We need to talk about ideas, good ones and bad ones. We need to learn stuff about the world. We need an honest, intelligent, thought provoking and entertaining review of what the hell happened on this planet in the last seven days. We need to sit back and listen to the Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.

Joe, over the years, this podcast has had a few pet topics. One of them was, has been submarines. I was gonna say submarines, and another pep topic on the obscure side has been Venezuela. Mm-hmm. We, I think, as a modest little Australian podcast. Of a mere 491 episodes mm-hmm. Have done more than our fair share of chatting about Venezuela over the years. So yes, I think we're gonna do a bit more of it tonight, I think. I think in fact. No, it'll be there. I can't believe that. Why would you wanna hear that? Yeah. I mean, what's gone on in the last seven days? Hmm. Quite extraordinary times. Dear listener. I think you'll agree. Um, Joe, is the chat up? Are we, uh, is that up or gotta put that up? Uh, yep, it's done. Nobody's there yet. Hopefully somebody will show up. But, um, if you're in the chat room at any point, say hello and we will try and incorporate your comments. So, well, Joe, before I head off on my rant, um, did you have any initial feelings when you saw the news and saw that Maduro had been. Um, captured ab kidnapped. Yeah. I mean it, um, it, it, um, gives cover for other power hungry dictators to invade sovereign countries. Yes. And an American can hardly now say, well, you know, we're the police of the world. We are, we are looking at international rules based order when they go and invade foreign countries. I mean, it's, it's always been a stretch, but yes, it's all open. It's all out in the open now, isn't it? Oh, yeah. So I did a post, um, Joe on Facebook because I wrote some notes as my sort of introductory sort of thing, and I thought, you know what, I'll just post it on Facebook. Just the 'cause not often. I actually write something and there were a few comments there. And, um, yeah, all Mm. So one of the, you know, the second last paragraph I wrote. Have we finally reached the point where we can all openly admit the USA is a lying, stealing, murderous, immoral, selfish bully that is causing untold misery around the world. And after reading the comments, Joe, unfortunately we can't all say that. 'cause it just, it seems like there's a significant number of people out there who just can't quite bring themselves to say that yet. Y yeah. I mean, none of the other D presidents have, have done that particular, it's a new one, obviously. Well, um, well, actually no, Noriega Yeah. In Noriega, in in Panama. Although Noriega was a CIA asset, wasn't he? Well, who's to say Maduro, isn't it? Well, yes. We'll, we'll, that would be the great plot twist, Joe. Well, um, not rieger and sadly insane. Were both CIAA, um, assets, weren't they? Yeah. But, uh, so no, it, it, funnily enough is not new in that sense. Um, Trump Oh, no, no. Drug charges and ab conducting a, a foreign leader. The, the brazenness and, and the, the out and out. Well, it's all about what deals we could make the shameless grab for oil. Yeah. Because in the past it's always been, you know, lefties saying This is a shameless grab for oil. Yeah. It's the don't want drilling. They're not really there to, uh, you know, install freedom and democracy. They're there for ulterior motives. Yes. And people would say, oh, you can't say that. You're being very cynical this, this time. At least Joe absolutely openly saying it shamelessly. That's why I, I titled it, uh, shameless Gangsters as Episode. Right? Well, yeah. I mean, that's, that's the thing about dementia. Don those you Don. Yes. Yeah. Anyway, look at a few people in the chat room. Good on you. Uh, five are there at least. So, uh, James says rant inbound. Yes. James, there's one on the way. Um, hello to Alison. Hello to Dire Straits, John. And, um, yeah, I think that's the commenters so far. Well, Joe, let me just kick off with my summary of how I see it. So. Venezuela, by the way, I'll just digress momentarily. How many, you got? Plenty of hours to do this, Joe, are you gonna hurry off anywhere? Like this could be a long, I have nothing to do other than fall asleep. Mm, okay. Okay. Try not to do that to you. So, um, ah, it's saying the YouTube stream has dropped down. I don't, I dunno why that would've been, unless the algorithm is, um, not happy with this. Oh. So, um, I have a look. It looks okay on the, anyway, I'll, I'll, uh, do my little rant and, uh, Joe, the tech guy, we will see what's happening with YouTube. Okay. The poor people of Venezuela are unlucky enough to have oil. See, if they didn't have oil, they would've been left alone. Dear listener.

Mm-hmm.

American Gangster Oligarchs, uh, used to have it. And Chavez, um, nationalized the oil only oil companies. The oil fields took back control much in the way that Mossek wanted to do in Iran. Way back in 1953. Uh, the gangsters, uh, the oligarch, gangsters, they wanted it back and now it looks like they've got it back. Trump. Joe initially seemed to always talk about not he was anti-American sort of excursions into the Middle East and wars, and he, he seemed to, you know, that was part of his stick as he was campaigning, was what's America doing in these foreign co um, countries? It's just a waste of money. I think that was his reason for not wanting to be there, was he couldn't see a return. So he was disposed against American involvement in wars. Um. Uh, but that hasn't stopped the gangster oligarchs. They've succeeded anyway. So Trump, I think, saw these sorts of exercises as expensive. He couldn't see a return on investment. The Trump family was not benefiting from Middle East oil grabs. So I always said, um, you were shaking your head there, Joe, or, oh, he's, he's, yeah. He wasn't getting the benefits and Hmm. So there was nothing in it for him.

Yeah,

and I always, I said, you know, at the start of one of these Trump presidencies, whether the first one or the second one that if I was in the military industrial complex, because he was talking about, about, about bringing these things back, would be, offer him free stock or offer him some monetary incentive. Give him a stake in the military industrial complex. And he will be all for it. And it would, it would've been worth their while just to, to, um, to, to give him a toehold in that sort of industry. 'cause then he'd be all for it. Um, I'm, I'm not aware of them doing it, but I'm sure they have somewhere Anyway. Um. Israel, of course, Joe, as you like to mention a few times, um, offered Gaza land deals

Mm.

To Trump as an incentive for American support. And that worked very well. Like, um, Trump, Gaza. Yes, Trump, Gaza was, was a big selling point and you could just see him almost licking his lips with the family being able to start land development deals in Gaza. So, um, clever moved by Israel to get him on board, and uh, he was a fan of helping the Israelis. He could see a return for himself. So, um, I think the oligarchs have explained that Venezuela is an easy target. It just needed to be bullied into submission and rivers of gold. In this case, oil could be stolen without consequence, Joan, and, um, I think you'll find. Call me cynical, but the Trump family is gonna benefit from this Venezuelan oil oil grab somehow. So they'll be leading, um, oil companies and other business executives into Venezuela and saying, you can have this, or you can have that, or this or that. But of course, um, we're gonna clip, uh, things along the way and take our fair share. So watch out for the Trump family as it, um, takes its share of this, uh, Venezuelan oil grab. So, um, what did it come, how did we get to this point? The usual tactics had not worked. Joe, um, sanctions. Uh, we are aware of those where they basically have stopped Venezuela trading, um, and. Um, with, certainly with Western countries. So, uh, they've been, um, basically confiscating their oil tankers of weight. Uh, we had sovereign wealth appropriation where basically the gold that, uh, Venezuela had, I think it was Bank of England or Fort Knox, one of those Americans just said, we're taking that. So just took the, uh, national wealth of Venezuela. Uh, there was a big, uh, sort of oil company operating service gas stations in America, which was owned by the Venezuelan government, and they just took that, uh, as well, appropriated it. And, uh, what else did they do? There's been currency wars, talked about that a long time ago in an episode, um, uh, where they basically and manipulated the currency to make things even tougher for the poor Venezuelans, uh, color revolutions. We recently had an amateur special coup operation. There was sort of like almost a Bay of Pigs fiasco where. Um, a handful of like delta force type guys entered Venezuela and were captured and thrown into prison and it was a sort of a ham-fisted, bay of pig style operation and that failed. And, um, what else have we got? Um, so that sort of things have either failed or they haven't been working quickly enough. And one of the things recently, Joe, is, um, China could buy the oil and keep Venezuela going.

Mm-hmm.

And we've seen a number of oil tankers. Um, basically, um, well it's, it's piracy on the high seas by America where they've unilaterally decided to sanction oil production outta Venezuela and just through piracy jumped onto. Um, oil tankers using the US Navy and they haven't done it to Chinese flagged ships. And this is the wonderful thing about the Bricks organization is they're basically working on, uh, a system of, of deals between themselves, which don't involve the American dollar and don't involve Western countries. And they're big enough now, um, particularly with you've got China making everything you could possibly need in terms of manufacturing, um, Venezuela, applying oil that China would like to have, and um, the other Brix countries filling in bits and pieces along the way. So. In theory, you could see Venezuela bumbling along with the assistance of China and managing to, to get along despite the heavy sanction regime of the Americans. So, um, so what we've got is, um, we've also got decades of propaganda. Joe, swap this maybe to a different screen so I can read it easier over here. Just hang on a second. So, um, so running along at the same time, we've got the narrative that the poor people of Venezuela are suffering under an undemocratic dictatorship that dabbles in narco terrorism. Uh, let's get rid of Maduro, which will restore democracy and stop the drug trade and free up oil reserves. It's a win-win for everyone except Maduro. Too bad if the international rules-based order must be selectively ignored, the end justifies the means. We are the good guys. Maduro is a bad guy. Anything we do is therefore okay. China and Russia can't morally do the same regarding Taiwan or Ukraine because after all, they are the bad guys. I mean, that is the mainstream Western propaganda narrative, uh, in relation to Venezuela. So it's good guys versus bad guys. Not that I've seen. What's that, Joe? I said not that I've seen. Not, not that you've seen. No, no. I've seen a bunch of interviews that are saying it's a really bad move on his part. It, it's giving cover to, um, uh, dictators elsewhere and it's a blatant grab floor. Yeah, well, uh, on the fringes that, that might be the case. Um, but I hardly call Times radio in the UK a Fringe times radio. Yeah. As in the, the National Times, Sunday Times. Okay. Yeah. Um, it's fairly big mainstream channel. Okay. Can I get away with saying it's one branch of the, uh, mass media or the one that they would like to promote as being the case? That narrative? No, uh, interesting. That, I mean, it's Murdoch, which very much surprised me. Yeah. I, I'm not familiar with timed radio. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, certainly the American Commentariat, um, seemed to be on board at this stage and the limiting criticism.

Yeah.

Like this, I can imagine the, the left wing pundits in the States won't be mm-hmm. Uh, the Bernie Sanders of the world. Yeah. Oh, no. I was thinking more like, um, young Turks. Mm-hmm. John Oliver, many of those. Mm-hmm. True. Um, so, um, th that's the, the narrative story they'd at least like to try and sell, or that the Trump, um, uh, regime would like you to believe that it's a win-win. So it's a sort of a good guy versus bad guy type of thing, where he's a bad guy so we can do these things to him, and the rules don't really matter anymore. Um, so according to, uh, that sort of Trump regime, the USA can have a Monroe doctrine and a sphere of in influence, but China couldn't.

Mm-hmm.

And, um, the USA can object to Russian missiles in Cuba, but Russia can't object to NATO missiles in Ukraine. It's a. A rule for me and not for the, or the other way round. Joe, one of those, well, I think Trump is perfectly happy with, um, Russia dealing with Ukraine. Mm-hmm. He seems to be bending over backwards for Russia. Mm-hmm. Um, there's a, there's a hypocrisy about this though, where, and we'll get into the response by the Western leaders

who

mm-hmm. Are very timid in their criticism of what Trump's done. If we look at the EU or they're worried he's gonna put sanctions, though, well, well, but we've got, or possibly even black bag them into a helicopter. Yeah. So we've got other countries that are not part of that, who are prepared to be uhhuh. So, you know, in our neck of the woods, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia have been much more forthright in their criticism of what's going on than Australia has been. We've got, we've got, yeah. Most of the Latin American countries and Spain being outraged. We've handed over large amounts of money for submarines that we're never gonna get if we just jump off. We've also got these small Latin American countries who are just outraged and saying, this is not on, but, well, no, 'cause they're worried they're next. But then we've got European countries very timid. Mm-hmm. In their criticism of it. Well, yeah. They're not worried as well. Well, uh, they, they are Riggs very worried, but they're worried that Trump is gonna sanction their banking system. You see, one's got some guts and one doesn't like some of these guys. Yeah. They're all scared. Some of them are actually going, this is outrageous. Um, you can't do this, or you shouldn't be able to do this. Return Maduro and his wife to Venezuela now. Meanwhile, other countries who you would expect are part of the, who are largely part of the civilized West are very muted in their response. Mm-hmm. Saying things like, oh gee, we hope it can all be sorted out peacefully. And that ultimately, uh, the rules of law, democracy prevails prevail, and that in the long run everything works out for the people of Venezuela. That is the sort of response, I'll get into the detail of it later, but that's the gap that's developing between timid, immoral western countries and a braver little brown people in, in the, in the global south are the ones standing up for this what's happening. And they're all scared, but at least one's got some guts. But, um. It's interesting, apparently the American oil companies haven't jumped at Trump's offer to run the, uh, oil in Venezuela for him. Yeah. On, on a 50 50, um, profit sharing basis. 50. Has it been said a 50 50? No. Yeah. And who said they hadn't jumped at it? Uh, it was interesting. That was a article I was reading. They wouldn't have had sad, they wouldn't have had time to draft up a bullshit proposal yet, would they? Like Well, yeah. Give them, I think they'll be lining up. So I, yeah. Um, uh, what else do I wanna say in that? Um, it, I mean, it was interesting that Trump said they stole our oil. Of the Venezuelans. Yes. And it's like, well, it's sitting under their fucking ground. Why is it your oil? No, it used to be owned by American companies, and Chavez had the temerity to say, that's not a fair deal. This is Yeah. Venezuelan oil. And you gonna have to pay a proper royalty if you want to continue doing it. If only Australia did that with our various minerals that are under our soil. If, if only, and then if we did, um, later we'd get invaded. Correct. And albanese would be black bagged facing narco terrorism charges. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, um, J Joe, why are we continuing to hitch ourselves to, to a country like this that would, would do a thing like this that would just go and grab the leader of another country? On, on charges of, on trumped up charges, and then just, um, intentionally for the purposes of stealing their oil, we're supposedly have shared values with the USA is why we are an ally with them. But yeah, the love of the almighty dollar. Yes. That's, that's a shared value. Mm-hmm. Grab it when you can. Yep. Uh, what? No, I mean, I've been saying for years that America is a third world country and they've just proved it really All pretenses completely disappeared, hasn't it? Mm. Um, okay. This is, um, Iran all over again. Dear listener. In 1953, uh, there was a coup in Iran. There was a fellow called, um, Mohammad. Um, Mossek and at the time, British Petroleum, um, was, um, extracting the oil from Iran. And he said, you know, a, a pittance was being paid in royalty and this was a deal that had been done by, uh, former corrupt sort of governments. And he said, no longer. And initially, uh, the, so the UK government was supporting the British petroleum. And in initially the Americans said, well, that's a bit unfair. You know, Britain like the deal's a shocker. You really should give a bit here to Iran. But for some reason they changed their mind and they went all in. And, and, um, Kermit Roosevelt deposed him through the CIA and operates in Ajax shamelessly conducted a color revolution and, um. And installed, uh, the Shah.

The Shah.

And

mm-hmm.

Um, of course he was eventually overthrown, um, by the Islamists. And, um, that country has not recovered since now. It was a shining light in the area at the time. Like it, you know, the Persian sort of empire was a, um, it could have been an absolute jewel in the crown of the world, that corner of the world. So, um, so when, you know, people comment on Facebook and John and dire Straits, there is one of 'em saying that, you know, it's pretty bad what's happened to Venezuela, but you know, maybe in the long run, in 10 years or 20 years, uh, and hug Harris suggested something similar. You know, they'll be better off, but not necessarily if Iran is anything to go by. When you go in and you forcefully change a government against the will of the people by an external force, uh, anything can happen. And, and the history is, it's never good. So you can't say to yourself, um, uh, well ultimately it's, uh, it's gonna be for the benefit of the, uh, Iranian people. Maybe. So maybe it's a good thing. Um, well, I mean, if you allege that Ukraine and Serbia were color revolutions, then it was a good thing, a good thing for Ukraine, Serbia, and Ukraine. It's a good thing for Ukraine what the position it's in now. Uh, it's better than it was. The, the, if you say that there was a color revolution engineered by, I don't say that there was a color revolution American. I'm saying then if you're claiming that you couldn't claim the Ukraine's in a better position now than it's was in 2014. Yeah, well, they have some level of freedom and democracy, even if they're being invaded by a totalitarian dictator. I think a lot of them like to wind the clock back, Joe. But, uh, yeah. Um, yeah. Uh, should we play a little clip? See what, um, see what Trump has to say just to get a feel for the belligerence of, of this guy. Mm-hmm.

Certainly killed the United States. Military is the strongest and most fierce military on the planet by far. With capabilities and skills our enemies can scarcely begin to imagine. We have the best equipment anywhere in the world. There's no equipment like what we have. And you see that even if you just look at the boats, you know, we've knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by sea. 90%. Each boat kills 25 On average, 25,000 people, we knocked out 97%. And those drugs mostly come from a place called Venezuela. We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. So we don't want to be involved with, uh, having somebody else get in. And we have the same situation that we had for the last long. Period of years. So we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. And it has to be judicious 'cause that's what we're all about. We want peace, liberty, and justice for the great people of Venezuela. And that includes many from Venezuela that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country. It's their homeland. We can't take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn't have the good of the Venezuela people in mind had decades of that.

Uh,

see that just good.

Reminds me of the. Remedial learner in class reading out his essay. It's pretty,

and uh,

here's a word I don't judicious. Yes. Which very judicious, dunno what it means, but we're definitely that. It was a bit like that wasn't it? Yeah. Oh, he's never said it before and he is never practiced it before. No. Allison says Marco Rubio doing rapid blinking. Uh, he was actually signaling a morse code. Help get me outta here. Yeah. Preparing for when he's a cap captive one day. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh, you know, 'cause the way he describes it, they're actually the good guys. They're just helping out the poor Venezuelans and they're also getting back the oil that was stolen off them. Well, and and more importantly, they're stopping the slur of drugs. I mean, the fact that he just pardoned a, a leader of a country that was actually convicted by a US court for importing 40 tons of cocaine. Yes, yes. He's got it. Is neither here nor there. Maduro was the big problem. Yes. Well, we have discussed this about drugs. Um mm-hmm. So, you know, just on the drug story, um, so, um, Trump, when they've been basically killing poor fishermen, uh, off the coast of Venezuela, um, claiming that drug runners, uh, said that they've been, um, shipping mostly fentanyl and other drugs too. Um, but fentanyl, according to US authorities, um, Venezuela plays little to no role in the flow of fentanyl. Yeah. It comes. Um, yeah, it comes from, uh, through Mexico. Wow. So of the, uh, 80,000 deaths in America, um, in 2024, uh, 48,000 were fentanyl, and that's nothing to do with Maduro. Mm-hmm. That's China, Mexico, so 48,000 out of 80. And then, um, they're also trying to frame Mado for, um, cocaine trafficking. And again, according to, um, uh, you know, the, the US uh, its own authorities, uh, the cocaine that goes through, um, that goes through Venezuela, ends up in Europe and doesn't end up, it's only a tiny amount that actually ends up in America. So, in the scheme of things, Venezuela is not a, a drug producer of any note, uh, when it comes to fentanyl, cocaine into America. Um, but the Honduran president, um. Uh, he got pardoned. Yeah. And he had actually been, um, convicted by a jury.

Mm.

Of, uh, serious drug crime. Maduro has just been indicted. No conviction yet. Yes. And, and, and Trump is happy to let off the Honduran president, but um, needs to go into Venezuela and abduct Maduro, you know, one of the reasons being drugs.

Mm-hmm.

Unbelievable. Um, actually, what did I have here? Um, um, yeah, the, he pardoned the former Honduran president, Orlando Hernandez, who was sentenced to 45 years. In New York prison. Yep. For his role in helping smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the us I'm sorry, 400, not 40 tons. Yes. It, I knew it was a larger amount. 400 tons of cocaine. Mm-hmm. In a drug running scheme linked to the ol sin. Lower cartel. Yes. It's the sin over cartel. And according to Trump, Hernandez had been treated very harshly and unfairly. That's why you let him off. Hmm.

Joking.

45 year sentence in 400 tons of cocaine.

Yeah. If you were to

write this as, as a dystopian sort of, well, PO law, isn't it? People would say, this is just too ridiculous. You know about PO law, don't you? PO Law. Yeah. Which one's that? Oh, there's nothing you can say, there's no joke you can say about a creationist that hasn't already been said by a creationist. And, and it's the same with Trump, that you, you couldn't parody this because if, if you were looking for hypocrisy Mm. The levels of hypocrisy where we were like, ah, you know, well, they've gone into another country and abducted the leader of the country in, in and taking it back to America on trumped up charges of drugs. Well, I haven't done that before. And you go, oh, uh, actually, hang on a minute. They did it with Noria and Panama. And then, then you go, well, you know, Grenada as well. You know, and, and then maybe, I'm not sure what that one was, but, um, and then with this one, the hypocrisy where a guy convicted for 45 year jail term for 400 tons of cocaine, he gets let off because in Trump's view, he was treated harshly. Yeah. And when Marco Rubio was asked about this, he says, oh, you know, I'm, I'm not across the detail. I don't really know, you know? Yeah. Uh, yeah. So, um, so Panama, that was, uh, 1989. Um, I don't think that produced a single piece of evidence linking Noriega to drug running, um, incidentally on that score. So Noriega was, um, captured and, and, uh, dealt with for drug running.

Mm-hmm.

Um, who goes Chavez? Um, he, uh, there's a, uh, tape of him, uh, running around where, um, now let me try and find it. Um, so this is the, uh, former leader in Venezuela. Um, I'm gonna find that, um. Yeah. So he says in this clip years ago, someone told me they're gonna end up accusing you of being a drug trafficker. You personally, you Chavez, not just that the government supports it or permits it. No, no, no. They're gonna try to apply the Noriega formula to, you're looking for a way to associate Chavez directly with drug trafficking and then anything goes against a drug trafficker president. Right?

Yeah, absolutely. So that

was Chavez Rec, Hugo Chavez recognizing that decades ago. And uh, sure enough, that's what they did to his successor. Mad while that, yeah, because he wasn't, sorry. One of them was a man of the people who, who was not drawing a, he wasn't taking his president salary and was living in a shack somewhere, probably Chavez like, you know, he, um, well. Um, when Chavez was elected, 15 families had control of 75% of farms. Uh, only 10% could afford university. Um, there was no access to rural health. And, um, big oil took all the profits like in Australia and paid no tax. And Chavez held adult literary courses in every barrio and Churchill run by senior students. And so ordinary citizens could pass the literary test and so could vote. Uh, universities were made free. Cuba supplied doctors in exchange for oil food production was focused on food security, not export. Cooperatives were set up for farming and food. Of course, the US imposed a capital strike. All engineers for big oil were withdrawn. And, um, uh, Venezuela started to get the industry going again, the oil industry with help from Vietnam, China, and South America. But USA increased its sanctions and froze all of their assets. Blah, blah, blah. Like, that was the quick rundown of the Chave story. Like seemingly a good guy who did genuinely good things just made the mistake of trying to nationalize the oil, a mossek mistake. Hmm. Uh, which also was the, a yday mistake in terms of copper in, uh, Chile. And it was the, um, Guatemala mistake in terms of, uh, fruit crops in Guatemala. Yeah. But I've digressed Joe, why, uh, this, my son was asking this. Why did they kidnap him and his wife and not just kill him? What's the gun? 'cause they'd need to have an excuse to kill him. Although you think he, he could have fought back. They killed 40 odd soldiers in the process. Well, yeah, but the soldiers were armed, whereas if he wasn't armed, they could have put a gun in his hand. Well, yeah. Uh, people are a little more suspicious after the, um, the Australian SASI just, um, my son was saying what was the benefit of actually, uh, grabbing him and taking him back to America? And it just seemed like if you are wanting to control the oil that you would just say to the new president, well, you killed your predecessor and you better tow the line, otherwise we'll kill you. Well, but they, you wouldn't, they've said we we're gonna snatch you if you don't tow the line. Well, well, that's the clear implication, but it's just, it's just harder. Like now they'll just be faced with all of the circus goings on about, um, dealing with this prisoner that they have. And, um, I was sort of thinking, Joe, if I was a, like Maduro's in his sixties and his wife's 69, something like that, like. You know, he at this stage is destined for the rest of his life being in maximum security prison in America. And you'd, you'd rather be dead? I would've thought. Probably un. Unless you know, he's a bargaining chapter to hold onto and negotiate with whatever government is in power later on that you can then go, well, if you want for trials against the people. Ah, okay. When Machato Machato gets gets in, that's not gonna fly. Yeah. I don't know. It just seems like a very awkward situation. Have to deal with him now. And I just would've thought, I mean, the fact they've left his vice president in power, they've said. The opposition leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize, who apparently had a clear margin of victory in the last election, um, didn't have the will of the population to vote to, to govern. 'cause she thought she was gonna be a shoe in. Mm-hmm. And apparently Trump went, oh no, no, she's no good. Yes. Well, Trump said she didn't have the backing of the people. Yes. Mm. Which was weird 'cause she won the majority of the vote in the last election. She didn't even run. Sorry. No, her, she wasn't, she was barred from running her sidekick. Yes. Got, yeah. The majority of the vote, I think. Well, which part, which election was that? Was that for some minor midterms or something? Was it, uh, it was a couple of years ago. Right. It was the most recent elections they were saying. Right. They, they got, they got a 38% lead. Right. But, but this wasn't for the presidency. Uh, probably not. Maybe it was for the Parliament. Hmm. I think, I think Machato was banned because of her involvement with the CIA as a traitor to the country. Right. And, and her recent performances, uh, indicate that was probably a fair call. She was calling for an invasion by a foreign power into Oh, she was. Mm. And you know, I, I, I can kind of accept that as being a disqualifying criteria for somebody wanting to run for president. If you've secretly, you think disqualify somebody from Peace Prize, but apparently not. Yeah. So much for that FIFA Peace prize. Mm. It's hasn't even had a chance to collect dust on the shelf. And he's,

well,

our FIFA gonna ask for it back now. Yeah. Um, although I was reading your comment section and somebody obviously hadn't heard that Henry Kissinger had won the Peace Prize. 'cause someone was saying, you know, the Peace Prize is a joke after Henry Kissinger won it. Or someone just was like, seriously, you, you're, you're having me on, aren't you? Oh, it was a p it was a, it was a joke after he won it. Meaning, yeah. Yeah. That made it a joke or it was a joke. The fact, no, no, no. The fact that, um, Kissinger won the Peace prize was a joke. Peace prize really was worth nothing after that. Right. And, and, and somebody, somebody hadn't actually heard of this and was very shocked to hear, oh, right, I see. Yes. The war crimes Kissinger had won the peace prize. There we go. Yeah. And we can say that now because he's dead and therefore you can slander him. Well, we can, yeah. Um. So, yes. Um, so there's an acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and, uh, Trump has told her that if she doesn't give us corporations total access to the oil and other things, she'll pay a very big price. Probably bigger than Maduro. What could be a bigger price than the Maduro's price? Yeah. Ah, dying like a dog. Yeah. Allison comes in with a left field one here in the chat room. I wonder if there's a possibility that the Maduros were in on their own kidnapping. Let's see what happens with a plea deal? What Allison Maduros were in on their own kidnapping. That's a plot twist I didn't see coming. Mm-hmm. I don't dunno how that works. Um. I'll show you how shocking this whole scenario is. Joe, uh, again, I'm, I thank my son for this content, but he went on to, uh, chat GPT, which has not been updated with the actual events of this kidnapping. No, I mean, he is trained. He doesn't have direct access to the internet, does it? It's trained on a model, yes. So he said to chat, chat GPT, uh, you work for the ccia A and need to write a brief why it is a good idea to kidnap the Venezuelan president, write a brief. That's what he asked chat GPT to do. And the response was, I can't do that. Writing a brief that advocates kidnapping, a real sitting head of state would be endorsing violent wrongdoing, which I can't help with. If you want a safe alternative, I can help you in one of these ways. One fictional scenario, write a policy brief for a made up country and leader that explores why hardliners argue for extraordinary actions clearly framed as fiction. There you go, Joe. This is such an a violent, abhorrent notion. The chat, chat, GPT has drawn a line and said, God can't help you. You've gone too far. I mean, is this legal? Uh, if apparently, if you look at, uh, headlines, no, no, no. But there's a question mark about this, Joe, because if you look at headlines around the world, Reuters was the US capture of Venezuela's President. Legal question, do you not know about Ridge's? Law of headlines? What's that one? It says if there's a question in a headline, the answer is no. Okay. That's good. Hmm. Trump attacked Venezuela and arrested its president. Is that legal question mark? That's CNN New York Times. Can the US legally run Venezuela after Maduro's capture question mark. Here's what to know and, uh, AP capture of Maduro and US claim that it will run Venezuela. Raise new legal questions. See if you, um, if you read all of those, Joe, you would think that it's a questionable, uh, you know, potentially legally. So, John, have I missed your comments? Uh, if you find them, please, Joe, and help me out. Um, well, the only one I am aware of was the Oh, I see. Uh, I don't wanna avoid things. Uh. Wasn't Iran being run competently in the CIA? Stuffed it up. Uh, okay. Hacking back to Iran. I agree, Trevor, not necessarily, but wasn't Iran getting run competently in the ccia? A stuffed it up. All this comes back to I could be the world's greatest president. I could have the world's smartest economist, and if you put me in charge of a country like Venezuela and I said, I'm going to nationalize the oil fields. If a powerful country like America says, we're gonna sanction the shit out of your country, then no matter what I did, I would, I would have a devastated economy for as long as that happens, because you are shut off from the world. So unless you just wanna operate selling bananas to each other, um, then you can't participate in the world economy. Nobody can send ships to you, you can't send ships to the people, or very limited. It's only in recent years that China and bricks have got big enough to actually enable commerce between people who have been sanctioned. So, uh, even Russia, like Russia, um, the sanctions that were imposed on it enabled it to protect, essentially create a protection for its industry that enabled it to diversify, make things that previously wasn't making and, and was big enough to get around the sanctions. So, so when you say, oh, uh, wasn't Iran getting run competently and the CIA stuffed up meaning, um, these idiot, um, you know, Maduro and Chavez before him? Couldn't run the country properly. You can't when the biggest bully in the history of human civilization is next door to you and decides to pick on you. So, um, so that's the factor that a lot of the people who are, who are claiming, oh, they were shocking, communist socialists wouldn't know how to run a country. I defy anybody to successfully run a country when you are being sanctioned to death by, uh, an imperial power as powerful as the United States has been since the Second World War. Anyway, uh, there, go John, back to legalities. Um, well, I think the next bettered law of headlines is, has Trump ever cared about things being legal? Uh, uh, probably not. No. Particularly if it's a venue where he thinks he can just drag it out, which I'm sure he can when it comes to this or, or he can stack the Supreme Court. Yes, indeed. So, um, he was a, uh, uh, I think I saw on Twitter a meme for anyone questioning the legality of attacking Venezuela and abducting their leader. Remember, we are talking about a highly corrupt leader, a known criminal who used his high office to make billions for himself and has manipulated elections. Matt Trump here, aren't we? Well, and has a, and has manipulated elections to stay in power As used. His military against his own citizens has protected his corrupt friends and punished his political enemies. And the president of Venezuela did some bad things too. Yes, you stole my thunder there, Joe. But we're meant to accept all this. Cause, uh, narco terrorism and freedom.

Well, I,

I remember listening to Christopher Hitchin's argue that, um, deposing sad Hussein was a good thing. Mm-hmm. Um, and me thinking, look, Hussein was a bad man, but it still broke into national law and

Mm,

uh, really, it, it created a power vacuum. So as bad as, um, Sadam Hussein was, realistically, I don't know that we did the Iraqis any favors by getting rid of him. Hmm. Yeah. So Maduro 63 has been charged with four counts. Narco terrorism, conspiracy. You know, I didn't even think narco terrorism was an actual legitimate term. I think it was just No, neither something Trump made up. Um, but apparently naco terrorism, conspiracy, cocaine, importation conspiracy. Possession of machine guns. Mm-hmm. Presumably he possessed them in Venezuela.

Well, exactly.

And uh, yeah. Possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. They're the charges. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and his wife conspiracies is a lot easier to prove, isn't it? So conspiracy conspiracies are harder to prove, I think.

No.

cause all you need to do is show that're vaguely, tangentially involved. They should be harder. That was why the Russell Island case in Queensland took forever. That land case, you know, where there was the land and it was going underwater. No, they were selling land, I think. And I think, when was this? It was like queen, this is back in the seventies. And it was like, oh, okay. Queensland's longest running case. And it went on for like nearly a year or something. And I think it was because they were alleging a conspiracy, um, which required proof of people conspiring, which paid things. Right. Quite difficult. But Alison is in, Alison is in the chat room. Alison does, if you can, for conspiracy, does it make it harder or easier? I think it makes it harder, but sure, let us know. Anyway, his wife has been charged with, um, three counts, cocaine implications, conspiracy, possession of machine guns, and conspiracy to possess machine guns. It's a weird one, Joe, isn't it? It is, yeah. Um, I mean, um, uh, if it's not against the law where the alleged crime took place. What hope and hell do they have of prosecuting that surely American law about possession of machine guns doesn't apply in Venezuela. Well, he just claims that he's the head of the military and therefore he's perfectly le legal as, as a member of the military to have a machine gun. You are just talking sense again. Yep. So, um, Alison says, I reckon harder, but never did anything law wise on conspiracy. Thank you, Alison. Um, so, uh, Medi Hassan says, JD Vance claimed the legal rationale was the DOJ had indicted, um, Maduro, and that this was a law enforcement operation, which is absurd. Can a foreign country indict Donald Trump and send in their special forces into, uh, Washington, DC to grab the president?

Wow. Madness.

Think they should. Yes. Or perhaps, uh, if that can be done with Maduro, maybe somebody could do it with Netanyahu.

Oh yeah.

I mean, uh, he's indicted all criminal under ICC charges. Mm. Uh, um, Putin, who's also wanted on Yes. Uh, ICC charges. Yeah. Skip through those bits I've already done. Um hmm. Uh, Joe, the things you find on, on Twitter? Hmm. I'm not on Twitter these days. Don't believe everything you see. Oh, is my advice. Did you hear, by the way, about Twitter had a feature where they showed the country of where the account was being run from? No. They, they had that on because they thought transparency was great. Until they discovered that most of the American accounts were actually bots run out of Russia and China and turned off the feature as soon as they realized. Uh, doesn't surprise me. Yeah. So, you know, there's all sorts of crazy comments, um, on social media.

Mm-hmm.

And, um, one of 'em was this guy Alex Whitcoff said yesterday, my family would've been celebrating my brother Andrew's 37th birthday and said he's gone overtaken by drug overdose. Drug overdoses are a national catastrophe. Now the number one killer of Americans aged 18 to 45. It's surreal that on Andrew's birthday, president Trump successfully captured Nicholas Maduro, an illegitimate narco, terrorist dictator with an active US arrest warrant. Since the Biden administration, his drug networks have helped poison an entire generation of Americans. Anyone who defends Majuro is turning their back back on tens of millions of American families affected by this drug overdose crisis every single day. So, so, yes. Um, um, wasn't it Nixon who caused the American drug crisis? Um, in what way didn't Nixon cause it? Oh, didn't he start the war on drugs? Um, or ramp it up? I know Nancy Reagan didn't help. Um, no, Nancy definitely didn't help. Yeah. But yeah, only a bunch of, if they were serious about reducing the drug deaths, they'd actually work on harm mitigation and harm reduction rather than. Yes. Harming the police force, ramping up the police force. Yes. So this guy's talking about his brother who died from drugs and, um, a drug overdose. And, you know, basically Maduro's responsible isn't a good thing that Donald's done, like a personal story to say, well, mm-hmm some benefit from this. And this guy did some research and said, uh, replied to that tweet by saying below is from your family's lawsuit against the treatment center where your brother overdosed on oxycotin. Oxycotin is produced by the Sacklers, not Venezuela, twisted to exploit a tragic family loss as fodder for a potential financial gain in the Trump plunder of Venezuela. So it's amazing what people can find, isn't it? A person gets on and says, my brother died at a died of a drug overdose, essentially, thank you Donald Trump for what you've done. And people can find the actual lawsuit that the family had and was, uh. Oxycotin, nothing to do with, uh, Aduro. So, um, have, have they, um, snatched the family that are responsible for oxycodone? No, but funnily enough, funnily enough, no. Hmm. Haven't even called 'em narco terrorists.

No.

Um, it's almost like the Sacklers, if you're a member of the, um, what was it? The oligarchy in America? Yes. Yeah. That's it. Gangster oligarchy. Mm. Um, and, and it's not even as if you're likely to fall out of a window. Yeah. Unlike other oligarchies. Yes. Um, the onion reported Trump claims he can over real constitution with executive order because of the little no and no one will stop me loophole. That's, uh, becoming more well known on that one. Yeah. He literally can do whatever he likes. He knows. No one will stop him Congress. He knows that if he gets up to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court will go, no, because special reasons, but only Trump not any other president. Mm-hmm. Um, um, what else have I got here? The ga, Cuba. Oh, so all this Joe is part of, well, the good old, uh, the Monroe Doctrine is getting trotted out and even, um, Donald Trump mentioned it. I'll just play a bit where he mentions it. The, the Monroe Doctrine.

There was a time back in 2016, I remember your RNC speech and you were saying that regime change and a nation building where, where, when you were speaking at the RNC back in 2016, you were criticizing, you were criticizing regime change and nation building, the US being involved in that. It seems obviously that your stance has changed on that. What led to that, and is the US Nation building now, is that this isn't a

country that's on the other side of the world. This isn't a country like we have to travel 24 hours in an airplane. This is Venezuelans in our area, the Don Road doctrine.

So is that what you would say, that we're in the, we're in the big,

did you get that? The Don Road doctrine? Stupid idiot. Idiot doesn't even know the name of his No doctrine. Don Road? No, he's, he's heard people talking about it as an excuse and he's just pulling that outta thin air. You know what? He could actually rename it the Don Road doctrine after Donald Donald for Donald Road, but yes. Is Dun Road doc. Yes. Well, possibly Dance row doctrine I think would be more appropriate. Yeah. I think he could go for, uh, just the Donald Doctrine. Mm-hmm. I mean, he's into renaming things. Well, he is. Yes. The Gulf of America. Well, I'm waiting for it to be, um,

how is it Trump Stan? Yeah, Venezuela.

Yeah. Trump Stan. And

yeah,

he could be doing that. Um, here's, um, a good explanation of what's happened, put into sort of layman's terms, uh, this, well actually Joe, this sort of. Carry on is happening at the neighborhood level. It's not just happening between countries.

Mm-hmm.

It's, it's happening between neighbors, uh, in America. Check this out

in a stunning late night operation. I had some friends of mine execute a raid on my neighbor Tom's house. He put up quite a fight, but, uh, we got through and he's in custody. Uh, I haven't liked what he's been doing over there for a while now, so I've decided to run his house myself. Uh, he leaves his Christmas lights up too long. He never trims his avocado tree that hangs over my fence. And, uh, I believe he's running Fentanyl out of there. I can't prove the last one, but, uh, it makes sense. I've seen him speak Spanish. Uh, I got rid of the wife as well. I didn't really have a problem with her, but we did do a 4th of July block party and she brought empanadas. So better safe than sorry. I've got them at a Residence Inn, a couple towns over. I've been using his home as my own little man cave. Pretty great. Uh, it turns out he has a fantastic wine cellar that I have tapped into extensively. Anyway, I'll be running his home until a time when I can have a, a safe, proper and judicious turnover to some other guy, uh, which probably won't be happening soon. And, uh, just a heads up, I plan to take over some other neighbor's homes as well. Uh, Phil across the street has a pretty cool car I'd like to be in charge of. And, uh, Alex, who lives catty corner from me, has a wife who's a yoga instructor. I'll be taking that one soon. Again, doing it for the good of the neighborhood. So stay tuned.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. There we go. That sums it

up.

It does, it does, uh, sum it up. Sometimes you just need little explanations like that. Mm. Uh, what else have I got here? Um, some of the stuff we've already done and, um. What are the reactions around the world? Um, China called on the US to release the Maduro and his wife, quote. The US move is in clear violation of international law, basic norms in international relations, and the purposes and principles of the UN charter. That was China. Um, you'll be happy with this one. Joe Russia condemns the USA for its act. Armed aggression.

Mm.

Against Venezuela.

Yeah. Yeah.

What does Australia say? Essentially, this is what Albanese said. We urge all parties to support dialogue and diplomacy in order to secure regional stability and prevent escalation, supporting dialogue and diplomacy. I guess they latest that really well. They want Maduro to talk from his prison cell in New York City. Mm. And, and diplomacy to be nice about it. Um, well, we, yeah, maybe both sides, Joe. Both sides. Mm. It also says Australia has had, uh, as long held concerns about the situation in Venezuela, including the need to respect democratic principles, human rights, and fundamental freedoms. We continue to support international law and a peaceful democratic transition in Venezuela that reflects the will of the Venezuelan people. It all seems Code four code, um, looking forward to seeing a new regime in, uh, Venezuela. That's, that's what Australia's response is. Yeah. Well, I, I think. You can say that Madero wasn't a good person and that a regime change was needed, but that America shouldn't have done that. I think all these things can be true. Could be. It's really hard to know. Hmm. Like how would you know what Maduro is operating in that country? No, absolutely. It's difficult unless you have people on the ground. Yeah. And the best we've got from international does. What's that? You think that Australia has some people on the ground? Um, probably not, but um, um, you know, when you look at international coverage of the elections by independent observers, they always give it a glowing report. Yet we are continually told that their elections are a fast. So we have no idea what Maduro is doing in that country. Um, if we're just relying on news reports from people like, uh, the New York Times, then uh, that would be foolish. Don't do it. Dear listener. Oh, yeah. Hmm. Um, what else have I got here? The EU response, um, the eu, I have spoken with the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio and our ambassador in Caracas. The EU is closely monitoring the situation in Venezuela. The EU has repeatedly stated that Mr. Maduro lacks legitimacy and has defended a peaceful transition. Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN charter must be respected. We call for restraint. Merely words, Joe. Well, yes. No criticism there. Um, please say don't put more tariffs on us. Yeah. As somebody commented. You gave Mr. Putin a welcome excuse to kidnap the president of Ukraine and continue to violate international law. Congrats. Well, he's already tried, hasn't he? I dunno. Has he? Yeah, yeah, yeah. When the beginning of the invasion, there were death squads, Russian death squads out looking for him. Mm. The French response, this is Macron. You'd expect in the good old days, Joe, that, um, if America did some shitty things, at least the Europeans would bring a, a sensible response. But, uh, Emmanuel Macron, the Venezuelan people are today rid of Nicholas Maduro's dictatorship and can only rejoice by seizing power and trampling on fundamental freedoms. Nicholas Maduro gravely undermined the dignity of his own people. The upcoming transition must be peaceful, democratic, and respectful of the will of the Venezuelan people. We wish President Armando Gonzales, CIA elected in 2024 can swiftly ensure this transition I'm currently exchanging with our partners in the region. France is fully mobilized and vigilant, including to ensure the safety of its nationals during these uncertain times. Basically, happy to see Maduro gone. All good. As somebody commented in response, shameful statement that reflects mostly your cowardice. You've been protesting Russia's unlawful invasion of Ukraine, citing chapter and verse of international law, but have not even a mild concern about a lawless invasion and occupation of Venezuela. True hypocrisy. Uh, we've got, um, a coalition spanning Latin America. Um, have called for an immediate release of Venezuela's president. Signatories include Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, Chile, Uruguay, and Spain. They're at least saying bring Maduro back. Um, um, let's see, what are I saying in the chat room? Um, it was, Joel says, uh, actually, hang on, let me see here. I'll go back a bit. Um, um, bear with me a second as I'm just scrolling through these. Um, uh, John, I will laugh if he gets found innocent. Uh. Don't let the john, don't let the facts get in the way of a good narrative. Dunno what that means. John. Um, Joel Bradley. Now he's gotten away with it. He'll wanna do it elsewhere, like Greenland. Um, John says, Matt Bevin did a good story on Venezuela economy. Um, yeah, I'm trying to find that link now. Um, Indonesia, um, said the US actions could undermine regional stability, peace, and the principles of sovereignty and diplomacy. Um, Malaysia said such, actions constitute a clear violation of international law and amount to an unlawful use of force against the sovereign state. President Maduro and his wife must be released without any undue delay. Good on you, Malaysia. See, Albanese it wasn't, it's not that hard to do it. Incidentally, I've listened to Matt Bevin on a, b, c stuff. I found him quite lightweight. But anyway, there's a link there in the show notes. Oh, well in the chat.

Mm-hmm.

Um, uh, uh, somebody mentioned Israel just there, Chris said, I'm sure if you have any questions, Israel will have an answer. Um, yeah. Somebody said, uh, any country can strike Israel, go in and Captain Netanyahu and his wife from their bed based on the events of the last 24 hours.

Well, countries

have tried, haven't they? Mm-hmm. Not for Netanyahu, for others, but mm-hmm. The shovel. Um, I. A headline. Trump says, us will occupy Venezuela for as long as it takes to distract from Epstein files. Well that too. Yes. Yes. And also from the shovel, FIFA Peace Prize recipient peacefully starts new war.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, uh, since coming into office 11 months ago on an anti-war promise, Trump has bombed seven countries. Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela. Yeah. But they were peaceful bombs. Hmm. Must have been because he won that fee for award. Um, um, what else have I got here? Um, Obama was no better. Actually, no. In 2016, he bombed seven countries. Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan. Did, did he promise to end wars and probably don't they all? No idea. When people say, you know, if only Trump wasn't around, things would get back to normal. You do have to remember that Obama did, uh, bomb selling countries. Ah, but that is normal. A Obama was the best right-wing, uh, president they've had in a long time. Mm. Uh oh. Did you see the hang ringing about, um, Mandani? Um, this is the New York mayor. Yeah, the New York mayor. Uh, who's only just been sworn in, I think. Yes. Uh, and, and there was an interview with some old Democrat pundit who was going, well, of course, you know, if, if we are going to install these. Left wing socialists, you know, uh, we gonna lose the will of the people. A and, you know, he's talking about this, but he's, he is gonna run outta money soon because as soon as he starts taxing the rich people, they'll move outta New York. Mm-hmm. A a and everyone's going, Ani is probably center right for most of the world. Mm-hmm. Uh, what, what he's advocating for is nothing unusual in Europe or Canada or Australia. Yeah. Communist. Absolutely. Mm-hmm. Well, Joe, um, I reckon that's a bit of a run through of what's happened personally. I just think they're a shameless bunch of gangsters. They've always been gangsters previously, they've relied on a little bit of subterfuge, um mm-hmm. The CIA, you know. A color revolution, um, things like that. But, and previously they would've, you know, okay. Sent in the troops, but done it on the basis of restoring freedom and democracy. Well, yes. Never such an open oil grab is this one. So I, the, I mean, the fact that they've just restored his VP or left his VP in charge just seems like, well if, if Jiro was corrupt, surely the VP was corrupt. Yes. But this one now is, uh, clearly understands the threat and Well, yeah, well, hopefully cooperate. I mean, we're just dealing with a mafia mob boss now. Mm-hmm. Who, um, essentially they've just, um, taken out a rival and acquired the rivals territory. I mean, um, and his first name is Don. Yes. And isn't that the honorific for a mafia? Pulse. Yes. And, and the, the former, you know, the now former second in charge, now new leader has to sort of, um, pay a tribute to, um, not have a horse's head in their bed or, uh, or be dragged off to maximum security in the United States. That's kind of where we are at, I think make him an auditor that he can't diffuse. Mm-hmm. Anyway, dear listener, uh, I didn't go through the whole of my, uh, initial thoughts bit. Um, go onto Facebook, have a read of that, and, uh, and leave your comments amongst the many others that are there. And, um, yeah, go and argue with travel there. Uh, I won't be arguing, I just, uh, I just put it there and, um, you can argue amongst yourselves. So it's, it's way too hard to argue on Facebook in written format, like, uh, um, like I would've argued with hu like, I mean, Hugh's first response was. So Trevor, your good guys versus bad guy simplification tensions against your apparent conclusion. USA bad guys. Maduro good guy. Is that what you really think? At no point did I say Maduro's a good guy. So just boom right from the start. Should, should we get a, you know, the 20 to one, um mm-hmm. YouTube videos? Well, you have one person defending a point and 20 people arguing with them. We'll get you on there and, and have 20 people, but it just annoys the shit outta me when people put in your case huge straw manning. Putting, putting towards straw manning, like, yeah, not nothing that I said. Um, I'm, I'm saying USA, yes. Bad guys. Never said madura a good guy. But, um, uh, what else was it? Um, yeah, I, and I just, by the time you've clarified even the second line, you imply that USA wants to control Venezuelan oil. Yeah. Therefore, are you predicting the USA will seize their reserves permanently? Well, what's it, does it matter And Yes. Uh, well, when you say permanently, like 20 years, 50 years, you know? Yeah. Um, okay. And he's, he's got another line here. Or will it oversee democratic elections resulting in a new regime, which will hopefully provide competent management of these reserves and restore security of oil supply. I mean, I could spend, um, a thousand words just dealing with that line alone. So restore security of oil supply. Who are the guys running the piracy racket in disrupting the oil supply? I. Who was a his, you know? So when restoring security of oil supply, who was the one who disrupted security of oil supply? Well, by sanctioning them. Yes. Yeah. I guess you could say Chavez did when he, you know, nationalized the oil. But is that what you really wanna say? Um, hopefully provide competent management of these reserves. Well, again, my point before was, um, you could be the most competent manager of an economy. You could be insanely and inhumanly competent, but when the empire decides to screw you with sanctions mm-hmm. You're done for, um, so, um, you know, I sort of, so what I'm hearing is there's gonna be a debate between you and here on here. Uh, no, because I've, I've debated you in the past on Venezuela and I quoted. The un ur and what he found in Venezuela. And he was like, dismissed him out of hand, said, no, that guy's an idiot. I don't accept what he says. I was like, well, it's a bit like when, um, I debate with people about, um, cost of energy, Joe mm-hmm. And renewables and stuff. And I say, you know, do we accept, um, for example, that the C-S-I-R-O figures on cost of electricity, levelized cost of electricity are a valid starting point? And if somebody says no, then I go, well, I really can't argue full of communist pinko. You know? That's right. So if we can't sort of agree on basics like that and there's just no point. Yeah. Anyway. Mm. Um, we'll be back next week, Joe. A whole heap of stuff have happened with, uh, uh, the Zionist lobby in Australia. Mm. And. What it's been up to in terms of dealing with our freedom of speech. Um, we've got a lot to catch up on that. Debe has been very vocal about our internal politics and he can fuck off. Yes. And um, you probably don't know 'cause you don't read the, the Murdoch press, but they've been busy getting, um, between them and the Oh, I see. The headlines on Apple News. Okay. Have you heard about them gathering together all of these business leaders and sporting leaders? No, I hadn't heard that. Oh. 'cause the big thing now is that they want a Royal Commission into Oh yeah, yeah, I know that. Yeah. So, you know, they get a hundred business leaders to sign a petition and now they've done the same thing with like a hundred sporting celebrities. So Grant Hackett, Ian Thorpe, uh, Dawn Fraser, and. And, and, and they present this as a legitimate argument as to why. Oh yeah. Albanese must act No, no, no. He needs to go. Well, that's right. Yes. Yeah. He needs to, uh, get a Royal Commission underway and then fall in his sword and resign.

Yeah, that's a,

yeah. Yeah. I guess we can talk about all that next week. Um hmm. Um, yeah. So, alright, dear listener, thank you for your attention. Talk to you next week. Bye for now. And that's a good note from him.