full

Episode 389 - 8th Anniversary Edition

In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Meerkats

(00:44) Introduction

(08:05) Russian Coup

(18:08) Polls about voting Green

(20:57) Vote Green Poll by Gender

(23:35) Polls on The Voice - It's Doomed

(29:33) Trump Polls A

(34:07) Trump Polls B

(38:54) ICAC and Berejiklian

(43:51) Apropos Mexico

(46:14) Raytheon Can't Decouple from China

(48:55) Affirmative Action

(58:06) Calvary Hospital

(01:03:20) Hasta Luego

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Transcript
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Suburban Eastern Australia.

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An environment that has over time evolved some extraordinarily

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unique groups of homo sapiens.

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But today we observe a small tribe akin to a group of meka that gather together

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atop a small mound to watch question and discuss the current events of their city,

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their country, and their world at large.

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Let's listen keenly and observe this group fondly known as the

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Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.

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You guys are interrupting a perfectly good private argument that we were

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just having prior to going live, and we thought, oh, what the heck?

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We've just pressed the live button and, and just keep arguing.

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So yeah, you're wrong.

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Joe was against me.

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Velvet.

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Glove was against me.

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Anyway.

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This is a podcast.

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He's got a wrong position.

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Sorry.

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You know, this is a podcast where we talk about news and politics, sex and religion,

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and we've been doing it for eight years.

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Bloody hell.

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Exactly.

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Today, Scott, 4th of July, eight years ago you and I started.

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There we go.

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Holy shit.

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Indeed.

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I'm Trevor a k a, the Iron.

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Fist with me as always, Scott.

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The Velvet.

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Glove.

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Good day, Trevor.

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Good day, Joe.

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Gday listeners.

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So hope you're all well and enjoy the tech guy who's got, bits

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and pieces of skin that has been removed from him via dry ice.

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How are you, Joe?

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Evening Neil.

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Mm-hmm.

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The skin doctor got a little bit excited and started dropping dry ice everywhere.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yeah.

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So here we are, eight years later.

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You might be hoping that I've gone through all of the old episodes and

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extracted highlights and I've put them in some sort of clever montage for you.

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Nope, that hasn't happened.

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But, we can pretty much conduct a normal podcast.

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Hello to Broman in the chat room.

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If you're in the chat room, say hello.

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yeah, so, is that logo in the wrong place, Joe?

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Is that normally there?

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Like that?

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I put, maybe I'll take it off.

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Actually, maybe I take that logo off.

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That way we see the chat.

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I, I, alright, what's on the agenda?

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Let me see what have I got on the agenda for tonight?

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We're gonna talk about briefly what's happened in the last two

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weeks cuz it has been two weeks.

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essential poll on the greens, some more polling on the voice, which is very

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interesting as to how that's going.

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Some polling on Donald Trump, talking about Gladys Lin.

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Is she corrupt?

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I mentioned Mexico the other day in relation to, the war with the Americans.

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It looks like that might be repeated sooner rather than later.

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And, affirmative action in USA Universities and the Calvary Hospital

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in the a c t and maybe Seymour Hirsch on Prego and that attempted coup in Russia.

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So see where we end up would've actually an attempted coup or not.

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Well see where we end up.

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Joe's had to log out, he'll log back in.

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Dunno what's happened to Joe.

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So, thanks Broman for the best wishes.

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Yes, eight years.

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Scott.

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I was just reflecting a little bit on eight years.

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I sort of went through some of the episode, names that I've

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used over the last few hundred.

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And one thing that struck me, Scott, was.

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How many, just picking out, talked about submarines.

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Yeah, submarines are in there.

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Of course, major things though were that whole ruddock report,

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religious discrimination bill.

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Really, you know, we had Turnbull agreed to the ruddock report in order

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to placate nut bags in the liberal party, and then that then led to the

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religious discrimination Bill Israel for la and we've still got labor talking

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about religious discrimination, bill.

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That's kind of been one of the more dominant themes of the last eight years

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that we could have avoided if we hadn't had a ruddock inquiry in the first place.

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Brought about by those guys.

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Yep.

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Well, it's the fault of the damn gaze.

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Demanding equality fault.

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Yeah, that was it.

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That's right.

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You're right.

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And it came because it was to placate the right wing because

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of the marriage equality.

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So correct all of that.

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We can blame on Scott and his mates demanding equality.

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So yeah, so that a key thing that we had, over the last eight years.

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Another one would've been sort of libertarian arguments

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that I had with Paul.

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They went on a lot about what people could do, what were the rights of the individual

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versus the rights of the community.

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and their continuing ones today in many respects on different things.

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Israel Lau of course.

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How could one footballer create so much content for a podcast?

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But he did.

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we've had over that time, Scott, the obvious takeover of the liberal party

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by the Christian radicals following, USA sort of game plan for doing that,

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following the Republican example.

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That's just become increasingly obvious over these past few years.

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And I guess from eight years ago, the real dire straits of the liberal party

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in terms of the caliber of candidate that's there and is likely to come in the

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future is, it's probably the one of the biggest things in politics in Australia

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in the last eight years, do you think?

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Yep.

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Absolutely.

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Mm-hmm.

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And they are looking increasingly sick.

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Mm-hmm.

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And it seems to be a position they can't recover from.

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It's all right.

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They, they've got the focus on the book.

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No.

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Yeah.

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Their eyes on the ball.

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You saw the, what the, the LMP are gonna do in Queensland if they get power.

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No, they, they're gonna look for, all the sexually explicit material

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that's being given to children.

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Oh, for God sake.

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Oh, good Bibles.

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Yes.

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Right.

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Except that.

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Except for that.

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Yeah.

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You know, did they really say that?

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I swear they've just been through the Republican Twitter.

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They, they really said that.

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Yeah.

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Oh, had I missed that?

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Okay.

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Send me the link.

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I wanna send that one.

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Was it from Elli or from, from one of the, I, I had a, it had a photo of, Mr.

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Potato Head next to it, so I've No idea.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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You assume, you mean Dubin when you call him potato head there.

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Yeah.

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I, I, I wouldn't, give him a proper name.

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He doesn't deserve it.

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Mm.

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Right.

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And one of the highlights, I guess over this time was the voluntary

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assisted dying legislation and how that progressed from not existing to now

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in place and actually up and running, and what a great campaign that was.

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The people behind it.

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So that would be the highlight I'd say of the last eight years in terms of

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things that have happened politics wise.

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Hmm.

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Amongst a lot of low lights.

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It's a small mar a small bar to jump over, but voluntary sister died.

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I did it with ease.

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Yeah, for sure.

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And you know, deep Throat really needs to be congratulated for

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that because you know, does that whole thing dying with Dignity

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Queensland, they did a brilliant job.

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Mm-hmm.

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So there we go.

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That's the reflections on eight years.

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We'll keep going another eight or 16, see how we go.

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We're up to 3 89 50 eighth guy then.

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Yeah, we've averaged, pretty much only missing about three

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episodes per year on average.

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Although I'd say the average has been affected by this last year.

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I've missed more than most.

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But anyway, it's not bad going, so, alright.

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it's been two weeks.

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Few things have happened since then.

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I saw a Twitter, a tweet by somebody who, cause we had the Russian coup

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and the, and the, submarine that was around the, Titanic area there.

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And the tweet was, if I'd had known this entire week would be a throwback to the

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1910s, I would've worn a bigger hat.

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Rich people dying on the Titanic uprising in Russia.

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If someone launches a Zeppelin, I am buying a hobble skirt.

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Said this person.

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Not a bad line.

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So, Scott, Joe Russian coup.

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That was a pretty quick one.

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Aver and done with, didn't go far.

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Ian is now banished to Belarus and is with the blessing of Putin.

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Just gonna see out his days over there.

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Thoughts on that whole shenanigans?

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Oh, the whole, the, the very vocal comments upfront.

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About how Putin was being misled by Sui and whoever the other one, the

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Minister of Defense and the chief of the Army, who had their own private

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reasons for wanting to invade Ukraine and make it their own personal fiefdom.

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And, and that Putin had been misled, that there weren't Nazis there,

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that it really wasn't a threat.

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NATO wasn't a threat, that it was all just all about personal gains and privilege.

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That's what Pian was saying.

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That's what Pian was saying.

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Right.

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and then invaded the, sorry.

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One, well captured, captured the largest city since the invasion began.

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Mm.

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Which just happened to be a Russian city before heading north on the

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highway, about 700 kilometers of the thousand kilometers while shooting down.

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And, and yeah, the whole, forgiveness, the pardons for them is a bit strange.

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They shot down at least four or five military helicopters.

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With all on board lost and also a mobile, an airborne command center

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with I think a left tenant general or a fairly high ranking officer on board.

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So they actually took out a fair number of highly skilled Air Force pilots.

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Mm-hmm.

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and they've just been let off, which is seems strange.

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Yeah.

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And, and people are saying Yeah.

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Whether or not it seemed like a smart move.

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The, being, being a dictator, you have to be all about, the image you present.

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And his image is of a person who is not a strong man at

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Putin's image or Putin's image.

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Right.

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Has been severely weakened because having gone on TV and said, these are

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traders, they're gonna pay for this.

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He's then gone.

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No, no, off you go.

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Mm-hmm.

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Nothing further to be had.

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Mm-hmm.

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Which, you know, this was a serious threat to his power and he's just accepted it.

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Mm-hmm.

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So there's a lot of questions.

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Look, the Ukraine must be laughing about this at the very least.

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There's a lot of questions being asked about how did they get so far

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that's gonna pull some troops, real troops back into Russia to prevent

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any other armed forces doing that.

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There are a lot of private military companies that are operating in Russia,

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that have been given heavy weapons by the Russian military that in theory could do.

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I mean, obviously this was the biggest, but there are others out there.

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and the question is, what's to stop one of those doing it?

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Mm.

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Or even the army.

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I didn't read about the four, aircraft being shot down.

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Where'd you read that?

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what do you read?

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What are you reading to get all this information?

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This, this was Peron's YouTube channel who is a military analyst.

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Yep.

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but again, he works with open source intel.

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So this is stuff that is being openly reported.

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Mm-hmm.

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it it's generally stuff that is verifiable.

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Yeah.

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So it's not speculation.

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Okay.

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So that's a, so that's sort of a view that Putin's in trouble.

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It was something out of hand and for one reason or another, perhaps because of

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weakness, Putin is letting him go because he can't really do anything strong.

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Well, there's, there was a Wall Street Journal or, there was a US video I

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watched, just before that happened actually about Wagner, and saying where,

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yeah, where did they come from and.

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Realistically, they have been going into third world countries that are politically

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unstable, but have huge mineral resources.

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Mm-hmm.

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And providing stability in exchange for mineral resources.

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And they have been providing the hard cash that Russia hasn't been able to get

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since the sanctions have been in place.

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So, hang on.

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Is this from the same YouTube guy?

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No, this is a, this was, one of the US ones, right.

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Because I don't think Russia's had trouble getting, getting paid for its oil like,

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but India and the rest of the, the, the non, but, but they also western line

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countries, sort of gold mines in Africa.

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They own, extra oil production facilities in the Middle East.

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Right.

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yeah, I think they own a third of Syria oil wells or something

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because my understanding is the ration economy's doing fine.

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Thank you very much.

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I don't think they need the Wagner group's cash from African Minds support.

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The Wagner Group is bringing in a large amount of money, so one wonders how

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much of that was heading in Putin's direction and might have suffered him.

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Mm.

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Okay.

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That's one view.

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I'll give a count of view.

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Mm-hmm.

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I'll just jump to it.

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So Seymour Hirsch, dear listener, was the guy who broke the story

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on the Nord Stream pipeline being blown up by, merit Americans.

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Yeah.

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So well respected journalist in that regard.

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So his, from his CK on this whole thing.

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So what he says is, so below was a look at what was really going on that

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was provided to me by a knowledgeable source in the American intelligence

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community, an UNN source speaking to telling Seymour hers stuff.

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He's, and this source is saying, I thought I might clear some of the smoke.

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First, and most importantly, Putin is now in a much stronger position.

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We realized as early as January, 2023 that a showdown between the generals

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backed by Putin and, brien backed by anti-Russian extremists was inevitable.

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The age old conflict between the Special war fighters and a large, slow

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clumsy, unimaginative regular army.

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The army always wins because they own the peripheral assets that make victory

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either offensive or defensive possible.

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Most importantly, they control logistics.

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When the overall strategy is offensive, big army tolerates their hubris and

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public chest thumping because the special forces are willing to take

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high risk and pay a high price.

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Wagner members were the spearhead of the original Russian Ukraine offensive.

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They were the little green men.

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When the offensive grew into an all out attack, Wagner continued to assist, but.

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Reluctantly had to take a back seat in the period of instability and

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readjustment that followed, brige and Wagner as the worst of special forces

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took the limelight and took the credit for stopping the hated Ukrainians.

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The press gobbled it up.

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Meanwhile, the big army and Putin slowly changed their strategy from

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offensive conquest of greater Ukraine to defense of what they already had.

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Brien refused to accept the change continued on the offensive against bmu.

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Therein lies the rub.

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Rather than create a public crisis and a court marshal, Moscow simply

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withheld the resources and let pian use up his manpower and firepower,

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reserves dooming him to a stand down.

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he is after all, no matter how cunning, financially and ex hotdog cart owner with

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no political or military accomplishments.

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and is saying that Wagner was being cycled out of the Bachman front over

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the past three months and sent to abandoned barracks for Demobilization.

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And Putin finally backed to the Army, who let brien make a fool of himself and

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now disappear into IGN Mini or without raising a sweat militarily or causing

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Putin to face a political standoff with the fundamentalists who were ardent prion.

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Admirers.

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Pretty shrewd.

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and now the current battlefield statistics were shared with me.

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I learned that in the first two weeks of the operation, the Ukraine military

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seized only 44 square miles of territory previously held by the Russian Army.

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Much of it open land.

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So basically the so-called counter offensive, not going so well.

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But there you go.

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There's two versions of the, of what's happening in Russia.

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Who knows where the truth actually lies.

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It could be in the middle, it could be somewhere way off, you know, another area.

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Will we ever know?

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I don't know.

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Yeah.

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I, I think, I think we're ever gonna know the truth.

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The, the military gains of last year were unusual and we saw these huge advances

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through large areas of Eastern Ukraine.

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but realistically they were on the back of months and months of fighting.

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So for this new attack, to have got nowhere in the first Yeah.

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Couple of months is not an unexpected.

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Mm-hmm.

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Mm-hmm.

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I, I think we, 24 hour news cycle we're used to seeing, waking up

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and seeing a new place taken every day, and that just isn't the norm.

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Mm-hmm.

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Those are outliers.

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Mm-hmm.

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Well, we'll see how it goes.

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Right.

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We've got some polls, lots of interesting polls to talk about in this episode,

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closer to home after that diversion.

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So we've got Ukrainians and polls.

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Boom.

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Boom.

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Thanks, Joe.

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All right.

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Here's a chart on the screen for those who are watching the

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video, or we'll talk about it for those simply watching at home.

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And what we've got is greens and independent, which of the

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following best applies to you?

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and what we're looking at here is the dark red on the right hand side, which

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is I've never given my first preference to the greens or an independent

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candidate and don't think I ever will.

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And the interesting part of that is young people, 18 to 34, only 21%

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would say that old people, 55 plus.

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62% would say that, that they've never given a preference to

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a green or an independent and don't think they ever will.

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So preference, first preference?

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yes.

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My first preference.

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Yep.

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So stock divide again, based on age.

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There's a real age difference in politics in Australia.

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Real age gap, I think, on lots of things.

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So, and what they're actually finding is that they're not becoming more

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conservative as they get older.

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Mm-hmm.

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You know, so there was a podcast I was listening to just recently, it

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might have been 7:00 AM They were saying that, this is bad news for

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the coalition because then as the population ages and that type of thing,

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they're not getting more conservative.

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Yes.

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It was normal to see people swap from being.

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labor to liberal as they aged.

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Yes.

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But they're not seeing the same swap at the same age points like they used

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being young and angry and wanting against the status quo when you're,

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when you've got nothing to lose, but when you've got something to lose, yes.

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You want to keep what you've got.

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And the problem is people aren't getting something that they know that

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they then fear losing cuz the things are so bad for the middle classes and

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the middle, you know, that sort of age group to, to 40, 40 fives or whatever.

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So many renters amongst them.

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So, so anyway, in terms of people for a first preference for the

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greens, older people, 55 plus, 62%.

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No way.

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Never.

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only 20% of young, 21% of young people would say that.

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And then how does that break down in terms of, well, young people have

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also got more elections devoted.

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They've got longer to change their minds.

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Yes.

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But they're talking about a longer period there.

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Yes, that's true.

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That is true.

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what have I got here?

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How would that.

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Pan out in terms of gender?

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no, sorry, on voting preference, labor voters, 40% of them would say

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that, that they've never given first preference to greens or independent

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and don't think they ever will.

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66% of coalition would say that.

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How many greens voters though, doesn't say does it?

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No.

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For good reason.

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And the other one I think coming up is on, oh, I must have missed the one on gender.

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There's one on gender.

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Again, females more likely as who vote green men less likely

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to dunno what happened to that.

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So, so that was, just in terms of the greens and how they're traveling and

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just this age divide in politics, really, if you, if you were given a room full

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of people and you're having to quickly.

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Categorize them into likely voting, patents.

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and you know nothing about people, but you're only allowed to ask, say a few

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quick, a few key questions, except who are you gonna vote for at the next election?

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Like, you're not allowed to ask the easy one, but you're allowed to ask

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them about their lives and stuff.

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one of the first questions you'd ask would just be, how old are you?

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And that would be indicating a lot of politics right there in that

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question as to, as to how old you are.

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And then, do you live in an inner city urban environment or are you in

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a outer suburb regional environment?

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That will tell you a lot.

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Male or female?

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I'll tell you what, I think the outer suburbs are more conservative

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than the regions actually.

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Yes.

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Like Queensland.

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Yeah.

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more conservative than the regional Queensland.

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anyway, what age are you won't be my first question.

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Where do you live and what gender are you and.

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Maybe if you get a fourth question, your education level, but you

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know, those first three are really telling you a lot about people.

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I think one, just, just ask them if they're cisgender.

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That tells you a lot about people.

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Just their response to that.

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Yes.

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Are you, are you woke?

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Yeah.

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So, so yes, there we go.

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That's the greens.

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Scott, you are still in the category that you'd never give them first preference,

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and you're unlikely you haven't and you're unlikely to in the future.

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Would that be right?

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No, that's right.

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That's the, the greens, the independence.

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I would actually consider casting a vote for them.

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There you go.

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Yep.

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A teal independent or something like that.

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Yes, exactly.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Right.

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The voice is, is becoming quite interesting.

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So polls are really turning on the voice now.

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So got this one from my son some snapshot.

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So, news poll came out with some polling on the voice.

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Now just remember, only three of six states need to vote

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no for it to get blocked.

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So at the moment we've got Victoria and New South Wales are

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a relatively strong yes vote.

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And according to the latest news poll figure we had Victoria.

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Yes.

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48, no.

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41 New South Wales.

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Yes.

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46, no, 41.

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So fairly strong in Victoria and New South Wales.

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But South Australia, yes.

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45.

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Actually, I'll put that up on the screen.

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Might as well do that.

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South Australia was yes.

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45, no.

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46 Tasmania.

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Yes.

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43, no.

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48 Queensland.

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Yes.

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40 No.

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54 And Western Australia.

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Yes.

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39.

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No, 52.

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We don't have the territory though.

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So yeah, because they don't get, they just go into the total.

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Okay.

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You don't actually, you don't actually, because they're no longer, because they're

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not states, you don't actually count them into that second majority, right?

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Mm.

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So on that, overall, the overall figure from news poll, so then, so the, no, you

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know, overall the No vote, took the lead 47 to 43 previously in the same poll.

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The Yes was leading 46 to 43.

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So that's, a change in news poll and it's sort of been reflected in, in

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another one as well, resolve as well.

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So I'll just read this section that says, that's the first lead for

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the No Campaign in a news poll.

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Resolve polling.

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Had the first lead for a no in any national poll two weeks ago.

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Now we, dear listener, have regularly been providing the

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essentials sort of polling on this.

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And it's been around the 60%.

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Yes.

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40% no.

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And, according to this article in the conversation that may reflect some

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sampling issues, and according to this article in the conversation, news

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Pollen Resolve have far better track records at elections than essential.

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So the support for the voice has crashed since April.

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And, based on those figures, who knew that there were that many Nazis in Australia?

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Well, do you have to be a Nazi to vote?

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No, absolutely.

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No, you don't.

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So, I'm sure the Yes campaign will tell us all that we have

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to be Nazis if we're voting.

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No, just racist.

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Yeah.

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Interesting.

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The whole point now, Brian was telling me about something that was

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written by some former politician and he reckons that you are beginning

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to see the basket of deplorables argument being displayed by the Yes.

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Vote.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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The criticism of people who are wanting to vote no as being

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racist assholes is just mm-hmm.

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Hardening their resolve.

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along those lines, so happened with Brexit as well.

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Yeah, exactly.

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So I wouldn't want to have a lot of money hunting that the Yes vote's gonna get up.

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I would be very worried about my bet if that was the case.

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It's gonna be very interesting how it all pans out.

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Very interesting.

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If, if you were to look at those numbers right now, it looks like it's lost.

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Mm-hmm.

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And, given that's the direction and the momentum, we'll see.

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Very interesting result.

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It makes me wonder why he's so hell bent on having it, you know?

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Wow.

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It's one of those things.

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It may well have been an election commitment, but if the polls aren't,

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aren't backing you and that type of thing, if the opposition's not backing

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you, then you've actually gotta say, well, oh, was it, this isn't likely.

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Was it a core commitment?

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Sorry?

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Was it core or non-core?

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That's the question.

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It was probably a core commitment because he made a hell of a big deal

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about it on the election night, right?

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Mm-hmm.

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I mean, if it, if it goes down and fails, is that really going to be

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seen as something, a failure that attaches to albanese and labor?

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potentially.

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I was gonna say he remembers the, Republican.

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Mm-hmm.

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Does anyone attach it to the, the Prime Minister at the time?

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Yeah, Howard, I think it's poss I think it's quite possible for, for

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this vote to fail and not really cause albanese a lot of damage.

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I think people would take the view there was such a demand for this, you

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know, referendum that you put it up there and then ultimately it's up to

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everyone else to decide what to do.

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Mm-hmm.

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I think you can get by with that.

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A lot of political damage to it, but we'll soon, you know, we'll find out.

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But Yeah.

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apparently it's in October.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yeah.

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there was a question somebody asked was, is he gonna be mandatory?

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Well, I thought it would be compulsory voting for a referendum.

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It's compulsory.

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It is compulsory to vote.

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You know, the only reason that, the plebiscite wasn't compulsory

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is because it wasn't actually governed by the electoral commission.

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It was done via the a b S.

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So it was just a grown up opinion poll.

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Mm-hmm.

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Right.

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Okay.

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So very interesting polls on that one.

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Now in America, they have a thing called 5 38 is this group.

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And what they do is they grab a bunch of polls and amalgamate the results

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of multiple polls to try and get a, a, a poll of polls if you like, 5 38.

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That's what their job is.

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And they've been looking at Donald Trump and, how he's going in terms

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of the, republican, nomination.

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And then how he would go against Joe Biden.

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And remembering, dear listener, it's hard to imagine a political

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candidate having worse press than what Donald Trump has had.

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And you know where I'm heading with this?

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It's, he's simply Teflon coated in that this mud refuses to stick.

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The, the problem is he gets any press.

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Surely if Jack the Ripper got pressed though, it would've been that you're

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a bad person and we don't throw you in jail, we wanna throw you in jail.

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But, I mean Hitler had, was Time Magazines mad of the Year?

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Yeah, just cuz you got good pre, just cuz you got press doesn't

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mean that you're a good person.

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Honestly, Trump could walk down Fifth, fifth Avenue and just start shooting

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people and, and if he was arrested, people would say that it was a set up correct.

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And his, these numbers would jump.

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He would actually get a boost in the polls.

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Yep.

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here we are with Trump in terms of the, Republican nomination

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and he is way ahead of DeSantis.

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So at the moment, somewhere around 51%, what is he?

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50, Trump leads 53.1% Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on 21.2,

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and nobody else is above six.

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So when it comes to who the, the nominee is gonna be for the

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Republican party at the next presidential election, if he doesn't

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die beforehand, it's gonna be Trump.

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Well, DeSantis is an non-entity.

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Yeah.

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and the crats are beholden to Trump because he's given them.

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Three Supreme Court justices.

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Yeah.

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Who proceeded to do the most radical reform.

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Yeah.

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No, no.

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None of these reformist judges.

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Oh wait, they are, aren't they?

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You're just reforming the wrong way.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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Anyway, interestingly enough, the Republican primary vote has dropped

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in many states because of abortion.

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Right.

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Well, we'll get onto how he would fare against Biden.

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yes.

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For example.

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But just before we get to that, if Trump is convicted at trial before

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the November, 2024 election mm-hmm.

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He can still run for president.

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Yes.

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there's actually a precedent for that, where somebody did do that before,

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got 3% of the vote running there, there was a question as to how Secret

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Service would look after him in prison.

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Wouldn't that be fascinating?

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Mm-hmm.

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Fascinating how that would pan out.

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Indeed.

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in Australia, section 44 of the Constitution disqualifies anyone

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under sentence or subject to the sentence for a crime with a prison

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sentence of one year or longer from serving in federal parliament.

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But there is no US equivalent.

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And of course, if Trump were elected president from prison, he

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could potentially pardon himself

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a beautiful world we live in.

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Yeah.

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Can you pardon yourself?

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I didn't think you could.

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There was that argument and that type of thing that was being brought up last time.

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They were saying that, there was some.

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constitutional experts were saying that he could actually go in and pardon himself.

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Others were saying he couldn't.

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I tell you what, if it goes to the Supreme Court to decide if he can Oh, that's true.

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He'll be able to, pardon?

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I think you'll find, I think you'll find he can.

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Mm.

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even, even if there's a specific section in the Constitution that says

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the president cannot pardon himself, they'll read that some way to Yes.

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Find that he can.

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But the original intention of the founders was Yes, indeed.

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thinking about a Donald Trump in the future.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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So let's then move to, how he's going against Joe Biden and, oh boy.

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Oh boy.

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Oh boy.

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so on the screen and perhaps appearing on your screen, dear listener, in

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your app, because I gave the effort of putting these on the chapter

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images, so hopefully it appears.

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There's a poll of polls.

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There's, seven of 'em, big Village Harris Havard, sorry, Harris, Harvard Born in

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consult, premise, Quinnie Pak, Redfield and Wilton and YouGov slash the Economist.

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And on average, before he was indicted for these issues regarding

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keeping secret documents in toilets, before that, Biden was, Trump

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was leading 42.9 to Biden, 42.3.

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And after the indictment, the average of all those polls shows that Trump

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is still leading 42.6 to 41.4.

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So Trump's.

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Approval dropped marginally, but Biden's dropped.

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Biden's dropped even more.

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So according to the poll of polls, Trump would win an election against

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Joe Biden and the indictment, he has not shifted that unfavorably at all.

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I don't extraordinary, I don't understand that extraordinary.

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How the hell could, you know, how the hell could anyone in the US actually think to

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themselves that this man's worth a vote?

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Ex Hmm.

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Well, the crats think he is because he's given the Supreme Court.

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Yeah.

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there's a lot of people who watch Fox News and buy into the,

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everything that Biden does is bad.

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there's a lot of people who are never Democrats.

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There's just a lot of crazy, uneducated people who think very tribally,

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who have been brainwashed by a poisonous Murdoch propaganda outfit.

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In, in here.

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We are.

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It's not untrue over here.

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We just haven't quite got to that point just yet.

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Thank goodness.

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Give us time.

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But surely they must be looking for someone else other than Donald Trump.

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I, I would say the smart money is, but I think the problem is, the

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Republicans and there are some never Trumpers in the Republicans, but

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he's their best chance of winning.

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He's a populist, he will say whatever he needs to say at the time.

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These people sa incredulous, I'll just believe anything.

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Promises do not matter to him.

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He will stand up and say whatever it takes to get their vote and is extraordinary.

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It is extraordinary times after all that.

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So, so there you go.

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if you've got, the other thing of course is in the Democrat, pre-selection, Biden

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is a long way ahead of the next candidate.

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Robert Kennedy Jr.

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Thank God for that.

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But, and increasingly you're seeing stuff about Robert Kennedy Jr.

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About how crazy that guy is.

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He's one crazy dude.

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any of us who are in the skeptic community have known for a

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long time how crazy he is.

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Mm.

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He's only a heartbeat away from being the leader, leading contender.

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I mean, if Biden has a heart attack or a stroke or some other incapacitating

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event, then because this guy's been running the, you know, he's in the

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box seat, doesn't he like, okay.

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He's a long way from being the leader.

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Harris.

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Harris would end up, Kamala Harris would, would get the job

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if Biden was actually to die.

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And then after that, then they wouldn't actually, well, you'd assume that

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they wouldn't kick her out for him.

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Yeah, I know.

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No.

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Any look at these figures, anything's possible, isn't it anyway, just, just

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saying We could end up with a presidential election with, Robert, with an anti-vaxxer

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and an anti-vaxxer against, against Trump.

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That could be the next US election.

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Mm-hmm.

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And people think that that country can continue to put up a fight against China.

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Good luck.

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Right, that is Barry Jian had an ICAC report come out and, 700 pages.

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Oh.

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Basically, in an extraordinary report released today, the Independent

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Commission against Corruption found former New South Wales Premier.

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Gladys Baric then has taken, had taken steps toward government grants

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in a desire on her part to maintain or advance her relationship with

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former Stadium p Darryl McGuire.

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And the commission faulted her for not disclosing her relationship and

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for failing to report any suspicions she had about McGuire's activities.

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And they called it grave misconduct, but not criminal misconduct.

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No.

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And that is what the conservative commentators and Murdoch press.

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I've latched onto to say, well, it wasn't criminal, so it's all okay.

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And just reading from a piece that said the reason why it wasn't criminal, this

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simply reflects the difference between the statutory definition of corrupt

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conduct and specific criminal acts.

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The statutory definition of corrupt conduct embraces a wide range of

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conduct that might not be criminal.

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Failure to reveal conflicts of interest is one book, barreling is another.

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On the ICAC findings, bar, Ian's conduct fell well short of a proper discharge of

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her public duties, but was not criminal.

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So, yeah, that's how that all panned out.

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Pretty damning report as to her conduct, just not criminal.

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What did.

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Peter Dutton have to say about all of that.

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Ah, here we go.

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It's been a big week for Gladys Berro Lin as well as we all know.

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your reaction to the corruption findings?

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Well, Carla, in Gladys, I know somebody who is, absolutely, a wonderful person.

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She's first class, and what you see in public is, is what

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you get in private as well.

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She's just a very decent person.

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she chose a bum, basically, and, he was a bad guy.

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And I think, that she has, you know, paid a big price for that.

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She and a good woman brought her integrity is not in question.

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She's not a corrupt person.

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that's not the person that I know, and I think she should hold her head high.

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she had, a bad relationship as everybody does, and I hope that, pause for some

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reason in the middle of that, Joe, sorry.

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yeah, she chose a bum.

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That's luck.

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A we all do it apparently.

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she, she's only a simple woman.

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She couldn't be expected to know better.

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Unlucky, it's a bloke who brought her down unlucky in love.

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Hmm.

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It's one of those things I've never accepted that, you know,

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that she was unlucky in love.

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You know, you, you can look at that and that type of thing.

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You, you know, you listen to some of those, some of those recordings of them

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on, on their, on their telephone chats.

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And you could think to yourself, okay, lady, you mightn't have been

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told that what he was actually doing, but you knew he was up to no good.

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Yeah.

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And he was pressuring her for favors and she was saying, yeah, all right,

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just look, I think we can rely on the Australian editorial to provide us with

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an unbiased assessment of the situation.

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And apparently it said, it's meed icac as being an unaccountable law unto itself.

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Of course it is with little regard for proper process.

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It's public hearings as nothing but quote, public shaming and the

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investigation is nothing but a show trial.

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Yeah.

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So Leader of the Opposition and Australia's major newspaper.

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Nothing to see here, despite an icac, damning icac report and damning

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about the evidence she gave as well.

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That's the state of play in Australian, politics at the moment.

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Your listener, I, I'm shocked that the Australian would say such a thing.

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Yes, totally outta outta character.

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Yeah.

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Probably somewhere on some panel show on the abc, they will repeat that and say,

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well, is that a fair assessment or not?

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Like they'll actually give that some airtime probably.

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No.

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And then they'll have an LMP person in to say, of course, it was a fair assessment.

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Yes.

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And then they'll have one per from, you know, the other side.

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And, there were two sides of the whole thing.

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That's what will happen.

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Right.

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I mentioned just for the, like I just dragged up an old article last

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time we spoke about the, the, the war between America and Mexico and just

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by coincidence came across an article from, David Frum in the Atlantic.

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So David Frum was, I think a speech writer for George W.

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Bush and conservative commentator of course writing in the Atlantic.

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And he says actually he's conservative, but he hates Trump.

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He's a never Trumper.

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Mm-hmm.

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Along those lines, war with Mexico, it's on the 2024 ballot, at least if

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you believe the campaign rhetoric of more and more Republican candidates.

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In January, two Republican House members introduced a bill to authorize the

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use of military force inside Mexico.

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I've watched the com documentary about the ex, military members

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who are doing cross-border raids against the drug smugglers and Right.

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And, and also I think the people smugglers.

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Yes.

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So they're already doing cross border incursions, just

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not legally un unauthorized.

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Yeah.

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And so these two Republicans are saying, well, we need to write this into, we

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need to do the right thing and write this into law that our forces can just

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enter Mexico and start doing whatever they need to do because, you know,

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it's the best place for us to do it.

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So, these were not, no, nothings from the fringe of the MAGA caucus.

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One was Dan Crenshaw of Texas, a former Navy Seal who received

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a master's degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

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The other was Mike Walsh, waltz of Florida, a former Green Beret who

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served as the counter-terrorism advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney.

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For a start, what do we do?

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A former Navy SEAL and a former Green Beret are really keen to pass

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laws authorizing military action.

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Gee, what a surprise.

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Mm.

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Like if we elected Ben Robert Smith to Parliament and he suddenly wanted the

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SAS be given extra power to run around in other countries, would we be surprised?

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No, I wouldn't be surprised.

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No.

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I'd be shocked.

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Yeah.

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Anyway, that was apropos Mexico Ray Raytheon, that's a company

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that provides military nasty stuff.

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And aircraft stuff and a huge company.

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It's all sorts of government contracts, massive a company.

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And when they're talking about the battle with China, the head of,

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Raytheon had some stuff to say.

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Western manufacturers will be able to de-risk their operations in China,

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but we'll find it impossible to cut ties completely with the country.

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According to the head of one of the US largest aerospace and defense

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companies, Greg Hayes, chief executive of Raytheon said the company had

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several thousand suppliers in China, and decoupling is impossible adding.

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He believed this to be the case for everybody.

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So China is too strong, too well embedded, supplying too much essential stuff.

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It's gonna be really hard.

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America's modus operandi in the past has been to cut countries off, sanction them.

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But the fact is that these big American companies like Raytheon need China.

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they can arm themselves.

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China, they can feed themselves.

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They're, they're arming and feeding America, well,

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they're arming America anyway.

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They've, they've run out of cards that they would normally

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play in this situation.

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It's game over.

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I think just a matter of watching it all happen.

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Anyway.

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That was interesting.

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The big US company, we can't decouple.

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Well, they can, but it would be too expensive.

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Yes.

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Because everyone was happy to rush everything overseas to a cheap provider.

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Yeah.

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And all of these companies all have little factories doted all over America.

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And, They basically threatened the local congressman and say, well, if you don't

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do the right thing, I'm just gonna pull my factory out and put it somewhere else.

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I'm gonna blame you so you better do the right thing.

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And so in lots of parts of America, the only viable business is an arm

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manufacturing business that's been clonked there because of an arrangement

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between them and a local, politician.

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Well, Musk moved to Tesla to Texas, from California.

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There were a couple of others that did that because they didn't like the way that

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California was being run, that, you know, poor people were actually being helped.

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Whereas Texas was every man for himself.

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Mm-hmm.

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Tesla's being made in China as well?

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Yes.

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Huge Tesla factory there.

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Mm-hmm.

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Also, final topic, another quick one.

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Affirmative action in USA University.

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Mm-hmm.

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So there recently, in the last week was two rulings on, related cases by the Chief

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Justice John Roberts in the Supreme Court, which basically are ending affirmative

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action in the US as it's currently known.

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So there was two cases students for fair admissions versus, basically Harvard

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College and students for fair admissions versus the University of North Carolina.

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Both argued the use of race in college.

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Admissions should end, but for slightly different reasons.

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In the Harvard case, the plaintiffs claimed that the admissions

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practices of Harvard discriminated against Asian American applicants.

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It did by placing a cap on the number of admitted, and we have talked about this in

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the past several times, the, that if you just based it on a, a color blind score.

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That, Asians were disproportionately represented.

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Mm-hmm.

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And basically Harvard didn't want a campus full of Asians and then penalized

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Asians in its admission process to mm-hmm.

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Deduct points, oh, you're of Asian race, we're gonna take points off

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and make it harder for you to enter.

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And that process has been deemed, unacceptable by the Supreme Court.

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And, I, in the North Carolina case, the plaintiffs asked the court to rule

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that universities can't use race as a factor in college admissions and

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must use a race neutral approach.

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So, the Supreme Court found that the practices of both colleges

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violated the equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment.

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They quickly looked at the 14th amendment, and the last part of it

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says, nor shall any state deny to any person within its jurisdiction

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the equal protection of the laws.

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So that was the wording that Harvard, for example, was falling foul of.

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Now there is a, mm-hmm.

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Something called legacy admissions.

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Mm-hmm.

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So if one of your parents went to the college, you are automatically

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deemed eligible to get in.

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And historically these were white only colleges.

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Yes.

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And they're saying that of the legacy admissions, the vast

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majority of them are white.

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So are the legacy admissions now ruled invalid as well?

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No, of course not Really?

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Yes.

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That would be denying equal protection for No, no.

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The non legacy people, Correct, but it's not based on color, it's based on

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whether or not your parents went and that which historically was based on color.

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Yes, it was.

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Historically, white people got into the college.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yeah.

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There we go.

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There wouldn't be too many black kids relying on black

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parents having attended half.

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No, exactly.

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Exactly.

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Mm-hmm.

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So I think if you stroke down one, you have to stroke down the other.

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You would've thought that it was unequal.

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But, how we going?

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So now I, it's one of those things.

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Now I heard this, what's the, the West Wing?

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He was in there though.

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I was watching that.

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And there was a British, there was a British diplomat and that sort of

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stuff who was lecturing the Americans.

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And he said, look, your, your original sin was slavery.

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Our original sin was your, was Ireland.

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And he was just talking in both those terms and he said, now you

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are overcoming your original sin.

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We're still overcoming our original sin.

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Mm-hmm.

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Anyway, that was just something by the by.

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Mm-hmm.

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Just, back to this decision in America, the decision might actually be popular,

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a poll designed to capture public opinion on major Supreme Court decisions.

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This term found the strong majority of Americans agree 74%, sorry, that

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public 74% and private 69% colleges and universities should not be able to use

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race as a factor in college admissions.

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So the Supreme Court is in line with public opinion, when they,

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when they adjust the polling by, questions that remind respondents

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of the goal of affirmative action.

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To increase the numbers of blacks, Hispanic and other unrepresented

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students on elite campuses, it tends to generate more support.

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But people don't think minority groups should be given special references.

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And guess what?

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I've got a little graph for that one.

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I think a bit luck.

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Here it is.

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So half of US adults, disapprove of selective colleges can string race and

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ethnicity and admissions while a third approve and a fair number of not sures.

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So a total is 50 disapprove of considering race and ethnicity.

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33% approve and 16% not sure.

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Now, when you break that up, guess what, amongst black, adults, 47% in favor of.

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Taking race into account, 29% against Hispanic.

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It's split 39.

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39.

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In the Hispanic community where this law would actually favor them, presumably.

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39 4 39 against Asians.

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Guess what?

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They've seen what's happened in Harvard and they don't like it.

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52% are against factoring in race and only 37% are in favor.

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And then of course, whites at 57, in 29.

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And guess how that breaks down politically?

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Well, if you're a Republican, 74% are against special privileges for ethnic

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groups in university admissions and as opposed to Republicans or leaning, sorry,

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Democrats or leaning Democrats, 29%.

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So Republicans, 74 Democrats 29.

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There we go.

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Significant overall number of people kind of agreeing with the, with

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the Supreme Court, with the way that's panned out by looks of it.

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Hmm.

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What do you think, dear this now it's one of those things here in Australia,

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we don't really have a, a hell of a lot of racial bias going on here.

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Mm-hmm.

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Like, we do have a, relatively, different colored face and that

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sort of stuff around the country.

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Mm-hmm.

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You know, it's just one of those things, you know, I

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thought about it just recently.

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I went into a shop and that sort of stuff, and there was a whole

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group of people in front of me.

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I was the only white fella, so, you know.

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Mm-hmm.

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You know, it's just, where was that?

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It was up in Rocky.

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Okay.

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Yep.

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Yeah.

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I was the only white fella I, the only white fella going in the shop.

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My only experience of discrimination in the university sector would be my

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son Leon, who did very well at high school and was school vice captain.

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He got a full scholarship at Q U t and a friend of mine who works in Q U

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t said a factor in his favor would've been that he was from a, a, a public

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high school and that they would actually take that into account his results and

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his achievements and him coming from a, the gap high school as opposed to

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a private school would've been in his favor as one of the considerations

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they use when handing out scholarships.

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Scholarships.

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Yeah, that makes sense.

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Yeah.

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So anyway, that's little anecdote there.

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I was gonna say, I think the hex is probably disproportionately.

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A burden on the poor.

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Mm-hmm.

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in theory you don't need a wealthy parent because you can just take the loan.

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Well, exactly.

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But, but the loan can be so big that you could be discouraged from

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doing it in the first place if you really thought about it hard.

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And, and also, you know, you're shackling yourself with debt, whereas a rich kid

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effectively doesn't go, doesn't come outta university with that debt potentially.

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Yeah.

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If that's assuming your parents are prepared to pay it.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yep.

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And not all mine weren't.

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So, you know, I up with the he debt.

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Yeah, but your, he debt is probably considerably less.

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Oh.

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It's a considerably less compared to what they're charging now.

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It was, it was considerably less, you know.

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Mm-hmm.

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And I paid it off relatively quickly.

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Mm-hmm.

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Mm-hmm.

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Final topic, dear listener, before we finish Calvary Hospital in the A c t Joe,

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we've had this on the agenda kind of.

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For a little while waiting for the right moment moment.

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We've not already talked about it.

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No, I don't think we have.

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Okay.

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It got bounced off and on and back on.

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And anyway, I found an article from Crikey, which was interesting

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about Calvary Hospital.

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So basically the A c T government decided to forcibly acquire the

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Catholic owned Alary hospital.

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I go on, no, not what I understand.

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My understanding was it was an c t owned hospital that was

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outsourced to the Catholics to run.

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Right.

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And they have compulsory purchased the leaseback, then the leaseback.

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So rather than the ownership, it was the leaseback.

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Correct.

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That, that's probably correct, yes.

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That that's a more accurate description where they may not have owned the.

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But then all property, all property in the a c t is leased.

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Oh, that's true.

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Correct.

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But my understanding was that this was a 25 year lease.

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This was an outsourcing?

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Yes.

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Okay.

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They had some sort of rights to run a hospital.

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Yes.

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Which the government said, we don't care what you want, we're taking it off you.

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Mm-hmm.

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The background is that it was being run by a group called The Little

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Company of Mary's Sisters, L c M.

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And there was an a c t audited General's Performance Audit Report in 2008.

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And as a result of that, both the little company of Mary's sisters and the A c T

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government agreed that the, the Mary's sisters should get out of this hospital.

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And instead, they could operate a recently opened Canberra Hospice

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and and there would be 68 million in compensation as part of the deal.

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Unfortunately, the a c t public would not agree to the deal somehow.

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I dunno how that came about.

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And the Vatican hearing about it said, we don't wanna lose a

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hospital that we're operating.

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So they basically took control of, of that asset and said, well, it

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doesn't actually belong to the little company of Mary's sisters anymore.

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It's now a, a Vatican asset and we don't agree with any of this.

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if you like resumption of the hospital and.

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In any event, it looks like the a c t, is going ahead with the

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forcible recovery of the hospital and the compensation will be paid.

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And the, the sort of the right of the article was saying the really the little

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sort of company of Mary's sisters this, sort of modern nuns who are interested

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in healthcare, it's not suitable for them to run a proper hospital that

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encompasses all of hospital services and for the sort of in including abortions.

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Yes.

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And for the sort of stuff that they would be interested in and

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would want to do, they should be involved in sort of end of life care.

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For people who don't wanna take voluntary assisted dying, that's

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where their interest would be and that they would be suited to and.

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That's where they wanted to end up and where the government wanted to end up.

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But the Vatican stepping in, taking control of the hospital

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and saying, no, all deals are off.

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Sorry, you're saying the Vatican trying to run people's lives.

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Yes.

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That sounds outta character for them.

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Yeah.

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So that was the sort of the flavor of the article, if you like, about

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what's happened in that hospital.

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So look, the little, company of Mary's sisters might end up acquiring a little

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hospice somewhere and getting a big compensation payment or a Catholic

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church might end up getting a big compensation payment more likely.

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Mm-hmm.

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So that's a bit of a messy one, but an interesting one nonetheless.

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And maybe in the future there'll be a whole range of hospitals that will be

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acquired by governments as they say, we cannot, what the hell are we doing,

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having religions running our hospitals?

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These are essential services and schools and care services and retirement

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villages and, yes, we can only hope Joe.

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Mm-hmm.

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Well this must have already happened because there was a picture on, Facebook

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that was put on the, by the Satanic or there was a picture of a crane

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removing the cross from the whole thing.

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I dunno what that one was.

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Anyway, dunno.

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Yeah, right.

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That's enough.

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That's all the topics I'm gonna get through.

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8 38, 8 years down.

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I dunno how many more to go.

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Yeah.

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What else are we gonna do on a Tuesday night?

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Just a bunch of old white men.

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Yeah.

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Shouting, getting the world, getting older every year.

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Yeah.

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I'm starting to feel old actually.

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So anyway.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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We talked about our medical ailments before the show.

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Yeah.

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We've got that out the way.

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Anyway, we'll be back next week with some more topics of some sort.

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Stay tuned.

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Join us then we'll be back then.

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We'll talk to you later.

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Bye for now, and it's a good night from me and it's a good night from him.

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The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove
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