Shownotes
In this episode we discuss:
(03:00) Aus Open Tennis
(13:44) Housing Report
(20:31) Trump
(35:57) Greenwald on Power
(42:51) News Corp Captured
(44:34) UK Poll
(45:18) Taiwan
(50:19) China's Economy
(53:56) USA Announces Aus Foreign Policy
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Transcripts
Suburban Eastern Australia, an environment that has, over time,
Speaker:evolved some extraordinarily unique groups of homosapiens.
Speaker:But today, we observe a small tribe akin to a group of meerkats that
Speaker:gather together atop a small mound to watch, question, and discuss the
Speaker:current events of their city, their country, and their world at large.
Speaker:Let's listen keenly and observe this group fondly known as the
Speaker:Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.
Speaker:Hello and welcome back.
Speaker:Yes, the Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove podcast in our new time, Monday nights.
Speaker:8pm, if you're in the chat room, eventually, say hello, we'll try
Speaker:and incorporate your comments.
Speaker:I'm Trevor, with me as always from regional Queensland,
Speaker:Scott the Velvet Glove.
Speaker:How are you, Scott?
Speaker:Not too bad, Trevor.
Speaker:I hope everyone's well, but I'm starting to look with concern over the
Speaker:tropical cyclone that's on its way.
Speaker:And it's, Looking like it's, well, the center of the prediction is it's going
Speaker:to actually cross over at Townsville.
Speaker:The most northerly part of it is it's still predicted to hit Innisfail at
Speaker:the north or Ely Beach in the south.
Speaker:Now, I would like it to be further north from where I'm sitting right now
Speaker:because that will reduce the rain and everything else which is going to come.
Speaker:And it could actually also cock up my travel plans for Thursday afternoon.
Speaker:There.
Speaker:So I'm down to Brisbane next weekend, so yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Book an earlier flight if you can, Scott.
Speaker:I reckon.
Speaker:Yeah, . Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's always a possibility.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Good luck dodging that.
Speaker:So, yeah, it's been a stinker in Brisbane today.
Speaker:Oh God.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:38, 39 degrees, depending on where you are.
Speaker:And I'm in air conditioned comfort at the moment.
Speaker:Looking forward to chatting with you, Scott, about what's going
Speaker:on in the world and we'll try and solve a few problems one by one.
Speaker:Let's start with, well, what's on the agenda, dear listener?
Speaker:We're going to talk about, Australian Open tennis.
Speaker:No Russian flags, you might have noticed.
Speaker:a little bit on housing.
Speaker:A fair bit on Trump and trying to explain the Trump phenomena because, let's face
Speaker:it, that's starting to get some Momentum and traction and we'll all be talking
Speaker:about Trump over the next 12 months or at least nine months So we need to
Speaker:really understand Donald Trump Little bit about Taiwan and China And maybe Yemen.
Speaker:Finish up with the Lord's Prayer and Stephanie Rice, depending how we go.
Speaker:So, Landon Hardbottom.
Speaker:He's in the chat room.
Speaker:He says it's minus 15 in Beijing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I think he's actually trying to actually pay out on us there by saying,
Speaker:look at me, I'm up here in the cold and you're down there in the heat.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So, good on you, Landon.
Speaker:Now, Scott, you been watching the tennis at all?
Speaker:No, I don't really watch any sports.
Speaker:You know, I do watch a little bit of rugby when it's on, but I haven't,
Speaker:I don't watch, I do watch the Rugby Union, not the Rugby League.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:I was watching a little bit just the other night and, Medvedev was playing.
Speaker:He's Russian.
Speaker:And on the screen where they've got their name and the score and beside their name
Speaker:is usually their flag of their country.
Speaker:But in Medvedev's case, being Russian, no flag.
Speaker:So, at the Australian Open, they've decided that they're not going to show the
Speaker:flag of any Russian or Belarusian players, and Scott, got any opinion on that?
Speaker:I can understand where it's coming from because they, they've taken
Speaker:the view that, Russia's invasion of Ukraine was completely unprovoked
Speaker:and everything else, so they had to, they had to take a stand against it.
Speaker:I'm not a big fan of stans and that sort of stuff on those sorts of things,
Speaker:because I think to myself it's only sport, so they've just got to deal with it.
Speaker:it is what it is.
Speaker:It looks like it's a fairly muted approach by the tennis Australia, but
Speaker:it is something that they could do to Effectively protest against Russia's
Speaker:invasion of Ukraine, but it wasn't, you know, it's not really barring the
Speaker:players from competing or anything else.
Speaker:I gather they can still take their prize money back to Russia.
Speaker:Can they?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:It's no big deal then.
Speaker:It's just, it is what it is.
Speaker:It's, it's just, it's just blocking the national identity of the country and
Speaker:that sort of stuff that they're from.
Speaker:The problem with these things is once you do it once, you've got
Speaker:to be consistent in applying it.
Speaker:Yeah, so you're going to say that they should remove the American flag, are you?
Speaker:Well, I was thinking Israel.
Speaker:I mean, what's, what are they saying here?
Speaker:If you invade another country Then we're not gonna let you have your
Speaker:flag of your athletes, so, well, you know, Israel, is Israel not invaded?
Speaker:No, not really.
Speaker:They're actually trying to Palestinian land.
Speaker:They're actually trying to keep the, what is currently in
Speaker:Israel's borders under control.
Speaker:Now, you know, that's, that's what Russia would say.
Speaker:Yeah, that's what Russia would say.
Speaker:But Ukraine has been an independent state since 1989.
Speaker:It's just one of those.
Speaker:Here's my point.
Speaker:But do you agree with the point though, that if you're going to
Speaker:have laws, Yeah, you're going to have to apply equally to everybody.
Speaker:So what is the law?
Speaker:If you've invaded another country, you, athletes, you know, no flag.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:So what you then have to decide has Pellet, has.
Speaker:Israel actually invaded another country.
Speaker:Not really, because it is, it is part of Israel.
Speaker:However, it is also a border of a potential Palestinian state.
Speaker:Now, if it actually becomes an official Palestinian state, then
Speaker:Israel has clearly invaded them.
Speaker:So that is something that I do think that they're going to have to
Speaker:look at and actually get it right.
Speaker:Okay, but I guess the rationale is, if a country does something really bad, then
Speaker:we're going to punish that country by not allowing their athletes to use the flag.
Speaker:And so, you know, arguably, even if you don't think it's an invasion as
Speaker:such, what Israel's done is really bad.
Speaker:Oh no, it is.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:It is terrible.
Speaker:You know, I have never defended Israel.
Speaker:I've only, they do have the right to defend themselves.
Speaker:So would you be happy if they also decided, okay, no Israeli
Speaker:flags for Israeli tennis players?
Speaker:You'd be happy with that.
Speaker:Do you think there'll be a fifth?
Speaker:That if they're going to have it for Ukrainian and Belarusian players,
Speaker:do you think, just as a matter of equality and consistency, that
Speaker:that should be what they would do?
Speaker:Yeah, would have thought so.
Speaker:Okay, there we are.
Speaker:We're in agreement on something, Scott.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:We agree on some things occasionally.
Speaker:Yeah, it's one of those things.
Speaker:I have never defended Israel.
Speaker:You know, it's I'm not saying you are.
Speaker:No, it's you know, according to what's his name, the guy that actually sent me
Speaker:that message last week, Andrew, wasn't it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, noisy Andrew.
Speaker:It's one of those things.
Speaker:I have never actually defended Israel.
Speaker:I have always said that a terrible, terrible mistake was made in 1947.
Speaker:And you know, we've got to live with that now.
Speaker:It's one of those things.
Speaker:And I did actually ask the question.
Speaker:It really wouldn't worry me if we actually created a state of Israel
Speaker:in Australia that became part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but
Speaker:it was just one of those things.
Speaker:I don't think you'd ever be able to get that across from Gina
Speaker:Reinhardt or anything like that.
Speaker:She'd really crack the shits about that, but it is what it is.
Speaker:Landon's in the chat room.
Speaker:Landon, what do you reckon, Landon?
Speaker:If it's good enough for Ukraine and Belarus, then Israel?
Speaker:And Israeli athletes, I'm keen to know, Mr Hardbottom, what your
Speaker:hard opinion might be on this one.
Speaker:Are you going to live up to your name or not, Landon, or are you just going to
Speaker:be, you know, Mr Soft Mr Soft something?
Speaker:I think he'll probably back Israel, but anyway, we'll see what he says, yeah.
Speaker:I did a quick Google before it started, Scott, just to check on whether any other
Speaker:sports had followed a similar practice.
Speaker:And what I found was that with the Olympics in, Paris, that, similar thing,
Speaker:Russian and Belarusian athletes, won't be able to represent their nations.
Speaker:They'll be sort of neutral athletes.
Speaker:And that's been decided by the International Olympic Committee.
Speaker:and, so there was a, a, a poll in the UK, by the YouGov in UK, about Whether
Speaker:UK citizens agreed with this, and okay, the responses overall, actually I think
Speaker:I can put this up on the screen for you, Scott, so let me just find this one here.
Speaker:There it is, so, should be allowed to compete in their own national teams.
Speaker:That's what 14 percent of UK people think.
Speaker:Should be allowed to compete but only as neutral athletes, 34 percent think that.
Speaker:Shouldn't be allowed to compete at all was 33 percent and a don't know of 19.
Speaker:So, um, that was the, the figures.
Speaker:Interestingly On age, the older demographic was more likely to say,
Speaker:should not be allowed to compete at all.
Speaker:So, they were the ones with the, sort of, harder opinions about that.
Speaker:The older you were, the more likely you were to say that, Ukrainian,
Speaker:Russian and Belarusian athletes shouldn't be allowed to compete at all.
Speaker:So Well, one other thing to myself, I think I should That would probably
Speaker:be a fairer system if you're going to actually balk them from doing anything,
Speaker:then you shouldn't allow them to compete.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:It's You think that's fairer?
Speaker:Well, I think it is, because it's just Well, it's like, you
Speaker:know, the They're just innocent.
Speaker:The Yeah, okay.
Speaker:They're just innocent.
Speaker:They might be objectors to the whole I know that.
Speaker:situation.
Speaker:They could well be, but then they're part of a country and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker:Yeah, it's exactly the same thing that is being done, that was done
Speaker:To the Springboks and everything else, we didn't allow them to compete
Speaker:internationally because we were, we found their whole racist system repugnant.
Speaker:And I agreed wholeheartedly with that.
Speaker:It's one of those things we've actually got to actually say.
Speaker:My question for the Olympic Committee would be, is it really that bad
Speaker:that Russia has invaded Ukraine?
Speaker:And if it is, then I think we should actually back up the 47 percent and
Speaker:not allow them to compete at all.
Speaker:But then at the same time, look around the world and what countries
Speaker:are doing to other countries.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:Is anybody doing anything as bad around the world?
Speaker:Because if you're going to start doing it to one country, for one
Speaker:reason, you have to look at them all.
Speaker:And then, you know, you probably We're going to reach the point where we're
Speaker:not going to have many people I want to compete if we're going to start
Speaker:banning individual athletes because their countries have bombed somebody.
Speaker:You're probably going to end up that you'd only have the Olympics
Speaker:involving, well, Europe, except for the United Kingdom, Western Europe.
Speaker:And well, through the way, through to the East and that sort of stuff,
Speaker:you'd have those sorts of countries.
Speaker:You'd have most of Africa.
Speaker:Possibly not the North of Africa and that type of thing because they
Speaker:have been involved in some pretty bad stuff in the Middle East.
Speaker:You'd have to look at there and that sort of stuff.
Speaker:You'd actually say, well, we shouldn't allow them.
Speaker:You wouldn't have Australia.
Speaker:I mean, if you looked at what we've been involved with.
Speaker:Yeah, I know because we, you know, we invaded Iraq and everything else.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, I mean, the whole idea of the Olympics, to some extent, is
Speaker:a gathering of people from all over the world, converging in one
Speaker:place, in friendly competition.
Speaker:It sort of defeats the purpose if you're going to start bringing
Speaker:politics into it, I think.
Speaker:Well, it's one of those things, you've actually got to decide where you're
Speaker:going to have your politics, don't you?
Speaker:You know.
Speaker:And not on the sporting field.
Speaker:Well, I can appreciate that, but then would you allow, would you have
Speaker:allowed the Springboks to compete at the time that their country
Speaker:was involved in racist politics?
Speaker:yeah, good question.
Speaker:And, good question.
Speaker:If it was the Olympics, it's like everybody's supposed to be there.
Speaker:Then I'd say, yes.
Speaker:You know, the Springboks were just in a, a sport which was Between, what,
Speaker:half a dozen different countries?
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:It's one of those things.
Speaker:It was pretty small and that sort of stuff, so Australia could take its
Speaker:principal stand and that sort of thing and say, no, we're not going to allow it.
Speaker:You know, it's, it's one of those things, I, I, I don't know where I draw the line,
Speaker:you know, and Landon's actually saying if we're being consistent, then the U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:flag should be missing from a few international competitions.
Speaker:True, he's right there, you know, if we are being consistent,
Speaker:we've got to actually keep the U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:out.
Speaker:You know, it's one of those things.
Speaker:I'm not sure where you draw the line though.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Whatley's joined.
Speaker:He's late again, but, all right.
Speaker:So that was, flags of Russians and Belarusians at the tennis in the Olympics.
Speaker:Scott, a bit on housing, came across, this came Crikey, which referred to a.
Speaker:Report by Mary Azizi and looking at housing and, let me just bring up,
Speaker:again, one of these slides on this one.
Speaker:So, um, looking at the screen, dear listener, is a chart.
Speaker:There's a blue line that's just a slow growth.
Speaker:There's a red line that accelerates quickly.
Speaker:The blue line is average weekly earnings and the orangey red line is house prices.
Speaker:And that sort of is a indication of How the house prices have accelerated,
Speaker:beyond how wages have accelerated.
Speaker:And, And that growth in it was around about 2001, was it?
Speaker:That's, when it really started to take off.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that was ridiculous because that was also the time that the Howard
Speaker:government actually took away the old way of calculating capital gains tax and
Speaker:then did a 50 percent discount on it.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:So since the 1990s, house prices have risen.
Speaker:from two and a half times annual household income to over six times today.
Speaker:So, I can remember, dear listener, when, my wife and I, I was, we weren't even
Speaker:married, we weren't even engaged, but she bought a house on a teacher's wage.
Speaker:I think the teacher's wage was maybe 18, 000, 20, 000, and that
Speaker:worker's cottage in, Newmarket.
Speaker:Right on the train line was like forty, forty five thousand, maybe
Speaker:it was fifty, something like that.
Speaker:Pretty much the sort of two and a half times her wage.
Speaker:And, you know, if the medium wage now is 80, 000, there's no way you can
Speaker:buy something like that for 200, 000.
Speaker:It just doesn't exist.
Speaker:So, still running into boomers who say, these young people today, they
Speaker:want everything fancy, they want the best house, and I just say to
Speaker:them, they'd buy a shitbox if it was available, a small workers cottage.
Speaker:They're just not there.
Speaker:So, so anyway, that was, that statistic in this report.
Speaker:And the other interesting part of this report was looking at What it's costing
Speaker:us, might be hard to read on that screen, but, the cost of the tax concessions,
Speaker:so negative gearing deductions and the capital gains tax exemption,
Speaker:remembering that capital gains is halved.
Speaker:it's a 50 percent discount.
Speaker:So, in 2021 2022, Scott, Is that the actual negative gearing tax deduction
Speaker:that the people are claiming, or is that the That's what it's costing
Speaker:the government in lost revenue by allowing negative gearing deductions.
Speaker:And in 2021 2022, it was 3.
Speaker:7 billion, and the capital gains tax was 4.
Speaker:7 billion and looking at the next year, so 2023 to 2024, the cost
Speaker:to the government of providing negative gearing deductions is 6.
Speaker:6 billion.
Speaker:And the capital gains tax is 4.
Speaker:7.
Speaker:So those two things together are worth more than 10 billion
Speaker:a year to the budget, Scott.
Speaker:It's one of those things, you know, negative gearing is a result of interest
Speaker:charges and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker:Now the interest rates have been rising, so that's going to result in
Speaker:higher losses for rental properties.
Speaker:So that will result in a larger amount of government Government
Speaker:missing out on revenue.
Speaker:So as, as prices have increased, gains have increased, you're right,
Speaker:the government is foregoing even more tax revenue, as a result of the
Speaker:boom that's effectively taken place.
Speaker:So, so we're at the point where the negative gearing And the
Speaker:capital gains tax is, is costing the budget 11 billion a year.
Speaker:Scott, I always think of things in terms of submarines, because it's
Speaker:hard to keep track of billions and what they're actually worth.
Speaker:So, you know, you could, you could buy 11 Japanese submarines for this.
Speaker:Yeah, well, the Jap ones, let's say they were one and a half.
Speaker:Okay, well then you'd buy seven of them.
Speaker:Yeah, we could buy six or seven Japanese subs.
Speaker:For the cost of one year of negative gearing and CGT deductions.
Speaker:Of course, we'd only get one fifth of an American sub, but that's
Speaker:a different matter altogether.
Speaker:just goes to show, like, we could have our subs and, be done with it for one
Speaker:year of forsaking these sorts of rorts.
Speaker:So, it's a huge hit to the budget.
Speaker:And, I hadn't seen those figures before, but, There we are.
Speaker:So, link in the show notes to the report and, the source for that projected
Speaker:cost, so the one I'm just mentioning now of 11 billion, that comes from
Speaker:the Parliamentary Budget Office.
Speaker:So, that's the source of where it comes from.
Speaker:So, yeah, okay.
Speaker:That's housing.
Speaker:That's the cost to Australia's budget.
Speaker:Nobody, of course, is going to be going to do anything about it because we're now
Speaker:locked into this disastrous system, but we are hooked on it, you know, as a country,
Speaker:we are hooked on real estate investment.
Speaker:Now, I know I've bought a couple of rental properties and all that
Speaker:sort of stuff, but I can afford it.
Speaker:So I've just bought them and, you know, if they do go up in value, well
Speaker:and true, that'll be great for me.
Speaker:But right now I'm just, I'm just counting the rent.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm probably going to make more money out of the place at South Ripley
Speaker:than I will at up here in Mackay.
Speaker:But anyway, it is what it is.
Speaker:John in the chat room says I'm against negative gearing, but that doesn't sound
Speaker:much compared to the total economy.
Speaker:I reckon it's a fair whack.
Speaker:What you've actually got to look at, John, is you could buy a
Speaker:lot of social housing for that.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:And that would actually then take the heat out of the property
Speaker:market because you'd reduce the, you'd be reducing demand for it.
Speaker:So I just think that, what you've actually got to look at there is
Speaker:it's not a, in part of the total economy that is quite small, but.
Speaker:I can't imagine another tax deduction costing us that much.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Alright, that was housing.
Speaker:Scott, I'd like to talk about Donald Trump.
Speaker:And we mentioned last week, I think it was So this is probably going to
Speaker:take us about half an hour, isn't it?
Speaker:Well, I don't know.
Speaker:See how we go.
Speaker:last week Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the race.
Speaker:Yes, he dropped out.
Speaker:So I had the Iowa caucus and, really it's now pretty much down to just
Speaker:Trump and Nikki Haley, and she's just, it's only a matter of time because
Speaker:Trump's clearly going to win, so it's hard to imagine any other result.
Speaker:Just the Iowa caucus really confirmed that Trump is going to win.
Speaker:But, we mentioned last week about how the evangelical pastors were
Speaker:regretting their deal with Donald Trump.
Speaker:And people had kind of, they'd lost control of their flock, if you
Speaker:like, to Trump, who had taken over.
Speaker:So, just, this is something that I'm going to play a clip from Donald Trump's,
Speaker:Truth Social account, so this is something that he's played and also gets played
Speaker:at some of his, rallies, rallies.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:That's the word, Scott.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't know if we can play the whole two minutes of it, two
Speaker:minutes 40, but we'll see how we go.
Speaker:The, the audio isn't fantastic, but that's just the way it's come.
Speaker:It's meant to have this scratchy sound in the back of it.
Speaker:But, hopefully you can hear it okay, we'll, Anyway, have a listen to some of
Speaker:this if you've got a, have a bucket close by in case you feel ill, is all I'd say.
Speaker:And on June 14th,
Speaker:1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, I need a caretaker.
Speaker:So God gave us Trump.
Speaker:God said, I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, fix this
Speaker:country, work all day, fight the Marxists, eat supper, then go to the
Speaker:Oval Office and stay past midnight at a meeting of the heads of state.
Speaker:So God made Trump.
Speaker:with arms, strong enough to wrestle the deep state, and yet gentle
Speaker:enough to deliver his own grandchild.
Speaker:I like that bit, strong enough to wrestle with the deep state, soft and gentle
Speaker:enough to deliver his own grandchild.
Speaker:Is he claiming to have delivered his own grandchild at some point?
Speaker:I have heard this before and I just thought to myself,
Speaker:maybe he is claiming that.
Speaker:Well, somebody's claiming he did.
Speaker:Anyway, I'll keep going with it.
Speaker:To ruffle the feathers, tame Cantankerous World Economic Forum, come home hungry,
Speaker:have to wait until the First Lady is done with lunch with friends, then tell the
Speaker:ladies to be sure and come back real soon.
Speaker:And mean it.
Speaker:So God gave us That was a little serious.
Speaker:Wait for the First Lady to have lunch, and then Welcome her friends back another time
Speaker:and mean it in all seriousness and this isn't this wasn't done ironically This
Speaker:was done as as a fawning sort of thing.
Speaker:It's a load of shit, isn't it?
Speaker:It's it's a strange clip.
Speaker:I'll keep going I need somebody who can shape an axe but wield a sword Who had
Speaker:the courage to step foot in North Korea?
Speaker:Who can make money from the tar of the sand turn liquid to gold?
Speaker:Who understands the difference between tariffs and inflation will finish
Speaker:his 40 hour, week by Tuesday, noon, but then put in another 72 hours.
Speaker:So God made Trump.
Speaker:God had to have somebody willing to go into the den of vipers,
Speaker:call out the fake news for their tongues as sharp as a serpents.
Speaker:The poison of vipers is on their lips.
Speaker:And yet stop.
Speaker:So, ah, that'll do.
Speaker:There's another minute or so of it, but you get the, you get the flavor of,
Speaker:I think that was, It sounds very much like a video and that sort of stuff
Speaker:that came out many, many years ago.
Speaker:It was something and God made farmers, wasn't it?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But it's a real sort of ification of, of Donald Trump.
Speaker:Oh God.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:As sort of a savior figure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, so that came associated with an article I was reading.
Speaker:in the New York Times.
Speaker:And I'll just read some excerpts from that article.
Speaker:So, Trump, his family and his supporters have been more than willing
Speaker:to claim that Trump is ordained by God for a special mission to restore
Speaker:America as a Christian nation.
Speaker:and in recent weeks, the former president posted a video called God Made Trump
Speaker:and he screened it at campaign rallies.
Speaker:And actually, the people who made it was, it was created by Dilly Meme
Speaker:Team, described by Ken Bessinger of the Times as an organized collective
Speaker:of video producers who call themselves Trump's online war machine.
Speaker:Anyway, they're the guys who created it.
Speaker:So Trump's, according to this article, Trump's evolution
Speaker:into a Jesus like figure.
Speaker:for some, but not all white evangelicals, began soon after he
Speaker:began his first presidential campaign.
Speaker:And there's a guy, a, David P.
Speaker:Gushie, Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercy University who explained
Speaker:that, some of Trump's Christian followers do appear to have grown to
Speaker:see him as a kind of religious figure.
Speaker:He is a saviour.
Speaker:I think it began with the sense that he was uniquely committed
Speaker:to saving them from their foes.
Speaker:Liberals, Democrats, Elites, Seculars, Illegal Immigrants, etc.
Speaker:And saving America from all that threatens it.
Speaker:In this sense, Gushy continued, a saviour does not have to be a
Speaker:good person, but just needs to fulfil his divinely appointed role.
Speaker:Trump is seen by many as actually having done so while president.
Speaker:This is an idea, Scott, that I hadn't really sort of paid attention
Speaker:to before, because you, you sort of look at it and go, how can
Speaker:these Christians Support this guy.
Speaker:okay, they did a deal.
Speaker:Get rid of Roe v.
Speaker:Wade and we'll do these other things for you.
Speaker:But the other part of that is that, you know, a sort of a saviour in
Speaker:a Biblical sense doesn't have to be a good person, just needs to
Speaker:fulfil his divinely appointed role.
Speaker:and this view is particularly strong in the Pentecostal wing of
Speaker:the conservative Christian world.
Speaker:is sometimes viewed there as an anointed leader sent by God.
Speaker:And, anointed here means set apart and especially equipped
Speaker:by God for a holy task.
Speaker:And sometimes the most unlikely people got anointed by God in the Bible.
Speaker:So Trump's unlikeliness for the role is actually evidence in favour
Speaker:that he's performing the role.
Speaker:And they go on to, talk about, let me just see here,
Speaker:oh, there's a particular character, um.
Speaker:Uh, yes.
Speaker:So, uh, white evangelicals refer not to Jesus, but to the Persian king Cyrus from
Speaker:the book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible.
Speaker:In that story, Cyrus is the model of an ungodly king.
Speaker:Who nonetheless frees a group of Jews who are held captive in Babel, in Babylon.
Speaker:So, sort of, trumps the fact that he is so unsavoury.
Speaker:Leads even more evidence for these people.
Speaker:But he is the real saviour, because in their biblical interpretations,
Speaker:that's quite appropriate, that the most unlikely people.
Speaker:Perform roles anointed by God, and that's actually a good thing.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:I think they're actually concentrating far too much on the Old Testament there.
Speaker:You know.
Speaker:But there's a means of justifying themselves.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mmm.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Now, Because, you know, I would have thought that if you're a Christian
Speaker:and that sort of stuff, you should have more of an emphasis on the
Speaker:New Testament than you would on the Old Testament, but apparently not.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:So, yeah, there's an important idea here that I've just got to get to.
Speaker:so there's a guy, Jim Guth, political scientist at Furman
Speaker:University, an expert on the role of religion in politics, apparently.
Speaker:And by populist, he means more likely to favour strong leadership, to distrust
Speaker:government, to see the country on the wrong track, and to think that
Speaker:the majority should always rule.
Speaker:And Guth found that another trait of political populist is the willingness
Speaker:to ignore democratic civility.
Speaker:he says, we conduct, we constructed a rough politics score.
Speaker:from the following items, whether protesters deserve what they get if
Speaker:they hurt in demonstrating, whether the country would be better off
Speaker:if it got rid of rotten apples.
Speaker:and whether people are too sensitive about political discourse.
Speaker:And what they found was that with evangelical affiliation,
Speaker:evangelical identity, and biblical literalism, predicts that you'll
Speaker:agree with those assertions.
Speaker:Those, that rough politics.
Speaker:So the evangelicals like that sort of strong man, better off
Speaker:without those rotten apples.
Speaker:don't be so sensitive kind of attitudes and, and what he goes
Speaker:on to say is that essentially not only were the evangelical leaders
Speaker:doing a deal with Trump about Roe v.
Speaker:Wade, but it actually just aligned with evangelicals.
Speaker:Trump aligns with evangelicals.
Speaker:In that characteristic of wanting a strong man who, who gets rid of rotten
Speaker:apples and believes the majority should rule over the minority.
Speaker:So there was, there's that sort of characteristic trait of
Speaker:evangelicals, which let's face it, is a pretty ugly trait.
Speaker:It's incredibly ugly.
Speaker:And he's essentially saying that when you're studying religious
Speaker:groups, you'll find that trait.
Speaker:Over represent all those traits, overrepresented in evangelicals.
Speaker:And so Trump is actually a psychological match for these people.
Speaker:It's not just cutting a deal for Roe v.
Speaker:Wade and putting up with his shit, if you like.
Speaker:They actually like that shit, because it matches up with
Speaker:their psychological profile.
Speaker:With their view of the world.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, so there you go.
Speaker:Add that to your kit bag of understanding of the Trump
Speaker:phenomena in American politics.
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Um, and, and really saying in that article, There's no scope in the
Speaker:evangelical movement to move towards a softer line, that any leaders who have
Speaker:tried to do it have basically been run out of town, run out of the evangelical
Speaker:world, and it's just got harder and harder in those populist policies.
Speaker:Is what he's saying in that article.
Speaker:So anyway, I thought that was an interesting one and
Speaker:makes all sense to you, Scott.
Speaker:Yeah, it does.
Speaker:I just hope that, I hope that it continues that, ever since Roe v
Speaker:Wade was overturned and that sort of stuff, we've seen in the States and
Speaker:that sort of stuff, that the number of Republicans being elected to those state
Speaker:legislatures has actually been reduced.
Speaker:Now, one would hope that that continues under the Federals and all that sort
Speaker:of stuff, and maybe Biden will actually win a thumping majority of the, of
Speaker:the, what's it called, the, well, whatever, whoever selects the President.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Electoral College.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I hope that he does, but I'm not convinced that he will.
Speaker:You know, from the vantage, from here in Australia, I don't
Speaker:think it makes any difference whether Trump wins or Biden wins.
Speaker:Like, in fact, we're probably, as I said before, Trump sort of is less likely
Speaker:to get involved in, in sort of wars.
Speaker:Yeah, I agree, you know, cause he's more likely to pull out of stuff and
Speaker:less likely to I think he'll actually, cause he did actually, when they
Speaker:actually used, cruise missiles against Syria and that sort of stuff, he
Speaker:had, Xi Jinping was over visiting it.
Speaker:And he said, he actually quoted to him, he says, Oh, you know, we've
Speaker:just, we've just dispensed with those Syrians by using our cruise missiles.
Speaker:So I think that would actually be something that would appeal to him.
Speaker:He would actually use those sorts of things.
Speaker:I don't see him putting boots on the ground or anything else.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Just a The odd assassination here or there, he'd like
Speaker:that, he'd be up for that.
Speaker:I think he did that with the Iraqi general or something like that or an
Speaker:Iranian general or something like that.
Speaker:Yeah, there was probably that that was killed by a predator
Speaker:drone and that sort of stuff.
Speaker:But I think overall, Scott, like he'll cancel Orcus for sure.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:And that's a good thing for us.
Speaker:But if, if you're looking at just policies, what policy can you
Speaker:think of that Trump would promote?
Speaker:that affects the rest of the world.
Speaker:I think you leave Ukraine on its own, I don't even think that he would have
Speaker:the balls to actually stand up to Vladimir Putin and say to him, look,
Speaker:you can keep Donetsk, but you've got to actually stay out of the rest of Ukraine.
Speaker:I think he'd just walk away entirely and just leave Ukraine to fend for itself,
Speaker:in which case Ukraine would collapse.
Speaker:Of course, you know, I can't really list any stated policies of Donald
Speaker:Trump and I wouldn't bother relearning them because whatever he states
Speaker:his policy is, it's all bullshit.
Speaker:No guarantee that's what he's going to do.
Speaker:So you just look at his past practice and, and think, well, he's probably
Speaker:going to do pretty much the same.
Speaker:And really, other than maybe being less inclined to be involved in wars.
Speaker:The actual day to day running of the country, ignoring all of the crazy
Speaker:personal shit, but just the way the country functioned, was it, is it
Speaker:any that much different policy wise?
Speaker:Well, it depends, it depends on actually what actually does on that, I can't think
Speaker:what it's called, but the Republicans do actually have a book and that sort of
Speaker:stuff that they've actually put together about what, what a first day Trump 2.
Speaker:0 will look like.
Speaker:And they've actually gone through and actually said that they're going
Speaker:to Sack the public servants and they're going to move into the from
Speaker:the jobs of life, that sort of stuff.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, he is gonna sack them and get in, put in sick offense, which would be
Speaker:ridiculous if they actually did that.
Speaker:Mm-Hmm.
Speaker:Here's, I honestly believe that we would have to be very concerned about that.
Speaker:Mm-Hmm.
Speaker:Here's a clip from a podcast, which has, now what's this guy called?
Speaker:green Greenwald . This is something from Land and Hard Bottom, he says, yeah.
Speaker:Putin has the Trump kiss tape.
Speaker:Trump will do whatever he's told to do.
Speaker:Could be the case.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Could be the case.
Speaker:So this is Glenn Greenwald from System Update podcast.
Speaker:This is talking about power and whether there's any difference between Trump.
Speaker:It's an interesting idea of why, I'll play it.
Speaker:I think this is quite instructive.
Speaker:Have a listen to this, Scott.
Speaker:Just to, to close this point about the dynamic of the race and the fact that
Speaker:the establishment in Washington is so clearly enthusiastically supportive
Speaker:of Nikki Haley, and when I asked Congressman Douglas that, I think he
Speaker:gave an interesting answer, which is absolutely right, that she represents
Speaker:business as usual, that there will be very little change to the way
Speaker:things are done in Washington if she's elected or if Joe Biden is re elected.
Speaker:That's what they look for more than anything.
Speaker:That's the reason they found so Trump threatening, Trump so threatening,
Speaker:not because of any one particular The view he expressed or policy he
Speaker:advocated, although I think secondarily it became about that as well, I just
Speaker:think in general, he represented this threat to continuity, this just
Speaker:subversive energy that threatened to shake up their very comfortable game.
Speaker:Washington is where their power and wealth comes from.
Speaker:They're very, very protective of that.
Speaker:And the person who sits nominally at least at the top of that pyramid
Speaker:Who doles out enormous amounts of opportunities and contracts for that
Speaker:person to be overtly hostile to sectors of the establishment is their biggest
Speaker:fear, way more than which party wins or loses, which ideology prevails.
Speaker:And Trump was such an outsider in terms of Washington, he had never
Speaker:occupied political office before.
Speaker:They've.
Speaker:Just feared the fact that he didn't rely on their standard group of lobbyists.
Speaker:They saw the writing on the wall that their normal consultants and others who
Speaker:were careerists would be out of power.
Speaker:It was the only time, Trump's election was, in the last 25 years, that Nikki
Speaker:Haley, that, that, Victoria Nuland did not occupy some important and
Speaker:influential foreign policy position.
Speaker:She was there in the Clinton administration.
Speaker:She then served as Dick Cheney's top foreign policy advisor
Speaker:throughout the Bush administration.
Speaker:She then became the ambassador to NATO when NATO was recklessly
Speaker:expanding eastward in a way that was threatening Russia.
Speaker:She then began running important parts of the State Department under
Speaker:Hillary Clinton and then was put in charge of Ukraine under John Kerry.
Speaker:Only when Trump was president for four years, she was out, Biden gets
Speaker:re elected, she's right back in, now she's been promoted once again to the
Speaker:highest level of the State Department.
Speaker:So just, in, in Victoria Nuland, you see the point I'm emphasizing,
Speaker:which is that these people thrive and prosper and maintain power no
Speaker:matter the outcome of political elections, as long as both parties
Speaker:nominate somebody who plays the game.
Speaker:And Nikki Haley is clearly somebody.
Speaker:Who, as much as any politician I've ever seen, is more than willing to
Speaker:play whatever game she's told to play in order to benefit herself.
Speaker:She's an absolute empty vessel, a puppet who believes in nothing.
Speaker:I thought that was a good example, the Victoria Newland one, where, didn't
Speaker:matter Republican or Democrat, she gets a job, gets a role, and It's only
Speaker:when Trump's in that she doesn't, and there'd be lots of people like that who
Speaker:suddenly lose their, their power, so.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure, it's just, it is one of those things, that is one
Speaker:area that you can actually point to Trump and actually say, well, that
Speaker:would be a good thing, because you wouldn't have this hawkish sort of
Speaker:NATO expansionism and everything else.
Speaker:That's only one thing, you know, the rest of it is a concern.
Speaker:You know, it's, it's like, you know, I think you're looking for
Speaker:Republican policies that don't exist.
Speaker:Because, you know, they, you know, and he said, you know, she's an empty vessel.
Speaker:Well, that could be argued about any Republican.
Speaker:They are all empty vessels.
Speaker:They haven't actually got to be, they haven't actually got anything
Speaker:that they actually hang their hat on or anything like this.
Speaker:Now, you know, Reagan, who I did disagree with a hell of a lot, you
Speaker:could actually at least hang his hat on something and say, well,
Speaker:this is what he actually believes and this is what he's going to do.
Speaker:This current lot, I don't think he could actually say the same thing.
Speaker:You know, it's Anyway, it's an interesting idea that, that the sort
Speaker:of, the establishment, is particularly keen for Nikki Haley over Donald Trump
Speaker:because it's a continuation of, of power for a lot of people who, who.
Speaker:Expect to use power, irrespective of whether Democrats or
Speaker:Republicans win, so, yeah.
Speaker:It's like one of those things, like, you know, as bad as George W.
Speaker:Bush's presidency was, at least It was something that you could hang your hat on
Speaker:and say, Well, I actually agree with that.
Speaker:Or I disagree with most of what he's saying, but there's a few things that do
Speaker:come up that you think, just as, okay, he's got us there, you know, but it's
Speaker:just one of those things with this idea.
Speaker:I just don't think we're going to get anything that any of us could agree on.
Speaker:You know, you're probably going to be very happy if he does actually cancel August.
Speaker:I'd be delighted.
Speaker:You've got to remember, you've got to remember that AUKUS
Speaker:stands for Australia, UK, and US.
Speaker:So, the UK could still actually sell us some nuclear submarines from that.
Speaker:Well, the whole deal would then be done, would be over, because it relies so much
Speaker:on the US as part of the whole shebang.
Speaker:It couldn't, it couldn't just Well, I think that, I think that Australia
Speaker:would be waiting until the 2040s for our next lot of submarines.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We're never going to get them.
Speaker:It's just We'd have to, we'd have to wait until the UK was ready to produce
Speaker:them and that sort of stuff, then we'd end up buying them from there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, and we've still got to work out what the hell we're going
Speaker:to do with the spent fuel and everything else that comes from them.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:Because the UK hasn't actually decommissioned any of their
Speaker:submarines that they've ever had.
Speaker:I think they're just sitting in a dock somewhere.
Speaker:Yeah, they are.
Speaker:Rusting away.
Speaker:Yeah, they're rusting away.
Speaker:They're keeping the, they're keeping the power and everything on them and that sort
Speaker:of stuff so they don't actually blow up.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:But it's just one of those things.
Speaker:It's, they haven't worked out how to safely dispose of the Nuclear reactors.
Speaker:Yeah, so anyway, Trump's also got news caught by the bulls.
Speaker:So according to an article from Crikey, with Lachlan in charge, they're sort
Speaker:of recognizing that their audience that they want to try and keep are
Speaker:Trump lovers and therefore they have to comply with Trump demands and
Speaker:DeSantis, Ron DeSantis accused Fox, of just being Trump's Praetorian Guard.
Speaker:And he said they don't hold Trump accountable because they're worried
Speaker:about losing viewers and they don't want to have their ratings go down.
Speaker:And his complaint followed Fox's pathetic surrender to Trump earlier in the week by
Speaker:agreeing to a live town hall discussion.
Speaker:At a time and in a format demanded by the former president to spike the
Speaker:official Republican debate on CNN.
Speaker:So, basically they agreed to Trump's terms and, they're rolling over
Speaker:and, Kowtowing to Trump because he controls their audience.
Speaker:So just like the evangelical pastors, News Corp have created
Speaker:a monster that now controls their flock and they're having to now.
Speaker:do his bidding, so.
Speaker:Well, one would hope that the lawsuits and everything like that against, against
Speaker:Fox News is actually going to actually control their behaviour next time
Speaker:when the election needs to be called.
Speaker:Yes, they won't be doing the same thing in terms of the vote counting,
Speaker:but there's all the soft sort of stuff of assisting Trump along
Speaker:the way, is what they'll be doing.
Speaker:So, yeah, Yep.
Speaker:Just away from Trump now, UK poll.
Speaker:So, there was a YouGov survey, 14, 000 people, extrapolating the results,
Speaker:and predicts the Conservatives will retain only 169 seats, which is 196
Speaker:fewer than they hold at the moment.
Speaker:Then Labor would take 385, so.
Speaker:Um, a big wipeout of the Conservatives in the UK seems all but certain, Scott.
Speaker:Yeah, it does.
Speaker:We're just going to have to wait and see, you know, because like Joe was saying last
Speaker:week that there's hope that the Liberal Democrats will end up with a balance
Speaker:of power, but it doesn't sound like it.
Speaker:Hey, Scott, you should, you know, I did that one on the book by
Speaker:Yasha Monk about identity politics.
Speaker:So Yasha Monk has a podcast and I was just listening to it today.
Speaker:I'm just going to try and find you the name of it.
Speaker:it's called The Good Fight and he just did, an episode on Taiwan.
Speaker:Interviewed a guy who's, some university professor, I think, or
Speaker:something like that, in Taiwan.
Speaker:So, anyway, gave a good background of, of Taiwan's history and where they're
Speaker:at in terms of the recent elections.
Speaker:So, um, so, you should listen to that, because I know you're keen on visiting
Speaker:Taiwan at some stage in the near future.
Speaker:Okay, Albert Wu.
Speaker:Yeah, that's it.
Speaker:So have a look at that.
Speaker:That was an interesting one.
Speaker:in the John Menardew blog, there was an article by Wang Wen, a
Speaker:professor and executive dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial
Speaker:Studies, Renmin University of China.
Speaker:So he's mainly in China.
Speaker:he was basically saying that, um, uh, actually I'll just
Speaker:quote some of the article here.
Speaker:Some surveys show that 51 percent of young people in Taiwan like to use
Speaker:Mainland apps such as TikTok and Red.
Speaker:They envy the mainland's high speed rail system that can zip people
Speaker:across the country for business or travel or just for the weekend.
Speaker:They see new breathing space with the rapid rise in standards of
Speaker:living and the great potential for continued economic progress.
Speaker:he says, that is why two of the three parties in Sunday's election made it clear
Speaker:they do not support Taiwan independence or even talking about reunification.
Speaker:And, he says, it seems that the Chinese economy will surpass
Speaker:the United States around 2035.
Speaker:Dear listener, if you use Purchasing Power, Purchasing Power Parity?
Speaker:China's already overtaken.
Speaker:They've already overtaken the US.
Speaker:Yeah, and he says in the future the envy and worship young people in Taiwan have
Speaker:for the mainland will only strengthen.
Speaker:in the past Taiwanese people have had a sense of superiority over their higher
Speaker:living standards, but now the GDP of its west coast neighbor, Fujian province,
Speaker:exceeds Taiwan's and he says Taiwan's standard of living was 10 times higher
Speaker:than Fujian's 30 years ago, but now many Taiwanese are reflecting on why their
Speaker:island is slipping as Fujian grows even though they share a regional culture.
Speaker:This is my tip Scott, in the long term.
Speaker:It's just economically, the Taiwanese will want to join China because their
Speaker:economy will be crushed by various forces.
Speaker:And if that, if that is something the Taiwanese people want to actually do,
Speaker:then they will accept one country, two systems, but they haven't shown a great
Speaker:deal of acceptance of that because they've seen how one country, two
Speaker:systems has played out for Hong Kong.
Speaker:You know, it's, yeah, it'll take a while, but you know, I'm not saying
Speaker:this is going to happen next year.
Speaker:But it's, it's, this is a decades, over the coming decades, over
Speaker:the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years.
Speaker:Yeah, which China can wait that out because they, you know, they could wait
Speaker:that out and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Do I actually see the Taiwanese people accepting that very gracefully
Speaker:and all that sort of stuff?
Speaker:No, but I could actually see it happening at some stage in the future.
Speaker:Wasn't it one of Mao's generals who was asked, what did you think
Speaker:of, what do you think of what happened in the French Revolution?
Speaker:And he said it's too early to say.
Speaker:I think it was one of Mao's generals.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:It really wouldn't surprise me because they do have that, they do have that
Speaker:very long term view of the world.
Speaker:And they just think, you know, they honestly believe that their civilization
Speaker:has been there for thousands of years and all that type of thing.
Speaker:So they honestly think that they are the longest serving country in the world.
Speaker:Yeah, so Landon Hard Bottom had made that comment about, about the fist tape
Speaker:and, and Russia controlling, Trump.
Speaker:And just looking at the chat, they're saying that Landon's
Speaker:comment didn't survive in YouTube.
Speaker:Oh, it didn't show up.
Speaker:Oh, really?
Speaker:It got kicked straight up on our screen, but not on the tube.
Speaker:So, fair enough.
Speaker:I'm a bit worried that this, for the second time, Landon
Speaker:might cause a censorship.
Speaker:One of our episodes.
Speaker:I might have to make this one a private one.
Speaker:Yeah, I don't get censored by YouTube again So yeah, because it was Landon
Speaker:who his joke about The laser beams.
Speaker:What's Charlie that got us into trouble last time?
Speaker:That was Landon's fault again, so yeah Yeah, anyway, just quickly back to China
Speaker:still and their economy In the Chinese car industry, John Pilger, recently deceased,
Speaker:he nailed a set of crucial reasons for the Western world maintaining such distorted,
Speaker:low success expectations of China.
Speaker:Pilger argued convincingly that the Global West and its mainstream Western
Speaker:media Unceasingly demonise Beijing because today China has matched
Speaker:America at its own great game of capitalism, and that is unforgivable.
Speaker:He says the same Western media has played a new yellow peril role in turning the
Speaker:extraordinary industrious community that is the real China into a fantasy based
Speaker:monster trying to take over the world.
Speaker:And in less than a decade, the good China's been airbrushed and
Speaker:the bad China has replaced it.
Speaker:Scott, I keep recalling how Tony Abbott invited Xi Jinping and he
Speaker:spoke in the Australian Parliament.
Speaker:And it was all happy days.
Speaker:We love China.
Speaker:How can we possibly make things even stronger?
Speaker:Julia Gillard had organised joint military exercises.
Speaker:And then Trump comes along and says, China bad, China bad, and everybody followed.
Speaker:Yeah, and Morrison followed and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker:And here we are.
Speaker:That's, that's where we're at.
Speaker:And in that time, China did nothing!
Speaker:Nothing.
Speaker:Oh, that's true.
Speaker:They haven't done anything, you know, except they did fly very closely
Speaker:to Taiwan and that sort of stuff.
Speaker:They have forced the Taiwanese to expend a hell of a lot of aviation
Speaker:fuel and that type of thing to keep it, to keep a check on their borders.
Speaker:They have also, you know, done live fire exercises very close to Taiwan.
Speaker:You know, it's one of those things.
Speaker:I do honestly believe that Taiwan is an independent country though.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In the scheme of things, thinking Israel and Gaza, nothing.
Speaker:China's done nothing.
Speaker:Anyway.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:Fair enough.
Speaker:Still in the same article, China is now the world's biggest
Speaker:car exporter, electric, hybrid and conventional combined.
Speaker:It's ahead of Japan and Germany as a car exporter.
Speaker:Five years ago, China only shipped 25 percent of Japanese automotive
Speaker:exports, and now It's the world's largest, ahead of Japan and Germany.
Speaker:Chinese maker BYD, Build Your Dreams, is now outselling Tesla
Speaker:globally with pure battery cars.
Speaker:Huge success story.
Speaker:Yeah, and actually, Deepthroat has just bought a BYD.
Speaker:Did he?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Ah, was he happy with it?
Speaker:Well, no, he was happy with it when he, when he sent me an email about it.
Speaker:Okay, there you go.
Speaker:It's one of those things, I just think to myself that, eventually
Speaker:we're going to have, well, if we can't get hydrogen up and that sort
Speaker:of stuff, this country will have long, What's the word I'm groping for?
Speaker:Long distance EVs.
Speaker:You know, we will actually get there one day.
Speaker:It's going to take a little bit of time, but we'll get there one day.
Speaker:Or, we could have met with hydrogen vehicles.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:But the internal combustion engine has got a lifespan on it.
Speaker:Except for dickheads like me who've got a 1969 MGB in their garage.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:A 1969?
Speaker:Yeah, a 1969 MGB.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Okay, just briefly, you know how we had apparently participated
Speaker:in the bombing of Yemen?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the way we found out about it, dear listener, is the Americans told us.
Speaker:Our own government didn't tell us that it was involved in the background in
Speaker:assistance with the US bombing Yemen.
Speaker:We had to find out from the Americans.
Speaker:So as Anne Pavitt says in the John Menendee blog, is
Speaker:this a constitutional crisis?
Speaker:On Friday, 12th of January, 2024, a USA official spokesman announced
Speaker:that Australia was to provide a support role for the UK and USA
Speaker:troops who were about to attack Yemen.
Speaker:No announcement had been made to this effect by the Australian Government.
Speaker:The Australian people had to wait for the next day to know definitely if, in
Speaker:fact, such a decision had been made.
Speaker:How is it possible for the USA spokesperson to announce an Australian
Speaker:policy decision on going to war against another sovereign state, no
Speaker:less, before it had been declared by the Australian government?
Speaker:Oh, she's got a point there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, I think our government should have actually come forward
Speaker:and actually said, look, Australia is providing a support role
Speaker:right now for the UK and the US.
Speaker:It's just so commonplace to bomb somebody.
Speaker:It's one of those things, I just think to myself that I agree with you that
Speaker:the, you know, the war powers and that sort of stuff should be actually a whole,
Speaker:should involve the entire parliament, both houses, not just the cabinet.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, so you'd actually have a debate about it in Parliament,
Speaker:which the Greens would be the only ones that would be opposed to it.
Speaker:And, you know, but at least it would be out there and that sort of stuff.
Speaker:You'd have some argument before you actually declared it.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, um, it's, it's extraordinary.
Speaker:I mean, we should bring both houses of parliament together before we assist,
Speaker:before we bomb any other country or assist our allies in bombing another country.
Speaker:You would think it's such a serious thing that we could at least gather together.
Speaker:I mean, Scott, they're bringing together, the Labor caucus.
Speaker:It's all gathering in parliament.
Speaker:Even though Parliament's not sitting to discuss the sort of cost of living crisis.
Speaker:Well, we can do that, but we can't bring everyone together to
Speaker:talk about whether we're going to bomb another country or not.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:It's like those, you know, when the cabinet, when the cabinet papers
Speaker:were declassified and that sort of stuff, because they were 20 years old.
Speaker:That was over John Howard's decision to And it was basically John Howard's
Speaker:decision to invade Iraq, you know, he, it was him and Peter Costello and a few
Speaker:others and that sort of stuff that were involved in a very, well, not an informal
Speaker:chat because it was actually minuted.
Speaker:And they just said, well, we're going to go and do it.
Speaker:And I thought to myself, you know, there was never any real discussion of that.
Speaker:You know, there was, there was probably an argument for getting involved
Speaker:with the intelligence that had, had been provided to us, which has proven
Speaker:since then to be false, that there was an argument that we should be
Speaker:involved, but that was an argument that they should have been prepared to
Speaker:prosecute publicly, but they weren't.
Speaker:Simon Crane was prepared to say.
Speaker:He was the Labor Leader the Opposition, he said that I support
Speaker:you but I don't support you going.
Speaker:Mm, so good on him.
Speaker:Ah, Scott.
Speaker:I got some other stuff there but I reckon that's an hour.
Speaker:And I'm trying to keep it to an hour, these podcasts now, so we
Speaker:can put some more Yemen stuff on the back burner until next week.
Speaker:I think Joe's back next week, dear listener.
Speaker:Temporary UK correspondent will be back.
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:If you've got any interesting articles or things going on, send them to me
Speaker:and they might make it on the podcast.
Speaker:And if the people in the chat room, thanks for your contribution.
Speaker:I think this episode I'm going to, I think I'm going to make it private or
Speaker:something just so that YouTube doesn't.
Speaker:Give me another censorship tap on the shoulder.
Speaker:It'd be a real shame to lose it.
Speaker:So, yeah, I think, I think I will delete it just for that reason.
Speaker:Audio only.
Speaker:Alrighty.
Speaker:Thanks for listening, dear listener.
Speaker:We'll be back next week.
Speaker:Bye for now.
Speaker:And thanks very much for tuning in.
Speaker:Bye now.
