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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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To financially support the Podcast you can make:

We Livestream every Monday night at 7:30 pm Brisbane time. Follow us on Facebook or YouTube. Watch us live and join the discussion in the chat room.

We have a website. www.ironfistvelvetglove.com.au

You can email us. The address is trevor@ironfistvelvetglove.com.au



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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