Topics include:
Mentioned in this episode:
Suburban Eastern Australia, an environment that has over time
Speaker:evolved some extraordinarily unique groups of homicides.
Speaker:Despite the reputation of their Homeland, some are remarkably thin skin.
Speaker:Some seem to have multiple lifespans.
Speaker:A few were once thought to be extinct in the region.
Speaker:Others have been observed being sacrificed by the earth, but today we observe a small
Speaker:tribe akin to a group of miracles that gathered together a top, a small amount
Speaker:to watch question and discuss the current events of their city, their country, and
Speaker:their world at large let's listen keenly and observe this group fondly known
Speaker:as the iron fist and the velvet glove.
Speaker:Well, hello, there deal listener.
Speaker:This is the iron fist and the velvet glove podcast.
Speaker:This is my second attempt at the intro.
Speaker:Um, we went through it before and then Joe pointed out that we
Speaker:hadn't pressed the go live button.
Speaker:So we're doing it again.
Speaker:I'd call some Trevor AKA the iron fist with me as always is Shay the subversive.
Speaker:How are you shy?
Speaker:Very well.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:Hello everybody.
Speaker:And Joe, the tech guy evening, he's holding us together with the tech.
Speaker:If you're in the chat room, if you're joining us, uh, say hello, we'll
Speaker:try and incorporate your comments.
Speaker:As we go through the news, the politics, the sex and religion
Speaker:that's happened in the last two weeks since we last met with you.
Speaker:And, um, I'll look language warning early on.
Speaker:I think I won't be able to help myself at some point during this one, I'm going
Speaker:to have a little bit of a monologue, which I haven't warned you guys about.
Speaker:And, uh, it could well be that I launch into some naughty words,
Speaker:suffocating the kids nearby.
Speaker:Um, Maybe you should vet this episode beforehand.
Speaker:So we're going to talk about a few different topics.
Speaker:We've got the greatest time saga.
Speaker:We've got various religious nutters from the center point school to their
Speaker:own prime minister doing their normal religious nuttery, um, private schools.
Speaker:Are they good or bad in terms of performance?
Speaker:A couple of COVID things, Aboriginal flag flight attendants pay property
Speaker:prices, of course, Venezuela.
Speaker:Uh, and of course, Ukraine, Ukraine will be at the end.
Speaker:So Ukraine, one's an interesting one because obviously I sort of thought
Speaker:that's a good one to talk about.
Speaker:And it took a lot of digging and a lot of effort to find the alternative viewpoint
Speaker:on what's happening in the Ukraine.
Speaker:So, um, so hang around for that one.
Speaker:That'll be at the end and, um, uh, hello to Jack Hage, Bronwyn
Speaker:Craig B um, everyone else on the.
Speaker:Ah, everyone else in the chat room, which isn't aspiring for some reason, and Joe
Speaker:is going to work out why, I don't know why that's not the spying job, but,
Speaker:um, um, anyway, Joel, work out on that.
Speaker:And Tom, the warehouse got look, all those things, grace time, religious nutters,
Speaker:private schools, property price, it's all a little bit of a distraction to me.
Speaker:These are all sort of minor issues in the scheme of things.
Speaker:To some extent from the really big things that we just never
Speaker:talk about often enough.
Speaker:So I wanted to go on a little bit of a monologue.
Speaker:So bear with me on this one, um, that we need to, to look at the
Speaker:big picture occasionally and ask ourselves, are there systemic problems
Speaker:in what is being done about it?
Speaker:Uh, in relation to Australia until now, good luck has
Speaker:papered over a host of problems.
Speaker:Being a small population on a large landmass full of natural resources.
Speaker:We in Australia have evolved into a complacent society of dullards.
Speaker:We have allowed miners to buy our resources on the cheap
Speaker:boomers to steal from the younger generations and multinationals
Speaker:to raid our economy like bandits.
Speaker:We've allowed Murdoch to poison our traditional information sources.
Speaker:And with it out of Moxie, we could have chosen Scandinavian style socialism
Speaker:that we have mainly adopted American near liberal culture delivered by
Speaker:an incompetent Christian Taliban.
Speaker:His first priority is to enrich themselves in mites.
Speaker:And then secondly, to impose a bronze age morality on the rest of us.
Speaker:I mean, these are the big things that are happening to us.
Speaker:We've got an economy based on holes and houses, but the stuff
Speaker:in the halls will run out.
Speaker:And in the main time, much of it is poisoning out.
Speaker:Are self-inflicted housing bubble is crippling our economy.
Speaker:Those of us with property, selfishly Canada winnings and congratulated
Speaker:ourselves on your hard work and smart investment strategy without pausing
Speaker:the question, whether a property boom, might be bad for our society.
Speaker:See what happens is our labor is going to be uncompetitive in world markets because
Speaker:our labor needs higher wages to pay for the basic shelter that the labor needs.
Speaker:So we're just going to be uncompetitive with the rest of the world, simply
Speaker:because of shelter costs popping.
Speaker:This property bubble is going to cause the enormous pine and sustaining the
Speaker:bubble will keys cause even more pain.
Speaker:We've got a fallen and alternative to digging holes.
Speaker:And the question is can services and tourism fill the void probably.
Speaker:For replacing that resource income and for regaining some sort of security,
Speaker:I think we need to develop a capacity to make things top end expensive,
Speaker:complicated things for sure, but probably also regular everyday things.
Speaker:We need an economy that would survive a war or a major breakdown in world trade.
Speaker:And we've seen that with the pandemic where at one point it looked like
Speaker:we needed a lot of respirators.
Speaker:Did we actually have the capacity to make a respirator Australia needs
Speaker:to grow up and become a responsible adult that prepares for disasters?
Speaker:We are the spoiled brats of the world.
Speaker:, immature selfish, shortsighted, narrow minded, uneducated teenage layouts.
Speaker:Who've been isolated from harsh realities, but they're coming our line.
Speaker:We owe it to future generations to stop wasting our adults.
Speaker:And like an inexperienced adolescent.
Speaker:We have fallen in love with the brag.
Speaker:God's sports jock.
Speaker:He seems a beloved by everybody, but he is actually an abusive bully that many Awario
Speaker:of our friends look on with bemusement.
Speaker:As we insist on being the first to suck the cock of the USA, our friends, neither
Speaker:is not a point in talking us out of it.
Speaker:We must learn the hard way we need to educate ourselves about
Speaker:where we are and how we got here.
Speaker:We need to decide what we realistically want to be in a
Speaker:hundred years in doing that.
Speaker:We need to understand human nature, human societies, and how power works.
Speaker:We have to look around at what others are doing, but also consider
Speaker:what might be ideally possible that no one else has tried.
Speaker:Once we understand how the world works and how it could work differently
Speaker:only then can we set worthwhile goals and planes to fulfill those goals?
Speaker:So can we be the first society that learns from other people's
Speaker:mistakes without having to make the same mistakes ourselves?
Speaker:I don't know, but for the sake of our descendants, we must try, they go.
Speaker:There's a little rain just to put some seriousness.
Speaker:And these are the big picture things that just never get talked about at all.
Speaker:And, um, uh, comments, or should we just now heading to the distractions
Speaker:before we get into the bigger ideas?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I just wanted to say here, here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So let's run through a few distractions.
Speaker:Um, and yet part of it is these things are easy to have an opinion of
Speaker:without thinking too hard, grace time, was she rude to the prime minister?
Speaker:Is it rude in that situation to pull a nasty face at the prime minister?
Speaker:And we can all have an opinion and we don't really need to have researched
Speaker:or thought about it too hard.
Speaker:We didn't need to activate our system.
Speaker:Two thinking as Carmen would talk, refer to just blurt out an opinion and a moon.
Speaker:So we've blurted, endlessly really about it.
Speaker:Um, it's not to say we're not going to play to that under the boy now.
Speaker:So Shay you kick off.
Speaker:I mean, not to belittle the whole situation as I probably have with that
Speaker:whole intro, but, but let's go through it.
Speaker:What what'd you think of the whole grades team saga?
Speaker:Yeah, I think, um, I think you make a fair point about the noise.
Speaker:Like you just get bombarded by this story, don't you until even though
Speaker:your, for everything that grace time is standing for, you just
Speaker:don't want to look at it anymore.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I remember having a similar experience when, um, Scott Morrison went on hold.
Speaker:Yeah to Hawaii after her walls last.
Speaker:So needlessly noisy.
Speaker:And we're not talking about, you know, the resources and the practicalities
Speaker:and climate change and yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, but that aside, I thought of a few things.
Speaker:So the first thing was is that I, I, I made, made it like silent commitment
Speaker:after I was watching grace tame, you know, um, I watched her thing on the
Speaker:Australian story after I saw this.
Speaker:Cause I hadn't seen it yet.
Speaker:And um, in it, she says, if I don't speak truth to power, every
Speaker:opportunity I get, then I'm a hypocrite.
Speaker:So that's exactly what she was doing.
Speaker:I went back over some of the videos and it seems to me that he kind of
Speaker:like back into her over, he did.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, but this is where I live.
Speaker:I live by the photo op by the federal.
Speaker:So, yeah, so she upheld her personal integrity, which is that
Speaker:she was speaking truth to power.
Speaker:She wasn't going to stand there and smile for him.
Speaker:Um, and, and certainly as I was watching her, I was thinking
Speaker:about all the times I'd smile.
Speaker:When I'd been told to smile all the times I'd had like worried
Speaker:interactions with blokes.
Speaker:I even recalled in 2019, I'd been at a charity fundraiser
Speaker:for the Bush fire victims.
Speaker:And, um, I taught was talking to Senator Jordan.
Speaker:Who's the green Senator in the wheelchair.
Speaker:And Kim Baisley, the governor of Australia, Western Australia was
Speaker:there and he just like walked up and then just stood right in front of me.
Speaker:And started talking to Kim basically just started talking to Senator Jordan.
Speaker:It's like, oh good.
Speaker:I, you know, Senator Jordan and stuff as though I was not there.
Speaker:And Senator Jordan came over to me later and just apologized on his
Speaker:behalf and said, you know, that's sort of, yeah, culturally what happens
Speaker:in political circles and I'm sorry.
Speaker:And for me, I was like, I'm never going to let that happen again.
Speaker:If a bloke stands in front of me in a group, I am going to tap them
Speaker:on the shoulder and it's actually happened to me twice since.
Speaker:And I still did the same thing.
Speaker:I just new group to go and talk to.
Speaker:It's hard to in the moment socially, because we aren't social considerations,
Speaker:you know, and you don't want to be made a fool of, and maybe you're overreacting
Speaker:and like so much goes on in your brain.
Speaker:So you just kind of slide off, you know, You've been indoctrinated to be
Speaker:civil and, and, and you wouldn't want to make us sort of an outburst in case you
Speaker:had somehow misinterpreted something.
Speaker:So it is difficult for yeah.
Speaker:And you know, people with powerful positions.
Speaker:So I was, I was really proud of her.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And one of the other things I've, uh, I made a promise to myself that from
Speaker:now on, I think I'm just going to leave the criticizing of women to men.
Speaker:So that was like my little personal solution going forward for all for this.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Certainly.
Speaker:That's been loud.
Speaker:All of the criticism about it, and this could be a issue we
Speaker:could all collectively gain from.
Speaker:I think we could stop child sexual abuse.
Speaker:That's a win for everybody.
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, he would have thought though, I'll Beckon her over.
Speaker:She'll have to stand beside me.
Speaker:She'll have to smell.
Speaker:And there'll be a photo where it looks like grace and I have
Speaker:patched up and all is good.
Speaker:Like he would have thought that it might not have rolled it all through his
Speaker:head at that moment, but he would have been thinking here's an opportunity.
Speaker:And, uh, yeah, it didn't pan out that way.
Speaker:So I'm of course, very hypocritical, um, uh, the whole thing, because there's
Speaker:other circumstances, you know, of course you read in the Murdoch papers,
Speaker:uh, different, uh, columnists and opinion writers saying how rude it was.
Speaker:And meanwhile, Scott Morrison has just been equally as rude to other people.
Speaker:There's been photos of him refusing to shake the hand of, of, um, bill
Speaker:shorten other times in parliament where he's had his back turn to, uh, Tanya
Speaker:Plibersek, a whole host of times when he's just been rude, arrogant pig.
Speaker:You mean like when he preys on people, right?
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:So, um, Uh, say it, you know, hypocritical of course, and, uh, good on grace time.
Speaker:Um, we'll see what happens.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:Um, one other comment I saw this was from my Carlton.
Speaker:Um, he saw an ABC news headline, which was, uh, wonder if I put this up?
Speaker:No, I didn't have it on the thing.
Speaker:Um, so ABC news, grace time criticized for political and childish interaction
Speaker:with prime minister, ABC news.
Speaker:Um, so that's just repeating one, one side of the viewpoint and they
Speaker:could equally have written Gray's time applauded for honest refusal to play
Speaker:nice with prime minister, but the ABC chose to, to repeat the news court line.
Speaker:If you like, um, I increasingly find the ABC quite disappointing
Speaker:in how it's approaching things.
Speaker:Like, you know, they're always against the government, aren't they?
Speaker:Um, particularly in relation to China, I often see them just accepting the,
Speaker:the, uh, um, the anti China rhetoric and probably in relation to Ukraine.
Speaker:If I see enough about it now, and I'll see the same thing, um, yeah, ABC,
Speaker:um, could be better, but, um, yeah.
Speaker:Um, in the chat room everyone's going off already.
Speaker:And, um, uh, Roman says I spend time arguing with my sister
Speaker:via text about grace time.
Speaker:She thought that Ms.
Speaker:Tom was rude and hadn't done her cause any good.
Speaker:Um, ramen said she was entitled to behave that way.
Speaker:Given the government had ignored her, which they did like they, they
Speaker:created some sort of inquiry or.
Speaker:About the very topic that grace time is famous for and didn't
Speaker:invite her input into it at all.
Speaker:She found out about it from reporters.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:So, um, it'll be interesting to see how Dylan the wheelchair athlete goes equals.
Speaker:He will see things happening with national disability scheme
Speaker:that he won't be impressed with.
Speaker:And then the lead's been challenged by grace.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:She, I think she's furthered the cause, frankly.
Speaker:Yeah, I think, um, he strikes me as the sort of character.
Speaker:He probably might say something, so I don't think the coast is
Speaker:clear for the, or the government.
Speaker:Um, thanks to Dylan.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But, um, I read an interesting tweet that I took a photo of just in terms
Speaker:of comparisons about women's conduct.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Where is a Darren Chester.
Speaker:National's MP.
Speaker:So humble, so respectful and so determined that's leadership.
Speaker:And she doesn't even know it.
Speaker:Good luck in the final Ash body, but you're already a winner.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:When you finished playing tennis, let's get you into federal parliament.
Speaker:You're in parliament.
Speaker:Darren, maybe you could demonstrate some humbleness.
Speaker:What else is there?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Respect and determination.
Speaker:I think expertise.
Speaker:I think is great, but the last thing that entered my mind was that
Speaker:she should have become a politician.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Would it even be attractive to her?
Speaker:I'd say maybe we should get, um, what's her name?
Speaker:The.
Speaker:Grand slam weapon.
Speaker:Um, Rafa.
Speaker:No, no, no.
Speaker:Uh, from the sixties got caught.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But we'll get her, get her into parliament.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, we've already got John Alexander.
Speaker:So John Alexander was a champion tennis player.
Speaker:Didn't make him a champion politician.
Speaker:He's actually, he's actually really angry.
Speaker:Cause he, he was on a committee that was looking at very fast trains and basically
Speaker:thought, well, this is a good idea.
Speaker:And has discovered he's got absolutely nowhere with his party in relation
Speaker:to the one policy that he ended up thinking it was a good one.
Speaker:And that's the reason why he wants to leave.
Speaker:And he's sort of, um, suddenly woken up that maybe the party's
Speaker:part of isn't so crash hot.
Speaker:So, uh, um, up please, celebrity, um, politicians it's bad
Speaker:enough to do without that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, actually a red Z, um, makes a point in the chat room.
Speaker:Um, Uh, has there been any thought of this back race time that she was genuinely
Speaker:traumatized being near him a good point?
Speaker:Like possibly yeah, genuinely, uh, it's quite possible.
Speaker:Most of us might be.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:I mean, it'd be hard not to show your feelings with a guy like that.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Um, let me see.
Speaker:So that was a great time city point.
Speaker:Christian college is a college in Queensland.
Speaker:That's come out in the news in the last week or so, because they've asked
Speaker:errands to sign a contract prior to the start of the new school year.
Speaker:And, uh, in it, it's got this acknowledgement of what the beliefs
Speaker:are of point Christian college.
Speaker:And they say there, we believe that any form of sexual immorality,
Speaker:including, but not limited to.
Speaker:Adultery fornication, homosexual acts, bisexual acts.
Speaker:Beastiality incest, pedophilia, and pornography is equivalent is sinful
Speaker:and offensive to God and is destructive to human relationships and society.
Speaker:So they're just lumped in adultery, fornication, homosexual acts,
Speaker:bisexual X with beastiality incest, pedophilia, and pornography.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:So they've put that in as part of a contract with parents and there's been
Speaker:an uproar about it and people saying, oh, they've also said that they're
Speaker:only going to recognized the gender of students based on their birth certificate.
Speaker:Uh, that's the only agenda they're going to recognize.
Speaker:And, and people that are just shocked.
Speaker:What do they think is happening out there already all the time?
Speaker:Like we've got a government that is passing a law or trying to
Speaker:pass a law that basically says if your school has an ethos.
Speaker:Then it can just do whatever the hell it likes in terms of enrolling and
Speaker:hiring and firing provided it is doing so, um, in furtherance of its ethos.
Speaker:So these guys have simply laid it out so that when the law is passed, they'll be
Speaker:able to say, we told you what our ethos is, and now all you guy kids piss off.
Speaker:Like, it's just, what did they think was going to happen is happening.
Speaker:They're not going to kick out the gay kids.
Speaker:They're just going to believe them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Even a half a chance.
Speaker:They'll kick him out.
Speaker:So, and you know, what are they doing there anyway?
Speaker:You've got, ah, I guess parent parents shouldn't, uh, parents might not
Speaker:know their kid's game, but, um, yeah.
Speaker:And, and you also, uh, parents may have a borrowed attitudes to their kids
Speaker:being gay, just because the parents are religious doesn't mean that the kids need.
Speaker:In their life.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So, um, so anyway, that's city point, that's created an uproar
Speaker:in Queensland and, um, the shovel had a wonderful article.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, they said, um, parents have responded to a request from city point Christian
Speaker:college about sewing this enrollment contract by asking the school to first
Speaker:guarantee that their children won't be sexually assaulted by the school staff.
Speaker:Uh, the school is yet to respond, but some experts say the demands are impractical.
Speaker:I'm afraid this so-called contract from parents is unworkable.
Speaker:One religious commentator said.
Speaker:Uh, it goes on anyway, that's the classic paragraph is when I saw my kids up to go
Speaker:to school, I expect to get information about what they'll be learning in
Speaker:maths or what supports are available.
Speaker:But instead I got a four page contract about adultery, fornication,
Speaker:homosexual, bisexual, X, bestiality, incest, pedophilia, and pornography.
Speaker:What the fuck are these people doing at their staff meetings?
Speaker:I think that sums it up, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That is true.
Speaker:They are obsessed with the bedroom, these people, um, there was also,
Speaker:I think the ABC noted, no, sorry.
Speaker:There's a petition going around that said they got $14 million
Speaker:in federal funding last year.
Speaker:Yeah, of course they did.
Speaker:Yeah, of course.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Think this and this is nonsense has been going on for years.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Um, so isn't it perfect that happens now because it's actually some it's brilliant
Speaker:timing because people, people will say effective and now, and good on a group
Speaker:who stood outside and, uh, it's sort of a guy support group and, um, stood outside
Speaker:the school and sort of as a support group.
Speaker:So in a protest saying good on them.
Speaker:Um, all right.
Speaker:Uh, this is all just going to continue this sort of nonsense though, isn't it?
Speaker:Because we've mentioned a thousand times on this podcast, the listener
Speaker:about the takeover of the liberal party by evangelical Christian churches
Speaker:who are just rabidly motivated, it will not stop until I've taken over.
Speaker:They've seen the example in America and I just following the same
Speaker:playbook and we've seen it in Western Australia, Queensland, south Australia.
Speaker:Uh, lightest, um, hotspot is in new south Wales and essentially, um, last week,
Speaker:a prominent member of liberals, right?
Speaker:Faction Tim James sneered, the safe new south Wales seat of Willoughby replacing
Speaker:the former liberal premier Gladys Berejiklian, who was a leading moderate.
Speaker:Um, no one sword coming the lower north shore is a moderate stronghold within
Speaker:the party and the popular, uh, former Willoughby council mayor Gail Giles'
Speaker:kidney, a moderate with a high local profile was seen as the front runner.
Speaker:Charles Gidney had the endorsement of Berejiklian and a power broker Zimmerman.
Speaker:And, but at the end of a three hour pre-selection meeting
Speaker:attended by more than a hundred members of the local branch.
Speaker:The moderates were lifts, shellshocked.
Speaker:The new were ringer rules for choosing a candidate had
Speaker:delivered an unexpected result.
Speaker:And, um, got in this guy, who's a, um, a hard line, right.
Speaker:Winger and, um, just guy's on, let me find it here.
Speaker:Um, new rules for pre-selecting candidates have provided an avenue
Speaker:for increased influence, and there are signs that the right operatives are
Speaker:active, quote, the right, or taking the car out for a spin to see what's
Speaker:possible said one factional player.
Speaker:So, um, so Tony Abbott's original rules for establishing branch member plebiscites
Speaker:to choose candidates were substantially modified before being adopted.
Speaker:Um, they were worried about branch stacking by Christians.
Speaker:I think safeguards against branch stacking, such as being a member
Speaker:for two years and monthly limits on new members, signing signups were
Speaker:included and a quarter of the vote was allocated to the state exam.
Speaker:Um, but you know, what's happened to you according to this article, is that the
Speaker:moderates have underestimated the right.
Speaker:So now what they've done is they're putting a real, saying we've
Speaker:got to be member for two years.
Speaker:Well, these Hartline Christian evangelicals go fine for sign up.
Speaker:It will vote in two years time and they say there's monthly limits on new members.
Speaker:That's fine.
Speaker:We'll just rebel out parishioners in monthly.
Speaker:According to the rules, these guys play the long game.
Speaker:This is what religion is all about.
Speaker:It is a long game and they've simply made it now harder for other groups to work
Speaker:because nobody plays a longer, harder game than these nutbag Christian groups.
Speaker:They've taken their time.
Speaker:They've filled up the branch within members and they've
Speaker:got their pre-selection.
Speaker:They'll just continue to do it around the place.
Speaker:I don't know what they were thinking.
Speaker:If they thought this would stop them because to me, um, the harder you make
Speaker:it, they would go, well, the better it is because we like hurdles because we'll,
Speaker:we've got people who'll jump any hurdle.
Speaker:And you guys don't you moderate.
Speaker:That was the argument from, um, uh, um, my mates.
Speaker:Same when you make the planning application process harder to stop
Speaker:corruption, all you do is make it easier for the people who are, have the deep
Speaker:pockets and have their mates already in the seats of power and you'd make it
Speaker:harder and harder for the new entrance.
Speaker:So effectively you create a very closed system.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:You need a real organization to, to get through it.
Speaker:And, um, yeah.
Speaker:So the sort of, um, Oh, I don't know.
Speaker:Um, a popular candidate is sort of burst onto the scene.
Speaker:Just won't be able to get the numbers because, uh, the
Speaker:system will grind them down.
Speaker:They'll need to have been doing it for years.
Speaker:So Rick's perfectly into the hands of, of these guys and that's what's
Speaker:happening in new south Wales.
Speaker:What should happen around the rest of the country?
Speaker:Um, okay.
Speaker:Not alienate the electorate, which is mostly yes, yes.
Speaker:You would think so eventually because they'll just get crazier
Speaker:and crazier, candida, only if they're being obvious about it, if
Speaker:they're being sly about it then.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Um, yeah, so th this is part of the problem with our democracy is
Speaker:that, um, small, highly organized groups, uh, taking over what are
Speaker:they are two major political parties.
Speaker:Yeah, well, the other one had already been taken over by the union movement internet.
Speaker:Um, my, my drive up to Rocky, um, all the way up where Palm
Speaker:money, I did party posters.
Speaker:I must've seen Eirich and 50 on the way up to Rockhampton, just all the way up
Speaker:the sunshine coast, uh, complaining about lockdowns, which haven't been a thing for.
Speaker:God knows how long.
Speaker:Yup.
Speaker:And then freedom, freedom, freedom.
Speaker:Where the party of freedom.
Speaker:Yes, he is spending big.
Speaker:He's not going to win any seats.
Speaker:No, no.
Speaker:The question is last time they did he get enough?
Speaker:You know, he only got one or 2% of something, but also plea.
Speaker:Was that enough to arguably it was enough to help swell?
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:I think that's his aim.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:How anybody could be fooled by that guy or 1500 people must've
Speaker:been, um, to sign up as yeah.
Speaker:To, to become a party, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Anyway, uh, that's quite Palmer.
Speaker:Um, he's another one though.
Speaker:Who's being cagey on whether he's had the injection Maxine.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And he says he's he's.
Speaker:He says he's not invasively
Speaker:as, has he lost any weight?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Well then I recognize in the high-risk group, isn't he?
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I'm just applying up to that 80 vacs, those there or light,
Speaker:um, approvals and statistics here.
Speaker:Let's see, let's just share some screens on skin.
Speaker:Um, okay.
Speaker:First up blue line at the top, um, approval of Scott Morrison red
Speaker:line at the bottom disapproval.
Speaker:So his approval rating as gone down, but it's still around the same
Speaker:mark that it was three years ago.
Speaker:That's not that bad.
Speaker:So there's been lots of talk with polls about what's happened to him, but,
Speaker:uh, uh, next one, um, who do you think would make the better prime minister?
Speaker:The blue line at the top.
Speaker:Scott Morrison the red line at the bottom.
Speaker:Anthony Albanese.
Speaker:I see photos of Albin easy.
Speaker:And I'm who the hell is that?
Speaker:He's lost a lot of weight.
Speaker:Is that what you meant?
Speaker:No, no, no.
Speaker:It's just these nev I never see him in any media.
Speaker:I see Scott Morrison's smarmy smile all over the place.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, um, I got my copy of the month play today.
Speaker:Oh, there he is.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:So a whole article he claims he's done more interviews than Scott Morrison.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Don't know even jokes.
Speaker:He's been everywhere.
Speaker:I'll tell you one from last week.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:It was yes.
Speaker:He, anyway, the article says he needs 1.4 million people to vote labor who
Speaker:didn't vote labor at the last election.
Speaker:That's it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:You would think you'd get that just in young people who
Speaker:have become eligible divide.
Speaker:You'd think you'd nearly get there.
Speaker:Um, some, most of them, I think, just vote how their parents tell them to.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:Uh, and final one there.
Speaker:Um, two party preferred and, uh, And you'll see that the
Speaker:two pound preferred vote.
Speaker:Now that's the one that has actually moved a lot in the last, uh, few weeks.
Speaker:So realistically, the previous graphs I showed with popularity, not much change
Speaker:to say three years ago, but this one's changed a lot, two party preferred.
Speaker:So a 7% swing.
Speaker:And if that was replicated at the election, it would be a
Speaker:very solid wind to labor party.
Speaker:And that that's the one that's changed a lot.
Speaker:Is that two party preferred, but I don't know.
Speaker:I think my gut tells me people just vote according to the leaders these days.
Speaker:So, uh, yeah, not sure on that one.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Uh, cool about him anyway.
Speaker:I think that was the best, the best sell.
Speaker:I think getting someone else to sell him as.
Speaker:And you're going to eat a physical copy of the monthly.
Speaker:You asked it for Christmas because I wanted something print.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Certainly Christmas present,
Speaker:indeed.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Or I'd um, yeah, last episode, two weeks ago, I joked that I'd figured out
Speaker:the Morrison government, that it was a satirical performance, not unlike, um,
Speaker:uh, that sort of Hitler thing springtime for Hitler had what was called, um, the
Speaker:literally yes, literally the next day, Scott Morrison asked the states to allow
Speaker:our children to vote, to drive forklifts as a means of overcoming staff shortage.
Speaker:In supply chains.
Speaker:Have you guys ever driven a forklift?
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:But there are a lot of injuries related to that, correct?
Speaker:You only got to hang around YouTube disaster videos for
Speaker:five minutes and you're bound to see two or three forklift ones.
Speaker:They are unbelievably dangerous in a warehouse, nudging, a pallet rack, or just
Speaker:tip and stuff like it's, it's way more dangerous, I think, than driving a car
Speaker:because of just the nature of warehouses.
Speaker:And they're just uncontrolled environments compared to taking
Speaker:out a road and the idea all it's fast track kids driving forklifts.
Speaker:That, I mean, this is what they've spent some time thinking
Speaker:about prior to a meeting with the premiers and didn't provide.
Speaker:Material in advance and just sprung and ultimate of meeting now is this
Speaker:for an idea guys, and we'll get 16 year old to drive forklifts.
Speaker:That'll help me.
Speaker:So yeah, it's a satirical performance.
Speaker:They're really the line and on too thick, but did he see, he not
Speaker:see the comments afterwards where they, how dare you lay into this?
Speaker:You know, uh, all the shortages are a fault of, I probably like, um, well,
Speaker:I'm going to, I've got a, um, there's one here by, uh, there was an article
Speaker:by, um, in the Herald sun caliber bond.
Speaker:I've got a picture of him there on the screen.
Speaker:I mean, clearly a face you can trust and he's a 12 year old with a beard.
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:I was going to say he just wants to play with a forklift.
Speaker:Does it.
Speaker:You know, it's not, it's not charitable to be picking on somebody looks, but
Speaker:here's what he said was his article was the hatred of Scott Morrison has
Speaker:become so ridiculous that even sensible ideas such as teenagers getting
Speaker:forklift licenses are being shot down.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, um, maybe they could go up into the ceilings and put some insulation in.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, did you hear that Ron Williams is running for Senate
Speaker:and quite dude reason here.
Speaker:Did you hear, did you hear that at all?
Speaker:Shane, do you know who Ron Williams is?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I can't go to heaven.
Speaker:Sorry, YouTube.
Speaker:Like the, please go to heaven.
Speaker:He it's a song he's done.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:He's he's issue.
Speaker:Oh, All right.
Speaker:The chats disappeared again.
Speaker:J is it the screen?
Speaker:I know I turned it off when you shake your screen.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Thanks, John.
Speaker:Um, so Ron Williams, he's the guy who did the high court challenges
Speaker:to the chaplaincy scheme when he was basically saying the government
Speaker:didn't have the authority to spend money on chaplaincy and, um, had a
Speaker:couple of high court cases on that.
Speaker:And eventually they, they passed legislation in a particular
Speaker:way to get around that.
Speaker:So, um, so yeah, he, um, is a very strong advocate for secular stuff.
Speaker:And I think he's, ah, if he wasn't president of the humanists in Queensland,
Speaker:he was something similar, I think at one point and maybe still is so, um, so he's
Speaker:running in the Senate in Queensland and.
Speaker:Yeah, there's a guy who will definitely, in terms of trying to change laws
Speaker:to make Australia more secular.
Speaker:So if secularism is your priority, Ron Williams is definitely your candidate.
Speaker:Um, uh, first and foremost, that's what he'll be doing.
Speaker:And, uh, so, um, he'll be part of the reason ticket or the
Speaker:Senate team in Queensland.
Speaker:So good on your run or running that might reach out and try and get him
Speaker:to chat on this podcast at some stage.
Speaker:So, yes, um, as Queensland's to, um, secular litigators, we could have
Speaker:a lot to talk about, uh, prominent in the chat rooms says we weren't
Speaker:far wrong about caliber bond.
Speaker:He's 21.
Speaker:Yeah, sure.
Speaker:That's, I'm sure that's a paddle and dry man.
Speaker:It's the wrong way.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, so anyway, um, yeah, Ron Williams in the Senate and, um, got
Speaker:Clive Robert Palmer running for the Senate and, um, and we've also got
Speaker:Amanda Stone and Campbell Newman.
Speaker:So it's a circus in Queensland Senate.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Can-do gamble.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, last week, um, Paul is one of our, um, all labor.
Speaker:He contributes and sends stuff to me at different times and he, uh, wrote me an
Speaker:email talking about our last episode and he said, so here's my question for you.
Speaker:What's your view on how we should get property prices back under
Speaker:control and how would we actually go about stopping this property bubble
Speaker:and then maybe reversing a river?
Speaker:So here's the.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, I could easily pop the bubble, but now there's so many
Speaker:people who are committed to these big mortgages and it'd be unfair to
Speaker:overnight change a system that then just throws them into bankruptcy.
Speaker:So, um, you know, now we're stuck where essentially we need policies that will
Speaker:basically hold property at the, at its current price for the next 15 or
Speaker:20 years to try and bring things back to normal because we really can't in
Speaker:all honesty to those people, hit them with things that are going to, um, to
Speaker:reverse prices by 30 or 40%, you know, intentionally by government means.
Speaker:So, you know, back in the nineties, property was flat for 10 years,
Speaker:my wife and I had a property.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, I can remember we owned it for like six or seven years and
Speaker:barely got our money back on it.
Speaker:Like it's supposed to happen that way.
Speaker:And it used to happen that way.
Speaker:So if people were to think, oh, that would be shocking to keep
Speaker:property prices stable for 15 years.
Speaker:Um, no, it wouldn't say how it's do it dead.
Speaker:Easy.
Speaker:All dead easy.
Speaker:Uh, number one, phase out negative gearing or residential
Speaker:property instantly reduces demand.
Speaker:Yup.
Speaker:Uh, another one increased land tax on investment properties.
Speaker:Like that's what happens overseas.
Speaker:People pay a lot of land tax on property, so it's a disincentive to own property.
Speaker:Um, third one tell banks they can't rely on residential home equity
Speaker:to lend on investment properties.
Speaker:You can pass a little like that.
Speaker:A fourth one delete capital gains tax concessions.
Speaker:So at the moment.
Speaker:If you make a million dollars from buying and selling a house as a capital
Speaker:gain, you only pay tax on half of that.
Speaker:Meanwhile, if you had sweated for 20 years, flipping hamburgers
Speaker:and made, um, a million dollars, you pay tax on the full amount.
Speaker:So get rid of that capital gains tax concession, and it even
Speaker:provides some public housing.
Speaker:So with all of those things, the trick would be to phase them in.
Speaker:So negative gearing on residential property, you would just over
Speaker:a 10 year period, you would say next year, you can only claim 90%.
Speaker:The following year, only 80%.
Speaker:The following year, only 70% people would see the writing on
Speaker:the wall and start exiting from, um, investment property over time.
Speaker:So that would be what would be done.
Speaker:And you'd only have to just look at overseas experiences and see what's what
Speaker:they've got over there and just copy them.
Speaker:Um, I was listening to a podcast with Alan Cola, you know, Alan Cola, ABC economist.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And he was talking to another economist called Michael Hudson, whose book I am
Speaker:reading at the moment I finished reading.
Speaker:This is really good.
Speaker:Um, super imperialism, uh, the economic strategy of the American Impala.
Speaker:It's only vein, uh, 460 odd pages of heavy economics, but really good.
Speaker:Anyway, Alan Kohler was talking to him and as part of that, uh, talking
Speaker:about Australian property prices and Alan Cola looked at a house in Sydney
Speaker:that was X number of kilometers from the CBD and was worth $1.5 million.
Speaker:And then he looked for a similar house, the same number of
Speaker:kilometers from the CBD of New York.
Speaker:And the house was half the price.
Speaker:This, this is what's going on in the rest of the world.
Speaker:We don't hear these stories often enough.
Speaker:So I mean, you know, I grew up on Jersey, which, you know, uh, offshore
Speaker:finance, uh, lots of people escaping the EK tax and, um, interest paid on
Speaker:your mortgage of your primary residence.
Speaker:So the place you lived was tax deductible on investment properties.
Speaker:It was not tax deductible.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So it was encouraging, it was encouraging people to own their own homes.
Speaker:Yup.
Speaker:Yup.
Speaker:Yup.
Speaker:That's the sort of thing that we need.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I was shocked when I moved over to find out that not only was I not
Speaker:going to get tax relief on my mortgage, but that if I owned an investment
Speaker:property, I'd get tax relief on that.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It's yeah.
Speaker:Yup.
Speaker:Anyway, uh, also from Paul, um, what else did he say here?
Speaker:Um, so I was talking about bill shorten, not being able to sell, um, the, uh,
Speaker:the story of what he was wanting to do.
Speaker:They weren't selling enough.
Speaker:And, um, all's taken me to task and said, this completely ignores the Murdoch,
Speaker:media and Scotty from marketing, going all out on attacking labor on everything.
Speaker:Bill shorten wants to ruin your weekend.
Speaker:Labor will tax you to death.
Speaker:Uh, Scotty came out with these outright lies and Murdoch press.
Speaker:We're happy to repeat and amplify them in a nonstop campaign of
Speaker:fear and scare about anything.
Speaker:Labor in suggested the details get lost in the hype and the scare.
Speaker:And we've seen with so many campaigns from Brexit to this, the easy lie is much more
Speaker:attractive than the complicated truth.
Speaker:You can't blame labor for that.
Speaker:The good point, Paul, I mean, that is true.
Speaker:It is difficult.
Speaker:Battle the Murdoch press.
Speaker:I still think they could have spent a lot more time with ABC.
Speaker:They should have been saying to the ABC, we want to come onto the
Speaker:seventh day to report every night.
Speaker:And that if, if the, uh, labor, if the liberals don't want to
Speaker:come on, then too bad, let us on.
Speaker:We want to tell our story.
Speaker:I think they could have worked harder in some other areas.
Speaker:I've, I've noticed that the modern media is all about soundbite.
Speaker:And I know that Joe Rogan's received a lot of press recently, but yeah, one of
Speaker:the big reasons for his success was it was a two and a half hour interview and
Speaker:he was knocking five of those out a week.
Speaker:Yeah, it was incredible.
Speaker:And rather than a 32nd snippet, Where you get no detail.
Speaker:People do want to sit down and listen to long form interviews.
Speaker:My media just isn't willing to spend that time.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And I'm sure if he'd have wanted, if he'd have sat down and done a long
Speaker:form interview with some podcast of some sort like friendly Jordy's or
Speaker:somebody like that, um, you know, it's a chance to talk about it.
Speaker:So say look, it is true to an extent, or is a valid argument.
Speaker:I still think that could have done more.
Speaker:Um, guys, like walk-in Keating sold a vision, Whitlam sold a vision.
Speaker:So anyway, but then again, Whitlam did have, the pipe is more or
Speaker:less on his side the first time.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:So that's true.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Um, and what else did he say here?
Speaker:Um, oh, and he's also said, um, and the thing that really shows me the
Speaker:power that Marson and Murdoch have on.
Speaker:Is just how little you report on what Albanese is actually out there doing
Speaker:is recently announced 200 million per year for disaster prevention
Speaker:and resilience in areas hit badly by cycline and climate change.
Speaker:Did you mention this big new announcement?
Speaker:Not at all.
Speaker:If you just reducing it down to a personality contest between Marson
Speaker:and Elvin easy, you're just playing into the conservative media's hands.
Speaker:I don't know, Paul, I just can't get excited about a $200 million.
Speaker:It's a disaster prevention payment.
Speaker:Like this is just every government gets money to spend on stuff.
Speaker:It's not, it's not changing a system.
Speaker:It's not a systematic change of any sort.
Speaker:Uh, what I'm waiting for is the big announcement with all right.
Speaker:We have so much invested in carbon, uh, or fossil fuel.
Speaker:This is our package.
Speaker:This is how we're going to move from fossil fuels.
Speaker:This is what we're going to do with the miners.
Speaker:This is how we're going to retrain them.
Speaker:These are the industries that we're going to introduce into the regions
Speaker:that are going to pick up the slack from when we lose these mining jobs.
Speaker:Because at the moment we are fetishizing coal and coal seam gas because
Speaker:it's producing, it's putting money into the regions and the regions.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I reckon the regions.
Speaker:What would cost labor the election last year, last time?
Speaker:Um, so all that money that was announced for the reef, it seems
Speaker:by the Morrison government now X billion, it seems as a huge proportion
Speaker:of it is actually going to farmers in order to try and prevent runoff.
Speaker:Um, so it's not actually going directly to the reef.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:You could, you could win an election on his federal ICAC policy elbows
Speaker:because it's retrospective and you could make a case around, um, how
Speaker:countries that are racist rich.
Speaker:If they don't deal with their corruption, they can end up in poverty.
Speaker:That would be case to make there to be a whole range of ways.
Speaker:You could just stick with that one policy.
Speaker:So we've got to clean up the corruption works for so many other like sub
Speaker:groups, corruption, corruption, corruption, and really works.
Speaker:Um, and may I just read you the last paragraph of this thing
Speaker:about Alba in the monthly yeah.
Speaker:Monthly it's written by Nick Bryant.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, so over the past 40 years, Australia has lived through the
Speaker:reform era under Hawk CADing and Howard, and the revenge era of rod
Speaker:Gilad, rod Gilad, rod Abbott, and.
Speaker:Uh, Morrison victory would prolong what could easily become a
Speaker:regression era of further national drift and democratic decline.
Speaker:So perhaps the best the country can hope for right now is renewal not revolution.
Speaker:It wouldn't be inspiring.
Speaker:It wouldn't be poetic.
Speaker:It might not even be clearly articulated, but maybe it's time for
Speaker:a mechanic rather than a Messiah.
Speaker:And maybe Albo, is there a payment for the job?
Speaker:That's good.
Speaker:That's good.
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's a good argument for your run.
Speaker:Yeah, because the other week.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's yeah.
Speaker:That's, that's, that's a good argument.
Speaker:I mean, yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:You know, one of the problems is that the right wing, I've got all of
Speaker:these think tanks and other groups who, who can make outrageous claims.
Speaker:And shift the Overton window so that the government feels sort of, oh,
Speaker:well, we're not going as far as that, but we're just going a little bit of
Speaker:the why, you know, we're not going to that outside edge of craziness.
Speaker:And there isn't the same sort of activity on the left with think tanks
Speaker:and other groups who can shift the Overton window to the left to some point.
Speaker:So, um, yeah.
Speaker:That's and of course, how do you think tanks and things?
Speaker:Cause you need lots of money because the lift doesn't have the
Speaker:money to support the think tanks.
Speaker:So that is part of the problem.
Speaker:Um, sorry, Joe, you're gonna say something.
Speaker:Oh, it was going to say, um, I remember seeing articles from the
Speaker:Australian socialist or something.
Speaker:I I've seen some very, very left wing, but there might not voices.
Speaker:They're not amplified.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Any traction?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Um, uh, Aboriginal.
Speaker:Did you see what happen with that?
Speaker:So it was previously privately owned by the designer, which
Speaker:was causing enormous problems or replicating the Aboriginal flags.
Speaker:So in a week, the government actually did a good thing.
Speaker:I believe it's somehow acquired the rights to the Aboriginal flag and
Speaker:it's basically made it available for use, I guess, along the similar lines
Speaker:that the Australian flag is allowed.
Speaker:So that to me was well done.
Speaker:You've done something
Speaker:$20 million, probably not a bad in the scheme of things or Hey, things have been
Speaker:going it's just dollars and we just print.
Speaker:We can just print money.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Brahman too says she's amazed.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Must've come from the civil servants rather than the government, Shirley.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, look, it's probably a thing that's taken quite a while to work on it.
Speaker:And, but anyway, full marks to it wouldn't have taken more than seven years,
Speaker:presumably so, but I've done it anyway.
Speaker:So that seems to be a good thing.
Speaker:So it was quite an unusual situation before and that's been
Speaker:cleared up, so that could be done.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Um, private school cricketers.
Speaker:So I thought this was interesting public school boys.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So in the UK, they called public, which is the equivalent of our private.
Speaker:Why is that, Joe?
Speaker:Why do they call episode institution?
Speaker:Public, historically schools were either based on catchment,
Speaker:what your father's profession was or what denomination were you?
Speaker:Uh, and public schools were open to the public.
Speaker:As long as you could pay, they were.
Speaker:So they tended to be boarding school and they were non regional.
Speaker:So they were very much the, um, have like in that they'd take anyone from the
Speaker:public who could afford it basically.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I have a nasty restrictions of denomination and occupation and religion
Speaker:could be dealt and to be a public school, your, your headmaster or headmistress
Speaker:needs to be a member of the headmaster and headmistress is conference.
Speaker:So there's 60 something schools in the UK and there are 30
Speaker:something internationally.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So when I use the word private here, I mean, it, in the sense
Speaker:that we in Australia normally think of private schools.
Speaker:So, um, and from the guardian, we looked through all the specialists, batters that
Speaker:debuted for England in tests since 2011.
Speaker:And we found out that 95% of them had been white and 77% of them
Speaker:have come from private schools.
Speaker:And, um, So it seems that the, uh, England's teams top order of batsman
Speaker:is more elitist, uh, than what you'd find in the UK house of Lords.
Speaker:So it's more explain why they're doing so poorly because they've missed out
Speaker:on a lot of talent by just limiting themselves to such a small group.
Speaker:A sport is very cost divided is, um, yes, even in Australia, but,
Speaker:but certainly in the UK, um, public schools or private schools would
Speaker:play cricket and rugby and the state schools would play football or soccer.
Speaker:Um, so there are certain sports that you'd expect, um, to be a
Speaker:lot more private school kids.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The listener, if you're ever, you know, at a barbecue with a south African who
Speaker:will invariably love their rugby and.
Speaker:You know, possibly come to Australia in the last 10 or 15 years or whatever.
Speaker:And, uh, and just ask them where they say I get.
Speaker:Were you surprised when you came to Australia to discover how low down
Speaker:the totem pole rugby is in Australia?
Speaker:And I go, yeah, I can't believe it.
Speaker:And, um, I said, yeah, we got, you know, AFL, we've got rugby league, we've
Speaker:got soccer and then rugby union rugby.
Speaker:And, um, it's just played by a small collection of private schools.
Speaker:And, uh, it's really low down in terms of participation at the totem Poland.
Speaker:And, uh, south Africans are very surprised by, by that how low it is.
Speaker:So anyway, um, so yeah, got to go to one of those schools, if you want to be in
Speaker:the English, uh, top order, it seems.
Speaker:And also on the private schools from the Sydney morning Herald a major
Speaker:study of NAPLAN results over time found only a slight difference in
Speaker:scores between the three school sector.
Speaker:And these differences disappeared once a student's family
Speaker:background was considered.
Speaker:So the research team from the university of new England looked at the net plan
Speaker:results of 1500 students in years, 3, 5, 7, and nine, and found no difference
Speaker:in average achievement between the three school sectors in primary school, except
Speaker:that you have five students in public schools perform slightly better in
Speaker:numeracy than those in Catholic schools.
Speaker:Um, in year seven and nine students at independent schools were slightly ahead,
Speaker:but their apparent advantage disappeared after including socio economic status.
Speaker:Um, and that's an international finding cause it was in
Speaker:Freakonomics the book, right?
Speaker:And there's a bunch of other studies in this article that are referred to as well.
Speaker:The listener, if you are spending money.
Speaker:Sending your kids to a private school.
Speaker:Cause you think they're going to get a better education, a better
Speaker:result than a task score or whatever.
Speaker:Um, no, just because it's private does not make any difference.
Speaker:Now you might choose between different schools, um, because some do run
Speaker:better than others at various times, but it's just because it's a private
Speaker:school is absolutely no guarantee that it's going to be any better
Speaker:than the public school down the road.
Speaker:And, um, you're wasting your money.
Speaker:And if you think that your kid is going to join an elite cohort and get these amazing
Speaker:contacts, uh, I did an interview with John Gillespie years ago on this podcast.
Speaker:And you can find that.
Speaker:And basically he said, You don't join a school and become part of the elite.
Speaker:You are already part of the elite and you joined the school that the elite to go to.
Speaker:And if you're working class and then join the elite school, thinking that you'll
Speaker:join the elite, that's not how it works.
Speaker:You don't get in.
Speaker:So, um, so yes, you will find, for example, a large number of Supreme
Speaker:court, new south Wales judges come from a particular school or whatever, but
Speaker:that's not because of the education they're getting in that school.
Speaker:It's just that that's where all the legal fraternity send their kids.
Speaker:And, um, and if you are not in that legal fraternity and you send your kid to that
Speaker:school thinking, there'll be part of that.
Speaker:If that's not how it works.
Speaker:So save your money and get yourself a no payer or something.
Speaker:I got myself a job purely on the strength of the school I went to.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You did.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:What do you mean you'd be pulling what I'm just saying.
Speaker:I went in for a holiday job, uh, and the guy took the paperwork.
Speaker:The application form came out and said, oh, I see you went to Victoria college.
Speaker:What house were you at?
Speaker:That was it.
Speaker:I got the job.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Well that that's over.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:Vicious.
Speaker:Very mess about, um, pilot selection bank based on whether they churchy
Speaker:boys on all scarves substantiated.
Speaker:Seriously doubt it.
Speaker:I mean, it's way too competitive in a lot of fields now, like in the law, maybe
Speaker:now I look at GPA's, how good are you?
Speaker:What do you get at school, Mike?
Speaker:Um, you know, and, and now like the legal profession is now like 50% getting
Speaker:close to 50% partners or female, you know, all that old school tie stuff.
Speaker:Um, it doesn't work that way.
Speaker:It might work a little bit in stockbroking.
Speaker:They were the one of the last bastions, maybe in real estate, commercial real
Speaker:estate, but, um, uh, it's too competitive.
Speaker:They need smart, bright people.
Speaker:And where you went to school, a secondary consideration,
Speaker:you know, why down the list?
Speaker:Um, right.
Speaker:Um, uh, let me just see, uh, Shai, I saw this flight attendant
Speaker:entry level wage in 1998.
Speaker:Did you see this one $27 38 per hour, 90 98, 20 $7 38 in 2020
Speaker:entry level flight attendant.
Speaker:$29 70.
Speaker:It's a $2 32 increase in 22 years.
Speaker:Uh, um, I had a lot of thought about that.
Speaker:So to give you some background, um, you, might've also seen in the news
Speaker:that Quantas has taken an aggressive stance and, um, took a, um, agreement
Speaker:to the international cohort that paid them less and worked them harder.
Speaker:And so they said no to that agreement and, um, then Quantis claimed to move
Speaker:to, uh, terminating the agreement and just putting them back on the award
Speaker:in the meantime, to give the company certainty during these turbulent times.
Speaker:So, um, Hm.
Speaker:There's already risks I've already.
Speaker:So I immediately am dismissed with my workplace for speaking to the media.
Speaker:But, um, I just do probably need to talk about this anyway.
Speaker:So look, I'll put it in context.
Speaker:So I've been doing like lots and lots of digging because Quantis,
Speaker:uh, have cried poor before.
Speaker:And then we're quickly reporting record bonus work, record profits,
Speaker:and propping up the executives.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So it's, it's all very familiar.
Speaker:And, um, our union particularly flight attendants union has always said that
Speaker:they are willing to negotiate to a stand still, but they've never been willing to
Speaker:take real industrial action and Quantas.
Speaker:His latest move has forced the secretary of the electric light.
Speaker:Basically find the guts to fight them because she's in agreement that
Speaker:this has got a stope 20 years of just no wage growth, you know, and look,
Speaker:um, there's a whole range of things.
Speaker:Like I don't really think, um, flight attendants, I don't even think it's
Speaker:considered a profession or a career anymore, which is a shame because
Speaker:it's a really, really good gig.
Speaker:And that's between having our conditions eroded the casualization of the workforce,
Speaker:but also Richard Branson profiting from making flight attendants, some
Speaker:sort of a dim sex symbol, as opposed to somebody who's going to protect you.
Speaker:If you find yourself in trouble on a plane, aren't you glad you asked?
Speaker:Sorry, I'm getting to my point.
Speaker:So we're not being taken seriously, not being paid appropriately.
Speaker:We're finally taking a stand.
Speaker:Um, and it was kind of upsetting to say that once Terry put that on Twitter, This
Speaker:sort of like debate about how much flight attendants were worth ensued and just sort
Speaker:of just became another like distraction.
Speaker:Oh, what were people saying?
Speaker:I didn't look at the comments.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They're not worth 20.
Speaker:You're saying, oh, you know, I'm getting paid $27.
Speaker:A 1998 was pretty good.
Speaker:And, um, things like, you know, well, they're just hospitality and yep.
Speaker:What about aged care?
Speaker:Doesn't anybody care about aged care?
Speaker:You know, or, um, maybe if they were in a better union, maybe if they were
Speaker:better supported by another union that wouldn't have happened to them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So just a whole lot of bullshit, but anyway, what was my point?
Speaker:So conditions have been eroded flight attendants aren't really been
Speaker:taken seriously due to the pandemic.
Speaker:Attitudes towards flight attendants St.
Speaker:Have gotten worse conditions, have an improved.
Speaker:And, um, certainly some of those flight attendants who said no to that
Speaker:agreement were also flying to rescue Australians when there wasn't a vaccine.
Speaker:So they were putting themselves potentially at serious risk.
Speaker:And, um, since all of this blew up, I think it's probably the first tweet.
Speaker:Um, Terry's ever put on Quantas is now a great tomato with, with the union again.
Speaker:So it's not over, but I think come out everything the crew have been through,
Speaker:like, it was just, it's just enough.
Speaker:I think, you know, I we've had, yeah, we've had a lot, we've dealt
Speaker:with a lot in the pasta years and, and we don't want to take away
Speaker:from aged care or other frontline workers who have done it tough too.
Speaker:But I just think.
Speaker:We can't let a convenient thing like a pandemic.
Speaker:Let Alan Joyce get his way again.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I'm sure.
Speaker:Executive salaries didn't follow the same trajectory in terms
Speaker:of they didn't, they didn't.
Speaker:I once versus the highest paid CEO in aviation in the world
Speaker:live in million dollars a year.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:So, all right, well, we'll move on while you still got a job.
Speaker:Just, um, just going back.
Speaker:Um, Alison mentioned, uh, she said I was given my first job as a solicitor
Speaker:in Brisbane in 1990, because I went to a state school in north Queensland.
Speaker:They didn't want a private school.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:That's a good story.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, I got my first job as an article Clark and I reckon it was one of the
Speaker:things was I had worked at McDonald's.
Speaker:With the lady who was sort of like the office manager at some point, and she saw
Speaker:the resume come through and uh, tonight give this guy guy he'll be all right.
Speaker:So, um, so yeah, I think that might have had a big thing to do with how I
Speaker:got in was through that sort of thing.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Um, yeah, just don't property, still property prices.
Speaker:I saw this tweet, which was someone living in their mom's basement used to be the
Speaker:butt of a joke, but the rental market is so insane that now it's like, damn,
Speaker:you've got a whole basement to yourself.
Speaker:That's sexy.
Speaker:Did you see the, um, anti work interview or not anti work interview?
Speaker:So there's a Reddit forum, which was called anti work.
Speaker:And it was a very, very anarchist group originally that were out to
Speaker:abolish work and, um, I don't know how they were going to make ends meet.
Speaker:Anyway, recently in America with everyone getting disaffected, by
Speaker:having to work three jobs to make ends meet, there's been an influx of
Speaker:people who want a fair wage system.
Speaker:Um, and Fox news got the main moderator from the anti work group on to talk
Speaker:about this and the something like a million people were in the group.
Speaker:And there's one person who is autistic hadn't dressed up for the interview
Speaker:was swiveling around in their chair.
Speaker:Wasn't making eye contact with the camera is saying that they earn, they
Speaker:work 20 hours a week as a dog Walker.
Speaker:And really laziness is a virtue.
Speaker:And I'm basically playing into all of the biases that Fox had.
Speaker:And, and the 1 million workers who are members of the group who wanted
Speaker:to advocate for, you know, we need to work three jobs to get a living wage,
Speaker:and we really need to do something about America's slave economy.
Speaker:Uh, we're very upset, right?
Speaker:That this person who I think was living at their parents' house and could
Speaker:afford to live on 20 hours a week of dog walking, we're standing up representing
Speaker:them when it wasn't at all, what they thought the group was about, right?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Living at home in a, in a salute Marius basement, no doubt, but played
Speaker:beautifully into the hands of Fox.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, I really like Alan McCloud.
Speaker:He talks a lot about, uh, um, that is why other and south American other ticks.
Speaker:And there was this headline in Breitbart, which was Nicolas
Speaker:Maduro threatens to kill us troops.
Speaker:If they invade Venezuela.
Speaker:Duh,
Speaker:but you're supposed to do people invade your country.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Even through
Speaker:Noriega, I don't know why.
Speaker:Uh, just quickly, no jab, no heart transplant.
Speaker:31 year old, man.
Speaker:I think this was in the us.
Speaker:I'm no longer eligible to receive a heart transplant at Boston's Brigham
Speaker:and women's hospital because he refuses to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Speaker:DJ Ferguson was at the top of the transplant list, but under the
Speaker:hospital's policy, he's ineligible because he's un-vaccinated Ferguson's
Speaker:father says his son will not get the vaccine because it's against his basic
Speaker:principles and he doesn't believe.
Speaker:And the hospital released a statement regarding situations saying like
Speaker:many other transplant programs.
Speaker:Um, COVID vaccine is one of several vaccines and lifestyle behaviors required
Speaker:for transplant candidates in order to receive, um, in order to create both the
Speaker:best chance for a successful operation.
Speaker:And also the patient's survival after transplantation, not surprising.
Speaker:And wow, you're a true believer.
Speaker:Aren't you, you need a heart transplant and you say no.
Speaker:And meanwhile, it's hardly sensible.
Speaker:I think the last time we discussed this, I mentioned my cousin was up for a
Speaker:kidney, it to make it laser requirements.
Speaker:So he got his kidney and Sydney, he got his kidney and then he got
Speaker:COVID, but he had got vaccinated before we go to the kidney.
Speaker:So he has his kidney and he gets to live.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the community has a kidney that's.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, and yeah, I mean, I'm on immunosuppressive drugs.
Speaker:The people have had transplants are on much, much higher doses.
Speaker:Um, and effectively they have bugger all immune system.
Speaker:Um, so vaccines, once you're on those immunosuppressive drugs
Speaker:are very unlikely to work.
Speaker:It doesn't mean they won't, but yeah, the, the risk is high.
Speaker:So they want you to be fully vaccinated before you start taking those drugs.
Speaker:Um, another article I'm Kelly Slater.
Speaker:He's another one who's in there hasn't been vaccinated, um, claims he knows more
Speaker:about being healthy than 99% of doctors.
Speaker:So guess what?
Speaker:He's not going to be getting in.
Speaker:Presumably, presumably somewhere in the government, they've got a red
Speaker:flag at the passport control that says when Kelly slide nine county.
Speaker:Alarm bells set them off so we can get this straight this time.
Speaker:It didn't.
Speaker:I
Speaker:mean, honestly, if that guy gets into the country and we have to go
Speaker:through the whole Yakovich fiasco again, I'm leaving the country.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You crying?
Speaker:Explain you crime.
Speaker:Yes, please do.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Saudi listener.
Speaker:I had to hunt quite a bit to find the alternative story on the Ukraine
Speaker:and, um, sort of traditional story that we're being fed is that.
Speaker:Those nasty Russians are ganging up on those poor Ukrainians and it's up to the
Speaker:USA and the rest of the world to keep out the, uh, freedom, love and Ukrainians who
Speaker:have only just recovered their democracy.
Speaker:And, uh, and that evil Putin, we've got to show him what full war.
Speaker:I mean, let's see it, isn't it, that's the story.
Speaker:And so I'm going to name the articles and who's written them and whatever.
Speaker:And this is just the alternative side of the story that you can
Speaker:consider when trying to think about what's happening in the Ukraine.
Speaker:Um, first of all, I just want to give you, uh, some common ground.
Speaker:Um, this is a chart showing low vaccination rates around the
Speaker:world and, um, uh, vaccination.
Speaker:Fully vaccinated, uh, Russia, 49% USA, 66%, uh, next closest Japan on 84%.
Speaker:So Russia in the USA do hold, um, a similar value system when it
Speaker:comes to craziness with a vaccine.
Speaker:So, you know, that that's a common ground between the culture and the
Speaker:USA Putin's media machine is big in both Russia and the USA apparently.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Um, so I am now on the, um, Facebook for the, for this episode, I had a map and I'm
Speaker:just going to bring that, find that map.
Speaker:Let me just find that and I'll bring that up.
Speaker:So, uh, let's put that up because it's important to look at at
Speaker:the map and see where we are.
Speaker:So if you're pulling the live stream or you're watching this on YouTube
Speaker:at some other point, I've got a map of Ukraine near the bottom,
Speaker:Crimea, Crimea, and off to the right.
Speaker:Um, the Eastern sort of section of the Ukraine that's in dispute
Speaker:in particular at the moment.
Speaker:So, all right.
Speaker:First article Calvin Hogue, former diplomat is worked in Asia, Europe
Speaker:and the Americas, as well as the UN.
Speaker:He's also worked at Australian national university and Macquarie universities.
Speaker:And he's riding in the, uh, John managee blog in an article and I'm quoting here.
Speaker:So he says it's a complex situation.
Speaker:Uh, the Ukrainian state in its present form is a relatively recent
Speaker:creation in historical terms and is still divided by religion,
Speaker:language, geography, and identity.
Speaker:And the, uh, internal problems are further complicated by the interests of
Speaker:European states and Russia, and the us in the west of the Ukraine, uh, people of
Speaker:Polish origin and in the Eastern Donbass region, Russian speakers permanent.
Speaker:Around whom the current controversy swirls, um, Russia is widely spot.
Speaker:Russian is widely spoken throughout the Ukraine, even by
Speaker:nationalistic, Ukrainian speakers, but not everyone speaks Ukrainian.
Speaker:So, um, the current imbroglios involves around Ukrainian nationalists who
Speaker:want everyone to speak and use the Ukrainian language on all occasions.
Speaker:And on the other hand, those who prefer a more multicultural approach where Russian
Speaker:can be used, especially in the Donbass.
Speaker:That's an area off to the right to the east, where it is the only language.
Speaker:Russian is the only language, uh, in the dog bear some worker, uh, in the
Speaker:Donbass, some would like to be part of Russia, but others are happy to
Speaker:remain Ukrainian so long as I can use the Russian language, many probably
Speaker:don't care and just want to be left alone in peace and relative prosperity.
Speaker:The revolt broke out after key Evian posed the use of Ukrainian and
Speaker:then Russia supported the rebels.
Speaker:So we now have a clash between Ukrainian Patriots supported by the
Speaker:government who want closer ties to Western Europe or in some cases,
Speaker:membership of the EU at nighttime.
Speaker:And on the other hand, those who were pro-Russian, they want closer
Speaker:ties with Russia and in some cases to be absorbed into Russia.
Speaker:So Russia is supporting the Donbass rebels, militarily, and
Speaker:politically, and it's offered citizenship to people in the region.
Speaker:And the U S supports the anti-Russian parties.
Speaker:Um, Western Europe offers rhetorical support, but would not
Speaker:want a divided floor and corrupt country joining the EU or NATO.
Speaker:Um, many your Crimeans hate that Western Europe will let
Speaker:them in, bring them out of.
Speaker:So the question is, will Putin invite you crying and what will others do?
Speaker:And he says here that forces have been sent to the border.
Speaker:Um, and he says, it's worth remembering the Cuban missile crisis when the U S
Speaker:threatened war at the USSR placed nuclear missiles in Cuba and Russia, back down
Speaker:only at the price of a secret agreement by the U S to remove missiles from Turkey.
Speaker:So Russia still sees NATO as a threat quite legitimately.
Speaker:Um, so Russia believes they got a promise from the U S that NATO
Speaker:would not move east as quid pro quo for accepting German unification.
Speaker:But now they see this promise being broken.
Speaker:So no host world war two, we had NATO, uh, agreement north Atlantic
Speaker:treaty organizations with the U S.
Speaker:Setting up there, miss aisles, phasing them towards Russia.
Speaker:And we had a zone in between that and Russia of sort of Eastern block countries.
Speaker:It was like a buffer zone.
Speaker:And really what's been happening over the last 50 years is that buffer zone is
Speaker:being depleted as more and more of these countries are joining the EU and NATO.
Speaker:So it's a dangerous situation to reduce a buffer zone.
Speaker:If this was happening to the Americans, they would be
Speaker:apoplectic with rage and fear.
Speaker:Um, but they don't, you know, and to give Russia the same, uh,
Speaker:opportunity to feel that way.
Speaker:So, um, bottom line is Putin would like to absorb that Donbass region.
Speaker:Um, it's actually industrial.
Speaker:The rest of Ukraine is not, um, it doesn't want to get into a
Speaker:war and most likely outcome is.
Speaker:It'll just stay in the way it is at the moment.
Speaker:So that was, uh, Kevin Hogue, um, Tom Andrew block, right?
Speaker:Cameron Lecky, uh, he's an officer at the Australian army for 24 years.
Speaker:Agricultural engineer, currently PhD candidate also
Speaker:writing the John Menindee blog.
Speaker:So he's saying that we're witnessing the end of Washington's uni poll on moment,
Speaker:which is basically the, the strength of the USI as the numero UNO, um, big dog on
Speaker:the planet in terms of military affairs.
Speaker:So, um, uh, he says the coverage by our media shows we've become
Speaker:addicted to our own propaganda and that the mainstream media have become
Speaker:little more than narrative managers.
Speaker:Um, so, um, so he said.
Speaker:Uh, reading of media articles, which suggest that the history
Speaker:of the UK and crisis, the Ukraine crisis started with a Russian
Speaker:invasion of Crimea and the Donbass.
Speaker:For example, the ABC in an explainer article described it thus quote
Speaker:in 2014, Russia, annexed, Crimea Crimea after Ukraine ousted,
Speaker:fro Russian leader, Victor Yana.
Speaker:Covich an ally of Mr.
Speaker:Putin's.
Speaker:So that's what the ABC summarized.
Speaker:It ads in 2014, Russia annexed Crimea after the Ukraine ousted a pro-Russian
Speaker:leader who was an ally of Mr.
Speaker:Putin's.
Speaker:So that's a gross simplification of what occurred that leader was asked it
Speaker:in a violent coup fleeing for his life.
Speaker:The coup was the culmination of escalating violent protests.
Speaker:After that president Yanukovych decided to withdraw the Ukraine.
Speaker:From a proposed agreement with the European union and agreement
Speaker:that would have harmed Ukraine's already struggling economy.
Speaker:So while many of the protesters were peaceful, a sizeable proportion of the
Speaker:postcode government and the protesters who brought it to Powell were fascists.
Speaker:The United States supported the coup, um, and that's, um, a number
Speaker:of sources will basically say that.
Speaker:Um, so there was also in 2010, um, a pact was signed between the Ukraine
Speaker:and Russia about a Naval base in Crimea and, um, the, um, allowing
Speaker:the Russians to stay in crime area at this black sea Naval base until 2004.
Speaker:The vehemently anti-Russian post KU government, given the opportunity would
Speaker:have canceled this agreement for sure.
Speaker:Um, so, and they would have invited us and NATO forces onto the Crimean peninsula.
Speaker:So that was just going to be unacceptable to Russia.
Speaker:So they annexed it as a direct result.
Speaker:So the original sin was the coup, but this has disappeared down
Speaker:the media memory hall, enabling a narrative of Russian aggression.
Speaker:Um, and there was a 2015 Minsk agreement, which was basically to sort out what
Speaker:was going to happen with his Donbass region as operating as a separate
Speaker:territory to the rest of the Ukraine and Ukrainian government agreed to that.
Speaker:And hasn't done anything to facilitate that happening.
Speaker:So, uh, two sides to the story there.
Speaker:Um, a bit more on this, um, So the interesting part in that one is that
Speaker:the, um, the IMF tried to get the Ukraine to agree to a host of changes
Speaker:to its economy in exchange for money.
Speaker:And it was the classic Neo liberal takeover of a country that the IMF
Speaker:has been doing all around the world.
Speaker:And I'll get to the details later, but it was clearly going to be, um, not in
Speaker:the UK, his interests are not in the Ukrainian interest to agree to that.
Speaker:So they basically had to, um, knock it on their head and then turn to the Russians
Speaker:and say, well, what have you got for us?
Speaker:And the Russians often run a deal.
Speaker:And I said, okay, we'll go with you.
Speaker:And what else.
Speaker:There was a coup that overthrew the Ukrainian government supported by
Speaker:the U S it's just a classic play that has been happening on this planet for
Speaker:the last 70 years where, um, where essentially, if you don't accept the
Speaker:IMF proposals that you open up your economy to U S interests, that you
Speaker:nationalize your, your, your commons and that you impose austerity programs.
Speaker:If you don't do that, then you'll be tossed out in a coup that'll
Speaker:be engineered by the Americans.
Speaker:That's exactly what happened, all happened in the Ukraine.
Speaker:So I'll get a bit more into the details on that.
Speaker:Um, uh, just the, the, the ability of the Americans to be
Speaker:so shameless about what they.
Speaker:This sphere of influence, uh, encompasses in the world.
Speaker:So Joe Biden says everything south of Mexican border is America's front yard.
Speaker:I mean, the Monroe doctrine is still in effect.
Speaker:Monroe doctrine was nobody touches central and south America.
Speaker:That's our hemisphere.
Speaker:You stay out, it's just an open statement.
Speaker:The Monroe document doctrine, it's still implied.
Speaker:You know, they've got that spokesperson who talks at the
Speaker:white house and answers questions.
Speaker:Um, on behalf of the president, uh, Jin Spassky P S a K I, he says,
Speaker:Eastern Europe is our Eastern flank.
Speaker:Like be your crane is America's Eastern flank, according to the white house.
Speaker:As Katelyn Johnson says the us government firmly believes its
Speaker:territorial borders extend to outer planets in our solar system.
Speaker:And then she says, um, anyone that criticizes, um, the annexation
Speaker:of Crimea, uh, doesn't understand that the overwhelming majority of
Speaker:Crimeans prefer to be part of Russia.
Speaker:So there was a referendum held in 2014, which the Crimeans overwhelmingly voted
Speaker:to secede from the Ukraine and joined the Russian Federation and a similar
Speaker:vote in 1991 to secede from the Ukraine, which the Ukrainian government overruled.
Speaker:And the results of further than confirmed by Western pollsters in 2015
Speaker:and 2019 say there's a huge amount of support in Crimea to be part of Russia.
Speaker:The other part is.
Speaker:Saying that the crime ear can go back to the Ukraine ignores the historical fact
Speaker:that it was only briefly under Ukrainian administration having been put there by
Speaker:Khrushchev who was a Ukrainian when he was head of the Soviet union, is that prior
Speaker:to Khrushchev, it was just an independent state as part of that Eastern block.
Speaker:He was Ukrainian itself like Mike on me of part of the Ukraine, right?
Speaker:Nother writer, Gregory Clark began his career in Australia's department
Speaker:of external affairs with postings to Hong Kong and Moscow resigned
Speaker:in 1964 to protest Australia's participation in the Vietnam war.
Speaker:Um, uh, it lives in Japan.
Speaker:Um, he was in the Australian in Moscow, 1963 to 65 and has visited
Speaker:Ukraine and Crimea several times.
Speaker:So he's the writer of this third article that we're going to talk.
Speaker:People seem to have forgotten that in 2014, there was a civil war
Speaker:in the Ukraine, which sorta who installed anti-Russian government
Speaker:using extremist far-right militias from Western Ukraine to dominate the
Speaker:large Russian speaking majority in central and Eastern Ukraine with 14,000
Speaker:killed the pro Russian groupings.
Speaker:I only managed to survive by establishing holdouts in the far east and provinces.
Speaker:From there, they negotiated a truce with the new anti-Russian government, which
Speaker:promised them a degree of autonomy.
Speaker:It was called the Minsk to agreement of 2015, the Kiev government reneged
Speaker:on the promise of autonomy, even though they'd signed onto it.
Speaker:He since have seen Sprague fighting failed attempts to revive that agreement, um, uh,
Speaker:It is the very existence of, uh, that Donbass region, the Russian
Speaker:either receive, which is denounced as Russian aggression, even though
Speaker:the Minsk agreement allowing the existence of the provinces, has
Speaker:you insecurity council approval?
Speaker:So that was him, another guy, um, Bryce green.
Speaker:Now he is just a humble student at Indiana university Bloomington, no special, um,
Speaker:diplomatic qualifications at all, but he's got some interesting information here.
Speaker:So the official line goes something like this.
Speaker:Russia is challenging NATO and the international rules based order by
Speaker:threatening to invite Ukraine and the Biden administration needed to deter
Speaker:Russia by providing more security guarantees, the Ukrainian government.
Speaker:The official account seizes on the 2014 annexation of Crimea as a starting point.
Speaker:And as evidence of Putin's goals are rebuilding Russia's long lost empire.
Speaker:Um, Russia's demand that NATO stop expanding is viewed as such
Speaker:an obviously impossible demand.
Speaker:It can only be understood as a pretext to invite you crying.
Speaker:If all of the U S should send weapons and trips to Ukraine
Speaker:to guarantee your security.
Speaker:I mean, that's a fair assessment of the way this is being portrayed.
Speaker:Um, uh, let me just see, uh,
Speaker:so the backdrop to the CU, as I was talking about before, it was in
Speaker:response to, um, the us through the IMF, trying to open up Ukrainian
Speaker:markets to foreign investors.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Uh, he says a key tool for this has been the international monetary
Speaker:fund, which leverages aid loans to push governments, to adopt policies,
Speaker:friendly to foreign investors.
Speaker:The IMF is funded by and represents Western financial capital and governments.
Speaker:And it's been reshaping economies around the world for decades often with
Speaker:disastrous results in the Ukraine, the IMF had long planned to implement a
Speaker:series of economic reforms to make the country more attractive to investors.
Speaker:These included cutting wage controls, meaning lowering lighters, reforming,
Speaker:and reducing health and education sectors and cutting natural gas
Speaker:subsidies to Ukrainian citizens.
Speaker:So that, uh, that made energy affordable to the general public.
Speaker:So the IMF wanted to lower wages reduce health sectors and.
Speaker:Cut natural gas subsidies.
Speaker:So energy would be more expensive.
Speaker:That's part of the program that they insist in order to
Speaker:provide line to the Ukraine.
Speaker:So the Ukrainian president negotiated, but then turned against these changes
Speaker:and ended the trade talks and started negotiations with Russia, which
Speaker:was of course, or may just not.
Speaker:So, um, there was a coup, as I've already mentioned, engineered by
Speaker:the U S after the coup the new government quickly restarted that deal.
Speaker:Um, and after cutting heating subsidies in the half secured, a $27
Speaker:billion commitment from the IMF, uh,
Speaker:The Americans wearing guides in a destabilization campaign against
Speaker:the inner COVID government.
Speaker:They can't the campaign culminated with the overthrow of the elected
Speaker:president in the Maidan revolution.
Speaker:Um, so the U S was fueling anti-government sentiment and I spent 5 billion
Speaker:promoting democracy in the Ukraine.
Speaker:And, uh, let's just see,
Speaker:um,
Speaker:and there's a late type where the Americans were discuss what court
Speaker:discussing, who they wanted to be as the new president in the Ukraine
Speaker:once they cou had been completed.
Speaker:So that's all on tape as well.
Speaker:And, and that basically the opposition that they used to topple the government
Speaker:in the CU, um, is a far right and openly Nazi, or like there's some ugly
Speaker:characters in this Ukrainian government.
Speaker:And, um, they've been incorporated into the Ukrainian armed forces, uh,
Speaker:the same armed forces that the U S has now given $2.5 billion to, and,
Speaker:um, plenty of human rights abuses.
Speaker:And, um, I cried in my end bit.
Speaker:I've already talked about, and
Speaker:essentially I've talked about that.
Speaker:There's no way the U S would tolerate what's happened to.
Speaker:The Russia, if it was happening on the U S soil.
Speaker:And let me just get to, I've got a couple more, that'll be in the show notes.
Speaker:I realize I'm going a bit over time and it's probably starting to tax
Speaker:you, but I just wanted to talk about, um, the shamelessness of America.
Speaker:Um, uh,
Speaker:secretary of state is on January 13, secretary of state, Anthony Blinken
Speaker:said quite one country does not have the right to dictate the policies of
Speaker:another what a tale that country with him at my associate one country does
Speaker:not have the right to exert a sphere of influence, but notion should be
Speaker:relegated to the dustbin of history.
Speaker:Just so fucking shameless.
Speaker:Um, let me just get onto, oh, the other thing of course, is that.
Speaker:There's a gas pipeline.
Speaker:The Russians are supplying Germany with gas Vajra pipeline and the Americans.
Speaker:One of the reasons for stirring up this trouble is basically to say to
Speaker:the Germans, you can't trust Russia to supply gas through that pipeline.
Speaker:We could be at war with these guys, you know what you need?
Speaker:Do you need to buy gas from us?
Speaker:Cause all USA, like there's a clear incentive for the S to cause havoc
Speaker:with Russia so that they can cruel the deal where Russia is selling
Speaker:gas, Vara plot, Von to Germany.
Speaker:And, uh, um, and yeah, and so Ted Cruz, uh, and others assigned to the Germans.
Speaker:You need to buy your Amir or your gas via boats from us.
Speaker:Start getting your ports ready.
Speaker:Um, I'll just finish with Matt tie AB he's a very good rider.
Speaker:And, um, uh, I think he's actually Russian background, but he
Speaker:writes a whole bunch of things.
Speaker:He talking about America here and he's an American, um, our plan with
Speaker:every foreign country that falls into Albert Elbert is the same.
Speaker:We ride in as save is throwing lines in all directions to settle
Speaker:debts, often dead side to us.
Speaker:Then let it be now on the country's affairs will henceforth be run through
Speaker:our advocacy instead of devising individual policies, we go through
Speaker:identical processes of receiving groups of local politicians seeking our backing.
Speaker:We throw our weight behind the courtiers.
Speaker:We like best the winning supplicants are usually Western
Speaker:educated speak great English.
Speaker:Now how to flatter drunk diplomats and are fluent in near liberal Wong speak.
Speaker:We back our men in Havana to the hilt, no matter how corrupt they
Speaker:may becoming their rule, a process, we called democracy promotion.
Speaker:The cycle always ends the same way the white hat ally turns out to be either I
Speaker:have a matched or a snake, usually the latter and siphons off Western eyes to
Speaker:himself and his cronies in huge quantities while smashing opposition by any means
Speaker:necessary that brutality and corruption combined with efforts to implement our
Speaker:structural adjustment policies, Reid austerity, and the nationalization of the
Speaker:de nationalization of natural resources, inevitably results in loss of popular
Speaker:support and or the rise of opposition movements on the right to the left or
Speaker:both rising discontent in turn inspires further requests from the puppet for
Speaker:security aid, which we happily provide since that ultimately is the whole
Speaker:point selling weapons to foreigners to fill those Washington rice balls.
Speaker:You'll soon hear it in the form of increased calls for defense spending amid
Speaker:the Ukrainian miss, um, This is relevant to the Russia and Ukraine because we've
Speaker:cycled through at least half the usual failure process with both countries.
Speaker:And, um, uh, he says in 2013, Ukraine was proceeding down a
Speaker:path of integration into the EU.
Speaker:Um, the president, uh, Yanna Covich always described in America as an
Speaker:outright puppet of Moscow was actually a proponent of Euro integration.
Speaker:Um, and he could jolt and bullied anyone who pushed for Ukraine
Speaker:to have closer ties to Russia.
Speaker:Um, but, um, Putin's tactics, including intense economic and military threats
Speaker:pushed Yana Covich tobacco out of the EU deal and take instead an
Speaker:economic trade package with Russia.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:uh, it talks about the us back crew.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:That's a summary of really what's happening over there in the Ukraine.
Speaker:Um, it's just following the classic story of poor countries around the world.
Speaker:U S wants to buy its infrastructure once it's companies to be able to operate.
Speaker:And if you don't allow them access, then, um, your government will
Speaker:be overthrown in a coup and sure Russia are not nice guys and not
Speaker:good guys and all this, but they're just doing what you know, how's do.
Speaker:And you can hardly blame them for particularly when you're looking at
Speaker:the ethnic makeup of the people in the Donbass region and the Crimean region
Speaker:as being very pro-Russian groups.
Speaker:So, um, so there you go.
Speaker:That's just a different painting of the picture of what's going on,
Speaker:how the Ukraine got independence.
Speaker:Um, Y he got independence with the fall of the Soviet union.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I suspect things were such a mess at the time and things were happening so quickly.
Speaker:Um, a lot of history that would normally take decades was crunched
Speaker:into a small amount of time.
Speaker:Wasn't it?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:So you know, that whole breakup of the Soviet union, um, happened pretty
Speaker:quickly when you think about it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Um, all right.
Speaker:If you're still in the chat remained listening good on you for hanging around.
Speaker:That's a bit of a diatribe, but Hey, you're not gonna get it anywhere else.
Speaker:It's hard to find it.
Speaker:So if you are a patron, you'll see all that in the show notes.
Speaker:If you're not, you have a patron and get access to it.
Speaker:Um, look on the website and next week I am definitely talking about
Speaker:economics in super imperialism.
Speaker:So this is the idea deal, listener that after the, um, first world.
Speaker:The allies in Germany owed America, huge amount of money.
Speaker:You have to, they couldn't possibly pay in America should have forgiven as
Speaker:creditors are often forced, but they didn't, which led to the depression,
Speaker:which led to the VMR, why my Republic and all the rest of it, which led to the
Speaker:second world war, the second world war.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:After the second world war, there was more debt this time.
Speaker:They were, uh, more clever and how they set up central banks and others in terms
Speaker:of, of repaying it, but, uh, basically giving money to, uh, the allies and
Speaker:to Germany, but on the condition that they spend the money with America.
Speaker:And then we had a period where America was this incredibly powerful creditor
Speaker:nation, where he'd had all the money in the world and all the gold in the world.
Speaker:And was it basically forcing other countries to submit, to allowing
Speaker:them into their markets and they did.
Speaker:And then what happened was America got into the Korean and the Vietnam
Speaker:war wars and this huge surplus that they'd had got frittered away in war.
Speaker:Basically they lost it all on war spending and became a, uh, internationally,
Speaker:a detonation where now America owed money to the other countries.
Speaker:The interesting, really interesting thing is that after world war two
Speaker:there's was this really strong linkage between the us dollar and gold.
Speaker:And they were treated as the sign because the U S was so dominant.
Speaker:But when the U S said, well, we've run out of gold.
Speaker:Because we spent it all on war and guess what?
Speaker:We're just jumping off the gold standard.
Speaker:We can have our dollars, but we're not guaranteeing you that they are
Speaker:now connected to a, an amount of gold.
Speaker:You're just going to have to take it as, as paper money and the rest of the
Speaker:world capitulated and S and said, yes.
Speaker:And, and then that just snowballed where the us could just print money and buy
Speaker:whatever it wanted around the world.
Speaker:And its companies could take this cheap, easy money at no interest that was maybe
Speaker:one or 2%, and then go and buy businesses in Europe using this cheap money.
Speaker:And then the money got recycled back in us, treasuries.
Speaker:That's what next week is about.
Speaker:In a nutshell, it's a really, really interesting story and
Speaker:I'm in, I find it fascinating.
Speaker:So, um, you might remember when I did the story with modern
Speaker:monetary theory with Stephen Hale.
Speaker:And I said in that to him at 1.0 U S dollar thing, the free
Speaker:lunch that the U S gets now, are you at all worried about that?
Speaker:You know, and he wasn't, he wasn't that concerned.
Speaker:He didn't see a big deal about it, but Michael Hudson does same.
Speaker:So I don't know how long it's going to go forward.
Speaker:It's going to be a solo diatribe as I delve into super
Speaker:imperialism by Michael Hudson.
Speaker:That is definitely next week.
Speaker:And the second world war loans Lend-Lease is only paid off by the UK in 2006.
Speaker:Yes, exactly.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So that's all in there.
Speaker:Um, amazing stuff, amazing.
Speaker:Um, where the us claims to be.
Speaker:All about free markets, but in fact, it's not.
Speaker:So anyway, we'll get into that next week.
Speaker:Thank you for listening.
Speaker:Um, good on you.
Speaker:If you stayed in the chat room for all that, you're a true believer.
Speaker:Thanks Shea.
Speaker:Thanks Joe.
Speaker:You want to say goodbyes?
Speaker:Just go ahead.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Goodbye.
Speaker:And it's a good note from him.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Talk to you next week.
Speaker:Bye.