And we're back, episode 444.

Closing in on the 450 mark, Iron Fist Velvet Glove podcast.

I'm Trevor, over there in regional Queensland.

Scott the Velvet Glove.

How are you, Scott?

Good, thanks, Trevor.

G'day, Trevor.

G'day, Joe.

G'day, listeners.

I hope everyone's well.

Hopefully they are.

And Joe, the tech guy, of course.

Evening all.

So yes, we're here.

We're going to talk about news and politics and sex and religion.

Actually, not much about sex, I don't think.

Um, we talked a little bit about last week.

Somebody was happy about that.

But, uh, yeah, look, what's on the agenda?

I think, well, we had the debate.

Between, uh, Kamala, Kamala?

Kamala Harris and Trump, and, uh, the things that came out of that.

Still just lots of US bad behavior on the planet.

See where we end up on different topics, but I think it's one where

there's a lot of foreign affairs.

Not a lot.

locally happening, although a tiny bit we'll get to, but, uh, yeah, if

you're in the chat room, say hello.

If you find a topic boring, remember there are chapters in

the audio version of this podcast.

So you can look at the chapters and skip around and scoot around and

repeat things or skip over things.

So Scott, what did you think of the debate between Donald Trump and, and

Harris and how it all panned out to me?

Impressions that you had from that?

Well, only that, um, It wasn't really all that surprising that Donald

Trump brought up eating the dogs and eating the cats, you know, because

I think the man is an imbecile.

Because he's an imbecile, it really wouldn't surprise me that he had

someone telling him to actually say it, and he probably thought, yeah, that

sounds like a good idea, I'll say that.

He's just led by anyone that's got a right wing base and that type of thing.

Now, there was that.

Laura Loomer, was it?

She's got 1.

2 million followers on X.

So it really wouldn't surprise me that the other Republicans are right.

That was possibly her that actually told him to say

it.

You know.

The first time around we had crazy Steve Bannon was sort of in the wings.

And we felt that he was the guy prompting Trump into dark corners.

Apparently Laura, Laura Loomer, conspiracy theorist, is very upset that

people are spreading conspiracies that she's in a relationship with Trump.

Really?

Yes.

Ah, so she was in the plane with him the day before, and apparently she Hang

on, she, who's a 9 11 denier, was on the plane to the 9 11 memorial.

Yeah, a 9 11 denier on the plane to the memorial, yes.

He took her

to the memorial

service.

Of

course.

Yes, of course.

She actually believes it's an inside job, doesn't she?

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

A nasty piece of work.

I've got a little clip from her.

So let's just, for those who aren't familiar with Laura Loomer, this

is one of Trump's key advisors and seemingly the woman behind Um, he,

he wanted to hire her, uh, his, his, his, um, advisors said no.

The other crazy advi the other crazy advisors said, this one is

too crazy.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think they were right, based on, based on this little clip here anyway.

Um, this, uh, okay, here we go.

So malicious, so disrespectful to Donald

Trump and Melania Trump.

They've taken it so far.

And you know, if I was a leftist journalist, if I was a, if I was a

Democrat, oh my God, the media would be up in arms if the Republican

media was doing this to a, uh, you know, a left wing journalist.

Oh my God, they're misogynists, they're bullying a woman, they're

trying to, they're trying to Monica Lewinsky her, they're, you know,

they're demonizing her, they're, they're, they're trying to discredit

the fact that she's a working woman.

I mean, look, I know that Kamala Harris sucked it to get where she is today, okay,

and she had to sleep with Willie Brown in order to, uh, to get to the top, but some

of us women, right, we actually work hard.

Some of us women have no desire to have sexual affairs with

politicians or men with elite political status to climb the ladder.

I know that Kamala Harris can't say the same, but, you know, believe

me when I say that, uh, that's not me, or as Kamala Harris likes to

say, they ain't like us, right?

She ain't like me.

I ain't like her.

Hey, I don't suck dick to get to the top.

That's what Kamala Harris

is.

Well, she's just weird.

You know, when people talk like that, where she says she doesn't suck dick

to get to the top, I immediately think she must be sucking dick to get to the top.

People who put forward It's like when you're in business and you meet

a new customer or somebody and they tell you, Don't worry, I always pay

my debts, you'll never have to worry.

And it's like, oh no, they're gonna, they're gonna miss a payment.

He's been going on for months about how he wasn't involved in Golden Showers.

Yes.

You know that he was.

So just the vehement sort of talk like that just makes you think that, okay,

probably there's What is it, um, He Doth Protest Too Much, or something like that?

The Lady Doth Protest Too Much.

Yes, The Lady Doth Protest Too Much.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's Shakespeare, I think.

Yes.

Yeah, it is Shakespeare.

I couldn't tell you what play it's from, but anyway.

Yeah, so, um, Shailene says, I'll Never Let You Down is the one for me.

Good

to see you there, Shailene.

Hey, Shailene, I'm never going to give you up.

Yeah, that's true.

No, when people have to verbalize stuff, but yeah, you have to worry, don't you?

Hmm.

So, particularly, Scott, your reaction, you obviously thought that

was pretty low blow, fairly nasty work, her commentary there, it seemed.

Oh, it was, yeah.

You know, how she actually accused Carmel Harris of sleeping away to the top.

I mean, I know a lot of people always said that about Maggie Thatcher

and all that type of thing, but that just, they just, Did they?

Ah, no.

These, these Nancy Reagan was known as The Throat.

Oh, was she?

Yeah.

Hmm.

Okay.

Apparently, Margaret Thatcher was quite a, a, um, how do you say it?

Prude?

No, no, she gave off a sexual vibe.

Yeah.

Christopher Hitchens.

Yeah.

would talk about how she gave off a vibe and she spanked him with

a magazine on his bum and other world leaders who met her and other

people said that Margaret Thatcher definitely gave off a womanly vibe,

which you wouldn't suspect from afar.

I just think to myself, this is probably a, she was the first of a

international leader that was a woman.

Okay, now you've got to, not, okay, that's probably discounting,

Whatever her name was, Mrs.

Gandhi in India, and, um, Golda Meir, and those sorts of people.

But they weren't, they weren't Prime Ministers or Presidents

of a large, powerful country.

Are you doubting this story, Scott?

I am down in the story.

Now, I just think to myself that, yes, she may have given off some sexual

vibes, but I don't think she would actually cheat on Dennis though.

No, no, not suggesting that.

But I'm just suggesting that, um, uh, she had a sense of flirtation about her.

I'm not saying that she

went and did anything, but certainly had that sort

of aura about her, which Oh,

that doesn't surprise

me.

Right.

Okay.

All right.

Um, yeah, but particularly nasty that Laura Loomer.

Oh God, she is awful.

Yeah, there's a bit of a theme here.

Actually, well, I'll jump to it now.

Well, just while we're on it, Julia Gillard came out and, um, former Labor

Prime Minister Julia Gillard's called on the party to never remove its 50 percent

female quota for parliamentary candidates.

And I think that's a good thing.

But if we're hoping that, um, it lifts the calibre, I don't know that it does.

It just seems to me that more and more apparent that just, world leaders, it

doesn't matter whether they're male or female, there's just a shitty bunch

that we're lumbered with and the system is promoting shitty women as much

as men at the moment, unfortunately.

Well, it's all about women.

A desire for power, isn't it?

Yes, and just because you're gender may be a female gender doesn't

mean that you're necessarily a better politician or leader than male.

So, uh, in this article I was looking at, it was looking at, say, Condoleezza

Rice during the helm of the US Iraq weapons of mass destruction debacle.

Margaret Thatcher, responsible for plenty of bad things.

Hillary Clinton, sanctioned the murder of Gaddafi.

Angela Merkel, um, was cruelling the Minsk Accords.

So, there's plenty of, yeah.

Okay for Julia Gillard, yes, a 50 percent quota in Labor is great, but gee.

Don't, um, have too much hope in that lifting the overall standard

because it seems that the ones we get are still pretty bad.

Speaking of I don't think that's entirely true.

Like, Peter Murphy was obviously a very good, um, MP.

She was the, she was the Labor candidate that died from breast cancer.

I can't remember when, but she, uh, died a little while ago.

And she was, um, she got made a, made quite a name for herself.

I don't know.

Look, you can always pick and choose and find good and bad in both,

but I'm just saying that, uh, uh, it's, it's not necessarily going to

lead to any better policy or outcomes.

So at least we'll be able to blame women as much as we can blame old men for

the predicament we find ourselves in.

Well,

that's true.

Have you guys seen much of Goan?

No, I just thought it was very amusing that, um, when, what was her name?

The last former foreign minister, the lady from the Liberal side, what was her name?

Um, Julie Bishop.

Julie Bishop.

When she was asked about, you know, Does she ever think a, a, a successful woman

will become leader of the Liberal Party?

And she said, I don't know, we'll have to find one first, won't we?

And then she just turned around and walked away, you know?

I just thought that was very amusing how she actually said,

well, I'm a successful woman.

Why the hell are you asking me?

Yeah, hmm.

Anyway,

uh Yeah Anyway, that was that.

Just before we get too far, am I echoing a bit, Joe?

Is that what you were saying?

Yeah,

just there's

some sants.

Okay.

Maybe I should try, um, will I try echo cancellation?

Maybe see how that goes?

Is that, Ooh, that just sounds weird.

That sounds weird.

I'll go back.

Yeah, I'll leave it going.

Hey, um, let's just circle back to Trump.

I saw this particular clip, and I found it fascinating, so when we're thinking

about the debate that was just going on, and whether it will change minds, and Oh,

no, but, uh, she was really good at baiting him.

Yes.

I absolutely,

exactly, exactly, that was what she actually needed to do.

Yeah, absolutely, people needed to see what a wild Petulant

child he is, yeah.

Yeah.

Just for a bit of sport, for a bit of fun.

Will it change any minds, is, is the question.

Probably not.

Those wedded onto him are going to carry on.

But, you know, in terms of, they're saying the last debate,

um, got rid of Biden, didn't it?

So he can have an impact.

Yes, uh, I think the last debate showed that the, had a problem where the

Democratic supporters were unmotivated because they were going, um, No, John,

I don't think Twitch is going, sorry.

Um, I've got a clip here which I found fascinating about how

rusted on the MAGA supporters are.

and the shameless way that they will switch their story.

So this is, this is, um, instructive, this one, and just scary.

So I'll play this for a bit.

Do you mind if I ask you who you voted for in the last election?

Trump.

Trump?

I'm going to guess you voted for Trump.

It says Donald Trump.

Do you mind if I just ask you a few questions about things that

Biden has done in his administration?

And you can kind of give me your opinion on that.

Um, what did you think when Joe Biden suggested that COVID could be cured by

shining a bright light inside the body?

Um, it is very sad.

Wait, what happened then?

Do

you mind if I ask you who you voted for in the last election?

Trump.

Trump?

I'm gonna guess you voted for Trump.

I played right straight.

It says Donald Trump!

Do you mind if I just ask you a few questions about things that Biden has

done in his administration and you can kind of give me your opinion on that?

Um, what did you think when Joe Biden suggested that COVID could be cured by

shining a bright light inside the body?

Is it

playing anything?

Yeah, can

you tell?

It is very sad that Joe Biden did that.

It's clearly a dementia patient.

Supposedly it would hit the body with a tremendous, uh, whether it's

ultraviolet or just very powerful light.

What do you think about Joe Biden saying that getting

through the 80s without getting HIV was his own personal Vietnam?

Again, it's very sad, his mental capacity and that that

is a very, um, uneducated Statement.

Okay, I'm

so sorry.

These are not I got my notes mixed up.

Can I ask you this question?

Can we start over?

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, what did you think when Donald Trump suggested that COVID could be cured by

shining a bright light into the body?

It depends what that technology

is.

Okay.

Um, what did you That's a broad spectrum because, you know, you have

MRI machines and CT machines and Infrared and different things, so

it just depends the context of that.

What did you think of Donald Trump saying that getting

through the 80s without getting HIV was his own personal Vietnam?

Um

Dementia patient?

No, I don't believe that, um

, Trevor: but I quite like that one,

I'd like John's saying he can hear it.

Okay, excellent, so it's running through, but Yeah.

She, she's got a It's a good premise, this interview, basically saying,

Oh, I've got, I've got it wrong, sorry, I'll just replay it again.

Yeah.

So, uh, this guy, okay, so we'll just move on to this guy now.

He cheated on his wife with a porn star after his son was born.

Um, and there's actually a paper trail showing he paid the sex worker

130, 000 to keep quiet about it.

Who

did that, Joe Biden?

And he, he was making, I think Less than 100, 000 a year at that time

as a congressman, I mean senator.

Now, how does he do that?

You tell me.

Would you vote for someone that?

Of course not.

Okay.

So Trump did do that.

Trump had a fling with Stormy Daniels.

And

paid her 130, 000.

Hush money, yes.

And you're voting for him.

I am.

My father had affairs too, and I still respect him.

How do you feel about Joe Biden using his

bone spurs to dodge the Vietnam draft?

Joe Biden has a problem.

He isn't an American.

He isn't a patriot.

I'm sorry, I asked you, I said Biden and I meant

Trump, so those were things that Oh, Trump?

Trump, yes.

Can I ask you the question again with the right name?

I'm so sorry.

How do you feel about Donald Trump using his bone spurs to dodge the Vietnam draft?

My brother in law had flat feet.

I'm sure you cannot go into a military zone, a Vietnam zone, or

any of the other zones with bad feet.

Sure.

You just can't do the job.

I love that one.

Scott, sorry you missed it all.

No, it's okay, I've got it on the end.

Essentially, um, she says, yeah, what Biden dodging the

giraffe because of his flat feet?

You know, bloody coward.

And then Oh, it's Tom Trump.

Shamelessly switching their opinion straight away.

It's just, what can you do?

What can you do with these people?

They're shameless.

They just weren't even embarrassed by it.

Just away they went, with a new story.

I think they assumed that the clips were going to be edited

and, you know, they weren't going to be shown side by side.

I know, but not even a shame towards the interviewer.

Oh, no.

The way they'd flipped.

So, yeah, anyway, um, that was, uh, That was just instructive, I think,

of the state of affairs, and there are a certain category of MAGA supporters

that you just cannot shift, obviously.

Right, um, ah, anything else before we move on from the debate?

There's not much else you can say about it.

I mean, it was just, it was quite predictable the way

Donald Trump was carrying on.

It was funny the way she baited him about the size of his crowds.

Oh yeah,

that was really well done.

And that his rallies were boring.

So he couldn't answer the question, he couldn't let that start.

Stand unchallenged, so he then just rambled on and proved how

boring he was for however long.

Mm hmm.

The Pep, um, podcast went into detail about the whole thing and, um, was

sort of praising, um, Harris for her preparation and her timing, where

her statements filled in her two minutes of allotted time perfectly.

So, did you see the whole, she must have been given the questions

beforehand, and also she was wearing Bluetooth earrings, not earpods,

because there was nothing in her ears that anybody could see on camera,

but they could see her earrings, and there were these magical Bluetooth

earrings that looked nothing like hers.

That, um, apparently allow you to have answers fed to you, and therefore, she

would be probably, because she wasn't a rambling, incoherent idiot like Trump was.

Yes.

One of the other things that they said was that, um, the lectern that they stood at,

she had hers slightly smaller than his.

So that when they cropped the, uh, sort of image in, um, She wouldn't look

small in comparison to the lectern, um, so to give her a physical presence

of an equal size, they made sure that the lectern was a slightly smaller one.

So that's good attention to detail to, um, just for the

sort of optics of the situation.

Because apparently they were saying with, um, Clinton, he towered over her.

Right.

Yes.

Okay.

And was quite a confronting presence when he was.

Doing his usual bullshit.

Yes.

Oh, you know, I liked how she just walked up to him and just put her

hand out and said, I'm Carmel Harris.

Because they'd never

physically met before the era.

No,

they'd never actually met.

Which is fascinating, isn't it?

And

apparently he didn't know where to put himself, because

apparently he's just not used to people coming up and being polite.

So she's been

Vice President for three and a half years, and she never met the

former President in all that time.

He refused to come to the inauguration, um, he basically just

doesn't turn up to anything, cause generally there are events, deaths,

funerals, things like that, that all the former residents turn up to, and

apparently he just doesn't do those.

Yes, he's got a golf game to go to, yeah, yeah,

yep, I've got some golf clubs.

Yeah?

Yeah.

I'll tell you a story.

You ready for something?

So for my 60th birthday, little joke here dear listeners, if you don't want the

joke, fast forward two minutes, but for my 60th birthday, the kids gave me, you know,

some money towards a present, you know, buy a surfboard or golf clubs or whatever.

So I decided I was going to buy some golf clubs because my wife plays

golf, wants me to play golf with her.

So, uh, looking online, saw that they were on special at Costco.

Do you guys ever go to Costco?

Yeah.

No.

Okay, so I didn't have a membership for Costco, but did

my sums, looked at these clubs, thought it's worth paying the extra

65 membership just to get them.

Drove all the way out to Ipswich, 35 minute drive, Scott, to get there.

And I thought, ah, I'd better make sure they're on the shelf before

I pay for this, uh, membership.

Because I don't want to, you You know, waste my time unnecessarily

because I'm a busy man.

Go in the store, see the clubs there, great.

Go back out, sign up for the membership.

Go back in the store, pick up the clubs, walk out.

Quite good customer service there.

Like people are almost cheering you at the door as you walk out.

They're like, oh, you're gonna have a great time mate with those clubs.

Good luck, blah, blah, blah.

Like quite a good experience.

Drive 35 minutes back home.

My wife comes home shortly afterwards and we decide to open up the box

and have a look at the clubs.

Open the box up.

And in the ten piece set, there are only five clubs in the box.

Really?

I was like, ah, shit.

Now, ah, goddammit.

And we needed to go down the coast, blah blah blah.

Ah.

Okay, I'll, I'll, I need to fix this.

I'll drive all the way back to Ipswich, another 35 minutes, sort this out,

drive there, go up to the counter and they go, what are you doing back here?

I said, oh, well this 10 piece set of golf clubs that you sold me,

it's only got five clubs in it.

And they said, oh, that's no good, let's have a look.

Popped it off on the counter, opened the box, and there's only five clubs.

What about under this cardboard flap here?

I thought you were going to say that the five T's were the other five pieces.

The box had like a false floor.

It's for hiding your drugs in.

And there, sure enough, were the other five clubs.

Yeah, and so I said 70

minutes and a lesson in humility later

and Jumped in the car and drove another 35 minutes back home

And there's an hour and a half of my life that I'll never get back again.

So there's a lesson for you.

Do you listen up?

Yeah, it's quite good if you're going past either that one or the

caboolture one fuel is generally cheaper, all right and If you want some

American Mm hmm They do pizza slices and hot dogs with unlimited refills

on your soft drinks for stupid money.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

Back to the uh, hardcore news politics, sex and religion.

Um, bit about Australia before we move on.

So, we mentioned the other day how our, um, Our National Anti

Corruption Commission decided not to take action against the main

players in the Robodet scandal.

And then shortly afterwards, in the Australian newspaper, Catherine

Campbell in an article with the headline, Robodet Reckoning, I was

their scapegoat, and basically a sob story from Catherine Campbell, sighing.

It's terrible what happened to me.

This is the sort of shit that happens because that National Anti Corruption

Commission didn't take characters like her into a hearing and a proper,

uh, corruption hearing and grill her.

So this is the sort of shit that happens when you don't do your job properly.

Ah, frustrating that she could.

She could claim to be the victim.

She, she is playing the victim card in this.

Mm-Hmm.

. Um, another example of when you have female leadership, it doesn't

necessarily mean any better policy.

I'm not saying it's worse, I'm just saying it's not any better.

When your department bullies people to death and you

then go, but I'm the victim.

Yep.

Just makes me sick.

Mm.

Oh, I've got the clip here.

Jane Heughn on nuclear power speaking on Insiders.

This is just embarrassing, but this is the calibre of person that the

Liberals are putting up at the moment.

What will your plan for nuclear power cost?

Have you worked that out yet?

So, the government has, sorry, the opposition has been very clear on

this one from the beginning that we believe that in the long term, having

nuclear as part of our energy mix is the way to get those emissions back down.

Down to net zero emissions, but more importantly, having a reliable and

efficient and affordable energy mix.

And that's what nuclear will be part of that.

Well, everywhere around the world we've seen where nuclear power is It's part of

that mix that energy prices come down.

At the moment, Australians are paying around 56 cents per kilowatt hour in

places like Ontario, where nuclear is about 60 percent the world that use

nuclear than Ontario, and a lot of them have higher prices.

I think Quebec next door.

But what's the cost going to be of your policy?

Well,

hang on.

I think the most important thing here, David, is that where nuclear

is It's part of the energy mix.

We see energy prices come down and in places like Ontario, they

have 14 cents per kilowatt hour.

In Tennessee, it's around 18 cents per kilowatt hour.

What's the cost going to be and when are we going to see this?

Well, we'll make our announcement on the cost of our nuclear policy in due

course, but in advance of the election.

This year?

The most important thing here, well in advance of the election, if the election

I don't know about you, but when I'm being bullshitted to, you

know, I like an equal opportunity for both genders to bullshit as well.

You know, an equal opportunity for bullshitting.

Just crap.

Yeah, they're not going to do nuclear.

They know they're not going to do nuclear.

This is just bullshit.

Distract away from, hey, renewables are cheap.

Let's go to renewables.

Oh no, we can't do that.

Yeah, did I have any more on Trump before I move on?

Yeah, you haven't done the, um, Kiffness yet.

The

which

one?

The song.

The which one?

Oh yes, oh yes.

So dear listeners, I'm going to play the full bit of this at the end of

this, um, of this episode, I think.

But, uh, so Trump's line was, they're killing the dogs, they're killing

the cats, uh, they're killing the pets of the people who live there.

Yes.

In Springfield.

And this guy Has done a sort of a bit of a riff on it.

I'll play it and then and then Joe you can explain who he is afterwards, maybe.

I'll play a little bit of this so, uh, here we go.

In Springfield, they're eating the dogs.

They're eating the cats.

They're eating the pets of the people that live there.

They're eating the dogs.

They're eating the cats.

They're eating the pets of the people that live there.

People of Springfield, please don't eat my cats.

Why would you do that?

Eat something

People of Springfield, please don't eat my dog.

Here's a catalogue of other things to eat.

They're eating the dogs.

They're eating the cats.

They're eating the pets of the people that live there.

They're eating the dogs.

They're eating the cats.

Meow, meow, meow, meow.

They're eating the

Oh,

it's good.

I'll put the full bit at the end of the audio one, but who is that guy, Joe?

So he's known as The Kiffness.

He is a South African musician.

He, Apparently had had a number of South African chart songs, uh,

and then during lockdown he became famous because he was doing, taking

Instagram reels and YouTube clips.

and of various animals and setting the howls of the animals to music.

Very clever.

Yeah, um, very, very catchy songs, worth checking out his YouTube channel.

There's lots of songs on there.

Yeah, that tune has just been running through my head all day

from when I got the clip ready this morning, so yeah, that sticks in.

So, um, right, um, let's talk about a few other things.

I've been mentioning a lot about US propaganda and how much is going on and

the US Senate just passed a bill HR 1157 It's called Countering the PRC Malign

Influence Fund Countering the People's Republic of China Malign Influence

Fund and And it authorises more than 1.

6 billion for the State Department and USAID over the next five years to, among

other purposes, Subsidised media and civil society sources around the world

that counter Chinese malign influence.

It's essentially 1.

6 billion dollars to, uh, create propaganda in other

countries to counter the Chinese.

And, uh, okay, it's up to America to provide a counter narrative to

whatever the Chinese are saying.

But We know that just a lot of this will be super secretive stuff and

that most people, a lot of this money will go to groups and nobody will

know that they're funded by the US and that they're doing this stuff.

So you might remember, dear listener, if you listened to the whole Venezuela

episode that I went on and on about how much money and time is spent by

the US in, in paying off journalists, in, in owning media groups, and.

This is the sort of bill that enables that, so 1.

6 billion dollars over five years, um, for propaganda, which may well be secretive.

So, and that's just for anti China stuff, so that was passed recently, um,

and sanctions, a little bit about that, because I've also, over the years, dear

listener, been talking about Scott, are you keeping track at all over BRICS and

the move to get away from the US dollar?

No, I haven't really kept a track on it.

I just know that it's out there and that they, uh, the BRICS are trading in

their own currencies, not the US dollar.

Hmm.

So So, that would mean that Saudi Arabia would be selling

their Oil in Riyadh, wouldn't it?

Whatever their currency is.

I think they're called Riyals, aren't they?

Not sure,

but essentially places like China, Iran, the Saudis, Russia,

Doing their trade without U.

S.

dollars, and therefore avoiding U.

S.

sanctions.

And this has been a key to U.

S.

power, um, essentially since the Second World War.

So, actually, since the 70s, when they dropped the linkage to gold, and basically

said to the Saudis, You guys can do whatever shit you want to get up to, um,

and charge a good price for your oil.

But, you must sell it in US dollars, and then, um, you're going to

accumulate a lot of US dollars.

And guess what?

It's not like we're going to let you buy lots of US, um, companies, or US assets,

we'll just let you buy US bonds, so, um, that's been the key to US hedge money.

And Donald Trump is aware of Um, the danger of the US

dollar, um, falling out of

favour.

Yeah, he's, he's one of the few to talk about it.

So, um, this is his reaction to other countries, other countries

deciding not to use the US dollar in their trade amongst themselves.

Here's what he has to say.

And we will keep the U.

S.

dollar as the world's reserve currency, and it is currently under major siege.

Many countries are leaving the dollar.

They're not going to leave the dollar with me.

I'll say you leave the dollar.

You're not doing business with the United States because we're going to put a

hundred percent tariff on your goods.

I, I I'm very much a traditionalist.

I like staying with the dollar.

You know that from when I was there, it's make,

make

the dollar the choice.

I hate when.

Countries go off the dollar.

I would not allow countries to go off the dollar, because when we lose that standard

that will be like losing a revolutionary war, that will be, that will be a hit

to our country, just like losing a war, and we can't let that happen, and too

many countries now are fighting for that.

Now, you saw the background of that said.

Former President Trump on crypto.

He's actually been talking about the US government getting involved in Bitcoin.

For what?

Because, you know, it's important that the US government not be tied to the dollar.

Ah, for God's sake.

Let's just put crypto aside for one moment.

They're essentially, he is essentially saying, all you other countries, you

can't do what you want to, if, if the UK sells and buys something with Germany,

you know, and transactions that were formerly in US dollars, you've got to

keep doing it in US dollars, and, and we're just going to force you to do it.

It's just, these guys have such a crazy, shameless power trip about

the US controlling everything.

So, That is, uh, dear listener, one of my pet theories is, um,

is that the end of the empire is

Almost as big a currency and used for international deals as well.

What's that?

The euro has taken on quite a lot of what was historically US dollars.

Yeah, well, it's the loss of that US dollar power that is going to

be the final That's really going to.

set the US back so that's happening more and more and there's something

like nearly 100 countries interested in joining BRICS and so there's a lot

of interest in that group so that will cause the downfall of the American

empire eventually will be the loss of the US dollar as the default currency

Oh, what else have they been up to?

Um, they just stole Maduro's plane.

President of Venezuela, his plane was in the Dominican Republic.

So US officials just jumped on board and stole it and flew it back to America.

Because that's what you do.

Um, but you know.

They just pinched it, did they?

Yes, just stole it.

Because they said that it was against their sanctions.

So somehow Maduro had convinced somebody to sell.

This plane to him, and the US said, well that's against our sanctions,

so we're not allowing that to happen, we're just confiscating it.

But really it's nothing in the scheme of things, because they've previously

stolen Venezuela's gold reserves and their oil refinery company, Citgo.

So, um, it's just a small, a small matter in the scheme of things.

Um, here's an interesting one, Scott.

Thanks, Scott.

You know, the US military sometimes put things out to tender, um, they're

offering a contract for research.

It's always good to have some research done, on the face of it.

Unfortunately, the research that the US military has requested

is on the effects of nuclear weapons on agricultural systems.

And the modelling that they particularly are interested in, uh, is it must include

former Eastern Bloc countries and regions beyond Eastern Europe and Western Russia.

So that is the specific research they want done on the effect of nuclear weapons.

Openly, shamelessly tendering for that research.

So they must be planning on I know, but maybe they're concerned

that a former Soviet nuke goes off and

Yes.

Inadvertently.

Self harms.

But if you've seen the quality of some of their other maintenance Yes.

Joe, you should be working for the US military with, um

With that sort of excuse making?

Yeah.

It's kind of, I mean, I wouldn't read anything into it because the

US have war plans to invade Britain.

Uh, you know, any country, they have a war plan for it.

Yes.

They're just ass covering.

Asking for the effects of nuclear weapons on agricultural systems in the

Eastern Bloc is really saying, what will happen to the agriculture if we bomb them?

Isn't that really what it's about?

But

I'm sure they've got the same for the US as well.

What happens if we get bombed?

Yeah, well that's okay.

Or what happens if Russia and China get into a shooting war?

Do you know what, Joe, I reckon they're starting to talk about

strategic nuclear bombings, like just a small scale nuclear war is what you

tend to hear about a little bit now.

Who's talking about strategic nukes?

I mean, I know the Russians have threatened them all the time, but

Do the Americans even have strategic nukes?

Battlefield nukes?

I do believe they've got, I think they do have battlefield nukes

and they've also got, now I saw some pictures of this, so don't, don't

quite, don't take this with a, um, take this with a huge grain of salt.

There was actually a artillery piece that they fired a small nuclear

weapon out of, it flew over and then you ended up with a mushroom cloud.

It was a very small mushroom cloud.

But it was a artillery unit that fired a nuclear weapon.

So that was something the Yanks actually did back when they still

had atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons and that type of thing.

Yeah.

And then they discovered that the safe range was almost.

Basically further than the artillery piece could fire.

Absolutely.

So they, uh, you know, they've probably still got them and they've

got, you know, they've got, uh, safety and that sort of thing that means

that the entire artillery crew has to wear a Nuclear protective stuff.

So this is like a hand grenade, so powerful that it blows up anything

within throwing range distance.

Basically, yes.

Which is why they abandoned it.

They developed it and then abandoned it because it was too bloody dangerous.

Uh, yeah.

So, um, look we've just rolled over another anniversary of 9 11.

Mm hmm.

And, uh, I don't know about you, but I spend a little bit

of time on Twitter these days.

And, fortunately, I use Twitter Lists, so I'm not Looking at the open Twittersphere,

but if I click on the wrong tab and end up in the open Twittersphere, so

many, so many conspiracy theorists arguing that the towers were blown

up by bombs rather than by planes.

Uh, it's scary.

Well, you know, jet fuel doesn't burn at the temperature to melt steel.

Yeah, all that stuff.

All that stuff is going on in there.

What a shit show that is in there.

And of course, on that open tab, there's always at the top, Elon

Musk.

Of course.

Who is promoting Trump these days.

Yeah.

Like, he's basically saying, uh, what is he saying?

Things like, um, I've never been materially They're

eating the dogs.

Yes.

He says, I've never been This is, uh, Musk says, I've never been materially active

in politics before, but this time I think civilisation as we know it is on the line.

If we want to preserve freedom and a meritocracy in

America, then Trump must win.

He doesn't believe in freedom or a meritocracy.

No.

Famously.

Yeah.

So, that's what, uh, Musk is doing on Trump.

And I think Trump has actually, um, talked about, uh, Musk being appointed

as some sort of czar for improving efficiency in the public service.

Probably, given the way he's fucked up Twitter.

Yeah.

So, yeah, another 9 11 anniversary has rolled by.

Of course, we've got to remember that this all then led to, um,

various invasions by America.

And you have to ask, well, what was the connection between the bombing of the

Buildings, well, not the bombing, sorry, the planes flying into the buildings

and the subsequent wars that were conducted and this is a General Wesley

Clark Retired four star US Army general.

He was the supreme allied commander of NATO during the 1999 war on Yugoslavia so

a four star army general and this is what he had to say about Um, what was going on

in the corridors of power just after 9 11?

About 10 days after 9 11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary

Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz.

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

Staff who 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, 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 tool 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, meeting the Secretary of

Defense's office today, and he said, this is a memo that describes how we're going

to take out seven countries in five years.

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

Sudan, and finishing off Iran.

I said, is it classified?

He said, yes, sir.

I said, I said, well, don't show it to me.

And I saw him a year or so ago.

And I said, you remember that?

He said, sorry, I didn't show you that memo.

I didn't show it to you.

Scott,

I was just looking for excuses to drop bombs.

It's

just, it's

one of those things.

Have they, have they not have kept, have they not have taken their eye

off the main goal, which was to.

Deal with Afghanistan, which is to deal with the Taliban.

They would have actually got bin Laden fairly quickly They would have

executed him and everything else.

It would have been over, but they got distracted on this Iraq's Iraq side show

They went and invaded that country which there was no reason to invade them you

know because Saddam was never a was never a country that was Good for the Al Qaeda

or anywhere else, you know, it's just a, it was a thing that they actually said,

I had heard somewhere before that, um, one of them was actually asked about a

war in Afghanistan and they said, well, there's no point bombing that, they're

already in the Stone Ages, you know.

Um, It's they had to look for something that was a little more sophisticated,

so they came up with Iraq, and they said, well, let's go in there.

And I just think it was, um, George W.

wanted to do what his old man didn't, didn't do, you know.

Now last week, you were, um, sort of thinking that

Kamala Harris was a bit more,

not so happy with the Israelis over what they're doing in Gaza.

Yeah, that was part of it.

Yeah, so I've just got two clips of where Harris is talking about.

So this was her at the convention.

Let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend

itself and I will ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself because

the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist

organisation called Hamas caused on

our country.

So, um

That sounded pretty forceful in her support.

Yeah,

yeah, I just think she was actually saying it.

Anyway, I really wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't actually

change the American line on that.

I just thought that she had said some stuff that was a little more,

not pro Palestinian, but actually saying, you know, you've got to,

you've got to actually, you've got to actually stop shooting.

And she hasn't actually, she hasn't actually linked it and said, well, if

you don't stop shooting, I'm gonna stop delivering arms to you or anything else?

No.

She simply said there has to be a ceasefire.

But she hasn't said anything about doing stuff to make that happen.

No, I know that so,

but it is, it is preferable to what Biden had been saying.

Well, he was probably saying that there has to be a ceasefire, but he just

wasn't gonna do anything about it either.

And at the same time saying, no, I didn't

say that.

He didn't actually say there had to be a ceasefire.

He said, you know, we've gotta have it.

I didn't

like one.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, fair enough.

Yeah, so, you should have played that long, Trev.

I don't know what that meant.

Anyway, um, where were we?

Um, so yeah, Kamala Harris, I think, fairly bullish on supporting Israel.

Not expecting any major changes there.

Um, going around the world, here's an interesting one, Scott and Joe.

Sweden is going to offer migrants 34, 000.

To go home.

So, a right wing government in Sweden has, and they've had to come into

a coalition with a far right party.

And, um, that's the latest policy coming out of Sweden.

So, I don't know where a migrant comes from, but if you had 34,

000 in a poor country, you could get a fair way along with that.

It's insane.

Um, uh, John says she added a bit more to what she was saying.

Eye game.

Sorry, are you suggesting that she was, um, going to do something about Israel?

Because I'll play another clip before I move on.

Back to Harris in an interview.

Here's the longer one.

President Biden has tried unsuccessfully, uh, to end the war

between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

He's been doing it for months and months.

Along with you.

Would you do anything differently?

For example, would you withhold some U.

S.

weapons shipments to Israel?

That's what a lot of people on the progressive left want you to do.

Let me be very clear.

I am unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel's defense

and its ability to defend itself.

And that's not going to change.

But let's take a step back.

October 7th, 1,

200 people are massacred.

Many young people who are simply attending a music festival.

Women were horribly raped.

As I said then, I say today.

Israel had a right, has a right to defend itself.

We would.

And how it does so matters.

Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.

And we have got to get a deal done.

We were in Doha.

We have to get a deal done.

This war must end, and we must get a deal that is about getting the hostages out.

I've met with the families of the American hostages.

Let's get the hostages out.

Let's get the ceasefire done.

But no change in policy, in terms of arms and, and so forth?

No, we have to get a deal done.

Dana, we have to get a deal done.

When you look at The significance of this to the families, to the

people who are living in that region.

Um, a deal is not only the right thing to do to end this war, but will unlock

so much of what must happen next.

I remain committed, since I've been on October 8th, to what we must do

to work toward a two state solution.

Where Israel is secure, and in equal measure, the Palestinians have

security and self determination.

In other words,

she's not going to do anything.

In other words, the Jewish lobby is too strong in America.

She was asked, what are you going to do different to Joe Biden?

Nothing.

Are you going to stop supply of arms?

No.

Israel's got the right to defend itself.

We must have a ceasefire, is all she could say.

Well, that's it.

So John, I don't know what she might have said in some other clip.

Um, I haven't intentionally cut anything out from what I've seen.

I don't know.

But I don't think she's going to make any difference at all to that.

I hope to be surprised, pleasantly, but, uh, don't think so.

So, yeah.

Ah, what else have we got here?

Um, Um, ah, I think the rest of the ones are a little bit too long.

I'm gonna, actually, I came across, I was telling the guys earlier, dear listener,

it's an AI thing called Notebook LM.

Notebook LM.

And basically imagine you have written a 500 word essay on something.

You can give this essay to this AI program and it will construct

a little mini podcast of two people talking about the essay.

So this is designed for people who don't like reading and want stuff read to them

or talked about in an entertaining way.

And, um Anyway, I had just in my notes a little summary I'd made about, um,

my views on, uh, foreign affairs and I gave it to this AI program and I made

all sorts of assertions and predictions and, as you can imagine, in this thing,

and pretty much they talked about them all as being, oh yes, that's an

interesting idea, or yeah, that's um, a useful point, or you know, yeah.

toing and froing over it, and the one bit in there I had put about, um, uh, if

the US loses power and the, um, there's no longer military support for Israel,

then the Arab states might, uh, enter and, and, and militarily wipe Israel out.

And they spent an enormous amount of time in this pseudo podcast talking

about how that was an inflammatory statement and people should be really

careful about making such statements.

And, and it's not necessarily a view that anybody should endorse and like

really put all these caveats on it.

That was quite extraordinary.

I think I'm going to put a little bonus episode in at some stage in the next

week where I'll read out my little essay and then I'll, then I'll play

this pseudo, sort of podcast episode.

And it's just interesting the way that AI has, has, um, has changed

the intent and tried to change the meaning of what I was saying and

Yeah, I mean, it depends what it was trained on.

Yes.

It's trained on a lot of information that Hedge thinks about, but

also they put up guardrails.

And so it can't be Literally told to do this or to not do that.

And, um, so I guess where I'm heading to is, as mainstream media

disappears over time, and we've just got independent sort of podcasters and

whatnot operating, more and more as people use AI to create stuff, there's the risk

that the people who make these AI Um, software programs are going to tailor

it to colour the material in a certain way and so we'll still be influenced

by powerful forces if independent media allows these things to happen.

This has

been the thing about ChatGPT since the beginning, was right wing

saying, Oh, it's told to do this, and it's told not to You know,

it's got a left wing slant on it.

Has long been an argument of the right wing since ChatGPT came out.

You know, basically complaining that they couldn't get it to say racist things,

or whatever it was they wanted it to do.

So they then Produced jailbroken versions that didn't have any of the

god rails up and it becomes a raging fascist within about three weeks

Yep.

Yeah, so if you're not listening to the um, if you're not getting the audio

podcast please do and You'll hear it at some stage over the next week where

I'll slip it in as some sort of bonus episode But I found it very interesting.

So yeah Well, I've got to get going.

Um, anything else you guys need to add or we're ready to go?

No, I'm ready to go.

Oh, good.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you in the chat room to, uh, to John and to who else has been in there?

Um, I know Alison appeared at one stage and, um, Don Tovey and, um, John was

really getting into it, weren't you?

And Shay was there at one point.

So, thanks for being in the chat room.

We'll be back next week.

Bye for now.

And it's a good night from me.

And it's a good night from him.

Good night.

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