Simon Spencer

Advisor & CTO at large, leading the way on AI & cohost of Breaking Banks Asia, @BBanksAsia

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

Moved to BlueSky. Still @nomisruption . Come and find me. If you want help migrating go to: https://t.co/hqrUAAkEoH

[StarBoySAR 🇭🇰 🇨🇳 🥭 @StarboySAR]

Brilliant piece from Pearls and Irritations. Finally, someone in Australia is saying out loud what the rest of us have been watching for the past five years

Let's be clear about what AUKUS actually is: the greatest military protection racket in modern history. Washington looked at its own crippled submarine industrial base—17 boats short, yards choking, Congress screaming—and found the perfect mark. A wealthy, eager, insecure middle power with a bipartisan fetish for great-power relevance and a defense minister who treats strategic questions like a classified state secret

The deal? Australia pays half a trillion dollars. In return, it gets used Virginia-class hand-me-downs—Block IV boats with a decade of wear already on the hulls, probably smelling faintly of its previous crew

Even more intriguing, the article confirms for what this overpriced second-hand Australian "sovereign" nuclear submarine fleet is actually for:

Hunting Chinese Jin-class and Type 096 SSBNs. Not to protect Sydney Harbour. Not to secure Australia's trade routes. To find, track, and if ordered, destroy the Chinese nuclear submarines that threaten continental America!

That's the job. That's the whole job. Australia just committed A$368 billion to be the US Navy's underwater security guard!

The comedy of "sovereign capability" is almost too rich. Sovereign? The reactors are American. The combat system is American. The weapons are American. The fuel is American. The intelligence feed is American. The maintenance schedule is American. Permanently tethering Australia to U.S. software, maintenance, and logistics, effectively ending any "sovereign" capability. The only thing Australian is the taxpayer—and the Prime Minister standing in front of a camera calling this independence

Australia is not buying a submarine; it is buying a node in a U.S. sensor network. The acquisition deeply integrates Australia into the U.S. military command structure, making Australia a tool for U.S. strategic objectives in the Indo-Pacific — while a massive amount of Australian wealth is transferred into the U.S. military-industrial complex

And the timing is exquisite. Washington just added another half-trillion to its own defense budget while Australia is told to hit 3.5% of GDP. America gets the money, the boats, the basing rights at HMAS Stirling, and a Pacific ASW auxiliary. Australia gets the bill, the dependency, and the warm fuzzy feeling of being taken seriously by the adults.

The U.S. 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) emphasizes "burden-sharing among allies" and "realist diplomacy." This submarine deal is the perfect execution of that strategy: the U.S. maintains its military overmatch against China by essentially "outsourcing" the financial cost of undersea surveillance to Australia 🤡

Paul Keating called this three years ago. He was mocked, of course. The press club gasped. The security establishment rolled its eyes. But he was right then, and this article proves he's right now. It is worse than he thought. It's not that AUKUS is of little military benefit to Australia. It's that AUKUS is of negative military benefit to Australia—actively diverting resources from actual defense needs toward a capability designed for someone else's homeland

https://t.co/f7lYAMf3JY

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

@MidnightRunShow @TheCinesthetic Yes!

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

@TheCinesthetic K2

[Murray Rothbard @MurraySuggests]

The Iranian navy, which has been destroyed eight times, has apparently closed the Strait of Hormuz again, because the United States, for the seventh time, won the war that wasn’t a war, so now the United States has to open the Strait of Hormuz that was already open before the not-war began.

The not-war began because Iran had uranium that was totally, completely, beautifully obliterated, so they can’t build the nuclear bomb they weren’t building, which is why the United States had to start the not-war it definitely didn’t start.

Now the United States, which has nuclear weapons, is threatening to use nuclear weapons to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, because nuclear weapons are far too dangerous for countries with nuclear weapons to allow other countries to have.

If the United States saw the United States doing what the United States does in other countries, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States.

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

@elonmusk Or Red Rising

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

@elonmusk Or you could give me the last 3 books of the Expanse

[David Pocock @DavidPocock]

The 🇦🇺 Govt needs to ensure we capture a fairer share of tax from massive multinational companies - from gas to big tech - that export our resources or make $ off Australians.

The business model of offshoring profit has to be challenged.

We keep hearing about the data centre and AI boom - we have to get a fair return from the companies using our resources.
https://t.co/EULUvPaAXH

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

No no it’s not ethnic cleansing, they’re just forcibly taking land from Arabs and telling their civilian population they need to leave or they’ll be killed.

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

@strangerous10 @BelindaJones68 Pigs, snout meet trough. They look after their own. #corruption

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

If it looks like corruption then it is corruption.

[Antony (Tony) Walker @tonywalker1]

This is abject on remuneration of $450,000 annually. Watch 👇

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

@HedgieMarkets Or developers go open source models on their own hardware

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

@Ryandally08 Ok boomer

[Mike Carlton @MikeCarlton01]

56 identical complaints. Typical attempt at bullying by the Israel lobby. Rejected. https://t.co/4ALGLSf89a

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

@LeeMerrittesq A nation at war with its own people. The rest of the world thinks you are mad.

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

US attempts to slow Chinese AI innovation will have the opposite effect. China is open sourcing their models and creating low cost compute platforms that leverage decentralised architectures.

[Reuters @Reuters]

Chinese firms are developing AI without the need for US chips, and US export controls may not have done much to slow down that progress, Joachim Klement of Panmure Liberum told Reuters

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

@AngusTaylorMP And a gas tax would be a great start

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

@AngusTaylorMP Wow you actually said what has been bouncing around that head of yours. The strong should rule, that’s some serious Red Rising / Plato Gold thinking going on Boomer

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

@markbouris Ok boomer

[Simon Spencer @nomisruption]

Well said. The whining of Boomers who’s naked self interest & venal selfishness is on full display right now. Nothing shows you as lesser unworthy of respect than seeking to steal from your own children & grandchildren.

[Bernard Keane @BernardKeane]

For decades, Boomers and my generation, X, have used our political weight to distort key areas of public policy in our favour and against young Australians. Well, now the tables are turning on us. Suck it up.

https://t.co/2Iqpha5Owf

[Toilet Paper Australia @toiletpaperaus1]

Hey Newscorp, just a thought: maybe *dont* get the boomers to criticise housing reform while they pose in front of their Porsche?