Trevor:

Well, hello and welcome back to you listener.

Trevor:

Episode 441 of the Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove podcast, where we talk about

Trevor:

news and politics and sex and religion.

Trevor:

I was all alone, solo last week, ranting about Venezuela.

Trevor:

Um, this time I'm joined by my two co hosts as we rant about other things.

Trevor:

Scott the Velvet Glove, are you ready for a good rant, Scott, about anything

scott:

in

Trevor:

particular?

scott:

Yeah, I suppose, you know, it's just one of those things, there's a

scott:

hell of a lot coming out of the US.

scott:

There's not so much coming out of the Australian, although Dutton is apparently

scott:

trying to channel, uh, trying to channel Trump, you know, he's trying to channel

scott:

him, so God knows whether or not that'll work, it'll probably blow up in his face.

Trevor:

We'll talk about that, uh, Joe the Tech Guy, how are you?

Trevor:

Evening all.

Trevor:

Yeah, Joe's good.

Trevor:

If you're in the chat room, my promise to you, actually there's nobody there

Trevor:

yet, if somebody turns up they can choose whatever they topic they like and we'll

Trevor:

talk about it because I was kind of looking at the list of topics and it was

Trevor:

all international geopolitics type stuff because it really just felt like the only

Trevor:

thing going on in Australia to talk about was AUKUS and foreign policy to do with

Trevor:

our defence and Just, it just seems like there's not a lot happening locally, um,

Trevor:

so it's all international foreign affairs.

Trevor:

It's just war and disaster, whether it's Gaza or crazy ideas or theories on Nord

Trevor:

Stream or all sorts of other things, so, look, uh, as people appear in the

Trevor:

chat, this'll be the one episode where they don't appear, because I've said

Trevor:

I'll let them run the show if they want to, um, but anyway, we'll see how we go.

Trevor:

Anything you want to get off your chest at all, Scott?

Trevor:

You mentioned Trump and you think Dutton is wanting to emulate

Trevor:

the Republican Party here?

scott:

Well, just some of the stuff he's already started to come out of

scott:

his mouth and that sort of thing.

scott:

Like, you know, the asking the government to deny visas from people

scott:

that are fleeing the war in Gaza.

Trevor:

That

scott:

was a ridiculous thing to say.

scott:

And, you know, it's, it just seems that he's prepared to blame anything

scott:

on security problems and all that type of thing, which sounds like it's coming

scott:

right out of, out of Trump's mouth.

scott:

You know, it's just, it's reminiscent of the Muslim ban that the Yanks had

scott:

when Trump was first elected, when they said, well, we're not going

scott:

to allow, we're not going to allow you to come into the country if you

scott:

come from a majority Muslim country.

Joe:

It's because they're not big toe pairs.

Joe:

Sorry?

Joe:

I said it's because they're not French au pairs.

scott:

Okay, gotcha.

scott:

Um, it's one of those things, and I just think to myself, that is

scott:

probably where, that's probably what Dutton is trying to do.

scott:

The other thing too is, this was said to me only just recently, he says, well

scott:

A mate of mine up here, he says, well, if the way Dutton's carrying on anyone,

scott:

it's where it's the NLP, not the LNP.

scott:

He reckons, he reckons it was the National Party take over the Liberal

scott:

Party, rather than the Liberals taking over the National Party.

scott:

And you can actually see some of that in the way the Nationals are seeming to be

scott:

pointing the direction of the Coalition.

scott:

Like, the Nationals don't like their party.

scott:

Beautiful vistas and all that sort of stuff being taken up

scott:

by ugly overhead power lines.

scott:

So they said, well, we just got to build nuclear power stations where the, where

scott:

the coal fire power stations were, and then we can, then we don't have to,

scott:

then we don't have to build new power

clip:

lines.

scott:

And that is why Dutton seems to be so hell bent on nuclear

scott:

power as a, as a It's a generation.

scott:

It doesn't make any sense.

scott:

The Orcus thing doesn't make any sense at all.

scott:

And also, the other thing too is that, um,

scott:

If the ALP actually did come up and say, yes, we're going to have a total blanket

scott:

ban on gambling advertising entirely,

clip:

you

scott:

can bet your bottom dollar that Dutton will turn

scott:

around and say, no, that's wrong.

scott:

I mean, right now, right now, he's right now, he's pushing for a total

scott:

blanket ban on gambling advertising, but Albanese, he doesn't want to go that far.

scott:

So

Trevor:

is Dutton pushing for that, is he?

scott:

He is.

scott:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Oh, okay.

scott:

But, you know, That's one thing he's actually pushing for, but I just

scott:

think to myself, it's not gonna last.

scott:

No.

scott:

You know, as soon as they say, yeah, fair enough, we will actually go

scott:

for a blanket ban, he'll be actually saying, no, you can't do that.

scott:

That's ridiculous.

Trevor:

Yes.

scott:

He's

Trevor:

from the Tony Abbott School of Opposition Leadership.

Trevor:

Yeah,

scott:

Dr.

scott:

No.

scott:

I just find him a vacuous old windbag who's got nothing sensible to say.

scott:

You know, he just says no to everything.

scott:

And then, um, and occasionally when he does actually

Trevor:

And despite all that, Scott, he's doing okay in the polls.

scott:

Yeah, I know, because Albanese hasn't had the balls to

scott:

actually go in and do anything.

scott:

And this was a very easy kick that he could have actually said, It was a cross

scott:

party, um, committee that came in there, they came out with the unanimous report

scott:

saying we shouldn't allow advertising, we're going to stop advertising.

Trevor:

This is the gambling advertisement.

Trevor:

Yeah, that's

scott:

what they should have actually said.

scott:

And they should have also then taken it one step further on the whole religious

scott:

schools and everything else where they should have said, the Productivity

scott:

Commission has recommended that we disallow this as a tax deduction.

scott:

Therefore, we're going to disallow as a tax deduction,

Trevor:

you know,

scott:

they could have blamed someone else for those two things, but anyway,

scott:

they haven't, and had they have actually done that, then I think that they

scott:

would have actually found themselves, a lot more people would actually be

scott:

applauding them for doing stuff like that,

Trevor:

but instead

scott:

they're just being so cowardly.

Trevor:

You know how, sort of, um, racist, basically, Dutton's

Trevor:

been with the blanket ban on, on Palestinian refugees into Australia?

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Um, the sad part is, online, when you look at, you know, as I do on your

Trevor:

behalf, dear listener, you know, Sky News, um, Twitter and Sky News Facebook

Trevor:

pages and places like that, when you look in the comments section, it's awful.

Trevor:

It's so mean spirited, goddamn awful in there where people are just basically

Trevor:

saying to the Palestinians, fuck them.

Trevor:

We don't want them.

Trevor:

And just, they're just awful.

Trevor:

So it's been a real,

Trevor:

you know, just, uh, misrepresentation, propaganda, manufacturing of consent, all

Trevor:

those things of just brainwashing people into holding some pretty nasty views.

clip:

And they're

Trevor:

genuinely hilled, and therefore, Peter Dutton.

Trevor:

Picks up quite a lot of that along the way, so.

Trevor:

For sure,

scott:

it's just like one of those things, I just think to myself that, um, he's

scott:

starting to emulate, um, Pauline Hanson.

scott:

You know, like, it's He doesn't actually say anything sensible, he just seems to

scott:

pick up a talking point and run with it.

Trevor:

You

scott:

know, he's just an imbecile.

scott:

Well, they're aiming

Trevor:

for the same sort of, uh, electorate, aren't they?

Trevor:

Really, that rural redneck.

Trevor:

Absolutely, that's what they're

scott:

trying to get.

scott:

He's sort of given

Trevor:

up on the inner city.

scott:

Oh, he has.

scott:

He has.

scott:

And that's one of the things that I just think to myself that was, um, I'm

scott:

very grateful that the Teals actually contested that election and won because,

scott:

um, that was a kick in the pants to the Liberal Party that they, and also the

scott:

other thing too, is like the sensible commentariat have already said, if

scott:

you don't get those Teal seats back, you're never going to form government.

Trevor:

Which is, they're doing everything to not win those seats.

Joe:

Exactly.

Joe:

If only we could get a Teal MP or a candidate standing here,

Trevor:

I'd be tempted,

Joe:

just to get him out.

scott:

Yeah, it's one of those things, like, there was actually talk of the

scott:

Teals moving north and that sort of stuff.

scott:

They're thinking that, you know, I think that they might have picked up on the

scott:

fact that Ryan isn't really a green seat.

scott:

And that the Brisbane and Griffith aren't really green seats, but

scott:

they have fallen to the greens.

scott:

And I just think to myself, had they had a sensible teal candidate up here,

scott:

then those three seats would have probably gone teal more so than green.

Trevor:

Yeah, don't know.

Trevor:

There's two people in the chat room.

Trevor:

If you're in the chat room, say hello, and we will discuss any

Trevor:

topic that you want to raise, because I mean, that's kind of nude.

Trevor:

Sorry.

Trevor:

Um, we'll riff on anything if you want to put it forward as a topic.

Trevor:

I'll be careful

Joe:

with your promises.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Anything within reason.

Trevor:

Right.

Trevor:

I've got a pretty broad feeling of reason at the moment.

Trevor:

So yeah, um, Scott, you mentioned Orcus in that little rant you had there.

Trevor:

That was nice.

Trevor:

Um, I'm seeing More pushback against Orcus, even amongst the Hawks.

Trevor:

I've seen people from Aspie are now complaining about this submarine deal.

Trevor:

I'm seeing articles in the Australian Financial Review, seeing

Trevor:

articles in Sydney Morning Herald.

Trevor:

Starting to see a pushback, because the people who want war, or want,

Trevor:

um, you know, are pro spending money on defence, can just see that we're

Trevor:

going to get nothing from this, and, and so, it's really the opposite.

Trevor:

Getting to the point where the only people who want this are going to be Albanesey

Trevor:

and Miles and Dutton and his crew.

Trevor:

Like it's just the politicians, oh, and the And the defence

Trevor:

people, perhaps, narrow that down to the naval defence people.

Trevor:

Yeah,

scott:

but even, even amongst them, you don't see a hell of a lot of

scott:

them coming out in support of it.

Joe:

I, I actually watched, uh, an American YouTuber who's just spent

Joe:

a week in Australia, and he was saying, I couldn't believe it, I was

Joe:

sat in a restaurant and the waiter started talking to me about August.

Joe:

Wanting to know what I felt about it.

Joe:

It's like, how come the WAIS staff are involved in politics over here?

Joe:

Really?

Joe:

Yeah.

Joe:

Well

scott:

that's

Joe:

good.

scott:

Yeah, exactly.

scott:

Because we've got an engaged electorate because of our

scott:

compulsory ballot, that's why.

Trevor:

Well

scott:

exactly.

Trevor:

Wow, you reckon they're, well

scott:

We, we are not as engaged as engaged than other countries.

scott:

We are more engaged than other countries for sure.

scott:

We are not as engaged as you would want.

scott:

Yeah.

scott:

But we are more engaged than other countries.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

So anyway, I can see a turning of the tide on the right where they're

Trevor:

basically acknowledging this is just a shitty deal and we won't get any

Trevor:

toys from this and we want our toys.

Trevor:

And so that's what I'm seeing as I'm reading stuff.

Trevor:

Um, um, yeah.

Trevor:

What else?

Trevor:

Forgot.

scott:

It's one of those things, I just think to myself that once you actually

scott:

look at Orcus in the cold light of day, when you realise that there is

scott:

nothing in there that guarantees they're actually going to hand any of that over

scott:

to us, then you've got to actually ask yourself the question, why the fuck

scott:

are we spending 400 billion dollars?

scott:

when there's no guarantee of any of these toys.

scott:

And even with that, the only other, the only reason you would want a

scott:

nuclear powered submarine is so that you can travel from wherever the

scott:

name of that port is over in WA.

scott:

So you can do it in a submarine, you can do it under the water's surface until you

scott:

actually surface just off the coast of China and you want to lob missiles up.

scott:

That's the only reason you'd want them.

scott:

They're not

Joe:

going to be SSBNs, so they can't love missiles.

Trevor:

Well, by the time What's SSBNs, Trevor?

Trevor:

Well, Capable of Launching Nuclear Missiles.

Trevor:

In theory, at this point, they're not supposed to be.

Joe:

Supposed to be hunter killers.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Joe:

Perun, the YouTube channel, did a thing on submarines recently.

Trevor:

Okay.

Trevor:

What did he say?

Trevor:

I don't know.

Joe:

Uh, just basically, he's doing his usual defence analyst money wise,

Joe:

talking about, um, all the different, in fact, he only barely touched on

Joe:

Australia, he was mostly talking about the US, China, and Japan.

Trevor:

Right.

Joe:

And talking about, and Russia, talking about how many nukes, or how

Joe:

many different submarines of each type, and their capabilities, and,

Joe:

you know, why you'd want this type of submarine or that type of submarine.

Joe:

So that was quite interesting.

Trevor:

Um, what was I going to say here?

Trevor:

So, yeah, I mentioned Australian Financial, or Sydney Morning Herald,

Trevor:

somebody from ASPE, the headline is, AUKUS is unhinged from reality.

Trevor:

So, um, and then we've got, um, we'll get on to Paul Keating shortly, but

Trevor:

Gareth Evans, Gareth Evans came out.

Trevor:

He said it's one of the worst foreign and defence policy

Trevor:

decisions our country has made.

Trevor:

Mm

Joe:

hmm.

Trevor:

Um.

Joe:

You do realise, though, that when we have our nuclear submarines, because they

Joe:

are small modular reactors, then we'll be able to have small modular reactors

Joe:

and we can plug them into Shoreside.

Joe:

And power cities with them.

Trevor:

Yes, we'll be able to power a small neighbourhood with them.

Trevor:

That's, yeah.

Trevor:

So, um, but more, more information came out about the deal that we struck.

Trevor:

And, as if it wasn't bad enough, but David Shoebridge came

Trevor:

out and has done a summary.

Trevor:

In layman's terms about how the deal works.

Trevor:

So, oh, we've got, uh, Alison in the chat room and Don.

Trevor:

Open invitation, Alison and Don, pick a topic and throw it in the chat room.

Trevor:

We will talk about it momentarily.

Trevor:

But meanwhile, here's Shoebridge explaining this

Trevor:

deal that Miles signed up for.

Trevor:

By the way, in relation to Miles, um He's an uptrop.

Trevor:

Uh, Gareth Evans said about, this is what Gareth Evans said about Richard

Trevor:

Miles, he said, His love for the US is so dewy eyed as to defy parody.

Trevor:

From Labor guys, bagging the current punch.

Trevor:

But anyway, um, Green Senator Shoebridge sums up the deal here,

Trevor:

hopefully.

Shoebridge:

Made public the new AUKUS 2.

Shoebridge:

0 agreement and it must be the most one sided international agreement

Shoebridge:

Australia has ever put pen to.

Shoebridge:

There are so many problems that it's hard to wrap your head around

Shoebridge:

how anyone could have agreed to it.

Shoebridge:

So here's a little thought experiment.

Shoebridge:

Imagine I'm trying to buy like a second hand car or a second hand

Shoebridge:

truck from Uncle Sam's car dealership.

Shoebridge:

Well, before I can buy the car, I need to pay Uncle Sam billions and billions

Shoebridge:

of dollars to modernise and uplift his car yard and the car factories.

Shoebridge:

I also need to promise Uncle Sam that I'll only drive the car to places he

Shoebridge:

wants, and only use it in ways he approves of, otherwise he can take it back.

Shoebridge:

I will also not get this car for maybe another decade, at least.

Shoebridge:

And during that time, while they've got my money, if Uncle Sam's car dealership

Shoebridge:

decides doesn't have enough cars for themselves, they get to keep it.

Shoebridge:

And I have no way to claw back the money I've given them.

Shoebridge:

It's also a well known fact that Uncle Sam doesn't actually have enough cars to

Shoebridge:

sell to me and won't have enough for the foreseeable future for their own needs.

Shoebridge:

But, despite all this, let's say I do end up getting a car, and if in the process

Shoebridge:

of reversing it out of Uncle Sam's car dealership, the engine blows up because

Shoebridge:

I was sold a dud, I actually have to pay Uncle Sam for the costs and damages.

Shoebridge:

Oh, and Uncle Sam also gets to decide how much I pay for all the fuel for the car,

Shoebridge:

which he happens to also be selling to me.

Shoebridge:

Now, if you think that's a bad deal, you're right.

Shoebridge:

But that is exactly the Albanese government has signed us up to, with

Shoebridge:

support from Dutton's coalition, in this new August agreement.

Shoebridge:

Only it's not for a 40, 000 Ford Focus, it's for a multi billion dollar bunch

Shoebridge:

of second hand nuclear submarines.

Shoebridge:

The US and the UK have found a sucker in Australia and must be laughing all

Shoebridge:

the way to the bank with this deal.

Shoebridge:

We need to scrap the agreement.

Shoebridge:

The more we sink into this rigged deal The worst it'll get

Shoebridge:

for Australia and Australians.

Shoebridge:

We need to have a defence force that's focused on defending Australia,

Shoebridge:

not threatening our neighbours.

Shoebridge:

And we need a foreign policy that's actually made in Canberra, not Washington.

Shoebridge:

And to get there, the first step is ripping up AUKUS.

Trevor:

Well, Scott, first step would be voting Green, if for no other reason.

scott:

Yeah, I know, and I'm going to do that next time round, but anyway.

Trevor:

Okay.

Trevor:

Oh, we've got some topics in the chat room.

Trevor:

From Don, the new Deadpool and Wolverine movie, and what the multiverse

Trevor:

means to the future of comics.

Trevor:

Uh, no.

Trevor:

Um, can I just say, that when it, I haven't been to a cinema to watch a movie

Trevor:

in, I don't know, a decade or something?

Trevor:

Cause somewhere along the way, People decided that adults wanted

Trevor:

to watch superhero movies and that's all they made for about 15 years.

Trevor:

I'm not interested in superhero movies.

scott:

Well I just went to see The Trap on Saturday afternoon,

scott:

that's a very good movie actually.

Trevor:

Is it a superhero?

scott:

No, it's not a superhero.

scott:

It's sold as a, it's sold as a, it's sold as a horror movie, but

scott:

it's nothing horror in at all.

scott:

It's just a very dramatic sort of movie.

scott:

It's really good actually.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

There's an

scott:

interesting twist in the end.

Trevor:

There's my riff, Don, on Deadpool and Wolverine movies.

Trevor:

Is Wolverine also the Australian actor?

Trevor:

What's his name?

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Hugh Jackman, I believe.

Trevor:

Is he overrated?

Trevor:

Honestly?

scott:

He looks all right without a shirt on.

scott:

But, you know, but, um, in terms of acting ability,

scott:

it's one of those things.

scott:

He's, he's probably not bad.

scott:

Um, yeah.

Trevor:

Okay.

Trevor:

Um, so.

Trevor:

Then we've got Alison says, how about the New South Wales Liberals missing the

Trevor:

deadline for about 130 council candidates?

Trevor:

And I think they're now going to sue, they're proposing to sue or take the

Trevor:

electoral commission in New South Wales, whatever the body is, to court over it.

scott:

But yeah,

Trevor:

there was a deadline for nominating your candidates.

scott:

That's why that guy got sacked, because he didn't actually do it.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Joe:

Too bad, so sad.

Trevor:

Too bad, so sad.

Trevor:

But, um, Wow, what a bumbling organization you've got if you haven't done that.

Trevor:

So, Scott, should special circumstances be given?

Trevor:

What about our democracy, Scott?

Trevor:

I'm going to play devil's advocate.

scott:

Okay, but no, I, I honestly believe that you've got rules for a reason.

scott:

And one of those rules is you had to have your, you had to have your

scott:

nominations in by a certain time.

scott:

Now, I'm sure that they, that they could actually do it.

scott:

But they've decided not to and I honestly believe that the

scott:

referee's decision is final.

scott:

The referee is the whatever you call it in New South Wales.

scott:

They've decided that you're not going to get the nominations through.

scott:

So you can't actually do that anyway.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

So Alison says they managed to submit the rest of them, so she doesn't know how

Trevor:

they mucked up not getting 130 in there, but uh, that is a balls up for sure.

Trevor:

Absolutely.

Trevor:

In an organization like that, you had one job to do.

Trevor:

Yeah, and they

scott:

fucked it up.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Anyway, Don is still defending Hugh Jackman.

Trevor:

Yeah, I know,

scott:

but I haven't seen him actually act in a long time, and I couldn't

scott:

tell you about his acting ability.

scott:

He looks all right without a shirt on, but that's about it.

Trevor:

Just, and on actors generally, we just project onto these people.

Trevor:

Oh, we do far too much.

Trevor:

The characters that they play, and we just You know, they play a smart,

Trevor:

clever, all knowing person, and he's something I think that the actor is.

scott:

Yeah, exactly.

scott:

You see, like, I'm a freak of the 70s and that sort of stuff.

scott:

I was born in 73 and the first movie I actually remember watching was Star Wars.

scott:

I loved it.

scott:

And I still watch anything that's out, anything now that's Star Wars, I watch it.

scott:

And as a result, I started to follow some of the actors and that sort of stuff.

scott:

And

scott:

Luke Skywalker, what's his name?

Joe:

Mark Hamill?

scott:

Mark Hamill.

scott:

That's it.

scott:

He's actually a real Democrat and everything else, and I thought, I

scott:

see him actually turning up to the Democratic National Congress and

scott:

convention and everything else.

scott:

And I just thought to myself.

scott:

Yeah, he's probably projecting just a little bit too much power there, but you

scott:

know, it's just, it's one of those things, I just think to myself, okay, they're

scott:

very good actors and that sort of stuff, but that's where their intelligence comes

scott:

to an end, is once you've been an actor.

scott:

Do you

Joe:

see, um, when Margot Robbie was being interviewed for Barbie,

Joe:

some American was going, why is she putting on that pretentious accent?

Joe:

Why can't she speak in a proper American accent?

Trevor:

Yeah, um, yeah, we do project.

Trevor:

The other one was a guy from Star Trek, uh, who played Mr.

Trevor:

Sulu.

Trevor:

He, George Takai or whatever, he's, he's, he's big on Twitter, um, but

Trevor:

I think on the basis of his clever commentary along the way, I think.

Trevor:

But

Joe:

yeah, I mean, also he's openly gay.

Joe:

He was one of the first people who was openly gay, I think,

Joe:

in, in that group of people.

Joe:

Yeah.

Joe:

Um, and he's become a big spokesman for gay rights, kind of like Stephen Fry.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Joe:

Yeah.

Joe:

So if you have eloquent people who are members of the community who are

Joe:

eloquent, can speak, uh, and suggest why the bigotry is just being an

Joe:

asshole, then I think fair play to them.

Joe:

Yeah.

Joe:

Why shouldn't they be?

Trevor:

I'm all for them commenting and for them to be judged on their commentary.

Trevor:

It's just when people fawn over these actors and actresses and really

Trevor:

they're just ordinary, sometimes very ordinary people, um, uh,

Trevor:

playing pretend in front of a camera.

Trevor:

They're not that special.

Trevor:

So yeah.

Trevor:

Hey, I actually, uh, well on the topic of movies, you can watch

Trevor:

on, uh, Netflix, I think it is.

Trevor:

Have you seen The Holdover?

scott:

Yes, it's a really good movie.

scott:

I saw it at the cinema.

scott:

It's really good.

scott:

It's a very good movie and I've seen it just recently again on Netflix and

scott:

it was really very powerful and I was really pissed off at the time because

scott:

they had the um, cinema at the, at my local cinema and everything like they

scott:

had the posters up for it and I saw a short for it when I was down in Brisbane.

scott:

I thought that looks good.

scott:

I'll watch that when I go back to Brisbane.

scott:

And then they never showed it in Mackay.

scott:

They just never actually showed it, which really gave me the shits.

scott:

So after that, I saw it when I was next time down, when I

scott:

was down in Brisbane again.

Trevor:

Yep.

Trevor:

Not a superhero in sight.

Trevor:

No.

Trevor:

Just good acting.

Trevor:

It was really

scott:

good.

scott:

Yeah, it was really good.

Trevor:

Highly recommend that one to you in the chat room, Don Toovey.

Trevor:

Um, try the holdover and tell me how it compares to a

Trevor:

Marvel superhero comic movie.

Trevor:

I'd be keen to know your thoughts.

Trevor:

Thanks.

scott:

I think if you're actually honest about it, you'd have to, you'd have to

scott:

be, you'd have to conclude it would be preferable to a Marvel superhero movie,

Trevor:

you know.

Trevor:

I don't think Don's going to agree with that,

scott:

but anyway.

scott:

No, Don will be going, he'll be out there defending it to the end of the world.

scott:

And

Trevor:

Alison recommends, uh, The Greatest Shaman.

Trevor:

The Greatest Shaman.

Trevor:

I think was a, um,

Trevor:

what's his name again?

Trevor:

Hugh Jackman.

Trevor:

Hugh Jackman.

Trevor:

Thank you, yeah.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Okay.

Trevor:

Don's going to give it a go.

Trevor:

All right, we've diverted in the chat room.

Trevor:

It's open slather.

Trevor:

You can nominate the topics.

Trevor:

I will stop and jump into them, uh, in, in mid rant.

Trevor:

Um, if you want to keep, keep introducing topics.

Trevor:

I've

Joe:

just gone back to, um, the Pelican brief.

Joe:

Not that I would ever recommend, um, shooting members of the Supreme Court.

Trevor:

Right.

Trevor:

Is that what happens in the Pelican Brief?

Joe:

Yes.

Trevor:

Right.

Joe:

So, basically, there's some oil drilling that's wanting to go on and it's

Joe:

been stopped because it's in the wetlands somewhere down the south, Louisiana maybe.

Trevor:

Hmm.

Joe:

And, um, The Supreme Court is going to rule against them being able

Joe:

to drill because of these pelicans in the wetlands and so they killed two key

Joe:

members of the Supreme Court with the knowledge that the President will, um,

Joe:

appoint a couple of pro business judges.

Joe:

That will overtone this ruling and will allow them to draw for oil.

Trevor:

That's quite an old movie.

Trevor:

It is.

Trevor:

Back in the day when there was respect for the Supreme Court.

Joe:

Yes.

Trevor:

Possibly, yeah.

Trevor:

Ah, and Alison says, Young Julia Roberts in the Pelican Brief.

Trevor:

Very good movie.

Trevor:

There you go.

Trevor:

Get extra votes for

Trevor:

that one from Alison.

Trevor:

Reverting back to where we were temporarily, um, So yeah, that was David

Trevor:

Shoebridge giving us, um, detail on.

Trevor:

Orcus and, um, what else did I have to say about Orcus was, um, well,

Trevor:

um, A little bit of background here.

Trevor:

Apparently, we've signed a forced posture agreement.

Trevor:

Have you guys ever heard of that?

Trevor:

No.

Trevor:

Hmm.

Trevor:

This was in the Michael West news blog.

Trevor:

And two authors, Michelle Fahey and Elizabeth Minter, explained the

Trevor:

forced posture agreement that we've already signed up to previously.

Trevor:

And so the argument in this article is that we're not.

Trevor:

AUKUS is just the continuation of the takeover by the US of our sovereignty

Trevor:

that has been going on for a long time.

Trevor:

So it's

Joe:

the Marines base up in Darwin and things like that.

Trevor:

Yes, indeed.

Trevor:

Uh, it's been underway for more than a decade.

Trevor:

And, um, so, um, let me just see here.

Trevor:

When asked last year whether Australia would allow US aircraft operating out

Trevor:

of Tyndall Air Base in the Northern Territory to carry nuclear weapons,

Trevor:

Penny Wong said, We understand and respect the longstanding U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

policy of neither confirming or denying.

Trevor:

So, that's about U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

aircraft in the Northern Territory carrying nuclear weapons,

Trevor:

and Penny Wong says, Do they

Joe:

have any air launched nuclear weapons?

Trevor:

Well, we're not even going to ask.

Trevor:

We're just going to respect their policy of neither confirming or denying.

Trevor:

Like, I mean, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were dropped from an

Trevor:

aircraft, weren't they, Joe?

Trevor:

Like, is it possible?

Trevor:

Yeah, but I mean, that

Joe:

was in the

scott:

50s, and then they created ICBMs.

scott:

You know, you've got a missile that you, you know, the, um, the cruise missile,

scott:

you drop it out of an aircraft, and then the wing's out, and then it ignites,

scott:

then it ignites its engine and flies.

scott:

So that's why I honestly believe that's what they would have.

scott:

You know, if you've got any of those, um, B 52s and that sort of stuff, they

scott:

carry a few cruise missiles in them.

scott:

Then they drop them out of the bomb bay, they come down there, they

scott:

extend their wings, then their, then the engine ignites and it flies off.

Trevor:

Anyway, Petty Wong is happy for them to do it and to hold nuclear

Trevor:

weapons because she just respects the U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

policy of neither confirming or denying

Joe:

nuclear powered vessels.

Trevor:

What's

Joe:

that,

Trevor:

Joe?

Joe:

I thought nuclear powered, um, ships weren't allowed to visit?

scott:

No, they're not allowed to visit New Zealand, but

scott:

they could visit in Australia.

scott:

Yeah, because, um We've, we've had a, we've had a couple of their carriers

scott:

and all that sort of stuff come into Australia which are nuclear powered.

Trevor:

The writers of this article say, compare that with Malcolm

Trevor:

Fraser, then Prime Minister, stood up in Parliament and insisted no US

Trevor:

aircraft or ships carrying nuclear weapons could access Australian ports.

Trevor:

or operate over Australia without the permission of the Australian Government.

Trevor:

So we've gone from Malcolm Fraser saying no you can't to Penny Wong saying

Joe:

yeah.

Joe:

Are you aware that back in the 60s there were a number of aircraft

Joe:

permanently on station loaded up with, um, nuclear weapons, nuclear bombs,

Joe:

that were flying the Border Patrol on the edge of Russia, and there

Joe:

were a number of broken arrows, i.

Joe:

e.

Joe:

lost nuclear weapons, including in Spain.

Trevor:

There's a frightening book, I can't recall the title of it,

Trevor:

but it outlines all the near misses of nuclear mishaps, and yes, it

Trevor:

talks about those planes, and how

Joe:

they had to scrape up a large, it was like a kilometre square.

Joe:

of, um, Spanish Desert because of the radioactive waste

Joe:

that was scattered across it.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

And just a series of near mishaps with those planes, which

Trevor:

invariably had flying problems and.

Trevor:

Scary how close they were to other sort of incidents.

Trevor:

But yes, they used to just fly around with nuclear weapons in a plane, just

Trevor:

on the off chance that you might want to turn left and drop it on somebody.

scott:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Probably still happening.

scott:

One would hope it's not happening.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

As John Menendez said, this is our territory, it's our sovereignty.

Trevor:

Yet today we won't even ask the Americans operating out of Tyndall whether

Trevor:

they're carrying nuclear weapons.

Trevor:

So, we have this Force Posture Agreement with the FBA, with the United States,

Trevor:

which the Abbott government signed in 2014, building on agreements made

Trevor:

by the Gillard Labor government.

Trevor:

And the FBA provides the legal basis for the extensive militarisation

Trevor:

of Australia by the US.

Trevor:

And it permits the US to prepare for, launch and control its own military

Trevor:

operations from Australian territory.

Trevor:

In it, it says, quote, United States forces and United States contractors

Trevor:

shall have unimpeded access to and use of agreed facilities and

Trevor:

areas for activities undertaken in connection with this agreement.

Trevor:

And Minister Miles is effusive in his support of this.

Trevor:

And only last week he announced, American force posture now in

Trevor:

Australia involves every domain, land, sea, air, cyber and space.

Trevor:

This is Miles cheering this on, and um, two months after Labor won office, Miles

Trevor:

was in Washington announcing that Labor would continue the ambitious trajectory of

Trevor:

its force posture cooperation with the U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

So, unimpeded access to our airfields and airports,

Trevor:

unimpeded access to our seaports,

Trevor:

construction of a U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

Air Force center in Darwin, various other bits and pieces.

Trevor:

It's just.

Trevor:

So yeah, that's all part of the, um, uh, was already happening before AUKUS.

Trevor:

Let me just check, um, Alison asks, does the US have any other countries

Trevor:

with reciprocal military bases?

Trevor:

So, reciprocal would mean, um, as in Yeah, yeah, that we get to

Joe:

build bases on American soil.

Joe:

I don't think they do that.

Joe:

Nobody

Trevor:

has the ability to do that.

Trevor:

Put their bases on American soil, do they?

Joe:

Not that I'm aware of.

Joe:

And why would you want to?

Joe:

Well, false prediction.

Joe:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Unless We wanted to attack Mexico, and we could start putting some of our

Trevor:

bases on the uh Oh no, no, no, I mean,

Joe:

for instance, uh, U.

Joe:

S.

Joe:

Marshall Islands or Guam.

Trevor:

Yes, we might want to there.

Trevor:

Don't, I've never heard of it, good point.

Trevor:

Funny that, hey, says Alison.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

John says, isn't that all just part of alliances?

Trevor:

No, John, we've had alliances in the past where we do military exercises

Trevor:

with them offshore or even onshore.

Trevor:

And at the end of the exercise we say, see ya, that was fun, now you go home with

Trevor:

your stuff and we've practiced together, but you don't keep your military base here

clip:

with

Trevor:

a written legal agreement that says you can do whatever

Trevor:

you want to while you're here.

Trevor:

That's not an alliance, that's a takeover.

Trevor:

Singapore

Joe:

have access to Shoalwater Bay,

Joe:

paid us a lot of money to build infrastructure up at Shoalwater in

Joe:

return for, cause Singapore is um, short on land space, strangely enough.

Trevor:

Right.

Joe:

So they are leasing Shoalwater Bay for a few weeks,

Joe:

a year to run their exercises.

Trevor:

Well, that's to run an exercise, but not to, um, yeah.

Trevor:

But Singapore live launch a war.

scott:

Singapore is also a neutral country too.

scott:

It doesn't actually get involved with a.

scott:

Alliance or anything like that.

scott:

They are neutral and they have their own standing army and everything else that

scott:

is, um, that they would ever use should Malaysia ever decide to invade them,

scott:

which I don't think Malaysia ever would.

Trevor:

John says we can land on U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

soil.

Trevor:

We

scott:

have to see permission each and every

Trevor:

time.

Trevor:

And we can't set up an autonomous base on U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

soil.

Trevor:

And just do whatever the fuck we want to, John.

Trevor:

It's outrageous what we're giving up to the U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

here.

Trevor:

You don't see that?

scott:

You think it's all okay?

scott:

It's one of those things.

scott:

I just think to myself that, you know, the country has got to have

scott:

a long, hard conversation with itself about, um, the whole alliance

scott:

agreement that we've got with the U.

scott:

S.

scott:

because it started off during the second world war when Curtin,

scott:

rightly so, said, you know, we look to America for our protection.

scott:

And because the British were, British had their hands full dealing with

scott:

Nazi Germany, they couldn't send any more troops down to Singapore.

scott:

So Singapore fell and everything else.

scott:

And that's when Curtin said, we look to America.

scott:

And I could understand in those first years for Post the post of Second

scott:

World War, wanting to always look to someone stronger and everything

scott:

like that for your own protection.

scott:

However, if you actually look at what the alliance has actually cost Australia,

scott:

and it has cost us a hell of a lot.

scott:

It has, you know, it's got us involved in at least Two or three wars that we should

scott:

not have been involved in, you know.

scott:

And it's going to make

Trevor:

us a target now, because we have these bases.

Trevor:

So, um, oh, John says he's just, uh, providing pushback.

Trevor:

So he doesn't say it's all He's playing devil's advocate.

Trevor:

Okay.

Trevor:

Fair enough.

Trevor:

I thought you were serious, John.

Trevor:

This is where we need a sarcasm font or a devil's advocate

Trevor:

font on, um, social media.

scott:

It's one of those things, I just think to myself that, you know, it's,

scott:

um, probably the first target for a Chinese ICBM would be, um, Pine Gap,

scott:

which would irradiate, um, Alice Springs.

Trevor:

Yes,

scott:

now people would say if there are worse places to bomb than there is Alice

scott:

Springs, but anyway, it is it is what it is So that's probably the first place

scott:

that would disappear under a mushroom cloud It's probably the only place that

scott:

would never disappear under a mushroom cloud cloud in Australia because the rest

scott:

of the country is pretty much useless

Joe:

No,

scott:

they're not gonna bomb Darwin But they would actually look at you know

scott:

If they were gonna if they were gonna extinguish anything over here would be

scott:

pine gap because that would actually be

Trevor:

Well, certainly if there's a war between the U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

and China, then the military bases here in Australia would be targets.

scott:

Yes.

scott:

Now, I would imagine that the military targets and everything in the Philippines

scott:

and Guam and Japan and everything would come under, uh, attack first, but

scott:

probably they would then start to look at the further away bases in Australia.

scott:

I

Trevor:

think Point Gap is really vital for communications.

Trevor:

Which is

scott:

why, which is why I'd say that would be the first place that would

scott:

go, disappear under a mushroom cloud.

Trevor:

Yeah, yeah.

Trevor:

So, um, So still on this topic, um, I'm going to be talking about

Trevor:

Paul Keating's interview on the 7.

Trevor:

30 report and, oh, who was that, uh, lady on the 7.

Trevor:

30 report who was interviewed?

Trevor:

Lee Sayles?

Trevor:

No, she's gone ages ago, um.

Trevor:

Oh, is

clip:

she?

Trevor:

Yeah, who is it?

Trevor:

It's Sarah Ferguson.

Trevor:

Mm

clip:

hmm.

Trevor:

So, at several times during this Sorry, Joe, did you say something?

Joe:

Princess Sarah Ferguson.

Trevor:

No, different, um, different Sarah Ferguson.

Joe:

Okay.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

I'll just, I'll quote a bit from this interview.

Trevor:

She's quite

scott:

a good journalist, actually.

Trevor:

Oh, no, well, I thought she was, but, um, So she says she's

Trevor:

interviewing, um, Paul Keating.

Trevor:

Um, let me just get to the relevant bit.

Trevor:

She says, What's wrong with cooperating with an ally deemed

Trevor:

indispensable for Australia's security?

Trevor:

Keating responds is, What's wrong is we completely lose our strategic autonomy.

Trevor:

Let me amplify.

Trevor:

If we didn't have an aggressive ally like the United States, aggressive

Trevor:

to others in the region, there'd be nobody attacking Australia.

Trevor:

We are better left alone than we are being protected by an aggressive

Trevor:

power like the United States.

Trevor:

And she goes on, Well, the rationale for this has been, um, that That is

Trevor:

the rapid escalation, the rapid and undeniable escalation of Chinese military.

Trevor:

Why shouldn't Australia embrace an alliance that counterbalances that power?

Trevor:

Keating says because that power has no strategic designs upon Australia.

Trevor:

But just going back to the point here, um, he didn't take it up

Trevor:

with her but she claims that there's been a rapid and undeniable

Trevor:

escalation in the Chinese military.

Trevor:

And, um, Is that the case or not?

Trevor:

One way of measuring military expenditure would be as a percentage of GDP.

Trevor:

And, um, somewhere here I've got a picture.

Trevor:

Let me find it.

Trevor:

I'll put that up.

Trevor:

There's a picture.

Trevor:

Military spending as a percentage of GDP.

Trevor:

And, uh, and guess what?

Trevor:

Way out in front is the United States and Australia spends more as

Trevor:

a percentage of GDP than China does.

Trevor:

So okay, because China's got a large GDP, it's spending more than Australia.

Trevor:

But it's only doing, um, what people would expect any country to do,

Trevor:

as in spend a couple of percent per annum on military spending.

Trevor:

It's not, um, An exorbitant amount, and just quoting from this guy here

Trevor:

who says that, um, it's actually trending down, China's expenditure.

Trevor:

It's now 1.

Trevor:

6 percent of GDP, which means that if China was a member of NATO, it'd actually

Trevor:

be criticising, it'd be criticised for having overly low military budget, given

Trevor:

NATO member countries should aim to spend at least 2 percent of their GDP.

Trevor:

And the US spends 3.

Trevor:

5%, so it's just dishonest to be suggesting that there's

Trevor:

this incredible China build up.

Trevor:

When, given the size of the country, what they're doing is actually

scott:

fairly normal,

Trevor:

fairly normal, or even abnormally low Compared to other countries below

Trevor:

what NATO would be telling them to do if they were a member of NATO So this

Trevor:

is the sort of shitty journalism from people like Sarah Ferguson on on the

Trevor:

ABC If I get to it at another point, I'm going to talk about some shitty

Trevor:

journalism in the Guardian and Just in recent times, guys, I'm just getting

Trevor:

tired of, um, I expect shitty journalism from Murdoch Press and Fairfax, 9

Trevor:

Fairfax, but it's just getting worse and worse from the ABC and The Guardian,

Trevor:

the sort of people you have some sort of hope for, so, um, yeah, anyway, um.

Trevor:

Let me see in the chat room, because I've promised in this

Trevor:

episode I'm dealing with the chat.

Trevor:

Um, John, you would think if the US was hotting up for a war with China,

Trevor:

they would put a couple of Patriot systems on Pine Gap just because

Trevor:

she doesn't ask the questions you want doesn't make her a bad journo.

Trevor:

It's not her lack of asking a question, John, it was her statement that China

Trevor:

spending inordinate amounts on military when in the scheme of things they're not.

Trevor:

So it wasn't, I haven't criticised her for not asking a question, if that's clear.

Trevor:

Right, still back to the interview, um,

Trevor:

Keating says China's got no strategic interest in us.

Trevor:

Keating says Taiwan is not a vital Australian interest.

Trevor:

Um, um.

Trevor:

He says we're not threatened by the Chinese military.

Trevor:

Um,

Trevor:

oh, this is what I've been saying for years, dear listener.

Trevor:

For years I've been saying this exact point.

Trevor:

Australia is capable of defending itself.

Trevor:

Let's say, what is a threat?

Trevor:

And that is an invasion.

Trevor:

An invasion comes in an armada, in an armada.

Trevor:

With satellites today, you see the armada formed.

Trevor:

You would see it leave its harbour.

Trevor:

You would see it for 10 or 15 days come to Australia, and you would

Trevor:

sink every one of them on the way.

Trevor:

You don't need the United States to defend Australia.

Trevor:

Australia is quite capable of defending itself.

Trevor:

And we've made this point for years, dear listener.

Trevor:

When you are just on the water, you're a sitting duck for a whole

Trevor:

host of Uh, missiles that could be lobbed at you in any number of ways.

Trevor:

You'd be scared shitless as the captain of a Chinese troops ship, navigating

Trevor:

its way to Australia over 10 to 15 days, hoping to arrive unscathed.

Trevor:

That's where we should be spending our money on, is, is, uh, missiles

Trevor:

and whatnot, and defensive submarines, and alliances with Indonesia.

Trevor:

and people like that, so that we're intercepting these things along the way.

Trevor:

It's one of those

scott:

things, I was actually talking to a mate of mine the other day,

scott:

and I said, you know, that China's a long way away from Australia.

scott:

It's got to come down via Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia.

scott:

It's going to sail past a number of Fairly friendly countries to Australia,

scott:

they're going to pick up the phone and say, Hey boys, you better watch yourself

scott:

because the Chinese are heading south.

scott:

It's so much easier just to buy it.

scott:

What are they, what would they be coming

Trevor:

for?

Trevor:

Whatever they want, it would be so much easier just to buy it.

scott:

Yeah.

scott:

Even with that, like, you know, even if, even if they did come here to

scott:

buy everything up, then we'd always just put in export controls and say,

scott:

well, you can't sell that anymore.

scott:

You know?

Trevor:

But from the Chinese point of view, rather than force a war to take

Trevor:

something from us, it'd just be easier to buy it, to pay above market price

Trevor:

for whatever it is that they wanted.

Trevor:

Exactly.

Trevor:

And work on alternatives in the meantime, so, um, Sarah Ferguson, I just want

Trevor:

to come back to what you said about Taiwan, because it sounds from what

Trevor:

you're saying, you'd be perfectly happy to give up any support for Taiwan.

Trevor:

And Keating says, Any military support?

Trevor:

Absolutely.

Trevor:

He says, I mean, does anyone want their kids to be shot to

Trevor:

death on a sandy beach in Taiwan?

Trevor:

This is the outcome of such a policy.

Trevor:

Like, that is the straight talking that we need.

Trevor:

It's a

Joe:

sandy beach though.

Joe:

It's a fairly rocky beach.

Trevor:

Indeed, on a sandy or a rocky or just a Taiwanese beach, um, you,

Trevor:

Sarah Ferguson, put your kid up in the front line if that's what you think

Trevor:

is a great idea, just, I'm so glad that he's bounced back and said that,

Trevor:

um, so, um, what else he's got, um,

Joe:

well we support China.

Trevor:

Yes.

Trevor:

We just don't

Joe:

say which China.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

One China.

Joe:

Exactly.

Trevor:

Um.

Trevor:

To rule them all.

Trevor:

He says, the only threat likely to come is because we have an

Trevor:

aggressive ally, because of Orcus.

Trevor:

And um, and Sarah Ferguson, great journo that she is, says.

Trevor:

Just to finish, is it your contention that faced with the rapid escalation of

Trevor:

Chinese military, which is a misleading description, Australia should do nothing?

Trevor:

And Keating says no.

Trevor:

Australia should have submarines, which protect the waters of Australia.

Trevor:

It should have attacking and bomber aircraft to sink ships.

Trevor:

It should have self propelled mines.

Trevor:

It should have all of the things, the modern things, that you can keep.

Trevor:

Look, there's no way another state can invade a country like Australia with an

Trevor:

armada of ships without it all failing.

Trevor:

I mean, Australia is quite capable of defending itself.

Trevor:

Here here.

Trevor:

There we go.

Trevor:

Good on you, Paul Keating.

Trevor:

There'll be emus on

Joe:

them.

Joe:

They've already won one war.

Joe:

Say, say who won them?

Trevor:

Emus.

Trevor:

What's, what's emus?

Trevor:

Joe, you've lost me with that.

Joe:

You're not aware of the emu war?

Trevor:

No.

Trevor:

Okay.

Trevor:

Scotty, you?

Trevor:

No.

Joe:

Back in the 1920s, the WA farmers decided that the emus were

Joe:

coming in and destroying their crops.

Joe:

and agreed to hire the Australian army to go and shoot emus.

Joe:

And apparently, emus are very bulletproof.

Joe:

They zig and they zag, and they've got fairly thick hides, and apparently

Joe:

they were impossible to kill.

Trevor:

An emu might have a thick hide, but it's not The board's

Trevor:

not going to bounce off it.

Trevor:

It must have been a pretty lightweight bullet.

Joe:

Basically, the army were unable to kill very many emus.

Joe:

It's known as the Great Emu War.

Joe:

There's apparently two films out, either last year or this year, based on it.

Joe:

It's worth looking up the Wikipedia article or just googling the Emu War.

Joe:

In

Trevor:

the chat room, John says it's a bit harder to get a good

Trevor:

price for your coal when there is a figural battleship off the coast.

Trevor:

Well, John, if the battleship is stopping the transport of coal,

Trevor:

then the battleship ends up at the bottom of the ocean pretty quickly.

Trevor:

Because it's easy to shoot down.

Trevor:

That's the whole point.

Trevor:

It's a bit hard to stay put, uh, if you're going to start attacking merchant ships.

Trevor:

Navy, then at that point, uh, Australia would say, move out the

Trevor:

way, we'll see this missile here, it's going to land amid ships.

Joe:

Just sail a couple of gunboats up Yankton.

Joe:

Yeah,

Trevor:

it's, it's a bit harder to sit off the coast and do

Trevor:

that than you might think.

Trevor:

What else we got?

Trevor:

Um, Don says giant chickens are a menace, they can change direction, um, Joe is

Trevor:

right, Australia lost the Emu war, and.

Trevor:

When you're shooting at a pile of feathers, they're

Trevor:

very hard to hit from a Huey.

Trevor:

Thanks, Don.

Trevor:

All right, we'll be back to the chat in a second.

Trevor:

Part two of the Keating.

Trevor:

Um, so after Keating's interview, Prime Minister Albanese said the world

Trevor:

has changed between 1996 and 2024.

Trevor:

The world is different, implying that Paul Keating, you know, times have moved on.

Trevor:

Paul just doesn't understand.

Trevor:

And Paul Keating says, the relevant issue is our geography has not

Trevor:

changed, and geography is the primary factor in geostrategic settings.

Trevor:

And then, um, Nancy Pelosi came out and, um, and said that, uh, Paul Keating's.

Trevor:

Comments were not in the security interests of the Asia Pacific region for

Trevor:

people like Paul Keating to talk that way.

Trevor:

And, um, uh, he gave her a blast.

Trevor:

That was the Paul Keating stuff.

Trevor:

What else have I got?

Trevor:

Is there anything else on that?

Trevor:

It just, um,

Trevor:

You guys got any other comment on that?

scott:

Well, I'm still just not exactly sure what to do about Taiwan, because,

Joe:

you know Did you watch that video I shared with you?

Joe:

Not yet.

Joe:

So it was the Perun video, that was an hour and a half long,

Joe:

talking about How realistic, uh, Chinese invasion of Taiwan was.

Trevor:

What was this conclusion?

Joe:

It wasn't Peron, it was, um, Lines on Maps guy.

Joe:

Um, Game Theory 101 is the YouTube channel.

Trevor:

And, and what was the, uh, what was the Basically the conclusion was,

Joe:

um, it's not an easy, just, uh, Get in there, boots on ground.

Joe:

In terms of geography, it's really, really difficult to get on the shore.

Joe:

They'd be shot to pieces, they don't have the manpower and basically, it

Joe:

would be a slaughter and they just don't have enough young people.

Joe:

To sustain that sort of slaughter.

Joe:

Meaning

Trevor:

China would do it, do it, would win easily.

Trevor:

Is that what you're saying?

Trevor:

Or the opposite, right?

Joe:

So, so they were saying basically, uh, Defender has a five to one advantage.

Joe:

Um, there are high mountains around where you'd be landing unless you went

Joe:

all the way around to the other side.

Joe:

So you'd have to get over the mountains, you'd be, basically, your defenders

Joe:

would be shooting down on you, you'd be shot to pieces, and, um, so, basically

Joe:

the number of people you'd need to successfully have the beachhead.

Joe:

He's more than the number of young people that China has.

Trevor:

Did he say anything about a siege?

Joe:

Uh, no.

Trevor:

No, because that's what you do.

Trevor:

Yeah, probably.

Trevor:

You just maintain a siege until they gave in, because that's

Trevor:

You'd sit back and just stop.

Trevor:

I

Joe:

heard the Russians tried it with Berlin, didn't they?

Joe:

Well,

Trevor:

arguably it might be easier for China to conduct a siege on

Trevor:

an island territory like Taiwan.

scott:

If that was serious.

scott:

Yeah, but then you've also got the Yanks and the Japanese and all that

scott:

sort of stuff that could come in there and clean up the PLA navy, you know?

Trevor:

But with a siege, you don't even need to have your navy on the water.

Trevor:

You can just fire missiles.

Trevor:

From the Taiwanese mainland.

scott:

Yeah, in which case you've then got Patriot batteries that can be used

scott:

to intercept the, um, used to intercept the missiles that are fired from China.

scott:

Yeah, yeah, well.

scott:

It's one of those things, I just think.

Trevor:

And is America prepared to then enter a war on Taiwan's behalf?

Trevor:

Are they?

Trevor:

I don't know.

scott:

Donald Trump, certainly not.

scott:

Yeah,

Trevor:

you might say, leave it to him.

scott:

Yeah, exactly.

scott:

Or

Trevor:

just an economic siege.

Trevor:

Well, I don't know,

scott:

because the jungle hates China.

scott:

It's one of those things,

Joe:

I've

scott:

actually been reading a fair bit of stuff on that, and there's um, I can't

scott:

even remember the name of the chip company in Taiwan, but they reckon that is the

scott:

one thing that's actually keeping Taiwan independent, because it sells chips all

scott:

around the world, and Although the Chinas are getting very good with their chips,

scott:

they can't actually sell the chips to the rest of the rest of the planet because

scott:

they don't trust China to actually sell.

scott:

Who doesn't complete chips that

Trevor:

maybe Western powers don't wanna buy the Chinese chip's, but

Trevor:

there's plenty, plenty of others.

Joe:

Being created with backdoor chips on, which I think turned out to be a

Joe:

furfee, but there was a big scare story in the press about it at the time.

Trevor:

Hmm.

Trevor:

You know, in terms of, um You know, countries like the BRICS countries, the

Trevor:

Global South, they'll all buy chips from

scott:

China.

scott:

I agree.

scott:

However, they're not Europe, they're not the United States, they're not

scott:

Australia, they are, you know, they're not the big economies of the world.

scott:

That's why Germany is building its own chip manufacturing plant in Germany

scott:

because they're getting ready for Taiwan being taken out, you know.

Trevor:

Yeah, Don says China is fine, I love their tucker.

scott:

Who loves their

Joe:

taco?

Joe:

In terms of the chip manufacturing, apparently one of the big things, um,

Joe:

helping, um, the Democrats in this current political climate in the U.

Joe:

S.

Joe:

Is the whole, we're building our own chip fab on shore, we don't want to buy one,

Joe:

uh, and so there's a big amount of, um, U.

Joe:

S.

Joe:

government investment in basically skilling up poor areas to go and work

Joe:

in these factories of chip fabrication.

Joe:

And so, large investment of cash in rural seats.

Joe:

Mm hmm.

Trevor:

Mm.

Trevor:

Um, I'm just going to divert right to the top of my, um, notes here.

Trevor:

Did you guys hear about the change of government in Bangladesh?

scott:

Yeah, I did and I wasn't really sure what to believe on that because

scott:

there was stuff that you've already picked up on that you'd say, was it a

scott:

revolution or was it a coup, wasn't it?

Trevor:

Was it a popular uprising or was it a coup is the question and this

Trevor:

sort of come about in the last week since I did my episode on Venezuela

Trevor:

and the multiple attempts by the U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

to conduct a coup.

Trevor:

And I did a bit of an examination of just how many coups the U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

has been trying to do around the planet.

Trevor:

And the point I want to make about this is like, I know nothing

Trevor:

about the Bangladesh situation.

Trevor:

Um, but I started listening to a podcast.

Trevor:

It was the Guardian podcast.

Trevor:

How Bangladesh's long serving leader was toppled by student protests.

Trevor:

And, um, it's basically an interview with this guy, David Bergman, which he

Trevor:

essentially says, um, that the Bangladesh government used to be good guys, But,

Trevor:

um, but they went all authoritarian and undemocratic and this has been a genuine

Trevor:

student uprising and, um, thankfully a much better bomb have been installed.

Trevor:

And um, and that was, you know, this British journalist interviewing

Trevor:

this, uh, Bangladesh expert.

Trevor:

If you just listened to that episode of that podcast from The

Trevor:

Guardian, that was the story you got.

Trevor:

Plucky, plucky students, cause, uh, they changed, they made a law which said A

Trevor:

certain percentage of government jobs had to go to the descendants of people

Trevor:

involved in the War of Independence.

Trevor:

Yes.

Trevor:

And this was seen as being, um, you know, the people who weren't related

Trevor:

to somebody who was in the War of Independence were kind of pissed because

Trevor:

they were now second class citizens when it came to getting a good job.

Trevor:

A good example, dear listener, of why hereditary rights Not a good idea,

Trevor:

but we've talked about that before.

Trevor:

Um, yeah, so if you listen to the, the Guardian podcast, plucky, uh, university

Trevor:

students, um, uprising, um, previous, um, government in power for 15 years

Trevor:

just goes, whoops, nobody likes us anymore and scampers out of the country.

Trevor:

Thankfully, as a, as a new, less authoritarian regime moves in.

Trevor:

And I subscribe to a few podcasts, as you can imagine, and, um, for

Trevor:

example, the Duran and the Geopolitical Economy Report, both of them

Trevor:

absolutely convinced it's a US coup.

Trevor:

Now, I don't know, um, whether it was or not.

Trevor:

Like, they might be completely wrong, but Given the history of America's

Trevor:

plotting around the world, this Guardian journalist interviewing this guy

Trevor:

should have been alert enough to say, hey, any chance this was a US coup?

Trevor:

Can you give me the reasons why maybe it wasn't, if you're so convinced?

Trevor:

It wasn't.

Trevor:

Not a single mention of the possibility of a U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

coup, if only to dismiss it.

Trevor:

Like, it was really pathetic, one sided journalism.

Trevor:

And then when you do a Google search on the journalist that she was interviewing,

Trevor:

this guy, David Bergman, you can find all sorts of Stuff about him that suggests

Trevor:

he is not an independent commentator on what's going on in Bangladesh.

Trevor:

It's a U.

Trevor:

S.

Joe:

coup because all of the government infrastructure will be

Joe:

sold off at a very cheap price to U.

Joe:

S.

Joe:

corporations in the next two or three years.

Joe:

Well,

Trevor:

you'll really know when a U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

base appears at some strategic point in, um, on Bangladesh territory, because

Trevor:

apparently it's a very important seaway nearby for transporting oil to China.

Trevor:

So, funnily enough, the group that's now installed, um,

Trevor:

has been applauded by the U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

and, uh, are very pro U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

and that's almost certainly going to happen.

Trevor:

So It just gave me the shits that The Guardian spent 20 minutes talking to

Trevor:

a guy who's related, is the son in law of one of the key opposition members,

Trevor:

and, uh, has a history of, of, of not being an independent observer.

Trevor:

Completely relayed everything he had to say and didn't even contemplate

Trevor:

the possibility of a US coup.

Trevor:

And I just thought, fuck.

Trevor:

Terrible.

Trevor:

Terrible, pathetic journalism that's just misleading people.

Trevor:

And I think it was only just before that that I'd seen the Sarah Ferguson one of,

Trevor:

Sarah Ferguson with Paul Keating saying, you know, China they're building up a

Trevor:

massive military, um, totally beyond what would normally be reasonable.

Trevor:

And I'm just, I'm giving up on, on, on these characters in mainstream media,

Trevor:

who you thought might be helpful, but they're not, you've, the only thing

Trevor:

left is small independent little podcasts like this one, little, Little

Trevor:

YouTubers like, I don't really like Perun, but you know, people like that.

Trevor:

The John Menardew blog, dear listener, if you are not subscribing to the John

Trevor:

Menardew blog, and you should be paying them some money, um, five bucks a month or

Trevor:

something like that, because, um, that's where genuine information is coming.

Trevor:

So, yeah, that's my little rant about that.

Trevor:

Um, what have we got, um,

Trevor:

What's in this chat?

Trevor:

Let me scroll through it a bit.

Trevor:

What does it say here?

Trevor:

Ah, John says, China holds the vast majority of rare metal deposits.

Trevor:

Joe, you said not so sure about that.

Trevor:

Yeah, I'm

Joe:

fairly sure lithium is a fairly minor player.

Joe:

It just happens to be the only country that's digging it up at the moment.

Trevor:

Yeah, um, Scott's gotta go.

Trevor:

You gotta go, Scott?

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Okay, I'm just gonna go through a bit of this chat.

Trevor:

I'll only be another five minutes.

Trevor:

You go, and we, you won't have missed anything.

Trevor:

Thanks, Scott.

Trevor:

We'll see you next week.

Trevor:

Good night, all.

Trevor:

Actually, next week I may not be doing anything, because that's my birthday.

Trevor:

No worries.

Trevor:

Yeah, I'll let you know.

scott:

Happy birthday.

Trevor:

Thanks.

Trevor:

Okay, see you, Scott.

Trevor:

See ya.

Trevor:

Bye.

Trevor:

Okay, just running through this chat.

Trevor:

Um, China holds the vast majority of rare metal deposits.

Trevor:

Here

Joe:

we go, apparently Lithium.

Joe:

Australia is the largest producer of Lithium, accounting for nearly

Joe:

half of global production in 2022.

Trevor:

There you go.

Trevor:

My understanding was that Venezuela had a lot of Lithium.

Trevor:

It may be Colombia or places like that.

Joe:

Bolivia, Chile and Argentina have the largest estimated resources of nearly 50

Joe:

million tons between the three countries.

Trevor:

Right.

Trevor:

Is Venezuela in that list?

Trevor:

It wasn't listed.

Trevor:

Okay.

Trevor:

It

Joe:

was, hang on, uh, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

Trevor:

Okay.

Trevor:

Because I thought Venezuela was for, lithium's for batteries.

Joe:

Yes.

Trevor:

There might be some other rare mineral that's important for

Trevor:

batteries because, you know, Elon Musk on Twitter has been applauding every

Trevor:

move to overthrow the Maduro government.

Trevor:

Right.

Trevor:

One of the theories being that if U.

Trevor:

S.

Trevor:

corporations can access some metal that's used in electric

Trevor:

cars, that will help him out.

Trevor:

Um, um But not if

Joe:

Trump has his way.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Um Oh, what else we got here?

Trevor:

It's always more complicated than it seems.

Trevor:

Yes, it is.

Trevor:

I'm John and maybe the US helped it along a bit after it got going.

Trevor:

Don't know what that means.

Trevor:

Do you know

Joe:

what that means?

Joe:

That they didn't cause the coup, but once it was running that they provided support.

Trevor:

Yeah, maybe.

Trevor:

Who knows?

Trevor:

And as I say, I don't know whether it was a coup or not, but to run an

Trevor:

article, a podcast for 20 minutes and not mention the possibility

Trevor:

of it was just Poor journalism.

Trevor:

Misleading.

Trevor:

There

Joe:

you go.

Joe:

Mm-Hmm.

Joe:

Um, apparently China is digging up most of the rare earth but not lithium.

Joe:

Mm-Hmm.

Joe:

, uh, but mostly because of, uh, low cost, high pollution

Joe:

methods that are in use there.

Joe:

Mm-Hmm.

Joe:

enables them to dig them up cheaper than anywhere else.

Trevor:

Dig 'em up.

Trevor:

Where?

Joe:

China.

Joe:

Oh, okay.

Joe:

So this is not lithium, this is other rare earth metals, right?

Joe:

Yep, yep, yep.

Joe:

Yeah.

Joe:

So there are rare earth metals elsewhere.

Joe:

And China can compete because it can use horrible chemicals and not worry about it.

Trevor:

Hmm.

Trevor:

Hmm.

Trevor:

Okay, um, let me just see if there's anything pressing in my

Trevor:

notes that I have to get off.

Trevor:

Um, uh, Joe, Nord Stream, The Washington Post came out with an article.

Joe:

Yeah.

Trevor:

With a theory claiming that I

Joe:

thought they were going to lay charges.

Trevor:

Who?

Trevor:

The

Joe:

Germans.

Trevor:

Well, the Washington Post reported that Zelensky Yes.

Trevor:

The Ukrainian president ordered Zelensky, former commander in chief

Trevor:

of Ukraine, to bomb the Nord Stream and that the CIA tried to stop them.

Trevor:

Laughter.

Trevor:

But the Ukrainians went ahead and did it anyway.

Trevor:

This was the argument.

Trevor:

Yes.

Trevor:

Was Did they put this in the comedy?

Trevor:

Was this in the comics comedy section of the Washington Post?

Trevor:

Joe?

Trevor:

No, it just, you Sure.

Trevor:

I thought

Joe:

you'd appreciate the, um, the article.

Trevor:

Ah, so the official story is now that Germany for the past two

Trevor:

and a half years has been sending.

Trevor:

Tens of billions of euros plus military machinery to the country that

Trevor:

committed the worst act of industrial terrorism against Germany in history.

Joe:

And they're concerned that if this news came out that people would

Joe:

withdraw their support for Ukraine.

Trevor:

Cameron Leckie who has been on this podcast says what an insult

Trevor:

the fact that they fly a fairytale narrative like this and expect adults

Trevor:

to take it seriously is symptomatic of the collapse of the West.

Trevor:

It is?

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Um,

Trevor:

I think that's enough.

Trevor:

Joe, unless you've got something pressing you want to get off your chest.

Joe:

No, just the usual, um, Project 2025 stuff.

Joe:

I've been following quite a lot of those.

Trevor:

Yes.

Joe:

Watching the adverts coming out, I have to say that, um, Kamala

Joe:

seems to be on a good formula with just calling Trump weird.

Joe:

And he really doesn't seem to know how to respond to

clip:

her.

Joe:

He seems to be digging himself into a bigger and bigger hole.

Joe:

He's pissed the unions off.

Joe:

By saying that, um, Musk had it right by sacking his union workers.

Joe:

Um, he's also pissed Musk off by saying that he wants to ban electric vehicles

Joe:

or do something about electric vehicles.

Joe:

He was slagging them off.

Joe:

One second he's saying, oh, I suppose we're going to have to

Joe:

do something because the man's giving me 45 million a month.

Joe:

And then in the next breath, he's going, oh, well, but they're bad.

Joe:

You know.

Joe:

We're better off having oil guzzlers.

Trevor:

Do you know, I've got the exact clip right here.

Trevor:

I'll play that right now.

Trevor:

Trump on electric cars.

clip:

to be, you know, because Elon endorsed me very strongly, Elon.

clip:

So I have no choice.

clip:

But he knows.

clip:

No,

clip:

I am for him.

clip:

I'm for him for a small slice is a slice.

clip:

But you want to have gas propelled cars.

clip:

You want to have hybrids.

clip:

You want to have every kind of a car imaginable.

clip:

They want to go all electric.

clip:

And there's no way you can ever There's no way you can ever load them up.

clip:

They call them loading them.

clip:

You can't load them.

clip:

We're gonna have to spend nine trillion dollars in the middle west.

clip:

You saw they built chargers.

clip:

Now a charger is a gas pump with electricity come through.

clip:

Is that good?

clip:

So it's like a, for eight chargers, they spent nine billion.

Trevor:

Who would go out of their way to listen to that?

Trevor:

But so anyway, the first part, um, for electric vehicles, I have to, because

Trevor:

Elon endorsed me and everybody cheered.

Trevor:

So, just the concept that I'm for something because a billionaire is

Trevor:

going to pay me money, I've been bought off and everybody cheered.

Trevor:

So there was that part.

Trevor:

And then there was the technical term of loading.

Trevor:

Just, it's such crap.

Trevor:

And then,

Joe:

however many billion dollars to build the charges, which I'm going, I

Joe:

don't believe his figures are correct.

Trevor:

Oh, would you like another example of perhaps a

Trevor:

dodgy figure, Joe, from the past?

Trevor:

Donald Trump.

Trevor:

Here we go.

Trevor:

Here's a, see, uh, you know, you don't need to be an expert at math,

Trevor:

dear listener, to spot an error in this, in this, uh, thinking.

Trevor:

Here we go.

clip:

Virtually one job creation in the last year has gone to migrants.

clip:

You know that?

clip:

Most of the job creation has gone to migrants.

clip:

In fact, I've heard that substantially more than, uh, beyond, actually beyond

clip:

the number of a hundred percent.

clip:

It's a much higher number than that, but.

clip:

The, uh, government hasn't got,

Trevor:

there you go.

Trevor:

Joe.

Trevor:

Jobs created, have gone to migrants.

Trevor:

More than a hundred percent of 'em.

Trevor:

Yes.

Trevor:

That's 'cause migrants earn those guys.

Trevor:

They work two jobs.

Trevor:

Maybe that's how, that's,

Joe:

oh, maybe.

Trevor:

Maybe that's how they've done

Trevor:

more than a hundred percent of new jobs.

Trevor:

Go to Migrants.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

He's getting wacky, um, just losing it in terms of He's never had it.

Trevor:

Well, you're right, he never has, but Maybe they're picking on him more.

Joe:

They are picking on him more.

Joe:

Because Joe's not around him.

Joe:

It's hilarious because, yeah, he built up this whole, oh my god,

Joe:

you're too old to be a president.

Joe:

And now that Biden has gone, all of that, oh my god, you're too old, is

Joe:

just coming straight back at him now.

Trevor:

Yes, yeah.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Okay, John says, he just says whatever comes into his head

Trevor:

as it doesn't stay there long.

Trevor:

That's true?

Joe:

No, I mean, he's a bullshitter.

Trevor:

He's not a

Joe:

liar, because a liar knows what the truth is.

Joe:

He's a bullshitter.

Joe:

He doesn't care what the truth is.

Joe:

The truth is whatever suits him at the time.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

All right, dear listener, we're done and dusted.

Trevor:

That, uh, episode.

Trevor:

Don't know if there'll be one next week because, uh, it definitely won't

Trevor:

be live on a Monday evening because, uh, I'll be celebrating a birthday.

Trevor:

Might pre record something beforehand.

Trevor:

Not sure.

Trevor:

See what happens.

Trevor:

Might look at Bangladesh.

Trevor:

Not sure.

Trevor:

All right, we'll talk to you then.

Trevor:

Thanks for listening.

Trevor:

Talk to you next week.

clip:

How did you get my from him?

clip:

As you can see, we've had our eye on you for some time now, Mr.

clip:

Anderson.

clip:

It seems that you've been living two lives.

clip:

One of these lives has a future and one of them does not.

clip:

I'm going to be as forthcoming as I can be, Mr.

clip:

Anderson.

clip:

You're here because we need your help.

clip:

My colleagues believe that I'm wasting my time with you, but I believe

clip:

you wish to do the right thing.

clip:

We're willing to wipe the slate clean, give you a fresh start.

clip:

All that we're asking in return is your cooperation and

Trevor:

a simple donation of one dollar per episode

clip:

Wow, that sounds like a really good deal But I think I got a better

clip:

one how about I give you the finger

clip:

And you give me my

Trevor:

free podcast

clip:

Mr.

clip:

Anderson

clip:

You disappoint me.

clip:

You can't scare me with this Gestapo crap.

clip:

I know my rights.

clip:

I want my

Trevor:

free podcast.

clip:

Tell me, Mr.

clip:

Anderson, what good is a podcast if you're unable

Trevor:

to hear?