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In the chat room, Matthew, John and Don have all joined in as well.

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Thanks guys for your comments.

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Don says the Russian election will be as fair and transparent as

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the last Saddam Hussein election.

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Scott, did you go out to Woolies?

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Oh, well, did you go out and buy some Australia Day?

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No, I don't.

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I don't buy any merchandise or anything like that because, one, I think that,

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the 26th of January should be celebrated only in New South Wales because it was

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the foundation of the New South Wales colony, not Australia, and I think to

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myself also that the Indigenous people have got a very good point about that.

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I do not want to call it Invasion Day, but I think they're right.

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It was Celebration of Invasion, so I think to myself that we've got to

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find a new date for a celebration for the, the, the date of Australia.

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So God knows what date you're going to choose.

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I would I pick Rum Rebellion.

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No, you can do that.

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What date's that?

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26th of January.

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No, but I think that, I don't know, as one of the things I think we could

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do to actually show their Indigenous brethren that we understand and that

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sort of stuff, we could actually have the date of Australia Day being the

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anniversary of the 1967 referendum that counted them as Australians.

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I think that would actually go some way of actually saying, look,

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Do you know what date that was?

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No, I couldn't tell you.

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But anyway, I just think to myself, if we could just, if we could just resurrect

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that date and call that a, if we could call that Australia Day, then that

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would go some way to smoothing relations between us and the Indigenous people.

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Yeah, you're going to have, you're going to have all these dickheads like.

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What's his name?

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What's the leader of the Opposition's name?

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Dutton.

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Dutton, yeah.

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Dutton and all that sort of stuff is going to come down like a ton of bricks.

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He's going to say, this is ridiculous, you know, you can't

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just upend hundreds of years of history and all that sort of stuff.

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I think to myself, yes you can.

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You know, it's just a date.

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Yeah, it's just a date.

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I think we've discussed this for several years, Scott.

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Yeah, I know.

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The referendum was the 27th of May, by the way.

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Okay.

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Here's my thoughts.

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Well, the other problem was people were thinking, You know, maybe the

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Constitution, but that was on the 1st of January, 1901, that's not a great date.

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I reckon, I don't care, provided it's in the second half of the year, because

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there's way too many public holidays.

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In the first, right.

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Way too many public holidays in the beginning of the year, and we

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need more at the end of the year.

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So, yeah, hard to find a good date.

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So, Watley's joined us in the chat room as well, so.

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yeah, John says, how about Federation Day, from 1900.

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Yeah, John, I think it was the 1st of January, 1901.

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It was, yeah.

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Yeah, so, already enough holidays around that time.

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Hmm.

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Yeah, anyway.

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But this whole thing of Peter Dutton, he's basically said that, well, major

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retailers Woolworths and Big W, Big W, decided not to stock Australia Day

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merchandise this year due to a gradual decline in community demand, and Peter

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Dutton has called on Australians to boycott Woolworths over the decision.

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And experts say the decision would have been made due to community

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concern or reputational risk.

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they're into culture wars, aren't they?

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Yeah, I know, he wants to, he wants to provoke a culture war.

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And it's just, I don't understand what planet he's on.

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Because he's saying that, you know, you should have people go out to IGA and Audi.

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Audi's a German owned company, which has already said that they're not going

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to stock Australia Day merchandise.

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Yeah.

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You know, so he's a fucking idiot.

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He is.

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Like, it's not as if there's another retailer saying, yeah,

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we're the king of, of Australian A merchandise coming by from us.

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Yeah.

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I don't even think that, I don't even think it's available in Coles, is it?

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I don't think so.

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Support your local dollar shop.

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They'll have plenty.

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Yeah, you just go into a dollar shop and that's the stuff you can buy.

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You know, it's one of those things, I hate the flag anyway, so, you know.

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Yeah, but, you know, this, this desire of Dutton and his colleagues to be

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so jingoistic on cultural issues like this sort of stuff, rather than

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figuring out the important things.

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They're pathetic.

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They're such a pathetic bunch, the Liberals and their opposition.

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Yeah, it is.

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yeah.

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And, and, you know, they, they're sort of moving away from the party

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of free enterprise, if you like, and, and moving away from the party of big

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business to somehow the party of the battler and the small business person.

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In their rhetoric is, is where they're sort of heading with things.

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So, mm-Hmm.

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I dunno if they've got any idea.

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You wonder if the paid for dinners, they're saying to their

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big business sponsors, Hey, don't listen to what we say in public.

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That's all we say to get elected.

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Yeah.

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Watch what we do instead.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Anyway, that's Peter Dutton merchandise Australia Day, Scott.

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Email came through from Andrew.

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Do you want me to read it out?

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Yes.

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hi podcast peeps, and a happy new year to you, to you folk too.

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After listening to the Welcome Back episode, I'm confused by Scott quoting

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militant Palestinians and ignoring similar things said by militant Israelis.

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Is that fair?

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Then, decades later, a more noisy Andrew Decades later, SBS documentary,

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oh sorry, as a boy I grew up watching Arafat lead PLO hijack planes and

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do all sorts of horrible things.

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Clearly he and they were evil.

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Then decades later, a more aged noisy Andrew watched the an SBS

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documentary on Arafat circa 1980s.

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Suddenly the penny dropped.

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People don't do this shit simply because they're evil.

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They do it because they feel they've exhausted all other options

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and are tired of being screwed.

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How has Scott not worked this out yet?

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Seriously, Scott, time to call a spade a spade.

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Yours in curiosity, Andrew.

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I don't recall what I said about the militant Palestinians, so I'll

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have to go back and listen to that.

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Ignoring things said by militant Israelis.

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I think you were talking about, you know, well, the Palestinians

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threatened to wipe Israel off the map.

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Yeah.

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And so what's Israel to do?

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And I think noisy Andrew is saying, what about the rhetoric from the

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Israelis and others threatening to wipe Palestinians off the map?

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Like for every bad statement by a Palestinian, you could find a

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bad statement from an Israeli.

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Yeah, exactly.

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It's It's one of those things you're never going to get a, you're never get

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a, you are never gonna get a balanced view of the area because it's a, as I've

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said numerous, numerous times before, a terrible mistake was made in 1947 mm-Hmm.

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It was a reprehensible thing that the international community did, where

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they just took a country that hadn't existed for 2000 years and recreated it.

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It's a.

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Terrible, terrible thing that was done.

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However, it has been done.

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so what do I think the Palestinians should do about it?

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Well, for starters, I don't believe they should go into Israel and pinch people

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that were just attending a music festival.

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Which is what most of those hostages were taken from, they

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were taken from a music festival.

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Now, did I ever think, uh, Arafat was evil or anything like that?

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No, I don't.

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Because he was actually involved in the negotiations with, was it Rabin?

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He was the one that was behind the Oslo Accords.

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Don't know.

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Yeah.

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Anyway.

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He was actually involved in that sort of negotiation, which I don't

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think is an evil thing to do.

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It was a person that was trying to do something for

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the betterment of his people.

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So I don't believe he was ever evil.

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do I believe that Hannes was evil?

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I don't think you could categorize an attack on a music festival

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any other way, except being evil.

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Because clearly they weren't actually, they weren't even

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soldiers or anything else.

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Now, yes, because Israel does have compulsory military service, you could

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possibly claim that everyone over there is a soldier, or was a soldier,

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so they are legitimate targets.

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But, I think to myself, if you've actually gone in there and you're actually going

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to pinch people You don't steal people from a music festival, because that

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was something that was clearly evil, where you actually attach something.

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So, what should the Palestinians do?

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I believe they should have stuck with Fatah, because Fatah is actually

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negotiating with the Israeli government.

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Now, had they have actually stuck with Fatah, had they have stayed on

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the negotiation table and all that sort of stuff, as they got ignored and

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that type of thing, they could always point to what they were ignored by

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the Israelis and that type of thing.

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They could go to them and actually say, look at what has been ignored.

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We have asked for this.

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It's been ignored.

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And then it could actually make it over and over and over again until

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eventually the rest of the world turns around to Israel and say, I think

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the Palestinians have got a point.

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You better actually do something about it.

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Would the rest of the world ever do that?

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I mean, we've got over 20, 000 people killed and it's happening now.

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Continuously.

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You hear nothing about it now.

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It's old news.

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I know, it's one of those things.

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They're whinging about not getting what they want.

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Would never have raised anything on the world stage.

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Well, what has actually pinching 1, 200 people done for them?

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It's got their, it's got this population bombed day and night by Israel.

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It's got a lot of the world saying Israel is a, is an apartheid

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state committing genocide.

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That is basically from the global south rather than the north.

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Yeah, but probably as a result of what's happened, the enormous shift of

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opinion by perhaps billions of people.

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against Israel.

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But, did they actually do it properly?

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Did Hamas do it properly?

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Yes.

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Well, what noisy Andrew is getting to though Yeah, I know

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what noisy Andrew is getting to.

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For every time you say, oh the Israelis, did what they did because the

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Palestinians threatened to You know, to blast them off the face of the earth.

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Well, he's just saying, well, the Israelis And have tried a number of times.

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Yeah, I guess if you're going to say that, it's like, we'll talk a little

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bit later about how, with the Houthis, and every article about the Houthis is

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littered with the Iranian backed Houthis.

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When references are made to Israel, it's never the American backed Israelis.

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Yeah, I know.

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It's one of those things.

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It's just that, Alright, you know, it's one of those things.

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I don't think Andrew and I are ever going to agree.

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But, you know, I'll ask Andrew exactly the same question

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I've asked you before, Trevor.

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Do you honestly believe that if the PLO were as well armed as the IDF,

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that they would show the same level of restraint that the IDF has shown?

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Or, do you honestly believe, or do you believe as I do, that if they were

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as well armed, that they would drive the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea?

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Do you think, do you think Israel has shown a level of restraint?

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Oh yeah, they have, they have shown a level of restraint up until now.

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Right.

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Have they?

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Yeah.

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The apartheid state they were running Yeah, I know, that is The running people

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off their properties in the West Bank And that is the Israeli government

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that is doing that, not the IDF.

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The IDF has shown a level of restraint.

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They have not blasted everything off the face of the earth like

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it was originally suggested.

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They have taken out In Gaza?

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Oh, in Gaza.

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Gaza is a different story.

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They are levelling that.

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There is no doubt about that.

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But So based on the evidence in front of us, it's hard to say that Israel is acting

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with restraint against the Palestinians.

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Okay.

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Fair enough.

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Okay.

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Fair enough.

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I don't know that the Palestinians could have been any How could they be any worse?

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Because Israel is literally wiping these people off the f

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They're committing genocide.

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Yeah, okay, they are committing genocide.

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But I'm not, I'm not actually supporting Israel or anything like that.

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I'm just simply saying that, you know, I don't, I don't accept

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his argument that say that, um, they've exhausted all other options.

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And they're tired of being screwed.

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I don't accept that because they have ignored the path that FATA

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has taken, which is to remain at the negotiation table with Israel.

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They've ignored that.

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And Hamas has decided to back terrorist activities as opposed to negotiations.

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I think what Noisy Andrew and others would be saying is that, um, that Israel has

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made statements equally as bad as Hamas.

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Palestinians have made and Israel has acted equally as bad as you could possibly

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imagine the Palestinians might have acted had they had military superiority.

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So the just people are saying, don't paint any picture that puts the Israelis

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in a slightly advantageous moral position because they haven't earned it.

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I think what people are saying is Is treat them as equally as bad

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as each other, stop saying that the Israelis were slightly better.

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I think that's what people are saying.

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I might be wrong, and I'm sure Noisy Andrew will email

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us again during the week.

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But I think that's the general thing is Is that the West tries to paint a picture

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of Israelis having some restraint and not being as bad as the Palestinians.

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We've probably reached the point where we could say, I'm not so sure about that.

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Yeah, I can accept that.

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You know, it's Prior to this Gaza thing, I think that they did X ray it.

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It did show a level of restraint.

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Now, yes, you could argue that, kids throwing rocks and that sort of stuff

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at tanks shouldn't result in live fire and that type of thing, but

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it did, it did result in live fire.

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So that was possibly not as good a level of restraint as they had shown previously.

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And, you know, also, I watched a movie on What's her name?

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The Israeli Prime Minister, the first woman Israeli Prime Minister.

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Golda Meir.

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Yeah, Golda Meir.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And that was really good.

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And who produced the movie?

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I don't know.

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It was on Netflix.

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Right.

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It was in English, so I couldn't tell you.

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Anyway, it's, the whole thing that came out about that at the end

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of it all was Egypt actually went to them and said, look, we will

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recognize Israel as a country.

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We will recognize your right to exist.

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Egypt did the right thing.

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They got their ass kicked in the 1967 war, and then they turned around and said,

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Okay, we will accept you have a right to exist, and we will negotiate with you.

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So, that was a good thing.

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Israel has behaved appallingly badly by seizing land that

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belongs to the Palestinians and building settlements on them.

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That is wrong.

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It shouldn't happen.

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But it is happening.

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So, you've just got to move on from that.

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It's one of those things.

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do I actually agree that, Well, I'll ask Andrew this.

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Would he actually agree to carving off a section of Northwestern

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Australia and calling it Israel?

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Having them bring, having them bring over the Israelis and that sort

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of stuff over here and call them a state of Australia called Israel?

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The only thing we'd have to do is we'd have to become a bilingual

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country in Hebrew and English.

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I've got no problem with that.

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Oh, jeez.

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No, I would have absolutely no problem.

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That's such a fanciful concept now that it's hard to Yeah,

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it's one of those things.

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It's just It is possible, though, that, you know, you could If you

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could pack up Israel and move it down here, then you'd have the A whole

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problem would disappear overnight.

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Because the Israelis would live down here, the Palestinians would live back there.

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Yeah, but no they wouldn't, because Jerusalem is the Promised Land.

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That's right.

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A holy city.

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I think the only fix is to nuke Jerusalem so that it's completely

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uninhabitable by anybody, and then they'll stop fighting over it.

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They'll still fight over it.

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Yeah, I don't think it's relevant if you nuke it, because, you know, it's

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like, like Trevor just said, it's religious, and it's also, you know, one

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of them was, the Arab, the Muslims were the Children of, what was his name,

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Ishmael and the Jews were the children of Abraham.

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So you've got, you know, you've got these, they're brothers for Christ's sake.

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You know, they ought to be able to put aside their whole bloody

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difficulties, but they're never going to.

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Alright, well you've addressed the email, Scott, we'll see what Andrew

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says in response during the week.

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Yeah, I know, he's going to come back with something else.

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Right, I had something from Caitlin Johnson along these lines, she wrote,

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In the mind of the Empire simp, he's short for sympathiser, the violence

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of the Empire's enemies always comes completely out of nowhere, without

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provocation and for no reason.

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Ansarala, that's the, who's this?

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Started attacking ships in the Red Sea because they're pirates

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who hate freedom of navigation.

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Hamas attacked Israel because they're evil and hate Jews.

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Putin invaded Ukraine because he's evil and hates democracy.

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Grown adults betray the enemies of the empire the same way the children's cartoon

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show Captain Planet betrayed its villains.

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Cackling evilly about how they're going to dump toxic waste into the ocean for no

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reason other than to hurt the environment.

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So, just making the point, but there's always Some context behind these things,

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that these people are doing stuff.

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I just wonder when she became an Islamist apologist.

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Ah, I think, ah, she's always been an anti US empire, so that's where she's

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But, but she's, but she's supporting some Islamists who believe in a

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caliphate, a worldwide caliphate.

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Which ones are those?

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the Houthis.

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Right.

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So, so they're very much aligned with Islamic State.

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I'd be concerned about My reading of the Houthis is that they're pretty much a

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group of people wanting to regain control of Yemen, the country where they live.

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And ousted in one version is they ousted a dictator, who was corrupt

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and installed by the US and others.

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Basically, you know, one man's terrorist, Joe, is another man's freedom fighter.

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Isn't that always the case?

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Oh, absolutely.

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But, the, the, the Mujahideen, who then became, um, God, who is it in

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Afghanistan, but the Taliban, they, the Taliban, they were replacing

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a corrupt puppet government with a beautifully, um, Islamic, uncorruptible,

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because they follow the world of God.

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So the question is sure they're pushing out bad people, but are

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they replacing them with good people or just another set of bad people?

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Well, at least they're the people who live in the country, trying to gain

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control, Well, some of them anyway.

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Again, I think that, attacking, shipping and that sort of stuff on the Red Sea

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doesn't do them any favours, does it?

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No, but, I mean, who hasn't attacked a ship on the Red Sea

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and confiscated a law taker?

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I can understand them throwing rockets at Israel and all that sort of stuff.

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I can understand it.

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I don't agree with it, but I understand it.

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It's one of those things if they, if if they, if they, if they held their

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contempt just for Israel, then I, then I would be more on their side.

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But they're actually attacking.

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Shipping, which is, yeah, well, it's only ships going to Israel or, or their, um,

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ships that are, are owned by somebody who once met an Israeli at a dinner party,

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, or, or ships owned by Israelis, but they're basically only attacking ships.

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So actually lot of ships.

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A lot of the ships are, going to great lengths to show their Chinese connections.

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Because they know that they'll be safe then.

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Well, they know that the Chinese Navy are sending a flotilla down there.

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Yeah.

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And that the Hooties won't dare attack anything that's got a flotilla there.

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Yeah.

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But, you know, if you support an ally, you're allowed to bomb other people.

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And, with all their ships.

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That's just par for the course.

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Who amongst us hasn't done that?

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You know, if you support an ally, so you just bomb another country.

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That's just what you're doing.

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Or their ships.

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Need for a start.

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Yeah, but our country In terms of countries Yeah, but

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our country has done that.

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Yeah, in terms of countries, name a country that hasn't done that.

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Well, John Simmons is just saying, no, Trevor, they're

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attacking ships indiscriminately.

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No, that's not the case.

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They're attacking ships that have got some Israeli connection.

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That's what they're attacking.

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Well, they've also Because they hate the Israelis and they hate the Jews, but

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they're not attacking indiscriminately.

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But, and what did, you know, so the US and the UK, with Australian help and

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others, and what our help was exactly?

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We don't know!

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Because our Defence Minister, Richard Marles, won't tell us, but we have

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provided some sort of operational support, because, um, the US and

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the UK, Lobsom bombs on the, Yemen.

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No doubt killing hundreds, well, no doubt killing innocent people along the way.

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I mean, there might be precision bombing.

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Just bombing Yemen now.

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So, in addition to all the other countries that get bombed, let's

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just add another one to the list.

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I mean, the U.

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S.

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just confiscated an Iranian oil tanker that was in the

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Red Sea, heading to Venezuela.

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Just took the, took the ship.

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Because the U.

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S.

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had a sanction against Venezuela, nobody else did, but that was okay.

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Like, just grab the ship, take it, you can do these things.

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It's such a double standard.

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Like, okay, well, it's not great.

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Of course it's not good, speed bump.

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Attacking, shipping, the shipping lines.

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When we do it, it's okay.

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Or when our ally does it, it's okay.

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This is the hypocrisy of this shit.

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That is so annoying.

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It's the double standard.

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It's the inconsistency of, of the moral position.

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If it's good for one, it's got to be good for another.

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I don't think that, we would be on the side of the Yanks just pinching that oil.

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Because the oil was going from Tehran to Venezuela.

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Which I don't believe Australia would actually be saying, yes,

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the Yanks can do that, so yeah.

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We didn't condemn it.

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They got away with it.

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Did we kill the people on board?

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Did we send the ship to the bottom of the ocean?

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Or did the Americans, rather?

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I don't know, I don't think so.

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Or did they take the offer and fuck off?

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I think they just confiscated the entire ship.

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Oh, they probably just told the crew to fuck off, yeah.

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Yeah, so, you know, it's It's the double standard, is the point I'm making.

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So, what have we got here?

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John Simmons wrote, sorry Trevor, I've done a lot of reading on this one.

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They start on just Israeli ships but they only make up less than 2

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percent of the ships going through.

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Yeah, of course they, well, Israeli ships would make up less than 2%, I would

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have thought, of ships going through.

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But, the, who are you reading from?

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John that says that they're attacking other ships other

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than Israeli connected ships.

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That would be my question to you.

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Let me just see, I've got a, got a video here from a guy, and

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let me just bring this one up.

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And before I do, let me just say, Uh, this is a guy called Andrew Fisher.

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He's an English political advisor and researcher and writer and trade

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unionist and he served as Director of Policy for the UK Labor Party under

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Leader Jeremy Corbyn back in the day.

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So, here's what he had to say.

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Highlights is the extreme double standards.

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Here we are, the Houthis have been attacking shipping lanes.

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no deaths so far, thankfully.

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Israel's been bombarding Gaza for the last three months, tens of thousands of people

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died, children being amputated without anaesthetic, and that's fine, no sanctions

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on Israel, no strikes against them, no arms embargo, but the Houthis rebel,

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and that's, it's because we don't care about international law or human rights.

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We have this rhetoric that we do, but we don't.

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This is absolute nonsense, and this whole conflict is exposing that.

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We say that, you know.

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The Iran backed Houthi rebels, well, they've been bombed by the US and UK

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backed Saudi Arabia for the last 10 years, you know, actually, the last

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Labour, administration was calling for sanctions on Saudi Arabia over this for,

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an arms embargo, Hillary Bend, you know, somebody who's serving under Kirstein

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was leading this within the last shadow cabinet, so, you know, we talk about

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this in completely bizarre ways that spins it into this sort of thing of one

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side is bad and the other side's I mean, we've got a case in the International

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Court of Justice today brought by South Africa against Israel for genocide.

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We're not talking about that, we're talking about some

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interruption to shipping lanes.

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I mean, it's pretty small scale stuff when tens of thousands

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of people are being killed.

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And, you know, I don't care what adjective you call it, whether you call it a

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massacre, a slaughter, ethnic cleansing, genocide, it doesn't really much matter.

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Tens of thousands of people are being killed, and we're not talking about that,

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we're talking about some shipping lanes.

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It's, it's perverse, really, and the rest of the world can see it.

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Well, there we go.

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That's one opinion.

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Well, it's not just shipping lanes, is it?

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It's a huge impact and a huge cost on global financial markets.

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It is?

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Slaughtering Palestinian civilians doesn't cause the cost of

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your shit from China to go up.

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Whereas attacking shipping in Because ships now have to go around the

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Cape Horn, and it costs more for my My staff and tens of thousands of

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Palestinians are getting slaughtered and that's not the important issue.

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That has no impact on costs.

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Yes, exactly, that doesn't affect me.

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That's the point he's making.

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You know, valid point.

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Yeah, but what he's saying is it's an insignificant thing to

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attack shipping in the Red Sea.

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And it isn't an insignificant thing.

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It's costing people money and when people lose money they

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tend to get shitty about it.

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Yes, because it affects them.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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But, you know, he's saying there's an ongoing genocide happening.

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And we've forgotten about it, and we're talking about shipping.

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So, you know, we

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Oh, Trevor's just seized up.

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Hello, Trevor.

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We'll have to take over instead.

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It's our show now.

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Right, well, this is something, dear listener, that we were supposed to

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cover last week, but we didn't get to.

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Australia's changed climate, the Bureau's yearly reminder.

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Have you seen this, Joe?

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Yeah, yeah, I saw that one.

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Yeah, and what scared the shit out of me was that What?

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graph.

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Hang on, I've lost it.

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Yeah, we couldn't hear you there for a minute, but anyway, you're back now.

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We can hear you, but we can't see you.

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Anyway, he's gone again.

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What scared the shit out of me was the annual mean temperature anomaly.

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I'm, I'm back.

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Okay, sorry.

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We had a blackout, suddenly the power went out.

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Right, fair enough.

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did you want to finish what you were saying before we move on to this, Oh, I've

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lost track of where I was in my rant, but, I shall continue on this, whole thing.

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The annual mean temperature anomaly.

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what scared the living daylights out of me was how quickly it

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stopped having any blue on it.

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And then this has gone virtually all to red.

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And this happened in around about 1975, thereabouts, was the

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first significant red increase.

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And then you had a dip in it in the 70s and then 80s, and since then it's

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been significantly higher every year.

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Now, this is the annual mean minute AK.

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A positive anomaly indicates measured temperatures was warmer than the baseline.

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A negative anomaly indicates the observed temperature was cooler than the baseline.

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The BOM graph shows cooling trend up to the late 70s and then a

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warming trend from the mid 80s.

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Now, the baseline was between 1960 and 1990.

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And ever since then, we've shown a significant increase

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in our observed temperatures.

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So, that's sca Okay, there's the, there's the graph there.

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That scared the living shit out of me, because it was a hell of a lot hotter than

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what it has been throughout our history.

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Now, 1910 was when it started, 2020 was when it's finished.

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If this is only going to get worse, then God alone knows

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what we're going to do about it.

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Because it's one of those things, we could have already missed the boat

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on actually doing anything about it.

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But I hope we haven't.

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I hope that the, measures and that sort of stuff being put in by the

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Queensland government and hopefully the, other measures that are being

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taken by other state governments will actually help bring that down.

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But 2023 destroys global heat record.

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European Sciences officially confirmed Tuesday that 2023

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was the hottest year on record.

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So, there it is.

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Global warming has happened, it's already happening, and it is looking

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like it's getting out of control.

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Yeah, well, I think they've said, effectively, we're not

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going to stop or reverse.

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The question is how much we can slow it down by.

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Yeah, exactly.

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So can we keep it to a rate that isn't going to be totally earth

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changing for Life on the planet.

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The planet itself will survive.

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Yeah, the planet itself will survive, it's just who lives on here is another story.

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You know, as to whether or not we, as to whether or not our planet can

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support a population of 8 billion plus is another thing, you know.

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And also, we keep approving coal mines for some reason.

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Yeah, I know, we keep approving them, and we've got to actually stop that.

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You know, even though it's one of those things, dear listener, I'm looking at

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working at coal mines and all that sort of stuff, but it's one of those things.

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I can accept that they've got a finite life.

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I can accept that they've got 20 or 30 years left in them.

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But there are a number of kids and that sort of stuff that are

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going out there thinking they're going to have a job for life.

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They're not going to have a job for life, you know, because at some point

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humanity has to stop digging up decomposed forests and burning them because that

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is what's actually causing the problem.

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I'm back and you start talking about climate change.

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Yeah, we have started talking about climate change.

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Did you mention that graphic?

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Yeah, and Joe put that up on the screen.

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It's one of those things, that graphic actually scared the shit out of me.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, when I'm down at Coolangatta I sort of, I can't help myself, I keep looking

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at the beach and looking at the apartment building down there and thinking, how

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long is it going to take before this is actually, the water rises and the goddamn

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basement's flooded every second week when there's a king tide or something.

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I just It, it can't be that far off when these things happen.

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Well, it's one of those things, like, you know, So then you'll

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have a waterfront apartment.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, but you, the basement will be permanently flooded, which you

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then can't drive your car into.

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It's one of those things, like, you know, Fraser Island is now called Kigari, is it?

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Mm hmm.

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Yeah.

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There's been two kids and that sort of stuff that have been airlifted

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to hospital today because they got stung by Iriganchi jellyfish.

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Irukandji jellyfish only ever hang out in the very hot water.

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The very hot water is now at Fraser Island, for Christ's sake.

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That's only just a few hours north of Lusa.

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Last year they were saying, no, no, no, it wasn't Irukandji.

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People are getting confused.

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There's no way they'd be that far south.

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Yeah.

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Well, they are that far south apparently now.

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Okay.

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So, it's one of those things, as the temperature and that sort of stuff rises,

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the, it's no longer, the cooler water is no longer in the south of the country,

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it's now warming and that sort of stuff, so you've now got Iriganchi, Iriganchi,

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Iriganchi jellyfish at Kigari, which is really very frightening, actually.

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there was another article in John Menardieu blog that said, European

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scientists confirmed that Tuesday, on Tuesday that 2023 was the hottest year on

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record, and Not only is 2023, the warmest year on record, it's the first year

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with all days over 1% or over one degree warmer than the pre-industrial period.

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So temperature temperatures during 2023 likely exceed those of any

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period in the last 100,000 years.

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Mm-Hmm.

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. So, so you can just see it's coming to the crunch, but it's a can.

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Just gets kicked down the road.

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Well, I don't think they're going to be able to kick it down the road

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anymore because, you know, everything that the scientists and that sort of

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stuff was saying was going to happen in 50 years, it's happening now.

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So, you know, it's It's one of those things, you know, we've got

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to accept that it's happening and we've got to actually deal with it.

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Now, you know, I've got solar panels on my roof and I've got a battery and all that

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sort of stuff and I'm very pleased with myself when I, you know, I wake up in the

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morning and the battery's still at 25%.

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So, you know, I'm not purchasing any of the electricity up here.

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It's all coming from my, from my, from my own solar generation.

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But, you know, is that enough?

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Probably not.

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You know, we've actually got to find ways of sucking out the carbon dioxide that's

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already been put into the atmosphere now, so, you know, I don't know what the

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answer is, you know, it's one of those things, it, you know, you could, you could

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argue that you should plant more forests and that type of thing, but, you know,

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how the hell are we going to do that?

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I just don't see anybody having the political courage to do anything about it.

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No.

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People will just want the cam kicked down the road while they

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can, and at the moment you look at it and you can, so people will.

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Well, I think that's unfortunately human nature.

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Well, Dutton will argue that it should be kicked down the road, but

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I think to myself that, you know, it's already happening now, we can't

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actually kick it down the road anymore because it's, it's one of those

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things, it's, it's already happening, so we've got no choice but we've

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actually got to do something about it.

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Anyway, the evidence is in, it's not just feeling hotter, it is hotter.

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Yeah, it is, it's a hell of a lot hotter.

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The evidence is there, so.

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Yeah.

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That's that, and just finally But hang on, we had snow the

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other day, it can't be hotter.

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Yeah, this is the thing, people It's not snowing down here,

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it's snowing up there you are.

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Yeah, but people talk about, oh, it's snowing so much, how

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can there be global warming?

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Well, there's an expression that it's It's too dry for snow, and you need

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moisture in the air in order to create snow, so the warming of the planet,

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um, means that there's more moisture in the air, which means there actually

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will be heavier snow dumps in cold areas than there were previously.

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Makes perfect sense that you get these big snow dumps.

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Due to global warming.

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There we go.

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Yep, for sure.

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and just quickly, we haven't mentioned submarines all year, have we?

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so, What, in two episodes you mean?

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Yes, that's right.

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So, the Australian Navy can't man its eight ANZAC class frigates.

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And sailor numbers continue to fall, yet defence leadership is pursuing a grandiose

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368 billion Orcas submarine program.

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We'll just get the Yanks to come over and crew them for us.

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They'll have to crew them as well.

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Yeah, exactly.

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We can't even Man, our eight ANZAC class frigates, let alone these huge submarines.

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So, add that to the kit bag of arguments against these stupid nuclear submarines,

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and, In the chat room, John's been, ranting at me about the Houthis and

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saying that it is indiscriminate.

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They're, they're, firing on, on, shipping in the Red Sea.

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So, we'll have to come back to that one next week, John.

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In the meantime, as I Verify whether they're discriminant or

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indiscriminate with their attacks on shipping and see what the story is.

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So, right.

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Well, that was a Monday night, eight o'clock, first episode.

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And we've had nine people watching at the moment, so that was good.

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Same sort of usual crowd showed up, good on you.

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Jack H was not always there, Chris is there now.

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So, so yeah, good crowd for showing up.

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I think Alison turned up there at some stage as well, so.

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Alrighty, well thank you for the contributions in the chat room.

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Joe, are you back next week in Australia?

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No, next week I'm in London and catching a flight.

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Right.

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So we probably won't talk to you.

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No.

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Right.

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But the week after?

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Should be.

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Assuming jet lag isn't too bad.

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Yes.

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Scott, you're not going anywhere?

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No, I'm not going anywhere at the minute.

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Right.

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Very good.

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Okay.

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Alrighty.

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Well, talk to you next week, dear listener.

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Thanks for your attention.

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Bye for now.

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And it's a good night from me.

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And it's a good night from him.

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Good night.

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