We need to talk about ideas, good ones and bad ones.

We need to learn stuff about the world.

We need an honest, intelligent, thought provoking, and entertaining

review of what the hell happened on this planet in the last seven days.

We need to sit back and listen to the Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.

Hello there, dear.

Listen.

Now we're back, the Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove podcast.

Onm Trevor, the Iron Fist over there.

Uh, is Joe the tech guy?

How are you, Joe Surviv?

Well, no, Joe's not good.

He's, uh, like myself, a sufferer of Crohn's disease, although his.

Case is much worse than mine.

And, um, so yeah, commiserations Joe for a tough day.

But anyway, you're here and if you disappear mm-hmm.

We'll know why.

Yeah.

Yep.

I'd say, um, so yes, dear listener, uh, last week, well, I did mention two

weeks ago that I've been busy with this new role as a body corporate chairman,

and that certainly kept me busy.

I have to admit, there wasn't a lot of things to talk about.

But, uh, boy has that changed in the last few days with Israel deciding that they

weren't picking enough big fights with people and decided to kick off another one

by, um, by picking a big fight with Iran.

And of course the retaliation.

And of course, the reaction by different people is fascinating.

Joe, we live in Orwellian times with the different spin that people put

on these things as we'll see later,

I, I'm sure they'll be arguing that Iran was sponsoring Hamas and therefore

they're merely continuing the war.

Yes, that'd be one of the things.

Although their main reason for doing it according to Netanyahu is that

to paraphrase, they've got weapons of mass destruction and we need a

preemptive strike, uh, in order to stop them from killing us down the track.

That's essentially the justification that's given,

um, seems to be as it has been

forever, every attack they've done on nuclear installations.

Yes, uh, indeed.

So we're gonna get into pretty much the nuts and bolts of,

um, of all of this, you know, what happened, what have people been saying?

What's the background?

What's the stories that the mainstream media are not saying?

What instead is the propaganda that they're putting forward and what are the

various ways of looking at this issue?

You'll be an expert.

On this conflict, uh, if you stay tuned for the next hour.

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

Um, might not be that many people given we've been sort of, it's

supposed to be a weekly podcast.

It's becoming a Fortnight podcast.

Anyway, we can only do their best.

That's all I'm trying to do here.

So, um, uh, Scott's away, so he's not gonna join us.

Right.

Okay.

Well, um, let's sort of just kick off with, you know, what's happened.

Well, if you picked up the Sunday mail in Queensland on Sunday, you

would've thought nothing's happening because the front page, the top half

was about, um, Cameron Munster leading Queensland in the state of origin.

And the bottom half was an ad for a, a holiday in Japan.

Like, you know, Israel decides to Joe, do we call 'em bombs or missiles?

What's the difference again?

Uh, bombs are

basically gravity.

Yes.

And missiles have their own propulsion.

Right.

Okay.

So these are missiles.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and yeah, uh, if you read just the er male, uh, the Sunday male front page, you

would've thought nothing was happening.

But indeed things have been happening.

So Israel claims Iran is developing nuclear weapons and Israel must

strike now to defend itself.

That's their key.

Well, they've been

developing nuclear weapons for a long time.

According to Netanyahu, they've been a month or two away from having

nuclear weapons for the last 30 years.

Joe, like this has been a Netanyahu thing for 30 years.

Um, we'll get onto the history of, of their nuclear program shortly.

So Israel, um, the Israeli strikes hit nuclear facilities and civilian

buildings and killed several top Iranian military commanders.

And I. A bunch of nuclear scientists, and of course Iran retaliated.

And as Chris Hedges wrote, Israel and its NeoCon, allies believe they can eradicate

Iran's nuclear enrichment program by force and decapitate the Iranian

government to install a client regime.

So this is all part of their plan is to, um, bring about regime change, not just,

um, disable a nuclear weapons program.

And as he points out, Iran is the 17th largest country in the

world with a land mass equivalent to the size of Western Europe.

It has a population of 90 million that's 10 times greater than Israel

and its military resources as well as alliances with China and Russia.

Make it a formidable opponent.

Joe, this isn't just like, um.

Uh, attacking poor Palestinians in the West Bank or in Gaza.

This is a different kettle of fish entirely.

How did you describe it earlier on?

Well, I was saying, I, I wondered whether this was

Netanyahu's operation Barbara Rossa.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, just, and I didn't

know what that meant.

And you said that was,

that was, uh, Hitler's invasion of Russia or the Soviet

Union, uh, in the Second World War.

Mm. So having, he, he thought defeated the allies on the western front, decided

to open up another front in the war.

Mm. And, and just roll over the Red Army, and, uh, turned out to be his undoing.

Mm. If he concentrated purely on Western Europe, he'd probably still be in power.

Mm. Well, he'd probably be dead, but, you know, the, the, the Third Reich would

still be a force to be reckoned with.

Yep.

Just, uh, got too cocky and bit off more than he could chew, and maybe.

Uh, the Israeli Zionists have done that on this occasion with Iran.

'cause Iran's not gonna be the pushover that a lot of these

smaller countries have been.

So incidentally, why was it called Operation Bar Rosa?

It was after

Frederick Bar Rossa, who was a German emperor.

Holy Roman emperor,

right

From, uh, 1155 until 1190.

Right.

There we go.

Um, right.

John says in the chat room, Benji, I guess he means Benjamin Netanyahu is

probably close to the truth about Iran's nuclear ambitious ambitions, I guess.

But missiles are not helping.

Iran needs to be seen to be getting nukes.

We'll talk about how close Iran is with its nuclear program.

We'll get to that John.

Yeah, what did Netanyahu say?

Um, following the attacks that he launched on Iran, he put

out a statement accusing Iran.

So this is Netanyahu accused Iran of genocidal rhetoric, which it,

Iran has backed up with a program to develop nuclear weapons.

The hypocrisy of this show is breathtaking because Israel, as we all know, has an

unacknowledged nuclear arsenal and its leaders are presently committing genocide

in Gaza while spouting genocidal rhetoric.

So the very things he accused Iran of, um, undoubtedly Israel

is guilty of those very things.

Well, I mean, Israel having nuclear weapons is probably why

it hasn't really been invaded Yes.

Since the seventies.

Yeah.

Probably one of the reasons.

Yeah.

You know, the hypocrisy and all this, it, uh, so much as

this will come down to Yeah.

But you know, Israel are the good guys, so we can do whatever we like.

And other Iranians are the bad guys, so it doesn't matter that the

circumstances are exactly the same.

Um, they're just, um, brown, crazy, uncivilized, um, mongrels

over there, whereas we're Yeah.

But what about the Iraqis?

Yes.

It's, it, the hypocrisy in this is just astounding.

And if you've been following this podcast, dear listener, for nine plus

years, when we come to different moral arguments, really you have to be able

to state a case that in the situation of a, B, C than X, Y, Z applies.

The less exceptions you have, the better.

But you know, it should be able to be applied to any entity and just

simply saying, well, of course that applies to us, but not to you.

Or vice versa is not a, is not as a moral system.

And, um, yeah, so much hypocrisy in this coming up.

So, so that's what he said.

Um, um, Iran genocidal rhetoric and, um, an unacknowledged and a nuclear program.

So what is the situation?

What do the Americans think of the Iranian nuclear program?

Do they think that the, um, Iranians are close to.

Um, producing nuclear weapons.

When you say the Americans, are you talking about the intelligence agencies

or are you talking about the government?

The intelligence agencies.

What do they say?

Oh, no, we dunno.

Well, we do, do we?

We do Joe.

Oh, okay.

Um, and um, so we've got, uh, well, the Director of National Intelligence.

Is that good enough, Jane, even though it's Tulsi Ga Gabard?

Well, yes.

I don't know.

But what is a director of National Intelligence?

She's supposed to be the person who takes all the feeds from all the different

intelligence agencies, collates them and presents them to the president.

Yeah.

For his, his, his actions.

Yes.

Wouldn't it be handy if less than three months ago she gave a statement?

Um, at a Senate select committee on what the US thought of the threat of Iranian

nuclear weapons was at that time would, wouldn't that be handy if we knew?

Mm-hmm.

Well we do.

She actually did three months ago.

This is what she had to say.

The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear

weapon and Supreme Leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons

program that he suspended in 2003.

The IC continues to monitor closely if Tehran decides to reauthorize

its nuclear weapons program.

There we go.

So that was a bit soft, uh, dunno if you heard it correctly, but she said

the ic, which is the intelligence community, continues to as is it, uh,

I thought it was the US Intelligence.

I was gonna

say it's the in because the International Atomic Weapons Agency.

Be different entity.

I wanted to normally, uh, monitor this sort of thing.

Yeah.

Well you wouldn't expect, you know, when we say how can you trust the information

you get, and you'd kind of expect that the US if they had a inkling of the

uranium up to mischief, they'd be prepared to play it up as hard as they could.

You would think.

Um, so kind of when somebody says something positive about their

enemy, you would tend to believe it is what I'm saying, like normally.

And that's what Iran is to the USA is the enemy.

So, so I'll just repeat it.

Um, so she's referring to the IC as the US intelligence community continues to

assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Kani has not

authorized the nuclear weapons program.

He suspended in 2003, the.

I see the intelligence community is closely monitoring if Tehran decides to

reauthorize its nuclear weapons program.

So that was only Joe three months ago.

So, um, so yeah, so John says, uh, Gabard is more of a passenger

of intelligence, so mm-hmm.

Uh, yeah.

So, but you know,

a country like the USA and its intelligence community, I would've thought

would make a mountain out of a mole hill if there was anything to indicate

that the Iranians were up to stuff.

And the fact that she says that, uh, is pretty damning.

Alright.

Um, what else can we say?

Yeah, it's all, well,

the, the UN's nuclear watchdog is, so it's the International Atomic

Energy AAU author, uh, agency.

Mm-hmm.

Says they've been unable to determine whether the nuclear

program was exclusively peaceful.

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

So that's what the, the UN has been saying.

Mm. And, you know, well, we'll just digress briefly here, but, you know,

there was an agreement in place mm-hmm.

Where Iran said, we will limit our nuclear program to these specific things

and you can send inspectors in and check that we are doing what we're saying we

are doing, and in return, uh, the world will let us trade with them again, and

you'll lift all of these sanctions.

And that was a deal that Obama put in place.

Mm-hmm.

And it was also co-signed by, by quite a few European

countries or maybe the European, some, some, some European sort of

connection there in terms of, yeah.

And.

It was working.

And of course, Trump comes along and goes, that's an Obama deal.

It's a terrible deal, and unilaterally cancels it.

Mm-hmm.

So when the, uh, so then Iran goes, well, you, for a while there, Iran

actually just kept, kept up with the undertakings of the agreement, even

though the US had pulled out of it.

But after a while, I think after a few of their leaders were assassinated, um,

they said, eh, maybe all bets are off now.

Um, so when we say that the, that nuclear agency you just mentioned, Joe,

can't be sure of what's happening, uh.

That's because of fucking Trump canceling a deal that was

perfectly adequate at the time.

And he's now trying to encourage, you know, Iran to the table, make a new deal.

Yes.

Make a new deal.

Because he stupidly canceled the previous deal

by the, well, you see, he wasn't getting enough bribes

outta the previous deal.

And by the way, when the Iranians, you know, after all that happened, you'd

see various headlines in the papers about Iran breaching its its nuclear deal.

It was like, well of course they might be breaching it because Trump

canceled the deal and they're no letting longer getting the benefit

of the lifting of the sanctions.

And the sanctions have been reimposed.

But no, that was never mentioned as part of that.

So yeah, all part of the backstory of this saga, um.

Dear listener.

So yeah, in 2003, Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and in 2025,

Iran has weapons of mass destruction.

Um, yeah.

And um, and this has been a key thing of Netanyahu for 30 years, saying that Iran

is months away from making a nuclear bomb.

So, um, here's a good clip of Medi Hassan.

Um, talking about the hypocrisy of what Iran is accused of compared to

what Israel actually does and how basically Israel is saying to Iran, uh,

you can't do, um, what we are doing.

Because you're the bad guys.

Mm-hmm.

And we're the good guys, essentially.

So, um, so here's a good clip of that.

Um, here we go.

If you are watching Western media coverage of the Iranis Israel

crisis, you might be witnessing a rather upside down topsy-turvy

bizaro view of the world of reality.

You're not being told everything.

You're being given skewed perceptions.

For example, if you're watching Western media coverage, you might come away

with the impression that Iran attacked Israel out of the blue and Israel is

responding when it's the other way around.

We all saw on Thursday night that it was Israel that launched an illegal

act of aggression against Iran.

Iran is the victim here.

Israel is the aggressor.

But in the western media coverage, Israel is the victim.

Always.

Some other points you may miss while watching Western media coverage.

For example, Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons.

I. Israel does.

Iran is a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

The NPT Israel isn't.

Iran has allowed IAEA inspectors into its country.

Israel doesn't.

It's a nuclear double standard that I raised with former Israeli deputy Foreign

Minister Danny Alon a few years back on my Al Jazeera English show, head to head in

a clip that's recently gone viral again.

How many nuclear weapons does Israel have?

I don't know because experts say it's anywhere between 80 and 400.

So what, so what?

Yeah, so what has Israel ever threatened?

So do you recognize the hypocrisy of Israel?

No.

Having a secret illicit nuclear weapons program that it won't open up its doors

to and won't talk about and then lecturing everyone else in the region about nuclear?

Absolutely not.

You know why you talked about hypoxic?

Okay, lemme me ask again.

If an Iranian guest came on my show and I asked him about Iran's nuclear, he said,

I'm, I dunno, I'm not gonna talk about it.

Would you be okay with that?

You'd be outraged, of course.

And you sit here as a former minister of these Israeli government

saying, oh, I dunno, never talked about nuclear, anyone of, because,

because there's, there was like 16.

United Nation Security, uh, uh, uh, council resolutions against Iran.

And there is against Israel and there is against Israel as well.

About, about the, about your nuclear program.

No.

Yes, there is UN resolution 4, 8 7.

Let me read it to you.

The UN Security Council in 1981 says, calls upon Israel urgently

to place its nuclear facilities under the safeguards of the IAEA.

Why haven't you done that?

Because

there you have it.

The nuclear double standard Israel violates multiple UN Security Council

resolutions when it comes to its own stockpile of nuclear weapons.

And yet, western media interviewers who have multiple Israelis on air all

the time, never really ask about this.

Never really ask about Israel's nukes.

Why?

I get why Israel wants to maintain its policy of nuclear ambiguity, of not

confirming or denying that it has nukes.

But why does the US media, the UK media, the Canadian media, why do

they all have to go along with it?

Uh, because they're all captured, Joe.

Mm-hmm.

Fuck.

It

just

really, it suits their interests.

You know, the Israeli Zionists just do not see, uh, these

Palestinians Iranians as people.

They, they see them as something less so,

yeah.

Um,

uh, John, you're right, Trevor.

That deal was working.

Iran is not going back now, which is why I think Iran thinks it needs to at

least look like they're getting nukes.

Whether they succeed or not is beside the point.

Yeah.

Uh,

well,

uh, it's true enough.

Uh, Ukraine only got.

Uh, security assurances back in the nineties because they had nukes.

Mm. Uh, and, uh, as soon as the nukes were gone, the west

walked away from that agreement.

As did Russia, obviously.

Uh, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Ukraine said it was gonna start

nuclear research program, uh, not with any real aim of getting, um, nuclear

weapons, but just to get a bit of leverage on the international community

so that, uh, because we recognize that nuclear weapons are horrible, horrible

things, uh, Western governments will bend over backwards to make sure

that other countries don't get them.

Well, it's working for, uh, for North Korea.

Yeah, absolutely.

Like, like the, the one of the few things they've actually managed

to do Mm uh, is maintain that threat of the nuclear weapon.

And, um, consequently for the most part, other than

sanctions, they leave 'em alone.

South Africa tried to,

during apartheid.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I wonder what happened to that.

Actually,

I think they, um, there was a lot of collaboration between

them and the Israelis at the time.

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, the hypocrisy of these people.

Um, so, uh,

of course that was good work by that interviewer.

He was, he was spot on in, in addressing that hypocrisy and he's

had his facts and so good work.

But of course, we're going to be faced with.

Um, ah, subtle propaganda from, uh, different groups as we're, or, or media

outlets as we are, um, watching news.

So it's going to be Joe.

I've seen more, uh, reports in the courier fail and on television about

poor Israelis who are sheltering in bomb shelters and suffering from

bombings in the last few days that I'd seen about Garzas in the last month.

The coverage, um, in comparison.

So it can be more subtle than that.

Here's one, um, I'll play this one here that I've got a clip of.

Iran has launched a wave of airstrikes on Israel for a

second night, hitting cities along Israel's coast, including Tel Aviv.

At least eight people have been killed according to Israeli media with

more than a hundred people injured.

That followed ongoing attacks by Israel on Iranian nuclear and missile site.

So, you know, the difference is that it leads

off with Iran has hit Israel.

Mm-hmm.

It lists the dead, um, in Israel and when referring to the bombing in

Iran, talks about hitting missile, hitting, uh, sort of nuclear weapons

sites and doesn't mention any of the number of people killed in Iran.

Like, it's just a subtle sort of, is it subtle?

But you know, that's the sort of, uh, difference that we get.

Hey, so, um, what else have I got here?

Um, here's a professor.

I. Uh, fighting back against the Sky News host, NJ Well, this is playing.

I'm just gonna disappear and clear my throat.

Mm-hmm.

So I'll be back after playing this one if it fails for some reason.

Uh, professor Morante, uh, thank you very much for

joining us here on the program.

Did Iran majorly miscalculate, because even now President Trump is providing

Iran with an off ramp telling them to come to the negotiating table.

At what point will Iran take that offer?

Uh, well, according to your narrative, Iran always miscalculated.

It's a regime.

I heard the regime 20 times in the last 10 minutes as I was listening,

you sound like past news agency upgraded, uh, during the Soviet Union.

Uh, and you say the regime is unpopular and is killing its people.

When General Soleimani was murdered by the same Trump that you talk about,

millions of people came to the streets of this city, Tehran, that I'm in.

So how is it that he's so unpopular?

I. This propaganda that you're producing is only justifying aggression.

What the Israeli regime did was aggression.

What it did was unjustified aggression.

And Netanyahu has been saying for over 30 years, some say up to 40 years,

he's been saying that Iran's on the verge of creating a nuclear weapon.

And thanks to people like you, he gets away with these lies.

But people can go online and check how many times he said, professor

Morandi, I, if you could just focus on, I, I know, I know your

narrative and I know the lion taker.

I know we've spoken a number of times and, and I'm sure, but if you could

just focus on answering the question in terms of the nuclear talks on day 60.

You know, as far as we know, Donald Trump had said Iran has 60 days Israel attacks.

On the 61st day, can we talk a little bit about the regime's, competence

levels, the intelligence and security, um, you know, the competence of your

intelligence and security agencies, the fact that, um, Mossad was able to

build drone, uh, sites in your country, the fact that the leadership was asleep

in their beds when they was struck, and that you ignored these warnings.

Can we talk a little bit about the fact that the regime was taken completely

by surprise and top leaders have now been decapitated and, and, and

killed as a result of the Israeli attack saying regime, regime, regime?

I think it, it, it helps you contain your contempt for independent countries.

You, you have, after all you work for Sky News.

There's, uh, it's understandable.

Uh, but, uh, the regime, how do you know that the Israeli regime

had, uh, bases inside Iran?

You're just repeating their propaganda.

Of course, Israel for you is not a regime.

Sorry, it's a state, but, uh, it's a genocidal state carrying out extermination

in Gaza, but that's not really important.

Uh, but how do you know that they're really important?

Uh, but how do you know that they have so denying the top

commanders have been killed?

Ha has, has Are you denying the top commanders were killed?

Oh, so you being, what you're referring to basically is a, an attack, an act of

an act of aggression that they suddenly fire missiles at, uh, civilian targets

and at apartment buildings and slaughter people in those apartment buildings,

slaughtering whole families per you.

That's targeting, that's, that's a really sophisticated act.

People,

Clip (2): but, but if I can just, if I can just ask, excuse me.

Excuse.

Have military facilities been hit?

One of the buildings, have nuclear facilities been hit?

One of the buildings that has some of these commanders.

Uh, one or two of these commanders was a large apartment building

where they killed everyone.

60 people, 20 children.

That's not important for people like you, but that's important for people like us.

Are you people like you who support ethno supremacism and the chosen people being

able to slaughter and exterminate policy?

I'm, I'm just trying to get the perspective.

We we're trying to give you air time to, to, so that you can give

us the Iranian perspective on this.

And we want to know, and I want to understand Iran's position here.

Will you come to the negotiating table now?

Donald Trump, after these series of, uh, airstrikes that this attack

was launched called on Iran to come back to the negotiating table as the

spokesperson of the regime, or, you know, as someone who worked closely with the

negotiating team, do you believe they will come to the negotiating table now?

Well, your regime, uh, should know and your, uh, news agency or your

TV channel should know better.

We were at the negotiating table.

It was Trump that conspired with Netanyahu to attack Iran.

This is how you twist the truth.

You shouldn't invite me because you're easily exposed.

He, Iran was negotiating initially.

Trump had one position and so did Whitcock, and then they

flipped and said no in Richmond.

And then they continued the negotiations.

And the night before the attack Trump said that, uh, we don't want war.

And then after the attack he said we we're all for it.

And you're saying, Iran, what is Iran going to come back to?

The negotiating table, the audacity.

Come on.

Be a bit, show at least a bit of integrity.

A bit of integrity will help.

Okay.

Okay.

Professor Miranda, thanks again for joining us here on the program.

Uh, Joe, there's something about me that really enjoys it when people

stick it to other people in direct.

What was she expecting?

Well, I, I guess they have, well, do they feel like they have to get

the other side's version of it?

I don't.

Yes, I agree.

You know, good on him, but just not even just pretending.

To be civil to her, but, well, I mean, he was civil, but just Yeah.

Just calling her, calling her around.

No, he wasn't letting her

talk over him.

Yeah.

And just calling her out.

So, um, so good on him.

Um, that's what we need.

Straight talking.

Yeah.

Don't see much of that, unfortunately.

Yeah.

What else have we got here?

More context.

I mean, this is so lacking context.

The reporting, like when Iran strikes Israel, they, they won't

even give you the context that it was Israel that struck first.

Mm-hmm.

But just the broader historical context is after the second World War, uh,

the Shah of Iran's father was in charge.

Um, and then, uh, Mossek got elected and he, Joe.

Um, basically

was going to privatize, sorry.

Was gonna nationalize the oil fields

Correct.

Because they were pulling untold wealth out of mm-hmm.

The Iranian oil fields.

And the deal that had been struck by British petroleum meant that essentially

Iran was getting virtually zero.

Oh, you mean like Australia in the coal Indeed.

And the gas.

Yes.

Yeah.

It was so bad.

The VP was doing a Woodside back then.

And, um, initially the Americans said, dear listener, get a book called All the

Shahs Men, which describes this whole event really in an entertaining fashion.

Um, initially the Americans said, come on British, like, we

can't give you much sympathy.

Um, I. Like you're just raping, uh, this country.

But the British managed to swing him around, whereas where the US sort of

came on side, so this was the first CIA engineered coup and CV color

revolution 1952, where Mossek Julie elected doing good things and seemingly

a good man, um, you know, seemingly wasn't there to get the money for

himself, but to actually return it to the country and, and cruel a deal.

Do you listener?

When evil dictators strike deals with multinationals that allow the

multinational to rate the country for decades, it is acceptable for

the country to say, hang on a minute.

No, we are canceling that deal.

So, um, so yeah, that, uh, the CIA with, um, their operative running the

show, whose name is so easy to remember?

Kermit Roosevelt, what a great name.

Uh, he orchestrated, uh, he orchestrated the coup and right down

to paying for thugs to beat people up on the street and create mayhem.

Uh, it was the first color revolution where, where money and influence

from the CIA created a fake Joe.

Uh, what did you call it?

Art.

What's that artificial grass term you used?

Um, astro turf.

Oh, astroturfing.

Astroturfing.

It wasn't a grassroots movement.

It was, um, paid for by the CIA dear listener, this is not fanciful.

Um, conspiracy thinking where Trevor's just bashing the Americans

yet again on some un, you know, spurious sort of thinking.

This is well documented.

This is admitted to this is, this is pure fact.

It's, it's not contentious.

And, um, and, uh, got meek overthrowing.

Uh, the Shah's, the original Shah's son Sharan installed,

uh, operated as a dictator.

Guess what?

Um, after a while, um, the country gets jack of him and the only way of

organizing opposition to a dictator is through religious mosques.

And we get the ayatollah coming to power and then installing a theocracy.

And, and that's where we get to Iran today.

You know, when you see photos and video of, of Iran in the

fifties, it looked fantastic.

And of course, Iranians are Persian rather than Arabic, so they see

themselves as different in that respect.

And I'm sure had, well, I'm not sure, but imagine if Mossek had been allowed

to just do what people wanted him to do.

If he'd been able to get that oil income, we wouldn't have necessarily

had the theocracy and all of the shit that's happened since.

So, so it all bear that in mind when people think, oh, these, you

know, these Arab countries, even though it's technically per, you

know, they're always in such a mess, can't they get themselves organized?

It's 'cause they're not allowed to.

That things, these get into this state.

And, um, so yeah, so, so then of course, um, as we mentioned before.

Uh, Obama had a deal, which was canned by Trump.

The sanctions returned.

Um, and of course in 2020 the Trump administration killed the Iranian major

general, um, Soleimani, uh, leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard court.

And, um, and it was soon after that that Tehran announced it would

no longer abide by its enrichment commitments under the deal.

Like how, how, how better to kill the deal than to say, well, we, uh,

as far as we're concerned, the deal off and the sanctions are back.

And, uh, and then, and then assassinating the leader.

Mm-hmm.

How much patience do they think the Iranians have?

And um, but at the time, Tehran said it would return to compliance if the other

parties did so and met their commitments.

On sanctions relief.

So despite, so despite reneging on the deal and assassinating the leader

of their revolutionary guard corps, they were prepared to go back to

the deal if everybody else would.

And, um, ah, then Israel in 2020, assassinated another,

uh, nuclear scientist.

And, um, despite those assassinations, Iran was negotiating.

And, um, what have I got here?

Um, Trump's decision in 2018 to walk away was a historic and utter failure.

He was influenced by Mike Pompeo, who we've never really mentioned much,

but we have mentioned John Bolton.

Mm-hmm.

He's the guy with the, with a very thick mustache.

I've seen him

interviewed quite a few times recently about Trump.

Yes,

we've played stuff with him where he's admitted.

I, well, his line was, you know, regime change is not easy.

Or, or, or cos a successful coup is not easy.

And I should know, I've organized a few.

Do you remember that one?

No, that was, that was John Bolton.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so he's never seen a coup orchestrated by

the US that he didn't like.

He's, he's into coups and, um, a kind of, um, it, it wasn't the patoot or

the shovel, but one of those type of outlets had a headline, John Bolton

hospitalized by five hour erection after reading about Israel bombing Iran.

So,

yeah,

that,

uh, it's

probably true.

I

think, um, uh, if you have a five hour erection, you should go to

hospital public service announcement.

That's right.

Not a good thing.

Hopefully you don't get one because you're, um.

Excited

about Iran being bombed by Revolutions.

Yes.

By cos.

But, but I think John Bolton would be that, that, that seems quite plausible.

That story actually.

Kissinger too, I'm sure.

Uh, so, you know, they've had Iran in their sciences for a while.

All of this, of course, it's not just Israel operating on its own.

Everything is done with the consent of the USA, they're supplying the weapons.

And, um, and Trump, you know, afterwards says, you know, it was excellent.

But, um, this is just, uh, Iran is the last piece of a list

of countries that they've been aiming for for a long time, and.

Uh, now I'm just gonna try and find this video of Wesley Clark.

Let me just add a scene here, Joe, where, 'cause this thing disappears

from me if I don't have it in.

Um, bear with me one second.

Dear listener, I'm gonna get this video up and running in a second.

About 10 days after nine 11, I went through the Pentagon

and I saw Secretary Rums.

Sorry, I should tell you who this guy is.

Uh, he is former General of the US Army, Wesley Clark.

That's fairly high up here we go

spelled and, and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz.

I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the joint

staff who had used, used to work for me, and one of the generals called me

and he said, sir, you gotta come in.

You gotta come in and talk to me a second.

I said, well, you're too busy.

He said, no, no.

He says, we've made the decision we're going to war with Iraq.

This was on or about the 20th of September.

I said, we're going to war with Iraq.

Why?

He said, I don't know.

He said, I guess they don't know what else to do.

So, uh, I said, well, did they find some information collect

connecting Saddam to Al-Qaeda?

He said, no, no.

He says, there's nothing new that way.

They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.

He said, I guess it's like we don't know what to do about terrorists,

but we've got a good military and we can take down governments.

And um, he said, I guess if the only two you have is a hammer, every

problem has to look like a nail.

So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time

we were bombing in Afghanistan.

I said, are we still going to war with Iraq?

And he said, oh, it's worse than that.

He said he reached over on his desk, he picked up a piece of paper and

he said, I just, he said, I just got this down from upstairs, meaning the

Secretary of Defense's office today.

And he said, this is a memo that describes how we're gonna take

out seven countries in five years.

Starting with Iraq and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia,

Sudan, and finishing off Iran.

There we go.

Iran was on the list.

They finally got to it.

Pretty sure they got to all the other countries on the list saying, yeah.

Ah, what else have I got?

Joe?

Obviously the US has provided intelligence, they've provided weapons.

It seems that they have provided equipment for intercepting the missiles that

Iran has been sending towards Israel.

Oh, the Iron do?

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Um, because they were sort of intercepting in sort of earlier than that as well.

What, um, Israel really needs is for the US to get involved in, in directly

flying over Iran and dropping bombs.

'cause apparently a lot of the nuclear facilities are deep underground.

Deep underground.

And these bunker busting bombs that you need are extremely heavy and uh, you

need a lot of air power 'cause you've gotta refuel the planes a lot in order

to get to Iran 'cause they're so heavy.

And, um, anyway, to effectively blow up these things, you'd need

the Americans to do it, it seems.

Call me crazy Joe.

But, um, a false flag operation where, I don't know, a missile seemingly comes

from Iran and lands on some US army base somewhere in the Middle East.

God knows there's enough of 'em.

Uh mm-hmm.

And, um, uh, they could say, look, Iran's now, um, escalated

this and is now attacking, uh.

US facilities and try and drag the US into a more, um, aggressive posture.

What do you think if you were an Israeli, you think Israeli going to attack the us?

Well, the Israelis would do a false flag operation.

Do you think that that's on the

cards?

Oh, anything's possible with the Israelis.

Mm, if it suits their aims.

Yes.

Yeah, that's what I think.

Um, anyway, of course at the same time, Joe, this distracts from Gaza.

So the world's attention is now moving from the genocide

and masturbation in Gaza.

'cause we're all looking at Iran and, and, you know, um, thinking about that,

so back in Gaza, internet connection has been completely shut down.

So it's now increasingly difficult for images to come out of the

atrocities that are occurring there.

You still see some dear listener, ah, God, it's hard.

Kids, starving kids saying goodbye to their siblings who are dead and mangled,

their parents who are dead and mangled.

They're all skinny as they're starving and it's all happening as intended.

They're being herded into smaller and smaller compounds, and when

they go to get food, they get shot.

Um,

and meanwhile, uh, Israelis, uh, cry because their dog is distressed

by the bombing sounds in Tel Aviv.

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Um, what else have I got here?

Yeah.

Um, a tweet by the Israeli Defense Force.

I. Israeli civilians are currently being targeted by the Iranian regime.

The world cannot stay silent.

Uh, also, Joe, remember they said that those evil garzas were putting

military headquarters under hospitals?

Mm-hmm.

So, um, Israel's Channel 13 reported the war cabinet meeting

tonight will take place in the new IDF Fortified HQ under Itch Love Hospital

that is safe from Iranian missiles after defense ministry was struck

last night, which is no longer safe.

So the Israelis have, uh, their war cabinet infrastructure under, uh, a hos

a hospital in Tel Aviv, human shields.

Mm-hmm.

Um, other media responses.

So I mentioned the Sunday mail had nothing on its front page.

Uh, Monday's the Australian headline, Iran is bombing our civilians,

super supportive of Israel.

And, um,

you never saw anything like that in respect of the poor Palestinians in Gaza.

Um, uh, what else have I got?

How close to a bomb?

Um, let me see.

You still there, Joe?

I just, yes.

No, Joe's might have disappeared momentarily.

No, just, yeah, it's

like my internet dropped out for some reason.

Oh,

okay.

Um, what did I, I was just about to say, um, a bit more about

how close they are to a bomb.

This is from responsible State craft.

I, I put these notes in a while ago, dear listener, but I think

this is gonna be relevant.

So,

um, yeah, there's a difference between having weapons grade uranium and

actually having weapons because once you've got the uranium, you've still

gotta put it onto some sort of vehicle to carry it, so, well, I did see

an interesting article that said if you ask somebody who enriches

uranium, they'd say, oh, the easy bits, the enriching of the rate uranium,

the hard bit is building the bomb.

Mm-hmm.

But if you asked, uh, someone who assembles bombs, he'd say The easy

bit as the assembling the ball meets the getting the uranium.

That's the hard bit.

Fair enough.

Um.

So the US government estimated in March, 2022 that Iran would need as little

as one week to produce enough weapons grade uranium for one nuclear weapon.

According to State Department official during March, 2023, congressional

hearing Chairman of the joint Chief of staff testified Iran could produce

this amount of enriched uranium in approximately 10 to 15 days.

Uh, in his 2024 annual threat assessment, director of National Intelligence

concluded to run as the infrastructure and experience to quickly produce weapons

grade uranium if it chooses to do so.

March 24, France, Germany, and the uk.

Estimated Iran had acquired enough highly enriched uranium that if enriched further

to 90% would theoretically be enough for three nuclear explosive devices.

There's great uncertainty about how long it would take Iran to build a nuclear

weapon once it has the required weapons.

Grade.

Uranium such steps referred to as weaponization include producing uranium

metal, shaping it into bomb parts, producing high explosives and electronics,

and fitting it all into a device that could be used for a demonstration test.

Um, it would presumably take longer to produce a bomb that could be delivered

by aircraft or warhead, small enough to fit into a ballistic missile.

According to official US assessments.

Iran halted its nuclear weapons program program in late

2003 and has not resumed it.

Reportedly this program's goal, uh, was to develop an implosion style

nuclear weapon, blah, blah, blah.

So anyway, if you are reading material, dear listener, about how

quickly Iran could gear up a nuclear weapon, you have to distinguish.

Are you reading about.

Getting the necessary enriched uranium or are you reading about uh, the

actual, uh, triggering and missile that it would have to be attached to?

And I'm not sure how they're enriching this uranium,

given that the Americans slash Israelis destroyed the centrifuge.

Hmm.

I dunno Either.

What has been the Australian response?

Penny Wong, foreign Minister Israel has a right to self-defense.

He's told the a BC insiders quote, we know Iran is a threat.

We know that its nuclear program poses a threat to international

peace and obviously to Israel.

But Israel has a right to self-defense and Richard Miles.

Um, Israel does have a right to self-defense, but we understand the

risk that the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile program represents.

Pathetic, pathetic.

Joe, this is the stuff I would've expected from the Scott Morrison government.

It's a fucking lay the government.

Oh.

What does our opposition say?

Susan Lay and McKayla Cash.

I guess if we were wondering what Schmo would've said, the world can

never accept a nuclear armed Iran.

We express our strong support for our wonderful Jewish community in

Australia, as well as our deepest sympathies for Iranian Australians.

Um, the targeting of Israeli population centers by the Iranian

regime is deeply troubling.

Um, interestingly enough, the, the Iranians that I've met have

referred to themselves as Persians.

Yes.

Yeah.

Uh.

Anyway, strong support from them.

What do other countries say?

China, Beijing opposes actions that violate Iran sovereignty,

security, and territorial integrity.

Russia.

Joe says it's a violation of the charter of the United

Nations and international law.

Yes.

So far I'm a, I'm approving of the Chinese and Russian response

more than our own governments.

Aman.

Well, Russians being

very hypocritical, aren't they?

Indeed, you can, you can do, you could accuse them of that, but, um,

Aman, um, calls it illegal unjustifiable grave threat to regional stability.

Saudi Arabia, a long time rival of Tehran because the Saudis are

Sunni and the Iranians are Shia.

Um, but the long term rival, Saudi Arabia said.

Uh, strong condemnation.

Um, like for what's happened, um, Iraq filed a complaint with the United Nations.

Japanese government strongly condemned.

The Israeli air raids as totally intolerable.

South Korea said something similar.

European states have been much less critical of Israel.

The German foreign minister, Johan wfo,

uh, declared that Israel has a right to defend its existence.

Well, Germany has been a so to Israel since the late forties, hasn't it?

It has.

Um, here's what the German Foreign Office Twitter feed said.

We strongly condemn the indiscriminate Iranian attack on Israeli territory.

Iran's nuclear program violates the non-proliferation treaty and

proposes a threat to the entire region, especially to Israel.

We've already mentioned the listener that Israel has its own nuclear program.

Mm-hmm.

That violates the non-proliferation treaty.

Oh.

But that's purely for defense.

Yeah.

And, and given the way the Israeli Zionists carry on, I think

they are a serious threat to the entire region, that being in their hands.

Um, again, um, Macron talked about the attack on Iran was an act of self-defense,

is how he described Israel's actions.

Ah.

What else have I got here?

What is Trump's reaction?

Trump endorsed the massive Israeli strike calling the attack.

Excellent.

He said, I think it's been excellent.

We gave 'em a chance and they didn't take it.

They got hit hard, very hard.

They got hit hard as you, they got hit about as hard as you're going to get hit.

And there's more to come.

A lot more.

Yeah.

He, he wants them to, uh, possibly buy, buy some of his cryptocurrency

or maybe stay in his hotels and, and then he'll grant them an audience.

Yeah.

This is the sort of tweet that we get from the president of

the United States these days.

I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal.

I told them in the strongest of words to just do it.

No matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got,

they just couldn't get it done.

I told 'em it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated

or were told that the United States makes the best and most lethal military

equipment anywhere in the world and in capitals by far, and that Israel

has a lot of it with much more to come and they know how to use it.

Certain Iranian hardliners spoke bravely, but they didn't

know what was about to happen.

They're all dead capital letters for dead now and it will only get worse.

There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to

make this slaughter with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal.

Come to an end.

Iran must make a deal before there is nothing left and save what was

once known as the Iranian Empire.

No more death, no more destruction.

Never known as the Iranian Empire.

No, that's exactly I know.

Any capitals in closing?

Just do it before it's too late.

God bless you all.

Well, his base love it.

His base won war in the Middle East because it brings about the end times.

Yeah.

And Jesus will come back.

Yeah.

Because they don't like spending money on foreign aid, which they would.

Yeah.

But you're right, the Christian, the Christian faith that so many of them

follow, um, calls for it, doesn't it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

God.

Ah,

Vladimir Putin summed it up.

No, US president truly holds power.

And now even Donald Trump, once the loud mouth promising peace.

Shows his true colors by backing attacks on Iran.

Just another puppet controlled by the deep state serving the

machine while pretending to lead.

I think, uh, Vladimir got that right.

Yeah.

I, um, if you've seen Trump's proposed military parade Yes.

Where he was trying to, uh, he, he looks up to Putin.

He sees him as a strong leader who's managed to turn his country

into a profit center for himself.

Mm mm

Probably the richest man in the world, and, uh,

Trump admires him for that.

What, what you're saying Putin's the most just man in the world?

Yeah.

No.

Oh,

no, no, no.

I've, uh, in the biography I read mm-hmm.

Which referenced CIA reports mm-hmm.

That they do not see him as having, uh, absconded with, um, a lot of personal

wealth out of the Russian system.

And that was the US Secret Intelligence Services.

A a lot of it is owned by very poor people who happened to be

family members, or they would've said that his, his childhood had played.

Yeah,

yeah.

Anyway, up for grabs that one Joe.

Mm-hmm.

And you can agree to different that one.

Um, well, let's talk a little bit, um, about Trump and orus type stuff.

Joseph, you gonna go?

Are you all right for another little bit?

No,

no,

I'm okay.

So that's kind of, uh, the, that's kind of most of what I

wanna say about Israel than Iran.

So, um, um, what have we got here in the chat before I leave it?

Israel has never signed the treaty, so it can't violate it.

Well, like

that's true, I guess.

In the same way that the US never signed the law of the sea treaties.

So, um, I guess can never violate them.

' Joe: cause all the international criminal court treaties.

Yes, indeed.

Yeah.

Um, uh, have we seen the AI videos of Trump on YouTube?

Yes.

Um, they are good.

Um,

uh, only the, um, Trump Gaza.

Yeah.

I, I try not to watch AI generated stuff.

Yeah.

Um,

what else is in here?

Uh,

Chris has anyone, can anyone explain to me why calling Israel genocidal

murderers is somehow antisi?

How did Israel entwine the Jewish religion and the Nation of Israel?

That's the same thing.

Yep.

The, well, the same way

that, um.

Islamophobia has come to mean a valid criticism of the religion as opposed

to an unhealthy fear of brown people.

Indeed.

Just sort of, um, debate trickery, isn't it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, so yeah, orcas, so

Oh yes.

Trump has, has decided

that really?

It's not a good idea.

Who has Trump?

No, he hasn't yet.

It's being reviewed.

Well, he's just considering

it.

Yes.

Well, I don't think he's Joe Fine app.

Apparently some of the people in the Pentagon or wherever

mm-hmm.

Are looking at the orca deal and it's being reviewed.

Yes.

Officially reviewed in some capacity.

And a lot of people in Australia who hate orcas are thinking maybe

the Americans will save us from it.

Mm-hmm.

By canning it from their point of view anyway.

'cause they simply can't generate the subs.

Yeah.

And that they'll cancel it even though our own leaders

should have canceled it ages ago.

Maybe we'll get lucky in the US maybe before

they paid him however many millions.

Yeah.

But there's more to be paid Joe.

Mm-hmm.

And as soon as it is explained to Donald Trump that these schmucks Yeah.

Are paying money for nothing in Australia for free, are gonna be handing money over.

Yeah.

And at any time in and, and we'll continue to hand the

money over for the next decades.

And at any time the US can say, sorry, no sub for you.

Yeah.

But he didn't negotiate.

Well, he didn't negotiate it,

but he would love the money.

Like he would go, you mean these guys are sending us money?

We don't have to send them a sub.

And after a while we can tell 'em, sorry, no sub.

And we keep the money.

And they'll go, yeah, it's

not going into his pocket.

And it doesn't make him look good.

Why does he care?

'cause he, 'cause it's a deal that he could only

dream of in private enterprise.

Well, yeah.

I think he sees that as a deal for Mary, I think can

scrapping it just so that he can negotiate a new one.

I hope you're right.

But, um, I could just see him just going, what, what, what idiot signed up to this?

If they're gonna keep sending us money, well, we'll keep taking it.

It's

probably the same idiot that signed up to the, what was it, the

Canadian deal that he threw out?

Uh, the one that he'd signed in his previous term of Oh, oh yes.

He declared it as the worst deal ever.

Yes.

It was a deal that he'd actually done.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So as the shovel headline said, Trump to review deal where Australia

pays America 350 billion for submarines it will never receive.

Mm-hmm.

To ensure its America first.

Take one, look at it and go, I'm not canceling that deal.

It's, it's, yeah.

So it is officially being looked at.

What does the opposition say about this opposition leader suss Susan

Lee, coalition defense spokesman Angus Taylor both pledged bipartisan

support for the August agreement.

Mr. Taylor adding the government had serious questions to answer Joe.

This included whether Australia's reluctance to meet well.

Background story, dear listener, the US has been telling all of

its allies, including Australia, that as a bare minimum, we

should be spending 3.5% of GDP.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, on defense, uh, in our budget.

And, um.

Richard Miles defense minister was like, oh, yes, I'm happy to have that

conversation with, uh, the US elbow apparently said, hold your horses.

We decide what we spend on Yeah.

Defense and we're not gonna be told by another country how much to spend.

And, um, so, so apparently the

US only spends 3.1%, I think it was.

Yeah.

You know, the problem is, Jay, they get the, the sort of corruption endemic in

the system means that they don't get much bang for their buck, for their money.

So, um, anyway, so this is where Angus Taylor said, um.

Uh, about serious questions to answer albanese.

This included whether Australia's reluctance to meet the 3.5% of

GDP and defense funding demanded by the us, um, and also our

sanctioning of two Israeli ministers.

Whether that played a role in the review and according, uh, and, and

quote Angus Taylor, we need to know to what extent was the review triggered

by Labor's failure to fund defense in this country to the level that the US

and other partners think is appropriate?

He said, like this, fuck Wi Angus Taylor is saying, Hmm,

Albany's got a lot to answer.

Maybe this review of orus is, is because we are not doing what the Americans want

us to do in terms of defense spending.

I.

It, it begs belief, Joe.

Mm-hmm.

Like what sort of, already this was the worst deal ever.

Three 50 billion for this, three 68 billion for these subs

that we're never gonna get.

Mm-hmm.

Now, now on top of that, we are being told we have to spend three

and a half percent on defense of our, just to keep the US happy.

Happy.

So that they don't cancel the deal.

That's already a dog of the deal.

Mm. I could, I didn't think it could get worse, Joe.

But this is the, and this is the thinking of just dickhead like Angus Taylor.

God help us.

Well, Ruth at Murdoch wants that, so

God help us, Joe.

He doesn't exist.

He doesn't, but clearly.

Oh, maybe here's some advice from maybe Angus Taylor and Susan Lay.

Just way off being nobody else thinks that way.

Maybe it's just there.

Mo, I wonder what the Sydney Morning Herald has to say.

I wonder what James Mala and the Sydney Morning Herald has to say.

Uh, maybe something sensible.

Let's see.

He says, um, Albanese must make Trump an offer he can't refuse.

The Prime Minister needs to make orus great again by supersizing the

existing deal and offering the Trump administration more than what was

agreed to under Trump's predecessor.

Joe Biden.

No, I think we should do the other way of a deal he can't refuse, which

is put a dead horse's head in his bed.

The

honestly, Joe.

The level of incompetence and shit fuckery

mm-hmm.

By these people in positions of some power.

Hey, we're getting screwed over

by the Americans.

Let's, let's Rene Yeah.

Renegotiate the deal so we get even more screwed over.

It is mind boggling.

We are in just a dystopian Orwellian world where,

yeah, I was listening to UK defense, um, journalists talking about orcas

and, and how they can't believe that we ever signed up for such a thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think I heard the similar thing, Chris, in the chat, 3.5% GDP

spending would of course mandate the use of US military suppliers.

Of course.

Well, I, I did hear a argument that we should actually be buying,

um, technology from Ukraine.

Right.

One, they need the cash flow and two, um, they're actually world leaders now in, I.

Some specific weaponry

could be, could be,

um, um, innovative use of, um, trucks with, uh, with drones in the back of them.

Hmm, okay.

The sort of drone experts.

Well, did you not see the spiders web attack?

Which one was that?

The one where they attacked six, I think it was Russian

airfield across the whole of Russia.

Ah, is this what they had, Peter?

Right.

I had something along that.

So they, they basically built, um.

Uh, it sounded like wooden huts that might've been part of a house

and told some truck drivers, naive truck drivers, we needed to deliver

this here at this date and time.

Right.

And as they pulled up, apparently the top opened up and, you know, 20

drones popped out of each of these huts and went off and destroyed

a whole bunch of strategic, um, uh, Russian bombers on the ground.

Right.

I did hear something.

I got half that story didn't the full story.

Okay.

There was that

and then two days later there was the attack on the Kirch bridge.

Right.

There we go.

Of course, the other thing we could spend the money on 3.5%,

which is buy stuff from China.

They make good military stuff.

Nice and cheap, like

Yeah.

But they're worried about the kill switch, aren't they?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Um, what else have we got here?

What are they saying in the uk?

Um,

well.

The meltdown of the UK part of Orca is finally getting attention.

We have the former First Sea Lord, great title, Joan.

Mm-hmm.

Um, saying that the UK does not have capacity to build orcas subs.

Um, he says Australia should not expect the SSN orca to arrive on time or budget.

I think any sensible defense calculation will be that these

things will be more expensive and later than is currently expected.

Yeah.

Um, and then there's a whole question as to who's

gonna maintain the power blunt.

Yeah.

'cause Australia doesn't have the experience.

Indeed.

Ah, Joe.

Um, the Disunited states of America.

Mm-hmm.

We've got ice agents out of control.

Yes.

Just walking into, um, you, you, you're

telling me that police officers who are allowed to have no insignia on

their uniforms, no form of identification of who who they are, might behave in

a bad way when there's no comeback as to what they've been doing.

Like how are these people supposed to react, as you say, when

people without any obvious authority Hmm.

They could, they could be just criminals come in and start and

there, there have already been criminals breaking into people's

houses disguised as ice agents.

No doubt.

So did you see

the, um, journalists being shot at deliberately with

non less than lethal rounds?

Yes.

The Australian journalists, yes.

I did see that.

Well, wasn't just the Australian, there was a British journalist,

Uhhuh, who uh, has had to have an operation on his leg, the damage.

Mm-hmm.

So he's still got a drain in there, and it's gonna be some

time before he's, uh, recovered.

And then there was another journalist.

I think an American.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, if somebody got shot in the head that was right, they had a

great big bruise on their forehead.

Mm-hmm.

Um,

uh, 'cause of course less than lethal rounds supposed to be shot

at the ground to bounce off, to reduce, because in Northern Ireland,

that number of people were killed by being shot in the chest by them.

Stop the heart.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Well, and of course we've got you anywhere in the head.

Um, take out an eye or mm-hmm.

Hit you on the temple, could kill you or the neck or something like that.

Anything.

And

in, in Northern Ireland they had the IRA snipers

taking pot shots of the police.

Right.

Which obviously they don't have in the us, but maybe they should have.

Mm-hmm.

How bad is it over there?

Here's, uh, Rachel Maddow, I think, describing what sort of things are

happening in the US uh, right now.

Guess who the geniuses were.

Who so nimbly managed this operation at a popular Italian restaurant in

the lovely Balboa Park neighborhood of San Diego this weekend.

Somebody apparently told these guys from Homeland Security Investigations

that they were gonna be invading Fallujah on Friday afternoon, right?

I mean, this is bananas.

This is a popular Italian restaurant in San Diego, just as they were opening for

dinner on a beautiful Friday afternoon.

Multiple clown cars full of Trump's HSI agents in full battle rattle with helmets

and long guns and flack jackets and goggles and masks and the whole thing.

I mean, literally looking like they were gonna repel out of helicopters into the

Torah Bora Cave complex to fight Al-Qaeda.

These guys dressed like this run into a neighborhood Italian restaurant.

And reportedly handcuffed the entire crew working at the restaurant.

Everybody inside.

And then they arrested people who were like, you know,

busboy and waiters and stuff.

And then unsurprisingly the whole neighborhood came out to say,

what the heck are you doing?

Is this red Dawn?

Are we being invaded wolverines?

This is what you're doing to save us from the terrible menace of like the nice

waiter at our favorite local restaurant.

Trump's immigration agents had had no idea what to do.

Get outta your cowards.

Cowards, cowards.

Clip (2): You should be embarrassed.

You should be so embarrassed.

These Trump immigration agents dressed up like soldiers.

They made this San Diego Street corner look like they were in a war

zone because they were so completely unprepared and untrained and flummoxed

by all of the neighbors and passersby, understandably yelling at them and

telling them to leave people alone.

They were so scared and so unprepared and so untrained for this

completely predictable situation that they set off multiple.

What appeared to be these flash bang smoke grenades against the random neighbors in.

Who wants

to go to America?

Like, well, United States, the Disunited states of America.

Mm-hmm.

What, what a shocking.

Terrible.

Well, did you see

the Australian who was saying he got pulled over by

immigration, uh, at the airport.

This is the last week or so?

Mm-hmm.

And quizzed about his deleted social media posts that were anti-Israel.

Wow.

Basically, yeah.

Complaining of the Palestinian genocide.

Honestly, if you had to go for business, you'd take some sort of

burner phone or something, wouldn't you?

Well, no, they said, he

said it didn't matter.

Oh,

okay.

They've just,

they, they'd flagged his name, they'd found his social media profile they had,

and, and they'd archived his old posts.

This wasn't even current.

Yep.

He, he deleted everything before he crossed the border.

They had a record of it already.

Are you suggesting that perhaps I'll never go to the

United States ever again, Joe?

Uh,

well, certainly under Trump's regime,

it's just a combination of, um, hunger Games, Orwellian

stuff, Handmaid's Tale.

It's, it's just, uh,

did you, did you, did you see about the, the No Kings protest?

Yes, I did.

Which of course, apparently are in zero newspapers and zero television reports.

So they were covering the military parade that wasn't a military parade.

Mm-hmm.

But refused to acknowledge the No Kings protests across hundreds

of cities in the, in the us.

Mm-hmm.

No King's protest because Donald Trump considers himself a king.

And basically they're basically saying he believes he's

above the law.

Yes.

So the military parade, he, uh, when he was, uh, in his

first term, I think he was in.

France on, uh, Bastille Day, Bastille Day, and was enormously impressed

by the parade right at the time, and decided he wanted one and in his first

term wanted to organize one, and they, they turned him down because they said,

uh, the military equipment would just basically ruin the roads of Washington.

Mm-hmm.

If they were allowed to, um, trundle all over it.

And, and he just at the time, didn't know enough to force the issue.

Right.

At this time, he did and got his parade.

But Joe, when you see pictures of the Chinese, Russian, north

Korean militaries as they march past, and it's all precision,

marching, stiff, formal, regimented.

Dear listener, if you ever get the chance to look up some of the videos

of the ragtag sort of misfits.

In camouflage outfits representing the United States as they just walked along.

Um, uh, it's pathetic.

Um, what's this commentator said?

I've never watched a military parade in my life, but the footage

emanating from the US today is truly, absolutely fucking pathetic.

Bunch of unarmed it like a hundred soldiers.

What?

What's that?

It's like a hundred soldiers.

Yeah.

And a couple of donkeys and carts or something.

Not even pretending to march in time.

Bunch of unarmed soldiers.

Barely able to walk in formation, shuffling forward, uh, to, uh, uh, set

to country rock with tiny silent crowds.

Spectating.

Yeah, there's really weird background music and a, and a commentator

like you'd expect, um, in an Olympic games type commentary.

It was, it was.

Very odd and extremely pathetic.

Um, I'm surprised

it wasn't YMCA actually,

yes.

Um, the shovel had a headline.

Trump's military parade canceled after 20,000 troops suffered

debilitating bone spurs.

Mm, I saw that.

Yeah.

It didn't actually happen that way.

Um, but uh,

you know, that's a reference to

Yes.

Trump's very name.

Trump getting outta the Army.

Draft Dodge.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

Draft Dodge.

Yeah.

Um, what I did have here was just another Trump fund thing.

So this is the guy who was working in this, in the White House with Trump.

Um, you can just imagine how chaotic that place must be.

Here's what he had to say.

He's

idiot.

He's just an idiot.

When Donald Trump was president, I remember crossing that

threshold into the Oval Office.

And not only was this guy not bringing his A game, he didn't have a game.

He was winging it.

Miles Taylor and his Homeland Security secretary, Kirsten

Nielsen, worked for former President Trump in his administration.

Trump once called Secretary Nielsen with a unique solution to stop migrants

crossing the border with Mexico.

And she puts the president on speakerphone and he says that down

at the border, he wants to explore what it would take to build a moat.

And he goes off on this tangent talking about how we should actually

get snakes and alligators and fill this 2000 mile moat on the border with

reptilian creatures so that if someone falls into the moat, they're facing

the threat of snakes and alligators.

I mean, we're just laughing.

You can't make this shit up.

What are you thinking when the President of the United States

is enunciating this idea?

I'm a lifelong conservative.

I am more republican.

Than Donald Trump.

He's not a conservative, but putting politics aside, engaging with the

man, you realize he's an idiot.

Trump has denied knowing Taylor and said he should be prosecuted.

Of course he has.

Yeah.

When reality comes to bite you on the ass, just deny reality.

Snakes.

Yeah.

Alligators.

That'll stop him.

Well,

you see, Trump's a city boy.

I don't think he's ever been out in the countryside in his life.

He's just an idiot.

Well, that too.

Yeah.

And he's surrounded by idiots.

Um, but he's a hyperactive idiot.

Yes.

Yeah.

Ah, there we go.

That's probably a good note to end on, I think, on the state of the world.

Hmm.

Ah, thank you in the chat room.

Um, you've been active in there, Chris in particular.

John, as always, hope your knee is recovering.

Well, John still owe you that beer 'cause of those damn North Korean soldiers

and technically not in the Ukraine.

But anyway, it's definitely payable.

Uh, we will be back next week, I'm sure of it.

I think I've got this workload from this, uh, crazy chairman's

job now, a bit more under control.

Um, so at the moment it's still a weekly podcast, but you know, if we don't make

it, I sometimes don't be surprised.

Anyway, I'll be back next week, Joe.

I'll be back.

I think, uh, Scott's away for another week and um, anyway, we'll talk to you then.

Bye for now.

And it's a good night from him.