Suburban Eastern Australia, an environment that has, over
Trevor:time, evolved some extraordinarily unique groups of homosapiens.
Trevor:But today, we observe a small tribe akin to a group of meerkats that
Trevor:gather together atop a small mound to watch, question, and discuss the
Trevor:current events of their city, their country, and their world at large.
Trevor:Let's listen keenly and observe this group fondly known as the
Trevor:Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.
Trevor:We're back.
Trevor:Episode 422.
Trevor:Three meerkats, present and accounted for on this occasion.
Trevor:I'm Trevor.
Trevor:With me is Scott the Velvet Glove.
Trevor:Scott, how are you?
Trevor:G'day
Scott:Trevor.
Scott:G'day Joe.
Scott:G'day listeners.
Scott:I hope everyone's well.
Trevor:I hope they are as well.
Trevor:And Joe, the tech guy, is with us with no fake background.
Trevor:We can see his luxurious curtains and grey wall.
Trevor:Evening all.
Trevor:All right.
Trevor:Speak up a bit more, Joe.
Trevor:That was very low, but anyway.
Trevor:Oh, sorry.
Trevor:Yep, that's better.
Trevor:in the chat room, Matthew Chalk is already there saying good evening.
Trevor:Good on you, Matthew.
Trevor:He's on Facebook.
Trevor:You can be on Facebook.
Trevor:Facebook?
Trevor:What?
Trevor:YouTube and you'll be able to see all the comments and make comments
Trevor:and they'll appear in the chat.
Trevor:Make your comments, we'll try and get to them if we can.
Trevor:We'll talk about news and politics and sex and religion and what have
Trevor:we got in particular on the agenda today is going to be about a bit on
Trevor:the religious discrimination bill which is coming back yet again.
Trevor:It's like a zombie, you know, you think it's killed off
Trevor:and just keeps coming back.
Trevor:I cannot
Scott:believe that they are still resurrecting that fucking
Scott:thing, you know, it's a joke.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:And you know, this is from the Labor government too, like, why the fuck
Scott:would they try and resurrect it?
Trevor:They just don't get it, we'll talk about that, we'll be
Trevor:talking about that, masculinity is under attack, we'll talk about that.
Trevor:Um, Don Farrell, one of our, well, I think he's like the foreign minister's deputy
Trevor:or something like that, questioned whether the United States is Australia's strongest
Trevor:ally and there was an uproar over that.
Trevor:Dutton says don't trust the science.
Trevor:A bit about crime rates, a bit about subs.
Trevor:We've got to get to Israel and Gaza just to go through the latest round
Trevor:of atrocities going on over there.
Trevor:A bit about Ukraine, Trump the athlete and various other bits which we probably won't
Trevor:even get to, but we'll see how we go.
Trevor:So, first up, grateful.
Trevor:What are you grateful for?
Trevor:I'm grateful for, Well, one of the problems, dear listener, of living
Trevor:in one of the, leafy, upper middle class suburbs is local petrol stations
Trevor:jack up the fuel price here about 30 cents more than everywhere else.
Trevor:And, so we had to drive down the coast on a near empty tank, but I was
Trevor:able to do my calculations and jump onto, now what was the app called?
Trevor:It's called, there's a bunch of them around, ServoTrack app.
Trevor:Which basically describes very easily what the price of fuel
Trevor:is at various service stations.
Trevor:along the way.
Trevor:Saved myself 30 cents a litre.
Trevor:I was grateful for the servo track app.
Trevor:Have you guys ever used that one?
Trevor:No,
Scott:because I hardly ever
Trevor:drive.
Trevor:Yeah, you wouldn't.
Trevor:Yeah,
Scott:you know, I live in a city that's so flat it could have
Scott:actually, it could have forgotten the internal combustion engine.
Scott:So, yeah, I cycle,
Trevor:I walk everywhere.
Trevor:Joe, do you scout around for the lowest price?
Joe:not very often, but, sometimes I use the websites
Trevor:a bit.
Trevor:Mm, anyway, that's what I was grateful for.
Trevor:You guys grateful for anything, Scott?
Trevor:Mm hmm.
Trevor:You're grateful, actually, for Park Run.
Trevor:Yeah,
Scott:I am.
Scott:I am very grateful for Parkrun.
Scott:It's one of those things that started a few years ago when I moved up here.
Scott:I didn't know anybody and I was very grateful that one of the
Scott:blokes and that stuff said to me.
Scott:There's a few of us that have breakfast after this if you're interested.
Scott:And I turned up there, I was the youngest person in the group and it's really
Trevor:good.
Trevor:And have a good chat with people afterwards and it's a
Trevor:healthy social activity as well.
Scott:It has expanded.
Scott:I am now running on Tuesday night and I also then run myself on
Scott:Monday and Wednesday mornings.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Very good.
Trevor:Joe, grateful for anything?
Trevor:I
Joe:went to a conference at the weekend.
Joe:It was a security conference.
Joe:Okay, work related.
Joe:So the first one I've been to.
Joe:But, yeah, grateful to get there, catch up with some former colleagues.
Joe:Mm hmm.
Joe:And, get to learn a bit about, That's an industry I'm trying to move into at
Trevor:the moment.
Trevor:Very good.
Trevor:Yes.
Trevor:Looking at your background there, Matthew describes it as the Great
Trevor:Wall of, the Grey Wall of Joe.
Trevor:It's actually white, it's just the lighting.
Trevor:Yes.
Trevor:right.
Trevor:Matthew
Scott:Chalk lives in a regional town in central Queensland.
Scott:Yep.
Scott:So whereabouts in central Queensland do you live, Matthew?
Trevor:Yeah, anywhere near Mackay, a chance.
Trevor:That's the thing, Petrol N say that, he's constantly hovering
Trevor:around, 2 for the, for the 95, fuel.
Trevor:See here, it's always more expensive.
Trevor:Like we pay more in the gap than you would in regional Queensland.
Trevor:Just, crazy how it works.
Trevor:Anyway, we've got to have some,
Scott:we've got to have some compensation for living
Trevor:up here.
Trevor:Yeah, exactly.
Trevor:all right.
Trevor:Now, dear listener, there are chapters and timestamps.
Trevor:If you don't want to listen to our, goings on, then you can scoot through
Trevor:to the more substantial topics and.
Trevor:yeah, look at the timestamps, look at the chapters in your app if you
Trevor:want to do that, because before getting into the main meaty topic of
Trevor:the religious discrimination bill, just wanted to shout out to Noel.
Trevor:He's the first new patron for 2024.
Trevor:In fact, He's the first new patron since the 24th of August, 2023.
Trevor:So good on you, Noel, for going on and, signing up and becoming a patron.
Trevor:look at your show notes, dear listener.
Trevor:There's a link there with the options.
Trevor:It's easy to do.
Trevor:also a big thanks to DB Slatya who provided a.
Trevor:One off donation again, which he does sort of regularly at different times.
Trevor:Thank you for that.
Trevor:and Chris Tatum who donates via PayPal.
Trevor:But Noel, you've joined an illustrious list of patrons.
Trevor:Now we don't often call out the patrons names and we should do it
Trevor:more often, but, these are unsung heroes who, who give without requiring
Trevor:recognition, clearly, because you don't get much on this podcast.
Trevor:So starting from the most recent to the, to the oldest patrons, Big thank yous to
Trevor:Noel Hamilton, Paige, Damien Van Snydel, Danny Borland, Obrad, Puskarica, Anti U.
Trevor:S.
Trevor:Sentiment, Mark Clavell, Tom Stubbings, Rico, Greg P, Shannon Legge, Matt
Trevor:Dwyer, Sue Cripp, James, Wayne, Virgil, Craig Bull, Shane Ingram, Yam Yam Blue,
Trevor:Zambuck, Lloydberg, David Copley, John in Dire Straits, Camille, Tom Doolan, Paul
Trevor:Waper from Canberra, Alexander Allen, Matthew Craigis, Glenn Bell my brother.
Trevor:Professor Dr Dentist, Murray Waper, brother of Paul Waper,
Trevor:Murray says that our show notes are the best in the business.
Trevor:That is the benefit you get from being a patron, dear listener,
Trevor:you get the PDF of the show notes.
Trevor:Andy Dowling, Peter Gillespie, Gavin S, Daniel Curtin, Liam McMahon, DomDom282,
Trevor:Maddockman, Kane Birch, Jimmy Spud, Tony Wall, Steve Shinners, Allison.
Trevor:Ayame Ueno, Craig Gladsby, and Janelle Louise as our current oldest patrons.
Trevor:So yes, we don't often enough say thank you.
Trevor:So they're quite selfless.
Trevor:And I was looking about, I don't know, I just wanted to look and Google something
Trevor:about, people who do good things without needing recognition and came across
Trevor:this thing from Expert Editor, which describes the patrons of this podcast.
Trevor:Some people go through life in a constant pursuit of recognition and
Trevor:applause, while others quietly make a difference in the world without
Trevor:seeking validation or acknowledgement.
Trevor:You might wonder what drives these silent heroes to continuously do good
Trevor:for others, without expecting anything in return, or how they manage to remain
Trevor:humble amidst their selfless work.
Trevor:Selfless acts.
Trevor:That's a good description of our patrons there.
Trevor:So this writer has distilled their characteristics into six key traits.
Trevor:One is empathy.
Trevor:Their empathetic nature compels them to act, to reach out, to comfort and help.
Trevor:Not because they want praise or acknowledgement, but because
Trevor:they genuinely feel the need to lessen another's burden.
Trevor:Humility.
Trevor:These individuals understand they're part of a larger community
Trevor:and that their actions are a contribution to the collective good.
Trevor:rather than a means to boost their personal status.
Trevor:Selflessness, they prioritize the needs and well being of others,
Trevor:even when it's inconvenient.
Trevor:Altruism, research indicates that individuals who engage in altruistic
Trevor:behaviors experience numerous physical and psychological benefits,
Trevor:including enhanced happiness, health, well being, and longevity.
Trevor:There you go, dear listener.
Trevor:That's a potential benefit heading your way if you become a patron.
Trevor:Integrity.
Trevor:They understand the true virtue lies in doing good when no one is watching.
Trevor:And resilience.
Trevor:A resilient person doesn't help others because it's easy.
Trevor:They do it because they believe in the cause, regardless of
Trevor:the challenges they may face.
Trevor:So there we are, dear listener.
Trevor:That's our patrons.
Trevor:Resilience mixed with a good dose of empathy, humility, selflessness,
Trevor:altruism, and integrity.
Trevor:I'm not going to pay you more money.
Trevor:Well, it was worth a shot.
Trevor:I got to do something.
Trevor:They're the first patrons since August, 2023.
Trevor:That's, that's a long drought.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Anyway, it is.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Anyway, religion.
Trevor:So, the religious discrimination bill is a link in the show note.
Trevor:There was a good article in the Rationale magazine.
Trevor:titled, Why I'm Speaking Out About Discrimination in Christian Schools,
Trevor:and in one paragraph he pretty much summarised the whole situation very
Trevor:well, which was, In faith based schools we have institutionalised
Trevor:discrimination, enabled through state based exemptions to anti discrimination
Trevor:laws, and funded by the taxpayer while the broader community remains unaware.
Trevor:And that's the case, but is what we've got is institutionalised discrimination.
Trevor:Funded by taxpayers, and most of the public is unaware of what's going on, so,
Trevor:ah, this religious discrimination bill.
Trevor:The history of it, dear listener, was that with marriage equality, the rabid
Trevor:Christian right wingers in the Liberal Party were incredibly unhappy, and
Trevor:that, in order to placate them, Turnbull offered some sort of, the, the ruddick.
Trevor:inquiry into religious discrimination.
Trevor:And of course, Ruddock came out with an appalling report recommending
Trevor:that even more exemptions be granted.
Trevor:for religious believers, allowing them to discriminate, not just on
Trevor:the basis of faith, the different faith of people, but on the basis
Trevor:of, characteristics such as whether they're gay or lesbian or whatever.
Trevor:So, and that created a huge uproar.
Trevor:Scott Morrison tried to get it through and it ultimately
Trevor:failed because of trans kids.
Trevor:Because people were saying, well, this is going to allow, schools to
Trevor:discriminate against trans kids.
Trevor:And that was the, that was the point that, that it all fell over on.
Trevor:Which, incredible.
Trevor:We're funding these private schools, for example, and we're allowing them
Trevor:to say, Well, you're a Christian school, therefore if somebody's not
Trevor:Christian, you can discriminate against them in hiring and and enrolment.
Trevor:And people say, this Labor government currently thinks that's okay, they
Trevor:just don't want you to be able to discriminate against gay people,
Trevor:for example, lesbians, and they just don't see that both of them are bad.
Trevor:It just amazes me.
Trevor:You know, we, we understand that in a community where everybody's
Trevor:working together in a cooperative way, allowing unfair discrimination
Trevor:isn't good for a healthy society.
Trevor:Check out Israel and Palestine, Exhibit A in that regard.
Trevor:We really want laws where people are not allowed to just look
Trevor:at these characteristics and say, not part of our group.
Trevor:They continue to, to just accept that that's quite acceptable behaviour by,
Trevor:by these private schools, for example.
Trevor:So, So I think, where are we up to?
Trevor:Apparently, Albanese was on a plane with Dutton.
Trevor:Are you aware of this, Scott?
Scott:Yeah, I was aware of that, and that, Albanese said to him that
Scott:if you don't, if you don't give us bipartisanship on this whole thing,
Scott:I'm going to walk away from it.
Scott:So, apparently Dutton spat the dummy after that, So bipartisanship
Scott:is now, whether or not it is dead.
Trevor:So Albanese is saying, unless I get bipartisan support,
Trevor:I'm not going to try and run it.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Because he's already been smacked around the nose with the force issue.
Trevor:So, and, and I think the proposed legislation was still, for example,
Trevor:providing, yeah, you can discriminate against people because they're of
Trevor:a different faith, but that was drawing a line somewhere around, gay
Trevor:and lesbian kids, whether it's in enrolment, and then whether they're
Trevor:extended to teachers, who knows, we haven't seen it, and certainly wouldn't
Trevor:have allowed it for transgender kids.
Trevor:So, it was probably going to be the case that the religious groups are too scared
Trevor:of losing what they've already got.
Trevor:So, so we're in this situation where Labor's still quite happy to entertain
Trevor:good, hard working teachers being, being basically banned from, from participating
Trevor:in teaching in 40 percent of employment opportunities for teachers in Australia.
Trevor:Because perhaps they're not Christian.
Trevor:And Labor, who should be supporting working teachers,
Trevor:should be aghast at that.
Trevor:But they don't give a shit, and they think it's perfect.
Trevor:Not only don't give a shit, they just actually think it's perfectly fine.
Trevor:So, that's where we are with, with that.
Trevor:couple of articles, What did Michael Bradley say here in Crikey?
Trevor:so, he says that the bottom of this mess is an irreconcilable difference between
Trevor:the necessary implication of religious freedom being the freedom to discriminate
Trevor:against others, when that's what one's faith dictates, Versus the right of
Trevor:everyone to live in equal existence, free from discrimination, on the basis
Trevor:of attributes they did not invent.
Trevor:he says the old legal compromise was an uncomfortable one.
Trevor:The churches were allowed to discriminate, principally against LGBTQI people and
Trevor:women, but against other groups as well, on the basis of their faith.
Trevor:their faith was not elevated to the status of a protected human right.
Trevor:And that, of course, is what Ruddick was trying to do, was elevate.
Trevor:faith to a protected human right, thereby enabling faith groups to
Trevor:discriminate against all sorts of people.
Trevor:So, so it's a minefield.
Trevor:And do
Scott:you think he just doesn't understand that?
Scott:Because my impression of Albanese is he's not the brightest, not the
Scott:brightest bulb in the You know,
Trevor:in the pack.
Trevor:I don't think he's a deep thinker.
Trevor:No.
Joe:Is
Trevor:he not also religious?
Trevor:Yes he is.
Trevor:He is, he's a Catholic,
Scott:but
Trevor:Well he said the three mainstays in his life, the three
Trevor:most important things in his life were South Sydney Rabideaus, I think?
Trevor:Yeah,
Scott:it was the South Sydney Rabidows, the Catholic Church and the Labor
Trevor:Party.
Trevor:And the Labor Party and the Church, so, full on, in that sense, so,
Trevor:he is no friend of secularism in Australia, and this Labor government
Trevor:is no friend either, so, yeah.
Trevor:Anyway, the article in Crikey.
Trevor:There was a comment section, and basically the comment section was just full of
Trevor:people saying, you know, enough is enough, very sort of against the idea of
Trevor:religious groups getting further rights to further discriminate, so, fairly
Trevor:comprehensive in there, and yeah, one of the comments there was, All of which
Trevor:should be blindingly obvious to Albo.
Trevor:It is remarkable that so many people spend decades in politics
Trevor:but remain hopeless at it.
Trevor:So, yeah, so that was that.
Trevor:The Australian Christian Lobby, I'm on their mailing list.
Trevor:They wrote to me and said, given the lack of bipartisan support,
Trevor:this bill is unlikely to progress, so the status quo remains.
Trevor:We thank God because status quo isn't as bad as what was being proposed.
Trevor:So, from the ACL point of view.
Trevor:So they wanted
Scott:the additional protection to discriminate against
Scott:transgender kids, didn't
Trevor:they?
Trevor:Yes.
Trevor:And I, I think that, that Bill might have wound back some of the LGBTQI sort of,
Trevor:discrimination that was inherent in the current arrangement, so, so as far as the
Trevor:AACL is concerned, they'd rather probably stick with what they've got than muck
Trevor:around with stuff and potentially lose it.
Trevor:So, yeah.
Trevor:I, I,
Joe:back during the marriage equality, I basically wrote to,
Joe:or emailed or whatever to Binary.
Joe:To tell them to go fuck themselves.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Who did, who did you email?
Trevor:Binary.
Trevor:Who's binary?
Joe:So they've renamed themselves.
Joe:They were some anti gay group.
Joe:They're now some anti trans group, saying that there's only men and women
Joe:and they can't change, therefore binary.
Joe:So I, I get spammed about three or four times a week with some, you know, God
Joe:fearing mother of two or something about, you know, all these horrible things
Joe:that the gender nonconformers are doing to her, how she was Speech, but she's
Joe:got it all back and she was vindicated in some VCAT or whichever one it is.
Joe:So, but I've not seen anything about the discrimination bill in there.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:so just looking at the comments, John says.
Trevor:Actually, it's tribute money, talking to his patronage, Matthew says
Trevor:some people who return, same people who return the shopping trolley.
Trevor:It's a true litmus test for society.
Trevor:There you go.
Trevor:that actually tribute
Joe:money was, a hangover off one before,
Trevor:which was about the submarines.
Trevor:Oh, I wasn't.
Trevor:Oh, okay.
Trevor:yes.
Trevor:Uh, okay.
Trevor:He learned from the, okay.
Trevor:John learned from the Chaser podcast that if we actually get
Trevor:secondhand subs, they will be based in the US, making visits to Perth.
Trevor:that's the billions we pay to the U S is tribute money.
Trevor:And there we go.
Trevor:and also, Matthew said, I include your Patreon payment in my tithing budget line.
Trevor:Good morning, Matthew.
Trevor:Thank you very much, Matthew.
Trevor:All right.
Trevor:Well, speaking of sort of gender issues, here's a worrying thought.
Trevor:According to Alex Antic, one of our, ah, federal politicians.
Trevor:in the Senate.
Trevor:Masculinity is under attack.
Trevor:So, in his Twitter, he said, Masculinity is under attack, but
Trevor:despite the best efforts of the subversive cultural Marxists in
Trevor:our midst, it certainly lives on in places such as the Aussie barbershop.
Trevor:Watch as I mansplain to the Senate how the patriarchy is far from being smashed.
Trevor:To hear more from me and stay up to date, sign up to my email
Trevor:newsletter here at alexantic.
Trevor:com.
Trevor:au slash join.
Trevor:I thought that was
Joe:a stage name, I didn't realise it was an actual person.
Scott:Is Alex Antic a member of the Liberal Party?
Trevor:or is he one, is he One Nation, Alex Antic?
Trevor:Can you look it up for me?
Trevor:No, he's not.
Trevor:Is he national?
Trevor:He could, no.
Trevor:All the same.
Trevor:Yeah, they are.
Trevor:Have a listen to him, and while that's happening, someone will Google
Trevor:where he's actually from, this guy.
Trevor:Here he is in the Senate, mansplaining.
Trevor:. Masculinity is under attack and the war on men being led by a cultural
Trevor:Marxist, the likes of which roam every school, every university.
Trevor:and every education department in the country.
Trevor:Strong male role models have become an endangered species.
Trevor:Fathers in sitcoms are depicted as immature, dumb, lazy, and incompetent.
Trevor:Husbands in television commercials can't be trusted to organise the insurance.
Trevor:The cultural elites, cheering on the decline of men, are trying to
Trevor:erase the very fabric of our culture.
Trevor:Men seeking refuge still have a few sanctuaries, and Last week,
Trevor:I stepped into the safe space, which is the modern barber's shop.
Trevor:No other environment better sums up the frustration among
Trevor:young men than these places.
Trevor:Three barbers chairs, three thirty something men working hard, a pool
Trevor:table, a bar fridge full of beers and a PlayStation 5 hanging on the wall.
Trevor:The conversation drifted between the stupidity of the COVID period the
Trevor:concerns about central bank digital currencies and how they just want
Trevor:to be left alone to work hard and spend time with their families.
Trevor:And at one point, one of the barbers even dared to point out an
Trevor:attractive young woman walking past.
Trevor:Now, that was probably a microaggression, but it just seemed like a bit
Trevor:of harmless behaviour to me.
Trevor:Dismiss this as a frolic if you want.
Trevor:Every angry gender studies professor who thinks that they're going to crush
Trevor:the patriarchy has got some news coming.
Trevor:The alpha male lives on and there's not a damn thing you commies can
Trevor:do about it except cry harder.
Scott:What a dickhead, you know, does he honestly believe that Karl
Scott:Marx would have been in favor of
Trevor:transgenderism?
Trevor:Cultural Marxism has nothing to do with Karl Marx, but but just
Trevor:These guys have spent way too long watching Sky News and listening
Trevor:to podcasts with Jordan Peterson.
Scott:Let's come straight out of Fox News.
Scott:You know, it's I cannot believe that that dickhead could actually hold
Scott:his head up and say, you know, I'm a senator for South Australia, if
Scott:he actually says garbage like that.
Trevor:That's what goes for debate in our parliament at the moment.
Trevor:This is the calibre of person getting in.
Trevor:I'm grateful for hair clippers, that my wife does my hair, and I
Trevor:don't have to go into a barbershop if that's what's going on there.
Trevor:No,
Trevor:I
Scott:go to a barbershop and there's no problem up here, you know,
Trevor:it's just,
Scott:you know, that
Trevor:guy's obviously a dickhead.
Trevor:What's a barbershop?
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Yeah, and I don't have to worry about it either.
Trevor:But it's just, Yeah.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:As James said in the chat room, So he just got preselected to the
Trevor:top of the ticket there as well.
Trevor:So he was second, I think, and he moved to the top.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:That's what I was
Scott:saying, that they reckon the radical Christian right has,
Scott:is stealing the Liberal Party.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:And it
Scott:really wouldn't surprise me after hearing that diatribe of nonsense.
Trevor:That's the best thing you've got to do.
Trevor:You're in a position in the Senate and that's, That's the
Trevor:best you can come up with.
Trevor:Ah, dear.
Trevor:So if you're looking for something to watch that would be better than
Trevor:that, there's a documentary on my favourite economist, Yanis Varoufakis.
Trevor:It's called Eye of the Storm.
Trevor:So if you go to eyeofthestorm.
Trevor:info, you'll find details about it.
Trevor:Four hours and 18 minutes.
Trevor:It costs 29.
Trevor:99.
Trevor:I haven't yet bought a copy and watched it.
Trevor:Waiting to see how many new patrons I get.
Trevor:And, . And,
Scott:if you two wanna, if you two wanna contribute to Trevor's d Trevor's slide
Scott:into socialism, then please do contribute that he can buy Eye of the Storm.
Scott:Yeah, that's
Trevor:right.
Trevor:So this socialist can watch another socialist talk about socialism.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:And you all have to contribute.
Trevor:Yeah, that's it.
Trevor:anyway, I'll have a storm, Giannis, I'm sure it'll be good.
Trevor:I'll get to it eventually.
Joe:When you can't find it on a dodgy download site, it's
Joe:called In the Eye of the Storm.
Trevor:Ah, okay, right.
Trevor:so, Australia's Trade Minister, Don Farrell, has come under fire from the
Trevor:opposition for saying he's not sure the United States is Australia's most trusted
Trevor:ally, and instead argued New Zealand is.
Trevor:So this guy, Senator Farrell, was filling in for Foreign Minister
Trevor:Penny Wong during question time.
Trevor:And made the comments after being questioned by the opposition's
Trevor:Claire Chandler about why the Australian government had
Trevor:not acted in line with the U.
Trevor:S., which is yet to restore funding to the main aid agency in Gaza, UNWRA.
Trevor:Remember dear listener, UNWRA was the Palestinian organization that basically
Trevor:provides the aid to Palestinians in Gaza, and due to uncorroborated
Trevor:statements by the Israelis, Of the tens of thousands of UNWWA employees, 12
Trevor:of them were allegedly part of Hamas.
Trevor:Our government, Canada, US and others, decided to withhold funding
Trevor:for the poor Palestinians in Gaza, the most needy people on the planet.
Trevor:And this bitch, Claire Chandler, is saying, why has the Australian government,
Trevor:restored the funding, which is out of line with our main ally, the US?
Trevor:How, how dare we restore that funding that we'd withdrawn?
Trevor:when our main ally hasn't.
Trevor:I mean that dickhead Antic was just stupidly foolish.
Trevor:That's a mean streak to this Claire Chandler.
Trevor:Anyway, this happens in question time and um, she says here, Why is the Albanese
Trevor:Labor government acting in opposition to the United States, our most trusted
Trevor:international partner, who await the outcomes of the investigation into UNRWA?
Trevor:And in the interim is pursuing alternate means of delivering
Trevor:more humanitarian assistance.
Trevor:I know they're
Scott:parachuting food in there, which, you know.
Trevor:A drop in the ocean, literally.
Trevor:What
Scott:is what they would actually need is they, they need the aid to resume.
Trevor:And killing people with the parachutes.
Trevor:Yes.
Trevor:The fact that
Scott:Israel is blocking that is just, it's
Trevor:bloody criminal what they're doing.
Trevor:It's genocide is what it is.
Trevor:It is, it's genocide.
Trevor:It's appalling.
Trevor:And, and for this woman to say.
Trevor:Why have we resumed aid to the Palestinians when the US hasn't?
Trevor:Because Finland
Scott:has resumed aid.
Trevor:Because it's the right thing to do, and it was incredibly stupid
Trevor:to take it away in the first place.
Trevor:That's why.
Trevor:Ahhhh.
Trevor:Scott, please.
Trevor:The Israelis claim 12 members, a part of Hamas, out of a
Trevor:staff of tens of thousands.
Trevor:Yeah, that's true.
Trevor:And when Claims by the Israelis, I wouldn't care if they were right.
Trevor:I wouldn't care if they said 200, 300, a thousand of them are Hamas.
Trevor:I wouldn't care.
Trevor:The innocent people in Gaza need help, and it's the only way to get it to them.
Trevor:But, anyway.
Trevor:Senator Farrell in responding, they restored it now.
Scott:Yes.
Scott:They restored the funding now, as has Finland.
Scott:I think
Trevor:Canada has
Scott:too.
Scott:Yes.
Scott:I think that the Yanks are the only ones that have still dropped, still
Scott:blocked funding, haven't they?
Scott:The UK also, also blocked
Trevor:funding.
Trevor:I'm not sure.
Trevor:But, so Senator Farrell, instead of saying, you mean hearted
Trevor:bitch, what are you talking about?
Trevor:He said, I'm not so sure about what you're saying here that, the United
Trevor:States is our most trusted ally.
Trevor:I would have said New Zealand.
Trevor:In the whole history of time.
Trevor:I would have said our closest international ally is New Zealand,
Trevor:but we're very close to the United States, I freely concede that.
Trevor:So, so then we get Shadow Affairs Minister, Simon Birmingham,
Trevor:quick to criticise the comments.
Trevor:Quote, It beggars belief that a cabinet minister in the foreign affairs and trade
Trevor:portfolio would be so eager to talk down Australia's partnership with the US.
Trevor:Senator Farrell's statement is something I would expect from the Greens.
Trevor:rather than a senior government minister.
Trevor:And Senator Labor, Liberal Senator James Patterson called
Trevor:the statement extraordinary.
Trevor:And said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should rein in his rogue colleague.
Joe:They're right, you know.
Joe:I mean, New Zealand doesn't have a spy station on our shores.
Joe:Nor does it have a marine base on our shores.
Joe:And we're not buying nuclear submarines from them.
Trevor:Yes.
Trevor:Wouldn't that make them a better ally?
Trevor:Sponging office?
Trevor:Honestly, what a terrible episode.
Trevor:In our Australian Parliament.
Trevor:Criticizing the return of aid, measly as it is, to Gaza, because the US
Trevor:hasn't restarted doing the same.
Trevor:And then getting all hysterical because Somebody filling in for
Trevor:the Foreign Affairs Minister says, you know, it's a bit of a toss up.
Trevor:I'd probably go for New Zealand as our best ally.
Trevor:What a sorry state of affairs.
Trevor:Oh, goodness me.
Trevor:okay.
Trevor:Nothing else to say more about that?
Joe:I was going to say, it's only because they don't have
Joe:real policies to argue about.
Joe:No.
Trevor:That's right.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Dutton.
Trevor:Remember we talked about Dutton and, his criticism of the CSIRO?
Trevor:Yes.
Trevor:So the C-S-I-R-O has produced, been producing the annual gen cost report
Trevor:and, the gen cost report, he questioned the report's integrity and said it was
Trevor:discredited because it doesn't take into account some of the transmission
Trevor:costs, the costs around subsidies, and the costs around subsidies for renewal.
Trevor:Of course, it does include transmission costs, like it's very
Trevor:specific, so it's complete bullshit to say it doesn't include the
Trevor:extra transmission costs associated with using renewable technology.
Trevor:Um, so, In that report, sorry, Joe.
Trevor:The report
Joe:questioned his
Trevor:integrity.
Trevor:Did it?
Trevor:No.
Trevor:Yeah, sure, we need a report on his integrity.
Trevor:Maybe that's what we're doing here on this podcast.
Trevor:So, the most recent GenCos report estimates a theoretical small modular
Trevor:reactor, if it's built in 2030, Would, it would cost between nearly 400 and 636 per
Trevor:megawatt hour to generate electricity.
Trevor:whereas wind and solar at around 91 or 130.
Trevor:So, you know, there's all this talk about, how long it would take us
Trevor:to build a reactor, and whether we have the capability of doing it, and
Trevor:there's sort of arguments about that.
Trevor:But they haven't, they've never come out and said, oh, well, of course, once it
Trevor:is built, the cost of generating this electricity and the nuclear one is going
Trevor:to be much cheaper than renewables.
Trevor:Like, they haven't admitted the extra cost involved with, you Nuclear power.
Trevor:It's crazily expensive compared to renewables, so, did you guys
Trevor:watch, there's a guy on, he, I guess he's the opposition energy
Trevor:spokesman, and he was on the Insiders?
Trevor:And, it was also on the 7.
Trevor:30, it was on the 7.
Trevor:30 report and talking about, nuclear power.
Trevor:Oh man,
Scott:that was when the host
Trevor:toured the new one, wasn't it?
Trevor:Well, he tried to, you know, he actually, because it's such a BS argument, he
Trevor:actually did half a good job of sort of the obfuscation and just rhetoric
Trevor:required to just keep talking and not get too bogged down in things.
Trevor:he's quite an evangelist for it.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:And apparently he didn't start off that way, but he's become that way.
Trevor:So, yeah, I did actually hear that.
Trevor:And he,
Scott:they, they said that he was chosen to chair that committee because he was
Scott:so level headed and he has now become quite an evangelist for nuclear energy.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:I think God
Trevor:alone knows why.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:I think he's just, he spent a lot of time talking to advocates for nuclear
Trevor:energy and not enough of advocates.
Trevor:For the contrary view, I think.
Trevor:I
Joe:read an article that was talking about, basically, there is a new
Joe:generation of, nuclear reactor that's being built at the moment in Europe and I
Joe:think one other country, I can't remember.
Joe:one of them is the Hinkley Point reconstruction being built by EDF,
Joe:which is the French electricity company, which is national and
Joe:runs all the French power stations.
Joe:And they're also upgrading one of the French ones.
Joe:I can't remember, basically saying how late they are, you know, they
Joe:were supposed to be in action.
Joe:They're three times over budget.
Joe:They're at least 10 years late.
Joe:and, and this is only with the current generation, the small modular reactors,
Joe:nobody's ever built one, who knows when, if ever, they'll build one.
Joe:This is all just bullshit.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Well, when
Scott:you, you know, when you, when you've got a country like Australia,
Scott:I don't think there's any point us investing any money in nuclear energy.
Scott:Because we've got plenty of wind, we've got plenty of sun, so all
Scott:you've got to do is just find a way of firming it up, and they've
Scott:started that up here in Queensland.
Scott:You know, you've got two dams, which are not yet under construction, but
Scott:they will be under construction.
Scott:And once they're constructed, water goes down, goes through
Scott:turbines to generate electricity.
Scott:During the day, once the sun's shining, the wind's blowing, and
Scott:that sort of stuff, you pump the water back up the top, you know.
Scott:It's, it makes perfect sense.
Trevor:You know, you talked before about how this, coalition has no
Trevor:policies, so they talk culture issue.
Trevor:They have one policy, and it's this nuclear energy policy.
Trevor:It's the worst possible policy.
Trevor:Frightening.
Trevor:Frightening.
Trevor:It is.
Trevor:Right.
Trevor:You know, because
Scott:you can only just see that you've got, you know, 382 to 636 per megawatt
Scott:hour, hour for the nuclear reactor.
Scott:Compared to 91 to 130 megawatt hour, for the, renewables.
Scott:Yeah, but
Joe:that's not important.
Joe:What's important is the vested interests who are funding the
Joe:political campaigns of the politicians.
Joe:Yeah.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:So, anyway, that's that story.
Trevor:Where were we?
Trevor:Crime rates.
Trevor:Dear listener, on your behalf, I read the Courier Mail every day.
Trevor:And I can tell you that for the last two years in particular, it's
Trevor:been running rampant with a law and order campaign about how much
Trevor:more crime there is in Queensland.
Trevor:And it's all the fault of the government.
Trevor:Anastasia Palaszczuk, and now it's the fault of Stephen Miles and various sort of
Trevor:LNP politicians come on at different times talking tough about law and order and,
Trevor:so it's been a big issue in the Courier Mail and there is a genuine perception
Trevor:in our community, crime rates are up.
Trevor:And so I was delighted to see this article which said, media reports suggest that
Trevor:crime rates are a significant issue.
Trevor:In the last few days, the ABS has published updated data on crime
Trevor:victimization over the last 14 years.
Trevor:And Guess what?
Trevor:the trend is downwards.
Trevor:So the different categories of break in, theft from a motor vehicle, attempted
Trevor:break in, malicious property damage, motor vehicle theft, other theft,
Trevor:and also physical assault, robbery, face to face threatened assault,
Trevor:sexual assault, non face to face threatened assault, and graphs, etc.
Trevor:In all 11 categories other than sexual assault, the trend is downwards.
Trevor:Data on sexual assault is influenced by a rise in the willingness of victims
Trevor:to report cases, which has almost certainly increased in recent years.
Trevor:And, examination of separate ABS data reveals that in the vast majority,
Trevor:around 90 percent of cases of violence against women, including sexual assault,
Trevor:the perpetrator is known to the victim.
Trevor:Nothing in ABS data supports suggestion that women face any increased threat.
Trevor:from unknown sexual predators at large in the streets.
Trevor:So, um, so yeah, I've been keen to get this statistic and, I reckon if
Trevor:you found a group of older people, boomers, in Queensland, who have
Trevor:been on a steady diet of Courier Mail and Sky News, and said to them, what
Trevor:do you reckon, sort of crime rates?
Trevor:Increasing a lot in the last couple of years, every single
Trevor:one of them would say, yes.
Trevor:And now you can say, well, guess what?
Trevor:No, they're not.
Trevor:And put a report under their nose if you'd like to.
Joe:I remember where it was pulled out.
Joe:I, an old copy of an Australian newspaper.
Joe:I think it was the Courier Mail, from something like a hundred years ago with.
Joe:youth crime is unbearable.
Joe:something needs to be done about it.
Trevor:So
Joe:this, this is a good scaremongering tactic to, whip up feelings
Joe:against the current government.
Joe:And in fact, I just got a, an advert in the mail today.
Joe:for the new Liberal Queensland MP for my area.
Joe:Sorry, candidate.
Trevor:State candidate.
Trevor:State, yes.
Joe:Yep.
Joe:and he was saying how, yeah, the number one on his thing was, more, more
Joe:police for the area, but also remove sentencing as a last, choice for youth
Trevor:offenders.
Trevor:Removed.
Trevor:Currently in sentencing.
Trevor:Currently in the
Joe:law, the sentencing guidelines say that jail is the last option, right?
Joe:Yeah.
Trevor:Incarceration.
Trevor:So
Joe:only, only once you've gone through everything else can you jail, teenagers.
Joe:Mm-Hmm.
Joe:And they're saying, we are going to remove this restriction.
Trevor:Because we want to jail war kids.
Trevor:Just, they're devoid of policies, but when they choose to take up a policy,
Trevor:they just grab the worst possible one.
Trevor:The worst possible one.
Trevor:So, in this report it says, just as no opposition party is justified in raising
Trevor:anxiety about crime, no government should claim bragging rights for the trends,
Trevor:because in part they have to do with demographics as the proportion of young
Trevor:males in our population diminishes, In part, they have to do with declining
Trevor:rewards from crimes, such as robbery.
Trevor:Stuff that was worth stealing 20 years ago.
Trevor:He's now practically worthless on the, fence market, and in part because cars
Trevor:and phones have become harder to steal, so, while the robberies It's one of those
Trevor:things, like, you know, we always used to
Scott:joke about losing our DVD player, someone would knock it off.
Trevor:Couldn't sell them anymore.
Trevor:No.
Trevor:It says here, while the rates of armed and unarmed robbery
Trevor:involving physical interactions have tumbled, cybercrime is on the rise.
Trevor:So that'll, that'll make sense.
Trevor:So, yeah, there we go.
Trevor:I've been dying for that.
Trevor:I, I am willing to bet a lot of money that the Courier Mail will
Trevor:not be reporting that data, or if they do, they won't be reporting
Trevor:it honestly, and in a fair light.
Trevor:So yeah, there we go.
Trevor:submarines.
Trevor:Budget problems.
Trevor:So in the US.
Trevor:The Department of Defense will order just one Virginia class nuclear powered
Trevor:attack submarine in the fiscal year of 2025, a drop from two per year.
Trevor:So the U.
Trevor:S.
Trevor:order has gone from two down to one, and it reflects shipbuilding bottlenecks.
Trevor:The private shipyards that produce these submarines face mounting backlogs
Trevor:due to limited capacity and personnel shortages, and the growth of the American
Trevor:defense budget has been constrained by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, so
Trevor:they don't have the same money that they might have hoped they would have.
Trevor:And, the Virginia class is amongst the casualties.
Trevor:So the US has promised to sell Australia three Virginia class
Trevor:submarines 20 32, 20 35, and 2038 with the option of providing two more.
Trevor:but the two boats per year pace that they had hoped to be at would only meet
Trevor:their own private US demand for subs.
Trevor:To cater to AUKUS and provide us with subs, the U.
Trevor:S.
Trevor:needs to construct 2.
Trevor:33 submarines per year.
Trevor:End.
Trevor:The actual delivery rate, in the last five years has been 1.
Trevor:2.
Trevor:So, if they're not building enough subs for themselves, what are the chances?
Trevor:It's easy.
Trevor:If,
Joe:if there's, if the demand goes down, the price goes down.
Joe:Yes.
Joe:So we can swoop in and take the capacity, the additional capacity in the shipyards.
Joe:Yeah.
Joe:And pay second hand prices for a brand new sub.
Trevor:They don't have excess capacity, Joe.
Trevor:Where'd you get that from?
Joe:Well, so they were supposed to be building two a year and
Joe:they're only going to order one.
Joe:That's because they couldn't.
Joe:That's a whole additional
Trevor:submarine.
Trevor:Not only didn't have the money for it, didn't have the capacity.
Trevor:So, a matching.
Trevor:Jesus.
Trevor:ALP, Rank and File Activist Group, Labor Against War, has called
Trevor:on the Albanese government to immediately freeze all planned AUKUS
Trevor:payments earmarked to underwrite the US Navy industrial shipyards.
Trevor:So, so we just are giving money to the U.
Trevor:S.
Trevor:and to the U.
Trevor:K.
Trevor:to build these ships that we're never going to get, and they're not
Trevor:going to refund this money to us.
Trevor:So, so when it comes to the U.
Trevor:K., we've just agreed to give them 4.
Trevor:6 billion.
Trevor:for the submarine nuclear reactor factory in the United Kingdom
Trevor:as part of a 10 year deal.
Trevor:Richard Marles was proud of this.
Trevor:Normally you hand over money in return for things.
Trevor:It's like, you got a sub there?
Trevor:Great.
Trevor:Here's the money.
Trevor:Now give us the sub or, or you've got a really concrete, structured contract
Trevor:that says, Show us a certain amount of works and then we will pay you
Trevor:some money, and show us more works and then we'll pay you more money.
Trevor:But we are just handing over money with nothing to show for it.
Trevor:It's our Labor Government.
Trevor:I'm sure the French will sell us some.
Trevor:So?
Joe:The French will
Trevor:sell us some.
Scott:Well, they will sell us some, but you know, it's, the French
Scott:submarines were designed to be nuclear powered, but they had to retrofit
Scott:diesels into them, you know, which didn't actually work all that well.
Scott:They were predicting there'd be problems with it and all
Trevor:that sort of stuff.
Trevor:Announcing the payment, Richard Miles was with his UK counterpart, Grant Shapps.
Trevor:And, Mr.
Trevor:Schaps said Orcus was fundamentally about securing freedom of navigation
Trevor:in an increasingly dangerous world, in a region that includes
Trevor:an increasingly belligerent China.
Scott:Is that, David Cameron in
Trevor:that photo?
Trevor:would have been, yeah, because David Cameron's part of the government now,
Trevor:part of this foreign trade stuff.
Trevor:Yeah, he is part of the government.
Trevor:He's,
Scott:must have been given a lordship or something like
Scott:that to do that type of work.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:And.
Trevor:You know, of course, opposition leader Peter Dutton has
Trevor:lauded the submarine deal.
Trevor:He's a dickhead.
Trevor:Liam McMahon will be pleased to know that Green Senator David Shoebridge was
Trevor:less congratulatory, arguing Aukus was, quote, bleeding Australian taxpayers dry.
Trevor:And he says, remarkably, we have an Australian government celebrating
Trevor:sending some five billion of Australian taxpayers money to the United Kingdom to
Trevor:prop up their failing nuclear industry.
Trevor:He's a dickhead.
Trevor:On top of the 4.
Trevor:7 billion, the Albanesia's government has already committed to the
Trevor:United States to prop up theirs.
Trevor:We're just agreeing to hand over 10 billion.
Trevor:Hi guys, take this money, hope it helps you make subs.
Trevor:horrendous policymaking.
Trevor:Save this like What was that, Joe?
Trevor:You said you'd save
Joe:this
Trevor:like it's a bad thing.
Trevor:Yeah, I just, it's extraordinary.
Trevor:Another reason to vote Greens, Scott.
Scott:I'm going to do that, but I'm going to do it under protest.
Trevor:It should start to get enjoyable when you have issues like this.
Scott:That's fine, but
Scott:we've just got to see what the rest of them come up with, because, I am very
Trevor:concerned.
Trevor:About?
Scott:Well, by some of the things the Greens have said.
Scott:Now, you know, I know it's
Trevor:Back to the Realtors.
Trevor:Sorry?
Trevor:You were concerned about their policy with property, is that it?
Trevor:Yeah, exactly.
Scott:It's one of those things, I know it's not all that PC to PC to
Scott:PC, Pull apart, what's his name, Max Chandler, whatever his surname
Trevor:is.
Trevor:It's,
Scott:I just think to myself that he's got a very simplistic view of the world.
Scott:And that he is actually blaming people, the wrong people,
Scott:for the problems of renters.
Scott:And I can agree with him on occasion about some of the things
Scott:he says, but not everything he
Trevor:says.
Trevor:Did you guys see the video of the drone attack on the Palestinians in Gaza?
Scott:No, I've just heard about it.
Scott:I read it in your notes on
Trevor:Saturday.
Trevor:Okay.
Trevor:Let me just find here, why isn't it coming up?
Trevor:Oh, it is.
Trevor:Look, it's a bit long, so, I don't think there's any audio with this.
Trevor:So, this part will be cut out of the audio only podcast.
Trevor:But for you who are watching, if you haven't seen this before,
Trevor:it's quite shocking, I think.
Trevor:So, have a look at this.
Trevor:I'll just, mute her because, supposedly these four youngish
Trevor:looking men were returning to their homes in, I think Northern Gaza.
Trevor:and walking along the street with no obvious weapons showing and
Trevor:fairly just innocuous looking group walking along a pathway and
Trevor:then just sit back and watch it.
Trevor:It's just appalling.
Trevor:Jesus Christ.
Trevor:Just like that.
Trevor:Just in a whiff.
Trevor:Just awful.
Trevor:They really are.
Trevor:There's one remaining.
Trevor:One remaining one is left.
Trevor:What did they do wrong?
Trevor:One remaining one is left, walking along there.
Trevor:Can't have any getting away, so they've honed in on him as well.
Trevor:So is this Israeli footage?
Trevor:I think this has come from, I think it was leaked from Israeli
Trevor:footage, because I think they needed this drain for Bloody hell.
Trevor:You know, clearly these people were not providing a threat against anybody at the
Trevor:time, and that's the sort of, stuff that, that, this, these Israelis are up to, so.
Trevor:I mean, this guy's reduced to just crawling from his injuries,
Trevor:and it's just, they have lost all They've lost an immorality.
Trevor:humanity.
Trevor:Yeah, it's,
Scott:one of those things, I used to have some sympathy with Israel,
Scott:but now it's, it's gone on too long.
Scott:you know, I can understand I could understand why they were keeping up the
Scott:battle and all that sort of stuff, because all they wanted was their citizens back.
Scott:However, They are completely ignoring everything Anthony Blinken's been
Scott:telling them and all that sort of stuff.
Scott:So I think to myself that, you know, we should leave them alone now and
Scott:just, you know, arm the Palestinians, you know, to turn the weapons
Trevor:on Israel.
Trevor:Yeah, John tells me I better get it off YouTube quickly because the
Trevor:YouTube censor will be onto me.
Trevor:They probably will be.
Trevor:I'll try and, you know, I'll make it, I'll just make it private to start with,
Trevor:because they, yeah, they will censor that, probably, but it's shocking to see.
Trevor:Absolutely, it's really disgusting.
Trevor:Now, let me just try this one as well.
Trevor:See what this says.
Trevor:Devastating
Joe:burns in
Trevor:small
Joe:children, one child
Trevor:at a time.
Trevor:Okay, so this one here, is a British doctor who treated
Trevor:Palestinian victims, in Gaza.
Trevor:So, let's just go back to him and start at the beginning.
Trevor:Devastating
Joe:burns in small
Trevor:children.
Trevor:One child along, never forget, had burns so bad you could see her facial bones.
Trevor:We knew there was no chance of her surviving that, but there
Trevor:was no morphine to give her.
Trevor:So not only was
Joe:she inevitably going to die, but
Trevor:She would die in agony, and what made it even worse, there
Trevor:was nowhere for her to go and
Joe:die.
Joe:So she was just left on the floor of the emergency department to die.
Trevor:So, that's going on in hospitals.
Trevor:People being starved to death.
Trevor:disease.
Trevor:It's a complete wipeout of that society.
Trevor:so, ah, it's as bad as it gets.
Trevor:It is as bad as it gets, and, what can we do?
Trevor:Nothing, that I'm aware of.
Scott:Well, you know, I think Israel's got to pull out, because they have,
Scott:they have squandered any moral, moral argument that they had by just, that
Scott:footage should be enough for Blinken to say, you've got to back out, and
Scott:you've got to back out now, or we're going to start arming the other side.
Scott:You know, it's because four gids, and that sort of stuff, walking
Scott:to their own home and then they were taken out by predator drones.
Trevor:Hmm.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Other things.
Trevor:Palestinian medical staff in Gaza have told the BBC they were
Trevor:blindfolded, detained, forced to strip, repeatedly beaten by Israeli troops.
Trevor:after a raid at their hospital.
Trevor:So, one of the doctors described being held for a week in detention where
Trevor:muzzled dogs were set upon him and his hand was broken by an Israeli soldier.
Trevor:His account matches that of other medics who wanted to remain anonymous.
Trevor:Um, they told the BBC they were humiliated, beaten, doused with cold
Trevor:water, forced to kneel in uncomfortable positions for hours and were detained
Trevor:for days before being released.
Trevor:So, that's other medical staff in Gaza.
Trevor:so, you know, that report about Israel, saying that some
Trevor:members of UNRWA were Hamas.
Trevor:So, UNRWA responds, by saying that employees released into Gaza from Israeli
Trevor:detention reported having been pressured by Israeli authorities into falsely
Trevor:stating that the agency has Hamas links.
Trevor:so there's allegations that Israel was torturing Palestinians to
Trevor:say that they were from Hamas.
Trevor:Who knows where the truth lies with all these things.
Trevor:and while all that's happening, Caitlin Johnston pointed to a
Trevor:poll by Pew Research Center.
Trevor:So Pew Research are a respected polling group that we've quoted on
Trevor:numerous occasions in this podcast.
Trevor:And, and they, asked Americans.
Trevor:Um, The number of deaths in the current Israel Hamas war has been, about
Trevor:the same, meaning same for Israel vs Palestine number of deaths, higher amongst
Trevor:Israelis, higher amongst Palestinians.
Trevor:and Not Sure.
Trevor:So, asking Israel, Americans, which side has had more deaths?
Trevor:Only 52 percent could correctly say that the death toll is
Trevor:higher amongst the Palestinians.
Trevor:7 percent thought they were the same.
Trevor:7 percent thought it was higher amongst Israelis, and 34 percent were not sure.
Trevor:So, that's a pretty damning indictment.
Trevor:34 percent said not sure which side has had the most.
Trevor:I would be surprised
Joe:that even 52%.
Trevor:Yeah, can Joe, can you just speak up a bit closer to the
Trevor:microphone because you're a bit low.
Trevor:Yeah, okay.
Trevor:well, it's just appalling, isn't it?
Trevor:Half the country can't say with confidence, has no idea that
Trevor:of course Palestinians have suffered more deaths than Israel.
Trevor:How do you get, what's the point of a democracy when You could say , when
Trevor:people are so ill-informed, how can they vote on issues and what is the point of
Trevor:it if people are so propagandized that they have no idea of what's going on?
Trevor:The whole idea of democracy is we all look around, see what's going
Trevor:on, make assessments about what's best, and vote for the group.
Trevor:We think that'll do it.
Trevor:And when half the people don't even know something as
Trevor:fundamental as that is the point
Joe:I I, I dunno that they're propagandized.
Joe:I think they're just.
Joe:, they don't care.
Joe:They don't pay attention.
Trevor:It's the subtle propaganda, propaganda, Joe.
Trevor:Like it's all those headlines, you know, Israelis are, are, are killed.
Trevor:Whereas, the Palestinians, die, you know, in strange ways when they're gathering
Trevor:to collect flour from an aid station.
Trevor:It's, it's, it's all that subtlety of the headlines is the propaganda, I think.
Trevor:So, and you're right, and then they just don't read it, most of them anyway.
Trevor:So, what else we got here?
Trevor:It's from Kaitlyn Johnson.
Trevor:she says, American movies and TV shows like to make fun of nations like North
Trevor:Korea for having state propaganda, but Americans are easily the most
Trevor:propagandised population on Earth.
Trevor:The propaganda of the mainstream press is so effective because Americans don't
Trevor:know it's propaganda, so they consume it without distrust or scepticism.
Trevor:So, and that's all about the headlines we talked about before.
Trevor:What else have I got here?
Trevor:Yes, so Australia is going to reinstate the money for ANWR,
Trevor:the six million dollar funding.
Trevor:Here we go.
Trevor:6 million funding that we were quibbling about, and we have just
Trevor:agreed to 10 billion dollars.
Trevor:Yeah, no, for the AUKUS agreement.
Trevor:Penny Wong said, On that basis, and after consideration by the National
Trevor:Security Committee this week, Australia is unpausing our contribution to UNRWA.
Trevor:There are two facts a responsible government can't
Trevor:ignore in relation to UNRWA.
Trevor:They do lifesaving work and the recent allegations were grave.
Trevor:So the decision I'm announcing today as the result of the Australian government
Trevor:working together with our partners to rebuild confidence, to establish ongoing
Trevor:diligence about the use of aid money generously given by the Australian people.
Trevor:What a load of good crap, beginning with the word un pausing
Trevor:our contribution, God's sake.
Trevor:Ah, Of course, it's Hamas's fault, because they, they set a trap for Israel.
Trevor:So, Haaretz, it's like the third most popular newspaper in Israel, and it had
Trevor:a headline reading, Israel has fallen into Hamas trap, but there's a way out.
Trevor:Hamas hope is to provoke Israel into killing enough civilians
Trevor:to defeat Israel politically.
Trevor:A classic terrorist strategy of provocation that Israel has fallen for.
Trevor:But beating Hamas requires unconventional thinking.
Trevor:So yeah, according to the Israeli baby.
Trevor:Paper.
Trevor:Hamas set a trap.
Trevor:Australia's gotta be careful not to fall into.
Scott:Well, how many more civilians do they have to kill
Scott:before they've actually tripped
Trevor:into that trap?
Trevor:Indeed.
Trevor:And the whole talk They've already got 32, 000 on their list.
Trevor:And the whole talk now is of a seaport.
Trevor:so they're talking about constructing a port, that will allow aid in
Trevor:and out rather than via roads.
Trevor:And, Israel admits that Biden's Gaza seaport has been
Trevor:Netanyahu's idea all along.
Trevor:Oh, garbage.
Trevor:Well, it's part of Israel's plans to dismantle and replace UNRWA, as well as
Trevor:permanently cut off Gaza from Israel.
Trevor:So having this port would mean there'd be no crossing of the
Trevor:border between Gaza and Israel.
Trevor:They can all go via the port and, just isolate.
Trevor:How will you actually,
Scott:sorry to cut you off, Trevor, but how the hell would
Scott:Israel actually keep an eye on what was going into, into the occupied
Trevor:territories?
Trevor:I don't know.
Trevor:I don't know how that would work.
Trevor:It's one of
Scott:those things, like at least if it's crossing over Israeli
Scott:land and that sort of stuff, they can go in and search it before it
Trevor:turns up there.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:I guess because there were tunnels, weren't there?
Trevor:So, they were tunnels,
Scott:but that's how they, I
Trevor:guess, I think they
Scott:actually got the stuff over, over and then they
Scott:unloaded it and then they put
Trevor:down the tunnels.
Trevor:I would imagine they would find it easier to monitor what's coming in and out when
Trevor:it comes via ship, but the Israelis will control the port and, okay, gotcha, and
Trevor:so they can see everything coming on and off the ships and then they can just flood
Trevor:the border areas so there's no tunnels.
Trevor:So completely stopping any sort of illegal trade, I think, is what the plan would be.
Trevor:Yeah, so I think we mentioned that Prime Minister was being referred
Trevor:to the International Criminal Court for investigation over
Trevor:his role in supporting Israel.
Trevor:Both with, you know, things we've already discussed, but you
Trevor:might ask, well, would the U.
Trevor:S.
Trevor:President be worried by the International Criminal Court, and the answer is no.
Trevor:The U.
Trevor:S.
Trevor:threatens to arrest the judges in the International Criminal Court if they even
Trevor:dare to investigate American war crimes.
Trevor:So here is a clip, I'll try and find this one, let me, this is an older one, I think
Trevor:In relation to, not Gaza, but in relation to Ukraine or something like that,
Trevor:where They were talking about, the U.
Trevor:S.
Trevor:response if the International Criminal Court was to look at America.
Trevor:So, let's wind up.
Trevor:We will respond against the ICC and its personnel to the extent permitted by U.
Trevor:S.
Trevor:law.
Trevor:We will ban its judges and prosecutors from entering the United States.
Trevor:We will sanction their funds in the U.
Trevor:S.
Trevor:financial system, and we will prosecute them in the U.
Trevor:S.
Trevor:criminal system.
Trevor:We will do the same for any company or state that that assists an
Trevor:ICC investigation of Americans.
Trevor:There we go, that's all Albanese had to do.
Trevor:He wouldn't have a problem.
Trevor:That's their view.
Trevor:Um, what did the Malaysian They said that
Joe:the ICC, wouldn't be allowed to investigate US war crimes.
Joe:They've
Trevor:always said that.
Trevor:Yes, so that was what that was in relation to.
Trevor:And that would be their response to anybody working in the ICC.
Trevor:If they were to think about doing it, or try to do it.
Joe:Which is strange, because they were very fond of the ICC, in 1945, 46.
Trevor:Yeah.
Scott:Yeah, but see, that was back when the Yanks actually had a moral compass.
Scott:They've lost, you know, it's one of those things I just think to myself that when
Scott:you look back over the arc of American history, and I know I will be very much
Scott:criticized for this, but I think John F.
Scott:Kennedy was probably where it first started to fall apart, you know?
Scott:prior to that there were some missteps and that sort of stuff, but
Scott:I think JFK really did cock it up for
Trevor:them.
Trevor:Now we can rely on Malaysia for moral authority.
Trevor:Here we go.
Trevor:I think this is a Malaysian PM with German PM at one point.
Trevor:I think he finishes in German shortly.
Trevor:They understood you cannot find a solution by getting so, one sided in
Trevor:terms of looking only at one particular issue and erase 60 years of atrocities.
Trevor:The solution is not just releasing the hostages.
Trevor:What about the settlements?
Trevor:What about the behavior of the settlers now?
Trevor:Continues daily.
Trevor:What about the dispossession, their land, their rights, their dignity,
Trevor:their men, their women, their children?
Trevor:Are these of no concern?
Trevor:Where have we thrown our humanity?
Trevor:Why this hypocrisy?
Trevor:Why this selective and ambivalent attitude towards one race and one another?
Trevor:We did because they are colored or they are different religions, but
Trevor:I of course cannot accept the fact that when you, discuss issues we only
Trevor:confine to one particular incident.
Trevor:And one victim for getting the Thousands and thousands of thousands
Trevor:of victims from the Nakba of 1947 1948.
Trevor:That seemed quite reasonable
Scott:He was quite reasonable He's just trying to actually get the
Scott:Europeans to understand that it's more than just October 7th, you
Scott:know And he's right, you know, those settlements are disgraceful what
Trevor:they're actually doing there.
Trevor:Anyway, Jared Kushner has the answer he says that Gaza's waterfront
Trevor:property could be very valuable You So, he praised the valuable potential
Trevor:of Gaza's waterfront property and suggested Israel should remove
Trevor:civilians while it cleans up the Strip.
Trevor:Now you might think, who cares what Jared Kushner thinks, but Kushner was Senior
Trevor:Foreign Policy Advisor under Trump's first presidency and was tasked with preparing
Trevor:a peace plan for the Middle East.
Joe:And he's Trump's
Trevor:son in law and a Jew.
Trevor:Is he a Jew?
Trevor:Yes, okay, I didn't know that.
Trevor:Yeah, that was
Joe:Trump's claim he couldn't be anti Semitic because he
Joe:had a Jewish background.
Trevor:Son in law.
Trevor:There we go.
Trevor:There we go.
Trevor:So that's, Kushner's solution.
Trevor:Quickly, how much we, yeah, we get rattling through these.
Trevor:Ukraine update.
Trevor:The Pope.
Trevor:You might remember, dear listener and fellow podcasters, I've been saying for
Trevor:a long time that Ukraine should have just surrendered the parts that they'd lost.
Trevor:And now it turns out I'm in agreement with Pope Francis.
Trevor:He said in an interview that Ukraine should have what he called the
Trevor:courage of the white and negotiate an end to the war with Russia.
Trevor:He's quoted as saying, but I think that the strongest one is the one
Trevor:who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage
Trevor:of the white flag and negotiates.
Trevor:He said, the word negotiate is a courageous word.
Trevor:When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you
Trevor:have to have the courage to negotiate.
Trevor:Yeah,
Scott:but do you honestly believe that Vladimir Putin would be happy
Scott:with a Donetsk region, or would he just take that, go back home, lick
Scott:his wounds and that sort of stuff, rebuild his tanks, and then go back
Scott:in there and take the rest of the
Trevor:country later?
Trevor:Might do, but you just can't keep throwing bodies at If
Joe:Italy took St Mark's Square, do you think he'd be happy to negotiate?
Trevor:If Italy took St Mark's Square?
Joe:Isn't that the In front of the, the Papal
Trevor:Palace?
Trevor:Who knows?
Trevor:He may well negotiate.
Trevor:I mean, you know, the Pope originally had the whole of Italy and he's
Trevor:been reduced to the Vatican.
Trevor:So, so he negotiated, you know, previous Popes have raised the white
Trevor:flag enough to, to reduce what was the entire of Italy back to what is now
Trevor:just the small little Vatican State.
Trevor:So, so yes, they have, Surrendered.
Trevor:In the past, but as different popes,
Joe:not the one that's
Trevor:suggesting.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:All right Yeah, you want to keep fighting keep throwing men at them and it's the
Trevor:end of the generation of young people in the Ukraine But yeah, we're just going to
Scott:see what happens I suspect he is going to have to negotiate
Scott:with that bastard But that bastard has proven time and time and time
Scott:again that he cannot be trusted.
Trevor:Mm hmm.
Trevor:You know, he's a prick Mm hmm John says, I'm clutching now.
Trevor:Trevor, what, what am I clutching at?
Trevor:John?
Trevor:Tell me.
Trevor:I'm clutching.
Trevor:Well, the,
Joe:the, the, the Pope, he also agrees with you as if you've ever cared
Trevor:what the Pope thinks.
Trevor:Yeah, exactly.
Trevor:Well, you know, stop the clock.
Trevor:Twice a day.
Trevor:So yeah, I think
Scott:the Pope's rule is probably right.
Scott:Less than twice, twice a day.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Just for a bit of humor, did you all know Donald Trump was a great athlete?
Trevor:Don't you?
Trevor:I had no, yeah.
Trevor:Oh, here you go.
Trevor:This is just to prove it.
Trevor:On a lighter note, I'll share that president Trump, like many of us in
Trevor:the room, is a big time sports fan.
Trevor:And I say that because it makes sense.
Trevor:President Trump is a great athlete.
Trevor:When he was growing up, he excelled in sports, and I'm not sure if I
Trevor:should say this, but just a few weeks ago, President Trump put to
Trevor:shame two professional golfers.
Trevor:I ain't gonna mention their names, but just know, he shot a 70 on 18 holes.
Trevor:And I don't know about y'all, but I would pay good money to see Joe Biden
Trevor:vs Donald Trump on a golf course.
Trevor:I don't
Scott:think Joe Biden
Trevor:plays golf, does he?
Trevor:Is, is there no shit, no end to the shit these guys believe and mouth off?
Trevor:As if Trump shoots a 70 and beats a couple of pro golfers.
Joe:When, whichever Kim it was, was born, all the birds started
Joe:singing his praises in Korea.
Joe:It's just as believable.
Joe:Well,
Trevor:they said that there was a story now that you mentioned
Trevor:about Kim played golf once.
Trevor:Yes.
Trevor:Got a hole in one.
Trevor:No, not just one.
Trevor:Oh, okay.
Trevor:But like four holes in one and it went round in some, you know, 45 or something
Trevor:on a par 72, some ridiculous story.
Trevor:And we're all laughing about it.
Trevor:I'm going to have to find that story for next week.
Trevor:and now we've got America falling into the most crazy North Korean propaganda.
Trevor:The cult of personality.
Trevor:Yes.
Trevor:More of the propaganda that we're talking about, so.
Trevor:Right.
Trevor:Well, that's enough for an episode.
Trevor:I'd better make this one a private one, or get rid of it, so that, It
Trevor:doesn't get me a strike for being naughty for showing those videos.
Trevor:Dear listener, well, guys in the chat, good on you.
Trevor:Thanks for watching.
Trevor:Dear listener, thanks for listening.
Trevor:We will be, actually next week is Easter Monday.
Trevor:You guys busy or what are you doing?
Scott:I'm going to Sydney for the long
Trevor:weekend.
Trevor:Yeah.
Trevor:Joe, you around?
Trevor:I'm around.
Trevor:Very around.
Trevor:Just, not sure what will be happening next week.
Trevor:Keep an eye on Facebook for any notices about times and things.
Trevor:Not sure how that'll pan out, but we'll see.
Trevor:All right.
Trevor:Talk to you then.
Trevor:Bye for now.
Trevor:And it's a good night from me.
Joe:And
Scott:it's a good night from him.
Scott:Good night.