On sky leaves Australia.
This is the Wider Panalty Show. Good evening and welcome to the Riata Pattey Show. Coming up tonight, worrying data showing more than three in four jobs created in Australia last year were underwritten by taxpayers. Adam Crichton will be here to discuss that and the day's top headlines. The Green sees the balance of power in the WA Upper House Professa Ian Plimer and what that will mean for
WA's resource sector. The Great Josh Hammer will have the latest from the US, Europe and Syria where Islamus are slaughtering religious minorities, including Christians, and later in the hour, Kinsey Schofield will tell us what famous celebrity has fled Trump's America for New Zealand and we never ever forget
Left is losing it. Goodnight at first, The latest News poll is out and the Coalition is failing to gain ground, with fifty five percent of voters saying they don't believe the Coalition is ready to govern and Opposition leader Bitter Dutton's personal approval rating has dropped while the Prime Minister has increased his lead. He's gone from five points to a nine point lead in just the past month, and
we can't look overlook Labor having its own issues. They continue to trail the coalition fifty one to forty nine percent two party preferred. Labour's primary vote is on thirty two percent, trailing the coalition on thirty nine. Let's bring in senior fellow and chief economist at the Institute of Public Affairs, Adam Crichton. Adam, what do you make of
this starter? It's not particularly great news for either side, but I think the Prime Minister will be happy at has increased his lead over the opposition leader.
Yes, that's true.
Look at six weeks or so that I've been back in Australia, obviously I've been hobby watching politics. I have noticed that over that six weeks I would say that Dutton's chances have been marginally declining, and also in that space he's been more and more like the Labor Party. So, for instance, Labor proposed the eight and a half billion
dollars on Medicare and then straightaway Dutton backed it. So all that good stuff, at least from my point of view, from last year that we saw on the nuclear energy and so forth. That's I think when the opposition leader was doing much better, but now his chances of declining.
So yeah, I do wonder about some of the advice he's receiving. It took the Liberal Party ten months to pose the voice, which they should have done in approximately ten minutes because it was on the face of a bad policy. Didn't need to see further detail. But when he did oppose it, and he articulated that position so well, so strongly, I think that really is what made him seem like a future leader of the country, and he stepped back from that a little bit. Yeah, certainly, that's right.
And then I think I saw last week Financial Review that the tials of all people are proposing to index the tax scales, like that is something the Liberal Party should be proposing, you would think from first principles, right, because the fact is at the moment they are not indexed, and so it is an annual tax increase year after year. So you know, well done teals for that, But that's something that should be coming from the coalition.
Well, absolutely. And on a bunch of other issues where I think they're on very solid ground, a lot of these so called cultural issues. Again, there's a reluctance to lean into those fights, despite the fact that you would have the majority of labor voters with you, never mind conservative voters. But let's look at data that is far
more disturbing than any news poll. The Australian Financial Review reports more than three quarters of new jobs created in twenty twenty four were in government funded industries, talking things like education, health. Now, about one third of the four hundred and eighty seven thousand jobs created last year were in the public sector, but more than three quarters of
all jobs were underwritten essentially by the government. Adam, that's not great news, and not surprisingly, guess what productivity has also pummitted?
Yeah, certainly the productivity in these so called non market sectors has historically and still is been very low. Basically, you know, the fact that more than three quarters in the public sector is very very concerning for Australia's future prospects because obviously all these workers are financed from tax revenue, and of course tax revenue slows economic growth. It's actually worth pointing out that on the IPA's own research, it's
actually worse than three quarters. It's more than eighty two percent of jobs since August twenty twenty two have actually have actually come from the public sector, so two.
And a half years, so not just the past year.
Was so the growth extraordinary because overall, if you look at all of the jobs in the economy, some I think eighteen percent are in the non market sector, and yet that relatively small, small sector has accounted for more than eighty percent of the new jobs.
Very worrying.
I wonder what percentage the NDIS and all the related industries are possible for, because that just seems to be, well, we reletely unsustainable.
We certainly saw Bill Shorton, I think he said that five hundred thousand people were employed because of the NDOTS. Now they are probably classified as private sector workers on some measures, right, but of course in reality they are really public sector workers, and they are a drain on the productivity of the economy, it must be said.
Oh absolutely. And I think it's like immigration, where you can bring in an influx of people and really gain the data and make it look like you've had a big growth in GDP and everything's going well, we're having economic prosperity and growth, but when you look at the per capita data, it doesn't look so flash And this seems to be a little bit of that. Yeah, the job numbers look great, Unemployment is at a low level. But if the taxpayer is underwriting all this, and.
Look they certainly are. I mean, you know, we've had over the past three or four years the biggest increase in income tax in real terms pretty much in thirty or forty years in Australia. And yet, and yet both sides of politics go on about so called tax cuts, the Stage three tax cuts. Well, look, inflation was far worse, and so because those brackets aren't index, people have actually had a big increase in tax and all of that extra money has been spent on these sorts of public
sector jobs. It's very worrying both sides are not really putting forward good solutions for Australia's future.
Now, the WA election was over the week ken the Liberals performed terribly. The government has been returned their Labor government with a massive majority. I'll be talking to Professor Implymer about that a little bit later. But is this good news for Anthony Alberanezi or I've heard some political experts say it's actually bad news because whatever grievances West Australians have they'll take it out on him rather than this tack company.
But it's hard to I mean, it's hard to know. Western Australia is so far away. I'm not an ex it's almost like a country to itself. But that said, look, I think overall probably bad for the Coalition because they were expected to pick up more than five or six seats and I think that's all they're going to end up with in the Parliament. Badly. They've got a kind
of reflex Victoria State Pole. Right, there was a big swing away from Labor, but it didn't really go to the Liberals very much, you know, it kind of went to Teals. In fact, I think the Teals are going to win a seat in the West Australian Parliament for the first time aus a Teal type candidate. Look, I don't think it's great for the Coalition, but that said, as you point out, I mean it can go the other way too. You have to speak to some cychologists on that.
I guess we'll find that in a month or two. It's not too far away. Let's talk about something a little bit different. Veteran comedian David Hughes he was forced to remove a group of women from his show at the Adelaide Fringe Festival because well, they kept chattering away. They kept just disrupting the show, annoying people sitting around them. Let's have a look at the footage and you can see Hughesy gets pretty angry. He gives him a couple
of warnings and then he loses it. Adam house Since said, I gave the group of women multiple chances that were infuriating audience members near them and me and as they were in the second row. So yeah, there was definitely annoying hughes And I would say there's nothing worse than if you're watching a comedy show or any sort of live performance and you've got people chattering away. It's a distraction. It takes away from the experience and you might remember.
I don't know if this made the news in Americay it probably did because it made headlines around the world. But a comic Arch Barker last year bou to day breastfeeding mum from his program because the baby was making all sorts of noise. He got absolutely slammed for it. But I've got to say I'm with the comics on this one. That mum and baby went on the project to you know, to protest what had happened, and even for during a TV interview, the baby's making little noises.
As cute as it may be, it's actually very disruptive. Yeah.
Look, certainly I'm with both of these comedians on this. I think the bigger threat though, for comedians generally in Australia was always impositions on free speech. These new laws that are being passed by state parliaments, especially in Victoria and New South Wales where it is now illegal I understand to severely ridicule a group quote unquote severely ridicule. So no, stand up's going to get very very hard.
So maybe these women did not find him very funny, but even so they were being very rude and they should have been.
Us to live.
Oh absolutely, if you're sitting in the second role, really anywhere where there's people around you, you've just got to shush it, unless there's audience participation called for Adam Krisch, I thought we were going to fight about that one. I thought you were going to take the lady's side, But here we are. Sorry about the unity ticket behind Husy.
Thanks for your time to joining me. Now is a esteem geologist and author, Professor Ian Plimer, and I wanted to start by getting your thoughts on the WA election. You know the state very well. They contribute greatly to Australia. WA is a mining state, it's a resources stronghold. They seem to be very much conservative in their values. We certainly saw that with the race based Voice referendum last year.
Sixty three and a half percent voted no. But then we have state labor winning election after election with massive landslides.
Why is that, Well, it is a resource state. They use a huge amount of energy. Most of their energy comes from gas, some comes from diesel gen sets that remote minds and some are soul. West Australia would not be as prosperous as they are without the royalties of mining and the labor govern in Western Australia over the last couple of terms has been fairly care about destroying
the mining industry with high royalties. Our Greens of course, want to completely destroy the mining industry, the gas industry and any other industry. I want people living in caves and sniffing.
Plants to live.
So in Western Australia we have a very very different situation from.
In Eastern Australia.
Western Australia has little manufacturing, it has mining.
And the Liberals just didn't dent the electric The Liberals should have fought much harder on matters of resources, matters of aboriginal.
Matters, closing down minds. They didn't. And it's very little different from Victoria.
Victoria has drove a pathetically weak biberal party, as does Western Australia.
Well, those Aboriginal herits laws. And we only had in the last two weeks a farmer who's been fined for building a little bridge on his own land because it may have disturbed I think it was a rainbow serpent if I remember correctly. So that issue is enormous there potentially, and the Libstins seem to really lean into it much. You mentioned WA Labour's relatively same position on mining and
climate policies. That may all be under threahy in because the Greens are set to seize power the balance of power in the Upper House and prior to the election they made it clear they'll leverage this to push for a Climate Change Act with all sorts of hard left green policies. What impact could this have on Western Australia in well.
This will have a magic impact.
I think any green labor deal ends up putting people to work in topic heavy industry like the resources industry, and it ends up being a really massive backward step. So this is the time when Labor should be talking to the Liberals about how they can manage a state which relies on resources and doesn't rely on the Greens. The Greens have produced nothing. All they do is put people out of work. So this is a perfect opportunity for the Nationals to live and Labor to talk together.
In the Upper House and try to get some common sense.
Because if the Greens have the balance of power, then Western Australia is going to lose a huge amount of revenue. This revenue goes to schools and the police and roads, et cetera.
You can see the results of that revenue.
Western Australia's got some wonderful new roads over very long distances. The infrastructure is fabulous and that is because of mining royalties. This is what the Greens will kill off. And so I think the Labor government has to be very circumspect about talking to the Greens at all and maybe compromise and do a deal with the Libs and the Nats.
Imagine that labor coalition coalition in the WA Upper House to sidestep the Greens. It's definitely what's best for the state. Whether it's going to happen or not, we'll see. Now. Donald Trump's top economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, who is the chair of the White House National Economic Council, his flag that an Australian exemption from Donald Trump's metal tariffs is
highly unlikely. And I do wonder if President Donald Trump heard about the output of the WA premiere I have a listen to this little bit of reckless idiocy.
Jd Vance is a knob.
Sorry, you've got to have one unprofessional moment, Danja.
That was it.
Does Donald Trump still represent a dark road for the world.
Well, I certainly think he represents an uncertain one.
So again, let me just say, at times.
Of uncertainty, you need a steady hand experience had at the wheel.
And what a reckless bit of stupidity from Premier Roger Cook there.
Well, Premier Cook should be concerned about Western Australia and that is it. It's not his place to talk about anything international. And I think what he's done is destroy relationships between the Commonwealth of Australia and the USA. And that was an absolutely dopey comment to make in front
of a labor audience to get a cheap laugh. Now, Western Australia depends upon the Commonwealth for this country to function, and what he is doing is giving even more reason for the US to say it, well, we're not going to take your steel, We're not going to take you aluminium.
And we have to remember that.
There's a lot of energy that's embedded in aluminium more than any other metal. Zinc is the next one in the line, and steel is further down the track. So our energy systems are so chaotic and have been destroyed so much that we actually subsidize the massive amount of energy that goes into making steel and making aluminium. So as a result of our bad energy policies, we have the USA saying, well, wait a minute, your aluminum and
steel are subsidized. We don't want to compete with people who subsidize their commodities.
That they export to US.
They go away, And I think President Trump has many reasons to tell Australia to go and take a big jump.
I think the Well and Roger Cork's just give it him another one.
Well he has, and that joins Ambassador rud that joins Minister Penny Wong, that joins the Prime Minister. He has all the reasons in the world, so go away.
Well this is the problem. We need them more than they need us. That's just the way it is. So I don't know. I don't think it's too difficult as a state premier just to be diplomatic and not say something that's stupid on camera. Goodness, mate, Professor I Plymer, thank you so much for your time tonight.
Thank you.
Still to come Lefties Losing It plus the Great Josh Hammer, we'll have the latest from the US, Europe and Syria where Islamists are slaughtering religious minorities, including Christians. You're watching the Reader Panny Show, and it's time for lefties losing it. Let's start with a reality show. It's called Love is Blind, where the bride left the groom at the altar because his views on trans rites and BLM were not to her liking.
I've always wanted a partner to be on the scene wavelength, and so today.
I can't.
Yep. The bride then explained why she dumped Ben.
He asked him about like Black Lives matter, and I'm no expert, but like when I asked him about it, he was like, I guess I never really thought too much about it.
That affected me.
I watched a sermon online from about yeah, sexual identity, and it was traditional.
The horror a church with traditional views on gender, Like, I don't know, men are men and women are women. Dude, Ben, you dodged a bullet. Move on, count your lucky stars. Let's go to Europe where the topless feminists are back. This time they are doing Nazi salutes and chanting about Donald Trump and onsk. I've got to say, this sort of performative activism is really rather tyresoon. I go, yeah,
like I said, tiresome. Then the ladies let off some smoke bombs and chanted about fascists and marched around pretending to be nazis not a bra or brain cell to be seen amongst this lot. Look, I'm just surprised I didn't see Justin Trudeau amongst those ladies. He's got more feminine energy than any gal I know.
On a personal level, I've made sure that every single day in this office, I put Canadians first that I have people's backs, and that's why I'm here to tell you all we got you, even in the very last days of this government. We will not let Canadians down today and long into the future.
Cool story, bro, you think we've forgotten about what you did to Canadian truckers and their supporters just for protesting against your insane lockdowns. Please, your tears aren't going to save you, or your legacy is trash. Now let's go to CNN, where the usual suspects are screeching crazy stuff about fascism. Apparently we're in the middle of a totalitarian fascist coup.
So scared, but we are in the middle of a totalitarian fascist coup in this country, and we don't call it that. When we soft pedal it, we don't have a real discussion about it. At least here I could say those words. We can have that discussion. You will not see those words in the New York Times or the Washington We.
Were being honest.
There should be a breaking news banner on CNNA emmesody all day long.
We are in dictatorship.
Well, l now, when the Washington Post and New York Times is a left or anti Trump enough for you? Then you may need therapy, not a spot on a CNN panel show. Next CNN will be offering this guy a regular gig make America great again.
Oh not figures.
This is this is the part that I love.
That's why you're a mag.
Mag.
I'm happy.
You're mad.
You're mad, you're mad.
Don't touch me, Hey, don't touch me.
You touch me, you don't get away from me.
Isn't it always the way the bullies cry and pretend to be the victims. This is what the Left has become. They're the cry bullies. Now let's look at a real case of racism in the streets. A girl minding her own business being attacked and followed for having her hair in braids. Apparently only folk of certain skin tones are allowed to have their hair in that style these days. Ugliest, we weren't that it's greats.
Take that out now, really, re take that out?
Now, okay, what's your take that shit out?
Now?
Take this out? Now? Take that out. It's hot, it's ugly though.
Like I'm looking her hair.
It doesn't look back. Now. For the record, white folk, and i'd imagine everyone else has been braiding hair for thousands of years. Vikings to h all the way back to the venus of Wildendorf some thirty thousand years ago. But apparently it's offensive now. Well, that young lady being harassed and chased has addressed a controversy. And the crazy thing is, there's plenty of people who agree with the aggressor. They say, a white woman having her hair in braids is cultural appropriation.
I'm allowed to wear breads. So yesterday, when I was feeling some crazy ladies chasing me out of the store screaming about my breed, saying it's disgusting, trashy, cultural appropriation, she was literally expecting me to rip my hair out right then and there.
I can't just rip my breads out.
She then follows me all the way to my car, screaming to the top of her lies. And I just cannot believe somebody gets that offended over a hairstyle like this. If she can wear a wig, I can wear breaths.
Funny, how no one ever accuses Beyonce of cultural appropriation for having blonde hair or putting out a country album. Well, I guess it wasn't really country after all, was it. Now? Remember the border crisis, the illegal immigration crisis that Joe Biden created. We saw millions cross that US southern border illegally every year under the Biden administration. The media made it clear though, that this issue was not one the
president could easily fix. Like good little state propagandists, they repeated the lie that Joe Biden was poalas to fix his own mess.
Republicans keep saying Biden doesn't need Congress, he can stop what's happening at the border all by himself.
Can you fact check that for us, because we here all though that's not true.
Republicans have been saying largely wrongly.
Right because saying that the president can close the border unilaterally on his own, president actually doesn't have the authority under the law to do that.
There's only so much President Biden can do with executive action, and he did try to do whatever he could.
They actually are doing everything they can.
The president hands are tied.
There's only so much that he can do.
President Biden has issues for executive orders, but there's only so much he can do within his purview.
What an intractable a problem this is for the president with no easy solutions.
No easy solutions here. There are no easy solutions here, folks.
They need Congress to act to fix the broken immigration system.
This cannot happen without Congress resourcing this.
There's only so much a president can do with his pen and his phone. But surprise, surprise, the media was wrong yet again, and this was something President Trump was happy to point out during his address to Congress.
The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation.
We must have.
Legislation to secure the border.
But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.
Oh that was a bit of a mic drop moment, wasn't it. Yes, it turns out the president didn't need Congress didn't need new legislation because in under a month, Donald Trump has managed to secure the border with illegal crossings at a twenty five year low. Must have hurt CBS to report the undeniable facts.
Illegal border crossings have sung to the lowest level in at least twenty five years.
We know what's behind the strap and border cross Look.
I think we have to first emphasize how stunning and remarkable this trop is. Fewer than nine thousand migrants were processed at the US Mexico border after crossing into the country illegally in February. That is compared to Sundays during the Biden administration, when border patrol recorded more than that on twenty four hour time spans, including up to ten thousand people in a single day.
So we've gone from having up to ten thousand people cross illegally in a day to less than that over an entire month. Elections have consequences, folks. Let's bring in Newsweek's senior editor at Large and Article three Projects Senior Council Josh Hammer. Josh, this is a stunning achievement. There's now other way to put it. Stunning turnaround in a month.
You know, Rida, there was a lot of misinformation in that montage that were just on there. I saw Jonah Goldberg a bunch of others saying that the president does actually not have the authority to largely shut down the border, well as the kings may be. I mean not to brag, but I actually am a lawyer here I clerked on a federal appeals cord. The president actually does have sweeping authority.
It's actually codified at eight US Code, Section eleven eighty two, sub section F. It goes back all the way to the Immigration National the Act of the nineteen fifties a foundational immigration statue there, and that basically says that the president has, at his own discretion, the ability to shut down the border to all admission of any classes or groups of migrants that he wants to. It is a sweeping delegation of immigration forcement authority from the Congress to
the president. That was actually the very statutory sub section that was litigated as part of the so called travel band case the first time during the first tru administration. Now with the Trump versus Hawaii case there where the court actually ruled five to four that yes, the statute means what it says, the president has sweeping authority there. So the court has said this there the commentators surprise, surprise,
or dead wrong on the actual law there. Donald Trump is taking advantage what the law actually says, as was litigated during his first administration there and the results, as you said, speak for themselves. America has a secure southern border. Again, the people voted for it, and God willing, yes, they have it. And I think that the cartels are going to learn a very hard wasn't here to the end that they have not learned that a read because America's southern border.
Right now, Rita is not open for business.
Now let's move on, Josh, to the Democrats claiming to be the party for women, for women's rights. But let's see how they voted when it came time to protect girls and women's sports from male athletes identifying as women. Every single Democrat voted against the rights of women here, and not only I would a hugger. Is this position morally putred? It's also a fringe position. It's an extreme position because around four and five Americans are clear on this issue. As even CNN reported.
Transgender female athletes and women's sports, only eighteen percent of the country says that they should be in fact allowed to participate in women's sports. Compare this to the opposition. I mean, my goodness, gracious, seventy nine percent. You rarely get set nine percent of the country to agree on anything, but they do in fact agree on the idea of opposing transgender female athletes in women's sports. But it's not just the hero and now, lord, it's not just the
hero and now. What we're actually seeing is a trend on this particular issue, and it's going in the direction of opposition.
Josh that trend is interesting. In twenty twenty one, we had sixty two percent who were opposed. Now the figure is seventy nine, and I suspect it's even more than that because this is one of the issues where people have been shamed for holding a very much a common sense mainstream view. Yeah.
Look, it's an eighty twenty issue, as you said there. I mean, it's fascinating here in the States, realy, because you see even very left wing politicians like Gavin Newsom of California, who had this winding Watch interview with Charlie Kirk on Gavin Newsom's own new podcast this week, and even Gavin Newsom who literally became the first politician in California history to issue same sex marriage licenses, you know, back in the day whenever that was.
I mean, even this guy who was ahead of the curve on that issue.
There, he's saying that it's now deeply unfair when it comes to biological males competing against females in women's athletic condition. Now, to be clear, no one should believe Gavin Newsom for a second. The guy's a snake. He's a total liar there. He's trying to gear up for a twenty twenty eight presidential run. I wish him nothing but the worst there, but this is yet another losing issue for the Democratic Party there and Rita.
This continues to be the structural issue for the Democrats.
I actually I wrote about this in my most recent column, which is that you have this chasm between the Democratic elites which are in total lunacy la la land when it comes to the open borders issue, when it comes to the transgender issue there, when it comes to any of these other issues, the Green New Deal, environmental regulation, let's not frack, let's not drill for natural gas, they're in total la la lands. I mean even the Median Democrat, as we just saw on that CNN graphic there, does
not agree with their own parties elites. So unless until they can find some way to repudiate their own parties elites, the ladies of the view the Barack Obama winging the party there, unless how they can do that, they're just going to continue to flounder in irrelevance. But again, as someone who wishes have nothing but the worst, I'd say, go on, and I.
Think you're one hundred percent right about Gavin News them. I think he's just reading the room. He's seeing how fringe and unpopular these positions are, and he's just trying to position himself as some sort of centrist when you only have to look at California to see that's not
the case. Now, let's talk about this curious story about what really happened during the Biden presidency and who was pulling the strings it was really in charge because it was clear it wasn't Joe Biden for much of the time. It's been alleged that the majority of official documents signed by President Joe Biden used the same outopen signature. This
is a report by the Heritage Foundation. It states we gathered every document we could find with Biden's signature over the course of his presidency, all news the same autopen signature, except for the announcement that the former president was dropping out of the race last year. Josh, what do you make of this report?
Well, it's funny because the last line there is when I first saw this is where my mind immediately went. Actually, I saw a lot of people on Twitter ex whatever, calling of these days who when Joe Biden, in theory, had that I'm dropping beyond the race announcement. You actually look at the signature, it looks a lot like a holograph. I mean, that's not typically where my mind goes there.
But you know, read in recent years when it comes to the Hunter Biden laptop, when it comes to COVID nineteen, when it comes to the fact that, yeah, we all knew that Joe Biden was running the country in geriatric senile fashion, or a lot of these so called conspiracy theories really are kind of coming true in real time there.
I guess the question for me is that as we as we continue to learn more and more about just the exact state of Joe Biden's physical and above all mental health over the course of his horrific and historically all time atrocious president, as we continue to learn more and more, and God will in Congress will do more investigations. Frankly, I think we barely scratched the surface of this world historical scandal. But as we learn more and more of the question to me is going to be actually this
question of who really was pulling the strings. I will tell you my own personal take on this rita. It's not a novel take there. It's probably a common opinion there I have long been on the opinion that it actually is Barack Obama who was not necessarily running the world per se.
But I think that Barack Obama was.
Absolutely, probably more than any other figure, calling a lot of the shots. There was this one very bizarre image of him going to ten Downing Streets in London trying to meet with the Prime Minister there.
I mean, why would a former president do that.
He was also the first president in over one hundred years to not physically vacate Washington, d C. He's stayed in Kalorama, a very tony, upscale part of Washington see there. I continue to think that Rita that Barack Obama actually largely was governing in this Biden administration, which makes sense because then he was the leading campaign trail surrogate for Kamala Harris herself. There we all saw how that played out by.
The way Joshua spoken previously about Donald Trump's strategy with the Ukraine Russia War and the goal of having Europe contribute in a much more meaningful way to their own defense, and it looks like Trump has again managed to get the outcome he wanted despite all the hysteria, all the doomsday commentary we've had from politicians and commentators, including I've got to say, disappointingly some conservative commentators who should know better.
Stop getting hysterical about the retric Look at the bigger picture, look at the strategy, look at the outcomes. Let's see now from the head of the European Commission, Ursula Vonda Lyon.
Europe is ready to assume its responsibilities rearm Europe could mobilize close to eight hundred billion euros of defense expenditures for a safe and resilient Europe.
Josh, did the president get his way again? He's been wanting this, and really it should have been in place all along. Europe shouldn't be depending on America to defend it from Russia or any other aggressive force.
Yeah, strikes me as another huge diplomatic, geopolitical, foreign affairs victory for the presidents. You know, this very much builds RITA, by the way, on what he accomplished the first time around. So the first time around, you know, Donald Trump also ruffled a lot of feathers when it comes to NATO. People tend to forget this, but he basically came in there and he said in a series of speeches and pronouncements. You know, you guys are not pulling your weight there.
You know the NATO treaty obligates. He just spends at least two percent, ideally five percent of your gross domestic product on defense spending, on military spending. There, And if you look back over his first term from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one, the total number of European countries that actually met that bare minimum two percent thresholds roughly doubled. It was an astronomical increase there. So he's done this
before and he's doing it yet again there. But look, Donald Trump is a national okay, he believes in strong sovereign, independent nation states.
There.
What that means is that the United States is going to best partner with Europe when Europe can actually take care of itself, when Europe and actually take care of its own backyard. This notion that the US European Alliance thrives when Europe is basically a glorified satropy, when they're basically a province of the global American Empire. There, that's
not a recipe for long term United States European stability. Frankly, it's not a recipe for long term stability when it comes to United States and any other country around the world that we've been allied with in the past. There So this is the Donald Trump foreign policy doctrine. It works like a charm frankly the first time around, and it's off to a heck of the start this time around as well. I frankly think Rita is only going to get better from here, if I had to guess.
Yes, we've seen NATO be strengthened. We've seen the European nations that have basically have done very little finally start contributing to their own defense. And yet we've got the hysterics acting like this is the end of the world. Democracy itself is under threat. Now, before you go, Josh, this is one of the most disturbing developments, but sadly,
entirely predictable. We are seeing some horrific footage out of Syria religious minorities, including Christians being tortured, being slaughtered, men, women, children, and this horror was, as I said, sadly predictable. Tulsa Gabbard was amongst those who warned us about what would occur, but there were people celebrating what happened in Syria, thinking this was going to be the dawn of some new age of democracy and human rights when we've got Islamists
in charge them. When Islamists are in charge, minorities are slaughtered.
So this goes back at least as far as the Arab Spring, which started back in twenty ten twenty eleven round there in Tunisia and really all throughout the hour world.
There you had this massive conflation which with many people on the neoliberal left and the neo conservative faux right, you have this massive conflation between democracy and Islamism where you saw kind of this democratic uprising or this populist uprising, where this populous uprising was being done in the name of what in the name of Shria supremacy of Islamism, a radical fundamentalist Islam there, and you know that's basically what happens here in Syria. I mean Bashar al Assad,
let's not mince words. I mean an absolute monster. I mean a death toll of hundreds and hundred thousands, arguably over a million, an absolutely horrific person there, a total pawn of the evil Iranian regime there in the world is better off that he's not in power, but we should not be pretending like the current guy in Charles al Jalani, who was a perpateetic jihadist over his entire
career there. Former al Qaeda there, these are bad, bad, bad people there, and frankly, at this point they're basically just an extension of recip type Ertawan and the increasingly radical regime in Ankara Turkey there. So the Middle East is totally in flux. But this is obviously, on a pure humanitarian level, an absolutely har riffic situation there.
Reader. One thing I will add briefly is that it is your.
Right now is extending his reach into Southwestern series trying to protect the Druze minority that is there in that particular part of the country. There, maybe there'll be some sort of some sort of momentum for kind of an autonomous Dru's many nations here or something that would that would be a fantastic development. Frankly, it's something that the United States I think actually would do very well to
get behind. But at a bare minimum, let's not treat these absolute gie hottest thugs and Damascus like there are anything other than the thugs that they are.
And I think you're one hundred percent right there, that there would be support in America for some sort of intervention to try to protect those religious minorities. I think that is the sort of military action that Americans, maybe not an enormous majority, but I think many Americans would be comfortable with. Josh Hammah, thank you so much for your time tonight.
Thank you.
Riata.
Still to come. The famous celebrity who has fled Trump's America for New Zealand, kinsisco Field has the details. Welcome back. Joining me now is celebrity and role commentator kinseisco Field. Kinsey Love is Blind star Sarah Carlton has been condemned after she dumbed her partner Ben Mazenger at the Altar during the season eight finale because of his views on BLM and his church's views on gender. I played a clip of this earlier in the program. Tell me what
the reaction has been. I reckon this girl is going to be offered a spot on The View or some CNN correspondence gig. I don't know. I think this is actually going to launch her.
Career, do you, Because from what I've seen is the backlash is primarily negative and there is a lot of sympathy for I mean, he could be the next Bachelor as far as I you know, as I can tell, because I'm seeing magawomen throwing themselves at him because they really feel like they really feel like this is ridiculous. If she was trying to go viral, I think she went viral for all the wrong reasons because I've seen
a lot of ridicule. But as a nurse, is she going to treat you differently if you've not been vaccinated? Is she going to treat you differently if she knows who you voted for? It makes you really uncomfortable to know that this is her thought process.
Because at the old time, they told each other they they loved each other, and you thought, okay, well they're going to get married. Not that I watched this program, but I had to watch this segment for today's show. And the only thing I would say against him is that he had to wait for her to dump him because there were red flags all over the place and the fact that he didn't see them. He wanted to
get married then and there. I don't know if that counts in his faber And now I agree with you, of course, it's been a lot of mockery for this girl. But as we know, there's a lot of mockery for the panelists on the View and pretty much the entire MSNBCCNN lineup, but that doesn't stop them getting those roles. So I still reckon she might have a bit of
a career in the media, have a short lived. There's all sorts of scuttle buckkinse at the moment about the Obamas, whether they're getting a divorce, and it's back in the headlines again.
Why is that, Well, because we're seeing Barack a solo for at least the third time in recent months. According to TMZ, he was spotted at a Thai restaurant over here in Sherman Oaks with both of his daughters, but with alt Michelle. Last week, he was prominently seated at this La Clippers game alongside the owner and his wife, but without you know, Michelle. And that's the latest in several solo events that he's attended between Jimmy Cordor's funeral
and then President Trump's inarguration in January. I thought it was interesting because Megan Kelly is referring to this as a soft launch divorce, so I guess the countdown is on halft launch divorce.
Oh that will be the next scene. Now you'll be trialing the divorce before you make it official.
Why not?
Well, the Jimmy Carter funeral was the one that I think got people really talking because there were these rumors. But then the fact that she wasn't by his side for that the inauguration, you can say, well, you know, she had a fundamental problem with the elected president. But yeah, this is unusual to have the multiple events where they're not together because they have been pretty much throughout their entire marriage, side by side, just about every event that
can attend together. Now, Carnie West, has it been catfish? What's happened here? He has apparently been scam by someone impersonating Joe Rogan. West posted various screenshots of text conversations with who he thought was Joe Rogan arranging a podcast appearance with him, but Joe Rogan swiftly replied on x saying, Hey, Kanye, I don't know who you're talking to, but that's not me. He can see. How can this happen? I mean we're
talking about big Star. Yes, surely someone's looking into his communications before he makes commitments to appear on podcasts.
I mean I think if it was anybody but Kanye, I would say yes. But Kanye is kind of a loose cannon and doing his own thing right now, I will say I would not be surprised if it actually comes to fruition now, because Rogan recently said that Kanye was musically genius. He was talking to Antonio Brown on his podcast last week. He said that Kanye was musically genius, but he wishes he wouldn't sell T shirts with twastikas on them, and he did say that he felt like
Kanye was messing with us. So perhaps he would invite Kanye on to have that debate with him and say, do you really feel this way? Are you really trying to sell this lifestyle or is this some big marketing ploy now.
Blake Lively was ambushed by a Justin Baldoni supporter outside the Paramount Theater in Los Angeles where her new film Another Simple Favor was having his opening night at the annual south By Southwest Film Festival. Can say, there seems to be no end to this saga. At some point people are going to move on, but it appears we're not they yet.
Yeah, you know, I'm interested in your take on this because TV personality and entrepreneur Bethany Frankel recently came out today and said she felt like we were bullying Blake Lively and Megan Markle, that we were crossing the line a little bit, you know, showing up and protesting her movie. And I don't. I think we're trying to hold people accountable. That our WEAPONI seeing some really sensitive and culturally culturally
relevant topics, whether it be racism or me too. I just think it's people trying to hold others accountable.
I don't see this as bullying.
Oh.
I think Bethany is just trying to get a headline. There's almost absurd thing I've heard. I mean, you'd be talking about hugely powerful, influential people who have behaved appallingly. And in the case of Megan Markel, she hasn't just played the victim. She has thrown mud at her husband's families. She has suggested they are racist and that scuttle. But those ugly rumors were circulating, making headlines around the world
as the queen was ill. It was her final months, and to be dealing with this because of their just attention seeking was absolutely disgusting. So yeah, I have very little sympathy, And let's just have a look at the reason why there's any criticism coming their way is because they are putting out these projects. There's self delighted projects. In the case of Megan Markele the most absurd reality show perhaps ever recorded. It makes Keeping Up with the
Kardashian seem like some sort of noble projects. So you know what, if they stopped doing stupid stuff, would stop talking about it, That's all I could say. Just finally, Kinsey director James Cameron has fled America. He does not want to be part of Donald Trump's presidency in any shape or form, and is soon going to be a New Zealand citizen. Has there been any backlash to this or is this generally supported? Yeah?
I mean I feel like everybody's like, bye, I have The last thing I watched of his was Titanic. He says that we are going historically in a different direction, and I'd say, you know, historically men were not supposed to be in women's bathrooms. Teenage girls didn't have to share locker rooms with biological men. In the form of Hunter Baden's laptop. You know, like there's a million things that happened under the Biden administration that I felt like straight away from the Constitution, James.
Cameron, and that's all the time we have. I'll see you tomorrow night at eleven. Don't go anywhere. Newsnight is up next