The Iron Fist and The Velvet Glove

The Iron Fist and The Velvet Glove is an Australian weekly podcast which takes a look at news, culture and the transformations taking place in our society.

[Robert Barwick @RobbieBarwick]

My testimony to the opening hearing of the AUKUS Public Inquiry:

* AUKUS is a product of foreign interference from the USA & UK through their funding of @ASPI_org.

* AUKUS is already taking a human toll, on jailed innocent Australian @FreeDanDuggan & his wife & six children.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Another finding of the report that I found fascinating this year: there's now a higher perception of freedom of speech in China than in the immense majority of Western countries, including in the United States.

Meaning that when you ask the Chinese people, a higher proportion of them feel they "can criticize the government without consequences" than in the US.

I'm personally not surprised about this at all. I posted many times about the different initiatives taken by the Chinese government to encourage feedback and criticism, including the 12345 hotline, a 24/7 phone number you can call anywhere in China if you have any complaint that's related to the government (and which I myself called a few times).

And anyone familiar with China will tell you (and this is one way the Chinese are actually spiritually quite similar to the French), Chinese people LOVE to complain, and are definitely not shy about it. Speak about government policies to anyone in China and get ready for an hours-long dizzying discussion about the myriads of ways in which China does NOT work.

The notion that Chinese people can't complain is something only someone who's never shared a dinner table with a Chinese family could possibly believe...

AND, most importantly, as this report's results indicate, the Chinese government - unlike many Western governments - actively listens to and acts upon people's feedback (a striking example I stumbled upon just today: https://t.co/HmG6SAekrw). Which - last I checked - is supposed to be what democracy is all about: having your policies guided by the will of the people.

What's the freaking point of being allowed to complain or expose whatever government failure if nothing changes? 🤷‍♂️ That's not democracy, it's just theater.

[Marina Purkiss @MarinaPurkiss]

At what point do we stop pretending our newspapers are ‘news’ and start calling them what they are…

Promotional pamphlets for the billionaires who own them and the agendas they’re selling.

[Peter Cronau @PeterCronau]

Dave is definitely worth a read. 👇
“What the fuck was that?!” - The Shot https://t.co/OvABepjicY

[Antonella Illuminati 🥖 🌹 @JoanneHorniman]

Anthony Albanese deems Trump saying 'all civilisation will die tonight' as 'inappropriate' yet in some parts of Australia merely saying From the river to the sea will get you jailed.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

So, if I got that right, here's the narrative:

- A US F-15E fighter jet got shot down over Iran, despite Trump saying 2 days beforehand in his nationwide address that Iran has "no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100% annihilated." (https://t.co/3pnVUGxHyV)

- The plane's weapons systems officer - a "highly respected Colonel," according to Trump - ejected from the plane and got "seriously wounded" (still according to Trump: https://t.co/jUbGiGk9uM)

- He still managed to "hike up a 7,000-foot [2.1km] mountain ridgeline and hide in a crevice" in the Zagros Mountains, despite his wounds (https://t.co/ECTqgUFOZ3)

- U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones started killing all "Iranian military-aged males believed to be a threat who got within three kilometers of [the American's location]" (https://t.co/86aZgrsXGT)

- To retrieve him the U.S. managed to seize an "abandoned airport," 200 miles deep inside Iran, near Isfahan (https://t.co/rOpRm3mqt9), which happens to be where Iran's largest atomic scientific center is located (https://t.co/jQfmg4zI8t)

- They landed two MC-130 military transport planes in that airport (https://t.co/k0mU0wqnvU) in an operation involving "hundreds of special forces troops and military personnel" (https://t.co/ECTqgUFOZ3)

- Both MC-130 planes got "stuck in the sand" and the U.S. destroyed them themselves "to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands" (https://t.co/k0mU0wqnvU)

- They deployed "three new aircraft to extract all the U.S. personnel" on the ground (https://t.co/k0mU0wqnvU)

- There are videos circulating online of "heavy clashes" with presumably Iranian missiles raining down in Kohgiluyeh County, in the Zagros Mountains during that night (https://t.co/VCeTzcC1vt)

- Iran sent pictures of the aftermath at the "abandoned airport" and it's a sight of utter destruction, with US plane and MH-6 helicopter parts scattered all over the ground, still smoking (https://t.co/mDpYT9qsKC). Iran claims they are the ones who in fact destroyed all the aircraft.

- Meanwhile a second U.S. plane, an A-10 Warthog, also crashed on Friday near the Strait of Hormuz according to two U.S. officials speaking to the NYT (https://t.co/lFs4zERw2t). In that instance too the lone pilot was apparently "safely rescued."

- In all this, after the multiple planes and helicopters destroyed or shot down, the documented heavy clashes, the "hundreds of special forces troops and military personnel" operating deep inside Iran, not a single US soldier was reported killed "or even wounded" (according to Trump: https://t.co/rCgrl6vMpT).

- And the 'highly respected Colonel' this was all for? No name. No photo. No interview. Nobody has spoken to him nor knows who he is.

So to sum up: anti-aircraft equipment that supposedly didn't exist shot down an F-15 (and, apparently, an A-10 Warthog the same day). A seriously wounded man climbed a 2.1km mountain. The US seized an airfield 200 miles inside a country it's at war with, next to one of its most strategic nuclear sites, and deployed hundreds of troops all apparently unimpeded. Lost two planes to "sand" and destroyed their own helicopters. Videos show heavy clashes, missiles raining down - but not a single person got "even wounded". And the man at the center of it all? Nobody knows who he is, completely anonymous, zero pictures, but Trump says he is "SAFE and SOUND." And so is the rescued A-10 Warthog pilot, who also remains anonymous.

Trump concludes this all proves the US has "achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies" (https://t.co/rCgrl6vMpT), despite the whole episode only happening because Iran shot his planes out of the sky.

Basically, the only thing that's "overwhelming" here is the audacity of the storytelling...

[Cameron Leckie @leckie_cameron]

"Regime Change and Media Coverage"

When regime change is on the agenda, there is a template that legacy media uses to generate and maintain the narrative

I have unpacked this using the current events in 🇮🇷 and @abcnews coverage as a case study 👇

https://t.co/nb42rbtq3E

[Alan MacLeod @AlanRMacLeod]

A lot of people seem unaware of the achievements of the socialists in Venezuela 🇻🇪 before US sanctions wrecked the economy. Here's a rundown by the numbers (taken from the United Nations and quoted in my book, "Bad News From Venezuela, 20 Years of Fake News and Misreporting"):

GDP per capita:

1999: $5150
2012: $6434

Poverty:

1999: 49.4%
2012: 25.4%

Extreme Poverty:

1999: 17.9%
2012: 7.1%

Unemployment:

1999: 15.0%
2012: 8.1%

School Enrollment:

1999: under 50%
2012: Almost 75%

Undernourished population:

2000-2002: 3.8 million
2010-2012: "Not statistically significant number" [i.e.: close to zero]

Doctors per 10,000 inhabitants:

1998: 18
2012: 58

Number of free health clinics built, 1999-2012:

7,000

Number of people receiving old age pensions:

1999: 0.39 million
2012: 2.1 million

During the years of Hugo Chavez (1999-2012/2013), the government built a nationalized healthcare and education system from scratch. In 2005, UNESCO declared Venezuela free of illiteracy.

This doesn't mean everything was perfect by any means, but the gigantic and extraordinary successes the country was making attracted academics, statisticians, and epidemiologists from around the world to study it. Indeed, in 2013, the UN awarded Venezuela special recognition in combatting poverty and achieving rapid human development.

They were able to do this because Chavez nationalized the country's resources (oil) and used the profits to fund social programs, rather than enrich foreign billionaires.

It was precisely this threat of a good example that precipitated a massive US economic blockade of the country, which crippled the economy, and led to mass emigration and hardship. The United States is and was terrified that such a successful example of socialism would inspire people across the planet into believing a better world is possible.

[The Iron Fist and The Velvet Glove @IFVG_Podcast]

No Kings Means No Barons by Yanis Varoufakis - Project Syndicate https://t.co/lXCbqyayfo

[The Iron Fist and The Velvet Glove @IFVG_Podcast]

@leckie_cameron @latingle @abcnews I think she was overrated on domestic politics. Her sympathies were in the right place but she wouldn’t do the hard work on detail. If AUKUS qualifies as domestic policy, her reporting on that was always superficial.

[Doug Cameron @DougCameron51]

Sick of the ABC interviewing players in the military/ industrial complex who blatantly assert we need more crazily expensive equipment to use in a war with our biggest trading partner China.
No critical analysis, no tough questions, no pushback just softball questions.

[The Iron Fist and The Velvet Glove @IFVG_Podcast]

Chris Hedges: War Deja Vu https://t.co/aNvT68ycmR

[Chris Hedges @ChrisLynnHedges]

https://t.co/rCBCwNiNst

[The Iron Fist and The Velvet Glove @IFVG_Podcast]

No podcast tonight. We’ll be back next week.

[Cameron Leckie @leckie_cameron]

Looking forward to chatting with @IFVG_Podcast tonight 7.30pm AEST time

😀

https://t.co/AW4PfbBmbT

[Cameron Leckie @leckie_cameron]

When I read articles like 👇, & comments by @DavidPocock, @AlboMP & others, it is clear that our politicians have zero understanding of the conflict in 🇺🇦 (either that or they are lying through their teeth)

I wish Professor Sachs would get an invite to the 🇦🇺 Parliament

Nor do they get that the 🇺🇸 empire is collapsing. That's what is driving Trump's actions.

Instead we get slogans 'democracy' & 'values' which are all but meaningless these days in countries where an oligarchic class calls the shots and we jail whistleblowers instead of criminals

We have a clueless polity

https://t.co/wlwuvxpKxF

[Jayson Gillham @jaysongillham]

Australia faces a great reckoning.

Are we content with remaining a puny sidekick in the white supremacist, planet wrecking, genocide gang?

Or could we find some new friends to help support us as we leave our abusive relationship with the gang leader?

[The Iron Fist and The Velvet Glove @IFVG_Podcast]

The United States empire is almost always at war - Pearls and Irritations https://t.co/MXJeBHFIvP

[The Iron Fist and The Velvet Glove @IFVG_Podcast]

Democracy; what democracy? - Pearls and Irritations https://t.co/bvmIbTiYYL

[Pearls and Irritations @johnmenadue]

Conventional economists seem to be incapable of understanding that what they take to be economics is only capitalist economics, and what they take to be development is only capitalist development. They cannot gasp that t ...
https://t.co/anZG6WomoX