The 9pm Overturned Turtle Taliban with John Birmingham

John Birmingham in a hat. (Supplied)

Australian author and reprobate John Birmingham joins me once again for the first sensible episode in The 9pm End of Spring Series 2020.

We talk about the US presidential election (obviously), the echoes of history, drugs, optimism, Blue Lives Matter, solar power, fake news, the Queensland election, love and hate, disinformation, media balance, and fundamentalist evangelicals.

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JB was on a previous episode of the Edict in 2018, and more recently in September 2020.

Thank you, Media Freedom Citizenry

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This episode it’s thanks to Brett Rann, plus all the people who supported The 9pm End of Spring 2020.

CONVERSATION TOPICS: David King, Phillip Merrick, and Tim Holland.

THREE TRIGGER WORDS: Christopher Neal, John Lindsay, Joop de Wit, Rami, Wyld, and two people who choose to remain anonymous.

ONE TRIGGER WORD: Andrew Groom, Benno Rice, Crispin Harris, Edward Thompson, Frank Filippone, John Twyman, Jon Eaves, Jonathan Ferguson, Karl Sinclair, Mark Newton, Matthew Moyle-Croft, Michael Cowley, Mick Fong, Paul Williams, Peter Blakeley, Peter Sandilands, Scott Reeves, Wade Bowmer, and four people who choose to remain anonymous.

FOOT SOLDIERS FOR MEDIA FREEDOM who gave a SLIGHTLY LESS BASIC TIP: Andrew Kennedy, Bob Ogden, Chris Lawrence, Coralie Naumann, David Heath, deejbah, dfk, Drew Mayo, Emma Cooper, Garth Kidd, Katie McLaughlin, Karloscar Hall, Leanne O’Donnell, Mathew McBride, Matthew Hall, Michael Harris, Michael Keating, Michael Rowe, Paris Lord, Peter McCrudden, Ric Hayman, Rohan Pearce, Smurfingbeer, Stacey Ryan, Stu Annels, Susan Rankin, Syl Mobile, Tim Bell, and seven people who choose to remain anonymous.

MEDIA FREEDOM CITIZENS who contributed a BASIC TIP: Anthony Agius, Daniel O’Connor, Errol Cavit, Greg Randolph, Jason Anderson, Kate Carruthers, Lucas James, Peter Viertel, Raena Jackson Armitage, and five people who choose to remain anonymous.

And another 11 people chose to have no reward, even though some of them were the most generous of all.

Episode Links

  • John Birmingham (born 7 August 1964) is a British-born Australian author, known for the 1994 memoir He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, and his Axis of Time trilogy.
  • I write books and things. This is sort of like my private club where anyone can hang out to talk about that stuff. So, okay, not that private. I’ll let you know about the stuff I’m doing, the stuff I love, and more importantly, the sort of things I think you might love too. For once, it’s not all about me.
  • Donald Trump is no Adolf Hitler. He’s not even much of an off-Broadway Saddam Hussein. (Although Don Jr and Eric do a pretty good drag act as Uday and Qusay). Anderson Cooper got close after this morning’s low energy fin-de-suckhole presser with “an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun”, but as we compulsively doomscroll while waiting for the mad orange fuck-trumpet to play the final notes of his Fanfare for a Sad Trombone, I thought we might have a drink together and consider which failed autocrat the soon-to-be-disgraced former President most recalls.
  • What did Anderson Cooper just say???? [Includes video.]
  • Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man is a tell-all book written by Mary L. Trump, a niece of Donald Trump.
  • Trump opens his news conference by saying "if you count the legal vote, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us." This is a lie. There is no evidence of election fraud.
  • Alex Jones would blush at this stuff.
  • What in the hell is wrong with Jason Whitlock?
  • Trump campaign legal adviser: "We're waiting for the United States Supreme Court - of which the President has nominated three justices - to step in and do something. And hopefully Amy Coney Barrett will come through"
  • The three big broadcast networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — all cut away from President Trump’s appearance as the president’s false claims about the integrity of the election mounted.
  • MSNBC immediately cuts off Trump when he moves to undermine the integrity of US election system. "Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the President of the United States but correcting the President of the United States..."
  • "What a sad night for the United States of America to hear their President say that," @jaketapper says on CNN. "To falsely accuse people of trying to steal the election, to try to attack democracy that way with his feast of falsehoods. Lie after lie after lie."
  • First the black, white & blue anti-Black Lives Matter flag flew outside of Trump rallies, then on stage, next to the US flag; in Wisconsin last week it replaced the US flag behind Trump; now the American flag, with all its complications, is just gone, & a fascist banner waves.
  • With Don Jr present, top Trump Campaign surrogate Vernon Jones threatens to shoot Biden supporters tonight: “We’re starting now to see the white in their eyes and we’re getting ready to start shooting.”
  • Brent Terhune's satire.
  • Sun Cable proposes to build a 10GW solar plant in central Australia combined with a battery storage system 150-times the size of the Tesla Big Battery in South Australia, and then connect this to Singapore via an undersea cable. Each part of the project would be built at an unprecedented scale.
  • As the chaos of the fiercely fought election campaign subsides, the state's newly re-elected Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is eager to prove to voters she can handle the COVID-19 economic recovery.
  • The "Thin Blue Line" flag is all black, bearing a single horizontal blue stripe across its center. Variations of the flag, often using various national flags rendered in black and white with a blue line through the center, are seen below. The "Blue Lives Matter" movement was created in December 2014, after the homicides of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in Brooklyn, New York.
  • Presidential spiritual adviser Paula White is currently leading an impassioned prayer service in an effort to secure Trump's reelection.
  • One of the many things about these kind of Christians that makes me angry is their "big concern" for Israel. They aren't supportive of Judaism - they just want to get the Jews back to Israel so they can check off another box in the End Times To-Do-List.
  • I've come to believe that among the many reasons fundamentalist evangelicals are so devoted to Trump is because he reminds them a lot of their god.
  • Right-wing pastor George Pearsons reports that God is very upset with what is happening to Trump during the election and is angrily rolling up his sleeves.
  • Back in the day he could level cities, flood the world and lay low the mountains of the earth. These days he can't push his chosen candidate over the line in a few marginal states. I can relate, as I have got older my performance isn't what it once was.
  • Trump’s defeat would guarantee nothing. The seeds that grew into his presidency are still embedded in US politics
  • SALEM, Ore. (AP) — In a first in the nation, Oregon has rejected charging drug users with criminal offenses, with voters passing a ballot measure that decriminalizes possession of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other hard drugs.
  • well sorry @Eminem for that. But that's the first instrumental track i thought about.

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Series Credits